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Volume 23 | Number 7582 | 2 RiyalsMonday 9 July 2018 | 25 Shawwal I 1439 www.thepeninsula.qa

Qatari media succeeded in defending just case: Al Ali

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali underlined the success of the Qatari media in defending its just case in the face of the lies of the siege countries’ media outlets.

Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of “Qatar Today” TV Channel on the Qatari Satellite “Es’hailSat”, which was held at the head-quarters of the Ministry of Culture and Sports yesterday, the Minister said that the Qatari media was able to undermine all accusations of the siege countries because it was standing on strong, credible, just and true bases that give the strength to face all hate media campaigns.

He expressed pleasure for launching the “Qatar Today” TV Channel, on the Qatari Satellite “Es’hailSat”, noting that the

Ministry works to create the appropriate environment for private media in light of the freedom of information pro-vided by the State of Qatar, as well as the availability of infor-mation and media infra-structure, stressing the support of the State of Qatar for every free media that serves human awareness and conscience.

In response to a question from QNA about the facilities granted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports to investors wishing to enter the field of media, he said that the Ministry provides all nec-essary facilities for investment in the field of media where the licensing of broadcasting is granted by ordinary procedures, provided that they comply with the laws and regulations within the state, and send a truthful message serving the human awareness and conscience.

The Minister added that all the institutions involved in the

country are integrated to provide a suitable environment for targeting media, in the presence of the Qatar Satellite Company “Es’hailSat”, which is distinguished in many services than others.

For her part, Director of Broadcasting Licensing Department at the Ministry of Culture and Sports Sheikha Najla Faisal Al Thani said in her speech during the ceremony that she was delighted to inau-gurate “Qatar Today” to be one of the family of the exclusive Qatari media, noting that it has not been far from the Qatari media since its inception nearly five years ago, where it was aligned with the goals and pro-grams, to be respected by the recipient in Qatar and abroad.

She noted that the launch of a new satellite channel reflects the State’s vision to the promotion of diverse investments, especially in the field of media, thus contrib-uting to the diversity of media content presented to the public.

She praised the role of the Qatari media, government and private, where they were all, including satellite channels, radio, newspapers, websites or even personal accounts on the means of the social media, able to defend their case through spreading true facts and uncov-ering the lies and fabrications, gaining confidence and respect of the recipient in Qatar and abroad, reflecting the profes-sionalism and freedom enjoyed by the Qatari media.

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H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali speaking to the media yesterday. PIC:SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA. Msheireb Metro Station taking shape

The construction work is underway at a fast pace at Msheireb Station, the largest station of Doha Metro in the city. Msheireb Station marks the crossing of three metro lines with the Red and Green Lines running parallel and the Gold Line situated underneath. PIC:ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

MoI launches Accident-Free Summer campaign

DOHA: The General Directorate of Traffic at the Ministry of Interior yesterday launched “Accident-Free Summer” campaign to raise awareness on traffic violations, minimise acci-dents and spread the culture of road safety and security.

“The first week of the “Accident-Free Summer” cam-paign will focus on awareness on violations of stopping in a yellow box junction. The General Director of Traffic’s cameras at

intersections will monitor this violation which brings in a fine of QR500 and it is not permis-sible under law to settle the fine by paying half amount only,” said Brigadier Mohammed Saad Al Kharji, Director General of Traffic.

Al Kharji called on motorists to not block the way in yellow box, adding that the aim of pre-venting stopping in the yellow box is to facilitate the traffic movement within the inter-section of all directions.

He added while speaking in a press conference held at the

General Directorate of Traffic in Madina Khalifa to launch the campaign that the yellow box violations had decreased more on intersections which had cameras and police patrols. “The motorists have to respect other places also.”

Al Kharji pointed out that the yellow boxes are vital and that motorists should give others the opportunity to cross intersections without interruption. This is stip-ulated in Article (72) of the Traffic Law No. (19) of 2007.

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SIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

Football fans visiting Majlis Qatar, a three-tiered pop-up installation in Moscow, which shows what’s on offer at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.

Fans throng Majlis Qatar in Moscow

Four boys rescued from Thai cave in risky operationREUTERS

CHIANG RAI, THAILAND: Four of 12 Thai schoolboys were rescued from a flooded cave yesterday in a daring and dangerous operation to save the children and their soccer coach who have been trapped underground for more than two weeks.

The operation to rescue the remaining eight boys — some as young as 11 and weak swimmers — and the coach was called off at nightfall until today to give the divers time to replenish oxygen supplies and ensure all prepa-rations were complete.

Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thai-land’s elite navy SEAL unit guided the boys to safety through narrow, submerged passageways.

“Today was the best day, the best situation in terms of the weather, the health of the boys, our water management for our rescue effort,” the head of the rescue operation, Narongsak Osottanakorn, told a news conference.

→SEE ALSO PAGE 10

The Minister of Culture and Sports said that the Qatari media was able to undermine all accusations of the siege countries because it was standing on strong, credible, just and true bases that give the strength to face all hate media campaigns.

Take precautions to control skin and respiratory allergy: Expert

DOHA: The onset of summer is time for people with skin or respiratory allergies to take extra precaution. By being a little more careful patients of skin and respiratory allergies can enjoy summer without any complications.

Dr Mehdi Adeli, Senior Con-sultant in Allergy and Immu-nology at Sidra Medicine and HMC, spoke to The Peninsula about the precautions patients with skin and respiratory allergies should take during summer.

“In summer we have heat and humidity. Severe heat and humidity may affect patients with eczema as sweating may irritate the skin. At the same time decrease in humidity may lead to loss of water from the skin which leads to dryness of skin and leads to irritations again,” he said.

This, with patients of eczema, will increase itching which will lead to inflammation which will lead to flare of eczema. He emphasis on the regular use of moisturisers to protect skin.

“We advise the patients to

use moisturisers regularly. Applying moisturisers three to four times a day, specially after shower, will lead to decrease reduction in exposure to the irri-tants and allergens” he said. “We recommend patients to keep the temperature and humidity below 40-50 percent. Because increase in humidity helps in the growth of house dust mites,” he added.

Dust mites are insects, not able to be seen with the naked eye. They live in bedding, carpets, fabric furniture, old clothing and stuffed toys.

He said those going to swimming pool should shower before leaving the pool as chlorine can trigger itching.

He recommends people to wear cotton clothes during summer and avoid nylon or silk clothes. Cotton clothes let air to pass easily compared to nylon clothes which block aeration.

He said that if there is one particular activity which is increasing itching, one should reduce that activity as it would help in reduce sweating and itching. “If patients notice that itching increases with sweating and due to exposure to dust then

he should take bath and apply moisturisers. It is called soak and seal in medicine,” he added.

Regarding respiratory allergy, in the dusty area usually the dust particles are irritants, they are not allergens. But when they are mixed with oil particles they become allergens. Dust particles mix with hydrocarbons may case cause irritants.

Dr. Adeli said if rooms are very cold and a person moves out to very hot temperature it might lead to abrupt changes in mucosal membrane which can trigger the attacks of wheezing.

He said that if ACs are not being cleaned, they will become safe place for allergens. It is advisable to clean them once a week. Before starting summer, AC must be cleaned properly.

Mostly we remain inside the room during summer, if a patient is allergic to house dust mites, get rid of them by reducing humidity and temperature.

Dr Adeli said that if the aer-ation of a room is not good then this will be source of more exposure to the allergens indoors, so cleaning of rooms is important.

SACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

02 MONDAY 9 JULY 2018HOME

HBKU student inspires religious discourse with wide-ranging audienceTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Living the Islamic values of participating actively in the community, Thabit S Al Qahtani – a student of Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s (HBKU) College of Islamic Studies (CIS) – has emerged as a religious mentor who guides the intellectual, spir-itual and moral growth of his fellow women and men.

This Ramadan, in collabo-ration with the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Al Qahtani gained prominence as a tele-vision presenter at Qatar Tele-vision, where he hosted the special “Ahsan Al Hadith” daily transmission, and as a radio host for Qatar Radio’s “Kunuz Al Sunna” program.

Al Qahtani, a student of CIS’ Master of Arts in Islamic Studies program, launched his profes-sional career in 2017 as an

Islamic Studies teacher at the National Service Academy. As part of Qatar’s military service program, the Academy produces national service cadets that have undergone a well-rounded edu-cational program in combat training, specialized military subjects, and other academic

disciplines – including classes in history, culture, environment, health, and Islam.

Explaining how the pursuit of his degree in contemporary fiqh – the study of Islamic juris-prudence – fits into his profes-sional life, Al-Qahtani said: “Many of my lectures – and most

recently, special Ramadan broadcast transmissions – reflect on the significance of honesty, love and respect in Islam, as well as the importance of non-fanaticism. It is important to realize that tol-erance is a vital tool in com-bating extremism through simple means of humanity and understanding. As such, I hope to be an agent of positive influence within our society.”

“As a teacher, this raises my accountability to impart the tenets of Islam to a young group of students, who stand at the cusp of adulthood and are thus eager to learn about the role of religion within everyday life. I often receive questions about Islam in the context of marriage and marital life, parental rela-tionships, and the fair and judi-cious interaction with com-munity members.”

His academic journey at CIS, which is characterized by an emphasis on creativity and delivery, unlocked additional professional opportunities for Al-Qahtani. This year alone, he was able to record approximately 60 radio and television shows; he also delivered a series of lectures across a number of local mosques.

“To be an effective educator, whether it be in a classroom or on national television or radio, one must grasp the historic and ethical context of Islam. Per-sonally speaking, I was fortunate to have access to CIS’ world-class faculty and research facilities which enabled me to engage in scientific and spiritual discus-sions and projects that holisti-cally refined my academic skillset and my knowledge of Islam,” Al-Qahtani continued.

Having chosen CIS after a

series of stimulating conversa-tions with the college’s faculty, Al-Qahtani’s own career as a faith-driven educator draws motivation from Islamic studies. Graduate life at a vibrant, multi-cultural campus has further shaped his relation to sustainable living within one’s means in addition to the importance of tol-erance and respect when dealing with different cultures, teachings and doctrines.

As HBKU’s first instated college, CIS has a long-standing tradition of educational excel-lence. The college’s curricular offerings recently expanded to cover different subfields of Islamic studies through five innovative postgraduate degrees: Islam and Global Affairs; Islamic Finance and Economy; Islamic Art, Architecture and Urbanism; Islamic Finance; and Islamic Studies.

Qatar Airways launches revamped on-board dining menuTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Airways has revealed a series of enhancements to its Economy Class on-board menus, designed to elevate customers’ experience when they travel with the award-winning airline.

The new enhancements, which will become available in a phased introduction across the air-line’s network from July 1, include an increase of 25 percent in content for all Economy Class hot meals served on board. Newly-designed and larger casserole dishes have also been created and coupled with covers depicting brightly col-oured artwork. Other additions include revamped Economy Class in-flight menus featuring new delicious meals, which will be offered on medium and longer-haul routes.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: “Qatar Airways is delighted to launch the latest on-board dining enhancements that will undoubtedly offer our esteemed passengers an even higher level of service and luxury. We have carefully crafted new dishes through collaborating with our global network of caterers to provide our cus-tomers with an authentic and indulgent expe-rience in the skies. Crafted with detail and quality, our new concepts will offer our pas-sengers the highest of standards and ensure their journeys with us are second-to-none”.

Just last month, the national carrier of Qatar launched a new on-board dining expe-rience for its premium customers, which started on European routes on May 1, 2018. The new concepts include newly-designed tableware, in-flight dining menus, chinaware and cutlery that were specially created to meet customers’ high expectations for fine dining in the sky. The enhanced signature dishes and in-flight menus also feature regional influ-ences and locally sourced produce based on route destinations and in alignment with the four seasons.

Visitors throng Kuwaiti-Qatari Relations Exhibition at KataraTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Kuwaiti-Qatari Rela-tions Exhibition at Katara Cultural Village concluded yesterday with more visitors including local heritage enthusiasts and digni-taries.

The five-day long exhibition which was organised in coordi-nation with the Kuwaiti Expo 965 Team for heritage exhibitions, received VIP visitors including dip-lomats, dignitaries and some public figures.

The participants in the exhi-bition praised the efforts made by Katara to making this exhibition happen and providing chance for the “Expo965” Team to be in Qatar.

The exhibition enabled her-itage enthusiasts and artisans in Qatar to interact and exchange expertise with the Kuwaiti heritage collectors.

It also carried a message of

friendship and brotherhood to Qatari people by displaying old commercial correspondences between the two nations which document their strong relations.

In the past five days, the exhi-bition showcased some artifacts, rare documents and manuscripts that date back to the beginning of the 20th century and consisted an

Qatar Fan Zone attracts over 62,000 visitorsTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Qatar Fan Zone at the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena has welcomed more than 62,000 visitors so far, and more people are expected to throng the arena int the last week of the tournament with more live entertainment to match the mounting excitement of the games.

After a short break yesterday and today, the Fan Zone will re-open tomorrow to screen the semi-finals matches of the month-long tour-nament. During this stage, the Fan Zone’s music performances will feature Kuwaiti star Essa Almarzoug tomorrow, followed by his compa-triot star Ibrahim Dashti the next day on Wednesday. Both singers’ per-formances are free and will begin at 7.30pm.

The concerts will be preceded by other entertainment features starting at 4pm, including Russian folk dances, enthralling Pixel Poi and Diabolo shows, cheerful roaming

parades and upbeat performances by LED drummers.

Throughout the knockout and quarter final stages, football fans and

music enthusiasts enjoyed live music performances by Moroccan star Hatim Ammor, world-renowned Rai icon Cheb Khaled, Iraqi singer Mohammed Al Fares and Lebanese artist Ziad Bourji. Football freestyle superstars Tobias Becs and Raquel Benetti also took the stage to show off their moves and share their tricks with the Fan Zone’s visitors.

Operating on

match days only, the Fan Zone opens its doors to the public between 4pm and 12 midnight. It is powered by Vodafone Qatar as the official tele-communications partner and sup-ported by The W Doha Hotel & Res-idences, the official hospitality partner.

Qatar Fan Zone is organised by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), the Ministry of Culture and Sports (MCS) and Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA).

Qatar Fan Zone is a highlight of this year’s Qatar Summer Festival (QSF), which kicked off on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr. Organised by QTA, the 11-week festival is a nationwide celebration of the country’s diverse retail and hospitality offerings, com-plemented by a host of entertainment and sports activities.

archive of over two million doc-uments about Kuwait and the Gulf States, some dating back to more than 200 years. The archive also included a

collection of some rare Kuwaiti official documents such as passports issued during the reign of Sheikh Abdallah bin Sabah in 1887.

The exhibition reflected the strength of the Qatari-Kuwaiti relations and brotherhood and the mutual heritage and history they share.

Thabit S Al Qahtani giving a lecture.

QNA

DOHA: The State of Qatar voiced its strong condem-nation and denunciation of the explosion targeting a patrol of the Tunisian National Guard officers in Jendouba governorate, which left a number of people killed.

In a statement issued yes-terday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated the State of Qatar’s firm stance rejecting violence and terrorism regardless of the motives and causes.

The Ministry affirmed Qatar’s full solidarity with the Tunisian government in all measures taken to maintain security and stability.

The statement expressed the State of Qatar’s condo-lences to the families of victims as well as the gov-ernment and people of Tunisia.

Qatar condemns attack on Tunisian National Guard officers’ patrol

The five-day long exhibition, organised in coordination with the Kuwaiti Expo 965 Team for heritage exhibitions, received VIP visitors including diplomats, dignitaries and some public figures.

Katara officials during visit to one of the pavilions.

Al Hammadi receives Slovenian Ambassador

03MONDAY 9 JULY 2018 HOME

Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi met yesterday with the Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to Qatar, Tatjana Miskova, on the occasion of ending her tenure. Dr Al Hammadi thanked the envoy for her efforts to support and promote bilateral relations and wished her success in her new tasks.

Qatar student delegation to attend summer camp in JordanTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: A Qatari delegation of 36 students from the Qatar School of Science and Technology (QSTP) will participate in a summer camp in Jordan through July 20th.

Organised by Jubilee Centre for Excellence Education, the program of the summer camp comprises many educational activities on the basics of design and technology such as teamwork, brainstorming, mental maps, engineering drawing, posters and presenta-tions, in addition to participation in a number of scientific compe-titions and designing real-life projects using specialized software.

In general, the camp aims at re-shaping the interests of

participants in the fields of learning and knowledge, high-lighting their energies and abilities, and developing their skills in engi-neering, electronics, design and technology, as well as exchanging experiences among students in these areas, improving their ability to create and use models and developing their skills in planning, exploring and designing solu-tions, enhancing students’ abil-ities and helping them to evaluate results.

Studying at Qatar School of Science and Technology (QSTP) will be start, for the first time, at the beginning of next academic year. The school aims to provide a high quality education based on the integration of scientific subjects and copes up with the development of the education

sector in the developed countries.

Both Qatar School of Science

and Technology and the Jubilee Centre for Excellence Education adopt (STEM Education) teaching

system, which teaches science, technology, engineering and math-ematics in an integrated fashion.

Qatar School of Science and Technology (QSTP) students who will be participating at the summer camp in Jordan, before their departure at the Hamad International Airport.

MoI launches Accident-Free Summer campaignCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The law says that motorists shall undertake to observe automatic traffic signals while driving. Despite having priority or if the traffic light indicates green, a motorist may not move the vehicle if such act will disrupt or hinder traffic, and whoever has priority may waive such priority if traffic conditions so require.

The “Accident-Free Summer” campaign is aimed

at all road users, citizens and residents, to avoid traffic vio-lations that often lead to traffic accidents. The campaign seeks to minimize accidents and spread security and safety on the road to all of its users.

A number of media channels, local media and local non-Arabic radios are partici-pating in the campaign. It also includes local, foreign and Asian newspapers as well as social media.

Brigadier Al Kharaji added

that 50 fancy numbers would be obtainable at the first stage through Metrash2 from 12 noon on Tuesday July 10, 2018, at fixed prices in some categories starting from QR15 ,000 r iya ls to QR30000.

He said that a buyer of a number of those numbers had no right to buy another number until 72 hours after his previous purchase, in order to allow more buyers to obtain the fancy numbers.

Qatari media succeeded in defending just caseCONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Sheikha Najla called on the media to continue their efforts and carry out their duty towards the society, noting that the Ministry of Culture and Sports provides facilities for those wishing to invest in the media sector.

Meanwhile, CEO of “Qatar Today” Jassim bin Jabr bin Towar Al Kuwari said that the channel has become a name frequented in the media forums and was highlighted particularly because of its purposeful and diverse content, explaining that the channel management sought through the transition to broadcast through “Es’hailSat” to achieve the quality of the image to accompany the quality of content, to pursue of excellence and creativity and to invest modern technol-ogies to serve the interests of the public.

During the past period, the channel has been charac-terized by providing diverse content in various fields,

IRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

Work on new building for Stafford Sri Lankan School to start soon DOHA: Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Qatar A S P Liyanage has said that the construction work on new building of Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha will start within three months.

“We are set to start construction of new building of the community school within next three months and most likely it will be completed by 2020,” he said while talking to The Peninsula yesterday.

The ambassador said that the Ministry of Education and Higher Education had recently appointed new chairman of Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha. “The former chairman Kumudu Foneska has been replaced with Roshan Sanjaya Balasooriya on July 4 through an official notification issued by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education which acted on the request of the embassy,” he said, adding that it was in the best interest of the school and community.

He said that Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha was affil-iated with the embassy. “After the appointment of the new chairman, the embassy has also formed a steering committee mostly consisting of parents of the school students to look after affairs of the school,” he added.

The ambassador said that the government of Qatar had allocated a 10,000 square meters plot of land for the con-struction of Sri Lankan com-munity school at Thumama junction. “Due to laxness of pre-vious management of school, the construction of new building of the school could not start timely while Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha is working in a rented building at present. Now, after new chairman, things will be set on the right track,” he added.

The ambassador further said that currently as many as 1400 students were enrolled at Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha. “Most of them are from the Sri Lankan community but students from other national-

ities like Bangla-deshi and Nigerian etc. are also studying there.”

He said that after the con-struction of new school building, for which architectural design was also ready, the school will be able to cater to almost double

strength of students. Regarding recent change in

management of school, the ambassador said that the former chairman was removed on the basis of some serious complaints. “The embassy will also have at least five year audit of the accounts of the school,” he said, adding that the new chairman – Balasooriya – who is a chartered accountant by profession, would take the school ahead on the way to progress with full support from the embassy.

The ambassador said that in Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha, new academic year classes would start on August 26, 2018 with many improve-ments in educational standards. “We are also planning to introduce Sri Lankan cur-riculum along existing interna-tional curriculum,” he said.

The ambassador assured the community particularly parents of children studying at Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha that recent changes in school management would not disturb anything rather cause betterment for the whole school system and its educational standards. He also clarified that the school management under new chairman would not remove any employee from academic or non-academic staff from their job.

Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali (fourth left), with Jassim Tawar Al Kuwari (fifth left), Chairman, Tawar Mall; Essa Abdulrahman Al Kuwari (fifth right) of Broadcasting Licenses Department at the Ministry of Culture and Sports; and other officials after the signing held at the Ministry, yesterday. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT / THE PENINSULA

especially in the economy, culture, heritage, community issues, health and others, as well as drama production, Al Kuwari added, noting that the coming

period will witness more effective content in various areas.

The license agreement was signed for the Ministry of Culture and Sports by Head

of the Follow-up Unit in the Broadcast ing Licensing Department Issa Al Kuwari, and for the Channel by CEO Jassim bin Jabr bin Towar Al Kuwari.

Workshop on combating illegal wildlife trade kicks offDOHA: A three-day workshop on combating illegal wildlife trade kicked off yesterday, organized by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment repre-sented by the Department of Protection and Wildlife.

The workshop aims to raise the efficiency of the par-ticipants from various concern bodies in the State in the implementation of measures to combat illegal trafficking in wildlife.

The workshop will include lectures on the Con-vention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which regulates international trade between States Parties in some species of endangered species, which Qatar joined in 2001.

The participants will also be acquainted with the types of wild animals and plants most traded in the workshop, as well as their definitions of permits, certificates and other documents used in the imple-mentation of the Convention. The workshop will also explain the mechanism for the implementation of Qatar’s National Plan of Action to combat illegal trafficking in elephant ivory, and will include a presentation of the legislation and legal proce-dures in force in the State of combating illicit trafficking in wildlife.

Amiri Air Force participates in Yeovilton Air Exhibition in UKLONDON: The Amiri Air Force took part in the Yeovilton International Air Day 2018, which is organised by the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom on the sidelines of its Centenary Celebrations.

The Qatari Amiri Air Force participated in the exhi-bition with the transport air-craft (C130J). Captain Fahad Issa Al Kuwari, stressed the importance of participating in such forums, noting that the participation came at the direc-tives of the Deputy Prime Min-ister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Dr Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah. The exhibition was attended by Mil-itary Attach of the State of Qatar in London Brig. Gen. Hamad Jassim Al Marri.

Brigadier Mohammed Saad Al Kharji, Director General of Traffic, during the press conference, yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

04 MONDAY 9 JULY 2018HOME

Ooredoo achieves success in connecting firms to Business Fibre BroadbandDOHA: Ooredoo, one of the region’s leading ICT providers, announced yesterday that it is seeing strong uptake on its Business Broadband solution, which is supporting new digital business models across Qatar.

Ooredoo is continuing to make major investments in its Ooredoo Supernet, which pro-vides the largest and most reliable business broadband fibre network in Qatar with ultra-fast download speeds of up to 300 Mbps.

Since Ooredoo re-launched Business Broadband in October 2017, the company is expanding the reach and breadth of value-added services. Qatar’s organi-sations can support new digital business models with Smart Wi-Fi cloud-based services, the Microsoft Office 365 produc-tivity suite for business commu-nication and collaboration, website (domain) registration, and free web space.

Yousuf Abdulla Al Kubaisi, Ooredoo COO, said: “Business Broadband is the core enabler of Qatar’s organisations in their digital transformation and digital business journey. By lev-eraging our broadband solution over Supernet, organisations can

fulfil their business Internet and digital needs, all with a single service at a great value price”.

Ooredoo fully supports the Qatar National Broadband Plan in providing all businesses, households, schools, hospitals, and government institutions with high-quality broadband internet access complemented by expanded digital literacy and privacy. The United Nations shows that a 10 percent increase in broadband pene-tration can increase GDP by 1.4 percent.

Yousuf Abdulla Al Kubaisi added: “Our reliable Business Broadband solution supported by a 360 portfolio of digital

services is fully aligned with the Qatar National Vision 2030 goals of nationwide transfor-mation and economic diversi-f icat ion and growth. Broadband over fibre will serve as the foundation for Smart Cities innovations, from smart airports, to connected malls, hospitals, educational campuses, and stadia”.

Business customers can lev-erage the Ooredoo Advantage, making Ooredoo “Best for Business”, thanks to its breadth and depth of talent, best fixed and mobile networks, broadest portfolio of ICT services and solutions, and trusted partner for 60 years.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Pakistan International School, Qatar (PISQ) leads all other Pakistani schools in Doha by producing outstanding results in SSC-II Annual Exam-ination 2018 of the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE), Islamabad.

This year too PISQ students

produced 100 % results with 8 students securing more than 1000 marks, said a press release issued by the school.

Sumaiya Rizwan grabbed 1st position with 1036 marks, Eiman Amir Latif stood 2nd with 1033 marks while Najwa Siraj got 3rd position with 1026 marks in the Science Group in the school. In Humanities Group, Muskan Noor secured 1st position by securing

872 marks, Salwa Mir secured 2nd position with 847 marks and Hamna Saeed Ahmed Butt stood 3rd by securing 812 marks.

A total number of 143 stu-dents appeared in SSC-II Annual Examination and all of them passed. Out of 143 stu-dents, 53 students secured A1 grades, 41 students obtained A grades, 32 students secured B grades and 17 students passed

in C grades.Nargis Raza Otho, Principal

of PISQ said that she is extremely excited that her stu-dents have produced the best results ever produced in the history of the school. She expressed her delight on the achievement of the students and congratulated the students, staff and parents on the out-standing exam results. Mrs.

Otho said, “I am really proud of my teachers and students and hope they will continue delivering their best to bring more laurels for the school”.

Murad Baseer, Charged’ Affairs at the Embassy of Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the State of Qatar, also congratulated the students, staff and parents and hoped that the journey of achievements would continue.

FROM LEFT: Sumaiya Rizwan - 1,036 marks (1st Science Group), Eiman Amir Latif - 1,033 marks (2nd Science Group), Najwa Siraj - 1,026 marks (3rd Science Group), Muskan Noor - 872 marks (1st Hum. Group), Salwa Mir- 847 marks (2nd Hum. Group), Hamna - 812 marks (3rd Hum. Group)

PISQ students excel in SSC-II Annual Exams

Over 20,000 watch quarter-finals at Khalifa Stadium Fan Zone

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Khalifa International Stadium Fan Zone, organised by Aspire Zone Foundation in collaboration with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, attracted more than 70,000 spectators in three weeks since it opened on June 15.

More than 20,000 football fans attended the quarter-finals alone. Thanks to its unique features, the Fan Zone at Khalifa International Stadium gives fans the chance to experience the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia from one of the first stadiums set to host the tour-nament in four years.

The cooling technology installed at the stadium allows fans to enjoy the outdoor setting during Doha’s summer months in convenient temperatures that could go as low as 19˚C.

The Fan Zone can house more than 5,000 football lovers for each game. Fans can choose their preferred seating from a variety of options. Those looking to watch the games in a private setting can choose from 16 VIP skyboxes at an updated price of QR1,500 each until July

14 and at a cost of QR2,000 on the final day of the tournament on 15 July. Fans can also choose from 24 Majlis areas with authentic designs inspired by Qatari culture, at an updated cost of QR650 each until July 14 and a cost of QR1,000 on the final day of the tour-nament on 15 July.

Elsewhere, fans can enjoy the matches from Khalifa International Sta-dium’s spectator stands free of charge.

They can also watch the games at Khalifa International Stadium on giant screens that are equipped with state-of-the-art LED lighting technologies which consume 40% less energy and are more sustainable than traditional lighting methods.

The Khalifa International Stadium Fan Zone will open its doors again at 8:00 PM to broadcast the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qatar semi-finals between France and Belgium on Tuesday evening, and Croatia and England on Wednesday evening. Fans can enter the Fan Zone through Gate 02 at the Stadium.

After the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia final, Aspire Zone Foundation will

hold a raffle draw for ticket holders to win a Kia Cadenza V6 worth 91 thousand Qatari riyals, which is currently on-display near the Fan Zone’s Main Entrance.

To enter the draw, fans will need to buy a ticket either online or from the

ticket booth set up by the Main Entrance at Gate 02. Ticket holders can enter their name and contact details on each ticket, and drop it in the allocated box near the booth. Official sponsors of the Aspire Zone Foundation’s Fan Zone at Khalifa International Stadium

This year’s Fan Zone is sponsored by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (Main Partner) and Ooredoo (Main Sponsor), as well as Al Attiya Motors and Trading Co., Mannai Trading CO. WLL (CISCO), Witr Jewellery, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) and Pepsi.

Organised by Aspire Zone Foundation in collaboration with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, The Khalifa International Stadium Fan Zone attracted more than 70,000 spectators in three weeks since it opened on June 15.

Ministry of Interior measures public satisfaction with unified centresDOHA: The Ministry of Interior yesterday launched a compre-hensive field survey to measure the public’s satisfaction with the services provided to them through the unified centers located in different areas of the country.

The Ministry said the two-week survey, held by the Planning and Quality Department, will cover all the service centers affiliated with the Unified Services Department. The distributed opinion meas-urement form will cover three main aspects related to evalu-ating the reception service, service procedures and work environment.

The Ministry noted that this comes as part of the field

surveys series held by the Planning and Quality Department with regards to the procedures for receiving users, speed of transaction comple-tions and responding to their inquiries through employees and officers.

The Ministry said the surveys are important as they are one of the most important tools that helps evaluate the efficiency of services provided to the public to avoid any com-plaints, thus improving these services. It urged users to coop-erate with survey teams in the centers as their views are taken into account for the devel-opment and improvement of services.

Qatar participates in International Industrial Trade Fair in Russia

DOHA: Qatar is taking part in the International Industrial Trade Fair (INNOPROM) that was officially opened yesterday in the city of Yeka-terinburg in Russia.

The three-day fair is held annually in Yekaterinburg, and spreads over an area of approximately 50,000 square meters, said a statement. It is attended by senior officials from the host country, in addition to delegations from approximately 95 countries.

Each year one of the leading countries in economic development and the volume of trade turnover with Russia is granted the status of “Partner Country”. This year, the Republic of Korea has been granted this status.

H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, Minister of Energy and industry headed the delegation of the state of Qatar to the event. His Excel-lency met on the sidelines of the exhibition with Denis Manturov, the Russian Min-ister of Industry and Com-merce. The two sides dis-cussed possible areas of co-operation between the State of Qatar and Russian Federation.

DOHA: The State of Qatar expressed its strong condem-nation and denunciation of the attack on two military vehicles southwest of the city of Ramadi in Iraq, which resulted in deaths and injuries.

In a statement, the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs reit-erated the State of Qatar’s firm stance rejecting violence and terrorism regardless of the motives and causes. The Ministry affirmed Qatar’s full solidarity with the Iraqi gov-ernment in all measures taken to maintain security and stability.

The statement expressed the State of Qatar’s condo-lences to the families of victims as well as the gov-ernment and people of Iraq, wishing the wounded speedy recovery.

Qatar condemns attack on military vehicles in Iraq

05MONDAY 9 JULY 2018 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

‘Terrorist attack’ kills nine Tunisia security forcesAGENCIES

TUNIS: Nine members of Tuni-sia’s security forces were killed yesterday in a “terrorist attack” near the border with Algeria, the Interior Ministry said, the country’s deadliest such incident in over two years.

A national guard border patrol in the Ain Sultan area of the Jenduba border province “was hit in a landmine ambush that killed nine agents” an official said.

Ministry spokesman General Sufyan Al Zaq said the blast was a “terrorist attack” and that assailants had “opened fire on security forces” after the mine exploded.

“Combing operations” were underway, said Zaq, who had earlier said that eight guards were killed in the attack.

No group has claimed the attack, which took place in a mountainous border area where the Al Qaeda-linked Okba Ibn Nafaa Battalion and the Tunisian branch of the Islamic State group, Jund al-Khilafa (Soldiers of the Caliphate), are active.

Yesterday’s assault marks the first major attack in Tunisia

since a March 2016 attack on security installations in the town of Ben Guerdane on the Libyan border.

That attack killed 13 security forces and seven civilians.

The latest incident comes as Tunisia is targeting its best tourist season since visitor numbers plummeted in the wake of a string of deadly jihadist attacks in 2015.

Tunisia’s tourism industry was devastated by those attacks, which included one at the National Bardo museum in Tunis and another targeting a beach resort in Sousse that together killed 59 foreign tourists and a Tunisian guard.

In May, Tourism Minister Selma Elloumi Rekik said the industry had made a “real recovery”. “People are coming back to Tunisia because there is security... we are at the same level (of security) as any European city,” she said.

Smoke rises above eastern rebel-held areas of the city of Daraa during reported airstrikes by Syrian regime forces, yesterday.

Syria regime pounds south, rebel evacuations postponedAFP

BEIRUT: Regime forces bombarded southern Syria yesterday, as the evacuation of rebel fighters under a ceasefire deal for the region was post-poned, a monitor and an oppo-sition official said.

Opposition fighters in the southern province of Daraa announced a ceasefire deal late Friday with regime ally Russia to end more than two weeks of deadly regime bombardment.

Under that deal, rebels who wished to do so were to leave areas in the strategic southern province to be retaken by Pres-ident Bashar Al Assad’s regime.

But yesterday morning, regime air strikes killed four civilians, said the Syrian Observ-atory for Human Rights.

Syrian warplanes pounded Um Al Mayazeen just five kilo-metres (three miles) north of the Jordanian border, killing three civilians, said the Britain-based monitor. “Regime forces

launched an assault on the village,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said, two days after they retook control of the key border crossing of Nassib to the south.

Earlier, rebel fire on a regime convoy on the highway near Um Al Mayazeen had killed several soldiers, Abdel Rahman said, without providing a toll.

A regime air strike on the rebel-held half of the provincial capital of Daraa also killed one civilian, he said.

Kuwait court jails 2 lawmakers over parliament protestANATOLIA

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s highest court yesterday sentenced two lawmakers with three years and a half in prison over the 2011 storming of parliament.

The Court of Cassation also slapped five people with a three-and-a-half year jail term each and three others with a suspended two-year jail term each in the same case. The court also acquitted 17 other defendants and upheld the acquittal for three others. In November 2011, opposition MPs and their supporters broke into the parliament building to protest what they described as “deteriorating political condi-tions” in the Gulf country. Yes-terday’s verdicts are final and cannot be appealed. MP Juman Al Harbash, who was sen-tenced to three and a half in prison, said on Twitter “Thanks God for the safety of our young people..., we did our best not to cause any harm to our security men and the youth”. In December 2013, a criminal court acquitted all defendants in the case, but the verdict was challenged by the Kuwaiti prosecution office.

Last November, an appeal court slapped 68 Kuwaiti opposition activists, including 8 former MPs and two serving lawmakers, with different jail terms in the case.

People of Manbij long for Turkey’s interventionANATOLIA

SYRIA: Residents in the northern Syrian city of Manbij have said that they want Turkish troops to clear their land of YPG/PKK terrorists.

The Turkish military

recently completed its 10th round of patrolling in the city.

Displaced by YPG/PKK ter-rorist group in Syria’s north, people of Manbij said they long for the day to return to their homes after Turkish troops took control of the strategic district.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Um Abdullah, who fled to Turkey after the terror group invaded their lands in Manbij, said they left their homes after facing oppression by terrorists.

“They forcefully armed our

children. This is our homeland. The so-called government is not ours,” Um Abdullah said.

She said Manbij will never be free as long as terrorists exist.

“They [the YPG/PKK] are harassing the people. They bother our children and

daughters. We went to Syria from Turkey during Eid. We saw our family in Manbij but now we are returning back to Turkey.

“We want to freely live in Manbij and want Turkey to eliminate our homeland from terrorists,” she said.

Ethiopia, Eritrea to normalise relations after historic meetingAFP

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his country would normalise rela-tions with neighbouring Eritrea following an historic meeting with President Isaias Afwerki in Asmara yesterday, aimed at ending decades of diplomatic and armed strife.

The announcement capped weeks of whirlwind change, driven by Abiy, culminating in his visit to the Eritrean capital for face-to-face taks with Isaias. “We agreed that the airlines will start operating, the ports will be accessible, people can move between the two countries and the embassies will be opened,” Abiy said at a dinner hosted by his Eritrean counterpart.

“We will demolish the wall and, with love, build a bridge between the two countries,” Abiy continued. The sudden rap-prochement will spell an end to a years-long cold war that has

hurt both countries.The Horn of Africa nations

have remained at loggerheads since Ethiopia rejected a United Nations ruling and refused to cede to Eritrea land along the countries’ border following a 1998-2000 war that killed 80,000 people. There was no sign of that animosity yesterday. Abiy stepped from an Ethiopian Airlines plane at the airport in Asmara to be greeted by Isaias, the two men embracing before they strode off along a red carpet.

Crowds lined the streets of the Eritrean capital cheering on the leaders’ convoy, waving the twinned flags of Ethiopia and Eritrea.

With Abiy’s comments later in the day, the meeting appeared to have achieved its touted aim of seizing “a spectacular oppor-tunity to decidedly move forward peace for the good of our people,” as Abiy’s chief of staff Fitsum Arega put it earlier.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, and Eritrea President, Isaias Afwerki, are received in Asmara for the historic talks.

10 dead in Turkey train derailmentAFP

ISTANBUL: Ten people were killed and 73 injured yesterday when a train packed with weekend passengers derailed in northwest Turkey, sate-run TRT Haber television said, quoting the health ministry.

The train, with 360 people on board, was trav-elling from Kapikule on the Bulgarian border to Istanbul when six of its carriages derailed in the Tekirdag region.

Over 100 ambulances have been sent to the scene, TRT Haber said, quoting Health Ministry Undersec-retary Eyup Gumus. The Turkish army said in a statement that it had sent hel-icopters to the scene.

Television pictures showed several train car-riages laying on their sides, and shocked injured being taken away on stretchers.

Ex S Sudan VP to be reinstated REUTERS

JUBA: South Sudan’s former vice-president Riek Machar will be reinstated in his position as part of a peace deal to end a near five-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and devastated Africa’s youngest nation.

The agreement was reached in talks held in Entebbe in Uganda mediated by President Yoweri Miseveni and attended by South Sudan President Salva Kiir, Sudan’s President Omar Al Bashir and Machar, the country’s presidency said in a statement.

“After a 10-hour-long meeting, the parties agreed... there will be four vice pres-idents and Dr Riek Machar will be reinstated as first v i ce - pr e s i de nt , ” t he statement said.

Yesterday’s assault marks the first major attack in Tunisia since a March 2016 attack.

06 MONDAY 9 JULY 2018ASIA

Flood-affected villagers are transported on a boat towards a safer place at a village in Morigaon district in the eastern Indian state of Assam, yesterday.

Monsoon woes in Assam

BJP government being called lynch-pujari, says Kapil SibalIANS

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal yesterday slammed the BJP government saying that people have termed it as the “lynch-pujari”.

Sibal’s remarks come a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Congress party was being called “bail gadi” because many of its senior leaders were out on bail.

“Eight accused convicted for lynching are garlanded by Jayant Sinha when granted bail. You got it wrong Modiji. They

say your government has become: Lynch-Pujari,” Sibal tweeted.

Sibal was referring to the incident where Union Minister Jayant Sinha allegedly hon-oured the eight convicts accused in the Ramgarh lynching case in Jharkhand after they were released on bail on Thursday.

According to reports, the life sentences of the convicts were suspended by the High Court and after getting bail they headed to Sinha’s resi-dence, led by a local Bharatiya

Janata Party leader.Sinha defended his actions,

saying that he had full faith in the country’s judicial system and the rule of law.

He said while he unequiv-ocally condemned all acts of violence and rejected any type of vigilantism, he had mis-givings about the fast-track court judgement of sentencing the accused to l i fe imprisonment.

Condemning Sinha’s action, the Congress had slammed the BJP and accused it of fanning communal tension.

Modi condoles death of former Meghalaya Governor JacobIANS

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday expressed grief over the demise of former Meghalaya Governor M M Jacob, under-lining how Jacob worked extensively for the devel-opment of Kerala.

“Saddened by the demise of... Jacob. He made notable contributions to the nation as a Parliamentarian, Minister and Governor. He worked extensively for the devel-opment of Kerala. My thoughts are with his family and well-wishers in this sad hour”, Modi said.

A senior Congress leader and former Meghalaya Gov-ernor M M Jacob died at a private hospital near here in Palai in Kerala, family sources said.

Jacob, 92, had been suf-fering from age-related ill-nesses, according to the sources.

He remained active in politics by taking part in party meetings and had settled in Palai, where his last rites would be held today.

He was the Meghalaya Governor from 1995 to 2007.

Jacob served as the Deputy Chairperson of the Upper House for two terms — 1982 and 1986.

He was also the Union Minister of State for Parlia-mentary Affairs Water Resources and Home Affairs in the cabinets of former Prime Ministers Rajiv Gandhi and P V Narashima Rao.

The Kerala unit of the Congress party has cancelled all official programmes for yesterday and today.

Left to protest at Parliament against Tripura lawlessnessIANS

AGARTALA: The Left parties will hold a ‘dharna’ outside Parliament in Delhi on July 24 to protest against the “murder of democracy in West Bengal and Tripura”, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said here yesterday.

“Democracy and the people’s rights have been totally destroyed in West Bengal and Tripura. Total lawlessness pre-vails in these states. To draw

national attention to the issue, all Left parties will hold a sit-in outside Parliament on July 24,” Yechury told the media.

He said: “After the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) led alliance government came to power in Tripura in March, four CPI-M members and leaders have been murdered.” Besides, hundreds of Left party offices were bulldozed, thousands of houses belonging to Left sup-porters and leaders were

attacked or burnt down, and hundreds of leftists attacked by ruling party cadres.

“On the pretext of child-abductions, four people were lynched. The BJP government’s own Minister is involved in spreading rumours that caused much hysteria across Tripura. State’s law and order under BJP has gone down. The state of affairs in Tripura and West Bengal is worse than the 1975 Emergency,” he said after

attending a meeting of the Tripura state committee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

Yechury also said hatred and violence allegedly patronised by the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) and the BJP continued unabated across the country.

Terming the government’s recent announcement of Minimum Support Price for certain crops as “fraudulent actions”, the CPI-M leader said

the government should follow the Swaminathan Commission’s recommendations on MSP.

He said that to oppose the BJP government’s anti-people policies, workers and farmers will organise “jail bharo” (fill prisons) and protest rallies on August 9 and September 5 across the country.

“The BJP is trying to get political mileage and electoral victory through communal polarisation in the country.

Paramilitary troopers stand guard in front of closed shops as a Kashmiri boy rides a bicycle during a one-day strike called by separatists in Srinagar, yesterday.

Keeping vigil

Indian student shot dead in USIANS

KANSAS CITY: A 26-year-old Indian student from Telangana was shot dead inside a restaurant here in the US state of Missouri by a suspected robber.

Sharath Koppu, who was pursuing his Masters degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UKMC), was shot on Friday evening at J’s Fish and Chicken Market where he was working as a part-time employee, The Kansas City Star newspaper reported.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday con-doled the death, saying: “We will follow this up with the police and provide all assistance to the family.” The Kansas City Police has released a brief video of the suspect inside the res-taurant moments before the shooting and asked for people’s assistance in identifying him.

The suspect pulled out a gun and shot Koppu on his back. He died after being taken to a hospital. Koppu, who was a software engineer, came to the US in January.

Meanwhile, the Telangana

government yesterday announced that it was making arrangements to bring Koppu’s body back to Hyderabad within two days.

The state’s Minister for NRI Affairs K T Rama Rao along with his cabinet colleagues Kadiam Srihari and T Srinivas Yadav visited Koppu’s house.

The state government was in touch the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy in the US, according to Rao.

The UKMC also issued a statement condoling Koppu’s death.

“We offer our sincere sym-pathies to Sharath’s family and friends in the wake of this senseless tragedy,” the statement said.

UMKC Chancellor C Mauli Agrawal offered his condo-lences. “Sharath and I share an Indian heritage, but all of us at UMKC share in the grief such tragedies bring,” Agrawal said on Saturday evening.

The incident comes a year after another Hyderabad techie, Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed in a race-triggered attack at a bar also in Kansas City on February 22, 2017.

Fuel prices hiked for fourth dayIANS

NEW DELHI: Fuel prices across the four metro cities rose for the fourth straight day yesterday caused by hardening of crude rates, due to resumption of US sanctions on Iran, after they had been declining for over a month.

Petrol prices in Delhi rose to

Rs76.13 per litre, according to data on state-run Indian Oil Corp’s website.

In the other major cities of Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, petrol was sold for Rs78.80, Rs83.52 and Rs79.01 per litre on yesterday.

This rise comes after prices started to decline on May 30.

Also, both the petrol and diesel prices were unchanged for nine days till June 4.

In tandem with the cost of petrol, diesel prices also regis-tered a rise on Sunday for the fourth day in a row across the four metro cities.

In the national capital, diesel was sold at Rs67.86 per litre.

India: More parties oppose simultaneous electionsIANS

NEW DELHI: A majority of regional parties that took part in a discussion on simultaneous polls yesterday told the Law Commission that such an exercise would undermine the regional aspirations and erode the federal set up envisioned in the Constitution.

While a few including the Samajwadi Party and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) supported the idea of ‘one-nation-one-election’, some like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) questioned the sincerity of the Centre towards poll reforms.

The parties that came to see the law panel on Sunday included the DMK, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), Samajwadi Party, TRS, JD-S and AAP.

The Congress and the BJP were conspicuous by their absence on the second day of the discussions too.

Opposing the idea of simulta-neous elections to Lok Sabha and the state legislatures, the TDP said the proposal was “impracticable” and “against the spirit of the Con-stitution and federal structure”.

“As per the Constitution, it is not possible and is impracticable. For simultaneous polls, either you have to extend or reduce the tenures of some state governments, which is against the spirit of the Constitution and federal structure,” party MP K Ravindra Kumar said.

AAP’s Ashish Khetan, after meeting the Law Commission, said that for simultaneous polls to happen, the Constitution of India will have to be “mutilated and rewritten completely”.

“We are against the idea of the so-called one-nation-one-poll

because it will turn India’s federal democracy into a managed democracy,” Khaitan said, adding that the proposal “reeked of a dic-tatorial mind-set”.

Warning that simultaneous elections goes against the basic tenets of the Constitution, the DMK opposed the idea, saying it was unwarranted and practi-cally not possible.

“In sum, the present pro-posal of the Law Commission seems to be a complete misad-venture that will decimate the federal structure. I respectfully submit my party’s whole hearted opposition to the proposal,” DMK Working President M K Stalin said in writing.

Terming the Law Commissions consultations on simultaneous polls a “futile exercise”, the JD-S said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was just “testing the waters” through it with no real intentions of reforms in the electoral process.

“This is a futile exercise. In a federal democracy you cannot think of simultaneous elections. If you want poll reforms, first and foremost, there must be a ceiling

on expenditure by political parties during elections. But no one’s talking about it,” JD-S spokesman Danish Ali said after the meeting.

“When we put it today before the Law Commission, they said the government had not given any reference to it and it was out of their purview. It clearly shows that the gov-ernment is not sincere about electoral reforms,” he added.

The Law Commission had invited all political parties for a discussion on the idea of holding Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections at the same time. The exercise continued on the second day yesterday.

The Samajwadi Party, the TRS and BPF, nevertheless, favoured the idea. The Janata Dal United (JD-U), too, supported the idea through a resolution in its national executive on Sunday though the party did not come to the Law Commission.

Senior Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav said the initiative should be imple-mented in 2019 itself. “The SP is in favour of simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies,” Yadav said.

Supporting the proposal, B. Vinod Kumar of the TRS said: “Our party President and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said we are strongly in favour of simultaneous elections. This can save lot of money, time and wasteful expenditure... The Chief Ministers and Prime Minister can also function for the period of five years without disturbance.”

The Congress, Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) among others are yet to appear before the law panel to articulate their views.

While a few including the Samajwadi Party and Telangana Rashtra Samiti supported the idea of ‘one-nation-one-election’, some like the Aam Aadmi Party and Janata Dal-Secular questioned the sincerity of the Centre towards poll reforms.

07MONDAY 9 JULY 2018 ASIA

US, Afghan forces clear IS from eastern districtREUTERS

DEH BALA, AFGHANISTAN: U S and Afghan Special Forces are completing an operation to clear Islamic State (IS) fighters from a remote district in Nangarhar, the eastern province where they have their main stronghold in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.

The operation in Deh Bala, on the border with Pakistan, began at the end of April and was largely complete in early June but final mine clearance opera-tions are still under way, said Lieutenant Colonel Josh Thiel, from the US First Special Forces Group.

“This was one of the main green zones that did two things. One, it provided money, finance, logistics to ISIS (Islamic State) and we’ve taken that away from them,” he said.

“Additionally, ISIS was using this as a site to prepare and move high-profile attacks on Kabul and Jalalabad.” The operation, involving three companies of

Afghan commandos supported by US air strikes and American Special Forces teams, began with troops arriving by helicopter and setting up an operations base near the village of Gargari, where the Islamic State fighters were trying to establish a local capital.

Several days of heavy fighting ended in early June with 167 Islamic State fighters killed and large quantities of equipment captured.

The fight against Islamic State and other militant groups including Al Qaeda is at the heart of the US counterter-rorism mission being conducted alongside the Nato-led Resolute Support operation that trains and advises Afghan security forces.

Intended to prevent Afghan-istan being used as a base for future attacks against the United States, it is in large part fought against irregular forces in remote valleys on the far eastern edge of the country, an area crisscrossed by smuggling routes into the tribal areas of Pakistan.

Militants loyal to Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), the movement’s local affiliate, first started appearing in Nan-garhar around four years ago. Since then, the movement has gained a reputation for brutality extreme even by the standards of the Afghan conflict, making a trademark of executions by beheading or explosion.

The fighters in Deh Bala, next

to Achin district where the U S military dropped its largest non-nuclear bomb last year, were funding themselves by illegal logging and talc mining, as well as exploiting local villagers.

However, a clear link between fighters in places like

Gargari, a mud-brick village down the road from Deh Bala’s district capital, and the militants behind a series of sophisticated suicide attacks in Kabul or Jala-labad is elusive.

“The network is very fun-gible...,” said Brigadier General

John Brennan, Resolute Support commander in eastern Afghanistan.

“I wouldn’t say the actual suicide bombers came from Deh Bala, but facilitation runs all along the border and part of it used to come through here.”

US soldiers from Nato look on as they use a cruise system at a checkpoint during a patrol against Islamic State militants at the Deh Bala district in the eastern province of Nangarhar Province. A US soldier was killed and two others wounded in an “apparent insider attack” in southern Afghanistan, yesterday.

Sharif’s convicted son in-law surrendersAP

ISLAMABAD: Police in Pakistan say the convicted son-in-law of the former prime minister has been arrested after he resurfaced in the garrison city of Rawalpindi leading a rally of supporters.

Mohammad Safdar dra-matically appeared with hun-dreds of supporters, marching down the city’s streets yes-terday for hours with the crowd growing. The former ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League, capitalized on Safdar’s rally to mobilize sup-porters ahead of the July 25 polls.

Officer Raja Taifur said anti-graft authorities took Safdar into custody.

Safdar went into hiding after an anti-graft court con-victed him last Friday, along with former premier Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz, over pur-chases of luxury apartments in London.

Major parties snub school education in manifestosINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: At a time when 22.84 million children are out of school in the country, major political parties have made tall claims about ‘transforming’ education in their election mani-festos but have made a passing reference to school education.

A review of the manifestos of four leading parties PML-N, PTI, PPP and ANP indicates they are heavy on promises in general and focused chiefly on higher education, a sector already receiving over Rs100bn each fiscal year.

The party’s education section starts with ‘Higher Education for

All’ stating that PML-N’s vision is to make Pakistan a world leader in higher education and establish top quality universities and institutions.

Since party’s former minister for planning and development Ahsan Iqbal was personally involved in affairs of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) so it has his fingerprints.

Similarly, the party has mostly focused on the higher education sector and nothing has been mentioned about early education in which, according to Pakistan Education Statistics report of 2016-17, 44 per cent of children in the country are out of schools.

The document claims increasing funding for higher education to 0.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product but makes no mention for school education funding. Similarly, during the five years tenure of PML-N funding for the education sector has been less than three per cent of GDP.

As Iqbal was involved with the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) it also mentions twinning programmes at uni-versity level with China.

The manifesto also claims to establish and implement Key Performance Indicators for all key positions but it is a fact that the same minister could not

implement it in his ministry after pursuing civil service reforms for two years.

The newly appointed HEC chief recently announced estab-lishing National Academy for Higher Education and the same has been claimed by PML-N including plans to start a com-petitive programme to support the 10 best performing univer-sities to raise them to the level of top 100 universities in Asia and top 500 in the world.

The Pakistan Peoples Party has been ruling Sindh and has likewise not talked about school education substantively. Its man-ifesto states that PPP has been committed to fixing structural

problems and modernising education.

“In 2010, we created the Right to Education Article 25-A which stated that “The state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be deter-mined by law”, read the party’s manifesto which was launched by its chairperson Bilawal Bhutto on June 28.

The PPP also claims to increase public expenditure on education to five per cent of GDP by 2025. It plans to ensure that all provinces develop and implement strong plans for edu-cation as per the larger vision.

Facebook boosts security ahead of Pakistan pollsINTERNEWS

KARACHI: Facing serious crit-icism for its role in allowing disinformation to spread during the 2016 US presidential elec-tions, Facebook has claimed to have enhanced security measures ahead of the July 25 polls in Pakistan.

The social media giant has increased the number of safety and security people working on this area, with dedicated teams focused on preventing abuse on the platform during elections and started training of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s officials with the goal of increasing trans-parency and helping authorities promote civic engagement.

Yesterday, Facebook spokes-person in Pakistan Sarim Aziz said “ensuring the integrity of elections

around the world, including in Pakistan,” the social media company had taken a number of steps to protect elections from abuse and exploitation, including enhanced security measures to protect pages of political parties and candidates, improving the enforcement of its ads policies and greater ads and page trans-parency, better use of machine learning to combat fake accounts, and working to reduce the spread of false news.

“We have also dramatically increased the number of safety and security people working on this area, with dedicated teams focused on preventing abuse on our platform during elections,” he said about the security measures and Facebook’s coor-dination with the Pakistani authorities.

Bicycles of various bike-sharing services are seen in the rubble of houses partially demolished in Shanghai, China, yesterday.

Bicycle graveyard

Judgement against Sharifs full of typos, grammatical errorsINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: The landmark verdict in the Avenfield apartment case announced by an accountability court may have caused ripples across the Pakistan and beyond, but the 174-page detailed judgement against three members of the Sharif family is marred by glaring typos, and grammatical and spelling mistakes.

Throughout the judgement, Judge Muhammad Bashi referred

to Errol George, director of the Financial Investigation Agency (FIA) of the British Virgin Islands whom the JIT had contacted for information about the beneficial ownership of the Avenfield apartments, as ‘Errel Jeorge’ or ‘Erel George’. Both the spellings are incorrect.

While acquitting former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam, and her husband Captain (retd) Safdar of the charge of obtaining the London flats through ‘corrupt,

dishonest, or illegal means’ under Section 9(a)(iv) of the National Accountability Ordi-nance, the judge left everybody guessing what he actually wanted to say.

“Prosecution have not bright evidence in respect of 9(a) (iv) NAO 1999. So the accused are acquitted under the section of law,” the judge wrote.

Whether he wanted to say that there was no evidence at all to prove this charge or it was insufficient is left to readers’

imagination.While rejecting the defence

argument that certain mutual legal assistance (MLA) responses were not admissible in evidence, the judge wrote: “Response of MLA cannot be brushacite simply on technical grounds “

Perhaps, he intended to write ‘brushed aside’.

He wrote ‘guild’ when he wanted to say ‘guilt’ and referred to Maryam’s father as ‘his father’.

“Maryam Nawaz was instru-mental in concealment of the

properties of his father ““All the objections raised by

defence in respect of exhibited documents stand overruled,” he wrote at one place.

At another page he wrote, “(The) JIT found contradictions and anomalies those arte men-tioned at pages 5 to 21.”

The judge also erred in using helping verbs at several places. “The trust deeds are filed to mislead the court and does not prepared on date noted in this deed,” he wrote at another place.

Rainfall expected next week in Islamabad: Met officeINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: The Met Office has predicted another spell of rainfall next week, which may help increase water level in Rawal Lake of Islamabad as well as raise the ground-water table.

The Pakistan Meteoro-logical Department has said hot and humid weather is expected in most of the country as a result of seasonal low lies over north Balo-chistan with the trough extending eastward.

These conditions will bring rain and thunderstorms to isolated parts of Kashmir and adjoining areas, due to the collision of warm and moist winds from the east with the western Himalayas.

The next round of rainfall is likely to be brief, and mainly centred on the hills of Murree and Galiyat, though some parts of the twin cities are likely to receive precipitation as well.

The last bout of rainfall increased the water level in Rawal Lake to 1,735ft, which is comfortably over the dead level of 1,708ft.

The operation in Deh Bala, on the border with Pakistan, began at the end of April and was largely complete in early June but final mine clearance operations are still under way, said Lieutenant Colonel Josh Thiel, from the US First Special Forces Group.

Like thousands of other Palestinians during the war, Mahmoud’s wife and her six children fled to Jordan. As soon as the war was over, which ended with the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula and the Syrian Golan Heights, the family began to look for Mahmoud.

08 MONDAY 9 JULY 2018VIEWS

Gone but not forgotten: The case of missing Palestinians

Mulki was four years old when his father went to war, and has one sole memory of him. “He came into the house wearing his military uniform and carrying a box of red apples,” the 55-year-old told Al Jazeera. His older siblings would always tell him how their father was always in uniform, and was the first person in the village to own a radio. One photograph is all that Mulki and his siblings have left of their father, Mahmoud Suleiman.

Mahmoud left to fight in what has become to be known as the 1967 Six Day War, and promised his young children at the time he would be back. Fifty-one years later, he still has not returned, and none of his family members have heard anything from him.

On June 5 of that year, the Arab armies appealed to its male citizens to join their ranks, as the war between them and Israel was about to erupt.

Mahmoud, who was 33 years old and working for a porter company, immediately heeded the call. He joined the Jordanian army, whose government had administered the West Bank since 1948. “My father at the time was home on sick leave because he had broken his wrist,” Mulki, 55, told Al Jazeera.

Mahmoud, who was living in the village of Beit Ur, west of the West Bank city of Ramallah, was summoned to the Second King Hussein Battalion, which had its headquarters in the Bani Yacoub area in Jerusalem. Despite the family’s attempts to prevent Mahmoud from

leaving due to his health, he insisted on meeting the army’s call. He wore his military uniform, bid his family farewell and left.

Like thou-sands of other Palestinians during the war, Mahmoud’s wife and her six children fled to Jordan. As soon as the war was over, which ended with the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula

and the Syrian Golan Heights, the family began to look for Mahmoud.

“Everyone was looking for my father but we did not know whether he was dead or alive,” Mulki said. After months of unsuccessful appeals to the Red Cross and the battalion, the family, which had lost its breadwinner, started receiving a pension from the Jordanian army.

Furthermore, the army announced that Mahmoud had been killed and issued a death certificate, despite the

fact that there was no evidence of him being killed.

‘We lost hope’. Decades later, towards the end of the 90s, Mulki brought his father’s case to the attention of local media, which coin-cided with statements made by the Israeli government that it had killed scores of Palestinians who had crept back into the country from Jordan and carried out military operations.

Several war survivors told the Ouri family that they had seen Mahmoud, slightly injured, during the battle, con-firming that he was indeed a partic-ipant during the war. Yet Mulki said that after years of searching, he barely has any other confirmed accounts of what happened to his father. “We do not know if my father was martyred and buried in the cemeteries of numbers,” he said, referring to Israeli closed military zones that contain mass graves of unknown Palestinian and Arab bodies that are marked with numbers.

“We had hope that my father was still alive, but after all these years we lost it,” he added. “We now only ask for a simple human right, to know where my father was buried, to visit his grave and read the Quran to him,” Mulki said.

During the 1967 war, soldiers were not the only ones who went missing at the border, but civilians too, who tried to return from Jordan to their families in Palestine.

This was the case with the parents of Abdel-Majeed Mustafa Hamdan, from the village of Aroura, north of Ramallah. Abdel-Majeed, who is now 81 years old, sits in front of his library with an oil painting of his mother, Zubaida Hassan. Behind him is a black and white photograph of his father, Mustafa Hamdan.

These are the only things he keeps to remember his parents, unlike his three brothers who until this day have held on to their mother and father’s clothes.

Two months before the war broke out, Zubeida had traveled to Kuwait to visit her eldest son. When June came around, her husband Mustafa insisted on going to Kuwait to bring her back to Palestine, fearing that they would be denied the right to return, as had previ-ously happened with Palestinians in 1948. The couple returned to Amman in

August and stayed at the Al-Karama camp with a relative.

“Twenty-five people, including my parents, were preparing to return to Palestine by crossing the border at 3am on August 13, despite the warnings and the stories that had been circulating about the Israeli army killing those who infil-trated the border,” Abdel-Majeed said.

That was the last day his parents were seen. For the next few months, Abdel-Majeed and his brothers franti-cally searched for their parents in prisons, hoping they were arrested and not killed.

Then in February the following year, their worst suspicions were confirmed.

Two members of the group that included his parents relayed the events of that pre-dawn morning.

“My parents and the rest of the group were crossing the Jordan River, when two members became too afraid to carry on and turned back,” Abdel-Majeed said. “At the same time, the Israeli army directed their searchlights towards the group and began to shoot at them.” The two, who survived the massacre, suffered from deep psycho-logical trauma at the massacre they had witnessed, and were unable to talk about what had happened until six months later.

They confirmed that the Israeli army had killed the whole group in front of them, while they had evaded death by hiding in the small bushes. “We heard a lot about the killing of Pal-estinians on the border and the corpses floating on the river,” Abdel-Majeed said. To this day Abdul-Majeed does not know what exactly happened to his par-ents, but he is certain that they have died.

“Even today, we do not know the burial site of my father and mother, which is the only thing we wish to know today, in order to visit their graves,” says Abdul-Majeed. “I am sure that the Israeli army killed my elderly parents and many others on the border. This is confirmed by many accounts, which deny Israel’s claims about the transparency of its weapons usage.

“The Israeli army lost its humanity and killed innocent unarmed people who were only trying to get to their families.”

SHATHA HAMMAD AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The only thing we know is that we have a very

high number of IDPs (displaced) throughout the southwest of Syria.

We keep on repeating our appeal to the partners, to the parties of the conflict on the ground in Syria, to

please allow us access.

Anders Pedersen UN humanitarian

coordinator in Jordan

Boost international ties to stoutly protect free trade via TPP

It is significant that a high-level free trade zone will come into being in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region. A more solid framework for international cooperation must be created.

A bill has been passed into law to implement the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) multilateral free trade pact, composed of 11 countries, including Japan and Australia. In preparation for the effectu-ation of the accord, the law incorporates measures to boost support of agriculture and the protection of intel-lectual property rights.

When put into effect, the flow of people, goods and capital across borders will be stimulated - in return for nations being pressed to open their own markets - making it

likely that the potential for growth will increase.

It should be welcomed that the domestic procedures for Japan to take part in the TPP have been completed.

Resistance from the oppo-sition camp was not so fierce as it was during the Diet delib-erations before the United States withdrew from the pact. It can be rated highly that, through prolonged verbal arguments, a certain degree of understanding has developed regarding the benefits of free trade. In addition to the removal of tariffs, the TPP provides highly transparent common rules on such matters as trade, investment and intellectual property rights. It establishes regula-tions designed to put the brakes on the undue provision of subsidies to state-owned enterprises and the

infringement of intellectual property rights.

It takes into account unfair trade and business practices by such countries as China.

Should the TPP rules become international standards, it will be difficult for China to continue fol-lowing such practices.

It is appropriate to strive to hold China, which is pursuing hegemony in both the eco-nomic and security spheres, in check. Japan is also negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) - a trade deal participated in by 16 countries, including China - with the aim of reaching an agreement this year.

It is necessary to bring the content of the agreement in such areas as trade, investment and intellectual property as close as possible to the levels reached under the

TPP. Japan’s leadership will be called for. The United States has been high-handedly advancing protectionist pol-icies, including imposing punitive tariffs on Japan and the European Union.

Methods like attempting to reduce the trade deficit by force are not permissible. The TPP’s role is also important from the viewpoint of countering the self-serving United States.

Reinforcing economic ties with many countries under fair rules and reciprocally enjoying the benefits of free trade. To transmit this principle of the TPP to the world and exert pressure on the United States is another serious obligation Japan should fulfill.

The accord will take effect 60 days after six member coun-tries complete their domestic procedures. Japan and Mexico have already done so.

Hamad Port’s growing role in the regional trade shows that it is further cementing Qatar’s position as a regional maritime hub.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Strong performance

Hamad Port, which has become Qatar’s gateway to world trade, continue to set new benchmark of per-formances with consistent increase in traffic of goods since it started operations last year. Its journey during the first half of the current year shows that the port has become a force to reckon with in the field of maritime trade.

The $7.4bn Hamad Port received 803 ships in the first six months of the current year.

The port handled 644,824 Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) containers in January-June period while handled 631,076 break-bulk cargo in the same period. It handled 132,325 bulk cargo; 341,793 heads of cattle and 32,084 units of vehicles in the first six months of the current year.

The Port, one of the largest ports in the region, handled 137 vessels in June this year while 131 ships in May, said Qterminals in a tweet. Qterminals was set up by Qatar Navigation (Milaha) and Qatar Ports Man-agement Company (Mwani Qatar) to manage the port.

The port accomplished another feat in early this year as it celebrated, in March, handling of its first one million

TEUs containers. The Port, which was opened in December 2016, achieved this feat in less 14 months which was well ahead of its expected schedule. It plans to achieve the next one million container throughput by the end of this year.

Spread over 28.5 square kilometres, Hamad Port’s basin is 4km long, 700 metres wide and 17 metres deep — specifications that enable it to receive the world’s biggest ships. Hamad port is capable of handling 5,000 vessels per year and has a general cargo terminal that can handle 1.7 million tonnes of general goods per year.

Qatar’s maritime sector has proven its resilience as ports in Qatar have witnessed steep rise in the number of ships coming to Qatari waters since illegal blockade. The number of vessels coming to ports every month after siege has almost doubled, showing the strength Qatar’s growing maritime trade.

The Port has potential to transform Qatar into a regional and international trade and logistics hub. Hamad Port’s strategic geographical location offers opportunities to create cargo movement towards the upper Gulf, sup-porting countries such as Kuwait and Iraq, and south towards Oman.

As Hamad port continues to write new success stories, it is set to t