BAGHDAD –  Islamic State militants on Friday captured the main government compound in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western Anbar province, after fierce clashes with security forces.
Ramadi's Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisi says the militants raised the black flag of ISIS over the area after troops were forced to withdraw from the compound, which houses most of the city's government offices.
He said the IS militants, who also seized other parts of the city, are now attacking the Anbar Operation Command, the military headquarters for the province.
Dalaf said at least 10 policemen were killed in the fighting and dozens of other security forces were wounded. He said IS militants killed several captured policemen and army officers in the city, where most civilians have fled.
U.S. troops saw some of the heaviest fighting of the eight-year Iraq intervention in Anbar, and Ramadi was a major insurgent stronghold. The IS group captured the nearby city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in January 2014, months before its main sweep across northern and western Iraq.
The IS assault on the Ramadi government compound began with three nearly simultaneous suicide car bombings. Two Humvees previously seized from the Iraqi army were used in Friday's attack, al-Kubaisi said.
Dozens of families were forced to flee their homes in the area, said Athal al-Fahdawi, an Anbar councilman.
The head of Anbar's provincial council, Sabah Karhout, appealed to the central government in Baghdad to send reinforcements and urged the U.S.-led coalition to increase airstrikes against the militants in Ramadi.
"The city is undergoing vicious attack by Daesh and we are in dire need of any kind of assistance," Karhout said, using the Arabic acronym for the IS group.

43 killed in attack on bus carrying Ismailis in Karachi

Security officials cordon off the area at the scene of an attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, May 13, 2015. — Reuters

People visit a local hospital following an attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 13, 2015. — AP

Ismailis mourn following an attack by gunmen on a bus carrying Ismailis outside a hospital in Karachi on May 13, 2015. —AFP

Pakistani residents gather at the scene of an attack by gunmen on a bus carrying Ismailis in Karachi on May 13, 2015. — AFP

Police cordon off the site of an attack by gunmen in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 13, 2015. — AP

Paramilitary troops stand guard outside a local hospital following an attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 13, 2015.— AP

A plain-clothes police official collects evidence at the scene of the attack by gunmen on a bus carrying Ismailis in Karachi on May 13, 2015. —AFP

Ambulances and people gather gather outside a hospital after an attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, May 13, 2015. — Reuters

A paramilitary solder stands guard on a van outside a hospital after an attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, May 13, 2015. — Reuters

Security officials cordon off the area at the scene of an attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, May 13, 2015. — Reuters

People visit a local hospital following an attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 13, 2015. — AP

KARACHI: At least 43 people were killed and 13 others wounded on Wednesday when armed men opened fire inside a bus carrying members of the Ismaili community near Safoora Chowk in Karachi.

Sindh Police Inspector General Ghulam Haider Jamali said that 60 people were on board the bus when six gunmen entered and executed 43 passengers.

He added that the armed men used 9mm pistols in the massacre. The attackers managed to flee after the attack.

Hospital sources have so far confirmed that the dead include 25 men and 16 women. Police officials said that there were no children among the casualties.

All victims were shot from a close-range.

Rana M Razzaq, a security coordinator at the Memon Medical Center, told Dawn that, "One young girl hid and survived. Three or four others who were brought to the hospital have survived...the rest are all dead."

Map showing the site of the attack. ─ Dawn GIS

Jundullah claims attack

Ahmed Marwat, a spokesman for Jundullah which is a splinter group of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), talking to Reuters claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Al Qaeda affiliated group that started off from South Waziristan has targetted Shia minorities and foreign tourists in the past as well. In November last year, the group had pledged support to Islamic State (IS).

A view of a pamphlet left by the attackers at the scene of attack.

In the past, the proscribed group has claimed several attacks including a blast near the Wagah border in November 2014 and the July 2013 attack on the compound of Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in Sukkur. It has also claimed the several attacks on polio workers across the country.

Attackers entered bus and fired

A survivor of the attack recorded her statement before the police and said that the attackers entered the bus from the rear portion a few minutes after its departure.

She added that the occupants of the bus thought that robbers had embarked on the vehicle.

The assailants subdued the driver and separated (two) children from the others, the victims said and added that, “They told the passengers to keep their head low. One of the attackers situated in the rear side of the bus then ordered his associates to ‘shoot every one’ after which they indiscriminately targeted all passengers of the bus.”

All attackers were speaking fluent Urdu according to the survivor.

A rescue official quoted a victim as saying that the attackers were dressed in police uniforms.Secretary Al Azhar Garden said that the bus leaves daily at 9am and has been operating for the past 10 years. Today it was attacked around 9:30 am, he said.

A rescue official displays casings collected from the scene of an attack on a bus, in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednesday, May 13, 2015. — AP

Investigation Officer Tariq Jadoon told Dawn that some blue caps, which are used by security guards, have also been recovered from the crime scene along with 9mm casings.

A plain-clothes police official holds up evidence collected from the scene of an attack by gunmen on a bus carrying Ismailis in Karachi on May 13, 2015.— AFP

A senior police official, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the media, told Dawn that the attackers entered the bus and shot the passengers in the head.

“The gunmen stopped the bus and first fired at it from outside,” a policeman told AFP. “Then they entered inside the bus and open fire indiscriminately. After that they checked to see if anyone was left uninjured."

“The bus had a capacity of 52 passengers but it was overloaded and dozens of people were boarding it. Most of them were from (the) Ismaili community,” he added.

Names of Safoora massacre victims

The Sindh government has released the list comprising names of those killed in the bus firing incident, within the jurisdiction of Sachal Police Station.

The unfortunate victims included Shireen, wife of Faqdar; Zahida, wife Syed; Arifa, daughter of Ameer Ali; Aneela, wife of Zulfiqar; Yasmim, wife of Nazar Ali; Shamim, wife of Shaukat; Saiedh, daughter of Peer Mohammad; Wali, wife of Qasim; Zubaida, wife of Akbar; Shamim, wife of Ameer Ali; Zubaida, wife of Nazar Ali; Ameena, wife of Nazar; Neelam, wife of Rizwan; Asmeera, wife of Saleem; Sonia, wife of Ranish; Areesha, wife of Zulfiqar and Laila, wife of Sultan.

All these ladies were stated to be aged between 20 to 50 years.

While the men who lost their lives in the unfortunate incident included Nazar Ali: Noor Mohammad Kadiwal; Sayed Nazar Manpura; Jawaid Dilawa Manpura; Liaquat Noorji Ladjipura; Nazar Miyaji Sunesra; Rajab Ali Kuwara; Rizwan Raheem Badarpura; Raheem Mianji Sherwa; NoorAli Bhai; Abdul Wale; Ramzan Wali; Sultan Qasim Varsilla and others.

Ismaili community attacked: police

Pakistan has seen a rising tide of sectarian violence in recent years, particularly against Shias — of which the Ismaili community is a sub-sect — who make up around 20 per cent of the country's predominantly Muslim population.

“The dead and injured have been shifted to the private Memon Medical Center nearby,” an official of the Ismaili National Council, a group which represents the community said.

The bus belongs to the Al-Azhar Garden Colony, which is an Ismaili community housing project in Karachi. It was on its regular route headed towards Federal B Area of Karachi.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah strongly condemned the firing incident and condoled with the victims.CM Sindh, CCPO take notice

He ordered immediate suspension of the area’s Station House Officer (SHO) and District Superintendent of Police (DSP).

“The SHO, DSP have been suspended, we will find out whether the bus had security, whether they had asked for it or not,” the provincial chief minister said. “If there is a security lapse, it will be investigated.”

He announced a compensation of Rs500,000 for the heirs of those killed in the massacre and a Rs200,000 compensation for those wounded in the attack.

Shah also announced that the government will bear all expenses incurred for the treatment of the victims.

Taking notice of the firing incident, Sindh IG Ghulam Haider Jamali directed Additional IG Ghulam Qadir Thebo to immediately submit a preliminary report in this regard, according to a press release.

He also directed security forces to facilitate emergency rescue services in shifting of injured to hospitals for treatment. He ordered the early arrest of criminals involved.

Sindh Inspector General Ghulam Haider Jamali speaking to media representatives after the deadly attack on a bus carrying Ismaili passengers. — DawnNews screengrab

COAS cancels Sri Lanka visit

Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif cancelled his visit to Sri Lanka and departed for Karachi following the attack on Ismaili community members in the city.

In a tweet posted on Twitter, Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Asim Bajwa said that Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Raheel Sharif on Wednesday cancelled his pre-scheduled three-day visit to Sri Lanka in light of the attack in Karachi.

Condemnations pour in

Condemnations poured in soon after today's deadly attack on the bus. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the incident. He sought a report into the incident and extended condolences over the loss of lives.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also strongly condemned the attack, according to a statement. Bilawal sympathised with the victims and urged for stern action against the terrorists.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan also strongly condemned the attack and expressed grief over the murder of citizens.

He added that this incident raises questions over the provincial government's performance pertaining to peace in the province. The government must provide complete medical facilities to the injured and take strict action against those responsible for this attack, he said.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned “in the strongest possible terms” Wednesday's terrorist attack on a bus in Karachi and called on Pakistan to bring to justice the perpetrators of this “despicable act”.

He urged the Government of Pakistan to take swift measures aimed at effective protection of minorities in the country, a statement by Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The secretary-general extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and to the government and people of Pakistan.

He wished a speedy recovery to those injured in the attack.

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain expressed deep grief and sorrow over the attack. He said this attack is the worst form of terrorism and those behind the attack are savages.

The Ismailis in Pakistan are a peaceful, progressive and largely apolitical community predominantly working in the health and education sectors.

In the past there has been anti-Ismaili violence in Chitral and Gilgit-Baltistan, mostly in the form of communal flare-ups.

In 2013, a bomb attack at Karachi's Aisha Manzil killed four and injured 42 others. The outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the earlier attacks.

Today’s massacre was the worst anti-Shia attack since January 30, when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in the southern Shikarpur district, killing 61.

Anti-Shia attacks have been increasing in recent years in Karachi and also in Quetta, the northwestern area of Parachinar and the far northeastern town of Gilgit.

Around 1,000 Shias have been killed in the past two years in Pakistan, with many of the attacks claimed by the hardline Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) who view them as heretics.

Ismailis are known for their progressive Islamic views. Their spiritual leader Prince Karim Aga Khan is a globally renowned philanthropist and business magnate.

— Mateen Haider contributed to the reporting of this story

Blues legend B.B. King dies at 89

Guitarist B.B. King, who took the blues from rural juke joints to the mainstream and influenced a generation of rock guitarists from Eric Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughan, has died, the Los Angeles Times reported late on Thursday. He was 89.

King, who will forever be linked with the Gibson guitars he named Lucille, died in Las Vegas, the newspaper quoted his attorney as saying.

King was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the 1980s. He was hospitalized in April for a few days after suffering from dehydration related to the disease. In May he said in a Facebook post that he was in hospice care at his home.

King had a deep, resonant singing voice and, despite having what he called "stupid fingers," an immediately recognizable guitar sound.

His unique style of trilling the strings with a fluttering left-hand vibrato, which he called it "the butterfly," helped shape early rock. He delivered stinging single-note licks that brimmed with emotion and were copied by white rock guitarists including Jeff Beck and Bonnie Raitt.

Review: In Bombay Velvet, American storytelling collides with old Mumbai

It’s the late 1960s. Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar are holding strong, various Kapoors are running all over the screen, Dharmendra has already taken off his shirt, and Amitabh Bachchan has made his first picture.

Yet, the face on the poster that street thug Balraj (Ranbir Kapoor) worships belongs to James Cagney, the American icon from the 1930s and ’40s ‒ one of cinema’s original angry young men. As he watches The Roaring Twenties, a film that that was made in 1939 but is playing at a Mumbai theatre all these years later, Balraj is struck by the iconic closing line that is spoken over Cagney’s corpse: “He used to be a big shot.”

Balraj badly wants to be this big shot, even if it means dying young, and it’s telling that the protagonist of Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet picks up his cues from the movies. Like Kashyap’s other films, especially Gangs of Wasseypur, his latest effort, Bombay Velvet has utmost faith in the power of cinema to influence attitudes and career choices. However, it is never clear why a ruffian trying to get in on the big game in 1969 in Mumbai needs guidance from long-dead fictional Americans.

Velvet is also influenced by references to Martin Scorsese’s reworkings of American gangster films (Scorsese is among Kashyap’s stated heroes and his long-time editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, has co-edited Bombay Velvet). It also doffs its hat to the television series Boardwalk Empire, set in the US Prohibition-era.Both character and actor are unable to free themselves from the yoking of a ’60s drama set in the city that was then known as Bombay with the moral dilemmas that gripped America during the Depression: prohibition, the rise of organised crime and the corruption of public office.

Meanwhile, there is also the source material to contend with: historian Gyan Prakash’s fabulous Mumbai Fables, an unconventional history of the metropolis. Prakash crafted Bombay Velvet’s basic story and is one of the movie’s four writers, along with Kashyap, Vasan Bala and S Thanikachalam.Mumbai Fables includes chapters on the Nanavati murder trial from the late '50s and the rise of the Shiv Sena. Bombay Velvet is concerned with the chapter on the controversial reclamation of the Arabian Sea for the city’s central business district, Nariman Point, portrayed here as an early instance of private interests colluding with the state and street muscle to push through a questionable but lucrative land deal.

Period padding

This handsomely produced and always attractive retro-retelling of Mumbai's recent history – a kind of Once Upon a Time in Mumbai Again again – has been meticulously designed by Sonal Sawant and lit by cinematographer Rajeev Ravi in amber tones to create a twilight zone between dreams and nightmares. At its nub is an old-fashioned love triangle. There’s Balraj, the manager of the Bombay Velvet nightclub, star attraction Rosie (Anushka Sharma, chanelling Goan singing great Lorna Cordeiro to whom the movie is partly dedicated), and Kaizad Khambatta (Karan Johar), the club’s owner. Balraj and Rosie are in love, but Khambatta hasn’t taken Balraj off the streets to run his club because he likes the excitable young man’s curriculum vitae. Khambatta wants to own Balraj’s soul, and had the movie shed its ambitions of being a Mumbai origin story and been a study of these three characters, it would have worked just fine.

Karan Johar as Khambatta — Photo courtesy Pinkvilla

The overly busy screenplay features more multi-tasking characters than in a supermoms’ group, but perhaps nobody works as hard as Khambatta who, apart from running the club, runs the tabloid Torrent and operates a hooch racket. When he isn’t listening to Rosie sing, Balraj is getting beaten to pulp as a participant in caged wrestling bouts and argues with his childhood friend Chiman (Satyadeep Mishra) about amassing wealth. Another frequent visitor to the club is Jimmy Mistry (Manish Chaudhuri), the cigar-chomping editor of Torrent rival Glitz who is trying to bring down Khambatta through the ratatat of his typewriter.

The ardour between Balraj and Rosie, however passionless, provides the trigger for the preposterous post-intermission portion. When Chiman picks up a Thomson sub-machine gun and pays visual homage to Cagney, Paul Muni, Edward G Robinson and other leading lights of ’30s cinema, Balraj’s world, and the movie’s conceit of being a cautionary history lesson, come crashing down.

Under the influence

The nods to an American storytelling idiom are at odds with the hyper-locality of the story, which contains references to Mumbai's actual history of prohibition, jazz clubs, the Nanavati murder case (through the song 'Sylvia') and the rivalry between the tabloids Blitz and Current. Mistry has been inspired by Blitz's charismatic editor Russi Karanjia, though it is impossible to believe that an influential character like Mistry or, for that matter, Khambatta, would be threatened by the loutish Balraj. Kashyap also doesn’t make a convincing case about the nuclear-hot secret that these parties are shedding blood over.

Films such as Shree 420, Deewar, Satya and even the comedy Jaane Bhi Do Yaarohave all pointed to the collusion between capital and crime in Mumbai's history. Bombay Velvet depicts this collusion from the point of view of a punk who is seized by the illusion that he has a chance to move out of the gutter. Ranbir Kapoor has the Cagney template down pat: he displays guts, gumption and guns but little grey matter. It’s an all-surface and no-interior performance from an actor who is capable of suggesting depth and hidden emotions, and it doesn’t come naturally to Kapoor. He neither carries off the Mumbai patois nor suggests a complex beast who is being yanked this way and that.

The American gangster films weren’t big on complex characterisation either, but their narrative style had the directness, smoothness and impact of machine-gun fire. They also had sharp dialogue, which Bombay Velvet misses. The plot is needlessly complicated at the expense of emotion, and assembles a set of well-dressed people who seem to want to go someplace but are not quite sure where.

Anushka Sharma does a better job on the stage than off it — Photo courtesy Pinkvilla

Anushka Sharma does a better job on the stage than off it, Satyadeep Mishra and Manish Chaudhuri are effective in their roles, while Karan Johar has a whale of a time holding meetings that will decide Mumbai's future and eyeballing Balraj’s lithe frame. In between the knotty web of murder, blackmail, lies, double-cross and corruption woven by the spinners of this ‘70s yarn with ‘50s morality refracted through a projector screening ‘30s films, there is also Kay Kay Menon, playing a cop who has stepped out of a bespoke tailoring establishment.

Among the effective moments of real emotion is the song 'Dhadaam Dhadaam', where the marriage of glimpses of the action with Rosie’s performance works perfectly. The rest of the time, the montage of moments and fragments fails to make the heart skip a beat, let alone go boom-boom.

— By special arrangement with Scroll.in

New film on the horizon: Sanam Saeed and Mohib Mirza to star in Bachaanaa

New film on the horizon: Sanam Saeed and Mohib Mirza to star in Bachaanaa

It's always good news to hear of a new Pakistani film in production, especially when it's to star beloved actors like Sanam Saeed and Mohib Mirza, but the upcoming film Bachaana is doubly special for its potential to bring Pakistan and India closer together.

While Saeed will play the role of a sweet and bubbly Indian girl named Aalia, Mirza's impressive truck driving skills in Dukhtar have landed him the role of Vicky, a Pakistani taxi driver.

A behind-the-scenes look at the shoot of a heated exchange between Aalia and Vicky in Bachaana — Publicity photo

In Bachaana, Aalia runs into trouble in Mauritius and has to reach out to a stranger, Vicky, for help. Their unlikely love story unfolds in this romantic thriller, which will be screened in both Pakistan and India.

Bachanaa will be an easy, breezy, feel-good rom-com — Publicity photo

Mirza has proven himself with films like Seedlings and Dukhtar, and while we have yet to see Saeed act in a film (her debut film Mah-e-Meer is in production), her TV projects like Zindagi Gulzar Hai have won her legions of fans in both Pakistan and India.

Saeed says that through this movie, she is trying to bridge the gap between the two countries, reported IANS.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the script and Aalia’s character. She was very unlike the roles I had played before. All of us, in whatever way we can, are wanting to and trying to bridge the gaps and differences between India and Pakistan,” she said in a statement.

“We have been die-hard fans of (Indian) movies for decades, and now they are enjoying our storytelling through the small screen. Our actors are crossing borders and so are our stories now. And that is what I saw inBachaana. The film is light and easy. I was really enjoying getting into Aalia’s character with the mannerisms, clothes and diction,” she added.

Bachaana will mark the feature film debut of one Nasir Khan, whose documentary “Made in Pakistan” made the rounds of the film festival circuit to great success. The film will be produced by Rizwan Saeed, Khan's partner at his production company Talking Filmain, and will involve cast and crew from both Pakistan and India.

Director Nasir Khan reviews a scene of Bachaana with Sanam Saeed — Publicity photo

Director Khan also added his two cents about the film: “From the script to the actual shoot in Mauritius, it truly has been an adventure and if I were to sum up the film in one line, I would use the following dialogue from the movie, “Ladki Hindustani ho ya Pakistani, ladki ladki hoti hai!" (A girl is a girl, whether she’s an Indian or Pakistani!)”

Security forces kill 13 'militants' during Mastung, Kalat operation

QUETTA: Security forces claim to have killed 13 suspected militants during an extensive search operation being carried out in Kalat and Mastung districts of Balochistan during the past 36 hours.

Law enforcement agencies launched operations in the two districts of Balochistan on Thursday morning.

“Security Forces have killed 13 miscreants since yesterday," Khan Wasey, the spokesperson of Frontier Corps said in a statement issued on Friday afternoon.

Wasey added that more than one dozen militants were also arrested during the operation.

The FC spokesman said the militants belonged to a banned militant organisation involved in a series of terrorist activities in the area.

However, the forces’ claim could not be verified by local sources.

Search operation was conducted in Johan and Splinji area of Kalat and Mastung, the Spokesperson said. "A commander of the defunct group was also among the dead."

Khan Wasey said six miscreants were injured and some arrested during operation.

“Security forces also destroyed two safe havens and four motorcycles of the miscreants. More than 400 FC personnel are participating in the search operation,” he added. The forces were backed by helicopter during the operation.

In March, FC personnel had killed five militants and injured six suspected of involvement in attacks on security forces torching five oil tankers carrying fuel for the Saindak Project.

Mastung is considered a sensitive district, where security forces have been on the target of militants for over a decade.

Internal, external forces out to derail CPEC, says PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project was not being welcomed by many internal and external forces who did not want to see progress and development in the country.

“These people do not want to see the country get new roads, power houses, infrastructure, health and education,” he said while addressing a ceremony held at the Prime Minister’s Office to launch a credit guarantee scheme for small farmers.

The prime minister said that $45 billion investment in projects under the CPEC was an eyesore for many and urged the nation to pray to Almighty Allah to protect the country from intentions of the evil.

Credit guarantee scheme for small farmers launched

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He condemned Wednesday’s killing of people belonging to the Shia Ismaili community in Karachi and said the government was committed to wiping out the menace of terrorism. He said that after a unanimous decision of parliament special courts had been set up for speedy trial of terrorists.

Also read: Collateral-free lending to small farmers

Referring to his recent visit to Kabul, the prime minister said he and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had agreed to make joint efforts to counter terrorism.

AGRICULTURE: Mr Sharif said agriculture was a priority area of his government and it would be given the status of industry and the scope of agriculture credit would be expanded.

He said the scheme would benefit small farmers, improve their standard of living and bring about positive impact on the lives of people living in rural areas.

The prime minister said the agricultural sector would be provided easy loans, the livestock sector improved with a view to achieving self-sufficiency and land record would be computerised.

He said that when PML-N came to power in 2013, the national economy was in a dilapidated state and faced a number of challenges on different fronts, but it was now experiencing a boom because of tireless efforts made by his government.

Mr Sharif said that over 65 per cent of farmers owned less than five acres of land and asked banks to focus on deserving people and open their doors so that they could stand on their own feet.

He said the government wanted to improve resources for small farmers by providing them better fertilisers, pesticides and farming equipment for increased yield. He said it was not right to go out of the way to serve those who were already rich and still wanted billions of rupees in loans, but ignore those who had meagre income and really needed money.

The prime minister said the default rate of money lent to small borrowers was less than one per cent, compared to those who borrowed huge amounts.

He said Rs250 billion had been allocated for the energy sector alone under the Public Sector Development Programme in one year.

Earlier, the prime minister was briefed on the credit scheme aimed at facilitating small farmers to increase their productivity. He was informed that agriculture had a share of 21pc in the national economic growth and its products constituted 60pc of exports. Pakistan is the fourth largest cotton, eighth largest sugarcane and fifth largest milk producer in the world.

According to a UN report, over the next 10 years Pakistan will be one of the 17 countries which would face serious water crisis.

The prime minister was informed that salinity and water logging were the major problems confronting the agricultural sector.

However, measures are being taken to increase productivity, information sharing through model farms and introduction of mobile banking in rural areas.

The credit guarantee scheme has been launched by the government to encourage banks to finance small farmers.

The government, through the State Bank, has ensured provision of guarantee to banks for up to 50pc loss sharing which will benefit 300,000 farmers. The size of total disbursement will be Rs30 billion.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2015