In a first, Prime Minister Imran Khan has decided to answer the questions of the public via telephone on Monday.
According to a Twitter post by the Prime Minister’s Office: “Talk directly to Prime Minister Imran Khan on telephone. […] Your questions, the prime minister’s answers.”
People Members of the public can dial this number, 051-9210809, to speak to the prime minister, starting 4pm.
This will be the first time that the PM will available to the public to answer its questions. Earlier, he had launched the Pakistan Citizen Portal.
“It is an integrated citizens grievance redressal system connecting all government organisations both at federal and provincial levels. The App will serve as a complementary channel between citizen and government.”
After coming to power, the PM had also promised to answer questions of parliamentarians during Prime Minister’s Question Hour. “Twice every month I will answer to the people during the question-answer session in the assembly,” he said at the time. But the promise never materialised.
The Daniel Pearl verdict comes at a time when the new US administration has just come to power. The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday ordered the release of four men accused of the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002, including Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the principal accused in the kidnapping and beheading of Pearl.
Daniel Pearl was Wall Street Journal’s South Asia Bureau Chief. He was working on a story about links between religious extremists in Karachi and ‘shoe-bomber’ Richard Reid. He went missing in January 2002 from Karachi and a month later, a video of Pearl’s beheading was delivered to the US Consulate in Karachi.
The White House did not take the SC order lying down and expressed outrage right after. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the decision “an affront to terror victims everywhere” and said Washington is “committed to securing justice for Daniel Pearl’s family”. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken on Friday and discussed the Daniel Pearl murder case, among other issues.
Blinken tweeted: “Spoke with @SMQureshiPTI on ensuring accountability for convicted terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and others responsible for Daniel Pearl’s murder. The Foreign Minister and I underscored the importance of continued US-Pakistan cooperation in supporting regional stability.”
The Sindh government filed a review petition on Friday, asking the SC to revisit its decision. As per news reports, the federal government will also join the review proceedings. While it may not lead to any different outcomes, lawyers believe that it could give the Sindh government a chance to keep Sheikh in jail.
Ahmed Omar Sheikh is quite notorious. According to an explainer by AP, “Sheikh was arrested by India after the 1994 kidnappings but was among terror suspects freed by India on December 31, 1999, in exchange for the hostages on an Indian Airlines aircraft that was hijacked and taken from Nepal to the then Taliban-controlled Afghan city of Kandahar.” He is also said to have been a part of the conspiracy to assassinate General Musharraf and was said to be the person who called Asif Zardari, impersonating the Indian external affairs minister from inside his prison cell, as per Dawn.
Last year in April Sheikh was found guilty of a lesser charge of kidnapping and sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of Rs 2 million to be paid to Pearl’s widow and his orphaned son who was born after the murder. The other three accused — Fahad Nasim Ahmed, Sheikh Muhammad Adil, and Syed Salman Saqib — were also cleared of all charges. They were earlier given life sentence, which was overturned. The SC order also shows how the case was mishandled by the prosecution from the start.
The case was treated on the basis of a conspiracy and never went into the details of the murder. There was no weapon recovery, which is important in a murder case. That such a sensitive and a high profile case was mishandled by our prosecution speaks volumes about our weak judicial system. It is important that we improve our judicial system as well as forensic investigation. Pakistan cannot take this lightly as the new US administration and Pakistan’s relations cannot start on a wrong footing.
“Just two kids from a small town in Pakistan, who escaped their conservative families” is how Sidra Qasim describes herself and her husband, Waqas Ali, the power couple behind Atoms – a New York-based footwear brand known for its quarter sizes and comfortable sneakers.
However, their road to success was not an easy one. In an interview with Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York, Sidra opened up about their journey and how they set up their footwear brand.
“It’s the same story taught to every Pakistani girl. We are raised from a young age to believe that our purpose in life is to find and keep a husband,” said Sidra in the first of her 11-part interview. But even as a child, Sidra had bigger dreams, and she held on to them even as her family pressurized her to get married right out of school.
Sidra, who belongs to the small town of Okara, first met Waqas at her aunt’s house. He was one of her aunt’s students.
“We’d discuss life, and society, and human emotions. It became the only chance I had to exchange my ideas with anyone. And Waqas took my opinions seriously,” she shared.
After school, Sidra enrolled in a college and became one of the only 15 female students there. It was after she successfully produced a play to help with flood relief efforts that Waqas asked her to join him in Lahore – where he had moved to study further – and become his business partner.
“It finally felt as though my talents were being recognised, and the next day I asked for my parent’s permission. But they refused,” said Sidra.
The refusal came as a blow to Sidra, who describes lying listlessly on the couch for weeks – to the point where it scared her father. Eventually, they agreed to let her move to Lahore, where she began working with Waqas on a company called ‘Social Media Art’ which aimed to help brands establish a social media presence.
As their company struggled, Waqas and Sidra grew closer.
“We never discussed the status of our relationship, but both of us could feel a closeness. We were bonded by our journey. Both of us were defying our parents,” she said. “But after a year of rejection, we had begun to lose hope.”
A ray of hope came from unlikely quarters when Sidra and Waqas met with a group of craftsmen in the local village council of Okara.
“They were making leather shoes on the floor of a two-room workshop,” she added.
Sidra returned to the workshop again and again for a week and, in the end, the craftsmen agreed to collaborate with them.
While Waqas worked on the website, Sidra ensured that the shoes they produced met the “highest quality standards”.
“We called our collection ‘Hometown Shoes.’ And after we launched our website, the first order came in right away,” said Sidra, adding that though they made a loss on the order due to the high shipping cost to France, the couple did not give up hope.
“After a year we were selling about 50 shoes per month. We were happy to have any business at all, but it wasn’t nearly enough to survive,” said Sidra. They started a highly successful Kickstarter campaign and raised $1,07,000 in 2014 by selling over 600 pairs of shoes.
After that, Sidra and Waqas got married in a small ceremony – and immediately began to work on their application for the Y-combinator accelerator program in San Francisco. “The admissions process was more selective than Harvard, and they’d helped launch companies like Airbnb and Dropbox,” Sidra added.
Although she describes their interview as a “disaster”, they did get through and moved to the US.
Their time at Y-combinator was one of making mistakes and learning from them. “We were the only company in our group who didn’t raise money. And to make matters even worse, it had been a formal event,” said Sidra, describing Demo Day which is sort of a final exam for participants of the program. “Many of our classmates had dressed up. But none of them were wearing the shoes we had sold them.”
Doing more market research helped them understand that most people wanted shoes they could wear every day, and so Sidra and Waqas shifted their focus from formal footwear to casual.
“We researched the highest quality materials, and we put all of our findings into a document called ‘Ideal, Everyday Shoe.’ Then we gave all our notes to a talented designer. Together we built a prototype, and we called them ‘Atoms,’ because we’d gone to the atomic level in search of quality.”
It took them several months to manufacture their first collection after extensive customer feedback and market research. “By the time we were ready to launch, 45,000 people had signed up for our mailing list. On the first day of sales, our website crashed,” Sidra continued.
Their company expanded to 25 employees, but they also had to go through a round of layoffs. At the beginning of the pandemic, to stay afloat in the face of dwindling funds and investors unwilling to put in more money, Atoms expanded to making masks.
“One year later we’ve sold 500,000 of them and donated 500,000 more. Our shoe business has continued to grow, and once again investors are calling on the phone,” Sidra told Humans Of New York.
She concluded the interview by talking about the change that her business has helped brought about. She has been able to help her family back in Pakistan financially. “But more importantly I’ve provided an example,” says Sidra.
One of her younger sisters is now working as a fitness coach, the other is selling sanitary pads. But the biggest transformation, she said, has been in her mother – a school headmistress who now tells her students to be financially independent and learn technology.
“She’s telling them all the things that I needed to hear as a little girl. The road was so lonely for me, and maybe I still carry some unconscious resentment,” said Sidra.
“But my mother has apologised for not supporting me more. And consciously I have forgiven her.”
Sidra and Waqas started Atoms armed with ambition, curiosity, and a passion for making shoes. Despite coming from modest, traditionally conservative upbringings, that drive took them from Okara, Pakistan, to the closest big city—Lahore, to Silicon Valley, and then to Brooklyn, where Atoms is currently based.
Prime Minister Imran Khan was interrupted twice while he was addressing a ceremony in Sahiwal on Friday.
During a cheque-distribution ceremony under the Ehsaas programme in Sahiwal, a lawyer interrupted the premier and asked for permission to make a request.
He subsequently asked the PM for the formation of a high court bench in Sahiwal so that they don’t have to go to Multan or Lahore for cases in the high court.
His request was followed by another lawyer asking the PM for permission to ask “three-four questions”. However, the PM shot down his request, saying he would have allowed him to speak had he decided to ask just one question. The lawyer could be heard saying just “two questions” but to no avail.
The PM went on to say that he doesn’t have time for “three-four questions”. The PM said that his government was planning to industrialise Pakistan so that youth can find jobs.
Imran said Sahiwal would be provided best facilities in the fields of health, education, road infrastructure and social welfare, adding that Punjab had immense potential for development in agriculture and livestock sectors.
“The Ehsaas programme is meant to provide a safety net to the lower-income households,” the premier said. He maintained that his PTI-led government under the welfare programme is aiming to provide universal health care.
Bilquis Eidi has been selected as the Person of the Decade by an international web based organisation ‘Impact Hallmarks’.
As per details, the finalists were shortlisted out of over 1.6 million notables with diverse backgrounds and from over 190 countries. According to the organisation’swebsite, the finalists were then presented to the global audience to pick out the person of their choice by voting.
In a statement, the organisation said: “As per the domino effect verdict, concerning the IH international opinion poll outcomes, Stephen Soldz, an upright ethicist and moralist from the US, Ms Bilquis Edhi, an unparalleled noted humanitarian from Pakistan and Prof Yanghee Lee, the fabled unsurpassed human rights rapporteur of the UN, have evidently stretched and segmented the top of the decade’s impact hallmarks and the opinion poll’s top ‘tri-archy’ as well.”
Bilquis Bano Edhi is a professional nurse, who heads the Bilquis Edhi Foundation. She has spent more than six decades of her life serving humanity in need. Her charity has saved over 42,000 unwanted babies so far by placing ‘jhoolas’ [cradles] at the Edhi Homes and centres across the country.
Called the Mother of Pakistan, Bilquis Edhi has already been given various national and foreign awards including Hilal-e-Imtiaz, the Lenin Peace Prize, Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice (2015), and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service, she received along with her husband Abdul Sattar Edhi in 1986.
Besides the three topmost ‘Persons of the Decade’, the verdict announcement called seven other persons “true patrons of change, the flag-bearers of righteousness and the domino effect architects of the Top-10 of the impact hierarchy of the decade,” which includes Prof. Aurangzeb Hafi from Pakistan.
“If we are lucky to find a vaccine at $6-10 per dose, we would need a total of $540 to 900 million to acquire 90 million doses. Notwithstanding the existing allocation of $150 million and some vaccines as aid, it means that we are going to need much more money.”
Will Pakistan get enough COVID-19 vaccines?
Before we answer this question, we need to know how many vaccines we need. Pakistan has set a target to vaccinate 70 million people, out of its population of more than 220 million, to achieve “herd immunity”. Most of the COVID-19 vaccines in the market require two doses to be administered to each person. This means that we need at least 140 million doses, not taking into account any wastage.
The next question we should ask is how many different vaccines there are in the market. So far, at least seven vaccines have been approved, out of which five have been approved for use outside their country of approval, including those by Pfizer, Moderna, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Sputnik V. A number of other vaccines are in advanced stages of approval, including those by Johnson & Johnson, Novovax, CanSino and Bharat Biotech.
Pakistan’s choice of vaccine will depend on three factors: price, storage and transportation requirement, and availability.
The approximate per-dose price for Pfizer is $20, Moderna $10-50 (depending upon the quantity ordered), for Sputnik V less than $10, and for AstraZeneca $3-4. The price of Sinopharm’s vaccine is unknown but news reports suggest around $145 for two doses (or roughly $72.5 per dose). The price of Sinopharm seems excessive and it is not clear if Pakistan can get a discounted rate.
The vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna need ultra-low temperatures to be stored. For instance, Pfizer’s vaccine needs to be stored at -75˚C, whereas that of Moderna needs -20˚C. This poses a serious challenge for developing countries like Pakistan, which have unreliable or mostly absent cold chains. Therefore, this handicap would prevent the wide usage of these vaccines in Pakistan. On the other hand, the Russian and Chinese vaccines as well as the one by AstraZeneca can be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures, making them much more suitable for us.
The availability of vaccine, however, poses the most significant challenge. The manufacturers of all these vaccines have mostly booked their entire capacity for 2021 already. Some of them are now planning to further ramp up their capacity very quickly. Even the companies that are still in the final stage of vaccine trials have started to book orders from customers around the world.
Looking at price and storage requirements, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine seems to be the most suitable choice for Pakistan. However, AstraZeneca has gone into a partnership with Serum Institute of India for the supply of this vaccine to our entire region – South Asia. There is no reason to believe that Serum Institute would not prioritise Indian requirements over export orders. The rivalry between India and Pakistan is not going to help either. Sources suggest that while Serum Institute has indicated availability of the vaccine for exports by the third quarter of 2021, the volume that it would be able to provide to Pakistan remains unclear. There is also a chance that this stipulated timeline is not followed.
This leaves Pakistan with the Chinese and Russian vaccines only.
Incidentally, this is not a Pakistan-specific problem and instead a challenge faced by all low-income countries, which are struggling to acquire sufficient quantities of vaccine. Out of a total of 7.2 billion doses booked so far, 5.2 billion have been booked by high or upper middle-income countries, whereas 2 billion doses have been booked by lower middle-income countries, including 1.5 billion by India alone. So far, the low-income countries have booked no significant volumes of the vaccine.
Nevertheless, it does not absolve the state of its responsibility to provide enough vaccines for its citizens and that too in a timely fashion.
What has Pakistan done so far in this regard?
We have so far adopted a three-pronged strategy. Firstly, we have joined the COVAX alliance, which is aimed at facilitating equitable access to COVID-19 vaccine. Secondly, the government is developing its own plan to acquire the vaccine and administer it through the public sector healthcare system. And lastly, the government has allowed the private sector to import the vaccine so that they can also provide them to those who can afford.
COVAX is an alliance formed through efforts of the UN, WHO and GAVI. The Alliance is planning to make 2 billion doses available by the end of 2021 for high-risk and vulnerable populations. Out of this, 1.3 billion doses will be financed by donors and provided to 92 low and lower-middle income countries including Pakistan, targeting up to 20 per cent of their population, while the rest of 700 million doses will be made available to 80 wealthier nations that have joined COVAX, on a self-financed basis. Although COVAX, owing to its sheer size, has been able to secure some sizeable contracts for vaccine supply, it is not clear if it will be able to meet its ambitious target within the stipulated time. So far, COVAX has committed 50 million doses to Pakistan, which still leaves us with another 90 million doses to procure to meet the target of 140 million vaccine doses.
For government’s own vaccine procurement, Pakistan has so far allocated $150 million to provide vaccines for the most vulnerable 5 per cent of the population. Reportedly, the government is also negotiating with development partners to get another $100 million. So far, the government has only confirmed booking for one million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine. In addition, China has also announced providing 0.5 million doses to Pakistan free of cost. These 1.5 million doses would be enough only for 750,000 people or 1 per cent of the targeted population.
The price of the Chinese contract is unknown but if it’s anywhere close to $72.5 for a dose, then it would have taken $72.5 million or almost half the allocated amount. If, however, the Chinese have given the vaccine on a discount, it might have left us with more money.
Although the government’s permission to allow private sector import of the vaccine is a good step, it is unlikely that the private sector would get a significant vaccine supply in 2021.
If we are lucky to find a vaccine at $6-10 per dose, we would need a total of $540 to 900 million to acquire 90 million doses. Notwithstanding the existing allocation of $150 million and some vaccines as aid, it means that we are going to need much more money.
Pakistan needs to act fast, mobilise financing and secure supply contracts from Chinese, Russians and those manufacturers that are in advanced stage of trials to get a timely supply of the vaccine. Then comes the challenge of vaccinating the massive target of 70 million people.
In short, Pakistan may get enough vaccine, but it is likely to take more than a year. Given the current situation, it seems that Pakistan is not likely to meet its vaccination target before the second half of 2022.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Marriyum Aurangzeb is facing criticism from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) spokesperson for goading PML-N leader Afzal Khokhar into targeting PM Imran Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, during his speech on the floor of the National Assembly.
PM’s focal person on digital media, Dr Arslan Khalid shared a video on his Twitter wherein Marriyum, who was also overheard in the Khokhar’s mic, can be seen asking Khokhar to mention Aleema Khan over her alleged corrupt practices.
اسمبلی کے فلور پر مریم اورنگزیب نے افضل کھوکر کو لقمہ دیا کہ وزیراعظم کی سیاست سے دور بہنوں پر جملے کسیں ۔یہ ہے ن لیگ کی گھٹیا اور غلیظ سیاست پر مجال اب تک کسی ایک بھی صحافی نے اسکی مذمت کہ ہو۔ مریم بی بی آپ خاتون کہلانے کے لائق نہیں جو مردوں سے غیر سیاسی خواتین پر اٹیک کروا رہیں pic.twitter.com/ytFpTvcgGi
“I did not use government funds to gift sewing machines to my sisters,” he said referring to Imran Khan. His remarks were cheered on by the PML-N lawmakers. However, the PTI said that it was unfair of Marriyum to target the sisters of PM Imran who aren’t even a part of politics.
Khokhar also tabled a privilege motion. During the session, while talking about the operation to demolish his Lahore residence, the Khokhar Palace, the PML-N leader told the House that the administration had stormed his place late at night and destroyed furniture among other things.
“This type of attitude of Punjab authorities will not be tolerated,” he said.
The same session saw PML-N’s Ahsan Iqbal getting a dressing down by the NA speaker. “Please mind your tone. You have been a minister, and you call yourself ‘professor’… is this the way to talk?” Asad Qaiser chided Iqbal who kept talking back at the speaker.
CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS AGAINST ALEEMA:
In 2019, Aleema was accused of concealing her offshore assets in the United Arab Emirates and New Jersey.
Aleema Khan maintained that her foreign assets had nothing to do with the charity funding. Aleema said she had made her fortune through inherited property and sewing machines.
“My textile export business has represented international buyers and assisted Pakistani textile mills in business development, procuring orders which have averaged over Rs2 billion worth of exports yearly from Pakistan and contributed to the economy,” The News had reported at the time.
Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken suo motu notice of Aleema’s property in Dubai on November 28. Subsequently, Aleema was asked to pay Rs29.4 million in taxes and fines — a move dubbed as NRO by the opposition.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has adopted amendments that would allow Gulf state to grant citizenship to investors and other professionals, including scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, authors and their families, the government said on Saturday.
“The UAE cabinet, local Emiri courts and executive councils will nominate those eligible for the citizenship under clear criteria set for each category,” Dubai’s ruler and UAE Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum tweeted.
We adopted law amendments that allow granting the UAE citizenship to investors, specialized talents & professionals including scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, authors and their families. The new directives aim to attract talents that contribute to our development journey.
“The law allows receivers of the UAE passport to keep their existing citizenship,” Sheikh Mohammed added.
It was unclear if new passport holders would benefit from the public welfare system. The UAE spends billions of dollars each year on free education, healthcare, housing loans and grants for its estimated 1.4 million citizens.
Foreigners in the UAE usually have renewable visas valid for only a few years tied to employment. The government in recent has made its visa policy more flexible, offering longer residencies for certain types of investors, students and professionals.
Last year, the government extended its “golden” visa system — that grants 10-year residency in the Gulf state — to certain professionals, specialised degree-holders and others.
Defending his party’s move to hold the upcoming election of the upper house of the parliament through open ballot, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has spoken of bribes paid to buy loyalties, revealing that he himself had been offered some.
“Money goes to the very top,” the premier said while speaking to media on Friday.
According to Dawn, PM Imran claimed that 20 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were paid Rs50 million each during the last Senate poll to vote in favour of certain candidates.
Saying that the parties opposing the amendment aimed at curbing corruption would stand exposed, he added the PTI had expelled the 20 members after they were found guilty of horse-trading by an investigation committee.
“We also know who is raising money to buy loyalties this time,” he said, without naming anyone.
He termed the practice “betrayal” with Pakistan because the Senate had a particular “status and role” since it represented the provinces in the federation.
The premier said it reflected poorly on the kind of people who came to the Senate through money and questioned the ability of such lawmakers to represent their respective provinces. “Apart from that, what kind of democracy is this where legislators sell their vote by taking money?” he asked.
Acknowledging that his government did not have a two-thirds majority in the lower house, the premier said the ruling party would still try to present the amendment for open ballot in the Senate elections to curb horse-trading.
Ayeza Khan has dethroned Aiman Khan to become the most followed Pakistani celebrity on Instagram with 8 million followers. Aiman has 7.9 million followers on the social media application while Mahira Khan follows closely behind with 7 million followers.
“Thank you guys so much for the love and respect! It is exciting to have such a huge number of followers here,” said Ayeza celebrating the milestone.
The actor then went to talk about her journey as an actor and how she focused on her work and not on increasing her Instagram followers.
“I must say that the only reason I am able to celebrate this today is that I know how hard I worked to achieve whatever I have on this day,” said Ayeza. “I never focused my work and life towards getting a bigger number of followers. It never works in the long run. My mother has always taught me that it’s important to work hard and build your legacy and be patient. When you have those all the good stuff comes without you knowing.”
Ayeza further talked about the disproportionate relationship between the numbers of followers and influence one can have.
“Growing number of followers doesn’t guarantee a long term success if you’re hollow from the inside. There is a reason why someone with a few thousand followers on Instagram can have more influence on people than someone with tons of millions of followers,” said Ayeza, adding: “Please don’t be that fool that runs after numbers.”
The actor continued: “For me, I never worked towards growing my Instagram numbers. Instead, I have always focused all my energy into my work, my acting and modelling especially, and the fan following grew itself.”
“I’m thankful to all of you guys because it feels great to have so many people recognise your talent and work, rather than blindly taping that follow button and not even knowing what I actually do,” she concluded.
