ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):The fourth round of Bilateral Political Consultations (BPC) between Pakistan and Tajikistan was held here on Thursday, where the two sides reviewed their bilateral relations and examined the prospects of cooperation in areas of trade, economy, investment, culture, education, science & technology, defence, parliamentary exchanges, humanitarian issues and people-to-people contacts.
According to foreign office statement here, Pakistan delegation was headed by the Special Secretary (ME, ECO & CARs), Aitzaz Ahmed while the Tajik delegation was led by the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Nizomiddin Zohidi.
Both sides expressed satisfaction at the close fraternal relations and progress made thus far.
It was agreed to further consolidate the bilateral relations in all areas of mutual importance.
The sides expressed satisfaction at their ongoing collaboration at the UN, ECO, SCO and OIC.
The two sides discussed the evolving peace and security situation in the region.
The Special Secretary briefed the Tajik side on Pakistan’s efforts aimed at promoting peace and security in the region, Pakistan-India relations and human rights violations in the Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The Tajik Deputy Foreign Minister also called on the Foreign Secretary and exchanged views on mutual interest. He also delivered a lecture at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI).
It was decided to hold the fifth round of consultations in Dushanbe in 2019, it added.

ISLAMABAD, April 26 (APP):Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice Thursday conducted a detail review of The Federal Judicial Academy (Amendment Bill, 2018), The Limitation Relating to Civil Revisions Bill, 2018 and The Code of Civil Procedure (Amendment Bill, 2018).
The committee met here at Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi, chairman of the committee.
The meeting was also attended by Senator Sirajul Haq, Senator Sana Jamali, Secretary Law and Justice, Secretary Law and Justice Commission, Senior Advisors of Law and Justice and others officials.
The committee also discussed The Federal Ombudsman Institutional Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and The Specific Relief Amendment Bill, 2018.
The committee would make further deliberation on the Bills and consider. The senior officials of ministry briefed the committee about the establishment of Alternate Dispute Resolution Centres under the Alternate Dispute Resolution Act, 2017.
The committee was also briefed regarding the Access to Justice Programme. The officials also briefed the committee regarding the working and performance of the judicial system of the country towards speedy and inexpensive justice, particularly at the level of District and Session Courts.

PESHAWAR, Apr 26 (APP):Advisor to Prime Minister and Provincial President PMLN, Engr. Ameer Muqam Thursday said that our opponents have lost their credibility and PMLN would emerge victorious by sweeping polls in next elections.
Addressing a public gathering at Maanga Dargai, Charssada, he said that those who are trying to impede ongoing process of development in the country would lost their case before public.
He said that people are fully capable to differentiate right from wrong adding that they would vote PMLN into power owing to its accomplishments and record development work.
He said that PMLN would not ignore the aspirations and wishes of people after coming into power.
Muqam alleged that PTI Chief Imran Khan deemed politics as a part time job and always ignored problems of people and priorities of the country.
He said that we would continue the vision of Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to bring prosperity and development in the country.
Provincial Deputy General Secretary PMLN Ikhtiar Wali and former Provincial Minister Ehsanullah Khan also address the public meeting.

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP): Minister for Interior, Ahsan Iqbal on Thursday said creativity and innovation were fundamental
drivers of progress and no country could afford to ignore them to achieve the goals.
Addressing the ground breaking ceremony of Centre for
Mathematical Sciences (CMS) here at Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS), he said this was a century of innovations and only those nations were progressing well who had equipped themselves with knowledge and technology.
The PIEAS, being run under aegis of Pakistan Atomic Energy
Commission (PAEC) took this initiative towards vision of fulfilling
regional mathematical and computational needs.
Ahsan Iqbal, who is also Minister for Planning Development
and Reforms said, standards of development had changed and now the development of a country depended upon a few things.
“We need to enhance our production capacity and improve our
standard continuously. We need to introduce knowledge and
information revolution in the country and introduce innovations in
all sectors,” he said.
The Minister said Pakistan had huge potential to get place
among top economies of the world for which “We need to conduct
research on modern ground,” adding that the government had already started projects to establish centres of excellence for artificial intelligence, cyber security, big data, cloud computing and robots.
He said digital Pakistan was aimed at equipping the young
generation with modern technology to ensure its effective usage.
“We must put Pakistan on road to prosperity with help of
all areas and segments of the country,” however, it is only possible
when we have competitiveness, stability and continuity in policies.
The Minister said for providing better opportunities to the
youth, the government had increased development budget of the HEC from Rs. 22 billion in 2016-17 to Rs. 35 billion in 2017-18 and
now to Rs. 47 billion. “We plan to take budget of HEC to Rs.
100 billion,” he added.
Ahsan Iqbal said present government has laid foundation of
knowledge economy in the country. The basic of literacy, he said
is computer literacy which would transform entire system based on
modern technology.
He said the Centre was his own brainchild and added
that he was proud to lay foundation of fulfillment of another dream
as mathematics should be our national priority.
He hoped that the Centre would be completed in eighteen
months’ time and would start providing positive synergy required
to beat the gravitational forces hindering the progress of the
country.
Ahsan Iqbal stressed the need of promoting inquisitiveness
in students and suggested that the Centre to be named after
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, the great Muslim mathematician.
He said many other countries expressed their interest in
becoming part of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is
a sign of great change.
In his address, Chairman PAEC, Muhammad Naeem thanked the
Minister and the incumbent government for their continued support
for PIEAS as well as other establishments of PAEC.
He appreciated the contribution of Prof. Ahsan Iqbal in promoting culture of R&D in the country
and termed him as knowledge-friendly person.
Prof. Dr. Nasir Majid Mirza, Rector PIEAS, in his welcome
speech, highlighted need for establishment of CMS and identified
its significance towards macro growth of the country.
He elaborated the strategy for encouraging the students to
collaborate with researchers within the campus and beyond for
building strong ties with the industry that forms the very basis
for ideology behind the CMS.
He emphasized that it would be a great place for students having
interest in Mathematics and its role in the growing research fields such
as Advanced Design, Fluid Structural Analysis, Biology, Medicine, Surface Physics, Social Sciences,
Business, Climate, Finance, Advanced Materials and many other areas of research would be phenomenal.
Executive Director HEC, Prof. Dr. Arshad Ali also shared his views
and emphasized need for promotion of constructive sciences, which lead
to welfare of mankind.
It merits mentioned here that the CMS includes establishment
of a state-of-the-art high performance computing facility which will
enable scientists and engineers from all over Pakistan to carry out
high quality research in their respective fields.
Additionally, proposals for development of high-tech experimental
R&D laboratories related to applied mathematical sciences and computations
are also part of the plan. These services will not only be available
to students and researchers of PIEAS but also to other universities
as well as R&D organizations in public and private sector.
The technical parameters of CMS establishment project aim to
stimulate research, collaboration, and networking in and around
field of Mathematics, to sustain important research directions and
to promote interdisciplinary research.
PIEAS is currently producing quality trained scientists and
engineers to meet requirements of vital national organizations. The
target of producing highly trained applied scientists possessing
expertise in mathematical sciences for national industrial and
strategic needs is expected to be achieved in 8-10 years.
The Centre is expected to develop its own Researcher Exchange
Program and to organize “National Mathematical Sciences Olympiad” on
pattern of International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).
On this occasion, Prof. Dr. Shahid Qamar, a faculty member at
Department of Physics and Applied Mathematics at PIEAS gave a
presentation on the CMS.

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):Quaid Pakistan Muslim League (N) Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Thursday said his party will diligently pursue peoples’ mandate and the movement for respect of vote would continue to ensure its due dignity,
and make the country move ahead on the road to progress and prosperity.
Speaking during a meeting with party leaders from the Rawalpindi Division here, he said, there was no case of embezzlement, corruption and kickback against him. “I don’t know why I am on trial in NAB cases.”
He said nothing was done by NAB in corruption cases of
National Logistic Cell (NLC), National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) and Hajj scam. No action was taken against those who did corruption of billions of rupees, he added.
He said now NAB had come up with another case against him charging that he widened the Raiwind road by four feet from 20 to 24 feet.
He said NAB only could take up cases of corruption but the case against the Sharif family revolved around its personal business since 1974, when he was not a prime minister, chief minister or a minister. After the war of 1971, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto nationalized the steel mills unit and did not give the Sharif family a penny for the business started by them in 1937, adding after this, his father decided to set up steel factory in Dubai.
He reminded that no prime minister in Pakistan could complete his tenure while in India every prime minister did so.
“We should look for reasons because of which the prime ministers were sent to exile, hanged and put in jail. All these actions were only taken against the elected leaders and the politicians and this was continuing for the last 70 years. Whenever the country was put on the path of progress, hurdles were put up in the way of elected governments.”
“I was sent to exile for seven years and spent 14 months in jail in Attock fort. After that I thought the matter will end and the injustice and violation of constitution and law will end but unfortunately it did not happen. Then with the grace of Allah and with the support of people, I became prime minister for the third time. I know that people of Pakistan have great love for me,” he continued.
Nawaz Sharif said there was always speculation when he went abroad. “I applied for exemption to go to London to see my ailing wife then I returned and all the speculation died.”
He said he had no personal interest and he was raising his voice for the people of Pakistan, adding it was the responsibility of the political leaders to stand up for the rights of 220 million people of Pakistan.
Giving details of the infrastructure and development projects started by his government, he said CPEC was launched and projects including Neelum Jhelum hydro project, Tarbela 4 extension project, Nandipur power projects were completed and energy shortages were ended to a large extent, adding his government restored peace to Karachi.
The latest project will be new Islamabad airport which will be inaugurated on May 4.
“In 1985, I laid foundation for development projects by constructing the Murree Expressway. Later on, we developed infrastructure in Punjab and built a six-lane motorway.”
He told that Pakistan’s economy grew to 5.3 percent in 2017 and now will grow to about 5.9 percent, a reflection of his government’s performance on the front of economy.
He further said there was a time when all the leading foreign airlines landed in Pakistan but now just few come to Pakistan. “More foreigners should come to Pakistan and we should find reasons why the world turned away from us. We fought the war against terrorism and our army jawans, police, citizens and even children gave sacrifices but despite these sacrifices the world is not listening to us. We should seriously look into the causes that lead to such a situation.”
Nawaz Sharif said after he was ousted from power, in just three months, there was a freefall in the stock exchange which dropped from 54000 points to 37,000 points.
He said those who left the party never belonged to PMLN and those persons were seasonal birds who flew away as the elections approached.

ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP):National Security Adviser, Lt. Gen (Retd) Nasser Khan Janjua on Thursday reiterated Pakistan’s
resolve to find solutions to conflicts through dialogue and in line with United Nations (UN) resolutions.
The Advisor, who reached Sochi, was addressing IX International Meeting of High-Level Officials Responsible for Security Matters (April 24-26, 2018).
During his speech on “Flashpoints of International Instability: from Conflict to Dialogue,” the Adviser highlighted that strategic security paradigm of world is evolving and undergoing a fast shift, said a message received here from Sochi.
He said Pakistan continues to follow a policy of non-interference in internal affairs of other countries and refrains from fighting others’ wars and is purely focused on economic revival and social development.
Pakistan also pursues a policy of friendly neighbourhood and believes in resolution of disputes through dialogue and UN
resolutions.
Nasser Janjua also held high-level inter-ministerial talks with Secretary of Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev in Moscow.
Highlighting the flashpoints, he questioned the Forum that can anyone work out price Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Yemen have paid and continue to pay for war inflicted upon them.
He categorically pointed out “Whether someone can see what is happening to innocent Kashmiris, Palestinians and Rohingya Muslims and whether someone can hear cries of Kashmiris or are they just falling on numb and dumb conscience of world.”
The world of today is locked in a cycle of escalation and provocation and is only sub-servient to its self-interests, he added.
Elaborating upon Pakistan’s contributions to ensure global
peace and security, he counted upon successes achieved by
Pakistan, its Armed Forces, Law Enforcement Agencies and people.
He also highlighted sacrifices made by the country.
On sidelines of the event, National Security Adviser
held bilateral meetings with National Security Adviser of
Afghanistan, Hanif Atmar, Secretary of the Central Political and
Legal Affairs Commission of Communist Party of China,
Guo Shengkun, National Security Adviser of Egypt Ms. Faiza
Abou el-Naga, Secretary of Supreme National Security Council of
Iran, Ali Shamkhani and Secretary of Security Council of
Kazakhstan, Nurlan Yermekbayev.
A special luncheon was hosted by Secretary of Security
Council of the Russian Federation for delegations of SCO member
states which was also attended by Nasser Janjua.
An exclusive breakfast meeting, arranged by Secretary
Patrushev on Thursday was attended by Secretary of Supreme
National Security Council of Iran, Ali Shamkhani and National
Security Adviser of Pakistan.
The International Meeting of High-Level Officials Responsible
for Security Matters was attended by delegations from 118 countries
and representatives of the United Nations.
Foreign Minister of Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov
also delivered his keynote address at the meeting.