BEIJING: Almost all members of the Uighur militant group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) have been eliminated from Pakistan, President Mamnoon Hussain said on Wednesday during a visit to Beijing.

China blames violent unrest in its far western region of Xinjiang on separatist groups like ETIM, who it says want to set up an independent state called East Turkestan and have bases in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Many foreign experts, however, have questioned whether ETIM exists as the coherent group China claims it is.

Also read: China asks US to help fight Muslim militants in Xinjiang region

Meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People, President Mamnoon said Operation Zarb-i-Azb "has been successful in eradicating the terrorism from our country".

"It has also been very helpful in eliminating the ETIM element from our country and I think almost all the ETIM people in our country have been eliminated. Maybe, if they are there, there should be very few," Hussain said.

Pakistan and China reiterated their commitment to the completion of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects in a timely manner.

President Mamnoon said special measures have been taken for the security of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, Radio Pakistan reported.

China and Pakistan are "iron brothers" and always help each other "with great zeal", he added. The president is in China to attend a military parade marking the 70th end of World War Two in Asia.

Also read: President Mamnoon leaves for China to attend military parade

Hundreds have died in violence in Xinjiang in the past few years, blamed by Beijing on the militants. Rights groups say the real cause of the unrest is Chinese restrictions on the Islamic faith and culture of the Uighur people who call the region home.

China says ETIM recruits Uighurs who have gone to Turkey and trains them with extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, with the intent of returning to Xinjiang to wage holy war.

During President Xi's visit to Pakistan in April, Pakistani and Chinese officials signed a series of more than 50 accords to inaugurate the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which will create a network of roads, railways and pipelines linking China's restive west to the Arabian Sea through Pakistan.

The project is part of Beijing's “Belt and Road” plan to expand its trade and transport footprint across Central and South Asia. It will give China easier access to Middle Eastern oil via the deepwater port of Gwadar.

Then there have been security concerns over much of the plan, which relies on developing Gwadar — control of which was passed to a Chinese company in 2013.

Take a look: Security fears for China-Pakistan corridor as Xi ends visit

The port lies near the mouth of the Gulf of Oman, east of the Strait of Hormuz through which much of the Middle East's crude production passes.

But linking Gwadar to the rest of Pakistan and on to the western Chinese city of Kashgar, 3,000 kilometres away, would involve major infrastructure work in Balochistan. This is one of Pakistan's most unstable provinces and has been dogged for over a decade by a bloody separatist insurgency.

Ethnic Baloch rebels, who oppose Gwadar's development while the province is not independent, have in the past blown up numerous gas pipelines and trains and attacked Chinese engineers.

Earlier in April, the army formally announced the creation of a 10,000-man strong special force for protecting the development projects to be carried out under CPEC and the Chinese workers associated with them.

QUETTA: The provincial accountability court on Wednesday has issued non-bailable arrest warrants for five officers of the Quetta Development Authority (QDA) on charges of embezzling Rs417 million from the national exchequer.

The former QDA officials are accused of illegally allotting more than 2100 illegal plots.

The accused include the former Director General of QDA Muhammad Zakir, Assistant Director Zafar Iqbal Magsi and three other officers.

Earlier, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had sent references to an accountability court against the five officers of QDA for allotting more than 2100 illegal plots.

According to NAB, the five QDA officers had allotted plots under the Hazar Ganji master plan.

The QDA was allowed to allot 964 plots under the Hazar Ganji plan, but the accused had allotted more than 3000 plots to individuals, with the majority being allotted to land mafia.

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani was granted protective bail by Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi on Wednesday in a ninth case registered against him by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) with regards to a multi-billion rupee scam involving the Trade and Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP).

The petition for bail in the ninth case was filed by Gilani's counsel yesterday, but was registered too late in the day for any conclusion to be reached on the matter.

Speaking to the press, Gilani said he suspected there were five or six more cases against him in the pipeline. He alleged that the FIA had visited his Multan residence and harassed his employees. He called the incident "discrimination" and "character assassination of a political party".

PPP's former governor Punjab Sardar Latif Khosa addressing mediapersons on Wednesday. — DawnNews screengrab

PPP Secretary General Sardar Latif Khosa said the former prime minister's lawyer Farooq H. Naek tried to get protective bail for Gilani so he wasn't arrested before he could be presented in court.

He added that there shouldn't be any discrimination against the PPP stalwart, saying that the first names on a list presented by the National Accountability Bureau in court were those of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.

Khosa alleged that Nawaz Sharif had allotted 2,600 two-kanal plots in one day in Lahore's Johar Town area.

Counsel for the accused Farooq H. Naek said the cases against the former prime minister alleged that Gilani's deputy secretary had taken a Rs50 lakh bribe, and a confession was forcefully extracted from him under torture. "You cannot run the government and FIA this way," he said, adding, "Don't register false cases... and take unfair advantage of your position". He also appealed to the heads of the FIA to "stop registering false cases".

The FIA had registered 21 First Information Reports (FIRs) in the case. Gilani, according to one of his lawyers Raja Aleem Abbasi, has obtained bail in 12 of the cases.

On Thursday, a single-member bench, comprising Justice Noorul Haq Qureshi, of the IHC granted protective bail to Gilani in eight other cases. However, during the hearing of his petition, Farooq Naek, senior counsel for the former prime minister, informed the court that there was another FIR pending against his client. He requested the court to grant protective bail to Gilani in that FIR as well.

Justice Qureshi, however, said the accused needed to file a separate petition seeking protective bail in the remaining FIR. Subsequently, Gilani through his counsel filed another petition which was taken up by the court today.

A federal anti-corruption court last week issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Yousuf Raza Gilani, Makhdoom Amin Fahim and others.

During the course of hearing, advocate Naek told the court that Gilani was innocent as his name was not mentioned in the initial FIRs but was included in the final challan.

He said the former prime minister wanted to appear before the federal court in Karachi but he apprehended that the FIA may pressure him to make a statement against his own party colleagues.

Justice Qureshi directed Mr Gilani to submit Rs100,000 surety bonds in each case. Since there were eight FIRs, the former prime minister has to furnish Rs800,000 bonds.

The judge made it clear that the protective bail would expire after one week in case Gilani would not appear before the trial court.

Also read: Arrest warrants issued for senior PPP leaders Gilani, Amin Fahim

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday said unprovoked Indian firing along the Line of Control is not only aggression against Kashmiris but also amounts to targeting the conscience of the global community.

Inaugurating a newly constructed sports stadium in Bagh, Azad Kashmir, as part of the developmental projects for the districts affected by earthquakes, the premier said:

“Pakistan is continuously keeping the international community abreast of these provocations, ceasefire violations and trampling of human rights of Kashmiris by Indian troops.”

Nawaz Sharif said “Pakistan would continue to raise a voice for our Kashmiri brethren till they realise their right of self-determination.”

“Firing across the LoC and the Working Boundary has increased in recent days, posing threats not only to innocent people but also to regional peace and security.”

The premier said “Pakistan is drawing attention of the United Nations and the international community towards these violations and threats to regional peace.”

He said Pakistan is playing a very important role in the global war against terrorism, adding that Pakistan was conducting a successful operation against terrorism with its achievements being acknowledged by the entire world.

In a message to the global community, Nawaz said the people of Pakistan and their armed forces are fully resolved to eliminating terrorism.

“We will not forgive those supporting terrorists and their organisations.”

“Elimination of terrorism will be Pakistan's gift to the international community,” said the premier.

PESHAWAR: A First Information Report (FIR) was registered on Wednesday against suspended Station House Officer (SHO) of Urmar Police Station, Ijaz Khan, for killing a "petty criminal" — whose complaint had resulted in the suspension of the SHO a day earlier.

Earlier on Wednesday, at least three policemen were shot dead and six others were injured in a gunfight with suspected militants in Urmar area.

Later, a police team led by Sub Inspector Ijaz Khan conducted a raid in the same area and shot dead Muhammad Islam claiming that he was involved in the earlier attack on police.

However, after Islam's killing, local residents protested against the "staged encounter", calling for an FIR to be registered against SHO Ijaz.

The protesters alleged that Islam was involved in "petty crimes only" and was killed illegally by the SHO since the deceased had filed a complaint which led to the suspension of Sub Inspector Ijaz.

According to SHO Ijaz's suspension letter — a copy of which is available with DawnNews — Inspector General of Police (IGP) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Nasir Khan Durrani had suspended the Sub Inspector on September 1 after Muhammad Islam filed a complaint alleging that the SHO Ijaz while posted as Incharge Police Post Bazid Khel had illegally confined him in lock-up and extorted Rs15,000 from him.

A screengrab of SHO Ijaz's suspension letter.

In his complaint Islam had stated that he was released on the guarantee that he would buy the Sub Inspector a mobile phone.

Following the protest by locals against Islam's killing, an FIR was registered against SHO Ijaz for killing Islam whereas an FIR was registered against unknown persons for the murder of three policeman.

When asked how SHO Ijaz carried an operation while he was suspended CCPO Mubarak Zeb said that the suspension order had not been delivered to Ijaz as yet.

Earlier, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Operations Mian Saeed told DawnNews that a contingent of police was carrying out a search operation in Urmar when suspected militants suddenly opened fire at their van.

Saeed confirmed that three cops were killed and six others sustained injuries in the ambush.

The policemen responded with firing, and the cross-fire lasted for some time, police sources said.

According to SSP Saeed, police then cordoned off the area and a search and strike operation was carried out.

The SSP said the assailants in the attack were wanted militants.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday lauded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) chief Sardar Raza's efforts for electoral reforms and also sought army deployment for by-polls to be held in NA-122 and NA-154 constituencies.

Talking to media after meeting the Chief Election Commissioner in Islamabad, the PTI chief expressed satisfaction over measures being taken by the ECP to conduct transparent polls in future adding that he has been assured that the mass irregularities which took place in the May 2013 general elections will not be repeated.

"They have already started working on removing loopholes from the system which I had mentioned in my letter to the ECP chief. Those irregularities resulted in the largely unfair and rigged polls of 2013," Khan told media.

Meanwhile Khan also repeated his demand of ECP members' resignations saying that the Judicial Commission's report regarding rigging and the subsequent decisions of election tribunal over three of the four constituencies, whose results were challenged by PTI, shows the ECP members' inability to conduct free and fair polls.

"What reason do they have now to remain glued to their posts," the PTI chairman questioned.

He added that his party will go on with the planned sit-in against ECP provincial officials on October 4 in Islamabad.

Related: PTI to hold sit-in against ECP on Oct 4

Army deployment in by-polls

Talking about the upcoming by-polls in NA-154 and NA-122, Imran Khan said that he has demanded the deployment of army during the by-polls and accused the Punjab police of acting like 'PML-N police' when not supervised by a tough authority.

"We want an army man inside and another outside the polling stations to ensure fair and free polls and we have set such a precedent in the KP," claimed Imran Khan.

Extension for election tribunal judges

The PTI chief told media that he has requested the ECP chief Sardar Raza to grant extension to election tribunal judges until the pending cases are solved.

He also claimed to have urged the ECP chief to take notices to threats issued to ET Judge Kazim Malik after he deseated PML-N's Ayaz Sadiq after declaring his election 'null and void" in NA-122 constituency in Lahore.

Also Read: NA-122 tribunal deseats Ayaz Sadiq,orders re-polling

Irked by the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) assertion that it was not answerable to any political party, Imran Khan on August 26 alleged that all four provincial members of the ECP had helped the PML-N rig the 2013 general polls and announced that his party would avail itself of all available legal options to have them removed.

On August 29, he announced on to hold a sit-in in front of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in Islamabad if its members do not tender their resignations by October 4.

PTI has already filed a reference in the Supreme Judicial Council under Article 209 of the Constitution of Pakistan, which is the relevant forum for deciding such matters.

In light of the reference filed, the members of the ECP have decided not to take any decision regarding the demands of the opposition and will await a decision by the competent authority.

Imran, earlier in July had accepted the judicial commission's report, which was constituted to probe alleged rigging during the general elections of 2013.

ISLAMABAD: Expressing strong displeasure over the recently-announced electronic media code of ethics, the Senate committee on information and broadcasting questioned the information ministry over why the draft it prepared was not taken into consideration.

The committee, headed by Senator Kamil Ali Agha, met Wednesday at the Parliament House and directed the information ministry to inform the Supreme Court about facts related to the media code announced by the government.

The Senate body was told that the code of conduct was issued and approved by the federal government and was prepared by a committee set up by the prime minister.

Editorial: Electronic Media Code of Conduct 2015: Regulating the media.

The committee insisted that its draft, which was prepared after consultation with all stakeholders, should have been considered and adopted.

The Senate committee also raised questions over the matter concerning the age requirement for Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) chairman announced in a recent advertisement, and observed that it appeared the government wanted to induct “some crony to this lucrative position through such an advertisement.”

The information ministry told the committee that the ‘Access to Information’ draft bill was with the cabinet division and had not as yet been put up before the federal cabinet for approval. The committee decided to write a letter to the cabinet division on the matter.

The committee also expressed displeasure over Indian models appearing on Pakistan’s TV channels, observing that “on one hand Indian forces were shelling mortars into Pakistan while on the other hand Pakistani TV channels were promoting Indian culture and models,” asking for the practice to be stopped forthwith.

The committee castigated Pemra for not exercising its authority to regulate TV channels and their content and for not ensuring implementation of rules and regulations.

Read: Unclear media code may cause more confusion.

Last month, the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage formally issued Code of Conduct 2015 for amendments in the Pemra Rules, 2009, under which the electronic media has been directed to ensure that no hate speech is aired in any of its program

A notification to this effect was issued per the directions of the Supreme Court of Pakistan during the hearing of a Pemra case during which the apex court directed the authority to issue the code of conduct for media which would come into force immediately.

Take a look: Pemra issues guidelines for TV channels.

QUETTA: A fresh case of crippling polio disease was confirmed in a five-year-old girl in Quetta on Wednesday bringing the total number of cases to five in Balochistan and 30 in Pakistan during the current year.

According to Emergency Operation Center (EOC) Balochistan, the polio virus has been detected in the Gul Afshan, a 60-month-old girl belonging to Shadizai Union Council of Quetta.

Her parents had refused to administer polio drops citing religious assumptions. “The chronic refusal was not recorded in tally sheet prepared by the polio teams,” spokesperson EOC Balochistan.

“The EOC is closely monitoring the situation and will take every possible step to improve the quality of the campaign,” spokesperson said.

It was the third polio case in Quetta while fifth in Balochistan during the year of 2015. The total number of polio cases have reached to 30 in Pakistan this year.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries in the world which have not been able to eradicate the polio-virus while no case of polio virus was reported in Nigeria over a year.

In Balochistan, 84 per cent children are not immunised and are prone to various preventable and fatal diseases, data from the Emergency Operation Center (EOC) revealed.

Related Quetta anti-polio drive suspended due to lack of security

However, refusal on the part of some parents and attacks at polio workers and volunteers remain to be the main reasons behind the virus. The Polio campaign is always postponed and suspended owing to security reasons in Quetta.

The government had declared a polio emergency throughout the province to root out the crippling virus from the region.

But the anti-polio drive in the province has been marred by instances of terrorism, whereby polio health workers have been attacked and killed on numerous occasions.

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday approved death sentences of five “hardcore terrorists”, according to a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

The condemned terrorists include persons involved in the attack and subsequent breakout from Bannu Jail, attacking police officials in Gadap town near Karachi, destroying a girls school in Khyber agency and an attack on a polio vaccination team, said a statement released by the ISPR.

This is the second approval of death sentences by the army chief following Supreme Court’s recent judgment giving legal cover to the establishment of military courts in the country.

Out of the six terrorists sentenced today, five were awarded the death sentence and one was awarded life imprisonment, according to the ISPR.

Read: Army chief approves death sentences of 7 terrorists: ISPR

Political parties had unanimously agreed over the issue of setting up military courts to tackle terrorism cases in the country following the gruesome attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014, following which the Parliament passed the 21st constitutional amendment to set up the said courts.

President Mamnoon Hussain had also promulgated an ordinance further revising the recently amended Army Act to ostensibly aid the functioning of military courts by allowing for trials in camera, i.e without the presence of the public or the media, and over video link if necessary.

The Supreme Court in a majority ruling upheld the establishment of military courts in Pakistan.

Petitions challenging the 21st amendment were dismissed in a majority 11-6 vote of the 17-member SC bench. Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk and Justice Dost Muhammad announced the verdict.

In a 14-3 majority vote, petitions challenging the 18th amendment were also dismissed by the bench. Judges provided seven opinions and two additional notes on the ruling.

Also read: Military court ruling challenged in SC

Details of ruling

The ISPR statement also issued details of the convicts and the crimes for which they were sentenced.

Civilian Muhammad Sabir Shah alias Ikram Ullah s/o Sher Hazrat: The convict was an active member of proscribed organisation. He was found involved in abetting the murder of Advocate Syed Arshad Ali in Lahore. He admitted his offence before the magistrate and the trial court. He was tried on solitary charge and awarded the death sentence.

Civilian Hafiz Muhammad Usman alias Abbas alias Asad s/o Ali Dost: The convict was an active member of proscribed organisation. He was found involved in sectarian killings in Quetta and an attack on police officials. He was convicted for killing of Hassan Ali Yousafi, advocate Waliat Hussain and other civilians. He also abetted in the murder of two industrialists namely Syed Talib Agha and Syed Jawad Agha belonging to a particular sect. He was also convicted for attacking and killing four police officials, including DSP Hassan Ali, Constables Nasrullah, Sifatullah and Muhammad Taqi. He admitted his offence before the magistrate and the trial court. He was tried on eleven charges and awarded the death sentence.

Civilian Asad Ali alias Bhai Jan: The convict was an active member of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He was found involved in possessions of arms and explosives and attacking officials of the Sindh Police, in the Quaidabad area of Karachi which resulted in the death of three individuals including DSP Kamal Mangon and ASI Akbar Hussain and injuries to nine other individuals including three head constables. He admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court. He was tried on five charges and awarded the death sentence.

Civilian Tahir s/o Mir Shah Jahan: The convict was an active member of Tehrik-e- Taliban Pakistan. He was involved in attacking /breaking of Bannu Jail owing to which number of terrorists managed to escape from the jail. He was also found involved in attacks on Law Enforcement Agencies which resulted in death of one soldier and injuries to another soldier. He admitted his offence before the magistrate and the trial court. He was tried on three charges and awarded death sentence.

Civilian Fateh Khan s/o Mukaram Khan: The convict was an active member of proscribed organisation. He was found involved in the murder of a civilian, attacking polio workers, individuals of law enforcement agencies and armed forces personnel which resulted in the death of a child, eleven Khasadars, two army officers, twenty two soldiers and injuries to one civilian, nine Khasadars and twenty five soldiers. He admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court. He was tried on eight charges and awarded the death sentence.

Civilian Qari Ameen Shah alias Ameen s/o Minar Shah: The convict was an active member of TTP. He was found involved in an attack on a Girls Primary School in Khyber Agency, providing funds for terrorists activities, exploding an improvised explosive device (IED) and possessing explosives. He admitted his offences before the magistrate and the trial court. He was tried on four charges and awarded imprisonment for life.

QUETTA: The Frontier Corps (FC) and security agencies on Wednesday raided and seized a bomb factory manufacturing suicide jackets and other explosive devices in Chaman, close to the Pak-Afghan border according to a statement released by the FC.

“Security forces also defused a large number of explosive devices and other material used in the manufacturing of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs),” said Khan Wasey, a spokesperson for the FC.

Arms and explosives seized during the raid include prepared suicide jackets, RPG-7 rockets, mortar shells, landmines, IEDs, detonators, detonator cord, ball bearings, wireless communication sets, laptops and other equipment used in the manufacturing of explosives.

The spokesperson also added that security forces successfully defused 120 landmines, 21 mortar shells of different calibres and five bombs during the raid.

The raid was conducted in Rehman Kahol area of Chaman after intelligence was received about the presence of suspected militants at the location.

However, the militants managed to escape prior to the arrival of security forces and no arrests were made, according to Wasey.

“The terrorists were planning to carry out attacks in Chaman and other parts of Balochistan, we have managed to foil a major terror bid,” stated Wasey.

In a separate raid conducted in Balochistan’s Zhob district, which borders the volatile tribal belt and neighbouring Afghanistan, security forces recovered 40kgs of explosives and other weapons.

Security forces have intensified their actions in Quetta and other parts of Balochistan after the announcement of National Action Plan to combat terrorism in the country.

KARACHI: A traffic police constable was shot dead while two others sustained bullet wounds in an armed attack in Site-B area of the metropolis on Wednesday evening, a police official said.

Giving details, Karachi-West SSP Azfar Mahesar said “the traffic policemen were performing their duties at Gulbai roundabout when unidentified armed riders attacked them at two separate locations,” resulting in the death of a constable and injuring two other officials.

The Karachi-West SSP said this was the third attack on traffic police officials in the last one week. He termed it as “a new wave of targeted killing of policemen.”

On Sunday, two traffic constables were gunned down in Karachi's Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

The policemen were performing their duties at the Sunday Bazaar near Safari Park, when armed motorcyclists coming from the wrong side attacked them, said Gulshan SP Abid Qaimkhani.

Earlier, two policemen helping traffic police in the busy Saddar area were gunned down by armed riders when they were asked to stop.

Police suspects three militant groups have become ‘active’ in targeting policemen after a lull in such activities.

KARACHI: A female school teacher was kidnapped Wednesday and later found murdered in Karachi’s Korangi Industrial Area, according to police.

The dead body of the school teacher, identified as Quratul Ain, 26, was found in an abandoned area in Allahwala Town of Korangi, said Landhi SP Afnan Amin.

She was “taken away” from a school in PIB Colony Wednesday morning and was found murdered in the afternoon.

The Landhi SP said investigators have found “significant clues” about the identity and motive of the suspects, adding that one of them has been detained for questioning.

The dead body was shifted to Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre where the cause of death will be determined after chemical examination, said Dr. Seemin Jamali, head of the hospital’s emergency department.

Dr. Jamali said there were bruises on the deceased’s body.

ISLAMABAD: At least 17 suspected militants were killed and their hideouts destroyed when military planes carried out airstrikes targeting terrorist infrastructure near the Pak-Afghan border in North Waziristan, the military’s media wing said on Wednesday.

The Inter-Services Public Relations further said that 14 more suspected militants were killed earlier in the day in Khyber Agency, taking the total death toll from Wednesday's air strikes to 31.

The conflict zone of North Waziristan is off-limits to journalists making it difficult to verify the army's claims, including the number and identity of those killed.

Earlier this week, an attempted suicide attack on the Political Agent office in Khyber Agency's Jamrud area left four people ─ including two Khasadar Levies men ─ dead and 56 others injured.

Since the beginning of Operation Zarb-i-Azb in June 2014, militants have fled to other tribal regions, including Khyber and its Tirah Valley and Shawal in North Waziristan, all of which border Afghanistan.

In June this year, on the eve of the operation's first anniversary, the army said it had eliminated 2,763 terrorists during the year. There has, however, been no explanation as to how this precise figure about militant casualties has been collected because a large number of them are said to have been killed in strikes by Pakistan Air Force jets.

At that time, officials had said another 218 terrorist had been killed in intelligence-based operations (IBOs) conducted in other parts of the country to prevent the feared backlash of Zarb-i-Azb. The IBOs are flaunted by the military as a major success story.

But, this has come at the cost of 347 troops and displacement of over a million people.

LAHORE: The Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) chairman, Shaharyar Khan, wrote a letter to the Indian cricket board secretary on Wednesday, pressing him for an update on a proposed series between the arch rivals in December this year.

A two Tests, five one-day and one Twenty20 match series in United Arab Emirates is shrouded in uncertainty with volatile relations between the nuclear rivals at one of their lowest ebbs.

Pakistan accused India of killing nine civilians on the border last week, barely a week after talks between the countries' national security advisers were called off.

The two countries have not played a full series against each other since 2007, though Pakistan toured India for a short series in December 2012.

The PCB chairman told AFP he had written to Anurag Thakur, secretary of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“I have written a letter to Thakur, in the main saying that cricket and politics should be kept apart,” Khan told AFP.

“I am positive that the BCCI shall be able to convince the Indian government that it ought to honour its MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the PCB,” he added.

Also read: India-Pakistan series unlikely under prevailing tension: BCCI

Last year PCB and BCCI had signed a MoU under which they were scheduled to play six series in the 2015-2023 Future Tours Programme, but all were subject to clearance from New Delhi.

Khan, a former foreign secretary and a career diplomat, said that strained relations should not affect cricket.

“While relations between Pakistan and India have seen its share of ups and downs, cricket should be kept out of it,” he said.

Thakur has previously said that the countries' cricket teams should not meet while relations between the South Asian neighbours remain fraught, saying cricket cannot be played with bullets.

“On one hand there is a rise in terrorist activity, on the other you can't expect to play a cricket series with Pakistan,” Thakur said in July.

But last week Thakur softened his stance, telling a private television channel in Pakistan that a series was possible.

“If situation improves I cannot rule out cricket series in December, “Thakur said. “I toured Pakistan in 2004 and was overwhelmed, and when Pakistan toured India the following year I distributed sweets on their captain's (Inzamam-ul-Haq) birthday.”

KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the provincial authorities to explain why motorcycle-rickshaws, better known as Qingqis, were banned when there was no alternative public transport available across the province.

A two-judge bench comprising Justices Gulzar Ahmed and Maqbool Baqar also ordered the provincial transport authorities to submit and proposals to cope with the shortage and unavailability of public transport.

The bench was hearing a civil petition of the Association of Owners and Staff of Qingqi Rickshaws for leave to appeal against the dismissal of their petition by the Sindh High Court. The SHC had on Aug 5 dismissed their petition and ordered immediate ban on the operation of Qingqi rickshaws across the metropolis.

The petitioner asked the apex court to set aside the impugned order of the SHC and grant leave to appeal against the dismissal of their petition.

When the petition, filed by Advocate Ghulam Qadir Jatoi on behalf of the rickshaw owners, came up for hearing, the judges expressed grave concern over the ban on plying of motorcycle-rickshaws in the absence of alternative arrangements for commuters. The provincial government law officer told the judges that the ban was imposed on Qingqi rickshaws as they were plying in violation of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1979.

He said the motorcycle-rickshaws had been allowed to ply on limited routes but they had started operating on major arteries and even on the Superhighway.

The law officer said that earlier there was only one workshop for preparing motorcycle rickshaws, but now the workshops had spread all over the city.

One of the bench members observed that the motorcycle-rickshaw was a good public transport facility and asked why these three-wheelers were banned in the absence of alternative public transport.

He remarked that corrective measures should have been taken if anything was wrong with the operation of the Qingqi rickshaws instead of imposing a ban on them.

The court observed that the Qingqi rickshaws were banned without any proper planning despite the fact that thousands of people were associated with this transport business.

One of the judges remarked that the ban on Qingqis had made the life of commuters miserable and motorcyclists were compelled to take their whole family on motorbikes. He observed that cheap and affordable public transport was not available in Karachi, while minibuses plying here were in a very poor condition.

The bench directed the provincial authorities to convene a meeting of all stakeholders, including representatives of the petitioner, and chalk out a comprehensive strategy and make proposals to resolve the issue. The court would take up the matter on Thursday (today).

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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LAHORE: The Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) has registered only 100 beauty salons and cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics in the provincial capital on a voluntarily basis out of around 600 such places surveyed in the past two years or so.

The survey, which is yet to complete in Lahore, also couldn’t not be extended to other districts of Punjab to bring all beauty salons in the ambit of the Punjab Sales Tax on Services Act 2012.

The mushroom growth of beauty salon/parlors in the city has led the PRA to enhance focus on bringing them into tax net to help meet fiscal targets.

A senior official told Dawn on Wednesday that the category of salons, cosmetic and plastic surgery and hair transplants was included in six other categories for which the government had set a target of Rs1,000 million.

She said the enforcement teams had been serving notices to the non-registered beauty salons/parlors and had so far sealed around 50 salons for non-payment of 16 per cent sales tax.

She said that salons were being de-sealed after getting cheques against outstanding amounts from violators, adding the survey for identifying new salons was in progress with the help of field formations.

The official said that serious enforcement efforts to register beauty salons had been initiated during the current fiscal 2015-16 as the authority had already been trying to create awareness among people associated with the business through seminars, media campaigns and meetings with stakeholders in the past two years.

The official said cosmetic and plastic surgery clinics and hair transplants were extending cooperation to the authority for registration, adding the enforcement teams did not seal any slimming clinic, spas, cosmetic and plastic surgery and hair transplant clinic so far.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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KARACHI: The apathy of the provincial government towards public interest projects can be gauged from the fact that it has been sitting on a major industrial effluent treatment project plan for a decade, though it has been offered a proposal to arrange finances for the project.

This point came to light during a seminar held at Karachi University’s Area Study Centre for Europe (ASCE) on Wednesday. The event titled ‘Human induced climatic changes and impact on health: future strategies’ was organised by the centre in collaboration with the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

Highlighting the challenges Pakistan confronted in the face of climatic change, speakers said that an acute lack of planning and poor governance had compounded the burden of climate change challenges multiple times in the country.

Pakistan, they said, was among the countries found most vulnerable to impacts of climate change. This vulnerability was intrinsically linked with increased environmental degradation and lack of preparedness.

“No one is working on industrial pollution in Pakistan, a major public health problem. The discharge of wastewater is destroying our productive land and water bodies, but there is no alarm,” said Gulzar Firoz heading the Standing Committee on Environment of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber and Commerce and Industry while referring to the Keenjhar Lake getting severely polluted due to wastewater discharge coming from the Kotri industrial area.

The people working in factories and the population of slums that have sprung up along the embankments of Malir and Lyari rivers, being used as wastewater drains, were directly threatened by the hazards of wastewater pollution, he added.

According to Mr Firoz, Karachi needs combined effluent treatment plant/s as many factories set up 35 to 50 years ago now exist in congested areas and neither have sufficient spaces, nor funds to establish separate wastewater treatment plants.

A project of combined effluent treatment plant, he told the audience, was prepared by the government a decade ago with an estimated cost of Rs3 billion. It was later revised in 2005 when its cost had increased to rupees five to six billion.

“Now, its cost has jumped to Rs10bn due to high inflation. No funds were ever allocated for the project, though land is available,” he observed.

He further said that he had met the chief minister over the issue six months ago and offered support, but there had been no response yet.

“We had suggested setting up a task force in this regard and offered to arrange finances for the project through international donors,” he said, adding that the sole combined effluent plant in the city was being operated by the tanners’ association under a public-private partnership.

He also showed a slide listed with a number of outdated laws enacted to bound employers to ensure safe working environment and protect workers’ rights and said that the legislations needed to be updated and implemented.

“Only a handful of industries are following the standard procedures on operational and workers’ safety and that, too, under pressure from foreign buyers. The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency is too weak to force industries to adopt measures to ensure safety of public health,” he said.

Speaking on adaptation mechanisms on climate change, Mohammad Moazzam Khan representing the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan said that not many people were aware of the fact that the low pressure system, which developed over the Arabian Sea in June-July, caused severe hot weather conditions in Karachi but heavy rain in Gujarat on the other side of the border.

He blamed unawareness on the part of people on how to deal with severe hot weather that claimed countless lives. “There were hardly any deaths in other parts of the province experiencing much higher temperature during that time. That showed that people there knew how to handle intense hot weather, he said.

Tracing the past incidents of harsh weather, he said that Karachi had floods in 1959 and witnessed heavy rainfall in 1977. The city, he argued, had no threat from the rising sea level as the increase was minimal.

Underlining the importance of traditional knowledge in handling natural disasters, he said the tsunami generated off the coast of Makran in 1945 couldn’t cause widespread human casualties only because people had already moved to elevated grounds after observing distinct changes in weather and the sea behaviour, he said.

“But, we are yet to recover from the Cyclone 2A that came in 1999. It completely destroyed the Left Bank Outfall Drain and, consequently, three freshwater lakes that have turned saline,” he said, adding that coastal erosion and sea intrusion were important issues that mainly had emerged due to poor planning.

Dr Syeda Kanwal Aslam of Dow University of Health Sciences spoke about how intense weather conditions were aggravating the health crisis in the country that, she pointed out, reported a large number of malaria cases.

Simple and cost-efficient measures at the household level, for instance, the use of insecticide-treated bed nets and indoor insecticide spraying, could help prevent vector-borne diseases like malaria.

Prof Mubarik Ali, Prof Uzma Shujaat of the ASCE and journalist Afia Salam also spoke.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Information on Wednesday expressed reservations over the code of conduct for electronic media, prepared by the government on the orders of the Supreme Court.

The senators criticised the information ministry for not presenting the correct picture before the Supreme Court, and demanded that a review petition be filed.

The senate committee meeting was held here in the Parliament House with Senator Kamil Ali Agha in the chair.

The members were of the view that before preparing the code of conduct the government had not incorporated the inputs taken from the appropriate forum.

Senator Farhatullah Babar of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) asked whether the code of conduct notified on August 19, 2015 was the same which had been finalised by the senate standing committee.

The secretary information Mohammad Azam conceded that the notified code of conduct was not the same draft as approved by the committee. This infuriated the senators including the chairman of the committee.

“This is irresponsible attitude of the government,” senator Kamil Ali Agha said adding, “We formulated the draft code of conduct after discussions and receiving inputs from all the stakeholders including Pemra, but their exercise has been rendered worthless by the information ministry.”

The committee unanimously demanded the chairman of the committee take up the matter with the senate chairman.

“Besides, we will want the information ministry to tell the Supreme Court that the parliamentary body has formulated a comprehensive code of conduct.”

The senators also pointed out that the code of conduct had placed the entire responsibility of monitoring the broadcast content and implementing the code provisions into the hands of channel owners leaving no role for Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra).

The senators pointed out that Pemra law required the regulatory body to prepare a broad based code of conduct and also implement the same whereas Pemra was not even the part of the committee that prepared the code of conduct.

Taking up the issue of the appointment of Pemra Chairman, the secretary information told the committee that advertisement had been published in the newspapers inviting applications for the post and that the selection process had already started.  — A Reporter

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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KARACHI: A woman, mother of four children, was killed allegedly by her husband in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Wednesday, police said.

They added that Ghulam Fatima, 30, was strangled by her husband, Mohammed Asif, inside their apartment in Abid Town, Block-2, Gulshan-i-Iqbal. The suspect was later arrested by the police and he ‘confessed’ to having killed his wife, said Gulshan SP Abid Qaimkhani.

He said the suspect told the police that he murdered his wife for her ‘suspected infidelity’.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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HYDERABAD: Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali has directed Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) to cut off power connections of the Sindh government departments if they fail to pay bills.

If consumers did not clear dues within seven days, their power connections be cut off and not restored till 100 per cent recovery was made, said the minister while speaking to Hesco officers during a visit to Hesco offices here on Wednesday.

He urged them to attain the target of 100 per cent recovery of dues with the help of Rangers, eliminate power theft, control line losses and complete mobile meter reading within a month.

He said that women would be appointed as meter readers to improve meter reading and mobile meter reading process would be completed within a month.

He urged the officers to ensure recovery from government and private consumers and said the Hesco’s performance had improved but still there was more room for improvement.

Officers would be awarded for good performance and those who displayed bad performance would be transferred to other companies, he said.

He praised the Hesco Mirpurkhas operation circle superintending engineer Abdul Haq Memon and said he would visit again after a month. Under the memorandum of understanding, all circle superintending engineers would be responsible for performance, he said.

He asked them to pay visits to the houses of all defaulters and launch an awareness drive to sensitise people to getting legal connections. It would bring a significant reduction in line losses and curb power theft, he said, adding it was on top of his priorities to attain 100 per cent recovery and crack down on electricity thieves.

He advised all officers and officials of the power utility to work hard and discharge their duties in an honest and efficient manner to improve Hesco’s system. On the directives of prime minister, subsidy had been given to the poor consumers, which was praiseworthy step, he said.

The federal government was taking measures to help the poor so that their issues could be resolved as soon as possible.

Hesco Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Saleem Jat told the minister that Hesco recovery teams were conducting a massive crackdown against power thieves and line losses. Action against power theft continued without any discrimination, he said.

He said that he was striving to meet the 100 per cent recovery target and informed the minister that the government and private consumers owed Rs60.656 billion to Hesco, which included Rs2.05 billion owed by federal institutions, Rs32.35 billion dues of provincial departments and Rs26.24 billion of private consumers.

Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) managing director Umar Rasool who also accompanied the minister said after visiting all units of Hesco that Hesco was a commercial institution.

Its meter reading unit and customer services centres should be improved so that consumers’ complaints could be resolved immediately and they should be facilitated in a better manner, he said.

Pepco MD’s team including general manager of human resources, GM of monitoring and surveillance, GM of recovery and commercial, CEO of power information technology and technical commercial also accompanied the minister during the visit.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2015

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