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BALI: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked Pakistan to disclose its debts with “absolute transparency” to receive a bailout package.

A day earlier, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said she met with Finance Minister Asad Umar, State Bank Governor Tariq Bajwa and members of their economic team who requested financial assistance to help address Pakistan’s economic challenges.

Ahead of her meeting with the Pakistani team, Lagarade while addressing the IMF and World Bank Group annual meetings said, “In whatever work we do, we need to have a complete understanding and absolute transparency about the nature, size, terms of the debt that is bearing on a particular country.”

She added that the IMF needs to understand the extent of the position of all of Pakistan’s debt, including lending from sovereign governments and from state-owned enterprises, so that its debt sustainability can be determined.

Lagarde also said that an IMF team will visit Islamabad in the coming weeks to initiate discussions for a possible IMF-supported economic programme.

If a package is agreed, it would be Pakistan’s 13th IMF bailout since 1988. The Fund lent Islamabad $6.7 billion in 2013.

US to examine Pakistan’s debt position
Meanwhile, the United States has said that it will closely examine Pakistan’s debt position.

Responding to a question during a press conference, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said, “We understand that Pakistan has formally requested assistance from the IMF. In all cases, we examine that closely from all angles of it, including Pakistan’s debt position, in evaluating any type of loan programme.”

“This is something that we’ve been tracking fairly closely,” she added.

She added, “Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had spoken about this a few months back, I know, in some interviews not that long ago. I think part of the reason that Pakistan found itself in this situation is Chinese debt, and the fact that there is debt that governments have incurred that they maybe thought wouldn’t be so tough to bail themselves out of, but has become increasingly tough.”

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi Thursday said Pakistan desired to further intensify bilateral cooperation with Tajikistan in all fields as both the countries were key partners in the region.

He said so in a meeting with Tajik Prime Minister Qohir Rasulzoda on the sidelines of the 17th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Government Meeting being held in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Qureshi congratulated the Tajik premier for the successful convening of the meeting in the beautiful city of Dushanbe, a Foreign Office statement said.

The foreign minister conveyed the greetings and warm wishes of Prime Minister Imran Khan to the Tajik prime minister.

The two sides discussed issues of bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual concern and agreed to strengthen and enhance cooperation in the area of trade and investments.

Noting regular political and parliamentary exchanges, Qureshi underlined the importance of closer economic and investment ties and reaffirmed Pakistan’s desire for further intensifying bilateral cooperation in all fields.

The two sides agreed that bilateral security and defence cooperation was developing satisfactorily and noted the progress on CASA-1000 project and agreed on fast tracking its implementation.

He extended the invitation to Prime Minister Qohir Rasulzoda to visit Pakistan at his earliest convenience.

Pakistan was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Tajikistan soon after its independence.

The bilateral relations between the two countries are based on mutual respect, shared interests and brotherhood and have been growing positively and steadily over the years.

ISLAMABAD: Candidates contesting from 35 constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies will campaign for the final time today before by-polls are held on October 14.

Election campaigning picked pace in this week as the by-polls drew closer. Today is the last day when candidates will appeal to registered voters before the election takes place.

In NA-131 Lahore, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate Khawaja Saad Rafique will come face-to-face against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate Humayun Akhtar.

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is PML-N’s candidate from NA-124. His contender in the constituency is PTI’s Ghulam Mohiuddin.

ECP constitutes teams to monitor by-polls

For Karachi’s NA-243 constituency, MQM-P is expected to give tough competition to PTI.

Overseas Pakistanis for the first time will use their right to vote in the by-elections.

On Thursday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) constituted 27 monitoring teams to monitor the by-elections.

The teams will examine the distribution of polling equipment and training of the polling staff. On the day of the by-polls, the teams will also monitor security arrangements, the result transmission system (RTS) and votes of the overseas Pakistanis in addition to the process of tabulation and compilation of results.

It´s a simple leather briefcase, bearing the inscription “Sgt Alvin C York” in gold letters.

It belonged to a World War I hero who later founded a school for poor rural children.

When he was drafted in 1917 to go fight in France, York was a 30-year-old farmer with a third grade education.

“He had always lived in Tennessee, in a rural area, was never really exposed to the world,” his grandson, retired army colonel Gerald York, told AFP at his home in Alexandria, Virginia.

“When war came along, he did not know where they were fighting. He didn´t know anything about the people.”

In October 1918, Corporal York became a hero during the Meuse-Argonne offensive, the Allied campaign that finally broke the German army.

Under heavy fire, York killed 25 German soldiers and took more than 100 prisoners during a harrowing mission to infiltrate enemy lines and take out machine gun positions.

He was promoted to sergeant and showered with military honors, including the Congressional Medal of Honor, America´s highest; the Croix de guerre; and the French Legion of Honor.

He received some 50 awards and medals in all, making him one of the war´s most decorated American soldiers.

After the armistice, he remained in France for several months before returning to New York to a hero´s welcome.

He then went back to his home in Jamestown, Tennessee and embarked on another stage in life.

“Because of what he had seen in France, in New York, because he felt his education was a real hindrance to him… he decided that education and better roads were going to be what he wanted for his community,” Gerald York said.

So York created a foundation, and traveled the country with his leather briefcase under his arm, using his fame as a war hero to raise funds for a rural school.

The Alvin C York Agricultural Institute opened in 1926.

For the first 10 years, even in the midst of the Great Depression, he paid for the teachers, the school buses and the construction of paved roads in the area.

York was a fervent Christian and member of a small pacifist congregation. According to his grandson, shortly before his death in 1964, he said: “What I want to be remembered for is my contribution to education.”

The Alvin C York Institute, now a public school, still exists today in Jamestown, Tennessee.

Saudi Arabia´s new high-speed railway opened to the public on Thursday, whisking Muslim pilgrims and other travelers between Makkah and Madina.

The Haramain High Speed Rail system will transport passengers 450 kilometres (280 miles) via the Red Sea port of Jeddah at speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour.

Two trains, each carrying 417 passengers, departed from Mecca and Medina at 8 am (0500 GMT), according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.

Two daily services are initially planned in each direction, it said.

Saudi King Salman on October 25 inaugurated the high-speed railway, which local officials described as the biggest transportation project in the region.

The new link will slash the travel time Makkah and Madina from several hours to 120 minutes, transport officials said.

The rail project, dogged by several delays, was built at a cost of more than $16 billion, according to Saudi media.

In 2011, Saudi Arabia signed a deal for a Spanish consortium to build the rail track, supply 35 high-speed trains and handle a 12-year maintenance contract.

The kingdom is boosting its infrastructure spending and expanding its railways, including with a $22.5 billion metro system under construction in the capital Riyadh, as it seeks to diversify its oil-dependent economy.

The annual Hajj, which is to be held in September next year, attracts more than two million pilgrims to Makkah.

ISLAMABAD: (Media 92) The Supreme Court on Friday granted the final extension to the accountability court hearing two corruption references against the Sharif family.

The apex court’s deadline to conclude a corruption trial against the Sharifs had ended on October 7, after which, an extension plea had been submitted to the SC.

A three-member bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar, was hearing the petition today.

As the hearing went under way, Nawaz Sharif’s legal counsel Khawaja Haris appeared before the apex court and requested an eight-week extension to conclude the Flagship Investment and Al-Azizia corruption references.

The top court, however, rejected the plea, stating that it could not grant more than four weeks to conclude the cases.

Haris then requested the court to accept his plea. ‘Please accept my request for once,” he said. To this the chief justice responded by saying that Haris’ requests had always been accepted, however, an impression contradicting the reality had been given.

“You can work over the weekends if you want. If the corruption trial is not concluded till November 17, we will schedule hearings on Sundays as well,” Justice Nisar said.

Further, the chief justice remarked that the accountability court judge will be questioned if the trial is not wrapped up during the given time.

Setting November 17 as the deadline for the accountability court to wrap up the Flagship Investment and Al-Azizia references, Justice Nisar remarked that SC will not grant further extensions to conclude the trial.

According to sources, Judge Arshad Malik of Accountability Court II had written a letter to the SC to request an extension in the deadline. He had apprised the top court of the progress in the Al-Azizia and Flagship corruption references against the Sharif family.

On August 27, the Supreme Court had directed the accountability court to decide the Al Azizia and Flagship corruption references within six weeks.

So far, six extensions to wrap up the corruption references initiated by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) have been granted by the apex court.

The Supreme Court had initially set a six-month deadline to conclude the four corruption references against the Sharif family.

The trial

The trial against the Sharif family commenced on September 14, 2017.

On July 6, after four extensions in the original six-month deadline to conclude all three cases, the court announced its verdict in the Avenfield reference.

Nawaz and his sons, Hussain and Hasan, are accused in all three references whereas Maryam and Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only.

The two brothers, based abroad, have been absconding since the proceedings began last year and were declared proclaimed offenders by the court.

Naqeebullah Mehsud, a 27-year-old native of Waziristan and three others who were accused of being terrorists were killed by the police. Photo: File

KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday gave SSP Rizwan Ahmad Khan — investigation officer (IO) of the Naqeebullah Mehsud murder case — the final chance to present a report regarding the absconding suspects.

As the hearing went under way, former Malir SSP Rao Anwar along with others accused of the extrajudicial murder of Naqeebullah appeared before the court. SSP Dr Rizwan was also in court for the hearing.

The IO submitted a report to the court, which apprised the judge that efforts to arrest the absconding suspects are under way. The report said the suspects will be apprehended soon.

Rejecting the report presented by Dr Rizwan, the judge gave a final chance to the IO to submit a report on the absconding suspect.

The hearing was then adjourned till October 31.

In an informal conversation with the media outside the court’s premises, former Malir SSP Anwar alleged that a report presented by the IO to the high court was ‘based on lies’. “The investigation officer is misstating facts. I am living at my residence and will appear before the court each time I am summoned,” Anwar said.

The former Malir SSP further said that he was unaware of any cases to probe assets owned by him by the National Accountability Bureau.

Earlier this year, shopkeeper and aspiring model Mehsud and three others were shot dead in a police ‘encounter.’ Anwar and his team were put behind bars when the deceased’s family protested against the extrajudicial killing.

However, later, an anti-terrorism court of Karachi granted bail to the prime accused, former SSP Anwar, after charges against him were not proved.

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan on Wednesday announced his departure from an upcoming film following sexual harassment allegations against the director.

The actor while not mentioning the name of the film or director took to Twitter and announced that he was stepping away from the project after he was informed of “sexual misconduct” on the part of a collaborator.

Aamir was referring to the Gulshan Kumar biopic ‘Mogul’ which he was set to produce and was to be directed by Subash Kapoor, who has been accused of sexually harassing actor Geetika Tyagi in 2012. Tyagi filed a case against Kapoor in 2014 and also released a video in which she can be seen slapping him in the presence of his wife.

In a joint statement, Aamir and his wife, Kiran Rao, said, “At Aamir Khan Productions we have always had a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour of any kind.”

“Two weeks ago, when traumatic #MeToo stories began emerging, it was brought to our attention that someone we were about to begin work with has been accused of sexual misconduct. Upon inquiry we found that this particular case is sub-judice, and that the legal process is in motion,” the statement read.

“So, without casting any aspersions on anyone involved in this case, and without coming to any conclusions about these specific allegations, we have decided to step away from this film. We do not want our action to reflect in any manner on the people involved in this case,” it added.

Aamir and Rao said they were not in any position to pass a judgement on anyone as that is for the police and judiciary to do but stressed that a clean up was needed in the industry.

Responding to the statement, Kapoor, in an interview to The Indian Express, said he respects Aamir’s decision. “I understand and respect Aamir Khan’s and Kiran Rao’s decision. Since matter is sub-judice, I intend to prove my innocence in the court of law.”

Five mornings a week, Saima Azeem helps her children wash and prepare for school. But this week has been different: She has had to use her few bottles of drinking water to get them ready.

“It’s been a difficult morning. I’ll have to schedule my chores according to the new water supply timing,” the mother of four told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Faced with fast-depleting groundwater supplies, Lahore — Pakistan’s second biggest city — this week began rationing water and instituting a range of new conservation measures.

Lahore relies on groundwater to fill its taps but groundwater levels are now falling at a rate of about 2.5 to 3 feet (0.7 to 0.9 meters) a year, according to WWF-Pakistan.

The water table in the center of the city is now 130 feet (40 meters) down and is expected to fall below 230 feet (70 meters) by 2025, WWF researchers noted in 2017.

“If the trend continues the situation will become even worse by 2040,” they predicted.

To try to avoid a crisis, Lahore’s Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA) on Tuesday began turning off the city’s 700,000 water connections 12 out of each 24 hours.

Users will now get water only from approximately 4 am to 9 am, noon to 2 pm and 5 pm to 10 pm, officials said.

The water agency also increased water tariffs by about 20 per cent for households and about 400 per cent for commercial users.

Previously, water prices had been frozen since 2004.
Car wash crackdown

The water agency also has disconnected the water supply to more than 280 petrol station car washes across Lahore, ordering them to install, within two months, more efficient mechanised washing facilities with water recycling systems.

Disconnection notices have been sent to another 290 petrol stations as well, said Zahid Aziz, the agency’s managing director who is supervising the campaign.

Under the new policy, car washes should take no more than 100 liters of water per car. Currently, a typical car wash might use twice that much, Muhammad Aslam, a car wash worker, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Aziz said the changes were aimed at encouraging water conservation in a city where waste is common.

A petition filed by a lawyer and being heard before the Lahore High Court, for instance, seeks to stop the city using 30,500 liters of water each day to wash its streets.

“Fresh underground water is a precious resource, which we can’t allow anyone to misuse,” Aziz told reporters.

“The agency is working on various projects to conserve water as well as to replace underground water with surface water” that will be run through a filtering plant, he said.
‘Reasonable’ action

Ahmad Rafay Alam, a Pakistani environmental lawyer and activist, described the city’s groundwater as “thoroughly exploited, extracted and poisoned” by pollution.

He said the new water agency rules are a reasonable move, aimed at shoring up Lahore’s water security.

“Everywhere in the world, sensible city managers have imposed sensible rules and regulations on the use and disposal of water,” he said.

“What the WASA is asking service stations to do is correct, as it owns the groundwater,” Alam told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Among new conservation measures being put in place, the agency has asked the city’s parks authority to recycle used ablution water from the city’s mosques to water parks and green strips along city roads.

Currently the parks authority “needlessly uses drinking water for horticulture when it could be responsible and use recycled water from mosques,” Alam said.

He said the new water restrictions and changes were causing an outcry among some car wash owners but were necessary “as they’re shaking up the status quo and challenging our wasteful habits”.

Some water users — such as Azeem — said they can see the days of water waste need to end. “When you get something uninterrupted, you are not cautious about its worth,” she said — just as water began flowing through her dry tap again.

A new Singapore Airlines route connecting the city-state to New York goes into operation Thursday, becoming the longest commercial plane ride in the world.

The journey covers a distance of 16,700 kilometres (10,400 miles) in just under 19 hours, making it the lengthiest in both distance and time.

There is no economy class. The cabin is configured in only two segments: 67 business class seats and 94 premium economy seats.

The route uses the fuel-efficient ultra-long range variant of Airbus´ A350-900, a category of plane that airlines are increasingly turning to as they look to squeeze more miles out of every drop of pricey fuel.

Here are the world´s next-longest flights:
– Auckland to Doha: 17 hr 40 min

Qatar Airways Flight 921, using a Boeing 777, held the previous title as world´s longest commercial route, flying passengers over 14,500 kilometres from the New Zealand capital to Doha.
– Houston to Sydney: 17 hr 30 min

United´s 787 Dreamliners fly 13,800 kilometres to connect Australia´s biggest city with Houston in the southern US.
– Auckland to Dubai: 17 hr 20 min

Auckland has a second link to a Middle Eastern hub through Emirates Flight 449, which flies Airbus A380 superjumbos to Dubai at a distance of 14,200 kilometres.
– Los Angeles to Singapore: 17 hr 20 min

United launched its service connecting Los Angeles´ LAX airport to Singapore using a 787 last year. At the time the 14,100-kilometre link was the longest non-stop flight by distance from the US to anywhere in the world, the airline said.
– Perth to London: 17 hr 20 min

The 14,500-kilometre Qantas service launched this year is the first regular link between Australia and Europe, with the airline´s Boeing 787 fleet connecting Perth and London.
– Sydney to London?

The Perth route is part of an ambitious plan by Qantas to eventually connect Europe with airports on Australia´s eastern seaboard as new, more efficient aircraft become available.

Chief executive Alan Joyce told media last year that a non-stop, 17,000-kilometre service from Sydney to London could be on the cards as soon as 2022 — but only if oil prices stay low enough to provide a decent return on the route.