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Wednesday, March 6, 2019

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USA: Award-Winning Film on Pakistani Physicist Abdus Salam to Screen March 7

Anand Kamalakar, a Brooklyn-based documentary editor, will present his film Salam at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 7, in the Graduate Education Auditorium at the University of Arkansas.

Kamalakar directed and edited the feature-length documentary about the Nobel Prize-winning Pakistani physicist, Abdus Salam.

The film screening is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a talk with Kamalakar and associate professor Daniel Kennefick, a distinguished historian of science in the Department of Physics of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

“It’s a dramatic and visually stunning film,” said Padma Viswanathan, associate professor in the Program in Creative Writing and Translation, who is organizing the screening. “The evening as a whole will be of great interest to anyone interested in storytelling, science, politics or religious history.”

The film combines original footage and interviews with archival material to tell the story of a complex figure.

When Salam won the Nobel Prize in 1979, he became the first Pakistani and the fourth South Asian to achieve this distinction. While Salam’s legacy looms large in the world of physics, he is largely overlooked in his home country because of his faith. Salam was neither Sunni nor Shiite, but Ahmadiyya, a sect deemed heretical by mainstream Islam.

“He’s a tragic figure,” said one commentator in the film. “But then, that is his greatness.”

Mahershala Ali, an Ahmadi Muslim, actor in the recent True Detective series and winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Green Book, said the film is “a vital piece of our history.”

And Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai said, “The story of his brilliance needs to be told.”

The film Salam has been an official selection at many prestigious film festivals and won prizes at the Raw Science Film Festival, the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, and others.

http://timesofahmad.blogspot.com/2019/03/usa-award-winning-film-on-controversial.html

PAKISTAN MAY FACE INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS OVER FATF NON-COMPLIANCE: FS

The federal secretary of the finance division Arif Ahmed Khan warned that Pakistan might face economic sanctions over non-implementation of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations.

“Pakistan has to proceed against the banned outfits in the light of FATF recommendations,” he said, talking to reporters after attending a meeting of a sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The Finance Secretary expressed apprehensions that Pakistan might face economic sanctions if the FATF recommendations were ignored and not implemented. He stressed Pakistan had to take strict measures to implement the FATF recommendations.
The International Cooperation Review Group (ICRG) of the FATF that reviewed Pakistan’s action plan in recent meetings was not satisfied with the progress on milestones set for January 2019. This was despite improvements in the anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime and integrated database for currency declaration arrangements.
It expressed concern over Pakistani authorities’ inability to demonstrate why they considered eight proscribed entities to be low risk as opposed to the high-risk view of the Asia Pacific Group (APG) and ICRG.
Therefore, the FATF urged “Pakistan to swiftly complete its action plan, particularly those with timelines of May 2019” to address strategic deficiencies. The FATF will undertake the next review of Pakistan’s progress in June 2019, which will be preceded by a face-to-face meeting with the Joint Group in May.
In June 2018, Pakistan made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and APG to strengthen its AML/CFT regime and to address its strategic counterterrorism financing-related deficiencies by implementing an action plan to accomplish these objectives. The successful implementation of the action plan and its physical verification by the APG will lead the FATF to clear Pakistan out of its ‘grey list’ or move it into the ‘blacklist’ by September.
During the meeting of the PAC sub-committee, audit officials said the finance division did not present the supplementary grant of Rs105 million in parliament. The committee was examining the audit paras of the finance ministry.

http://www.shiitenews.org/index.php/pakistan/item/36825-pakistan-may-face-international-sanctions-over-fatf-non-compliance-fs

US Cuts Visa Durations for #Pakistani Nationals Amid Indo-Pak Hostilities

In addition to the shortening of visa durations, extra fees have also been introduced for some categories of approved visas, including for journalists and religious workers, according to a Pakistan Today report.

The US has substantially trimmed visa durations for Pakistani visitors, while also increasing visa fees for certain categories of applicants.

"The US has cut visa durations for some category of Pakistani visitors by four years from five to just one and will not let journalists stay for more than three months without a renewed permit," the Pakistan Today newspaper reported, quoting the US embassy in Islamabad.

he US said it was legally bound to cut down visa validity and hike fees because "Pakistan was unable to liberalise its visa regime for certain visa categories," the report said, quoting the US embassy in Islamabad.

The decision comes amid increased international pressure on Pakistan to clamp down on terror following the 14 February suicide car bombing, claimed by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), in Pulwama, which left more than 40 Indian paramilitary personnel dead.

Tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated following the attack, with both launching air operations against one another on 26 and 27 February 2019. While New Delhi claims its airstrikes were aimed against JeM hideouts in Pakistan, Islamabad insists that there were no terror camps in the area bombed by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Pakistan Air Force was simply retaliating in response to the violation of its airspace.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump claimed that his country is involved in mediating between India and Pakistan for the release of the Indian pilot that was in Pakistan's custody following the aerial clash in which an Indian MiG-21 was downed by Pakistani warplanes.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201903061073001157-us-visa-restrictions-for-pakistanis/

Opinion: The #India-#Pakistan Conflict Was a Parade of Lies

By Farhad Manjoo

The internet contributed to the culture of mendacity in a fight between nuclear neighbors.

The internet truly is super-duper fake, and thanks to the malleability of digital media and the jet fuel of network virality, a digital lie can spread more quickly, and cause more damage, than an analog one.

We all know that. Still, the blame-the-internet formulation has grown useless lately, because “the internet” has become inseparable from everything else. Social networks are now so deeply embedded into global culture that it feels irresponsible to think of them as some exogenous force. Instead, when it comes to misinformation, the internet is a mere cog in the larger machinery of deceit. There are other important gears in that machine: politicians and celebrities; parts of the news media (especially television, where most people still get their news); and motivated actors of all sorts, from governments to scammers to multinational brands.

As these players adapt to a digital politics, they infect and become infected by novel possibilities for misinformation. It is in the confluence of all these forces that you come upon the true nightmare: a society in which small and big lies pervade every discussion, across every medium; where deceit is assumed, trust is naïve, and a consensus view of reality begins to feel frighteningly anachronistic.

You don’t need to travel far to find such a nightmare. But distance can help clarify the picture: It’s easier to appreciate the simmering pot when you’re looking at it from the outside, rather than boiling in it.

And so I spent much of the last week watching a pot boil over on the other side of the world.

In retaliation for a terrorist attack against Indian troops last month, India conducted airstrikes against Pakistan. After I learned about them, I tried to follow the currents of misinformation in the unfolding conflict between two nuclear-armed nations on the brink of hot war.

What I found was alarming; it should terrify the world, not just Indians and Pakistanis. Whether you got your news from outlets based in India or Pakistan during the conflict, you would have struggled to find your way through a miasma of lies. The lies flitted across all media: there was lying on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp; there was lying on TV; there were lies from politicians; there were lies from citizens.

Besides outright lies, just about everyone, including many journalists, played fast and loose with facts. Many discussions were tinged with rumor and supposition. Pictures were doctored, doctored pictures were shared and aired, and real pictures were dismissed as doctored. Many of the lies were directed and weren’t innocent slip-ups in the fog of war but efforts to discredit the enemy, to boost nationalistic pride, to shame anyone who failed to toe a jingoistic line. The lies fit a pattern, clamoring for war, and on both sides they suggested a society that had slipped the bonds of rationality and fallen completely to the post-fact order.

The lies began immediately after Indian forces attacked what they described as a terrorist training camp in a Pakistani town called Balakot. The Indian government offered no visual proof of the effectiveness of its strikes, and there is still debate among Indian politicians about what was hit. Pakistan’s military quickly put out pictures from Balakot showing not much damage.

Indian media, however, appeared eager to fill in a government-friendly narrative. As the Indian fact-checking site Alt News documented, several outlets, including some of the country’s largest TV news networks, aired what they described as exclusive footage of Indian fighter jets attacking Balakot.

Here’s India Today’s breathless coverage of the clip:

Except it wasn’t. The fighter-jet footage was actually first posted online in 2017, Alt News found. It appeared to have been resurrected on social networks last week and then lifted by Indian TV networks as proof of the attack.

Not that Pakistani media were above fakery. After Pakistan’s Air Force shot down an Indian jet and captured a pilot who was later released, Pakistani media began airing images of downed aircraft. Except, as fact checkers documented, the pictures were old, showing wreckage from a previous crash.

You would think fact-checking this stuff would limit its spread. Instead, what happened was that each side weaponized fact-checking, taunting the other for wallowing in lies without acknowledging its own part in all the fakery.

Here are Indian anchors — from a network that pushed its own fake images — sliming Pakistani media with the hashtag #PakFakeClaim:

What I’ve shared here is just a taste. If you dive into the tireless fact-checking sites policing the region, you’ll find scores more lies from last week, some that flow across both sides of the conflict and many so intricate they defy easy explanation.
And you will be filled with a sense of despair.The Indian government recently introduced a set of draconian digital restrictions meant, it says, to reduce misinformation. But when mendacity crosses all media and all social institutions, when it becomes embedded in the culture, focusing on digital platforms misses the point.
In India, Pakistan and everywhere else, addressing digital mendacity will require a complete social overhaul. “The battle is going to be long and difficult,” Govindraj Ethiraj, a journalist who runs the Indian fact-checking site Boom, told me. The information war is a forever war. We’re just getting started.

#Pakistan - #PPP - ‘#Pulwama attack reaction of locals against Indian atrocities’: Bilawal

Terming Pulwama attack reaction of local Kashmiris against Indian atrocities, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday held New Delhi’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for the attack, ARY News reported.

Addressing today’s National Assembly session, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called for the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions that provide for the exercise of right to self-determination by the Kashmiri people to usher peace in South Asia.

He said that Narendra Modi’s government had broken all the previous records of barbarism and human rights violation in occupied Kashmir.

Paying rich tribute to the pilots who shot down the Indian jets, the PPP leader said that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) once again proved itself as the best air force of the world. He also paid tribute to the soldiers martyred at the line of control (LoC).

Bilawal Bhutto said that on this occasion, they should not forget the services of former prime ministers Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto who had equipped Pakistan with nuclear and missile technology and had made the country’s defense impregnable.

https://arynews.tv/en/pulwama-attack-reaction-locals-bilawal/

#Pakistan - #PPP - Bilawal Bhutto lashes out at govt's policies in NA address

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Wednesday strongly criticized the policies of the government during his address in National Assembly.

“The policy to bring banned organization in national sphere is entirely wrong. It is neither the policy of parliament nor it can be of the country. How is it possible that an elected PM is hanged but can’t file case against terrorist organizations?” he remarked.

“I pay tribute to Pakistan Air Force especially Squadron Leader Hassan Siddiqui who downed the Indian jet violating our airspace,” said Bilawal.

He also bashed the government over the decision to award Noble Peace Prize to Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“Does the House agree that Khan deserves the Noble Peace Prize at a time when fears of a nuclear war are mounting, jets are being downed and our soldiers being martyred on the border? In such a situation this discussion is not more than a joke at international level. I am happy that the government took U-turn from this position,” he criticized.

He also lashed out at Indian PM Narendra Modi saying that he has maximized the atrocities in Occupied Kashmir as the children are being turned blind by pellet guns and rape being used as tool for oppression.

“The world knows him as the butcher of Gujrat. He was banned from entry in US due to terrorism accusations. He is also spreading war hysteria at present for his politics,” maintained Bilawal.

He stressed that peace will prevail in Kashmir if the people are provided their due rights.

"Pulwama attack was not carried out by any non-state actor from another country, but it was done by a Kashmiri youth, which showed their annoyance.International community should take notice of the situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir," said PPP chairman.

“Indian aggression cannot be ignored. We are delighted that Pakistan played its role to ease the situation. We also praise the Army Chief who took the parliament into confidence. We also salute the two army soldiers who embraced who were martyred while defending the country. We should also remember Shaheed Bhutto who laid the foundation of nuclear programme,” asserted Bilawal.

He also called for implementation of National Action Plan to curb the scourge of terrorism in the country.

https://dunyanews.tv/en/Pakistan/481325-Bilawal-Bhutto-lashes-out-government-policies-NA-address

#Pakistan - #PPP - BILAWAL BHUTTO PAYS TRIBUTE TO SOLDIERS MARTYRED AT LOC

Bilawal Bhutto called for the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions that provide for the exercise of right to self-determination by the Kashmiri people to usher peace in South Asia.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday held New Delhi’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for the attack.

Addressing a Nation Assembly session, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that Narendra Modi’s government had broken all the previous records of barbarism and human rights violation in occupied Kashmir.

Paying rich tribute to the pilots who shot down the Indian jets, the PPP leader said that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) once again proved itself the best air force of the world. He also paid tribute to the soldiers martyred at the line of control (LoC).

Bilawal Bhutto said that on this occasion, they should not forget the services of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto who had equipped Pakistan with atom bomb and missile technology and made the country’s defense impregnable.

https://www.suchtv.pk/pakistan/general/item/83195-bilawal-bhutto-pays-tribute-to-soldiers-martyred-at-loc.html