Month: July 2022

The Supreme Court on Friday will hear the petition filed by fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair seeking protection from arrest and challenging the Allahabad High Court order refusing to quash FIR registered for a tweet in which he allegedly called three Hindu seers- as “hate mongers”.

A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari on Thursday agreed to list the matter for hearing on Friday subject to assignment by the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana.
Mentioning the matter for urgent hearing, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for Zubair, had told the bench that there is a serious threat to his life.

Gonsalves had said, “This relates to Mohammed Zubair, the co-founder of Alt News. His job is to fact-check news, and he was doing the role of identifying hate speeches. A look at the FIR shows that there is no crime. We went to Allahabad High Court but no relief was granted. We seek bail in an emergency. There are death threats on the internet to him. If possible list today at 2 pm.”

The bench, however, said that only the Chief Justice of India can list matters. “List the matter tomorrow subject to clearance by the Chief Justice of India,” said the bench.

Zubair has approached the top court challenging the Allahabad High Court’s June 10 order where it had refused to quash an FIR registered against him in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh saying that it was premature to interfere when the investigation was at a preliminary stage.

Filing the appeal against the High Court order, Zubair also sought direction to stay the investigation in the case and direction for UP police not to “proceed, prosecute or arrest” him on the basis of the FIR.

The FIR was registered for a tweet in which he allegedly called Hindu seers Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati, Bajrang Muni and Anand Swaroop “hate mongers” on Twitter.

The FIR was lodged against Zubai on June 1 under Section 295 (A) of the IPC and Section 67 of the IT Act at the Khairabad police station in Sitapur district for deliberately “outraging religious feelings” of the seers.

His appeal in the apex court has said that the allegations of the FIR against him are “absolutely false and baseless”.

He claimed to be innocent and said he said that he has not committed any offence.

“The police are threatening to arrest the petitioner (Zubair) and the life and liberty of the petitioner is in danger. The inclusion of this criminal offence in the FIR portrays the cavalier, malicious and arbitrary manner in which the Respondents (UP police) have acted against the Petitioner,” the appeal stated.

It further stated, “There is a new strategy afoot of the police in communal crime cases. That is to register FIRs against those engaging in hate speech and communal crimes, as well as to rope in all secular elements monitoring such crimes and protesting police inaction against the wrongdoers. This is done with the intention of stifling the freedom of speech of secular persons in society who stand up against communal elements and putting fear into them so that they no longer protest. It is therefore imperative that this Court understand this new strategy and nip it in the bud so that secular social activism continues on its path and plays the most necessary role in society to stand up to communalism.”

Zubair is already in judicial custody in a case registered by the Delhi police for allegedly hurting religious sentiments over a tweet posted by him in 2018. (ANI)

Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who collapsed after apparently being shot in the chest while delivering a speech in Nara City on Friday has been rushed to hospital where he is reported to be in “cardiopulmonary arrest.”

Local fire department said that the Japanese ex-PM has been rushed to hospital and is in cardiopulmonary arrest. He is scheduled to be transferred by medevac to Nara Medical University Hospital in Kashihara City in the prefecture.
Police said that Abe appears to have been shot from behind with a shotgun, Kyodo news agency said. Local media reported that police has detained the assailant and retrieved a gun from the scene.

Abe was conscious and responsive while being transported to the hospital after the possible shooting, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, said citing police sources.

Abe was campaigning on a street for Liberal Democratic Party candidate at the House of Councillors election, scheduled this Sunday when he collapsed at around 11: 30 am after people on the scene heard what sounded like a gun going off twice, local media reported.

Abe, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister had stepped down in 2020 citing health reasons. He was prime minister of Japan twice, from 2006-07 and again from 2012-20. He was succeeded by Yoshihide Suga and later by Fumio Kishida.

Shinzo Abe shares a deep bond of friendship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi which was quite evident in the meeting between both leaders in the month of May. The meeting illustrated the huge goodwill and personal chemistry of PM Modi with the former Japanese PM. (ANI)

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma on Thursday said that he has every right to meet Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief JP Nadda and both of them share the same alma mater.

“If I have to meet him, I will go openly. What is the big deal in it? I belong to INC. Being ideological opponents does not mean that there is any personal division between us. We do not make ideological opponents our social enemies,” Sharma told ANI.

“If I have to meet BJP chief JP Nadda, I have every right to meet him, for me, he is just not the BJP president. We both come from the same state and share the same alma mater. There should not be any political significance attached to it,” he added.

There were reports of Sharma meeting Nadda today. Notably, Sharma is a member of Congress’ G23 group.

The ‘G23’ leaders including Shashi Tharoor, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Manish Tiwari and others have been vocal for organisational changes in the Congress party.

Notably, former union minister and one of the key members of the ‘G23’ group Kapil Sibal in May this year announced that he left the Congress party. (ANI)

Coal production from captive and commercial coal blocks surged by 79 per cent to 27.7 million tonnes in the first quarter of the current financial year as compared to 15.5 MT recorded in the corresponding period of the last fiscal, the government data showed on Thursday.

At present, a total of 36 captive and commercial mines are under production and it is expected that at least 12 more new mines will start production during the year. This will significantly contribute to meet the coal demand in the country, the Ministry of Coal said in a statement.

Additional secretary and nominated authority of the Ministry of Coal on Wednesday reviewed the production from coal blocks for the first quarter of 2022-23.

During the review meeting the Ministry of Coal officials appreciated the efforts of coal blocks allottees in achieving such high growth and expressed hope that target production of 32 million tons from coal blocks during the second quarter of FY 2022-23 will be achieved, the statement said.

It was also noted with appreciation that two mines auctioned in 2021 under commercial auction reforms have become operational and produced 1.57 million tonnes in the first quarter. (ANI)

China has put pressure on Islamabad in various ways, to ensure the safety and security of its citizens living and working in Pakistan on CPEC-related projects.

More recently, China has told Pakistan that it wants its own Private Security Company (PSC) to protect its citizens and assets, in Pakistan after the targeted killing of Chinese language teachers at the University of Karachi, reported The HK Post.

China has been consistently asking Chief of Army Staff General Bajwa and PM Shehbaz Sharif to tighten the screws to ensure the safety and security of Chinese nationals and projects in Pakistan.

That CPEC security remains a priority for China is evident, but its latest request is also a sign of the spreading tentacles of Chinese PSCs overseas, which act as extensions of the Chinese state.

Nikkei Asia reports (28 June 2022) that the Shahbaz Sharif government has turned down a Chinese request for its PSCs to operate on Pakistani soil, but it is likely that China will continue pushing for such an arrangement.

When the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) began in 2015, the primary concern was security. This remains an issue even today, almost a decade after China initiated CPEC, as the flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative, reported The HK Post.

In early June, China’s Ministry of State Security had reportedly asked the Pakistani government to allow a Chinese PSC to operate inside the country.

The Interior Ministry, however, objected and offered assurances that Pakistan’s security forces would protect Chinese nationals and assets.

Pakistan Army has a Special Security Division (SSD, raised in 2016) whose sole task is to protect CPEC assets. There are two SSDs — the 34 and 44 Light Infantry Divisions — with 15,000 troops each. While the 34 Light Infantry Division was created in September 2016, the 44 Light Infantry Division was developed in 2020.

A private security consulting firm official in Pakistan working with the Chinese told Nikkei Asia that the killing of ten Chinese nationals last year in an attack on a bus in Dasu and this year’s attack on Chinese instructors at the Confucius Institute in Karachi led to China asking Pakistan to allow operations of Chinese PSCs.

In the aftermath of the Dasu killings and the TTP’s increasing influence in Pakistan, Chinese workers had reportedly started arming to protect themselves, while carrying out maintenance works, reported The HK Post.

Ahsan Iqbal, then Pakistan’s Planning Minister had told the local media in 2016 that tension could arise between Chinese security companies and the local population.

There is no doubt that resentment against China will increase if Chinese security companies are allowed to guard Chinese interests in Pakistan, reported The HK Post.

This is especially true in Balochistan, where anti-Chinese sentiment is already very high. Baloch insurgents see China as agents of colonization of Balochistan and primary exploiters of the province’s natural resources in the name of the CPEC.

The basic Chinese idea is to replicate the model of using private security agencies, already active in Africa and Central Asia, in Pakistan.

Moreover, the very notion that China wants to bring in its own security to protect CPEC leads to the conclusion that it has completely lost trust in Pakistan’s capacity to protect its interests.

Also, the anti-China sentiment in Pakistan is quite high. The Chinese strategy of land grab and providing employment to its own people at the cost of the local population has created new set of challenges.

The instance of Gwadar fishermen protesting the presence of Chinese trawlers and marching with the slogan “Gwadar ko hak do” towards the end of last year.

Pakistan may well manage to avoid, at least for now, an invitation to Chinese PSCs to operate on their soil. In the long run, however, circumstances may well force Islamabad to change its stance, reported The HK Post. (ANI)

185 inmates from Kandahar’s central jail were set free in Afghanistan on Thursday, Xinhua reported, quoting jail commander Mawlawi Akhtar Mohammad Hussaini as saying.

According to the official, the detainees were set free in line with the decree of the Taliban-run administration’s supreme leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada on account of Eid ul-Adha, on Saturday.

Of the released inmates 45 had been held for involvement in criminal activities while the remaining 140 were drug-addicted persons, Hussaini added.

The authorities also released 350 detainees from the Kandahar jail a couple of days ago, reported Xinhua.

Afghanistan, speaking as the country concerned, said reports that the situation of human rights, particularly those of women and girls, was today worse than anywhere else in the world.

The situation of women and girls in Afghanistan reflects systematic violations of rights directly resulting from the wilful adoption of measures and policies by the Taliban, aiming at erasing them completely from all spheres of public life.

Unrecognized by most of the international community, the Taliban-led government has committed to disrespecting the human rights of women. The atrocities of the Taliban against Afghan women have been on an incessant surge since the organization seized power in Afghanistan in August last year, banning young girls and women of humanitarian rights.

Taliban has suspended the secondary education of girls and enforced a strict form of Hijab. They have also provided no opportunities for Afghan women to participate in political and public life, to fit the pattern of absolute gender segregation that is aimed at making women invisible in society.

Afghan women had enjoyed unfettered freedom in the country for so many years but are now staring at a bleak future due to a number of restrictions imposed by the Taliban governing aspects of their lives within ten months of Afghanistan’s takeover as the criminal acts have been on an incessant rise.

Away from the urban areas, women and girls are not allowed to move out on the streets or travel without a male family member accompanying them.

Women are being curtailed from wearing make-up as well as from their reproductive rights. (ANI)

Vivo India’s nearly 23 associated firms such as Grand Prospect International Communication Pvt Ltd (GPICPL) transferred huge amounts to the firm and out of the total sale proceeds of Rs 1,25,185 crores, it remitted Rs 62,476 crores almost 50 per cent of the turnover out of India, mainly to China, the Enforcement Directorate said on Thursday.

The agency said these entities are Rui Chuang Technologies Private Limited (Ahmedabad), V Dream Technology and Communication Private Ltd (Hyderabad), Regenvo Mobile Private Limited (Lucknow), Fangs Technology Private Limited (Chennai), Weiwo Communication Private Limited (Bangalore), Bubugao Communication Private Limited (Jaipur), Haicheng Mobile (India) Private Limited (New Delhi), Joinmay Mumbai Electronics Pvt Ltd (Mumbai), Yingjia Communication Private Limited (Kolkata), Jie Lian Mobile India Pvt Ltd (Indore), Vigour Mobile India Private Limited (Gurgaon), Hisoa Electronic Private Limited (Pune), Haijin Trade India Private Limited (Kochi), Rongsheng Mobile India Private Limited (Guwahati), Morefun Communication Private Limited (Patna), Aohua Mobile India Private Limited (Raipur), Pioneer Mobile Private Limited (Bhubaneswar), Unimay Electronic Private Limited (Nagpur), Junwei Electronic Private Limited (Aurangabad), Huijin Electronic India Private Limited (Ranchi), MGM Sales Private Limited (Dehradun) and Joinmay Electronics Pvt Ltd (Mumbai).

“These companies are found to have transferred huge amounts of funds to Vivo India. Further, out of the total sale proceeds of Rs 1,25,185 crores, Vivo India remitted Rs 62,476 crores almost 50 per cent of the turnover out of India, mainly to China,” ED said in a statement.

“These remittances were made in order to disclose huge losses in Indian incorporated companies to avoid payment of taxes in India.”

The ED revealed the information after it carried out searches at 48 locations spanning across the country belonging to Vivo Mobiles India Private Limited and its 23 associated companies such as GPICPL.

ED said Vivo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd was incorporated on August 1, 2014 as a subsidiary of Multi Accord Ltd, a Hong Kong-based company and was registered at the Registrar of Companies, Delhi.

It further said GPICPL was registered on December 3, 2014 at Registrar of Companies, Shimla, with registered addresses of Solan in Himachal Pradesh and Gandhi Nagar, Jammu. The company was incorporated by Zhengshen Ou, Bin Lou and Zhang Jie with the help of Nitin Garg, a Chartered Accountant.

“Bin Lou left India on April 26, 2018. Zhengshen Ou and Zhang Jie left India in 2021,” ED said.

PMLA Investigation by ED was initiated by recording an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) on February 3 this year on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by Kalkaji police station under Delhi Police on December 5 last year against GPICPL and its Director, shareholders and certifying professionals on the basis of a complaint filed by Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

As per the FIR, GPICPL and its shareholders had used forged identification documents and falsified addresses at the time of incorporation. The allegations were found to be true as the investigation revealed that the addresses mentioned by the directors of GPICPL did not belong to them, but in fact, it was a government building and the house of a senior bureaucrat.

ED’s investigation revealed that the same director of GPICPL, namely Bin Lou, was also an ex-director of Vivo. He had incorporated multiple companies across the country spread across various states, a total of 18 companies around the same time, just after the incorporation of Vivo in 2014-15 and further another Chinese national Zhixin Wei had incorporated further four companies.

During raids, the ED said, due procedures as per law were followed at each premise but “the employees of Vivo India, including some Chinese nationals, did not cooperate with the search proceedings and had tried to abscond, remove and hide digital devices which were retrieved by the search teams”.

So far, the ED said, 119 bank accounts of various entities with a gross balance to the tune of Rs 465 crores including fixed deposits to the tune of Rs 66 crores of Vivo India, 2 kg gold bars, and cash amount to the tune of approximately Rs 73 lakhs have been seized under the provisions of PMLA, 2002. (ANI)

Even though the monsoon has begun to affect the entire country, many areas still seem to be experiencing intense heat which is exacerbated by sharp increases in humidity. This summer’s heat waves in India are a reflection of the unusual temperature trends that are anticipated to get worse as the effects of climate change become more pronounced.

After the summer of 2010, the summer of 2022 has been the second-hottest summer since 2016. Due to heat island effects brought on by surface heat absorption and local waste heat produced by traffic, industry, and air conditioning, megacities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad are significantly hotter than the greater territory around them (among other urban activities).

According to a recent country-wide by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), while extreme heat waves in the northwest states as defined by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) attract the most public attention, the rise in overall anomalous temperature in other parts of the nation has been largely ignored.

“This is a very disturbing trend as policy preparedness to mitigate rising heat due to climate change is nearly absent in India. Without heat action plans, rising air temperature, radiating heat from land surfaces, concretisation, heat-trapping built structures, waste heat from industrial processes and air conditioners, and erosion of heat dousing forests, urban greens and water bodies will worsen public health risks. This requires urgent time-bound mitigation,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, research and advocacy, CSE.

Avikal Somvanshi, senior programme manager, Urban Lab, CSE said “Understanding the overall temperature anomaly, extreme heat conditions, and the mixed trends in heat patterns across different regions of India has become necessary to assess the emergent risk. Currently, the attention is largely on the maximum daily heat levels and extreme conditions of heat waves. But it is equally important to pay attention to the overall rising temperature and humidity trends in different regions to understand the gravity of the problem”.

Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) that also captures accidental deaths including those from climatic stress, shows that between 2015 and 2020, 2,137 people had reportedly died due to heat stroke in the states in the northwest. But the southern peninsula region had reported 2,444 deaths due to excessive environmental heat, with Andhra Pradesh alone accounting for over half of the reported casualties.

Delhi reported only one death for the same period. Most deaths have been reported among working-age men (30-60-year-olds), usually not considered highly vulnerable to temperature anomalies. The understanding of the public health impacts of meteorological conditions like heat waves is still weak in India.

Heat waves are the second most deadly natural force in India, having killed over 20,615 people during 2000-20. Lightning, with 49,679 deaths, was the top killer. There has been a decline in the number of reported deaths since 2015 when IMD reported 2,081 deaths and NCRB reported 1,908 deaths.

There were no deaths reported by IMD in 2021 and NCRB is yet to publish the 2021 edition of its annual Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India (ADSI).

The temperature trends in India from January 2015 to May 2022 were studied by the Urban Lab of CSE. Surface air temperature, land surface temperature, and relative humidity (heat index) have been studied at the national, regional, and local levels in an effort to understand the patterns in global warming.

Additionally, the patterns in the metropolises of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad in each of the four homogeneous zones of the IMD have been evaluated.

A CSE release said the temperature anomaly has been examined by the analysis (which refers to a departure from a reference value or long-term average or a baseline). A positive anomaly means that the temperature was higher than the baseline, whereas a negative anomaly means that it was lower.

It typically serves to report monthly, seasonal, yearly, or decadal fluctuations in temperature. Although significantly shorter in duration and characterised in contrast to an absolute temperature threshold as well as deviation from the usual, heat waves are likewise anomalous temperature events. (ANI)

Amid a heavy energy crisis in Pakistan and subsequent suspension of gas supply, 300 textile mills have been closed, said All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Chairman Abdul Rahim Nasir on Wednesday as he urged Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistani government to restore gas supply to the textile industry on an urgent basis.

Accompanied by Aptma North Zone Chief Hamid Zaman and Senior Vice-Chairman Kamran Arshad at a press conference, he stated that a 26 per cent upsurge in the export of textiles during the fiscal year 2021-22 was made possible only due to the supply of energy at a regionally competitive tariff, stressing that a loss of almost USD 1 billion in exports has already been incurred.

The exponential growth in the textile sector has promoted investment of over USD 5bn and the establishment of 100 new textile units, which, after becoming operational, would result in fetching additional exports of USD 6.0bn per annum, Dawn reported, quoting the Vice-Chairman.

Meanwhile, the APTMA Chairman, Nasir pointed out that gas supply to the industry was suspended for a week, almost halting production in the whole value-added industry and causing a massive loss to the economy which led to the large-scale closure of mills that ultimately resulted in massive layoffs and unemployment, spreading economic chaos.

As per the reports by Dawn, an incessant supply of gas for the industry to maintain momentum in exports is a necessary call that the Pakistan government is not paying heed as Mr Zaman stressed that the textile sector has repeatedly delivered on its commitment to enhancing exports and proven that they are a viable and long-term solution provider for the economic stability of the country.

He warned that more than 50pc of output would be lost this month, with a very high risk of permanent order loss and buyer diversion from Pakistan to its competitors and that the textile industry is currently producing goods for the upcoming Christmas, and any delay in the delivery schedule risks losing export markets for an indefinite period with little chance of recovery.

“If this momentum is lost due to energy supply and cost constraints, Pakistan will be forced to seek an additional USD 6bn in loans from abroad, which under the circumstances may not even be possible,” he said, underlining the immediate restoration of gas supply to the export-oriented industry.

Highlighting the importance of the textile sector as the mainstay of the country’s economy, Arshad said that textiles have a 61pc share in the country’s exports and 40pc of manufacturing sector employment as the fragile economy of the country cannot sustain the consequences of the closure of mills in the wake of non-supply of gas.

Quetta, Peshawar, Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad, Mirpurkhas and other cities in Pakistan are reportedly suffering from a gas shortage. Not only residents but owners of hotels and restaurants are also complaining of a gas shortage, as it is having an adverse impact on their business.

In Quetta and Gujranwala, the increased prices of LPG and wood, respectively, added to citizens’ woes. The price of LPG per kg in Quetta has surged by Rs 70 per kg, resulting in its total price increasing to Rs 230 per kg. Moreover, the price of 40 kg of wood has soared to Rs 950 in Gujranwala. The country is in the grip of a severe gas crisis right now and whatever the reasons for it, it is proof of the incompetence and insensitivity of the energy ministry. And it must be solved as soon as humanly possible.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan government once again increased the petrol prices by PKR (Pakistani rupee) 14.84 per litre. After the recent hike, the new petrol price has been fixed at PKR 248.74 per litre, the Pakistan Finance Ministry announced.

While the kerosene oil price increased by PKR 18.83 and the rate of light-speed diesel has been jacked up by PKR 18.68 per litre. (ANI)