E-Paper PDF 25 October (ISB)

CMYK

Friday, 25 October, 2019 I 25 Safar-ul-Muzaffar, 1441 I Rs 19.00 I Vol X No 115 I 16 Pages I Islamabad Edition

Pakistan, india sign kartarPur Corridor agreement g

corrIdor to ProvIde vIsafree access to INdIaN sIKh PIlgrIMs to gurdwara darbar sahIb IN KartarPur

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PrIMe MINIster IMraN KhaN aNd forMer INdIaN PM MaNMohaN sINgh to atteNd INaugural cereMoNy oN Nov 9

Nawaz suffering from ITP, bone marrow ‘fully functional’

PM Imran says ‘sincere prayers’ are with ailing Nawaz STORIES ON BACK PAGE

KARTARPUR

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staff report

akistan and india signed the agreement on kartarpur Corridor on thursday, paving the way for its inauguration next month ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of the founder of sikhism Guru nanak Dev. the historic corridor will connect the Dera Baba nanak shrine in indian Punjab with Darbar sahib in kartarpur, just about four km from the Zero Line. it is the place where, according to the sikhism, Guru nanak Dev spent the last 18 years of his life.

Dr Mohammad Faisal, director general (south asia and saaRC) at the Foreign Office, and indian Ministry of Home affairs Joint secretary sCL Das signed the agreement at the Pakistan-india border in narowal. after the signing ceremony, Dr Faisal said that as per the initiative of Prime Minister imran khan, the agreement has been signed while a formal inauguration of the project will be held on november 9. the ceremony will be attended by Prime Minister imran and will feature former indian premier Manmohan singh as the chief guest. “[they] were very very difficult and tough

negotiations,” he said while talking about the several rounds of dialogues between the two sides over the project.

“Under the agreement, the corridor will remain open seven days a week from dawn to dusk,” he said, adding that the pilgrims [through the corridor] would arrive in the day and leave by evening. the FO spokesperson said that the project will facilitate 5,000 pilgrims a day. “it is the biggest gurdwara in the world. this is how we treat minorities in the country, this is our approach towards minorities. it is in line with the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH),” he said.

He said that the first group of pilgrims will come on november 9. sharing further details of the agreement, he said the pilgrims who come through the corridor will not require a visa. they will have to carry their passports which will be scanned but not stamped, he said.

Dr Faisal said that under the agreement, the indian authorities will provide a list of pilgrims 10 days ahead of their visit.

While responding to a question, he said that local sikh pilgrims will also be allowed to visit the sacred place and a pass will be issued to them. “there is no change in the country’s posi-

tion on india-occupied kashmir,” he said while responding to another question. the agreement was finalised after three rounds of negotiations. the negotiations were protracted because of deep differences on various provisions of the agreement, the Pulwama stand-off, indian reservations over the composition of the committee set up to look after the affairs of the corridor, and elections in india. the last sticking point was the $20 service fee that Pakistan would charge from every pilgrim for a single trip. However, india reluctantly agreed to it. Pakistan is currently working out the mechanism for charging the $20 fee from the pilgrims.

Following the inauguration of the corridor, a visa free link between Darbar sahib in kartarpur and Dera Baba nanak shrine in india’s Punjab will open for the pilgrims. the corridor is a rare example of cooperation and diplomacy between the two arch-rivals, who came to the brink of war in February following a suicide attack in Pulwama district of indian-occupied kashmir. at present, the two neighbors are at odds with each other with regard to held kashmir whose semi-autonomous status was withdrawn through a rushed presidential decree on aug 5.

Govt, Opp stick to their stances on PM’s resignation

Counter-terror cops walk free in Sahiwal encounter case

STORY ON BACK PAGE

Maryam shifted back to jail ‘despite being unwell’ STORY ON PAGE 02

govt denotifies prosecution team in Musharraf treason case STORY ON BACK PAGE

STORY ON BACK PAGE

No possibility of minus-Imran, gen bajwa tells Maulana fazl STORY ON BACK PAGE

Imran elated over WB’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 report STORY ON PAGE 02

CMYK Friday, 25 October, 2019

02 ISLAMABAD nawaz sharif is satisfied with his treatment here, says dr yasmin LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said on Thursday that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s vitals were clear and his health was improving. Addressing the media at Services Hospital, Rashid said Nawaz’s medical treatment had begun and he was being provided the required cardiac facilities. The Punjab chief minister had also been briefed about Nawaz’s condition, she said. The health minister said that Nawaz’s test results would be available from Friday onward and that his condition was getting better. She said the former premier had already expressed satisfaction over the treatment. Rashid said Nawaz’s bone marrow was functioning normally according to haematologist Dr Tahir Shamshi’s analysis. Dr Shamsi has been asked to stay in Punjab for two to three more days until results of all the tests Nawaz has undergone are available.

She also said the former premier had not requested to be shifted abroad for treatment. Nawaz, who is currently serving his seven-year prison term in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills corruption case, was shifted to Lahore’s Services Hospital after his health deteriorated Monday night. His doctors said that his platelet count was critically low. She said that only the court can allow Nawaz Sharif to go abroad for treatment. “I delivered the message of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Nawaz Sharif that the plane is ready and he can call any doctor he wants”. Responding to a question, Dr. Yasmin Rashid asserted, “I am a doctor and will not do politics over anyone‘s illness”. “Being political opponents does not mean we are personal enemies”, she added. “My sympathies are with Nawaz Sharif. We have no grudge against him,” she said.

MaryaM shifted back to jail 'despite being unwell' LAHORE

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STAFF REPORT

HE National Accountability Bureau (NAB) shifted Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz back to Kot Lakhpat jail at 5am on Thursday, hours after she was admitted to Services Hospital in Lahore for a checkup.

Maryam, who is a nominee in the ongoing Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) reference, was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday night after a meeting with her ailing father.

According to a document issued by the hospital’s accident and emergency services, she was admitted at 10:03pm in VVIP II. The decision to move Maryam back to jail met with criticism from the party’s upper echelons. PML-N Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb condemned the move, saying that Maryam was sent back to the jail early on Thursday even though she was unwell at the time.

Maryam, whose initial plea seeking permission to meet her father was turned down by Lahore High Court (LHC), met former prime minister Nawaz Sharif at the same hospital after the Punjab government accepted her request. Nawaz was admitted to the hospital late on Monday night after his personal physician, Dr Adnan Khan, had raised an alarm about his critical condition in the accountability watchdog’s custody. Following the meeting, Maryam suffered an anxi-

ety attack and she was admitted to the VVIP II room, next to her father’s room in the hospital.

Reportedly, she was out on parole for 24 hours. Aurangzeb said that Maryam was suffering from high blood pressure and her heart rate was not normal at the time when she was shifted back to jail.

She said that doctors had decided to admit the PML-N vice president in the hospital after conducting tests, adding that Maryam has not been feeling well for a few days.

Imran elated over WB’s Ease of Doing Business 2020 report ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday expressed satisfaction over the improved World Bank rating of Ease of Doing Business (EODB) by 28 notches, and said that Pakistan, by the end of 2020, would become one of the top destinations for investment. “Another of our manifesto commitments fulfilled, this time on Ease Of Doing Business. Pakistan achieves the biggest improvement in its history in World Bank’s EODB rankings,” the prime minister said in a tweet after the report was released by the bank, lauding improvements in regulatory frameworks. The prime minister said over the last decade Pakistan’s ranking had slipped more than 50 places and now had improved 28 places, from 136 to 108. “I want to congratulate all the people in our government who worked hard to make this happen,” he said and stressed that there was still a long way to go. The World Bank acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts in carrying out reforms in six areas which led the country to jump from last year’s 136th spot to 108 in this year’s ‘Ease of Doing Business 2020’ report.

Govt denotifies prosecution team in Musharraf treason case ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The government on Thursday de-notified the prosecution team in the treason case against former military dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf. The prosecution team was hired in November 2013, during the tenure of Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif.

The special court – hearing the treason case against Musharraf for violating

Article 6 of the Constitution – adjourned the hearing without any proceedings on Thursday after it was informed that the government had dismissed the prosecution team.

The court was told that Reza Bashir – the government lawyer provided to the former dictator – was ill and was unable to attend the previous hearing.

The three-judge special tribunal also summoned secretary interior on November 19. Justice Waqar Ahmed

Seth asked the prosecutor if any notification was received, to which prosecutor Tariq Hassan said that he had not been notified. “Can the prosecution team be dismissed in this manner?” asked Justice Waqar Ahmed.

“I sat all night preparing for this case,” responded the prosecutor.

The court also asked to be informed under which law the prosecution team was de-notified by the government. Approving the lawyers’ request, the court

Modi regime insulting humanity in Kashmir, says Firdous ISLAMABAD INP

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Thursday lamented that Modi government is challenging the regional peace and stability by insulting humanity in Occupied Kashmir, urging the international community to come forward and play its role for implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions on festering Kashmir dispute before it is too late.

She was addressing the participants after a theatre performance “half widow” organized by the Human Rights Council of Pakistan at Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) to highlight brutalities being committed by Indian security forces in the occupied valley, especially the plight of thousands of Kashmiri women whose husbands have disappeared and are still missing.

Firdous said Kashmir issue is not political, rather it is a matter of Pakistan’s survival. She lamented that the world community has double standards and is ignoring the Kashmir issue due to its vested interests. She said the fascist, racist and extremist In-

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dian leadership should be made subservient to the UN Charter and international laws.

Firdous said the innocent people of the occupied valley are being tortured by the Indian forces amid complete lockdown and communications blackout for over two months. She said India is perpetrating ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri people to achieve its sordid designs, adding that every citizen of Pakistan expresses heartfelt sympathy with the oppressed Kashmiri people.

She said millions of Kashmiris across the Line of Control are struggling for their right to self-determination and that Pakistan has presented their narrative in front of the whole world. She said Prime Minister Imran Khan has exposed the evil face of the Modi government during his interactions with the world leaders and his speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

Firdous hailed the efforts of the Human Rights Council of Pakistan in highlighting the plight of the Kashmiri people. She said theatre play ‘Half Widow’ is an effective tool to expose the real face of India before the world.

She also hailed the performance of all the artists in the play.

gave Reza Bashir one more chance to attend the next hearing on November 19.

The former army chief, who took power in 1999, is facing a treason trial under Article 6 of the Constitution as well as Section 2 of the High Treason Act on a complaint moved by the federal government.

It merits a mention here that earlier this month, the court had decided to hear the case on a daily basis with effect from Oct 24.

Foreign funding case: ECP raises objection on PTI’s lawyer ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday raised an objection over Deputy Attorney General Saqlain Haider representing the Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaf (PT)I as its lead lawyer in the foreign funding case. The ECP in its detailed order has questioned the merit of Saqlain Haider representing the PTI despite being appointed as deputy attorney general. The order states: “Saqlain Haider, learned counsel for the respondent who is stated to have been appointed as Deputy Attorney General, had no right to appear for political party against the interest of the state.”

It further states that the PTI lawyer should rather protect the state and not the party which are two completely different entities. “The learned counsel should have preferred the state over the interests of a political party after his present appointment as Deputy Attorney General,” it added. On PTI’s demand to exclude the petitioner and its founding member Akbar S Babar from the scrutiny process, the order states: “The request for exclusion of the complainant from the scrutiny was not justified because the latter had to provide material evidence to the committee.” In 2014, on the application filed by Akbar S Babar, the foreign funding case was heard for a long time at ECP.

CMYK Friday, 25 October, 2019

NEWS 40 teachers arrested during sit-in at Islamabad’s D-Chowk ISLAMABAD: At least 40 teachers and their children were arrested during a sitin at Islamabad’s D-Chowk Wednesday night. Reportedly, the police switched off the street lights and dragged the men and women to their vehicles. They were then taken to the Aabpara Police Station.

Teachers of Basic Education Community Schools from across Punjab were protesting for an increase in their salaries for the third day on Wednesday. They said they hadn’t been paid for the last eight months. “We made the arrests because the protesters were heading towards parliament,” City Superintendent of Police (SP) Amir Niazi said. INP

Asif Zardari's medical reports declared satisfactory The medical reports of former president and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari have been declared satisfactory by the Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (PIMS), according to a private news channel’s report on Thursday. According to details, the blood and Eco tests of the erstwhile president were conducted on Wednesday by a four-member medical board at the PIMS. Furthermore, some medical tests of Zardari were carried out today. It is worth mentioning here that the PPP leader is undergoing treatment at the PIMS cardiac ward. Asif Ali Zardari was transferred to the PIMS Hospital on Tuesday in view of his “deteriorating health” following a recommendation by a medical board. He was shifted from an accountability court to the hospital amid tight security. NEWS DESK

PMl-n leaders exPress concern over nawaz’s deterIoratIng health LAHORE

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STAFF REPORT

AKISTAN Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) leaders on Thursday expressed concern over the health condition of ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif. According to details, former defense minister Khawaja Asif, former state minister for information Marriyum Aurangzeb and provincial General Secretary Murtaza Javed Abbasi among others participated in a meeting held at the party’s Model Town office.

While talking to media on the occasion, Khawaja Asif revealed that all the parties are worried about the health of Nawaz Sharif.

“Going abroad for medical treatment will be a personal decision of the PML-N supremo,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ahsan Iqbal said that conservative thinking of the incumbent government is regrettable.

Condemning the government for shifting Nawaz’s daughter Maryam Nawaz back to Kot Lakhpat Jail earlier in the day, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said that Maryam was sent back to the jail at 5 am, adding that the PML-N vice president was unwell

at the time when she was sent to Kot Lakhpat jail.

On Wednesday night, Maryam was admitted to the hospital after a meeting with her ailing father.

She met her father, former prime

KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Thursday that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal should tell the nation the reason behind the sudden deterioration in former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s health.

The PPP chairman said that Nawaz Sharif had been under the custody of the NAB since past 13 days and now he stood at

‘Cool’ Musaddiq loses his temper Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader Musadik Masood Malik, who is usually known for his calm and composed manner, lost his temper during a talk show on Thursday when he got into an argument with a government official over the political situation of the country.

During anchorperson Hamid Mir’s television programme, when Malik was asked about the medical condition of former premier Nawaz Sharif, he lost his composure and said that if the government wants to kill the PML-N supremo, they should let him stay in jail instead of staging a “political drama”.

The anchorperson controlled the situation and proceeded to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Spokesperson

minister Nawaz Sharif, at the same hospital after the Punjab government accepted her request in this respect.

Nawaz was admitted to the hospital late on Monday night after his personal physician, Dr. Adnan Khan, had raised

NAB chief should explain reasons for Nawaz's deteriorating health, says Bilawal

Sending Nawaz abroad for treatment not in PM's hands: spokesperson ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Thursday said it is not Prime Minister Imran Khan who would decide, but the doctors will take decision whether former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif would go abroad for medical treatment or not. Addressing a presser, she said that the former prime minister’s cholesterol increased due to his diet, adding that the application about release of Nawaz Sharif on health grounds would be decided by the court. The government had implemented the court decisions in the past and would continue to do so, she added. Dr Firdous said Maryam Nawaz was again sent to the jail as per jail manual as doctors declared that her reports of blood pressure, ECG and vital organs were normal. The SAPM went on to say that the first gesture of Prime Minister Imran Khan was that Nawaz Sharif should be provided best healthcare from the hospital of his choice and his family should be taken on board about medical treatment. STAFF REPORT

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Nadeem Afzal Chan about the government’s decision of sending PML-N Vice-President Maryam Nawaz to jail despite her party’s concerns over her health. Chan said that the government wants the rule of law to prevail and cannot interfere in what it deems the domain of the courts.

Chan then proceeded to criticise PML-N over the alleged differences between Nawaz and his younger brother Shehbaz. At this point, Malik once again lost his cool and said that the federal cabinet is composed of 60 per cent ministers of former military dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf and has come to power through alleged electoral rigging. NEWS DESK

the brink of death.

“The NAB chairman should tell how did this happen that the former prime minister came to this point under his watch,” said Bilawal.

The PPP supremo said that the NAB chairman ‘is playing with the lives of people’.

He further said that the chairman should also be accountable for those who have died under the custody of the NAB. Bilawal claimed that former president Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif are being subjected

to “political revenge in the name of accountability”.

The PPP chairman declared that Prime Minister Imran Khan “possesses no humanity” and that the incumbent government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will be responsible if anything happens to Nawaz and Zardari.

Earlier, while addressing a rally in Tharparkar, Bilawal alleged that the federal government wants to end the rights of provinces and take over Karachi which he will not let happen. “Democratic and economic rights are under attack”, he claimed, adding: “We all will get rid of this puppet government together and form a public government.”

He went on to say that the “puppet government” and “political orphans” make fun of poverty.

“They have destroyed the economy while a deal on Kashmir has also been made”, he claimed.

Bilawal further announced that the next protest will take place on Oct 26 at the border of Sindh and Punjab.

PPP chief said that they will save Pakistan by sending off the selected rulers and help the public by snatching their rights back from the federal government.

an alarm about his critical condition in the accountability watchdog’s custody.

“After an hour-long meeting between the father and the daughter, the hospital administration offered her check-up at the hospital because she had not been feeling well for the last few days,” a source had said.

The sources said Maryam had accepted the administration’s offer to be admitted to the hospital. Doctors conducted her blood tests late at night and her treatment was to begin in the light of the test results.

The PML-N spokesperson said that Maryam was suffering from high blood pressure and her heart rate was not normal at the time when she was sent back to the jail.

She said that doctors had decided to admit the PML-N vice president in the hospital after conducting tests, adding that Maryam has not been feeling well for a few days.

Additionally, Aurangzeb alleged that Maryam’s medical reports were not being provided to her children and her personal physician Dr. Khan.

She said that taking Maryam to jail in this way was another attempt to bring mental agony to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Imran tells aides not to comment on nawaz's health ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Prime Minister Imran Khan has barred leaders of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) from making statements on Nawaz Sharif’s health condition. The instructions from the prime minister came after some ministers were criticised for making insensitive statements about the health of the three-time prime minister of the country, who has been serving a jail term at Kot Lakhpat Jail. According to reports, the prime minister was of the view that the treatment of Nawaz Sharif’s ailment was available in Pakistan but the government would fully accept whatever decision is made by the court on the matter.

Lamenting the opposition’s threats to launch protests in Islamabad, he said India has improved its IMF ranking 14 points and the entire country has erupted with joy, while on the other hand, Pakistan has improved its ranking by 28 points but dharnas are the only topic of discussion in the country. He was referring to his tweet which he sent earlier in the day, stating that Pakistan’s Ease Of Doing Banking (EODB) ranking had slipped more than 50 places.

“Now we have improved 28 places – from 136 to 108,” the prime minister said calling it the biggest improvement in country’s history in World Bank’s EODB rankings.

Two of three polio viruses eradicated in 'historic' step: WHO LONDON AGENCIES

The World Health Organisation welcomed an “historic step” toward a poliofree world on Thursday as an expert panel certified that the second of three types of the crippling virus has been eradicated globally.

The announcement by the Global Commission for the Certification of Poliomyelitis Eradication means that only wild polio virus type 1 is still circulating, after type 2 was declared eradicated in 2015, and type 3 this week.

Global polio cases have been cut by more than 99% since 1988, but type 1 polio virus is still endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan,

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where it has infected a total of 88 people this year. That is a resurgence from a record low global annual figure of 22 cases in 2017.

“The eradication of wild polio virus type 3 is a major milestone toward a polio-free world, but we cannot relax,” said Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa. Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI vaccine alliance, said it was “a tremendous victory in the fight against polio”.

Polio invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours. It cannot be cured, but infection can be prevented by vaccination – and a dramatic reduction in cases worldwide in recent decades has been due to intense national and regional immunization cam-

paigns in babies and children.

In unvaccinated populations, however, polio viruses can re-emerge and spread swiftly. Cases of vaccine-derived polio can also occur in places where immunity is low and sanitation is poor, as vaccinated people can excrete the virus, putting the unvaccinated at risk. The Philippines last month said it was planning an emergency vaccination campaign after polio re-surfaced and caused the first two recorded polio cases there for 20 years.

Moeti urged governments to be vigilant: “Countries must strengthen routine immunization to protect communities, ramp up routine surveillance so that we are able to detect even the slightest risk of polio re-emerging,” she said in a statement.

04 LAHORE

Friday, 25 October, 2019

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MAO COllege prinCipAl held respOnsible fOr leCturer's suiCide LAHORE

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STAFF REPORT

AO College Principal Dr Farhan Ebadat Khan has been found ‘negligent’ in the case involving harassment allegations against deceased lecturer Afzal Mehmood, which had driven the latter to commit suicide.

The Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) issued a sum-

mary after conducting an inquiry into the case, which expressed serious concerns over the attitude of Principal Farhan Ebadat Khan regarding the death of lecturer Afzal Mehmood.

According to details, the summary issued by the education department called for action against the principal, saying his attitude was “very rude and lethargic”.

The report further stated that Dr Farhan failed to take necessary

measures to address the concerns of the late lecturer despite him having been proven not guilty by the college harassment committee.

The report also noted that Dr Farhan was known to display unprofessional and rude behavior with staff and faculty members and was in the habit of evading his responsibilities.

The education department made the recommendation to remove Principal Dr Farhan prima-

rily on these grounds.

MAO College lecturer Muhammad Afzal Nadeem had committed suicide following harassment allegations leveled against him by a female student which were later found to have been false. However, college authorities failed to clear Afzal’s name by not issuing an official notification exonerating him, which Afzal said in his suicide note had caused considerable damage to his reputation.

Court denies Shehbaz's request for exemption from appearance in Ashiana case LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Former Punjab chief minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday appeared before an accountability court in the Ashiana Housing Scheme case.

Sharif said that he had not committed any corruption and that all cases against him were politically motivated.

Accountability Judge Amjad Nazeer Chaudhry in response said that truth would be uncovered after the trial is completed.

During the proceedings, Shehbaz Sharif requested the court for exemption from personal appearance at hearings due to backache. “It’s troubling for me to appear in court since I’m suffering from severe back pain,” Sharif said.

At this, the court observed that the request for exemption would be considered only after testimonies are recorded.

NAB arrested Shehbaz Sharif last year on Oct 5 for his role in Ashiana Housing Scheme scam.

It was alleged that Shehbaz Sharif as chief minister had awarded contracts to a firm he favored.

According to reports, a lucrative sum of Rs1.5

billion was also wasted in connection with the housing project without conducting any proper survey. Fawad Hassan Fawad, the principal secretary to former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, became an approver in the case, saying that he had awarded a contract to Lahore’s Casa Developer, bypassing merit, on the insistence of Shehbaz Sharif.

NAB has said that Chaudhary Latif and Sons was the company that won the contract but the contract was instead given to Lahore’s Casa Developers — a proxy group of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited — which is said to be owned by former railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique.

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Islampura police arrest female gangster LAHORE FIDA HUSSNAIN Islampura police claim to have arrested a female gangster involved in crimes such as robbery and dacoit at gunpoint in different parts of the provincial capital. According to police, the woman taken into custody, identified as Komal led a gang which was found to have been involved in several crimes. Komil and her accomplices Rehan and Zahid were arrested

by Dolphin police from Islampura area after receiving information on their whereabouts through an informant. The suspects were then handed over to Islampura police who started investigations. The police recovered weapons, motorcycle, masks and mobile phones from the suspects’ possession. On the other hand, Anti Vehicle Lifting Staff of Civil Lines Police arrested a suspect involved in several cases of grand theft auto. The police recovered thousands of rupees of cash from his custody beside weapons and eight motorcycles. He was traced through a modern gadget used for detection of criminals. A two-member gang known to operate in the Old Anarkali area was also nabbed by police after being tipped off by informant(s). The Suspects, Abdul Ghaffar and Mohsin Tariq were arrested after police raided a locality in Anarkali. Cash, mobile phones, unregistered weapons and rickshaws were recovered from their possession, police said. It may be mentioned here that incidents of crimes have increased in the city despite tall claims made by police. Theft and burglaries are an increasing cause of concern for citizens many of whom have started to feel unsafe amid the rising crime rate in the city. Asim Rashed, a shopkeeper from Anarkali Bazar said that known criminals and offenders roam the streets while there seems to be no check on their activities.

Dr Asghar Zaidi appointed as vice chancellor of GCU LAHORE PRESS RELEASE

International social policy analyst and expert on population ageing Professor Dr Asghar Zaidi on Thursday assumed charge of the post of Government College University’s (GCU) vice chancellor (VC) with a pledge to hone the university’s research and education potential, improve its international outlook and enhance academic excellence, linkages and prestige.

Professor Zaidi, who holds a PhD in economics from the world’s top university i.e. University of Oxford, is in the first instance appointed for a tenure of four years by the Punjab government on the recommendation of the Search Committee vice chancellor headed by eminent academician Professor Dr Khalid Aftab.

Two men arrested for gang-raping minors GUJRANWALA STAFF REPORT

Punjab police on Wednesday arrested two men for gang-raping two minor boys and filming the incident. According to police, both accused confessed to their crimes during questioning. The police added that the suspects picked up two boys – aged 12 and 14, one of whom was identified as Anees – who were on their way home in Mohalla Raitanwala from school and gang-raped them. The two accused then used the recorded clips to blackmail them.

Two first information reports (FIR) in this regard were filed in the Model Town police station. The Police said to have arrested the suspects.

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The university’s faculty and staff accorded a warm welcome to Professor Zaidi as he arrived at the university to assume charge of his new assignment.

Senior teachers at the educational institution said that Professor Zaidi had brought with him a vast experience of working and teaching at the world’s top universities. They rated this appointment as a good fortune for the GCU as a person of his calibre had decided to return to his homeland and serve his alma mater and hoped that his appointment would help in the internationalisation of the varsity.

Zaidi, 56, has been working for the last thirty years with different distinguished European and United Nation’s organisations and universities in the UK and the Netherlands, including London School of Economics (LSE) and University of Oxford.

He has recently served as the professor of social gerontology at the Seoul National University, a public university in Korea ranked 36 in the World QS Ranking 2019. He has also been a visiting professor at LSE and a senior research fellow at Oxford. He has exceptional academic credentials with several reputed books and articles published in the top ranked journals to his credit.

In 2019, the government of Shanghai awarded him the prestigious 1,000 foreign experts scholarship and he also became an adjunct professor at the Shanghai University.

He is also a world expert in the field of population ageing and have recently published reports in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Rights Pakistan the British Council Islamabad and Alzheimer’s Pakistan.

Friday, 25 October, 2019

PAkistAn wElCoMEs Us CongrEssionAl hEAring on iok sitUAtion ISLAMABAD

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HE Foreign Office on Thursday welcomed the United States House of Representative’s Sub-Committee on Asia Pacific public hearing on the human rights situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

In a statement, the FO spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said, “Pakistan appreciates the efforts of the U.S. Congress members who have raised their voice on the persecution of the Kashmiri people.”

The spokesperson said the latest hearing in the US House of Representatives was timely and showed the world community’s continued concern over the unacceptable situation in occupied Kashmir and the need to address it urgently.

He said more than 70 members of the U.S. Congress and several prominent political figures includ-

ing those intending to join the presidential election race, have publicly spoken on the Kashmir issue.

The spokesperson said, “The US Congressional hearing has brought underlined that Kashmir is a disputed territory and the current human rights situation is alarming.”

He said it also demonstrated

that the US leadership and lawmakers were cognizant of the potential threats to peace and stability in the region and willing to play their due role to help resolve the dispute.

The spokesperson noted that the US congressional deliberations were mostly focused on the grave human rights and humanitarian sit-

India holds village council polls in occupied Kashmir despite lockdown, boycott by parties

SRINAGAR AGENCIES

Village council elections were held on Thursday across India-occupied Kashmir, with the detention of many mainstream local politicians and a boycott by most parties prompting expectations that the polls will install supporters of the central Hindu nationalist-led government that revoked the region’s semi-autonomous status in August.

Indian officials are hoping the election of leaders of more than 300 local councils will lend credibility amid a political vacuum and contend they will represent local interests better than corrupt statelevel political officials.

Heavy contingents of police and paramilitary soldiers guarded polling stations across the region.

At some places, soldiers patrolled streets around polling stations. Police said no violence was reported.

Thursday’s elections were boycotted by most political parties, including those whose leaders had

been sympathetic to the central government but are now in makeshift jails or under house arrest. India’s main opposition Congress party boycotted as well, possibly allowing a clean sweep for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

The BJP has a very small base in the Kashmir valley, the heart of a decades-old anti-India insurgency in the region of about 12 million people.

In Thursday’s elections, members of more than 300 Block Development Councils formed last year chose leaders. Each block comprises a cluster of villages across Jammu and Kashmir, a state that India’s Parliament downgraded in August to a federal territory, a change that takes effect on October 31.

About 1,000 people ran in the elections. In at least 25 councils, candidates ran unopposed.

Most of the candidates and thousands of council members, the electorate for Thursday’s vote, have lived for months in hotels in

Srinagar, the region’s main city, because of security concerns. In the past, Kashmiris fighting against Indian rule have targeted candidates.

Officials tout the councils, which will be responsible for allocating government funds, as grassroots democracy. But observers say the system lacks legitimacy in Kashmir.

Political scientist Noor Ahmed Baba said the exercise, at least in theory, is an “important layer of democracy” but questioned conducting it in “extremely difficult and abnormal times.”

“When most people are bothered about their basic freedoms and livelihood, facing crushing restrictions, you’ve these elections,” Baba said. “This is more like completing a formality. It looks more like an artificial exercise.”

Council elections held last December were boycotted by separatist leaders and armed Kashmiri groups that challenge India’s sovereignty over Kashmir. Both separatists and these groups have called elections in Kashmir an illegitimate exercise under military occupation.

About 60 per cent of the 21,208 village council seats in the Kashmir valley are vacant because no one ran for them. The winners of another 30 per cent were elected unopposed.

Before downgrading Kashmir’s status, New Delhi sent tens of thousands of additional troops to the already heavily militarised regions, imposed a sweeping curfew, arrested thousands, and cut virtually all communications.

Authorities have since eased some restrictions, lifting roadblocks and restoring landlines and some mobile phones. They have encouraged students to return to

uation in occupied Kashmir. Members of the Sub-Committee noted that India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5 and subsequent lockdown have created a humanitarian crisis with security implications for the entire region.

At the hearing, senior officials of the State Department had expressed US concern over the human rights situation, read the statement.

Members of Congress also expressed their indignation and shock over the refusal of permission by Indian authorities to US lawmakers and journalists to travel to IOK. Senior US Administration officials inter alia repeated President Trump’s offer of mediation.

Dr Muhammad Faisal said, “Pakistan for its part has welcomed the US President’s offer as we believe that the international community has a role to play in averting risks to peace and stability in the region and facilitating a just and lasting solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.”

school and businesses to reopen, but Kashmiris have largely stayed home, in defiance or fear amid threats of violence.

The Modi government says removing a constitutional provision that gave Kashmir some measure of autonomy since independence from British rule in 1947 was necessary to give rights afforded other Indian citizens, usher in greater economic development and do away with the sense of separateness that BJP leaders say has cultivated the separatist movement.

But as the crackdown continues, Kashmiris have quietly refused to resume their normal lives, confounding India at their own economic expense.

Shops have adopted new, limited hours of operation in the early morning and evening. Taxi drivers haven’t returned to the roads.

Shailendra Kumar, the chief electoral officer, said the government had planned for the polls in June.

Conducting the elections during an ongoing crackdown “could be a discussion point,” Kumar said, “but should we delay it for another year? I don’t think so. This is a clear-cut system governed by rules, and rules don’t ask me to gauge mood and sentiments but to facilitate the process.”

Some Kashmiris view the polls cynically as a move to create a new political elite loyal to the Modi government that found its plans widely rejected in the region.

“Every election here is meant to pull wool over eyes of Kashmiris and create a smoke screen that everything is fine here,” said Mohammed Abdullah, a college teacher. “It’s also meant to convey to the world that India is a democracy and Kashmir is part of this vibrant democracy.”

To Abdullah and other Kashmiris still reeling from the changes in the region, Thursday’s polls suggest the opposite.

NEWS

05

Police all set to ensure ‘peaceful’ Azadi March ISLAMABAD: The police have accelerated preparations to maintain law and order in capital city after the call of a march announced by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) on October 31, a police source said. As a part of measures to maintain law and order, the extra deployment will be maintained throughout the Capital especially at entry and exit points of the city. The personnel of other law enforcement agencies would assist Islamabad police while duty rosters of cops have been also compiled. The containers have been mobilized to block off the important points of the city including roads leading towards Red Zone and ensure protection to the lives and property of the citizens. The source said that leaves of the personnel had been also cancelled in view of this march. "The leaves have been cancelled to ensure the availability of enough personnel for security and traffic arrangements during the march," the source maintained. The personnel of the AntiRiot Unit (ARU) of the Islamabad police have started training sessions at the Police Line headquarters. Special sessions are being organised on a daily basis to train police officers for handling crowd and to address any untoward situation. The police officers have instructed the personnel to ensure their own safety during the mass gatherings besides barring those trying to disrupt law and order situation. Moreover, the SP of various Zones have been directed to lead the contingents and remain present with them on the main points for encouragement. To tackle the situation peacefully and boost the security of the federal capital, the source said that police from other provinces including Punjab would be requisitioned. The plan of their accommodation is also under consideration and to be finalized soon, the source added. The police have begun taking riot gear out of armoury stores as they brace for a showdown with the marchers. Riot kits kept in police storage are being cleaned and the officials have been asked to repair any equipment that is damaged. IGP Islamabad Muhammad Aamir Zulfiqar has also conducted meetings with police heads of cities neighboring Islamabad and a coordinated strategy is being chalked out to tackle untoward situation. The source said that security would be on high alert in Capital from Friday (October 25) to onward and personnel of Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) would also remain present to guide road users and ensure convenience to them. APP

PAC takes up ghost employee issue in FDE ISLAMABAD: Sub-Committee of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday took up the issue of ghost employees in Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and expressed reservation about the delayed investigations on the issue. The audit officials informed the committee, headed by Member National Assembly (MNA) Shahida Akhtar Ali, about the complaints of ghost employees in FDE education department. The audit side said that Federal Directorate of Education never provided any record of the ghost employees to the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) office despite repeated reminders.The case was sent to NAB and FIA for investigation, but they have not shared their findings so far, it added. Upon inquiry from the committee, the NAB representative in the committee shifted the burden on FIA saying the case was referred to FIA for in-depth investigation. When asked, the FIA representative was unaware about any such investigations.

“NAB & FIA representatives attend the meeting to complete the formality but do not come, fully prepared” remarked the convener. The committee decided to write a letter to Director General (DG) FIA and Chairman NAB in this regard. The audit officials also pointed out the misuse of official vehicles of Federal Directorate of Education, saying 11 vehicles were under the use of unauthorized officers of the Directorate whereas they retained 18 vehicles illegally. The Secretary Education responded to the committee that the case for regularization of retention of 18 vehicles is awaiting of approval from the Cabinet Division whereas the inquiry of awarding vehicles to the unauthorized person is in progress and the report will soon be shared with the audit and committee in this regard.

About Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA), the audit officials objected that the PNCA had to deposit its earning of Rs. 31 million in the national exchequer which they did not. Officials of the ministry of finance who had to respond to this objection, were also absent from the meeting. The member expressed displeasure on such attitude of officials of NAB,FIA and Finance Ministry and decided to compliant to the concerned officers about such an attitude of officials. APP

World must stop equating Kashmir with strategic relations, urges Washington Post op-ed NEWS DESK The world must hear the deafening silence from occupied Kashmir and stop looking the other way on the issue in order to protect strategic interests in India, said renowned author Rana Ayyub on Thursday.

In an opinion piece for the United States-based news publication The Washington Post, Ayyub urged the intentional community to wake up to the rights abuses being carried out by India in occupied Kashmir.

Ayyub, who is an Indian journalist and writer documenting the rights violations of the Indian government in the occupied valley, further said that Kashmir and her children were waiting for justice.

Also read: Fact-finding report on occupied Kashmir reveals that locals are turning to peaceful civil disobedience Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had revoked the constitutional autonomy of occupied Kashmir on August 5 this year and imposed a military curfew in the area, imprisoning millions of people.

Thousands of political leaders, businessmen, rights activists and other ordinary citizens were detained after the move. The detained included former chief ministers and the mayor of Srinagar.

Widespread allegations of torture and abuse of these detainees by the Indian security forces were published by the international media in the following

weeks. These reports still continue to pour in, as the curfew nears three months.

In her opinion piece, Rana Ayyub highlighted how the curfew had silenced and paralyzed entire communities in the occupied region because of the continued communications blackout that accompanied the curfew.

She also referred to specific cases in which the brutality of the Indian forces was on full display. For example, Indian forces picked up several minors in the Shopian district on October 14, without charges.

According to the Indian journalist, when she questioned the local police about the arrest, they refused to have even made the detention, and instead

CMYK

said that they were in a communications blackout too.

A few weeks ago, Prime Minister Imran Khan had also penned an opinion piece for an American publication, urging the world to recognize the fascist tendencies of Indian PM Modi.

He also expressed fears of an impending bloodbath in the valley when India lifted the curfew. According to the premier, the people of Kashmir could not be expected to stay silent while their rights were trampled.

India has refused to lift the curfew in the occupied valley, and even though communication restrictions were partially lifted last week, they have since been reimposed, suggest reports.

Friday, 25 October, 2019

06 WORLD VIEW

The disease of liberalism in The arab world THE NEOLIBERAL REGIMES THAT LIBERAL INTELLECTUALS SUPPORTED HAVE SHUT DOWN POLITICAL DEMOCRACY, SPREAD CORRUPTION, AND REVERSED ALL PREVIOUS ECONOMIC ACHIEVEMENTS

Middle east eye

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Joseph Massad

HE major struggles in the Arab world today - in Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, Morocco and elsewhere - are struggles against neoliberal economics and the poverty and repression it has wrought.

These are struggles for economic democracy and against economic dictatorship, to liberate people and free them from poverty. This augurs badly for the political, economic and intellectual elites who have supported and benefited from this system at the expense of the majority of the Arab peoples.

How did the situation in the Arab world become so dire, especially as from the 1950s to the 1970s, all major economic indicators showed huge accomplishments that have since dissipated?

ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE: Whereas this early period was dominated by the progressive ideals and policies of national liberation, today’s dominant discourse is that of liberalism. Both liberation and liberalism derive from the word liberty, but in the colonial and postcolonial Arab world, as elsewhere, the two terms have had varied histories, goals and achievements.

One could divide their intellectual, cultural, political and economic effects between the periods immediately following independence in the 1940s through the mid-to-late-1970s, and the period between the 1980s and the present.

The first period was informed by the ideals of national liberation, which dominated popular political movements and elite intellectual trends, while the ideals of liberalism inform the second period and dominate the fields of elite intellectual production and political activism.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, Arab intellectuals and political movements supported the project of liberation

from colonialism and the achievement of not only political, but also economic independence.

The language of national liberation became the rallying cry of recently decolonising regimes, spearheaded by former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser but encompassing both Syria and Iraq, and overtaking even conservative regimes in Tunisia and Jordan, and anti-colonial movements from Algeria to Palestine to Oman and the rest of the Gulf region.

The goal of economic democracy, viewed as partial redistribution of wealth and state-led development aimed at closing the income gap and ending poverty, was paramount during this period.

Gradually following the 1967 war, and increasingly by the mid-to late-1970s, the principles of national liberation were delegitimised in favour of a new language characterised by liberalism, wherein liberals came to depict national liberation as oppressive, suggesting that all it had brought about was political dictatorship, and economic and military disasters.

PERSONAL FREEDOM: Liberalism, in contrast, promised to bring about personal freedom, regional peace and individual prosperity, as well as political democracy, through “free” elections.

As this phase of Arab liberalism emerged with the onset of neoliberal economics, post-1970s Arab liberals, like liberals elsewhere, dismissed economic democracy as contrary to the “freeing” of opportunities for personal enrichment, even if some criticised the excesses of neoliberal economics and sought to mitigate their effects.

If the project for national liberation was based on the notion of popular, plebiscitary political democracy as the companion to economic democracy, liberalism now insists on an electoral “representative” democracy that ensures economic dictatorship, insofar as the market should dictate economic policy and not the people or the state institutions representing them.

The political goals of national liberation were not unique to the Arab world.

They were shared with many of the decolonising countries in Asia and Africa from the 1950s through the late 1970s.

Nor was the adoption of the values of

An uprising in Lebanon BEIRUT HAS LONG BEEN PLAGUED BY CORRUPTION. THE NEXT GENERATION HAS ALREADY HAD ENOUGH Washington Monthly Lisa Khoury

Ninar Elkak ran through the streets of downtown Beirut Friday night with tear gas burning her eyes. The Lebanese Armed Forces had just released the chemical agent on a crowd of thousands, including children, and Elkak struggled to breathe as she sprinted away. Despite the possibility of a violent crackdown that is all too familiar in the Middle East, she and thousands of others returned to the streets the next night—and have again every night since.

A recent college graduate, Elkak said it’s nearly impossible to find a job in her field of business administration and marketing. Her plight is not uncommon in Lebanon, where the unemployment rate among persons under 25 was 37 percent in 2017, the most recent year for which data is available. Elkak, 24, is one of the many young Lebanese people who have decided they must either leave Lebanon— where they can hardly survive, let alone pursue their dreams—or try to change Lebanon. “There’s a saying in Arabic, I’m out of tears,” she told me. “You’ve been crying so much for the situation, tear gas has nothing on you anymore.”

Last Thursday, Beirut announced a slate of new taxes, including on WhatsApp voice calls, to ostensibly help the nation out of a fiscal crisis. But the decision ignited has mass protests across the country, everywhere from Beirut to Tripoli, where people have blocked major highways and effec-

tively shut down the country. Their demands are simple: more jobs, better salaries, and a takedown of the current government, which is accused of self-dealing and enriching itself while the nation’s economy crumbles and its job market diminishes.

By Sunday, more than one million people had protested, in the largest mass demonstration in Lebanon’s history.

“The folks on the streets of Lebanon remind us that citizens have power,” said Wendy Pearlman, a political science professor at Northwestern University. “When they come out in mass, they create pressure. And they force politicians to respond.”

Indeed, come Monday, Prime Minister Saad Hariri responded with sweeping reforms. He promised to halve the salaries of some former and current officials and place a moratorium on new taxes. But protesters say that isn’t enough. The fact that former officials even get a salary while ordinary people starve is unjust. They won’t stop until the entire regime in power steps down.

“The situation that we’ve been living in is hell,” Elkak said. “No electricity, no clean water, no future, and not to mention the pollution. The politicians are taking our money while we, the people, starve.

There’s no trust anymore. We need new accountable professionals that we can trust.”

It’s an attitude that appears to be widespread across the Middle East. The people of Egypt, Libya, and Syria revolted against their governments in the 2011 Arab Spring; Iranians against theirs in 2017; and just this month, Iraqis

Western liberalism, which began to dominate the Arab world in the late 1970s onwards, an isolated phenomenon, but one that was also shared across Asia, Africa and Latin America, let alone Eastern Europe, after 1990.

The advent of national liberation and socialism in the Arab world coincided with the convening of the Afro-Asian conference at Bandung in the mid-1950s, and of the establishment of the NonAligned Movement soon afterwards, followed in the mid-1960s by the Tricontinental Conference in Cuba, which globalised this quest against colonial and neocolonial powers.

The project in the Arab context led to an attempt at unity and federations between Arab countries - attempts that were also ongoing between sub-Saharan African countries led by Ghana, and the recently decolonising Caribbean nations of the West Indies.

IMPERIAL MACHINATIONS: While the project for federation and unity was fought vehemently by the US and defeated in all three contexts by 1963 due to a combination of imperial and internal factors, the launch of “Arab socialism” proceeded apace with impressive economic and political results, which aimed at delinking the local economies from imperial machinations.

The presence of the Eastern Bloc was most helpful in staving off, for a while, attempts at imperial restoration of the status quo ante. The staving off, however, would ultimately fail.

Beginning with the anti-Mosaddegh coup and the restoration of the Shah in Iran in 1953, the overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, and the ousting of Prime Minister Suleiman Nabulsi of Jordan in 1957, imperial coups toppled Indonesia’s Sukarno, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, the Congo’s Patrice Lumumba, and Brazil’s Joao Goulart, among others, in the 1960s.

The attempt to oust Nasser faltered, though Israel, at the behest of the US, dealt the coup-de-grace to his regime with its invasion and defeat of the Egyptian army in 1967. His death in 1970 marked the beginning of the end of the era of independence and national liberation.

During the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, not only did Arab “socialist” economies skyrocket to unprecedented levels, but infant mortality declined measurably, socialised healthcare for the population at large became available, increased life expectancy and more equal income distribution were achieved, and land reform programmes and investment in heavy industry transformed the local economies in unprecedented ways.

These achievements were made, as author Ali Kadri has shown, despite the ongoing imperialist threat and the war tensions with Israel that resulted in large military budgets, which limited but did not sacrifice social and economic goals.

WAR AND PEACE: With the rise of neoliberalism in the 1970s and its consolidation in the 1980s onwards, all of this changed economically, but also politically and culturally. That the Camp David Accords formalised this transformation was hardly coincidental.

In that context, and with the waning influence and subsequent disintegration of the Soviet Union, the same political forces that had played a progressive role committed to national liberation and social and economic justice in the previous period switched alliances to the new local economic elites - a new class of liberal intellectuals and their imperial sponsors, all committed to social inequality and economic dictatorship.

In the period following the 1967 war, liberals argued that the state of war with Israel drained state resources, while peace would enrich all Egyptians, indeed all Arabs.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, whose liberal transformation and disavowal of violence in the 1970s allowed it a seat at President Anwar Sadat’s table, joined the political contest on the side of the liberal secularists against the Nasserist political and economic legacy, and in favour of neoliberal capitalism.

By the late 1980s, the political and economic line the Egyptian regime and Egyptian liberals pushed was adopted wholesale by a new class of Arab intellectuals. Liberal and neoliberal Palestinian intellectuals and politicians promised that the US-sponsored “peace process” would transform the West Bank and Gaza into a new “Singapore”.

Jordanian liberals and neoliberals, in turn, predicted immense riches as a result of peace with Israel, concluded in 1994 alongside new neoliberal economic policies. In both cases, as happened in Egypt, increased poverty for the majority and immense wealth for the elites were the immediate and lasting results.

SPREADING CORRUPTION: Unlike Arab socialism, the new liberalism and neoliberalism articulate their goals in terms of individual, not collective, identities; in individual political rights, not collective economic rights; and in condemning the history of the past and reinterpreting it as a liberal political and economic failure, rather than as a basis for a more economically and politically democratic future.

Whereas national liberationists delivered on their promises of free universal education and healthcare, partial redistribution of wealth and increased productivity, the neoliberal regimes that the liberal intellectuals supported or helped bring about have shut down political democracy, spread corruption, and reversed all previous economic achievements.

The infighting between secular and Islamist liberals has not been over questions of economic democracy, the right to education and free healthcare, or redistribution of wealth, but rather about political power in the service of neoliberal economics and over cultural policies.

Today, the majority of people of the region have lost most of their economic rights and, as a result of the betrayal of political democracy by the secular liberals who supported coups against Islamist liberals in Algeria, the West Bank and Egypt, gained no political rights or “human rights” in the interim.

Whereas national liberation under “Arab socialism” - despite its repression of liberal political rights - had freed people from economic dictatorship, poverty, illiteracy and disease, the new neoliberal regimes and their liberal intelligentsia have freed the Arab peoples only from Arab socialism and a decent standard of living.

sparked mass protests against the nation’s high rates of unemployment, corruption, and poor public services.

But what makes the Lebanese protests so unique is that they are not only led by millennials, like Elkak, but they cut across religious and sectarian lines. In a country that has long been divided by religious political parties—Christian, Sunni, Shiite and Druze people have found a surprising unity in their dissatisfaction with the status quo. They’ll no longer tolerate the impossibility of finding a job in their field.

They’ll no longer tolerate only seeing their father two months out of the year because he can only work overseas. And, unlike their parents’ generation, they aren’t scared of politicians’ threats.

For decades, the people of Lebanon have been oppressed by a corrupt government and dysfunctional economy. Now, the younger generation is responding with an uprising—and the rest of the country is following their lead.

Lebanon’s deep-rooted political and economic dysfunction stems back to the end of its 15-year civil war. In 1989, Lebanon created a sectarian-based government that was designed to create an equal balance of power between Christians, Sunnis, and Shiites. But, over the course of time, these groups created multiple political parties that competed to win over the same elite constituencies, but hardly sought to improve the lives of ordinary people.

What’s more, Lebanon’s infrastructure was destroyed in the war. That led the government to borrow money from local and international banks to rebuild. Under a perfect scenario, that would have an optimal way for Lebanon to revitalize itself.

But Lebanon was caught in a web of corruption in which Lebanese officials have diverted funds to themselves and their own political parties.

Now, Lebanon’s unemployment rate sits at 25 percent, according to the Ministry of Labor, wages are low, and the na-

tion’s infrastructure is still depleted. That’s made it even more difficult for the country to provide its people with basic goods and services. For example, Lebanon still lacks 24-hour electricity. Most people rely on generators—which the government regulates and thereby makes money on.

Equally disconcerting, the country’s debt is more than 85 billion dollars, and foreign traders aren’t accepting Lebanon’s currency, so it’s losing value.

By promising to increase taxes last week, the government is essentially tried put a band-aid on the gunshot wound that is Lebanon’s deep systemic flaws. The protests, in other words, are a cathartic explosion of the Lebanese people’s longheld frustrations—and a demand to dismantle Lebanon’s oligarchy.

“That’s the interesting thing about the political system in Lebanon,” Pearlman told me. The political elites “act like they are defending their group against other groups. But the truth is that they’re all in collaboration, they’re all the ones who are upholding the status quo. The political elites argue amongst themselves for who gets a bigger piece of the pie that is the state. And citizens are starving. They get crumbs, if anything.”

Crumbs aren’t an exaggeration. Pedro Douaihy, who lives in Zgharta, has to work three jobs—18 hours a day, six days a week—to provide for his wife and fiveyear-old son. The 36-year-old goes from passing out parking tickets and delivering fast food, to driving a truck of chickens to butchers overnight to earn $275 a week. Now, he plans to move to Venezuela—one of the poorest and most dangerous countries in the world.

“It’s very unsafe. You can’t even walk in the street because they kill you just to rob you,” Douaihy said. “It’s so bad here, that I still prefer Venezuela.”

Lebanon’s disastrous economy and government can be seen by merely walking down the street. Garbage fills the

roads, homes lack reliable electricity, and the infrastructure is falling apart. At the same time, the government is failing to protect the nation—and its most precious natural resources.

Last Monday and Tuesday, more than 100 wildfires broke out across the country—one of the largest wildfires in Lebanon’s history. The government failed to contain the flames, resulting in two people dying and massive plots of farms and greenery destroyed. Lebanon didn’t have adequate firefighting aircraft, and had to wait for Cyprus, Greece, and Jordan to help.

But it’s the young people who will have to live with the current generation’s mistakes. That explains why they are igniting this movement. Meanwhile, they are using social media to their advantage—as a tool to share the locations of protests and to urge others to join. The uprisings have even reached the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Europe, where thousands of Lebanese expats have held solidarity protests.

The younger Lebanese generation is more educated and progressive than its parents and ancestors. It has grown up in a more globalized world, but without the benefits of globalization. It’s ready to discard the antiquated ways of its government.

“For me, the most significant part of all this is the barrier of fear is gone with everyone,” said Gino Raidy, a 29-yearold Beirut resident. Raidy, who has more than 45,000 followers on Instagram, has been encouraging his peers to join him.

After Hariri’s speech Monday, Raidy posted: “We’re not going anywhere till something concrete is done. We’re done with your lies. How do you expect us to believe that you will stop corruption when all of you are the ones that are corrupt! LEAVE!” Indeed, the Lebanese people aren’t going anywhere.

Joseph Massad is Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University in New York.

Lisa Khoury is a freelance multimedia journalist in Lebanon.

Friday, 25 October, 2019

syRiAn kuRds AccusE TuRkEy of vioLATions, RussiA sAys PEAcE PLAn on TRAck

FOREIGN NEWS 07

ERdogAn sAys TuRkEy wiLL cRush kuRdish miLiTAnTs REmAining in syRiA 'sAfE zonE'

BEIRUT/MOSCOW

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AGENCIES

HE Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) accused Turkey on Thursday of launching a large land offensive targeting three villages in northeast Syria despite a truce, but Russia said a peace plan hammered out this week was going ahead smoothly.

Under the plan, agreed by presidents Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, Syrian Kurdish forces are to withdraw more than 30 km (19 miles) from the Turkish border, a goal Russia’s RIA news agency, quoting an SDF official, said was al-

ready achieved. Russia said it was sending more military policemen and heavy equipment to help implement the deal, which has already prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to lift sanctions against Turkey and has drawn lavish praise for Erdogan in the Turkish media.

Ankara views the Kurdish YPG militia, the main component in the SDF, as terrorists linked to Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey. It launched a cross-border offensive against them on Oct. 9 after Trump ordered U.S. forces out of northeast Syria. The deal agreed with Putin, which builds on and widens a previous U.S.-brokered ceasefire, helped end the fighting.

ANKARA: A A A Turkey will use its right to crush Kurdish militia fighters if they have not withdrawn from a “safe zone” in northern Syria as per a truce agreement with the United States, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday. Earlier on Thursday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) accused Turkey of launching an offensive targeting three villages in northeast Syria despite a truce, but Russia said a peace deal struck this week was going ahead smoothly. Erdogan said Turkey would implement its plans for an offensive if the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia did not withdraw from along its border as agreed upon with Russia. He also criticized world leaders meeting with YPG commanders, saying such moves hindered the fight against terrorism. AGENCIES

But the SDF said in its statement on Thursday that Turkish forces had attacked three villages “outside the area of the ceasefire process,” forcing thousands of civilians to flee.

“Despite our forces’ commitment to the ceasefire decision and the withdrawal of our forces from the entire ceasefire area, the Turkish state and the terrorist factions allied to it are still violating the ceasefire process,” it said.

“Our forces are still clashing,” it said, urging the United States to intervene to halt the renewed fighting.

‘EVERYTHING IS BEING IMPLEMENTED’: Russia, which as a

close ally of President Bashar alAssad has emerged as the key geopolitical player in Syria, has begun deploying military policemen near the Turkish border as part of the deal agreed on Tuesday in the Russian city of Sochi.

“We note with satisfaction that the agreements reached in Sochi are being implemented,” Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying. “Everything is being implemented,” he said. RIA, citing an SDF official, said the Kurdish fighters had already withdrawn to 32 km (20 miles) away from the border.

Pentagon chief to focus on Turkey, Syria at NATO, but short on options BRUSSELS AGENCIES

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper is expected to focus on Turkey’s offensive into Syria and the fight against Islamic State when he meets NATO partners in Brussels this week, but he has limited options for both issues.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops from northeastern Syria, enabling Turkish troops to attack Kurdish fighters in the area.

Since then, Trump has said he will keep a small number of troops in parts of northeastern Syria where there is oil. But Russian military police have also begun deploying on Syria’s border with Turkey under a deal with Ankara.

It is unclear what, if anything, NATO countries could collectively do to respond to Turkey’s incursion since Ankara has already moved into northeastern Syria, made a deal with Moscow on the way forward and shrugged off Western criticism. European countries, dismayed by Trump’s unpredictable foreign policy, were caught by surprise by the U.S. decision and have themselves been looking for a response to Turkey.

However, Esper has in recent days said he still

plans to press partners in the NATO trans-atlantic military alliance for a reaction, even though critics say Trump’s decision caused it.

“Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation.

I think the incursion was unwarranted,” he told a think-tank in Brussels on Thursday before his NATO meetings. He said fellow NATO member Turkey was heading in the wrong direction. “We see them spinning closer to Russia’s orbit than in the Western orbit and I think that is unfortunate,” said Esper, who was to meet his Turkish counterpart on Thursday.

U.S.-Turkey frictions have been bubbling in recent years. Washington began removing Ankara from a joint F-35 jet production program after Turkey bought and took delivery in July of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

But Pentagon criticism of Turkey in the past month has had little impact. Even though some European countries have suspended weapons sales to Ankara, Rachel Rizzo, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security think-tank, said Esper had few options to pressure Turkey at NATO. “As far as NATO-level punishment, I don’t see really what is possible,” she said.

Trump’s initial decision to pull out of northeast Syria was seen in Europe as the latest sign of

unreliability from his administration, Rizzo added.

‘STEP UP AND DO MORE’: French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday decried NATO’s inability to react to Turkey’s “crazy” offensive and said it was time Europe stopped acting like a junior ally when it came to the Middle East.

Germany’s defense minister has told lawmakers she wants the U.N. Security Council to approve a safe zone in north Syria.

In his comments on Thursday, Esper said he had not taken a detailed look at the German proposal but was supportive, though Washington did not intend to contribute ground forces.

“It is something that we’ve been calling on our European partners to do for quite some time: it is to step up and do more,” Esper said. The American exit from northeastern Syria has raised concern of a resurgence of Islamic State (IS) militants.

Esper is expected to meet with counterparts from Germany, France and Britain to discuss how the war on ISIS can continue, a senior U.S. defense official said. Many U.S. lawmakers, both Democrats and Trump’s fellow Republicans, have expressed dismay over the withdrawal from Syria, exposing Kurdish forces who for years helped U.S. troops fight IS militants and took the brunt of casualties.

Lebanon's Aoun invites protesters to talk, hints at government reshuffle BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Thursday that he was ready for dialogue with protesters to find the best solution for saving the country from financial collapse and suggested a government reshuffle was on the table. Protests expressing outrage with a ruling elite they accuse of corruption and calling for the government’s resignation have swept Lebanon since last week, paralyzing the country despite announced reforms intended to pull it from crisis. In a televised address to the nation, Aoun promised he would fight state corruption as demanded by hundreds of thousands of protesters. He said there was “a need to review the current government”. Aoun said he would back new laws aimed at fighting corruption, including proposals for laws that would lift bank secrecy and scrap immunity from presidents, ministers, and MPs, moves that could pave the way for investigations. Positioning himself as in solidarity with protest grievances, he said corruption had “eaten us to the bone.” “Your shouts will not be wasted,” said Aoun. “My call to demonstrators: I am ready to meet your representatives that carry your concerns to listen to your specific demands. You will hear from us about our fears over financial collapse,” said Aoun. “We will discuss what we can do together to achieve your objectives without causing collapse and chaos and open a constructive dialogue that can lead to a constructive result and define options that will lead to the best results.” “Dialogue is always the best for salvation. I am waiting for you.” AGENCIES

Russia lands nuclear bombers in Africa as Putin hosts continent's leaders SOCHI/MOSCOW: Russia landed two nuclear-capable bombers in South Africa on a training mission on Wednesday, a flight apparently timed to coincide with President Vladimir Putin’s opening of a flagship RussiaAfrica summit designed to increase Russian influence.

The two Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers touched down at Waterkloof air force base in Tshwane on Wednesday, the South African National Defense Force said. Russia’s Ministry of Defense has said the mission is designed to nurture military ties with South Africa.

Speaking before dozens of African heads of state at a two-day summit in the southern Russian city of Sochi, Putin called for trade with African countries to double over the next four to five years and said Moscow had written off African debts to the tune of over $20 billion.

The first Russia-Africa summit is part of a Kremlin drive to win business and restore influence that faded after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, which backed leftist governments and movements across the continent throughout the Cold War. “Many Russian companies have long and successfully worked with partners from the most different sectors of the African economy and plan to expand their influence in Africa.

We of course will provide support at the state level,” said Putin. The prize is greater political clout on a continent with 54 United Nations member states, vast mineral wealth and potentially lucrative markets for Russian-manufactured weapons. But Russia is starting from a low base. Although it has enjoyed considerable success selling arms to African countries, Moscow lags far behind competitors in trade terms. Russia says its trade with African countries rose to $20 billion last year, but it did not rank among the continent’s top five largest partners for trade in goods, according to Eurostat. That list was topped by the European Union, followed by China, India, the United States and the United Arab Emirates. As it noted the arrival of Russia’s warplanes, the South African National Defense Force praised what it said were strong diplomatic links between the countries. AGENCIES

Libyan schools shut as teachers on swollen payroll demand better wages BENGHAZI/TRIPOLI AGENCIES

Strikes are keeping classrooms shut at the start of the school year in Libya as teachers seek better pay from a budget under strain from a massive public salary bill and renewed conflict.

State-run schools were meant to open on Oct. 13, but teachers angered by falling living conditions and stagnant wages have been staging sit-ins in Benghazi, Libya’s second city, and Tripoli, the capital.

Chemistry teacher Ramadan Mohamed, a 47-year-old father of six among those on strike in Benghazi, said he had been forced to take up work as a taxi driver to provide for his family. “There are times I miss classes when I have financial obligations,” he said. “If I had an excellent salary that covered the needs of my home, I wouldn’t do another job, I’d devote all my time to students and teaching.”

Living standards in oil-rich Libya, once one of the wealthiest countries in the

region, have been sliding downwards amid stop-start warfare and political turmoil. Monthly salaries range from 500 to 850 Libyan dinars in state-run schools ($360-$610 at the official exchange rate, much less on the parallel market), and have not risen significantly since before the uprising that overthrew former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Schools are run down, and teachers do not receive health insurance or bonuses.

Libya has been split between rival governments and parliaments based in Tripoli and the east from 2014. For the past six months forces led by military commander Khalifa Haftar and aligned with the eastern government have been waging a campaign to take control of the capital. The fighting has drained resources on both sides.

Much of Libya’s population of 6.5 million depends on state salaries, which account for more than half of all public spending - a legacy of corruption and political patronage before and after 2011.

Funded by oil revenues, salaries are paid by the Tripoli central bank to citizens across the country. Some fraudulent or duplicate salaries have been eliminated, but many collect wages without working.

The education sector is especially bloated. Officials in Tripoli said nearly 240,000 teachers and other staff were on

its books in western and southern regions, including 60,000-70,000 replacement teachers. The head of the teachers’ union in Benghazi said another 190,000 teachers were registered under the government in the east.

‘HOLDING THE CHALK’: The eastern parliament approved a decree last

year to increase teachers’ salaries, but it has not been implemented.

In Benghazi, where Haftar fought for more than three years before establishing control in 2017, teachers have been staging sit-ins downtown and outside the education ministry building since last month. More than 200 schools have been shut by the protest, said Mustafa al-Darsi, Benghazi’s education superintendent.

Families that can afford to have been moving their children to private schools.

Darsi said that just 18,000 of the 47,000 officially employed as teachers in Benghazi had been turning up to work and “holding the chalk”. They deserved a raise, but financial constraints made that impossible.

“The situation in the country doesn’t even allow for an increase of a penny, not just for teachers but in general,” he said.

In Tripoli, some school buildings are being used as shelters for people displaced by recent fighting, which had disrupted schooling before the summer.

Friday, 25 October, 2019

08 COMMENT After Kartarpur opening Fresh attempts needed to resolve disputes

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hE unique agreement to open the Kartarpur Corridor has been signed at a time when the relations between Pakistan and India are extremely tense, particularly after the revocation by India of Articles 35A and 370 and the subsequent wave of repression in Indian-occupied Kashmir. Earlier India had refused to hold talks with Pakistan till the alleged terrorist activity for which it holds Islamabad responsible was stopped. Prime Minister Imran Khan had also ruled out any talks with the neighbouring country before it revived Article 370, ended the restrictions in IoK imposed after August 5 and released thousands of Kashmiri political activists taken into custody. Meanwhile both countries recalled their respective high Commissioners.

The formal inauguration of the Corridor will be held on November 9 ahead of the 550th birth anniversary of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev, who like Muslim Sufis preferred spirituality over religiosity. The Guru denounced the caste system and maintained that all human beings can have direct access to God without the help of rituals or priests. he underlined the universal brotherhood, humility, simplicity, equality and tolerance.

The Foreign office spokesman presented the Kartarpur agreement as an example of the decency with which the Pakistan government treats the minorities.

While Sikhs are treated somewhat better than other smaller religious groups in the country, Pakistan has yet to do much to convince the world about its tolerance of the minorities. Despite Mr Khan’s visit to the USA being billed as highly successful, a top US State Department official criticized early this week the ‘overt discrimination against members of minority groups’ in Pakistan. The situation in India is even worse where dissidents, non-conformists and minorities are under attack from the followers of hindutva. Muslims are particularly being subjected to violence.

There is much the two countries need to do to eradicate fanaticism and religious hatred, improving their relations being a step towards the goal. The opening of Kartarpur corridor should be followed by attempts to restart talks between Pakistan and India to resolve their outstanding disputes including Kashmir. Business relations and people to people contacts also need to be revived. For this the PTI leadership needs first to reach a consensus with the opposition dropping its confrontational posture.

Place to do business Improving position not the only yardstick

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AKISTAN has improved its ranking as a global reformer 28 places on the Ease of Doing Business Index. This is good news, but it does not mean that the long-awaited economic turnaround has begun. It should lead to an increase in Foreign Direct Investment, but it has not yet done so. It should do so in the future, but until it does, it will not translate into the actual creation of new capital, assets and jobs, which the government badly wants for the economy to perform at the level it wants.

It is certainly not doing so now, as can be seen in the decline of 6 percent shown by largescale manufacturing in the first two months of the fiscal year, July and August.

This signals the start of an economic slowdown, or rather meltdown which will not only ensure that there are no new jobs for entrants into the job market, but will lead to people presently employed actually being thrown out of work. It will also mean that the government’s attempt to achieve the ambitious target of tax collection of Rs5.5 trillion becomes nonsense, no matter that it has been promised to the IMF. With the world facing an economic slowdown, capital for FDI seeks profits in economies which seem to be bucking the trend, but certainly not if they seem to be following that trend. The PTI must realise now that it would face electoral punishment, and the electorate will not hear excuses about a global slowdown.

All that improvement in the Index will bring a willingness by investors to consider Pakistan. however, the decision to actually invest will depend on any other factors which the government still has to tackle, such as the physical and regulatory infrastructure, and the business dispute resolution mechanism. Merely giving the international financial institutions access to policymaking will not improve matters if other factors are not dealt with effectively. The PTI government has set great store by its anti-corruption drive, arguing that prosecution of the corrupt will lead to an improvement in the economy. That has not happened. If the anti-corruption drive seems directed against political opponents, as it does, it will not yield the results that have been promised.

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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The mess that is Brexit Ireland has been a problem since 1169, and still is at Penpoint M.a. niaZi

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hE UK did not find it easy to get into the European Union, and is not finding it easy to get out. It appears that the UK’s constitutional arrangements, completed in 1801 and last revised in 1921, may have been enough to take the UK into the EU, but are not enough to bring it out. It is worth noting that both the completion and revision were about Ireland, and now the exit is about what George Bernard Shaw once called in his play John Bull’s Other Island.

There are a number of red lines refusing to intersect, giving the impression that any more ‘normal’ member would have an easier time leaving the EU. The sticking point seems to have been that Eire, most of Ireland, independent since 1921, was also a member. The original trouble came over what was known as the backstop, which would have kept all the UK in the EU Customs Union, until an arrangement was worked out between the UK and the EU. That would have supposedly defeated the purpose of the 2016 referendum, in which the UK only narrowly voted to leave the EU. The supposed purpose was to regain economic sovereignty, even though it had not merged the pound in the euro. The real motive for leaving was social rather than economic.

When the UK lost its empire, it lost its main source of gaining wealth, and then spent most of what it had accumulated in the two world wars.

As the Empire would no longer provide wealth, it had to become part of the EU. Apart from the economic benefits, it had to accept the free movement of labour. That meant, as the EU expanded, accepting Eastern Europeans and other such immigrants. however, when the EU accepted a certain number of Syrian refugees, and started allocating them to member states, and when migrants from Africa began crossing the Mediterranean, the British jibbed. There had been enough trouble with the South Asian and Caribbean migrants after World War II, and Britons were no longer in the mood to accept any more non-white migrants. Thus Brexit contained a racist under-

current, something which has been emphasized by the Conservative Party, which is broadly more insular, more ‘Little-Englander’, than average.

Though none of the other EU members had corresponding Empires, those that had them, had migrant populations, some of whose members also gravitated to the UK. It should not be forgotten that the UK had manged a separation with Ireland before, in 1921, at a time when the UK had an Empire which had needed Irish help to man. Ireland was notoriously poorer, so its sons were particularly inclined to join its armed forces as well as its colonial services. Protestants, mainly, though not all, from Ulster, were in the forefront, and an Irish Protestant class had developed into a bulwark of the Empire.

The Anglo-Irish aristocracy was famed indeed, and played a major role in ruling the Empire.

Insularity has been peculiarly English. one of the issues repressed because of the Irish backstop has been that of Scotland. Scotland remained in the UK, of which it has been a part since 1707, but it also voted to remain in the EU. one of the advantages of being in the UK was that it carried EU membership. As a Scots nationalist said in the 1970s, “It’s one thing to be the junior partner in the world’s largest empire; it’s another to be a junior partner in the Sick Man of Europe.” Scotland would prefer to be independent; and then join the EU in its own right. The vast majority of Scottish seats are now held by the Scottish Nationalist Party, which generally votes against the Conservatives, and thus supports the Labour Party, which it actually supplanted. This is an eerie parallel with the Irish home Rule League, which regularly, in the decades leading up to World War I, would win about 85 of the then 100 Irish seats. It supported the Liberal Party, helping it form several governments. however, the Liberal Party foundered because of Irish home Rule, with the Liberal Unionists hiving off and joining the Conservatives. So far, such a split has not occurred in the Labour Party over Scotland. however, the effort to keep Ulster within the UK, which included a special relationship with Eire, extending to allowing Eire citizens to continue enlisting in the UK armed forces, received a setback with the beginning of the Time of Troubles in 1968, when the struggle to unite the island became violent. The UK military also committed many atrocities as it tried to put down the insur-

gency. Ultimately, there was the Good Friday Agreement between the Irish nationalists and the Ulster unionists, which provided among other things, that there would be no border between Eire and Northern Ireland. As the latter was part of the UK, it meant there was to be no border between the UK and Eire. Since the UK and Eire were both in the EU, it was oK. Now that one is to leave, a border must be set up, where people and goods are to pass through migration and customs checks.

As Boris Johnson (the Tories’ third Prime Minister since the 2016 referendum) agreed to Northern Ireland remaining in the EU customs union while taking the rest of the UK out, in effect, he gave up Northern Ireland. No wonder the Democratic Ulster Party, a unionist party and thus a Tory ally, upon which it depends for support to stay in government, opposed the agreement.

The house of Commons rejected the deal.

That obliged the sending of a letter seeking an extension, as decided by a previous Act. he sent the letter, without signing it, and another, duly signed, saying that an extension was not necessary. This piece of chicanery showed just how Brexit was taking its toll on British constitutionalism just as much as on the integrity of its territory. And how it showed that Ireland, as it had been ever since henry II first invaded it back in 1169, which marked the beginning of seven and a half centuries of English interference in Ireland, is still causing problems. And the UK is still in the middle of the mess that is Brexit.

Johnson is committed to leaving the EU even if it means that there is no deal. his critics have accused him of aiming for a no-deal Brexit, and the Labourites believe he wants the UK to align with the USA rather than the EU in any impending trade war, the first signs of which are the USA’s slapping tariffs on the EU. The UK remains faced with the question of whether or not it will be part of Europe. The saga of its relationship with the Continent is a long one, and will probably not be over with Brexit. however, once out, it is not easy to see how it will return to the EU, which will increasingly be Europe’s future, except for terms which will pay little attention to British pretensions about national sovereignty, even unity.

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

Sexual harassment or blackmail Sexual harassment too can be misused

Dr Saqlain a Shah

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ho could have imagined that he was holding such a gigantic volcano of depression that would explode someday and destroy his life? Muhammad Afzal was a young lecturer of English in Govt MAo College Lahore. he was falsely accused of sexual harassment by one of his female students over grading issues. An inquiry committee was formed that absolved him of all charges. he was verbally communicated his innocence, but that was not enough.

The damage was already inflicted on his soul. his character and reputation were already tarnished to a level that nobody was willing to buy his verbal narrative. People’s murmurs and piercing eyes haunted him at every corner and hit him like bullets in the skull. his wife left him, and mother was also cynical about his morals. he rightfully wanted a written proof of his acquittal which he requested time and again. The institution was supposed to inform him in writing within a month of the inquiry, but he didn’t get a reply even after three months. Finally, he sought peace in killing himself by consuming a toxic substance.

Who to blame for the suicide of a fine gentleman – the treacherous girl or the recklessly insensitive government institution? Was the college principal too naïve to realize the consequences of this case? In this society of ours where honour Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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and respect are valued more than anything else, where talking about sex-related matters is a taboo, where being involved in sexual offenses is taken as more ignominious than committing murders– how could the college administration overlook the sensitivity of the matter and hold back the inquiry report for three months? This is a serious breach of law and ethics that led to the killing of an innocent man from the lower-middle class who was the only breadwinner for his family. This warrants the accountability and punishment of officials responsible for negligence.

Despite the abuse and misuse of laws, there is absolutely no denial of the fact that sexual harassment at workplaces is a genuine problem all over the world. In Pakistan, this menace is more frightening due to the highly patriarchal nature of our society. A very low proportion of women can work, particularly in a mixed-gender environment. on the other hand, sexual frustration in general sometimes triggers unwelcome sexual advances by male co-workers. our society is a unique blend of religious and tribal conservatism and Western cultural invasion. So, while there are generally very few women in workplaces, it is quite likely that they could be a victim of sexual harassment at some stage in life. Luckily, a good set of laws is available to address women’s complaints, but still, it’s not easy for women to report such cases due to the honour conundrum and then to prove them in the legal proceedings.

In Afzal’s case, the complainant girl fabricated stuff to take revenge for poor grades and framed him in sexual harassment that finally claimed his life. This is not the only case of a brutal counterfeit in Pakistan. Many cases have already been reported in which women make false accusations of harassment against their colleagues and ex-boyfriends only to settle scores and take revenge. While it hurt the very essence of the women protection laws as well as caused enormous mental trauma for the victims, it also backfired on the women– they lost all honour and bore a stain on their character that will haunt them their entire lives. It’s true that women gen-

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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erally gain sympathy, cooperation and benefit of the doubt considering the laborious task of producing evidence to support their claims in such cases, but it’s very sinister and malevolent to use such respectful concessions as a ‘woman card’.

The system that protects and empowers women is the ultimate victim of such deceptions. It shatters confidence in the system and law, and women with genuine complaints suffer the most.

Some institutions recklessly handle sexual harassment complaints and form the inquiry committee immediately. They are either unaware of their responsibilities or they callously overlook the grave consequences of the decision.

Law has the provision that the two parties can be made to sit together, have a dialogue and try to resolve the matter informally. Senior colleagues and mutual friends can be brought in to settle the dispute. The stakes are so high that the matter should be forwarded for official inquiry only after all informal methods are exhausted.

Lastly, after every such incident, there is an undue hue and cry against the #MeToo (hashtag) on social media. Many people call it the real cause of such fake harassment cases. Some say it’s a conspiracy against the land of the pure.

Such naïve brains fail to understand that #MeToo is an effective platform for the weak and unheard women in the remote corners of the world. There are countless cases in which women raised their voices, got noticed by the respective authorities and were served with justice. #MeToo is a tool; it can be used positively as well as in an evil way, but mostly it serves its real purpose. Social media is like a kitchen knife– you can cut vegetables or even cut someone’s throat.

Sexual harassment is a scourge, and so is any attempt that uses it for blackmail or revenge.

Afzal is no more in this world, but his suicide note has a lot of substance to shake our morals and conscience.

Dr Saqlain A Shah is a professor at a university in Lahore. He can be contacted at saqlain007pk@hotmail.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Friday, 25 October, 2019

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail Will Imran Khan fulfill his promise?

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

Indian fake narrative rejected by domestic audience The Modi government is getting deperate

Sultan MehMooD hali

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UT of sheer desperation, Indian PM Narendra Modi’s government is continuing to churn out lies to support and justify its continued stranglehold over Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).

Even after the lapse of over 100 days since India’s unilateral action of abrogating Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution on August 5, Modi has not dared to lift the curfew for fear of mass and bloody reprisal by the long oppressed and incarcerated Kashmiris. Pakistan may not have managed to bring down the might of the West or the Islamic Ummah to achieve a reprieve for the Kashmiris; yet its sole efforts, diplomatically supported by allies China, Turkey and Malaysia, have pushed the Kashmir issue to the glaring focus of world attention. The UN, EU and even the US Congress are discussing the constant curtailment of human rights in IoK. US President Donald Trump has made numerous offers to mediate between Pakistan and India to resolve the Kashmir issue within the last three and half months. Each time Mr Modi has shied away from the offer under flimsy pretexts.

International as well as Indian human rights activists along with academics, litterateurs and persons of conscience, including senior politicians even from the ruling BJP, have issued warnings to Modi to heed the plight of the besieged Kashmiris.

To justify its illegal annexation of IoK and Ladakh, the BJP government is now desperately issuing false narratives of terrorists being trained in Pakistan and preparing to be launched into IoK. Take the october 14 ANI story, “45-50 Terrorists, Including Suicide Bombers, Training at JeM Balakot Facility”, carried by Business Standard and other Indian media outlets; also repeated by the Indian Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat.

When asked to comment on the story, General Rawat blatantly confirmed the fake claim stating that Pakistan had not learnt its lesson from the February 26 Balakot air strike. India had claimed that following the February 14 (false flag) operation against the CPRF convoy in Pulwama in which 40 Indian Army personnel had been killed, the IAF had carried out a successful night surgical strike at an alleged Jaish-e-Muhammad training facility in Balakot on February 26 in which 350 “terrorists” were decimated. The very next morning Pakistan exposed the Indian lie by taking in-

ternational and domestic media to the site where they witnessed for themselves that apart from a few pine trees, no damage was caused by the IAF strike. The PAF, on the contrary, struck back and, in the melee, the IAF lost two fighters, an Su-30 and MiG-21. In its frustration at the telling blow received at the hands of Pakistan, the Indian Air Chief made a false claim that its MiG-21 pilot, before being shot down, had downed a PAF F-16.

The Indian bluff was exposed by the USA, which sent investigation teams and found all PAF F-16s intact. Former Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, on her deathbed admitted that there were no casualties in the February 26 IAF surgical strike. Israel, the supplier of the high-precision Popeye air-to-surface missiles to the IAF, should have conducted its own inquiry how the Indian pilots managed to miss all their targets in Balakot.

The old fake news of the alleged JeM training facility is being revived by General Rawat and the BJP’s pliant media, but this time around, saner elements are questioning the lie.

In order to create a security scenario in IoK, India is routinely stirring up reports of her acts against the Kashmiri freedom struggle. The security scares of training terrorists and infiltration are not being met with serious response from the world. This is because Pakistan is raising concerns at every possible forum that India, like the Pulwama incident, is all set to create a false-flag and blame it on Pakistan.

The Hindustan Times of 15 october carried a news item ‘Army hit by Silent Wall in LoC Intelligence ops’, which claims that “The Indian Army’s monitors along the LoC fell silent soon after Article 370 was effectively revoked in IoK on 5 August. one official said we have not been able to crack the new frequency. We have been trying to intercept commands being sent to the Valley by terror organizations based there (in Pakistan) but have not been successful yet.”

India won’t admit that there were never any secret contacts between Pakistan’s secret agencies and the just Kashmiri struggle for freedom from the Indian yoke of tyranny. Instead, the beleaguered BJP is trying to build fake narratives to whip Indian emotions, fool the world and garner support for its military actions against Pakistan.

Stung by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir’s passionate appeal at the UN to India to stop its atrocities against Kashmiris, India is trying to hit back. Mahathir has categorically declared that he would not retract his criticism of New Delhi’s actions despite Indian traders calling for an unprecedented boycott of Malaysian palm oil. The impasse could exacerbate what Mahathir described as a trade war between the world’s second-biggest producer and exporter of the commodity and its biggest buyer so far this year.

Turkey, the other Muslim country to have chastised India for its illegal occupation of Kashmir, has also been targeted by India joining Syria in condemning the Turkish military operation against Kurd terrorists.

Simultaneously, India has barred international and domestic media as well as international politicians from visiting IoK since its August 5 action. Recently, US Senator Chris Von hollen and a well-known Indian activist, part of a US government Congressional delegation were stopped from visiting IoK. Sandeep Pandey, an education reformer, said he and other activists

were barred from leaving the airport in Srinagar, where they had traveled for an informal factfinding mission. Surely India has a lot to hide, thus the lid on visits to the troubled zone.

While the pro-India government of Bangladesh is yet to condemn India for its atrocities against the besieged Kashmiris, the people of Bangladesh are incensed at the brutalities against Muslims of IoK. To punish the Bengalis, the Modi government is trying to tighten its grip by spreading rumours through fake narratives. The Hindu of october 14 reported that the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was trying to spread its tentacles across India and a list of 125 suspects have been shared with different states. Addressing a meeting of chiefs of the Anti-Terrorism Squads (ATSs), Mr. Modi said the JMB has spread in states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala in the guise of Bangladeshi immigrants.

This is an attempt to pressurize the Bangladesh government to accept Muslims rendered stateless after the infamous national registration in Assam. It is a step closer to India establishing hegemony over the region through the hindutva mindset. It will not be a surprise if India links terror to Bangladesh soon in order to halt her economic rise.

Meanwhile, VoA has reported that more than 900 people, most of them from India and Pakistan, have signed a resolution calling on the two governments to decrease hostilities and resolve their differences through dialogue.

Drafted by Boston-based Pakistani journalist Beena Sarwar and Indian academic Anish Mishra, who is based in Singapore, the resolution aims to reduce the increased tensions between the two South Asian nuclear-armed rivals that have already fought five wars since their independence from the British in 1947.

Signatories include well-known artists, authors, journalists, politicians, activists and even retired armed forces personnel. Names like internationally renowned linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, Bollywood stars Naseeruddin Shah and Nandita Das, famous Indian film producer Mahesh Bhatt, poets such as Gulzar and Kishwar Naheed, and historians like Ayesha Jalal and Romila Thapar join the ranks of retired Generals Mahmud Durrani and Talat Masood and Admiral L. Ramdas (former Indian Navy Chief) as “peacemongers,” a name they have chosen for themselves.

To top this crescendo of fake narratives, General Rawat claimed that his Army had destroyed three out of four alleged terror launch pads and killed six to ten Pakistani soldiers in Azad Jammu Kashmir. It is true that India has been incessantly violating the ceasefire agreement of 2003 and carried out a heavy barrage of firing last Sunday, but in the retaliatory action

by Pakistan, India suffered heavy casualties and had to raise the symbolic white flag to retrieve its dead. Pakistan debunked the General Rawat’s claim by taking diplomats to visit the affected areas in AJK. Indian diplomat refused to join the visit because apparently, he was already convinced of General Rawat’s fake narrative.

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.

JAMIAT Uelma-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) announced its ‘Azadi march’ on Islamabad, despite the request of other opposition parties to postpond the march Fazlur Rahman, leader of the JUI-F decidied to march solo on oCT 27. on the other hand government has started taking steps to stop this anti-government march a control center has been established to monitor the March.Authorities have started placing containers around the red zone and bridge connecting KPK with Punjab. Moreover section 144 will be imposed in Islamabad’s Red Zone and police would be deployed to stop anyone entering the area. Interior Minister Ijaz Shah said that no one will be allowed to take law in hand and government would take help from Pakistan Army. he said to call in the military would be the last option, “but I hope situation won’t deteriorate to that level.’’

JUI-F Senator Abdul Ghafoor haideri said it was the democratic right of the opposition to hold a peaceful protest. Prime Minister Imran Khan during his first speech in parliament as the prime minister said that his government would facilitate antigovernment protests and even provide protesters with containers to stage sit-ins in Islamabad’s D-Chowk. But the action taken by the government so far doesn’t seem to fulfill that promise.

MuHAMMAD HASSAN AMIN Islamabad

Kashmir solidarity IT seems that tensions between Pakistan and India may keep on escalating until the Kashmir issue is resolved. The dispute has come under International light and is being discussed and struggling to resolve the problem and reduce tensions between Pakistan and India. No one can denied the fact that India is taking no any steps to bring peace in the region. As India on August 5 unilaterally decided to revoke Article 370 of its constitution which granted special autonomy to occupied Kashmir. Undoubtedly, Pakistan has been struggling to make the region peaceful, but due to the lack of support the region has yet not been peaceful. As newly on Tuesday Combined opposition leaders from the capital announced that they would observe october 27 as black day in protest against the ongoing repression in India-held Kashmir. Actually, the decision was taken at a multi-party conference held to discuss matters related to Kashmir Solidarity Day and the upcoming Azadi March. The conference decided that a protest demonstration would be staged outside the National Press Club on oct 27 against the India attempts to jeopardise regional peace and stability, and express solidarity with the oppressed Kashmiris.

IMrAN rASHEED Kech

How many election petitions?

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

Without going into further allegations which the opposition leaders keep on harping day and night, this is ask the Election Commission of Pakistan to apprize the nation as to how many election petitions on rigging and other charges were filed by opposition parties loser candidates after July 25, 2018 with the Election Tribunals throughout the country, how many of them have decided in favour or against the complaining losing candidates and how many are still pending at different forums. This information naturally will be available with the Election Commission and if made public will greatly help in setting the records straight and making it clear to the people as to who is right and who is wrong in this regard, please. This scribe still remembers that in 1977 also, MMA led opposition had also leveled massive rigging charges against Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s PPP which had won the early called polls. Against all such hullah gullah, leading to violent protest, rigging charges were not proved even in 10 constituencies but the opposition had achieved its ulterior objective of toppling of the people’s elected government through imposition of martial law on July 5, 1977.

The opposition parties and their leaders, who have not somehow accepted their defeats in last year’s general election may continue opposing and criticizing the prime minister and PTI government. But in doing so they should at least keep the national interests as well as the interests of the country and the nation uppermost, please.

M Z rIFAT Lahore

The Molana’s Azadi RECENTLy Molana Fazal ur Rehman has announced a protest and a sit in in Islamabad calling it as the “Azadi March”. however it is still unclear what the ultimate motive of this azadi march is, whether it is to show solidarity with the Kashmiris against the Indian aggression in Indian occupied Kashmir or it is merely to topple the government of Imran Khan. But one thing is crystal clear that the azadi march is going to create an environment of chaos and conflict in the capital which will not just be the ultimate challenge for the government but it will not be in the greater national interest of Pakistan. A protest and march against the government at this time when geopolitics is very active in the region and Kashmir issue is at its peak of either exploding or dissolving, although protest is their democratic right but the opposition must reconsider it for the sake of national issues and national interests.

MuHAMMAD ASIM KHAN Islamabad

Friday, 25 October, 2019

10 FOREIGN NEWS

Eu muLLs dELAy As BRiTAin sAys Johnson's dEAL is ThE BRExiT EndgAmE LONDON/PARIS

T

Oct. 31 is only a week away, the source said: “Parliament has taken back control.”

Johnson won the top job by staking his career on getting Brexit done by Oct. 31, though he is almost certain to fail to do that after parliament defeated his proposed legislative timetable on Tuesday.

So will there be an election before Christmas? “Perhaps,” the Downing Street source said. “We shall see.”

As British politicians discuss the pros and cons of a Christmas election, responsibility for the timing of Brexit has passed to other European capitals: Berlin supports a three-month delay, while Paris is pushing for a shorter one.

Timing is crucial to the Brexit riddle.

While both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron appear to be fatigued by Brexit, they fear a no-deal exit that would almost certainly hurt global growth, roil financial markets and create a potentially

AGENCIES

HE United Kingdom will ultimately leave the European Union on the terms of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deal, a senior Downing Street source said on Thursday, as EU leaders mulled offering London a three-month flexible Brexit delay.

More than three years after voting 52%-48% to be the first sovereign country to leave the European project, the United Kingdom is waiting for the EU to decide how long the latest delay to Brexit should be. “This ends with us leaving with the PM’s deal,” a Downing Street source who spoke on condition of anonymity said. “We will leave with a deal, with the PM’s deal.”

When asked when Brexit would happen, given that the current deadline of

WASHINGTON AGENCIES

Republicans briefly brought the Democrat-led impeachment investigation to a halt Wednesday when around two dozen GOP House members stormed into a closed-door deposition with a Defense Department official. Democrats said the move compromised national security because some of the Republicans brought electronic devices into a secure room.

The protest by Republican lawmakers captured national attention, drawing the focus away from the testimony of a top US diplomat who told lawmakers just a day earlier that he was told President Donald Trump was withholding military aid from Ukraine unless the country’s president pledged to investigate Democrats. The maneuver delayed a deposition with Laura Cooper, a senior Defense Department official who oversees Ukraine policy, until midafternoon. The interview began roughly five hours behind schedule, after a security check by Capitol officials, and ended after roughly four hours.

Full Coverage: Trump impeachment inquiry As a series of diplomats have been interviewed in the impeachment probe, many Republicans have been silent on the president’s conduct.

But they have been outspoken about

deeper EU crisis. To offer Britain a long extension would take the pressure off British lawmakers to approve Johnson’s deal and open up possibilities such as a referendum on it. A short extension might focus minds in the British parliament.

BREXIT DELAY: Brexit was initially supposed to have taken place on March 29 but Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May was forced to delay twice - first to April 12 and then to Oct. 31 - as parliament defeated her Brexit deal by margins of between 58 and 230 votes earlier this year.

Johnson was forced by parliament on Saturday to send a letter to European Council President Donald Tusk requesting a delay until Jan. 31. He did so reluctantly, sending an unsigned photocopied note, but the correspondence was accepted. “Our policy remains that we should not delay,” Johnson told parliament on Tuesday after parliament defeated his extremely tight legislative

timetable for ratifying the deal he clinched in Brussels a week ago.

There is broad consensus among the EU 27 that a delay is needed but an EU official said several member states had shared concerns voiced by France, in particular on the lack of clarity of what purpose the extension would serve.

“France is not convinced by the idea of a long extension, and the 27 are looking to find an agreement by the end of the week,” a senior French diplomat said.

“Several countries are reluctant, such as the Netherlands and Poland.”

Poland said it wanted to avoid a nodeal Brexit. An EU diplomat said that while no decision had yet been taken, the

Chaotic scene as Republicans disrupt impeachment deposition their disdain for Democrats and the impeachment process, saying it is unfair to them even though they have been in the room questioning witnesses and hearing the testimony.

“The members have just had it, and they want to be able to see and represent their constituents and find out what’s going on,” said Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform panel.

That committee is one of three leading the investigation, and its members are allowed into the closed-door hearings.

Lawmakers described a chaotic scene. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she had just walked into the room when the Republican lawmakers blew past Capitol police officers and Democratic staffers. The staff member who was checking identification at the entrance was “basically overcome” by the Republicans, she said.

“Literally some of them were just screaming about the president and what we’re doing to him and that we have

nothing and just all things that were supportive of the president,” Wasserman Schultz said. Later when the deposition began, Cooper answered questions from lawmakers and staffers in response to a subpoena, an official working on the impeachment inquiry said. She explained to lawmakers the process of distributing military aid and was asked whether the appropriate steps were followed on Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the interview.

Both the official working on the impeachment inquiry and the person familiar with the interview spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door testimony. “The president’s allies in Congress are trying to make it even more difficult for these witnesses to cooperate,” Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee.

Democrats deny that Republicans are being treated unfairly, noting they have had equal time to question witnesses and full access to the meetings.

Schiff says closed-door hearings are

hong kong pro-democracy protesters rally for catalan independence HONG KONG: Hundreds of Hong Kong protesters, some waving Catalan flags and banners urging “a fight for freedom together”, rallied in support of a separate Catalonia on Thursday, broaching an issue that is anathema to Hong Kong’s Communist Party leaders in Beijing. In Hong Kong’s prodemocracy demonstrations, millions have taken to the streets for five months in sometimes violent clashes over what they see as China’s tightening grip. Most protesters in the former British colony want greater democracy, among other demands, although a small minority is calling for independence.

In that sense, they share some common ground with separatist demonstrators in Spain’s wealthy northeast region of Catalonia, which was rocked by protests after nine separatist leaders were sentenced this month to long prison terms for a failed independence bid in 2017. Thursday’s rally in Hong Kong was held in a downtown garden, home to a cricket club in colonial days, one of the few to have obtained a permit from authorities in recent weeks.

Some Hong Kong protesters went online to urge people not to attend, saying it was too provocative and risked denting international support for their own cause. AGENCIES

necessary to prevent witnesses from concealing the truth and has promised to release the transcripts when it will not affect the investigation.

They also said the Republicans — several of whom do not sit on one of the three committees — compromised security at Wednesday’s closed-door deposition. The interviews are being held in what is called a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, which is a secure room where members can hear classified information.

Several lawmakers leaving the facility said that some of the Republicans brought their cellphones, even though electronics are not allowed. All members of Congress are familiar with the protocol of the SCIF, since they are often invited to classified briefings, and there are several such rooms around the Capitol.

Several Republicans appeared to be tweeting from the secure room. North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker tweeted: “UPDATE: We are in the SCIF and every GOP Member is quietly listening.”

Behind closed doors, Spain exhumes Franco's remains MADRID AGENCIES

Cries of “long live Franco!” accompanied the coffin of Francisco Franco on Thursday as Spain removed the remains of its former dictator from the state mausoleum where he was buried in 1975.

His exhumation and reburial is the most significant move in years by Spanish authorities to lay the ghost of the general whose legacy still divides the country he dominated for nearly four decades.

The ruling Socialist Party, which faces a national election next month, has long sought to move Franco’s remains from the huge monument, built on his orders and containing the remains of combatants from both sides of the 1936-39 civil war.

As crowds of media and onlookers gathered outside, Franco’s coffin was extracted from its tomb in the Valley of the Fallen in a ceremony witnessed only by relatives and a small group of officials. The coffin was carried to a waiting hearse and then transferred to a helicopter for the short fight to a private family vault in the Mingorrubio cemetery north of Madrid, where Franco will be reburied next to his wife. Members of his family had

sought a court order to try to prevent the exhumation.

The reburial “should make us reflect on what it means for our country’s own image and for democracy,” said acting Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo.

“Young people should understand that we can never again be without democracy.” Around 500,000 people were killed in the war between Franco’s nationalist rebels, backed by Hitler and Mussolini, and left-wing Republicans. Franco then ruled Spain as an autocrat until his death. The exhumation is “intensely symbolic for Spain”, said political scientist Pablo Simon, “because the (Franco) monument has always been connected to those who miss the old regime”.

MEDIA BLACKOUT: Seeking to play down its repercussions, the government had enforced a media blackout and forbidden Franco’s family from draping his coffin in the Spanish flag. But in a gesture of solidarity with his ancestor, his eldest grandson and namesake Francisco Franco carried a Franco-era nationalist flag into the valley mausoleum, Reuters TV footage showed, for a ceremony that highlighted deep political and social divisions.

A poll in newspaper El Mundo this month showed 43% of Spaniards favored the transfer of Franco’s remains while 32.5% opposed it.

CMYK

bloc would grant one. EU ambassadors meet on Friday to discuss a Brexit delay.

“Unanimous view is that an extension will be needed to overcome the deadlock in London and that decision should preferably be taken by written procedure - mood in the room points to a longer extension,” the EU diplomat said.

Ireland said it supported a flexible extension - dubbed a “flextension” - including a break clause that would allow Brexit to take place before the deadline if Johnson won approval for his deal. Italy also supports such an extension.

“I think that extension will be a flexible one,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

ThousAnds of chiLEAns sTRikE As PRoTEsT dEATh ToLL hiTs 18 SANTIAGO: Thousands of Chileans flooded the streets of Santiago and other cities in a general strike on Wednesday, upping the pressure on beleaguered President Sebastien Pinera after days of social unrest that left 18 dead.

Students, professors and state workers walked off the job at the urging of the country’s largest union, ignoring a package of measures announced by Pinera aimed at quelling the violence.

“THE STRIKE IS ON! We say it loud and clear: enough of the increases and abuses,” said the Workers’ United Center of Chile, which organized the two-day action alongside about 20 other groups.

In the capital Santiago, police used water cannons to disperse protesters.

“Chile has awakened,” read the sign of one protester — a slogan that has been popular since the protests against social and economic woes, and a yawning gap between rich and poor, began last week.

The country, usually one of the most stable in Latin America, has experienced its worst violence in decades since protests against a now-scrapped hike in metro fares escalated dramatically on Friday.

A four-year-old child and a man were killed on Tuesday when a drunk driver rammed into a crowd of demonstrators, Interior Undersecretary Rodrigo Ubilla said. AGENCIES

39 vicTims found dEAd in TRuck nEAR London wERE chinEsE LONDON: The 39 people found dead in the back of a truck near London are believed to be Chinese nationals, police said on Thursday, as they questioned the driver detained on suspicion of murder.

Paramedics and police found the 31 men and eight women’s bodies on Wednesday in a truck container on an industrial estate at Grays, about 20 miles (32 km) east of the British capital. For years, illegal immigrants have attempted to reach Britain stowed away in trucks, often from the European mainland. In the biggest tragedy, 58 Chinese were found dead in a tomato truck in 2000 at the port of Dover. “We read with heavy heart the reports about the death of 39 people in Essex, England,” the Chinese embassy said in a statement, adding further clarification was being sought with police. Essex police said their priority was ensuring dignity for the victims during their inquiry. “Each of the 39 people must undergo a full coroner’s process to establish a cause of death before we move on to attempting to identify each individual within the trailer,” police added in a statement, saying that would be a time-consuming operation. AGENCIES

Friday, 25 October, 2019

BUSINESS 11

Govt likely to lay off more than 30,000 emPloyeeS Before JUne 2020

CORPORATE CORNER

ISLAMABAD

KARACHI: Centre for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) jointly organised the ‘3rd Humanitarian Reporting Awards, 2019’ at the Institute of Business Administration. PRESS RElEASE

KARACHI: Engro Fertilizers Limited’s project ‘PAVE’ has won its second global accolade, receiving the award for ‘Best Shared Value Project through Cross-Sector Partnership’ in Melbourne, Australia. Engro Fertilizers CEO Nadir Salar Qureshi received the award. PRESS RElEASE

US company mulls investing $100m in Gilgit-Baltistan ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

A delegation of True North, a US-based investment company, has expressed its keen interest to invest in the tourism sector of Gilgit-Baltistan. A detailed briefing in this connection was held in Islamabad on Thursday. GilgitBaltistan and Kashmir Affairs Ali Amin Khan Gandapur chaired the briefing session where Special Assistant to Prime Minister Iftikhar Durrani and Gilgit-Baltistan Governor Raja Jalal Hussain Maqpoon were also present.

The GB tourism secretary on the occasion gave a detailed briefing regarding the tourism potential of the province. He highlighted the diverse natural features, biodiversity, adventure sports and culture of GB. The delegation was also informed regarding the data of tourists visiting the area and investment opportunities in this regard. Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir Affairs Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur welcomed the delegation and said that there were tremendous opportunities for the foreign investors in tourism sector of GB. He said that the investment environment in the province was conducive, as GB was a “tax-free zone as well as a gateway to China”. He said the region gained immense importance due to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), under which a special economic and industrial zone was also being set up in GB. Underlining the importance of communication and access roads of the area, the minister said that Skardu-Gilgit Road was being upgraded, while the government was also making progress on the construction of Gilgit-Chitral Road.

"Moreover, the government also plans to upgrade Skardu Airport in the next financial budget so that it could be used for international flights." Gandapur assured the delegation of all possible facilities, saying that the government would go an extra mile in facilitating the foreign investors. He hoped that the investors would benefit from the opportunities available in the area. The delegation members expressed satisfaction on the investment opportunities in GB, saying that they were particularly impressed by the natural and cultural diversification of the area. They said that they would love to work in Pakistan as the country carried a huge potential and future, especially in the tourism sector. The minister once again assured of his cooperation and said that the proposed investment would not only help develop the tourism sector of Pakistan but would also provide employment opportunities to the people of GB.

t

AHMAD AHMADANI

HE government has been mulling to lay off more than 30,000 employees of some 20 state institutions before June 2020, apparently to plug financial imbalances and meet the fiscal deficit of the country, Pakistan Today has learnt.

However, the Ministry of Finance, while confirming the privatisation of at least 10 institutions in the near future, refused to give any number on the termination of employees.

According to sources privy to the matter, the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has been considering the termination of over 30,000 employees besides privatisation of some 20 important institutes before the announcement of next financial year's budget.

They said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials had moved this proposal, convincing the finance ministry to lay off thousands of employees and privatise

'IMF HAD ASKED FINANCE MINISTRY TO LAY OFF THOUSANDS OF EMPLOYEES AND PRIVATISE IMPORTANT INSTITUTIONS IN ORDER TO PLUG FINANCIAL IMBALANCES AND MEET FISCAL DEFICIT' important institutes in order to address financial imbalances and meet the fiscal deficit.

"A body constituted by the Ministry of Finance has been working and preparing the list of government employees who will be terminated as per commitment with the IMF," sources added.

They said the finance ministry and the Privatisation Commission would ensure the bidding process for the privatisation of state-owned entities while the list of terminated employees shall be completed by the end of 2019 or start of 2020.

"The terminations will be announced after the proposed privatisation of the state-owned enterprises." Sources further informed that the government has al-

ready dissolved Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) through a presidential ordinance and is set to transfer the consolidated funds to the federal kitty. "With such moves, the government will be able to cushion the federal account, helping it pay back loans to the IMF and World Bank on time," they added.

Sharing more details, sources said around 4,000 employees of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), 3,000 employees of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), 3,000 employees of Pakistan Steel Mills, 4,000 of Pakistan Television (PTV), 3,000 of Radio Pakistan, 4,000 of Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL), 3,000 of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), 10,000 of WAPDA,

PSX lists 200bn energy Sukuk ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Energy Sukuk-I (PES-I) issue of Rs200 billion got listed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Thursday. PES-I is the largest Shariah-compliant financial instrument ever listed at a stock exchange in Pakistan.

"The Sukuk was issued by Power Holding Limited (PHL), a company fully-owned by the government. The PES-I, issued under the Pakistan Energy Sukuk Rules, 2019, would provide liquidity to the energy sector and promote domestic Sukuk market," a statement issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan read.

SECP has been incessantly pursuing the government to list the public sector Sukuk at PSX's Over Counter Market and in this regard, provided complete facilitation.

As per the statement, a developed Sukuk market could bring a new class of investors to Pakistan's capital markets and could play an active role in the country's economic growth. "Listing of Sukuk provides investment opportunities to those investors who are looking for Shariah-compliant investment avenues. PHL may issue a series of listed Sukuk under the rules."

PES-I is a Shariah-compliant paper based on Ijarah, with a tenor of 10-years. The issue was initially subscribed mainly by a consortium of the Islamic banks through private placement. Listing of PES-I would provide an opportunity to other eligible investors, including individuals, to invest in it by trading in the secondary market.

SECP is fully cognisant of the need for active utilisation of capital markets so as to raise funding for infrastructure development needs.

The will continue to support and facilitate the development of the debt capital market.

Coca-Cola appoints Fahad Ashraf as GM for Pakistan, Afghanistan BUSINESS DESK The Coca-Cola Export Corporation (Pakistan) has announced a new leadership appointment with Fahad Ashraf taking over as the new General Manager for Pakistan and Afghanistan region, effective from October 2019.

Fahad Ashraf has replaced Rizwan U Khan, who retired from his current position after having served the company for 20 years in different roles.

In this period, he succeeded in putting Pakistan on the global map as one of the critical markets for the future, growing the business as well as the organisation.

His successor, Fahad Ashraf joins the company

from Reckitt Benckiser where he spent most of his career in various local and global marketing roles in Pakistan, UAE, South Africa & CHQ in the UK, before taking on his recent assignment as Chief Executive and GM Health for Pakistan & Afghanistan region.

“Fahad Ashraf will play a critical role in ramping up the organisation and business in Pakistan and Afghanistan for the future,” stated The CocaCola Company Middle East & North Africa President Murat Ozgel. Fahad holds an MBA in marketing from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi.

300 of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), 6,700 of PIMS/Polyclinic/NIRM Hospital/FGH Chak Shehzad, and 150 employees of National Institute of Health (NIH) would be laid off prior to June 2020.

Meanwhile, they added, all staff members of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC), Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PMDC), Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would be shown the door in case the government takes the decision to privatise these institutions.

Upon contact, a finance ministry spokesman termed the above-stated information as "untrue". He, however, said the privatisation process of 10 state-owned enterprises would be completed soon, while the layoffs would be made later.

Responding to a question about the number of employees to be removed from the jobs after privatisation, he said, “I have no idea and no one is talking about any layoffs as of now."

SBP reserves up 1.1pc to $7.89bn BUSINESS DESK The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan increased 1.14pc on a weekly basis. According to data released by the central bank on Thursday, the foreign currency reserves held by SBP were recorded at $7,892.7 million as of October 18, up $79 million compared with $7,813.7 million in the previous week. The report cited no reason for the increase in reserves. Overall, liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $15,186.5 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,293.8 million.

‘Govt committed to reducing regulatory burdens on businesses’ ISLAMABAD: Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razzak Dawood has said that the government was taking concrete measures to facilitate and address the prevalent issues being faced by the country's industrial sector. A delegation of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) called on the PM’s adviser to deliberate upon the issues related to commerce and industry in Pakistan, said a statement issued by Ministry of Commerce on Thursday. The adviser appreciated the constructive role played the chamber in the economic development of Pakistan, acknowledging its contributions in industrial policymaking. He appraised the delegation that the incumbent government has taken a strategic decision for the revival of the industrial sector. "The government is committed to reducing the regulatory burden on businesses through improved Ease of Doing Business (EODB) reforms. Policy interventions will be introduced at all tiers of the government," he stated. APP

MARKET DAILY

Bullish momentum prevails as index closes 322 points higher KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Extending the rally from the previous session, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed on Thursday with decent gains.

Foreign investors turned once again closed the preceding session on Wednesday as net sellers with a net outflow of $0.518 million.

Adding 422.95 points, the benchmark

KSE-100 Index marked its intraday high at 33,862.64. It closed higher by 322.79 points at 33,762.48. The KMI-30 Index closed at 54,742.34 after gaining 649.51 points, while the KSE All Share Index settled higher by 233.71 points at 24,537.83.

The overall market volumes improved from 116.94 million in the previous session to 121.33 million. Worldcall Telecom (WTL +0.99pc), Dost Steels

Limited (DSL +10.60pc) and Lotte Chemical Pakistan Limited (LOTCHEM +0.31pc) led the volume chart. the scripts had exchanged 17.23 million, 5.40 million and 5.11 million shares respectively.

Sectors that guided the index north on Wednesday included oil and gas exploration (+114.98 points), banking (+78.37 points) and fertiliser (+38.04 points).

Among the companies, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC

+40.58 points), Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL +32.47 points) and Pak Petroleum Limited (PPL +26.66 points) remained the top contributors to the index.

The oil and gas exploration sector added 2.19pc to its cumulative market capitalization. Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL +3.00pc), Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC +2.27pc), Mari Petroleum Company Limited (MARI +2.46pc) and Pak Petroleum Limited (PPL

+1.63pc) all closed with decent gains.

Millat Tractors Limited (MTL 1.98pc) announced earnings per share of Rs8.04 for the first quarter of FY19 (Rs25.36 in 1QFY18), Engro Corporation Limited (ENGRO +1.17pc) recorded an EPS of Rs7.40 for the third quarter of FY19 (Rs6.25 in 3QFY18) and Maple Leaf Cement Factory Limited (MLCF 3.22pc) posted an EPS of Rs-2.20 for 1QFY19 (Rs0.58 in 1QFY18).

Friday, 25 October, 2019

12 BUSINESS Cement exports drop 14pc in first quarter fy20 ISLAMABAD

PakiStan JUmPS 28 PlaCeS in WB’S eaSe of DoinG BUSineSS inDex ISLAMABAD

APP

The export of cement during the first quarter of the current financial year (FY20) witnessed a decline of 13.94pc as compared to the corresponding period of last year. The cement exports from the country were recorded at $66.776 million during July-September 2019-20, as against the exports of $77.594 million during JulySeptember 2018-19, according to latest data issued by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). In terms of quantity, the exports of cement decreased by 9.64pc, from 1,782,039 metric tonnes to 1,610,242 metric tonnes.

Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, cement exports witnessed a decline of 15.25pc during the month of September 2019 when compared to the same month of last year. Cement exports in Sept 2019 were recorded at $24.626 million, as against the exports of $29.057 million in Sept 2018. On a month-on-month basis also, the export of cement decreased by 47.06pc in Sept 2019 when compared to the exports of $16.745 million in August 2019. It is pertinent to mention that the country's merchandise trade deficit plunged by 34.85pc during the first three months of the current fiscal year (2019-20), as compared to the same period last year. The trade deficit during July-Sept 2019-20 was recorded at $5.727 billion, as against the deficit of $8.791 billion during July-Sept 2018-19. The exports increased from $5.374 billion to $5.522 billion, while imports fell from $14.165 billion to $11.249 billion.

Bankislami profit surges to rs973m BUSINESS DESK The Board of Directors of BankIslami Pakistan Limited recently approved the bank’s unaudited financial results for the nine months ended September 30, 2019. BankIslami recorded operating profit before provisions of Rs2,784 million, which is 18.3 times higher as compared to Rs144 million generated during the same period last year. Growth of 76.5pc in net spreads earned, emanating from increase in earning assets of the bank and rise in SBP policy rate, was the main contributor in improving the bottom line.

Improvement in cost to income ratio from 97.2pc to 66.2pc was registered during the period. Taking a prudent view, the bank booked additional provisioning against any potential delinquencies, and posted profit after tax of Rs973 million for nine months ended September 30, 2019, which is 8.8 times better than PAT of Rs99 million recorded during the same period last year.

Soneri Bank reports rs1.2bn profit BUSINESS DESK The Board of Directors of Soneri Bank Limited, in their 172nd meeting held on Thursday, approved the bank’s condensed interim financial statements for the nine months period ended September 30, 2019. The bank posted profit before tax (PBT) of Rs2,066 million and profit after tax (PAT) of Rs1,211 million for the nine months period ended 30 September 2019, as compared to Rs2,167 million and Rs1,294 million posted in the same period last year. EPS for the period was reported at Rs1.0985 as against Rs1.1734 for the same period last year. Net Interest Income (NII) for the period was reported at Rs5,967 million, improving by 19.32pc. The growth in net interest income was primarily due to improved volumes as well as spreads.

Non-Interest Income ended lower than the prior period, mainly due to the impact of losses incurred on the capital markets portfolio, while fee and commission earnings, as well as foreign exchange income both improved by 17.05pc and 5.99pc respectively.

P

GHUlAM ABBAS

AKISTAN has jumped up 28 places on the World Bank's (WB) Ease of Doing Business Index, besides securing a place among the top 10 countries with the most improved business climate.

The formal announcement of Pakistan's ranking was made by Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood during an event organised by the Board of Investment on Thursday. BOI Chairman Zubair Gilani, along with the senior officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Punjab and Sindh governments and the World Bank, was also present on the occasion.

According to the WB's annual flagship report, 'Ease of Doing Business 2020', released on Thursday, Pakistan carried out six reforms that helped improve its ranking from 136 to 108. The country turned out to be the sixth global reformer and first in South Asia that brought ease in doing business in the last one year.

Among the top 11 economies (countries with population more than 100 million), Pakistan has been ranked as the number 1 reformer in the world.

Addressing the event, PM's Advisor Abdul Razak Dawood said that the prime minister gave

PAKISTAN ALSO SECURES A PLACE AMONG THE TOP 10 COUNTRIES WITH THE MOST IMPROVED BUSINESS CLIMATE priority to business reforms and held a number of meetings to ensure that the reform drive is on track.

He stated that the report is only one step towards the goals, adding that the government has constituted a number of reform committees to bring about further improvements in the country's business climate.

Underlining the importance of WB's report, Dawood stated that the ranking is very important to attract foreign investment in the country. He said that six reforms of Pakistan have been accepted by the World Bank "but the government is particularly focusing on the remaining four areas, where there is still a lot of room for improvement".

He termed the improvement in 'doing business ranking' as a proof of Pakistan's commitment to improving its business environment.

The advisor appreciated the role of the federal and provincial agencies, as well as the BoI and WB teams, which worked hard during the last year to ensure an unprecedented improve-

ment by Pakistan.

World Bank Country Director for Pakistan Illango on the occasion congratulated Pakistan for becoming one of the top ten business climate improvers.

Addressing the event, BOI Chairman Zubair Gilani said that the government has a consensus on resolving business-related issues through technology-backed solutions. "Going forward, the government will focus on ensuring the wellbeing of masses and providing quality education and health to everyone."

Meanwhile, sources said that the government, despite making unprecedented improvement in the doing business ranking, has failed to achieve the target it had set for itself. The government wanted to be ranked within the top 100 countries.

According to sources, Pakistan is yet to make any drastic change in the taxation system, especially to avoid multiple taxes; the registration process and other regulations which face complications after the 18th amendment.

Sources said that the one-window operation system is still not working efficiently, while the companies are still receiving notices of audit from at least 13 revenue authorities across the country.

Apart from the many technical and legal hindrances, sources claim, there is a need to take bold political decisions, ensure inter-provincial cooperation & inter-agency coordination, sources said.

Bank AL Habib declares Rs12.88bn profit before tax BUSINESS DESK The Board of Directors of Bank AL Habib Limited announced the financial results for the nine months period ended September 30, 2019.

The bank reported the profit before tax of Rs12.88 billion for the period under review as compared to Rs9.92 billion for the corresponding period last year, showing a growth of 29.84pc. Earnings per share (EPS) were recorded at Rs6.30, showing an increase of 18.64pc over the corresponding period last year.

Profit before provisions

of the bank grew by 55.14pc. The bank improved its net mark-up income by 33.42pc. Fee and commission income which is earned mainly through trade business, general banking services, alternate delivery channels etc., showed exceptional increase of 25.84pc over the corresponding period last year. The bank’s foreign exchange income increased by 42.43pc.

Dividend income for the nine months period ended September 30, 2019 was recorded at Rs349 million.

Prudent financing strategies and sound risk manage-

ment policies of the bank kept the non-performing advances to gross advances ratio at 1.41pc. The bank has performed well in expanding revenue streams and curtailing its expenses which resulted in decrease in operating cost-to-income ratio to 55.84pc from 62.54pc compared to corresponding period last year.

Deposits of the bank increased by Rs65.41 billion, bringing the total deposits to Rs862.31 billion as on September 30, 2019. Total assets of the bank recorded at Rs1.29 trillion, showing an increase of 23.24pc.

KSA faces reality check as Wall Street heads to Riyadh DUBAI: Wall Street’s heavy hitters are back in Saudi Arabia but the terms of engagement changed. The CEOs of Citigroup and Credit Suisse, as well as the heads of fund managers BlackRock and BlackStone will be among those gathering in Riyadh next week for a glitzy investment conference, an event not attended by top financiers last year after the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son will also attend the Oct 29-31 conference, two people familiar with the matter said, as the Japanese company seeks to raise funds for a second technology fund. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund contributed $40 billion to Softbank’s first technology fund. But the buzz around the Future Investment Initiative (FII) has faded since the conference was first launched in 2017, when it was heralded as Davos in the desert, a nod to the annual gathering of world leaders and corporate bosses in the Swiss Alps. Then, Saudi Arabia was being feted for its investment opportunities and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was hailed as a force for change.

Now, fallout from Khashoggi’s killing and the stop-start process towards the long-awaited stock market listing of state-run energy giant Saudi Aramco have shifted the mood. “It’s not seen as a must-do event like Davos,” said one banker at an international bank. AGENCIES

india's biggest airline reports $150m loss as costs surge BENGALURU AGENCIES

India’s biggest airline IndiGo reported a bigger loss in the September quarter, hurt by higher expenses and as the aviation industry grapples with slowing passenger growth in a sluggish economy. The airline’s owner InterGlobe Aviation Ltd’s net loss in the three months to Sept 30 widened to 10.66 billion rupees ($150.1 million) from 6.52 billion rupees in the same period last year. Expenses rose 27.6pc to 95.77 billion rupees. Depreciation and amortisation costs grew more than fivefold to 10.29 billion rupees, while costs related to aircraft repair and maintenance nearly doubled to 15.3 billion rupees. Aircraft fuel costs, meanwhile, rose a modest 2.6pc, much lower than the 84pc jump a year earlier. The results come against the backdrop of an escalating tussle between IndiGo co-founders Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia over corporate governance issues, which some analysts say could hinder high-level decision making at the airline.

The quarterly loss also comes as Asia’s third-largest economy grows at its slowest pace in years and domestic passenger growth cools. Passenger traffic in India rose only 1.2pc year-over-year in September, the slowest increase since March and the second worst pace in five years.

No plan to pursue tax-related cases, NAB chief tells businessmen KARACHI APP

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed Iqbal said on Thursday that there is a difference between tax evasion and money laundering and that NAB has not pursued any case of tax evasion as it referred such cases to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

He said this while addressing the members of the business community at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) headquarters.

"The bureau has no plan to pursue cases of tax evasion in future and such cases are being referred to the FBR," he

maintained. "NAB does not take direct action in bank default cases; the State Bank of Pakistan refers such cases to the bureau.”

Iqbal stated that NAB always respects the business community as it is the backbone of the country’s development and prosperity, adding that the bureau has constituted a six-member committee, under section 33-C of the NAB Ordinance, 1999, to address the reservations of the business community.

"The committee has been tasked to prepare recommendations to resolve business community's woes," he said. "The committee's recommendations will be reviewed by a three-member NAB panel, comprising NAB deputy chairman, pros-

ecutor general (accountability) and director general (operations)."

He continued that the NAB panel would review the recommendations of the business committee before forwarding its final recommendations to NAB chairman, who will then issue directives for resolution of the issues.

The NAB chairman assured that all business-related issues will be resolved through mutual understanding. However, he added, the decision of the NAB chairman will be final. Iqbal said collective efforts are required to eradicate the menace of corruption from the country.

"NAB is taking action against those who are allegedly corrupt and were un-

touchable in the past,” he said. "We will bring them to justice and recover the looted money of innocent people."

On a query, the NAB chief clarified that the bureau has no affiliation with any party, group or individual, as NAB's first and foremost priority is the progress and prosperity of the country.

He said the bureau is conducting across the board accountability without any discrimination, adding that NAB is meant serve people and not to intimidate them.

Criticizing fake housing societies, the NAB chairman said that the housing societies have plundered the poor people by posting alluring advertisements despite having no or little land to show.

He said every case of poor person is a mega case for him; fake housing societies looted their hard-earned money without any remorse. Earlier, the FPCCI president appreciated the NAB chairman for personally resolving the issues related to business community.

Prominent members of the business community, including SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik, FPCCI President Daroo Khan Achakzai, former Bank AlFalah president Atif Bajwa, former Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Anjum Nisar and Millat Tractors Chairman Sikandar Mustafa Khan, were also present on the occasion.

10 books that should be on your reading list

By Sharoon yaSir www.scaryammi.com

1. Start with why by Simon Sinek: I haven’t thoroughly read this book, but I had to write a short review on it for a client’s project and the minute, I went through the chapter by chapter description, I fell in love with it.

Over the years, I have become a firm believer in having strong, compelling ‘whys’ attached to every goal you set because they are the reasons why we pursue something in the first place. This entire book by Sinek is centered on precisely that. You need to know your ‘why’ before embarking on any venture which is why I am enthusiastic to give it a read because I want to know the real purpose of my life and the ‘why’ behind it.

2. the Slight edge by Jeff olSon: All of us aspire for many things in life including health, wealth, love, happiness, spirituality and success. Experts advise us to have that ‘extra edge’, the ‘X-factor’ to accomplish that and to figure that out better, this book is definitely the ‘one’ to read.

It talks about how all of us possess the unique ability to be amazing or the opposite of that, and how we can find our special element and use it to get that edge over others.

HOLLYWOOD BOLLYWOOD

3. all the bright PlaceS by Jennifer niven: This is a beautiful, sensitive book focused on mental health conditions and taboos. I haven’t read it as of yet, but have heard great things about it. Since, I am a big believer in focusing on your mental and emotional wellbeing and keeping your sanity intact to live a good life, I am so looking forward to get my hands on this one.

4. the nightingale by kriStin hannah: I found out about this book in one of the groups I follow and the way the reader described it just touched a chord with me. This book is about strength, power and love and that too during the time of war.

Since characters and stories related to love, fear, strength, bravery and courage inspire me a lot, I am quite excited to read The Nightingale.

5. the Power of habit by charleS duhigg: If you look up the top selfhelp books’ on Google, this one is sure to pop in the search results. It truly is an inspirational read and full of actionable advice. While, I have skimmed through it, I have yet to read it properly and since I am working on building healthy habits particularly an empowering morning routine, I know I cannot miss out on The Power of Habit.

6. when breath becomeS air by Paul kalanithi: This book is a personal account of Dr. paul Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon who talks about the unpredictability of life and the inevitability of death, and how nothing is permanent. It is a heart wrenching, emotional and beautiful read and I’m sure it will keep me hooked to it for days.

7. forty ruleS of love by elif Shafak: Almost everyone I know of has read this book, so I feel kind of silly admitting I haven’t particularly when my world revolves around content and books, but yeah the truth is I have only heard fantastic things about this one, but never really picked it up to read. Now that I am ready to re-build my habit of reading, this baby is com-

ing on my book shelf soon.

8. a man called ove by fredrick backman: I found out about this book too in a group I am a part of and then I looked it up online.

From what I found out, it warms up your soul, makes you go crazy with laughter and brims your heart with romance. These are all my go-to reasons to pick up a book which is why this is on my reading list.

9. the huSband’S Secret by liane moriaty: The Husband’s Secret seems to be fun, exciting and spicy with just the right element of gossip I’d need for days when I’d want to engage in such books. It is about the story and lives of three women who unexpectedly become connected to one another when one of them digs up a secret that could sabotage their lives.

10. one PluS one by JoJo m o y e S : There are times when you just want to read something light and sweet, and from what I have heard, this is just the book for such times. It is a book about love, family, relationships and facing unbelievable changes and I’m sure it will entertain me well.

3 EVIDENCE-BASED HEALTH BENEFITS OF MAGNESIUM magneSium iS involved in hundredS of biochemical reactionS in your body Magnesium is a mineral found in the earth, sea, plants, animals and humans.

About 60% of the magnesium in your body is found in bone, while the rest is in muscles, soft tissues and fluids, including blood (1Trusted Source).

In fact, every cell in your body contains it and needs it to function.

One of magnesium's main roles is acting as a cofactor or "helper molecule" in the biochemical reactions continuously performed by enzymes. In fact, it’s involved in more than 600 reactions in your body, including (2Trusted Source):

Energy creation: Helps convert food into energy.

Protein formation: Helps create new proteins from amino acids.

Gene maintenance: Helps create and repair DNA and RNA. Muscle movements: Is part of the contraction and relaxation of muscles.

Nervous system regulation: Helps regulate neurotransmitters, which send messages throughout your brain and nervous system.

Unfortunately, studies suggest that about 50% of people in the US and Europe get less than the recommended daily amount of magnesium (1Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).

it may booSt exerciSe Performance Magnesium also plays a role in exercise performance.

During exercise, you may need 10– 20% more magnesium than when you're resting, depending on the activity (4Trusted Source).

Magnesium helps move blood sugar into your muscles and dispose of lactate, which can build up in muscles during exercise and cause pain (5Trusted Source).

Studies have shown that supplementing with it can boost exercise performance for athletes, the elderly and people with chronic disease (6Trusted Source, 7Trusted

Source, 8Trusted Source).

In one study, volleyball players who took 250 mg of magnesium per day experienced improvements in jumping and arm movements (9Trusted Source).

In another study, athletes who supplemented with magnesium for four weeks had faster running, cycling and swimming times during a triathlon. They also experienced reductions in insulin and stress hormone levels (10Trusted Source).

However, the evidence is mixed. Other studies have found no benefit of magnesium supplements in athletes with low or normal levels of the mineral (11Trusted Source, 12Trusted Source).

magneSium fightS dePreSSion Magnesium plays a critical role in brain function and mood, and low levels are linked to an increased risk of depression (13Trusted Source, 14Trusted Source).

One analysis in over 8,800 people found that people under the age of 65 with the lowest magnesium intake had a 22% greater risk of depression (14Trusted Source).

Some experts believe the low magnesium content of modern food may cause many cases of depression and mental ill-

ness (15Trusted Source).

However, others emphasize the need for more research in this area (16Trusted Source). Nonetheless, supplementing with this mineral may help reduce symptoms of depression — and in some cases, the results can be dramatic (15Trusted Source, 17Trusted Source).

In a randomized controlled trial in depressed older adults, 450 mg of magnesium daily improved mood as effectively as an antidepressant drug (17Trusted Source).

The Emperor Leaks From Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

Terminator: Dark Fate Rotten Tomatoes Score Is In

Images have leaked online from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker that offer a first look at The Emperor in the movie and more.

The images are confirmed to be legit because Disney has filed a copyright claim against a number of YouTubers that posted the images in their video. Obviously, I can't post the pics here, but if you know where to look, you should be able to find them.

Regarding The Emperor, a leaked image from Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker shows The Emperor sitting in the throne that was seen in the recent trailer with his hands in the air shooting Force Lightning as Rey looks on; The Emperor is also wearing a black and red robe. Worth a mention is that it looks just like The Emperor from the previous movies, so if this scene is in the hereand-now and isn't some sort of Force vision, it appears as if The Emperor somehow survives (and doesn't change bodies like in some of the EU stories). Another leaked image shows Rey side by side Kylo Ren, with both having their lightsabers ignited preparing to due battle against a common foe (The Emperor?), which was also teased in the final trailer that can be watched below.

The Terminator: Dark Fate Rotten Tomatoes score is in, and it's not as bad as I thought as it is a lot better than previous flicks that bombed hard.

With a 58 reviews accounted for, the Terminator: Dark Fate Rotten Tomatoes score currently sits at a 67% Fresh.

The number is in line with 2003's Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (69%), which wasn't all bad, and as noted, is a lot higher than 2015's Terminator Genisys (27%) as well as 2009's Terminator Salvation (33%).

Terminator 2: Judgment Day comes in at 93%, with the first flick from 1984 at 100%.

Since we are keeping track, the Sarah Connor Chronicles series that ran from 2008-9 has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 76%.

"What the film handsomely mines from the first two episodes, however, is the simple yet apparently elusive combination of kinetic momentum and emotional empathy."

"A very entertaining entry that doesn't take many risks, but recaptures the best things about the saga."

CMYK

Motichoor Chaknachoor song Battiyan Bujhaado: Sunny Leone, Nawazuddin Siddiqui groove to peppy dance number Actor Sunny Leone has a special appearance in Nawazuddin Siddiqui-Athiya Shetty’s Motichoor Chaknachoor and the song is now out. Titled Battiyan Bujhaado, the song is a dance number that not only has Sunny grooving to the beats but even Nawazudin joining in on the fun.

Written by Kumaar, the song has been composed by Ramji Gulati who has also crooned the number alongside Jyotica Tangri . The video opens with Nawazuddin getting ready and he soon reaches the party where Sunny Leone is dancing seductively to the tunes of the Battiyan Bujhaado. Both Sunny and Nawazuddin are in their elements - she is the perfect seductress, and he, the typical hesitant man, seeking fun.

Directed by Debamitra Hassan, the film tells the story of Athiya and Nawazuddin who are both desperate to get married but have their own problems to deal with. Pushpinder aka Nawazuddin is in a hopeless situation.

Friday, 25 October, 2019

14 SPORTS

LiverpooL, CheLsea win on road as Messi, Mertens and haaLand set goaLs reCords LONDON

L

AGENCIES

IVERPOOL and Chelsea clinched impressive victories on the road in the Champions League on Wednesday as Lionel Messi, Dries Mertens and teenage sensation ErlingBrautHaaland claimed impressive goal-scoring landmarks.

Defending champions Liverpool defeated Genk 4-1 which saw Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain score twice while MichyBatshuayi gave Chelsea a 1-0 win at Ajax.

Elsewhere, Messi became the first player to score at least once in 15 successive Champions League seasons as Barcelona beat Slavia Prague 2-1.

Napoli defeated Salzburg 3-2 in a game which saw Mertens go past Diego Maradona's 115-goals tally for the Italian club while Haaland's two strikes for the Austrians in the same game made him the first player to score six times in his first three Champions League games. England international OxladeChamberlain, who missed almost all of last season due to injury, opened the scoring in the second minute at the Luminus Arena and scored Liverpool's second just before the hour mark.

Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah then set up each other for late goals to

wrap up the victory before substitute Stephen Odey pulled one back for Genk. Liverpool remain a point behind Napoli in Group E. "It's a special tournament to play in.

It was great to see the boys do so well last year, being on the bench at the end and watching the boys bring it home," Oxlade-Chamberlain, an unused substitute in last year's final win, told BT Sport. Haaland, 19, and widely tipped for a big-money move to England or Spain, had the ball in the Napoli net after just 10 minutes in Austria. How-

ever, a VAR review scrubbed off the goal for offside.

The Italians made the most of their reprieve when veteran forward Mertens converted a cross from captain Jose Callejon to score. It was the Belgian's 115th goal for Napoli and took him level with Maradona. Haaland levelled from the penalty spot in the dying moments of the first half.

Mertens, however, grabbed his second on 64 minutes, again with Callejon the provider to go past Maradona's record set between 1984-1991 and

Inter Milan beat Dortmund to boost Champions League last 16 hopes

close in on Marek Hamsik's all-time club high of 121. Haalandequalised again but just a minute later, Napoli restored their lead through Lorenzo Insigne in a breathless second half.

Haaland at least had the consolation of becoming the first player to score six goals in his first three Champions League games. "It's a great night for Mertens. Napoli are back to winning a Champions League away fixture after three years and we hope to keep that going now," said Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti.

'HUGE' WIN FOR CHELSEA: Chelsea showed that their young side were ready for the European stage after Batshuayi's late winner fired them to a 1-0 win at Ajax. Substitute Batshuayi struck in the 86th minute and put Chelsea level on six points with last year's semi-finalists at the top of Group H. "It's feels huge, which always scares me because there's a lot to do. We're entitled to be excited about the way we played tonight," said coach Frank Lampard.

Jonathan Ikone's stoppage-time goal gave Lille a 1-1 draw at home to Valencia for whom Denis Cheryshev had opened the scoring just after the hour mark. Valencia are third in the table, two points behind Ajax and Chelsea.

MILAN AGENCIES

Lautaro Martinez and Antonio Candreva scored in either half to boost Inter Milan's Champions League last 16 hopes on Wednesday with a 2-0 win over Group F rivals Borussia Dortmund.

Argentina forward Martinez continued his fine form scoring after 22 minutes in the San Siro, but missed a chance for a second from the penalty spot eight minutes from time.

Candreva sealed the three points a minute from time to move Antonio Conte's side off the bottom of Group F having fallen 2-1 to Barcelona and being held 1-1 by Slavia Prague.

Inter join Dortmund on four points with Barcelona top with seven points from three games.

"We knew we had our backs to the wall after picking up just one point before tonight," said Conte.

"This victory extends our expectation of qualification in a very, very difficult group.

"I'm happy especially for my players. They went to great lengths to earn a place in the Champions League last season and to experience these kinds of matches, with the full stadium and the tifosi.

"It's now about making sure we get the result we need in Dortmund. Barcelona and Dortmund are favourites in this group, but it's up to us now."

Stefan de Vrij sent the ball through for Martinez in the opening half an hour with the Argentine beating the offside trap as well as goalkeeper Roman Burki from close range.

italian legend rossi hits 400th grand prix ROME: The most experienced motorcycle rider in history marks another milestone in Australia this weekend, with veteran Valentino Rossi gearing up for his 400th Grand Prix. The Italian, still arguably the sport's biggest draw despite winning the last of his seven premier class world titles in 2009, conceded it was a "great achievement". "It's been a long, long time," admitted the 40-year-old, who made his debut in 1996 in the 125cc class. "It's good to make 400 here in Phillip Island because it is an iconic place for motorsport," he added of a circuit where he has won eight times -six in the premier class to go with two from his 250cc days. "It's something that you don't expect. Especially when I was younger, and through my career, I never ever had a clear idea how long I want to race. "Now I'm 40! Imagine. But yes, it's a good achievement." Rossi has long been the most experienced rider on the grid and his career statistics are stunning -- he's won 115 races across all classes and scored points in 353 of them. Known as "The Doctor", he signed a two-year contract with Yamaha in 2018, which means he will remain in the sport until at least 2020. He said the motivation remained to win races. AGENCIES

sam Billings named england's t20 vicecaptain for new Zealand tour WELLINGTON: Sam Billings has described the England vice-captaincy as "a huge honour" and recognition of his status as a "developing leader." Billings has endured a frustrating year. Having started it with his highest score in international cricket - 87 in a T20I against West Indies in March - he then suffered a dislocated shoulder that ended his chances of making the World Cup squad. But, having missed five months of cricket, news that he has been made vice-captain for England's T20I tour of New Zealand has provided a pleasing boost. Now he is looking forward to learning from England's captain, Eoin Morgan, and trying to establish himself in the side with a view to the T20 World Cup in a year's time. "It's great to get some recognition and it's a huge honour," Billings said from Christchurch as England acclimatised to a chilly start to their tour.

"It's a great opportunity to be recognised as a developing leader. And there's an element of personal development about it, too.

"I captained the England Lions last winter and my county for the last two years. Eoin gave me a call a couple of weeks ago and said he'd love me to do it. AGENCIES

I know what the other guy is doing: Federer into 17th Basel quarter-final BASEL AGENCIES

Roger Federer crushed RaduAlbot 6-0, 63 on Wednesday to win his 22nd match in a row at the Swiss Indoors and earn a quarter-final place at his home event for the 17th time.

The nine-time champion was ruthless in a 22-minute opening set, finishing the entire job in 63 minutes in front of 9,000 fans. He will on Friday face the winner from Stan Wawrinka and Frances Tiafoe, who both earned straight-set wins earlier in the day. "It's a super feeling to know exactly where the ball is going, what the other guy is doing," said top seed Federer.

"I was hitting a lot of winners, those kind of moments are really rare."

Federer's Swiss compatriot Wawrinka fired 10 aces and 30 winners to overwhelm fellow veteran Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 6-4 to make it into the second round, keeping alive his outside chances of making the ATP Finals.

Federer, who is playing in Basel for the 19th time, won his first set to love at the tournament since 2006.

His loss of just three games on Wednesday was his most powerful showing on the ATP since beating Andreas Seppi at the Paris Masters 6-1, 6-1 four years ago. "I'm very happy, it was important to start the second set with a break," said 38-year-old Federer.

"Even though I was playing well, I was not over-confident, I was always worried that he might make a comeback."

If Wawrinka beats America's Tiafoe in their second-round match, the Swiss pair will clash on Friday in the quarters.

"I hope Stan goes through, I always enjoy playing him," added Federer, who holds a 23-3 edge in the series against his close friend. "I'm glad that he is back (from double 2017 knee surgeries)."

Federer dominated 49th-ranked Albot, sweeping the first eight games before the Moldovan got on the scoreboard.

The top seed finished on a first match

point after five aces and five service breaks. Wawrinka, who was a runner-up to Andy Murray in Antwerp last weekend, currently stands at 15th in the race for the season-ending showpiece in London with 1,500 rankings points available between Basel and next week's Paris Masters, the final event of the regular campaign.

Six of the eight spots for the ATP Finals have already been secured.

Wawrinka, 34, ended each set against Uruguay's 45th-ranked Cuevas with aces, breaking once per set to go through to the second round in 67 minutes. "It was great for a first match," said Wawrinka, who lost just nine points in 10 service games.

"I moved and served well, I was really focussed. I'm really happy to get through in two sets." The seventh seed is playing Basel for the 14th time and improved his record at the event to 12-13.

Three-time major winner Wawrinka said his three-set final loss to Murray in Antwerp on Sunday proved useful in Basel. "Antwerp really helped me today,

CMYK

I've got confidence in my game, the game is there."

But he refused to speculate on any London chances: "I'm super-far away, so it's not at all in my mind." Sixth seed David Goffin also stayed in the race to London with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic.

Goffin entered this week at provisional 10th in the race and is duelling with Italy's Matteo Berrettini, who currently stands eighth, and ninth-placed Roberto Bautista Agut. RicardasBerankis of Lithuania lined up a second-round match with third seed StefanosTsitsipas after defeating Pablo Andujar 6-1, 6-1.

Friday, 25 October, 2019

SPORTS 15

pCB has deaLt us a Massive BLow: QaLandars Ceo LAHORE

t

AGENCIES

HE CEO of T10 franchise Qalandars - who stood to lose the most from the PCB's decision to revoke NOCs for Pakistani players in the league this season - did not hold back in his anger at the development. Sameen Rana lost players of the quality of Mohammad Hafeez, ImadWasim and Faheem Ashraf in one fell swoop, leading him to say that the PCB should have made this call well ahead of the draft to enable the franchises to make informed decisions.

"I wish it had been clear before the draft whether the PCB would issue NOCs or not," Rana told ESPNcricinfo. "This is a proper cricket organisation, and it hasn't suddenly dawned on them that the league clashes with the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy? I think it's disappointing for the Pakistan players, with them being prevented from playing in global events like the T10.

"They would have had a chance to learn from players around the world. The West Indies cricket board, CA [Cricket Australia], and almost all other boards are supporting this league."

The third edition of the T10 league, set to take place in Abu Dhabi from November 15 to 24 this year, includes eight teams. It is the Qalandars, owned by the same group that owns the Lahore Qalandars in the Pakistan Super League, who stand to lose most from the eleventh-hour decision.

The make-up of the Qalandars squad is almost exclusively Pakistani, and while most of those players continue to remain available to them for the tournament - coming as they do from the Player Development Programme the Lahore Qalandarsorganised in their quest to uncover hidden talent throughout the country - key names like Hafeez, Imad and Faheem will become unavailable.

"Our team will be badly hurt; there is no doubt

about it, but a lot of guys are here from the Player Development Programme. So we don't need NOCs for them. These are players that we have developed and groomed, and they are on our contracts. But it would have been good to get support from the PCB because this is a fundamentally Pakistani team. Qalandar is a Pakistani name."

In addition to the Player Development Programme, the Qalandars will still retain the services

of icon player ShahidAfridi and former Pakistan opener Imran Nazir, given they are not contracted by the PCB and therefore don't need an NOC to play in the event.

The PCB's official policy towards leagues around the world is what is informally known as the "PSL plus one" policy. This has resulted, as the name suggests, in players permitted to participate in one league other the PCB-backed Pakistan Super League,

with further permission subject to a case-by-case evaluation. The PCB believes this strikes a healthy balance between the players' desire to safeguard their economic interests, and the board's concerns about fatigue and burnout. The main reason the PCB provided for blocking player participation in this year's T10 League is that it wanted them to play domestic matches in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.

Rana, however, emphatically rejected that explanation. "I don't agree with the statement the PCB put out on the workload of the Pakistan players. Did they not think about the workload on Mohammad Hafeez when they issued him an NOC for the CPL? This is something I don't understand. You can play in the CPL, you can play in Canada, and everywhere else in the world. But when it comes to the T10, where you have a Pakistani-origin team that is full of Pakistanis, you refuse permission? If you wanted to take this decision, you could have taken it before the draft.

What has happened is the PCB has dealt us a massive blow." Rana said while the primary purpose of investing in Pakistan players was to develop local talent, this would invariably force the Qalandars into being warier in the future.

"The UAE government backs this league, and we should look at it in that context. When the UAE is trying to develop the game there, you should think about the UAE's contribution in making the PSL a brand and supporting it from the get-go. They provided their grounds, and the PCB and the ECB [Emirates Cricket Board] have enjoyed a great relationship over the years. This will send a very wrong message to the ECB, because they may well feel the PCB's decision has damaged the value of their league.

"The purpose of our team was to give the Pakistani players an opportunity. This is visible from the draft we conducted, where there are 10 Pakistani players, including our captain Sohail Akhtar. We didn't expect the NOCs to be revoked so late in the day. If we had, perhaps our decision would have been different."

Bangladesh cricketers end strike after BCB meet most of their demands

DHAKA AGENCIES

Bangladeshi cricketers ended their strike late Wednesday after they said the authorities met most of their demands including a pay hike for domestic first class players.

"The talk was successful," said Test and T20 captain Shakib al Hasan who played a key role in the unprecedented revolt which started on Monday.

"The BCB (Bangladesh Cricket Board) president and directors, who were here, heard our demand and they assured us they will meet them at the quickest possible time," he said. The decision came as a relief for the BCB after the strike appeared set to jeopardise Bangladesh's lucrative

tour of India where Bangladesh would play three T20 and two Test matches beginning early next month.

"Based on their (BCB's) assurance our first-class players will start playing from Saturday and our national team players will join the camp (for India tour) from October 25," Shakib said. BCB president Nazmul Hassan said they would meet most of the demands of the players.

"Apart from two demands, we have accepted all nine demands," Hassan said.

Supreme Court lawyer Mustafizur Rahman Khan earlier read out a list of demands on behalf of the Bangladeshi cricketers at a news conference, which also included a "feasible" wage for female players.

"Arrangements will have to be made where professional cricketers are given a fair share of the revenue generated by BCB, which, after all, is made possible through the toil and performance of professional cricketers," said Rahman, citing the example of Australia.

Bangladesh national and first-class players announced the strike calling for better pay and benefits, raising doubt whether the country's tour of India would go ahead.

Shakib, one of the world's finest all-rounders, led the rebellion with all the star players joining the protests.

The strike follows increasing criticism from the players that the BCB, the nation's richest sports body, is not sharing its wealth.

LAHORE: Captains of women cricket teams for Pakistan and Bangladesh unveil the trophy for the Pak-Bangla series at Qaddafi Stadium. Zubair MehfooZ

ICC events can't be allowed to swamp Tests: Kevin Roberts PERTH AGENCIES

A proposed extra global 50-over event in the next ICC rights cycle from 2023 to 2031 cannot be allowed to take on a time slot or a duration that will place further pressure on an already squeezed international schedule, the Cricket Australia chief executive Kevin Roberts has said.

Speaking in the wake of the most recent round of ICC meetings in Dubai this month, where it was announced that a working group of member nations had agreed in principle to the chief executive Manu Sawhney's idea of selling eight ICC men's events in eight years as part of the next broadcast rights package, Roberts echoed the concerns of the BCCI and also the ECB about the prospect of more global events squeezing the bilateral calendar.

In what is becoming an increasingly divided cricket world between rich and poor nations, it is believed that as few as four major boards still see bilateral

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broadcast rights as their best source of income alongside domestic T20 leagues, while the rest are increasingly reliant on the revenue flowing from the ICC's sale of a global tournament package over eight years. Roberts, mindful of how CA must guard its place in a tightly packed southern hemisphere seasonal window, said there would be concerns for Test cricket should another event take up too much room.

"If it occupied too much of the calendar, but not if it occupied an appropriate part of the calendar," Roberts told SEN Radio. "So it all comes down to where everything fits across the 52 weeks of the year, it'd be fantastic if you could help us create a 56-week year, but I'm not sure that we can do that. So there's no aversion to another tournament but absolutely we've got to take care to make sure the pieces of the puzzle fit together as best they can.

"The ICC schedule of tournaments is certainly something that is absolutely up for discussion at the moment and will continue in the months ahead. There's a

sense that fans really value World Cups and international events in general, and in this last cycle on the men's side I think we've had six world events in the eight years whereas the previous cycle we had one event per year with the Champions Trophy as part of that."

The ICC had only recently concluded a long and arduous process of sorting out bilateral series between nations into Test and ODI leagues, with the Test Championship culminating in a final every two years - the first to come in 2021 - and the ODI league serving as the road to World Cup qualification.

Roberts' predecessor James Sutherland was a longtime proponent of this change, but the return to eight ICC events in with years would effectively serve to compete against the newly formed leagues before they had become established.

CA, as part of the schedule working group, has agreed to further discussions of the proposal, albeit with lots of conditions surrounding timing and tournament length. "We're supportive of exploring it in principle," Roberts said.

Friday, 25 October, 2019

NEWS

nawaz suFFerIng FroM ItP, Bone Marrow 'Fully FunctIonal' DOCTORS TREATING EX-PM SAY HE IS SUFFERING FROM DISEASE THAT CAUSES BREAKDOWN OF BLOOD CELLS

PLATELETS COUNT INCREASES TO 20,000 FROM 7,000, AS NAWAZ REFUSES TO BE TAKEN TO PKLI FOR PET TEST

SHEHBAZ MOVES LHC, IHC FOR BAIL AND SUSPENSION OF NAWAZ’S SENTENCE, RESPECTIVELY, MARYAM ALSO SEEKS BAIL IN CSM CASE LAHORE

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STAFF REPORT

ORMeR prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s health condition is improving as his platelets count increased to 20,000 from 7,000 on Thursday, as doctors said that the senior political leader was diagnosed with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP), a disease that causes the breakdown of blood cells.

Addressing reporters, Services Institute of Medical Sciences (SIMS) Principal Dr Mahmood Ayaz said that the bone marrow of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo is “completely functional”. He said that thrombocytopenia was a treatable disease. earlier in the day, Dr Ayaz had said that Nawaz would be taken to the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute (PKLI) and Research Centre for a PeT (positron emission tomography) scan. The scan is an imaging test that helps reveal how one’s tissues and organs are functioning.

According to sources in the hospital, the incarcerated prime minister refused to be shifted to the PKLI. SHEHBAZ, MARYAM MOVE LHC FOR BAIL: Meanwhile, a request was filed at the Lahore High Court (LHC) by Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N president and

younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, seeking bail for the former premier in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills reference. The court asked the National Accountability Court to submit a response, adjourning the hearing till Friday.

The court also asked that a detailed report on Nawaz’s health be submitted by the Punjab government and summoned Dr Ayaz for Friday’s hearing.

During the hearing, Shehbaz’s counsel contended that Nawaz’s health was a matter of “life or death” and informed the court that Dr Raza Shamsi had especially been called over from Karachi, and that

he, along with Dr Ayaz is overseeing Nawaz’s treatment.

Separately at the LHC, a petition was also filed by Maryam Nawaz, seeking her own bail in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills reference against her. NAB was instructed to file a response to this petition as well,

by Friday.

IHC MOVED FOR SENTENCE SUSPENSION: earlier in the day, Shehbaz had moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC), seeking suspension of Nawaz’s sentence in the Al-Azizia reference on medical grounds. The PML-N president also requested the court to release his

PM IMran says 'sIncere Prayers' are wIth aIlIng nawaz Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday that his “sincere prayers” are with ailing former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif, despite the political differences between the two.

“Political differences notwithstanding, my sincere prayers are with Nawaz Sharif for his health,” the premier tweeted. He said he has directed all concerned officials to ensure the provision of “the best possible health care and medical treatment” to Sharif, who is under treatment at Lahore’s Services Hospital. The prime minister’s tweet comes a day after he sought a detailed report from the Punjab government regarding the former premier’s health. He had also directed the Punjab government “to ensure that Nawaz Sharif gets the best possible care in accordance with the wishes of his family”. NEWS DESK

brother on bail till a decision was made on the appeal against his conviction.

The petition had contended that Nawaz should be allowed to be treated by a medical expert/doctor in Pakistan or abroad, as per his choice.

The IHC registrar office had raised objections over the petition, saying that Shehbaz, the applicant, was not the affected individual. A division bench of the IHC, however, removed the objections after hearing arguments from Khawaja Haris, the counsel for Sharif family.

CRITICAL DROP IN PLATELETS: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had shifted Nawaz to the Services Hospital late on Monday night after his personal physician, Dr Adnan Khan, had raised an alarm about his critical condition in the accountability watchdog’s custody.

On Tuesday, doctors at the Lahore Services Hospital had termed Nawaz’s condition as ‘serious’ despite the transfusion of three mega units of platelets within hours after his admission.

According to the medical tests carried out on Tuesday, the platelet count of the former premier “dropped from 16,000 to

Counter-terror cops walk free in Sahiwal encounter case LHC ACQUITS SIX CTD PERSONNEL ACCUSED OF KILLING THREE INNOCENT CIVILIANS GIVING THEM ‘BENEFIT OF DOUBT’ LAHORE STAFF REPORT

A special anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Thursday acquitted all accused in the Sahiwal encounter case, giving them the benefit of doubt.

The court announced the verdict after the accused persons’ lawyers completed cross-questioning of the testimonies of government witnesses.

ATC-I Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta heard the case. During hearings of the case, the court had recorded statements of 49 witnesses, including close relatives of a victim Zeeshan and another victim Mohammad Khalil. During the proceedings, all the the accused – namely Safdar Hussain, Ahsan Khan, Ramzan, Saifullah, Hasnain and Nasir

Nawaz – appeared before the court.

The injured witnesses [children of Khalil who were accompanying the victim when he was targeted] had not identified the suspects nor were the suspects identified during photogrammetric tests. The court added that the official who had provided the suspects with the weapons said he was returned all the weapons and bullets.

In January, Mohammad Khalil, his wife and their three children were travelling in a car, with their neighbour Zeeshan behind the steering wheel, when Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel stopped the vehicle and opened fire on the passengers suspecting them to be terrorists. Khalil’s three children Umair, Muneeba and Jaziba had survived the attack.

The suspects said that they had information that Zeeshan had links with a terrorist outfit. They also claimed that all the victims were killed in an ‘encounter’ which turned out to be false after the two minor children narrated facts of the incident to the public.

While the CTD dubbed it an ‘encounter’, the victims’ family maintained that they were going to attend a wedding. The family’s claim proved true as it later transpired that except for Zeeshan, all other occupants of the car were innocent. A joint investigation team formed to probe into the incident confirmed that the family was innocent and that the CTD officials were responsible for their killing.

Subsequently, the Punjab government removed some top CTD officials and suspended others, while announcing that six CTD officials responsible for the killings would be tried on terrorism and murder charges.

Initially, the trial was conducted in

Sahiwal, however, the Lahore High Court on June 17 shifted the proceedings to Lahore allowing an application filed by the victims’ family.

The petitioners contended that they had been facing problems while attending trial proceedings in Sahiwal. They also cited security reasons and asked the court to shift the trial proceedings from Sahiwal to Lahore. It may be mentioned here that the CTD has repeatedly been accused of pressuring the victims’ family to drop the case.

At a press conference, the family’s lawyer Shahbaz Bukhari presented a seven-minute recorded call wherein a CTD official threatened his life. Due to apprehensions expressed by the victims’ family over the JIT, the Lahore High Court ordered a judicial inquiry. The judicial inquiry led by civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate Shakeel Goraya recorded the statements of 49 people including eyewitnesses, CTD suspects amongst others.

Govt, Opp stick to their stances on PM's resignation ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Defence Minister Pervez Khattak on Thursday held consultations with Prime Minister Imran Khan over the government’s strategy for negotiations with the joint opposition while the latter once again reiterated its demand for the premier’s resignation.

In a telephonic conversation with the premier, Khattak discussed government’s strategy for negotiations with joint opposition’s Rahbar Committee pertaining to the upcoming Azadi March. The premier was appraised of the recent contacts between the government’s negotiation committee and the opposition regarding the planned sit-in. The defence minister said that the first session of talks between the government and opposition will take place on Friday. PM Imran also advised Khattak over the matter.

Khattak also discussed other issues with the premier, including the government’s negotiations with the protesting doctors in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). PM Imran allowed the defence minister to form a commit-

tee to resolve the problems of the doctors.

JUI-F REITERATES PM’S RESIGNATION DEMAND: Meanwhile, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman reiterated opposition’s demand for the resignation of PM Imran, saying the government’s committee should bring the premier’s resignation letter with them when they come for negotiations on Friday. Addressing a press conference in Sukkur after meeting party members, Fazl denied that there was any unwillingness by the Rehbar Committee to meet with their government counterparts. He also said that after Friday’s meeting between the two sides, the opposition parties will hold consultations before responding to the government.

“However, what can be expected from a team headed by Pervez Khattak? His attitude and mannerisms are not conducive to holding talks,” he added.

He lashed out at the government for being “dualfaced” by offering to hold talks on one hand, while creating hurdles in the way of the opposition on the other. “Shops, petrol pumps, etc., are all being made to shut down. They can do what they like. We will

enter Islamabad, come what may,” he added.

He urged the opposition to “not lose their nerve” and to present a strong front against the government as “the entire nation’s hopes lie with us and we must support them”. The JUI-F chief said there was no plan of changing the schedule of the Azadi March and the only way any amendments can be made is if the Rahbar Committee takes a joint decision.

“However, this is not likely to happen,” he said, adding that the nation will fully endorse the march as “all parties are in agreement with us over the fact that this government that has come to power through rigging cannot be allowed to continue”. Fazl also said that the opposition will hold special programmes throughout the country, including a large gathering in Karachi, to observe Black Day on October 27 in order to express solidarity with Kashmiris. “The government has let down Kashmiris. evil doers themselves are raising a hue and cry over evil,” he added. Speaking about the declining health of former premier Nawaz Sharif, Fazl said that “to give someone the hardship of imprisonment when their health is failing them is the sign of a tyrannical leadership”.

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

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a critical level of 2,000” when he was brought to hospital late on Monday night, prompting the medical board members to go for “immediate transfusion of the platelets to save his life”, one of the board members had said.

On Wednesday, Dr Ayyaz had said that the platelet count was being monitored and that if it is deemed necessary, another transfusion will be done to maintain the desired level of platelets.

He said that Nawaz’s health, otherwise, “is just fine”. However, late on Wednesday evening, the health of the former premier deteriorated again. One doctor from Karachi and another from Islamabad were called to assist the medical board. Reportedly, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar’s plane was also on standby to bring in other doctors if needed.

Meanwhile, moments after Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid said that the government would have no objection if the former premier wished to seek treatment abroad, media reports had claimed that Nawaz’s sons Hassan and Hussain have organised a team of doctors to treat their father in London.

no possibility of minus-Imran, gen Bajwa tells Fazl NEWS DESK Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has reportedly made it clear to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman that “there is no possibility of a minus-Imran concept”, a TV channel has claimed in a report. According to the channel’s anchorperson, the army chief held a meeting with Fazl ahead of the latter’s Azadi March in which he categorically told the JUI-F chief that he stood by the constitution and democracy. “We have been doing what the constitution asks for,” the army chief reportedly said, according to the anchorperson. The report further claimed that Gen Bajwa reminded Fazl that he was a responsible political leader and must be aware of the regional situation.

“The situation on the border with India is volatile due to the Kashmir crisis and Afghanistan’s situation is also a source of trouble,” Gen Bajwa was quoted as saying.

He was further reported to have referred to the Iran-Saudi Arabia conflict and told the JUI-F chief that it was not an appropriate time for staging the protest since the economy had been brought on the right track after herculean efforts within the country and abroad. The COAS made it clear that the army wouldn’t permit destabilisation at this moment, the anchorperson claimed. “He [Imran Khan] is a constitutional prime minister (PM) and neither I nor you can minus him,” he quoted Gen Bajwa as saying. The anchor, who further claimed that Fazl’s meeting with the COAS was “common knowledge” and was held a few days ago, was also among the media persons who called on the premier in Islamabad on Wednesday.

Speaking to senior journalists during the meeting, PM Imran had said that he wouldn’t resign under pressure from Fazl as he has the army’s full support. The JUIF chief has threatened to block the federal capital with his protest against the “illegitimate” government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).