Month: February 2022

The financial challenges of the Imran Khan government are mounting with cash-strapped Pakistan asked to payback to USD 3 billion loan that it took from Saudi Arabia within a year with four per cent interest on the loan each quarter.

The development underlines tensions between Riyadh and Islamabad that began two years ago and continues to persist, according to a media report.Saudi Arabia had in October 2021 agreed to revive its financial support to Pakistan, including about USD 3 billion in safe deposits and USD 1.2bn to USD 1.5bn worth of oil supplies on deferred payments. This was expected to help Pakistan convince the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about its financing plan. Its representatives asked Islamabad last week to “do more” on economic reforms, and go beyond merely hiking the taxes, reported The Times of Israel.

A tax hike in Pakistan has drew public criticism and the fresh financial challenges come when it is unclear that Beijing did concede to an urgent USD three billion loan during the recent visit of the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Pakistan’s Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin defended the interest rate on the Saudi loan stressing that interest rates are rising across the world. The four per cent interest rate for the Saudi loan is not something bad, said Tarin.

There was no scope for deferred payment on either count. Had there been any, it would have been mentioned in the original loan agreement, the minister said.

The Saudi demand indicates that the deterioration in bilateral ties started over two years back persists. Saudi Interior Minister was in Islamabad just three days back, when he was received, not just by his counterpart, but also by Prime Minister Imran Khan and President Alvi. All these leaders praised the Saudi support in superlative terms and that the Gulf partner was “an indispensable partner”, according to The Times of Israel.

The development also underlined that last year’s visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman when he was accorded a red-carpet welcome, did not help in reducing tensions that began with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi demanding that Riyadh convene an OIC meet to discuss the Kashmir dispute with India.

Qureshi had alluded to Saudi and other Gulf nations being ‘silent’ on the issue because they valued the growing economic ties with New Delhi more.

The move had angered the Saudis and the UAE, both of which sought back loans given to Pakistan for a longer period and also rolled back the concessional sale of fuel on deferred payment. The two Gulf nations have been irritated with Pakistan over the latter’s moves to get closer to Turkey, their rival in Islamic nations’ politics, reported The Times of Israel.

Saudi and the UAE have also not taken kindly to repeated accusations by Khan and his ministers that the Gulf nations were ‘diluting’ the stand of the Islamic Ummah on the Kashmir issue to gain from the large Indian energy requirement.

Therefore, Pakistan’s continuous step to play the Kashmir card in the Islamic countries, particularly the Gulf nations have thus been counterproductive for Pakistan, according to The Times of Israel. (ANI)

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that once the party is re-elected to power, farmers in Uttar Pradesh will not have to pay electricity bills for the next five years.

Addressing a public rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Dibiyapur, Shah said, “Holi is on 18th (March), counting is on 10th, bring the BJP government to power on 10th, free gas cylinders will reach your house on 18th of March. No farmer will have to pay electricity bills for the next five years.”
Exuding confidence for the victory of the BJP in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Shah said that Samajwadi Party has been wiped out from the state after the first and second phases of elections.

“The Samajwadi Party has been wiped out. Western Uttar Pradesh has done the work of laying the foundation of the BJP government with more than 300 seats. In the third phase, this majority has to be made grander,” he said.

Taking a jibe at the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Shah said, “Akhilesh (SP chief) asks what have we done? If someone has yellow-coloured glasses, they’ll see everything in yellow only… guns and bullets used to be made under Akhilesh’s government, now instead of ‘goli’, ‘gole (ammunitions)’ is made, to fire against Pakistan.”

Two phases of polls in Uttar Pradesh have concluded, while the state will have another five phases of polling.

The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)

Champion badminton player Jwala Gutta on Tuesday came out in support of Muslim schoolgirls in Karnataka after there were reports on social media of several schoolgirls being asked to take off their headscarf to access entry to the school.

Taking her angst on micro-blogging website Twitter, the badminton ace said, “Stop humiliating small girls at the gates of the school where they come to empower themselves…school is supposed to be their safe haven!!”

She added that head scarf or no head scarf, they needed to be spared “from this ugly politics….stop scarring there small minds… Just stop this!!”

The tweet generated largescale response with more than 3,000 replies, mostly supporting her views but also an equal number of trolls who posted some Islamophobic comments and pictures.

The controversy over hijab ban is already reached the state High Court with a larger bench hearing the petition on the matter.

The hijab row started a couple of months back in Udupi where a school principal, seeking uniform attire, denied entry to a few schoolgirls wearing a hijab. Several Muslim organisations took up the matter on behalf of the girls and their right to education.

Hindutava groups came out in support of the decision to ban and now the issue has become a national issue, with protests in favour of and against the proposed ban taking place in several states.

Violence against the minorities in Pakistan is on the rise as in a fresh incident, a Christian man was stabbed to death by a mob of the majority community in Lahore, reported local media.

“A 25-year-old Christian youth, the brother of seven sisters, was stabbed to death during a clash between the members of Muslim and Christian community over the construction of a wall in the neighbourhood in the Factory Area police limits on Monday,” reported The News International.
The incident is the latest attack against the minority community in Pakistan.

The community members had scuffled a day earlier over the same issue in which the brother of the deceased was left injured. An FIR of that violent incident had also been registered, said the Pakistani publication.

The Lahore police could not follow up the issue properly despite being a sensitive issue as they claim they are busy in the security of the PSL matches.

According to the complainant of the FIR Akhtar Bhatti, the uncle of the deceased Pervaiz Maseeh, a group of around 200 people led by Sohni s/o Allah Ditta, Malik Billa, Sufiyan Butt and others had gathered in the street near his house in LDA quarters. They were hurling abusive language and making noise, reported The News International.

It came after two Christian priests, Pastor Patrick and Pastor William Siraj, were shot dead by unknown bike-borne assailants on Sunday at Ring Road, Peshawar on January 31.

The priests were returning from their Sunday prayers, reported local media. Pastor Anwar Fazl, Chairman Aijaq TV and Eternal Life Church condemned this heinous act and asked the authorities to arrest the accused otherwise large scale protests will be carried out by the Christian community in Pakistan.

The recent attacks on Christian youth and priests are yet another example of continuing atrocities against minorities in Pakistan. In recent years, there has been a surge in attacks on minorities and also their places of worship in Pakistan. The country has been slammed by the international community for not safeguarding the interests of minorities. (ANI)

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Lok Sabha MP from Kaiserganj, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh called All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi “a descendent of Lord Ram.”

“Owaisi is an old friend of mine. As far as I know, he was ‘Kshatriya’ (Hindu) earlier. He is a descendent of Lord Ram, not the one belonging to Iran,” said Singh.
Singh made the following comments on Monday while campaigning for his son and BJP candidate from Gonda, Prateek Bhushan Singh.

Slamming Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav for not knitting an alliance with AIMIM, Singh said “Akhilesh and Owaisi are fighting to acquire the leadership of Muslim community.”

“Akhilesh is a cheater. He betrayed his father and his uncle. It is his job to cheat. He betrayed Swami Prasad Maurya too. Maurya went into SP with a promise of 20-30 seats, he got nothing,” Singh added.

Swami Prasad Maurya was a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government. Weeks ahead of the polls, he resigned from BJP and joined SP.

SP has fielded Maurya from the Fazilnagar assembly constituency of the Kushinagar district.

Two phases of polls in Uttar Pradesh have concluded, while the state still has another five phases of polling to go.

The counting of votes will take place on March 10. (ANI)

Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka on Tuesday handed over 40,000 MT fuel consignment by Indian Oil Corp Ltd to Sri Lankan Energy Minister, Udaya Gammanpila.

Taking to Twitter, the Indian High Commissioner said that New Delhi is a committed partner and a true friend of Colombo.
“#India – a committed partner and a true friend of #SriLanka. High Commissioner handed over 40,000 MT fuel consignment by @IndianOilcl to Hon’ble Energy Minister @UPGammanpila today. India and Sri Lanka partnership continues to work towards energy security of #lka,” the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka tweeted. (ANI)

The world number one men’s tennis player Novak Djokovic has stated that he would rather miss out on future trophies than be forced to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion said that he should not be associated with the anti-vax movement, but added that he supports an individual’s freedom to choose.

The Serbian was asked if he would sacrifice taking part in competitions such as Wimbledon and the French Open over his stance on the vaccine. “Yes, that is the price that I’m willing to pay,” Djokovic told BBC news.

Last month, Novak Djokovic failed to participate in the Australian Open 2022 as he was deported by the Australian government after a row on his vaccine status. Djokovic had his visa revoked twice when he was eventually deported by the Australian government.

“I was never against vaccination,” he added and confirmed that he’d had vaccines as a child. Djokovic further added: “But I’ve always supported the freedom to choose what you put in your body.”

When asked about why he is letting go of the chance to win more Grand Slams, Djokovic replied: “Because the principles of decision making on my body are more important than any title or anything else. I’m trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can.”

Novak Djokovic is set to return to action at the Dubai Tennis Championships this month. The Serbian is also on the entry list for the Indian Wells ATP Masters 1000 in California starting next month. (ANI)

India continues to witness its downward trajectory of fresh COVID-19 cases with the country reporting 27,409 new infections in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Tuesday.

The daily positivity rate in the country has also dipped to 2.23 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate has dropped to 3.63 per cent.
With this, the present active caseload of India is 4,23,127, accounting for 0.99 per cent of total cases.

A total of 75.30 crore tests have been conducted so far in India, with 12,29,536 tests held in the last 24 hours, as per ministry data.

As many as 82,817 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tally of recovery from the virus 4,17,60,458. The country has also reported 347 deaths due to COVID in the past 24 hours.

A total of 173.42 crore vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far under a nationwide vaccination drive.

The COVID cases had begun to show a significant rise following the emergence of the Omicron variant last year.

After witnessing the second wave in April-May last year, COVID-19 cases in India started declining in subsequent months and daily infections spike reached as low as 5,326 new cases on December 21. Meanwhile, the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529), a new variant of the coronavirus, was first reported in Botswana on November 11, 2021, and appeared on November 14 in South Africa. India detected its first Omicron case on December 2 last year in Karnataka.

Following the emergence of the Omicron variant, daily cases began rising by December-end and breached the 1-lakh mark on January 7 when 1,17,100 fresh infections were reported. The peak of the surge was recorded on January 21, 2022, when 3,47,254 new cases were recorded in a 24-hour period.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha on February 4, 2022, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar stated that “an upsurge of COVID-19 cases in the country was observed by the end of December, 2021 which was primarily driven by the Omicron variant”. (ANI)