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KARACHI:(Net News/ Media 92 News) It took rickshaw driver Mohammad Rasheed a year to save Rs300 to buy his daughter a bike, so when he found three billion rupees ($22.5 million) had passed through an unused bank account in his name, he was stunned … and scared.

“I started sweating and shivering,” said the 43-year-old — just the latest victim of a money-laundering scheme that Pakistan’s new prime minister, Imran Khan, has vowed to crush.

When he got a call from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Rasheed’s first inclination was to go into hiding, but friends and family members finally convinced him to cooperate with officials.

His case mirrors dozens of similar stories in recent weeks that have filled newspapers in Pakistan and riled a populace long accustomed to extravagant tales of corruption and theft.

The incidents follow a similar arc — bank accounts in poor residents’ names are flooded with cash, then suddenly emptied in a laundering scheme that has likely seen hundreds of millions of dollars moved out of the country.

Rasheed’s name was eventually cleared, but his anxiety remained.

“I stopped driving my rented rickshaw on the roads because of the fear that some other investigating agencies might pick me up,” he said.

“My wife fell sick because of the tension.”

Only weeks before the fiasco he had finally been able to buy a Rs300 bike with worn tyres for his daughter — the fruit of a year’s careful saving.

‘Stolen money’
The revelation of the laundering frenzy comes as the newly-elected Khan has vowed to squash rampant corruption and recover billions syphoned from the country as his government scrambles to shore up Pakistan’s deteriorating finances.

“This is your stolen money,” said the former cricketer during a televised address to the nation Wednesday.

“It was stolen on public contracts… and transferred into these accounts, then laundered abroad. I will spare no corrupt man in this country,” he promised.

But for victims like Mohammad Qadir, the damage has already been done.

“I have never even seen a bank from the inside,” said the 52-year-old ice cream vendor.

Transactions were, nevertheless, made in his name for Rs2.25 billion.

Since news of the incident spread, Qadir says he is regularly mocked by his neighbours and also fears being kidnapped by criminal elements who believe he has billions of rupees to spare for hefty ransoms.

“He is a penniless billionaire,” one of Qadir’s acquaintances laughed while driving past his ice cream cart in the Karachi slum of Orangi town.

“People make fun of me, but I ended up with nothing at all from this situation,” said Qadir. “It is such a tragedy.”

Sarwat Zehra, a 56-year-old official, says she has suffered from high blood pressure after being handed a bill for 13 million rupees in back taxes.

“I was told that a company had illegally passed 14 or 15 billion rupees through my account,” she said.

Pakistan’s poor have long been used as fronts for the elite to dodge taxes and hide assets.

But the scale of the bank account scheme is unprecedented, with authorities pointing the finger at some of Karachi’s wealthiest power brokers including figures with links to former president Asif Zardari.

Watchlist
In September, Pakistan’s Supreme Court established a commission to investigate the scourge, finding that at least $400 million had passed through “thousands of false accounts”, using the names of impoverished people.

Some 600 companies and individuals “are associated with the scandal”, the commission concluded.

The brazen laundering schemes come as Pakistan was again placed on a watchlist this year by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — an anti-money-laundering monitor based in Paris — for failing to do enough to combat terror-financing.

KOHISTAN:(Net News/ Media 92 News) At least 18 people were killed in a horrific traffic accident Sunday night when a passenger bus fell into the Indus River here near upper Kohistan area.

According to authorities, including security and rescue officials, the deceased include three women and one child. A woman, however, miraculously survived.

The bus, authorities said, was travelling from Gilgit-Baltistan’s district Ghizer to Pindi when, midway, it plummeted into the river.

Representatives of the emergency response team said the rescue work had been completed and all the dead bodies moved to a nearby hospital. Most of the deceased hailed from Gilgit-Baltistan.

KARACHI:(Net News/ Media 92 News) Six Pakistani seamen have been stranded at the Egyptian port of Safaga since six months, it emerged on Sunday.

Speaking to Geo News, seaman Zia said that they are forced to live in awful conditions and have not been paid since two months, as the owner of the ship and Egyptian Navy have a conflict over payments.

Zia added that they were kept in the dark about the payment issues at the time of their departure from Pakistan.

The Pakistan embassy is also not paying heed to their plight, he added.

Last year, four Pakistani sailors stranded onboard the Kuwaiti cargo ship near the port of Suez returned home through the efforts of Pakistani embassy.

A total of 17 Pakistani sailors were stranded onboard the MV AKKAZ which is anchored in the Suez Canal after the Egyptian government confiscated the vessel for non-payment of dues.

The MV AKKAZ, owned by a Kuwaiti company and chartered by a Dutch firm, had set sail from Abu Dhabi on August 11, 2016 bound for Port Said and Alexandria in Egypt and then onwards to the Netherlands.

KARACHI:(Net News/ Media 92 News) The six Pakistan Super League (PSL) franchises in a letter to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) have put forth their demands to amend changes in the franchise deal to make it more financially sustainable.

In the letter addressed to Ehsan Mani, the cricket body’s chairperson, the PSL franchises highlighted that one of the reasons behind the loss of $15-18 million they face every year is depreciation of the Pakistani rupee.

“It is highlighted that franchises as a group are losing between $15-18mn every year in the PSL,” reads the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by Geo.tv.

“While the next asset sales cycle is expected to improve this somewhat, the impending economic slowdown, the dramatic depreciation of the PKR, the currency mismatch in the franchise revenue and cost sources, along with the excessive taxation by PRA/FBR, have raised serious concerns about the financial sustainability of all teams,” the franchises wrote.

Highlighting the losses due to currency valuation, the letter states that each franchise has lost roughly 25-35 percent due to the currency valuations.

It has also demanded that currency of operation should be converted from US dollars to Pakistani rupees, similar to what the Indian Premier League (IPL) does.

“The league needs to make a concentrated effort towards shifting to PKR as the currency of operation. All player and coaches salaries, draft categories etc need to be set in PKR.” It stated.

“Any tax hit of foreign players that is being borne by the league and Franchises needs to be directly borne by the players/coaches. If they are playing in a Pakistani league they should be paying the relevant taxes,” it added.

The franchises have also recommended that already agreed-upon deals in greenbacks should be pegged at Rs105 a dollar.

“The agreement stipulates this be done at the going USD rate whereas we recommend this be done at the equivalent value of the USD as of the bid date and that PKR value retained throughout the term of the agreement,” it added.

The franchises also demanded to revise the existing revenue sharing formula to minimize their share of the burden.

According to the suggested method, the franchises are eyeing a 90 percent share from central media rights revenue and 75 percent from gate receiving and central sponsorship pool. They have also demanded the broadcasting cost should be majorly shared by the PCB.

“We propose a 75/25 divide, where 75% of the Broadcast Production cost is borne by PCB and 25% by the franchises,” their demands in the letter read.

The PSL franchises have also requested from PCB to talk with the government for a tax waiver.

Regretting the players’ unavailability for commercial activities of the franchises, the letter states that the PCB has been unable to do much to address this concern in the past three years and demanded an annual calendar for the players’ availability.

“All players/coaches need to be made available for minimum 5 team appearances totalling up to 30 hours FOC as part of their regular tri-tripartite contracts,” they demanded.

“A yearly calendar or a six-month calendar, if yearly is not possible, needs to to be floated to Franchises in advance and followed which incorporates availability windows of Franchisees’ international level players so the teams can plan various activation with them and leverage their players to develop their team’s connection with the fans and the city as well as fulfil commercial partner obligations,” the letter adds.

The letter further suggests that the PCB needs to make all efforts to bring back the league in its entirety to Pakistan as soon as possible.

“A plan for the revitalization of suitable venues/stadiums in all Franchise cities needs to be developed and shared with an aggressive timeline agreed upon.

“It is the collective opinion of all Franchises that the current 8,10,12 model of Pak games is conservative,” it states.

(Net News/ Media 92 News)Former army captain Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil on Sunday, promising a fundamental change in direction for the giant Latin American country, the latest to take a turn to the right.

Despite repulsing many with his open support of the torture used by Brazil´s former military regime, as well as remarks deemed misogynist, racist and homophobic, Bolsonaro managed to tap voters´ deep anger with corruption, crime and economic malaise.

Official results gave the controversial president-elect 55.13 percent of the vote to 44.87 for leftist opponent Fernando Haddad, with 99.99 percent of the ballots counted.

Bolsonaro, 63, will take office on January 1.

“We will change Brazil´s destiny together,” he said in his victory speech — broadcast live from his home on Facebook, the platform he has used to campaign since an attacker stabbed him in the stomach at a rally on September 6.

Sitting next to his wife and wearing a dark blazer, the “Tropical Trump,” as some have dubbed him, delivered his speech in a stern voice.

He pledged to govern “following the Bible and the constitution,” and said: “We cannot continue flirting with socialism, communism, populism and the extremism of the left.”

But the longtime congressman promised to defend “the constitution, democracy and freedom,” fending off opponents´ warnings he would try to veer toward authoritarianism after openly expressing his admiration for Brazil´s brutal military dictatorship (1964-1985).

Thousands of supporters flooded the streets outside his home in Rio de Janeiro, waving Brazilian flags and lighting up the sky with fireworks.

“All these people here are outraged, upset about corruption and crime, and we are with Bolsonaro. The people have spoken. For the first time I feel represented,” said Andre Luiz Lobo, 38, a businessman who — not incidentally, given the accusations of racism against his candidate — is black.

Vow to fight
On the other side, the reaction was despair — and a defiant vow to resist.

Haddad, a former Sao Paulo mayor, said he would fight to “defend the freedoms of those 45 million people” who voted for him, after Bolsonaro vowed late in the campaign to “cleanse” Brazil of leftist “reds.”

Aides said Haddad, 55, had not called Bolsonaro to congratulate him.

“Fascists!” shouted tearful supporters at the headquarters of Haddad´s Workers´ Party in Sao Paulo.

“I´m surprised Brazilians would vote for hate, for guns,” said Flavia Castelhanos, 31, after wiping away her tears, wearing a pin that said “Not him” — opponents´ rallying cry against Bolsonaro.

Political analysts and activists reacted in grim tones.

“This is a dark day for Brazil. Brazilian democracy is now in complete crisis,” said Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.

Human Rights Watch called on Brazil´s judges, journalists and civil society to be vigilant.

“We will join them in standing up against any attempt to erode… democratic rights and institutions,” said the organization´s Americas director, Jose Miguel Vivanco.

Rejection vote
Bolsonaro has offended many in Brazil and beyond with his vitriolic rhetoric.

He once told a lawmaker he opposed that she “wasn´t worth raping;” he has said he would rather see his sons die than come out as gay; and he commented after visiting one black community that they “do nothing — they´re so useless I doubt they can procreate.”

But an even larger portion of voters rejected Haddad and the tarnished legacy of the Workers´ Party, which had won the past four presidential elections.

The polls came on the heels of Brazil´s worst-ever recession, a staggering multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal and a year of record-setting violent crime.

Haddad stood as a surrogate for the popular — but imprisoned — ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who led Brazil through the boom years of 2003 to 2010, before both the country and his left-wing political project went bust.

The highly divisive Lula, who stands accused of masterminding the massive pilfering of state oil company Petrobras, was barred from running because he is serving a 12-year sentence for bribery.

Center-right President Michel Temer, who is set to leave office as the most unpopular leader in Brazil´s modern democracy, congratulated Bolsonaro and said the transition process would start Monday.

JAKARTA:(Net News/ Media 92 News) A Lion Air flight going from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang off the island of Sumatra has crashed, an Indonesian official said Monday morning, adding that a search and rescue operation had been commenced.

“It’s true that Lion Air JT 610 has lost contact,” AirNav Indonesia spokesperson Yohanes Harry Douglas said in a statement.

“We have forwarded the information to search and rescue teams.”

“It has been confirmed that it has crashed,” Yusuf Latif, a spokesperson for the search and rescue agency, said by text message when asked about the fate of the Lion Air airplane.

It is believed that the flight — JT 610 — took off from Jakarta at 6:10 AM and was slated to land in Pangkal Pinang, the Bangka Belitung Islands’ main city, off the island of Sumatra, at 7:20 AM.

It, however, reportedly took off at 6:20 AM but contact was lost 13 minutes later, at 6:33 AM, according to a report available with the website Tribunsumsel.com.

This was later confirmed by Latif, who said the plane lost contact 13 minutes after takeoff. The jet was a Boeing 737 MAX 8, according to air tracking service Flightradar 24.

According to TRT, Lion Air Group chief executive Edward Sirait said information on the missing plane was being sought and no further details could be given at this moment.

“We cannot give any comment at this moment. … We are trying to collect all the information and data,” Sirait said.

It was not immediately clear how many people were on board.

Reportedly, the last known coordinates of the flight were 5°49.727 south, 107°07.460 east.

ISLAMABAD:(Net News/ Media 92 News) A session of the National Assembly has been summoned at 4pm today.

Ahead of the session, Prime Minister Imran Khan has summoned a parliamentary meeting of his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

According to sources, the meeting will mull over a strategy for the opposition’s All Parties Conference (APC) and planned protest.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, who is currently in the National Accountability Bureau’s custody, will also attend the session. On October 26, NA Speaker Asad Qaiser issued production orders for Shehbaz so that he can attend today’s National Assembly session.

Shehbaz also attended the last NA session on October 17 during which he said there is “an unholy alliance between NAB and the PTI”. Addressing the Parliament, Shehbaz also revealed the questions that he was being asked by the investigators. Delving into details regarding the Ashiana Housing Scheme, Shehbaz had said, “A NAB official told me that there are no corruption allegations against me in the housing case, but that I used my position to give the contract to former army chief General (retd) Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s brother to please him.”

LAHORE:(Net News/ Media 92 News) Former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif, who has been in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Ashiana Housing scheme case, was presented before an accountability court on Monday.

The Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president was brought to court amid tight security.

Shehbaz was arrested on October 5 in the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme case after he appeared before NAB in the Saaf Pani case. On October 6, an accountability court in Lahore had granted the anti-graft body a 10-day physical remand of Shehbaz. The PML-N president’s remand was then extended on October 16 by 14 days.

The PML-N president’s physical remand ends tomorrow, however, he is being presented in the accountability court today as October 30 is a holiday.

NAB officials blackmail me: Shehbaz
During the hearing, Shehbaz presented arguments in his defense himself.

“I have been implicated in false cases,” Shehbaz told the accountability court. “NAB officials blackmail me,” he added.

The PML-N president further said, “I have blood cancer and they won’t even allow me to get my check-up done.”

Stating that he “served the province,” Shehbaz upheld, “If this is a crime then I will continue doing it. God’s court is the biggest.”

The leader of the opposition in NA regretted, “I am not even allowed to meet my family.”

Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme case
Last month, Shehbaz Sharif was summoned by NAB in the Ashiana Housing case while former Lahore Development Authority chairman Ahad Cheema is on judicial remand after having been arrested over the case.

In July, the accountability bureau arrested senior bureaucrat Fawad Hassan Fawad in various corruption cases, including the Ashiana Iqbal Housing Scheme case.

Sources revealed that Shehbaz had been summoned in the case after revelations made by Fawad during interrogation.

According to NAB officials, Fawad wrongfully awarded the Ashiana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme’s contract to ‘favourites’, illegally ordered the shifting of nine CNG stations and also worked in a private bank from 2005 to 2006 without official permission.

Moreover, while being the provincial health secretary, Fawad acquired six mobile health units which were purchased at a higher-than-market rate, a NAB spokesperson said.

Fawad has served as former PM Nawaz Sharif’s principal secretary and is considered close to the former premier. He was removed from the post of principal secretary on June 1 this year and was appointed director general of Civil Services Academy, Lahore.

The accused bureaucrat was also being probed by NAB for possession of assets beyond known sources of income.

According to NAB, the contract for the housing scheme was won by a construction company titled Chaudhry Latif and Sons.

However, NAB says then Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his aides awarded the Rs14 billion contract to Lahore Casa Developers — a proxy group of Paragon City (Pvt) Limited, which is said to be owned by Railways Minister Saad Rafique.

Fawad, who was implementation secretary to the chief minister Punjab at the time, levelled charges of wrongdoings against Chaudhry Latif and Sons in order for the contract to be awarded to Casa Developers.

DUBAI:(Net News/ Media 92 News) Opener Babar Azam struck a half-century and leg-spinner Shadab Khan claimed three wickets as Pakistan secured a 3-0 T20 series whitewash over Australia with a 33-run victory in Dubai on Sunday.

Azam’s 40-ball 50 lifted Pakistan to another challenging total of 150-5 before Shadab’s 3-19 helped bowl Australia out for 117 in 19.1 overs.

It is Pakistan’s first-ever whitewash against Australia in a limited-over series and their 10th series win under Sarfraz Ahmed since he took over as captain in September 2016.

Pakistan justified their world-number-one ranking in the shortest format of the game, following a 66-run thrashing in Abu Dhabi with an 11-run win in Dubai.

Australia’s batting line-up never recovered from being bowled out for 89 in the first game.

Only Mitchell Marsh (21), Ben McDermott (21) and Alex Carey (20) looked like getting big scores on Sunday against a varied Pakistan attack.

Carey, promoted to open the innings, smashed two fours and two sixes in Imad Wasim’s first over of the innings but they lost wickets at regular intervals.

Skipper Aaron Finch failed yet again, scoring only one while Chris Lynn (15) and Glenn Maxwell (four) also inflicted little damage as seamer Hasan Ali finished with 2-14.

Sarfraz said the series win was “a reward for hard work”.

“I would say that all the boys have worked hard in all facets, the result is just the reward,” said Sarfraz.

“Whoever has got an opportunity has done well. We wanted to carry forward the momentum to the New Zealand series, the way we bowled and took our catches was superb tonight.”

‘We had our chances’
Finch admitted it was disappointing to come up so short when chasing 151 to win.

“We had our chances in all three games,” said Finch. “You back yourself while chasing under 150, you back your batsmen to get the side over the line but it didn’t happen.

“Our bowling was very impressive all series, keeping them to below 150 was great. We’re looking forward to a tough series against South Africa (at home).”

Earlier, Azam scored his second fifty of the series after the hosts had won the toss and batted.

Azam and Sahibzada Farhan gave Pakistan an excellent start — their opening stand of 99 their highest against Australia in T20 internationals — in 12.5 overs, but Pakistan could not capitalise on that start.

Farhan, dismissed for a first-ball duck in his only previous match against Australia in Harare in July, hit a 38-ball 39.

But after the openers, only Mohammad Hafeez managed to score freely during his 20-ball 32 not out.

Shoaib Malik scored 18 and became the second-highest run-scorer in T20 international history, passing New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum.

Another New Zealander Martin Guptill is at the top of the charts with 2,271 runs in 75 matches — 118 more than Malik.

Pakistan next play New Zealand in three T20 internationals, three ODIs and three Tests, starting with the first T20 in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

My sons recently asked me what they should be when they grow up? I told them, be anything you want, just don’t be a coal miner.

I don’t want to imagine my children in a deep, dark hole underground.

It is a miserable life. I have been extracting coal for the last 35 years and not one day has been any easier. Today, I work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. I can’t do longer shifts, I am already 60-years-old. But when I was younger, I would work well into the night. You see, for a coal miner, the more coal you mine the more money you get to take home. Some of the younger men around me can put in 11 to 15 hours a day.
A miner covered in coal dust sits inside a mine.—Reuters photo

I am not scared of the pitch black or of being 3,500 feet below the surface. What does scare me is that poisonous gas, called methane. It surrounds us as we lower ourselves in and if it explodes, and it often does, there are no chances of survival.

We, mine workers, have no safety gear, except a helmet each. But you must already know that. There is no medical insurance, no pension.

After 30 years of working in the coal mines of Quetta, my lungs are fragile and my kidney is weak. Whatever old men like me save is spent on paying medical bills, which I can barely afford. I have nine children after all.

You see I am not an educated man. But I do know this, that the law that governs mining in Pakistan was drafted in 1923. A law for Pakistani men, even before Pakistan was made. Does that make sense?

I’ve seen my fair shares of accidents and casualties. In 1974, I buried 22 colleagues who died underground. The other day I trying to calculate the number of men who died this year alone. Must be a hundred till now.

There is a small office outside each mine site to overlook the operations. However, the inspectors who sit there are not trained to handle disaster. There are no machines to rescue us if we get trapped. If something goes wrong while we are working, we have to start our own rescue work.
Photo shows coal miners working at the Soranj coalmine in Balochistan.—Photo: Fayyaz Ahmed

You must have heard of the 16 coal miners who died in Quetta, in May? We dug out their bodies ourselves, with our own hands, while the inspectors watched on.

Now, the money is good. A worker can make between Rs. 20,000 to 30,000 per month. But sometimes I don’t know if it is a job to die for.

I hope the new government regulates our industry. So many lives could be saved if we had proper surveillance and safety equipment. I can already feel my lungs failing me, but I hope I live long enough to see the change.