E-Paper PDF 13 September (KHI)

CMYK

Friday, 13 September, 2019 I 13 Muharram-ul-Haram, 1441 I Rs 17.00 I Vol X No 73 I 16 Pages I Karachi Edition

Sindh SayS no to article 149 g

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BIlAwAl Accuses ceNtre oF ‘tryINg to occuPy KArAchI’, wArNs AgAINst coNsPIrAcy to dIvIde PAKIstAN

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FArogh NAseem sAys stAtemeNt oN INvocAtIoN oF ArtIcle 149 tAKeN ‘out oF coNtext’

Pakistan won’t tolerate Indian atrocities in Kashmir, says President Alvi

sINdhI INtellectuAls demANd resIgNAtIoN oF FederAl lAw mINIster For tryINg to dIvIde sINdh

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI

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STAFF REPORT

ederal law Minister Farogh Naseem’s statement the other day at the possible invocation of article 149 (4) in Karachi has garnered fierce opposition from across Sindh, as the minister sought to clarify on Thursday that he only suggested this in good faith and with a noble intention of solving problems facing the financial capital of Pakistan.

Several politicians, including Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari and PMl-F chief Pir Pagara, writers, intellectuals and civil society activists have termed the statement a “conspiracy” against Pakistan and demanded Naseem’s resignation.

In a statement, Naseem said that his statement on invocation of article 149 (4) had been taken out of context.

“Not just me, we should all be concerned for Karachi and the problems being faced by people there,” he said.

On Wednesday, Naseem disclosed that the federal government is considering taking over the administrative affairs of Karachi by enforcing a constitutional clause that he said permits it to do so.

“after getting approval of the cabinet the provision will be exercised and in case of any resistance shown by the provincial government we will approach the Supreme Court under article 184(1) of the Constitution to seek a directive in this regard and if the province still shows reluctance we will file a contempt petition in the SC,” he said.

He said that right now it was his personal view that the Centre should take over Karachi’s affairs. any decision was likely to be taken by PM Khan during his visit to the metropolis on Sept 14, he added. article 149 (4) reads: “The executive authority of the Federation shall also extend to the giving of directions to a Province as to the manner in which the executive authority thereof is to be exercised for the purpose of preventing any grave menace to the peace or tranquility or economic life of Pakistan or any part thereof.”

Naseem is the head of a high-powered committee recently set up by the prime minister to work out plans to address issues being faced by the residents of Karachi. The committee is tasked with suggesting short-, medium- and long-term measures for the betterment of the metropolis.

Subsequently, the panel in its meeting formed a 12-member Karachi Strategic Committee with six members each from the Pakistan

Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) — the two opposition parties in Sindh.

However, many people see the move as a tactic by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to divert people’s attention from the deteriorating economic situation and governance standards in the country.

‘CENTRE TRYING TO OCCUPY KARACHI’: addressing a press conference in Hyderabad, PPP Chairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari accused the federal government of “trying to occupy Karachi”.

“You try to build a narrative against [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi, saying that he unconstitutionally captured occupied Kashmir, and at the same time you try to occupy Karachi.

This is bizarre,” Bilawal said.

He said Prime Minister Imran Khan, “who has vowed to protect human rights in [occupied] Kashmir, has ripped apart democratic rights of the people of Pakistan.

“You want to run Karachi from Islamabad?” he asked Bilawal said that the PPP, which is the ruling party in Sindh, “will never accept any conspiracy” against the province. “according to the Constitution, the province that produces a resource is entitled to utilise it before providing it to the rest of the country,” the PPP chief said, referring to Sindh government’s longstanding complaint that the province, despite producing natural gas, was not receiving its due share.

The federal government is trying to provide gas produced in Sindh to the rest of the country and wants the province’s residents to use expensive lNG gas imported from Qatar, Bilawal alleged.

If the federal government “continues to weaken democratic powers in the country, oppresses its people, steals their human rights and on top of that, tries to occupy their land and city, do you think that your country will survive?” Bilawal said.

“This country has already been broken in the past when Islamabad has tried to control the state. It’s not like those people were less patriotic than you or me […] If PPP and other likeminded parties don’t stand up, tomorrow, separate Sindhi and Pashtun states might be formed,” he warned.

Army committed to capacity building of Saudi land forces, says COAS

STORY ON PAGE 02

FO denies UAE, Saudi ministers’ remarks about Kashmir not being an ‘Ummah issue’ STORY ON BACK PAGE

sc to take up Justice Isa’s plea on sept 17 STORY ON PAGE 03

Soldier martyred as India violates LoC ceasefire

CONTINUED ON PAGE 02

STORY ON BACK PAGE

Abbasi, Miftah to stay in NAB custody till Sept 26

STORIES ON BACK PAGE & 03

Army announces transfers, postings of senior generals

opp criticises govt’s ‘unilateral moves’

STORIES ON PAGES 02 & 03

Friday, 13 September, 2019

02 NEWS

PAkiStAn won’t tolerAte indiAn AtrocitieS in kAShmir: PreSident Alvi PRESIDENT TELLS JOINT PARLIAMENTARY SESSION PAKISTAN WILL CONTINUE TO SUPPORT OPPRESSED KASHMIRIS

OPPOSITION PROTESTS GOVERNMENT’S ‘ECONOMIC FAILURE, ONE-SIDED ACCOUNTABILITY’ DURING PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

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RESIDENT Arif Alvi on Thursday addressed a joint session of parliament at the start of the second parliamentary year of the National Assembly under the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government amid loud sloganeering by the opposition lawmakers.

The lawmakers on opposition benches, holding placards, started protesting in front of the podium –chanting Go Niazi Go— as soon as the president started his speech. The opposition lawmakers criticised the government for what they called its failure in foreign policy over Kashmir issue, a failed economy and one-sided accountability. Prime Minister Imran Khan, the chiefs of the navy and air force, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee were in attendance.

In his address mandated by the constitution, Alvi said Pakistan will not tolerate Indian transgressions in Kashmir.

He said the government and the entire nation stood with Kashmir and that Pakistan would continue providing diplomatic, moral and political support to the occupied territory until the realisation of their goal of independence from India.

Referring to the abrogation of Article 370, he said: “India has violated its own constitution as well as the Simla Agreement with its illegal actions [in occupied

Kashmir].” He said the government took a number of measures after the move that included the downgrading of diplomatic ties, suspension of bilateral trade.

Expressing concerns over a lockdown in Kashmir, the president warned that this issue could endanger the regional peace and security, if not resolved according to the wishes and aspirations of Kashmiri people. He said the PTI government had raised the Kashmir issue successfully at the diplomatic front as evident by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)

Sindh says no to Article 149 COntinuEd fROm pAgE 01 “Come to your senses! The Islamic democratic system is what has kept this country together,” he said.

Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F) leader Pir Pagara also criticised the federal minister’s statement, saying that Prime Minister Imran Khan must declare Karachi as capital of Pakistan. “Karachi was the capital of Pakistan, however, it was shifted to Islamabad. It’s time now to shift the federal capital to Karachi,” Pagara said.

‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL MOVE TO BE OPPOSED BY SINDHIS’: As the news spread on mainstream and social media, hashtags such as “#SindhRejectsKarachiCommittee”, “#United SindhUnitedPakistan” were seen as the top Twitter trends on Thursday. “Article 149 (4) only pertains to the exercise of the executive authority of the federal government in a province. For example, if due to a blockade of roads, port operations or shipping is affected in Karachi, then the federal government can direct the province to remove the blockade. It has nothing to do with the executive power of the province,” Barrister Zamir Ghumro, a former advocate general of Sindh, said while commenting on the issue.

According to him, any such unconstitutional move by the Centre would be vehemently opposed by the people of Sindh. “Sindh is united to defeat any move related to Article 149 (4), which does not even have the scope or meaning being attributed to it,” said Ghumro. Karachi-based senior journalist Talat Aslam expressed concern over a possible repeat of the city’s violent past. Writer and intellectual, Jami Chandio, also took a strong stand against the Centre’s plans for Sindh’s capital city. “Big NO to the so-called ‘Karachi Committee’! Karachi is Sindh and Sindh is Karachi.”

Apart from Pakistan, members of the Sindhi diaspora living in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom have also reacted strongly. Sindhi Association of North America (SANA) condemned Naseem’s remarks and demanded his removal as the federal law and justice minister.

“The federal government must control its political proxies from dividing people in Sindh based on ethnicity. Karachi is the heart and soul of our historic homeland, Sindh, and we as a nation will not tolerate any malicious attack on our capital,” said SANA’s executive committee in a statement.

session on the issue after a lapse of almost 50 years. “It is a huge accomplishment for the government that the UNSC held a session on the issue after more than 50 years, despite India trying its best to prevent that from happening.”

He said all international forums, including the organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) “strongly condemned the illegal steps of India in the occupied Kashmir and demanded the issue be resolved in line with the UN resolutions”. “[I] thank the friendly countries that

understood the seriousness of the Kashmir issue, especially China, and raised it in the UN,” he said. The president also lauded a “successful visit” by the prime minister to the United States.

“India has always sponsored terrorism on Pakistani soil; Kulbhushan Jadhav is an example. He has confessed that he is a serving officer and was sent to ignite tensions in Balochistan.” The president said the world will have to acknowledge that India is being ruled by a “fascist party” — the Bharatiya Janata Party.

“India’s illegal actions have threatened peace in the region. Pakistan has always responded to India’s warmongering with offers of dialogue.” Speaking about the spike in the ceasefire violation by the Indian troops he said the recent violations are a threat to the regionl peace.

He urged the Indian leadership not to take the situation to an irreversible end.

‘CORRUPTION DESTROYED COUNTRY’: In addition to Kashmir, President Alvi also spoke about the government’s performance at the economic front. He said an increase in exports and a decline in imports has reduced the current account deficit and foreign reserves have also risen in the past year.

In a comment on the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) documentation drive, he said such measures would prevent smuggling and would bring people into tax net. “A lack of accountability has damaged the country’s economy,” he said. “Corruption eats up the roots of any nation. Unfortunately, our country has been suffering due to this.” President Alvi said the state of Madina was the first to issue a human rights charter. “I am glad that the prime minister is personally reviewing every ministry’s performance.

“The Citizens’ Portal initiative is very admirable and I hope it will improve.

“I want to emphasise that it is important for the development of the economy to move towards a technology-based economic system.

“The IT sector must be promoted and youth must be provided with IT and AI training. Development in IT will lead to a stronger democracy.”

As the opposition members continued their loud protest, the president at this point asked them to “continue to make noise but also pay attention to [what I am saying]”.

“I hope the government will take concrete measures to control the population,” he continued. “In this regard, media can play an important role. Alvi appreciated the judiciary’s performance over the past year, saying swift disposal of cases and establishment of model courts were laudable developments.

Abbasi, Miftah to stay in NAB custody till Sept 26 iSLAmABAd Staff RePoRt

An accountability court on Thursday gave the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) a final extension in the physical remands of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and former finance minister Miftah Ismail.

The Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) leaders are accused of being involved in awarding a 15-year contract for an LNG terminal against the rules when Abbasi was petroleum minister in the cabinet of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The case was closed by NAB in 2016, but reopened in 2018.

Accountability Judge Muhammad Bashir, who heard NAB’s pleas for extension in physical remand of Abbasi, Ismail and former Pakistan

State Oil (PSO) managing director Sheikh Imranul Haq, said that Abbasi had been in NAB custody for 56 days and “this is the final extension the court is giving in his remand”.

Earlier in the hearing, while NAB argued that an extension in the remand was vital, Abbasi’s lawyer said that the court should fix two days every week for them to meet their client as NAB was refusing to let them do so. Former premier Abbasi, on the other hand, told the court to give a “90-day extension in the remand to satisfy NAB”. He also put speculations to rest by saying that no deal is being made with NAB. Meanwhile, Ismail’s lawyer said that his client was being “kept in isolation for 23 hours every day and should at least be allowed to have his meals with Abbasi”. The lawyer fur-

ther said that Ismail had been in custody for 11 days already and a 14day extension should not be made in his physical remand. NAB lawyers argued that the two men had to be kept in custody for interrogation.

Hearing both sides of the argument, the judge allowed NAB to keep both Abbasi and Ismail in custody till September 26, but clarified that a further extension in their physical remand would not be given.

Govt creating hurdles for Sindh: Kaira LAHORE INP

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Qamar Zaman Kaira on Thursday said that government was posing serious hurdles for the Sindh government and had created an atmosphere of fear there.

Talking to the media, he said that Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa also highlighted the govern-

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ment’s attitude and made its intentions public. The PPP leader urged the government to “At least listen to the CJP, if not to the opposition.” In regard to Law Minister Farogh Naseem’s statement calling for the (federal) government to take control of Karachi, Kaira said, “The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is pursuing a policy of coercion”, adding that Sindh cases were now being dealt with by Punjab.

He said that the impression of a

forward bloc being formed was being presented in Sindh while the orders of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani were not being followed. He added that the federal government was pursuing a fascist agenda by creating a constitutional crisis in the province. He added, “I have heard that there will be a reference against the Chief Election Commissioner since a reference was filed against the first judge as well.”

Friday, 13 September, 2019

Sc to tAke UP jUStice iSA’S PleA on SePt 17 CJP FORMS 7-MEMBER BENCH HEADED BY JUSTICE BANDIAL iSLAmABAd

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Staff RePoRt

HE Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday constituted a larger bench headed by Justice Umar Atta Bandial to hear SC judge Faez Isa’s constitutional petition against the misconduct reference filed against him at the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

The seven-member bench constituted by the chief justice upon Justice Isa’s request will take up the plea on Sept 17.

Beside Justice Bandial, other members of the bench include Justice Maqbool Baqar, Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Faisal Arab, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel.

In his petition in the SC, Justice Isa had sought the formation of a full-court bench to hear the references filed against him, accusing Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa of “showing personal bias against him”.

“The language used by the chief justice [of

Pakistan] in the [Supreme Judicial] Council’s order sadly demonstrates his lordship’s bias and prejudice towards him [Justice Isa],” the plea had stated.

Different superior bars including Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) had challenged the references filed against Justice Isa, contending that the references are motivated by the judge’s verdict in the Faizabad sit-in case.

Last month, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) had dismissed a reference filed against Justice Isa for writing letters to President Arif Alvi over a misconduct reference filed against him for allegedly possessing undisclosed foreign properties.

A five-member bench of the SJC, headed by CJP Asif Saeed Khosa, had read out the verdict on the reference before the court. The chief justice said that the court did not find the matter “serious enough” to constitute misconduct or to remove him from his position.

The dismissed reference was filed after he had written a letter to Alvi after reports concerning a reference against him made round in mainstream media. In the letter, he had asked the president to let him know if these reports hold truth.

“I have to come to learn that the government sources are stating that a reference has been filed against me under Article 209 of the Constitution.

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no plan to impose governor’s rule or emergency in Sindh: firdous ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday said that the federal government has not issued any statement about the imposition of governor rule or emergency in Sindh province. Talking to the media outside Parliament House, Firdous said that Law Minister Farogh Naseem’s statement had been reported out of context. She said that Karachi, the commercial hub of the country, had been converted into a heap of garbage owing to the rampant misuse of the city’s resources by certain elements over the past 11 years. Firdous said that the Sindh government was not cooperating with members of the national and provincial legislatures, as a result of which no development work was being carried out in the province. aPP

Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has written an open letter to National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, urging that production orders of arrested opposition members be issued.

“It is the fundamental and inherent responsibility of the speaker of the National Assembly, as the elected Custodian of the House, to ensure that members are able to attend the proceedings of the House unhindered and to ensure that any obstacles to their attendance are removed,” Abbasi said in the letter.

The PML-N leader continued, “Democracy is the strength by deeds, not mere words. The actions of the speaker of the National Assembly, as the Custodian of the House, should speak for themselves. The National Assembly rules of Procedure provide discretion to the speaker to facilitate the attendance of proceedings of the House by detained members through the issuance of production orders; neither cab this discretion be used to deny members their privilege to attend proceedings of the House, nor can this discretion be used arbitrarily or selectively. The intent of

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Pm imran to have two meetings with trump on US visit Prime Minister Imran Khan will meet President Donald Trump twice during his visit to the United States, as per his official schedule. According to the schedule, the first meeting between PM Imran and US President Trump will be at lunch whereas the other will be at hi-tea.

The prime minister is set to address the United Nations General Assembly on September 27. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Saudi Arabia before heading to the US to attend the UNGA session. During his visit to Saudi Arabia, the prime minister is expected to meet important leaders, sources added. During his last visit to the Kingdom, prime minister represented Pakistan at the 14th Summit of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Makkah. NewS DeSk

mQm founder Altaf hussain’s bail extended in hate speech case I will be obliged if you could let me know whether this is correct and if it is, then provide me with a copy of the alleged reference,” media reports had quoted the letter to the president as saying.

Justice Isa, who is in line to become the chief justice, had also expressed displeasure over leaking the letter to media, saying “selective leaks” were tantamount to character assassination, which also undermines his right to a fair trial as well as compromise the dignity of the judiciary.

Abbasi demands production orders of arrested MNAs in open letter to NA speaker Staff RePoRt

NEWS

PPP writeS to PUnjAb govt for ProdUction orderS of ZArdAri, tAlPUr LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has written letters to the Punjab government demanding the implementation of the production orders of the party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and senior party leader Faryal Talpur. The letters called for the immediate release of the two leaders in order for them to be able to attend their respective assembly sessions. The Sindh Assembly Secretariat on Wednesday had also issued production orders of Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani along with those of Sindh legislator Faryal Talpur.

Former president Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on multiple charges if corruption and are currently being detained at Adiala Jail. Staff RePoRt the framers of the Constitution and the traditions of Parliament should serve as the guiding principles in matters related to the rights and privileges of the chose representatives of the people.”

Abbasi added, “I urge you to issue production orders for all detained members of the House, without discrimination; to attend all proceedings of the House as a matter of right and as their privilege.” The former prime minister further said, “If your office fails to issue production orders for the all detained

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain’s bail in the hate speech probe was extended for the second time on Thursday. Hussain was summoned at the Southwark Police Station for questioning in relation to the incitement speech of August 2016 from London to a rally in Karachi. The British police said that the investigation is still in process. The duration of Hussain’s bail extension is for a month. According to police officials, Hussain opted for his right to ‘no comment’ and did not answer questions by the detectives. The MQM founder was arrested in June from his London residence as part of the investigation into his alleged hate speeches. However, he was released on bail a day later by the British authorities without filing charges relating to the probe. Speaking to reporters outside the Southwark Police Station before his interrogation, Hussain said: “I have trust in British law. I haven’t done anything wrong. I am not scared or afraid of anyone.” “These are all fabricated cases. I am used to it,” he said. The Metropolitan Police of London had raided Hussain’s residence on June 11, taken him into custody and shifted him to the Southwark police station, where he was questioned in the presence of his lawyers in connection with the probe that the police said was focused on a speech broadcast in August 2016 as well as other speeches. After his release on bail, the authorities had decided not to file charges but would continue with their investigation to get sufficient evidence or otherwise. NewS DeSk

Army committed to capacity building of Saudi land forces: coAS

members for all proceedings of the House as the House would not be complete in the absence of any of these members.”

“I am also aware of the fact that your office is under pressure by the government not to issue production orders for the detained members,” Abbasi said. “In deference to the respect for your office, in case my attendance will be determined to your status as the custodian of the House, I am voluntarily willing to forgo my attendance in the House after the production orders are issued.”

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Bajwa on Thursday reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for capacity building of Royal Saudi Land Forces. The pledge was made during a meeting between the COAS and Major General Talal Abdullah Al-Otaibi, military adviser to KSA’s defence minister at the GHQ, Rawalpindi. Saudi ambassador Nawaz Saeed al Malkiy was also present on the occasion. According to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the visiting dignitary lauded Pakistan Army’s contributions towards regional peace and stability. “Matters of mutual interest, regional security and ways to enhance bilateral defence collaboration including training exchange programme were discussed,” the communique added. The two Muslim countries have doubled down on the strategic military partnership. Last week, Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan had also visited Islamabad to reassure their support to Pakistan on the Kashmir issue as Islamabad had reached out to the Middle Eastern state to lend their support for Pakistan’s stance. The diplomatic mission has remained active ever since New Delhi moved to strip Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) of its autonomy on August 5. Staff RePoRt

Opposition criticises govt’s ‘unilateral moves’ iSLAmABAd Staff RePoRt

Leaders of the joint opposition on Thursday lashed out at the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for allegedly taking arbitrary decision through presidential ordinances.

They said the reports about the government planning to file a reference against the chief election commissioner (CEC) had further exposed its fascist methods.

The opposition leaders also said the PTI-led federal government’s intention to take over administrative control of Karachi by

invoking Article 149 was an attack on provincial autonomy.

Addressing the media at the Parliament House, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Pakistan Muslim League’s Nawaz’s (PML-N) Ahsan Iqbal and Maulana Asad Mehmood of the Jamiat Ulema-eIslam-Fazl (JUI-F) warned the government that any attempt to jeopardise the solidarity of the country would not be tolerated.

“The joint sitting of parliament that marked the start of the new parliamentary year was a time to show unity but stops were taken at the last moment that have

made the office of the president controversial,” said Iqbal.

“The president notified members of the Election Commission of Pakistan in violation of the constitution and the CEC rightly refused to accept these appointments. The government has exposed its fascist face by planning to file a reference against the CEC,” he added.

The PML-N leader further claimed that the National Assembly speaker was forced into not issuing the production orders of the detained lawmakers.

“We do not consider the house complete in the absence of

the detained lawmakers.”

Iqbal said a person who had violated the constitution had no right to address the parliament.

“He [President Arif Alvi] is not the president of the PTI, but of the country. He should have spoken about the issues faced by the public instead of trying to highlight the government’s performance.”

PPP leader Raja Pervaiz Ashraf also lamented the absence of detained MNAs at the joint sitting of parliament. “The government has resorted to childish ways and it is responsible for whatever happened in the house,” he said.

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ShehbAZ to conSUlt nAwAZ over fAZlUr rAhmAn’S AZAdi mArch Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday asked Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Fazlur Rahman for more time to reach a decision on whether the PML-N will join the Faz-led Azadi March in October. The PMLN president and Fazl had a telephonic conversation after a meeting of the PML-N in Islamabad. Shehbaz told Fazl that he would consult Nawaz and then inform him about the final decision. It may be noted here that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has already distanced itself from the march. NewS DeSk

04 KARACHI PRAyER TImINgS FAJR SUNRISE

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SHC orders police, LEAs to recover missing persons KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday ordered Sindh government, police and other law enforcement agencies to submit a report pertaining to recovery of more than 70 missing citizens till the October 9. A SHC bench heard a set of pleas filed by families of missing persons and directed the police and others LEAs to produce the missing persons before court after their recovery. Citizens have been missing for many months, and it is the responsibility of state to provide security to citizens, the bench remarked. The bench remarked that inquiry should not be on paper but the missing citizens must be recovered. The petitioners in their petitions stated that police and LEAs detained their beloved ones from different areas of city, but, later, they went missing. The families appealed to court for recovery of the missing persons. STAFF REPORT

Woman declared Kari rescued just before being shot dead LARKANA: A young woman was rescued by police from village Bhoot Kharos when she was about to be shot dead on the pretext of Karo-Karo within the limits of Ketty Mumtaz Police Station, near here Thursday.

The woman, Mema Kharos, was admitted to the Rural Health Centre in Naundero where she was shifted to Chandka Medical College Hospital for unavailability of doctor. SHO Abdul Wahab Masan told reporters that police rescued the young woman when she was already tortured by her husband and he was planning to kill her.

The affected woman said that 12 days ago, her marriage took place on Watta Satta basis with Daim Kharos, who is her maternal cousin, and his sister was married with her brother Naeem.

She said after marriage, her husband asked not to go to parents and yesterday he started torturing her and fired at her due to which she was injured. She alleged that when her husband was beating her mercilessly, her father Khan Muhammad, father-in-law Mehar and maternal uncle Saleh were also standing, but they did not listen to any of her cries and did nothing to prevent her from torturing and just kept on watching.

She said police came on the spot and got her rescued and shifted to RHC Naundero from where they had brought her here for treatment & further management. SHO Masan further said: “When we reached the spot we found the woman fainted.” He said there was no doctor at RHC so they shifted her to Larkana. He said one of the accused Mehar Kharos had been arrested along with the weapon and search for others was underway. He said FIR will be registered if any of the relatives wanted to lodge the case. STAFF REPORT

Friday, 13 September, 2019

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MAyor SupportS fEdErAL govt’S ConStitutionAL StEpS for City KARACHI

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ARACHI Mayor Wasim Akhtar on Thursday said he would support the federal government’s decisions for the betterment of Karachi as long as the steps taken are within the limits of the constitution.

Addressing an event in the city, Akhtar extended his support to any constitutional step that was for the betterment of the metropolis.

“Karachi provides revenue to the entire country. Over 30 million people live here, there are two ports in the country and this city is recognised in the world. People come here from all across the country for business opportunities and jobs, you are ruining that.”

The mayor, who belongs to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQMPakistan), was commenting on his colleague and law minister’s, Senator Farogh Naseem, statement, wherein the latter had voiced his support for Article 149(4) in the megacity. On Wednesday,

Naseem said the government was likely to take administrative control of Karachi by invoking the article.

The minister had said the decision will be made during the prime minister’s upcoming visit to Sindh’s capital.

As a tussle between the Centre and Sindh continues to heat up, Naseem had

openly come out in support of Article 149(4), saying that he would suggest this to the Karachi committee that was recently formed by the prime minister.

It may be noted here the prime minister had formed a committee recently to work out plans to address issues being faced by the residents of Karachi.

GARBAGE CASE

SHC issues notices to mayor, DMCs, Cantonment Board KARACHI STAFF REPORT

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday issued notices to Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar and secretary local government on a petition against accumulation of garbage in Karachi.

The petition was filed by a woman against lack of cleanliness and the alleged negligence of Mayor and other relevant authorities. A SHC bench heard the petition and issued notices to Mayor,

secretary local government, District Municipal Corporations (DMC) and Cantonment Board.

The petitioner stated that Sindh government, mayor and other relevant authorities were not performing their responsibilities because there is still accumulation of offal of scarified animals at several places in the city.

She stated that swarms of flies and mosquitoes were looming in Karachi due to dirt, which has resulted in outbreak of diseases.

She also stated that the citi-

zens have been hit by diseases like Congo, throat ailment and stomach disease. The petitioner requested the court that directions may be issued to mayor, cantonment board and relevant authorities for immediate arrangements for the removal of garbage from the city.

She also stated that government must be directed for the launching of awareness campaign for cleanliness. “The city could face further complex situation if immediate cleanliness arrangements are not made,” she said.

KARACHI: Accumulated sewage water and garbage sits on MA Road waiting to spread diseases. ONLINE

The committee has been asked to suggest short-, medium- and long-term measures for the betterment of Karachi.

ARTICLE 149: “The executive authority of every Province shall be so exercised as not to impede or prejudice the exercise of the executive authority of the Federation, and the executive authority of the Federation shall extend to the giving of such directions to a Province as may appear to the Federal Government to be necessary for that purpose,” reads Article 149 of the constitution.

“The executive authority of the Federation shall also extend to the giving of directions to a Province as to the construction and maintenance of means of communication declared in the direction to be of national or strategic importance.”

“The executive authority of the Federation shall also extend to the giving of directions to a Province as to the manner in which the executive authority thereof is to be exercised for the purpose of preventing any grave menace to the peace or tranquillity or economic life of Pakistan or any part thereof,” reads the article.

Sindh forms body for public safety, police complaints KARACHI: The Sindh government on Thursday has constituted a Provincial Public Safety and Police Complaints Commission. As per the notification, the twelve-member Commission will be headed by the Provincial Home Minister. Eleven members of the provincial assembly will also be the part of this Commission. STAFF REPORT

MMA MpA warns of ‘Lyari march’ on civic issues KARACHI: Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) lawmaker elected from Lyari PS-108 Syed Abdul Rasheed has warned that he would stage a ‘Lyari march’ if the civic issues of this neglected pat of the megacity were not resolved. Talking to media at a protest camp, organized at Mirza Adam Khan Road Lyari on Thursday, he accused DMC South Chairman Malik Fayaz for misuse of development funds, corruption, irregularities and malpractices in the district, saying that Lyariites are deliberately forced to live in sewage water and heaps of garbage. “Since Malik Fayaz assumed the office, Lyari has been marred with civic issues – chocked sewerage system, damaged roads and unattended heaps of garbage,” he said. He warned to stage a ‘Lyari March’ if the issues were not resolved within next couple of days. “Millions of rupees have been spent under the garb of development work in Lyari but the issues are still unresolved,” he said. He said DMC South Chairman is misleading his party’s leadership while accumulated sewerage water on the roads of Lyari is depicting the real image of Lyari. People will not let these corrupt civic officers to run their notorious businesses anymore. People of Lyari are much aware of the facts that PPP local leadership and DMC South Chairman have ruined the oldest neighborhood of the city, he said. The MMA MPA announced to continue the protest camp for indefinite period till the issues are fixed. STAFF REPORT

PTI was, is against division of Sindh, says MPA Adil KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) Sindh chapter president Haleem Adil Sheikh has said that PTI was and is against the idea of division of Sindh province, but the PPP is misleading the masses through poisonous propaganda.

Addressing a press conference in the committee room of Sindh Assembly here Thursday, flanked by opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi Khuram Sherzaman, PTI Sindh general secretary Mehfooz Ursani, MPA Dua Bhutto, Shahnawaz Jadoon, Ali Gigi and others, he said under the

Article 149 the Federation would give directives to Sindh government, so as it could work properly and deliver. He said under this Article we will make Sindh government bound to resolve the issues of the province. He said; however, no recommendations are made so far and it is also not true that Prime Minister Imran Khan would announce implementing Article 149 during his coming visit to the megacity, Karachi.

Haleem Adil said we have just started our work. We would chalk out recommendations in which we would suggest how the problems of whole Sindh could be resolved.

He said we will launch a move-

ment. He said Murad Ali Shah has destroyed whole Sindh. He should resign and the ruling PPP should make a new cabinet.

Haleem Adil said in Sindh thousands of people went injured due to dog bite. He said Sindh should be saved from these stray dogs. He said in whole Sindh dog bite vaccine is not available and lives of affected people are at the stake. He said at least 92000 people are wounded due to dog bite in Sindh.

He said provincial minister Saeed Ghani says that they would give budget funds. He said the PPP is telling lies that the federal government is not giving funds to it.

He said the rulers of Sindh did not give water to citizens of Karachi for last 10 years. He said in my constituency there is even no drinking water available. He said Faryal Talpur is in jail due to the curses of neglected poor masses.

He said the rulers have made Karachi the fourth dirtiest city of the world. He said hills of garbage are everywhere in Karachi. He said in these circumstances we have no other left but to work ourselves. He said when Karachi would change Sindh would also change and when Sindh would change whole Pakistan would change.

Haleem Adil said mega corruption was done in uplift schemes

of Karachi. He said the federal government has given Rs25billion for K-IV project, but this project was stopped due to wrong planning. He said AIDS and hepatitis are spreading in Sindh due to these inefficient and corrupt rulers. He said we are against the division of Sindh. We have formed a committee to resolve the issues of Karachi and it would make recommendations not only for Karachi but also for Hyderabad and Sukkur. He said Article 149 is not a martial law. He said the Sindh card of the PPP has lost its power and this party is just misleading the people of Sindh.

Leader of opposition Firdous

Shamim Naqvi said during last 12 years the PPP government is Sindh has failed to deliver. He said we have contacted Sindh government many times but it is not ready to work to resolve the issues of people. He asked why the Sindh government is not giving due share to districts on pattern of NFC award.

He said during last 12 years the PPP government did not bring even a single public transport bus in Karachi. He said the Green Line project is delayed due to non-cooperation of provincial government. He said the Sindh government has just failed to deliver. He said we do not want division of Sindh province.

Friday, 13 Septmber, 2019

NEWS POLIO ENDGAME STRATEGY 2019-2023

Pakistan, donor agencies gear uP efforts for success ISLAMABAD

d

Emirates Polio Campaign back in 2014 after 306 cases were reported in Pakistan, which so far reached to 16 million children in Pakistan, besides mobilising 106,000 polio workers, vaccinators and healthcare workers.

According to the Polio Emergency Operation Center (PEOC), a total of 62 polio cases surfaced from across the country in 2019. Out of those, 46 cases came from K-P and merged districts, five from Punjab, four from Balochistan and six from Sindh. The highest number of cases came from K-P’s Bannu district, where 22 children have reportedly fallen prey to the virus.

In this regard, the government has devised a chalked out new plan under which 100-line call centres would be set up around the country to address the parents’ complaints regarding vaccination and to get updates regarding polio cases.

Besides, the Permanent Mission of the UAE to the United Nations (UN) Office in Geneva hosted an invitationonly event centred on polio eradication

hamid Khan WaZiR

ESPITE the recent surge in polio cases amid several challenges in Pakistan, the crusade against polio continued with full might to defeat the crippling disease from the country once and for all.

Though the global drive to eradicate the crippling disease has made significant gains worldwide, Pakistan is still among the two countries which are still suffering the effects of this disease.

The recent surge in polio cases in the country, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), has forced the government and the donor agencies especially the UAE government to speed up their efforts under the Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023 released by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) to make the strategy a success.

The UAE under its flagship programme UAE-Pakistan Assistance Programme (UAEPAP) has launched

Justice Mandokhail to become BHC CJ on Oct 5

at the WHO Headquarters in Geneva.

This event was a precursor to a pledging moment that will be hosted at the Reaching the Last Mile Forum in Abu Dhabi this November. The polio pledging moment supports the Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023 released by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) earlier this year, detailing the resources needed to reach eradication by 2023.

An exhibition focused on polio will be displayed at WHO headquarters in Geneva throughout the week including “Everyday Heroes”, a photo series by Pakistani photographer Mobeen Ansari, featuring profiles of many of the healthcare workers behind Pakistan’s polio program. Ansari’s project was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The exhibition also includes a short film and photos profiling the work of the Emirates Polio Program and the programme has delivered 417 million polio drops to children under five years old hitherto.

Ambassador Obaid Salem Al Zaabi, UAE Permanent Representative to the United Nations, UN, and Other International Organizations emphasized the leading role played by the UAE under the patronage of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and its partners in polio eradication and their commitment to innovation in health.

Al Zaabi also commended the work of Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, and his team in developing the Polio Endgame Strategy 2019-2023 aimed at realizing a world free of all polioviruses on a permanent basis.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “This is a reminder that polio eradication is not a forgone conclusion the last mile is the hardest. This will take a determined and unrelenting effort from all of us. Global progress to end polio would not be possible without partners like the UAE.

PM launches new initiatives to address public dissatisfaction

ISLAMABAD

ISLAMABAD

Staff RepoRt

ahmad ahmadani

President Arif Alvi has approved the appointment of Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail as the new Balochistan High Court (BHC) chief justice, said a notification issued by the law ministry on Thursday.

Justice Mandokhail will replace incumbent chief justice Tahira Safdar as the BHC CJ on October 5. Justice Safdar will remain the BHC CJ till October 4. Justice Mandokhail, son of a businessman, was born in Quetta on November 12, 1961. He received his early education from Federal Government High School, Quetta Cantonment. He did his Masters in Political Science and Economics from the University of Balochistan. He completed his law degree in 1987 from the University Law College Quetta and was enrolled as an advocate in 1988. Another notification issued by the Law Ministry on Thursday announced that the president had also approved the appointment of Justice Fida Muhammad Khan as the aalim judge of the Federal Shariat Court for one year from the date he swears his oath on.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to launch 15 important public interest initiatives apparently in a bid to restore the peoples’ confidence in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led government, Pakistan Today learnt from reliable sources.

At present, the PTI government faces huge criticism for its failure to bring an end to the economic crisis and reduce poverty and inflation. However, sources reveal that the prime minister has taken note of the growing unpopularity of his government and has decided to introduce policies which would serve larger public interest, said sources privy to the development.

The proposed plans were discussed in a meeting held with key cabinet ministers and secretaries.

Sources said that as per the PM’s directive gas and electricity consumers will now be allowed to pay utility bills in 15 days of its issuance instead of the earlier six-day deadline.

Sharing details of the PM’s initiative, sources said that the criteria for appointment of class-IV employees in the federal government would be finalized on priority by the Advisor to the Prime Minister on Establishment.

Similarly, Ministry of Foreign Affairs will reorient the mission abroad to focus on business, exports and FDI besides taking measures to improve the quality and efficiency of the services offered to Pakistani workers by Pakistani missions abroad including the

05

IHC fixes disqualification plea against Fawad Chaudhry for hearing ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday accepted and fixed a petition for hearing in which the petitioner has sought disqualification of Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry from holding public office under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution. Court has asked Fawad to submit his reply within two weeks. As per the petition, Fawad knowingly concealed details of his assets in nomination papers submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). “The land he owns in Jhelum was not declared in his nomination papers with the ECP,” petitioner added. Justice Minallah, who heard this case said that he is not in favour of dragging courts in political cases as they should be dealt at political forums. The petitioner told the court that Fawad was not sadiq and amin. To this, Justice Minallah asked: “Which person is sadiq and amin?” The petition submitted in the court requested the court to disqualify the minister under Article 62 (1) (f) from holding public office as he had not disclosed documents containing his proprietary information.

The ECP, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and others had also been made parties in the petition.

Pakistan urges early resumption of Afghan peace talks UNITED NATIONS app

introduction of a queue management system where possible.

They said that the Aviation Division will develop and launch a mobile app for weather updates for farmers and the general public within the coming month.

They said that the Communication Division will establish four dedicated driving license centres in collaboration with UAE, Qatar and other gulf countries to facilitate employment opportunities within one month.

Likewise, Ministry of National Health Service Regulation and Coordination to ensure the installation of an automated queue management/token system at the OPDs (Out Patient Department) of all the hospitals for convenience of the general public on the patterns of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) within one week.

More, EAD (Economic Affairs Divi-

sion) will firm up the pilot project to assess the water transmission system in the country with the help of JICA within one month.

As per sources, PM has directed that Ministry of Law and Justice TO finalize effective legislation against child pornography and abuse without further delay. In addition, the Law Division shall launch “Imran Khan Legal Helpline Email”, to provide help and assistance to victims of child abuse and other injustices within one week. And, the relevant ministries should work together to give a strong message that the government would take strict action against anyone involved in such crimes.

The PM also directed that District Administration shall organize Khuli Katchehris with public representatives on a regular basis with a view to resolving local issues.

Pakistan has expressed the hope that the US-Taliban talks, which were abruptly suspended over the weekend, would soon resume and open the way towards intraAfghan negotiations that would lead to a peaceful settlement of the long-drawn conflict in Afghanistan.

“We hope the suspension of the peace talks is only a pause and will resume sooner rather than later as the alternative is a surge in violence, which could push Afghanistan into even more turbulent and uncertain phase than has been witnessed so far,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the UN Security Council, while assuring of Pakistan’s role as a facilitator of the Afghan peace process. Speaking in a debate on the situation in Afghanistan, she said Pakistan had always condemned violence and called for all sides to exercise restraint and to remain committed to the peace process out of its belief that there was no military solution to the Afghan conflict.

The Pakistani envoy said that nine rounds of direct talks between the United States and the Taliban had brightened prospects to put in place the first significant foundation of a settlement, raising hope that the parties appeared closer to that goal than at any other time in the past 18 years.

Official data reveals detention of thousands in occupied Kashmir crackdown SRINAGAR agencieS

Authorities in Indian-occupied Kashmir have arrested nearly 4,000 people since the scrapping of its special status last month, government data shows, the most clear evidence yet of the scale of one of the region’s biggest crackdowns.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been in turmoil since India stripped the region of its special autonomy and statehood on August 5, leading to clashes between security forces and residents and inflaming tension with Pakistan.

India said the removal of the status that occupied Kashmir has held since in-

dependence from Britain in 1947 would help integrate it into the Indian economy, to the benefit of all.

In an attempt to stifle the protests that the reform sparked in the occupied region, India cut internet and mobile services and imposed curfew-like restrictions in many areas. It has also arrested more than 3,800 people, according to a government report dated September 6 and seen

by Reuters, though about 2,600 have since been released. A spokeswoman for India’s interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Jammu and Kashmir police.

It was not clear on what basis most of the people were being held but an Indian

official said some were held under the Public Safety Act, a law in occupied Kashmir that allows for detention for up to two years without charge. The data for the first time shows the extent of the detentions, as well as indicating who was picked up and where. More than 200 politicians, including two former chief ministers of the region were arrested, along with more than 100 leaders and activists from an umbrella organisation of political groups.

The bulk of those arrested — more than 3,000 — were listed as “stone pelters and other miscreants”. On Sunday, 85 detainees were shifted to a prison in Agra in northern India, a police source said.

Rights group Amnesty International

CMYK

said the crackdown was “distinct and unprecedented” in the recent history of the region and the detentions had contributed to “widespread fear and alienation”.

“The communication blackout, security clampdown and detention of the political leaders in the region has made it worse,” said Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International India.

‘Right to life’: India says the detentions are necessary to maintain order and prevent violence, and points to the relatively limited number of casualties compared with previous bouts of unrest.

The government says only one person is confirmed to have died compared with dozens in 2016, when the killing of a

Kashmiri fighter sparked widespread violence. “The right to life is the most important human right,” India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval told reporters recently. The report contains data from the 13 police districts that make up the Kashmir Valley, the most populous part of the Himalayan region where the main city of Srinagar is located. The largest number of arrests have been in Srinagar, the data shows, at nearly 1,000. Earlier unrest often centred in rural areas.

Of the detained political leaders, more than 80 were from the People’s Democratic Party, formerly in coalition in Jammu and Kashmir with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Friday, 13 September, 2019

06 WORLD VIEW

BOris JOhnsOn And The crOwn: A cLeAr ABuse Of pOwer editorial

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Guardian

HEN Boris Johnson arrived in Downing Street, he brought with him a reputation for duplicity in matters personal and professional. Only his most credulous cheerleaders expected that to change when he became prime minister. The pessimists did not anticipate how swiftly and egregiously Mr Johnson’s worst attributes would be displayed.

Even by his own shabby standards it is an achievement already to have corrupted the relationship between a prime minister and the monarch. A court has judged that parliament was unlawfully prorogued. Scottish appeal judges accepted arguments that the purpose of the move was “stymying parliament” with intent to obstruct scrutiny of the executive in contravention of constitutional principle. Downing Street insists prorogation was required because a new

a ScottiSh appeal court ruling expoSeS quite how little the prime miniSter can be truSted with the powerS of hiS office government needed a new session to enact its agenda.

That explanation does not withstand much interrogation. The government failed to provide a witness statement supporting its account. Before the case came to court there had not been much effort by ministers and supporters of the government to conceal a link between Commons resistance to a no-deal Brexit and Mr Johnson’s determination to shut the legislature down. If the real motive had been a technical reboot ahead of a Queen’s speech, prorogation could have lasted a couple of days, not five weeks. The legality of such a cynical move is still moot, despite Wednesday’s judgment. A parallel case was heard by the high court in London last week with a different outcome.

The judges neither rejected nor accepted the claimant’s view of the government’s

ulterior motive. They declared instead that a prime minister’s agenda for prorogation was a point of political contention, so not justiciable.

This vexed matter now passes on to the supreme court. If the Scottish appeal court’s verdict prevails, prorogation will have to be undone. The prime minister will be steeped in disgrace to depths that would once have submerged the career of any politician. Even if the English high court interpretation ends up being preferred, the dishonesty of Mr Johnson’s prorogation gambit has been recorded as a matter of fact. The salient technical question is not whether he is a liar, but whether a constitutional procedure based on his lies should be invalidated.

In purely political terms there should be no doubt that Mr Johnson abused his power. In well-functioning democracies

the executive does not close down the legislature by fiat just to eliminate opposition and evade scrutiny. A British prime minister acquires the unusual capacity to do such a thing only by misappropriating the royal prerogative. Mr Johnson took a ceremonial function of the crown and weaponised it for ultrapartisan ends. The Palace is rightly sensitive to anything that looks like political activism and so, by default, Elizabeth II grants prorogations when requested by her prime minister. That is the unwritten contract upholding a constitutional monarchy. The whole arrangement is perverse and archaic – overdue for modernisation – but in the absence of reform the only safety valve is trust. It requires whoever sits in No 10 to operate by some basic code of decency and responsibility. Mr Johnson does not play by

trump finally fired John bolton, but does it really matter? the end of the national-Security adviSer aS we know it

new Yorker SuSan B GlaSSer

President Trump started this week as he has so many in his tenure, distracting from one controversy by plunging headlong into another. A well-timed firing, in fact, has become a signature move for the President. Many of his nine hundred and sixty-three days in office have featured surprise oustings by tweet, angry public confrontations, and unexpected personnel developments. Even before this Tuesday, Trump had fired two national-security advisers, two White House chiefs of staff, one Attorney General, and one F.B.I. director, and had one Secretary of Defense quit in apparent protest.

Trump has pushed out a Secretary of State, a Secretary of Homeland Security, a Secretary of Labor, a Secretary of Health and Human Services, a Secretary of the Interior, and a Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He is on his seventh communications director. His director of White House operations was forced out just last week, for gossiping about Trump’s children, and she was the third person to hold that job.

The exit of John Bolton, Trump’s third national-security adviser, was not exactly unexpected, either. It had been predicted so many times during Bolton’s sixteen contentious months in the Administration that few in Washington ought to have been surprised when the moment came. Bolton has been widely and accurately reported to disagree with key aspects of Trump’s policies toward Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine, and Venezuela. He was feuding with Trump’s other advisers. He had all but dismantled the traditional national-security process, and he was on such hostile terms with the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, that the two largely communicated, I was told last month, through intermediaries. But when the Presidential tweet announcing the end of Bolton’s tenure appeared, it was at once sudden and yet completely predictable, a paradox that will keep its place in the annals of Trumpian White House dysfunction, even in an Administration where firing the nation’s most powerful officials by tweet has become so common that it no longer shocks.

Logistically speaking, Trump and Bolton’s acrimonious parting couldn’t have been revealed in a manner more likely to embarrass everyone involved, even as it underscored the falsehoods that riddled the President’s explanation. At 10:55 a.m. on Tuesday, the White House announced that Bolton

would join a rare briefing in the press room, with his two bureaucratic rivals, Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, to discuss a counterterrorism initiative. Barely an hour later, at 11:58 a.m., came Trump’s tweet, which did not even pretend that Bolton’s exit had been planned. The President noted instead, coldly, that Bolton’s “services were no longer needed.” What’s more, Trump said, “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration,” which is why, Trump said, he had demanded and accepted Bolton’s resignation.

If that was, in fact, the case, Trump had failed to inform his staff about it.

Sure enough, the dubious story was attacked minutes later, by Bolton himself, in a duelling tweet, in which he claimed to have offered his resignation on Monday, only for Trump to say, “Let’s talk about it tomorrow.” The direct quote from the President in Bolton’s tweet was a particularly deft touch. Up until now, most of those who have been fired and publicly humiliated on their way out by Trump have chosen to go silently. Not Bolton. He might as well have tweeted, “You didn’t fire me. I quit!”

By We d n e s d a y morning, “a person familiar with the situation” was putting out Bolton’s side of the story through Axios, which reported that he had met with Trump and offered to resign twenty-two hours before the President’s tweet claimed to have fired him. Soon after, more Boltonsympathetic stories appeared, suggesting that the national-security adviser had tried to stop Trump from easing sanctions on Iran in a final blowup.

None of this sorry tick-tock matters, of course, except as an indicator of extreme dysfunction. Bolton, whether he was fired or quit, is gone, and that is the part that we will remember. Most accounts have portrayed Bolton’s exit as a policy-driven clash between Trump’s transactional world view and Bolton’s hawkish catechism, suggesting that Trump will now be free to make the deals he so palpably craves with global bad actors, such as North Korea, Iran, and the Afghan Taliban leaders, whose invitation to Camp David and its last-minute revocation last week seems to have been the proximate cause of Bolton’s exit. What it will mean practically is that the President now has one less official to say no to him. Trump’s outside advisers touted this line as they praised Bolton’s ouster. “The world will be a much better place,” Senator Rand Paul, a Trump foreign-policy confidant who has

urged the President to make a deal with the Taliban, said. At Fox News, the prime-time host Tucker Carlson, another unlikely Presidential counsellor, cheered Bolton’s dumping as a “great day for America.”

But infighting as well as ideology appear to have doomed Bolton. Pompeo and Mnuchin smiled so broadly at the press conference where Bolton was to have joined them that they might as well have written Trump’s tweet for him.

“The President is entitled to the staff that he wants,” Pompeo said, adding, cuttingly, “He should have people that he trusts and values, and whose efforts and judgments benefit him in delivering American foreign policy.” When a reporter asked whether Pompeo had been surprised by Bolton’s abrupt departure that day, he grinned again, and responded, “I’m never surprised.” And, indeed, Pompeo’s break with Bolton has been one of the Administration’s central plotlines for some time, a rift not so much about ideology as about their competing views of how to accommodate themselves to a President whose preference for obsequious loyalty over honest counsel is by now well established.

The end of Bolton’s tenure had long been foreshadowed by his growing conflict with Pompeo, who has proved to be a bureaucratic operator with a singular gift for survival in Trump’s orbit, based on a strategy of never, ever publicly disagreeing with the President. In August, as I was reporting on Pompeo for a Profile, it became clear that things between Bolton and Pompeo had worsened significantly. A former White House official with whom I had spoken earlier called me back, to say that Bolton and Pompeo, who were always wary of each other and natural institutional rivals, had now become enmeshed in a “huge personality clash.” The two “are not even on speaking terms,” I was told, “and have to communicate between the N.S.C. and State through intermediaries. They literally don’t even talk to each other.”

The dispute, my source made clear, was not ideological or policy-driven but an “indication of the dysfunction” at the heart of the Trump White House.

“The N.S.C. is no more, there is no process. Bolton had given up.”

The spectacle of the Trump Presidency often overwhelms our ability to process the stakes of any individual episode. But the firing of John Bolton was not just another Washington farce in what the President himself has now started calling, as he did the other day,

on Twitter, “the Age of Trump.”

Bolton’s exit serves as a reminder that the intensive national-security decision-making process of previous Presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, has been abandoned by Trump, subverted to the Presidential ego, and will not return for the duration of his tenure. Just last week, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was asked how he dealt with the Trump Administration’s competing foreign-policy officials and conflicting messages.

“We have one interlocutor—Trump.

Period,” Le Drian replied.

It’s worth remembering that, as all this played out inside the White House, the Taliban almost showed up at Camp David, in time to mark the eighteenth anniversary of 9/11. Bolton, who evidently made his vocal opposition to the idea known to the media in a way that likely hastened his firing, didn’t stop Trump from hosting them. Nor, for that matter, did Pompeo, whose State Department team has been overseeing the talks. In the end, it was only the Taliban’s decision to continue killing American soldiers while simultaneously negotiating with the United States that provided the pretext for Trump to put a stop to his own hastily conceived idea. Trump will now become the only President ever to have had four national-security advisers in three years, but he might as well consider not having one at all.

As the Trump-Bolton breakup unfolded, the biggest story in Washington, meanwhile, had nothing to do with America’s longest war, or the dismantling of its national-security decisionmaking process, or the infighting of its leaders. It was about a hurricane that didn’t come to Alabama, and how Trump claimed in a tweet that it was supposed to. On Monday, the news was all about Trump’s decision to alter a government forecast—with a Sharpie pen—in order to cover for an inaccurate tweet that put Alabama in the path of Hurricane Dorian. After days in the news, the scandal appeared to escalate on Monday afternoon, as the Times reported that Wilbur Ross, the Commerce Secretary, who oversees the weather service, had threatened to fire officials there if they didn’t stand by the President’s false claim.

If Trump knows one thing, it’s how to change a story line. By Tuesday, with Bolton’s sudden firing, Sharpiegate was forgotten. By Wednesday, so was Bolton. The President had moved on, and was hate-tweeting about the “naivete” of another of his appointees, the Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, and his colleagues, whose sin is that they are unfirable by Trump and thus too independent of him. They are all “Boneheads,” the Commander-inChief tweeted, before getting into his limousine and heading to the Pentagon, for a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Susan B. Glasser is a staff writer at The New Yorker.

those rules. He gamed the vulnerability in the system, inveigling the Queen into a potentially unlawful enterprise.

The prime minister could still prove his respect for law by conceding that the prorogation was ill-conceived and seeking its reversal, although that would be out of character. It is revealing that Downing Street’s initial response to Wednesday’s ruling, briefed anonymously, insinuated that a Scottish court might be less reliable than an English one; not impartial on Brexit-related matters. Clarifications were hastily issued, but the damage was done. A trustworthy government does not have to make explicit its belief in the independence of the judiciary and its readiness to uphold the rule of law. But this administration holds fundamental precepts of democracy in contempt. Since Mr Johnson has no respect for the unwritten conventions that underpin the British constitution, he plainly cannot be trusted with the powers afforded by those conventions to the office of prime minister.

Lynching, not murder: On Tabrez Ansari killing SuSpicion that the anSari caSe iS being diluted underScoreS need for anti-lynching law Hindu The decision of the Jharkhand police that the killing of Tabrez Ansari, 24, in June did not amount to murder is quite debatable.

They have chosen to charge the 11 men arrested for his lynching with culpable homicide that does not amount to murder. To the layman, it would seem strange that those who labelled Ansari a thief, tied him to a pole and assaulted him for hours at night, are not going to be prosecuted for murder.

It is not clear if the police are going to include accounts that claim he was forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. This aspect may help establish a clear sectarian motive on the part of the crowd to turn into a lynch mob and attack him. It is known that it was only the arrival of the police that ended the assault on him. That the police have chosen to prosecute them for culpable homicide shows that the causal link between the assault on his person and his death has been established. It is true that the line between culpable homicide and murder is thin. It is the courts that usually assess the circumstances in which a homicide took place and decide whether it amounted to murder or not. Murder is punishable under Section 302 with death or life imprisonment, while forms of culpable homicide attract either a life term or 10 years in prison under Section 304 of the IPC. The official explanation for concluding that it was not murder is unconvincing. The twopronged argument is that the medical report gave the cause of death as ‘cardiac arrest due to stress’, and the fact that the victim did not die immediately, but succumbed some days later. The police also say a second opinion from forensic experts was that the death was caused due to a combination of heart attack and the injuries he suffered. It is quite obvious that merely attributing death to a heart attack is meaningless without referring to the trauma caused by the physical assault. It may not make a legal difference to the prosecution whether the accused are given a life term for murder or mere culpable homicide not amounting to murder. However, invoking only the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder may make it easier for the defence to claim that their offence lacked premeditation or intention. Instead, they could claim that they were deprived of their self-control by the “provocation” given by the victim. The narrative in recent lynching incidents that it was the victim who was at fault may come in for needless reiteration unless the prosecution resolutely makes a case of murder. The suspicion that the charge is being diluted underscores the need for a special anti-lynching law. Such a law could cover acts of group violence, whether spontaneous or planned, so that those who join lynch mobs do not gain from any ambiguity about their intentions.

Friday, 13 September, 2019

FOREIGN NEWS 07

In vIctory for trump, top us court permIts asylum restrIctIons WASHINGTON

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AGENCIES

HE US Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to implement asylum restrictions that prevent most Central American migrants from applying at the US border.

Democrats said the ruling puts people’s lives at risk. The decision — temporarily in effect while lower court proceedings play out — is a victory for Trump’s restrictive immigration policies, which he has made a central pillar of his presidency but which have been repeatedly challenged in court. The top court stayed a decision by a lower court that had blocked the restrictions, which declare ineligible for asylum any migrants who enter the United States from the southern border and who have not asked for asylum protection in any of the countries they crossed to get to there.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissenting from the decision, wrote that: “Once again the Executive Branch has issued

a rule that seeks to upend longstanding practices regarding refugees who seek shelter from persecution.”

“In effect, the rule forbids almost all Central Americans… to apply for asylum in the United States if they enter or seek to enter through the southern border, unless they were first denied asylum in Mexico or another third country,” she wrote.

Trump took to Twitter to hail the move, saying, “BIG United States Supreme Court WIN for the Border on Asylum!” The decision “greatly helps build on the progress we’ve made addressing the crisis at our southern border and will ultimately make American communities safer,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups challenging the asylum restrictions, expressed hope that “we’ll prevail at the end of the day.”

‘LIfE And dEATh’: “The lives of thousands of families are at stake,” Gelernt said in a statement.

Democrats in the House of Representatives made a similar point.

“Lives will be lost. This rule will result in those fleeing fear and persecution to be turned away at our doorstep and will only exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the region,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Zoe Lofgren, who chairs the immigration and citizenship subcommittee, said in a joint statement. “The United States can and must do better.”

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Eliot Engel said that “for many refugees, this is life and death.”

The asylum restrictions target the flow of migrants from Central America and other countries who have tried to cross into the United States from Mexico and request asylum.

These requests — often made by families saying they have fled endemic violence and poverty in their countries — allow the applicants to remain in the United States and to move around freely while their cases are adjudicated, which can take two years. The policy is among a host of measures Trump has

taken in a bid to stem the flow of migrants, including the deployment of troops at the southern border.

Official statistics show the number of people apprehended or declared inadmissible at the southern border has dropped to around 64,000 in August, from more than 144,000 in May. The Pentagon said Tuesday that it will keep up to 5,500 military members at the border for the coming year to help combat illegal immigration.

It has also announced that it would divert $3.6 billion in funds for construction of an anti-migrant wall on the frontier, which Trump repeatedly promised that Mexico would pay for. The diversion of the Pentagon funds to border wall construction was justified under a controversial emergency declaration made by Trump after Congress repeatedly denied the president money for the project. Trump has also pressured Mexico to take action. Mexico said last week that it has slashed undocumented migration to the United States by 56 percent since May, and the steps it has taken have drawn praise from Washington.

In strong rebuke, un slams IsraelI leader's annexatIon vow TEL AVIV: A spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the Israeli leader’s vow to annex the Jordan Valley would be a “serious violation of international law”.

The particularly strong rebuke from the world body follows a chorus of criticism against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his promise to annex the area if he wins re-election next week. In a statement, spokesman Stephane Dujarric also said the pledge would be “devastating” to the potential for peace with the Palestinians. The UN statement comes after Saudi Arabia, a regional power that has grown closer to Israel in recent years, condemned the move.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry also reportedly blasted the step ahead of a meeting between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. AGENCIES

Mugabe's family and govt wrangle over Zimbabwe burial HARARE AGENCIES

Zimbabwe ex-president Robert Mugabe’s family and the government appeared to be deadlocked on Thursday over his final resting place after relatives snubbed a plan for him to be buried at a national monument.

Mugabe died in Singapore last week aged 95, leaving Zimbabweans divided over the legacy of a leader once lauded as a colonial-era liberation hero, but whose autocratic 37-year rule ended in a coup in 2017. After Mugabe’s death, his family and President Emmerson Mnangagwa appeared at odds over burying him at the National Heroes Acre in Harare or at a private ceremony likely in the family homestead of Kutama, northwest of the capital.

“His body will lie in state at Kutama on Sunday night… followed by a private burial — either Monday or Tuesday — no National Heroes Acre.

That’s the decision of the whole family,” his nephew Leo Mugabe told AFP. In a statement, the family accused Mnangagwa of trying to strongarm them into a public funeral against Mugabe’s final wishes.

Some family members are still bitter over Mugabe’s ouster and the role played by Mnangagwa, a long-time ally from their days as guerrilla fighters who eventually turned against him.

Mugabe fired Mnangagwa as first

vice president in 2017 — a move many perceived as an attempt to position his wife Grace to succeed him after nearly four decades of iron-fisted rule.

Soon after, Mugabe was toppled by protesters and the army in what was seen as part of a power struggle within the ruling ZANU-PF party between pro-Mnangagwa factions and Mugabe loyalists siding with his wife Grace.

Mnangagwa, who praised Mugabe as a national hero, sought to downplay any dispute on Thursday, saying he was still in talks with the deceased leader’s wife. “We said we will bury him on Sunday, but how? It will be decided,” Mnangagwa said, addressing mourners at Mugabe’s Blue Roof residence. “The family will have the final say.”

Leo Mugabe said later there was no

feud, claiming only that the funeral would be private for family members only. “The obvious situation we are having here is there’s only one Robert Mugabe,” he told reporters. “They (the family) don’t want you to know where he is going to be buried.”

The former leader had been travelling to Singapore regularly for medical treatment, but his health deteriorated rapidly after his ouster, which allies say left him a “broken soul”.

Mugabe’s body arrived from Singapore on Wednesday at Harare airport, where Mnangagwa and Grace stood together as the former leader’s remains were given an honour guard.

His body is expected be taken to Harare’s Rufaro stadium on Thursday and Friday for a public ceremony.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Cuban former leader Raul Castro and a dozen African presidents, including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, are among those expected to attend Mugabe’s state funeral on Saturday in Harare. Zimbabweans have been split over the death of a man once hailed for ending the former British colony Rhodesia of white-minority rule and bringing more access to health and education to the poor.

“The government should let him be buried at his rural home if that it is what he wanted,” said taxi driver Desire Benhure, 28. “Otherwise he will become a ghost.” The 35,000-seat Rufaro stadium, where the public will be allowed to see the body, is where Mugabe took his oath of office when colonial Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith handed over the reins of the country.

Mugabe hoisted the new Zimbabwe flag and lit the independence flame on April 18, 1980 — bringing hope for a new era after a long insurgency.

But many Zimbabweans will remember his tyrannical leadership and economic mismanagement that forced millions to escape a country crippled by hyper-inflation and shortages of food, drugs and fuel. Mugabe’s legacy is marked by the mass killing of the minority Ndebele people in a military campaign in the early 1980s known as Gukurahundi, which took the lives of an estimated 20,000 alleged “dissidents”.

uk's worst-case nodeal brexit plan warns of food shortages, public disorder LOndOn: The British government’s plans for a no-deal Brexit warn of severe disruption to cross-Channel routes, affecting the supply of medicines and certain types of fresh foods, and say that protests and counter-protests will take place across the country, accompanied by a possible rise in public disorder. The “Operation Yellowhammer” worst-case assumptions published on Wednesday were prepared on Aug. 2, the government said, nine days after Boris Johnson became prime minister, and form the basis of its no-deal planning. The document, which looks at the worst that could happen if Britain leaves the European Union on Oct. 31 without a deal, said public and business readiness for such an outcome would likely be low, in part because of continued political confusion in the run-up to Brexit day. It said lorries could have to wait up to two and a half days to cross the English Channel and British citizens could be subject to increased immigration checks at EU border posts. “Certain types of fresh food supply will decrease,” it said. “There is a risk that panic buying will cause or exacerbate food supply disruption.” It said the flow of traffic across the English Channel could be reduced by as much as 60% on the first day after a no-deal Brexit.

The worst disruption could last for up to three months. AGENCIES

Russia targets opposition leader Navalny with mass raids MOSCOW AGENCIES

Russian investigators on Thursday raided dozens of regional offices of top protest leader Alexei Navalny as well as the homes of his supporters after mass opposition rallies this summer.

Navalny said the raids were the result of Kremlin “hysteria” after allies of President Vladimir Putin suffered major losses in local elections in Moscow on Sunday. Navalny, who had instructed supporters to vote strategically to push out pro-Kremlin candidates, said on YouTube: “Putin got upset and is stomping his feet.”

“That’s what we’re seeing in 41 cities across the whole country,” he added, looking tired and drawn in the video hastily shot on his mobile phone.

He said the raids were being carried out at more than 200 addresses in “the biggest police operation in Russia’s modern history”. Police, investigators, national guard and security services were all involved and seized equipment such as

phones and computers, he said.

Navalny has credited his strategic voting campaign for the ruling party losing almost a third of its seats in elections for Moscow city parliament, writing in a blog entry: “Why such hysteria? Two words: smart voting.”

The charismatic leader said the raids were targeting his network of campaign offices and the homes of campaign coordinators and their relatives, as well as his Anti-Corruption Foundation, which has worked to expose officials’ questionable wealth. Law enforcement agencies have not yet made any official comment on the raids.

Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh accused authorities of trying to deal a “massive blow” to the organisation.

“These raids are an act of intimidation,” she said. “The police’s only goal is to confiscate our material and paralyse our work,” she said, adding: “We won’t stop.” Police targeted activists across the country from Russia’s westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad to the far eastern city of Vladivostok, Navalny’s aides said.

Yarmysh told AFP she had seen a ve-

hicle marked as belonging to the powerful Investigative Committee outside Navalny’s Moscow office but “we don’t have any raids”.

In the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals region, officers wearing masks over their faces and black uniforms without identifying marks prevented anyone from entering the office, local media reported.

The office in the city of Perm, also in

the Urals, reported that operatives climbed through the windows and then pulled the front door down.

The raids came after Russian investigators in August launched a money laundering probe into Navalny’s foundation, which asks for donations from the public, accusing it of taking money that was procured illegally. Russian investigators initially accused the foundation of

laundering one billion rubles ($15.3 million) before lowering the total to 75 million rubles ($1.15 million).

Navalny’s aide Leonid Volkov said on social media that those targeted by raids were being called in for questioning as “witnesses” in the probe and Yarmysh said accounts of coordinators were blocked to the amount of 75 million rubles. Navalny and his supporters organised a wave of protests over the summer after popular opposition politicians were barred from standing in the Moscow parliament election, prompting a police crackdown.

The 43-year-old missed several of the rallies while serving a 30-day jail term for organising previous unauthorised protests.

Since emerging as the Kremlin’s chief critic and a highly effective campaigner and organiser, Navalny has faced a slew of legal action apparently aimed at hindering his activities. “The only way the police state could respond to the mass rallies was with mass raids,” a lawyer for Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation, Alexander Golovach, wrote on Twitter.

Friday, 13 September, 2019

08 COMMENT From judicial activism to active judicialism Proof of the pudding is in the eating

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hE opposition and media have repeatedly raised the two issues of one-sided accountability and media curbs that have become particularly glaring during the last one year of the PTi’s rule. There is a widespread perception that nAB is being used precisely for the media trial of the opposition leaders and for keeping them in jail on one pretext or another. What is more, the once vibrant media is now under chains.

The address delivered by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Justice Asif saeed Khosa, at the opening ceremony of the new judicial year provides encouragement to those affected by the partial and onesided accountability as well as those struggling against unprecedented restrictions on the media. The CJP has reiterated the commitment of the Bench and Bar to constitutionalism, rule of law and democracy with a promise that any attempt made from any quarter to destroy or damage these ideals and principles or to build inroads into them shall be jointly resisted by the Bench and the Bar. The CJP has also taken note of the growing perception about the ongoing accountability being lopsided and a part of political engineering. he maintains that remedial steps need to be taken urgently so that the process does not lose credibility.

The CJP has also mentioned the voices being raised about the muzzling of the print and electronic media and suppression of dissent. he maintains that the constitutionally guaranteed rights of citizens ought never to be compromised for the sake of short-term political or governance advantages. Democracy requires a long-term approach and tolerance for dissent, and without that the system plunges into authoritarianism and we have witnessed plenty of it in the past with disastrous consequences.

One hopes there will be visible changes as a result of the address, making accountability even-handed and impartial. Further that media freedoms will not be encroached upon. What one fears however is that those who matter might consider the CJP’s remarks as no more than a sermon and continue with their malpractices as before. Will the active judicialism, supposedly more effective than judicial activism, come into play then?

The wrong solution Karachi’s woes don’t need new problems

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EDERAL Law Minister Farogh naseem’s loud thinking about the use of Article 149 (4) of the Constitution, for the federal government to take over Karachi has raised concerns among other stakeholders in the provincial metropolis, the PPP-led sindh government whose capital it is, and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, which is controlled by the MQM factor to which Mr naseem himself belongs. While he may be assumed to speak for the federal government, the reaction of sindh Local government Minister saeed ghani, that the PTi federal government could not tolerate the PPP provincial government, indicates how one stakeholder would take such a step.

Karachi has many problems, ranging from plastic waste blocking the city’s drainage, something which has proved quite literally fatal this monsoon, to a piling up of other civic problems. These problems cannot be afforded anywhere, not least in the country’s largest city, its financial and industrial hub, and its most important port.

The federal government should realise that any action it contemplates under Article 149 (4) will merely degenerate in partisan point-scoring rather than solving the megalopolis’ problems, which are myriad.

What is required is that the federal government should act as part of solution, and not be part of the problem. it should act not as a partisan force, but to bring together all the stakeholders so as to work out how the city’s problems are to be solved. The most immediate problem, that of plastic waste, is not just a civic problem, but a harbinger of time to come, as such waste plays an increasingly important role in climate change. That problem will not be tackled by promises such as the Prime Minister made on his recent visit, nor by creating a new problem over who is to run Karachi, but by a lot of thankless backbreaking labour that the federal government alone cannot provide. Besides, it needs to decide whether it is worth it to create another partisan problem, another issue which will divide the entire country, at the juncture, when the country is beset with so many problems both at home and abroad. it is not as if the government has avoided any fights in the past. There is no need for it to add to what is already too long a list for comfort.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Umar Aziz

Asher John

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

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Methods of legislation The GIDC mess here, and the UK’s dissolution woes, don’t show the parliamentary system at its best at Penpoint M.a. NiaZi

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hE problems of parliamentary democracy were to be seen both in Pakistan’s problem with the legislation about the gas infrastructure Development Cess (giDC) and in Westminster’s problems with Brexit, both examples of how the self-correcting mechanism present in parliamentary democracy are being strained to the maximum.

Perhaps the giDC issue, which came up before Pakistan’s senate has less urgency, but it is more illustrative of the problems faced, even 70 years after independence, by a former colony. however, it should be noted that jettisoning the system is not the solution, for even those colonies which have become dictatorships would find the same problems, because the problem is in the methods of legislation.

The giDC mess is the more illustrative because it is not political. The opponents of the regime are not being hounded, nor are any political supporters being benefited. however, the mess was created because the government was taken to court by some companies which objected to paying the giDC when it was imposed. They consistently won, and the payment of the giDC was stayed. The government opted for an out-of-court settlement in which no less than Rs240 billion were to be waived. This needed a piece of legislation. For this, the government did not have a majority in the senate, so it had to issue an ordinance.

Ordinances are supposed to be emergency legislation, to allow the government to take immediate action when Parliament is not in session.

Ordinances can either be left to expire, or serve as bills, being laid in Parliament and then following normal procedure until they are passed as Acts. if a government needs to legislate when Parliament is in session then that is where it will go. however, the convenience of legislating by means of a simple signature meant that parliamentary sessions were so manipulated that ordinances were promulgated the day before Parliament met, or the day after it was prorogued.

Then the practice arose of re-promulgating ordinances just before they were due to expire. The supreme Court took exception to this, and ruled that the government could not do so.

This is particularly relevant in the present case, because if the ordinance expires, then the preceding position (of the companies being liable) will reemerge. it might seem that all the rule of law does is inconvenience the government, while all it does is require that it engage in a little bit of forethought. in the present case, the government has backtracked on the out-of-court settlement, because of the public uproar against the government. if the government had not had a proper

fear of the electorate, could it have got away with the deal? Probably not. since it could not push through the necessary litigation, it would have been left with no choice but to abide by the court decision, an option it has chosen now, approaching the supreme Court to take up the case. it should be noted that the government is in a peculiarly advantageous position as a litigant. it makes the laws according to which the court is to judge. in theory, it is Parliament which makes laws, but in the parliamentary system, the executive power is placed in the hands of whoever commands a legislative majority. it has been recognised that to govern, you sometimes might need to make the law. if you can do so, then no one else can govern. Of course, in presidential systems, the executive and the legislative powers may be separated.

Pakistan has an element, for the senate, which is elected separately from the government, is necessary to legislation, and getting control of the executive by being elected in the national Assembly, as imran Khan is finding out to his cost, does not mean being able to legislate.

The UK had developed a constitutional convention forbidding the house of Lords from voting on money bills, or indeed from preventing the passage of any bill passed by the house of Commons. One element that enforced this was the power of the Prime Minister to create peers.

When Labour first took office in 1924, there were no Labour peers, so the PM had to create four. he chose men who had no heirs, so the title would die with them. now, of course, there are life peers, and there are no hereditary titles created.

More serious for the UK, and the British example of parliamentary democracy, is the inability of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to dissolve.

The British law is that the dissolution request must be approved by a two-thirds majority. since

two-thirds majorities are not achieved in British elections, that means dissolution requires the opposition to back it. Convention says that the opposition does not deny the Prime Minister his wish. Wham! it just did. so, what does the Prime Minister do? Bring legislation allowing him to advise dissolution? he lacks a majority in the house. should the Ministry resign? Who would replace him? Then maybe there should be a dissolution after all. The alternative would be to leave the government to stagger on, but its tenure ends in 2022 (the last general election having been held in 2017).

The politics all seems related to the UK’s exit from the European Union.

Much of the problem has been created by the problem posed by the desire to preserve the good Friday Agreement (which ended barriers between Eire and Ulster), as well as the Union of great Britain and northern ireland.

That is a peculiarly British problem, and serves the Europeans right for getting involved. however, the basic problem of dissolution has been solved in most countries with a parliamentary system. in Pakistan, for example, dissolutions are the PM’s prerogative to advise.

But there seems to be developing a constitutional convention against dissolutions, what with the last three national Assemblies going to full term.

There is a contrast with the presidential system, where the president cannot dissolve the legislature. But then, the president is not a part of that legislature, nor does he derive his office from it. While imran Khan might see positives in a presidential system, in terms of freedom to choose his ministers (something he has pretty much done anyhow). But then, if the parliamentary system is running into problems, it cannot be said that the presidential is in any better shape, not with Donald Trump as Us President.

This is particularly relevant in the present case, because if the ordinance expires, then the preceding position (of the companies being liable) will re-emerge.

It might seem that all the rule of law does is inconvenience the government, while all it does is require that it engage in a little bit of forethought

M.A. Niazi is a member of the staff.

Web of opportunities Why the Web is World Wide MuhaMMad Bilal

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hings have a way of popping up in your mind, like the universe creates stars from dust, so have long ideas been created in a bang. it lights up in the mind for a split of a second, distorting your planes, or we can say terraforming your minds as you go. The internet, a spectacular word at the present, is changing all that connects to it. it has a way of influencing its users that perhaps none could have thought something so inorganic, lifeless or automated could do. The internet, if defined, could be considered a global exchange of data that its users feed into it and the same users convert to information which is of value to them.

A map just formed in my mind which i wanted to share to improve my understanding in ways that i have perceived in the digital age. in this map, the internet is a cloud of data and information, and defining that data is a set of numbers, strings and variables that occupy a storage, Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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and once someone or some user accesses that storage and makes that data in to some conclusive results, it becomes information to us. Therefore, in this case, i am a user of the internet, i leech the information and data, collecting it in my mind in small packets, narrowing down those packets in forms of information that are more comforting and of use to me. i have devised more packets, which automate my tasks, my problems, my solutions and eventually my life. innovation would then be a process in which i make my life around me more comfortable for the very start of it. These small packets and nano-processes, that i have created for myself, somehow creep their way around my family and friends. now i am a nano internet myself to them, the same storage vault on a much smaller scale.

The process repeats and my family and friends make further nanoprocesses for themselves and i being the observer of my processes, eventually tend to find multiple more uses and cases in which life could be made more innovative.

This facade of information

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

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starts to intrigue the i and then the i starts to become a we, as it starts to develop those packets ready for publishing either as data or information in a storage vault known as the internet. Once it uploads, the happening occurs, a happening where the cloud which is the internet grows slightly in size. now imagine, there are other is that repeat the process because that is all what the internet has done as it become real. The storage vault grows in size and impact maybe that’s why there are sub-communities within bigger communities and so on and so forth.

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

– Mother Teresa now let’s imagine once more a third entity known as the viewer comes to the internet with a problem that is dire for him and his community, but to his amazement some other community has already devised a process that tends to at least project the problem’s solution. The viewer in desperate need takes all it has and applies the process to its

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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community. As the process gets applied, it produces results which are then uploaded or shared back into the process. This cycle repeats and it finetunes the process to cater towards the community, and a solution is formed where what was known as an error is just a more catered process to a specific community.

To my dazzled mind, i think, we could rationalise anything once it starts repeating itself, isn’t the universe working on similar principles, just as newton rationalised gravity, he was able to deduce a law which now mankind could exploit, the same can be said for Einstein and countless others. Once we rationalise ‘‘‘this that we call the internet’, many laws governing it could be discovered which does not mean the end of the world through Artificial intelligence. now i find that a bit ridiculous because after newton discovered gravity, the world didn’t end but it started. Maybe we need laws that we discover not laws that we make but rather ‘net neutrality’.

Muhammad Bilal is a freelance columnist.

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Friday, 13 September, 2019

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail

Send your letters to: Letters to Editor, Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah, Lahore, Pakistan.

E-mail: letters@pakistantoday.com.pk Letters should be addressed to Pakistan Today exclusively

No end to the terror

A young Kashmiri’s lament to ISRO Chief The fate of Vikram shows what it means to be out of touch

SultaN MehMood hali

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nDiAn Prime Minister narendra Modi had announced in his independence Day speech 2018 that on the occasion of the nation’s 75th anniversary in 2022, india would send an astronaut into space.

Later, indian space Research Organisation (isRO) Chief K sivan provided details in a press conference, that india would send astronauts into space by December 2021. he elucidated that the preparations for gaganyaan Mission were underway and it would prove to be a major turnaround for india’s space agency. When india successfully launches the mission, it would be the fourth nation to do so after the UsA, Russia and China.

The isRO Chief elaborated that the initial training for gaganyaan would be done in india and advanced training maybe in Russia. he also informed that women astronauts would also be included in the team, while six incubation and research centres would be set up across india. isRO aims to deploy its biggest rocket, the geosynchronous satellite Launch Vehicle Mark iii (gsLV Mk iii), to send the astronauts into space from the sriharikota space port in Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, isRO’s most touted moon mission, Chandrayaan-2 (Moon vehicle 2) lost contact with the control room shortly before touchdown at the lunar south pole a little after midnight india local time on 7 september– a month after it first shot into space. indian television videos depicted a dejected narendra Modi departing after witnessing the failure of the mission and moments later hugging and consoling a sobbing isRO Chief, K sivan., Earlier last week, the 3,200-pound lander, named Vikram after Vikram A sarabhai, the father of the indian space programme, separated

from the orbiter and manoeuvred toward the moon’s surface, but all communications were lost when it was only 2.1 km short of the projected landing point. The vehicle can now be observed lying on the lunar surface, spelling gloom for indian space scientists.

While various reactions have been expressed— cries of dismay from the indian opposition at the country having sunk over $150 million, which could have had alternate uses for alleviating poverty; to messages of ridicule from Pakistan’s Minister of science and Technology, Fawad Chaudhry— yet one letter from a Kashmiri resident of indian Occupied Kashmir (iOK) to the isRO Chief deploring the indian Prime Minister has touched a raw nerve.

The disconsolate Kashmiri youth, addressing Dr sivan, first congratulates the isRO Chief and his team of scientists on their big achievement. he commends them for their hard work and efforts to make Chandrayaan-2 a success and laments the loss of communications contact with Vikram, C h a n d r a y a a n - 2 ’s moon-lander lander, with ground control minutes before it was to land near the south pole of the moon. he believes that the isRO Chief wanted to make his nation proud but goes on to state that he understands how painful and disheartening it is to lose communication when one is so close. speaking metaphorically, the young Kashmiri says that he shares the grief of the isRO Chief scientist, since he too, lost communication with his Moon– his mother, a month ago. his mother resides in Budgam in Jammu and Kashmir, and he hasn’t spoken to her in weeks.

The young Kashmiri tells Dr sivan he is a great scientist and knows how to handle everything, but he still broke down before the Prime Minister. The writer states that it hurts when one loses connection, when one cannot communicate with someone (or something) dear to you. he then sinks in his punchline, when he confesses that he considers the isRO Chief scientist to be lucky that his Prime Minister hugged and consoled him and assured

him that everything would be fine. he draws attention to his own miserable plight that contrarily he himself is so unlucky that it has been more than a month since he lost all communication with his family, yet no one came to console or comfort him.

The young Kashmiri laments that the Prime Minister did not say a single word to people like him, who have been disconnected from their families. Addressing Dr sivan again, the writer says that both the isRO him are sailing in the same boat. isRO is trying to establish communication with the lander Vikram while he has been trying very hard to establish connection with his parents for over a month. he believes that the isRO’s chances of getting connected to the lander are more than his getting connected to his family.

The pathos and grief expressed in the letter would move even the most cold-hearted person, but it falls on the deaf ears of narendra Modi, who is the originator of the latest vicissitude that has befallen the hapless Kashmiris. They continue to languish in a giant penitentiary where the jailors wreak havoc on them, killing, raping and looting them at random. They have their lost their identity, their hopes have been shattered at the altar of the hindutva ambitions, which wants to eliminate the voice of reason and ethnically cleanse india of all minorities and make it a hindu Rashtra (nation).

What is more painful that, apart from Pakistan’s feeble voice, no one is willing to pay heed to the barbaric massacre going on in iOK. The pain gets aggravated when the Muslim Ummah remains oblivious of the suffering of the Palestinians and Kashmiris. The powerful islamic nations continue to trade with india, and embrace and award Modi but remain oblivious of the hindutva cohorts or Zionist barbarians.

The pathos and grief expressed in the letter would move even the most coldhearted person, but it falls on the deaf ears of Narendra Modi, who is the originator of the latest vicissitude that has befallen the hapless Kashmiris

Sultan Mehmood Hali is a retired Group Captain and author of the book Defence & Diplomacy. Currently he is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host.

ThE latest barbaric act post 5th August 2019 is india stripping citizenship from millions of Muslims. All of a sudden, millions of Muslims have been rendered stateless. has india gone mad? One is forced to presume.

The above situation brought back a personal memory of a court case which was not long ago. Back in 2014, i had initiated a complaint against one Rustam s sidhwa born in Delhi, india in 1967. he travelled to Karachi on an indian passport no. B522919 in 1986 and after greasing some palms, Rustam sidhwa became a Pakistani citizen by next year i.e. 1987. This case certainly amazes and raises an eyebrow and certainly qualifies for the guinness Book of World Record for acquiring a citizenship within a year!

But, alas! after three/four years of thorough investigation by the intelligence Agencies / nADRA / interior Ministry / immigration and Passport offices, Rustam sidhwa was declared “Confirmed Alien – indian national” category back in 2014 and was arrested under Foreigners Act14 and was sent packing to Adiala Jail without bail under the watchful eyes of media which gave due coverage to this case. As things work in Pakistan, the clever and confirmed indian citizen contacts one ‘Pir’ nazir Badshah from his Jail Cell. This particular ‘Pir’ happens to be a spiritual friend of a Minister in the then government and on one telephone call the confirmed indian citizen Rustam sidhwa is granted an immediate bail much to the bewilderment of the Judge and everyone else. he now lives freely on bail in Bahria Town, Rawalpindi. i thought to myself and compared the two scenarios: The indian government illegally strips millions of Muslims from their rightful citizenship and our government machinery illegally gives citizenship to a confirmed indian citizen; crime has been committed in both cases.

ISPHANyAR M BHANdARA Rawalpindi

All for the green revolution i often see news of the young climate change activist greta Thunberg aged 16. The fact that she has been raising the voice for green cause and climate change awareness has just started inspiring many countries and people worldwide. i remember her talking and being interviewed on TV recently. As a student, her speech and responsibility for the climate issues have been just overwhelming and as more interesting. Kudos to her and my best wishes on her climate change mission. such interesting things and responsible persons should be encouraged to the greatest extent possible on the international stage. i as a person had been encouraged by such inspiring stories and great people in my native areas like Korkai, Thiruchendur, Marthandam, Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, nagercoil and Kanyakumari in Tamil nadu. Just sincerely enough, i have been pitching for good and beautiful changes on the social front, starting from my places like Korkai, Kanyakumari besides having been a big supporter of agricultural activities that in fact, have been involving my friends and family in Korkai.

P SENTHIL SARAVANA dURAI Mumbai

Modi and India ThE PM of india, Mr Modi is intoxicated by political and economic power and has lost all self-control. he continues his unabated atrocities in occupied Kashmir. he does not care about the Un or international community. he seems oblivious to the facts of history and is lavishly spending on weapons. This is slowly but surely bleeding india’s economy, which was hinted some time ago by past PM and well-known economist Dr Manmohan singh. Modi took unilateral decision to split Kashmir into three states, whereas back in time Un adopted a resolution asking for holding a plebiscite in Kashmir to decide its fate in line with the wishes of people. no power lasts forever, and history is merciless in teaching a lesson to those who don’t listen. The British ruled the subcontinent for over 200 years, but they eventually had to leave. The British Empire, on which the sun did not set is now more of stooge of the Us, towing their line in right and wrong. They still managed to survive much better because of their economic strength. however, time was not that sympathetic to the UssR, which was one of the TWO world powers not too long ago. it forgot that power lied in strong economy, not stockpiles of weapons. UssR was eventually broken leaving the world at mercy of only superpower, the Us. China on the contrary, has risen not because of the weapons they have but because of their economic prowess. Modi must realise that unpleasant history can happen to him, especially if he keeps bleeding india economically and killing people mercilessly. Best thing for Modi is to stop the atrocities in Kashmir, settle the issue as per the wishes of the people and let india and entire region prosper economically. Otherwise, he might face a horrible end and be remembered as one who was responsible for disintegration of india.

RAJA SHAFAATULLAH Islamabad

Friday, 13 September, 2019

10 FOREIGN NEWS

new data shows IsraelI settlement surge In east Jerusalem JERUSALEM

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to crowded, poorly served neighborhoods, with around half the population believed to be at risk of having their homes demolished.

The data was acquired and analyzed by the Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now, which says it only obtained the figures after a two-year battle with the municipality. It says the numbers show that while Palestinians make up more than 60% of the population in east Jerusalem, they have received only 30% of the building permits issued since 1991.

The fate of the city, which is home to holy sites sacred to Jews, Muslims and Christians, is at the heart of the decadesold conflict. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state, while Israel views the entire city as its unified capital. Tensions have soared since Trump recognized Jerusalem as Is-

AGENCIES

EW official data obtained by The Associated Press shows a spike in Jewish settlement construction in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem since President Donald Trump took office in 2017, along with strong evidence of decades of systematic discrimination illustrated by a huge gap in the number of construction permits granted to Jewish and Palestinian residents.

The expansion of Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem, which Israel seized along with the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, threatens to further complicate one of the thorniest issues in the conflict. The refusal to grant permits to Palestinian residents has confined them

rael’s capital in 2017 and moved the U.S. Embassy there, breaking with a longstanding international consensus that the city’s fate should be decided in negotiations.

Trump has argued that his recognition does not preclude a final settlement. But the Palestinians and rights groups say his unbridled support for Israel’s nationalist government has given it a free pass to tighten its grip on war-won lands sought by the Palestinians.

Peace Now found that in the first two years of Trump’s presidency, authorities approved 1,861 housing units in east Jerusalem settlements, a 60% increase from the 1,162 approved in the previous two years. The figures show that 1,081 permits for settler housing were issued in 2017 alone, the highest annual number since 2000. A total of 1,233 housing units were approved for Palestinians in 2017

and 2018, according to Peace Now. Spokesmen for the Israeli government and the municipality did not respond to requests for comment.

The figures are for construction permits issued by the municipality, the final step of a costly bureaucratic process that can take years to complete. The figures show that since 1991, the municipality has issued 21,834 permits for housing units in Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and just 9,536 for Palestinian neighborhoods.

Hagit Ofran, an expert on settlements who collected and analyzed the data, says the discrepancy in permits dates back to 1967, when Israel expanded the city’s municipal boundaries to take in large areas of open land that were then ear-

Indonesia forest fires surge, stoking global warming fears JAKARTA AGENCIES

The number of blazes in Indonesia’s rainforests has jumped sharply, satellite data showed Thursday, spreading smog across Southeast Asia and adding to concerns about the impact of increasing wildfire outbreaks worldwide on global warming.

Illegal blazes to clear land for agricultural plantations have been raging on Sumatra and Borneo islands, with Indonesia deploying water-bombing helicopters and thousands of security forces to tackle them. It is just the latest such outbreak worldwide — huge blazes have torn through the Amazon in South America while bushfires are sweeping across eastern Australia in an unusually ferocious and early start to the wildfire season. Indonesia’s forest fires are an annual problem but have been worsened this year by particularly dry weather, and in recent days sent toxic smog floating over Malaysia and triggered a diplomatic row.

The number of “hotspots” — areas

of intense heat detected by satellite which indicate a high chance of fire — jumped sharply in Indonesia on Wednesday, according to the Singapore-based ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre.

There were 1,619 hotspots detected on the Indonesian part of Borneo and Sumatra up from 861 a day earlier, ac-

china urges us to take steps to ensure north korea talks resume BEIJInG: China urged the United States on Thursday to adopt an approach more conducive to dialogue in response to North Korea’s goodwill in wanting to resume denuclearization talks, and again suggested United Nations sanctions relief be considered for Pyongyang. North Korea said on Monday it was willing to restart nuclear talks with the United States in late September but warned that dealings between the sides could end unless Washington takes a fresh approach.

However, only hours later North Korea fired a new round of short-range projectiles.

Speaking in Beijing, the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said China welcomed North Korea’s recent “positive signals” on resuming talks with the United States. “We would be glad to see North Korea and the United States resuming talks on schedule at the end of the month,” Wang told a joint news conference with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah. Experience shows that for talks to achieve real progress, each side’s core concerns must be addressed, Wang added. “If there are only preconditions made for the other side, or lists drawn up, or even trying to use extreme pressure to get the other side to make unilateral concessions, then this didn’t work in the past and it won’t work now or in the future.” AGENCIES

cording to a tally from the centre, which monitors forest fires and smog outbreaks. Kiki Taufik, a forests campaigner with Greenpeace in Indonesia, told AFP there has been little rain in the past fortnight, particularly on Indonesian Borneo which saw the sharpest increase in hotspots.

Borneo is shared between Indone-

sia, Malaysia and Brunei. Taufik saw similarities between the blazes in Indonesia and those in the Amazon, where farmers also start fires to clear land for agriculture. “This should remind people we are facing a climate crisis,” he said of the recent fires around the world. “Industries are looking to expand plantations using fires.”

And he warned Indonesia’s fires would add to the sprawling archipelago’s climate-damaging emissions, already among the highest in the world.

In 2015 Indonesia suffered its worst forest fires for almost two decades, which dramatically increased its greenhouse gas emissions.

Diplomatic tensions were also rising as Malaysian Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin accused her Indonesian counterpart of being “in denial”, after Jakarta insisted fires in Malaysia had caused the smog there. “Let the data speak for itself,” she said in a Facebook post, indicating figures from the ASEAN centre which showed only a handful of hotspots in Malaysia compared to the hundreds in Indonesia.

2,500 unaccounted for in hurricane-hit Bahamas: official NASSAU

top Indian spice mix recalled in us on salmonella contamination WAShInGTOn: Some batches of a spice mix sold by a top Indian cooking brand were taken off the shelves in the United States for salmonella contamination, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said.

The contaminated lot of MDH’s sambhar powder was distributed in some northern Californian stores, the drug regulator said in a statement late on Wednesday. Sambhar is a southern Indian staple, eaten almost daily in many households. MDH, ubiquitous in Indian kitchens, is known for selling various spice mixes that are key to Indian cooking. The family-run company did not immediately respond to phone calls and emails seeking more details. “The recall was initiated after it was discovered by the FDA that the salmonella contaminated products were distributed,” the statement said. It was not immediately clear if the recall was voluntary, or what the source of the contamination was. No illnesses had yet been reported in connection with this problem, the regulator said. The salmonella bacteria can cause serious and severe infections, especially in children or elderly people and others with weak immune system. Illnesses usually last four to seven days and most people recover without treatment, according to the FDA. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India did not immediately respond to a query about possible local checks. AGENCIES

beijing to exit 200 most polluted cities list

AGENCIES

About 2,500 people are unaccounted for in the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian, the archipelago’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said Wednesday. NEMA spokesman Carl Smith told reporters that some of the missing people may eventually be located.

“At this point, there are approximately 2,500 individuals registered on the Bahamian government register (of missing people),” Smith said.

“This list has not yet been checked against government records of who is staying in shelters or who have been evacuated,” he said. “Some individuals who have been evacuated from Abaco and Grand Bahama have not yet registered with social services,” Smith said. “As we are able to crossreference our data sets, we will be able to inform family members and reunite survivors with loved ones.”

Approximately 76,000 people were affected by Dorian, the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said, citing official reports. Of these, thousands have been evacuated and about 860 are in emergency shelters in the capital city of Nassau.

At least 50 people died in the hurricane, which slammed into the northern Bahamas as a Category 5 storm, and officials have said they expect the number to rise significantly. “We’re not going to speculate on what the final numbers will be,” Smith said. “We understand that people are concerned and so are we.”

The NEMA spokesman said more than 5,500 people have been evacuated so far from the northern Bahamas islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco, which were devastated by the storm. He said that over the past day or so there had been a “significant reduction,” however, in the

marked for Jewish settlements. At the same time, city planners set the boundaries of Palestinian neighborhoods, preventing them from expanding.

“In the planning vision of Jerusalem there was no planning for the expansion of Palestinian neighborhoods,” she said, adding that the government has initiated almost no construction in those neighborhoods, placing the burden of planning and permits entirely on the residents themselves. Today, around 215,000 Jews live in east Jerusalem, mostly in built-up areas that Israel considers to be neighborhoods of its capital. Most of east Jerusalem’s 340,000 Palestinian residents are crammed into increasingly overcrowded neighborhoods where there is little room to build.

numbers of people seeking to leave.

“Everybody left and they shouldn’t have left. Unfortunately, because we need many hands here to work,” said Rhonda Hull, a lawyer, standing near the water’s edge and its shredded palm trees.

“But people will come back.”

With a truck on its side behind him, Irvin Russell said he loves “his island” and has to stay to see it rebuilt. “This is just a bump in the road. It’s a big one, but Abaconians they are fighters, they will rebuild,” he said. Smith said that permission was being given to resume commercial flights to Abaco on a “limited basis,” but priority would be given to relief and evacuation flights. The NEMA spokesman said Abaco’s power grid had suffered extensive damage. “Marsh Harbour power station was completely destroyed,” he said of the largest town on the island of more than 15,000 people. An official with Bahamas Power and Light Ltd said electricity to the south of Abaco could be restored in about three weeks but it may be a few months before the rest of the island gets power. Dorian likely caused between $3.5 and $6.5 billion in insured damages in the Caribbean.

CMYK

BEIJInG: Beijing’s notoriously bad air quality has improved in recent years and the Chinese capital is expected to drop out of a list of 200 most polluted cities in the world this year, a data provider said Thursday.

Beijing “is on track” to reduce PM2.5 — tiny particles that are the deadliest air pollutants — by nearly 20 percent this year compared to 2018, Swiss air purification technology company IQAir’s research arm AirVisual said. The average hourly PM2.5 readings in the smog-choked Chinese capital fell to 42.6 micrograms per cubic metre of air in the first eight months of 2019, down from 52.8 for the same period last year.

“Compared to a decade earlier, the difference is even more striking,” the report said.

“The PM2.5 concentrations in the first eight months of 2019 was less than half that of the same period in 2009.” The annual average PM2.5 concentration reached an eye-watering 104.0 in 2010. It began a steady decline in 2013. But the current levels are still four times higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization. The tiny particulate matter can lodge deep in the lungs and cause respiratory ailments, lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases. AGENCIES

Friday, 13 September, 2019

BUSINESS 11

GovT DeCiDes To reConsTiTuTe sArmAyA PAkisTAn LimiTeD ISLAMABAD

Car sales plunge 42pc in August Pakistan's auto industry sold 10,222 units in the second month of the fiscal year 2019-20 (FY20), down 42pc on a yearly basis, as the demand continued to suffer following the exorbitant increase in car prices (inclusive of the revised FED) announced in July. According to details, August was the slowest month for auto sales since Dec 2012. However, August had lower working days due to Eid holidays, which may have further contributed to this decline. Reminiscent to the previous month, the sales of Honda Atlas Cars (HCAR) suffered the most, declining by 67pc in Aug 2019, as compared to the same month last year. HCAR is more vulnerable to interest rates owing to its higher mix of autofinancing sales. On the other hand, Pak Suzuki (PSMC) fared better than its peers. The sales were down by 24pc in Aug 2019 as compared to Aug 2018 mainly due to the presence of its latest model, Alto. Other than Alto, sales were down by 63pc. The unit sales of Indus Motors (INDU) contracted by 57pc in Aug 2019 with major drag coming from the sales of Corolla. As per media reports, INDU would likely replace Corolla Gli/Xli with its Yaris sedans.

Meanwhile, tractor sales dipped by 37pc on a yearly basis owing to poor farmer- related policies and higher prices.

According to Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Association (PAMA), the sale of 2-3 wheelers dropped 10pc on a yearly basis but recovered 13pc on a monthly basis.

Experts believe that the sharp volumetric decline in sales may continue until the end of this year. BUSINESS DESK

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GHUlAM ABBAS

FTER the resignation of almost all private members of the Sarmaya Pakistan Limited (SPL), the government has decided to reconstitute the SPL board as it finally seems serious in reviving the loss-making state enterprises.

As per the official statement of the Ministry of Finance, a proposal to reconstitute the SPL Board, along with names and details of proposed loss-making organisations, would be submitted to prime minister soon.

In a meeting, chaired by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, it was decided that a new list of loss-making state enterprises, which could benefit from active supervision and guidance of the SPL's professional management, would be submitted to the prime minister through the Cabinet

Committee on State-Owned Enterprise in the coming weeks.

On improving the governance structure of SOEs and the role of SPL, the adviser emphasised that immediate attention is required to contain the losses in a number of SOEs, adding that better governance and active supervision would bring considerable improvements on this front.

Noted economists and financial experts, including Shaukat Tareen and Zubyr Soomro, as well as senior officers of the Finance Division, were also present on the occasion. The decision to revive SPL was made at a time when almost all private members of the SPL Board had resigned.

It is pertinent to mention that the government had earlier appointed eight members from the private sector as SPL directors. These included Musharraf Hai, Kamran Mirza, Nadeem Babar, Zubyr Soomro, Atif Aslam Bajwa, Ehsan Malik, Waqar Malik and Badar Sadat. Besides, the government had also nominated three senior govern-

ment officials, including the industries and finance secretaries, as board members.

As per the sources, the resignations were tendered as the former directors found the government to be uninterested in reviving the SOEs. "The second meeting of SPL couldn’t be held even after a lapse of several months,” they added.

The SPL, which was formed after the cabinet's approval on similar lines to Malaysian and Singapore, could not produce anything meaningful since the change of face at the finance ministry.

Former finance minister Asad Umar, even before the elections, was reportedly interested in reviving the cash-bleeding organizations like Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Railway and Pakistan Steel Mills. However, sources said, Dr Hafeez Shaikh is “more interested in privatising the SOEs instead of making efforts for their revival”.

As per the objective and design of SPL, all public sector enterprises are supposed to come under this one company.

ABAD, CDC sign accord for digitalisation of land record KARACHI: The Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) and Central Depository Company Pvt Ltd (CDC) on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for digitalisation of land records through Land Repository System. ABAD Vice Chairman Abdul Kareem Adhia and CDC CEO Badiuddin Akber signed the MoU, which was witnessed by ABAD Chairman Muhammad Hassan Bakshi, CDC Chairman Moin M Fudda, ABAD Senior Vice Chairman Anwar Dawood and Southern Region Chairman Ibrahim Habib.

Addressing the ceremony, Moin M Fudda congratulated ABAD for undertaking such a gigantic task. He said that electronic registration of land documents would help abolish possibilities of fraud and corruption. "This system will not only help the purchaser of property but will also ensure growth of the national economy, as it will abolish corrupt practices prevalent in the offices of registrars," the CDC chairman said, adding that almost 60pc of cases in various courts are related to land frauds.

He pointed out that every third person in Sindh has been a victim of land fraud and that the new electronic registration system (Land Repository System) will eliminate such impediments. ABAD Chairman Muhammad Hassan Bakshi said that the association has been striving to promote legal and bona fide construction activities in Pakistan. "Despite accusations of fraud against the builders, 98pc of ABAD members are doing their business legitimately," he maintained. Bakshi lamented that the ABAD members are being wrongly accused of illegal construction activities. "More than 5,000 buildings are being constructed illegally and without any approval of competent authority while all members of ABAD are getting approvals before starting construction activities," he added. He said that Advisor to Sindh Chief Minister Murtaza Wahab had promised to lend complete support for the legislation of the new land registration system. STAFF REPoRT

ISLAMABAD: A vendor displays colourful toys to attach children to his roadside setup near F10. oNlINE

SBP reserves jump $182m to stand at $8.46bn Toyota tests solarpowered Prius in quest for plugless electric car BUSINESS DESK

The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan increased 2.2pc on a weekly basis, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday.

On September 6, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $8,462.3 million, up $181.8 million compared with $8,280.5 million in the previous week. The central bank cited official inflows as reason for the increase in reserves.

The overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including

net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $15,751.7 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,289.4 million.

Pakistan received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9, which helped bolster the reserves. Previously, the reserves had jumped on account of $2.5 billion in inflows from China.

Over time, the declining reserves have forced the central bank to let the rupee depreciate massively, sparking concern about the country’s ability to finance a hefty import bill as well as meet debt obligations in coming months.

US flags Huawei 5G network security concerns to Gulf allies DUBAI AGENCIES

The United States has raised its concerns with Gulf allies over a possible security risk in using Huawei’s technology for their 5G mobile infrastructure, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

Washington has been warning allies against using the Chinese company’s equipment, which it says presents a security risk, but has so far has largely made public comments to European states.

Huawei has repeatedly denied the US allegations, which were raised last week during a visit by

Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, all of which are using its equipment.

“We shared a ... message about the importance of securing 5G technology and applying risk based security principles,” Robert Strayer, the US State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for cyber, international communications and information policy said on Thursday.

Washington says Huawei could be exploited by Beijing and has threatened to cut off intelligencesharing with nations that use its equipment. China and Huawei deny

the claims.

Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet while the UAE hosts American soldiers supporting US military operations in the region.

Washington has said it plans to station soldiers in Saudi Arabia as part of a wider deployment in the region.

“We think that when you apply a security based framework, one would end up excluding Huawei from deployments of 5G,” Strayer, who was with Pai on the visit to the region, told reporters in a telephone briefing.

Bahrain’s Telecommunications Minister Kamal bin Ahmed Mohammed told Reuters in March that Huawei had met the Gulf state’s stan-

dards and that it had no concerns.

Saudi and UAE officials have not commented on the US-Huawei issue. A source familiar with the matter has told Reuters that the Emiratis believe they can manage the risk.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain also use 5G equipment made by other technology companies, which Pai said showed that Huawei was not the only option for countries who want to take a lead in rolling out next-generation 5G mobile networks.

“I think that was ... important for our allies in the Gulf to hear,” Pai said.

TOKYO AGENCIES

Inspired by new ultra-thin solar panels developed for satellites, a project led by Toyota Motor Corp is experimenting with a sun-powered Prius that it hopes will one day require no plugging in. In the Japanese government-funded demonstration project, Toyota engineers fitted solar panels designed by Sharp Corp to the hood, roof, rear window and spoiler to see how much juice the sun can generate. The electricity from the panels goes directly to the drive battery, so the Prius can charge while moving or when parked. On a good day, the charge can be sufficient for up to 56 kilometres (35 miles) of travel, more than the 47 kilometres driven a day by the average American, according to a study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. But the performance drops off quickly if it is cloudy or even when it’s too hot. If used in real-world driving in those conditions, the Prius would have to be plugged in to recharge. The solar cells are super-slim – just 0.03 millimetres, making them malleable enough to form-fit to the body of a car. The engineers needed to create a buffer between the car and the cells to protect them, so the actual solar panel modules are closer to a centimetre thick. The trunk of the car is filled with batteries for the solar panels, adding an extra weight of around 80 kilograms (180 lb). Making the entire package lighter and bringing down the extremely high costs are among the biggest challenges for the technology, said Satoshi Shizuka, Toyota’s lead engineer on the project, adding that commercialisation likely remained “years away”.

Friday, 13 September, 2019

12 BUSINESS Google agrees to $550m fine in france to settle fiscal fraud probe PARIS: Google agreed to pay a 500 million euro ($548 million) fine in France to settle a fiscal fraud probe that began four years ago, the financial prosecutor’s office said on Thursday. French investigators have been seeking to establish whether Google, whose European headquarters are based in Dublin, failed to pay its dues to the state by avoiding to declare parts of its activities in the country. Google, part of Alphabet Inc, pays little tax in most European countries because it reports almost all sales in Ireland. This is possible thanks to a loophole in international tax law but it hinges on staff in Dublin concluding all sales contracts. "(The agreement allows) to settle once for all these past disputes," said Antonin Levy, one of Google’s lawyers, at a hearing in the Paris court. AGENCIES

weekly inflation dips 0.24pc ISLAMABAD: The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI)-based weekly inflation for the combined consumption group, as on Sept 5th, decreased by 0.24pc when compared with the previous week. The SPI for the week under review in the abovementioned group was recorded at 124.28 points, as against 124.58 points registered in the previous week, according to the data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Thursday. Meanwhile, the SPI for the lowest consumption group (up to Rs17,732) witnessed a decrease of 0.17pc, from 126.84 points to 127.06 points. The weekly SPI with base 2015-16=100 covered 17 urban centres and 51 essential items of all expenditure groups. As compared to the corresponding week of last year, the SPI for the combined consumption group in the week under review witnessed an increase of 16.55pc, while for the lowest group, it increased by 13.88pc. The SPI for the consumption groups from Rs17,733 to Rs22,888 witnessed a nominal increase of 0.07pc, while that for consumption groups from Rs22,889 to Rs29,517, Rs29,518 to Rs44,175 and above Rs44,175 per month, it decreased by 0.02pc, 0.14pc and 0.40pc respectively. During the week under review, average prices of 10 items registered a decrease, while that of 24 items prices increased with the prices of 17 items remaining unchanged. The prices of commodities that recorded a decrease in their prices during the week under review included bananas, petrol, tomatoes, LPG cylinder, diesel, eggs, sugar, pulses (mash, moong) and rice (irri-6). The items that recorded an increase in their average prices included tea (packet), chicken, garlic, onions, pulse (masoor), potatoes, lawn, long cloth, wheat flour, gur, milk (powdered), cooking oil, cooked daal, mustard oil, mutton, pulse (gram), cooked beef, vegetable chillies (powder), vegetable ghee (tin), firewood, milk (fresh), curd and rice (basmati broken). APP

seCP registered 1,187 companies in August ISLAMABAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) had registered 1,187 new companies in August 2019, out of which 94pc companies were registered online through eServices, while 52pc companies were registered within the same day. The August registrations have raised the number of total companies to 104,030, a statement issued by SECP on Thursday read. According to the commission, the increasing trend in the registration of new companies is due to simplified and hassle-free procedures for company incorporation. Out of the total number of companies registered in August, 71pc were registered as private limited companies, 26pc as single-member companies and 3pc as public unlisted companies, not for profit associations, trade organisations, foreign companies and limited liability partnership (LLP). The trading sector took the lead with 192 companies, followed by services with 148, construction with 132 and IT with 120. As many as 595 companies were registered in tourism, real estate development, education, food and beverages, engineering, corporate agricultural farming, marketing and development, chemical, mining and quarrying, textile, pharmaceutical, transport, fuel and energy, healthcare, auto and allied, communication, logging and power generation sectors. APP

‘PAkisTAn Desires To mAke eThioPiA A GATewAy To AfriCAn exPorTs’ PM’S ADVISER SAYS COMMERCE MINISTRY WILL SOON OPEN A COMMERCIAL SECTION IN PAKISTAN'S EMBASSY IN ADDIS ABABA ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPoRT

high-power delegation from Ethiopia, led by State Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Markos Tekle and State Minister for Trade and Industry Misiganu Arega, met Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood in Islamabad on Thursday.

The adviser appreciated the warm, historic and brotherly relations between the two countries and expressed his desire to make the trade relations commensurate with the political relations.

The Ethiopian delegation, which also comprised of leading businessmen and traders, referred to the meeting held between the prime ministers of both countries on the sidelines of the 2nd Belt and Road Forum in April this year and reiterated the desire to upgrade political, trade,

ETHIOPIAN MINISTER SAYS HIS COUNTRY IS MULLING TO START ETHIOPIAN AIR FLIGHTS TO/FROM KARACHI

commercial and people-to-people contacts.

The adviser warmly reciprocated the sentiments of the Ethiopian side and stressed the need to boost bilateral trade volume.

Dawood highlighted the export potential of Pakistan in various sectors, including engineering goods, sugar, rice, agro-processed products, surgical, pharmaceutical and sports goods.

"Under the ministry's 'Look Africa' Policy, Pakistan desires to make Ethiopia, being a member of COMESA –headquarter of African Union and African Continental FTA – a hub of its exports to Africa," the adviser stated.

He further informed the delegation that his ministry will soon open a commercial section in Pakistan's Embassy in Addis Ababa so as to develop linkages between the businesses of the two countries.

Speaking on the occasion, the Ethiopian foreign minister welcomed the initiative and as-

PM gives in-principle approval to construction sector as ‘industry’ BUSINESS DESK Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday declared the construction sector as an industry by giving an in-principle approval, Radio Pakistan reported.

The approval was given in a meeting attended by Special Assistant to PM on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Board of Investment Chairman Syed Zubair Gillani, Housing Secretary Dr Imran Zeb and Naya Pakistan Housing Authority (NPHDA) Chairman Lt Gen (r) Anwar Ali Hyder.

NPHDA Chairman Lt Gen (r) Anwar Ali Hyder briefed the prime minister about steps being taken to address policy issues and to ensure simplification of procedures, easy access to comprehensive information, abolishment of unnecessary approvals, compliance of zoning and development bylaws, utilisation of technology and lawful use of discretionary powers, particularly during inspections.

The NPHDA chairman also presented short, medium and long-term roadmaps to improve business regulations in the construction sector. He said that latest technology is being introduced to ensure transparency in the construction industry.

"In the first phase, land record will be digitalised in big cities," he stated, adding that all the land in the country would be digitised under the long-term plan.

He said this process would ensure online availability of land record, besides addressing most of the land-related matters.

The Captial Development Authority chairman on the occasion briefed the prime minister about the Automated Client Service Centre being launched in the federal capital.

He said the introduction of this service would not only facilitate the residents of the federal capital regarding CDA-related matters, but also help keep a check on corruption and other illegal practices in the authority.

SBP to announce monetary policy on 16th BUSINESS DESK The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will announce its monetary policy on Monday (Sept 16th), said a statement issued by the central bank.

"The SBP’s monetary policy committee will meet on Monday in Karachi to decide about the monetary policy and it will issue the

policy statement through a press release on the same day," the statement added.

Last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan had met SBP Governor Dr Reza Baqir to deliberate upon the growing unease over adverse implications of the tightened monetary policies that had started hurting the economic activities.

The meeting took place

four days after the prime minister was apprised by his economic managers about the adverse implications of tight monetary policies on job creation and other economic activities.

The prime minister was informed that the business community had clearly said it was difficult for them to do business at the prevailing interest rates.

sured of complete support for the opening of the new office. He also announced that his country will soon open its embassy in Islamabad.

The Ethiopian trade minister expressed keen interest in exporting pulses, black tea, high-quality sesame seed and oilseeds to Pakistan.

He informed that his ministry is working on the commencement of Ethiopian Air flights to/from Karachi and expressed keen interest in hiring technical experts from Pakistan in the field of engineering, pharmaceutical and IT sectors.

Both sides emphasised that in order to translate brotherly relations into meaningful economic and trade cooperation, frequent engagements at government-to-government and business-to-business level will be ensured.

They also agreed to remove impediments in the area of technical/SPS regulations, visa facilitation and finalization of memorandums of understanding on trade relations.

Jazz, usf to bridge digital divide in south waziristan Continuing its partnership with Jazz to develop cellular access in underserved regions, the Universal Service Fund (USF) has awarded a new contract worth Rs90 million to the leading digital communications company. This contract has been awarded under the Broadband for Sustainable Development Project in South Waziristan. In this regard, a signing ceremony took place between USF CEO Haaris Mahmood Chaudhary and Jazz Chief Corporate and Enterprise Officer Syed Ali Naseer. IT & Telecom Dr Minister Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui was the chief guest on the occasion. As part of the deal, Jazz will work towards providing cellular access to the people of South Waziristan. The idea is to provide reliable and cheap cellular services across the country, particularly in remote areas. Speaking at the ceremony, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui acknowledged USF for launching multiple projects for the socio-economic uplift of people living in the unserved and underserved areas of Pakistan. In order to take this further, USF would now be paying special focus on empowering the people of South Waziristan through its projects, he added.

“Unfortunately, the locals in South Waziristan had been victims of terrorism in the past and now deserve all the opportunities they were not able to avail earlier,” the minister maintained. Through this project, he said, services would be provided to a population of 0.64 million people. The USF CEO said that all these achievements made by USF had only been possible due to the constant efforts of the government, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan, IT Minister Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and USF board of directors had been torchbearers of the vision for a “Digital Pakistan” and had enabled USF to transform the lives of people of the country. Talking about the initiative, Jazz official Syed Ali Naseer said, “Our collaboration with USF is in line with our agenda of bridging the prevalent digital divide. This is why the project has special significance for us and in due time over 0.64 million residents of these areas will have access to the country’s fastest mobile services.” BUSINESS DESK

Market Daily

Stocks extend rally, KSE-100 closes 591 points higher KARACHI STAFF REPoRT

Bulls dominated the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) for the second consecutive session of the week, as the indices extended gains from the preceding session amid increased market participation.

According to analysts, the recentlyconducted Asia Pacific Group’s meeting in Bangkok gave positive signals to the market that up till now, Pakistani government’s efforts were moving in the right direction and its plans to counter and curb money laundering had proved fruitful.

Another soothing factor for the market is the monetary stance, which is seen

INVESTORS REMAIN OPTIMISTIC ABOUT FATF REVIEW, MONETARY POLICY ANNOUNCEMENT to maintain a status quo as the interest rate has now peaked off. The speculations over a softening or maintenance of monetary policy stance by the State Bank of Pakistan gained momentum after a change of weights in consumer price index (CPI) calculation mechanism that led to an ease in inflation figures.

“The stock market made appreciable gains on a rise in crude oil prices, which helped rally local oil and exploration stocks, while with heavy weightage in the index, oil and gas stocks helped boost

share prices,” Salman Ahmad, head of institutional sales at Aba Ali Habib Securities, said.Accumulating 891.85 points, the KSE-100 Index marked its intraday high of 31,846.68. The index settled higher by 591.78 points at 31,546.61.

The KMI-30 Index gathered 1,019.22 points to end at 49,462.26, while the KSE All Share Index appreciated by 321.23 points, closing the session at 23,050.83. Of 346 active scripts, 142 advanced, 184 retreated, and 20 did not budge at all.

The overall volumes increased by 86pc to 185.84 million. Worldcall Telecom (WTL +15.29pc), K-Electric Limited (KEL +4.91pc) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF +2.55pc) remained the top picks of the day. The scripts had exchanged 18.33 million shares, 11.77 million shares and 11.06 million shares respectively.

The banking sector (+179.10 points), fertilizer sector (+110.81 points) and cement sector (+75.45 points) helped the KSE-100 Index stay in the green zone.

Among the companies, Bank AL Habib Limited (BAHL +49.49 points), Lucky Cement Limited (LUCK +47.92 points) and Fauji Fertilizer Company Limited (LUCK +41.83 points) remained the top

contributors to the index.

Hub Power Company Limited (HUBC +1.71pc) declared its financial results for FY19. The company’s revenue declined by 53pc, finance cost surged by 121pc, while earnings per share declined from Rs7.15 in FY18 to Rs6.70 in FY19.

Similarly, the EPS of Amreli Steels Limited (ASTL +5.91pc) dropped by 98pc, from Rs5.34 in FY18 to Rs0.11 in FY19.

Meanwhile, Good Luck Industries Limited (GIL -1.95pc), in its financials for FY19, announced a final cash dividend of Rs3.35. The company’s sales inched up by 6pc, while EPS increased from Rs8.25 in FY18 to Rs13.72 in FY19.

LADY AND THE TRAMP

FROZEN 2

ONWARD

Say hello to the very first original Disney movie coming to the Disney+ streaming service. Starring Tessa Thompson and Justin Theroux as the voices of the titular pair of canines, this live-action remake has a wholesome story lying at its core.

let it Go' probably still hasn't left your head, but it's time for the sequel to start burrowing some more earworms down into your very soul. frozen 2 even has a trailer, too, which details Elsa's plight. anna, Olaf, Sven, and Kristoff will all attempt to help the Disney Princess as she struggles to come to terms with her power. Expect toe-tapping tunes, gorgeous animation and, if the trailer below is anything to go by, a story that will rival the very best Disney has to offer.

Pixar isn’t stopping with Toy Story 4. Their next animated adventure is Onward, a movie about a storybook world that’s rapidly losing its magic. Surreal sights such as unicorns and mermaids are being weighed down by the mundane nature of everyday life. Tom holland and Chris Pratt star as a pair of elven brothers who are on the hunt for that lost fairytale feeling. The trailer shows Pixar hasn’t lost the magic touch when it comes to making vibrant worlds teeming with life and laugh-a-minute visual gags.

The moST anTicipaTed new diSney movieS of 2019 and beyond MARY POPPINS RETURNS 2

HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

The all-singing, all-dancing aspect of Mulan is gone, and red dragon Mushu is Mia, but Mulan's trailer captures all the spirit of the original. Yifei liu stars as Mulan, while the likes of Donnie Yen and Jet li will also play a part in the Mulan live-action remake.Yes. it's a remake, but not as you know it. Your memories of the 1998 animated movie will thankfully be left intact as Disney's 2020 take is going to take more than a few cues from the original source material, the Ballad of Mulan. Judging by the trailer, that means a more authentic look, plus vibrant colours that shimmer on the screen.

Mary Poppins Returns only arrived at the end of 2018, but that hasn't stopped it being a huge hit. it raked in over $260 million worldwide in its first month, so it doesn't come as much of a surprise that there's already a sequel in the works. according to director Rob Marshall, speaking to The Sun, the sequel is in the "early stages" of development. "it is early stages but i will say right now that there were eight books, so there's a lot of great material still to mine.

That's what we worked from, those incredible eight books of P.l Travers. So, you know…" said Marshall. looks like we're going to see a lot more of Mary Poppins. Potentially seven movies more.

another live-action remake is joining the ranks of the new Disney movies on the horizon, and it's been confirmed that M. Butterfly playwright David henry hwang is on board to direct this adaptation of the 1996 animated film, hunchback of Notre Dame. according to a report from Deadline, Josh Gad may be in line to play the lead, but no solid casting decisions have been made just yet. in terms of how it'll play out, the film apparently simply called hunchback - will pull from both the animated film and the original Victor hugo novel. apart from that details are light, so we'll have to wait a little longer to find out more about this particular Parisian adventure.

HOLLYWOOD BOLLYWOOD

MULAN

SAIF ULLAH KASHMIRI ON A MISSION

S

aifullah Kashmiri, a 42 years old motorcyclist, is on a mission to change our rotten habits through his example. he is touring the country from Khunjerab to Gwadar on his trusty motorcycle and on his way, he is determined to clean as much of the garbage as possible. One man, doing everything he can to make us realize that we are destroying our country.

Saif ullah Kashmiri after completing cleaning drive at Rattigali lake, he's surely a role model for all the tourists visiting northern areas.

Saif-ullah Kashmiri is one such person who has been on a campaign all over Pakistan since past eleven months.

This campaign is regarding a clean a green Pakistan. he is travelling all over the country on his motorbike, cleaning the trash from public places in different cities. he started from his hometown near Chham Waterfall in azad Jammu and Kashmir. The places he has cleaned up ever since includes Khunjrab Pass, Deosai National Park, Babusar Top, Khybar Pass and many more. after the mountains, Saif-ullah came down to cities and have launched such self supported initiatives in cities like Gujrat, Gujranwala, Muridke and lahore.

Saif-ullah now plans to start a nation wide campaign for awareness regarding cleanliness and plantation of trees. he plans to go from islamabad to Karachi to Gawadar to Quetta and other cities. Saif-ullah Kashmiri declares his determination of giving a clean and green Pakistan to our younger generations. amidst the current times of turmoil, our country needs more people like Saif-ullah who care enough about important things such as environment so much so that he started cleaning up public places on his own. Such ‘unpopular’ steps are essential so that our up coming generations don’t blame us for messing up our country on issues like cleaning too.

Terminator: Dark Fate Tracking Soft At Box Office

Kartik Aaryan does a Nick Jonas, holds umbrella for Sara Ali Khan at the gym

Ayushmann Khurrana may gift himself his highest opener this birthday

industry estimates for the Terminator: Dark fate tracking at the box office are not good, but at least the flick is said to open better than its disappointing predecessor, Genisys. it's being said that Terminator: Dark fate will have an opening weekend of around $35 - 45 million, which, while better than Genisys' $27 million from 2015, isn't that good for a film with a budget of around $155-$200 million, plus marketing expenses.

Worth a mention is that none of the Terminator films had huge opening weekends in the u.S., as when inflation is accounted for: T2 opened to near $60 million, T3 with over $61.3 million, and Terminator Salvation opened to $62 million for its four day Memorial Day weekend. These numbers are a far cry from films with similar budgets, especially the superhero flicks.

T2 ended up doing well because it had legs, meaning word of mouth was big, but the other flicks petered out and settled to around a $400-500 million box office, again with the foreign gross being the major factor (though i did really like Terminator Salvation).

actor Sara ali Khan and Kartik aaryan continue to make headlines, weeks after wrapping up their film, the love aaj Kal sequel. The two were spotted at the gym together on Thursday.

While Sara already looked drenched in a white top and black shorts, Kartik, dressed in a black tee and track pants, was seen walking with an umbrella over her to shield her from the rain.

Earlier, american singer Nick Jonas was seen holding an umbrella for wife Priyanka Chopra ahead of their debut joint appearance at the Cannes film festival in May. Kartik and Sara are rumoured to be in a relationship as they continue to visit each other on sets and spend time together. They also frequently see off and receive each other at airports.

Sara had even flown to meet Kartik in lucknow, where he was shooting for Pati Patni aur Woh. he will be seen romancing ananya Panday and Bhumi Pednekar in the film. Kartik had also joined Sara’s brother, ibrahim ali Khan, to cheer for her at the fDCi india Couture Week where she walked the ramp for designer duo falguni and Shane Peacock.

actor ayushmann Khurrana may soon deliver the consecutive sixth hit of his career with Dream Girl, in which he plays a man capable of speaking in a girl’s voice. The actor has already received positive reviews from a few celebrities and filmmakers who have given his onscreen character Pooja a thumbs up. ayushmann is also set to celebrate his 35th birthday on Saturday, a day after the film’s release. looking at the buzz for the film, he is expected to gift himself his biggest opener ever as film trade analyst Girish Johar predicts an opening of Rs 8 - 10 crore on friday.

Talking about the commercial prospects of the film, Girish told hindustan Times, “ayushmann has been going through a perfect growth phase, he has been picking the right stories and is doing different kind of story telling. The best part about the film is that he is telling the story in a very clean, quirky, comical way, which an entire family can watch together. The audience loved the trailer and the expectations from the film are very high. it has the chances of being his highest opening film.

CMYK

Friday, 13 September, 2019

14 SPORTS

I woUld be thrIlled If NeymAr CAme bACk, SAyS bArCeloNA’S meSSI BarCeLOna

b

Agencies

ARCELONA captain Lionel Messi would be “thrilled” if Neymar returned to the Catalan side but insisted they could still win trophies without the Brazilian.

In an interview with the Catalan newspaper Sport this week, Messi said the return of Neymar, who was at Barca from 2013 and 2017 when he left for Paris Saint-Germain, could only strengthen the Spanish champions.

“I would be thrilled if Neymar came back,” said the Argentine.

“I understand that not everyone agrees. That’s normal after everything that happened around Ney, the way in which he left, the way he abandoned us.

“But when you look at the sporting angle, for me Neymar is one of the best players in the world and obviously would improve our chances of getting

the results we want.”

The summer transfer window saw an on-off soap opera surrounding the 27-year-old’s apparent desire to leave

PSG, who paid a world record 222 million euros ($264 million at the time) in 2017, with Barcelona and Real Madrid both linked.

Ultimately he stayed in the French capital, at least for the time being.

“I am not disappointed,” said Messi.

“I would have liked it if he had come and been with us but, as I have said, we have an exceptional squad to challenge for every title, even without him.” Messi denied reports he had used his influence to try and force the Barcelona board to push through the deal.

“Here, it is not me that gives the orders,” he said. “We never said that he had to be brought in. We didn’t make any demands.”

“I don’t know if the club (Barcelona) wanted it to happen. What I do know is that Neymar really wanted it. But I understand it is very difficult to negotiate with PSG.” Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu said on Friday Neymar “did everything” to force through a return to the Camp Nou in the close season, but his club could “not meet” the French champions’ demands.

Andy Murray encouraged by progress after hip surgery US teen swimmer sanctioned for buttocks-baring bathing suit New York: A US teen disqualified after winning a swim meet over a school-approved bathing suit that bared too much of her buttocks has been reinstated following an uproar. Organizers stripped the high school swimmer of victory in one of four races in Alaska last Friday because of a "uniform violation." The referee who made the decision argued it was justified as she could see "butt cheek touching butt cheek." The ruling outraged a local coach who challenged the decision in a blog post that accused the referee of singling out the 17-year-old student because of her race and for being curvy and full-figured. "These young swimmers aren't being punished for wearing their suits in scandalous or provocative ways, but rather, because their ample hips, full chests, and dark complexions look different than their willowy, thin, and mostly pallid teammates," Lauren Langford wrote in her post. She said the student stripped of victory was wearing the same suit issued to every girl on the team and yet she was the only athlete sanctioned. "The incident... comes after more than a year of tensions over the fit of suits worn by athletes at youth swim meets in the state of Alaska," Langford wrote. Agencies

Shanghai Agencies

Andy Murray insists he is encouraged by his recovery from careersaving hip surgery as the former world number one prepares to play next month's Shanghai Masters.

Murray is aiming to rebuild his singles ranking following the operation in January. The 32-year-old Scot made a tentative return to singles action in Cincinnati last month.

He was last seen on court at a Challenger event in Majorca -- his first time playing at that lower level for 14 years -- and his next tournament will be the Zhuhai Championships later in September.

Although Murray lost in the third round in Majorca against the unheralded Matteo Viola, the twotime Wimbledon champion was pleased he came through three matches in four days without any complications.

"The last tournament was at Challenger level which was good for me. We had good crowds there and it was different. I haven't played at that level for 14 or 15 years but I enjoyed it," Murray told reporters on Thursday. "I am just happy to be healthy again. I would like to be playing at a higher level but it was fun for me out there.

"Recovering from matches because I don't have pain, the preparation is fun. Hopefully it keeps going

that way."

Murray has committed to playing for four weeks in a row as the China Open in Beijing is sandwiched in between his outings in Zhuhai and Shanghai before returning to Europe to compete in the European Open in Antwerp.

While he is now able to play pain-free, Murray is still short of speed around the court, something he is banking on returning over the next few months.

"Now I don't have any limita-

tions on what I can't do," Murray added at an event at Queen's Club to promote a daily liquid supplement developed specifically for the Scot.

"I am certainly still a little bit slow in terms of where I would like to get to. I'm thinking that in the next four or five months that is going to get better.

"Each week I have felt better but performances haven't necessarily shown that, in terms of results. But I have been feeling physically better."

Carlo Ancelotti 'outraged' by San Paolo building work Sao Paulo: Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti said Wednesday he was "outraged" by the state of the changing rooms at the San Paolo stadium following building work carried out by local authorities who own the ground, with the club's Champions League opener against holders Liverpool in less than a week. The Serie A outfit had to play their opening two league games away from home, at Fiorentina and reigning champions Juventus, due to the reconstruction of the stadium. "I saw the conditions of the San Paolo dressing rooms. There are no words," Ancelotti told the club's website. "I am outraged by the incorrectness and inadequacy of those who had to carry out these jobs," the three-time Champions League-winning coach added. The side, who finished 11 points behind Juve last term, are set to host Sampdoria Saturday in the Italian top flight and Liverpool in Europe three days later. Ancelotti, 60, questioned if the facilities would be available for his players ahead of the fixtures scheduled for Saturday and Tuesday. "In two months you can build a house, they have not been able to redo the changing rooms! Where should we change to play against Sampdoria and Liverpool?"

"I see a contempt and a non-attachment to the city's team. I am dismayed. "How have the region, municipality and commissioners been able to disregard the commitments they made?" However, the director of renovations at the stadium insisted work would be completed as planned by Friday.

"I am baffled by the statement by Ancelotti," architect Filomena Smiraglia told Gazzetta Dello Sport. "Also, because today we had a visit of the dressing room by the vice president of Napoli, Edoardo De Laurentiis, who complemented us in front of the craftsmen for the work." Contractor Carlo Perego, whose company Tipiesse carried out the work, said they were in fact "ahead of schedule". "Work on the locker room is finished, except for the finishing touches that will be completed tomorrow (Thursday). Delivery is scheduled for Friday 13th at 10am, the date is confirmed.

"We are not late; in fact, we are ahead of contractual times." The ground, which witnessed Diego Maradona's superb performances between 1984-1991, was originally built in 1948 and hosted five games at the 1990 World Cup before undergoing work ahead of this summer's Universiade. Agencies

FIFA organises Iran visit to 'assess preparations' for female fans Tehran Agencies

FIFA said on Wednesday it will send officials to Iran "shortly" to look at the possibility of allowing female spectators into football games in the country.

The announcement comes a week after an Iranian football fan set herself on fire outside a court and died after being told she would be jailed for six months for trying to enter a stadium in Tehran dressed as a man.

"A FIFA delegation will be on site shortly to assess the preparations to allow women at the stadium for the upcoming Wold Cup qualifier match in October," FIFA told AFP. The global governing body added no details regarding the date of the visit but Iran, who featured at the 2018 World Cup, host Cambodia, ranked 170th in the world, on October 10. According to a source close to the proceedings, it will be a three-person delegation, representing FIFA's competition department and its security department.

The same source said the officials will meet with the Iranian football association but refused to con-

firm or deny possible talks with the country's authorities. Iran has barred female spectators from football and other stadiums since 1981, with clerics arguing they must be protected from the masculine atmosphere and sight of semi-clad men.

Iran's sports ministry said in August that women fans would be allowed into the stadium when Team Melli -- as the national team are known -- play their next home qualifier.

Sahar Khodayari's death sparked outrage on social media, with many celebrities, football players and activists using the hashtag #blue_girl to call on FIFA to ban Iran from international competitions and fans to boycott matches.

She has been dubbed "blue girl" because of the colours of her club in the capital, Esteghlal FC. Iran has come under pressure from FIFA to allow women to attend qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, and was reportedly given a deadline of August 31 to comply. The ban on women in stadiums is not written into law or regulations, but is "ruthlessly enforced", said Human Rights Watch, calling it a "clear violation of the rules in FIFA". FIFA's visit is linked to a process agreed months ago with the Iranian association.

CMYK

Friday, 13 September, 2019

SPORTS 15

SrI lANkA CrICket to reASSeSS SeCUrIty IN PAkIStAN After terror threAt COLOmBO

S

tour now hinges on a "reassessment of the security situation in Pakistan". One security assessment - described as "meticulous" by an SLC official - had already been conducted, with the board formerly convinced that the tour was safe. But this new information about a specific threat on the team has sparked fresh fears.

"Sri Lanka Cricket today sought the assistance of the Sri Lankan government to conduct a 'reassessment' of the security situation in Pakistan ahead of the national

Agencies

RI LANKA'S forthcoming tour of Pakistan has been thrown into doubt after Sri Lanka's government is said to have received news of a "possible terrorist threat on the Sri Lanka team".

The team was scheduled to leave for the tour in less than two weeks, but the

Shubman Gill gets maiden call-up to India test squad, rohit Sharma picked as opener CaPe TowN: Shubman Gill has won his first Test call up on Thursday as India announced their squad for the home series against South Africa. The former Under-19 World Cup winner replaced KL Rahul from the team that went to the Caribbean recently, which means India will be trialing a new opening combination when the series starts on October 2. Mayank Agarwal kept his spot at the top of the order but there has been a lot of speculation on who will partner him. Rohit Sharma's name had done the rounds in the lead-up to the squad being named - with pundits such as former captain Sourav Ganguly and one-time IPL team-mate Adam Gilchrist supporting his promotion up the Indian batting order.

Then the man himself expressed his desire to do the job and chief selector MSK Prasad was happy to give Rohit all three Tests against South Africa to make his case. "Yes, we are definitely looking at him [as an opener], and we want to give him an opportunity," Prasad said. "He [himself] is keen, and all of us in the selection committee are keen [as well]. We want to push him, and give him some opportunities up the order, and see where does he stand, and then we will take a call. "He has opening in white-ball cricket for more than a decade [since 2013]. We feel he has the capability to bat up the order, and we have seen that in white-ball cricket, and if he can do that in red-ball cricket, then nothing like it. We have a lot of practice matches coming up, which will be a boost to this side." This continues a lengthy secondcoming for Rohit, who last year said he had made peace with the start-stop nature of his Test career. It was 2010 when he was supposed to don the India whites for the first time, but an ankle injury threw a spanner into those plans. Agencies

team's planned tour to Pakistan," a board release said.

"The decision was taken following a warning SLC received from the Prime Minister's office, sent via the Ministry of Telecommunication, Foreign Employment and Sports.

"The warning highlights that the Prime Minister's Office has received reliable information of a possible terrorist threat on the Sri Lankan team, while touring Pakistan."

The new information had been received on Tuesday evening by SLC, who had named their ODI at T20 squads for the tour late in the afternoon. With 10 frontline players already having refused to tour Pakistan, this new perceived threat may create apprehension among even the

Afghanistan Premier League postponed due to payment issues, 'risks for league's integrity'

KaBUL Agencies

The second season of the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) has been postponed to 2020 after the league's commercial partner failed to pay the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) rights money. The ACB has terminated the agreement, also citing concerns about the integrity of people associated with Snixer Sports, the partners. The tournament had been scheduled for October this year.

"The failure by Snixer Sports to pay the complete rights fees of the first edition as per the fees and payment schedule of the agreement, and concerns about risks for integrity of the league posed by people connected to Snixer Sports are the reasons for termination that form material breaches of the agreement," the ACB said in a statement.

The allegation around the integrity of the people involved is especially pertinent, given the talk swirling around the league in its first season. Mohammad Shahzad reported an approach and it was one of the leagues the ICC's ACU was keeping an especially close eye on: there were, it is understood, a number of other approaches made that were reported by players to the anticorruption body.

The ACB hjas written to the Attorney General's Office of the Government of Afghanistan to "fully investigate the administrative allegations of corruption in the league" and that it remained committed to "ensuring transparency in all its affairs and is accountable to all stakeholders."

Following the signing of the tournament's MoU in January last year, the first edition of the league was held between October 5 and 21

in Sharjah, UAE and featured a host of international names. Chris Gayle, Shahid Afridi, Andre Russell, Brendon McCullum and Rashid Khan were picked as icon players by the five franchises, representing Paktia, Kabul, Balkh, Nangarhar and Kandahar.

A tender for commercial rights to the second season of the league will be issued in due course.

The league is the second T20 league to run into problems in as many months. In August, the inaugural season of the Euro T20 Slam was cancelled, only two weeks prior to its scheduled start. The Euro T20 Slam organisers, led by Gurmeet Singh's Bombay Sports Limited and Woods Entertainment, the same group in charge of the Global T20 Canada, had run into increasing financial difficulties. The Global T20 Canada, too, faced issues, with player protests over unpaid wages.

Root dropped twice as England make steady start in fifth Ashes Test LOnDOn Agencies

Joe Root was dropped twice as England made a steady start on the opening day of the final Ashes Test at the Oval on Thursday, reaching 86-1 at lunch.

Visiting captain Tim Paine asked the home side to bat, hoping his bowlers could take advantage of early overcast conditions in south London but will rue the two bad fumbles.

Joe Denly and Rory Burns had to dig deep to keep lively Australian pace pair Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood at bay in the testing opening overs.

England had an early scare when Burns was given out lbw with the score on just seven but successfully reviewed the decision, with the ball tracker showing it was going over the stumps.

But Australia did not have to wait long for a breakthrough, with Cummins removing Denly in the ninth over to leave England 27-1.

The batsman pushed unnecessarily at a wide one and Steve Smith held on to

players who have agreed to travel.

Cricket in Pakistan came to a halt in 2009, after the Sri Lanka team was attacked by gunmen on the way to the ground in Lahore.

The first match of the tour was set to be played on September 27 in Karachi.

complete a juggling catch at second slip.

That brought captain Root to the crease, with the England captain keen to make amends after an inconsistent series.

But the skipper had an astonishing

let-off when, on 24, he top-edged a pull off Cummins to deep fine leg, only for the recalled Peter Siddle to drop a straightforward catch, much to the delight of the nearby crowd.

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In Cummins' next over Root again had a huge let-off when wicketkeeper Paine failed to cling on to a one-handed chance high to his right. At the lunch break, Burns was 42 not out, with Root unbeaten on 28. Australia won at Old Trafford last week to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, meaning they will retain the urn regardless of the result at the Oval.

But Paine said his side were "very hungry" to complete the job and win their first Test series in England since 2001. To stand any chance of levelling the series, World Cup winners England will have to find a way to solve the riddle of the immovable Steve Smith, who has scored 671 runs in just five innings at an astonishing average of more than 134.

All-rounder Mitchell Marsh and seamer Siddle were brought in for the tourists, with batsman Travis Head and paceman Mitchell Starc missing out.

For England, Ben Stokes is playing as a specialist batsman due to a shoulder injury. All-rounders Sam Curran and Chris Woakes replaced Jason Roy and Craig Overton.

Not much interest: bangladesh test skipper dislikes tests, says board chief Dhaka: Bangladesh cricket chief Nazmul Hassan said Shakib Al Hasan will remain as Test captain despite disliking the format and expressing his reluctance to stay on following this week's embarrassing defeat to Afghanistan.

Nazmul admitted the all-rounder had shown little interest or enthusiasm for the five-day game -- an attitude which would not have been helped by Monday's 224-run loss to Afghanistan in Chittagong.

"We have noticed he did not have much interest in Test (cricket). You have seen that when we were touring foreign countries, he wanted to have a break during the Tests," Nazmul told reporters in Dhaka late Wednesday.

"Naturally he might have less interest. But we never heard that he has less interest in captaincy. If he is skipper, then he has to play. If you are not skipper, then you can skip," he said.

Hassan's comments came after Shakib said he no longer wanted to lead the side in Tests following the chastening defeat to minnows Afghanistan, who were playing only their third five-day game.

Bangladesh became the first team to lose to 10 different Test sides with the defeat, which followed a lacklustre World Cup and 0-3 one-day whitewash by Sri Lanka in July.

Shakib, who shone at the World Cup with 606 runs and 11 wickets but was skipper for the Sri Lanka tour, said his performances might improve if he relinquished the captaincy.

"It will be best if I didn't have to lead," Shakib told reporters after the Afghanistan loss. "I personally believe it will be good for my game.

"And if I have to continue leading, then obviously there is a lot to discuss about (with the board)," he said.

Hassan said he spoke with Shakib on Tuesday after the Afghanistan loss, but that the player did not raise any concerns.

"Our boys are emotional. I will speak with him when things get calm," he said.

Shakib will now lead Bangladesh in a trination Twenty20 tournament involving Afghanistan and Zimbabwe starting in Dhaka on Friday. Agencies

Friday, 13 September, 2019

NEWS

FO denies UAe, sAUdi ministers' remArks AbOUt kAshmir nOt being An 'UmmAh issUe' ISLAMABAD

F

Staff RepoRt

OREIGN Office (FO) Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal on Thursday dismissed media reports claiming that the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and UAE had told the government of Pakistan that the Kashmir issue was not in any way related to the “Muslim ummah”.

The FO spokesperson insisted that both officials had expressed solidarity with Pakistan and extended support to the Kashmir cause. Dr Faisal made the remarks in response to a question during the weekly media briefing at the Foreign Office. He termed media reports about the alleged statements by the ministers of the two gulf states as “speculation”.

The UAE foreign minister and Saudi state minister for foreign affairs had visited Pakistan last week and held meetings with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. The ongoing tensions in occupied Kashmir — following New Delhi’s decision to revoke the occupied region’s special status was one of the major issues discussed in all meetings.

Dr Faisal added that the lockdown imposed by the Indian government in occupied Kashmir had entered its 40th day and reiterated Pakistan’s position that the matter should be resolved according to the resolutions passed by the United Nations.

He said that three Kashmiris embraced martyrdom as Indian troops used pellet guns, teargas and canes to disperse demonstrators in the besieged valley.

The Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson expressed serious concerns over human rights’ violations and urged the Indian gov-

ernment to lift the curfew, respect International Law and permit international human rights organisations to visit the Himalayan region. When asked about the United States President Donald Trump’s recent reiteration of the offer to mediate between Islamabad and New Delhi, Dr Faisal said that India was “not ready”.

“We have always been ready for bilateral dialogue as well [as mediation] and we made many attempts [to hold talks].

“We have always maintained that every issue can be solved through dialogue. Now let’s see what happens.” He further said: “Jammu and Kashmir’s struggle is a […] process. It is not an event. This process is ongoing and is moving forward.

“On Friday, the prime minister is going to Azad Kashmir and has a policy statement for the people there. There are many [other] steps under consideration and we will inform you as they unfold. Right now, nothing is final.” He also clarified that “no background dialogue between India and Pakistan” was underway.

Responding to questions regarding the suspension of Afghanistan peace talks, Dr Faisal said that Pakistan had always supported a process that is “led and owned by the Afghans”.

“Pakistan learned about the cancellation of the meeting between US President Trump and Taliban leaders at Camp David. Pakistan wants all sides to exercise restraint and refrain from violence.”

“Pakistan has always maintained that the only solution to the Afghan conflict lies in a politically negotiated settlement led and owned by Afghans themselves.”

“We are hopeful that the peace talks between the United States and the Afghan Taliban will be resumed at the earliest.”

Soldier martyred as India violates LoC ceasefire yet again RAWALPINDI Staff RepoRt

A Pakistan Army soldier embraced martyrdom as Indian forces violated ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) on Thursday.

“Indian troops resorted to unprovoked fire in Hajipir Sector. Sepoy Ghulam Rasool, a resident of Bahawalnagar embraced shahadat,” the Inter-Services Public Relations, the military’s media wing said in a statement.

Ceasefire violations have surged since

August 5 when New Delhi revoked the special status of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, escalating tensions between the two nucleararmed states.

The Foreign Office has summoned Indian officials several times to condemn the unprovoked firing.

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi warned that the situation in IOK risked sparking an “accidental war”, and urged UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet to visit the troubled region.

ISLAMABAD: Opposition lawmakers protest against non-issuance of production orders of detained MNAs, as President Arif Alvi delivers his constitutionally mandated address to a joint session of parliament, marking the start of second parliamentary year of the National Assembly under the PTI government. INp

Army announces transfers, postings of senior generals RAWALPINDI Staff RepoRt

Pakistan Army on Thursday made a number of transfers and postings on key positions of seniority. According to the military’s media wing, Lt Gen Waseem Ashraf has been posted as Commander Southern Command, Lt Gen Azhar Abbas has been posted Commander Rawalpindi Corps, Lt Gen Khalid Zia has been posted as Inspector General Arms, Lt Gen Muhammad Chiragh Haider has been posted as Director General JSHQ, while Lt Gen Bilal Akbar has been posted as Chairman Pakistan Ordnance Factory (POF). On Wednesday, four major generals of the Pakistan Army had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.

According to ISPR, those promoted were Maj Gen Muhammad Aamer, Maj Gen Muhammad Chiragh Haider, Maj Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum and Maj Gen Khalid Zia. The promoted officers are to assume their new positions after retirement of three lieutenant generals in the last week of the current month. Another vacancy will occur in the last week of November when the incumbent Joint Chiefs of the Staff Committee (CJCSC) chairman Gen Zubair Mahmood Hayat will retire from office. The three 3-star generals to retire this month include former Director General ISPR Lt Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa, who is currently serving as commander Southern Command (Quetta), National Defence University (NDU) President Lt Gen Aamer Riaz and POF chairman Lt Gen Sadiq Ali.

Unfair to blame Pakistan for US setbacks in Afghanistan: Imran Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said that it is unfair to blame Pakistan for the setbacks suffered by US in Afghanistan.

In an exclusive interview to Russia Today, the premier dwelled on the damage the country suffered when it decided to side with the US post 9/11.

“Had we not participated in the American war after 9/11, we would not have been the world’s most dangerous country,” said the premier.

Reiterating his stance against the US invasion of Afghanistan, the prime minister reminisced that the Afghan Mujahideen had been trained to fight by Pakistan with funding coming by America’s Central Investigation Agency (CIA) in the 1980s when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.

“A decade later when the Americans come into Afghanistan, the same groups in Pakistan are supposed to say that now because the Americans are there, it is not longer Jihad – it is terrorism,” he said while underscoring the contradiction in rhetoric.

“I strongly felt that Pakistan should have been neutral,” he

continued. “Because by joining in [Afghan war], these groups turned against us.”

The prime minister added that the country lost 70,000 lives and suffered a loss of over $100 billion to the economy. “And in the end, we were blamed for the Americans not succeeding in Afghanistan,” he noted. “I felt it was very unfair to Pakistan.”

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump announced to pull out of the Pakistan-brokered talks with the Afghan Taliban jeopardizing the prospects of peace in Afghanistan.

The sudden move throws a new challenge for Islamabad at a time when its hands are already full dealing with other foreign policy issues.

In its official reaction to the sudden US move, the Foreign Office called on all sides for restraint and reminded them of the commitment to pursue peace.

“Pakistan has been facilitating the peace and reconciliation process in good faith and as a shared responsibility, and has encouraged all sides to remain engaged with sincerity and patience.” NewS DeSk

Afghan Taliban send warning to Trump in bitter exchange kABUL aGeNCIeS

The war of words between the Taliban and United States President Donald Trump escalated on Thursday as the Afghan militants warned that the US leader had failed to grasp “what type of nation he is dealing with”.

The latest salvo in the bitter exchange comes a day after Trump boasted during a 9/11 anniversary ceremony that US forces have “hit our enemy harder than they have ever been hit before and that will continue” just days after peace talks between the two sides collapsed.

“Trump (@realDonaldTrump) must tread carefully,” tweeted Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. “He has yet to grasp the type of nation he is dealing with. His advisers must make him understand and introduce the Graveyard

of Empires #Afghanistan to him.”

Until this weekend, there had been steadily mounting expectations of a deal that would see the US drawdown troop levels in Afghanistan. In return, the Taliban would offer security guarantees to keep extremist groups out. But then on Saturday, Trump revealed on Twitter that he had cancelled an unprecedented meeting between the Taliban and himself at Camp David and later said the talks with the militants were “dead”.

The Taliban spokesman’s tweet comes just hours after the group launched a suicide attack that killed at least four soldiers near Kabul, as the insurgents ramp up attacks on security forces.

The incident occurred at a special forces base in Char Asiab district just south of the capital Kabul where an insurgent driving a car packed with explosives detonated

near the facility’s entrance.

“Four soldiers were killed, and three injured,” said interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi.

Afghan special forces — numbering around 17,000 — represent a small fraction of the 300,000 strong Afghan armed forces but have been carrying out the bulk of offensive operations across Afghanistan in recent years. As fears of increased violence soared with presidential elections approaching later this month, Afghan troops and Taliban insurgents have been engaged in heavy exchanges across the country, with several militant-controlled districts in the far north falling to government forces.

However, the Taliban continue to strike Afghan installations at will after the militants issued their own vow earlier in the week to continue fighting and make the US regret walking away from talks.

Published by Arif Nizami at Plot No 66-C, 1st Floor, 21st Commercial Street, Phase-II (Extension), DHA Karachi and printed at Ibn-e-Hassan Printing Press, Hockey Stadium, Karachi. Ph: 021-35381208-9. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk

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