Sydney: David Warner and Pat Cummins were among six top names to opt-out of Australia’s white-ball tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh while Steve Smith will be missing injured.
Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Jhye Richardson and Kane Richardson also withdrew, leaving coach Justin Langer without many of his best players four months before the Twenty20 World Cup.
Smith has an elbow injury, so the decision to leave him out was made on medical grounds.
Meanwhile, veteran Dan Christian has returned to the squad and could play his first match for Australia since October 2017.
The squad, captained by Aaron Finch, will leave for the West Indies on June 28 and play five T20s in St Lucia followed by three one-dayers in Barbados.
There is still some doubt over the Bangladesh leg, Cricket Australia said, but if confirmed will comprise five T20s.
Australia squad: Aaron Finch (capt), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Riley Meredith, Ben McDermott, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa
ISLAMABAD: Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kazakhstan to Pakistan Yerzhan Kistafin presented copies of his credentials to the Director General of the Protocol Division of the MOFA of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Hassan Afzal Khan.=DNA
During the visit dates of the visit by Saudi crown prince Prince Muhammad Bin Salman would also finalized
M Haider
ISLAMABAD : Foreign Minister of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, is expected to pay a two day official visit to Pakistan next month.
The visit would be a follow up of the Prime Minister Imran Khan visit to KSA last month during which bilateral cooperations and ties would be reviewed.
The dates of the visit by Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud are being worked out through diplomatic channels. Diplomatic sources confided to this scribe that during the visit progress on implementation on agreements and MOUs signed during PM Imran Khan visit to KSA would be reviewed.
The Saudi foreign Minister would meet the Prime Minister Imran Khan and hold formal talks with his counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the Foreign Ministry.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud during his talks with Pakistan leaders would review ties between the two countries, and the situation in the Middle East including Yemen and Palestine. and in the region would also be discussed.
There would follow up discussion on the agreement reached on various issues between the leadership of two countries last month.
Sources said during the visit dates of the visit by Saudi crown prince Prince Muhammad Bin Salman would also finalised. Prime Minister Imran Khan had invited the crown prince to visit Pakistan during his visit to kingdom last month.
Islamabad : Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib has said the PML (N) and the PPP have yet not submitted details of their bank accounts with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
Talking to the media persons outside the ECP in Islamabad on Wednesday, he said the two parties have no record from where they received the funds.
The Minister of State asked the scrutiny committee of the ECP to expedite the process of scrutiny of their accounts.
Farrukh Habib lamented the attitude of the opposition parties during the session of National Assembly yesterday. He said Malika Bukhari’s left eye cornea got injured due to the attack of the opposition.
He questioned what kind of attitude the opposition is fostering in the house.
The Minister of State said the PML (N) has a history of attacking the institutions in the past including the Supreme Court and the National Accountability Bureau.
Farrukh Habib said the opposition is neither interested in legislation nor is ready to listen to the budget speeches.
Islamabad: TheMinistry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, in collaboration with Huawei Technologies Pakistan launched the much awaited ‘1000 Government Employee Training Program’ in a virtual event attended by the Federal Secretary of IT & Telecommunication, Dr. Muhammad Sohail Rajput, Huawei Middle East VP, Mr.Spacelee, CTO Huawei Enterprise Solutions Middle East, Mr. Faisal Ameer Malik along with Senior Managers and Directors from MoITT, NTC, NITB, NADRA and other representatives from both collaborating organizations.
According to the program, a 1000 of the ministries officers would be given ICT knowledge training by Huawei’s industry leading teams in different batches to help increase their skills in the fields of artificial intelligence, 5G , IoT, cloud technology, big data, block chain, and communications technology. A total of 1000 government employees are expected to have been trained by December. The first batch of training starts today in a 5 day intensive training program that willassist them in developinga more robust understanding of technological trends. This will be achieved by virtual lectures and demonstrations during the course of the week.
The training program has long been in the works with subsequent meetings between theMinister for IT and Telecommunication, Mr. Syed Amin Ul Haque and President of Huawei Middle East Region, Mr. Charles Yang back in March, after which the Huawei Delegation led by Mr. Spacelee met with President ArifAlvi who called for promoting knowledge-economy and digitalization of Government organizations to enhance the efficiency of work and service delivery.
During the opening ceremony, Federal Secretary of IT stated, “Huawei is one of the leading technology giants in the world and has a large footprint in Pakistan.We can all agree that artificial intelligence, big data etc. is the future. With technical support from state of the art companies like Huawei, we can train our youth to introduce digitization in Pakistan, this training being a crucial step in that direction. ”
Huawei Middle East VP, Mr. Spacelee, further reiterated, “We are very glad to collaborate with the Ministry of IT and Telecommunication for this training program, to provide training in areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud technology, big data, block chain, and communications technology. E-governance needs skilled ICT government staff and can be considered one of the most important pillars of the Digital Pakistan Initiative.”
With ICT technologies developing quickly and becoming integrated into more and more aspects, the digital economy has become an innovating and wide-reaching economy. Digital transformation has become a necessity, and a call to action for many countries.
Islamabad : Prime Minister Imran Khan says the government is taking measures to ensure investment in export industry in the Special Economic Zones established under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
He was presiding over a review meeting on foreign investment in export industries under CPEC, in Islamabad.
The Prime Minister said export industry will provide employment, increase economic volume and ensure valuable foreign exchange, as well as access for “Made in Pakistan” brand to global markets.
Imran Khan said completion of China Pakistan Economic Corridor is one of top priorities of government.
The meeting was briefed in detail about the comprehensive strategy for establishment of export industries in the Special Economic Zones.
Meanwhile, talking to parliamentarians and public representatives from Mianwali in Islamabad, Prime Minister Imran Khan said uplifting backward class of the society is first priority of the government.
He said steps are being taken to provide basic health and education facilities and equal development opportunities to the general public.
The Prime Minister directed the public representatives to prepare a plan on proposed projects for Mianwali.
He said farmers will be provided easy agricultural loans and technical training through Kisan Card and health insurance through health cards. He said the government will also provide direct subsidy to farmers occupying up to 12.5 acres agricultural land.
Islamabad : Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser has taken notice of the abusive slang and non-parliamentary attitude of parliamentarians from both treasury and opposition benches in the House.
In a tweet, he said the attitude of the members on both sides was disgraceful and disappointing.
The Speaker said an investigation will be carried out into the incident while the members who used the non-parliamentary language would not be allowed to enter the House today.
Israel has launched air strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.
According to Hamas-affiliated media, no one was injured in the airstrikes.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip have protested against a “provocative” march by Israeli far-right nationalists through occupied East Jerusalem.
Islamabad : Minister for Revenue and Finance, Shaukat Tarin has warned that strict action will be taken against non-tax payers and filers who hide their taxable money.
In an interview with a private television channel, he said the Federal Board of Revenue has been allowed to conduct third party audit against the persons who are deliberately trying to hide their taxable money.
The Finance Minister assured that no one would be allowed to harass the business community seeking help from the Federal Board of Revenue for paying proper taxes.
ISLAMABAD: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has claimed 46 more lives over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally of fatalities to 21,874 on Wednesday.
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, the country’s caseload climbed to 944,065 after 1,038 more people tested positive for the deadly virus during this period.
The new infections emerged when 42,113 tests were conducted with positivity rate recorded at 2.46 per cent, the NCOC said.
So far 878,740 people have recovered their health back from the deadly virus, while 2,676 are still said to be critical across the country.
In a bid to help inoculate people who need to travel abroad for education or jobs, the federal government had revised guidelines for the AstraZeneca vaccine and allowed citizens who are 18 or older to get the jab.
According to new guidelines issued by the National Ministry of Health, the vaccine shot could be given to the male aged 18 years or above, and the women above 40 years of age.
As per guidelines, people waiting to travel abroad would be given AstraZeneca jab while the government has restricted the use of AstraZeneca vaccine in people below 18 years of age.
