Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari has tweeted to pay her respect to Nigar Johar Khan, the third woman in the country’s history to hold the rank of major general in the Pakistan Army.
“Respect. #womenempowerment,” Mazari wrote while sharing a picture of the officer.
Hailing from a Pashtun family of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Panjpir village in Swabi, Maj Gen Nigar Johar Khan is the daughter of Col Qadir, who served in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
She is from the 5th MBBS course of Army Medical College (AMC) and has served as female company commander of Ayesha company at the same college.
In 2015, she was featured in an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) video honouring women officers of the country’s armed forces. At the time, she was the deputy commandant of Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Rawalpindi.
Apart from being a doctor, she is a sharpshooter and is currently serving as the commandant of Pak-Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi.
The first two major generals, Shahida Badsha and Shahida Malik also belong to the Army Medical Corps. Another officer, Dr Shehla Baqai became the fourth female Major General in Pakistan Army last year.
Pakistani politicians are rather infamous for falling sick right
after they are sentenced to imprisonment, taken into custody for investigation or
even if summoned by a court.
While some think of the sudden ailment as “nothing but an
easy way out of the ordeal that could follow”, several others believe otherwise.
Here are five politicians who fell prey to an untimely, or
perhaps timely, sickness.
1. Pervez Musharraf
Soon after All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) chief and former
military ruler Pervez Musharraf was charged with treason, he underwent chest
and back pain. He was shifted to Combined Military Hospital (CMH), where he
spent months and failed to appear before the court.
Even though Musharraf’s name was put on the Exit Control List
(ECL), the Interior Ministry allowed him to leave the country for treatment
back in 2016 and he hasn’t returned since.
2. Nawaz Sharif
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was advised to undergo a
heart surgery soon after the emergence of Panama Papers in April 2016 amid
calls for a probe into his offshore assets by the opposition.
Since the case started and his subsequent imprisonment last year, the ex-PM has time and again sought bail on medical grounds, even the permission to travel abroad for treatment, and has taken multiple trips to the hospital from jail.
3. Ishaq Dar
The former PML-N lawmaker tendered his resignation as the country’s finance minister after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) initiated an inquiry into his assets back in 2017.
Dar fell ill, with his counsel requesting an exemption from the court. He later traveled to the United Kingdom (UK) and hasn’t returned since. The politician’s medical reports say he is severely ill; however, he has been spotted walking upright on London streets time and again.
4. Asif Ali Zardari
The former president’s little visit to the hospital after he
was taken into NAB custody last week, wasn’t the first of its kind. Earlier, he
had used his medical reports to fight a corruption case filed against him in a
British court.
Zardari had pleaded that he was diagnosed with a range of
psychiatric illnesses during his detention in jail. He, however, went on to
become the president of Pakistan in 2008.
The list doesn’t end here as several other political figures, including ex-petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain and ex-information minister Sharjeel Memon, have also sought medical attention in times of trouble.
The Current asked people about what they think of all these untimely ailments and here is what they had to say:
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor has trolled Indian Home Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah over his congratulatory message to the Indian cricket team.
“Another strike on Pakistan by Team India and the result is same [sic],” Shah had tweeted after India secured an 89-run defeat against Pakistan in the ongoing ICC World Cup on Sunday.
Another strike on Pakistan by #TeamIndia and the result is same.
Congratulations to the entire team for this superb performance.
— Amit Shah (Modi Ka Parivar) (@AmitShah) June 16, 2019
He was referring to the aerial combat between the two neighbouring countries in February, which happened after Indian aircraft on February 26 carried out an airstrike on what it alleged was a “terrorist training camp” in Pakistan.
“Dear Amit Shah, yes your team won a match. Well played,” Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor tweeted while responding to Shah’s tweet. He, however, advised the Indian home minister to not compared “two things with different denominators”.
Dear @AmitShah yes ur team won a match. Well played. Two things with different denominators can’t be compared. So are strikes & match. If in doubt please see results of our Nowshera counter strikes & response to IAF violation on 27 Feb19 downing two Indian jets. Stay Surprised. https://t.co/cY089VmYIe
“Two things with different denominators can’t be compared. So are strikes and match. If in doubt, please see results of our Nowshera counter strikes and response to IAF violation on February 27, 2019, downing two Indian jets. Stay Surprised,” he said.
Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Sardar Usman Buzdar has beaten his predecessor Shehbaz Sharif in reforming the social sector, as an amount of Rs89.8 billion has been earmarked for the provincial education sector.
As per the details, presenting the provincial budget on Friday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government enhanced the education budget, which under the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) rule stood at Rs52.35 billion.
In its last provincial budget for the fiscal year 2017-18, the outgoing PML-N government had allocated Rs52.35 billion for school education and Rs28 billion for providing basic facilities at government schools.
An amount of Rs6.03 billion had been fixed for the construction of new classrooms in Punjab schools.
According to the budget presented by the Buzdar administration, health stands second in the social sector with Rs47.5 billion. Water supply & sanitation will gain Rs22.4 billion, local governments Rs6.3 billion, social welfare Rs1 billion and women development Rs0.8 billion.
Meanwhile, Rs350 billion have been allocated for the Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2019-20, which stood at Rs635bn under the Shehbaz administration in 2017-18.
Zaidi also shared multiple similar tweets by the bank employee, which took the micro-blogging website by storm with people urging the bank to sack Tajammul.
Meanwhile, Twitterati are criticising Zaidi as well as the bank for the move, calling it unfair. They allege that the journalist “used his influence to get Tajammul sacked”.
Some are also seeking Zaidi’s removal for some of his abusive remarks.
What Fazeel said was highly immoral and condemnable but sacking him for the sake of a journalist who routinely abuses on twitter is hypocritical. There should have been proper due process before deciding Fazeel’s fate. #BoycottBankAlFalah
— Muzaffar Khan Mazari (@MuzaffarKMazari) June 14, 2019
Tajammul, for the time being, has deactivated his Twitter handle.
Funds worth Rs860.28 million have been allocated for the Prime Minister’s (PM) Office in the federal budget for the fiscal year 2019-20, the Ministry of Finance has said.
According to the proposed allocation, PM Office’s daily expenditure stands at Rs2.36 million (Rs2,356,931) at 365 days a year, which contradicts the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s earlier claims of reducing expenses for austerity.
The proposal to spend over Rs2 million a day from taxpayers’ money comes just months after dozens of cattle and excess luxury cars of the PM House were auctioned to save money.
The development had come after PM Imran Khan, in his first address to the nation on August 19, announced the austerity drive and vowed to cut down on government expenses.
The federal government has approved an additional amount of Rs410 million for the repair and maintenance of two VVIP Gulfstream aircraft said to be in use of President Dr Arif Alvi and Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, The News reported.
The supplementary grant, that comes as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) touts austerity to lessen the burden on the national treasury, was sanctioned in March 2019 by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).
It has now been reflected in the budget document for formal approval by the parliament.
The report further said that the Defence Production Division is responsible for the maintenance of these aircraft, however, ECC had failed to resolve differences between Ministry of Defence Production and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) regarding the transfer of said funds.
Directorate General Defence Procurement had purchased the two VVIP aircraft (one brand new and one used) at a cost of $58.55 million ($58, 550,924) in September 2005 on the directions of Ministries of Finance and Defence.
After months of struggle, parents have secured a win over private schools with their owners being barred from increasing fees by more than 5 per cent a year, a private media outlet reported.
According to reports, the Supreme Court (SC) delivered the verdict on Wednesday while hearing a case filed by owners of private schools. They had sought legal approval to increase fees by 15 per cent to 20 per cent every year.
Justice Ijazul Ahsan read out the reserved verdict.
The top court upheld the verdict of the Sindh High Court (SHC) and overturned the Lahore High Court (LHC) decision in favour of the private schools.
The schools have been ordered to return or adjust the extra amount they charged parents since the first ruling in the case.
Senior journalist Hamid Mir has trolled Federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda for claiming that “anti-Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)” media houses had started liking the government after financial benefits.
Speaking on Mir’s show, Vawda on Tuesday said that media outlets, known for their alleged affiliation with opposition parties, were now highlighting achievements of the PTI government as they had been “provided with ease of doing business”.
“It wasn’t our job, but we fought against lay-offs in the media industry. We made doing businesses easy by giving them [media houses] budgets,” he said.
When Mir asked if he meant the government had paid media houses any money, Vawda agreed, saying the PTI had “paid them against government advertisements”.
It wasn’t later that both Mir and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khurram Dastgir Khan broke into laughter.
WATCH VIDEO:
Senior journalists have time and again expressed concerns over the state of Pakistani media ever since the PTI government took reins of the country.
With cuts in government advertisements, a shakeout has been triggered and hundreds of thousands of media workers have gone jobless. Some journalists have also accused the PTI of using “stoppage of government ads to media as a weapon”.
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has been spotted dancing on the floor of the National Assembly, in what appears to be an attempt to mock the opposition.
As per the details, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government on Tuesday presented its first federal budget while members of opposition parties recorded a strong protest against PM Imran.
They raised slogans, held placards and wore black armbands during Revenue Minister Hammad Azhar’s budget speech.
As the minister concluded presenting the budget, the premier was seen being escorted out of the house, waving his hands in the air — suggesting he was least bothered about the ruckus.
WATCH VIDEO:
Earlier, a Rs7 trillion austerity budget for the fiscal year 2019-20 was presented by the PTI government. It received severe criticism from opposition parties who termed the budget “anti-people”.
