SIALKOT, May 15 (APP)::A 91-member delegation of Pakistan Navy War College Tuesday visited Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) here.
The delegates discussed in detail matters of mutual interest with Sialkot exporters during a meeting held at the SCCI.
Pakistan Navy’s Commandant Rear Admiral Naveed Ahmed Rizvi led the
delegation. As many as 24 foreign navy officers from friendly countries
were also part of the delegation.
The SCCI officials gave a briefing to the visiting delegation about
the achievements, targets, goals and future plans of Sialkot exporters.
Navy War College delegation visits SCCI
Pakistan-Canada relations based on strong foundation of friendship, cooperation
ISLAMABAD, May 15 (APP):Pakistan High Commissioner to Canada Tariq Azim said Pakistan-Canada relations are based on strong foundations of friendship, cooperation and Pakistan consider the Canada a very important partner for the size of its economy and membership of important fora like G-7, G-20, WTO and the Commonwealth.
He said this while addressing an annual dinner organized by Canada-Pakistani Business Association, Manitoba, a press release received here said.
He said Pakistan has laid the foundation of sustained growth and the government’s prudent policies have restored macroeconomic stability.
Globally, Pakistan is ranked 2nd in salt reserves, 3rd in copper and 5th in iron ore and coal reserves. Pakistan is also ranked 4th in cotton and milk production, 8th in wheat production, 9th in meat production and 11th in rice production, he added.
The high commissioner said Pakistan considers Canada very important partner for the size of its economy and membership of important fora like G-7, G-20, WTO and the Commonwealth.
He added that Pakistan, as an emerging economy, is keen to engage in a ‘full spectrum’ partnership including in trade and investment sectors with Canada. The High Commissioner noted that that the volume of our bilateral trade in goods alone has doubled in the last three years from C$ 703.7 million in 2014 to C$ 1.7 billion in 2017
The high commissioner informed the investors Pakistan, located on the crossroads of landlocked regions and strategic sea lanes of communication, offers attractive business opportunities and meets the priority areas for Canada’s expertise like industrial machinery, ICT, infrastructure, mining, clean technologies, agriculture and higher education sectors. He invited Canadian businessmen and investors to avail the profit making opportunity in Pakistan.
The high commissioner also presented Muhammad Ali Jinnah award to the prominent businessmen who contributed to enhancing trade between Pakistan and Manitoba province of Canada.
The award ceremony was attended by a large number of Parliamentarian and businessmen. The high commissioner thanked Anis Khan, President of Canada-Pakistan Business Association, Manitoba for arranging the meeting with businessmen from Winnipeg.
PTI has devastated Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa: Shehbaz
LAHORE, May 15 (APP):President Pakistan Muslim League-N and Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday said
that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has devastated the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the city of Peshawar has been defaced.
The promises made with the nation by Imran Niazi have proved false.
Earlier, Khan Sahib declared the Metro Bus of Lahore ‘Jangla bus’, but later on his governmnet in KP launched the same project in Peshawar.
However, his governmnet failed to complete the project as the tenure of the government is going to end this month, he added.
He was telephonically addressing a public meeting at Butgram district of KPK. Shehbaz Sharif was
scheduled to address the public meeting at Butgram but he could not reach there due to inclement weather.
Shehbaz Sharif said in his telephonic address that he was very fond of coming to Butgram to meet the people of the area and discuss their problems, which Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government failed to solve during its constitutional term.
The KPK had been pushed back during the past five years as no new projects had not launched by the provincial government, he added.
“But due to the inclement weather, I could not visit Butgram. By the Grace of Allah Almighty, I will visit the city soon to meet all of you,” he explained.
He said that the people living in KPK province were proud citizens of the country.
He said that Imran Khan Niazi promised five years ago to produce thousands of megawatts of electricity. He also claimed that ample electricity would be produced to provide it to other parts of the country as well. However, electricity generation projects of just 74-megawatt electricity have been set up after
passage of five years, he said.
On the other side, 80-megawatt electricity generation project, set up by the previous government, developed faults in 2016 and the PTI government failed to rectify it. This way, the PTI government produced minus six megawatts of electricity, the CM said.
He said that the ‘Billion tree tsunami’ had also proved a false claim. Imran Khan lied at every occasion and set records of falsehood.
“If Allah Almighty gave us an opportunity, we will make KPK province another Punjab and Peshawar will be developed like Lahore,” he added.
Shehbaz Sharif said that development works would be carried out in Hazara, Butgram and other cities of KPK. New educational institutions and hospitals would be set up and lakhs of people would be provided jobs and stipend would be given to the deserving students.
The PML-N government would complete all such projects and he would visit Butgram soon, concluded Shehbaz Sharif.
Pakistan re-emerges as stable country in an unstable region after defeating terrorism: Dastgir
ISLAMABAD, May 15 (APP):Minister for Defence Khurram Dastgir has said that Pakistan had re-emerged as a stable and peaceful country in an unstable region after defeating the monster of terrorism and by putting itself on the trajectory of sustainable economic growth.
Speaking at an International Conference of News Agencies, the minister said Pakistan had emerged in the past four years from an extremely difficult period of terrorism and energy shortages. When the current government resumed its tenure in 2013, it found Pakistan drowning in blood and darkness, he said, adding moreover, it was a difficult job to maintain the country’s precious democracy.
Dastgir, who is also Minister Incharge for Foreign Affairs, saluted the courage of Pakistani journalists who continued working in very difficult circumstances in the recent years and exercised the freedom of speech and expression at a time when Pakistan was suffering from terrorism and violent extremism.
Pakistan had consolidated its democracy and on May 31, the second consecutive elected government would complete its term, he added.
He said Pakistan today had a lot of good news as peace had been restored across the country from Chitral to Karachi after boldly confronting the menaces of extremism and terrorism based on ethnicity, criminal mafias and misinterpretation of religion.
The minister said it was a matter of great satisfaction that the province of Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Karachi were peaceful.
He said Pakistan suffered from the greatest trauma as 6,000 of its army officers and soldiers were martyred and 18,000 civilians lost their lives. “We suffered the greatest trauma. We endured and came through that trauma.”
He said in the years 2012-13, on average six terrorist incidents occurred daily. “The current government with its hard work and focused effort, and with the help and assistance of armed forces made the impossible possible.”
The minister said after a difficult period, the country’s economy was growing again. It grew by 5.3 percent previous year and about 6 percent this year, and was expected to grow by more than six percent next year. The country had ended energy shortages by utilizing its own resources.
“This nation has been severely tested on all fronts. We have simultaneously battled through various crises,” he added.
Dastgir said during the last five years Pakistan had started to connect with the world again. “We are receiving foreign visitors and tourists. Pakistan is now being diagonally connected from Gwadar to the south west province of China, and China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will be the backbone of industrial expansion and will create jobs for many decades to come.”
He told the foreign delegates that Pakistanis were resilient beyond imagination. “I am proud to see that my fellow countrymen have faith in their country. We are a stable country now as the tide has turned. I am confident that with the help from the international partners, we will continue to achieve further successes.”
Talking about transformation of the media after the advent of social media, the minister said there was a time when the traditional media was dominant and now the social media had been slowly gobbling it.
“We have to guard against fake news as the media is in the relentless pursuit of breaking news. Faith of public in the news reporting by media has eroded. We are consumed with news coming from different platforms,” he added.
Ancient Afghan artifacts protected through Chinese exhibitions
BEIJING, May 15 (APP):For over a year, Chinese museums have been displaying ancient cultural treasures from Afghanistan with the aim of protecting them before they are shipped to another country for exhibition.
The 2,000-year-old treasures belong to the National Museum of Afghanistan, which used to house over 100,000 cultural relics. But during wars from 1990 to 2001, the artifacts were severely damaged. To protect them, the Afghan government decided to relocate them, and it was not until 2003 that they were retrieved by archaeologists, People’s Daily Online reported Tuesday.
Since 2016, the treasures have been exhibited around the world, in countries such as France, Italy, the Netherlands, the United States, Australia, and Japan. In March 2017, they came to the Palace Museum in Beijing, China.
The stable social environment and sound museum equipment in countries such as China have made the Afghan side believe that bringing the treasures as part of a worldwide exhibition is a good way to protect them, said a person in charge of the current exhibition surnamed Li.
The treasures were scheduled to be shipped to another country after the three-month exhibition ended, but due to unforeseen circumstances, the original plan was cancelled.
Without the presence of another host country, the relics would have had to be sent back to Afghanistan where the situation is currently unstable, leaving their fate unknown.
To avoid the risk of the world cultural heritage items becoming damaged, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China and the Palace Museum decided to keep the artifacts in the Palace Museum temporarily.
From there, the treasures have been respectively exhibited in southwest China’s Chongqing and Chengdu cities. In Chengdu, the exhibition was visited by 500,000 people in three months, which was one-fifth of the total number of visitors recorded in 23 museums around the world.
On the opening day of the show on February 1, Mohammad Fahim Rahimi, Director of the National Museum of Afghanistan, came to Chengdu to express his gratitude to the Chinese museum.
“The exhibition in Chengdu is a gift given to our Chinese friends. Even during such a difficult time, we’ve managed to protect our cultural heritage objects,” Rahimi said, adding that the Afghan archeological and cultural circles felt very proud that the representative cultural treasures were loved by the Chinese public.
To make this exhibition different from the previous shows in Beijing and Chongqing, Chengdu Museum highlighted the fate of the artifacts and expressed its confidence in Afghanistan to walk away from war and chaos.
Now, more Chinese museums have joined the effort to protect the Afghan pieces. According to the plan, the items will be sent to Zhengzhou in central China, Shenzhen in southern China, and Hunan province in central China for exhibitions lasting until December.
Rahimi said Afghanistan still faced challenges to protect cultural relics, such as a lack of money, low level of technology and scientific research, and severe shortage of professional equipment and talent, which restricted the restoration process.
He hoped that China and other countries would continue to help the Afghan people take care of the treasures.
Many Chinese institutions, such as Art Exhibitions China, are currently looking for willing cultural and exhibition organizations to offer shelter to the antiques. Even though hosting such exhibitions costs them money, they would prefer not to send the relics back to Afghanistan.
Liu Yuzhu, head of China’s State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said efforts were underway to construct the first international cultural relics shelter in China. He encouraged more state-level museums and cultural relics protection organizations to actively take part in the efforts and shoulder their international responsibilities.
Pakistan condemns use of force against Palestinians
ISLAMABAD, May 15 (APP):Pakistan Tuesday strongly condemned the merciless killings and injuries of innocent unarmed Palestinian civilian protesters by the occupying authorities.
According to the foreign office statement here, the protests were a consequence of the relocation of the United States Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in opposition to the position of the United Nations and under international law.
Pakistan calls on the United Nations and the international community to investigate and bring to end the use of force, which has resulted in causalities of innocent Palestinian civilians, including women, children and the elderly.
Pakistan also renews its call for establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine, on the basis of internationally agreed parameters, the pre-1967 borders, and with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Shashank Manohar elected unopposed to serve second term as ICC Chairman
ISLAMABAD, May 15 (APP):Shashank Manohar will serve a second term as the independent Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) after he was the sole nominee put forward by the ICC Board.
Manohar, who became the first independent ICC Chairman in 2016, will continue for a second two-year term following his unopposed election, said a press release issued here on Tuesday.
During the last two years, Manohar has led significant reform of the sport, reversing the resolutions of 2014, introducing a revised governance structure, including the appointment of the ICC’s first independent female Director and the development of international cricket structures that bring context to the global game and provide more opportunities for more Members to compete.
Commenting on his re-appointment Manohar said it is an honour to be re-elected as ICC Chairman. “Over the next two years we can look forward to launching a global strategy for the sport in partnership with our Members so we can grow the game and ensure more of the world can enjoy cricket,” he said.
According to the election process, ICC Directors were each allowed to nominate one candidate, who had to be either a present or a past ICC Director. Nominees with the support of two or more Directors would have been eligible to contest an election. However, given that Manohar was the sole nominee for the position, the independent Audit Committee Chairman, Edward Quinlan, who has been overseeing the election process, has declared the process complete, and Manohar the successful candidate.
Pakistan IT industry advancing at fact pace
ISLAMABAD, May 15 (APP):Accelerated growth of IT, ITEs export increased by 150% during last five years (FY 2013-14 to FY 2017-18) at compound annual growth (CAGR) of 20% as compare to CAGR of 14.7 % during the period of previous government.
An official of ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication told APP here on Tuesday that total IT and ITEs export stood at 3.8 billion dollars including ½ billion earned by free lancers.
He said, Ministry of Information Technology and its departments were steadfastly committed to provide enabling environment for the industry and boosting exports of the country.
According to official data Pakistan’s IT industry has exhibited positive growth trends for the last 5 years with 150% growth in export earnings.
During 2016-17, Pakistan’s IT exports were $3.3 billion, which have jumped to $5 billion and are expected to grow to $6 billion next years.
Pakistan’s IT industry is growing at a fast pace across different categories.
Enterprise software has grown by 17%, marketing tech 15%, financial services 13%, consumer goods 9%, retail/e-commerce 8%, professional services 8%, internet of things/hardware 7%, health care 4%, media 4% and non-profit 3%.
Facebook, Amazon and other giants of IT sector are anticipating something huge in the start-up world of Pakistan as evidenced by the huge number of sponsors.
Pakistan government has also started promoting start-ups, for example, it has given three-year exemption from taxes to the start-ups and set up national incubation centres in Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar ,Karachi and Quetta.
Department working under IT&telecom ministry, Pakistan Software Export Board has selected 30 IT professionals and 28 IT companies and given certifications in Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) platform.
Moreover, 134 IT companies got certifications in ISO 9001, ISO 20001 and ISO 27001 helping them to generate IT exports from developed countries.
Managing director of PSEB told the directors in their previous meeting that PSEB has achieved significant milestones in IT promotion over the last four years.
PSEB participated in 11 international trade fairs along with 65 IT companies. He told the boards that Pakistani companies were able to generate more than 2 thousand leads with the help of those events, he added.
He said, Trade fairs and exhibitions had promoted Pakistan as a viable destination for outsourcing, Pakistan’s exports increased due to PSEB efforts of organizing participation in International expos along with IT companies.
The official said PSEB in partnership with National ICT R&D Fund (IGNITE) had placed 1700 plus IT graduates as interns in various IT companies and banks and more than 60 percent of interns had a job offer from their respective companies.
Later in another meeting, Minister of IT Anusha Rehman, approved “DigiSkills” programme to provide training to 1 million youth to streamline excellence in technology, innovation, and professionalism, focusing on building a workforce for future driven by 4th Industrial revolution.
Pakistan 52-3, chasing 160 to win Ireland Test
Dublin, May 15 (AFP/APP):Pakistan were 52 for three, needing a further 108 runs to reach their victory target of 160, at lunch on the fifth day of their one-off Test against Ireland at Malahide on Tuesday.
Ireland, made to follow on, scented a dramatic victory in their debut men’s Test as they reduced Pakistan to 14 for three inside five overs.
But Imam-ul-Haq, like the whole Ireland team also making his Test debut, led a Pakistan recovery although the match was still very much in the balance.
At lunch the left-handed opener, the nephew of Pakistan selection chief and former Test batsman Inzamam-ul-Haq, was 33 not out, with Babar Azam unbeaten on nine.
Capital witnesses mammoth crowd of autos,population ,traffic,
By Ali Jabber
ISLAMABAD, May 15 (APP):An APP Feature The picturesque city of Islamabad started receiving inhabitants from different parts of country till the recent years when it faced the biggest transition of its fate. The capital that was once a jungle turned into a strategically planned and designed dwelling of its inhabitants that brought a mammoth crowd of automobiles with ever increasing population and traffic.
In the beginning, there were very limited number of vehicles on the wide long roads and avenues of the capital but with every passing decade its expansion made huge impact on the environment and traffic of the twin cities. The number of automobiles increased to multiple times and today the number is beyond imagination.
An Islamabad Traffic Police Official told APP that it was quite disappointing to know that a chunk of drivers on the capital’s avenues were unable to discriminate between line and lane including working, business and student class. He said that most of the traffic incidents have been witnessed on the roads during lane-switching by fast moving cars, bike riders and mostly they are unable to adjust their lanes accordingly. “Why is it necessary to know about line and lane…. We just had to drive a car or ride a motorbike,” he amusingly quoted a driver making argument after being fined for over speeding and careless driving. He said the traffic police conduct teaching lectures in all schools, colleges and universities although it helps a lot to educate the youth regarding traffic rules and important traffic signs yet it appears all in vain. He believed that traffic police alone could not be held responsible to control traffic situation in the capital, they were contributing on their part, rather the society should also play its role as they constitute the road traffic and their efforts could bring positive results.
Najma Shan, a school teacher said, “People have forgotten patience and respect for others and do not follow right of way, even nobody bothers to give way to an ambulance carrying a serious patient to hospital”. She said that it was high time for everybody to train ourselves and there is no harm to learn about traffic rules and best driving techniques.
The next most troublesome thing was completely choked roads and junctions in the peak hours of the twin cities. Astonishingly the situation was deteriorating as both the cities were proliferating with business centers and educational institutes.
Mohammad Naqash a university student who travels on his car to reach university said, “the drivers particularly youngsters like me should drive responsibly while reaching their destinations, adding many young boys riding motorbikes haphazardly over take fast moving cars and switch lanes that bars car drivers to avoid any collision with them which at times becomes impossible in such maneuverings.
Arsala Karim, a motorbike rider said female students and entrepreneurs need to drive to move around in the city. She lamented the poor behavior of irritating car drivers and bike riders who did not follow their lanes properly and randomly shift into other lanes that causes road accidents. She also said that women drivers should be encouraged by the society. She believed that an experienced mentor and a responsible driver could teach unprofessional drivers about safe and smooth driving without getting into any accident.