FARUKH SHEHZAD

ISLAMABAD, SEPT 10: “Prime Minister Imran Khan, Dr. Sania Nishtar and the entire government machinery that worked to make the Ehsas Education Stipend program a reality deserve a huge gratitude.

This program has been launched at a time when Pakistan is struggling to prevent millions of marginalized students, especially girls from dropping out of schools in the aftermath of the pandemic-triggered financial strain experienced by households across the country.” These views were expressed by Areebah Shahid, Executive Director, Pakistan Youth Change Advocates (PYCA).

The recently announced Ehsas Education Stipend program has been structured along the lines of Ehsaas’ Stipend policy that incentivizes higher stipend amounts for girls as compared to boys. Under the Ehsaas Education Stipends, boys enrolled at the primary level will receive quarterly stipends of Rs. 1,500 and girls Rs. 2,000. Similarly, secondary school-going boys will receive Rs. 2,500 and girls Rs. 3,000 and at the higher secondary level, boys will get Rs. 3,500 and girls Rs. 4,000 per quarter.

Upon the attainment of 70% attendance of their children, the education stipends will be paid biometrically to the mothers.

Explaining the long-term importance of the Ehsas Education Stipend scheme, Hisham Khan, Program Coordinator at PYCA said, “The introduction of this program will reduce the burden of the provinces to shoulder the stipend schemes alone and give them fiscal space to allocate their education development funds for other urgently needed interventions such as school nutrition or school midday meal programs and for uplifting the quality of overall education.”

Adding to this, Ms. Shahid pointed out, “The nationwide roll-out of the Ehsas Education Stipend program will especially benefit students in those provinces that do not currently have cash support schemes for out-of-school children.

This step will also make Ehsas a more sustainable intervention by ensuring that the next generation of the beneficiary families is not unskilled and illiterate.”

Pakistan currently has 22.8 million out-of-school children, the majority of whom are girls. It is feared that millions more might drop-out in the backdrop of the on-going pandemic.

And so, while the launch of the Ehsas Education Stipend program is a welcome step for the future of Pakistani children, it is equally important that the provinces to use the greater fiscal space being created for them through this intervention to prioritize investment in enhancing the quality of education in public schools.

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ISLAMABAD, SEPT 10: MIYAWAKI Akira, a Japanese botanist and expert in plant ecology passed away at the age of 93 in July this year. In Pakistan, He is known for “Miyawaki method,” tree planting approach actively promoted at the initiative of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Under this approach, dozens of species that suit the environment are planted in the same area, close to each other, which ensures their growth in a competitive environment, allowing the trees to grow faster compared to normal plantation.

On the sad demise of Dr. Miyawaki, PM Khan conveyed his sincerest condolences, which has been shared with Yokohama National University, where Dr. Miyawaki worked as Professor Emeritus.

In response, UMEHARA Izuru, President of Yokohama National University, has conveyed his appreciations to PM Khan upon receiving his condolence message.

MATSUDA Kuninori, the Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan honors the life and work of the late Professor Miyawaki, and expresses deepest appreciation to the Prime Minister for his condolences and sympathies over the passing away of Dr. Miyawaki and also for his initiative of adopting the “Miyawaki Method”.

“I hope that by tree planting activities, with the cherished memory of the late Professor Miyawaki, trees and forests throughout Pakistan will grow strongly, as Pakistan will do certainly”, said the Ambassador.

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KARACHI, SEPT 10: TPL Trakker, Pakistan’s leading IoT Company for Tracking, Telematics, Mapping, and Location Based Services, has recently partnered with Dukan.pk in a bid to optimize the operations of e-commerce platforms in Pakistan.

Dukan.pk is an e-commerce platform that lets anyone with a smart mobile phone open their e-commerce business within 29 seconds. It represents a dynamic shift in how businesses are run in Pakistan.

Recent times have seen a surge in online business with new ecommerce platforms launching their operations to facilitate people for their daily shopping needs from the comfort of their homes. To leverage this growing demand for ecommerce platforms, Dukan.pk, offers sellers and entrepreneurs an easy option to open an online store in just a few steps. This initiative will inspire, educate, and connect the growing community of emerging ecommerce entrepreneurs.

TPL Trakker’s Location Based Services (LBS) will ensure that Dukan.pk has complete local knowledge of Pakistan maps thanks to its largest dataset covering 400 cities, over 5 million geocoded addresses, and 600,000 kilometres of the road network.

Dukan sellers & buyers will be able to share locations with updated information that international location-based service providers fail to give. Such collaboration between two Pakistani companies will ultimately give a boost to the inception of small businesses in Pakistan, leading to an enhanced economy of the country.

Small businesses are the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and constitute nearly 90% of all the enterprises in the country, 80% of the non-agricultural labour force, and contribute  40% of GDP annually. This calls for an efficient digital ecosystem that ensures extremely smooth and uninterrupted operations of these businesses on ecommerce platforms.

To mark the occasion, a signing ceremony was held between TPL Trakker and Dukan.pk with Sarwar Ali Khan, CEO of TPL Trakker, and Monis Rahman, Co-founder Dukan.pk along with Zohair Ali, Director Channel Success.

“At TPL Trakker, we are committed to supporting start-ups to build synergies. It is always a pleasure to encourage local Pakistani organizations that serve small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. Dukan.pk is a platform for the hyper local businesses and consumers and these are the consumers we aim to serve to help them grow and expand.” said Sarwar Ali Khan, CEO TPL Trakker.

“Dukan is designed in the unique local context to address issues Pakistani e-commerce businesses face. Partnering with TPL, which offers Pakistan's premier digital mapping service, complements our mission. This partnership will help us make the fulfillment process smooth for sellers and help them grow their businesses on our platform.” said Zohair Ali, Director Channel Success.

In a recent event, TPL Trakker also won two brand of the year awards Fleet Management Solution and Vehicle Tracking & Security, once again proving to be industry leaders with their innovative telematics solutions.

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TOKYO, SEPT 9: Japan extended emergency COVID-19 restrictions on Thursday in Tokyo and other regions until the end of this month to curb infections and prevent hospitals being overwhelmed.

Announcing the extension, ratified earlier by an advisory panel, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said it was needed to shore up a medical system still stretched by serious cases even though new infections were falling and vaccinations were rising.

"Inoculation of all those who wish to be vaccinated will be completed in October or November," Suga told reporters. "And from then, we will be able to ease restrictions by using proof of vaccination or testing results."

Japan has been struggling with a fifth wave of the virus and last month extended its long-running curbs until Sept. 12 to cover about 80% of its population.

The number of severe cases and the strain on the medical system have not eased sufficiently in Tokyo and surrounding areas to allow restrictions to be lifted. The measures will now stretch until Sept. 30, including for Osaka in the west.

Japan's emergency curbs have centred on asking restaurants to close early and refrain from serving alcohol. Residents are being urged to work from home as much as possible and refrain from travel.

"I believe we're starting to see results, but it's still too early to lower our guard," Health Minister Norihisa Tamura said.

Looking back on his time in office, Suga told a news conference that not having been able to secure enough hospital beds was one major regret.

In a surprise announcement last week, Suga said he was stepping down, ending a one-year term as prime minister that has seen his support crumble as COVID-19 surged.

"My days in office have been absorbed with the battle against the coronavirus ... I had a tough time securing enough medical care. That is one big point of reflection," he said.

With hospital beds filled to or nearing capacity, many people have been forced to convalesce at home, with some dying before they can get treatment.

INTERNATIONAL ENTRY RESTRICTIONS

The Nikkei newspaper reported that the government was moving towards easing international entry restrictions by reducing quarantine times for vaccinated travelers. The move has been urged by Keidanren, Japan's main business lobby, and foreign chambers of commerce.

"We welcome any proposal to re-open Japan's borders to business travel, as part of a science-based approach to preserving public health," Christopher LaFleur, special advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, said.

LaFleur said many of Japan's top trade partners allow vaccinated travelers to enter freely and mandate quarantines of 10 days for those without shots, and that it was "reasonable that Japan adopt the same policy."

Local media have reported that the government may allow restaurants to resume regular business hours and alcohol sales as the vaccination push nears completion in October and November.

About half of the population has now been fully vaccinated in Japan.

Tokyo's new daily coronavirus infections totaled 1,834 on Wednesday. Japan has reported around 1.6 million cases and 16,436 deaths but the death rate has declined in the latest outbreak. The 1% fatality rate compares with 1.6% in the United States and 1.9% in Britain.

Shigeru Omi, Japan's chief health advisor, said on Wednesday the pandemic fight was shifting to focus more on the threat of new viral variants or a possible decline in the effectiveness of vaccines.

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COURTESY reuters

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ISLAMABAD, SEPT 9: Facebook’s encrypted messaging service WhatsApp isn’t as private as it claims, according to a new report.

The popular chat app, which touts its privacy features, says parent Facebook can’t read messages sent between users. But an extensive report by ProPublica on Tuesday claims that Facebook is paying more than 1,000 contract workers around the world to read through and moderate WhatsApp messages that are supposedly private or encrypted, reported New York Post.

What’s more, the company reportedly shares certain private data with law enforcement agencies, such as the US Department of Justice.

The revelation comes after Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said that WhatsApp messages are not seen by the company. “We don’t see any of the content in WhatsApp,” the CEO said during testimony before the US Senate in 2018.

Privacy is touted even when new users sign up for the service, with the app emphasizing that “your messages and calls are secured so only you and the person you’re communicating with can read or listen to them, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp.”

“Those assurances are not true,” said the ProPublica report. “WhatsApp has more than 1,000 contract workers filling floors of office buildings in Austin, Texas, Dublin and Singapore, where they examine millions of pieces of users’ content.”

Facebook acknowledged that those contractors spend their days sifting through content that WhatsApp users and the service’s own algorithms flag, and they often include everything from fraud and child porn to potential terrorist plotting.

A WhatsApp spokeswoman told The Post: “WhatsApp provides a way for people to report spam or abuse, which includes sharing the most recent messages in a chat. This feature is important for preventing the worst abuse on the internet. We strongly disagree with the notion that accepting reports a user chooses to send us is incompatible with end-to-end encryption.”

According to WhatsApps’s FAQ page, when a user reports abuse, WhatsApp moderators are sent “the most recent messages sent to you by the reported user or group.” ProPublica explained that because WhatsApp’s messages are encrypted, artificial intelligence systems “can’t automatically scan all chats, images and videos, as they do on Facebook and Instagram.”

Instead, the report revealed that WhatsApp moderators gain access to private content when users hit the “report” button on the app, identifying a message as allegedly violating the platform’s terms of service.

This forwards five messages, including the allegedly offending one, along with the four previous ones in the exchange — plus any images or videos — to WhatsApp in unscrambled form, according to unnamed former WhatsApp engineers and moderators, who spoke to ProPublica.

Aside from the messages, the workers see other unencrypted information such as names and profile images of a user’s WhatsApp groups, as well as their phone number, profile photo status message, phone battery level, language and any related Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Each reviewer handles upward of 600 complaints a day, which gives them less than a minute per case. Reviewers can either do nothing, place the user on “watch” for further scrutiny or ban the account.

ProPublica said WhatsApp shares metadata, or unencrypted records that can reveal a lot about a user’s online activity, with law enforcement agencies such as the Department of Justice.

 The outlet claimed that WhatsApp user data helped prosecutors build a high-profile case against a Treasury Department employee who leaked confidential documents to BuzzFeed News that exposed how dirty money allegedly flows through US banks.

Like other social media platforms, WhatsApp is caught between users who expect privacy and law enforcement agencies that demand that such platforms hand over information that will help fight crime and online abuse.

WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart said in a recent interview that there’s no conflict of interest. “I think we absolutely can have security and safety for people through end-to-end encryption and work with law enforcement to solve crimes,” Cathcart said in a YouTube interview with an Australian think tank in July.

But the privacy issue isn’t that simple. Since Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014 for $19 billion, Zuckerberg has repeatedly assured users he would keep data private. Since then the company has walked a tightrope when it comes to privacy and monetizing data it collects from users of the free messaging app.

In 2016, WhatsApp disclosed it would begin sharing user data with Facebook, a move that would allow it to generate revenue. The plan included sharing information such as users’ phone numbers, profile photos, status messages and IPO addresses, so that Facebook could offer better friend suggestions and serve up more relevant ads, among other things.

Such actions put Facebook on the radar of regulators, and in May 2017, European Union antitrust regulators fined the company $122 million for falsely claiming three years earlier that it would be impossible to link the user information between WhatsApp and the Facebook family of apps. Facebook said its false statements in 2014 were not intentional but it didn’t contest the fine.

Facebook continued to be the target of security and privacy issues over time. In July 2019, that culminated in an eye-popping $5 billion fine by the Federal Trade Commission for violating a previous agreement to protect user privacy.

The fine was almost 20 times greater than any previous privacy-related penalty, the FTC said at the time, and Facebook’s wrongdoing included “deceiving users about their ability to control the privacy of their personal information.”

Regardless, WhatsApp is still trying to figure a way to make money while guarding privacy. In 2019, the app announced it would run ads inside the app, but those controversial plans were abandoned days before the ads were set to launch.

Earlier this year, WhatsApp unveiled a change in its privacy policy that included a one-month deadline to accept the policy or get cut off from the app. The policy would allow users to directly message businesses on its platform. It required users to agree to those conversations being stored on Facebook servers, leading many users to think that Facebook would have access to their private chats.

The concerns sparked massive backlash, causing tens of millions of users to move to rival apps such as Signal and Telegram. WhatsApp pressed forward with the change in February, but assured users that messages would remain private.

“We’ve seen some of our competitors try to get away with claiming they can’t see people’s messages — if an app doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption by default that means they can read your messages,” WhatsApp said on its blog. “Other apps say they’re better because they know even less information than WhatsApp. We believe people are looking for apps to be both reliable and safe, even if that requires WhatsApp having some limited data.”

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COURTESY 24newshd

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• Pakistani International Relations Specialist and Journalist Musawar Tanoli said, "Our centuries-old ties need to be further strengthened by developing youth cooperation between Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey."

Musawar Tanoli

Pakistani International Relations and Foreign Relations Analyst Journalist Musawar Tanoli also served as the chairman of the youth diplomacy forum and the founder of the youth forum in Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey.

"Pakistan and Turkey have strong cultural, military and historical relations that are getting stronger day by day and moving towards economic and commercial cooperation," said Tanoli, adding, "The multidimensional relations between both countries, especially the spirit of brotherhood, dominate the centuries-old ties between Indian Muslims and the Ottoman Empire. Bilateral relations between the two countries can be traced back to the period of British India.

During the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, religious services were held in Calcutta mosques and subscriptions were collected for the Turkish wounded. During the Balkan War, Muslims of the British Indian Subcontinent sent a medical delegation to Turkey.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founding father of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, showed great appreciation to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Modern Turkey. Turkey was one of the first countries to recognize Pakistan. Turkey and Pakistan were also part of the Baghdad Pact in 1955 for cooperation between security and defense members," he said.

Our Relations Should Be Developed In Every Area

Stating that the youth bond between Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey should be strengthened, Tanoli said: "As the founder of the Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey youth forum, I would like to convey my best wishes to the Turkish people, especially the Turkish youth.

The purpose of starting this initiative is to strengthen and develop youth cooperation. This is a virtual platform where we have more than 9 thousand members from Pakistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey. We celebrate the national days and important days of these countries on our social media accounts. One of the main purposes is to develop cultural cooperation between these three countries.

There was the occasion of Turkish Victory Day in August. We commemorated and shared it on our social account.

As the head of the Youth Diplomacy Forum, we cooperate with the Turkish youth organization “International Workshop Platform” and discuss possible areas of cooperation between the “Youth Diplomacy Forum” and the “International workshop platform”.

The main aim is to involve the youth of both countries in understanding the culture, traditions, norms and values. Also, improve youth cooperation between Pakistan and Turkey. Our aim is to organize an exchange program between Pakistan and Turkey, especially between the Youth Diplomacy Forum and the International workshop platform, in order to further develop youth cooperation. 

To this end, we need the support of Pakistan and the Turkish government, as well as the Turkish Embassy in Islamabad and the Pakistani Embassy in Ankara. Finally to Turkey, I hope to expand my support to the Turkish people and to strengthen the social, political, economic, military and especially youth cooperation between the two countries.

I also convey my condolences for the precious lives lost due to forest fires and hurricanes that have occurred recently, and pray for the injured. Long live the "Pakistan-Azerbaijan-Turkey" Brotherhood and Friendship."

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COURTESY merhabahaber

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KABUL, SEPT 9: Roya Rahmani, Afghanistan's first female ambassador to the United States who left her post in July, is clearly horrified by the Taliban takeover of her country. But she is not surprised.

In an interview, Rahmani accused the former US-backed government in Kabul of a failure to lead the country and of widespread corruption that ultimately paved the way for the Taliban's victory last month.

She also warned the United States, still smarting from its defeat, that the rise of the Afghan Taliban would have far-reaching geopolitical consequences.

"I, as an Afghan, was not surprised by the fact that the Taliban took over Afghanistan the way they did and how quickly they did, partly because of the lack of leadership by the Afghan government that was in place at the time," Rahmani said.

President Joe Biden acknowledged he and other officials were aware of the risk that the Afghan government could collapse following the US military withdrawal.

But they say they were caught off-guard by the speed of the Taliban victory, a miscalculation that helped lead to a chaotic US military airlift of US citizens and vulnerable Afghans. Thirteen US troops and scores of Afghans were killed in a suicide bombing during the operation.

Biden, in a speech last month, accused Afghan troops of lacking "the will to fight" for their country's future.

Rahmani saw things differently.

"It was not the Afghan forces, that they were not willing to fight for their freedom and for protection of their people. It was the leadership that was corrupt. And they handed over, basically, the country to the Taliban," she said, without providing specific allegations.

In particular, Ashraf Ghani's decision to abandon the presidency and leave Afghanistan on August 15 was "extremely disappointing and embarrassing", she said.

Ghani said on Wednesday he left because he wanted to avoid bloodshed. He denied allegations he stole millions of dollars on his way out.

"Leaving Kabul was the most difficult decision of my life," Ghani said.

Rahmani, 43, left the job as ambassador to the United States after nearly three years in the role. During her posting, she wrestled with what she believed was a politically motivated case over an embassy construction project.

She denied any wrongdoing and an anti-corruption court found flaws in the case, sending it back even before the Afghan government crumbled.

"I invite any investigative body to look at all the documents," she said.

But Rahmani's accusations of broad corruption and mismanagement in Kabul carry echoes of warnings by current and former US officials for years. Experts say corruption was steadily eroding ordinary Afghans' faith in the US-backed government and even turning some of them to the Taliban.

Rahmani described being cut out of discussions between Washington and Kabul, including during the Trump administration. Neither capital appeared to be fully preparing for the consequences of the US withdrawal, she said.

She warned of geopolitical shifts that will impact the United States and its allies.

Pakistan will have gained leverage in its dealings with Washington, she claimed.

"I believe that the United States will be facing a new Pakistan," she said while cautioning the Taliban's takeover will have ripple effects on India, China, Turkey and beyond.

Lauds Afghan women protesters

The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, girls could not attend school and women were banned from work and education. Religious police would flog anyone breaking the rules and public executions were carried out.

The Taliban have urged Afghans to be patient and vowed to be more tolerant this time.

But Rahmani says the Taliban's decision to exclude women from all of the top government positions announced on Tuesday was proof that dark times may be ahead for women.

On Tuesday, a group of Afghan women in a Kabul street had to take cover after Taliban gunmen fired into the air to disperse hundreds of protesters.

"I salute all the brave women of Afghanistan. It is quite risky to do what they are doing," Rahmani said. "And it's also an indication to the rest of the world that they have everything to lose at this point."

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

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WASHINGTON, SEPT 9: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that the United States could work with a Taliban government that fulfils its commitments and obligations, otherwise it will not.

“My hope and, beyond hope, expectation is that the future government of Afghanistan will uphold those basic (human) rights. And if it does, then that’s a government that we can work with. If it doesn’t, we won’t,” Mr Blinken told Afghanistan’s Tolo news agency.

Asked if the US would recognise the Taliban government, he said: “That will depend entirely on what it does, not just on what it says. And the trajectory of its relationship with us and with the rest of the world will depend on its actions.”

On Tuesday, the Taliban announced an interim government dominated by the group’s old guard, with no women included.

Mohammad Hasan Akhund, a close aide to the group’s late founder Mullah Omar, heads the new government. When Dawn sought the US State Department’s reaction to the interim government, a spokesperson said: “We have seen the announcement and are assessing it. We note the announced list of names consists exclusively of individuals who are members of the Taliban or their close associates and no women.”

The United States, the official said, was also “concerned by the affiliations and track records of some of the individuals” in the government.

The head of the interim cabinet — Mullah Akhund — is on a UN blacklist. Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani is wanted by the American FBI. The FBI had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to Mr Haqqani’s arrest but on Tuesday it increased the reward to $10m.

“We understand that the Taliban has presented this as a caretaker cabinet. However, we will judge the Taliban by its actions, not words. We have made clear our expectation that the Afghan people deserve an inclusive government,” the State Department’s spokesperson said.

“We will continue to hold the Taliban to their commitments to allow safe passage for foreign nationals and Afghans with travel documents, including permitting flights currently ready to fly out of Afghanistan to agreed-upon onward destinations,” the official added.

“We also reiterate our clear expectation that the Taliban ensure that Afghan soil is not used to threaten any other countries and allow humanitarian access in support of the Afghan people. The world is watching closely.”

When the interviewer reminded Secretary Blinken that the Taliban were already violating the commitments they made, he said: “We will see... whether it corrects course on any of these incidents of abusive conduct. That is going to be very important.”

Asked if the US knew about and facilitated President Ashraf Ghani’s escape from Afghanistan, he said he was on the phone with the president the night before he fled the country.

“He told me… he was prepared to fight to the death. In less than 24 hours, he’d left Afghanistan. So no, I certainly didn’t know about it, and we certainly did nothing to facilitate it.”

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COURTESY DAWN NEWS

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ISLAMABAD, SEPT 8: The Facebook-owned WhatsApp messaging app is making some minor changes to its privacy settings that will users to disable their last seen, profile photo and about status for specific contents.

According to WABetaInfo, the messaging app is finally reworking on privacy settings, for both WhatsApp beta for Android and iOS.

Currently, WhatsApp offers three privacy options under Last Seen, Profile photo, and About.

This means that, if you didn’t want a specific contact could see your last seen, you had to set the privacy setting of your last seen to “Nobody”.

But now WhatsApp is finally working to introduce another option called “My contacts except…”, so you can finally enable your last seen back, and you can disable it for specific contacts.

You can see “My contacts except” for last seen in this screenshot, but this also applies to other privacy settings as well, such as “profile picture” and “about”.

This is a much-needed feature as there are times when you don’t want to show some of the people when you were last online on WhatsApp.

It is important to note that if you don’t share your last seen with anyone, then you won’t be able to see other people’s last seen.

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COURTESY arynews

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ISLAMABAD, SEPT 8: MATSUDA Kuninori, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan and Shinji Yanagi, Vice Chairman, Indus Motor Company Limited (IMC) called on Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday.

During the meeting the IMC declared their tremendous over 100 million US Dollars investment plan to locally produce state-of-the-art hybrid technology vehicles in Pakistan by the end of 2023.

The Embassy of Japan is strongly confident that the decision will bring the economic ties between Japan and Pakistan to the next level, welcomes the decision as a symbolic milestone forwarding the 70th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations in 2022.

Ambassador Matsuda hopes that the Japanese auto technology will play a key role to realize new Pakistani automobile development plan.

The Embassy of Japan also pledges to continue to make its maximum effort to create supportive business environment for Japanese businesses here in Pakistan in corporation with the Government of Pakistan.

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ISLAMABAD, SEPT 8: Pak Suzuki is making headlines with intense news. After the discontinuation of Suzuki Swift, the company has suspended the bookings for Suzuki Cultus. Suzuki dealerships across the country are instructed to halt the bookings until further notice.

Next to Alto, Suzuki Cultus is the company’s second-best player in the market. As per PAMA car sales reports, on average, around 15,00 Cultus units are sold every month. Putting the car’s bookings off will definitely affect the company’s profits. That brings us to the question: why did Pak Suzuki make this troublesome decision?

Not Enough Chips for the Cars

The same thing that’s poisoning the sales of BMW, Ford, Tesla, and Toyota has now infected Pak Suzuki. The global semiconductor chip shortage. Like every other company, Pak Suzuki does not have enough semiconductor chips to run its cars, which led the company to halt the bookings for one of its best-selling cars. 

The global semiconductor chip shortage is hammering automakers all over the world, forcing them into shutdowns. Companies around the globe are losing billions of dollars in lost production and sales. 

Overall, the global auto industry will produce 4 million fewer vehicles than planned and lose $110 billion in sales. The biggest names in the international auto market are feeling the heat of this crisis. Unfortunately, the global chip crisis has started to slowly take down our local auto industry.

It’s not the first time we are hearing about a local company halting the car bookings. Hyundai-Nishat, Al-Haj Proton, and others have already done it, and now it’s Pak Suzuki’s turn to face the storm.

Experts say the global chip crisis might last until 2023. All the car production crunches will go away eventually, just not in the near future. Even after the crisis is over, it will take another year or so for the auto industry to recover. 

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COURTESY pakwheels

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