Showing posts with label speak. Show all posts

Saturday, 5 November 2016

Financial matters: govt’s review petition dismissed.

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the constitution bars prime minister from exercising his discretionary powers in financial matters without the approval of the federal cabinet.

The top court of the country, on August 18, had struck down a notification for withdrawing exemption on sales tax to the companies, importing cellular phones and textile goods in the country.

It is pertinent to mention that SRO 682(I)/2013 had enhanced sales tax from 5 to 17 per cent on supplies of industrial inputs outside five export-oriented sectors including textiles whereas SRO. No 280 (I)/2013 and 460(I)/2013 had enhanced sales tax on the imported cellular phones.

Withdrawal and modification (in the rate) of sales tax were challenged in the Islamabad High Court with a plea that such notifications had not been issued by the federal government in accordance with Section 3 of the Sales Tax Act, 1990.

In response to the rejection of pleas by the IHC, the appellants challenged the verdict before Supreme Court to which the apex court on August 18, while announcing its 80-page reserved judgement, ruled that fiscal notification enhancing the levy of tax issued by the Secretary Revenue Division, or the Minister are ultra vires.

The verdict also said, “Neither a Secretary, nor a Minister and nor the Prime Minister are the Federal Government and the exercise, or purported exercise, of a statutory power exercisable by the Federal Government by any of them, especially, in relation to fiscal matters, is constitutionally invalid and a nullity in the eyes of the law,” says the judgement.

Consequently, the federal government urged the Supreme Court to revisit its verdict in the matter with a plea that a constitutionally powerful Prime Minister can exercise his powers to run the government affairs.

Resuming the hearing of the federal government’s review petition in the matter, a three-judge bench led by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that Rules of Business cannot overrule constitutional provisions.

After hearing the arguments of Additional Attorney General Waqar Rana in the matter, the bench dismissed the review petition.

SARAH BEL

How Social Enterprises and Impact Investors Can Move the Needle to Achieve the SDGs

Last month the UNDP and Impact Hub organized the first Social Good Summit in Geneva, bringing together impact investors, international organizations and entrepreneurs to discuss how to scale up and finance impact-driven ventures to accelerate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

There was a great appetite at the summit to exchange ideas. Investors were looking to meet with innovative ventures and discuss how to create a reliable pipeline of investable entrepreneurs. Bilateral and international agencies were eager to learn how to increase funding sources and leverage their resources to implement the SDGs. Not to mention the presence of five entrepreneurs, selected through the rigorous #Accelerate2030 programme, who hoped to identify partners and supporters to scale up their respective ventures.

SDGS ARE GOOD FOR BUSINESS, HOW DO WE PUT THAT IN MOTION?

Betting on social entrepreneurship to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs makes sense from an impact and a financial return perspective, but the sector requires both financial and non-financial support. To put it simply, entrepreneurs need to unlock three doors: finance, market and talent.

When asked about key impediments to growth, Verena Liedgens, CFO of Agruppa, sees the key challenge as professionalization. “Everything related to back office – accounting, HR and IT – is a barrier to scale,” she said. “Social entrepreneurs in Europe and the U.S. can at times access pro bono services. This is not the case in emerging markets where companies often don’t have the resources to buy them but need them to grow.”

A 2014 report from the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs shows the value of incubators and accelerators providing early- and growth-stage companies with leadership skills, operational support and access to technology, and facilitating peer mentoring. The need to strengthen that part of the picture was certainly one of the main conclusions of the summit discussion on scale, as the demand for support exceeds largely what is freely available.

Friday, 4 November 2016

Will reveal reason of leaving ministry at some stage, says Pervaiz.

LAHORE: Former Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Pervaiz Rashid said that he would reveal the reason of leaving his ministry at the right time. He said that he’d never stay behind if the larger interest of Pakistan demanded sacrifice.

Talking to media after leaving his ministry, Pervaiz Rashid said that he was identified as not a minister, but as a political worker. “I was made minister by the leadership. It doesn’t make any difference if they took it back”, he said.

Rashid said that he felt proud over his commitment with democracy, leadership and the party and his loyalty could not be questioned. “I’ll continue working as an active worker of Muslim League”, he said.

“I have no regrets. Why I resigned from ministry, will be known to all at the appropriate time”, he said.

Dr Asim gets SHC bail on medical grounds.

KARACHI: Dr Asim Hussain was granted bail by the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday.

Bail was also granted to Anees Qaimkhani, Rauf Siddiqui and Usman Moazzam in the case pertaining to facilitating the media treatment of terrorists.

The SHC has directed accused in the case to submit their passports and they will not be allowed to travel abroad without the court’s permission.

The SHC has also directed the anti terrorism court to complete its proceedings in two months.

PTI cancels plan of Islamabad ‘lockdown’.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has postponed its planned ‘lockdown’ of the federal capital on November 2.

During his address in Bani Gala, PTI chief Imran Khan told party workers to go home rest and reach Parade Ground tomorrow (Wednesday) at 2 PM where Youm-e-Tashakur (day of thanks) would be celebrated.

“We will gather one million people in Parade Ground tomorrow,” Khan said.

Khan stated that the protest had been called off as the Supreme Court had started investigation of Panama Leaks.

The PTI chief praised the Supreme Court for summoning a reply from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on November 3.

“I am glad the Supreme Court has directed the prime minister to present himself for accountability,” Khan said.

The PTI chief paid tribute to party workers, especially Pervaiz Khattak and his team.

PTI had announced that it will ‘lockdown’ Islamabad on November 2 to pressurize the prime minister to hold himself accountable for alleged offshore accounts owned by his family named in the Panama Papers.

The Islamabad High Court in its decision last week asked the PTI to keep the sit-in at a designated area and not block state machinery. However, the PTI remained adamant over staging the sit-in.

Other parties including the Pakistan People’s Party which initially formed joint opposition with the PTI had asked it to wait for the Supreme Court hearing.

Imran Khan sounded like a defeated captain

Raliways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said PTI chairman Imran Khan sounded like a defeated captain.

“Imran should first prove himself to be trustworthy,” Rafique said while speaking to media.

According to Rafique, the PML-N was evaluating what Imran Khan had said as he could not be trusted.

“We were heading towards what the Supreme Court did today,” Rafique said.

The federal minister added that if Imran Khan wants to go to Parade Ground he should contact Deputy Commissioner Islamabad.

Govt orders removal of containers

Following the PTI’s announcement, the government has ordered the removal of containers blocking streets in Islamabad.

The containers had been placed throughout the city in light of the PTI lockdown.

Imran, Nawaz agree to formation of commission

During proceedings of the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan agreed to the formation of a commission to probe Panama Leaks.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has asked parties in the Panama Leaks case to submit the Terms of Reference (ToRs) for the formation of the commission on November 3 when hearing of the case resumes.

Khattak must not misguide masses, says Nisar.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has eulogized Islamabad Police and Law Enforcement Agencies for establishing writ of the sate during critical period in the Federal Capital.

Addressing Police Darbar in Islamabad today [Thursday], he said that government is well aware of the responsibility of police and Law Enforcement Agencies.

He said the government has increased salaries and facilities of Police and Enforcement Agencies which will further be enhanced in future.

The Interior Minister rejected KPK Chief Minister’s assertion and said that Frontier Constabulary and other Law Enforcement Agencies belong to Pakistan and not to a particular province which maintained law and order. He said these agencies should not be dragged in politics.

He said extra security and full protocol were given to Pervez Khattak as KPK Chief Minster and added that he is welcomed to Islamabad as Chief Minister. Chaudhry Nisar asked him not to misguide the public to achieve the motives.

Ch. Nisar Ali Khan said that government in order to maintain law and order barred those groups who are bent to spread violence in the Capital. He said a particular group is not allowed to paralyze the capital as Pakistan is a nuclear state.

The Interior Minister rejected propaganda about permission given to Difa-e-Pakistan Council to hold a public meeting in Islamabad despite imposition of Section-144.

He said the Council sought permission and accepted conditions proposed by the district administration for the purpose. He also reminded critics that DPC is not a outlawed organization as it includes parties like PML(Q), Jamat-e-Islami and JUI(Sami).

Ch. Nisar Ali Khan said salaries of FC personnel are being increased by fifty percent immediately and remaining fifty percent would be hiked in June next year. He said a new recruit would get about thirty thousand rupees a month as against about seventeen thousand at the moment. He said FC personnel would also get internal security allowance irrespective of where they are deployed.

The Minister said it would be his endeavour to have a major hospital, colleges and university for children and families of the FC personnel.

He announced award of Commendation Certificates and prize of fifty thousand rupee each for the ten thousand FC personnel who were deployed for security duties in Islamabad and Punjab during political tension.

US Election 2016: Hillary Clinton's English mining roots.

If Hillary Clinton is elected president when millions of Americans vote next week, a small corner of England will be claiming links to the most powerful woman in the world. BBC News went to the mining region where her grandfather's journey started more than 100 years ago.

"There's a girl in my class who looks identical to Hillary Clinton."

It was the early 1990s, and this innocuous comment by a teenager, about the wife of the new President of the United States, would usually have raised no more than a passing interest.

But the teenager in question was the son of local historian Jack Hair, a man intent on uncovering the history of the town of Stanley, in County Durham, north-east England.

Mr Hair's curiosity piqued, he decided to speak to the girl's father who confirmed there was indeed a family link to Mrs Clinton, setting the amateur historian off on a mission to establish the then-First Lady's roots.

US presidential race tightens, but Clinton still ahead

WASHINGTON: The battle for the White House tightened on Thursday, with a fresh poll showing Hillary Clinton’s lead ebbing and Donald Trump winning over once wary Republican voters days before the monumental vote.

A CBS/New York Times survey showed Clinton leading 45 per cent to her Republican rival’s 42pc, with the vast majority of supporters saying their minds are made up.

After months of vitriolic and turbulent campaigning, political tribalism appears to be returning to the fore in the deeply divided nation ahead of Election Day on Nov 8.

Profound Republican scepticism about Trump’s controversial candidacy appears to be ebbing.

Despite the Manhattan real estate mogul’s boasts about sexual assault and allegations of groping by about a dozen women, white women are evenly split between the two candidates, the poll showed.

Similarly, Clinton’s troubles with the FBI over her use of a private email server appears to have dissuaded few Democrats, with only eight percent saying it would make them less likely to vote for the former secretary of state.

With the campaign now in its final stages, each candidate is making final arguments to voters, crisscrossing battleground states and carpet-bombing the airwaves with high-priced ads.

But neither candidate wants to make a mistake and the race has taken on a frenetic yet formulaic quality.

Even Trump is sticking to the TelePrompTer and avoiding his most explosive rhetoric as the campaign winds down.

“Nice and cool. Right? Stay on point, Donald, stay on point. No sidetracks, Donald — nice and easy,” the 70-year-old billionaire said out loud during a rally in Florida.

Instead he has warned voters that a Clinton presidency would be overshadowed by indictments, and renewed his vow to “drain the swamp” of corruption in Washington.

Clinton and her phalanx of high-powered surrogates — among them presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton — have argued Trump is “uniquely unqualified” for the Oval Office.

On Monday, the eve of the election, Clinton, her husband and the Obamas will campaign together in Philadelphia in a show of Democratic force. Trump has ridden the aftershocks of the Great Recession and waves of antipathy toward the political elite to the gates of the White House.

Could he yet cause an upset? “Democrats are quite right to be nervous about the outcome,” said a team of political analysts at the University of Virginia.

But, they added, there was no “compelling argument” that the race favors Trump or is even a toss-up. Financial markets have lurched as the race as tightened — trying to “price-in” a Trump victory that they had long thought impossible.

But even at this late stage, a Trump win would be a political surprise on par with Harry Truman’s victory over Thomas Dewey in 1948.

As Trump and Clinton try to energize their base and mop up as many votes as possible, attention is increasingly turning to the political landscape after the election.

The Nov 8 polls will not only decide who wins the White House, but the scale of the new president’s mandate and who controls Congress.

Nat Geo's 'Afghan girl' Sharbat Gula to be deported from Pakistan ALI AKBAR.

— UPDATED about 17 hours ago Sharbat Bibi became famously known as the 'Afghan Girl' when National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry captured her photograph at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp situated on the edge of Peshawar in 1984. Sharbat Bibi became famously known as the 'Afghan Girl' when National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry captured her photograph at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp situated on the edge of Peshawar in 1984. Nat Geo's famed 'Afghan Girl' Sharbat Gula is to be deported to Afghanistan after serving a 15-day jail sentence and paying a fine of Rs110,000, a special anti-corruption and immigration court in Peshawar ordered on Friday. Sharbat Gula was arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Oct 26 from her house in the Nauthia area for alleged forgery of a Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC). A day after her arrest, the United Nations High Commissioner distanced itself from Sharbat Gula, claiming that she was not a registered refugee. Sharbat Gula's lawyer, Mubashir, said the accused had pleaded guilty to all charges against her in court today. He said she had served about nine days in jail since her arrest and will remain imprisoned for six more to complete her sentence before she is deported from Pakistan. During a bail hearing before a special court earlier this week, Sharbat Gula's lawyer said she is the sole bread winner of her family and is currently suffering from Hepatitis C. Judge Farah Jamshed Khan, who dismissed Sharbat Gula's bail petition on Nov 2, had directed the suspect be produced in court today and heard the case. An interim challan submitted by the FIA on Nov 1 said the suspect had already admitted her guilt during her interrogation, an official in the know earlier said. The official added that the Afghan woman had claimed that her late husband, Rehmat Gul, had earlier made a manual national identity card for her in 1988. He added that Sharbat Gula admitted during interrogation that she had later visited the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) offices outside which she met an agent, who made her CNIC after receiving some money. The FIA also registered an FIR on Oct 20 against three former Nadra employees for allegedly issuing CNICs to Sharbat Gula and two other Afghans shown as her sons. The FIR says after the completion of inquiry and checking of Nadra records, it had been established that three employees of Nadra Peshawar offices including Palwasha Afridi, Mohsin Ehsan and Emad fraudulently issued Pakistani CNICs to Afghan nationals, including Sharbat Gula, Wali Khan and Rauf Khan. The officials were charged under sections 409, 419, 420, 468, 471 and 109 of the Pakistan Panel Code, Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, and Section 30 of the Nadra Ordinance. Palwasha Afridi and Mohsin Ahsan has secured pre-arrest bail from a court in the case, the third official has been absconding. 'Mona Lisa of Afghan war' Sharbat Bibi became famously known as the 'Afghan Girl' when National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry captured her photograph at the Nasir Bagh refugee camp situated on the edge of Peshawar in 1984 and identified her as Sharbat Gula. She gained worldwide recognition when her image was featured on the cover of the June 1985 issue of National Geographic Magazine at a time when she was approximately 12 years old. That photo has been likened with Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. National Geographic also made a short documentary about her life and dubbed her the ‘Mona Lisa of Afghan war’.

Monday, 10 October 2016

Learn New Languages and Everything Else With Duolingo and Tiny

If you’re serious about learning a foreign language, it can end up opening a lot of opportunities for you in certain countries, be it for university, job, etc.
Duolingo can help you learn a language for free. It offers in-depth language courses for many popular languages including Spanish, German, French and Italian.
The good thing about Duolingo is that if you properly learn a language following through its courses, you can become fluent in that language. Other free language learning apps don’t offer as much courses as Duolingo or often ask you to pay for them.

Introducing Duolingo Tutors

Duolingo is introducing chatbots called “tutors” to help you learn the languages. There are 3 tutors currently available in the iOS version. They are Renee the driver, Officer Ada and Chef Roberto. They are powered by AI so they get better and better the more you talk with them. This helps you personalize your experience and accelerate your learning process.
The tutors are available on the web version and on the iOS Duolingo app. The Android version has not yet received the tutor update but its coming soon.
Download Duolingo on iTunes Appstore here.

The Duolingo developers have also released another app called Tiny cards. Its a flash card app which you can use to memorize different things. The flash cards can help you revise for your test or exam quickly, help you memorize historical facts or scientific theories etc.
tiny-cards-2

Tiny cards offers flash cards on a variety of topics including but not limited to, vocabulary, equations, country capitals and historical facts. There are flash cards for Chinese, which also reminds you of the way Duolingo handles their language courses, if you use it.
Overall it’s a handy app which can be useful in school or in different situations. For now the app is only available on iOS with the Android version coming very soon.