E-Paper PDF 29th September (KHI)

CMYK

29 September, 2019 I 29 Muharram-ul-Haram, 1441 I Rs 25.00 I Vol X No 89 I 60 Pages I Karachi Edition

six more martyred in ioK as world looKs on g

india tightens restrictiOns On peOple’s mOvements tO prevent pOssible prOtests triggered by pm imran’s unga speech SRINAGAR

Afghan presidential vote held in relative calm, but turnout low STORY ON PAGE 15

Jui-f leader among three dead in chaman blast STORY ON PAGE 15

India putting major US interests in South Asia at stake, warns FM Qureshi STORY ON PAGE 02

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AGENCIES

ndian troops martyred at least six Kashmiri youths on saturday, a day after pakistan’s prime minister imran Khan warned the united nations general assembly (unga) about india’s brutalities in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir region. according to the Kashmir media service, the indian occupation forces martyred three youths in naranag area of ganderbal during a violent military operation. three other Kashmiris were martyred by indian troops in batote area of ramban district in Jammu region. earlier in the day, authorities in indiaOccupied Kashmir tightened restrictions on people’s movements on saturday to prevent possible protests triggered by prime minister imran Khan’s speech at united nations general assembly. pm Khan, in an address to the united nations general assembly on friday, had warned there would be a bloodbath once india lifts its restrictions in Occupied Kashmir which have been in force since the modi government revoked the region’s decades-old autonomy in august and detained thousands of people. soon after the speech, hundreds of Kashmiris had come out of their homes, shouting slogans in support of Khan late on friday night and calling for the independence of Kashmir. On saturday, police vans fitted with speakers made public announcements in some parts of srinagar about movement restrictions, while additional troops were deployed to prevent any protests, according to officials and two witnesses. the troops also blocked access to the main business centre of srinagar with razor wire. “this was necessitated after protests across srinagar city last night soon after imran Khan’s speech,” said a police official, who declined to be identified. india’s crackdown as it revoked Kashmir’s special status was accompanied by severe restrictions on movement, as well as disconnection of

Punjab Police not ready to be policed

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Officials say resentment grOwing amOng pOlice Officers Over gOvt’s bid tO ‘curtail pOwers’

STORY ON PAGE 15

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telephone services. in some areas in Kashmir — including the soura region near srinagar which has witnessed protests in the past against india’s decision — people clashed with security forces by pelting stones on friday night, forcing police to use tear gas to disperse them, said the indian official. a Kashmiri while speaking to bbc hindi said: “after almighty allah, we have our trust in imran Khan […] we thank him for [supporting our cause].” in his address to the unga, pm Khan expressed fear that narendra modi-led hindu nationalist indian government would launch a massive genocide of Kashmiris once the curfew is lifted. indian occupation forces have already constructed dozens of bunkers only in srinagar and sharpshooters have been deployed at ramparts. the Kashmir valley is under strict lockdown since august 5 when modi-led government in new delhi stripped occupied Kashmir of its special status by abrogating article 370 of the indian

constitution through a rushed presidential decree. the occupation authorities have converted the Kashmir valley into a military garrison by the deployment of such a large number of indian troops and paramilitary personnel in every nook and corner of the muslimmajority himalayan region. however, in several towns and areas, people defying the curfew and other restrictions have been staging protests to express their resentment and anger against nefarious move of modi government. hundreds of incidents of protests have been reported in the occupied territory so far during which hundreds of people have been injured by the firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells by indian occupation forces. a senior government official told media that dozens of people have received pellet injuries since august 5. he said that the numbers were based on records available with hospital authorities in srinagar. the data from other hospitals of the valley was not available.

pm to return home on commercial flight after jet breaks down

un secy general reaffirms support to imran on Kashmir STORIES ON PAGES 02 & 15

CMYK Sunday, 29 September, 2019

02 NEWS

Pm to return Home on commercial fligHt after jet breakS down NEW YORK

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STAFF REPORT

RIME Minister Imran Khan will arrive in Pakistan on Sunday onboard a commercial flight via Jeddah after his plane developed a technical fault while heading to the country.

The prime minister had taken off from New York’s Kennedy International Airport on Friday evening in a special jet placed at his disposal by the Saudi government, but it flew back in a couple of hours to have the problem fixed. Pakistan’s Ambassador to United Nations Maleeha Lodhi, who had earlier seen off PM Imran, rushed back to the airport to be on hand.

The prime minister, who led the Pakistan delegation to the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, waited at the airport for some time while technicians tried to fix the fault, but more work was needed and they decided to complete it by Saturday morning.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Lodhi escorted the prime minister back to the Roosevelt Hotel where he was staying during his seven-day trip. Officials said if the plane is not fixed in the morning, the prime minister would take a commercial flight back to Pakistan where he is anxious to visit earthquake-hit areas and visit the affected families.

During his “Mission Kashmir” visit to New York, the prime minister addressed the 193-member UNGA, at-

tended UN summit meetings, met a number of world leaders on the sidelines of the session, including United States President Donald Trump, addressed thinktanks and interacted with international

Rain floods streets again

media. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Naeemul Haque also confirmed the technical fault and announced that the prime minister would be spending the night back at the hotel in New York.

PM effectively raised Kashmir issue at UNGA: Awan SIALKOT: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan expressed that Prime Minister Imran Khan has effectively conveyed the voice of the oppressed Kashmiris to the world’s largest diplomatic forum ‘UN General Assembly’.

Talking to the media, she said that the PM Imran’s speech was courageous and we are proud of him. She added that PM Imran played the role of conveying the true meaning of Muslim Ummah and we congratulate his entire team.

SAPM Awan asserted that Prime Minister presented his stance in front of the whole world with zeal. “He consolidated the voice of the oppressed Kashmiris and proved that he is a great leader”, she added.

Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan expressed that the PM Imran has emerged as the leader of the Muslim Ummah. “Imran Khan has proudly raised the pride of Pakistanis and fought the case for the whole country”. APP

Six killed aS gunmen attack buS in Hangu PESHAWAR: At least six persons were killed and four others injured when gunmen opened fire on a passenger bus in Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday. According to police, the incident, which took place in Zargari area, was result of an old enmity. Local authorities said the bodies and injured were shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital for legal formalities. The police said raids were being conducted to arrest the attackers. STAFF REPORT

Three bogies of Tezgam derail near Rohri LAHORE: Three bogies of Tezgam (7 Up) derailed near the Rohri Railway Station yard on Saturday, temporarily shutting down the track between Karachi and Lahore. The derailment affected train operations on the up line. The Pakistan Railways teams reached the area and started operation to restore the train traffic. Incidents of derailment of trains on Karachi-Lahore track have become a routine which not only results in causalities but also in suspending

of railway traffic on up and down routes. In addition to the Pakistan Railways suffering financial losses, incidents of train derailment are also increasing difficulties of the passengers. STAFF REPORT

India putting major US interests in South Asia at stake, warns Qureshi

Zubair Mehfooz

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Rain in Lahore caused heavy flooding of streets, causing traffic woes and problems for citizens in many areas of the provincial capital on Saturday.

Several roads in the city were submerged under the rainwater while a number of feeders also tripped due to the rain, leaving several localities in darkness.

However, the tempera-

ture dropped significantly after a hailstorm along with heavy rain and thunderstorms.

Hailstones, the size of grapes, carpeted streets and rooftops as people enjoyed the turn of weather. Mobile phones were taken out to take stills and make movies of the falling hailstones.

Further, heavy rains also lashed adjoining areas of the city, inundating low lying regions and bringing lift to a standstill.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) reported rains in Narowal, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin and many other cities of Punjab.

The PMD also predicted rain/wind-thunderstorm with few heavy falls at scattered places in Kashmir and central Punjab, isolated places in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and lower Sindh during the next 12 hours. However, it expected hot and humid

weather elsewhere in the country. The rain marks a change in the weather as citizens look forward to bidding goodbye to the summer season.

Earlier during the monsoon season, multiple reports of accidents were reported, creating paranoia among citizens who preferred to stay inside their homes whereas the government had claimed of improving the sewerage infrastructure.

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Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that the Indian government was gaslighting the international community into normalizing the de facto annexation of Indian-occupied Kashmir. In an opinion piece for American news outlet CNN, the foreign minister warned that New Delhi was putting major US interests at stake with ethno-nationalist saber-rattling in the South Asian region. “India’s government wants to gaslight the international community into normalizing India’s de facto annexation of the Muslim-majority state,” Qureshi wrote in the opinion piece. “India is ethno-nationalist saber-rattling in a region with major US interests and international stability at stake,” the minister warned, possibly alluding to the precarious security situation in Afghanistan.

Qureshi further said that the draconian measures of the Indian government in occupied Kashmir were moving the security situation in the region towards the unthinkable. Shah Mahmood Qureshi wrote that the unilateral move of India on August 5 abrogated the special autonomous status granted to Jammu and Kashmir within its constitution. “What has followed has reminded the world of the extremism and xenophobia that still plagues it and has forced everyone to call the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party-led Indian govern-

ment out on its actions.” Qureshi added that the people of Kashmir had been under total lockdown and had continued to see shortages of food and medicine, while thousands had been detained through mass arrests.

“Using the familiar tactics of night raids, alleged torture, a media blackout and the suppression of protests, the Indian government has been trying desperately to conceal occupied Kashmir situation,” he said.

FM Qureshi demanded the international community expose the reality that the BJP government was enacting through a nefarious political agenda being pursued in India.

“In its plans to allow Indians to buy land in Kashmir, India’s government is putting Kashmir’s Muslim majority at risk-a policy that could change Kashmir’s identity,” Qureshi warned. In Pakistan’s opinion, he added, this violated the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibited a country from transporting its own people into occupied territory. The foreign minister further maintained that as the country that had always committed itself to speaking up for the people of Kashmir, Pakistan could not be silent on the unfolding catastrophe in Kashmir.

“We must not be naïve about what is happening in Kashmir, and India must be stopped before this goes any further,” Qureshi wrote in his opinion piece. NEwS DESk

CMYK Sunday, 29 September, 2019

NEWS

‘to combat iSlamoPHobia, Pm bridgeS eaSt and weSt’

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E spoke of Islam but used references like Charles Bronson’s “Death Wish” movie, Monty Python and Japanese kamikaze pilots during World War II. He built linguistic and pop-culture bridges as he carefully made his points.

Pakistan’s enigmatic Prime Minister Imran Khan effortlessly projected his East-meets-West brand from the podium of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, wearing a navy blazer over a traditional shalwar kameez as he attempted to explain the dangers of Islamophobia and why Muslims are sensitive to attacks on the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

In the end, Khan’s speech reached its destination — a political attack by a politician on India’s crackdown in Muslim-majority occupied Kashmir. En route, though, he delivered an appeal familiar to many Muslims but somewhat extraordinary for a global forum: a fullthroated defence of Islam shaped for a Western audience’s ears.

“It is important to understand this. The Prophet lives in our hearts,” Khan said. “When he is ridiculed, when he’s insulted, it hurts.” “We human beings understand one thing: The pain of the heart is far, far, far more hurtful than

physical pain,” he said in his speech, which pinballed between his dual identities — sports-star celebrity and his current role as head of state of the world’s largest Islamic republic.

Similar to his life, much of it lived out in the tabloids through the 1990s, the prime minister’s 45minute-speech appeared to follow not a script but his own off-the-cuff stream of consciousness. Even if the messenger was highly political, the message was a humanistic one. It said, in effect, that terrorism, radicalism and suicide bombings belong to no religion or at least not to one religion exclusively.

During World War II, Khan said, Japan deployed kamikaze pilots as suicide bombers. “No one blamed the religion.” But after 9/11, the world’s Muslims and particularly those in Pakistan and a few other nations found themselves blamed for the hijackers who targeted the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and Flight 93. “Suicide attacks and Islam were equated,” he said. He said Muslim leaders had failed after the 9/11 attacks to explain that “no religion preaches radicalism”. Instead, he said, Muslim leaders started wearing Western suits, and even those who didn’t know English would speak English “because they were moderates”. So scared of being labelled radical, Muslim leaders be-

came moderates rather than stand firm in saying that “there is no such thing as radical Islam,” he asserted.

As Khan stood before world leaders, now one himself, he said that he knows “how the Western mind works and how (the) West views religion”. He spoke as a Pakistani Muslim saturated in Western culture and whose children are half British who is now married to his spiritual guide and has ascended to prime minister. The prime minister said he could understand why “a person in New York, in the Midwest in the US, in a European capital” might equate Islam with radicalism and be stunned by the impassioned reaction of Muslims to ridicule of the Prophet Muhammad.

He recalled, with astonishment, the first time he went to England and heard about a movie that poked fun at Hazrat Isa’s life — an apparent reference to the 1979 comedy “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”, beloved by many Britons and Americans. “It’s unthinkable in Muslim societies,” he said, to lampoon any prophet. Some in the West who have done so have been targeted by Islamic attackers, most notably the Charlie Hebdo satirical publication in France. To Prime Minister Khan, it comes down to sensitivity and being “sensitive to what causes pain to other human

beings”. To drive home his message, he drew a parallel to one of the West’s few red lines, saying the Holocaust is treated “quite rightly” with sensitivity because it causes the Jewish community pain.

“Do not use freedom of speech to cause us pain by insulting our Holy Prophet. That’s all we want,” he said. In what was his first address to the General Assembly after taking office last year, the premier reached across the gulf to be a translating dictionary for two cultures that find themselves at odds.

For many generations, most Western views of the Islamic world were broad and even lampoonish. Think “Aladdin” or “Ali Baba” from the misinformed to the downright insulting. But globally, what got amplified was the Western view.

The politician in Khan did what was expected during his address: He used his platform to segue into warnings to India for its policies in Kashmir. But in standing on Friday at the UN with a foot in two worlds, he also raised questions that are more than relevant at this moment in humanity’s journey. So many of us are sure how we feel about those different from us. The message from Friday — intended or not — is that pain and confusion is universal, but interpreters are standing by. AgENciES

Two more succumb to dengue as 3,377 cases reported in Punjab hospitals LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Dengue claimed two more lives in Faisalabad on Saturday as the Punjab health department disclosed that 199 cases of dengue have been reported in various hospitals across the province during the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 3,377 since the start of this year.

According to a report issued by the department, 2,608 patients — out of the total 3,377 — were discharged from hospitals after treatment.

The health department report said that six dengue patients across the province are in intensive care units, while the rest are out of danger.

During the last 24 hours, 119 dengue patients have been discharged from hospitals across the province.

The report, quoting the Dengue Expert Advisory Group, revealed that eight people have died of dengue during Jan 1 to Sept 27 period.

On the other hand, the provincial government has also paced up its efforts to destroy the larva and reproduction of dengue mosquito.

In this regard, the government teams checked 233,761 indoors and 70,647 outdoor spots and destroyed larvae at 1,707 points.

Similarly, 17 people were arrested and 740 others were warned during the past 24 hours for violating rules and regulations laid down for

dengue prevention. The authorities also lodged 76 cases against different commercial places and sealed nine commercial spots.

Giving a breakdown of the statistics, the report revealed that 13 dengue cases have been reported from Lahore, 148 from Rawalpindi, six from Mandi Bahauddin, four each from Gujranwala and Gujrat, three each from Muzaffar Garh and Sargodha, two from Nankana, one each from Fasialabad and Shekhupura, while no case was reported from Multan during the past 24 hours.

another polio case surfaces in Sindh HYDERABAD: One more polio case has surfaced in Sindh with a 31 months old child diagnosed as infected with the virus. District Health Officer Jamshoro Dr Mushtaq Solangi confirmed that the child Muhammad Jamshed had been tested positive. According to him, the child was struck by a water tanker while playing on road in Khursheed Colony in Kotri, Jamshoro, on August 23 and he was admitted to a local hospital. His legs stopped moving during the medical treatment and later his samples were taken for the polio test whose report emerged as positive. According to the DHO, the health authorities were informed about the case on August 30 following which the test was conducted. Director General Health Dr Masood Solangi said that so far seven cases of polio had surfaced in Sindh, including 3 in Karachi, 2 in Hyderabad and one each in Larkana and Jamshoro districts. APP

india’s Sc forms bench to hear pleas against abrogation of articles 370, 35a NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India on Saturday ordered to constitute a five-member bench for hearing of several petitions against unilateral abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution by the Modi-led Hindu nationalist government, stripping special autonomy of the disputed region. According to media reports, the bench will begin the hearing on October 1. On September 16, the SCI had ordered the Indian government to restore normalcy in occupied Kashmir “as soon as possible while keeping in mind national safety and security.” “Schools, hospitals, public transport should function properly,” said the ruling of a threemember bench of India’s top court. The court had ordered the government to submit a report mentioning actual situation in the region that has been lockdown for more than 55 days with communications blackout, internet and telephone services suspended. During the hearing of petitions, CJI Ranjan Gogoi had remarked that if “requirement arises”, he would himself visit Jammu and Kashmir. He had also expressed concerns over reports of inaccessibility of Kashmiris to the Kashmir High Court. Besides, senior Congress party member Ghulam Nabi Azad had been permitted by the court for visiting the disputed Himalayan region. SCI had issued notice on a plea filed by Azad, who had sought permission to visit Jammu and Kashmir, and interact with people there. The apex court allowed him to visit four districts in Kashmir: Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramullah and Jammu. Azad, who had tried to visit the state twice after the abrogation of Article 370 provisions in Jammu and Kashmir, was sent back from the airport by the authorities. The ruling had come as the SCI took up multiple pleas against Indian parliament’s passing of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 – that contains provisions to reconstitute the state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, one to be eponymously called Jammu and Kashmir, and the other Ladakh. The act will come into effect on 31 October 2019. AgENciES

Tax adjustments are economic murder of masses: Marriyum whiteLiES Apollo

LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Sikhs holding foreign passports to get 45-day multiple Pakistani visa LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Sarwar on Saturday announced that the federal government has decided to issue 45-day multiple visa to Sikhs having foreign passport other than the Indian passports. While talking to a delegation led by Minister for Minorities’ Affairs and Human Rights Punjab Ejaz Alam and Minority MPA Sardar Mahindar Pal Singh, Sarwar said that as per promise made in the first International Sikh Convention, issuance of multiple visas for Sikh pilgrims holding foreign passports other than the Indian passports is going to be started. Sarwar said that historical steps are being taken for arrangements to celebrate the 550th anniversary of Baba Guru Nanak and 10,000 Sikhs will simultaneously arrive in Pakistan for very first time. PM Imran Khan will inaugurate Kartarpur corridor in second week of November under any circumstances.

Pakistan Mulsim League-Nawaz (PMLN) Secretary Information Marriyum Aurangzeb on Saturday said that due to the unrealistic and impractical tax targets negotiated by the incompetent and incapable PTI regime, the people of Pakistan are facing an economic assassination.

The IMF had given a lesser target but the mindless PTI upped it to unachievable levels, she said in a statement. The most vulnerable working class is being grilled by the clueless PTI because of its own failure to meet tax revenue targets, she said. The former information minister said it is basic arithmetic that how can PTI expect to meet its targets when its economic policy disasters are shutting down more and more industry, shops, factories and virtually sources of income.

“If the PTI regime revises its tax revenue targets, it would be an outright and blatant confirmation of the opposition’s stance and predictions regarding this group’s incompetence and immaturity. This is why the inept regime is once again getting ready to unload yet another mini-budget,” Marriyum said.

A Rs40 billion shortfall in the first quarter of the fiscal year and a decrease

of Rs230 billion is a screaming proof of Imran Khan’s regime’s failure, she pointed. This is the undeniable proof that Pakistanis do not trust this government at all which is why they are not paying tax.

“It is clear that the target of Rs5.5 trillion will not be achieved no matter how much more burden they crush the people under.

The only so-called ‘change’ in the country has been the halved growth rate, quadrupled inflation and debt. They have shut down the tax collection increase zones created by PML-N,” she added.

The PTI regime has brought the country to the brink of economic disaster with the clear and present possibility of a record shortfall, she concluded.

CMYK

03

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IT wasn’t as bad as his detractors were claiming it to be.

Nor was it quite the seminal moment of history that his supporters were making it out to be. No, the prime minister’s speech had its plusses and minuses.

On the plus side, it needs to be appreciated that he spelled out the plight of the Kashmiris in an articulate manner. On the minus side, it was rambling, way too lengthy (which wouldn’t hold the attention of the world at large) and included in it some bizarre topics like the clampdown on corruption and offshore accounts.

Interesting how, included in his delegation was Zulfi Bukhari of the offshore accounts fame. It was also a little too cavalier in talking about nuclear dynamics.

It was also nowhere near the best performance out guy at the UNGA has given. One can check out the footage of ZAB’s famous speech there. Or the speeches of Pakistan’s early foreign minister Sir Zafarullah, who efforts yielded us the UN resolution on Kashmir in the first place. * * * * * * * * * THE FIA boss has been sent on a 15-day leave for what the government is calling slow progress on the Judge Arshad Malik video case.

Expect to see more of this sort of stuff in the future, with many civil servants vary of falling in line with the government’s rather acerbic policy towards opposition members. Specially ever after the chief justice’s comments about how their is a perception that the accountability process is lopsided. None of the baabus want to be left without a chair when the music stop.

04 KARACHI

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

WEATHER UPDATES SUNDAY

350C 260C

MONDAY

350C 270C

TUESDAY

340C 270C

WiLL continue even if Arrested: sindh cM KARACHI

STAFF REPORT

Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that a candidate is elected for the post of chief minister after which the provincial assembly elects him, and then it becomes the party’s and assembly’s prerogative to continue the term with the same chief minister whether he is in the jail or anywhere else.

He was addressing a press conference here at the CM House wherein Dr Bande Ali Leghari, a leading personality from Dadu announced to quit the Pakistan Tehrek-e-Insaaf (PTI) and joined Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), on Saturday.

To a question, the chief minister said that the party and

provincial assembly were empowered to continue with their chief minister or get him to resign in case he is arrested. “I am surprised to see that some of my media friends always talk about my [CM] arrest,” he said and asked why he would be arrested when he was cooperating with the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in its inquiry.

He said that the PPP had a strength of 98 Members of Provincial Assembly (MPA) and after the by-election on two seats, Larkana and Johi, the party’s strength would reach 100. Murad said that NAB’s question was regarding the authority of giving tariff. “It is my subject and I can write a thesis on it,” he said while adding that he had talked about the tariff in the last four Council of Com-

mon Interests (CCI) meetings.

To a question about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the chief minister said that he only spoke about Kashmiri people and Indian atrocities but did not press the general assembly to hold a plebiscite in occupied Kashmir.

He also said that the prime minister forgot other Muslims and their plight. “The speeches of Shaheed Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto in the UNGA were part of history and speak louder about their great statesmanship,” he added.

Replying to a question about water shortage in Dadu, the chief minister said that he was planning the remodeling and lining of Dadu Canal to resolve water shortage issues.

Cases of Ghotki alleged blasphemy, Dr Nimrita death to be investigated further ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

A seventeen-member probing team formed by the Human Rights Ministry to find out facts pertains to the attack on a temple at Ghotki in addition to the mysterious death of Dr Nimarta Kumari recommended judicial probes on Saturday, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.

The team, after visiting the area and having detailed meetings with locals, community elders, and concerned police officials, submitted reports as well as recommendations to the Ministry of Human Rights for both cases. In its recommendation regarding the mysterious death of Dr Nimarta, the team asked for a judicial probe, measures to avert a similar incident in the future, installation of CCTV cameras in the hostels where the death took place as well as security to Dr Nimarta’s family and witnesses of the case.

Similarly, the team also rec-

ommended a judicial probe in the alleged Ghotki blasphemy case to ascertain if the blasphemy law is being misused against Notan Lal and whether the consequent riots were a result of a planned conspiracy to create friction between Hindus and Muslims in Sindh. “It appeared during the discussion with administration and civil society that the attack on the temple and riots were planned a night earlier,” said the report.

A copy of the report also recommended that Section 34 PPC, 295-A may be applied against miscreants who attacked the temple. “The administration should not hesitate to call paramilitary forces/rangers to control such situation/mob arising in future and the process for the call be made easier for district administration,” reads the report.

Further, the team visited the Hindu temple which was attacked by a mob and assured the Hindu community of protection and justice to minorities.

The Hindu community, while demanding stern action against the accused who attacked temple, looted shops, tried to violate the sanctity of ‘chadar and char dewari’, asked for an impartial enquiry regarding the alleged blasphemy so that fair action may be taken as per the law.

They also questioned how a teacher who has been teaching students for thirty years, a majority of whom are Muslims, could commit blasphemy as it made no sense.The delegation then reached the residence of deceased Dr Nimrita where it held a separate meeting with Jai Pal, her father, who expressed his reluctance to lodge a first information report (FIR) for unknown reasons. However, he insisted that her daughter was murdered.

Meanwhile, the Home Department and government of Sindh has issued a letter to the Larkana District and Session judge for the judicial inquiry of the case.

WEDNESDAY

330C 260C

Bande Ali Leghari quits pti, joins ppp Dr Bande Ali Leghari, a notable from Dadu District, in presence of CM Syed Murad Ali Shah, MNA Rafiq Jamali, MPAs Fayaz Butt and Dr Shajila Leghari announced to quit PTI and expressed confidence in the leadership of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while announcing to join PPP. He said that the PPP has worked and served people of Sindh very well which is why he took the step.The chief minister said that Raees Alan Khan Leghari, the grandfather of Dr Bande Ali Leghari, was PPP MNA from Dadu in 1977. He was a close associate of Shaheed Bhutto and today his grandson Dr Bande Ali Laghari was joining Bilawal BhuttoZardari, the grandson of Shaheed Bhutto.

He welcomed Leghari in the fold of PPP and said that his presence would help in resolving public issues in Dadu District.

91 more dengue cases in Karachi KARACHI: As many as 91 more dengue fever cases were reported in megacity Karachi in just a day, taking the reported cases toll to 2,866 since 1st January 2019.

According to the daily report issued by Prevention and Control Program for Dengue (PCPD) Sindh, a total 98 new dengue fever cases were surfaced across the province in last 24 hours, out of which 91 were reported in Karachi and seven in other districts. In September, a total of 1,500 dengue positive cases emerged throughout the province out of which 1,433 happened in Karachi and 67 in other districts. A total 3,002 dengue cases have been detected in Sindh province so far out of them, 2,866 were in Karachi and 136 in other districts.

A total 11 people have been died from dengue fever in Karachi this year so far. PPI

two people electrocuted in Karachi KARACHI: Two people were electrocuted in separate areas of the metropolis on Saturday. According to rescue sources, 37-year-old Gul Bahar, son of Hameed received severe electric shocks at his home in Landhi Town and died on the spot. The body was moved to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) for an autopsy. Separately, a man, Aamir,25, son of Akbar Shah died as a result of being electrocuted in Allah Wala Town Korangi.

The body was shifted to JPMC for medicolegal formalities. STAFF REPORT

Masterplan for megacity urged with focus on infrastructure, public transport KARACHI STAFF REPORT

A moot of experts discussed the issues of megacity and urged for making a masterplan of Karachi, with special focus on infrastructure and public transport. A seminar on “A Clean Karachi, but how” was organized by Pakistan Medical Association and Karachi Citizens forum was held at PMA House previous evening.

Dr SM Qaisar Sajjad, Secretary-general, PMA informed the participants that PMA and Karachi Citizens Forum had six meetings after rains in Karachi, discussed in details the issues of Garbage and sewage. People were claiming to clean Karachi within few months, weeks and 48 hours but nothing happened. He informed that there is increase in number of cases of water borne diseases, mosquito and flies borne diseases, skin infection, conjunctivitis and other diseases just because of filthy situation and unhygienic conditions in Karachi. Today on this forum we will decide that who will clean Karachi, how will it be cleaned on regular basis. He requested the invited guests to please talk about the future strategy about cleaning Karachi and avoid describing previous stories.

Nargis Rehman, Chairperson Pakistan women’s Foundation for peace, spoke to the audience and said, it was announced in 2011 that Karachi is not worth living city. Now it ranks fourth in the world’s most unlivable cities. We have been facing loss of life and property for last so many decades. We have discussed at large, Karachi’s civic issues during our previous six meetings. It is regrettable that Karachi has no Plan, whereas we need to

have new master plan for Karachi. She called for implementation of laws, accountability, monitoring and privatization of sanitation of Karachi. Kamal Azfar, Ex- Governor Sindh, said that there are three governments working in the city. There are six cantonment boards of federal Government and three Development Authorities of Sindh government, whereas only 1/3 area of Karachi comes under the jurisdiction of KMC. The basic problem of Karachi is overlap of power in different parts of the city. The entire Karachi remained under the Karachi Improvement Trust Act 1950 (KIT Act) from 1950 to 1957untill the KIT Act was repealed and replaced by Karachi Development Order 1957. You cannot solve the civic issues of Karachi until and unless there does not exist structured government and governance in the city.

Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, General Secretary PMA Karachi talked about the burden of diseases in the city. Thousands of patients are suffering from pneumonia, typhoid, dengue and diarrhea. Patients suffering from diarrhea visit tertiary care hospitals because our primary and secondary health care facilities are not functioning. We need to complete overhauling of primary and secondary health care system. We have laws but unfortunately there is no implementation. We need to strengthen our primary health care to decrease burden of tertiary care, then its need of the hour to spend more on prevention rather than cure.

Dr Qazi Muhammad Wasiq stressed upon the need to work on community hygiene, it should be included in the syllabus at school and college level.

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

Police book 26 doctors over ‘violent Protests’

P

ESHAWAR police on Saturday registered a case against 26 doctors, 13 of whom were arrested a day earlier following violent clashes here at the Lady Reading Hospital.

The arrested doctors were shifted today from Peshawar to Mardan Jail.

The case has been registered under Sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 188 (disobedience to order duty promulgated by public servant), 337 (shajjah), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation).

According to police, the protesting doctors had “disrupted the peaceful hospital environment and engaged in stone-pelting of police officers”.

Court orders preservation of CCTV footage in Rana Sanaullah case LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Punjab President Rana Sanaullah could not be produced before special court for Control of Narcotics Substances (CNS) on Saturday in drug case hearing. The court directed the ANF officials to produce the former Punjab law minister in next hearing of the case on October 02. The court also approved a plea of the defence after arguments of the lawyers for preservation of the CCTV footage of the arrest of Rana Sanaullah and taking him to police station from Thokar Niaz Baig. The judge also summoned the Safe City department officials in the next hearing of the case. In previous hearing of the case the court dismissed a bail plea of Rana Sanaullah. The court, however, approved the bail of five co-accused, namely Usman, Anwar, Umar Farooq, Rustum Ali and Sibtain. An Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) prosecutor contended before the court that the former Punjab law minister couldn’t be granted bail on medical grounds as he was getting treatment inside jail. Staff RepoRt

Due to the stone-pelting, a lady constable, as well as a reporter were injured, said police. In all, 15 medical staff and eight policemen were wounded.

The Grand Health Alliance, a

grouping of doctors, paramedics, nurses and other health staff, had staged a protest on Friday against the Regional and District Health Authorities (RDHA) Act, 2019 which they de-

NEWS

scribe as “nothing short of privatisation of government hospitals”.

In an unprecedented move, the government had banned the gathering of five people and more on the LRH premises under Section 144 to avoid any disruption in patient facilitation for a period of 10 days.

GHA spokesperson Dr Hazrat Akbar had yesterday said that if the government did not meet their demands, including the release of arrested doctors, registration of cases against Dr Nosherwan Burki and health minister Dr Hisham Inamullah, reversal of the RDHA Law, end to the role of Dr Burki in KP’s health sector, and removal of the health minister within 24 hours, they would boycott duty, including emergency services, all over the province.

In a press conference held, the doctors announced an extension in their ongoing boycott of OPDs and other services at government hospitals and private clinics, giving the government a deadline of October 1. News Desk

Sabiha Mansoor’s book on women educators launched by LSE LaHOre Shahab omeR

The book, ‘Successful Women Educators and their impact on human development in Punjab (19472007)’ by Dr Sabiha Mansoor was launched by the Lahore School of Economics (LSE) at its campus here on Saturday.

Minister of Education Dr Shafqat Mehmood was invited as the chief guest at the occasion while the ceremony was addressed by LSE Rector Dr Shahid Amjad.

The Panel discussion which followed was chaired by Dr Fareeha Zafar and included Nasreen Kasuri, Dr Najma Najam, Souriya Anwar, Salima Hashmi and Khawar Mumtaz as panellists.

The book details the struggle for women’s rights in Pakistan since independence and identifies key traits and skills that make a “successful woman educator” accompanied by engaging profiles of academic luminaries such as Priobola Mangat Rai to non-formal educators working to enhance girls’ education.

Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry said, “It is a special occasion since LSE is a great admirer of the role women have played in the field of education,”

Marina Pervaiz “If our country will not be cleaned from outside it cannot be cleaned from within us” It is said that dengue is considered one of the most deadly diseases in the world and its tendency of deaths is increasing day by day.

According to different reports and research (WHO) each year, an estimated 390 million dengue infections occur around the world.

Of these, 500,000 cases develop into dengue hemorrhagic fever, a more severe form of the disease, which results in up to 25,000 deaths annually worldwide. In Pakistan out of 1,000 live births, nearly 104 children die before reaching their third birthday.

The core cause of dengue is poor quality of water, sanitation and hygiene which can be controlled but due to less infrastructure and intention of cleaning Pakistan.

Standing water is a breeding ground for bacteria, mold, and parasites that can be harmful to your health.

While contaminated water poses a bigger health risk, bacteria will even grow in clean water. Mold can begin to grow and spread in as little as 48 hours.

05

Tribal elder killed in Bajaur IED blast BAJAUR: A tribal elder was killed in a remote controlled explosion in Mamond tehsil on Saturday. Malik Nader Khan was going to a nearby place when he was targetted in Mula Kali area. He was seriously wounded in the blast and was immediately shifted to the district headquarters hospital Khar where he succumbed to his injuries.

No one has claimed responsibility of the blast so far. Staff RepoRt

Islamabad Literature Festival attracts a large number of visitors ISLAMABAD: The second day of the Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF) attracted a large number of visitors this year. The first session — a discussion on the works of Urdu poet and littérateur Iftikhar Arif — titled ‘Iftikhar Arif: Life and Work’ was attended by a panelist Anna Suvorova, poet, Harris Khalique, Vafa Manesh and Iftikhar Arif himself. Other sessions held at the first day of the festival included a discussion on Zahoor Ahmed’s translation of the Chinse Novel titled, ‘Teen Saltanaton ki Daastan,’ moderated by Shahid Awan and with Chinese Cultural Counselor Zhang Heqing Yao Jing in attendance. A conversation with Sonia Kamal, author of ‘Unmarriageable – A Novel on Pride and Prejudice in Pakistan’ was also held. Book launches included, ‘Phat’tay Aamonka Case’ — which is an Urdu translation of ‘A Case of Exploding Mangoes’ by Mohammed Hanif and Zafar Ullah Poshni’s ‘Prison Interlude: The Last Eyewitness Account of the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case’ which was hosted by Owais Tohid and attended by panelists such as Muneeza Hashmi and Raza Rabbani. Staff RepoRt

Court adjourns Paragon graft reference hearing till Oct 2

adding that around 85 per cent of LSE employees are women.

Chairperson Beaconhouse School Systems (BSS) Nasreen Kasuri said, “Most of the teachers employed by BSS are women and it is common knowledge that women make better educators.”

Educationist Salima Hashmi said that women have played a crucial role in the country’s development since 1947.

While speaking at the occasion, Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood

said, “Women have made an immense contribution to the field of education in the country. It is a sad fact that owing to socio-cultural constraints women are not allowed to work in professional fields.”

“We are (currently) not focusing on establishing new universities since a large number of educational institutions – both public and private – are already operational. The focus instead is directed at introducing a common syllabus for both public and private institutes,” he added.

Fight against dengue Dengue is very dangerous but it can be prevented easily through improving water, sanitation, hygiene failures and access to health services.

Malaria and dengue are among the main dangers of stagnant water, which can become a breeding ground for the mosquitoes that transmit these diseases.

Stagnant water can be dangerous for drinking because it provides a better incubator than running water for many kinds of bacteria and parasites.

81 officials have been removed as after the epidemic of dengue in Lahore and as whole in Pakistan we are seeing thousands of people getting treated for dengue.

As per data shared by the World Health Organization (WHO), dengue fever claims almost 20,000 lives each year while leaving at least 100 million infected with the virus.

In Pakistan, there is no specific vaccine available to treat dengue and with scanty arrangements done by the government, it is likely that in days to come, the

situation will only get worse.

In Pakistan waste a huge amount of money for preventing dengue, but they meet with little success. It is proven that dengue can easily be prevented through taking serious measurements which includes not littering, water accumulated on roads, buckets or any other place which can store water should be cleaned on time.

The government should launch a countrywide campaign and the media should highlight how to be protected from dengue.

Through this measure the cases of dengue will decrease automatically and fewer people will suffer from this fatal but preventable disease.

In this process we need our government, food authorities and health authorities to work hand in hand and as we will be provided with clean water, dengue will not be spread around Pakistan and as Director General Punjab Food Authority Muhammad Usman is also the Secretary Health; it is expected

CMYK

from him to work more in favor of people’s hygiene and as seen recently he has been very active on the concerned issue and is being dynamically participating for the betterment of people.

A question that rises in my mind every day after seeing thousands of death and people lying in hospital beds due to consuming contaminated water.

Pakistan is one of the top five countries worldwide in improving access to clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene.

But despite this impressive progress, 22 million people still have no choice but to drink dirty water, and more than two in five people don’t have a decent toilet.

The death rate of people is increasing day by day, creating an alarming situation for everyone. 64% is a high percentage of people who are deprived from safe drinking water.

According to a study of World Wide Fund (WWF) Pakistan is a water-stressed country and is nearing the threshold of water scarcity. Access to safe drinking

LAHORE: An accountability court (AC) on Saturday adjourned hearing of Paragon Housing Scheme corruption case against Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Salman Rafique till October 2 on a request of lawyers. Accountability Judge Jawadul Hassan was hearing the case. During the hearing, the counsels pleaded to the court to defer the hearing due to the lawyers strike. The court directed the counsels of the sides to give their arguments on Oct 2 over a petition of defence challenging jurisdiction of the court.

Khawaja Saad Rafique and Salman Rafique could not be produced before the court in Saturday’s hearing. The National Accountability Bureau’s prosecutor told the court that the two defendants could not be produced due to security concerns amid a strike call by the Lahore Bar. The court issued explanation call to the SSP headquarters for failure in production of Khawaja brothers in the case hearing. The jail officials earlier informed the court that the police authorities failed to provide security for production of Khawaja Saad Rafique and Khawaja Salman Rafique in hearing of the case. Staff RepoRt

water in rural and urban areas is declining and the provision of potable water is a key issue that people face.

More than two-thirds of households drink bacterially contaminated water and, every year, 53,000 Pakistani children die of diarrhea after drinking it, says Unicef.

Other than dengue there are more cases of typhoid, cholera, dysentery and hepatitis are rampant. According to the United Nations (UN) and Pakistani authorities, between 30 and 40 per cent of diseases and deaths nationwide are linked to poor water quality.

Punjab Food Authority has banned many water companies which were using hazardous adulterants in the production of water and it was also shown in the news that contaminated water as spreads dengue is being consumed by us which is increasing deaths.

Many big brands name were put forward in front of people whom were growing on bigger level but this process was done for mineral water companies and a lot of work needs to be done on ground level as well.

The government should make notice to this issue and provide the basic need of water to people with all the safety measurements being taken on serious echelon.

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

06 WORLD VIEW

The real cosTs of The war in afghanisTan

New RepubLic

n

ADAM WUNISCHE

OW in its nineteenth year, the Afghanistan war just won’t end. Negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban are now dead, according to President Donald Trump. The president, who once clamored for an end to the war, has instead overseen an increase in bombing. Last week, citing rampant corruption in the country, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled $100 million in aid intended to fund infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, a reminder that the Afghan government stood up by U.S. forces in 2002 still struggles to provide security and stability.

The U.S. is staring at the prospect of an even longer presence in Afghanistan—so long that nine former senior U.S. senior envoys to Afghanistan made a case earlier this month that the war actually isn’t that costly and that a significant long-term American troop presence, perhaps even for decades, is feasible.

“U.S. fatalities are tragic, but the number of those killed in combat make up less than 20 percent of the U.S. troops who died in non-

combat training incidents last year,” those officials—who include Bushera appointee John Negroponte and Bush-Obama veteran Ryan Crocker—wrote in their plea not to pull troops out of Afghanistan prematurely. “U.S. direct military expenditures in Afghanistan are approximately three percent of annual U.S. military spending, down by about 90 percent from the high point of the war.” These facts were apparently cause to be sanguine about continued occupation: “The lives and money being expended are serious, but the costs are ones we can sustain for negotiations to result in a sustainable peace.”

There are many ways to measure the costs of something as complicated as war. The ambassadors’ cherry-picking method—to focus solely on deaths of service members and line-item budget costs—is to ignore the considerable indirect costs of war, costs that can’t be wished away. The modern American way of war, with an all-volunteer force and financing raised via debt instead of taxes, has obscured many of the traditionally visible costs of waging war that have often led to popular resistance. Before the American populace—especially the portion asked to serve in this multi-generational war—is involuntarily committed to another 20 years, it’s worth asking what a real, honest cost-benefit analysis of the war might look like.

A baseline annual cost for the United States to continue its war

in Afghanistan is approximately ten to 15 U.S. service member fatalities each year. (With 17 fatalities thus far in 2019, this year has been the deadliest year for the U.S. since 2014.) Additionally, the war costs approximately $50 billion per year; the U.S. Department of Defense estimates $45 billion, while others place it at $52 billion.

In the context of other DoD operations and activities—as the ambassadors’ argument places them—these numbers appear low.

More U.S. service members did, indeed, die in training accidents than in combat operations. The DoD budget for 2019 approaches $700 billion, and $50 billion might not seem like so much as a share of that.

But this annual budget is separate from the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, which has been described as a war-making slush fund and has added $1.8 trillion to military spending since 2001. And clearly neither kitty tells us much about the war’s hidden costs.

The days of war bonds and drafts are far behind us, and with them, a clear and obvious understanding of the costs of war. The Vietnam War essentially ended because of the political costs representatives faced if they authorized more spending for the war effort; when they failed to do so, the White House could no longer sustain the costs, and the complete withdrawal of combat troops began. Today, we have an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), passed following the 9/11 attacks, which

has essentially empowered three successive presidential administrations to expand the war on terror, without much of a check from Congress. That, and the replacement of a universal draft with an all-volunteer force, makes the long-term commitment to the war almost inevitable, with no consequences for politicians to continue to fund it.

As in Vietnam, the cost of the Afghanistan war to veterans—not just in fatalities or visible injuries, but in mental wellness, social adjustment, and economic participation—is significant and growing.

Veteran deaths by suicide exceeds service members killed in combat.

Even as Afghanistan “winds down,” the suicide rate among younger veterans is increasing substantially. Even service members who don’t see combat at all are still exposed to chemicals from burn pits that lead to long-term disabilities.

Not that the government tracks these costs against the war’s objectives in any meaningful way. Numerous mechanisms have been built to obscure the true monetary costs of our various ongoing wars.

Uncle Sam “has never developed a convincing method of reporting on the cost of the wars, and its estimates are a confusing morass of different and conflicting data,” according to longtime security analyst Anthony Cordesman: Simply put, the government “has failed to find any useful way to tie the cost estimates it does release to its level of military and civil activity in each conflict,” much less “found any

Your lawless president, mafia don

L A Times ROBIN ABCARIAN

You know what they say — it’s not the crime, it’s the coverup. And now, finally, we have the coverup. It was bad enough that President Trump decided to hold up American aid to beleaguered Ukraine, then told that country’s president he wanted help digging up dirt on his political opponent Joe Biden.

Turns out, the request was so outrageous, so alarming that White House officials apparently decided they had to find a way to hide it. According to the now celebrated but still anonymous whistleblower, a transcript of the phone call was placed into a super-duper-secret computer system used only for “codeword-level intelligence information, such as covert action.” (Let’s call this one Operation Quid Pro Quo.) Furthermore, the whistleblower alleged in a complaint made public Thursday that White House officials told him this was not the first time a Trump transcript had been placed in the electronic vault “solely for the purpose of protecting politically sensitive — rather than national security sensitive — information.” (Also Thursday, the New York Times reported that the whistleblower was a male CIA officer who was detailed to the White House and had since returned to the CIA.) Knowing what we know about the White House occupant’s lack of morals, ethics and integrity, do we really have to stretch our imaginations to believe that he was willing to hold American funds hostage while importuning a de-

pendent foreign ally to do his domestic political dirty work?

It’s really a shame a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime. ***** Counting this one, I’ve lived through three of the country’s four impeachment traumas.

That’s not a large enough number from which to draw meaningful lessons, but we can say this: Republican presidents who face impeachment are accused of selling out the office for political gain; Democrats who face impeachment are accused of lying about sex. Which kind of president would you prefer? Even as a teenager, I had no trouble understanding why President Nixon had to go. His henchmen ordered a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate apartments in June 1972, and Nixon helped orchestrate a coverup of the crime. Nixon smartly preempted his own impeachment; he resigned at the urging of Republicans, who by then had turned on their president.

By 1998, I was certainly old enough to be outraged that then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich put the country through another impeachment trauma because President Clinton lied under oath about having an extramarital affair.

(That was the coverup.) Clinton was impeached by the House and acquitted after a trial in the Senate.

Funny, though. Puritanical Republicans who whipped themselves into hysteria about Clinton’s personal behavior just don’t seem to care anymore about whether a president lies.

The American people, as it turned out, never really got on board the Clinton impeachment train. Clinton’s popularity ratings soared after the impeachment. Maybe partly that was because he was finishing up his second term and would never run for office again. Trump, on the other hand, is facing a daunting reelection campaign. He seems to be trying to persuade himself that an impeachment ordeal will whip up his supporters and help him win a second term.

I think it will have the opposite effect. Who wants to live in this chaos for another four years? ***** On Thursday morning, the House Intelligence Committee invited Acting

Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire to testify about the whistleblower who filed the complaint about Trump’s July 25 phone conversation with newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In his opening statement, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat, did something that was risky but smart. He decided to offer a parody of Trump’s call with Zelensky, which, he said “reads like a classic, organizedcrime shakedown.”

Schiff is not the first person to compare Trump’s speaking style to that of a Mafia boss. And though it’s hard to parody something that already reads like parody, he pulled it off: “We’ve been very good to your country,” Schiff paraphrased. “No other country has done as much as we have. But you know what, I don’t see much reciprocity. You know what I mean? I hear what you want. I have a favor I want from you, though, and I am going to say this only seven times, so you better listen good. I want you to make up political dirt on my opponent, understand? ...

You know what I am asking so I am only gonna say this a few more times, in a few more ways. And by the way, don’t call me again. I’ll call you when you’ve done what I asked.”

This was Schiff’s way of saying, Hey President Trump, we got your number. It doesn’t take a trained spy to break your code. Republicans were in no mood for parody.

Committee member Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) condemned Schiff. “It is disturbing and outrageous that ... Schiff opens up a hearing of this importance with improvised fake dialogue between President Trump and President Zelensky. We should focus on the facts.” I doubt she’s serious. After all, the unpalatable facts for Republicans are that the American president implicitly threatened to withhold millions of dollars in foreign aid to an allied country under invasion from a major American foe if it didn’t help his reelection campaign.

His minions tried to hide it. This is Nixon-level lawlessness. Trump’s impeachment trauma is well deserved.

Robin Abcarian is an opinion columnist at the Los Angeles Times. She writes about news, politics and culture.

way to measure the effectiveness of its expenditures or tie them to a credible strategy to achieve some form of victory.”

If we could more fully account for all these indirect costs, would we weigh them? Wars are supposed to be justified, and the sacrifices of the soldiers who serve in them honorable, when (and only when) they are fought for just political objectives that we reasonably believe can be achieved in a short amount of time at acceptable costs. For the U.S., the war in Afghanistan doesn’t meet these criteria.

Everything we know about insurgencies and terrorist groups predicts many more years of violence in Afghanistan. The Taliban are one of the wealthiest armed nonstate groups in the world. Weak or developing democracies don’t often defeat insurgencies. Insurgencies last longer in counties with rugged terrain. Insurgencies last long if they have foreign backers or can find relative sanctuary in neighboring countries. Counterinsurgencies are more difficult in ethnically heterogenous societies.

Poor socioeconomic development and little past experience with democracy also undermines external democratization efforts.

Preexisting conditions in Afghanistan make a successful democratization effort there nearly impossible, and policy decisions have made a successful outcome even more difficult. The risk of losing political progress with a withdrawal needs to be

weighed against the fact that government and coalition forces are now killing more Afghan civilians than the Taliban are. The sacrifice of U.S. service members was unlikely to lead to a successful democratization effort when there were more than 150,000 soldiers from NATO-member countries and we were spending hundreds of billions of dollars. It is even less likely now, with no clear strategy for success.

“A short jump is certainly easier than a long one, but no one wanting to get across a wide ditch would begin by jumping halfway,” wrote Carl von Clausewitz, the oft-quoted nineteenth-century military strategist. Meaning, military force should be wielded decisively and overwhelmingly to achieve a stated objective and then stop once it is achieved. Advocates of staying in Afghanistan indefinitely are, on this view, attempting to cross the Grand Canyon by jumping toward the middle and seeing what happens.

Soldiers are being sacrificed for an objective that is unlikely to be achieved. That the real costs of the war can’t be fully tallied is less important: Under these conditions, even one more casualty can’t be justified.

Adam Wunische is a research fellow with the Quincy Institute and a PhD candidate at Boston College. He served in the U.S. Army and completed two deployments to Afghanistan.

I thought I’d made it when I got to Cambridge University. How wrong I was GuARdiAN DANIEllA ADElUWOyE

I’ve always been a diligent worker. Having had a part-time job in a fish and chip shop throughout my A-levels, I know what hard work means. When I received my offer to study at Cambridge University I was congratulated by my colleagues for finally “making it”. In the warm heat of June, a few days before my last exam, I thought this would be the last time I would smell the fish in batter as it hit the sizzling oil. I reflected on the idea that Cambridge meant I was finally competing on a level playing field with socially and economically privileged students.

Within my first four days at university, by which time tickets had already sold out for the winter ball, I realised this was not the case. Around me, students effortlessly parted with well over £100 for that one night out. I could only struggle to do the same, so I applied to work for half of the ball in order to enjoy the other half for free. It soon dawned on me that, for a working-class student, a Cambridge education did not give me equal status.

Instead, my first year has exposed the significant wealth disparities between me and other students. While they are comforted by their parents’ financial cushions, I have to think about the risks I take career-wise. I had hoped to pursue journalism. But the work is often inconsistent and poorly paid. My privileged counterparts will be able to explore opportunities in the form of unpaid internships; I need a career path that provides monetary stability.

Research shows that Oxbridge graduates from more privileged backgrounds earn about £5,000 a year more than those that are less well off. When I discovered this, I was shocked. I’d been told by teachers that a Cambridge degree would be the “great equaliser”. After all, I had been chosen through meritocracy, selected on the basis of my ability. It didn’t matter where I had come from. I could achieve anything.

Now, as I enter my second year and feel closer to the jungle of graduate job-hunting, I have come to realise the power of financial patronage. These worries about money are shared by many of my working-class friends at Cambridge. One told me how she dreamed of pursuing a career in acting, but soon realised that the financial insecurity of that industry means that it won’t be an option.

I worry, too, that I do not display the “polish” that many recruiters seek. At one of the first talks I attended at university, the speaker made several references to 17th-century French politicians and compared them with contemporary British MPs. Each of the examples were greeted with bursts of laughter. Did I keep missing the punchline? How was I expected to know the biography of Louis XIV? This episode made me realise how strongly people’s very sense of humour was tied to class background.

Middle-class parents instil cultural wherewithal in their children, such as knowledge of the arts. I began to wonder: if I was unable to understand a highbrow reference during an interview, would the recruiter think I might not “fit in”? Would they be less likely to hire me? As I navigate Cambridge, I often feel alienated as student colleagues confidently charm their way through conversations – referencing their favourite poetry by the likes of Keats, Browning and Hardy. I could not name a single title.

Many working-class friends tell me they often feel isolated like this, too. I worry that, in job interviews, this lack of knowledge will be unfairly confused with my ability to do the job. At Eton they learn the art of “oiling”: how to charm your way to success.

Maybe that’s how Boris Johnson got into Downing Street: not by merit or hard work but because of his lessons in charm and persuasion.

During freshers’ week, I overheard a conversation between students discussing their social networks. Their family friends ranged from various CEOs to big names in the City. These often help to “pull strings” for privileged students once they graduate. My parents cannot provide valuable connections.

I would urge schools and teachers to not raise expectations: not to paint an Oxbridge degree as a working-class escape route. It’s an empty promise. I was sold a dream of upward mobility, but my one year has already exposed this as being far from the truth.

I’ve learned that our class shapes our economic, cultural and social capital, and much of our potential, from birth. This is something a Cambridge degree cannot erase.

Daniella Adeluwoye is an undergraduate at Cambridge University.

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

pompeo SUbpoenaed aS democraTS preSS TrUmp impeachmenT WASHINGTON D.C.

d

Agencies

EMOcRATS charged aggressively into an impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump on Friday, ordering Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to turn over Ukraine-related documents and scheduling testimony for witnesses to alleged abuse of power by the US leader.

Three House committees gave Pompeo one week to produce the documents, saying multiple State Department officials have direct knowledge of Trump’s efforts to enlist the Ukraine government’s help in his US campaign for reelection.

“The committees are investigating the extent to which President Trump jeopardized national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere with our 2020 election and by withholding security assistance provided by congress to help Ukraine counter Russian aggression,” they said.

Public support is growing for impeachment after the release of an anonymous whistleblower’s complaint on Thursday, reportedly made by a cIA analyst who had worked in the White House. It accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July 25 phone call to supply dirt on former vice president Joe Biden, the favorite to represent Democrats against Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

The complaint also revealed that White House aides, alarmed at

Trump’s implicit offer to release aid in exchange for Zelensky’s help, sought to hide the record of the call in a highly secure computer system normally used only for the country’s most top-secret intelligence. congressional investigators on Friday announced interviews starting next week with five State Department officials, including former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, whom Trump reportedly forced out earlier this year for resisting his efforts to pressure Kiev to probe Biden. The list also includes US special representative on Ukraine Kurt Volker, who resigned Friday after being ordered to answer questions in the impeachment investigation, a source familiar with the matter told AFP. The whistleblower complaint said Volker met senior Ukrainian officials on how to “navigate” Trump’s demands of Zelensky.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared that the impeachment in-

vestigation would move quickly, saying evidence from the whistleblower’s complaint against Trump of abuse of power and an attempted cover-up was unambiguous.

“The clarity of the president’s actions is compelling and gave us no choice but to move forward,” Pelosi said. In a series of tweets Trump attacked Democrats — including Adam Schiff, the lawmaker named by Pelosi to lead the impeachment probe — calling them liars, while also taking aim at the “partisan” whistleblower and the “Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party.”

In a video leaked from a private gathering Trump held Thursday with US diplomats in New York, Trump made clear he was battling for his survival. “We’re at war.

These people are sick,” Trump says in the video obtained by Bloomberg.

Schiff said Friday his committee will issue more subpoenas next week and conduct a closed-door

US envoy on Ukraine, named in TrUmp Scandal, reSignS KYIV: US special representative on Ukraine Kurt Volker resigned Friday after Congress ordered him to answer questions in an impeachment investigation on President Donald Trump, a source said. A person familiar with the matter who requested anonymity confirmed Volker’s resignation, which was first reported by the student newspaper at Arizona State University, where he directs an institute. A whistleblower complaint released on Thursday said Volker met senior Ukrainian officials on how to “navigate” Trump’s demands of President Volodymyr Zelensky. The complaint accused Trump of pressuring Zelensky in a July 25 phone call to supply dirt on former US vice president Joe Biden, the favorite to represent Democrats against Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Committees in the Democratic-led House of Representatives ordered Volker to appear next Thursday to answer questions. In a letter released Friday, the lawmakers pointed to a tweet by Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, in which he showed a screenshot of a conversation in which Volker spoke of connecting him with a top adviser to Zelensky. “The failure of any of these Department employees to appear for their scheduled depositions shall constitute evidence of obstruction of the House’s impeachment inquiry,” said the letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Volker is a veteran diplomat involved in Europe who was appointed US ambassador to NATO under former president George W. Bush. He left the diplomatic service to become a consultant and in 2012 was named executive director of Arizona State University’s McCain Institute, a center focused on national security named after senator John McCain. The Trump administration in 2017 appointed Volker to take charge of US policy on Ukraine, in an unusual arrangement in which he was essentially a volunteer for the State Department while maintaining his university duties. The State Press, the student-run publication at Arizona State University, quoted a university spokesperson as saying that Volker had quit his Ukraine position. The Arizona Republic also quoted the university’s president, Michael Crow, as confirming that Volker would stay at the institute but leave the State Department. The State Department did not answer requests for comment. Agencies

FOREIGN NEWS 07

briefing with the Inspector General of the Intelligence community, the official who conducted a preliminary investigation into the whistleblower complaint and deemed it credible. “We have to flesh out all of the facts for the American people. The seriousness of the matter and the danger to our country demands nothing less,” Schiff said.

Meanwhile, more concerning allegations against Trump came to light late Friday, with The Washington Post reporting Trump told Russia’s foreign minister and ambassador to the US he was unconcerned about Moscow’s interference in the 2016 US elections because Washington did the same in other countries.

The paper cited three former officials who requested anonymity to discuss details of the May 2017 Oval Office meeting, during which he famously revealed highly classified information on the Islamic State group. The comments reportedly alarmed White House officials who restricted access to a memorandum describing the meeting to those with only the highest security access.

More than 300 high-level professionals from the national security community have signed a letter backing the impeachment investigation. “President Trump appears to have leveraged the authority and resources of the highest office in the land to invite additional foreign interference into our democratic processes. That would constitute an unconscionable abuse of power,” they said.

Meanwhile public support for impeachment jumped, according to two new polls. The Hill-HarrisX survey showed support up 12 percentage points to 47 percent, against 42 percent opposed, while Politico’s poll showed support up seven points to 43 percent, now equal to those opposed. Democrats said articles of impeachment — formal charges — against Trump could be completed in as soon as a month and then swiftly debated and voted on in the House, where the party has a majority solid enough to ensure passage. The case would then be handed to the Senate to try Trump — who, for the moment, appears able to count on a Republican majority in the chamber to prevent his conviction and removal.

“As a former prosecutor, I should tell you that cases are made much easier when the defendant cops to the act, and here the president is not denying what he said,” Democrat Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence committee, said on cNN.

israeli troops kill man in gaza protests GAZA: Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian during protests along the fortified Gaza-Israel border on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said. They named the dead as Saher Othman, 20, and said 52 others were wounded during the often violent demonstrations, 27 of them by live fire. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military told Reuters troops stationed along the border did not use live fire. It said some 7,000 Palestinians took part in the demonstrations, who it said threw firebombs and explosive devices towards troops. “IDF (Israel Defence Forces) troops responded with riot dispersal means,” the spokeswoman said. Protesters have staged 18 months of weekly demonstrations dubbed the “Great March of Return”, calling for an end to a security blockade imposed

by Israel and Egypt, and for Palestinians to have the right to return to the land from which their families fled or were forced to flee during Israel’s 1948 founding. Israel rejects any such return, saying that would eliminate its Jewish majority. Egypt, Qatar and United Nations officials have been working to keep the border calm in recent months.

Around 210 Palestinians have been killed since the protests began in March 2018, Gaza medical officials say. In that period, an Israeli soldier was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper along the frontier, and another was killed during an Israeli undercover raid into Gaza. Israel seized Gaza in a 1967 war and pulled out its settlers and troops in 2005. It says the security blockade is necessary to stop weapons reaching Hamas, the Islamist group that has fought three wars with Israel and fired thousands of rockets at it in the past decade. Agencies

dozens die due to heavy rains in india's Uttar pradesh NEW DELHI: Almost 50 people have died in 24 hours due to heavy rains in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, an official said on Saturday. The state, India’s largest, has witnessed constant rainfall in recent days and rivers have been flowing several notches above warning levels. The death toll “owing to torrential rain and rain related incidents” reached 48 in the past 24 hours, the state’s relief commissioner G S Priyadarshi told Reuters.

The rains have impacted about 580,000 people, mostly in the eastern part of the state where there is increased risk of flooding, Priyadarshi said. India’s monsoon usually starts retreating at the start of September but has been delayed by a month this year. Intense rainfall in many parts of the country has triggered floods that have swamped cane and rice fields and caused deaths in some cases. On Thursday, at least 11 people died and six were reported missing after the western Indian city of Pune and surroundings were hit by flash floods. Agencies

A year after Khashoggi’s slaying, Saudi clampdown persists NEW YORK Agencies

Nearly one year has passed since a team of 15 Saudi government agents flew to Turkey and killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. His body has still not been found, no one has been convicted and questions linger over the crown prince’s culpability.

The Oct. 2 slaying brought into sharp focus the very concerns over human rights that Khashoggi had spent the last year of his life in exile writing about in columns for The Washington Post— and the reason he may have been targeted. At a time when crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s social reforms were being widely hailed in the West, Khashoggi’s columns criticized the parallel crackdown on dissent the prince was overseeing.

At the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly this week, relatives of rights activists detained in Saudi Arabia — and Khashoggi’s fiancée — wondered why those responsible haven’t been punished and why the clampdown on dissent has

continued seemingly unabated.

Khashoggi had walked into his country’s consulate in Istanbul that October morning to collect documents that would allow him to wed his Turkish fiancée, Hatice cengiz, who waited for him outside. He’d never walk out.

“Why was Jamal killed? Where is his body? What was the motive for this murder?” cengiz told The Associated Press in an interview in New York. “This murder was not limited to the perpetrators.”

Agnes callamard, a U.N. special rapporteur who authored an inquiry into the killing, said the search for justice must not be left to the Saudi judicial system, which is “so vulnerable to political interference.” Saudi Arabia’s trial of 11 suspects has been held in secret and does not include the crown prince’s top adviser at the time of the killing— Saud alQahtani, who has been sanctioned by the U.S. for his suspected role in orchestrating the operation.

“At times it feels as if justice for Jamal hangs by a thread,” callamard said.

“But that is the very same thread from

which democracies are woven, and for that we must demand justice for Jamal,” she said at an event at the U.N. on Thursday. Her report, published in June, called for sanctions on the crown prince and said responsibility for Khashoggi’s killing falls on Saudi Arabia. The report found

“sufficient credible evidence regarding the responsibility of the crown Prince demanding further investigation.”

In Washington, congress has said it believes Prince Mohammed is “responsible for the murder”, despite Saudi insistence he had no involvement in the

operation. President Donald Trump condemned the killing, and his administration sanctioned 17 Saudis suspected of being involved, though not the crown prince. Trump, however, has steadfastly resisted calls by members of his own party for a tougher response and has defended maintaining good relations with Saudi Arabia, framing its importance as a major buyer of U.S. military equipment and weapons and saying this creates American jobs.

Meanwhile, numerous critics of the crown prince remained imprisoned and face trial for their acts of dissent.

Loujain al-Hathloul, one of Saudi Arabia’s most outspoken women’s rights activists, was one of more than a dozen women detained last year, just weeks before the crown prince lifted the ban on women driving — something they been calling for in their push for equal rights.

Al-Hathloul and some of the detained women say they were tortured and sexually abused during interrogations by masked men. They face a range of vague national security charges.

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

08 COMMENT The UNGA address Diplomacy is often the best of weapons

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rime minister imran Khan poured out his heart on issues like islamophobia, blasphemy, climate change and the imminent possibility of a bloodbath in Kashmir. Democracy needs further reforms so that freedom of speech does not become an excuse to injure the feelings of millions. Similarly, there is also a dire need to attend to the issue of climate change to save mankind.

The Pm was spot on regarding the BJP’s Hindu supremacist thinking, with Prime minister Narendra modi as its major champion. The speeches delivered by the BJP leadership, especially indian interior minister Amit Shah have set into motion tendencies like communal hatred, intolerance and negation of the multiplicity of religious, linguistic, ethnic and cultural identities. Prime minister imran Khan is also right when he claims that his indian counterpart refused to respond to his gestures of goodwill, considering these a sign of weakness. His impassioned but well-argued exposition of the Kashmiris’ current plight and what lies in store for them if the international community remains irresponsive is also worth noting.

What worries one however is mr Khan’s premonition of a nuclear war between india and Pakistan. To mention it repetitively creates a perception that the government is short on diplomacy. While one would condemn indian COAS Gen Bipin rawat for claiming to possess the capacity to occupy AJK, a better answer to rabid statements of the sort would be to expose the indian leadership’s bellicosity rather than fall victim to the tendency. many will share the view that if a community is subjected to inhuman treatment it is forced to take up arms.

The Pm however needs to realise that he is no longer living in the middle of the 20th century when nations resorting to armed struggle to overthrow colonial rule were idealised and there was a widespread acceptance of militancy on the part of subjugated nations seeking self-determination.

As things stand those running the show at the UN today consider armed actions for any cause acts of terrorism.

The Pm would have been wiser if he had gone through ms Alice Wells’ statement admonishing both india and Pakistan on Kashmir before his address at the UNGA. This would have shown him that the world is wary of inconsistency in policies.

Impeaching Trump And its possible outcomes

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S President Donald Trump had only just dodged a bullet, avoiding being formally accused of obstruction of justice in the much anticipated and hugely anticlimactic and disappointing (for his opponents) mueller report on the russian collusion scandal, that a new one has emerged. A whistleblower in the Trump Administration, reportedly a member of the National Security Council, in a letter to the inspector General of the Department of Justice, raised serious concerns that President Trump in a phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged him to investigate Hunter Biden, son of the Democratic frontrunner for the 2020 presidential elections, Joe Biden. This constitutes an invitation to interference by a foreign country into US elections; exactly what President Trump had been accused of doing in the 2016 election through russia. The offence is considered to fall within the amble of ‘high crimes and misdemeanours’, an impeachable offence. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top Democrats have therefore finally initiated impeachment proceedings against President Trump.

Trump had withheld $400 million in an aid package to the Ukraine for the purpose of defence against russia, prior to the call, suggesting there is an element of blackmail involved. The call itself was intentionally stored in a computer server reserved for highly sensitive materials proving how serious its contents were and pointing towards a deliberate attempt to bury them. Congress was also denied the transcript of the call at first when the scandal was first revealed. The complaint also mentions other members of the Trump Administration, including Attorney General Bill Barr who attempted to bury the mueller report while Kurt Volker, US special envoy to Ukraine, who is also mentioned in the report, resigned a day after the report was released. impeachment is a lengthy and complex procedure and whereas the articles are drawn up in the House of representatives, where the Democrats are in majority, Trump will most likely survive in the republican run Senate where the trial is held. As elections get closer, President Trump is labelling the Ukraine problem as another witch hunt– a narrative that has worked with his voter base previously. in all likelihood this too may become another one of Trump’s many attacks on the US Constitution and democracy that he will get away with.

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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Khan’s impassioned plea And the nuclear option

aRif Nizami

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rime minister Khan in his maiden speech at UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) succulently summed up the precarious situation in iOK (indian occupied Kashmir) and its ramifications for the region as well as the world. referring to the plight of the Kashmiris under lockdown and curfew now for almost two months by Narendra modi Sarkar, Khan ominously warned: “if this goes wrong, you hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst.”

The prime minister spoke for fifty minutes, much beyond his allocated time. in his impassioned speech he cautioned the world of a “bloodbath whenever the curfew in Kashmir was lifted.” However, the operative part of his speech was obliquely hinting at Pakistan being forced to exercise the nuclear option if attacked by its belligerent neighbour.

He posed a rhetorical question: “supposing a country seven times smaller than its neighbour is faced with the choice- either you surrender or you fight for your freedom till death?” Answering the question himself he added that, “when a nuclear armed country fights to the end, it will have consequences far beyond its borders.”

This is nuclear brinkmanship par excellence with all its appended consequences. indian leadership since New Delhi’s latest putsch has been threatening to abandon its no first use nuclear option.

Some Pakistani ministers- the enigmatic Sheikh rashid to name one- have been hinting at islamabad using miniaturised nuclear weapons in a limited theatre in case of possible indian aggression.

But now the foreboding coming from the prime minister himself at the highest forum of the world has to be taken seriously. Using nuclear option is not nearly an option. it is to put simply, mAD (mutually assured destruction).

No one will allow a nuclear Armageddon to happen. And no responsible nation will seriously talk of exercising such a threat. Pm Khan’s veiled threat is symptomatic of utter frustration of Pakistan at the world’s sheer indifference to

the dismal human rights situation in the Valley and warmongering against Pakistan.

Narendra modi is hardly under any international pressure to lift the siege on Kashmir. That is why in his relatively short speech prior to that of his Pakistani counterpart the K-word was not even mentioned.

Khan during his weeklong stay in New York engaged in aggressive and comprehensive diplomacy on Kashmir- perhaps unmatched by any of his predecessors; full marks for the effort.

Nonetheless the world by and large is not willing to budge by nudging New Delhi to resolve the Kashmir conundrum. There is hardly any pressure on modi to restore status quo in Kashmir by withdrawing the removal of article 370 of the indian constitution. in the meanwhile, Kashmiris continue to suffer under the yoke of continuous lockdown with 900,000 indian troops breathing down their necks. Obviously india, despite boasting about its development roadmap for Kashmir and fatwas from plaint muslim clerics justifying atrocities on their muslim brothers, is loath to lift the siege. it knows well that the day curfew is lifted the recalcitrant Kashmiri youth will pour out onto the streets against continued indian occupation.

Not that the situation was any better before india’s ominous clampdown on August 5. more than 700,000 security forces were already there for over a decade perpetrating all kinds of atrocities on Kashmiris, typical of an occupation army.

The indian leadership for years had been claiming- buttressed by its media- that the rebellion in Kashmir was a direct result of infiltration from across the border from Pakistan. True that late general Ziaul Haq the strongman of Pakistan in the late eighties, in pursuance of his Jihadist agenda, to some extent-fomented trouble in iOK. But the policy has been long abandoned. But New Delhi continues to beat Pakistan with the terrorism stick. The Pulwama attack last February in which forty indian soldiers perished was put on Pakistan’s plate without any concrete proof.

This resulted in an abortive attack by the indian air force on Balakot. But india’s continued clampdown is an implicit admission of failure of its Kashmir policy rather than the festering wound being a function of Pakistan’s alleged interference.

The situation in Kashmir has been internationalised thanks largely to New Delhi’s own scorched earth policies in the Valley. Pakistan has also done more than its bit by highlighting the issue bilaterally and on international forums.

But despite the tremendous efforts put in for the Kashmir cause results are rather mixed. Apart from Turkey and China who have categorically

come out to demand india lifting its siege and resume talks with Pakistan on the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir, no other country condemned indian moves at the UNGA. Unlike his predecessor Sharif, Khan has been successful in engaging the US president on the issue. But Trump in the end analysis simply shrugging off his shoulders saying, “Fellas work it out (amongst yourselves).”

The Pm in his long harangue at the UNGA lectured the world on the fascist antedates of Hindutva, the corner stone of modi’s polices. But his arguments largely fall on deaf ears.

Alice Wells the senior US State Department official on south Asia urged india to lift its siege in Kashmir. There was no mention however of revoking the annexation of Kashmir by india.

The bottom line remains that the west remains enamoured by india’s perceived economic clout and strategic potential. Houston’s “howdy modi” rally was the highpoint of the indian prime minister’s visit to the US. A massive energy deal was signed a day ahead of the rally.

Trump needs india as a bulwark against his archrival China in addition to its large market.

But the biggest disappointment is our islamic brethren especially the Gulf States.

Pakistan is largely beholden to them for their economic largesse. Despite Pakistan’s close security relations with Saudi Arabia the kingdom has refrained from giving unequivocal support to Pakistan on Kashmir.

Adding insult to injury modi was honoured with, “The King Hamad Order of renaissance” by Bahrain (virtually a protectorate of riyadh) just two weeks after the Kashmir clampdown. earlier the same day the indian prime minister was awarded the ‘Order of Zayed’ by UAe (United Arab emirates) as a mark of appreciation for “his efforts to boost bilateral ties between the two nations.”

Perhaps the lesson drawn for Khan since india’s formal annexation of Kashmir is that Pakistan is as strong or weak in pursuing its foreign policy and security goals as its internal strength and cohesion. Back in islamabad he should introspect that his divisive policies have only fragmented an already fractured nation.

The economy remains in dire straits despite claims to the contrary. The latest figures released by iFis (international financial institutions) do not make an encouraging reading. A lethal combination of the highest rate of inflation and lowest GDP growth rate in the region does not leave much room for optimism.

Perhaps a major policy reset is needed. it’s a heady feeling to be a nuclear-armed power. But so was the former Soviet Union.

Arif Nizami is Editor, Pakistan Today. He can be contacted at arifn51@hotmail.com

Offensive interference When going too far means going out of one’s bounds

Rabia ahmed

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ANY nations- some more than others- now agree, at least in principle, that it is wrong to cause offence to groups of people, and that their actions and language should reflect this resolve. Although the idea seems to have bypassed the current inmate of the White House who has said, among many other things, that “if you need Viagra you’re with the wrong girl.” it is now no longer politically correct to, for example, call mentally disabled persons ‘retarded’, instead of a person with ‘special needs.’ One does not use the word ‘negroes’ because that term carries too much baggage from a past where persons of colour where abused and allowed to be so.

The correct term is now ‘black’.

However, political correctness itself can become a tool in manipulative hands. Justin Trudeau’s black-face for example, a youthful gaffe, has been used strategically at election time by a media greedy for a scoop.

Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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Although one may express an opinion, it is not one’s job to interfere in the values of others, certainly not to be offensive about them. if this point were understood in this country, it would be transformed into an infinitely better place.

Universities in Pakistan seem to be particularly prone to such interference, which, other than being offensive can be acutely embarrassing. earlier this year Bahria University issued a directive that male and female students ‘must maintain a six-inch distance from each other at all times.’ You wonder if 5 and ¾ inches would incur a penalty, and who is lumbered with the task of walking around with a ruler to perform those measurements. respecting personal space is right, and it must be observed as a norm, but it cannot be enforced by directives.

The most incredible and recent is a notification (since rescinded), issued by an official of Bacha Khan University which has claimed that ‘un-islamic, un-cultural relationships’ are on the rise in the University. it has therefore banned the ‘coupling’ of male and female students, and any ‘correspondence’ between the two. Let’s not even go into the incorrect use of words here. in their obsession with sex, persons fail to understand that each gender has wisdom to offer to the other and it would be a shame, not

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

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to mention impossible, to prevent this exchange. This applies in dayto-day matters as well as in academic. Besides, how do you prevent ‘correspondence’ between the sexes in a university that enrols both? is a group assignment subject to disapproval? What about a thesis jointly produced by a student of either gender? Or a plain get-together between friends over a cup of tea? if the credibility of governments rests on the persons they appoint to office then since 18 April 2019, this present government in Pakistan is sunk because that it is when the Special Assistant to the Prime minister for information and Broadcasting came into office under the PTi flag, after holding office successively as a member of the PmL-Q and the PPP. each of those other tenures were equally replete with her gem-like utterances, such as when the good (medical) doctor was federal minister for national regulations and services in a previous government and failed to appreciate that Adalat-30 was a time release capsule. This very basic lack of knowledge had dire consequences for certain personnel, and only the minister herself appeared to have moved on to greener pastures, such as becoming the advisor to the Pm in the present government.

She has now ‘blasted’ and ‘flayed’ (not her terms, they’re simply favourites with our media so it is

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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incumbent to use them) malala Yousafzai and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for doing nothing about the crisis in Kashmir. Before this the SAPm had cracked a joke or two about the recent earthquake that rocked the northern parts of the country in which many lives were lost.

What prompts people to step so outrageously out of their remit, and just what allows them to be so offensive? it is expected that some mutual rules of interaction should be adhered to. Pakistanis today appear to be not well-versed in these rules.

Certain eastern cultures are both too conservative where gender issues are concerned and too liberal in matters of personal privacy. men and women in Pakistan for example are awkward interacting with each other, whereas in public they will persist in stepping over the mark with regards to physical personal space among strangers, such as in queues. There is also a lack of awareness regarding when public statements verge on slander, or sheer nonsense.

Such things must be taught in schools and of course in homes.

But you do expect people in public office to be aware of them, which they are not.

Rabia Ahmed is a freelance columnist. Read more by her at http://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.com

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail

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

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

Continued electrocutions in Karachi iN spite of NePrA’s investigations and warning Karachi electric (Ke) to improve its power distribution system, deaths by electrocution continue unabated in metropolitan city of Karachi. it appears that it is beyond the capability and control of Ke to overcome the shortcomings in the fragile distribution system resulting in death of innocent lives. NePrA seems to be helpless to solve the gruesome problem being faced by Karachiites, who are living under constant threat of falling prey to this misfortune. How long it will take to ensure a reliable and safe power delivery by the powers that be? in my opinion, a reliable & safe power will remain a dream in view of the inefficient and incompetent concerned organisations.

ENgR RIAz BHuTTA Lahore

PM address at UNGA

Forever weaving a web of deception When a desirable slant is more important than the news Candid Corner Raoof hasaN “Just because something isn’t a lie does not mean that it is not deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of the truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.”

– Criss Jami

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T makes for a horrible spectacle, but the presence and creepy accentuation and amplification of an awfully contagious disease makes for a classic case to deliberate.

We are engulfed in the world of news, but there is much that needs to be debated about the phenomenon– not the substance and content if there be any, but the veracity and truthfulness of the written and the spoken word. it enacts a sordid pageant. it escapes logic to ponder why some claimants to freedom of speech would conduct themselves in a demeaning manner, either as part of the profession or as members of the society at large.

One factor that surpasses all others these days is the laborious effort that goes into weaving a conspiracy halo around every bit of news that is put across. Virtually, the onset of the day is construed a conspiracy, as is the setting of the sun. The expanse of the sky, the rising of the moon, the galaxies and the soothing light the stars exude are all part of a conspiracy stratagem for these magic wand couriers. None of this is propelled by an urge to know more and discover more. it falls within the domain of weaving pernicious conspiracies that would distort and vitiate the content and intent of every step of a fledgling effort for initiating even a semblance of improvement in things around. it is like these bands of weavers are wedded to a past rooted in crime and corruption and are not able to extricate themselves from its clutches, be that for the unending lure that its sordidness continues to generate, or as a reaction to the absence of similar gratifications in current times. There is, therefore, this deepset penchant to continue perpetuating the sickening charade that was meant solely to hoist kingdoms of crime orchestrated by their lords and masters. in the process, they have become willing partners in legitimising this mesh of deceit and deception, loot and plunder, lies and fabrication, self-righteousness and lavish indulgences, all because it suits their interests to remain embedded in a web of unending inducements. it is mind-boggling to see this disease spreading like pestilence itself.

These operators are at work every morning with their stories in the papers and every evening with dishing out trash on everyone, without a shred of rationale. it is like they are settling old scores without giving the right of defence to the ones they are assaulting. The attacks are palpably personalised with venom oozing out of every word spoken. The facial expressions are contorted which belie a personal vendetta, not a professional undertak-

ing. And when there is talk of constraining such naked and unsubstantiated attacks by allowing for recourse to law, it is construed as an infringement on the freedom of media. in the process, they forget that accountability of all, without exception, is an inherent and integral constituent of democracy. The media cannot claim immunity from this rule. As a matter of fact, and since it claims to be the fourth pillar of the state, it has to set a laudable example that others would emulate. People read the papers. They also watch television, though with considerably less frequency. They must know that the media is transparent, and not trying to hide behind any contraption to shield its rabid transgressions.

The media also sets in motion trends and narratives that others would follow in developing their ideas and understanding. if stories that are published and broadcast are not credible and not based on substantive facts, people would be infected by the germs and would nonchalantly replicate the tricks they would be exposed to.

On an average, the stuff that comes forth through the print and electronic outlets is extremely deficient in civility, learning and ethical conduct.

Agenda-stricken attacks are a hallmark of the stories in preference to unbiased critique. By all civilised yardsticks, this would be placed at the lowest rung of a measuring scale for failing to come up to the most basic denominators of what would be appropriate to be practised within the domain of professional journalism.

The comedy shows are crude and crass beyond description. The message communicated is vulgar which is built around a distortion of the characters involved, mostly about their physical characteristics. mimicking and lampooning are the essential ingredients of the narratives which are churned out, leaving the viewers lost for making out one from the other. each time, one gets away with a nauseating feeling that this is not entertainment.

With the exception of a few, the crop of people whom one sees as writers and broadcasters lacks the essential knowledge and training to make competent and proficient journalists. it is like they have been dragged from the cradles and given a computer, or placed behind or in front of the camera. They just know a few

words which they repeat with jarring and predictable monotony for advancing premeditated narratives. There was a time when a budding journalist had to go through a number of rigorous stages of learning before assuming any responsible position. Unfortunately, not anymore!

No one is perfect, and none should claim to be one. But, in a profession like journalism, one has to make the extra effort to grow beyond personal biases and prejudices. This is an essential prerequisite for becoming a credible professional. Unfortunately, one gets a feeling that media practitioners build stories around a web of their preconceived notions and priorities which, per se, are highly politicised. A desirable slant appears to be more important than the news, and an agenda-driven narrative more profitable than veracity.

And then it wants the state to foot the bill for its continued existence and growth. it has been used to receiving such gratifications in the past in the shape of the much-maligned political advertising which was meant to ingratiate the media into promoting personal narratives rather than furthering the combined interests of the people and the state.

All this is undermining the media in living up to the lofty edifice it claims for itself. To get anywhere near that mark, it needs to re-evaluate, refocus, even reboot itself. it has a key role to play in transmitting the narrative that the state adopts to step into the future. it must ensure that this is projected in its entirety, without prejudice and without associating any undignified motives to its pursuit.

Before being elevated to the stature of the fourth pillar of the state, it is imperative for the media to demonstrate that it is worthy of that position. Simultaneously, it must also construct a contemporary, vibrant and future-focussed marketing and financial model to cope in an environment free of political bribery. This has been long overdue as has been the need to delve deeper into the ethical and professional code for creating awareness and becoming a key constituent in the growth and progress of the state.

All this is undermining the media in living up to the lofty edifice it claims for itself. To get anywhere near that mark, it needs to re-evaluate, refocus, even reboot itself. It has a key role to play in transmitting the narrative that the state adopts to step into the future.

It must ensure that this is projected in its entirety, without prejudice and without associating any undignified motives to its pursuit

Raoof Hasan is a political analyst and the Executive Director of the Regional Peace Institute.

He can be reached at: raoofhasan@hotmail.com; Twitter: @RaoofHasan

Pm imran Khan made a passionate address highlighting the plight of Kashmiris and malicious islamophobia propaganda against muslims, maligning them collectively and causing numerous hardships and hate biased attacks. He pointed out collective punishment faced by innocent Kashmiris, who are confined to their homes for almost two months. Kashmiris face daily harassment, while their women are raped in the worst human rights violations. it would however be preferable if Pm should speak from a prepared text in future. if only preceding governments starting from Ayub Khan, who in 1962 chose not to heed to advice of Chinese leadership to liberate Kashmir, while indian troops were engaged in Sino indian War, in all probability it would have been resolved and people of valley saved from atrocities. Unfortunately, Kashmir has been used as a political ploy against adversaries in power politics and even by former members of the establishment. earlier in 1948 senior uniformed Pakistani officers chose to obey their British Commanding Officer, instead of obeying legitimate orders of Quaid, who as GG was competent legal authority under Government of india Act 1935. it were intrigued by ambitious remnants of British raj who delayed finalising the Constitution, against the wishes of Quaid-e-Azam, which he expressed, addressing First Constituent Assembly on 11 August 1947. The vested interests let Pakistan remain a Dominion of UK, instead of sovereign independent state until as late as 1956.

Liberation of Kashmir should have been a priority for Ziaul Haq, instead of getting this country involved in fighting a proxy war, funded by the USA, with disastrous long-term consequences for our economy, sovereignty and national security. it is time a concerted well-planned diplomatic offensive is launched utilising experienced diplomats like Ashraf J Qazi etc to secure for Kashmiris their legitimate right. We need to formulate our foreign policy keeping in view ground realities and mutual long-term benefits with countries like China, russia, Turkey, malaysia, Qatar and even iran etc, while maintaining good relations with the West.

MALIk TARIq ALI Lahore

PM’s speech at UNGA Prime minister imran khan addressed the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

This amazing speech of Pm Khan lasted for 50 minutes of him addressing the issues none of the previous leaders of Pakistan dared to raise their voices at, on the biggest platform they could be spoken of. From Global warming to islamophobia and from money laundering to exposing modi’s brutalities in Kashmir, he hit all the right cords. The speech proved to be not from a Pakistani leader but a true muslim and Global leader who cares and wants solution for these issues. The issues that Pm Khan addressed as some ‘Urgent issues’ in his speech are the issues the world need to take over soon or there will be consequences that everyone is afraid, the world is not ready to face.

Pm Khan talked about the great issue of Global warming and how the leaders that can take major steps, are not taking these issues seriously Our country is surely one of the top countries that are worstly affected by the Global warming and Khan clearly mentioned it in his remarkable and astounding speech.

The second most important issue he addressed is the spreading islamophobia especially in Western countries. Pm Khan proved to be the true ambassador of islam as he strongly contaminated the Blasphemy and sacrilege against islam and muslims. The mind set about muslims being terrorists and supporting terrorist activities has clearly denounced and despised by Pm Khan in his recent speech. Talk about clearing the misunderstandings of the World on islam, Pm Khan surely left no block in building a wall to protect the muslims from these misconceptions.

From catcalling the western world in the hypocrisy in money laundering cases, and supporting the elites from poorer countries by providing them access to properties and ways to provide a home for hiding their black money, Pm Khan’s speech escalated to the Genocide of innocent people of Kashmir. He strongly pointed out the brutality and barbarism of modi government on indian occupied Kashmir. Khan also stated the fact that the whole world is refusing to accept that this is an act against humanity.

This is violation of human rights and the UN is responsible to do something about it as they gave the right of self-determination to the Kashmiris. The consequences of a nuclear war, that is bound to happen if india continues this barbarity , will not only be faced

by Pakistan and india but the whole world will have to face these consequences.Pm Khan boldly and fearlessly stated that despite being 70% small population and territory wise, we will not hesitate to fight till the last drop of our blood and our last breaths. We hope this heroic and bold speech on the forum of United Nations brings positive results and immediate initiatives would be taken by the United Nations and the world against these global issues.

ERAJ SALEEM karachi

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

10 FOREIGN NEWS

StrIfe-torn Hong Kong mArKS fIve yeArS SInce 'UmbrellA' proteStS CENTRAL

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Agencies

ENS of thousands of Hong Kongers gathered Saturday night to mark the fifth anniversary of the “Umbrella Movement”, the failed pro-democracy campaign that laid the groundwork for the massive protests currently engulfing the finance hub.

Huge crowds chanting slogans and singing protest songs crammed into a park outside the city’s parliament, the same site that was the epicentre of the 2014 protests. Hundreds later spilled out onto a main road outside the city’s government offices.

The Umbrella Movement exploded when huge crowds came out after police fired tear gas at a student-led rally which had taken over the same highway — and was named after the ubiquitous tool people used to defend themselves from police. Both 2014’s protests and the current demonstrations were fuelled by fears that Beijing is eroding freedoms in the semiautonomous Chinese city and frustrations over the lack of direct elections.

But the character of the protests has noticeably hardened in the intervening years. Compared to the current strife — where street battles have erupted for 16 consecutive weeks — 2014’s protests were softer, with students completing classwork in the camps, recycling their waste, and the police largely avoiding direct conflict during the 79-day occupation of three key intersections.

This summer’s pro-democracy protests have had a distinctly more existential feel, with hardcore activists throwing Molotovs and bricks, police using tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon and Beijing issuing increasingly shrill warnings.

PEACEFUL ACHIEVED NOTHING : “I think people have prepared for a longterm fight, it is not easy to gain democracy from Chinese Communist Party,” a 29-year-old engineer, who gave her surname Yuan, told AFP. She said she had largely sat out the 2014 protests but felt compelled to join the streets this summer, especially after police were accused of responding too slowly to a gang of Beijing supporters who attacked protesters in late July.

“Police behaviour is a major catalyst

for people coming out,” she said.

Many of those attending Saturday’s rally defended the use of violence by more hardcore activists and spoke wistfully about the more festive atmosphere that characterised the Umbrella Movement. But they said Beijing’s refusal to grant democracy — coupled with the ongoing erosion of freedoms — had hardened their resolve.

“If Hong Kong people could have achieved our demands with peaceful, rational and non-violent action, then of course we would not have needed to use more radical approaches,” a 20-year-old student, who gave her surname as Chan, told AFP. “Looking back at the peaceful umbrella movement, there was no achievement at all.” The Umbrella Movement introduced a whole new generation of Hong Kongers to direct action.

Earlier Saturday, Joshua Wong, a prominent former student leader who served a short jail sentence for his role in organising the 2014 protests, announced that he would stand in upcoming district council elections. He recently returned from the United States where he testified before a Congressional committee about

eroding freedoms in Hong Kong, infuriating Beijing.

This summer’s protests were ignited by a now-scrapped plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland.

But they have snowballed into a wider movement calling for democratic rights and police accountability after Beijing and the city’s leader Carrie Lam took a hard line. Activists are planning to ramp up their protests in the coming days.

Beijing is preparing a huge military parade on Tuesday to mark 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, revelling in its transformation into a global superpower.

But democracy protesters are determined to take the shine off the festivities.

Rallies are planned for Sunday to mark a Global Anti-Totalitarianism Day, with solidarity events planned around the world in Taipei, Paris, Berlin, New York, London and Vancouver.

British tanker docks in Dubai after detention by Iran DUBAI/STOCKHOLM Agencies

A British-flagged tanker that was detained by Iran for 10 weeks, docked in Dubai on Saturday, after a standoff that has stoked tensions along a vital global shipping route for oil.

The Stena Impero, which sailed out of Iranian waters on Friday, was seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on July 19, shortly after British forces detained an Iranian tanker off the territory of Gibraltar. The Iranian ship was re-

leased in August.

The Stena Impero docked at Dubai’s Port Rashid, a Reuters photographer reported from the harbor.

Erik Hanell, the chief executive of Sweden’s Stena Bulk, which owns the ship, told Reuters in Stockholm in a text message earlier in the day that the tanker was “finally approaching berth in Dubai.”

Stena Bulk said the crew would receive medical checks and would be de-briefed in Dubai, which lies across the Gulf from Iran, before traveling home to their families. Seven of the 23 crew were freed earlier this month.

The crew who were still on the vessel came from India, Russia and the Philippines, a Stena Bulk spokesman said before the ship had

Students are planning a class boycott on Monday while online messaging boards used to organise the largely leaderless protests have filled with calls to disrupt celebrations of the People’s Republic’s 70th anniversary.

Police have banned a proposed march for Tuesday. Previous bans have been widely ignored and soon descended into violence. The government scrapped plans to hold a traditional firework display to mark the anniversary and have moved a flag-raising ceremony indoors, citing security concerns.

Among the demands being made by protesters is an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the 1,500 people arrested and universal suffrage.

But Beijing and local leader Carrie Lam have repeatedly dismissed those demands. Earlier this week a top Chinese envoy in the city described them as “political blackmail”.

Zarif can visit sick colleague after Iran frees American: US

docked.

“The crew are in high spirits, understandably. They will be checked by medical professionals once ashore, but the captain has informed us all are in good health,” he said.

The seizure of the vessel, which the Iranian authorities said was for marine violations, followed attacks on other merchant tankers in Gulf waters in May and June. The United States blamed those attacks on Iran, which Tehran denied.

Relations between Iran and the United States and its allies have deteriorated since Washington withdrew last year from a global agreement to rein in Tehran’s nuclear work and imposed sanctions aimed at shutting down Iranian oil exports.

Moment of truth coming for Brexit with time running out, EU and Britain say BRUSSELS/LONDON Agencies

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned on Friday that time was running out for Britain and the European Union to hammer out a divorce deal with the British Brexit minister also saying the moment of truth was approaching.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed Britain will leave the EU on Oct. 31 whether or not a deal has been agreed with the bloc, and while both sides say they are keen to reach an agreement, there is little sign of the deadlock being broken. Johnson’s opponents say leaving the EU without a deal to keep most of its trading arrangements in place would plunge Britain into economic chaos. The government says it has made preparations to avoid serious disruption.

The EU agreed a withdrawal package with former Prime Minister Theresa May but this was rejected three times by the British parliament over the “Irish backstop” – an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

After a meeting with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels, Ireland’s Coveney said negotiations had to be on the basis of a “serious proposal” from the British on how they would replace the backstop.

“That hasn’t happened yet and until there is a serious proposal in writing … then the gaps that are wide at the moment will remain.

And time is running out,” he told reporters.

Barnier said the bloc was firmly united on insisting on a legally operative fix for the Irish border issue, saying it needed to

avoid a hard border and protect the integrity of the EU’s single market.

“The onus is on the British prime minister and his team,” Coveney said, adding that Ireland was open to extending the Brexit departure date. “An extension is preferable to no deal,” he said.

Britain is due to present concrete legal texts on their Brexit plans next week after the Conservative Party conference.

This month, British lawmakers forced through a law which compels Johnson to seek an extension to Brexit unless he has agreed a new deal with the EU by Oct. 19

or got parliament’s approval to leave without an agreement, an outcome a majority of lawmakers and many businesses believe would be calamitous.

Johnson has repeatedly said he would abide by the law, which he has dubbed the “surrender act”, but Britain would definitely leave on Oct. 31, without explaining the apparent contradiction.

“We will obey the law, but we’re confident we can come out on Oct. 31 and the best way to do that is to get a deal,” Johnson told reporters on Friday.

“That’s why the surrender act is so damaging,” he added. “It has had the effect with our European friends making them think: ‘maybe parliament can block this thing, maybe they will be forced to extend.’ If you’re in a negotiation that obviously makes it more difficult.”

Britain’s Brexit minister Stephen Barclay also met Barnier on Friday and said there was a long way to go until they reached a deal.

“I think we are coming to the moment of truth in these negotiations,” Barclay said in a television interview, repeating the message that the backstop had to go but a deal could be struck with good will on both sides.

UNITED NATIONS: The United States said Friday that Iran’s foreign minister can visit the country’s ailing U.N. ambassador at a New York hospital only if Tehran releases an American citizen, diplomats and the U.S. State Department said. Mohammad Javad Zarif, who is in New York for the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders, had hoped to visit Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi as he is being treated for cancer and requested permission from the State Department, diplomats at the United Nations said. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue has not been made public.

The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on Zarif that severely limit where he can go in New York City. The State Department confirmed Friday that the Iranian foreign minister wants to visit “a colleague who is in the hospital receiving world class care.” “Iran has wrongfully detained several U.S. citizens for years, to the pain of their families and friends they cannot freely visit,” the State Department said. “We have relayed to the Iranian Mission that the travel request will be granted if Iran releases a U.S. citizen.” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that it’s America’s turn to release an Iranian citizen. Asked Thursday about Americans imprisoned in Iran and Iranians imprisoned in the United States, he noted that the Trump administration had said that if at least one American was freed by Iran, then Washington would reciprocate. Rouhani cited the June release of Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese and permanent U.S. resident detained in 2015 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on accusations of spying for the United States. “They only thanked Iran,” Rouhani said. “The ball stands in America’s court.” Agencies

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

BUSINESS 11

Constitution of sECP adjudiCation division aPProvEd ISLAMABAD

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APP

HE Securities and Exchange Policy Board on Saturday approved the setting up of a 'centralised adjudication division' in the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

“Instead of the following the existing practice of adjudication being carried out separately by various departments/divisions within the commission, this division will work as a

quasi-judicial arm of the commission that will be responsible for its entire adjudication work pertaining to regulated entities and persons,” a statement issued by the commission read.

“The centralisation of adjudication will likely enhance the effectiveness of the commission, ensure fair and consistent decisions, and minimise the risk of arbitrariness in the discharge of its judicial function.”

The meeting, held under the chair of SECP Chairman Professor Khalid Mirza, also took up the matter of SRO 1048 (I)

dated September 11, 2019, requiring companies to file a tax compliance certificate. The board considered this order to be ultra vires and beyond the jurisdiction of the SECP, directing the commission to take steps for its withdrawal after taking legal advice.

Among other decisions, SECP's financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2019, were also approved. The commission's annual report will be finalised after a thorough review by the board members.

The board took note of the following

and gave appropriate directions to the commission seeking to rectify the situation: Unwarranted, and possibly illegal, intervention by outside forces and harassment as well intimidation by staff which had debilitated the commission; withdrawal of cases wrongfully referred to law enforcement agencies; and repatriation of staff seconded to these agencies as directed by the policy board.

The board also pointed out several stock-related governance issues that need to be redressed. The commission needs to objectively determine –

through a departmental inquiry – the factual position regarding the charges being faced by certain staff members that had been implicated, or were likely to be implicated, in legal cases; and if so deemed appropriate/necessary for the commission to stand up and defend these staff members in all forums.

The policy board, in pursuance of Section 12 of the Act 1997, comprises ex-officio members of the ministries of finance, commerce and law, State Bank of Pakistan, SECP and members of the private sector.

Launch of Facebook's Libra could be Sports goods’ exports drop 5.9pc to $52.6m delayed over regulatory concerns GENEVA AGENCIES

The launch of Facebook’s Libra could be pushed back to tackle the regulatory concerns that have been raised around the world, the head of the organisation set up to oversee the cryptocurrency told Reuters.

Three months ago, Facebook announced plans to launch the digital currency in June 2020, in partnership with other members of the Libra Association set up by the U.S. tech giant to manage the project.

However the attempt to drag cryptocurrencies into the mainstream has since met with regulatory and political skepticism globally, with France and Germany pledging to block Libra from operating in Europe.

Bertrand Perez, managing director of the Geneva-based Libra Association, said discussions were continuing with regulators from Europe and elsewhere to assuage concerns.

“When we (made) the announcement in June, that was our North Star,” Perez said of the June 2020 launch date, adding that a delay of one or two quarters would not be an issue.

“What is important is that we need to comply with the regulators and we

need to make sure that they are on board with us and fully comfortable with our solutions.”

“We knew that we would have to answer lots of questions coming from regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, and from other parts of the world,” he added in an interview at the United Nations offices in Geneva.

Libra, announced as Facebook expands into e-commerce, will be backed by a reserve of real-world assets, including bank deposits and short-term government securities, and overseen by the 28-member association.

The structure is intended to foster trust and stabilize the price volatility that plagues cryptocurrencies and ren-

ders them impractical for commerce and payments.

Last week David Marcus, the executive leading the project at Facebook, said the company still aimed to launch the digital currency in 2020.

“The goal is still to launch Libra next year,” he told Swiss newspaper NZZ. “Until then, we’ll need to address all questions adequately, create a suitable regulatory environment.”

The association has thus far taken a backseat to Facebook in visibility on the project, but Perez stressed it was independent of the social media giant, which will have an equal vote as other members in the association’s decision-making.

Other members of the association include Vodafone, PayPal, Mastercard and Visa, and the group plans to bring more members on board in the near future, which it expects to include banks.

“It’s known this project was incubated at Facebook and started at Facebook, but at an early stage, there was a decision that this should be a public good not controlled by a single entity,” added Perez, a senior director of payments engineering for PayPal before starting at Libra this May. “The Libra Association is clearly an association and not a subsidiary of Facebook.”

ISLAMABAD APP

The export of sports goods from the country witnessed a decline of 5.93pc during the first two months of the current financial year (JulyAugust FY2019-20) as compared to the corresponding period of last year, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

The country exported sports goods worth $52.603 million during July-August 2019-20, as against the trade of $55.919 million during July-August 2018-19.

A significant fall of 35.55pc was witnessed in the export of gloves (from $23.151 million last year to $14.921 million in the period under review).

However, the export of footballs increased by 14.94pc in the first two months of FY20 (from $25.040 million last year to $28.781 million), while the exports of all other sports products went up from $7.728 million to $8.901 million, witnessing an upward growth of 15.18pc.

Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, the export of sports products increased by 8.16pc to $27.878 million in August 2019, when com-

pared with the export of $25.775 million in August 2018.

During the month under review, the export of gloves decreased by 2.53pc, whereas that of footballs and other sports products increased by 11.26pc and 18.83pc respectively.

On a month-on-month basis, the export of sports products increased by 12.75pc in August 2019, when compared with the exports of $24.725 million in July 2019.

During the month under review, the export of footballs, gloves and other sports products went up by 8.63pc, 12.55pc and 27.65pc respectively.

It is pertinent to mention that the trade deficit during the first the two months of the current fiscal year dipped by 35.86pc as compared to the corresponding period of last year.

The trade deficit during July-August 2019-20 was recorded at $3.924 billion as against the deficit of $6.118 million in July-August 2018-19.

During the period under review, the exports from the country increased by 2.79pc, from $3.651 million last year to $3.753 million.

On the other hand, the imports witnessed a negative growth of 21.41pc, from $9.769 million last year to $7.677 million.

Suki Kinari Hydropower Project to further add to CPEC's glory 'UPON COMPLETION, THE PROJECT WILL ADD 884 MEGAWATTS OF ELECTRICITY TO THE NATIONAL GRID' ISLAMABAD MIAN ABRAR

Suki Kinari Hydro (Pvt) Ltd Chairman Zhang Shiyun has said that construction work on the Suki Kinari Hydropower Project has been expedited to ensure its early completion.

The Suki Kinari Hydropower Project is a run-of-the-river project which is being established alongside the Kunhar River in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is also one of Pakistan’s largest private sector power development projects and is being constructed as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’s “Early Harvest” projects.

Initial work regarding power generation at the Kunhar River was started in the 1960s, but little groundwork was carried.

It was only in 2016 that the project was realised after the KP government signed an agreement with SK Hydro Power Ltd and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to build a dam at the site.

The total cost of the project is $1.9 billion and it is being developed on the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model – which implies that the China Gezhouba Group Corporation (CGGC) would operate it for 30 years after which the project would be transferred to the KP government. In an exclusive interview

with Pakistan Today, Zhang said that around 41.85pc construction work has been completed.

“Despite some initial hitches, the project is developing at a faster rate than before. In some areas, we are months ahead of schedule. Earlier, issues such as land acquisition were proving to be a hurdle but now they have been resolved successfully,” said the SK Hydro Ltd chairman, adding that laws governing land acquisition in Pakistan needed to be changed so that foreign investment could be increased in the country.

“The KP law governing land accusation prohibits the cutting down of trees so that presented us with a bit of a problem, since the project is being developed on forest area. However, the unwavering support of the provincial government has allowed us to overcome this impediment,” Zhang Shiyun said while expressing his gratitude to the KP provincial assembly which approved a special resolution allowing his company to acquire forest land and clear it of trees.

“We are positive that the project would be completed at the scheduled time of December 31, 2022. We have full support of the local and provincial governments. District Commissioners have been very cooperative and have offered us un-

conditional support,” said Zhang.

Asked about the installed capacity of Suki Kinari Hydropower Project, the company’s chairman said that once completed, the project would add 884 megawatts to the national grid. He said that all four units would become fully operational by 2022.

In answer to what the cost of electricity produced at Suki Kinari would be, Zhang said, “We expect each unit to cost 8.8 cents,” adding that around 4,000 labourers were employed at the

project which would increase to 6,000 as the project nears completion.“Our project has brought employment to thousands of locals. If you take into account the direct and indirect beneficiaries of the project, the number would grow beyond 10,000,” he added.

Zhang also pointed out that the project had benefitted local businesses by helping increase the production of cement, reinforcements, aggregate, diesel, explosive etc.

Talking in regard to Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR) services, Zhang Shiyun said that his company spends at least Rs20 million each year for the benefit of the local population.

“Under CSR, CGGC has constructed seven bridges on Kunhar River from Nalan to Paras; these bridges would be handed over for community service after the project becomes operational,” he said.

“In addition, our [Chinese] staff visits various communities and school events every year and also cleans up parks, schools, and other community locations.”

He said the CGGC holds Sino-Pakistan friendship in very high regard and makes it a point to impart Chinese values and culture to local youth. In addition, we are also teaching Chinese language to local students,” he added.

In comparison to the SK Hydro Project, Zhang said that the Neelum-Jhelum Power Project – which was also developed by his company – faced some serious issues before his company took the project over.

“In order to complete the project, the CGGC mobilised resources from all over China to get the [Neelum-Jhelum] project completed on time. This reflects my company’s ability to overcome challenges.

Likewise, we also faced numerous challenges at Suki Kinari but were quick to exert extra effort which has helped in construction work picking pace.”

“We will get the project completed on schedule in line with our company’s record and reputation,” Zhang Shiyun concluded.

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

12 BUSINESS Spillover: world economies' next big headache LONDON AGENCIES

Factories have been the first victims of the Trump-era global trade rows. Now the question is how much their troubles will spread to other parts of the world’s biggest economies: the so-called spillover effect.

This week’s read-out from German purchasing managers showed an unexpected worsening of the recession in the manufacturing sector of Europe’s largest economy. But just as alarming was news that growth in services – by far the largest contributor to German output – was also losing momentum. A slew of data on Monday should give more insight into how much of a knock-on effect the manufacturing slump is having for the average German on the street, with retail sales figures due for August and jobless and inflation data for September. Then on Wednesday, top economic institutes are scheduled to update their growth forecasts for the German economy for this year and next. With a possible no-deal Brexit and the risk of higher US tariffs on automobile imports from Europe, it could be pretty grim. Spillover from the US-China trade war was cited by Moody’s this week as a risk for Asian economies and is being watched closely by US policymakers. For next week, their focus will be on just how badly US industry is being hit. Some officials worry that the US manufacturing sector may already be in recession. St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard – one of the Fed’s leading policy doves – raised that concern as part of his argument for a half percentage point rate cut at the bank’s meeting in mid-September, twice what the Fed delivered. Next week has the ISM manufacturing index for September due on Tuesday and factory employment figures out on Friday as part of the nonfarm payrolls report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Early estimates from Wall Street economists point to a modest rebound for ISM and some negligible factory job gains. Factory orders for August are then due on Thursday. So far, there are signs that economies on both sides of the Atlantic are just about containing the fallout. In the United States, consumer spending in the second quarter grew 4.6pc, while sentiment is actually improving in euro zone services.

WHAT TO WATCH ELSEWHERE: Chinese manufacturing PMI for September due on Monday is expected to remain on hold notwithstanding the trade tensions with the United States. Away from the vexed Brexit debate, there is also a big data day in the UK on Monday with revised second quarter GDP figures – including current account deficit and business investment – as well as Bank of England consumer credit and mortgage approvals numbers. Among those banks with rate-setting meetings are those of India (Friday) and Australia (Tuesday). For now, the jury is out on whether they will follow the easing trend being set by the Fed, the ECB and others.

A LAST THOUGHT: Climate change and its link to the economy made headlines at the United Nations gathering this week, with companies such as online retailer Amazon announcing plans to go carbon-neutral by 2040 and teenage campaigner Greta Thunberg slamming the “fairy tale” of never-ending economic growth.

That last thought is taboo in traditional economics, which holds that growth measured in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is always desirable and is a proxy for a rise in general well-being.

BusinEssmEn lamEnt PowEr tariff hikE, sEEk immEdiatE withdrawal ICCI PRESIDENT URGES GOVT TO REDUCE ITS RELIANCE ON FOSSIL FUELS AND EXPLOIT UNTAPPED HYDRO ENERGY SOURCES FOR POWER GENERATION ISLAMABAD

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INP

XPRESSING grave concerns over continuous hikes in power tariff, the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has said that the cost of doing business in Pakistan was already very high and in these circumstances, any further hike in power tariff would have harmful consequences on the growth of business and economic activities in the country.

In a statement issued on Saturday, ICCI President Ahmed Hassan Moughal noted that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has allowed a 54 paisa per unit increase in the power tariff in order to generate additional revenue of Rs54 billion.

"This is an unfavourable deci-

sion as it will further enhance the cost of doing business, increase inflation and affect the growth of business and industrial activities," he maintained.

He urged the government to immediately withdraw the NEPRA's move so as to save the businesses and economy from further troubles.

The ICCI president said that Pakistan's heavy reliance on fossil fuels for energy generation was the main cause behind high cost of doing business."Hydroelectricity is the cheapest source of energy and the government should take all possible measures to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and exploit untapped hydro energy sources for power generation," he added.

Meanwhile, ICCI Senior Vice President Rafat Farid and Vice President Iftikhar Anwar Sethi ICCI urged the government to reduce duties and

taxes on renewable energy-related equipment in order to make this source easily accessible for people.

They said that the energy generated through fossil fuels was not only very costly but was also polluting the environment.

The ICCI officials said that transition from conventional to renewable energy sources would enable the country to avoid repeated hikes in power tariffs and provide cheap energy to businesses.

It is pertinent to mention that Energy Minister Omar Ayub Khan, while addressing the LNG ProducerConsumer Conference in Tokyo earlier this week, had highlighted “immense investment potential in Pakistan’s energy sector”, saying that the government would extend maximum facilities to investors in diverse fields within the country.

“At present, Pakistan has installed 1,400-megawatt renewable energy capacity, which we target to increase up to 18,000MW by 2030,” he had maintained.

Govt releases Rs275.6m for Revenue Division projects ISLAMABAD APP

The government has released Rs275.639 million for various ongoing and new projects of the Revenue Division under the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for the current fiscal year (FY2019-20).

The government, in its federal PSDP, had earmarked Rs1.918 billion for the Revenue Division projects with a foreign exchange component of Rs250 million, according to data released by the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform.

Out of the total releases, an amount of Rs76 million was released for the development of an In-

tegrated Transit Trade Management System (ITTMS). The total allocated amount of for this project was Rs480 million, including foreign aid of Rs100 million.

Similarly, the government released Rs65 million, out of the total allocations of Rs325 million, for the construction of a regional tax office (RTO) in Islamabad.

An amount of Rs56.350 million was released for the establishment of inland revenue offices across the country. The total amount allocated for this purpose was Rs331.770 million under PSDP 2019-20.

Meanwhile, the government had released Rs30 million for the construction of a Model Customs Collectorate at Gwadar, out of its total

allocation of Rs200 million.

Likewise, an amount of Rs7.317 million was released for the construction of inland revenue's office building (Jhang Zone), out of its total allocation of Rs36.585 million.

The government also released Rs5.5 million for the construction of additional office block for Model Customs Collectorate at Hyderabad, out of its total allocations of Rs26.5 million; Rs5.210 million for the construction of inland revenue's zonal office (Mansehra), out of its total allocation of Rs26.050 million; whereas an amount of Rs4.976 million was released for the construction of a regional tax office in DI Khan, out of its allocations of Rs24.88 million.

Rice exports surge 48.6pc in two months FY20 ISLAMABAD APP

Rice exports from the country during the first two months of the current financial year (FY20) surged by 48.64pc as compared the corresponding period of last year.

About 590,053 metric tonnes of rice, worth $322.836 million, were exported in JulyAugust 2019, as compared to 399,633 metric tonnes of rice, worth of $223.918 million, exported during the same months of 2018, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. During the period under review, the country earned $135.249 million by exporting about 148,772 metric tonnes of basmati rice, as compared to 99,287 metric tonnes of basmati rice, worth $101.851 million, exported during the same period last year, an increase of 32.79pc.

The export of 'other' rice grew by 61.87pc, as about 441,281 metric tonnes of rice other than basmati rice, valued at $197.587 metric tonnes, were exported, when compared with 300,346 metric tonnes of rice, worth $122.067 million, exported during the same period last year. In the first two months of FY20, 16,652 metric tonnes of fish and fish preparations, worth $36 million, were exported, besides 13,150 metric tonnes of meat and meat products, worth $48.174 million. It is pertinent to mention that the food group exports from the country during the period under review grew by 14.27pc as food commodities worth $650.257 million were exported in July-Aug 2019, as compared to $569.039 million earned through the same in the corresponding period of last year.

Advertising execs point to five ways Google stifles business SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK US authorities investigating Alphabet Inc’s Google for anticompetitive behaviour have recently begun probing the company’s $116 billion-a-year advertising business.

Attorneys general for 50 US states and territories along with the US Department of Justice appear to be acting on accusations from rivals, lawmakers and consumer advocacy groups that the biggest seller of online ads engages in unfair tactics. Google disputes its dominance.

“Ad tech is a very crowded field, and Google competes with hundreds of companies, including household names like Adobe, Amazon, AT&T, Comcast, News Corp and Verizon,” company spokesman Josh Zeitz said.

“Publishers and advertisers mix and match technology partners to meet their different needs, creating both competition and innovation.”

In response to that story, Google reiterated in a blog post here that its services foster competition.

“Our tools and platforms make it easy for advertisers and publishers of all sizes to choose whom they want to work with in this open, interconnected ad system,” Google Vice President Sissie Hsiao wrote.

Here are five common concerns about Google raised by 10 ad industry executives, most speaking on the condition of anonymity.

SEARCH AND YOUTUBE: About 80pc of Google’s ad revenue and most of its profits come from ads within Google search results, YouTube, Gmail and other internet services the company owns. Rivals say that Google controls these properties in a way that hinders advertising competition.

For instance, the only technology system for buying ads on YouTube, the world’s largest video streaming website, is Google’s ad buying tool. Services such as Facebook Inc (FB.O) maintain similar control, in part to limit too widely sharing users’ data. But as YouTube increasingly dominates online video, rival tools for placing ads in video streams become less attractive to advertisers because they can only access smaller audiences.

“It’s incredibly difficult to compete with the monopoly search and video sites,” said Brian O’Kelley, founder and former CEO of ad tech company AppNexus, in an interview in June.

ACQUISITIONS: The remaining 20pc of Google’s ad revenue is from what is commonly referred to as its “display business.” Google boosted this operation by acquiring seller tools

such as DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2008 and AdMob for $750 million in 2010 and then buyer services including Invite Media for a reported $81 million in 2010.

The combination of deals gave Google unprecedented positioning in every facet of how ads end up on websites and smartphone apps around the world. Though U.S. regulators approved the deals, their worst-case predictions about Google being too powerful have come true, rivals say.

To poach big customers from Google, smaller firms say they would need the cash to diversify their businesses and develop a complete suite of services. But drawing investment has been challenging because of the looming threats of Google and increased data privacy regulation.

BUNDLING: Google’s variety of ad tools enable it to bundle them in a way that rivals say they cannot afford to match. For instance, websites and app owners, together known as publishers, over the years have become reliant on Google’s DoubleClick ad serving tool. Nearly free to use for publishers, it is the only system of its kind that can receive real-time bids from Google’s ads marketplace, known in the industry as AdX. The popular marketplace, which

matches up ad buyers with publishers, is where Google collects high fees.

Rivals said when using the Google ad-buying tool, advertisers get some key consumer data for free, early access to some purchasing options and potentially additional benefits if transacting through AdX. Google’s packages for buyers and sellers to boost use of AdX are viewed as anticompetitive by rivals.

“The ubiquity of Google’s ad server provides virtually total control over which ads are shown and monetized for the majority of the Internet,” said Romain Job, chief strategy officer at competitor Smart AdServer. “This control of the ad server is strategically critical to Google.”

LAST LOOK: Google has allowed publishers using DoubleClick to sell ad space on various marketplaces, not just AdX. But for many years, Google’s AdX widely held a special advantage: At the last second it could give its customers the opportunity to outbid competing advertisers trying to purchase through other, nonGoogle, marketplaces.

This “last look” was one of several ways rivals allege Google favoured itself. Google last week announced that the elimination of “last look” as part of move to a new sales system.

But publishers and rivals still won-

der whether Google may be using its vantage point over the whole ecosystem to keep prices down for advertisers and make itself outperform other marketplaces by analysing their matchmaking strategies and copying them.

Among specific concerns is that just being part of Google enables AdX to glean more information than rival exchanges about consumers, making AdX more attractive to advertisers.

CHROME: The newest area of concern is how Google may be using its Chrome internet browser, which has about 50% market share in the United States, to restrict most advertising systems, beside its own, from building profiles on consumers as they browse the web.

The restrictions, many of which remain proposals subject to change, largely spare Google because consumers often sign into their Google accounts when using Chrome. That enables a form of tracking that it is not possible for ad tech firms that do not offer any services directly to users.

Google has said its initiative is aimed at helping users curb tracking, as they demand greater privacy protections.

Other browser makers have adopted more stringent restrictions, but Google has said its striving for a middle ground between violating users’ privacy and violating antitrust rules.

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Sunday, 29 September, 2019

If no one saw donkey meat being served, was donkey meat served?

I

thE tubE

T turned out to be misleading, the news about the two brothers in Lahore apprehended for having an inexplicably large number of frogs with them. At 185 kgs, this haul definitely crossed the benchmark for what the drug enforcement community calls ‘intent to sell.’

The news wasn’t false, since the brothers actually were arrested. But it turned out that they were going to sell them, not to restaurants (to make chicken nuggets, some of the local Lahori television channels screamed) but to a laboratory on Akbari Road which, in turn, was going to sell them to medical colleges for the students to practice sutures on. In fact, the very reason that the police had arrested them in the first place was because they suspected that the particular species of frogs was endangered.

Both mainstream and social media had a field day with the news story, of course. Cities from across the nation got to make some of the same jokes at the Lahoris’ expense. Specially since this news item comes a couple of years after the whole donkey meat fiasco from the Ayesha Mumtaz era of the Punjab food Authority.

A video now viral in the WhatsApp Pashtuniverse titled Lahore Hotel is entirely in

Pashto, barring one Urdu couplet, synced over footage of Kermit the frog. “Humein toh Lahorion ne pakrra, kisi aur mein kahan dum tha,” he says. “Burger mein iss liye daala mujhe, inn ke paas chicken kum tha.”

Of course, no one cracked more jokes on the news item than the irrepressible residents of the city themselves, known for their trademark sense of humour.

we’re suffering from what statisticians call selection bias? What if we see more instances of filthy practices in the food and hospitality industry in Lahore, because it is the only city that has a somewhat functioning food standards body? ********

Karachiites having a laugh at the expense of the Lahoris should take caution. If they keep bemoaning how ******** their city doesn’t have a properly functioning set of local bureaucracies The joke, of course, just might be in general, how exactly are they on the rest of the country. What if expecting their food safety apparatus to keep a check on errant practices?

Odds are that things are just as bad, if not worse, in the rest of the country.

A friend speaks of a fabulously successful multibranch restaurant in his home district of Okara. These joints specialise in paaye. The Deputy Commissioner’s office, right from the days of the Raj (maybe even the Company) has a list of all the heads of the cattle in the district. Now each animal can only have four hooves. The sales of the restaurant would vastly outstrip what is on record.

Donkey meat, he strongly suspects, is what is being relished at these joints. (He’d still go there, he clarifies with admirable honesty, but would rather not know what goes into Courtesy Wikipedia his favourite dish.)

******** Selection bias can occur in a wide manner of ways. Consider the famous case of the aircraft analysis that the American Center for Naval Analyses.

The centre had conducted a study of the damage done to aircraft that had returned from missions, and has recommended, intuitively, that additional armour should be added to those parts of the plane that had suffered the most damage. But it was Hungarian mathematician Abraham Wald who pointed out that the sample that the study was observing consisted of aircraft that had survived their missions. Those planes that had been shot down were obviously not a part of the study. The damage in the planes of the sample could also be interpreted as damage that a plane could take, so to speak. He proposed that the Navy apply the armour to those areas that were relatively unscathed.

He later turned out to be right.

The same could also be argued for other cases that are highlighted in the media. Consider, for instance, the

rampant instances of paedophilia in Kasur. Now there is something to be said for the other explanations for the increase in crime in small cities that surround huge, thriving ones (Lahore, in this case, whose peripheral towns of Kasur, Sheikhupura and others have serious law and order problems.)

But the matter could also be merely that of path dependency. After the stellar reporting of Ashraf Javed at the Nation, other news media outfits saw that there was perhaps a trend of such heinous crimes the border down. And there just might be, but it would be wise to cast a glance at such problems in other cities as well. ******** Selection bias also turns up in matters of the heart. As the Greatest Poet Who Ever Walked The Earth said, un ke dekhe se jo aa jaatī hai muñh par raunaq vo samajhte haiñ ki bīmār kā haal achchhā hai g

Ian McEwan’s PolItIcal satIrE ‘thE cockroach’ offErs a rEvErsal of kafka The New York Times By dWight garner

The Cockroach

By Ian McEwan 99 pages. Anchor Books. $11.

“I

f you intend to have a long career in show business,” Elvis Costello wrote in “Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink,” his terrific memoir, “it is necessary to drive people away from time to time, so they can remember why they miss you.”

It’s been difficult to miss Ian McEwan. “The Cockroach,” his satirical new Brexit novella, is his second book this year and his third in three years. “The Cockroach” is so toothless and wan that it may drive his readers away in long apocalyptic caravans. The young McEwan, the author of blacker-than-black little novels, the man who acquired the nickname “Ian Macabre,” would rather have gnawed off his own fingers than written it. At dark political and social moments, we need better, rougher magic than this.

“The Cockroach” proposes a reverse-Kafka: A cockroach wakes in the body of a man. This man, it happens, is the prime minister of the United Kingdom. His cabinet: They’re mostly cockroaches in human form, too. So, probably, is the president of the United States, a Twitter-addled vulgarian. (Wasn’t this all in an episode of “Black

Mirror”?) These insects are here to sow human discord, under the guise of patriotism and phrases like “blood and soil” and the notion of making things great again, to ensure their own survival in the resulting rubble.

McEwan is hardly a dummy; he derives more than a few witty-ish moments from his premise. The best arrive early. Our antihero begins to understand that “by a grotesque reversal his vulnerable flesh now lay outside his skeleton.” The tongue inside his mouth, “a slab of slippery meat,” is revolting to him.

The prime minister recalls, in his previous form, encountering “a small mountain of dung, still warm and faintly steaming. Any other time, he would have rejoiced. He regarded himself as something of a connoisseur. He knew how to live well.” The rest of this passage (“Who could mistake that nutty aroma, with hints of petroleum, banana skin and saddle soap”) would belong, were McEwan a United States citizen, in an alternative version of “Best American food Writing.”

Our human cockroach once lived beneath the Palace of Westminster, the meeting place of the House of Commons and the House of Lords, so he’s used to hearing Prime Minister’s Questions, that excellent English tradition. He recalls “the opposition leader’s shouted questions, the brilliant non sequitur replies, the festive jeers and clever imitations of sheep.”

Once McEwan has established

his premise, however, “The Cockroach” stalls. It devolves into self-satisfied, fish-in-barrel commentary about topics like Twitter and the tabloid press. The literary references (a boat involved in an international incident is called the Larkin) are plummy and tortured. By the end, homilies have arrived: “It is not easy to be Homo sapiens sapiens.

Their desires are so often in contention with their intelligence.”

The sense one gets is of a driver with his hands at the 10 o’clock and two o’clock positions on the steering wheel, with his hazard lights flashing. The best satire makes you fear for your safety and perhaps your soul. Here the trip feels safe, sanitised, buckled-in.

The political antagonists in “The Cockroach” are not Leavers and Remainers, as they are in the Brexit drama, but Clockwisers and Reversalists. The Clockwisers are the elites, if by that term we mean people who care about reason and science and moderation and the cultural reporting in The Guardian.

The Reversalists are lusty populists, yobs with bodacious slogans.

At issue is not Brexit but a programme called “reverse-flow economics” that would put England at odds with a) sanity and b) its European allies. It is possible to imagine Eric Idle or Michael Palin, in a Monty Python sketch, as a squeaky-voiced bureaucrat explaining Reversalism to a street sweeper. Since it is difficult to

suggest a squeaky Eric Idle voice in print, I will spare you the details of Reversalism except to say that its proponents argue, “If you loved your country and its people, you should upend the existing order.”

The German chancellor hears this scheme, closes her eyes and through an interpreter asks, “Why are you doing this? Why, to what end, are you tearing your nation apart? Why are you inflicting these demands on your best friends and pretending we’re your enemies?

Why?” The prime minister pauses to think. “Because. That, ultimately, was the only answer: because.”

This thin novel, as brittle as a cockroach’s exoskeleton, does serve as a reminder that good fiction has already emerged that takes into account the violence and perfidy and shock of the new political manner in the United Kingdom and America.

“How’re you doing, apart from the end of liberal capitalist democracy?” a character asks in “Spring,” the most recent of Ali Smith’s seasonal novels. In the German writer Robert Menasse’s “The Capital,” a book about the European Union, we read, in what might be the sentence of the year, “He had been prepared for everything, but not everything in caricature.”

The new political realities also filter through Rachel Cusk’s Outline series. In “Coventry,” her recent book of essays, Cusk remarked about Brexit that “the deluge of fine writing that follows the referendum

contrasts strangely with the reticence that preceded it. The liberal elite are defending their reality, but too late.”

The idea of writing “The Cockroach” probably seemed, in the shower one morning, like a good one. Later, after coffee, it might have occurred to McEwan that suggesting your opponents are cockroaches might be to drop down to their carpet level.

A comic novel we could use is one written from the point of view of Anthony Weiner. (Would that Bruce Jay friedman were young again.)

The trail from Weiner to James Comey and the 2016 election is a subject truly worthy of satire. As the filmmaker Errol Morris put it not long ago: “Who would have thought that one man’s irrepressible desire to photograph his penis and to share that with women on the internet could destroy Western civilisation?” g Follow Dwight Garner on Twitter: @DwightGarner.

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

14 SPORTS RISKING LEAGUE CUP EXPULSION OVER INELIGIBLE PLAYER

Man United’s Lindelof shrugs off criticism from former boss Mourinho London: Manchester united defender Victor Lindelof has said he is not bothered about the criticism from his former manager Jose Mourinho in the aftermath of his side’s 2-0 defeat to West Ham united. Mourinho, who signed Lindelof from Portuguese side Benfica during his tenure as coach from 2016 to 2018, said the Swedish international was “very good” in some aspects of the game but could be “bullied” by forwards due to weakness in aerial duels. “For me it has never been a problem. I’m a very easy guy,” Lindelof told Sky Sports. “... even when I play good there is someone criticising me for something. It’s part of the job, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. “I’m just trying to do my thing and I don’t focus on those things. I didn’t even notice, or know about it, before you told me. That’s how I live my life and focus on my things.” The 25-year-old, who recently signed a new contract that will keep him at united until at least June 2024, praised new defensive partner Harry Maguire’s leadership. “If you are playing for Manchester united (scrutiny) is part of it. If you do not perform you hear about it, it’s quite normal,” said Lindelof, who joined united in 2017. “I could see my future here so that’s why I signed a new contract - I’m really happy about that. We have a good thing going and I still want to win the big trophies with this club, that has been my goal since I signed.” united, who are currently eighth in the Premier League table, take on Arsenal on Monday. Agencies

Brescia get suspended stand closure for fans Pjanic ‘gypsy’ gibe

London

J

Agencies

urgen Klopp said he was happy to win ugly after Liverpool extended their perfect start to the Premier League season thanks to georginio Wijnaldum’s fortunate strike in a 1-0 victory at Sheffield united on Saturday.

The european champions looked short on invention against the well-organised Blades until Wijnaldum’s shot from the edge of the box 20 minutes from time trickled between the legs of united goalkeeper Dean Henderson. The win — Liverpool’s 16th consecutive victory in the top flight — moved Klopp’s men eight points clear of champions Manchester City ahead of City’s game against everton later on Saturday. Liverpool missed out on winning the Premier League by a single point last season but are now setting a searing pace as they chase their first topflight title since 1990, with seven victories in as many matches.

“For us it was important to win, we had unbelievably big

chances,” Klopp told BT Sport.

“In the first half we had two big chances and in the second one which we scored from. “These games, they are not all beauties and you have to work hard for the results.

“You have to respect the opponent. We had good moments and it was one of these games you have to win but not think too much about it.

One team deserved to win, which was us, but all respect to Sheffield united, they were tough.” Chances began to come for Liverpool towards the end of the first half as Sadio Mane sliced horribly wide with just Henderson to beat and then hit the post when it seemed easier to score from roberto Firmino’s pass.

Mane was unfortunate minutes into the second period, though, as he was taken out by John Lundstram as he broke into the box. referee Anthony Taylor was unimpressed and it was another example when VAr backed the official’s decision when it should have been overturned. The hosts had their chances to spring a huge shock as Adrian turned behind a long-range drive from Oliver norwood before Andy robertson made a brilliant block to

deny John Fleck the opener.

All of Sheffield united’s good work was undone with one mistake when Wijnaldum pounced on a loose ball 20 yards from goal, but his strike should have been easily handled by Henderson, who instead watched on with horror as the ball slipped under his grasp.

The Manchester united loanee made some amends 11 minutes from time when Mohamed Salah broke clean through, but could not beat Henderson with a low finish.

That save could still have salvaged a point had substitute Leon Clarke not blazed over with the goal at his mercy late on. Instead, Liverpool held on to grind out the sort of win that could finally make them champions come May. Sheffield united boss Chris Wilder was irritated his side did not take advantage of a sub-par Liverpool. “I am not bothered about pride, I am bothered about the result,” he said.

“Liverpool had an off day and I think we missed an opportunity.

In pressurised situations we need to remain composed. We were delighted with the shape but their chances came from our mistakes.”

Liverpool could be thrown out of the League Cup for fielding an ineligible player in their third round victory over MK Dons on Wednesday.

The Athletic reported on Saturday that an international transfer certificate for Pedro Chirivella had not been completed.

Chirivella, who came off the bench in the 63rd minute of the 2-0 win, spent the second half of last season on loan at Spanish club Extremadura.

The 22-year-old, therefore, required new clearance when he returned to his parent club in the summer.

Liverpool requested that in July but the process can only be completed by the English Football Association.

According to the report, the European champions are confident the mitigating factors will ensure they escape the most serious sanction of expulsion from the competition and could instead be fined.

“The club are aware of a potential administrative issue pertaining to one of our players,” said a Liverpool statement.

“We are working with the relevant authorities in order to establish the facts of the matter and will be making no further comment until this process is complete.”

In a statement, tournament organisers the EFL said the were “currently considering the matter.”

Liverpool are due to face Arsenal in the fourth round of the League Cup next month.

Halep to play China Open despite chronic back problem Beijing Rome: Serie A club Brescia have received a one-match suspended stand closure after Juventus’s Bosnian midfielder Miralem Pjanic was subjected to abuse from the crowd during an Italian league match this week. Chants of ‘zingaro’ which translates as ‘gypsy’ could be heard from the Brescia supporters when the midfielder touched the ball. But the Bosnian silenced his abusers by scoring the winning goal with Juventus coming back from 1-0 down to win 2-1. The Italian Football Federation’s disciplinary body reported the insults came from “90%” of the occupants of the tribune, which was full that day and can accommodate up to 4,700 spectators. The sanction is suspended for one year. Inter Milan’s romelu Lukaku was subjected to monkey chants from Cagliari supporters early in the season, with AC Milan’s Franck Kessie and Brazilian Dalbert of Fiorentina also targeted by racist abuse, without any sanctions being issued. Agencies

Agencies

Wimbledon champion Simona Halep said on Saturday that she will compete at the China Open in Beijing, days after retiring from the Wuhan Open with a back problem.

If fully fit, the 28-year-old romanian will be among the favourites next week in the Chinese capital, where Serena Williams will not play because of a knee issue. Halep, a former world number one, was forced out of the Wuhan third round on Wednesday, saying she had a muscle issue in the lower part of her back. She suffered a herniated disc

in Beijing a year ago, bringing an early end to her 2018 season.

“The back is better, is getting better and I’m having treatment

every day,” said Halep, who plays a qualifier in her Beijing opener.

“I had two days off and today I practised. In my opinion, I can play tomorrow.” “You never know with the back, every tournament starts with the back (issue) because I had problems since 2008,” she added. “So it’s normal to have tough periods.” Halep, the Wimbledon holder and 2018 French Open champion, twice finished the year number one in the world.

She is now sixth but said that being top of the rankings was not her primary concern. “My goal is to win grand Slams and also tournaments,” Halep said.

Debilitating humidity stifles Doha women’s marathon

doha Agencies

Women’s marathon runners were rushed for medical attention, faces contorted in pain while other competitors hobbled off the track in

the inaugural road race of Doha’s World Athletics Championships.

Humidity of more than 73 percent and temperatures of almost 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit) dogged the race, specially started at midnight to avoid

peak heat, as it meandered along a course on Doha’s Corniche coast road. “You see somebody down on the course and it’s just, extremely grounding and scary,” said Canada’s Lyndsay Tessier, 41, who was one of those to finish, coming in ninth.

“That could be you in the next kilometre, the next 500 meters.”

“It was just really scary and intimidating and daunting. So that was enough to hold me back.”

Around two dozen runners in the 68-strong marathon field fell by the wayside as the sweltering conditions took their toll, in a sport which rarely sees drop outs at this level.

Kenya’s ruth Chepngetich won gold when she took the tape after 2 hours 32 minutes and 43 seconds, crediting “training in a hot area” of her home country for

helping her to tame the elements.

Tessier’s fellow competitors filed behind her as she spoke to the media, some held up by their coaches and others too exhausted to stop and speak. “I’m just really grateful to have finished standing up,” added Tessier. The Championships’ organisers told race participants that the event’s timing could be changed if conditions proved prohibitive but ultimately pressed ahead with the original plan.

Almost all of the runners were saturated with sweat by the halfway point and most ran with bottles as some video cameras being used to film the race malfunctioned because of the conditions. A mild breeze that lapped the corniche during the opening ceremony and fireworks display had dwindled by the end of

CMYK

the race leaving the runners to bear the brunt of the surging humidity.

GUIneA PIGS: Marathon runners and walkers do not have the luxury of competing in the championships’ principal venue, the air-conditioned Khalifa Stadium where the climate is maintained at 23-25 degrees. France’s defending 50 km walk world champion Yohann Diniz strongly criticised the IAAF for being made to compete in Doha’s humid conditions.

“I am extremely upset. If we were in the stadium we would have normal conditions, between 24-25 degrees, but outside they have placed us in a furnace, which is just not possible,” he said on Friday.

“They are making us guinea pigs.” Tessier said that seeing so many competitors drop out of one

race was “alarming and you feel for them because you do know the training that’s gone into this”.

“You know how badly everyone wants it and wants to be here.

You don’t wanna finish it or end it that way,” she said as sweat dripped off her face and a team member followed behind her with water. Throughout the race, medical golf carts ferried runners who dropped out to a busy medical tent as a team of doctors, which included an expert on heat in sports, assessed their condition. namibia’s Helalia Johannes, who secured bronze, said hydration also played a key role in her strong showing.

“I cannot say I enjoyed the event — there was a song that says ‘I must finish’,” she said. “I didn’t miss any water point.”

Sunday, 29 September, 2019

NEWS

15

AfghAn presidentiAl vote held in relAtive cAlm, but turnout low KABUL

t

Agencies

IGHT security ensured Afghanistan’s presidential election was held on Saturday in relative calm, though several small attacks, low turnout and complaints about the voting system heightened fears an unclear result could drive the country into further chaos.

Preliminary results are not expected before Oct. 17 and final results not until Nov. 7. If no candidate gets 51% of the vote, a second round will be held between the two leading candidates.

Taliban fighters attacked several polling stations across the country to try to derail the process, but intense security prevented the large-scale violence of previous polls.

“This election was the healthiest and fairest election in comparison to the

Pakistan opens major terminals along Pak-Afghan border ISLAMABAD

previous elections,” said Hawa Alam Nuristani, head of country’s Independent Election Commission (IEC), after the voting concluded.

Ten of thousands of Afghans braved the threat of militant attacks and delays at polling booths to vote in the election, a major test of the Western-backed government’s ability to protect democracy against Taliban attempts to derail it.

Two policeman and one civilian were killed in mostly small-scale Taliban attacks, the defense ministry said, adding 37 people were injured.

Tens of thousands of troops were deployed to try to protect voters and polling stations.

IEC officials did not immediately share the details on turnout, but Western diplomats in Kabul estimated it was low due to fears of violence and delays caused by polling officials.

Voting was extended by two hours,

QUETTA

Pakistan has decided to keep open major border terminals on the Afghanistan frontier, it emerged on Saturday, in a partial reversal of the government’s decision to close all border crossings during elections in the neighbouring country. The government had on Thursday announced the closure of all border crossings with Afghanistan for September 27-28 for strengthening security in view of the fourth presidential election being held in the war-torn country on Saturday. The restriction was to apply to all cross-border movements except for emergency patients. But a Foreign Office statement issued late on Friday said Pakistan had received a request from the Afghan Ministry of Defence “on very short notice” for border facilitation and opening of border crossings during the presidential elections scheduled for Saturday. “In spite of security issues along [the] border, Pakistan will continue to support its Afghan brothers,” the FO said. “Therefore, it has been decided to open major border terminals to facilitate [the] movement of Afghan citizen(s) across Pakistan Afghanistan border.”

stAFF RepoRt

RIYADH Agencies

Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it would issue fines for 19 offences related to public decency, such as immodest dress and public displays of affection, as the Muslim kingdom opens up to foreign tourists. The Interior Ministry decision accompanies the launch of a visa regime allowing holidaymakers from 49 states to visit one of the world’s most closed-off countries. Till now, most visitors have been Muslim pilgrims and business people. Violations listed on the new visa website also include littering, spitting, queue jumping, taking photographs and videos of people without permission and playing music at prayer times. Fines range from 50 riyals ($13) to 6,000 riyals ($1,600). “The regulations are meant to ensure that visitors and tourists in the kingdom are aware of the law relating to public behaviour so that they comply with it,” a government media statement said.

Independent election observers and activists said a slow pace to voting triggered confusion at some polling stations,

JUI-F leader among three dead in Chaman blast

stAFF RepoRt

Saudi Arabia implements public decency code as it opens to tourists

after technical problems delayed the opening of some polling stations around the country.

At least three people, including a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF), were killed and more than a dozen others injured in an explosion that rocked Chaman in Balochistan’s Qilla Abdullah district on Saturday.

According to police, the bomb was an improvised explosive device (IED) which was planted in a motorcycle parked on the roadside.

The explosion initially left Maulana Muhammad Hanif, a central

leader of the JUI-F, critically injured.

He was being shifted to Quetta when he succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital. Police said Hanif was the target of the attack.

The blast occurred on Taj Road in Chaman, which is located just kilometres away from the country’s border with Afghanistan, and shattered windows in nearby buildings. The dead include a 12-year-old child.

Chaman is considered a sensitive town in Balochistan as it shares a border with Afghanistan’s volatile Kandahar province.

JUI-F leaders have been targeted in attacks in Balochistan in the past as well. In May 2017, JUI-F leader and former Senate deputy chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri had suffered injuries in a suicide attack on his convoy in the Mastung area. At least 28 people were killed in the attack and 39 others were injured.

In 2014, the party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had survived a suicide attack in Quetta when he was returning after addressing a public meeting at Sadiq Shaheed Ground.

Punjab Police not ready to be policed officiaLs say resentMent growing aMong poLice officers over govt’s Bid to ‘curtaiL powers’ LAHORE FidA HussnAin

Compared to senior police officials of the province, top police officers of Lahore are particularly anxious after the government’s move to reform the Punjab Police and will huddle once again on Monday at the Capital City Police Office to chalk out a strategy to foil the bid.

A police officer, on the condition of anonymity, told Pakistan Today that the police high-ups expressed “serious concerns” over the new move.

“Frustration and fear are at peak among the senior police officials who are serving in Lahore, and we have planned to meet on Monday to discuss this issue,” said a DIG who is privy to the details.

“We’ll go to the maximum extent to foil this new move initiated to curtail powers of police officials. And this move will never work,” he said while seriously opposing the new reforms.

According to informed sources, the Punjab government has planned to establish a complaint authority as well as a regulatory commission to address the complaints concerning police misconduct and to maintain internal and external accountability of the department.

The move came after Prime Minister Imran Khan gave a go-ahead to new police reforms. He formed a committee headed by the interior secretary and allowed authorities in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the federal capital to implement the new plan in letter and spirit.

Under the new reforms, a high-

Law Minister raja Basharat says reforMs aiM at accountaBiLity, won’t Be introduced without consensus

level provincial search committee is also on the cards which will exercise “maximum powers in managing and looking after the police affairs”.

“The high-level search committee will be consisting of a director general and five directors,” the sources said, adding that “a director may be a retired police officer, prosecutor, a civil servant and a lawyer with maximum experience while a layman may also be the member of that committee under the new draft”.

An inspectorate will be established rather than the Public Safety Commission for internal and external accountability of the police department, the sources added.

‘DEADLOCK MAY PERSIST’: The reforms might see a prolonged deadlock between the Punjab Police and the provincial government, said sources.

“The government and bureaucrats are barely interested in reforming the service, as it only wants to keep the police officials under its thumb,” an SSP told Pakistan Today on the condition of anonymity.

He vowed to resist the move, saying: “We’ll not let it happen even if we will have to quit our job.”

Commenting on the meeting, he said that this would be a “practical step to thwart mala fide intentions of the bureaucrats.”

“The senior police officials for now will organise and if the move is not stopped, then the scope would be broadened to the rest of Punjab and to the federal level,” he confirmed.

However, the police officially de-

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nied that there was any sort of resentment among its ranks over the proposed reforms.

DIG (Inspection & Discipline) Ahsan Younas said he was not aware of the reported meeting at the CCPO, declining to delve into the matter further. Punjab Police chief’s Spokesperson Nayab Haider, despite repeated attempts, didn’t respond to the queries put forth by the scribe.

Talking to Pakistan Today Punjab, Law Minister Raja Basharat said that there was a “misconception that the provincial government was going to curtail the powers of the police officials”. He said the government, on directions of the PM, was simply establishing a regulatory body for “internal and external accountability of the police department”.

“We are not going to give the deputy commissioners control of the police department,” he said, clarifying that the reform didn’t mean to curtail police’s power.

He said the government will not go ahead with the proposed reforms unless all the parties are on board.

“I held at least five meetings with the IGP and other senior police officials but so far of no avail,” he said, adding that the government is going to satisfy the police officers and a consensus will be developed soon.

“We have overcome many misconceptions about police officials’ powers, held a number of meetings to deliberate on this issue and we’ll implement this new plan after seeking complete consensus of the police officials.”

with long queues forming outside.

“It took the first voter 31 minutes to vote. For subsequent voters it was taking around five minutes and then it started to streamline to 3 minutes and 30 seconds,” said Nishank Motwani, an observer stationed in Kabul.

“Election commission staff looked panicked and voters were getting angry that the queue was not moving.”

TALIBAN INTERVENTION? Some observers feared the Taliban had forced a partial shutdown to upset the final results as the IEC, without giving a reason, said it had failed to establish contact with 901 of the 4,942 polling centers.

The group, which controls more of the country than at any time since its regime fell in 2001, had warned the more than nine million registered voters to stay at home or face dire consequences.

Saturday’s presidential vote is the fourth since the Taliban was toppled.

un secy general reaffirms support to imran on Kashmir NEW YORK Agencies

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reaffirmed his support to Prime Minister Imran Khan to help facilitate a peaceful solution over the humanitarian crisis in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).

Imran met the UNSG at the 74th UN General Assembly session in New York on Friday and commanded his ‘clear articulation of the UN position on Kashmir dispute.’ In the meeting with the PM, Antonio Guterres reiterated his deep concern over the human rights violations in IOK and reaffirmed that he would remain engaged on the issue. According to Radio Pakistan, the premier briefed Guterres on the 55-day long siege of over 8 million Kashmiris amidst communication blackout imposed by the Indian government. “Such draconian lockdown has no parallel in recent history and the need for its immediate lifting could not be stressed enough,” said PM Imran rejecting India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5.

india calls pM imran’s unga address ‘hate speech’ NEW YORK Agencies

India has rebutted Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech on Saturday at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In a strongly-worded reply, Vidisha Maitra, the first secretary of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, called the premier’s address “hate speech” and said it attempts to sharpen differences and stir up hatred. She pointed out that the General Assembly rarely witnesses such misuse or “abuse” as she called it, of an opportunity to reflect. “Words matter in diplomacy,” she said, adding that using words such as “pogrom”, “bloodbath”, “racial superiority”, “pick up the gun” and “fight to the end” reflect a medieval mindset and not a 21st century vision. “Mr Khan’s threat of unleashing nuclear devastation qualifies as brinkmanship, not statesmanship,” the Indian representative remarked. “Prime Minister Khan’s justification of terrorism was brazen and incendiary,” she said, claiming that the premier comes from a country that has “monopolized the entire value chain of the industry of terrorism”. “For someone who was once a cricketer, and believed in the gentleman’s game, today’s speech bordered on crudeness of a variety reminiscent of the guns of Dara Adamkhel,” she stated.

Mentioning PM Khan’s invitation to UN observers to visit Pakistan to verify that there are no militant organizations in the country, Maitra said: “The world will hold him to that promise”. She laid out a set of questions, which she said Pakistan can respond to, as a precursor to the proposed verification. “Can Pakistan confirm the fact that it is home to 130 UN-designated terrorists and 25 terrorist entities listed by the UN as of today?” she asked.

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

ProFile oF cScec

C

HINA State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) is the largest construction and investment contractor in the world (according to ENR since 2015 to date).

It has been listed in the Fortune Global 500 List for 14 consecutive years and ranked 21st for 2019. CSCEC’s business covers more than 150 countries around the world.

Sunday, 29 September 2019

CSCEC entered Pakistan market in 1984 and has a history of more than 30 years in this country. In Pakistan, CSCEC has successfully completed various projects in the 1980s and 1990s including Jinnah Stadium, Islamabad, Jamshoro Power Plant, Mustafago Power Plant, Lakhala Power Plant, Faisalabad Power Plant and Karachi Sewage Treatment Plant. After 2000, CSCEC achieved further success in the Pakistan market and successively undertook some landmark projects such as JF17 Aircraft

Manufacturing Factory in Kamra, Arfa Kareem IT Tower, Lahore, Thai Embassy in Pakistan, Centaurus Multi Development Building Complex, Islamabad, and the Passenger Terminal Building of New Islamabad International Airport, Islamabad. In December 2015, CSCEC signed the contract of PKM project (Sukur-Multan section), which is the largest transportation infrastructure project under the umbrella of “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor”.

The New Islamabad International Airport

built by CSCEC was opened to air traffic on May 1, 2018 and is now being operated very well. PKM motorway linking Sukkur to Multan was also completed ahead of schedule on July 23 this year. These mega projects and livelihood projects have received the attention and support of the Chinese and Pakistani governments and the public, and the quality of these projects has been widely recognized by the local government, the employer and all sectors of society.

In the more than 30 years of cooperation

with Pakistan side, CSCEC has always been committed to giving full play to its own advantages, improving the infrastructure status of Pakistan, driving the economic development of neighboring area and improving local people's livelihood. With the continuous deepening of the "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" initiative, CSCEC is willing to joint hands with Pakistan side in the future to deepen investment cooperation and contribute more to the prosperity and development of Pakistan.

cScec PakiStan PkM (Sukkur-Multan Section) Project PKM project is the abbreviation of Peshawar to Karachi Motorway Project. This motorway starts from Karachi in the south and passes through PKM Project Hyderabad, Sukkur, Multan, Lahore, Islamabad and other cities, and reaches Peshawar in the north, with a total length of 1,152 kilometers.

PKM project (sukkur-multan section) is undertaken by CSCEC in EPC mode, with a total length of 392 kilometers, a design speed of 120 kilometers

Project overview per hour and two-way 6 lanes. The contract period is 36 months. The Chinese and Pakistani governments attach great importance to this project and have listed the project as an "early harvest project" of CPEC, and have given priority to promoting it under the framework of the JCC of CPEC. The construction scale of the project is huge, including 100 Bridges, 468 underpasses (1 underpass per 800 meters on average), 991 culverts, 11 interchanges (1 interchange per 35 kilometers on average), 6 pairs of service areas, 5 pairs of rest areas, 22 toll plazas, all the slopes along the alignment are protected organically by green grass; safety signs and intelligent transportation system have been set up along the 392 kilometers; there are FM broadcasting and wireless network in all service areas and rest areas.

Since the construction started on August 5, 2016, the Chinese and

Pakistani staff have overcome many difficulties, such as severe security situation, lack of resources, high temperature and extreme heat, to push forward the Electrification at interchange implementation of the project. In September 2016, the trial section of subgrade was started. In September 2018, 100 bridges were completed. In May 2019, 392 kilometers of pavement works were completed. On July 22, 2019, the project was completed two weeks ahead of schedule.

Project FeatureS

Visit the Orphanage

Toll Station at Interchanges

A. Fastest construction speed. Under the premise of strict quality assurance, the PKM project was implemented in the fastest speed. Nearly 400 kilometers in 3 years, it is a miracle in the history of world motorway construction.

Mosque at Service Area

D. Most complete functions. The PKM project adopts the world's leading design concept to have realized all the software and hardware functions that intelligent motorways should have, and provides a “one-stop complete solution” for all travelers. In addition, the motorway is designed to resist the once-in-100-year flood; a guide bank has been designed. We have adopted the unique design of planting grass to protect the slope on both sides of the embankment, so that the completed PKM motorway is also a green ecological corridor.

G. The greatest contribution made along the alignment. PKM project attaches great importance to serving local people. More than 800 kilometers of access roads have been built to facilitate the transportation of local people.

920 pipe culverts, with a total length of more than 40,000 meters, have been constructed to fully guarantee the interests of local farmers and the agricultural water demand. The project takes the initiative to fulfill social responsibilities and carry out public welfare activities. 12 schools have been renovated, and 79.6 kilometers of roads, 20 bridges, 62 wells and more than 300 water courses and canals have been constructed for villages along the alignment; more than 13,200 boxes of medicines, more than 3,800 books and 4,100 school bags were given as gifts; medical teams were organized to visit villages for free diagnosis for more than 7,200 persons, and more than 20 times emergency rescue for local traffic accidents have been provided; a relief fund for Pakistani workers in need was established, which has promoted the inheritance and exchanges of China-Pakistan friendship among the people.

Celebration of Independence Day

B. Highest security level. Under the overall coordination of the Pakistani government, Army and Chinese embassy, a special security force of more than 4,500 people has been set up to safeguard the construction of the PKM project. The Foreign Minister of Pakistan, SSD Commander have personally inspected PKM project and spoke highly of the project as well, and the Pakistani army has extended the successful security experience of PKM project to other CPEC projects. This fully reflects the efforts made by the government of Pakistan and the Pakistan army to secure the PKM project and their great support to our project.

Crushing Plant

E. The most local resources organized. The PKM project implements the principle of "extensive consultation, joint construction and shared benefits” and attaches great importance to the cooperation with local enterprises to jointly develop borrow pits and stone quarries. All materials and equipment are prioritized for local procurement. This has directly boosted the development of local earth-and-stone mining, transportation, equipment leasing and sales and other related industries, and has indirectly driven downstream industries, injecting vitality into the local economy.

Main Carriageway

C. Highest quality level. During the construction process of the PKM project, we have always been carrying out the policy of "quality first", and the design standard is the strictest. The Chinese, Pakistani and the American standards are adopted, and the highest quality standard among the three standards is selected for quality control. An In-house Consultant team composed of more than 220 "all Pakistani employees" was established to achieve standardized and normalized quality control. For the first time, the project listed deflection test as a compulsory inspection item to ensure the construction quality and the riding quality which will make the Pakistani people more comfortable during their journeys. The embankment is paved layer by layer, by impact rolling, by natural settlement as well, which fully insured the quality of road. We have pioneered in SBS modified bitumen technology of asphalt pavement, and the rutting resistance, high temperature resistance, anti-aging performance are much higher than that of ordinary bitumen, which has provided experience reference for other motorways in Pakistan.

Farewell Party for Sponsored Pakistani Students in China

F. The most jobs created. During the construction of PKM project, recruitment of Pakistani employees was given priority. 97% of the employees were Pakistani including management staff, equipment operators and workers, which created a large number of local jobs and helped the government to solve the employment issue. The project also sent a group of Pakistani students to study in China and funded all the expenses during their study abroad. We have accepted a large number of Pakistani trainee engineers to participate in project construction and they are growing rapidly.

Pakistani Employees Particitated in Badminton Match in China

H. The most frequent Cultural exchanges. PKM project respects Pakistani religious beliefs and cultural customs. Mosques were built in 22 camps along the alignment, full-time Pakistani tea boys were provided, and mess and Pakistani cooks and daily necessities according to local customs have been provided specially for Pakistani staff. The project insists on practicing "one road, one family". We have organized Chinese and Pakistani employees to celebrate major festivals of the two countries, and organized birthday parties regularly to present birthday gifts to Chinese and Pakistani employees.

We have also regularly organized sports competitions, cultural and entertainment activities, and selected excellent employees to attend the annual meeting of enterprises in China. In 2017, we invited a number of Pakistani employees to participate in the badminton competition at the headquarters in China, and they achieved excellent results on behalf of the project. We have organized the fellowship activities for Chinese and Pakistani employees and their families, made traditional Chinese clothe called Han Suit for Pakistani employees, customized Pakistani clothes for Chinese employees, and learned chess, embroidery and calligraphy together, in order to experience each other's customs and understand the culture of the two countries.

I. Great tax contribution. PKM project strictly abides by the local laws and has been making tax declaration and paying taxes on time according to law, mainly including income tax, sales tax and customs duties. Up to now, a large amount of taxes have been paid according to law, which has made great contributions to the Pakistani government, local fiscal revenue and local social economy. In the future, we will continue to comply with the tax code and pay our taxes as required.

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

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