Regional cooperation: Experts for change in mindset, removing political hurdles

The recommendations of the conference will be presented to Saarc members and the proceedings and papers will be published in the form of a book by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute. ILLUSTRATION: JAMAL KHURSHID.

ISLAMABAD: Economic wizards, former diplomats and academics have called for a change in the traditional mindset, removal of political constraints to resolve conflicts and strengthening trade and cooperation among South Asian states.

Experts from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan discussed prospects of trade and potential growth in the region at a two-day international conference concluded on Thursday.

Former State Bank of Pakistan governor Dr Ishrat Husain described India as the pivot of South Asia with whose cooperation the region could enter an era of unprecedented progress and regional trade could soar 15 times in a matter of years.

But all that depended on India’s realisation of its position and responsibilities and if it gave space to its regional partners to work for collective good.

Husain was addressing the concluding session of the conference on “Future of Economic Cooperation in Saarc countries” organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute and Hans Seidel Foundation.

He said it was time the countries of the region displayed maturity of thought and action and stopped blame games. He said non-tariff barriers were a bogey and advocated early phasing out of negative lists.

Earlier, speaking on the South Asia free trade agreement (Safta) and joint economic ventures in the context of “Asian century”, Dr Salman Shah, former federal finance minister, said Pakistan’s inclusion in a futuristic era with its present dismal social and economic indices was a distant dream unless a determined effort was made to exploit the great human and material potential the country possessed.

“India-Pakistan relations have been a game of snakes and ladders. There’s a snake waiting at every step of the ladder. Once bitten, we have to start from scratch,” he said.

Saarc had the potential to become a hub of competition provided India and Pakistan changed their traditional mindset, he added.

The former minister suggested the setting up of joint infrastructure including a development bank for Saarc.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Shah said businesses needed a secure environment but prevailing relations between India and Pakistan would always be a challenge for the whole region. “Political rivalry and disputes between India and Pakistan are not allowing much progress,” he said.

Commenting on the present government’s stance on regional economic development and relations with India, Shah said Indians were not willing to give Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a chance.

He said general elections in India would be a game changer, adding present policies were not working in Pakistan’s favour, but the new government in Delhi, if willing, could make changes.

Competitiveness had been an issue for the past seven years and many issues including non-tariff barriers, agriculture, trade and products on the sensitive list would remain a challenge for a while, he said.

“We need to improve our own capacity to trade. Pakistan’s finances are only financing the government and not entrepreneurship.”

Dr Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, Dean Faculty of Contemporary Studies, National Defence University, in his presentation, said dispute resolution needed political will, some forum or mechanism for its exercise, informal diplomacy and alternative methods such as mediation and arbitration.

The recommendations of the conference will be presented to Saarc members and the proceedings and papers will be published in the form of a book by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute.

War on terror: ‘Both political and military interventions needed’

“It is Pakistan’s sovereign decision to decide whether to call for peace talks with the Taliban,” says Adam Thomson. PHOTO: INP/FILE

LAHORE: 

Insurgencies should be addressed with political as well as military interventions, the outgoing British High Commissioner Adam Thomson told the media on his last official visit to Lahore on Friday.

“It is Pakistan’s sovereign decision to decide whether to call for peace talks with the Taliban,” said Thomson. He said the solution to the problem of terrorism often required a mix of political and military components. “The political component is important…the mix varies with each case,” he said.

By 2014, the Afghan National Army will have developed the capacity to manage the security of Afghanistan, he said. The international community will provide financial assistance to Afghanistan and some troops will stay back in “supporting roles”.

Thomson said, “Everything is not perfect in Afghanistan. Britain has always said there is no military solution without a political component.”

He said it was important for Britain to ensure that Pakistan succeeded in winning its war on terrorism. Thomson said the government, in collaboration with British authorities, was working on a programme to formulate a strategy for the prosecution of terrorists. He said the programme was in its second year… it could take up to seven years before its effectiveness could be measured. Britain was also helping Pakistan in training its police and army to counter improvised explosive devices (IEDs), he said.

The Department for International Development (DFID)has been running its largest education programme in collaboration with the provincial government, he said. They wanted to focus on improving primary education and transforming the available infrastructure for children in the five to nine years age bracket.

Quoting figures from the Punjab School Reforms Roadmap, he said more than a million additional children had been enrolled in schools since 2010. Teachers’ attendance had increased from 81 per cent to 93 per cent across the province. Thomson said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had not gotten enough credit for his work particularly in education. By 2018, he said, the province was likely to come very close to its target of universal enrolment.

The DFID had signed an MoU with the Lahore University of Management Sciences this week for funding scholarships. Thomson said that would help bright and deserving students obtain higher education. Under the five-year support programme, the DFID will allocate Rs1.2 billion for as many as 1,000 students who wanted to pursue higher education at LUMS. Thomson said they hoped that half of those students would be girls.

On the topic of sustainability of development projects in the country, he said Pakistan was not fundamentally dependant on foreign aid. “There can be no greater success for Britain than to bring Pakistan to a stage where it doesn’t need aid. Pakistan needs trade not aid,” he said. Thomson added that Pakistan was likely to achieve the GSP Plus status next week. This would allow Pakistan greater trade access to the European Union, he said.  “I hope that international cricket returns to Pakistan,” said Thomson. “There is still a long way to go before international boards can be persuaded to bring their teams here.”

“But the international community needs to support Pakistan in order to counter violent extremism and terrorism,” he added.

Addressing the issue of Pakistan’s “bad global image”, he said it was unfortunate that people abroad were only shown the negative aspects of Pakistan. “The federal and provincial governments need to tell its story better,” he said

Pakistan conveys 'deep concerns' to the US over Hangu drone strike

Government demands 'immediate cessation' of drone strikes by US. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday conveyed its ‘deep concerns’ to the US over the drone strike on a religious seminary in Hangu on November 21, and demanded an ‘immediate cessation’ of attacks in the country.

“The Government of Pakistan has strongly condemned the US drone strike that took place in Hangu district of the K-P province on November 21, 2013,” the adviser to prime minister on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said on Friday, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The statement added that Pakistan government’s concerns were relayed to the US Ambassador in Islamabad on Thursday, and that it was reiterated such attacks were particularly worrying given Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif just spoke against the strikes to President Obama during their bilateral meeting in October.

“Our deep concern in this regard was conveyed by the Advisor to US Ambassador, adding that this has deeply disturbed the people of Pakistan,” the statement read.

“The Government of Pakistan would demand immediate cessation of these drone strikes.”

Shift in focus: Crackdown on gas, power theft runs out of steam

An official of the Lahore Electric Supply Company agreed that a big mafia including the company employees was involved in electricity theft in the city. PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE: 

A crackdown launched to catch people involved in gas and power theft is losing momentum as the task force, constituted for the purpose, has been asked to shift focus and control prices of essential food items, an official close to the development said.

The task force, equipped with evidence, is pressing power and gas supplying companies to follow theft cases in courts, but this is also one of the reasons that the number of raids against thieves has decreased.

Since June this year, 3,933 criminal cases including 3,311 of power theft and 622 of gas pilferage had been registered against 3,655 people, who caused a loss of Rs5.479 billion to the country, according to data available with The Express Tribune.

Interestingly, 16 lower-grade officers of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) were booked for abetting in the theft, but all upper-grade officers were left untouched, the official said.

On the other hand, power supplying companies had started departmental enquires into the conduct of 230 officers for negligence and abetting in theft, but no officer was booked, he said.

Each of these high-profile cases were related to electricity theft of above Rs500,000 and gas theft amounting to Rs1 million.

The cases were registered against owners of various factories, mills, hotels, plazas, poultry farms, bakeries, petrol pumps, agriculture tube wells, commercial centres and compressed natural gas (CNG) stations.

On June 26, the Punjab chief minister had constituted the task force, headed by secretary industries, commerce and investment to launch a campaign against electricity and gas theft.

Its members included chairman of the Punjab Information Technology Board, joint director of the Intelligence Bureau, CEO of the Punjab Power Development Company, MD SNGPL, DIG Operations, DIG Special Branch, district coordination officer, city police officers of five districts, CEOs of Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan and Islamabad electricity supplying companies and general manager of Pepco.

Consequently, the police department constituted investigating teams in each region to launch and supervise investigation in all major cases of power and gas theft. The task force also formed committees at district and tehsil levels to conduct raids without any discrimination.

The committees conducted raids in 33 districts, except for Bakkar, Narowal and Rajanpur where gas is not available. Some 622 cases of gas theft were registered and 615 people were arrested. They were stealing Rs5.045 billion worth of gas.

“It was not possible to steal on such a large scale without the connivance of officers of the supplying company,” a senior SNGPL official commented but asked not to be named. “A mafia with the support of company officers was doing this nasty business and the management was helpless.”

In the case of electricity, the committees found 5,912 cases of theft in raids conducted from June to October. As a result, 3,311 criminal cases were registered and 3,040 people were arrested. In these cases, electricity theft was estimated at Rs437.12 million.

“Lack of indictment of company employees on the charge of theft has created doubts about the performance of the task force and investigating teams as it is impossible to indulge in gas and electricity theft on a big scale without the connivance of company staff,” a senior official of the task force said.

An official of the Lahore Electric Supply Company agreed that a big mafia including the company employees was involved in electricity theft in the city but they always managed to escape prosecution.

“We conducted raids without any discrimination to apprehend the accused. Now, we have to focus on prices of kitchen items, but are strictly monitoring the prosecution of cases registered against the thieves,” task force chairperson Irfan Ali said.

“It is true that the crackdown has been slow, but the task force has done a remarkable job to detect about Rs5 billion worth of gas and electricity theft in five months in the province.

Heads up Apple, here comes 64-bit Android on Intel

Dell's Venue 8 Android tablet uses an Intel chip.

(Credit: Dell)

Apple's A7 chips will feel some 64-bit heat from Intel and Android next year.

Intel is readying a 64-bit Bay Trail Atom platform for Android, according to Hermann Eul, Intel's general manager, mobile and communications group, speaking at the company's investor day on Thursday.

"It's not only about Windows 64-bit, we've been talking about Android as well," Eul said.

An assistant then proceeded to demo on stage "the first ever showing of a 64-bit kernel running on Bay Trail with Android."

Eul continued. "We have 64-bit Windows shipping next quarter and, needless to say, we'll run fast to make this happen on Android as well."

Intel's Bay Trail processor -- which is currently powering a growing number of tablets and 2-in-1 devices from Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo -- today is 64-bit but runs Windows 8.1 in 32-bit mode. That will be rectified next quarter when Bay Trail tablets run in full 64-bit Windows 8.1 mode.

Today, Android on smartphones and tablets is a 32-bit affair.

Apple garnered lots of headlines in September when it unveiled the 64-bit A7 processor -- that chip now powers the iPhone 5S, iPad Air, and iPad Mini Retina.

A slide shown Thursday by Hermann Eul, general manager, mobile and communications group at Intel.

(Credit: Intel)

Going to 64-bit allows a device to address more memory -- more than the 4GB limitation in many cases for 32-bit processors.

But that's not all. A 64-bit platform can allow data-intensive applications to handle large chunks of data more efficiently than 32-bit -- and that can have implications in gaming, for instance.

Intel won't be alone, though, making a run at Apple. A report earlier this month said Samsung will launch a flagship smartphone with a 64-bit CPU in 2014.

Backstreet Boys ready for five headline shows

The band which comprises of Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and AJ McLean will go on a Europe tour in 2012.

LOS ANGELES: Members of pop band Backstreet Boys have announced that they will headline five arena shows around Britain and Ireland, with British girlband All Saints supporting them.

The quintet – Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean and Nick Carter, will hit the road in March and April 2014.

“Last time we were in Britain, we were living in a house together recording our album, which was incredible,” entertainmentwise.com quoted the band as saying.

“Our last British shows were with NKOTB and we had a fantastic time – the reaction was out of this world,” they added.

The group said that it can’t wait to come back with their own full headline show.

“We’re really excited for our British fans to see us again as a five-piece. The original Backstreet’s back,” they said.

Did you know? : Sharon Stone wants to do a Bollywood film

Hollywood actor-producer Sharon Stone, who is currently in Mumbai for a fund-raising event, says she would love to be in a Hindi movie.

“I’d love to be in one of the Hindi movies and, of course, I have seen many films. The language is different, but I like it,” Stone told reporters during the gala event organised by international organisation amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, in Mumbai.

When asked if she has learnt Hindi, Stone said: “I have learnt to say ‘Namaste’.”

Expressing her love for India, the actor said, “I love Indian food, I love spicy food. It’s fantastic. I got up today at 4am and went for a walk; it’s a moment that you feel. It’s a whole different feeling — I went to a temple and it was great.”

When asked if she would visit again, she replied: “If you welcome us, we will be coming back. If you want us, we will be back.”