ISLAMABAD, AUG 21 (DNA) – Prime Minister Imran Khan has commended the services of foresters to make Pakistan Green.

In a tweet on Saturday, the Prime Minister said another hero of Forest Department Jamshaid Iqbal embraced Shahadat in the line of duty while fighting a forest fire in Chumurkun-Gole Protected Forest Compartment No 01. He said these are our heroes protecting our forests.

“These are our heroes protecting our forests for a Green Pakistan,” the prime minister tweeted. August marks the beginning of monsoon season in Pakistan, and with the rain comes another busy stretch for the country’s ambitious tree-planting programme.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, residents of all stripes, from government officials to Boy Scouts, fan out along the hills. They bring with them chinar tree saplings — which can grow to nearly 100 feet tall — along with other varieties, and they begin digging, the Washington Post said in its recent report.

A view of the slopes in the Haripur area of Pakistan, where the project’s trees were planted on private land a few years ago. The space has since been handed back to the local community.

A view of the slopes in the Haripur area of Pakistan, where the project’s trees were planted on private land a few years ago. The space has since been handed back to the local community.

The report mentions that it’s all part of an effort that started in 2015, when Imran Khan — then a provincial politician and now Pakistan’s prime minister — backed a programme ‘Billion Tree Tsunami’. The initiative reached its provincewide target in 2018 and was so successful that federal officials expanded the drive nationally in 2019 with a new goal of 10 billion trees — or, the “Ten Billion Tree Tsunami.”

“Everyone is waking up and starting to plant,” lawyer and environmentalist Hazrat Maaz told The Washington Post at the time. A plantanus orientalis, or “chinar” in Urdu, is planted by Mohamed Mughees Sana, deputy commissioner of Haripur, Pakistan.

A plantanus orientalis, or “chinar” in Urdu, is planted by Mohamed Mughees Sana, deputy commissioner of Haripur, Pakistan. (Sarah Caron for The Washington Post).

The programme addresses Pakistan’s history of deforestation as the country confronts the realities of climate change in the form of hotter temperatures, melting Himalayan glaciers and intensifying monsoon rains.

“It makes us very vulnerable,” Malik Amin Aslam, federal minister for climate change, said in a recent phone call. He has overseen both the provincial and national planting campaigns. “The cheapest, most effective and quickest way to fight climate change is to plant trees,” he said.

Direct planting, Aslam explained, accounts for about 40 percent of the program’s new trees. Hundreds of thousands of people across Pakistan are working to nurture and plant 21 species, from the Chir pine to the deodar — the national tree.

Scouts plant dalbergia sissoo trees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The variety was specifically chosen to fight erosion and create shade near the Khanpur lake, which officials hope to convert into a recreational area.

Scouts plant dalbergia sissoo trees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The variety was specifically chosen to fight erosion and create shade near the Khanpur lake, which officials hope to convert into a recreational area. (Sarah Caron for The Washington Post)

 The other 60 percent come from assisted regeneration, in which community members are paid to protect existing forests so that trees can propagate and thrive. Protectors are known as “nighabaan,” and 11 individuals lost their lives fighting the “timber mafia” between 2016 and 2018, according to Aslam.

Aslam says the initiative is engaging the next generation in the country’s battle against climate change. Students and volunteers plant saplings in August 2019 at Fatima Jinnah Park in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital

Students and volunteers plant saplings in August 2019 at Fatima Jinnah Park in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. Whether planted or protected, trees capture and hold carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change — and combat erosion on steep landscapes in Pakistan that Aslam says are “almost like living on a slide.”

The latest tree “tsunami” appears to be on pace. The rate of new trees has gone up tenfold since the initiative began, Aslam said. He expects another 500 million trees by the end of this year, with a goal of around 3.2 billion by 2023. If the current ruling party is reelected, the aim is to hit 10 billion trees by 2028.

“Young people get very excited when they hear about this,” he said. “It’s their future that we’re investing in.” A local employee of the forestry department sows seeds along a road in Pakistan in April 2019.

A local employee of the forestry department sows seeds along a road in Pakistan. The saplings used for the project are not treated with insecticides in the nursery, and the forestry department will go on to monitor the young trees for three years after planting. = DNA

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KARACHI, AUG 21: /DNA/ – The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s Businessmen Panel has appreciated the government for initiating the Self-assessment Income Scheme, announcing ‘no-harassment policy’ from the FBR and withdrawal of notices to the businessmen.

FPCCI’s Businessmen Panel Chairman Mian Anjum Nisar hailed the decision of Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin for directing the Federal Board of Revenue to withdraw the notices to the business community and the beginning of self-assessment scheme wherein businessmen would declare their incomes honestly in their returns, asking him to get it implemented at the earliest to facilitate the trade and industry.

He also lauded the government plan of bringing taxable income into the tax net through artificial intelligence, as the country needs tax money and, for this purpose, broadening the tax base is important. The businessmen stand with the tax authorities to collect data of 15 million people, who were not in the tax net, assisting them to probe such people who concealed their income and are not on the tax net.

Moreover, Mian Anjum Nisar said that artificial intelligence has the potential to incrementally add 16% or about $13 trillion by 2030 to current global economic output.

He said artificial intelligence technologies and applications would boost world GDP by up to 14% over the next decade, as the AI is poised to deliver big economic opportunities for those companies and workers who are best positioned.

“The businessmen support the government’s move of using option of third-party audit and curtailing the role of the FBR further in fixing the declaration in returns, as the decision would give confidence to the businessmen to promote their businesses and play their role in economic growth.

He sought full consultation of business community in reviewing new policies on trade, investment and other economic issues, including restructure of the FBR.

Mian Anjum Nisar said that businessmen should be heard and their problems should be resolved. If the trade and industry is not satisfied, the country cannot prosper. In pursuance of the prime minister’s vision and directives for enhanced interaction of the government functionaries with the business community and due consultation on important economic issues for result-oriented policies, the government high-ups should hold regular meetings with the businessmen to get their inputs on key economic decisions, he suggested.

The business community wants the government to take them along as the major stakeholder and adopt concrete recommendations from them. It can debate businessmen recommendations in such a way that the IMF conditions may not breach as well as their interests are guarded too, because the trade and industry is the real partner and they should feel this partnership with the government.

“We hope that self-assessment scheme would be launched very soon wherein the businessmen would declare their incomes themselves in their returns and the government would have the option of using third-party audit in case of doubt in declaration in returns. It is really admirable that the FBR would remain out even in these cases while the filer would have to respond and satisfy third-party audit team, he added.

FPCCI former president said that during the past three years of the incumbent government, it had faced numerous economic challenges which were also aggravated by the pandemic. However, the government has quite successfully progressed from recovery and stabilization of the national economy to its sustainable growth. The impact of the federal government’s timely and appropriate measures is very much visible in the form of an economic recovery on the back of broad-based growth across all sectors. Now Pakistan’s economy is moving progressively on a higher inclusive and sustainable growth path on the back of various measures and resultant achievements despite a myriad of challenges.

For this fiscal year there is an anticipation of favorable weather conditions as the GDP is targeted to grow at 4.8 percent. The agriculture sector is likely to grow by 3.5 percent based on the revival of cotton, water availability, certified seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and agriculture credit facilities. The industrial sector is expected to maintain its momentum and is targeted to grow at 6.2 percent.

NEW DELHI, Aug 21 (DNA) — India’s COVID-19 tally rose to 32,393,286 on Saturday as 34,457 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry’s latest data.

Besides, 375 deaths due to the pandemic since Friday morning took the total death toll to 433,964.There are still 361,340 active COVID-19 cases in the country with a decrease of 2,265 active cases during the past 24 hours.

A total of 31,597,982 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far, out of which 36,347 were discharged during the past 24 hours.—DNA

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KUALA LUMPUR: A new Malaysian leader was sworn in Saturday following the previous government’s collapse, reclaiming the premiership for his scandal-mired party without an election.

He was named as the new prime minister Friday, days after his predecessor quit following a turbulent 17 months in office.

Malaysia’s king opted to appoint a new premier based on who had majority support in parliament, rather than call an election, over concerns a vote could worsen a dire coronavirus outbreak.

In an elaborate ceremony at the national palace, Ismail Sabri, wearing a traditional Malaysian outfit, took the oath of office before the king.

The 61-year-old was deputy prime minister when UMNO was a partner in the last government, and has held several other cabinet posts during a long political career.

His predecessor Muhyiddin Yassin quit after losing his parliamentary majority, as public anger grew over his government’s handling of the pandemic.

After announcing the new leader, the king, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, urged bickering politicians to put aside their differences to fight the virus outbreak.

Long-time opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who lost out in the race for the premiership, meanwhile urged his alliance to face the new “challenge” and “work harder” to prepare for the next elections.

His opposition coalition stormed to power at the 2018 polls but their government fell apart last year amid bitter infighting, paving the way for Muhyiddin to take office.

Ismail Sabri becomes Malaysia’s third new prime minister in less than four years.

But his government is essentially a rejigged version of the one that collapsed a week ago, with Muhyiddin and his allies backing him.

There have been signs of public unhappiness, with a petition against his appointment garnering hundreds of thousands of signatures, and some fear his government will be as unstable as its forerunner.

DNA

ISLAMABAD: Islam is as liberal to discuss and debate differences objectively as secularism claims to be, and questioning secularism as the only way to inclusiveness, peaceful coexistence and tolerance means the decolonization of thoughts and society.

This was the spirit of a discussion at a webinar titled ‘Decolonial Muslim Studies & Defending Muhammad (PBUH) in Modernity’, organized by the Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad (IPS) in collaboration with the international network of scholars ‘Decolonial Dialogue.’

The webinar was part of the Book Discussion series, a joint effort by the two organizations in bringing international scholarly debates to Pakistani academia.

Sher Ali Tareen, a professor at Franklin and Marshall College, USA, put forth the key themes of his book ‘Defending Muhammad in Modernity.’ Discussants included Dr Humeira Iqtidar of King’s College London, Dr Nauman Faizi of LUMS, and Dr Anis Ahmed, vice-chancellor, Riphah International University (RIU), Islamabad. Nazeer Mahar from The Research Initiative and Zaigham Sarfaraz from Royal Hollaway University London also took part in the discussion.

Summarising the key points of his book, Professor Tareen meticulously analyzed the Deobandi-Barelvi polemics and debates in the aftermath of the fall of Mughal Empire and the Muslims, and the rise of the British colonial empire.

Complicating the secular perceptions of 19th century Islam, Tareen termed these debates as ‘competing political theologies’ that cannot be understood through the Western Eurocentric binaries. Using the Deobandi and Barelvi theological assertions primarily, he challenged the binaries of traditional/moderate, progressive/conservative, and legal/mystical embedded often in secular perceptions of Islamic tradition.

He reflected on how the concepts of Divine sovereignty, prophetic authority of the Prophet (PBUH), and ritual practices gave birth to two intellectual streams in the Subcontinent in the 18th and 19th centuries. He regarded the understanding of modern constructions of religion and particularly the study of Islam through Eurocentric epistemology and world view in contradiction with decolonization. Secularizing or Westernizing religious concepts does not consider epistemological and ontological frames of thought of a particular religion, he added.

Dr Humiera Iqtidar noted that much is lost in translation from the vernacular to the Western epistemes. She particularly highlighted the notion of ‘sovereign’ and ‘sovereignty’ that scholars borrow from the West to use as a synonym of ‘hukum’ or ‘hakimiyat’ in Islam.

She was of the view that believing in and exploring options other than secularism for ensuring peace and stability, tolerance and peaceful coexistence is tantamount to decolonization as the concept of secularism has its own history of how it developed in the West over the centuries. She maintained that criticism of the secular paradigm should not be taken as the total rejection of the secular idea, but as the valid criticism of considering secularism as the only solution to all the evils.

Dr Anis Ahmed argued that both Deobandi and Barelvi schools of thought have the same origin and are not in contradiction with each other. They share many commonalities in principles and practices. However, the difference lies in the theological approach adopted by scholars of both streams. He said that there is a coherence in all sects of Islam and it was the application of Western epistemology when applied to study the Muslims and their debates that particularly underscores divergences among the sects.

He emphasised the need for adopting Islamic epistemology/methodology in place of Western epistemology and ontology to comprehend religious concepts and differences prevailing among various groups. He observed that Muslims have a rich corpus of words that can be explained and understood in their own context and from within the Islamic traditions, without comparing or contrasting them with the Western epistemes.

Concluding the session, Vice-President IPS Syed Abrar Hussain acknowledged the efforts of Professor Tareen for highlighting convergences and divergences between the Deobandi and Barelvi traditions of the Hanafi school of thought. Citing from Hadith, the former ambassador explained that the dialectical debate or constructive argumentation is appreciated in Islam, and this adds to the flexibility and pluralist thoughts in its realm.