A court in Islamabad has handed over Therapyworks Owner Tahir Zahoor, and five others to day-long physical custody in Noor Mukadam’s murder case reports DAWN.
The six suspects were arrested on Saturday night and were presented on Sunday morning before the court, in front of Magistrate Shahzad Khan who granted their remand.
They were accused of “concealing evidence”. Reportedly, Tahir Zahoor was in contact with Zahir’s parents after the murder, and eventually, a team from Therapyworks was sent to the crime scene.
Zahoor’s counsel told the court that his client is diabetic and has cooperated when called for an investigation. “This is the first case in which witnesses have been arrested,” he said.
Moreover, the suspects said that they had cooperated with the authorities and were at the police station for four days but no investigation was conducted.
They will be presented before the court tomorrow (Monday) at 10:30 am.
How is Therapyworks is related?
Therapy Works, a counseling, and psychotherapy center allegedlygranted murder suspect Zahir Jaffar a certification to become a therapist.
The center denied allegations that Zahir Jaffar was seeing clients of the organisation, despite evidencecoming forward that he was.
Other suspects
Other than Zahir Jaffar and his parents, two security guards were also been arrested for assistance-in-crime, hiding evidence and tampering with evidence in order to save the accused. Currently, the murder suspect is in Adiala Jail.
Among the myriad promises the current federal government has failed to deliver is one pledge that the government did not commit to but has delivered in spades. I am talking about the federal administration providing us with therapy, albeit in the form of laughter. Whenever we, the people, have been at the edge of bucking under crippling inflation, the government has provided us with a moment of undiluted merriment, always at its own expense.
In times of crisis, and what is Pakistan in if not a deep existential, democratic and economic crisis, comedians come to the rescue of their people, providing much needed merriment to take away our troubles for a moment or two. The government, however, decided to step in and provide laughter itself, in the process promoting harmony among citizens, taking away jobs from comedians as it has from nearly everyone else. We may have neither faith nor discipline but damned if we are not united in our misery.
Last year, Faisal Vawda selflessly decided to make us laugh when he accused Dr Musadik Malik, a PhD, of being a physician to a Gulf royal family. Where else but in a social welfare state will a prominent ruling party member prove himself to be a clown just to help his people out of depression. This is not Mr Vawda’s first attempt at comedy. After elite forces had successfully thwarted an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi, Vawda showed up in a bulletproof vest and armed with what he said was a Glock to “defend his country”. A more unpunctual, but well-meaning, well-dressed and well-to-do vigilante had not been seen before. Take that, Batman.
In another incident, a hilarious government announcement of Pakistan being one of the cheapest countries tied in with yet another fuel price hike. We all laughed our way to the shady hospitals where we had made deals to sell our kidneys in order to keep our bikes and cars running.
Never one to let tradition slide, PTI has earlier this week launched a hilarious report on digital trends, just as it finalised deals on the costliest purchase of LNG. In three years, PTI has provided us with plenty of laughter but this, ladies and gentlemen, was the jewel in the crown. Compiled by what we can only assume are people with the IQ of a cabbage, the report went on to report the origins and details of “anti-state” trends. The “deep analysis” had about as much depth as the puddle a newborn would create without a diaper. Oh PTI, how do we laugh at thee? Let me count the ways.
First off, were the graphs. Leave aside that they had probably been lifted straight off Tweepsmap, where the data was compiled from. Forget about the fact that they seemed to have been copy pasted by someone who wielded the mouse with a hoof instead of a hand. Pay attention to the fact that the content too seemed to have been finalised by someone who is getting the pay of a grade 22 officer but does not have the ability to read what has been put before him/her. The gender graph featured men, women and businesses/groups. The mind boggles at the possibilities the unveiling of this new gender has unleashed. Will we have toilets for businesses right alongside men’s and women’s? Will weddings be segregated into three sections? Will we have to issue new ID cards and passports? Will rishta aunties recalibrate their trade?
The age graph had a section for a group aged “10-23”. Let’s concentrate on the ludicrous assertion that tweens of the country are engaging in digital warfare under the behest of anti-state elements. It’s the perfect script for a horror movie.
Another infographic informs us that most of these anti-state handles also follow ICC. This is a win, whichever way we look at it. All traitors, great and small, gathered together at the altar of cricket with patriots, all united in their hopelessness. Brings a tear to the eye.
Finally, the report shows us page upon page of….. screenshots. Dozens of them. Spare a thought for the poor intern or low-paid individual who slaved away at his system, gathering tweets from known pro-PTI accounts and copy pasting away. Even Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ex-wife Reham Khan was not spared from the relentlessness of his dexterous fingers and numb mind.
Now, you may be inclined to think of this report as a loss. Our simple minds and lack of perception are to blame for this unimaginative conclusion. Remember the old adage, to think not of what the country can do for you but what you can do for the country. In this case, think not of how someone gets highly paid to embarrass the government, but that you too can get highly paid to embarrass the government, given the right connections.
As Pakistan celebrated its 75th Independence Day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter and made controversial statements degrading the sacrifices of the many people during the time of partition of the subcontinent.
Pakistan responded to Modi’s “shameful” tweets, saying that “distorting history and stoking communalism is the forte of the RSS-BJP regime”.
Modi took to Twitter and said, “In memory of the struggles and sacrifices of our people, August 14 will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.”
Partition’s pains can never be forgotten. Millions of our sisters and brothers were displaced and many lost their lives due to mindless hate and violence. In memory of the struggles and sacrifices of our people, 14th August will be observed as Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.
“May [this day] keep reminding us of the need to remove the poison of social divisions, disharmony and further strengthen the spirit of oneness, social harmony, and human empowerment,” Modi added.
May the #PartitionHorrorsRemembranceDay keep reminding us of the need to remove the poison of social divisions, disharmony and further strengthen the spirit of oneness, social harmony and human empowerment.
In a statement, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri dubbed Modi’s move “a political and publicity stunt”, and said that “no modern state is so much in contradiction with itself as the Indian state — the so-called ‘largest democracy’.”
As for Indian Prime Minister’s tweet about the events of 1947, no modern state is so much in contradiction with itself as the Indian state – the so-called “largest democracy”. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/S9iNxLAjhm
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) August 14, 2021
“It is shameful that the practitioners of ‘Hindutva’ ideology, and purveyors of hate and violence, would so hypocritically and one-sidedly invoke the tragic events and mass migration that occurred in the wake of Independence in 1947,” said the statement.
It is shameful that the practitioners of “Hindutva” ideology, and purveyors of hate and violence, would so hypocritically and one-sidedly invoke the tragic events and mass migration that occurred in the wake of Independence in 1947. 2/3
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) August 14, 2021
The Foreign Office further added, “Distorting history and stoking communalism is the forte of RSS-BJP regime. Far from healing old wounds, they would go to any extent to sow further dissensions for electoral gains. We are sure that people of goodwill in India would completely reject this political stunt.”
Distorting history and stoking communalism is the forte of RSS-BJP regime. Far from healing old wounds, they would go to any extent to sow further dissensions for electoral gains. We are sure that people of goodwill in India would completely reject this political stunt. 3/3
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) August 14, 2021
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said Saturday the remobilisation of Afghanistan’s armed forces was a “top priority”.
In a televised speech, Ashraf Ghani said, “As a historic mission, I will not let the imposed war on people cause more deaths.”
“In the current situation, the remobilisation of our security and defence forces is our top priority, and serious steps are being taken in this regard,” he said.
د هیواد د روان وضعیت په اړه د جمهوررئیس محمد اشرف غني پیغام — پیام رئیس جمهور محمد اشرف غنی در خصوص وضعیت جاری در کشور pic.twitter.com/Pi7qRaU9OI
With the country’s second and third-largest cities having fallen into Taliban hands, Kabul has effectively become a besieged last stand for government forces who have offered little or no resistance elsewhere.
“Therefore, I have started extensive consultations inside the government with the elders, political leaders, representatives of people, and international partners on achieving a reasonable and certain political solution in which the peace and stability of the people of Afghanistan are envisaged.”
But Ghani praised the forces “that have defended the nation courageously and showed strong determination”.
Google has released a doodle artwork of medieval Derawar Fort located in the Cholistan Desert of Punjab to mark Pakistan’s 75th Independence Day.
“Seventy-four years ago today, Pakistan achieved independence. Today’s doodle celebrates Pakistan Independence Day, a public holiday commemorating the day on which the nation became a sovereign republic.
“Pakistanis across the subcontinent join to celebrate their freedom and honour the centuries of history that comprise its cultural foundation,” read a statement by Google accompanying the doodle.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, during his weekly press briefing, clarified that Pakistan considers the United States (US) a friend and wants broad-based relations to achieve the shared objective of peace and prosperity in the region and beyond.
Answering the questions on the surging situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s relations with the US, Zahid said, “Pakistan and the US have a history of close cooperative relations. This cooperative relationship has served the interests of both the countries.”
“We both believe that there’s no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan and we both want to see peace in Afghanistan,” added Zahid.
He reiterated the fact that both Pakistan and the US support an inclusive, broad-based, and comprehensive political settlement in Afghanistan through a process that is owned and led by the Afghans themselves.
The statement by the Foreign Office comes a day after Prime Minister Imran Khan issued a hard-hitting statement, saying that Washington sees Pakistan only useful in cleaning up the “mess” in Afghanistan.
“Pakistan is considered only to be useful in the context of somehow settling this mess which has been left behind after 20 years of trying to find a military solution when there was none,” said PM Khan.
PM Khan also clarified speculations that he was not “waiting” for a phone call from US President Joe Biden.
“I keep hearing that President Biden hasn’t called me. Well, it’s his option. If he wants to call or not it’s his business. If he thinks it’s necessary or not. Not that I am waiting for any phone call,” said the premier.
Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), on Friday, announced that the England men’s team will take on the home side in two T20Is at the Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi in October. The England women’s team will also play two T20Is and three ODIs against the Pakistan women’s team during the same month at the same venue.
The England men and women’s teams will arrive in Islamabad on October 9. Subsequently, the touring sides will play the T20Is on October 13 and 14, with the matches being held as double-headers. After the completion of the T20I series, the England men’s squad will leave for Dubai on October 15.
However, the England women’s side will stay back and partake in three ODIs on October 17,19 and 21 respectively. This will be England senior team’s (men or women) first tour to Pakistan since 2005-06. Incidentally, the matches were initially scheduled to be played at the National Stadium in Karachi on October 14 and 15, but had to be rescheduled as a result of “operational and logistical reasons”.
“We are delighted to welcome both the England men’s team for what will be their first tour to Pakistan since 2005, and the England women’s team, who will be touring Pakistan for the first time. Both are additional tours with England men’s side scheduled to return to Pakistan in the last quarter of 2022 for white-ball and ICC World Test Championship fixtures,” PCB Chief Executive Wasim Khan said.
A report released by the Digital Media Wing (DMW) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting titled, ‘Anti-State Trends: Deep Analytics Report’ is deeply misleading and based on assumptions instead of facts, The Current has discovered after analysing the report.
Glaring errors and almost comical additions, the report makes a correlation between analysing hashtags on Twitter to determine if someone is anti-state and is responsible for starting trends against Pakistan.
Before analysing the report, The Current researched and spoke with analysts who are well-versed with digital analysis. There is no record of any report on hashtag analysis to determine trends at a government level in any country at any time. Pakistan is the only country that has created a report based on hashtag analysis. Worldwide, hashtag analysis is considered to be deeply unreliable since it cannot understand what is written in the tweet – it is just able to see what is being discussed.
WHAT IS THE REPORT?
The report is a compilation of hashtags that created trends that the government deems anti-state. The report shows information collected about hashtag trends and then lists pages of screenshots that show different Twitter handles sharing tweets that have the ‘anti-state’ hashtag. They do not differentiate between users and also label ‘influencers’ – people with a following who have tweeted or retweeted/replied to the hashtag.
In effect, the report seems to declare all the users in the report as anti-state, until one prominent journalist got them to add a disclaimer last night.
HOW WAS THE INFORMATION COLLECTED?
Since the whole report is based on hashtag analysis, it will be considered to be unreliable data collection and cannot be considering as a legitimate report in any institution.
When The Current reached out to General Manager of the Digital Media Wing (DMW), Imran Ghazali, he responded to the question of faulty analysis of hashtags by saying, “The purpose of this report was to ascertain factual data and to analyze social media trends that were anti-state, Data was collected after analysing Pakistan Twitter Panel from June 2019- August 2021. Those hashtags were marked for data collection where the content of tweets were planned and propagated through a network to spread anti-state trends.”
According to a source in the government, the information used is public. “Publicly released data is accurate. It’s no rocket science, anybody with a credit card can get this data. Hence made public.”
From The Current’s analysis, the data was collected by using a web application called, ‘Tweeps Map’, which is open to the public.
From our findings, the 134-page report has 85 pages that have screenshots of tweets, which means that 63.4 per cent of the report is based on screenshots of people who are using a certain hashtag that the government has identified as being anti-state. The number of tweets that are in these 85 pages amount to 666 tweets out of which 142 tweets are from three accounts, which means that 21.3 per cent of the tweets used in this study came from three people.
After further analysis of the three accounts, The Current discovered that all three accounts had a combined following of less than 11,000.
We discovered that the hashtag #SanctionPakistan was ‘analysed’ for 41 days, Pakhtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) hashtags were clubbed together as “PTM Trends Tantamount to National Security” (the report doesn’t list which hashtags were used within this topic) and were ‘analysed’ for 22 months, #AbAwamSmashNahiHogi was ‘analysed’ for one day, and #StateKilledUsmanKakar, #IsraeliJetinPakistan, ‘JUIF Anti State Trend’, was ‘analysed’ but no time duration is given.
WHY AND WHEN WAS THE ‘DISCLAIMER’ ADDED?
The report was released Wednesday evening around 5:30PM and a few hours later a disclaimer was added to the report. According to journalist Fereeha Idrees, the disclaimer was added after she raised the issue with the DMW for being highlighted in the report as a ‘replies with the most followers’ account.
“I have always raised my voice against any propaganda against our state but the way the report was compiled, it made me look as one of the culprits and suddenly social media was rife with messages calling me anti-state,” Fereeha told The Current, “When I made the query, I was given the following explanation.”
The explanation given to Fereeha by the DMW stated, “All the accounts in the report doesn’t mean they took part in the anti-state activity…It shows the whole journey of the trends/hashtags, so in this case Fareeha Idrees replied/rebutted on the Israeli related trend and that’s why it mentions ‘Replies with most mentions’ in the report.”
After the DMW response, Fereeha demanded that they add a disclaimer to the report. A disclaimer was added which stated, “If an account is listed in a report – it doesn’t always imply that the content of the tweet is Anti-State. Some accounts have engaged/replied with an anti-state hashtag to rebut. But since they used the hashtag their accounts got listed in the report.”
Imran Ghazali admitted to adding the disclaimer after Fereeha raised an objection about the fairness of the report.
The Current asked Ghazali about how they have divided the report to show which people mentioned were anti-state and which ones were considered pro-state. Ghazali refused to directly answer the question and stated, “We have not given any number for pro-state or anti-state accounts but showed below the hashtags we highlighted the accounts which contributed to a certain hashtag – tweets, top contributors, replies etc.”
When we pressed him to answer the question about how the people selected were separated into anti-state and pro-state, he said, “If an account is listed in a report – it doesn’t always imply that the content of the tweet is Anti-State. Some accounts have engaged/replied with an anti-state hashtag to rebut. But since they used the hashtag their accounts got listed in the report.”
The implication of his answers show that the report does not – and cannot- differentiate people’s points of view on a tweet, which means that someone who has posted a ‘pro-state’ tweet condemning the hashtag will also be added into the list of someone who is considered anti-state.
WAS THE GOVERNMENT ALLOWED TO USE THE APP ‘TWEEPSMAP’?
The Current reached out to TweepsMap, which was the primary analysis app used by the government for this report. The maps and information all have the Tweepsmap link on the maps and all charts in the report. We asked the CEO of TweepsMap Samir Al-Battran if they considered the analysis of the report to be authentic since it used their app service. Samir told us, “The government of Pakistan is not authorised to use our service. We will investigate how they got access to our analysis and get back to you on this.”
We asked him for further details, asking if an individual used their service for analysis for a government funded report, would that be against their rules, to which Samir replied and said, “…Government agencies go through a vetting process before we allow them to use our service. We were never in communication with the government of Pakistan…Yes, [using the app without informing us what it is for] would be a misrepresentation and is definitely against our rules.”
The Current asked Ghazali if they used the application and if they had authorisation to which he said, “We used different tools/APIs including our internal tools to analyse data”. We asked him since TweepsMap is the only one that is being listed in the report, if they had gotten a subscription for the government of Pakistan to which we got no response.
WHAT ELSE IS IN THE REPORT?
We analysed the tweets used in the 85 screenshots present in the report and found some comical discrepancies. One retweet had the #SajalAly hashtag along with the ‘anti-state’ hashtag ‘#AccountabilityofZarbeAzb’. We went through the Twitter account to find that the tweet mentioned in the report was a meme of Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan.
A tweet by former Interior Minister Rehman Malik is included in the #SanctionPakistan list in which he is criticising Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the US.
The tweet Rehman Malik retweeted
The report also includes references to “a group of Wikipedia Admins most of whom are based in India,” giving state level credibility to an online encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone. With glaring spelling mistakes and analysis based on unauthorised data, the summary of the Digital Media Wing Deep Analysis report has been summed up by one senior data analyst based in Singapore, “That just goes to show… they don’t understand how it works.”
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s new medical reports have been submitted to the Lahore High Court (LHC) after the British authorities turned down his request for an extension in his stay, pleading that he cannot return as doctors have not yet allowed him air travel, reports Dawn.
Since November 2019, this is Nawaz’s 11th medical report submitted to the LHC. In all medical reports, a similar plea had been taken that ‘doctors have stopped him (Nawaz) from air travel’.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) President Shehbaz Sharif has already said that Nawaz Sharif will not return until his complete recovery and stated that he can legally stay in the UK till the British immigration tribunal makes a final decision.
Nawaz’s consultant, cardiothoracic surgeon David Lawrence, in Nawaz’s medical report wrote, “Nawaz Sharif, undoubtedly, has complex and complicated medical issues which need to be treated holistically. Great care needs to be exercised in dealing with each of the diseases and comorbidities he is suffering in order to maintain the right balance.”
“There is also the appearance of the transient ischemic dilatation suggesting significant ischemic burden that amounts approximately 22 per cent of the myocardium. This is indicative of significantly reduced blood supply to the heart in the circumflex territory and impaired functionality. Mr Nawaz is advised cardiac catheterisation and subsequent management given the significant risk of worsening of his heart disease but once his comorbidities (ITP, hypertension, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease) were stabilised by a multidisciplinary approach,” said the doctor.
“He developed Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) during his incarceration and his response to the first and second-line therapies was unsatisfactory, a stable platelet count within the medically prescribed range was paramount to ensure the safety of diagnostics and treatment. In addition to the recent finding of him having developed carotid artery’s stenosis, he was assessed to have had an exacerbation of his coronary artery disease and deterioration of renal functions. The intention was indeed to proceed with the management of his cardiac and carotid diseases once he was given clearance from hematology and nephrology specialties,” says the medical report.
“He should, by all means, avoid travelling and visiting public places like airports. He should only stay in close proximity to the healthcare facilities where he has been getting his treatment until the Covid-19 threat is over and his health problems are adequately addressed,” Lawrence said.
“Mr Nawaz needs to take serious precautions being a clinically extremely vulnerable person,” added the report.
The body of a newborn baby buried in a graveyard in Burewala disappeared from the grave, Geo News reported.
Police said that the footprints of a man and a woman could be seen near the grave. All the evidence has been collected, which will help in the investigation to reach the accused.
An eight-day-old baby boy named Ashfaq died in a village near Burewala and was buried in the village cemetery.
