Category: National

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  • New top lawyer excuses himself from fighting Justice Faez Isa case for PTI govt

    New top lawyer excuses himself from fighting Justice Faez Isa case for PTI govt

    The newly-appointed attorney general of Pakistan (AGP) — chief law officer and legal advisor of the government –, Khalid Javed Khan, has recused himself from representing the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the Justice Qazi Faez Isa case.

    Justice Faez Isa, a vocal critic of the establishment, has been facing a presidential reference accusing him of concealing his properties in the United Kingdom (UK), allegedly held in the name of his wife and children. He has submitted before the Supreme Court (SC) that these properties were bought and have always been held in plain sight in the personal names of his wife and children.

    “The government has recommended the name of Additional Attorney General (AAG) Aamir Rehman to represent it in the Supreme Court,” Khalid said Monday, adding that he could not represent the federation. “I have already stated my opinion regarding the Justice Isa reference,” he explained, while his predecessor, Anwar Mansoor Khan, who was representing the government in the case against the top court judge, withdrew his unwarranted statement and tendered unconditional apology.

    Anwar had stepped down from the post after lawyer bodies demanding his resignation for his “baseless” claims against certain judges of the SC. He was replaced by Khalid as Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan appointed him last week.

    The Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) had demanded Mansoor’s resignation over some comments he made regarding Supreme Court judges, for which he had been reprimanded by the court as well.

    During the hearing on Monday, the AGP told the court that AAG Aamir Rehman was ready for the case.

    Justice Ata Bandial, who is heading the 10-judge bench hearing the Justice Isa reference said the court would give the government additional time to prepare for the case.

    AAG Rehman had on Friday filed an application with the apex court, submitting that the hearing of the petition of Justice Isa as well as the identical petitions challenging the presidential reference fixed for February 24 may be adjourned for three weeks.

    As the hearing resumed on Monday, the AAG told the court that he would be out of the country till March 20 for some official work. On this, Justice Bandial said one of the judges on the bench would be away after March 20 and they would hear the case upon his return.

  • Malaysian PM resigns from office

    Malaysian PM resigns from office

    Malaysian Prime Minister (PM) Mahathir Mohamad, who had recently made headlines for his visit to Pakistan and for hosting his Pakistani counterpart, Imran Khan, in Malaysia, has announced his resignation, paving the way for a possible formation of a new government.

    Mahathir said in a two-line statement that he had informed the country’s king of his resignation at 1 pm Kuala Lumpur time (05:00 GMT) on Monday.

    Mahathir’s party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, has also quit the ruling government coalition, Pakatan Harapan (Alliance of Hope), according to the party president, Muhyiddin Yassin, casting doubt on the future of the partnership.

    According to AlJazeera, Mahathir’s decision follows a weekend of political wrangling, after it was reported on Sunday night that his party was planning to form a new government that would exclude his anointed successor, Anwar Ibrahim.

    On Sunday night, allies of Mahathir, some renegade members of Anwar’s People’s Justice Party (PKR), and a slew of other parliament members, including those from the opposition, held talks in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

    The meeting fueled speculation of an impending collapse of the coalition government, and a political realignment with Mahathir remaining on top, with new coalition partners and Anwar’s PKR out of the alliance. 

    The tussle between old rivals Mahathir, 94, and Anwar, 72, is the latest chapter in a long-running political saga between two of the country’s most prominent political figures.

    Anwar and Mahathir united ahead of the 2018 election to drive out the UMNO-dominated Barisan Nasional coalition that had ruled the Southeast Asian country for six decades in a surprise victory that led to the removal of then-PM Najib Razak.

    Mahathir has also repeatedly promised to hand over power to his former foe.

    But tensions between the two in their Pakatan Harapan alliance had been growing, as Mahathir resisted setting a specific timetable for keeping his promise to hand power to Anwar.

    The coalition’s political fortunes have been waning with defeat in five recent by-elections.

    Anwar also had a split with party mate, Mohamed Azmin Ali, the econonic affairs minister, who was among those who joined the meeting on Sunday night. On Monday, Anwar’s PKR announced the expulsion of Azmin as a member.

    For his part, Azmin announced that he had quit Anwar’s party, taking with him 10 renegade members of PKR, which until Monday was the dominant partner of the ruling coaltion.

    At least 112 votes from members of the 222-seat parliament are necessary to form a new government. 

    Anwar was Mahathir’s deputy when the latter was prime minister during his first stint from 1981 to 2003. But Mahathir sacked him in 1998 after they disagreed on how to handle the country’s financial crisis.

  • Pakistan has a cure for coronavirus and Chinese can’t stop thanking for it

    Pakistan has a cure for coronavirus and Chinese can’t stop thanking for it

    Pakistan has an effective drug for COVID-19, over 300,000 pieces of which have been exported to China, said an article published by Economic Daily – China Economic Net (CEN) on February 21, which has gotten 5.71 million page views and 38,000 likes.

    In nearly 10,000 comments, in addition to a lot of thanks to Pakistani friends for their help, some netizens were interested in the “multinational enterprise” mentioned in the CEN reporter’s article and wanted to know the hero behind the scenes who urgently dispensed the effective drugs at a Bayer — German multinational pharmaceutical and life sciences company — subsidiary in Pakistan.

    On February 20, after noticing that the official Weibo account of Bayer China said it had made an emergency deployment of chloroquine phosphate tablets in Pakistan at the beginning of this month, the CEN reporter quickly contacted to verify the matter.

    The official Weibo account of Bayer China confirmed the news and said that the batch of medicines was completed in 24 hours. 200,000 of the 300,000 tablets were “sold” to Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings Limited (GPHL) at zero yuan.

    READ: Iran blames Pakistan for spread of coronavirus

    Earlier, Economic Daily reported that on February 5, GPHL first purchased 15,000 tablets of chloroquine phosphate in Pakistan through various channels, and then purchased another 200,000 tablets. The drugs arrived in Guangzhou at 7 pm on February 8.

    Data from clinical trials being performed in China has revealed that chloroquine phosphate could help treat the new coronavirus disease, Covid-19.

    China National Center for Biotechnology Development deputy head Sun Yanrong said that chloroquine, an anti-malarial medication, was selected after several screening rounds of thousands of existing drugs.

    AFP has also verified claims pertaining to the effectiveness of the drug against the virus.

    It took less than four days from purchasing in Pakistan to arriving in Guangzhou. In addition to the international and domestic airline time, it is not easy for Pakistan, a country with less developed transport infrastructure that is suffering from a severe locust plague, to urgently collect, transport and cooperate to undertake the fastest international rescue for dispensing the effective drugs to treat COVID-19.

    The CEN reporter learned from further interviews that chloroquine phosphate production was suspended in China for 20 years. In order to deliver the first batch of effective drugs successfully, from February 5 to 8, in addition to GPHL and Bayer, there are many more heroes behind the scenes, such as China Southern Airlines and Urumqi Customs.

  • VIDEO: President forgets names of Balochistan governor, CM during speech

    VIDEO: President forgets names of Balochistan governor, CM during speech

    In a rather embarrassing development, President Dr Arif Alvi has forgotten the names of Balochistan Governor Amanullah Khan Yasinzai and Chief Minister (CM) Jam Kamal Khan, calling them Amanullah Khan Yousafzai and Jamal Khan Aliani instead.

    The blunder by the president came as he greeted attendees at the inaugural ceremony of the historic Sibi Mela 2020, but went unnoticed by many until Twitterati pointed it out and said it was “just the ignorant attitude of the people of Pakistan towards the country’s southwestern region of Balochistan”.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://twitter.com/sardarjamali/status/1230300542301331456

    Earlier, addressing the inaugural ceremony, the president said that the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would open up new avenues of progress and prosperity and change destiny of the country, especially Balochistan.

    He said the construction of Gwadar deep seaport, airport, oil refinery, important corridors and economic zones would provide job opportunities to the people of Balochistan, which would end poverty and bring prosperity to them.

    He said that Gwadar would emerge as a new developed part on the world’s map.

    President Alvi said that Balochistan was the most-affected area in the war against terrorism where the local people suffered a lot, adding the federal government was paying special attention to the construction and development of the province to end the sense of deprivation of the local people.

    He also said security forces of the country valiantly fought the war against militancy and terrorism and brought peace to the motherland, adding the terrorists would not succeed in their nefarious designs. Alvi said promotion of agriculture and livestock was need of the hour and the present government was fully concentrating on it as these two sectors were a big source of employment to the local people.

  • VIDEO: Zartaj Gul walks out of live show over JUI-F leader’s ‘disgusting’ remarks about her

    VIDEO: Zartaj Gul walks out of live show over JUI-F leader’s ‘disgusting’ remarks about her

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul has staged a walkout on live television to protest the “disgusting” remarks of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Hafiz Hamdullah against her.

    In a clip of the show from earlier this week, the minister can be seen expressing her disgust over what the JUI-F leader said regarding her in Pashto, in a video that went viral on Tuesday. “Such people, who do not respect women, should be boycotted by the society,” Gul tells the host of the private media outlet’s talk show before walking out in protest.

    She can also be heard urging media outlets to not invite people like Hamdullah to their talk shows, regretting that the JUI-F leader had spoken about a respectable woman such as herself, who was respected by men even in her conservative constituency of Dera Ghazi Khan.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “I don’t know if you know Pashto. But I didn’t say anything like that. She is like a sister to me. I have sisters and daughters… all women are like sisters to me,” Hamdullah tells the host after Gul’s walkout, when the anchorperson gives him a chance to explain his position and apologise if he had made those remarks.

    “The mood in which I spoke, I state under oath, I didn’t speak in a way as if I disrespect her,” Hamdullah responded. “Why would I? What issue do I have with her?

    “But despite all this… if she was hurt, then I apologise for that,” the JUI-F leader said. “I would not disrespect her even if she abused me.”

    The anchorperson praised the JUI-F leader for apologising to Gul. He, however, politely asked Hamdullah to quit the show as well.

    Meanwhile, sources informed The Current that Gul’s strong reaction had come in response to Hamdullah mocking her in a viral video, saying that his smile was great too. In an interview last month, Gul had praised Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, saying that “the world knows of his killer smile that pulls people out of crises”.

  • Inflation: PM seeks ISI, other agencies’ help

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has sought the help of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to present monitoring reports regularly, as Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan directs for a large-scale crackdown on smuggling of edibles and other commodities, The News reported.

    According to reports, the premier has asked the Interior Ministry, law enforcement agencies of the federal and provincial governments, and Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to collectively take action against the menace of smuggling. He has also directed the Interior Ministry to present a report on related measures and a comprehensive strategy on the matter within 48 hours.

    He emphasised that keeping in view the recommendations of the task force formed to combat smuggling, short-term, medium-term and long-term measures should be initiated.

    The decision was taken at a high-level meeting, presided over by PM Imran and attended by Minister for National Food Security Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Minister for Planning Asad Umar, Adviser to the PM on Commerce and Trade Abdul Razak Dawood, interior and national food security secretaries, and acting FBR chairman among other senior officials.

    The meeting took stock of the demand and supply of essential commodities and their prices with particular reference to their smuggling. The report on progress so far made on the establishment of markets at the western border was also presented at the meeting. The PM directed accelerating the pace of establishment of markets and observed that because of smuggling of food items, common man was facing difficulties.

    “The menace of smuggling is causing losses worth billions to the national economy. Combating this menace is in national interests,” he contended, adding that prices of food items must be brought down by up to 20 per cent.

    The premier also made it clear that no negligence would be tolerated with regard to smuggling.

  • Reporter, who ‘exposed’ Bilawal’s train march, ‘murdered’

    Reporter, who ‘exposed’ Bilawal’s train march, ‘murdered’

    A private media outlet’s reporter, Aziz Memon, who exposed train march of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari from March 2019, has allegedly been murdered weeks after claiming that his life was at risk amid threats from workers and leaders of Sindh’s ruling party.

    As per the details, Memon, who was a resident of Mehrabpur city and an employee of Kawish Television Network (KTN) as well as Sindhi daily Kawish, was on Sunday found in Gaddo Branch Canal with a wire wrapped around his neck, showing signs of strangulation.

    Family sources said that the deceased had asked his cameraman to drop him at a ceremony in Behlani village, and later, villagers spotted his body floating in the canal. While local police did not rule out foul play, the doctor, who conducted his autopsy, said he could not confirm if Memon was strangled to death.

    With the death drawing strong reactions from the journalist community — Association of Electronic Media Editors and News Directors among other local and national media bodies condemning the alleged murder and continued acts of violence against journalists to silence the voice of ­dissent –, veteran journalist Hamid Mir took to Twitter and revealed one of the recent threats of dire consequences received by Memon.

    “This is Aziz Memon KTN reporter from Mehrabpur Sindh he recorded this video message some time ago and informed that his life was under threat because some PPP leaders were angry with him due to his reporting he was brutally killed 2day near his home [sic],” he tweeted along with a video message by Memon wherein he was heard sharing how he and his loved ones were in danger.

    In a subsequent tweet, Mir said that the “slain” journalist was receiving threats of dire consequences for his report claiming that the PPP had paid women to participate in Bilawal’s train march.

    PPP chief Bilawal had in March 2019 launched the first phase of his party’s anti-government march by train — “Karavan-e-Bhutto” — from Karachi to Larkana.

    On the way, the PPP chairman had addressed party supporters and activists at a number of railway stations, including Landhi in Karachi, Jung Shahi in Thatta, Kotri in Jamshoro, Odero Lal in Matiari, Tando Adam, Shahdadpur and Nawabshah.

    The train had passed Daur, Padidan, Mihrabpur, Bhirya Road, Khairpur Miris, Rohri, Sukkur, Habib Kot, Gosri, Madeji and Sir Shahnawaz Bhutto to finally reach Larkana, with a large number of people — many of whom according to Memon’s report were paid to join — welcoming the caravan at every stop.

    While Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah has reportedly taken notice of the alleged murder of the 56-year-old journalist and directed the authorities concerned to ensure immediate arrest of the killers, The Current reached out to Sindh government spokesperson and adviser to CM on law, Barrister Murtaza Wahab, for a comment on claims regarding his party workers or leaders’ alleged involvement in Memon’s death.

    Condemning the death, Murtaza offered his condolences to the bereaved family and rejected the allegations levelled against the PPP leadership. “There is no truth these claims,” he said, adding that a thorough investigation will be launched into Memon’s death and the culprits would be brought to justice at all costs.

  • PTI to reintroduce patwari system in Punjab experiment

    PTI to reintroduce patwari system in Punjab experiment

    After vilifying it over the past couple of years and turning the term ‘patwari’ into a slur for leaders and supporters of its rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, in what is being called another “U-turn”, has decided to reintroduce patwari system in land revenue departments.

    A patwari is one of the most resourceful persons in any area or town despite having the lowest grade in official ranking. The reason for his immense power lies in the fact that he is responsible for land records and related issues. He is also responsible for many social, political and administrative tasks, including the record-keeping of weather and crop harvest, reporting village crimes and updating voters’ registers.

    While the PTI had risen to power after promises of getting done with patwari system, which it had back then accused of facilitating PML-N in making Punjab its stronghold, according to Dawn, a senior Punjab Land Revenue Authority (PLRA) has said that the Punjab Board of Revenue has asked divisional commissioners to allocate two revenue circles — known as kanungoi — in each district that will be controlled by a tehsildar and patwaris and serve as a model.

    In Rawalpindi, Mandra and Chakri were chosen in response to a letter from the Punjab Board of Revenue to the divisional commissioner at the end of January, and the PTI-led Punjab government’s reforms will be introduced there on an experimental basis in these two circles.

    The official said that the manual land records system had burdened the entire legal system because it could be altered by patwaris and field revenue officials, which was brought to an end by the computerised system. He said the Punjab bureaucracy is trying to persuade the government that the manual system was better than the computerised alternative.

    The report also quoted Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat as saying that reviving the patwari system had been proposed, but the government had not made a decision yet.

    He said they were completing their homework on the proposal, which would create parallel systems of manual and computerised land records systems in the province. However, he added, it would not be possible to run two parallel systems for land revenue records, and praised the project to digitise land records.

  • Lt Gen (r) Amjad Shoaib under fire for defending prime accused of APS massacre

    Lt Gen (r) Amjad Shoaib, who is among the 26 former military officers allowed by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) to appear on media as defence analysts, has drawn the ire of hundreds of social media users for defending former Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesperson and prime accused of the 2014 Army Public School (APS) Peshawar massacre, Ehsanullah Ehsan.

    “He [Ehsan] did not directly carry out attacks and was ‘brainwashed’. In fact, it is the attackers on suicide missions who are brainwashed and not the other way round,” he said while speaking to a private media outlet on the escape of the former TTP spokesperson from a military jail.

    Ehsan had last week claimed in an audio message that he was no longer in the state’s custody and had managed to flee to Turkey. A government official, commenting on the development, had stated that Ehsan had surrendered voluntarily to the government on Feb 5, 2017, under an agreement.

    Security sources had told Geo that the state launched many successful anti-terrorism operations based on information provided by Ehsan.

    With the former military officer defending Ehsan on-air, he was trained guns at by Twitterati, who said:

    “Their views/comments/opinions on media shall remain personal/independent expression and not attributable to the institution,” read an ISPR notification that allowed Shoaib among 25 other ex-military personnel to appear on television as defence analysts.

    The notification in April 2019 had come after the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) had instructed all television channels to seek prior clearance from the military’s media wing before inviting retired military officers on news and current affairs programmes “to solicit their views on matters of national security”.

  • Ghinwa Bhutto joins PTM rally

    Ghinwa Bhutto joins PTM rally

    Wife of the late Murtaza Bhutto and Pakistan People’s Party-Shaheed Bhutto (PPP-SB) chairperson Ghinwa Bhutto, in a first, has joined a gathering of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) in Karachi to show solidarity with the rights-based alliance.

    According to reports, the PTM on Sunday held a rally in Karachi to mark the first death anniversary of their comrade Arman Loni — allegedly killed during a police crackdown on a PTM protest in Loralai last year — and also demanded the release of its chief, Manzoor Pashteen.

    PTM had maintained that Loni was killed in a police crackdown and demanded that the Balochistan government take notice of his death. However, a later report did not find any marks of violence or injuries on the deceased’s body.

    The PTM had obtained permission to hold the public meeting with a crowd of 300-350 people, Deputy Inspector General (East) Amir Farooqi told a private media outlet. He added that the demonstrators had assured authorities that they would abide by the law.

    The PTM also held a gathering in Loralai, thronged by a large number of people.