RAWALPINDI, OCT 19 (DNA) – Benedict de Cerjat, Ambassador of Switzerland to Pakistan & Afghanistan called on General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), on Monday.

During the meeting matters of mutual interest and regional security situation were discussed.

Thedignitary appreciated the bilateral relations enjoyed between both countriesand pledged to further improve relations with Pakistan.

Visiting dignitary acknowledged Pakistan’s contribution for conflict prevention in the region.=DNA

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KARACHI – PML-N’s vice-president Maryam Nawaz and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday addressed a press conference in Karachi — hours after retired Captain Mohammad Safdar was arrested.

“Police broke my room door at the hotel I was staying at in Karachi and arrested Capt Safdar,” Maryam had said via tweet early morning. According to her, she was sleeping when the police allegedly “barged in”.

At the press conference, she narrated the order in which the arrest took place.

“We reached home late after the jalsa. We were sleeping when early in the morning I thought I heard someone’s door being knocked on loudly. I woke up my husband and said the loud knocks were on our door.

“Safdar opened the door and police were standing outside who said we are here to arrest you. Safdar told them he’ll change and take his medicine, since he is diabetic, but they broke down the door and came inside.

“Safdar asked them to not enter since I [his wife] was inside but they did and arrested him,” she said.

The government is trying to give the impression that the Sindh government is behind this, said Maryam, “but Bilawal had called me and he was very angry”.

“Sindh chief minister also called me and said that he never expected that something like this would happen with me,” said Maryam. “I never thought even for a moment that PPP was behind this; they [PTI] thought they can drive a wedge between PDM — we know things like this would happen, we are ready as well.”

She defended the slogans raised during her visit to Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum on Sunday, saying: “What is wrong with repeating Quaid-i-Azam’s stance at his mausoleum? What is wrong with Madar-i-Millat (mother of the nation) slogans? No one chanted slogans for Nawaz Sharif or myself.”

“We all know who hates the vote ko izzat do (honour the vote) slogan […] We all know who these namaloom afraad (unidentified persons) are.”

Without naming anyone, she added: “Now that you have become zameeni makhlooq from khalayi makhlooq, you will do this?”

She denied that murder threats were issued while the slogans were being raised. “There were so many people, who would have heard this threat and why would anyone threaten to kill you?” she asked.

“If someone thinks they can scare Nawaz Sharif with such tactics, they are wrong. Instead of blackmailing me through my relatives, if you have the courage, come and arrest me.”

She said former military ruler retired Gen Pervez Musharraf made “blunder upon blunder” towards the end of his rule and added that the PTI government’s “situation will soon be the same”.

“I am not angry; whatever we do, we will do after giving it proper thought. We are not in a hurry,” Maryam said about her party’s future course of action.

‘Shameful act’

Rehman said the manner in which the arrest was carried out was shameful. “Is this the respect for a woman in our society?”

“This is a government of force, of oppression which does not consider itself bound to the law and the Constitution,” said Rehman alongside Maryam.

He said after only two public meetings by the opposition, the PTI-led government appears unnerved. “Their [PTI] days are numbered.”

Rehman, who is heading PDM, said that this arrest was “done through a conspiracy to create differences between PML-N and PPP” but the government failed to create a rift between the opposition parties.

“This attack is not on Maryam but on entire PDM. Maryam is a guest of the Sindh government […] PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has regretted this act.”

He demanded that Safdar should be released forthwith and those who took the law in their hands should apologise.

Addressing the press conference alongside Rehman, PPP leader Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said no society could allow such a “shameful” act.

He said the act of “barging into the room of members of a respectable family” while they were sleeping could not be condemned enough.

He said Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah was “kept uninformed” of this act, which showed the PTI government was “panicking”.

According to Ashraf, Bilawal and PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari had expressed sadness over the incident. He said Maryam was a guest of Sindh.

He said Bilawal had asked Shah to hold a “complete investigation” into the incident, adding that the details of the inquiry will be presented before the nation.

DNA

Islamabad October 19 – Karandaaz Pakistan, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has launched the second round of its annual challenge titled, Karandaaz Financial Inclusion for Women Challenge. Under this challenge, Karandaaz is inviting applications to support ideas that create financial products specifically directed at women consumers and improve overall financial inclusion for women in Pakistan.

The proposed ideas may be technological solutions that can result in large number of women using formal financial services or women centric financial products and channels for credit, savings, insurance, investments, etc. with an adoption strategy and addressing a specific need of a segment of women. Successful applicants will be awarded mentoring support and a grant of up to PKR 15 million per winner in order to pilot, test and scale their promising ideas.

Socio-economic empowerment and financial inclusion for women through formal channels is critical for the sustainable development of any economy. Under this challenge, Karandaaz has been supporting ideas of financial products and services that are gender-friendly and women-centric. The ideas can be from financial service providers, including digital financial service sector; financial institutions; microfinance institutions; microfinance banks; research and advisory firms; and other relevant market players. In Pakistan, women in particular lack the basic understanding and access when it comes to adoption of financial services due to various factors such as restricted mobility, non-availability of required documentation, less conducive utility of available options for women vs men, and poor accessibility due to low phone ownership and their marginalization in technology adoption etc.

Ali Sarfraz, CEO Karandaaz Pakistan said“As the world economies emerge out of the shadows of the pandemic, I think it is time for a wider discussion on gender and finance. There is credible evidence that an economy where women have a substantial financial status, are economically empowered, and are better equipped to deal with unforeseen challenges; households, businesses, farms, communities, and whole economies perform significantly better. Women must have agency over their finances and the ability to make decision related to saving, investing, and spending of their own and their household’s income. According to the last Findex data collected by The World Bank in 2017, women’s financial inclusion is alarmingly low at just 7% in Pakistan. Even if the situation has improved since, we have a long way to go and we hope that this challenge from Karandaaz and all our efforts combined will help the country improve this important indicator.”

Rehan Akhtar, Chief Digital Officer at Karandaaz Pakistan said“I believe that if we put enough focus on any problem, we can come up with a sustainable solution. Karandaaz Digital is committed to attack the problem of gender gap in financial inclusion and solve it. That is why we funded two great companies focused on women financial inclusion last year. Building on the success and response from the market, we are pleased to launch second round of Karandaaz Financial Inclusion of Women Challenge.  We are anticipating that we will receive ground breaking approaches to reduce the gender gap.”

Last year under the same challenge Karandaaz provided grants to 2 FinTechs; Oraan Tech Pvt. Ltd. and Techlets Pvt. Ltd and NRSP Microfinance Bank in another category. Speaking about the significance of Karandaaz support, Halima Iqbal, CEO Oraan Tech said, “We are glad that with Karandaaz support we have been able to initiate our mission of expanding financial access in the country, with a particular focus on boosting financial inclusion for women. Karandaaz’s support has helped us accelerate and widen our efforts to promote savings and financial literacy among women and we would encourage all innovators in digital financial services realm to take full advantage of this opportunity.”

Karandaaz Pakistan is accepting applications from interested entities till November 08, 2020. More information about the challenge can be found at https://fiwc.karandaaz.com.pk/

Karandaaz Pakistan is supporting small and medium entrepreneurs by increasing access to finance for unbanked populations by leveraging digital technologies, developing and disseminating evidence-based insights, and encouraging innovation in financial space.

PML-N’s vice-president Maryam Nawaz and JUI-F chief chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman are addressing a press conference in Karachi — hours after retired Captain Mohammad Safdar was arrested.

Early Monday morning, Captain Safdar was taken into custody by the police. According to Maryam, she was sleeping when the police allegedly “barged” into her and Safdar’s hotel room.

The arrest comes after a first information report (FIR) was registered against Maryam, Safdar and 200 others for violating the sanctity of the Quaid’s mausoleum. The complainant, Waqas Ahmed, alleged that the PML-N leaders, along with 200 of their followers, reached the Quaid’s grave where Safdar jumped over the grill surrounding it.

Workers and supporters of PML-N accorded a historic welcome to Maryam Nawaz when she arrived in the metropolis on Sunday afternoon to attend PDM’s second power show.

At the public meeting, she called Prime Minister Imran Khan a “coward” and accused him of using the armed forces for his face-saving and declaring opponents as traitors only to save his skin and hide incompetence.

ISLAMABAD, The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Deborah Lyons met the Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood in Islamabad on Monday.

In the meeting held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad, the foreign secretary reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the Afghan peace process and commitment to foster closer bilateral relations with Afghanistan.

Sohail Mahmood underlined that the International Community must remain economically engaged for the reconstruction and development of the war-torn Afghanistan.

The UNAMA Head Deborah Lyons arrived in Islamabad on Sunday for meetings with senior Pakistani officials to discuss developments in Afghanistan and the regional cooperation.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, OCT 19  – Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh chaired the meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet here at the Cabinet Division.

ECC approved in principle, the procedure for registration under the concessionary regime of electricity, RLNG and gas under the export oriented sectors (erstwhile zero-rated sectors) with instructions to ensure better targeting of the recipients of this subsidy . ECC decided that the previous list of manufacturers or exporters declared zero-rated by FBR (under condition (xii) of the SRO 1125) may be adopted in export oriented sectors. FBR may register new manufacturers or exporters of five export oriented sectors (erstwhile five zero rated sectors), in accordance with past precedents of STGO-117, under Commerce Division’s O.M No.1 (18)/2019 in manner specified by FBR. FBR, Petroleum Division and Power Division may formulate periodic rechecking/monitoring/withdrawal strategy for previous and newly registered units along with procedure to penalize in case of misrepresentation and misuse.

ECC had a detailed discussion on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Wheat in today’s session. The Ministry of National Food Security and Research briefed the ECC on different estimates gathered from Punjab, KP, Balcohistan and the Federal Capital. During the discussion, it also came to the fore that there was a need to increase the MSP to support the farmer and to grow enough quantities in the next sowing season.  The forum also discussed the need to rationalize the prices of inputs for making them more affordable to the farmers, to support the rural economy through various measures and to increase the supply of wheat in the market so that the flour prices are brought down. It was also discussed to have a better system for gathering data regarding the agriculture sector. ECC decided to form a committee with Syed Fakhar Imam, Dr. Hafeez Shaikh, Dr. Ishrat Hussain.Dr. Waqar Masood, Nadeem Baber, Abdul Razzaq Dawood, Asad Umar and Khusroo Bakhtiar as members, to thoroughly evaluate the proposal for the increase in the Minimum Support Price of wheat for the 20-21 crops. The committee shall also prepare a proposal on subsidy on fertilizers mainly DAP which may be offered as a part of the package for the farmers so that their input cost is reasonable/ reduced. It was also decided that the provinces should increase the wheat releases to stabilize/reduce the price of flour in the market. It was decided that the local governments will also be directed to specially monitor the prices of wheat and flour in the markets so that its prices may not be allowed to escalate for the common man. The committee shall present its proposal in the next meeting of ECC.

DNA

Islamabad, Oct 19 – All 20,000 masks donated by Beijing People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries (BPAFFC) and other Chinese NGOs, were distributed to local communities in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

All Pakistan-China Friendship Association (APCFA) received the masks after customs clearance and distributed the masks to local communities’ members including health workers in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. APCFA also distributed masks to pedestrians on streets who haven’t worn masks.

According to Gwadar Pro, recipients received the masks with much thankfulness and pleasure. They believe that those masks are useful and meaningful for Pakistani people, especially in the severe pandemic period.

APCFA wrote a letter to BPAFFC, saying “We are happy to receive from our friends in China – BPAFFC, Beijing Minhe Foundation for International Exchanges and the Beijing NGO Network for International Exchanges the timely donation of 20,000 medical masks as a token of people–to-people friendship and steadfast support to us in Pakistan.

We convey our special thanks to BPAFFC, the Minhe Foundation and the Beijing NGO Network for International Exchanges for their outreach and efforts to organize with the Embassy of Pakistan in Beijing and the Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority-NDMA the transportation of the masks on special NDMA flights despite the restricted air travel in the pandemic times.

It is a testimony of the two countries’ true friendship that is rooted in the hearts of their people.”

“We will continue to stand resolute and united in these demanding times, for together we are stronger,” wrote in the letter.

DNA

BEIJING, October 19  – With development of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), improvement of the infrastructure and the security situation, and especially when the novel coronavirus pneumonia is effectively controlled, Pakistan’s eco-tourism will definitely develop greatly in the days to come.

This was stated in a report published by Gwadar Pro on Monday. Quoting Prof. Cheng Xizhong, China’s former Defense Attache in South Asian countries, it was suggested that there are various ways and means to further develop the tourism sector.

First, Pakistan’s tourism industry is now at the participation stage of the development life cycle of tourist destinations, so a good job should be done in market segmentation and attraction of foreign adventure tourists.

Second, Pakistan’s security situation has gradually improved in recent years. The Pakistani government should consolidate its achievements in fighting terrorism and maintaining stability.

In particular, Pakistan’s security agencies should further strengthen the security protection of foreign projects and personnel, so as to give foreign tourists a strong sense of safety.

Third, resolute measures should be taken to control the spread of the second wave of COVID-19. Novel coronavirus pneumonia is a serious disaster in South Asia.

Now, more than 7.45 million confirmed cases have been diagnosed in India, and the death toll has exceeded 110 thousand. The number of confirmed cases will soon surpass that of the United States and India will become the most serious pandemic country in the world. Obviously,

India has completely failed to control the pandemic. Bangladesh, with a population of 160 million, has more than 380,000 confirmed cases with nearly 6000 deaths. Nepal, with a population of only 27 million, has nearly 130,000 confirmed cases.

By contrast, Pakistan’s prevention and control measures are very strong and effective. Especially with the implementation of smart lockdown and standard operating procedures (SOP), Pakistan has successfully managed to control the spread of COVID-19.

The pandemic has a fatal impact on the tourism industry. Therefore, the government of Pakistan should continue to take resolute and effective measures to prevent the new wave of pandemic spread.

Prof. Cheng Xizhong added, that he strongly believe that Pakistan has great potential to develop eco-tourism. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), in 2019, the contribution rate of tourism industry to Pakistan’s GDP was 5.9%, creating 3.9 million jobs.

According to my calculation, if Pakistan’s tourism industry develops to the level of China, its contribution rate to Pakistan’s GDP will increase by 5.1% to 11%, and additional 2.37 million jobs will be created.