Tag: islamabad

  • ‘Why we opened the court in the middle of the night’, Islamabad High Court issues clarification

    ‘Why we opened the court in the middle of the night’, Islamabad High Court issues clarification

    The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has clarified opening its doors late on the evening of April 9, 2022 when the process of a no-confidence motion against former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan was going on in the National Assembly (NA).

    In a statement, the court said, “The filing of petitions late in the evening on April 9, 2022, has been misreported and queries have been raised whether petitions can be presented after the notified court timings.”

    On Saturday, there were rumours that a petition was filed in the IHC, asking the court to restrain Khan from de-notifying Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa from his post.

    IHC said the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President approached the court and requested the court to implement the Supreme Court’s April 7 order. The IHC statement then referred to the petitions, including a “pre-emptive” constitutional petition that sought to restrain the then prime minister from de-notifying the army chief.

    “As a constitutional court, the Islamabad High Court has ensured that cases relating to extreme urgency are presented at any time after the notified timings,” the high court said, adding: “The honourable chief justice, if satisfied that there exists extreme urgency, may order fixing of the case at any time.”

    “A petition regarding extreme urgency could be presented at any time after the notified court timings and it could also be fixed for hearing subject to the satisfaction of the chief justice that circumstances exist for doing so,” the court said further.

  • Islamabad Traffic Police to take strict action against motorists using HIDs, LEDs

    Islamabad Traffic Police to take strict action against motorists using HIDs, LEDs

    The Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) has once again decided to take stern action against motorists who use High-Intensity Discharge (HID) and Light-Emitting Diodes (LED) while driving.

    As per the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Traffic, Rai Mazhar Iqbal, the decision was taken on the orders of IGP (Islamabad) Muhammad Ahsan Younis to provide a safe driving environment in the federal capital and reduce accidents.

    Special squads have been formed to monitor motorists’ use of LED and HID lights. Police pickets will be set up along major thoroughfares such as the Expressway, Srinagar highway (Kashmir Highway), Margalla Road, IJP Road, Murree Road, 7th Avenue, and 9th Avenue.

    This campaign will be led by night shift in-charges to prevent the use of high beam lights and LED/HID lights, while an education wing will inform the public about the dangers of using these lights.

    Read more: Lahore Police arrested 648 dacoits, recovering more than Rs27 crore in three months

    Special broadcasts on ITP’s dedicated FM Radio 92.4 will also educate drivers about the dangers of utilising these lights. The SSP Traffic has urged citizens to help Islamabad police to ensure a safe road environment.

  • ‘Amazing outpouring of support’: PTI supporters rock streets countrywide

    ‘Amazing outpouring of support’: PTI supporters rock streets countrywide

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters took to the streets across all major and small cities in massive numbers to show their solidarity with their leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Party supporters came out following a call given by Khan for peaceful protest.

    A day after Khan was voted out of power, he, during an address to the nation, had said that he will not tolerate the installation of a “foreign government” in Pakistan and that he will turn to the public for support if such a thing happens.

    “We are not a nation that can be used like tissue papers,” Khan said during a live telecast, maintaining that Pakistan does not want unilateral relations with any country.

    Earlier in the day on April 10, Khan tweeted that today marked the beginning of a “freedom struggle” against what he called was a “foreign regime-change conspiracy”. In an attempt to galvanize his supporters, he said “it is always the people who protected their own sovereignty and democracy.”

    PTI had shared the venues for the protests hours before their supporters took to the streets. 

    Islamabad

    The protest in the capital started from Zero Point. People waved flags while chanting slogans in favour of the former prime minister.

    Former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry thanked PTI supporters for turning out to Rawalpindi for the protest.

    Lahore

    PTI leader Hammad Azhar posted a video of a rally from his constituency of NA-126 leaving for Liberty Chowk.

    Peshawar

    A large number of protesters including women and children turned up at Peshawar Press Club and expressed solidarity with the ousted prime minister.

    Karachi

    A protest was held in Karachi on Rashid Minhas Road where a large number of supporters, including women and children, were in attendance.

    Overseas Pakistani too came out in support of Khan.

    Khan thanks protestors for ‘amazing outpouring of support’

    Imran thanked his supporters in a tweet done prior to midnight.

    “Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support and emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail,” he tweeted.

    “[It] shows Pakistanis at home and abroad have emphatically rejected this.”

  • Islamabad Traffic Police issues more than 28,000 challans to careless drivers

    During the last three months, the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) handed 28,224 fine tickets to motorists who were negligent on the roads.

    As per Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Traffic, Rai Mazhar Iqbal, special squads have been formed on the directives of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Islamabad, Muhammad Ahsan Younas to deal with reckless drivers who endanger the lives of road users.

    He also instructed the officials that road users should be treated with respect.

    SSP Iqbal stated that all city personnel have been urged to take stern action against such offenders and to assure that the city’s roads are secure.

    Furthermore, he revealed that the ITP education wing has been directed to ensure renewed efforts in a bid to raise public awareness regarding traffic rules.

    Several students have joined ITP as traffic volunteers, therefore he directed ITP’s teams to visit educational institutions to build traffic sense among more students.

    According to the SSP Traffic, the goal of conducting action against irresponsible drivers is to safeguard their personal safety as well as the safety of others.

  • 17 Pakistani universities listed among world’s best institutions

    17 Pakistani universities listed among world’s best institutions

    As many as 17 Pakistani universities have been listed among the best global universities for 2022.

    According to the ranking published by US News, Quaid-e-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad has been ranked 461 in the World Ranking for 2022. Aga Khan University, Karachi and COMSATS University Islamabad are following the QAU in the ranking respectively.

    Apart from these institutions, more universities have made to the list, such as the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) which is placed at 922, the University of Peshawar, at 933, University of Agriculture Faisalabad at 954, Government College (GC) University Faisalabad at 1,149, University of Punjab at1,242, Bahauddin Zakariya University at 1,368 and University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore have been placed at 1,458th position.

    Following the news, the Vice-Chancellor (VS) of QAU Prof Dr Muhammad Ali Shah congratulated the faculty, students, staff, and alumni on the official website of the university.

  • Motorway Police distribute prizes to the best drivers

    Motorway Police distribute prizes to the best drivers

    Inspector-General National Highways and Motorways Police (NHMP), Inam Ghani recently paid a visit to the Public Service Vehicles Management Centre (PSVMC) at the Motorway (M-2) North Toll Plaza.

    IG Inam Ghani presented prizes to the safest drivers on motorways/highways who did not violate any traffic rules including overspeeding, seat belt violations, lane violations while driving 30,000 to 40,000 kilometers, and made strict adherence to traffic rules.

    On the occasion, IG Ghani said that information technology plays a significant role in revamping the Motorway Police.

    He was of the view that linking NHMP’s system with NADRA can also help in arresting prominent offenders besides feeding information regarding vehicle registration, vehicle fitness, driving licenses, and benefitting from contemporary technologies. These advancements would help boost the performance of Motorway Police.

    In order to make motorways/highways safer and more convenient, the purview of information technology is being extended to facilitate motorists and encourage safe driving.

    Read more: Petroleum sales increase by 23% in March, despite hefty oil prices

    Inspector-General (IG) Inam Ghani was joined by the DIG Motorway (M-2) North, DIG Operations, Sector Commander, and other senior personnel at the event.

  • ‘All is fair in Jihad’, Audio leak of CM KPK inciting violence on orders of PM Khan leaked

    ‘All is fair in Jihad’, Audio leak of CM KPK inciting violence on orders of PM Khan leaked

    An alleged voice note of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has been leaked. In the voice note sent to PTI ministers in KP, Mahmood Khan can be heard inciting violence, saying that they should call the MNAs who have left PTI ‘traitors’. The audio is in Pashto.

    “PM Imran Khan has ordered that all ministers take out rallies today in their constituencies with pictures of defecting MNAs, chant murdabad, call them traitors, and celebrate success in local elections.,” digital rights activist Usama Khilji translated the audio.

    In the audio message, he can be also heard saying that videos of the rallies should be recorded so that they can be published on social media. He said that PM Khan called him.

    As per Geo News, CM KP has admitted that the audio leak saying “Everything is fair in Jihad.”

    Twitter users are criticising CM KP for inciting the violence.

  • MNA Ali Wazir granted bail ahead of no-confidence motion vote against PM Khan

    MNA Ali Wazir granted bail ahead of no-confidence motion vote against PM Khan

    Member of National Assembly (MNA) Ali Wazir from South Waziristan has been released from Karachi’s central prison on parole to participate in the no-trust vote against Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan.

    Members of the Opposition had submitted a written request on March 25, asking the NA Speaker to issue the production order for every detained lawmaker — irrespective of their party affiliation — allowing them to exercise their right to vote.

    Ali Wazir will be in Sindh House in Islamabad. A room in Sindh House has been declared as a sub-jail for Wazir.

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MNA Jam Abdul Karim from Karachi has been granted protective bail against a surety bond of Rs100,000 by the Sindh High Court.

     The no-confidence motion against PM Khan will be discussed in the National Assembly during the Lower House session today (Thursday), scheduled to start at 4pm.

    The NA Secretariat issued the order of the day for today on Wednesday night, with a discussion on the no-trust move against the premier on the session’s agenda.

  • Can a jalsa turnout be determined through number of mobile phones?

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s jalsa’ was held on March 27 at the Parade Ground in Islamabad as the opposition geared up to remove the PM from his office via a no-confidence motion. The very first thing that the media speculates is that how many people were present at the location of the rally.

    Several Pakistani digital news platforms have stated that “more than 0.6 million unique mobile devices were detected in Islamabad on Sunday, as per the data traffic analysis shared by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)”, which means that they are suggesting that more than six lakh people were present at the PTI rally.

    It is pertinent to mention that PTA or any authentic personnel have not officially released any statement regarding this. In fact, a number of netizens have commented that the ones who are claiming the presence of 0.6 million people at the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s march do not have the authentic source of information.

    The crowd was reportedly estimated by Islamabad police to be between 60,000 – 70,000 people, while the Intelligence Bureau (IB) said it was only 26,000 people.

    Independent sources claim that not more than 35,000 people attended the rally, and some suggest that the crowd was not even close to 100,000 people.

    But the question remains: Can you determine a jalsa turnout through the number of mobile phones in the area?

    Whenever a cell phone is used, it emits an electromagnetic radio wave, called a radio frequency, which is received by the nearest cell tower’s antenna. Once the cell tower receives this signal, it will transmit the signals to a switching center.

    Also, the cellular towers have limitations to accommodate a certain number of phones, this might allow the network provider to determine the devices connected to it.

  • ‘Impose economic sanctions on India’: Azad Kashmir President urges OIC

    ‘Impose economic sanctions on India’: Azad Kashmir President urges OIC

    Addressing a special meeting of the Kashmir Contact Group of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Islamabad, President Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry asked the forum to help stop oppression in Indian-Occupied Kashmir (IoK) by imposing economic sanctions on India and boycotting its products.

    He said that since August 5, 2019 (when India changed IoK special status) Indian authorities have issued fake domiciles to 4.2 million non-state Hindus to change the proportion of population there.

    He said the OIC should play its role for the release of political leaders and youth who have been arrested before and after August 5, 2019.

    On the occasion, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) representative Syed Faiz Naqshbandi and Ghulam Mohammad Safi also briefed the OIC delegations about the current situation of violation of human rights in IoK. They also presented a memorandum to OIC Secretary General Hussain Ibrahim Taha.

    APHC is a united political front to raise the cause of Kashmiri separatism in the Kashmir conflict.