Hearing a petition challenging the ban on the media coverage of Imran Khan’s trial in jail, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) criticised prison administration for not letting journalists cover the court trial.
A petition said that despite following the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), the jail administration barred them from covering the court trial.
IHC Justice Mian Gul Hassan stated that trial court judges have the authority to regulate media instead of jail administration.
Justice Hassan advised the jail administration to allow seven journalists appointed by the IHC to cover the court trial of former Prime Minister Pakistan Imran Khan.
The court also advised journalists not to interview Imran Khan during court proceedings in jail.
Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi is known for many things but being religious isn’t one of them.
For some time now, speculation in Indian media, including on social media, has created the rumor that he is a Hafiz-e-Quran.
According to Indian media, these rumors started last year when Pakistani actress Humaima Malik mentioned in an interview, “Emraan Hashmi remembered some Quranic verses and used to recite them with me during shootings.”
However, a few days ago, Emraan Hashmi denied the claims during a podcast, a video of which has gone viral on social media.
“There is no truth in these claims; it is not like that, and I am not a Hafiz-e-Quran.” The Hindu host then asked him to explain what Hafiz-e-Quran means.
He replied, “Hafiz-e-Quran means someone who can recite the holy book correctly and accurately without looking at it.”
Inside details of the meeting between Pakistan Prime Minister (PM) Shahbaz Sharif and the Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari have been unveiled.
The incumbent government has taken a PPP delegation, including former diplomat Sherry Rahman, former Prime Minister Pakistan Raja Parvez Ashraf, and Naveed Qamar, in confidence regarding legislation to be presented in the National Assembly on Monday.
Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) members included the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant for Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.
PPP complained to the government that they were being neglected in Punjab.
Rehabilitation and relief activities for flood victims in Sindh was also discussed during the meeting.
The entire country is stunned by the horrific accident involving Natasha, a woman from an influential background. Her over speeding SUV hit a couple of vehicles, injuring five individuals and killing a father, daughter riding on their bike on Monday (August 19).
Many people believe that while the victims’ families may receive compensation, true justice will not be delivered.
Renowned actress Bushra Ansari also spoke out against elitism and addiction in response to the tragedy. She criticised the culture in which individuals turn to drugs to deal with their difficulties, claiming that this woman will most certainly avoid justice by being considered mentally sick.
Bushra also recited a poem by her sister, Neelam Basheer, addressing the accident and urged the elites to seek therapy for their addictions instead of harming innocent people.
It is, however, unknown whether Natasha was actually under the influence of drugs while driving or not, as the case is underway. She is currently in police custody, and during the previous court hearing, her lawyer deemed her mentally ill and that she had been under medical treatment for the past five years.
The incumbent federal government has approved Rs 20 billion special allocation for the Azme-e-Istehkam operation during a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to combat terrorism and extremism.
The meeting, presided over by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, allocated Rs 1.95 billion to Frontier Corp (FC) Balochistan for security expenses of the Reko Diq project and Rs 276.5 million to Frontier Corp Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) for project implementation Letters (PILs) out of Rs 2.23 billion.
Operation Azm-e-Istehkam, initiated by the Pakistan Army, is the seventh operation since the 2000s. It was followed by Rad-ul-Fasad in 2017.
The cabinet also approved Rs 100,000 sugar export at the request of Minister for Industries and Production Rana Tanveer Hussain.
A six-year-old boy missing for four days was found alive in a forest in a mountainous part of northern Vietnam, police said Thursday.
The child was reported missing on Saturday after he failed to return home with his siblings from a celebration at a relative’s house in Yen Bai province.
Police in Lam Giang commune launched a search for the boy and “even dried up a pond as they were afraid he had fallen,” an officer, who declined to give his name, told AFP.
Over the past four days, more than 200 people joined a search for the boy, according to state media.
He was finally found on Wednesday, the police official said.
“We were told that the boy was tired. They gave him things to eat and checked his health. He is ok now,” the police official told AFP.
State media reported that a man had heard crying and discovered the exhausted boy covered in mud, sitting in a cassava bush in the forest.
Lam’s mother, Ly Thi Phai, told the VietnamNet news site of her relief.
“I was so happy that my child had returned alive,” she said.
“I cried because he looked thinner and weaker than before he disappeared.”
According to state media, the boy said he had become lost in the forest and the more he walked, the more disorientated he became.
To survive, he said he drank water from a stream and picked leaves and wild fruits he recognised.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that Pakistan’s former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s trial will be open in a military court if it is connected with the May 9 riots.
Talking on Shahzeb Khanzada’s talk show on Geo News, Asif said, “We don’t have any precedent that any general’s military trial was held in an open court in the country’s history.”
He pointed out that there were 24 convictions during the Imran Khan-led government in the military trial court.
He added, “If the PTI founder faces any trial in a military court, then I can assure you that it would be open to the public and media because he is a civilian.”
Commenting on the May 9 riots, Asif said that manpower was provided by the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Imran Khan and strategies were done by Faiz Hameed to target military installations.
Indian authorities in Assam state have introduced a bill that would require Muslims to register their marriages and divorces, with the chief minister claiming the measure will help stop child marriage.
The bill is seen as a state-level step towards the government’s proposed common civil code of law, which Muslim activists bitterly oppose as an attack on their faith.
India’s 1.4 billion people are subject to a common criminal law. Still, personal matters such as marriage, divorce and inheritance are governed by varying rules based on the traditions of different communities and faiths.
In Assam, it is already mandatory for other religions to register marriages with civil authorities.
Assam’s state government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the bill would be tabled during the next state assembly.
“Our basic intention is to stop child marriages,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, chief minister of the northeastern state, told reporters Wednesday.
Sarma said the Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill would not restrict religious rituals, but only ensure marriages and divorces were registered.
The bill will “provide safeguards and benefits… especially to women and prevent the menace of child marriages,” he said.
Modi said this month he wanted to press ahead with a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to standardise laws for personal matters across faiths and religious communities.
Many communities, particularly Muslims, fear a UCC would encroach on their religious laws.
Modi maintains it would serve as an equaliser.
“Those laws that divide the country on the basis of religion, that become reason for inequality, should have no place in a modern society,” Modi said during an Independence Day address on August 15.
“That is why I say: the times demand that there is a secular civil code in the country.”
Modi won a third successive term in office in June but was forced into a coalition government for the first time in a decade.
The BJP’s Hindu nationalist rhetoric has left India’s Muslim population of more than 220 million increasingly anxious about their future.
Following the news of the alleged rape of a 5-year-old girl in Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Lahore, the staff of the facility and the Young Doctors Association (YDA) are protesting. Consequently, the Lahore police has now registered a case on the allegations.
Dawn’s Imran Gabol reported that the protest is led by the young doctors of the hospital. Their demonstration was also joined by the staff and students of the hospital as well as adjoining facility of the Fatima Jinnah Medical University (FJMU).
The protestors demanded a thorough investigation into the alleged rape of a minor girl in the premises of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital. “The students of FJMU/SGRH demand transparency and an investigation of the case. The students further demand the administration to answer their criminal silence. If such incidents are covered up and silenced, it raises a question mark for the hospital administration,” the demand said.
The Case
ARY News reported that a sanitation worker identified as Abid Maseeh allegedly molested the minor child in the hospital when she was admitted on the third floor. The report said that the mother of the child refused to proceed with the case, but the police arrested the worker.
ARY News reported the accused later confessed by stating that he was overpowered by “evil desires”.
Meanwhile, Dr Hafiz Moinuddin, SRG hospital’s medical superintendent, told Dawn.com that the girl was sleeping with her mother in a corridor when a sanitary worker “touched” her at 2am in the night. He said the girl screamed and woke her mother up, prompting several people in the hospital to gather on the spot.
The sanitary worker was then taken to the security room, where the security in charge called the police and handed over the suspect to them.
Dr Moinuddin asserted that Abid was not a hospital employee and that the company responsible for hiring him had also fired him following the incident.
He also informed Dawn that the hospital administration was taking special measures for the security of the attendants of patients and would not tolerate any mismanagement.
The FIR was registered at the Civil Lines police states that the police received a call that a suspect had harassed a woman’s daughter on the hospital’s third floor. Upon arriving, the police were informed that the suspect was a sweeper at the hospital who was surrounded by a crowd after the girl had created noise.
In its editorial, Express Tribune said, “The hospital’s version may well be true, but then why the attempts to obstruct the course of a probe? Why the text of the FIR did not mention rape? One fails to understand why the country’s law enforcement moves at a snail’s pace to even register a report in such cases. Why the reluctance?”
Videos of doctors and paramedical staff protesting outside the hospital are widely shared on social media, where they criticise the FIR, ask for better security and allege that the hospital administration is downplaying the incident, covering up the matter and silencing the victim’s family.
So many took to social media and voiced their opinion. Nida Kirmani posted that, “The admin of Ganga Ram Hospital is trying to cover up the sexual abuse of a 5-year old patient & threatening students of Fatima Jinnah Medical Uni for protesting. They must hold themselves & their staff accountable & provide support to the victim & her family.”
Saadia Ahmed posted about the incident, commenting that “this region is unlivable for the vulnerable.”
Renowned entertainment industry director and producer Wajahat Rauf wants to watch Indian films on Pakistani screens. Wajahat Rauf said, “I watched the movie Stree 2 in London, and the cinema was full.”
He wrote, “The audience laughed at the dialogue.”
He also praised the film’s hero, Rajkummar Rao, actress Shraddha Kapoor, and the other actors in the cast.
He concluded by saying, “I miss watching Indian films in Pakistani cinemas.”
