E-Paper PDF 4th November (LHR)

CMYK

Monday, 4 November, 2019 I 6 Rabi-ul-Awwal, 1441 I Rs 20.00 I Vol X No 125 I 56 Pages I Lahore Edition

GovT says yes To Talks, no To blackmail g

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gOvt renews talks OFFer tO Fazl, says ready tO talk On electOral, ecOnOmic reFOrms

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na speaker asad Qaiser calls JUi-F’s akram dUrrani, seeks meeting tO hammer OUt diFFerences

Fazl calls APC today, threatens countrywide lockdown g

JUi-F chieF adds 24 hOUrs tO pm’s resignatiOn deadline

FirdOUs lashes OUt at Fazl in late-night presser, says JUi-F chieF is FOOling natiOn in the name OF religiOn

ISLAMABAD: Government negotiation team holds meeting at Senate chief Sadiq Sanjrani’s residence to chalk out strategy against Azadi March. o n l i n e

ISLAMABAD

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STAFF RePoRT

he government has decided to approach the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) that is spearheading the Azadi March in Islamabad for dialogue once again, as its chief spokesperson Firdous Ashiq Awan warned JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman against breaching the agreement with the Islamabad administration in a fiery presser.

The comments were made by Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Firdous Ashiq Awan in a press conference at the Press Information Department. She was flanked by Minister for Religious Affairs Noorul haq Qadiri. her presser followed a meeting of the government negotiating team at the residence of Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, wherein the government decided to extend an olive branch to the JUI-F chief because he had ‘remained complaint’ to the accord which limits his march to the Peshawar Morr.

“JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman has still not violated the agreement hence we should also talk to him,” Sanjrani was quoted as saying at the meeting. he reportedly told the participants that the

government should “seriously negotiate” with Fazl to resolve the crisis.

The government’s negotiation committee also decided to send in Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat hussain to hold talks with the opposition’s Rehbar Committee.

Separately, National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser called Rehbar Committee Convener Akram Khan Durrani and recommended that the two sides meet to iron out differences.

“We are politicians. Our doors are always open for negotiations,” Durrani assured Qaiser. Durrani also told the speaker that the opposition’s demands are still the same and they stand by them.

The meeting came after a press conference of the government body had rejected the demands of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation and snap polls made by the Azadi marchers.

FIRDOUS SAYS FAZL FOOLING NATION: In the press conference, the PM’s assistant called out Maulana Fazl for using religion for his political gains, as she called the Azadi March in the federal capital a “theatre”.

She said the Azadi marchers were gathered in the h-9 ground without any purpose and that the JUI-F chief, who calls himself a “religious scholar”, is hurling “baseless accusations” at the

prime minister.

Despite her tone, Firdous didn’t rule out talks with the JUI-F chief. She said the government was willing to take two steps forwards if Fazl agreed to take one and that doors of dialogue were always open.

She said the negotiation team headed by Defence Minister Pervez Khattak had PM Imran’s approval to hold discussion with the JUI-F and asked the opposition to put forth their “democratic demands”.

She also said the negotiation committee was willing to talk to the JUI-F on all issues, but the government would not cave in to the JUI-F’s “blackmailing tactics”.

“We are ready to take up the issues of electoral and economic reforms with the opposition,” she said, offering an olive branch to the agitating JUI-F chief.

Welcoming the announcement made by Fazl that the protesters won’t march towards the D-Chowk, she said it was a positive development and that she hoped the cleric would choose “dialogue instead of confrontation”.

Criticising the marchers, she said the entire federal capital has been put on halt due to the blockades. “Schools have been shut down and the children are forced to stay at home,” she said, adding that people were agitated because of the lockdown that resulted due to the march.

Speaking to reporters, Qadri said though the PTI was secular in outlook, the party was oblivious to the religion as he went on to recount the ‘Islamic reforms’ introduced by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government. he urged Maulana Fazl to call off sit-in in the respect of Islamic month of Rabiul Awwal.

ppp, pml-n uncertain on attending azadi sit-in STORIES ON PAGES 02 & 03

Bilawal demands Sheikh Rasheed’s resignation

won’t give nrO to anyone, vows imran STORY ON PAGE 03

STORY ON PAGE 02

Pakistan says new Indian maps ‘incorrect’ g

FO says pOlitical maps gO against Unsc resOlUtiOns, ‘legally Untenable’ STORY ON BACK PAGE

ISLAMABAD: Rangers personnel rehearse in the Red Zone to deal with any untoward situation in connection with joint opposition’s Azadi March in the federal capital. o n l i n e

pakistan asks afghanistan to explain 'harassment' of envoys STORY ON BACK PAGE

in today’s issue

Monday, 4 November, 2019

02 NEWS

PPP, PML-N uNceRTAiN oN ATTeNdiNg AzAdi SiT-iN PML-N PRESIDENT SHEHBAZ SHARIF CALLS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING ON MONDAY TO DISCUSS AZADI MARCH

PPP CHIEF BILAWAL BHUTTO-ZARDARI SAYS PARTY MAY JOIN SIT-IN AT H-9 GROUND IF CORE COMMITTEE AGREES TO IT ISLAMABAD

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S the Azadi marchers seeking resignation of the prime minister stay put at an H-9 ground under the leadership of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have yet to decide whether or not they would join the sit-in that was extended by Fazl.

While PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has called a meeting of his party’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) on Monday to discuss the option, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari says the decision in this regard will be made by the

file photo

Bilawal demands Sheikh Rasheed’s resignation over Tezgam inferno BAHAWALPUR: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday reiterated his demand for the resignation of Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed over his failure to prevent Tezgam train inferno. Speaking to the media after visiting the victims of the tragedy at Victoria Hospital in Bahawalpur, he accused the federal and provincial governments led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of not fulfilling their obligations towards the people and demanded the resignation of the railways minister.

Talking about Kartarpur Corridor, the PPP chief said that his party would have praised the incumbent government over this initiate had the government vigorously defended the rights of the people of Kashmir after they were aggressively usurped by the Indian government. STAFF REPORT

Anti-polio campaign to begin in Punjab’s six districts today A three-day anti-polio campaign will begin in six districts of Punjab today. Lahore, Multan, Sargodha, Jhelum, Mandi Bahauddin and Chakwal are the districts where children under the age of five will be administered anti-polio drops. During the three-day campaign, polio vaccines will be administered to more than 2.8 million children. Nearly, 11,000 teams will go door-to-door to immunise the children below the age of five. Last month, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had reported two more polio cases, increasing the number of the cases to 80 in Pakistan and 59 in KP this year. The National Institute of Health Islamabad (NIH) confirmed the two new polio cases reported from LakkiMarwat and Tank districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Nine-month-old male child from Bakhmal Ahmadzai in Sara-e-Naurang in LakkiMarwat district and 14-month old boy from Pai area in Tank district became the two victims of poliovirus. Pakistan this year has reported 80 polio cases, of which KP alone reported 59 cases. NEWS DESK

STAFF REPORT

party’s core committee Sources claimed that the PML-N meeting will focus on Fazl’s demands after the ultimatum ends. The meeting will be attended by Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Tanvir, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq and other senior leaders of the party.

‘CORE COMMITTEE WILL DECIDE’: Speaking to the media persons in Bahawalpur on Sunday, Bilawal said that while his party shared the demands of other political parties, he could not favour a sit-in.

“We have never been a part of any dharna but if the party’s core committee agrees to it, we may consider the option,” he said.

Talking about Maulana Fazl’s statement of arresting the prime minister, the PPP chief said that the maulana did not say it in a “threatening manner”.

Shujaat, Elahi urge Fazl to opt for dialogue NEWS DESK Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) leader Chuadhry Shujaat Hussain and Pervaiz Elahi calls Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday and urged him to use dialogue to sort out his issues with the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) regime.

Pervaiz Elahi, who is also a member of the government negotiation team, telephoned Jamiat Fazl and urged him to find an amicable solution to all issues. Elahi said they are ready for all possible cooper-

ation for peaceful resolution of the matter.

Shujaat, in his conversation, felicitated Maulana Fazl on “stealing the show”. “Two major opposition parties have accepted you [Fazl] as [their] leader,” he said in a veiled reference to the PML-N and the PPP. The PML-Q leader said PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has no role in the JUI-F’s Islamabad sit-in. He said Shehbaz “accidentally became the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly as the real opposition leader is Maulana Fazl”. Shujaat asked Fazl to try to dispel the impression created by his reported remarks against the Pakistan Army.

Pakistanis won’t accept anything short of Imran’s resignation: Marriyum Aurangzeb ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday said that Pakistanis and the opposition would not accept anything short of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation.

Responding to PM Imran’s statement that the opposition protests were a pressure tactic to get an NRO, Marriyum said the only person desperate for an NRO is Imran so that he can save face, but the people of Pakistan will not give him any NRO. She said that the premier is destined to be sent back home and held accountable for plundering national economy and lives of hundreds of millions of Pakistanis. She said that it has been three days and Imran must have made preparations to leave. “He needs

to switch on the TV and see hundreds of thousands telling him to resign and go,” she said.

Marriyum said that running a country, serving the people, installing 11,000 megawatts electricity, 12,000 km road infrastructure, eliminating terrorism is beyond the capacity of “amateurs” like Imran as it is not a child’s play. “One year of Imran’s devastating rule has destroyed the economy, businesses, trade and industry of the country,” she said. She said that public service and welfare are a sacred trust which is impossible to do for “liars” and inept people like PM Imran. “Provision of free medicine and treatment, extremely affordable public mass transits, could never be done by pathological liars like Imran,” she added. She said that the only solution to all problems is that of Pakistan is PM Imran’s resignation.

“He simply meant that the people were angry with the premier to the extent that they wanted to arrest him,” he clarified.

The PPP chairman had previously stated that his party does not believe in dharna politics and would only part of opposition’s rally against the government.

He had reiterated the same stance during his conversations with the media during the past two months. On the other hand, PML-N has expressed uncertainty when it comes to the decision of joining the sit-in. Earlier, the PPP and PML-N leaders said that they would only attend the public meeting and would not support any sit-in as agreed with the maulana.

Opposition parties’ Azadi march, which was spearheaded by the JUI-F, entered Islamabad on Thursday night.

Abbasi to be shifted to hospital for surgery The Punjab government gave an approval on Sunday for shifting former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to a hospital, where he is to undergo a surgery. Abbasi is currently in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on judicial remand in the LNG corruption case. The government is pleased to accord sanction for Abbasi’s shifting from Central Jail Rawalpindi to Shifa International Hospital Islamabad for “investigation and operation/treatment of bilateral inguinal hernia and cholecystitis”, a notification issued from the Punjab Home Department said. It directed authorities to make foolproof security arrangements pertaining to his transfer and subsequent stay at the hospital. On October 28, Abbasi’s counsel had submitted his medical reports in an accountability court hearing the LNG corruption case. He had said that a medical board had advised his client to get his surgery done. “The government isn’t taking responsibility for my health,” Abbasi had said, adding that they showed a delayed response in Nawaz Sharif’s case too.

The former premier had even offered for NAB to take back his B-class prison facility and laptop. “If the PM and Punjab CM have a problem with me having such facilities then I am happy to forego them.” The court had extended his remand till November 19. NEWS DESK

84 children died in a month due to malnutrition in Tharparkar THARPARKAR: Over 84 children have died over the past month in Tharparkar due to malnutrition and various other diseases, according to data released by the Sindh Health Department. According to statistics, the children to have died due to malnutrition were as young as several months old to five years old. As compared to reports from prior months, the number of infant and young children’s deaths in October has been considerably high. In total, 703 children have died due to malnutrition and different diseases to date in 2019. In July this year, Prime Minister Imran during a meeting with United Nations Resident Coordinator Neil Buhne said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government was committed to addressing issues of malnutrition and adulteration, both of which in his view were adversely impacting the growth of the young population. STAFF REPORT

Around 35pc women face torture at brick kilns ISLAMABAD APP

Human Rights Commission (HRC) Chairperson Nasreen Azhar has stressed on the need to implement the law for protection against harassment of women at workplaces especially in the brick kiln industry.

Talking to APP on Sunday, Nasreen said that harassment cases at the

brick kiln industry should be dealt with properly as the percentage of women being abused is increasing day by day. “Around 35 per cent women workers at brick kilns often tortured, harassed by their bosses,” she told.

She said there are around 4.5 million workers at the brick kiln industry are suffering multiple miseries as the concerned authorities do not attend to their problems timely. “Es-

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pecially women who are required to produce 1,000 bricks a day for which they receive Rs 960,” she added.

She further said that a large number of women had faced bonded labour conditions in ten sectors, including brick kiln, agriculture, fishing, mining and carpet industries.

In response to a question, she said that the government is committed to providing protection to women

but those who remain silent about their harassment need more attention.

She further said that previous findings indicate that hundreds of brick kiln labourers face rights’ violations across the district whereas the local governments fail to bring about any improvement in the situation of brick kilns workers. She urged the government to control torture and harassment of women working at brick kilns.

Monday, 4 November, 2019

FAzL cALLS APc TodAy, ThReATeNS couNTRywide LockdowN JUI-F CHIEF ADDS 24 HOURS TO FAZL SAYS ECP IS MORE SAYS INSTITUTIONS MUST STAY WITHIN PM’S RESIGNATION DEADLINE HELPLESS THAN OPP THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS ISLAMABAD

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AMIAT Ulema-e-IslamFazl (JUI-F) on Sunday extended the deadline given to Prime Minister Imran Khan by one day, saying the future of course of action will be decided by the joint opposition in an All-Party Conference on Monday.

Hours after the deadline for Prime Minister Imran Khan’s resignation expired on Sunday night, the JUI-F chief addressed the participants of the march and said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will have to go. Expressing his determination to continue until their goal is achieved, Fazl said that the movement will not back off without ousting the premier. “This is only Plan A. We still have Plan B and Plan C as well. Your jails will fall short of space,” he said.

He said that the opposition has

only locked down the federal capital and if the government persists in delaying this issue, the protesters will shut down the entire country.

Fazl ruled out the plan of marching towards D-Chowk, saying the venue is not “large enough” to accommodate the mammoth crowd that has gathered against the government. “If the crowd moves towards the Prime Minister House, nobody would be able to control it,” he however warned. Lashing out at the government, the JUI-F chief said that the downtrodden have been robbed off of their right to live in peace. “A common man cannot afford basic necessities of life,” he added.

Lashing out at the incumbent government, Fazl said that the federal cabinet is composed of people who only know how to abuse their political opponents. “They want to hold the opposition accountable but their own accountability should be conducted first,” he added.

Commenting on the criticism

of political leaders pertaining to the gathering of religious youth, he said that his party had shown the path of “moderation” to the youth. “We provided free education to children in religious seminaries,” he added.

Speaking about the role of the state institutions, he said that the institutions have crossed the boundaries laid for them in the Constitution of Pakistan. Even a judge of the Supreme Court (SC) has pointed this out, he added.

“Every institution is crossing its boundaries and interfering where it should not. Our army is becoming controversial and we cannot see it becoming so,” he further said. In a dig at comments made by the Pakistan Army’s spokesperson, Fazl said: “They tell us to approach the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and file a complaint but the commission is more helpless than us.”

If the commission had any

power, the protesters would not have gathered in Islamabad, he said, adding that the parliamentary committee to investigate allegations of rigging during the 2018 elections has yet to convene.

He also urged the participants of the march to avoid paying any attention toward the “tone set by the media” regarding the march.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters led by the JUI-F chief have gathered in Islamabad to demand the ouster of PM Imran, warning of chaos if their demands were not met.

The protest in the capital is the first concerted opposition challenge the cricket star-turned-politician has faced since he won a general election last year promising to end corruption. Security remains tight in Islamabad with the government and diplomatic sector – just a few kilometres from the rally site – sealed off, and roads blocked from shipping containers.

Pakistan’s UN envoy vows to uphold Kashmiris’ struggle NEWS DESK Pledging to promote Pakistan’s national interests at the United Nations, Munir Akram, the Pakistani Ambassador-designate to the United Nations said that his mission was to help advance the legitimate struggle of people of Indian occupied Kashmir for “Azadi” and self-determination.

“I am highly honoured to have been asked to represent Pakistan at the United Nations once again and I am most grateful to the Prime Minister (Imran Khan), Foreign Minister (Shah Mahmood Qureshi) and the Government of Pakistan for their confidence they have reposed in me,” Ambassador Akram said in his first statement after assumption of his office.

“At the United Nations,” he said, “Pakistan’s central endeavour will be to uphold the security and dignity of our country and to promote legitimate struggle of people of Jammu and Kashmir for ‘Azadi’ and self-determination while alerting the world to India’s threats against Pakistan.”

Referring to threats to Pakistan emanating from the East and the West, he said challenges

were always accompanied by opportunities.

Citing Prime Minister Khan’s address to the UN General Assembly, in which he expressed Pakistan’s desire for peace with all its neighbours to realize its priority goal of economic and human development, Ambassador Akram said, “We are facilitating the peace process in Afghanistan and mediating reduction of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.”

He said, “Pakistan’s objectives at the

United Nations encompass a number of important issues: building global and regional security and arms control; strengthening UN peacekeeping; countering Islamophobia; addressing climate change; promoting the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals); preventing cross border corruption and money laundering; ensuring equitable reform of the Security Council and strengthening the capacity of United Nations to fulfil its vital functions.”

Pakistan’s delegation in New York, Ambassador Akram said, would work with all friendly Member States to promote those goals.

Expressing gratitude for the messages of felicitations from friends in Pakistan and the welcome extended to him by old friends at the UN, he pointed out he has a “young, capable and enthusiastic team” at the mission and the able support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other Departments.

“Working together, we will, Insha Allah, promote Pakistan’s national interests at the United Nations and revive our country’s image and role as an influential member of the world body,” Ambassador Akram added.

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won’t give NRo to anyone, vows PM Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday vowed that there would be no reprieve for opposition leaders, likening the striking of a deal with the opposition parties with “treason”. In a message on Facebook, the premier said the protesters encamped in Islamabad were only interested in striking a deal like the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO). “They just want to hear three words ‘NRO’ from me, which I will not utter as it will amount to treachery with the country,” said PM Imran. He reiterated that Pakistan could never progress without accountability of those who had allegedly plundered the nation’s wealth. “Unless they are held accountable, the country could not be put on track of progress,” he said. On Friday, the PM had slammed the opposition parties’ Azadi March and its demands for his resignation, saying he would neither resign nor agree to a ‘national reconciliation’ with any corrupt person. Addressing a rally in Gilgit on the occasion of the region’s Independence Day, he had reiterated his stance that Pakistan could only prosper if it rooted out corruption and punished all those who had ‘looted’ the country. NEWS DESK

Jui-F chief can’t use religion card: Firdous ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said on Sunday that the nation is well aware of Jamiat Ulema-e-IslamFazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s plans to challenge the sovereignty of the country. In a series of posts on social networking website Twitter, the special assistant regretted that Moulana Fazlur Rehman is threatening to create anarchy in the country by bringing innocent students of seminaries to the streets. The people of Pakistan would not allow Maulana to use the religious card for his vested interests, she added. Firdous Ashiq Awan said Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan would neither make a deal with these elements nor give them any relaxation in the accountability process. “You are trying to undermine national institutes, that’s what enemies do. Maulana and opposition are only doing this to save themselves from cases of colossal corruption against them,” she said. “People nowadays are aware, they will never buy oppositions’ plan as they have seen the corruption done by them,” she added. STAFF REPORT

over 2,400 Pakistani prisoners jailed in Saudi Arabia, uAe freed: official ISLAMABAD: More than 2,400 Pakistani prisoners have been released from jails in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over the past year due to the efforts of the Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI) government. “Pakistan has secured the release of 1,245 prisoners from Saudi Arabia and 1,200 more from UAE during the first year of the PTI-led government, which is an unprecedented figure,” an official of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development (OPHED) told APP. When the PTI government came to power, he said, there were 3,300 Pakistanis imprisoned in Saudi jails, while 2,521 were imprisoned in the UAE. “In the one year of this government, around 38 per cent of Pakistani prisoners in Saudi Arabia and 48 per cent in UAE have been set free,” he added.

The official said the government had also extended financial and legal assistance to a total of 2,559 Pakistanis imprisoned in Middle Eastern countries for minor crimes. “Apart from Saudi Arabia and UAE, a total of 55 Pakistani prisoners were released from jails in Oman, 18 in Kuwait, 17 in Bahrain, 14 in Qatar, and 10 in Iraq.” The ministry, the official added, had also arranged the repatriation of 320 Pakistanis stranded in camps in Malaysia, 1,600 passengers who were stuck in Thailand due to the airspace closure, 28 drivers from Iraq, and more than five children who had been smuggled to the Middle East for immoral purposes. APP

Smog poses threat to public health, road users LAHORE APP

Every year, with the arrival of winter season, smog causes hazard to public health and safety.

Smog, which routinely engulfs Lahore and several other cities of the country from November to December, also disrupts airflow and traffic movement on roads. Resultantly, economic damage and disruptions in transport logistics causes huge loss to the national exchequer.

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2015, approximately 60,000 Pakistanis died of higher levels of toxic, Particulate Matter (PM2.5), which was directly associated with environmental disorders.

WHO in its report further revealed that during foggy season, levels of dangerous Particulates Matter (PM2.5), are enough to penetrate deep into lungs and enter into the bloodstream, which damages human health by reaching 1,077 micrograms per cubic meter, (more than 30 times what international health experts consider the safe limit).

Talking to APP, Dr Tehsin Riaz, a noted physician said smog causes itchyeyes and sore-throat. He said there was clear evidence that polluted air causes depression and Alzheimer’s disease, an irreversible brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills.

The Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) in its recent report said Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) stations did not provide sufficient information during smog season, adding, they could only provide a reading of fog-points’ measurement and its observations.

Suggesting remedy, the report said continuous monitoring and spatially coherent picture of smog distribution was possible through use of satellite observations. A senior official in SUPARCO said space study reports and satellite data of atmospheric pollutants were being used across the globe to overcome smog issues by making decisions in environmental management activities.

Punjab Environmental Protection Department Director Misbah ul Haq Lodhi said Punjab Government ahead of No-

vember, had decided to close conventional kilns in consultation with the Smog Commission, which had been tasked to identify the root causes of fog generation, and to formulate policy by prescribing a plan to protect people’s health.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) scientists’ study report conducted during 2014-2015, had revealed that mass concentration of PM10 at all sampling sites within Lahore city exceeded the National Environmental Quality Standards (NEQS) levels during the reading periods.

The objective of this study was to determine the spatial distribution of aerosols, their types, and to identify the aerosol origins during special weather conditions like smog in Pakistan.

Punjab Provincial Minister for Environment Protection Bao Muhammad Rizwan said Punjab government has taken several emergency measures to counter smog, including a strict ban on burning crops and solid waste.

He said last year more than 100 people were arrested for crop burning and during the current year hundreds of fac-

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tories have been shut down for not having proper emission-control equipments.

The officials of Lahore Traffic Police department said they have collected more than US $ 50,000 in fine in recent days from drivers whose vehicles did not meet emissions standards, adding, Punjab government has set up two centres for checking commercial vehicles for compliance of environmental rules.

Noted environmentalists said, “We have urged Punjab government to take real solution and concrete measures to improve fuel quality, introduce solar and other renewable energy resources, phase out fuel-guzzling vehicles, devise policy for massive tree plantation and improve public transportation to reduce the number of vehicles on the much busy roads.”

Although smoke from crop burning in India is a major reason of smog, but they should formulate their own mechanism to reduce this crisis, environmentalist Mehmood Khalid Qamar said.

On the request of the Punjab government, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of United Nations under its project R-SMOG (Remote Sensing for Spatio-

Temporal Mapping of Smog) has prepared a report on smog for the country.

According to the FAO report, contribution of agriculture sector in smog generation, through crops residue burning, was the third sector of air pollutant emissions.

The report calculated percentage shares of different sectors in generating smog which contribute 45 percent of transport sector, 27 percent of industrial sector and almost 20 percent from agriculture.

Satellite data of atmospheric pollutants were being widely used globally in the decision-making and environmental management activities of public, private sector, and non-profit organizations, it further said. Following the FAO report, the Punjab government has taken up policy and decision making and recommended the establishment of smog monitoring and early-warning systems.

The Punjab government has started adopting the recommendations of the FAO report, which needed to support farmers for adopting mechanized farming and climate-smart practices to avoid losses due to smog which also increases crop yields.

04 LAHORE

Monday, 4 November, 2019

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Smog decreaSeS after light rain LAHORE

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APP

EoPLE in the provincial capital heaved a sigh of relief after the light showers across the city Light cleared thick smog to some extent on Sunday.

A Meteorological Department official told APP that pollutants may

again return to Pakistan in two to three days, but in less quantity, if heavy showers are not received by the city.

He said pollutants have either been spreading over vast areas in India and Pakistan or settling down in the last three days. The pollutants have also been absorbed by the upper air while being pushed towards India.

However, the main cause for

smog, according to the experts, is the use of poor quality fuel –Euro 2.

96 SMALL FACTORIES SEALED FOR CAUSING SMOG: Separately, the local administration has sealed 96 small factories and metalmelting units for causing pollution and smog in Gujranwala division, during the ongoing anti-smog and anti-pollution campaign here.

According to Commissioner Gujranwala Zulfiqar Ahmed Ghumman, final warning notices have been issued to 110 other industrial units for causing smog and environmental pollution in the region.

He said that 116 smoke-emitting public transport vehicles have also been fined Rs 37,615 for using substandard fuel.

Punjab re-brands patwaris to village officers LAHORE STAFF REPORT

The Punjab government under direction of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has decided to change names of revenue officers in Punjab from ‘Patwaris’ to village officers.

During a meeting here on Sunday, CM Buzdar authorised establishment of over 115 land record centres in far off areas of the province by next month.

It was decided that village officers will be appointed on scale 14 through Punjab Public Service Commission re-

cruitment process.

The meeting also decided to convert a tehsil of Lahore as a ‘Model Tehsil’ in respect of Revenue matters.

Speaking to journalists, the Punjab chief minister appealed to all opposition parties to resolve political differences through parliament.

He urged opposition parties who were participating in the JUI-F led Azadi March in Islamabad to demonstrate political maturity and said that undemocratic behavior would tarnish the image of Pakistan around the world.

Yasmin hails better medical facilities at hospitals LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Health Dr Yasmin Rashid has appreciated personal efforts of medical superintendents, principals, deans, medical directors, VCs and other senior professors for providing better treatment facilities to patients in hospitals. Presiding over a meeting of Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department here Saturday, she lauded their efforts for ensuring treatment facilities in hospitals and said no interference would be tolerated at any cost. APP

Govt hospital turned into wedding hall CHISHTIAN: A District Headquarter (DHQ) Hospital, Chishtian was transformed into a wedding hall on Sunday when an employee arranged the wedding of his son at the healthcare facility. According to details, the lab in-charge of the facility had arranged the wedding reception of his son at the hospital, video of the incident shows firecrackers and celebrations of the occasion in full swing. The government hospital was illegally used to arrange the ceremony, as many patients were put through discomfort due to the noise pollution that the illegally arranged ceremony brought along with it. The wedding was celebrated till early hours in the morning making it a real test for the patients who had checked into the facility, especially those in intensive care units. Tents were pegged in the hospital vicinity to accommodate the event. INP

Lahore Fort displays work of top fashion designers LAHORE SHAHAB OMER

The regenerated and recycled creative designs of fashion designers who are also the top 10 contestants of International Apparel Federation-Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association Global Global Fashion Award (IPGFA) have been displayed at Lahore Fort on Saturday.

The display ceremony of selected fashion designers’ creations was held at the Royal Kitchen by the exporters body in collaboration with the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA).

The ceremony was graced by the vice chancellor of Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design (PIFD) Hina Tayyaba along with renowned academicians, educationists, researchers, industrialists, fashion entrepreneurs.

All these 10 designers and contestants used the techniques of recycling and regeneration of used and wasted garments whereas they also addressed about the different global environmental issues by observing the alternative practices in their design concepts and garment construction, especially by ap-

plying reuse, recycle, up-cycling techniques along with accepting the zerowaste challenge.

The designers are the graduates of different renowned institutions of the country including Sadia Bint-eNadeem, Mannan Haseeb, Saneela Mehdi, Saad Nazir and Hassan Shahid from PIFD, whereas Nida Khan and Ahsan Naqi from Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture (IVS) Karachi.

Similarly, Fahad Zaman Khan and Qasim Hussain from Gujranwala Institute of Fashion and Technology (GIFT) and Saad Bin Shahzad from Government College University Faisalabad(GCUF).

The International Apparel Federation (IAF) regional chairman Ijaz Khokhar said, “The IPGFA 2019 is Pakistan’s first of a kind largest sustainable fashion competition. The global fashion awards competition is aimed to educate the young fashion designers about sustainable design techniques and theories.

It has also provided a platform in the spotlight for these aspiring designers.”

These top ten finalists will also present their creations on the ‘festive fashion dinner’ at the 35th Fashion Convention

CM won’t ‘tolerate’ unrest in country LAHORE APP

Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has said the socalled march under the name of Azadi is, in fact, slavery march. The Chief Minister said that discarded elements wanted to convert the nation into slaves of old Pakistan once again, adding that the era of slavery would not return. Usman Buzdar, in his message issued here on Sunday, said no one could stop the journey of change under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan. The people had given five years mandate to PTI, he added. Antipeople activities to create unrest and anarchy in the country would not be tolerated at any cost, he said, adding that rejected elements by the people were trying to harm the Kashmir issue under the guise of so-called march.

CMYK

in Lahore on the 12th of November.

IAF has also appointed Dr. Ayyaz as in charge of this pioneer sustainable fashion contest in Pakistan.

The newly-elected PRGMEA senior vice chairman Sohail Afzal Sheikh said, “In the face of growing environmental threats, there is an urgent need to radically change our consumption and manufacturing systems.”

Sami Yazdani (IPGFA Contest Coordinator) while speaking to Pakistan Today said, “Today was the most successful day in the history of Fashion where these 10 finalists have set the foundation of the sustainable fashion industry in Pakistan”.

WCLA Director General WCLA Kamran Lashari while speaking to Pakistan Today said, “It is great to have this exhibit at Royal Kitchens. They have been working on this project since long and made a good effort in digging out the history of indigo color from the walled city. The WCLA will surely support more of such events. We are glad that people are being attracted to heritage sites and holding events there.

This is also a good way of bringing people close to heritage and culture.”

Monday, 4 November, 2019

05 NAB chief sAys ANti-grAft wAtchdog hAs recovered rs342BN NEWS

ISLAMABAD

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APP

HaiRMan national accountability Bureau (naB) Javed iqbal said the corrupt elements, proclaimed offenders and absconders would be dealt with iron hands. in a statement, he said the naB’s top most priority was to take white collar mega corruption cases to logical conclusion on scientific basis by using modern techniques, cases of cheating public, housing societies/cooperative societies, fraudulent financial companies, bank frauds, willful bank loan defaults, misuse of authority, money laundering and embezzlement of state funds etc.

He said naB’s major achievements had been the recovery of Rs342 billion of ill-gotten money of people at large which had been deposited in the national exchequer and not a single penny had been received by naB officers.

He said naB had rationalized its workload and timelines had been prescribed for efficient, effective and expeditious disposal of cases putting a maximum limit of 10 months-from complaint verification-to-inquiry-to-investiga-

tion and finally to a reference in the accountability Court.

He said naB had also introduced Combine investigation Team (CiT) system in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers. This was not only lending quality to the work but also ensuring that no single individual could influence the official proceedings of naB. He said naB on bilateral cooperation, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China to streamline and structure and cooperation in the fields of anti-corruption. in the context of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), this cooperation would further boost confidence in projects undertaken in Pakistan.

He said an effective accountability mechanism was quintessential for economic growth, investment and stability of social order. The intervention by naB had acted as a catalyst, as transparency was a prerequisite for promoting investment and economic growth.

Since its inception, naB had adopted the enforcement based approach in its fight against corruption. Special focus was therefore being given to awareness and Pre-

vention activities besides enforcement to educate the people at large about the ill effects of corruption.

He said naB had initiated complaint verifications, inquiries and investigations by adopting “accountability for all” policy across the board on alleged allegations of corruption and corrupt practices.

The indiscriminate action had increased the prestige of naB manifold due to indiscriminate and visible action against the mighty as the aim of naB was to apprehend the corrupt and deposit the looted amount in the national exchequer. naB had filed 600 corruption references in accountability Courts in the last 23 months which was a record achievement as investigation of mega and white collar crimes is very challenging task and it takes years.

Indian perfidy shown in Tezgam inferno City Notes M.A. NiAzi ndia is eviler than we think. i mean, it is going to go ahead with the division of the state of Jammu and Kashmir into the union territories of Kashmir and Ladakh. and it is doing this despite Prime Minister imran Khan’s speech at the United nations General assembly (UnGa). and look at india’s barefacedness, it is doing so even though imran not only made the speech, but wore a black armband. indian duplicity is such that it responded by getting Bangladesh cricket captain, that magnificent all rounder Sahakibul Hassan banned for two years after admitting being approached by match-fixers in the tri-series with Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, as well as in the indian Premier League (iPL), and not reporting the contacts. all an indian conspiracy to defame cricketers. One opinion that Bangladesh cricket is rife with corruption. But it is the Bengalaru Blaster’s bowling coach and two batsmen who have been caught, not any Bangladeshi. and the Bombay Bookies have been smoothly rebranded as the Mumbai Matchfixers, not the Mymensingh Matchfixers, or the Chittagong Cheaters. This is all meant to belittle imran’s World Cup win.

How much had australia to be paid to throw the match? One would probably have to ask the Mianwali Matchfixers. among those who would believe that the World Cup was fixed would be Maulana Fazlur Rehman. He too claims that imran stole, not a World Cup, but the 2018 election. in fact, he has called for imran to resign as PM. not that he is willing to do so. after all, the job carries with it the right to harangue the nation on live TV whenever you want. Those who have liked imran coming on TV should prepare to have Maulana Fazlur Rehman holding forth. another large Muslim country caught up in a match-fixing scandal is indonesia. and no, it is not a cricketing country. But the match-fixing is in soccer. The problem was so serious that a special police unit was set up, and after making a number of arrests in the latest scandal, they released all those arrested after interrogation. That would mean they beat all the accused to within an inch of their lives, until they agreed on a suitable sum for the cops. india has decided to tackle corruption in cricket by making ex-captain Sourav Ganguly the head of the BCCi. i am not sure this was the best time for india to put forward its

I

only recent Bengali national skipper to tackle corruption. and i wonder if Ganguly plans to parlay this stint into the prime ministership of india. There has never been a Bengali PM yet, though one Bengali (Pranab Mukherjee) has made it to the presidency. i am a little worried that no one has hinted that the fire in the Tezgam which led to 71 deaths was an indian conspiracy. after all, indians blamed Pakistan for the Godhra train fire, in which 59 pilgrims died in 2002, and which led to the Gujerat communal riots. Those pilgrims were coming back from ayodhya, where they had been to the Babri Masjid site, where they had tried to make a Ramjanambhoomi.

Funnily enough, these deaths also were among pilgrims. However, they were not returning from their pilgrimage, but were members of the Tablighi Jamaat on their way to the ijtima at Raiwind. Whether Hindu or Muslim, it seems pilgrims have one thing in common, an overwhelming desire for cooked food. The Godhra fire (on the Sabramati Express) was caused by the bursting of a stove. The same for the Tezgam fire. no one so far has disclosed what the Tablighi Jamaat members were trying to cook. as a matter of fact, the Tablighi Jamaat seems to be more concerned about the possibility of an electrical short circuit. So we have probably got a Tablighi Jamaat vs Railways situation here, with neither side accepting blame for the disaster. a thought: you have got the Tablighi Jamaat doing some flying. There is a oneyear our which involves flying to the US. do Jamaats cook on the flights, or do they subsist on airline food?

The 66 Pakistanis taken off a refrigerator truck in France were not a Jamaat, just trying to take advantage of the pre-Brexit situation, i suppose. Well, at least they were not dead, like the 39 people in a lorry caught in the Promised Land, not of Canaan, but of Grays, Essex. They were Vietnamese. So it seems they’ve heard of Brexit in Vietnam too. Well, Britain is going to have an election first, and then leave. Of course, if the Remainers are elected, the UK might inflict itself back on the EU. One of the worst things about the UK is donald Trump. Sorry, Boris Johnson. and Johnson is not even rich.

Well, perhaps Johnson has not asked any foreign leader to help him do down Jeremy Corbyn. Well, maybe he should get in touch with imran, and get him to lend him the national accountability Bureau (naB). May naB would refuse. Corbyn’s platelet count is so normal that he has not had it checked. naB is just not interested unless there is a platelet count to make things interesting.

naB on regularly basis review its performance and also progress on ongoing inquiries and references. due to this reason, the number of complaints had been doubled as compared to the same period of last year from nov 2018 to nov 2019. The comparative figures were indicative of the hard work, transparency being put in by all ranks of naB staff

in an atmosphere of renewed energy and dynamism, where fight against corruption was being taken as a national duty.

He said national accountability Bureau (naB) had established more than 50 thousands Character Building Societies (CBSs) in universities/colleges during the last 23 months to aware students about ill effects of

corruption as youth is considered a vanguard in this fight. naB had devised a comprehensive Quantified Grading System in naB in order to review and further improve the performance of Officers/Officials of naB. Under this grading system, naB Regional Bureaus are being evaluated at a given criteria on annual basis.

Monday, 4 November, 2019

06 WORLD VIEW

SaudI arabIa can’t help Solve KaShmIr ISSue becauSe It now lacKS legItImacy In muSlIm world prinT aYESHa SiDDiQa

INDIA SHOULD VALUE SAUDI ARABIA FOR CAPITAL GAINS RATHER THAN FOR POLITICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL TROUBLESHOOTING

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NDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to Saudi Arabia again – his second trip in four years that many see as having the potential to solve India’s Kashmir issue. The cosying up between Riyadh and New Delhi is a signal to Pakistan that countries symbolising the Muslim ummah now stand with India instead.

The problem, however, is that the new Saudi Arabia is very different from even the pre-2010 one. Led by an ambitious, young, modern leader, who wants to modernise the state and westernise it culturally, does not have the same legitimacy in the Muslim world anymore. The Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is trying hard to do a balancing act, silencing the religious Right through oppression by gagging noted Saudi religious

scholars while depending on some traditions in order to not entirely lose political legitimacy.

Therefore, despite that Israeli aircraft flying in and out of Riyadh and efforts of US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, one of the chief architects of Trump’s Middle East peace plan and a close friend of the crown prince, Palestine continues to be mentioned in the officially transmitted prayers, especially in Mecca and Medina. Similarly, as I observed myself, writings of the former grand mufti, the pragmatic, Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz, are still available in the two holy cities.

The desire for modernity among Saudi rulers is not new. It dates back to the first ruler of the Saudi state, Muhammad ibn Saud, who established a nation-state in the Arabian Peninsula in 1932. His sons, including King Faisal, who was killed by his own nephew in 1975, faced opposition by the religious clergy for his perceived sin of bringing modern technology in Saudi Arabia. Faisal’s wife Iffat al-Thunayan opened schools for women. Clearly, the incumbent crown prince Muhammad bin Salman, popularly known as MbS and considered the de facto king, wants to take development several notches higher and is brutal in his pursuit of power.

ONLY A GOOD BUSINESS PARTNER: His political ambitions make India an attractive destination for Riyadh. Unlike Pakistan, which wants Saudi money but is shy of a total embrace because it could have high costs for the country’s security, Riyadh’s relationship with New Delhi can actually work.

Indian Muslims do not necessarily pose an ideological burden on Saudi Arabia as compared to Pakistan’s. Riyadh will never want to be burdened with claims of infesting India with radicalism, an accusation it hears from Pakistan. Moreover, Modi’s India has little qualms about engaging with Saudi Arabia riddled with accusations of human rights atrocities.

This makes India similar to Pakistan but different from a number of western states.

Not surprisingly, Saudi Aramco agreed to invest

reportedly US$ 15 billion into Reliance Industries.

In business terms, this is a major breakthrough as it brought the largest foreign investment project in India without threatening the Ambani empire. No wonder New Delhi is ready to put its eggs in the Saudi basket and temporarily abandon the Chabahar project in Iran.

The continuation of this sheen in New Delhi and Riyadh’s relationship depends upon money in Indian pockets. But it is also worth remembering that MbS has other priorities too. He can ignore and snub Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan by not inviting him to his ‘Davos in the Desert’ and instead invite Narendra Modi, but he is not about to sideline his military ties with the Pakistan armed forces. Not only does he have a retired Pakistani general at his beck and call, MbS also has good ties with Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa. Lest we forget, MbS played a key role in arranging Imran Khan’s meeting in July this year with Donald Trump, which in reality was a meeting between Trump and Bajwa.

In any case, Pakistan military is well-entrenched in the system of securing Saudi royalty for decades, which may be one of the reasons that Riyadh did not shun Islamabad despite the latter’s refusal to fight openly in Yemen, and not take a clear position against Iran.

SAUDI ARABIA NOT THE INSPIRATION: Can Saudi Arabia help solve the Kashmir issue? An MbSled Saudi Arabia does not have legitimacy in the larger Islamic world despite physically being at the centre of the Muslim ideological imagination.

Today, the ordinary South Asian Muslim may be more thrilled by Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad than MbS. Mahathir’s condemnation of the situation in Kashmir and not bowing down to India’s pressure of cancelling palm oil import has already enhanced his international credibility. Some would even put Imran Khan in the same list. Not that these leaders are above board but the point being made here is that Saudi Arabia is in no position to influence the think-

ing of ordinary Muslims or alter the religio-political discourse in the Islamic world.

While Saudi Arabia’s efforts to distance itself from its staple Wahabi ideology may open doors for Muslim states and Muslim citizens to think deeply about the concept of Islamic nationalism, the idea of ummah has not died entirely. It probably requires an intelligent and organic discourse that is yet to take place. The absence of a strong entity or a forum in the Islamic world that has legitimate capacity to engage with issues faced by Muslims across the world could create greater space for non-state militant entities, or simply nourish frustration.

The Indian or for that matter a Kashmiri Muslim, on the other hand, wouldn’t be inspired by an oppressive prince as they are increasingly feeling more scared, disenfranchised and unrepresented in India.

It’s a fact that the number of Muslim representatives in the Indian Parliament is nowhere close to being proportionate to their share in the country’s population. The Muslim representation in the Indian military has also reduced. For Muslims in India, their conditions are a greater influence than ideology.

Moreover, once in Saudi Arabia, the Indian Muslim, due to sharing a common language, is far closer to a Pakistani Muslim than Muslims from other parts of the world. I recall my own experience of sitting in the mosque of the Prophet in Medina in a group that had women from different parts of Pakistan and India (including from Kerala) as we were all identified as belonging to the same language category – Urdu.

Not that engaging Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States is not a worthwhile policy. However, India should value Saudi Arabia for capital gains rather than for political and ideological troubleshooting.

India will have to look inside to find a solution to its Muslim issue.

The author is Research Associate at SOAS, University of London and author of Military Inc: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy. She tweets as @iamthedrifter.

The key to Iran’s success in the face of sanctions oilprice.com Simon Harlow

One of the most humiliating aspects for Iran of the last sanctions era was that it was dependent on the whim of the U.S. for gasoline just to keep its vehicles moving, Mehrdad Emadi, head of risk analysis and energy derivatives markets consultancy, Betamatrix, in London, told OilPrice.com. “At the time that the new sanctions were introduced last year [by the U.S.], Iran was absolutely determined not to be in the dependent position again, which is why it has pushed ahead so determinedly with the PGSR [Persian Gulf Star Refinery], and why Iran is now not just self-sufficient for gasoline but is actually looking to ramp up its export capacity,” he added.

According to comments last week from the chief executive officer of the PGSR (also more generically called the Bandar Abbas Gas Condensate Refinery), Mohammad Ali Dadvar, the plant earned US$100 million by exporting petroleum products in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on 21 March. Plans are afoot, though, to increase both the export volume and revenues within the coming 12 months or so, by initially increasing the PGSR’s output to 540,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the current 360,000 bpd, a figure that appears entirely realistic given the breakneck speed of the PGSR’s development to date.

The original plan involved a threephase development, each designed to produce 12 million liters per day (ml/d) of Euro 5 gasoline, plus 4.5 ml/d of Euro 4 standard diesel, 1 ml/d of kerosene and 300,000 litres per day of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). To achieve these targets, the project’s developers were given a €260 million additional loan from the National Development Fund of Iran, as part of the estimated total cost for the three stages of approximately US$3.4 billion. Phase 1 was officially inaugurated only in April 2017, with the first shipment of gasoline delivered for distribution just one month later in June, and Phase 2 began producing Euro 5 standard gasoline shortly after its own of-

GIVEN THE US’ APPARENT WITHDRAWAL FROM ALL MIDDLE EAST INTERESTS, EXCEPT – ALBEIT TENUOUSLY, SAUDI ARABIA – IRAN BELIEVES THAT IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE SANCTIONS ARE LOOSENED UP ficial launch in February 2018, running at full capacity by the end of June that year. Phase 3 saw its official inauguration just a few months ago, although it has been basically operational for a few months prior to that.

Vital to its ongoing success is that the PGSR receives its gas feedstock directly from the nearby supergiant South Pars non-associated gas field. Despite various changes in foreign participants of various kinds in this enormous resource, South Pars’ gas production has continued to rise, in line with Iran’s short-term target of producing at least one billion cubic meters per day. This means that the PGSR is now being supplied with around 450,000 bpd of gas condensate feedstock from the South Pars gas field rather than the 360,000 bpd original target for the three official phases. This has allowed Iran to add the new Phase 4 (540,000 bpd target), which will also allow the plant to produce sweet naptha - rather than the previously produced lower value sour naptha – which has commercial applications and can also be utilized in a broader range of petrochemicals products production.

According to oil and gas sources in Iran spoken to by OilPrice.com last week, Tehran is working again towards its original plan for its gasoline sector, in anticipation for the time when U.S. sanctions are again removed. This plan was that within two and a half years from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) being implemented (as it was on 16 January 2016) Iran would be supplying at least 10 percent of all of Southern Europe’s gasoline and diesel needs, and be the top producer of gasoline in the Middle East by a big margin by that point.

Becoming an export of gasoline was one key element of Iran’s plan to

survive any new U.S. sanctions and the other is petrochemicals (petchems) production. This latter element has always been a key part of Iran’s ‘resistance economy’ model, which is basically the concept of generating value-added returns by leveraging intellectual capital into business development wherever possible.

According to a statement from Iran’s Petroleum Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, last week, even with the new U.S. sanctions in place, over 95 percent of Iran’s petrochemical companies can still cash in their petchems exports.

More specifically, he added that Iran’s petrochemical plants are now supplying 66 million tons per year of petchems products annually and that new projects underway in the sector that will be on stream by the end of 2025 will bring the country’s annual petrochemical output to 130 million tons per year.

Central to this expansion has been the indigenization of foreign companies’ expert processes, technology, and specialized materials by Iran, and this remains the case. Just after the JCPOA was implemented, in fact, Iran’s Deputy Petroleum Minister for International Affairs and Commerce, Amir-Hossein Zamani-Nia, highlighted the necessity of this business co-operation model, saying: “Direct investment is highly favored by Iran’s petroleum ministry but before that, Iran’s oil industry is in need of technologies and project management.” Since then, co-operation between Iran’s Petrochemical Research and Technology Company (PRTC) and the National Foundation of Elites and leading domestic universities to indigenize technically savvy methodology and engineering services has dramatically increased.

According to Iran’s National Petrochemical Company’s Planning and De-

velopment Bureau, over 21 petrochemical projects have been introduced to the Chinese, with a total initial development cost projected of nearly US$20 billion, while another 19 projects are to be financed by the National Development Fund of Iran (NIFI), with costs estimated at nearly US$6 billion. From the European side, prior to the U.S. sanctions being re-imposed, there was a flurry of offers to provide the latest technology to Iran, with the first deal being signed by Italy’s Maire Technimont for the construction of a petrochemical unit in Iran’s Pars Special Economic and Energy Zone.

Iran’s Petrochemical Research and Technology Company, for example, was in advanced talks with French firm Air Liquide to develop a 0.5 million tonnes propylene via methanol plant.

Corollary deals for the purchase of associated technology from companies in Germany, Norway and Japan were also well-advanced. In a similar vein, German engineering giant, Siemens, for instance, had signed an agreement with Iran’s MAPNA Group that would allow the latter to acquire the technological know-how to manufacture the German firm’s F class gas turbines in Iran, prior to which Siemens was to have delivered two of these turbines to the Bandar Abbas power plant (which services the PGSR).

Given the U.S.’s apparent withdrawal from all Middle East interests, except – albeit tenuously, Saudi Arabia – Iran believes that it is only a matter of time before sanctions are loosened up, if not entirely removed by the U.S. Tehran also believes that even before this is effected by the U.S. European firms will re-engage with Iran, in the first instance in the petchems sector. In this context, last week saw a comment from the NPC’s Seyed Reza Ghasemi Shahri that the company’s recent participation in Germany’s K-Show - the largest exhibition in the plastics and polymer industries in the world – that Iran’s Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company had made ‘preparations for concluding several agreements with different companies, especially European ones.’

India’s spygate WE NEED ANSWERS ON SEVERE BREACH OF CITIZEN PRIVACY Times of india The controversy over the use of spyware Pegasus by unidentified entities to violate the privacy of some Indians highlights multiple risks. Foremost among them is that India is in the midst of an unprecedented personal data collection drive by both public and private entities without a reasonable legislative architecture to safeguard privacy. If data is the new oil, India’s political executive and legislature are guilty of being flippant in safeguarding it. We still don’t have a personal data protection legislation though it’s about two years since Supreme Court emphatically upheld the citizen’s fundamental right to privacy. The apex court verdict was all encompassing. Not only did it set limits on state intervention, it also pointed out the state has an obligation to safeguard the fundamental right to privacy of individuals. When it comes to enhancing accountability when state surveillance is called for, we currently have a private member’s bill in Parliament which seeks to bring in judicial oversight in surveillance process. This must be taken up and passed into law. The fact is that India’s surveillance laws are crafted for the analog age. Given the radical evolution in technology, the existing legal architecture is all but useless.

Government has indicated that a personal data protection bill will be introduced in the winter session of Parliament. It should permit debate to improve the quality of legislation. This is necessary to put in place a framework which can adapt to the evolution of technology. Attendant to a legislative framework will be the creation of a data protection regulator. The quality of the regulator will be critical in upholding the apex court verdict on privacy. NDA has its work cut out to create this framework. In the interim, we do need credible answers on who used Pegasus to violate citizens’ fundamental rights.

Monday, 4 November, 2019

FOREIGN NEWS 07

UK PM JohnSon reJeCTS CAllS for no-deAl BrexiT in eleCTion PiTCh LONDON

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Agencies

RITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson drew an angry backlash from Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage on Saturday after he rejected calls to drop his Brexit deal and embrace a clean break from the European Union, potentially splitting the euroskeptic vote.

Johnson had previously pledged to take Britain out of the EU with or without a deal on Oct. 31, before lawmakers voted to force him to seek an extension

until Jan. 31. But he has abandoned the threat of a no-deal Brexit in his Conservative Party’s manifesto for the Dec. 12 election, the Times newspaper reported on Saturday. It added that the focus would be on getting his Brexit deal approved. On Friday, Johnson rejected a call from the Brexit Party to drop the deal he negotiated with the European Union last month in order to form a new electoral pact, saying that he could put his deal through parliament after any election win. “What we’ve got is a fantastic deal that nobody thought we could get,” Johnson said. “As soon as we get back in the middle of December, we can put that deal through.” In Britain’s tortuous journey since the 2016 referendum vote to leave the EU, businesses and economists have cautioned that leaving the bloc without a deal to smooth the transition would hurt the British economy.

Proponents of a no-deal Brexit say

Airbnb bans 'party houses' after deadly US shooting ORINDA

it provides a clean break from EU rules and regulations. “If The Times are right and Boris Johnson will abandon a clean break Brexit, and he wins an election on this, we will never be free of EU rules,” Brexit Party Leader Nigel Farage said in a tweet. “The deal is simply not Brexit and does not get Brexit done.”

“SO BAD” FOR BRITAIN: The Conservative manifesto will also not include a commitment to a fiscal rule, the Times reported, relaxing the government’s grip on public finances. The party did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government’s previous fiscal rule pledged to hold the underlying budget deficit below 2% of the country’s economic output in the 2020/21 financial year. The leaders of the opposition Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish Nationalist parties addressed supporters separately across Britain on Saturday, exhorting them to

Upmarket Hong Kong shopping mall clash ends in bloodshed HONG KONG Agencies

Teams make progress against latest major California blaze LOS ANGELES Agencies

Firefighters in California made progress Saturday containing a sizable new blaze in the southern part of the state as they continued to battle a much larger fire in the north. The so-called Maria Fire broke out Thursday in bone-dry conditions in Ventura County, 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles, sending thousands of people fleeing and endangering more than 2,500 structures. It had spread to 9,412 acres (3,808 hectares)

by Saturday evening, California fire officials said, but was 30 percent contained.

That progress came despite the forced grounding overnight of firefighting helicopters after at least two hobby drones were seen operating in the area, posing a risk of collision, officials said. The Ventura County Fire Department warned on Twitter that “even a tiny drone can cause a serious or fatal accident if it collides with firefighting aircraft.” In Sonoma County north of San Francisco, the Kincade Fire — the largest in the state this season — was continuing to burn over 77,758 acres on Saturday evening and was 74 percent contained, state officials said.

The fires prompted Governor Gavin Newsom to declare an emergency across the state, parts of which have not had rainfall for months.

india's Congress party says Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit by WhatsApp privacy breach NEW DELHI Agencies

Agencies

Airbnb’s boss announced Saturday that the online platform, which offers private homes for rent for short periods, is banning “party houses” after a deadly shooting at a Halloween event in California. Five people were killed and others wounded in a Thursday night shooting in Orinda, California, in a house that had been rented on Airbnb. More than 100 people were present at the event, which was announced on social media.

“Starting today, we are banning ‘party houses’ and we are redoubling our efforts to combat unauthorized parties and get rid of abusive host and guest conduct, including conduct that leads to the terrible events we saw in Orinda,” Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said on Twitter. To do this, Airbnb will increase “manual screening of high-risk reservations flagged by our risk detection technology,” create a “dedicated ‘party house’ rapid response team,” and take “immediate action” against those who violate guest policies, Chesky wrote. “We must do better, and we will,” he said. “This is unacceptable.”

Michael Wang, the owner of the home where the shooting took place, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he rented his house to a woman who said she was organizing a family reunion for a dozen people.

brave the weather to campaign in the country’s first December election since 1923, called to break the impasse over Brexit. U.S. President Donald Trump said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would be “so bad” for Britain in an interview with Farage on Thursday.

On Saturday, Corbyn warned of the dangers of a trade deal with the United States, saying it threatened Britain’s public National Health Service, a claim Johnson and Trump both deny.

“The reality of no-deal is (heading) straight into the arms of Donald Trump.

Straight into the arms of a free trade deal with the USA… and their desire to take over our public services,” Corbyn said at a rally in Swindon, 70 miles west of London. “We will not go down that path under any circumstances. Our public services, our national health service is not for sale, to Donald Trump or anybody else.”

Hong Kong anti-government protesters crowded an upmarket shopping mall in running clashes with police on Sunday, with several suffering bloody wounds a day after parts of the Chinese-ruled city became a battleground.

A human chain in Cityplaza, in the eastern suburb of Taikoo Shing, turned into a bloody face-to-face conflict with police, running up and down escalators where families with young children had been window shopping just minutes before and watching skating on the ice rink.

Police said protesters had vandalized a restaurant after a peaceful chanting of slogans.

Several people were wounded, one man in a white tee-shirt being beaten with sticks by protesters. Another man lay in a pool of blood on the pavement. Media reports said a knifeman had attacked four people.

Broadcaster RTHK said Democratic district councillor Andrew Chiu was among the wounded and that part of his ear had been bitten off. It was not immediately possible to verify the reports. A kitchen knife lay on the ground outside the mall.

“These police are not what they used to be,” said Julie, 24, giving police the middle finger. “They come

in here and push us around. It is not right.” Police made several arrests as protesters shouted “black police!”, a reference to their perceived brutality.

Police fired pepper spray at reporters when they got too close. One journalist was arrested.

There were also scuffles, confrontations and vandalism in malls in the New Territories towns of Tai Po, Tuen Mun and Sha Tin, where police fired pepper spray as protesters hurled abuse. Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, which Britain returned to Chinese rule in 1997, battled police across the main island on Saturday, furious at Communist Party leaders in Beijing and perceived Chinese meddling with Hong Kong’s freedoms, which China denies. They have vandalized Hong Kong businesses seen as being proChina and in July daubed China’s Liaison Office, the key symbol of Chinese sovereignty, with graffiti.

Cleaners swept up broken glass at the Hong Kong office of China’s official Xinhua news agency on Sunday, one of the buildings vandalized on the 22nd straight weekend of protests when activists hurled petrol bombs and set fire to metro stations.

Xinhua condemned the attack by what it said were “barbaric thugs” who broke doors and security systems and threw fire and paint bombs into the lobby.

“The practice of the black rioters once again shows that ‘stopping the violence and restoring order’ is Hong Kong’s most important and urgent task at present,” a spokesperson for Xinhua said in a Facebook post.

Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and a water cannon at protesters on Saturday and early Sunday as the violence spilled from Hong Kong island across the harbor to Kowloon.

One of the protesters’ key demands is an independent probe into perceived police brutality.

There have been several injuries during five months of unrest, including a protester shot in the chest and a policeman slashed in the neck, but no deaths since the protests began in June. Hong Kong returned to China under a “one country, two systems” formula which guarantees its freedoms for 50 years. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has a garrison in Hong Kong but troops have remained in barracks since the protests began. Protesters last month targeted a PLA barracks with lasers prompting troops to hoist a banner warning they could be arrested. Senior PLA officers have said violence will not be tolerated. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam will fly to China this week to discuss how to make it easier for Hong Kong people to live and work on the mainland, her office said on Sunday.

India’s main opposition Congress party said on Sunday that its general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had been informed by messaging service WhatsApp that her phone was hacked during this year’s election campaign by malware from Israeli surveillance firm NSO. Last week, the Indian government asked Facebook-owned WhatsApp to explain the nature of a privacy breach on its messaging platform that has affected some users in the country.

The surveillance revelations came after WhatsApp sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group last Tuesday, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents including diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and government officials. NSO denied the allegations. India is WhatsApp’s biggest market with 400 million users. “When WhatsApp sent messages to all those whose phones were hacked, one such message was also received by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra,” senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala told reporters on Sunday. Priyanka – she is usually referred to by just her first name – is the sister of Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi. Surjewala declined to share details about the alleged hacking. He said phones of other opposition leaders were also hacked. A government spokesman was not immediately available for comment. People familiar with WhatsApp’s investigation told Reuters that a significant number of Indian civil society figures were put under surveillance using the Israeli spyware. One source familiar with the matter said that 121 people in India were among those targeted with the hacking software.

WhatsApp has not identified anyone by name. Users including Indian lawyers, academics, Dalit rights activists and journalists have come forward to say they received warnings from WhatsApp that they were the targets of espionage.

Iran's Khamenei renews ban on talks with US DUBAI

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Agencies

RAN will not lift its ban on talks with the United States, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday, describing the two countries as implacable foes on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

“One way to block America’s political infiltration is to ban any talks with America. It means Iran will not yield to America’s pressure,” Khamenei, who is Iran’s top authority, was quoted by state TV as saying. “Those who believe that negotiations with the enemy will solve our problems are 100% wrong,” Relations between the two foes have reached a crisis over the past year after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned a 2015 pact between Iran and world powers under which Tehran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions.

Washington has reimposed sanctions aimed at halting all Iranian oil exports, saying it seeks to force Iran to negotiate to reach a wider deal.

Khamenei has banned Iranian officials

from holding such talks unless the United States returns to the nuclear deal and lifts all sanctions.

The anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy shortly after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution is marked in Iran with annual demonstrations of crowds chanting “Death to America”

across the country.

The embassy capture cemented the hostility between the two countries which has remained a central fact in Middle East geopolitics and an important part of Iran’s national ideology.

Iran, which accused the United States of supporting brutal policies of its

ousted Shah, held 52 Americans for 444 days at the embassy, which it called “the Den of Spies”.

“The U.S. has not changed since decades ago … it continues the same aggressive, vicious behaviour and the same international dictatorship,” Khamenei said. “Iran has a firm, iron will. It will not let America return to Iran.”

Washington’s European allies have opposed the Trump administration’s decision to abandon the nuclear pact. Iran responded to U.S. sanctions by gradually scaling back its commitments under the nuclear agreement and has said it could take further steps in November.

Khamenei poured scorn on French President Emmanuel Macron for trying to promote talks between the foes.

Macron tried to arrange a failed meeting between Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September.

“The French president, who says a meeting will end all the problems between Tehran and America, is either naive or complicit with America,” Khamenei said in remarks reported by state television.

Monday, 4 November, 2019

08 COMMENT US report on global terrorism

dR OmeR javed

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State Department’s message to Pakistan

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He Us state Department’s report on terrorism, mandated by and presented to Us Congress, focused on Pakistan’s terror financing, indicating that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) process is more important than even the importance it has been given by islamabad. As Pakistan needs Us support to come off the FATF grey list, the report becomes even more important. The state Department is apparently careful not to commit itself one way or another, and while it finds that Pakistan has carried out a number of measures to prevent terror financing, it has also not been that efficient at implementation, which the report describes as ‘uneven’.

The report also raises the issue of continued support for the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which it said were allowed to put up candidates in the 2018 elections, apart from raising money, recruiting and training. There were also concerns raised about providing sanctuary to the Haqqani Network as well as the Afghan Taliban. These concerns tie in with the financial aspect because they might determine, and certainly will colour, the Us attitude in FATF. it should not be forgotten that China has indicated that it might not be able to offer Pakistani the support it has so far extended at the FATF, which has actually kept Pakistan off the FATF blacklist so far. However, it should not be forgotten that FATF indicated in its last meeting that Pakistan would not get any further extensions after the February meeting, to which it had received an extension. it should seem like a no-brainer: to preserve Pakistan’s access to the world’ capital markets on the one hand versus the support of these militant groups. instead of Pakistan getting unalloyed credit for its valiant efforts to prevent terror groups from using its soil, it finds itself castigated for not doing enough. This is solely because of certain elements which seem to put these groups ahead of the national interest. The national interest demands that Pakistan avoid FATF blacklisting, which would have horrific economic effects, and that too on an economy which is already not in the best shape to sustain those effects. For too long has Pakistan, or rather certain elements within it, run with the hare and hunted with the hounds. This must end.

He state Bank of Pakistan (sBP) recently released its annual report ‘The state of Pakistan’s economy 2018-19’ in which it primarily assessed the growth and macroeconomic situation of the country during FY19.

The opening chapter reviewed the overall economy, in which it pointed out that macroeconomic adjustments, primarily through a tight monetary stance and devaluation of the rupee, had allowed reining in current account deficit, although the gains of these two policy measures had moderate impacts on adequately checking inflation– primarily at the back of ‘partial reversal of tax reliefs and implemented PsDP cuts... [and also]... government continued to borrow heavily from sBP, which in turn somewhat diluted the impact of contractionary monetary policy’.

These stabilisation policies, both before and under the international Monetary Fund’s (iMF) extended Fund Facility (eFF) programme signed in May 2019 with the government, led to a squeezing of aggregate demand, along with contraction in large-scale manufacturing.

At the same time, private sector credit growth also remained a lot weaker than the previous fiscal year, as the report highlighted ‘the momentum in private credit weakened: private sector credit expanded by rs693.5 billion during FY19, compared to rs775.5 billion last year. resultantly, the credit to GDP ratio remained stagnant at 17.3 per cent in FY19... [where]... the expansion in loans for fixed investment more than halved compared to FY18... [and]... in FY19, however, long-term loans grew only rs82.9 billion – less than half of the rs203.9 billion increase recorded in FY18’.

The lukewarm economic activity thus generated in this macroeconomic environment, resulted in growth in real GDP (gross domestic product) to be a lot lower at 3.3 per cent than the target of 6.2 per cent for FY19. Here, the report indicated that all major economic sectors performed poorly, whereby a) agriculture growth– the mainstay sector of the economy– was a paltry 0.8 per cent (against a target of 3.8 per cent, and actual growth of 3.9 per cent in FY19), and b) growth rate of the industrial sector only grew by 1.4 per cent during FY19, while during the same time in FY18, it grew by 4.9 per cent.

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Following up the Tezgam inferno Sensitivity missing

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HAT many of the 74 victims of the Tezgam inferno would need DNA identification was necessitated by the horrible way they were burnt. However, that meant that relatives who came in to the sheikh Zayed Hospital mortuary in rahim Yar Khan to claim the bodies of their missing relatives, would have to give DNA samples themselves, against which the horribly disfigured corpses would be matched. This was thus a task which required tact and empathy, not the kind of officiousness displayed by some doctors, which led to them clashing with some of the relatives. it was also noticeable that neither the Pakistan railways nor the Punjab government had deputed anyone to receive the relatives and help them in a melancholy task. One basic prerequisite was that the corpses’ DNA should have already been analysed, so that all that was needed was that to match them against that of relatives’ samples as they came in. This was not done. it would be purposeless to enter the debate of whether the fire was caused by the bursting of gas cylinders brought on board by passengers for cooking, or whether there was a short circuit. in case of the former, the passengers were at fault, in the latter, railways. However, even if one was to concede that the former, railways would still have questions to answer, most pertinently how the cylinders were smuggled on board. There would also be a host of other issues, such as whether railways had developed a policy of looking the other way at the cooking arrangements of the Tablighi Jamaat.

All of that is to be determined by an internal railways investigation. How that investigation is to take place independently in the presence of a minister who has taken a stance placing the blame fairly and squarely on the passengers is moot. This was an old demand for the PTi whenever anything went wrong: it wanted the minister in-charge to resign so that investigations could be done freely. How does that not apply to the present situation?

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

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Khalid Ranjha

versive stimuli such as electric shocks and nasty tastes have since long been employed by therapists to make drug-abusers, sex offenders and paedophiles unlearn their undesirable behaviour. They purposefully associate pain with unacceptable fantasies to get their patients say that, “They hate their desires because they make them sick.” This is, however, one of the highly condemned methods of treating patients as it may lead to high a rate of dropout, aggression, poor compliance with treatment and death risk for persons with heart and lung problems.

As a consequence of criticism on medical and ethical grounds, psychologists are now increasingly using safe stimuli instead of nasty ones to change their patients’ behaviour.

However, from the information i managed to glean from the Css Club (a social media platform of Css aspirants), discussions with Css aspirants, and detailed marks sheets of the Css qualifiers of the past few years, the FPsC’s examiners are still using questionable stimuli and highly controversial methods of discouraging students from opting for certain optional subjects in the Css exam.

By way of explanation, one needs look no further than the Detailed Marks sheets of Css 2017, 2018 and 2019 candidates. in Css 2019, students having opted for international relations, Gender studies and international Law secured shockingly low marks compared to those who had Political science, Business Administration and Criminology etc, as their optional subjects. Likewise, Css 2018 candidates with Public Administration, Geography and any history subject other than Us History had unbelievably high marks, irrespective of the quality of their papers, compared to those who had Gender studies, Us History and international Law as optional subjects. in turn, students with Us History, Gender studies and international Law found themselves in a position of advantage over those having certain other subjects in Css 2017. As believed by the Css aspiKarachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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The SBP reports The report showed some disturbing trends This is indeed a heavy sacrifice ratio to entail for the real sector, given that CPi (consumer price index) inflation still increased the target at 7.3 per cent against a target of 6 per cent, even when ‘the sBP’s monetary policy committee (MPC) increased the policy rate in all six decisions during the year, by a cumulative 575 bps’.

This begs the question as to why the sBP stuck with keeping the policy rate high, when inflation data showed little response to it during all this time, when it could have realised inflation was not just demand-pull but also cost-push.

While economic growth remained a casualty of this controversial consistent tight monetary stance– the most in Asia during this time– other related negative consequences of this policy stance, weakness on the tax policy and administration side, and the slowdown in economic growth on, firstly, tax revenue collection, which not only remained well below the target for FY19, but moreover ‘tax collection effort was also underscored by the fact that revenues could not even keep pace with nominal GDP growth during the year’. secondly, while the report did indicate that interest payments increased a lot, it remained short of linking it with the tight monetary policy stance, even when the real interest rate for many months remained well above the convention of 2 per cent. Hence, the (unjustified) high level of policy rate not only fed to fiscal deficit, which ballooned to 8.9 per cent of GDP (well above the target of 4.9 per cent of GDP), the external debt repayment component also enhanced by excessive devaluation of rupee, leading in turn to overall gross domestic debt at a very high level of 84.8 per cent of GDP, and exceedingly higher than the target of 68 per cent of GDP. Having said that, the sBP seemed to take virtually no responsibility for its part in the creation of this precarious growth and stability situation, and virtually pushed the entire buck of responsibility on fiscal sector weaknesses– for instance, ‘fundamental structural deficiencies in Pakistan’s taxation sys-

tem’. Having said that, the report did internalise the impact of stabilisation measures, along with moderation in the economy on banks’ non-performing loans (NPLs) ‘which increased sharply during FY19... [where]... on a yearly basis, gross NPLs posted a growth of 23.2 per cent during the year, which is the highest growth observed since FY11’.

Hence, clearly the business’s capacity to repay loans was dented– in addition to the impact of reduced aggregate demand and growth slowdown– due to contractionary macroeconomic policies, over-adjustment through expenditure cuts, lack of private-sector credit growth and needed institutional reforms– especially on the aggregate supply side. Perhaps the report should have undertaken a special section to see the impact of high policy rate and exchange rate devaluation, in terms of sacrifice ratio in the shape of reduced growth (and with it lack of large-scale manufacturing, and employment generation), higher public debt repayments, extent of fiscal deficit, and NPLs. surely, fiscal policy remained weak, and institutional reforms proceeded at a very slow pace, yet the impact from the side of monetary/exchange rate policies also needed to be highlighted in the report as choice was perhaps over-used. That admission would have given needed hope for business confidence. Time for fiscal policy balancing with monetary policy, is indeed overdue, before God forbid, the recessionary trends in the economy turn into a depression. Also, the sBP should not shy away in calling a spade a spade when it comes to existence of a very weak negative relationship between policy rate and inflation, and between inflation and unemployment, as being demonstrated by data for some time now. Moreover, the sBP needs to understand, as a consequence, that economy is suffering from stagflation, and plan accordingly.

Dr Omer Javed holds PhD in Economics degree from the University of Barcelona, and previously worked at International Monetary Fund. He tweets @omerjaved

What’s wrong with the CSS exam?

Some subjects seem to get more marks than others rants, and Detailed Marks sheets of candidates lend credence to this belief, the FPsC’s examiners wittingly target certain optional subjects opted by a large number of students to ease their own burden. Css aspirants are thereby in very low spirits due to the belief that no matter how hard they work, they would not get through the exam if their subjects happen to be the lowest scoring.

The FPsC, therefore, need to come clean about the criterion of paper checking and rumours of instructed marking in the Css exam. it would do well if it answers some hard-hitting questions posed by the candidates. For instance, can a student having the three lowest scoring optional subjects such as international relations, Gender studies and international Law compete with a student having the highest scoring optional subjects such as Political science, Public Administration and Criminology etc, in Css-2019? is the latter not at an advantage of 70 to 90 marks over the former in the written part of the exam? Can he make up for the loss of 70 to 90 marks in written part even if he manages to get 20 to 30 marks more in the viva voce than a student having the highestscoring optional subjects?

This situation, in fact, begs a few more important questions. For instance, are those who get allocated due merely to their lucky optional subjects, if detailed marks sheets are anything to go by, despite getting merely passing marks in interview more competent, in any way, than those getting high marks in interview? in fact, Article 14(ii) of the rules For Competitive examinations makes it abundantly clear that a candidate scoring high marks in interview is more competent than the one getting more marks in written part of the exam. And even if the students with the lowest scoring optional subjects do not get high marks in the interview, are they still not at a serious disadvantage vis-a-vis those having

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the highest scoring optional subjects?

More importantly, are both categories of students being treated equally? And has the FPsC put the fate of very competent candidates, according to the FPsC’s own admission in Article 14(ii) of the exam rules, who cannot make it to civil service despite getting high marks in interview, at the disposal of the whims and moods of the examiners who mark their optional papers? is it fair to let the candidates who get allocated merely because their optional papers are checked by an examiner who does not let the bad quality of their papers, in a large number of cases if majority of Css aspirants and teachers are to be believed, come in the way of them being getting allocated, continue as civil servants?

Would the FPsC be responsible for the maladministration caused by the civil servants recruited merely on the basis of their lucky optional subjects?

What is more, is refusal to allow exposure and re-examination of papers not a clear violation of the right of Access to information Act which applies to the FPsC also? Do any of the exemptions provided under sections 7 and 16 of that Act apply to the FPsC also? And does the exposure of students’ papers pose a threat to national security, even if the term is given a very liberal interpretation?

Or, is their exposure likely to endanger the life and liberty of any individual? As a matter of fact, these questions have gained much more significance after some students challenged the Css-2018 result in islamabad High Court on suspicions of discrimination against them.

Before filling a suit in court these students sent letters to the FPsC office to draw its attention to the discrimination, they believed, they were subjected to. instead of effectively addressing their grievances the FPsC sent them the Quaid-e-Azam’s sayings in reply and advised them to think of a career other than the civil service. Given the gravity of the sit-

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uation, as another group of Css aspirants is also raising funds through social media to challenge the Css2019 result, so the FPsC would be well-advised if it gives satisfactory answers to the questions raised by the disheartened Css aspirants.

Admittedly, some candidates with the lowest scoring optional subjects also make it by faring exceptionally well in the interview. But, this does not exonerate the FPsC’s examiners, because the fate of the unsuccessful candidates is not to be compared with that of a few exceptional candidates but with that of the candidates who get allocated due merely to their lucky optional subjects despite doing badly in the interview. in fact, these few exceptional candidates are also left complaining, as did the Css-2018 candidates who believed that examiners awarded them very low marks in Us History, Gender studies and international Law without taking in account the quality of their content, command over subject and presentation, and that had they been treated equally in the written part of the exam they would have secured much better groups.

As Css toppers in 2010 and 2016 reportedly failed in 2011 and 2017 respectively and a candidate who won the rhodes scholarship in 2013 failed in the Css essay in the same year by securing single-digit marks, one should consider the FPsC’s paper checking criterion before squarely blaming Pakistan’s education system, though it is also far from satisfactory, for the dismal performance of candidates in the Css exam. Given the FPsC’s questionable assessment criterion and quota system, which also discourages merit, introduction of any other Css reforms, as reportedly being contemplated, would arguably not yield desired results. Perhaps it is high time that the FPsC, apart from putting blame on our flawed education system, also took some responsibility for the poor Css result.

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Monday, 4 November, 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

PM Kashmir mission PM imran Khan after a two-day stopover in saudi Arabia, has landed in New York to attend Annual UN General Assembly session. He is accompanied by Foreign Minister and two of unelected advisors, namely Hafeez sheikh, allegedly a naturalised Us Citizen and Zulfi Bukhari, a British citizen by birth. Any person who seeks Us citizenship has to pledge on oath that he “absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom i have heretofore been a subject or citizen”.

Of course the PM will be assisted by our Ambassadors to UN and UsA, but what purpose do these two individuals serve, who when not holding any public office have never lived in this country, nor paid any taxes, neither do they have any stakes in Pakistan. When there was huge demonstration held in London on 15 August participated by thousands of Pakistanis, Kashmiris, sikhs and some conscientious British citizens, neither of these two gentlemen had time to participate in them, although one of them holds portfolio of Overseas Pakistanis. What is surprising is that a vocal Federal Minister was present in London, but he for reasons best known to him, did not take part in it. Unlike indian diaspora, who constitutionally cannot hold dual nationality, nor right to vote in indian elections, if they hold any foreign nationality, but are united on one platform and support whoever is elected by people of india. They also send remittances back to india. it is unfortunate that Pakistani diaspora is divided among political parties of Pakistan and are rarely seen to be united on one platform.

GULL ZaMan Peshawar

Jinnah’s ‘Purana Pakistan’

Dharna politics Now Imran Khan must face the trend he established

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Syed KaSwaR GaRdezi

He same set, same actors, but in different roles. The sequel to the dharna politics has officially been aired. Not long ago, the incumbent government flooded the streets of islamabad demanding Prime Minister Nawaz sharif’s resignation. “We will settle for nothing short of the PM’s resignation,” imran Khan reiterated on an hourly basis. The firebrand speeches coupled with the music systems echoed throughout the capital culminating in the unified slogan of ‘Go Nawaz Go’. As fate would have it, the roles reversed and it is now imran Khan whose resignation is being sought.

The culture of dharna politics is widely attributed to imran Khan and rightly so. it was his party which took to the streets every now and then, wreaking havoc while they were at it. The mode and manner of protest is more or less the same with a few changes. imran, at the time, came out in support of Tahir-ul-Qadri, a man who may not be well liked but was out for a cause. The only mission was to avenge the brutal murders committed in Model Town. it was a slogan which would move even the most hardened men. A massacre had ensued in broad daylight at the behest of the government and no responsibility had been fixed. The demands ranged from the Chief Minister’s resignation to the Prime Minister’s.

Nevertheless, the dharnas did send out a message but didn’t achieve the desired result.

Or maybe, the result itself was the popularity gained, only imran himself would know. The resignations never came. The report of the Model Town incident was made public, pursuant to the orders of the Lahore High Court, but the hue and cry which was expected never followed. What ensued was a precedent being set to exert pressure on a sitting government.

Dharna became the new norm. Politicians found a new door to steer the emotions of a common man and give it a direction so as to achieve their own ulterior motives.

Having learnt the lesson from imran himself, the opposition today has decided to give

him a taste of his own medicine. it doesn’t seem to be having an effect at the moment but with each passing minute, things could take a turn for the worse. The resignation being sought is unlikely to come; however, a law and order situation can most certainly be created. Though the opposition has signed an agreement to stay away from the red Zone yet, it appears the moment is not far when the Maulana would terminate the agreement unilaterally and give the order to march towards the red Zone. He doesn’t seem to be having his way. As established by imran Khan himself, you have to be closer to the corridors of power in order to get your voice heard and make your presence felt.

The Maulana would not hesitate to take a leaf out of imran’s book and attempt to disrupt the day-to-day life within the red Zone. As per his continuous tirade, apparently his patience is being tested and he claims to have a better plan to steer the country out of its woes.

Then again, so did Khadim Hussain rizvi.

The question is, when did the Maulana become so important as to be spearheading an opposition movement with the goal to topple the government?

From being a sidekick of every government to becoming the face of the opposition is surely itself an achievement for the Maulana. A definite step up in his game. But is he really after the Prime Minister’s resignation? Does he have the nation’s best interest in mind? is the protest movement sincere in its entirety?

These are certain pertinent questions, the answers to which can be taken from the historical background of the Maulana’s game.

For the longest time, Maulana Fazl-urrehman has enjoyed a seat at the table. A seat duly provided by all the concerned quarters. in his own mind, he has always considered himself allied with the establishment. As one writer suggested, the entire quest may only be to revive his relevance in the eyes of those who matter. The ones who, at the moment, have eyes for nobody but imran Khan. To ig-

nite the fading love, Maulana has taken a hard course in order to regain his pertinence.

On the other hand, the opposition huddling behind him reflects the absence of much options in the present circumstances. it appears to be the Hollywood adaptation of the Batman’s Dark Knight, where all the desperate mafia bosses who had been backed up against the wall chose to unite behind a psychopath (the Joker) as the latter was the only one willing to take a step. With most of the opposition leadership behind bars and the rest facing the brunt of NAB coupled with a crippling economy, the Maulana appears to be the only one stepping forward with the rhetoric against the government. He might be there to suit his own agenda, however, for different reasons, the opposition parties some with cautious reluctance stood behind him. it is not the Maulana’s own importance but rather the vacuum left behind by a missing leadership which has enabled the former to take centre stage. Despite the tall claims, it is unlikely that the Maulana and his supporters are going to gain much out of their protests. Threatening agitation against state institutions is not only implausible but suicidal. even if imran Khan did set the trend doesn’t mean it was the right one. Constitutionally elected governments cannot be and should not be held hostage at the whims of a protesting group, otherwise the likes of Khadim Hussain rizvi would have their day in the sun.

The other opposition parties rallying behind Fazl should bear in mind that at the last minute, he is mostly likely to slither away unharmed, leaving the rest behind to face the consequences. in the words of Hillary Clinton, Fazl is indeed a cunning sly fox and all those looking to be in bed with him should avoid doing so for their own betterment.

It is not the Maulana’s own importance but rather the vacuum left behind by a missing leadership which has enabled the former to take centre stage.

Despite the tall claims, it is unlikely that the Maulana and his supporters are going to gain much out of their protests. Threatening agitation against state institutions is not only implausible but suicidal

Syed Kaswar Gardezi is a lawyer and a columnist. He can be contacted at kaswargardezi@gmail.com

MArTiN Luther King Jr once said ‘almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world a better place’. Jinnah wanted the Pakistanis to respect our minorities. i want to reiterate that Prime Minister imran Khan had promised to give minorities their due rights. He envisioned following the model of the state of Medina. Mr Khan’s zeal was witnessed when he proposed that Dr Atif Mian was the panacea for the economic calamity of Pakistan. He desired to see Dr Atif as the Finance Minister in his ‘Naya Pakistan’. The desire was a rhetorical.

Nevertheless, Mr Khan coerced Dr Atif to resign from the economic Advisory Council, owing to his faith; which is indifferent to our economy. Consequently, Dr imran rasul resigned in protest. This robbed our economic Council of competent members. However, Jinnah would have daunted the government’s decision because he guaranteed justice, equality, and opportunities for the minorities. Jinnah was a protagonist of minority rights. He stood for the Muslims when they were a minority in the colonial india. Jinnah must have been disenchanted following this inauspicious decision.

The premier idealises Jinnah and pledged to withhold the values of the father of our nation. The white part of our flag denotes Pakistan’s minority. One need not be a Muslim to serve this country. Any person regardless of their religion is capable of serving his/her state without prejudice.

Unfortunately, our government has unceasingly disdained almost every other Pakistani, who had the audacity to choose a dissimilar trajectory since the demise of Mr Jinnah.

Pakistan loses her chance to prosper when every Joginder Nath Mandal, sir Zafarullah Khan, Abdul salam and in this case Dr Atif is left to the mercy of the bigots in the country.

This is a startling moment for our homeland. The food for thought is that can our nation flourish with this myopic attitude and is Pakistan alike india when it comes to minorities? Ostensibly, those who claim to be the harbinger of revolution, need to aspire for the Pakistan of 1947 i.e., ‘Purana Pakistan’.

BarrIStEr arSaLan CHaUDHry narowal

Banning plastic bags PLAsTiC bags had been a huge indication of apocalypses since 1950s and it is very much notorious of being the fountainhead of enhancing the mortality rate of people in Pakistan. Plastic bags are being manufactured with various hazardous chemicals which are very much dangerous for every individual surviving in Pakistan, because in every corner of Pakistan plastic bags are being used to carry out the eatable goods without being aware the causes and health risk and sometimes it is very much spoiler for the lands because the plastics would make a timber land into a barren land. According to the expert scientists that plastic takes more than 500 years to break down in a landfill. Moreover, the scientists have claimed that the plastic bags have been the source of numerous deadliest diseases such as cancer endometriosis, neurological damage, endocrine disruption, birth effects and developmental disorders, immune damage, asthma, and cause multiple organ damages. Furthermore, the Minister of Climate Change senator had evaluated that more than 55 billion plastic shopping bags are being used in Pakistan where the utilisation had been increased to 15 per cent per annum. in Pakistan approximately 8,021 production units are available whose production of average is nearly 250-500 kilograms per day and the result more investigated that more than 160,000 were directly and 600,000 were indirectly dependent on the industry. i request to the government to conduct surveys to create awareness among the residents about the health risks of applying plastic bags.

MEHraJ aLtaF turbat

Monday, 4 November, 2019

10 FOREIGN NEWS

PRoTesTeRs Block Roads To IRaqI PoRT, deMaNd eNd To foReIgN MeddlINg BAGHDAD

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ary” youths. More than 250 people were killed in October. Clashes have focused on the ramparts to the Republic Bridge leading across the Tigris to the heavily fortified Green Zone of government buildings, where the protesters say outof-touch leaders are holed up in their walled-off bastion of privilege.

Security forces on Saturday erected concrete walls on one of Baghdad’s main streets which leads into Tahrir Square in an attempt to reduce the turnout but a spontaneous protest in which crowds surrounded soldiers driving bulldozers forced them to take the structures down.

“Take it down, take it down,” they chanted. The protests, driven by discontent over economic hardship and corruption, have broken nearly two years of relative stability in Iraq.

Despite the country’s oil wealth, many live in poverty with limited access to clean water, electricity, health care or education.

Agencies

ECURITY forces killed a protester and wounded 91 others in Baghdad on Saturday, security and medical sources said, as tens of thousands of Iraqis gathered in mass anti-government protests in the capital and blocked roads leading to a major port.

Protesters have been congregating in the capital’s central Tahrir Square for weeks, demanding the fall of the political elite in the biggest wave of mass demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Protests have accelerated dramatically in recent days, drawing huge crowds from across sectarian and ethnic divides.

They have been comparatively peaceful by day, becoming more violent after dark as police use tear gas and rubber bullets to battle self-proclaimed “revolution-

The government of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, in office for a year, has found no response to the protests.

Thousands of protesters were blocking all roads leading to Iraq’s main Gulf port Umm Qasr near the oil-rich city of Basra, after security forces used live rounds and tear gas overnight.

Operations at the port, which receives the vast bulk of Iraq’s imports of grain, vegetable oils and sugar, have been at a complete standstill since Wednesday.

EXCESSIVE FORCE: On Friday, both the teachers’ and lawyers’ unions said they would extend strikes they declared last week. Schools had been due to reopen on Sunday after a week of cancelled classes.

Many see the political class as subservient to one or another of Baghdad’s main allies, the United States and Iran, who use Iraq as a proxy in a struggle for regional influence. “We don’t want anyone interfering in our affairs, not Saudi

Arabia, not Turkey, not Iran, not America.

It’s our country, our demands are clear,” said protester Ahmed Abu Mariam.

The root cause of grievances is the sectarian power-sharing system of governance introduced in Iraq after 2003.

“We want an end to sectarian powersharing, jobs should not be doled out based on whether you are Sunni or Shi’ite. We want all these parties gone and replaced with a presidential system,” said 22-year-old law student Abdulrahman Saad who has been camped out in

IS claims responsibility for deadly Mali attacks on 50 soldiers BAMAKO Agencies

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for a devastating raid that killed 49 Malian troops as well as a blast that led to the death of a French soldier who became the latest casualty in the conflicttorn region.

The strikes underscored the fragility of an area straddling several West African countries battling increasing jihadist violence that has claimed hundreds of lives. Friday’s assault on a Malian military outpost at Indelimane in the eastern Menaka region near Niger killed 49 soldiers, wounded three and left 20 survivors, the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) said Saturday.

“Soldiers of the caliphate attacked a military base where elements of the apostate Malian army were stationed in the village of Indelimane,” the IS said in a statement on its social media channels. On Saturday, French corporal Ronan Pointeau, 24, died after an armoured vehicle in which he was travelling hit an improvised explosive device (IED) near the city of Menaka, a French defence ministry statement said.

The IS late Saturday also claimed responsibility for that, saying its fighters had “detonated an explosive device on a French army convoy in the Indelimane area”. Pointeau and his colleagues were escorting a convoy between the cities of Gao and Menaka.

“This insidious attack shows the importance and bitterness of the fight against armed terrorist groups” in the border region straddling Mali, Niger

Bangladesh grants bail to Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus DHAKA Agencies

A court in Bangladesh’s capital granted bail on Sunday to micro-credit pioneer and Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus over the firing of three employees by Grameen Communications, where he is chairman.

Acting chairman of the 3rd labor court in Dhaka, Zakia Parveen, granted the bail when Yunus appeared before the court. The country’s high court had set a November 7 deadline last month for him to appear in person. It had asked authorities not to arrest or harass Yunus before the deadline. Court official Wasiur Rahman said the court granted bail of 10,000 takas ($120) in bonds in each of the three cases. Defence lawyer Mustafizur Rahman Khan said Yunus would not be required to appear in person before the court until any indictments are handed down. The labor court had earlier issued an arrest warrant for Yunus after he failed to appear because he was abroad. The three employees filed the cases in July, saying they were terminated illegally after seeking to form a trade union.

and Burkina Faso, the French defence ministry said. French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said she would be “visiting Mali very soon to hold discussions with Malian authorities.”

President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Pointeau and expressed solidarity with the French and African troops fighting in the region.

The Malian government initially said 53 people died in what it described

as a “terrorist attack” at Indelimane. An army officer said troops arrived at the outpost around 5:00 pm on Friday and “took back control of our positions. “The terrorists carried out a surprise attack at lunchtime. Army vehicles were destroyed, others taken away,” he told AFP. The attacks came a month after two jihadist assaults killed 40 soldiers near the border with Burkina Faso. Several sources have said the real death toll was higher. MINUSMA, the UN mission in Mali, condemned the raid and said its peacekeepers were helping Malian troops secure the region.

“This bloodshed that Mali has been living through cannot go on,” imam Mahamound Dicko, an influential religious leader in Mali, said. “Do you want us to resign ourselves to this suffering? We can resist,” he added.

Rights activist Alioune Tine, from Mali’s western neighbour Senegal, called for action across Africa to tackle the threat. “If Africa does not mobilise for Mali and Burkina (Faso), it won’t be spared the bushfire that is quickly catching West Africa’s coastal countries, the next chosen targets” of the jihadists, he said.

Sri Lanka election chief censors state TV ahead of polls COLOMBO Agencies

Sri Lanka’s election commission said it would censor a state-owned TV station in an unprecedented move after accusing the network of bias against the former president’s brother, who is standing in upcoming polls.

The surprise move came after the Independent Television Network (ITN) aired a programme alleging loyalists to the previous regime had thwarted a corruption probe into strongman ex-president Mahinda Rajapakse’s family. The broadcast had harmed opposition frontrunner Gotabhaya Rajapakse — brother of the former leader — according to the election commission. The channel will be banned from showing political content from Monday without the commission’s approval, chairman Mahinda Deshapriya said.

“ITN cannot broadcast any po-

litical content without clearing with the Election Commission until the conclusion of the election on November 16,” said a letter sent from Deshapriya to the network late Saturday and seen by AFP. The letter also said that any live events filmed by the station must be shown to the commission for approval before being transmitted.

It is the first time that a Sri Lankan election chief has censored a TV station. The commission said it

CMYK

had received many complaints about other channels campaigning for Rajapakse without declaring their bias, but could not take action as these were all private networks.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse was defence secretary for a decade until his brother Mahinda was voted out in 2015. The opposition candidate is the current favourite, even though his bid is widely seen as a front to get Mahinda —barred from contesting the election because of a twoterm limit — back into power.

Mahinda’s rule was marked by the end of a bloody civil war against ethnic Tamil rebels, and an international outcry over alleged human rights violations by Sri Lankan troops.

The election has attracted a record 35 candidates, with nearly 16 million people eligible to vote. Last week, the commission said it was working with Facebook to take down posts that defamed election candidates.

Tahrir Square for nine days.

Iraq’s official rights watchdog, the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights, said authorities were violating human rights and using excessive force against protesters by firing rubber bullets and tear gas canisters, which have killed scores after striking them directly in the head and chest. A government committee investigating violence from Oct. 1-7 itself found that 149 civilians were killed because security forces used excessive force and live fire to quell protests.

Trump approves plan to cap refugees at 18,000 in 2020 WASHINGTON Agencies

President Donald Trump has signed off on a plan that continues a dramatic drop in the number of refugees taken in by the US to no more than 18,000 in the fiscal year 2020. When the State Department first announced the plan in September religious and humanitarian groups sharply criticised the administration. In the last full year of the Obama administration, the refugee ceiling was 85,000. This year, the Trump administration set the limit at 30,000. That number was the lowest since the modern resettlement program’s creation in 1980. In a statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo noted that refugee resettlement “is only one aspect of US humanitarian-based immigration efforts”. He cited diplomatic efforts to find solutions to crises as well as humanitarian aid.

UN chief urges Myanmar to resolve Rohingya crisis NEW YORK Agencies

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern on Sunday over the plight of the 730,000 Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, calling on Myanmar’s government to take responsibility by dealing with the “root causes” of their flight and working toward their safe repatriation. Guterres spoke as he held a meeting with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to which Myanmar belongs. ASEAN leaders meet annually to try to work out common positions on pressing issues, but also maintain a policy of noninterference in each other’s affairs. A draft of a statement to be issued by ASEAN leaders takes a generally weak tone toward how Myanmar should deal with its Rakhine crisis. “I remain deeply concerned about the situation in Myanmar, including Rakhine state, and the plight of the massive number of refugees still living increasingly in difficult conditions,” said Guterres. “It remains, of course, Myanmar’s responsibility to address the root causes and ensure a conducive environment for the safe, voluntary, dignified and sustainable repatriation of refugees to Rakhine state, in accordance with international norms and standards.” He said Myanmar should take measures “to facilitate dialogue with refugees and pursue confidence building measures” and “to ensure humanitarian actors have full and unfettered access to areas of return, as well as communities in need”.

Monday, 4 November, 2019

BUSINESS 11

GovernMenT To PresenT firsT GeoGraPhiCal indiCaTion Bill in ParliaMenT soon ISLAMABAD

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PM’s programme to focus on technical and vocational training of youth ISLAMABAD APP

Prime Minister Youth Affairs Program (PMYAP) in collaboration with National Vocational and Technical Training Center (NAVTTC) has planned to launch the program “Skills for All” for socio-economic empowerment of youth across the country. According to an official, major aim of the said program was to impart skills among the prime asset of the country– the youth. “Creating employment opportunities for their social and economic uplift would enable them to play a pivotal role in the national development,'' he remarked while talking to APP. He said a Technical Steering Committee would be constituted to review the progress of the project on a quarterly basis, and the entire program would be made available on a digital platform to ensure merit and transparency. He said this huge project is one of its kind, envisaging the reform agenda for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) sector of Pakistan, which has been developed after extensive deliberations. He added that under the program, development and standardization of 200 technical and vocational qualifications would be given.

“International accreditation of 50 Pakistani TVET institutes and initiation of Joint Degree Programs in TVET will be done,'' he stated. He further said under the programme, “there will be an extension of NAVTTC’s job portal with National Exchange Portal which help refurbishing and connecting all existing job placement facilities across the country”. “Establishment of 15 smart tech labs for virtual skill development programs besides distant learning programs in TVET sector would also part of this initiative,'' he said. He further informed that establishment of 10 country-of-destination specific facilitation centers in 10 major manpower exporting cities across Pakistan would also be on the cards. He informed that establishment of 70 labs/workshops in Madrassah(s) to introduce skill development and TVET activities across Pakistan is also part of this programme. Another agenda under this program would be skill development programs for 50,000 youth belonging to less developed areas of the country especially Balochistan, GB, AJK, and newly added districts of KP (exFATA), Southern Punjab and rural Sindh, he said. “Skill development training of 50,000 youth in high-end technologies in reputed universities of Pakistan and TVET institutes was also included,” he said. He said there would be establishment of National Skills Accreditation Council at Islamabad, adding that accreditation of 2000 TVET institutes all across Pakistan would be started.

“Establishment of 50 incubation centers to promote self employment and entrepreneurship in skilled youth will also be done,'' he said.

GHULAM ABBAS

FTER a historic development related to introduction of the country’s first ecommerce policy last month, the government is now going to table the first Geographical Indication (GI) Bill in the National Assembly to protect ownership rights of goods produced in the country.

According to a high official at the Ministry of Commerce, the draft bill of GI law which was approved by parliament in August 2019, is all set to be tabled in parliament soon for approval.

On the request of the ministry, the bill is being introduced in the parliament in the next session of parliament, said the official, adding that the same has also been approved by the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC).

According to the official, Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce, Industry and Textile Razak Dawood has also taken up the issue with concerned officials at parliament house to table the bill in the next session.

The bill was originally prepared and forwarded by Intellectual Property Organization (IPO) Pakistan as attached department of the ministry of commerce. The draft GI bill, which remained in limbo for years, was pushed for approval from parliament and concerned authorities by the new Chairman of IPO Pakistan Mujeeb Ahmed Khan after due deliberation .

In the absence of GI legislation, international

brands continue selling Pakistan-origin goods such as Paul Smith’s Peshawari Chappal, Morrocan Ajrak and California Basmati, depriving the country to get premium on its GIs in international market.

The legislation regarding geographical identification is being deferred or delayed by the governments in Pakistan for the past over 17 years for various reasons. The GI (Registration and Protection) Bill, 2019, if approved, will help Pakistan protect the identification of domestic products.

According to official sources, the bill identifies the products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or reputation attributable to their place of origin. These are generally traditional products that have gained a reputation in the local, national or international market due to their specific unique qualities.

The draft aims to recognise and protect these products through legislation, allowing the community of producers to get a fair value of their commodities while preserving their unique identity.

The bill will help protect various local products including, but not limited to, Gilgit Baltistan’s Apricots, Charsadda/Peshawari Chappal, Multani halwa, Sindhi Ajrak, Sargodha’s Kinno, Kasuri Methi, Sindhri mangoes, Dir’s knives, Swat’s Wild Mushrooms, Nili-Ravi’s Buffalo, Chaman’s grapes and Pashmina Shawls Member countries of the World Trade Organisation are required to protect GIs under Article 22-24 of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement.

Govt releases Rs257 billion for development projects ISLAMABAD APP

The Ministry of Planning Development and Reforms has so far approved release of Rs257.167 billion, including Rs53.62 billion foreign aid for various ongoing and new development projects under the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) 2019/20 as against the total allocation of Rs701 billion, latest data revealed. The authorities concerned were sanctioned to release Rs113.950 billion, including Rs7.88 billion foreign aid for developmental projects of different federal ministries against the total allocation of Rs303.66 billion for the current fiscal year.

Meanwhile, Rs85.430 billion was released for the development projects of different corporations and government has released Rs80.209 billion for the National Highway Authority (NHA) of the Rs154.966 billion allocated in the current year’s development agenda.

Under the development program, Rs26.78 billion have been released for security enhancement against Rs32.5 billion budgeted allocation.

Under PSDP 2019/20, the government has given the authorisation of release of Rs10.640 billion for Azad Jammu and Kashmir, including Rs854.610 million of foreign aid component, as against the allocation of Rs27.284 billion.

Likewise, Rs6.571 billion was released for

Gilgit-Baltistan, as the government had earmarked Rs17.585 billion for different developmental projects in that area.

To enhance the water resource development, the government has approved release of Rs30.21 billion for different water resource development projects against the total allocation of Rs85.72 billion during the current fiscal year. Cabinet Division has also been given Rs15.994 billion as against the total allocation of Rs39.98 billion for the current fiscal year and an amount of Rs11.51 billion have been released for Higher Education Commission as against the total allocation of Rs29.046 billion.

The Planning Commission was following the specific mechanism for release of funds and during the first quarter (July-September), it releases 20 percent of development funds, in the second quarter (October-December) 20 percent, third quarter (January-March) 30 percent and 30 percent in the fourth quarter (April-June).

As per the proposed set up, application for registration of a GI will be filed by a government body representing the actors (producers, processors, etc.) of the specific GI product. The application will be accompanied by a series of details from history, origin of the product to the processing of the product.

The GI Bill entails that once a GI is registered, an infringement action can be initiated both by the registrant and by authorized users whose names have been entered in the register.

A registered GI is infringed by a person who is not an authorized user, uses such GIs by any means in the designation or presentation that indicates or suggests that such goods originate in a geographical area other than the true place of origin of such goods in a misleading manner or uses a GI which constitutes an act of unfair competition.

The proposed bill also provides for both civil and criminal remedies in cases of infringement.

The civil remedies include imposition of fines, forfeiture to government of all goods and things, means of which the offence had been committed, damages, account of profit, together with or without any order for delivery of the infringing label and indications for destruction or erasure.

The criminal remedies include imposition of fine or imprisonment or both. All suits for infringement shall be filed before the Intellectual Property Tribunal. Appeal against the decision of the registrar shall lie before the High Court. The bill specifies that a trade mark shall not be granted, if it contains a GI for goods and the products do not originate from the region in question.

Parliamentary delegation visits Thar Coal and Port Qasim power projects KARACHI INP

A parliamentary delegation on Sunday visited Thar Coal and Port Qasim power projects built under Pak China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The visit was arranged by the Pak China Institute.

The delegation was led by the Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Mushahid Hussain Sayed. The delegation was given a detailed briefing about both the projects. Other members of the delegation included Senator Lt. Gen. (R) Abdul Qayyum, Senator Noman Wazir Khattak, Senator Krishna Kumari, Senator Sikandar Mendro, Senator Rukhsana Zubari and former MNA Dr Shazra Mansab Ali. The delegation visited various parts of the projects and expressed a great deal of satisfaction over timely completion of both the projects. The delegation was informed that the jetty for the Port Qasim power plant was completed in 2018 and ships of upto 50,000 tonnes capacity transporting coal can anchor at the jetty. It was informed that two units of 660 MW were installed to generate 1320 MW electricity. State of the art technology was used for environment protection. The project was completed at a cost of two billion dollars and has so far generated more than 14 billion Kilowatt of electricity and produced 5000 job opportunities.

Saudi Arabia kick-starts IPO of world's largest oil company DUBAI AGENCIES

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company kickstarted its initial public offering (IPO) on Sunday, announcing its intention to list on the domestic bourse as the kingdom seeks to diversify and create the world’s most valuable listed company.

Aramco did not give a time frame or say how much of the company it would sell, but sources have told Reuters the oil company could offer 1%-2% of its shares on the local bourse, raising as much $20 billion-$40 billion.

Aramco said the IPO would be split into two tranches: one each for institutional and individual investors. The percentage of shares to be sold and the purchase price would be determined after the book-building period, it added in a statement.

Confirmation of the share sale in Saudi Arabian Oil Co, or Aramco, as the oil giant is usually known, comes about seven weeks after crippling attacks on its oil facilities, underlining Saudi Arabia’s determination to push on with the listing regardless.

The IPO of the world’s most profitable company is designed to turbocharge Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic reform agenda by raising billions to diversify the kingdom, whose dependency on oil was highlighted by the production impact of the Sept. 14 attacks.

Aramco said in Sunday’s statement that it posted a net income of $68 billion during the nine-month period ending on September 30. Revenues and other income related to sales for the same period amounted to $244 billion, it added.

Aramco plans to release the IPO prospectus on Nov. 10, Saudi-owned news channel Al-Arabiya said on Sunday, citing sources. Aramco said the Saudi market regulator, which approved its application to list on Sunday, had issued an exemption for non-resident institutional foreign investors to subscribe.

Saudi nationals would be eligible to receive bonus shares.

The listing announcement had been expected on Oct. 20 but was delayed after advisers said they needed more time to lock in cornerstone investors, three

sources told Reuters.

To help get the deal done, Saudi Arabia is relying on easy credit for retail investors and hefty contributions from rich locals.

VALUATION CHALLENGE: Although Prince Mohammed put a $2 trillion valuation on the company in early 2016, bankers and company insiders say Aramco’s value is closer to $1.5 trillion.

A growing movement to fight climate change and embrace new “green” technologies have put some fund managers, particularly in Europe and the United States, off the oil and gas sector.

At a valuation of $1.5 trillion, Aramco would still be worth at least 50% more than the world’s most valuable companies, Microsoft and Apple, which each have a market capitalisation of about $1 trillion. But a 1% sale would ‘only’ raise around $15 billion for Saudi coffers, less than the $25 billion generated by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in its record-breaking IPO in 2014.

It would rank Aramco as the 11th biggest IPO of all time, Refinitiv data show. (For a graphic on the top 10 largest

global IPOs, click tmsnrt.rs/33gWypM) A sale of 2% of Aramco shares at a $1.5 trillion valuation would make it the biggest IPO of all time, beating Alibaba’s.

The prospect of the world’s largest oil company selling a piece of itself has had Wall Street on tenterhooks since Prince Mohammed flagged it three years ago.

Initial hopes for a blockbuster international listing of about 5% were dashed when the share sale was halted last year amid debate over where to list Aramco overseas.

Aramco said the IPO timetable was delayed because it began a process to acquire a 70% stake in petrochemicals maker Saudi Basic Industries Corp.

IPO preparations were revived over the summer after Aramco attracted huge interest in its first international bond sale, seen as a pre-IPO relationship-building exercise with investors.

The bond sale forced the secretive company to reveal its finances for the first time, including net income of $111 billion, over a third bigger than the combined net income of the five super majors

Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch/Shell, BP, Chevron and Total.

Oil majors have been raising payouts to shareholders to counter rising pressure from climate activism.

Aramco said on Sunday it intended to declare aggregate ordinary cash dividends of at least $75 billion in 2020.

At a valuation of $1.5 trillion, this would mean a dividend yield of 5%, below those offered by competitors such as Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell. Shell’s dividend yield is over 6% and Exxon’s over 5%, according to Refinitiv data.

The September attacks on Aramco’s largest oil plant, which shut off about 5% of global supply, raised questions about the vulnerability of Aramco’s oil fields, plants and exports amid deepening regional tensions.

Aramco hired nine banks as joint global coordinators to lead the IPO, including JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley and Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank. It added a number of banks as bookrunners.

Monday, 4 November, 2019

12 BUSINESS Most companies involved in delaying their audits, moot told KARACHI: Undocumented economy is the main issue for corporate governance in Pakistan, as most of the companies are involved for delaying their audits and not following the dates of the Boards meeting. It is also prevalent to perform specific acts without getting relevant resolutions approved by the concerned boards. This was stated by Associate Professor, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science & Technology (SZABIST) Dr. Jawaid Ahmed Qureshi while addressing a seminar on “Corporate Governance” organized

by Directorate of Research and Projects, Mohammad Ali Jinnah University, Karachi (MAJU). Prof. Dr. Manzoor Ali Israni of Management Sciences Faculty, SZABIST also addressed the seminar. From MAJU, Associate Dean, Business Administration & Social Sciences, Dr. Shujaat Mubarak, Director, Research Projects, Dr. Muhammad Asif Qureshi, Director, CELDD, Shahzaib Aijaz and Sr. Faculty members Rana Tariq Mahmood, Salman Hameed and Shafiq Ur Rehman were also present on this occasion. Addressing the seminar, Dr. Jawaid Ahmed Qureshi said that strong corporate governance might result in better investment opportunities for local firms in respect of getting foreign direct investment in today’s global economy. He also elaborated on how local firms may be able to turn around their fortunes and improve their governance as well as profit.

Dr. Manzoor Ali Israni in his speech highlighted technology adaptation as a key factor to identify the right skillful talent to fulfil the short term and long terms goals by local firms.

He emphasized that the Security Exchange Company Pakistan (SECP) should adopt Document Management System (DMS) for the collection of all documents such as details of Annual General Meetings (AGMs) and annual accounts of all firms. He further said that online payments could facilitate the companies far better for getting different process done from the SECP. He pointed out that the present online system is used to only print out the challan, which has to be paid manually, which is tedious. He urged that a corporate leader should be a man with a high cadre and high morals to shine out as a natural leader. PPI

Priceoye raises $450,000 in seed funding round PriceOye has claimed to have successfully raised $450,000 in seed funding from a consortium of Pakistan’s most respectable names in the VC industry, said a company press release on Sunday. The round was led by Fatima Ventures.

Artistic Ventures and Kinetico also participated in the round.

The funding will help PriceOye grow and help more online shoppers save both time and money. PriceOye is Pakistan’s largest eCommerce aggregator with over 73% market share in the eCommerce aggregation space of Pakistan. It is making online shopping easier by creating an intelligent platform which helps consumers quickly make their next purchase at the best possible price from a trusted store while meeting their personal tastes and requirements. “We are solving a definite problem for online shoppers,” says Adnan Shaffi, co-founder and CEO of PriceOye. “An overwhelming majority of shoppers make up their mind after visiting at least three different online stores. We’ve designed PriceOye to need for gathering important information on your next purchase.” Adeel Shaffi, co-founder & VP Engineering said: “What you see today is just 5% of our grand vision for PriceOye. Businesses are just starting to tap into the potential of ecommerce in Pakistan. Shopping comparison will grow as e-commerce grows - the signs for which are extremely positive. We are incredibly excited to be a part of it!” “In our experience, price comparison platforms become very relevant as the eCommerce market grows. They become instrumental in driving consumer decisions which becomes extremely important to all the eCommerce players. We truly believe that this is the winning team and we are proud to be investing in PriceOye,” said Ali Mukhtar, CEO of Fatima Ventures. When asked about PriceOye’s growth, Ahmed Javed, Director Artistic Ventures said, “It definitely is a testament to the hard work put in by the founders and the entire team. But at the same time I think it represents the enormous growth potential that the company has and with the vast untapped market that we have PriceOye is really set on its path to grow from here on.” PRESS RELEASE

UPTo 35 PakisTani CoMPanies To aTTend China iMPorT exPo in shanGhai BEIJING APP

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VER 35 Pakistani companies will participate and showcase their products including top textile, leather, sports goods, surgical equipment, home furnishing and other products at the 2nd China International Import Expo (CIIE) scheduled to be held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10.

Advisor on Commerce, Textile, Industry and Production and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood will lead the Pakistani delegation. Pakistan’s top business executives will attend.

“As many as 35 top export-oriented Pakistani companies will display textile, leather and sports goods, surgical equipment, home furnishing and other products at their stalls set up at the expo in an effort to enhance exports to China,” Badar uz Zaman, Commercial Counsellor, Embassy of Pakistan, Beijing confirmed here on Sunday.

These companies export rice, textile, garments, leather products, carpet, handicrafts, wood furniture, sports and natural herbal products and are set to look at opportunities in the Chinese market to enhance exports from Pakistan, he added.

The Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) will also set up a stall to show Pakistani products, he added.

The advisor will also talk to media on trade and investment opportunities in Pakistan during the expo.

The advisor will attend the ministerial meet-

ing of WTO and hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese Minister of Commerce in Beijing.

It may be mentioned that Pakistan had also participated in last year’s expo in Shanghai where many Pakistani companies showcased their products.

According to a senior official of China’s Ministry of Commerce, so far 63 countries have registered for the exhibition and over 3,000 businesses from more than 150 countries and regions will be attending the business exhibition, exceeding the number at the first CIIE. This year’s expo will involve two key exhibition categories: country exhibitions and busi-

ness exhibitions.

As for business exhibitions, they will cover more than 300,000 square meters of floor space, and over 3,000 enterprises from about 150 countries and regions will participate in the exhibitions.

In addition, registration for the business exhibition of the third CIIE has begun, and overseas enterprises can register on the official website of the CIIE. A total of 172 countries, regions and international organizations and more than 3,600 enterprises participated in the first CIIE, held from Nov. 5 to 10 in Shanghai last year. It was the world’s first import-themed national-level expo.

First private LNG shipment likely to arrive by month’s end: UGDC CEO ISLAMABAD APP

The first private shipment, carrying around 130,000 cubic meter Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), is likely to arrive at Karachi by end of the current month, Chief Executive Officer of Universal Gas Distribution Company (UGDC) Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha said.

“We have recently signed deals with world leading companies ExxonMobil and Trafigura for supply of LNG, while the ‘additional private capacity’ of Pakistan Gas Port Consortium Limited (PGPC)’s terminal used for re-gasification and onward distribution,” he told APP. The Trafigura and Gas Port have ownership of the ‘additional private capacity’ at the terminal, he said, adding “a formula already exists under which private sector can import LNG as per its requirements, get it injected into existing gas transmission network and receive at industrial units.”

After injection of the private imported LNG in distribution networks of Sui Southern Gas Company and Sui Northern Gas

Pipelines Limited, Paracha said “the users of private LNG will be called UGDC consumers, a private sector company of Pakistan.”

He appreciated the government for allowing private sector to import LNG and set up LNG terminals in Pakistan, expressing confidence that it would help meet the growing energy needs of the country.

Paracha also welcomed the

government’s decision about lifting of ban on new gas connections for CNG stations, saying “It will give a new life to the CNG sector.”

Paracha said hundreds of completed CNG stations had been waiting for the gas connection for years, and these would now start their operations after getting connections through RLNG supply.

With the promotion of CNG

fuel, he said the country would be able to save around $1 billion annually on account of oil import bill and control air pollution in big cities.

He said CNG was an environment-friendly fuel and almost 30 percent more cost-effective as compared to petrol; adding increased LNG import would help ensure uninterrupted supply to CNG stations.

Crypto-currencies and criminality: myth or reality?

The recent bust of a worldwide international paedophile ring using Bitcoin payments highlighted one of the key fears surrounding crypto-currencies — their use by criminals.

Social networking giant Facebook is keen to get in on the act by launching a digital currency called Libra.

But US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has aired his ongoing opposition to the move, saying many concerns remained unresolved, including "the issue of money laundering".

Despite tighter regulations and increased vigilance by the authorities, illegal activities related to virtual currencies remained "significant", Madeleine Kennedy, from the research firm Chainalysis, told AFP. 1% OF TRANSACTIONS ILLEGAL: A Chainalysis report published in January said that in 2018, one percent of Bitcoin transactions — the most widely used cryptocurrency — involved illegal activities.

The equivalent of $600 million was also spent

using Bitcoins on the dark web, a set of hidden networks where a multitude of illicit products, including weapons and drugs, are traded.

In comparison, the global turnover of drug trafficking is estimated at several hundred billion dollars.

Kennedy believes the use of Bitcoins for criminal purposes was partly based on a "misunderstanding".

The confidentiality reputation of the most famous cryptocurrency is unrivalled, with all transactions recorded in an unforgeable public ledger, the blockchain.

But it is "more transparent than some traditional financial systems and certainly more than cash", she added.

The British and US authorities last week announced more than 300 arrests in 38 countries as part of an investigation that led to the dismantling of an unprecedented child pornography ring.

Investigators analysed the blockchain and succeeded in "de-anonymising Bitcoin transactions," ac-

investiga-to Ron Fort, the head of criminal cording tions in the US tax services.

CONCERNS ABOUT MONERO: But if Bitcoin is still the reference currency for criminals because of its popularity, they are turning to less transparent alternatives, such as Monero, which began life in in 2014, according to the European law enforcement agency Europol.

Monero's users can remain anonymous until they need to interact with a crypto-marketing platform or invest their funds with a "wallet" — the equivalent of an account for virtual currencies.

It is a phenomenon that also worries the German finance ministry, which recently published a document warning that anonymous cryptos could become "a real alternative to Bitcoin".

Monero, whose capitalisation is still 160 times lower than Bitcoin, uses a complex architecture that makes transactions "much more difficult to track,'' said Kennedy.

"But no more than the many shell companies in the many tax havens," said Emilien Bernard-Alzias, a lawyer at Simmons & Simmons, a specialist in financial markets.

"We have always seen both legal and technical arrangements to conceal money transfers from the courts," he told AFP, adding that only cash can be considered "perfectly untraceable".

Also, since Monero does not allow large quantities of money to be bought, criminals are encouraged to convert their funds and must therefore use service providers subject to anti-money laundering regulations.

Unlike currencies that have made anonymity a marketing feature, Facebook has repeatedly said in recent months that Libra will be transparent and comply with the authorities' requirements.

Libra "will clearly not be ideal for laundering dirty money,'' said Bernard-Alzias, although it will probably need to use blockchain analysts "to satisfy regulators", added Kennedy. AGENCIES

THE FASCINATING TRUTH ABOUT MAGNESIUM LOTION YOU NEVER KNEW After experiencing the wonderful effects of magnesium lotion first hand Naziha took the initiative to self-produce this magical potion and ensure its availability to the masses. Driven by the support of her close friend Amir Dhedhi and the motivation to do good for special needs individuals such as her daughter, Naziha set up her business by the name of Kore Minerals.

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1

How did Kore Minerals come into being?

Three years ago, my husband and I started the ketogenic diet for weight loss. It required us to take different mineral supplements in order to avoid deficiencies in our body. While searching the effectiveness of mineral supplements we learned that magnesium, if taken orally, is poorly digested by our stomach.

There were some exceptions such as chemical formations however both of these were not readily available in Pakistan. Through our continual research for our diet we found that magnesium is a basic core requirement for a lot of our bodily functions; a deficiency can lead to issues like insomnia, body cramps etc. We discovered that the transdermal application of magnesium works best. We even came to realize the benefits of magnesium lotion for our special daughter. This drove us to develop our own lotion. After spending hours in research and a few months of usage; we were able to yield positive results from amongst our family and friends. We then decided to spread awareness about magnesium deficiency and share the benefits of this supplement with those in need.

2 3

Who should be using Magnesium Lotion?

It can be used by everyone, young or old.

However, it is important to emphasize that it should be used according to the recommended dosage/quantity.

HOLLYWOOD BOLLYWOOD

What made you decide to produce and sell your own brand of Magnesium Lotion and why does it stand apart from existing Brands?

Honestly, the prices of the magnesium lotions available are too expensive.

Hence, we developed this brand solely for our own use. But after receiving positive reviews from our friends and family we were encouraged to launch the product for the public at large. One reason we do stand apart is that we are the only company that focuses solely on magnesium lotion and our prices are much more reasonable too.

Do you plan on expanding your range to include other supplements?

We haven't decided on introducing other mineral supplements just yet, but we will be expanding our range of Magnesium based products.

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4

How does magnesium lotion benefit the user?

Magnesium is extremely versatile and is utilized in about 325 biochemical reactions in our body. One of magnesium’s most prominent qualities is to improve the quality of sleep and to battle against insomnia. In a world where there is an increasing awareness about mental health, magnesium also shines through as a supplement that can help with mental conditions such as anxiety and depression. Physically, the supplement tackles issues such as muscle spasms and cramps and can even reduce pains relating to headaches and migraines.

5 6

Where are Kore Mineral products available?

Kore Mineral products are available from our online page.

We provide cash on delivery service all across Pakistan.

Was it difficult to set up such a business and how did you get started?

As I mentioned before the main motivation to start my business came as a result of overwhelmingly positive reviews from my family and friends. My husband was extremely supportive as well. They all helped me in achieving my goal: to raise awareness of the benefits of applying magnesium. This is also where I’d like to give a huge thanks to my friend Amir Dhedhi as well. He followed up with me and encouraged me to actually launch my product. He even guided me through the whole process from start to finish.

Being the mother of a special needs child, what do you think is the general attitude towards such children?

How can it be improved?

Being a mother of special needs angel, I can feel people's hesitation to approach and accept my daughter. People need to understand that Allah has made them this way. They should be treated like the gifts of God and that they are not burdens. People need to accept them and show love & affection towards them. We as a society should try and understand their state of being and teach our kids to be affectionate towards them. Only love can heal them.

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What are some of the amenities that you think should be introduced to help special needs children?

In my point of view, special needs children should be in normal schools and all buildings should cater to their needs by providing ramps, brail signs etc. Schools should cater to specific learning requirements separately. However, being around able-bodied kids will teach special needs children how to deal with reality and socialize with normal people. Similarly, it will teach normal kids how to be considerate and compassionate towards them and treat them as though they were any other child.

Children in Los Angeles have better lungs now than they did in the 90s due to multi-billion dollar efforts to rid the city of excessive smog. New research shows that kids in the area are not only breathing better, but the lungs of kids with asthma improved twice as much as the lungs of other children.

Dengue mosquito bites during the day time.

Persson develops symptoms after 3-14 days of being infected.

Patients who are already infected can transmitt the infection via mosquitoes during 4-5 days of onset of symptoms.

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In your opinion what are some of the best ways people can support special needs children?

People should understand their state of mind, and should show unconditional love towards them. We should also refrain from pitying them and rather treat them as a gift from the Almighty.

People who are raised in warmer climates tend to be friendlier than those brought up in places with cold, harsh temperatures.

Robert Pattinson Name Drops Tom King While Researching The Batman

The Witcher Showrunner Responds To Henry Cavill Replacement Agenda Claims

Anil Kapoor on 30 years of Parinda: ‘It was a movie ahead of its time’

While discussing the comic books for The Batman, Robert Pattinson happens to name drop DC Comics writer Tom King, whose run on the Dark Knight hasn't exactly been a fan-favorite, with King having recently been removed from the book.

If you happen to not be a fan of the Tom King Batman comic book, the good news is that Robert Pattinson says that it doesn't mean they are adapting stuff from the run, just that he finds it interesting to read different perspectives on the Caped Crusader.

We can also add that Pattinson probably doesn't keep up on the day-to-day news and trends surrounding the comics, just that King was the most recent writer which he name-dropped, so hopefully, Pattinson is reading some of the better issues out there.

Regarding the comics and the movie, from what I have been told, and from what Kevin Smith has backed up, is that Matt Reeves is in part adapting "The Long Halloween." In the film, all of Batman Rogues Gallery are already out there and active similar to the comics and animated shows/movies.

This past Sunday at the London Comic Con saw a panel for The Witcher held where fans learned the show would not be told from the point of view of Henry Cavill's Geralt of Rivia, but from the POV of the two female characters, which led to the question of just how much screentime Cavill has in the series.

In my article, I wrote about the bait-and-switch tactic, as Henry Cavill is the one featured in all the promotion, and I also remarked that this is a trend in Hollywood, which is to promote female characters at the expense of male characters, something proven by basically watching any Disney movie, Disney Star Wars, any of The CW shows or the recent Kevin Feige Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame films, not to mention Feige's Phase 4 plans.

Well, the article touched a nerve, and The Witcher showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich has responded on social media.

A pinned tweet that is available to read on the Wayback Machine also offers: "To all trolls, past and future, enjoy screaming into the void of my sick a-- mute button."

Some films stand the test of time. Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Parinda, which completes 30 years today, is one of them. As it clocks three decades, actor Anil Kapoor is thrilled talking about his “special film”. “It was a movie ahead of its time. It gave me the chance to work alongside powerhouse performers and be part of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s ambitious vision. Parinda has been one of the most special films of my career,” Anil says.

A few days back, the 62-year-old — who is still remembered for his powerful act as Karan — took to Instagram to reminisce about the film that also starred Jackie Shroff and Madhuri Dixit Nene. “Can’t believe it has been 30 years since Parinda released! Join me & @vidhuvinodchoprafilms as we celebrate this milestone from today till 3 November. Stay Tuned!” he captioned the picture.

Kapoor has indeed been a part of a few promotional videos and interviews to celebrate Parinda’s special landmark.

“I cherish the entire process of shooting the movie and the incredible appreciation that followed its release.

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Monday, 4 November, 2019

14 SPORTS

NAdAl's lAte-seAsoN INjury jINx strIKes AgAIN

parIS

r

Agencies

AFAEL Nadal's vulnerability to late-season injuries resurfaced this weekend as the 19-time Grand Slam champion was forced out of the Paris Masters with an abdominal muscle strain.

The 33-year-old has carved out one of the sport's greatest-ever careers in spite of persistent injury troubles, a pattern which has continued in 2019. The latest problem has put his participation at both the ATP Tour Finals and the Davis Cup in doubt.

Nadal, who has never won the

title at Bercy or the Tour Finals, also withdrew from the Paris Masters before the quarter-finals on his last appearance in 2017 with a knee problem and missed last year's tournament with another abdominal injury. The world number two, who will usurp Novak Djokovic at the top of the rankings next week, has still only won two ATP titles indoors, a figure at least partly down to his November injury woes.

He had been due to play Canadian youngster Denis Shapovalov in the semis with a final against Djokovic at stake, but announced he was pulling out just minutes before the scheduled start of the

match on Saturday.

But Nadal insisted it was not worth the risk, having also suffered with a similar injury 10 years ago.

"I had this issue in the US Open 2009 with a bad experience," he said. "Because I started the tournament with, if I remember, around six, seven, millimetres of strain and I keep playing, I keep playing.

"I finished the tournament with (a) 28-millimetre strain, so have been a big, big thing after that.

"I remember (it) well because I couldn't play semi-finals of the Davis Cup against Israel... So for me, I took almost a month outside of the tennis court, so we don't want

to repeat that."

Nadal's first injury-enforced absence from the ATP Tour came as a 16-year-old in 2003 when he hurt his elbow in a fall during training and had to miss the French Open -an event he has gone on to win a record-breaking 12 times.

He has missed at least one tournament in every year of his career since. Nadal has enjoyed a fantastic 2019, winning both Roland Garros and the US Open to move to within one of great rival Roger Federer on the list for most Grand Slam titles.

But he has been far from an ever-present on tour. The Spaniard handed Federer a walkover when they were set to meet in the Indian Wells semi-finals before pulling out of the following Miami Open with the same right knee issue.

A left wrist problem forced him to end his Laver Cup halfway through the event in September, and Paris was his first appearance since.

Many pundits consistently predicted Nadal would struggle to enjoy a long career due to his gruelling style of play and he has proved them wrong time and again since. And he says his latest injury is not due to anything technical.

"I have been serving like this during the whole season. It was not a different movement at all.

"No, that's not an issue."

Nadal said he would fight to be fit for the season-ending championships in London, which start on November 10, until it is "impossible", but will first head home to Mallorca to start his recovery.

Should he miss London, Davis Cup organisers, including Barcelona footballer Gerard Pique, will be desperate for Nadal to be ready for the inaugural finals of the team event, with Federer and Djokovic both skipping that week in Madrid. It will also be a busy 2020, though, for Nadal, with the Tokyo Olympics wedged between Wimbledon and the US Open.

Mohammad Irfan becomes Pakistan's oldest pacer since Prime Minister Imran Khan SportS DeSk World's tallest cricketer Mohammad Irfan on Sunday also became the oldest fast bowler to play for Pakistan since Imran Khan, Times of India reported. Irfan, 37, appeared in the rain-marred first T20I against Australia in Sydney today when he conceded 31 runs in just two overs. Based on that performance though, it is unlikely though that he'd be able to play as long was Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was 39 when he led Pakistan to their sole 50-over World Cup win in 1992. Contrary to popular belief, the oldest cricketer ever to represent Pakistan is not Misbah-ul-Haq (retired at age 42 in 2017) but a certain someone named Miran Bakhsh, who was 47 when he made his Test debut for Pakistan against India in January 1955. Bakhsh was perhaps way past his prime though as he played the second and final Test of his career the next month and wasn't picked again.

Alex Marquez wins Moto2 world title in Malaysia kuala lumpur Agencies

Spain's Alex Marquez was crowned world champion in the Moto2 class as he finished second in the Malaysian Grand Prix Sunday following a tough race against winner Brad Binder. The Kalex rider, who is the younger brother of MotoGP world title holder Marc Marquez, completed the race at the Sepang circuit in 38min 8.601 sec. He was 0.758 behind Binder, but a second-placed finish was enough for him to take an unbeatable lead in the standings with 262 points, and just one race remaining this season. "It's a dream come true," said an emotional Marquez, as his brother Marc jumped and cheered at the side of the track, pumping his fists in the air. The 18-lap race was a hardfought duel between Binder and Marquez. The South African, riding a KTM, initially took the lead only for Marquez to push past him near the start of the race. But a few laps later, Binder managed to swing inside the Spaniard as they rounded Turn 1, with the rivals' bikes wobbling as they briefly made contact, and get back in front. The South African held on to the lead for the rest of the race, with Marquez never really looking like a threat, but coming second was enough to hand the 23-year-old the world title.

Binder said that he gave "my absolute all today".

PCB fends o player revolt over T10 league and CPL NOCs - for now lahore Agencies

Imad Wasim, Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Amir were among a group of Pakistan's cricketers on the verge of a strike last week, until a meeting with PCB chief executive Wasim Khan averted the threat - for now.

Frustration and discontent with the PCB's restrictive participation policy on foreign leagues had been rising among the country's leading white-ball cricketers - a number of them currently preparing for the first T20I in Australia - and emboldened by the players' strike in Bangladesh, it nearly led to the most serious collective action by Pakistani players in over 40 years, at the time of the Packer series.

At the heart of it was the players' anger at the PCB's revoking of NOCs for the upcoming T10 league in Abu Dhabi, but the meeting ended up encompassing a number of issues, including the overall NOC policy and communication between players and the board.

Accounts vary of how many players met Khan on the day of the National T20 Cup final - anywhere from four to 12, while some players met or communicated with him separately. But a majority of those affected by the T10 decision were present, and Imad is believed to have played a lead role in the discussions.

The meeting was, according to some present, constructive and rancour-free Khan retains credibility among some players - and ended with some wins for the players. Notably, a review is now underway of the board's NOC policy, the aim of which will be to find a balance

between ensuring "no financial losses for players, workload management and participation in domestic tournaments".

But the situation remains fluid, especially as the PCB insists it will not change its T10 decision.

As well as the T10 bar, players have seen participation in the CPL curtailed this season. In the world of T20 leagues, the CPL is important for Pakistani players, who are barred from the IPL and often see stints in the BPL or BBL affected by international commitments as they run during Pakistan's home season.

The PCB operates an informal "PSL plus one league" policy on NOCs, Nine Pakistani players were picked during the CPL draft in May but only three played five or more games. Two had heavily restricted stints and two had to pull out because of a PCB training camp ahead of the Sri Lanka series. Two players lost out entirely because the PCB did-

n't issue an NOC in time. Indeed, a breakdown in the relationship between players and the international cricket department, who handle player NOCs, is a key issue.

Meanwhile, as many as 15 frontline Pakistanis were picked in the T10 draft, but as things stand, only two will likely play: Shahid Afridi and, possibly, Imran Nazir. The decision to revoke those NOCs, it has emerged, came after the prime minister and board patron (and former captain) Imran Khan expressed concerns directly to PCB chairman Ehsan Mani about Pakistani players participating in a league that has some degree of Indian ownership and investment (although it also has significant Pakistani stakes in it). It is believed he thought participation wasn't going to be in line with Pakistan's foreign policy stance on India.

But ESPNcricinfo understands that as far back as the end of August, the PCB had already informed T10 organisers that

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Pakistani players would not be released this year because of international and domestic commitments. It was only after the league reached out to players, who in turn approached the board, that conditional NOCs were granted, which now stand revoked altogether.

In all this, the players continue to feel aggrieved. Already they are among the lowest-paid in international cricket - and the central contracts pool has shrunk considerably this year. To add to it, they've felt the pinch of a new domestic cricket restructure which has left their pay significantly reduced.

Several players have expressed their frustration but on the condition of anonymity, because they are worried about reprisals from the PCB. "Pakistan didn't have a coach or selection panel when players were looking for CPL NOCs," one said. "It was a complete mess. Some got NOCs for four

games, some didn't get any, some received for the entire duration. How are we going to cover the financial loss?

"If we play an entire domestic season even then we won't be making as much as in these leagues. We are given India's example and how their board doesn't give NOCs, but Indian players earn millions in IPL, their domestic salaries alone are good enough, they don't need to play other leagues. We understand the PCB can't give us that much money but at least make it reasonable, at least give us some clarity."

Another said: "If they didn't want us to play T10, then why didn't they tell us earlier? Why did we even enter the draft?

Same with the CPL. Why would franchises sign Pakistan players in the future when they know the PCB can do anything anytime?" There is no players' association in Pakistan, a major hurdle to organised collective action. There never has been one, though they came close to having one in the aftermath of the Packer fallout in 1976, when several players - including Imran - refused to play for Pakistan until they were paid better.

In light of this one of the meeting's more intriguing developments was the suggestion to use Imran Ahmad Khan, the PSL player acquisition head and a PCB employee, as a mediator for player-board negotiations. Players are unlikely to mind though Khan is a board employee, which - in negotiations - would represent an obvious conflict of interest. No further meetings are scheduled as of now between players and the board - the board considers the matter resolved. But the T20s with Australia finish on November 8, and the players could potentially regroup with a week to go before the T10 begins.

Monday, 4 November, 2019

rAIN ruINs serIes oPeNer AFter BABAr AzAM's FIFty

SyDney

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Agencies

USTRALIA'S winning run in T20Is was halted by the Sydney weather when they were on track to take the opening match against Pakistan which had already been truncated by rain.

Chasing a revised 119 in 15 overs, after Pakistan's innings was interrupted after 12.4 overs, Aaron Finch laid into Mohammad Irfan's second over which cost 26 runs - including two sixes and a no-ball that went for four - and put them well ahead in the chase, with the wicketless par score after five overs being 33.

However, with 11 balls still needed to reach the five-over mark and constitute a match the rain returned. At the other end to Finch, David Warner didn't need to do much more than watch as he finished on 2 off 4 deliveries which ex-

tended his run of being unbeaten in when Rizwan skipped down the pitch at Adam Zampa, who was introduced in the T20Is. The bright spot for Pakistan was new fourth over, and sent him for four and six in captain Babar Azam - the No. 1-ranked consecutive deliveries. However, that was T20I batsman - who was head and shoul- about the best of Rizwan's innings as he ders above his team-mates with 59 off 38 struggled to move through the gears, and was troubled by the pace of Pat Cummins, balls but he was the only visiting batsfailing to score a run-a-ball against man to find some fluency. anyone other than Zampa beAfter Finch opted to picking out long-on bowl, Mitchell Starc AusTrALiA 0 fOr fore against Ashton Agar. handed Australia an excelWhen the rain arrived lent start as he had Fakhar 41 v PAkisTAN 5 fOr Pakistan were 3 for 88 off Zaman caught at point 107 (BABAr 59*) 12.4 overs and on resumpwith his second delivery NO resuLT tion managed 19 runs off the and when Haris Sohail remaining 14 deliveries with played a poor stroke, carving Kane Richardson conceding just high into the air on the off side, seven from an excellent 14th over that inPakistan were 2 for 10 in the second cluded the wicket of Asif Ali and an edged over.

Babar and Mohammad Rizwan rebuilt four from Babar that took him to his fifty. and after the Powerplay Pakistan were a Babar will need greater support from his touch more sturdy on 2 for 38 without hav- team-mates when the series moves to Caning put Australia under pressure other than berra for the second match on Tuesday.

SPORTS 15 FINCH uNHAPPy WItH 20-MINute INNINgs BreAK SyDney Agencies

Australia captain Aaron Finch has questioned the need for a 20-minute interval during the rain-ruined T20I against Pakistan at the SCG. Australia were 0 for 41 after 3.1 overs when rain returned and there was no chance for the match to resume before the cut-off time. Pakistan's innings had been interrupted by a lengthy stoppage after 12.4 overs and then resumed for 14 deliveries before the standard break between innings was taken.

"If you're cutting overs off the game and you still have a 20-minute break, it doesn't make much sense to me," Finch said in his post-match TV interview. "When you lose a few overs and then you still have a 20-minute break... I thought that was really interesting. But it's part of the rules and you can't do much about it." The ICC playing conditions give the match referee in this case Javagal Srinath - the discretion to reduce the interval to 10 minutes but that was not exercised. Clause 11.4.2 of the playing conditions states: "... following a lengthy delay or interruption prior to the completion of the innings of the team batting first, the Match Referee may, at his discretion, reduce the interval between innings from 20 minutes to not less than 10 minutes." Vice-captain Alex Carey said that Australia had approached the match officials about what the length of the interval would be and were told that standard break would remain. "We asked the question, what the changeover would have been, and it remains the same so we were aware of that and can't change it," Carey said. "The boys did a great job getting the start, just a shame it was probably five minutes too late. "It's disappointing to be so close, but it's part of the game. It's one of things we can't change. The spectators would have liked a result, but we understand it. Good or bad, it's part of it." Had there been time to resume the game for 11 more deliveries to make it a match, the five-over target would have been 39 so Australia were already ahead of that mark. Had the rain not arrived, Pakistan could have fought back with wickets but this was certainly a case of them escaping what was shaping up as a defeat following Finch's onslaught against Mohammad Irfan - his second over cost 26. "If the match had continued for 20 overs, we should have come up with 160-170. It really effected our team plan," Mohammad Rizwan said. "We lost early wickets but we had wickets in hand for the last few overs, then the rain came."

santner and Neesham star as New Zealand square the series WellIngton Agencies

On a day when sporting smiles were just beginning to flicker back across Kiwi faces, thanks to the schadenfreude being dished out by the Springboks in the Rugby World Cup final in Yokohama, New Zealand's cricketers added their own pinch of salt to English wounds by squaring the T20I series at Wellington with a comprehensive 21-run win.

The echoing confines of the Cake Tin told their own story about the lack of real jeopardy in this contest - for the average New Zealander, this result could barely atone for a bad journey to work, let alone the insults doled out in recent months by English sporting teams in their two national sports. But a win is a win is a win.

And New Zealand won. And England didn't. So there.

Mitchell Santner starred with the ball for New Zealand, claiming three wickets with his left-arm spin on a day when his side held onto their chances in the deep, and England emphatically did not. And despite battling hard with the ball to keep their opponents to a taxing but not insurmountable 177 for victory, the loss of three wickets in the Powerplay left them with too much to do as they ran out of time and wickets.

England won the toss and chose to bowl first, just as they had done in their emphatic win in Christchurch on Friday.

But they encountered a New Zealand line-up in a more forceful mood than they had been in the first match, not least Martin Guptill, who greeted the debutant Saqib Mahmood with a monstrous second-ball wipe for six over long-on, before Colin Munro repeated the dose over square leg in the same over.

To put it kindly, it was an uneven performance from England in the field. Two players excelled - namely Sam Curran, who was a waspish threat with the new ball before applying a tourniquet in the

middle overs for figures of 1 for 22 in his four overs, and Chris Jordan, who would at one stage have claimed three wickets for two runs in nine perfectly mixed-up death-over deliveries, had Dawid Malan at deep midwicket not dropped England's fourth and most clear-cut opportunity of a ropey catching display.

Aside from those two, however, England struggled for control on an evenpaced wicket that offered value for strokes and no place to hide for any bowler who missed his mark. Pat Brown, impressive on debut in Christchurch, was cannon-fodder on Wellington's shorter square boundaries, as New Zealand's batsmen feasted on his variations - his first over was dispatched for 17, including back-to-back fours for Guptill, a mown six for Tim Seifert and one of three dropped catches for the hapless James Vince. Brown returned for another foray in the ninth over, but this time Colin de

Grandhomme sent him off to pasture for 180, but in the end they were indebted to the remainder of the innings with consec- a fine cameo of 42 from 22 balls from Jimmy Neesham, a man with unfinished utive hoicks for six over the leg side.

And yet, in spite of England's leaki- business against England, after the agony ness, they kept themselves in the contest, of his near-heroic role in the World Cup thanks in part to a series of New Zealand Super Over, but who was playing his first contributions that never quite developed T20I since 2017 after coming into the from cameo status. Guptill, in particular, side in place of Scott Kuggeleijn.

Neesham needed a stroke of early could be heard groaning audibly after topedging an Adil Rashid long-hop to deep luck on 4 - though given the state of England's outfielding, to call another square leg just when it seemed he was Vince drop, this time at deep rediscovering his long-lost midwicket, unlucky would mojo - even so, his 41 from be a misrepresention.

28 balls was still his best New ZeALANd 176 But, having found his innings for New range, Neesham started Zealand in 12 attempts fOr 8 (NeeshAm 42, to find the boundary at dating back to the first 3-23) JOrdAN 41, GuPTiLL will, four soaring sixes week of the World BeAT eNGLANd 155 keeping the innings Cup. pumping in spite of From a halfway (mALAN 39, sANTNer Jordan's best spoiling scoreline of 96 for 3, 3-25) By 21 ruNs efforts.

New Zealand had designs Chasing 177, England on a total nearer to 200 than

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were rattled from the outset as Jonny Bairstow chipped Tim Southee's first ball of the innings straight to mid-on for a golden duck, before James Vince - Friday's batting star - flogged Lockie Ferguson's second ball to deep point for 1. A scoreline of 3 for 2 after eight balls wasn't quite the launchpad they had envisaged.

True to their recent white-ball reputation, England refused to take a backward step in adversity - but despite a spray of aggression in his 17-ball 32, Eoin Morgan's dismissal to a wild wipe down the ground against Mitchell Santner was a sign of things to come. Sam Billings, once again struggling to convert his talent into output, fell in identikit fashion off Ish Sodhi four overs later, before Santner again did for Sam Curran in the 11th over - de Grandhomme circling beneath the ball on each and every occasion.

Dawid Malan briefly threatened to keep England's fires burning with a brace of sixes in his 39 from 29 balls, but Sodhi's slider induced a flat slash to Guptill at long-off, and with 83 needed from 48 balls and just four wickets in hand, the end was very much nigh.

Chris Jordan hadn't quite given up the ghost - a 24-run over off Sodhi, including three consecutive wipes for six kept England just about in touch with that mounting run-rate. But another tossed-up delivery led to another catch down the ground, as Santner avenged his spin twin with Guptill once more the safe pair of hands.

At 134 for 7, the game was now officially up. Lewis Gregory had time to smack his maiden international six, in the manner so beloved by the Taunton faithful, before holing out one ball later, and it looked for a time as though England could become the first T20 team to lose all ten of their wickets to catches before Adil Rashid had a hack at Daryl Mitchell to leave his stumps splattered with one ball of the innings unused.

Monday, 4 November, 2019

NEWS

PAkIstAn sAys new InDIAn mAPs 'Incorrect' ISLAMABAD

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FO SAYS POLITICAL MAPS GO AGAINST UNSC RESOLUTIONS, ‘LEGALLY UNTENABLE’

STAFF REPORT

AKISTAN’S Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday rejected political maps recently issued by the Indian government, dubbing them “incorrect, legally untenable, void and in complete violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

“The political maps of India, issued by the Indian Home Ministry on November 2, displaying Jammu and Kashmir region and seeking to depict parts of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir within the territorial jurisdiction of India, are incorrect, legally untenable, void and in complete violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions,” read the statement. “Pakistan rejects these political maps, which are incompatible with the United Nations’ maps,” the statement added.

The statement further said that “no step by India can change the ‘disputed’ status of Jammu and Kashmir recognised by the United Nations.”

The FO also added that the neighbouring country’s incorrect maps would not succeed in undermining Kashmiris’ struggle for their rights. “Such measures by the Government of India cannot prejudice the inalienable right to self-determination of the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” the

Pakistan asks Afghanistan to explain 'harassment' of envoys

statement added. It concluded with an assertion of Pakistan’s continued support for the “legitimate struggle of the people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir for exercising their right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.”

Last week, India officially split the

former state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, a move that gives the government in New Delhi greater control over the disputed Muslim-majority region. From Thursday, most of Jammu and Kashmir — including a section of the disputed Kashmir Valley controlled by India — was stripped of its statehood and turned into one union territory. The remote mountainous region of Ladakh, previously a part of the state, was separated and turned into another standalone territory, the Indian Home Ministry announced.

The unprecedented move comes nearly three months after the government launched a security crackdown in Indian-occupied Kashmir, suspending all communications initially, and placing heavy restrictions on movement and public gatherings. As tens of thousands of Indian troops moved into the Kashmir Valley — already one of the most militarized regions in the world — the Indian government scrapped Jammu and Kashmir’s decades-old special status on August 5, effectively stripping the state of its autonomy.

PM congratulates govt for completing Kartarpur’s renovation in record time

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday summoned the Afghan Chargé d’affaires in Pakistan to convey serious concerns over the safety and security of the diplomatic personnel of the Embassy of Pakistan and its sub missions in Kabul. The Afghan Cd’A was informed that the officers and staff of the Embassy of Pakistan were being harassed since the past two days.

They were obstructed on the road whereas the embassy’s vehicles were also hit by motorcycles while going towards the embassy, a Foreign Office (FO) statement said. The Cd’A was reminded that being party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities 1961, it was the Afghan government’s responsibility to ensure safety, security and freedom of movement to all members of the mission. The Cd’A was asked to convey to the Afghan authorities that an immediate investigation into the security violations and harassment incidents needs to be done after which a report was to be shared with the government of Pakistan regarding the findings, He was instructed to ensure against recurrence of such incidents in future. APP

ISLAMABAD APP

Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan on Saturday congratulated his government over the construction of the Kartarpur Corridor in record time ahead of celebrations of Sikh religion founder Baba Guru Nanak’s 550th birthday.

“I want to congratulate our govt for readying Kartarpur, in record time, for Guru Nanak jee’s 550th birthday celebrations. Kartarpur ready to welcome Sikh pilgrims,” the prime minister said on his Twitter handle. I want to congratulate our govt for readying Kartarpur, in record time, for Guru Nanak jee’s 550th birthday celebrations. pic.twitter.com/dwrqXLan2r — Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) November 3, 2019 The prime minister also shared multiple images of the fully illuminated building of the complex, including the courtyard, road, and checking counters. Likely to be inau-

gurated on November 9, the Kartarpur Corridor would make Pakistan a religious hub for Sikhs from India as well as across the globe. The corridor will provide visa free access to Indian Sikh pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, the final resting place of Baba Guru Nanak.

According to Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), the first phase of the corridor comprised the construction of the main corridor up

to zero point, main offices at zero point, basic polishing of existing building of the gurdwara, baradari, langar hall, angetha sahib, sarowar, administrative block and parking area. The second phase would include accommodation for about 10,000 yatrees, shopping malls, and five and seven star hotels. The corridor’s inauguration would make it the world’s largest Gurdwara to pay respects to the founder of Sikh faith.

Indian capital Delhi gasps under choking smog DELHI: India’s capital New Delhi was enveloped in heavy, toxic smog on Sunday — the worst levels in recent years — with flights diverted or delayed as politicians blamed each other for failing to tackle the crisis. Every winter, the megacity of 20 million people is blanketed by a poisonous smog of car fumes, industrial emissions and smoke from stubble burning at farms in neighbouring states. Concentrations of particles measuring less than 2.5 microns hit the highest level of this season, exacerbated by light rains late Saturday, India’s state-run System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) said. The reading for pollutants in the atmosphere hit 810 micrograms per cubic metre on Sunday morning, in the “hazardous” zone according to the United States embassy in Delhi, which independently monitors pollution levels.

The recommended World Health Organisation safe daily maximum is 25.

“Pollution has reached unbearable levels,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Sunday. Locals complained of sore eyes and throats, with some residents wearing masks to protect themselves.

Visibility was so poor major carriers Air India and Vistara said on Sunday flights were being delayed or diverted to and from Delhi’s airports. Some cricket players and coaches have also been training in masks ahead of the Twenty20 international between Bangladesh and India later on Sunday. The shocking conditions sparked a blame game between state and federal politicians over who was responsible for the conditions, which authorities said on Friday had reached “emergency” levels. In a tweet last week, Kejriwal called on the state governments of neighbouring Punjab and Haryana to take action. “Delhi has turned into a gas chamber due to smoke from crop burning in neighbouring states,” he tweeted. Indian Federal Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar accused Kejriwal of politicising the issue and presenting the two states “in a bad light and as villains”. Schools in Delhi have already been ordered closed until Tuesday, and construction halted From Monday there will be an odd/even car licence plate scheme to cut traffic. Last year, a UN report found 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities were in India, with one US study saying it kills a million people prematurely every year. AGENCIES

Border crossing opening unlikely to thaw Pakistan-India ties KARACHI AGENCIES

Pakistan is set to open a border crossing for Sikh pilgrims to attend the birth anniversary of their founder, Baba Guru Nanak – a move unlikely to thaw tensions with India, according to experts.

Observers view the much-demanded move as a “successful” attempt to win the hearts of Sikhs from India and across the globe. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is slated to inaugurate the opening of the Kartarpur border crossing ahead of the three-day event Nov 10-12, which is expected to be attended by thousands of Sikhs from North America, Europe, and India, including India’s two-time premier, Manmohan Singh.

Islamabad and New Delhi last November agreed to open the crossing that connects Pakistan’s northeastern Narowal city to India’s eastern Gurdaspur district.

Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara situated in Narowal, 115 kilometers (71 miles) from the provincial capital Lahore — is one of the most revered temples for the Sikh community because Baba Guru Nanak spent the last 18 years of his life there.

The distance between the temple and

FORMER ENVOY SAYS A BREAKTHROUGH REQUIRES SOMETHING IN KASHMIR Gurdaspur is 3 kilometers (2 miles) but the closure of the crossing forces pilgrims from India to travel hundreds of kilometers, via Amritsar and Lahore, to reach it.

Pakistan’s northeastern Punjab province is home to some of the most important pilgrimage sites for Sikhs. They include the birthplace of Baba Guru Nanak, who was born in 1469 in Nankana Sahib district, and Gurdwara (monastery) Punja Sahib in Hasan Abdal, where the handprint of Guru Nanak is believed to be imprinted on a boulder. The number of Sikhs is estimated to be as much as 40,000 out of a population of 200 million in this South Asian Muslim country.

HEARTS AND MINDS: An irate Pakistan suspended trade, downgraded diplomatic ties and even denied Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi passage through its airspace following India’s scrapping of a decades-long special status of disputed Jammu and Kashmir in August.

Islamabad, however, stuck to its plans

to open the Kartarpur border as per schedule despite spiraling tensions with New Delhi. “It is obviously a joint venture but I do not expect any breakthrough with respect to ongoing tensions between the two countries,” former Pakistani ambassador Shahid Amin told Anadolu Agency.

“A breakthrough requires something in Kashmir,” said Amin, who served as envoy to Saudi Arabia, France, Nigeria, and Libya and the former Soviet Union.

He believes the Karatarpur initiative was more religious than political, in an attempt to “please” the Sikh community from India and rest of the world.

He went on to say, however, in some ways it would help develop an understanding between the two sides.

“After all, India is a partner in this venture. It has constructed a portion of the corridor on its side. Secondly, many Sikh political leaders would also come from India. This all may help reduce the spiraling tensions to an extent”, he said. “But

any major breakthrough is unlikely to happen.” Abdul Khalique Ali, a Karachibased political analyst said Pakistan brought a huge majority of Sikhs to its side through the Kartarpur move.

“Islamabad has wisely played its cards going ahead with its Kartarpur plans despite heightening tensions with India,” Ali told Anadolu Agency the Sikh community, especially in Europe and North America, has been supporting Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir.

“Sikhs have taken part together with Kashmiris in scores of anti-India protests

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965. Email: newsroom@pakistantoday.com.pk

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across the globe after New Delhi’s Kashmir move,” he said. “[The] opening of Kartarpur border, which was a longstanding demand from the entire Sikh community, will further strengthen this partnership.”

Sardar Ramesh Singh, chairman of Pakistan Sikh Council dubbed the Kartarpur corridor a “peace corridor,” which would help bring the people of Pakistan and India closer. “Pakistan has won the hearts and minds of Sikhs across the globe. We are thankful to Prime Minister Imran Khan for making this longtime dream come true,” he told Anadolu Agency.