PM appreciated, CM Punjab expressed Satisfiction from Rawalpindi Police in Cabinet meeting

CPO Faisal Rana takes action against terror groups in Rawalpindi, PM Imran Khan discussed the achievement of Rawalpindi police in a meeting of Punjab Cabinet in Lahore and commended the CPO and Rawalpindi police, CM Punjab expressed his satisfaction over the performance of Rawalpindi Police during his visit, opponent political parties contented over the arrest of those who used to do aerial firing in political gatherings, political workers on social media say CPO Faisal Rana saved Rawalpindi from becoming another Karachi.

According to the details, on the directions of CPO Faisal Rana, SP Potohar Syed Ali, SHO Morgah Aizaz Azeem, SHO Westridge Tahir Rehan and other members of a police team arrested “Amri Robbers Gang” which robbed overseas Pakistanis and Rawalpindi police gained international recognition and fame for the achievement.

On the directions of City Police Officer, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Muhammad Faisal Rana, Rawalpindi police has now launched an operation against terror gangs who were considered as symbol of terror in the society and have taken into custody more than 03 dozens of criminals so far. The “operation against terror” continues with such a success that it was recurred and referred in the Cabinet meeting in Punjab, presided over by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan. The meeting was attended by the Chief Minister Punjab, Provincial Ministers and the Inspector General of Police Punjab. The Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan referred to the operation of Rawalpindi police and while appreciating asked why the operation was not launched previously, on which Provincial Law Minister Muhammad Basharat Raja told that “CPO Rawalpindi Faisal Rana is doing a great job” and citizens are satisfied over the operation against terror groups. The Prime Minister commended CPO Faisal Rana and Rawalpindi police and said that the action is imitable for the other districts.

The action of CPO Faisal Rana was again discussed in a high level meeting on the previous day, when the Chief Minister of Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar arrived in Rawalpindi to devise strategy for the sit in of Maulana Fazl ul Rehman and it was told that the action was also discussed by the Prime Minister of Pakistan in Lahore. On the directions of CPO Faisal Rana, SHO Morgah Aziaz Azeem under the supervision of SP Potohar Syed Ali has arrested members of a terror gang who used to do aerial firing in political gatherings which also caused loss of lives and the rival & opponent political parties having different ideologies have also shown satisfaction on the arrest of the gang. The political workers expressed their views on social media that CPO Faisal Rana has saved Rawalpindi from becoming another Karachi by taking action against the terror groups and also told that the law abiding citizens of Rawalpindi are with the Rawalpindi police for the elimination of these terror gangs.

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Bertens stuns world number one Barty at WTA Finals

SHENZHEN: Late entry Kiki Bertens stunned world number one Ashleigh Barty with a comeback three-set victory to shake-up the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen on Tuesday.

All four players can still qualify from Red Group after Belinda Bencic’s three-set victory over Petra Kvitova in the later match.

Bertens looked in deep trouble at a set and break down, but turned the tide with ruthless returning and aggressive play at the net to overwhelm a deflated Barty, who could have sealed a spot in the semi-finals with victory.

The world No 10 won 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and nine minutes in a see-saw match featuring 12 breaks of serve.

“Of course you’re always ready to play, but I did not see it coming today,” Bertens said of her late call-up. “In the beginning I was struggling. As the match continued, I felt better and better.”

Bertens was a late replacement for world No 3 Naomi Osaka, who earlier in the day withdrew from the round-robin tournament due to a shoulder injury.

She appeared nervous under the bright lights dropping her first three service games and Barty, who has locked up the year-end No 1 ranking, pounced to run away with the first set.

Barty then endured her own service woes against an increasingly aggressive Bertens, who showcased a soft touch at the net.

A slumping Barty had her serve broken five times through the second and third sets as Bertens stormed to her first victory over the Australian.

Barty lamented letting slip her early lead. “I wasn’t able to execute as cleanly when I was up in the score line,” she said.

Bertens, who made the semi-finals of last year’s edition, continued her strong form after making the finals in Zhuhai last week and the semi-finals of the China Open earlier in the month, when she lost a three-set thriller to Barty.

In the later match, Bencic fought back from a second set spiral to beat Petra Kvitova 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in one hour and 47 minutes. It kept her tournament hopes alive after she had lost her opening match to Barty.

“I was proud that I was able to block away her big shots,” Bencic said. “I was happy that at the end I was able to keep calm.”

Kvitova’s serve went off the boil as she fell away badly in the first set to lose five straight games. A double fault was a fitting way for the Czech to hand Bencic the first set.

But the match flipped in the second set with Kvitova, the 2011 WTA Finals champion, rediscovering her lethal serve to force a decider.

The twists continued in the third set with Bencic breaking in the third game as a flustered Kvitova slammed her racquet on the ground. The Swiss failed to capitalise in the next game but grabbed the decisive break in the ninth before confidently closing it out on serve.

Winless Kvitova plays Barty on Thursday and Bencic meets Bertens to determine the winners from Red Group.

Saudi Aramco IPO will be a ‘Saudi decision first’, says energy minister

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said on Wednesday a planned initial public offering of the state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco will happen “soon”.

Speaking before the Future Investment Initiative summit, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told those gathered in Riyadh that “the IPO will come soon”.

He also referenced the kingdom’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

“It will come in the right time with the right approach and definitely with the right decision. And it will be a Saudi decision, first and foremost. Specifically, Prince Mohammed’s decision,” said Prince Abdulaziz.

On Monday, a Saudi-owned satellite channel believed to be closely linked to the Al Saud royal family said shares in Aramco would be traded on Riyadh’s Tadawul exchange in December. However, there have been repeated delays to the IPO.

PTCL says internet services fully restored following countrywide disruption

The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL) on Wednesday said that internet services have fully been restored, a day after Pakistan faced a countrywide disruption following a fault in its submarine cables.

In a statement by the PTCL spokesman, the company regretted any inconvenience that had been caused by the disruption in services.

A spokesperson for Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) also confirmed the restoration of internet services, adding that the SEAMEWE 4 was restored at 1:35am while IMEWE was restored at 4:13am.

In a post shared on Twitter on Tuesday, PTCL had said: “We regret to inform you that due to international submarine cable fault, internet services are impacted across Pakistan.

“Our technical teams are working on fully restoring internet services. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.”

According to ProPakistani, two submarine cables had gone offline, disrupting internet in the country.

“IMEWE and SEAMEWE 4, that carry almost 50 per cent of Pakistan’s internet traffic, went offline due to a fault at a location that’s yet not determined,” it said.

Internet users across the country would experience downgraded speeds until the fault is fixed, ProPakistani had reported, adding that, internet service providers were “in the process of shifting the load to other submarine systems, that will balance the load to an extent”.

In a post shared on Twitter, PTCL today clarified that submarine cable AAE1 was “never down” during the outage. They added that some had misreported this.

An internet outage also occurred earlier this year, in June, when services were disrupted due to “multiple cable cuts”.

PM chides ministers over Pemra row after Firdous grouse

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday reprimanded some federal ministers and senior leaders of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) for their statements against the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (Pemra) recent move to bar television anchors from appearing as “experts” in their own and other channels.

Presiding over a meeting of the federal cabinet, the prime minister expressed resentment over tweets of Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari and MNA Asad Umar against the Perma move and warned them against criticising the government decisions ‘openly’.

“In fact Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan lodged a complaint with the prime minster that Fawad Chaudhry, Shireen Mazari and Asad Umar had given remarks through their tweets against the government’s decision,” a participant of the meeting told Dawn on condition of anonymity. He said the prime minister was of the view that the “government ministers should not have discussed such matters openly”.

At this, Fawad Chaudhry said to the prime minister that Pemra had not taken the decision in an appropriate manner, inviting criticism against the government.

The Pemra move has stirred controversy even in media and official circles.

In his tweet, Asad Umar had said: “Amazing decision by Pemra to stop anchors to go on any other talk show and express their opinion! Pemra should be doing a better job taking action against completely fake news and not suppressing the right of individuals, including anchors, to express their opinion.”

Cabinet allows construction of 50-storey buildings in Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan

Shireen Mazari had tweeted: “Who is an “expert”? An interesting [and] unintended debate has been generated – so purely at an academic non-political level: Do I need a degree in politics to be an expert on politics? I have no degree in ‘human rights’ so should I go on TV to discuss ‘human rights’ issues?”

Fawad Chaudhry had described the Pemra directive as “illogical, unnecessary and uncalled for”.

High-rise buildings

The cabinet allowed four major cities of the country — Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Multan — to have 50-storey buildings.

“The cabinet allowed 500-foot-high buildings even in the funnel areas (15km radius) of airports in the four cities,” Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan told Dawn after the cabinet meeting.

He said that earlier there was a ban on construction of high-rises in 15km radius of the airports, but now it had been relaxed.

However, it was observed that despite the ban multi-storey buildings were being constructed in the funnel areas of airports.

The restriction had already been lifted in Islamabad.

At a post-cabinet meeting press conference, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said the prime minister had directed the authorities concerned to expedite the process of acquiring the assistance of foreign companies to run the country’s airports in a better way under the government’s policies and provide better facilities to the passengers, besides generating more revenue.

The cabinet was briefed on the progress in work on upgrade and reconstruction of Skardu airport. The meeting empowered minister for aviation to renew licences of airlines companies and expressed the hope that the decision would facilitate the companies and expedite the process of renewals.

National Executive Committee

The meeting approved the formation of the National Executive Committee headed by Minister for Economic Affairs Hammad Azhar and comprising directors general of the Military Operations and Inter-Services Intelligence. The committee will work to control terror financing and money laundering under the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010.

It is for the first time in the country’s history that the heads of two highly sensitive military organisations have been made members of any national body on money laundering and terror financing.

Dasu hydropower project

The cabinet approved the release of compensation amount for the land being acquired for the construction of the 4320MW Dasu hydropower project. The meeting was informed that the government was bearing a loss of Rs330 million daily due to delay in the construction of the project which was to be completed this year.

The cabinet also approved restructuring of the board of governors of Sui Southern Gas Company Limited and appointment of former State Bank governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar as its member. Similarly, new board of governors of the Pakistan Liquefied Natural Gas Limited was approved with Rahat Konain as its chairman.

The meeting also approved restructuring of the board of directors of the Government Holding Private Limited which will be headed by Aaila Majeed.

The cabinet was informed that a proposal was under consideration to reduce electricity tariff for domestic consumers during the current winter so that consumers could meet their energy demands. The present electricity production in the country is 31,000MW.

The meeting was told that weather studios were being set up in Lahore to closely monitor weather with special focus on smog which mainly comes from India in winter.

The cabinet approved appointment of members of the Adjudicating Authority under Benami Transaction Act-2017.