Islamabad, 01 Oct 20 : The President of Pakistan has been pleased to appoint Vice Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi as Chief of the Naval Staff and promoted him to the rank of Admiral. His promotion to the rank of Admiral will be effective from the date of assuming Command of Pakistan Navy.Vice Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi will succeed Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi who will relinquish the Command of Pakistan Navy on 7 Oct 20. The Change of Command ceremony will be held at PNS ZAFAR, Islamabad.

Vice Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi was commissioned in Operations Branch of Pakistan Navy in 1985 and won the coveted Sword of Honour upon completion of initial training at Pakistan Naval Academy. During his illustrious career, Vice Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi has served on various Command and Staff appointments. Command appointments of the Admiral include command of two Type 21 ships PNS BADR and PNS TARIQ, Commander 18thDestroyer Squadron, Commandant PNS BAHADUR, Commandant Pakistan Navy War College/ Commander Central Punjab Lahore, Commander Pakistan Fleet and Commander Karachi. His distinguished staff appointments include Principal Secretary to Chief of the Naval Staff, Head of F-22P Mission China, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (Training & Evaluation) and Director General Naval Intelligence. Currently, the Admiral is serving as Chief of Staff (Operations) at Naval Headquarters, Islamabad.

The Admiral is a graduate of Army Command & Staff College Quetta and National Defence University Islamabad. The Admiral also holds Masters Degree in Underwater Acoustics from Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China.

In recognition of his meritorious services, the Admiral has been awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz (Military) and Sitara e Basalat. He has also been conferred with the French Medal Chevalier (Knight) by the Government of France.Director General Public Relations (Navy)

KARACHI : The National Accountability Court (NAB) on Thursday arrested Makhdoom Jalil-u-Zaman, the son of Pakistan People’s Party deceased leader Makhdoom Amin Fahim.

He was taken into custody by NAB Sindh from his house in Karachi.

Sources said Makhdoom Jalil-u-Zaman is accused of embezzlement of funds while being Taluka Nazim of Hala. He was summoned by the graft-buster body in August, but he did not show up.Earlier, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Chairman Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal had said that all mega corruption cases would be brought to their logical end.

Presiding over a high-level meeting in Islamabad, the NAB chairman reviewed the overall performance of the anti-graft watchdog.

During the meeting, Javed Iqbal was briefed over the investigation into different corruption cases at the NAB Islamabad Office.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, SEPT 30 – Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan visited Satellite Ground Station, SUPARCO Islamabad on Wednesday. He was briefed about SUPARCO’s achievements in developing indigenous capabilities in space, science and technology and its contributions towards strengthening national security as well as socio-economic development of the country.

During visit of various technical facilities and interaction with SUPARCO’s engineers and scientists, Prime Minister reiterated that all available resources will be utilized in further strengthening strategic capabilities to preserve sovereignty of the country.

Prime Minster emphasized that Pakistan’s nuclear and strategic capability is safe and secure under robust command and control system.

We shall continue to strengthen our strategic capability to safeguard our vital national interests.While recognizing the significant role of space technology, he assured requisite support for expansion of space based services and infrastructure to give impetus to National Space Programme-2047 for socio-economic development.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, SEPT 30 – National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Wednesday said the Covid-19 cases had climbed to 16,581 in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

According to the NCOC official, total 182 deaths were reported from the ICT while 15,865 patients had recovered completely.

Commenting on the situation, an official of Ministry of National health Services said several local level administrative decisions were made to control the disease.

He advised the citizens to continue following the social distancing, use of mask and other precautionary measures to stop increasing local transmission of the COVID-19 in the ICT.

He said the government had adopted effective strategy to combat COVOD-19 that had resulted reduction in the corona cases across the country.

He said present facts and figures of the disease show declining trend of coronavirus at all level due to prompt response of the government.

Expressing satisfaction over current COVOD-19 situation, he said all this was made possible due to team efforts and the efficient work of the NCOC.

He said the main focus of the strategy was to control the disease and maintaining business activities of small and poor traders. He added such strategy was successfully implemented to get results.

He said all federal and provincial and public and private institutions concerned played remarkable role under the NCOC against the disease.

He said all possible measures were adopted to control COVID-19 to avoid further load on already burdened health system of the country.

He said strategies were made to control coronavirus keeping in view the global information, focusing on data with integration of local data in a scientific way.

He made it clear that the government had not decreased the daily testing capacity but actually the testing figure was declined due to improving the corona situation.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, SEPT 30 – Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the Chairman, Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation (HCNR) appreciated Pakistan’s efforts with regards to Afghan peace process and also the recent string of confidence building measures from Islamabad. He specifically mentioned Pakistan beefing up trade infrastructure along the Pak-Afghan border to boost bilateral trade and the announcement of new visa policy.

The Chairman was speaking at a roundtable event organized by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in Islamabad, earlier today.

Dr. Abdullah said he had wanted to visit Pakistan for a long time, and was concluding his trip in Pakistan today with a very positive impression and hope in his heart.

He also said Pakistan and Afghanistan have the opportunity at hand, to begin a new era of bilateral relations, based on mutual respect and shared prosperity. The ongoing negotiations offer a window of opportunity. Peace and prosperity in both Pakistan and Afghanistan are interdependent. He said there is a need to go beyond the rhetoric and the usual blame game, as one cannot afford to pursue dissolution.

Imtiaz Gul, Executive Director CRSS titled Dr. Abdullah Abdullah as a “Man for Peace”.  He also informed the plenary that CRSS has tried to keep the issues of public interests alive through cross-border dialogues and built pressure for their resolution. Gul also thanked Dr. Abdullah Abdullah for his mediation for smooth functioning of Pakistan’s sponsored projects within Afghanistan, over the last few years.

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah also appreciated CRSS efforts, stating that in the last five years, even when the two sides had a very acrimonious relationship, CRSS always kept the door open for dialogue and cooperation.

Regarding the intra-Afghan negotiations, he said that after 42 years of war, the Afghan government and the Taliban are sitting across the table; that in itself is historic. There is no maiden prescription for the future of Afghanistan; we have to work it out with a broad-based consensus.

He said that there is a sense of urgency than ever to look towards our region as one. We need to take into account the current geo-political shifts and draw necessary lessons. Our collective goal should be to reduce tensions, promote moderation, increase regional connectivity, trade, transit, economic integration, business to business and more importantly, people to people interactions.

Lastly, he apprised the participants about his meetings with Speaker National Assembly of Pakistan Asad Qaiser and Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani. He termed meetings and overall mood of these parliamentary institutions very positive. He would take this mood back to Kabul and hoped for increased parliamentary interactions between two sides.

The roundtable was attended by Dr. Shoaib Suddle, Former IG Police; Shandana Gulzar Khan and Mehnaz Akbar Aziz, Members National Assembly, Pakistan; Ambassador Tasnim Aslam, Ambassador Asif Durrani, Ambassador Sanaullah, Ambassador Qazi Humayun; Samina Durrani, Trustee, CRSS; Ayaz Gul, Tahir Khan, Rehman Azhar, Hasan Khan – senior journalists, and Zeeshan Salahuddin, Program Director CRSS, along with Afghan guests and officials accompanying Dr. Abdullah Abdullah.

ISLAMABAD, SEP 30 (DNA) – Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar has announced that Ehsaas Emergency Cash payments to those with biometric issues and families of dead beneficiaries will be continuing nationwide till October 30.

However, the previously defined last date for filing applications till September 30, 2020 remains unchanged. Applications are closing today for beneficiaries facing biometric failures and families of dead. Formerly, September 30, 2020 was the last date for disbursements to eligible beneficiaries under Ehsaas Emergency Cash.

But for now, aiming to facilitate smooth payments, the last date of cash disbursements has been extended till the end of October 2020 as long as the application is submitted till September 30, 2020.

Two weeks ago, Ehsaas had opened online portal to receive applications from eligible beneficiaries with biometric verification issues.

Likewise, Ehsaas had set out the application process for families of dead beneficiaries who had to despatch applications for facilitation in payments directly to Dr. Sania Nishtar along with the CNIC details of dead family member, death certificate verified by NADRA and CNIC details of eligible heir directly to Ehsaas offices at F-Block, Pak Secretariat, Islamabad.

Ehsaas is closely monitoring the payments in field and is committed to supporting beneficiaries being confronted with issues throughout it.

Expediting the payment process to remaining Ehsaas Emergency Cash beneficiaries, the listing and inspection procedures are underway and customized payment responses to all eligible applicants will be sent accordingly so that emergency cash transfer operations across the country get completed within due timeframe. =DNA

============================