VIF Neighbourhood News Digest: 20th March, 2019

PAKISTAN

Pakistan can face ‘super flood’ this year, NA body told: Dawn
March 20, 2019

Pakistan could face a ‘major’ to ‘super flood’ during the monsoon season owing to higher than normal snowfall and other climatic changes in the country this year, two senior government officials informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Water Resources on Tuesday. They said more funds and effective preparedness would be required to minimise damage from possible flooding in the country. Click here to read... [2]

AFGHANISTAN

US ‘To End Contacts’ With Afghan NSA Over His Recent Remarks: Tolo News
March 19, 2019

A senior US diplomat has told President Ashraf Ghani that US officials will no longer deal with his national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib, Reuters news agency reports, quoting four knowledgeable US and Afghan sources. The report published on March 18 said the diplomat told President Ghani that the United States was ending contacts with Mr. Mohib. According to Reuters, the State Department declined to comment, and a representative of the Afghan Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment. Mohib in a Washington news conference on March 14 accused the US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad of “delegitimizing” the Kabul government by excluding it from peace negotiations with the Taliban and acting like a “viceroy”. He also said that the US has created an information vacuum regarding the peace talks with the Taliban. Click here to read... [3]

NEPAL

Government moves indicate effort to centralise power in prime minister: Kathmandu Post
March 20, 2019

In March 2016, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli made an announcement at the Kathmandu University senate that he would work to revise legal provisions, which would make the country’s executive head the ex-officio chancellor of all the universities.

The commitment made at the senate meeting, held on the occasion of the silver jubilee of the university, was recorded in its minutes. Exactly three years later, the Oli government has now come up with an amendment bill to revise the Acts governing the 13 universities in the country, giving the authority to their chancellor--who is the prime minister at the moment--to start the process to sack the vice-chancellor, rector and registrar if one-fourth of the senate members concerned agree. Click here to read... [4]

CHINA

Xi underscores firm implementation of major reforms: People's Daily
March 20, 2019

President Xi Jinping stressed firm implementation of major reforms at the seventh meeting of the central committee for deepening overall reform Tuesday. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, chairman of the Central Military Commission and head of the central committee for deepening overall reform, presided over and addressed the meeting. Click here to read... [5]

China to build 30,000-tonne nuclear-powered ship described as ‘experimental platform’: South China Morning Post
March 20, 2019

China will soon start building a 30,000-tonne nuclear-powered ship described in the tender documents as an “experimental platform”. The country does not yet have a nuclear-propelling surface vessel, although its fast-growing navy is widely believed to have nuclear aircraft carriers in the pipeline. Click here to read... [6]