WASHINGTON: Incarcerated Pakistani neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui had the first reunion in 20 years with her sister Fowzia at a prison hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday.
The two sisters met again on Wednesday and will have a third meeting on Thursday (today) at Carswell, the prison medical facility in Fort Worth.
Dr Siddiqui, a US citizen of Pakistan origin, has not been in contact with any of her family members for more than a decade.
“My heart is racing, my mind in turmoil, I may actually see my little sister 1st time in 20 years,” Fowzia Siddiqui said in a tweet posted before the meeting. “I have no words to describe my feelings. I wish I could hug her; hold her hand and bring her home.”
“It was a private meeting, no official was present,” Aftab Chaudhary, Pakistan’s Consul General in Houston, Texas, told Dawn.
“The government did help her in getting a visa and we are here to provide whatever assistance she and others accompanying her may need.”
After the meeting, the Aafia Movement, which led the effort to get her home, issued a statement saying that it was hardly the meeting the two sisters would have liked.
“The sterile visitation room at FMC Carswell was divided by glass. They were not allowed a first hug or even to touch after two decades.”
Fowzia was forbidden to share with Aafia the photograph of her son and daughter, both now in their 20s.
“The background music for the meeting was the periodic rattle of heavy prison keys” and Fowzia was obviously shocked by the state of her younger sister, the statement added.
Aafia was led to the meeting place in a tan prison uniform and a white headscarf. The statement claimed that her upper teeth were missing from one prison assault, and she had difficulty hearing due to a beating she had taken around the head.
Daily trauma
Aafia spent the first hour detailing the daily trauma in her life.
Eventually, her lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who was present to facilitate the meeting, encouraged her to talk to her sister about her loved ones.
“I miss my family every day, my mother, my father, you, my sister, and my children. I think of them all the time,” Aafia said.
She and her sister swapped stories for over two hours.
The statement pointed out that all of Aafia’s stories about her children were from 2003, when she was whisked away from her home in Karachi.
According to the statement, visits over the next two days will focus more on her case and what could be done to secure her release.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Aafia met her sister and lawyer along with Senator Mushtaq Ahmad, who accompanied her from Pakistan.
BERLIN: A 15-year-old footballer from Berlin died Wednesday after he was seriously injured in a fight with players from a French team at an international youth tournament, police said.
The teenager “died in hospital as a result of his severe brain injuries” after being hit on the head in the altercation in Frankfurt on Sunday, local police said in a statement.
A 16-year-old player from the French team was arrested following the fight and was still being held in custody, police said.
The brawl occurred following the final whistle in a game between the victim’s side JFC Berlin and a team from French second-division club Metz.
Investigators were still looking at the “detailed sequence of events” which led to the young player’s injuries, they said.
The victim was seemingly hit “on the head or neck” before he “fell to the floor and had to be resuscitated”, police said in a separate statement Tuesday.
The victim, already declared brain dead on Tuesday, was kept on life support so his organs could be donated, a spokeswoman for the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office said.
French club Metz said Tuesday it was “profoundly shocked” by the events at the tournament in Frankfurt.
Metz confirmed that a player from its “Performance Programme”, a scheme which gives “young footballers... from all over the world access to a high-level training structure”, was being held by German authorities.
The suspected attacker “denies having deliberately caused serious bodily harm”, the club said.
The tournament organisers also said Tuesday they were shocked by the events, describing them as “unbelievably sad”.
LONDON: England captain Ben Stokes expects to play a full part with the ball and bat as his side begin their Ashes preparations in earnest on Thursday with a four-day Test against Ireland.
The state of Stokes’ knee has raised doubts about his ability to perform the all-rounder role and it flared up in the drawn Test series in New Zealand in February.
Stokes managed to bowl only nine overs in the two Tests against the Kiwis but fully intends to be part of England’s attack at home to Australia.
So all eyes will be on the 31-year-old against Ireland over the next four days at Lord’s.
“My knee is in a much better place than it was in Wellington,” Stokes told reporters at his pre-match press conference on Wednesday. “I have got myself into a position where I am not able to look back and regret or say I have not given myself the best opportunity to play a full role with the ball this summer.”
Stokes continued to be troubled by niggling injuries while appearing twice for Indian Premier League side Chennai Super Kings this year and managed to bowl only one over for them.
“I have got myself into a place where I feel like I am back at 2019, 2020 with my body. Hopefully I can turn up every day and bowl like I was able to do before this little niggle,” he said.
“We know what the problem is and it’s about managing it with workload and the medical team, just to get through it.”
With James Anderson and Ollie Robinson resting up ahead of the Ashes as they recover from niggles, England will hand a debut to Worcestershire seamer Josh Tongue.
“Having someone who is able to bowl at that extra pace and can come on and change where the game is going, have that X-factor, is great to have in your side,” Stokes said. “I am looking forward to getting him involved.”
Ireland have failed to win any of their previous six Test matches since gaining Test status in 2017, but gave England an almighty scare at Lord’s four years ago when they bowled the hosts out for 85 before lunch on the first day.
However, they were skittled for 38 in their second innings chasing 182 for a famous victory.
Ireland will be without paceman Josh Little who has been rested in preparation for the World Cup qualifier in Zimbabwe next month — a decision that has raised some eyebrows, especially after Ireland’s high performance director Richard Holdsworth described the Lord’s clash as ‘not a pinnacle event’.
Even so, Ireland will be determined to try and add to their 50-over and T20 triumphs over England.
“It’s a big week for us as a team and an organisation. You don’t get too many chances to play Test matches at Lord’s,” Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie said this week.
“I was fortunate to be here for the last one and obviously we will take it in and soak it up, but at the same time we’re here to do a job and compete with one of the best Test sides in the world. We want to focus on the job in hand.”
LAHORE: The PML-Q intends to call a multi-party conference to discuss the country’s political and economic crises, sources say.
Sources claim the PML-Q is going to invite all political and religious parties to a conference, including the PTI. They say the schedule for the MPC will be finalised after consultations amongst all the stakeholders.
The sources say the PML-Q leaders want the political leadership in the country to sit together to find a way to steer the country out of a plethora of political and economic crises.
Meanwhile, former Azad Kashmir prime minister Sardar Tanvir Ilyas, who recently parted ways with the PTI, announced joining the PML-Q.
Mr Ilyas, flanked by PML-Q chief organiser Chaudhry Sarwar and Shafay Hussain, announced his decision in a media talk here on Wednesday.
Earlier, Mr Ilyas visited the Jinnah House and chided PTI chief Imran Khan for misleading the youth by making false promises.
“I had a difference of opinion with the so-called political leader Imran Khan on certain issues, including making false promises to the youth,” he said.
He alleged that Imran Khan was responsible for the arson attack on the Jinnah House on May 9. Mr Ilyas said the PTI’s social media workers were mostly stationed abroad.
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday sought replies from the caretaker government of Punjab and the police on petitions questioning the alleged maltreatment of PTI women workers, including fashion designer Khadija Shah, and seeking their release in the May 9 violence.
In a joint petition, Ms Shah’s father, former finance minister Salman Shah, and husband Jahanzeb Amin, contended through a counsel that the police arrested the fashion designer for her alleged involvement in the attack on the Jinnah House.
The counsel argued that police obtained custody of Ms Shah from the trial court till May 30 and shifted her to jail for her identification parade. However, he said, the police did not produce her before the trial court despite the expiry of the judicial remand.
He said Ms Shah had been kept in the Kot Lakhpat jail and neither her family nor lawyers had been able to visit her. He said various reports about her health and conditions in which she was being kept surfaced but the family had not been able to meet her to confirm any of this.
He asked the court to discharge the women worker in the case and order her release.
Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi sought replies from the caretaker government of Punjab and the police.
The family of Ms Shah also issued a statement expressing concern over her well-being in judicial custody. It says Ms Shah has never had any official affiliation with a political party and has always been committed to rule of law and prosperity of Pakistani society.
The statement says any fair, impartial investigation and judicial process around the May 9 events will establish Khadija’s innocence.
On another petition of PTI Senator Zarqa Suharwardi, Justice Rizvi directed a provincial law officer to submit a report showing how many women suspects were in police custody and in jail on judicial remand.
The law officer questioned the maintainability of the petition saying the women suspects were lawfully arrested and the police had obtained their remand from the trial courts. He also rejected the reports of maltreatment of the women in the jail.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the PTI women workers had been arrested unlawfully and sent to jail for their identification parade. He said the police delayed the process of the identification parade only to keep the workers in jail illegally.
The judge sought replies from the respondents by June 6.
LAHORE: The caretaker Punjab government has asked the PTI to provide proof of the killing of 25 people in the May 9 incidents for investigation into the matter.
“Investigation will be launched if the names of 25 people killed in riots are given to the government,” caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi said here on Wednesday.
PTI chief Imran Khan had claimed that 25 people were killed during violent clashes on May 9.
He reiterated that only 11 women prisoners, belonging to PTI, were in jails across the province and a four-time counter check was made after every arrest.
Information Minister Amir Mir said of 300 women involved in the May 9 violence, 46 had been arrested so far. Of them, 29 had been released on bail, he said and contradicted the CM’s claim of the arrest of 11 PTI women. “Some 17 women are in prisons for the identification parade,” Mir said.
Kosovo’s top Olympic body said on Wednesday it had asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to open disciplinary proceedings against Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic over his public statements on clashes in the country.
On Monday, after confrontations began between ethnic Albanians and Serbs, Djokovic scrawled the message “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence” on a camera following his victory in the opening round of Roland Garros.
A Kosovo Olympic Committee (KOC) spokesman told AFP on Wednesday that Djokovic was “stirring up” political tensions.
Djokovic “breached the fundamental principles of the Olympic Charter regarding political neutrality and involved yet another political statement in sports”, the KOC wrote in a letter sent to the IOC on Tuesday.
KOC head Ismet Krasniqi asked the IOC to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Djokovic, an Olympic bronze medallist in 2008, said the letter posted on its Facebook page.
Such “behaviour cannot be tolerated as it sets a dangerous precedent that sports can be used as a platform for political messages, agendas and propaganda”, the letter quoted Krasniqi as saying.
Djokovic defended his message in comments to Serb media, saying that Kosovo is Serbia’s “cradle, our stronghold”.
Meanwhile, the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the governing body of the sport, said they had received a request from the Kosovo Tennis Federation that Djokovic be sanctioned.
However, they pointed out that “political statements” are not banned at Grand Slam events.
Thirty peacekeepers from a Nato-led force in Kosovo and over 50 demonstrators were injured in clashes during protests about the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors in northern Kosovo.
The situation remained tense on Wednesday as ethnic Serbs demand the withdrawal of the mayors in four northern municipalities and Kosovo police sent to support them as they take office.
Ethnic-Albanian majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but its Serb minority remains largely loyal to Belgrade.
LAHORE: Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi says the government will present provincial budget for four months.
Talking to a delegation of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS), led by its President Nazafreen Saigol Lakhani, here on Tuesday, he said a good news would come soon regarding improvement in the economic situation.
He lambasted the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for showing old videos about ill-treatment of women prisoners in jails.
“A nefarious propaganda is being churned out. A total of 11 women involved in attacks on military installations are in jail on judicial remand,” he said and added the arrested women were kept in jail as per its manual. He said some 500 women were wanted in the May 9 incidents but the government showed restraint.
“Clear instructions have been given to not arrest anyone innocent. A dangerous plan was hatched to burn valuable aircrafts in the attack on the Mianwali Air Base. Attackers of Mianwali Air Base brought weapons concealed in trolleys filled with straws. In Mianwali, the policemen continued to fight the attackers,” he said and added the attack on Jinnah House was pre-planned.
Earlier, the APNS delegation and the chief minister discussed matters related to the newspaper industry.
Mr Naqvi assured the delegation of resolving problems of the newspaper industry.
“I have issued instructions for early payment of dues to the newspapers. Newspapers will be paid in the ratio of 85 to 15 per cent in lieu of advertisements and the advertisement quota is also being increased,” Mr Naqvi said.
During the meeting, prayers were offered for the late APNS member Mumtaz Ahmed Tahir and tributes paid to his journalistic services.
In the meeting, it was agreed to continue the advertisements in the magazines and journals of the deceased members of APNS.
Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Information Minister Aamir Mir said the system of advertisements in newspapers was being digitised, through which payments could be made in the shortest possible time.
The information secretary and DGPR were also present on the occasion.
Sergio Perez deserves credit for making the possibility of him taking the 2023 Formula 1 title fight to Max Verstappen a realistic conversation for a few weeks, but it's now unavoidably obvious he won't do so [...]
• PMA says chlorination of potable water by KWSB found to be inadequate
• People advised to drink boiled water, avoid washing face or bathe with polluted water
KARACHI: A day after the Sindh health department confirmed three deaths from Naegleria fowleri in a short span of one week in the metropolis, health experts associated with the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) on Tuesday called upon the government to ensure supply of properly chlorinated water to citizens.
The experts are alarmed over the fact that none of the three victims of Naegleria fowleri, better known as brain-eating amoeba, had a history of swimming and it appeared that the infection occurred due to the use of contaminated, or non-chlorinated, tap water.
“The association is concerned over the fact that N. fowleri has been reported from Karachi’s municipal water supply, which is managed by Karachi Water & Sewerage Board (KWSB). We fear that unreported deaths will be higher than reported ones. Unfortunately, safe water is not available to the vast majority,” said Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro of the PMA.
He told Dawn that the KWSB’s filtration and chlorination of potable water were questionable. “Besides, the water distribution system is faulty, allowing seepage of sewage in the domestic water supply lines, which in turn gets contaminated and causes harmful diseases.”
According to the association, the general public in the city is forced to consume contaminated water, which exposes them to the grave risk of getting infections such as typhoid, gastroenteritis, cholera, hepatitis A and E, and primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), one of the most dangerous diseases.
Health experts belonging to the PMA also underscored the need for public awareness and efforts on the part of the government to ensure the supply of safe water.
“When water, contaminated with Naegleria, is sucked through the nose during bathing, rinsing the nose and ablution, it enters the body and rapidly destroys brain tissues, which causes severe meningoencephalitis within one to nine days after acquiring the infection,” explained Dr Shoro.
“It is fatal in 95 per cent of cases despite timely treatment. The initial symptoms of the disease are headache, body aches, high-grade fever, drowsiness, and fainting, and then the patient goes into a coma,” he said.
N. fowleri, a single-celled organism, is found in moist soil, freshwater bodies (lakes, ponds, and rivers), poorly chlorinated swimming pools, and water-supplying pipes.
In a statement, the PMA urged the general public to adopt measures to prevent the fatal infection. “Personal actions to reduce the risk of N. fowleri infection should focus on preventing water from going up the nose. Besides, always drink boiled water and do not wash your face or bathe with polluted water. Do not swim in non-chlorinated pools.”
“People are also requested to put chlorine in underground water tanks [one tablet in 1,000 gallons of water]. Water tanks at homes, hospitals, schools, shopping malls, and offices should be cleaned once a year,” it said.
The association requested that all the doctors, particularly the general practitioners and family physicians, take it seriously if a patient comes to them with symptoms of nausea, vomiting, headache, and a high fever.
“Such a patient should be tested for Naegleria. People should also visit their doctor immediately if they experience these symptoms,” the association said.
Earlier on Monday, the health department confirmed that the first case was reported on May 24, the second case on May 26 and the third case was reported on May 28 in the city. The deaths occurred at private and public sector hospitals where the patients presented with symptoms including high fever, vomiting, headache, and altered consciousness.
KARACHI: Bank lending to the private sector has shrunk to just Rs28 billion this fiscal year after plummeting 98 per cent compared to last year, central bank data showed on Tuesday.
The State Bank reported that from July 1 to May 19, the private sector borrowed a record low Rs27.9bn from banks compared to Rs1.414 trillion a year ago.
The economy has been facing a constant problem of a record-high interest rate of 21pc and headline inflation at 36.4pc. Average inflation is estimated to reach 30pc this fiscal year, which ends in June.
“There is no chance to run a business with such a high interest rate and an unprecedented 36pc inflation,” Aamir Aziz, who manufactures and exports finished textile products, told Dawn. He said textile exports had already started falling and feared that things would worsen in the coming months since millers had exhausted their cotton stocks.
“The country has produced five million cotton bales while the need is about 15 million bales. The country has no foreign exchange for imports and this is the reason that the private sector is out from the banks,” he said.
Bankers said interest rates were much higher than the policy interest rate of 21pc, depending on risks attached to borrowers. They said businesses couldn’t sustain in this scenario.
The financial sector believes that the State Bank may go for another increase to counter unrelenting inflation, while the International Monetary Fund is also critical of the existing interest rate.
A high interest rate has already started to take its toll, as most analysts and economists have estimated a negative growth rate in the current fiscal year.
However, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has reported the agriculture growth rate at 1.55pc even though the government had claimed $30bn in losses due to last year’s floods. The growth does not match such high losses.
Some analysts believe that the bureau’s data could result in a 0.29pc GDP growth, though many are still sure there will be no growth this time.
“We are facing a serious question of survival under the intensifying political and economic uncertainties, particularly when the IMF is silent over the release of its ninth review tranche,” a senior analyst said.
Pakistan needed significant financial help to come out of the current economic mess, he said but feared that China would not come to the rescue this time around.
PARIS: Global leaders should be working to reduce “the risk of extinction” from artificial intelligence technology, a group of industry chiefs and experts warned on Tuesday, urging policymakers to equate its threat on a par with risks posed by pandemics and nuclear war.
“Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war,” more than 350 signatories wrote in a letter published by the nonprofit Centre for AI Safety (CAIS).
The one-line statement was signed by dozens of specialists, including Sam Altman whose firm OpenAI created the ChatGPT bot. As well as Altman, they included the CEOs of AI firms DeepMind and Anthropic, and executives from Microsoft and Google.
Also among them were Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio — two of the three so-called “godfathers of AI” who received the 2018 Turing Award for their work on deep learning — and professors from institutions ranging from Harvard to China’s Tsinghua University.
The latest statement gave no details of the potential threat posed by AI. The centre said the “succinct statement” was meant to open up a discussion on the dangers of the technology.
The statement from CAIS singled out Meta, where the third godfather of AI, Yann LeCun, works, for not signing the letter.
The letter coincided with the US-EU Trade and Technology Council meeting in Sweden where politicians are expected to talk about regulating AI.
Elon Musk and a group of AI experts and industry executives were the first ones to cite potential risks to society in April.
Among the criticism is that the algorithms could be trained on racist, sexist or politically biased material.
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Monday remarked that the Supreme Court did not want to strike down the Justice Qazi Faez Isa-led commission, formed by the government to probe audio leaks, but the move to stay proceedings was merely aimed at protecting the independence of the judiciary.
Proposing that the judiciary and executive interact with each other in a transparent manner, Justice Bandial observed that the government should consult the chief justice of Pakistan before inducting judges into judicial commissions in line with convention. CJP Bandial made these remarks during the hearing of a review petition against the apex court’s decision to hold elections in Punjab on May 14.
He referred to the May 26 order which stayed proceedings of the commission and said the AGP had read out the order before the commission in which some important aspects were discussed and made it clear that the court did not want to “strike down the commission but to protect and defend the independence of the judiciary”.
“The judiciary and the executive interact with each other, but it should not be done in a secret or by way of coercive method but in a transparent manner,” observed the CJP. The government should not break the conventions of seeking the nomination of judges from the CJP before appointing any commission, he said, adding obviously he would not have become part of the commission.
Consultation with the CJP has always been carried out, like the one constituted to probe the death of journalist Saleem Shahzad, the Abbottabad Commission or the Memogate Commission, he observed, adding that the CJP nominated members to these bodies and the notifications were issued by the government later.
STOCKHOLM: A harness-wearing Beluga whale that turned up in Norway in 2019, sparking speculation it was a spy trained by the Russian navy, has appeared off Sweden’s coast, an organisation following him said on Monday.
First discovered in Norway’s far northern region of Finnmark, the whale spent more than three years slowly moving down the top half of the Norwegian coastline, before suddenly speeding up in recent months to cover the second half and on to Sweden.
On Sunday, he was observed in Hunnebostrand, off Sweden’s southwestern coast.
“We don’t know why he has sped up so fast right now,” especially since he is moving “very quickly away from his natural environment”, Sebastian Strand, a marine biologist with the OneWhale organisation, said.
“It could be hormones driving him to find a mate. Or it could be loneliness as Belugas are a very social species — it could be that he’s searching for other Beluga whales.”
Believed to be 13-14 years old, Strand said the whale is “at an age where his hormones are very high”.
The closest population of Belugas is however located in the Svalbard archipelago, in Norway’s far north.
The whale is not believed to have seen a single Beluga since arriving in Norway in April 2019. Norwegians nicknamed it “Hvaldimir” — a pun on the word “whale” in Norwegian, hval, and a nod to its alleged association to Russia.
When he first appeared in Norway’s Arctic, marine biologists from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries removed an attached man-made harness.
The harness had a mount suited for an action camera and the words “Equipment St. Petersburg” printed on the plastic clasps.
• WFP, FAO report notes $77.5bn to be repaid over next three years
• Political instability, lack of IMF deal to hit ability to import food
ISLAMABAD: Acute food insecurity in Pakistan is likely to further exacerbate in coming months if the economic and political crisis further worsens, compounding the effects of the 2022 floods, warns a new United Nations report published on Monday.
The report titled, Hunger Hotspots: FAO-WFP early warnings on acute food insecurity, jointly published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) covers the June to November 2023 period.
It notes that amid the current global economic slowdown, mounting public debt has exacerbated the ongoing financial crisis in Pakistan. It points out that authorities will have to repay $77.5 billion external debt between April 2023 and June 2026, a substantial amount considering the country’s GDP of $350bn in 2021.
Growing political instability and lagging reforms prevent the release of a crucial new credit line from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and additional support from bilateral partners, the report says.
The political crisis and civil unrest are likely to worsen ahead of general elections scheduled for October 2023, amid growing insecurity in the northwest of the country. A shortage of foreign reserves and a depreciating currency are diminishing the country’s ability to import essential food items and energy supplies and increasing food items’ prices besides causing nationwide energy cuts, the report says.
The situation has been compounded by effects of last year’s floods which caused damages and economic losses of Rs30bn to the agriculture sector.
According to the report, over 8.5 million people were likely to experience high levels of acute food insecurity between September and December 2022.
The food insecurity and malnutrition situation is likely to worsen in the outlook period, as economic and political crises are reducing households’ purchasing power and ability to buy food and other essential goods, it notes.
The likely deterioration to the food security situation in the projection period is due to the devastating impact of floods, which caused livestock losses and adversely affected food production and availability of food and livelihood opportunities.
It also notes that Afghanistan’s coal and food export revenues could drop if the economic and political crisis in Pakistan — Kabul’s main trading partner — and the security situation in border areas continues to deteriorate.
The report has called for building the capacity of national and provincial disaster management authorities to include forecast-based financing and risk insurance as part of disaster management and sectoral contingency plans.
Among the actions recommended by the report are strengthening the shock-responsive nature of existing social protection mechanisms (such as the Benazir Income Support Programme) to ensure effective anticipatory action and humanitarian response through social protection systems.
The two UN agencies further warn that acute food insecurity is likely to deteriorate further in 81 hunger spots — comprising a total of 22 countries during the outlook period from June to November 2023.
Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen remain at the highest concern level. Haiti, the Sahel (Burkina Faso and Mali) and the Sudan have been elevated to the highest concern levels. This is due to severe movement restrictions of people and goods in Haiti, as well as in Burkina Faso and Mali, and the recent eruption of conflict in the Sudan.
All the hotspots at the highest level have populations facing or projected to face starvation or are at risk of deterioration towards catastrophic conditions, given they have already critical food insecurity and are facing severe aggravating factors. These countries require the most urgent attention.
Pakistan, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Congo and Syria are hotspots with very high concern, and the warning is also extended to Myanmar.
Okara police briefly detained a teenage boy on Monday after an “inappropriate” social media post announcing an “aerial firing” event on the death anniversary of Indian singer Sidhu Moosewala — who was shot dead last year — went viral.
Referring to the post, police spokesperson Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Mohammad Khalid said that a teenage boy had expressed his intent to hold an annual khatam (recitation of Quran) and make arrangements for “aerial firing” on Moosewala’s death anniversary.
Photos of the post doing rounds on social media feature photographs of Moosewala and a boy. It is an invitation to the “entire Jatt community and thugs” for the khatam in the Samadpura area, stating that “there will be firing after [the event]”.
ASI Khalid said B-Division police detained the teenage boy as soon as the post went viral. “Upon inquiry, it was found that the [suspect] is a matric student and approximately 15 years old,” he added.
Police let the boy go with a warning “after he realised his mistake”, the ASI said.
According to the police statement, the boy said he posted the invitation “only with the intention of mischief” and he did not actually intend to go ahead with organising the event.
“He expressed regret and apologised,” the statement said, adding that the boy’s father assured the police that his son would not commit any such act again.
“This was his mistake he committed due to his young age and immaturity,” the statement quoted the father as saying.
“Considering the boy’s young age and his future, police released the boy with a warning to practice caution in the future,” the police statement said.
ISLAMABAD: In the absence of an approved policy, the federal government has allowed Sindh to earn $200-220 million (about Rs57-63 billion) of carbon credits over the next two decades for its efforts to expand mangrove forests under Pakistan’s commitments for unconditional contribution to a global drive for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2021, the Ministry of Climate Change submitted the nationally determined contributions (NDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The ministry pledged that 15pc of the carbon credits generated — i.e. reducing around 240 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent — in the country will be Pakistan’s unconditional contribution towards the NDCs.
Major sectors included in this reduction are energy, industry, forests, agriculture and transport.
NDCs are at the heart of the Paris Agreement and the achievement of its long-term goals. They embody efforts by each country to reduce national emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.
Besides national-level commitments by countries, the Paris Agreement for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions allows private entities to generate carbon credits and trade them with international entities on voluntary carbon markets.
These markets allow carbon emitters to offset their unavoidable emissions by purchasing carbon credits emitted by projects targeted at removing or reducing greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
However, the carbon credits traded on these voluntary markets cannot be counted against the NDC commitments of the country. Therefore, the private entities need an undertaking from the national governments that they will make “corresponding adjustments” in their NDC targets by excluding those private carbon credits.
For this, there is a need for a carbon market policy for regulating the trading of carbon credits so that Pakistan’s commitment under the NDCs does not get compromised. However, the country does not have such a policy at present and would be unable to have one over the next two years.
The climate ministry has reported to the federal cabinet that it was preparing a carbon market policy, a voluntary carbon market, and a net-zero framework with World Bank’s technical help that may take about two years, but an interim framework was currently being expedited.
On the other hand, the Sindh Forest Department is already implementing two Indus Delta mangrove projects — Delta Blue Carbon 1 and 2 — in collaboration with a private entity selected by the department.
Under the first project, started in 2015, about 3.1 tonnes of CO2 equivalent have been sequestered and traded in international voluntary carbon markets, generating $14.7m in revenue for Sindh.
The agreement for the second project was executed in March 2020, and its planting operations began this year.
With the support and consent of the provincial government, the Sindh Forest Department sought a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the federal government through the climate ministry to continue selling carbon credits in international voluntary carbon markets until 2042.
The NOC would mean that those carbon credits will not be counted by Pakistan against its NDC commitment till 2043.
The climate ministry tried to convince the Sindh government to reduce the concession period until 2033 to help the national commitments be fully honoured.
However, the Sindh government and the provincial forest department did not agree and contended that both the Indus Delta mangrove projects were initiated before the national commitments made under nationally determined contributions in 2021.
Secondly, the contribution of the mangrove projects in percentage terms would be less than one per cent of the pledged 240 tonnes of CO2 equivalent under the commitments, hence denying corresponding adjustments for the carbon credits of both projects will not have any substantial impact.
Third, these projects are estimated to generate about $200-220m by 2043 with the additional benefits of creating green jobs. Some 21,000 jobs have reportedly been created so far besides investment towards afforestation, restoration and re-vegetation of the mangroves.
The Sindh Forest Department has argued that the annual revenue generated from the mangrove projects will help in achieving biodiversity, climate and community benefits in the coastal areas of Sindh.
The provincial government has also pledged to undertake all possible measures to reduce its share of greenhouse gas emissions based on population, i.e. 55 tonnes of CO2 equivalent, by 2035.
• Dar says negotiations possible if Imran admits mistakes, apologises to nation
• Saad Rafique says no space for dialogue in present situation
LAHORE: The ambiguities of government policy over talks with the PTI came into sharp focus on Sunday, with a key minister flatly ruling out the possibility of negotiations in a post-May 9 scenario while another hinting at a way out if Imran Khan apologises and repents.
Talking at the Geo News programme Jirga, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said negotiations with Mr Khan could be held if he took “corrective measures”, apologises to the nation, admits his mistake and promises not to do anything like May 9 in the future.
The minister said that before that fateful day — when violent protests erupted across the country after Mr Khan’s arrest — the government negotiated with PTI with “sincere intentions” and the two sides agreed on all matters except the date of election.
He said peaceful protest was everyone’s right, but attacks on armed forces’ installations should not be condoned.
Meanwhile, in Lahore, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said there was no way talks could be held with the PTI in the current situation.
“There used to be an environment and agenda for holding parleys on any issue. But the existing atmosphere is not suitable for talks,” he told reporters, adding that no one would like to hold dialogue with the talks committee formed by Mr Khan.
Mr Rafique was probably referring to the seven-member committee that the former prime minister appointed on Saturday.
The minister said he always supported negotiations despite several differences with the PTI. He said the government attempted to engage in dialogue and both sides even agreed on several issues, including simultaneous elections.
However, when the government’s team contacted Mr Khan, the PTI chief refused to accept any of the points, Mr Rafique said, adding: “Now, after all that bullying, there is no space for dialogue.”
The minister, who was talking to the media after visiting the Lahore corps commander’s residence, also known as Jinnah House, said that a tragedy took place at the venue on May 9.
He regretted that valuable things “preserved” at the site, including the Quaid-i-Azam’s room, his writing table, and handwritten notes, were damaged and burnt on that fateful day.
He alleged that the PTI leadership and ticket-holders were involved in the arson despite knowing about the sanctity of the installation. “This fire did not erupt because of petrol or matchbox, but chemicals,” he claimed.
The railways minister also claimed that Mr Khan “poisoned the minds of the youth and sowed the seeds of hatred in their minds for years”.
He recalled that during the Pervez Musharraf government, PML-N workers had also been protesting almost daily, but kept in mind the “sanctity of cantonments”.
Asked who was responsible for preventing the May 9 riots, he said this question should be put to the Punjab caretaker government.
Mr Rafique also urged the former prime minister and the entire PTI leadership to accept their mistake and apologise to the whole nation over the May 9 riots. “They should do issue a public apology,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon pointed out that half of the individuals appointed by Imran Khan to the negotiation committee were currently in hiding.
He said PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari had made it clear that before any negotiations, Mr Khan should apologise for the “injustices and wrongdoings” committed during his tenure.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Sunday said negotiations can’t be held with PTI Chairman Imran Khan until “he apologises, takes corrective actions, owns the problem, and promises” the nation that anything even close to the May 9 riots will take place in the future.
In recent days, Imran has made impassioned appeals to state institutions to immediately sit with his party, talk and find a solution to put the country on the path of progress. The PTI on Saturday also constituted a seven-member “negotiation committee” without any explanation of who the committee will negotiate with for talks on elections.
Speaking on Geo’s Jirga, the PML-N leader was of the view that the May 9 riots “changed everything completely” bringing the election negotiations between the government and PTI back to square one.
“Now in this situation how will you negotiate until he (Imran) doesn’t apologise to the nation, he has only condemned the Jinnah House [torching] along with others, but he hasn’t condemned attacks on martyr monuments and military installations.”
The finance minister urged the PTI chief to go through the process of being held accountable and facing the law just like PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif went through and were proven innocent.
“You also go through this process. If you are a leader, you should at least do this,” he said. “Otherwise this is fascism.”
Dar added: “Let the law make its way. When all the evidence is there, it will be established who was behind the May 9 riots.”
Earlier, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah rebuffed PTI’s offer of talks, saying that “negotiations are held with politicians and not such people.”
The security czar was addressing a rally at Faisalabad.
“He (Imran Khan) says now to have negotiations with him. What negotiations should be held with you? You, shameless man, have not even condemned this event (May 9 riots) and never talked like politicians.”
Sanaullah questioned how will the government answer to the families of martyrs if it sits down for talks with the PTI.
“If we do this then what answer will we give to martyrs’ families? We cannot face them [then]. When inquiry happens of all this matter then the responsibility will be attached to this fitna.”
Meanwhile, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique made it clear that there was no way possible for talks with the PTI, especially after the vandalisation of military installations.
“Imran has formed a committee,” Rafique said while talking to the media in Lahore. “Who will talk to them? No one. This is no situation to hold talks.”
The PML-N leader claimed that Imran had told his team to end the previous rounds of talks with the government, which were held on the orders of the Supreme Court last month and continued into May.
Rafique and Dar were part of the government team for talks with the PTI on elections.
He told the reporters to also question the politicians that were representing the PTI in talks about the matter.
Rafique urged Imran and the entire PTI leadership to accept their mistake and apologise to the whole nation over the May 9 riots.
“They should release a public apology,” the PML-N minister said, emphasising that what PTI did did not fall under the garb of politics.
Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon also shared the views of the federal ministers and said that negotiations with the PTI were only possible once Imran “personally apologises” to the nation, families of the martyrs, and everyone who suffered during the May 9 events.
“You tried to become an underworld don, a mafia in the country and harmed the people and institutions. And now you are saying you are ready for negotiations.
“This means whatever happened holds no value for you,” Memon said during a press conference in Karachi. “Will Imran Khan answer the nation today? Imran Khan doesn’t care about his party workers.”
PTI committee
Soon after the PTI chief notified Omar Ayub Khan as the party’s new secretary-general on Saturday — replacing Asad Umar — the new secretary, constituted a seven-member committee for talks, on the party chief’s instructions. The team will consist of Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pervez Khattak, Asad Qaiser, Haleem Adil Sheikh, Aon Abbas Buppi, Murad Saeed and Hammad Azhar.
But a number of PTI leaders Dawn spoke to expressed their surprise over the formation of this committee, and some pointed out that many of the leaders named as part of the negotiation committee were either in jail or in hiding to avoid arrest.
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PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Sunday rued that “some people” had tried to “pull his legs” during his three government tenures when he aimed to ensure that Pakistan remained ahead in development and prosperity.
Addressing a PML-N rally in Lahore to commemorate the silver jubilee of Youm-i-Takbeer, the date of Pakistan’s nuclear tests, Nawaz said that going ahead with the tests despite all international pressures and offers was the “real absolutely not”.
“We do not carry aggressive designs against anyone but cannot permit anyone to look at us with a dirty eye. It has always been my wish for which I made efforts … that Pakistan remains ahead in development and prosperity as well … but what can I do unfortunately I have to say, that some people began pulling my legs.
“This happened in 1993, again in 1999 and you saw it happened in 2017 as well. Who knows what fear these people have of me that they want to ruin a smiling and thriving country,” the former premier said.
He contrasted the high difference in current economic indicators and prices with 2017, saying that he had always strived to serve the nation but “I am still sad that all three times I was deprived of advancing this sacred mission due to some excuse.”
Mentioning his government’s economic performance and achievements, he said they should not be forgotten but compared to those who had “arrived and only destroyed Pakistan”.
Expressing good wishes for the country, Nawaz said he had said much the same before and the country was going forward in a positive direction but “it is unfortunate that those derailing [us] from that track are still present in this society.”
Nawaz said those who had “thrust Pakistan into the fires of hate, misguided the nation, sacrificed the youth for their impure aims and pushed the country back many years” were unveiled.
“God did not give us this country for a dark day like May 9 but a bright day like May 28 or for burning but for development and prosperity.”
His daughter PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz also addressed the rally and paid tribute to the politicians, scientists, engineers and defence personnel who had played crucial roles in the country’s nuclear programme.
In separate messages on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Youm-i-Takbeer, President Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb felicitated the nation.
The president termed the achievement of nuclear capability a remarkable feat for which the country’s scientists, engineers, and political and military leadership of the time deserved high commendation.
He said that on this day 25 years ago, in response to India’s nuclear tests, Pakistan conducted nuclear tests that were essential for maintaining the balance of power in the region.
“We must highly appreciate our political and military leadership that took the wise decision at that time to achieve nuclear capability making defence of the country unassailable,” the president said.
Alvi added that the whole nation paid tribute to the contributions of their eminent engineers and scientists who made Pakistan a nuclear power within a short period of time.
“For this, our whole nation was indebted to all those who played their part in making Pakistan the first Islamic nuclear power,” he added.
PM Shehbaz said Youm-i-Takbeer was not just a day but a story of the nation’s challenging and remarkable journey toward establishing credible minimum deterrence.
“The day represents how the consensus between all elements of national power achieved what once looked like an uphill task,” he said.
The prime minister paid tribute to Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, terming him a visionary who initiated the nuclear programme.
“In a show of bold leadership, my leader Mian Nawaz Sharif firmly rejected the policy of stick and carrot and made sure that the country became nuclear.”
PM Shehbaz said, “Our armed forces remained a guardian and protector of the programme in the face of the malign intentions of our enemies.
“On this day, Pakistan set a redline for its defence and laid down rules of the game for peace and stability in the region,” he added. “On the silver jubilee of Youm-i-Takbeer, I pay rich tributes to the political and military leadership, scientists, engineers and all those who remained associated with our nuclear programme.”
The premier concluded that “hard work, commitment, and determination” made it possible for our people to guard their independence against any physical threat.
FM Bilawal said he saluted scientists for their untiring commitment and contribution to Pakistan’s security and development.
“Quaid-e-Awam Bhutto laid the foundations of Pakistan’s nuclear programme and our scientists made his vision a reality, not only ensuring our regional security but also contributing to development.”
The defence minister hailed Nawaz for making the country’s defence invincible by detonating nuclear weapons.
“Our defence has become very strong due to achieving nuclear deterrence”, he said while addressing the ninth convocation of a private college in Sialkot as the chief guest.
He said that PM Zulfikar initiated the plan to make the country a nuclear power, but it was completed by the PML-N and the army also played a “very important role” in the nuclear assets of the country.
“Our Pakistan Army today is also protecting its borders as well as its nuclear assets for which we pay tribute to them.”
He said that “we should value our martyrs and ghazis because nations that forget their martyrs and desecrate their monuments cannot flourish.”
Meanwhile, Aurangzeb said Youm-i-Takbeer was the “declaration that Pakistan’s defence is invincible.”
“This day is the day of no compromise on the patriotism, bravery, insight, and national interest by PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif,” she maintained.
The minister saluted the entire team, including the scientists, who sacrificed for the country and made the defence invincible for future generations 25 years ago.
She asked the masses to celebrate the day’s national victory and national unity with pride this evening at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk Lahore by ensuring their participation at a rally to mark the occasion.
The armed forces of the country also paid rich tribute to “the brilliant minds who conceived and achieved this accomplishment under daunting challenges”, the army’s media wing said.
In a statement, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said: “Today, the complete Pakistani nation celebrates the silver jubilee of Youm-i-Takbeer and commemorates the remarkable achievement of establishing Credible Minimum Deterrence”.
The statement said that the achievement “reshaped the power dynamics in our region”.
“We salute the scientists and engineers who turned the impossible into a reality. Long live Pakistan,” the ISPR concluded.
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MOSCOW: Russia’s economy is in a state of “unstable equilibrium”, Russian economic analysts said in a report, with the growth stimuli that prevented a serious slump last year petering out and new drivers struggling to gain traction.
Russia’s economy proved unexpectedly resilient when faced with tough Western sanctions last year, helped by rising military production and huge state spending, but a return to pre-conflict levels of prosperity remains a long way off.
Analysts at Russia’s Centre for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-term Forecasting wrote in the report that growth drivers that limited the economic contraction to just 2.1% in 2022 were waning and the requisite increases in private investment and commodity exports were not yet bearing fruit.
KARACHI: While already reeling under record-high food inflation, consumers are now bracing for another shock as they will be paying an average 10 per cent more for branded breakfast items from Sunday.
Breadmakers have again raised the prices of various bakery items citing surging rates of raw materials, utility bills and transportation/distribution costs.
After pushing up prices by 16-17pc in June 2022, the manufacturers again jacked up the prices of their products by an average 19pc in September 2022 and with the latest third hike of 10pc consumers have to brave an overall 46pc spike in less than a year.
A four-member family, which was earlier spending Rs728 every month for procuring two packs of small bread (Rs91 each) in June 2022, will now have to spend Rs960 (Rs120) for the same.
Karachi Bread Association General Secretary Haroon Iqbal Sheikh told Dawn that the price of super fine flour (maida), which holds 65-68pc share in the manufacturing of bread and other bakery items, surged to Rs7,000 per 50kg bag from Rs5,700 in September 2022.
The price of plastic shopping bags, usually known as PE (polyethylene), has risen to Rs1,100 per kg from Rs800. The wholesale price of ghee and cooking oil has doubled to Rs560-600 per litre/kg, he added.
After this fresh increase, the retail rates of large, medium, small and mini plain packs of bread would be Rs220, Rs160, Rs120 and Rs80 as compared to Rs200, Rs150, Rs110 and Rs70, respectively.
While milky bread medium, small and mini would be available at Rs161, Rs121 and Rs81 as against Rs151, Rs111 and Rs71. Bran bread price has been raised to Rs160 from Rs150.
The new rates of burger roll, cut burger and special burger are Rs40, Rs100 and Rs125 versus Rs35, Rs100 and Rs110, respectively.
“Truly speaking, sales have plunged by at least 35pc in the last two years due to consumers’ shrinking buying power,” he said.
When asked if new players entered the market, he said the number of manufacturing units had been hovering at 18-21 units for the last decades.
For many people, it is now hard to afford breakfast. As per data of the Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) ending May 26, the price of a small pack of Lipton tea (less than 200 grams) is now tagged at Rs558 as compared to Rs260 in the third week of May last year. Loose milk is sold at Rs200-210 per litre as against Rs140-150 a litre.
Bayern Munich snatched their 11th consecutive Bundesliga title in dramatic fashion with a final day 2-1 win at Cologne on Saturday courtesy of Jamal Musiala’s 89th minute goal, grabbing the trophy from the hands of rivals Borussia Dortmund.
Dortmund had gone into the last game of the season in top spot but stumbled to a 2-2 against visitors Mainz 05, allowing Bayern to squeeze past them in the tightest league race in years.
In a climactic season finale, Bayern were celebrating what ended up being an unexpected title win while Dortmund’s dreams of their first league trophy since 2012 were left in tatters when they were trailing 2-0 to Mainz early on before battling to a 2-2 draw — but they needed victory to become champions.
Bayern finished on 71 points, ahead on goal difference from Dortmund. RB Leipzig and sensational Union Berlin are third and fourth respectively and will also compete in the Champions League next season.
Hertha Berlin and Schalke 04 were relegated, while VfB Stuttgart will go into the relegation playoff.
“It is unbelievable that I experience such a title race,” said Bayern’s Thomas Mueller, who celebrated a league-record 12th Bundesliga title.
“People interested in football have the feeling that we do not deserve this and I clearly say I understand that because of the second half of the season being so chaotic for us. “But it is still an unbelievable moment. Crazy, electric. I hoped it would happen but did not think it would,” Mueller added.
While the title win rescues some silverware in what has been a frustrating season for Bayern, the club sacked Chief Executive Officer Oliver Kahn, who was not in Cologne, and sports director Hasan Salihamdizic minutes after the title win.
The surprise sacking of Julian Nagelsmann in late March and the arrival of Thomas Tuchel was not coupled with success with the team crashing out of the German Cup and the Champions League last eight and the Bayern bosses paid the price.
“This game today describes my phase as coach here,” a relieved Tuchel said. “But we had one last exclamation mark.”
“We started well, took the lead, had another big chance. That’s our season in summary but Jamal had one more moment,” he added.
Early goal
The Bavarians needed a win and Kingsley Coman settled their nerves early on, putting them into the lead with a superbly curled shot into the top corner.
With Dortmund behind from the first half, the Bavarians knew they were now in front and controlled the first half without risking too much.
Leroy Sane did slot in just before the break but his effort did not count following a video assistant referee review for handball.
With Bayern club bosses, including Salihamidzic, nervously checking their mobile phones for the score in Dortmund, Cologne earned an 80th minute penalty and Dejan Ljubicic sent keeper the wrong way to level.
Sane thought he had missed the chance to hand his team the title when he failed to beat the Cologne keeper in the 88th but Musiala did it perfectly a minute later, curling a low drive into the far post in the rollercoaster season ending.
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ISLAMABAD: The short-term inflation, based on the Sensitive Price Index (SPI), eased slightly further year-on-year but remained significantly high at 45.49 per cent for the week ending on May 25, showed the official data released on Friday.
Despite a decrease in petroleum prices, the short-term inflation remained above 45pc for the past two weeks. It reached an all-time high at 48.35pc for the week ending on May 4 and slightly dropped to 48.02pc in the subsequent week. However, on a week-on-week basis, it posted a drop of 0.42pc.
Since the beginning of Ramazan, the SPI has been on an upward trajectory due to several factors. The depreciation of the rupee, rising petrol prices, an increase in sales tax, and higher electricity bills are among the key contributors to this inflationary trend.
Of the 51 items in the SPI basket, prices of 18 goods soared, 16 dropped and 17 remained unchanged compared to the previous week.
During the week under review, the items whose prices increased the most over the same week a year ago were: cigarettes (138.50pc), tea Lipton (114.93pc), wheat flour (110.17pc), gas charges for Q1 (108.38pc), gents sponge chappal (100.33pc), bananas (99.58pc), potatoes (98.10pc), rice basmati broken (81.24pc), rice irri-6/9 (79.96pc), petrol (79.85pc), diesel (78.68pc), eggs (69.55pc), pulse moong (63.18pc), bread (63.17pc) and pulse mash (55.93pc),
On a week-on-week basis, the biggest rise was observed in the prices of energy saver (4.91pc), long cloth (2.75pc), rice basmati broken (1.86pc), cooked beef (1.32pc), mutton (1.22pc), milk fresh (1.20pc), shirting (1.14pc) and beef (1.03pc).
Meanwhile, a decrease was also observed on a week-on-week basis in prices of chicken (8.91pc), wheat flour (3.33pc), eggs (3.03pc), garlic (2.83pc), tomatoes (2.61pc), onions (2.22pc), bananas (2.04pc), pulse moong (1.51pc), pulse masoor (1.26pc), cooking oil 5 litre (1.01pc) and LPG (3.44pc).
According to a finance ministry report, the lower-income segment of society is already feeling the brunt of high inflation, which has become unrelenting on the back of political instability, financial mismanagement and delay in an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
On the other hand, the State Bank of Pakistan was enacting a contractionary monetary policy, “but inflationary expectations are not settling down”, the report noted.
The government has been taking harsh measures — hikes in fuel and power tariffs, withdrawal of subsidies, market-based exchange rate and higher taxation — under the IMF programme to generate revenue for bridging the fiscal deficit, which may result in slow economic growth and higher inflation in coming months.
QUETTA: Awami National Party (ANP) Secretary General Mian Iftikhar Hussian has said that his party was not in favour of banning any party and believed that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) should face the consequences of its own actions.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Mr Hussain, along with ANP’s Provincial President Asghar Khan Achakzai and Central Joint Secretary Rasheed Nasar, said that the PTI does not believe in a political solution for the issues faced by the country. He mentioned that despite accepting the invitation, PTI did not attend ANP’s all parties conference.
He held Imran Khan responsible for the current political crisis, saying that after his removal from the government through a vote of no-confidence,
Mr Khan started blaming the US government and the PDM, alleging a joint conspiracy to oust him from power.
Highlights issues of terrorism, election rigging and unimplemented national action plan
He took various u-turns and “staged the drama of dissolving the Punjab and KP assemblies” to hold elections of his own choice. He said that Mr Khan also blamed former army chief retired Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and the US for the political crisis and brought these issues to courts, which further led to a judicial crisis.
Referring to the new wave of terrorism in the country, Mr Hussain said that it was the PTI government and retired Lt Gen Faiz Hameed who, under an agreement with the new Afghan government, brought 40,000 “trained terrorists” to Pakistan and settled them in KP and other areas.
“Who gave authority to retired Lt Gen Faiz Hameed to make an agreement with the Taliban government to bring TTP members to Pakistan?” he asked, adding that the return of these elements affected peace in Pakistan as they began attacking security forces and civilians in KP and other areas.
“PTI remained a supporter of terrorism,” the ANP secretary general blamed.
Responding to a question, he said that Mr Khan was imposed on the country by the then establishment through its facilitators rigging the elections. He said that ANP and other parties had rejected the election results and had demanded new free and fair elections in the country.
He said that it was ANP and followers of Bacha Khan who stood up against terrorism, despite being targeted by terrorists. He added that Baloch and Pakhtuns were specifically targeted in KP and Balochistan through terrorist activities, resulting in significant harm to the people of Balochistan.
Mr Hussian said that it was a big question that after the APS tragedy, the national action plan was agreed upon but not fully implemented, and the elopements and organisations were not punished.
He strongly condemned the bomb blast in Harnai and demanded the swift arrest of the elements involved in the attack.
He also said that the membership of ANP were currently in progress in Balochistan and the party’s central elections were scheduled to be held in January 2024.
KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday sought support from business people to overcome multiple challenges and asked exporters to come up with innovative and unique ideas to boost exports.
“Despite various challenges, we have very robust, very futuristic, and extremely hardworking entrepreneurs that have gradually built Pakistan’s export culture,” he said while speaking at a ceremony at a textile exhibition in Karachi.
He said that with genuine government support combined with the entrepreneurs’ extraordinary intellect and hard work, the provision of quality export goods to foreign customers would be ensured.
Welcoming foreign delegates, Mr Sharif said he was happy to learn that over 400 foreign delegates from 60 countries were visiting on the occasion showed Pakistan was a valuable destination for foreign guests, buyers and traders. He also appreciated the industrialists, exporters and experts who had contributed immensely to promoting Pakistan’s textile and leather exports.
He said Pakistan’s industry had now been transformed and converted to air-jet looms, ginning, spinning and weaving.
He said the commerce ministry team had done a commendable job by arranging this expo, which he hoped would help promote the country’s exports.
The premier said the textile sector accounted for 60 per cent of the country’s exports and employed 40pc of the labour force. “It is no doubt one of the largest sectors of Pakistan’s economy,” he added.
He pointed out that despite financial challenges and other difficulties, the government was committed to providing genuine support to all the export sectors, including textile, leather and sports, to help increase the country’s export volume. Later, in a meeting with business people and investors, he said Pakistan was faced with multiple challenges and the economy could only make progress in the presence of political stability.
He said the common people wanted health and education facilities, service delivery and resolution of everyday problems.
Inflation went high in the country and at the international level in the last year, he said, adding that inflation was also at elevated levels even when he formed the government a year ago. He pointed out that political instability was the cause of present difficult economic conditions. Mr Sharif said the previous government broke an agreement with the International Monetary Fund and then the country was devastated by the biggest climate-induced floods of the century.
The federal government, he said, spent Rs72bn through the Benazir Income Support Programme and Rs20bn through the National Disaster Management Authority to rehabilitee flood victims. The provincial governments also spent billions of rupees in this regard, he said. Another reason for economic hardship, he said, was the rise in global oil prices and the substantial increase in the oil import bill.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, gas prices were low in the international market, but the then government did not sign agreements for the purchase of gas, he said.
He lauded the business community for its efforts over the decades which led Pakistan to economic growth. Despite financial challenges, he vowed that the government was committed to providing genuine support to all the export sectors, including textile, leather and sports, to help boost the country’s exports.
India’s top anti-terrorism investigation agency on Friday again sought the death sentence for Kashmiri leader Muhammad Yasin Malik after he was given life in prison, the Indian media has reported.
Malik, 57, former chief of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Indian court last year in a terror funding case after he refused to accept a government-appointed lawyer or to defend himself against the charges.
The court had also turned down a plea by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for a death sentence, saying capital punishment was for a crime that “shocks the collective consciousness” of society.
On Friday, the NIA petitioned the high court in New Delhi again seeking a death sentence for Malik, a senior security official in Indian-occupied Kashmir told AFP.
The petition is due for hearing on Monday, legal news website Bar and Benchreported.
The JKLF was one of the first armed freedom fighting groups to come into existence in India-occupied Kashmir. It supported an independent and united Kashmir. Led by Malik, the group gave up armed resistance in 1994.
A resistance movement broke out in IoK in 1989 with fighters demanding an independent Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.
Karachi police said on Friday they had detained a man after a video of a dog being killed by hanging was widely shared on social media.
The video shows a man hanging a dog from a rack with the help of a rope and then raising both his hands, which was followed by a clap. He then goes on to hold two of the dog’s paws, swinging them upward and downward.
Saudabad Station House Officer (SHO) Raja Zulfiqar Haider told Dawn.com that the detained man was the watchman of a market and “appeared to be emotionally disturbed”.
“We are now contemplating what law he is to be charged under,” he said, maintaining that the law was clear about the killing of a pet dog, but the canine seen in the video was a street dog.
The SHO added that the detained man “may have employed the wrong means of killing the dog by hanging him, instead of opting for poisoning or shooting, which is usually practiced in the city to kill dogs in a bid to protect children against dog bites”.
Meanwhile, JFK Animal Rescue And Shelter termed the incident “horrific”, urging people to “raise your voice against this brutality” and “pressurise the authorities to take strict action against” those responsible.
WASHINGTON: A state-sponsored Chinese hacking group has been spying on a wide range of US critical infrastructure organisations, from telecommunications to transportation hubs, Western intelligence agencies and Microsoft said on Wednesday.
The espionage has also targeted the US island territory of Guam, home to strategically important American military bases, Microsoft said in a report, adding that “mitigating this attack could be challenging.” While China and the United States routinely spy on each other, analysts say this is one of the largest known Chinese cyber-espionage campaigns against American critical infrastructure.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Thursday the hacking allegations were a “collective disinformation campaign” from the Five Eyes countries, a reference to the intelligence sharing grouping of countries made up of the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the UK.
Mao said the campaign was launched by the US for geopolitical reasons and that the report from Microsoft analysts showed that the US government was expanding its channels of disinformation beyond government agencies.
Beijing rejects claim, says it is ‘collective disinformation campaign’
“But no matter what varied methods are used, none of this can change the fact that the United States is the empire of hacking,” she told a regular press briefing in Beijing.
It was not immediately clear how many organisations were affected, but the US National Security Agency (NSA) said it was working with partners, as well as the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify breaches. Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand warned they could be targeted by the hackers too.
Microsoft analysts said they had “moderate confidence” this Chinese group, which it dubbed as ‘Volt Typhoon’, was developing capabilities that could disrupt critical communications infrastructure between the US and Asia region during future crises.
“It means they are preparing for that possibility,” said John Hultquist, who heads threat analysis at Google’s Mandiant Intelligence.
The Chinese activity is unique and worrying also because analysts don’t yet have enough visibility on what this group might be capable of, he added.
“There is greater interest in this actor because of the geopolitical situation.” As China has stepped up military and diplomatic pressure in its claim to democratically governed Taiwan, US President Joe Biden has said he would be willing to use force to defend Taiwan.
Security analysts expect Chinese hackers could target US military networks and other critical infrastructure if China invades Taiwan.
The NSA and other Western cyber agencies urged companies that operate critical infrastructure to identify malicious activity using the technical guidance they issued.
“It is vital that operators of critical national infrastructure take action to prevent attackers hiding on their systems,” Paul Chichester, director at the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said in a joint statement with the NSA.
KARACHI: Before the arrival of Russian crude oil, a container vessel Crystal St Petersburg on its maiden call reached Karachi Port in just 21 days.
The vessel took berth at Karachi International Container Terminal (KICT) on Thursday.
Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Faisal Sabzwari welcomed the vessel along with Karachi Port Trust (KPT) chairman Syedain Raza Zaidi and Consul General of Russia Andrey Viktorovich Fedorov.
According to KPT’s press release, Mr Sabzwari termed the occasion a landmark achievement of the government which has given the trading community to have direct access to Russian markets.
He said that it would open up exports of Pakistani goods to Russia directly. Similarly, it will also be beneficial to Russia and would entail strong business ties with Russia as well as the Central Asian States.
As per media reports, the first shipment of discounted Russian crude oil would arrive in Pakistan via Oman by small ships in early June under a deal struck between Pakistan and Moscow in April.
WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s struggle to service its debt is a disaster for the country, but it’s not very good for the rest of the world either, says economist Michael Pettis.
Mr Pettis, a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment, Washington, and a professor of finance at Guanghua School of Management at Peking University in Beijing, made this argument while responding to a series of tweets by Atif Mian, a professor of economics, public policy and finance at Princeton University, on Pakistan’s debt position and its consequences for the economy.
Mr Mian warned in his tweets that the Pakistani economy was near collapse and needed/immediate course correction. “To thump your chest and say, ‘see we have not defaulted’ means nothing if you continue to ignore the underlying crisis,” he wrote. “The only thing worse than indecisiveness in the face of a crisis is incompetence.”
Mr Pettis, however, urged the creditors to review their policies as well because the debt burden was suppressing Pakistan’s contribution to global demand by effectively converting its demand into unwanted global savings.
“Instead of recycling them in the form of imports, Pakistan’s export earnings must be recycled in the form of debt repayments,” he wrote.
He explains that the present situation may be good for Pakistan’s creditors, but it’s bad for those who produce the goods that Pakistan might have imported.
“Pakistan’s struggle to repay debt doesn’t just make its own workers and businesses worse off, but also workers and businesses abroad,” he adds.
Another economist, who identifies himself only by his first name Dennis, warns that “Pakistan is heading towards sovereign default. The consequences of that will not be good for anyone.”
Lorenzo Carrieri, a financial analyst, says that Pakistan needs debt relief from external creditors. “With such a debt overhang, getting an IMF programme which carries painful adjustments in terms of currency devaluation, wage deflation and fiscal consolidation only to pay back creditors is a dog that bites its tail,” he warns.
Mr Pettis makes a similar argument, saying that when a country clearly cannot service its debt, the debt should be quickly restructured and written down.
“This not only benefits businesses and workers in the debtor nation but also in the creditor nations. Squeezing an economy to repay debt makes nearly everyone worse off,” he writes.
Mr Pettis explains that Pakistan may be a small economy whose contribution to global demand is small, but now a rising number of developing countries find themselves struggling to service their external debts. “And they become an increasingly large drag on the economies of the rest of the world.”
Mr Pettis suggests that instead of worrying about which creditors are coming out ahead of which other creditors, “creditor nations should move more quickly to write down the debts owed to them. This automatically benefits their real economies, even if it hurts their financial sectors.”
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ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly which has been in session continuously for the past two months due to the prevailing political crisis in the country on Monday witnessed lackluster proceedings as lawmakers after taking up the brief routine agenda spoke on points of order raising various issues related to their constituencies, including problems being faced by farmers and the poor law and order situation in rural areas of Sindh.
PPP MNA Shamim Ara Panhwar, while condemning the May 9 violent incidents, called for banning the parties involved in damaging the country’s institutions and public properties in the guise of protest demonstrations.
Speaking on a point of order, PML-N’s MNA from Okara Rao Muhammad Ajmal asked Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf to allocate time for a debate on the agriculture issues before the announcement of the federal budget on June 9.
The PML-N MNA suggested that at least two days should be reserved for the debate on issues related to agriculture sector, stating that those involved in the budget making process had no knowledge about the issues being faced by the agriculture sector.
He said the recommendations of the lawmakers should be made part of the budget.
Taking the floor, PTI dissident and MNA from Faisalabad Nawab Sher Waseer said the farmers in Punjab had not been given payment by sugar mill owners for several months and the government should look into this issue. Previously, he said, such payments were used to be made within three days. He said the poor farmers had been waiting for the payment so that they could purchase fertiliser and seeds for the next season.
MNA Kesoo Mal Kheeal Das spoke about the kidnapping of a two-year old boy from Kandhkot in Sindh. He said that forces were already conducting operation in Kacha area of Sindh and stressed the need for sending Rangers to the area as well.
The NA also passed the National Skills University Islamabad (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and the NFC Institute of Engineering and Technology Multan (Amendment) Bill, 2023. The speaker then adjourned the sitting of the lower house of the parliament till 1:30pm on May 30.
NORTH / SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: Four people, including two soldiers and a cop, lost their lives when a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb at a police checkpoint in North Waziristan near the Afghanistan border on Wednesday, the district administration said.
Separately, in South Waziristan, security forces killed six militants in an exchange of fire, the military said.
North Waziristan’s deputy commissioner, Rehan Gull Khattak, said the suicide bomber targeted the Liaquat checkpoint in Datta Khel town at a time when routine checking was going on.
“The bomber arrived in a motorcar and blew himself up,” Mr Khattak said, adding that Naik Saeed and Sepoy Javed, police constable Hakim Jan and a civilian embraced martyrdom.
Two officials — Hawaldar Manzoor and police constable Shakir — were injured in the attack. They were immediately shifted to a hospital in Miramshah, he said.
In the South Waziristan district, security forces gunned down six militants in an exchange of fire in the Kot Azam area on Wednesday.
Official sources said the militants were killed during an intelligence-based operation carried out by security forces.
The military’s media wing ISPR confirmed the developments in a statement. “During the operation, intense fire exchange took place between security forces and six militants were killed,” it said, adding that six militants were killed.
It said weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the killed militants, who it said had actively targeted security forces and were involved in extortion and targeted killing of citizens. The security forces were combing the area for more militants.
Moreover, a person was reportedly shot dead in the remote mountainous area on the border between Swat and Buner districts on Tuesday night.
According to local sources, residents alerted the police after they saw some suspected people in the nearby mountains along the border.
“Luckily, the police and security forces reached in time and started an operation against the suspected persons,” a resident said, requesting anonymity. Locals said they heard continuous gunfire until midnight.
Swat district’s police officer, Shafiullah Gandapur, said that the police had received information on Tuesday evening from the residents of the Doshey area in Manglawar union council about some suspicious people.
“Upon receiving the information, police and security forces reached the area. We launched a joint operation against the suspected armed persons, but the area is so complicated and remote that they managed to flee,” he said.
He said a local man identified as Jamdali, who was a former village defence committee member, was killed in the exchange of fire. Besides, policeman Waqar Khan was injured in the gunfight. However, he was said to be in stable condition and was under treatment at the Saidu Sharif Teaching Hospital.
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