Tag: home-politics

  • ANF judge stops Rana Sanaullah’s case hearing midway, repatriated to LHC

    Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) court judge Masood Arshad stopped the hearing of Rana Sanaullah’s case midway after learning that he had been repatriated back to the Lahore High Court (LHC), Dawn has reported.

    According to the details, ANF judge during today’s hearing said, “I have just received a Whatsapp message, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has repatriated me. I cannot lend my expertise to this case anymore”.

    “If this hadn’t happened then I would have announced the verdict today”, the judge added. 

    Apart from Masood Arshad, two other accountability judges have been recalled, including judge Mushtaq Ilahi, and Muhammad Naeem Arshad.

    Judge Naeem was hearing cases of Shehbaz Sharif, Hamza Shehbaz and Maryam Nawaz, while judge Ilahi was not hearing any high-profile cases.

    ANF had earlier arrested Rana Sanaullah in July, from the Islamabad-Lahore motorway near Sukheki, on charges of having ties to drug traffickers.

  • Dutch oil company to invest $2.8 billion in Pakistan

    Dutch oil company to invest $2.8 billion in Pakistan

    The famous Dutch oil company, Royal Vopak is going to invest $2.8 billion in Pakistan after improvement in investment regime under Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf (PTI) government, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) has reported.

    According to the details, a delegation of Royal Vopak called on Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Textile, Industries and Production, and Investment, Razak Dawood and discussed new opportunities for investment related to Terminal and Storage Facilities of Liquefied Natural Gas ( LNG) in Pakistan.

    Royal Vopak is a Dutch company that stores and handles various oil, chemicals, edible oils and natural gas-related products all over the world.

    The Adviser to the PM urged the delegation to invest in Pakistan owing to its improved global ranking in Ease of Doing Business Index by 11 points.

    In this regard, Pakistan has launched a program titled Regulatory Guillotine to ease the business regulations to facilities investors.

  • PML-N MPA caught stealing electricity

    Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz MPA Rahila Khadim Hussain has been caught stealing electricity in Larex Colony, Mughal Pura, Lahore.

    According to a newspaper clipping shared by journalist Mansoor Ali Khan on Twitter, MPA Rahila is involved in stealing electricity over Rs500,000 with a fake meter that is installed at her house.

    The clipping further reveals that the authorities from eastern circle area under direction’s from Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) Chief Mujahid Parvez conducted the raid in Angoori bagh’s sub-division with superintendent Engineer Muhammad Rasheed and caught MPA stealing electricity.

  • Imran Khan says ‘became PM by taking U-Turns’

    Imran Khan says ‘became PM by taking U-Turns’

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that he became the prime minister of Pakistan by taking “U-turns”.

    He was speaking at the inauguration of a new academic block at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI) of Engineering Science and Technology in Topi, where he said his opponents often accused him of taking U-turns from a particular stance.

    PM said “I make compromises for achieving my goals, rather than compromising on my goals”, adding that “The opponents are raising hue and cry so that I give them NRO. This is simply out of question”.

    This is not the first time Imran Khan has said something like that. Last year in November 2018, PM Imran on Twitter wrote that “Doing a U-turn (sic) to reach one’s objective is the hallmark of great leadership just as lying to save ill-gotten wealth is the hallmark of crooks”.

  • Video: Police torture cell run by SHO, constables unearthed in Lahore

    Video: Police torture cell run by SHO, constables unearthed in Lahore

    A secret torture cell run by station house officer (SHO) and constables has been unearthed in Lahore’s Gujjarpura area, exposing the mistreatment of Punjab police, Dawn has reported.

    According to the details, Gojjar Pura police has set up a private torture cell in a forest near Karol village which was unearthed by officials of the anti-corruption department, who were in the field for investigation of a case.

    During their investigation, the anti-corruption officials heard cries, traced them to a building located right in the middle of a jungle and filmed whatever they saw. 

    They found six locked men, including a bedridden man in serious condition due to apparently third-degree torture by the suspected policemen.

    The bedridden man, identified as Amjad claimed that the suspected police officials entered his house by scaling the boundary walls, dragged his wife and children and then bundled him in a police van without informing him of the reason of his arrest.

    Other captives said the police officials would come over in the night to torture them only.

    The Lahore Operations DIG has taken notice of the report and summoned Gujjarpura SHO Raza Jaffery and three other police personnel.

  • Senator Rehman Malik tags ‘Uno’ game instead of UN in Tweet

    Senator Rehman Malik tags ‘Uno’ game instead of UN in Tweet

    Senior Pakistan People’s Party leader and Senator Rehman Malik has made a hilarious social media blunder.

    While criticising Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not allowing the opposition delegation to visit Indian occupied Kashmir, Malik mistakenly tagged the UNO game instead of the United Nations.

    In case you didn’t know Uno is a multiplayer card game.

    What’s even more surprising is that Malik did not delete the tweet and is seemingly unaware of his gaffe.

    The former interior minister has been openly criticising the Modi government for their atrocities in Kashmir and has even written a letter to the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in this matter. The senator has demanded that the UNHCR constitute a parliamentary committee consisting of parliamentarians from different countries and make them visit Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) and observe the worst kind of human rights violations there.

  • No corruption found in Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro project

    No corruption found in Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro project

    An audit by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) into the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Service has failed to find any irregularities in the process of the project’s development, The Express Tribune reported Monday.

    According to reports, a team led by Punjab Works director-general (DG) conducted the audit, and PAC has so far reviewed some 53 audit papers while the Special Departmental Accounts Committee (SDAC) has reviewed around 97.

    However, the authorities have found no evidence of corruption so far.

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government last year in September had ordered the audit of all the metro bus projects started by the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi-Islamabad.

    Jailed ex-prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif had laid the foundation of the 23 km project in March 2014.

    The project in twin cities initially was estimated to cost Rs44.8 billion, however, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) had revised the cost of project downwards by Rs285.4 million to Rs44.56 billion.

  • Man striving for Jinnah’s Pakistan passes away at 90

    Man striving for Jinnah’s Pakistan passes away at 90

    Lahore’s 90-year-old Ikramul Haque, who stood all alone at Liberty Roundabout with a poster stating “Humein Jinnah ka Pakistan chahiye [We want Jinnah’s Pakistan]” for the past six years, has passed away, Dawn reported.

    Known as “the old Jinnah man”, Haque stood at the roundabout every Tuesday. Passing away last Friday, his funeral prayers were held on Sunday at 5 pm at 112/5 F Model Town.

    He had been part of the Pakistan Movement as a student from 1944 to 1948 and was a member of the Muslim Students Federation of Dayal Singh College.

    Haque strongly believed in and advocated Quaide Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan that was not a theocratic state, rather it was about the Muslims, who were a minority in India, and their basic rights.

    He started standing at the Liberty Roundabout in 2013 after growing terrorism and extremism in the country.

    Starting his career as a junior clerk at the Caltex Oil Company in Karachi, he retired as managing director of National Fertiliser Marketing Limited. Haque has left behind a wife and three sons.

  • Saudi Arabia, Palestine, UAE among six Muslim states that awarded Modi with high civilian awards

    Saudi Arabia, Palestine, UAE among six Muslim states that awarded Modi with high civilian awards

    Despite the crisis in occupied Kashmir and after the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain has also conferred upon Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi its top award, “The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance”.

    While the Modi-led government paves way for a Muslim genocide in the troubled valley, India’s relations with Islamic nations are better than ever before.

    Several other Islamic nations also honoured Modi with their high civilian award in the recent past. Here’s a list of awards the Indian premier has been conferred with by Muslim-majority countries:

    The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance, Bahrain – August 2019

    Order of Zayed, UAE’s highest civilian award – August 2019

    Grand Collar of the State of Palestine – February 2018

    Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan – June 2016

    King Abdulaziz Sash Award, Saudi Arabia – April 2016

    Rule of Nishan Izzuddeen, Maldives – June 2019

    Both recent awards have led to an uproar as a human rights crisis brews in Muslim-majority occupied Kashmir with New Delhi continuing its clampdown in the disputed territory.

  • Punjab govt removes name of Hamid Mir’s father from underpass

    Punjab govt removes name of Hamid Mir’s father from underpass

    The Punjab government has renamed the Waris Mir Underpass on the provincial capital’s Canal Bank Road near the Punjab University (PU), where the late writer and intellectual taught journalism for about 25 years.

    The name of Waris Mir, a Hilale Imtiaz recipient, was removed from the underpass on Saturday and renamed the Kashmir Underpass in a sudden and mysterious move that has been condemned by the Waris Mir Foundation.

    Senior journalist and anchorperson Hamid Mir’s father, Waris, taught for 30 years at the PU’s Mass Communication Department.

    He was not the only one to be honoured by the state in March 2013, since all newly-constructed underpasses, which tallied up to more than a dozen across the city, were named after outstanding intellectuals and prominent personalities, including Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ashfaq Ahmed, Habib Jalib, Justice A R Cornelius, Ustad Daman, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, Khushaal Khan Khatak, Liaqat Ali Khan, Chakare Azam Rind, Justice A R Kiyani and Patras Bokhari.

    The names had been decided through a procedure in several meetings of the City District Government, headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court (SC).

    Commenting on the move, Waris Mir Foundation spokesperson said “it was nothing but an act of aversion, not against Waris Mir alone, but a sequence of hatred and uncalled-for enmity towards the Pakistani media, in general, which seems to be a line of action of the government”.

    “This act, in general, has only been secretly carried out to hurt the sentiments of hundreds of Waris Mir’s students, readers and his posterity,” the spokesperson added.