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.

  • Ali Amin Gandapur threatens to take over Islamabad

    Ali Amin Gandapur threatens to take over Islamabad

    Chief Minister (CM) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Amin Gandapur has threatened to take over the capital city of the country if the KP government does not get its rights.

    While addressing a ceremony on PTI’s foundation day on Thursday, he also declared Imran Khan innocent and said that the PTI founder has not done any illegal acts during his government.

    “People who are in power should be in jail,” he thundered, adding that “they stole mandates in the February 8 elections.”

    He said in a threating tone that “No one in this country can keep PTI founder Imran Khan in jail anymore.”

    He stated that PTI is not issuing a call for protests across the country because “we care about the people of Pakistan.”

  • Court orders Khan, wife to avoid making negative statements against state institutions

    Court orders Khan, wife to avoid making negative statements against state institutions

    An accountability court in Islamabad has instructed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi, to avoid making negative comments about the military and the judiciary. The court also directed the media not to highlight “political or inflammatory” statements made by the couple.

    Judge Rana Nasir Javed barred the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and his wife from speaking against state institutions while he disposed of a petition seeking a fair trial in the Al-Qadir Trust case.

    According to the court order, the former prime minister made a proactive statement against senior officials of state institutions, including the army and judiciary. The statements not only disturbed the court’s decorum but were also an obstacle to providing justice.

    The court directed the prosecution, the accused, and their defence counsel to avoid statements that disrupt the decorum of the court.

  • Pakistan rejects ‘politically motivated’ US human rights report

    Pakistan rejects ‘politically motivated’ US human rights report

    Pakistan has rejected the US State Department’s human rights report “2023 Country Report on Human Rights Practices”, terming it “unfair, based on inaccurate information and completely divorced from the ground reality.”

    Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch gave a press briefing in which she said, “These reports use a domestic social lens to judge human rights in other countries in a politically biased manner. This year’s report is once again conspicuous by its lack of objectivity and politicisation of the international human rights agenda.”

    She pointed out the “double standards” by the United States on humanitarian issues and underscored that the US and the world continue to downplay or ignore the gross human rights violations such as in Gaza and Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

    Baloch said that only a politically motivated report could ignore the alarming situation in Gaza.

  • CJP Isa says has received no complaints of ‘interference’ in judiciary

    CJP Isa says has received no complaints of ‘interference’ in judiciary

    Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Qazi Faez Isa stated on Thursday that he did not receive any complaints of interference in the judiciary by any High Court judge.

    “Since I have been Chief Justice [of the Supreme Court of Pakistan], I have not received a single complaint from any high court judge that there has been any interference in their work,” Justice Isa said while speaking at Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA).

    Isa also stated that if there were any complaints of meddling then it would have happened before his tenure.

    “So, this is a thing to bear in mind that interference is not acceptable but at the same time nothing has been reported to me during … my watch,” said CJP Isa.

    The statement comes after six judges of Islamabad High Court (IHC) last month wrote a shocking letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) alleging blatant interference by intelligence agencies in judicial matters.

  • Maryam Nawaz wants more women in police department

    Maryam Nawaz wants more women in police department

    Chief Minister (CM) of Punjab Maryam Nawaz addressed the passing-out parade ceremony at Chuhng Police Training College, giving in a speech in which she said that the government wants more women in the police department.

    “I salute you all. I am happy the first sword of honour has been awarded to a woman police officer. I am proud of you. I was waiting for this event since taking the oath as chief minister,” she remarked.

    She stated that she is happy to see 530 women passing out, adding that “When I wore the police uniform for the first time, I realised it is a big responsibility.”

    The newly elected chief minister also said that right now, 7,000 women police officials are performing their duties in Punjab.

    “I want to increase women’s participation in Punjab police. Lady cops are superhuman. Women are softhearted, so they forgive,” she added.

  • Sher Afzal Marwat refused to remarry because it is a “big injustice” to women

    Sher Afzal Marwat refused to remarry because it is a “big injustice” to women

    In our patriarchal culture, societal norms often facilitate men who remarry if there are no children – or a male child – from the first marriage.

    But Sher Afzal Marwat, a senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) member, has different views as he related a personal event from his life in a podcast with Nadir Ali.

    “In 2007, my wife asked me to remarry because it had been six years and we didn’t have a son yet,” Marwat said.

    Marwat related that his father was alive at the time and in Pathan culture there is a lot of societal pressure to marry again for children.

    His wife permitted him to remarry in a serious conversation.

    Marwat recounted, “I took some time to think and told her that I cannot do this injustice to you just because I want children.”

    Marwat emphasized, “It would be a big injustice to any woman, let alone your wife if you bring a second wife just for your happiness.”

    “A woman has a life too, she leaves everything behind for a man when she gets married,” said Sher Afzal Marwat.

  • Maryam Nawaz adopts simple lifestyle after becoming CM, says Azma Bukhari

    Maryam Nawaz adopts simple lifestyle after becoming CM, says Azma Bukhari

    Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari said on Wednesday that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has made significant changes in her lifestyle since becoming provincial chief executive. She now wears “normal clothes” and lives a simpler life, Azma added.

    “Maryam [Nawaz] wears normal clothes [whereas] her other clothes are old and date before the [February 8] general elections,” the provincial government spokesperson said while speaking on Geo News’ programme “Geo Pakistan”.

    The minister’s remarks came as it is a first time in the history that a female is a chief minister of Punjab. This also put Maryam Nawaz in the spotlight even more than her role as Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president.

    However, social media users accused Maryam Nawaz multiple times of wearing expensive clothes and shoes. 

    Responding to the allegations, Bukhari said that CM Punjab likes and mostly wears simple clothes.

    “I didn’t say she doesn’t wear branded clothes, she prefers simple clothes now,” the minister noted.

  • Finance Minister positive about Pak economy

    Finance Minister positive about Pak economy

    Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has stated that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves will increase to $10 billion in two months, as Pakistan is set to receive the $1.1 billion final loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

    The minister said that Pakistan would not need to go to IMF in the future but only after obtaining a “large and longer” 24th programme.

    Interestingly, Aurangzeb made a witty comment about former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, “no one can imagine a plan B with only 15 days of reserves,” – a veiled reference to Dar’s mention of his Plan B in 2023.

    Aurangzeb spoke at the inaugural session of the 7th Edition of the “Leaders in Islamabad Business Summit” (LIIBS).

    The minister also stated that the last loan tranche is expected to be disbursed next week and the country would get more inflows in June. Which would help the foreign exchange reserves balloon to the $10 billion mark, according to Aurangzeb.

  • Two TTP terrorists killed in Punjab while crossing over from KP

    Two TTP terrorists killed in Punjab while crossing over from KP

    The Khorasan Diary has reported that two terrorists were killed in Bhakkar, Punjab while entering the province from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

    Their post read, “Two militants have been killed in Bhakkar, Punjab in an exchange of firing with Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) Punjab, according to officials the militants were trying to cross over from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: CTD Punjab.”

    Recently, the Chief Minister of KP Ali Amin Gandapur said in a conference about the increasing cases of terrorism that “terrorists can access Punjab too but it is due to the sacrifices of KP police that this is not happening.”

    The Khorasan Diary also reported, “The militants have been identified as the affiliates of Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan. They were entering Punjab for an attack. A grand search and sweep operation had been launched to arrest the other militants: CTD Punjab”

  • ‘I cannot sleep’; Hafeezullah Niazi tearfully appeals to court for recovery of son Hassan

    ‘I cannot sleep’; Hafeezullah Niazi tearfully appeals to court for recovery of son Hassan

    Journalist Asad Toor wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday that political analyst Hafeezullah Niazi appealed before the Supreme Court’s (SC) six-member bench for the safe recovery of his son, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) activist Hassaan Niazi.

    Hafeezullah Niazi told the apex court, “My son Hassaan Niazi has been missing from military custody since seven to eight days. I’m not even allowed to see him. I don’t know where my son is. Will I be able to sleep at night?”

    Tearfully, he told the court, “You (judges) cannot feel what I feel, I cannot sleep all night.”
    The SC directed Attorney General Mansoor Usman Awan to meet Niazi and tackle the matter of the PTI activist.

    Hassaan Niazi is also the nephew of former prime minister and founder of the PTI, Imran Khan. He has been in military custody in link with the May 9 violence in which he was filmed with the Corps Commander Lahore’s uniform, taken from Jinnah House during riots.