Pakistan Test players leave for Bangladesh for two-match series

Members of the Pakistan Test squad have left for Bangladesh ahead of a two-match Test series with the hosts.

Taking to its official Twitter handle, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) posted some photos of the Test cricketers before they left for the host country.

After landing in Dhaka, the cricketers will spend a day in isolation as part of COVID-19 SOPs. Later, they will join their teammates in the practice session.

A series of two Test matches will be played between Pakistan and Bangladesh, with the first Test starting on November 26 in Chittagong and the second starting on December 4.

Earlier, on November 15, the PCB announced the Test squad for the series against Bangladesh. The line up includes opener Imam-ul-Haq, middle-order batter Kamran Ghulam and off-spinner Bilal Asif. These players will replace Haris Rauf, Imran Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani and Yasir Shah, who were part of the 21-player side that toured West Indies in July/August.

Left-handed Imam has got the opportunity following his impressive performances in the ongoing Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in which he hit 488 runs in five innings of four matches, including an unbeaten double-century. Imam had last played a Test, his 11th, against Australia in Adelaide in November/December 2019.

Bilal will replace Yasir Shah, who is still recovering from a thumb injury he sustained during the National T20 and is yet to feature in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. The off-spinner has taken 16 wickets in five Tests and has been drafted in the side considering the Bangladesh squad includes left-handed batters and is also looking ahead to the home Tests against Australia.

Kamran received a chance in the squad after he missed the West Indies tour. He was in the squad for the home series against South Africa after scoring a Quaid-e-Azam Trophy record of 1,249 runs in the 2020-21 season. Kamran is presently in Sri Lanka with the Pakistan Shaheens, where he scored 58 not out and 45 in two innings of the rain-affected two-match four-day series.

Earlier, the Men in Green won two of the three-match T20 International series. The two teams will play the third and final match of the series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on Monday.

The Test squad:

Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan (vice-captain), Abdullah Shafique, Abid Ali, Azhar Ali, Bilal Asif, Faheem Ashraf, Fawad Alam, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Nauman Ali, Sajid Khan, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Saud Shakeel, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Zahid Mahmood.

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Theranos founder testifies in risky gambit at US fraud trial

Fallen biotech star Elizabeth Holmes testified at her US fraud trial in a risky defence bid, depicting herself as a committed innovator who spent her savings and quit an elite college to pursue her vision.

Holmes faces potentially decades behind bars if convicted of allegations that she scammed investors in her much-hyped blood test start-up Theranos — once valued in the billions but which collapsed under fraud claims.

“I started with talking to my parents, they let me take the money saved for my college to work on my patent, then I went to raise or borrow money,” she told a federal court in San Jose, California, the heart of Silicon Valley.

Holmes launched Theranos in 2003 at age 19, eventually promising self-service testing machines that could run an analytical gamut cheaply and on just a few drops of blood.

She dropped out of Stanford University in 2004, saying she “spent all her time on research”, a portrayal that runs counter to prosecutors' charges that she simply sold a lie to dupe investors.

“I was doing it on my own, I did then start a company,” she said with the same famously husky voice — along with her passionate persona — that fed the ill-fated buzz around her in the tech world.

During her testimony, now 37-year-old Holmes explained her transparency regarding the company's expenses with an early investor and how she “met with everyone I could who knew someone who worked in pharma or was in pharma.”

She took the stand after prosecutors rested their case on Friday, following 11 weeks of testimony from more than two dozen witnesses.

Testifying in her own defence carries significant risks as prosecutors can attack any inconsistencies between what she says in court and her numerous public statements.

Holmes rose to renown by convincing high-profile backers, journalists and business partners that her idea could be translated into reality and could change the way health care worked.

She was versed in the symbolism of Silicon Valley, wearing a black turtleneck sweater that channelled the trademark look of Apple founder and tech legend Steve Jobs.

She drew high-profile backers like Rupert Murdoch and former US Pentagon chief Jim Mattis, but it all unravelled after a 2015 series of Wall Street Journal stories questioned whether Theranos' machines worked.

One of two minor witnesses the defence called before Holmes was Fabrizio Bonanni, a retired executive from biotech company Amgen, who was brought in to help Theranos as it was battered by fraud accusations in 2016.

“I admired her lack of defensiveness and her willingness to listen to other people's positions,” Bonanni told the court. “People tend to listen and say 'yes, but.' Holmes never said 'yes, but.'”

Her defence said in opening arguments that she is guilty of nothing more than trying and failing to realise a visionary idea.

Holmes faces charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If found guilty, she could be jailed for up to 20 years on each count.

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Thousands rally against Covid curbs in Austria, Australia

Thousands took to the streets in Austria and Australia on Saturday as anger mounted over new Covid restrictions imposed to tackle a resurgent pandemic, sparking overnight riots in a Dutch city and a French island.

Europe is battling a fresh wave of infections and several countries have tightened curbs, with Austria on Friday announcing a national partial lockdown — the most dramatic restrictions in Western Europe for months.

Other nations on the continent have resorted to less severe restrictions, often choosing to ban unvaccinated people from venues like restaurants and bars.

Some 10,000 people marched in Sydney and there were protests in other major Australian cities against vaccine mandates, which are not universal and have only been applied to certain occupations by state authorities.

“In Australia where a fanatical cult runs our health bureaucracies, they say it’s ok (to vaccinate children),” right-wing politician Craig Kelly told the Sydney crowd to large cheers.

Violence marred protests on Friday in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam where police fired warning shots as protesters set fires. Two people were hospitalised with bullet wounds.

There was also arson and looting overnight in the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe where a night curfew has been imposed.

Thousands gathered on Saturday in central Vienna near the Chancellery, responding to a call by the far right FPO party, to denounce the new measures.

They held up banners decrying “Corona dictatorship” and slamming the “division of society”.

“It’s not normal that the government deprives us of our rights,” said 42-year-old Katarina Gierscher, who travelled for six hours to get to the rally.

“The government wants to divide us. We must remain united.”

From Monday, 8.9 million Austrians will not be allowed to leave home except to go to work, shop for essentials and exercise. The restrictions will initially last 20 days with an evaluation after 10 days.

Vaccination against Covid-19 in the Alpine nation will be mandatory from February 1 next year.

Organisers cancelled a Dutch protest on Saturday but a few hundred people still gathered in Amsterdam and a similar number marched through the southern city of Breda.

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Germany’s gender-balanced cabinet takes shape as coalition deal nears

Germany’s next cabinet is taking shape as coalition negotiations near a deal, with chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz determined to deliver on his campaign pledge to have as many women as men in his team, sources said on Saturday.

Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who narrowly won the federal election in September by beating Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, are trying to form a three-way ruling coalition with the pro-spending Greens and the fiscally conservative Free Democrats (FDP).

The SPD is set to nominate at least three women for cabinet posts: outgoing Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, outgoing Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht and Scholz’s former running mate in the race for party co-leadership Klara Geywitz, three people familiar with the decision said.

Schulze is expected to become economy or transformation minister, Lambrecht will likely be in charge of the interior portfolio including migration and Geywitz could get the science and education ministry, the sources said.

Depending on the coalition horse trading, the SPD could also nominate lawmaker and human rights expert Baerbel Kofler for the economic cooperation and development portfolio.

Among the SPD men, Scholz will lead the next government as chancellor, his right-hand man Wolfgang Schmidt is expected to become his chief of staff and Labour Minister Hubertus Heil is set to keep his job thanks to his strong performance during the Covid-19 pandemic, the sources said.

Coalition officials have repeatedly said that cabinet posts will be decided at the very end of coalition negotiations. Party officials have hinted that an agreement could be reached in the coming week, possibly as early as Monday or Tuesday.

FDP leader Christian Lindner is pushing to become finance minister, though Greens co-leader Robert Habeck was also keen on the post to guarantee enough public resources to pay for Germany’s faster shift towards a climate-friendly economy.

On Friday, Lindner said fears he would be a fiscal hawk as finance minister were overblown despite his repeated calls for solid public finances and debt reduction after the coronavirus crisis.

If Lindner get his way, Habeck is likely to lead a beefed-up climate ministry while Greens co-leader Annalena Baerbock is expected to become Germany’s first female foreign minister.

During the election campaign, Baerbock has called for a tougher approach towards Russia and China.

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Plea filed against former GB chief judge Rana Shamim

A petition has been filed in the Islam­abad High Court (IHC) seeking recovery of salaries received by former chief judge of the top court of Gilgit-Baltistan, Rana Moh­a­m­mad Shamim, for issuing a controversial affidavit.

Justice Shamim in the Nov 16 affidavit had claimed that former chief justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar had asked an IHC judge to delay grant of bail to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz.

Chaudhry Mohammad Akram, a former vice president of the Islamabad Bar Association, in his petition cited Rana Shamim and the secretaries of law and justice and interior as respondents.

IHC Justice Tariq Meh­mood Jahangiri will take up the petition on Monday.

According to the petition, the former chief judge’s affidavit was a violation of Article 5 of the Constitution that requires every citizen to be loyal with the state and obedient to the constitution.

Advocate Akram contends in the petition that Rana Shamim has tried to scandalise the judiciary which is an important pillar of the state.

The petition requests the court to proceed against Rana Shamim and direct the federal government to place his name on Exit Control List.

The petition also says that since Rana Shamim has violated his oath of office, he should be treated as an alien to the office of the chief judge and stopped from using the title of former chief judge. Besides he should be disqualified from holding any public office in future.

The petition also seeks recovery of salaries drawn by Rana Shamim as chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah has already initiated contempt proceedings against Rana Shamim, Editor-in-Chief of Jang Group Mir Shakeelur Rehman, Editor Investigation Ansar Abbasi and Resident Editor Aamir Ghouri.

The chief justice’s order issued after a preliminary hearing on Nov 15 stated: “The news report and the purported affidavit have cast scandalous aspersions on the integrity, independence and impartiality of the Court and its judges. Liberty of the press and freedom of speech are of paramount importance but they are not absolute. They are subservient to proper administration of justice.”

The court noted that the alleged contemnors has tried to undermine public confidence in impartiality and independence of the IHC and its judges.

The IHC CJ also said this episode had created an opportunity for accountability of the judiciary. “This is an opportunity for holding this Court accountable. The onus is on the alleged contemnors to establish their bona fides by satisfying that the alleged aspersions are not unfounded to the extent of this Court and its Honourable Judges.”

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Govt to support Chinese businesses in Pakistan, vows PM Imran Khan

Prime Minister Imran Khan has given Chinese businessmen assurances that his government will support and protect their businesses in Pakistan.

A Chinese business delegation led by Chen Yan from Challenge Fashion (Pvt) Ltd met PM Imran Khan at his office, The News reported Sunday.

Speaking at the meeting, PM Imran said, “We will support Chinese businesses in Pakistan on priority basis, and are grateful to them for their keen interest in accelerating their investment in Special Economic Zones (SEZs)”.

“Pakistan and China have been connected not only in the past or present, but will remain united through our future generations also. We appreciate the valuable relationship of the peoples of the two countries,” he maintained.

The prime minister directed the authorities concerned to facilitate all Chinese investors, who are setting up industries in Pakistan, on an emergency basis by resolving their issues related to road connectivity and provision of utilities.

Earlier, the PM was informed that Chinese businessmen are almost ready to start operations in glass, ceramics and information technology sectors.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Oppo, one of the leading tech manufacturers in the world, is going to establish a local mobile manufacturing unit and a research and development centre in Pakistan. It will not only save a lot of foreign exchange reserves on the import of smart phones annually but would also create employment opportunities for our tech graduates.

The meeting was also attended by Energy Minister Muhammad Hammad Azhar, Adviser on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill, SAPM on CPEC Affairs Khalid Mansoor and Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong, along with other senior officers concerned.

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Election Commision notifies delimitation of constituencies for local govt polls in Islamabad

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday notified the schedule for delimitation of constituencies for the local government elections in Islamabad.

According to the notification issued by the ECP, the preliminary list of union councils/wards will be prepared in 30 days from Nov 25 to Dec 24 and will be displayed on Dec 27.

The notification stated that from Dec 28 to Jan 11, voters could file objections before the delimitation authority, adding after completion of various stages, a final list of the constituencies will be published on Feb 3, 2022.

It is relevant to note that after pointing out the non-serious approach of the federal government in holding the local government elections in Islamabad, the ECP on Monday had stated that if the required data and notifications were not provided to the commission within 10 days for delimitation of new UCs, the commission shall initiate the delimitation process on the already notified UCs.

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