Tag: federal

  • Anti-corruption team couldn’t arrest Rana Sanaullah, say ‘police didn’t co-operate’

    Anti-corruption team couldn’t arrest Rana Sanaullah, say ‘police didn’t co-operate’

    A team from Punjab’s Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) was unable to arrest Federal Interior Minister, Rana Sanaullah, on Monday due to the non-cooperation of the Islamabad police.

    The establishment’s director Syed Anwar Ali Shah alleged that the capital’s police officers misbehaved with them.

    Earlier today, a local court in Rawalpindi directed the ACE team to arrest the minister and present him before the court in a case relating to corruption.

    “The police officials neither recorded entry nor departure of the ACE team and nor did they comply with the court’s order,” Shah said.

    He stated that his department will inform the court about the day’s events and will devise a strategy as per the court’s orders.

    Prior to this, a local court in Rawalpindi, dismissed ACE’s plea seeking contempt of court proceedings against Sanaullah for not appearing in a corruption inquiry.

    On Saturday, a judicial magistrate issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for the federal minister over his non-appearance in an anti-corruption inquiry.

  • Fact Check: Did the federal government shut down the internet?

    Fact Check: Did the federal government shut down the internet?

    Claim: Internet was shut down for people in various parts of Pakistan in order to suppress the coverage of Imran Khan’s PTI rallies

    Fact: The internet was not shut down but there is evidence of internet ‘throttling’ by internet service providers throughout the country

    On May 25, several social media users took to Twitter to condemn the government’s “draconian” decision to shut down the internet. Popular personalities came out on Twitter, with their verified accounts with millions of followers and announced that the federal government has decided to shut down the internet, in light of the escalating tensions in Islamabad and to avoid social media coverage of Imran Khan’s rally.

    Internet throttling is when your internet service providers limit the speed or bandwidth of your internet without taking your consent or informing you. In some cases, throttling also helps manage an unusual amount of traffic on the internet in order to equally distribute the bandwidth.

    However, this is false.

    Several people also tweeted that they had internet services available. However, everyone noted varying speeds at different times in the day. At The Current Check‘s office, we faced internet slowdowns throughout the day, but it was never shutdown.

    Hija Kamran, digital rights advocate working at Media Matters for Democracy, tweeted asking people in Pakistan to confirm whether their internet is working fine and several people reported operational internet in Karachi and Islamabad, others claimed that they were facing issues in internet speed.

    An internet observatory organization called Net Blocks released a report on the same day confirming “disruptions” in the internet across Pakistan. However, according to their report these disruptions only lasted for two hours within the whole day, which does not even come close to the claim that the internet was shut down.

    In their report, NetBlocks confirms that disruptions were faced by multiple internet service providers across Paksitan after 5pm on Wednesday, May 25. The service was restored within two hours, following the surge in complaints being posted on social media about the internet being throttled by ISPs across the country.

    NetBlocks used “diffscans”, a tool which allowed them to map the IP address space of Pakistan in real time and display corresponding internet connectivity levels and outages, which are represented in the graph attached in their tweet.

    Verdict: FALSE

  • PM Khan says if Sharif and Zardari bring half the money they looted, he will slash prices of all food items by half

    PM Khan says if Sharif and Zardari bring half the money they looted, he will slash prices of all food items by half

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan addressed the nation and announced the “biggest” relief package worth Rs120 billion for the masses.

    “This [poverty alleviation] package, which is worth Rs120 billion, will be offered to Pakistanis by the federal and provincial governments,” he said.

    The premier said oil prices had risen by 100 per cent in the last 3-4 months internationally, while they had increased 33 per cent in Pakistan.

    “When you say petrol is expensive, it is the cheapest in Pakistan, but we will have to increase the price because otherwise our deficit will increase and we will be further burdened by debt,” he added.

    “You will be able to buy flour, ghee, and pulses at 30pc lower prices,” he announced.

    “We are also launching the Kamyab Pakistan [programme] with a funding of Rs1,400 billion to give interest-free loans to 4 million families,” he said.

    The premier then addressed the Opposition, who he said had been protesting against inflation.

    “I ask the two big families to bring half of the money they looted and took outside [Pakistan]. Even if they bring half [the money], I promise you and the nation that I will slash the prices of all food items by half,” he said, in an apparent jibe at the families of Pakistan Muslim League -Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari.