Category: Politics

News stories of Politics, for the topics that matter the most to young professionals and college students, political news reported with a different angle.

  • Maryam trolled for sharing ‘doctored’ image of Lahore jalsa

    Maryam trolled for sharing ‘doctored’ image of Lahore jalsa

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz was trolled by social media users after the PML-N vice president shared a supposedly edited picture of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) rally held in Lahore last Sunday.

    The PDM held a gathering in Lahore on Dec 13. The government had played down the number of people who attended the gathering, saying only 10,000 people attended the rally. The opposition, on the other hand, put the number above 100,000.

    However, the picture of the rally shared by Maryam added to the controversy and also attracted flak for being “fake”. PTI wrote: “Decisive moment in PDM; after #LahorePDMJalsa turnout, PDM has resorted to utilizing its trump card; Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop.”

    Prime Minister’s aide Shahbaz Gill tweeted that Maryam has “such a bad luck that she always gets caught”.

    Federal minister Hammad Azhar also didn’t miss the chance to troll the PML-N de-facto president.

    A user advised the PML-N leader to “fire her graphic designer”.

    Another user used this opportunity to make a meme.

  • VIDEO: Did Bilawal just refer to PTI ministers as Imran’s dogs?

    VIDEO: Did Bilawal just refer to PTI ministers as Imran’s dogs?

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has taken a dig at the ministers of Prime Minister Imran Khan, comparing them to the pet dogs of Imran Khan.

    On Sunday, when the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) was busy holding a massive gathering in Lahore, the PM chose to his spend his day with his dogs. The photos of PM and his two dogs also went viral on social media and made it to the press.

    These photos were considered by many an attempt to give the impression that the PM was not intimidated by the PDM power show.

    A reporter asked Bilawal to comment on the PM spending Sunday with his dogs on the day of the PDM’s much-hyped jalsa. The PPP chairperson responded that the reporter shouldn’t “use such words [dog] about the PM’s ministers”.

    On Sunday, the PDM held a massive rally at Minar-e-Pakistan, Lahore. According to the opposition, hundreds of thousands of people attended the gathering, whereas the government’s estimates put the number at 15,000 max.

    This was a decisive rally of the first phase of the anti-government agitation, now the opposition has plans to march on Islamabad if Imran Khan fails to resign by Jan 31.

  • Dawn sacks Lahore resident editor as layoffs continue

    Dawn sacks Lahore resident editor as layoffs continue

    Amid staffers’ protests against its policy of retrenchment and pay cuts, Dawn on Thursday sacked Asha’ar Rehman, the newspaper’s Lahore resident editor.

    His sacking was the first from the editorial department in Lahore, after the managers laid off 24 employees in November, including cleaners and security guards, reported JournalismPakistan.com.

    It said the staff felt uneasy following the editor’s termination and sensed more layoffs in the days ahead.

    Rehman had joined Dawn in February 2007 from The News on Sunday, where he worked as an editor. He was on the launch team of The News. Earlier on in his career, he had stints with the Kuwait Times and the Frontier Post.

    Dawn also laid off several employees at other centers earlier, prompting protests by the workers’ union and the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). The paper has also slapped pay cuts.

    The Dawn union held the protest in Karachi on Tuesday. The journalists warned the newspaper management against any further layoffs and cuts in salaries and benefits. They also asked the government to protect journalists’ economic rights.

    Earlier, the employees held a similar protest outside the Dawn Islamabad office.

  • ECP finds ‘serious discrepancies’ in Hammad Azhar’s assets: report

    ECP finds ‘serious discrepancies’ in Hammad Azhar’s assets: report

    The Election Commission of Pakistan is likely to take action against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and federal minister Hammad Azhar over “some serious discrepancies observed during scrutiny of [his declared] assets”.

    The News reported that the minister did not declare his “shares in a flour mill and few other businesses in one of his declarations submitted to the ECP”.

    “After he became MNA in 2018 and later became a member of the cabinet, the assets declared by him and his spouse were different from those he had declared earlier” while filing his nomination paper, the report said, adding that this prompted ECP to launch the scrutiny some two years back.

    “Our [ECP’s] team found an apparent mis-declaration, serious discrepancies and deficiencies in Hammad’s declarations, and he failed to explain his position before the electoral body scrutinising his and his wife’s assets and liabilities,” the report quoted an ECP official.

    Meanwhile, Hammad Azhar has refuted the content of the report and said that it “is compiled without reading my reply to ECP which easily answered all queries in May 2019”.

    He said the reporter ignored his written filed in the election commission in response to the scrutiny.

    About his response in 2019, the ECP official quoted by The News said that it was “unsatisfactory”.

  • High-tension video shows police ‘forcefully picking up’ DJ Butt ahead of Opp’s Lahore jalsa

    High-tension video shows police ‘forcefully picking up’ DJ Butt ahead of Opp’s Lahore jalsa

    A high-tension video doing the rounds has shown Punjab Police personnel detaining popular disc jockey and political activist DJ Butt.

    According to journalist Munizae Jahangir, Butt, who is responsible for the sound system arrangements at the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) anti-government protest in Lahore on December 13, was “forcefully taken to Model Town police station”.

    https://twitter.com/MunizaeJahangir/status/1336582648488226817?s=19

    The video that shows Butt resisting arrest and seeking the reason behind his detention comes at a time when tensions run high among the country’s political quarters.

    The joint opposition is determined to send the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government packing with its protests.

    The government, on the other hand, has refused to let the opposition “blackmail the state into giving them a clean chit in corruption cases”.

    While the government has also not allowed the PDM member parties to gather in Lahore amid the second wave of COVID-19, leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) among other joint opposition parties say the gathering will be held come what may.

    Meanwhile, the premier has also announced to hold by-elections on vacant seats if PDM leaders go forth with plans of resigning from assemblies.

  • Anti-govt protests: PML-N’s Khokhar brothers resign as lawmakers

    After MPA Rana Munawar Ghous, Lahore’s Khokhar brothers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have also handed over their resignations from respective assemblies to the party leadership.

    As per the details, MNA Malik Afzal Khokar and MPA Saiful Malook Khokhar submitted their letters amid talks of mass resignations by opposition lawmakers in protest against the government.

    PML-N leader Azma Bukhari has said that the party has not asked lawmakers to hand in their resignations but they are submitting them on their own.

    On the other hand, the leadership of the 11-party opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), will meet in Islamabad today to devise strategy for the second phase of the anti-government movement.

    Resignations from the assemblies by PDM lawmakers will also be discussed in the meeting.

  • KP govt orders inquiry after six patients die due to lack of oxygen supply

    At least six COVID-19 patients died after “criminal negligence” resulted in a delayed supply of oxygen to a hospital in Peshawar, prompting the provincial government to order an inquiry into the incident.

    More than 200 patients — including nearly 100 with coronavirus — were left for hours with limited supplies of oxygen at government-run Khyber Teaching Hospital.

    “The sad incident happened due to lack of central oxygen supply in the hospital,” provincial health minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra told a press conference, confirming the deaths.

    “We will hold an inquiry and get to the bottom of the incident,” he added, promising action against those responsible “for this criminal negligence”.

    Hospital spokesman Farhad Khan told AFP a disruption in oxygen supplies affected some 200 people, “including 96 COVID-19 patients”.

    He blamed a private supplier, saying the Rawalpindi-based company had “failed to meet the growing demand”.

    Pakistan has reported more than 400,000 cases of coronavirus — including over 8,000 deaths — since the virus arrived in late February.

    Intensive care units in hospitals across the country are now almost full, with provincial governments struggling to deal with the soaring caseload.

  • Another U-turn? Mobile phones have destroyed society, says PM

    Another U-turn? Mobile phones have destroyed society, says PM

    Prime Minister Imran Khan used to call the mobile phones a necessary part of digital Pakistan until a couple of years ago, but it seems he has changed his opinion about them.

    In a recent interview with Hamza Ali Abbasi, the PM has held mobile phones responsible for the decadence in society. He said the government cannot curb sex crimes on its own, as society’s help is necessary to create awareness.

    The negative impact of mobile phones on teenagers is disastrous, the PM said, adding that the “teens can watch the stuff on their phones that no one has ever seen in the history of humankind”. He said the “sex-related material” on phones have posed unprecedented challenges to the teens.

    The PM held Hollywood and Bollywood responsible for the decadency. He said that’s why he asked Turkey for permission to broadcast their show because it contains “Islamic values”.

    In Dec 2018, the prime minister had praised the increased usage of mobile phones in Pakistan, saying they were a harbinger of a digital media revolution. The PM had said the government would use mobiles to disseminate information.

    “The government would use mobile phones to run an awareness campaign,” the PM had said while addressing a moot on overpopulation.

  • VIDEO: The tea is not fantastic? Ex-PM’s video chiding help goes viral

    A cup of tea served to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif disturbed him during his address via video-link at an event organised by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) media cell.

    “When you knew I was speaking then why did you keep it here,” the clearly perturbed three-time prime minister said in the footage.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://twitter.com/worldofjaved/status/1335591711964344320?s=19

    It is pertinent to mention here that the PML-N in accordance with its social mobilisation plan has announced holding seven workers conventions throughout Punjab to build the momentum for running a decisive movement against the government from the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) platform.

    The decision regarding holding workers conventions was announced during a PML-N Punjab chapter meeting presided over by party provincial President Rana Sanaullah and attended by senior leaders, including all divisional and district presidents and general secretaries.

    On the other hand, Shahbaz Gill, Adviser to PM on Political Communication, shared the footage of Nawaz Sharif with the caption, “Nothing but parchee (script) during the speech.”

    PML-N leader Hina Parvez Butt hit back at Gill, saying, “So, secretly you watch Nawaz’s speeches.”

  • Ex-general says establishment not responsible for deaths of Rizvi, two judges

    Ex-general says establishment not responsible for deaths of Rizvi, two judges

    Amid rumours that the military establishment has something to do with the deaths of radical cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Seth, and accountability judge Arshad Malik, retired general Ghulam Mustafa said that the establishment doesn’t have anything to do with these deaths.

    In a video posted on YouTube, he said it was concerning that people were paying heed to the ideas that were detrimental to Pakistan.

    He said people should need to think before they go public with such ideas, urging the youth on social media not to go far in support of ideas for the sake of others. “This can come back to haunt you or your family,” the ex-general added.

    Rizvi died the previous month a day after the TLP protesters and government reached an agreement following a day-long sit-in at Faizabad. The TLP wanted the government to take action against France, such as the boycott of products and the expulsion of its envoy, over blasphemous cartoons. His death had led to speculation that it may not be due to natural causes.

    Last month, PHC CJ Waqar Seth also breathed his last due to COVID-19. The judge made headlines for his stern ruling wherein he said ex-general Pervez Musharraf must be hanged for subverting the constitution, and if he dies before his body should be hanged at D-Chowk for three days. The judge also struck down dozens of sentences awarded by the military courts on the basis of lack of evidence.

    And Arshad Malik, the judge who sentenced ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia reference, too died this week due to COVID-19. Last year, PML-N VP Maryam Nawaz along with top party leadership, held a press conference, wherein she said that Malik was coerced to give a verdict against Nawaz. She played a purported video of Malik to back her claims. The judge was subsequently dismissed, though he contested the veracity of videos.