Sunday, 29 November 2020
ISLAMABAD, Nov 29 - The Asian elephant ‘Kavaan’ here on Sunday left for Combodian sanctuary where the animal would spend his remaining life in a healthy and happy environment.
After years of campaigning by animal rights advocates and pop star Cher to rescue him from grim conditions with no companion, Kaavan was finally set to be airlifted to an elephant sanctuary on Sunday.
Experts spent hours coaxing a slightly sedated Kaavan into a specially constructed metal crate — at one point using ropes to help pull him in — that was to be hoisted onto a lorry and taken to Islamabad airport.
From there, Kaavan will be sent via a Russian transport jumbo jet for the lengthy flight to Siem Reap in northwestern Cambodia. The plane will stop for refuelling in New Delhi. A 10-member medical team is also accompanying the 36-year-old elephant.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Climate Change (SAPM) Malik Amin Aslam, in a brief address on the occasion, said that a reception committee would receive Kaavan at the Cambodian airport.
Initially, Kaavan will be kept in a 10-acre area prepared for him, from where he will be able to see others of his species, Aslam said.
“Sending him to a place where he can be with other elephants of his kind [...] is really the right choice,” SAPM Aslam told AFP.
“We will be happy to see him happy in Cambodia and we hope he finds a partner very soon.”
Cher, the famed singer and Oscar-winning actress, spent recent days at the Islamabad zoo to provide moral support to Kaavan — an overweight, 36-year-old bull elephant — whose pitiful treatment at the dilapidated facility sparked an uproar from animal rights groups and a spirited social media campaign by the artist.
She spent several days in the Pakistani capital to visit Kaavan before the trip to a 10,000-hectare (25,000-acre) Cambodian wildlife sanctuary, with Prime Minister Imran Khan personally thanking the 74-year-old star.
“My wishes have finally come true”, Cher said in a statement thanking her charity Free The Wild.
“We have been counting down to this moment and dreaming of it for so long and to finally see Kaavan transported out of [the Islamabad] zoo will remain with us forever.” Cher was due to fly to Cambodia on Sunday to be in the Southeast Asian nation when the elephant arrives.
Kaavan's case and the woeful conditions at the zoo resulted in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) top judge this year ordering all the animals to be moved.
“Thanks to Cher and also to local Pakistani activists, Kaavan's fate made headlines around the globe and this contributed to the facilitation of his transfer,” said Martin Bauer, a spokesman for Four Paws International — an animal welfare group that has spearheaded the relocation effort.
On Friday, the IHC expressed best wishes for Kavaan and hoped that the animal would live a happy life in its natural habitat.
“This court wishes Kaavan bon voyage and expects that other animal species would be safeguarded from harm by seeking guidance from its example,” the court remarked after a hearing.
On Monday, officials and well-wishers gathered at Islamabad Zoo to bid farewell to Kaavan. He also received a farewell from President Arif Alvi and First Lady Samina Alvi at Islamabad's Marghzar Zoo on Tuesday.
'Loneliest' elephant
Dubbed by the press as the world's loneliest elephant, Kaavan is the only Asian elephant in Pakistan — the tiny number of other pachyderms at other zoos are African.
A team of vets and experts from Four Paws have spent months working with Kaavan to get him ready for the trip to Cambodia, which has included training the elephant to enter the massive metal transport crate that will be placed in a cargo plane for the seven-hour flight.
Zoo officials have in the past denied Kaavan was kept in substandard conditions or chained, claiming instead the creature was pining for a new mate after his partner died in 2012.
But Kaavan's behaviour — including signs of distress such as continual head-bobbing — raised concerns of mental illness.
Activists also said Kaavan was not properly sheltered from Islamabad's searing summer temperatures. Kaavan's mate Saheli, who also arrived from Sri Lanka, died in 2012.
Rights groups and conservationists have said that the abysmal conditions at the Islamabad zoo resulted in part from the lack of legislation in Pakistan aimed at protecting animal welfare.
“There's a lot of improvement to be made,” said Rab Nawaz with the World Wildlife Federation in Pakistan.
“Kaavan is just one animal. There's (sic) lots of animals in Pakistan [...] which are in miserable conditions."
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ISLAMABAD, NOV 29 – An agreement signed between Kube Publishing (Leicester, UK) and IPS Press – the publishing and bookselling arm of Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), Islamabad – will enable readers in Pakistan and Afghanistan to buy low-priced local editions of all books of the popular UK-based Islamic publisher.
The agreement signed by Haris Ahmad, CEO, Kube Publishing and Naufil Shahrukh, GM-IPS has also authorized IPS Press to exclusively import and distribute all Kube titles in the assigned territory.
The first title to be published under this arrangement is the Pakistan edition of Revive Your Heart: Putting Life in Perspective, authored by renowned Islamic scholar and motivational speaker Nouman Ali Khan.
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LONDON, NOV 29 – Joe Biden’s presidency will be a bigger problem for the Chinese government than Donald Trump’s nearly four-year presidency, economist Jim O’Neill, chairman of the British research institute Chatham House, told.
Trump has taken a different approach to US-China relations by unilaterally imposing tariffs on Beijing. The US president has often criticized China on Twitter and sparked a trade war with China that has had a negative effect on the global economy.
This policy differs greatly from the European approach, for example, which often negotiates trade disputes with China using traditional institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the G20.
President-elect Biden will also call for these agreements to be negotiated through multilateral institutions, which could mean more concrete action against China.
“I think the Chinese are more concerned with a Biden administration than a Trump administration,” said O’Neill, a former chief economist at Goldman Sachs and now president of Chatham House, suggesting that Biden’s team “has stronger philosophical beliefs.” in key issues.
“They (Biden’s team) will use existing multinational forums to try to force China to meet the standards of such international forums, whether it’s the WHO, the G20, the World Bank, and so on. and so on Than this “style of negotiation so loved by Trump,” he added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping called Biden earlier this week to congratulate him on his election victory. According to media reports, Xi said he hopes the two countries will uphold the spirit of “non-conflict, non-confrontation, mutual respect” when managing their differences.
One of the many points of tension between the US and China has been linked to climate change. Before the Trump presidency, Washington and Beijing often clashed over how to address high carbon dioxide levels.
However, US climate ambitions have changed with Trump, and pressure on China to step up its emissions efforts has eased somewhat. Beijing also changed its position in September – just weeks after the US presidential vote – announced its goal of reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2060.
“In a strange way, it might already force China to think a little differently,” O’Neill said of the impact of the US election on China.
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The United Kingdom will approve next week the vaccine for Covid-19 developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and the deliveries will start in a few hours from its authorization, the Financial Times publication quoted by Reuters, taken over by News.ro , reported on Saturday .
The first immunizations with the vaccine created by Pfizer and BioNTech will take place starting December 7, the Financial Times also wrote, citing sources.
Also on Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Nadhim Zahawi, currently deputy minister of business, as the minister responsible for distributing vaccines for Covid-19.
The United Kingdom announced on November 20 that it had formally requested its medical regulator, the Medicines and Medicines Regulatory Agency (MHRA), to assess the suitability of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19 as the first step in its distribution. outside the United States.
The UK has ordered 40 million doses of the vaccine, which has been shown to be 95% effective in preventing the spread of the virus, which has killed more than 1.4 million people worldwide and devastated the global economy.
The government on Friday asked the regulator to evaluate AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine for possible authorization.
The London executive has contracted 100 million doses of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and aimed to have it distributed soon in the days to come.
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KARACHI, NOV 29 - The result of today’s Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT 2020) would be announced in the next 10 days, a top official of the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) told.
Vice-President PMC Barrister Ali Raza said that over 125,000 aspiring candidates had registered for the MDCAT 2020 held today across Pakistan.
“Only 138 students informed the PMC about them being COVID-19 positive and we will take their exam on December 13,” the PMC official said.
The PMC will finalise the MDCAT results in the next 7 to 10 days, Ali Raza said.
When asked about the difficulties faced today, Raza said he visited several testing centres in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and other council members also reviewed arrangements at different centres across the country but did not find any complaints about the measures taken by the authorities.
“I asked students about the implementation of coronavirus SOPs and syllabus and they were satisfied with the steps,” the PMC VP assured.
“They were hopeful of good results.”
Ali Raza said the PMC took prompt action on reports of test paper being leaked in Peshawar. The law enforcement agencies were asked to apprehend the culprits involved in the case.
“Even the PMC did not have the paper so after the test started and we compared it with the one leaked on social media and found it to be fake.”
The PMC official added that the commission is working on a centralised information system which would help them disseminate information in real-time.
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“Following serology (blood) testing, two of the original six positive cases are now considered to be historic cases and are therefore not infectious,” the NZ health ministry said in its media release
KARACHI, NOV 29 - New Zealand Health Ministry has stated on Sunday that two of the six initial COVID-19 positive cases in the Pakistan squad are no longer infectious.
The national squad also underwent serology Tests along with routine PCR testing for the COVID-19 virus yesterday.
“Following serology (blood) testing, two of the original six positive cases are now considered to be historic cases and are therefore not infectious,” the NZ health ministry said in its media release.
The media release further said that 11 individuals return positive serology due to having historical infections. Names were not revealed by the ministry.
“As a result, a further 11 people (in addition to the two mentioned above) returned positive serology indicating previous ‘historic’ infections,” the ministry added.
Note, six members of the squad had tested positive on the first day of the team’s arrival while a seventh member tested positive yesterday.
Meanwhile, no decision has been made regarding an exemption to allow the players to train. The 53-member squad will undergo their third PCR testing on Monday
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ISLAMABAD, NOV 29 - Research shows that Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer than any other Asian country as approximately 90,000 new cases are diagnosed every year out of which 40,000 succumb to the disease. Estimates say1 in 10 women may develop Breast Cancer in their lifetime in Pakistan. The situation is not much different in other developing countries.
An ardent advocate of socio-economic well-being of populations, the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) highlighted this global health issue by holding a webinar on “Breast Cancer Awareness: Give Hope, Save Lives”today in Islamabad at its Secretariat, contributing to the global campaign of necessary awareness raising. Held virtually owing to the COVID-19 concerns, the webinar was joined by experts and participants online.
Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador (Retd.) Fauzia Nasreen (Advisor at COMSATS)emphasized on the measures that should be taken for overcoming lack of knowledge,appropriate facilities, family support and fear related to cancer in our society. She remarked that early diagnosis, access to proper medical facilities, affordable and timely care are the cornerstones of breast cancer control. She warned to take breast cancer seriously and learn about the techniques of self-diagnosis for an early detection of the disease.
Dr.Samina Naeem, ex-Associate Prof of Health Services Academy, and consultant at WHO, Pakistan, gave a comprehensive overview of the disease and stressed upon the importance of breaking the stereotypes and taboos related to it.
A survivor’s perspective also came from Dr.Fauzia Cheema, who shared the story of her experience of battling breast cancer from a point of view of a doctor facing the disease. Hers was an educational account and objective overview of healthcare system’s problems related to treatment of the disease and related social and psychological aspects.
In her keynote address, Dr.Farheen Raza, from Radiology Department of PIMS Hospital Islamabad,emphasized onscreening and the need to have community-based health education component including focused and small group discussions to overcome the social taboos and stigma attached to female illnesses. It was informed that the Federal Breast Cancer Screening Center (FBCSC)is the first ever public facility located inside Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) that offers free screening mammography for women of all socio-economic strata and is a walk-in facility. She proposed a one stop breast cancer clinic with aim to answer financial, cultural, mental and physical needs of women all under one roof as one of the ways forward towards reducing breast cancer.
From COMSATS Headquarters and Coordinator of the session, Dr. Azeem Fareed, opined that awareness is not only needed among women but also among men as they are part of the family and are equal part of the recovery journey. As a part of the pioneer team of telehealth in Pakistan, she also hoped to initiate tele-medicine training for medical practitioners in remote areas forhelping to address the issue nationwide.
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KABUL – A suicide car bomber struck an army base in Afghanistan on Sunday, killing at least 30 security personnel, officials said, in one of the bloodiest attacks in recent months.
The attack occurred on the outskirts of Ghazni city, capital of the eastern province of Ghazni, which has seen regular fighting between the Taliban and government forces.
It came as the government and Taliban are engaged in peace talks to end the war in the impoverished country that has killed tens of thousands of people in nearly two decades.
“Thirty bodies and 24 wounded people have been brought to hospital. All of them are security personnel,” Baz Mohammad Hemat, director of Ghazni hospital, told.
Interior ministry spokesman Tariq Arian said a suicide bomber had detonated a vehicle full of explosives.
“The bomber drove a Humvee vehicle right inside the base and detonated it,” Ghazni governor spokesman Wahidullah Jumazada told AFP.
No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Ghazni attack comes just days after two bombs killed 14 people in the historic city of Bamiyan, ending years of calm in the isolated town famous for its ancient Buddhist heritage.
In another suicide car bomb attack on Sunday, one civilian was killed and 20 others wounded in the southern city of Qalat in the province of Zabul, provincial police chief Hekmatullah Kochi told.
He said the attack targeted the vehicle of Zabul provincial council chief, Atta Jan Haqbayan, who was wounded.
Violence surges
Sunday’s bombings marked the latest carnage in Afghanistan, where violence has surged since the start of peace talks on September 12 in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Brutal attacks have killed more than 50 people in Kabul in recent weeks, including two assaults on educational centres and a rocket attack.
The three Kabul attacks were claimed by the militant Islamic State group, but Afghan officials blamed the Taliban — who denied any involvement.
The Taliban have launched daily attacks targeting Afghan forces despite engaging in the peace talks. The talks had been bogged down by disputes on the agenda, the basic framework of discussions and religious interpretations, but agreement has now been reached on all issues, according to sources close to the talks.
United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for “expedited discussions” during a visit to Doha last week during which he met with both Taliban and Afghan government negotiators.
The Pentagon said earlier this month that it would soon pull out some 2,000 troops from Afghanistan, speeding up the timeline of a full withdrawal by May 2021 as agreed with the Taliban in a separate deal signed in February.
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ISLAMABAD, NOV 29 - Kaavan elephant of Marghazar Zoo will shortly leave in a chartered flight to its new home in Cambodia today (Sunday).
Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on environment Malik Amin Aslam reached the Zoo to farewell to the world’s loneliest elephant.An eight-member medical and technical team conducted various tests of Kaavan before its shift to the Chaklala Airbase, from where he would be transported to Cambodia via a Russian chartered jet.
Speaking on the occasion, Malik Amin Aslam said that they are seeing-off Kaavan with an open heart and added that the federal government has put all necessary arrangements in place for his transfer.
Environment SAPM Aslam hoped that Kaavan will now lead his life cheerfully with other elephants in Cambodia.
Kaavan was brought in Pakistan back in 1985 as a gift from Sri Lanka when he was one-year-old, whose inappropriate living conditions in Marghazar Zoo had irked onlookers as he remained chained and that, too, in a tiny enclosure.
Back in May this year, the Islamabad High Court decreed relocation of Kaavan since he was treated cruelly by the authorities concerned.
Kaavan’s plight was given a boost over the years by American pop icon Cher, who publicly campaigned for the elephant’s relocation. Cher was due to arrive in Islamabad later in the week to finally meet the elephant she had worked for years to rescue and see him off.
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Muhammad Omar Iftikhar
A piece of recent news mentions about 81 Pakistani academics who have become part of the two percent scientists. The list has been compiled by Stanford University in the USA. It has names of 159683 people from across the world from all scientific disciplines. These academicians and researchers were added to the list based on an international evaluation of their research papers.
Moreover, their selection was made on a career-long citation impact until 2019. Included in this list are eleven teachers from the Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad and five scientists from the University of Haripur. This milestone achievement shows that Pakistanis do have the ability to make a difference and pursue tasks requiring cognitive skills.
The challenge here is to create a ripple effect where the same passion to learn and grow is directed and imparted among people from all social strata. These scientists can publish the summary of their research in easy-to-understand language on social media and print publications.
It will be helping those who are directly or indirectly associated with such professions to which the research is related. Translating such research in Urdu and other regional languages will be useful in its swift dissemination. Fortunately, 2% of Pakistanis are a part of such a distinguished list. However, it is the duty of these 2% Pakistanis to share their findings to help others understand their work and learn something new.
The education sector of Pakistan, apart from the need for restructuring, requires a change in its syllabus. It needs to impart practical learning among students who can question and broaden their mental horizon. Such scientists can add value to the content and syllabus by adding such information that is relevant, pertinent, and useful for the careers and professional learning of the students.
The concerned authorities must make such strategies so the students and professionals can benefit from the learning of such academicians, scientists, and researchers who make Pakistan proud.
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ISLAMABAD, NOV 29 - Prime Minister Imran Khan says US President Donald Trump would have easily won the 2020 US Presidential Election despite all the media projections against him, if it weren't for the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview on Express News programme "To The Point" aired on Saturday, the premier cited the example of Trump's re-election loss to say that although media had a very important role in society, it wasn't a threat to the rule of a country's leader.
"I have no problems with [criticism in] the media. Media can only cause a temporary loss," he told host Mansoor Ali Khan.
"The most classic example is of Donald Trump. The way the entire mainstream media attacked [him], it appeared as if Trump would lose by a landslide. [Instead] he bagged the highest number of votes in American history; it's a separate thing that [Joe] Biden received even more votes."
The prime minister said if Covid-19 had not caused widespread unemployment and deaths in the US, "then Donald Trump would have won no matter what the media did".
He said media had a big role in democracy but it sometimes didn't exhibit "responsibility along with its freedom" and resorted to "propaganda, slander campaign" and disinformation which could hurt the government efforts for economic revival.
Recalling his association with the media since his cricketing days, the premier said "criticism is an asset of society" and freedom of expression was crucial to the progression of human thought.
Asked to comment on the temporary disappearances of journalist Matiullah Jan, reporter Ali Imran Syed and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan joint director Sajid Gondal, the prime minister replied: "I don't have an idea what really happened with them [...] every time we took notice of their disappearance, the missing person was retrieved."
"I don't have an idea because I had left it upon the interior ministry," Imran added when asked whether he had any information who had picked up the three men.
Prime Minister Imran also defended the appointment of Naeem Bukhari as the Pakistan Television chairperson, saying although he was his lawyer in the Panamagate case, Bukhari had "remained a huge personality on PTV for five decades" and therefore he was considered to be the right man for the job.
Asked about Bukhari's comment regarding a ‘blackout’ of the opposition on state-run PTV, the premier took a different line.
He said the opposition should be given airtime on PTV because the channel would lose its ratings if it only became a government mouthpiece.
'No pressure'
The prime minister rubbished opposition allegations of him being "selected", saying PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif himself was launched into politics by military generals while PPP founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had served as a minister under a military dictator for several years.
He said both PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would not have reached their positions if they hadn't utilised their family names.
Asked if he had "resisted" the army leadership on any issue in the past 2.5 years, Prime Minister Imran said: "I would resist the army if it put any pressure on me. The army hasn't ever asked me not to do a single thing that I wanted to do."
He said his government's foreign policy was exactly according to the PTI manifesto, including regarding the Afghan conflict and ties with Muslim countries, and he had not come under any pressure.
Asked why Bajwa's resignation as special assistant to the prime minister on information and broadcasting was subsequently accepted, Imran said he had been given that charge "temporarily" to help revamp the information ministry.
"We had brought him so that his experience [as the ISPR chief] could be used to devise a reform roadmap," he added.
The premier reiterated that Bajwa had given a "detailed reply" to the corruption allegations levelled against his family businesses but said he could not term him "neat and clean" because it was not his job to do so.
"Those were only allegations. If somebody wants they can approach NAB (National Accountability Bureau) and request it to investigate the allegations against him," he stressed.
Tareen and PTI
Prime Minister Imran dismissed opposition allegations of victimisation through the NAB, saying most of the existing corruption cases against PML-N and PPP leaders were instituted by themselves against each other during their respective terms.
"We have left the institutions totally independent [and] we already have no control over NAB," he said.
Responding to allegations that the government had not taken any action against PTI's 'isolated' leader Jahangir Khan Tareen and Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar following the report of the sugar inquiry commission, the premier said their cases were underway in courts, the Competition Commission of Pakistan and the Federal Investigation Agency and relevant departments had been asked to act on the report.
Asked whether Tareen was still a part of the PTI, Imran said: "He no longer has any position in the party. I will not interfere with the institutions; they will complete their process and whoever is involved will be punished."
"The case is still ongoing but yes, I feel sad," the premier said when asked about the loss of his former close friend Tareen's companionship. "Jahangir says he is completely innocent [...] but yes, he is passing through a very difficult time."
Answering another question regarding his former aide Firdous Ashiq Awan, who was removed from her post before being appointed the special assistant on information to the Punjab chief minister, the prime minister denied the reported corruption allegations against her.
"There was no corruption case against her. She had problems in the information department and with a couple of our people," he said, adding that he personally investigates against such allegations against government members through the Intelligence Bureau.
'No rift with Saudi, UAE'
The prime minister defended his government's foreign policy regarding Kashmir, saying it was due to its efforts that the issue had been internationalised.
He also denied allegations of a rift between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, saying the relationship was "just fine", and termed as false reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had recalled his airplane in which he (PM Imran) was travelling while returning to Pakistan from New York last year after addressing the United Nations General Assembly.
"We were returning in his plane but after it developed a fault, we had to return [to New York] and the plane had to be replaced," Imran added.
He said the government was in touch with the United Arab Emirates authorities regarding the suspension of visas for citizens of Pakistan and nearly 10 other countries, and added that he had a good relationship with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
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