DNA

Chitral, 22: The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) is commemorating 40 years of empowering communities in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. The inaugural ceremony of the three-day event in Chitral under the theme ‘Celebrating 40 years of New Localism’ began by recognising the commendable services of community members.

A pictorial exhibition along with documentaries on AKRSP’s early evolution highlighted key achievements of AKRSP in major thematic areas, including climate resilience, civil society, agriculture and food security,early childhood development (ECD),education, social organisations, natural resource management, community infrastructure development, credit and savings, enterprise promotion and women economic empowerment. Around 27 stalls showcased the work of local artisans and micro-enterprises including traditional dresses, herbal products, gemstones, musical instruments, food items, and dry fruits.

The event’s chief guest Mr. Anwar ul Haq, Deputy Commissioner, Lower Chitral acknowledged that “AKRSP is the only non-governmental organisation working more than any other organisation in the region. The AKRSP model is sustainable and pro-people.” He felicitated AKRSP for completing 40 years, and applauded AKRSP’s role in building resilient communities in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral.

AKRSP’s development approach is based on the belief that local communities have tremendous potential to plan and manage their own development, once they are organized and provided access to necessary skills and capital. Since its inception, AKRSP has trained over 126,000 women and men in different technical and vocational fields, completed 4,706 community infrastructure projects benefiting more than 380,000 households, and planted tens of millions of trees. It has helped establish and mobilise 5,249 Village and Women’s Organisations representing more than 78% of the households in Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral. These organisations have saved more than PKR 500 million, and disbursed PKR 2 billion as loans.

Mr. Jamil ud Din, General Manager, AKRSP, highlighted that AKRSP’s 40 years of community service would not have been effective without the continuous support of the local communities. He applauded the role of local communities in empowering themselves through organisation, skill-building,and savings – the three fundamental principles taught by AKRSP.

AKRSP’s former board members, community members, poets, writers, and other dignitaries also expressed their views at the inaugural event and appreciated AKRSP’s efforts in the development of Chitral.

Virgin Atlantic joins hands with Bestway Group to deliver medicines to the victims of humanitarian crisis

DNA

ISLAMABAD: Over 20 tonnes of vital medicines, has left the UK heading for Pakistan where it will be distributed to victims of the recent flooding disaster and resulting humanitarian disaster.

The medicines, donated by Bestway Groupis being flown to Islamabad by Virgin Atlantic Cargo who is transporting the medication. 

The medicines will be landing on the ground tomorrow (24.11.22), to help the 3.2million people who have lost their homes and livelihoods and been displaced by the flooding which left more than a third of the country under water, and damaged more than 4million acres of crops.  Ongoing heavy rains are continuing to complicate rescue and recovery efforts and disease has been widespread as the humanitarian disaster increases.

Bestway Group is one of the largest privately owned businesses in the UK and the leading overseas investor in Pakistan. Haider Choudrey, Chief Financial Officer of Bestway Group, says:

“Our teams are on the ground in Pakistan and are seeing first-hand how desperately these medicines are needed to help combat disease that has taken hold where fresh water supplies have been destroyed and families have lost their homes along with everything they own. 

“We would like to thank the team at Virgin Atlantic Cargo who has helped us make this happen and are transporting what is a sizeable cargo of medicines out to where it is needed the most”.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo is one of the leading players in the global cargo industry and played a vital role in the airline’s survival following the Covid-19 pandemic, keeping global supply chains running and transporting essential goods around the world. On 21st March 2020, the first ever cargo only flight in Virgin Atlantic’s history took to the skies and over the next 12 months, the airline’s cargo business went from strength to strength operating over 5,000 cargo-only sectors, launching 12 new routes as well as carrying over 8.5 million kilos of PPE and essential equipment for the NHS.

Now, the airline’s essential assistance will facilitate the delivery of the much-needed aid to the most vulnerable with the onset of the winter season in Pakistan.

Virgin Atlanticdedicated special climate control vehicles for the collection and delivery of the medicines to its cargo handling facility at London Heathrow.

ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minister’s Office Wednesday morning confirmed receiving a summary for the appointment of the army’s top posts from the Ministry of Defence.

In a statement, the PM’s Office said it had received the summary with a panel of names for the appointment of chairman joint chiefs of staff committee and the chief of the army staff.

“Prime Minister [Shehbaz Sharif] will take a decision on the appointments as per the laid down procedure,” the brief statement read, after there were speculations overnight.

Government officials, including Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, continued to reject late-night reports that the PMO had received the summary.

The picture was cleared only after Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a statement confirming the development late last night.

“GHQ has forwarded the summary for selection of CJCSC and COAS, containing names of 6 senior most Lt Gens, to MoD,” said the ISPR in its tweet. After an hour of the ISPR’s tweet, the defence minister also confirmed that the PM’s Office had received the summary.

Earlier, sources had told The News that the summary contains the names of Lt Gen Asim Munir, Lieutenant General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Lieutenant General Azhar Abbas, Lieutenant General Nauman Mehmood, Lieutenant General Faiz Hamid and Lieutenant General Mohammad Amir as candidates for the army chief and chairman joint chiefs of staff committee posts, said the well-placed sources.

DNA

Rawalpindi: On 22 Nov Fire exchange took place between own troops and terrorists, in general area Sararogha, South Waziristan District.
Own troops effectively engaged the terrorist’s location. During intense exchange of fire, Havaldar Umer Hayat (age 39 years, resident of Lachi, Kohat) having fought gallantly, embraced Shahadat.
Sanitization of the area is being carried out to eliminate any terrorists found in the area.
Pakistan Army is determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve.

• Ishaq Dar assures the matter will reach its “logical conclusion”.
• Law does not allow release of army chief or anyone else’s tax returns without a court order.
• If “illegal work” is allowed or a blind eye is turned towards it then a person will not be fulfilling their duty.

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar shared on Tuesday that he has received the interim report related to the leak of Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s income tax records, adding that they have traced some people involved in the act.

In an interview during Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’, Dar repeated that leaking army chief’s income tax returns was “illegal”.

“I have seen the interim report. I hope to receive the final report today,” Dar told the host. He added that the government has found a few people behind the leak and the issue will reach its logical conclusion.

The finance czar shared that one person involved in the leak is from Lahore and another from Rawalpindi.

However, he added that there is a possibility that some of the individuals involved may have the authorisation to look at the income tax records as there a “circle” in Rawalpindi where assessments take place.

“These people are authorised to access [data] for their assessment,” said Dar.

The finance minister was of the view that if “illegal work” is allowed or a blind eye is turned towards it then a person will not be fulfilling their duty.

“The law does not allow the release of army chief or anyone else’s income tax returns without a court order,” said the finance minister.

Dar orders probe into ‘illegal, unwarranted’ leak of COAS Bajwa’s family tax records

A day earlier, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar took notice of the “illegal and unwarranted” leakage of tax information of Gen Bajwa’s family members.

“This is clearly a violation of the complete confidentiality of tax information that the law provides,” a statement from the Finance Division read. An immediate investigation into the violation of tax law and breach of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) data will be carried out, said the statement.

In view of this serious lapse on the part of to-date unknown functionaries, Dar had directed Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Revenue Tariq Mehmood Pasha to personally lead the probe, affix responsibility, and submit a report within 24 hours, it added.

KARACHI, NOV 22 (DNA) — Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has said that the only solution to the issues facing the country is free and transparent election and the government that comes with the majority should establish the rule of law.

Addressing a seminar in Karachi through video link on Tuesday, he said that the country’s situation was not good when his party came into power and the biggest his government faced was current account deficit.

He said no government in the past has focused on increasing exports and the situation would have worsened had the Saudi Arabia, China and United Arab Emirates did not help.

“Coronavirus was the biggest crisis during PTI government’s tenure and I was facing alot of pressure to impose lockdown,” Imran Khan said adding that he was criticized for not imposing lockdown but the people would have died of hunger, if his government had imposed a lockdown.

He went on to say that no one knows where we would be standing in a month but according to the Gallup survey, 88 percent of Pakistan s direction is not correct, adding that the country will not be stable unless elections are held.

On Monday, In an interview with a British newspaper The Telegraph, former PM and PTI chairman Imran Khan said that he would try to establish strong ties with neighbouring India, Afghanistan, Iran, China and the US if he is again elected as the prime minister.

He said that good relations are impossible in India as long as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remains in power, but I want better relations with News Delhi.

Khan said that the potential economic benefits that establishing trade between the two arch rivals would bring but said these would never be realised until Delhi changes its stance on the disputed region of Indian-administered Kashmir.

“The benefits would be enormous. But, we are stuck on this issue and we need a strong roadmap to resolve it. I think it’s possible but the BJP government is so hardline, they have a nationalistic stance on issues,” he said.

The former prime minister said that the benefits from trade would be huge but Indian stand on Occupied Kashmir is the main obstacle because the attitude of the Indian ruling party is hardline, the BJP incites nationalist sentiments, causing the situation to spiral out of control.

“We want to solve the problem of Kashmir, for which there should be a road map,” he said and added we do not accept that Kashmiris are not given rights. When India ended the special status of Occupied Kashmir, the relations between the two countries became cold.

The PTI chairman said, “We really need a relationship with both countries. What I do not want is another Cold War situation when we are in blocks, like in the last Cold War we were allied with the United States.”

He said: “The whole of Central Asia, Afghanistan, became out of our orbit. My main concern for Pakistan is how to lift 120 million out of poverty and the best way to do that is if we can have a relationship with everyone, to trade with everyone, so we can help our population.” =DNA