Turkish, US officials discuss security plans for Kabul airport

Turkish and US military officials met in Ankara on Thursday to discuss plans for Turkish troops to continue securing Kabul’s airport after the withdrawal of US and other Nato troops from Afghanistan.

Turkey, Nato’s only majority-Muslim member, has offered to protect and run the Hamid Karzai airport. the main gateway into Afghanistan after the alliance pulls out of the country.

Turkey, which has around 500 non-combat troops in Afghanistan, is however, seeking US and other allies support for the mission.

Last week, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after a meeting with US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of a Nato summit that Turkey was looking for diplomatic, logistic and financial assistance from the United States to protect and operate the airport. Turkey also wanted Pakistan and Hungary to be involved in the mission, he said.

Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said a technical delegation from the United States had arrived for talks.

“We will continue to take on the responsibility of operating the Hamid Karzai international airport, which we have been doing for the past six years, if the necessary conditions are met,” Akar said.

Discussions on this matter are continuing. No decisions have been reached for now.

Akar said: We want to achieve the best result for the interests of our country and for those of Afghanistan. Thats what we are working for. Our aim is to continue working for the security, peace and welfare of our Afghan brothers.

Critics see Turkeys offer to operate the airport as being part of an effort by Erdogan’s government to mend ties with the United States which have deteriorated over an array of disagreements.

Those have centred on Turkey’s purchase of Russian weapons and US support to Syrian Kurdish fighters which Ankara says are linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey. They question the safety of the Turkish non-combat forces there.

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Many die, 100 go missing as 12-storey building collapses in Florida

A 12-storey oceanfront apartment block in Florida partially collapsed on Thursday, killing an unspecified number of residents and leaving almost 100 unaccounted for as teams of rescuers combed the rubble for possible victims.

Video footage posted online showed a large portion of the building in the town of Surfside — just north of Miami Beach — reduced to rubble, with the apartments’ interiors exposed.

It was unclear what caused the building to collapse, nor how many people were inside at the time, since it was occupied by a mix of full-time and seasonal residents and renters.

“It’s hard to get a count on it,” a local official told CNN. “It is 51 people who were supposedly, supposedly, residing there at the time (and) have not either called out or had people call in to reach them.

“But you don’t know between vacations or anything else. So we’re still waiting. And unfortunately, the hope is still there, but it’s waning,” she said.

Around 55 apartments were affected by the collapse, according to Miami-Dade fire rescue official Ray Jadallah. He told a news conference that emergency services arrived at the scene at around 1.30am and evacuated 35 people from the building.

Some residents were able to walk down the stairs to safety while others had to be rescued from their balconies.

Surfside mayor Charles Burkett said 14 survivors had been recovered from the rubble. The search phase of operations concluded by sundown and the focus shifted to recovery of possible victims amid the rubble, in a massive operation assisted by drones and dogs and involving both police and firefighter units.

“Apparently when the building came down it pancaked, so there’s just not a lot of voids that they’re finding or seeing from the outside,” mayor Burkett said on an NBC show.

Surfside’s town manager Andrew Hyatt told the news conference that search operations could last a week.

Four Argentinians — three adults and a six-year-old girl — were among those unaccounted for, according to the country’s foreign ministry.

Like ‘a bomb went off’

Surfside’s mayor said the reasons for the collapse were still unclear.

“It looks like a bomb went off, but we’re pretty sure a bomb didn’t go off, so it’s something else,” Burkett said.

Miami resident Nicolas Fernandez, 29, said he has yet to hear from friends who were staying overnight in a unit that his family owns in the building.

“The one day that they decided to stay there overnight is the one day that this happened,” he said.

Fernandez said that when his mother called him in the early hours to say the building had collapsed, he thought it was a joke — and hung up.

“She calls me again and tells me: `Nico, you know I would never joke about this. I need you to go over there.’ We came running.”

One witness, 25-year-old Julian Targowski, described the sound of the collapse.

“It was like a very bass-y, like boom boom, boom boom, that kind of thing,” he told a television channel.

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Sindh Assembly approves budget 2021-21 amid opposition protest

Sindh Assembly on Friday approved the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2020-21, amid ruckus from the opposition benches.

The house met with Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair. The opposition members were asked for speeches by the speaker, but they denied and started raising slogans in the house.

The opposition parties’ lawmakers surrounded the speaker’s rostrum and pasted banners with various slogans.

The behaviour of opposition parties compelled Speaker Durrani to suspend all the speeches and gave the floor to CM Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah.

After the concluding speech of the chief minister, the Sindh assembly approved the budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 during the hue and cry of the opposition.

Later, the house was adjourned till Monday.

Sindh budget 2021-22

On June 15, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Minister, had presented the budget of the province for the next fiscal year 2021-22.

The total outlay of the budget for the province is estimated at Rs1.477 trillion, witnessing an increase of 19.1 percent from the previous year.

The total receipts of the province for Financial Year 2021-22 are estimated at Rs.1.452 trillion as against a budget estimate of Rs.1.22 trillion for CFY, showing an overall increase of 19 percent.

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Sindh Assembly approves budget 2021-21 amid opposition protest

Sindh Assembly on Friday approved the provincial budget for the fiscal year 2020-21, amid ruckus from the opposition benches.

The house met with Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani in the chair. The opposition members were asked for speeches by the speaker, but they denied and started raising slogans in the house.

The opposition parties’ lawmakers surrounded the speaker’s rostrum and pasted banners with various slogans.

The behaviour of opposition parties compelled Speaker Durrani to suspend all the speeches and gave the floor to CM Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah.

After the concluding speech of the chief minister, the Sindh assembly approved the budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 during the hue and cry of the opposition.

Later, the house was adjourned till Monday.

Sindh budget 2021-22

On June 15, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Minister, had presented the budget of the province for the next fiscal year 2021-22.

The total outlay of the budget for the province is estimated at Rs1.477 trillion, witnessing an increase of 19.1 percent from the previous year.

The total receipts of the province for Financial Year 2021-22 are estimated at Rs.1.452 trillion as against a budget estimate of Rs.1.22 trillion for CFY, showing an overall increase of 19 percent.

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Terrorists attack FC vehicle in Balochistan's Sibi, five soldiers martyred: ISPR

Five Frontier Corps soldiers have been martyred in an attack by terrorists in Sibi, Balochistan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military's media wing, confirmed in a statement on Friday.

The terrorists targeted an FC patrol party in Sangan, District Sibi.

During an exchange of fire, heavy losses were inflicted on to the terrorists in men and materials, the ISPR statement said.

The martyred soldiers were: havildar Zafar Ali Khan, a resident of Lakki Marvat, lance naik Hidayatullah, a resident of Lakki Marvat, lance naik Nasir Abbas, a resident of Bhakkar, lance naik Basheer Ahmed, a resident of Naseerabad and sepoy Noor Ullah, a resident of Lakki Marvat.

A sanitization and search operation is in progress to "block the escape routes of the terrorists and apprehend the perpetrators", the ISPR said.

"Such cowardly acts by inimical elements, backed by hostile intelligence agencies, cannot sabotage the hard earned peace and prosperity in Balochistan," the ISPR statement read, adding that security forces were determined to neutralise their nefarious designs even at the cost of blood and lives.

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Underdogs Multan Sultans thrash Peshawar Zalmi to win maiden PSL title

Multan Sultans triumphed over Peshawar Zalmi in the final to win their maiden Pakistan Super League (PSL) title in a see-saw kind of game at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.

At the start of the innings, Zalmi, who were chasing a target of 207, made a blistering start courtesy Kamran Akmal's 36.

Zalmi needed a herculean effort by their batsmen to chase the record-breaking target in the PSL final and Akmal gave hope to his team till the fifth over.

Zalmi were 36 for the loss of no wickets at that point and all those runs were scored by the veteran wicketkeeper.

Hazratullah Zazai, the other opener, was looking to join the party when he hit Blessing Muzarabani for a six from the first ball of the sixth over. However, in the very next ball, Zazai was removed by the Zimbabwean to give the Sultans their first wicket.

Imran Khan then bowled a wicket-taking maiden sixth over to put Zalmi further under pressure. The bowler in the over removed the dangerous Akmal from the very first delivery.

Then Rilee Rossouw, who had started with the bat for Multan, removed Jonathan Wells with a run out during the 10th over to tilt the final in the Sultans' favour.

In the 11th over, Imran Khan removed Shoaib Malik but the decision was overturned after replays showed that the pacer had overstepped.

The mistake proved to be too costly for the Sultans as Malik then made the side pay for their mistake.

West Indian Rovman Powell was giving good company to Malik but he was removed by Muzarabani during the 15th over.

All the while the Sultans knew that Malik was key for them if they wanted to lay their hands on their first PSL trophy.

And it was the experienced Sohail Tanvir who removed the veteran all-rounder from the first ball of the 16th over. But Malik had taken his side far enough to make Zalmi dream of victory at that point. They needed 70 runs from the last 29 balls at the time.

After Malik's dismissal, Sherfane Rutherford decided to charge at the Multan bowlers.

Once again, it was experience that really counted in the situation.

Imran Tahir, during the 17th over, removed the dangerous Rutherford, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Imran to end the little hope that Zalmi had of clinching their second PSL title.

In the next over, Imran Khan took Zalmi's ninth wicket to take his side closer to the finish line.

Getting 56 runs in the last 16 balls proved too much for the last two Zalmi batsmen.

The Sultans triumphed over Zalmi by 48 runs to win their first PSL title.

Multan Sultans' innings

Earlier, a 98-run partnership between Sohaib Maqsood and Rilee Rossouw powered the Sultans to 206-4 after their team was asked to bat first by Zalmi.

The first over of the final was bowled by Sameen Gul and it could have been a maiden had he not bowled a wide off his first ball.

The first boundary was hit by Mohammad Rizwan against Mohammad Irfan in the second over. The Sultans' captain was also the one to hit the first six of the final.

The openers, Rizwan and Shan Masood, were struggling to take off against the Irfan-Sameen duo till the third over of the match. It was in the fourth over that the openers found some flow and started finding boundaries easily.

However, it was youngster Mohammad Imran who stepped in for his team and removed Masood and Rizwan in the 9th and 11th over. Masood departed after making 30 while Rizwan was removed for 30.

The dismissals would have given hope to Zalmi that their bowlers would stop the flow of runs and take more wickets to put the pressure back on the Sultans.

However, Sohaib Maqsood and Rilee Rossouw did not give any space for the Zalmi bowlers to capitalise on the two quick wickets.

The duo built a partnership of 98 runs and by the time Rossouw was dismissed in the 18th over, the Sultans had crossed 180 runs. The South African was dismissed by Gul shortly after completing his half-century.

On the very next ball, Gul removed Johnson Charles for a duck to putthe Sultans four down.

In the last over, Maqsood and Khudhil Shah hit Ammad Butt for 21 runs to take the Sultans to 206 for four.

Maqsood ended the innings as the Sultans' highest run-scorer with an unbeaten 65.

Playing XI

Multan Sultans: Shan Masood, Mohammad Rizwan (c & wk), Sohaib Maqsood, Rilee Roussouw, Johnson Charles, Khushdil Shah, Sohail Tanvir, Imran Tahir, Blessing Muzarabani, Imran Khan, Shahnawaz Dahani

Peshawar Zalmi: Hazratullah Zazai, Kamran Akmal (wk), Jonathan Wells, Shoaib Malik, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Amad Butt, Wahab Riaz (c), Sameen Gul, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Imran

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Terrorists attack FC vehicle in Balochistan's Sibi, five soldiers martyred: ISPR

Five Frontier Corps soldiers have been martyred in an attack by terrorists in Sibi, Balochistan, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military's media wing, confirmed in a statement on Friday.

The terrorists targeted an FC patrol party in Sangan, District Sibi.

During an exchange of fire, heavy losses were inflicted on to the terrorists in men and materials, the ISPR statement said.

The martyred soldiers were: havildar Zafar Ali Khan, a resident of Lakki Marvat, lance naik Hidayatullah, a resident of Lakki Marvat, lance naik Nasir Abbas, a resident of Bhakkar, lance naik Basheer Ahmed, a resident of Naseerabad and sepoy Noor Ullah, a resident of Lakki Marvat.

A sanitization and search operation is in progress to "block the escape routes of the terrorists and apprehend the perpetrators", the ISPR said.

"Such cowardly acts by inimical elements, backed by hostile intelligence agencies, cannot sabotage the hard earned peace and prosperity in Balochistan," the ISPR statement read, adding that security forces were determined to neutralise their nefarious designs even at the cost of blood and lives.

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