Tag: Imran Khan

  • Gandapur angry in public gatherings, calm in closed-door meetings

    Gandapur angry in public gatherings, calm in closed-door meetings

    Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chief minister Ali Amin Gandapur can play a significant role in engagement between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the establishment, The News’ senior journalist Ansar Abbasi has reported.

    Informed sources told The News that Gandapur’s behaviour was entirely different to his usual outspoken self during the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) meeting, as compared to his attitude while addressing public gatherings.

    He behaved very calmly during his interaction with the federal government, The News reported on Tuesday.

    On Monday, during a joint press conference along with the interior minister Mohsin Naqvi and power minister Owais Leghari, Gandapur stressed that his political activities should be kept separate from his administrative duties. He further stated in a presser that he is ready to work with the federal government to resolve the issues faced by KP.

    The chief minister also conveyed the message of PTI founder Imran Khan: “We do not have any conflict with institutions, there is no disagreement with the governor’s policy, and we will have to negotiate on the issues and rights of the province.” 

    “He is cooperative, he positively takes part in discussions on issues of national interest and never engages in any sort of conflict,” a source who has attended a few such federal-level meetings revealed about the conduct of the KP chief minister.

  • NAB raids Bahria Town office Rawalpindi

    NAB raids Bahria Town office Rawalpindi

    A team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has raided Bahria Town’s Rawalpindi office on Tuesday, initiating an investigation into irregularities in the property conglomerate.

    SAMAA TV reported that an investigation has been initiated on Bahria Enclave land, and the land, which was given by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for a zoo, is now under inspection. The anti-graft watchdog team raided the Bahria Town office in Rawalpindi to take records into custody.

    Informed sources told SAMAA that the NAB team stayed at the Bahria Town office for more than two hours, confiscating crucial data, including files of multiple housing projects and other important records.

    During the raid, the anti-graft watchdog team retrieved digital evidence and data from computers.

    Police officials and elite personnel were also with the NAB team during the raid.

    The NAB team will investigate the land of Bahria Enclave and wrongdoings in the attainment of all the lands of Bahria Town.

  • PTI distances itself from Khan’s 1971 breakup of Pakistan post

    PTI distances itself from Khan’s 1971 breakup of Pakistan post

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan distanced the party from former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s controversial social media post on the 1971 civil war and the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report, saying the post should be seen in a “political context”.

    “The context and comparison that we drew with 1971 was in a political context and not otherwise — nothing about the army,” said Barrister Gohar in an interview with digital news outlet Azaad Urdu.

    On May 26, Imran Khan’s account on X shared a video about the separation of East Pakistan along with a quote attributed to him: “Every Pakistani should study the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report and get to know who was the true traitor, General Yahya Khan or Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.”

    PTI Chairman said Khan was in prison and “does not approve every video or context”.

    In the video, it was argued that the people’s mandate was not respected and the former military dictator was the one responsible for the country’s breakup.

    The footage also showed the atrocities committed by the Pakistani military during the civil war when it conducted Operation Searchlight in 1971.

    The post garnered backlash from fellow political leaders. PPP Senator Sherry Rehman had said the post was “alarming” and the PTI was “continuously fueling the narrative of hatred and incitement” by comparing Imran to Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.

    Netizens also discovered an old tweet in which Imran Khan had disparagingly compared Nawaz Sharif to Mujib, a complete contradiction of his latest tweet.

  • Kitany main parhi aaj ki chuti Pakistanion ko ?

    Kitany main parhi aaj ki chuti Pakistanion ko ?

    Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a public holiday today to celebrate Youm-e-Takbeer. Everything in the country is at a standstill, and the annual exams in schools have been delayed.

    Shehbaz Sharif announced the holiday to commemorate the day when Pakistan conducted a successful nuclear test in Chaghai in 1998.

    Provincial authorities postponed matriculation exams scheduled for today due to the public holiday.

    All government departments, educational institutions, the Stock Exchange, and courts are closed across the country due to the holiday.

    Pakistan, which is already suffering from inflation and has a stable economy, gets 120 public holidays annually. Due to a single day off, the national GDP faces a 1-2% loss, which equals more than Rs 100 billion.
    Economic analyst Khuram Shehzad said that a public holiday affects the national exchequer between $1.1 and $1.3 billion. He also added that the impact could be bigger if the holiday is “sudden.”

  • KP, Centre agree to work together after long spat

    KP, Centre agree to work together after long spat

    The provincial government of Khyeber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the federal government have finally agreed to work together after months of heated arguments over arrears, deciding to put differences aside for the betterment of the people of Pakistan, Geo reported on Monday.

    The development came during a meeting in Islamabad between the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Ali Amin Gandapur and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. The Federal Minister for Energy, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, also attended the meeting.

    After that, they also held joint press conferences.

    Addressing a joint presser, following a “meaningful” dialogue, CM Gandapur said: “The federal and provincial institutions will work together. [We] will work together to remove the causes of line losses.”

    The federal government and the KP government are clashing and disagreeing over multiple issues. Power cuts in KP are one of the major reasons for the spats between the Centre and KP, with Gandapur even threatening to take control of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) due to excessive power outages in the province.

  • ‘Over my dead body’; Malik Riaz says won’t be pressurised

    ‘Over my dead body’; Malik Riaz says won’t be pressurised

    Bahria Town Chairman and real estate tycoon Malik Riaz on Sunday alleged that he was being immensely pressurised for “political motives” but will not bow down before anyone.

    In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Riaz wrote that there has been a “recurring pattern of victimization against me and my business for introducing state-of-the-art projects in Pakistan.”

    It should be noted that Malik Riaz did not name anyone despite complaining he was being pushed to the wall.

    Dawn News reported that it reached out to numerous political experts and politicians but “nearly everyone was reluctant to comment on his ‘sad tale’.”

    It is, however, widely believed that Riaz was referring to the Al Qadir Trust/University case, which was filed by NAB against PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.

    The case alleges that PM Imran Khan and his spouse obtained land spread over hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd to legalise Rs50 billion, the same amount which was returned to Pakistan by UK authorities.

    Reacting to the tycoon’s statement, former president and PTI leader Arif Alvi asserted that the pressure cooker will ‘burst one of these days’.

  • Shah Mahmood Qureshi implicated in eight more cases related to May 9

    Shah Mahmood Qureshi implicated in eight more cases related to May 9

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi was implicated in eight more cases related to the May 9 riots on Sunday.

    Qureshi is currently incarcerated in Adiala Jail on multiple charges while also serving a 10-year sentence under the Official Secrets Act by a special court.

    May 9 riots took place when PTI founder Imran Khan was arrested from the premises of Islamabad High Court (IHC). Scores of PTI workers and senior leaders were imprisoned for involvement in violence and attacks on military installations in 2023.

    Meher Bano Qureshi, a PTI leader and the daughter of Shah Mahmood Qureshi, took to X to condemn the action taken by Lahore Police saying, “After 281 days in jail l, as a consequence of a sham trial, Lahore Police has arrested Shah Mahmood Qureshi in 8 cases related to 9th May incidents in Lahore. The arrest comes after he was interrogated by Lahore police yesterday. Incidentally, it’s a well-established and documented fact that my father was in Karachi on the 9th.”

  • PML-N’s Talal Chaudhry blames awaam for always abandoning political leaders

    PML-N’s Talal Chaudhry blames awaam for always abandoning political leaders

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senator Talal Chaudhry recently castigated the people of Pakistan for abandoning political leaders throughout history such as Zulifqar Ali Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and even Imran Khan.

    Chaudhry stated on Azaad Urdu’s podcast, “The people used to say that if something happened to Bhutto, the Himalayas would cry. The day Bhutto was hanged, the people went to work the next day.”

    He further said, “The people told Nawaz Sharif ‘Qadam Barhao, ham tumhare saath hain’ (Step up, we are with you) and when he [Nawaz Sharif] did – he became a hijacker [Sharif’s conviction in 2000 Musharraf’s Plane Hijacking case] but people went to work.”

    Similarly, he said “Then the same people claimed, ‘Imran Khan is our redline.’ He is now inside [prison] and the people are at work.”

    The PML-N senator then blamed the PTI government for their past behaviour of not engaging with political leaders and opposition when they [PML-N] wanted a charter of the economy.

    Social media reactions were mostly critical of senator’s views.

  • Islamic scholar Assim Al-Hakeem comes to Khan’s defense

    Islamic scholar Assim Al-Hakeem comes to Khan’s defense

    In an interesting Twitter clash, renowned Saudi cleric Assim Al-Hakeem clapped back at an X user when he posted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s picture showing him apparently prostrating at a shrine and asked the Islamic scholar whether the act was shirk in Islam.

    The scholar criticised the intent behind posting the picture and stated, “When one sees such a photo which is about 8 years old, one knows that the motive behind such a question is political and not religious.”

    Al-Hakeem further wrote, “You should fear Allah and when you hate someone, fight like a man and not use such dirty cheap tactics, trying to use Islam and religious rulings to support your party when you yourself most likely don’t even know the basics of Islam nor care about Islam or even the county!”

    The user later shared on X that the scholar had blocked him.

  • Hamad Azhar, Mian Aslam to lead PTI in Punjab: Omar Ayub

    Hamad Azhar, Mian Aslam to lead PTI in Punjab: Omar Ayub

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Omar Ayub said on Thursday that PTI founding chairman Imran Khan has given responsibility to PTI leaders, including Hamad Azhar and Mian Aslam, to lead the party in Punjab.

    While talking to journalists on Thursday outside Adiala jail, Omar Ayub revealed that Hamad Azhar and Mian Aslam met the founder PTI in Adiala jail, adding that the party trusts them and always backs them. He stated that Hamad Azhar and Mian Aslam are committed and loyal party workers.

    The opposition leader blamed Shehbaz Sharif’s government for the violence in Azad Kashmir.