DNA

Islamabad, Sep 7: The Higher Education Commission (HEC), Pakistan hosted a meeting of Deputy Assistant Administrator USAID Ms. Maria Longi and Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed with a batch of 20 scholarship awardees of USAID-funded Merit and Needs-based Scholarship Program at HEC Secretariat on Wednesday.

Executive Director HEC Dr. Shaista Sohail, Acting Deputy Mission Director Mr. Yohannes Araya and Director Office of Education USAID Pakistan Ms. Anne Flaker also attended the meeting.

Chairman HEC Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed appreciated USAID for providing Master’s scholarships to 700 female students to study in different disciplines in top 30 partner institutions of Pakistan. USAID has been supporting scholarships for meritorious but financially disadvantaged students for the last 18 years to assist Government of Pakistan’s efforts to raise access of enrolment of students, especially female students from rural and less developed districts, to study in engineering, business social sciences, agriculture and medicine degree programs in top Pakistani universities.

Ms. Maria Longi thanked HEC management for hosting the meeting and appreciated HEC for selecting the finest talent of Pakistan. She hoped that the scholarship recipients will bring positive change in their communities.        

Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed said, “The support of US government in various sectors of Pakistan, especially in the education sector, is commendable. The partnership has a legacy of 75 years now. It is through support and investment of partners like USAID that university education for many underprivileged students became accessible and it provided them a prospect to uplift themselves.”

“Pakistani students are very talented and under Erasmus Mundus scholarship program, which is very competitive, this year the highest number of students securing these scholarships are from Pakistan. So the US universities may also give more access to Pakistani students as there is no shortage of talent in Pakistan. The Government is very keen to support students to study in best universities of US.”

The Chairman congratulated the scholarship awardees who joined the meeting from Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Southern Punjab and Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The scholarship beneficiaries shared their experience and also apprised about the challenges they had faced during their journey towards higher education.

With the investment of $33.2 million, over 6000 needs-based scholarships have been awarded making it one of the largest USAID funded scholarship program of Pakistan. The Program has awarded 60% of scholarships to female students.

ISLAMABAD, /DNA/ – Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority under the Chair of Mr Masroor Khan Chairman OGRA conducted a meeting with OMC’s on the deregulation of petroleum products as a first phase.

Member Gas, Member Oil, Member Finance along other senior executives of OGRA and Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division)  with CEO’s of OMC’s, Members of OCAC and other industry players attended the meeting.

OMC’s presented their point of view and the suggestions were discussed in detail.
As a second phase the meeting shall be held with refineries and other stakeholders to obtain their point of view to develop the possible roadmap  on  the way forward with the objective to develop final TORs for deregulation.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, Terming the hike in electricity and petroleum prices a result of unwise policies of the previous government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI),  Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail Wednesday hinted at slowing down the inflation rate from next month.

“The nation would have to bear the higher rates for one more month”, he said while addressing a press conference here along with the Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif.

He said former Prime Minister Imran Khan did not follow the commitment made with the International Monetary Fund (IMD) especially with regard to subsidies on electricity, gas and petroleum products.

   He said the previous government had committed to the IMF that the government would not give any amnesty to the businessmen and subsidies on petroleum, gas and electricity but going against the commitment, then government offered amnesty in February 2022 and then providing subsidy on electricity on petroleum products and the electricity.

   He said this was the reason why the rates of electricity and petroleum products sky rocketed now.

          The finance minister said the PTI government had put the country’s economy on the verge of default and Pakistan was on fourth number of the defaulting states.

          However, he said due to the prudent policies of the current coalition government, the country had come out of crisis.

          Miftah Ismail said Imran Khan government did not work on the renewable energy including the solar energy. “Had he worked on the installation of solar energy, the rates of the electricity would be much lower now”, he said adding that if the electricity load shedding is reduced to zero, the prices would further increase which the government might not afford.

          To a question, the minister maintained that the prices of petroleum products were directly linked to the international market therefore, he was unable to predict the future prices.

He said due to floods, shortage of some commodities including tomatoes and onion was witnessed due to which the prices increased but now they were coming down.

To another question, he said the government was in contact with the IMF with respect to the devastation caused by the recent floods.

He said the damage needs assessment of the floods had not finalized yet, and the government was working with the World Bank to provide the reliable and occurate assessment of losses in recent floods.

Replying to a question with respect to trade with India, the minister informed that the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) was asking the federal government to allow import of cotton from India but the minister said it the government had not taken any decision in this regard.

He said the commodities such as tomatoes and onion were being imported from Afghanistan and if the market gets stable with this import, the government would not need to import the commodities from India.

DNA

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Azerbaijan have reaffirmed strong resolve to further deepen and broaden bilateral cooperation in diverse areas including energy.

The understanding was reached at a telephonic conversation between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Heydar Aliyev today [Wednesday].    

During the conversation, the Prime Minister expressed gratitude for the generous assistance of two million dollars extended by Azerbaijan to the flood affected people of Pakistan.

He shared that Pakistan has been battling one of the most severe cycles of torrential monsoon weather which resulted in loss of lives, livelihood and extensive damage to the infrastructure.

The Prime Minister said the destruction of infrastructure has severely limited the delivery of assistance and relocation of flood affected people.

Speaking about the historic bilateral ties between Pakistan and Azerbaijan, Shehbaz Sharif said the two countries support each other at the United Nations, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Economic Cooperation Organization.

Lisbon, Portugal: The Ismaili Imamat has announced it will be donating US$10 million to support relief efforts following the severe flooding in Pakistan.  $5m will be donated directly to the Government of Pakistan while a further $5m will be provided to the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) agencies in the country, which are engaged in the relief efforts.

The donation comes following a discussion on Sunday between the Prime Minister of Pakistan,Mr. Shahbaz Sharif,and Prince Rahim Aga Khan,Chair of AKDN’s Environment and Climate Committee and eldest son of His Highness the Aga Khan, the 49^th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. 

Prince Rahim said“I am deeply concerned about the impact of the current floods in Pakistan, which have been intensified by the effects of climate change. These floods, and the many other weather events we are experiencing around the world, require us all—governments, businesses, communities, and individuals—to redouble our efforts to combat the climate crisis which threatens to engulf us.The institutions of the Ismaili Imamat have been mobilised to support the government in its relief and rehabilitation efforts.”

During the discussion, the Prime Minister expressed appreciation on behalf of the people and Government of Pakistan for the unwavering support of the Ismaili Imamat and the AKDN institutions.  He also expressed his deepest respects for the work that the AKDN institutions have been delivering in Pakistan since its independence.

The Aga Khan Agency for Habitat and FOCUS are AKDN’s lead response agencies for relief efforts. To date over 8,000 people have been successfully evacuated from affected areas while more than 4,000 families have been provided with food packages since the start of the flooding. Healthcare camps have been set up in several parts of the country by the Aga Khan University and Aga Khan Health Service where over 2,000 flood affected people have been given assistance.

HBLBank and Jubilee LifeInsurance, both part of the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development portfolio, have been active supporters in the relief efforts providing food rations and waterproof tents to over 12,000 families. Additionally, social safety payments by the Government of Pakistan are being disbursed to over 1 million people through HBL’s Konnect platform.

AKDN Helicopter operations have also been assisting in rescue missions and supporting the delivery of food items and medicines to remote areas in Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan.

Peshawar: Former prime minister Imran Khan, during his speech at a PTI rally in Peshawar on Tuesday, explained that his criticism of the army was “constructive and for its own improvement” as opposed to the comments made in the past by incumbent government leaders — clips of which were shown on the big screen in front of PTI supporters as he tried making his point.

“Those from the PML-N should get this straight that we are the people who would strengthen this country’s institutions,” he said. “And even if we do criticise our army, it is for their betterment. What we do is constructive criticism.”

Referring to his remarks at the Faisalabad rally on Sunday — where he had alleged the PPP and PML-N were opposing fresh elections because they wanted to “appoint an army chief of their choice” in November to save their skin in corruption cases — the PTI chief said that he had called for the selection of the army chief to be based on merit.

“Any person who is a well-wisher of someone would always want selection on the basis of merit. This is the world’s principle […] what did I say wrong?

“And along with that, I had said that Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari should not select the country’s army chief,” he recalled, adding that an absconder and criminal should not be given the power to appoint the country’s army chief.

Imran also referred to the Dawn Leaks, saying that it had revealed that the PML-N and Nawaz never backed the army.

Firing broadsides at former president Asif Ali Zardari, he said that the PPP leader had approached the United States to “protect his government”.

“Will we give [the selection] of these important posts to these people? Never.”

‘Statement against sessions judge not intentional’

The PTI chief also slammed the PML-N for attacking the judiciary.

“When I started politics 26 years back, we were the first to stand up for the judiciary. There was only one leader who went to jail for the judiciary and boycotted the 2008 elections for them,” he said.

Imran pointed out that the PTI always respected the judiciary because it believed in the rule of law.

Referring to his comments on additional sessions judge Zeba Chaudhry, the ex-premier said that if it seemed like he had used a hard tone against her it was because he had seen the “custodial torture of Shahbaz Gill”.

“If it looked like my statements were harsh, this was not my intention. I can’t ever think of threatening a judge,” Imran said.

‘Govt trying to turn institutions against PTI’

At the beginning of his address, Imran claimed that the government was trying to create misunderstandings between the Pakistan Army and the country’s “largest party”.

“This gang of robbers have realised that they can’t defeat us. The three stooges know that they can’t win by playing the match […] So, now they are trying to disqualify me. Sometimes it is Toshakhana, sometimes it is the election commission. They have declared me to be a terrorist in court.

“They are just trying to stop Imran Khan from playing the match,” he said.

Imran went on to allege that the government was hatching “dangerous conspiracies” that included turning the institutions against the PTI only to “win the match”.

“They have a propaganda cell that only tries to turn whatever I say against the army or the judiciary.”

But, Imran said that people were now “politically aware”.

“Today, I want to tell you that until and unless our institutions are not strong, the country can not succeed,” the PTI chief said. “The nation has realised that they [the PDM] are trying to pit the PTI against the institutions.

“The more you try to push PTI against the wall, the more I will fight you,” he warned.

Imran claimed that the incumbent government had been imposed on the nation to weaken the country and called on his supporters to join PTI’s movement of “haqeeqi azaadi” (true freedom).

Scores of PTI supporters, decked in red and green scarves and bands, gathered in Peshawar on Tuesday evening. The crowd chanted slogans against the incumbent government and leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM).

However, immediately after Imran’s arrival, a number of people, including PTI leaders, tweeted that YouTube had been blocked in the country.