Tag: home-politics

  • ‘Qatari emir brokering deal for Nawaz, Maryam to leave Pakistan’

    ‘Qatari emir brokering deal for Nawaz, Maryam to leave Pakistan’

    Senior journalist and analyst Arif Nizami has said that Qatar
    is reportedly brokering a deal between the government and former prime minister
    (PM) Nawaz Sharif to secure the latter’s release.

    Speaking to a private media outlet, Nizami said that Qatar was
    an old friend of Pakistan and previously involved in securing Nawaz’s release
    when former military dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf had arrested him after
    the 1999 coup.

    “When Musharraf came into power and detained Nawaz, the emir
    of Qatar was the first person to initiate the process for his release,” he said.

    Nizami added that up to 90 per cent of the deal had been processed to let the former PM and his daughter Maryam live in London, while sources had informed him that the “recent visit of the emir of Qatar was also linked to this task”.

    Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani had arrived in
    Pakistan earlier this week and announced $3 billion worth of new investments in
    the country. He had also announced that Qatar may invest another $12 billion
    later on.

    “Sources have claimed that Nawaz’s health is not stable and
    according to his daughter Maryam, he has already suffered a stroke thrice,”
    Nizami said further.

    He claimed that under the deal, Nawaz will be allowed to pay the fine to secure his release so that he and his daughter can go and live in England. “Shehbaz and Hamza will stay here to run the party affairs and face cases leveled against them,” Nizami added.

  • Indian MP wants Abhinandan’s facial hair declared country’s ‘national moustache’

    Indian MP wants Abhinandan’s facial hair declared country’s ‘national moustache’

    An Indian parliamentarian has demanded that Indian Air Force (IAF) pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s gunslinger moustache be declared the “national moustache of India”.

    “Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman should be awarded and his moustache should be made the national moustache,” Indian National Congress (INC) leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was quoted as saying by India Today.

    On February 27, the IAF pilot was captured after Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down two Indian jets for intruding into Pakistan’s territory.

    Pakistan, as a goodwill gesture, had handed over the captured pilot to Indian authorities at Wagah border on March 1.

    According to Indian media reports, the opposition party’s leader has now argued that the pilot should be given a national honour “for his bravery”.

    Earlier, the shot down and captured Indian pilot’s facial hair had become the talk of the town as India hailed him as a “war hero”.

  • Over 2,000 Afghan families told to vacate Mansehra refugee camps for CPEC security

    Over 2,000 Afghan families told to vacate Mansehra refugee camps for CPEC security

    As many as 2,397 Afghan families living in Mansehra have been served a final notice to vacate their refugee camps for the security of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), ARY News reported.

    According to reports, Mansehra Assistant Commissioner (AC) Talat Fahad has directed the refugees to leave the three camps situated in the area latest by June 30.

    “The decision has been taken to ensure the security of CPEC”, the AC said in a notification issued in this regard.

    According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Pakistan is hosting over 1.4 million Afghan refugees, making the country the second largest host of the refugee population in the world.

    Some refugees have been living in Pakistan for three generations. They have established their business here while some of them have married locals and been deeply integrated into Pakistani society.

    The interim stay of Afghan refugees extended by the Pakistani government is coming to an end on June 30, and Minister of State for States and Frontier Region Shehryar Khan Afridi has affirmed that the country supports voluntary repatriation.

    In a recent meeting, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the UNHCR have agreed to launch an awareness programme to enable Afghan refugees to make a decision to voluntarily return with Pakistan’s facilitation.

  • Calling PM Imran ‘selected’ banned in parliament

    Calling PM Imran ‘selected’ banned in parliament

    Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly (NA) Qasim Suri has barred lawmakers from using the word “selected” to address Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, a private media outlet reported.

    According to reports, during the NA session held Sunday, Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan protested against the premier continuously being referred to as “selected” in the house.

    He said that addressing PM Imran as “selected” was a breach of the privilege of the house as he was an elected representative.

    Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan, who was presiding over the session, then banned the use of the word, saying that each member had entered the house through votes of the people and the word came as an offence to the house.

    Lawmakers of opposition parties have time and again referred to the premier as “selected” for they allege the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of coming to power after “stealing the mandate of the people”.

  • PM’s special assistant confuses Sachin Tendulkar for Imran Khan

    PM’s special assistant confuses Sachin Tendulkar for Imran Khan

    Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Political Affairs Naeemul Haque has confused former Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar for PM Imran Khan.

    “PM Imran Khan 1969,” Haque wrote while tweeting a monochrome picture of a batsman raising his bat.

    The problem? The picture was actually that of Indian cricketing legend Tendulkar and not the Pakistani premier.

    It wasn’t later that Twitterati pointed out the blunder and started trolling PM Imran’s aide.

    https://twitter.com/DavidGillWho/status/1142187389017894913

    https://twitter.com/username_needed/status/1142352453637038081

    Naeem, also a co-founder of the PTI, has served as the party’s central information secretary and president of PTI Sindh.

  • Govt drops plan to make PM House a research university

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has dropped its earlier plan of converting the Prime Minister’s (PM) House into a research university and instead an “emerging technologies and engineering” university will be established.

    As per the details, the new idea will be materialised at a cost of around Rs30 billion and the university will be headed by former Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman Dr Attaur Rahman.

    “The proposal to have a policy institute at the PM House has been abandoned on my advice and rather an emerging technologies and engineering university will be set up in the vacant area of the venue,” Dr Rehman told a local English daily.

    Earlier, the Education Ministry had completed the process of making the PM House a research university, named as “Islamabad National University”, in the first phase.

    The university was to be constructed on 30 acres of land acquired from the polo ground, stables and mountains of the PM House in the second phase.

    Reports had said that a research institute was to be made initially which was to be further given the status of a university.

  • ‘My grandfather laid foundation of CPEC,’ PTI minister claims

    ‘My grandfather laid foundation of CPEC,’ PTI minister claims

    Minister for Power Division Omar Ayub Khan has said his grandfather and former president of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, had “laid the foundation of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)”.

    Taking the floor of the National Assembly on Wednesday, Omar Ayub said, “Former president of Pakistan Ayub Khan had laid the foundation of CPEC by starting work on the Karakoram Highway.”

    He further said that the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led government was determined to achieve the set target of Rs5,500 billion in the financial year 2019-20.

    The minister added that the country had to pay billions of rupees as interest on the loans taken by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) governments.

    CPEC:

    CPEC is a collection of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan with China’s help. Originally valued at $46 billion, the value of CPEC projects is worth $62 billion as of 2017.

    The project is expected to generate employment and boost the country’s economy in the years to come.

  • ‘Tightening noose’: Ishaq Dar seeks political asylum in UK?

    ‘Tightening noose’: Ishaq Dar seeks political asylum in UK?

    Soon after Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said the British government has agreed to extradite Ishaq Dar, it was reported that the former finance minister had approached Home Office in London “to apply for political asylum”.

    Dar, 69, is currently in London, “undergoing medical treatment”. He is absconding from several cases in Pakistan since 2017 and has been declared a proclaimed offender by the courts.

    He is facing charges of accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.

    With the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government continuing to claim Dar is only evading the cases against him since he has been spotted walking upright on the streets of London time and again, PM Imran Khan’s special assistant on Tuesday said the former finance minister “will be brought back soon”.

    A day later, a private media outlet claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader had reached the Home Office in London for a second interview with regard to political asylum in the United Kingdom (UK).

    Rejecting the reports, a close aide of Dar told The Current that he had visited the UK Home Office “only to inform them about the fabricated reports in the name of a recently-signed extradition agreement between the two countries”.

    The source’s claim was validated when British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the United Kingdom (UK) would not sign any extradition treaty that could be used for “politically-motivated” cases.

    Speaking at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister (FM) Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Hunt confirmed the two had discussed the issue of an extradition treaty between Pakistan and the UK.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “Let me say it straightforward. The UK will never sign any treaty allowing for politically motivated extradition,” said the British official to which Qureshi added that Pakistan did not intend to use the treaty against political rivals.

  • PM Imran misquotes Rabindranath Tagore, credits his words to Khalil Gibran

    PM Imran misquotes Rabindranath Tagore, credits his words to Khalil Gibran

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has misquoted Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore — tweeting his words while crediting Lebanese-American writer and poet Khalil Gibran instead, journalist Gharidah Farooqi pointed out Wednesday.

    “Those who discover and get to understand the wisdom of Gibran’s words, cited below, get to live a life of contentment [sic],” the premier had tweeted earlier in the day.

    While the tweet was liked and retweeted by thousands of PM Imran’s follower, journalist Gharidah Farooqi pointed out what was wrong with it.

    Retweeting, she wrote: “Sir, these are Rabindranath Tagore’s words, not Khalil Gibran’s. I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”

    The premier has not yet reacted to the journalist’s tweet.

  • Video of Fawad Chaudhry slapping journalist Sami Ibrahim emerges

    Video of Fawad Chaudhry slapping journalist Sami Ibrahim emerges

    Days after Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry slapped senior anchorperson Sami Ibrahim, a video of the incident has emerged.

    The incident took place last week at a wedding in Faisalabad, where the minister slapped Ibrahim “after getting angry” in wake of the ongoing spat between the two.

    Earlier in June, the senior anchorperson had alleged that some elements within the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were hatching a conspiracy against Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan to oust him and to weaken the Pakistan Army.

    He had alleged that Fawad was a part of the group conspiring against the government.

    The minister had responded by using slurs against the anchorperson, drawing widespread criticism from politicians, civil society and members of the journalist community.

    He had also accused Sami of blackmailing him when he was the information minister for refusing to put his channel, Bol TV, into category A for advertisements.

    Last Friday, Fawad tweeted that he had initiated criminal proceedings against the senior anchorperson and he would teach him a lesson in accordance with the law.

    However, later that night when both of them met at the wedding function in Faisalabad, they had a bitter argument, which led to the minister slapping him on the face.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    The incident had led to PM Imran speaking to the journalist and telling him “his party doesn’t encourage any individual acts that intentionally or unintentionally undermine someone’s self-esteem.”