voice of the world 9GOA, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2019

PTI, LAHORE: Pakistan's Punjabprovince government on Tues-day sacked its Information andCulture Minister Fayyazul Has-san Chohan over his anti-Hinduremarks that invited intense crit-icism from senior party leadersand the minority community.

Prime Minister Imran Khantook serious notice of Chohan's'anti-Hindu' remarks and di-rected Punjab Chief MinisterUsman Buzdar to remove himforthwith, party sources said.

"PTI Punjab government hasremoved Fayyaz Chohan fromthe post of Punjab InformationMinister following derogatoryremarks about the Hindu com-munity," Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf tweeted.

It further said: "Bashing some-

one's faith should not be a part ofany narrative. Tolerance is thefirst & foremost pillar on which#Pakistan was built."

A spokesman for Punjab CMsaid Chohan submitted his resig-nation to the CM which was im-mediately accepted.

According to a senior govern-ment official, the chief ministerhad "forgiven" Chohan after hepublicly apologised for his re-marks, but the prime minister di-rected Buzdar to immediatelyremove him from the ministry.

Chohan had come under se-vere criticism from senior mem-

bers of his party, ministers andsocial media users with #Sack-FayazChohan trending on Twit-ter for his controversial remarkswhile addressing a gathering onFebruary 24 in the aftermath ofthe Pulwama terror attack.

Earlier in the day, Chohanapologised for his remarks fol-lowing intense criticism.

"I was addressing IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modi,Indian armed forces and theirmedia not the Hindu communityin Pakistan," he said.

"I apologise if my remarks hurtthe Hindu community in Pak-

istan," Chohan said. "My remarkswere in no way directed at Pak-istan's Hindu community."

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insafgovernment "will not toleratethis nonsense", party leaderNaeemul Haque, who is specialassistant to Prime Minister onPolitical Affairs, said Mondaynight in response to Chohan's re-marks.

"The derogatory and insultingremarks against the Hindu com-munity by Fayyaz Chohan thePunjab Info Minister demandstrict action. PTI govt will not tol-erate this nonsense from a sen-ior member of the govt or fromanyone. Action will be takenafter consulting the Chief Minis-ter," Haque tweeted.

Haque's tweet was followed by

condemnation from ShireenMazari and Asad Umar, the fed-eral ministers of human rightsand finance, respectively.

"Absolutely condemn this. Noone has the right to attack any-one else's religion. Our Hindu cit-izens have given sacrifices fortheir country," Mazari tweeted."Our PM's msg is always of toler-ance & respect & we cannot con-done any form of bigotry orspread of religious hatred," sheadded.

Financer Minister Umartweeted, "Hindus of Pakistan areas much a part of the fabric of thenation as I am. Remember theflag of Pakistan is not justgreen...its not complete withoutthe white which represents theminorities."

Pak’s Punjab province ministersacked over his anti-Hindu remarks

PTI Punjab government has removed Fayyaz Chohanfrom the post of Punjab Information Minister following

derogatory remarks about the Hindu community– Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

PTI, BEIJING: China, theworld's second largestmilitary spender afterthe US, Tuesday an-nounced a 7.5 per centincrease in its defencebudget for this year, hik-ing it to a whopping USD177.61 billion, over threetimes that of India.

The 2019 defencebudget will be 1.19 tril-lion yuan (about USD177.61 billion), accord-ing to a draft budget re-port submitted byChinese Premier Li Ke-qiang at the opening ofthe annual session ofChina's Parliament, theNational People's Con-gress (NPC), on Tues-day.

The increase this yearis lower than that of lastyear's 8.1 per centwhich amounted to USD

175 billion. Last year inyuan terms China hadallocated 1.11 trillionyuan.

China, which increasedits defence budget indouble digits till 2015,has been lowering it tosingle digit hikes since2016.

China's budgeted de-fence spending growthrate stood at 7.6 percent in 2016, 7 per centin 2017 and 8.1 per centin 2018 as its economytoo has been steadilyslowing down after adouble-digit growth in2010.

With this year's in-crease, China's defencespending moved closerto the USD 200 billionmark, making it the high-est spender on defenceafter the United States.

China hikes defencebudget to $117.6 b

PTI, ISLAMABAD: Pak-istan on Tuesday said itwill send a delegation toIndia on March 14 to dis-cuss a draft agreement forsetting up a corridor to fa-cilitate visa-free visit ofSikh pilgrims to the Gurd-wara Kartarpur Sahib, apositive development thatcould help ease tensionsbetween the two sides.

Foreign Officespokesman MohammadFaisal, who is also the Di-rector General South Asia& SAARC, invited India'sacting High CommissionerGaurav Ahluwalia at theministry of foreign affairsto convey the decision, ac-cording to a statement.

"The Pakistan delegationwill visit New Delhi on 14March 2019, followed by

the return visit of the In-dian delegation to Islam-abad on 28 March 2019, todiscuss the draft Agree-ment on Kartarpur Corri-dor," the statement said.

Faisal informed the In-dian diplomat that Pak-istan's High Commissionerto India, Sohail Mahmood,will be returning to NewDelhi after the completionof consultations in Islam-abad. He also conveyedthat Pakistan was commit-ted to continue weeklycontact at the Military Op-erations Directorates level.

The positive develop-ment came amid height-ened tensions betweenIndia and Pakistan follow-ing a suicide attack by Pak-istan-based terror groupJaish-e-Mohammad thatkilled 40 CRPF personnelin Jammu and Kashmir'sPulwama district on Febru-ary 14.

Pak team to visitIndia on March 14

KARTARPURAGREEMENT

India's defence budgetthis year was increased by6.87 per cent to Rs 3.18 lakhcrore against last year's allo-cation of Rs 2.98 lakh crore,notwithstanding expecta-tions of a major hike whenChina and Pakistan werebolstering their military ca-pabilities.

PTI, LONDON: A UK-based male patient'sHIV has become "un-detectable" following astem cell transplant --in only the second caseof its kind in the world,scientists led by an In-dian-origin researcherreported Tuesday in astudy published in thejournal Nature.

The 'London pa-tient', who has notbeen named, was diag-nosed with HIV in2003 and advancedHodgkin's lymphomain 2012.

Professor RavindraGupta said the patientwas treated with stemcell transplants fromdonors carrying a ge-netic mutation thatprevents expression ofan HIV receptor CCR5.

"At the moment theonly way to treat HIVis with medicationsthat suppress thevirus, which peopleneed to take for theirentire lives, posing aparticular challenge indeveloping countries,"said Gupta from Uni-versity College London(UCL), the study's leadauthor

UK patient ‘free’ of HIVafter stem cell treatment

"Finding a way to elimi-nate the virus entirely is anurgent global priority, butis particularly difficult be-cause the virus integratesinto the white blood cells ofits host," he said.

The team, which com-prised of researchers atUCL and Imperial College

London as well as partnersat the University of Cam-bridge and the Universityof Oxford, said the latestcase is a proof of the con-cept that scientists will oneday be able to end AIDS,caused by HIV, but does notmean a cure for HIV hasbeen found.

Professor Ravindra Gupta said thepatient was treated with stem cell

transplants from donors carrying agenetic mutation that prevents

expression of an HIV receptor CCR5

Huawei posessecurity threat:

PompeoPTI, WASHINGTON:Huawei is owned by theChinese government, hasdeep connections to theirintelligence services andpresents a national secu-rity threat, US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo hascautioned, urging the coun-tries to think twice beforesigning up with one theworld's biggest tech firms.

Shenzhen-based Huaweihas faced increasing head-winds in its push to makeinroads in the US market,as the White House and Re-publican lawmakers targetChinese tech companies,citing national securityconcerns.

The company has repeat-edly denied allegationsfrom US lawmakers that itstechnology could be usedby the Chinese governmentto gather intelligence.

In his address at the "Fu-ture Farmers of America"event in Iowa on Monday,Pompeo said the companyhas at least two things thatthreaten the US.

"One is that they –there's a risk that they'llsteal American technology,and frankly, use those sys-tems to invade your pri-vacy. That is, they dot e l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n sequipment that providebackbone services for net-works, handsets allthroughout the IT infra-structure and soon will bemoving across the entireworld with their new 5Grollout of their equip-ment," Pompeo said.

"Second, Huawei alsopresents a more traditionalnational security threat.It's very different from inAmerica. If you're workingwith AT&T or a US telecomprovider, a Microsoft or anIBM who's providing ITservices or products, it's aprivate company doing itsown thing, trying to makemoney, trying to grow itsbusiness," he said.

Ex-Nissan chiefGhosn gets bail

in JapanAFP, TOKYO: Formerauto industry titan Car-los Ghosn moved a stepcloser to freedom Tues-day as a Tokyo court un-expectedly granted himbail after more thanthree months in a deten-tion cell.

The court set bail at onebillion yen (USD 9 mil-lion), but prosecutors arelikely to appeal the deci-sion and could even fileadditional allegationsagainst the 64-year-old tokeep him from leaving de-tention.

Not aware of anyrequest from USon F-16: Pakenvoy to US

PTI, WASHINGTON: Pak-istan's ambassador to theUS Asad Majeed Khanhas said he is not awareof any request made bythe US about the use of F-16 fighter jets by hiscountry in the recentaerial confrontation withIndia.

The Indian Air Force onThursday displayed partsof an AMRAAM beyond vi-sual range air-to-air mis-sile as evidence to"conclusively" prove thatPakistan deployed US-manufactured F-16fighter jets during an aer-ial raid targeting Indianmilitary installations inKashmir after India's anti-terror operation in Bal-akot.

Pakistan on Wednesdaycategorically said that noF-16 fighter jets were usedand denied that one of itsplanes had been downedby the Indian Air Force.

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