Rupee slides for 12th straight session

By: Inter News on November 07, 2023 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

The rupee continued to depreciate against the dollar on Tuesday, losing another Rs1.71 in the interbank market during afternoon trade, according to the Forex Association of Pakistan.

As of 12pm, the dollar was trading for Rs287 in the interbank. It had closed yesterday at Rs285.29.

In the open market the dollar was changing hands for Rs287.5 during the afternoon.

This is the 12th straight session in which the rupee trended downward. Since Oct 20, it has shed 2.9 per cent. The dollar entered its 12th consecutive session of strengthening against the rupee.

The downward trajectory ate into the recovery that the rupee experienced in Sept, following a clampdown on illegal currency markets.

Some bankers believe that a short supply of dollars and poor growth of exports could further weaken the local currency. Experts said the announc­ement of general elections on Feb 8, 2024, has attached some additional uncertainty in the political and economic scenario.

Currency experts said the demand has been high as the importers were keen to buy to save the future cost of dollars which may go up.

Zafar Paracha, general secretary of Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan, said, “The sentiments have changed. People became pessimistic about the rupee strengthening further. Because of this, exporters once again stopped selling their dollars.”

He added that every time the political and economic situation of Pakistan starts getting better, anti-state elements get active, whether they are outside or inside Pakistan.

“People regularly try to write off the rupee and create panic. Moreover, the Afghan refugees who are leaving, they are also smuggling as many dollars as they can.”

However, he added that Pakistan’s financial credentials were good. The company results looked promising, as the stock exchange reached an all-time high.

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More to follow

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Two policemen martyred, 3 injured in another terrorist attack in DI Khan

By: Inter News on November 07, 2023 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Two policemen were martyred and three others were injured in an attack targeting personnel guarding an oil and gas exploration company’s camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan in the early hours of Tuesday, according to police.

The fresh attack comes after multiple terror attacks in the district three days ago.

On Friday, a bomb blast near a police patrol killed five and left over 20 injured in Dera Ismail Khan city. Just two days later, militants targeted security personnel at a checkpoint in the district’s Tank area. That attack was repelled and at least 10 assailants were killed. The same evening, a checkpoint in the Roori area came under attack, injuring a constable.

Speaking to Dawn.com about today’s attack, DI Khan Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Asfar Ali Shah mentioned that unidentified armed assailants attacked a camp operated by Al-Haj Oil and Gas Private Drilling Company, resulting in the martyrdom of two police officers who were stationed there. He added that three officers sustained injuries.

DSP Shah said the wounded personnel were transported to a nearby hospital, adding that one of them was in critical condition.

He stated that the attackers specifically targeted the police officers stationed at the camp of the oil exploration company.

The deceased officers were identified as ASI Rehmat Ali and Khan Arif. Alamgir Khan, Fazlur Reman, and Ataur Rehman were the wounded policemen.

Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in recent months, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the TTP ended its ceasefire with the government in November last year.

On Nov 4, nine terrorists were neutralised by security forces after they infiltrated a Pakistan Air Force training base in Mianwali.

On Nov 3 in Gwadar, at least 14 Pakistan Army soldiers lost their lives after militants ambushed two vehicles of security forces.

On Oct 31, a policeman was martyred after unknown militants opened fire on a police camp in Dera Ismail Khan. That same day, two soldiers were martyred in an IED blast in South Waziristan district.

In July, as many as 12 soldiers of the Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom in separate military operations in the Zhob and Sui areas of Balochistan.

That 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.

Last month, data compiled by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) said the number of militant attacks in August was the highest tally for monthly strikes in almost nine years.

There were 99 attacks across the country, the highest number in a single month since November 2014, the report had said.

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New Delhi to restrict vehicles as pollution spikes

By: Inter News on November 06, 2023 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

New Delhi will restrict the use of private vehicles for a week in a bid to offer residents some respite from the toxic smog choking the megacity, authorities announced on Monday.

Delhi, home to 30 million people, is blanketed in acrid smog at the onset of winter every year, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in the neighbouring agrarian states.

The city is regularly ranked as one of the most polluted on the planet, with its smog blamed for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year.

So far, government-led efforts have failed to tackle the country’s air quality problem, which a 2017 US study found kills one million people prematurely in India every year.

Gopal Rai, Delhi’s environment minister, said the road-rationing scheme would be introduced for a week from next Monday, a day after Diwali — the Hindu festival of lights, when revellers set off firecrackers.

Under the scheme, cars with odd and even number plates would be allowed to travel on alternate days during the period.

“The decision has been taken as after Diwali, pollution may rise further,” Rai said at a press conference.

The situation would be reviewed after November 20, he added.

Levels of the most dangerous PM2.5 particles — so tiny they can enter the bloodstream — reached 184 micrograms per cubic metre on Monday according to IQAir, 12 times the daily maximum recommended by the World Health Organization.

Nonetheless, cricketers from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka took to the field for a World Cup match in the afternoon.

It is not the first time the road restriction scheme has been tried in the capital — it was put into action in 2016, 2017 and 2019.

Vehicle emissions account for a significant proportion of air pollution in Delhi, but a 2018 study by Indian government scientists found that the odd-even rule did not succeed in reducing emissions — and may even have increased them due to disruption to normal traffic patterns.

Rai also said schools in the city will remain closed till November 11 and construction activities will be banned.

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Prominent Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi arrested during Israeli raid in West Bank

By: Inter News on November 06, 2023 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

The Israeli army said Monday it had arrested the prominent 22-year-old Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi during a raid in the occupied West Bank.

“Ahed Tamimi was arrested on suspicion of inciting violence and terrorist activities in the town of Nabi Salih” near the city of Ramallah, an army spokesman told AFP.

“Tamimi was transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning.”

The activist was arrested during an Israeli army raid “aimed at apprehending individuals suspected of being involved in terrorist activities and incitement to hatred” in the north of the West Bank, the spokesman added.

When AFP inquired about the reasons for her arrest, a security source forwarded an Instagram post, which has circulated widely on social media and is attributed to the young activist.

According to the post, written in Arabic and Hebrew, she called for the massacre of Israelis in explicitly violent terms, referring to Hitler.

The activist’s mother, Nariman al-Tamimi, denied she wrote the post. “There are dozens of (online) pages in Ahed’s name with her photo, with which she has no connection,” Tamimi told AFP.

She added that her husband, Bassem al-Tamimi, was arrested on October 20 and since then there has been no news about his whereabouts.

AFP was not immediately able to verify whether the Instagram account in question, which was blocked on Monday morning, actually belongs to Tamimi.

Tamimi became famous at age 14 when she was filmed biting an Israeli soldier to prevent him from arresting her brother who had his arm in a cast.

She has become an icon of the Palestinian cause and a large portrait of her has been painted on the Israeli separation wall with the West Bank in Bethlehem near Jerusalem.

She was arrested in 2017 and held for eight months for slapping two Israeli soldiers in the courtyard of her family home in the West Bank as she asked them to leave.

Since the start of Gaza bombing on October 7, Israeli security forces have carried out large-scale arrests of Palestinians suspected of links to Hamas or of inciting violence.

A spike in tensions and violence has claimed the lives of more than 150 Palestinians in the West Bank since then, most killed by Israeli soldiers or by settlers, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

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Sun of Feb 8 will rise with message of Bilawal’s victory, vows Zardari

By: Inter News on November 06, 2023 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Former president Asif Ali Zardari on Monday expressed confidence in his son and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s victory in the upcoming general elections.

Putting an end to months-long uncertainty, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and President Arif Alvi last week agreed on February 8, 2024, as the date for polls. The development has stirred activity in the camps of major political parties.

In the run-up to elections, the rivalry between the PPP and PML-N has gained momentum as the former alleges that the Nawaz-led party has a hidden alliance with the current caretaker government.

On the other hand, the PPP has expressed willingness to form an electoral alliance with the PTI, citing the need for a level playing field.

In an official statement issued today, Zardari welcomed the announcement of the election date and said: “The sun of February 8 will rise with the message of Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s victory.”

“A few days of the public’s difficulties are left. The PPP will bring an end to the people’s ordeals,” he added.

The former president went on to express his gratitude to the public for the party’s victory in by-elections held in Karachi’s nine local government constituencies a day ago.

“Sindh’s heart, Karachi, also raised the slogan of ‘Jiye Bhutto’,” Zardari said while terming Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab and Deputy Mayor Salman Abdullah Murad’s wins a “special message for the opponents”.

“Every party worker may become the ambassador of Benazir Bhutto shaheed and start the electoral campaign,” he added.

In another statement, Bilawal also congratulated the Karachi by-election winners and said, “The public has given its verdict. Now, God-willing, the PPP’s victory on February 8 is also written on the wall.”

PML-N campaign enters ‘new phase’

Meanwhile, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif presided over a hurdle in Lahore on his “first day at the [party’s] central secretariat after returning to the country”.

The PML-N supremo returned to Pakistan last month after a four-year-long self-exile in London and the legal hurdles he had been facing have mostly been cleared from his political path.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the party stated, “The PML-N’s election campaign has entered a new phase with the start of Nawaz Sharif’s meetings in the central secretariat.”

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz, Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal, former defence minister Khawaja Asif, Senate leader Ishaq Dar and former information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb attended the meeting.

The PML-N said matters linked to the country’s situation and the party’s future political activities were discussed in the meetup.

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Rescue efforts called off after Nepal quake

By: Inter News on November 05, 2023 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Search and rescue efforts after an earthquake in Nepal wrapped up on Sunday as the focus shifted to providing relief to survivors awaiting food and shelter, officials said 36 hours after the disaster struck.

At least 157 people were killed in isolated western districts of the Himalayan country when the 5.6-magnitude earthquake hit late on Friday.

Many survivors spent the night under the open sky, their mud houses reduced to piles of rubble.

Several people died in the village of Nalgad, in the worst-hit Jajarkot district, where Mahesh Chanare prepared to cremate his father-in-law on Sunday.

“The rest of my family is safe,” the 34-year-old plumber told AFP.

“But the houses have buried everything with them, there is hardly anything to eat,” he added.

“No relief materials have reached us. People here desperately need food and tents,” he said.

Altogether 105 people died in Jajarkot and another 52 in neighbouring Rukum district, officials said, with more than 100 injured, and search and rescue operations had been concluded.

“We are in touch with all areas and rescue operations have wrapped up,” said provincial police spokesman Gopal Chandra Bhattarai.

“But we are still on alert as this is a remote area and there might be some isolated areas from where information has not flowed,” Bhattarai said.

Harish Chandra Sharma, a Jajarkot district official, said the focus was now on providing relief to the victims.

“It has been a tough night and we are trying to get relief materials to those affected by the quake,” Sharma said.

“Some have been distributed but we need to reach all areas,” he said.

On Friday, locals frantically dug through rubble in the dark to pull survivors from the wreckage of collapsed homes and buildings, as others crouched outside for safety.

The quake was felt as far away as India’s capital New Delhi, nearly 500 kilometres (310 miles) from the epicentre.

Security forces were deployed on foot and in helicopters to assist with search and rescue operations.

Nepal lies on a major geological faultline where the Indian tectonic plate pushes up into the Eurasian plate, forming the Himalayas, and earthquakes are a regular occurrence.

Nearly 9,000 people died and more than 22,000 were injured in 2015 when a 7.8-magnitude quake struck Nepal, destroying more than half a million homes.

Six people also died in November last year when a 5.6-magnitude earthquake struck Doti district, near Jajarkot.

Friday’s quake was followed several hours later by an aftershock in the same area with a 4.0 magnitude, the US Geological Survey said.

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Smog-ridden New Delhi extends schools shutdown till Nov 10

By: Inter News on November 05, 2023 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Authorities in the smog-ridden Indian capital New Delhi on Sunday extended an emergency school closure by a week, with no signs of improvement in the megacity’s choking levels of pollution.

Every autumn New Delhi is blanketed in acrid smog, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in the neighbouring agrarian states.

The city is regularly ranked as one of the most polluted on the planet, with its annual smog blamed for hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year.

“As pollution levels continue to remain high, primary schools in Delhi will stay closed till 10th November,” Delhi state’s education minister Atishi posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Secondary schools “are being given the option of shifting to online classes”, added Atishi, who uses only one name, after days of high pollution levels.

The Indian capital — which has a population of 30 million — once again ranked as the world’s most polluted city Sunday, according to monitoring firm IQAir.

Delhi state annually imposes restrictions on construction activities and orders some vehicles off roads when pollution reaches severe levels.

But critics say that governments wilfully ignore the agricultural primary source of the public health crisis.

The farmers in neighbouring states are a powerful electoral lobby and elected leaders have long resisted calls to impose strict fines and other punitive measures on them for their actions.

New Delhi is set to host a cricket World Cup match on Monday between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

But both teams cancelled their scheduled pre-match training sessions in recent days over health risks from the smog.

Severe smog levels are expected to persist for several more weeks.

Levels of the most dangerous PM2.5 particles — so tiny they can enter the bloodstream — reached 570 micrograms per cubic metre on Sunday according to IQAir, nearly 40 times the daily maximum recommended by the World Health Organisation.

A Lancet study in 2020 attributed 1.67 million deaths to air pollution in India during the previous year, including almost 17,500 in the capital.

And the average city resident could die nearly 12 years earlier than expected due to air pollution, according to an August report by the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.

India is heavily reliant on polluting coal for energy generation, resisting calls to phase it out, and its per capita coal emissions have risen 29 per cent in the past seven years.

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