Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan claimed Friday that the establishment is messaging him but he is not ready to talk to them, adding that he has blocked their numbers.
“I am not going to speak to anyone until the date for the elections is announced,” the ex-premier said while speaking to journalists.
Anchorperson Shahzad Iqbal said Imran Khan told media persons that when he referred to neutrals, he meant none other than the country’s powerful establishment.
“I couldn’t even think that corruption was not an issue for powerful quarters and they would impose these criminals on the country, but unfortunately, that happened,” the ex-premier said, according to Shahzad Iqbal.
“Instead of handing over the reins of power to these people, it would have been better if an atomic bomb had been dropped on Pakistan.”
The PTI chairman said he had learned about the “conspiracy” in June last year, but unfortunately, “all the decisions” were made to weaken his government — and it was eventually sent packing.
The former prime minister said “powerful quarters” wanted Usman Buzdar removed as the chief minister, but he would tell them that there was “more corruption and governance issues in Sindh”.
Addressing PTI workers in Mardan, Khan said that he was ousted from power through a conspiracy hatched jointly by America and Pakistani Opposition parties’ leaders. He said he sent former finance minister Shaukat Tarin to ‘neutrals’ to stop the conspiracy being hatched against his government, as otherwise Pakistan’s economy would be ruined.
But the ‘neutrals’ did not play their role to block the way of conspirators, he said, adding that a no-confidence move was allowed to succeed to replace him with “looters and plunderers”.
“I know very well who conspired against me. The face of every Mir Jaffar who conspired against me is written on my heart,” said Khan.
Talking about Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Khan said that he knew about telephonic conversations between Bilawal’s mother, Benazir Bhutto, who used to tell Bilawal on phone calls about where their money is abroad. “Bilawal is going to America and he will only ask them to help him. He will ask for money because they [ fear] Imran Khan will be back.”
Passengers, traveling from Gulf states and Saudi Arabia will be randomly screened (Rapid Antigen Test) at Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad airports beginning Saturday, just days after the first case of Omicron sub-variant was identified in Pakistan.
The National Institute of Health’s Centre for Disease Control in Islamabad, which made the decision in the wake of the Omicron sub-variant, advised the authorities to maintain a careful eye on surveillance and monitoring at entrance points.
Initially, Rapid Antigen Testing will be conducted on 10 to 15 passengers arriving on planes with 150 seats and between 15 and 20 passengers arriving on planes with a minimum capacity of 250 seats.
On May 10, Pakistan detected its first case of Omicron sub-variant, the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced.
The National Command Operation Centre (NCOC), which was tackling Covid-19 in Pakistan, was shut down on March 31.
On March 16, NCOC decided to lift all the Covid-19 related restrictions amid the decline in cases.
Actor-producer Sohail Khan and his wife, designer Seema Khan, filed for divorce on Friday. The couple married in 1998 and have two children together. The duo was spotted leaving the family court in Mumbai.
The couple has been besieged with separation rumours for a long time now. Seema Khan was a part of ‘The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives‘ where the couple was shown as living separately. Seema had later called their marriage as ‘unconventional’ and said, “I will just say this much, because it’s out there, that whatever you see in the show, is the absolute truth. It is what it is, that’s all I want to say about it.”
On the show, she had also addressed speculation around their marriage. “It’s just that sometimes when you grow older, your relationships meanders and goes into different directions. I make no apologies about it because we are happy and my kids are happy. Sohail and I are not a conventional marriage but we are a family. We are a unit. For us, him and me and our children matter at the end of the day,” he said.
The year was 1998. Sohail Khan met then-Seema Sachdev while shooting for Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya. Sparks flew and the two ended up having the filmiest dating scenes and then marriage. In fact, so filmy that the two eloped to get married after Seema’s family opposed their relationship. 24 years later, Sohail and Seema filed for divorce at a family court in Mumbai on Friday, May 13. Amid this, here’s an account of how they met, fell in love and ran away from their houses to get married.
The duo was spotted leaving a family court in Mumbai after filing for divorce. They got married in 1998. Seema and Sohail had the filmiest love story. It was on the sets of Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan and Kajol’s Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya that Sohail and Seema met for the first time. Delhi-based Seema had shifted to Mumbai to pursue a career in fashion designing. Soon after, they started dating.
Seema’s family was against her and Sohail’s relationship. Despite the refusal, the former couple eloped and allegedly got married at an Arya Samaj wedding. In the evening on the same day, they had a nikah ceremony. However, both Seema and Sohail’s families accepted their relationship and marriage. They later welcomed sons Nirvaan in 2000 and Yohan in 2011.
A newlywed couple performed an outrageous stunt in which they set themselves on fire. Bothe the groom and the bride are professional stunt performers.
Many people were amused by professional stunt performers Gabe Jessop and Ambyr Bambyr’s wedding celebration film.
Then they strolled hand-in-hand while the wedding guests looked on and clapped for them. The wedding photographer captured the moment and shared it on his Instagram feed. It currently has around 70k views.
The newlyweds stayed composed throughout the stunt, eventually kneeling to the ground and letting two men with fire extinguishers to extinguish the flames.
Elon Musk has put his $44 billion (£35 billion) proposal to buy Twitter on hold, citing concerns over the number of bogus or spam accounts on the platform.
He stated that he was awaiting facts “to support [the] calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed comprise less than 5 per cent of users”.
Mr Musk has been super vocal about the need to eliminate spam accounts. Analysts believed that he may be attempting to reduce the price or perhaps run away from the acquisition.
Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of usershttps://t.co/Y2t0QMuuyn
In pre-market trade, Twitter’s stock dropped as much as 25 per cent in response to Mr Musk’s remark. Later, he stated that he remains “dedicated to acquisition”.
If either Twitter or Mr Musk decides to leave, they must pay the other party a $1 billion termination fee.
Fake accounts accounted for less than 5 per cent of Twitter’s daily active users in the first three months of this year, according to a report released more than two weeks ago.
However, the corporation admitted that it used significant judgment in calculating the number of spam accounts, thus “our estimation of fraudulent or scam accounts may not precisely represent the real number of such accounts”.
“The actual number of false or spam accounts could be higher than we have estimated. We are continually seeking to improve our ability to estimate the total number of spam accounts,” it said.
Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan while speaking to a public gathering said, “Jo sazish rok saktay thay, unko bataaya tha ke barri mushkil se mulk ki economy sambhali hai.” [Those who could stop the conspiracy I told them that we managed the economy with a lot of difficulty.]
Khan on Friday claimed that he talked to “those who could have stopped the conspiracy” and also sent the then finance minister Shaukat Tarin to have a word with them but it turned out to be a futile exercise.
“I am ready to go to jail and even die for this cause but I would never accept becoming a slave to the United States,” he said, adding that the “three stooges” [Asif Zardari, Shehbaz Sharif, and Maulana Fazlur Rehman] had hatched a conspiracy against his government in collaboration with the US.
“Handlers, while sitting in the US, toppled a sitting government in Pakistan,” he said. “We would, therefore, continue a campaign against this conspiracy until elections are called anew.”
Referring to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Imran Khan said: “One of the brothers hurls abuses at the country’s army, while the other resorts to bootlicking.”
He further said that PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari suggesting the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reforms is “a sign of the Judgement Day”.
“Those who could have stopped the conspiracy should know that the PTI government had stabilised the economy with great difficulty,” he added.
Official documents revealed that several members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-federal Insaf’s cabinet enjoyed gains in their fortunes during their term in parliament and as ministers, despite being elected on pledges of fighting corruption.
According toSAMAA TV, Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad, Omar Ayub Khan, Azam Khan Swati, Khusro Bakhtiar, Faisal Vawda, Shafqat Mehmood, Fehmida Mirza, Zubaida Jalal, Mahboob Sultan, and Tariq Cheema are among the listed former ministers.
Since select ministers received notices to explain their excessive wealth, the majority blamed weak wealth and asset declaration regulations, which did not contribute to increases in the valuation of assets overtime or the amalgamation of entities.
An inquiry into assets spontaneously declared before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Pakistan’s tax authorities — primarily the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) — by cabinet members who worked under former Prime Minister Imran Khan disclosed that plenty of of them saw a tremendous upsurge in their riches, with growth proportions primarily in the triple digits.
As per the official record, the ECP sent notices to at least six former ministers while they were still in government in 2019 and 2020, requesting them to clarify their wealth-related issues.
From 2014 to 2019, former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who has been a staple of the parliament for more than a decade and served twice in the federal cabinet in two different governments, had a 241 per cent growth in his wealth.
He and his wife held assets worth only Rs72.5 million in 2014, according to asset declarations he submitted to the ECP and the FBR. In the following three years, his assets nearly quadrupled, reaching Rs278.3 million, a 283.86 per cent increase over his wealth in 2014. Qureshi’s fortune dropped dramatically to Rs184.2 million in 2018, the year he returned to the Treasury benches, albeit with a new party, the PTI. However, while in power, it soon increased to Rs247.1 million in 2019, a rise of 240.82 per cent since 2014.
When questioned, Qureshi recounted how the worth of his assets had evolved over the years.
“The reason for the increase in assets was that during 2015-16, my wife received her share from the sale of property situated in Lahore, which had been gifted by her mother, and shares from sale proceeds of inherited property worth Rs169.6 million and Rs22.6 million,” he claimed. In October 2017, duplicates of sale deeds were handed to the ECP, according to the former minister.
“The ECP raised this observation too,” he said regarding the increase in his wealth, adding, “I and my dependent family members are all filers with the FBR”.
Sheikh Rashid, the former interior minister, watched his fortune increase by nearly 278.68 per cent between 2014 and 2019.
The financial disclosures for 2014 revealed that he only had Rs39.4 million in assets. Earnings climbed by Rs0.4 million to Rs39.8 million. His holdings steadily expanded over the next two years, reaching Rs44.7 million in 2016 and Rs46.7 million in 2017.
Conversely, in 2018, the time he was elected to power, his assets boosted by Rs100 million to Rs149.2 million. In 2019, there was no movement in reported assets. After inquired why his assets had suddenly changed, Rashid said that the discrepancy was due to an advance payment he had obtained for reselling a portion of land in 2018.
“I received Rs100 million as advance after making a deal of land to be sold last year, [2021],” he said, adding, “There is no such increase in my assets”. The former interior minister stated that the rise in his declarations submitted with the FBR and the ECP had been properly disclosed.
Between 2014 and 2019, the fortune of former federal minister of water Omar Ayub and his wife jumped by 203 per cent.
As per Ayub’s filings to the ECP and FBR in 2014, he and his wife held assets worth Rs461.8 million. This comprised Rs132 million in assets held by his wife and Rs329 million in assets owned by the minister. This value had risen to Rs1.4 billion by 2019. Surprisingly, while his wife’s holdings increased slightly to Rs201 million, Ayub’s assets increased to Rs1.2 billion. Each has debts worth only Rs26.3 million, according to the disclosures.
As a result, the ECP expressed concerns about Ayub’s and his family’s unexpected surge in wealth.
“It was explained to the ECP in 2019 that it [increase in wealth] is because of group formation having no cash involvement,” Ayub said, confirming that the top poll body had issued him a notice on this subject. Ayub claimed that he owned shares in Nova Synpac Ltd. and NovaGene Pharmaceuticals Ltd., which increased in value by approximately Rs1.071 billion.
“My assets have decreased (excluding this group formation) since I took an oath as a minister because I resigned from my group,” he claimed, adding that the increase was due to the consolidation of all of his businesses under the group.
“This cannot be reflected in a declaration, which is always a reflection of statements submitted to the FBR and there cannot be any difference [between them] otherwise it would have been challenged there,” he explained.
Azam Swati, the former federal railways minister, saw his fortune grow by 202 per cent from Rs823.2 million in 2015 to about Rs2.04 billion in 2019. He reported that his liabilities increased from Rs417 million in 2015 to Rs811 million in 2019.
“[Your] figures are wrong due to incomplete information being furnished before ECP by members and cabinet members owing to faulty legal requirements mentioned in ECP Act 2017,” he explained.
He further said that his situation was slightly unusual. “In Pakistan, I have no income and no business.” I am confident that our FBR wealth statement [filed] will be compared to ECP in 2019 [asset declarations],” he remarked, worried that the statistics may contain a few errors.
“ECP has no efficiency and capability to audit assets and liabilities,” he disclosed, adding, “We were making mistakes filing combined [wife and husband together]”.
“Now we have corrected the mistake and filed separately because the wife is not dependent,” Swati told SAMAA TV.
Khusro Bakhtiar, the former federal commerce minister, saw his fortune rise by 127.8% from Rs109.3 million in 2013 to Rs249 million in 2019. In 2014, he had assets of Rs130 million, which more than doubled to Rs278 million in 2015, shrank to just Rs196 million in 2016, and then surged again in the next three years.
“Increase in assets were mainly comprised of [various] sources during the year 2014 to 2019,” he told SAMAA TV, detailing that these sources included savings from agricultural income, proceeds from the sale of land worth Rs40 million, other sources which contributed Rs20 million.
Bakhtiar also claimed that he actually paid Rs27.5 million in agricultural taxes from 2017 to 2020, and that he owed Rs60 million in 2016.
Former federal minister for education Shafqat Mahmood and his family had a 308 per cent growth in asset valuation between 2013 and 2019, making them one of the most successful federal ministers in terms of percentage increases. According to Mehmood’s filings, his and his family’s assets were valued at just Rs37 million in 2013, but had grown to Rs151 million by 2019.
“My assets have not changed since 2013 onwards,” Mehmood asserted, explaining “The change that you see is the cost re-evaluation from purchase price to market price”. The ex-minister further said that he has 360 kanals of hereditary land, a few more plots, and automobiles that he never assessed.
“There will, of course, be some variation regarding bank accounts. There will also be a slight difference in detail offered to FBR and ECP with regards to bank accounts,” he maintained. He went on to say that in his previous disclosure, he had combined the amounts in all of his bank accounts to present a single total.
“My wife is a distinct taxpayer because she works, but I have included her assets as well”, he explained.
Fehmida Mirza, the former federal minister for interprovincial coordination, had a similar scenario, with her net worth rising from Rs65 million in 2013 to Rs164 million in 2019.
“I did not see any rise in my assets and wealth at all,” she told SAMAA TV. She did, although, reveal that she had sold some property in Pakistan in order to purchase a home in the United Kingdom.
“This new increase in my assets has already been declared with the FBR and the ECP,” she stated.
Contrary to the PTI’s cabinet’s millionaire members, one of the “weakest” members of the federal cabinet, former federal minister Zubaida Jalal and her husband, had a 1,189 per cent growth in their fortune in a short period of time. Their riches increased from Rs9 million to Rs116 million in 2019.
Jalal, on the other hand, described the quick spike in wealth as the outcome of changes in declaration requirements.
“There is no big difference in my assets’ declaration” she asserted while speaking to SAMAA TV. The value of immovable assets was not mentioned in data provided in past elections, she said, noting that the ECP declaration requirements changed over time.
“[We are] required to mention values of assets in the asset declaration for this time,” she stated. She explained that the variations in asset values were attributable to market forces working on enterprises.
“Ups and downs will keep happening [in mining operations and business],” she said, as she reminded that her husband owns the National Coal Mining Company since the 1960s.
Former state minister Mahboob Sultan was one among the ministers who saw only double-digit asset growth. Only 81 per cent of his assets increased from Rs126 million in 2018 to Rs227.2 million in 2019. It’s worth noting, however, that his growth of nearly Rs100 million occurred while he was in the cabinet of ministers.
Tariq Cheema, the former federal minister for housing and infrastructure, showed the smallest growth in his wealth, going from Rs73 million in 2014 to Rs112 million in 2019. He did not, however, assess the value of his inherited assets and report them to the electoral or tax authorities.
Former federal minister Faisal Vawda and his family witnessed their fortune increase by 25 per cent from Rs507 million in 2017 to Rs630 million in 2019. He was among the most controversial cabinet ministers who were eventually dismissed by the ECP.
Despite multiple requests from SAMAA TV, neither Sultan, Cheema, Vawda, nor an ECP official have commented on inquiries regarding their wealth.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shahbaz Gill’s wife Izza Asad Rasool is reportedly found to be owing around Rs18.6 million to the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) University of Islamabad.
According to Geo News‘ reporter Azaz Syed, a show-cause notice has been sent to Rasool in this regard. The university has demanded the payment of official expenses worth $99,000 and Rs86,000, spent on account of Rasool’s tuition fees, her living allowance and airfare.
ایک نمبر کا جھوٹا۔۔
1- کامسیٹس یونیورسٹی کے مطابق شہباز گل کی بیوی اگست 2011 میں سرکاری خرچ پر ڈگری کرنے امریکہ گئی
2- ڈگری 2016 میں ختم ہونا تھی مگرشہباز گل کی بیوی 11 سال بعد بھی یونیورسٹی واپس نا آئی۔
According to the notice, Rasool went to the United States (US) in 2011 to pursue an MS leading to PhD studies in the field of Labour and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She was supposed to complete her studies by 2016 and come back to the country but she didn’t. She has been living there since she left for the US.
Moreover, the notice stated that Rasool could not complete her studies by the due date and she was also irregular in submitting her academic progress reports.
It is pertinent to mention that at the time when Rasool left for her studies, she was not married to Gill who is an employee of the same American university.
COMSATS has warned Rasool to respond to the notice within 15 days or they will initiate legal and administrative action against her.
As per the media outlet, GIll has allegedly been using his influence to threaten COMSATS’ administration in order to avoid action against his wife.
Responding to the news, Gill termed the news as false. He said that her wife’s PhD is still going on and she will be back as soon as her degree finishes.
“There is a campaign going on against me and this news is also a part of it. I know who is doing it”, he claimed.
آج جیو ٹی وی نے ایک اور جھوٹی خبر میری فیملی کے بارے دی۔
1- سٹودنٹ کو میرٹ بیس سکالرشپ ہماری حکومت سے پہلے ملا
2- ابھی بھی Phd کی تعلیم جاری ہے جو کہ یونیورسٹی سے کنفرم کی جا سکتی ہے۔ کامسیٹس کے پاس تمام انفارمیشن موجود ہے
3-اگلے سال PhD ختم ہوتے ہی پاکستان واپسی ہو جائے گی
Mr Shahbaz Gill , We would request you to respond officially upon below . It’s your responsibility as this amount is not your wife’s HALAL earning. Hope you understand that you and your so called leader was always quoting Rayasat Madina. Speak up now ….. https://t.co/rfLMNtjRio
— Ashfaq Ahmad Chaudhry (@AshfaqAhmadCha7) May 12, 2022
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Friday that remittances from Pakistani employees overseas have surpassed $3 billion for the first time, with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates contributing the most.
Saudi Arabia ($707 million), the United Arab Emirates ($614 million), the United Kingdom ($484 million), and the United States of America ($346 million) were the largest sources of remittances in April 2022.
“Remittances crossed the monthly mark of US $3 billion for the first time. Cumulatively, at $26.1 billion, remittances grew by 7.6 % in the ten months of FY22 compared to last year,” says a statement issued by the SBP.
Remittances crossed the monthly mark of US $3 billion for the first time. Cumulatively, at $26.1 billion, remittances grew by 7.6 % in the ten months of FY22 compared to last year.https://t.co/7XBd4uNES4pic.twitter.com/8fDthGpYBi
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has hinted at providing $2.5 billion in additional loans to Pakistan. However, the government must obtain a good economic health certificate from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to receive the loan. Following a meeting between Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr Aisha Ghous Pasha and ADB Country Director Yong Ye, a statement was released.
“The ADB indicated the additional support of $2.5 billion for the next fiscal year, from which $1.5 billion to $2 billion can be available in the ongoing calendar year,” said the Ministry of Finance in a statement.
The ADB has suggested that it could lend $1.5 billion under the Counter Cyclical Finance Facility and another $400 million via energy sector policy loans, according to sources in the finance ministry.
On May 3, the ADB board of directors authorised the Counter Cyclical Finance Facility with Pakistan receiving a combination of concessional and commercial financing. However, the ADB board’s approval of the $1.5 billion loan will be conditional on Pakistan’s debt burden being manageable and the country’s fiscal policies not being reckless – two factors that will necessitate frantic efforts to meet.
