Beijing : China has urged the United States to hold itself to the highest standards and support the World Health Organization’s work with real actions.
A spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in the United States said his country welcomes the return of the U.S. to the World Health Organization.
The spokesperson said what the United States has done in recent years has “severely undermined” multilateral institutions, including the WHO, and damaged international cooperation on fighting COVID-19.
Lahore : Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar said that under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan the journey of development is successfully going on in order to make Pakistan a more prosperous country.
Talking to media persons during his visit to Cholistan, he said that two hundred million rupees have been released for the compilation of water supply projects for the people of the Cholistan desert.
He said that Local Government Ordinance has been promulgated and local government elections will be held very soon in Punjab.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister inaugurated Double Decker Bus Service started in Bahawalpur for the sightseeing in the city. He purchased its first ticket costing three hundred rupees. He said that such bus service will also be launched in other cities of the province.
He said that there is a lot of potential for tourism in Punjab and we will make the province as a hub of tourism activities in the country.
Punjab Chief Minister also attended the opening ceremony of Cholistan Desert Jeep Rally and inaugurated a tourist resort established by the Punjab Tourism Development Corporation in Cholistan Desert.
GUJRANWALA : PTI leader and singer Abrar ul Haq’s nephew got injured Sunday morning after the family’s car met a traffic mishap owing to dense fog causing poor visibility.
Abrar ul Haq, his nephew and other family members were in the vehicle when it crashed into concrete blocks placed on road near Gujranwala’s Gakhar Mandi. The singer and other family members reported safe with no fatalities in the mishap, according to the rescue officials.The nephew of the singer was shifted to hospital for medical attendance where he has been declared to be out of danger.
Fog prevailed in plain areas of Punjab this morning. Motorway section M-3 and M-4 were closed for vehicular traffic due to poor caused by the fog.
In another fog-related incident, two buses collided head on near Wahindo leaving 18 passengers injured.
Moreover, a Coaster overturned in Narowal leaving eight people including women and children injured.
It is to be mentioned here that the winter brings with it foggy mornings and poor visibility on roads in Punjab, Sindh and other parts of the country resulting in traffic accidents and disruption in flight and train schedules.
ISLAMABAD : Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday took a swipe at the PPP saying it has been opposing open balloting for the coming Senate elections to keep up its vote-purchase tradition.
Taking to his official Twitter handle, he quoted Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah as saying the PPP would win ten Senate seats from the province. “Obviously, this would be possible only when you buy other party members,” he said.“This is the tradition that the PPP opposes open vote and insists on secret balloting to keep up,” Fawad Chaudhry said and called for the Supreme Court to make the chief minister’s statement part of its proceedings on the presidential reference.
With 48 seats of the upper house of Parliament up for grabs, the Senate elections are slated for March 3. Sindh and Punjab will elect 11 members each, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 12 each, and Islamabad two.
Islamabad : The Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) has further explored the prospects of launching multilateral projects under the umbrella of Belt and Road Initiative, with the Ambassador of China to Pakistan, H.E. Mr. Nong Rong. A Founding Member of COMSATS, China, has representation at all statutory bodies of COMSATS through its Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST); and Centres of Excellence – the International Center for Climate and Environment Sciences (ICCES) and the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology (TIB).
During a meeting the Chinese Ambassador held in the Embassy, a four-member delegation of COMSATS, led by Dr. S.M. Junaid Zaidi, Executive Director COMSATS met the newly appointed ambassador of China. COMSATS’ delegation included Maj. Gen. (R) Muhammad Tahir, Advisor (China Desk); Mr. Tajammul Hussain, Advisor (Programmes); and Engr. Qaiser Nawab, Assistant Director (Programmes). Held at the Embassy of China in Islamabad, the meeting was also attended by Mr. Jia Wei, First Secretary on Science and Technology, and Ms. Bao Zhong, Director Political and Press Section at the Embassy.
Felicitating H.E. Mr. Nong Rong on assuming charge of Ambassador of China to Pakistan, Dr. Zaidi apprised him of COMSATS – China collaboration. The Ambassador was apprised that COMSATS and Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology have also signed an agreement on ‘Cooperation Initiative on Silk Road of Innovation’ for ST&I cooperation for sustainable development.
The Ambassador was also acquainted with COMSATS’ programmes and activities in 27 COMSATS Member States and 24 Centers of Excellence. COMSATS’ recent collaboration with the Torch Hi-tech Industry Development Centre of the Chinese Science and Technology minisry, and the Chinese Alliance of International Science Organizations (ANSO) were also noted.
H.E. Mr. Rong thanked Dr. Zaidi for apprising him on the role COMSATS is playing for the promotion of Science and Technology and pledged full support of his office for the realization of various matters discussed during the meeting.
The meeting with the Ambassador resulted in acquainting him about COMSATS’ programmes and activities as well as in exploring new avenues of cooperation with China Embassy. It wasassured that Chinese government will play a catalytic role for institution-building (research and academic institutions as well as S&T parks) in COMSATS’ Member States as well as initiating joint programmes with Ministry of S& T China and ANSO.
WASHINGTON : The U.S. Senate acquitted Donald Trump on Saturday of inciting the mob that stormed the Capitol last month, sparing him from conviction in his second impeachment trial in a year despite broad condemnation of his role in sparking the deadly siege.
The Senate voted 57-43 in favor of convicting the former president, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to do so, on a charge that he incited the insurrection that left five people dead, forced lawmakers to flee, and put his own vice president in danger while overseeing the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election win.Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted “not guilty,” in the trial, offered scathing remarks about Trump after the verdict.
“There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” he said. “The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”
In the vote, seven of the 50 Senate Republicans joined the chamber’s unified Democrats in favoring conviction after a week-long trial in the same building ransacked by Donald Trump’s followers after they heard him deliver an incendiary speech on Jan. 6.
During the trial, senators viewed graphic video of the assault, including scenes of a police officer screaming in pain as he was crushed in a door, the mob chanting “hang Mike Pence” as it hunted the vice president, and lawmakers having near-misses with rioters as security officers hurried the elected officials into hiding for their own safety.
Trump left office on Jan. 20, so impeachment could not be used to remove him from power. But Democrats had hoped to secure a conviction to hold him responsible for the siege and set the stage for a vote to bar him from serving in public office again.
“The bottom line is that we convinced a big majority in the Senate of our case,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, the lead Democratic prosecutor from the House of Representatives.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Republicans’ refusal to hold Trump accountable would be remembered “as one of the darkest days and most dishonorable acts in our nation’s history.”
The swift end to the trial allows Biden to move forward with his agenda to bolster the economy with a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill and further confirmation of his cabinet members.
But divisions on Capitol Hill and around the country over his controversial predecessor will remain.
“This has been yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country,” Trump said in a statement after his acquittal.
Trump, 74, continues to hold a grip on his party with a right-wing populist appeal and “America First” message. The businessman-turned-politician has considered running for president again in 2024.
Republicans saved Trump in the Feb. 5, 2020, vote in his first impeachment trial, when only one senator from their ranks – Mitt Romney – voted to convict and remove him from office.
DEEPLY DIVIDED NATION
The acquittal unfolded against a backdrop of gaping divisions in a pandemic-weary United States along political, racial, socioeconomic and regional lines. The trial provided more partisan warfare even as Biden has called for unity.
Seventy-one percent of American adults, including nearly half of all Republicans, believe Trump was at least partially responsible for starting the Capitol assault, but only about half of the country thought he should be convicted of inciting insurrection, according to an Ipsos poll conducted for Reuters.
Trump is only the third president ever to be impeached by the House of Representatives – a step akin to a criminal indictment – as well as the first to be impeached twice and the first to face an impeachment trial after leaving office. But the Senate still has never convicted an impeached president.
Democrats forged ahead with impeachment despite knowing it could overshadow critical early weeks of Biden’s presidency.
The House approved the single article of impeachment against Trump on Jan. 13, with 10 Republicans joining the chamber’s Democratic majority. That vote came a week after the pro-Trump mob stormed the neoclassical domed Capitol, interrupted the formal congressional certification of Biden’s victory, clashed with an overwhelmed police force, and invaded the hallowed House and Senate chambers.
‘FIGHT LIKE HELL’
Shortly before the rampage, Trump urged his followers to march on the Capitol, repeated his false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud, and told them that “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
During the trial, nine House lawmakers serving as trial managers, or prosecutors, urged senators to convict Trump to hold him accountable for a crime against American democracy and to prevent a repeat in the future. They said Trump summoned the mob to Washington, gave the crowd its marching orders and then did nothing to stop the ensuing violence.
The defense lawyers accused Democrats not only of trying to silence Trump as a political opponent they feared facing in the future but of attempting to criminalize political speech with which they disagreed.
The words Trump used, they argued, were no different than those regularly employed by Democrats.
Donald Trump’s acquittal does not end the possibility of other congressional action against him such as a censure motion, but Pelosi said such a measure would let Republicans who voted against conviction “off the hook.”
McConnell said Trump was now a private citizen and suggested he could still face criminal prosecution for his acts. “He didn’t get away with anything. Yet,” McConnell said.
Romney voted for conviction on Saturday along with fellow Republicans Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, Pat Toomey, and Lisa Murkowski.
“His actions to interfere with the peaceful transition of power – the hallmark of our Constitution and our American democracy – were an abuse of power and constitute grounds for conviction,” Collins said after the vote.
ISLAMABAD : The coronavirus claimed 31 more lives as another 1,404 people tested positive for the deadly disease during the past 24 hours across Pakistan.
According to the latest update released by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 1,404 new infections surfaced after 34,475 samples were tested during this period. The positivity ratio of Covid-19 cases was recorded at 4.07 per cent.The countrywide death toll has jumped to 12,307 while the total number of confirmed cases stands at 563,029.
The number of active cases has come down to 25,635 as over 523,000 people have recuperated from the disease.
On Saturday, Minister for Planning and Development and Head of National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) Asad Umar said that they had allowed the private sector to import COVID-19 vaccine so that Pakistanis who are in haste could be immunised.
He said that the government has decided to vaccinate the public against COVID-19 free of cost. “We could not bring vaccine for the entire population immediately as it will take some time,” he added.
LONDON – A group of UK lawmakers on Tuesday appealed to the British government to increase pressure on Israel to stop its forced evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem.
Over 80 MPs from different parties, from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, asked the UK’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in a letter to “make clear to its Israeli counterpart that relations cannot continue as normal in the event of such transgressions”.
“As you are well aware, the forcible transfer of an occupied population is a grave violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, as is the transfer of an occupier’s population into occupied territory, which includes East Jerusalem,” the letter read.
“All measures should be considered including reducing diplomatic engagement and banning trade in settlement products in full conformity with international law obligations in order to challenge the settler economy that profits from the occupation,” it added.
Adding that Israel’s settlements are illegal, MPs said: “Such a step is not a sanction but a measure designed to ensure that the UK does everything in its power to ensure it does not assist in such serious breaches of international law.”
Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem, have been under Israeli occupation since 1967. The occupation is considered illegal under international law.
ISLAMABAD: British-Pakistani lawyer Karim Khan has been elected the next chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), the court’s governing body announced on Saturday.
Khan, 50, currently heads a United Nations investigation into war crimes committed by Daesh in Iraq.
He is succeeding Gambian judge Fatou Bensouda and will begin his nine-year term at the court in the Hague in June.
“Mr. Karim Khan (United Kingdom) has been elected in the second round as the next ICC Prosecutor. Warm congratulations!” O-Gon Kwon, president of the Assembly of States Parties of the ICC, said in a Twitter post.
Khan has previously worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
At the ICC he will decide the next steps on investigations into war crimes in Afghanistan and the i2014 Israel-Palestinian conflict in Gaza.
The ICC is the only permanent intergovernmental body that investigates crimes against humanity.
ISLAMABAD: The UK parliament has relaunched an inquiry into its government’s aid to Pakistan to assess the transparency and effectiveness of the development funds that amount to over £300 million a year.
The inquiry started in June 2019, but was not completed as the parliament was soon dissolved. It is now carried out by the International Development Committee (IDC) — a select committee of comprising 11 members of the House of Commons.
Pakistan has been the largest recipient of British development and humanitarian aid under the Department for International Development (DFID) in the past five years. In 2019-20, it was estimated to amount to £302 million.
The IDC announced on Thursday that it would assess the UK government’s development policy towards Pakistan, considering its strategic focus, coherence, performance and value for money.
“The IDC chose to re-launch the inquiry looking at UK aid in Pakistan because of its sheer scale — over £300m a year — and it’s the largest bilateral aid program,” Chloe Jago, a senior media and communications officer at the IDC, told Arab News through email on Friday.
“It will offer an interesting case study for how departments talk to each other in spending the aid budget,” Jago said, adding the public submissions will help shape the direction of the inquiry and offer evidence as to where the IDC would like to probe during the oral evidence sessions.
To a question about the inquiry’s possible impact on the aid flow to Pakistan, Jago said that it would depend on evidence as all inquiries and resulting reports are “always evidence-based.”
“Once all the submissions and evidence are collected, the committee will only then make recommendations to the government on policy,” she said.
The deadline for written submissions from the public is April 1, 2021.
Mohammad Tahseen, executive director of the South Asia Partnership Pakistan organization, said the IDC would look into different aspects of aid utilization in Pakistan and then submit a final report to the parliament.
“The DFID already has very stringent measures in place in Pakistan to ensure transparent and effective use of the aid,” he told Arab News.
“Therefore, I don’t see any disclosure regarding misuse of funds or corruption coming through this inquiry.”
