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.

  • Ex-PM Jamali passes away

    Ex-PM Jamali passes away

    Former prime minister (PM) Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali passed away at the age of 76 on Wednesday.

    The former premier was battling for life on Sunday after being placed on a ventilator following a heart attack and severe breathing problems.

    The senior politician was under treatment at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) in Rawalpindi for the respiratory complications.

    MNA Mir Khan Muhammad Jamali said that the former PM had suffered a heart attack on Friday.

    He said that Mir Zafarullah Jamali was immediately shifted to a local hospital in Chak Shahzad and later moved to the AFIC in Rawalpindi, where he breathed his last on Monday.

    PM JAMALI:

    Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali served as the 15th PM of Pakistan from 2002 until his resignation in 2004.

    Originally a supporter of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Jamali emerged from the politics of Balochistan under military governor Rahimuddin Khan during the 1970s.

    He was also affiliated with the now ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

  • Lawyers take to Lahore streets with guns to celebrate victory in bar polls

    Lawyers take to Lahore streets with guns to celebrate victory in bar polls

    Multiple videos of the Lahore-based lawyers have emerged, wherein they can be seen doing aerial firing on the streets of the city to celebrate the victory of their candidate in the Punjab Bar Council elections.

    In the un-dated videos that are being circulated in Whatsapp groups and social media, the lawyers can be seen firing indiscriminately while the police officials looked on.

    They had all sorts of guns — and ammunition, enough to take down an army. AK47s, M-16, G-3s — all prohibited bore weapons — can be seen in the video along with different models of handguns.

    https://twitter.com/TassawarBajwa_/status/1333655495123611650

    Aerial firing is banned in Pakistan, and people involved in this practice can be booked under multiple sections of the Pakistan Penal Code, including the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997.

    Following the outrage on social media, Civil Lines police booked several unidentified lawyers on the charge of aerial firing. Police, however, said it will go ahead with the probe once the lawyers are identified.

    On Nov 30, The News reported that Kamran Bashir Mughal, Sadiq Irfan Tarar, Adeeb Aslam Bhindar, Muhammad Ahmed Qayyum and Hafiz Abdul Naeem and 11 others had won the Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) elections held on 16 seats in Lahore.

    A low turnout was seen in the election for 75-member house of Punjab Bar Council (PbBC), the provincial regulatory body of the legal fraternity, on Saturday for a five-year term of 2020-25 apparently due to Covid-19 pandemic, it reported.

  • Citizens cannot ‘speak against state’, says high court

    Citizens cannot ‘speak against state’, says high court

    The Peshawar High Court has said that Pakistani citizens have no right to speak against the state, as they are bound to “respect and follow” the laws of the country.

    The acting chief justice of the PHC, Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan, made these remarks while hearing a plea of Prof Ismail– the father of activist Gulalai Ismail — against the cancellation of his bail, reported Voicepk.net.

    The acting CJ said that citizens cannot be granted the right by the court to criticise the state. During the hearing on November 23, the deputy attorney general told the court that Prof Ismail posted ‘anti-state tweets’ on his social media account.

    As per the prosecution, Prof Ismail had posted on Twitter: “When the TikTok star Hareem Shah can enter the Foreign Office, the country does not fulfill the definition of a state.”

    At this, the judge said such remarks were “unbecoming of a teacher”, adding these messages would have an adverse impact on his students as well. The judge said a citizen was bound to respect and follow the laws of the state. The judge addressed Prof Ismail and said that he should not misuse the relief if he’s granted bail.

    When the judge summoned Prof Ismail to the rostrum, the latter spoke in a harsher tone. This irked the judge, who said the petitioner called himself a teacher, but he did not even know how to talk. The lawyer tried to handle the situation and said his client was suffering from high blood pressure and that his family was facing harassment allegedly by the law enforcement agencies.

    Nevertheless, the court sought an apology from the petitioner and adjourned further hearings until Friday, November 27.

    Prof Ismail was granted conditional bail by the PHC in Oct 2019. A single-member bench of the high court, comprising Justice Qaiser Rasheed, had instructed Prof Ismail to “be careful” in the future while asking him to submit a surety of Rs100,000 as well as personal guarantees from two individuals, a report in Dawn said.

    Gulalai Ismail’s parents are facing charges of financing terrorism, allegedly for funneling money from their daughter toward terrorist activities. They deny the charges and are currently out on bail but have been ordered not to leave Pakistan.

    In October this year, an anti-terrorism court in Peshawar had indicted the parents of rights activist and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) leader Gulalai Ismail ‘on charges of actively aiding’ two terrorist attacks carried out by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in 2013 and 2015.

  • Maryam says was given ‘rat-contaminated food’ in Kot Lakhpat Jail

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has claimed that she was given “rat-infested food” by Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail staff during her imprisonment.

    In a conversation with journalists at Jati Umrah, the PML-N leader claimed that not only her food was contaminated, but she was also provided with medications that were rotten due to fungus. “They were not fit for use at all,” she claimed.

    Maryam, whose popularity has quadrupled since the disqualification of her father ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a corruption case, has gone to jail twice — once after conviction in the Avenfield case, second time was her alleged involvement in a sugar mills scam.

    The new accusations against the government came a fortnight after the PML-N VP claimed that cameras were installed in her jail room to humiliate her. The politician had said that if she revealed the details about how she and other female inmates were treated during detention, “they” will find no place to hide their faces.

    “I don’t want to hide behind these incidents at all. I’m struggling today, so I don’t want to show that I was affected; I don’t want to cry today that I have been abused,” she had said.

    Responding to the claim that Maryam was fed contaminated food, PM’s aide on accountability Shahzad Akbar accused the PML-N leader of concealing the truth. He said: “It’s on record that the food Maryam used to get in jail came from her home.” He said either Maryam is lying about it or the Sharifs’ residence is infested with rats.

    MARYAM IN JAIL:

    On July 6, 2018, Maryam was sentenced to seven years in jail by the NAB on corruption charges in the Avenfield reference case.

    The court had held that trust deeds presented by Maryam before the apex court were fake and had been tampered with. As a result, she was disqualified from contesting elections for 10 years.

    The next day, Maryam announced that she would return to Pakistan on July 13 to file an appeal against the decision. The same day, NAB announced to arrest her and Nawaz Sharif upon their arrival in Pakistan.

    She, along with her father, was taken into custody on July 13 upon their arrival at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal International Airport and were airlifted to Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail.

    On July 26, she challenged her sentence in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) and filed a petition for bail. The next day, the court rejected her request for release on bail and adjourned the hearing till the end of the 2018 general election on July 25.

    While she was released following the suspension of the verdict against her father, husband and herself by the IHC, Maryam was once again arrested in August 2019 over Chaudhry Sugar Mills corruption charges; this time upon her arrival at the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore to see Nawaz, who was serving his sentence in a separate corruption case.

    In November 2019, Maryam was released on bail by the Lahore High Court (LHC).

  • After two years, ex-LDA chief Ahad Cheema gets bail in NAB case

    After two years, ex-LDA chief Ahad Cheema gets bail in NAB case

    The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to former Lahore Development Authority (LDA) chairman Ahad Cheema in an alleged corruption case.

    Cheema, who was a close aide of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif, was detained in Feb 2018 by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Ashiana Housing scam. However, the accountability bureau also opened another inquiry against him for possessing assets beyond means.

    During the hearing, the apex court directed the former top civil servant to furnish surety bonds worth Rs1 million to secure the bail. The NAB lawyer opposed the bail plea, saying Cheema was a key accused in the case.

    At this, Justice Sardar Tariq Masood asked whether the accused doesn’t deserve bail due to the delay in the case.

    Cheema’s lawyer responded that his client has been in jail for two years and nine months. Bail is granted in case of undue delay, he added.

    Earlier this year, the Lahore High Court had dismissed a bail plea filed by Cheema, even though the co-accused in the case were granted post-arrest bail. Subsequently, ex-LDA chief’s counsel Azam Nazir Tarrar moved the apex court, seeking bail.

    ARREST OF FOMRER LDA CHIEF:

    In Feb 2018, NAB arrested Cheema after the latter failed to show up on NAB hearings. At the time, NAB had stated that that the inquiry conducted by the bureau “produced sufficient evidence to prove LDA ex-DG’s involvement in the Ahsiana scam”.

    In its official press release issued at the time, it said that the Punjab Land Development Company assigned the Ashiana Housing Scheme project to LDA, where Cheema as its DG misused his authority and received illegal gratification in the form of 32 kanals of land, valuing approximately Rs30 million from the owners of Paragon City. The accused also awarded the contract for the project to Lahore Casa Developers, that was ineligible for the contract.

    It may be noted here ex-CM Shehbaz Sharif and former principal secretary Fawad Hassan Fawad were also accused in Ashiana case.

  • Why didn’t PM get chilled coke, Balochistan CS asks Makran commissioner to explain ‘shortcomings’

    Why didn’t PM get chilled coke, Balochistan CS asks Makran commissioner to explain ‘shortcomings’

    Days after the prime minister’s visit to the University of Turbat, the Balochistan chief secretary has written a letter to the Makran commissioner, asking him to explain “the shortcomings” observed during the visit of PM Imran Khan.

    The letter that has been circulating on social media has been shared by many, including Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) chief Akhtar Mengal as well, who sarcastically captioned it ‘viceregal’ attitude of the centre.

    The Current has confirmed the veracity of this letter

    The chief secretary asked the commissioner — who was supposed to supervise the arrangements — to explain why “each and every detailed instructions passed on to you” were not carried out in “letter and spirit”.

    It says the PM was served soft drinks that were not “properly chilled” and the plates that were used to serve food to the PM and his entourage were also of “low quality”. The sweeping staff was also reportedly inefficient as the “pathways and washrooms remained dirty” despite instructions.

    The commissioner was also asked to explain the unavailability of a “qualified person” to handle the operating system “complications” during the presentation. Also, there was no “spare laptop” in the meeting room.

    Furthermore, the chief secretary office was also not pleased with the fact that the CS’s chair was not “marked” in the auditorium where the PM interacted with “notables” while the CS was made to sit at the “extreme corner of the first row”, as per the letter. “The seating arrangement for the administrative secretaries to the government of Balochistan was neither marked nor were they were invited in the auditorium,” it added.

    Moreover, there was also complaints about the Turbat’s DC and SSP, who allegedly violated protocol by “walking too close to the PM”. “The SSP Turbat consistently tried to engage the PM in chit chat,” the letter mentioned, seeking a response on the above-mentioned “shortcomings” from the commissioner within 7 days.

    On Friday, PM Imran Khan visited Turbat district to inaugurate development projects in the city. During the visit, the PM also went to Turbat University.

    The Current approached the PM’s focal person on digital media, Dr Arslan Khalid for the confirmation of this letter. According to Dr Khalid, the prime minister has nothing to do with the letter. He said it was a matter of the provincial government. Sources in the provincial government also confirmed the veracity of the letter, saying it was issued by the office of the chief secretary.

  • Nawaz welcome to attend mother’s funeral in Lahore, govt says

    Nawaz welcome to attend mother’s funeral in Lahore, govt says

    The government on Tuesday dismissed the impression of placing restrictions on the arrival of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his sons — Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz — and former finance minister Ishaq Dar for the funeral of Begum Shamim Akhtar, the mother of Sharif brothers who passed away in London on Sunday.

    Nawaz has been living in London since November last year when he was released on conditional medical bail for his treatment abroad. Dar, on the other hand, has taken self-exile in the United Kingdom after his removal from the post of Finance Minister in 2017 following the emergence of allegations of accumulation of assets beyond means against him. Both of them are wanted back home in multiple cases of graft and abuse of power

    Speculations arose after the sudden demise of Akhtar, who had travelled to London in February to live with her son, whether or not Nawaz and Dar will return to attend the funeral.

    Later on Sunday, Nawaz’s daughter and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz, in a tweet, said she had advised her father not to return because of what she claimed was the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government’s vendetta against the Sharif family.

    “They are welcome to come to Pakistan and attend the funeral,” Minister for Information Shibli Faraz said on Tuesday.

    In a tweet, Faraz warned the opposition party of trying to politicise the matter. “The narrative of state suppression is deliberate propaganda and an attempt to politicise this issue. Who are you trying to fool?”

    Meanwhile, arrangements are being made to bring the body back to Lahore within a couple of days to be buried next to the grave of her husband, Mian Sharif, at the family’s Jati Umra residence.

  • Mubasher Lucman wants Pakistan to establish ties with Israel

    Mubasher Lucman wants Pakistan to establish ties with Israel

    A day after the reports of a secret meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, journalist and anchorperson Mubasher Lucman urged the Pakistani state to revisit its foreign policy and “establish diplomatic ties with Israel”.

    The anchorperson who appeared on an Israeli news channel to supposedly comment on the controversy surrounding the latest push of Arab countries to normalise ties with Israel said that it was time for Pakistan to be “friends with everyone”, including Tel Aviv.

    https://twitter.com/TeamMLucman/status/1328780163283226624

    According to Lucman, Pakistan needs to put itself first and stop fighting for the rights of other nations — Palestinians in this case. “I am one of those people who believe both countries should shake hands and establish diplomatic ties,” said Lucman, as he went on to call Israel a “vibrant country”.

    The journalist also undermine the struggle for self-determination of the Palestinian people, while trying to play down the atrocities committed by the Israeli troops against the Palestinian people. “People in Pakistan do not know much about Israel, except that it is a zionist state carrying out ‘whatever it is doing against Palestinians’”.

    “The Israeli nation is a great nation in their own way. They are fighters, they are survivors,” said Lucman, comparing it with Pakistan which is a “great country in its own right with many accolades”.

    Lucman also commented on a recent media reports that claimed Pakistan was being pressurised by the US and another Muslim country to recognise Tel Aviv. He said: “If Israel and Pakistan ever ever have to shake hands, it must not be due to a third party, it must be directly. We don’t need to be subservient to anyone, be it the US or Saudi Arabia.”

    He also said the “animosity between Pakistan and Israel” existed for over 70 years now, and both states needed to educate their masses if things have to “progress” from this stage to the next.

    Earlier this month, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Pakistan would not accept Israel unless Palestinians get their right to self-determination. He also told a journalist that US outgoing President Donald Trump and a Muslim country wanted Pakistan to accept Israel, which it cannot do.

    MBS-NETANYAHU MEETING:

    On Monday, Netanyahu allegedly met MBS in Saudi Arabia, which observers see a step towards recoginsation of Tel Aviv by Saudi Arabia. There has been widespread speculation, within Israel and the US, that Washington may push for other Arab states to follow suit before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.

    However, the reports of the meeting were denied by the Saudi foreign minister. “I have seen press reports about a purported meeting between HRH the Crown Prince and Israeli officials during the recent visit by @SecPompeo. No such meeting occurred. The only officials present were American and Saudi,” Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud wrote on Twitter on Monday.

  • PM approves national intelligence body for effective coordination among spy agencies

    PM approves national intelligence body for effective coordination among spy agencies

    Prime Minister Imran Khan has approved the formation of the National Intelligence Coordination Committee for effective coordination among the over two dozen intelligence organisations in the country.

    According to a report in Dawn.com, the committee will be headed by Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed. According to the report, though the terms of reference of the body have yet to be finalised, the proposal for the body was submitted to the premier after a thorough discussion between the intelligence agencies.

    The move is part of the long-awaited reform of the intelligence apparatus, which aims at clarifying the role of respective agencies, improving their coordination, and optimising their capabilities, said the report.

    In past, the civilian government made multiple attempts to reform intelligence agencies, but to no avail, specifically due to differences over the leadership of the new body.

    In 2008, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government placed the ISI and Intelligence Bureau (IB) under the “administrative and financial” control of the Ministry of Interior, but the notification was retracted following a backlash from the military officials.

    Similarly, attempts by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government to reform the intelligence agencies of the country failed.

  • Nawaz won’t accompany mother’s body to Pakistan

    Nawaz won’t accompany mother’s body to Pakistan

    Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been in London for over a year due to health concerns, will not able to accompany his deceased mother to Pakistan owing to poor health and other reasons.

    Shamim Begum, the Sharif family matriarch, breathed her last in London on Sunday due to a chest infection at the age of 89. The death prompted PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz to abandon a joint opposition rally in Peshawar and return to Lahore.

    Maryam, who complained about the government’s apathetic attitude in a tweet, also shared that she would ask her father Nawaz Sharif not to come back to Pakistan.

    “I have requested Mian sahab not to come back [to Pakistan] at all. These are tyrants, these are the people hellbent on exacting revenge, and no humanity is expected from them,” Maryam Nawaz wrote on Twitter.

    Furthermore, a report published in The News also claimed that the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will not be coming back with the dead body on the advice of his doctors. “Nawaz Sharif has been advised by doctors not to travel because of his ailing health,” the report quoted PML-N leader Ishaq Dar as saying.

    It may be noted here that the PML-N supreme leader was taken to a hospital last week after his condition deteriorated due to kidney pain.

    According to the report, the body will be brought back to Pakistan sometime later this week after the issuance of the death certificate.

    Meanwhile, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif along with his son Hamza Shehbaz has also applied for parole to attend the funeral of his mother. Subsequently, the Punjab government granted permission to attend the last rites of Shamim Begum. The father-son duo is in jail on suspicion of corruption.