KARACHI, JUN 23 (DNA) – The price of 24 karat per tola gold increased by Rs 800 and was sold at Rs110,100 on Wednesday against its sale at Rs109,300 the previous day, Karachi Sarafa and Jewellers Group reported.

The price of 10 gram 24 karat also increased by Rs 686 and was sold at Rs 94,393 against its sale at Rs 93,707 while the prices of 10 gram 22 Karat gold went up to Rs 86,527 against Rs 85,898.

The price of per tola and ten gram silver remained unchanged at Rs1420 and Rs1217.42 respectively. The price of gold in international market remained unchanged at $1785. = DNA

=======================

DNA

ISLAMABAD, JUN 23 – A special meeting of recently established “National Intelligence Coordination Committee” was chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan at Inter Services Intelligence Secretariat Islamabad.

Lieutenant General Faiz Hamid, Director General Inter Services Intelligence welcomed the Prime Minister and Federal Ministers. National Intelligence Coordination Committee, “a platform for Intelligence Coordination/ Cooperation for unified and wholesome National Intelligence Assessment was notified by Government on 22 January 2021”. 

Meeting was attended by Mr Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed, Interior Minister, Mr Fawad Chaudhary, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Heads of Services’ Intelligence Agencies, Intelligence Bureau and Federal Investigation Agency.

 A comprehensive briefing followed by discussion on enhanced intelligence cooperation was held. Prime Minister appreciated the ongoing efforts and expressed satisfaction over the performance of National Intelligence Coordination Committee.

DNA

Islamabad: Additional Secretary Finance, Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,Safeer Ahmed, has said that Khyber Pakhtunkwa is the first province to revise the retirement age to properly manage pension liabilities.

The provincial government in this regard has introduced a contributory scheme for new employees to address the growing pension expenditure. He said this while addressing the launching ceremony of a report on ’Government pensions and future fiscal sustainability,’ organized by Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), in collaboration with Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) here on Wednesday.

Safeer Ahmed said that the future plans are in the pipeline for remaining employees to include an amount from their basic pay towards pensions. This is also in line with the practice in other countries.

Team Lead SEED Programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Hassan Khawar, was of the view that with the current growth rate of pensions and salaries payments, the government will run out of finance to carry out development expenditures in near future.

“All the provinces in Pakistan have unfunded pension liabilities while the world is managing pensions through contributory pension system,”  Khawar added saying that the transition towards defined contribution, however, is a difficult process. KP has taken the lead to change the pension rules and is also increasing pension for widows. From July onward, new employees will be engaged in defined contributory pension model, he concluded.

Dr Vaqar Ahmed, Joint Executive Director SDPI, presented a detailed note of the report furnished by SDPI and SEED and said that it is focusing on how public sector pension expenditures are endangering fiscal sustainability of the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while all the provinces are facing the same dilemma.

He explained that fiscal space available to the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for financing public investment is decreasing due to increasing pension liabilities that are large and unsustainable. He said that provincial tax revenues are not enough to fill the gap emerging from the decrease in federal transfers to the Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.  Moreover, the provincial government is taking effective steps to address the growing pension liabilities which include extending the minimum age for superannuation & early retirement; actuarial assessments to quantify current and future liabilities, automation of pension records and introducing the contributory pension programme for new employees.

The report recommended that through earmarking assets and transferring their return into a pension fund, having independent law to govern all aspects of the pension system, indexing of the pensions to revenue growth, giving an option to government employees to accept immediate partial payments in lieu of full future benefits, and simplification of the pension structure to reduce administrative costs would be some key steps to relieve fiscal pressures on the provincial government.

Aquil Raza Khoja, Member, Federal Pay and Pension Commission, appreciated the suggestions presented in the report and said that the effort could lead to a comprehensive financial pension reform effort across the country.

ISLAMABAD, JUN 23 (DNA) – Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday said as Pakistan had fulfilled 26 out of 27 action items of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), there was no justification to keep the country in the grey list.

The foreign minister in a statement mentioned that Pakistan had fulfilled maximum technical requirements regarding FATF. The five-day virtual meeting of the FATF began on June 21 in Paris, France and will public its findings on June 25.

Qureshi said India was making attempts to misuse the forum of FATF for political purposes and doing continuous propaganda against Pakistan. He said Pakistan took concrete steps to curb money-laundering and terrorist financing in national interest.

He pointed out that Pakistan “inherited” the problem of FATF Grey-listing from the previous government. However, he said, the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan did its best to get Pakistan out of the Grey list.

The foreign minister said the world was acknowledging Pakistan’s efforts in implementation of the FATF Action Plan. The steps taken by Pakistan included promulgation of strict laws against money laundering, and freezing the assets and filing of cases against banned organizations.

Resultantly, the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering improved Pakistan’s rating against money laundering and terror financing. Also, the Pakistan European Union Joint Commission welcomed Pakistan’s progress in implementation of FATF points.

The FATF is being employed by some of its member countries as a political coercion tool against Pakistan. Despite solid evidence of money laundering and terrorist funding being rampant in countries like India and Afghanistan, they are being spared due to political reasons.

The experts believe that due to geopolitical interests of FATF member countries, the platform is ignoring India’s money laundering activities including its expansive illegal money laundering network in the form of “hawala”.

Several Indian companies have been providing material support to ISIS, as per the UK-based Conflict Armament Research. According to the United State government’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Indian state-owned banks are involved in money laundering and financing acts of terrorism.

The situation at present demands from the international bodies such as the United Nation to look into misuse of the FATF platform and take India into account for money laundering and terror financing besides manipulating the FATF against Pakistan. = DNA

=======================

DNA

Islamabad: How the climate change is threating the coastal belt of Sindh was the subject under discussion in the webinar organized by the Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad in collaboration with the Centre of Coastal & Deltaic Studies (CCD), Thatta, and Centre for Environmental Sciences (CES), Jamshoro of University of Sindh.

In his opening remarks President IRS Ambassador Nadeem Riyaz stressed the need to rationalize our approach to deal effectively with the climate challenge so that we could minimize the harmful impacts of environmental changes particularly in the coastal areas of Sindh.

Ms. Aisha Khan, CEO, Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change (CSCCC), has called for a greater understanding of climate change vulnerabilities and their impact on coastal areas. While highlighting the causes of increasing coastal vulnerabilities, she underscored hydrological changes due to global warming as well as the changes in atmospheric pressure that resulted in frequent storms and cyclones, as the leading cause of rapid degradation of coastal belts. The situation is alarming as 10 percent of total population of Sindh is living in the vicinity of coastal areas along with heavy presence of industry that is around 40 percent, said Ms. Khan. Sindh’s coastal areas are more prone to cyclones as compared to Baluchistan, she added. She called for a holistic strategic plan that must include costal land reforms along with other important elements of coastal resilience such as increasing community capacity, and preserving nature. 

Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Mahar, Director at CCD was of the view that climate change has brought a significant change in the coastline morphology of Sindh’s coastal belts. Dr. Mahar added that reduction in sediments, wave activity, rise in the sea level, pollution & over exploitation of coastal resources and wind erosions were causing rapid degeneration of Deltas. He cautioned further decrease in agricultural activities, livestock and fisheries due to increase in sea intrusions which he said would ultimately impact upon the livelihood of the people living in and around the coastal belts. He urged scientific intervention, and enhanced collaboration between the stakeholders to mitigate the adverse of effect of climate change.

Dr. Amanullah, Asst. Professor at CES, apprised the audience that increased in the use of fossil fuels, and the deforestation was primarily causing the environmental changes in Pakistan. Though, country’s share in the rising global greenhouse gas emissions is minimal yet its impact is extremely consequential, he added. Sea intrusions, cyclones and coastal pollution were also echoed by Dr. Amanullah as the leading cause of coastal degradation along with the reduction in environmental flows, and exploitation of coastal resources. In his closing remarks, Dr. Amanullah called for strict compliance of national climate change policy introduced in the year 2012. Also, urged government, and NGOs to join hands for rehabilitation of ‘environmental refugees in Pakistan.