MoS Hina calls for enhanced support to countries facing climate-induced disasters
ISLAMABAD, Dec 9 (APP): Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar on Friday stressed the need for a time-responsive, well-funded, and strategically robust emergency response system.
The minister of state, speaking at High-Level Pledging Event of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), held in a hybrid format in New York, also emphasized the impartiality and non-politicization of such a humanitarian response system.
She was speaking virtually at the event, at the invitation of the United Nations.
Recalling the humanitarian impact of the recent devastating climate-induced floods in Pakistan, Hina Rabbani acknowledged and appreciated the critical assistance provided by the CERF.
She echoed the UN Secretary-General’s call for scaled-up funding to CERF, enabling it to assist the developing countries braving climate-induced disasters.
The High-Level Pledging Event was organized at the UN Headquarters in New York to garner international attention and support to the CERF enabling it to respond to emergency humanitarian needs across the globe.
The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, inaugurated the event.
The minister of state was also joined by the foreign minister of Finland and Somalia’s Special Envoy for Drought Response and Humanitarian Affairs.
Established in 2005 as the UN global emergency response fund, CERF enables humanitarian responders to deliver life-saving assistance, wherever required.
Pakistan has been a beneficiary and a regular contributor to the Fund. In response to the recent flooding, CERF allocated 10 million USD to Pakistan for life-saving humanitarian activities.
Mystery spinner Abrar destroys England batting line up
MULTAN, Dec 09 (APP):Mystery leg spinner Abrar Ahmed shone on his debut to destroy an aggressive-looking England batting line up with a seven-wicket haul restricting visitors to a modest 281 in the first inning of the second test match at Multan Cricket Stadium on day one, Friday.
England entered the second test at Multan in a confident mode backed by their victory in Rawalpindi test, however, the mystery spinner Abrar emerged as spin maestro to frustrate the aggressive plans of English batters and inflicted first blow early when he bowled opener Zak Crawley on a delivery that came in and went through the bat and pads to hit stumps when England had put just 38 on the board.
From then on, the young spinmaster never looked back and went on to trim the English batting one by one. He conceded 114 runs for his seven wickets in 22 overs he bowled.
The second test match of the three-match test series between Pakistan and England was being played at Multan Cricket Stadium where England won the toss and elected to bat first with ambitions to script another big score like the previous Rawalpindi test where they had scored a mammoth 657 in the first innings and won that test decisively by 74 runs in a remarkable display of the game of cricket.
Young Abrar made the difference in Multan test. After claiming the wicket of opener Zak Crawley, he got Ben Ducket, Will Jacks and Joe Root pinned before stumps, made Ollie Pope and Harry Brook play misjudged strokes to be caught by fielders, and bowled the captain Ben Stokes.
England team went under pressure soon after the fall of first wicket at 38 runs. The debutante spinner kept piling up pressure and took his second wicket when England total reached 117, third at 145, fourth at 164, fifth at 167, sixth at 228 and seventh by Abrar Ahmed at 231.
Remaining three wickets were claimed by spinner Zahid Mahmood conceding .
Ben Ducket remained top scorer with 63 runs and Ollie Pope with 60 runs.
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif addresses the ceremony organised to acknowledge the services of the officers of National Flood Response Coordination Center
FM Bilawal launches program for Facebook monetization in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Dec 9 (APP): Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday visited the Asia Pacific headquarters of Meta (Facebook), based in Singapore, where he launched the “Stars Programme” for monetization in Pakistan.
This will contribute to the capacity building of young entrepreneurs as a valuable tool for Pakistan’s growing number of Meta content developers.
The foreign minister, who was on a two-day visit to Singapore at the invitation of Singaporean counterpart, earlier met President Halimah Yacob and held a breakfast meeting with Foreign Minister Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan.
During his meetings with President Yacob and Foreign Minister Balakrishnan, the foreign minister emphasized the importance accorded by Pakistan to its relations with Singapore, which is a key partner in ASEAN.
The two foreign ministers noted the importance of regular interaction and dialogue, exchange of high-level visits and to promote people-to-people contacts.
They agreed to unlock the potential for economic cooperation and collaborate in agriculture, digital economy and digital finance. They exchanged views on the regional situation and agreed to stay engaged to promote mutually beneficial cooperation.
All-out facilitation at border crossing points for monthly exodus of 385,000 Afghans
ISLAMABAD, Dec 9 (APP): Pakistan has taken all-out facilitative measures at all five Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing points to ensure the smooth processing of Afghan people, despite a heavy inflow of around 385,000 people a month.
Currently, Pakistan has five crossing points operational with Afghanistan, which include Chaman, Torkham, Kharlachi, Ghulam Khan and Angoor Ada.
Around 13,000 people move to and from Afghanistan through these crossing points that include pedestrians, patients, traders, tourists and transporters. In addition to hundreds of trade convoys, around 385,000 Afghan travel through the crossing point a month.
Despite limited resources and workforce, Pakistan is manning over 100 counters at the crossing points to ensure the smooth processing of a heavy inflow of cross-border movement.
No other bordering country has such an exodus at their border crossings, a security official commented.
Around 79 counters have been placed at Chaman and Torkham, the busiest crossing points.
Though Pakistan has an Integrated Border Management System (IBMS) in place at main crossings, which supports One Document Regime (valid visa/ passport). However, to facilitate their Afghan brethren, Pakistan also allows a large number of Afghans especially patients, journalists, women and traders to cross the border on Tazkera (non-valid) documents, on humanitarian grounds.
The security official said that exclusive counters at crossing points have been operational for Afghan patients and women only.
Afghans entering Pakistan either on valid or invalid documents are allowed to extend or renew their status to stay in Pakistan.
Border crossing for Afghan people even without passports to earn a livelihood, visit a relative, address any medical emergency or get an education is an exclusive offer extended by Pakistan, which no other neighbor offers.
However, despite all the said facilitations, the Afghan and Indian media keeps maligning Pakistan by reporting incidents of perceived mistreatment of Afghans by Pakistani authorities at Pak-Afghan border crossing points, causing resentment among Afghan masses towards Pakistan.
The fact is that, as per official data, around 6,000 Afghan nationals are refused entry into Pakistan every month due to the obvious reasons of having insufficient documents or even no documents.
A few Afghans facing refusal falsely create a nuisance about mistreatment by Pakistani authorities at border crossing points, the official commented.
England team confident with performance on first day, says Ben Duckett
MULTAN, Dec 09 (APP):England batter Ben Duckett said that mistakes would be overcome in the next inning and “We will come after Abrar” through comprehensive analysis of Abrar’s action and his power area on pitch.
Holding a press conference after first day game of second test match against Pakistan at Multan Cricket Stadium, Ben Duckett said that it was an exciting first day of the bigger game.
He said that Abrar bowled very well but I stick to my game and sweep every ball he bowled. He said that it was a tricky to start an inning on this spin wicket.
He said that cricket was unpredictable as some day a team scored 350 and someday 150 runs.
He said that hopefully, we will get wickets in cluster tomorrow (Saturday) restricting Pakistan on a minimum score.
He said that it was slow wicket and efforts would be made to put pressure on the batsman by standing more fielders around eye line.
He said that the team was focusing on positive cricket adding that it was an aggressive batting otherwise the whole team could enable scoring 150 or 200 only.
To a question, Duckett said that the extra pacer could help team if ball started reverse swing.
To another question about Abrar’s performance he replied that Abrar bowled very well in the first inning adding that we will come after him in the next inning through comprehensive analysis of his action.
He said that he doesn’t know about the game plan of other batter while facing Abrar but he himself planned to sweep every ball of the spinner.
He said that he always played sweep shots as he was confident with this shot. He said that he usually makes runs through his favorite sweep shot.
5th Maritime security workshop participants visit naval headquarters
ISLAMABAD, Dec 09 (APP): The participants of 5th Maritime Security Workshop on Friday visited Naval Headquarters here.
The delegation was led by Commandant Pakistan Navy War College Rear Admiral Javed Iqbal, a Pakistan Navy news release said.
The workshop participants were briefed on Pakistan Navy challenges and responses including Navy contributions towards promotion of Blue Economy.
Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi interacted with the participants of the workshop.
During the interactive session, the Naval Chief dilated upon issues related to maritime security and PN efforts for maritime awareness in the country.
The Naval Chief underscored Pakistan Navy initiatives in enhancing maritime and coastal security, operational readiness, PN initiatives for supporting quality education, health sector and socio-economic uplift of coastal community.
The workshop participants comprised of senators, parliamentarians, policy makers, bureaucrats, academia, entrepreneurs as well as representatives from media.
The participants highly appreciated PN role & efforts to befittingly meet maritime related challenges being faced by the country and also proposed valuable suggestions.
SAPM calls for efficient resource utilisation for enhancing exports
KARACHI, Dec 09 (APP):Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Industries and Production Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi on Friday stressed on maximum utilisation of available resources of Karachi Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) for enhancing production and exports.
He paid a visit to KEPZ and held a meeting there along with senior politician Imtiaz Safdar Warraich as a Special Observer, said a handout issued here.
Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA) should facilitate the investors, take measures for productive utilisation of land for improvement and development of the Authority, Qureshi maintained.
Special Observer Imtiaz Safdar Warraich showed concerns over the decreased production and suggested to carve out new ways and plans for progress and development.
EPZA Chairman Dr Saifuddin Junejo, Secretary EPZA Engr Nasir Hidayat Khan and other officials, while briefing the meeting, pointed out energy crisis and other issues were major hurdles in increasing the export volume.
“Tawaraqi Steel Mills of EPZA has a capacity to produce 1.28 metric tons of iron with manpower of 100 to 200 employees and its operation could be resumed by provision of required supply of natural gas”, the meeting was informed.
They further said export processing zones played an important role in taking exports of Bangladesh to 8 billion dollars and they were planning to build 100 more export processing zones.
