The assets and liabilities of the advisers and special assistants in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s federal cabinet has been revealed. According to the numbers present on the cabinet website, there are three billionaires in the premier’s cabinet.

There are also five members with foreign nationalities. Two have foreign residencies/green cards.

The three billionaires are Adviser on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood, Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar and Special Assistant on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari.

The members with foreign nationalities are Bukhari (British citizenship), Shahzad Syed Qasim (US citizenship), Nadeem Afzal Gondal (Canadian citizenship), Shahbaz Gill (US green card), Tania Aidrus (Canadian citizenship and permanent resident of Singapore), Nadeem Babar (US citizenship) and Moeed Yusuf (US resident).

Minister of State of Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan said on SAMAA TV’s show News Beat people with nationalities of other countries should not be part of the cabinet.

The details of the SAPM’s assets are available here and advisers’ assets here.

They were shared by Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz on Twitter.

The asset declaration forms include how much property the SAPMs or advisers own both within and outside Pakistan, the vehicles they own, the money in their bank accounts and their investments.

ISLAMABAD, July 18 (DNA): The Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday summoned a
senior Indian diplomat to register Pakistan’s strong protest over the
ceasefire violations by the Indian occupation forces along the Line of
Control (LoC) on 17th of July, resulting in serious injuries to two
innocent women.

In a statement, the Foreign Office said that due to indiscriminate and
unprovoked firing by the Indian occupation forces in Rakhchikri and
Baroh sectors of the LoC, 35 year old Shakeela Bibi w/o Khursheed and 40
year old Nazia Bibi w/o Mazhar Iqbal sustained serious injuries.

FO spokesperson said that the Indian forces along the LoC
and the working boundary  have been continuously targeting civilian
populated areas with artillery fire, heavy-caliber mortars and automatic
weapons. This year, India has committed 1697 ceasefire violations to
date, resulting in 14 shahadats and serious injuries to 133 innocent
civilians, she added.

Condemning the deplorable targeting of innocent civilians by the Indian
occupation forces, the spokesperson underscored that such senseless acts
are in clear violation of the 2003 ceasefire understanding, and are also
against all established humanitarian norms and professional military
conduct.

“These egregious violations of international law reflect consistent
Indian attempts to escalate the situation along the LoC and are a threat
to regional peace and security,” the Foreign Office spokesperson said.

“It was added that by raising tensions along the LoC and the WB, India
cannot divert attention from the grave human rights situation in the
Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K),” the statement said.

Indian side was called upon to respect the 2003 ceasefire understanding;
investigate this and other such incidents of deliberate ceasefire
violations and maintain peace along the LoC and the working boundry. The
Indian side was also urged to allow the United Nations Military Observer
Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to play its mandated role as per
the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. DNA

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ISLAMABAD, July 18 (DNA): Capital Development Authority (CDA) is
continuously operating against encroachments in the city. In this
connection, Enforcement Directorate of the authority during the last
three days conducted several operations in different areas of the city
and demolished several illegal constructions and encroachments from the
state land.

These operations were conducted by the Enforcement Directorate while
assisted by ICT Administration, Islamabad Police and other relevant
formations.

In connection, with anti-encroachment drive a massive operation was
conducted in Saidpur area. During this operation, 50 animal sheds
established on the state land were dismantled. After clearing the
encroachments the site was handed over to Environment Wing of
Metropolitan Corporation (MCI) for tree plantation and make arrangements
so that the encroachments could not re-established.

During another operation conducted in sector G-8 and G-9, Enforcement
Directorate removed 25 building material depots and confiscated
construction material being illegally sold. The confiscated material was
later on shifted to MPO store.

Similarly, another operation was conducted in Bari Imam area, where a
langer khana was established on state land. Enforcement Directorate
demolished constructions of langer khana and retrieved around 25 kanals
state land from illegal occupants.

Teams of Enforcement Directorate during another operation, removed 5
buffallo sheds established on state land in Bheka Syedaan F-11. DNA

==========

DNA

MUZAFFARABAD, July 18: Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan has said that Pakistan and Kashmir are intertwined and interconnected in all respects, and accession to Pakistan is the ultimate goal of the Kashmiri people.

In a special message on the occasion of accession to Pakistan Day being observed on Sunday, he said that the day of July 19 has great significance in the history of Kashmir because on this day in 1947, the accession to Pakistan resolution was adopted at the residence of Sardar Muhammad Ibrahim Khan in Srinagar, and thus the Kashmiri people had set their future direction and destination even before the inception of Pakistan.

The AJK president said that the United Nations, on the request of India itself had made the decision of holding a plebiscite to resolve the Kashmir issue and they had been repeating their commitment from time to time. The Indian leaders at that time also accepted the resolution and made a promise to provide an opportunity to Kashmiris to decide their future.

But later, he regretted that the Indian rulers deviated from their commitment, which had culminated in starting of a movement for the realization of the right to self-determination.

“The universally recognized inalienable right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people has been usurped by India over the decades, but the Kashmiri people would not let this heinous conspiracy of India to succeed at any cost,” he added.

Sardar Masood Khan said that today the defenseless Kashmiri people of the occupied Jammu and Kashmir are striving to attain the goal the top Kashmiri leadership had set through their historic resolution on July 19, 1947.

The people of IOJK, Khan said are writing a new chapter of their history with their blood, which will serve as a beacon light for other oppressed nations in the world. He added that day is not far off when the struggle waged by the people of IOJK will crown with success.

Highlighting the deteriorating situation in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, President Masood emphasized that the unilateral and illegal actions taken by India on August 5, 2019, and the subsequent move to bifurcate the occupied territory into two parts posed a grave risk for regional peace and security.

On this occasion, the AJK president appealed to the Pakistani people to inculcate unity in their rank and file to frustrate the conspiracies being hatched against Pakistan, and strengthen and stabilize their motherland. He also appealed to the Kashmiri brethren to play their active role to highlight the significance of the ideology of accession to Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: Chairman China Pakistan Economic Corridor Authority (CPEC), Asim Saleem Bajwa, said on Saturday that Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway project will bring a socio-economic revolution for interior Sindh.

In a tweet, he said that after completion of 306-kilometer Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway (M-6), the CPEC Eastern route (Peshawar-Karachi) will also be completed.

“306 KMs Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway (M-6) approved in ECNEC on BOT basis will contribute to the construction boom, socio-economic revolution for interior Sindh,” he added.

Asim Bajwa further said that the project would also connect East Balochistan to entire Motorway network.

Earlier on Thursday, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved various projects worth Rs289 billion, including Hyderabad-Sukkur motorway.

Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar, in a Tweet, said that the ECNEC meeting approved four mega projects worth Rs 289 billion.

Read More: Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway among Rs289bn projects approved

The projects approved in the meeting included Sukkur-Hyderabad motorway, Hoshab-Awaran-Khuzdar section of M 8, Swat Expressway Chakdara to Fatehpur section and addition of linkage of Khyber agency to khyber pass economic corridor, said Asad Umar in a Tweet.

The keenly-awaited full results from a UK trial of the steroid dexamethasone were published Friday, confirming its life-saving benefits for COVID-19 patients on ventilators but suggesting it may cause harm if given too early.

A total of 2,104 hospitalized patients were assigned to receive six milligram daily doses of the medicine for up to 10 days, and 4,321 to receive usual care, with the rate of deaths compared after 28 days.

Among patients on ventilators, the rate of death for patients on the drug was 29.3 percent compared to 41.4 percent on those without.

In other words, this group saw a 29 percent reduction in mortality, just under a third.

In patients who were given oxygen but through less invasive means, the benefit was smaller — 23.3 percent on dexamethasone died versus 26.2 who were not on it.

However, there was no benefit among the group who weren’t receiving any oxygenation at the time the trial started.

In this cohort, 17.4 percent on the steroid died compared to 14 percent who did not receive it — suggesting the drug increased their mortality risk.

This is because the drug works by suppressing the abnormal immune response that damages the body’s organs, rather than attacking the virus.

Speaking to in June, leading US scientist Anthony Fauci cautioned that dexamethasone should not be prescribed too soon after a person was infected.

“It had no effect, if not maybe even a suggestion of making things worse early on,” he said.

“This is perfectly compatible with knowing that early on in infection, you need the immune system to suppress the virus.”

The authors of the paper, which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, added that getting benefit from the drug “is dependent on a selection of the right dose, at the right time, in the right patient.”

They added that, as far as the COVID-19 illness is concerned, for patients who require oxygen, the abnormal immune response seems more responsible for harm than the replication of the virus in the body.

But they cautioned that this hypothesis should not be applied to other viral respiratory illnesses, like SARS, MERS and influenza, without further study as they may have different impacts.

Dexamethasone was adopted into UK practice on June 16, the day when the initial results were announced, and is also recommended by the US National Institutes of Health.

On its website, the NIH cautions that it isn’t yet known how well dexamethasone might work in combination with the anti-viral drug remdesivir, which has proven beneficial when used alone.

It adds that patients on the drug should be closely monitored for secondary infections and high blood sugar.

It is also known that use of corticosteroids can also re-activate previous infections that were lying dormant, like the hepatitis B virus or tuberculosis.