Tens of thousands of people were evacuated from their homes in Beijing as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri dumped record rainfall on the city, grounding flights and flooding hundreds of roads on Monday, state media reported.
Besides Beijing, heavy rain continued to soak the neighbouring city of Tianjin as well as Hebei province in a region nearly the size of Britain in the wake of Doksuri, which was downgraded to a tropical depression on the weekend.
Three of the five rivers that make up the Hai River basin rose to dangerous levels on Monday. Some houses were washed into the Yongding River, and nearly 55,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Baoding City, state media reported.
Doksuri was one of the strongest storms to hit China in years and caused widespread flooding over the weekend in the southern province of Fujian, driving hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.
Average rainfall in Beijing reached 176.9mm between Saturday night and Monday afternoon, with the maximum recorded rainfall in Mentougou district hitting 580.9mm, according to state media.
The Beijing observatory kept a red alert — the highest warning — for heavy rainfall in place while Beijing Hydrology Station upgraded its flood warning with more rain and river flooding forecast.
More than 31,000 people were evacuated from their homes in Beijing, work at more than 4,000 construction sites was halted, almost 20,000 buildings were inspected for damage, and scenic spots in the city were closed, media reported.
Both airports in the capital cancelled more than 180 flights on Monday morning, with hundreds more delayed, according to flight tracking app Flight Master.
Railway authorities dispatched workers to send food including instant noodles, eggs and ham, and drinking water to train passengers who were stuck overnight.
As many as 358 roads in Beijing were affected by the rain as of Monday.
There was no reported damage or casualties, state media said, but south of Beijing, Doksuri’s impact was more pronounced.
In northern Hebei province, a driver was missing after two trucks fell off a collapsed bridge in Baoding city on Sunday, while a railway bridge for freight in Shijiazhuang city was washed away in a swollen river, media reported.
While Doksuri continues to taper off, forecasters warned that typhoon Khanun was approaching and was set to strike China’s densely populated coast this week.
Authorities said Khanun could inflict further damage to corn and other crops that have already been hit by Doksuri.
Politicians and rulers, whether of the more democratic dispensation or otherwise, have a habit of going out of favour with the status quo. When that happens, every attempt is made to malign their character and delegitimise their narrative in the eyes of the public, whether by highlighting their misdeeds or by completely wiping them from the mainstream narrative.
The act of erasing or tainting the memory of a political opponent has been happening for eons. Damnatio memoriae, a latin phenomenon that literally translates to ‘condemnation of memory’, refers to a loosely defined group of processes, which involve destruction, erasure, and silence. These processes are also understood as “memory sanctions”.
For the last several months, PTI leaders, especially former prime minister Imran Khan, have found themselves out of favour with the powers that be. That the former premier has chosen to up the ante and indirectly, and at times directly, accuse the military establishment for his political misfortunes hasn’t helped their cause either.
What has followed can be described as the ‘damnatio memoriae’ of Imran — a barrage of legal cases against him and other party leaders, swift reprisal for anyone speaking out in his favour and a near-complete blackout of the former premier from the mainstream media. In fact, at one point, even popular video streaming platform, YouTube was temporarily — albeit unofficially — suspended at the time of Imran’s live speech to stop him from addressing his supporters.
Perhaps the most literal example of this attempt to erase Imran is when private television channel ARY earlier this month came under fire for blurring out his image during a live broadcast of the party leaders’ meeting with IMF officials. The move sparked several trends on Twitter, where users ridiculed the TV channel’s attempt at censoring a former premier.
A screenshot of IMF team holding a meeting with PTI leadership at Zaman Park residence in Lahore showed a blurred figure of Imran. —Twitter
Veteran cricket legend Javed Miandad also took to Twitter to mock the censorship attempt. “If Pakistan wins [the] World Cup in this government, a suggested post …,” he wrote.
This isn’t the first attempt at muzzling the former premier either.
Last year, on August 21, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) imposed a ban on the live coverage of Imran’s speeches. The move had come after Imran allegedly threatened a judge and police officers over the custody of Shahbaz Gill, a former aide to the ex-prime minister.
However, Imran challenged the ban and approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which on September 6, 2022, overturned the ban, allowing live coverage of Imran’s speeches to resume.
Two months later, on November 5, Pemra again slapped a ban on Imran’s press conferences, which was yet again lifted hours later, with Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb saying that the incumbent government believed in “democratic principles and constitutional freedoms of expression”.
In spite of that, on March 5, 2023, Pemra once again imposed a ban on the broadcasting and rebroadcasting of Imran’s speeches and press talks on all satellite TV channels. This action was taken after the former premier criticised government leaders, accusing them of keeping their wealth overseas and receiving legal protection from former army chief Gen (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa.
In a prohibition order, Pemra instructed all licensees to avoid broadcasting “any content against state institutions”.
With all these attempts to block the former premier from mainstream media, Imran has joined the list of political leaders, including Altaf Hussain, Nawaz Sharif, and Maryam Nawaz, who have previously undergone or are currently experiencing a similar fate.
It is important to note that during Imran’s own tenure, opposition politicians’ interviews and press conferences were frequently censored or silenced. Their crackdown on the freedom of press was also no hidden fact, with the introduction of draconian laws such as the PMDA Ordinance and Peca Amendment Ordinance.
However, now that the tide has turned, the PTI chief himself has become a target of the same censorship mechanism.
But if you think Pakistan is an anomaly here or that political leaders here are the only ones attempting to wipe out each other from cognitive memory, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Tracing it back to the Egyptians
The practice, in fact, dates back to the ancient Egyptians, evident in artefacts from pharaoh Akhenaten’s tomb. Instead of worshiping gods of the traditional pantheon, Akhenaten’s sole devotion to the god Aten was considered heretical.
Coffin from KV55 in the Valley of the Kings has face and the cartouche containing the name of the occupant defaced in ancient times. — Hans Ollermann
The people blamed their misfortunes on Akhenaten’s shift to Atenism from their former gods. After the pharaoh’s reign was over, god Aten’s temples were dismantled, using their stones for new constructions. Akhenaten’s depictions were defaced, while references to Amun, previously chipped away and removed by the ruler, reemerged.
The Romans did it too
Similarly, the Romans had a tradition of emperors removing the traces of former rulers. The term damnatio memoriae was also coined during this era.
However, these attempts were never fully successful. For instance, in the case of Emperor Geta, it proved challenging to completely eliminate coins featuring his likeness from circulation for several years, despite the severe penalty of death for merely uttering his name.
The image, with Geta’s face removed, can be found at the Altes Museum in Berlin. — Carole Raddato
Scholars agree that the act of erasure itself contributes to the memory of that person, often elevating them to the status of martyrs. Moreover, attempts by historians to revive the memory of any individual cannot be halted in the future.
Soviets and the advent of photography
Despite its futility, regimes in power still continue to do it. After the dawn of photography, the Soviet Russia frequently used editing to remove individuals, who were once allies and later fell out of favour, from photographs of Lenin and Stalin.
For instance, on May 5, 1920, Lenin gave a famous speech to the Red Army at Sverdlov Square in Moscow before their departure to the Polish front to fight against Josef Pilsudski’s troops. Leon Trotsky and Lev Kamenev were present in the foreground.
In the initial photograph, Trotsky and Kamenev were depicted near the staircase, but they were subsequently removed from the image.
— Mansell / Time Life Pictures / Getty
According to the TIME magazine, “though the [original] photograph was widely published with the two men present during the 1920s, it was reproduced with stairs in their place for most of the Soviet era, even during the Gorbachev period.”
— G.P. Goldshtein / Wikimedia Commons
Soviet Russia’s Stalin was infamous for manipulating pictures with individuals who were once close to him. One such instance is when a photograph showed Nikolai Antipov, Stalin, Sergei Kirov, Nikolai Shvernik and Nikolay Komarov. In the subsequent edits of the same pictures, one after the other, every person was removed, leaving only Stalin.
— Wikimedia Commons
It is important to note that it is unclear whether all of these people were removed from the photograph because they “fell out of favour” with the Soviet leader.
However, that is not to say that the Soviet imagery was never amended to alter the narratives of history at many instances. More often than not, these attempts to remove people from any form of documentation were done without any explicit policy.
The defacing didn’t stop at the state level, but also resulted in people defacing their own materials to not be deemed “anti-Soviet” or “counterrevolutionary”.
The act of self-censorship has also been prevalent across time and regions. Even with ‘official’ orders, people — particularly the press and media — tend to take measures to avoid getting in trouble with the authorities.
When regimes change
Another manifestation of damnatio memoriae can be observed during a complete regime change, where efforts are made to distance the new hegemonic class and systems from the previous regime. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine saw the era of “decommunisation” where laws sought to erase and ban Communist symbols in the country. In less than a year, more than 100 Lenin statues were reportedly dismantled after the overthrow of the pro-Russian government in 2013.
A 50 year old statue of Lenin was toppled down by Ukrainian Nationalists in the eastern city of Kharkiv in 2014. — AP
Similarly, following the US invasion of Baghdad in 2003, a statue of Saddam Hussein, the former President of Iraq, was brought down.
A US soldier watched as a statue of Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein was taken down in central Baghdad, 2003. — Reuters/Goran Tomasevic
The act of removing statues and symbols associated with former powerful figures is a widespread phenomenon globally. In the wake of the 2020’s ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests in the US, there has been a surge of demands and commitments to dismantle statues honouring slave-owners and traders in both the US and the UK.
This exemplifies how societies undergo a collective shift in their perspective, seeking to dissociate themselves from a troubling historical legacy. Erasure becomes a way to redefine national and cultural memory.
Anti-racism protesters across the US and UK called for the take down of historical figures engaged in slavery. — Reuters
“Today, as people take to the streets to demand the removal of public statues, names on buildings, and commemorative plaques, these calls for damnatio memoriae are not acts of erasure — they are not about forgetting the past or striking individuals from our history,” wrote Mati Davis and Sara Chopra in an article, ‘Damnatio Memoriae: On Facing, Not Forgetting, Our Past’ published in a UPenn Classical Studies Publication, DISCENTES.
“Rather, they are acts of creation, attempts to redefine our perceptions as a twenty-first century society,” they added.
Our legacy
So how have these attempts at redefining perceptions been applied at the local level?
During the regime of Chief Martial Law Administrator General Yahya Khan, for example, there was a commitment to assemble the Constituent Assembly and draft a constitution, ultimately transferring power to the majority party elected. After the elections, however, when it became apparent that the Awami League had secured a decisive victory, apprehension arose within the establishment regarding the potential weakening of central authority if the League’s six-point agenda were to form the basis of the Constitution.
In his book Media, Religion, and Politics in Pakistan, Rai Shakil Akhtar describes how the mainstream media based in West Pakistan reflected the sentiments of the status quo group and the political force of change — led by Gen Yahya and ZA Bhutto.
“The media treatment of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the leader of the majority party, is couched in negative vocabulary. He is projected as an ‘intransigent’ and ‘obstinate’ person,” Akhtar noted after analysing news coverage of Mujib in various mainstream newspapers.
Sheikh Mujibur Rehman approaches microphones to address a rally in Dhaka. — File
Although Mujib’s presence in collective memory remained, it was apparent that deliberate attempts were made to manipulate his reputation and shape the collective perception of him.
It is indeed ironic that, around a decade later, during General Zia’s military dictatorship, news coverage concerning Bhutto’s family members faced stringent prohibitions. This period coincided with the dictator’s ban on all political activities in the country.
A picture of the Bhuttos taken during a family excursion shows (from right to left) former PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, his wife Nusrat, daughter Sanam, son Mir Murtaza, daughter Benazir and son Shahnawaz. — DAWN
A senior journalist told Dawn.com that during Gen Zia’s era, newspapers weren’t allowed to publish photographs of former PM Benazir Bhutto. He pointed out that such dictations from the state are — more often than not — unofficial policies and therefore, no records exist of such bans.
In their historical study, “Freedom of Expression and Media Censorship in Pakistan,” Saima Parveen and Muhammad Nawaz Bhatti found that the “media was duly so much bound to obey the government that, Pakistan Television was not allowed to show a single shot of Benazir Bhutto, except once for a couple of seconds, from July 1977 when General Zia-ul-Haq imposed Martial Law up to August 1988 when he died in an air crash.
“For eleven years whereas the General appeared every single day, she was kept away from TV and Radio.”
When The Star covered veteran TV anchor and bureaucrat Mahtab Rashdi’s wedding, they printed a huge photograph of Benazir with the bride. The caption said, ‘The bride with a guest’. As a result, the popular newspaper was taken off the stands and the editor at the time, GN Mansuri, had to stay underground for some time.
A modern touch
Despite Pakistan having democratically elected governments in place since 2008, the practice of “unpersoning” influential individuals who no longer align with the established order persists.
Over the last decade, politicians have routinely gagged their opponents who have fallen out of favour — and power — be it Maryam Nawaz, Nawaz Sharif or Altaf Hussain, who were all censored, whether officially through Pemra, or through unofficial channels.
The same methods of censorship were again applied against the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), which took to the streets in April 2021, calling upon the government to fulfil the demands agreed upon during their previous protest. Soon after, Saad Rizvi, the far-right group’s new leader, was arrested.
Police use tear gas to disperse supporters of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) during a protest in Lahore in April, 2021. — AFP
Clashes erupted across cities and the government declared it a proscribed entity under the anti-terrorism law. Subsequently, Pemra also banned the television and radio coverage of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).
The government even declared TLP as a proscribed organisation for “being engaged in acts of terrorism, [and] acting in a manner prejudicial to the peace and security of the country.”
However, the first time the TLP had appeared on the national stage with a thousands-strong rally, followed by a sit-in at the now infamous Faizabad Interchange in 2017, the media had “provided unabated coverage”.
Four years on, with the TLP seemingly no longer in good graces as it once was, the media hardly paid it any attention, to the extent one would think there was no protest taking place — that is until the violence had gripped several cities across the country and resulted in several deaths.
Coming back to one of the most popular — if not the most popular — national political parties right now, the PTI finds itself in a quandary. Many of the methods tested and used time and again are being applied to silence its leaders in order to remove their narrative from national consciousness.
With social media being the all-time spoiler in this game of erasure, it remains to be seen how this plays out — whether the PTI and its leaders will forever be annulled from the annals of history or whether they would be able to persevere and ultimately, be allowed on the airwaves again.
A special thanks to Zarrar Khuhro for providing inspiration for this article and helping piece it together.
Jirga participants say being a ‘soft target’ of militants they have lost the ability to handle ‘critical’ situations after Fata-KP merger
Police register FIRs against four over their speeches in Tirah peace rally
KHYBER: Security officials in Khyber have said that zero tolerance policy will be adopted against those people, who are found harbouring, patronising or having any type of association with militants and terrorists in the region.
Sector Commander Brig Mansoor Ahmad and the commandant of Bara Rifles told a selected group of tribal elders, representatives of political parties and civil society members during a jirga at Fort Salop in Bara on Saturday that terrorists were the enemies of Pakistan and the people of the country.
They said their nefarious anti-state designs could be thwarted with collective efforts of the law enforcement agencies and tribal, political and civil society leadership.
They called upon the participants of the jirga to help the security agencies in locating the hideouts and cells of terrorists for their complete eradication from the region. “Terrorists are targeting mosques, police and FC checkposts. They are also targeting security installations and killing our soldiers to which we could not give them any relaxation as none of us is safe from this menace,” Brig Masoor Ahmad told the jirga.
He assured the jirga members of complete support in restoring lasting peace in the region. However, he also demanded of the tribal elders to play their ‘historic’ role of collective responsibility by partially shouldering the maintenance of law and order responsibility.
Some participants of the jirga, however, made it clear to the two high ranking security officials that after the merger of erstwhile Fata with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they had lost their authority and ability to handle such ‘critical’ situations.
They said that they too were victims of the decade-long militancy and were considered a “soft target” by militants as security forces and district administration failed to provide security to them.
They reminded the security officials that the rapid deterioration of law and order in Khyber in particular and other tribal districts in general was an offshoot of the merger of tribal areas with KP.
“It is now totally out of question that tribal elders would commit themselves for accepting any collective responsibility. The responsibility of restoration of peace and tackling the menace of militancy is handed over to the security forces,” they said during the jirga, which was held in the backdrop of a large peace rally in Tirah valley on July 25.
Matters pertaining to return of remaining displaced families of Kukikhel tribe and execution of development schemes also came under discussion during the jirga to which the security officials pledged their full support.
Meanwhile, police in Tirah registered FIRs against four persons for allegedly making defamatory speeches during the July 25 peace rally and raising objectionable slogans against the law enforcement agencies, security forces and army.
ASI Mohammad Zaman of Tirah police station nominated Khan Wali, Jamaat-i-Islami Khyber emir, Malak Naseer, a Kukikhel elder, Abdul Ghani, a local Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader, and Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement activist Hussain Ahmad.
Sources, however, said that Hussain Ahmad did not participate in the peace rally while police in Bara conducted raids on the house and office of JI leader Khan Wali but he could not be arrested as he was not present at any of the two locations during raids.
Bara Siyasi Ittehad has strongly condemned the registration of FIRs against the four persons and alleged that such tactics were meant to silence the ‘voices of peace’ in the region.
It said that local political leadership would not succumb to such pressures and would continue to strive for the restoration of peace in Tirah and other parts of Khyber.
The world is watching. Ignoring the standards of governance in social, political and economic spheres entails costly consequences. Pakistan desperately needs both goodwill and material support from people, nations and institutions to slowly and steadily rebuild trust, which is essential not just for progress but also for the country’s sustainability. It needs to be more mindful.
“The tolerance level is generally low as all countries are distressed, dealing with their own demons, in a post-pandemic and Ukraine war volatile world. What they read and see in Pakistan doesn’t inspire confidence. Pakistan must not only do things right, they must so appear.
“Unfortunately, for anyone interested in the country, it’s becoming increasingly hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. From my own experience, I can tell that Pakistani Brits with divided loyalties are depressed. The activism of a few Pakistanis in the UK blew out of proportion recently on social media.
Everyone in the community, however, sounds both worried and depressed. They are uncomfortable defending a strategy that emanates mixed signals on all issues of interest,“ a former economic diplomat currently residing in the UK, commented privately.
The perpetually rising cost of living in the UK makes it hard for skilled doctors, IT professionals, and others to survive in a competitive job market
Why does the opinion of people who chose the UK as home over Pakistan matter? It matters because Pakistan’s laws spared them the pain of surrendering their home passports when they decided to settle in the UK as Brits.
This explains why Brits of Pakistani origin are the third biggest minority after Poland and India, but they are not in the top five groups when the UK population is viewed based on nationalities. The UK probably excludes dual nationals in some data and counts those who surrendered their original nationality, like Indians.
The assessment of the sentiments of Pakistani Brits is also important because of its impact on foreign direct investment, the quantum of trade and the flow of remittances, directly and indirectly. Besides, the Pakistani UK community can fairly be viewed as a representative sample of all overseas Pakistanis settled across the globe because of their size and history.
“Trade, foreign investment and remittances are crucial to negotiating twists and turns before a relatively linear and predictable path becomes visible in Pakistan. People settled here, if cultivated, can contribute to goals of economic diplomacy,” said a keen Pakistan watcher in the UK, currently depressed by the future that to him appears ‘too hazy’.
However, to gain any agency in the Pakistani community in the UK, it is important to get the facts straight and understand the dynamics, potential and positioning in UK society.
According to the latest UK census data shared by the High Commission of Pakistan in London, in 2021, 16.8 per cent of England and Wales’s population (10 million people) were born outside the UK.
Pakistan, the third most common country of origin of immigrants after India and Poland, has a 1.6m strong community. With over 29,000 residing in London, they account for 3.3pc of its population. The composition of the population has not changed in the UK since 2011 though it has multiplied.
According to the data gleaned on the UK websites of the Office of National Statistics, on the scales of average (median) hourly salaries that immigrants fetched in the UK in 2018, Pakistan stands low. While Chinese (£15.8) and Indians (£13.5) scoop higher than White Brits earning £12 an hour, Pakistanis make £10 an hour.
Moazzam Ahmad Khan, High Commissioner for Pakistan to the UK, made himself available on short notice for an informal, candid chat on issues surrounding the subject under review.
Later his office shared the following quote: “British Pakistanis have made remarkable contributions towards the progress and development of both the UK and Pakistan. The achievements of British Pakistanis transcend multiple domains, from business and politics to academia, arts, and sports. Their remarkable success stories exemplify the power of diversity and showcase the potential that arises when cultures collaborate and thrive together.
“Furthermore, their charitable endeavours and development projects in Pakistan have uplifted disadvantaged communities, generated opportunities and improved lives. These efforts stand as a testament to their compassion and dedication to making a meaningful difference.
“As High Commissioner, I am truly delighted to witness firsthand the positive influence of the British Pakistani community. Their exceptional achievements inspire us all to embrace diversity and work together for a brighter, more prosperous future.”
Discussing the subject Yousuf Nazar, a former banker and investment consultant, dismissed the perception of a big support base of PTI in the Pakistani community or their investment in the political system of Pakistan.
When asked to comment on the relative economic backwardness of the Pakistani community, he said the question should be directed to a social scientist or anthropologist who has researched the subject.
“Based on general observation, I can say that the assimilation process of Pakistani immigrants is slower. We come across third-generation Pakistani Brits who did not fully leverage education and skill development opportunities fully that the UK offers.”
Iram Siddiqui, a social entrepreneur who has actively been involved in community work, blamed the lack of guidance for Pakistani British youth. “Our people are impatient. They look for shortcuts and are not inclined to give the system a chance.
“One must understand that life is not particularly easy for anyone in an economy trying to dodge recession. The perpetually rising cost of living in the UK makes it hard for skilled doctors, IT professionals and others to survive in a competitive job market,” she said.
A Pakistani techy discussing biases in the UK dropped the name of Sadiq Aman Khan, the Mayor of London, who he said is popular and loved dearly. He also mentioned inspiring Pakistani celebrities like Malala Yousufzai, a Nobel Prize recipient, who is looked up as an icon of courage.
“I don’t think it’s fair to blame others for one’s failures. The hard work pays in the end, and the chances of merit-based success are brighter in the UK than back home. There is always room for improvement, but currently, in terms of the dignity of work and delivery of physical and social services, Pakistan is not comparable.”
Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, July 31th, 2023
A blast was reported in the Khar tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district on Sunday, according to Rescue 1122.
Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Faizi told Dawn.com that five ambulances had reached the site. “So far, 10 injured people have been moved to nearby hospitals,” he said.
Faizi feared the number of wounded persons could increase.
Footage on television showed ambulances arriving at the site as a large contingent of police cordoned off the area.
Meanwhile, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry said reports of a blast at a JUI-F convention in Bajaur were “alarming” and prayed for the safety of the people.
This is a developing story that is being updated as the situation evolves. Initial reports in the media can sometimes be inaccurate. We will strive to ensure timeliness and accuracy by relying on credible sources such as concerned, qualified authorities and our staff reporters.
A wax figure of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto will be unveiled at the Madame Tussauds museum in Dubai today (Sunday).
According to Gulf News, Benazir’s wax figure would be the first of a Pakistani personality at the museum’s Dubai location.
Benazir’s son and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who arrived in UAE earlier in the morning today on a one-day visit, will attend the unveiling of the figure along with other dignitaries and diplomats.
During his visit, Bilawal would also discuss the entire spectrum of bilateral relations between Pakistan and UAE in a meeting with his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Foreign Office said in a tweet.
The foreign minister would also offer condolences to the UAE leadership on the demise of Sheikh Saeed bin Zayed, brother of UAE President HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also undertook a trip to the UAE to condole the death of Sheikh Saeed.
In a statement issued a day earlier, the FO had said that Bilawal’s trip “reflects Pakistan’s robust engagement with the UAE and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two brotherly countries”.
“Both countries are committed to steadily strengthening fraternal ties and deepening mutually rewarding economic partnership,” it had added.
Flash floods and mudslides triggered by heavy downpour blocked the Karakoram Highway (KKH) at various points in Gilgit-Baltistan on Sunday.
Diamer Deputy Commissioner (DC) Captain (Rtd) Arif Ahmad told Dawn.com that the KKH was blocked near Goharabad village’s Gandalo area, adding that it was blocked at nine different points within a 1.5-kilometre stretch.
He further said that two cars were damaged after coming in contact with mudslides. However, the passengers in them remained safe and the cars were pulled out of the mudslides.
DC Ahmad stated that over 50 houses had been damaged in the district due to the rain-triggered floods in the past eight days while around 250 kilometres of linked roads and nine vehicles had been damaged, increasing the locals’ misery.
The DC went on to confirm that other than major and linked roads, water supply lines were also damaged in Diamer district’s Darail valley.
DC Ahmad urged tourists and commuters to avoid unnecessary travel via the KKH these days as landslide and mudslides incidents are occurring there on a daily basis.
National Highway Authority Deputy Director Ghulam Abbas told Dawn.com that efforts to clear the KKH were under way.
Muhammad Hafeez Tangiri, a local resident from Diamer’s Tangir tehsil, said his village has been devastated by the floods, damaging suspension bridges and main and linked roads there.
He further said that a day ago, the local community gathered in the Phapat village to demand that the government protect their village from being hit by any further floods as it had been affected for a long time — almost every year during the monsoon season.
Meanwhile, Hunza DC Ghazanfar Ali said that roads heading to the Misgar and Shimshal villages were blocked as well due to heavy rains last night.
He added that machinery was being used to clear the Misgar road while the district’s works department was mobilising machinery on the Shimshal Road.
The Hunza DC requested commuters to avoid travelling on the said roads till the completion of the clearance operation.
Italy made an “improvised and atrocious” decision when it joined China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) four years ago as it did little to boost exports, Italian Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in an interview published on Sunday.
Italy signed up to the BRI under a previous government, becoming the only major Western country to have taken such a step. Crosetto is part of an administration that is considering how to break free of the agreement.
The BRI scheme envisions rebuilding the old Silk Road to connect China with Asia, Europe and beyond with large infrastructure spending. Critics see it as a tool for China to spread its geopolitical and economic influence.
“The decision to join the (new) Silk Road was an improvised and atrocious act” that multiplied China’s exports to Italy but did not have the same effect on Italian exports to China, Crosetto told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“The issue today is: how to walk back (from the BRI) without damaging relations (with Beijing). Because it is true that China is a competitor, but it is also a partner,” the defence minister added.
After a White House meeting US President Joe Biden on Thursday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her government had until December to make a decision on the BRI, and also announced she would soon travel to Beijing.
In an interview on Saturday with the TG5 Italian news programme, Meloni said it was a “paradox” that even if Italy is part of the BRI, it is not the G7 country with the strongest trading links to China.
“This shows that you can have good relations and trading partnerships” even outside of the BRI, she added.
Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on Sunday “dropped” a bill aimed at curbing violent extremism after fierce opposition from lawmakers, including those from the ruling coalition.
According to the agenda for today’s session, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah was supposed to table the bill titled ‘The Prevention of Violent Extremism Bill 2023’. However, many parliamentarians, including those from the ruling coalition, opposed the bill.
PTI’s Mohammad Humayun Mohmandsaid that he did not know why the bill was being tabled on Sunday. “Is there an emergency in Pakistan that we come and do this on Sundays, on public holidays?”
He went on to say that if such legislation was passed by following the due procedure, then it would only add to its credibility. “If we do something in haste just because the government thinks little time remains, then haste makes waste,” he said.
Climate Minister Sherry Rehman tried to defend the holding of today’s session and said that in the past sessions had been called on Sundays and Saturdays. She also commented on the statements by other parliamentarians questioning why the bills on the agenda were not being referred to the relevant committees.
“Perhaps, they don’t know that when the National Assembly (NA) completes its term, the bills that originate from there […] the rule is that they become infructuous the day the assembly’s term ends,” she said.
Sherry said that the Senate could also introduce amendments in bills after the assembly’s term ended. “No one likes hasty legislation,” she said.
PML-N Senator Irfan Siddiqui then said that as a member of the ruling party, there was perhaps a “compulsion” that they would vote for the bills, adding that they would do so.
At the same time, he said that several of the bills on today’s agenda were “important”. Talking about the prevention of violent extremism bill, he said that it covered “vast areas”.
He pointed out that the bill had 33 articles and 100 sub-clauses, adding that these were applicable on all, including politicians and the common man.
Siddiqui pointed out that the bill did not come from the NA and had come directly to the Senate. “After coming to us directly, it is our responsibility to thoroughly look at it before sending it to the NA. We agree with its aims and objectives but we fear that if this bill is approved as it is without going to the committee […] then it may perhaps be difficult to escape its clutches in the future,” he said.
Subsequently, Minister of State for Law and Justice Shahadat Awan tabled the bill on behalf of the interior minister.
“Is it opposed?” asked Chairman Sanjrani, to which senators said it was. “Should I send it to the committee or take it to passage?” he then asked.
PTI’s Mohmand then said that this was an important bill that would have an effect on people’s lives. “But when I was perusing the bill, it seemed as if Rana Sanaullah [named] the bill to prevent violent extremism but maybe he wanted to prevent PTI from taking part in the next elections.”
He said that each clause “reeked” of targeting the PTI. He pointed out that members of the coalition were also opposing the bill and urged the Senate chairman to send it to the relevant committee as the bill would have “far-reaching effects”.
“If you want to do this then it is better to impose martial law or partial law. Why are we sitting here in Parliament?” he said.
Senator Kamran Murtaza of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl then said that any such legislation required taking allied parties into confidence. “You are cutting off your own hands with this legislation. You don’t realise it […] but where fundamental rights are being curtailed and you want to do legislation in this manner, in this haste and during the holidays, then I — as a coalition senator — voice my opposition.”
He said that the bill would become a problem down the line for all. “So please don’t do this kind of legislation which is offending the articles of the Constitution,” he said.
National Party (NP) Senator Tahir Bizenjo said that unfortunately two political parties, the PPP and the PML-N, were making all the decisions. He took issue with the PML-N, saying that they had not taken anyone into confidence over the legislation carried out over its tenure.
He said that the current bill was an “open attack” on democracy, adding that he was “strongly opposing the bill”. “If it is tabled, we will stage a token walkout,” he said.
In his remarks, JUI-F Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said that their coalition partners did not realise what would happen in the future. He also questioned the need for calling a session on Sunday and voiced the party’s opposition to the bill.
Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmad said that he had submitted his amendments to the bill, which he thanked the Senate chairman for including. He said that the 24-page bill was not only against the PTI but against all political parties.
“This will prove to be the last nail in the coffin of democracy,” he said. “Non-elected forces want that democracy is laid to rest through Parliament,” he said as he opposed the bill.
He also expressed surprise at the fact that the government had not taken its allies into confidence over the bill. “Today you are [introducing] a bill to target a party. But tomorrow it will become a noose around PDM parties which is why I reject it.”
Senate Chairman Sanjrani then said that the bill was a “routine matter” and today’s session was called because it was decided in the business advisory that the days needed to be completed and three holidays would not be counted.
“I drop this bill, whether or not the government does,” he said.
‘Frightening bill’
Before the Senate session began, PTI’s Sania Nishtar questioned the implications of the bill.
’Wide discretion and sweeping indemnity for the government. No independence of review process. Curbs on individual freedoms. Offences are non-bailable, cognizable and non-compoundable,“ she said.
“What are the implications for human rights, right to fair trial, freedom of expression and chador aur char diwari values?” she asked.
Jamaat-i-Islami Senator Mushtaq Ahmad said that today the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government was presenting a bill on violent extremism.
“The government’s attitude is telling us that there are no plans to send it to the committee or discuss it and it will be passed today. This is a frightening bill which will not end violent extremism but will instead increase it,” he said.
“Sections five and six of the bill are draconian. This is a bill for banning the PTI,” he said. He said that trying to eliminate a political leader or political party through such means was wrong.
He said that the government should send the bill to the committee and should not reduce Parliament to a “rubber stamp”.
Opposition leader in the National Assembly (NA) Raja Riaz appears confident that he and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will reach a consensus on selecting a name for the caretaker prime minister.
The tenure of the NA is set to expire on August 12 and meetings are under way between the members of the government on the details of an interim set-up.
If the government is dissolved before the NA completes its term on August 12, elections would be held within the next 90 days. If the assembly completes its tenure, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is bound to hold polls within the next 60 days.
However, the legally required consultations that must take place between the prime minister and opposition leader over candidates for the caretaker government have yet to begin. Earlier this month, Riaz said that a meeting between him and PM Shehbaz was expected around August 1.
In an interview with Dawn News’ programme ‘Doosra Rukh’, which will air at 7pm tonight, Riaz said: “I have a very good working relationship with Shehbaz Sharif sahib. We will agree on a name.”
Riaz said that the matter was not one of “stubborness” where he was insistent that his suggestion be agreed upon. He said that he would agree to the premier’s suggestion if the latter suggested an “appropriate name” for the coveted position.
Asked about when he expected general elections to take place, Riaz said: “Either elections will take place in three months or after two years.”
Riaz also reiterated his opposition to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar being a candidate for caretaker premier. The opposition leader said that the elections would become “disputed” and the public would “point their fingers” if the incumbent finance minister, who is a PML-N stalwart, was selected.
Expanding upon his views on the timing of the elections, Riaz said, “If you look at democracy, then elections should take place on time — I am in favour of this. If you look at the country’s economic situation, then the other situation is very serious and dangerous.”
He further said that he was of the view that the country should be “strengthened”. “So many elections have taken place [in the past so] they will keep taking place in the future as well,” he said.
‘PTI should be banned’
Asked about the ruling coalition government’s views on banning the PTI in the aftermath of the violent events of May 9, Riaz asserted, “Because of the [disrespect to] martyrs, I say that this party (PTI) should be banned.”
Riaz, who is a member of Parliament on a PTI ticket despite severing ties with the party and openly acknowledging that will contest the next elections on a PML-N ticket, said the PTI had managed to do what India could not.
When asked if action should be taken under Article 6 (high treason) of the Constitution against the party’s leaders, he responded, “Definitely, it should be taken.”
Regarding military trials of civilians, Riaz said, “Why did these people go into their (army’s) territory?
“If they (PTI supporters) went into their (army’s) territory, then a case should proceed according to their domain as well. There is no harm in it.”
Bangladesh police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse stone-throwing crowds blockading major roads in the capital Dhaka on Saturday in the latest protest demanding the prime minister’s resignation.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies have staged a series of protests since last year demanding Sheikh Hasina step down and allow a caretaker government to oversee elections due next January.
Clashes erupted in several locations when police moved in to clear thousands of people who gathered in the morning to block traffic on key arterials around the city.
“Some officers were injured,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP. “We fired tear gas and rubber bullets.”
At least four protest sites around the city saw clashes between police and protesters, Hossain said, with 20 officers injured and 90 protesters arrested.
AFP journalists at one protest site in Dholaikhal, an old neighbourhood now a hub for automotive repair shops, witnessed protesters retaliate by throwing rocks at riot police and their vehicles.
Bacchu Mia, a police inspector at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, told AFP that six protesters had been admitted to the hospital with injuries.
Senior BNP leaders Goyeshwar Roy and Amanullah Aman had been taken into police custody but had not been formally arrested, Hossain said.
Transport links between the capital and other parts of the country were badly disrupted, with trucks and buses stuck in gridlock.
Increasing demonstrations
Hasina’s Awami League has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and has been accused of human rights abuses, corruption and creeping authoritarianism.
Demonstrations led by the BNP have become increasingly common since the start of the year, with rallies this month drawing tens of thousands of people to the streets.
Police arrested at least 500 opposition activists ahead of a rally outside the party’s headquarters this week.
Western governments have expressed concern over the political climate in Bangladesh, where the ruling party dominates the legislature and runs it virtually as a rubber stamp.
Hasina’s security forces are accused of detaining tens of thousands of opposition activists, killing hundreds in extrajudicial encounters and disappearing hundreds of leaders and supporters.
The elite Rapid Action Battalion security force and seven of its senior officers were sanctioned by Washington in 2021 in response to those alleged rights abuses.
The BNP’s leader Khaleda Zia, a two-time premier and old foe of Hasina’s, is effectively under house arrest after a conviction on graft charges.
China’s weather service on Saturday issued a red alert for torrential rain in the capital Beijing and surrounding provinces, as Typhoon Doksuri swept inland bringing hazardous weather conditions to many parts of the country.
Doksuri smashed into southern Fujian province on Friday morning with gusts of up to 175 kilometres per hour, and China’s meteorological service said on Saturday its “influence” was now being felt in the country’s north.
China has been experiencing extreme weather conditions and posting record temperatures this summer, events that scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.
Experts have warned Saturday’s downpour could prompt even worse flooding than in July 2012, when 79 people died and tens of thousands were evacuated, according to local media.
It is the first time since 2011 that such a heavy rainfall warning has been issued, local media said.
The red alert will be in force from 8pm local time and covers an area of several hundred million inhabitants, including the metropolis of Tianjin, and the provinces of Hebei and Shandong.
Several of Beijing’s parks, lakes and riverside roads have been closed out of precaution, the municipal authorities announced on Saturday.
Heavy showers were reported in the capital on Saturday afternoon and are expected to last through Tuesday.
In Fujian’s provincial capital on Saturday, authorities ordered residents to only leave their homes only if necessary.
Public transport has also been suspended.
Doksuri had been a super typhoon as it tore across the Pacific Ocean earlier this week, but lost some intensity as it neared the Philippines.
The typhoon killed at least 13 people there, and caused landslides and floods before tracking northwest to China and gradually weakening.
It still brought colossal waves and howling winds to the country’s southeast on Friday, causing significant damage.
In Xiamen, a major port city on the Taiwan Strait, heavy weather appeared to have ripped the roof off of a bus station and pushed it up against a nearby sign.
Some streets in the city were strewn with fallen trees, while significant flooding elsewhere impeded passage by vehicles and brought police to the scene.
Pictures shared on social media showed massive gusts of wind pummelling residential tower blocks on Friday in Jinjiang, a county-level urban area south of the city of Quanzhou.
Videos of huge waves crashing over embankments and fierce winds whipping through urban areas were posted to the social media platform Weibo by the state-backed People’s Daily.
The stormy weather follows weeks of record heat in China.
At the beginning of July, Beijing and the surrounding region broke temperature records, with local temperatures in excess of 40 degrees Celsius.
Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng will be arriving in Pakistan on Sunday on a three-day visit, during which he will attend a ceremony planned to mark the 10 years of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office (FO).
The Chinese vice premier will be in Pakistan from July 30 to August 1 at the federal government’s invitation to attend the ceremony celebrating a decade of the CPEC as the chief guest, the FO statement said.
It added that Lifeng would also hold meetings with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Dr Arif Alvi during the visit.
The FO acknowledged Lifeng’s “prominent role” in China’s international economic relations and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, of which CPEC is a flagship project.
As the chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission from 2017 to 2023, he was “instrumental in the planning and execution of multiple CPEC projects in Pakistan”, the FO said.
It added that his visit was a part of regular high-level exchanges and dialogue between Pakistan and China and reflected the importance attached by both countries to further deepen their “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, enhance economic and financial cooperation, advance high-quality development of CPEC and explore new avenues for strengthening trade and investment ties”.
Stuart Broad joked he does not know the rules after the TV umpire ruled Australia’s Steve Smith was not run out in the fifth and final Test at The Oval on Friday.
Substitute fielder George Ealham, son of former England international Mark, sprinted in from the rope as Smith sought to complete a risky two and hurled in a hard, flat throw that left the diving batsman short of his ground.
It brought back memories of the 2005 Ashes when the unknown Gary Pratt ran out Ricky Ponting, but a careful review of the replays appeared to show England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow nudging one of the bails out of its groove a fraction of a second before taking the ball.
Smith had been on his way to the pavilion when he turned on his heels, with TV umpire Nitin Menon ruling in his favour.
The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), cricket’s lawmakers, posted a clarification of the rules on its social media channels.
Paceman Broad, who took 2-49, admitted he was non-plussed.
“I honestly don’t know the rules,” he said. “I think there was enough grey area to give that not out.
“What are the rules? Was it the right decision? It looked sort of benefit-of-the-doubt-type stuff.
“First angle I saw I thought ‘out’ and the side angle looked like the bail was probably dislodged.” Smith went on to make 71 as Australia reached 295 at the end of the second day, 12 runs ahead of England’s first-innings total of 283.
Australia’s star batsman said initially he thought he might be out but a second angle put doubt into his mind.
He was asked whether he knew the rules.
“Don’t the bails have to come out off the stumps, out of the grooves or something as far as I know?” Smith replied.
“But you’ve just got to go off the umpire and what he says and fortunately for me he said ‘not out’,” he said.
The MCC said in its post: “The wicket is broken when at least one bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or one or more stumps is removed from the ground.
“Tom Smith’s Cricket Umpiring and Scoring, MCC’s official interpretation of the laws of cricket, adds: “For the purposes of dismissal — a bail has been removed at the moment that both ends of it leave their grooves.”
England, trailing 2-1 after the rain-affected draw at Old Trafford, must win this match to level the series.
Holders Australia, seeking their first Ashes series win in England since 2001, have already retained the urn.
At least four people were electrocuted Saturday and seven others injured after an Ashura (Muharram 10) procession came into contact with a high-voltage wire in India, police told AFP.
Every year on Muharram 10, Yaum-i-Ashura is observed with solemnity to pay homage to Imam Husain, the grandson of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the other martyrs of Karbala.
Members of a procession in the eastern state of Jharkhand were killed when a metal pole carried by some devotees hit an overhead cable, Bokaro district police superintendent Priyadarshi Alok told AFP.
“Four people have died and seven others are injured,” he said.
Deaths by electrocution are common in India as a result of waterlogging during the summer monsoon season.
Nearly 11,000 people on average die by electrocution in India every year, according to official data.
Three terrorists were killed by security forces in separate operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Khyber and South Waziristan districts, the military’s media affairs wing said on Saturday.
According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), an exchange of fire occurred between security personnel and terrorists in the Bagh area of Khyber district on July 27. During the operation, one terrorist was killed, and ammunition was recovered from his possession.
In another encounter a day later in Gomal Zam area of South Waziristan district, security forces gunned down two terrorists, the ISPR said.
The ISPR highlighted that the slain terrorists had been actively involved in perpetrating terror activities against security forces and were also responsible for the ruthless killings of innocent civilians.
At present, “the area is undergoing sanitisation operations” to ensure the elimination of any other terrorists in hiding, according to the ISPR’s statement.
Notably, local residents in the area lauded the operation and expressed their unwavering support to completely eradicate the menace of terrorism, the statement added.
Earlier this month, as many as 12 soldiers of the Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom in separate military operations in the Zhob and Sui areas of Balochistan.
This was the military’s highest single-day death toll from terrorist attacks reported this year. Before this, 10 personnel were martyred in a ‘fire raid’ in Balochistan’s Kech district in February 2022.
Increase in terror attacks
Pakistan has seen an uptick in terror activities, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, after the outlawed TTP ended its ceasefire with the government in November last year.
Earlier this month, four security personnel were martyred while a terrorist was killed after police and Levies checkposts in the Dhana Sar area of Balochistan’s Sherani subdistrict came under attack.
A report released this month by think tank Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said the first half of the current year witnessed a steady and alarming rise in terror and suicide attacks, claiming the lives of 389 people across the country.
In June, a police official was martyred and two more were injured in a suicide attack on a police van in Balochistan’s Turbat.
In an earlier incident the same month, two soldiers were martyred after a security forces’ checkpost in the Kech district along the Pakistan-Iran border came under attack.
In a press conference in June, Inter-Services Public Relations Director General Maj Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said that the security forces conducted 13,619 intelligence operations this year in which 1,172 terrorists were killed or arrested.
“On a daily basis, over 77 operations are being carried out by armed forces, police, intelligence agencies, and other law enforcement agencies to rid of the menace of terrorism,” he said.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has temporarily suspended the arrest warrants for PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the contempt case and asked him to appear before the commission on August 2 to face indictment, it emerged on Saturday.
In a written order of its July 25 hearing, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the ECP said it was suspending the arrest warrants previously issued for the former premier. The decision was taken in light of his appearance before the electoral watchdog in relation to the case.
Imran had on July 25 appeared before the election watchdog for the first time since August last year when the case was initiated.
A day before his appearance, the ECP had ordered Islamabad police to arrest Imran and present him before the election watchdog.
The ECP had initiated contempt proceedings against the PTI chief, party leader Asad Umar and former information minister Chaudhry last year for allegedly using “intemperate” language against the chief election commissioner and the electoral watchdog.
However, instead of appearing before the ECP, the three had challenged the ECP notices and contempt proceedings in various high courts on the grounds that Section 10 of the Elections Act 2017, which is the statutory provision regarding the commission’s power to punish for contempt, was against the Constitution. The PTI leaders had also sought from the high courts a declaratory relief from the charges.
But in January, the Supreme Court had allowed the ECP to continue proceedings against Imran, Chaudhry and Umar, and on June 21, the ECP had decided to frame charges against the trio.
In the July 11 hearing, they did not appear before the commission despite being summoned, following which the ECP issued arrest warrants for Chaudhry and Imran. It had, however, accepted a plea by Umar’s lawyer to allow him an exemption from the hearing.
In a written order issued on Friday, the ECP granted Imran’s counsel’s request to obtain the case record from the relevant department. The order also stated that the respondent must now appear on the scheduled date.
It further said the matter had now been adjourned until Aug 2 for “framing of charges”.
At least eight people, including a child, were killed and nine others were injured on Friday when a pickup truck carrying tourists plunged into a ravine near Babusar Pass in the Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan, officials said.
Diamer Rescue 1122 District Coordinator Shaukat Riaz confirmed the death toll to Dawn.com.
Meanwhile, Chilas Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Wazir Liaqat said the vehicle, carrying 16 tourists, was headed to Gilgit from Sahiwal.
“After the vehicle fell into the ravine, it caught fire,” he told Dawn.com, adding that the wounded persons were being moved to the Chilas Rural Health Centre.
DSP Liaqat said one body had been brought to the health facility in Chilas while the remaining were referred to Naran. The officer further stated that the deaths occurred due to severe injuries.
Earlier this month, people were killed and 17 others were injured when a bus carrying tourists plunged into a ravine on the Karakoram Highway near the Thalichi area in GB.
Previously, five tourists were killed and 13 were injured in two traffic accidents in GB’s Hunza — when a van fell into a ravine and another crashed into a mountain.
Ramshackle highways, lax safety measures and reckless driving contribute to Pakistan’s dire road safety record.
Passenger buses are frequently crammed to capacity and seatbelts are not commonly worn or simply non-existent, meaning high death tolls from single-vehicle accidents are common.
According to World Health Organisation estimates, more than 27,000 people were killed on Pakistan’s roads in 2018.
This is a developing story that is being updated as the situation evolves. Initial reports in the media can sometimes be inaccurate. We will strive to ensure timeliness and accuracy by relying on credible sources such as concerned, qualified authorities and our staff reporters.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday departed for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a one-day visit to offer condolences over the death of Sheikh Saeed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the brother of President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.
In a tweet, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said the premier would meet the UAE president during his brief trip and extend condolences to the latter on behalf of the Pakistani nation.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and special assistant to the premier Tariq Fatemi are also accompanying the prime minister.
The UAE Presidential Court had announced Sheikh Saeed’s death in an obituary notice published by state news agency WAM on Thursday. It also said that a three-day mourning period would be observed, with flags flown at half-mast across the country, from July 27 to July 29.
According to Khaleej Times, Sheikh Saeed was laid to rest at Al Bateen Cemetery in Abu Dhabi on Thursday afternoon. The report said Sheikh Saeed was born in 1965 in Al Ain and was appointed the ruler’s representative in Abu Dhabi in June 2010.
A day earlier, PM Shehbaz said he was “deeply grieved” at the news and extended condolences to the royal family and the people of UAE.
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also said that he was deeply saddened by the death of Sheikh Saeed.
Meta Platforms executives are heavily focused on boosting retention on their new Twitter rival Threads, after the app lost more than half of its users in the weeks following its buzzy launch, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees on Thursday.
Retention of users on the text-based app was better than executives had expected, though it was “not perfect”, said Zuckerberg, speaking at an internal company town hall, the audio of which was heard by Reuters.
“Obviously, if you have more than 100 million people sign up, ideally it would be awesome if all of them or even half of them stuck around. We’re not there yet,” he said.
Zuckerberg said he considered the drop-off “normal” and expected retention to grow as the company adds more features to the app, including a desktop version and search functionality.
Meta is looking at adding more “retention-driving hooks” to entice users to return to the app, like “making sure people who are on the Instagram app can see important Threads,” said Chief Product Officer Chris Cox.
A company spokesperson declined to comment on the meeting.
The executives’ comments came a day after Meta wowed investors with a rosy revenue growth forecast, a sign of a comeback for a company that faced deep scepticism over its hefty spending on the metaverse last year as ad sales plummeted.
The disclosure sent Meta’s shares surging 8 per cent on Thursday.
Zuckerberg told employees on the call that he believed the company’s work on the augmented and virtual reality technology that would power the metaverse was “not massively ahead of schedule, but on track.”
Meta, he added, needed to get started investing in that work ahead of rivals such as Apple, Google and Microsoft, given their years of experience building operating systems for existing products.
“That way, we have all the tools ready for when this is ready for prime time,” he said, predicting that mass adoption of metaverse technologies would take place in the 2030s.
Zuckerberg and Cox also highlighted the company’s release of an artificial intelligence model called Llama 2 this month, which it made freely available for commercial use to any developer whose services had fewer than 700 million users.
The model has received more than 150,000 download requests in the week since its release, Cox said.
Responding to a question on the proposed “cage match” against Elon Musk, Zuckerberg said he was “not sure if it’s going to come together.”
Islamabad police said on Friday that the statement of a teenage maid, who was reportedly severely tortured by a civil judge’s wife, had been recorded.
A resident of Sargodha, the teenage girl was shifted to the Lahore General Hospital on Monday when her employers — a civil judge in Islamabad and his wife — were accused of torturing her.
According to the girl’s medico-legal certificate (MLC), she had “laceration on head from vertex, on forehead, right side above eyebrow, swollen upper lips, laceration under upper lip on right side, broken left incisor and left canine, laceration on check, nose bleed, laceration on left side of vertex, multiple bruises on lower leg, fracture on right forearm, swollen left and right eyelids, bruise on right skull, laceration on back, multiple bruises on back and attempt on strangulation.”
After initially showing reluctance, Islamabad police had registered a first information report in the case on July 26. Police booked the judge’s wife for criminal intimidation and wrongful confinement, without mentioning physical torture in the FIR.
On Thursday, the Lahore High Court granted protective bail to the judge’s wife till August 1.
In a tweet today, the Islamabad police said the statements of the victim and her father had been recorded but the medical report had not yet been received.
It stated that all those involved in the crime were being investigated and action was being taken according to the law.
“Child labour is a crime under the law. If anyone is aware of any such incident, report it to the police,” the capital police added.
Earlier, a police officer toldDawn that the capital police initiated the investigation over the case and sent a team to Lahore and other cities to arrest the accused.
The investigation is being conducted by the relevant police station instead of the investigation wing’s Special Sexual Offence Investigation Unit under the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act 2021. The SSOIU has a mandate to investigate offences against juveniles under the act, he added.
The police team raided houses in Rawalpindi, Lahore, and Gujranwala to arrest the accused but it failed, the officer said, adding that the supervisory officers of the team were informed that the accused obtained a pre-arrest bail.
Following the information about the bail, the team was asked to move to Lahore and meet the victim and her family, the officer said, adding that in response the team met the girl and her family at a hospital, and their statements were recorded.
The case
The case was registered at the Humak police station in response to the complaint from the girl’s father, a labourer by profession. According to the FIR, he sent his daughter to the house of the judge at Zartaj Housing Society through an acquaint against Rs10,000 per month salary.
On July 23, he along with his wife and brother-in-law came to the judge’s house to meet his daughter and found her injured and weeping in a room, it added.
They found infected injuries on his head besides wounds all around the face, both arms and legs, the FIR said, adding her tooth was also found broken and swilling on both lips and eyes.
“Her ribs were also found broken, and injuries were found on her back. Marks of strangulation were also found around her neck.”
When asked, she told her family that the judge’s wife used to torture and beat her with batons and spoons daily and did not provide her with dinner.
The FIR said the girl was detained in a room since her arrival at the house. Later, the family took her to the Sargodha DHQ hospital where the girl’s condition deteriorated and was then referred to Lahore.
Flanked by visiting Russian and Chinese officials, Kim Jong Un oversaw a North Korean military parade featuring new drones and Pyongyang’s nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, state media reported on Friday.
At least four new North Korean military drones were towed on trailers through Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square at the parade late on Thursday, state media images showed, while another drone appeared to conduct a flyover overhead.
Standing between Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese politburo member Li Hongzhong in the VIP viewing stands, Kim smiled and saluted as thousands of soldiers marched past, trailed by the country’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), which are banned under UN sanctions.
The event, featuring Kim’s first-known foreign guests since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, was to mark the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice, which ended open hostilities and is celebrated as Victory Day.
Kim “extended warm militant greetings” to the parade, the official Korean Central News Agency said, and North Korea’s defence minister Kang Sun Nam made a speech.
The United States has no chance “of survival in case they use nuclear weapons against the DPRK”, Kang said, referring to the North by its official name.
He warned that any attempts by the United States to use armed force against the North would cause an “unimaginable and unforeseen crisis”.
The parade featured an array of new weaponry, including some first unveiled at a defence expo on Wednesday in Pyongyang, visited by Kim and Shoigu.
North Korea’s new underwater nuclear attack drone, called the “Haeil”, appeared at the parade for the first time, Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported.
“The strategic reconnaissance drone and the multi-purpose attack drone which was newly developed and produced… made circular flights in the sky above the Kim Il Sung Square,” KCNA said.
The “excitement and great joy of the spectators reached its height” when the nuclear-armed country’s newest ICBM — the solid-fuel Hwasong-18, tested in April and July this year — was paraded through the square, KCNA said.
The tests were roundly condemned by Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, and violated UN sanctions banning the North from any tests using ballistic missile technology.
‘Send the US a signal’
The parade is a key part of “promoting Kim Jong Un’s ruling legitimacy and internal unity in this economically challenging time”, Yangmo Ku, a political science professor at Norwich University, told AFP.
But this year, with the inclusion of high-level guests from Moscow and Beijing, Pyongyang is also sending America “a signal that under strengthened ties with Russia and China, North Korea is militarily ready to cope with strategic threats from its enemies”, he said.
“All these acts mean the emergence of the new Cold War surrounding the Korean Peninsula,” Ku added.
Beijing is North Korea’s most important ally and economic benefactor, their relationship was forged in the bloodshed of the Korean War in the 1950s.
“China’s representation at North Korea’s parading of nuclear-capable missiles raises serious questions about Beijing enabling Pyongyang’s threats to global security,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
Russia, another historic ally, is one of a handful of nations with which Pyongyang maintains friendly relations, and experts said it was noteworthy that Moscow had sent Shoigu to the anniversary celebrations — a rare visit by a Russian defence chief in the post-Soviet era.
Kim has been steadfast in his support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, including, Washington says, supplying rockets and missiles — a charge Pyongyang has denied.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin sent a speech, read out by Shoigu at an anniversary event, according to KCNA, in which Moscow’s leader hailed North Korea for its “firm support for special military operations against Ukraine”.
Easley said that “given Russia’s need for ammunition for its illegal war in Ukraine and (Kim’s) willingness to personally give the Russian defence minister a tour of North Korea’s arms exhibition, UN member states should increase vigilance for observing and penalising sanctions violations”.
The inclusion of foreign guests at this year’s celebrations is a post-pandemic first and hints at new flexibility towards enforcing border controls.
North Korea has imposed a rigid Covid-19 blockade since early 2020, preventing even its own nationals from entering the country.
It only resumed some trade with China last year and allowed new Beijing envoy Wang Yajun to take up his position this year. He is the first known senior diplomat to cross into North Korea since the border closure in January 2020
