Pakistan, China set to deepen military-to-military relations
BEIJING: The Chinese military will work closely with the Pakistan armed forces to deal with “complicated factors” in the region and reinforce cooperation between the two forces, the Chinese military leadership has told a tri-service delegation from Islamabad.
Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa held wideranging talks on Sunday with the Chinese military leadership delegation led by General Zhang Youxia, vice-chairperson of China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), headed by President Xi Jinping.
The tri-service military delegation of Pakistan visited China from June 9 to 12 where it held wide-ranging discussions with senior officials of the Chinese military and other government according to a statement by the Pakistan army.
The meeting - held under the Pakistan-china Joint Military Cooperation Committee (PCJMCC) mechanism - took place as both countries’ ties with India have plunged in the past three years.
“China is
willing
to strengthen communication, reinforce cooperation, deepen pragmatic exchanges with Pakistan, and properly deal with the complicated factors in regional situation, so as to push the military-to-military relations for further development,” Zhang, who is Xi’s deputy in the CMC, told Bajwa.
“China and Pakistan are allweather strategic cooperative partners,” Zhang was quoted as telling Bajwa in an official Chinese statement, and noting that over the years, both sides have kept close coordination and “…firmly supported each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests”.
Bajwa said the Pakistanchina friendship is unbreakable and rock-solid. “Pakistan will stand firmly with China at any time, no matter how the international and regional situation changes,” Bajwa said. by Young Indian Private Ltd (YI), in which he is a 38% shareholder; operations of National Herald; a loan of ₹90.21 crore given by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to AJL; and transactions related to development of a property in Mumbai.
Gandhi is the first member of the Nehru-gandhi family to be questioned in the case. A team of lawyers accompanied the Wayanad member of parliament but was not allowed to be present during the questioning, which began around 11.30am. The Congress leader was allowed to leave the ED office around 2pm for lunch, after which he rejoined the investigations around 3.30 pm. Questioning ended around 11pm.
To protest against the ED questioning, Congress workers took out protests in various parts of the country. Hundreds were detained in the Capital for violating prohibitory orders. Prominent among those detained in Delhi were Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Randeep Surjewala, KC Venugopal, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, and Jairam Ramesh, among others.
“Instead of appealing to the country for maintaining peace and shunning any kind of violence, the PM and home minister Amit Shah are using ED, Central Bureau of Investigation and other agencies against opposition,” said Gehlot.
Surjewala alleged that some Congress leaders sustained injuries as Delhi police beat them. “P Chidambaram was also roughed up and his rib was broken and his spectacles were found broken on the road outside AICC office,” Surjewala alleged in a video message.
ED’S probe under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) is based on an Income Tax department investigation, completed in 2017, which was based on a private complaint filed by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy in 2012. Swamy accused the Gandhis of using party funds to purchase AJL, which published National Herald newspaper. He claimed that ₹90.21 crore were transdepartments, ferred from AICC to AJL at zero interest; and that YI received 92 million shares of AJL and that Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra purchased additional shares to gain full control of the company.
Officials familiar with the probe said Rahul Gandhi was also asked why AICC gave a ₹90 crore loan to AJL when it was not in position to return it.
Sonia Gandhi has also been summoned by the ED in the case and is expected to appear before the agency on June 23. She is currently in hospital after having contracted Covid-19.
AJL was founded in November 1937 by Jawaharlal Nehru and published the National Herald, Qaumi Awaz in Urdu and Navjeevan in Hindi. Income Tax proceedings, initiated in 2017, which are the basis of ED’S probe, revealed that YI purchased the ₹90.21 crore interest free loan given by AICC to AJL, by making a payment of only ₹50 lakh to the former.
Investigators said YI was founded in November 2010, just 23 days prior to assignment of the ₹90 crore loan, with a nominal capital of ₹5 Lakh. “Young Indian did not even have any funds of its own for purchase of the loan of ₹90 crore of the AICC,” an IT department document seen by HT stated.
The Congress has repeatedly said that the transaction was done to help save the newspaper and pay the salaries of journalists and staffers at a time when AJL faced huge debts. It argues that the decision helped revive the organisation and blames the central government of raking up an old issue to target the Gandhi family and for political vendetta.
“The Opposition cannot be targeted in a democracy like this. All leaders from Kerala to Kashmir are being targeted... Democracy is being throttled and we oppose it strongly,” said Baghel.
In a press briefing, Union minister Smriti Irani accused the Congress of putting pressure on investigating agencies to keep the financial wrongdoings of the Gandhi family under wraps. She said the Congress protest was not to save democracy, but Rahul Gandhi’s properties.
The minister said questions should be asked of the Gandhi family about their links to the company, Dotex Merchandise Private Limited, which allegedly has connections with a hawala operator in Kolkata. The Financial Intelligence Unit has redflagged this company’s financial transactions, she said.
“Is it true that this company has relations with companies that are owned by Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra?” she said.
Referring to the ED’S case Irani said Associated Journals Limited (AJL), founded in 1930 with the purpose of publishing a newspaper, and with around 5,000 freedom fighters as shareholders is “now under the Gandhi family’s control” and that with the transfer of ownership, the company is not publishing newspapers but has become a real estate business. Responding to the Congress’ claim that ED is on a with hunt she said: “If you have nothing to hide what is the problem.”