IG KP says Peshawar targeted operation to be launched soon

PESHAWAR: Inspector-General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Nasir Durrani on Monday said a targeted operation will be conducted in Peshawar very soon.

Marketplaces and other public areas of the provincial capital would first be cleared by sniffer dogs and Bomb Disposal Units before being opened for the general public, he said, adding that approval for the measure had already been given by the KP government.

The IG's comments came a day after twin blasts claimed 43 lives in Qissa Khwani Bazaar, one of the oldest market places in Peshawar.

Speaking to reporters at the site of Sunday's attack, IG Durrani said the explosive used in the car bomb targeting Qissa Khwani Bazaar was locally made.

He further stated that the terrorists had changed their strategy of late, adding that first they were targeting the police, whereas, now they had started targeting markets and other public places.

He also stated that the provincial government had ordered the formation of a new strategy to fight terrorism and said the government would combat the menace with cooperation from the public.

The KP government had decided to launch the targeted operation after more than 140 people were killed in a flurry of suicide blasts that took place in Peshawar over the past one week. The decision was taken on Sunday in a high level meeting presided over by KP Chief Secretary Arbab Muhammad Shehzad.

While the meeting clearly defined the formation of a special task force which would combat terrorism, with the help of special intelligence organisations, it also decided to spread awareness against terrorism amongst the people.

‘Outsourcing’ the sliding economy to the IMF

Well in to its fourth month in power, the Nawaz Sharif government still appears to be groping to get a handle on the twin challenges it promised in its election campaign to address quickly — arrest the economic decline and improve the deteriorating security condition that is affecting investment and growth.

The markets were recharged when it paid off the unpaid bills of the power companies and successfully negotiated a $6.6 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to avert a looming balance of payments crisis. Many businesspeople also favoured its offer of unconditional dialogue to the militants for bringing back peace. The government, it seemed, was moving in the ‘right direction’.

But the events of the last one month are believed to have shattered, at least partially, the business confidence in the government’s ability to effectively deal with the challenges it faces. The recent volatility in the foreign exchange market and the inaction of the present finance managers to timely intervene to stop the rupee’s slide; the government’s failure to significantly cut energy shortages for industry, and the increase in terrorist attacks, have disappointed many.

The benefit of the doubt that most businesspersons were willingly to give to the new government in its early days is now being replaced by skepticism and uncertainty.

“If the government thought it could take care of the sliding economy by ‘outsourcing’ it to the IMF, it was gravely mistaken,” said a businessman who did not want to reveal his identity because of his friendship with some federal ministers.

“They (the government) may not agree, but the reality is that the economy is getting into a deeper mess,” he argued.

He has a point here. While the power supply has somewhat increased, little progress has so far been made on fresh generation or the planned gas imports through pipelines or in the shape of LNG.

The fear of macroeconomic slippages has increased in spite of the agreement with the IMF. Prices are soaring, rapidly eroding the savings and incomes of the people in the fixed income bracket. The inflationary government borrowing from the central bank in the first two-and-a-half months of the current financial year has grown by 159 per cent to Rs804 billion, compared with the funds it had borrowed from the bank during the entire last year fiscal.

The rupee has emerged as one of the most volatile currencies in Asia since July. Its depreciation has not only fueled inflation, but also added an additional half a billion rupees to the public debt.

The possibility of more fiscal pressures in the form of an increase in the power subsidy (to the tune of 0.6-0.8 per cent of GDP) because of rising fuel cost on the back of the weakening exchange rate and the delay in upward revision of electricity prices cannot be ruled out.

The tax collection in the first two months of FY14 to August has fallen short of the target. The external sector remains precarious, as exports are falling and the economy is forecasted by the IMF to expand by just 2.5 per cent this year, against the budgetary target of 4.4 per cent.

“The problems facing the economy are enormous and the government cannot solve them in such a short time of four months. Frankly, we (the business community) were not expecting any miracle when Nawaz Sharif took over power. But we were anticipating some tough decisions by the government to deliver the economy from its troubles,” said a manufacturer who also requested anonymity.

“The first tough decision of paying off the unpaid bills of the power companies had given us hope of a better future. But our hopes for a quick economic recovery have been dimming ever since the government swooned into inaction and confusion seemed to have overtaken its finance managers.”

“Even the hopes of the IMF package delivering us from economic problems have faded because of its strict pre-conditions that focus on stabilisation rather than growth and its refusal to frontload a chunk of the loan. On top of that, the militants are not relenting in spite of the peace talk offer,” he insisted.

The loss of the business confidence was evident from the rapid fall in the stock market; the increase in the demand for dollars, and the slowing investment in real estate. Some analysts argue that the future economic outlook looks grim.

“Panic rules the market. The SBP’s foreign exchange reserves are negative if debt repayments and other outflows scheduled for this year are taken into account. People are converting their current accounts into dollars. Fiscal and inflationary impact of the exchange rate weakness will be large. The economic fundamentals are not looking up.

And the government is not moving a finger at all,” a financial analyst at a bank, who refused to give his name, said hours before the central bank pumped dollars to stabilise the rupee last Thursday. “The situation will get very nasty over the next couple of months. How will the government get a handle on it is a mystery.”

Another analyst at a brokerage house in Karachi, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, agreed that the anxiety in the market would deepen and investor confidence would erode unless some senior official took the trouble of explaining the situation and the measures the government was planning to take over the next few days to six months to fix the economy.

PIA opens financial bid for 10 aircraft today

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will open on Monday (today) first bid for obtaining 10 additional aircraft on lease, to improve its services and overcome losses.

Although the PIA management has sought financial bids for acquiring 10 aircraft either on lease or on payment, it prefers the former option, according to sources.

“We are opening two separate bids for obtaining 10 additional aircraft on lease or on purchase on Sept 30 and April 4, respectively,” PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar told Dawn.

He said that negotiations were under way with different banks for loans to get the planes on lease because even in case of lease PIA would have to pay some initial amount to the contractors or the aircraft companies.

When asked whether acquisition of the ten aircraft could help scuttle the government’s plans to privatise the airline, Mr Tajwar said it would help ease the financial crisis being faced by the company.

“At least a monthly loss of Rs3 billion would be controlled after the new planes become operational,” he remarked. “Out of the Rs3bn loss, Rs1bn goes to repayment of international loans, Rs1bn to payment for fuel and Rs500 million to retirement of local loans.”

He said the PIA’s total liabilities amounted to Rs250bn whereas the worth of its assets ran into trillions of rupees.

It has been learnt that the government’s announcement regarding privatisation has served to bring about some improvement in the airline’s efficiency.

“We find some improvement in the efficiency of the PIA,” acknowledged an office-bearer of the Pakistan Air Line Pilots Association (Palpa). A senior official of the PIA said three under-repair aircraft were inducted into the airline’s fleet of operational aircraft this week, taking the total number of such planes to 24.

Meanwhile, PIA employees have decided to move the Supreme Court against the proposed privatisation of their company.

They demand of the government to make at least one “sincere attempt” to bring the organisation to its feet before going for privatisation of 26 per cent of its shares, as announced by Nawaz Sharif.

One of their major demands is that the government should carry out an audit to ascertain real worth of the company’s assets, which is said to be in trillions, and its total liabilities.

The decision to move the court against the government’s plan was taken by the recently-formed Joint Action Committee (JAC) which comprises associations of PIA officers and employees.

The JAC feels that the national carrier can be revived and its losses can be curtailed through better planning, including induction of some new aircraft into its fleet.

“We have consulted our legal team and decided to put our complaints before the Supreme Court,” a member of the JAC and secretary general of the PIA Corporation Employees Union, Obaid Ullah, said.

He said that PIA employees held 12 per cent shares of the airline but the government had not taken them into confidence before announcing the plans for privatisation. “We believe that 21,000 employees of PIA will get justice from the Supreme Court,” he said without elaborating.

The federal cabinet recently approved the proposed privatisation plan.

According to the PIA management, the monthly loss of Rs3bn was not because of overstaffing but due to debt retirement and heavy consumption of fuel by outdated aircraft. If the airline acquired 10 to 15 additional aircraft the organisation could overcome its monthly loss, an office-bearer of Palpa said.

At present PIA has a fleet of 32 aircraft, of which 24 are in operation. But those in operation are 15 to 20 years old and, therefore, consume great amounts of fuel.

A related problem is that big aircraft are being used for short routes because the organisation does not have small planes for domestic routes. It has also been learnt that one of PIA’s hotels — the Roosevelt in New York — got an offer of $5bn a couple of years ago, but the Privatisation Commission did not accept the offer. One of the PIA hotels is located in the expensive Champs-Élysées area of Paris, and its price is said to be over $2bn. Another PIA hotel is in the UAE.

Over 8,500 human rights violations reported in 20 months

ISLAMABAD: A total of 8,648 incidents of human rights violation have been reported in the country between January 2012 and Sept 15 this year, according to a document of the Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights submitted to parliament.

The document shows that 239 rights violations have been recorded in Islamabad, 1,599 in Punjab, 3,768 in Sindh, 1,552 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1,490 in Balochistan during the period.

These include 90 incidents of acid burning, 72 of burning, 481 ofdomestic violence, 860 honour (karo-kari) killings, 1,564 kidnappings, 20 minority-related issues, 141 cases of missing persons, 1,233 police-related and 112 prison-related violations, 344 rape/gang rapes, 260 sectarian violence/targeted killings, 268sexual assault/harassment, 493 cases of violence against childrenand 535 against women and 2,175 miscellaneous violence.

Of the 90 acid burning cases, three have been reported in Islamabad, 60 in Punjab, 18 in Sindh, eight in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one has been reported in Balochistan.

Of the 72 cases of burning, three have been reported in Islamabad, 36 in Punjab, 27 in Sindh and six in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Of the 481 cases of domestic violence, seven have been reported in Islamabad, 78 in Punjab, 154 in Sindh and 242 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. No case of domestic violence has been recorded in Balochistan from Jan 2012 to Sept 2013.

Out of the 860 cases of karo-kari, two have reported in the federal capital, 97 in Punjab, 667 in Sindh, 44 in KP and 50 in Balochistan.

Of the 1,564 incidents of kidnapping, five have taken place in Islamabad, 230 in Punjab, 731 in Sindh, 303 in KP and 295 in Balochistan.

Out of the 20 minority-related violations, six have been recorded in Islamabad, four in Punjab, two in Sindh, six in KP and two in Balochistan.

Of the 141 cases of missing person, five have been reported in Islamabad, nine in Punjab, two in Sindh, 78 in KP and 47 in Balochistan.

Ninety-three police-related violations have been reported in Islamabad, 233 in Punjab, 44 in Sindh, nine in KP and 854 in Balochistan. Of the 112 cases of prisons-related violence, four have been recorded in Islamabad, 81 in Punjab, 15 in Sindh, 12 in KP.

Out of the 344 cases of rape/gang rape, 11 have taken place in Islamabad, 241 in Punjab, 91 in Sindh and one in Balochistan. No such case has been reported in KP.

Of the 260 cases of sectarian violence/targeted killing, six have been reported in Islamabad, 19 in Punjab, nine in Sindh, 216 in KP and 10 in Balochistan.

Out of the 268 cases of sexual assault/harassment, four have taken place in Islamabad, 75 in Punjab, 157 in Sindh and 32 in KP.

Of the 493 cases of violence against children, four have been recorded in the federal capital, 88 in Punjab, 89 in Sindh, 201 in KP and 111 in Balochistan.

Out of the 535 cases of violence against women, 10 have been reported in Islamabad, 199 in Punjab, 78 in Sindh, 219 in KP and 29 in Balochistan.

Of the 2,175 cases of miscellaneous nature, reported between January 2012 and Sept 15 this year, 76 have taken place in Islamabad, 149 in Punjab, 1,684 in Sindh, 176 in KP and 90 in Balochistan.

Singdollar likely to keep rising to combat inflation

SINGAPORE: Economists expect the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will hold steady on its Singdollar stance when it meets next month.

That policy is to allow the local currency a "modest and gradual" appreciation against a basket of currencies of the country's majortrading partners such as Malaysia, the European Union and China.

The exchange rate is the government's main tool to combat inflation – a stronger dollar means imports cost less in Singdollar terms. But a strong Singdollar can put a dampener on growth by making exports less competitive.

While economists do not expect a change from the MAS, they warn that inflation is poised to rise after a relatively flat period, due to escalating car prices and an ever-tightening labour market.

Consumer prices were up two per cent in August over the same month last year, marking the fifth straight month that inflation has come in at or below two per cent.

However, OCBC economist Selena Ling said domestic cost pressures from the tight labour market are still a concern, especially on the back of a recent announcement made by the Ministry of Manpower.

Under the new Fair Consideration Framework, companies will soon have to prove they tried to hire Singaporeans first before they are allowed to recruit foreign professionals.

They will also have to pay foreigners with employment passes more from January next year.

"(The government's) announcement of the Fair Consideration Framework and the enhanced employment pass qualifying requirements suggest there may not be any let-up in terms of the domestic labour market tightness in the near term," said Ling.

Barclays economist Joey Chew agreed that "there are considerable cost pressures in the economy" from the labour shortage, and inflation is likely to accelerate towards the end of the year and into next year.

"Producers are only waiting for the right moment to pass on the costs, for example, when growth conditions improve," she added.

Recent policy changes that attempt to separate premium cars from mass-market models in the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) bidding process will continue to prop up premiums, noted UOB economist Francis Tan.

Tan said the move has prompted many potential car buyers to bring forward their purchases, due to expectations that premiums will be higher next year.

"Together with the appealing discounts given by car dealers to reduce their inventories as another carrot for attracting new car buyers, this renewed wave of buying may prompt COE prices to go on an upward trend," he added.

A combination of these factors and the uncertain global economicoutlook mean the MAS will have limited room to manoeuvre, said JP Morgan economist Matt Hildebrandt.

"The global recovery remains fragile and numerous risks remain, so the MAS does not have much room to tighten policy...Given the improved growth outlook and expectation for price pressures to firm, the MAS (also) has no room to ease next month," he added.

Multiple impacts of a falling rupee

The falling value of the rupee will have many fiscal and monetary implications, including an increase in the rupee-cost of external debt servicing and a rise in liquidity levels.

And depreciation of the rupee is partially explained by the recent central bank’s buying of $125 million from the interbank market.

It is not unusual for the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to buy dollars from banks, either on spot or through swaps. “But this time, the buying is covered under the scope of the IMF’s new lending programme,” says the treasurer of a large local bank. ‘That’s unusual.’

How much more the SBP may have to buy from banks is not difficult to guess, as under the current IMF programme of $6.7 billion, the central bank is supposed to raise its forex reserves (excluding those held by commercial banks) to over $9.5 billion by June 2014, from about $5.5 billion in September 2013.

“Buying from banks is not the only thing we’ll be doing,” says a central banker, pointing towards the government’s recent deal to borrow $625 million from a consortium of banks, in addition to scheduled inflows through the IMF financing line and development lending plans of foreign governments and international financial institutions.

The $625 million borrowing will directly boost forex reserves, as “these banks shall mobilise foreign exchange either through their overseas branches or principal offices or via other means, instead of dishing it out from their locally held foreign currency deposits,” the head of one of these banks told Dawn. He said the banks would readily do it, as the interest rate of 5.3 per cent on the dollar-denominated lending is quite lucrative.

A 100-paisa fall in the rupee’s value against the dollar adds Rs1 billion to the external debt servicing of $1 billion. Besides, it adds Rs60 billion, though mostly for accounting purposes, to the country’s overall external debt and liabilities of around $60 billion.

The rupee has lost 6.2 per cent value, as it fell to Rs105.86 a dollar on September 21 from Rs99.666 at the end of June.

If we assume that the rupee regains some of its lost value in the remaining days of this month, and its first quarter loss is contained at around 600-paisa per dollar against the so far loss of 620-paisa, the cost of the end-quarter external debt servicing would be higher by Rs6 billion on $1 billion. And the additional book cost of the stock of external debt and liabilities would be Rs360 billion.

Officials of the ministry of finance say it’s difficult to calculate the exact impact of the rupee decline on the external debt and debt servicing requirement before time.

“All of the external debt servicing doesn’t take place by the end of each quarter. Payments are made as and when they become due. And at that time, the actual rupee depreciation could be different than its quarterly or yearly depreciation,” argues one of the officials.

“Besides, quite often the government arranges foreign exchange ahead of the due date of payments. And sometimes, the SBP makes rupee-dollar swaps with banks, keeping in view the market requirement of foreign exchange ahead of external debt payments.”

But generally speaking, the decline in the rupee’s value during one quarter or a full fiscal year can be taken as the percentage of additional rupee expenses in external debt payments — at least on book value — during that period. And that naturally requires additional budgetary allocations under this head, squeezing the space for development spending. Besides, the buildup in the rupee cost of the overall external debt disturbs the debt sustainability ratios in terms of the local currency.

From the central bank’s point of view, the fall of the rupee and the consequent creation of the additional rupee-counterpart of external debt servicing are bad because they increase liquidity in the interbank market, thus putting more pressure on the exchange rate.

Interestingly, however, a buildup in liquidity in the interbank market helps the government to borrow from banks at cheaper rates and contain its domestic cost of borrowing. That also offsets, to some extent, the increase in the cost of external debt servicing.

The situation brings at least one good to the SBP, as it reduces the need for pumping of additional liquidity into the interbank market ahead of auctions of treasury bills and bonds to facilitate the government’s borrowing requirement.

But the SBP may have to continue its old practice of keeping the market liquid enough ahead of the government’s borrowing from commercial banks for some time. “After the recent hike of 50 basis points in the SBP’s policy rate, T-bill and PIB rates are moving up,” says a source close to the central bank.

“Already a very big rise in the government’s bank borrowing in the last few years has increased its cost of domestic debt servicing. If the SBP doesn’t help the government keep the cost at reasonable levels, the resultant increase in it would frustrate its plans to contain the fiscal deficit.”

In July-August FY14, the fiscal deficit was around one per cent of GDP because of revenue surpluses of the provinces. But to keep the full fiscal year deficit at the targeted 5.8 per cent, containing the cost of domestic debt servicing is critical.

As the rupee has lost more than six per cent against the dollar so far this fiscal year, it may keep the growth in imports somewhat under check, thereby lowering the trade deficit and having a positive impact on the external current account.

But any decline or sluggish growth in imports will eventually lower the collection of duties and taxes at the import stage, and impact on fiscal management.

And while a weaker rupee does support exports — again helping on the external front — higher exports hardly have a positive impact on revenue collection. Instead, if exports of food items grow faster, it would start producing demand-pull inflation.

This, along with the general impact of the rupee depreciation on imports via an increase in prices of such critical imports as fuel oil and industrial raw materials, is not in any way going to help economic growth, industrial output expansion, or private sector investment.

In a recent newspaper article, Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan said, “the [IMF] programme has failed to bring the rich and the powerful into the tax net. The IMF did not have the courage to mention bringing agricultural income under the direct tax net”

U.S. drone strike kills four alleged militants in Taliban stronghold region of Pakistan

Officials say four alleged militants were killed in a remote tribal area

Reports of another drone attack said three people were killed

The Pakistani Government condemned the strikes as counter-productive

The North Waziristan area is a known Taliban and al-Qaida territory

Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. strike killed four alleged militants in the country’s northwestern tribal area in the town of Datta Khel today.

There were also reports from security officials that three people were killed in an attack in the Boya area of North Waziristan, a known Taliban and al-Qaida territory.

The Pakistani Government condemned the attack and argued that the drone strikes are counter-productive, cause unnecessary civilian casualties and breach human rights.

In a statement today they said: ‘These unilateral strikes are a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity. 

‘Pakistan has repeatedly emphasised the importance of bringing an immediate end to drone strikes.’

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a double suicide bomb attack in the city of Peshwar, killing 85 people in one of the deadliest attacks on the country's Christian minority earlier this month
.

The Pakistani Taliban said it would continue to target non-Muslims until the US stopped drone attacks in the country’s remote tribal region.

The North Waziristan region is dominated by fighters of the anti-American militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur and the Haqqani Network.

Both have been known to carry out attacks against NATO troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.    

The AFP reported that a drone attack which killed three was done by remotely piloted Predators or Reapers operated by CIA. Two missiles were fired at a compound. 

Earlier this month, four members of the Haqqani Network were killed in a US strike in the Darga Mandi village. 

Unconfirmed reports said that Mullah Sangeen Zadran, a senior leader in the network, was among the dead.

The US has reduced the number of drone strikes in recent months.

Saudi cleric says women who drive risk damaging their ovaries

RIYADH: A conservative Saudi Arabian cleric has said women who drive risk damaging their ovaries and bearing children with clinical problems, countering activists who are trying to end the kingdom's male-only driving rules.

A campaign calling for women to defy the ban in a protest drive on Oct. 26 has spread rapidly online over the past week and gained support from some prominent women activists. On Sunday, the campaign's website was blocked inside the kingdom.

In an interview published on Friday on the website sabq.org, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan said women aiming to overturn the ban on driving should put “reason ahead of their hearts, emotions and passions”.

Reuters earlier wrongly identified him as Sheikh Saleh bin Mohammed al-Lohaidan, a member of the Senior Council of Scholars, one of the top religious bodies in the birthplace of Islam.

By contrast, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Lohaidan, the person quoted in the sabq.org report, is a judicial adviser to an association of Gulf psychologists.

His comments reflect the extent of opposition to women driving among some conservatives in Saudi Arabia.

“If a woman drives a car, not out of pure necessity, that could have negative physiological impacts as functional and physiological medical studies show that it automatically affects the ovaries and pushes the pelvis upwards,” he told Sabq.

“That is why we find those who regularly drive have children with clinical problems of varying degrees,” he said.

He did not cite specific medical studies to support his arguments.

The ban on women driving is not backed by a specific law, but only men are granted driving licences. Women can be fined for driving without a licence but have also been detained and put on trial in the past on charges of political protest.

Sheikh Abdulatif Al al-Sheikh, the head of the morality police, told Reuters a week ago that there was no text in the documents making up sharia, or Islamic law, that barred women from driving.

King Abdullah has pushed some cautious reforms aimed at expanding women's freedoms in Saudi Arabia, including opening more employment opportunities for them, but he has not addressed the issue of driving.

Samples of sea organisms collected from new island

KARACHI: Samples of coral, seashell, coralline algae and a number of dead fishes, crabs and shrimps have been collected during a survey of the newly-formed island off the coast of Gwadar.

The island was formed by a powerful earthquake last week, killing more than 500 people and affecting hundreds and thousands in Balochistan’s Awaran district.

Abdul Rahim, coordinator of the World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P), Gwadar, conducted the survey with the help of local experts.

The team has spotted a number of marine organisms, dead or alive, on the island since the area is rich in biodiversity. It identified four species of small encrusting and branching coral species along with seashells, sea cucumbers and algae.The team also noticed gaseous emissions and believed that it was methane gas.

“Colonies of coral were found all over the island. It is a positive sign because most other features of marine biodiversity are associated with coral colonies. The biomass of this particular area is very satisfactory and the area is known for rich biodiversity.

“This is evident from the extensive fishing carried out in the area as, according to local fishermen, more than 200 fishermen daily fish in the surrounding area where the new island has emerged,” says the team’s preliminary report.

The dead fishes found on the island included groupers, flat-head, moray eel and grunt.

“All these fishes got stranded on the island when seawater ran out as a large part of the seabed was raised when tectonic plates pushed together,” it says.

According to the team, the muddy island between two and three kilometres away from the coast is round; about 500 feet long and 60 feet above the sea level.

Citing indigenous fishermen’s accounts, the report states that a similar island had emerged near the Gwadar coast in 1945 following an earthquake with its epicentre in the northern Arabian Sea. The last island, according to fishermen, was similar in size but it was less elevated as compared to the present island.

“The communities living here also named it zilzila jazeera [earthquake island] in their local language. The island stayed prominent and visible for almost a year and was used by fishermen as a temporary abode during fishing trips. They used to cook food and dry their fishing nets on the island,” the report says.

It is important to mention here that the earthquake also caused changes on the seafloor near Ormara and at least three ‘extrusions’ have been reported in the area.

According to the National Institute of Oceanography experts, the land masses are bodies of mud which have been pushed out due to release of highly pressurised methane gas present in the form of hydrates hundreds of meters below the seabed.

Only the land mass off the coast of Gwadar is accessible which, experts believe, will disappear in a few months because of wave action and reduction in gas pressure.

Japan takes issue with Google maps over islands

TOKYO : Japan has asked local authorities and state-run universities not to post Google maps on their websites because some of them use non-Japanese names for disputed islands, reports said Sunday.
The disputed territory includes the South Korean-controlled islets in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) called Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea, and the Japan-held Senkaku islands in the East China Sea, claimed by China as the Diaoyus, the Sports Nippon tabloid reported. The Russian-held islands off Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido, referred to by Japan as the Northern Territories, are also included, the paper said. In notices issued earlier this year the Tokyo government said that “some registrations in the electronic maps on the home pages are incompatible with Japan’s stance”, Kyodo News agency reported. It said the government recommends that public bodies use maps compiled by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, but it was unclear if they have followed the request because Google maps are apparently more convenient.

Taliban overrun district HQ in Afghanistan

KABUL, Sept 29: Taliban fighters on Sunday overran a district headquarters in a remote and mountainous region of northern Afghanistan, their latest offensive in a campaign to regain territory as foreign troops withdraw from the country, according to officials.

Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said a group of militants took over a government building after police evacuated the facility in Badakhshan province’s Karan wa Munjan district to prevent any civilian casualties.

“This year the enemy is trying to show their existence in northernparts of the country and that is one of the reasons that they are attacking Badakhshan province,” Mr Sediqi said.

He pointed to a successful operation last week to clear militants from another district, Wurdoj, and said preparations were under way to retake the headquarters building.

Mr Sediqi added that the militants were only controlling a single building, which had a very small police presence.

At least 18 Afghan policemen died in the Wurdoj operations along with 47 militants, the ministry said last week.

“We did have successful military operations in Wurdoj district and now as they have been defeated there and couldn’t keep their strongholds, so they made another choice and attacked Karan wa Munjan district,” Mr Sediqi said.

“There is no doubt that we had fewer police forces in the district, they were not more than 30 policemen there at the time of the attack. Reinforcements are coming now.”

Rupee to weaken 10pc in FY14

LAHORE  - Though the local currency has already depreciated by 5.2 per cent just in three months of the current fiscal year, the money market experts have projected the rupee will depreciate by average 10 per cent in FY14, as the government has to meet IMF targets to get the next tranche. Hence, the forex and money market may continue to face this type of situation at every quarter end.
They said that after touching peak of Rs110.5, the US dollar settled at Rs105.5 in the inter-bank market after the central bank intervention. Incorporating inflation and rupee depreciation, they maintained their stance of 100bps increase in policy rate in FY14 with higher probability of 50bps increase in November MPS. “Higher than estimated inflation due to recent energy reforms and rupee depreciation carries the potential to revise inflation and discount rate forecasts.
Further, in order to provide support to falling rupee, SBP can also raise discount rate more than estimates,” observed Zeeshan Afzal, financial market expert at Topline.
He stated that apparently it looks like that inflation and rupee will be the key issues and, resultantly, SBP will increase discount rate more aggressively to keep real interest rates positive. As per statistics, in FY14 to date, 1 years government paper yield has increased by 125bps to 10.25 per cent while 2 years paper yields have increased by 195bps to 11.30 per cent. Based on current yields, implied 1-Yr forward yield (that is one year rate in Sep 2014) is calculated at 12 per cent. This 1- Yr forward rate was close to 10 per cent on July 1, 2013. In other words, money market has incorporated about 150-200bps increase in discount rate in next 12 months (ending September 2014).
Experts said that Pakistan markets welcomed new economic managers and there was a feel-good factor amongst the investor community.  However canvas started to fade out after evaluating strict targets in IMF deal coupled with higher inflation outlook of SBP that has already resulted in an unexpected 50bps hike in policy rate. At the moment, movement of Pak Rupee (that is down 5.2 per cent in FY14 to date) has become another concern due to no major effort seen to control its volatility. After crossing Rs110/US$ the question now arises about the fate of interest rate in light of higher than anticipated inflation due to weak local currency coupled with the fact that SBP may use interest rate tool to control falling Rupee.
Based on various methods, experts calculate 9.5-10.5 per cent average CPI for FY14 with Sep CPI likely at 7.5-8.0 per cent and double digit inflation from November onwards. In 2MFY14, CPI has averaged at 8.4 per cent.

Industrial units facing closure after 57pc raise in power tariff

Several industrial units have been closed after 57 per cent increase is electricity tariff in August. Federal government is again planning to increase power tariff by 30 percent. The decision may result into disaster and many more units will be closed causing serious unemployment in the country, industry representatives said on Sunday.
“The present increase in electricity tariff will force industrialists to shut down their operations. Many people have stopped their industrial activity and have started real estate business. Some of the units have shifted their operations to other countries. The trend is disastrous and may cause serious unemployment in the country.” The so-called business friendly government has focused all its abilities for collection of revenue and no attention is paid for industrial growth and to boost exports. This was stated by the Chairman of Pakistan Tanners Association (Central) Agha Saiddain.
He further added that present government has failed to introduce export-friendly policies and this may cause serious setback to the country as value of Rupee has already slipped by more than 8.5 per cent in last three months. Due to present poor policies the balance of payments would be badly disturbed and country may need more borrowings in future years. There is every possibility that we as a country will be caught in serious debt trap and unending vicious circle.
Agha said it is beyond our understanding that how policy makers can think that industry can survive even after so much increase in electricity bills. He said that most of the industry is either running in loss or operating at a very thin margin.
He further added that government may set priorities and engage think tanks to suggest prudent policies in the best interest of country at long run.
Most of the present policies are short sighted and pregnant with serious repercussions. The previous government had appointed the Senior Federal Minister for Commerce but the present government has given additional charge to the Minister of State. This shows the difference of vision and mind set. He said for last few months TDAP is without its CEO and many matters are pending due to this vacant position. He urged government to immediately withdraw decision of increase in electricity tariff to avoid nationwide strike as suggested by many trade bodies and chambers all over the country.
He said that law and order is a major cause of decline in local and foreign investment and if the government fails to respond to private sector’s call, the economy will continue to slide ultimately resulting in closure of industry and trade. He said that the government should facilitate the exporters and implement all trade facilitations in letter and spirit enshrined in trade policies. He said that the economic realities show that the country cannot sustain a high and growing trade deficit therefore the trade development should be enhanced through close coordination all major with trade and industrial bodies.

Raid that killed OBL was all a fabrication

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist says that the official account of the raid which killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011 is ‘one big lie’.
Seymour Hersh, 76, said that ‘not one word’ of the Obama administration’s narrative on what happened is true.
In an interview, Hersh savages the US media for failing to challenge the White House on a whole host of issues, from NSA spying, to drone attacks, to aggression against Syria. He said the Navy Seal raid that supposedly resulted in the death of the Al-Qaeda terror leader, Hersh said, ‘not one word of it is true’.
According to Hersh - who first gained worldwide recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai Massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting - the problem is that the US media is allowing the Obama administration to get away with lying. ‘It’s pathetic.
They are more than obsequious, they are afraid to pick on this guy [Obama].’
The White House has refused to publicly release images of Bin Laden’s body, fuelling suspicion they are withholding information. Although the White House said the corpse was immediately ‘buried at sea’ within 24 hours of his death in line with Islamic tradition, it quickly emerged that this was not standard practice.
It has also been suggested that the White House has changed its story multiple times, according to infowars.com.
They initially claimed that pictures from the ‘situation room’ show Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Hilary Clinton and the rest of the security team watching the raid live, when in fact there was a blackout on the feed.
Neighbours close to the Pakistani compound in Abbottabad also said they had never seen Bin Laden in the area. Hersh said the American press spends ‘so much more time carrying water for Obama than I ever thought they would’.
In his opinion, the solution would be to shut down news networks like NBC and ABC and fire 90 per cent of mainstream editors and replace them with ‘real’ journalists who are not afraid to speak truth to power.
‘The republic’s in trouble, we lie about everything, lying has become the staple,’ he said.–Daily Mail

PTI comes under fire over Taliban stance

ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: The third terrorist attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a week brought the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the party leading the ruling coalition in the province, under severe criticism from almost all major political parties, with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl demanding removal of the provincial government over its failure to protect citizens.

Condemning Sunday’s bomb attack in the Qissa Khawani Bazaar in Peshawar in which over 40 people were killed, the political leaders particularly criticised PTI chief Imran Khan for his recent statement in which he had said that the Taliban should be allowed to open their offices in Pakistan.

On the other hand, Mr Khan termed it unfortunate that some parties were using the tragedy for making political gains.

Former president and Peoples Party leader Asif Ali Zardari termed the blast “most barbaric, inhuman and reflecting the depraved mind of the militants” and called for “a collective national response to uproot the extremists from our midst”.

“The wages of appeasing the militants by asking for setting up their offices in the country are more than obvious and it is time that the nation and the state rise to give a befitting reply to them. Dithering and procrastination on our part will only further embolden the militants,” Mr Zardari said in a statement issued by the PPP’smedia centre.

Mr Zardari’s spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar, when contacted, regretted that terrorist attacks had increased after the state “abdicated” its authority and declared the militants as “stakeholders” in the peace process.

He criticised the PTI chief’s statement regarding opening of Taliban’s offices, saying it amounted to equating “the terrorists, murderers, rapists and dacoits with judges, lawyers and other segments of the society”.

In reply to a question, Senator Babar said the PPP had supported the government in the all-party conference (APC) believing that the PML-N had been given a mandate by the people in elections and it should be given an opportunity to work for bringing peace to the country. The PPP, he said, believed that any political divide at this stage would only strengthen the hands of militants.

Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah in a statement said it appeared that terrorists were least interested in peace negotiations. He said it should also be a matter of concern for Mr Khan that his philosophy of negotiations for peace had badly failed.

A former minister and leader of the Awami National Party (ANP), Ghulam Ahmed Bilour said Mr Khan should be held accountable for his failure to protect the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman termed the killing of innocent people in the blast tragic and said enemies of peace could take advantage of the “uncertainty” about the talks with the Taliban.

Commenting on Mr Khan’s statement citing an example of the opening of a Taliban office in Qatar, he said the PTI chief should know the difference between Afghan and Pakistani Taliban. He said opening a Taliban office was an “immature concept” and a “poorly conceived idea”.

Talking to Dawn, JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai criticised the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for “not taking steps to protect the citizens” and taking refuge under the excuse of delay in the start of peace talks.

He said that police in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had not been given any guidelines by the new government about monitoring of the entry and exit points and searching of vehicles.

He alleged that the government had removed a substantial number of checkpoints in the province, allowing the militants to move about freely.

The JUI-F spokesman said the federal government should play its role under the constitution if provincial authorities failed to improve the security situation.