Deteriorating health was just an excuse for Nawaz to flee the country: Shibli
ISLAMABAD, SEP 22 (DNA) – Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz has said that Nawaz Sharif fled the country under the fake pretext of falling health, his money laundering has caused immense damage to Pakistan.
According to details, a Federal Cabinet meeting was held in Islamabad, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan, in which a 17-point agenda was discussed.
Babar Awan and Shahzad Akbar briefed the meeting on the draft of women and children protection bill. The Prime Minister directed that the bill should immediately be brought before the Cabinet Committee on Legislation.
Briefing the media after the meeting, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said that the Cabinet has reviewed the laws on sexual abuse and work is underway on strengthening these laws. Criminals in rape cases should be severely punished unlike in current laws, where they find space to save themselves.
He said that all considerations have to be made during legislation, if Abid Ali had been severely punished in 2013, he would not have committed such a crime again. There are loopholes in the law but we are working to plug them, he added
Talking about the All Parties Conference, he said, “We are not concerned about it, the APC had the same old rhetoric, just more venomous”. He said that Nawaz Sharif has been Prime Minister three times, but since this time he was rejected by the voters, he’s blaming the Election Commission. =DNA
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Benazir Bhutto case: LHC summons five accused
ISLAMABAD, SEP 22 (DNA) – The Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Tuesday took up appeals challenging the August 31, 2017 verdict passed by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in the Benazir Bhutto case.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan and Justice Sadiq Mahmood heard the case.
During the hearing, the judges expressed displeasure over authorities for failing to present a report about five accused persons who were acquitted by the ATC and directed the CPO to place on record the report on next hearing. The bench also summoned the five accused and adjourned the hearing until Oct 19.
PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari had filed three appeals against the ATC verdict and requested the court to announce a punishment for retired Gen Pervez Musharraf in accordance with the law. One of the appeals was against the court’s decision to declare him an absconder.
In a second appeal, the court was requested to change the sentence given to police officers involved in the case. Saud Aziz, who was Rawalpindi police chief when Bhutto was assassinated in 2007, and Khurram Shahzad, a former Superintendent of Police at Rawal Town, were each awarded 17 years in prison.
The third appeal pleaded with the court to award death sentence to the five accused who were acquitted by the ATC. The five suspects — Rafaqat Hussain, Husnain Gul, Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah and Abdul Rashid — were cleared of all charges in the murder trial. =DNA
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Russian envoy says Pakistan an important partner
The Ambassador stressed that Russia and Pakistan are on the same page about respecting the sovereignty of states in this multipolar word, and were against any steps taken in the guise of humanitarian pretexts
Shujat Hamza
ISLAMABAD: Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies arranged a discussion session with the Russian Ambassador on the topic of “Pakistan-Russia Relations: Prospects for the Future.”
Danila V. Ganich, Ambassador of Russian Federation during the discussion highlighted that Pakistan is a valued and significant partner for Russia, given its role in regional politics, influence in the Muslim world and geostrategic location. The Russian Ambassador stated that Russia, like Pakistan, does not want an arms race in the region and outer space as well.
He added that Russia is eager to invest $1.7 billion in the Karachi-Lahore gas pipeline, which would be a landmark project for the progress of the region.
The Ambassador stressed that Russia and Pakistan are on the same page about respecting the sovereignty of states in this multipolar word, and were against any steps taken in the guise of humanitarian pretexts.
He also remarked that the present Afghan government does not reflect the aspirations of the Afghan people. He added that Russia, like Pakistan, does not want instability and chaos on its border, and underscored that several factors were hampering the current peace process, including upcoming US elections and the desire of Afghan government to preserve its power.
Delivering his Concluding Remarks and Vote of Thanks, President CASS,Air Chief Marshal (Retd) Kaleem Saadat shared that while Pak-Russia ties may have had their ups and downs, they are deeply rooted.While discussing Kremlin’s relations with India, especially in the arms sector, President CASS argued that there are certain times in history when one cannot remain on the sidelines,as this is not the time for ideological rigidity or commercial self-interests.
Pakistan legal system is obsolete, says Dr. Nudrat
I have worked on cases like Bayindir concerning an approximate claim of USD 800 million, Agility concerning an approximate claim of USD 650 million, and recently advised the government concerning Riko Dik dispute valuing approximately 6 billion dollars. In Riko Dik case the UN tribunal now has issues stay orders in favour of Pakistan.
EXCLUSIVE
Ansar M Bhatti
ISLAMABAD: Dr. Nudrat E. Piracha has said the legal system left with Pakistan by the colonial masters has become obsolete. For instance, crucial laws like the Civil Procedure Code, 1908, Contract Act 1872 and Arbitration Act 1940 are three fundamental laws that exemplify failure of Pakistani laws to keep abreast of developments in the world.
There is a need to introduce private and court-annexed ADR through state of the art facilities and national and international neutrals whose integrity and competence are of the highest levels.
In addition, there is a need to revolutionize the court processes and judicial decision making to provide a system that can deliver. Various amendments have been made in the Civil Procedure Code in this regard which is a welcome initiative and a first step in this direction. There is a dire need for an ADR center that can provide ADR solutions for the needs of nationals and foreigners.
Dr. Nudrat expressed these views in an interview with Daily Islamabad POST, CENTRELINE magazine and DNA News Agency.
Dr. Nudrat E. Piracha is is the first woman in Pakistan to have qualified as an Doctor of Juridical Sciences (S.J.D), which is the highest degree in law awarded to people with exceptional academic and professional record. She is a Fulbright scholar, a Weinstein JAMS International Fellow for 2018, and the first lawyer from Pakistan to become a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, UK (FCIArb
She further said her area of interest has been alternative dispute resolution (ADR), which is a mechanism whereby disputes are resolved through the intervention of an independent third party, through amicable means.
A society can survive with many failings but no society is sustainable without an effective justice system. The Pakistani justice system is broken and many laws underlying the processes have become obsolete. The rest of the world is centuries ahead in litigation system designs. To-date, according to a report published by the Pakistani law Commission in July this year, 2 million cases are pending in courts.
Nudrat said she intended to use her experience and expertise to set up institutions that outlive its founders and are based on strong ethical values and merit. ‘I am in the process offormalizing a partnership with Septentrio Global Consulting and Samdani & Qureshi to provide, from under one roof, complete solutions to clients concerningtheir legal and financial advice and also to provide (through an affiliated center) ADR services for resolution and prevention of disputes to both government and private entities’.
In the past, I have dealt with commercial and investment arbitrations and have cross border issues and transactions. I have worked on cases like Bayindir concerning an approximate claim of USD 800 million, Agility concerning an approximate claim of USD 650 million, and recently advised the government concerning Riko Dik dispute valuing approximately 6 billion dollars. In Riko Dik case the UN tribunal now has issues stay orders in favour of Pakistan.
Pakistan in international cases has lost significant battles before international forums. The resistance against ADR has been witnessed during its development stages in other more developed countries as well. There is a dearth of expertise in the area in Pakistan and people are comfortable with what they know and understand. It is often thought that the users of the system are not sufficiently trained to effectively pursue international ADR. But there is a push towards ADR at the highest levels and ADR is the need of this time and age and cannot be avoided for too long. The stakeholders will have to appreciate its importance and mechanics in devising sustainable system designs.
Full interview shall be published in the October 2020 issue of CENTRELINE magazine.
Here is how Africa kicked out poliovirus
So far in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed thousands of lives across Africa. The continent’s polio teams – the extensive network of healthcare workers, laboratory experts, data managers and community volunteers – were some of the first on the ground to support the response and help contain national outbreaks.
This is not the first time the polio programme has quickly pivoted to respond to a major or emerging public health event.
Since the 1990s, the polio programme has brought the largest influx of public health expertise and funding across all countries in Africa. Polio teams and infrastructure have not only fought polio, they’ve contributed significantly to Africa’s public health and outbreak response.
Demonstrating the importance of data for disease eradication
The polio programme has recognised the critical value of data in eradicating diseases and invested heavily in systems for data collection, management and usage. This includes gathering information on communities in need of vaccination, transport of laboratory samples, health worker movements and vaccine stocks. This data-driven approach is vital for other disease interventions, says Dr Ticha Muluh, Polio Surveillance Officer at the WHO Regional Office in Africa (WHO AFRO). “The polio programme used data to constantly redirect or innovate around activities. For any programme aiming for eradication of diseases, robust data should be key.”
Reaching every child with vaccines
Polio immunization activities have pushed the boundaries of what can be achieved through vaccination campaigns.
“Historically, routine vaccination was meant to achieve a certain level of population immunity to stop outbreaks but not enough for disease elimination,” says Dr Pascal Mkanda, Polio Eradication Coordinator for WHO AFRO. “But when countries saw how successful the polio programme was in using supplemental immunization activities for disease eradication, they started learning how to move beyond the reach of routine immunization systems towards the accelerated elimination of measles, yellow fever and others building on the experience of polio.”
In Nigeria and the Lake Chad region – regions that face particular challenges in routine immunization – the specialised approaches of the polio programme are used to reach remote island communities. In DRC, strategies to address a polio outbreak along the Congo River were adapted for routine immunization, while in Nigeria and South Sudan, negotiations with armed forces have enabled access to communities with routine immunization services, following the example of polio campaigns.
Today, almost 90% of WHO immunization staff in the African region are funded by the polio programme. Fragile states in particular are heavily dependent on polio infrastructure and funding for routine immunization and disease surveillance. With the expected decline in Africa’s polio funding, continued investment will be needed to protect this legacy to ensure universal access to immunization.
Strengthening disease surveillance and laboratory networks
The polio eradication effort has built a robust and sensitive epidemiological surveillance system in the African region, with a network of well-equipped laboratories and thousands of specially trained personnel – from virologists to local community health workers detecting suspected polio cases on the ground. Over the years, these systems have been used to detect other disease outbreaks and rapidly respond to contain their spread, particularly in areas with weaker health systems.
In the 1990s, as a result of weak public health surveillance across Africa, many countries in the region experienced multiple disease outbreaks, including cholera, measles and meningitis. The polio programme’s system for detecting and responding to cases of suspected polio was used to develop an Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy that brought together surveillance, laboratory work and other data to coordinate responses to outbreaks across Africa.
The region-wide polio laboratory and field surveillance network has also served as a model for case-based surveillance, transportation of specimens and laboratory diagnoses. The region’s measles and rubella laboratory networks set up in the 2000s were based on the polio model, and are able to confirm diseases, sometimes within hours.
Building Africa’s health workforce
The polio programme has helped to fill one of the biggest gaps in Africa’s healthcare systems: a shortage of skilled health workers. The continent is home to 11% of the world’s population and carries 24% of the global burden of disease. Yet, it has only 3% of the world’s healthcare workers.
Thousands of healthcare workers and community members have been trained as part of polio surveillance and immunization campaigns. These staff have been pivotal in strengthening routine vaccination and in delivering new vaccines and other treatments during polio campaigns. For example, polio staff in Angola have distributed vitamin A tablets as well as treated mosquito nets. In Chad, polio teams have taken a central role in rolling out yellow fever and meningitis vaccines.
Beyond vaccination and treatment handouts, polio personnel have used their particular expertise in preparedness and disease surveillance in other major outbreaks over the last 20 years, including recurrent outbreaks of plague in Madagascar and the recent Ebola outbreaks in Nigeria and in DRC.
Reaching communities through social mobilisation, communication
The polio programme in Africa, as with elsewhere, has faced difficulties in gaining the trust of communities. In remote, marginalized or conflict-ridden communities, lack of awareness about health often comes with suspicion of government and NGO activities. In particular, the polio programme has faced vaccine refusal due to rumours and misinformation.
Early on, the polio programme largely relied on posters, radio and television advertising to announce vaccination days, which often failed to resonate in communities with low literacy or little access to media. The programme quickly developed better strategies and moved to targeted communication, known as ‘social mobilization.’ Thousands of volunteers, mostly women, were recruited from within communities to speak with caregivers about the importance of polio vaccination for their children. Their local knowledge helped increase communities’ acceptance of vaccines and helped polio programmes tailor their communication strategies.
India’s economy set to fall behind Pakistan, rest of South Asia as COVID-19 surges
NEW DELHI – India has failed to contain the spread of the COVID outbreak. The outbreak’s implications are going to be huge for the country with the economy bearing the brunt of the pandemic’s fallout.
As of now, COVID-19 cases in India have crossed 5 million and there is no evidence to suggest whether the surge has reached its peak yet. India has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases globally, after the US.
A report has warned that India’s approach has been ineffective in dealing with the crisis, meaning the virus’s surge will see the country’s economy lagging behind the rest of South Asia.
“New cases per capita in these three economies are far lower than in India,” Shilan Shah, senior economist at Capital Economics in Singapore told the Print. “This has enabled a faster rebound in activity.”
The report further said that the pandemic’s impact on Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka’s gross domestic product is not going to be stern as these countries have done well to contain the crisis. However, India is expected to “post a double-digit slump” as the country’s economy comes under huge pressure due to shutdowns.
On the other hand, Pakistan has fared well with the smart lockdown strategy. According to Our World in Data figures, Pakistan has made real progress in getting the virus under control. Islamabad’s approach to containing the virus has also been lauded by the World Health Organization and other organizations globally.
“Pakistan’s timely response to Covid-19 is the best in the region but it still needs to enhance testing of people and strictly observe physical distancing measures, wearing masks and washing hands, especially during the upcoming Eidul Azha,” Dr Palitha Mahipala, the WHO country chief said.
Patron-in-Chief of Pakistan Hindu Council meets FM Qureshi
DNA
ISLAMABAD, SEPT 22 – Ramesh Kumar, Member National Assembly of Pakistan and Patron-in-Chief of Pakistan Hindu Council called on Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi today to discuss the “Jodhpur incident”. Eleven Pakistani Hindus, including children, were found dead under mysterious circumstances in village Lodta. Haridasot, district Jodhpur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan on 9 August 2019.
Dr. Kumar apprised the Foreign Minister about the anxiety in the Pakistani Hindu community over the incident. He shared that the daughter of the deceased head of the family, Shrimati Mukhi had filed an FIR in Sanghar on the incident, nominating RSS and BJP for involvement in the murder of her family members. He also informed the Foreign Minister that, as per Ms. Mukhi, her father, mother and other family members were murdered after they refused to spy on Pakistan and issue anti-Pakistan statements at the behest of Indian intelligence Agency RAW.
The Foreign Minister informed Dr. Kumar that Pakistan had taken up the issue forcefully with the Indian side through diplomatic channels both in Islamabad as well as in New Delhi. Immediately after the incident, the High Commission for Pakistan in New Delhi had asked the Government of India for provision of access to the surviving member of bereaved family, sharing of copies of the FIR and initial investigation report and facilitating the presence of the High Commission for Pakistan’s representatives during the post-mortem of the deceased persons.
The Foreign Minister assured Dr. Kumar that safety and security of all its nationals was the responsibility of the Government of Pakistan. He added that since the victims of “Jodhpur incident” were Pakistan nationals, it was incumbent upon the Government of Pakistan to be fully aware of the circumstances under which its nationals died in India.
Appreciating the efforts made by the Government of Pakistan in seeking justice for the victims of “Jodhpur incident”, Dr. Kumar informed that the Hindu community would take further necessary steps to register its strong protest against the highly condemnable incident and the continuing failure of the Indian Government to carry out a transparent and credible investigation to bring the perpetrators of the heinous crime to justice.
The Foreign Minister assured Dr. Kumar that Pakistan will continue urging the Government of India to provide the requisite information without further delay and carry out a comprehensive investigation into the matter and share its findings with the Government of Pakistan.
Mahira Khan has found a new fan in Hrithik Roshan
Actor Mahira Khan is adored by everyone. The starlet has many followers not just in Pakistan but across the border too. Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan it seems is also enamoured by her. The Bang Bang star recently followed her on Instagram. She already has 6.6 million people followers.
Khan made her Bollywood debut in the movie Raees alongside Shah Rukh Khan in 2017. Her work was appreciated by all but she couldn’t work in more Bollywood movies as the Indian government placed a ban on moviemakers from casting Pakistani actors following the tensions caused between the neighbouring countries after the Uri attack controversy.
