Aussies in county cricket catch-up: Ashes back-ups make their mark

Marcus Harris scored an early century but Matt Kuhnemann's promising start was ended by injury

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David goes 6, 6, 6 in final over to trump Jaiswal's stunning hundred

In the 1000th IPL game, Mumbai Indians become the first team in the tournament history to chase down a 200-plus total at the Wankhede

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David: 'I've been wanting to do something like this for a while now'

Rohit Sharma says while Pollard's are big shoes to fill, David has got "lot of ability and so much power"

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Gloucestershire hold on for draw despite Sean Hunt salvo

Sussex enforce follow-on but rain wipes out chance of victory push

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Pakistan declared mpox-free as only patient successfully recovers: NHS

Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel declared the country free of mpox on Sunday after the only patient afflicted with the disease successfully recovered.

In a statement issued today, Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) spokesperson Sajid Shah said one mpox case was reported so far in the country, adding that the patient was under treatment at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).

Patel said the best medical facilities were provided to the patient who had now recovered.

“The patient has been discharged after testing negative [for the virus]. There are no cases of mpox in Pakistan. Kudos to the hospital staff for taking the best measures,” he said.

He said the government was ensuring all necessary measures to keep people safe from diseases and the country’s institutions were “always ready to deal with all kinds of epidemics and diseases”.

Patel said samples of 22 suspected mpox cases were sent for testing and all of them had turned out negative.

“The situation regarding mpox is under complete control,” the health minister said, adding that a well-integrated strategy was formulated to deal with the disease and the implementation of recommendations by health regulatory authorities was being ensured at all airports and entry and exit points.

It is worth mentioning that after media reports, a controversy began about whether there were one or two confirmed mpox cases in the country. The uncertainty further increased when NHS Parliamentary Secretary Dr Shazia Sobia Aslam Soomro said that there were two confirmed mpox patients while speaking on the National Assembly floor on April 27.

The mpox-positive person had arrived in Islamabad from Saudi Arabia on April 17 and went to Pims to get himself tested.

Pims Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases Dr Naeem Akhtar had identified that the patient could be suffering from mpox and admitted him to the isolation ward.

Later, it emerged that the patient had mpox and another traveller on board the same flight as him was also reportedly found positive for the disease.

A senior doctor of Pims, requesting anonymity, had said that the patient had cleared the immigration counter and came out of the airport without being identified as a potential mpox patient.

“Next day the patient came to Pims for a check-up … it shows that he might be deported because of mpox,” the doctor had said, adding that the patient had claimed to spend at least 20 years in Jeddah working as a driver.

Mpox — which spreads via close contact and tends to cause flu-like symptoms and pus-filled skin lesions — was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in July 2022. The organisation maintained its alert in November.

In November, the WHO named the disease mpox to replace the older term monkeypox, citing concerns of stigma and racism associated with the name.

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Lucknow the first stop for Kohli and co. as RCB begin string of away games

Super Giants aim to do season double over RCB and consolidate their position on the points table

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Murtagh's grand brutally exposes Kent flaws as Middlesex go back-to-back

Life and cricket move on, but the 41-year-old remains permanent

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Murtagh's grand brutally exposes Kent flaws as Middlesex go back-to-back

Life and cricket move on, but the 41-year-old remains permanent

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Tom Clark's super sub moment gives Sussex scent of victory

Marcus Harris' dismissal leads to unexpected Gloucestershire chaos

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Chris Cooke, Michael Neser in the runs as Glamorgan mount impressive fightback at Leicestershire

For the second year running, this fixture prompted a revision of the record books

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Ready for elections on same date if assemblies dissolved by May 14: Imran issues ultimatum to govt

Former prime minister Imran Khan on Saturday announced that the PTI was ready for elections on a single date if the incumbent coalition government dissolved the remaining assemblies by May 14.

In a televised address to the nation today from his Zaman Park residence, the PTI chairman said: “If you dissolve the assemblies by May 14 then we are ready on a single election date with you.”

Imran said his negotiation team comprising PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry and Senator Ali Zafar will go for the meeting on crucial election talks with the government team on May 2 (Tuesday).

“It will be a national election and we feel we are ready for it,” he said. “This is the only way stability will be achieved, the economy will improve and the conditions of the people will transform.”

Imran lambasted the government leaders for suggesting passing the new budget first before calling for elections. “I sense bad intentions in this,” he said.

“Win the polls first, get the five-year mandate and then pass the budget.”

The PTI chairman questioned that “what’s the point of them presenting a budget when someone else will have to carry the weight of it.”

He said that the “real budget” would be the one passed by the government which came to power after winning the elections. The former premier stated that any notion of the assemblies being dissolved after the budget would be “unacceptable” for the PTI.

“We are ready for joint elections if you are ready to dissolve the assemblies by May 14. If you are not then the Supreme Court has already ordered Punjab elections on May 14 and after that, we are going to the apex court for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elections.”

Imran said rallies will be carried out on May 1 (Monday) in three provincial capitals. “I will lead the rally in Lahore at 1pm from Liberty till Nasir Baig. Qureshi will lead the Islamabad rally at the same time and Pervez Khattak will lead the Peshawar rally.”

He further said the purpose of the rally was to save the Constitution and the country. Imran also extended an invitation to the legal community and the working class to participate in the rally.

The PTI and the government are engaged in crucial election talks to break the deadlock over their timing. The two sides on Friday decided to hold what one minister called the “almost final round” of parleys on May 2 (Tuesday).

Representatives of the government and the opposition exchanged proposals during the second round of talks held in Committee Room No 3 at the Parliament House.

Though the development generated some optimism, the dialogue process still appears to be fraught with the possibility of failure as important figures from both sides in their remarks stuck to their guns and questioned the utility of negotiations if one side did not agree with the other’s suggestion.

Informed sources told Dawn that the PTI insisted on a date for the dissolution of the National Assembly prior to the presentation of the budget to “reduce political tension”.

Appeal to Supreme Court judges

Separately, the PTI chief also appealed to all the 15 judges of the apex court to unite for the nation’s sake and advised them to set aside their egos for the supremacy of the Constitution.

“I’m talking to all the 15 judges today. The entire nation is looking towards you,” Imran said. “The nation is looking towards you. Stand with the Constitution.”

He further said: “You don’t know how close we are to anarchy. If PDM is going to destroy the Constitution then what will be left? Only the law of the jungle is left now.”

The ex-prime minister highlighted how the country’s chief justice and his family were being targeted by spilling dirt on the families.

He also accused the handlers of violating the Constitution by standing behind the 12 coalition parties.

Toward the end of his address, Imran pleaded with the Supreme Court judges to “please unite and save the country from mafias gifted to us.”

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Sarah Glenn shows her quality with bat and ball as The Blaze outshine Sunrisers

Tammy Beaumont posts half-century in 72-run stand with legspinner

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SBC jumps on bandwagon seeking action against SC judge

ISLAMABAD: Just a few weeks after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council had filed a complaint against a sitting judge of the top court before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the Sindh Bar Council also jumped into the fray on Friday by requesting the SJC to initiate an inquiry into the allegation of his misconduct.

The SBC alleged that Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi’s conduct not only injured the Supreme Court’s dignity but also tarnished its reputation.

The complainant believed the alleged violation of the code of conduct was sufficient to justify removal of the judge from office.

Nearly half a dozen complaints have been filed over the past few months against the SC judge. Besides Sindh and KP bar councils, Pakistan Bar Council, a Lahore-based social media influencer Advocate Mian Dawood, PML-N Lawyers’ Forum and a private citizen Ghulam Murtaza Khan have moved misconduct and assets beyond means complaints against the Justice Naqvi who was elevated to the Supreme Court in March 2020.

In the fresh application, the SBC cited a 2014 judgment in which the SC bench comprising then Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry had made certain observations about the conduct of the respondent judge when he was a Lahore High Court judge.

The SC bench had noted: “We may observe that discretion exercised by the learned judge (respondent) while passing the impugned order in the instant case has appeared to us to be somewhat colourable as after dismissal of second application for suspension of sentence bearing the same ground the only difference in the respondent’s third application for the same relief was a different counsel for that respondent.”

The Sindh bar recalled that after the SC observation, Justice Naqvi had filed a review petition seeking to expunge the strictures passed by the bench against him.

Subsequently, the review was fixed before a bench comprising Justice Khosa, Justice Chaudhry and Justice Gulzar Ahmed.

The bench not only dismissed the review petition but also observed, “…. a judge of the High Court approaching this court in person and seeking review…. is surely out of the ordinary and it may raise many an eyebrow in view of the provisions of Articles VI of the Code of Conduct prescribed by the Supreme Judicial Council.”

Audio recordings

The complaint noted that recently some audio recordings, purportedly based on the judge’s talk with prominent politicians and certain lawyers have been widely circulated on social media and mainstream media. The SBC mentioned that the audio recordings had not been officially denied.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2023

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After landmark 500th win, Pakistan look for more in second New Zealand ODI

RAWALPINDI: After overseeing Pakistan’s 500th victory in the One-day International format on Thursday, captain Babar Azam lavished praise on the way his side controlled the game to draw first blood in the five-match series against New Zealand.

With their five-wicket triumph over the Black Caps at the Pindi Cricket Stadium, Pakistan became only the third cricketing nation to reach the landmark. It came in their 949th one-dayer, making them the second quickest after Australia to achieve the feat.

In the second ODI, also at in Rawalpindi, on Saturday, the hosts will look to build on that victory to further embellish their lead in the series but they will be mindful of the fact that New Zealand came back from 2-0 down to level the preceding five-game Twenty20 series 2-2.

Pressing home their advantage, therefore, will be crucial for Pakistan. They can’t afford to give the visitors any chance, any opening. In Thursday’s game, they did exactly that with opener Fakhar Zaman’s ninth ODI hundred trumping a similar effort by New Zealand’s Daryl Mitchell.

Mitchell smashed 113 off 115 deliveries to help New Zealand post 288-7 with Pakistan’s pacers, especially Naseem Shah, doing well in the end to restrict them under 300. Fakhar’s 117 was the standout effort in the chase even though his fellow opener Imam-ul-Haq, Babar and Mohammad Rizwan chipped in with good runs.

“This was a team effort, we wanted to start [the series] well,” Babar said. “Credit goes to the fast bowlers for the way we restricted them in the end. It feels good to see players execute their plans. The way Naseem bowled put the pressure on them and then Fakhar played a solid match-winning knock. The way Fakhar and Imam played, then the innings Fakhar and I built together, was great.”

Fakhar and Imam (60) put on 124 for the first wicket and Pakistan were carried further towards the target by a 90-run stand between the opener and Babar (49). New Zealand hit back late when Adam Milne removed Babar and Shan Masood with Fakhar bringing Pakistan within 34 runs of victory before being dismissed but Mohammad Rizwan led the victory charge with a brisk unbeaten 42.

“The plan was to attack and stay long,” said Fakhar, who was named Player-of –the-Match. “If you survive the new ball, you must stay [till the end]. The idea was to have at least one of the top three batters to bat deep. Today was my day and hopefully, Imam and Babar will also play big knocks.”

At the post-match news conference, Fakhar said he enjoyed a good rapport with his opening partner Imam both on and off the pitch.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a more confident player than Imam,” said Fakhar. “We enjoy being with each other on the field and off the field as well. Now we have also got an understanding of each other’s game and when he makes a mistake I let him know right away, and its vice versa.”

Questions inevitably shifted to the T20 series where Pakistan lost the third and fifth games to let slip the chance of a series victory. Fakhar was forced to defend the fact that he plays one-drop in the shortest format of the game for Pakistan.

“It’s true that I’ve played most of my cricket as an opener,” he noted, before adding that “one has to understand the team’s situation”.

“I think I can hit spinners better than [regular T20 openers] Babar and Rizwan. A team combination requires at least two left-handers in the middle-order and I think the way Babar and Rizwan are playing, there’s no need to change it.”

New Zealand failed to maintain the momentum from the T20 series and skipper Tom Latham rued his team’s inability to get an early breakthrough.

“I think the score we got was about par,” said Latham. “Daryl played a superb innings. The wicket got harder for new guys, but the way Pakistan played was superb. We couldn’t make any inroads. It [the wicket] got harder in the end but the two partnerships up top from Pakistan made the difference.”

Mitchell to believed New Zealand managed a “par score” batting first on a low wicket.

“Pakistan have got some world-class bowlers and they showed that at the end there with their death bowling,” he told reporters. “..also the way Pakistan batted tonight was pretty special and put us under pressure at times and they always kept the rate in check. Fakhar was dangerous, he took the game on at times, took some risks and he obviously got the rewards for that.”

He added that New Zealand would try their best to get back at Pakistan and spoke about the side trying to adapt to conditions here.

“We’ve played them a number of times now obviously coming over here is a totally different challenge for us Kiwis compared to what we’re used to back home in terms of the reverse swing and the lower wickets so again it’s just about us constantly improving and trying to get better each day,” he said.

“I guess the surface here dictates how you want to play and for us as Kiwis we’re just constantly trying to adapt to the kind of surface we see and the different format of one-day cricket. We know the blueprint that we want to play one-day cricket in the style that we want to play as Kiwis and we’ll keep trying to show up and do that with a smile on our face.”

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2023

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Census extended till May 15

ISLAMABAD: To address concerns over the exercise of digital census, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) after a detailed briefing to ministers, lawmakers and leaders of political parties on Friday decided in principle to extend digital census for another 15 days.

PBS spokesperson Sarwar Gondal told Dawn the digital census, previously scheduled to conclude on April 30, would be extended till May 15. To work out an operation plan during the extended days, he said, the bureau would hold a meeting with chief secretaries on Saturday (today).

“We will present the request of the political parties in a meeting of census monitoring committee,” he added.

Need for the extension was felt after it emerged during the exercise that Karachi and Lahore populations showed little increase since the 2017 census.

PBS asks political parties to identify areas not covered by enumeration teams

The PBS at the briefing requested political parties to identify the areas that had not been covered by census teams.

Mr Sarwar said the bureau would need another 15 days to finalise data before submitting it to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) by June.

An official announcement issued after the meeting showed that 237.448 million individuals had been counted in all the four provinces, an increase of 29.768 million since 2017 when the tally was 207.68m.

So far, 54.138m people have been counted in Sindh, 116.442m in Punjab, 39.315m in KP and 19.713m in Balochistan.

Meanwhile, a joint meeting of Balochistan lawmakers and representatives of political parties from Quetta discussed the process of census in Quetta and its preliminary results.

The participants demanded that the census be conducted again in the provincial capital and the exercise should be extended for two months.

They said that census results had shown that Balochistan’s population had increased by more than seven million while that of Quetta had decreased by 500,000, which they claimed was part of a plan.

Saleem Shahid in Quetta also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2023

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Misfiring batters under spotlight as Capitals, Sunrisers seek a lift

Both teams have scored the fewest runs so far, and are rooted at the bottom of the table, separated only by NRR

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Iran says there were no schoolgirl poisonings, blames foreign ‘enemies’

Iran’s intelligence ministry on Friday accused foreign “enemies” and dissidents of fomenting fears over suspected poisonings of schoolgirls, saying its investigation found no actual poisoning.

The wave of suspected attacks has affected thousands of schoolgirls and provoked public anger, after months of protests against Iran’s clerical rulers following the death of a young woman held by police for allegedly flouting strict hijab rules.

“The enemies’ role in fuelling this crisis is certain and undeniable. Individuals, groups and Western media [especially in Persian language] … have focused on this in the past few months, as well as foreign politicians and international bodies,” said a ministry report carried by state media.

“In field findings and laboratory investigations … no toxic substance able to cause poisoning was observed … and there have been no deaths or long-term physical conditions,” the report said, blaming mischievousness and mass hysteria among students.

The report accused unnamed dissidents of provoking fears to produce propaganda videos and warned of “prosecution of individuals, groups, media who accused the government … and aligned themselves with enemies”.

Authorities have accused the Islamic Republic’s “enemies” of using the suspected attacks to undermine the clerical establishment. But suspicions have fallen on hardline groups operating as self-declared guardians of their interpretation of Islam.

The suspected poisonings began in November in the holy city of Qom and spread to 28 of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to activist HRANA news agency, prompting some parents to take their children out of school and protest.

For the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, schoolgirls have joined the protests that spiralled after Mahsa Amini’s death in morality police custody.

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Can KKR and Titans produce another humdinger at high-scoring Eden?

All three matches at the venue so far have produced 200-plus first-innings totals, so expect more fireworks

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MQM-P to stay on govt side as PM promises to solve census issue

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday assured MQM-P of an early redressal of its grievances after the government-allied party accused major coalition partner PPP of “systematic alteration” in the ongoing population census.

Upon the PM’s assurance, the MQM-P which had threatened to resign its National Assembly seats over the census issue, decided not to part ways with the ruling coalition.

The MQM-P delegation was led by party convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal also attended the meeting.

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal to address the reservations of Muttahida Qaumi Movement regarding the ongoing population census at the earliest,” said a PMO press release.

Khalid Maqbool accuses PPP of making ‘systematic alterations’ in census data; PM phones Chinese counterpart

A source privy to the talks, which was the second such meeting in as many days, quoted the MQM-P as having told the PM that PPP, the ruling party in Sindh, had influenced the population count and altered the results.

The MQM-P delegation, including Federal Information Technology and Telecom Minister Syed Aminul Haq, former MNA Farooq Sattar, and former Senator Mustafa Kamal, thanked the prime minister for playing his role in addressing the party’s reservations.

Mr Siddiqui told Dawn that Karachi’s population had been intentionally shown less while that of interior parts of Sindh was shown higher than the actual count.

Mr Siddiqui said his party’s objective was not to disgrace anyone but to ensure accurate population count.

Two days ago, the media reported that MQM-P was considering parting ways with the ruling alliance over “flawed” census results.

During Wednesday’s meeting as well, the MQM-P leaders had discussed the alleged irregularities in the census being conducted by the PBS and demanded the federal government direct the authorities concerned to count the population correctly.

The party had also demanded the formation of a committee to correct the statistics released so far.

On Tuesday, MQM-P had reportedly “collected resignations from its lawmakers” before its convener took up the census issue with the premier on Wednesday.

The MQM-P MNAs had resolved that they would not go to the assembly session on Thursday until their grievances were addressed. However, they attended the NA session on Thursday in which PM Sharif obtained the vote of confidence from the house.

PM phones Chinese counterpart

Prime Minister Sharif and Chinese Premier Li Qiang agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in all spheres aimed at benefiting the people of their countries besides contributing to regional peace, prosperity and stability, reports APP.

During the telephone conversation, Mr Shehbaz extended his felicitation to the Chinese premier on his election to the office.

As all-weather partners and close friends, Pakistan appreciated China’s peaceful development as a positive factor of international peace.

Mr Sharif was confident that China would continue to achieve milestones on its journey towards modernisation and rejuvenation.

He reiterated Pakistan’s support to China on core issues, including the One China policy, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and the South China Sea dispute.

The Chinese PM appreciated Pakistan’s support and reaffirmed China’s continued support to Pakistan’s national development, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Separately, PM Sharif wished Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complete recovery and good health.

“Greatly relieved to learn that my brother H.E. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recovered from his illness by the grace of Allah Almighty. My deepest prayers & best wishes are with him for a complete recovery & good health,” he tweeted.

Published in Dawn, April 28th, 2023

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Weatherald seeks fresh start with two-year Tasmania deal

The opening batter leaves South Australia after eight years

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Kemar Roach shows his pedigree as Surrey seamers take control

Dan Mousley the one bright spot on gloomy day for Warwickshire

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Fakhar 117, Imam fifty take Pakistan 1-0 up against New Zealand

For New Zealand, Mitchell's 113 went in vain, even as Naseem bowled a tight spell

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Ollie Robinson hundred sets tempo as Durham stay on the attack

Wicketkeeper's first Durham ton helps hosts rack up 410 for 8 on day one

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Broad: Australia's 2021-22 win doesn't count as real Ashes

The England pace bowler has also challenged the visitors to match their aggressive approach

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Chris Woakes 'touches base' on Test recall after winter of white-ball focus

In spite of tough 2021-22 tour, allrounder still hopeful he can play a part in upcoming Ashes

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Chris Woakes 'touches base' on Test recall after winter of white-ball focus

In spite of tough 2021-22 tour, allrounder still hopeful he can play a part in upcoming Ashes

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Varun and Suyash wreck RCB's chase again

KKR's new opener Jason Roy set them up for a total of 200 by smashing 56 off 29 balls

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Royals look to return to winning ways against table-toppers CSK

Royals' Impact Player strategy and use of Holder has come into sharp focus following back-to-back losses

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UN Security Council set to condemn Taliban crackdown on Afghan women

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is set to vote on Thursday to condemn a ban on Afghan women working for the UN in Afghanistan and call upon the Taliban administration to “swiftly reverse” its crackdown on the rights of women and girls.

The resolution to be voted on — drafted by the United Arab Emirates and Japan and seen by Reuters — describes the ban as “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations” and asserts “the indispensable role of women in Afghan society”.

Diplomats said it is expected to be adopted.

A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain or France to pass.

The draft resolution says the ban on Afghan women working for the UN “undermines human rights and humanitarian principles.”

Earlier this month, the Taliban began enforcing the ban on Afghan women working for the UN after stopping most women working for humanitarian aid groups in December.

Since toppling the Western-backed government in 2021, they have also tightened controls on women’s access to public life, including barring women from university and closing girls’ high schools.

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

Taliban officials said decisions on female aid workers are an “internal issue.”

The draft Security Council resolution demands that all parties allow full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access “regardless of gender” and “stresses the urgent need to continue addressing the dire economic and humanitarian situation.”

It also “recognises the need to help address the substantial challenges facing Afghanistan’s economy, including through efforts to enable the use of assets belonging to Afghanistan’s central bank for the benefit of the Afghan people”.

The US froze billions of the bank’s reserves held in America and later transferred half of the money to a trust fund in Switzerland overseen by the US, Swiss and Afghan trustees.

The draft resolution also stresses “the critical importance” of the UN’s continued presence across Afghanistan.

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Another leak suggests PTI getting legal help from ex-CJP

KARACHI: Yet another taped phone conversation, featuring a former chief justice and a key member of the PTI legal team, emerged on Tuesday, where two men can be heard discussing the suo motu case currently before a three-member bench of the Supreme Court.

The latest in a spate of leaks targeting members of the judiciary, the conversation has not been denied by either former top judge Saqib Nisar or PTI’s Kha­waja Tariq Rahim, but talking to Dawn.com, the ex-CJP questioned the authenticity of the audio, calling it “a theft of my fundamental rights”.

The audio clip, which has been widely shared on social and mainstream media platforms, features the voices of two men apparently discussing a previous SC judgement, as well as the elections suo motu currently pending before the apex court.

“Please look into that… it is a seven-member judgment… this is suo motu number 4 of 2010, sir… seven-member judgement, 2012, has been reported on page number 553 of the Supreme Court,” the voice of the ex-CJP says.

Saqib Nisar says he is free to give advice to anyone, terms audio ‘theft’ of his fundamental rights

Here, the man on the other end of the call, beli­eved to be PTI’s Mr Rahim, replies in the affirmative. “Whoever is your lawyer, tell him to check it out. It states that if… never mind, you’ll know when you will read it,” the ex-CJP says.

In response, Mr Rahim purportedly says: “I will read. I have seen the seven-member bench judgment. They have stated in it that until the act is not formulated… if you read it carefully, clause three has it…”

At this point, the voice believed to be Saqib Nisar replies “yes I have seen that, it is the way out for you”.

He goes on: “And secondly Tariq sahab, if any person of yours is ready, you can use the Munir Ahmed Khan [judgment] which is a clear case of contempt of court.”

“That too… that too,” Mr Rahim replies, after which the ex-CJP purportedly says “after what happened in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, I don’t think there is any…”

Interjecting, the person on the other end says that “we are only waiting for the three-member bench’s verdict… it can take another half an hour… after that, we are filing a contempt application”.

The audio clip of this alleged conversation comes on the heels of another similar leak, that purportedly featured a conversation between two women — one of whom was said to be related to a top-ranking serving SC judge, while the other was Mr Rahim’s spouse.

The two women could also be heard discussing the case linked to KP and Punjab polls.

Ex-CJP ‘free to give advice’

Speaking to Dawn.com, ex-CJP Nisar termed the audio leak a violation of his right to privacy, adding: “I am a citizen of Pakistan, an ex-CJP and I give free advice to those in office. Khawaja Tariq Rahim is a friend and I gave him advice.”

Later, in a separate conversation with Dawn, he said: “It is a discussion between two decades-old friends and professionals, who are discussing a legal point in the context of a particular case. Did I malign any institution or speak against Pakistan? It was a simple discussion on a legal merit.

“I have my views on legal matters and can discuss them with anyone and everyone seeking advice or just trying to take my input. What is wrong in it? If not, why call it a controversy?”

PTI’s Khawaja Tariq Rahim, the other person said to be featured in the leaked clip, expressed similar views.

Speaking on a YouTube channel, he explained that the conversation was in the context of the disqualification of Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, the former prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir who was shown the door by the Kashmir High Court in a recent contempt of court case.

“I am neither a lawyer nor a party to that particular case. But, I was certainly interested in seeing what grounds the high court has used to hold Ilyas guilty. It was as simple as that.”

PML-N reaction

Reacting to the leak, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said in a tweet that he was disappointed to hear the audio, saying that Mr Nisar had gone too far in his quest for revenge against Nawaz Sharif.

“You took revenge on Nawaz Sharif and sentenced him. How long will you continue to feed on this poison?” he added.

The PML-N — especially Maryam Nawaz Sharif — has time and again blamed the former CJP for disqualifying Mr Sharif as prime minister in the Panama Papers case in 2017.

Sharing the audio clip on Tuesday, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said that the “mastermind of the 2017 regime change and judicial martial law conspiracy still conducting the orchestra”.

Reacting to the leaked audio, Information Minister Marriyum Auirangzeb also expressed disapproval over what she termed “judicial bias” in certain high-profile cases.

“Wives, mothers-in-law, children and Dam Baba vs Constitution of Pakistan… competition is tough and time is running out,” she said in a tweet.

Muzhira Amin in Karachi and Ahmad Fraz Khan in Lahore also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2023

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Pact for IMF loan programme revival to be finalised in next 7-10 days: Rana Sanaullah

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has said he expects the long-awaited staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund to be finalised within a week to 10 days’ time — a pact that would pave the way for the revival of a $7 billion bailout programme.

The minister made this statement while speaking to the media in Faisalabad on Monday.

“The conditions of that [IMF agreement] are fulfilled and it will be completed in a week to 10 days’ time,” Sanaullah said.

The interior minister expressed the hope that “some relief could be passed to the public” following the IMF programme’s revival.

Pakistan has been negotiating with the IMF since early February for the resumption of the loan programme agreed upon in 2019 and the completion of its ninth review to secure the last tranche of $1.1bn under this facility.

Last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also announced that negotiations with the IMF were in the final stages.

The announcement had come after Pakistan received a rollover of $2bn from China and then $3bn from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, thus meeting the last condition of the IMF of external financing by friendly countries for the release of bailout funds.

With central bank reserves falling to critical levels, hovering around $4bn and barely able to cover a month of imports, the IMF tranche is critical for the country to avert a default on its obligations.

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500 Pakistanis reach Sudan port, will be evacuated to Jeddah, says FO

Amman: People evacuated from Sudan arrive at a military airport in Jordan, on Monday.—AFP

ISLAMABAD: With the situation in the violence-hit Sudan getting precarious by the day and evacuations picking pace, the Foreign Office on Monday announced that the first batch of 500 Pakistanis have reached the country’s port safely for their onward to Saudi Arabia through sea.

The FO’s statement follows an announcement by Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in Islamabad on Sunday, saying 91 people from various countries, including Pakistan, have been evacuated from Sudan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been personally monitoring for the last 72 hours the emergency plan for the evacuation of Pakistani nationals, APP quoted the PM Office as saying in a statement.

The 500 evacuated Pakistanis would be brought back home from Jeddah through special flights with the cooperation of Pakistan Air Force and the Pakistan International Airlines.

PM personally monitoring rescue efforts; S. Arabia evacuates scores, including Pakistanis

These Pakistanis are being provided temporary accommodation and food by the government on the directive of Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. Besides, an emergency helpline has been established at the Pakistan’s embassy in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.

The crisis management cell at the FO has been reactivated to ensure safe repatriation of stranded Pakistanis from Sudan, where hundreds have been killed during the ongoing fighting between the army and Rapid Support Forces.

The measures for the protection of Pakistani nationals in Sudan are being constantly monitored and Pakistan’s embassy is also in contact with them, the FO said.

The diplomatic missions of Pakistan and other countries in the region were supporting Pakistan in the evacuation process and the foreign minister has already thanked the governments of Egypt and Turkiye in this regard.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari has also talked to his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan over telephone and the two also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.

The foreign minister expressed profound gratitude for the kingdom’s assistance in the evacuation of Pakistanis. He agreed that the two countries would closely coordinate to facilitate evacuations.

The foreign minister expressed confidence that resumption of the kingdom’s diplomatic relations with Iran would lead to regional peace and prosperity.

“Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are bound by fraternal relationship marked by mutual trust and understanding, close cooperation and an abiding tradition of supporting each other. The people of Pakistan hold the custodian of the two holy mosques in the highest esteem,” the FM was quoted to have told his Saudi counterpart.

PM Shehbaz lauded the efforts of the foreign minister, Minister of State Hina Rabbani Khar, foreign ministry officers and Pakistan’s ambassador in Sudan.

The premier particularly appreciated the military authorities and other relevant people for their expertise and dutifulness in formulating an effective evacuation plan and its successful implementation.

He expressed gratitude to Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu and Director General of ISI Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum for their special efforts in the evacuation process which involved multiple challenges and risks.

On Sunday, the Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in Pakistan while announcing the evacuation of 91 people said that the operation was carried out by the Royal Saudi Naval Forces with the support of various branches of the armed forces on the directives of the kingdom’s leadership.

“We are pleased to announce the safe arrival of the citizens of the Kingdom who were evacuated from the Republic of Sudan as well as several nationals of brotherly and friendly countries, including diplomats and international officials,” it said.

A total of 66 people from Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Tunisia, Pakistan, India, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Canada, and Burkina Faso were evacuated.

The kingdom worked to provide all the necessary needs of foreign nationals in preparation for their departure to their respective countries, it added.

The main airport in Khartoum has been the site of heavy clashes, effectively shutting its operations and sparking multiple evacuation operations to rescue foreign citizens and diplomats by road, air and sea, AFP adds.

Some evacuations are taking place from Port Sudan on the Red Sea, an 850km drive from Khartoum, and others via nearby Djibouti and neighbouring Egypt.

A UN convoy carrying 700 people completed on Monday the arduous trip to Port Sudan.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2023

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Afghan Taliban ready to help US in countering IS: report

WASHINGTON: The Afghan Taliban are ready to cooperate with the US in combating the militant group Islamic State (IS) as they see jihadists ‘a threat to their own powerbase,’ Washington Post reported.

The Afghan government has been battling IS since August 2021 when it seized power after a 20-year-long war with the US and its allies, the report said while quoting US defence officials.

A senior defence official told the Post that “the duelling groups of religious fanatics are openly warring,” with the IS, attacking Afghan Taliban’s targets with the latter retaliating by targeting the former’s hideouts across Afghanistan.

“I would never want to say that we had mortgaged our counterterrorism to a group like the Taliban, but it’s a fact that, operationally, they put pressure on ISIS-K,” the official said. “In a strange world, we have mutually beneficial objectives there.”

Leaked intelligence pose militant group as a potent threat

Some part of the Post’s report was based on a leaked Pentagon assessment, claiming that the IS was once again using Afghanistan as a staging ground for plots against America, Europe and Asia.

The report portrayed the resurrected threat as a growing security concern.

When asked to comment, a US defence official acknowledged that “the [Afghan] Taliban has served as a check on ISIS” since 2021, when the group took over Kabul.

The Pentagon assessment cited specific plans to target churches, embassies, business centres and the World Cup soccer tournament. The report said that The White House declined to verify the assessment’s authenticity, although it was labelled top-secret and bore the logo of the Defense Department’s organisations.

The classified documents were posted online as part of a wider leak by Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeria, who federal authorities said shared them with friends on a private Discord server.

Current and former US officials told the Post that the leaked reports support earlier warnings that terrorist cells could return to life in Afghanistan.

The Biden administration, however, defended its counter-terrorism policies in a statement to the newspaper.

The United States “maintains the ability to remove terrorists from the battlefield without permanent troop presence on the ground,” National Security Council Spokesperson Adrienne Watson told the Post.

Nathan Sales, the State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism told the Post that IS “has the ambition to attack American interests in the region and ultimately the US homeland itself.”

He urged Washington to make an urgent plan to attack the group’s leadership and infrastructure.

The Afghan Taliban has rejected the US intelligence assessment as incorrect.

A spokesperson for the Taliban’s Political Office, Suhail Shaheen, said IS “has been suppressed” and the report “does not reflect ground realities in Afghanistan.”

“Such reports reflect personal desires” of their authors, he said, adding: “The fact is that the [IS] has no physical presence in Afghanistan as it had during the invasion.”

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2023

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Two legal tenders struggle to gain currency

A man displays a Rs10 coin and Rs75 notes.—Fahim Siddiqi / White Star

KARACHI: ‘Which coin is this?’ The person manning the counter at a popular convenience store in a Defence Housing Authority Phase-II commercial area asked as he examined the pale golden coin just handed to him by a customer in exchange for the bill.

“Looks fake!” he said before returning it to the customer. “Do you have a 10 rupees note?”

He had been handed a Rs10 coin, which he had not seen before, and which he was not willing to accept.

Issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on October 24, 2016, the Rs10 coin remains quite unknown to most people, although it is still very much in circulation.

“I accept all these coins but then no one takes them from me when I’m returning change,” said the ever-smiling polite elderly gentleman at one of the cash counters of a busy supermarket in Clifton. The mention of the Rs10 coin made him frown, something new for the otherwise quite pleasant fellow.

Rs10 coin and Rs75 note issued by SBP have not gained public acceptance

“Now I have collected a little sack full of these Rs10 coins. No one wants them,” he said.

Then remembering something, he opened his cash register to bring out several Rs75 currency notes, which the SBP had issued just last year. The green-coloured banknote was issued to commemorate the 75th independence day of Pakistan.

The note has portraits of four founders Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Dr Allama Mohammad Iqbal, Mohtarma Fatima Jinnah and Sir Syed Ahmed Khan on its front.

It carries the signature of SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad, and yet it is not accepted in the market.

“Similarly, this note is also not accepted. I have so many 75 rupees notes because, again, I have been taking it from customers but no one wants it from me,” he shrugged.

“Some people have even told me strange stories that the note has been rejected by the public and thus recalled by the SBP,” he laughed.

“They say that the image of the Markhor on the reverse side of the note is the problem. They say that it is not a halal animal, which is utter rubbish, although it may be endangered. It is also the Inter-Services Intelligence logo. Oh please, it is just a goat,” he laughed.

At a stationary and gift items shop just next door, young shopkeeper Asim Minhas said that since the coins and notes were in circulation therefore he accepted them all. “Why should I refuse anything that is perfectly okay? The currency is not the problem here, it’s the people’s ignorance that is the problem here. I take both the coins and notes from them and if I cannot use them in the market, I just go and exchange them from SBP,” he said.

Visiting to a huge departmental store in a Clifton mall, one of the staff there, upon seeing the coin, said that it was discontinued ‘long long ago’.

A petrol pump in Saddar also turned down the coin and the Rs75 note. “Monopoly Monopoly khel raheen hain kya? [Is this play money from the board game Monopoly?]” Asked the attendant there.

While speaking to Dawn on the issue, a spokesperson for the State Bank of Pakistan said that both the Rs10 coin and the commemorative Rs75 note, in fact all commemorative notes or coins, introduced by the SBP, are perfectly fine and acceptable for market transactions.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2023

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Unprecedented inflation casts a gloom over Eid sales

KARACHI: Contrary to the claim of market traders regarding a massive slowdown in sales due to skyrocketing inflation amid deepening economic and political crises, branded retail outlets did a roaring business this Eidul Fitr.

The local markets attracted a huge rush of buyers but traders said that the genuine buyers were on average 50 per cent less than last year due to eroding buying power of consumers caused by unprecedented price increases in food, electricity, petroleum, etc.

Traders were of the view that inflated electricity bills issued a few days back had caused anxiety among buyers about whether to pay the bill or go shopping.

A salesman in a leading branded garment store in Hyderi Market at North Nazimabad said that sales had remained brisk than last year despite the high price of various varieties of wearable items.

Most consumers pick lower priced goods; only a handful of retail brands report robust demand

He said the stitching cost for gents’ shalwar kameez increased by Rs500 to Rs2,500 per suit.

In residential areas and other markets, gents tailors were seen charging Rs1,500 for a suit as compared to Rs1,200 citing high power bills, yarn and labour charges.

Offering a different view, CEO of Bonanza Garments (Satrangi), Hanif Bilwani said consumers now need a hassle-free purchasing of garments with an open option to change and return the goods besides having a variety of colours and designs based on the different quality of fabrics as per their price tags.

As a result, people are moving towards readymade quality garments at branded outlets, he said.

“Overall sales of five to six leading stores have risen by 35-50 per cent than last year,” he claimed, adding that ladies mainly focused on readymade suits worth Rs7,000-8,000 while gents were lifting Rs3,000-4,000 unstitched fabric of shalwar kameez.

He said he had noticed that sales of “unbranded gents shalwar kameez and ladies suits” have remained subdued this year due to quality issues and high prices.

“The overall price hike in branded ladies and gents fabric and readymade clothes have recorded a jump of 15-25pc than last year due to the rising cost of production on account of cotton and yarn prices, power and gas bills and high transportation charges,” Bilwani said.

However, he said that the sales of gents’ readymade shalwar kameez have remained a bit 20pc slower than last year as many people prefer wearing their old suits after washing.

“Men also believe that at least they can avoid purchasing branded suits for themselves and wife/children get branded items,” he said.

Prices double

All Hyderi Business Traders and Welfare Association President Syed Mohammad Saeed claimed a 30-40pc drop in sales of Eid-related items compared to last year as prices of many items have almost doubled than last year, forcing people to lift low-priced items.

“How can a buyer dare to buy goods when he is burdened with 100pc rise in wheat flour and ghee/cooking prices followed by the additional burden of getting high power and gas bills,” he said, adding that many parents especially fathers skip buying new shalwar kameez and try to make new clothes and shoes/sandals for the family members.

In contrast to the heavy footfall of consumers in the markets, he said “There is only one buyer out of a group of four friends or family members. This is the reason for the downward trend in sales.”

All City Tajir Itehad General Secretary Mohammad Ahemd Shamsi said as per daily feedback from Association’s members in various markets, the overall sales of Eid items have remained 60-70pc slower than last year due to soaring daily life expenditure of people, no increase in salaries and incomes and looming political and economic chaos etc.

He feared rising default cases of traders in case they fail to pay back as they had lifted the items on credit amid high expectations of good sales ahead of Eid.

Markazi Tanzeem Tajiran Pakistan Kashif Chaudhry told Dawn from Lahore that “the overall sales in Pakistan plunged by 40pc due to massive price hikes in Eid-related items due to skyrocketing inflation amid costly food items and utility bills.

Tariq Road Traders Alliance (TRTA) Pres­ident Ilyas Memon claimed sales remained subdued from the first Ramazan as historic inflation reduced consumers purchasing power.

He said a normal gents’ chappal costs Rs1,500 as compared to Rs1,000 last year. The situation is alarming as people getting salaries of Rs30,000-35,000 are begging for a ration bag for their families, he deplored.

He said for many low-income group people this is one of the toughest Eid of their life to arrange clothes, bangles, shoes, sandals, artificial jewellery, etc at high prices in addition to managing daily essential food items expenses and monthly power and gas bills.

Mr Ilyas was of the view that people had confined themselves to the respective markets of their areas due to unaffordable surging transportation costs.

Bohri Bazaar Traders Association President Mansoor Jack said the sales had remained in the range of 25-30pc as people were more occupied with arranging food for daily use and money for utility bills.

All Karachi Tajir Itehad Chairman Atiq Mir termed 2023 as the worst year in terms of sales in the country’s history as only 40pc of people could make purchases with majority tried to pick lower priced items.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2023

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PDM using negotiations to delay elections, has not formally approached PTI yet: Imran

Former prime minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan claimed on Sunday that the federal coalition was using negotiations with the opposition to delay elections, revealing that the government had not yet formally reached out to his party for a dialogue.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court (SC) — while hearing a case pertaining to holding elections across the country on the same day — had given all the major political parties a week to develop a consensus on the date for polls to the provincial and national assemblies.

However, the ruling parties had rejected the apex court order, saying that talks with the PTI could not be held under the court’s watch. PPP Chair­man Bilawal Bhutto-Zar­dari and JUI-F chief Maulana Faz­lur Rehman — who also heads the Pakistan Democratic Movement — had termed dialogue between political forces as mandated by the court “talks at gunpoint”.

The PTI and ruling parties have been in an impasse regarding polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab — where assemblies were dissolved earlier this year. The PTI is determined to hold polls to the provincial legislatures but the government maintains its stance on simultaneous elections across the country.

In an interview with anchorperson Maria Memon on ARY News today, Imran said that he had given the mandate for talks with the government to PTI Central Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

“No one from the PDM has formally approached us yet,” the PTI chief said. “I fear they are using these negotiations to delay elections. They are just buying time so that elections can be delayed beyond October.”

He asserted that the PTI was adamant about holding elections in Punjab referring to the SC’s April 4 order in which the apex court had directed the government to hold polls in the province on May 14.

“Talks can be held if they have a proposal on joint elections,” Imran told Memon. “If they give an SC-endorsed proposal on joint and immediate polls — by dissolving their governments in May — only then we can talk.

“But if they are leaving it open-ended, then it is nothing but a trap,” he said.

Talking about conditions put forward by the PTI, Imran said that the biggest condition he had was for the current caretaker setups to be removed. “These setups have become unconstitutional now and we want genuine caretaker governments to be brought.”

Bemoaning the “atrocities” faced by PTI supporters, the former premier lashed out at the caretaker Punjab government as he recalled the police operation at his Zaman Park residence in Lahore. He also claimed that the setup was fully aiding PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz.

He further said that if his party came to power again, he would primarily focus on establishing the rule of law and rebuilding Pakistan but at the same time contended that the PDM’s fascist actions on PTI supporters, such as the death of Zille Shah, were unforgivable.

‘Bajwa wanted good relations with India’

Recalling the events of his ouster, Imran claimed that former army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa was a liar, lacked any ideology, and had been planning PTI’s ouster for a year.

“He had begun lobbying with the US long ago and wanted the Americans to endorse his extension,” he claimed. “For this purpose, Bajwa also wanted good relations with India and didn’t care about Kashmiris.”

“So, my reading is that Bajwa had no ideology,” Imran stated, adding that he was given briefings and presentations on the corruption of the Sharif family by the previous intelligence heads.

“They had even more information than that available to the public … but he was ready to give these people NRO. The thing is how can you give NRO to these thieves when you have a sense of morality or ideology?

“Shehbaz Sharif was to be convicted, but they saved him and brought him to the top. If you don’t have the sense that you’re giving NRO to big thieves and selling Kashmiris … then this means you have no ideology,” Imran added.

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Lasting toll of multiple climate disasters on Pakistan’s women

Panahi welcomes visitors warmly into the dwelling she now calls home: a bare structure with a mud floor and thatched roof, through which sunlight is streaming in. There are no chairs or charpoys (traditional woven beds). A jerrycan for carrying water, a couple of bedsheets, a few utensils and a prayer mat are all the belongings her family has left.

“The floods swept everything away; we had to move to Thatta district for more than two months, empty-handed. Thank God we are back home,” says Panahi.

Panahi lives in Goth Ali Muhammad Soomro, a village of about 30 households in southern Pakistan’s Sindh province. In August last year, during the disastrous monsoon floods, Panahi’s house was swept away. Where she lives now is at best a makeshift shelter from the elements.

The family’s crops were also lost to the floods, and bones show through the hides of the few surviving cows and buffaloes in the village. Panahi’s family are surviving by raising poultry. “We don’t get to eat the eggs ourselves though — we sell them to buy flour for roti,” she says.

More than six months on from the “monster monsoon” that affected one in seven people in Pakistan and displaced nearly 8 million, the impacts of the floods are no longer making headlines. Yet in Sindh province alone, more than 89,000 people were still registered as displaced at the beginning of 2023, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority. The floods came on the heels of a severe and prolonged heatwave, which started earlier in the year than usual.

Experts say that women, especially those of childbearing age, were severely affected by the consecutive disasters.

Gender norms and poverty increase women’s vulnerability

“Men and women are impacted differently by climate disasters such as floods,” says Sajida Taj, a social scientist who specialises in gender and community development, and is a programme leader at the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council. “Gender norms in our society are a major reason. Gender roles are clearly divided, especially in rural settings where women are responsible for household chores, childcare and caring for the elderly.” In rural communities, while men “mostly just take care of the things outside the house,” women “cook, clean, wash clothes, prepare fodder for the livestock, milk cows and work as farm labour,” adds Abdullah Rajpar, general manager of programmes at the Indus Earth Trust, a non-profit working on sustainable development in Pakistan.

Poverty means that women are more likely to be malnourished, Rajpur explains, so that “when a disaster hits, they are hit worse. When the floodwaters start, they somehow take the mothers-in-law, the children and the cattle to higher ground. They themselves are the least of their priorities.”

The village of Goth Ali Muhammad Soomro in Sindh lies about 90 minutes by car from Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city. In a scene repeated over much of Pakistan, most houses in the village collapsed or were swept away in the August 2022 floods. More than six months later, residents are still living in makeshift structures and washing in the open. (Image: Afia Salam)

Aisha Khan, head of the Mountain and Glacier Protection Organization and Civil Society Coalition for Climate Change, points out that women constitute 49% of the population “but do not have equal access to resources or opportunities”.

“This inequality contributes to their vulnerability,” says Khan.

The orange-stained lips of the men, women and even children in Goth Ali Muhammad Soomro village are a tell-tale sign of this. They chew gutka, a type of tobacco product consumed across South Asia, but traditionally solely by men. “They use gutka to curb hunger as there is just not enough food,” says Rajpar. “Entire families use it. Food shortage and lack of work after the floods has made it worse. On top of this, women have to keep giving birth despite being anaemic and weak.”

Reproductive health suffers after the 2022 floods

In August 2022, the United Nations Population Fund estimated that there were 650,000 pregnant women in the flood-affected areas of Pakistan. At that point, the disaster had partially damaged or destroyed more than 1,000 health facilities in Sindh and 198 in southwest Pakistan’s Balochistan province – a situation that worsened in the following months.

“Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding face multiple challenges [during disasters],” says Tania Humayun, programme manager of the Gender and Child Cell at Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). “Their nutritional needs are not met. They’re used to living in an environment, and being displaced is not easy. They are already underprivileged. On top of this, women’s livestock and kitchen gardens are destroyed.”

In Goth Ali Muhammad Soomro, The Third Pole hears how difficult it became for pregnant women to access healthcare last year. One woman, Saima, went into labour during the floods and lost her baby. “The nearest clinic is hours away by foot, but the roads were flooded,” says Sajida, a neighbour. “With great difficulty we hired a van. It took us to a drop-off point. There onwards, the men accompanying us had to carry Saima. But by the time we reached the clinic, it was too late.”

Noreen was luckier. “This is my Gulmina; she was born during the floods,” she says. “I have eight children. Four girls and four boys.”

Pregnant women at a hospital in Sehwan, Sindh province, in September 2022, after floods hit the region (Image: Akhtar Soomro / Alamy)

With thousands of kilometres of roads rendered unusable and health facilities damaged or destroyed, access to contraceptives also became more difficult. A report published last month by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that while clinics were set up in relief camps, “traditional cultural barriers created the biggest hurdle in allowing these women access to reproductive help. Many women reported feeling an acute sense of loss of dignity, given the unavoidable proximity to strangers, when needing to access reproductive healthcare.”

Existing barriers to human rights compounded by disasters

Flood victims are eligible for subsidised food rations, but only on production of a National Identity Card (NIC). In many families in rural Pakistan, men get their NICs first, and women can be left without one. The risk of harassment often restricts women’s mobility and means they cannot travel alone, so they may not be able to get to where rations are distributed.

In Goth Ali Muhammad Soomro village, The Third Pole meets a 10-year-old girl carrying water in a small pot, who is too shy to give her name. Sajida speaks for her: “This girl is the second of seven siblings. Her father died in a car accident. She looks after all her siblings, washes dishes and clothes, and must make many trips to the closest water pump to fetch water. Having no male family member is a challenge in itself.” Asked why the girl does not fetch more water in one go, Sajida explains that the family does not have a jerrycan anymore. “These pots are all they have.”

These small pots are the only containers one family has left for carrying water, forcing them to make many trips to water pumps (Image: Farahnaz Zahidi / The Third Pole)

Sajida with a roller water carrier. In rural Pakistan, women and girls almost always have the job of fetching water for the household. (Image: Farahnaz Zahidi / The Third Pole)

Access to sanitation remains an issue, especially in the relief camps. Humayun, from the NDMA, remembers: “In Swat in 2009, women in Jalozai camp did not use restrooms all day, but long queues would form in the evening. We found out that helicopters flew overhead, and the restrooms were without roofs, so women avoided using them during the day. A lot of women faced urinary tract infections. This was taken into account when the camps were set up this time.”

The World Bank has said that children’s education, particularly girls’, is at risk in the aftermath of the disaster. Humayun knows of child marriages happening in flood-affected areas of rural Sindh. “When children are lost and found in camps, they marry them off – that is one less mouth to feed.”

On top of all this, Humayun points out, “in chaotic situations, gender-based violence increases”.

‘Transformative shift’ across society needed

Aisha Khan says patriarchal social attitudes in Pakistan need to change, and women must be factored into resilience and development plans. “It is not enough to do it on paper or make statements about gender equality. It must be seen and felt as part of a transformative shift in societal approaches that demonstrate inclusion and economic participation. Business as usual is not an option.”

A report published in September 2022 by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the UN Environment Programme and UN Women stresses that understanding gender equality and social inclusion is central to understanding people’s capacities to cope with and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Khan is clear that cultural practices, traditional values and societal constraints that lead to gender inequity must take into account the changing times and emerging threats of a warming world.

“We are not living in normal times and therefore traditional responses will not work… the sooner we make the shift the better equipped we will be to reduce vulnerability,” she says.

---

This article was originally published on The Third Pole and has been reproduced here with permission.

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Twitter’s blue tick purge stokes misinformation all over again

KARACHI: It was an eerie feeling seeing the Twitter accounts of notable personalities, government organisations and multinational companies without a blue checkmark of authority following their name.

The move to remove the check marks has once again stoked misinformation concerns, which some experts say were never fully addressed.

The mark had come to be known as a symbol of trustworthiness. It separated, at least in essence, genuine from fake, real from a spoof and truth from lies.

On Thursday, Twitter began stripping legacy verified accounts – those who had got the blue check long before Elon Musk planned to buy Twitter.

Imran Khan’s Twitter account without its blue tick.

No one was spared from the purge. Pope Francis, Donald Trump, Justin Bieber, Imran Khan, Cristiano Ronaldo, all are without the marks that distinguished them from their parodies. While most celebrities tweeted, some jokingly, about losing their tick marks, some strangely managed to keep their blue mark, despite not signing up for it.

Musk said in response to a news article about those check marks that he was “paying for a few personally.” In response to another tweet, he said it was only for Star Trek’s William Shatner, basketball superstar LeBron James and author Stephen King.

Misinformation concerns

A fake account subscribed to Twitter Blue claiming to represent Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group fighting for control of Sudan, has falsely claimed its leader has died in the fighting, Vice News reported.

The tweet from the fake @RSFSudann account claiming to represent the Rapid Support Forces does have a verified blue tick, but the actual RSF account, @RSFSudan, does not.

The fake tweet, already viewed over one million times, wrongly claimed that RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo had died from injuries sustained in combat.

This was similar to the outcome in 2022 when Mr Musk opened the verification for anyone who could pay and several parody accounts popped up, creating quite a stir. The most headline-grabbing stuff was pulled off by the impostor account of the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly — with a check mark — when it tweeted that it would provide free insulin to the customers. The company’s stocks plummeted before the damage could be salvaged.

Media labels gone

The removals followed spats between Twitter and various news organisations that have objected to labels appended to their accounts indicating they were “state-affiliated” or “government funded.” But those too had disappeared from many high-profile media accounts, according to a review by AFP.

It was not clear why the labels were removed, but the change was praised in some quarters. “I support Twitter’s removal of all ‘State-affiliated media’ labels,” tweeted Hu Xijin, the former editor of Chinese state tabloid Global Times who rose to prominence as a voice of nationalism.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2023

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James Vince's 186 warms the cockles, but Northants feel the chill of irrelevance

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Chaudhry Anwarul Haq takes oath as AJK PM

Chaudhry Anwarul Haq — a member of the PTI’s forward bloc — took oath as the 15th prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Thursday afternoon, ten days after Sardar Tanveer Ilyas was disqualified from being elected or being the member of the Legislative Assembly for two years for contempt.

He was sworn in as the premier by AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood.

Haq, who had been serving as the assembly speaker since August 2021, was elected unopposed as leader of the house during the early hours of Thursday after forming a 12-member ‘forward bloc’ in the PTI, and forging an alliance with the combined opposition, comprising PPP and PML-N lawmakers.

However, when polling was held to meet the constitutional requirement, all 48 members present in the house voted for him. Two lawmakers from the PTI and one each from two state-based parties did not show up.

The oath-taking ceremony was attended by almost all opposition and PTI ‘forward bloc’ members. Several PTI lawmakers, however, walked out before the ceremony began.

“We have been told by our leadership that as long as Haq does not clarify his position, we should stay away from functions with him in attendance,” former senior minister Khawaja Farooq Ahmed told Dawn.com.

Shortly after Haq’s oath-taking, President Mahmood also administered the oath to PML-N’s Waqar Noor and PPP’s Faisal Mumtaz Rathore as cabinet members. However, their portfolios were not immediately announced.

Haq vows to establish rule of law, merit

In his address following the oath-taking, Haq vowed to establish rule of law and merit in AJK. He said that change required time but said that the people would witness change after the initial phase of forming the government was completed.

Reiterating that he needed time to improve the system, Haq said, “I urge all of my allies to support me with patience and courage.”

The newly sworn-in premier, who comes from a well-known political family belonging to Bhimber district, regretted that facilities in AJK were only available to a specific class and not the common man.

“All government servants, including bureaucrats, either start using their energies for the welfare and betterment of the masses or go on a long leave,” he said, assuring the participants that the accountability system would be made transparent.

On the Kashmir issue, he said, “I assure our brethren across the divide that I will convey their voice with all my strength at home and abroad for the early accomplishment of our common cause.”

Earlier in his address on the floor of the Legislative Assembly after the results of the elections were announced, Haq made it clear that he had contested the prime minister’s election as an independent candidate with the support of the combined opposition, who he referred to as the “PDM”.

“I would not have contested the election [independently] if my party (PTI) were able to win it on its own strength,” he said and thanked the PTI lawmakers for reposing their trust and confidence in his leadership.

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Foreign players lurk as Sudan generals battle it out

KHARTOUM: Sudan has degenerated into a battleground for two rival generals, but they are backed by complex webs of international alliances with conflicting interests that could imperil the country’s future, analysts say.

Missiles, air strikes and gunfire have been ceaseless in Khartoum since April 15 as army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan wages war with his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the powerful Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.

Amid international calls for an end to hostilities, thousands of residents fled Sudan’s capital on Wednesday as fighting between the army and paramilitaries raged for a fifth day after a 24-hour truce collapsed.

Japan has begun necessary preparations to evacuate its countrymen from Sudan, Berlin aborted an evacuation attempt, according to German weekly Der Spiegel, after three military transport planes were made to turn back. Other nations urged their citizens in Sudan to provide their names and contact details to their embassies, with the US embassy in Khartoum urging Americans to remain indoors and stay away from windows.

Thousands flee Khartoum as fighting rages; nations scramble to evacuate citizens

Around 200 have been killed and 1,800 injured, according to the UN, in the fighting between the one-time partners and authors of a 2021 coup. With a long history of coups, the impoverished north African nation enjoys a strategic location and has long been courted for its natural resources.

Gulf states to ‘pick winning side’

Abu Dhabi’s approach to the current conflict is best described as “pragmatism, pushed to the level of cynical indifference”, a specialist told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“If the war drags out, it’s not necessarily a bad thing from either a Russian or an Emirati perspective. It lets the UAE keep its influence, which it couldn’t do with a conventional power structure,” he added.

Like its fellow Gulf heavyweight Saudi Arabia, the UAE is unlikely to antagonise either general, both of whom have served Gulf interests in the past.

“Both Burhan and Hemeti fought the Huthis” as part of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen in 2015, and Riyadh offers “no real advantage for either” general, said Eric Reeves, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute.

“Gulf states... will pick a winning side, but wait until victory is clear,” he added.

European support

Hemeti’s RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia unleashed by former dictator Omar al-Bashir against non-Arab minorities in the western Darfur region starting 2003, drawing accusations of war crimes.

Hemeti’s power is the strongest in Sudan’s west, which served as a rear base to send RSF troops to fight in the conflict in neighbouring Libya, according to experts.

In a TV interview a year after the coup, Hemeti thanked Italy for its “continued technical training” but denied receiving European support to stymie irregular migration by cutting off passage to Libya.

Sudan’s west, where the RSF also holds positions on the Chadian border, is still “awash in weapons”, according to Reeves, and is critical for Hemeti, who will try “to use his connection to Chad and his power in Darfur to secure a supply line”.

On the formal diplomatic front, Burhan — as de facto head of state — is credited as the architect of the normalisation of relations with Israel. The general also looks to Egypt for support.

He attended the same Egyptian military college as Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Cairo has a vested interest in Sudan’s stability.

The two countries have strong trade links, share a 1,200-kilometre-long (745-mile) border, and have “mutual security concerns”, said Mirette Mabrouk, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2023

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Parliament has given its verdict on elections, says Khawaja Asif

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Wednesday that parliament had given its verdict on the matter of elections in Punjab — an issue on which the executive and the judiciary have reached an impasse.

“Parliament has given its verdict. There is no ambiguity about it,” he said during an interview on DawnNews programme ‘Live with Adil Shahzeb’ when asked about the possibility of the Supreme Court (SC) upholding its decision to hold elections in Punjab in May.

Elections to the Punjab Assembly, as well as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, have been due since January when both houses were dissolved.

On April 4, the SC had ruled that polls in Punjab should be held on May 14, after the Election Commission of Pakistan decided to defer them to October 8. The court observed that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was bound by the law and Constitution to hold elections within 90 days of the dissolution of an assembly and directed the government to release Rs21 billion to the ECP by April 10 for holding polls in Punjab and KP.

However, the government referred the matter to Parliament which defied the court’s orders and refused to issue the funds. The court then directed the State Bank of Pakistan to release the funds, but the central bank, despite having allocated the amount to the ECP, has not been able to release the funds as it needs the federal cabinet’s approval.

Meanwhile, the federal cabinet — which requires the National Assembly’s (NA) approval for the release of the said funds — has managed through the lower house of parliament the rejection of its own demand for the provision of Rs21bn as a supplementary grant to the ECP for holding polls in the two provinces.

A day earlier, the defence ministry submitted a report to the apex court, highlighting the need to hold elections to the provincial and NA on the same day given the heightened security situation in the country. It also said that the armed forces would be able to carry out election duties by early October.

Along with the report, the ministry also submitted a plea, requesting the top court to recall its April 4 order.

The plea was taken up by a three-member SC bench today, which declared the application inadmissible.

When asked about the matter today, Asif said it was the SC’s prerogative to give its verdict on the matter of elections, but the parliament, too, had given its verdict.

The defence minister said parliament was the “mother of the Constitution” and a “reflection of the public’s aspirations”, and hence, it “predominates” over other constitutional institutions.

Asked what was to happen if a deadlock persisted between the judiciary and the government on elections, Asif replied, “Then God will provide a way out.”

---

More to follow

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Heavy gunfire rocks Khartoum right after Sudan truce due to take effect

Heavy gunfire shattered a 24-hour truce deal in Sudan on Tuesday, shortly after it was due to take effect under US pressure on warring military factions to pause fighting that has touched off a humanitarian crisis.

Loud shooting reverberated in the background of live feeds by Arab television news channels in the Khartoum capital region minutes after the agreed 6pm (1600 GMT) onset of the ceasefire deal, and warplanes could be seen in the skies above.

The conflict between Sudan’s military leader and his deputy broke out four days ago, derailing an internationally backed plan for a transition to civilian democratic rule four years after the fall of autocrat Omar al-Bashir to a popular uprising and two years after a military coup.

The fighting has triggered what the United Nations has described as a humanitarian catastrophe, including the near collapse of the health system.

At least 185 people have been killed across the sprawling country.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Japan, said on Tuesday he had telephoned both army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and paramilitary leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), appealing for their rival forces to cease fire “to allow the Sudanese to be safely reunited with families” and to provide them with relief.

The ceasefire deal will not extend beyond the agreed 24 hours, Army General Shams El Din Kabbashi, a member of Sudan’s ruling military council, said earlier on al Arabiya TV.

A Reuters reporter in Khartoum said he heard tanks firing shortly after the truce was due to take hold.

It was unclear in the chaotic din who was behind the various bouts of gunfire, though the RSF issued a Facebook statement shortly after the truce was to take effect blaming the army for violations.

One resident told Reuters they had heard an air strike being carried out in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city on the opposite bank of the Nile River.

Fighting had appeared to tail off close to the deadline for the ceasefire, which coincided with iftar.

Warplanes and explosions

Earlier in the day, the sounds of warplanes and explosions echoed across Khartoum. Residents in the neighbouring cities of Omdurman and Bahri reported air strikes that shook buildings and anti-aircraft fire. Fighting also raged in the west of the country, the UN said.

In a video verified by Reuters, RSF fighters could be seen inside a section of the army headquarters in Khartoum. The fighters did not appear to control the sprawling site, a Reuters reporter in the capital said.

Burhan heads a ruling council installed after the 2021 military coup and the 2019 ouster of Bashir, while Hemedti is his deputy on the ruling council. Their power struggle has stalled the plan for a shift to civilian rule after decades of autocracy and military domination in Sudan, which sits at a strategic crossroads between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Africa’s volatile Sahel region.

Unless controlled, the violence also risks drawing in actors from Sudan’s neighbourhood who have backed different factions, and could play into competition for regional influence between Russia and the United States.

US flags

Fighters have attacked aid workers, hospitals and diplomats, including a European Union ambassador assaulted in his home. Three workers for the World Food Programme were killed in the fighting on Saturday, and a UN plane was hit in crossfire at Khartoum’s international airport.

Blinken said a US convoy was attacked despite its vehicles being marked with diplomatic licence plates and bearing US flags. Initial reports suggest the attack was undertaken by RSF-associated forces, he said, calling the action “reckless”.

Blinken said all US personnel were safe after the incident.

After the call, Hemedti said the RSF approved the ceasefire to ensure the safe passage of civilians and the evacuation of the wounded.

In a post on Twitter, he said he and Blinken “discussed pressing issues” and more talks were planned.

The RSF issued a statement saying it was waging a battle to restore “the rights of our people” in what it called a new revolution.

A previous, shorter ceasefire agreed for Sunday was widely ignored. Artillery volleys, strikes by combat aircraft and street fighting have made it almost impossible to travel in Khartoum, trapping residents and foreigners in their homes.

The main international airport has been under attack, halting commercial flights.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was nearly impossible to provide humanitarian services around the capital. It warned that Sudan’s health system was at risk of breakdown.

“I want to be very clear: All parties must ensure unrestricted and safe access to health facilities for those injured and everyone in need of medical care,” World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a media briefing in Geneva.

The outbreak of fighting followed rising tensions over a plan for the RSF’s integration into the regular military.

Discord over the timetable for that process delayed the signing of the framework deal to launch a civilian transition that was due to be signed earlier this month.

The fighting has affected several parts of the country since Saturday, including the western desert region of Darfur, which borders Chad and suffered warfare from 2003 that killed as many as 300,000 people and displaced 2.7 million.

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