Ministry of Interior has expressed fear that terrorists can attack the ongoing ‘Azadi March’ of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F), targeting Maulana Fazlur Rehman,ARY News reported.
According to the details, the Ministry has issued a fresh alert saying that terrorists want to attack JUI-F chief and for that, they can use an explosive-laden vehicle.
The interior ministry has directed officials for the provision of Maulana’s security and has informed Home Secretaries of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in this regard.
Earlier on October 25, the interior ministry had issued an alert notice of possible terror attacks by banned militant outfits. The copies of the notice were also sent to chief secretaries of all province by the authorities.
The notice stated, “The protest march announced by JUI-F increased risks for the internal security of the country besides creating the situation of instability. The notice warns that anti-state elements could take benefit of the instability by targeting public gatherings”.
Dubbed the ‘Azadi’ March, the caravan, which set off from the Sindh province, left Punjab’s city Lahore on Wednesday and culminated its journey last night in Pakistan’s capital city, Islamabad.
Maulana Fazalur Rehman is leading the Azadi March, which after reaching Islamabad, has demanded the Prime Minister’s resignation. Maulana has given PM Khan two days to resign or face the consequences, which include “another strategy,” and that, “we [opposition] will not be able to exercise any patience after that point.”
Khan himself, while addressing a rally in Gilgit said that, “”When Maulana Fazlur Rehman is there [in Islamabad] we have no need of foreign conspiracies,” he said, adding, “The way the Indian media is celebrating [this march], it makes it seem he [Rehman] himself is (an Indian) national.”
After Khan’s comments, almost declaring Maulana a traitor who is cohorting with India, social media exploded with memes and images of Maulana photoshopped with Modi.
In a television program when Special Assistant to the PM on the Media, Firdous Ashiq Awan was questioned about why Khan was suggesting that Maulana was a traitor, Firdous said that Khan was a Pakistani citizen and every Pakistani had a right to question who their well wishers are.
Fazlu is the Ambassador of India, in Pakistan. 1- He oppose operation against TTP. 2- He called terrorists as “Shaheed” but security forces as “dead”. 3- He called “Kashmir Jihad” terrorism. 4- He supported PTM agenda. 5- Divert attention from Kashmir issue.#FazluCreatingChaospic.twitter.com/0jMP5xmQKm
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan on Friday came hard on Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and said that the latter “can sell his Islam over a diesel permit or Kashmir Committee chairpersonship”.
Religio-political leader Fazl, who is also the former chairperson of the Parliamentary Special Committee on Kashmir, is currently in Islamabad as part of his Azadi March against the “illegitimate” government led by Imran.
Speaking of the JUI-F-led opposition parties’ protest in the federal capital, the premier on Friday regretted the “use of Islam for shoring up votes” as he addressed a gathering in Gilgit.
“Gone are the days when one could use Islam to gain power. This is a new Pakistan. Sit for as long as you want to. When your food runs out, we will send more. But we will not give you an NRO [National Reconciliation Ordinance],” declared the premier.
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“We are celebrating your independence while an Azadi March [is ongoing in Islamabad]. Who are they wishing to gain freedom from?” he asked the crowd as people in Gilgit observed their 72nd Independence Day.
“I want the media to go there and ask people who they wish to free themselves from,” said the premier, stating that all his opponents appeared disjointed in their thoughts and aims.
He also accused Fazl of being a conspirator and said that Indian media was celebrating the march that suggested the right-wing leader was “himself an Indian national”.
Newsline was always so much more than just a publishing project… it was always about making the dream of editorial integrity a reality
The announcement that the December issue of Newsline magazine would be its last, was greeted by rather emotional comments on social media from people who had been associated with the venture or somehow touched by it.
Their often emotional comments expressed a real sense of sadness and almost personal loss, and while these remarks may have seemed surprising to those unfamiliar with the Newsline project, they really resonated with those who had lived through General Zia’s — direct as well as indirect — martial law periods.
This is because Newsline was not just another publication: for those in journalism, it was a venture that symbolised hope — the hope of the triumph of the journalist over the seth or owner/proprietor/media baron.
Newsline was founded by a group of women journalists in late 1988. The team was led by Razia Bhatti, the longtime editor of The Herald, the Dawn Group monthly that was famous for its stylish production values and its hard-hitting content.
Razia, perhaps the best editor Pakistan has ever produced, was summoned by management and told it was time for her (after some two decades) to leave. This happened soon after General Zia dismissed the civilian government and announced fresh elections and it was a time when the military establishment was seeking to regain control of the political narrative and tame the increasingly outspoken media.
The editorial team was so appalled by the management’s decision to get rid of Razia that most of us opted to resign in protest and leave with her. I was a newcomer in the group (as was Tehmina Ahmed). I’d been with the team for less than a year, but my other colleagues were well-known names in the field, particularly Rehana Hakim, Samina Ibrahim and Sairah Irshad. Talat Aslam stayed on as did Zahid Hussain, our star reporter, who then joined us several months later.
Soon afterward, Razia had the bright idea that we should start our very own magazine. It seemed a complete impossibility, but we began to work on developing the idea anyway. Zia, the cause of most of our woes, had been killed in the Bahawalpur crash and within a few months of that the country’s publishing laws were liberalised and we were able to get a publishing license or ‘declaration’.
We decided we must have a controlling interest and so we invested whatever we could in the company and were also lucky enough to find some investor friends who wanted to come in not for the profit (there never were any), but because they had faith in the venture.
The first issue came out in July 1989 and the legend of Newsline gained strength with every new issue. The legend was that the journalists had won, that editorial integrity would not be compromised, that the news narrative was not tailored according to financial or political interests.
The Newsline launch, Karachi July 1989. L to R: Rehana Hakim, Razia Bhatti, Zahid Hussain, Samina Ibrahim, Umber Khairi, S.A. Baqri, Baseer Ashraf, Tehmina Ahmed
But keeping the legend alive and carrying the torch for this sort of idealism was not an easy task. Financially we struggled and the pressures we faced were many, but we carried on.
Even after Razia died suddenly in 1996, Rehana and the team kept the flame of this hope alive. The names of staffers who passed through the intense training ground that was the Newsline office reads like a Who’s Who of journalism, politics, literature and academia (Abbas Nasir, Mohammed Hanif, Nafisa Shah, Naziha Syed Ali, Marvi Memon, Kamila Shamsie to name just a few). But apart from the commitment of the core team what perhaps helped most to keep the venture alive was the support and good wishes of so many people – friends, colleagues and readers.
But eventually, we reached a stage where the magazine could no longer function as a small independent operation and we became part of a media group (again) when we sold Newsline to the HUM group. When I told a friend about this she asked, “If you sold it and it didn’t belong to you, why are you getting so worked up about it?”
She’s right of course. Legally, we no longer owned Newsline and the decision to cease publication was rightfully the owner’s, but emotionally and idealistically perhaps we will always own Newsline because it was always so much more than just a publishing project… it was always about making the dream of editorial integrity a reality.
Pakistan Railways (PR) has suffered a loss of whopping Rs213 million as three of Tezgam’s carriages were reduced to ashes in the fire that shook the entire nation on Thursday, a private media outlet reported.
At least 74 people were killed and over 40 others injured after three gas cylinders exploded in a train travelling from Karachi to Rawalpindi. The fire destroyed three of the train’s carriages, including two economy class carriages and one business class carriage.
Footage over both mainstream and social media showed flames engulfing the ill-fated train as people cry for help following the mishap near Punjab’s Rahim Yar Khan district.
It wasn’t later that Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed blamed passengers for the fire, while people across the country stepped up to condemn the minister’s remarks and accuse PR of criminal negligence.
“It isn’t PR’s fault and passengers are to be blamed for it,” the minister said while speaking to journalists after the tragedy.
“It is unfortunate that passengers take cylinders with them. They don’t fear the law,” he said, adding that several people jumped to their deaths from the burning train.
While Rasheed promised an inquiry to ascertain how the passengers had managed to carry cylinders with them, his statements were not very well received by the people who demanded the minister’s resignation amid rising number of train mishaps.
Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan, Ali Amin Gandapur, is no stranger to controversy. From claiming that the previous government had let go of Kulbhushan Jadhav. He was also unaware of the Jadhav case at the International Court of Justice.
Gandapur has made another faux pas — this time he has threatened countries supporting India over the Kashmir issue.
Addressing a public gathering, Gandapur said, “If tensions with India rise on Kashmir, Pakistan will be compelled to go to war. Those countries backing India and not Pakistan [over Kashmir] will be considered our enemy and a missile will be fired at India and those nations supporting it.”
What’s even more interesting is that when challenged on Waseem Badami’s show, Gandapur did not back down from his threats.
Reacting to journalist and former Dawn assistant editor Cyril Almeida’s tweet, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) chief Major General Asif Ghafoor has called him out over his “unwarranted assertion”.
“RIP ISPR, PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf], etc…” Almeida tweeted Thursday while quoting a statement by Twitter Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey, who had announced the microblogging website’s decision to block political advertisements all across the globe.
Retweeting the journalist with a comment, the ISPR director general (DG) challenged him to prove his claims pertaining to alleged adverts by the military’s media wing.
“Dear @cyalm [Almeida], quote one such instance by ISPR [so as] to validate your unwarranted assertion. In case you fail, I wishfully expect a moral obligation from you. Should you succeed, I will take your advice,” Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor tweeted.
It wasn’t later that the journalist responded to the ISPR chief.
“Was a joke, Gen sb… a bit of (apparently failed) humour in this space where we are all prisoners of Twitter and its policies… maybe @jack [Dorsey] will turn his attention to the trend wars next… [sic],” Almeida said.
TWITTER BANS POLITICAL ADS:
Earlier, CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted that the social networking site will be banning all political advertisements — albeit with “a few exceptions” like voter registration.
“We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” Dorsey said.
We’ve made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally. We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought. Why? A few reasons…
While it’s not totally clear how broad those exceptions will be, it sounds like the ban will apply to both ads endorsing candidates and ads advocating a position on political issues.
Dorsey said the company will share the final policy by November 15, and that it will start enforcing the same on November 22.
We’ll share the final policy by 11/15, including a few exceptions (ads in support of voter registration will still be allowed, for instance). We’ll start enforcing our new policy on 11/22 to provide current advertisers a notice period before this change goes into effect.
“Internet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse: machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes,” he wrote. “All at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale.”
Internet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse: machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes. All at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale.
This came after Facebook faced heavy criticism around its refusal to fact-check political advertising (even as it took steps to fight election-related misinformation elsewhere), with employees of the social media giant writing an open letter objecting to the company’s stance.
For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: “We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want! ”
Dorsey didn’t mention Facebook by name in his tweets, but he seemed to allude to the company’s position when he wrote, “For instance, it‘s not credible for us to say: ‘We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want! ‘ [sic].”
Amid reports of a rift between opposition parties as the
Azadi March of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) to Islamabad continues, cracks
are also emerging among ranks of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), The Current has learnt.
According to sources, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s orders were disobeyed by the Punjab leadership of his party on Wednesday as 70,000 people were not mobilised to welcome Fazl’s caravan in Lahore.
The Current reached
out to several PML-N leaders to confirm or deny what rumour had and on the condition
of anonymity, one of them rejected the same.
“Both MNAs and MPAs of the PML-N were in Lahore to receive
Maulana’s caravan and they did. We even distributed food among his buses, which
were over a thousand in number,” the PML-N leader added.
“There were six different points in Lahore where our party
members gathered to welcome and facilitate Maulana Fazl. Our workers gathered to
welcome the caravan hours before its arrival.”
When asked why the PML-N leadership was nowhere to be seen at the Lahore stage of the Azadi March as JUI-F leaders addressed a mammoth gathering, the PML-N leader said they were asked to come on stage at the last minute and that too by a junior party worker.
“Not Maulana or any other JUI-F leader invited us on stage and we told them that we will come in an hour. However, later we were told that the caravan will not stop for us.”
The PML-N leader also said that they are on their way from Lahore to Islamabad with a huge crowd and plan on holding a small rally in the federal capital even though their leadership has been told by the JUI-F that the Azadi March will commence tomorrow.
When The Current reached out to other PML-N leaders for confirmation of the postponement, former National Assembly (NA) speaker Ayaz Sadiq said, “Akram Durrani Sahib called me today and said that Maulana will address Azadi March at 2 pm tomorrow after Friday prayers in Islamabad.”
Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul has said that the pollution in Lahore is increasing due to the extra number of vehicles entering Lahore for Azadi March.
In a video posted on Twitter from Gul’s official account, the minister has termed all reports fake which are claiming that Lahore has entered into the list of most polluted cities of the world.
She said that the company which has released this data wants the government to install their equipment for monitoring air pollution and is spreading misleading reports for the past two years.
“They take their equipment out for recording data when the traffic is dense and use these reports to spread panic”, the minister added.
دانستہ طور پر لاہور میں ہوا کی آلودگی کے بارے میں پھیلائی جانے والی افواہ کی سختی سے تردید کرتی ہوں۔ اور ان عناصر کی مذمت کرتی ہوں۔
Deliberately misinformation is being spread about Lahore AIr Quality. It is nowhere as bad as being asserted by vested elements.
Yesterday, the air quality monitoring station installed in US Consulate Lahore indicated that the Air Quality Index (AQI) of the city is near 469, while the threshold for hazardous levels of air quality is 300.
Moreover, the London-based non-governmental organisation, Amnesty International in a statementreleased to the media on Wednesday stated that the levels of air quality in the province has been rated “near unhealthy” to “very unhealthy” for most of the year.
The report also said that the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Lahore has reached 484 in the early morning. Meanwhile, EPA is still unable to show the actual picture of the scenario and is showing the unrealistic data in this regard.
The South Asia Campaigner at Amnesty International, Rimmel Mohydin has also urged the government to do more to adequately address such a severe public health crisis — one that endangers people’s health and even their lives”.
With Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rashid Ahmed blaming passengers for the train fire that killed at least 74 near Rahim Yar Khan, people across the country have stepped up to condemn the minister’s remarks and accuse Pakistan Railways (PR) of criminal negligence.
The train, Tezgam, was on its way from Karachi to Rawalpindi when a gas cylinder carried by a passenger exploded, resulting in hundreds of casualties on Thursday morning. The fire destroyed three of the train’s carriages, including two economy class and one business class carriage.
“It isn’t PR’s fault and passengers are to be blamed for it,” the minister said while speaking to journalists after the tragedy left the nation shaken.
“It is unfortunate that passengers take cylinders with them. They don’t fear the law,” he said, adding that several people jumped to their deaths from the burning train.
While Rasheed promised an inquiry to ascertain how the passengers had managed to carry cylinders with them, his statements were not very well received by the people.
Sad incident #tezgam but even sadder is Sheikh Rasheed saying the incident which has cost 70 plus lives is due to the people travelling, @ImranKhanPTI time you implement the statement of Britians minister and seek resignation of your minister, Be the change you talk about
“Be the change you talk about,” journalist Adeel Raja tweeted while urging Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan to sack the minister. There has been a significant increase in the number of train mishaps ever since Rasheed was handed the reins of PR. Hundreds of casualties have been reported in derailings and collisions.
Senior journalist and analyst Moeed Pirzada pointed out that the train didn’t have any fire-fighting equipment and the staff appeared to have no training to deal with such untoward situations.
Tez Gam Tragedy: Now we are getting the full picture. Amir Hussian of Tabligee Jammat booked two baggies, Railway Staff ignored when they carried “Gas Stoves”, no education to understand that “Gas Stoves” on a running train will be dangerous, & no fire fighting capacity on trains https://t.co/c2rr8brIR4
Retweeting his colleague Rauf Klasra’s statement, Moeed also accused PR of incompetence and criminal negligence over its failure to bar passengers from carrying gas stoves with them as per the rules.
Klasra is right! When gas cylinders/stoves are not allowed inside trains, then its Railway’s incompetence & negligence that such gas stoves are carried inside. Will “Tez Gam” Tragedy force Railways to become an intelligent well governed organisation? https://t.co/1zklMT6R17
Meanwhile, an eyewitness has claimed that the fire was caused by a short circuit in one of the bogies’ fans.
Tablighi Jamaat eye witness on Tezgam contradicts claim of Sheikh Rasheed that Tablighi Jamaat members were responsible for the fire. Says fire caused by short circuit and safety system of the train was completely dysfunctional. pic.twitter.com/cbQzoG9UOE
“The train kept moving even when it was on fire and there were no emergency facilities available inside the train,” the witness said as he blamed PR authorities for not taking complaints of the passengers seriously.
‘ [sic].”
