E-Paper PDF 12th November (ISB)

CMYK

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019 I 14 Rabi-ul-Awwal, 1441 I Rs 19.00 I Vol X No 132 I 16 Pages I Islamabad Edition

Nawaz’s departure iN limbo as Nab throws ball iN govt’s court g

ANti-grAft wAtchdog SAyS govt ‘coMPeteNt Authority’ to reMove forMer PM’S NAMe froM No-fly liSt

ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

he National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday said the federal government was the “competent authority” to decide the matter of removal of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s name from the exit control list (ecl), as the Pakistan Muslim league-Nawaz (PMl-N) claimed that the delay in this regard was posing a threat to the life of its supreme leader.

Nawaz, 69, agreed on friday to go to england for his treatment, heeding doctors’

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SAPM SAyS NAB requeSted for iNcluSioN of NAwAz’S NAMe oN ecl ANd it will Be reMoved oN itS recoMMeNdAtioN

advice and ‘accepting’ his family’s request. he was scheduled to leave for london on a Pakistan international Airlines (PiA) flight on Monday morning. however, his departure to london was conditioned with his name’s removal from the no-fly list. earlier in the day, PM’s Special Assistant on information dr firdous Ashiq Awan said that the decision to remove Nawaz’s name from the no-fly list will be taken in light of recommendations of NAB and the medical board. in a response submitted to the interior Ministry, NAB said that “the federal government is the competent authority

Nawaz Sharif may be striking another deal: Turkish news agency STORY ON BACK PAGE

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PMl-N SPokeSPerSoN SAyS delAy iN deciSioN PoSiNg threAt to life of ex-PriMe MiNiSter

to remove names from the ecl”.

NAB also stated that there were past precedents, including in the case of convicted murderer and former Muttahida qaumi Movement worker Saulat Mirza, in which the federal government had struck convicts’ names off the ecl without asking NAB, its spokesperson said. “the government itself does not place any individual’s name on the ecl.

Names are placed on the ecl on the recommendations given by NAB and the courts. Now that an application has been filed for the name to be removed, the same process is being followed,” firdous told the media after her hearing in the islamabad high court in a contempt case. “hopefully, today we will receive NAB’s recommendations. […] NAB is the plaintiff in this case, he (Nawaz) is a suspect in [a case being probed by] NAB and was convicted by an accountability court.

“Secondly, the recommendations attached with the application filed are made by a medical board of Sharif Medical city. the government does not take decisions in light of directions from a private medical board, it was important to take the opinion of the government’s medical board.”

She said that reports from NAB and the medical board were delayed due to the weekend and added that a review committee in the law Ministry would “analyse” opinions of both bodies after which the matter would be forwarded to the cabinet.

CONTINUED ON BACK PAGE

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JUI-F mulls ‘Plan B’ as Azadi March enters third week STORY ON BACK PAGE

ihc seeks Sarwar’s reply on statement alleging Nawaz-govt deal STORY ON PAGE 02

India detains dozens over social media comments on Babri Masjid verdict with indian court ruling, Modi’s hindufirst agenda barrels forward STORIES ON BACK PAGE

CMYK Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

02 ISLAMABAD NA expected to hold no-trust vote against deputy speaker this week ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The National Assembly is expected to hold voting on a no-confidence motion against Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri this week.

A secret ballot is likely to be held on Thursday. It merits a mention here that the joint opposition has the support of 155 lawmakers whereas the government and its allies comprise 184 members. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Friday submitted a no-confidence motion against Suri under

Rule 12 (removal of the speaker or the deputy speaker) of the Rules and Procedure and Conduct of Business, 2007 and Article 53(7)(c) of the Constitution for “violating” the constitution to facilitate the passage of government bills without any debate.

On Thursday, a total of 15 bills, including 13 presidential ordinances, were tabled by the government in the Lower House and subsequently approved.

The no-trust vote submitted by PML-N lawmakers Khawaja Asif, Khurram Dastgir Khan, Mohsin

Zardari in critical condition, Sherry claims ISLAMABAD: PPP leader Sherry Rehman on Monday said the health of former president Asif Ali Zardari is worsening with every passing day. “The

Nawaz Ranjha and Muhammad Sajjad stated that the deputy speaker had lost the trust of the House after the action.

“We moved Resolution under Article 53(7)(c) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan against Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan for violating the rules of business of the House,” read the resolution.

On Saturday, Suri had said that the motion will face the same fate as it did in Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani’s case.

government is not allowing Zardari’s personal doctor to visit him,” Sherry said in a statement. The former minister criticised the PTI government for not forming a private medical board to treat the PPP cochairman, adding that even his medical reports are not being provided. Rehman demanded the government to immediately constitute a private medical board for Zardari’s treatment in the light of government doctors’ recommendations. STAFF REPORT

IHC SeeKS SArwAr’S rePly oN STATeMeNT AllegINg NAwAZ-govT deAl ISLAMABAD

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He Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday issued a notice to Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan as it took up a petition seeking contempt of court proceedings against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) stalwart for linking the release of ailing former premier Nawaz Sharif on bail with a “deal”.

A single-judge bench of the high court headed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah asked the federal minister to submit a reply by Thursday. On Saturday, a petition was submitted against Khan which referred to a talk show aired on a private television channel and pointed out that the minister openly linked the release of Nawaz with a “deal between the government and the former premier”. During the proceedings, the petitioner’s counsel said that Khan had made a statement regarding the alleged deal and had claimed that a fake medical report could be issued.

“The medical board was formed by the government — how can he say that?” Justice Minallah inquired, adding that politics was one thing, but such statements were making people lose trust in the system. The same bench decided to club the petition against Khan with contempt proceedings against Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Firdous Ashiq Awan. During the proceedings, Awan said that her case had no relation to that of the federal minister for aviation. Justice Minallah responded that she had held a press conference in government capacity and Khan had also given a statement, which is why the two will be heard together.

Awan, who was in the court during the proceedings, said that Khan had not said anything about the medical board, to which the petitioner’s counsel responded that he had termed Nawaz’s bail the “result of a deal”.

“I can read the transcript of his statement,” the premier’s special assistant added. Justice Minallah inquired how a federal minister could say such a

Azadi March: Islamabad metro closure causes loss of Rs42m ISLAMABAD APP

The Punjab Masstransit Authority (PMA) has suffered a loss of Rs 42 million on account of the 12-day closure of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metrobus. The metro has been closed since Jamiat Ulema-eIslam-Fazl (JUI-F) launched its Azadi March about two weeks ago in the federal capital. It has not only been causing a heavy loss to the national exchequer but also creating trouble for the commuters who travel daily from Rawalpindi to Islamabad and vice versa.

The local administration of Islamabad, in a letter issued on October 30, had asked the PMA to hand over the possession of the metro bus’ depot located near H-9

– a venue where the JUI-F was allowed to stage its protest, official sources in the PMTA told APP on Monday. The district administration sealed the metro’s depot before the arrival of Azadi March in the federal capital, they added.

“The authority generates revenue of approximately Rs3.5 million per day through the Rawalpindi-Islamabad bus service and has lost approximately Rs42 million in the last 12 days due to ongoing sit-in of the JUI-F,” they said. Around 120,000 to 130,000 passengers travel in the twin cities metro daily, they added.

The sources maintained that the PMA was ready to start the bus operation if the depot was handed back to the authority while ensuring the security.

Policeman attempts suicide after being denied leave ISLAMABAD: A policeman deployed for the security of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) Azadi March slit his throat with a blade on Monday after police officials refused to grant him leaves. Head Constable Saddiq Khan was shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) for medical treatment. According to the spokesperson of the hospital, the policeman was under treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where his condition was stated to be critical. According to sources, the policeman belonged to the Frontier Reserve Police Swat and had requested leaves. On this, his officers reprimanded him and he slit his throat with a blade. INP

Three dead, three injured in Abbottabad road accident ABBOTTABAD: At least three people were killed and three others were wounded when a passenger van and a truck met an accident here on Monday. According to police, the Abbottabad-bound passenger bus was on its way after attending the Tablighi ijtema in Lahore’s Raiwind neighborhood when it met a road crash near Khokhar Meera in Abbottabad.

The bodies and the injured were moved to a nearby medical facility. The police have registered a case against the truck driver. STAFF REPORT

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thing, in response to which Awan said the reality wasn’t what was being presented in court.

“How can government ministers say such things?” Justice Minallah asked. Awan said that she would bring the matter to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s notice and added that this may have been the minister’s personal opinion, it wasn’t the government’s policy.

“This means the government is not trusting its own medical board. This means that you are misleading the government. There will be consequences if the government is not trusting institutions,” the IHC chief justice remarked.

Awan reiterated that Khan had not said anything about the medical board.

“You are the appointed spokesperson of the premier. If you don’t take action against Ghulam Sarwar Khan that means that the statement was made as a result of your decision. “When you impact pending cases, other cases will also be affected,” Justice Minallah remarked. The hearing was then adjourned till Thursday.

Firdous directed to reappear on Nov 14 in contempt case ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday rejected the “unconditional apology” of Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan in a contempt of court notice and directed her to reappear before the bench on Nov 14. During the proceedings, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah, who also issued a notice to Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan over a statement wherein he claimed that a deal has been brokered between the government and former premier Nawaz Sharif, remarked that the ministers and special assistants are designated to restore nation’s trust in the government.

Meanwhile, Firdous requested the IHC to separate her case from Sarwar’s hearing on the same day which was rejected by the IHC chief justice. In the first hearing of the case, Justice Minallah had accepted Firdous’ “unconditional apology” and directed her to prove that she didn’t intentionally malign the judiciary in her statement. “You should have not combined politics with the judiciary. STAFF REPORT

Medics end 6-week-long strike after talks with KP govt PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Doctors Council ended their strike after holding successful talks with the provincial government. The doctors association held talks with KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and decided to call off their strike which had continued for 46 days. Speaking on the occasion, CM Khan said the government has constituted a committee to redress the reservations of doctors in the province. He said the problems faced by the health workers would also be resolved on the recommendations of the committee. The chief minister asked the health authorities to support the government for the provision of better health facilities and work with missionary zeal. STAFF REPORT

CMYK Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

NEWS OPP ALLEGES POLITICAL VICTIMISATION AS GOVT SAYS CASES AGAINST POLITICAL LEADERS WERE FILED IN THE PAST iSLamaBad

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govT INvITeS oPP For debaTe oN MeNdINg Nab FlawS

STAFF REPORT

INISTER for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Khan Swati on Monday urged the opposition to sit with the government for debate on laws about National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and to remove flaws form it with mutual discussion.

He stated this while winding up debate on a motion under Rule 218 in Senate regarding the recent wave of alleged political victimisation and denial of fundamental rights to members of opposition parties and revocation of citizenship of a former member of parliament.

The minister said that opposition parties were involved in politically victimising each other in the past but now they have been trying to stop the accountability process by standing with each other.

Their purpose is to undermine efforts of highlighting Kashmir crisis and resolve other national issues, he added.

Swati appealed to the NAB chairman to strengthen the prosecution of NAB and to take action across the board. He said that NAB is an independent institution and anyone involved in corrupt practices should not be spared.

He also said that Ehtesab Bureau headed by Saifur Rehman was used in past for political victimisation and those starting politics through the support of dictators should not tell us about political

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moves.The minister said that the verdict in Jehangir Tareen case was accepted despite reservations. Though the entire money trail was presented during this particular case but the decision went against Jehangir Tareen, he added.

Swati said that he politically remained affiliated with Jamiat Ulema-eIslam-Fazl (JUI-F) for nine years and they could not claim anything wrong about him. He added that entertainment expenditures of his office were absolutely zero because the money of taxpayers could not be used for such purposes.

The minister said that politics on religious issues should be avoided but honest practices in politics should be encouraged. He also spoke about cancel-

PM takes notice of officers' inaction on complaints lodged on citizen's portal app ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has taken notice of the inaction of officers regarding citizens’ complaints lodged on the Pakistan Citizen Portal app.

Quoting Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), a Radio Pakistan report added that all ministries and departments have been directed to form five-member committees to “conduct performance evaluation and submit their reports within 30 days”. “The [PMO] had observed that complaints were disposed of without proper inquiry, satisfactory reply, and documentary evidence,” the report stated, adding that the departments took “unnecessary time” in addressing complaints and the decision to resolve complaints was taken by “unconcerned officials”. The PMO has written a letter to the ministries and provincial departments. The fivemember committees will be headed a grade 20 officer or a joint secretary. Following an evaluation of the deployed officers, a report will be submitted. The committees will note misconduct in reports on the portal for both resolved and pending complaints as well as point out those who were responsible for both good and bad performances. The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government launched the portal in October last year. In February, it was declared the second best government mobile application in the world at the World Government Summit. STAFF REPORT

army chief meets Tablighi Ijtima delegation RAWALPINDI: Notables of Raiwind Tablighi Ijtema called on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Monday. According to ISPR, the Army Chief offered Fateha for departed souls in tragic Tezgam train incident and prayed for early recovery of the injured. “Notables of Raiwind Tablighi Ijtimaa met COAS. Army Chief offered Fateha for departed souls in the tragic Tezgam train incident. Also prayed for early recovery of the injured,” Tweeted DG ISPR. At least 75 passengers lost their lives and over 40 sustained critical burn wounds when three carriages of a Tezgam Express caught fire due to an explosion in gas canisters near Talwari Station in Liaquatpur area of Rahim Yar Khan. The train was bound from Karachi to Rawalpindi. The Ministry of Railways suspended six officers for alleged negligence in the aftermath of the Tezgam Express tragedy. STAFF REPORT

lation of citizenship of former senator Hafiz Hamd Ullah and said that such acts were condemnable and delay in serving notices with so much delay in improper.

Pervaz Rashid of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), while taking part in the discussion, alleged that the incumbent government held many politicians on mere corruption charges. He said that the politicians belonging to opposition parties were being victimised.

Muhammad Akram was of the view that NAB was being used as tool to twist the arms of opponents. He said that all past rulers utilised NAB against their opponents. He also said that half of the total members of the treasury bench had joined the ruling parties by switching their loy-

alties from previous parties.

Kalsoom Parveen said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had deviated from its original agenda of public’s welfare.

She said that PTI and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) were on board to bring amendments in NAB during tenure of past government but unfortunately, PMLN did not show seriousness.

Seemi Ezdi of PTI said that the opposition parties had registered corruption cases against each other during their respective tenures. She said that none of the running corruption cases were lodged by the incumbent government. The Panama Papers case was a result of investigation

by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), she added.

She recounted how the then government created hurdle in way of PTI’s Azadi March in 2014 and their workers were subjected to baton charge. She said that the PTI government fully facilitated the participants of Azadi March led by JUI-F.Mushahidullah Khan alleged that results of general elections were changed.

He alleged that PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz were knocked out from election race under a well-thought plan.

He was of the views that the government had amended the NAB Ordinance to target political opponents. He claimed that political opponents were being victimised in the name of accountability.

He said that names of many other Pakistanis were also present in the

Panama Papers but only the leadership of PLM-N was targeted.

Quratul Ain Marri of PPP observed that the leadership of PPP was also being politically victimised and Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Talpur were held on mere corruption allegation. She alleged that opposition leadership was facing incarceration, which was the worst example of political vendetta.

Rehman Malik of PPP called for setting up of reforms committee comprising members of three major political parties in order to being amendments in NAB, Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) accountability laws.

He said that politicians were representatives of the people as well as reformers and suggested a legislation to arrest the former or incumbent government functionaries after conviction in corruption or other charges. He observed that political victimisation was not good for the country.

Javed Abbasi of PML-N alleged that the government since its inception was targeting the opposition in name of accountability. He said that NAB was being utilised to strife the voice of opposition.

He criticised the government for growing inflation, political victimisation, and censorship on media. "Media workers are not allowed to perform their professional duties independently," he said.

He also demanded that opposition’s bill related to NAB should be considered in the House as soon as possible.

Prophet (PBUH)’s birth ended injustice, PM Imran says iSLamaBad STAFF REPORT

As Muslims living across the country celebrated Eid-i-Miladun Nabi on Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that the birth of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) marked the end of a history of inhumanity, oppression, tyranny, ignorance, injustice and deviation from the right path.

In his message on the occasion, the premier added that the birth of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) “purified civilisation by inculcating characteristics like human dignity and forgiveness”.

He said that the idea of a welfare state was first introduced by Islam. Eid-i-Miladun Nabi was celebrated a day earlier with religious enthusiasm across the country. The day began with a 31-gun salute in Islamabad and a 21-gun salute in all the provincial capitals.

Following Fajr prayers, special prayers for the unity of the Muslim ummah as well as for the progress and prosperity of Pakistan were offered in various mosques.

Special conferences, events and Mehfil Milad were also held to mark the occasion. The ‘International Rehmatul-lil-Alameen (SAW) Conference’ was also held in Islamabad.

Addressing the conference Prime Minister Imran said: “If a person wants to become great, they should make the Prophet their role model. If a country wants to become great, it should follow the principles of the state of Madina.”

He added that compassion is for the poor and downtrodden segments of society and not for powerful and corrupt people.

In his message, President Dr Arif Alvi said the government is trying to develop Pakistan as a welfare state based on the principles of the state of Madina. The president urged citizens, particularly religious scholars, to play their role in making Pakistan a welfare state, adding that the government is making economic and social reforms in various sectors which could bring positive results “very soon”.

In his message, National Assembly Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif said it is a day of salvation from restlessness and illiteracy for humanity.

Pakistan slams restrictions on Eid Miladun Nabi congregations in IOK iSLamaBad STAFF REPORT

The Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday condemned the restrictions imposed by the Indian authorities on congregations in Occupied Kashmir on the eve of Eid Miladun Nabi. “All roads leading to the Hazratbal Shrine in Srinagar and other holy shrines and mosques in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir were sealed by the Indian forces to stop any processions on this auspicious occasion, which is traditionally observed by Kashmiris with great fervor,” read a statement issued by the FO. “Imposition of restrictions on celebrations and other congregations on the birthday of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) represents utter disrespect for the sentiments of Muslims of occupied Kashmir. It is also a flagrant violation of their fundamental freedom of religion,” it added.

The FO urged the international community, the United Nations, and other human rights organisa-

tions to take notice of the brutal suppression of the religious rights and freedoms of the Kashmiri people in violation of international laws and conventions. “For more than 14 weeks, over 8 million Kashmiris are under the inhumane lockdown by over 900,000 Indian occupation forces,” the statement said.

It called on the Indian government to immediately restore internet and mobile phone services, release all prisoners including civil society members, “especially the abducted young boys”, remove article 144, Public Safety Act and other draconian laws, and allow the independent media and international human rights observers to visit the region to independently observe the well-being of the Kashmiri people.

“The Indian government cannot suppress the aspirations of the people of Indian occupied Kashmir for exercising their right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Security Council resolutions,” the statement concluded by saying.

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PMl-N MNa moves IHC against ordinances issued by president iSLamaBad STAFF REPORT

A Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) lawmaker has challenged the president’s decision to promulgate eight ordinances in a single day in the Islamabad High Court.

The plea filed in the court by PML-N MNA Barrister Mohsin Nawaz Ranjha states that the petition’s sole objective is to “strengthen the institution of the parliament whose powers have been usurped”. It further adds that the president signed into law eight ordinances on October 30, even though he was aware that a Senate session was scheduled for November 5 and the National Assembly was to meet two days later on November 7. The schedule of the two houses, the petitioner said, is prepared one month in advance. “Without waiting for these upcoming sessions of the parliament, the president rushed to promulgate eight ordinances in a single day.” Since coming into power, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led government has passed eight laws through the parliament and the senate, but issued 19 ordinances to date. “The impugned ordinances are not a one-off case of abuse of ordinance-making power,” Ranjha added, “It appears that the respondents have adopted ordinance-making as the normal and routine method of legislation, avoiding parliamentary law-making as far as possible.” The respondents are the president, the principal secretary to the prime minister and the secretary law.

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PLGA 2019 shAkes uP LocAL GovT LAHORE

Petition filed in Lhc to bar Nawaz sharif from going abroad LAHORE: A petition was filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday to bar former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from going abroad. The plaintiff has taken the stance that Nawaz Sharif was involved in money laundering and is facing multiple cases. Allowing Nawaz Sharif to travel abroad is discrimination against other ill inmates, the petition said. “Nawaz Sharif is going out of the country as he wants to transfer his properties, made through laundered money, to his children who are settled abroad. He caused irreparable damage to the national exchequer. “A money laundering case against Nawaz Sharif is pending at the Lahore High Court; therefore, the permission to travel abroad should be conditional to the LHC directives.

He should be barred from leaving Pakistan until the court order.” STAFF REPORT

Two policemen among 5 gunned down in Rajanpur ROJHAN: At least five persons, including two police officials, were killed when unidentified gunmen opened fire on them in Rojhan tehsil of Rajanpur district on Sunday. A heavy contingent of police and Border Military Police (BMP) reached the spot after the incident and cordoned off the entire area. A search operation was also launched in the area to arrest the culprits.

The attackers managed to escape from the scene after the incident. The dead bodies were shifted to the hospital. INP

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He Punjab Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) department has imposed the Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2019 whereby new local administrators have been appointed, Pakistan Today learnt on Saturday.

Similarly, the LG&CD department has also created posts in succeeding local governments which will be occupied by officers and staff of the local government service.

Pakistan Today learnt that the previous PLGA2013 has been ineffective as Lahore Commissioner (LC) Asif Bilal Lodhi has also taken his new charge as administrator of the Metropolitan Corporation.

According to notification No. SOR (LG) 1-112019, issued by LG&CD on November 7, 2019, “In exercise of powers conferred under Section 121 of the Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA), 2019 (Act XIII of 2019) read with Section 306 of the Act ibid, Chief Minister of Punjab is pleased to appoint the following officers as the administrators, with immediate effect, of the succeeding local government(s) mentioned against each, to perform the functions and exercise authority of the local government concerned till the appointment of the new head of the local government(s) by way of elections under the PLGA 2019.”

According to the same notification the commissioners of concerned divisions have been appointed as administrators of metropolitan corporations whereas deputy commissioners have been appointed administrators of municipal corporations or municipal committees at the district headquarters (HQs) (as the case may be).

Similarly, assistant commissioners have been appointed administrators of municipal corporations or municipal committees at Tehsil HQs (as the case may be) and tehsil councils of all other tehsils whereas tehsildars have been appointed as administrators of municipal committees in a tehsil (other than Tehsil HQs). However, the assistant director of the local government (ADLG), LG&CD of the tehsil has been appointed as administrator of the tehsil council or district HQ Tehsil.

Similarly, according to another notification issued on November 8 by LG&CD, “In suppression of all previous notifications in this regard and upon constitution of succeeding local government under Section 3 (2) read with Section 15 of the Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2019 and upon approval by the competent authority under the said Act to fix number and description of officers and servants of local government under Section 294 read with Sections 316 (3) (4) and 320 of the said Act, the following Interim Schedule of establish-

ment (ISOe) (Part-1) of the succeeding local governments is hereby notified subject to the directions and decision of the Punjab Cabinet taken in its 20th meeting held on 5-11-2019 and recorded at Para 4 5 (d) (e) & (f) read with Decision No 4 of the minutes of the said meeting Part-1 of ISOe shall include the post created in the succeeding local governments to be filled by the officers of the prescribed services and the staff of Local Government Service as prescribed in PLGA 2019 The Interim SOe (Part-1) shall be valid till 31-01-2020.”

The notification further said that as per ISOe (part -1) for local government a total of 129 officers will work in MCL on posts created in succeeding local governments.

Similarly, 38 officers will work in metropolitan corporations where the population exceeds 2 million whereas 29 officers will work in metropolitan corporations where population is less than 2 million. A total of 24 officers will work in municipal corporations where population is more than four lacs and 18 officers will work in municipal corporations where population is less than four lacs.

A total of 14 officers will work in Municipal Committees-DHQs where population exceeds 1.5 lacs and 11 officers will work in Municipal Committees-DHQs where populations is less than 1.5 lacs whereas 13 officers will work in Municipal Committees-(THQs and non-THQs) where population exceeds 1.5 lacs and 11 will work in Municipal Committees-(THQs and non-THQs) where populations is less than 1.5 lacs.

Similarly, 11 officers will work in Municipal Committees-(THQs and non-THQs) where population is less than one lac and more than 75,000 whereas eight officers will work in Municipal Committees-(THQs and non-THQs) where population is less than 75,000. Six officers will be employed in town committees where population exceeds 45,000. Four officers will work in town committees where population is less than 45,000 and 10 officers will work in tehsil councils where population exceeds 700,000 whereas nine officers will work in tehsil councils where population is more than four lacs and less than 700,000.

A total of seven officers will work in tehsil councils where population is less than four lacs.

LAHORE: An event was held to highlight the rights of Afghan refugees.

Pictured here are the participants of the session alongside chief guest, Justice (r) Nasira Javed Iqbal. STAFF PHOTO

LHC issues notice to IGP prisons on Kaira’s plea for meeting Zardari LAHORE APP

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday issued notices to the Punjab Inspector General Prisons and others for Nov 13 on a petition filed by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Qamar Zaman Kaira seeking permission for a meeting with incarcerated former president and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

The single bench comprising Justice Shahid Waheed issued notices on the petition filed by the PPP leader.

During the proceedings,

the petitioner’s counsel submitted that Asif Ali Zardari was imprisoned at Adiala Jail Rawalpindi. He submitted that his client moved many applications for meeting the party leader in jail, but the authorities concerned did not grant him permission.

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As per law, the visitors could meet any prisoner, he added. He pleaded with the court for issuing directions to the authorities concerned in this regard.

At this, the court issued notices to the respondents and sought reply till Nov 13.

Governor hosts lunch in honour of over 2,000 Sikh pilgrims LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar on Monday hosted a luncheon in honour of more than 2,000 Sikh yatrees from across world, including India, who are visiting Pakistan for the 550th birthday celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak and opening of Kartarpur Corridor project.

President of Pakistan Dr Arif Alvi, federal ministers Fawad Chaudhry, Pir Noorul Haq Qadri and others also attended the luncheon.

Addressing the ceremony, President Arif Alvi said that Pakistan has given a message of peace after inauguration of Kartarpur Corridor project, adding that Sikh yatrees were welcomed in Pakistan not only on occasion of birthday celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak, but also on every occasion whenever the Sikh yatrees would visit here as Pakistan’s doors were opened to them.

He congratulated the Religious tourism and Heritage committee working under the leadership of Governor Sarwar for making arrangement for Kartarpur opening ceremony and for arrangements made for 550th birthday celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak. He said that Pakistan was advocating love and peace as wars were not the solution of issues and issues should be resolved through dialogues.

Addressing the occasion, Governor Sarwar congratulated the Sikh yatrees on the 550th birthday celebrations of Baba Guru Nanak and opening of Kartarpur Corridor project and said that all facilities including foolproof security and accommodation would be provided to the Sikh yatrees.

Sawar said that Pakistan was a safe country for minorities, adding that we were working for restoration of religious places of not only Sikh community but also other minorities, including Christians and Hindus.

He said that Pakistan always stood by minorities but on the other side, life has become difficult for the minorities in India as the Indian Supreme court decision in Babri Masjid case was a result of RSS and Indian leaders’ pressure on its judiciary.

The governor said that India was committing genocide of innocent Kashmiris in occupied Kashmir as 99 days have been passed since imposition of curfew in occupied valley, due which even basic facilities were not available to Kashmiris, adding that the time has come to take notice of Indian atrocities and to get freedom for Kashmiris besides ensuring protection of minorities in India.

“We will promote liberalism in Pakistan and would eradicate extremism, the way we eliminated the terrorism from country,” he concluded.

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

NEWS

05

LOCUSTS invade KaRaChi! PORT CITY FACES LARGEST LOCUST ATTACK SINCE 1961

Gas explosion leaves two dead in Taxila TAXILA: a powerful gas explosion destroyed a house in Taxila, killing two young girls on the spot and injuring four other people on sunday. according to details, an explosion took place due to the gas leakage in the house. The injured included the mother and father of deceased children. rescue teams reached the spot and shifted the injured to hospital for medicinal assistance. INP

Finance advisor claims tomatoes being sold at Rs17/kg KARACHI: advisor to Prime minister on Finance, revenue and Economic affairs abdul Hafeez sheikh on monday claimed that tomatoes are being sold at rs17 per kilogramme. However, the fruit is being sold at rs320 per kilogramme as reported by citizens and sources who bought groceries from multiple locations in the city on monday morning. The finance advisor also advised people to buy tomatoes only from the sabzi mandi if they did not wish to splurge on the basic food item. when some of the reporters present at the scene told him that tomatoes were, in fact, being sold at rs240 per kilo, he refuted their comment, saying people were lying.a journalist said: “which sabzi mandi, sir?” To which, Dr sheikh responded: “You go and check it out yourself!” another journalist added: “Is it the sabzi mandi of Islamabad that you’re talking about?” Immediately, then, the adviser looked directly at the camera, muttering under his breath, “oh this again,” and everyone behind him laughed.

“That’s what is being run on the TV,” Dr sheikh noted, to which one of the reporters said: “But on the TV, it says tomatoes are being sold for rs240 a kilo.” another journalist responded with a fresh personal story: “sir, I myself bought tomatoes for rs300 a kilo.” “Oh but I am agreeing that prices of many commodities need to be controlled. agriculture [industry] has seasonality,” the Pm’s adviser explained, as someone from behind persistently tries to stop the person holding the phone from recording the video of Dr sheikh’s comments. “Then there’s this thing that if you increase the capacity, then it’s natural that you’d predict beforehand about which things experience seasonal shortage, and, therefore, you can order it prior and store and there would be additional storage cost,” he said. Vendors claim that the high prices are not their fault since wholesale prices have shot up significantly. STAFF REPORT

MUHAMMAD ALI EHSAN HErE are many stakeholders involved in the continuity of maulana’s dharna (sit-in) in Islamabad. Internally, the opposition parties are having a joyful political time and externally, the enemies of Pakistan. The whole sit-in conveys an extremely negative image of our country. It has a political utility for maulana but for him to escalate it beyond the point of political utility in our fragmented political environment becomes a dangerous game that maulana is playing. so far, the government has dealt with this sit-in with the patience it deserves but could just being patient be termed as a strategy?

The mossads, raws and the NDss of this world are not conventional battleseekers. They live amongst the people and have agendas and objectives to achieve for which they deploy and use their assets.

The dark forces operating in any country including Pakistan are easily exploited and facilitated to create political situations that we all are very familiar with. The civil-war like situation in many countries in the middle East post-arab spring is obviously not a natural phenomenon. maulana’s dharna is high-risk activism and is like an “unexploded bomb” that needs to be defused. waiting for it to explode cannot be termed as a strategy. The enemies of the state can trigger any unpleasantness or horribleness in that crowd which can dramatically transform how people may get involved and respond.

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FARMERS FEAR GOVT’S APATHY WHICH CAUSED LOSSES OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS IN INTERIOR SINDH

KARACHI

S

STAFF REPORT

warms of locusts descended in multiple localities including city areas as well as farmlands of Karachi on monday, sending citizens and farmers in a frenzy while the government attempted to pacify them by assuring that it was a simple locust migration.

The swarms of locusts, which took citizens by surprise, entered a private school and hospital at stadium road besides disrupting the Quaid-e-azam Trophy being played at the National stadium and launching a full fledged attack at the Old sabzi mandi. as the cricketers stopped playing to cover their eyes and ears in a bid to avoid contact with the insects, many citizens also uploaded videos on social media showing locusts entering their homes and buzzing around streets of

residential areas. However, residents of malir, Korangi, Gulshan Iqbal, Hassan square, Bahadurabad and adjoining areas witnessed the largest swarms disturbing normal life.

Pakistan had last experienced a locust attack on this scale in 1961.

Earlier in October, the federal Department of Plant Protection (DPP) had issued a report warning of the possibility of such attacks stating that the farm destroying grasshopper breeds in November while adding that some swarms were already reported to be moving from the coastal areas of Balochistan towards sindh. In this regard, the sindh agriculture minister had recently asked the plant protection department to spray insecticide in all the infested areas of the province. while some called it a Biblical plague, farmers in malir, Gadap and other areas in the outskirts of Karachi have expressed grave concern over the possible threat of locust-infested fields

NOTHING TO FEAR AS LOCUSTS ARE ONLY IN TRANSIT, SAYS DEPARTMENT OF PLANT PROTECTION

and appealed to the provincial authorities to take measures urgently if crops are to be saved.

The farmers fear that they would suffer loses similar to the farmers of Dadu, Khairpur, sukkur, Ghotki and Thari mirwah where a locust invasion, believed to have come from Iran, hit cotton fields fed by canal irrigation from the Indus river in June this year.

“If they (locusts) come in large numbers, it is impossible for any of crop to survive. The insects will only leave after completely consuming the crop and then move on to destroy another one,” a local farmer adbul adheem lamented. similarly, the United Nations’ Food and agriculture Organisation (FaO) in the first week of september had also warned that the situation relating to locusts in Pakistan was “most serious” as a second generation of the insect had been bred. according to the FaO’s Locust watch report, the threat

Airlift, Swvl not being banned, says Sindh transport secretary KARACHI STAFF REPORT

after rumors started to make rounds on the social media that the sindh government has decided to ban the application-based private transport services, airlift and swvl, provincial Transport secretary Ghulam abbas has clarified that services have not been banned and have instead been directed to bring their operations under the ambit of the law.

In a media talk the other day, abbas said that the private services were operating “without route permits and no-objection certificates”. The transport department was unaware of their pick and drop spots, he said, adding that the two services had not obtained fitness certificates for their vehicles. “we have issued a notice to them, asking them to brief the authorities about their mechanism and get their systems registered,” he said.

The secretary further said that no one would be allowed to “jeopardize the lives of citizens”. meanwhile, sindh Transport minister Owais Qadir shah said that the government wants to provide high-quality transport services to citizens. He added that the online bus services had been permitted to run on a trial basis and a reminder to get cer-

tified was issued to them on the completion of their trial period. “we want airlift and swvl to provide superior transport services in Karachi,” he added. speaking of the government’s initiatives in this regard, shah said, “we are encouraging private investment in the transport sector and the sindh government is also trying to bring in buses. However, the government is unable to implement its bus project immediately because it requires a heavy budget.” “we held talks with both online van services and asked them to get route permits and fitness certificates as per the motor vehicle laws within the stipulated time. since that time has ended, we have just sent them a soft reminder which unfortunately is being misinterpreted.” The minister said that the provincial government was contemplating to introduce legislation for online van and taxi services. He expressed his hopes that the proposed legislation would be taken up in the forthcoming meeting of the provincial cabinet. sindh government’s spokesperson murtaza wahab also dismissed the reports.

In a tweet on sunday, wahab said: “The news of banning swVL & airlift is incorrect. [On] the contrary, [the] sindh Government is in the process of introducing a law regulating these private enterprises after consulting all stakeholders.”

US woman on Pakistan’s blacklist creates ruckus at airport ISLAMABAD: an elderly american woman protested by lying on the floor of the Islamabad airport after officials tried to deport her. The woman was identified as 70-year-old murray maude born in washington, Us. she reportedly arrived at Islamabad International airport in Pakistan on a Pakistan International airlines (PIa) flight from manchester. The woman was allegedly blacklisted by authorities in Pakistan. when the airport staff tried to send her back, the woman started screaming and rolling on the floor of the airport in protest. In a viral video, she can be seen on her wheelchair, which she later abandoned to create a commotion.

However, it was not clear why she was blacklisted and banned from entry into Pakistan.

The Us Embassy in Islamabad was contacted by the officials and called at the airport to resolve the issue. Early this year, another american woman, sonia sita, had also been deported from Islamabad airport. The Federal Investigation agency (FIa) had said the woman reached the Islamabad airport without obtaining a visa. STAFF REPORT

Maulana and his non-state audience maulana’s outrage is uncontrollable and the worst thing he is doing is targeting state institutions. The politically discarded and discredited leadership which lost the elections and stand on the container to deliver their “enemy pleasing political sermons” suffer from a political disease called “institutional accusation syndrome”. what the national institutions including the military, intelligence and all law enforcement agencies have achieved for this country has been at a great cost that demanded huge sacrifices performing their duties 24/7/365 throughout the length and breadth of the country. maulana appreciates his crowd for weathering Islamabad’s thunder and storm but he has no clue how the military and other security agencies weathered the thunder and storm of terrorism that targeted the very roots and foundation of our state. maulana’s emotional outrage and uncontrollable speech making is creating an irrational narrative that seeks to only spread negativity. This negativity is strengthening the beliefs of the non-state audience that identifies more strongly with their given identity (in this case the maulana-given identity) rather than the identity of the state. The state represents rationality and the core audience (the majority of the people) that identifies with the state believe in their rise, fall, victory and defeat together with the state. The un-

questionable political mistake that maulana is making is estranging and alienating himself and his followers from the state. His political method of creating a non-state audience can please Pakistan’s enemies but can in no way enhance and compliment his own political credibility.

To this extent, the government’s strategy of allowing him more political exposure looks right because the further he speaks or gives interviews the more he exposes himself and the dark side of his movement that projects state hatred. maulana, who had, for a long time, been hiding under the attire of his politics, is now giving some very confusing statements. On the one hand he talks about the “non-violent nature” of his movement and on the other hand threatens the state with how ‘”there can be violence and killing and how his accumulated crowd is ready to fight and sacrifice lives”. malcom Gladwell, the famous Canadian writer who writes for The New Yorker, divides the audience in political theatres like the one currently going on in Islamabad into two types — engaged and participatory. The participatory audience is created by social media and this audience is the creator of the related excitement, hysteria, propaganda and hype. If this audience could correctly recognise its responsibility, much of the melodrama and sensationalism being generated can

of swarm formation was from late september onwards.

It is pertinent to mention here that the crop eating insects trigger famine by thoroughly eating cops and vegetation they find at any place. a single swarm, that ranges between 100,000 to a billion locusts, can devour 200 tonnes of food in a day. They can also fly a distance of 150 kilometres to search for more food.

On the other hand, the Department of Plant Protection of the ministry of National Food security and research have assured that the locusts would not have any effect on crops.

DPP Technical Director muhammad Tariq Khan while speaking to the media on sunday had said that the desert locust activity observed in malir and adjoining areas of Karachi is part of the creature’s migration from summer-monsoon breeding zone towards coastal areas of Balochistan, where it originally came from.

be controlled. The tragedy is that this participatory audience, few members of which are actively involved in adding fuel to the already burning fire, will not be there if and when the engaged audience may face a crackdown by law enforcement agencies. The engaged audience which is the “staying there audience” which is not participating from the comforts of their homes and studios, is so far demonstrating norms that speak of disciplined behaviour. Yet these norms may change with the change in situation. In a greatly changed situation, people tend to resort to the norms that are condemnable yet may think about them as absolutely reasonable. During Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was decimated and people were trapped without supplies and no way to evacuate. In those circumstances what the outsiders (the participatory audience) showed and shared through social media as looting was an emergent act carried out by the engaged audience to seek much needed supplies for survival.

Our engaged audience in the dharna is equipped with solar energy panels and so their mobile batteries never die. They also remain in contact with the participatory audience that continues to give them feedback on the righteousness of their cause. History will judge not only the role of the political leaders and the direction in which their politics is taking this coun-

try but also the role of both the participatory and the engaged audience. Those not condemning maulana’s anti-institution and anti-state tirade are doing no good service to the state. some of the great champions of democratic azadi (liberty) are showing little or no responsibility towards the state. They are part of that nonstate audience which is unprincipled, purchasable and corruptible. maulana is entitled to his media exposures but if he doesn’t stop using foul language against the state and its institutions then it is the combined responsibility of all pillars of state to ask whether he deserves such media exposure for what he is saying? a state of emergency was imposed in France in November 2015 when militants killed 130 people in coordinated attacks across Paris. Two years later it was replaced by President macron with antiterrorism law. France hasn’t lowered its guard against the threat it faces regardless of its purge against civil liberties. Pakistan also experienced a horrendous attack on aPs Peshawar in December 2014. The subsequent National action Plan (NaP) which was approved and signed by all political parties, including the maulana’s, hasn’t so far met its determined goals.

Unlike France, in Pakistan the propagators of civil liberties are actually the very proliferators of our insecurities. while they also have the option of taking a flight abroad, we don’t have such luxuries and are left to deal with maulana and the nonstate audience that he and the participatory audience on his side continues to create.

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

06 WORLD VIEW

The verDicT on AyoDhyA: A hisToriAn’s PersPecTive

Defining what constitutes power harassment JaPan timEs The legislation enacted in May to step up the fight against workplace harassment makes it an obligation on the part of employers — big companies beginning next June and smaller firms in 2022 — to take measures to prevent harassment against their employees. However, critics charge that a draft guideline compiled by the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry defining power harassment and specifying examples that constitute such harassment and those that do not — which has been requested by the big business community — could be used to justify acts by offenders taking advantage of their position of power to harass victims.

The draft, submitted to a subcommittee of an advisory panel to the labour minister, has divided representatives from employers and labour unions, and discussions to finalise the guideline may face a rough road. The draft must be given a second look from the viewpoint of protecting workers — who are often in a weak position vis-à-vis their employers — from harassment by superiors.

The legislation was enacted on the back of an increase in complaints over workplace harassment and bullying — reaching a record 82,000 cases nationwide in fiscal 2018, up by roughly 10,000 from 2017 — reported to labour bureaus across the country. It prohibits power harassment — defined as words and acts by offenders, taking advantage of their position of authority over victims, that harm the workplace environment beyond what is necessary and appropriate for work operation. The law makes it mandatory for employers to take measures to prevent power harassment against their workers, such as developing systems for their consultation.

However, it fails to provide for punishment for people who engage in acts of power harassment.

The International Labour Organisation’s Convention on Violence and Harassment, adopted in June, calls on governments that ratify the global treaty to take steps to prevent and protect people from violence and harassment, and provide enforcement mechanisms and remedies for victims, including legal prohibition of violence and harassment at work and ensuring effective inspections and investigations. Japan voted for the treaty but remains cautious about ratifying it. The damage from power harassment is serious. Many victims have been forced to take extended leave from work, quit or even take their own lives in the worst cases. Harassment takes various forms — including abusive language or even sheer violence. Some employees are reportedly targeted for unfair treatment — for reasons ranging from manpower cuts and retribution for whistleblowing to union activities — and forced to engage in work that does not suit their experience and skills.

In domestic discussions over the power harassment legislation, penalties for offenders were passed over due to objections from the business sector, which argued that it’s difficult to draw a clear line between power harassment and necessary guidance. Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation), the nation’s biggest business lobby, called on the labour ministry to specify examples of what acts do not constitute power harassment. In the draft guideline, the labour ministry spells out six categories of power harassment — including physical attacks, psychological attacks such as the use of abusive words and threats, ostracising victims by ignoring them or segregating them, or giving workers tasks that require much lower skills than they have. In each category, the draft presents concrete examples of acts that constitute power harassment and those that do not.

For example, the use of abusive language that amounts to denigrating the victim, or harshly and repeatedly chastising a worker over a long period of time, amounts to psychological attacks. On the other hand, strongly cautioning workers who fail to amend behaviour that runs counter to social rules and manners despite repeated warnings, as well as employees whose behaviour is gravely problematic in light of their work, is cited as examples that do not constitute power harassment. Giving workers in management positions simple tasks that can be carried out by anybody else to force them to quit amounts to power harassment, while temporarily assigning them easy work that does not match their skills for management reasons does not.

Labour officials charge that use of the vaguely defined “social rules” or “problematic behaviour” in the guideline may give the wrong impression that it’s OK for managers to severely scold workers who have problems. Critics also note that condoning “temporary” acts for “management reasons” could give management excuses to justify their harassment of workers. The parties involved should think again about whether specifying examples that do not constitute acts of harassment will result in narrowly defining power harassment, and whether that will serve the intended purpose of the legislation.

IT HAS ANNULLED RESPECT FOR HISTORY AND SEEKS TO REPLACE IT WITH RELIGIOUS FAITH

Hindu

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RoMIlA THApAR

HE verdict is a political judgment and reflects a decision which could as well have been taken by the state years ago. Its focus is on the possession of land and the building a new temple to replace the destroyed mosque. The problem was entangled in contemporary politics involving religious identities but also claimed to be based on historical evidence. This latter aspect has been invoked but subsequently set aside in the judgment.

The court has declared that a particular spot is where a divine or semidivine person was born and where a new temple is to be built to commemorate the birth. This is in response to an appeal by Hindu faith and belief.

Given the absence of evidence in support of the claim, such a verdict is not what one expects from a court of law. Hindus deeply revere Rama as a deity but can this support a legal decision on claims to a birth-place, possession of land and the deliberate destruction of a major historical monument to assist in acquiring the land?

The verdict claims that there was a temple of the 12th Century AD at the site which was destroyed to build the mosque — hence the legitimacy of building a new temple.

The excavations of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and its readings have been fully accepted even though these have been strongly disputed by other archaeologists and historians. Since this is a matter of professional expertise on which there was a sharp difference of opinion the categorical acceptance of the one point of view, and that too in a simplistic manner, does little to build confidence in the verdict. One judge stated that he did not delve into the historical aspect since he was not a historian but went to say that history

and archaeology were not absolutely essential to decide these suits! Yet what are at issue are the historicity of the claims and the historical structures of the past one millennium.

A mosque built almost 500 years ago and which was part of our cultural heritage was destroyed wilfully by a mob urged on by a political leadership. There is no mention in the summary of the verdict that this act of wanton destruction, and a crime against our heritage, should be condemned. The new temple will have its sanctum — the presumed birthplace of Rama — in the area of the debris of the mosque. Whereas the destruction of the supposed temple is condemned and becomes the justification for building a new temple, the destruction of the mosque is not, perhaps by placing it conveniently outside the purview of the case.

HAS CREATED A PRECEDENT The verdict has created a precedent in the court of law that land can be claimed by declaring it to be the birthplace of a divine or semi-divine being worshipped by a group that de-

Here’s why Supreme Court’s Ayodhya verdict differed with Allahabad High Court’s 2010 ruling SUPREME COURT BENCH OF CJI RANJAN GOGOI RULED THERE WAS LITTLE DOUBT THE DISPUTED AYODHYA SITE WAS USED BY BOTH HINDUS AND MUSLIMS. AND YET IT GAVE THE LAND TO HINDUS Print MANEESH CHHIBBER

When the Supreme Court delivered its big punchline ordering the central government to set up a trust for the construction of Ram Temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya and allot five acres of land for a mosque, it gave clear indications that its verdict in the decades-old Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title dispute is a fine balancing act.

The five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi made all the right noises. It ruled that the suit filed by Nirmohi Akhara was barred by limitation; it also rejected the Nirmohi Akhara’s claim of being the shebait (devotee of the deity Ram Lalla); and it held that while Ram Janmabhoomi has no juristic personality, Ram Lalla was a juristic person with legal rights.

It also ruled there was little doubt that the disputed site in Ayodhya was used by devotees of both communities to offer prayers. And then, the Supreme Court decided to grant the land to Hindus.

PLEASING ALL PARTIES While only a careful reading of the bench’s 1,045-page unanimous judgment could clear how it concluded that it was constitutionally tenable to grant the disputed land to Hindus for the construction of a temple but not to Muslims, what is clear at the moment is that the Supreme Court has tried to give something to all the parties involved.

But the court’s please-all effort may not entirely please all the sides, especially Muslims, represented by the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and the Sunni Waqf Board. They have already said they aren’t “completely satisfied” with the Ayodhya verdict and may file a review petition. But despite this, the verdict could still be the closure that India needs to settle one of its oldest and most controversial religious disputes in history.

It is also interesting to note that there’s no clue to the identity of the judge who penned the addendum to record “separate reasons” on “whether the disputed structure is the birth-place of Lord Ram according to the faith and belief of the Hindu devotees”.

While students of law always look for

infirmities in court judgments, the one on Ayodhya may actually be the only way to settle the dispute peacefully, even if it means pandering to the majority.

American jurist Robert H Jackson once said, “There is no doubt that if there were a super-Supreme Court, a substantial proportion of our reversals of state courts would also be reversed. We are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final.” This quote fittingly holds up while trying to understand the Ayodhya verdict.

READING THE AYODHYA VERDICT When the bench writes in its judgment that “the accounts of the travellers must be read with introspection” and that “the court must be circumspect in drawing negative inferences from what a traveller may not have seen or observed”, one wonders then how the Supreme Court established that it could not award the disputed site to Muslims.

Or why it couldn’t agree with the judgment of the Allahabad High Court granting two parts of the disputed site to Hindus and one to Muslims. After all, the Supreme Court did hold in its ruling that the demolished Babri Masjid was not abandoned – that the mere cessation of namaz by Muslims cannot lead to the inference that the mosque was abandoned – and so have lost possession. It did say that “while the Hindus had continued to offer worship continuously in the outer courtyard, there was no abandonment of the claim by the Muslims of the status of the structure inside the inner courtyard as a mosque”.

The answer is provided by the Supreme Court itself and it is also the key to understanding the Ayodhya judgment.

“We have already concluded that the three-way bifurcation by the High Court was legally unsustainable. Even as a matter of maintaining public peace and tranquillity, the solution which commended itself to the High Court is not feasible. The disputed site admeasures all of 1500 square yards. Dividing the land will not subserve the interest of either of the parties or secure a lasting sense of peace and tranquillity,” the bench ruled.

Maintaining public peace and tranquillity, it can be said, is why the Supreme Court has done what it did with its Ayodhya verdict.

fines itself as a community. There will now be many such janmasthans wherever appropriate property can be found or a required dispute manufactured. Since the deliberate destruction of historical monuments has not been condemned what is to stop people from continuing to destroy others?

The legislation of 1993 against changing the status of places of worship has been, as we have seen in recent years, quite ineffective.

What happened in history, happened. It cannot be changed. But we can learn to understand what happened in its fuller context and strive to look at it on the basis of reliable evidence. We cannot change the past to justify the politics of the present.

The verdict has annulled respect for history and seeks to replace history with religious faith. True reconciliation can only come when there is confidence that the law in this country bases itself not just on faith and belief, but on evidence.

Romila Thapar is a distinguished historian of Early India.

Political advertising: Time to regulate it, Mr Zuckerberg Editorial GuARdIAN

The decision by Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey, to “stop all political advertising on Twitter globally” was the right thing to do at the right time. There is understandable queasiness about paid-for political reach enabled by “highly optimised and targeted” messaging whose extent and spread is largely unknown and unregulated. When two of the world’s most advanced democracies – the United States and the United Kingdom – have been undermined by the flood of prejudice and falsehood on social media, it is heartening that Mr Dorsey has acted. It should worry us all that politicians and the social media giant Facebook have not.

In Britain electoral law is, according to parliament’s public administration and constitutional affairs committee, in an “archaic and confusing state” that requires deep reform.

MPs said there were plans for digital imprints showing who has produced online ads, and called for a wider review of digital campaigning in the UK. However, such welcome pledges are easier to make than to keep. They echo similar calls by the Electoral Commission after the 2016 Brexit referendum, the Law Commission before that, and also in Boris Johnson’s now-defunct Queen’s speech. Fine words, but nothing has happened. Dishonest campaigning, opaque data harvesting and dark political advertising all flourish.

Mr Dorsey’s message is being warmly received, which ought to perhaps worry his real target: Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, casts his company as part of a “fifth estate … a new kind of force in the world” which gives the public a megaphone to “express themselves at scale (online)”. There’s evidence that social media adverts help unknown candidates to stand out. It is also the case that nontraditional candidates would find it harder to break through without Facebook. WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, has also defended activists across the world from sophisticated cyber-attacks. However, Mr Zuckerberg confuses freedom of expression with freedom of paid intensification and dilation of that expression – which favours the rich.

Facebook’s power over what users see gives it potential for immense influence on politics. Foreign and domestic actors have long realised this and pushed misinformation and division. Facebook has created rules for itself that are quixotic and confused. The company will not police politicians’ posts – including any containing false and misleading claims – but will decide, it seems, whether an individual is a politician or not. Mr Zuckerberg is on shaky ground and the quicker he realises this the better.

Facebook is worth about half a trillion dollars. It sucks up four-fifths of global social networking revenue. In the US, Democrat senator Elizabeth Warren is quite right to say that the company has “too much power over our economy, our society and our democracy”. It does need to be broken up. However, even if this were attempted it would likely be a lengthy process. In the UK, the worry is that politicians understand that the integrity of elections can be undermined

by Facebook, but political leaders are reluctant to clamp down as they benefit from it.

There are some simple things that could be done: forcing Facebook to reveal where parties are spending campaign cash and enforcing constituency spending limits would be a start. An official study of advertising in social media is urgently needed. Campaigners have to be able to be held to account. They cannot operate in the dark. That means subjecting their political activities, and the companies that give them this voice online, to effective regulatory oversight.

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

Us UrgEs EArly IrAq ElEctIons As rIghts groUp wArns of 'BloodBAth' BAGHDAD

t

AGENCIES

HE United States has urged Iraq to hold early polls and carry out electoral reform after a rights group warned a deadly crackdown on anti-government protesters could spiral into a “bloodbath”.

Mass rallies calling for an overhaul of the ruling system have rocked the capital Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south since October 1. Hundreds have died in the violence. But political forces closed ranks this week to defend the government, and the consensus among the Iraqi elite seems to have paved the way for a crackdown as protesters clashed with security forces.

Three protesters were shot dead in the southern city of Nasiriyah on Sunday, while dozens of demonstrators were wounded in Baghdad.

That brought the toll to 15 protesters killed since Saturday.

Despite the violence, demonstrators tried to regroup on Sunday in Baghdad’s main protest camp at Tahrir Square, while hundreds of others dug in at the nearby Khallani square. Protesters could be seen trying to bring down large concrete walls that security forces had erected

to cut off Tahrir from Khallani.

Smoke from tear gas covered Khallani as protesters ran for cover while ambulances and tuk-tuks zipped across the square to evacuate the wounded. “For 16 years the authorities have done nothing for us and now they are killing us in cold blood,” shouted a protester.

A medical source said around 30 people were wounded on Sunday in Khallani. “This is turning into nothing short of a bloodbath,” said Amnesty International. “All government promises of reforms or investigations ring hollow while security forces continue to shoot and kill protesters,” said Amnesty’s regional director Heba Morayef.

‘CLIMATE OF FEAR’: In the first official toll in days, parliament’s human rights committee said 319 people had been killed since protests first erupted, including demonstrators and security forces.

The committee said snipers were active near protest sites and hunting rifles were used against demonstrators as well.

Warning that a “climate of fear has set in”, the United Nations mission in Iraq UNAMI proposed a series of steps to end the crisis.

It called for “maximum restraint in the handling of the

protests, including no use of live ammunition, ban the improper use of non-lethal devices (such as tear gas canisters)”. UNAMI urged the release of demonstrators and called for an investigation into the abductions of activists and doctors, who rights group say have been taken by security forces or armed groups.

It proposed a raft of measures to be undertaken over the next weeks and months, including implementing electoral and constitutional reforms, prosecuting those involved in corruption and enacting laws to prevent graft. Adding to those calls, the White House released a statement Sunday urging “the Iraqi government to halt the violence against protesters and fulfill President (Barham) Saleh’s promise to pass electoral reform and hold early elections”.

Public anger erupted in October over rampant corruption and a lack of jobs but quickly spiraled into calls to overthrow a regime blamed for perpetuating graft and clientelism. Oil-rich Iraq is OPEC’s second-biggest producer, but one in five people live in poverty and youth unemployment stands at 25 percent, the World Bank says.

HOSPITAL STORMED: The government has suggested a series of reforms in response to the

FOREIGN NEWS 07

demonstrations, including hiring drives, welfare plans, a revamp of the electoral law and constitutional amendments.

But it has resisted calls for an overhaul of the entire system, with rival political forces closing ranks around embattled Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi.

As demonstrators dug in at protest camps in Baghdad, defying tear gas grenades fired from security forces, others protested in the southern cities of Nasiriyah, Hillah, and Kut. Security sources stormed the Habboubi Children’s Hospital in Nasiriyah after staff held a protest and “fired tear gas inside the hospital”, health directorate chief Abdelhussein al-Jaberi told AFP. “We had to move the child patients to the Moussawi hospital to save their lives,” Jaberi said.

An AFP journalist saw a tear gas canister crash just outside the open doors of an ambulance and witnessed its team of rescuers gasping for air.

Police arrested demonstrators in Basra who tried to reach their usual protest site outside the provincial headquarters and blocked pupils attempting to join striking university students from leaving their classrooms in Diwaniyah.

Iran underground lab boosts low-enriched uranium production TEHRAN AGENCIES

Iran is producing even more low-enriched uranium daily than previously thought, after resuming enrichment at an underground laboratory built in a mountain, the head of the country’s nuclear program told The Associated Press on Monday.

Ali Akbar Salehi of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran attributed the rise to the work at Fordo, a long-secret facility the West feared could be used to divert and rapidly enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels. Iran resumed uranium enrichment at Fordo as it also broke other limits imposed by the 2015 nuclear deal that began to unravel after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord over a year ago. Under the nuclear accord, Fordo was supposed to be a research lab — and not used for uranium enrichment.

Iran hopes to pressure Europe through these moves and get European nations to offer it a way to sell its crude oil abroad despite American sanctions. However, President Hassan Rouhani faces growing crit-

icism at home over the accord’s collapse. Rouhani on Monday separately urged Iran to stick with the deal, saying it could open up international arms sales for the Islamic Republic next year. Salehi told the AP in Tehran that the country is now producing at least 5.5 kilograms daily (12 pounds). That’s compared to what Tehran had been producing — about 450 grams (1 pound) of low-enriched uranium per day.

The increase in enrichment comes from the inclusion of over 1,000 centrifuges at Fordo, some 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Qom, a Shiite holy city, Salehi said.

Shielded by the mountains, the facility also is ringed by anti-aircraft guns and other fortifications. It is about the size of a football field, large enough to house 3,000 centrifuges, but small and hardened enough to lead U.S. officials to sus-

UAE cAlls for IrAn tAlks wIth world powErs, rEgIon ABU DHABI: Iran should come to the negotiating table with world powers and Gulf countries to seek a new deal that would de-escalate regional tensions and revive its economy, a senior United Arab Emirates official said on Sunday. Tensions in the Gulf have risen since attacks on oil tankers in a vital global shipping lane this summer, including off the UAE coast, and a major assault on energy facilities in Saudi Arabia.

Washington has blamed Iran, which has denied being behind the attacks on global energy infrastructure. On Thursday, Iran said it had resumed uranium enrichment at its Fordow nuclear site, stepping further away from its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers after the United States pulled out of it. “Further escalation at this point serves no one and we strongly believe that there is room for collective diplomacy to succeed,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said in a speech in Abu Dhabi. AGENCIES

pect it had a military purpose.

“I believe (that) in total, 5.5 kilograms is the daily volume of uranium enrichment in Natanz and Fordo,” Salehi told the AP, mentioning Iran’s other nuclear facility at Natanz, where over 5,000 centrifuges now spin. Salehi suggested the figure could go as high at 6 kilograms (13 pounds) a day.

Iran currently enriches uranium to up to 4.5%, far below weaponsgrade levels of 90%. Uranium enriched to 4.5% can be used at the Bushehr nuclear power plant — Iran’s only one of its kind. Iran began to pour concrete into foundations on Sunday for a second reactor at Bushehr. The biggest concern is that the more uranium Iran enriches over time, this will begin to narrow the socalled “breakout period” that Iran would need to have enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb — should it choose to build one. Analysts had put that time at a year, under the restrictions of the 2015 nuclear deal.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, was expected to release a quarterly report about Iran’s program on Monday.

turkey starts returning Is fighters, deports Us national ANKARA: A US national who is a member of the Islamic State group has been deported home, a Turkish official said Monday, as Ankara began repatriating captured foreign IS fighters. Turkish Interior Ministry spokesman Ismail Catakli told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency that a German and a Danish national would also be repatriated later on Monday, while seven other German nationals would be returned on Nov. 14. The U.S., Germany and Denmark did not immediately comment on Ankara’s announcement. Turkey has over the past few weeks criticized Western nations, including Britain and the Netherlands, for refusing to take back their nationals who had joined the militant group and vowed to send back IS militants — even if their citizenship has been revoked.

Cataki did not provide further information on the IS suspects being sent home but said they were held in Turkish deportation centres. Two Irish nationals, two German nationals and 11 French nationals who were captured in Syria would also be transferred to their countries of origin soon, he added. “This morning, a foreign terrorist fighter from the United States was deported from Turkey after the procedures at the deportation centre were completed,” Anadolu quoted Catakli as saying. Catakli stressed that Turkey is determined to return “the foreign terrorist fighters to their own countries.” AGENCIES

cyclonE dEAth toll rIsEs to 24 In BAnglAdEsh, IndIA NEW DELHI: The death toll from a cyclone that barrelled into the coasts of Bangladesh and India has risen to 24, authorities said on Monday, as the two nations assess the scale of devastation wreaked by the powerful storm. Bangladesh carried out one of its biggest-ever evacuation drives, moving some 2.1 million people to cyclone shelters specially built to minimise casualties from such storms, which can claim thousands of victims.

Cyclone Bulbul, packing winds of up to 120 kilometres per hour (75mph) when it hit late Saturday, killed 12 people in Bangladesh — 11 from falling trees — and 12 in India’s West Bengal and Odisha states. Five others remain missing after a fishing trawler sank in squally weather near Bangladesh’s southern island of Bhola, district administrator Masud Alam Siddiqui told AFP. Bangladesh’s junior minister for disaster management Enamur Rahman told AFP Bulbul left a trail of destruction, damaging some 10,000 mud, tin and bamboo homes and 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) of crops. The cyclone weakened as it tracked inland. The Sundarbans — the world’s largest mangrove forest which straddles the two nations and is home to several endangered species — shielded the coast from the storm’s full impact, officials added. In India, nearly 120,000 evacuated people were returning home as the cyclone weakened, authorities said.

Coastal crops in Odisha were also extensively damaged, officials told the Press Trust of India. Bangladesh’s lowlying coast, home to 30 million people, and India’s east are regularly battered by cyclones that have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in recent decades.

While the storms’ frequency and intensity have increased — partly due to climate change — the death tolls have come down because of faster evacuations and the building of thousands of coastal shelters. AGENCIES

Europe should mull renewed sanctions on Iran over nuclear breaches, Germany suggests BRUSSELS AGENCIES

Britain, France and Germany must be ready to react to Iran’s breaches of its 2015 nuclear deal and this could mean reimposing international sanctions on Tehran, though Europe still wants to save the accord, the German foreign minister said on Monday.

Iran said last week it had resumed low-grade uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow nuclear plant and at the weekend said it could refine up to 60% of fissile purity, not far off the 90% level needed for nuclear bomb fuel – its most significant breaches of the deal with world powers. Iran says its violations have been driven by the United States’ withdrawal from the deal last year and its reimposition of sanctions that have strangled Tehran’s oil exports and would return to compliance if Washington did so.

But the three European parties to the 2015 deal, which aimed to narrow any scope for Iran to develop a nuclear bomb, have voiced alarm at its resumption of en-

richment, fearing it will make it much harder for them to salvage the unraveling accord.

Arriving at a European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he would meet his British and French counterparts in Paris later on Monday to discuss the next steps.

“Iran must finally return to its commitments. Otherwise, we will reserve the right to use all mechanisms specified in the deal,” Maas said, referring to steps under which international sanctions that were lifted under the pact could be reinstated. “We see with growing concern that uranium enrichment continues and Iran has not only announced it but it goes on with it,” Maas told reporters.

Under the terms of the deal, if anyone of the European signatories believes Iran has violated it, they can trigger a dispute resolution process that could – within as few as 65 days – culminate at the U.N. Security Council with a so-called “snapback” of global, United Nations sanctions on Iran. So far, the European position is

that the International Atomic Energy Agency and its inspectors must first verify Iran’s latest announcements on enrichment, EU diplomats said.

The European position is crucial because, after U.S. President Donald Trump denounced the accord, signed before he took office, the other signatories – Russia

and China – are allies of Iran and unlikely to make such a move.

Iran’s violations of key deal limits, including on stockpiles of enriched uranium and on the level of enrichment – 3.7%, deemed suitable for civilian nuclear energy – could culminate in a return of all international sanctions on Tehran.

The European Union, though desperate to rescue the accord it helped negotiate, has been unable to convince Iran to abide by it because EU efforts to protect trade and financial dividends for Iran linked to the deal have been stymied by U.S. sanctions. Iran’s reactivation of Fordow is especially sensitive as it concealed the site from U.N. non-proliferation inspectors until its exposure in 2009, and it is built inside a mountain to withstand any airstrikes. The Islamic Republic has long maintained that it wants nuclear energy only for civilian applications.

The Trump administration argues the 2015 deal did not place curbs on Iran’s nuclear capability of sufficient rigour or duration and failed to address its ballistic missile programme. While other EU governments are not directly involved in trying to shore up the nuclear accord, their view is important to Berlin, Paris and London. “All options must be discussed, we have to keep up the pressure because we do not see progress (with Tehran),” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told Reuters.

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

08 COMMENT

The phenomenon of Iqbal

Confusion about Mr Sharif’s departure Former PM needs urgent treatment abroad

As relevant as ever

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ast month, acknowledging the medical condition of the former PM Nawaz sharif, PM Imran Khan said his sincere prayers were with the ailing politician. Later statements by Railways Minister sheikh Rashid and special assistant to PM Naeemul Haque also indicated that the PM had decided to allow Mr sharif to proceed abroad for medical treatment. statements appearing on Monday by Foreign Minister shah Mehmood Qureshi, special assistant to PM on Information Firdous ashiq awan and Punjab Health Minister Yasmeen Rashid however indicated that there was going to be no early end to Mr sharif’s tribulations.

It was maintained that “legal obstacles” to his departure had to be removed first. Further that the medical board’s report being insufficient, it would be directed to prepare a detailed report. the new report would be sent to the NaB whose comments would go to a review committee in the law ministry, then to interior ministry and finally to the cabinet committee for taking a decision. this strengthened the perception that all types of hindrances were being created to stop Mr sharif’s departure or delay it till he was no longer able to travel abroad.

Coming later in the day Governor Punjab’s announcement however contradicted that perception.

Chaudhry sarwar claimed that he had persuaded different government ministries to act speedily to allow the former Prime Minister to fly out of the country at the earliest. Further that his name would be removed from the ECL the same day this is yet another example of one hand in the PtI government not knowing what the other is doing. One can only hope that a contradiction does not follow the Punjab Governor’s statement.

Delay in sending Mr sharif abroad for treatment can have serious implications for the patient. Precedents exist where people put on ECL by NaB were allowed to proceed abroad on the directives of the Interior Ministry within no time. Delaying tactics are likely to be interpreted as lack of concern for humanitarian issues on the part of the PtI administration or worse still, as evidence of political vindictiveness. What needs to be realised is that anything untoward happening to the PML-N leader as a consequence of delay would have grave political implications.

Soaring food prices Vegetables too are now a luxury

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F the many problems facing Pakistan at the moment, ranging from political instability to national security/foreign policy concerns, the state of the economy and the corrective measures being undertaken to fix it are what concern the common man the most for that has the most direct and detrimental effects on them. the PtI- government, depreciating the rupee in an abrupt and aggressive fashion within a matter of months by close to 27% since it took over, resulted in input costs to skyrocket leading to record inflation.

Households can cut down their expenses, tighten their belts but when it comes to the basics, staple food items for example, there is not much that can be done.

Wholesale vegetable markets have hiked prices of onions and tomatoes up to Rs90 per Kg and Rs250 per Kg respectively in Karachi leading to smaller vendors in the city to sell at higher rates. Vegetables, like chicken and other meat, therefore too have become a luxury for the lower income groups. some of the hike is also seasonal while others can also be attributed to a supply side problem. Nonetheless, a serious food affordability problem has now set in. additionally, trying to keep the IMF satisfied, tariff hikes continue with the latest summary sent to OGRa by sNGPL and ssGC seeking a 31 per cent rise in gas prices with a combined revenue shortfall of Rs93.67 billion staring the gas companies in the face. If approved, which it most likely will be perhaps with a slight revision; inflationary pressure will intensify. the government has attempted to provide some relief in the form of placing price controls at markets but that practice can only achieve so much.

Vendors who are genuinely applying fair cost-plus pricing might be unfairly penalised by the government. that is not to say that the government should not crackdown against hoarders looking to make a quick profit. But it needs to do more to provide relief, as most of this is the result of the government’s economic policies that have brought a financial crunch on the common man. the PM, simply directing his cabinet to enforce government prices is not enough.

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as it a coincidence that the Indian supreme Court chose to announce the Babri Masjid verdict on allama Iqbal’s 142nd birth anniversary? It would appear to be so, for it was probably merely an attempt on the part of the Indian establishment to steal the limelight away from the Kartarpur Corridor opening by suddenly announcing the verdict a few days earlier than scheduled. Be that as it may, it vindicated, once again, Iqbal’s vision of a separate homeland for Muslims; that too on Iqbal Day. talk about unintended consequences. Iqbal has this way of becoming current on a regular basis, much to the chagrin of his many detractors.

From the very beginning, there has never been any dearth of Iqbal’s critics. Even today, we have all sorts, and plenty of them. From those who start foaming at the mouth on the mere mention of him; to those liberals who try to paint him as a dangerous influence; to those who love to make fun of him as something old-fashioned, or merely an irrelevance. Despite this very concerted effort on the part of these classes to consign it to the dustbin of history, the phenomenon of Iqbal has refused to die down. It’s just too resilient.

Of course, the earliest detractors of Iqbal were the mullahs, the conservatives and the religious types. He had the courage to write a hundred years ago something like shikwa; and dared to suggest that probably the religious thought in Islam needed a reconstruction. Unsurprisingly, he was told to repent by some clerics, and declared out of the fold of Islam by others. this is not to say that one does (or should) agree with everything he wrote; but he had the character to swim against the tide. For the conservatives, Iqbal is too liberal and unorthodox; for the liberals, too

conservative and retrospective. On this evidence alone, he must have done something right. then there are the laymen who haven’t read his works (most of them haven’t read anything else either), but who love to criticise him regardless. Of course, the source of most of the things that this group finds objectionable about him is none other than Iqbal’s own son Javed. a son, who was secure enough not to want his father turned into some sort of a saint. and that’s precisely the problem with some of the more religious minded simpletons amongst us: we settle for nothing short of saints. the solution: either reject Iqbal as somebody who didn’t have his money where his mouth was; or transform him into a saint.

It’s not easy to say which is more unfortunate.

It’s true that there have been long periods in our history when it was fashionable among the ruling elite to quote Iqbal; when the PtV made it a point to air his poetry many times every day. But they were always very careful about their selection. anything remotely appearing to support Marxism, or anything else that went against the government policy, was never selected. the genius of Iqbal never needed the crutches of government patronage in the first place; and Iqbal is too great for his significance to be affected by the selective treatment he got from such ‘patrons’. there are those who maintain that Iqbal was nothing more than a poet (a good one at that, they grudgingly acknowledge); certainly not a philosopher as he is made out to be by some. Even if one agrees with this (for the sake of the argument); was he just another poet? He was a poet with an ideology – albeit an ideology with which one may or may not agree. What do we know of such poets? History has seldom been kind to them. this is because their poetry depends, for its relevance, upon conducive environments and times. Iqbal is the only poet

(certainly in our part of the world, and probably globally too) with an agenda (if you like) who has stood the test of time. there’s something in his message, in addition to its literary merit, that still resonates with the reader. Of course, Iqbal has many other facets to his personality as well: a thinker, a man with a sense of history, a politician, a lawyer. and then there’s the small matter of Pakistan. the ideas of separate electorates and autonomy for Muslims underwent a long evolution, but it was Iqbal who first visualised Pakistan with such concrete clarity, which brings us back to where we started.

Whether it’s annexation of Kashmir, the perpetual human rights atrocities there, the destruction of the Babri Masjid, the Bombay riots, the general state of minorities (and not just Muslims either) in India, the Gujarat massacre, the abrogation of articles 370 and 35a, or the recent supreme Court verdict on the Babri Masjid destruction, there have always been regular and stark reminders that Iqbal was right. Don’t cross your fingers for things to change any time soon. and it’s not just a matter of the BJP being in power currently. the Congress has attributed its own irrelevance and the rise of BJP to the latter’s appeal to the baser emotions of Hindus. after decades-long Congress rule, this is an admission of, on the one hand, the overpowering strength of the pervasive Hindu supremacist sentiment across India; and, on the other, the futility of the secular façade of the Congress spanning over those decades. If this is not a vindication of Iqbal’s political vision eight decades after his death, I don’t know what is. It’s abundantly clear that Iqbal has not been outdated at all.

He is as relevant as ever and thank God for that.

The ideas of separate electorates and autonomy for Muslims underwent a long evolution, but it was Iqbal who first visualised Pakistan with such concrete clarity, which brings us back to where we started

Hasan Aftab Saeed is a connoisseur of music, literature, and food (but not drinks). He can be reached at www.facebook.com/hasanaftabsaeed

Masters versus Maulana Witnessing the rise and rise of pulpit via politics of protest

Shah Nawaz Mohal

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WO years back, a different Maulana was at it. today, in the here and now, another Maulana is at the government’s throat. How it will all end? all we have are our guesses and predictions. With fingers crossed, we all hope that it’ll end sooner rather than later.

People we meet and the suggestions they make, at times, can deepen, even alter our understanding of the world. It was Julia, a Russian lady married to a Pakistani who recommended that I read Bulgakov’s the Master and Margarita, the greatest ever Russian novel according to her. ‘What Bulgakov achieved in this novel is unlike anything offered by tolstoy or Dostoevsky,’ she said. Being enchanted by the vastness and Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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depth of tolstoy’s prose, somberness of Dostoevsky’s many worlds, irreverence of Nabokov, dreariness of Gogol’s ‘Overcoat’, and Chekhov’s observation of human foibles and momentary triumphs I made a mental note to read Bulgakov.

I forgot and the time marched on. Recently, I found the Master and Margarita as I skimmed through the fiction section at Mr Books. the novel is about Woland, the devil and the havoc he wreaks on humans, Master, a historian turned lunatic and Margarita, Master’s love. For those interested in knowing more, they better give the novel a try. suffice it to say, if we turn the whole novel on its head, we’ll have ourselves a near perfect allegory of the most talked about event which is happening in Pakistan during the last couple of weeks.

Our Master has all the attributes, powers and bent of Woland.

He is a sinister, scheming creature who knows how to keep his audience on the edges of their seats. If it takes a kick in the shins, he’ll give it back. If it requires sketching a line dividing the same stock of terror in good and bad portions, he’ll draw it. If it asks for a plot to upend all schemes, he’ll lay it. all can be, should be, must be sacri-

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ficed at the altar to ensure and perpetuate supremacy. the partners keep on changing, the old allies are swiftly sidelined, and new darlings are quickly embraced.

While, few enlightened ones gawk and gape as the majority lauds the tricks and ploys. the crowds change, the leaders and their acolytes change but don’t for a second think that this difference substantially changes anything. Despite them hailing from even diametrically opposite backgrounds once provided with a movable dais, a mic, scores of loudspeakers, a hundred or more supporters they can, and just proved that they would bring the state to its knees Let us kill the urge of locating the puppeteer behind the ongoing events and unveiling the puppet master behind what transpired at Faizabad, two years back. the voices harp on their usual suspects as the military-bashing lot point fingers to the Gentlemen of aabpara. those sick and tired of government see someone else grinding his axe from behind the curtains.

In our land of the pure, whenever elections are just around the corner a nuisance rears its ugly head. sponsored by the loads of money, paid by some invisible hand, pampered and reassured of

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backing and support these hordes descent from their crevices. It doesn’t matter who wins, as the game is not about winning. It is about maintaining sway. to live for a cause is certainly the best way to bid adieu and achieve the zenith of life. there is also no denying that the question of right and wrong is only a question of perspective. It is how and from where you look at the world. the state, we were taught, does not discriminate among its children. all citizens are equal, Jinnah promised. Equal opportunities for all, our Constitution yells. Protection of life and property, the clause is still there in our supreme law.

From where we see things and how they unravel, the perspective of state is skewed and eaten up by myopia. It slaughters the good for all to please the baton-wielding, hate-spewing few.

Long live the short-sighted Master who knows not that the game he plays does not follow the rules of chess. His pawns will take the rooks, the knights, the bishops and then, it’ll be their turn to pay the devil his due.

Shah Nawaz Mohal is a law graduate and journalist based in Islamabad. He can be reached at mshahnawazmohal@gmail.com

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Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail

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Dharna and pollution

Target Market - Millennials Internet television is here to stay

aMNa KhaN

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Hat do we want? - the truth!

When do we want it? - Now! the vocalisation in protest culture makes it obvious that people are waking up. they aren’t fooled anymore because their world has unfolded before them. they know who did what and how they did it. More than justice, people demand an acknowledgement because they know a lack of awareness wasn’t the reason, ineptness was and so was incompetence. a general lack of credentials wasn’t straying too far behind either. Who can blame the media establishment for creating a profound chasm between social practices and its televised portrayal? the faces in the media are disproportionately fair-skinned & heteronormative. I’m not saying we’re not that, I’m just saying we’re a lot more than just that. It simply isn’t a part of our key identifiers anymore.

Besides the obvious flaws in what’s shown on tV, there’s an increased deficiency of social accountability and moral consciousness in its programmers. a misdirected ‘wokeness’ to what ‘they’ believe is inclusive. Like transgenders on screen who seem to be overly fascinated with qualifying as a woman and nothing else. surprisingly there’s never any girl trying to pass off as a boy because that would seriously affect what appeals to the Pakistani male audiences’ inherent tastes. these days media companies seem largely fixated on women’s issues. they’re touting the horn of ‘female empowerment’ without getting their hands dirty to find what it is that women really want. With the sole desperation to sell to a ‘woke’ new-age market, they’re copy pasting stereotypical scripts in the hopes of not losing touch with a millennial audience.

Half-hearted attempts at ‘wokeness’ go largely unappreciated because we know you’re faking it. Convincing men that women need rights would be welcomed but it requires actually hiring women to shape their own narratives - which companies aren’t willing to do.

Painting & packaging everything pink doesn’t make you a champion of women’s rights - associating and reducing us to be represented by a colour palette isn’t enough. Female stories lack relatability to men in society, thus the party central to resolving our issues remains largely unconvinced of them. Being invested in female empowerment according to most clothing brands constitutes berating customers with 70% off text messages regarding their year-end sales. the degree of consideration they extend

for the cause revolves around informing us of promotions we might have otherwise missed on Facebook, Instagram or any of the skyscrapers spread across the freeway. Of course, the solution of female empowerment is paying just 30% off the already obscene prices brands charge. Especially when coupled with slogans supporting female emancipation comes with a complimentary gift card and voucher. Brands selling their conscience in this way only cripple their reputation because of how an utter lack of commitment to a cause is made shamelessly apparent. Using unrelatable women to express a campaign about diversity when there is no actual reformation of company policy is pointless. Implementing a gender balanced workforce with equal pay would be more effective in getting the message across, not to mention the effectiveness and credibility of an advert signifying that. Don’t just sell me the clothes tell me who makes and how much do they get paid for it. that’s when we’ll consider inequality to officially be solved. Painting ‘Feminism = Equality’ signs across the city’s billboards would actually be more constructive than whatever marketing firms seem to be doing right now.

Equality is what resonates in today’s overly opinionated world. In a hyper globalised society like ours, millennials want to feel included, involved and valued. there’s an influx of vlogging, podcasts and entertainment-based start-ups eagerly pandering to what they believe are people’s tastes.

Mostly because a 9 to 5 doesn’t seem to pay enough for the value of our time and practically every person is etching for their claim to fame it’s an epidemic of ‘can we all please be celebrities now?’ this trend seems to be creating a duality in the Pakistani identity because the mainstream media refuses to endorse a fledgling new age oriented thriving Instagram economy. Imagine the triumph if both spheres of influence decided to overlap. the mainstream and niche markets combined their powers to banish all traces of cringe from our air waves. already, advertising expenses are shifting online because it allows companies to understand and target their audiences more efficiently. Competing against the ultimate video powerhouse ‘Youtube’ can only be done through a complete shift of resources in today’s market. Because these niche influencers that exist amongst us understand the mass mindset and can pave the way for inclusive narratives. showing higher numbers than non-Millennial outdated celebrities who are now clearly out of touch.

Digitally native original content is what ensures a target audiences’ consumption for today’s media climate. this is the principle upon which V-loggers, Netflix, amazon and

even HBO capitalise on content. the most effective form of inclusion seems to be giving everyone something to feast upon instead of shoving the same flavour down everyone’s throat. Content shaped by cause loyalty is more effective than leaning upon brand loyalty for connecting with global audiences. avant-garde cinema like that only comes from a meticulous use of resources requiring the price of true dedication to the millennial age group, of discovering its authenticity. a discovery made by tV shows on streaming platforms to ensure its audiences’ devotion - a cocktail of flavours catering to all sorts of people. their business model wouldn’t have gotten this far if every drama was about marriages, family intrigue, centred upon female protagonists.

Right now, Netflix pays to license dramas from Pakistan at nominal rates. Nevertheless, low disposable incomes and stagnation of living standards will force millennials to switch completely to internet television, spelling doom for our broadcast viewership. It’s also more likely that streaming services show Pakistani broadcasters how to do their job better.

Like Indians on amazon have shown Bollywood what ingredients they’ve been ignoring in story-telling. the variables that we’re not taking into consideration is that Netflix for now is buying our shows at less than profitable rates because they know they’re doing us a favour and nobody wants to reinvest in something readily available on Youtube. Diplomatic barriers with India don’t create a language barrier and given how quality content speaks louder than sham politics, their domination of our market could happen sooner than expected.

Especially when you’re taking into account the best use for your money, which it seems they definitely have too much of - ask yourself what would you do if you were a streaming business? Invest in Indian content which automatically swallows Pakistan or invest in Pakistan out of fairness and generosity of heart. History will continue to drumbeat itself - because once again we’re putting all our eggs in one basket just like we did previously with EIC and presently with CPEC. Let’s diversify so all professional aspects can shine because the sure shot formula to survival seems to be diversification both economically and narratively. New age companies are shaping themselves for dominating the developing world. If we want to survive, we have to invest in an economy of meaning & authenticity. Because let’s face it, everyone already knows the truth about where we stand. Especially us millennials.

Diplomatic barriers with India don’t create a language barrier and given how quality content speaks louder than sham politics, their domination of our market could happen sooner than expected

Amna Khan is a freelance columnist.

IsLaMaBaD, like other major cities of the country, is in grip of pollution much of which can be attributed to the industrial area in the city. Most problematic in the I-9 / I-10 industrial area are the steel mills and marble factories. the high flames from the foundries of steel mills create havoc with environment of the city. they burn anything and everything as fuel and the clouds of thick black smoke over these mills can be seen from miles, which cause pulmonary problems among residents of the area in specific and entire city generally. similarly, the marble factories cause noise and air pollution. the huge cutting machines create noise at unbearable levels. the dust from small cutters and the grime composed of water and marble dust goes straight to water channels and drains. to add to the misery of the residents of Islamabad, the city has been the centre of attention in terms of protests against any government. the new trend of protesting through Dharna or sit-in is making life a tough call. the current azadi March that descended upon the city recently, which has led to worst traffic jams, noise pollution, and littering. Protester being thousands in numbers are literally living near “Peshawar More.” they eat, sleep, and defecate in the area that is not meant for the purpose. Heaps of garbage and defecation in open spaces would create unsanitary conditions would expose the area to risk of various diseases, which is a disaster for twin cities already struggling to cope with defiant menace of Dengue Fever. the administration of the city along with federal government must take emergency measures to take prompt action to clean the site of the azadi March Dharna during and after it to prevent the city from a looming disaster due to filth and garbage produced by thousands of people living is miserable makeshift conditions at the site of Dharna.

RAJA SHAFAAtuLLAH Islamabad

Ethics of Public Office Holders tHE recent resignation of steve Easterbrook, CEO McDonalds, following reports that he had an inappropriate consensual relationship with an employee, highlights the importance of ethics and morality, in corporate working. In the Usa, consensual relationship between adults is legal and not considered a crime. McDonalds and numerous other private and public corporations forbid managers from having romantic relationships with an employee.

General Petraeus, a decorated war hero, who served as CENtCOM commander and after his retirement in august 2011, was appointed as Director CIa was forced to retire on November 2012 by President Obama after FBI reports that he had an extra marital affair consensual affair with principal author of his biography. It is an accepted norm that individuals who hold any public office, elected or paid, must adhere to more conservative and stricter code of ethics than that applicable to common citizens.

It is unfortunate that while we claim to be Islamic republic, and our laws forbid extra marital relationships, yet individuals holding important public offices in executive or state-owned corporations and even those serving in sensitive organisations like NaB etc have never been proceeded against, even though video proof of their involvement exists. this reflects on moral degradation that engulfs ruling paid or elected public office holders. Conflicts of interest of serving public office holders are overlooked. almost half our foreign service officers have acquired foreign immigration for either self or family while they were in service. Former President Musharraf has admitted that he was gifted almost $20 Million by a saudi royal, yet the state has not proceeded against him. a state that fails to protect its jungles, amenity plots etc., from illegal occupation by powerful land mafia, is considered to be Banana Republic.

MALIK tARIq ALI Lahore

How many election petitions?

EVER since the PtI government has come into power in Islamabad, the opposition parties and their leaders called Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government with all sorts of names and labels like it is fake and has come into power through massive rigging etc.

Without going into further allegations which the opposition leaders keep on harping day and night, this is ask the Election Commission of Pakistan to apprise the nation as to how many election petitions on rigging and other charges were filed by opposition parties loser candidates after July 25, 2018 with the Election tribunals throughout the country, how many of them have decided in favour or against the complaining losing candidates and how many are still pending at different forums. this information naturally will be available with the Election Commission and if made public will greatly help in setting the records straight and making it clear to the people as to who is right and who is wrong in this regard, please. this scribe still remembers that in 1977 also, MMa led opposition had also levelled massive rigging charges against Zulfikar ali Bhutto’s PPP which had won the early called polls. against all such hallah gullah, leading to violent protest, rigging charges were not proved even in 10 constituencies but the opposition had achieved its ulterior objective of toppling of the people’s elected government through imposition of martial law on July 5, 1977. the opposition parties and their leaders, who have not somehow accepted their defeats in last year’s general election may continue opposing and criticising the prime minister and PtI government. But in doing so they should at least keep the national interests as well as the interests of the country and the nation uppermost, please.

M Z RIFAt Lahore

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

10 FOREIGN NEWS

ChinA ACCUSeS US of USing Un to 'meDDle' in tibet BEIJING

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AGENCIES

HINA accused the United States on Monday of using the United Nations to “meddle” in Tibet, as Washington intensifies its bid to prevent Beijing from handpicking the Dalai Lama’s successor.

Last week, Sam Brownback, the US’ ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said the US wanted the UN to take up the succession issue of the Tibetan spiritual leader.

The choice of the Dalai Lama’s successor “belongs to the Tibetan Buddhists and not the Chinese government”, Brownback told AFP. But Beijing responded angrily, saying the US is attempting to “meddle in China’s internal affairs under the pretext of religious freedoms”.

“It is doomed to fail and will certainly be met with opposition from the interna-

tional community,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing in Beijing.

China — which argues it has brought modernisation and development to the Himalayan region — has increasingly hinted it could name the next Dalai Lama, who would presumably be groomed to support Chinese rule.

The Chinese government has also indicated it is waiting out the Dalai Lama, believing his campaign for greater Tibetan autonomy will end with him.

At age 84, the spiritual leader who once travelled incessantly has slowed down and earlier this year suffered a chest infection, although he is not known to have serious health issues.

In 1995, the officially atheist government selected its own Panchen Lama and detained a six-year-old identified for the influential Buddhist position — whom rights groups called the world’s youngest political prisoner.

Mindful of Beijing’s plans, the 14th Dalai Lama has mused about breaking with the centuries-old tradition in which wandering monks look for signs that a young boy is a reincarnation. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has said that he could pick his own successor, possibly a girl, or even declare himself the final Dalai Lama.

hong Kong leADer pleDgeS Stiffer meASUreS After violent DAy HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s leader pledged on Monday to “spare no effort” in bringing an end to anti-government protests that have wracked the city for more than five months, following a day of violence in which one person was shot and another set on fire. Carrie Lam’s comments are likely to fuel speculation that harsher legal and police measures may be in the works to curb the protests. “I do not want to go into details, but I just want to make it very clear that we will spare no effort in finding ways and means that could end the violence in Hong Kong as soon as possible,” Lam told reporters.

Lam also refused to accept the protesters’ demands for political concessions. “If there is still any wishful thinking that, by escalating violence, the Hong Kong SAR government will yield to pressure to satisfy the so-called political demands, I am making this statement clear and loud here: That will not happen,” Lam said, using the initials for Special Administrative Region, which describes the city’s status as a semi-autonomous Chinese territory. Monday’s violence is likely to further inflame passions in Hong Kong after a student who fell during an earlier protest succumbed to his injuries on Friday and police arrested six pro-democracy lawmakers over the weekend on charges of obstructing the local assembly during a raucous May 11 meeting. All were freed on bail. AGENCIES

Australian state declares emergency due to wildfires

CANBERRA AGENCIES

Australia’s most populous state declared a state of emergency on Monday due to unprecedented wildfire danger as calls grew for Australia to take more action to counter climate change.

New South Wales State Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said residents were facing what “could be the most dangerous bushfire week this nation has ever seen.” Fires in the state’s northeast have claimed three lives, destroyed more than 150 homes and razed more than 1 million hectares (3,800 square miles) of forest and farmland since Friday.

Doctors and paramedics have treated more than 100 people for fire-related injuries, including 20 firefighters, Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan said.

North of New South Wales, wildfires destroyed nine homes on Monday in Queensland state, where air quality plummeted in Brisbane, the state capital, and surrounding cities to the lowest possible rating of “very poor.”

Health authorities urged residents not to go outside. Fire conditions in New South Wales are forecast to be worse on Tuesday than they were on Friday. The state government announced that more than 600 schools and technical colleges will be closed on Tuesday because of the fire risk. Australian military personnel are supporting 1,500 firefighters who were battling 60 blazes across the state.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the last time a state of emergency was declared in New South Wales was in 2013, when there were extensive fires in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. “The catastrophic weather conditions mean

that things can change very quickly,” she told reporters in Sydney.

Catastrophic fire danger has been declared for Sydney and the Hunter Valley region to the north on Tuesday with severe and extreme danger across vast tracts of the rest of the state.

The weeklong declaration of a state of emergency gives the Rural Fire Service sweeping powers to control resources and direct other government agencies. The annual Australian fire season, which peaks during the Southern Hemisphere summer, has started early after an unusually warm and dry winter. The crisis has reignited the debate on whether Australia has taken enough action on climate change.

Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal and liquid natural gas. It is also the world’s driest continent after the Antarctic, which scientists say leaves Australians particularly vulnerable to weather extremes associated with a changing climate. Carol Sparks, a mayor who lost her home in a fire near the New South Wales town of Glen Innes, said climate change had contributed to the emergency. “It’s climate change, there’s no doubt about it. The whole of the country is going to be affected. We need to take a serious look at our future,” she said.

Some residents in the path of dangerous fires blame the intensity of flames on environmentally focused lawmakers who have prevented regular controlled burning of forests to reduce the fuel load in the tinder-dry landscape for fear of smoke and harm to wildlife.

The leader of the minor Australian Greens party, Richard Di Natale, and the party’s climate spokesman, Adam Bandt, blamed Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s government for the crisis.

“Scott Morrison has not got the climate crisis under control,” Bandt said.

Morrison said Saturday that he had not considered whether the unprecedented fires were linked to climate change.

Macron marks Remembrance Day, 101 years since end of WWI PARIS AGENCIES

French President Emmanuel Macron marked Remembrance Day on Monday by relighting the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under Paris’ Arc de Triomphe, below a spectacular giant tricolour flag.

Greeted by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, Macron laid a wreath and inspected troops during the otherwise low-key ceremony marking 101 years since the Armistice that ended the combat of World War I. He also stopped by the nearby tomb of French wartime leader Georges Clemenceau.

The rousing sound of military band brass music was slightly muffled by persistent rain for the hundreds of spectators — including former French Presidents Francois Holland and Nicolas Sarkozy — thronging the Champs Elysees avenue, some of whom waved French flags. Macron was lunching with guests at the Elysee Palace, who include flag bearers and presidents of veterans associations.

The French leader will later inaugurate a monument for the hundreds of soldiers who died in foreign operations since 1963, whom the military calls “the fourth generation of fire.”

Since the 1960s, 549 French soldiers have died in 17 theatres of conflict including 141 in Lebanon, 129 in Chad, 85 in Afghanistan and 78 in the former Yugoslavia.

Commemorations were also underway in France’s wartime ally,

Britain. The Royal British Legion urged the nation to remember the 100th anniversary of the first twominute silence observed on Armistice Day by shutting out modern technology and all distractions.

“This year we’re asking the nation to pause — mute your phone, close your laptop, switch off the telly — for just two minutes and pay your respects to our Armed Forces community, past and present,” the legion said on its website.

“Join us at 11 a.m. on 11 November for the two-minute silence.”

The HMS Queen Elizabeth held one of the many ceremonies taking place across Britain to mark the day. Posting a short video on Twitter, the ship’s crew honoured the fallen by spelling out “Lest we Forget” on the aircraft carrier’s massive deck. Britain’s largest ceremony took place Sunday. The event in central London is traditionally held on the closest Sunday to the anniversary of the end of World War I at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918.

Queen Elizabeth II led the nation in remembering the war dead, as the political leaders paused campaigning for Britain’s Dec. 12 election to take part in a sombre service in London. The queen, dressed in black, watched from a balcony as her son and heir Prince Charles laid a wreath of scarlet poppies on the Cenotaph war memorial near Parliament. The 93-year-old monarch, who served as an army mechanic during World War II, performed the wreath-laying herself for most of her 67-year reign, but has cut back on her public duties.

Spain faces more uncertainty after inconclusive election MADRID: Spain looked set Monday to face political uncertainty for many more months after the country’s fourth elections in as many years further complicated an already messy political situation. No party has a clear mandate to govern, while the far-right has become a major parliamentary player for the first time in decades after Sunday’s vote.

Incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialists won the most seats — 120 — but fell far short of a majority in the 350-seat chamber and will need to make deals on several fronts if they are to govern. Sánchez called the election after he failed to gain enough support to form a government in the previous election in April. In his victory speech Sunday, he promised again to “obtain a progressive government.” His plans to do that may emerge when he meets his party’s executive later Monday. Despite poll predictions to the contrary, Sánchez had hoped the poll would give him a stronger footing but he actually saw his party seat count drop by three while his closest allies, the far-left United We Can dropped from 42 to 35. “Sánchez fails in his plebiscite and makes government even more difficult,” was the front-page headline in Spanish daily El Mundo. The next step will be for parliamentarians to select a house speaker in the coming weeks and for talks then between King Felipe VI and party leaders to begin so that one of them, most likely Sánchez, will be called on to try to form a government. The election’s other bombshell came with right-wing voters flocking to the farright Vox party, giving it 52 seats to become the parliament’s third force, behind the Socialists and the conservative Popular Party, which won 88 seats. Right-wing populist and antimigrant leaders across Europe celebrated Vox’s strong showing. Vox’s surge and the gains by the Popular Party capitalized on Spanish nationalist sentiment stirred up by the Socialists’ handling of the secessionist conflict in the northeastern region of Catalonia, the country’s worst political conflict in decades. Many right-wingers were also not pleased by the Socialist government’s exhumation of late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco’s remains last month from his gargantuan mausoleum so he could no longer be exalted in a public place.

The Catalan issue promises to continue festering with three Catalan separatist parties winning a combined 23 seats Sunday. Many Catalans have been angered by the Supreme Court’s prison sentences last month for nine Catalan politicians and activists who led a 2017 drive for the region’s independence. The ruling triggered massive daily protests in Catalonia that left more than 500 people injured, roughly half of them police officers, and dozens arrested. On Monday, Catalan radicals resumed the protests by blocking a major highway border pass between France and Spain and promising to keep it cut off for three days. AGENCIES

UK parties woo veterans on Armistice Day in election push LONDON: Britain’s main political parties are using Armistice Day to showcase plans to improve a lot of veterans if they win the Dec. 12 general election. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s party Monday unveiled proposals to make it harder to bring veterans to court over allegations of abuse that took place before the Human Rights Act took force in 2000, and a series of measures to help veterans get jobs. Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party said it would improve housing and work conditions for veterans. Also on Monday, Corbyn’s foreign policy adviser, Emily Thornberry, raised questions about Britain’s nuclear deterrent when she told ITV it is not clear Corbyn as prime minister would use nuclear weapons if Britain is threatened. “It’s impossible, I think, for any human to say whether they would be prepared to kill millions,” she said. AGENCIES

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

OGDC saCks ExECutivE DirECtOr aMiD NaB iNquiry ISLAMABAD

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AHMAD AHMADANI

HE Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) has terminated the employment contract of its executive director (Human Resources) following the initiation of an inquiry by the National Accountability Bureau against the alleged illegal appointments at executive management level in OGDC. According to the office memorandum issued by OGDC, the contract employment of Human Resources ED Muhammad Shoaib Baig has been terminated with immediate effect and in accordance with clause 1.8 of the appointment letter.

"This memorandum has been issued with the approval of OGDC managing director/CEO," it added.

Although OGDC has sacked its HR

executive director, the employment contract of ED (Petroserv) has been not terminated despite his appointment also being controversial.

Sources privy to the matter claimed that the termination of ED (Petrsoerv) is likely in the near future and the necessary process in this regard has already

Envoy stresses need to enhance Pak-Japan trade ties 'JAPANESE COMPANIES ARE KEEN TO ESTABLISH AUTO INDUSTRIAL UNITS IN PAKISTAN' ISLAMABAD: Japan and Pakistan have a huge potential to expand their bilateral trade and economic ties, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan Kuninori Matsuda said on Monday. Talking to APP, the envoy said that both sides have the potential to double their bilateral trade volume given that the resources were properly utilised.

He maintained that Japan and Pakistan have enjoyed historical, diplomatic and economic relations, adding that Japan has always supported Pakistan in all diplomatic spheres. Replying to a question, the ambassador said Pakistan and Japan were looking to increase bilateral cooperation in the agriculturalbased industry, as Japan has already announced a grant aid to enhance Pakistan’s productivity in relevant agricultural fields. “Recently, Japan announced a grand aid of $5.2 million to support agri-food and agro-industry development in the country’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces,” he informed. “This amount will be utilised for the enhancement of productivity and capacities of relevant sectors in KP’s cattle meat value chain.”

He said the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was already working on the potential agro-based regions of Hazara, Swat, Chitral and Gilgit Baltistan to promote innovation and value addition culture in these areas.

“Through JICA, the Japanese government is also working on cold storage for the preservation of apple, apricot and other perishable fruits.” He said that Japan was also striving to strengthen its footprint in Pakistan’s auto sector by enhancing the capacity of local labourers and providing employment opportunities in the country.

“Japanese companies are interested in the establishment of auto industrial units in Pakistan so as to bring investments to the country and provide opportunities to the local people,” he stated. The ambassador informed that Pakistan and Japan would sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) this month for the export of thousands of hi-tech skilled labourers from Pakistan to Japan. “Japan intends to attract around 350,000 blue-collar workers from 10 different countries, including Pakistan, over the next five years. The number will enhance be enhanced by 2030.” Matsuda praised the Pakistani workers working in Japan, saying that they were highly skilled and working with full commitment and honesty. “Professional skills and proficiency in the Japanese language will be a prerequisite for workers who wish to work in Japan under the said MoU,” he concluded. APP

been initiated. "As the OGDCL MD is out of the country to attend a conference, termination letter of ED (Petrsorv) will be issued upon his return," they added. However, sources also alleged that some board members of OGDC were still not in favour of terminating the employment contract of ED (Pet-

BUSINESS 11 roserv) Amir Saleem.

Earlier, NAB Rawalpindi had summoned the top OGDC management, including MD/CEO and board members, to investigate the alleged illegal appointments at the company's executive management level. However, the top management of OGDC failed to satisfy the NAB regarding the appointment of top officials mainly because they could not answer the questions raised by NAB regarding certain changes in the qualification criterion for the appointment of the said top officials.

According to the sources, the OGDC Board, in 2015, had made certain changes in the qualification criterion for the important positions of executive director, general manager (GM) and manager.

The board, in its decision, had changed the required experience criterion from 26 years to 18 years for the post of ED; the experience criterion for GM was changed from 24 years to 16 years, while that for the manager was changed from 20 years to 14 years.

Sources had claimed that OGDC Board Chairman Qamar Javed and some board members were allegedly involved in the appointment of two EDs (HR & Petroserv), who previously worked with a foreign company that provided services to OGDC.

MarkEt Daily

Bullish streak continues as KSE-100 surges 824 points KARACHI

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has constituted a high-level committee, to be headed by Naya Pakistan Housing Authority Chairman Lt Gen (r) Anwar Ali Haider, to formulate practical proposals so that challenges faced by the construction sector could be addressed. Other members of the committee included the FBR chairman, State Bank of Pakistan governor, Punjab finance minister and provincial chief secretaries. The PM directed the committee to submit a strategy along with recommendations to address the problems about taxes, provision of loans from banks and other difficulties faced by the construction sector. He was chairing a high-level meeting regarding the revival and promotion of the construction sector on Monday. The meeting was attended by Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mehmood Khan, Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hasham Jawan Bakht, Punjab Housing Minister Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed, Balochistan Finance Minister Zahoor Ahmad Bulaidi, Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Syed Shabbar Zaidi, Board of Investment Chairman Syed Zubair Haider Gilani, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Jahanzeb Khan and Naya Pakistan Housing Authority Chairman Lt Gen (r) Anwar Ali Haider. Highlighting the significance of the construction sector in boosting economic activities, PM Imran Khan said that the facilitation of this sector would help the government realise the project of five million housing units.

"Promotion of this sector will not only help facilitate around 40 allied industries but will also create job opportunities for youth," he added. APP

Pharma exports increase 12.3pc in first quarter

STAFF REPORT

Continuing with the growth momentum for the eighth consecutive session, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) ended positively once again on Monday, with the KSE-100 Index accumulating over 800 points.

On the economic front, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) team has expressed satisfaction over Pakistan's performance so far on the loan programme.

Meanwhile, the government has approved a package for electricity supply mainly to the industrial sector at a flat rate (Rs11.97) in an attempt to boost production. “The government reduced capacity payments worth billions of rupees to the power producers, especially the private sector,” Power Minister Omar Ayub Khan had said the other day.

Gathering 839.57 points, the KSE-100 Index marked its intraday high at 36,817.73. The index settled higher by 824.94 points at 36,803.10.

The KMI-30 Index gained 1,472.51 points to close at 60,416.86, while the KSE All Share Index amassed 396.31 points, ending at 26,126.93.

Out of the total traded shares, 277 advanced and 60 declined.

Sectors that helped the index stay in the green included banking

PM forms committee to facilitate construction sector

(+220.80 points), oil and gas exploration (+142.25 points), power generation and distribution (+107.99 points) and cement (+82.24 points).

Among the companies, Hub Power Company Limited (HUBC +81.09 points), United Bank Limited (UBL +56.29 points) and Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC +51.92 points) remained the top contributors to the index.

The overall volumes remained healthy and were recorded at 282.94 million. The Bank of Punjab (BOP +4.62pc), Worldcall Telecom (WTL +1.18pc) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF +5.28pc) led the volume chart. The scripts had ex-

changed 35.92 million, 14.48 million and 11.77 million shares, respectively.

The oil and gas marketing sector gained +4.28pc in its cumulative market capitalization. Pakistan State Oil Company Limited (PSO +5.00pc), Attock Petroleum Limited (APL +5.00pc) and Shell Pakistan Limited (SHEL +5.00pc) all touched their upper circuit breakers.

Moreover, Sazgar Engineering Works Limited (SAZEW -0.38pc), in a notification to the exchange, announced its production and sales figures for the month of October 2019.

According to the notification, 1,258 units were manufactured while 1,098 units were sold.

ISLAMABAD: The export of pharmaceutical products during the first quarter of the ongoing financial year (FY20) grew by 12.35pc when compared with the corresponding period of last year. The pharmaceutical exports were recorded at $55.481 million during July-September FY20 as against the exports of $49.383 million during July-September FY19, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). In terms of quantity, the export of pharmaceutical goods increased by 22.42pc, from 2,792 metric tonnes to 3,418 metric tonnes. Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, pharmaceutical exports rose by 16.35pc during the month of September 2019 as compared to the same month of last year.

Pharmaceutical exports in September 2019 were recorded at $18.210 million against the exports of $15.651 million in September 2018. On a month-on-month basis, the exports of pharmaceutical products increased by 7.45pc in September 2019 when compared with the exports of $16.947 million in August 2019. It is pertinent to mention that the country's merchandise trade deficit plunged by 34.85pc during the first three months of FY20 as compared to the same period last year.

PM’s aide says implementation of EV Policy inevitable ‘THE NEW POLICY WILL NOT ONLY HELP TRANSFORM THE AUTO INDUSTRY BUT WILL ALSO ENSURE LOW CARBON FOOTPRINT IN THE COUNTRY' KARACHI BILAL HUSSAIN

Adviser to Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam sees no reason for the current players in the auto industry of Pakistan to worry following the approval of Electric Vehicle Policy by the parliament.

Major auto industry players and auto part makers had expressed reservations over the approval of the EV Policy, saying that they were not taken on board by the government during the formulation of the said policy. "This (policy) will certainly transform the auto industry and we have to implement it if we want to achieve our low pollution goals," Federal Minister Malik Amin Aslam told Pak-

istan Today on Monday. "But I would say they (current auto players) have nothing to worry about in the aftermath of the EV policy. In fact, I believe they will have competitive advantage over new manufacturers since they already have manufacturing facilities installed."

He maintained that there were no two opinions if the government wanted to go ahead with the policy or not. "Contribution to pollution by the automobiles has a world average of 20pc but our automobiles contribute 40pc; this is a place we have to work on if we want to have lesser carbon footprints in the country." The minister stated that the policy has now been approved by the parliament and that "there's no going back from this".

"However, we have requested all

stakeholders, including present and new auto manufacturers, to reach a consensus over the establishment of a roadmap to achieve the goal of 30pc new sales by the year 2030," he added.

Malik expressed optimism that goal to establish the entire infrastructure, which would be required to promote EVs, would be achieved soon as the government has given a lot of incentives for this purpose. He said the use of EVs would not only help the users save their money but it would reduce the country's import bill by $2 billion.

"We are looking to establish an EV industry for Pakistan's domestic market.

We will also be using our cordial relations with China to establish an export market for right-hand drive (RHD) EVs. Most of the production in China is of LHD EVs, so we believe we can achieve that target too," he added.

He said that work has been completed regarding the transfer of technology from China for the manufacturing of batteries, adding that hopefully, Pak-

istan would also be able to produce its own batteries for EVs. "There are multiple options. There are swappable batteries and then there are solar powered batteries. We have multiple options in front of us and we will work on them accordingly,” he said.

He said that EVs were more adaptable for localisation as compared to Fossil Fuel Vehicles (FFVs). “We will be able to localise EVs more as compared to combustion engine vehicles that have always been localized lowly and have never achieved their localization goals,” he said. “At least half of the cost of a locally produced car is derived from imported parts – CKDs, which makes car prices prone to currency fluctuations.”

He said that it was now a matter of months that people would start seeing EVs on roads. However, he added that initially, the focus would be on two and three-wheelers, which are approximately 20 million in the country as compared three million four-wheelers (present road traffic in the country).

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

12 BUSINESS Corporate Corner

GOvt aNNOuNCEs rs200BN PaCkaGE fOr ExPOrtErs ISLAMABAD

t ISLAMABAD: Member (Customs-Operations) Dr Jawwad Uwais Agha presets a shield to Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Syed Shabbar Zaidi. pr

SIALKOT: Bank Alfalah held an exclusive event to celebrate the launch of Sialkot’s first-ever Premier Lounge at their Tariq Road Branch. The attendees included major clients of Alfalah Premier, the elite of Sialkot’s business community and individuals from the senior management of the bank. pr

KARACHI: Engro Senior Vice President Syed Shahzad Nabi presents a souvenir to Pakistan Council of Media Women (PCMW) President Humaira Motala. pr

GHLAM ABBAS

HE government has decided to announce a support package of Rs200 billion for exporters in order to enhance the country's exports, encourage local production and create job opportunities, said Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, the adviser said that the State Bank of Pakistan has decided to increase loans for the exporters by Rs100 billion.

The adviser was flanked by Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Economic Affairs Minister Hammad Azhar and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Shabbar Zaidi.

Hafeez Shaikh informed that the government would allocate additional Rs250 billion to resolve the problem of power sector circular debt. Furthermore, he added, the government would also allocate an additional amount of Rs30 billion for 'Naya Pakistan Housing Scheme'.

"This amount will be utilised in term of various subsidies to be given to the builders," he added. The adviser said the stakeholders involved in the construction sector would be given special tax concessions.

"During the first four months of the current fiscal year, the government has achieved remarkable success on the economic front as the trade deficit has reduced significantly while forex reserves have been moving upwards," he maintained. The PM's aide said after a big gap of five years, the country's exports have started increasing now by 4pc, adding that FBR tax revenues have also grown by 16pc in four months compared to the same period of last year.

The finance adviser pointed out that cement production increased by 4.5pc which showed that the country's construction sector was growing. "The country's exchange rate

PM’S AIDE SAYS GOVT WILL ALLOCATE ADDITIONAL RS250 BILLION TO MANAGE CIRCULAR DEBT AND RS30 BILLION FOR NAYA PAKISTAN HOUSING SCHEME

remained stable during first four months of FY20 while the stock market has also shown remarkable recovery," he said, adding the government paid $2.1 billion debts obtained by the previous government. He claimed that Pakistan's economic sector has stabilised now, as endorsed by the international institutions including International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

"Last week, the IMF had praised Pakistan government's efforts towards the introduction of economic reforms, saying that the country had met all the targets that were set by the IMF for its programme," he remarked.

"After the successful dialogue, the IMF has also approved for Pakistan the release of the second tranche of $450 million."

To a query, Hafeez Shaikh said the pace of economic growth in the country would be increased further in the coming days and the economic growth rate target set by the government for the year 2019-20 would be easily surpassed.

To another question, he said the government has allocated a record Rs152 billion for the development of erstwhile FATA during the current fiscal year.

airlift hosts celebratory dinner for investors, govt officials LAHORE: Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Chairman Sheikh Imran, along with leading architects and engineers, poses for group photo during the launch of Zaamin City. pr

‘8,000MW renewable energy to be generated by 2025’ The National Assembly was informed on Monday that the government is planning to generate 8,000 megawatts of electricity through renewable sources by 2025. Replying to a question during the question hour, Power Division Minister Omer Ayub Khan informed that 11 wind energy-based projects have been approved to generate affordable electricity. "Around 85pc electricity will be produced through domestic resources so that the commodity could be provided to the consumers on affordable rates," he added. The minister further informed that a total of 33 renewable energy projects with a cumulative capacity of over 1,716MW were developed during the tenures of the last two governments. "These renewable energybased power generation projects were developed by private investors while no government funds were involved."

HAZARA MOTORWAY INAUGURATION: Meanwhile, Communication Minister Murad Saeed said that Hazara Motorway has been completed and would be opened on Friday. Responding to a point of order, he said the previous government had changed the design of the motorway to facilitate some influentials, which resulted in exceeding the cost as well as the timeframe for the completion of the project. BUSINESS DESK

Airlift Executive Director Syed Mehr recently hosted a celebratory dinner for notable government officials and investors.

The honourable attendees included Transport Minister Jhanzeb Khan Kichi, Transport Secretary Asad Gillani, Irrigation Minister Mohsin Laghari, Lahore Transport Company CEO Mariam Khawar and PBIT CEO Jahanzeb Burana. Airlift’s team believes that their goal to decentralize mass transit has to be achieved through a collaborative approach with the government, the team was extremely grateful to the government for their support and advice.Airlift was born in April 2019 with a vision to build a decentralized mass transit system—

one that enables the use of high capacity vehicles, as opposed to single-car usage.

Their core belief is that this makes urban commute more efficient, while reducing traffic volume and carbon emissions in the increasingly congested, polluted cities of South Asia.With tens of thousands of daily commuters now relying on Airlift, they have recently secured a $12 million Series A financing, led by First Round Capital, a Silicon Valley based venture capital firm that has previously invested in companies like Uber. This is not only First Round’s first investment outside the US, but also the first time that a leading US fund has invested in Pakistan. PRESS RELEASE

On a question regarding discount rate, the adviser said that the determination of discount rate was the job of the SBP's monitory policy committee and that the government has given full independence to the central bank in this regard.

The adviser said the government had decided not to borrow money from the SBP due to which Pakistan did not print even a single rupee during the last four months.

He said the government was fully committed to controlling the prices of essential daily use items. "We are also taking steps to minimise the role of middlemen due to which the prices of food items surge by the time they reach the end consumers."

The government, he said, has also decided to provide Rs6 billion to utility stores to ensure availability of essential daily use items at subsidised rates. To a query, he said the previous government wasted $20 to $25 billion of the nation only to artificially maintain the exchange rate of Pakistan.

“During the last four months, the price of petrol price has not been increased despite the fact that its price in the international market has been going up,” he added.

iCCi demands new industrial estate in islamabad ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has asked the government to earmark an area in the Islamabad Capital Territory to set up a new industrial estate so that the increasing demand of local investors could be met. In a statement issued by the chamber on Monday, ICCI President Muhammad Ahmed Waheed said that the existing industrial areas in Islamabad were now short of space for new industrial units, which necessitated a new industrial zone in the region. He urged the government to establish an industrial estate in the federal capital in consultation with ICCI to promote investment and industrial activities. He said with the efforts of ICCI, the Capital Development Authority had many years ago earmarked Sector I-17 for industrial estate and that land acquisition process had also started in this regard. "But CDA has now changed the master plan of Islamabad by re-designating I-17 from industrial to institutional use in order to set up a medical city." However, he added, no alternative area was allocated for industrial estate due to which the local industrialists were facing problems in expanding their businesses. ONLINE

FatF targets: FBr to intensify crackdown against banned outfits ISLAMABAD GHULAM ABBAS

In order to meet the condition of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) regarding the control of terror financing, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has decided to intensify its efforts against over 2,600 individuals/assets of banned organisations.

The individuals and assets targeted by FBR so far were linked with various banned organizations, including Da'esh (ISIS), AL-Qaida (AQ), Jamatud Dawa (JuD), Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Moham-

mad (JeM), Haqqani Network (HQN) and people affiliated with the Taliban.

According to official documents, FBR would be ensuring effective implementation of Targeted Financial Sanctions (TFS) against the assets of 1,267 and 1,373 designated people and entities associated with banned organisations.

To bridge the gaps identified by Asia Pacific Joint Group (APJG) in Pakistan's performance towards 40 recommendations in October 2019, FBR was also taking steps to meet the assigned targets before the next review in Feb 2020.

Under the target of counter-terror fi-

nancing, FBR was presently identifying people and entities acting on behalf of or at the direction of designated entities. It was also tracing and freezing their assets (moveable and immoveable) besides preventing the raising and moving of funds as well as any activities designed to evade effective implementation.

Moreover, the FBR-Inland Revenue, customs and excise departments were also identifying properties of listed terrorist entities and individuals while applying seizure to all such properties.

As per the documents, FBR has so far identified properties of 84 proscribed

people from their tax declarations. It has also forwarded the information to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Ministry of Interior (Mol) through Financial Monitoring Unit (FMU) for further action under Anti Money Laundering Act (AML Act), 2010.

As the next progress report on Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) of FATF's Asia Pacific Group was due in the month of February 2020, FBR-IR was assigned various tasks including the monitoring of terror financing, cash couriers, non-profit organizations (NPOs), supervision and regulation of real estate agents and people

dealing in gems, jewellery and other precious metals. To bridge the gaps before the release of next MER by the group, a separate FATF cell at FBR was working on the assigned targets. The subgroups/cells of concerned departments were also reporting to the National FATF Coordination Committee, set up by Prime Minister Imran Khan to ensure execution of all FATF-related tasks till December 1.

Led by the economic affairs minister, the coordination committee comprises three secretaries, heads of some institutions and three officials from General Headquarters.

SNACK ON DRY FRUITS THIS WINTER Dry fruits are some of the healthiest alternatives to salty, fried snacks and a great way satiate your cravings to nibble something or the other during winters. They also work to satisfy a sweet craving while, providing you the much needed nutrients, vitamins and heat in the winter chill. Dry fruits are a quick and delicious way to derive energy during a busy day.

No diet regime is complete without dry fruits as they are packed with various nutrients and essential fats. They also have a number of skin benefits and form a major ingredient of beauty products. Listed below are 5 dry fruits which should be incorporated in your regular diet plan.

ALMONDS

Fondly called the ‘king of dry fruits’, almonds are a powerhouse of essential fatty acids, fibre and protein. They are a great natural source of vitamin E, zinc and selenium. They are known to promote blood circulation, improve haemoglobin levels and reduce cholesterol and thereby, helping in the prevention of lung and breast cancer. Almonds are also very filling, making them the perfect snack item for your healthy diet plan.

Almonds when used in face packs, leave your skin radiant and baby soft, even in severe dry winter days. You can make a paste of almonds with milk, apply onto your face for about 20 minutes and then wash off with water. They are also used in many medicines and almond oil is used for hair treatments.

Dry fruits are helpful in dealing with a host of winter related problems such as cold and flu. In the cold winds of winter, dry fruits are generally relished by all and sundry. In our country dry fruits are used in a host of dishes including sweets, gravies and while baking cakes and pastries too. Eating dry fruits is a healthy habit, be sure to take it up this winter.

FIG

PISTACHIO

Figs, better known as Anjeer is packed with vitamin, mineral and fibre. Figs are a source of vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, calcium, manganese, sodium, iron, phosphorus and chlorine. They are also rich in potassium and help to control blood sugar. These are excellent for diabetic patients as they help to reduce the amount of insulin needed by diabetic patients. It helps in treatment of a wide range of diseases including constipation, indigestion, cough, bronchitis and asthma.

These delicious greenish nuts are a storehouse of vitamins and minerals like manganese, potassium, calcium, iron, copper, magnesium and phosphorous. They are also rich in Vitamin E and help protect our skin from UV rays that cause premature ageing and skin cancer. Pistachios are also loaded with antioxidants, which prevent ageing by neutralising the free radicals. It is the most unique nut since it contains carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin.

WALNUT

CASHEW

ADrIANo, AMANNDA, IMTIsAL, shEhArYAr, ToMMY LovE & NAuMAN

ADNAN, MIkE, ZAINAb & AhsAN

WIrED 6.0

hsY

Wired, in partnership with Mountain Dew, flew down international artists DJ Tommy Love & Amannda from Brazil for a memorable night where house music lovers turned out in full force.

hANNAh & bATooL hINA, shEhZAD, kArAM & FATIMA

Unarguably one of the healthiest nuts, this dry fruit is a must during winters. Walnut has omega-3 fatty acid which is good for hair, especially when the weather becomes extremely dry. They are known to lower cholesterol, promote sleep and are good for skin and hair.

Cashew nuts control cholesterol levels, blood sugar, high blood pressure, prevent migraines and when eaten in moderation, also help you lose weight. Cracked heels are a common problem during winters and cashew nut oil help in nourishing your heels.

They are rich in Vitamin E and possess anti-ageing properties which will keep you glowing this winter and the rest of them.

hAIDEr & MAIDA

ZAINAb ChEEMA

hAMMAD & IjLAL

Aries: Soliciting a mentor or elder for sound advice about your career and finances saves you time and money.

Taurus: Honesty is a double-edged sword. Simmering tensions between you and a loved one likely boil over now.

Gemini: A caring yet inspiring tone convinces people to listen to your ideas. Others are likely receptive because they see that you value and appreciate their contributions toward a common purpose.

Cancer: Discussing controversial topics might require extra caution and thoughtfulness today.

Leo: Your emotional bias might skew your judgment about an important decision. virgo: People may feel quite enchanted and heartened by your words today.

Libra: A beloved soul reminds you that money can’t buy the most precious facets of life. Perhaps you’re really seeking connection as you shop for sales and special discounts. scorpio: Striking a moderate tone on a sensitive matter with a person close to you could be a source of struggle today. sagittarius: Ironically, recalling the past is often an effective way to process your present and future.

Capricorn: Engaging in conversations with loved ones of all ages brings a smile to your face today.

Aquarius: Try as you might, life probably won’t let you remain in a comfy bubble now.

Pisces: Your powers of perception are heightened today. Perhaps you’re not inclined to enjoy reading the fine print of anything, but you can read between the lines fantastically well.

CMYK

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

14 SPORTS

dybALA keepS JuventuS At Serie A Summit, LAzio And CAgLiAri into top four Turin

p

AgencieS

AULO Dybala struck the decisive goal in Juventus' 1-0 win over AC Milan on Sunday after replacing Cristiano Ronaldo as Juventus stayed top of Serie A, while Lazio and Cagliari moved into the Champions League places.

Argentine forward Dybala hit the winner in the 77th minute in the Allianz Stadium having taken the place of Ronaldo 20 minutes earlier.

Defending champions Juventus maintain their one-point lead over Antonio Conte's Inter Milan who had taken pole position after their 2-1 win over Verona on Saturday. AC Milan's seventh defeat in 12 games saw Stefano Pioli's side drop to 14th position, just four points above the relegation zone.

However, Milan had threatened as the former European giants chased their first win against Juventus in Turin in eight years.

Wojciech Szczesny was kept busy in the Juventus goal, denying fellow Pole

Krzysztof Piatek, Lucas Paqueta and Hakan Calhanoglu. Blaise Matuidi missed Juventus's best chance before Dybala's winner when his powerful curling effort flew wide just after the break.

Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo, who had also been taken off during the midweek Champions League

A win for all pakistan: world snooker champion mohammad Asif returns home Returning to Karachi after winning the title of the IBSF World Snooker Championship, second seed Mohammad Asif on Monday said that his victory was “not just his win alone, but one for all of Pakistan”. On Saturday, Asif coasted to an 8-5 victory over unseeded Jefrey Roda of the Philippines in the final of the championship in Antalya. Carrying his trophy, he was greeted today at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport by representatives of the Pakistan Billiards and Snooker Federation (PBSF) who adorned him with garlands. Speaking to reporters on his return today, he said that he was dedicating his award to Kashmiris.

“We always ask the government to support us so that players are encouraged,” Asif said, adding that he was hopeful that the current government will support snooker.

The snooker champion thanked the federation for supporting him, adding that the PBSF had supported them in tough times. He requested the government to support the sport as well. The last time Asif won the title was in 2012 in Bulgaria.

With this victory, Faisalabad-born Asif has become the fifth cueists to win the world snooker title twice since its inception in 1963. SportS DeSk

win over Lokomotiv Moscow, reportedly left the stadium before the end of the game after being substituted on 55 minutes. Douglas Costa also came on for Federico Bernardeschi after an hour, with the two substitutions changing the game for the champions.

Gonzalo Higuain fed Dybala, who

easily shook off Alessio Romagnoli to beat Donnarumma and claim his third league goal this season.

"Cristiano should be thanked because he made himself available despite not being in optimal conditions," said Juventus coach Maurizio Sarri.

"In the last month he has had this discomfort in his knee and this a little problem for him. "It's only natural a player is going to be irritated to leave the pitch, especially when he worked so hard to be there."

Behind the leaders, Lazio and Cagliari moved into the top four after goal-packed wins. Lazio saw off newlypromoted Lecce 4-2, while surprise package Cagliari continued their superb form with a 5-2 rout of Fiorentina.

The two teams are level on 24 points, eight behind Juventus with Lazio ahead of the Sardinians on goal difference.

Lazio's Argentine forward Joaquin Correa hit a brace either side of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic's strike, with Serie A top-scorer Ciro Immobile slotting in a penalty at the Stadio Olimpico.

National games held in merged tribal districts Jhelum preSS releASe

Pakistan Army led the way by winning the overall trophy of the shooting event after grabbing 13 gold medals, eight silvers and nine bronze, followed by Pakistan Navy with seven gold medals and 11 silver medal held at Army Shooting Range Jhelum.

Pakistan Air Force shooters won two gold medals and got third position while Pakistan Wapda and Sindh also won one gold medal each. Pakistan Army players won individual medals in

skate, trap, double trap, air rifle, air pistol while six individual from Pakistan Navy and one team in gold. Although Pakistan Wapda and Sindh province shooters also managed to get medals, the shooters of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa did not get a point and out of the 14 teams took the same number in the overall team position.

In the overall Pakistan Army led the first day by winning 16 gold medals in shooting, athletics and sailing. Wapda with 10 gold medal remained at second and Pakistan Navy with eight gold medal in shooting struggling at third. Pak-

istan Army girls have set up two new national records on the first day while Sami Ullah and Najma of Wapda declared as the fastest Men and Women Athlete after grabbing gold medal in 100m in the Athletic Meet of the 33rd National Games being played at Qayyum Sports Complex on Monday.

It is for the first time that an event of National Games held in merged tribal district. The male and female players were received and were garlanded with traditional zeal and spirit. They were also present traditional turban and chaddar to the players of throw ball.

Ali Shafiq fined 20 per cent match fee for Code of Conduct violation Balochistan bowler Ali Shafiq has been fined 20 per cent of his match fee for a level 1 offence relating to using language, action or gesture during his side’s three-day non first-class Quaid-e-Azam Trophy match against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa at the KRL Stadium in Rawalpindi. The incident happened on Sunday when Ali dismissed Mehran Ibrahim in the 21st over of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s first innings. The right-arm medium-fast was charged by on-field umpires Imtiaz Iqbal and Mohammad Sajid at the end of second day’s play for violating article 2.5 of the PCB Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel.

Ali pleaded guilty and accepted the fine imposed on him by match referee Nadeem Arshad. SportS DeSk

LACAzette defendS emery, hopeS for poSt-breAk revivAL Paris: French striker Alexandre Lacazette has leaped to the defence of under-fire Arsenal manager Unai Emery saying fans were being fickle in criticising him after not praising him when they were on a good run last season. The pressure on the 48-year-old Spaniard grew with a 2-0 defeat by Leicester on Saturday, leaving the Gunners with just one win in their last six Premier League games and eight points off fourth place and a Champions League qualification spot. Emery has also had to deal with the fallout from Granit Xhaka's emotional outburst towards supporters when he was substituted against Crystal Palace a fortnight ago. The Spaniard eventually stripped the Swiss international of the captaincy. Lacazette, though, said while the players' confidence had dipped the present international break gives them a chance to recharge their batteries ahead of their game at home to struggling Southampton on November 24. "Last season when we were unbeaten in 20 games in a row nobody said anything about the coach or manager," said Lacazette. "We miss confidence and we need the international break. AgencieS

mASSive LoCuSt SwArm interruptS QuAid-e-AzAm trophy mAtCh in kArAChi The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy has struggled to attract cricket fans this season despite getting a face-lift but Monday's round seven fixture between Sindh and Northern managed to draw thousands of bodies to the National Stadium in Karachi. The unexpected visitors just weren't cricket fans though.

The match had to be interrupted briefly when a locust swarm showed up while the Northern were batting. The swarm was large enough that the players had to stop playing and cover their eyes and ears in a bid to avoid contact with the insects. SportS DeSk

African players in Europe: City no match for Mane and Salah london AgencieS

Defending champions Manchester City have become the latest English Premier League club that could not contain irresistible Liverpool attackers Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.

Mane scored his seventh league goal this season and Salah his sixth as the Reds overcame the champions 3-1 at Anfield to take an eight-point lead 12 rounds into the season. The dynamic duo now adjust their sights to 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying with Senegalese Mane confronting Congo Brazzaville and Egyptian Salah taking on Kenya this week.

ENGLaND MOHaMED saLaH (Liverpool): Headed home Liverpool's second -- from a pinpoint cross by Andrew Robertson -early on to leave Manchester City rocking.

The 27-year-old is a nemesis for most clubs, but he has a special knack against City at Anfield, scoring for the third time in four home league games against Pep Guardiola's outfit. saDiO MaNE (Liverpool): He is even outstripping Salah in the scoring stakes when it comes to goals at Anfield, or any other Premier League player since August

2018. The 27-year-old forward's header for the third of Liverpool's goals was his 22nd at home in that period.

MaHMOUD 'TrEZEGUET' HassaN (aston Villa): Was one of Villa’s rare bright lights in a disappointing 2-1 loss to midlands rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers. The 25-year-old Egyptian caused the Wolves defence some concerns down his flank and deservedly got on the score sheet in stoppage time.

WiLFrED NDiDi (Leicester): Gave an assured performance in midfield for the high-flying 2016 champions in the impressive 2-0 win over Arsenal. The 22year-old Nigerian came close to scoring in the second half with his shot from outside the area beating the goalkeeper but cannoning off the bar. sPaiN YOUssEF EN-NEsYri (Leganes): EnNesyri earned bottom La Liga club Leganes a morale-boosting 1-1 draw by scoring a late equaliser against high-flying Real Sociedad. The Moroccan striker rose to head home in the 78th minute after Mikel Merino had given the Basque outfit the lead. iTaLY OMar COLLEY (sampdoria): Gambia defender Colley has proved central to new coach Claudio Ranieri's plans for Samp-

doria. The 27-year-old was solid as the Genoa side went a second straight game without conceding a goal for the first time this season by drawing 0-0 at home against Atalanta. "When you build a house, you do it from the ground up, and accordingly with the defence," said Ranieri.

KHOUMa BaBaCar (Lecce): Senegalese striker Babacar missed a penalty which would have pulled promoted Lecce level at 2-2 against Lazio. It was the second time this season the on-loan Sassuolo player missed from the spot. Lecce fell 4-2 to sit just a point above the relegation zone.

KaLiDOU KOULiBaLY (Napoli): Senegal defender Koulibaly made a decisive goal-line clearance on the hour to deny Genoa a goal as 2018/2019 Serie A runners-up Napoli settled for a 0-0 draw at home -- their fourth league game without a win.

FRANCK KESSIE (AC Milan) Kessie was dropped for a second straight match as struggling Milan fell 10 at Juventus. The Ivory Coast international has reportedly fallen out with new coach Stefano Pioli for turning up late to training and giving under-par performances. Milan Director of football Frederic Massara insisted: "This is simply a technical choice... we are convinced that

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Franck will soon be able to return to the player that we know."

GErMaNY aCHraF HaKiMi (Borussia Dortmund): After his two stunning goals in midweek inspired a fightback win over Inter Milan, the Morocco right-back struggled as Dortmund were thumped 40 at Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga.

Hakimi, who was fantastic in inspiring the 3-2 win over Inter, left Robert Lewandowski unmarked to head home the hosts' first goal and was out of posi-

tion for their second by Serge Gnabry in a poor display by Dortmund's back four.

FraNCE DENis BOUaNGa (saint-Etienne): The Gabon winger scored the match-winner for Saint-Etienne in a 3-2 victory at Nantes after equalising earlier. Bouanga has netted five goals in 13 Ligue 1 appearances this season.

LEBO MOTHIBA (Strasbourg) Mothiba ended a five-month goal drought by bagging a brace as Strasbourg romped to a 4-1 home win over Nimes.

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

SPORTS 15

AfghAn, nAbi Lift AfghAniStAn to 249-7 in weSt indieS odi lucknow

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AgencieS

century stand between Asghar Afghan and Mohammad Nabi lifted Afghanistan to 249 for seven in the third one-day international against West Indies on

Monday.

Afghan, who made 86, put on 127 runs with Nabi, 50 not out, for the sixth wicket after Afghanistan slipped to 118-

5 in Lucknow.

The West Indies, who have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series, won the toss and put Afghanistan in to bat.

Paceman Keemo Paul claimed three wickets to rattle the Afghanistan toporder despite left-handed opener Hazratullah Zazai recording his second T20 fifty.

Hazratullah became Paul's third victim after top-edging a short delivery to

deep mid-wicket for 50.

Afghan then took stock to re-build the innings at Afghanistan's adopted home in Lucknow. India has been the home of the war-torn nation's cricket team since 2015.

Racists out of tune with changing world, says England star Archer

london AgencieS

England's fast-bowling sensation Jofra Archer says cricket fans who resort to racist abuse should realise times have moved on and the world is a much more multicultural place.

The 24-year-old Barbados-born bowler has quickly become a favourite with the England fans since he became eligible to play for his adopted country earlier this year.

The Sussex star benefited from the England and Wales Cricket Board reducing the eligibility period from seven years to three so he did not have to wait till 2022.

He quickly showed his worth by bowling the decisive Super Over in the thrilling World Cup final win over New Zealand.

He then marked his test debut by flooring Australia's star batsman Steve Smith in the second Ashes Test at Lord's which saw him miss the following match at Headingley with concussion and in his absence England won to level the series.

It was in the fourth Test at Old Trafford -- which Australia won to ensure they retained the Ashes -- that Archer was barracked by a couple of fans.

"I was aware what the guys were saying -— something about my passport -— but I blanked them," he told The Daily Mail in an interview conducted in New Zealand where England are touring. "It was only later that Rooty (Joe Root the England captain) said the guys got ejected. "It was the first time I'd seen someone get ejected from a ground, because there were some abusive fans when we played Pakistan at Trent Bridge (heckling Ben Stokes).

MOrE MULTiCULTUraL: Archer, who says an elderly spectator at a county game with Kent had once queried how was he playing for Sussex, said racist incidents occurred far less in cricket than football.

"The world's changing," he said.

"It's becoming more multicultural. A lot of people have accepted it for what it is.

"Look at the England cricket team -— there's huge diversity.

"It's the same with any football club in the world. "I think people have to accept it.

Times have changed, it's not 2007 anymore."

Archer says he sees himself as a role model to young British West Indians who have aspirations to play cricket for England.

"Yeah, to let them know it's possible," said Archer. "It doesn't really matter where you're born. "If you know that cricket's what you want to do, you never know where you'll end up. "I didn't know my dreams would come true and I'd end up playing cricket for England. "If it happens for me, it can happen for anyone." Archer says being the man who bowled the decisive Super Over in the World Cup did not alter his profile.

"Not many England fans knew who I was anyway, so if they saw me in the street they probably thought I was a footballer, or something," he said.

"I guess that was the beauty of it, being able to go under the radar."

pakistan maintain top spot in iCC t20i ranking by skin of their teeth Pakistan has managed to retain their top spot in the ICC T20I Team Rankings by the skin of their teeth, despite losing back-toback T20I series and winning just a single match in the format all year. The Men in Green, as per the ICC indexes updated on Monday, have a rating of 270, just one higher than second-placed Australia (269).

England (265) round off the top three, whereas arch-rivals India are fifth on the list with a rating of 260. Virat Kohli’s men, however, are the top-ranked side in Tests, whereas world champions England are at the top in the ODI ranking. In the T20I Player Ranking, Pakistan’s Babar Azam is firmly in control at the top with 876 points, with the next batsman on the list (Aaron Finch) being a sizable 69 points behind the Lahore-born. Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan is the top-ranked ODI bowler, whereas his compatriot is the top all-rounder in the format. In Tests, Steve Smith is the top-ranked batsman, whereas his teammate Pat Cummins and West Indies’ Jason Holder are the top-ranked bowler and all-rounder. SportS DeSk

Nabi joined forces and the batting pair took the attack to the opposition, with some attacking shots in the final half of the innings.

Afghan finally fell to paceman Alzarri Joseph after smashing three fours

and six sixes in his 85-ball knock.

Nabi, who hit three fours and a six in his 66-ball stay, raised his 15th ODI fifty on the penultimate ball of the innings as Afghanistan managed 54 runs from the last five overs.

India arrests major bookie arrested in fixing scandal

mumbai AgencieS

The central crime branch of Karnataka Police has arrested Sanyam, an alleged bookie, in relation to the corruption scandal in the Karnataka Premier League (KPL). Sanyam was booked under Section 420 of the India Penal Code which pertains to cheating.

According to Sandeep Patil, the Deputy Comissioner of Police (CCB), Sanyam is originally from Haryana.

Patil said Sanyam had approached one of the players from Bellary Tuskers, Bhavesh Gulecha, in this season's KPL."He is arrested because he was trying to fix players like Gulecha," Patil told ESPNcricinfo. "He [Sanyam] had gone absconding to West Indies and once he was back we arrested him in Bangalore."

Patil pointed out that Sanyam had been approaching players along with another bookie Bhavesh Bafana, a Bengaluru-based man who plays the

drums during KPL games. He was arrested last month.Bafna's name was revealed by Asfak Ali Thara, the Belagavi Panthers owner whom the police arrested last month on charges of alleged betting in the KPL. Patil said both Bafna and Sanyam had approached Gulecha, a fast bowler, and offered him money if he could give more than 10 runs per over. It could not be confirmed whether Gulecha had reported the incident to the BCCI's anticorruption unit (ACU), but in October he narrated the details to the police.

Sanyam becomes the eighth person the CCB has arrested in the KPL scandal, including four players. Earlier this week the CCB arrested CM Gautam and Abrar Kazi, Gulecha's teammates at the Tuskers for alleged spot-fixing.The KPL corruption scandal continues to grow with the ACU conducting its own a parallel inquiry.

Ajit Singh, the ACU head had said that the KPL organisers - Karnataka State Cricket Association - were "amply warned" to be vigilant about league being vulnerable to corrupt elements.

Mohammad Naim provides glimpse into Bangladesh's future dhaka AgencieS

If Deepak Chahar had not turned the tables on Bangladesh in the series decider on Sunday, 20-year-old Bangladesh opener Mohammad Naim probably would not have slipped under the radar. On an evening that would be remembered for Chahar's record returns of 6 for 7, Naim played his breakthrough knock in only his third international innings.

Naim's 48-ball 81 should not be too far away in the overall analysis, though. Bangladesh were in the game as long as he was at the crease, which in itself is an important contribution from a newcomer who is on his first international assignment. While the rest of the Bangladesh batsmen struggled against Yuzvendra Chahal, Naim dominated the legspinner, welcoming him with three consecutive fours in the sixth over, and finishing with 29 off 11 balls against him. It is a small success for Bangladesh as they look to find a new batch of young cricketers to take them forward.

Two tactical changes made by Naim made his innings that much more impressive. Both his previous innings in the series, in Delhi and Rajkot, had ended with top-edged slog sweeps. This time, he didn't go aerial

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with the shot at all, and instead milked ones and twos through midwicket even when the lengths were enticing enough for the shot.

He also played the patience game at the start. Two quick wickets in the third over meant he could not look to dominate the Indian bowlers in the powerplay. But as soon as Chahal came on to bowl, Naim went on the offensive. He reduced the effect of Chahal's length by driving him straight and over long-on, before the legspinner went a bit short, which Naim countered with a square cut. The straight drive and late-cut off Shivam Dube too stood out during his innings, as did his inside-out shot over cover off Chahal.

Naim will also learn quickly that he cannot take his eyes off the ball, quite literally, against top oppositions.

When he charged Dube without checking the bowler's arm extension, the yorker snuck through to hit the off stump.

It has been a rapid rise for Naim, still an unknown figure on the international stage. He was born, raised and learned his cricket in Faridpur, a district located 129kms west of Dhaka, more famous for being a hockey hotbed. Naim made it to the Under-19 side after coming up through the agegroup structure. He was a student of Mokhlesur Rahman, a senior coach from his district, and even took help from coach Tanvir Ahmed Rajeb.

Tuesday, 12 November, 2019

NEWS

jUI-F MUlls ‘Plan B’ as azadI MarcH enters tHIrd Week ISLAMABAD

j

STAFF REPORT

AMIAT Ulema-e-IslamFazl’s (JUI-F) central leadership met on Monday to discuss ‘Plan B’ for the Azadi March as the anti-government drive enters third week.

A meeting of the provincial and district leadership of the party met at the residence of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to discuss the recommendations put forward by other opposition parties.

As the anti-government march entered third week today, the JUI-F chief vowed to

continue the fight against the incumbent “incompetent” government.

Fazl said that even as he speaks, the opposition parties are holding discussions for the next course of action.

“We will move forward after deliberations between leaders,” he said.

He has also decried the promises made by the government to the erstwhile Fata region. The JUI-F chief said, “Even if it is acknowledged that in Punjab and Balochistan, it was the PML-N’s government at the time, and in Sindh in was the PPP’s government, and even if it is argued that these provinces did not agree to give their share to Fata in the past, today, the PTI

IndIa detaIns dozens over socIal MedIa coMMents on BaBrI MasjId verdIct NEW DELHI AGENCIES

Indian police have arrested dozens of people for social media comments that allegedly threatened “communal harmony” after the Supreme Court awarded a holy site once used for a mosque to Hindus, officials said Monday. The site, in the northern city of Ayodhya, has in the past caused religious riots that have left thousands dead. Security forces have been on alert since the verdict was announced on Saturday and remained on the city’s streets as hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims began arriving on Monday ahead of a religious festival. Hindu and Muslim leaders have called for calm. Police said the social media posts on platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube had threatened “communal harmony”. At least 77 people were arrested in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh — where Ayodhya is located — after the Supreme Court decision, a police statement said.

Authorities acted against more than 8,270 posts, with steps including “reporting the posts to the social media platform” and “directly messaging the user to delete the message,” the statement said. In two cases police ordered users to take down their social media profiles, an Uttar Pradesh police spokesman said. More than 2,800 posts were targeted on Twitter. There were 1,355 allegedly inflammatory comments on Facebook, and 98 YouTube videos, authorities said. Police cybercrime units said they were using “sentiment analysis” programs to identify suspect social media posts. A top Uttar Pradesh official said that several WhatsApp groups were asked to restrict their activities, according to media reports. Eight other arrests were reported in the central state of Madhya Pradesh for social media comments. A jail warden in the city of Gwalior was also arrested for celebrating with fireworks after the Hindu court victory.

has a government in three provinces.”

“Why are they then not willing to give their share?” he asked, demanding an explanation from the government.

Earlier, Pashtunkhuwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman Mehmood Khan Achakzai also met the JUI-F chief to discuss the future course of action on Azadi March.

Meanwhile, members of Ansarul Islam, the volunteer group of the JUI-F, took positions at the place of Azadi march in Islamabad. Instructions were given to Ansarul Islam to take out a rally from the sit-in site.

AZADI MARCH: Thousands of protesters have converged on Pak-

istan’s federal capital, under the banner of ‘Azadi March’, seeking to deseat Prime Minister Imran Khan. The caravan, which set off from Sindh on October 27, reached Islamabad on October 31. During the sit-in, opposition leaders delivered fiery speeches against the ruling PTI government. On November 1, Fazl gave the prime minister a 48-hour ultimatum to resign. However, the so-called deadline was later extended. It has been extended multiple times now.

Till now, despite several meetings, negotiations between the protesters and the government have failed to reach any result.

Nawaz Sharif may be striking another deal: Turkish news agency Islamabad is abuzz with speculations about a reported “deal” that the ailing former prime minister Nawaz Sharif might be striking after the government allowed him to go abroad for treatment, according to Turkish news agency Anadolu. Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political adviser Naeemul Haq said in a statement the government allowed Sharif to go abroad for treatment after reviewing medical reports, which were “alarming.”

Local broadcaster Geo News citing unnamed family sources reported the ex-premier, together with his brother and the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, would fly Sunday to London. Senator Mushahidullah Khan, a close aide to Sharif, told Anadolu Agency the three-time premier would fly “in a few days or the next week.”

Backdrop interviews with various government officials and Sharif’s close associates suggest the threetime premier who is suffering from acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a bleeding disorder in which the immune system destroys platelets, agreed to go abroad for treatment, on the request of family members, mainly his aging mother.

A government medical board has already suggested his treatment abroad due to the complicated nature of the disease.

Sharif’s daughter and political heir, Maryam Nawaz, confirmed her uncle Shehbaz Sharif was finalizing the arrangements for taking the ex-premier abroad for treatment. “I obviously can’t travel immediately because the court has my passport,” she told reporters in Lahore, referring to the confiscation of her passport under the directive of the Lahore High Court’s

(LHC) that granted her bail in a corruption case earlier this week.

The former premier, who has twice undergone open-heart surgeries, has been convicted in two of three corruption cases, and exonerated in the third. In the first case, he, with his daughter Maryam and sonin-law, was sentenced last July to 10 years in jail in a corruption case by an accountability court in Islamabad, but the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended the conviction in September 2018. In the second case, known as Al Azizia, in December 2018, Sharif got seven years in jail for owning assets beyond known income sources. The IHC suspended the jail term, and granted bail to Sharif for eight weeks on medical grounds last month. In July 2017, he was disqualified by the Supreme Court over the Panama Papers scandal, which also led to the filing of the three corruption cases. Not long after, the top court also barred him from holding the leadership of his party.

‘NO DEAL’: Sharif served as the premier from 1990 – 1992, 1997 – 1999, and 2013 – 2017, unable to complete even a single five-year term. His two previous governments were dismissed over corruption charges and through bloodless military coups in 1992 and 1999.

In April 2000, he had been given a life sentence by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi on the charge of “hijacking” a plane in which the then-military chief Gen Pervez Musharraf was traveling.

However, he went into exile in 2001 following a deal brokered by then Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdelaziz. Senator Nehal Hashmi, a central leader of Sharif’s center-right Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)

brushed aside the reports about a deal between the ex-premier and the “establishment”- a term to designate the military. “This is a purely medical-related development. It has nothing to do with politics,” Hashmi told Anadolu Agency. “It’s not his (Sharif’s) personal doctor, but three medical boards, including a government one, have suggested that he should [be] treated abroad because they are unable to properly diagnose his disease,”, he said.

Echoing Hashmi’s view, Hamid Mir, an Islamabad-based political analyst reckoned that Sharif’s departure from the country was in the government’s interest. “ He (Sharif) is at death’s door. It’s not only his family but the establishment too wants him to go abroad,” Mir told Anadolu Agency, adding, “If anything happens to his life in prison, it will be difficult for the establishment and the government to handle the backlash.” “It’s still not sure if he will be able to fly because of his deteriorating condition,” he maintained.

‘MURKY’: Habib Akram, a Lahore-based political analyst believes recent developments are not possible without an “understanding.” “If there is no deal involved in recent happenings then there is at least an understanding that has made this all possible,” Akram told Anadolu Agency.

He, however, acknowledged that the situation is murky. “It is hard to trace the footprints of this deal or understanding despite the fact the circumstantial evidences and brisk settlement of things suggest that,” he said. “Everything has happened within the system, and through proper channels,” he said. AGENCIES

With Indian court ruling, Modi’s Hindu-first agenda barrels forward AYODHYA/MUMBAI AGENCIES

Just six months after sweeping to re-election, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has delivered on two major promises of his Hindu-first agenda, electrifying his base but sowing unease among liberals and the nation’s Muslim minority. The latest boost for Modi came when the Supreme Court handed Hindu groups control of a contested site where a 16th-century mosque was razed over two decades ago, paving the way for the construction of a temple there that has long been an election promise of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). That followed New Delhi’s move in August to strip Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir of its special status as a state in what Modi’s government said was a bid to integrate the restive region with the rest of predominantly-Hindu India.

Now, the BJP may move towards delivering on its third traditional plank: Creating a uniform civil code that does away with the independence of religious communities. “After just a few months of Modi 2.0, they’ve accomplished two out of three (main cultural objectives). It’s quite possible that they will accomplish all three by next year,” said Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. “It’s striking that the government has moved with a clarity of purpose on its social agenda that’s completely absent when it comes to economic matters,” added Vaishnav in reference to the slowing of the country’s once red-hot economic growth. Many Muslims have watched with a mix of fear and resignation as the BJP has morphed into the officially secular country’s nearundisputed political force. The controversial site in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh has been one of the most explosive issues in the nation of 1.3 billion, where Muslims constitute about 14% of the population.

In 1992, a rally led by the BJP and affiliate organizations spiraled out of control and a Hindu mob destroyed the Babri Masjid or mosque in the city of Ayodhya. That triggered riots in which about 2,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed across the country. In its verdict on Saturday, the Supreme Court called the mosque’s demolition illegal but handed the plot of land to Hindus, who believe the site is the birthplace of Lord Ram, a much-venerated god-king.

The court directed that another plot in Ayodhya be provided to a Muslim group that contested the case. In over a dozen interviews, Muslim community leaders, businessmen, and students said they respected the verdict but it exacerbated their sense of alienation.

“Why did the court then give a ruling which is completely one-sided? Was the court under pressure?

We don’t know. We can’t trust anyone now. No door is open for us,” said local Muslim community leader Azam Quadri during evening prayers in Ayodhya.

While Modi himself has said the court verdict should not be seen as a “win or loss” for anyone, many Muslims Reuters spoke to expressed resignation after the ruling. Some were bitter that a probe into the demolition has inconclusively dragged on for three decades and that many of the politicians accused of conspiring to take down the mosque are prominent BJP members. Those people have said the demolition was spontaneous and not planned. “I feel humiliated by the Supreme Court verdict,” said one affluent Mumbaibased Muslim businessman, who declined to give his name. “Others don’t care. They have become numb.

It’s best to be numb in Modi’s India. Some people believe that Hindu nationalists, galvanized by the Ayodhya triumph, could turn their attention to two other Uttar Pradesh mosques they believe Mughal conquerors built over the remains of Hindu temples centuries ago. “This (verdict) seems to generate incentives for Hindus to take down mosques and resettle,” said Neelanjan Sircar, an assistant professor at Ashoka University near New Delhi. Another likely move is the uniform civil code.

Nawaz’s departure in limbo as NAB throws ball in govt’s court cONtINUED frOM pAgE 01 PML-N EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER DELAY: Meanwhile, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb expressed concern over the delay in removing Nawaz’s name from the ECL.In a statement, Marriyum said that the medical board formed by the government had already recommended that Nawaz should be sent abroad for treatment as soon as possible. She said that the medical board had also recommended sending him abroad following a meeting last night.

She said that once the former premier’s name is removed from the ECL other arrangements, such as arranging an air ambulance and sending the premier abroad, will start.On Sunday, Marriyum said that a high dose of steroids had been administered to Nawaz in preparation for his expected departure on Monday.

“Doctors have warned against giving him such high doses of steroids repeatedly,” she said, adding: “They cannot risk any further damage in trying to get his platelet levels to rise.”

Marriyum said that the drop in the former premier’s platelet levels continues to worry doctors. “They are ambivalent about how to approach his treatment.

They worry there might be a further deterioration in his health.”

The former minister said that if Nawaz’s health worsens any further, it will be “almost impossible to take him abroad”.According to doctors “every single moment is precious” when it comes to getting Nawaz treated. “As time passes by, the threats to his health increase. It is imperative we send him abroad for treatment immediately,” they said.

Additionally, Nawaz’s personal physician Dr Adnan Khan said any delay

in sending the former premier abroad could increase the risk to his health.

Meanwhile, addressing a press conference in Lahore, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid said that an application had been submitted to the Ministry of Interior to permit Nawaz to go abroad for treatment.Following this, the Interior Ministry had written to the Health Ministry asking them to get the opinion of the medical board. In response to this, the board said they had written a discharge summary and had provided all the details of the tests that needed to be carried out, adding that they [Interior Ministry] should act as they find suitable.

However, the Interior Ministry said they wanted a detailed report particularly regarding whether Nawaz should be sent abroad or not.She said that the board met last night and based on their analysis, they feel that because the former premier’s

condition isn’t stabilising and there may be tests that can’t be done in Pakistan, they recommend that he should be sent abroad.Dr Yasmeen said the Health Ministry had written to the medical board informing them that they had found some shortfalls in the report and could not send it to the Interior Ministry.

They had told the board to provide details of “each test or intervention required with risk factor involved to be specifically mentioned”.

The provincial health minister said that they asked the board about which tests can be conducted in Pakistan’s public sector hospitals and which ones cannot. Additionally, they asked which tests can be sent abroad and why Nawaz is a high-risk patient.

In response to a question regarding whether there was pressure on the medical board, Rashid said: “Being a doctor

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot # 7, Al-Baber Centre, F/8 Markaz, Islamabad. Ph: 051-2204545. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk

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myself […] when I read the report, I felt that it was insufficient.

“We have not put any sort of political pressure on anyone. I think the board is completely independent, you can ask any board member.”

Nawaz was rushed from Kot Lakhpat jail to the hospital last month after his personal physician Dr Adnan Khan raised an alarm over his deteriorating health.

Doctors have been struggling to bring his platelet count — that had dropped to dangerous levels — back to normal.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif had last week submitted a request to the Interior Ministry as well as NAB for the removal of Nawaz’s name from the ECL so that the former prime minister could travel abroad for medical treatment.

Nawaz has been diagnosed with an immune system disorder and his condition is said to be “extremely critical”.