Minister of State for Narcotics Control Shehryar Afridi’s claims regarding the recovery of heroin from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Punjab President Rana Sanaullah’s possession seem to have put him in a tight spot as the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has reportedly denied making any videos or taking photographs at the time of the raid.
According to reports, the ANF’s denial has made all other claims made by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) during press conferences and in television interviews dubious while he continues to insist that Sanaullah was monitored for three weeks and all the video evidence is available.
“The video of heroin recovery from Rana Sanaullah was also shown to the prime minister,” Afridi had claimed in a recent interview on Geo News, adding that the evidence will be produced before the court once the trial begins.
He has also claimed that four judges have refused to hear the case against Sanaullah as “he is El Chapo of Pakistan and threatens people”.
Interestingly, the anti-narcotics judge hearing the case was repatriated to the Lahore High Court (LHC) in the midst of the proceedings against Sanaullah and the duty judge has refused to conduct the indictment proceedings against the PML-N leader till the appointment of a regular judge.
With Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly raising Indian atrocities in Kashmir at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and his country backing Pakistan at the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting in Paris, India has decided to give the cold shoulder to its ties with Turkey.
According to Khaleej Times, New Delhi has cancelled a two-day official visit to Ankara by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi at the end of this month, which would have been his first stand-alone visit to the country.
He was to have proceeded to Turkey from Saudi Arabia, where he is going on October 27-28 to attend a mega-investment summit.
The decision to cancel the visit to Turkey marks a low in relations between New Delhi and Ankara, which have never been very warm. Trade and defence cooperation were among the issues that were to be on the table during Modi’s Ankara visit, which had been agreed to in principle.
The Ministry of External Affairs was non-committal over the development. “The visit was never finalised so there is no question of cancellation,” reports an official as saying.
Modi had last visited Turkey during the G20 in Antalya in 2015. He had held a bilateral with Erdogan in Osaka, on the sidelines of the G20 in June this year. The Turkish leader had paid a two-day visit to India in July 2018.
However, Erdogan’s strong backing of Pakistan’s position on Kashmir and alleging widespread human rights violations by India during his speech at the UNGA last month has not gone down well with India.
In his speech, Erdogan had raised the issue of UN resolutions on Kashmir and alleged that “eight million people are stuck” in Kashmir due to revocation of special status. He had criticised the international community for failing to pay attention to the Kashmir issue.
At the end of September, at an event in Turkey to mark the building of a warship for Pakistan, Erdogan also said he would continue to flag the Kashmir issue on the world stage.
India is known to have cancelled an order for two naval ships it had inked with Turkey, in retaliation of Erdogan’s Kashmir comments.
At the FATF meeting too, Turkey and Malaysia, along with China, openly backed Pakistan last week, which was invaluable in getting Islamabad a lifeline of four months till February 2020 to “eliminate” money laundering and terrorist financing.
A charas [hashish form of cannabis] expo has allegedly been held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), a video of which has gone viral over the internet.
The video is widely being shared on Facebook and Twitter with the claim that “Charas Expo 2019” was held in Terah Valley of the province that is rather infamous for high cannabis consumption as well as production.
WATCH VIDEO:
Thought to Ponder. Charas Expo 2019 in Terah Valley KPK. This should be held at Karachi Expo Center. If widely advertised then hundreds of thousands of foreigners would visit the event and Pakistan export figures would rise dramatically. pic.twitter.com/12udy7YxHY
— Dr. Iqbal Sher Burki MD, FCCP, (USA) FRCP (CANADA) (@DrIqbalBurki1) October 21, 2019
It shows locals showcasing different kinds of charas as a crowd wanders around buying the drug.
Cricketer-turned-politician, Gautam Gambhir of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has helped an ailing Pakistani minor get a visa for treatment in India, Times of India reported.
According to reports, Gambhir wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs, requesting help for seven-year-old Omaima Ali with congenital heart disease.
In a letter to the former cricketer, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that he had directed the Indian high commissioner in Islamabad to grant the necessary visa to the minor girl and her parents.
Gambhir was quoted as saying that he had learnt about the girl’s condition through a phone call to his office by former Pakistani cricketer Mohammad Yousuf. Following this, the now lawmaker wrote to the ministry on October 1, seeking help for the child.
“I have asked our high commissioner in Islamabad to issue appropriate visas to Omaima Ali and her parents,” the minister wrote back to Gambhir in his letter dated October 9.
उस पार से एक नन्हे दिल ने दस्तक दी, इस पार दिल ने सब सरहदें मिटा दी।
उन नन्हे कदमों के साथ बहती हुई मीठी हवा भी आई है, कभी-कभी ऐसा भी लगता है जैसे बेटी घर आई है।
— Gautam Gambhir (Modi Ka Parivar) (@GautamGambhir) October 19, 2019
Sharing the letter on Twitter, Gambhir wrote a poetic tweet in Hindi, “A little heart knocked from the other side and the heart this side removed all the boundaries. A sweet breeze has wafted through with those little feet, it seems sometimes like a daughter has come home.”
Meanwhile, Omaima’s maternal uncle from Karachi thanked Gautam and said that they would be travelling to India soon.
With the government planning to put in place hundreds of shipping containers to seal the twin cities and block the forthcoming long march of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), reports have revealed that the move will be costing taxpayers millions of rupees a day.
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has announced leading an anti-government long march to Islamabad via Rawalpindi with plans of a lockdown. While the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has invited opposition parties for a dialogue to call off the protest, it is also preparing for the worst.
The capital will likely be sealed from October 31 onwards by either the police or the JUI-F as preparations on both sides for the Azadi March gain momentum. According to Dawn, the Islamabad police have demanded more than 550 shipping containers to intercept the march before it enters the city.
The containers include 250 for City Zone and 100 each for Saddar, Industrial Area and Rural zones, while the logistics department of the police has ordered a vendor to arrange 450 containers.
The Rawalpindi police, on the other hand, have prepared a contingency plan under which 120 freight containers will be used to seal the garrison city by blocking all roads leading to Islamabad.
According to officials, each container being procured for both the cities, costs more than Rs5,000 a day to rent, which puts the total cost of 670 containers at Rs3.3 million (Rs3,350,000) a day.
Reham Khan, former wife of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, has once again managed to make headlines by saying that she would not have “let herself and Imran be a puppet had the two still been together”.
Reham’s statement came as a reply to a follower’s tweet that said, “Had Reham been here, the government wouldn’t have seen such days.”
PM’s former wife is rather infamous for her statements hitting out at PM Imran and his ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Twitter as well as her personal Youtube channel.
Just last week, Reham had accused the premier of being involved in illegal transactions of foreign funds and “moral corruption for hiding accounts from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)”.
Prime Minister Youth Affairs Program (PMYAP) has planned to establish 500 skilled laboratories in Madrassas to mobilize these institutions across the country with modern technology tools, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP)reported.
A PMYAP official has said that most of the madrassas were undergoing informal education programmes to impart basic education to the students along with religious schools.
However, the authorities were planning to collaborate with different madrassas in the country to have modern technology equipped laboratories for their students.
“These skilled laboratories would help provide acquaintance to new methodologies applied through information technology tools and software applications. It would also contain technical training equipment as well that is going to enable madrasa students get technical skills for better employment opportunities,” PMYAP official added.
He also said that this programme would primarily focus to get the madrassa students at par with those acquiring formal education in schools for better employment.
Ahead of his long march to the federal capital against the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman has asked the media fraternity “to unite against bars on its freedom”.
“You the journalists should plead your case against censorship being imposed by undemocratic forces,” Fazl said while addressing a press conference at the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA).
The JUI-F chief’s statement came days after a private media outlet took off the air his media-talk, alleging a ban imposed by the Pakistan Electronic Media Authority (PEMRA).
Geo news accepts on air that PEMRA is ordering the censorship of opposition leaders. Where is the selected PM who used to claim media in Pakistan is more free than in UK? pic.twitter.com/VrKXyS1qYe
The incident was followed by veteran journalist and analyst Hamid Mir’s tweet stating that the media watchdog has “forced TV channels not to show” Fazl’s presser.
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority forced TV channels not to show the press conference of opposition politician Maulana Fazalur Rehman we can differ with Maulana but Govt is showing weakness by imposing unannounced censorship in Pakistan @RSF_inter@pressfreedom
He said that the government was showing weakness by “imposing unannounced censorship” in Pakistan.
Speaking to journalists Friday, Fazl said that media had a key role to play in the current situation. He claimed that it was the media that was giving his efforts a name of its choice and said, “For the JUI-F, it is an attempt to secure respect for popular vote and warn those who are trying to steal it every time.”
Flanked by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Pervaiz Rasheed and JUI-F leader Abdul Ghaffoor Haideri, the religio-political party chief said that if any individual wanted to attain absolute power in the negation of the democratic norms, it could not be accepted in a free and sovereign state.
“Mutiny can take place any time against tyranny,” he warned, adding that the constitution clearly demarcated the area of jurisdiction for all organs of the state, and all must respect it.
“The trouble arises when one institution tries to hog the domain of others and creeping influence destabilises other state organs by breeding frustration among them. Once that frustration hits a boiling point, the entire process implodes. This cycle is being repeated with regularity for the last seven decades. The current JUI-F effort is aimed at breaking the cycle: demolishing illegal results of the last manipulation, ensuring fresh and legal mandate and securing commitment on part of the stakeholders to respect the constitution,” Fazl explained.
He said the public mandate had been hijacked in the last general elections, adding that the nation should once again be given the right to chose and change should come through ballot to put an end to the prevailing sense of uncertainty among people.
“Only two persons, including the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and the chairman of FBR [Federal Board of Revenue], have got employment in the country so far,” he said and added that the entire nation and opposition parties were on the same page against the government.
Earlier, SAFMA Secretary General Imtiaz Alam urged political parties to extend support to Fazl and sign a charter of democracy-like agreement to reject and discourage any anti-democratic regime in the country.
A “civil society declaration” on civil, political, social and human rights of the oppressed people, women and minorities was also presented to the JUI-F chief with a demand that an all parties conference must make a commitment to the people of Pakistan to make them sovereign.
GOVT READY FOR ACTION?
The capital will likely be sealed from Oct 31 onwards by either the police or the JUI-F as preparations on both sides for the Azadi March gain momentum, Dawn reported.
According to police officers, the Islamabad police have demanded more than 550 shipping containers to intercept the march before it enters the city. The demand was made by zonal superintendents of police City, Saddar, Industrial Area and Rural to the police’s logistics division, they said.
The police have decided to block each of the Expressway’s connecting roads from both sides from Faizabad to the Koral flyover, they said, as this area becomes ‘Waterloo’ for them during protests and law and order problems.
All the connecting roads of Rawalpindi to I.J. Principal Road will also likely be sealed, the officers said, and steps will be taken to intercept people trying to join the march or gather in the capital.
The police have more than 1,000 gas masks, 200 teargas launchers and 13,000 shells available in the logistics division armoury, they said, along with enough batons, plastic helmets, riot jackets, riot shields, shin guards and arms, if needed.
More riot gear was demanded to cope with a deteriorating situation, if it arises.
The police have also threatened local traders with legal action if they do business with the organisers or participants of the Azadi March, the officers said.
These traders include catering services, tent services, hotels, motels, guest-houses and inns, generators, workshops, hardware stores, welding workshops, sound system services, excavator owners and crane owners.
Rawalpindi police, on the other hand, have requested 6,000 shells of tear gas, 1,600 rubber bullets, batons, masks and shields. Anti-riot exercises have begun in Police Lines Headquarters and special squads have been formed to be deployed at sensitive locations.
Special Adviser to the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, Usman Dar has copied Maryam Nawaz’s old speech in his address during Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf’s (PTI) “Kamyab Jawan Program” launch.
Usman Dar was praising PM Imran for launching this program to provide loans to the students and he copied the exact same words, Maryam Nawaz had used for praising former PM Nawaz Sharif after winning elections.
Maryam in her speech had said, “During elections campaign, your PM Nawaz Sharif had made some promises, and despite having a severe economic crisis, your PM has fulfilled this promise”.
While Usman during his address said, “During elections, PTI had promised that they would make the youth of Pakistan independent, and despite having severe economic crisis your PM has fulfilled this promise in the shape of Kamyab Jawan Program”.
Journalist Arshad Sharif during his talk show played both speeches from Usman and Maryam, side by side and asked from the special adviser whether he and Maryam have the same speechwriter.
Replying to this question Usman replied, “You wrote this speech, If he knew Arshad Sharif had written Maryam’s speech also, he wouldn’t have asked him to write his speech”.
Making a comeback to Usman’s answer Arshad said, “No, I am not such a cheap speechwriter”.
Focal Person to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan for Polio Eradication and former polio adviser Babar Atta to the United Nations (UN) on Friday resigned from office with immediate effect.
“When I look back, I am proud to say that I made all possible efforts to create that enabling environment where polio eradication is a top priority,” Babar tweeted and added that he had asked the premier to relieve him of his duties due to “some personal reasons”.
1: After a stint of over a year as the Prime Ministers Focal Person for Polio, I have asked the PM to relieve me of my duties because of some personal reasons pertaining to my family. During this time I got a chance to work with the best minds in the world 1/4
Atta said that that a call centre will soon be inaugurated to cater to complaints of people and answer their questions related to immunisation drive. The country’s first-ever perception management initiative will be rolled out by the end of October, he added.
“A 24/7 call centre will soon be inaugurated to address all concerns of people who have questions related to the vaccine.”
“I am leaving at a time when the low transmission season is about to commence. Pakistan is in a position that will finally eradicate polio once and for all. The opportunity should be capitalised and should not be lost from here. I forever remain indebted to the love and respect all of you have offered,” he said.
Meanwhile, sources informed The Current that Atta has resigned from office since he is the only male child in his family and his ailing father needs him. “He doesn’t want to regret not being there for his parents.”
