Peregrine wrote:Gas Cylinder explodes at military Hospital at Rawalpindi
Gas cylinder explosion at the Military Hospital in Rawalpindi, Terroristan injured over seven people and started a fire. Civilian and military fire services continue to battle the flames.
Cheers
https://twitter.com/am_nawazish/status/ ... 6983218186Blast in Military Hospital Rawalpindi, near AFIC... hope everyone is safe.
It was powerful, glass of Al Amin plaza and the Mall shattered.
Update: thankfully no human casualty!
Masood Azhar is admitted in the same hospital.Anujan wrote:There seems to be a vacuum bulb burst.
https://twitter.com/am_nawazish/status/ ... 6983218186Blast in Military Hospital Rawalpindi, near AFIC... hope everyone is safe.
It was powerful, glass of Al Amin plaza and the Mall shattered.
Update: thankfully no human casualty!
How exhiliarating it would be if only the Pakis could once again reach those glorious years of 2002 to 2008? Hmmm. . .Atmavik wrote:too much Pindi chanaa ?? pakis are back to the good old days
Wow...they seem to store really huge cylinders in military hospital,RawalpindiAnujan wrote:
Seems to be a big bulb and lots of vacuum.
Anujan wrote:
Seems to be a big bulb and lots of vacuum.
Anujan Ji and sum Ji :sum wrote:Wow...they seem to store really huge cylinders in military hospital,Rawalpindi
At the end of the June 16-21, 2019, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meet, Pakistan, as expected remained on the FATF ‘grey list’ along with seven other countries. A FATF spokesman categorically stated, “The FATF has decided to continue to keep Pakistan on its compliance document (i.e. Grey List) for the ICRG [International Co-operation Review Group] monitoring…”
On June 21, 2019, FATF in a release , however, stated that “the FATF expresses concern that not only did Pakistan fail to complete its action plan items with January [2019] deadlines, it also failed to complete its action plan items due May 2019”. The release went on to add that “the FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan by October 2019 when the last set of action plan items are set to expire” and lastly warned, “otherwise, the FATF will decide the next step at that time for insufficient progress”.
On June 27, 2018, FATF had decided to place Pakistan, along with seven other countries, on its ‘grey list’. In a release dated June 29, 2018, FATF stated, “as part of its ongoing review of compliance with the AML/CFT standards, the FATF identifies the following jurisdictions [eight countries] that have strategic AML/CFT deficiencies…” It had given Pakistan a 27-point action plan at this stage.
Pakistan had then made a high-level political commitment to work with FATF and the Asia Pacific Group (APG) to strengthen its Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime and to address its strategic counter-terrorist financing-related deficiencies. Pakistan promised that it would work to implement the FATF action in 10 steps, which included:
adequately demonstrating its proper understanding of the TF [Terrorist Financing] risks posed by the terrorist groups identified by FATF [Da’esh, AQ, JuD, FiF, LeT, JeM, HQN, and persons affiliated with the Taliban], and conducting supervision on a risk-sensitive basis.
demonstrating that authorities are identifying cash couriers and enforcing controls on illicit movement of currency and understanding the risk of cash couriers being used for TF.
demonstrating that law enforcement agencies (LEAs) are identifying and investigating the widest range of TF activity and that TF investigations and prosecutions target designated persons and entities.
demonstrating that facilities and services owned or controlled by designated person are deprived of their resources and the usage of the resources.
Pakistan had asked for a 15-month time period, to implement all these changes, which finishes in September 2019, so any hope of FATF successfully putting it in the blacklist before September 2019 was unreasonable. It is notable, however, that some media reports claimed that the FATF has given an all clear to Pakistan on only two of 27 action plans it was supposed to complete to get out of the ‘grey list’.
The FATF, as in June 2019, had made a similar assessment in February 2019 as well. On February 22, 2019, an FATF release had stated that “given the limited progress on action plan items due in January 2019, the FATF urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019”.
It is pertinent to recall here that Pakistan was grey-listed from 2008 to 2010 and then from 2012 to 2015, but successfully evaded blacklisting. It will not be a big surprise that it will come out of the ‘grey-list’ again instead of being ‘blacklisted’, even in the absence of substantive compliance.
It is now a fight for diplomatic supremacy between Islamabad and Delhi and that will ensure the status of Pakistan. Pakistan has already made some gains. Indeed, during the June 16-21, 2019, meet, Turkey, Malaysia and China opposed the move backed by India, United States, and the United Kingdom to ‘blacklist’ Pakistan. On June 19, 2019, Jean Francois Caution, the Ambassador of the European Union, thus observed,
"We are ready to help Pakistan to come out of the grey list of FATF and it is a matter of fact that Pakistan and its people have made tremendous sacrifices to bring peace and security to the country. We acknowledge these sacrifices with our hearts. Apart from terrorism, European Union is standing beside Pakistan in other important sectors too, including education and health."
Currently the FATF has 39 full members – 37 member countries, who have voting rights, and two regional organisations (Gulf Co-operation Council and European Commission). It is of utmost importance for Pakistani interests that Saudi Arabia, its close ally, which was representing the Gulf Co-operation Council since 2015, become a full FATF member, on June 21, 2019. More importantly, Pakistan’s all-weather friend China is all set to secure FATF presidency on July 1, 2019, taking over from the United States. Moreover, the European Union (15 countries having voting rights are members of European Union) has already promised to drum up support for Pakistan.
Being on the grey list has had little impact on Pakistan, as foreign funding for Islamabad remains unabated. Reports indicate that, “being added to the grey list does not imply any economic sanctions, but serves as a signal to the global financial and banking system about heightened risks in transactions with the country in question”.
Significantly, even when Pakistan was on the grey-list between 2008 and 2010 and again between 2012 and 2015, it received International Monetary Fund (IMF) ‘bail-outs’. According to IMF data, Pakistan received its first IMF bail-out in 1958, and another 20 bail-outs thereafter: 1958, 1965, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 1988, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2008, and 2013. An amount of SDR 19.38 billion [1 SDR=1.38 USD] was agreed on for these bail-out packages, of which SDR 13.79 billion has been withdrawn.
More recently, as Second Sight noted, announcing the 22nd ‘bail-out’ for Pakistan in, the IMF, in a release on May 12, 2019, stated that “the Pakistani authorities and the IMF team have reached a staff level agreement on economic policies that could be supported by a 39-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for about US$6 billion”. The release, however, went on to add that “this agreement is subject to IMF management approval and to approval by the Executive Board, subject to the timely implementation of prior actions and confirmation of international partners’ financial commitments”. Among other “commitments”, Pakistan is expected to continue “anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism efforts.” Given past history, the approval is all but certain, even without Pakistan fulfilling these commitments. Crucially, the commitment related to terrorism is unlikely to be fulfilled.
The occasional theatrics of putting Pakistan on the ‘grey-list’ or threatening it with the ‘blacklist’, as well as imposing various conditions to provide ‘bail-outs’ will continue. But with no effective and comprehensive sanctions, there is little hope of Pakistani giving up its policy of using terror as strategic asset.
In a move that would further expand the powerful Pakistani military's influence, army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has been made a member of the newly-formed National Development Council headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, the media reported Tuesday. The Express Tribune, quoting a notification issued by the cabinet division, reported that the 13-member council set up by Prime Minister Khan will also include the foreign minister and advisor on finance.
CalvinH Ji :CalvinH wrote:Daughter did a press conference yesterday. Looks like Ganja suffered a minor heart attack in Jail but it was not disclosed to media. Daughter was hopeful that Ganja's bail will be extended as Chacha is negotiating with Khaki and has a deal with them. May be Chacha told her that its all under control and they need to cooperate on Budget and everything would be fine.
Bail got rejected and Ganja is back in jail. Disappointed daughter came out with all guns blazing on Chacha and the establishment.
Looks like establishment understand the economic issues and want Im the dim to focus on them. Im on the other hand has made crusade against corruption his personal issue. He has nothing to show for anywhere else and cant let that go.
Im's day are limited if economy doesn't improve.
Would assume this is referring to the "Baba" twitter handle?Indian intelligence agencies did not have an independent confirmation yet. But social media, particularly a Telegram channel which an intelligence official here said is "normally reliable" put out the update that Masood Azhar was among the 10 injured in the blast. It added that there was total media blackout by the authorities.
There is “absolutely a possibility” that Pakistan could be on its blacklist after the international financial watchdog’s next meeting in October in Paris, the outgoing president of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Marshall Billingslea, said on Friday. The comments were made at a press briefing at the end of the FATF plenary held in Orlando, Florida, an audio call of which was released to the press on Monday morning.
Pakistan had “significant” work to do and was, with regard to an action plan agreed in June 2018, “lacking in almost every respect”, Mr. Billingslea said.
“Pakistan was cautioned in February at the plenary that they had missed almost all of their January milestones. And they were urged to not fail to meet the milestones in May. Unfortunately, Pakistan has yet again missed its May milestones,” he added.
“Now the action plan itself is set to complete in September. So this [the June 16-21 Orlando plenary] was not the plenary where we would discuss a blacklisting issue. This was the plenary where we examine how far and how far behind Pakistan is on its action plan … and I must say they are far behind,” Mr. Billinglsea said.
“There is much that must be done by September. If they fail to implement the action plan by September then the FATF has made clear that we will consider next steps.”
China, Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council were among those at the Orlando plenary who had asked that Pakistan be given more time to comply with the action plan, The Hindu had reported over the weekend.
Getting on the FATF blacklist, which currently only has Iran and North Korea on it, could severely cripple and isolate a country financially, resulting in a downgraded credit rating and denying it loans and development assistance.
Mr. Billingslea said he did not want to specify or prejudge outcomes and that this was his last plenary as President of the FATF, but reiterated that Pakistan had much work to do if it was going to meet the action plan requirements.
Not responsive enough
In response to a question on whether Pakistan’s Central bank had enough regulatory measures in place and concerns about the grey economy in the country, Mr. Billinglsea said that Pakistan did not adequately appreciate the transnational terror financing risks.
“… Pakistan does not either appreciate or chooses not to acknowledge the transnational, trans-border terrorist financing risk they face. Even though they did issue an addendum, an annex, to their national risk assessment following the February discussion. There are also a number of other structural and legal changes that have to be undertaken, including successful prosecution of terrorist financing cases,” he said.
India had been pushing for Pakistan to get on the FATF blacklist for its failure to take “credible, verifiable, irreversible and sustainable measures” against terrorist activities.
Mr. Billinglsea said, in response to a question on Pakistan having the capacity to meet its milestones, that if they did not currently have the capacity, they are expected to generate it, and soon, in order to meet their targets.
IMF decision
He said that any conditionality associated with Pakistan’s loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would not automatically have a connection to the FATF outcomes, although the IMF could choose to link the two. The U.S. has been pushing for a conditionality on an approximately $6 billion IMF loan to Pakistan, agreed in May.
“So the IMF is an observer organisation to the Financial Action Task Force and so they have complete visibility into everything that occurs within the task force, including a very detailed understanding of what the Pakistani action plan is. The decision however, to condition fund disbursement under an IMF programme based on structural benchmarks that might be associated with the Financial Action Task Force is purely an IMF decision,” he said.
CheersWhile Pakistan narrowly avoided being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) last week, the threat is still looming. If there is one clear message for Pakistan coming out of the FATF’s plenary session, it is that the country is not even close to getting out of the ‘grey list’.
ISLAMABAD: The defence services secured the biggest supplementary grant of more than Rs36 billion during the outgoing fiscal year before seeking about 4.7 per cent higher allocations for next fiscal year.
CheersThe Ministry of Finance has reported to the parliament that the government exceeded by Rs222bn its sanctioned expenditure limit without parliamentary approval. Therefore, it sought Rs106bn regular supplementary grant from the parliament as fait accompli. The remaining Rs116bn amount pertained to surrender from one grant to another or foreign grants and would be treated as technical supplementary grants.
You deserve a permanent ban for posting that image inline without any warning.KLNMurthy wrote:Shireen Mazari calls for probe into 'criminal negligence' of past rulers
You are very welcome, BRF.
KLNMurthy wrote:Shireen Mazari calls for probe into 'criminal negligence' of past rulers
You are very welcome, BRF.
Shrek Mazari !Manu wrote:I think age is catching up with that person and revealing, as age often does, the 'hidden truth' of an ageing Tranny. That's just a Fat man with Lipstick.
Do the folks here remember the halcyon days of 2002-03 when BRF-waasis would tussle every week to be the first in the "bag the hag" Jilebi contest?g.sarkar wrote:I thought there is a gentleman's agreement never to put up Madam J's picture without proper warning to the little people (bachhelog) to close their eyes. Now, that I have seen the pic, I have to suffer constipation and other ailments for months. Mods please take proper action.
Gautam
Anujan wrote:Pakistan chief of Army staff seems to be much more competent and with a heavier workload than Indian army chief.
Indian army chief seems to have narrow range of responsibilities, like running the Army.
and also corn flakes and cement factories.Pakistan Chief Army runs the army, the navy, the air force, the economy, the elections and foreign affairs.
The Pakistani media is now enduring its darkest phase yet. Major General Asif Ghafoor, the head of the Pakistan Army’s public relations department, has been circulating the online profiles of journalists he judges to be involved in antistate activities. In a press conference last December, he issued a heartfelt plea: if journalists filed positive stories for just six months, Pakistan would become a great nation. Mostly, Pakistani journalists obliged. Writers who were once bold and boisterous, taking on military dictators and civilian rulers and extremist organizations, have now become patriotic—or have found themselves out of work.
I was reminded of Pakistan’s largest publisher of books in Urdu, whom I had met a couple of years prior, when A Case of Exploding Mangoes was translated. He signed the book up for publication, but later changed his mind. I tried to reassure him that the novel had been around for a decade and nobody had objected. His rejection note was simple, and sensible: You don’t know these people, he said. Sometimes it can take them 10 years to get the joke.
