DNA

ISLAMABAD, APR 6 – Prime Minister Imran Khan will lead Pakistan’s delegation to the 10^th D-8 Summit being hosted by the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in virtual format on 8 April 2021. Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi will attend the 19^th Council of Ministers meeting that will precede the Summit.

The theme of the Summit is “Partnership for a Transformative World: Harnessing Power of Youth and Technology.”

The Summit will be attended by Heads of States/Governments of eight D-8 Member States including Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Turkey and Pakistan. The 10^th D-8 Summit is expected to adopt a Declaration and the Decennial Roadmap 2020-2030.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey will hand over the Chairmanship of the D-8 Summit to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

The D-8 was established in 1997 to promote economic and development cooperation among eight Member States. The D-8 Secretariat is located in Istanbul. The D-8 objectives, inter alia, include improving developing countries’ position in the world economy, diversifying new opportunities in trade relations, and enhancing participation in decision-making at the international level. Priority areas of cooperation in the D-8 include: (i) Trade; (ii) Industry; (iii) Agriculture and Food Security; (iv) Energy; (v) Transportation; and (vi) Tourism.

Pakistan has actively contributed towards promotion and realization of objectives and goals of D-8. Pakistan hosted the Eighth D-8 Summit in Islamabad in 2012 and remained the Chair of the Organization from 2012 to 2017. The Islamabad Summit was a resounding success with adoption of two landmark documents – the D-8 Charter, and the D-8 Global Vision, along with the Islamabad Declaration.

Pakistan has hosted two meetings of Council of Ministers, several Commission meetings, and regular sectoral meetings. Pakistan has been actively taking part in various D-8 initiatives and projects and hosted four sectoral meetings in the last four months relating to research and innovation, technology transfer and exchange, agriculture, and visa facilitation.

ISLAMABAD, APR 6 (DNA) – A meeting of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) held on Tuesday with chairman Justice Javed Iqbal in the chaired to review overall performance of the bureau.

The meeting was attended by deputy chairman, prosecutor general accountability, director general operations, while all director generals attended the meeting via video link.

Speaking on the occasion, the NAB chairman said, “The anti-graft watchdog firmly believes in pursuing the policy of accountability for all.

NAB does not have affiliation with any group, political party or individual. The only affiliation of the bureau is with the state of Pakistan. The NAB is duty bound to recover the looted amount from the culprits, besides taking mega corruption cases to logical conclusion.”

The forum reviewed the latest progress of corruption cases against former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Shaukat Aziz, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, former president Asif Zardari, former chief ministers Shehbaz Sharif, Qaim Ali Shah, Aslam Raisani, Sanaullah Zehri, Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah, former ministers Ishaq Dar, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Dr Asim Hussain, Ahsan Iqbal,

Babar Khan Ghauri, Manzoor Wasan, Agha Siraj Durrani,Syed Khursheed Shah, Saleem Mandviwala,

Sharjeel Inam Memon,Jam Khan Shoro,Adil Siddique,Waseem Akhtar, Ejaz Jakhrani, Sabtain Khan, Sahibzada Mehmood Zaib, Sher Azam Khan, Engineer Amir Muqam, Mehtab Abbasi Asfandyar Kakar,

Asim Kurd, Saadat Anwar, Rehmat Baloch,Hamza Shehbaz, Salman Shahbaz, Ahad Cheema, Fawad Hassan Fawad, Siddique Memon, Manzoor Kaka,

Saeed Ahmed Khan,Tahir Basharat Cheema,Abdul Ghani Majeed, Anwar Majeed, Hussain Lawai, Ghulam Mustafa Phal,

Farkhand Iqbal, Akhtar Nawaz Ganjera, Kamran Shafi and others.

The meeting also reviewed progress in the ongoing investigation against Mufti Ehsan, Ghulam Rasool Ayubi and others Modarba/ Musharka case,

Bank of Khyber, K Electric, NTS, closure of Roosevelt hotel, Sindh festival case,NICVD,Karachi, 56 Public Limited Companies,Flour, Sugar subsides scams.

The meeting decided to take cases against fake housing/cooperative societies to logical conclusion as per law by utilising all available resources as well as to nab proclaimed offenders and absconded. The meeting reviewed progress in mutual league assistance (MLAs) applications sent to other countries.

Justice Javed Iqbal said that most priority of NAB is to eradication of corruption in all its forms and manifestations from the country and recovery of the looted money in order to deposit in national exchequer. NAB’s faith is corruption free Pakistan.

The performance of NAB has already been acknowledged by reputed National and international organisations. Especially the World Economic Forum in its recent report has appreciated Bureau’s awareness and prevention campaign which is honour for NAB.

NAB urged all those against whom NAB has filed references on solid basis in learned Accountability Courts to better concentrate on defending their corruption references of looting million/billion of rupees in the learned court of law instead of criticising NAB as

NAB always believes performing its duties in accordance with law of the land.

Thats why, the conviction ratio of NAB is approximately 68.8 percent. NAB has deposited record Rs 714 billion in national exchequer directly and indirectly since inception which is a record achievement.

DNA

KARACHI, APR 6 – Institute of Business Management (IoBM) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a leading pharmaceutical company to enhance the collaboration with the local industrial and pharmaceutical sector. It will enable its students to acquire hands-on training in the areas of marketing, finance, sales, and business development among others. On behalf of IoBM, the MoU was signed by Institute’s President Talib Syed Karim while Haroon Qassim, Managing Director of the pharmaceutical firm, PharmEvo (Pvt.) Ltd signed the memorandum of understanding at IoBM.

Speaking on the occasion, President IoBM said that academic institutions’ collaboration with the corporate sector is increasing. This is beneficial for both academia and the corporate sector. The young graduates can apply their academic knowledge in the field and the corporate sector can capitalize on their innovative problem-solving skills. Talib Syed Karim further said that IoBM students have so far completed 700 projects with 500 local companies and added that they recently signed an MoU with a local agri-tech company to work on food security in Pakistan. “With the local agri-tech company, we are now working on vertical farming worth 45 million rupees to create awareness on food security”.

He termed the agreement signed with PharmEvo as a welcoming step for the students and faculty of IoBM. Managing Director of PharmEvo, Haroon Qassim said that youngsters are well aware of social challenges and provide solutions to pertaining challenges. He added that “The collaboration between IoBM and PharmEvo would encourage other academic institutions and industries to boost their ties. There was a trust deficit between the industry and academia, which has reduced over the years.” On the occasion, he also announced to provide a reasonable stipend to students working with them on various projects. CEO of PharmEvo, Syed Jamshed Ahmed said that the development and progress of the Western world is based on the linkages between academia and the industry. He said that “If we can take benefit of the intellectual capital produced by our Universities and academic institutions, we can acquire tremendous achievements at our organizations but somehow this area has not been developed in Pakistan.” Ekhlaque Ahmed, Lead Capstone Projects, IoBM, Abdus Samad Siddiqui, Director Marketing and Sales, PharmEvo, among others also spoke on the occasion.

DNA

Islamabad, APR 6 – The recent move by the government to make the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) autonomous is part of the IMF agenda being imposed on Pakistan as the decision lacks transparency and goes against national interest.

This was the unanimous view of economic and fiscal policy experts during a webinar titled ‘Understanding State Bank Amendment Bill 2021’ organized by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS).

The event was chaired by Prof. Dr. Abdul Saboor, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences, PMAS Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi.

The speakers and discussants included IPS’ Chairman Khalid Rahman,  Vice Chairman Ambassador (r) Syed Abrar Hussain, Dr. Shahida Wizarat, Dean, College of Economics and Social Development, Institute of Business Management, Karachi; Dr. Pervez Tahir, former chief economist, Planning Commission; Qanit Khalil, chartered accountant and economic policy analyst; Raja Kamran, a Karachi-based economic journalist and Amanullah Khan, former president, Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (RCCI).

Commenting on the proposed amendments, Dr. Pervez Tahir lamented the removal of the word ‘national interest’ from the preamble of the existing SBP Act and argued that the proposed bill would delineate responsibility for controlling inflation to the SBP which has already failed in this regard. He further said controlling prices of food items is a provincial subject and has nothing to do with the SBP which can only control core inflation that has not increased substantially in recent years.

He was also of the view that the Pakistani government is giving much more than what IMF or World Bank could actually demand from a sovereign state through the proposed amendment.

Dr. Shahida Wizarat was of the view that independence of institutions can only be achieved through holistic policies. She rued Pakistan’s policies are not indigenous, rather dictated, as most of the officials running important institutions are “imported” which underlines the continuation of colonial era in this part of the world. Giving absolute autonomy to the SBP, she further said, is tantamount to making Pakistan subservient to the IMF and the World Bank.

Explaining the phenomenon of independence of central banks, Qanit Khalil termed the proposed autonomy to the SBP in line with the global trend. However, he argued independence does not guarantee price stability and economic growth of a country as proven by many studies. He also suggested further reduction in interest rates in Pakistan which pays 45% of its tax revenues to debt servicing – a number much higher than the developed markets where it stands at less than 5%.

Raja Kamran criticized the manner in which the proposed law was presented and approved by the cabinet without any debate, making the draft rather dubious. He questioned why the relevant stakeholders were not taken on board over this initiative. The actual draft of the bill was also not available for public or stakeholders’ review, he informed.

Dr. Abdul Saboor opined that autonomy of the SBP hinges on the progress of all the other institutions. However, this progress will remain a pipe dream unless the government introduces governance reforms.

He said, state institutions will never strengthen unless the country develops on all economic fronts. He accentuated the need for developing a counter mechanism so that foreign institutions are not able to exploit the weaknesses of the country’s institutions.

Concluding the session, Khalid Rahman said the initiative, prima facie, is an imposed one, which reflects the approach being taken in this regard since the former prime minister Moeen Qureshi’s tenure.

He believed some government officials have moved the bill with mala fide intentions to either turn the SBP into a subordinate institution of the IMF or pose themselves as more loyal to the IMF than the country.

He stressed the need for ensuring transparency in the whole affair as its absence is giving rise to extraordinary speculations which are detrimental to national interest. 

DNA

ISLAMABAD, APR 6 – At the World Bank-International Monetary Fund annual spring meetings 2021, a webinar was held titled, ‘the IMF’s Engagement on Social Protection’, wherein SAPM Dr. Sania Nishtar was invited to present Pakistan’s perspective on bolstering social safety nets.The event aimed to showcase the IMF, development partners, the WBG and member countries’ efforts to implement more effective social protection programs, strengthen social safety nets, and protect the most vulnerable from economic shocks and the potential adverse effects of reforms.

Addressing the meeting, Dr. Nishtar highlighted Pakistan’s social protection policy initiatives- the aspiration and challenges and how the government of Pakistan demonstrated commitment to addressing them.

Along with Dr. Nishtar, Roger Nord, Deputy Director Institute for Capacity Development, IMF; Antoinette Sayeh, Deputy Managing Director, IMF; Fernanda Brollo, Senior Economist, IMF; Brooks Evans, Economist, IMF; and Tanja Goodwin, Senior Country Economist, World Bank Group came to the table to launch a Capacity Development Talk on the IMF’s engagement on social protection, with a particular focus on Pakistan and Ecuador.

Speaking at the webinar, Dr. Nishtar spoke about the invisible scaffold that is needed to execute programs well. She said that almost for a year after the launching of Ehsaas, an extensive effort was made to build the infrastructure of integrity and transparency. According to statutory requirement—board meetings, conflict of interest policy, whistleblowing policy, and error, fraud and corruption frameworks and risk registers were institutionalized. She then explained how financial, audit and accounting systems were strengthened and more broadly, she described how critical was implementation of the Ehsaas Governance and Integrity Policy. She also mentioned about the creation of Ehsaas Governance Observatory to track risks and governance practices. Further, she explained the importance of building the digital backbone for execution of many Ehsaas programs. An SMS request seeking mechanism and data analytics system were integral to the execution of many programs.

Continuing, Dr. Nishtar stated that in 2019, a new biometric payment system was installed after a competitive process, to make sure that all payments were biometrically verified. Further, she said that the IT infrastructure had undergone a major overhaul—and across applications, networks, and the data systems, many reforms had been implemented.

Inequality around the world has been growing in recent years, and the pandemic has only made matters worse. As a result, more and more of the IMF’s policy advice and capacity development collaborations have focused on the issues of social spending and social protection. IMF is an organization of 190 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, APR 6 – A delegation of Traders Welfare Association, I&T Centre, G-8/1, Islamabad led by Senior Vice President Nasir Chaudhry met with Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) and apprised him of the problems being faced by the traders due to sealing of some shops in I&T Centres. Ajmal Baloch, President, All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran and Traders Action Committee Islamabad, Khalid Chaudhry Secretary and others were also present on the occasion.

Addressing the delegation, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the current situation demanded that promoting the ease of doing businesses should be the top priority of all relevant departments to facilitate the growth of business activities, save the people from unemployment and steer the economy out of current challenges. However, sealing of some shops in I&T Centres by CDA has created a lot of concerns in the trading community. He appealed that CDA should reconsider this approach to seal shops in I&T Centres as it would deprive many traders of their livelihood and increase unemployment.

Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan said that already businesses were facing great problems due to Covid-19 pandemic and in these conditions, sealing of some shops would increase the difficulties of the trading community. He said that instead of sealing shops, CDA in consultation with ICCI and concerned market associations should work out a better solution to this issue. “If someone is doing legal business, instead of shutting down such businesses, efforts should be made to explore a legal solution of such cases,” he said.

Ajmal Baloch, President, All Pakistan Anjuman-e-Tajiran said that in the current difficult circumstances, such drastic measures should be avoided as they would damage business activities and create more problems for the economy. He said that shops set up 40 years ago are now being declared illegal which is not a right approach. He said that if the CDA did not resolve the issue amicably, traders would have no other options exempt to launch strong protests against such actions. Therefore, the CDA should review its policy and avoid actions that would cause more harm to the business activities.

Nasir Chaudhry, Senior Vice President, Traders Welfare Association, I&T Center, G-8/1, Islamabad said that the process of sealing the shops has taken place in the constituency of Ali Nawaz Awan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on CDA Affairs, so he should take notice of the situation and issue orders to the responsible authorities in CDA to refrain from actions that would prove more harmful for the local economy.

Indonesia ambassador shares future plans and initiatives of the embassy with the media and think-tank

ISLAMABAD:  Ambassador of Indonesia Adam M Tugio has highlighted the role of media in promotion and strengthening of relations between Indonesia and Pakistan.  

He expressed these views during a meeting which was held between the Ambassador and Khalid Taimur Akram, Executive Director, Center for Global & Strategic Studies (CGSS), Islamabad, and Ansar Mahmood Bhatti, Chief Editor, Daily Islamabad POST / Diplomatic News Agency /CENTRELINE magazine, and Member Board of Experts, CGSS at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, Islamabad.

During the meeting, future projects and initiatives were discussed to enhance the ties between Indonesia and Pakistan. It was agreed that media can play an effective role in portraying various sectors of collaboration between both countries.

The ambassador appreciated CGSS’s and media efforts in enhancing people-to-people contact and diplomatic ties between Indonesia and Pakistan.