ByAsim Yasin
ISLAMABAD: Denying all the allegations levelled against it, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Sunday said it had time and again clarified and announced that it had no affiliation with any political party, individual or group and its affiliation was only with the State of Pakistan.
In a statement with regard to the Deputy Chairman Senate Salim Mandviwalla’s allegations against the NAB in a press talk on Saturday, the NAB said it will not come under any pressure or propaganda campaign.
Clarifying the media reports, the NAB said the land of Kidney Hill area was reserved for amenity purposes i.e. development of a public park. KDA has published a notification in the Gazette of Pakistan under Article 45 of KDA order dated 07-11-1966 & 05-09-1969 regarding Kidney Hill as KDA Scheme No 32 “FALAKNAMA” and proposed it to be a recreational area as park.
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BIMSTEC was founded on 6 June 1997, initially as BIST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand Economic Cooperation). Myanmar’s joining in December 1997, renamed the expanded configuration as BIMSTEC. With Nepal and Bhutan joining in December 2004, this new enlarged reconfiguration retained the earlier acronym but ingenuously redesignated itself as ‘Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.’ In 2010, it decided to locate its secretariat permanently in Dhaka.
In November 1998, BIMSTEC had identified 14 priority sectors. However, with little tangible progress to show in any, the focus in 2004 shifted to seeking a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). A Free Trade Area Framework Agreement, setting up a Trade Negotiating Committee (TNC), was signed to consider trade in goods and services, investment, economic cooperation and trade facilitation. It has remained essentially a work in progress to date, stymied by efforts to bring SAFTA (The South Asian
The Bay of Bengal is a strategic location brimming with infinite potential yet to be tapped. The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), comprising of the seven member states of South and Southeast Asia, is a distinctive subregional initiative in terms of both its political geography and proximity to the Bay. Being dormant for more than two decades since its formation, it is only in recent years that the subregion awoke towards the requirement of enhancing their regional commitment. Part of this realisation has been due to the overflowing eminence of the maritime space. Additionally, the subregion started gaining thrust, post the stagnation of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which ambushed much of India’s economic stakes in the region. However, there is growing concern among several spectators that unless the current diplomatic ties between Bangladesh and Myanmar progress, the BIMSTEC initiative may suf