Irish women tweet details of their periods to PM in abortion row

Abortion is a divisive issue in Ireland. PHOTO: REUTERS

DUBLIN: Irish women are tweeting details of their periods to Prime Minister Enda Kenny to help publicise a campaign to repeal restrictive abortion laws.

Abortion is a divisive issue in Ireland where, after large street protests from both sides of the debate, a complete ban was only lifted in 2013 when terminations were allowed if a mother’s life was in danger.

When Ireland chose to become the first country to adopt gay marriage in a referendum this year, marking a major shift in what was once a strongly Catholic and socially conservative society, calls for abortion law reform gained momentum.

“Since we know how much the Irish state cares about our reproductive parts… I think it’s only fair that the women of Ireland let our leader @EndaKennyTD know the full details of our menstrual cycle,” comedian Grainne Maguire said in a tweet this week that kicked off a Twitter campaign that has gone viral.

Dozens of other women joined in, tweeting details of their menstrual cycle, with some criticising Kenny for not responding.

Governments have been loath to tackle an issue they fear could alienate conservative voters despite a dramatic waning of the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, which had dominated politics in a country where divorce was illegal 20 years ago.

The 2013 abortion legislation was adopted following the death of a woman who was not allowed to abort her dying foetus, a controversy that made international headlines and reopened the decades-long debate.

Kenny, a practising Roman Catholic, was sent plastic foetuses and letters written in blood by pro-life campaigners for bringing in the limited reforms and has said any further changes will be left to the next government.

His junior coalition partner, Labour, has already said it will campaign at the elections next year to allow abortion for cases such as rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality.

Activists are demanding the abolition of the eighth amendment of the constitution, which enshrines the equal right to life of the mother and her unborn child, while their opponents demand that it remains in place to safeguard all life.

Less than a quarter of Irish people believe abortion should be available in all circumstances, an RTE/Behaviour & Attitudes poll showed this week, with 64 percent in favour in some circumstances and 14 percent against it under any circumstances.

Study: Religious upbringing can make kids less generous

The findings suggest that children from religious households are more selfish and less kind toward others. PHOTO: IMGARCADE

Belying common perception, a new study has found that children from religious families are less likely to share their possessions with others than children from non-religious families.

Religious upbringing is also associated with more punitive tendencies in response to anti-social behaviour, the findings showed.

“Our findings contradict the common-sense and popular assumption that children from religious households are more altruistic and kind toward others,” said lead researcher Jean Decety, professor at the University of Chicago in the US.

“In our study, kids from atheist and non-religious families were, in fact, more generous,” Decety noted.

The study included 1,170 children between ages five and 12, from six countries – Canada, China, Jordan, South Africa, Turkey and the US.

For the altruism task, children participated in a version of the “Dictator Game,” in which they were given 10 stickers and provided an opportunity to share them with another unseen child. Altruism was measured by the average number of stickers shared.

For the moral sensitivity task, children watched short animations in which one character pushes or bumps another, either accidentally or purposefully.

After seeing each situation, children were asked about how mean the behaviour was and the amount of punishment the character deserved.

Parents completed questionnaires about their religious beliefs and practices and perceptions of their children’s empathy and sensitivity to justice.

From the questionnaires, three large groupings were established: Christian, Muslim and not religious.

The researchers found that children from households identifying as Christian and Muslim were significantly less likely than children from non-religious households to share their stickers.

The negative relation between religiosity and altruism grew stronger with age; children with a longer experience of religion in the household were the least likely to share.

Children from religious households favoured stronger punishments for anti-social behaviour and judged such behaviour more harshly than non-religious children.

“Together, these results reveal the similarity across countries in how religion negatively influences children’s altruism,” Decety said.

The study appeared in the journal Current Biology.

Decorated Sikh soldier takes command of Canada's military

Harjit Sajjan PHOTO: REUTERS

OTTAWA: Sporting a turban and a thick beard, decorated soldier Harjit Sajjan stood out in the Canadian military, but as defense minister he is among several Sikhs appointed to key positions in Justin Trudeau’s administration.

The veteran of wars in Bosnia and Afghanistan was appointed to the senior ministerial post on Wednesday, when Trudeau and his cabinet were sworn in, following the Liberals’ October 19 election victory.

At age 45, he takes on one of the toughest jobs of the new administration.

He will be responsible for winding down Canada’s combat mission against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, withdrawing from the US-led F-35 fighter jet program and quashing sexual misconduct in the military.

He will also sit on the new government’s most powerful cabinet committees, including public safety and espionage.

Born in Punjab, India in 1970, Sajjan moved to Canada with his family at age five, settling in the Pacific coast city of Vancouver.

He worked 11 years as a police officer, including a stint as a detective with the gang crimes unit, before joining the Canadian military and rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Ironically, he was reportedly rejected by the first unit where he applied 26 years ago, but stuck it out.

He would go on to deploy four times overseas to Bosnia and Afghanistan – where he earned honors for helping to weaken the Taliban’s influence — and became the first Sikh to command a Canadian army regiment.

“He was the best single Canadian intelligence asset in theater (in Afghanistan) and his hard work, personal bravery, and dogged determination undoubtedly saved a multitude of coalition lives,” said David Fraser, former commander of the Multinational Brigade in southern Afghanistan, in a short biography of the Liberal candidate for the Vancouver South electoral district.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Fraser said Sajjan was a “true warrior” who thrives in the face of adversity.

“I picked him (for the Afghanistan job) because of his experience in dealing with gangs because the Taliban were nothing more than bunch of thugs and gangs,” Fraser told the daily.

Entering politics, Sajjan faced a messy nomination that split the large Vancouver Sikh community.

Many ripped up their Liberal membership cards over the backing he received from former leaders of the World Sikh Organization (WSO), including Sajjan’s own father.

The WSO, which has long advocated for the creation of a Sikh homeland, was criticized in the past for praising Air India bomb-maker Inderjit Reyat, who remains the only person convicted in the 1985 attack on a jetliner that killed 329 passengers and crew over the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Ireland.

“I am not a member of the WSO. I’ve had no negative vibes from anybody,” Sajjan told public broadcaster CBC last year.

On Wednesday, WSO president Amritpal Sing Shergill praised the record number of Sikh MPs that would be serving in the new parliament.

They include three men and a woman in the cabinet — Sajjan, Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains and Small Business and Tourism Minister Bardish Chagger.

This comes nearly two decades after Herb Dhaliwal became the first Indo-Canadian to be appointed to the cabinet.

“Punjabi is now the third most common language at Parliament Hill,” the seat of Canada’s government, Shergill said.

Settling into his new job while still a lieutenant in the army reserves, Sajjan is in the unusual position of maybe having to take orders from generals who answer to him as minister.

Among them are the chief of the Defense Staff, General Jon Vance, who requested Sajjan’s specialized skills in counterinsurgency and Afghanistan tribal politics for a 2009 mission in Kandahar.

Sajjan has asked to be released from the Canadian forces, but it has not yet been finalized.

“If we all of a sudden send soldiers in harm’s way and my skills are absolutely needed for the mission, I’d be happy to take a leave of absence from being a member of Parliament and share the risk with the other members of the CAF (Canadian Armed Forces),” Sajjan told the Canadian Military Family Magazine during the campaign.

American writer spends year debating Holy Quran with Muslim scholar

What happens when an American writer and a madrassah-trained scholar debate the Holy Quran in a bid to find interfaith understanding? A powerful journey to help bridge one of the greatest divides shaping our world today.

If the Oceans Were Ink is American writer Carla Power’s story of how she and her longtime friend Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi decided to tackle the “ugly stereotypes and persistent misperceptions” that were dividing their communities.

“People are going back to the basic texts, and they’re stripping away centuries of culture and tradition and looking for what they see at the heart of the religion,” she says.

Power provides readers with details of her year with sheikh Akram and how the Quran provided her with many moments of grace. “I found comfort in how small I felt reading the text, as when I considered the images of the ‘lord if the heavens and the earth and everything in between, and Lord of all points of the sunrise.’  Even as a nonbeliever, I still found myself taking refuge in the Quran classes as a clam inlet from daily life.”

Power notes the greatness of the Quran by highlighting the triviality of worldly matters like the “close on Wall Street, the exam score or dress size, even happiness itself” that seemed nothing next to the fact that from God we come and to God we return. She describes this as “constant reminders of one’s own puniness and powerlessness.”

She also shares a personal experience that made her realise the essence of the word InshAllah. “When my mother died, I remember thinking how sensible it was, the Muslim practice of saying InshAllah after every plan, every promise, no matter how minor, since only God can be sure whether next Wednesday’s lunch date will indeed be kept. It was a comfort, in a season of grief, to hang out with a community that honored this world’s certainties.”

On her understanding of namaz, she writes about it as a symbol of devotion to God. She mentions studies on the postures of Muslim prayers by scientists who have concluded that they encourage calm and flexibility. While standing straight strengthens the arrangement of muscles in the body, bowing helps stretch out the lower back and hamstrings, and sitting after prostration keeps joints mobile. In relation to this, Power notes how “Akram’s prayers have rendered him culturally supple, too, stretching his humanity in surprising ways. The act of return, to his prayer mat, to his Quran and his classical text–has often afforded an expansion of his worldview, not a restriction of it.”

She beautifully describes the sheikh offering his prayers and the meaning attached to his every move. She writes, “In standing, kneeling, bring his forehead to the earth, then standing again, his attention returns to his origins and destination, which are one and the same.” She also shares the words of the sheikh, who connects the experience to a “feeling of returning to the arms of your mother, when you are a child.”

The author explains the meaning of existence for the sheikh revolves around God, in the shape of a circle. The circle has God at its end, beginning, and every point in between. This sheds lights on his belief that “from Allah he has come, and to Allah he will return,” with everyday circling back to God.

On starting her Quran lessons, as she was able to understand its message, she realised that it is more than just a book. Instead, she reflects on its reach to Muslims around the world as a “metaphor of return. It is a place to which the faithful return, again and again.”

She explains, “I’d come a long way from earliest encounter with the Quran, but I still hadn’t understood that it was far more than a much-revered book. Over the course of the year, I began to see that the Quran was not merely a set of pages between two covers. Calling it a book, something one can read from beginning to end, embalms it in expectations. It was just another way of limiting it into something small: an amulet, a manifesto, an instruction guide, a political tool. In the life of a Muslim like Sheikh Akram, its meaning is much more diffuse.”

On questioning the sheikh about how to better understand the Quran, she shares his response, “Read. Keeping reading the Quran. Read it, and read it again. Return,” echoing the command that Prophet Muhammad had heard upon revelation.

This article originally appeared on PBS.

For police patrols Japan gifts 123 hybrid cars aid to Pakistan

Nisar reiterated the government’s gratitude for Japan’s continued commitment to socioeconomic development in the country.

ISLAMABAD: A common complaint from the country’s police forces is the lack of fuel funds to pay for patrolling vehicles. While the government has been unable to address the issue, the government of a friendly East-Asian nation has responded.

Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Inomata on Friday handed over 123 Japanese-made hybrids vehicles to the Ministry of Interior. The Japanese embassy said the total cost of the vehicles is around 500 million Japanese Yen, or Rs435 million.

The cars are part of Japan’s Non-Project Grant Aid (NPGA) to Pakistan, a government sponsored fund to “contribute to the promotion of socioeconomic development efforts in developing countries.”

The handover ceremony was held at Islamabad Traffic Police Headquarters, with Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan representing Pakistan.

Ambassador Inomata said, “Security enhancement is indispensable for successful socioeconomic development in Pakistan, and the Government of Japan remains committed to improving the capabilities of Pakistani law enforcement agencies.”

Ambassador Inomata also hoped that the NPGA will provide, “A good opportunity for Pakistani people to realise the positive environmental effects brought about by hybrid vehicles.”

Nisar reiterated the government’s sincere gratitude for Japan’s continued commitment to socioeconomic development in Pakistan.

Why hybrids?

Hybrid vehicles use less fuel and emit less greenhouse emissions as compared to conventional vehicles. The hybrid police cars will not only to enable the police to reduce daily fuel costs, but also to help address increasing environmental challenges.

Here is why I can’t trust the police in Pakistan

The vehicles are widely used by Japanese police, government entities and public transport, while also gaining popularity among the public.

Japanese security aid

In the last decade, the Government of Japan, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), has provided training opportunities to around 45 Pakistani police officers in areas such as forensic science, drug control and terrorism investigation.

In addition, Japan has also previously agreed to install scanning devices at three international airports and two international seaports in Pakistan, all of which are currently under way.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2015.

Sexting scandal shocks US high school

Over 100 students trading nude pictures and posting them on social media with some kids being as young as 12.

LOS ANGELES: A massive sexting ring is rocking a high school in Colorado, with at least 100 students trading nude pictures and posting them on social media, news reports said Friday.

Some of the kids in the photographs were as young as 12, and included eighth graders from the middle school, The New York Times reported.

The students, many of whom are on the football team at Canon City High School, could now face criminal charges, reports said.

The school district announced Wednesday that “a number of our students have engaged in behavior where they take and pass along pictures of themselves that expose private parts of their bodies or their undergarments.”

Noting that a “large number” of the high school football team players were implicated in the scandal, the district said it was canceling the high school’s last football game of the season.

“Because we can’t guarantee that every kid we put out on the field would be clean of this circumstance, we would just rather not put a team out at all,” Canon City Schools Superintendent George Welsh told NBCtelevision affiliate KOAA.

Noting it first learned of the behavior on Monday based on anonymous tips and student reports, the district stressed that taking a picture of yourself showing a naked private body part and sending it to another person was a felony.

The same applies if receiving such a picture and forwarding it to another person, or receiving such a picture and retaining possession of it over time.

According to The New York Times, police and the district attorney’s office are weighing whether to file child pornography charges — including felony charges — against some of the participants.

Students circulated up to 400 lewd photographs, it added. The police probe is focusing on whether any adults were involved, the school district said.

Students used password-protected “phone vaults,” apps that often appear to be simple calculators at first glance, to hide the photos from their parents and school officials.

“It’s been going on for years,” one Canon City student told KRDO13, an affiliate of ABC television.

The student said some fellow students, especially girls, had been pressured to take pictures of themselves.

The school administration held an assembly Thursday to warn parents and explain the technology that allows their children to hide photos.

Canon City Sheriff Paul Schultz said the problem extends far beyond the town limits.

“With the new technologies, this is happening everywhere,” he said. “Should parents be worried? Absolutely.”

For Afghan women, driving a car brings both fear and freedom

Since Rokhsar Azamee, 23, began driving the streets of Kabul in 2014, she has endured condescension, ridicule, and even threats to her life with some men deliberately causing 'accidents' to harass her.

KABUL: Since Rokhsar Azamee began driving the streets of Kabul last year, she has endured condescension, ridicule, and even threats to her life with some men deliberately causing “accidents” to harass her. But she will not be deterred.

The 23-year-old journalist learned to drive to avoid aggravation from men in the street as she waited each morning for a taxi with a driver who would not hassle her on the way to work.

But even the purchase of her own car has not shielded her from condemnation in the male-dominated, ultra-conservative society of Afghanistan.

“For many men,” she says, “it is a new thing to see a woman drive a car, they will harass you. One way to do so is by causing an accident.”

Once as she was heading home in her white 1997 Toyota Corolla, she was followed by a group of four or five men driving an SUV.

Her anxiety growing, she kept driving until they blocked her in a semi-deserted street in downtown Kabul, forcing her to pull over.
But as the men began to clamber out of their vehicle, she saw her chance to escape — reversing quickly then hitting the accelerator.

“It was very horrible experience for me,” she says.

It was not always like this. Up until the 1990s Afghan women were commonly found behind the wheel — even driving buses, in the big cities at least.

But in 1992, when the communist regime in Kabul collapsed and civil war broke out, women drivers were slowly discouraged.

And as the extremist Taliban group swept to power in 1996, women were banned not only from driving, but from even leaving their homes without a burqa or the company of a male chaperone.

Change did not come again until the US invasion toppled the Taliban from power in late 2001 and a government backed by Washington took over.

Gender equality was enshrined in the Afghan constitution, and millions of women came out from the shadows to attend schools and universities and work in offices again.

Fourteen years on, however, the idea of a woman driver is still seen as controversial, provocative and even immoral.

Islam does not prohibit women from driving, but laws and cultural norms vary throughout the Islamic world, from Saudi Arabia — where women are banned from driving entirely — to Iran and Pakistan, where women drivers are more common.

In Afghanistan, woman drivers are seen as a Western imposition and a rejection of Muslim values, Babrak, an Afghan man in his fifties, tells AFP.

“Women, especially young girls, driving can increase immorality and even lead to prostitution in Islamic societies,” he says.

“These women driving encourage our devout Muslim sisters towards immorality. It is becoming intolerable.”

His view is not uncommon in Afghanistan where ultra-conservative men fear such freedoms increase women’s independence and the lack of a male chaperone will result in increasingly liberal behaviour.

But in big cities like Kabul women are attempting to shift change into high gear. The increase in the number of women drivers has been growing at a steady rate: Kabul’s traffic department estimates show that up to 1,000 women each year now apply to join driving schools in the Afghan capital alone.

In the early years after the end of Taliban rule that figure hovered around 50, Kabul’s traffic police chief General Asadullah told AFP.

“The women have the right to learn, they have the right to drive, and we encourage them for that,” he says.

Social activist Sohaila Sama, 25, looks forward to driving her own car to the green plains of northern Afghanistan without persecution.
“I have felt better, more confident since I learned how to drive,” she says.

“When I see other women drive their vehicles, I feel like our country is moving forward towards a better future, a more civilised one.”

The progress is promising, but it may not be enough.

A Taliban resurgence in recent months has UN officials and rights activists fearing that the fragile gains women have made could be further eroded when international forces eventually leave.

Testimony from women’s rights activists who fled the Taliban’s recent brief capture of the northern city of Kunduz revealed harrowing stories of death squads methodically targeting women — an ominous blueprint of what could happen should the insurgents ever return to power.

Azamee — who, bareheaded and with the radio blaring, took AFP on a ride through the streets of the capital — is frustrated but determined she will not back down.

“I am proud, because when I started driving, I think I set an example for other women,” she says.

“Yesterday one of my friends called and said, ‘You have to come to my office.’

“I said, ‘Why?’ She said, ‘I have bought a car and I will take you around the city.’

“I was like, that is cool!”

Indian PM concedes defeat in key state election

PATNA: Narendra Modi conceded defeat on Sunday in a key election in Bihar, one of India’s poorest and largest states, in a major blow for the prime minister who fronted a no-holds barred campaign.

Modi’s Hindu nationalist party was leading in only 58 seats in the 243-seat state assembly compared to 160 for a coalition of rival regional parties, as vote counting continued.

“Had a telephone conversation with Shri @NitishKumar & congratulated him on the victory,” Modi said on Twitter of his main opponent, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Modi turned the Bihar poll into a key test of his popularity, addressing some 30 campaign rallies and promising voters billions of dollars for development in a state where two thirds lack access to electricity.

The premier’s defeat was also a setback to his plans to push major economic reforms through the national parliament where his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lacks a majority.

Assembly elections are important not only because state leaders wield significant power, but because parties gain seats in India’s upper house, where the BJP does not have the numbers.

Modi was up against an unlikely alliance of two powerful local leaders, Kumar and his predecessor Lalu Prasad Yadav, who has served time in prison for corruption.

As the contest tightened in recent weeks, the campaign shifted to bitter issues along religious and caste lines which have traditionally dominated the state of 100 million people, more than the population of Germany.

Coalition party workers danced in the street and set off fire crackers in celebration in the state capital Patna. BJP spokesman GVL Narsimha Rao denied the loss was a personal blow for Modi, saying the odds were stacked against their party after regional rivals joined forces.

“This election was loaded against us. It is a defeat of the arithmetic,” Rao told India Today TV. “Our PM has delivered even in this election. It is because of his appeal that we managed a creditable performance,” Rao said.

The BJP needed a win after suffering a humiliating defeat in February elections for the New Delhi state assembly to a fledgling anti-corruption party.

But exit polls released last week showed the parties running neck and neck, after voting ended on Thursday in the election held in five phases over a month.

Modi, a Hindu nationalist, stormed to power at national polls in May 2014 promising sweeping reforms to revive the faltering economy.

While growth is now purring along at around seven per cent, complaints have been mounting about Modi’s failure to nail down major reforms to boost investment and help create jobs for tens of millions of young people.

Some observers say Modi has put off pushing through contentious reforms ahead of the Bihar and other state polls for fear of losing votes, such as a land acquisition bill to make it easier for firms to buy farmland.

The Bihar campaign has been dogged by religious tensions after several Muslims were killed in separate incidents by Hindu mobs who suspected them of stealing or eating cows which Hindus consider sacred.

Analysts said Muslims, who make up 16 per cent of Bihar’s population, voted against the BJP, along with lower castes in India’s age-old social hierarchy, who sided with traditional allies Kumar and Yadav.

The Express Tribune

Netanyahu, Obama look to move past Iran deal row

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama meet Monday to put aside their rocky personal relationship and move past the Iran nuclear deal with multi-billon-dollar talks on defence.

The two have not met since October 2014, and deep disagreement over the July accord between Iran and major world powers provoked bitter exchanges between the traditional allies both before and after it was reached.

Netanyahu has also faced pressure, including from the United States, to renew peace efforts after a wave of violence that began in October raised fears of a new Palestinian uprising.

Obama and Netanyahu are known to have testy personal ties, not least because of the right-wing Israeli premier’s courting of Republicans – the US president’s opponents – including in a speech to Congress in March not coordinated with the White House.

But analysts say the two seem determined to turn the page with a businesslike meeting and signal that the two countries’ long-lasting alliance remains unshakeable.

“They will not fall in love with each other,” said Zvi Rafiah, a longtime consultant on US affairs and former congressional specialist at Israel’s Washington embassy.

However, “I’m sure (Netanyahu) understands exactly the value of this visit and the value of the United States”.

The White House has sought to downplay personal feelings, with spokesman Josh Earnest saying they were “not nearly as important as their ability to work together to advance the national security interests of the two countries that they lead”.

At the same time, more controversy erupted ahead of the trip over comments from Netanyahu’s newly appointed media czar.

After his appointment was announced Wednesday, Israeli media dug up past comments from Ran Baratz accusing Obama of anti-semitism and saying US Secretary of State John Kerry’s “mental age” was no older than 12.

Netanyahu condemned the statements and said he would meet Baratz after returning from Washington. Kerry spoke with Netanyahu about the comments that his State Department spokesman called “troubling and offensive”.

The centrepiece of the meeting is expected to be a new 10-year defence deal, with reports that Israel will seek an increase in the more than $3 billion in US annual military aid it receives.

That aid is in addition to other assistance, such as spending on the Iron Dome missile defence system. Israel is also believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with atomic weapons, although it has never confirmed it.

The new defence spending would be aimed at assuaging Israel over the security risks it says it now faces because of the Iran agreement.

The deal with Tehran seeks to roll back its nuclear programme in exchange for a gradual lifting of sanctions. Netanyahu has called the accord a “stunning, historic mistake” that would not block its regional rival’s path to nuclear weapons.

He has also argued that lifting sanctions will allow Iran to further back proxy militants, including Israeli enemies Hezbollah and Hamas.

The new 10-year defence deal will not be finalised during the Obama-Netanyahu summit, and would come into effect only after the current accord expires in 2017.

But the two leaders are expected to discuss commitments that could see Israel getting more than the 33 stealth F-35 fighters already ordered, precision munitions and a chance to buy V-22 Ospreys and other weapons systems.

The defence talks would provide both sides with an obvious way of demonstrating that the alliance remains solid, analysts said.

“The (Obama) administration is actually very keen to show that it is committed to Israel’s defence,” said Jonathan Rynhold of Israel’s Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies.

“It’s not just what Netanyahu wants.”

Other likely topics include the Syria conflict and the recent Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Beginning in October, a wave of knife, gun and car-ramming attacks targeting Jews swept Israel and the Palestinian territories, along with violent protests, although unrest has waned in recent days.

Obama has previously criticised Netanyahu for sending mixed signals over his commitment to a two-state solution and may press him on the issue.

However, American officials say the president has lost any hope of a major peace accord being reached between the Israelis and Palestinians before he leaves office in January 2017.

Netanyahu arrives in Washington on Sunday and is expected back in Israel Thursday.

Besides meeting Obama, he will receive an award from the rightwing American Enterprise Institute and is expected to meet members of Congress.

He will also speak to the left-leaning Centre for American Progress think tank in what some analysts see as an attempt to improve relations with Democrats.

The Express Tribune

Moody’s report: International bonds weaken Pakistan’s debt affordability

Credit rating agency says country’s net external debt will swell to $68 billion by this fiscal end. PHOTO: REUTERS

ISLAMABAD: 

Pakistan’s debt affordability has weakened after it shifted to non-conventional loans by issuing $3.5 billion worth of international bonds, increasing its borrowing costs, according to the latest report by an international credit rating agency.

The concerns of the Moody’s Investor Services about Pakistan’s debt affordability come just as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that the country’s net external debt will increase by $3 billion to a whopping $68 billion when the current fiscal year ends. According to the lender, Islamabad will need $6.7 billion during the current year to service external debts alone.

The IMF also projects that Pakistan’s external debt will balloon to $74.5 billion by the end of the incumbent government’s five-year term. External debt stood at $60.8 billion in 2012-13. The PML-N came to power towards the end of that fiscal year.

Moody’s reports also comes amid growing criticism against the PML-N government’s policy of borrowing funds by floating international bonds at very high interest rates. The government raised $500 million in September by floating dollar-denominated Eurobonds for 10 years at a rate of 8.25%.

A decline in exports and a negligible increase in foreign direct investment have increased the government’s reliance on expensive foreign borrowings. Pakistan’s external debt in percentage of exports is projected to be increased to 228.2% by end of the current financial year, up from 218% last year.

Moody’s said the move by six countries, including Pakistan, towards more non-conventional financing has led to higher borrowing costs. The six countries borrowed $16.4 billion in last one and a half years, according to the agency. Pakistan borrowed $3.5 billion, accounting for 21.4% of the total figure.

A recent report by the finance ministry’s debt office substantiated Moody’s assessment. It showed that the ratio of total external debt that is maturing within a year stands at 8.1%, up from 7.7% in 2014. The report also revealed that the average maturity period of Pakistan’s total external debt has also decreased from 10.5 years to 9.4 years, increasing refinancing risks.

According to Moody’s, the share of concessional external debt is shrinking after the six countries, including Pakistan, tapped the bonds market. It said these countries were issuing bonds due to easy access and less stringent conditions attached to this mode of borrowing, unlink concessionary lending from international lenders like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.

Moody’s rating focuses primarily on credit quality or the ability and willingness of the borrower to repay debts. Pakistan has been given a B3 rating, which is a sub-investment grade with a stable outlook. Sub-investment grade countries primarily rely on concessional financing from multilateral institutions to meet their public debt needs.

Moody’s said that overall susceptibility to event risk was also high in Pakistan. There was also high domestic political risk and high geopolitical risk in Pakistan. “Geopolitical tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Pakistan can also weigh on credit quality, which may ultimately undermine credit ratings of the countries,” it added.

Institutions are also weak in these frontier economies. Moody’s said corruption in Bangladesh and Pakistan is a hurdle for private investment and general business sentiment.

The agency said only a select group of countries are well placed for credit rating improvements. However, conditions leading to credit rating improvement mentioned in the report suggest that Pakistan is not among these countries.

Pakistan also lacks the strengths which can make a typical frontier market an emerging market. Most frontier markets rank high on trade openness but Pakistan is ranked 169th out of 189 economies surveyed by WB for ease of doing business.

A country can benefit from demographic dividends only if it has better education and health standards – areas where Pakistan is performing miserably, according to various United Nations reports. The quality of human capital also lags in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2015.