Nazir Siyal / DNA

JHAKRO (DADU), Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday urged the nation to work in unison by extending a helping hand to the people suffering form the devastation in the wake of massive floods.

Terming as noble service the helping the people in distress, he stressed the need for rising above politics and the so-called ‘number game’ in order to converge the energies to help the flood-hit people.

Without naming any politician, he pointed out that the post-flood situation in the country demanded to reach out to the flood victims instead of holding jalsas (public gatherings).

In address to the locals during his visit to the tent-city set up in Jhakro village to accommodate the flood victims, he said all the segments of society including the federal government, provincial governments and the people across the country needed to work hand-in-hand with an objective to mitigate the problems of flood-stricken population.

The prime minister arrived in Sindh’s flood-affected area of Jhakro in Dadu district this morning to oversee the relief and rehabilitation efforts.

He expressed satisfaction over the efforts made by the Sindh government, armed forces and the disaster management authorities in providing relief to the flood-affected people.

PM Sharif said the flood affected 33 million people including 1,600 dead and inflicting a huge loss of $30 billion to the national economy.

He mentioned that the government had disbursed Rs 42 billion among the flood-affected people as part of relief and rehabilitation activities.

The prime minister said Pakistan alone could not overcome the challenge of massive floods and called upon the world to amplify its assistance to Pakistan.

He expressed gratitude to the philanthropists for providing relief assistance to Pakistan in the hour of need.

He assured the flood-hit people that the government would leave no stone unturned in extending help to them.

Flanked by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and senior officials of the provincial government, the prime minister visited the tent-city where he was given a detailed briefing on the damage caused by floods.

PM Sharif was apprised that floods affected all areas of district Dadu, leaving 37 persons dead while damaging its infrastructure and crops.

During his interaction with patients at the medical camp, the prime minister inquired about their health and assured them of best possible treatment.He directed the authorities concerned to ensure availability of necessary medicine at the camp to cope with the emerging challenge of malaria, diarrhea and other epidemics and breakouts.The prime minister also visited a makeshift school set up in the premises of the tent-city aimed at preventing loss of education of the students after the floods swept away their schools.He announced on the occasion construction of a smart school for the children of the area equipped with latest technological facilities.PM Sharif mingled with the children at the school and joined them in raising national slogans of Pakistan Zindabad (Long Live Pakistan) and Quaid-i-Azam Zindabad.The prime minister resumed his visit to the flood-affected areas within 24 hours as he returned last night from London, where he had stayed after attending the session of United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Mahnoor Ansar / DNA

Islamabad, SEP 27: Whimsical decisions and speech acts of government elites required better planning and delivery in order to act in unison in the face of globally emerging alliances, said Dr Khuram Iqbal, Head of the International Relations Department at the National Defense University (NDU) Islamabad. He was addressing a roundtable discussion titled, “Emergence of Maritime Alliances: Case Study of QUAD, AUKUS and I2U2”, jointly organized by the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS) and National Institute of Maritime Affairs (NIMA), here on Tuesday.

Discussing the role of emerging alliances and the resultant shift in global power dynamics, Dr Khuram added that it was high time to analyse if QUAD actually bore the potential of evolving into a full-fledged military alliance. At present, he said that QUAD was merely a multilateral dialogue platform and was bound to function as such for another few years. He added that lack of formal institutionalization and socialization in addition to an increased level of economic interdependence among the member countries were precursors to the fact that QUAD would remain a dialogue platform. While addressing the underlying reasons behind the creation of these alliances, Dr Iqbal said that China had tried its best to shun down its image as a revisionist power. It was unfortunate that this Chinese rhetoric was not reciprocated by the West and that was what fed continued tensions between China and the West. It appeared as if the West was bent on creating an adversary for itself. If there was an anti-China force to emerge, it would be AUKUS, not QUAD as AUKUS had a particular Anglo-Saxon niche to it, he added.

Mr Syed Muhammad Ali, International Policy Expert said that AUKUS had exposed the true expressions of the Anglo-Saxon world, feeding on the supremacy of the existing order whilst posing a challenge to the emergence of competing powers. One of the main features of AUKUS, he said was to ensure defense industrial integration. He added that the US was determined to develop a favourite in the Asia Pacific and also that the emerging alliance system to contain China had a certain hierarchy. The nature of alliance that the US was building was fundamentally different from what China could work with. China could not operationalise an alliance of similar nature, he added. He expressed hopes for Pakistan to work along the emerging alliance systems as India had been hedging over the opportunities, making the most of the global power transition.

Dr Nazir Hussain, Dean Social Sciences, University of Wah, said that the American foreign policy was a collection of clearly chalked out policies. The traditional geo-political framework was now evolving into a more geo-oceanic framework, putting the traditional international relations under tremendous stress. I2U2, also referred to as the Gulf NATO or Arab NATO in this regard, was mainly focused on securing the maritime interests of the partner countries. The US realized it could never match the Chinese BRI. It was through these alliances that the US aimed to deal with the rise of two countries, i.e., China and Iran. I2U2 among others, bore serious potential to evolve into a full-fledged alliance. He said it was imperative to accord Iran and Saudi Arabia the respective significance of Pakistan’s geo-political partner geo-economic partner.

Some experts at the roundtable also discussed the apprehensions about QUAD and AUKUS. While AUKUS was seemingly more organised, it was important to reassess if it was worthwhile waiting for these alliances to optimally materialise or was going into a reactive mode the best course in present times.  It was important to realise that while these alliances did come with certain challenges, the opportunities that they carried could not be ignored. Countries like India, Iran, and the UAE were actually looking out for themselves and it was high time that Pakistan did so too.

Mr Taimur Fahad Khan, Research Associate at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) said that while calls for proactive engagement in maritime affairs did seem like a reasonable option amidst the emergence of new alliances, it was vital to first devise Pakistan’s true maritime priorities.

ISLAMABAD, SEP 26: President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday has termed the incidences of audio leaks as a worrisome trend. Talking to Karachi-based journalists at Governor House in Karachi on Monday, he said that leaking private conversations fell within the category of “backbiting”, which needed to be discouraged.

He said that the privacy of every person was a trust which should be upheld, and leaking private conversations or comments and spreading fake news is unethical as it gives rise to fear and anxiety in society.

He said that politicians should play their role in making the nation intellectually strong. He said that intellectual strength could make our country strong in a minimum time period rather than the brick and mortal model.

He said that the world had made important innovations and progress in Cyber Security which has become an important discipline for the safety and security of any nation. He emphasized that Pakistan needed to take decisive and committed initiatives to adopt cyber security technology to lay down the foundation of stability and progress.

Chișinău, SEP 26: Moldova fears Russian gas company Gazprom could reduce or cut the country’s gas supply from Oct. 1 and is looking at alternative energy sources, President Maia Sandu said on Monday.

One of Europe’s poorest countries, Moldova is heavily reliant on Russian gas and has been hit hard by the surge in gas prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“We have no confidence that Gazprom will continue supplying gas to Moldova after Oct. 1. From this date, the price for Moldova under the current contract should be significantly lower,” pro-Western president Sandu said.

“In case supplies are reduced or stopped, we are looking at the possibility of supplies of energy resources from alternative sources,” she said.

Sandu did not say why Gazprom might reduce or cut supply. State-controlled Gazprom, which has reduced gas supplies to Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, did not immediately comment on her remarks.

Moldova has previously said Gazprom could cut off gas if one of the contractual conditions is not met – completion of an audit of its accumulated debt for supplies estimated at $709 million.

The gas price in Moldova fluctuates from month to month based on the spot price for gas and oil. But from Oct. 1, the formula used to calculate the price will change.

Currently, the gas price formula is 70% based on the spot gas price, which is very high, and 30% on the oil price. From Oct. 1, the formula will change to be 70% based on the oil price and 30% on the spot gas price.

State gas company Moldovagaz has paid for gas deliveries from Gazprom for August, but a senior company source told Reuters that it is struggling to make its 50% advance payment for September amounting to $33.89 million.

Thousands of protesters have gathered in Chisinau over the last two weekends, demanding the resignation of Sandu and her government and complaining of high inflation and fuel prices.