An enhanced  compatibility in trade infrastructure on both sides will help realise the shared goal of optimum trade, connectivity and people to people facilitation: Ambassador Sadiq

ISLAMABAD (DNA)- Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador (R) Muhammad Sadiq said that Pakistan shared Torkham and Chaman border terminal master plans with Afghanistan to enable concurrent and complementary development on the Afghan side.

In his tweets, he stated that “In the spirit of brotherly cooperation and regional connectivity, Pakistan shared Torkham and Chaman border terminal master plans with Afghanistan to enable concurrent and complementary development on Afghan side.” He further added that ”An enhanced  compatibility in trade infrastructure on both sides will help realise the shared goal of optimum trade, connectivity and people to people facilitation between the two countries.”

Earlier US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad called on Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in which they discussed Afghan peace process. Amb(R) Muhammad Sadiq along with Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood were also present on the occasion.

RAWALPINDI, JULY 02 (DNA) : Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) Major General Babar Iftikhar Thursday said Indian news of Pakistan Army’s additional deployment along the Line of Control (LoC) and use of Skardu Airbase by China is false, irresponsible and far from truth.

Major General Babar Iftikhar tweeted, “News circulating in Indian electronic and social media claiming additional deployment of Pakistan Army troops along #LOC in GB and alleged use of Skardu Airbase by #China is false, irresponsible and far from truth.”

“No such movement or induction of additional forces has taken place. We also vehemently deny presence of Chinese troops in Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Imran Khan over the government’s recent steps towards the realisation of South Punjab province.

In a video statement put out this morning, he said the additional chief secretary (ACS) and the additional inspector general of police (AIG) have been appointed for the south Punjab secretariat.

He said the two officers will establish their offices in Multan and Bahawalpur to address the problems of people.Shah Mahmood Qureshi said the practical realisation of the dream of south Punjab province has begun today as people of southern areas of the province will not have to travel to Lahore to get their administrative issues addressed.

He said administrative issues and those related to police will now be resolved in Multan and Bahawalpur, terming the devolution of powers to the grassroot levels a crucial step. He stressed a need for a Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) award on the pattern of the National Finance Commission (NFC).

The foreign minister said the PFC will help disburse funds to all districts according to their population, needs, and deprivation. Like the past, South Punjab’s funds will not be squandered for the purpose other than they are set aside for, he added.

Shah Mahmood said people of Punjab will get justice at their doorstep now.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will take up today the federal government’s appeal challenging the Sindh High Court’s June 23 stay order that restrained it from taking action against sugar mills in light of the sugar inquiry commission’s recommendations.

Headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed, a two-judge bench of the apex court will hear the case.

The government through the attorney general filed the appeal in the apex court, requesting it to set aside the restraining order the high court gave on a petition moved by sugar mills owners.The federal government has stated in the appeal that the SHC had no jurisdiction to halt an investigation into a matter, adding the high court gave relief to the petitioners without affording it a fair hearing.

On June 23, the Sindh High Court had stopped the government from further action on the sugar inquiry commission report till next hearing. A petition was filed against the sugar inquiry commission report by Khairpur Sugar Mills and 20 others, which was taken up and further action on the report was temporarily halted.

The SHC sought an explanation from the sugar mills by June 30 while the petitioner has also been asked to explain why the matter was referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Shahzad Akbar.

ISLAMABAD, JULY 01 (DNA) – Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Wednesday paid glowing tributes to the policemen hailing from Jamshoro, Nawabshah and other parts of Sindh who displayed courage during the attack on Karachi Stock Exchange.

Holding a press conference in Lahore today, the PPP Chairman also paid tribute to the policeman who belonged to Lyaari Hassan Baloch and the other brave sons of Sindh.

“We have announced rewards for them all; we are living peacefully in Karachi due to the sacrifices of these martyrs, who have also saved our economy,” he said.

Chairman Bilawal said that the important issue that is of Covid-19 and its fast spread. It is a white lie that the rate at which it is being transmitted is decreasing. Imran Khan’s government has sabotaged the country.

“Yesterday, Punjab’s young doctors have demanded a risk allowance and we support their demand and the doctors, nurses and health workers should all be given a risk allowance. We have provided a risk allowance to all doctors in Sindh. The government has not made an increase in the pensions and salaries of the people,” Bilawal said.

He said: “throughout history, we have never been faced with such challenges. We are combating the locust issue. Floods have been predicted and the PTI makes each issue a disaster such as in the case of Covid-19 and the locust issue which have been made into disasters. The government has increased the issues facing us.”

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the people should be provided with relief by imposing taxes on the rich. The way that they have dropped a bomb on the people by increasing the petrol price is through an illegal notification which they released and the losses suffered by oil companies are being compensated for through burdening the people. These are all the PTI government’s front men and now we are expecting a tsunami of price hike. In every budget of theirs, there is pain for the people and relief for the rich.

Chairman PPP said that Imran Khan speaks in our absence and does not answer our questions; I had challenged him to a debate on television. The problem with Imran Khan is that he is not ready to be the prime minister of our country but is happy to be that of his own party. We want Imran Khan to sit with us and debate so that he understands what Covid-19 is and what is locust and what are the threats but Imran Khan is a prime minister only on Twitter and Facebook.

Strongly condemning Imran Khan for calling notorious terrorist Osama bin Laden a shaheed, Chairman Bilawal said that he calls a terrorist who killed Pakistani citizens, soldiers, journalists, men, women and children a Shaheed. Who was behind Yousaf Ramzi, who was behind 1994 failed mutiny, who was behind destruction in Swat, he asked. Imran Khan refuses to call Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto a shaheed but calls a terrorist a shaheed. So far, Imran Khan has not clarified his statement and thus, bringing Pakistan to disrepute.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the loss due to Imran Khan plonked as prime minister is the destruction of our foreign policy, our economy and failure to combat Covid-19. Imran Khan is the first prime minister who ran the election campaign of Modi. Imran Khan has become a joke and whenever he opens his mouth, a joke comes out. He has never met representatives of doctors, nurses and labourers. Whenever he met, he met the rich people. There is no health or education in his budget. He is only giving relief to his cronies. This budget is a PTIMF budget.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Imran Khan attacks the constitution consistently. He attacks the 18th amendment because he wants to revert to one-unit. Pakistan will be at a great loss by reverting back to one-unit which means ending the autonomy of the provinces. Imran Khan is against provinces and federation and against those who talk in the interest of the country. Mir Shakeel ur Rehman is still languishing in jail without a case against him. Similar is the case of Syed Khursheed Shah who is in jail for no crime but on the other hand, those PTI ministers who have cases against them are free.

Chairman PPP said that the government wants to murder President Asif Ali Zardari. When President Zardari was in jail he was not provided medicines and today NAB wants him to be infected with Covid-19. President Zardari has two cases against him, in one case he has an exemption to come to the court and the second case is in which NAB wants him to come to the court. Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was infected with Covid-19 when he appeared before the court in the same case. This government does not respect old people as well as women but rest assured that we will not go back on the 18th amendment. He said that PPP does not want any NRO and will face the cases but your cases do not have substance and you are unable to convict us, he challenged.

Imran Khan has given several NROs to his cronies and the first NRO he gave to his sister Aleema Khan, who has not given her money trail. Imran Khan introduced amnesty scheme for thieves because he himself is a beneficiary of General Musharraf’s amnesty. Chairman Bilawal said that Imran Khan has many faces but the reality is that Imran Khan is the biggest hypocrite in history.

Imran Khan boasts about money given to poor people through BISP which is a program introduced by PPP government to help women. He changed the name of BISP to Ehsaas and the money (Rs. 12000) was accumulative money of this monthly help to the people given by PPP government. It is also a fact that Imran Khan took back that Rs. 12000 from the poor people in the shape of electric bills. He asked if Imran Khan has any empathy for the poor people then why he allocated Rs. 34 billion less for poor people.

He said that the governance can only be seen in Sindh and Balochistan. Punjab, the biggest populated province of Pakistan has been handed over to a trainee Chief Minister who is in quarantine for the last two years. He said that the federal government not only deprived Sindh of its due share from divisible pool but also took away Rs. 483 billion of Punjab.

This PTI government is unable to collect its own revenue so why the failure of federal government should be shouldered by the people of Punjab. If people are not given relief, then the people will drag prime minister Imran Khan out of the prime minister house. Imran Khan did not accept my challenge to show me a single hospital anywhere in the country which parallels the NICVD.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Imran Khan has destroyed our national airline because he does not know that through what difficulties a pilot and other staff go through during their employment. He does not know that every pilot’s license is reviewed every six months. A minister whose own degree is fake, accuses pilots of having fake licenses. This is shameful, he said.

Chairman PPP said that Pakistan will be isolated like Sweden because of mismanagement by the PTI government. He said that the PTI government wants to take advantage of one accident and sell the national airlines. This government also wants to sell Roosevelt Hotel. These are Pakistani assets.

“Our pilots are our assets because they are famous for their excellence all over the world. Many airlines have employed Pakistani pilots because they are the best in the world. Imran Khan is selected and his government is a fake government and now it wants to destroy PIA. The auditor general of Pakistan issued a report which says that during last year, this PTI government did a corruption of Rs. 273 billion. This is Imran Khan’s corruption and he will have to be accountable. He would have to be accountable of sugar report. He will have to be held accountable for giving benefits of billions of rupees to his front men,” said Bilawal.

Responding to the questions of journalists, Chairman Bilawal said that opposition have never talked about minus one but Imran himself is talking about minus one. Democracy is threatened by Imran Khan and his ego. The PTI government is on a vilification campaign against Sindh government because Sindh is the only province which has shown governance.

He said that Imran Khan does not have a mandate, he is selected and his mandate is fake, which can evaporate any time. He said that he hopes that PML-N will support PPP’s stance with zeal and vigour and also hopes that Shehbaz Sharif will get well soon and will contact PPP for holding an APC.

He said that PPP takes nobody’s signal but the people of Pakistan. He challenged that the people who rigged senate election should come out in open and tell the people that how this rigging was managed.

Chairman Bilawal said that there is a unanimous opinion in the society against PTI government and Imran Khan. He said that PPP will put this point across in the APC that the speaker of the national assembly is running the sessions of the National Assembly partially and we will raise the issue of no confidence against the speaker in the APC. = DNA

DNA

ISLAMABAD, JULY 1 – Huawei is involved in smart city projects in more than 100 countries of the world. In recent venture, Huawei has struck a deal with Saudi investment firm name “Batic” to work on smart cities projects throughout the Kingdom.Smart City Solutions Company, a unit of Riyadh-based Batic Investments and Logistics Co.

(Batic) will work with the Chinese technology giant on smart projects covering areas such as parking lots, transportation, the reduction of energy consumption as well as lighting and waste management.Batic is already working on a major smart city contract in the Eastern Region, part of a SR1.3 billion ($300 million) project that will run for 25 years.“Smart Cities Solutions and Huawei will cooperate in supplying the market with an integrated portfolio of services and models for operating smart cities that can be customized,” said Adnan Al-Morshid, CEO of the Smart Cities Solutions Company.

“One of the first projects within the framework of this agreement is the car park project in Dammam, in which the Smart Cities Solutions Company will assume the task of operating modern parking lots and command centers for Khobar, Dammam and Dhahran cities.”

Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in smart cities in an effort to modernize the economy and provide high-value tech-focused jobs for its youthful population.

It is part of a broader push to diversify its economy away from oil.Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs launched the nation’s first smart cities program, which targets 17 cities in its first phase, together comprising almost 72 percent of the Kingdom’s population.In 2017, Saudi Arabia revealed plans for a futuristic cross-border city called NEOM in Tabuk province, in the Kingdom’s northwest

DNA

ISLAMABAD, July 01, 2020:  Honorable Mr. Justice Javed Iqbal, Chairman NAB has said that eradication of Corruption is top most priority of NAB. The present management of NAB has chalked out an effective and proactive Anti Corruption Strategy which has been acknowledged by Transparency International (TI), Pakistan, World Economic Forum, PILDAT and Mishal Pakistan. He said that the initiatives taken by the present management of NAB started yielding excellent results. Similarly Gilani and Gallop’s survey indicated that 59 percent of people of Pakistan have full faith upon NAB which is ample evidence of NAB’s across the board accountability under the dynamic leadership of Honourable Justice Mr. Javed Iqbal, Chairman NAB.

Today due to NAB’s proactive Anti-Corruption Strategy, NAB’s overall conviction ratio is about 68.8 percent which is a remarkable achievement in investigation of White Collar Crimes in the world. He said that NAB has geared up and rejuvenated to eradicate corruption within all its forms and manifestations.

He said that NAB’s prime focus is on corruption and corrupt practices i.e.; money laundering,  cases of cheating public at large, bank frauds, willful bank loan defaults, misuse of authority and embezzlement of state funds. Since NAB’s inception, one of NAB’s major achievements has been the recovery of around Rs.466.069 billion which is a great achievement as per the annual report of 2019 of NAB. Starting from the year 2017 which can be called basically a year of reinvigoration of NAB, we have moved with new zeal and effort after through detailed introspection and analysis of organizational weaknesses, overhaul of procedures and all pillars of the organization i.e. Operations, Prosecution, Human Resource Management, Training and Research and Awareness and Prevention have been reactivated.

He said that the overall complaints in 2019 were 53643 and processed 42760 whereas complaints in 2018 were 48591 and processed 41414. Increase in the number of complaints also reflects enhanced public trusted in the NAB. NAB during 2019, processed 1308 complaint verifications, 1686 inquiries and 609 investigations and recovered Rs 141.542 billion from corrupt elements in 2019. He said that NAB has introduced a new concept of Combine Investigation Team (CIT) in order to benefit from the experience and collective wisdom of senior supervisory officers, a system of CIT comprising of Director, Additional Director, Investigation Officer and a Senior Legal Counsel has been put in place. This is not only lending quality to the work. He said that NAB has established its state of the art Forensic Science Laboratory in NAB Rawalpindi. In 2019, 15747 questioned documents and 300 thumb impressions were analyzed in 50 cases and forensic analysis was carried out on 74 digital devices (Laptops, Mobile phones, Hard Disks etc). He said that NAB is the focal Organization of United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) which is pride for Pakistan due to NAB’s efforts. He said Pakistan is committed to United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) in eradicating corruption through its three pronged Anti Corruption Strategy of Awareness, Prevention and Enforcement which has started yielding excellent results under the dynamic leadership of Honorable Mr. Justice Javed Iqbal, Chairman NAB.

He said that NAB had initiated a dialogue of the anti-corruption authorities of the SAARC countries with a proposal to set up a SAARC Anti-Corruption Forum. NAB hosted the first meeting of its kind in Islamabad where the heads of SAARC anti-corruption authorities including India agreed for creation of SAARC Anti-Corruption Forum and NAB is the chairman of SAARC Anti Corruption Forum. This was a reorganization of NAB’s excellent work as NAB is considered as a role model among SAARC countries. He said that Pakistan’s Apex Anti Corruption Agency, NAB is the only Organization in the world with whom China has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to oversee projects to be undertaken under CEPC in Pakistan. He said that signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Pakistan and China is especially significant in the backdrop of increasing economic and trade cooperation between Pakistan and China with the resolve by both the Governments to work in a fair, impartial and corruption free environment in order to share their experiences to eradicate corruption.