Author: newsdesk

  • ‘Target political opponents instead of fighting with the establishment’: Pervaiz Elahi

    ‘Target political opponents instead of fighting with the establishment’: Pervaiz Elahi

    Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) and Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi while giving an interview to Voice of America (VOA) said that the no-confidence motion succeeded against a sitting government and the establishment did nothing about it.

    Commenting on the neutrality of the establishment, Elahi said, “Can there be more neutrality than this? So it is not correct to say that they are not neutral. They [establishment] are neutral so target political opponents instead of fighting with the establishment.”

    Talking about the relations between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and the establishment, Elahi said, “We are also trying to improve the relations between Imran Khan and the establishment. Whenever we went to Khan Sahib, we said that we don’t need to fight.”

    Chaudhry said that during the three-and-a-half-year rule, Khan’s relations with the establishment kept fluctuating on the foreign policy front but issues were resolved, adding that he is ready to play his part in improving relations with the establishment. “While some misunderstandings were created regarding Saudi Arabia and other countries.”

    The Speaker Punjab Assembly questioned the present governemnt and said why the government is looking for anonymity, and why it wants someone else’s intervention? “The government must deliver and lower the prices of goods, let Shehbaz Sharif show his mechanics and solve the problem of electricity.”

    “I have been with Sharifs for 22 years, and the track record of Sharif’s relationship with us was not good, Sharifs have always cheated us and we have always been with them, so we don’t want to repeat the same mistake,” said Elahi.

    When asked if Elahi will take charge as governor after the former governor of Punjab was sacked, he replied that he is still consulting his lawyers and has been advised to wait for the conclusion of the cases pending in courts.

    On early polls, Elahi said that Imran Khan wanted an early election for the national assembly constituencies only.

    “He wants the provincial assemblies to complete their terms,” Elahi told VOA Urdu, “there is no harm in holding polls for the national assembly now and provincial assemblies later.”

    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Fact Check: Sri Lankan ministers were not stripped and interrogated
    
			
    Fact Check: Sri Lankan ministers were not stripped and interrogated
    
			
    Claim: Sri Lankan ministers were stripped down, beaten and harassed by the public.
    

    Fact: This video shows Sri Lankan inmates of an open prison who are being interrogated for allegedly attacking protesters 
    

    On May 13, 2022 several social media users in Pakistan tweeted a video showing a group of half-naked men pleading a larger crowd as the people making the video seemed to be humiliating them. This video was shared extensively on WhatsApp. Some of these posts and tweets on social media can be seen here, here, here, here and here.
    

    However, The Current Check observed that this video was being used out of context, with the caption that it depicts Sri Lankan ministers being humiliated by the public for participating in widespread corruption. 
    

    Through a reverse image search of six different keyframes of the video, we discovered that it was first tweeted on May 10, 2022 by Sri Lankan Twitter users claiming that this was a video of prisoners who attacked the protesters at Gota Go Gama. Soon after the video was first posted on Twitter, several Sri Lankan news channels including Daily Mirror, News First and others such as NDTV also started covering it and reporting it to belong to an instance of interrogating prisoners who attacked protesters. According to a translation of the video shared by India Today it becomes clear that these prisoners were from Watareka Open Prison Camp and a jailer had taken them to the protest site. This was a protest against former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa who along with his family is on the run as Sri Lanka slips deeper into economic downfall and political turmoil. 
    

    VERDICT: FALSE [OUT OF CONTEXT]
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Bitcoin surrenders weekend gains, slides 5 per cent
    
			
    Bitcoin surrenders weekend gains, slides 5 per cent
    
			
    Cryptocurrencies continued their steady decline on May 16, surrendering the gains made over the weekend as regulators loomed.
    

    European authorities have reinforced their warnings about the vulnerabilities of cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin slumped 5 per cent to roughly $29,700 in Asian trade on Monday, falling alongside markets amid concerns about burgeoning inflation and borrowing costs.
    

    As the catastrophic collapse of TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin, has roiled crypto markets already plunging amid widespread selling of risky assets, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has lost almost a fifth of its value so far this month.
    

    Read more: Pakistani rupee crashes to historic low of Rs194 against US dollar
    

    Stablecoins are vulnerable to investor runs, according to the US Federal Reserve, because they are underpinned by commodities that could depreciate or become worthless in adverse economic conditions.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    UN lists Pakistan among 23 drought-hit countries
    
			
    UN lists Pakistan among 23 drought-hit countries
    
			
    According to the United Nations ‘Global Land Outlook’ report, Pakistan is one of 23 nations that have experienced drought in the last two years (2020-2022).
    

    The report, released by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) ahead of World Drought Day (June 17), lists the highest total number of people affected by drought over the last century.
    

    The 23 countries listed by the report include Afghanis­tan, Angola, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Madagascar, Malawi, Moza­m­bique, Niger, Somalia, Sou­th Sudan, Syria, Pakistan, the United States and Zambia.
    

    The report warns that humanity has never confronted such a diverse range of known and unknown risks and hazards while interacting in a hyper-connected and fast-changing environment.
    

    By 2050, an additional 4 million square kilometres of natural areas, equivalent to the size of India and Pakistan, would require drought restoration measures, the report said.
    

    The report warned that up to 40 per cent of the planet’s land is degraded, which affects half of humanity and threatens roughly 50 per cent of the global GDP worth USD 44 trillion.
    

    

    


    

    

    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Labourers demand increase in monthly wages, pensions
    
			
    Labourers demand increase in monthly wages, pensions
    
			
    On May 15, the provincial president of the Muttahida Labour Federation (MLF) in Peshawar, Muhammad Iqbal stated that the current price hikes had made life difficult for poor workers but the government had remained silent.
    

    He remarked that the provincial and federal governments should enhance monthly wages and the Employees’ Old-Age Benefit Institution pension in relation to the country’s current price hikes and inflation, speaking during a protest gathering staged in honour of May Day here at Shobra Chowk.
    

    The leader was of the view that workers had played a critical part in the country’s progress, but that each subsequent government had crushed them under one excuse or another. He claimed that the government and investors had teamed up to close down industrial units in the province as part of a well-planned plot.
    

    Read more: Pakistan’s textile exports surge by 30 per cent
    

    Iqbal said that the authorities should take measures to protect the rights of lower-paid strata and labourers in order to ease their lives.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    ‘Don’t want to hand over government vehicles and houses to thieves’: Fawad Chaudhry
    
			
    ‘Don’t want to hand over government vehicles and houses to thieves’: Fawad Chaudhry
    
			
    Former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry was recently asked about the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) members who resigned but have yet to hand over government vehicles and houses back to the administration.
    

    While talking to the media, Fawad responded, “[We] did not want to hand over government vehicles and houses to thieves.”
    

    Fawad was also asked about the possible arrest of the PTI chairperson Imran Khan, and Chaudhry said that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah would be mad if he arrested Imran Khan. “Whoever will arrest Imran Khan, it will be difficult for him to stay in Pakistan.”
    

    Former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed on Sunday warned that if Imran Khan is arrested, Pakistan will turn into Sri Lanka.
    

    Rasheed said that if Khan is arrested, PTI has already devised a strategy to deal with the situation, adding that the country would plunge into a political crisis and would witness a situation like the one in Sri Lanka. 
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Two boys  arrested for listening to Pakistani song in India
    
			
    Two boys  arrested for listening to Pakistani song in India
    
			
    Two people were arrested in India for allegedly attempting to disrupt national integrity by playing pro-Pakistani music on their mobile phones. An FIR was also registered against Naeem and Mustikm, Indian media has reported. 
    

    A video of the incident, in which a shopkeeper can be seen listening to “Pakistan Zindabad” slogans, has gone viral on the internet. A fellow resident of the village complained to the police that the pro-Pakistan music was being played. 
    

    

    


    

    

    

    The boys have been slapped with Section 153B (imputation, assertions, prejudicial to national integration), 504 (intentional insult), and 506 (criminal intimidation. The FIR states that when the complainant asked the two to stop listening to the songs, they allegedly started hurling abuses and said “bad things” about India.
    

    On other hand, the Pakistani song Pasoori has been trending in India since its release. Many Bollywood celebrities including Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Jasmin Bhasin were seen grooving to the song. 
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    Gas supply only three times a day?
    
			
    A few days ago, the news was doing rounds on social media that gas will be supplied to consumers only at certain times in winter.  
    

    According to news shared on the Internet, Sui Northern Gas and the Ministry of Petroleum have planned to provide gas to consumers in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa three times a day, during breakfast, lunch and dinner time.
    

    Ministry of energy took to Twitter to clarify that the news circulating is not true. 
    

    “Misleading news is being shared on different TV channels that gas will be provided to domestic consumers only three times a day. No such decision has been taken by the Ministry of Energy. However, the ministry has directed Sui Northern officials to ensure supply of gas to domestic consumers during the meal timings,” the ministry tweeted.
    

    

    


    

    

    

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    Hyundai Sonata 2.5 will now cost Rs7.85 million
    
			
    Hyundai Sonata 2.5 will now cost Rs7.85 million
    
			
    Like the majority of automakers in Pakistan, Hyundai Nishat has joined the price hike bandwagon by raising the price of its sedan offerings; the Elantra GLS, Sonata 2.0, and Sonata 2.5 variants, due to increased shipping costs and continuous depreciation of the local currency.
    

    The premium category sedan, Hyundai Sonata 2.0 witnessed an increase of Rs140,000 in its earlier rate of Rs6,859,000. After the price hike, the car costs Rs6,999,000. Hyundai Sonata’s top trim will now be sold at Rs7,849,000 after a price increase of Rs100,000 in its previous price of Rs7,749,000.
    

    Hyundai Elantra GLS after getting a price of Rs150,000 will be offered at Rs4,949,000, the exact model was previously sold at Rs4,799,000.
    

    Read more: Pakistani rupee crashes to historic low of Rs194 against US dollar
    

    Almost every local or imported sedan is now out of reach of the masses as the auto industry has been massively affected by the ongoing devaluation of the Pakistani currency against the US dollar, increased freight charges along with the premium culture (own trend) in the country.
    

    
			
    
		
    
		
	
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    ‘Establishment ne tumhara number block keeya hai’: Maryam Nawaz tells IK
    
			
    ‘Establishment ne tumhara number block keeya hai’: Maryam Nawaz tells IK
    
			
    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz on Sunday took a jibe at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and said that the way Khan was “crying” shows that the “establishment has blocked [his] number”.
    

    “Let me tell you that the number you are trying to call has been changed. Whenever you try to call on that number, you get a message that you do not have access to this facility anymore”, said Maryam.
    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    Maryam’s comments come after Imran Khan’s claim that the establishment is messaging him but he is not ready to talk to them. Khan said that he has blocked their numbers. 
    

    “This liar [Imran Khan] has crossed all limits of dishonesty. Allah Almighty humiliated him and removed him from power.”  
    

    

    


    

    

    

    “This inflation-monger Khan is saying today that inflation has gone up. In fact, when he says that inflation has increased, he is presenting a charge sheet against himself. When he says that the dollar has gone up, he presents a charge sheet against himself as [this is his government’s fault],” she said.
    

    

    


    

    

    

    “If you have a video, don’t wait for any accident. You will see that Nawaz Sharif will provide you more security than even Shehbaz Sharif,” said Maryam to Khan.