Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Political Communication Shahbaz Gill has contested a statement made by Firdous Ashiq Awan, Punjab CM’s aide on information, on the Karachi incident, wherein the police chief was pressurised by the military officials to register a case against Capt (r) Safdar.
Last month, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Muhammad Safdar was arrested from his hotel room in Karachi for raising slogans on the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam. The Sindh government subsequently distanced itself from the arrest. Reports later emerged that Sindh police chief Mushtaq Mahar was pressurised by the army men to register a case against Safdar.
Referring to the inquiry, Firdous said the army chief ordered an inquiry into the incident on the directives of the prime minister so that a “crisis” could be contained. She added the investigations into the “Karachi incident” and final outcome proved that Pakistan Army was a disciplined force.
یہ فردوس صاحبہ کا زاتی تجزیہ یا خیال ہو سکتا ہے یا پھر ان کا بیان آؤٹ آف کون ٹیکسٹ چلا گیا۔
However, soon after the statement, Gill posted a statement on his Twitter account, saying the PM didn’t call the army chief in this regard. According to Gill, “Dr Awan’s statement is either her personal analysis or her statement has been run out of context. In order to set the record straight, Dr Awan’s statement is not correct.”
It may be noted here that the PM Imran Khan had termed the abduction of the Sindh IG an incident “that made him laugh”.
The State Bank of Pakistan has ordered all banks to block Pakistani users from subscribing to Indian streaming platform Zee5 with immediate effect, according to a notification issued this week.
While it is unclear as to why this action was taken, reports have suggested that the reason behind this is Asim Abbasi’s web series Churails, which riled up the moral brigade in Pakistan prompting authorities to take this decision.
Responding to the notification, Churails director Asim Abbasi tweeted the title of a poem penned by Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz to protest the oppressive regime of dictator General Zia-ul-Haq.
It is pertinent to mention here that Churails was earlier also banned for Pakistani audiences. However, it was restored in less than 48 hours. According to Abbasi, the show was taken off after the streaming platform received complaints from authorities here.
Featuring Sarwat, Yasra Rizvi, Nimra Bucha, Meher Bano and Omair Rana among others, Churails is the story of four self-proclaimed ‘Churails’ who come together to open a covert detective agency to expose cheating husbands amongst the city’s elite. As their operations expand, they come to be saviours of abused, harassed and mistreated women. The 10-episode series covers a myriad of issues such as child abuse, sexism, the domination of class and race and aims to challenge the hypocrisy of patriarchal societies.
Meanwhile, Mehreen Jabbar, who directed Eik Jhoothi Love Story – another original web series for the platform – expressed her disappointment over the ban.
“Don’t do anything yourself, just keep banning,” commented the director.
Mehreen’s directorial, featuring Bilal Abbas Khan and Madiha Imam, in the lead, is a quintessential Pakistani love story, starkly different from Churails. It released on October 30.
Zee5 had commissioned five original web series from Pakistan. While two of them have released, three more are in the pipeline.
The second wave of COVID-19 has arrived in Pakistan with full force taking the total number of infections to 352,296 .
As per details, 108,822 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Punjab so far. In a related development, the Punjab government has compiled a study, which shows the people belonging to the 31-45 age group are more vulnerable to the infection, followed by the 16-30 age group, contradicting earlier reports that the younger generations are less vulnerable to the virus.
One of the reasons given for younger generations to get infected more is due to their outdoor activities/movement. A senior official of the health department says most of the people of these age groups attend educational institutions, do jobs or run businesses and many of them interact with people at their workplaces or educational institutions without preventive measures.
Being asymptomatic patients, they transmit virus to their elderly family members or multiply the positive cases by interacting with other people. The members of these two age groups need extraordinary care by wearing masks and reducing their outdoor activities, stated the official.
As per reports, statistics show that out of the total confirmed cases in Punjab, 32,060 people of 31-45 age group and 29,849 of other age groups have tested positive for the virus so far.
The data further shows the health professionals attending COVID-19 patients in health facilities are also most vulnerable to the coronavirus due to their exposure to it.
Students of Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU), Multan submitted bogus positive reports of COVID-19 to force the administration to conduct online examinations.
They were exposed on Thursday after the administration verified their reports and declared the news of coronavirus spread as ‘fake’.
As per reports, students of the English, Politics and Psychology departments were involved in the tempering of the COVID-19 reports.
Taking the matter seriously, the university administration constituted a corona committee for the verification of the reports, while DC suggested the imposition of a smart lockdown in the university.
Nearly a dozen reports were forwarded to the Nishar Hospital and private laboratories for verification. The reports could not be verified and were declared fake and tempered by the labs.
The administration of the Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) Multan has decided to take action against the students who submitted fake reports to create panic in the university.
The findings of the committee have been forwarded to the High Education Commission (HEC). Meanwhile, the university administration has asked parents of the students not to believe in rumors and there is no coronavirus spread in the university.
Claim: Pakistani lawmakers chant “Modi, Modi” in favor of the Indian Prime Minister during the 27th session of the National Assembly
Fact: Pakistani parliamentarians did not engage in any sloganeering in favor of Modi inside the parliament and were in fact chanting “voting, voting”
A television news segment in India reporting that slogans favoring Prime Minister Narendra Modi were chanted by lawmakers in Pakistan has been shared extensively on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The claim was widely amplified by prominent Indian politicians and other media outlets.
However, the claim is false; the lawmakers were in fact chanting calls for a vote during a debate in the National Assembly, a fact check by AFP read.
A one-minute and 45-seconds news clip was published on Facebook here on October 29, 2020.
The post’s caption says: “Modi Modi slogans in Pakistan’s parliament.”
The clip shared in the Facebook post is a segment from India TV that reports on and shows footage from a debate in Pakistan’s National Assembly that was held on October 26, 2020.
The segment was published on India TV’s Twitter account here on October 28, 2020. “Exclusive: Why some MPs in Pakistan parliament shouted ‘Modi, Modi’,” the tweet reads.
In the broadcast, India TV’s chyron reads “Again MPs raised the slogans of Modi” and “‘Modi-Modi’ slogans chanted in front of Pakistan foreign minister.”
Footage of the parliamentary debate was also shared alongside the claim by Indian media outlets here, here, here, here, here, here and here and by Facebook users here, here, here and here.
However, the claim is false.
A close analysis of the parliamentary proceedings show that the lawmakers are in fact chanting in Urdu “voting, voting” — not “Modi, Modi”.
The chanting was coming from opposition politicians that were demanding a vote on a resolution that would call on Muslim countries to boycott French goods in response to remarks made by French President Emmanuel Macron regarding blasphemous sketches of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him).
The “voting, voting” chants occurred while Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was speaking during the debate, which can be seen in full on Public TV’s YouTube channel here.
The chanting can be heard at the video’s 13:28 mark.
Dawn, a major English newspaper in Pakistan, reported on the “voting, voting” chants here on October 27, 2020.
Prime Minister Modi was invoked later in the parliamentary proceeding but in a negative sense.
At 18:25 mark of the Public TV video, Qureshi taunts an opposition lawmaker, saying “it appears that the spirit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s has been transferred into him”.
The quip was followed by chants of “whoever is a friend of Modi is a traitor.”
The negative comments about Modi were reported on by several news outlets, including Pakistan’s Express Tribune here, Indian news agency IANS here and in the Dawn report here.
The false claim that Pakistani lawmakers chanted “Modi, Modi” was also debunked by the UK’s BBC here and by Indian fact-checking organizations Boomlive here and Alt News here.
The owner of Master Tiles is on the Federal Board Revenue (FBR) radar for spending Rs2 billion on the wedding ceremony of his son.
The wedding ceremony that had attracted media attention for its extravagant style also featured several Pakistani celebrities in addition to a troupe of foreign gymnasts.
Subsequently, a probe was conducted by the FBR into the “service providers involved in the lavish arrangements” to detect possible tax evasion. The document shared by the FBR said that Rosa Blanca Country Club, the venue of baraat located on Raiwind Road in Lahore, was paid Rs150 million for the premises.
The FBR inquiry said that the private company doesn’t have an NTN (national tax number) at all, adding that there’s a strong reason to suspect that the entity was not paying taxes at all.
The wedding organisers supposedly paid Rs5.5m to singer Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, while singers Atif Aslam was paid Rs5m for gracing the mehndi night. Cleric Moulana Tariq Jameel was reportedly paid Rs1m for solemnising the marriage ceremony.
K-5 Concepts — event manager that managed baraat decor– was paid Rs15-20m as per FBR. It was also accused of tax evasion along with Rosa Blanca. Qasim Yar Tiwana, the event manager, was paid Rs15-20m for the decor of the baraat. According to FBR, Tiwana declared Rs216,743 as income from business in the tax year 2019.
Whimsica I Parties and United Events and Services were paid Rs10m each for decor, whereas Ahsan Habib also received Rs10m in payments for walima decorations.
Photographers and videographers also provided their services for hefty amounts. Irfan Ahsan was paid approx Rs3m, Mobeen Studios charged Rs2m, Osman Pervaiz received Rs3-3.5m, while Ahmad Fayyaz charged Rs1m for photography at mehndi and baraat.
Shazray Khalid and Winc by Nadia charged Rs1m each for makeup services.
Faisalabad is witnessing an upward trend in the textile sector because 50,000 closed power looms have been turned operational.
As per the details, experts have forecasted that another 30,000 looms will be installed as the textile industry witnesses massive economic growth following the high demand for export times.
The recently-announced incentive of electricity supply for the industrial sector at subsidised prices by the government has also played a vital role in this development.
On Thursday, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan shared a television news report on Twitter regarding the revival of the textile industry.
وباء (COVID-19) کے امتحان کے باوجود ماشاءاللہ ملک درست سمت میں آگے بڑھ رہا ہے۔ pic.twitter.com/xPhB9LEleY
The report highlighted the rise in economic activity in Faisalabad and the shortage of 0.2 million labourers that are required to meet the high demand of orders in the sector.
The textile sector had been adversely affected by the power crisis and neglect of the previous governments. However, due to the incumbent government’s effective smart lockdown policies during the coronavirus pandemic, numerous countries have diverted their orders to Pakistan’s textile sector.
According to the news report, the textile industry in Faisalabad has 1.3 million workers with 1 million native workers. In its recent report titled “Opening Early helped Pakistan Boost Exports during the Pandemic”, Bloomberg also underlined a major surge in Pakistan’s textile exports.”
Bloomberg’s report also quoted Shahid Sattar, the Secretary-General of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association, as saying, “Pakistan has seen orders shifting from multiple nations including China, India, and Bangladesh”.
He added, “Garment manufacturers are operating near-maximum capacity and many can’t take any orders for the next six months”.
The report also mentioned that the outbound textile shipments of Pakistan grew at a faster pace than those of Bangladesh and India, and accounted for half of the total export. Islamabad saw total shipments grow 7 per cent in September, compared with New Delhi’s 6 per cent and Dhaka’s 3.5 per cent, the report stated.
Cricket players who are in currently in Karachi for Pakistan Super League’s (PSL) remaining matches were seen spending their free time playing indoor games.
With COVID-19 still a threat, players are required to stay in their bio-secure bubble in order to stay safe from the virus. This means that they are not allowed to leave the premises of hotel and stadium. All matches will also be behind closed doors.
After practice sessions, the players were seen enjoying their free time playing snooker, indoor cricket, jenga and board games.
Babar enjoying snooker
Chadwick playing Table Tennis
The official handle of Karachi Kings also shared a video in which Babar bowled to Wahab Riaz in the corridor while Imam ul Haq cheered for them.
Twenty-two wedding guests were killed when the rickshaw they were riding in fell into a canal in northwestern Pakistan, police said Wednesday at the end of a recovery mission.
The three-wheeler was overloaded with 29 people when the accident happened on Monday, near the city of Dera Ismail Khan.
“We have recovered 22 bodies which include 16 women and six children”, Muhammad Ramzan, a senior police official, told AFP.
The victims were from the same extended family, and at least seven of them were from the same household, he added.
Seven people were rescued.
Bilal Muhammad Faizi, a spokesman for the local rescue agency, confirmed the death toll and said the last bodies were retrieved on Wednesday.
Rickshaws are a common mode of transport across Pakistan, and accidents occur frequently.
Pakistan has one of the world’s worst records for fatal traffic accidents, mostly blamed on poor roads, badly maintained vehicles and reckless driving.
Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, 59, has passed away due to coronavirus on Friday.
Justice Seth had tested positive for COVID-19 on October 22 and was subsequently moved to a hospital in Peshawar, a report in Dawn said. The judge was later shifted to to a private hospital in Islamabad in a critical condition.
He leaves behind a wife and a daughter.
Justice Seth took oath as chief justice of the PHC on June 28, 2018. During his tenure as the CJ, he issued important verdicts, specifically the acquittal of over 70 convicts most of whom were handed down death sentences by military courts.
The deceased jurist was also the head of a special court that had sentenced former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf to death by hanging in a high treason case.
Both the government and the army had expressed “anger” over a specific paragraph 66 of the detailed judgement and termed it “unlawful”, “inhuman” and “unconstitutional”.
Para 66 of the verdict read: “We direct the law enforcement agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict [Pervez Musharraf] and to ensure that the punishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk [in front of the Parliament House], Islamabad, Pakistan, and be hanged for three days.”
CONDOLENCES POUR IN:
Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed grief on the demise of the judge.
Saddened to learn of the passing of Chief Justice Peshawar High Court Waqar Ahmed Seth. May his soul rest in peace – Ameen. My condolences & prayers go to his family.
My Condolences on the sad demise of the Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court Waqar Ahmed Seth. إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ May his soul rest in peace and may Allah give strength to his family to bear this loss.
It is indeed saddening to learn of Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth’s demise. He earned his place in history through courage and character. His fearlessness as a judge will remain an example to follow. May God grant exaltations to him and patience to the bereaved.
Justice Waqar Ahmed Seth was one of the few high court judges in Pakistan willing to take on the appeals of military court convicts, famously acquitting 74 of them in a verdict that exposed the lack of fair trial rights those tribunals afforded suspects. https://t.co/fUSGLHbbTV
