E-Paper PDF 2nd December (ISB)

CMYK

Monday, 2 December, 2019 I 4 Rabi-ul-Sani, 1441 I Rs 19.00 I Vol X No 152 I 56 Pages I Islamabad Edition

Govt starts contactInG allIes for army act amendment g

g

pM iMran to hold Meeting with allies, opposition parties on deceMber 5 in islaMabad

FM Qureshi says econoMic situation has iMproved and the preMier wants to Focus on well-being oF people

siddiQui says sindh has suFFered a lot in past 11 years and now the people want govt to give theM their due share

KARACHI

I

g

STAFF REPORT

n a bid to secure legislation that would extend army chief General Qamar Javed’s tenure beyond Supreme Court-sanctioned six months, the government has started reaching out to its allies as well as opposition parties to gain support for amending the Army Act. In its first step, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senior leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Sunday called on Muttahida Qaumi MovementPakistan (MQM-P) leadership and announced that a meeting in this regard has been scheduled in the federal capital on December 5.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi addressed a joint press conference with Information Technology Minister and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui in Karachi after the meeting.

Qureshi started off the presser by thanking MQM-P, a party allied with the government, for standing by the ruling party in difficult times and for extending its cooperation in various situations.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan took charge when the country was facing internal economic challenges and we are all aware of that,” he said, adding that the in those difficult times, the premier approached friendly countries for assis-

tance to avoid economic bankruptcy and scored a negotiated deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The foreign minister said that that the country’s economy is stable and the currency has gone up by Rs4-5 against the dollar due to foreign investments. “Economic indicators point towards the fact that we have stepped out of a crisis,” he said, adding that now the next big challenge was to convert this stability into economic growth so that the government can meet the expectations of the people that brought it to power.

He said that voters are well aware of the difficulties the government had to face and are aware of the role played by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and MQM-P to tackle challenges in Sindh. “Voters across the country are well-informed and Karachi is one of the most politically mature cities because when the people of the metropolis are presented with the facts, they are wise and can sift the truth from false narratives,” he added. Qureshi said that the government and its key ally have reviewed the situation and come to a similar conclusion, whether it is the national scenario, economic scenario or the local government situation.

He said that it is because of these facts that the prime minister has invited its allies and opposition parties to hold a meeting with him in December. “We discussed this today and re-

ceived an educational input, therefore, we have decided that our talks in December can help us make more informed decisions which are beneficial for our people,” he added.

Addressing the media, Siddiqui appreciated the foreign minister’s visit to Karachi and his willingness to hold a meeting with party members.

He said that MQM-P’s policy on national issues is clear and the party has always extended unconditional support in this regard. “MQM-P will always extend its support to democratic governments. We will not only continue our journey of cooperation but will now quicken its pace,” he added.

Talking about the situation in Karachi, the IT minister said that various cities of Sindh have been facing economic terrorism for the past 11 years and are in dire need of immediate moral, political and legal support. “Sindh’s cities, especially Karachi, have sacrificed more than their obligations and the metropolis’ contribution alone in the sales tax is 89 per cent,” he said, adding that these numbers show how willing Sindh is to fulfill its responsibilities towards the country.

“Karachi provides sustenance for the entire country. The government should focus on running Karachi so that the country’s economy can run too since the metropolis is the economy’s engine,” he further said.

The IT minister said even though the government faced multiple challenges in the start, the economy has been stabilised. He said that the only request of the people of province is that they be given due attention and the party’s demands are in line with the problems it has witnessed in the past 30-35 years. “The government is working on those, but the pace is so slow that on many fronts it does not seem any work is being done,” he added.

Earlier in the day, a high-level delegation of the PTI comprising FM Qureshi and Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, visited the headquarters of coalition partner, MQM-P. The current overall political situation, local government election, Karachi and Hyderabad development package announced by federal government were discussed in the meeting.

Women judges need to 'relax and be themselves': CJP g

PM says ‘controlled’ student unions will groom future leaders

top judge says sc actively considering inclusion oF woMen judges in supreMe court

police book student march organisers on ‘sedition’ charges

STORY ON BACK PAGE

Parliamentary body to mull appointment of ECP members tomorrow STORY ON BACK PAGE

FC man martyred, two militants killed in N Waziristan attack in today’s issue

g

STORY ON BACK PAGE

STORY ON BACK PAGE

ispr says two soldiers wounded aFter india attacks pakistani check-posts FroM across loc STORY ON PAGE 02

CMYK

02 ISLAMABAD

Monday, 2 December, 2019

FC man martyred, two militants killed in n waziristan attaCk ISPR SAYS TWO SOLDIERS WOUNDED AFTER INDIA ATTACKS PAKISTANI CHECK-POSTS FROM ACROSS LOC RAWALPINDI STAFF REPORT

a

t least one soldier was martyred while three were injured in two separate incidents of violence along the Line of Control and North Waziristan near the PakistanAfghanistan border on Sunday, according to the military’s media wing.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor said that the “FC post in North Waziristan” came under attack by the terrorists in North Waziristan tribal district near the border.

“During the exchange of fire two terrorists were killed, while Lance Naik Muhammad Imran was martyred,” he said in a tweet. “two FC personnel were also injured in the shooting,” said the ISPR chief.

Fencing along the AfPak border is underway to deter the militants from entering the country. the military-led massive construction program, launched in mid2017, is installing a pair of nearly 3-meter-high chicken wire fences, with a 2-meter gap between each one, and topped with barbed wire, along the nearly 2,600-kilometer border.

Additionally, hundreds of new outposts and forts have been built or are under construction. Pakistan says

CMYK

fugitive militants, after having fled counterterrorism operations, have taken refuge in Afghan border areas and plot cross-border attacks from there.

Officials insist the border fencing program will help prevent terrorist infiltration and the movements of smugglers in either direction, addressing mutual security concerns. the fence runs through rugged terrain and snow-capped mountains as high as 12,000 feet. the border security plan, officials estimate, will cost about $500 million.

LOC FIRING LEAVES TWO INJURED: Separately, after a brief lull, the LoC has heated up once again, with fresh ceasefire violation by the Indian forces leaving two Pakistan Army soldiers injured.

According to a tweet by the DG ISPR, unprovoked

Indian firing on Pakistani check-posts at the Rakhchikri, Rawalakot sectors injured two Pakistani soldiers.

“Indian Army’s unprovoked firing in Rakhchikri, Rawalakot Sector along LOC. Mortar rounds fired on Pakistani post. Indian fire effectively responded. During exchange of fire two officers of Pakistan Army got injured,” he tweeted. tensions have been on the rise between India and Pakistan after the two nuclear-armed states almost went to war after the Pulwama attack.

India scrapped Article 370 that recognised the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan responded sharply to the move, downgrading diplomatic ties with India and suspending trade with New Delhi.

CMYK Monday, 2 December, 2019

NEWS

FAWAd FoR joInt PARlIAmentARy CommIttee to Amend ARmy ACt FEDERAL MINISTER SAYS POLITICAL DIFFERENCES MUST BE CAST ASIDE FOR NATIONAL STABILITY iSLamaBad

I

STAFF REPORT

N a bid to resolve differences with the opposition parties and to form a consensus on various issues, ranging from the amendment in the Army Act and certain economic policies, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry proposed that a joint parliamentary committee should be formed.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, the federal minister said that the opposition’s role is imperative for democracy, it’s not possible to achieve a wider consensus regarding state institutions without its input.

“Political differences must be cast aside if we wish to leave a stable Pakistan for our future generations,” he added. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan wants to strengthen the institutions and this includes asking them to respect the authority and balance of one another. “No single institution can solve the problems confronting Pakistan alone,” he added.

Talking about the Supreme Court’s (SC) decision of approving PM’s notification of extending Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Bajwa’s term, he said that it has created a good atmosphere in the country. He said that PM Imran,

COAS Bajwa and Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khosa should oversee the committee and with the help of media, a consensus on the two matters should immediately be formed.

“It is essential to form a consensus on these matters because these issues are of extreme importance to the country,” he added.

“Unless we bring balance in our institutions, unless we strike a fresh deal, we will remain entangled in problems,” he further said.

Fawad said that the prime minister only wants the best for the people. “I know him closely and he does not aim to make political statements, but rather his heart beats with the people and he genuinely wants to create a ‘Naya Pakistan’ to bring better change,” he said, adding that the premier does not have a personal agenda nor does he want to gather wealth and power.

STUDENT UNIONS: Speaking about the rights of students and the countrywide ‘Student Solidarity March’ which demanded the restoration of student unions, the federal minister said that he fully supports the movement since he believes that student unions laid the foundation of the country.

“Pakistan was formed due to student union activities. When the Muslim Student Federation was es-

SAYS STUDENT UNIONS ARE ‘BACKBONE OF DEMOCRACY’ BUT THEY MUST BE REGULATED tablished in Aligarh University, and later on in Islamia College, the entire movement for Pakistan was run by students,” he added.

He also criticised former military dictator General Ziaul Haq’s decision of banning student unions across the country, saying that he made many mistakes and this was one of them. “Although student unions are the backbone of democracy, there must be some regulations to prevent their misuse by mainstream political parties for violence or their evolution into blackmailing mafia,” he said, adding that all leading institutions in the world have student unions and the only way to go about this is to regulate them instead of banning them.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: The federal minister said that measures are underway to promote solar energy in the country and preparation of solar panels in the country will be started very soon. Fawad said the government is trying the utmost to introduce modern technology in the country and electric-powered vehicles will be introduced in the country and hybrid electric buses will be plied in order to curb smog and pollution. “Hybrid vehicles, including rickshaws, will be manufactured in Pakistan with the cooperation of China,” he said. He also said that

Pakistan can increase its agricultural output by utilising modern techniques.

Fawad said that after a prolonged period of time, Pakistan was now reentering the international scene for technology and research.

A ministerial committee had been formed during his last visit to China and a similar committee with Russia is also expected to be formed shortly, after which the focus will shift to European Union (EU) and the United States (US),” he said, adding that unless and until Pakistan collaborates with international bodies, it cannot move forward.

Fawad said that the country’s first space mission would be launched in 2022, for which shortlisting for the astronaut would be done by the air force in February next year. “In 2022, with the cooperation of China, our first astronaut will be launched into space,” he added. He also said that the vaccines for snake and dog bites will be made in the country rather than importing them from India and in this regard, an herbal medicine plant is being set up near Jehlum on 300 acres of land.

The minister further said that in this year’s budget, a 600-fold increase had been made for science and technology. “By next June, we will increase it by 1,000 times.”

Dec will be last month of PTI govt: Fazl Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday asserted that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will be toppled by the start of next year, saying December would be Prime Minister Imran Khan’s last month in power. Talking to media persons in Quetta, Fazl, who spearheaded the Azadi March against Imran-led government, said that the opposition must get rid of mafia ruling the country.

Fazlur Rehman further said that the Azadi March sit-in was a “historic event” which affected the political environment in the country, adding that it would be good if our allies take advantage of the situation arising out of the antigovernment sit-in. He said his party was not

interested in striking any deal, such as charter of democracy, with the ruling PTI owing to its ‘incompetence’. If the PTI was interesting in strengthening democracy, it would have capitalised on the already-signed charter between the political parties. The JUI-F chief went on to say that the country was moving towards degradation and the crisis had increased, adding that his party continues to stage protest across the country.

He claimed that the Panama Papers was an international pressure which was used against the political leadership. It may be noted here that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted from the premiership after his name surfaced in Panama Papers for owning offshore companies.

Thousands of protesters have converged on Pakistan’s federal capital, under the banner of ‘Azadi March’, seeking to de-seat Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The caravan, which set off from Sindh on October 27, reached Islamabad on October 31.

During the sit-in, opposition leaders delivered fiery speeches against the ruling PTI government. On November 1, Fazl gave the prime minister a 48-hour ultimatum to resign. However, the so-called deadline was later extended.

It has been extended multiple times now.

Till now, despite several meetings, negotiations between the protesters and the government have failed to reach any result. NEWS DESK

03

PtI suspends founding member Hamid khan Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday suspended the party membership of Hamid Khan – a founding member of the PTI – for allegedly tarnishing the party’s image in print and electronic media by speaking against it.

According to a show-cause issued on Sunday, the senior lawyer has been given seven days to explain his position for defaming the party. The decision to suspend Khan’s membership was taken by the party’s chairman, Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“It is noted that you have been repeatedly, in the print and electronic media, spoken against and maligned/defamed the party without any justification, and on the basis of fake and false allegations which amount to mala fide,” read the notification. The notification further accused Hamid Khan of “having committed misconduct, violated party discipline and party constitution by making fake, false, frivolous, wrong allegations, bringing party matters in the media for ulterior motives and thereby acting against party interests and also hurting the feelings of party members and workers”. In addition, the senior PTI member has been barred from speaking over the matter on electronic, print and social media while the inquiry is underway. Hamid Khan, who is one of the authors of the PTI’s constitution, had said in a TV interview in July that PTI which was a party of change in the past has now become “establishment’s party.” He said that PTI had to pay heavy cost to get power with the help of establishment and many turncoats and landlords were now part of it. He also cast doubts on the ongoing anti-corruption campaign being carried out by his party. NEWS DESK

Aitzaz Ahsan defends law minister over extension faux pas Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Aitzaz Ahsan on Sunday said that holding Law Minister Farogh Naseem responsible for clerical errors in the army chief’s extension paperwork was “ludicrous”. The lawyer said that it was wrongful to single out Naseem for whatever inefficiencies were found in the legal documents put forth in the case pertaining to the extension of the Chief of Armed Staff (COAS). He said that such work was not done by the minister’s themselves usually, rather it was relayed to the secretaries who could make errors. Earlier during the hearing of the case, Aitzaz Ahsan said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan held no jurisdiction over the prime minister’s decision as to whose tenure he wants to extend and whosoever he wishes to appoint next. NEWS DESK

Qureshi to discuss bilateral ties on sri lanka tour Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday departed for Sri Lanka on a two-day official tour. Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal said the foreign minister would hold meetings with the newly elected Sri Lankan president and the prime minister besides meeting his Lankan counterpart during his two-day visit.

The FO spokesperson further told that the two countries would hold in-depth discussions on bilateral ties and matters of mutual interest. Earlier, on Nov 19, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had felicitated the newlyelected President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa on his election as the 7th President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. NEWS DESK

Jails overcrowded beyond sanctioned capacity iSLamaBad APP

Almost all of the jails of the country are overcrowded as 77,275 inmates languish in 114 prisons against the sanctioned capacity of 57,742 prisoners — the lockups have additionally detained around 19,533 prisoners.

No doubt, majority of the cases are under-trials, however, the convicted prisoners are in cramped conditions. As the prisons had 25,456 convicted prisoners while 48,008 under-trials with 37,600 males, 1,204 females and 1,248 juvenile.

According to 4th quarterly implementation report of Federal Ombudsman Secretariat (FOS), 47,077 inmates against sanctioned capacity of 32,477 are detained in 42 jails of Punjab, 17,239 against the capacity of 13, 038 in 24 jails of Sindh, 10,871 against the capacity of 9,642 in 37 jails in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 2,088 against the sanctioned strength of 2,585 in 11 jails of Balochistan.

In Punjab's jails, 17,056 convicted, 26,725 under- trial, 45,646 male, 769 fe-

male and 662 juvenile are confined. Likewise, in Sindh, 4,808 convicted, 12,431 under-trials, 16,852 male, 214 female and 173 juvenile are kept.

In KP, 2,794 convicted, 7,668 undertrials, 13,304 male, 201 female and 366 juvenile are languishing. In Balochistan, 798 convicted, 1184 under-trial, 798 male, 20 female and 47 juvenile are imprisoned. Balochistan is the only province that is presently free of overcrowding in jails.

The report has recommended constitution of provincial and district oversight committees for improving jails conditions, appointing of focal persons at Ministry of Interior, Provincial Home and Prison Departments to make surprise visits of the respective committees and construction of jails in every district with separate portion for women and juvenile prisoners, sleeping space, toilet and hygiene facilities for every prisoner.

In order to address the overcrowding’s problem in the capital, 720 kanal land for construction of a ‘Model Prison’ has been acquired in Sector H-16 Islam-

abad and its PC-I costing Rs3.9 billion was approved out of which Rs 140 million was so for utilized. Work on administration block, boundary wall, male barracks are under process and the jail is expected to complete by June 30, 2020.

In Punjab, a scheme worth Rs. 50 million for purchase of land for the office complex of Directorate General Reclamation & Probation and Rs.25 million for development of Offender Management Information System (OMIS) have been included in ADP 2019-20.

A scheme for establishment of 20beds hospital for treatment of drug addicts at Central Jails Lahore and Rawalpindi is underway. As many as 639 convicted prisoners were released in lieu of payment of fine, diyat, arsh and daman this year in Punjab.

In Sindh, Prisons Correctional Act 2019 has been passed by Sindh Assembly besides upgradation of district prison Mirpurkhas as Central Prison and work on installation of networking of 22-jails started. The prisons record is being computerized and further developed after con-

CMYK

necting it with NADRA system for proper identification of prisoners.

An ADP scheme for feasibility study of prisons industries and skill development of the prisoners were initiated and PC-II costing Rs2,220 million has been sent to Home Department on August 8, 2019 for setting up of industries in jails to enable prisoners to earn dignified livelihoods after completing their jail term.

As many as 20 poor convicted prisoners were released before Eid-ul-Fiter on payment of fine of Rs6,951,755 and Rs13,237,863 are required for release of 33 more poor prisoners imprisoned in KP. Talking to APP, Deputy Director Administration, Prison Department KP, Majid Gufran, said that expansion work on triple storey building at Central Jail Peshawar having additional barracks, mosque, dispensary, medicines and doctors rooms has been completed and more than 2,300 inmates would now be accommodated in Pakistan’s oldest jail established in 1854.

He said that under phase-II, the ad-

ministration block and a residential colony for jail staff would be constructed in premises of the Peshawar jail for which consultant was hired. The reconstruction work on Swat prison with the capacity of 400 prisoners would be completed by 2020 while a district jail at Shah Mansoor in Swabi is being constructed to arrest overcrowding, he added.

Gufran said that at least Rs 287 million is required for renovation of 15 lock ups in erstwhileFata, which were declared sub jails by KP Govt. He said that expansion work at Central Jail DI Khan has been launched besides expediting work on district jail Hangu to be inaugurated in three months.

The concerned ministries have been urged to allocate necessary funds for improvement in jails besides ensuring establishment of Prisoners Voluntary Donations Fund (PVDF) at provincial level. The bar councils should provide free legal aids to prisoners, especially to under-trial ones to counter the social problem of overcrowding in jails, the report concluded.

04 LAHORE

Monday, 2 December, 2019

WEATHER UPDATES MONDAY

230C

80C

TUESDAY

220C 70C

WEDNESDAY

220C

70C

THURSDAY

220C

70C

Govt evolvinG strateGy to coPe with hiv: Buzdar LAHORE

CM SAYS COUNTRY ON PATH TO DEVELOPMENT

STAFF REPORT

P

UnJAB Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar in his message on the Aids Day said that the Punjab government was evolving a comprehensive strategy to cope with the HIV cases in the province.

He said launching a campaign on social media besides print and electronic media regarding the preventive measure is the prime need of the hour.

The chief minister said the facility of free medicines and medical tests to the

patients was available under the Punjab AIDS Control Programme.

‘COUNTRY ON PATH TO DEVELOPMENT’: CM Usman Buzdar on Sunday said that the government is undertaking measures to set the country on the path to development.

CM Buzdar said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan the country was heading towards sustainable development, adding that Pakistan

Tehreek-e-Insaf had been given the mandate to govern for five years and those rooting for the government to fail would be severely disappointed.

The chief minister criticised previous governments for destabilising the country by politicizing institutions and giving free rein to corruption.

CM Buzdar said that under the premiership of Imran Khan, corruption would be eliminated from the country.

IGP expresses determination to curb crime, terrorism LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shoaib Dastgir on Sunday said that CounterTerrorism Department (CTD) and Special Branch have played a fundamental role in the elimination of terrorists and miscreants across province and a remarkable reduction in incidents of terrorism has been observed.

During his visit to the CTD Headquarters and Special Branch Headquarters Robert's Club, he said that the process of eradication of terrorists especially their facilitators and financers should be continued and there should be a special monitoring of such groups and organisations which promote extremism and sectarianism. He added that delay in security clearance cases of citizens shall not be tolerated at all and such cases should be completed within given timeframe whereas Special Branch should keep the district police aware of the activities of the criminals.

During his visit to the CTD Headquarters CTD Additional IG Muhammad Tahir Rai told him that there has been 90 per cent reduction of terrorism in the province during 2019 and no sectarian based -terrorism has been seen in the province during last three years. He added that terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Jahngvi (LeJ) has been completely swept away from Punjab whereas ef-

fective actions are being taken against Al Qaeda and Daesh as well.

He further said that during last 11 months, 281 cases have been registered against terrorists and facilitators and 310 terrorists and their facilitator have been arrested. He revealed that challan of 267 accused have been submitted into courts among them 136 accused have been awarded sentences by the court whereas the rest of the cases of the accused are under hearing. “Five suicide jackets, 100 kg ammunition material, 125 hand grenades, 200 detonator, 15 kalashankoves, multiple pistols and bullets have been recovered from them,” he said, adding that 173 accused have been arrested for providing financial support to the terrorists and 12 million rupees terror fund has been recovered from them.

The IGP praised the initiatives of CTD and directed CTD to continue the operations ensuring cooperation in this regard.

During his visit to the Special Branch Headquarter Roberts Club Additional IG Zaeem Iqbal Sheikh briefed the IGP bout the organisational structure and performance on which the IGP directed that Special branchBhas a crucial role in maintaining peace in the province so intelligence wing must be further empowered for the timely provision of information and also for before time reporting of any potential crisis or situation.

Five killed as tractor-trolley overturns NEWS DESK: Five women were killed while five others sustained serious injuries when a tractor-tolley turned turtle in Muzaffargarh on Sunday. According to rescue officials, about 30 women were going for cotton picking on a tractor-trolley when it overturned while trying to cross another vehicle near Head Taunsa. As a result, five of them died on the spot while five others sustained critical injuries. The bodies and injured were shifted to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Kot Addu. Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar has expressed grief and sorrow over the loss of lives in a road accident. In a statement issued by the CM Office, the chief minister sympathized with the bereaved families and prayed for the early recovery of those injured in the incident. He also directed the authorities concerned to extend the best possible medical care to the injured people.

PHC seals 22,600 fake clinics

LAHORE APP

The Punjab Healthcare Commission (PHC) has sealed over 22,600 businesses of quacks across the province so far, according to official sources.

The PHC sources said the commission also imposed Rs 460 million fine on quacks. The teams visited more than 51,000 hospitals and clinics etc.

Meanwhile, it registered more than 33,000 small and big hospitals, basic health

units, clinics of individual doctors, homeopaths, hakims, Pathological and Radiological Diagnostic Centres, out of which 18,000 had licences.

Sources said that at present 47,000 hospitals, basic health units, doctors clinics, laboratories, Hakeem and homeopaths were operating in Punjab. It said that the PHC was trying to register all stakeholders in a minimum time period.

As per the procedure, sources said that within 14 days of receiving any appli-

cation from a hospital or an individual doctor or homeopaths, the commission issued conditional registration after physical verification and evaluation of the health facility.

It said that the PHC arranged training and capacity building of the persons on minimum service delivery standard after that final registration and licence was awarded to them.

The commission had so far imparted training to more than 9,000 persons affiliated with health profession.

Monday, 2 December, 2019

320 brIck kIlns closed In PunjAb As smog worsens MULTAN APP

A

ROUND 320 brick kilns across the district were closed as preventive measures in line with the control of SMOG. This was stated by Assistant Director Environment Department Hameed Akhtar while talking to APP here on Sunday.

He said the department was implementing the directions of provincial government in this regard. He said that situation regarding smog was normal in the city as compare to Lahore and other districts of the province.

The assistant director said brick kilns would be kept close by December end as preventive measures and would be opened after completion of closure period given by provincial government.

He said smog situation was worst in Lahore and other districts that's why the industrial units at five districts including Lahore, Sheikhupura, Kasur, Faisalabad and Gujranwala were closed.

The assistant director said that there was no prediction of rain in near future that's why all arrangements were made to avert smog like situation.

He said that they had issued notices to 135 industrial units while 15 units were sealed due to excessive smoke which could become cause of environment pollution.

He said they had registered FIRs against 84 persons and nabbed 23 outlaws involved in burning of tyres, shoppers and other which is violation of section 144 imposed in entire province from October.

He said that 3,201,100 face masks and pumphlets were distributed among the citizens during the awareness drive about smog.

The department had also checked 1110 vehicles and challaned 510 vehicles while imposed Rs 221,760 fine on smoky vehicles during October - 15 to uptil now.

He said that there was three types of smog including nitrogen oxide (NO2), nitrogen oxide (NO2) and sulphur dioxide (SO 2).

The officer said that two old technology brick kilns had been shifted on zig zag technology while one brick kiln owner submitted affidavit for shifting on latest technology.

APP

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar said on Sunday that international institutions including the United Nations Organisation (UNO) would have to break the silence over Kashmir issue.

In a media statement issued here, he said that Indian army had committed the biggest terrorism by rendering 22,000 women widows and violating the sanctity of another 11,000 females in Occupied Kashmir. India must realise that it could not suppress the Kashmiris’ freedom movement through power

05

Abducted hotel owner rescued, five kidnappers held JHELUM: The police rescued a man abducted for ransom of millions of rupee and arrested five kidnappers including a UK national woman and two cops of Punjab Police here on Sunday. According to details, Arif Mehmood, a private hotel owner was kidnapped by armed men some one week earlier. The culprits through whatsapps of the abductee, had demanded 25 million rupees from his brothers settled in United Kingdom, for his release. However, the police traced the culprits by using modern scientific techniques and arrested them during a raid besides safe recovery of Arif Mehmood. The nabbed abductors included a UK national woman and two cops of Punjab Police and they were being interrogated. INP

Indian troops martyred 7 kashmiris in november On Saturday, speaking on the government’s efforts to combat smog — that continues to take a toll on people’s health in several Punjab districts, including Lahore — Prime Minister Imran Khan said the government had decided to improve the fuel quality to Euro-4 and gradually shift the auto industry towards electric vehicles.

He blamed the policies of erstwhile rulers of Punjab for disastrous air quality of the province and said Lahore lost 70 per cent of its trees over the past decade.

“A 70 per cent drop in tree cover has meant far-reaching consequences,” he said, linking the deforestation to increase in air pollution. He said that with a dense tree cover, pollution particles are absorbed by the leaves.

Unlike the statements made by his cabinet members, the PM acknowledged the role of vehicular emissions in the worsening air quality, which are the biggest contributor to air pollution.

The premier noted that crop burning in India and Pakistan and smoke from factories and brick kilns also affect the environment drastically.

“However, what adds the most to air pollution is the transport sector and we have made certain decisions in this regard [after meeting with PM’s Special Assistant on Petroleum Division, Nadeem Babar],” he said.

He said that Pakistan relies on 50-60 percent of import for oil and currently imports oil that meets the European Union’s Euro 2 emission standard. “We have decided we will import a cleaner [environmental friendly] oil, [which will meet] the Euro 4 standard.”

By the end of next year, Pakistan will use the fuel which would be Euro-5-compliant, said the PM, adding the government felt that such steps would have a 90 percent impact on the quality of air.

Listing further measures, he said the oil refineries will be given a period of three years to improve the quality of oil produced, but if they failed to comply the government would shut them down. “The quality they are currently producing has a lot of pollutants,” he added.

He also announced that the government had decided to shift the focus of the auto industry towards electric vehicles. “We are holding talks with the car industry to address their certain reservations,” he said, adding an incentive policy will be introduced in 2020 with a special emphasis on buses.

“The buses that run across our cities will either be hybrid vehicles or electric. Or, we may insist on CNG, like in Delhi, where they run buses only on CNG,” the PM said.

World institutions must break silence over Kashmir issue: Sarwar LAHORE

NEWS

of gun and bullet.

The governor strongly condemned the Indian aggression in occupied valley and mentioned that over the last 30 years, 95,000 people including 1,000 women had been martyred due to atrocities unleashed by Indian army in occupied Kashmir, while thousands of innocent Kashmiris were still languishing in jails. However, India could not suppress their resolve of

freedom movement that was getting stronger with each passing day, he added.

“We cannot forget our Kashmiri brethren for even a moment. Kashmir is the jugular vein of Pakistan and no world power can separate them from us,” he added.

Ch Sarwar said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, 220 million Pakistanis were moving shoulder to shoulder with people

of occupied Kashmir. “We are ready to give every sort of sacrifice for freedom of occupied Kashmir,” he vowed.

The governor said that now time had come that the international institutions including the UNO must take notice of 119 days of curfew and Indian tyrannies in the occupied valley instead of keeping mum over the situation there. The Kashmir issue must be settled in accordance with the UNO resolutions, he demanded.

He said that it was also a responsibility of human rights organisations to raise voice against the worst human rights violations by India in Occupied Kashmir.

SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops in their unabated acts of state terrorism martyred seven (7) Kashmiris during the last month of November. According to the data issued by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, during the month, eighty two (82) people were critically injured due to the firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells on peaceful demonstrators by Indian military, paramilitary and police personnel in the occupied territory. At least sixty five (65) civilians, mostly youth and political activists including one, Bashir Ahmad Qureshi, were arrested. The troops molested a woman and damaged three (3) houses during cordon and search operations in the month. The occupation authorities also did not allow people to offer Friday prayers at historical Jamia Masjid in Srinagar since August 5. INP

Internet ban renders valley residents jobless SRINAGAR: In occupied Kashmir, people are losing top positions in prestigious institutions across the world due to unabated ban on Internet in the territory.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the people of the territory are also losing the opportunity to attend international conferences and are unable to apply for fellowships offered by the institutions of global repute. “I am resigning from the position of the chief editor of journal Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery after I could not contribute towards its latest issue due to the Internet ban in Kashmir,” wrote Dr Imran Majid, a renowned dermatologist, on his Facebook.

Majid was appointed Chief Editor of the journal in May 2017. Like Majid, many IT professionals and journalists have lost their jobs from globally acclaimed institutions after failing to contribute towards their organisations. A news editor of a USbased online magazine also lost his job after the Indian government blocked the Internet services in occupied Kashmir when it scrapped its special status and divided into two union territories on August 5. “You can’t explain a few days of Internet downtime to anyone in the world let alone four months of its shutdown,” he said. Even many scholars have lost the opportunities to attend international conferences after they could not get access to Internet and check invitations. Nearly 3,000 youngsters have lost their jobs in the information technology (IT) industry as the Internet blockade has been going on since August 5.

At the Rengreth industrial park alone, which comprises prominent IT companies and provides services to clients in the United States, United Kingdom, Middle East and South Africa, nearly 1,500 employees have been rendered jobless. INP

Architectural heritage of Anarkali Bazaar reflects Mughal, British eras LAHORE APP

Anarkali Bazaar, one of the oldest bazaars of South Asia, had two parts: Old Anarkali and New Anarkali — the old Anarkali is known for traditional stuff of foods while the New Anarkali is famous for traditional stuff of items such as dresses, shoes, jewellery, bangles, sports goods and handicrafts.

Within the New Anarkali, there are individual market areas such as Bano Bazaar, Dhoni Ram Lane and Paan Gali.

It is also popular among women for items such as clothes, bangles, henna, shoes and other accessories The bazaar, located in central L ahore, the second most populous city of the country, is famous due to its architectural heritage from the Mughal and British colonial eras.

Stepping into the bazaar, the streets become more crowded while passing of mo-

torbikes present a picture of its own. There is blend of length and breadth of Pakistan welcoming all the visitors with smiling faces, attracting them towards their products — the negotiation between the shopkeeper and customers is a worth watching scene.

But what makes Anarkali special is its authentic look and atmosphere. It is a place that captures the indigenous bazaar life of Lahore. A street vendor sells dates close to a local mosque with a blue dome (“Neela Gumbad”) that is a local landmark. Women customers with plastic bags stop at a popular restaurant to enjoy some “dahi baray” (a traditional yogurt snack), “fruit chaat” (spiced fruit salad) or fresh fruit juice.

Some historians have raised doubts about the accuracy of the story of Anarkali, and her tomb as there is nothing mention of her in the Emperor Jahangir’s autobiography and other royal accounts from that period. But according to others, the Bazaar was named after a slave girl who was im-

mured by Mughal Emperor, Akbar for having an affair with his son, Salim.

The bazaar is spread around the tomb of anarkali which is not far from here and the surrounding areas are known by the tomb of Anarkali. It is said that Salim wanted to keep the place around the tomb alive. Therefore, he laid the foundation of bazaar so that people could remember the place and history of the area.

A page copied from an old book on Lahore by Syed Mohammad Latif describes the story of how Akbar allegedly ordered the immurement of Anarkali when he saw a reflection of her smiling at Salim (afterwards Jahangir) in a mirror.

She was made to stand at a designated spot, and bricks were laid all around her until the space was completely enclosed.

The note claims that Salim grieved over Anarkali’s death, and when he became the emperor, he had an immense superstructure built over the sepulcher.

On the top of it are inscribed the 99

CMYK

names of Allah, and on the side, a Persian couplet purportedly composed by Jahangir: “Ah! Could I behold the face of my beloved once more, I would give thanks unto my God until the day of resurrection.”Anarkali is said to have died in AD1599.

However, in recent times, modern shopping malls have opened in the city with designer of shalwar kameez boutiques to western brands and restaurant chains. The places are popular among the nouveau riche, also colloquially known as the “burger crowd”.

Half of the shop owners are working here for generations as their forefathers had business or shops and now they are looking-after the legacy. Along the shopkeepers, many street vendors are also selling their products with efficiency and profitable talent.

Talking to APP, Sagheer sahib who has been selling sweet yams here for almost last three decades said that as far as the maintenance of this historical bazaar

is concerned the then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto took keen interest in the beauty of the Bazaar. He said that the then Chief Minister of Punjab Pervaiz Elahi also addressed the difficulties of the market to keep the bazaar on the track. However, since then, no one has got the time to visit and check the standards of facilities here, he added.

M. Wazir who has been working in the market for about 55 years said that he has seen many political families coming to the bazaar for shopping such as the family of Nawab Amir Mohammad, Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhary Brothers because it was the only fullfledge bazaar at that time and even today.

Whatever is the history behind but one cannot surf the bazaar in one whole day. The bazaar makes you to fell in love with old patterned shops and people working there. The jubilancy of first time visitors seeks the attention of everyone as one can see them enjoying every moment.

Monday, 2 December, 2019

06 WORLD VIEW

The resignaTion of The iraqi prime minisTer may noT halT The proTesTs HE HAD PROVED AN INEFFECTUAL LEADER AND THE ENTIRE RULING ELITE IN IRAQ IS PROBABLY TOO CORRUPT AND TOO DETERMINED TO HANG ON TO POWER TO MAKE THE RADICAL REFORMS DEMANDED BY THE PROTESTERS

independent

p

Patrick cockburn

ROTESTERS in Iraq have won their first big success by forcing the resignation of the Iraqi prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, after the killing of 45 unarmed protesters by the Iraqi security forces in a single day. As the news spread, the crack of celebratory fireworks replaced that of gunshots in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, which has been the centre of demonstrations since they began two months ago.

The impending departure of Mahdi is a symbolic victory for the protests, but too many people have been killed for it to quell what is close to a mass uprising by the majority Shia community. He had proved an ineffectual leader and the entire ruling elite in Iraq is probably too corrupt and too determined to hang on to power to make the radical reforms demanded by the protesters.

The announcement that the prime minister was stepping down came after 36 hours in which the security forces had switched from killing individual demonstrators to massacres on a larger scale – with

as many as 50 people shot dead on a bridge in the southern city of Nasiriya – bringing the number killed to 408, as well as thousands more wounded, since 1 October.

Compare this horrific casualty list over eight weeks with that in Hong Kong, where just one protester has been killed and one has died accidentally since protests started six months ago. Compare also the vast and sympathetic publicity given to the Hong Kong protests with the limited interest in the savage and unprecedented government clampdown in Iraq.

Probably the world has got used to Iraqis being murdered in large numbers, whether it is by Isis, Saddam Hussein or the US air force, so it is no longer considered news. The violence is seen as only affecting Iraqis, but it has the potential to reshape the politics of the Middle East.

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, one of the most powerful political and military forces in the region has been the increasing strength of Shia communities under Iranian leadership. Over the last 40 years, this coalition has outfought and outmanoeuvred enemies such as the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and, above all, in Iraq.

The importance of the Iraq-Iran alliance is so great because two-thirds of Iraq’s 38 million population are Shia and it has a 900-mile-long border with Iran.

With growth this bad, India needs more than luck

BloomBerg daniEl Moss

With India’s growth tumbling to 4.5% from 8.1% in little more than a year, you’d be surprised to know that Shaktikanta Das has one of the easiest jobs in central banking. He just has to keep doing what he’s been doing since becoming governor of the Reserve Bank of India last December: cut interest rates. Fortunately, political will is on his side.

That’s an enviable state of affairs for a central banker these days. Just look at Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, who has become a constant target of President Donald Trump’s Twitter tirades. It’s also facesaving for Das that politics and economics are pointing in the same direction. He took up this post under a cloud of question marks about the RBI’s independence. Das’s immediate predecessor, Urjit Patel, quit abruptly almost a year ago, just as the government was ratcheting up pressure for the institution to hand over some of its reserves to free up fiscal spending.

The troubling state of Asia’s third-largest economy makes Das’s task uncomplicated. The pace of growth is slowing dramatically; government numbers Friday showed India’s expansion slipped in the third quarter to its weakest clip since 2013.

Many big economies have been stalling, but it’s hard to think of another where growth has come down to earth this quickly. Expectations have diminished so radically that even a slowdown of this magnitude was in line with economists’ projections.

For Das to even contemplate taking his foot off the monetary

pedal now would be a mistake. He should look past the recent uptick in inflation last month, largely attributed to vegetables such as onions, a staple of Indian cooking. Those price gains helped push the measure beyond the RBI’s 4% medium-term target. More important is the slide in core inflation, which strips out volatile commodity prices.

Das says policymakers will keep cutting rates until growth revives. The five reductions he’s overseen haven’t given the economy back its groove; so the mission is clear going into next week’s meeting, when the central bank is expected to cut again. His global peers may have done well to adopt the same approach. It’s clear from the Fed’s retreat that the hikes in 2018 went too far in the face of anaemic inflation. The European Central Bank had barely curtailed quantitative easing before it had to start all over again.

Lest Das be tempted to sail through, there’s the iceberg of India’s banking industry to consider, which is saddled with one of the world’s most dangerous loads of bad debt. The trouble is, about 60% of the financial system is controlled by state-run banks that report to the government, so Das’s ability to influence them is constrained. At some point he may well have to challenge entrenched political interests.

The other hurdle is that India’s broken financial system hinders the ability of rate cuts to flow through the economy. Shadow banking, a big source of weakness, was also a major source of lending. That spigot appears to have largely dried up.

I wrote in February that Das was lucky: Economic need trumped the political circumstances surrounding his first rate cut. But luck doesn’t last forever. It wasn’t too long ago that economic aspirations for India echoed China’s. Now this young country of 1.4 billion people is looking more like Indonesia, Malaysia or the Philippines — that is, just another middling emerging market. At this rate, Das will need more than rate cuts and a good reputation to fix things.

Daniel Moss is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian economies.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq has had a Shia-dominated government that usually acted in unison with Iran. Iraqi Shia differ in many respects from their Iranian co-religionists, but they have seen them until recently as an essential ally in the struggle with Isis.

But in the last two months, this victorious, Iranian-led Shia coalition has been fractured as pro-Iranian sections of the Iraqi security services and paramilitary groups repeatedly shot down Shias protesting about the lack of jobs, inadequate social services and pervasive corruption on the part of Iraq’s ruling elite.

These protests were initially on a small scale and only gained momentum because of the government’s overreaction to what was at first a very minor threat.

From the first, there was little effort to conceal the role of Iran in masterminding the repression. Reports surfaced at an early stage that General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force – the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guards in Iran – had decided that the protests were part of a foreign plot and the best way to deal with them was with “a whiff of grapeshot”. Many generals in history have thought the same thing and, through violent but failed repression, have turned limited expressions of discontent into open revolts. In the Iraqi case, the

protesters became virulently anti-Iranian.

The outcome of the counterproductive and futile attempts by pro-Iranian forces in Iraq to crush the protests may be the beginnings of a sea change in the politics of the Middle East. The previously triumphant alliance of the Iranian and Iraqi Shia – a coalition that had seen off the US and its allies – may be irretrievably broken.

The Iranians and their Iraqi allies have done more to break the link between the two countries in the last eight weeks than Washington and Riyadh succeeded in doing in years of trying. Why did Iran overreact? President Trump’s policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran has not proved very successful, but it has made the Iranian leadership, always paranoid and prone to conspiracy theories, nervous and likely to exaggerate anything that looks like a threat. Paradoxically, this feeling of vulnerability on the part of Iran is linked to a sense of hubris born out of its repeated victories in proxy wars in the region.

But these successes produced a new weakness in the Iranian-led Shia coalition: it acquired an interest in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria in maintaining the political status quo, however unjust, corrupt and incompetent it might be. In Iraq, for instance, the predominantly Shia ruling class might once have been heroic opponents of Saddam Hussein, but they have

long since transmuted into a dysfunctional kleptocracy that is hostile to reform.

Shia leaders rebuffed critics of their failings by appealing to communal solidarity against existential threats from alQaeda-type groups, but that excuse lost traction in the last few years as Isis was defeated. In Iraq, the discontent goes particularly deep because much of the Shia population – the Sunni and Kurds have kept out of it – wonders why they are without jobs, water and electricity in a country that earns $7bn a month from oil exports.

The departure of Adel Abdul-Mahdi as prime minister is unlikely to defuse the protests, because the Iraqi state is probably incapable of reforming itself. An alternative for the government is full-scale repression: trying to stamp out dissent by killing or arresting protesters. But that option has failed so far because the protesters have shown heroic resolve in continuing to demonstrate despite being shot down and without taking up arms themselves – though most Iraqi families own one or more guns. The protesters can see that militarisation of the crisis would be much in the government’s interest, because it could then justify its use of lethal force.

But this self-restraint will not last forever and there have already been so many deaths as to “plant hatred in the hearts” of many Iraqis that will not disappear.

Henry Kissinger gets it... US ‘exceptionalism’ is over THE CURRENT WASHINGTON CONSENSUS IS ONE OF HYPER-IDEOLOGICAL UNREALISM AND HUBRIS, WHICH LEADS TO A ZERO-SUM MENTALITY OF ANTAGONISM TOWARDS CHINA AND RUSSIA Strategic culture Foundation Editorial

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made prudent remarks recently when he said the United States is no longer a uni-power and that it must recognise the reality of China as an equal rival.

The furor over a new law passed by the US this week regarding Hong Kong and undermining Beijing’s authority underlines Kissinger’s warning.

If the US cannot find some modus vivendi with China, then the outcome could be a catastrophic conflict worse than any previous world war, he admonished.

Speaking publicly in New York on November 14, the veteran diplomat urged the US and China to resolve their ongoing economic tensions cooperatively and mutually, adding: “It is no longer possible to think that one side can dominate the other.”

A key remark made by Kissinger was the following: “So those countries that used to be exceptional and used to be unique, have to get used to the fact that they have a rival.”

In other words, he is negating the erroneous consensus held in Washington which asserts that the US is somehow “exceptional”, a “uni-power” and the “indispensable nation”. This consensus has grown since the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the US viewed itself as the sole super-power. That morphed into a more virulent ideology of “full-spectrum dominance”. Thence, the past three decades of unrelenting US criminal wars and regimechange operations across the planet, throwing the whole world into chaos.

Kissinger’s frank assessment is a breath of fresh air amid the stale and impossibly arrogant self-regard held by too many American politicians who view their nation as an unparalleled power which brooks no other.

The seasoned statesman, who is 96years-old and retains an admirable acumen for international politics, ended his remarks on an optimistic note by saying: “I am confident the leaders on both sides [US and China] will realise the future of the world depends on the two sides working out solutions and managing the inevitable difficulties.”

Aptly, Kissinger’s caution about danger of conflict was reiterated separately by veteran journalist John Pilger, who warned in an exclusive interview for Strategic Cul-

ture Foundation this week that, presumed “American exceptionalism is driving the world to war.”

Henry Kissinger is indeed a controversial figure. Many US scholars regard him as one of the most outstanding Secretaries of State during the post-Second World War period. He served in the Nixon and Ford administrations during the 1970s and went on to write tomes about geopolitics and international relations. Against that, his reputation was badly tarnished by the US war in Vietnam and the horrendous civilian death toll from relentless aerial bombing across Indochina, believed to have been countenanced by Kissinger.

To his credit, however, Kissinger was and is a practitioner of “realpolitik” which views international relations through a pragmatic lens. Another realpolitik US state planner was the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, who died in 2017 at the age of 89. Both advocated a policy of detente with the Soviet Union and China.

President Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit to China in 1972 is credited to the advice given by Kissinger who was then National Security Advisor to the White House.

That same year, the US and the Soviet Union signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, also under the guidance of Kissinger on the American side. The US would later withdraw from the treaty in 2002, a move which has presaged a long deterioration in bilateral relations between the US and Russia to the present day.

For all their faults, at least people like Kissinger and Brzezinski were motivated by practical goal-orientated policy. They were willing to engage with adversaries to find some modus vivendi. Such an attitude is too often missing in recent Washington administrations which seem to be guided by an ideology of unipolar dominance by the US over the rest of the world. The current Washington consensus is one of hyper-ideological unrealism and hubris, which leads to a zero-sum mentality of antagonism towards China and Russia.

At times, President Donald Trump appears to subscribe to realpolitik pragmatism.

At other times, he swings to the hyper-ideological mentality as expressed by his Vice President Mike Pence, as well as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mike Esper. The latter has labelled China as

the US’s “greatest long-term threat”.

This week President Trump signed into law “The Human Rights and Democracy Bill”, which will impose sanctions on China over alleged repression in its Hong Kong territory. Beijing has reacted furiously to the legislation, condemning it as a violation of its sovereignty. This is exactly the kind of baleful move that Kissinger warned against in order to avoid a further poisoning in bilateral relations already tense from the past 16 months of US-China trade war.

One discerns the difference between Kissinger and more recent US politicians: the former has copious historical knowledge and appreciation of other cultures. His shrewd, wily, maybe even Machiavellian streak, informs Kissinger to acknowledge and respect other powers in a complex world. That is contrasted with the puritanical banality and ignorance manifest in Trump’s administration and in the Congress. Greeting Kissinger last Friday, November 22, during a visit to Beijing, President Xi Jinping thanked him for his historic contribution in normalising USChina relations during 1970s. “At present, Sino-US relations are at a critical juncture facing some difficulties and challenges,” said Xi, calling on the two countries to deepen communication on strategic issues.

It was an echo of the realpolitik views Kissinger had enunciated the week before.

While sharing a public stage with Kissinger, the Chinese leader added: “The two sides should proceed from the fundamental interests of the two peoples and the people of the world, respect each other, seek common ground while reserving differences, pursue win-win results in cooperation, and promote bilateral ties to develop in the right direction.” Likewise, China and Russia have continually urged for a multipolar world order for cooperation and partnership in development. But the present and recent US governments refuse to contemplate any other order other than a presumed unipolar dominance. Hence the ongoing US trade strife with China and Washington’s relentless demonisation of Russia.

This “exceptional” ideological mantra of the US is leading to more tensions, and ultimately is a path to the abyss. Henry Kissinger gets it. It’s a pity America’s present crop of politicians and thinkers are so impoverished in their intellect.

Monday, 2 December, 2019

FOREIGN NEWS 07

At leAst 14 killed in bloody gunfight in northern Mexico

during a testing week for President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who on Friday said he would not accept any foreign intervention in Mexico to deal with violent criminal gangs after Trump’s comments.

Lopez Obrador said Mexico would handle the problem, a view echoed by Riquelme as he spoke to reporters.

“I don’t think that Mexico needs intervention. I think Mexico needs collaboration and cooperation,” said Riquelme, whose party is in opposition to Lopez Obrador. “We’re convinced that the state has the power to overcome the criminals.”

In an interview aired on Tuesday, Trump said he planned to designate the cartels as terrorist organizations, sparking concerns the move could serve as a prelude to the United States trying to intervene unilaterally in Mexico.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr is due to visit Mexico next week to discuss cooperation over security.

Lopez Obrador took office a year ago pledging to pacify the country after more than a decade of gang-fueled violence. A series of recent security lapses has raised questions about the left-leaning administration’s strategy.

Criticism has focused on the Nov. 4 massacre of nine women and children of U.S.-Mexican origin from Mormon communities in northern Mexico, and the armed forces’ release of a captured son of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman under pressure from cartel gunmen in the city of Culiacan. Coahuila has a history of gang violence, although the homicide total in the state that borders Texas is well below where it was seven years ago. National homicide figures are pushing record levels.

MEXICO CITY

t

AGENCIES

EN suspected cartel gunmen and four police were killed during a shootout on Saturday in a Mexican town near the U.S. border, days after U.S. President Donald Trump raised bilateral tensions by saying he would designate the gangs as terrorists.

The government of the northern state of Coahuila said state police clashed at midday with a group of heavily armed gunmen riding in pickup trucks in the small town of Villa Union, about 40 miles (65 km) southwest of the border city of Piedras Negras.

Standing outside the Villa Union mayor’s bullet-ridden offices, Coahuila Governor Miguel Angel Riquelme told reporters the state had acted “decisively” to tackle the cartel henchmen.

Four police were killed and six were injured, he said. The fighting went on for more than an hour, during which ten gunmen were killed, three of them by security forces in pursuit of the gang members, Riquelme said.

At about noon, heavy gunfire began ringing out in Villa Union, and a convoy of armed pickup trucks could be seen

moving around the town, according to video clips posted by social media users.

Others showed plumes of smoke rising from the town.

An unspecified number of people

were also missing, including some who were at the mayor’s office, the governor said. Riquelme said authorities had identified 14 vehicles involved in the attack and seized more than a dozen guns. The

governor said he believed the gunmen were members of the Cartel of the Northeast, which is from Tamaulipas state to the east.

The outbreak of violence occurred

On the frontline: Bolivians face upheaval and uncertainty LA PAZ AGENCIES

Australia's Weeks says hope helped him survive taliban captivity SYDNEY: Weeks and U.S. citizen Kevin King were freed by the Taliban in return for the release of three Taliban commanders.

The two were kidnapped in August 2016 outside Kabul’s American University of Afghanistan where they worked. Speaking publicly for the first time since his release a visibly emotional Weeks said that the “long and tortuous ordeal” had a profound effect on him. “At times, I felt as if my death was imminent and that I would never return to see those that I loved again,” Weeks said in Sydney in remarks televised by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “But, by the will of God, I am here. I am alive and I am safe. And I am free. There is nothing else in the world that I need.” He said that he had never given up hope, although his freedom took longer than he expected. “If you give up hope, there is very little left for you,” he added. Kidnapping has been a major problem in Afghanistan for many years.

Most victims are Afghans and many kidnappers are criminal gangs seeking ransoms but foreigners have also been abducted for political ends. The 50-year old teacher from Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, who returned to Australia on Thursday, also said that he believed that there were six attempts made to free him and King, including U.S. Navy SEAL forces in at least one instance. “We were woken in the morning at around 2 a.m. and we were taken down into the tunnels. We were told by our guards that it was Daesh, and I’ve since learnt that I believe now that it was the Navy SEALs coming in to get us,” he said.

He said that although both were treated “as well as could be expected”, they were moved around various locations and sometimes kept in dark cells. Weeks said he does not hate the guards who were watching him. “A lot of people don’t admit this, but for me, they were soldiers. And soldiers obey the commands of their commanders.

Then don’t get a choice,” Weeks said.

“Some of them were so compassionate and such lovely, lovely people. And it really led me to think about… You know, how did they end up like this?” AGENCIES

Weeks of protests, blockades and food shortages rocked Bolivia’s sprawling cities of La Paz and El Alto, making daily life difficult and dangerous.

The country’s worst political crisis in more than a decade was ignited by a disputed October 20 election. Incumbent president Evo Morales claimed victory, but opposition groups accused him of rigging the results. He ended up resigning and moving to Mexico. Dozens of people were killed in the ensuing violence, deepening divisions between indigenous people loyal to Morales and Bolivia’s mostly urban middle and upper classes. As the Andean country prepares to hold new elections, AFP spoke to three people about the unrest.

Armed with a metal pipes and shovels, Mercedes Viricochea and her neighbors spent several nights defending their homes in El Alto, a stronghold of the ex-president.

Viricochea, a critic of Morales

and his Movement for Socialism (MAS) party, says “terrorists” had threatened to burn down their houses if they did not join demonstrations against right-wing interim President Jeanine Anez, who took power after Morales stepped down on November 10. Around 100 neighbors blocked off their wide streets with wire and burning tires. Anyone wanting to enter had to be physically checked.

“We had to go out and stay there until three in the morning, almost the entire night, in rain and everything,” Viricochea, 57, tells AFP at her modest home. “It has really taken a toll on me psychologically. I felt really bad, locked up in my house.”

Viricochea, who worked as a secretary in the La Paz local government until she retired this year, favors new elections. “After a lot of struggle, we have achieved democracy and we feel very calm,” she says. Grover Cardozo, who runs a video production company in La Paz, is a staunch supporter of Morales.

He worked on the ex-president’s 2005 campaign and now worries

that the indigenous leader’s achievements over the past 14 years could be eroded by the next government.

Cardozo wants Morales, who fled to Mexico after losing the support of the security forces, to return to Bolivia and take on an advisory role for the next generation of MAS leaders. “We cannot be ungrateful and ignore what they (the old guard) have done for Bolivia,” Cardozo, 57, tells AFP in his cramped office.

Protests and blockades since the ballot have disrupted daily life in the seat of government, which has been plagued by food and fuel shortages.

“The past three or four weeks have been terrible. We have had to totally change our work routine, life routine,” Cardozo says. Cardozo fears for the future of Bolivia. “I’m very worried, almost anxious, about what’s coming,” he says. After voting for the first time, Esteban Guillen, 19, was furious when Morales — who had ruled Bolivia for most of his young life — claimed victory without going to a second round.

iranian opposition leader compares supreme leader to toppled shah GENEVA: Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi has compared Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Shah, the monarch deposed in a 1979 revolution, following the government’s crackdown on protests this month. The unrest began on Nov. 15 after the government of the Islamic Republic, one of OPEC’s biggest oil producers, announced gasoline price hikes.

But the protests quickly turned political, with demonstrators demanding the removal of top leaders. Khamenei has described the violence as the work of a “very dangerous conspiracy”. The Tehran government has blamed “thugs” linked to its opponents in exile and the country’s main foreign foes, namely the United States, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Iran has given no official death toll, but Amnesty International has said that at least 161 people have been killed. Tehran has rejected this figure. Mousavi’s comments about Khamenei, the highest authority in the Islamic Republic, were posted in a statement on the opposition Kaleme website. He made a reference to an infamous 1978 massacre which rallied public support and led to the toppling of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. AGENCIES

China introduces mandatory face scans for phone users BEIJING AGENCIES

China will require telecom operators to collect face scans when registering new phone users at offline outlets starting Sunday, according to the country’s information technology authority, as Beijing continues to tighten cyberspace controls.

In September, China’s industry and information technology ministry issued a notice on “safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of citizens online”, which laid out rules for enforcing realname registration. The notice said telecom operators should use “artificial intelligence and other technical means” to verify people’s identities when they take a new phone number.

A China Unicom customer service representative told reporters that the December 1 “portrait matching” requirement means customers registering for a new phone number may have to record themselves turning their head and blinking. “In next steps, our ministry will continue to…increase supervision and

inspection…and strictly promote the management of real-name registration for phone users,” said the September notice. Though the Chinese government has pushed for real-name registration for phone users since at least 2013 — meaning ID cards are linked to new phone numbers — the move to leverage AI comes as facial recognition technology gains traction across China where the tech is used for everything from supermarket checkouts to surveillance.

Online, Chinese social media users reacted with a mix of support and worry over the December 1 facial verification notice, with some voicing concerns their biometric data could be leaked or sold.

“This is a bit too much,” wrote one user on Twitter-like Weibo, commenting under an article about the new rules.

“Control, and then more control,” posted another. While researchers have warned of the privacy risks associated with gathering facial recognition data, consumers have widely embraced the technology — though China saw one of its first lawsuits on facial recognition

last month. In early November, a Chinese professor filed a claim against a safari park in Hangzhou, eastern Zhejiang province for requiring face scans for entry, according to the local court.

In addition to mobile users, Chinese social media site Weibo was forced to

roll out real-name registration in 2012.

Oversight of social media has ramped up in recent years as part of the Chinese government’s push to “promote the healthy, orderly development of the Internet, protect state security and public interest”.

Monday, 2 December, 2019

08 COMMENT Buzdar stays

askari raza Malik

Imran speaks out

P

RIMe Minister Imran Khan has come out firmly in support of Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, saying that he has achieved much and urging him to hold a seminar to publicise the PtI’s achievements in Punjab. that might send a clear signal of support, but it also might cause some head scratching among those who might try to identify what exactly might Mr Buzdar have achieved. that Mr Khan felt the need to make this expression of support indicates that he is aware of the rising tide of criticism of Mr Buzdar, and that he chose a meeting with Punjab Cabinet members and MPAs during his latest visit to Lahore, indicates that he is also aware that much of the criticism comes from within the PtI itself. Mr Khan himself did not list any achievements, beyond saying that Mr Buzdar did not live in a palatial house, nor spend Rs800 million a year on his security. He did not talk about Mr Buzdar’s track record on police reforms, which is in the doldrums, nor on inflation or the economy. Actually, any criticism of the Punjab government’s economic performance reflects badly on Mr Khan himself, so perhaps he does not want to go there.

Mr Buzdar seems to need some restriction, for he has been in office for a year, which means that Mr Khan telling civil servants, with whom he had a meeting too, that they should not obey political pressures, had to be directed against his government. It is to be assumed that he cannot be accusing them of taking pressure from the previous government. Mr Khan may have been blaming them for the smog in the provincial capital, for not taking measures that had been recommended long ago.

He said that the government was taking measures to control smog, over the next three years. that would still mean that smog would stop in time for the next general election, but it would have to be tolerated until then.

Mr Khan would do well to remember that there is a limit to how much he can ‘talk up’ Mr Buzdar. In the end, it is how the electorate sees how much change there has been in their lives that will determine how they vote.

Is Mr Buzdar doing enough to win those votes?

Sporting woes Warner’s triple century added insult to injury

P

RIMe Minister Imran Khan based an important part of his appeal to his having captained the 1992 national cricket team that won the Cricket World Cup that year. that may serve as an excuse for the fact that his government has not done exceptionally in handling the country’s economy, but it would raise expectations that, whatever else, any government he headed would be good at handling sports properly. It is perhaps thus adding insult to injury that David Warner should have hit a second triple century by an Australian against Pakistan, for that was a slap in the very sport to which Mr Khan belonged. Mr Warner seems to be in fine form against Pakistan, having scored a century in the last test, at Brisbane, and now he set up Australia’s massive 589 for 3 declared. In comparison, not only did Pakistan’s reply of 302 seem anaemic, but it allowed Australia to impose the follow-on, in which Pakistan had lost 3 wickets for 39, still 249 behind with only seven wickets in hand, and in clear danger of another innings defeat to follow the one at Brisbane. Mr Khan himself captained two tours to Australia, in one playing only the last three matches. He never suffered an innings defeat himself, though losing both series.

With a battering in sight in Mr Khan’s own game, it might perhaps be appropriate to look at other sports. the President of the Pakistan Olympic Association, Lt Gen (retd) Arif Hassan, is evidence that turning to the military need not produce an improvement, for his induction just before the 2004 Olympics has so far not yielded any result, for the country remains as deprived of Olympic honours since then, as it did before, even though next year will see the fifth Olympiad with General Hassan, recently re-elected, in charge. the government has taken some steps, in which Mr Khan has involved himself, for the betterment of sport, but clearly this has not been enough. Results cannot be put off indefinitely, or else it will be said that Mr Khan does not even understand sport.

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

I

I

neRtIA is a ‘property of matter by which it continues in its existing state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless that state is changed by an external force’. Status quo has its inherent inertia. It requires effort, persistence, perseverance and patience to bring about a change in the status quo. the magnitude of the change determines the time and effort to fulfil the objective. the Prophets vied for revolutionary changes in the attitude and behaviour of an entire population. they challenged the most primary concern of the people, their religion. they were fiercely opposed, isolated, economically and physically tortured, murdered and crucified. the resistance to change is directly proportional to the qualitative and quantitative concerns of the majority. the politicians all over the world strive for power. It is a very legitimate ambition. they want power to serve the people. that is what they universally profess.

In Pakistan the politicians were no different. they came to power and went back as poor or rich as they had come until ZA Bhutto. except for one odd blemish, which occurred perhaps by default rather than design, ZAB could also not be charged with corruption. After Bhutto the ball game underwent a metamorphic change. for Sharifs power had an entirely different connotation. It opened new vistas for them to catapult the family business. Benazir might have acted like her father. But her marriage to Zardari was a cruel stroke of destiny. for Zardari, an upstart stuck in the midst of an opulent and all-powerful feudal elite, money and that also in abundance was the only potent means for enhancing his personal and family image. He went hell for leather, no holds barred. BB turned a blind eye to her husband’s atrocities. Commonality of ultimate objectives eventually brought Benazir and Sharifs together in an unholy alliance through ‘the Charter of Democracy’. the apparent aim was to keep the political temperature cool enough to preclude third-party intervention. the agreement was in fact a ‘Charter of Kleptocracy’, ‘you scratch my back and I scratch yours’. therefore, despite all the tall claims no accountability was

O

Nava Thakuria

ften described as a disturbed zone appearing in media headlines for its relentless troubles and violent incidents, India’s northeast has shown signs of improvement in the journo-murder index. the northeastern part of India once used to lose working journalists to assailants frequently. But for many years now, except tripura, the region has evaded incidents of journalists’ killing. tripura reported the murder of five media persons in 2013 and 2017, whereas Assam (as well as Manipur) witnessed the last killing of media persons in 2012. the central Indian states, of course, continue pouring news related to the murder of journalists annually.

However, it need not be mentioned that incidents of abuse, assault and attacks on scribes along with other northeastern media employees by the government forces, political goons, antisocial elements among others, are taking places unabated. the northeast, with a population of over 60 million, supports hundreds of newspapers, published in various languages like english, Assamese, Hindi, Bengali, Mizo, Bodo, Meitei, Karbi, Khasi and others to cater the need of dedicated readers.

Most of the newspapers nowadays start websites to expand their visibility almost across the world. Some have also developed both portals as well as e-papers for the benefit of readers taking advantage of cheaper internet access in the country. the region, surrounded by nepal, Bhutan, tibet, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, hosts many privately-owned satellite news channels including news Live, DY365, Prag news, Pratidin time, news18Assamne, ne Live, Assam talks and 0thers along with a few entertainment-centric and localised cable news channels. Most of these channels, free-to-air in nature, beam news & other programmes mostly in Assamese, english, Hindi, Mizo, Meitei and other local languages. till recent times, the northeast was a breeding ground for insurgents fighting against new Delhi Karachi – Ph: 021-35381208-9

I

Status quo vs change The aim must be to achieve the Riasat-e-Madina ever initiated by one party against the other. this political culture continued for almost 30 years, firmly taking roots at all levels and in every sphere of public life. those in authority looted unabashedly and the outsiders discovered to their glee that money could help flout any law and regulation in Pakistan. Money made acquisition of power easy. If you had money and power you could easily get away with murder, as appalling as that at Model town. enforcement of any disciplinary regime started to appear as an impingement upon human rights and liberties. the zest for personal freedom got confused with anarchy. the rule of law became an object of ridicule. not long ago it was thought better to pay the judge than hire an expensive lawyer. the ability to flout the law became an indicator of power, the impertinence to challenge traditionally respected institutions was called moral courage and showing disregard to sensitive national concerns liberalism of the enlightened and broad minded. the malaise affected everyone with power of any kind. It was free for all in the Banana Republic. the establishment of the ‘State of Madina’ in the present-day Pakistan is a very tall order. It requires revolutionary changes extremely difficult to enforce in a slow and tedious democratic dispensation. the resistance is huge. the detractors are powerful and deeply entrenched. Wishing for a corruption-free Pakistan means stepping on the toes of all who wield power, small and big. for the bigwigs any departures from the status quo, means the end of the road, political demise. they would join hands with anyone and at any cost, as long as it promised an escape from the trap of the ‘Change’. the smaller functionaries would also cooperate or acquiesce in favour of the status quo. the cleverly disguised departure of the Sharifs leaves a lot to ponder about.

It does point towards a comprehensive manipulation involving a whole chain of functionaries

in a noble profession. for the change to be meaningful and enduring, it is important that the government and the military remain on the same page. It is equally important to take the judiciary, bureaucracy, media and even the like-minded politicians also on board. IK has undertaken a huge responsibility. It is impossible for the government alone to achieve the desired objectives. IK has to motivate and provide the much-needed leadership and inspiration to all the pillars of the state and sincere elements in the society. It is also important for him to keep his calm and maintain his focus in the face of trivial provocation by the mediocre opposition. Coaxing will alienate other institutions. Motivation will make them join hands with him. the judiciary has a revolutionary task to perform. It must be the first to firmly cast aside the invisible shackles of status quo. It needs to reform the police and investigation mechanism, streamline and interface the entire system of justice. It might have to ask for legislation to ensure visible and speedy justice. Placing the police under the politicians is a deadly proposition. It must be made independent like the police forces of developed countries. the examples of the US, UK and Japanese police provide plenty to learn from. the judiciary must play its role in pulling the nation out of adhocracy and the ‘Might is Right’ syndrome.

Justice is the panacea for all the ills of the society. the Prophet himself (PBUH) had warned us about more powerful people before us who had perished because they had different rules for the strong and the weak. Let us all strive for a truly welfare state, with the concept of the State of Madina as our ideal.

Askari Raza Malik is a retired major general of the Pakistan Army. He is author of book “Pakistan in Search of a Messiah”. He can be reached at ask7121@gmail.com

Killing newsmen in India’s Northeast Deaths are down, but victims still need justice with demands for self-rule to sovereignty. Manipur and Assam were affected by the militancy, where over 30 separatist armed outfits went on with disruptive activities including extortion, kidnapping, and killings. even journalists were not spared by those so-called revolutionaries.

Both States witnessed the killing of journalists (Dwijamani nanao Singh from Imphal and Raihanul nayum from Dhubri) in 2012 last.

Assam was the worst victim of journalist casualties as the State reported the murders of over 30 scribes in 25 years. the slaughter of media persons in Assam began with the murder of Punarmal Agarwala, a local correspondent of The Assam Tribune in nagaon, allegedly by rebels belonging to the United Liberation front of Assam (Ulfa) in 1987. the same militant outfit targeted veteran freedom fighter-turned-journalist Kamala Saikia in 1991. the 65-year-old teacher was dragged out of his house in Sivasagar Melachawk on the night of 9 August 1991 and his body was recovered next morning with injury marks on the body.

Ulfa leaders were angry with Saikia for a series of articles, published in various newspapers, which strongly condemned the outfit.

Saikia’s gruesome murder shocked the media fraternity of Assam and a crowded protest meeting was organised at Guwahati Press Club. It was followed by a silent procession on 11 August which was, in fact, the first public demonstration against Ulfa in the State. the media fraternity has recognised Saikia as the first martyr journalist of the region.

In 1995, Pabitra narayan (of Northeast Times) was murdered by the timber mafia at Sonari. Dipak Swargiary of Goreswar also lost his life to assailants the same year. the daylight murder of human rights activist turned journalist Parag Kumar Das on 17 May 1996 inside Guwahati generated a huge public outcry.

Islamabad – Ph: 051-2204545

I

executive editor of Asomiya Pratidin was targeted understandably by some surrendered militants, as he used to write articles criticising new Delhi for its exploitative attitude towards Assam. the same year witnessed the murder of young reporter Manik Deuri in Diphu by suspected ethnic militants. Unidentified gunmen killed Panja Ali at Kokrajhar in 1997. nagaon-based local journalist nurul Haq was murdered in 1998. Ulfa militants had killed again Ratneswar Sarma Shastri at Barpeta in 1999. two local correspondents, namely Dinesh Brahma and Indramohan Hakasam, were assassinated in 2003. the timber mafia gunned down Prahlad Gowala at Golaghat in 2006. the next year witnessed the killing of Bodosa narzary at Kokrajhar and it was followed by slaughtering of Mohammad Muslemuddin at Hojai and Jagajit Saikia at Kokrajhar. Alfarid Shazad, Jiten Chutiya, Jogesh Uzir, Girija Das, Monikan Das, Ranbir Roy, Bimala Prasad talukder etc lost their lives to assailants on different occasions. the last sensational murder of journalists took place in Guwahati on 24 March 2009, when the editor of an Assamese daily, Anil Majumdar, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen. tripura witnessed a gruesome incident relating to the murder of three media employees in their office, where Sujit Bhattacharya (proofreader), Ranjit Chowdhry (manager) and Balaram Ghosh (driver) lost their lives. they were working inside the office of the Agartala-based newspaper Dainik Ganadoot before getting stabbed together to death by miscreants. the year 2013 was depressing for the Indian media fraternity, as the country lost 11 media personnel to perpetrators. the same State added two casualties to the list of countrywide journo-victims in 2017, where India found itself in an awkward position with the annual statistic of

Web: www.pakistantoday.com.pk

I

13 journalists either murdered or killed in suspicious circumstances. the horrific murder of Kannada editor-journalist Ms Lankesh (5 September) at her Bangalore residence sparked massive protests across the country. the shooting down of Gauri Lankesh, Patrike’s publisher, by unidentified gunmen invited countrywide condemnation from the media fraternity along with international outcries by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Sans/Without Borders, International federation of Journalists, International Press Institute, among others. the then tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar was also influenced by the outcries and he personally joined in a protest rally at Agartala demanding justice over Ms Lankesh’s killing. But pathetic news was waiting for the Communist leader as a young television reporter from his State (Shantanu) fall prey to mob violence on 20 September. Later one more journalist’s murder (Sudip Datta on 21 november) by a policeman put Sarkar in an embarrassing situation.

2018 reported the murder of six journalists, keeping India as one of the most hazardous countries for media persons after Mexico, Syria, Iraq, Russia, Pakistan, turkey, Yemen, Somalia among others, where journalists were murdered on a regular basis with impunity to the perpetrators. till date, we have lost six journalists to assailants this year. Amazingly, the northeast is in a better position. However, we must reiterate our demand for justice raised by various scribe’s bodies namely Assam Press Correspondents’ Union, Journalists’ forum Assam, electronic Media forum Assam and others, for the victim families and also insist on a national action plan to safeguard the fraternity in the line of military, police, and physicians on duty.

Nava Thakuria is a political commentator.

Email: editorial@pakistantoday.com.pk

Monday, 2 December, 2019

COMMENT 09 Editor’s mail

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

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

Campaign against democracy tHeRe is a systematic campaign in electronic media by few anchors and selected analysts who blame democracy for ills that afflict this country, thereby negating Quaid’s vision.

Pakistan was created through democratic constitutional struggle waged by politicians with calibre of Quaid-e-Azam and many others who rose up through political process and were not implanted by British Raj. It were men like Sikandar Hayat, a bureaucrat on payroll of HM Government, serving as Member Reserve Bank of India, who was implanted by Raj to take over Unionist Party in Punjab after untimely death of Sir fazl-i-Hussain, a politician in his own right, on 29 June 1936. the British Raj excelled in “Divide and Rule” through intrigues using paid civil and uniformed bureaucracy as tools. they controlled both Hindus and Muslim, through civil bureaucracy run by DC and Commissioners (there is no post of DC etc in UK), a uniformed security service to quell local population through intrigues and use of brute force such as Jallianwala brutality. It is unfortunate that MAJ vision of a modern democratic welfare was deliberately derailed, the Constitution delayed and country became hostage to vested interests. Quaid succeeded in the words of Wolpert - modify the map of world- creating a nation-state; but within a year of his death his vision was derailed. If Quaid’s democratic Pakistan was allowed to function, Kashmir would have been liberated in 1948 or latest by 1962, there would have been no military action in east Pakistan and this country would not have been engaged in proxy war under Zia. Pakistan would have emerged as an economically powerful state, with its people enjoying fruits of development instead of miseries that they face today.

MALiK TARiq ALi Lahore

The real umpire What happened when the country was shaken

syed kaswar Gardezi

26

november 2019 began as an ordinary day in Courtroom 1 of the Supreme Court, dull and monotonous like most of 2019, but pretty soon a swift turn of events turned it into a defining moment in judicial history. An application seeking withdrawal of a petition challenging the extension in tenure of the Chief of Army Staff, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, was taken up during normal course. However, the mercury began to rise as the bench started posing unprecedented questions to the Attorney General and inquired about the legality of the extension that was granted. A few more questions and further unconvincing responses later, the patience of the Bench ran out and the notification granting extension to General Bajwa was suspended.

With a history of political uncertainty and military supremacy, the people of Pakistan at first instance perceived the news to be part of a satire. However, within minutes of comprehending what had actually happened, there was uproar. twitter rocketed within a span of seconds and developed new trends focusing on the suspension. A finger had been pointed towards the military establishment in broad daylight and Pakistanis couldn’t help contain their belittled excitement. By the mere suspension, the Supreme Court had established its dominance. the suspension struck like thunder and awakened the drowsiest corners of the country. the PtI government somersaulted into an emergency Cabinet meeting and amended the Army regulations in a bid to outmanoeuvre the Supreme Court’s order pertaining to the process which was followed during the extension. However, apart from the apparent technical glitch in the extension, the Supreme Court in its written order further questioned the grounds on which the extension to General Bajwa had been granted. International quarters turned their eyes towards Pakistan as the news spread like wildfire.

As the Supreme Court resumed the hearing the next day, it brought with it the semblance of the Saqib nisar days; a packed courtroom, minute-by-minute media coverage and the government being embarrassed. the General Bajwa extension case gained more media traction than Chief Justice nisar’s entire tenure combined. the hearing began on an embarrassing note when the CJP pointed

out that the regulation which had been amended by the Cabinet, in its hushed-up huddle the previous night, did not pertain to the Army Chief and was irrelevant. Amidst a lot of laughs, the AG tried his utmost best to convince the bench that the extension was granted in accordance with law yet, he failed to refer to the particular law which would enable the government to bestow such extensions. fiery debates continued on tV and social media and for the first time, the military establishment became the topic of open discussion for all. Most defence analysts blamed the judiciary for ridiculing and mocking the Army. examples of Generals Zia and Musharraf were emphasised, without realising that the two had been autocratic dictators whereas the incumbent Army Chief was appointed following due process of law by a democratically elected government. no comparison can be drawn between General Bajwa and the likes of Generals Zia and Musharraf. three summaries and days later, the government finally gave up, bowed down and the entire saga came to an end with judicial restraint being exercised and General Bajwa being allowed to continue for a period of six months during which time Parliament shall legislate upon the extension of an Army Chief and settle the matter for times to come.

Certain inferences can, however, be drawn from the entire controversy that unfolded. firstly, the federal government continuously displayed its ignorance and incompetence. It is not the judiciary which lowered the esteem of the armed forces but in fact the federal government which, owing to its ineptitude, embarrassed the Army Chief publicly. the cover-up ended up into a further embarrassment and brought disgrace to the government. freedom of speech had its day in the field as an institution, which was previously never commented upon, was openly debated about and positive critique was extended from a number of quarters. twitterati lashed out in all directions, lambasting the government, judiciary and the military respectively. A wide

range of commentators blamed the CJP for destabilising the country by calling into question the legality of the extension. What most of them fail to comprehend is that the CJP never pointed a finger towards the military establishment throughout the entirety of the proceedings. the Supreme Court’s sole focus remained on the government and the law from which the authority to grant extensions was being, purportedly, derived. the bench merely dispensed its duty and was basically doing its job; keeping the executive in check.

An important post of the Chief of Army Staff, sways into uncertainty owing to lacunas within the law and by pointing out the same, the Supreme Court has done a great service to it. Henceforth, proper laws will be enacted and the legality of the office of the Army Chief will never be called into question again. the federal government, on the other hand, needs to reconsider its abilities and carve out a framework under which it should operate so as to avoid such embarrassment in the future.

Despite what the pundits might say, the entire saga ended with a win for all. Institutional independence was established and the judiciary sent out a clear message; all irregularities, irrespective of the quarters they pertain to, are amenable to judicial scrutiny. the Supreme Court established its dominance and overturned the decades-old practice of abstinence. It has once again been reaffirmed; there is only one umpire in the country and that is the judiciary.

Most observers have taken a back seat, now that the short order is here, but some keen students of law, including myself, eagerly await the detailed judgement which is to follow. the actual response to the questions raised would be found therein. the impartiality and independence of the judiciary has, nonetheless, been established and there is little room left to question the same.

Despite what the pundits might say, the entire saga ended with a win for all.

Institutional independence was established and the judiciary sent out a clear message; all irregularities, irrespective of the quarters they pertain to, are amenable to judicial scrutiny. The Supreme Court established its dominance and overturned the decades-old practice of abstinence. It has once again been reaffirmed; there is only one umpire in the country and that is the judiciary

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

Jinnah’s ‘Purana Pakistan’ MARtIn Luther King Jr once said ‘almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world a better place’. Jinnah wanted the Pakistanis to respect our minorities. I want to reiterate that Prime Minister Imran Khan had promised to give minorities their due rights. He envisioned following the model of the state of Medina. Mr Khan’s zeal was witnessed when he proposed that Dr Atif Mian was the panacea for the economic calamity of Pakistan. He desired to see Dr Atif as the finance Minister in his ‘naya Pakistan’. the desire was a rhetorical. nevertheless, Mr Khan coerced Dr Atif to resign from the economic Advisory Council, owing to his faith; which is indifferent to our economy. Consequently, Dr Imran Rasul resigned in protest. this robbed our economic Council of competent members. However, Jinnah would have daunted the government’s decision because he guaranteed justice, equality, and opportunities for the minorities. Jinnah was a protagonist of minority rights. He stood for the Muslims when they were a minority in the colonial India. Jinnah must have been disenchanted following this inauspicious decision. the premier idealises Jinnah and pledged to withhold the values of the father of our nation. the white part of our flag denotes Pakistan’s minority. One need not be a Muslim to serve this country. Any person regardless of their religion is capable of serving his/her state without prejudice.

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

Pakistan loses her chance to prosper when every Joginder nath Mandal, Sir Zafarullah Khan, Abdul Salam and in this case, Dr Atif is left to the mercy of the bigots in the country. this is a startling moment for our homeland. the food for thought is that can our nation flourish with this myopic attitude and is Pakistan alike India when it comes to minorities? Ostensibly, those who claim to be the harbinger of revolution, need to aspire for the Pakistan of 1947 i.e., ‘Purana Pakistan’.

BARRiSTER ARSALAN CHAuDHRy Narowal

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

MEHRAJ ALTAF Turbat

Monday, 2 December, 2019

10 FOREIGN NEWS

tens of thousAnds MArch AgAinst fAr-right in itAly MILAN

t

AGENCIES

ENS of thousands rallied in Florence in Italy on Saturday against the far-right League party, the latest in a series of demonstrations called by the new, youth-driven “Sardine Movement”.

The sardine has become a symbol of protest against the far-right firebrand leader Matteo Salvini, who served as interior minister and deputy prime minister in the previous coalition government with the Five Star Movement. Students, young professionals and families with children joined the march, where the carrying of political banners was discouraged.

Demonstrators gathered in the city’s Piazza della Repubblica sang the anti-fascist song “Bella Ciao” and shouted “Every sardine has the right to exist!”

Organisers claimed that 40,000 people had turned out to the Florence protest,

which they said was substantially more than the 15,000 they claim attended their first rally, just two weeks earlier.

The new movement has staged around 10 demonstrations over the past 15 days in the north of the country.

Instead of the usual banners from political groups, protesters brandished placards in the shape of a sardine.

“No banners, we don’t want symbols at such a beautiful gathering,” one of the organisers, Danilo Magli, told the crowd.

“We are tired of hate, we are not fighting amongst ourselves,” he added.

The Sardine Movement was founded on November 14 by four hitherto unknown young activists from the northern city of Bologna in protest against Salvini’s politics. It was a response to the growing strength in the north of the rightwing coalition led by the League.

In late October, the League won a historic victory in regional polls in central Umbria, which had been led by the left

for half a century.

“We think the ideas propagated by the League are unacceptable,” Paolo Ranzani, a photographer with the Sardine Movement, said on Facebook.

“But sardines are strong and can become a huge wave, a tsunami,” another supporter said on Facebook, where the group’s page is titled “The Sardines’ Archipelago”. But with each election, the League has made increasingly strong showings. Salvini is now campaigning hard to try to capture another leftwing stronghold, the wealth region of Emilio Romagna, in the northeast.

Regional elections there are set for January 26 and the polls suggest the League’s candidates are running neck and neck with the current centre-left governor there. Salvini has said he wants to conquer the regions one by one to bring down the current coalition between the Five Star Movement and the centre-left Democratic Party and force early elections.

Focus on early release of terror convict in London stabbings LONDON AGENCIES

Usman Khan was convicted on terrorism charges but let out of prison early. He attended a “Learning Together” conference for ex-offenders, and used the event to launch a bloody attack, stabbing two people to death and wounding three others.

Police shot him dead after he flashed what seemed to be a suicide vest. Khan is gone, but the questions remain: Why was he let out early? Did authorities believe he no longer believed in radical Islam? Why didn’t the conditions imposed on his release prevent the carnage? Britons looked for answers Saturday as national politicians sought to pin the blame elsewhere for what was obviously a breakdown in the security system, which had kept London largely free of extremist violence for more than two years.

Police said Khan was convicted in 2012 of terrorism offenses and released in December 2018 “on license,” which means he had to meet certain conditions or face recall to prison. Several British media outlets reported that he was wearing an electronic ankle bracelet that allowed police to track his movements at the time of the attack. Authorities seemed quick to blame “the system” rather than any one component.

The Parole Board said it had played no role in Khan’s early release. It said the convict “appears to have been released automatically on license (as required by law), without ever being referred to the board.” Neil Basu, the Metropolitan Police counterterrorism police, said Saturday afternoon that the conditions of Khan’s release had been complied with. He didn’t spell out what those conditions were or why they failed to prevent him from killing two people.

The automatic release program apparently means no agency was given the task of determining if Khan still believed in radical views he had embraced when he was first imprisoned for plotting to attack a number of sites and individuals in London.

It is not yet known whether he took part in any of the “de-radicalization” programs used by British authorities to try and reform known jihadis.

The former head of Britain’s National Counter Terrorism Security Office, Chris Phillips, said it is unreasonable to ask police and security services to keep the country safe while at the same time letting people out of prison when they are still a threat.

“We’re playing Russian roulette with people’s lives, letting convicted, known, radicalized jihadi criminals walk about our streets,” he said.

Khan had been convicted as part of an al-Qaida linked group that was accused of plotting to target major sites including Parliament, the U.S. Embassy and individuals including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, then the mayor of London, the dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and two rabbis.

Khan admitted to a lesser charge of engaging in conduct for the preparation of acts of terrorism. He had been secretly taped plotting attacks and talking

about martyrdom as a possibility.

Khan and his accomplices had links to radical preacher Anjem Choudary, one of the highest-profile faces of radical Islam in Britain. A mobile phone seized at the time contained material related to a banned group that Choudary founded. The preacher was released from prison in 2018 but is under heavy surveillance and a curfew.

Several people who attended Choudary’s rallies when he was under no controls have been convicted of attacks, including the two al-Qaida-inspired killers who ran over British soldier Lee Rigby and stabbed him to death in 2013. The two chief contenders in the Dec. 12 election — Johnson and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn — condemned the system Saturday.

Johnson, who visited the scene Saturday, said he had “long argued” that it was a “mistake to allow serious and violent criminals to come out of prison early.” He said the criminal justice system “simply isn’t working.” Johnson spoke Saturday with U.S. President Donald Trump, who offered his condolences following the attack, according to White House spokesman Judd Deere.

Corbyn said it is not clear if the Probation Office was involved at all and questioned whether the Parole Board should have been given a role. “We have to ensure that the public are safe,” he said. “That means supervision of prisoners in prison but it also means supervision of ex-prisoners when they are released ahead of the completion of their sentence, to have tough supervision of them to make sure this kind of danger is not played out on the public in the future.”

He stopped short of blaming Johnson, who was not in office when Khan was set free.

From armchairs to iPhones, India's millennials rent it all MUMBAI AGENCIES

At 29, Spandan Sharma doesn’t own a flat, a car, or even a chair — one of a growing number of Indian millennials bucking traditional norms and instead opting to rent everything from furniture to iPhones.

“Millennials in my age bracket want freedom and earlier what was seen as stability is now seen as a sign of being tied down,” Sharma told AFP. “My parents don’t understand the concept of renting furniture at all. They have never been completely on-board with the idea,” he said.

“They said it would be much better to buy rather than rent furniture in the long term.” For 4,247 rupees ($60) a month, the Mumbai-based executive furnished his entire home, sourcing furniture for his bedroom, living room and dining area as well as a refrigerator and microwave. Sharma isn’t alone. Tens of thousands of young Indians are switching from buying to renting so they can live life with few strings attached.

Even businesses are renting their office furnishings, said budding entrepreneur Vandita Morarka.

When Morarka set up her feminist non-profit One Future Collective in 2017, she rented nearly everything she needed and funnelled the savings from not having a one-off outlay into paying salaries to her staff of 25. “From study tables and chairs to even a laptop, I have rented them all as the prices are reasonable,” the 25-year-old told AFP. “This system allows me to take more risks… And in case things go south, we can wrap up without losing a large tranche of investments and begin elsewhere.”

INVESTING IN EXPERIENCES: From ride-hailing apps to communal office spaces, the sharing econ-

omy is a global phenomenon that is expected to generate annual revenues of $335 billion by 2025, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In the US, websites such as Rent the Runway and Nuuly offer fashion-conscious customers the option to try rather than buy clothing, while in China, consumers can rent BMWs via a tap on their smartphone.

In India, the boom has fuelled the rise of new furniture and appliance-renting businesses such as Furlenco, RentoMojo and GrabOnRent — and even jewellery rental apps — in recent years.

The sector is a bright spot amid a severe slowdown as weakening consumer demand has led to tum-

bling sales including in the bellwether auto sector.

The country’s furniture rental market alone is expected to be worth $1.89 billion by 2025, according to consulting firm Research Nester. “We expect to grow by a million orders in under 30 months,” RentoMojo founder Geetansh Bamania told AFP. The Bangalore-based firm rents out furniture as well as appliances, gym equipment, iPhones and smart home devices such as Google Home and Amazon Echo. “Renting smartphones works out well for the youngsters as they can keep upgrading to the latest launch at a cheaper price without burning through their finances,” Bamania added. Launched in 2012 by former investment banker Ajith Karimpana, Furlenco has catered to more than 100,000 customers and expects revenues to cross $300 million by 2023. “Overall consumer behaviour is shifting from owning to renting among millennials due to the flexibility and non-commitment it offers,” Karimpana told AFP. In an indication of the trend’s staying power, Swedish furniture giant Ikea has said it plans to test a subscription-based model in 30 markets in 2020.

For many millennials, choosing the rental option is as much about taking a road less travelled as it is about saving money. When Sharma’s father was 29, he was married, working in a public sector bank and setting aside funds to purchase a flat and buy a car.

Sharma envisions a different life for himself, one focused on “investing in experiences”.

“Living in five different cities in two countries over a span of seven years would be unthinkable for my father… but it is my reality,” Sharma said, adding that some furniture rental apps offered free relocation services. “It is a badge of pride for millennials that we can pack up and move within weeks.”

CMYK

south dakota plane crash leaves 9 dead, 3 injured SOUTH DAKOTA: Nine people were killed and three others injured Saturday afternoon when a plane crashed in Southern South Dakota, authorities announced. The Pilatus PC-12 had 12 people on board when it crashed near Chamberlain — about 180 miles West of Sioux Falls — shortly after takeoff, Peter Knudson of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) told the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls. Those killed were the pilot and two children, KELO-TV of Sioux Falls reported. The Pilatus website stated that the PC-12 can carry up to 10 passengers and is flown by one pilot. The plane was bound for Idaho Falls, Idaho, according to the Argus Leader.

Brule County State’s Attorney Theresa Maule described the emergency responders as “heroic”. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a tweet that it was “investigating today’s crash of Pilatus PC-12 near Chamberlain, SD.” AGENCIES

iran official points to more open elections

TEHRAN: A senior Iranian official has suggested in an interview with AFP that authorities may be more open than in the past in approving candidates for a looming parliamentary election. “We don’t consider ourselves immune from criticism. We may also accept that mistakes have been made in the past,” said Guardian Council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaee. “But for the next legislative elections we are trying to reduce our mistakes and respect the rights of candidates.” Kadkhodaee was speaking to AFP on the eve of the opening on Sunday of the registration of candidates for the parliamentary election to be held on February 21. The Guardian Council, which is under the control of ultra-conservatives, is responsible for organising and monitoring elections in Iran, including vetting candidates. “If we insist on enforcing the law, we’ll be able to satisfy as many candidates as possible,” said Kadkhodaee. In the past, the council has faced accusations in Iran, particularly by reformists, of barring candidates more on political than constitutional grounds. In November, President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate conservative, called on the council to stick to the letter of the law in view of the forthcoming election. At Iran’s last parliamentary election in February 2016, the Council authorised 6,229 candidates for the 290 seats at stake — just over 51 percent of those who sought to stand. In the interview, Kadkhodaee said a higher number of successful candidates should also lead to a “higher participation rate”. AGENCIES

Monday, 2 December, 2019

BUSINESS 11

PESHAWAR: A man carries pakol for selling on GT Road as their demand increases in the winter season. ONLINE

bullish stock markEt rEflEcts invEstor confidEncE in stabilisation mEasurEs: shEikh

a

NEWS DESK

DVISER to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh on Sunday said the "strong rally" in the stock market shows "increasing investor confidence on stabilisation measures taken by the government".

In a tweet, the premier's adviser said the KSE-100 index was up by 14.9 per cent in November, which he said was the highest one month return after May 2013, adding that the index has increased by 36.6pc (10,500 points) since August 16. The KSE-100 index is up by 14.9% in November 2019, highest one month return after May 2013. Since 16 August 2019, the index increased by 36.6% (10,500 points). The strong rally in Stock Market shows increasing investor confidence on stabilisation measures taken by the Govt.

The stock market rallied for the fifth week in a row in the outgoing week as bulls displayed no signs of fa-

tigue. The KSE-100 index propelled by 1,362 points (3.59 per cent) and stormed past the 39,000-level after eight months to close at 39,288.

During November, the index had closed positively for a third straight month and gained 15pc, the highest monthly gain since May 2013.

In the outgoing week, trading started on a positive note, attributable to State Bank leaving discount rate unchanged, which bodes well for the local bourse. But the index took a plunge of 400 points the very next day as the Supreme Court took notice of the extension in tenure of the army chief.

Although the hearings continued to be followed closely by the investors, there was no panic. On the macro front, Pakistan saw a cumulative influx of $713 million in government securities through SCRA in November to date, taking total inflow to $1.2bn which helped shore up the country’s foreign reserves by $240m to $15.6bn at the end of the week.

Foreign investors sold stocks worth $8.06m which came mainly from rebalancing in November semi-annual review of the MSCI Index which saw three Pakistan shares deleted from the MSCI Global small cap Index. Outflow was witnessed in Cements ($3.36m) and E&P ($1.95m). On the local front, buying was reported by Mutual Funds of $11.06m followed by Individuals picking up shares of $7.30m. Bank sold shares valued at $6.9m.

Market participation improved with average daily volume at 348m shares, representing upswing of 5.1pc over the preceding week whereas value traded registered increase of 8.3pc at $79.6m.

Sector-wise, contribution to the index upside was led by commercial banks, higher by 522 points due to attractive valuations, encouraging uptrend was witnessed in release of Public Sector Development Programme that helped cement stage a 5pc or 120 points run-up. Fertiliser gained 116 points, automobile assemblers 80 points and

chemicals 75 points.

Among scrips, gains came from United Bank, higher by 8.92pc, Habib Bank 6.19pc, MCB 4.78pc, Fauji Fertiliser 4.49pc and Lucky Cement 5.11pc. Meanwhile, for the outgoing month, a major upside was witnessed in Hub Power, increasing by 25.44pc, Habib 15.52pc, Engro Corporation 14.14pc, United 18.85pc and MCB 16.04pc.Although the current rally has recouped much of the losses and the Index is back in the green after three bad years, seasoned market players say there is room yet for the index to creep up.Most expect the market to remain positive in the upcoming week on the back of improving macroeconomic numbers, drop in fixed income yields, stable exchange rate which have been so for the past four months and a positive outlook on monetary easing.

Investors would also be relieved as the dust on the political horizon appeared to settling down, providing a clearer view of medium-term outlook.

Exports crossEd $2 billion mark in novEmbEr, says razak dawood ISLAMABAD AGENCIES

Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industry and Production Abdul Razak Dawood said that exports have crossed $2 billion mark in November. The commerce adviser in a series of Tweets has said that the country’s exports have increased by 9.6 percent as compared to last year.

“Alhamdolillah!Pakistan’s Exports in November 2019 have once again crossed the $2 billion mark. Hats off to our exporters and the team at the Ministry of Commerce. Exports have increased by 9.6% as compared to last year,” he Tweeted. He said the increase in exports has resulted in an improvement in trade balance and current account deficit. “For the period Jul-Nov, the Trade Balance has decreased by about USD 5 billion. This is a saving of USD 5 billion for the national exchequer and has a major impact on the reduction of the Current Account Deficit,” said Razak Dawood. He said that increasing exports are contributing to the improvement in the country’s balance of payments position and stabilization of the economy.

International stocks to outperform US in 2020, say investors NEW YORK AGENCIES

Even though the U.S. stock market continues a record-breaking rally that has sent the benchmark S&P 500 index up nearly 25% for the year, investors appear to be looking elsewhere for better values in the year ahead.

World stock funds brought in $8.2 billion in investor inflows over the last two weeks, breaking a losing streak that dated back to early September, according to Investment Company Institute data.

U.S. equity funds, meanwhile, lost more than $10 billion in outflows over the last two weeks, extending a retreat that has spanned seven of the last eight weeks.

The move into overseas stocks comes as economic fundamentals appear to be improving in parts of Europe and Asia while U.S. growth looks to be slowing, drawing money away from a market that had been an outperfomer.

Even with the MSCI All World Country Index, which tracks global equities, nearing record highs set in January, 2018, fund managers and analysts say global stock markets still offer a better chance to outperform U.S. stocks in the year ahead. The cite significantly lower valuations after failing

to keep pace with the U.S. equity market for much of the last decade.

“We’re starting to see a period where valuation is going to be the driver for future returns,” said David Marcus, chief investment officer at Evermore Global Advisors. He has been shifting more of his portfolio into European stocks such as Belgium-based medical lab equipment maker Fagron NV (FAGRO.BR) and French media giant Bollore SA (BOLL.PA).The forward price-to-earning ratio for the broad Stoxx 600 index, for instance, is 15.4, well below the 19.3 forward P/E of the S&P 500, according to Refinitiv data.Any narrowing of that large gap in valuations could be a driver, even for companies that have strong stock performance this year, said Thomas Banks, a portfolio manager for the Federated International Small-Mid Company fund who has been increasing his stake in European companies.

He remains bullish on companies such as London Stock Exchange Group PLC (LSE.L) and Sweden-based casino game operator Evolution Gaming Group AB (EVOG.ST), both of which are already up 50 percent for the year to date.

“Some of the higher valuations for U.S. shares has been warranted because the U.S. had a much faster growth rate.

But going forward if there’s a trade deal announced or an amicable solution to Brexit, the divergent growth rates could converge again” as U.S. growth slows, said Banks.

The U.S. economy grew at a 1.9% annual rate in the third quarter, down from 3.1% during the first three months of the year. The European Commission expects the economy in the euro zone to expand at an annual rate of 1.2% over the course of 2020, defying market expectations that growth rates would continue to fall from 4-year lows in 2018.

Germany, the euro zone’s biggest economy, grew 0.1% in the third quarter after contracting 0.2% in the previous three months, easing fears that the bloc would fall into a recession.

Further declines in the U.S. growth rate will also likely bring down the value of the dollar, which has hovered near record highs and eaten into the returns of investing in overseas markets, Banks said.

Danton Goei, portfolio manager of the Davis International fund, said more attractive valuations are pushing him into Asian stocks and multi-national companies that are positioned to benefit from domestic consumption in India and China.

He is bullish on Chinese companies that are not highly dependent on trade such as

tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK) and for-profit educational company New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc EDU.N..

“You can see that the trade war has had a very limited impact on their businesses and yet valuations have come down a lot because of the macro concerns. When you have very strong businesses and their valuations are falling for unrelated reasons, that appears like a good buying opportunity,” Goei said.

At the same time, he is adding to

positions in companies such as French aircraft engine maker Safran SA (SAF.PA), which he expects to benefit from growth in the Indian travel market as more consumers enter the middle class.

Shares of the company are up 41% for the year to date, yet still trade near their lowest price-to-earnings ratio over the last 12 months.

“The big difference in valuations obviously matters in terms of your likelihood of outperforming in the future,” he said.

Monday, 2 December, 2019

12 BUSINESS

thE way out for a world Economy hookEd on dEbt? yEt morE dEbt z NEW YORK AGENCIES

OMBIE companies in China.

Crippling student bills in America. Sky-high mortgages in Australia. Another default scare in Argentina.

A decade of easy money has left the world with a record $250 trillion of government, corporate and household debt. That’s almost three times global economic output and equates to about $32,500 for every man, woman and child on earth.

Much of that legacy stems from policy makers’ deliberate efforts to use borrowing to keep the global economy afloat in the wake of the financial crisis.

Rock bottom interest rates in the years since has kept the burden manageable for most, allowing the debt mountain to keep growing.

Now, as policy makers grapple with the slowest growth since that era, a suite of options on how to revive their economies share a common denominator: yet more debt. From Green New Deals to Modern Monetary Theory, proponents of deficit spending argue central banks are exhausted and that massive fiscal spending is needed to yank companies and households out of their funk. Fiscal hawks argue such proposals will merely sow the seeds for more trouble. But the needle seems to be shifting on how much debt an economy can safely carry.

Central bankers and policy makers

from European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde to the International Monetary Fund have been urging governments to do more, arguing it’s a good time to borrow for projects that will reap economic dividends.

“Previous conventional wisdom about advanced economy speed limits regarding debt to GDP ratios may be changing,” said Mark Sobel, a former U.S. Treasury and International Monetary Fund official. “Given lower interest bills and markets’ pent-up demand for safe assets, major advanced economies may well be able to sustain higher debt loads.”

A constraint for policy makers, though, is the legacy of past spending as pockets of credit stress litter the globe. At the sovereign level, Argentina’s newly elected government has promised to renegotiate a record $56 billion credit line with the IMF, stoking memories of the nation’s economic collapse and debt default in 2001. Turkey, South Africa and others have also had scares.

As for corporate debt, American companies alone account for around 70% of this year’s total corporate defaults even amid a record economic expansion. And in China, companies defaulting in the onshore market are likely to hit a record next year, according to S&P Global Ratings.

So called zombie companies -firms that are unable to cover debt servicing costs from operating profits over an extended period and have muted

growth prospects -- have risen to around 6% of non-financial listed shares in advanced economies, a multidecade high, according to the Bank for International Settlements. That hurts both healthier competitors and productivity. As for households, Australia and South Korea rank among the most indebted. The debt drag is hanging over the next generation of workers too. In the U.S., students now owe $1.5 trillion and are struggling to pay it off.

Even if debt is cheap, it can be tough to escape once the load gets too heavy. While solid economic growth is the easiest way out, that isn’t always forthcoming. Instead, policy makers have to navigate balances and trade offs between austerity, financial repression where savers subsidize borrowers, or default and debt forgiveness.

“The best is to grow out of it gradually and consistently, and it is the solution to many but not all episodes of current indebtedness,” said Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser to Allianz SE. GUNNING FOR GROWTH: Policy makers are plowing on in the hope of such an outcome.

To shore up the U.S. recovery, the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates three times this year even as a tax cut funded fiscal stimulus sends the nation’s deficit toward 5% of GDP. Japan is mulling fresh spending while monetary policy remains ultra easy. And in what’s described as Britain’s most consequential election in decades, both

major parties have promised a return to public spending levels last seen in the 1970s.

China is holding the line for now as it tries to keep a lid on debt, with a drip feed of liquidity injections rather than all out monetary easing. On the fiscal front, it has cut taxes and brought forward bond sale quotas, rather than resort to the spending binges seen in past cycles.

As global investors get accustomed to a world deep in the red, they have repriced risk -- which some argue is only inflating a bubble. Around $12 trillion of bonds have negative yields.

Anne Richards, CEO of Fidelity International, says negative bond yields are now of systemic concern.

“With central bank rates at their lowest levels and U.S. Treasuries at their richest valuations in 100 years, we appear to be close to bubble territory, but we don’t know how or when this bubble will burst.”

The IMF in October said lower yields are spurring investors such as insurance companies and pension funds “to invest in riskier and less liquid securities,” as they seek higher returns.

“Debt is not a problem as long as it is sustainable,“ said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief Asia-Pacific economist at Natixis SA in Hong Kong, who previously worked for the European Central Bank and Bank of Spain. “The issue is whether the massive generation of debt since the global financial crisis is going to turn out to be profitable.”

ISLAMABAD: A vendor displays Iranian tomatoes on his pushcart in I-11 Vegetable Market as the rate of tomatoes has increased due to their shortage in the federal capital. ONLINE

us onlinE black friday salEs hit rEcord $7.4 bn NEW YORK AGENCIES

Online sales on Black Friday in the United States hit a record $7.4 billion this year, with a jump in the number of transactions made from smartphones, according to data released Saturday by Adobe Analytics.

The figure was a 19.6 percent increase over last year and the second biggest day of online sales ever, the company said, just below the $7.9 billion consumers spent on last year’s Cyber Monday, which follows Black Friday. Adobe Analytics measures transactions from 80 of the 100 largest US online retailers.

This year, 39 percent of online purchases were made from smartphones, a 21 percent increase from last year. “With Christmas now rapidly approaching, consumers increasingly jumped on their phones rather than standing in line,” said Taylor Schreiner, principal analyst and head of Adobe Digital Insights.

The hottest toys included L.O.L. Surprise dolls and items featuring Disney’s “Frozen 2.” In the video game category, the top sellers were FIFA 20, Madden 20 and Nintendo Switch. The most popular electronics were Apple laptops, AirPods and Samsung TVs. Adobe Analytics estimates Cyber Monday will see a record $9.4 billion in sales, a nearly 19 percent increase over last year.

Shoppers spent $4.2 billion online during the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, the company said.

Apple ‘taking a deeper look’ at map policies after calling Crimea part of Russia NEW YORK AGENCIES

Apple Inc is “taking a deeper look at how we handle disputed borders” after it referred to the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula as part of Russia in its Maps and Weather apps for Russian users, a company spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday. Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller told Reuters that Apple has not

made any changes to its maps outside of Russia and made the change for Russian users because of a new law that went into effect in that country.

“We review international law as well as relevant U.S. and other domestic laws before making a determination in labeling on our Maps and make changes if required by law. We are taking a deeper look at how we handle disputed borders in our services and may make changes in

the future as a result,” Muller told Reuters. Russia and Ukraine have both been highly sensitive to the way global companies identify Crimea, since Russian troops seized the territory and Moscow annexed it in March 2014 after a referendum that Kiev and its Western allies say was illegal. Russian and Ukrainian embassies in the United States did not immediately return requests for comment on Friday. Apple appeared to have changed

the way it displays locations in Crimea in its software, in a nod to Russian politicians who have demanded the peninsula be referred to as part of Russia.

Reuters reporters in Moscow who typed the name of the Crimean provincial capital Simferopol into Apple’s Maps and Weather apps on Wednesday saw it displayed as “Simferopol, Crimea, Russia”.

Users elsewhere — including in Ukraine’s capital Kiev and in Crimea it-

self — see locations in Crimea displayed without specifying which country they belong to. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Vadym Prystaiko, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday that Apple did not “give a damn” about the country’s pain.

The EU and United States do not recognize Crimea as Russian and have imposed sanctions against the peninsula and individuals they accuse of violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Business at its finest Driven by b her entrepreneurial spirit, Rida Ahmed has celebrated b her passions for makeup and self-care inside the 4 walls of her elaborately b designed French themed salon. Determined to provide quality service and stunning looks Rida has worked tirelessly to set up: Dior Girl Salon and Makeup Lounge.

4

1

What are some of the qualifications and courses you needed to take before setting up such a business?

Before starting any business you should know your own strengths, skills and passion. I identified makeup as my passion. It’s not that I have to wear makeup; I just enjoy putting it on. It makes me feel ready for the day. I’ve done my required makeup courses from Samer Khazoumi, Natasha Salon and Tony&Guy. One must always take some some training courses in order to succeed in their specific field.

What inspired you to open up your own salon?

As they say: you have to love what you do and if you don’t, then just quit. The inspiration for this entire project came from within. I have always been very particular about my personal care. That has translated itself into my passion for not just doing it for myself; but setting up a salon to take care of others.

2

How did you go about setting up your business?

I initially started off with my salon on MM.Alam Road. It took me over a year to set that up.

I focused not only on its ambiance, staff and client dealing; but also made sure I got the right products for my valuable customers.

Therefore I bought a range of high end salon brands. Soon after my salon took off I decided to shift to our current location.

This was to generate more footfall and brand awareness as it is situated in the most posh area in Lahore, adjacent to Mall 1.

7

Is hairstyling and beauty something you’ve always been interested in?

Yes, as I told you earlier: Makeup is my passion. I have done my hair courses too; but makeup is just one of the ways in which I express my creativity. I even do special makeup looks at the Dior Girl Salon.

3

How does it stand apart from other salons?

If you have a unique talent that your clients love, then you have already made your business stand out. There’s a reason why my clients keep coming back to our beautifully designed French-themed salon. The best part is that it’s a peaceful, neat & clean environment. We specialize in crazy hair colors, acrylics, guinot skin treatments and even eyelash extension. Our spa is a must try as well. Last but not the least is our signature makeup …clients are getting all the services they need under one roof. It’s a one stop solution for all your spa and makeup needs.

5

In your opinion what are some of the components that make up an excellent salon Making your salon stand out can seem like a very difficult task these days. However, having the correct social media platforms, cross promotion, and by creating a unique experience for your clients your spa will have a head start over others. The owner’s involvement and the maintenance of the image of your salon are also key factors in the make up of an excellent salon.

6

What are some the obstacles specific to this industry and how did you overcome them This industry is very competitive. You see a range of salons down from a small salon in the suburbs to high-end salons in the cities. Thus to penetrate in an already developed market is a huge challenge. Moreover, with the current economic situation the disposable income of a common person is reducing. It becomes very challenging to give them high quality products at a certain price as clients in general are very price sensitive these days.

Guinness estimates that 93,000 liters of b beer are lost in facial hair each year in the UK alone.

George Washington served an eggnog-like drink to visitors at Mount Vernon. His recipe included rye whiskey, rum, and sherry.

HOLLYWOOD BOLLYWOOD

Some cats are allergic to humans.

'RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT' STILL HAPPENING ON HBO MAX A recent report offers that "Release The Snyder Cut" isn't happening on HBO Max or getting a theatrical release with claims that it is a "pipe dream" -- however that is not the case at all.

Variety recently posted an article on the future of DC films, which told us nothing we didn't already know, with mention that the Zack Snyder version of Justice League isn't going to be released.

It's clear the writers haven't done their homework - or are more than likely providing spin for certain factions within Warner Bros. - as it's noted: Well, we know that is wrong because Zack Snyder finished his version of Justice League himself.

Jason Momoa recently confirmed that he has seen Snyder's version and that Zack finished it.

Regarding WB having "little appetite," that is plain wrong as well, as Warner Bros. is well well aware of the social media response for "Release The Snyder Cut" that reaches millions of people.

DEEPIKA PADUKONE WANTS TO LEARN THE DHEEME DHEEME STEP, KARTIK AARYAN REPLIES ‘BATAIYE KAB?’ With fans posting their versions of Dheeme Dheeme from Kartik Aaryan’s upcoming outing Pati, Patni Aur Woh, the #DheemeDheemeChallenge has sure created a buzz on the internet and now actor Deepika Padukone too wants to be a part of it.

Moreover, to participate in the trend, Deepika has asked Kartik himself to guide her on the hook step, which is not a cakewalk. The Padmaavat actor on Friday took to the Instagram story and tagged Kartik writing, “Will you please teach me the Dheeme Dheeme step!?”

The challenge started earlier this month after the song was dropped. With peppy beats, the track seemed promising to make it to the party playlists. Kartik in his upcoming feature will be seen opposite Bhumi Pednekar and Ananya Panday with the former playing his wife while the latter being the girlfriend.

CMYK

KBC 11 FINALE HOSTS SUDHA MURTY Actor Amitabh Bachchan was elated to host Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murty on the final episode of his hit show Kaun Banega Crorepati’s season 11. KBC 11 has featured achievers from all walks of life as contestants. Sudha was the latest to join the show.

After winning Rs 25 lakh, Sudha could not answer the question for Rs 50 lakh. The question involved Amitabh’s wife and Bollywood actor Jaya Bachchan. The question that made her quit the show was: “Which female actor received the Filmfare Award for best actor for two consecutive years?” The options included Sharmila Tagore, Kangana Ranaut, Kajol and Jaya Bachchan. Sudha decided to quit and took a ‘wild guess’ later and picked Kajol’s name while the right answer was Jaya.

Amitabh was quite disappointed with Sudha’s answer and he said, “Ghar ja ke mujhe bahut maar padne wali hai. (I am going to get a beating when I reach home).”

In the finale episode, Murthy went down the memory lane and recalled how she had landed her first job in Telco, the organisation which did not hire female employees at that time.

Monday, 2 December, 2019

14 SPORTS

FrancE, PortuGal, GErmany draWn toGEthEr at Euro 2020 as EnGland GEt croatia

pariS

F

Agencies

RANCE face a major hurdle if they are to add the European Championship to their World Cup crown after coming out in the same Euro 2020 group as Germany and reigning European champions Portugal in Saturday's draw in Bucharest.

Neither France nor Portugal were in Pot One for the 24-team competition being held in 12 cities across Europe, making them the dangerous teams to avoid for the top seeds.

In the event, they were all put together in a high-calibre Group F alongside Germany, who will play all their group games in Munich. That is where Joachim Loew's team will face France in their first match on June 16 and then Portugal on June 20.

"It is the hardest group, but we must accept it. It means we will have to be ready right away," said France coach Didier Deschamps.

Group F will be completed by one of the winners of the play-offs to be played next March, leaving open several possibilities including Hungary, who will play two games in Budapest should they make it.

France beat Germany in the semi-finals of Euro 2016 on home soil, before slumping in the final against Portugal.

With the four best third-placed sides all going through, it is very possible all three will progress to the last 16, but Loew is in no doubt France —

who followed their 1998 World Cup triumph by winning Euro 2000 — are the strongest team.

"They are the world champions and have been getting stronger for the last three or four years.

They are the group favourites," he said.

Meanwhile, England were drawn with Croatia and the Czech Republic in Group D, with Gareth Southgate's team to play group games at Wembley, which will also host the semi-finals and the July 12 final.

That group will be completed by the team to emerge victorious from Path C in the playoffs — either Serbia, Norway, Israel and Scotland. The latter have the added incentive of knowing they will play two games in Glasgow in the group stage should they qualify.

England faced the Czechs in qualifying, winning 5-0 at Wembley but suffering their only defeat of the campaign in Prague, losing 2-1 in October. England will kick off at home to Croatia on June 14 in a repeat of the 2018 World Cup semi-final, which was won by the Croatians.

However, should England win their group they will have to play the Group F runners-up, setting up a possible clash with Germany, France or Portugal in the last 16. Even if they win that, the draw is such that they could end up facing Spain in the quarter-finals.

When asked about the advantage of playing at Wembley, Southgate said: "Obviously eight or 10 teams have the advantage of home group matches, and we have only ever been to one semifinal so that doesn't become an advantage unless

we get through two very complicated knockout matches as well. That is a long way down the line." Southgate famously missed a penalty when England lost to Germany in a shootout at Wembley in the Euro 96 semi-finals, the last time they played a match at home in the tournament.

Italy will face Turkey in Rome in the tournament's opening game on June 12, with Switzerland and Euro 2016 semi-finalists Wales also in that section, Group A. Wales will play two matches in far-flung Baku, starting with Switzerland on June 13.

They played there this month, and won, against Azerbaijan in a qualifier.

"Obviously come the championships it will be six or seven months down the line but we know what to expect, the facilities were fantastic there, and I think it's also great for the fans that they have got two games there," said Wales boss Ryan Giggs. Spain will play Sweden and Poland as well as a play-off winner in Group E, with Luis Enrique's team playing in Bilbao.

Finland will face two hosts, Denmark and Russia, as well as much-fancied Belgium in Group B at what will be their first Euro. The Netherlands, on the rise after missing Euro 2016 and the last World Cup, face Ukraine and Austria along with another play-off winner in Group C. Saint Petersburg, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Bucharest and Dublin will also host matches after UEFA decided to spread the Euro across the continent to mark the 60th anniversary of the first tournament in 1960.

Evacuations in PhiliPPinEs as tyPhoon cancEls sEa GamEs EvEnt Manilla: The Philippines has begun evacuating thousands of people, local officials said Sunday, as a powerful typhoon rumbling in from the Pacific forced Southeast Asian Games organisers to cancel or reschedule some events.

Forecasters expect Typhoon Kammuri to make landfall Monday evening or Tuesday morning, packing gusts of 170 kilometres (105 miles) per hour and maximum sustained winds of 140 kph. The storm entered Philippine territory Saturday evening, shortly before President Rodrigo Duterte and boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao launched the Games with a colourful opening ceremony. This year's Games in Clark, Manila and Subic, which run through to December 11, are already particularly complex with a record 56 sports across dozens of venues that are in some cases hours apart by car.

Outdoor events in Subic -- on the west coast of the main Philippine island of Luzon in the country's north -- were the first to be affected by Kammuri. "The windsurfing has been cancelled until we have a more accurate picture of the weather," Ramon Agregado, the organising committee's head of the Subic cluster of venues, told AFP. The women's triathlon event was brought forward to Sunday, Agregado said, "so we could take advantage of the good weather". Duathlon events scheduled for Tuesday will now take place on Monday.

Agregado said that venues will not be changed, but in the event of bad weather the equipment will be taken down and put back together once the events are rescheduled. Some local government units in central Bicol region urged people to begin leaing their homes on Saturday night. By Sunday afternoon, more than 3,000 people were in evacuation centres, mostly in schools and gymnasiums in Camarines Norte, the disaster management office of the province said. Most of them live in coastal areas and low-lying places where flash floods and landslides are possible due to heavy rains that will be brought by the typhoon. Agencies

hamzah shEEraz clinchEs WBo EuroPEan suPEr WEltEr titlE

British boxer Hamzah Sheeraz on Saturday TKO'ed compatriot Ryan Kelly in Birmingham to clinch the vacant World Boxing Organisation (WBO) European Super Welter title. Sheeraz, 20, stopped his opponent in the sixth round of the bout, and improved his career record to 10-0 The 6'1 pugilist from Slough, who is managed by fame boxing promoter Frank Warren, has a 60 per cent knock out ratio across his first 10 fights. Before following in the footsteps of his idol Amir Khan and turning pro in 2017, Sheeraz had a successful amateur career, winning 70 of his 80 fights. sports Desk

Messi and Rapinoe expected to take Ballon d'Or honours SportS DeSk The biggest names in world football will descend on Paris on Monday for the 2019 Ballon d'Or ceremony, with Lionel Messi and USA women's World Cup superstar Megan Rapinoe tipped to leave with the honours.

It would be an enormous shock if Rapinoe did not depart the Chatelet Theatre with the women's prize as she returns to the country where she was the driving force on and off the field for the United States as they retained their title.

The suspense surrounds the identity of the men's winner, 12 months after Croatia's Luka Modric claimed the crown thanks to his exploits in dragging his country to the World Cup final and winning the Champions League with Real Madrid. That ended a decade in which Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had won the Ballon d'Or five times each, but the smart money now is on the Barcelona man claiming number six.

There are 30 nominees in total for the

prize, organised by France Football magazine and voted for by 180 journalists from around the world.

Among the names is Ronaldo, as well as several of the stars of the Liverpool side who won the Champions League, chief among them Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk. At one point he looked like the favourite, but Messi already pipped him to FIFA's The Best title in September.

The 32-year-old top-scored in La Liga last season with 36 goals as Barcelona won the title. He did not have a great Copa America with Argentina, but his genius is undeniable.

"If you give the Ballon d'Or to the best player of this generation then you should give it always to Lionel Messi.

That's how it is," admitted Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. "But if you give it to the best player of last season, then it was Virgil van Dijk. I don't know exactly how it will work but that is how I see it."

The value of individual honours in football is debatable, and the timing unsatisfactory, coming midway through the

European club season.

Yet surely nobody could suggest Rapinoe would not be a deserving winner of just the second women's Ballon d'Or, an award voted for by a panel of 48 journalists. Norway's Ada Hegerberg won it in 2018 but will not retain her title after missing the World Cup. Among the stars of that tournament to be nominated are England's Lucy Bronze, Netherlands striker Vivianne Miedema, Australia's Sam Kerr and the USA trio of Alex Morgan, Rose Lavelle and Tobin Heath.

However, Rapinoe, the 34-year-old feminist icon and outspoken critic of US President Donald Trump, should add this honour to those of Golden Boot winner for top scorer and Golden Ball for best player at the World Cup. Even her supposed rivals seem to be rooting for her.

"She does lots of things off the pitch, but I think she is the favourite to win the Ballon d'Or mainly down to her performances during the World Cup," Bronze told France Football.

CMYK

Monday, 2 December, 2019

SPORTS 15

Pakistan FiGht to avoid dEFEat aGainst australia aDeLaiDe

P

Agencies

AKISTAN was battling to stave off defeat in the day-night second Test against Australia on Sunday after being forced to follow on, with Tim Paine’s men needing seven wickets to clinch the series 2-0.

The visitors, who have lost 13 consecutive Tests in Australia, were in big trouble at 39 for three when rain forced an early end, 248 runs behind with two days left and their top order decimated.

They had resumed on an overcast and cold afternoon teetering at 96 for six in their first innings, in reply to Australia’s 589 for three declared, built on the back of David Warner’s monumental 335 not out. Yasir Shah smacked a dogged maiden Test century and Babar Azam hit 97 but they were all out for 302 and still 287 runs adrift, with Mitchell Starc the hero, taking 6-66.

Australian skipper Tim Paine enforced the follow on and it started badly for Pakistan, whose first task was to survive intact for 15 minutes before the dinner break. They failed with opener Imam-ul-Haq — recalled after being over-

PAKISTAN 302 (YASIR 113, AZAM 97, STARC 6-66) AND 3 FOR 39 (MASOOD 8*, SHAFIQ 4*) TRAIL AUSTRALIA 3 FOR 589 DEC BY 248 RUNS

looked for the first Test in Brisbane, which they lost by an innings and five runs — out lbw for a duck to Josh Hazlewood.

It was quickly 11 for two with Starc tempting skipper Azhar Ali into a thick outside edge and Steve Smith taking a

quality catch just seconds before a shower forced them off.

The rain had been threatening all day and when they returned after 30 minutes Hazlewood bagged the key wicket of dangerman Azam for two, caught behind

Root and Rory Burns lay platform before New Zealand battle back ENGLAND 269 FOR 5 (ROOT 114*, POPE 4*) TRAIL NEW ZEALAND 375 (LATHAM 105, MITCHELL 73, WATLING 55, BROAD 4-73) BY 106 RUNS

HaMiLtoN Agencies

“Bat big, bat once,” had been Stuart Broad’s exhortation on the second evening at Hamilton, after England’s frazzled batsmen had retreated to the pavilion following a torrid evening examination from New Zealand’s seam attack.

Sure enough Joe Root, England’s under-fire captain, lived and breathed that rallying cry in the course of a dogged and unashamedly dour unbeaten 114 from 278 balls. It was his 17th Test hundred but his first since the tour of West Indies in February, and his slowest by a country mile, but that mattered not a jot to a man who began this match having slipped out of the top ten batting rankings for the first time in five years, and whose enduring authority as a leader seems to stem entirely from his need to get back to regular run-scoring.

The manner in which Root reached his century was a microcosm of his innings as a whole. There was fluency lurking beneath his hardpressed exterior, as shown by the sumptuous cover-drive off Neil Wagner with which he inched into the

90s, but there was desperation too, not least in the shot that took him past his milestone: a wild flap at a wide one from Wagner once again, and an under-edge past the stumps, past the keeper and away to the rope.

It had taken Root 259 balls and the best part of 80 overs to get to his hundred, but the fact that he’d got there at all was the crucial factor.

While he endured, which he did right up to a premature rain-affected close, England remained in with a shout of leaving the series with an improbable share of the spoils. For the best part of two sessions, he had been joined in deed and spirit by the steadfast Rory Burns, who contributed a century of his own in the course of a 177-run third-wicket stand that seemed, at 201 for 2 with tea looming, to have laid the platform for the sort of monolithic single innings with which New Zealand, on BJ Watling’s watch, went on to win last week’s first Test at Bay Oval by a canter.

But then came the wobble that England cannot entirely shake from their system at present. Burns’ needless run-out, moments after bringing up his second Test century, lifted New Zealand’s spirits with the new ball on

the horizon, and when Ben Stokes was prised out after an innings that had arguably started too fluently for England’s attritional needs, the new boy Zak Crawley was picked off without fuss by the endlessly on-it Wagner.

At 262 for 5, that left Root and Ollie Pope with a rebuilding job to do on a surface that was just beginning to misbehave, and though they survived to stumps without further alarm, the situation wasn’t quite as clear-cut as England might have liked. They still trailed by 106, and with Sam Curran and Chris Woakes to come, there’s still plenty chance for England to scrape together a useful lead. But whether there’s now the time and the personnel to turn the screw will be another matter.

Nevertheless, the relative ease of England’s progress after the drama of their 18-over prologue on the second evening was belated evidence that bowling first on this surface maybe hadn’t been such a bad idea after all. There are still plenty more runs to be mined on this deck before any real demons are unearthed.

As for the tempo of England’s innings, a good night’s sleep clearly helped, as Root and Burns – who had been dropped twice before he had reached 20 – were given a chance to rest up after 124 arduous overs in the field. But the pitch too had reverted to type after briefly quickening up in the latter stages of New Zealand’s innings, and for much of this third day, batsman error was the only real prospect of any player being dislodged. Wagner and his left-arm bouncing bombs proved the right sort of chaos to keep England honest, as Burns in particular discovered in a range of mild alarms, including a wild bouncer that flicked his shoulder and a spliced poke that looped out of the reach of leg gully.

CMYK

by Paine.But more rain soon blew in, to Australia’s frustration, and the umpires called it a day.

Earlier, Yasir and Azam had kept Pakistan’s slim hopes alive with disciplined first innings batting.

Better known as a spin bowler, Yasir had never gone better than 42 in his previous 36 Tests, making his 113 against one of the world’s most fearsome pace attacks even more remarkable.

In a scintillating spell under lights on Sunday night, left-armer Starc snapped up four quick wickets and the omens for Pakistan did not look good.

But the gloomy conditions at Adelaide Oval offered little for the bowlers during daylight hours on Sunday and Azam and Yasir took advantage.

They put on a 105-run stand and Azam looked destined for a third Test century until Starc pounced again, with the 25-year-old edging an attempted drive to Paine behind the stumps on 97.

Azam — who scored a century in the first Test at Brisbane and is rapidly emerging as his country’s top batsman — left the field dejected but to a standing ovation. The very next ball Starc grabbed his sixth, with Shaheen Afridi plumb lbw before Mohammad Abbas fended off the hat-trick ball.

Abbas made a gutsy 29 before he was undone by a Pat Cummins bouncer, caught at gully by Warner. At the other end, Yasir showed composure to compile his first-ever ton, bringing up the milestone off 192 balls, clattering 12 fours and kissing the turf in celebration.

He had a near-miss off the bowling of Marnus Labuschagne on 33. Steve Smith believed he caught him at slip and made a big appeal, but replays showed the ball fell just short of his fingertips.

Yasir was then dropped by Labuschagne off his own bowling on 43.

He was finally out hooking a Cummins delivery to Nathan Lyon.

India one of the top two teams across formats: Kohli MUMBai Agencies

Virat Kohli’s India have blown away oppositions at home – just ask South Africa and Bangladesh who were at the receiving end recently. And armed with an incredible bowling attack, they’ve also established themselves as a serious team overseas, including winning a historic Test series in Australia in January earlier this year. So, are India the best team in the world now?

India have been perched at No. 1 on the ICC’s Test rankings for a few years now, and Kohli also believes that they’re one of best teams overall. “If you look at teams across formats now, I would say we’re in the top-two teams in the world,” Kohli told India Today.

“And we’re very proud of that because we started off with a young bunch and transition is never easy but the guys have slowly understood the importance of belief and understanding their role in taking Indian cricket forward.

So, insecurity about their own game has vanished. If you see we enjoy each other’s success and company and everyone is just wanting to help one way or the other for the betterment of Indian cricket team and in return the betterment of Indian cricket as a whole.”

India have chalked up consistent performances across formats, but Kohli is yet to lift a global trophy as captain. India have not won an ICC global tournament since 2013, when MS Dhoni’s team clinched the Champions Trophy. Incidentally, that was Kohli’s second global title after being part of Dhoni’s 2011 World Cup-winning team.

The missing global title was something that the newly-appointed BCCI president Sourav Ganguly also pinpointed in October.

Kohli conceded that winning an ICC title was “like an obsession” with the public, but prioritised processes over results and numbers.

He also said that his side relished being under pressure and finding a way past it.

“You could say winning an ICC tournament is like an obsession or like a wish that

people have, which is a beautiful thing to wish for because it’s seen at a global level and every cricketer would want to win that,” he said.

“But if you ask me, honestly I didn’t ever think I would be part of the winning World Cup team in my first World Cup or two years down the line we will win the Champions Trophy as well. I never thought of these things but it happened. So, it was meant to happen for us.

“But, in hindsight, you can look at a lot of things. We obviously have the desire to win big tournaments and big series and we want to give our best effort possible. But, if you focus on things which are only based on success and numbers and results, you don’t enjoy the process. We play well as a team because we enjoy the process.”

One of the key ingredients behind India’s unprecedented success in recent years is the depth in their attack, especially the wellrounded fast bowling contingent. In the recently-concluded home Test season, both Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were unavailable, but Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav fired collectively, helping the team notch up four successive innings victories.

Kohli said that while there is “healthy competition” among the pace pack, it is the camaraderie they share with each other that makes the attack special.

Monday, 2 December, 2019

NEWS

PoLice book student March organisers on ‘sedition’ charges PROTEST HELD AT PUNJAB UNIVERSITY AFTER STUDENT ACTIVIST ALAMGIR WAZIR GOES ‘MISSING’ LAHORE

L

STAFF REPORT

ahore police on Sunday booked organisers of the Students Solidarity March on charges of sedition and public nuisance days after the protesters rallied at Charing Cross (Faisal Chowk) to demand the restoration of student unions and an end to the militarisation of educational institutes. according to the contents of the FIr [first information report] filed at Civil Lines Police Station, ammar ali Jan, Farooq Tariq, alamgir Wazir, Iqbal Lala, Mohammad Shabir, and Kamil Khan were leading a march towards Faisal Chowk with around 250 to 300 people in tow. It alleged that protesters forcefully blocked the roads and made provocative speeches against the state institution atop a stage.

“They were told to make the speeches without a megaphone but they did not listen to the police officers,” the complainant, an assistant sub-inspector, stated, adding that the incident was

recorded on mobile phones which can be presented as evidence against the accused. The police have included sections 290, 291, 124 a, the Punjab Sound Systems (regulation) act, and the Punjab Maintenance of Public order ordinance in the FIr. The decision to register cases against the organisers, especially the father of slain Mashaal Khan, was condemned by Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari in a tweet.

The PPP chief the government instead of providing justice to Iqbal Lala, whose son was lynched on false charges of blasphemy, has made cases against him. he termed the FIr a crackdown on progressive voices by the state. It may be noted here that the student march was endorsed by people from all strata of society, including sitting ministers. human rights Minister Shireen Mazari and Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry had issued statements in the support of the march on Nove 29 and endorsed the call for the revival of the student unions.

ACTIVIST GOES ‘MISSING’: Prior to the FIr, alamgir Wazir, one of the

PPP CHIEF BILAWAL TERMS FIR ACT OF REPRESSION; MNA MOSHIN DAWAR DEMANDS RELEASE OF ALAMGIR persons mentioned in the complaint, went ‘missing’ from the Punjab University on Saturday. he is a former chairman of Punjab University’s Pakhtun Council and nephew of South Waziristan lawmaker ali Wazir. Soon after his disappearance, members of the Pakhtun Council staged a protest against the university administration. alamgir’s cousin said that the activist was abducted by ‘unidentified’ persons from the university. “he was visiting the campus to receive his degree in BS Gender Studies, which he had completed last year and was staying at hostel 19 with me for the past two days,” he stated.

The protesters, who vowed to continue their protest until alamgir Wazir is released, said that alamgir was last seen outside the hall Council in PU New Campus on Saturday when some unidentified people arrived in a vehicle and took him away from gate number 14 of the campus around 5 pm.

Iqbal Town Superintendent of Police (SP) ajmal Khan said that they had received a complaint and were looking into it. on the other hand, MNa

Mohsin Dawar and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari called for alamgir’s release.

In a tweet, Dawar said that alamgir Khan Wazir had been picked up by “na malooms” from PU. “This is extremely condemnable & sharamnak we demand the immediate release of alamgir and the perpetrators must be charged for this unlawful act,” he said.

The Student Solidarity March which was held across the country on Friday had presented a charter of demands, including the restoration of student unions and better education facilities. addressing participants of the march in front of the Punjab assembly on Mall road, alamgir had expressed sorrow for the Pashtun youth. “had the youth of Waziristan not been killed-kidnapped, there would have been hundreds of Pashtun students taking part in the march,” he had said. he had also criticised the military establishment for alleged atrocities in Waziristan and accused the military of stealing natural resources from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan.

Parliamentary body to mull appointment of ECP members tomorrow

ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT

a parliamentary committee formed over the appointment of the election Commission Pakistan (eCP) members Balochistan and Sindh will meet on Tuesday at Parliament house to ponder over the names forwarded by the government and the opposition for the three posts.

The treasury and the opposition forwarded their nominations for appointment of the eCP members to

National assembly Speaker asad Qaiser and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjarani, who transmitted these names to the committee for consideration. Moreover, Sanjrani and asad Qaisar will also hold an important meeting on Monday to discuss matters pertaining to the appointment of the eCP members. according to details, the development came after Sanjrani received a letter from Prime Minister Imran Khan in this regard. on Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and National assembly opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif sent recommendations for eCP members from Sindh and Balochistan to asad Qaiser and Sanjrani.

For the post of eCP member from Sindh, the PM had proposed the names of Justice (r) Sadiq Bhatti, Justice (r) Noorul haq Qureshi, and abdul Jabbar Qureshi, according to a copy of his letter. he had recommended Dr Faiz M Kakar, Mir Naveed Jan Baloch, and amanullah Baloch for the office of the eCP member from Balochistan. Shehbaz had recommended Nisar Durrani, Justice (r) abdul rasul Memon, and aurangzeb haq for the post of eCP member from Sindh. Whereas, for eCP Balochistan

member, he proposed the names of Shah Mehmood Jatoi, Muhammad rauf atta and rahila Durrani.

Shehbaz had also written a letter to the PM, suggesting names for the post of the chief election commissioner. he had proposed the names of three personalities who are “eminently qualified” for the position that comprised former bureaucrat Nasir Mahmood Khosa, former ambassador to the US Jalil abbas Jilani and ex-civil servant akhlaq ahmed Tarar. he had maintained that PM Imran should have initiated this process of consultation a long time ago.

I am starting this procedure to prevent the eCP from getting non-functional, the PML-N leader added. earlier, PM office had raised objections on the names recommended by opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif for the appointment of Chief election Commissioner. The suggested names were Nasir Mehmood Khosa, Jalil abbas Jilani and akhlaq ahmed Tarar.

Jaleel abbas Jilani remained principal secretary of former premier Nawaz Sharif and worked as chief secretary Punjab under CM Shehbaz Sharif. Nasir Mehmood Khosa is considered close to the Sharif family and akhlaq Tarar has also worked as a federal secretary.

PM says ‘controlled’ student unions will groom future leaders ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan on Sunday said that the Pakistan Tehreeke-Insaaf (PTI) government will establish a comprehensive and enforceable code of conduct to restore and enable student unions in the country once again. Taking to Twitter, the premier also added that the code of conduct would be inspired by internationally renowned universities in order to positively grooming our youth as future leaders of the country. The premier, however, lamented that student unions in Pakistan’s universities had become violent battlegrounds in the past, claiming that they had completely destroyed the intellectual atmosphere on campuses. earlier in the day, Special assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous ashiq awan revealed that the PM has directed the Centre and provinces to formulate a comprehensive strategy to protect the rights of students and resolve their problems on an immediate basis. In a series of tweets, awan said that the young generation was an important asset and hope for the future. “The realisation of dreams of the youth is a central mission of Prime Minister Imran Khan,” she tweeted. “The PM asked federation and provinces to envisage strategies [for students]. The demand for rights from the students is a good sign which reflected their consciousness and thoughtfulness.” She added that the students have to bring a new democratic leadership with new thoughts and insights and they have aims to fight every challenge. The special assistant urged for character building of the youth especially students based on principles of hard work and truth. She also emphasised for making the dynamic role of the students compatible with social welfare and national security. Meanwhile, she also congratulated the Saudi King Salman Bin abdul aziz on the 5th anniversary of his accession to the throne. Pakistan commends the huge projects that Saudi arabia has witnessed in the past five years in various fields, the special assistant said. Dr Firdous ashiq awan said Pakistan-Saudi fraternal relations have been strengthened in economic, cultural, and defence fields and these unique relations will continue to expand and deepen for joint action on bilateral and regional issues. STAFF REPORT

Women judges need to ‘relax and be themselves’: CJP TOP JUDGE SAYS SC ACTIVELY CONSIDERING INCLUSION OF WOMEN JUDGES IN SUPREME COURT LAHORE STAFF REPORT

Chief Justice asif Saeed Khosa imparted advice to female judges on Sunday, saying they “should be relaxed and be themselves”. addressing the concluding session of ‘Women Judges Conference’ in Lahore, CJP Khosa said that because female judges work in an environment dominated by men, they are expected to be very compassionate, kind and considerate “like mothers”. “But we have noticed that when they become judges, somehow because the whole atmosphere is male-dominated […] a ‘she judge’ also likes to behave like a ‘he judge’ so that she is taken seriously. “This is one thing that we have noticed, that she does not even smile in the courtroom lest anyone else may get some impression,” the chief justice said, noting this was a problem that male judges did not experience.

“Male judges don’t have that problem. They would cut jokes with the lawyers, they would relax the atmosphere and they would be comfortable with everybody else appearing in the court.

“But the female judge somehow has to change her personality. She has to become an iron lady so that nobody messes with her. “So this is something that I

wanted to discuss with you that just relax.

Don’t become ‘he’ judges,” he added.

The country’s top judge said that female judges are “she judges” because they are better at many things. “You are compassionate, you are kind, you are considerate and when litigants will see you in court, they will feel that they can be in safe hands, very kind hands. “The atmosphere has to be very relaxed in a courtroom so that the litigant feels comfortable and the lawyers also can come up with whatever they want to say in support of their clients […] I’ve seen women judges that have a very stern look so please relax, people will respect you, people will be very considerate towards you.

“Just because you are women judges, you don’t have to impose yourself upon everybody and try to put on a show and to represent yourself as something which you’re not,” he remarked. “Be women in the courtroom as well, be relaxed and be yourself. Don’t put on a show.”

CJP Khosa noted that there have been multiple instances when people have submitted applications to shift their cases from women’s courts. “They are just not comfortable, they can’t see a lady sitting there as a judge,” he said, attributing it to “social taboos” but observing that people are get-

ting more comfortable with the idea. “once they deal with you […] I’m sure this distinction between women judges and men judges will disappear,” he said. additionally, the chief justice said that he had an objection with the title of the conference ‘Women Judges Conference’ and added that some other phrase should be coined for it and the distinction shouldn’t be based on gender. “This is a contradiction in terms. We’ve been told that we have to change the vocabulary […] you haven’t, please walk the talk. act on what you tell us.” CJP Khosa also told the female judges that they too need to “shed this image” of themselves as female judges.

“Just behave like judges, normal

judges, and dispense justice according to law and then people themselves will stop noticing whether they are appearing before a woman or male judge. “But at the same time, you have to be firm in court. Don’t allow anybody to browbeat you, don’t allow anybody to undermine your authority,” he said, adding: “Be courteous but be firm.” “Now you’ll say I’m contradicting myself, I’m not. I’m not saying that just change yourself and relax but at the same time, firmness is something different.” earlier, during his address, the top judge noted that the female gender was becoming a part of normal life. “It was confined to four walls for many centuries. It is coming out of it. This gender is becoming a

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

CMYK

regular part of almost every walk of life and we are very fortunate that even in this third world country of ours, we are making [an] effort and we are taking strides in that direction.” he said that previously, female judges in the district judiciary were unheard of but now there were nearly 300 female judges in the district judiciary.

CJP Khosa said that there were female judges in the high court as well and soon there could be a couple of female judges in the Supreme Court. he shared that he had the opportunity to propose two judges’ names for the apex court and during the selection process, some female candidates were being “actively considered”. During his address, Chief Justice Khosa said: “You will find that for the last about 50 years, the courts have been trying to go an extra mile to take care of the areas where women were deprived of their rights.” he cited the example of inheritance in which the Supreme Court had taken the initiative and said that if someone was denied their inheritance even hundreds of years ago, she could still establish her rights today. “The period of limitation will not be considered and she will be given her rights so that justice prevails,” he said. additionally, the top judge shared that in most instances where concessions were given by courts in the country to women and in most of the efforts made to reinterpret the law and to extend legal rights to women, judgements were authored by judges who only had daughters.