Tag: Pakistan

  • Exclusive: Govt to disclose gifts received by PM Khan soon

    Exclusive: Govt to disclose gifts received by PM Khan soon

    The federal government has denied giving out information about the exchange of gifts between Prime Minister Imran Khan and other heads of state, following a citizen’s petition against the matter.

    Journalist Aamir Saeed Abbasi, shared a picture of a notice on Twitter in which the government has termed the gifts as ‘classified’.

    In the notice, it is mentioned that the matter is reflective of inter-state relations and the disclosure of such information potentially damages the interest of Pakistan in the context of international relations.

    However, sources told The Current that there is nothing that’s deliberately being hidden. They said that some countries do not like disclosing their gifts so they are marked ‘classified’.

    According to them, a list may soon be provided of gifts without the mention of countries’ names.

    The government also challenged the petitioner in Islamabad High Court (IHC).

  • ‘Safe and home, Pakistan Zindabad’: Akcent supports Pakistan after New Zealand’s exit

    ‘Safe and home, Pakistan Zindabad’: Akcent supports Pakistan after New Zealand’s exit

    Romanian star-singer Adrian Sina, face of the music band Akcent extended his support to Pakistan in the wake of New Zealand’s sudden and disappointing abandonment of their Pakistan tour under the pretext of security concerns minutes before the first ODI started.

    Taking to social media, the official page of the band shared a video of a concert in Pakistan with a note which read: “I have been to Pakistan many times and I always felt it like a home. I feel safe there and the love I receive from Pakistan is beyond amazing. I will come back even more often. I love my fans! Pakistan Zindabad!”

    Earlier this month Akcent also extended support for Pakistani actor Ayesha Omar after her confessions on mental health.

    The Black Caps devastated Pakistan’s cricket fraternity on September 17 after opting out of their tour of Pakistan minutes before the first ODI was to be played. They had cited a ‘security threat’ as the reason without divulging any further details.

  • Hindu family ‘tortured’ for taking drinking water from mosque

    Hindu family ‘tortured’ for taking drinking water from mosque

    A farmworker’s family from the Hindu community was allegedly tortured by some village landlords for “violating the sanctity” of the mosque after they obtained water from a mosque’s tap, Dawn reported.

    The incident happened a few days back when Alam Ram Bheel, a resident of Basti Kahoor Khan in the city suburbs, was picking raw cotton (phutti) with his family members, including his wife, in a field of Chak 106-P.

    Ram said his family went to a nearby mosque to fetch water to drink from a tap, after which some local landlords and their men beat them up. When the family was going back home after unloading the picked cotton, the landlords held them hostage at their dera (outhouse) and beat them again.

    Later, some Muslim residents of Basti Kahoor Khan got the Bheel family released.

    Ram Bheel said the Airport police station did not file the case as the people who attacked were related to a local PTI parliamentarian.

    Ram said he held a sit-in outside the police station to protest the arrogance.

    Also a member of the district peace committee, Peter Jhon Bheel told Dawn that they approached PTI MNA Javed Warriach who helped them register the FIR on Friday.

    Jhon said he requested other members of the district peace committee to discuss the issue in a meeting but they did not take him seriously.

    PTI’s South Punjab Minority Wing Secretary General Yodhister Chohan told Dawn that he knew about the incident but due to the influence of a ruling party MP, he preferred to stay away.

    District Police Officer Asad Sarfraz said that he was looking into the matter.

    Deputy Commissioner Dr Khuram Shehzad said he would meet Hindu minority elders on Monday (today) before taking any action.

  • ‘Same route, same security but no threat today?’: Mohammad Hafeez questions the Black Caps departure

    ‘Same route, same security but no threat today?’: Mohammad Hafeez questions the Black Caps departure

    Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Hafeez took to Twitter to question the departure of the Black Caps, and tweeted, “Thanks to the security of Pakistan forces to make arrangements to @BLACKCAPS to reach airport Safe & Sound. Wonder same route & same security but no threat today???”

    A day after New Zealand abandoned their Pakistan tour, the newly appointed Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Ramiz Raja on Saturday called on players to channel their frustration into their performance.

    In a video message, shared by the PCB, Ramiz Raja said: “Release your frustration and anger by channeling it towards your performance.”

    “Everyone will want to play against you. So I want us to learn from this, move forward, and keep strong. There is no need to be disappointed,” said Ramiz.

    “We will do whatever we can and you will soon get to hear good news and results,” said the chairman.

    “It is a shared pain and whatever happened is not right for Pakistani cricket,” he said, calling the situation an “unfortunate scenario”.

    “We have experienced such situations in the past but we have always moved forward. We have a lot of resilience and strength, and that is because of the fans and the cricket team,” he said.

    Meanwhile, a PCB official speaking with Dawn said, “This is a blow to the efforts the PCB, the government, and the security agencies who had been making to fully restore international cricket in Pakistan.”

    “The ICC has done nothing in these cases,” the official added. “Furthermore since the Indian lobby is strong at the ICC, so it will not be easy for the PCB to win any case of compensation against New Zealand.”

    “There isn’t much hope that England will tour now,” said the official.

    On Friday, the New Zealand cricket team had backed out of its tour of Pakistan over security concerns minutes before the first match was scheduled to start at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium.

  • ‘I have initiated a dialogue with the Taliban for an inclusive Afghan govt’: PM Khan

    ‘I have initiated a dialogue with the Taliban for an inclusive Afghan govt’: PM Khan

    Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said that he has initiated a dialogue with the Taliban for the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan representing multiple ethnic groups.

    In a statement shared on Twitter, the premier wrote, “After meetings in Dushanbe with leaders of Afghanistan’s neighbours and especially a lengthy discussion with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon, I have initiated a dialogue with the Taliban for an inclusive Afghan government to include Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks.”

    In another tweet, the premier wrote, “After 40 years of conflict, this inclusivity will ensure peace and a stable Afghanistan, which is in the interest not only of Afghanistan but the region as well.”

    The prime minister had emphasised the same point during his address at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Heads of State (SCO-CHS) summit on Friday.

    “The Taliban must fulfill the pledges made, above all for an inclusive political structure where all ethnic groups are represented. This is vital for Afghanistan’s stability,” he had said.

    The Afghan Taliban had announced an interim government, comprising 33 members, earlier this month.

  • New Zealand’s disappointing decision

    New Zealand’s disappointing decision

    Yesterday was a dark day for Pakistan cricket when New Zealand unilaterally decided to abandon the Pakistan series over “security threats” just minutes before the first One-Day International (ODI) match was about to begin in Rawalpindi. This decision was taken without sharing any details of the security threat with the host country. New Zealand was visiting Pakistan after 18 years.

    Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Ramiz Raja tweeted how frustrating it was and said that New Zealand will “hear us at ICC”. Prime Minister Imran Khan also spoke with his New Zealand counterpart Jacinda Ardern but could not convince her to reconsider this unilateral decision. “When I spoke with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, I conveyed our thanks for taking care of the New Zealand Cricket team. I know how disappointing it will be for everyone that the game hasn’t gone ahead, but we totally support the decision that’s been made. Player safety has to be paramount,” PM Ardern told Reuters.

    New Zealand’s decision is a huge blow and setback to Pakistan cricket. The terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March 2009 left Pakistan cricket in chaos for years. There were no international cricket matches in Pakistan and it took us many years to convince smaller cricketing nations to gradually but surely bring back cricket to Pakistan. Former PCB Chairman Najam Sethi managed to convince teams and international players to visit Pakistan. Our security forces, police, cricket management, and many others made sure that all visiting teams and players were given fool-proof security, even if it meant shutting down cities.

    Cricket fans did not complain about the inconvenience either because they understood how vital it was to make the visiting teams feel safe so as to make sure that international cricket properly returns to Pakistan. This year was going to be extremely important with New Zealand and English cricket teams’ tours. Next year, Australia is also supposed to tour Pakistan. Now – with New Zealand abandoning its tour – the England tour is also up in the air for another 24 hours as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said yesterday that due to the security threat to New Zealand, the ECB will “decide in the next 24-48 hours whether our planned tour should proceed”.

    PCB officials told Dawn that Pakistan will suffer financial losses in millions. And it is not just about the financial loss but the loss of so many years of efforts made by the security officials, PCB, Pakistani players, and many other unsung heroes who made sure that cricket comes back to Pakistan. Pakistani cricket fans are disappointed, angry and depressed, and rightly so. We know that Pakistan cricket will overcome this. But it hurts. Pakistan Zindabad!

  • US apologises for killing civilians, children in Kabul drone attack

    US apologises for killing civilians, children in Kabul drone attack

    Head of the US Central Command General Frank McKenzie, has apologised for a drone strike in Kabul last month at Hamid Karzai Airport that killed as many as 10 civilians, including seven children.

    “Our investigation now concludes that the strike was a tragic mistake,” McKenzie told reporters. Earlier, while defending the attack, the US had said that the strike was targeting a suicide bomber of the militant Islamic State group and had described it as “righteous”, reports Al Jazeera.

    The US general offered his condolences to the families of the victims and stated that those who were killed had no connection with local Islamic State affiliates or posed any direct threat to US forces.

    Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the drone strike had killed a civilian, Mr Ahmadi, who worked for a non-profit called Nutrition and Education International.

    “They were innocent, helpless children,” Aimal Ahmadi, whose nieces and nephews were killed in the attack, told Al-Jazeera.

    Ahmad Naser who was among the victims had been a translator for the US forces. The youngest child, Sumaya, was just two years old, as per BBC.

    Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Afghan Taliban, confirmed at the time that the strike had killed seven people.

  • India spied on Pakistan and China, says US-based intelligence company

    India spied on Pakistan and China, says US-based intelligence company

    Texas-based Exodus Intelligence believes India used its “zero-day” security vulnerabilities, which hackers can use to attack systems, to spy on Pakistan and China, according to a report published in Forbes.

    Exodus Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founder Logan Brown said that after an investigation, he believes India handpicked one of the Windows vulnerabilities from the feed—allowing deep access to Microsoft’s operating system—and Indian government personnel or a contractor adapted it for malicious means.

    The Exodus CEO maintained that India was subsequently cut off from buying new zero-day research from his company in April and it has worked with Microsoft to patch the vulnerabilities.

    Earlier this year, researchers at Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky witnessed a cyberespionage campaign targeting Microsoft Windows PCs at government and telecom entities in China and Pakistan.

    Aspects of the code looked like some the Moscow antivirus provider had previously seen and attributed to a company it gave the cryptonym “Moses”.

    Beyond the two zero-days already abused, according to Kaspersky, “at least six vulnerabilities” made by Moses have made it out “into the wild” in the last two years. Also according to Kaspersky, another hacking crew known as DarkHotel — believed by some cybersecurity researchers to be sponsored by South Korea — has used Moses’ zero days. South Korea is not a customer of Exodus.

    “We are pretty sure India leaked some of our research,” Brown said. “We cut them off and haven’t heard anything since then . . . so the assumption is that we were correct.”

  • Covid-19: UK removes Pakistan from Red List

    Pakistan has been removed from UK’s Red List. British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Christian Turner, has confirmed.

    “Pleased to confirm [that] Pakistan is off the red list”, wrote Turner in a tweet. “I know how difficult the last 5 months were for so many who rely on close links between,” he added.

    Turner further added that the UK will continue to work closely with Pakistan to ensure data sharing and safeguard public health in both countries.

    Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, Dr Faisal Sultan, has welcomed the decision of the British government. “Great news for those wanting to travel,” wrote Dr Faisal in a tweet. “I am grateful to Christian Turner and others in the UK gov who engaged with our team for an in-depth understanding of our epidemic response and systems as well as the ongoing sharing of data and information to enable disease security,” he added.

  • ‘Unilateral decision to offer amnesty to TTP an insult to victims of terrorism’: Bilawal Bhutto

    ‘Unilateral decision to offer amnesty to TTP an insult to victims of terrorism’: Bilawal Bhutto

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday took to Twitter to express his disapproval of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for offering to pardon Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members if they renounce violence and respect the nation’s Constitution.

    Bilawal tweeted, “The unilateral decision to offer amnesty to terrorist groups within Pakistan is an insult to the thousands of victims of terrorism.”

    “Imran’s policy of appeasement to religious fascism within Pakistan as well as on our eastern & western borders will haunt us in-times to come,” added Bilawal.

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader, Khurram Dastgir Khan, while speaking on Dawn News programme “News Eye”, said, “It is shameful and reprehensible of the President and the Foreign Minister to hint at a general amnesty for the TTP.”

    “Terrorists in Pakistan have martyred children, women, the elderly, young and our soldiers. We cannot forget this,” said Dastgir.

    Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in an interview with The Independent said that the government would be “open to giving” a pardon to members of the banned TTP if they promise not to get involved in terrorism and follow the Constitution of Pakistan.

    The minister’s comments came after President Arif Alvi said, if anyone wants to leave the ideology of the banned TTP and work as per the Constitution of Pakistan, the government may consider a general amnesty.