President Dr Arif Alvi has said that if anyone wants to leave the ideology of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and work as per the Constitution of Pakistan, the government may consider a general amnesty.
Speaking onDawn News programme, ‘Khabar se Khabar’, President Alvi said, “The TTP is a threat to us. We have been told that they will stay with them [Afghan Taliban] but do nothing against Pakistan.”
“It’s one step, Pakistan will consider general amnesty, if anyone surrenders,” further added Alvi.
Earlier, Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid had said in an interview that TTP is not a problem of Afghanistan but of Pakistan, so it is Pakistan’s job to formulate a strategy in this regard.
“If TTP believes in our followers and our Amir-ul-Mominin, then they [TTP] will have to follow them as well,” added Mujahid.
The detailed interview of the president is yet to be aired on Dawn News. A short teaser of the show was aired by the channel on Wednesday.
A 12-year-old girl was murdered after the alleged rape in Manchinabad area of Punjab’s Bahawalnagar district, ARY News reported on Thursday.
According to details, a 12-year-old girl was killed after being raped in Manchinabad. The police detained the two suspects in the case after it was reported.
Taking notice of the incident, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar has also asked for a report from IG Punjab and ordered strict action against the persons involved in the crime.
CM Punjab Usman Buzdar also assured the victim’s family that justice will be served.
Earlier, a girl in Gujrat died after three men allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped her. Three men abducted a girl from Chak Ghazi in Gujrat district on September 1. The accused gave a tranquilliser to the girl and then raped her.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, while addressing his party workers in Multan said that “ [Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz President] Shehbaz Sharif is the party president, his decision should be final.”
According to the chairman, whenever Sharif makes a statement, party members say that it is his own “personal decision”, reports Geo.
Furthermore, he argued that “If Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) had stayed, it could hold a long march, and before reaching Lahore, they could have made [Chief Minister of Punjab] Usman Buzdar resign, and [Prime Minister] Imran Khan would have resigned before the march reached Islamabad. Shehbaz was aware of all the formulas.”
Bilawal, adding that his party had sincerely wanted to oust the government through PDM said that “The PDM leadership started talking about our resignations instead of the Punjab chief minister and the prime minister’s resignations.”
Earlier this month Sharif suggested the formation of a national government. He said, “It needs collective wisdom and requires collective efforts to fix [the problems of Pakistan]. That’s why I think we should have a national government in place to sort out these huge tasks. Even if we [PML-N] win a majority, we can’t fix it alone.”
Upon this Former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi made hiscomment while talking to The News by saying that, “There is no option for ‘national govt’ in Constitution.
“Our party has already made it clear that Shehbaz did not talk about it [national government] and he was misquoted by some circles”, he added.
Moreover during the rally Bilawal taunted the government by saying that the Centre was proposing to roll out electronic voting machines when there is persistent load shedding in the country.
In early June both PPP and Awami National Party (ANP) left PDM by saying that the leaders of the fragmented anti-government alliance appear to be “confused and divided”.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has said that her lawyer Amjad Pervez has recused himself from the case because of his health condition after he had contracted Covid-19.
میرے وکیل امجد پرویز صاحب شروع سے اس کیس کو دیکھ رہے ہیں جب سے انہیں کووڈ ہوا ہے انہیں کمر میں شدید تکلیف ہے ہفتے میں دوبار سفر کرنا انکے ممکن نہیں اس لیے انہوں نے مجھ سے کہا کہ آپ مجھے اس مقدمے سے علیحدہ کردیں.
“I told him to contest my case, and until he recovers, I will arrange another counsel for my case,” said Maryam.
A journalist questioned Maryam whether Pakistan should recognise the new Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Maryam responded, “Pakistan must accept the will of the Afghan people and refrain from imposing its decision on Afghanistan.”
The PML-N leader said Afghanistan was a sovereign country and insisted that Pakistan must not interfere in the internal matters of the neighbouring country.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its latest report welcomed the nomination of Justice Ayesha Malik to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The appointment of a woman to the Supreme Court would be a significant step in reforming the gender inequity in Pakistan’s legal profession, says HRW.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed has nominated Justice Ayesha A. Malik for the elevation to the Supreme Court.
Pakistan is the only nation in South Asia to have never had a female Supreme Court judge.
As per the HRW report, “Only about four per cent of Pakistan’s High Court judges are women. Of the 3,005 Pakistani judges in the lower and higher courts, only 519 – or 17 per cent – are women.”
While some women head district courts, none have yet been appointed to the Supreme Court.
Pakistan has produced women lawyers of international renown such as Hina Jilani and the late Asma Jahangir, the Pakistan Bar Council – which regulates lawyers – has never had a woman member. Jahangir remains the only female lawyer to have been elected as president of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
Women having less representation in the legal profession is due to harmful societal attitudes, harassment in the workplace, and structural barriers such as the opaque appointment process for judges.
Republic TV and Zee Hindustan ran footage from a video game Arma-3 as visuals claiming that it was the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) attacking the anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir Valley.
The channel aired the footage stating it was from Hasti TV and shows airstrikes by Pakistani drones in Panjshir Valley against resistance fighters.
Republic TV posted the video with the caption, “Pakistan army supporting Taliban against Northern Alliance in Panjshir”. During the broadcast, the anchor can be heard repeating the claim that the footage shows airstrikes in Panjshir and claiming that Pakistan was behind it.
Various Indian media outlets shared the fake video, claiming it as Pakistani Air Force attacking Panjshir.
The video started doing the rounds on Twitter.
Indian journalist Swati Chaturvedi tweeted, “No bigger disgrace to journalism than the shouty clown & his channel.”
No bigger disgrace to journalism than the shouty clown & his channel https://t.co/4GQDmZaQK2
A Twitter user tweeted, “It’s not that Pakistani 5th Gen Warriors aren’t as skilled, but I think they just lack the sheer brazen confidence that Indian 5th Gen Warriors have.”
It’s not that Pakistani 5th Gen Warriors aren’t as skilled, but I think they just lack the sheer brazen confidence that Indian 5th Gen Warriors have https://t.co/6ZtlUrh84K
Schooling the channel for fake news, a Twitter user wrote, “This is so embarrassing and misleading at the same time. It’s a shame that we let channels like @republic test our sensibilities time and again. Shame on us for letting them exist.”
This is so embarrassing and misleading at the same time. It’s a shame that we let channels like @republic test our sensibilities time and again. Shame on us for letting them exist. https://t.co/8zTGwc96kf
A woman named Jameela fixes motorcycles to earn a living in Karachi, Shahjahan Khurram reported for Geo News.
Jameela has set up a small shop near the popular Lakhpati Hotel where she sells and changes motorcycle engine oil for customers.
“I have been doing this for the past 35 years,” she said. “I do it for my family — for roti, kapra and makaan,” she added.
Jameela Khatoon said that her business is the only legacy of her deceased husband. Jameela’s husband died of cancer and she lost her adopted son to a disease, after which Jameela had to become the sole breadwinner of her house.
Photo via Geo News
She used to have six labourers at her shop to help her out.
“But they wanted to take over my business by force. I could not let them do that,” she said
The workers threatened her she would “die hungry” if she let them go.
“I accepted their challenge and told them I will not let that happen. It is due to Allah’s will and His love for me that I am still earning my bread here.”
Photo via Geo News
Jameela Khatoon has to feed her four grandchildren and the widow of her adopted son.
“Hum sab saath mein chalte hain (we do everything together),” she said.
Life was easier when she had workers working for her. Now, she opens her shop at 10:30-11:00 am and works till midnight. Jameela Khatoon says people who come by to get their motorcycles serviced always treat her with respect.
“They all address me as khaala (aunt), amma (mother), aunty,” she says, but recalls that she faced catcalls and harassment when she was younger.
She says that shopkeepers nearby do not bother her.
“I don’t need their support — I give support to them,” she says, adding that if something were to happen to them, she would “stand by them like a wall”.
Jameela wants the government to support her financially to help her set up a bigger shop for her business.
“I wish the government would give me a loan or provide me a shop where I can carry out my work in a better way,” she says. “A shop where I can sell spare parts and fix punctures.”
“If the government is watching this video, then I hope it shakes their conscience a bit,” she says.
The mystery shrouding the elusive proposed draft of the Pakistan Media Development Authority (PMDA) is quite intriguing. Some consultations have been held with journalists, civil society members, and parliamentarians but without a copy of the proposed draft. Members of the National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting on Thursday demanded that the draft be shared instead of verbal briefings by the Information Ministry. Chairman of the NA standing committee Mian Javed Latif then formed a sub-committee, which will be headed by Marriyum Aurangzeb with Nafisa Shah and Kanwal Shozab as its members. Let’s see if the proposed draft will now be shared with the sub-committee.
Last month, representatives of media organisations issued a joint statement that rejected the proposed media authority. They said that it was unconstitutional and deemed it as a draconian law. It seems that this is yet another tactic by the government to curb media freedom. Human Rights Watch (HRW) recently also issued a statement on the PMDA saying that the Pakistani government is “seeking broad new powers to control the media as part of its crackdown on freedom of expression. Journalists, human rights activists, and political leaders across that country have raised the alarm about proposed legislation that would bolster powers of the government to censor and restrict the media.” The government reacted to HRW’s statement by issuing a rejoinder through the Pakistan Embassy in the US challenging the human rights organisation’s assertions on PMDA. Patricia Gossman, HRW’s associate director for the Asia division, asked for a draft, which has so far not been shared with anyone.
It is quite worrying that in a country where media freedom is already quite curtailed, where interviews have been stopped from going on air or stopped mid-way, where anchors have been taken off-air, where there are now so many red lines that media organisations have to tread very carefully, where attacks on journalists have become frequent and culprits are still at large, where online trolling of journalists has become a norm, where the government issues reports of social media trends and hashtags it deems anti-state, where government officials keep on targeting journalists and media organisations without any shred of evidence, a new media authority with immense powers is being proposed without sharing the details of the proposed law and/or taking the main stakeholders on board.
We hope that the government will share the proposed draft with all stakeholders so that the mystery shrouding this media authority ends once and for all. There is already a lot of mistrust between the government and the media. We hope the government will listen to the legitimate concerns of media organisations and not dismiss them. A free and independent media is essential for any democracy. Pakistan is a democracy and we hope the government will not undermine it in any way.
“My aim is to reset Pakistan cricket’s GPS,” Ramiz Raja was quoted as saying after being nominated to succeed Ehsan Mani as Chairman Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB). As it sits, long-time commentator and former Pakistan captain Ramiz is primed to edge past Asad Ali Khan in the Board of Governors (BoG) meeting on September 13 and seems to be the front-runner to nab the slot of the chairman. To ascertain whether or not he is a good fit for this role, one needs to examine his administerial credentials and how he fared in his previous reign when he served PCB in a similar capacity.
A grand total of just more than a year (July 2003 to August 2004) is all the administerial experience that Ramiz has under his belt when he replaced Chishty Mujahid as PCB’s chief executive. This ephemeral reign was nothing short of a colossal debacle in more ways than one and peppered with controversies, ultimately forcing Ramiz to tender resignation from the role, which begs the question: why has he accepted the role in the first place?
To begin with, Ramiz had an acrimonious relationship with several players throughout his tenure. While on the one hand, he was cutting his teeth as the chief executive, on the other hand, he was criticising the national team in his commentary at the same time, which did not go down well with the players who lambasted him for dual standards.
Things kept going sideways for Ramiz and India’s tour of Pakistan in 2004 proved to be the final nail in the coffin of his administerial career. A multitude of controversies popped up in this woeful series where Pakistan lost the 3-match Test series 2-1 and 5-match ODI series 3-2; players were alleged to be involved in match-fixing against India in the fourth ODI, Shoaib Akhtar’s injury saga was handled irresponsibly and the media ripped the team to shreds and lamented the disastrous showing.
In his column ‘Pakistan cricket’s blackest day’, Omar Kureishi wrote that Pakistan’s batsmen competed against one another on who was more irresponsible.
“It was a sad day as the last rites of Pakistan cricket was performed at Pindi Cricket Stadium. Indian spinner Anil Kumble and paceman Laxmipathy Balaji nailed the coffin in front of handful mourners,” Dawn’s match report read.
Agha Akbar, in his column ‘Pakistan was overawed and outplayed’ for The Nation, wrote: “It might hurt the pride of the Pakistanis, but the fact is that this Indian team has shown them the way they once used to play cricket.”
“Pakistan just threw in the towel. It is for the PCB to find out what went wrong, for something went horribly wrong,” Akbar added.
As if that was not enough to demonstrate his inability to deliver the goods, Ramiz’s reputation suffered a blow when several board officials and players also filed a case against him after he was convicted by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for marketing match tickets in black.
Nevertheless, one can argue that Ramiz has been commentating on Pakistan cricket for about two decades and probably knows the ins and outs of Pakistan cricket but it is worth bearing in mind that commentating on a game and administering it requires an entirely different set of skills.
The chairman role requires one to be well-versed with business administration. Although Ramiz received his master’s degree in business administration, his credentials in that field are not impressive enough to warrant him a chairman role if you compare them to the qualifications of chairpersons of other teams. Also, if his previous stint is anything to go by, it is safe to say that Ramiz Raja is not a good fit for the role of Chairman PCB.
