Facebook ordered to release anti-Rohingya posts for genocide case

A US judge has ordered Facebook to release posts the social network removed over their role in inciting government-backed violence against the Rohingya people in Myanmar.

In his ruling on Wednesday, Washington DC district court Judge Zia Faruqui criticised the company for refusing to provide the records to countries pursuing a case against Myanmar in the International Court of Justice. Facebook had resisted releasing the content on the grounds of US privacy law.

But the judge ruled that the deleted posts would not be covered under the protections for users’ personal communications.

“Locking away the requested content would be throwing away the opportunity to understand how disinformation begat genocide,” Faruqui wrote in his ruling, saying Facebook “taking up the mantle of privacy rights is rich with irony.” Facebook has been accused of being slow to respond to abusive posts portraying Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims in sub-human terms, helping to drum up support for a military crackdown that forced more than 740,000 members of the persecuted minority to flee the country in 2017.

In August 2018, United Nations investigators called for an international probe and prosecution of Myanmar’s army chief and five other top military commanders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. On the same day, Facebook banned the top generals from its platform. The Gambia has taken majority-Buddhist Myanmar to the UN’s top court in The Hague, accusing it of breaching the 1948 UN genocide convention.

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OIC calls upon world to note compelling evidence in Pakistan dossier of India's heinous crimes

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday called upon the international community to "take immediate cognisance of the compelling evidence" contained in a dossier issued by Pakistan on September 12 against India's heinous crimes in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The foreign ministers of the contact group met on the sidelines of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly in New York today.

They called upon the world powers to "hold India accountable" for the crimes committed by Indian occupation forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

According to a joint communique released after the meeting, the session was chaired by the Secretary General of the OIC.

A report was shared by the secretary general and the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC), besides a briefing given by Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi, as well as foreign ministers of other states and representatives of the Kashmiri people.

Earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in his address to the contact group during a breakfast meeting, called for a "just" and "equitable" resolution to the Kashmir dispute for peace in South Asia.

The foreign minister underscored the need for the international community to be "very clear on Indian transgressions and hold India accountable".

"Since August 5, 2019, over eight million Kashmiris continue to face lockdown, military siege, arbitrary detentions and unprecedented restrictions," said Qureshi.

"Indian occupation forces are committing unspeakable atrocities to silence the voice of the Kashmiris and break their will to resist occupation," he added.

The foreign minister said the most recent example was treatment of mortal remains of Geelani, when a contingent of India’s occupation forces "entered his family home and snatched his body, denied him last rites and buried him in a nondescript place".

"There can be no peace in South Asia until the just and equitable resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute," he stressed.

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Pakistan welcomes Afghan cabinet expansion as ‘positive step’

Pakistan on Thursday welcomed the expansion in the Afghan cabinet as a “positive step” and called for more such actions by the Taliban for stability in the war-ravaged country.

“We have taken note of the expansion in the interim cabinet with representation of different ethnic and political groups. This is a positive direction, and we hope they continue to take steps leading to lasting stability in the country,” Foreign Office spokesman Asim Iftikhar said at the weekly media briefing.

The Taliban had earlier in the week expanded the interim cabinet by naming a number of deputy ministers, some of whom belong to ethnic minorities like Hazaras. Most of the newly-inducted deputy ministers are, however, hardliners. Moreover, no woman was included in the cabinet yet again.

The international community has been unrelenting in its demand for an inclusive government in Afghanistan and has linked recognition of the new set-up to the fulfilment of the demand.

International development assistance has been stopped in the absence of recognition for the Taliban government. Afghanistan has traditionally heavily relied on foreign assistance. Therefore, discontinuation of the assistance has raised fears of an economic collapse.

The FO spokesman recalled that Pakistan continued to urge the international community on the imperative of constructive engagement and timely mobilisation of humanitarian assistance to avert a humanitarian and economic crisis in Afghanistan.

“Ensuring peace and stability in Afghanistan is a shared responsibility of the international community,” he underscored.

Mr Iftikhar said that Pakistan continued to engage with the interim authorities.

He also recalled that special representatives of China, Russia and Pakistan visited Kabul for meeting the Taliban leadership and other leading Afghan figures. The trip, he said, highlighted the importance of coordination among the regional stakeholders to promote the shared objectives of a peaceful, stable, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan.

He emphasised the need for continued coordination among the regional countries.

“It is all about coordination and consultation. The regional countries have shared concerns and interests vis-a-vis the developments in Afghanistan,” he stressed, adding that Pakistan would continue engagement and consultations with the international community, particularly the regional countries.

Commenting on the US silence on the Modi government’s atrocities in Occupied Kashmir and against religious minorities in India, the spokesman denounced it as Washington’s “double speak” and “double standards” on human rights.

“We have consistently maintained that human rights have to be respected and upheld universally, without any distinction or political motives,” Mr Iftikhar maintained.

President Biden had at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly said: “We all must call out and condemn the targeting and oppression of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities when it occurs in — whether it occurs in Xinjiang or northern Ethiopia or anywhere in the world.”

However, the US president avoided explicitly mentioning human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir that have been documented and reported by the United Nations and other international organisations. Neither did he speak about oppression of religious minorities in India.

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Pakistan, China agree not to alter tariff on power deals

Pakistan and China on Thursday agreed to keep unchanged the tariff and tax policies relating to power sector contracts and arrest and prosecute the attackers of July 14 Dasu bus tragedy at the earliest.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Joint Coordination Committee (JCC) of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). However, it could not finalise arrangements for over $6 billion Mainline Railway Track (ML-1) and a framework agreement on industrial cooperation pending for a long time.

The Chinese has been agitating build-up of power sector dues going beyond $1.4bn (about Rs230bn), creation of a revolving fund for automatic payments and an increase in withholding tax rates after the agreements were signed.

Pakistan has been seeking changes in tariff structure for independent power producers to reduce financial burden in line with tariff discounts secured from other IPPs to address the circular debt pressure.

Speaking at a news conference after the much-delayed JCC meeting, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, who co-chaired it, said the two sides had agreed to the need and importance of enhanced security not only for CPEC projects but also Chinese labourers working in Pakistan, following the Dasu incident. Both sides agreed to “arrest those guilty of heinous crime and get them sentenced by courts at the earliest”.

The JCC, which is required to meet twice a year, had not met since November 2019. Its earlier meeting due on July 16 was cancelled at the last moment and the rescheduled session held through video conference.

Ning Jizhe, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) of China co-chaired the meeting.

Asad Umar said the Chinese side raised the issue of security and the Pakistani side agreed that spectrum of economic cooperation was expanding, SIZs were coming up, investments were flowing in and Chinese workers were working in many areas, even outside the CPEC, and hence the need for security had also increased. He said work on the Dasu hydropower project had not resumed yet but that was not part of the CPEC.

The minister said Pakistan and China had an unprecedented and different type of relationship and all issues had to resolve in that special spirit of cooperation. He said China stood by Pakistan at every difficult time, including more than once on financial difficulties.

He said that on the directives of the prime minister, the ministries of finance and energy were to look into a clear path, whether it was through a revolving fund or some other method, to ensure payment of dues to Chinese IPPs. He said the dues stood at $1.4bn or Rs230bn as of now.

Responding to question on ML-1, the minister agreed that there was more than one issue on finalising the financial arrangement for the multi-billion-dollar project, including the combination of foreign currencies and interest rates. He said the Chinese side wanted part financing in Renminbi and part in dollar, while Pakistan wanted it mostly in dollar being its currency of international trade.

In reply to a question about delay in signing a framework agreement on industrial cooperation being the key to second phase of the CPEC, the minister said events had taken over the need for framework agreement as three special industrial zones had been set up, hundreds of investments were flowing in and now was the time for more targeted sectoral approaches rather than a generalised framework agreement.

A statement by the Board of Investment (BoI), however, said it was mutually agreed by the Pakistani and Chinese sides at the JCC that “the Draft Framework Agreement on Industrial Cooperation under CPEC will be finalised and signed before the next JCC meeting”. It said that “Framework Agreement was initiated by the Board of Investment and it was shared with the Chinese side after fulfilling all codal formalities in November 2020”.

Asad Umar said the framework agreement on cooperation was signed between Ningbo Port and Gwadar Port, besides lease deed of Gwadar Expo Centre, during the meeting.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and the China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) on the Karachi Comprehensive Coastal Development Zone (KCCDZ) project was also signed. The MoU will pave the way for resolution of infrastructure issues plaguing Karachi, besides fostering maritime development, and providing job opportunities through generation of sustainable economic activity based on transfer of technology to the country’s maritime industry.

Moreover, the minister said that a new joint working group on IT and science and technology was set up. He said that phase-2 of the CPEC was even more promising as it broadened the scope of cooperation and focused on industrial, scientific and technological and agricultural cooperation.

During the meeting, the conveners of joint working groups on energy, transport infrastructure, Gwadar, socioeconomic development, security, long-term planning of CPEC, industrial cooperation, international cooperation, science & technology, and agriculture cooperation made presentations highlighting the progress on their specific areas and future plans of actions.

The matters discussed during the JCC meeting included: 700MW Azad Pattan hydropower project, south-north gas pipeline, policy framework for Thar coal gasification, strategic underground gas storages, national seismic study of sedimentary area, joint prospecting, exploration, development and marketing of metallic minerals, Dir motorway project, Peshawar-D. I. Khan motorway, clean and green Gwadar movement project, Karachi coastal comprehensive development zone, potential cooperation in copper-gold mine exploration, stone processing and other areas of mutual interest.

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Qureshi meets Blinken, urges engagement with Taliban

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in New York on Thursday on the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly session.

The meeting, which lasted almost an hour, began at 1pm New York time at the Palace Hotel in the city, according to Blinken’s schedule on the website of the US Department of State.

This is the first meeting between the two top diplomats and as the foreign minister’s statement after the meeting showed, it focused on Afghanistan.

Secretary Blinken is scheduled to give a press briefing at 4:45pm local time and may talk about this meeting as well.

Mr Qureshi said that close engagement between Pakistan and the United States had always been mutually beneficial and a factor for stability in South Asia. He reiterated Pakistan’s desire for a balanced relationship with the United States that was anchored in trade, investment, energy and regional connectivity.

According to the official Pakistani statement, the foreign minister reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to facilitating efforts for an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan. Pakistan, he said, also believed that “only a stable and broad-based government in Afghanistan, which reflects its diversity and preserves the gains made by the country since 2001, would be able to ensure that Afghan territory is never exploited by transnational terrorist groups ever again”.

Mr Qureshi noted that a new political reality had emerged in Afghanistan, adding that “while the Taliban should be held to their commitments, the international community has a moral obligation to help the Afghan people deal with the growing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.”

He hoped that the world would not repeat the mistake of disengaging with Afghanistan as it did in the 1990s.

But diplomatic sources in Washington say that the Biden administration is not yet ready to engage with the Taliban and is waiting to see if Kabul’s new rulers keep their promises to expand their government to include non-Taliban members and to respect universal human rights.

Mr Qureshi also raised the Kashmir issue in the meeting, highlighting the grave human rights situation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and underscored the importance of resolving the Kashmir dispute for lasting peace and stability in South Asia.

Secretary Blinken appreciated Pakistan’s support for the evacuation of US citizens and other nationals from Afghanistan, and its continued efforts for peace in the region.

In a tweet on his official site, Mr Qureshi said that in his meeting with Secretary Blinken he reiterated Pakistan’s focus on a relationship anchored in trade, investment, energy and regional connectivity.

“Shared with Secretary Blinken the importance of the international community holding the Taliban to their commitments; also, for the same community to recognise its moral obligation to help the Afghan people with the growing humanitarian crisis,” he wrote.

“The world should not repeat the mistake of disengaging with Afghanistan consistently. There is no military solution and Pakistan is committed to facilitating inclusive political settlement.”

He added that “Pakistan has long desired high-level contacts with the US leadership, particularly after the collapse of the US- backed government in Kabul”.

Mr Qureshi, who is in New York to attend the UN General Assembly session, has held a series of bilateral meetings with his counterparts from around the world. He used his meetings and other engagements to urge world leaders to stay engaged with Afghanistan’s new rulers.

Although Pakistan has been urging the world to stay engaged with Afghanistan’s new rulers, it has not yet publicly backed the Taliban’s call for a seat in the UN General Assembly.

By Thursday, it was obvious that Afghanistan’s new rulers are unlikely to speak at or represent their country in the current session of the UN General Assembly. Representatives of the previous Afghan government, which collapsed last month when the Taliban captured Kabul, still occupy the Afghan mission at the United Nations. On Tuesday, they attended the session that US President Joe Biden addressed.

On Sept 15, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres received a letter from the currently accredited Afghan ambassador, Ghulam Isaczai, stating that he and other members of his team will represent Afghanistan at the 76th UNGA.

On Sept 20, the Taliban-controlled Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs also sent a communication to Guterres, requesting to participate in the current UNGA. A Taliban leader, Ameer Khan Muttaqi, signed the letter as the new Afghan foreign minister

In the letter, the Taliban also announced nominating their spokesperson Suhail Shaheen as the new Afghan envoy to the UN.

Afghanistan is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on Sept 27.

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Flooded roads and traffic jams as torrential rain hits parts of Karachi

Heavy monsoon rain lashed parts of Karachi yet again on Thursday, leaving roads flooded, cars submerged and commuters struggling to reach their destinations.

No casualties were immediately reported in the latest spell that began in the afternoon and disrupted life across the city in a matter of a few hours.

Videos and pictures shared on social media showed numerous areas, especially in the city's Central district, inundated with rainwater and vehicles submerged up to their wheels. A large truck could be seen lying on its side near Nagan Chowrangi as residents waded through the water with their motorcycles and cars.

According to Karachi police, traffic flow was affected due to accumulated rainwater from Liaquatabad to Teen Hatti, Jinnah Bridge Turning to ICI, and Jahangir road to Gurumandir, at Gurumandir Chowk, Karsaz to Pir Bukhari, FTC to Avari, PIB in front of Central Jail, Murshid Bazar, Tibet to Regal, Tibet Chowk, Patel Para, Lasbela Chowk, Denso Hall, Regent Plaza to FTC, Anklesaria Chowk, Shaheed-e-Millat turning, Nagan Chowrangi, Club Chowk, and Aiwan-i-Saddar road.

Police advised residents to tune into SPFM 88.6 for traffic updates and call 1915 (021-99216356-58) to seek assistance.

The highest amount of rainfall was recorded by 2pm in Surjani Town at 70 millimetres. It was followed by PAF Base Faisal (36mm), Nazimabad (18mm), Airport Old Area (14.2mm), Jinnah Terminal (10.2mm), Saadi Town (7.2mm), Quaidabad (5.5mm) and University Road (5.2mm).

While out on a post-rain tour of the city, Karachi Administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab said areas such as North Nazimabad, New Karachi and North Karachi saw flooding because of problems with the Green Line bus project infrastructure where two small pipes were unable to carry all the water.

He said while one side of the Nagan Chowrangi road was "completely clear", the other side was inundated because rainwater had been blocked by the Green Line structure. The flow of water started after work was done to clear the pipeline, Wahab added.

Responding to criticism directed at the Sindh government in the aftermath of today's rain, the PPP leader said, "Those railing against the Sindh government were saying [only] 10 days ago that rainwater did not accumulate in Karachi because the federal government had cleared the city's nullahs. Where are these people now who were taking the credit?"

K-Electric, meanwhile, said its staff were working to restore electricity in the areas where rain caused blackouts. It said power supply was continuing through more than 1,850 feeders.

The power utility urged residents to exercise caution to prevent electrocution incidents.

On Tuesday, the Met department had forecast rain/thunderstorms in Sindh from September 22 till Sept 25, saying monsoon currents were expected to penetrate into the province.

“Under the influence of this system, rain-thunderstorms with isolated heavy falls and occasional gusty winds are likely in Tharparkar, Umerkot, Sanghar and Badin districts during Sept 22-25,” the department’s advisory stated.

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Pakistan will have to take difficult decisions in future due to IMF: SBP governor

Pakistan will have to take tough decisions in future due to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, says State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Reza Baqir.

He made this remark during his speech at a conference on business leaders Wednesday.

The SBP governor said Pakistan had overcome the threat of COVID-19 and the positivity rate of the infection is now "much lower than the global rate", The News reported.

The Pakistan government, he said, made sure of quick disbursement of financial assistance during the coronavirus pandemic. Loans of Rs2 trillion were given to business persons, Rs430 billion were spent on new investment and Rs240 billion were allocated for loans on easy conditions, the publication reported.

Baqir said the income of people has increased as the growth rate has increased from a minus level to 4%.

Foreign remittances, too, increased by 27% during the last fiscal year and the trend continues this year as well, he explained.

The SBP governor also met Prime Minister Imran Khan and briefed him over the progress being made with the Roshan Digital Accounts.

During a briefing on a Roshan Digital Account programme, he said that as many as 204,000 accounts have so far been opened by overseas Pakistanis and that a 1,000 accounts are being opened on a daily basis. He said that so far, they have received $2.3 billion in the accounts.

Prime Minister Imran Khan said that increase in the number of accounts under the programme is a sign of confidence from overseas Pakistanis in the incumbent government.

On August 18, it was reported that the Roshan Digital Account (RDA) programme has crossed a major milestone and hit the $2 billion mark as overseas Pakistanis continued to pose trust in the central bank’s initiative that was launched in September last year.

Last month, the SBP received $2.75 billion from the IMF as part of the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation announced by the fund recently.

“SBP has received US$2.75 billion from the IMF, as part of SDR allocation announced by IMF recently,” the central bank had tweeted.

Pakistan was due to receive the amount on August 23 from IMF's general allocations of $650 billion that had been approved to boost global liquidity amid the coronavirus pandemic across the globe.

The amount was directly transferred to the SBP, which has further improved the country’s foreign exchange reserves and is expected to have good impact on the economy.

The Board of Governors of the IMF had approved a general allocation of SDRs equivalent to $650 billion on August 2, 2021 — to boost global liquidity.

According to the IMF statement, the allocation would benefit all members, address the long-term global need for reserves, build confidence, and foster the resilience and stability of the global economy.

It would particularly help the most vulnerable countries struggling to cope with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis.

 

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