FARUKH SHEHZAD

ISLAMABAD, JUL 22: National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf said on Thursday that Afghanistan was being embarrassed by "idiotic statements" from its senior officials who were deliberately trying to spoil its bilateral relations with Pakistan.

In a series of tweets, the NSA said it was unfortunate for Afghans that senior officials — acting as spoilers — were trying to "vitiate bilateral relations" between Pakistan and Afghanistan through "vitriolic and delusional statements" to avert "attention from their own failures".

"Afghanistan is being embarrassed daily due to these idiotic statements. Afghans should rest assured that everyone can see through the nefarious agenda of these spoilers.

"We will not let a handful of venomous minds affect Pakistan’s support to all Afghans for peace and stability," said Yusuf.

He said Pakistan remained "committed" to facilitating an inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan.

"In this spirit, Prime Minister Imran Khan agreed to meet President [Ashraf] Ghani recently to continue our engagement."

Afghanistan being embarrassed by 'idiotic' statements from senior officials - TWEET THIS?

Last week, Prime Minister Imran Khan had hit back at President Ghani's claims about Pakistan's "negative role" in the Afghan peace process, adding that it was "unfair" to blame the country for the situation in Afghanistan.

"We have made every effort, short of taking military action against the Taliban in Pakistan, to get them on the dialogue table and to have a peaceful settlement [in Afghanistan].

"To blame Pakistan for what is going on in Afghanistan is extremely unfair," the premier had said in his comments at the international conference on "Central and South Asia Regional Connectivity: Challenges and Opportunities" during his two-day visit to Uzbekistan.

That same day on Friday, the Foreign Office had denied allegations by Afghan Vice President that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had issued an official warning to Afghan security forces to repel any action by the latter to dislodge the Taliban from the border crossing of Spin Boldak.

The Afghan vice president had also claimed that PAF was providing air support to the Taliban.

Such allegations "undermine Pakistan’s sincere efforts to play its part in an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led solution" for restoring peace in Afghanistan, the FO had said in its response, stressing that "at this critical juncture, all energies are focused on achieving an inclusive, broad-based and comprehensive political settlement in Afghanistan".

Similarly, the FO had in May conveyed its serious concerns to Afghanistan regarding "irresponsible statements and baseless allegations" made by the Afghan leadership after Ghani claimed that Pakistan "operated an organised system of support" for the Taliban in an interview with a German publication.

Afghanistan being embarrassed by 'idiotic' statements from senior officials - TWEET THIS?

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COURTESY dawnnews

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MOSCOW, JUL 21: Russia will reinforce its military base in Tajikistan with 17 infantry fighting vehicles, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday citing the military, amid conflict in neighbouring Afghanistan.

The base will receive new BMP-2 vehicles this month, Interfax quoted Alexander Lapin, commander of Russia's Central Military District, which will "significantly boost the combat capacity" of its units.

'Russia to reinforce military base in Tajikistan' - TWEET THIS?

Taliban fighters have made major advances in Afghanistan as U.S. forces pull out after 20 years of war, a security headache for Moscow.

Russian tanks deployed near the Afghan-Tajik border on Tuesday ahead of military exercises next month and Moscow announced more drills in neighbouring Uzbekistan as regional tensions over the Taliban's territorial gains remained high.

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He was admitted at a private hospital in Lahore

ISLAMABAD, JUL 21: Senior journalist Arif Nizami passed away at a private hospital in Lahore Wednesday afternoon.

He was hospitalised after a heart attack two weeks back. The details of his funeral prayers will soon be revealed.

Nizami was the editor of The Nation and the president of the Pakistan Council of Newspaper Editors.

Senior journalist Arif Nizami passes away - TWEET THIS? 

In 2013, the veteran journalist served as the caretaker minister for information and postal service during former caretaker prime minister Mir Hazar Khan Khoso’s cabinet.

He was the son of Hameed Nizami, the founder of the Nawa-i-Waqt Group of newspapers.

Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed condolences and prayers to the deceased’s family. “Saddened to learn of the passing of veteran journalist, editor, and political commentator Arif Nizami. My condolences and prayers go to his family”.

Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that he had a “long relationship” with Nizami.

“I am heartbroken to hear of the demise of Arif Nizami. I had a long relationship with him. His father Hameed Nizami and my grandfather Chaudhry Owais were companions in Tehreek-e-Pakistan. May God have mercy on the elders,” he tweeted.

Senior journalist Arif Nizami passes away - TWEET THIS? 

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COURTESY samaa.tv

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ISLAMABAD, JUL 21: As Pakistanis celebrated their second Eidul Azha under the shadow of the worsening coronavirus situation, the president, prime minister and other leaders emphasised the spirit of sacrifice and urged people to follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) to stop the coronavirus from spreading.

President Dr Arif Alvi wished Eid Mubarak and prayed for forgiveness, unity and an end to the pandemic.

He appealed to the nation to strictly observe coronavirus precautionary measures including wearing masks, washing hands and maintaining social distancing, so it could succeed in defeating the pandemic, according to an APP report.

Prime Minister Imran Khan recalled that the spirit of sacrifice was universal, noting that no nation could progress until it had the spirit of sacrifice and altruism.

"Qurbani (ritual animal sacrifice) does not only mean sacrificing the animal but it also refers to man sacrificing his desires for a higher purpose. This passion gives rise to such an ability in a man that even the hardest times do not make him go astray from the right path," the Prime Minister's Office quoted him as saying.

The premier added that this was "the same spirit of sacrifice because of which the Pakistani nation had been protected from the universal pandemic through great intelligence, a national strategy and courage".

The country's economic situation — previously beset by difficulties — was changing, he said, adding, "Our economy is [headed] in the right direction."

He further stated that economic indicators were "encouraging" because of steps taken by the government and people were being provided relief.

"The day is not far when Pakistan will stand alongside developed countries and the entire nation's head will be raised with pride in front of the world," he added.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi wished Eid Mubarak to "all Muslims".

"May we embrace the very spirit of the occasion; of sacrifice, patience and helping those less fortunate," he tweeted.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed prayed for the country to be protected from the enemy's designs.

Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar too echoed the need to celebrate Eid while following precautionary measures against the coronavirus.

Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood prayed for Eidul Azha to bring "bring great joy and happiness" to everyone.

He also conveyed wishes for students who will be giving exams. "It has not been easy but you will come out of this experience as winners," he assured.

While wishing the nation Eid Mubarak, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari reminded them that the pandemic was not yet over and the festival should be celebrated with simplicity.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar termed Eidul Azha a festival of "sacrifice, altruism and love".

"It is our social and religious obligation to celebrate the happiness with deprived sections of the society," he said, calling upon people to cooperate with the district administrations to ensure that the environment was kept clean.

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KARACHI: In line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to promote tourism and regional connectivity in the country, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has issued a licence to a newly launched private airline to operate flights in Pakistan.

According to details, the PCAA has approved the issuance of Tourism Promotion & Regional Integration (TPRI) licence to the country’s private airline named Alvir Airways (Pvt) Ltd for a period of five years under National Aviation Policy 2019.

“The license has been issued in line with the vision of the Prime Minister of Pakistan to promote tourism and regional connectivity,” the PCAA press release said.

Director General Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority Khaqan Murtaza, Additional DG CAA (Air Vice Marshal) Jamal Arshad, Deputy Director General (Regulatory) Nadir Shafi Dar, Director Air Transport & Economic Regulations Irfan Sabir presented the license to Chief Executive Officer Alvir Airways Tehseen Awan, Managing Director Syeda Huma Batool, Chief Operating Officer Capt.

Alvir Airways will begin its operations with two Embraer aircraft and will increase its fleet by adding more aircraft in the future.

Initially, the private airline will operate flights to Gwadar, Skardu and Turbat with hub stations at three major airports of Pakistan including Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.

The TPRI operations would facilitate locals and foreigners to explore Pakistan through safe and comfortable air transport and present a better image of Pakistan to the world, the press statement read.

Back in May, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had issued TPRI (Tourism Promotion and Regional Integration) license to a newly launched private airline named North Air.

As per details, the privately launched new airline is planned to operate flights for Gilgit, Skardu, Chitral and Gwadar.

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ISLAMABAD, JUL 19: StormFiber, Pakistan’s leading fiber to the home (FTTH) Internet, TV, and Phone services provider, today announced that it has deployed IPv6 for all of its fiber broadband customers – spanning 13 major cities. It comes as an important step in Pakistani ISP industry, one which is crucial to meet the growth in users across Pakistan.

IPv6 is the next generation Internet Protocol (IP) address standard intended to ultimately replace IPv4, the protocol that many internet services still utilize today. With a large number of users coming online every mobile phone, computer, and internet connected device requires an IP address in order to communicate over the internet. The original IP address scheme, IPv4, uses 32 bit addressing scheme to support 4.3 billion addresses which has been completely exhausted. As a result, existing service providers use techniques such as NAT (network address translation) which carries overhead, and some internet-based services are unable to function properly as a result.

IPv6 uses 128 bit addressing system to support approximately 340 trillion addresses. According to latest reports, the number of IoT devices globally will reach around 46 billion this year, a 200% jump from 2016, and is projected to reach more than 125 billion by 2030. ISPs now more than ever must adopt IPv6 in their network. The benefits of IPv6 include auto-configuration and efficient routing for network operators. It will facilitate customers to access their IPv6 enabled devices remotely, bypassing the need for cloud. Principal content partners Google, Facebook and Akami also use IPv6 for content delivery.

Danish. A Lakhani, CEO Cyber Internet Services said:

 “We are committed to building out important components of the internet infrastructure in Pakistan and to enabling our citizens to connect to the internet in the fastest, most secure method possible -- with the lowest possible latency. As Pakistan emerges as one of the world’s largest consumers of the internet, the adoption of IPv6 in service provider networks is now critical to bringing citizens online since the IPv4 address space has been exhausted.”

Fawad Laher, Managing Director, StormFiber added, “We've observed unprecedented growth in network traffic over recent years. IPv6 is crucial to the continued growth of the internet, which is globally bringing devices and people together. It is an important step in facilitating the continued growth and upgraded performance of IP networks globally.”

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Amjad Qasmi, General Manager – Network Operations and Engineering, said: “IPv6 enabled devices can now interact with destination servers compatible with the same technology. In order to ensure that web content and applications remain accessible, StormFiber has enabled “dual-stack” where IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are both available to support consumers, while maintaining performance, security, and reliability.”

In the last one-year cumulative adoption percentage of IPv6 in Pakistan has grown from 0.1% to 2.6% , this growth is largely attributed to the contribution of StormFiber. In contrast India has the highest IPv6 penetration in the world at 74% thanks to widespread adoption by the country’s mobile operators. Adoption in Malaysia stands at 47.23%, Saudi Arabia at 45% and the USA at 43%. IPv6 is the foreseeable successor of IPv4, and its adoption is inevitable. In order to support internet growth in Pakistan, other industry players especially mobile operators with the largest number of devices connected on the internet will have to step up implementation of IPv6.

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ISLAMABAD, JUL 19: The renewable energy production in Pakistan is getting increased and will soon account for seven per cent of the total electricity generated in the country.

This was disclosed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Alternative Development Board (AEDB), Shah Jahan Mirza, while speaking at the International Renewable Energy Conference organized here at a hotel. The CEO of AEDB informed audience of the conference that at present the functional wind, solar, and some other renewable energy projects in the country had been producing 2,000 Megawatts of clean electricity. He said the under-construction wind and solar projects in the country would produce another 850 MWs of renewable energy.

On this occasion Mian Ghulam Mohiuddin Ahmad, CEO of SGS Electrical Company, said that his company had been working hard to help the Pakistani fan industry adopt the necessary technological innovations to save electricity through their appliances. He said that his company had introduced a fan in the Pakistani market, which was capable of saving up to 80 per cent electricity to the benefit of the power consumers.

In the Last CEO of Prosun Solar, Muhammad Tahir, said that his company had been making efforts to introduce special solar-powered appliances for areas of Pakistan that were off-grid and didn’t have electricity. He said that his company had also the plan to work with the concerned regulatory authorities of the energy sector to prevent sale and usage of substandard solar equipment and products in the country. He said the solar energy sector had a very bright future in Pakistan as the country had massive potential to produce electricity using alternative power resources.

Chairman ADB SHAH JAHAN Mirza said that the solar and wind projects alone were not facing the issue of non-payment of dues against electricity produced by them as the issue is of general nature pertaining to all the power plants in the country owing to the problem of circular debt. He said the AEDB had been making progress to introduce the system of international competitive bidding to promote electricity generation through clean resources in the country.

“Although we have an ambitious target of clean electricity generation in the country but we will try our best to achieve it,” said the AEDB chief.

He said that they had been waiting for the finalization of the generation expansion plan by the government as this would be helpful to determine the exact year-wise need to generate clean electricity to overcome the energy shortfall in the country. He assured the participants that more electricity would be drawn from the wind and solar power projects already functional in the country with an increase in nationwide energy demand.

Speaking on the occasion, Naeem Qureshi of Energy Update, stressed the need for greater interaction and dialogue between concerned stakeholders of the government and private sectors to promote the cause of clean power generation in the country. He said that more such conferences should be organized as a common platform having participation of the concerned quarters to mutually discuss and sort out issues of the renewable energy sector.

After this session the Managing Editor of Energy Updates Mr. Naeem Qureshi, Organg Foods Ceo Najam Mazari, Mubeen Amjad and Rashid Ansari also join the conference as the speakers and address to the conference.

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ISLAMABAD, JUL 19: The Government of Japan has decided to implement 7 new Japanese technical cooperation programs in Pakistan to cater the social needs and assist capacity building for growing industries at the federal and provincial level.

Including these 7 programs, the Japanese Government will implement a total of 25 technical cooperation programs in Pakistan in fiscal year 2021.

The new Japanese technical cooperation programs, starting in fiscal year 2021, include the projects and dispatch of experts for improvement in health, education, agriculture, gender and information technology sectors and would be implemented by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) over the period of around three years. 

The programs cover areas such as (1) strengthening care for mothers, newborn and child health in KP, (2) dispatching Education Policy Advisor to Sindh, (3) strengthening of community engagement and educational practices for better retention in Sindh, (4) providing technical support for livestock genetic improvement in Sindh, (5) coaching trout farming technology in KP, (6) promoting survivor-centered approach in gender-based violence in Punjab and (7) dispatching Technical Advisor for ICT industry development in Pakistan.

For the effective implementation of these programs, JICA, besides dispatching of Japanese experts for capacity building of counterpart organizations, would conduct online trainings to share Japanese expertise and experience under the restrictions on overseas travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

H.E. Mr. MATSUDA Kuninori, the Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, citing his optimism on the new Japanese technical cooperation programs, stated that these programs with their successful implementation would greatly benefit the Government and the people of Pakistan at the federal and provincial level.

“Capacity building in health, education, agriculture, gender and ICT sectors are some of the priority areas for Japanese assistance in Pakistan”, said the Ambassador.

The Ambassador hoped that these projects would contribute towards the bright future of Pakistan and further strengthening of Japan-Pakistan relations.

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Taliban wants durable peace in Afghanistan

Editor-In-Chief / Farukh Shehzad

Exclusive Report / Diplomaticnewspk.blog

ISLAMABAD, JUL 19: While giving an interview on a private news channel of Pakistan few days ago Taliban Spokesman Suhail Shaheen has said that Afghan forces do not put trust on Afghanistan administration therefore they are joining us voluntarily and with their own will.

Taliban Spokesman said the speculations are being circulating about the occupation of Taliban on more than 210 districts in media are totally wrong.

Suhail Shaheen of Taliban further said that earlier when the foreign forces were in Afghanistan before the peace deal, Afghan forces were afraid of them but now when outside forces left the place so they started joining us voluntarily.

Suhail Shaheen said Taliban wants durable peace in Afghanistan with a focus on development of the country after forming their government.

Taliban Spokesman said we shall not allow any individual or any group to use our soil against any country.

Our mission is very clear that we shall establish Islamic values and pure Islamic government in Afghanistan and our people also standing with us, said Taliban Spokesman Suhail Shaheen.

Suhail Shaheen also said that, we want to build fraternal relations with Pakisan.

Responding to a question on use of technology in your government, Taliban Spoxman said that we are not against use of Technology in fact we shall utilize this modern tool to get further benefits.

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Laal Meat is offering simple and safe means of sacrifice for people across the country,

Renowned personalities from Pakistan’s media and showbiz industries are adopting means of performing their sacrifices online with respect to an imminent 4th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

KARACHI, JUL 18: According to details, some of the most leading names from Pakistan’s media industry and showbiz are taking precautions as influential public figures to avoid severe damages due to the 4th wave of COVID-19.

With Eid-ul-Adha around the corner, the ritual of sacrifice is essential and these celebrities are opting for online mediums to fulfill their religious obligations. Renowned names like Behroz Subzwari, Faisal Qureshi, Javaid Sheikh, Shahood Alvi, Sarwat Gillani, Yasir Nawaz, Ali Khan, Naveed Raza, Natasha Ali, Saleem Afridi, Chef Rida Aftan as well as anchor person Nadia Mirza and Fahim Abbas have conveyed messages to the public that crowded places must be avoided.

They also asserted the need for adopting online sacrificial channels for their own safety as well as that of their loved ones. They further added that Laal Meat is offering the convenience of receiving your meat at your door step in the most convenient manner.

Tabish Haider, the CEO of Laal Meat stated that the sole reason behind introducing online sacrifice was to protect against COVID-19. He added that all sacrifices are made in hygenic conditions while the hides of the animals are donated to Indus Hospital. This initiative is in operation since last year.

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KABUL/ISLAMABAD, JUL 18: Afghanistan recalled its ambassador from Pakistan days after the envoy's daughter was abducted and "severely tortured" in the capital Islamabad, Afghan officials said on Sunday.

Waheed Omar, an aide to Afghan President Mohammed Ashraf Ghani, said on Twitter that the Foreign Ministry has been directed to ensure that those responsible for the incident are punished and that the security of the Afghan ambassador and diplomats in Pakistan is guaranteed.

He said Ghani made the decision after the Friday kidnapping of Silsila Alikhel, the daughter of Afghan Ambassador to Islamabad Najibullah Alikhel.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry also said that a delegation is scheduled to visit Pakistan in the near future to investigate and follow the latest case and related issues, which will be discussed in light of the delegation's findings.

The ambassador's daughter was kidnapped and "severely tortured" in the capital Islamabad on Friday afternoon before being thrown out with her hands tied behind her back, according to the local Salam Afghanistan radio.

Afghanistan has demanded Pakistan swiftly identify and bring to justice those responsible for the assault.

Strongly condemning the "heinous act," the Afghan government expressed its deepest concerns over the safety and security of diplomats, their families, and staff members of Afghan political and consular missions in Pakistan.

Relations between Pakistan and its neighbor Afghanistan remain tense, with Kabul accusing Islamabad of arming and supporting the Taliban insurgents.

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