NA-133 Lahore by-election: Counting of votes underway in PML-N stronghold

The counting of votes continues across the 254 polling stations in the NA-133 constituency, considered a stronghold of the PML-N, where a by-election was held today and where the PML-N looks to retain the seat for the fourth time.

The polling started at 8am this morning and continued till 5pm without any break after which the gates to the polling stations were closed off to any more voters. amid the chilly weather in Lahore, the voter response to the by-poll remained rather 'cool'.

Polling stations saw a vote or two cast in the morning hours which increased to a few more by the afternoon. When time for polling to end began to draw close, voter participation improved slightly.

Unofficial, preliminary results obtained by Geo News for 164 polling stations show PML-N's Shaista Pervaiz Malik in the lead with 32,226 votes.

PPP's Aslam Gill is in second place with 20,335 votes.

The NA-133 seat fell vacant after the death of PML-N MNA Pervaiz Malik who died of heart complications on October 11.

According to the Punjab election commission, there are 254 polling stations in the constituency, including 22 polling stations of A category, 198 of B category and 34 polling stations of C category.

Of these, 199 polling stations have been declared sensitive. Around 200 separate polling stations have been set up for men and women and 54 mixed polling stations have also been set up.

The total number of voters in the NA-133 constituency is 440,485, of which 233,585 are male voters and 206,927 female voters.

Candidates vying for seat
There were 11 candidates contesting the polls, including the former seat holder's widow, Shaista Pervaiz Malik, and PPP's Aslam Gill.

The PPP actively campaigned for the NA-133 by-election in Lahore, which is considered a stronghold of the rival PML-N, in the hopes of reviving the party in Punjab.

The PML-N has retained the seat thrice in the past with Pervaiz Malik winning it in 2018 with 89,699 votes, Waheed Alam Khan in 2013 with over 100,000 votes and Naseer Bhutta in 2008 with a margin of over 32,000 votes.

After the Election Commission of Pakistan rejected the nomination papers of PTI candidate Jamshed Iqbal Cheema and his covering candidate, his wife Mussarat Cheema, no PTI candidate is in the race.

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Pak vs Ban: Play called off due to rain, wet outfield on Day 2 of second Test

Day two of the second Test between Pakistan and Bangladesh was eventually called off Sunday following multiple delays and resumptions due to rain in Dhaka.

The play had resumed after lunch, following rain and bad light that saw the morning session in Dhaka cancelled.

However, the play had to be called off for the day due to persistent rain and a wet outfield. Day three is now scheduled to start at 9:30am local time.

Only 57 overs of play were possible on the first day on Saturday, when Pakistan reached 161-2, with skipper Babar Azam unbeaten on 60 alongside Azhar Ali, 36 not out.

Day one of the second Test was halted due to bad light and it was said that the game will be resumed half an hour ahead of the scheduled time. However, the play did not resume after the tea break on Saturday.

Captain Babar Azam struck a fifty to help Pakistan make steady progress against Bangladesh before bad light forced early stumps on Saturday.

The Azam-Ali duo put on 91 runs in their unbroken third-wicket stand after Bangladesh left-arm spinner Taijul Islam removed both openers in the morning session at a 59-runs score.

Azam led the batting charge hitting seven fours and a six so far, and brought up his 19th Test fifty after rain briefly halted the game.

Taijul earlier ended a 59-run opening partnership when he bowled Abdullah Shafique for 25 runs through the gate, before Abid Ali chopped one onto his stumps after knocking up 39 runs including six boundaries.

Taijul could also have dismissed Azhar if the third umpire had not given him the benefit of the doubt.

Pakistan lead the two-Test series 1-0 after winning the first Test in Chittagong by eight wickets.

The visitors fielded an unchanged squad from the first Test while Bangladesh handed Mahmudul Hasan a Test debut and brought in Shakib Al Hasan and Khaled Ahmed in three changes to the team.

Saif Hassan, Yasir Ali and Abu Jayed had been dropped from the opening Test.

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Light rain, wind thunderstorm & snowfall over hills expected

Light rain, wind thunderstorm and snowfall over the hills are expected in Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pothohar Region and North East Punjab during the next twelve hours.

Smog and fog are likely to decrease in plain areas of Punjab during the morning and night hours.

However, cold and dry weather is expected elsewhere in the country.

Temperature of some major cities recorded this morning.

Islamabad and Lahore thirteen degree centigrade, Karachi seventeen, Peshawar nine, Quetta four, Gilgit minus one, Murree and Muzaffarabad six degree centigrade.

According to Met office forecast for Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, cold and cloudy with chances of light rain and snow weather is expected in Srinagar, Pulwama, Anantnag, Baramula, Shopian and Leh while cold and cloudy with chances of light rain in Jammu.

Temperature recorded this morning: Srinagar, Pulwama and Baramula one degree centigrade, Jammu fourteen, Leh minus six, Anantnag and Shopian two degree centigrade.

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Light rain, wind thunderstorm & snowfall over hills expected

Light rain, wind thunderstorm and snowfall over the hills are expected in Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pothohar Region and North East Punjab during the next twelve hours.

Smog and fog are likely to decrease in plain areas of Punjab during the morning and night hours.

However, cold and dry weather is expected elsewhere in the country.

Temperature of some major cities recorded this morning.

Islamabad and Lahore thirteen degree centigrade, Karachi seventeen, Peshawar nine, Quetta four, Gilgit minus one, Murree and Muzaffarabad six degree centigrade.

According to Met office forecast for Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, cold and cloudy with chances of light rain and snow weather is expected in Srinagar, Pulwama, Anantnag, Baramula, Shopian and Leh while cold and cloudy with chances of light rain in Jammu.

Temperature recorded this morning: Srinagar, Pulwama and Baramula one degree centigrade, Jammu fourteen, Leh minus six, Anantnag and Shopian two degree centigrade.

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Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry for new SOPs for industry to avoid fanaticism, violence

The business fraternity of Sialkot has decided to formulate new standard operating procedures (SOPs) for production operations in factories to avoid tragic incident like lynching of a Lankan factory manager in future.

Moreover, the export-based companies having foreign nationals among their staff have also been asked to take special security measures for the foreigners, besides training security guards to cope with any such situation in future.

An emergency meeting of the business leaders of Sialkot was held at Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) office on Saturday with SCCI president Mian Imran Akbar in the chair. The meeting was also attended by the chairmen of all the trade and export associations.

Sources said the meeting participants were worried how they would explain the lynching incident to their foreign customers across the globe, particularly in the western countries.

SCCI President Mr Akbar said the scars the Friday incident left on the export-based industry of Sialkot might take a long time to heal. However, he said, the local businessmen were committed to steer the industry out of the situation with some targeted measures and discussed various proposals “that could not be discussed in the media until such measures were in place”.

He said that it was decided in the meeting to arrange lectures of religious scholars and Ulema for counseling of factory workers, sensitizing them about the scantily of human life and teachings of Islam.

Mr Akbar said though he could not share any data about the number of foreigners working in Sialkot-based industry, all the foreigners had been doing office jobs, and none of them was part of manufacturing or working on machines.

Besides, he said the owners of the factories employing foreigners had also been asked to make special security arrangements for such staffers.

To express solidarity with the whole Sri Lankan nation and the family of the deceased, Priyantha Diyawadan, a condolence reference was also organised at the SCCI.

It is learnt that some businessmen have suggested to the SCCI and trade associations to not allow display of any kind of religious material etc inside the factories’ work stations and offices to avoid such a situation in future.

Speaking at the reference, the SCCI president said the incident did not represent the industry’s usual environment, neither it defines the people of Sialkot. He hoped the exports-based city would rise from this and would continue to portray a positive image of Pakistan.

He said the SCCI condemned the barbaric act of violence resulting in tragic death of a Sri Lankan citizen working in Pakistan, urging the government and the law enforcement agencies to crackdown on all the perpetrators and inciters involved in the ugly incident and bring them to justice.

Expressing solidarity with the bereaved family, he said December 03, 2021, would go down as a dark day in the history of Sialkot that always showed tolerance and religious harmony.

Mr Akbar said there was no place for fanaticism and violence in society and that the miscreants involved in such wicked acts did not belong to any religion, caste, or creed.

He said late Diyawadana was a thorough professional known for his stern production standards and that the personal vendetta on part of some labourers in the garb of “religious sentiments” led to his lynching.

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Omicron variant could dent global economic growth: IMF

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is likely to downgrade its global economic growth projection due to the emergence of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, said its Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva Friday.

Addressing the Reuters Next conference, Georgieva said, "A new variant that may spread very rapidly can dent confidence, and in that sense, we are likely to see some downgrades of our October projections for global growth."

The IMF said in October it expected the global economy to grow 5.9% this year and 4.9% next year, pointing then to the threat of new coronavirus variants as increasing uncertainty about the timeline for overcoming the pandemic.

Omicron has spread rapidly to at least 40 countries since it was first reported in South Africa last week, officials say, and many governments have tightened travel rules to try to keep it out.

Much remains unknown about Omicron. Researchers said it could have picked up genetic material from another virus, perhaps one that causes the common cold, which would allow it to more easily evade human immune system defences.

Parts of Europe and the United States are grappling with a wave of infections of the more familiar Delta variant. The new strain could further destabilize economies that are still emerging from COVID-19 related lockdowns and disruptions.

A corporate Christmas party in the Norwegian capital Oslo resulted in at least 13 infections, making it the biggest outbreak outside of South Africa, officials said.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told Reuters Next that the fast-spreading variant would have to become more transmissible to out-compete Delta, which accounts for 99% of current transmissions.

"We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we're in a different situation to a year ago," she said.

WHO's emergencies director Mike Ryan said there was no evidence that existing vaccines needed to be modified to fight Omicron. He said officials should work on getting more people inoculated with vaccines currently on the market.

"We need to focus on getting people most at risk vaccinated," Ryan said at a social media event.

However, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a United Nations briefing in Geneva that vaccine makers should prepare for the likelihood of adjusting their products.

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Bitcoin falls by a fifth, cryptos see $1bn worth liquidated

Bitcoin shed a fifth of its value on Saturday as a combination of profit-taking and macro-economic concerns triggered nearly a billion dollars worth of selling across cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin was 12 per cent down at 0920 GMT at $47,495. It fell as low as $41,967.5 during the session, taking total losses for the day to 22pc.

The broad selloff in cryptocurrencies also saw Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, plunge more than 10pc.

Based on cryptocurrency data platform Coingecko, the market capitalisation of the 11,392 coins it tracks dropped nearly 15pc to $2.34 trillion. That value had briefly crossed $3tn last month when Bitcoin hit a record $69,000.

The plunge follows a volatile week for financial markets. Global equities and benchmark US bond yields tumbled on Friday after data showed US job growth slowed in November and the Omicron variant of the coronavirus kept investors on edge.

Justin d'Anethan, Hong Kong-based head of exchange sales at cryptocurrency exchange EQONEX, said he had been watching the increase in leverage ratios across the cryptocurrency markets as well as how large holders had been moving their coins from wallets to exchanges. The latter is usually a sign of intent to sell.

"Whales in the crypto space seem to have transferred coins to trading venue, taken advantage of a bullish bias and leverage from retail traders, to then push prices down," he said.

The selloff also comes ahead of testimony by executives from eight major cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase Global CFO Alesia Haas and FTX Trading CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, before the US House Financial Services Committee on December 8.

The hearing marks the first time major players in the crypto markets will testify before US lawmakers, as policymakers grapple with the implications of cryptocurrencies and how to best regulate them.

Last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a second spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposal from WisdomTree.

Data from another platform Coinglass showed nearly $1bn worth of cryptocurrencies had been liquidated over the past 24 hours, with the bulk being on digital exchange Bitfinex.

"If anything, this is the opportunity to buy the dip for many investors who might have previously felt like they missed the boat. We can see tether bought at a premium, suggesting people are getting cash ready, within the crypto space, to do just that," D'Anethan said, referring to the biggest stablecoin in the cryptocurrency world.

A plunge in Bitcoin funding rates — the cost of holding Bitcoin via perpetual futures which peaked at 0.06pc in October — also showed traders had turned bearish.

The funding rate on cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX fell to a negative 0.18pc from levels of 0.01pc for most of November.

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