E-Paper PDF 7th November (ISB)

CMYK

Thursday, 7 November, 2019 I 9 Rabi-ul-Awwal, 1441 I Rs 19.00 I Vol X No 128 I 16 Pages I Islamabad Edition

‘Home Sweet Home’ For SHariFS g

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staff report

ormer prime minister Nawaz Sharif was discharged from Services Institute of medical Sciences (SImS) on Wednesday after his daughter, Pakistan muslim League-Nawaz (PmLN) Vice President maryam Nawaz, was formally released from custody after an accountability court issued her release order.

Accountability court judge Amjad Nazir Chaudhry issued the release order to the Kot Lakhpat jail superintendent after checking the surety bonds submitted by PmL-N leaders.

Following the release, the father-daughter duo left for Jati Umra with PmL-N President Shehbaz Sharif and mohammad Safdar.

Ahead of their departure, nurses and doctors from the Sharif medical City arrived at the Services hospital, where the head of the medical board Professor Dr mehmood Ayaz gave the medical file and reports of the former premier to the doctors of the Sharif medical City. The former prime minister, who was released after 16 days in the hospital, will be kept in an intensive care unit (ICU) at his residence in Jati Umra, said a statement issued

by PmL-N Information Secretary marriyum Aurangzeb, adding the unit was set up due to the medical risks to Nawaz’s health.

A doctor will be available 24 hours to look after the former Pm, she added. marriyum said that due to the critical situation of Nawaz’s health, doctors have re-

stricted meetings with other people. She said that doctors have directed his daughter maryam to ensure that strict safety measures are taken regarding her father’s health.

An ICU has been set up at Nawaz Sharif’s residence in Jati Umra. Twitter The PmL-N spokesperson added that ICU ventilator and cardiac facilities have also been provided, adding that there was a grave danger of the former premier getting an infection due to his low platelet count.

MARYAM GETS BAIL: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on monday granted bail to Pakistan muslim League-Nawaz (PmL-N) Vice President maryam Nawaz in the Chaudhry Sugar mills (CSm) reference.

A two-member bench of the high court comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem announced the verdict. The legal representatives of maryam and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were also present in the court.

The PmL-N leader had been ordered to furnish two surety bonds worth rs10 million each and deposit an additional rs70 million and surrender her passport to secure her release.

“Since the prosecution has shown the bank statement of the […] petitioner in which on 28.11.2011 […] rs7 crores were withdrawn and the prosecution has apprehension of fleeing away of the petitioner, therefore, to satisfy our judicial conscience we would pass a conditional order,” says the court’s written order, granting maryam bail under under Article 199 of the Constitution.

army is apolitical: isPr STORY ON BACK PAGE

Elahi calls on Fazl, seeks to break impasse g

Pa sPeaker says aNy breakthrough wiLL require ‘PatieNce aNd hard work’

PM imran directs cda chief to assess azadi marchers' needs STORIES ON BACK PAGE & 02

Protection of environment govt’s top priority, says PM STORY ON PAGE 02

Nawaz sharif aNd MaryaM Nawaz reach Jati uMra after Latter gets reLeased froM JaiL

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PML-N sPokesPersoN says iNteNsive care uNit set uP at Nawaz sharif’s resideNce for coNstaNt suPervisioN of heaLth

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says doctors have ‘restricted’ Nawaz’s MeetiNgs with other PeoPLe due to criticaL coNditioN

CMYK Thursday, 7 November, 2019

02 ISLAMABAD protection of environment govt’s top priority, says pM ISLAMABAD: Prime minister imran Khan has said that protection of the country's environment is the top priority of his government. He said this while addressing the 7th Asian Regional Conservative Forum of international Union for Conservation of Nature (iUCN) in islamabad on Wednesday. The prime minister said that Pakistan is a diverse country. “it has twelve ecological zones from desert to Himalayan forests which are rare in the world but population growth and the lack of interest for protection of environment in the past devasted our wildlife and forests,” he said. Pm imran said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTi) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) was the first government which took the first major step to deal with the climate change by launching the billion tree Tsunami project. He said that the magic formula of the success of this initiative was that local people, including women, were involved besides action was taken action against the timber mafia.

The premier said that the federal government has now embarked upon an ambitious plan of planting ten billion trees. He said that this year, the government will launch massive tree plantation drives across the country as the necessary planning and infrastructure including nurseries have been developed in the first year. He said that the youth will drive this massive campaign. He added that environment protection will also be made part of syllabus. The prime minister said that the government has also started another campaign under which vertical buildings will be constructed in the cities. He added that town planners need to be more conscious of environment protection. He regretted that seventy per cent of trees in Lahore were cut off in ten years which has made it one of the most polluted cities. The prime minister also regretted the US's decision to pull out of the Paris accord. Speaking on the occasion, the iUCN president hailed the government for launching ten billion tree tsunami project. He said that he is impressed with the forestation that took place in KP over the last five years.

He also appreciated the mission and passion of Pm imran to address the issue of climate change. PPI

pM iMrAN DirecTs cDA chief To Assess AzADi MArchers’ NeeDs JUI-F TELLS PM TO KEEP HIS RELIEF OFFER IN HIS ‘POCKET’ ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

RimE minister imran Khan on Wednesday directed Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Amer Ali Ahmed to visit the Azadi march site and check what sort of relief can be

provided to the protesters. in a tweet, Pm imran said, “i have directed the CDA Chairman to immediately visit the dharna site to assess what relief and assistance can be provided to the dharna participants”. He stated that the relief would be provided in view of the onset of rain and changing weather conditions.

However, the offer was flatly rejected

by the Jamiat Ulema-e-islam-Fazl (JUi-F). JUi-F secretary general maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said the Pm should keep his offer to provide relief to the participants of the Azadi march in the face of adverse weather conditions “in his pocket”.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of JUi-F’s central executive committee, Haideri said they were

Mazari calls out Talal for on-air sexist remarks about PTI leader Human Rights minister Shireen mazari on Wednesday condemned PmL-N leader Talal Chaudhry’s sexist and derogatory remarks about Pakistan Tehreeki-insaf (PTi) leader Kanwal Shozab on a live television show. in a tweet posted today, mazari said: “Talal [Chaudhry] and his cohorts including [Khawaja] Asif abuse women in and out of parliament and don’t have the moral courage to apologise.” The minister was referring to an exchange that took place between Chaudhry and Shozab on a TV program, which

aired on Nov 4. During the program, the PmL-N leader resorted to inexcusably crude and sexist language when Shozab told him off for interrupting her.

A visibly angry Shozab called him out on his remarks and asked the host to tell the PmL-N leader to let her speak.

Chaudhry, however, continued to pass misogynistic remarks. At one point, when Shozab told him to “learn to respect women”, Chaudhry said: “First learn to act like one.” A clip of the exchange was shared on Twitter by current affairs analyst mosharraf Zaidi,

who called Chaudhry “a regular offender” and termed his language “sick”.

Federal minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry also called the PmNN leader’s behaviour “shameful”. This is not the first time Chaudhry, who was last year sentenced for contempt of court, has passed sexist remarks about fellow politicians. Earlier this year, his derogatory remarks about prime minister’s aide on information and broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan had drawn ire on social media. NEWS DESK

making their own arrangements to deal with the rain.

A day earlier, protesters refused to let rain or the biting cold dampen their resolve. A picture of a few marchers preparing to sleep in the biting cold and rain went viral on social media. in those pictures, protesters can be seen sleeping on mattresses laid on the ground, with blankets and plastic coverings draped over them to keep away the cold.

48 New DeNgue cAses reporTeD iN Kp PESHAWAR INP

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health authorities on Wednesday confirmed that as many as 48 new cases of mosquito-borne dengue fever were detected during the last 24 hours across the province.According to Dengue Response Unit (DRU), the number of dengue positive cases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has jumped to 6,803 with the confirmation of 48 new patients.The officials said that 2,586 dengue cases were reported in Peshawar city, while 82 patients are being treated in the various hospitals of the city.

Pakistan ranks second in hepatitis cases KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Experts at the international symposium have said the scientific studies show that ‘ginger’ is one of the healthiest spices on the planet, as it owns powerful medicinal properties, including anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidation, anti-cancer activities.

“Pakistan has the second largest burden of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in the world with an estimated number of eight to 10 million cases of chronically infected persons with HCV. Every year, Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) caused 600,000 deaths worldwide, while 350,000 deaths are associated with HCV infection. Chronic pain is associated with depression.”

National and foreign scientists expressed these views on Tuesday while delivering their lectures in the 7th international Symposium-Cum-Training Course on molecular medicine and Drug Research (November 04 to 07, 2019) being held at the Dr. Panjwani Center for molecular medicine and Drug Research (PCmD), University of Karachi (UoK).

Over 700 scientists, including 100 scientists from 35 countries, including Turkey, iran, iraq, China, Egypt, Syria, italy, Nigeria, Greece, USA, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Sweden, New Zealand, Hungry, indonesia, Jordan, malaysia, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Thailand, Oman, Cameron, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, etc. are attending this international event.

On the second day of the global event, Prof.

Dr. Rafat A. Siddiqui of USA, delivering his lecture on the health benefits of ginger, said that ginger was one of the most widely used medicinal plant that was commonly used as a spice. in traditional medicine, ginger is used for some ailments including vomiting, indigestion, muscular and joint pain, and cold symptoms, he added.Talking about

the production of ginger, Prof. Siddiqui said that Netherland is the top exporter of ginger in the world. Pakistan is the top importer of ginger, although it is an agricultural country, he added.

He mentioned that the ginger root also possessed lipid and glucose-lowering activities. it also owns strong antiviral activity, he said.

Ginger also reduced symptoms of nausea, and travel sickness, ginger gum is available in the market to reduce travel sickness, he said. He pointed out that baby ginger has high antioxidant activity.

The German scientist Prof. Dr. Bertram Flehmig, in his lecture on HV infections and global health problem, said that jaundice was old and one of the widest spread disease conditions occurring throughout the world.He said that Baruch Blumberg, in 1963, identified HBV surface antigen. He received Nobel prize in 1973. He added that the Hepatitis D virus was identified in 1977.Hepatitis is the destruction of hepatocytes of the liver, while yellow skin and eyes and dark urine are the prominent features of the infection, he said.As many as 1.4 million people are affected by HAV worldwide, and it causes around 10,000 to 30000 deaths each year, he said.However, HAV and HEV cases and deaths per year are not described in Pakistan, while its prevalence is 70-80 percent in people who are less than 14 years of age, he said.

Prof. Dr. Darakhshan Jabeen Haleem of Dr. Panjwani Center, in her lecture on chronic pain and depression, said that there was a connection between chronic pain and depression. The association of chronic pain and depression is becoming increasingly recognized, she said, and pointed out that treating both the conditions together was essential for an effective treatment outcome. it is important to identify a shared mechanism involved in the association of chronic pain with depression, she asserted.

CMYK

Tezgam incident: DNA reports reveal identity of 42 bodies LAHORE INP

The identification process of 42 persons, who lost their lives in the Liaqatpur train incident, has been completed as railways officials have received their DNA reports on Wednesday. Railways’ Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Aijaz Ahmad Buriro said the dead bodies will be handed over to the families today and staff has been appointed for this purpose.

Furthermore, DNA reports of 17 more victims will be prepared shortly, he said Last week, at least 75 passengers lost their lives and over 40 sustained critical burn wounds when three carriages of a Tezgam Express caught fire due to an explosion in gas canisters near Talwari Station in Liaquatpur area of Rahim Yar Khan. The train was bound from Karachi to Rawalpindi.

CMYK Thursday, 7 November, 2019

NEWS ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

HE Senate session on Wednesday was disrupted when Jamiat Ulema-e-islam-Fazl (JUi-F) leader Senator maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri’s remarks over electoral rigging drew criticism from the treasury benches, which soon escalated into a ruckus.

A motion moved by Leader of the Opposition Raja Zafarul Haq and others in the Senate regarding alleged political victimisation and denial of fundamental rights to the opposition leaders and revocation of citizenship of a former parliamentarian was brought up for discussion.

Opposition Senators Usman Khan Kakar, Farooq H Naek, mushtaq Ahmed, Sherry Rehman, Bahramand Khan Tangi, Raza Rabbani, moula Bakhsh Chandio, Abdul Qayyum, Ghafoor Haideri and others criticised the government for growing inflation, alleged political victimisation and media censorship.

Addressing the House, the JUi-F leader claimed that the incumbent government came to power through rigging in the 2018 general election. He also accused the government of carrying out political victimisation in the name of accountability. “This is not accountability

ecp rejects fazl's claim of election rigging nEWS DESK The Election Commission of Pakistan on Wednesday rejected Jamiat Ulema islamFazl chief maulana Fazlur Rehman’s claims about rigging in the 2018 general elections. in his address to participants in the ongoing sit-in in islamabad on Tuesday, Fazl alleged that polling agents had not been provided election results on Form 45 at 95% polling stations. He also claimed that their agents were forced out of polling stations. Form 45 details the number of votes polled for each candidate. it is signed by a presiding officer. The ECP in its statement said it was incorrect that 95% election results were not verified. it said such stats had not been mentioned in any report. The commission urged Fazl to abstain from issuing irresponsible statements in the future.

Medical board to take decision on Nawaz's medical tests: Dr Yasmin LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Punjab Health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Wednesday said that the health condition of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is out of danger now, adding that only the medical board would make the decision to conduct his genetic tests. in a statement issued here, Rashid said that the variability of platelet count is normal in the current health condition, however, his health is out of danger as the bone marrow is producing platelets. She elaborated that the improvements are witnessed in sugar, blood pressure and heartbeat of the patient, whereas, the medical officers have informed the treatment details to the physicians at Sharif medical City Hospital besides providing all medical reports.

Rashid added that the diagnosis of diseases is possible through a DNA test which is available in Pakistan, however, the decision for conducting those tests could only be made by the medical board. Earlier on Tuesday, Nawaz Sharif had been discharged from Lahore’s Services institute of medical Sciences (SimS) where he was under treatment for the past two weeks.

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rucKus MArs seNATe sessioN As Jui-f Alleges elecTorAl riggiNg but victimisation as only two families are being subjected to accountability,” he said, adding that the no political leader in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) is being investigated for corruption.

Haideri’s remarks drew criticism from Senator Faisal Javed and Senator Azam Sawati. Responding to their criticism, the JUi-F leader said that the current administration is incapable of running the country, because of which everyone is demanding its removal. As soon as Haideri finished his speech, Opposition members left the House.

Responding to Haideri’s tirade, Federal Communications minister murad Saeed said that the opposition should show some courage and listen to the government’s response.

He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-einsaf (PTi) government had not lodged even a single corruption case against the leadership of Pakistan muslim LeagueNawaz (PmL-N) and Pakistan People’s

Party (PPP).

“The leadership of both parties got cases registered against each other during their respective governments,” he said.

He recalled that PTi had demanded probe into election rigging and electoral reforms after the 2013 general election.

“We had called for opening of only four constituencies but the then government refused to accept the demand despite tall claims of the then interior minister for opening of 40,” he added.

He said that PTi workers were arrested and cases were registered against the incumbent prime minister and president under terrorist acts. murad said that the Panama Papers were made public in 2016 by investigative journalists and not the PTi. “The government does not believe in political victimisation, which is evident from the fact that no hurdle was created in the way of opposition’s protest march during its journey from Karachi to

islamabad,” he added.

He said that JUi-F chief maulana Fazlur Rehman had done nothing for Kashmiris as the chairman of the Kashmir Committee whereas the prime minister had presented the Kashmir case effectively at all international forums, including the United Nations (UN).

Earlier, taking part in the debate, Senator Faisal Javed Khan said that political parties should do constructive opposition in the larger national interest.

The Kashmir issue, he said, had gone into background due to the opposition’s sit-in.

He further said that no case had been registered against the opposition leaders by the PTi government.

PERSONAL ATTACKS: PPP leader moula Bux Chandio lost his temper when Pakistan Senator Javed called the party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari a “baby” upon being called the same by the former earlier.

The PPP leader said, “We will throw

you out if you call our chairman a baby”.

PPP information secretary too became angry and said, “You all are not equal to even Bilawal’s shoes. We will fight if you say anything against him.”

Chandio then said that the institutions and political leadership should be respected in the country. He added that those who contributed towards Pakistan are getting banned from generation to generation. “The agenda of the incumbent government is not to work but to spread chaos”, he added.

He criticised the government senators and said, "Why do they bring such members when the House is running smoothly? i see Shibli Faraz dancing on the tunes of murad Saeed.”

Pointing at murad, Chandio said that he is the second Fawad Chaudhry born in their government. “They mock us when we deliver a speech”, he said, adding that nothing gets inside the head of the government.

PPP asks jail authorities to allow private doctors to examine Zardari RAWALPInDI STAFF REPORT

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Wednesday asked jail authorities to let former president Asif Ali Zardari the facility to choose private doctors of his choice for his various ailments. in an application addressed to the Deputy Superintendent Jail, Adyala Jail in Rawalpindi, Zardari’s lawyer said that his client had been suffering from ‘multiple medical issues’ which had been diagnosed by a board of doctors constituted by the government.

“He is suffering from various ail-

ments and was allowed two attendants to monitor his sugar and blood pressure round the clock. Due to multiple morbidities, even a board of doctors has been checking him every week. The cardio vascular disease and fluctuating sugar and blood pressure exposes such patients to greater risk contracting life threatening conditions in a stream hot and humid weather. it is also clarified that facilities be provided to the accused which are necessary for his health according to instructions of doctors,” a part of the application quoted the doctors’ report.

The application said that it was

the fundamental right of every under-trial prisoner to seek the best medical treatment that he could afford. it also said that the doctors of the medical board were not as good as the private experts of various disciplines that Zardari would opt for. in the application, it was stated that if Zardari was denied medical treatment, then it would ‘lead to irreparable damage to his health and may even imperil his life.’

The application requested jail authorities to let Zardari be treated by private doctors who would be given the freedom to conduct tests as they deemed fit.

NAB gives clean chit to Hina Rabbani Khar, Ayaz Niazi ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (r) Javed iqbal on Wednesday gave approval to close inquiries against politicians Ghulam Rabbani Khar and his daughter, former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar. The decision was made during a meeting of the NAB’s executive board in which the NAB deputy chairman, prosecutor general, NAB Rawalpindi director general and other officials were in attendance.

The board gave the approval to close ongoing inquires over corruption charges against Ghulam Rabbani

Khar, Hina Rabbani Khar, former chairman NiCL Ayaz Niazi over lack of evidence. Speaking at the executive board meeting, Justice (r) iqbal said the bureau strictly following the principle of “accountability for all”.

He added that 610 corruption references were field during last 23 months in the accountability courts. it is noteworthy that Hina Rabbani was among politicians against whom Justice iqbal had approved inquiries in a February meeting of the executive board of the bureau.

The accountability board had approved 13 inquiries against prominent politicians and bureaucrats including Khar, PmL-Q leaders

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, and former chairman Auqaf Siddiqul Farooq.

The board had also approved inquiry against former secretary communications Shahid Ashraf Tarar and other prominent persons.

The development came after a marked increase was recorded in rebel missile and drone attacks on Saudi soil in recent weeks. Houthi rebels have yet to comment on the proposed truce. A Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in 2015 following the exile of President Abedrabbo mansour Hadi. Given its military prowess, Saudi Arabia had hoped for a quick win but instead has mired itself in the conflict, spending billions of dollars and putting its national security at risk. The “Riyadh agreement” seeks to end the conflict by returning the Yemini government to Aden and placing armed forces of both sides under the authority of the defence and interior ministries. NEWS DESK

CMYK

Saudi Arabia Assistant Defence minister mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Ayesh met with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa at the General Headquarters on Wednesday.

According to the inter-Services Public Relations, during the meeting issues of mutual interest including defence and security cooperation between both countries were discussed. The iSPR said the army chief and Saudi assistant defence minister also spoke about the overall regional security situation. NEWS DESK

Azadi March has become ‘hostage march’: firdous

Pakistan hails Saudi brokered peace deal in Yemen Pakistan has hailed the conclusion of the “Riyadh agreement,” – an initiative taken by Saudi Arabia and supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which seeks to establish a settlement between Yemen’s warring factions – as a major development towards peace “We believe it is a crucial and important step forward towards a political solution and durable peace and security in Yemen,” Prime minister imran Khan said in a tweet on Wednesday. The “Riyadh agreement” seeks to broker a power-sharing agreement between Yemen’s Riyadh supported, internationally recognised government and Houthi separatists who seized much of northern Yemen including the capital Sanaa sparking a Saudi led offensive in the country in 2015.

coAs meets saudi assistant defence minister, regional security discussed

ISLAMABAD APP

Special Assistant to Prime minister on information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan Wednesday said the so-called Azadi march of Jamait Ulema-e-islamFazl (JUi-F) had become a 'hostage march' as its participants were being treated like hostages who were left at the mercy of the freezing weather whereas the leaders were enjoying cozy bedrooms. Talking to media persons here, she said Prime minister imran Khan had the feeling for the poor workers of the sit-in and as he had to issue directives to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman to take steps for the facilitation of the protesters, who were being used for personal political gains by the JUi-F leadership. She said last night maulana Fazl ur Rehman claimed that the government had given the indication that it was ready to accept all their demands except the resignation of the prime minister, was totally incorrect and misleading. She said not a single demand of the Rehbar Committee was worthy enough to give serious consideration as in every meeting they put forwards new demands completely unrelated to the demands of previous meeting.

04 LAHORE

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

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Lahoris gasping for breath EPD, EPA LACK STRUCTURE, RESOURCES, MINISTER TELLS WB LAHORE

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STAFF REPORT

HE smog in Lahore continues to rise as the Air Quality Index (AQI) broke previous records once again, reaching as high as 732 on Wednesday. According to the details, the AQI in Zeenat Block stood at 732 while the Punjab Assembly area was close behind with an AQI of 731. Similarly, residents of Upper Mall, DHA Phase 5, and Liberty are suffering AQIs of 647, 401, and 376 respectively.

According to Air Visual, an organisation that provides free access to the world’s largest air quality database and ranks the world’s cities according to the AQI, Lahore ranks among the five worst cities in terms of air quality.

However, unlike the Indian government that has imposed a health emergency in the capital city, the Pakistani Punjab government has failed to take any concrete measures to combat the menace of smog. The government only seemed interested in shifting the blame instead of taking measures to control air pollution. According to the Pakistani

Air Quality Monitoring Project, there are many reasons to be worried about the air quality in Lahore, with a yearly average of 68 µg/m3 of PM2.5, which corresponds to a 155 – Unhealthy Air Quality Index. A World Health Organisation (WHO) report states air pollution causes a huge number of premature deaths. PM 2.5 is a hazardous pollutant that can penetrate into human blood through the lungs.

A real-time world map on the organisation’s website shows Pakistan in the red zone alongside India, indicating the poorest levels of air pollution and quality. “Awareness of air pollution remains low in areas where real-time monitoring is limited but pollution levels may be high,” the report stated.

The report also mentioned that public awareness was essential not only to empower populations to respond to current conditions and protect human health but also was a cornerstone in driving action to combat air pollution in the long-term.

EPD, EPA LACK STRUCTURE, RESOURCES, MINISTER TELLS WB: Meanwhile, Punjab Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht has said that the Environment Protection Department (EPD) and its Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lacked the structure and resources to effectively carry out several of their environmental management mandates, including environmental

Undemocratic conduct of opposition harming democracy, says Buzdar LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar said on Wednesday that undemocratic conduct of opposition parties was damaging the country. The chief minister said that the opposition’s attitude is unconducive to democracy and is tarnishing the image of Pakistan around the world. “It is clear that the opposition does not have a welfare agenda. Those spreading anarchy are hatching conspiracies to divide the nation. Our country demands unity from us,” CM Buzdar said while talking to a local news channel. “Political parties have a responsibility to give foremost priority to national interest. A foundation has been laid for development in a short period. The government will not allow any chaos to halt this route to prosperity,” he added. STAFF REPORT

clearance of investment proposals and inspection of industries for environmental compliance.

In a meeting with the World Bank officials on Wednesday, Hashim Jawan Bakht said that the Punjab government with the support of World Bank launched Rs 40 billion worth Punjab Green Development Program (PGDP) in order to enhance its capacity. He said that a more active inspection regime will increase the pressure for polluting industries to comply with environmental standards and invest in cleaner technologies.

It was informed that currently the EPA Punjab has only six Air Quality Monitoring Stations and no Water Quality Monitoring Stations. The EPA is unable to collect a sufficient amount of pollution data to give meaningful estimates on the evaluation of environmental quality in Punjab. Under the program, 30 Air Quality Monitoring Stations and 15 Water Quality Monitoring Stations will be purchased, besides state of the art Environmental Monitoring Center (Reference Laboratory) will also be established under the program.

The provincial minister informed that the objective of the program was to support provincial government’s efforts to strengthen environmental governance and mainstream green growth in the province. It targets the following two areas including strengthening of environmental governance in the

Court angry with protesting medics for abandoning patients LAHORE INP

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday expressed anger over postgraduate training doctors – who have been protesting against Medical Teaching Institutions (MTI) Act – for suspending treatment to patients and not appearing in the hearing today despite court orders.

Justice Jawad Hassan presided over the hearing of a petition against protesting doctors and remarked: “I will see which doctor refuses treatment to patients […] we will direct crackdown against protesting doctors today.” “There is no concept of doctors going on strike all over the world […] who gives license to these doctors?” the court asked.

Health department officials told the court that the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) issues a li-

cense to the medical practitioners. The court has also again summoned concerned authorities and representatives of protesting doctors in the next hearing.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government has also issued notices to protesting doctors.

According to the sources, supervisors have been directed to report over the issue and take action against those violating the notice.

Reportedly, the provincial authorities have formed a five-member committee for talks with the protestors.

“The committee is fully authorised to hold meaningful dialogues on behalf of the Punjab government with the striking doctors and other health professionals, including nurses and paramedics and take measures to resolve all the issues so that the service delivery to the patients is resumed”, read the official notification.

province and promoting green investments in the province.

Activities under the first results area aim at restructuring and capacity building of Environment Protection Department, reforming of Environmental Regulatory Regime, to deliver transparent and efficient Environmental Management Services to private and public sectors. Activities under the second results area aim at promoting Green Investments in both public and private sectors. Green Financing includes investments in infrastructure, processes and practices to contribute substantially to an improved environment as compared to traditional investments.

Furthermore, eight Disbursement Linked Indicators (DLIs) of the Program are fixed including Improving EPD Capacity, Air and Water Quality Monitoring, Disclosure of Environmental Information and Citizen Engagement, Sound Management of Plastics, Energy Efficiency Investments in Public Institutions, Vehicle Compliance with Emission Standards, Green Investments by Polluting Industries and Mobilization of Sustainable Green Financing, Hashim Jawan Bakhat said that collective efforts would be made for the implementation on the program while four departments including EPD, energy, finance and transport departments will jointly implement on it.

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IGP directs foolproof security for Eid Milad-un-Nabi LAHORE: Inspector General Police Punjab Capt (r) Arif Nawaz Khan directed to ensure security of sensitive processions and Mahafil of Eid Milad-un-Nabi (PBUH) utilizing all available resources and all RPOs and DPOs should personally monitor security arrangements and traffic management so that public can participate in the celebrations of Eid Milad-un-Nabi (PBUH) without any fear or apprehensions. He further said that Special security arrangements should be ensured for the minority worship places on the route of central processions of Eid Milad-un-Nabi (PBUH). He further said that in sensitive districts CCTV cameras, metal detectors and walk through gates must be used for the security of processions and also search sweep and combing operations must be geared up in the vicinity of important mosques shrines markets and religious places. He further directed to consider the suggestions of civil society, organisers of processions, local religious scholars and notables while making security arrangements also a strict action without any delay must be ensured against the elements involved in fireworks and aerial firing. He also directed special protection unit to perform their duty at high alert for the security of foreigners visiting the province especially all RPOs and DPOs arrange the security of the guests coming at the inauguration ceremony of Kartar Pur Corridor in their personal supervision. He also directed to speed up the intelligence based operations to arrest the proclaimed offenders across all districts ensuring the arrest of top 20 proclaimed offenders of every district. STAFF REPORT

Visually impaired people protest for ‘regularised livelihood’ on third consecutive day LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Visually impaired protestors on Wednesday demanded the government to ensure “regularised livelihood” on the third consecutive day of their protest sit-in on Mall Road, Lahore.

President of the “blind daily wager”, Umar Rasheed, while talking to a local media outlet, complained that the government was not paying heed to their demands. He said that protesters wanted “regularized livelihood” for all visually impaired people across the province.

He said that over 1,000 visually impaired daily wage employees working in various departments of the Punjab government receive salaries after an interval of several months and are not assigned any work in their respective departments neither are they given any

designations.

He added that this state of affairs has led many to believe that the employment of visually impaired persons in the provincial government is only a temporary arrangement.

Rasheed said that protestors are demanding regularisation of employment for daily wagers and provision of livelihood to unemployed visually impaired people.

He said that no assurance from government quarters had yet come.

He said that on Tuesday protesters intercepted the vehicle of provincial minister Fayaz ul Hassan Chohan — who was on his way to the chief minister’s house — but instead of engaging in talks with protestors the minister changed his route. Rasheed said that over 100 visually impaired persons were taking part in the sit-in.

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

NimriTa Kumari Killed afTer beiNg raped: auTopsy reporT LARKANA PPI

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HE final postmortem report of Nimrita Kumari issued by Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) Woman Medico-Legal Officer (WMLO) Dr Amrita on Wednesday revealed that the deceased was subjected to rape before being murdered.

As per the autopsy report, Nimrita's death was determined to be caused by suffocation as asphyxial signs caused by a ligature on the neck were seen during the autopsy. "The ligature marks also tally with the information. Such signs are produced either in strangulation or hanging and are to be ascertained through circumstantial evidence as corroborative at the crime scene by state investigation authorities," the WMLO added.

Further, the report states that a

DNA test confirmed the presence of male DNA profile indicated from

ANF conducts raids in Punjab, seizes drugs

semen residue on the deceased's clothes whereas a vaginal swab tested positive

for a forced sexual act.

Nimrita Kumari Chandani, a final year student at Bibi Aseefa Dental College (BADC), was found dead in mysterious circumstances in her hostel room on September 16, 2019.

Interestingly, Larkana Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University's (SMBBMU) ViceChancellor (VC) Dr Aneela Atta Ur Rahman, prior to police investigations, had claimed that the medical student had committed suicide.

Dr Vishal, the deceased's brother, had also claimed that his sister had been killed as she was neither depressed nor the sort who would end her own life.

The claim has now been proved.

The Sindh government following massive province-wide protests had ordered a judicial inquiry into the matter. The probe which is being conducted by the Larkana District & Sessions Judge through Sindh High Court (SHC) is still underway.

SC directs EPA to submit report in Katas Raj case

LAHORE: The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) conducted separate raids in Faisalabad and Multan and seized large quantities of drugs besides arresting two persons, an ANF spokesperson said on Wednesday. According to the spokesperson, the officials seized 2.5kg of hashish from a passenger at Faisalabad airport. The person, Razzak – a resident of Orakzai — was traveling to Doha and had hidden the drugs inside a box of sweets. In another raid in Multan, ANF apprehended a passenger bus on Muzzaffargarh road and seized five-kilograms of hashish hidden inside secret boxes of the vehicle. Security teams arrested one, Ameer from Peshawar in the incident. Security forces have filed cases and initiated investigations against arrested persons. STAFF REPORT

ISLAMABAD APP

The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to submit a report on water theft. A three-member SC bench headed

by Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprised Justice IjazUl-Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar heard the suo motu notice case regarding Katas Raj temple.

During the course of proceedings, the deputy commissioner Jhelum said apparently the tube well’s water is not being misused. Water meters are installed on all tube wells, he added. He said around 90 percent of water pools of Dera Ghazi Khan cement were filled with water. The court has banned the use of underground water since last year, he added.

Educational institutes in Punjab to remain closed today The Punjab government has announced that educational institutes will remain closed on Thursday due to extreme smog and presence of dangerous toxins in the air. In a tweet, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said, “Due to sudden increase in smog, all schools in Lahore will remain closed

tomorrow. We are closely monitoring the #LahoreSmog situation. Administration is already on high alert and have tasked them to escalate actions against crop burning and other factors that contribute to smog.” The smog in Lahore continues to rise as the Air Quality Index (AQI) broke previous records once again, reaching as high as 732 on Wednesday. According to the details, the AQI in Zeenat Block stood at 732 while the Punjab Assembly area was close behind with an AQI of 731. Similarly, residents of Upper Mall, DHA

The counsel for DG Khan Cement said the air cooling system will be installed by December. Minority Leader MNA Ramesh Kumar said it has to be checked whether the cement factory has not installed the secret pumps. To this day, the water of Katas Raj has not returned, he added. Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan asked is there so much rainfall in the area as very much water is being reported. The direction of the underground water may have changed, he added.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial said there was a need to see which tube well is extracting more underground water. He sought experts’ reports if the water was being stolen technically. He said it should be explained why Katas Raj Temple pond got dry. Later, the court directed the EPA to submit a report on water theft and adjourned the hearing of the case till January 2020.

Phase 5, and Liberty are suffering AQIs of 647, 401, and 376 respectively. According to Air Visual, an organisation that provides free access to the world’s largest air quality database and ranks the world’s cities according to the AQI, Lahore ranks among the five worst cities in terms of air quality. However, unlike the Indian government that has imposed a health emergency in the capital city, the Pakistani Punjab government has failed to take any concrete measures to combat the menace of smog. NEWS DESK

NEWS

05

proTesTiNg Teachers arresTed, booKed iN Karachi Karachi Police booked 47 government college professors and lecturers on Wednesday after they staged a sit-in near Chief Minister’s House in Karachi. 250 professors participated in the protest held on Dr ZIauddin Ahmed Road. The province-wide protest call had been issued by the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association (SPLA). The professors said that former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah had approved their time-scale promotions but they had yet to be implemented. Protest rallies have been banned in the city's 'Red Zone' where the protest had taken place. Police said that they had tried to hold talks with the protesters and had asked them to vacate the area but they refused to do so. The police arrested the protesters and registered cases against 44 male and three female teachers, who have been shifted to various police stations.According to the police, the protesters were arrested to get the road cleared for traffic. The police added that they did not resort to baton charges, tear gas shelling or the use of water cannons.On the other hand, reports surfaced that the protesters had been assaulted by the police. Reports stated that five injured teachers had been shifted to the hospital. NEWS DESK

chuNiaN case suspecT coNfesses To KilliNg 4 miNor boys LAHORE: The alleged rapist and killer of four children of Chunian admitted to his crimes on Wednesday before a judicial magistrate, deputy prosecutor general Abdul Rauf Watoo told media. Sohail Shahzad, the prime suspect in the case, was arrested by police after a long search. During the investigation, the suspect confessed to murdering four minor boys, the public prosecutor said. The prosecutor further added that the suspect was produced before a magistrate to record his statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The arrest of the suspect was made possible after Geo-fencing for 1,649 suspects and testing 1.543 DNA samples. Imran Ali was arrested on Jan 23, 2018, and on June 12 the Supreme Court had turned down his appeal against the death sentence, noting that he had admitted to committing similar offences with eight other minor victims. Ali was subsequently executed in October. Four children — aged between eight and 12 years — had gone missing since June with the latest, Faizan, 8, disappearing on the night of September 16. The remains of three were found on September 17 from sand dunes near Chunian bypass. Shehzad grabbed the police’s attention after his brother filed a missing person’s report on September 22. According to the police complaint, Shehzad took the family’s tractor to the market in the Chunian area and then disappeared. Police used Shehzad’s four mobile numbers to trace his location. After finding him in Rahim Yar Khan district, he was arrested and brought to Kasur for DNA testing. One reason for linking Shehzad to the crime, officials said, was that when the police searched for his phone’s locations over the past few days, one of his numbers was found to be in the area from where Faizan had gone missing.

According to sources, Shehzad had also spent five years in jail after being convicted for sodomy a few years ago. STAFF REPORT

Students take Punjab govt to court over life threatening pollution NEWS DESK The Lahore High Court (LHC) issued notices to the Punjab government, the Punjab Environment Protection Council (PEPC) and other departments on Tuesday on a writ petition by the school and college students that challenged the Air Quality Index (AQI) measurement system adopted by the PEPC and applied by the Environment Protection Authority.

According to the petition, the AQI measurement system is not only at odds with the classification employed by the United States Environment Protection Agency (US-EPA) but also the Punjab Environmental Quality Standards (PEQS) for ambient air. It under-reports the severity of air pollution and therefore exposes the general public to unacceptable levels of dangerous air quality. For example, the US AQI reading of 194 recorded by the EPA, Punjab, by its monitor on Jail Road

and placed on its website is classified as “satisfactory” by the EPA, Punjab, but has actually been declared “unhealthy” according to the US-EPA.Petitioners are all school and college-going students.

Mishael Hyat, 17, a professional swimmer, said her training regime had to be curtailed because of the noxious air. Leila Alam, 13, another petitioner, complained she did not know when to wear a mask and when it was all right to go outside.

Laiba Siddiqi, 18, who is from Karachi and studies at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, complained the air quality in Lahore caused repeated health complaints impacting her studies. In March 2016, the PEPC approved the PEQS for ambient air in its first meeting held. In its second meeting held in October 2017, the PEPC approved the Smog Policy and Action Plan (Policy and Action Plan for Control, Mitigation, Advisory and Protective Measures in Ex-

treme Weather Conditions of Dense Smog in Punjab).

In November 2017, the court directed that the Environment Protection Department (EPD) upload “daily readings of the air quality monitoring” on its website and those efforts be made to put up real-time data at the earliest. The data was highlighted to be station wise – referring to the five monitoring stations the EPA, Punjab had admitted were operating at that time in Lahore. However the EPD only uploads AQI readings of only a few of its monitoring stations, and this information is not real-time, let alone regularly uploaded on a daily basis.

The indices approved by the PEPC, and which form the basis of the Smog Policy & Action Plan under-report the severity and status of AQI readings. This under-reporting puts children, senior citizens and pregnant women at special risk.

The Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA)

has begun broadcast air quality information on the LCD screens installed in Lahore. The PSCA has employed AQI and the indices prescribed by the Smog Policy & Action Plan and not the PEQS for ambient air as the means to broadcast air quality information. As a result, the general public is being given incorrect information about the severity of air pollution, which is a violation of their fundamental right to a clean and healthy environment.

Dr Zulfiqar Mir gave information regarding the health problems. “There is no level of pm 2.5 which is considered ‘safe’, however, it should always be less than 10 micrograms. Ours in smog season has gone up to 800 even.” He said that for every 10 micrograms increase, the cardiopulmonary risk (heart attacks, high blood pressure, etc.) and stroke, increases by 16 percent. High levels of PM 2.5 are increasing the risk of an average person more than a hundred times.

“Even a baby developing in a womb is vulnerable to smog through its mother,” said Dr Mir. “There are issues of low birth weight, premature births, autism, etc. On the other hand, if we lessen smog levels then we can add up to five years of life.” Air pollution, in general, also impacts every organ of the body, and can result in brain deformity and stunting.

According to WHO, nearly 95 percent of all children in low and middle-income countries were exposed to unsafe levels of air pollution. A report by the Children’s Hospital Lahore has revealed that there has been a three-fold increase in admissions of patients with chest or cardiovascular complaints in the past decade.

Recently, air pollution levels in Lahore were reported as some of the worst in the world and Amnesty International issued a statement that the hazardous air quality in Pakistan actually violates human rights.

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

06 WORLD VIEW

Where is Mike PoMPeo? he’s hiding in fear of donald TruMP IT’S DEEPLY TROUBLING TO SEE A POWERFUL PERSON SUCH AS POMPEO WHO IS SILENT IN THE FACE OF LIES AND WHO TAKES NO ACTION TO PROTECT HIS SUBORDINATES FROM WRONGDOING

Washington Post

s

DAviD ignAtius

INCE the investigation began into President Trump’s machinations in Ukraine, one of the most disturbing questions has been: Where is Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, who’s supposed to shield his diplomats from political interference?

And now we have the answer: Pompeo, in recent months, has essentially been in hiding, protecting himself while his subordinates took the hit — evidently hoping to preserve his influence with Trump. Sometimes his deflections and denials have been outright misleading.

Pompeo has badly tarnished his reputation in accommodating Trump. He joins the long list of those damaged by their

service to this president. If you’re someone like me, who thought Pompeo was one of the smarter and more effective people in the administration, it’s a sad moment.

This harsh judgment is nearly inescapable after reading the transcripts released Monday of testimony from two key State Department officials: Marie Yovanovitch, a 33-year Foreign Service veteran Trump fired in May as ambassador to Ukraine; and Michael McKinley, a 37-year veteran, who resigned in October as Pompeo’s senior adviser because “the disparagement of a career diplomat [Yovanovitch] doing her job was unacceptable to me.”

At the core of Pompeo’s story is the conundrum of what public service means under an erratic president such as Trump.

Pompeo’s defenders argue that the secretary might serve his personal interest by resigning and protecting what’s left of his political career. But would that be the honorable choice, they ask, if it would mean abandoning the State Department to even greater chaos?

A similar dilemma vexed former de-

fense secretary Jim Mattis for two years.

He stayed silent in public over Trump’s tantrums and abuses, hoping that in private he could prevent even worse catastrophes. But, in the end, this strategy of accommodation wasn’t tenable; the rucksack became too heavy, and Mattis resigned in December.

Pompeo’s defenders argue that his story is more complicated than it appears.

They say that through 2018 and early 2019, as Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was spinning malicious falsehoods to undermine Yovanovitch, Pompeo had a senior deputy press Giuliani for evidence to support his charges. Giuliani never produced any, and Yovanovitch stayed — until Trump personally demanded she be fired, after which Pompeo acceded.

In the lead-up to her firing and following the publicity over her dismissal, Yovanovitch kept asking for support from her bosses. That was especially so after Donald Trump Jr. tweeted in March that she was a “joker” who should be sacked.

But Pompeo was mum.

“What I was told was that there was

concern that the rug would be pulled out from underneath the State Department if they put out something publicly,” Yovanovitch testified.

In late April, she was ordered home.

Acting assistant secretary of state Philip Reeker told her that “the secretary had tried to protect [Yovanovitch] but was no longer able to do that,” and Deputy Secretary John Sullivan informed her she was fired. “I said, ‘What have I done wrong?’ And he said, ‘You’ve done nothing wrong.’”

Pompeo didn’t explain or apologize.

His counselor, Thomas Ulrich Brechbuhl, refused Yovanovitch’s request for a meeting.

Trump’s groundless attacks against Yovanovitch continued, as did Pompeo’s silence. We learned months later that Pompeo had listened in on the infamous July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump asked for a political “favor” in exchange for sending Javelin missiles to Ukraine — and described Yovanovitch as “bad news,” warning that she was “going to go through some things.” Pompeo did nothing.

When a transcript of the menacing July call was released Sept. 25, Yovanovitch felt personally threatened, and she again asked for help. Pompeo said nothing publicly in her defense.

McKinley, Pompeo’s senior adviser, pressed the secretary to issue a brief statement of support for Yovanovitch. “He listened. That was it. Sort of, ‘thank you.’

That was the limit of the conversation,” McKinley testified. He went to see Pompeo twice more over the next few days, the final time to resign, telling Pompeo: “This situation isn’t acceptable.”

Pompeo told ABC News last month that “not once” did McKinley “say a single thing about his concerns” about Yovanovitch’s treatment. By McKinley’s sworn testimony, that statement was false.

What is character? It’s difficult to define, but as NPR’s Scott Simon recently noted, a good, short summary is the U.S. Military Academy motto: “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”

We should be careful not to judge others’ character, especially in the hotbox of today’s Washington. But it’s deeply troubling to see a powerful person such as Pompeo who is silent in the face of lies and who takes no action to protect his subordinates from wrongdoing.

French fear and loathing towards Muslim women reveal a deeper malaise India says no to trade bloc. Will it ever say yes to tough reforms?

THE NECESSARY, WHOLESALE HATRED OF ISLAM IS WRAPPED UP IN A GLOBAL REIGN OF TERROR, DECEPTIVELY LABELLED AS THE 'WAR ON TERROR'

Middle east eye KAren JAyes

It is significant that the latest vitriol towards the hijab in France has been directed against a mum out on a school trip at the seat of a local government council.

This affair and its aftermath raises a number of key issues: the inculcation into young children of tyrannical notions, such as “loyalty to the republic above all else”; the increasingly futile weapons that secularists will employ, particularly “feminism”; and the hypocrisy of leaders who will grasp at any fiction, including linking a piece of cloth over a woman’s hair to terrorism, to harness the “popular will” required to stay in power.

Amid this is the all-apparent courage and fortitude required to be a Muslim woman and mother in France today.

TYRANNICAL SECULARISM: France’s current descent into tyrannical secularism is a sign of panic, stemming from deeply rooted notions of what Europeans are educated to believe are “enlightenment” philosophies. Springing from, among others, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “social contract”, these philosophies naturally bend towards the populism we see today.

It is essential for those in power to maintain the appearance of having the “general will” behind them, and to this end, they will muster every emotion necessary - in particular, hatred of Islam, which calls for a divine-centred system of accountability and behaviour that places others above the self.

The “general will”, as written by Rousseau, has inevitably morphed in our media landscape into what is now known as the “popular will”. The increasingly vocal demonstrations on the streets of France and elsewhere in the world show there is a keen difference between the two.

This philosophy easily took hold under Christian dogma within the limited media environment of the 18th century. Carefully constructed frames of “equality”, “liberty” and “rights” were used to raise the French population into a frenzy, pushing them to violently reject the church.

These notions have long since been shown to be false as far as modern France is concerned, although considering the deplorable treatment of women under the church, it is no surprise that “feminism” has is deployed as a weapon to overthrow divine law.

But in the new republic, the notion of women’s rights was harnessed only to

serve the secular system.

STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE: Today, behind the terrible shaming and violent treatment of a Muslim woman and her son, is the ongoing structural violence against Muslims and other people who speak out against inequality and injustice, couched in the corporatisation of everything (including war, which must be maintained for the secular system to profit).

There is no accountability for those in power when it comes to their abuse of such people - for the illusion must be maintained that they are always acting for the perpetually manipulated “popular will”.

The necessary, wholesale hatred of Islam is wrapped up in a global reign of terror, deceptively labelled as the “war on terror”. Are those who seek to publicly undress Muslim women - in the same manner as Algerian women were publicly “unveiled” in the 1950s to baying, perverted European generals - to be considered “civilised”?

Many courageous Muslim women have spoken out about why they wear the hijab or niqab, often under interrogation by “feminist” news hosts and other confused people at borders.

By now, it should be clear that they do so out of obedience to their creator, and not to men. It is not a “sign of resistance” or an “assertion of political will”; this is an attempt to assign secular notions to what is firstly an act of obedience to God. This is a fundamentally liberating position, one that rests in the heart and that no man can touch, even if he claws at the cloth on the street, or demands from a gallery of pompous and cowardly manipulators of “popular will” that she undress herself.

In the long run, such acts only portray the brutality of the attackers and contribute to their decline.

LOOKING IN THE MIRROR: The more this happens, the more the “feminist argument” that the niqab or hijab as a form of “submission” to men is shown to be obsolete and absurd.

This brings to mind the case of award-winning French novelist Michel Houllebecq, who was brought to court on charges of Islamophobia in 2000 - but he refused to apologise, saying that France was a secular country and he was “free to insult a religion”.

And yet, his 2015 novel Submission hypothesised a not-altogether unpleasing, but highly unsettling, future Muslim France - more unsettling, since it was published the day of the Charlie Hebdo shootings. His most recent novel, Serotonin, in the words of critic John Waters, details “the strange death of a Europe that never really existed”.

“A civilization dies, says Florent-

Claude Labrouste, the protagonist … ‘without worries or danger or drama and with very little carnage; a civilisation just dies of weariness, of self-disgust,’” Waters notes in his review. Houllebecq’s caustic summaries of the secular condition, the chief casualty of which are humans themselves, includes disturbingly emotionless accounts of fornication, bestiality, child pornography and other modern sicknesses - the terrible endpoint of the endless worship of human “will” as a source of power.

Reading his work is not pleasant, but it is thought-provoking for those courageous enough - like Houllebecq - to look squarely in the mirror. His male characters are bored, castrated of their prowess and discernment by a system that allows anything, but demands no argument - only the endless, numbing co-operation with desire, and a congruent passivity in the face of predictable moral descent.

THE FRENCH DILEMMA: In their unravelling, these characters make visible the gruesome reality of the world man has made in his determination to become his own deity.

A New York Times reviewer astutely observes that although Houllebecq has been the darling “Islamophobe” of the intelligentsia, popular mainstream and far-right, the main character in Submission appears to long for “faith in its purest form … directed beyond the human to the divine, the truly sacred … [which] is nothing other than itself”.

In the London Review of Books, Adam Shatz goes further, describing France’s literary star as a disappointed mystic, who “writes about Islam with curiosity … even a hint of envy”.

“For Houellebecq, France’s dilemma resembles his own: France has attempted to replace God with the secular religion of republican citizenship and laicite … [which] has left France without a sense of direction or purpose,” Shatz notes.

So look, dear France and Europe, at the arresting and unambiguous figure of the covered Muslim woman. Understand that you hate her because she is utterly separate from, and unperturbed by, the obedience to human will and desire that you have been taught to worship and commodify. Feel her God-centred beauty and power.

As the years go by, you must realise that your violence throughout history has not been directed at her, though she has taken its brutal knocks. It has been, and is, directed only at yourself.

Karen Jayes is a writer and editor. She is the author of the book 'For the Mercy of Water', which won the South African Sunday Times Literary Award for Fiction (2013). She is also the winner of the South African Literary Award (2013) and the PEN Studzinski Literary Award (2009).

IT’S UNDERSTANDABLE THAT WITH RECENT NEWS OF SLOWING GROWTH AND RISING UNEMPLOYMENT, THE MODI GOVERNMENT WAS UNWILLING TO TAKE STEPS THAT COULD RESULT IN FURTHER SHORT-TERM ECONOMIC PAIN AND POLITICAL BACKLASH

CounCil on Foreign relations AlyssA Ayres

It shouldn’t really surprise that in the end, after seven long years of deliberation, India decided against joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The Narendra Modi government, despite a platform of economic growth that brought it to power in 2014, has revealed itself over the years to be skeptical about trade openness. A series of tariff increases, rumblings that current trade agreements have not benefited India, and concerns about the mounting trade deficit with China have all suggested that New Delhi would sign onto RCEP only reluctantly. And ultimately, the answer was no—at least for now.

The Modi government apparently felt that it could not get enough of a reprieve on tariffs, nor enough of an opening for its services professionals, to join RCEP. This is precisely what India’s long-standing trade position has been: reluctance to reduce its own tariffs, while seeking greater services market access from other countries. I wrote about this negotiating posture in my book, citing a 2016 speech by former Minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman (now finance minister) as the prime example: Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unwittingly offered a good example. Sitharaman said that blame for delays in completing trade pacts with the EU, Australia, and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership grouping should not fall on India, and other countries’ attempts to cast India as “obstructionist” was like trash-talk in sports. To the contrary, she said, India’s negotiating partners had rejected its “ambitious” proposals to ease restrictions on movement of persons. She added, apparently without irony, that trading partners sought for India to reduce tariffs on goods like wheat and autos—but that “India will not yield” to pressure. Indian officials

will need to strategize for an economic world in which their concerns for market access abroad align with what they permit at home. As the saying goes, you can’t have it both ways.

It is certainly true that China has become a trade powerhouse, and India’s concerns about its trade deficit with China and a desire to prevent further “flooding” of the Indian market with Chinese goods resemble those of the Trump administration toward trade with China. But it is hard to see where India is headed: the prime minister wants to increase manufacturing in India, yet by staying out of a regional trade pact, India runs the risk of missing out on trade with parties now inside the RCEP tent. In an era in which manufacturing requires the ability to become more—not less—integrated into global supply chains, this decision appears for the moment to make it harder to boost manufacturing in India.

But more to the point, the central issue for the Indian government isn’t in the wording of a trade deal, but in the competitiveness of the Indian economy. Will Indian political leaders use this time outside the RCEP to take the tough decisions needed to make the Indian economy more globally competitive—and therefore an economy that does not need protection from its own region? Asia has become, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Global Competitiveness Report, the “most competitive [region] in the world.” Singapore tops the WEF list, and all of the RCEP countries except Laos and Cambodia beat India, at number sixty-eight (Myanmar does not appear).

It’s understandable that with recent news of slowing growth and rising unemployment, the Modi government was unwilling to take steps that could result in further short-term economic pain and political backlash. Farmers are protesting, the anti-trade rightwingers never wanted trade openness anyway, and the Congress party has been making anti-RCEP noises.

But for the current and future prosperity of the Indian economy, someone will have to explain why further reforms will be needed for India to become a more globally competitive economy. So far, it doesn’t look like anyone’s ready to stand up to make this case.

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

iran moveS further from nuclear Deal, alarming ruSSia, france DUBAI

i

AGENCIES

rAN has stepped up work at its underground Fordow nuclear facility, state TV reported on Wednesday, a move France said showed for the first time that Tehran explicitly planned to quit a deal with world powers that curbed its atomic work. russia also voiced alarm at Iran’s decision to start injecting uranium gas into centrifuges at Fordow, a move that further distances Iran from the accord. A central aim of the agreement was to extend the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon, if it chose to, to a year from about 2-3 months.

“With the presence of inspectors from International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran started injecting (uranium) gas into centrifuges in Fordow,” TV reported.

The deal bans nuclear material from Fordow, and with the gas entering its centrifuges the facility will move from a permitted status of research plant to being an active nuclear site.

A spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, however, told state TV later that the injection of uranium gas would start at midnight (2030 GMT).

“We have put the 2,800 kg cylinder including 2000 kg uranium hexafluoride (UF6) that has been put in Fordow … The centrifuges there will enrich uranium up to 4.5% level,” Kamalvandi said.

President Hassan rouhani, an archi-

tect of the deal, blamed Washington for Iran’s rolling back of its nuclear commitments, saying Fordow would soon fully resume uranium enrichment work.

“I think that for the first time, Iran has decided in an explicit and blunt manner to leave the JCPOA (nuclear) agreement, which marks a profound shift,” said Macron, who has been at the forefront of European efforts to salvage the deal after the United States withdrew from the agreement. In Moscow, russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said events unfolding around the nuclear deal were extremely alarming and called on Iran to fulfil the terms of the deal.

But he added that Moscow understood why Tehran was cutting back on its commitments, and blamed the situation on the

U.S. decision to pull out of the pact.

Iran agreed in 2015 to turn Fordow into a “nuclear, physics and technology centre” where 1,044 centrifuges are used for purposes other than enrichment, such as producing stable isotopes, which have a variety of civil uses.

Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump exited the deal and said it was flawed in Iran’s favour. Washington has since renewed and intensified its sanctions, slashing Iran’s economically vital crude oil sales by more than 80%. responding to Washington’s “maximum pressure” policy, Iran has bypassed the restrictions of the deal step-by-step – including by breaching both its cap on stockpiled enriched uranium and on the level of enrichment.

FOREIGN NEWS 07

Suspected rebels kill 15 at southern Thailand security posts YALA: Gunmen in insurgency-wracked southern Thailand killed 15 village defence volunteers and wounded five security personnel in what is believed to be the deadliest attack on government forces since the separatist rebellion began 15 years ago. Blood-stained clothing found at the scene suggested that some of the attackers on two checkpoints in Yala province late Tuesday night also may have been wounded in exchanges of gunfire, said army spokesman Col. Kiattisak Neewong. He said four of the slain officers were women and one was a doctor. In what appeared to be coordinated actions, nails were scattered on a highway to disable vehicles entering Yala, a small explosive device was found placed near an electrical pole to knock out power, and several burning tires were left at a school, said Col. Thaweesak Thongsongsi, a Yala police superintendent. Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha said Wednesday the attack may show the insurgents are switching their focus from attacking soldiers and police to the volunteers, who are lightly armed soft targets. He said plans would have to be drawn up to better protect them. Thailand’s volunteer forces in the south are raised from villages and receive weapons training from the army but no salary.

They are usually issued shotguns but often carry personal handguns, and only guard their own villages rather than seek to confront the insurgents. More than 7,000 people have been killed since the insurgency erupted in 2004 in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, the only ones with Muslim majorities in the Buddhist-dominant country. AGENCIES

Attacker stabs 3 tourists at popular Jordanian tourist site AMMAN: A lone attacker on Wednesday stabbed three foreign tourists and their tour guide at a popular archaeological site in northern Jordan, the official Petra news agency reported.

The agency said the attacker also wounded a policeman before he was subdued and arrested. The wounded were taken to a hospital.

Amateur video showed a bloody scene next to the Jerash archaeological site, an ancient city whose ruins, including a roman amphitheatre and a

columned road, are one of the country’s top tourist destinations. In one video, a woman can be heard screaming in Spanish. “It’s a dagger, it’s a dagger, there is a knife. Please, help him now!”

One woman is seen lying on the ground, with much blood around her, as someone presses a towel to her back. Another man sits nearby with an apparent leg wound. There were no further details, but the al-Ghad newspaper said the tourists were Mexican and suffered serious wounds. AGENCIES

Protests in Iraq reveal a longsimmering anger at Iran BAGHDAD AGENCIES

Nigerian 'sex slavery' ring goes on trial in France PARIS: Twenty-four suspected members of a sex trafficking ring accused of forcing Nigerian women into prostitution in France go on trial Wednesday, the latest case to highlight the growing use of Nigerian migrants as sex slaves in Europe. Nigeria was the main country of origin of the migrants arriving across the Mediterranean to Italy in 2016 and 2017, though their numbers have since dropped. Many of the arrivals were women and girls lured to Europe with false promises of jobs as hairdressers or seamstresses, only to find themselves selling sex on arrival to repay their debts.

Nigerians now outnumber Chinese or Eastern European sex workers on the streets of France and some other European countries.

Last year, 15 members of a Paris-based female-led pimping ring known as the “Authentic Sisters” were sentenced to up to 11 years in prison for forcing girls into sex slavery in France. Many were themselves former trafficking victims-turned-perpetrators. Similar gangs have also been dismantled in Italy and Britain. The investigation in Lyon, where police estimate half the city’s sex workers are Nigerian, began after authorities received a tip about a Nigerian pastor accused of exploiting several sex workers who lived in apartments he owned. The pastor, Stanley Omoregie, has denied the charges, which includeaggravated pimping and slavery. But in the transcript of a conversation submitted to the court, he is heard saying he wanted “those with beautiful bodies, who can be controlled, not those that cause problems.”

FROM PROSTITUTION TO PIMPING: The UN has estimated that 80 percent of young Nigerian women arriving in Italy — their first port of call in Europe — are already in the clutches of prostitution networks, or quickly fall under their control. The accused in Lyon cover the entire gamut of sex trafficking activities, from ironfisted “madams” and violent pimps as well as drivers of the vans in which the women perform sexual acts, and those tasked with laundering the proceeds of the trafficking. Prosecutors estimate that 17 alleged victims, aged 17 to 38, made up to 150,000 euros ($166,000) a month for the syndicate, selling sex for as little as 10 euros. Most of the women come from Benin City, capital of Nigeria’s southern Edo State, a human trafficking hotbed with a long history of dispatching women and men to Europe to earn money to send back home. AGEN-

The shoes are coming off again in Iraq.

In years past, Iraqis have beaten their shoes against portraits of Saddam Hussein in a sign of anger and insult. In 2008, an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at a ducking President George W. Bush during a news conference to vent his outrage at the U.S.-led invasion. Now protesters in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square are using their shoes again — slapping them against banners depicting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader.

More violent demonstrations of their fury have erupted in southern Iraq, where protesters have torched the headquarters of parties and militias linked to Iran and thrown firebombs at an Iranian Consulate. The anti-government protests that have convulsed Iraq in the past month are fueled by economic grievances and are mainly directed at Iraq’s own political leaders. But they have also exposed long-simmering resentment at Iran’s influence in the country, with protesters targeting Shiite political parties and militias with close ties to Tehran.

The uprising in Iraq, and similar anti-government protests underway in Lebanon, pose a threat to key Iranian allies at a time when Tehran is under mounting pressure from U.S. sanctions. “There’s a lack of respect. They act like they are the sons of this country and we are beneath them,” said Hassanein Ali, 35, who is from the Shiite holy city of Karbala but came to Baghdad to protest. “I feel like the Iranian Embassy controls the government and they are the ones repressing the demonstrators. I want Iran to leave.”

That the protesters are mainly from Shiite areas undermines Iran’s claim to be a champion of Shiites, who are a majority in Iraq and Iran but a frequently oppressed minority in

the wider Muslim world.

“This has embarrassed Shiite leaders close to Iran,” said Wathiq al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based analyst. “After these demonstrations, Iran may lose Iraq by losing the Shiite street.”

In Tahrir Square, protesters have brandished crossed-out pictures of Khamenei and Gen. Qassim Soleimani, the architect of Iran’s regional military interventions who has helped direct the response to the rallies.

Demonstrators have beaten the posters with their shoes in a replay of scenes from the ouster of Saddam 16 years ago. As in many cultures, shoes are regarded as inherently dirty in Arab countries. Last week in Bagh-

dad, a version of the Iranian flag was painted on the pavement with a swastika on it so protesters could walk on the image. On Sunday night in Karbala, protesters climbed the walls of the Iranian Consulate by the light of burning tires as the crowd chanted BLAMING IRAN: Many protesters blame Iran and its allies for deadly violence in the southern city of Basra last year and during a wave of protests in early October, in which Iraqi security forces killed nearly 150 people in less than a week, with snipers shooting protesters in the head and chest.

The spontaneous protests resumed on

Oct. 25 and have only grown in recent days, with tens of thousands of people packing central Baghdad and holding rallies in cities across the Shiite south. The protesters have blocked roads and ports and have clashed with security forces on bridges leading to Baghdad’s Green Zone, the seat of power.

More than 110 people have been killed since the demonstrations resumed. But the grievances go way back.

Iran, which fought a devastating war with Iraq in the 1980s, emerged as a major power broker after the American invasion, supporting Shiite Islamist parties and militias that have dominated the country since then. It also supports many of the militias that mobilized in 2014 to battle the Islamic State group, gaining outsized influence as they fought along with security forces and U.S. troops to defeat the extremists.

WAITING IT OUT: Lebanon also has seen huge demonstrations in recent weeks against its ruling elite and government, which is dominated by allies of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group. They included, for the first time, protests in Shiite-majority communities seen as Hezbollah strongholds. But there the response has been different.

With the exception of a brief and nonlethal attack on the main protest site in Beirut last week by supporters of Hezbollah and the Shiite Amal party, the militant group has refrained from confronting protesters, and Lebanese security forces have acted with restraint. Hezbollah and its allies have expressed sympathy for the protesters’ demands and have called for the quick formation of a new government following the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri last week. But they have also cast aspersions on the protesters, alleging that the U.S. and other Western powers are manipulating them to try to drag the country back into civil war.

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

08 COMMENT

Blackbuck protection and animal rights

Medical board on Nawaz’s treatment A kick in the government’s pants

Sheraz zaka

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OrMer PM Nawaz Sharif suffers from a number of life-threatening illnesses. last month, in a rare display of good grace for a political opponent, Prime Minister Imran Khan said his sincere prayers were with Mr Sharif for his health. The PM had also directed all concerned officials to ensure the provision of the best possible health care and medical treatment to Mr Sharif.

Soon after the government appointed a special medical board for the PMl-N leader’s treatment. The gesture by the Prime Minister did not go unnoticed.

The cause behind the continuous drop in the platelets was finally diagnosed as acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a bleeding disorder in which he immune system goes haywire and starts destroying the platelets.

Nawaz Sharif’s health is in a critical condition and he is fighting a battle for survival. The medical board appointed by the government has recommended sending the patient abroad for some of his medical tests, including genetic tests, which are not available in Pakistan, to ascertain the real cause of drop in the platelets count time and again.

The IHC had suspended Nawaz’s sentence on medical grounds for eight weeks, of which ten days are already over. He is unfit to fly out of the country till his platelets get stabilized at 50,000 for which he might have to wait, one doesn’t know for how long. His treatment abroad may again take several more weeks as pointed out by the IHC, the government is authorized to suspend the sentence without sending the case to the court.

Had the former PM been allowed to go abroad for treatment when it was still possible for him to fly out, his health would not have deteriorated so badly. To compensate for the negligence, the government should suspend the sentence for a longer period to enable Nawaz Sharif to go abroad as soon as his health allows. Besides humanitarian reasons, the act would help bring down the political temperature. any perception of an element of revenge being behind the denial of treatment outside the country would heighten manifold the polarisation already prevailing in the country.

Not as rosy The economy still has a long way to go

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ederal economic affairs Minister Hammad azhar cannot really be faulted for taking an optimistic view of economic developments, for that is why he has the job he does. However, when the reality fails to confirm his claims, he runs the risk of being embarrassed from out of his own mouth. He claimed at a press conference that the economy had turned around. That was quite a strong claim to make, and seemed to reflect the Prime Minister telling the federal cabinet that the economic turnaround was hurting the ‘corrupt mafia’. Mr azhar backed up his claim by saying that investment inflows, foreign exchange reserves, revenue collection, current account balance, trade balance, ease of doing business, Public Sector development Programme spending, stock exchange performance and inflation were all showing an improvement.

Mr azhar needs to careful. For example, someone should tell him that foreign investment inflows which are actually ‘hot money’ which only come in because of an attractive interest rate, will leave at once if some other country offers even marginally better interest. also, the claim of improvement in revenue collection is not only in contrast with the official figures, but ignores the struggles of FBr Chairman Shabbar Zaidi with the FBr bureaucracy. The improvement in trade figures, which underlies the forex figure as well as the current account, cannot be regarded as permanent, and cannot really be credited to any particular step of the government. The PdSP is also in flux, with the government trying to control the deficit by cutting it. another factor glaringly absent from Mr azhar’s remarks was employment.

Instead of job creation, the PTI’s stewardship of the economy has seen thousands being thrown out of work as jobs are lost all round, with factories shutting and businesses collapsing.

The government Mr azhar represents, seems to ignore the fact that the real economy is in bad shape, and no amount of clever talk or massaging of the figures will disguise the fact of breadwinners losing their jobs, or of the price spiral that Mr azhar casually dismissed as due to ‘currency management’ (or rather, massive devaluation). People’s wallets are empty, and they have no means of filling them. Mr azhar has a job to do, and his talk so far won’t help him get it done.

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Arif Nizami Editor Aziz-ud-Din Ahmad

Umar Aziz

Asher John

Joint Editor

Executive Editor

Deputy Editor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36300938, 042-36375965

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eCeNTly the lahore High Court has announced its verdict directing the Punjab government to take safety precautionary measures in order to protect a vulnerable species known as the blackbuck. Blackbucks are a protected vulnerable species under the Punjab Preservation and Protection of Wildlife act and included in the Third Schedule which describes the list of animals and birds which are vulnerable as declared by CITeS (convention on international trade of endangered species). It was argued before the lahore High Court that the blackbuck population was deteriorating due to the illegal hunting permits granted and the lack of safety measures taken by the Punjab government.it was also argued that after the 18th amendment the protection of biological diversity, and the ecosystem has been vested with the provinces. Therefore the Punjab government was negligent in performing its statutory obligations and as a source of evidence news clips were attached to corroborate the fact that blackbucks in the Cholistan desert and lal Suhanra Park in Bahawalpur were deteriorating and it was a worrisome situation. Therefore the lahore high court should exercise its judicial review powers under article 199 of the constitution of Pakistan 1973 and issue a writ of mandamus to the Punjab government and the director General Wildlife department to take adequate measures in order to save the endangered species of blackbuck.

It was really an uphill battle as it took more than three and a half years to prove that the government was not bothered to protect animal rights as enshrined in the Punjab Protection and Preservation of Wildlife act 1972 as well as in the Prevention of Cruelty to animals act. It was very painful for the petitioners when the law officers appearing on behalf of the Punjab Government stated that it was a frivolous litigation in order to gain publicity and media attention. It has become a routine matter that law officers appearing on behalf of government without any preparation of the brief try to convince the Court through such flimsy allegations that the litigation has been filed to attract publicity. Human rights activists or lawyers should never get bogged down by such cheap criticism because whenever any new idea emerges or a genuine public interest litigation is filed, there are people in lawyer’s fraternity who show their jealousy

and insecurity by spewing venom on those lawyers the Punjab government to implement these recommendations in letter and spirit for the protecwho bring good causes to the court.

In this respect, we must be grateful to the la- tion of the vulnerable species of the blackbuck.

In developing countries it is very unfortunate hore high court Chief Justice Syed Mansoor ali Shah (since elevated to the Supreme Court) who that people lack awareness on topics like animal took this issue seriously and after his elevation, rights, and this is also one of the reasons that ansubsequently lHC Chief Justice yawar ali (now imals are being subjected to torture and have to retired) appointed a commission headed by dr carry such burdensome loads that it is tantaPervez Hassan to propose measures to safeguard mount to inflicting cruelty. Hence the education the vulnerable specie of Blackbuck keeping in institutions should play a pivotal role in enlightview the precautionary principle. Fortunately, the ening the youth about animal rights. The Holy commission headed by dr Pervez Hassan also Quran contains many examples and directives gave its findings that the population of vulnerable about how Muslims should treat animals. The species is deteriorating and unless or until the Pun- Quran describes hoe animals form communities just as humans do: “There jab government imposes is not an animal that lives ban on its hunting along on the earth, nor a being with taking precautionary that flies on its wings, but measures, the situation is In developing countries it they form communities like not going to improve. dr Pervez Hassan also apis very unfortunate that you. Nothing have we omitted from the Book, and prised the court that the litpeople lack awareness on they all shall be gathered to igation was absolutely lord in the genuine and need of the topics like animal rights, their end”.(Quran 6:38) hour, and the court must Similarly Holy Prophet recognise its judicial review and this is also one of the (Peace Ne Upon Him) expowers as the right of life reasons that animals are horted Muslims to show contained in article 9 of the and compassion Constitution includes probeing subjected to torture kindness towards animals and birds tection of biological diverand repeatedly forbade crusity and environment. Chief and have to carry such elty towards animals in the Justice yawar was shocked burdensome loads that it following hadith which is to know that from February 2016 to december 2016, 86 is tantamount to inflicting as under: “Whoever is merciful blackbucks had been born even to a sparrow, allah and 46 had already met a cruelty. Hence the will be merciful to him on natural death due to lack of the day of Judgement.” care. education institutions “a good deed done to It took a lot of arduous should play a pivotal role an animal is like a good work by dr Pervez Hassan, done to a human being who through his dedication in enlightening the youth deed while an act of cruelty to an and diligence formulated a animal is as bad as cruelty report and proposed that about animal rights to a human being.” government should inThe government and crease its spending as well civil society should focus on as its capacity for the proanimal welfare in educatection of the endangered species of blackbucks. Secondly, the commission tional institutes, inform functionaries including the also proposed that since the blackbuck is in the police about animal rights, encourage media expothird schedule of Punjab Preservation and Pro- sure, appoint animal health inspectors and celebrate tection of Wildlife act 1972, therefore no hunt- International animal rights day, World animal ing permits should be issued. The court later on day, and World Wildlife day to create awareness. summoned director General Wildlife Suhail Sheraz Zaka can be contacted at ashraf, who also endorsed the commission recommendations and thereupon the court directed sheraz.zaka@gmail.com

What artificial intelligence means AI can change the way we live Mobeen Shahid

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F anybody read the word artificial Intelligence (aI), he starts thinking that he will come to a shopping mall on his self-driven car and there a robot opens his car door. all services are automated without human presence, like greeter, house staff, and security guard. every job is done by a robot. This perception is very much aligned for aI in near future, but are we adopting aI properly in Pakistan? are we following ethical codes to use aI for improvement of human conditions?

Before going further, I would like to discuss people’s nervousness at the risk of losing their jobs after aI implementation. If we look at history, whenever any new thing came, it created new professions and demands. aI is basically transforming the relationship between people and technology. according to the World economic Forum, aI is going to create an estimated 58 million new jobs in the world by 2022. For a moment, let’s imagine an international flight with autopilot mode without pilot. do you think flight can be made safely without a human presence? Only artificial intelligence does its job individually? This autopilot mode’s purpose is to eliminate error and improve accuracy rather than to replace a human. aI is for supporting humans and sharing their work, improving the whole supply chain process and eliminating the risk and errors throughout the process. Now the time has come to focus on strategic and analytical tasks rather than operative tasks. For operative tasks, let aI do its work with accuracy. according to a Harvard Business school research study, aI will add an estimated $13 trillion to the global economy over the next decade. aI opportunities are endless. They start from operational efficiencies and include increased productivity and revenue. aI is all about handling raw data for analysis and forecasting purposes. Based on this analysis, humans can take

Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

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strategic decisions to overcome upcoming events. Pakistan is becoming a huge market for aI implementation. In the past two decades, Pakistan improved its security infrastructure like self-guided missiles, aerial warfare, weaponized drones, while surveillance cameras to make a safe city, facial recognition systems and cybersecurity are some examples of aI in Pakistan. If we talk about the public sector, it is behindhand in technology adaptation. Massive work and focus are required to improve their process to adopt and implement aI. If I talked about the recent earthquake in azad Jammu and Kashmir, our disaster management authority is far behind the times in surveillance equipment, analytical tools and usage of aI. Firstly, the authority should be enabled by having a predictable analytical engine to forecast floods or earthquakes. It should have the raw data of all social media users in Pakistan that can use aI so as to issue the warning automatically well before time. Unfortunately, if such incident, a flood or earthquake, occurs, the only rescue department is the army. This is because it has helicopters and its personnel can move around the affected areas on helicopter to estimate the damage and rescue people. If our disaster management authority has drones, then this time-taking helicopter movement can be replaced with drones and aI make the initial damage report with accurate damage estimates and given well in time. looking at agriculture, Pakistan has vast agricultural land and 20 percent of GdP depends on agriculture. But unfortunately, we are far behind in the technology of using aI for crop and soil monitoring. We don’t have seasonal data, predictive agricultural analytics and supply chain efficiencies. I did not remember any year when this news did not come that yields were affected by flood or heavy rains. Using of aI at the village level, is not an impossible thing for illiterate farmers. The Pakistan agriculture research Council can introduce aI tools and educate farmers to overcome seasonal problems and enhance yields and productivity.

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

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Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

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according to the Pakistan 2025 vision, the literacy rate will be raised from 60 percent to 90 percent. But till now 20 million children are out of school and we are lagging far behind our goal.

Our main issue is to reach rural area populations.

In big cities, we have latest technologies like 5G, and an educated population. But we have no plan to reach rural areas with remote technology. The education and IT Ministries can plan a road map with the help of personalized learning assistant tools. Through aI technology, without a teacher, children can learn basic mathematics, english and writing skills. although the Information TechnologyMinistry is working on the infrastructure of aI in Pakistan with the collaboration of Higher education Commission (HeC), but they should also work on basic education level of children. Currently the government has allocated rs. 1.3 billion for aI infrastructure in universities. Ned UeT Karachi, Comsats Institute of Information Technology (CIIT) University, NUST, University of engineering and Technology (UeT) lahore, UeT Peshawar and University of Punjab have been selected for this project. Two labs are going to be set up for Intelligent robotic and deep learning in NUST Headquarters. Medical Imaging and diagnostic lab in CIIT, Smart city and Neuro Computation lab in Ned UeT Karachi, and Intelligent Criminology lab in UeT lahore. University of Punjab will establish an agent-Based Computational Modeling lab.

Pakistan should focus on the infrastructure for aI. Our Private sector has been started working on primarily emerging technologies like robotics, 5G broadband, Internet of things, autonomous vehicles, 3d printing, cloud computing, biotechnology, augmented reality and blockchain-distributed technology. The public sector should work with the private sector to get knowledge for developing and implementing aI structure. In coming five years if ethics codes will be implemented, foreign investors will surely be attracted towards Pakistan to invest more in Pakistani industry to boost aI application.

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail K-Electric - Hopeless customer support

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

I had the opportunity to visit an IB in Malir area for change of name on the K-electric bill which after almost 4 hours of struggle and wait finally went through with a receipt given.

This month the bill came with a rs. 20,740/- deposit added to bill and no change of name done for which the whole exercise was done. Customer care and billing complaints emails provided 6 days to answer this query asking to visit the IB for such matters. I am simply appalled on a company making rs 38billion profit from the customers over billings and such deposits without adjusting the deposit from previous owner and in turn giving no such services at the comfort of customer emailing or phone calls and wanted them to go through hell visiting their IBs for such matters. authorities to correct this mentality of their support staff and make living better for customers.

SyEd FArhAn QAdri Karachi

Pakistan’s diplomatic powers

Arab spring inspired the Dharna culture The ordinary citizen should not be made to suffer ing poor education standards, water issues, health reforms, timely adjudication of pending cases and so on. after all, whoever tastes or closely observes power, finds it is indigestible to remain deprived of it. If the march cannot rOTeSTS per se cannot be dubbed bring power to the leaders, it can at least make unlawful, being permissible under them more important and relevant on the politarticles 15 (freedom of movement), ical landscape.

16 (freedom of assembly), and 17 Ironically, the ultimate sufferer from that (freedom of association) of the Condharna culture is the common man. Not is only stitution of Pakistan. Nevertheless, resorting to his normal routine life disrupted, but also, he an ill-advised route to bring the system to a can be overburdened with more indirect taxes standstill and pressurise the government of the because the government has to achieve its fiscal day to budge on illegal demands is unwarranted target and these protests slow down economic and deserves condemnation. In addition, it is activities. This writer can also recall early 2013 necessary that a legislative framework be dewhen Islamabad was under siege by Tahirul vised for the regulation of protests within the Qadri’s PaT, when he had to undergo problems. ambit of law so that normal routine is free from This writer had been admitted to the Quaid-iany disruption. azam University but was unable to reach Islamas the annals of history tell us, it was the abad from Karachi to pay the admission fees fateful time of late 2010 when having been fruswithin the stipulated time, failing which admistrated at the humiliating treatment meted out tosion was to be cancelled. Thus, lockdown of wards him by the municipal officials, Mohamed cities and blocking public places is to multiply Bouazizi set himself on fire. This event stirred the sufferings of the citizenry. uproar amongst the Tunisians, and the resulting Keeping in view the protests forced Presiskewed version of Tahrirdent Ben ali to resign inspired protests in our and flee the country. country, the public interest These protests, with Keeping in view the skewed version of demands the regulation of spillover effect, inspired the people of the Tahrir-inspired protests in our country, the public interest protests. as marches and protests have become a neighboring North demands the regulation of protests. As marches and culture, do that whoever is african and Middle unhappy with the governeastern arab states to ment of the day, feels they break the shackles of protests have become a culture, do that whoever is unhappy may block roads, cause fear and overthrow the with the government of the day, feels they may block roads, damage to the public and monarchs. In yemen, private property, and disali abdullah Saleh, cause damage to the public and private property, and rupt the normalcy. Thereafter being injured in a disrupt the normalcy. Therefore, it is time that the fore, it is time that the bomb blast, fled yemen considers introand ceded power to legislature considers introducing a law for the regulation of legislature ducing a law for the reguMansoor Hadi. In libya, Muammar demonstrations such as designation of places in every city lation of demonstrations such as designation of Gaddafi was killed by so that protestors may register their protests at the places in every city so that the western-backed Namay register tional Transitional allocated places; the leader of such protest should apprise protestors their protests at the alloCouncil fighters. Syria cated places; the leader of remains in the grip of the law enforcement agencies in advance so that such protest should apprise the civil war that started appropriate steps can be taken; such a leader shall also be the law enforcement agenthen till date. Hosni cies in advance so that apMubarak of egypt was propriate steps can be forced to resign by the responsible for managing the crowd so that they should not taken; such a leader shall protesters. That tipping be causing any damage, nonetheless in case of damage also be responsible for point left thousands of managing the crowd so people dead while recoveries should to be made; and in such special law that they should not be many others were renvideography should be considered as the primary evidence causing any damage, dered homeless. nonetheless in case of Tahrir Square in damage recoveries should Cairo became a symto be made; and in such bol of resistance special law videography against the dictatorial tendencies. egyptians were so disciplined and and so on. It is necessary to show restraint in should be considered as the primary evidence. dharna is the constitutional right of every determined that Mubarak was forced to resign. order to prevent any catastrophic damage.

Unfortunately, whoever marched to the citizen as enshrined in the fundamental rights Having been inspired from Cairo’s Tahrir Square and Istanbul’s Taksim Square, democ- capital, they did it to create political relevance chapter of the Constitution. However, no one racy Chowk in Islamabad’s red Zone got the for themselves at the expense of public issues. should be allowed to create disturbance under synonymous status. It has become an all-time So far, we have not witnessed any long march the garb of exercising the fundamental rights. favorite spot of those who want to register their or million march which has been spearheaded It is time to regulate dharnas and bring them grievances against the government, giving the for putting the economy on track, keeping a within the fold of the legal framework. impression it is the only place which makes the check on inflation, police reforms, meritocracy, Amjad Ali Siyal can be reached environmental issues, enhancement of public protests noticeable before the powers-that-be. reminiscent of the Tahrir Square, Imran service delivery, transportation issues, improv- at amjadsiyal@hotmail.com

aMjad ali Siyal

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Khan embarked on the perilous expedition to topple the PMl-N government back in 2014 with the help of street power. He continued his protest for about four months at the d-Chowk.

This set the tradition which allama Tahirul Qadri and then the TlP, and now the JUI-Fled opposition followed suit. as you sow, so shall you reap. Now Imran Khan has to grapple with the most serious internal challenge to his rule so far. If Maulana Fazal rehman’s protest is not handled with care, it may cause damage of disproportionate magnitude to the country’s democratic dispensation and the faltering economy.

Prime Minster Imran Khan has realised that his recalcitrant attitude at not engaging the opposition parties is misplaced. The government should be mindful that it has a razor-thin majority in Parliament and in case it wants to translate its manifesto into reality, it must engage the opposition in Parliament and jointly work on pressing issues such as challenges on the eastern front, the stagnant economy, unbridled debts and liabilities and accruing interest, inflation,

PaKISTaN seems to play pivot diplomatic roles in the region. realizing the fact that there is no military solution to the afghanistan conflict, United States of america (USa) called for Pakistan to mediate the talks with afghan-Taliban.

In response, Pakistan took this regional responsibility immediately amid hopes of establishing peaceful and prosperous relations with USa and afghanistan. eventually, Pakistan hosted an afghan-Taliban delegation in Islamabad with the agenda to resume US-Taliban talks, which was appreciated by world leadership at large.

Moreover, Khan’s leadership is ready to mediate the hotbubbling relations between Saudi arabia and Iran, which can clearly be seen from his recent quick visits to Iran and Saudi arabia. also, it is greatly important to highlight here that during every visit to any country, Kashmir issue took its place in the discussion.

Strategically, Pakistan strives to attain regional peace and stability. In addition, it would help Pakistan furnish its regional diplomatic importance and regain the trust of USa that would definitely result in high moral and monetary cooperation from US side. also, it would strengthen the relationships of Pakistan with other Muslim countries, in particular. Hopefully, Pakistan would find some diplomatic ways in coming future to raise its voice for the Syrian and Palestinian Muslims!

FAhAd KhAn nauddero

Welcome to Pakistan!

THe duke and duchess of Cambridge met President arif alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad on Tuesday as part of their ongoing tour of the country. a guard of honour was presented to Prince William and Kate Middleton as they reached Pakistan. The royal couple will visit along with their three children on an official tour, which is expected to repair Pakistan’s international image a great deal. Over the course of the visit, Prince William and wife Kate Middleton will meet a wide variety of people, including children and young people, leaders from government, business and the charity sector, inspiring conservationists, and well-known cultural figures and sporting stars. The royal couple were greeted by PM Imran at his residence and met President alvi at aiwan-e-Sadr. The trip was the first of its kind undertaken by any member of the British royal family to Pakistan in 13 years. we Pakistani welcome you with the core of over hearts.

ArooJ MALiK Lahore

Cricket woes OUr cricket team despite its share of errors and issues won the OdI series against the Sri lanka team. However, we lost badly to same Sl squad in the T20 series, which apparently is our stronger forte. We as a nation were disappointed and took out our anger at the team management and players for this dismal showing in the T20s. We forget that victory is not a matter of chance but of choice. One off win can be a matter of pure talent clicking or chance, but to consistently showing top performance, the team and the management must be on the same page. There must be unity and synergy among players and understanding between team and management. The best way to achieve such harmony, synergy and professionalism is to stop political interference in professional sports. Unfortunately, in our country, we destroyed hockey due to such political interference and now are set to do the same to cricket. In the past, the head of PCB were always and still are appointed by the political governments, which leads to favoritism compromising merit and performance. When PMlN removed the PPP appointed chairman PCB, replacing one political person with another, the matter landed in court. The current government continued the trend of appointment of chairman by the PM. However, the only difference is that the PM chose someone who has relevant experience and background. Still the process is compromised and not good for developing a strong professional team in the long run. In addition, our players have not had the chance of playing international cricket at home for ten years now. This is a huge setback, that not only diminished players’ morale, but also limits the amount of crick our teams get to play at international level. The Prime Minister needs to establish contacts with old players of his time of other countries and seek their help in bringing International Cricket in Pakistan. rAJA ShAFAAtuLLAh islamabad

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

10 NEWS

Drug cartel gunmen kill 9 uS citizenS in an ambuSh in mexico MEXICO CITY

UK election kicks off: Johnson compares rival to Stalin LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson compared his main rival to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin on Wednesday as he prepared to officially launch the governing Conservative Party’s campaign for the Dec. 12 election. While unofficial campaigning has been gearing up for weeks, the five-week election campaign formally began when Parliament was dissolved Wednesday. Johnson went to Buckingham Palace to notify Queen Elizabeth II before kicking off the Conservative campaign with a speech later in central England. Election season got off to an illtempered start, as Johnson accused the main opposition Labour Party of planning to “raise taxes so wantonly” that it would destroy Britain’s prosperity. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Johnson accused the left-ofcentre party of attacking the rich “with relish and vindictiveness not seen since Stalin persecuted the kulaks,” the wealthier peasants who were targeted by the Soviet regime in the 1930s. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, has labelled Johnson’s economic plans “Thatcherism on steroids,” in reference to the free-market, low-spending ideology of the late former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The testy rhetoric followed a rocky start to the campaign for Johnson’s party. Outgoing House of Commons leader Jacob rees-Mogg was forced to apologize for his remarks Tuesday that suggested the victims of a London apartment block inferno that killed 72 people in 2017 lacked a common sense for following fire department advice to wait in their apartments for help. rees-Mogg apologized, but his comments drew a sharp rebuke from opposition politicians — and from rap star Stormzy, who urged the Conservative lawmaker to resign and tweeted: “These politicians are actual aliens.” The Conservatives were also criticized for posting a doctored video of a senior Labour figure on Twitter that appeared to show him failing to answer a question, when in fact he did. Conservative Party chair James Cleverly told the BBC on Wednesday that the ad was just a bit of fun. “What we also did, and this is not unique to us, is we did a lighthearted satirical video, obviously so with a comedy soundtrack, highlighting the Labour Party’s chaotic position on Brexit,” he said.

Asked whether his party had “posted a lie” online, he replied: “I disagree with your assessment of it.” AGENCIES

China urges re-elected Canadian government to free Huawei executive BEIJING: China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday urged the reelected Canadian government to immediately release detained Huawei [HWT.UL] executive Meng Wanzhou. Geng Shuang, a spokesman at the ministry, made the comment at a regular press briefing. Meng has been detained in Vancouver since December last year. She is charged in the United States with bank fraud, and is accused of misleading HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBA.L) about Huawei Technologies’ business in Iran, which is under U.S. sanctions. Meng has said she is innocent and is fighting extradition to the United States. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ruling Liberal Party held on to power after an election in October, though it was reduced to a minority government that needs the support in Parliament of a smaller left-leaning party. AGENCIES

D

AGENCIES

rUG cartel gunmen ambushed three SUVs along a dirt road, slaughtering six children and three women — all U.S. citizens living in northern Mexico — in a grisly attack that left one vehicle a burned-out, bullet-riddled hulk, authorities said Tuesday.

The dead included 8-month-old twins.

Eight youngsters were found alive after escaping from the vehicles and hiding in the brush. But at least five had gunshot wounds or other injuries and were being treated in the U.S., where they were listed as stable, officials and relatives said.

One woman was killed after she apparently jumped out of her vehicle and waved her hands to show she wasn’t a threat, according to family members and prosecutors.

Mexican Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said the gunmen may have mistaken the group’s large SUVs for those of rival gangs.

The bloodshed took place Monday in a remote, mountainous area in northern Mexico where the Sinaloa cartel has been engaged in a turf war. The victims had set out to visit relatives in Mexico; one woman was headed to the airport in Phoenix to meet her husband.

While drug-related violence has been raging for years in Mexico, the attack underscored the way cartel gunmen have become increasingly unconcerned about killing children as collateral damage. Around the ambush scene, which stretched for miles, investigators found over 200 shell casings, mostly from assault rifles. “Lately it’s getting worse. This is a whole new level,” said Taylor Langford, a relative of the dead who splits his time between the Mexican community and his home in the Salt Lake City suburb of Herriman, Utah.

In a tweet, President Donald Trump offered to help Mexico “wage WAr on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth.” But Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected that approach, saying his predecessors waged war, “and it didn’t work.” The victims lived in Sonora state, about 70 miles (110 kilometres) south of Douglas, Arizona, in the hamlet of La Mora, which was founded decades ago by an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many La Mora residents call themselves Mormons but are not affiliated with the church.

A number of such American farming communities are clustered around the Chihuahua-Sonora state border. Many members were born in Mexico and have dual citizenship. While some of the splinter groups were

once polygamous, many no longer are.

All of the victims were apparently related to the extended LeBaron family in Chihuahua, whose members have run afoul of the drug traffickers over the years. Benjamin LeBaron, an anti-crime activist who founded neighbourhood patrols against cartels, was killed in 2009. “My younger boys went to school with two of those boys. They found out in school what had happened,” said Brent LeBaron, a relative who was working construction in Montana when he received the news. “It was heartbreaking to hear their cries and sadness.”

Prosecutors said the woman who waved her arms, Christina Langford Johnson, was found 15 yards (meters) away from her Suburban van, shot to death. Her 7-month-old daughter, Faith Marie Johnson, was discovered uninjured in her car seat.

Kendra Miller, a relative, wrote that the baby’s car seat “seemed to be put on the floor by her mother to try and protect her. …

She gave her life to try and save the rest.”

A short distance away, Dawna ray

Langford, 43, lay dead in the front seat of another Suburban, along with the bullet-riddled bodies of her sons, ages 11 and 2.

Of the children who escaped, one had been shot in the face, another in the foot.

One girl suffered gunshot wounds to her back and foot. Cowering in the brush, one boy hid the other children and then walked back to La Mora to get help. Another girl, who was initially listed as missing, walked off in another direction, despite her gunshot wounds, to get help.

A relative of the dead who did not want his name used for fear of retaliation said in an interview that when they finally made it to the scene where the ambush started — about 11 miles (18 kilometres) from where the two other mothers were killed — they found a burned-out Chevy Tahoe.

Inside, they saw the charred remains of rhonita Miller, 30, her 10-year-old daughter, a son, 12, and her 8-month-old twins. They were “burnt to a crisp,” the relative said.

The gunmen had riddled the vehicle with dozens of bullets and apparently hit the gas tank, causing it to explode.

“When we were there, the cartels from Sonora, there were probably 50 or 60 of them, armed to the teeth, about a mile on this side,” said the relative.

Aaron Staddon, a relative living in Arizona, said the five wounded children were recovering at a hospital in Tucson, Arizona, and that the one who was shot in the jaw would require extensive plastic surgery.

Trump tweeted that a “wonderful family” got “caught between two vicious drug cartels.” He said the U.S. “stands ready, willing & able to get involved and do the job quickly and effectively,” adding, “The cartels have become so large and powerful that you sometimes need an army to defeat an army!”

But Mexico’s president said: “The worst thing you can have is war.”

Later, the two leaders spoke by telephone, and Trump offered U.S. assistance “to ensure the perpetrators face justice,” the White House said without giving details.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who visited the site of the attack, said Mexico was sharing information about the case with the FBI. It was the second failure in recent weeks for López Obrador’s “hugs, not bullets” anti-crime strategy. Two weeks ago, Mexican forces seized a son of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman but had to release him after cartel henchmen launched a furious counterattack in Culiacan, Sinaloa. Prosecutors on Tuesday said a suspect was detained near Agua Prieta, but it was unclear whether the person had taken part in the ambush. The suspect had assault rifles and a .50-caliber sniper rifle and was holding two bound kidnap victims, authorities said.

The 2009 killing of Benjamin LeBaron marked a watershed in Mexico’s 2006-12 drug war. Gunmen tortured him in front of his family, then killed him and his brotherin-law. But those killings — which sparked a further crackdown on cartels — also showed how much worse things have become: No children were killed back then.

In August in Chihuahua, cartel gunmen fired 123 bullets at a man and also killed three girls, ages 4, 13 and 14.

Taylor Langford said after Monday’s bloodshed: “I would like to see the government actually step in and do something about the cartels rather than back down every time they wave their guns at us.”

More impeachment details expected after top Trump ally's reversal WASHINGTON AGENCIES

More details in Congress’ impeachment enquiry into Donald Trump are expected to be released on Wednesday, a day after transcripts revealed a top Trump donorturned-diplomat reversed course and told investigators Ukrainian aid was tied to probes of political rivals sought by the U.S. president.

On Tuesday, publicly released transcripts showed U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland had returned to give lawmakers new details after his memory was “refreshed,” corroborating other witnesses who said Trump sought to pressure the Ukrainians into launching investigations that appeared aimed at boosting his 2020 re-

election campaign.

Democrats in the House of representatives leading the inquiry are expected to release more transcripts on Wednesday but have not yet said which accounts they will issue as the fast-moving probe marches toward televised public hearings.

Additional witnesses have also been called to testify, but most are likely to heed the White House and refuse to cooperate in the probe, which centres around Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asking him to investigate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Joe Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to run against Trump, a republican, in the election next

year. Hunter Biden was on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which had been investigated for corruption. Both have denied any impropriety.

Trump has blasted the inquiry as a witch hunt and accused Democrats of unfairly targeting him in hope of reversing his surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election.

Democrats have defended the inquiry, citing concerns that the president misused his public office for personal gain.

“It’s a clear abuse of presidential power. It cannot be okay in our country for a United States president – any president – to go to a foreign leader and ask for help in his election. It’s wrong,” representative Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat on the House intelligence panel, told MSNBC on Wednesday.

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

busiNess 11 NESPAK wins ADB-funded water sector project in Balochistan

PM orDErS EStABlIShMENt of 'SPEcIAl cEll' to chEcK PrIcES of ESSENtIAl ItEMS

BUSINESS DESK

ISLAMABAD

NESPAK has won the project design, construction supervision and implementation support for the Asian Development Bank-funded Balochistan Water Resources Development Sector Project (BWRDSP) through national competitive bidding, said Nespak Managing Director Dr Tahir Masood on Wednesday. The project would support the implementation of the Integrated Water Resources Management Policy of the Balochistan government. The policy provides a comprehensive framework for the province to address the issues of water management and development in the context of basin approach, with water harvesting, and groundwater recharging as an integral part of watershed management. The proposed project would address the issues of water management and would enhance agricultural production through construction of a dam (Siri Toi Dam) and rehabilitation/extension of 10 irrigation schemes in Zhob and Mula river basins.

Ikram Sehgal resigns as K-Electric chairman citing ‘personal reasons’ KARACHI MEIRYUM ALI

In a surprise move, Ikram Sehgal has resigned from his position as director and chairman of the KElectric board. His resignation has been accepted by the board.

In a press statement released on Wednesday, K-Electric has cited “personal reasons” for Sehgal’s resignation. It added that a new chairman will be appointed during the next meeting of the board of directors. Ikram Sehgal was elected as chairman on January 18, 2019, succeeding Tayyab Tareen who had resigned from the role. Sehgal was previously well known as the chairman of Pathfinder Group, Pakistan’s largest security services company and as a defence analyst in print and electronic media. A source close to K-Electric claimed that Ikram Sehgal resigned because the other board members had developed differences with him, specifically over his attitude. The source said that Sehgal had been “throwing his weight around”, and had been using KElectric to sponsor events to build his own personal profile.

However, K-Electric spokesperson Khayyam Siddiqui denied any rumours of a rift. There is also speculation that Sehgal stepped down over the construction of a new 900MW RLNG-based power plant at Bin Qasim.

Previously, K-Electric had signed an EPC contract of around $425 million with Siemens and Harbin Electric International for the construction of the project, known as BQPS III. According to a source close to Sehgal, the chairman was unhappy with the deal taking place while the future of Abraaj’s stake in K-Electric was still being decided, and also while takeover talks with Shanghai Electric were still ongoing. “He would be right in feeling a moral obligation to question such moves while discussions on securing long term shareholder value were ongoing,” the source added. Ikram Sehgal probably felt that the interests of the country were not being served by this deal. “You have to understand that K-Electric is obviously compelled to take decisions within the tariffs that are structured by NEPRA, which enables them to be sustainable over the next three to five years,” the source said. “One gets the sense that he [Sehgal] had some reservations about what the management felt was important, and what he felt was important.” A source close to Pathfinder Group said he is not surprised with this development. “Ikram Sehgal is old school. He will always put reputation above prestige. If he thought developments would affect the reputation of a company he is steward of, he would resign.”

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STAFF REPORT

RIME Minister Imran Khan has ordered the establishment of a 'special cell' in the Ministry of National Food Security with immediate effect in order to take timely decisions regarding the demand and supply of essential items.

The PM on Wednesday chaired a meeting to review the prices of essential items, particularly flour, ghee, sugar etc., as well as the steps taken by the government to control their prices.

Provincial chief secretaries briefed the prime minister on the availability and prices of flour in their respective provinces.

They informed that the wheat situation in the country was satisfactory after the supply of the commodity from PASSCO storage houses to the provinces. The PM called for taking all possible administrative steps to control the prices of essential edible items.

He directed the officials concerned to use modern technology to reduce the difference in

prices in wholesale and retail markets, adding that border management must also be ensured so that smuggling of wheat, flour and fine flour could be curbed.

The meeting decided that strict action would be taken against those involved in smuggling and the government officials assisting them in this crime.

The prime minister called for making administrative steps more effective in order to check hoarding and profiteering.

While reviewing the present situation of ghee prices, the PM directed the officials concerned to ensure reduced prices of the commodity to the public particularly after the government's decision to defer implementation of axel-load policy for a year.

The meeting decided that a place should be provided for cultivators at tehsil level by the government where they could sell their commodities without any fee and expenditure.

The PM said besides taking effective steps by the provincial administration against profiteers and hoarders, a weekly report about essen-

Govt mulls issuing interest-bearing bonds to reduce circular debt ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

The Finance Division has been mulling to issue interest-bearing bonds to reduce the power sector's circular debt, Pakistan Today has learnt.

Sources privy to the matter disclosed that the finance ministry has been considering a proposal which was floated by leading businessman Mian Mohammad Mansha during a meeting with Finance Advisor Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh last week.

Another power sector player, Shahzad Saleem, was also part of the meeting attended by Secretary Finance Naveed Kamran Baloch, State Bank of Pakistan Governor Dr Reza Baqir, Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Shabbar Zaidi and Special Secretary Finance Omar Hamid Khan.

As per details, the businessman gave a presentation to the participants to re-profile the circular debt that was mostly payable at present on a short-term basis (fresh flow) and the medium-term (stock of circular debt

SECP launches ‘Startup Portal’ to encourage tech innovation ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) has launched an exclusive 'Startup Portal' to encourage technology innovation in Pakistan.

SECP Information System and Technology Commissioner Shauzeb Ali inaugurated the portal during the 'Startup Grind Pakistan' conference in Islamabad, according to a statement issued by the commission.

parked with Power Holding Private Ltd PHPL). The government team was proposed that the flows and existing bonds could be extended to 25 years through bond swap at relatively higher returns.

This should ease immediate payment problems and the need for issuance of sovereign guarantees. The bond swap proposal is in addition to an ongoing exercise to raise about Rs200 billion worth of Sukuk from local commercial banks.

Meanwhile, talking to this scribe, Nishat Chunian Power Limited chief executive officer confirmed that a proposal regarding issuance of bonds was brought forward primarily to bring reforms in the overall power sector of the country. He, however, said the Finance Division has called a meeting tomorrow (Thursday) to discuss measures pertaining to the amicable solution of circular debt.

Upon contact, the finance ministry spokesman hinted against the issuance of any new bond. "There are proposals but they haven't been finalised as yet."

The portal features a list of startups, simplified user experience for registration, access to mentors and incubation centres, online guides and video tutorials for startup companies.

"The SECP startup portal will be a gateway to information and collaboration hub for the facilitation and uplifting of the existing and future entrepreneurs to connect and excel," Shauzab Ali said while talking at the conference. He hoped that the portal will evolve with time as an important part of the startup ecosystem in Pakistan.

He said the SECP, along with other public sector organisations, plays a crucial role in encouraging investment and fostering economic growth and prosperity in Pakistan.

"The SECP is also reviewing the Companies Act with an objective to facilitate the startups and provide a conducive environment to young innovative entrepreneurs."

tial items at district and tehsil level should also be sent to the Prime Minister Office so that real prices of the commodities could be checked.

The meeting decided for utilization of utility stores in an effective way so that the supply of essential items to the people could be ensured.

The Islamabad chief commissioner briefed the meeting about the launching of a mobile application, 'Durust Daam', in the federal capital to control price hike and difference of rates in the markets.

The meeting decided to expand the scope of the app in the big cities of Punjab and KP. It was decided that the app would be introduced in Abbottabad, Peshawar, Mardan, Dera Ismail Khan Rawalpindi, Multan and Lahore with immediate effect.

The meeting was attended by National Food Security Minister Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan, Planning Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Punjab Food Minister Samiullah Chaudhry, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Minister Haji Qalandar Khan Lodhi and National Food Security Secretary Dr Muhammad Hashim.

KE reaffirms commitment to Karachi with $3bn investment BUSINESS DESK K-Electric is committed towards Karachi and its growth with an investment of $3 billion over the next four years across its value chain. This was stated by KE Chief Financial Officer Aamir Ghaziani at the Corporate Analyst Briefing session held at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Wednesday. K-Electric CEO Moonis Alvi was also present on the occasion. The participants were informed about the company's financial performance and continued operational improvements, including growth in sent-out, reduction in T&D losses and sustained improvement in recovery levels. These improvements were underpinned by investments of more than $2.4 billion from FY2009 to FY2019, in all business verticals, including investments of over $960 million in the last three years alone. The CFO said in order to maintain this growth momentum, investments in infrastructure across the value chain is crucial, including a 900MW RLNG-based BQPSIII, a 700MW coal-based IPP project, and transmission & distribution related projects. He said that the company's $450 million TP-1000 project is on course for successful completion, adding about 1,000MVAs of transmission capacity through seven grid stations and associated power lines and systems. "Four grids and 22 power transformers have already been energized under TP-1000 project. This will be followed by a few other transmission projects, which will further improve network reliability and enhance KE's transmission capacity," he added. The power utility's plans to enhance distribution capacity through the addition of 300 feeders and over 5,000 transformers were also discussed at the session, as well as planned investments in the reliability of KE's network and loss reduction through the conversion of 15,000 PMTs to Aerial Bundled Cable (ABC) by 2023.

The participants were also briefed about Karachi's peak power demand which has grown at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.2pc from FY2012 to FY2018, compared to 2.4pc for the rest of the country, and how this bodes well for the future growth potential for KE, underpinned by its aggressive and strategic investment plan for the next four years. The session concluded with a note of thanks from the KE management to the participants.

ECC approves energy ministry’s plan to raise over Rs136bn financial facility ISLAMABAD GHULAM ABBAS

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approved a proposal of the Ministry of Energy to raise finance facilities of Rs136.45 billion and Rs30 billion for adjustment of existing finance facilities of Power Holding Limited.

The meeting of the ECC was held in Islamabad on Wednesday with Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the chair.

The ECC also approved a proposal by the Finance Division for the acquisition of 8.5pc additional shares of EPCL South Africa by enhancing Standby Letter of

Credit by $2.7 million which would bring the aggregate investment of Packages Limited to $17.7 million.

The committee considered and approved two separate proposals by the Ministry of National Health Services for one technical supplementary grant of Rs784 million to pay for increase in the allowances of doctors and another technical supplementary grant of Rs228.547 million to pay for the increase in allowances and stipends of regular and student nurses and of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Federal Government Polyclinic, National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine and Federal General Hospital.

The ECC also took up separate proposals of the Defence Division for one technical supplementary grant of Rs6.210 billion to pay for recurring cost of the Special Security Division (North) and another technical supplementary grant of Rs4.966 billion to pay for Internal Security Duty Allowance to the army troops deployed at the western border.

The committee further approved a proposal authorising the Ministry of Communication/National Highway Authority to proceed for procurement of consultancy services for Section-III Kalkatak-Chitral (48km) under the Chakdara-Chitral Road Project (N-45) being funded by EXIM Bank of Korea and loan

assistance from Economic Development Cooperation Fund (ECDF).

The ECC also considered and approved a proposal by the National History & Literary Heritage Division for a technical supplementary grant of Rs255.315 million after an equal amount was surrendered by the Information & Broadcasting Division in pursuance of a Cabinet Division memorandum issued on 15th July transferring the administrative control of Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) and Lok Virsa from the Information & Broadcasting Division to National History & Literary Heritage Division.

The ECC also approved another technical supplementary grant of

Rs75.616 million to National History & Literary Heritage Division for the establishment of development works at PNCA and Lok Virsa.

The ECC also approved a proposal by the Ministry of Narcotics Control for a technical supplementary grant of Rs14.906 million as operational cost of Anti-Narcotics Force after a similar amount was transferred by International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Affairs (INI-P), US Embassy, Islamabad, to the Finance Division under assistance package to help Anti-Narcotics Force/Special Investigation Cell to implement ongoing counter-narcotics operations as per a mutual agreement.

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

12 busiNess CORPORATE CORNER

Govt fAcIlItAtES clEArANcE of ovEr 1,000 IMPortED cArS ISLAMABAD

LAHORE: Provincial Minister Ashifa Riaz and Unique Group of Institutions (UGI) Chairman Prof Abdul Mannan distribute prizes among the participants of a competition organised by UGI. P R E S S R E L E A S E

Wto urged to facilitate developing countries through multilateralism DAWOOD SAYS ANY REFORM OF WTO MUST NOT ALIENATE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES BUT SHOULD MAKE IT EASIER FOR THEM TO PURSUE THEIR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood has highlighted the importance of strengthening a rules-based ‘multilateral trading system’ under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to safeguard its fundamental principles of non-discrimination, consensus-based decisions and special treatment in all negotiations for developing countries like Pakistan. He was speaking at the Informal WTO Mini-Ministerial Meeting hosted by China in Shanghai. The advisor expressed concern over recent developments in global trade relations which could put the multilateral system at risk. He informed the 35 participants of the meeting that any reform of WTO must not alienate developing countries but should make it easier for them to pursue their sustainable development objectives and gain an equitable share in the technological and industrial expansion across the globe. Dawood called for an immediate resolution to the deadlock on the WTO’s appellate body and emphasised the need for a functioning Dispute Settlement Mechanism for the system, particularly for developing countries. He further underscored the importance of agriculture and fisheries sectors of Pakistan and reassured members of Pakistan’s participation in these negotiations with a view to safeguarding the interests of the farmers and small-scale fishermen. Earlier in the day, the advisor attended the opening ceremony of the China International Import Expo inaugurated by the president of China. He also expressed views in an interview with Chinese television on issues pertaining to multilateral trade, and strengthening of bilateral economic engagement between China and Pakistan. He spoke at a luncheon meeting hosted by China for the Investment Facilitation for Development initiative under the WTO. He stressed the importance of multilateral engagement and effective special and differential treatment in all disciplines. The advisor also met bilaterally with various trade ministers of countries attending the inter-ministerial meeting and exchanged views on issues of bilateral interest. In all, 35 WTO members including China, Turkey, Russia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, European Union, Canada, Australia, Philippines, and Norway are attending the conference. He also met the WTO director general. The advisor is on a four-day official visit to Shanghai and Beijing to attend the WTO Mini-Ministerial Meeting, the China International Import Expo and several bilateral engagements with Chinese dignitaries.

A

GHULAM ABBAS

S the new conditions imposed by the government on the import of used cars have discouraged the importers, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Wednesday facilitated the clearance of over 1,000 vehicles stuck at ports due to payment-related issues.

The said vehicles imported under personal baggage, transfer of residence and gift schemes were parked at ports for want of required taxes/payment in US dollars as per the new condition.

Under the new law introduced by the government early this year, the payment of duties and taxes for all imported cars should be made in foreign exchange, to be directly remitted from abroad by the person importing the vehicle. Most used cars were imported in Pakistan under bag-

gage rules or gift scheme, which were designed only for personal purposes.

The idea behind the new law was to restrict the misuse of the facility by traders since the practice created a drain on local foreign exchange reserves.

Talking to Pakistan Today, commerce ministry spokesperson Muhammad Ashraf said that the ministry has only allowed clearance of those vehicles which were not cleared for want of full payment of taxes as a difference emerged in the tax amount after depreciation of the local currency.

"The importers have been allowed to pay the difference in local currency without asking for additional remittances in dollars to meet the difference," he said, adding that there was no change in the policy related to used cars imports under gift scheme.

According to the Finance Division officials, the ECC decision would help clear up a total of 1,017 vehicles currently stuck at Karachi port be-

OGDC management fails to justify appointment of top officials NAB HAD SOUGHT OGDC MANAGEMENT'S RESPONSE REGARDING 'ILLEGAL APPOINTMENTS AT EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT LEVEL' ISLAMABAD AHMAD AHMADANI

The top management of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC), including board members, has failed to satisfy the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) regarding the appointment of top officials, Pakistan Today has learnt.

Sources privy to the development disclosed that the top management of OGDC has failed to satisfy the bureau regarding the appointment of executive director (Petroserv) and executive director (Human Resources).

They said the OGDC management could not answer the questions raised by NAB Rawalpindi regarding certain changes in the qualification criterion for the appointment of the said top officials.

According to sources, OGDC Board Chairman Qamar Javed was allegedly involved in the appointment of two EDs, who previously worked with a foreign company that provided services to OGDC. They alleged that the incumbent ED (Petroserv) was initially found not qualified as per the advertisement issued in February 2019 owing to lack of experience. However, to accommodate the "favourite" candidate, another advertisement was issued in June 2019 for the said position.

The ED (Petroserv) had only worked with service providing companies and had never worked with exploration and production companies. Ironically, three general managers, despite having relevant experience, have been working under the ED (Petroserv).

Sources said the influence of a service providing company is increasing in OGDC as the incumbent ED had worked with the said company while a shortlisted candidate for the top post of managing director had also worked with that same company.

Similarly, the appointment of present ED (HR) was also against the criterion and concerned rules, said sources.

It is pertinent to mention that NAB Rawalpindi has been conducting investigation against the OGDC management regarding “illegal appointments at executive management level”. In this regard, the bureau had asked the company secretary to arrange meetings with OGDC Human Resources and Nominations Committee (HRNC) members, including OGDC Managing Director Dr Naseem Akhtar and HR Executive Director Muhammad Shoaib Baig.

An OGDC spokesman, when contacted, confirmed that the company’s MD appeared before NAB and responded to questions raised by the bureau.

cause no foreign remittance was received or the remitted amount was rendered insufficient due to depreciation of Pak Rupee before the filing or goods declaration or increase in the rate of duty in the Finance Act 2019.

According to used car importers, the vehicles parked at the ports actually arrived after January 15, when an SRO was issued imposing restrictions on the used cars imports. As the consignments of vehicles arrive in Pakistan in 45 days, thousands of cars were already their way to the country before January 2019, they added.

"Since July 2019, not even a single used car was imported as the SRO discouraged imports," All Pakistan Motor Dealers Association Chairman H M Shahzad said.

According to data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, imports of completely built-up cars (90pc used cars) fell by 43pc in the first half of 2019. The total imports were $156 million versus $277 million in the same period of last fiscal.

MaRkEt Daily Stocks extend rally into fifth day, index up 295 points KARACHI STAFF REPORT

Extending its gains from the previous session, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) closed in the green zone for the fifth consecutive session on Wednesday.

Foreign investors continued with their selling pattern on Tuesday with a net outflow of $1.51 million.

Accumulating 626.90 points, the KSE-100 Index marked its intraday high at 35,985.21. It closed higher by 295.02 points or 0.83pc at 35,653.33. The KMI-30 Index gathered 579.81 points or 0.99pc to settle at 58,392.55, while the KSE All Share Index gained 269.23 points, ending at 25,551.19. Out of the total traded scripts, 230 advanced and 109 declined. The overall volumes remained healthy and were recorded at 297.64 million. Worldcall Telecom (WTL +0.68pc) topped the volume chart, followed by Fauji Cement Company Limited (FCCL +3.41pc) and K-Electric Limited (KEL +1.30pc). The scripts had exchanged 15.80 million, 15.66 million and 14.70 million shares, respectively. Sectors that drove the index north included cement (+52.82 points), investment banking (+45.24 points) and fertiliser (+25.25 points). Among the companies, Dawood Hercules Corporation Limited (DAWH +41.74 points), Pakistan Tobacco Company Limited (PAKT +30.51 points) and Pak Petroleum Limited (PPL +22.48 points) remained the top contributors to the index. The refinery sector added 6.52pc in its cumulative market capitalization. Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (BYCO +7.29pc), Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL +5.03pc), Attock Refinery Limited (ATRL +4.84pc) and National Refinery Limited (NRL +4.36pc) closed with decent gains.

Similarly, the cement sector gained 2.60pc in its total market capitalization. D G Khan Cement Company Limited (DGKC +2.43pc), Lucky Cement Limited (LUCK +1.84pc) and Bestway Cement Limited (BWCL +4.50pc) remained positive throughout the session.

Agritech Limited (AGL +3.63pc), in a notification sent to the exchange, announced that the company has closed its Hazara Phosphate Plant temporarily due to planned PESCO power outages and constraints on Rock Phosphate supplies.

Pakistan, Qatar agree to enhance trade, investment ties BUSINESS DESK Pakistan and Qatar have agreed to strengthen and expand bilateral cooperation, particularly in the fields of trade, industry, transport, energy, manpower export, education, science & technology, finance, tourism and infrastructure.

The 5th session of Pakistan-Qatar Joint Commission, which undertook a comprehensive review of all the facets of bilateral relations between Pakistan and Qatar, was held in Doha on 4-5 November 2019, according to a statement issued on Wednesday.

The commission was co-chaired by Energy (Petroleum Division) Minister Omar Ayub Khan and Qatar's Commerce and Industry Minister Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari.

The co-chairs also held a bilateral

meeting on the sidelines of the joint commission.

The two sides decided to aim for a long-term and sustainable partnership on an equal footing to explore new areas of

cooperation that could encourage trade and investment relations.

The joint commission urged the private sectors of both countries to establish mechanisms towards the promotion of bi-

lateral trade.

Both sides emphasised the importance of activating the Qatari-Pakistani Joint Business Council. It was agreed to hold the meeting of Joint Working Group on Trade and Investment based on the memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries in June this year.

The joint commission also stressed the need for trade fairs and exhibitions in both countries with an aim to introduce manufactured goods and products in each others' markets. The two sides expressed their interest in developing investment cooperation. The Qatari side welcomed the identification of investment opportunities in various sectors in Pakistan.

Besides, discussions were held on enhancing employment opportunities for highly skilled and professional manpower from Pakistan in Qatar. The two sides

also discussed cooperation in aviation, culture and tourism.

INVESTORS' INTEREST: Meanwhile, Ambassador of Qatar to Pakistan Saqr Bin Mubarak said on Wednesday that the Qatri investors were keen to invest in the tourism and real estate sectors of Pakistan.

The ambassador was talking to Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.

The envoy on the occasion also invited Hafeez Shaikh to participate in the upcoming Doha Forum, scheduled to be held in December this year, and formally handed over him an invitation letter on behalf of the deputy prime minister of Qatar.

The advisor said that Pakistan accorded great importance to its relations with Qatar, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan was committed to strengthening and expanding the bilateral relations.

5 Life Changing habits to improve your Weight-Loss potentiaL With ever-increasing trends of Keto, Banana, and GM diets, weight loss has become more of a trend instead of having a healthy lifestyle. As much as it is important to exercise and follow a proper diet schedule, we also need to closely monitor our everyday activities. It is mostly the habits that impede our weight loss process. If you are trying everything and still not losing weight; these are the habits you need to incorporate in your everyday routine to speed up your weight loss. By Rohama Riaz

PROPER WATER INTAKE

There is no better fat and appetite killer than drinking a lot of water.

Not only does it resolve your health concerns, but it also keeps your skin glowing and acne-free. Start drinking 8-10 glasses of water and you will witness a noticeable difference in your lifestyle and your weight loss journey as well. Another logic behind drinking water before every meal is to make oneself feel fuller so in order to reduce the calorie intake.

TAKE STEPS

The worst habit that is firmly ingrained in our lifestyle is “no walk”.

We have started depending on machines and helpers around us that eventually makes us lazy and takes away the activity time from our everyday exercise. The most helpful habit is to take steps after every task.

Here is a way to incorporate this habit into your routine. Every time

you need to pick up anything from a distance, get up and take it instead of asking someone to help you. Take the stairs instead of escalators or elevators. Third and the most important step is to stop using the phone to convey a message to someone. Instead, take steps and keep the healthy habit of walking in your routine.

CUT DOWN ON SUGAR

Even if you are working out every day but still taking sugar, it will prolong your weight loss process. However, if you cut out the sugar intake, the chances of losing weight will increase. Start with cutting sugar beverages, energy, and sports drinks. If you have a habit of eating a whole piece of dessert after food, cut the quantity. These baby steps will help you eliminate the sugary items from your diet completely.

NO MEALS AFTER 7 P.M.

Restrict your diet in the window of 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. because the lesser the number of hours in which you eat, the lesser will be the calorie intake. There is no as such strong evidence but only logical reasoning that calories you consume in the day get burnt up with the activities you do, whereas, the calories taken at night sit in your system and turn into fat.

7-9 HOURS SLEEP

Mr and Mrs Anees Barry with son Nafees Barry

Irfan Haider with a guest

Polo FoR PeAce The event was to promote peace and spread the word about Pakistan Children Heart Foundation.It was the great initiative of the Mr.Ceo Sabiha Anees(the company that import happy cow cheese and other imported items) ....Mr. Nafees Barry.The PR was done by Mosh Diaries

Lack of sleep can cause you fatigue, which would result in low physical activity. If you take proper sleep, your metabolism works faster and your mood also remains fresh.

Moreover, the study also says that you burn calories while you are sleeping. Apart from that, to have a healthy lifestyle, a proper sleeping pattern is quite essential. Sleep deprivation can ruin the whole schedule of the next day making you less motivated and more exhausted.

Player with trophy

Raza Rehman with family Maria B with kids

Munib Nawaz and Maria B with family

HOLLYWOOD BOLLYWOOD

Zingeratha is KFC’s first of the many products that are localized to the flavors of Pakistan while keeping our individuality intact. The finger lickin’ good recipe meets desi flavors in a roll that’s very iconic to our culture. P R

Hifsa Khan, Sadia Salman & Rima Farid

Rian Johnson Said To Be Out From Star Wonder Woman 1984 Test Screening Wars and LucasFilm Sounds Awful (Spoilers) I basically called this back in August of 2018, but now it is being rumored that Rian Johnson is out from Disney Star Wars and LucasFilm.

The rumor comes via TVO from the Lords of the Longbox YouTube channel who recently got that Green Lantern HBO Max scoop correct.

The rumor also follows confirmation from both Disney CEO Bob Iger and Rian Johnson himself that no new movies are in active development for Star Wars and also that the Game of Thrones creators are no longer involved.

It's claimed that multiple insiders are saying that Rian Johnson is out at LucasFilm.

It's said his proposed Star Wars trilogy at Disney is dead at LucasFilm.

That following the mixed reactions (an understatement) surrounding The Last Jedi, that Johnson's future with the franchise is cast in doubt. It's said Disney doesn't want any bad publicity or controversy with The Mandalorian launching on Disney Plus next week.

Warner Bros. is reported to have held two test screenings for Wonder Woman 1984, one back in June that has been said to have been well received, but spoilers for one reportedly held in October offer what sounds like a complete disaster.

I was going to sit on the details, but since I liked the first movie so much, this is really bothering me.

I'm not even sure if they have time to change things, because it's more about the story than anything else, but if the details are legit, I don't even know what to say.

Yeah, it's that bad, IMO. I won't reveal everything that was said, just some of the bad parts, again IMO, but massive potential SPOILERS follow below. It's claimed some magic rock gives Pedro Pascal's Max Lord his powers, which enables him to grant wishes to other people; however, those wishes cause "Monkey Paw" horrific side-effects and in turn power Max Lord even further.

Wonder Woman accidentally wishes for Steve Trevor back; however, per the "Monkey Paw" side effect.

CMYK

Mrs Nafees Barry with family

Khalid Malik

Gangubai Kathiawadi: Sanjay Leela Bhansali approaches Supriya Pathak, Manoj Joshi to tutor Alia Bhatt in Kathiawadi Actor Alia Bhatt may be a Gujarati and even had her paternal grandfather hailing from Kathiawad but she needs help with her diction as she gears up for her first Sanjay Leela Bhansali film, Gangubai Kathiawadi. A Mid Day report has claimed the dialects differ and Alia has approached Marathi actors Manoj Joshi and Supriya Pathak to help her.

The tabloid quoted a source as saying, “Interestingly, Alia’s paternal grandfather Nanabhai Bhatt was a Gujarati Brahmin who hailed from Kathiawad. But Alia is not familiar with the dialect as it is rarely used outside of the pocket in Gujarat. Since the filmmaker is meticulous in his prep, he wants a tutor who is fluent in the dialect. Bhansali has reached out to some of Mumbai’s famous Gujarati theatre personalities, including actors Manoj Joshi and Supriya Pathak, to help him in his search. The film will be shot simultaneously as she undertakes the month-long diction class.

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

14 SPORTS

Wenger evASIve over bAyern job, rAngnIck 'not AvAILAbLe' MUNICH

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RSENE Wenger has not ruled himself out of the running for the vacant head coach role at Bayern Munich while Ralf Rangnick, another potential candidate, is reportedly not interested.

Wenger, 70, gave an evasive answer when broadcaster beIn Sports directly asked him about working at Bayern, who need a new head coach after Niko Kovac was dismissed on Sunday in the wake of Munich's 5-1 drubbing at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Wenger, who speaks fluent German, coached Arsenal from October 1996 until May 2018 and admits he misses some aspects of coaching.

While Wenger has enjoyed his year away from football, the satisfaction of winning matches and preparing players are "something you miss, of course," said the Frenchman.

Meanwhile, Ralf Rangnick, currently head of sport and development at Red Bull and the previous sports director at Bundesliga side RB Leipzig, is reportedly the latest big name to turn

Bayern down.

"Ralf is not available. We don't believe that what Ralf Rangnick is all about is currently being sought by Bayern," Rangnick's manager Marc

Kosicke told German daily Bild.

"That why it doesn't make sense to hold concrete talks."

Rangnick joins Ajax coach Erik ten Hag and Paris Saint-Germain boss Thomas Tuchel, who have both stated that they will not leave their current jobs this season.

On Tuesday, club president UliHoeness said he expected to be able to name a new head coach by Bayern's next away game at Fortuna Duesseldorf on November 23.

Former Real Madrid and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho and ex-Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri have so far also been linked to the job by the German media.

Former Germany assistant coach Hansi Flick has taken over as Bayern's interim coach for Wednesday's Champions League clash at home to Olympiakos and Saturday's crunch league clash at home to second-placed Dortmund, with Bayern currently fourth in the table.

ShoAIb AkhtAr SAyS no bAtSmAn ShoWed reSponSIbILIty except bAbAr AzAm LAHORE

France out to spoil Australian Fed Cup party PARIS AGENCIES

West Indies dismiss Afghanistan for 194 in smog-hit Lucknow LUCKNOW AGENCIES

Afghanistan hit 194 thanks to half-centuries from Rahmat Shah and IkramAlikhil in the first one-day international against West Indies in smog-hit Lucknow on Wednesday.

Shah and Alikhil put on 111 for the third wicket, but West Indies bowlers triggered a batting collapse after electing to field first at the start of the three-match series. Paceman Jason Holder, debutant quick Romario Shepherd and off-spinner Roston Chase each claimed two wickets. Afghanistan is now playing its home games in Lucknow. India has been the home of the war-torn nation´s cricket team since 2015. The air in Lucknow was classed as "very unhealthy" for the match, as north India has been in the grip of severe seasonal pollution. Afghanistan lost openers HazratullahZazai and Javed Ahmadi with just 15 runs on the board before Shah, who made 61, and Alikhil, who hit 58, steadied the innings. Alikhil was run out after hitting six fours and a six in his 62-ball knock. Three balls later, Chase got NajibullahZadran for nought.

France might be on Australian soil as they attempt to win a third Fed Cup tennis crown in Perth this weekend, but they feel right at home and brimming with confidence.

Team captain Julien Benneteau has kept faith with the five women who sealed their semi-final win over Romania, led by Kristina Mladenovic, ranked 40 in the world. She is backed by Caroline Garcia (45), Alize Cornet (60), Fiona Ferro (63) and Pauline Parmentier (122) as they target a first title since 2003.

As well as an Australian team spearheaded by world number one Ashleigh Barty and veteran Sam Stosur, they will have to deal with a crowd at Perth Arena willing their home country towards a first title since 1974.

But returning to the Australian west coast city has brought back fond memories for Mladenovic and Cornet, who separately led France to Hopman Cup titles before the mixed team event was axed this year for the new ATP Cup. Mladenovic hopes that bodes well.

"From the first time I stepped on the court yesterday, I had such great memories and great vibes," Mladenovic, who partnered Richard Gasquet to win the Hopman Cup in 2017, told reporters on Wednesday.

"It's definitely an advantage when you know the court and where you've won in the past. "When you've won a tough competition somewhere it's always a great place for you where you feel confident and you feel like you can repeat the story," she added.

Cornet won the Hopman Cup with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2014. Garcia also represented France at the tournament, in 2016 when Australia won.

Seven-time Fed Cup champions Australia hold a 51 record over two-time winners France, although the French triumphed in the most recent tie between the two

nations in 2000. While the odds might be stacked in Australia's favour, Mladenovic said her team had the advantage of playing a Fed Cup final before, in 2016, and that could prove invaluable.

Mladenovic, Garcia and Cornet all featured in that tie, which they agonisingly lost 3-2 to the Czech Republic. "Even though the last one was at home, I still think it's a big advantage to know how it feels to be up there with all the pressure," Mladenovic said.

"I'm optimistic and positive about this aspect."

France, who also won the Fed Cup in 1997, qualified for the final with a thrilling 3-2 win over Romania in Rennes in spite of losing two singles matches to Simona Halep. Garcia and Parmentier both won in the other singles to set up a deciding doubles match in which Garcia and Mladenovic beat Halep and Monica Niculescu. Benneteau has yet to indicate who will play in Perth on Saturday and Sunday.

APP

Disappointed by the Pakistan team losing the second T20 to Australia by seven wickets at the Manuka Oval in Canberra on Tuesday, former speedster Shoaib Akhtar said there was no batsman who could take the responsibility except for Babar Azam.

“I feel disappointed for Pakistan and especially for Babar who played superb in both the T20s. There is no batsmen who can take the command like Babar,” Akhtar said on his YouTube Channel.

The Pakistani skipper hit 50 off 38 in the second T20 after scoring a 59 not out in the first T20 which was washed out by the rain.

“I am saddened that Babar’s efforts went in vain,” he said. Shoaib, who was referred as Rawalpindi Express, said the wicket was hard however, there was bounce on the surface. “The ball was coming up good but Pakistani openers failed to capitalize,” he said, adding Pakistani batsmen did not show any sense of maturity.

He added Pakistan could have easily scored 200 or close to that on the particular wicket.

“Our batsmen, HarisSohail, Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan lack the maturity of that of Australian batsman Steve Smith,” he said. He added that Rizwan played well in the first T20 but looked like in a hurry in the second game.

Akhtar further said Mohammad Amir bowled well but Muhammad Irfan was struggling because of his left leg. “The management should have thought of Irfan before picking him in the team,” he said.

He added Smith was very effective in the second T20. Smith scored an unbeaten 80 as Australia edged Pakistan by seven wickets to go 1-0 up in the three-match T20 series.

“After comeback Smith has been scoring tons of runs and has proven that he is a T20 player,” he added.

Australia's women footballers get landmark equal pay deal CANBERRA AGENCIES

Women footballers playing for Australia's national team will earn the same as their male counterparts under a deal unveiled Wednesday and hailed as landmark for gender equality in sport.

Under a new centralised contract system announced by Football Federation Australia (FFA), Matildas stars such as Sam Kerr and Ellie Carpenter will be paid an equal amount as big-name Socceroos like Aaron Mooy and Mat Ryan. They will also be afforded business class flights to international fixtures and tournaments, like the men. The breakthrough will be a big boost for America's women footballers, who have filed an equal pay lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation due to be heard in May next year. The United States triumphed at the Women's World Cup in France this year with chants of "equal pay" ringing out after they defeated the Netherlands in the final.

"Football is the game for everyone, and this new collective bargaining agreement is another huge step toward ensuring that we live the values of equality, inclusivity and opportunity," said FFA chairman Chris Nikou.

'UNIQUE' DEAL: Professional Footballers Australia chief John Didulica called the agreement "unique" in world football. "We believe it sets the model for where all federations and players -- male and female -- can take the game to unlock the incredible social and commercial opportunity that, in particular, women's football presents," he said.

Australia has emerged as a champion for equality in the sports arena with netballers and women cricketers also winning better pay deals in recent years.

Earlier this year, 17 sporting chief executives in Australia all threw their weight behind a drive to close the pay gap and advance all aspects of women's sport.

Only last month, the International Cricket Council announced a 320 percent increase in prize money for the women's Twenty20 World Cup in Australia next year.

It still left women earning less than men at a similar tournament, prompting Cricket Australia to pledge it would make up the difference to ensure parity with the men's winnings for its team. A handful of other sports have also moved to address gender inequality, with the World Surf League for the first time this year paying equal prize money following a backlash on social media. Tennis was a leader in introducing equal pay for women at the Grand Slams, with the Williams sisters among the most outspoken on pay parity.

CMYK

Thursday, 7 November, 2019

SPORTS 15

pAt cummInS reSted from perth, AndreW mcdonALd to StArt At the gAbbA PERTH

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AGENCIES

USTRALIA'S spearhead Pat Cummins will be spared the long haul trip to Perth and back to rest his body ahead of the Test series against Pakistan, which has been confirmed as the starting point for Andrew McDonald as the national coach Justin Langer's senior assistant.

The decision to rest Cummins may well open the way for Sean Abbott to play his first international in more than five years, as Australia look for a victory at Perth Stadium on Friday evening to close out an unbeaten six matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, where so far only Sydney rain and arcane playing conditions have prevented a clean sweep.

A shift of Australian thinking from T20 back to the looming Test match assignments against Pakistan (two Tests in Brisbane and Adelaide) and New Zealand (three Tests in Perth, Melbourne and Sydney) have been underlined by the news that McDonald is now clear to commence his role alongside Langer for the Gabba Test later this month, after concluding his

duties with Victoria and the Melbourne Renegades.

Lengthy negotiations among multiple parties have been required to allow McDonald the freedom to take up the national team role while also upholding pre-existing contracts to coach the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL and Birmingham in The Hundred, the first such instance of CA allowing a national team assistant coach to wear more than one hat.

It was also confirmed on Wednesday that Victoria assistant coach Lachlan Stevens will move into an acting head coach role for the remainder of the Sheffield Shield and Marsh Cup following McDonald's departure. Australia coach Justin Langer has said the next round of Sheffield Shield and the Australia A game against Pakistan will play a key role in shaping the final decisions over the Test squad.

Travis Head's century in the recent round of matches has helped his cause as he aims for a recall and he will line-up alongside Usman Khawaja, Will Pucovski and NicMaddinson.

"I'm hoping someone starts banging really hard on the door," Langer said.

"Travis played well. I thought the way

Matthew Wade played was excellent in winning the game for Tasmania. Cameron Green, can we slide him in the top four.

He's got a very bright future. I watched him bat yesterday - I know how well he can bowl, he's a good young kid.

"I keep maintaining there is so much talent in Australian cricket we've just got make sure we get the combinations right and make sure we get the people that are ready to go for this Test series."

As Langer's senior assistant, McDonald will fill the role left by David Saker at the start of the year when he resigned after the home Tests against India and Sri Lanka, also meaning he is likely to take primary responsibility for helming tactical discussions among Australia's bowlers.

Graeme Hick remains as the team's batting coach and SridharanSriram as a spin bowling and batting assistant, while the head of national teams Ben Oliver is eager to ensure a good degree of fluidity for other specialist roles to be taken on a short-term basis, as seen with the use of Ricky Ponting and Adam Griffith (World Cup), Steve Waugh and Troy Cooley (Ashes) and Michael Hussey and Ryan Harris (T20I series) alongside Langer this

year.

A comfortable victory over Pakistan in Canberra on Tuesday evening, underpinned by Steven Smith's deft innings to smooth over the loss of early wickets in the chase, has further demonstrated how Australia are developing role clarity for their T20 team. Smith took complete control of the pursuit, providing a reminder that in the brief phase in which he has previously played in the Australia T20I side as a specialist batsman rather than a speculative wrist spin bowler, he showed an aptitude for being the "clean up man" if early wickets fell.

Across nine matches in 2015-16, Smith returned 263 runs at 32.87 and a strike rate of 135.56, before bowing out of T20I duty to provide brief periods of rest between his many Test match and ODI commitments. "If you look at my batting record in T20 internationals, it's not crash hot," Smith said. "I guess you have to bear in mind … early in my career

I was batting No. 8 or 9, coming in and slogging, facing half a dozen balls tops.

It's never easy so it's going to affect your record at some point.

"I don't doubt my ability. I know the tempos of the game … and I've played a lot of cricket now. I may not be as strong as some of the other guys but I use placement and timing. The white ball usually flies off the bat particularly when it's brand new. If you're timing the ball well you get value for your shots most places.

"If you're chasing you weigh up the situation and what you need and what you need to go at, which bowlers you want to target and just work out the maths in your head and that's chasing. Batting first you have to sum up conditions and how the wicket is playing, what you think a good score is and who is in the opposition, all those sorts of things. I've played a lot of cricket now, I'm pretty experienced and my role in this team is to fix it if the top doesn’t come off."

Additional TV umpire likely to monitor no-balls in IPL MUMBAI AGENCIES

morgan wants fringe t20 World cup hopefuls to learn – fast WELLINGTON: It's the vicious circle that confronts young aspirants to any plum job anywhere: must have experience but can't get it without working in the field. Now that they've been handed the opportunity to gain valuable experience on England's tour of New Zealand, Eoin Morgan wants his fringe T20 World Cup hopefuls to hold up their end of the bargain and learn from it - fast. Morgan cited inexperience as a factor in England's 14-run loss to New Zealand in their third T20I after a batting collapse which saw them lose 5 for 10 in 18 balls after they had needed 42 off 32 balls with eight wickets in hand. The England side featured six players making their first T20 international appearances during the tour and when Morgan was out for 18 with five overs remaining, England crumbled. "It is the most inexperienced side that we will field," Morgan said.

"We can't come out expecting to win 5-0, we do need to learn and make mistakes throughout the whole series. "An important part of learning is recognising exactly where you were and what you did wrong. You can't be blindsided or be stubborn enough to not take in good information. "It has been a great learning day for us and hopefully the guys take in the information and learn from that, hopefully pretty quickly. They have to, and they have to play games so in situations like that you have to throw them out in the middle of it, you can't say your senior players always have to support them and nurture them." Sam Billings, with 24 T20I caps, was run out by Colin Munro in a moment the Black Caps hailed as a turning point and James Vince fell a short time later, having reached 49 off 39 deliveries. From there only Tom Curran reached double figures with 14 not out as the tourists managed just 166 for 7 chasing 181. "With a lot of wickets in hand you'd expect us to win," Morgan said.

"Certainly we did, we were in control pretty much up until that point. AGENCIES

LAHORE: Olympic quota winners for Pakistan in Rapid Fire Pistol Khalil Akhtar and Ghulam Mustafa Bashir pose for a picture. PR

The IPL is planning to have an exclusive TV umpire to monitor noballs from the 2020 edition. It is understood this extra match official will be separate from the third and fourth umpires and will use technology to help on-field officials monitor no-balls.

The decision to use technology more in order to reduce the errors made by the on-field umpires was taken by the newly-formed IPL governing council, headed by former India batsman Brijesh Patel, at a meeting in Mumbai on Tuesday.

One governing council member confirmed that they were first looking to try out this additional umpire in a domestic tournament. With the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament beginning on Friday followed by the Ranji Trophy next month, the official said the new idea could be tried out in either of the tournaments.

The development is likely to be welcomed by players and teams considering umpiring standards in the IPL have been a talking point for several years, which saw the intro-

duction of DRS in the tournament in 2018. In IPL 2019, India's two senior-most players - ViratKohli and MS Dhoni - pulled up match officials in separate matches over controversial no-ball decisions.

Kohli called a missed no-ball opportunity "ridiculous" after a match against Mumbai Indians when

Royal Challengers Bangalore needed seven off the final ball and ShivamDube only managed a single.

TV replays on the big screen later showed LasithMalinga had overstepped, and had the no-ball been called, AB de Villiers, who was on 70 off 41, would have taken strike and faced a free hit with five needed

off the last ball. "We are playing at IPL level, not club cricket," Kohli had said at the post-match presentation. "That's just a ridiculous call off the last ball. The umpires should have their eyes open."

Earlier in the tournament, in Chennai Super Kings' away match in Jaipur against Rajasthan Royals, Dhoni controversially walked on to the field to engage with the on-field umpire UlhasGandhe over a no-ball call. The incident took place in the final over of Super Kings' chase with the visitors needing 18 to win.

With eight needed off the last three balls and new man Mitchell Santner on strike, Ben Stokes bowled a full toss and Gandhe first signalled a noball for height, only for his squareleg colleague Bruce Oxenford to overrule the decision.

The IPL's idea comes on the back of a similar decision taken by the ICC which recently decided to conduct trials in which a TV umpire will monitor front-foot no-balls.

The ICC said it was looking to try it out in a few limited-overs series first, similar to how it was used during an England-Pakistan ODI series in 2016.

Cyclone threat looms as India look to bounce back RAJKOT AGENCIES

After weathering several metaphorical storms and then a pollution hazard, Bangladesh are heading to Rajkot with a 1-0 lead. Still, their days aren't getting brighter in a hurry, and this time it is more literal: the threat of Cyclone Maha looms over the second T20I. But perhaps they won't mind it as much as India, who, it can be argued, played on a surface that was patently more suited to Bangladesh's strengths than to those of their stroke-makers in Delhi. Rajkot is unlikely to produce anything like the slow burner at the Kotla, and a rain-affected T20I could further alter the dynamics as they look to pull level. One way or other, it will both test a side with a few newcomers, as well as offer opportunities for many of them.

It is far-fetched to say that the visitors come in as favourites, or even that they are the more confident side heading into this fixture.

But Bangladesh have just beaten India for the first time in the format, and they have done it without

CMYK

Shakib Al Hasan, without Tamim Iqbal, and for the first time in their history, without even a left-arm spinner in the XI. Anything is possible.

India could stick to the same team, and it would be a superior

batting line-up at this particular venue. Manish Pandey is considered a middle-order option, and so could remain on the bench as both Krunal Pandya and ShivamDube offer bowling options. Arguably, the only spot available for a batsman is in the top three, where Rahul is both an opening option and a No. 3. Topscorer in the last match, ShikharDhawan is unlikely to be dropped and Sanju Samson might fancy his chances if Rahul goes out. Khaleel Ahmed was expensive at the end in the first game, and the experience of Shardul Thakur could be tempting for India.

PITCH AND CONDITIONS: The India met department tweeted that the cyclone would weaken as it approached Saurashtra at noon on match day. It is expected to be cloudy throughout the day and there is a chance of thunderstorms in the evening, though.

Thursday, 7 november, 2019

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Elahi calls on Fazl, sEEks to brEak impassE PA SPEAKER SAYS ANY BREAKTHROUGH WILL REQUIRE ‘PATIENCE AND HARD WORK’

ISLAMABAD

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STAFF REPORT

FTER holding two ‘botched’ rounds of talks with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman who is heading the Azadi sit-in at H-9 ground, the government on Wednesday sent in Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervez Elahi, seeking to break the impasse between the government and the opposition parties.

Elahi, who is a member of the government’s negotiation team, has met Fazl several times over the past week to facilitate the ongoing dialogue. After the meeting, Pervez Elahi sounded hopeful and told reporters that “positive progress” was being made in the talks between the government and opposition regarding the Azadi March.

In a response to weeks-long talks between the two parties, he said “several processes” were simultaneously underway but that any breakthrough will require “patience and hard work”.

FAZL DEMANDS END TO ‘ONESIDED JUSTICE’: Jamiat Ulema-eIslam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Wednesday reiterated the opposition’s demand to end “one-sided accountability and justice”.

New Pakistan envoy Munir Akram presents credentials to UN chief NEW YORK: Munir Akram, Pakistan’s new permanent representative to the United Nations, presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres here on Tuesday. Akram, 74, specializes in multilateral diplomacy and holds a wide experience at the UN chapters in New York and Geneva. He obtained a master’s degree in political science and a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Karachi before joining the Foreign Service of Pakistan (FSP) in 1967. Akram has served as the country’s permanent representative to the UN previously as well, holding the office for six years between 2002 and 2008. According to a press release welcoming Akram to his new role, Guterres said, Pakistan is a “very important player” in the UN, adding that it is an “enormous pleasure” to receive the seasoned diplomat. Guterres said he developed a special relationship with Pakistan during his time here as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He expressed hopes that Pakistan’s new permanent representative will contribute greatly to the exemplary relations between Pakistan and the UN. On Sept 30, in a major reshuffle in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prime Minister Imran Khan had approved the appointment of Akram. APP

JUI-F CHIEF DEMANDS END TO ‘LOPSIDED’ JUSTICE AND ACCOUNTABILITY, WANTS GOVT TO WITHDRAW CASE AGAINST JUSTICE ISA

Addressing the participants of the Azadi March, the JUI-F chief said the case made against Supreme Court judge Qazi Faez Isa must be quashed, announcing his support for the lawyers body that have been protesting the reference against the SC judge. Fazl said that people could not get justice in Pakistan. “There is no justice in the country. NAB is helpless when it comes to holding the government responsible in Pakistan,” he said.

“We want a constitutional government which truly reflects the Constitution of Pakistan,” said Fazl. Fazl said that he and the Azadi marchers had arrived in Islamabad to save the country and they won’t back off until the demands are met.

“If these unqualified people present the next budget, then God forbid, the country will collapse,” he said, expressing his resolve for an indefinite sit-in till the fall of the government. The JUI-F chief announced converting ‘Azadi March’ into Seerat-e-Tayyaba Conference on 12 Rabiul Awwal, falling on Sunday.

The JUI-F chief also praised the spirit of the protesters in spite of heavy rain and increasingly cold weather.

“If we can survive rain and stormy winds then nothing can stop us from achieving our targets,” he said in his ad-

dress to the protesters.

Meanwhile, the prime minister’s special assistant on information and broadcasting, Firdous Ashiq Awan, urged “politically isolated” JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to “step out of self-deception”. “Maulana should step out of self-deception and [stop] bothering the public.

You have failed in [your] scheme. Do not attack the democratic process and insult the public mandate like the others who were rejected in the general elections.”

Though the government has shown interest in reaching a breakthrough with the protesting opposition leader, the PM’s aide has adopted a no-holds-barred approach against the JUI-F chief. She has time and again criticised the maulana for holding the sit-in for “ulterior motives”.

Speaking about the JUI-F chief, Religious Affairs Minister Pir Noorul Haq Qadri said Fazl’s track record showed that he always “keeps options open and never walks into a dead end”. “He believes in the politics of reconciliation. So some pathway to break the deadlock is sure to emerge.”

The religious affairs minister said that the protesters’ demand for the prime minister’s resignation is one that can’t reasonably be fulfilled.

NO RESPITE IN SIGHT: The second round of talks between the joint opposition and the government ended without any breakthrough. The opposition’s demands include immediate resignation of Prime Minister Imran Khan, re-elections in the country, no role of the army in the electoral process, and supremacy of the constitution.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak had said both the sides stuck to their respective positions “The government agreed to several of the opposition’s demands and that talks will continue on the rest of them after consultations with the two sides’ leadership,” he had said, adding that the government was trying to find a middle ground with the opposition to break the ongoing deadlock.

Khattak had said the talks between the two sides were held in a “good atmosphere”.

Army is apolitical, says ISPR ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asif Ghafoor on Wednesday said that the Pakistan Army has nothing to do with political activities.

He said this in response to allegations levelled by Jamiat Ulema-eIslam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman regarding the military’s involvement in politics.

The spokesperson for Pakistan’s military said that the army’s primary focus is ensuring national security and they did whatever they did to ensure the safety of the protesters.

Talking about military’s deployment during the general elections, he said that the army acts on government’s directives and is only there for security reasons.

On November 2, Major General Ghafoor had categorically stated that they would not allow any effort to harm to the national stability and support the government within the ambit of the constitution.

Talking to a private news channel, he had said that Pakistan Army is a national and impartial institution, which believes in the supremacy of the constitution and law and always supports democratically elected government, not any single party.

Regarding the opposition parties' complaints about the transparency of polls, he had said that army fulfilled its legal and constitutional responsi-

bility in elections.

The ISPR DG had said the government and opposition negotiation committees are working in a better coordination and we hope this process will move on in a better way.

Major General Ghafoor had said that a year has elapsed now after the government's formation and the issues are not resolved on streets merely through accusations.

He had said that the opposition has the option to avail their constitutional right and take up their allegations to the relevant institutions instead of accusing the army on roads. He had added that democratic problems must be resolved democratically. Replying to a question, the ISPR DG had said that during the last two decades, the country has gone through very difficult circumstances fighting terrorism by rendering numerous sacrifices.

He had said that the people and the armed forces of Pakistan had fought against the terrorism which no other could do. He had added that tension persists on the Line of Control (LoC) and Indian repression is going on in occupied Kashmir.

He further said that around 100,000 troops have been deployed on the eastern border and nearly 200,000 on the western border for defence of the motherland.

The army spokesperson said that in such circumstances, chaos and unrest in the country would not be in the national interest.

PPP will keep fighting for democracy, says Bilawal MULTAN APP

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday reiterated his party’s resolve to continue struggle for the rights of people.

Addressing the legal fraternity here at the high court bar, Bilawal praised the lawyers for their struggle for democracy and people’s rights.

His party needed the support of lawyers and all those, who believed in the rule of law, to strengthen Pakistan and democracy, he added.

He said his grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had given constitu-

tion to the country, was hanged. His mother Benzair Bhutto spearheaded the campaign for the restoration of judiciary and sacrificed her life but didn’t make any compromises on principles for the people’s rights.

His father was also put behind the bar for 11 years without any solid case, he alleged. Bilawal said former president Asif Ali Zardari had sent a presidential reference for reopening of the case of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto 10 years ago.

He said the Bhutto family and the PPP had given sacrifices for the rights of the people, while dictators had overthrown its elected governments.

Kashmiri women struggle amid India lockdown SRINAGAR AGENCIES

A mother unable to get updates from the hospital about her premature newborn. A bride who couldn’t have the wedding of her dreams. The photojournalist who risks double harassment by security forces due to her profession and her gender.

Ever since Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government stripped disputed Indian Kashmir of its semi-autonomous powers in August and placed the Muslim-majority region under a massive security lockdown, life has been a struggle for ordinary Kashmiris.

Indian soldiers from outside the region flooded the streets and thousands were arrested. A curfew was put in place. The government cut off most of the region’s communications with the outside world, shut off the internet and telephone services. Even public transportation services were stopped.

Authorities have eased some restrictions, lifting the curfew, removing roadblocks and restoring landlines and some mobile phone services, but the other measures remain in place.

India says they’re needed to prevent the violent street protests that are common in the region.

While men historically make up most protesters and insurgents in the region and are often the first arrested or

physically abused in security crackdowns, experts say Kashmiri women are suffering from the lockdown in their own less visible way.

Zahida Jahangir’s son was born premature and weak. He was rushed from the clinic where he was born to the neo-natal intensive care unit in a children’s hospital across town. The lockdown made it nearly impossible to visit her son or even communicate with the hospital.

Zahida was separated from her son for the first 20 days of his life, and though he is now healthy, the experience has created what she says is pain only a mother could know and left her with regrets that will last a lifetime.

Kulsuma Rameez’s wedding was scheduled for during the lockdown and she was unable to go shopping for the wedding dress she dreamed of. Instead, she was married in a borrowed dress at a small ceremony attended by a few rel-

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

CMYK

atives and neighbours. After the ceremony, she had to walk to her new home as the roads were blocked.

Photojournalist Masrat Zahra was covering the first Friday protest since the lockdown when a police officer threatened to kick her. She notes that Kashmiri women can’t leave their homes without a male companion out of fear they’ll be harassed by soldiers.

Nevertheless, she is undeterred.

“You cannot remain silent,” Masrat said. “If you come out and speak, someone will hear your voice. Coming out to work is my way of protesting.”

Ateeqa Begum has lived alone ever since her only son 22-year-old Fasil Aslam Mir, the family’s sole breadwinner, was detained on his way home after fetching medicines for her on the day the lockdown began.

“My son has been shifted to a jail in an Indian city and I have no means to travel there to see him,” she said.

A doctor at a hospital in Indian Kashmir’s main city, Sabahat Rasool says she’s seen the lockdown forever alter lives. She tells the story of a pregnant woman who refused to be admitted to the hospital because she had no way to tell her family that she wouldn’t be coming home and didn’t want them to worry that she had been kidnapped. She was brought in unconscious the next day.

“She survived but lost her unborn baby,” Sabahat said.