KARACHI, AUG 22 – The Sindh government has finalised the names of two bureaucrats for the Karachi administrator post: Najam Ahmed Shah and Hassan Naqvi.

The selected candidate will take over after Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar steps down after completing his four years in power by August end. The administrator will stay in power until the local body elections are held in Karachi and a new mayor is sworn in.

Both the bureaucrats are Grade 21 officers and currently working as secretaries for different departments of the Sindh government.

Related: ‘PPP, PTI, MQM to be consulted over Karachi administrator appointment’

Shah is posted as the secretary of the investment department. He has also served as the specialised healthcare and medical education secretary for Punjab from 2016 to 2018. Shah has also served as the finance secretary, and science and technology secretary for Sindh.

Naqvi, on the other hand, is currently working as Sindh’s finance secretary. He has previously served as director of the export processing zone authority, the project director of the computerization board of revenue, and worked at CM House, Governor House and CDGK too.

Karachi elections

Akhtar was sworn in on August 30, 2016 after the MQM won the local body elections in December 2015.

According to the law, the Sindh government has three months days to hold the elections from the day the mayor steps down. No preparations, however, have been made for the polls.

Four years ago, the polls were held on the directives of the Supreme Court. The administrator was running the city’s affairs as no elections were held after 2009.

Administrator appointment not on Karachi committee’s agenda  

Last Saturday, some leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Pakistan People’s Party, and MQM-P leadership met in Islamabad. They all agreed to work together for the betterment of Karachi and address its civic issues.

In that meeting, a coordination committee was formed comprising the members of all three political parties. The members included Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, Ports and Shipping Minister Ali Zaidi, Telecommunication Minister Aminul Haq, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah, and Sindh LG Minister Nasir Hussain Shah.

The coordination committee will meet in Karachi at Sindh CM House today (August 22).

The selection of Karachi administrator is not in the agenda of the meeting, he said, adding that it could be discussed though. “It is the prerogative of the Sindh government to appoint Karachi administrator.” MQM-P just wants the government to appoint a competent and skilled officer who is aware of the city’s dynamics.

He, however, clarified that his party has yet to given any name for the post.

Khurram Sher Zaman, a PTI MPA, said that the Sindh government has right to appoint Karachi administrator, but it should consult it with other stakeholders. “A decision with mutual understanding is needed”, he added.

He speculated that the provincial government may opt for Naqvi as he has been working closely with the Sindh CM.

Shah, on the other hand, has already clarified that the appointment of the Karachi administrator is an administrative issue and would be dealt with accordingly.

Cancer does not frighten actor Nadia Jamil anymore. The actor took to Twitter to share an adorable video of her dancing with near radiation machine.

Jamil said that cancer does not have to only be a frightening and painful journey.

“It has its moments of healing, of strength and grit…because us cancer patients, survivors, carry that grit inside us,” said Jamil. “All of us carry it inside us. It takes something or the other to unlock it.”

She remarked that she always love dancing and said that people should not stop dancing.

“The trees dance the hardest during a storm,” said Jamil.

The actor is currently in the UK for her treatment. She was diagnosed with breast cancer back in March and has been keeping fans updated with her health via social media.

ISLAMABAD, AUG 22 (DNA) – President Dr Arif Alvi has congratulated to the Turkish leadership and people as the country announced making biggest natural gas discovery in the Black Sea.

The amount of gas reserves in the discovered field could meet Turkey’s total gas consumption for seven to eight years without any additional gas imports.

In the felicitation message, the President said Pakistan must congratulate their friends, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the people of Turkey, on their biggest natural gas discovery in the Black Sea. He said friends revel and rejoice in the happiness and prosperity of friends. = DNA

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HAIKOU, AUG 22 (DNA) – The construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has entered a new stage of high-quality development and will continue to play an important role in the revitalization of Pakistan, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Wang made the remarks when holding the second strategic dialogue between China and Pakistan with visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in south China’s Hainan Province.

Both parties will push to complete the projects under construction in time, create more job opportunities, vigorously improve the people’s livelihood, strengthen cooperation in fields including industrial parks, human resource training, poverty alleviation, medical care and agriculture, and continue to release the potential of the corridor to achieve common development, said Wang.

Speaking of the current COVID-19 epidemic situation, Wang said that China is willing to share the experience of regular epidemic prevention and control with Pakistan in a timely manner, continue to carry out cooperation on anti-epidemic supplies, and choose Pakistan as a prior international cooperation partner of the vaccine research.

“China-Pakistan ties have been tested by the epidemic, the mutual trust has been consolidated and cooperation has been deepened,” said Wang, adding that the relation of the two “iron friends” has been purified. The two sides also agreed to deepen the construction of the China-Pakistan community of a shared future and a community of health in the common fight against the epidemic.

For his part, Qureshi said that Pakistan firmly supports all of China’s core interests and major concerns, and is willing to work with China to jointly plan for future cooperation, carry out cooperation in various fields including vaccine research, and jointly oppose the politicization and stigmatization of the epidemic.

“Pakistan is willing to work with China to advance the construction of the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor,” Qureshi said. The two sides also exchanged views on Afghanistan and other international and regional issues. After the dialogue, the two foreign ministers met with the press.

When answering a question that the United States requested the United Nations Security Council launch the snapback mechanism to restore sanctions against Iran, Wang said that such demand was “completely unreasonable.”

“The United States only considered its own interests. It applied international law if the law was in conformity with the nation’s need and discarded the law if it did not,” said Wang.

Regarding the intra-Afghan negotiations, Wang said that China hopes relevant parties to uphold the fundamental direction of achieving a political settlement, adhere to the basic principle of Afghan-led peace progress, strive for a broad and inclusive framework, and stick to the path of solving both symptoms and root causes.

The international community and regional countries should also uphold justice and push the negotiation to achieve peace, he said. = DNA

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ISLAMABAD, AUG 22 (DNA) – Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi returned to Pakistan after completion of his two-day official visit to China.The foreign minister visited China to attend the 2nd Round of China-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue held in Chinese Hainan province wherein he also met State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussed bilateral and regional matters.

According to a joint statement issued by the Foreign Office, the two sides exchanged views on COVID-19 pandemic, bilateral relations and international and regional issues of mutual interest, and reached consensus to collectively take measures to safeguard their common interests and promote peace, prosperity, and development in the region.

The statement stated that both sides agreed that Pakistan and China have stood in solidarity and worked together since the COVID-19 outbreak by timely sharing of experiences relating to the prevention and control of the virus, mutual support in providing medical materials, and have set an example for international community to jointly fight the pandemic.

Both sides agreed to further strengthen cooperation in developing a vaccine to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, and strive to promote establishment of China-Pakistan Community of Shared Future and Community of Common Health.

“Both sides emphasized that unity and cooperation are the most powerful weapon for the international community against the disease. Both sides opposed politicizing the pandemic, labeling viruses; supported WHO to play a leading role in global public health governance, and called for the international community to increase the sense of a community of shared future and carry out effective joint prevention and control measures in order to mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19,” the statement said.

The statement further read that both sides reiterated that the enduring China-Pakistan All-weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership is beneficial to international and regional peace and stability, and serves the mutual security and development interests of both countries as well as of international community and regional countries.

Both sides were committed to firmly implementing the consensus reached between the two leaders, enhancing mutual strategic trust, strengthening all-round cooperation, maintaining momentum of high-level exchanges, further advancing construction of Belt and Road Initiative, promoting bilateral relationship to a higher level, and delivering greater benefits to both countries and the two peoples.

The Chinese side reiterated that Pakistan and China are “iron brothers” and Pakistan remains China’s “staunchest partner” in the region and that Beijing firmly supports Pakistan in safeguarding its territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence.

The Pakistani side appreciated China for standing together with Pakistan in safeguarding its national security and sovereignty, and reaffirmed its firm support to China on affairs concerning China’s core interests and issues of major concern, such as those related to Taiwan, Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong.

Both sides underscored that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has entered the new phase of high-quality development, and has played and will continue to play an important role in supporting Pakistan to overcome the impact of COVID-19 and achieve greater development.

The vowed to continue to firmly advance the construction of CPEC, ensure in-time completion of those projects under construction, focus on economic and social development, job creation and improvement of people’s livelihood, and further strengthen cooperation in Specialized Economic Zones, industrial relocation, science and technology, medical and health, human resources training, poverty alleviation, and agriculture.

They agreed to strengthen cooperation on the Afghan issue and appreciated the efforts made by Afghan government and the Taliban to initiate the Intra-Afghan Negotiations. They emphasized the importance of an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive negotiated agreement for future political settlement in Afghanistan.

The Chinese side reiterated that the Kashmir issue is a dispute left over from history between India and Pakistan, which is an objective fact, and that the dispute should be resolved peacefully and properly through the UN Charter, relevant Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements. China opposes any unilateral actions that complicate the situation.

China and Pakistan reaffirmed the vitality of the time-tested and All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership between the two countries which remains unaffected by the vicissitudes of the regional and international developments and continues to move from strength to strength.

It is pertinent to mention here that FM Qureshi is the first foreign minister to visit China after downturn of COVID-19 pandemic. = DNA

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KABUL, AUG 22 (DNA) – Afghanistan on Saturday reported 59 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours with no death and recovery reported during the period, the country’s Ministry of Public Health confirmed.

“Within the past 24 hours, 238 suspected cases were tested, out of which 59 cases were tested coronavirus positive in six provinces of the country’s 34 provinces,” the ministry said in a statement.

A total of 1,385 COVID-19 patients have succumbed to the virus and 27,990 patients have recovered since the outbreak of the pandemic in February. The ministry has conducted 100,953 tests since February, according to statistics of the ministry. = DNA

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ISLAMABAD, AUG 22 (DNA) – A new cafeteria and barrack opened at Police Station (PS) Koral to provide better accommodation and quality food to the police staff on affordable rates.

The cafeteria was inaugurated by SP (Rural), Farooq Amjad Buttar along with DSPs, Qasim Niazi, Rukhsar Mehdi, SHO Koral Asjid Mehmood, SHO Lohi Bher Shahid Zaman, SHO Nilore Sattar Baig, members of conciliation committee and other citizens and police officials.

Speaking at the occasion the SP ordered the cafeteria staff to ensure cleanliness and hygiene at the area and the health of the personnel should be taken care in best way.

The federal capital police was taking measures for the welfare of policemen under the directors of and DIG (Operations) Waqar Uddin following the vision of IGP Islamabad Aamir Zulfqar Khan, so the personnel can perform their duties efficiently.

The SP also planted a sapling to kick off the tree plantation drive. DNA

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