Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: In a virtual ceremony, U.S. Consul General Catherine Rodriguez along with Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmad Vice Chancellor University of Sargodha, signed an agreement to renew the Lincoln Corner partnership between the University of Sargodha and the U.S. Consulate General in Lahore.
The newly renovated and expanded Lincoln Corner Sargodha is a vibrant center of student interaction, learning, dialogue, and creative thinking.
BEIJING, April 9 : Pakistan fully supports China’s policy on Xinjiang and willing to develop more cooperation with China to strengthen people-to-people exchanges, said Ambassador Moin ul Haque.
According to Gwadar Pro, early this month, a delegation comprising the Pakistani Ambassador and more than 30 diplomats from some 21 countries, visited Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
“I’m very happy to visit Xinjiang, a beautiful part and a very historic area of China. We have been here for 3 days now, we visited the regional capital Urumqi and Kashgar, which is a very ancient city and trading hub of centuries as part of the silk road.
Wherever you go, you can see development taking place in Xinjiang, Moin ul Haque added.
“Development is taking place in Xinjiang, including infrastructure, industry, agriculture, water purification projects, educational institutions and exhibition centers.
Wherever you go, you can see development taking place for the people of this beautiful region, and helping the social economic development of the region, poverty alleviation, revitalization of the rural areas, creation of jobs.”
He said the region’s developments in transportation and agriculture left a deep impression on him.
I think that’s something which many people in the outside don’t understand and they keep making this propaganda against China about the religion and the treatment of ethnic minorities,” Haque said after visiting the Islamic center of Urumqi and mosque.
Haque said he has witnessed the religious freedom of the people in Xinjiang on the field trip, and after this visit, he can assure everybody outside the world that they need to come here and to see it themselves.
“In a peaceful way, people here are enjoying their lives, their culture, their deep traditions, and most importantly, their religion,” he added.
Haque also voiced support and appreciation for policies that helped maintain stability and development in Xingjiang. “We were very impressed the way the Chinese government is focusing on this area. The rapid development of Xinjiang is unprecedented in history. It’s a miracle.”
Responding to rumors fabricated by some Western countries on claimed human rights grounds, the ambassador said that human beings are facing many challenges and what we need is cooperation, not defamation, unilateralism or hegemonism.
“Pakistan adheres to the principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs.
ISLAMABAD, April 9 : Work on 6,135km long, six new motorways and highways is expected to start this year.
Acccording to a report published by Gwadar Pro, the new projects including the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will finish within three years, bringing prosperity to the most underdeveloped areas of Pakistan.
Hassan Daud CEO of the KP Board of Investment and Trade told Gwadar Pro, “The proposals of inclusion of new highways and infrastructure projects in less developed areas will bring inclusive economic growth through connectivity. Options of public private partnership is also being explored to enhance the scope of CPEC.”
Earlier, Federal Minister for Communications Murad Saeed announced 11 new projects including the western route of CPEC and the ground-breaking of five more projects would be performed this year.
The government of Pakistan started work on 11 projects so far which connects Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) to Baluchistan mostly under CPEC.
Among these projects, Zhob- kuchlak road is near completion as 70% work is almost finished. The 110 km-long Khuzdar- basima road is also near completion.
In the next two months work on 6 important motorways and highways including Ratodero-Shikarpur road will start, to be finished in two years.
The Sialkot- Kharian motorway is also expected to finish in next two years. As per the government announcement its ground-breaking ceremony will be held on 27th May.
Work on 80km long Swat- Fatehpur road and Swat- Dir motorway which is also the part of phase II of swat motorway is expected to start in the next two to three months.
The construction of the 153-kilometer-long Chitral-shandur highway connecting Chitral to Gigit-Baltistan will start in next two to three months and its inauguration will be done by Prime Minister Imran Khan. Chitral- Garam Chashma, the 82-kilometer-long road is also expected to launch in two months.
Altogether the total length of under construction highways around Chitral in KP province is 235 km. These roads will provide the alternate route of connecting China through Chitral.
The work on Peshawar- DI khan motorway will also start soon. The road will pass through underdeveloped areas of FATA. It has been included in CPEC and is waiting for its approval from the Chinese side.
This motorway will connect underdeveloped areas of KPK to the rest of the country making the trade of livestock, vegetables, dates etc. easy for the local people.
The work on Balkasar-Mianwali-Muzafargarh expressway is also expected to start from September this year. Feasibility work has been completed already and repair work has already been started. This 412-kilometer-long road will undergo work this year.
Construction work on Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway, an important part of western route under CPEC will start from October. After the completion of this motorway the whole network of highways and motorways from Karachi to Torkham will be completed.
SRINAGAR : Indian troops in their fresh act of state terrorism have martyred three Kashmiri youth in Shopian district of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
According to the Kashmir Media Service (KMS), the youth have been martyred during a cordon and search operation by the troops in Jan Mohalla area of the district.
The unrelenting military siege imposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led fascist government on August 05, 2019, continues to take a heavy toll on the daily life of the people in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K).
A report released by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service (KMS) on the completion of 600 days to the military siege, today (Saturday) revealed that Indian troops martyred 323 Kashmiris including 7 women during the period.
It said that at least 14,621 persons including Hurriyat leaders, activists, women, students and young boys were arrested and thousands of them were booked under black laws.
The report said the troops also damaged 1,008 houses and structures and molested or disgraced 106 women in the period.
Centurion : South Africa men’s cricket team has received yet another setback after white-ball captain Temba Bavuma, due to hamstring strain, has been ruled out of the upcoming T20I series against Pakistan.
The right-handed batsman suffered a Grade One hamstring strain after the conclusion of the ODI series. Wicketkeeper-batsman Heinrich Klaasen will lead the Proteas.
On the other hand, opener Reeza Hendricks has withdrawn from the series after the very recent birth of his first child while all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius has not been medically cleared to take part in the series as he continues rehabilitation from a rib fracture.
Regarding Rassie van der Dussen, the batsman will continue treatment and monitoring of his Grade One left quadriceps muscle strain he suffered after the second ODI.
Due to injury, the following players have been retained from the ODI squad: Aiden Markram, Andile Phehlukwayo, Daryn Dupavillon and Wiaan Mulder.
The four-match T20I series starts tomorrow.
ISLAMABAD : Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan will perform groundbreaking of Lahore Development Authority (LDA) City Naya Pakistan Apartments today (Friday) under the Naya Pakistan Housing program.
35,024 apartments will be constructed under the project being initiated by Lahore Development Authority in collaboration with Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority.
Under the scheme, 4,000 apartments will be constructed during the first phase. Every apartment will cover a 650 square feet area, having two bedrooms.
The LDA had a fixed price of Rs2.7million for every apartment which will be taken in easy installments.
The prime minister during his visit to Lahore would chair key meetings at Chief Minister House, where he would get briefings on the latest updates on inflation and COVID-19 situation.
The prime minister would also be briefed on the Ravi River project and other housing schemes besides also being updated on an operation against land grabbers in the province.
Earlier, Imran Khan had performed the groundbreaking of Farash Town apartments in Islamabad under the Naya Pakistan Housing Program.
ISLAMABAD: Coronavirus has claimed 105 more lives in Pakistan during the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 15,229.
The latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed the COVID-19 has claimed 105 more lives and 5,312 fresh infections were reported during the period.
During the period of a day, the total count of active cases was recorded at 69,811 and the positivity rate stood at 9.66 per cent.
The health facilities across the country conducted 54,948 coronavirus detection tests, taking the total number of COVID-19 tests to 10,639,825 since the first case was reported.
According to the statistics, 174 patients were declared critical, adding to the total number of patients suffering from sensitive health condition up to 4,116.
Overall 625,789 people have recovered from the virus including 2,390 who have regained their health from COVID-19 during the past 24 hours.
In a bid to facilitate the masses, the federal government had decided on Thursday to extend COVID-19 vaccination centres’ hours in Islamabad.
According to a notification issued by the federal government, the vaccination centres’ will remain open from 8 am to 6 pm.
However, the Covid vaccination centres will remain shut on Friday in order to give rest to the administrative and medical staff, read the notification.
On the weekly holiday, the vaccination centres will complete their tasks including vaccine transfer and other related matters.
Islamabad, 9 April 2021 : Mr. Yang Tao, Director-General of the Department of International Organizations and Conferences of the Foreign Ministry of China, and Mr. Usman Iqbal Jadoon, Director-General (United Nations) of the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan jointly chaired the 3rd Round of China-Pakistan Consultations on the United Nations Affairs by video conference. The Embassy of China in Pakistan, the Embassy of Pakistan in China and the Permanent Missions of China and Pakistan to the United Nations in New York and Geneva also attended the meeting.
Views were exchanged on a wide range of multilateral issues of mutual interest covering all major areas of the United Nations’ work.
Both sides agreed to:
Firmly safeguard multilateralism and support the central role of the United Nations in international affairs.
Strengthen their cooperation on the United Nations and other multilateral platforms and to support each other on each side’s core and major interests.
Work toward the political and peaceful resolution of regional and international hotspot issues, and jointly safeguard peace and stability of the world, especially in Asia.
Continue to strengthen cooperation on counter-terrorism and peacekeeping in the UN framework, by addressing the issue of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and supporting the UN peacekeeping operations, so as to make greater contributions to the maintenance of international and regional peace and security.
Consolidate strategic coordination in the field of human rights, jointly opposing “double standards” and the politicization of human rights issues, and working for the promotion and protection of all human rights in a cooperative manner.
Wajeeha Bilal
We live in an age of self-abundance and yet a sudden pandemic can expose how imperfect this belief is. In Pakistan, the pandemic is posing a danger to the surroundings, suffocating health systems and threatening lives.Amidst the rising cases of corona outbreak across the world, there is a growing sense of anxiety and panic. We see it in the once busy public places, we feel it when we talk to others and we hear it every time we put on the news. It is in these crucial times that we choose through love or fear.
Pakistan has reported the highest number of daily Covid-19 since June 16, 2020.According to the data released by the National Command and Operation Centre, 4,004 cases and 102 deaths were reported in a single day. When death strikes our communities and the existential fear hangs around the corner,then just looking out for oneself becomes pernicious. There is a delicate line between self-care and self-absorption. Fear tells us to escape our reality into the darkness while love shows us the light to enlighten the path for us and others. These two emotional weapons govern the whole world around us, our choices and ultimately the fate of this world hangs around in space created by fear or love. Life is in fact more powerful when we learn to balance the two, we can feel scared of a situation and at the same time accept our reality. We can learn to make a plan that is beneficial for our survival but does not prove harmful to others around us.
In Pakistan the NCOC reported that a total of 10,584,877 tests had been conducted since the outbreak of the virus. There are about 631 hospitals with Covid-19 facilities with more than 4,500 patients admitted across the country.Human population now is a thousand times greater than it was for most of human history, so there are vastly more opportunities for new human diseases to originate. Threats to humanity, and how we address them, define our time. Taking precautions executes the hope that we are likely to make it out of this phase. Not because the tasks are minor, but because we bear the collective love to grow out of them. The truth that these threats grow from human action reveals that human action can tackle them as well.
Countries around the world are mounting COVID-19 vaccines, and the most essential concern is their safety. Following tested precautions is still the best way to keep us all safe from COVID-19.
Loss of control always results in panic and that’s what the world is experiencing while feeling anxious about the results of this viral outbreak. It may not be easy to cope with fear, trying to control over a situation that seems to be made of absolute chaos. Even though we feel that our measures may not produce results, we might be closer to the truth than we think. The truth about humanity, the truth that we all and everything around us ceases to exist, how fragile everything and everyone is and what really matters is HOW we handled the situation. When faced with the fear of mortality how much we were able to control it with love and think of the other person facing the same scenario.
Dealing with care and precaution shifts our perspective from helplessness to empowerment by knowing and trusting that our actions create the world. We learn to become a part of the solution and not propagate the problem. It is very essential to say that no matter what happens, I’ve done the best that I can to be prepared and have given my best to the world.A pandemic that sees no race or nation, has brought a true test for the humanity, which will either be fought in fear or overcome through love. The artistic association between people and infection so far emasculates it to show the true toxin to be human differences that are based on fears.
Whether we like it or not, our time will always be shared with others and it will be limited in some way or another.Amid these scary stories it’s worth remembering that, while we may not have control over everything, we can always do things that spark love and spread joy around us. Just like a disease, panic itself is a killer, fearing every moment and hoarding out of fear can never be as satisfying as the joy of helping each other or at least thinking of others. No one is here to live forever; all we can do is try to spread some relief or love through our thoughts and actions, not the pain and fears of what is doomed to happen. Fear is natural, we are all anxious, with even the authorities declaring that there is a huge deal about this outbreak that we just don’t know yet. We fear what we don’t understand. And what we fear, we seek to control. We just need to make sure not to let the fear control us as we might have to sustain with it for a while.
While we all wait in the fear of the unknown, we might as well learn to evolve as a human race and hoard the feelings of joy and care for the things and people that we took for granted when times were in our favor and the only way to do that is by taking precautions in every way we can. In the fear of living an ordinary life we tend to forget that it is these small daily acts of kindness and care that make our lives extraordinary.
(Wajeeha is author of “The Conscious Ego” and “The Beautiful Present”)
‘Today’ is relevant only in the context of yesterday and tomorrow. For the wise the yesterday illuminates the path for tomorrow. The majority lives for today. History has no space for them. The same is true of the leaders. Those who cannot rise above the present get lost in the unknown past.
Our political behaviordespite all the inflictions of yesterdays has defied growth and maturity. “The poor player that struts and frets his hour on the stage and then is heard no more’, aptly describes the political heroes of today who while reveling in their empty rhetoric forget the demagogues of the seventies and their unenviable end.
‘The wise speak when they have something to say while the foolish speak because they have to say something’. It is a cause or higher purpose that lifts the vision and renders the narrative more focused and consistence. Without a cause thegarrulous chatter nonstop and over-indulge in polemics. Recklessness,unscrupulousness and shamelessness tarnish both the speech and the character. It pains to hear a novice venture comments in the fields of knowledge where the professionals would tread only with extreme caution. Blatant lies, fake claims, unfulfilled promises and the ‘SELF’ dominate the political landscape. Ill-gotten wealth is lavishly floated to hoodwink the system. Today is all that matters. The yesterdays and tomorrows have no place in our reckoning.
Ghulam Muhammad, a brilliant manipulator couldrule the roost only becausea compliant judiciaryand a bunch of diffident politicians without a common national agenda were more than willing to play a stooge in the hands of a willy autocrat. Hence onwards the myopic, greedy, self-centered and squabbling politicians gladly played the musical chairs orchestrated by the dictators, civil and military.The people never figured in the matrix. They came into play only during elections, to be coerced into voting for their boastful ‘Representatives’ andto be forgotten once again.Ayub, Zia and Musharraf were all fully supported by the politicians they respected little.The politicians in turn made heyleaving the entire blameto be borne by the dictators. If Ayub had put Pakistan on the road to progress, ‘as the model of a developing country’, in his truly ‘golden decade’, hisunparalleled achievements took no time to come to naught in the glorious democratic era that followed.Democracy was gradually assuming new and fatal connotations. It was to become an occupation of unlimited profit. The institutions that could be a hinderance in accumulating wealth had to be fully enslaved in the name of civil supremacy. The Supreme Court was attacked,the military chiefs changed at will, accountability turned into a mere farce and elections rigged, to grab total power and establish dictatorial control.
George Washington was the first president of the United States. He was a general who had won his nation its war of independence. He was a hero, considered the best president ever. The slavery was still in fashion when he freed all his slaves laying the foundations of the freedom movement that followed. People loved him. They wanted him to take the third term of presidency. He refused. He did not want to start with a wrong precedence. No one else after him ever tried to take the third term except under the exceptions well defined in the constitution. The other glaring examples from recent history were President Charles De Gaulle and Nelson Mandela who had displayed absolute nonchalance towards power. Mandela refused even a second term and gave away power voluntarilyto dedicate his life to poverty alleviation and social justice. Once branded a terrorist he was awarded a Nobel Prize for Peace, acclaimed great by friends and foes alike.
The were great leaders who have left everlasting legacies. They deserve the reverence of their people. They were able to raise themselves above the mundane with their vision reaching for the stars.
A cause is the most powerful and enduring motivator for a leader. In pursuit of the cause all the temptations that dazzle the ordinary, power, wealth, women and famelose their meanings. Cause demands selflessness, absolute dedication and sacrifice. Jinnah gave all his wealth and property to Pakistan. Liaqat Ali Khan did not build a house for himself as there were millions of other homeless immigrants. Helived poor while he was a Nawab, anoble by descent. That is why one is known as Quaid e Azamand the other as Shaheed e Milat. Ayub allowed himself to be overpowered by his greed.He lost an otherwise well-earned place in history.Vested interest eats away the virtues. Fleeting good fortunes apart it eventually meets infamous, ignoble and sometimes a violent end. It has no future. That is why most of the leaders end up as non-entities.
Lust for power bifurcated Pakistan. The same killed the Bhuttos. Greed for money has disgraced many.
A cause or purpose is often in conflict with the status quo.If the propounderof a cause succeeded, he becomes a Mandela for his nation. If he died fighting, he is Martin Luther King jr. The martyrs of a causenever die. Their failure becomes their triumph as it continues for ever to torment the oppressor and his coming generations.
The Parliamentary democracy of the Westminster type has hugely benefited an inept politicalelite.Still the beneficiaries of democracy continue to cheat it byseeking undemocratic solutions to political problems.This approach has invited disasters before. It is putting democracy at risk once again.
The gladiators of political arena with more than one Mark Anthony need to pause and reflect for a while. Honest introspection might unfold better options. The political leadership must put behind the present hysterics, follow the norms of sanity and allow democracy to function at all and any cost.Unambiguous egocentricity alienates friends and escalates antagonism. This is the hour to put our act together as time and tide wait for no one.
