Page 15 - Pakistan Link - September 25, 2020

PAKISTAN
India Threatening Military Aggression,
Pakistan Tells OIC Group
n By Anwar Iqbal
United Nations: Foreign Minister
Shah Mehmood Qureshi has alerted
the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir
that India has intensified its belliger-
ent rhetoric against Pakistan, includ-
ing threats of military aggression.
The OIC Contact Group met
on the sidelines of the UN General
Assembly in New York on Sunday to
discuss the worsening human rights
situation in India-occupied Jammu
and Kashmir.
Saudi Arabia, Niger and Azer-
baijan attended the meeting. Head
of the OIC Observer Mission to the
UN Ambassador Agshin Mehdiyev
represented the OIC Secretary Gen-
eral.
On Monday, the UN General
Assembly also held the inaugural
meeting of its high-level debate on
world affairs. The United Nations
had arranged hundreds of events
this year to commemorate its 75th
anniversary but most of these events
are being held virtually because of
the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the OIC meeting, members
of the Contact Group reviewed re-
cent developments in Jammu and
Kashmir, including the grave human
rights and humanitarian situation in
the occupied territory and tensions
along the LoC.
Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir
Akram read out the foreign minis-
ter’s special message in the meeting,
stating that the RSS-BJP regime in
India was implementing the so-
called “final solution” in the occu-
pied lands.
India, he said, was engaged in
systematically engineering a demo-
graphic change through its new do-
micile rules.
“The issuance of 1.6 million
domicile certificates since March is
meant to change the demography of
IOJK from a Muslim majority into a
Hindu majority territory,” he added.
The foreign minister pointed
out that in another attempt to oblit-
erate the Muslim identity of occu-
pied Jammu and Kashmir, India was
also changing the official status of
Phase 3 Clinical Trial of Chinese
Vaccine Begins in Pakistan
Islamabad: The National Command
and Operation Center (NCOC) on
Tuesday announced the launch of
phase 3 clinical trials in Pakistan for
a potential vaccine being developed
by China’s CanSino Biologics for the
novel coronavirus.
Trials for phase 1 and 2 for the
vaccine were held in China. Pakistan,
under a public-private partnership
between the National Institute of
Health (NIH) and CanSino, is among
the countries which will carry out
phase 3, the NCOC statement said.
The country’s drug regulator
last month gave the go-ahead for the
country’s first phase 3 clinical trial
for CanSino’s vaccine.
Planning, Development and
Special Initiatives Minister Asad
Umar said that 40,000 people will
participate in the trial, which is be-
ing held in seven countries across
the world. Around 8,000 to 10,000 of
these will be from Pakistan, he said.
Umar said initial results of
the trial are expected in four to six
the Urdu language through a new
legislation.
Rejecting the Indian claim of
“normalcy” in the occupied terri-
tory, Mr Qureshi highlighted a joint
communication by 18 special man-
date holders of the Human Rights
Council issued last month. The state-
ment noted that the human rights
situation there was in a “free fall”
and hundreds of young Kashmiris
were killed extra-judicially in “fake
encounters” and “cordon and search”
operations.
It noted that the Indian secu-
rity forces continued to enjoy com-
plete impunity under black laws
like Armed Forces Special Powers
Act (APSPA) and the Public Safety
Act (PSA). The foreign minister in-
formed the group that in 2020 alone,
India had committed over 2,200
ceasefire violations.
“There is a tangible threat of
further escalation as India might
conduct another false flag operation
to justify renewed aggression against
Pakistan, posing a serious threat to
regional peace and security,” he said.
Mr Qureshi said it was imperative
for India to immediately lift its in-
humane military siege and rescind
all illegal actions taken since Aug 5.
He also urged New Delhi to remove
restrictions on communications,
movement and peaceful assembly;
release incarcerated political leaders
months.
Addressing a press conference
alongside NIH Executive Director
Maj Gen Aamer Ikram on Tuesday,
Special Assistant to the Prime Minis-
ter on Health Dr Faisal Sultan termed
the trial an “important step” in which
Pakistanis would also take part.
Maj Gen Ikram said it was an
“honor” for the country that it was
participating in the phase 3 trial of a results were found to be good, [the
vaccine for the first time.
“The entire world is looking to-
wards a vaccine right now. There are
seven vaccines for which trials are
being conducted — three of them de-
veloped in China. This CanSino vac-
cine is based on recombinant tech-
nology in which an adino-vector is
made deficient. The virus vector and
cell culture has been procured from
Canada,” he said.
Speaking about how the study
is conducted, he said that in the pre-
clinical phase, the vaccine is tried on lenge and we are grateful to the pa-
animals. “This was done in China at
the start of the year. It was safe and
and free arbitrarily detained Kash-
miris.
The foreign minister said that
India must reverse new domicile
rules; remove draconian security
laws and prosecute military and ci-
vilian personnel involved in massive
human rights violations.
“Allow unhindered access to
fact-finding missions and the inter-
national media to investigate human
rights violations in the occupied
lands,” he said. Reaffirming OIC’s
principled position on the issue,
all members of the Contact Group
expressed deep concern at the con-
tinued human rights violations in
occupied Jammu and Kashmir. They
recalled OIC’s ministerial commu-
niques of Sept 25, 2019, and June
22 this year, and fully endorsed the
foreign minister’s recommendations,
adding that they were essential for
immediate de-escalation.
The Contact Group also asked
the UN Secretary General, the UN
Security Council and the UN Hu-
man Rights Council to call on In-
dia to halt human rights violations,
rescind the unilateral and illegal
measures taken on and after Aug 5,
2019, and to implement the Secu-
rity Council resolutions calling for
a plebiscite to enable the people of
India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir
to exercise their right to self-deter-
mination. - Dawn
immunogenic.
“Then there is a phase 1 trial
which was again conducted in Chi-
na and its results were good. In this
phase, the safety and efficacy [of
the vaccine] on the human body is
looked at.
“The phase 2 trial was conduct-
ed on 508 people — which is con-
sidered a big trial — and when the
study] was published in scientific
journals,” he said.
He added that the technology
for the CanSino vaccine was similar
to that of the Oxford vaccine being
developed by AstraZeneca. A chim-
panzee adino-vector was used in the
AstraZeneca vaccine while a human
adino-vector was used for this vac-
cine, he disclosed.
He said a phase 3 trial was the
biggest and most difficult stage.
“[The NIH] has accepted this chal-
tronage of the NCOC and the Minis-
try of Health.”
www.PakistanLink.com
SEPTEMBER 25, 2020 – PAKISTAN LINK – P15
Eight Years on, Ex-MQM Men Get
Death in Baldia Factory Fire Case
Karachi: An antiterrorism court
on Tuesday sentenced two former
activists of the Muttahida Qaumi
Movement (MQM) to death and
awarded life imprisonment to four
gatekeepers of the Baldia garments
factory, while acquitting party lead-
er Rauf Siddiqui in Pakistan’s deadli- ment on default. They were further
est industrial blaze case.
Some 264 male and female
workers, including 16 who remain
unidentified, were burnt alive in
an arson attack on the multistorey
Ali Enterprises garments factory in
Karachi’s Baldia Town on Sept 11,
2012.
According to the prosecution,
the accused persons acted on the
instruction of the-then chief of
the Karachi Tanzeemi Committee
Hammad Siddiqui after the fac-
tory owners failed to pay Rs250
million extortion or partnership
in their business. Ten accused,
including Mr Siddiqui, MQM’s
then-Baldia Town sector in-charge
Abdul Rehman alias Bhola, activist
Mohammad Zubair alias Chariya,
Hyderabad-based businesspersons
Dr Abdul Sattar Khan, Mst Iqbal
Adeeb Khanum, Umar Hasan Qa-
dri, and the industrial unit’s four
gatekeepers were charged with set-
ting fire to the readymade garments
factory.
The judge of the ATC-VII,
who conducted trial in the judicial
complex inside the Karachi Central
Prison, pronounced his verdict that
had been reserved after recording
evidence and final arguments from
both sides.
The judgement in the high-
profile case comes after eight years
of the tragic incident.
Finding the-then MQM’s Bal-
dia sector in-charge and the-then
head of the ill-fated factory’s fin-
ishing department, Mohammad
Zubair alias Chariya, guilty of com-
mitting an act of terrorism, the
court handed down death sentence
to each of them for causing death of
264 persons (both men and wom-
en) through ‘arson’ and ordered
them to pay a fine of Rs200,000
for the death of each victim. The
judge also awarded death sentence
to the two activists under Section
302(a) (premeditated murder)
and 34 (common intention) of the
Pakistan Penal Code for killing 264
persons.
According to the verdict, both
Rehman and Zubair were also giv-
en life imprisonment for participa-
tion in the offence likely to cause
the death and endanger the life of
factory workers/employees present
inside the factory. Besides, 10-year
imprisonment each was awarded
to the two former MQM activists
for attempting to murder 60 per-
sons (men and women, who suf-
fered injuries) and ordered to pay
Rs100,000 as fine each or undergo
six months additional imprison-
sentenced to life imprisonment un-
der the antiterrorism act for causing
injuries to 60 people and ordered to
pay Rs200,000 fine each or undergo
additional six months imprison-
ment on default. Another life-term
was awarded to them for creating
serious risk to the public, factory
owners, workers and employees in-
side the factory, thereby preventing
them to get out of the burning fac-
tory building. Similar punishment
was given to them for destroying
the factory. The judge awarded a
collective sentence of 15-year im-
prisonment each to Rehman and
Zubair for threatening the fac-
tory owners and extorting money
(“bhatta”) and ordered to pay a col-
lective fine of Rs 250,000 each.
‘Gatekeepers abetted arson-
ists’
The judge awarded life impris-
onment to each of the four gate-
keepers namely Shahrukh Latif, Ali
Mohammad, Arshad Mehmood
and Fazal Ahmed for aiding and
abetting Rehman and Zubair and
their accomplices allowing them
entry into the factory to endanger
the life of workers, employees and
owners of the factory. They were
told to pay Rs200,000 fine each
and on default suffer six-month
additional imprisonment. The four
gatekeepers were also given life im-
prisonment for sharing common
intention with Rehman and Zubair
and ordered to pay Rs100,000 fine
or undergo six months imprison-
ment on default.
The judge exonerated the
MQM-Pakistan leader Abdul Rauf
Siddiqui and the three Hyderabad-
based businessmen of the charges
of allegedly receiving Rs50.9 mil-
lion from the factory owners under
the pretext of giving compensation
to the legal heirs of the victims.
They appeared before the court on
bail and the judge cancelled their
bail and discharged their sureties.
While the judge sent a refer-
ence to the Sindh High Court for
confirmation of all the sentences,
the case against proclaimed offend-
ers Hammad Siddiqui and Ali Has-
san Qadri was kept on dormant file
until their surrender or arrest for
which the court issued perpetual
non-bailable warrants.