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Scholars call for flood victims’ help in Friday sermons

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                ISLAMABAD, Sep 16 (APP):Ulema and Mashaykh belonging from all schools of thought called for flood victims’ help in their Friday sermons across the country.

On the call of Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC), the scholars urged the philanthropists to extend all out support to the people facing critical situation due to monsoon rains and flash floods in various areas of the country.

Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East and PUC Chairman Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi said the winter season was near the corner and the flood affected people were left to live under an open sky.

He said it was a high time to seek the blessings of Allah Almighty by helping the people in need as “service to humanity is a service to God.”

Appreciating the religious organizations carrying out welfare work in the flood-hit areas, Ashrafi urged them to  accelerate the relief and rehabilitation activities in a bid to get them back to a normal life as soon as possible.

He also appealed the ‘Sahib-e-Nisab’ to pay their Zakat in advance to support the affected people as they were under severe financial crisis due this natural calamity.

“Allah Almighty would reward the philanthropists twice, first for paying their Zakat and second for helping their fellow beings at this trying time, “he added.

Ashrafi also urged the people who want to perform Nafli worships such as Umrah, Hajj or pay homage to other sacred places abroad to donate their savings for relief and rehabilitation of their flood affected brethren.

SAPM on Youth Affairs presides over  meeting to review progress on sports development schemes

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Sohail Ali

                LAHORE, Sep 16 (APP):Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Shiza Fatima Khawaja presided over an online meeting to review progress on sports development schemes and youth projects on Friday.

The representative from all provinces, PILDAT and UNFPA participated in the online meeting. Deputy Secretary Planning/Admin Sports and Youth Affairs Department Punjab Imtiaz Ahmed and Director Admin Syed Umair Hassan represented Punjab in the high-profile meeting.

Deputy Secretary Planning/Admin Sports and Youth Affairs Department Punjab Imtiaz Ahmed and Director Admin Syed Umair Hassan briefed the chair about the Punjab’s sports development projects and different sports events organised under the banner Sports and Youth Affairs Department Punjab.

Shiza Fatima Khawaja appreciated the effective measures taken by Sports and Youth Affairs Department Punjab for the promotion of sports across the province.

Deputy Secretary Planning/Admin Sports and Youth Affairs Department Punjab Imtiaz Ahmed said that Sports and Youth Affairs Department Punjab has approved stipends for athletes and grant in aid for Sports Associations. “Pride of Punjab Sports Awards have also been initiated to acknowledge the meritorious services of sports icons of the country”.

He said that first Youth Hostel (180 capacity) is ready and functional at Nishtar Park Sports Complex. “Punjab Youth Ambassador Programme has also been initiated and initially world snooker champion Ahsan Ramzan, tennis star Aisamul Haq, athlete Sahib-e-Asra and young record-breaking mountaineer Shehroz Kashif have been nominated Youth Ambassadors of Punjab”.

Briefing the chair, Director Admin,SBP Syed Umair Hassan said besides other effective sports promotion measures, Sports and Youth Affairs Department Punjab also organized a flood relief camp at Nishtar Park Sports Complex for the help of flood victims. “We organised several events such as E-Rozgaar Meetup, E-Sports Soobai Series, Punjab Talent Hunt Programme, E-Learning Centres in recent past”.

He further informed the chair that Sports and Youth Affairs Department Punjab has built five international standard tennis courts and Punjab’s first tennis academy adjacent to State of the Art Tennis Stadium at Nishtar Park Sports Complex. “Sports and Youth Affairs Department Punjab is organizing sports events of different games regularly to provide maximum playing opportunities to talented male and female players of the province,” he added.

Fountain aspires to instil wicket-taking habits in new generation of fielders

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Sohail Ali

                LAHORE, Sep 16 (APP):The Pakistan Cricket Boards Pathway Programme enters its last week before the participants join their respective Pakistan Junior League sides, end September.

The five foreign coaches hired to work for the Engro Cricket Coaching Project under the pathway programme are focusing on sharpening the cricketing skills of the next generation of Pakistan stars here at the National High Performance Centre.

Renowned fielding coach Julien Fountain and batting coach Toby Radford arrived in Lahore earlier this week to join power-hitting coach Julian Wood, bowling coach Gordon Parsons and strength and conditioning coach Nick Webb to complete the foreign coaches’ roster for the Engro Cricket Coaching Project.

Fountain has rich experience of fielding professional sides including his stint with the Pakistan senior team, 2012-2014. Besides Pakistan, Fountain has also worked with Bangladesh, West Indies and various domestic and franchise sides around the world including Quetta Gladiators. 

Fountain was with the Gladiators for the first six editions of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL).

Julien Fountain said on Friday: “Pakistan is just like home for me, I am thrilled to be here again, the pathway programme is a fantastic initiative and I am looking forward to an exciting time with these youngsters who are the future stars of Pakistan cricket.

“In my earlier stints both with the national side and at the academy, I have found the players incredibly receptive and keen on learning and I am glad that this time around I am fully dedicated to working with them as at the U19 level we can develop some great athletes and fielders.

“Coaching these youngsters will help Pakistan cricket build a foundation to give these young players, the skill, the technique, the tactics, the attitude and the life skills so that when they come into the Pakistan system for real, they will have the ability to deal with not only the foreign coaches but they will have the ability to fit in a professional system very quickly and that can only help Pakistan cricket.

“Fielding is as experts say, one discipline of the game that you can improve on even if you don’t have the natural talent for it. The basic mantra of fielding that I want to instil in these players is wicket-taking, the fielders have to go on the field with the belief that they can take wickets [through run outs and catches].”

More than 60 players between 16 and 19 years of age are being trained by the coaches while PCB’s local coaches are also providing assistance in various disciplines in the revolutionary pathway programme that is aimed at developing the future stars from an all-round perspective.

Besides receiving world-class cricket coaching under the Engro Cricket Coaching Project, the players will also get education and life skills training.

The players will get the opportunity of showcasing their newly learned skills at the inaugural edition of the six-team Pakistan Junior League that commences in Lahore on Thursday, 6 October.

Young Chinese achieve their potential through entrepreneurship

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                BEIJING, Sep 16 (XINHUA/APP):Many young Chinese have showcased their innovative business ideas during the ongoing national mass entrepreneurship and innovation week, which kicked off Thursday in Hefei, capital of east China’s Anhui Province.

                Themed “Innovation drives vitality, entrepreneurship creates employment,” the event will continue until Sept. 21. From creative cultural products and novel mushroom growing techniques to aerial imaging technology, over 160 typical projects selected from around the nation are showcased in Hefei, the main venue of this year’s event.

                                To promote tourism and culture of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage site in northwest China’s Gansu Province, a creative cultural product project was set up at Lanzhou Jiaotong University in 2015.

                                “So far, we have launched eight types of creative cultural products, including colored sand craft plates, moon-shaped fans and seals, all of which feature patterns of the signature Flying Apsaras of the grottoes,” said Liang Yan, associate professor at the university’s art and design school.

                                About 80 students are enrolled in the project every year. Apart from learning art and design skills, they also have to take courses on intellectual property protection, patent application and entrepreneurship policies that may come in handy when they start a business in the future.

                                Hao Kaili, a postgraduate student majoring in environmental design, has been involved with the project for about three years. She hails from Gansu and feels proud every time she completes a creative work with the distinctive features of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes.

                “Among all the students who have participated in this project, about 50 have pursued careers in entrepreneurship after their graduation,” said Liang, adding that there are 48 such creative projects in the university, covering various majors, that allow students to experience entrepreneurship at an early stage.

                Entrepreneurship helps create employment. It is estimated that about 900,000 college students started their own businesses in 2021, while the number was only 478,000 in 2014, according to a report released by Tianming Shuangchuang research institute.

                Min Qifeng, a 21-year-old postgraduate student from China Three Gorges University, has also jumped on the entrepreneurship bandwagon starting in 2018.

   Min and his five classmates established a biotechnology company that specializes in fungiculture with the help of his college professors.

                “At present, there are 27 people in our company, all of whom are from the university. Our products such as mushroom, bamboo fungus and black fungus are sold to school canteens and restaurants in Yichang City in central China’s Hubei Province, where the school is based,” said Min, who is also the general manager of the company.

                Under the promotion of the company, 12 different types of fungi have been cultivated in a total area of about 3,000 mu (200 hectares) across the country, helping create over 1,000 job opportunities. The company’s annual output value has now exceeded 62,000 yuan (about 8,946 U.S. dollars) per mu, helping 242 people from 72 households shake off poverty.

                “Promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation has become an important measure to implement the innovation-driven development strategy over the recent years, and the practice has continued to expand,” said Zhang Guihua, who works with the China Association for Science and Technology.

                                The annual national mass entrepreneurship and innovation week is expected to see the launch of nearly 1,000 activities across the country, both online and offline.

FO briefs resident diplomatic missions on CPEC

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ISLAMABAD: /DNA/ – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted briefings on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for resident diplomatic missions of several countries from East and Central Asia and the Middle East.

Chaired by the Additional Secretary (Asia-Pacific), two rounds of briefings were convened on 15 and 16 September 2022. The panel of briefers also included senior officials of the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, and the Board of Investment.

In her briefing, the Additional Secretary shared the underlying vision of CPEC, which was based on Pakistan’s desire for connectivity and interest in deepening linkages with Central Asia, the Middle East, and the East Asian region. She emphasized that CPEC had added a new dimension in the Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership, which was based on mutual understanding and respect. Pakistan welcomes development partners and enterprises from around the world to strengthen investment and trade linkages and consider opportunities in Special Economic Zones (SEZ).

Thanking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant Government departments for the briefing, participating diplomatic missions underscored abiding mutual interest in enhancing economic cooperation.

China’s trade with SCO members up 26 pct in Jan-Aug

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                BEIJING, Sep 16 (XINHUA/APP):China’s trade with other member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) witnessed rapid growth in the first eight months of the year, official data showed Friday.

                                The trade volume jumped 26 percent year on year to 1.73 trillion yuan (about 250 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-August period, according to the General Administration of Customs. The growth rate was 15.9 percentage points higher than that of China’s total foreign trade.

                                China’s trade with other SCO members accounted for 6.3 percent of its total foreign trade in the period, up 0.8 percentage points from a year ago. Last month alone, the trade volume hit a record high of 256.79 billion yuan, up 28.9 percent year on year.

                                A breakdown of the January-August figures shows that China imported 117 million tonnes of crude oil, coal and natural gas from other SCO members, with the combined value accounting for 56.9 percent of the total imports from these countries. Meanwhile, farm produce imports made up 7.5 percent of the total.

                                In terms of exports, China’s mechanical and electrical goods, labor-intensive products, and basic organic chemicals accounted for 52.6 percent, 19.1 percent and 5.9 percent of the total exports to other SCO members, respectively.

                Founded in 2001, the SCO now has eight full members, namely China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan, four observer countries and multiple dialogue partners.

ChinaTianjin municipality donates relief items to Pakistan

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                BEIJING, Sep 16 (APP):The People Government of China Tianjin Municipality has announced a relief pack of RMB 10 million for relief and rehabilitation of flood victims in Pakistan.

The relief items include tents, food packages and blankets needed urgently in

Pakistan.

The decision was announced last week in a special letter addressed to Pakistan Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque by Party Secretary of Tianjin, Li Hongzhong.

Sharing his grief and condolences with the bereaved families, Li Hongzhong said that as all-weather strategic cooperative partner and iron brother, China stands with the people of Pakistan in this difficult time.

Expressing his good wishes for the early rehabilitation of the flood victims, Li Hongzhong reaffirmed the resolve of Tianjin Municipality to continue to deepen ties with the friendship cities and provinces of Pakistan.

A formal launch ceremony of the relief goods was held yesterday through video

Link.

The meeting was joined by Luan Jianzhang, DG FAO, Tianjin Municipal Government, Mr. Liu Jinsong, DG Asian Affairs, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Moin ul Haque, Murtaza Wahab, Administrator, Karachi Municipal Government and a senior representative from Chinese Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.

Speaking at the occasion, Ambassador Moin appreciated the urgent assistance offered by Tianjin Municipality. Recalling that two countries have always stood together in difficult times in the past, Ambassador Moin said that Chinese assistance to Pakistan for flood victims has once again proven the unique nature of fraternal ties between the two countries.

IHC again summons chairman in CDA’s affectees case

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                ISLAMABAD, Sep 16 (APP):The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday adjourned hearing in the case pertaining to non- payment of compensations to the affectees of Capital Development Authority (CDA) various sectors.

Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard the case filed by the CDA affectees.

Chairman CDA couldn’t appear before the court as the bench summoned him again in personal capacity on next hearing.

CDA’s counsel informed the court that Chairman CDA Capt. (reted) Muhammad Usman was in Karachi to attend a meeting about Dengue control.

The court said that it would hear the CDA’s chief once he returned.

Member Estate CDA Afnan Alam said that the authority had started payment of compensation to the affectees in line of the court’s orders.

The CDA, he said, had prepared a plan to address the issues of affectees.

The chief justice observed that the affectees had also done wrong by submitting fake claims.

The petitioners adopted the stance that the CDA’s machinery was still working on their lands despite the stay order of this court.

The CDA official contradicted the petitioners and said that the authority was not violating the court orders.

The court asked the CDA officials to submit report after addressing the issues of affectees. The case was then adjourned till September 20.

‘Act now’: Shehbaz tells SCO

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PM meets Xi; lauds CPEC’s transformational impact

Special Correspondent

SAMARKAND: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on Friday for action against climate change that has caused cataclysmic floods in Pakistan as he said that “it’s time to act, act now”.

The prime minister was addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS), where he spoke about the climate catastrophe that has devastated Pakistan and killed hundreds.

The prime minister added that the floods — which have caused damages amounting to billions of dollars — make Pakistan look like “a sea of water”.

“The devastating floods in Pakistan are most definitely climate change-induced. It is the result of climate change, cloud outbursts, and unprecedented rains, combined with hill torrents coming down. All this put together makes Pakistan look like a sea of water,” the premier said.

Noting that he has “never seen this kind of devastation” before, the premier called on the organisation to “build a wall” against the menace of climate change.

The premier stressed that the SCO should make plans for the coming generations.

PM Shehbaz, along with leaders of the eight-member SCO, attended the close-format CHS at the Congress Centre, where he was welcomed by President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Uzbek President Mirziyoyev, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also attended the session.

Record monsoon rains in the south and southwest Pakistan and glacial melt in northern parts triggered the flooding that has impacted nearly 33 million people in the 220 million South Asian nation, sweeping away homes, crops, bridges, roads and livestock in damages estimated at $30 billion.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) reported 1,508 deaths including 536 children and 308 women.

Hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced are in dire need of support in terms of food, shelter, clean drinking water, toilets, and medicines.

Many have been sleeping in the open by the side of elevated highways, with water-borne diseases spreading among people and affecting thousands.

The torrential monsoon, which submerged huge swathes of Pakistan, was a one in a hundred-year event likely made more intense by climate change, scientists said on Thursday.

‘Big mistake’

At the outset of his speech, the prime minister noted that it was imperative to ensure that peace prevailed in Afghanistan as peace in Kabul meant there would be peace in Islamabad.

The premier added that it would be a “big mistake” to ignore Afghanistan this time around as the Taliban-ruled nation battles terrorism and poverty.

“As you know Pakistan is a neighbouring country of Afghanistan, and peace in Afghanistan will ensure peace in Pakistan. In other words, what is good for Afghanistan, is good for Pakistan and vice versa,” he said.

The prime minister said that the global community should work to support “good initiatives” in the war-torn country.

“Fight this menace of extremism, separatism and terrorism and wipe it from the face of this earth,” the prime minister said, urging the SCO members to join hands for this goal.

The prime minister urged the international community to support efforts to build a sustainable Afghan economy and unfreeze its financial assets.

Gas talks with Putin

During a sideline meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that pipeline gas supplies to Pakistan are possible, and that part of the necessary infrastructure is already in place.

“The prime minister reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to work closely with Russia to further expand and strengthen cooperation between the two countries across all areas of mutual benefit including food security, trade and investment, energy, defence and security,” a statement from PM’s Office said.

The two sides agreed to convene the next meeting of the Inter-Governmental Commission (IGC) in Islamabad at an early date, it said.

The long-delayed gas pipeline vital to the south Asian country’s economy — the Pakistan Stream gas project, also known as the North-South gas pipeline — is to be built in collaboration with Russian companies.

Meanwhilie, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday met Chinese President Xi Jinping here wherein he appreciated the transformational impact of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) on Pakistan’s socio-economic development.

During the bilateral meeting took place on the sidelines of the annual meeting of the Council of Heads of State of Shanghai Cooperation Organization here, the prime minister also reaffirmed his government’s commitment to high quality development of CPEC.Both the leaders reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and exchanged views on important regional and international issues of mutual interest.This was the prime minister’s first meeting with the Chinese president since assuming office in April 2022.The interaction between the two leaders was marked by traditional warmth as well as exceptional mutual trust and understanding.

In his welcoming remarks, the Chinese president described Prime Minister Sharif as “a person of pragmatism and efficiency”. He also added that the prime minister was a leader with “a longstanding commitment to China-Pakistan friendship”.Noting the enduring nature of China-Pakistan bilateral ties, the prime minister underlined that our ‘All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’ and Iron-brotherhood had withstood the test of time.He reaffirmed his personal resolve to take their bilateral relations to greater heights.

Intersex Rights

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Dr. AbdusSattar Abbasi

I was shaken by the words of Dr. Amjad Saqib, founder of Akhuwat, in a program a couple of months back in Nathia Galiasking all participants of the session, “If anyone of you has ever attended the funeral of an intersex”. None of the participants confirmed attending any such funeral which he called as lack of our collective sensitivity towards this segment of society.

It also suggests that none of you have any friend from intersex, he added. He then explained his endeavors to empower people who are intersex. Human society has evolved significantly in every aspect of life. Several fundamental societal values a few decades ago have changed across the globe. Besides innumerable advantages of the technology, despite safety measures, many aspects of our lives have become evident to early childhood, due to convenient access to the information, which were understandable only in the adulthood even in the near past.

It is indeed a challenge for entire humanity to ensure judicious utilization of massive information available at a click now on the devices in our palms. Movements for human liberty, liberalization, rights and empowerment have led to a unique challenge for the humankind through eliminating boundaries which were once served as an attractive pattern of human interactions. Extensive intrusion in others’domains has undermined natural spiritual satisfaction linked with human connections. Our forced interventions under the umbrella of movements for rights and liberty to satisfy psychosomatic gratification of a very few has endangered people with genuine disorder who need to have equal rights to survive in human society.

When we campaign for the rights of people with disabilities why we forget intersexes that carrynatural disorder at their birth as any other disabled person? An artfully coined term of ‘gender identity’ to accommodate self-induced motives has led to deprive those who actually need space for their rights. The term ‘sexual orientation’ represents person’s emotional tendencies to determine for him/her as hetero, bi, homo, pan or asexual. If psychic inclinations are applied to logical extremes then why we don’t respect propensities of serial killers whoagain fulfill their emotional needs, why we don’t allow offenders to maintain their illegalities for their mental satisfaction. We can’t, because we have to shield human society from serious disruptions.

The term ‘transgender’ under the umbrella of human rights has successfully camouflaged self-induced motives of a very few and terribly spoiled rights of intersex by the mafia which prevails in the depth and breadth of the Country to exploit intersex for their vested interests including sexual exploitation and financial gains. This mafia has established a whole structure of adopting people with genital disordersto accommodates, under their cover, people with psychological ailments to misuse both of these clusters.

Why the proponents of human rights have never voiced against handing over of intersex to the guru in their childhood or teenage. According to The Guardian, Nadeem Kashish a leader of Pakistani transgender community has called for an end of the culture of ‘gurus’ who take children with genital disorders. Far from acting as guardian the gurus encourage such youngsters to take up sex work. Nayyab Ali another activist said, “Mostlypersons with biological disorders leave their homes in teenage and start living with the gurus. Adopting such teenagers is like lottery for the guru, because the guru will earn money through him/her either by dancing or by sex work.” We all need to support these voices.

On legislative front senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan is doing the commendable job to keep the lawmaking with in the ambit of our faith. Our belief system, Islam, is our identity and the foundation of our existence. We naturally can’t accept or permit any regulation which contradicts basic principles of Islamic way of life.      

Muh.Bahrul Afif from State Islamic University of Indonesia declared transgenders as ‘perpetrators’ and explained, “A person with ambiguous genitals is called khunsa (intersex) in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) which is acceptable with all basic human rights because it is an absolute decree of God. This is different from the transgender phenomenon that is known as mukhannas—itrefers to men that resemble women—andmutarajjilat—it refers to women that resemble men. Mukhannas is considered as illness an abnormality caused by depression. The depression affect their mind and encourage them to keep behaving even to identify themselves as women. It is also the same with mutarajjilat.This behavior is considered as deviation from human nature and God’s provision and therefore strictly forbidden in Islam.” There are several ahadith which prohibit transgenderism. According to a hadith, men who resemble women and women who resemble men are cursed in Islam. Another hadith narrates: “Get them out of your house”. One more hadith suggests, men who dress up women’s clothing and women who dress up men’s clothing are cursed. A hadith says, people who mediating (help) men to resemble women and women to resemble men are cursed.

We need to work on different fronts including protection of intersex rights ensuring their appropriate integration in the society without any discrimination and exploitation. We need to raise awareness that children with genital disorders are like children with any other disability and deserve complete protection, care and due place in the society for suitable progress to realize respectable life. On the other hand we have to raise our voice and support likes of senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan to expose any plot which aims at distorting social, cultural and most importantly religious fabric of our society.

The writer is the Associate Professor Management Sciences

Head, Center of Islamic Finance

COMSATS University (CUI) Lahore Campus

[email protected]

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