Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz said that Prime Minister Imran Khan should not try to be Nawaz Sharif. Maryam was addressing the media after an appearance at the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
آپکو نوازشریف بننے کی کوشش بھی نہیں کرنی چاہیے نوازشریف جب ووٹ کو عزت دو کا نعرہ لیکر میدان میں آیا تھا تو وہ منتخب وزیراعظم تھا وہ آئینی وزیراعظم تھا وہ عوام کے ووٹ سے آیا تھا وہ ایک لمبی جدوجہد کرکے آیا تھا جو اسکی ذات کیلیے نہیں تھی@MaryamNSharifpic.twitter.com/d0MGoFD5wR
“When Nawaz Sharif came up with the slogan, ‘Vote ko izzat do’ [give respect to the vote], he was an elected prime minister, a constitutional prime minister, he came to power from the votes of the people and he had a long constitutional struggle, which was not for himself,” said Maryam.
“He [Nawaz Sharif] gave up prime minister office for the respect of the Constitution and people of Pakistan,” she said. “To give respect to vote, you need to go to prison, you need to say that you will not take dictation from anyone.”
“Imran Khan’s identity is to conspire against the elected prime minister and to hold a 126-day sit-in,” she said. She was referring to the 2014 sit-in by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Islamabad.
The PML-N leader went on to say that one does not simply become a lion by cloaking oneself in the creature’s hide.
Maryam said PM Imran Khan’s identity is confined to “conspiracies” and that he has “nothing to do with the principles of law and democracy”.
عمران خان آئینی اور منتخب وزیراعظم نہیں ہے وہ آئین کو روند کے آیا ہے اسکو وہ جواب پہلے دینا پڑے گا.مسلم لیگ ن عوام کے ساتھ ملکر یہ جدوجہد کرنا چاہتی ہے آئندہ کوئی شخص عمران خان کی طرح مہرہ بن کے سامنے نہ آئے.@MaryamNSharifpic.twitter.com/4OuZUdWEPH
She said that the premier will have to “answer for his conspiracies”. Speaking further about the so-called “conspiracies”, she said that if the use of “magic” has yielded such success, then it should be put to use to alleviate the petrol, diesel, flour crises, reports Geo News.
جو شخص ملک کی اہم ترین تقرریاں جادو ٹونے سے کرتا ہو بجائے وزیراعظم کے جنات تقرریاں کرتے ہوں تو پھر اس ملک کا دنیا میں تماشہ بننا کوئی حیرانگی کی بات نہیں ہے اگر انکا جادو ٹونا اتنا ہی کامیاب ہے تو وہ عوام کی بھلائی کیلیے کیوں استعمال نہیں ہوتا@MaryamNSharifpic.twitter.com/2mlafoQ1z1
“If your magic is so successful, then why don’t you use it for the good of the people?”
“Go ahead, revoke my bail, arrest me, so that the people can see how fearful you are,” she challenged the government.
درخواست دینے والوں کو یہ پتہ ہونا چاہیے کہ اگر یہ مجھے ڈرانے کیلیے ہے تو آپکو یہ علم ہونا چاہیے کہ اللہ کا شکر ہے نہ میں آپکی گرفتاری سے ڈرتی ہوں نہ میں جعلی مقدمات سے ڈرتی ہوں نہ نیب سے ڈرتی ہوں@MaryamNSharifpic.twitter.com/IxyYEd3qej
Prior to this, the Pakistan Information Commission (PIC) had directed the Cabinet Division to “provide the requested information about the gifts received by PM Khan”.
However, the Cabinet Division argued that the matter did not fall under the Right of Access to Information Act, 2017.
“What is the harm in making it public if some country has given a necklace as a gift?” asked Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb. He said that gifts received by the rulers of a country belonged to the nation and not to them, asking whether public officeholders would even receive those gifts if the public office did not exist.
Justice Aurangzeb asked: “Why doesn’t the government keep all the gifts in the museum? The government should make details of the gifts in the last 10 years public.”
He also said that the Centre should inform how many gifts had their valuation done by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The government representative at the hearing requested time to respond, after which the court adjourned the hearing.
Earlier in September, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry revealed that Arab rulers who presented gifts to PM Khan “did not want their names to be made public”.
Toshakhana is a department established in1974 that stores precious gifts given to the rulers, parliamentarians, bureaucrats, and officials heads by the other governments and foreign dignitaries.
According to Dawn, it has valuables ranging from bulletproof cars, gold-plated souvenirs, expensive paintings, watches, ornaments, rugs and swords.
Pakistan has been plagued by episodes of rape and abuse over the years that it has now become common to the extent that people have started normalising such acts.
Back in 2002, Mukhtaran Mai’s gang-rape was one of the most horrifying gang-rape incidents that were reported.
Another major incident that took place in 2014 was the Layyah gang-rape case, where a 20-year-old girl after being gang-raped, was found hanging from a tree. Such inhumane incidents haven’t stopped even now.
Two men stole her money and the jewellery she had on her. They then raped her in front of her two children in a nearby field and escaped.
The incident sparked national outrage but what happened next? Before the arrest of the two culprits, questions like “Why was she out on the motorway so late without a brother or husband? Why didn’t she check her gas tank before leaving the house? And if she had to travel, why didn’t she take the more public GT Road route?” were asked because, sadly, in our country ‘getting raped’ is the woman’s fault. Apparently, a woman gets raped because ‘she was driving alone, on the wrong road, at the wrong time, in the wrong place’.
Later, the motorway rapists were sentenced to death but rape cases continued to rise in Pakistan.
On October 12, 2020, our team started counting rape cases on a daily basis from 13 different sources, which included these newspapers: Dawn, The News, The Express Tribune, The Nation, Pakistan Today, Daily Times, Nawa-e-Waqt, Daily Jang. And from these websites: ARY News, Geo News Samaa News Dunya News Aaj News.
It is to be noted that the given stats only include the reported incidents, not the ones that go unreported.
During the process, we have included reported rape cases of girls, boys, women, men and transgenders. Moreover, we have divided the rape cases province-wise, according to which Punjab till date has the highest number of rape cases, i.e. 936 rape cases and 44 attempted incidents.
It has been a year since we have started posting our rape template daily to analyse the record of reported rape cases. We have collected the data of the entire year (October 12, 2020 to October 12, 2021) and prepared slides of reported cases of each month provinces-wise.
Provinces Categorisation:
Sindh
Till date, Sindh has recorded a total of 60 reported rape cases in which 10 are attempted incidents. 11.6 per cent of cases were reported in the month of April and August as per the graph.
Punjab
Punjab has recorded a total of 936 reported rape cases in which 44 are attempted incidents until now. 13 per cent of cases were reported in August.
Islamabad
The capital has recorded a total of 13 reported rape cases which no attempted cases until now. The reported cases are relatively low as compared to other provinces’ data. However, 38.46 per cent of rape cases were reported in June this year.
Balochistan
Balochistan has reported a total of 11 reported rape cases. Most of the months show zero reported rape cases, according to the graph.
KPK
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) has reported a total of 20 reported rape cases of which 2 were attempted incidents. The numbers throughout the months are quite the same.
Deaths (province-wise)
As per the graph, the death rate was high in the month of January i.e.14.5 per cent.
Numbers of the recorded cases after the highlighted incidents of 2021
After the following incidents, we noticed an increase in the reporting of rape cases.
Mufti Aziz-ur-Rehman: sexual assault case
On June 17, police registered a criminal complaint against Mufti Aziz after a male student accused him of sexual abuse. In the aftermath of a viral graphic video that showed Mufti engaging in sexual intercourse with the male student, who was the victim, the action was taken against Mufti Aziz. After the incident, we noticed an increase of 10.7 per cent in the reporting of rape cases in the month of June.
Usman Mirza’s sexual assault on a couple
Usman Mirza was arrested on July 7. He was seen torturing and assaulting a couple. He was also seen stripping naked a woman in the video. The video sparked outrage across Pakistan. After the petrifying incident, an increase of 9 per cent was observed in the reporting of rape cases in the month of July.
Noor Mukadam’s murder case
On July 20, Noor Mukadam, daughter of former Pakistani diplomat Shaukat Mukadam, was raped, beheaded and murdered, in a posh neighbourhood of Islamabad in July. Noor’s murder led to nationwide protests. After her murder, as per the reported cases we have monitored, there was an increase of 12.6 per cent in the month of August.
There are many more cases that are still unreported due to various reasons.
According to The News, official statistics obtained from the Police, Law, and Justice Commission of Pakistan, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Women’s Foundation, and provincial welfare agencies in 2020 revealed that there are at least 11 rape cases reported in Pakistan every day with over 22,000 rape cases reported to the police across the country in the last six years.
The petitioner’s lawyer Advocate Khawaja Harris stressed that the case against the petitioners was not based on solid evidence, rather the allegations were highly speculative.
Justice Umar Ata Bandial, during the hearing, pointed out that there was no mention of Adamjee in the IHC’s order denying bail to the duo.
“We are just trying to get the hang of the Noor Mukadam case,” Justice Bandial said while adding that the court was seeking information only to understand the facts of the case.
Khawaja Harris argued that the order to complete the trial in two months will affect the right to a fair trial.
To which the court said that the right to a fair trial was a must. “But the delay in handling the case only adds to anxiety.”
Justice Bandial adjourned the court till October 18. However, last week a sessions court in Islamabad fixed October 14 for the indictment of 12 suspects in the case.
Last week, Zahir Jaffer’s parents challenged IHC’s bail rejection by approaching the SC.
United States (US) Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, while speaking at an event in Mumbai, said, “We (the US) don’t see ourselves building our broad relationship with Pakistan and we have no interest in returning to the days of a hyphenated India, Pakistan. That’s not where we are, that’s not where we are going to be,” reports The Print.
“But we all need to know what’s going on in Afghanistan. We all need to be of one mind in the approach to the Taliban. We all need to make sure that we have the capabilities that we need to ensure everybody’s security, including India’s, of course. So I am going to have some very specific conversations, continuing conversations that Secretary (Antony) Blinken has had (with Pakistan),” she added.
Wendy Sherman is in Pakistan to meet officials during her October 7-8 visit.
Sherman said that her trip to Islamabad is only for a “specific and narrow purpose”.
Taking to Twitter, Sherman wrote, “I met yesterday evening with Pakistani National Security Advisor, Moeed Yusuf to discuss Afghanistan and areas of cooperation in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.”
I met yesterday evening with Pakistani National Security Advisor @YusufMoeed to discuss Afghanistan and areas of cooperation in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship. #USPak
— Deputy Secretary Kurt Campbell (@DeputySecState) October 8, 2021
“Both of our countries have suffered terribly from the scourge of terrorism and we look forward to cooperative efforts to eliminate all regional and global terrorist threats,” she said.
Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Muhammed Hamza Shafqaat in a tweet has said that food delivery service in Islamabad, through drone technology, will soon be available.
“Using drones to deliver food in Islamabad. Coming soon,” he wrote in a tweet.
Using drones to deliver food in Islamabad. Coming soon…
The US Embassy in Islamabad has issued a clarification on sending a courier containing books, perfumes, clothes and shampoo to Zahir Jaffer.
“U.S. embassies & consulates abroad are required by U.S. and international law to provide assistance to American citizens (USCITs) who are incarcerated or detained abroad, regardless of the charges against them,” the Embassy said in a tweet.
“When a USCIT is detained overseas, we work to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Consular assistance may include visiting arrested USCITs in prison to ensure proper treatment,” the embassy added in a tweet.
“It includes verification that they have a diet that meets subsistence levels, have adequate medical attention and clothing, and provides reference materials of U.S. origin. As a USCIT, your passport won’t help you avoid arrest or conviction.”
(2/3) When a USCIT is detained overseas, we work to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Consular assistance may include visiting arrested USCITs in prison to ensure proper treatment.
(3/3) It includes verification that they have a diet that meets subsistence levels, have adequate medical attention and clothing, and provides reference materials of U.S. origin. As a USCIT, your passport won’t help you avoid arrest or conviction.
The US embassy in Pakistan sent a parcel containing books, perfumes, clothes and shampoo for Zahir Zakir Jaffer, the prime suspect in Noor Mukadam case, through a courier. The courier was sent to Adiala Jail but the jail authorities refused to accept it.
Superintendent of Adiala Jail, Arshad Warraich, told The Nation that the US Embassy had sent a courier for Zahir Zakir Jaffer but the administration returned the courier. He continued by adding that a letter was also written to the embassy by the jail administration to use the channel of Ministry of Interior in future if they want to send any thing for their citizen facing murder charges. “The parcel was returned by the jail authorities last Saturday,” he said in response to a query.
The prime suspect in Noor Mukadam case, Zahir Jaffer and six other suspects appeared in court today for the hearing of the bail petitions filed by Zahir Jaffer’s parents Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamjee, Geo News has reported. As per details, the Islamabad High Court will indict 12 persons in the Noor Mukadam case on October 6.
Noor’s father, Shaukat Mukadam’s lawyer Advocate Shah Khawar, said in court that as per the provisions of the presidential ordinance, the murder case should be held in a special court.
A Twitter user shared videos of Zahir and his father Zakir Jaffer coming to the district and sessions court of Islamabad for the hearing. Zahir Jaffer and Zakir Jaffer were presented with the police challan today. In one of the videos, Zahir can be seen “skimming it without reading it through.”
Sara Mukadam, the sister of murder victim Noor Mukadam, said in a video message on Monday that it is very hard to imagine a life without Noor. She further added that no one deserves to go through what her family had experienced. “Thank you for all the love, support and prayers from around the world and giving us the courage to go through this tragic time in our life,” said Sara.
She requested everyone to come to Wednesday the 22nd at 4.30pm to Islamabad Press Club to show their support for Noor. “Please raise your voice for Noor so she gets justice.”
Noor Mukadam was brutally murdered at a residence in the capital’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20. The alleged murderer, Zahir Jaffar was arrested for the murder.
