Jemima Goldsmith gave a shoutout to a Pakistani-British cab driver who tackled a racist sensibly.
A video which has gone viral on social media shows a British passenger abusing the cab driver for his ethnicity.
“Who do you think you are?” says the passenger. “You think you’re something special? Pakistan! But I’ll tell you what? No wonder the Indians are bombing you!”
Throughout the exchange, the driver kept searching his bag as if looking for a change and responded calmly, “I don’t think about who I am. Have fun.”
Soon the video was widely circulated on social media and caught Jemima’s attention, who lauded the driver for “keeping his cool”.
Shabash & respect to this Pakistani-British cab driver keeping his cool in the face of unspeakable racist abuse from a grotesque thug. https://t.co/kwvQPCYIai
Later, it was revealed that the West Midlands Police arrested the man for his actions. Another user also shared the alleged response of the cab driver to the arrest.
Mr Mustafa is being made the first honorary ambassador of the West Midlands Taxi Drivers’ Association (WMTDA) for the way he handled the incident in Birmingham. The father-of-four had spent the last few weeks shuttling vital Covid-19 samples for the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation trust during the pandemic.
A large number of people in Lahore have visited various public parks of the city after they were opened for the general public today.
As per reports, the public parks of the city have been opened after 75-day closure amid coronavirus outbreak in the city.
The people adopted the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the provincial government to curb the virus spread.
On Thursday, the Punjab government had decided to reopen public parks in the provincial capital Lahore from May 5 (today).
The Director-General of Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA), Muzaffar Khan Sial, had announced that the provincial government decided to reopen public parks in Lahore. The parks will be open from 6 am to 9 pm.
Sial had added that the parks will be reopened under the standard operating procedures (SOPs) finalised by the provincial health department. The citizens will only be allowed to enter into the parks after wearing face masks and gloves.
DG PHA urged the citizens to strictly follow precautionary measures and social distancing while visiting the public parks.
A Bangladeshi national walked up to 2,000 kilometres amid coronavirus lockdown to see his social media friend in Karachi who was getting married to another man. He first crossed the India-Bangladesh border illegally and then found his way to Attari, Amritsar.
Then he tried to cross the India-Pakistan border but was arrested by an Indian Border Security Force (BSF) officer.
Identified as Nayan Mian, the 26-year-old is a resident of Shariatpur, a district in the Dhaka division of central Bangladesh. When he was arrested, he only had a mobile phone with a Bangladeshi SIM card and some Indian currency notes.
Mian did not cross the border with bad intent, but he just wanted to meet his Pakistani friend who was getting married to another man.
During the investigation, it was revealed that the girl’s family shared ties with his family. However, they were separated after his parents shifted to Bangladesh in 1971. A few years ago, he reached her on social media and fell in love with her.
“The girl is my cousin and we were connected through social media. We used to talk through video calls, but had been out of touch for 10 to 15 days. She had accepted my marriage proposal and that’s why I intended to visit her. I heard that many stranded Pakistanis were being repatriated these days, so I thought of taking a chance,” he said.
Mian told the police that he first reached Kolkata, then passed through Agra, New Delhi, and then came to Punjab, mostly on foot.
The federal government has abolished the 48-hour quarantine condition for Pakistanis returning home from abroad, and they would now be sent to their homes after a medical check-up and test at the airports, The Express Tribune reported.
The report stated that the government changed the standard operating procedures (SOPs) because the capacity at quarantine centres had been contracting due to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases.
According to the new SOPs, all passengers would undergo a complete medical check-up at the airports, while the staff deputed by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and provincial health departments at the airports will test the travellers for coronavirus.
After the medical check-up and the coronavirus test, the passengers will be allowed to go their homes, instead of the quarantine centre, if they do not show any symptoms of COVID-19. The decision about suspected coronavirus patients has been left at the discretion of doctors.
Under the new policy, all the passengers will be checked at the health counters of the airports. The record will carry the names and addresses of suspected coronavirus travellers and will be quarantined at home upon not showing any symptoms.
On Wednesday, the NIH team conducted medical check-ups and coronavirus tests of all the passengers including 281 travellers coming from the United States (US) and 253 travellers coming from Saudi Arabia via a special Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight at the Islamabad airport, after which all the travellers were permitted to go to their homes, the report said.
Meanwhile, with yet another record hike in number of infections, the tally of coronavirus cases in Pakistan now stands at 85,264 with at least 1,770 deaths.
Pakistan from Monday to Tuesday reported a record number of 3,938 new coronavirus cases with 78 deaths within 24 hours.
The latest surge in cases took the nationwide tally of reported cases to 78,128 while the death toll crossed the 1,600 mark. According to statistics provided by National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Pakistan has broken its previous record number of 3,039 new COVID-19 cases reported over 24 hours on May 31.
Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan reported its most number of deaths during 24 hours with 88 new fatalities, however, given the swelling number of coronavirus cases, doctors and health experts have warned that the number of cases will continue to rise unless a strict lockdown is not imposed.
Sindh and Islamabad also recorded the highest number of cases reported over 24 hours with 1,402 and 304, respectively, on June 1. However, Punjab reported the most number of deaths and new cases reported over 24 hours with 1,610 cases and 43 new fatalities due to the COVID-19.
On Monday, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, in a live televised address, had apprised the nation on the decisions made regarding the lockdown in Pakistan to contain the novel coronavirus during the National Coordination Committee (NCC) meeting.
“Since day one when we got to know that the coronavirus had started spreading in Pakistan, we imposed a lockdown following a national security committee meeting,” he had said.
“We observed the conditions in the Chinese city of Wuhan and in Europe when the virus started spreading and we were seeing how the world was responding. But at that time, when we had discussions and meetings, I was very clear on the path Pakistan had to take.
“Pakistan’s situation is different than that in China or Europe,” he had said, noting that he had earlier informed the nation that 25% of the country’s population was below the poverty line, which “means that nearly 50 million people in our country do not eat two full meals a day”.
PM Imran had said doctors, elite, and the poor all had diverse opinions but it was the downtrodden ones of the society who did not have a voice.
“But in hindsight, I should not have stopped businesses and construction because we had to balance it. Coronavirus is not going away until a vaccine is not formulated. We have to live with it,” he had noted.
A team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) accompanied by police on Tuesday reached the residence of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif to once again arrest him, this time in the assets beyond means case.
Videos available with The Current showed a contingent of police’s anti-rioting force also reaching the PML-N chief’s Model Town residence in Lahore to make the arrest that comes after Shehbaz, being a cancer survivor, once again avoided appearing before the anti-graft watchdog amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The teams, however, had to return empty-handed as the leader of opposition in the National Assembly (NA), who has also sought pre-arrest bail in the case, was not at home.
The teams were headed to the Sharif family’s Jati Umra residence near Raiwind by the filing of this report.
PRE-ARREST BAIL AND THE CASE:
Earlier in the day, Shehbaz filed a bail plea in the Lahore High Court (LHC) to avoid arrest in the assets beyond means and money laundering cases against him, which is to be taken up by the court tomorrow (Wednesday).
NAB had summoned the PML-N president to record his statement in both cases today (June 2) as the bureau needs Shehbaz’s statement to bring the cases to their logical conclusion.
It had also provided the ex-Punjab chief minister (CM) with a detailed questionnaire as per its standard operating procedure (SoPs), which the PML-N says was submitted by the younger Sharif’s lawyers.
However, Shehbaz on Monday filed a petition in the LHC requesting the court to grant him bail before arrest in both the cases “in the interest of justice”. He requested that he might also be admitted to ad-interim pre-arrest bail till the decision of the petition.
The petitions said the power to arrest was permissive and not obligatory and the arrest was not desirable even in most heinous offences so long as the accused cooperated and kept joining the investigation.
According to The Express Tribune, The PML-N president contended that on October 31, 2017, a complaint was made to various authorities including NAB chairman against management of the public limited companies in Punjab. The complaint claimed that the companies were incorporated and operated in violation of the Constitution and law.
On November 15, 2017, NAB director general (DG) ordered an inquiry into the complaint “in a slipshod and mechanical manner, without application of judicious mind”.
On January 10, 2018, the director general passed an order under section 18(C) of NAO 1999 for an inquiry into against management/officers/officials of Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC), management /owners of M/s Lahore CASA Developers (JV) and officers/officials of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) in Lahore’s Ashiana housing scheme.
Shehbaz said the above-said order was passed on the basis of an anonymous complaint and neither the complaint nor the order for inquiry mentioned the name of the petitioner or his office “yet under its cover”, NAB officials embarked upon “a fishing and sniffing expedition” against him.
On October 5, 2018, when Shehbaz appeared before a NAB team in response to call up notice in the matter of Saaf Paani Company but he was arrested in Ashiana case.
During his 64 physical remand, the PML-N chief was also arrested in Ramzan Sugar Mills/Construction of Sullage Carrier case. He was still in NAB’s custody when NAB authorized yet another inquiry against the petitioner and others in assets beyond means case.
Later, the petitioner was granted bail after arrest in both the above said cases but just after one week’s time of his bail, NAB put his name in the Exit Control List (ECL) – the country’s no-fly list.
“The petitioner assailed the above said memorandum February 21, 2019 before this court and his petition was allowed.” He contended that NAB served him another call up notice requiring his appearance before the CIT on April 17, 2020.
Shehbaz said he did not appear before NAB team in view of his ill health and the lockdown. Later NAB again issued call up notice requiring his presence on April 22, 2020.
“However, hectic efforts were made and a comprehensive reply was submitted within time with an assurance of personal appearance after the holy month of Ramazan subject to lifting of the lockdown.”
Later, the petitioner appeared before the CIT whereupon he was interrogated for about 2 hours, however, he could not be confronted with any evidence worth name on record to show any act of commission or omission by him to attract the mischief of any offence under NAO 1999.
“That now the petitioner has again been served with a call up notice for June 2, 2020 requiring his personal appearance and written reply before CIT,” it added.
India has rejected Pakistan’s contention that two high commission staffers were detained on unsubstantiated charges and tortured, people familiar with developments told Hindustan Times, adding that the officials “were caught red-handed while indulging in spying”.
New Delhi on Sunday expelled two junior officials of the Pakistan High Commission after they were detained during an operation by the Delhi Police and Military Intelligence while allegedly trying to obtain classified documents on security installations.
The officials were identified as Abid Hussain Abid, 42, an assistant in the Pakistani mission, and Mohammad Tahir Khan, 44, a clerk.
Pakistan condemned India’s decision to declare the two officials persona non grata and to expel them, saying they were detained on false and unsubstantiated charges. A statement from Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) also contended that the two men were tortured and threatened to “accept false charges” despite identifying themselves as diplomatic staff.
The FO said the Indian action was in clear violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations as well as the norms of diplomatic conduct.
“The High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi has always worked within the parameters of international law and diplomatic norms. The Indian action is clearly aimed at shrinking diplomatic space for the working of Pakistan High Commission,” it said.
The FO said that the Indian ploy to heighten tensions would fail in diverting attention from the ongoing internal and external issues faced by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government or from the worsening situation and gross human rights violations being perpetrated by the Indian forces in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
It again called on the world to take note of the Indian designs and play its role in ensuring peace and security in South Asia.
“The assertions of the Pakistan FO are false. The two officials were caught red-handed while indulging in espionage activities,” said one of the people cited above, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They did not disclose their identity that they were high commission officials. When they were taken into custody and questioned, they confessed to indulging in espionage and also informed that they were high commission officials,” the person added.
The Pakistani mission was immediately informed and the two men were handed over, the person said.
“They were never subjected to any torture. They have also undergone medical examinations. Pakistan appears to be making false accusations and possibly creating ground for some tit for tat reaction and torture of Indian officials in Islamabad,” they said.
Federal Minister for Law and Justice Dr Farogh Naseem resigned on Monday to represent the government in the Supreme Court (SC) in the presidential reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa.
This is the second time that Naseem, a Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) stalwart, has resigned from his post. Previously, he had resigned in November last year to represent Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa before the apex court in the case pertaining to the extension in his tenure as the army chief.
Confirming the news of his resignation, Naseem said, “I will ensure that the respect and dignity of judges is maintained. I have no personal agenda. I have the greatest respect for the Bar.”
Last year in September, Justice Isa filed a fresh application requesting the SC to form a full-court bench comprising all eligible judges to hear his petition against the presidential reference filed over non-disclosure of assets in his wealth statement.
Justice Isa had requested that the case be heard by a full court bench comprising all eligible judges of this court since the matter pertained to reference against an SC judge and as per precedent of this court in the case of ex-chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Chaudhry versus president of Pakistan, PLD 2010 Supreme Court.
Justice Isa had said matters narrated in accompanying civil miscellaneous application dated August 26 – “which may for the sake of brevity be read as a part hereof” – demonstrates the necessity for hearing by such full court bench.
“The petition also raises a number of important constitutional questions, including that of the independence of the judiciary, formation of an independent opinion by the president, obtaining federal cabinet’s approval and other vital issues of surveillance, and the manner and method of collecting evidence against a judge of the Supreme Court and his family,” he had said in his application.
On Friday, Justice Isa questioned the eligibility of Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar’s appointment as the head of the Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) and for public office.
A 10-member judge bench, led by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, will resume hearing the case on June 2, which was earlier scheduled to be taken up on March 30. The apex court had postponed the hearing due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On the last hearing on February 24, the federal government had sought a three weeks’ adjournment in the case.
In yet another incident of a hospital being ransacked by survivors of a deceased coronavirus patient, a mob on Friday night attacked Civil Hospital Karachi while also harassing and attempting to assault the medical staff on duty.
According to the hospital’s management, at least 70 people entered the hospital and took the body of the deceased from the emergency ward.
The hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Khadim Qureshi, reportedly confirmed the incident and said the police were asked to lodge an FIR [First Information Report] against those involved in the attack.
No medical staffer were, however, injured in the attack.
WATCH VIDEO:
This is Karachi Civil Hospital. Doctors say over 70 persons attacked it’s ER tonight at around 11am. Docs & staff remained unhurt. They say the attackers had iron rods, knives. “KOI CORONA NAHEN HAI. YE SAB DOCTORS KA DRAMA HAI,” they shouted. pic.twitter.com/MZsHllxbJ7
“Doctors are demanding security. It’s hard for them to work under this kind of situation,” Dr Qureshi said.
Another doctor who was on duty at the time, said the incident took place at around 11 pm. He and other doctors on duty were also tortured and abused. “It’s the third time in a week, ” he claimed, alleging that the police deployed outside the hospital gate did not help the medical staff.
While no arrests have been made as of yet and doctors have demanded deployment of Sindh Rangers for security, it is worth mentioning that it is not the first incident of its kind as hospitals across the country are being attacked every day amid the rising number of deaths due to COVID-19.
Among other incidents being reported across the country, over a dozen people last week barged into and vandalised the isolation ward at Karachi’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) after a coronavirus patient being treated there died, officials said.
Videos taken of the ward, where 37 coronavirus patients were being treated, after the attack showed pieces of glass, furniture and fans strewn on the floor. The glass windows of a counter were also shattered.
Pakistan has so far reported 1,395 deaths due to the novel virus.
With life in Pakistan returning to normalcy, it is feared that number of cases of the new coronavirus – COVID-19 — will increase further, wreaking havoc in the lives of the general public.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has also warned of the same while Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry predicts that Pakistan is expected to see the peak of COVID-19 cases by mid-June.
Meanwhile, epidemiologists are of the view that it is difficult to predict exactly when the virus will hit its peak in the country since there is always a risk of the number of infections escalating even after positive cases start declining.
For a little perspective it may be noted that the United States (US) and Italy are the most-affected countries where the pandemic curve hiked and changed several times.
Coronavirus hit its peak in the US between the 10th and 14th weeks since the first case was reported. More than 800,000 cases were reported during these weeks.
Italy, on the other hand, witnessed a peak between the 6th and 10th weeks as more than 424,120 cases were reported.
Pakistan entered its epidemic curve on April 29 (9th week) and the number of cases in Pakistan is still increasing as there is a possibility that the country might experience the peak after June 15.
Pakistan may experience another curve later on because limited tests are being conducted as for now. According to experts, the country’s testing capacity should be between 40,000 to 50,000 at this point, while Pakistan is testing 7,000 to 13,000 people every day, which is not sufficient.
Enter herd immunity, which opposition parties do not seem to be a huge fan of.
Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, whether through vaccination or previous infections, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune.
Here are some facts and consequences of herd immunity if the government goes on to consider it an option.
Any population develops herd immunity when 40 per cent of the total number of people develop immunity against an infectious disease. In some cases, it can go up to 80 to 90 per cent of the total population.
So, an important question is how much of the total population needs to get infected to develop herd immunity? So far, there is no evidence of herd immunity against coronavirus, as the Netherlands, which had planned to go for it and treat only critically ill patients, also stepped back from the said policy after a spike in mortality rate.
According to predictions by some experts, it can take up to four or five years to develop herd immunity.
To develop herd immunity in Pakistan, 176,000,000 people (80 per cent of the total population) have to get infected. This could cause 3,713,600 deaths as per the current 2.11 per cent mortality rate.
