Xiao Jie, a low-profile figure who has worked in the mainland’s fiscal apparatus for more than two decades, is now tasked with solving the nation’s local government debt overhang and fixing an increasingly intrusive tax regime. Xiao, 59, who replaces Lou Jiwei as finance minister, has worked behind the scenes for much of his career, including in his previous role as deputy secretary general in the State Council. His new position was announced as part…
Posts published in “Day: November 9, 2016”
YARCHEN GAR, China — Even by the standards of the phenomenal sights of Tibet, Yarchen Gar is a wonder on the high plateau: thousands of ramshackle homes clustered on a remote peninsula at the bend of a river, each one the domicile of a nun who has come here to study Tibetan Buddhism. Residents estimate there are 10,000 people here, almost all Tibetan with a handful of Han, the dominant ethnicity in China. The vast…
There can be no doubt that the United Nations (UN) is an agency in need of reform at every level and across every strata of its operation. The Security Council is one of the six principal entities of the UN and is responsible for international peace and security, along with accepting new members to the UN as well as approving changes to the UN Charter. It is responsible for peacekeeping operations, defining international sanctions and…
RAWALPINDI: Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif said on Tuesday that while Pakistan was fully occupied in a determined fight against terrorism across the country, especially the western border, the adversary must know that we have kept ourselves prepared to take on any misadventure or strategic miscalculation by the enemy. General Raheel Sharif spent the night in the field near Kharian and witnessed the night and dawn operations of the Central Command…
Army chief witnesses night-dawn drill in Kharian: report in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2016.
RAWALPINDI: Army chief General Raheel Sharif spent the Monday night in a field near Kharian and witnessed the night and dawn operations of the central command as part of army field exercises. According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the exercises were aimed at validating the latest operational plans involving infantry and mechanised troops and their support elements from the entire central command. Apart from the first-ever use of fully digitised…
ISLAMABAD – Commander Royal Saudi Air Force Major General Mohammed Bin Saleh Al Otaibi called on Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif here on Tuesday. According to Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), matters of professional interest and regional security were discussed during the meeting. Later, Major General Mohammed Bin Saleh Al Otaibi met with Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Rashad Mahmood in Rawalpindi. During the meeting, matters pertaining to professional interest and…
BEIJING: Zhang Baoming, a senior officer with the Chinese special forces, said the troops from Pakistan and China held in-depth discussions on a joint counter-terrorism command system, reported China Radio International. This was the part of Chinese and Pakistani joint military exercise held recently in a bid to strengthen their cooperation in fighting terrorism. The exercise was carried out in a border region between the two sides, and involved elite commandos from the two countries’…
LAHORE: Retired Justice Aamer Raza Khan may not head the seven-member committee formed by the government on Monday to investigate the publication of a story in Dawn about a national security meeting. “I heard that he [Justice Aamer] is considering not heading the committee after a controversy that brewed up in this regard,” Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Senator and information secretary Mushahidullah Khan said at a press conference here on Tuesday. Defending the appointment, he said…
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party has rejected the seven-member committee formed by the government to investigate a Dawn story about a high-level security meeting between senior military and civilian leadership, saying that such a matter should be decided in parliament. “Newsleak commission is mere eyewash to hush up the facts; such issues should also be taken to parliament,” Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah said at a news conference…
ISLAMABAD – The diplomatic row between Pakistan and India intensified as three Indian diplomats left Pakistan on Tuesday while another five were set to leave the country soon. Officials said that the three Indian officials, who were working in the Indian High Commission, left for India via a Dubai-bound flight from the Benazir Bhutto International Airport. They were named as Anurag Singh, Vijay Kumar Varma and Mandhawan Nanda Kumar. “The remaining five officials of Indian…
RAWALPINDI: The Indian government has started withdrawing the officials posted in its high commission in Islamabad who have been accused of being undercover intelligence operatives. Three of the eight Indian officials left Islamabad for their home country via Dubai on an Emirates Airline flight on Tuesday. According to airport sources, the Indian officials who left Islamabad on Tuesday on Emirates Airline flight EK-613 at 9am were identified as Anurag Singh, (first secretary), Vijay Kumar Verma…