26 | April | 2022 | National News Portal.

United States electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc is welcome to set up shop in India, make cars there for sale and export them, but must not import cars from China, India’s transport minister said on Tuesday.

“Making in China and selling here is not a good proposition,” the minister, Nitin Gadkari, said during a government conference.

Tesla is desperate to import and sell its electric vehicles in India, having lobbied officials in New Delhi for nearly a year to cut tariffs, which the company’s billionaire chief executive Elon Musk says are among the highest in the world.

But its efforts are at a stalemate as Tesla has not revealed a firm plan to invest in India, a step that would be in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” vision to boost local manufacturing and create jobs.

Last year, Tesla moved a step closer to its launch in India by registering a company in the country.

Tesla Motors India and Energy Private Limited was incorporated on January 8, 2021 with its registered office in the southern city of Bengaluru, a hub for several global technology companies.

The regulatory filing showed the Indian unit had three directors.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members staged protests outside Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) offices in different cities on Tuesday, condemning the alleged biased conduct of Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.

Television footage showed demonstrations were held in Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Gujrat and Faisalabad, among other cities.

Karachi

Police were deployed outside the ECP office in Karachi ahead of the protest and three mobile vans were also present at the site as part of security arrangements.

According to a statement issued by PTI spokesperson Saddam Kumbhar, Opposition Leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh and other party leaders, including Firdous Shamim Naqvi, Bilal Ghaffar, Aftab Siddiqui, Raja Azhar, and Saifur Rehman, were among the demonstrators.

The statement said Sheikh addressed the protesters on the occasion, saying: “We are here to make the shameless feel some shame.”

Without naming anyone, he added, “You were the election commission. Since when did you become the corruption commission.”

The PTI leader called the present times “black days”, further dubbing the ECP the “patron of turncoats”.

Last night, the PTI had also taken out a bike rally in port city against the incumbent coalition government.

Sharing a video of the rally on social media, PTI leader and former human rights minister Shireen Mazari tweeted: “Motorbike rally in Karachi last night against imported govt brought in through [the] US regime change conspiracy aided by local abettors. Our Movement continues — the ppl have risen!”

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Peshawar

On Tuesday, chaos was witnessed outside the ECP office in Peshawar as PTI members attempted to barge into the building. They were stopped by police deployed outside the ECP office’s gate.

PTI lawmakers from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, including Zahir Shah and Abdul Salam, were among the protesters, who raised slogans against the CEC, calling him biased.

They questioned as to why only the PTI’s funding was being investigated while other parties were not facing similar probes.

The protest ended in Peshawar around 1pm.

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