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  • ‘Offensive content lawsuit’: Murad Saeed to take legal action against Reham Khan’s book

    ‘Offensive content lawsuit’: Murad Saeed to take legal action against Reham Khan’s book

    Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed on Monday decided to take legal action against Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s former wife Reham Khan for her allegations and offensive content in her book ‘Reham Khan (memoir)’, reports Geo News.

    Murad Saeed, during a meeting held in the presence of the premier, said that he would file a lawsuit against Reham in London for writing “offensive content” against the prime minister. “Posting false content should be stopped,” he added.

    The news outlet revealed that PM Khan advised Saeed “not to worry about such matters and focus on his performance as the Opposition is worried these days.”

    The issue came to light after the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) cybercrime wing and the police arrested Daily Jinnah and Online news agency Editor Mohsin Jamil Baig. FIA raided the journalist’s house in the federal capital along with the police and took him into custody.

    Baig was accused of initiating a debate on a television show with some controversial references towards PM Khan and Saeed.

  • PM Khan’s wife’s son booked for possessing alcohol, released on personal guarantee

    PM Khan’s wife’s son booked for possessing alcohol, released on personal guarantee

    First Lady of Pakistan, Bushra Bibi’s younger son, Muhammad Musa Maneka was registered for possessing illegal alcohol in a car. Police also booked his cousin, Mohammad Ahmad Maneka, and a friend Ahmad Shaharyar.

    According to the First Investigation Report (FIR), the Ghalib Market police found alcohol in their car on Monday. The car crossed a police picket on Zahoor Elahi Road. Police arrested the three of them when alcohol was found in their car.

    They recovered the alcohol bottle “Moon Original Whisky” and beer cans which were wrapped in a brown paper bag.

    Police registered a case against them under sections 3, 4, and 11 of The Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd Order, 1979).

    After a medical examination, Shaharyar was found drunk while Musa and Ahmad had not consumed alcohol. They were released on a personal guarantee from a relative.

    The judicial magistrate granted bail to their friend Shaharyar.

  • #SuisseSecrets: List of Pakistanis hiding wealth in Swiss Bank

    #SuisseSecrets: List of Pakistanis hiding wealth in Swiss Bank

    A leak from a Swiss bank has revealed that around 1,400 individuals residing in Pakistan are linked with around 600 accounts opened in Credit Suisse.

    The average maximum balance in accounts held by Pakistanis was 4.42 million Swiss francs (Rs841 million) compared with the overall average of the leaked data, which stood at 7.5 million Swiss francs (Rs1.42 billion). Almost 200 clients found in the data are worth more than 100 million Swiss francs (Rs19 billion) and more than a dozen had accounts valued in the billions.

    Fact Focus, an organisation that covers factual, data-driven stories, published an investigative report by Usman Manzoor, where Organized Crimes and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) investigations of #SuisseSecrets names hundreds of wealthy Pakistanis stashing wealth in secret Swiss bank accounts.

    The report highlights the names of the Pakistani army generals, government officials, businessmen, and journalists.

    Army Generals:

    “General Akhtar Abdul Rehman and General Zahid Ali Akber were part of the infamous The Jalandhar Group or The Gang of Four which was also part of the coup which overthrew Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s democratic government and later hanged him through the judiciary to have smooth sailing,” reports Facts Focus.

    “The other two officers of this ‘The Gang of Four’ were General Zia ul Haq and General Rahimuddin. All these four were closely related through the marriages of their children. General Akhtar Abdul Rehman’s son Akber and General Zia’s son Ijaz ul Haq are married to the daughters of General Rahimuddin. General Rehman’s son Haroon Akhar is married to the daughter of General Zahid Ali Akber.”

    The OCCRP’s #SuisseSecrets investigation has also verified the old US paper’s report that the “CIA’s covert Soviet war aid had made rich sugar daddies out of Pakistani generals.”

    “General Akhtar Abdul Rehman’s three sons have been named in the #SuisseSecrets for opening Swiss accounts during the Soviet-Afghan war in the mid-1980s. General Akhtar, besides heading ISI, also headed the five-member committee that directly dealt with the CIA’s money to supply weapons to the mujahideen fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.”

    Politicians:

    “Punjab’s Finance Minister, Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakhat, and his brother Omer Sheharyar. They maintained a bank account for 11 months from 2011 to 2012. A sum of 2,765,038 Swiss Francs rested in this account.”

    “Senator Gulzar Ahmad Khan (late) and his two senator sons Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan and Senator Ammar Ahmad Khan family opened an account at Credit Suisse in 2008. They held 9,786,955 Swiss Francs in it. The account was closed in 2013. This account remained unheard from FBR and the Election commission of Pakistan.”

    “Senator Haji Saif Ullah Khan Bangash, a PPP senator (now deceased) maintained a maximum balance of 105,137,413 Swiss francs millions in 2009. NAB has filed a corruption reference against Bangash on bank fraud charges in 2010. Bangash’s sons, Shaukat Ullah Khan and Kifayat Ullah Khan were co-accused in this NAB reference. Kifayat Ullah Khan is a banker based in Geneva. This account was opened on November 03, 2008, and was closed on December 21, 2011.”

    Journalist:

    “Anchorperson Rana Mubashir and his wife Irum Mubashir also opened a bank account in Credit Suisse on October 03, 2008. The account had a maximum balance of more than one million dollars in May 2010. The account was closed on November 29, 2011. Rana Mubashir hasn’t responded to the queries sent to him by OCCRP.”

    Businessmen:

    “Sultan Ali Lakhani of Lakson Group who also owns Express Media Group has also surfaced in the #SuisseSecrets. Sultan along with Zulfiqar Lakhani and Amin Muhammad Lakhani held 10 individual and joint accounts with their immediate family members between 2001 and 2010.”

    “Cumulatively, they held almost 58, 626, 841 Swiss Francs (Around 60 Million dollars) in their accounts. Besides the three above-mentioned Lakhanis, others named in the Data Leak include Gul Bano Lakhani, Alizeh Lakhani, Anusha Lakhani, Fatima Lakhani, Anika Amin Lakhani, Saira Amin Lakhani, Babar Ali Lakhani, Bilal Ali Lakhani, Misha Lakhani, Shaista Lakhani, and Clinton Raven.”

    “The OCCRP data shows that the Schon family also held two Swiss accounts. The first account was opened on November 07, 2001, when Nasir Schon and his brother were facing a loan default case. This account remained operational until September 10, 2010, and had a maximum balance of 477,140 Swiss francs. Another account was opened on August 05, 2010, and remained operational until January 01, 2015, and it has a maximum balance of 1,023,261 Swiss francs in September 2010. Responding to OCCRP questions, Schons acknowledged they held the accounts and said there was nothing wrong with it.”

  • UAE to ease covid-19 restrictions for Pakistanis travelling to Dubai

    UAE to ease covid-19 restrictions for Pakistanis travelling to Dubai

    The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is planning to ease Covid-19 travel restrictions for Pakistanis with regards to Covid-19 restrictions. Passengers travelling to Dubai will no longer be required to show reports of a rapid antigen test upon their arrival.

    Passengers arriving from Pakistan must have:

    • A valid negative COVID‑19 PCR test certificate with a QR code linked to the original report for verification purposes, for a test conducted within 48 hours. Validity should be calculated from the time the sample was collected, prior to departure from an approved health facility.
    • A rapid COVID‑19 PCR test report with a QR code for a test conducted at the departure airport within six hours of departure.

    There are specific requirements for passengers travelling to Dubai airport though. They still have to undergo another PCR test and quarantine, on arrival to the UAE until they test negative.

    Meanwhile, travelers transiting through Dubai won’t be required to show a negative PCR test unless it is mandated by their final destination. Passengers must also obtain a negative PCR test received within 48 hours.

  • You can get up to five years in jail for forwarding fake news over WhatsApp, says Fawad Chaudhry

    You can get up to five years in jail for forwarding fake news over WhatsApp, says Fawad Chaudhry

    Prevention of Electronic Crimes Amendment (PECA) Ordinance 2022 was promulgated by President Arif Alvi on Sunday. The following changes have been made in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, (PECA) 2016:

    -The definition of a “person” has been broadened and it now includes any company, association, institution, organisation, authority, or any other.

    -Anyone found guilty will now be snatched to Fiver years jail term instead of three years.

    -As per the new law, the new gives power to FIA to arrest anyone over a complaint without an FIR or court orders.

    – Anyone can be arrested on non-bailable warrant.

    The Current reached out to Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry to take his comment on the matter. The minister, while talking exclusively to The Current, said, “A person who forwards fake news over WhatsApp can be fined and go to jail under the new law.”

    Legal expert Reema Omar took to Twitter and said that Pakistan has made the already existing criminal defamation law more “oppressive”.

    Nighat Dad, while talking to The Current, termed the propagation of Ordinance “unconstitutional” in a sense that you have to fullfuil a citeria under which an Ordinance can be propagated.

    “Instead of repealing Section 20, which has been used and weaponised against journalists and survivors of sexual harassment, women are facing charges under the same section. The government has actually strengthened it through this Ordinance, without any inclusive process,” said Nighat.

    She added that the entire exercise is pretty “unsatisfactory”. Nighat Dad said that it seems that Ordinance is basically promulgated to curb online dissent.

    Nighat added that across the world, western democracies are getting rid of criminal defamation laws but here they have added institutions, organisations, and companies who can now use this particular section if they feel that people are harming their reputation. “They can use it against them.”

    Journalist Farieha Aziz, while talking to The Current, said that the law is extremely dangerous. She added that vague terms like “harm to reputation” and “false information” in section 20 were criticised since its inception, however the amendments to the law have made it more dangerous by converting into a cognizable and non-bailable offence, allowing third parties, including organisations and government departments, to become complainants.

    While talking about the Opposition’s criticism, Aziz said that The Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, (PECA) 2016 was passed under PM-LN’s regime, and PTI opposed the act at the time.

    Journalist Ramsha Jahangir raised the same question regarding the vagueness of the law. “The law or the rules don’t specify what morality is. With TikTok, we saw how PTA arbitrarily decided what’s in line with cultural and moral trends. The vague phrasing in PECA gives authorities the power to interpret the content as they deem.” She continued by questioning, “Fake news or disinformation is defined by the intent to harm or mislead. How does the government identify intent?”

    Digital rights activist Usama Khilji also expressed his concern over the usage of vague terms in the law.

    “Cultural and moral trends are very vague subjects, especially for a diverse country like Pakistan, and this leaves a lot of room for abuse of this law at the hands of the state,” he said.

    “The Constitution, and the malicious intent of the government is obvious as the amendment hasn’t even been debated in parliament but introduced as an Ordinance, especially when the Islamabad High Court has been calling for reform of Section 20, which criminalises defamation against international standards of human rights,” he added.

    Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists has rejected the Ordinance.

  • Bomb blast targets police van, three officers injured

    Bomb blast targets police van, three officers injured

    Three police officers sustained injuries after a police mobile was targeted in Dera Ismail Khan.

    According to media reports, the police mobile was damaged in the bomb blast detonated by a remote control. The injured officers have been moved to the hospital where they are said to be in critical condition.

    Security agencies have cordoned off the area and launched a manhunt to arrest the culprits.

    According to initial reports, a police team was deployed for the ongoing polio campaign in the town.

    No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

    There has been an increase in attacks targeting law enforcement agencies for the past few days..

  • Australia announces squad for white-ball leg of Pakistan tour, Starc, Warner, Cummins among absentees

    Australia announces squad for white-ball leg of Pakistan tour, Starc, Warner, Cummins among absentees

    Cricket Australia has announced the squad of 16 players for the white-ball leg of the historic Pakistan tour.

    Several big names including the likes of David Warner, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell are giving the ODI and T20I series a miss.

    Notably, Australia, who are set to tour Pakistan for the first time in 24 years, will play three ODIs and a one-off T20I in Pakistan, which gets underway on March 29.

    Cricket Australia won’t release their contracted players to join the early stages of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, which is scheduled to take place in April.

    Chief selector of Australian cricket team George Bailey has said that he is confident that the team will do well in the series.

    Australia’s ODI and T20 squad:

    Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa.

    Power-hitting batter Matthew Wade has been excluded from the team.

    Meanwhile, Pakistani Twitterati is not satisfied with these big names who are missing the white-ball leg. Netizens claim that these five names have IPL contracts and this could be the reason for them to ditch the series.

  • Noor Mukadam case verdict to be announced on February 24

    Noor Mukadam case verdict to be announced on February 24

    An Islamabad sessions court has reserved its verdict in the Noor Mukadam murder case. The verdict will be announced on February 24. Additional Sessions Judge Ata Rabbani has fixed the judgement, as the arguments and trial have been completed.

    Noor’s father, Shaukat Mukadam, said that he is is satisfied with the police investigation and court proceedings. Earlier, he demanded capital punishment for the murderer of his daughter, while recording a statement in an Islamabad court. .

    Noor Mukadam was brutally murdered at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20. Her death sparked national outrage, including protests and candlelight vigils across the country. The Islamabad police arrested Zahir Jaffer on the night of July 20 from his house. The murder trial began in October 2021.

  • ‘I would love to have a debate with Modi on TV’: PM Khan

    ‘I would love to have a debate with Modi on TV’: PM Khan

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, in an interview with Russia TV (RT) ahead of his visit to Moscow, said that the first thing his government did in 2018 was to reach out to India for a dialogue.

    “I told them [India] our only issue is Kashmir. Remember, I am the one who knows India better than anyone else. So I immediately reached out and then I discovered to my horror that this is not the India I used to know because this has been taken over by a mad ideology. It’s a racist ideology that was inspired by the Nazis,” said the premier.

    “I would love to debate with Narendra Modi on TV. It would be so good for over a billion people in the sub-continent if we can resolve our differences through a debate,” said PM Khan.

    The prime minister noted that greater cooperation between the United States, China, and Russia will benefit mankind much more than the conflict.

    Pakistan wants to strengthen bilateral relations with Russia and he looks forward to his Moscow visit, said the PM.

    The prime minister said, “Our North-South Gas pipeline has suffered a delay because of the US sanctions on the Russian company we were negotiating for the construction of the pipeline.”

    PM Khan said the western countries should frame laws as they have on terror financing to check the illicit flow of money from poor countries. 

    “My main emphasis is to remove poverty. No human society has achieved what China has done. So, therefore we learn from everyone. But we should be rooted in our culture, history, and religion.”

     “Pakistan wants to establish trading relations with all other countries to lift people out of poverty rather than becoming part of any bloc,” said the premier.

    It is pertinent to mention here that PM Khan, at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, will go on an official two-day visit to Russia from February 23-24.

    Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Energy Minister Hammad Azhar, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Reforms Asad Umar,  Adviser for Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, National Security Adviser Moeed Yousuf, and others will accompany the premier during the visit.

  • PM Imran Khan announces ‘no tax’ policy for freelance workers

    PM Imran Khan announces ‘no tax’ policy for freelance workers

    Prime Minister(PM) Imran Khan has announced that registered freelancers will be exempted from all types of taxes.

    While addressing the launching ceremony of the E-commerce Portal, PM said that freelancers will not be liable to any sort of tax on their income now.

    He said, “IT [sector] is youth-driven. All of these tech company owners became billionaires by the age of 20.”

    He also shared that the government’s aim is to take Information technology (IT) exports upto $50 billion in the upcoming years. The exports of IT have reached $4 billion during the past two years.

    He also added that women at home will be able to empower themselves by freelancing at home.

    He also opened up about his future plans to work with Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, for the IT industry. He was invited to Pakistan to honour him as he made efforts to eliminate polio disease from the country.

    PM said, “But my interest was to involve him in Pakistan’s IT [industry] even if in an advisory capacity.”

    In September 2021, the Information Technology Ministry of Pakistan launched a portal to register freelancers.

    World Bank released a report last year in September in which it revealed that the number of freelancers is much higher than Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.