LUCKNOW : In a ruling in a 28-year-old case of Babri Masjid demolition, all 32 accused including senior politicians LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi have been given clean chit by a special CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation] court in Lucknow in India.

The 32 accused including BJP’s founder-members LK Advani, Uma Bharti, former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh (UP) Kalyan Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi and others were acquitted in Babri Masjid demolition case as the court found ‘not enough’ evidence against them.

The verdict was announced by Special Judge SK Yadav which stated that the demolition of Babri Masjid by ‘unlawful elements’ ‘was not pre-planned’ while the BJP politicians, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, had tried to stop it.

The judge observed that Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 was not a criminal conspiracy.

While the verdict being announced, strict security measures were made around the special court in Lucknow.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani and the patron-in-chief of Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC), said the top court in Pakistan gives verdict on rights of the minorities, whereas, the Indian Supreme Court is going to construct temple after demolishing a mosque. The lawmaker said that it was a wrong decision to construct a temple at the site of Babri Masjid.

This verdict was followed by the ruling of India’s Supreme Court in November last year which stated that the Hindus will get Ayodhya land and an alternate piece of land should be allotted to Muslims to balance the claims of the both communities.

The unanimous verdict on the long-running Ayodhya land dispute had been announced by a five-member bench of the Indian apex court headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The bench also comprised of Justices S. A. Bobde, D. Y. Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S. Abdul Nazeer.

The bench its decision observed that there was enough material to prove that the Babri Masjid was not constructed on a vacant land. There was a structure there and it was not an Islamic structure, bench said.

The Supreme Court bench had declared demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 as a violation of law. It also said that Sunni Waqf Board has not been able to establish its claim of adverse possession as evidence shows that Hindus were not barred from entering the premises before 1857.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, SEPT 30 – The Foreign Minister addressed the Group of Friends of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) at a high-level virtual meeting commemorating its 15^th anniversary. The event was co-hosted by the Foreign Ministers of Spain and Turkey, and chaired by the High Representative of UNAOC.

The Foreign Minister commended the work of the Alliance of Civilizations in advancing mutual respect for diverse cultures, traditions and religious beliefs. He reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to the promotion of inter-faith and inter-cultural harmony. Its recent manifestation was the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor, the world’s largest Gurdwara, allowing easy access to our Sikh brethren from the neighbourhood and all across the world to practice their religious rites.

The Foreign Minister cautioned that the sounds of ‘Clash of Civilizations’ were still reverberating around the world. He expressed anguish at the exploitation of COVID-related fears to stoke racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, stigmatization, and violence against vulnerable minorities, including in our own neighbourhood.

The Foreign Minister also highlighted the disturbing rise in Islamophobia, evident in the manifestos of far-right and neo-fascist parties, the politicization and censorship of the hijab, cow vigilantism, burning of the Holy Quran, deliberate vandalizing of Islamic symbols and holy sites, and attempts at incitement through the publication of hurtful caricatures. He urged the international community to build bridges and respect each other’s religions and beliefs.

The Foreign Minister reiterated the call made by Prime Minister Imran Khan to universally outlaw wilful provocation and incitement to hate and violence, and to designate an International Day to Combat Islamophobia.

The Alliance of Civilisations was established in 2005 as a leading UN platform for inter-cultural dialogue to promote understanding between diverse nations and communities. Pakistan is part of its “Group of Friends” which meets on a regular basis to discuss UNAOC’s current programmes, new initiatives and other activities.

DNA

Islamabad – Sept 30 :United Kingdom throughKarandaaz’s Risk Participation Facility with Meezan Bank, Pakistan’s first and largest Islamic bank is financing the development and production of a High Flow Nasal Oxygen (HFNO) device, which can also be used as a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) device, by Alsons Group, Pakistan’s premier precision engineering company. 

Karandaaz, funded by the United Kingdom’s Office of Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), has established a USD 50 million financing programme with Meezan Bank, which enables vendors and distributors of participating corporates and other eligible SMEs access to finance.

The HFNO device is very important for hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients with lung infections and also other serious respiratory diseases and has been approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), to help manage oxygen levels. The device is currently in the prototype production phase and commercial production is expected to begin by the end of this month. Alsons is also working to indigenously design and develop a ventilator, which once approved, will be locally in production in the near future.

Annabel Gerry, Country Director Development, British High Commission in Pakistan, said, “Pakistan’s response to the COVID-19 challenge has been commendable. The United Kingdom is pleased to be supporting Pakistan in its effort to tackle the pandemic. Our financing assistance through Karandaaz to support breathing devices will be an important element in easing the burden of serious disease in the country.”

Ali Sarfraz, CEO Karandaaz, said, “With more than 300,000 cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan and well over 25.6 million globally, the demand for breathing devices and ventilators has grown exponentially. This pioneering capacity enhancement by Alsons, as they have started producing breathing devices will help Pakistan meet its domestic demand for critical medical equipment and will also open an avenue for exports in highly lucrative international markets.”  

Navid Goraya, CIO Karandaaz said, “PKR 50 million financing under the Risk Participation Agreement with Meezan Bank will support Alsons financial requirement for capacity enhancement to produce ventilators for both local and export markets. The financing is well aligned with Karandaaz’s focus on the demonstration of sustainable investment models and job creation in Pakistan.”

Ariful Islam, Deputy CEO of Meezan Bank said, “Meezan Bank is committed to supporting organizations that are working to tackle the impact of Covid-19. We believe that this financing will help alleviate some of the pressures on the country’s healthcare sector. We are thankful to Karandaaz Pakistan for enhancing their partnership so the Bank could materialise this as a priority.”

Abdul Rehman Allana, Chairman Alsons Group said, “Alsons has over 65 years of manufacturing experience in the machining of mechanical components from bars, plates, forgings and castings; and CNC plastic injection moulding, stamping, and assemblies in the fields of hi-tech engineering, aerospace, automotive, oil & gas, and power and energy. We already had capital from Karandaaz and Meezan Bank risk participation facility injected into our auto parts manufacturing unit. With this new investment we are able to diversify in the medical equipment domain and are proud that we are playing a role in helping battle the pandemic.”

According to GlobalData, a data and analytics company that specializes in medical transaction and clinical information, about 880,000 ventilators are required globally amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the world has faced an acute shortage of essential medical supplies, especially ventilators that are used to pump oxygen into the lungs of patients experiencing breathing difficulties. To meet the financing gap in the medical supplies and equipment manufacturing sector in Pakistan, the State Bank of Pakistan has also expanded the scope of the Refinance Facility to Combat Covid-19 (RFCC) to manufacturing sector producing medical equipment and accessories. Karandaaz is also focusing to specifically mitigate the financing needs of medical, diagnostic, and pharmaceutical industries in the country and through direct investment in Excel Labs to carry out an estimated 500 tests daily and more than 10,000 tests a month.

DNA

BEIJING, Sep. 30  – Two Pakistani young men attended the first round of the final of the 19th “Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition for college students by taking online test and making vlogs.

A total of 100 participants across the globe enter the final competition and 30 winners will be selected on October 4 to enter the second round, Gwadar Pro reported on Wednesday.

“Chinese Bridge” Chinese Proficiency Competition is the most influential annual event for Chinese language learners around the world.

From the year of 2002, about 1.5 million college and middle school students from 154 countries have participated in the preliminaries, among which more than 6,500 have been invited to China for the finals. Furthermore, over 100 million TV viewers worldwide watch the competition each year.

Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s competition is held via Internet, and innovations have shown in the competition system. Currently, vlogging is definitely a ‘thing’. In the last three years it has become a phenomenon that has really taken off.

In the first final round of the competition, every participant is also required to submit a vlog themed by “My Stories of Learning Chinese”.

Haider Abbas from the Confucius Institute in Islamabad attended today’s competition. In the vlog, he speaks fluent Chinese to introduce this experience of learning mandarin and his wish to shoot a Kung Fu film in front of the beautiful ancient Khaplu Palacein his hometown Gilgit-Baltistan, reflecting a subtle cultural blend between Pakistan and China.

With the gradual deepening of Pak-Sino exchanges, Pakistanis have a good grasp of Chinese language are increasingly favored in job market.

According to incomplete statistics, as of May 2020, China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has created more than 75,000 jobs for local people in Pakistan.

Bilingual and multilingual talents will definitely give full play to the role of “bridge”, surmounting the barriers of language and culture, to promote Pak-Sino cooperation going higher and stronger.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, SEPT 30 – Pakistan strongly condemned shameful acquittal of the criminals responsible for demolishing the centuries-old Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992.Taking almost three decades to decide on the criminal act which was televised live and happened as a result of well-planned RathYatrasand on the instigation to mobs by the accused BJP, VHP and other leaders of Sangh Parivar, tells the world that the Hindutva-inspired Indian judiciary miserably failed to deliver the justice again.

The demolition of the mosque had resulted in BJP-led communal violence leading to thousands of killings. If there was a semblance of justice in the so-called largest ‘democracy’, the individuals,who had boasted of the criminal act publicly, could not have been set free.

This is yet another manifestation of the pliant judiciary under the extremist BJP-RSS regime in which extremist ‘Hindutva’ ideology takes precedence over all principles of justice and international norms.A wrong direction was earlier set by the Indian Supreme Court’s partisan verdict last year by handing over the Babri Masjid premises for building of Ram Mandir to the very Hindu parties which had demolished the historic mosque. The acquittal today is even against that verdict which had noted that the demolition was “an egregious violation of rule of law.”

These reprehensible developments with state complicity,coupled with RSS-BJP’s deep-rooted hatred against minorities, particularly Muslims, point to India’s fast descent into a Hindu Rashtra, where minorities have been relegated as second class citizens. Willful targeting of Muslims is rampant in today’s India — ranging from efforts to disenfranchise Muslims under anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the looming National Register of Citizens (NRC),and a well-organized and orchestrated pogrom of Muslims in New Delhi with state complicity in February this year, to other anti-Muslim measures like demonizing, dispossessing, marginalizing and subjecting Muslims to targeted violence. The BJP-RSS anti-Muslim agenda is most visible in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK) which remains under continued military siege and the BJP continues to implement its sinister policies to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory.

The RSS-BJP regime and the Sangh Parivar are responsible for the continued desecration and demolition of mosques in India in an organized manner as they did during the Gujarat massacre of 2002 and Delhi pogrom in 2020. The attacks by Hindu zealots on places of worship of Muslims have continued even during the Covid-19 pandemic. Emboldened by the flawed Ayodhya verdict, Hindu zealots supported by their RSS-patrons in power, are now seeking removal of the Shahi Idgah Masjid located next to Krishna Temple in Mathura as well as to give ownership of the entire 13.37 acres of land to the Krishna Temple complex.

Pakistan urges the Indian government to ensure safety, security and protection of minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship and other Islamic sites on which the Hindu extremists and zealots have laid claims.

The world community, the United Nations and relevant international organizations are expected to play their role in safeguarding the Islamic heritage sites in India from the extremist Hindutva regime and ensure protection of religious rights of minorities in India.