India - Pakistan Diplomatic Ties

Ghashya varoon paay kadaychach nahi aata. Nusta daboon thevaycha. figuratively off course.
Excellent Marathi. The tragedy here is non Maharashtrians domiciled in / was in Maharashtra aren't shy of speaking the language. But native Maharashtrians.....
 
Excellent Marathi. The tragedy here is non Maharashtrians domiciled in / was in Maharashtra aren't shy of speaking the language. But native Maharashtrians.....
Really? Marathi is wonderful language, and there is remarkable pride "Me Marathi" as far as I know.
I speak with my mom in Marathi more than Bengali. I identify myself more as Marathi than a Bengali. Amchya gharat jeevan pan mostly maharashtrian style asto.
 
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Really? Marathi is wonderful language, and there is remarkable pride "Me Marathi" as far as I know.
I speak with my mom in Marathi more than Bengali. I identify myself more as Marathi than a Bengali. Amchya gharat jeevan pan mostly maharashtrian style asto.
Very accommodating ppl, Maharashtrians. 3 generations here. 4th generation is all gung ho too.
 
UK high court rejects Pak claim to £35 million in favour of India, Nizam
The high court of England and Wales on Wednesday ruled in favour of India and the two descendants of the late 7th Nizam of Hyderabad, who sent £1 million to a London bank in 1948, now estimated to value at least £35 million.

The historic case has gone through several twists and turns with India and the descendants — Mukarram Jah and Muffakham Jah — on one side and Pakistan on the other. Pakistan had claimed that the money on the ground was a payment for supplying arms to the Hyderabad state during India’s annexation in 1948.

The 7th Nizam had transferred the £1 million to the then Pakistan ambassador in London, Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola, for safe-keeping, who agreed “to keep the amount mentioned by you in my name in trust”. The amount, accruing interest over the decades, lies in the National Westminster Bank in London.

The 166-page judgement by Justice Marcus Smith sets out the history of the dispute, from India’s ‘Operation Polo’ to annex Hyderabad, and later developments that include the Nizam in 1965 ‘assigning’ the President of India the claim to the money in London.

The judge said: “Although the Government of Hyderabad was involved in the purchase of weapons in order to resist what Nizam VII saw as attempts by India forcibly to annex Hyderabad, and although the Second Account was used to pay for some of these weapons, I do not consider that the Transfer had anything to do with the purchase of weapons or the compensation of Pakistan (in any way) for the purchase of weapons”.

“(It) is appropriate to record that the Nizam’s successor in title can be no-one other than the Princes or India…I have seen no hint of the possibility of any further claimant to the Fund, beyond the Princes and India.

“In these circumstances, Nizam VII was beneficially entitled to the Fund and those claiming in right of Nizam VII – the Princes and India – are entitled to have the sum paid out to their order. I will leave it to the parties to frame an appropriate form of order for my approval”.

Paul Hewitt, partner in law firm Withers LLP, who acted for the VIII Nizam since Pakistan issued proceedings in 2013, said: “We are delighted that today’s judgment recognises…the VIII Nizam’s rights to funds which have been in dispute since 1948”.

“Mr Justice Smith’s judgment covers a complex historical and legal set of issues, interpreting facts and events that occurred 70 years ago to establish that the funds, which now amount to £35 million, were always held in trust for our client’s grandfather, the VII Nizam”.

“Our client was still a child when the dispute first arose and is now in his 80s. It is a great relief to see this dispute finally resolved in his lifetime.”

The judge rejected Pakistan’s claims of illegality on India’s part. Pakistan had alleged that India’s annexation of Hyderabad was unlawful and that it followed that India and the princes should be barred from any claim to the fund.

India argued that the question of whether India’s annexation of Hyderabad was lawful was irrelevant to the question of ownership of the fund. The judge concluded that India’s that India’s submission was well-founded, and that even if there were illegality of the nature alleged by Pakistan (the judge has not made any findings on that issue), any such illegality would in any case be irrelevant to the claim.
UK high court rejects Pak claim to £35 million in favour of India, Nizam
 
Pakistan's Next War With India Will Involve Russia and China (Even If They Don't Join In)

Pakistan's Next War With India Will Involve Russia and China (Even If They Don't Join In)

Charlie Gao

,
The National InterestOctober 12, 2019

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Key point: Chinese design, Russian engine, Pakistani flown.

The 2019 India-Pakistan border skirmish resulted in major shake-ups within the Indian Air Force (IAF). The most accepted narrative, that of a loss of an IAF MiG-21 Bison to no losses of the Pakistan Air Force bodes poorly for the IAF. But interestingly, according to a July interview, the skirmish marked one of the first “hot” use of Pakistan’s new Chinese JF-17 “Thunder” fighters.

The JF-17 is a relatively new single-engine fighter, meant to compete against other light fighters like the F-16, Gripen, and MiG-29 for export contracts. As the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) is the only large user, most solid information about the aircraft is from Chinese marketing documents. But the July interview gives one pilot’s opinion on how the JF-17 stacks up against most common adversaries, from Sukhois to F-16s.

The extent of the JF-17’s “hot” usage following the border skirmish was in patrols near the border. In some incidents, the pilot said that during these patrols, he was getting radar lock-on Su-30MKIs at ranges in excess of 100 kilometers.

However, this doesn’t mean that a JF-17 could kill with a missile at that range. The JF-17’s primary beyond-visual-range (BVR) armament is the PL-12 missile, which is still undergoing integration (as of February 2019). During the actual border air skirmish, PAF F-16s lobbed AIM-120C-5 AMRAAM missiles at similar ranges, which forced IAF aircraft to go defensive to dodge the missiles, but no kills were scored. As the PL-12 is said to have a similar range to the AMRAAM, it’s likely that its kinematic performance at range is similar, and it too wouldn’t be able to score a kill.

But if the JF-17 allows the pilot to “lob” a missile at planes at such ranges, it still might be a step ahead of the IAF’s Su-30MKIs. According to an NDTV report, the Russian R-77 missiles cannot engage targets past 80 km.

Read the original article.
 
‘Time is up’: Russia tells Pakistan to take concrete steps to avoid FATF blacklisting

By Srinjoy Chowdhury
Updated Dec 17, 2019 | 16:38 IST

Russia's warning came during the eighth Russia-Pakistan joint working group of counter-terrorism in Moscow on November 12.

Imran-Khan_IANS_0.jpg

Russia warns Pakistan over FATF action | Photo Credit: IANS

Islamabad: Russia has strongly reprimanded Pakistan for its go-slow on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) directives on terror-financing.

Russia has said that while Pakistan has achieved progress, it's "time is up" and Islamabad needs to take measures to avoid being in the 2020 blacklist. And time is running out as the blacklist will be readied in February next year, sources said.

Pakistan is currently in the grey list. The FATF has been directing Pakistan to ensure terror-financing for groups like the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba come to an end, in an effort to reduce their strength.

Russia's warning came during the eighth Russia-Pakistan joint working group of counter-terrorism in Moscow on November 12. During the meeting, the Russian side, headed by Vladimir Tarabrin, pointed out that while Russia did not support the blacklisting the previous time, the need to take active measures has come to avoid being blacklisted. The Pakistan side was led by Ahmad Farooq.

The other warning related to the presence of ISIS activities in Pakistan. The focus of ISIS activities, sources said, is shifting to Pakistan and other south Asian countries. Clearly, Pakistan has to take action and Russia has offered Pakistan help from its international anti-terror database.

The situation in Afghanistan is also difficult. In the past, the international community have spoken out about the safe havens for the Taliban and the Haqqani Network terrorists in Pakistan in the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan. During the meeting, the Russian side pointed out that the ISIS was regrouping in Afghanistan and the total number of foreign terrorists in the country was now about 4,000.

Meanwhile, Russia has denied a visa to PoK 'President' Masood Khan. He was to visit Russia between November 26 and 30. This is, once again, very clear support to India's position on PoK.

‘Time is up’: Russia tells Pakistan to take concrete steps to avoid FATF blacklisting
 
Pakistan to Import Polio Markers from India Months after Suspension of Trade Ties
Pakistan has decided to import polio markers from India, months after it suspended trade ties with New Delhi following abrogation of the article 370, according to a media report on Wednesday.

"The federal Cabinet on Tuesday decided to give a one-time permission for import of polio markers from India," Dawn reported. Pakistan is one of the three countries, along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, where polio is still endemic.

The markers used to mark the fingers of children after administering them polio vaccine are approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The Cabinet's decision to import markers from India comes months after the Pakistan government had on August 9 decided to suspend all kinds of trade with India following New Delhi's decision to abrogate Article 370 on August 5 to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

"However, since a large number of medicines and raw material are imported from India, the country's pharmaceutical industry started demanding that the ban be lifted on them because otherwise Pakistan could face severe crisis of medicines, especially life-saving drugs, within a few weeks. Consequently, the government had in September lifted the ban on import of medicines and raw material from India," the paper said.

Pakistan's National coordinator of Emergency Operation Centre for Polio Dr Rana Safdar told the newspaper that non-toxic markers were required as children tend to swallow some of the ink.

"There are only two WHO pre-qualified manufacturers in the world, in India and China, which manufacture non-toxic markers as children can swallow the ink," Safdar was quoted as saying by the paper.

Though WHO procures markers for Pakistan and, in the past, it had purchased markers from China, there were issues with the quality of markers.

"WHO had started procurement from India and, before the announcement of ban, it had given order for 800,000 markers to the manufacturer, but the stock could not be delivered due to the ban. But now because of the decision of one-time lifting of the ban we will get the markers," he added.

The stock, Safdar said, would be sufficient for the next two nationwide polio campaigns.

Pakistan, which has recorded at least 104 cases of polio this year, launched a massive anti-polio drive early this month to vaccinate 6.75 million children in 33 districts of the country.

Pakistan has been fighting to combat polio since 1994. However, attempts to eradicate the crippling disease have been seriously hampered by deadly targeting of vaccination teams in recent years by militants, who oppose the drives, claiming that the polio drops cause infertility.
Pakistan to Import Polio Markers from India Months after Suspension of Trade Ties
 
0.4m polio markers from India reach Islamabad
Around 400,000 polio markers from India costing $108,000 are lying at the Islamabad airport, according to the health ministry.

Pakistan has recently paid $0.4 million in advance to an Indian company for 1.42 million polio markers.

The government has granted one-time permission to import WHO pre-qualified finger markers from India amid the suspension of trade between the two countries since August this year.

Islamabad suspended bilateral trade and downgraded diplomatic ties with New Delhi in retaliation to the Indian government revoking Article 370 that gave special status to Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Islamabad was unwilling to import the markers from India. However, China, which was the only other country that manufactured the markers, was blacklisted by the World Health Organisation in April 2018.

Officials told The Express Tribune that health ministry had approached the Commerce Division seeking permission to import WHO pre-qualified markers from India for polio campaigns.

A summary was sent to the prime minister seeking his approval for allowing the health ministry to import WHO pre-qualified polio markers through the WHO from India. Subsequently, the Prime Minister’s office intimated that the premier wanted the matter placed before the federal cabinet. A summary was presented in cabinet on November 26.

The cabinet had considered the summary and directed that under given current standoff with India, the required markers should be procured from any other WHO-certified source. In case it was not feasible to procure the product from any other source, the case should be submitted before the cabinet with cogent explanations.

The health ministry explained that polio finger markers were not ordinary ones and were essentially sensitive due to their indelibility keeping in view the safety of the children.

Pakistan imported the markers from China until April 2018 when it was blacklisted by the WHO. Since then, 3.2 million markers through 10 shipments were procured from India until the suspension of trade.

The WHO and UNICEF are the key implementing partners of Pakistan’s polio eradication programme assisting the government’s efforts to effectively reach and vaccinate children under five in Pakistan.

Last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan urged the nation to support his government’s anti-polio efforts to ensure uninterrupted journey of economic progress and building a positive image of the country.

“Unfortunately, Pakistan is among only two countries which still have traces of polio, despite numerous successes rendered by polio staff,” he added.

The prime minister said the eradication of the polio virus was vital for the future of the whole nation.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2130139/1-0-4m-polio-markers-india-reach-islamabad/
 
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