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ECP to display revised lists of Senate candidates today

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ISLAMABAD : The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will display the revised lists of the candidates for Senate election today (Wednesday).

The candidates can withdraw their nomination papers until February 25 (tomorrow).Overall 170 nomination papers were submitted across the country for the upcoming Senate election.

The scrutiny of the nomination papers of candidates conducted between 17 to 18 February.

The candidates filed appeals against acceptance or rejection of nomination papers on 20th Feb and the appeals decided until February 23, as per the election schedule.

The revised list of candidates will be published today, while the candidates can withdraw their nomination papers till February 25 (tomorrow).

The Senate polls are scheduled to be held on March 3.

The polling for the election of 48 Senators will be held between 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the provincial assemblies as well as the National Assembly.

Total 52 incumbent members of the Senate will complete their six-year term and retire on March 11.

PM Imran holds one-on-one meeting with Sri Lankan president

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COLOMBO : Prime Minister Imran Khan held on Wednesday a one-on-one meeting with President of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the President Secretariat in Colombo.

During the meeting, the two discussed bilateral ties and the regional security situation, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

“Bilateral discussions with Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI began at President’s Office a short while ago,” the Sri Lankan president said in a Twitter post, sharing a picture of himself and Prime Minister Khan holding talks.

The prime minister along with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Commerce Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood, and Special Assistant Syed Zulfikar Bukhari arrived in Colombo on Tuesday on a two-day visit on the invitation of his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa.

While addressing a joint press conference along with his Sri Lankan counterpart after a one-on-one meeting the previous day, the prime minister invited Sri Lanka to promote its regional, economical ties through Pakistan. He underscored that Pakistan and Sri Lanka had shared a common problem terrorism.

“We shared a common problem of terrorism. Pakistan suffered the worst form of terrorism and rendered 70,000 sacrifices in war against terrorism… Sri Lanka also combated terrorism for 30 years and Pakistan played its part to help the country,” he stated.

China’s E-sports Association eager for collaboration with Pakistan

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BEIJING, Feb.24 : China’s Beijing E-sports Association eager for collaboration with Pakistan, Gwadar Pro reported on Wednesday.

China, USA and South Korea are dominating forces in the global E-sports arena, and now, electronic sports are in the process of being granted as an official sport for Pakistan.

According to the report, Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Fawad Hussain, confirmed that discussions regarding the legitimization for Pakistan’s E-sports among Pakistan Sports Board and Pakistan Science Federation are underway, while the memorandum has already been signed.

Moreover, the first Pakistan E-sport tournament is set to be held in March this year.

“I am glad to learn that Pakistan realized the huge economic benefits behind E-sports, and stimulated to greater efforts.
At the current stage, it will be incredible if Chinese and Pakistani organizations can host championships together.

We are definitely interested in the performance of Pakistani E-athletes”, Liu Zhen, Chairman of the Beijing E-Sports Association told Gwadar Pro.

The development of gaming and E-sports industry in Pakistan has been kept under the main-stream media’s radar for decades. General perceptions of gaming remain skeptical.

As the news came out, the majority of Pakistani netizens reacted positively, yet some posted their concerns under the Minister’s Twitter announcement as well.

“I am not surprised that such a proposal triggered public debates. Years ago, the majority of Chinese did not take gaming and E-sports seriously.” Liu Zhen reacted to the comments.

“I think people need to understand that, just like in every other sport, there are only a few who can ‘make it’ and become world-class athletes. It takes commitment, concentration and sadly yet most importantly, real talent, to become successful in this industry.

We turn down students who wish to be E-sports athletes almost everyday, and being an E-sport practitioner does not mean that you have to be a professional athlete. ”

Liu told the reporter that currently in China, many types of careers are generated from the E-sports industry. “Aside from being professional players, E-sports related jobs include shout caster, referee, event organizer, video producer, PR executive, audio engineer, customer/fan base manager, E-sport finance practitioner, etc.”

The report added, on July 23, 2020, the Ministry of human resources and social security in China jointly released the development report for new occupations online learning platform with Alibaba group, which indicates that there will be a 2 million career vacancy for E-athletes and 1.5 million for E-sports organizers in the next five years.

“There will always be a talent gap in this industry, we won’t say no to a true talent, regardless of their nationalities. We have many foreign athletes in different leagues.”Liu said，

The obstacles for China and Pakistan to cooperate in E-sports is that Chinese organizations do not have access to Pakistani official departments or leading enterprises in Pakistan.

Currently, China secured 2nd place in the global share of E-sports revenue and has a gaming population of over 500 million with 26 per cent of internet users watching E-sports monthly.

As the Chinese government recognized E-sports as a formal sport in 2003, E-sports became a demonstration of China’s soft power and international goodwill. Nowadays, Chinese athletes regularly claim victory on the global stage.

“The governmental level support is inseparable with the success of E-sports in China. Responding to national appeals, Tech giants in China invested tremendous amounts of money and manpower to support the growth of the industry.”Liu said.

“Moreover, as a result of China’s rapid development in science and technology, the penetration rate for mobile, PC and console devices among people surged. This also laid a solid base for the development of the E-sports industry.”

Pakistan, with 40 percent of its population within the ideal competitive gaming age group, is like a gold mine waiting to be explored，Liu said adding, “With a similar demographic pool, Pakistan can use China’s experience as a reference.

E-spotrs industry can contributes to Pakistan’s economic development, provides jobs for the locals and attracts foreign investment.”

Falsifying the Realities: Western Media’s Negativity on China and Xinjiang

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By Irfan Shahzad Takalvi

There certainly is a method in this madness. It is obvious. Vilify China, malign the country, its institutions and beyond that its very people, is the ostensible objective.

China’s ban on airing of BBC World has generated a lot of debate in recent days. Prior to that, however, the UK had also banned airing of CGTN. Yet, it was not only a tit-for-tat decision on part of Beijing.

Global media’s especially BBC’s reporting on China in general as well as Hong Kong and Xinjiang in particular need to be understood in proper context. What has been reported about Xinjiang, specially, is devoid of required journalistic standards of fact-fullness and transparency. It amounts to slander. It is based on flimsy and in some cases out-rightly concocted ‘evidence’.   In case of origin of COVID-19 and China’s response to pandemic as well, facts have been twisted, situation has been angled to give a certain, preconceived message.

Add to it the reports about situation in Hong Kong – where those vandalizing public and private properties and putting thousands of lives in danger are promoted as ‘heroes of democracy. One can easily decipher that this falls drastically short of standards and level of journalism expected from a media houses of global repute. Impartiality is lacking.

Why so? My understanding is that it is out of desperation. This is not limited to any one major Western media house but some indeed are doing it with noted intensity. As mentioned above, anti-Chinese ‘reporting’ is a common thread of propaganda that runs through almost all the media in the West. The objective is to demonize China, to present China in a negative light, to falsely show China as a nation that has no regard for rights of people, including its own.

This desperation is a result of failing to digest China’s miraculous peaceful rise, and in recent months, failure to digest China’s splendid successful effort against pandemic. It is aimed at creating an image of China that ignites doubts in the minds of people in increasing numbers of countries that are flocking to China as partners of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Xinjiang, again, is an example worth mentioning. Xinjiang, undoubtedly, is bridge between China and the Muslim World – more so between China and Pakistan. What the West is trying to do is to turn this bridge into a wall. Western media is serving as the vanguard in this attack, in the form of misinformation and disinformation. That is how BRI, and its flagship projects such as CPEC, are being targeted – for sabotage.

The reality is that Xinjiang of today is a peaceful, fast developing, increasingly open region of China. I have had chances to visit Xinjiang a number of times over past about 13 years, repeatedly. I have met people of all ethnic backgrounds and all walks of life. It would not be an overstatement to say that Xinjiang’s people are living happy, content lives.

Yes, there may always a segment of society in every country which is never happy with their government and state’s policies. No country and region is an exception, and so may be Xinjiang of China. But one has to talk about the majority. My own direct observation is that 99.9% of people are happy being the citizen’s of a rising global power; they are confident about the way their nation is developing continuously and their lives are being transformed, towards the better.

Let us make no mistake that the way China has dealt with extremism and terrorism has brought peace and stability not only to Xinjiang, but it has also contributed positively to peace and stability in the whole region of Central and west Asia. Furthermore, vocational training and educational centers – what the Western media so falsely labels as ‘camps’ – have changed the lives of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands of families towards better. While reporting about Xinjiang, Western media so conveniently and unprofessionally highlight the concocted stories of few individuals whose sole purpose is to garner undue sympathies, seek asylum and get visas – so on and so forth. And it is not limited to Western media alone: the same we see increasingly elsewhere.

It is a professional duty of independent and impartial media that China’s story – be it response to pandemic or effective de-radicalization, anti-terror and anti-extremism policies – is reported that way it exactly is. Importantly, how China’s policies contribute towards regional and global peace, stability and development must be told. Transformation of people’s lives, and their socio-economic development, particularly in Xinjiang, should be reported about as those actually are. Examples of inter-ethnic harmony must be shown to the world. China’s transnational development and connectivity initiatives that are making hugely positive impact on the lives of partner countries must be reflected to the world.

The author is founding president of Eurasian Century Institute (ECI), Islamabad, which also runs a center dedicatedly studying Xinjiang. He may be accessed at [email protected]

COVID-19: Pakistan records 50 deaths, 1,196 cases in a day

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ISLAMABAD : Pakistan has recorded 50 more coronavirus-related deaths in past 24 hours, surging the overall death toll to 12,708.

According to the latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the COVID-19 has claimed 50 more lives and 1,196 fresh infections were reported.The total count of active cases is 23,665.

In the past 24 hours, as many as 1,964 patients have recovered from the virus in a day and 1,632 patients are still in critical condition.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), with fresh inclusion of the infections in the country the national tally of cases now currently stands at 574,580.

A total of 38,453 tests were conducted across the country during this period. Overall 538,207 people have recovered from the deadly disease so far while 8,790,986 samples have been tested thus far.

E-PAPER FEB 24

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CLICK FOR E-PAPER FEB 24

PSL 2021: Peshawar Zalmi beat Multan Sultans by six wickets

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KARACHI, FEB 23 – Peshawar Zalmi are 133-1 at the end of 15 overs in pursuit of the 194-run target set by Multan Sultans — the highest so far in the tournament this year — in their Pakistan Super League (PSL) 6 fixture at the National Stadium in Karachi on Tuesday.

Kamran Akmal and Imamul Haq opened the Zalmi innings, making quick work and scoring 43 off 30 deliveries.

The productive partnership was broken in the 7th over as Akmal was caught lbw by leg-spinner Usman Qadir

Earlier, Zalmi won the toss and chose to field first.

Mohammad Rizwan and Chris Lynn opened the innings for the Multan franchise but Lynn got caught out by Haider Ali off Mohammad Irfan’s ball in only the second over. Vince, who replaced Lynn at the pitch, hit a couple of fours, trying to drive up the score after a slow start.

Just as the Rizwan-Vince partnership started to look dangerous for Zalmi, Rizwan got out at 41, caught by Imamul Haq off Mohammad Imran’s ball at the start of the 11th over.

The Multan captain had made 71 runs in the last match.

Wahab Riaz’s over proved costly for Zalmi as Sohaib Maqsood hit three consecutive boundaries.

Vince consolidated his position on the pitch, scoring a half-century off 39 balls — his third fifty in PSL. Despite brilliant batting, Vince was unable to reach a century, caught out at 84 in the 19th over.

Pakistan, Sri Lanka ink MoUs to strengthen cooperation

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COLOMBO, FEB 23 – Pakistan and Sri Lanka on Tuesday signed multiple Memorandums of Understandings (MoUs) in various sectors at Temple Trees in Colombo.

The MoUs were related to commerce, investment, education, science and technology, and industrial cooperation.

The MoUs signed by Departmental Representatives from both Countries in the presence of Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Earlier, both Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Sri Lankan Counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa held a one-on-one meeting and discussed issues of bilateral and regional significance.

The two prime ministers later led delegation-level talks, covering all areas of Pakistan-Sri Lanka bilateral cooperation including trade and investment, health and education, agriculture and science & technology, defence and security, and culture, and tourism.

MD PSEB Osman Nasir, GM North PTCL Mr. Suleman hold meeting

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RAWALPINDI, FEB 23 (DNA) – Meeting of Standing Committee of ICT chaired by Col Aziz was observed today. MD PSEB Mr. Osman Nasir and GM North PTCL Mr. Suleman  were the special invitee in the meeting.

SVP Mr. Osman Ashraf discussed different aspects of collaboration with PSEB and PTCL. Both organisations agreed to offer their support to each other to increase trade in this sector.=DNA

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Statements of British MPs on rising human rights violations in IIOJ&K lauded

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ISLAMABAD, FEB 23 (DNA) – Chairman Jammu & Kashmir Salvation Movement (J&KSM) Altaf Ahmed Bhat and President TeK UK Raja Fahim Kayani welcomed the statements of British MPs for showing their concern about the rising human rights violations in IIOJ&K saying following the statement of the UN rapporteurs, world and International Bodies should come forward to settle the IIOJ&K dispute once for all as per the aspirations of Kashmiri people to make South Asia peaceful.

The United Nations special rapporteurs have confirmed the international and widespread concern about the unilateral removal of the special territory status in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

This revocation has led to demographic change, which could ultimately curtail minority rights in IIOJK.

British Parliament members hailed the special rapporteurs statement.

Andrew Gwynne MP Chairman of Labour Friends of Kashmir said that we must all accept the UN experts’ observations and restore the special status and protect the human rights of minority communities in IIOJK.

Sam Tarry MP said that we should all pay attention to what UN experts have said in Kashmir.

The revocation of Article 370 has led to demographical change which will result in the curtailment of human rights of minority communities.

We would like to see peace in the region but this will not be achieved by unilateral actions without the involvement of the wishes of the Kashmiri people. The Kashmiri people are the main contestants in this conflict and their voices must be heard.

Naz Shah MP also commended the UN statement on IIOJK saying following the statement global community should act swiftly to stop human rights abuses in IIOJK.

Naz Shah further said UN resolutions must be implemented on IIOJK to give the right of vote to the Kashmiris to decide about their political future without any pressure

Lord Wajid Khan welcomed the fact that statement made by the UN rapporteurs about demographic change in IIOJK. This undermines the human rights of minorities. The number of domicile certificates from outside Kashmir is changing the population and the government has unilaterally removed protection for those from the territory. The international community is being made aware of if what human rights abuses are taking place in IIOJK.

Julie Ward, a former Labour MEP and human rights champion, welcomed the statement from UN human rights experts who expressed concern over India’s decision to end Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy. The enactment of new laws threatens to curtail the political participation of Muslim and other minorities in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir, as well as increasing discrimination in important matters such as employment and land ownership.

Ms Ward added that India’s attempts to alter the IIOJ&K demographic by amending the domicile law is a violation of UNSC resolutions, and international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention.

Phillip Bennion, a Liberal Democrats MEP and Vice-Chair of Human Rights Committee for Liberal International said “ On August 5 , 2019, the government of India unilaterally revoked the special autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, despite clear conditions in the accession agreement against such unilateral action. In May 2020 they passed new Domicile Rules which removed the special protections of the territory. This week UN Special Rapporteurs have expressed concerns regarding demographic change and the special status of the disputed region. Let us hope that these concerns will be taken further and that the UN Security Council will now put real pressure on India to uphold human rights in Jammu and Kashmir.

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