Tag: Pakistan Army

  • PTI govt approves Rs11.7 billion for special military projects

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has approved a supplementary budget for military allowances worth Rs11.7 billion as the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) met on Monday.

    According to The Express Tribune, the meeting headed by Adviser to the Prime Minister (PM) on Finance, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, approved the allowances under three technical supplementary grants for Special Security Division (North), Internal Security Duty Allowance and construction of bunkers.

    Of the Rs11.7 billion, Rs6.2 billion have been allocated for the recurring cost of the Special Security Division of Pakistan — for protection of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)-related projects — whereas Rs4.966 billion have been set aside for Internal Special Duty Allowance for troops deployed on the western border, a Ministry of Finance handout revealed.

    While the remaining Rs500 million has been reserved for the construction of community bunkers, the heads for the supplementary grants from where the budget will be diverted, have not yet been specified by the Finance Ministry.

    Earlier, the ECC had directed that the cost of providing protection to the CPEC and other important installations by the military should be made part of the regular defence budget instead of meeting it through supplementary grants.

    The Defence Ministry had requested a supplementary grant for paying the recurring cost of the Special Security Division and Internal Security Duty Allowance to the troops deployed on the western border.

  • VIDEO: Colleagues toss ex-CJCSC Gen Zubair Hayat into air at retirement party

    VIDEO: Colleagues toss ex-CJCSC Gen Zubair Hayat into air at retirement party

    Former chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Zubair Mahmood Hayat, who retired on November 27, is tossed high into the air by colleagues on the tunes of “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”.
  • ‘Army says Monal built on its land, wants it back now’

    ‘Army says Monal built on its land, wants it back now’

    Islamabad’s famous Monal Restaurant is built on military land in the Margalla Hills that the army now wants back, a Capital Development Authority (CDA) official has reportedly told a parliamentary committee.

    According to Dawn, Dr Shahid Mahmood on Wednesday told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change that 15 years ago, the CDA “did not know it was building the restaurant on military grasslands until the army started claiming it”.

    The committee was told that the 22,000 acres of land — that are now a part of the Margalla Hills National Park — were actually owned by the Punjab government.

    Around 5,500 acres of the said land was allocated to the army, he said, although the exact year the allocation was made, was not stated. The CDA now owns 16,500 acres.

    The latest survey conducted by the authority revealed that the land allotted to the army is right in the centre of the national park, and Monal has been built on it.

    Monal Restaurant was built in 2005 and was a CDA property. The operation of the restaurant was leased for a 10 year period, Dr Mahmood told the committee, adding that the space was now being vacated and handed over to the army.

    However, Committee Chairperson Munaza Hassan was more interested in finding out who had permitted the construction of a large restaurant inside the national park protected by the law to conserve its natural environment and wildlife.

    Dr Mahmood said the CDA board at the time had permitted the restaurant’s construction, offering to share the board decision with the committee. He said several inquiries were undertaken to hold officials accountable for allowing the restaurant to be built, but none had been successful.

    The committee chair then demanded that CDA shared information regarding the construction of Monal Restaurant on protected land.

    Climate Change Joint Secretary Suleman Warraich said the government was unable to implement environment protection laws due to confusion over the demarcation of state land overlapping with private property. “Margalla Hills National Park was last mapped in the 1960s,” he said.

  • ISPR chief wishes India ‘get well soon’ over cow dung fight for ‘good health’

    In yet another trolling episode, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asif Ghafoor has wished neighbouring India “get well soon” over cow dung fight for “good health”.

    As per the details, customary annual Gore Habba festival was recently held in the Gumatapura village of southern India. In a viral video, villagers were seen holding massive cow dung fights, believing it has a healing effect.

    While getting smeared in moist bovine discharge is hardly a pleasant experience for most, each year after the Diwali holiday, the villagers – and anyone willing to join them – partake in the faecal festival that is all about excrement-throwing.

    “Get well soon…” the ISPR chief tweeted while reacting to the video on Thursday.

    While it might look quite unsanitary to smear your whole body in faeces, the devotees believe it is not only harmless, but actually cures diseases.

    “Cow dung is very natural and has a lot of medicinal benefits. Others might say if we throw cow dung at each other we will get some infections or even some disease. But with the trust of our god Beereshwara, we are playing in the cow dung, so nothing happens to us,” RT quoted one of the villagers as saying.

    The villager further said that the festival was all about equality and anyone regardless of their caste or religion can participate. Still, women are barred from the excrement-throwing part, yet they are free to watch the show.

    The tradition comes from the belief that remains of a saint were placed in a pit in the village, and took the shape of a Linga (an abstract phallic representation of Shiva), which became covered by cow excrements over time. The deity of the village is believed to value cow excrements too, thus the villagers dump the substance in abundance behind the local temple.

  • Army follows govt’s orders, has nothing to do with politics: Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor

    Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asif Ghafoor has said that Pakistan Army is not meddling in politics as it is busy in ensuring the security of the country.

    “Marches and sit-ins are a political activity and the army, as a state institution, has nothing to do with them,” he told a private media outlet and added that it had also supported the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government during the 126-day sit-in staged by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 2014.

    “The army had followed the government’s instructions at that time and as an institution, had deployed troops for the security of important buildings and performed other tasks assigned by the government,” the military spokesperson said.

    “The army follows the government’s orders,” he said while talking about the military’s deployment during the general elections and added it was only for security reasons.

    “The work we are involved in does not allow us to become a part of any such [political] activity,” he said in an apparent response to the allegations levelled by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman regarding the military’s involvement in politics.

    The ISPR chief further said that the army’s primary focus was ensuring national security and they would not allow any efforts to harm national stability. “We will always support the government within the ambit of the constitution.”

  • Pak army to generate own electricity to reduce burden on economy

    Pak army to generate own electricity to reduce burden on economy

    Pakistan Army is all set to generate electricity for its garrisons and establishments across Pakistan to cut their expenditure on power which is estimated to be around Rs 15 billion for 240 MW (megawatt), a private news outlet has reported.

    As per reports, the Pakistan army is planning on harnessing renewable energy through solar parks with an aim to establish 1-5MW solar parks in each garrison. The pilot project will generate 40MW energy and no public money will be used on solar parks for 25 years.

    This step will reduce the burden on the Army’s budget as a huge portion of it goes to electricity payments to various electricity distribution companies, and the costs are rising due to increasing tariffs.

    The Defence Division has informed the federal cabinet that army possesses robust distribution systems, which means that it can easily shift to renewable energy alternatives.

    The division has sought the government’s approval for making the payment on account of purchasing equipment from private companies offering solar solutions, adding that it will be at least 20-30% cheaper than DICSOs.

    The cabinet was also informed that the stakeholders including Public-Private Partnership Authority (PPPA), Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), Power Division and Finance Division have also endorsed the electricity project.

  • India sets up Hindu lord Ganesha’s military avatar amid tensions with Pakistan

    India sets up Hindu lord Ganesha’s military avatar amid tensions with Pakistan

    As tensions between Pakistan and India heighten following the latter’s revocation of Article 370 to rob occupied Kashmir of its autonomy, Hindu lord Ganesha has sported an army look on his birthday — Ganesha Chaturthi.

    Ganesha, a Hindu lord, is worshipped in the religion for several of his attributes, including the remover of obstacles. He is the patron of arts and sciences and the lord of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rites and ceremonies.

    With Hindu devotees time and again erecting mighty statues of Ganesha sporting various looks across India, one that shows him in an Indian army uniform and holding a gun has garnered immense attention.

    While the move appears to be an attempt to boost the morale of Indian soldiers amid cross-border tensions and skirmishes across the Line of Control (LoC), it has not been very well received by netizens.

    Statues of Ganesha donning cricket jerseys during the ICC World Cup or other important tournaments is also a common sight in India.

  • Commando, who rescued Abhinandan from mob, martyred in Indian firing?

    Commando, who rescued Abhinandan from mob, martyred in Indian firing?

    A commando of the Special Services Group (SSG), “who had rescued Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Abhinandan Varthaman from the mob”, has embraced martyrdom, Indian media reports claimed Thursday.

    Wing Commander Abhinandan, who was piloting an intruding MiG-21 fighter jet downed by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in February this year, was captured by villagers in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). They were trying to lynch the pilot before Pakistani troops had reached the site to rescue him.

    In a video that went viral on social media, Abhinandan had also praised Pakistan Army officials as “thorough gentlemen” for having saved him from the mob.

    With SSG Naib Subedar Ahmed Khan Awan recently embracing martyrdom in the Kel Sector as Indian army resorted to unprovoked firing across the Line of Control (LoC), media reports said he was among the personnel “who captured Abhinandan”.

    However, sources privy to the development informed The Current that there was no truth to the claims. They also hinted at the possibility of Indian media linking the two personnel merely on the basis of their beards.

    The claims come just days after Ahmed Khan was laid to rest in his native graveyard in Attock, with full military honours. The martyr has left his mother, wife, three sons and two daughters in mourning.

    Joining the army in 1998, Khan was recently deployed in the Kel Sector where he embraced martyrdom defending his motherland.

  • Army chief dismisses serving major for misusing authority

    Army chief dismisses serving major for misusing authority

    Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has dismissed a Pakistan Army major from service for misusing authority, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement issued Tuesday.

    “The court adjudged the accused officer guilty of misusing his authority. Pakistan Army, alive to its institutional accountability system has dismissed the officer from service and sent him to jail  for life,” the statement read.

    The sentence, passed after the officer was tried by a field general court-martial, was confirmed by COAS Gen Bajwa.

    Earlier, a three-star retired general had been sentenced to 14 years in jail and a retired brigadier awarded the death sentence by field general courts-martial on charges of espionage and leaking “sensitive information” to foreign agencies.

  • WATCH: Video shows Pakistan Army aircraft crashing in Rawalpindi

    WATCH: Video shows Pakistan Army aircraft crashing in Rawalpindi

    Moments after at least 17 people, including five military personnel, lost their lives when a plane of Pakistan Army Aviation crashed near Mora Kalu in Rawalpindi, a video of the tragic incident has surfaced.

    According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the aircraft was on a routine training flight when it crashed around 2 am, but there was no immediate word on the cause of the accident or the type of aircraft involved.

    Two pilots were among those killed in the incident, the military’s media wing said, adding that it also resulted in 12 fatal civilian casualties and injuries to 13 others.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    Lt Col Saqib, Lt Col Wasim, Naib Subedar Afzal, Hawaldar Amin and Hawaldar Rahmat were the military personnel who lost their lives.

    Soon after the crash, a massive fire broke out that engulfed several houses in the locality.

    Rescue teams of 1122 and Pakistan Army immediately reached the site and started the rescue operation. 

    ISPR added, rescue officials had extinguished the fire caused by the crash and moved the injured to a local hospital.