Author: newsdesk

  • ‘Iss ladlay ko bachaya ja raha tha’: Rana Sanaullah claims that Bajwa and Faiz facilitated Khan until November 28

    ‘Iss ladlay ko bachaya ja raha tha’: Rana Sanaullah claims that Bajwa and Faiz facilitated Khan until November 28

    Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has claimed that former army chief General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and ex-Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Gen (retd) Faiz Hameed facilitated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan until November 28, a day before Bajwa retired and passed over the command of the army to General Asim Munir.

    Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Naya Pakistan’ on Friday, Sanaullah said, “Iss ladlay ko bachaya ja raha tha” (They were protecting their favourite).

    Declaring that Khan has “gone crazy” after being denied the facilitation which he was previously being provided, “to bring him to the streets”. Backed by this facilitation he wanted to launch a long march and seize Islamabad, Rana Sanaullah said.

    Moreover, he claimed that Imran Khan’s long march was all about the appointment of the new army chief.

    The minister also denied that General Bajwa was going to retire in November. “The date came and he had to retire,” Sanaullah disclosed, hinting that the ex-COAS wanted to continue in his post.

    On February 2, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice-President Maryam Nawaz claimed that her party’s actual rule commenced after November 28 as before this date, the PTI chief’s patrons were still holding powerful positions.

  • 97% of nikahnamas in past six years have not given women the right to divorce in Punjab

    97% of nikahnamas in past six years have not given women the right to divorce in Punjab

    Sixty per cent of the “nikahnamas” (marriage registration forms), registered in Punjab from 2016 to 2022, were found to be incomplete, according to a diagnostic study titled “Protecting Women’s Marriage Rights in Pakistan”, The News has reported.

    The Inter-Provincial Working Group on Protecting Women’s Marriage Rights conducted its first working group meeting on Thursday, during which the study’s conclusions were addressed.
    The third meeting in a series of working groups was held to address regional variations in Pakistani law and the framework for its implementation.

    “The diagnostic study shows that the bride’s CNIC number was missing in 48 per cent of the total ‘nikahnamas’ out of which 75 per cent of bride’s were marked as between the age of 16-18. Only 8 per cent of ‘nikahnamas’ contained the right of monthly allowance, 39 per cent had ‘nan nafqah/haq maher’ documentation column crossed out or left blank and 97 per cent of the ‘nikahnamas’ did not give delegation of right of divorce out of which 40 per cent had the column crossed or left blank. In addition, 51 per cent of the forms did not contain any special conditions,” read The News report.

    “There are different laws and policies such as Article 11-3 and Article 25 A of the constitution which give a differing interpretation of the age of child. There should be uniformity and consensus in federal and provincial laws,” said Chairperson NCHR Rabiya averi Agha while emphasising the importance of focusing on the ‘nikkahnama’ as a legal document to ensure protection of women marriage rights.”

  • ‘How we find new ways to embarrass ourselves internationally’: Twitter not happy with Wikipedia ban

    ‘How we find new ways to embarrass ourselves internationally’: Twitter not happy with Wikipedia ban

    The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday blocked Wikipedia in the country for not removing sacrilegious content from the website.

    “Action was taken because some of the content is still available on Wikipedia after the expiry of a 48-hour deadline,” wrote Bloomberg while quoting a spokesperson of the telecom regulator.

    Earlier this week PTA restricted access to Wikipedia for Pakistanis for 48 hours.

    In a series of tweets from its official Twitter account, PTA has said that the free online encyclopedia had “sacrilegious” content, despite being asked by PTA to remove it.

    The access to the website will be resumed in Pakistan after the removal of the sacrilegious content.

    Twitter is reacting to the ban, with most people criticising the ban on one of the world’s largest crowd-sourced platforms.

    Have a look at the reactions:

    https://twitter.com/nmemon2004/status/1621802574893518848
  • Weekly Inflation jumps 34.5% from last year due to petrol and food prices

    Weekly Inflation jumps 34.5% from last year due to petrol and food prices

    According to official statistics released on Friday, prices rose at their fastest pace in more than four months in the outgoing week, mostly due to rises in the cost of food and petroleum.

    Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) data showed that as a result, short-term inflation increased from the previous week’s 32.6 per cent to 34.5 per cent on an annual basis for the week that ended on February 2, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

    The week-on-week inflation figure also jumped to 2.8 per cent from 0.45 per cent a week ago. Of the 51 items tracked, prices of 32 items increased, one item decreased, whereas those of 18 items remained unchanged.

    The 34.5 per cent surge in prices is the highest increase since the week ending Sept 15, 2022, when the SPI inflation was recorded at 40.6 per cent.

    The items whose prices increased the most compared to the previous year were onions (up 556.36 per cent), chicken (90.9 per cent), eggs (81.7 per cent), diesel (81.4 per cent), petrol (68.8 per cent), tea (63.9 per cent), broken basmati rice (63.4 per cent), rice Irri-6/9 (62.4 per cent), pulse moong (61.1 per cent), bananas (57.4 per cent), gram pulse (53.2 per cent), bread (48.8 per cent), wheat flour (48.4 per cent), powdered salt (48.1 per cent), maash pulse (46.2 per cent), LPG (43.8 per cent), mustard oil (42.1 per cent), and washing soap (42 per cent).

    Prices of tomatoes (62 per cent), powdered chillies (15.3 per cent), electricity (12.3 per cent) and gur (0.27 per cent) dropped.

    On a week-on-week basis, the highest change was noted in the prices of garlic (17.1 per cent), gram pulse (7.1 per cent), bananas (4.8 per cent), chicken (4.4 per cent), mash pulse (3.9 per cent), masoor pulse (3.9 per cent), mustard oil (3.5 per cent), eggs (3.4 per cent), moong pulse (2.3 per cent), sugar (2.3 per cent), vegetable ghee (2.13 per cent), and broken basmati rice (2.12 per cent), LPG (17.6 per cent), petrol (16.2 per cent), and diesel (15.3 per cent).

    The SPI increased by 1.71 per cent for the lowest-income group (i.e. people earning below Rs17,732 per month) and by 3.3 per cent for the group with a monthly income of more than Rs44,175, according to the PBS.

  • Video: Chinese company hands over $9 million bonus to employees from mountain of cash

    A video of a Chinese company handing over bonuses to employees from a huge pile of cash has gone viral. The owner of the crane-manufacturing company has distributed $9 million in bonuses from a mountain of money.

    Cui Peijun, the founder and owner of Henan Mine, celebrated bumper sales in 2022 by distributing $740,000 per person to the company’s top five sales managers.

    The company also organised a cash counting competition in which participants took as many 100-yuan notes as they could count in a given period of time.
    Videos show employees wearing red scarves leaving the stage while carrying bundles of cash.

  • Mobile phones, junk food and energy drinks banned in Punjab schools

    Mobile phones, junk food and energy drinks banned in Punjab schools

    The Punjab School Education Department has banned mobile phones, junk food and energy drinks in all private schools across the province, ARY has reported.
    The notification issued by the education Department instructed administrators of all private schools to strictly enforce adherence to the new guidelines.

    Monitoring teams will frequently visit private schools to check on the application of new policies.

    Junk food and sodas are banned in schools in many countries, including some states in India.

  • Sheikh Rasheed booked in another case for speaking against Bilawal

    Sheikh Rasheed booked in another case for speaking against Bilawal

    Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief and Former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed has been booked in another case in Karachi for allegedly using inappropriate language against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

    On Thursday, Rasheed was handed over on a two-day physical remand for accusing former President Asif Ali Zardari of plotting an assassination attempt on Imran Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

    In the early hours of February 2, Rasheed was arrested from his home in Islamabad.

    Islamabad court grants 2-day physical remand of Sheikh Rasheed

    An Islamabad court on Thursday granted police two-day physical remand of Ahmed, hours after the politicians was arrested in connection with remarks he made against Zardari.

    ‘My crime is that I’m standing with Khan’: Rasheed arrested for levelling allegations against Zardari

    Rasheed was arrested late last night after Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Rawalpindi Division President Raja Inayat Ur Rehman filed a case against him in Islamabad’s Aabpara Police Station for alleging that Zardari was hatching a plot to assassinate the Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan.

    The FIR said that Rasheed’s allegations were designed to get PTI and the PPP to fight each other, disrupting the country’s peace.

    Three sections — 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) — have been added to the FIR.

    Talking to the media after his arrest, Rasheed said he feared for his life.

    “My crime is that I’m standing with Imran Khan,” he said at the Polyclinic hospital in Islamabad, where he was taken for a medical checkup.

    “I have been a minister 16 times. Never for a single time, I have been charged with corruption in these ministries,” he added.

    Rasheed alleged that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah is behind his arrest.

    Former Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the arrest of his close aide and blamed the interim Punjab government — Moshin Naqvi — of being biased.

    “Question is can Pak afford a street movement which we are being pushed towards at a time when Imported Govt has bankrupted us?” he asked.

    Khan in January alleged that Zardari was hatching as well as financing a plot to assassinate him, for which the ex-president had hired “terrorists”.

    “…there’s a Plan C. Asif Zardari is behind it. He has amassed a lot of money through corruption and he has invested that money in terrorists and hired a militant organisation,” the PTI chief had alleged. However, the PPP strongly denied the claim and served a legal notice to Khan.

  • Fawad cries on live TV recalling his kids visiting him in jail

    Fawad cries on live TV recalling his kids visiting him in jail

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry cried on Kashif Abbasi’s show on ARY while recalling the time his kids visited him in jail.

    A visibly teary-eyed Chaudhry said, “It was bad”.

    Senior journalist Kashif Abbasi told the former minister that it must have been a devastating time for the family, especially the kids. Abbasi added that Chaudhry’s children were told that Papa was out due to an official trip.

    https://twitter.com/PakForeverIA/status/1621168257255485441?s=20&t=0v5w9F90XMu7xZ5VDki6ng

    With tears in his eyes, Chaudhry said, “Of course, what could we tell them.”

    An Islamabad district and sessions court has accepted Chaudhry’s bail petition in the case registered against him for threatening Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) officials and their families on February 1.

    The bail was accepted on the condition that he will not repeat any words that can incite violence against a constitutional institution.

    Chaudhry was arrested outside his house in Lahore on January 25, after the case was registered against him in Islamabad.

  • Pakistan will have to agree to ‘unimaginable’ IMF conditions for bailout: PM Shehbaz

    Pakistan will have to agree to ‘unimaginable’ IMF conditions for bailout: PM Shehbaz

    The government will have to accept “beyond imagination” International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout requirements, according to Pakistan’s Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif, who made the statement on Friday in a meeting of civil and military leaders in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

    In order to avoid backlash before the upcoming elections in October, the administration has refused to implement the tax increases and subsidy reductions that the IMF has required.

    “I will not go into the details but will only say that our economic challenge is unimaginable. The conditions we will have to agree to with the IMF are beyond imagination. But we will have to agree with the conditions,” PM Shehbaz said.

    In the midst of political unrest, a deteriorating security situation, and a balance of payments crisis caused by its high levels of foreign debt, Pakistan’s economy is in terrible circumstances.

    The nation’s central bank announced Thursday that its foreign exchange holdings had decreased once again to $3.1 billion, which analysts said was just enough to cover imports for fewer than three weeks.

    On Wednesday, year-over-year inflation reached a 48-year high, making it difficult for Pakistanis to afford food products.

    With the possibility of national bankruptcy looming and no friendly countries prepared to give less painful bailouts, Islamabad started to submit to pressure ahead of the IMF visit.

    To manage a rogue illicit market in US dollars, the government relaxed regulations on the rupee, which led to the currency falling to historic lows. Additionally, artificially low gasoline costs have increased.

    A backlog of thousands of cargo containers filled with material the countrycannot afford is accumulating at Karachi port as a result of the government no longer providing letters of credit, with the exception of necessary food and medication.

    IMF advises Pakistan to fetch additional revenue

    The IMF has suggested the Pakistani government implement significant, high-quality, and long-lasting tax and non-tax revenue initiatives in order to raise extra funds to close the anticipated Rs. 600 billion fiscal framework shortfall.

    Currently in Pakistan, an IMF delegation led by Mission Chief Nathan Porter is having discussions for the ninth review, which will go through February 9.

    After months of resistance, the government was finally obliged to agree to all the terms laid forth by the Washington-based lender due to the country’s declining foreign exchange reserves and deteriorating economic circumstances.

    Following the conclusion of the negotiations under the $6.5 billion Extended Fund Facility, a staff-level agreement is anticipated.

  • Khan will not contest in upcoming National Assembly by-polls

    Khan will not contest in upcoming National Assembly by-polls

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has decided not to contest on National Assembly (NA) vacant seats, multiple media outlets have reported.

    According to Geo News, former Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) of the PTI will participate in the upcoming national assembly by-elections. Khan has reportedly directed them to submit their nomination papers and start election campaigns in their constituencies.

    A day earlier, Khan also withdrew his nomination papers from National Assembly Constituency NA-193.

    It is pertinent to mention that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced that by-elections for 33 vacant seats will be held on March 16.

    PTI leaders had announced that their party chief will contest on 33 seats out of 35 seats, leaving aside the two women’s reserved seats.

    On Thursday, it was reported that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) will also participate in the upcoming by-polls with the party completing the process of finalising its candidates.

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