Polio vaccine a must for exit travelers from June 1

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will require all travelers leaving the country to obtain a polio vaccination from June 1, 2014, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

A statement from the ministry said the restrictions comply with a decision by the World Health Organisation (WHO) advising travelers of all ages to be vaccinated by next month.

It said all provinces have been provided necessary guidance and material to set up special counters at hospitals and airports for polio vaccination and certification.

Related: Polio virus found in Lahore, Karachi sewage samples

The ministry spokesman Sajid Shah said pregnant women traveling abroad are not exempted from the restrictions and the vaccination was not injurious for them.

The WHO has declared the spread of polio an international public health emergency and identified Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon as having allowed the virus to spread beyond their borders.

Pakistan crackdown on Afghan refugees amid fears of influx: report

Pakistani authorities have launched a crackdown on Afghan refugees residing illegally in the country as fears have compounded that the exit of US-led forces in Afghanistan could ignite violence on the border, said a report published in The Washington Post.

In the wake of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Pakistan and Iran received an influx of over seven million Afghan refugees. Several refugees, however, went back to their homeland after the Taliban were toppled from power by the US-backed Afghan forces in 2001.

Officials in Pakistan have expressed fears that the withdrawal of US forces in Afghanistan and shrinking US aid would propel natives to escape to Pakistan again.

“I believe this influx is already here,” said Mohammed Abbas Khan, a commissioner at Pakistan’s Office of Chief Commissioner for Afghan Refugees. “We are in a very tight situation ourselves, so having this influx is not desirable to anyone in the world.”

Although there are no definitive statistics on the number of new Afghan refugees, officials say that they have been receiving calls from local authorities about the springing up of new illegal settlements.

In order to discourage the racket of illegal immigrants, local officials in Peshawar are employing policies that would make it harder for Afghans to rent apartments or set up new camps.

Meanwhile, in the port city of Karachi, police squads are actively combing the metropolis for Afghan immigrants.

Federal officials are also in the midst of implementing new screening procedures along Pakistan’s 1500-mile border with Afghanistan.

This crackdown on immigrants and settlements comes at a time when Iran is also exerting immense pressure on the 800,000 Afghan refugees there to leave, according to Human Rights Groups.

Although there are 1.6 million legally registered Afghan refugees in Pakistan, officials strongly believe that 1 to 3 million reside in the country illegally.

National Security and Foreign Affairs Adviser to Prime Minister Sartaj Aziz underscored that Pakistan wanted the refugees to go back to their own country, adding that the immigrants burdened the country’s weak economy.

He also said that their presence made it easier for radical groups, with ties to Afghanistan, to operate clandestinely in the country.

Following an intense national debate last year, the National Assembly had sanctioned 1.6 million legally registered Afghans to stay until the end of 2015.

However, authorities fear that the number would rise on the outbreak of violence in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Nato troops there in the wake of the Afghan presidential election.

A greater concern for the Pakistani leadership is that the Afghan economy would plummet after Western troops return home which would prompt those seeking employment to consider moving to Pakistan.

According to refugee official Abbas Khan, even though 83,000 Afghan refugees returned to their native land in 2012, less than half relocated last year and only less than 2,000 repatriated this year.

He added that Pakistan would only willingly accept a new influx of refugees in the event of a “humanitarian catastrophe”.

Under normal circumstances, he said, Afghan immigrants should expect to be subjected to new biometric border-control technologies such as iris and fingerprint scanners.

During a news conference in February, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah said over 1 million Afghan refugees were residing in the country’s most populated city Karachi.

Subsequently, he constituted a special police unit to regulate the influx of Afghan immigrants. He furthermore directed police to set up checkpoints in order to prevent immigrants from settling in the city’s neighbourhoods.

Even in Peshawar, residents are becoming less tolerant of Afghan immigrants. Earlier in March, the KP Assembly passed a law entailing people renting apartments to acquire recommendations from two Pakistanis.

Conversely, Afghans say that few people are willing to endorse them.

According to Peshawar’s police chief Ijah Khan, the law was necessitated due to the growing threats of terrorism and crime. He claimed that 70 per cent of serious crimes, such as kidnapping and extortion, were committed by people of Afghan origin.

Saudi ready to negotiate better ties with Iran: FM

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is ready to negotiate better relations with regional rival Iran, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters in Riyadh on Tuesday.

His comments came as major powers held a fresh round of nuclear talks with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme amid a rapprochement between Tehran and the West.

“Iran is a neighbour, we have relations with them and we will negotiate with them,” the Saudi minister said.

“We will talk with them in the hope that if there are any differences, they will be settled to the satisfaction of both countries,” he told reporters.

“Our hope is that Iran becomes part of the effort to make the region as safe and as prosperous as possible, and not part of the problem of the insecurity of the region.”

Shia Muslim Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia have been deeply divided over a raft of regional issues, particularly the three-year-old conflict in Syria, in which Tehran has backed the Damascus government and Riyadh has been a leading supporter of the rebels.

Faisal said that his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif had been invited to visit the kingdom.

“Any time that he sees fit to come, we are willing to receive him,” he said.

Zarif said in December that he would like to visit Saudi Arabia and appealed to the kingdom to work with Tehran in the search for regional “stability.”

Faisal's remarks came as US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel was in Saudi Arabia on the first leg of a regional tour focusing on Iran's nuclear programme and the war in Syria.

US officials have struggled to reassure Gulf allies, particularly Saudi Arabia, over the interim nuclear deal that the major powers struck with Tehran late last year and which Riyadh fears will embolden its rival in its regional ambitions.

Washington's caution about arming the Syrian rebels has also soured its relations with its longtime Saudi ally.

After his election last July on a platform of ending Iran's international isolation, President Hassan Rouhani said he was particularly keen to reach out to Gulf Arab governments.

Nawaz Sharif meets Ayatollah Khamenei 14 may 2014

TEHRAN: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday met the Supreme Leader of Iran Syed Ali Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran.

The meeting was also attended by delegation accompanying the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the Pak-Iran relations have historical perspective.

"We both are Muslim countries having the common traditions. These common bonds make our relationship special," Sharif added.

"People of Pakistan as dear to me as people of Iran," said the Supreme Leader of Iran adding that "I will offer special prayers so that relationship between Pakistan and Iran reaches new bounds and heights."

"I have full confidence that the visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would further boost the brotherly relations between the two countries," added Ayatollah Khamenei.

The meeting also discussed issues relating to mutual and bilateral interest. Both the leaders agreed that they have to work in unison for development of the region.

NTDC announces end to loadshedding

ISLAMABAD: The power sector is setting new records as it has started receiving more than 30,000 tons of furnace oil a day following Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s directive last week for reducing the duration of loadshedding.

As a consequence, the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) announced on Tuesday that it had ended loadshedding across the country after the temperature declined because of widespread rains. “There was no loadshedding anywhere in the country on Tuesday as the maximum demand was met,” an official said.

He said the total demand stood at 11,100MW at 8pm (peak demand time) which was fully met. The demand went down from 17,000MW to 12,000MW because of a sudden drop in temperature over the past few days.

Independent power producers (IPPs) contributed about 5,920MW to the national grid, thermal power plants 1,500MW and hydropower resources 3,680MW.

Officials said a surprise visit by acting water and power secretary Saifullah Chattha to the Indus River System Authority last week also helped increase water discharges from water reservoirs, taking hydropower generation from 2,668MW last week to 3,680MW on Tuesday.

The power sector received a maximum of 35,980 tons of furnace oil on Tuesday. An official in the NTDC said it was the highest fuel supply to the power sector in more than four years and followed Rs20 billion disbursement to the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) whose receivables were still in excess of Rs150bn.

On Monday, the power sector received about 29,061 tons of fuel and power shortfall stood at 769MW, resulting in less than two hours of loadshedding. On Saturday, it received 32,000 tons of furnace and power shortage stood at 1,000MW. The sector got 32,161 tons last Friday.

Thermal power stations in public and private sectors require a maximum of 36,000 tons of furnace to run all plants on full capacity. However, the power sector had been receiving less than 24,000 tons of fuel over the past four years because of liquidity problems. In some cases, PSO provided less than 3,000 tons of fuel per day to the sector.

A power sector official said the sector was also getting 173 million cubic feet per day of additional gas following the prime minister’s orders, resulting in additional generation of about 800MW. This included 55mmcfd to Kapco, 28mmcfd to Kotri, 52mmcfd to Guddu and Faisalabad plants and 38mmcfd to Halmore.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2014.

PM approves interest-free loan scheme 14 may 2014

ISLAMABAD: The federal government will disburse Rs3.5 billion under an interest-free loan scheme.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif approved the scheme during a meeting held here on Tuesday.

One million applicants — 50 per cent of them women from across the country — will be able to get loans under the scheme.

“I am convinced that if our youth are given proper guidance and financial support through micro credit schemes and better access to innovative technology, they can play their positive role in development of the country,” an official press statement quoted the prime minister as saying during the meeting.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Chairperson of Prime Minister Youth Scheme (PMYS) Maryam Nawaz, Secretary Finance Dr Waqar Masood and other senior government officials attended the meeting.

The prime minister said micro finance schemes were the catalysts for political and economic development while micro credit was an instrument of change for the poor segment of the society, especially women.

Spokesperson for Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Dr Shireen Mazari, on the other hand, has termed the government’s decision as a gimmick. The scheme, according to her, is not going to solve the real problems of poor people, such as inflation, loadshedding of electricity and unemployment. “This is the time the government should stop gimmickry and seriously tackle basic issues confronting the country,” she added.

Maryam Nawaz, during the meeting, said that the money would be distributed through Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund. Under the scheme each beneficiary would receive up to Rs50,000. To facilitate applicants, adequate loan and business support centres would be formed, she added.

She briefed the meeting on progress of other programmes of the PMYS.

She said training of selected youth in the PM youth skill development programme was initiated on May 12. In total 25,000 youth, of the lesser developed areas from all over the country, would be imparted training in 100 disciplines under the programme at a cost of Rs800 million. The allocation of seats is according to the population in the federating units, based on the National Finance Commission (NFC) award.

The basic aim of the scheme is to train youth in different vocation in order to make them self sufficient. Similarly, under the PM fee disbursement scheme approximately 33,000 eligible students of M. Phil and PhD from 59 districts will avail provision of tuition fee and other education charges.

The meeting was also informed that the company which had been given the contract to provide laptops had agreed to assemble 10,000 laptops in Pakistan. Therefore, from next year 100 per cent laptops which the government has planned to distribute among students will be assembled in Pakistan.

The company will establish E-education rooms in two universities of the country where 14 software will be installed free of cost. The distribution of laptops will start in June with first tranche of 10,000 laptops. The company will also offer internship to selected students.

200 killed in Turkey mine blast, many still trapped 14 may 2014

The death toll from an explosion and fire in a Turkish coal mine rose above 200 on Wednesday as rescue workers continued retrieving the dead and injured more than 12 hours after the blast, the country's energy minister said.Hundreds more were still believed to be trapped in the mine in Soma, around 120 km (75 miles) northeast of the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, and the death toll could rise further, Taner Yildiz told reporters at the scene.Fellow miners said the fire was still burning underground, hampering rescue efforts in the country's worst mining disaster for more than two decades. A pall of smoke hung above the area.Rescue workers pumped oxygen into the mine to try to keep those trapped by the blaze alive, as thousands of family members and fellow workers gathered outside the town's hospital."The death toll is rising towards a point that we had feared," Yildiz said. He had warned late on Tuesday that 787 workers had been in the mine at the time of the blast, believed to have been caused by an electrical fault.Some 80 people were pulled out wounded including several rescuers, four of them critically injured.A cold storage warehouse, usually used for food, and freezer trucks served as makeshift morgues as hospital facilities overflowed.Medical staff intermittently emerged from the hospital to read the names of survivors being treated inside, with families and fellow workers clamouring for information.l