Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan on Wednesday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman to visit the Azadi March sit-in site and determine what relief could be provided to the protesters.
“I have directed the CDA chairman to immediately visit the dharna site to assess what relief and assistance can be provided to the dharna participants,” he tweeted.
I have directed the CDA Chairman to immediately visit the dharna site to assess what relief and assistance can be provided to the dharna participants with the onset of rain and changing weather conditions.
PM Imran also said that the relief would be provided in view of the onset of rain and changing weather conditions.
On Tuesday, protesters had refused to let rain or the biting cold dampen their resolve as the anti-government sit-in continues and they demand the PM’s resignation.
Earlier, a picture of a few Azadi marchers preparing to go to sleep in the biting cold and rain under a plastic sheet had gone viral on social media.
While the Lahore High Court granted bail to Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Monday, her release has so far been delayed due to procedural issues.
As per media reports, Maryam Nawaz’s lawyers were late in completing the necessary documentation. However, sources share that the delay wasn’t at Maryam’s lawyers’ end.
Due to the delay in her release, Mian Nawaz Sharif also did not shift to Sharif Medical City Hospital despite being discharged from Services Hospital on Tuesday. Mr. Sharif is adamant that he will shift only when Maryam Nawaz is released so that she can go with him.
Meanwhile, #ReleaseMaryamNOW trended on Twitter for several hours once news broke out that her release has been delayed due to procedural issues.
It is a shame that the judges leave early without implementing bail orders of @MaryamNSharif ! The personal and political vendetta against her speaks volumes the fear she instills in petty gov figureheads! #ReleaseMaryamNOW
They come n arrest her while she is meeting her father in prison, they come at 3 am in the morning to take her back to prison while she tends to her father in hospital. Where is the swift and rapid action when court orders release? #ReleaseMaryamNOWhttps://t.co/ifM7TQMIQS
Ahead of the historic Kartarpur opening, scheduled to be held on November 9, billboards featuring images of Prime Minister Imran Khan have popped up in Amritsar, India.
The posters which featured images of PM Khan and former Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu read, “Navjot Singh Sidhu and Imran Khan are the real heroes, for opening Kartarpur Corridor.”
Punjab: Posters of former Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and Pakistan PM Imran Khan seen in Amritsar. The posters read,”Navjot Singh Sidhu and Imran Khan are the real heroes, for opening Kartarpur Corridor.” pic.twitter.com/9LlpzQWGhJ
However, the hoardings were taken down within hours of being put up as they irked the Indians who widely criticised them.
And in Amritsar, posters with Sidhu and Imran appear.
I have always said that Pakistan wants the Kartarpur corridor not for Sikh pilgrims but for re-starting Khalistani terrorism in Punjab. In Sidhu they have found the perfect Mir Jafar. Now, India needs another KPS Gill. pic.twitter.com/xg9sjJgUeK
According to India Today, supporters of Sidhu put up hoardings calling him and PM Imran the real heroes of Kartarpur. The report further added that the hoardings were put up by Amritsar Municipal Councillor Harpal Singh Verka who is known to be close to Sidhu.
Master Harpal Singh, a Councillor from Verka who put up the posters says,”We wanted to congratulate the people who made it happen, Sidhu sahab aur Imran Khan. More posters are to be put tomorrow.” #Amritsarhttps://t.co/imsx51YzC6pic.twitter.com/QOVQay8Qdp
Speaking to India Today, Verka said, “Imran Khan had asked his friend Navjot Singh Sidhu what he can do for him as he visited his swearing-in ceremony in Pakistan. Sidhu put forth a demand before Imran Khan that the Kartarpur corridor be opened for Sikh devotees. I put up hoardings of my own as I wanted to send out the message to the people about Sidhu’s role in getting the corridor opened.”
As per reports, Sidhu was the first Indian politician who received the first invitation card to the opening ceremony bearing number 001 from Imran Khan three days ago.
Sidhu has reportedly been given permission to visit Pakistan on November 9 when the Kartarpur corridor will be formally inaugurated.
Senior journalist and analyst Hamid Mir has said that there is a lot of difference between the ongoing Azadi March of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and that of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from 2014.
“When one used to visit the 2014 sit-in, you could smell perfumes. When you come here, you can smell attar. So it’s perfume versus attar,” Mir said when approached by a private media outlet during his visit to Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Islamabad protest last week.
He further said that Imran Khan’s sit-in “had scores of rich people”. “You could see a lot of lipsticks. At this sit-in, what you see is…” the journalist added as he pulled in front of the camera a JUI-F worker.
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The viral video then shows the worker kissing a smiling Mir on his forehead. It isn’t later that another JUI-F activist to the journalist’s left, pulls and kisses him.
“Do you understand the difference now?” he then asks the reporter, laughing.
Sahibzada Jahangir, Prime Minister’s Spokesperson on Trade and Investment in UK & Europe, came under fire yesterday for his tweet in which he called for all “corrupt politicians and officials” to be locked at the Lahore Safari Zoo in Raiwind.
In a now-deleted tweet, Jahangir had said: “Visited Lahore Safari Zoo. Beautiful park and with great tourist potential. I urge Imran Khan PM to lock all corrupt politicians and officials here for weekend camping & let their fade [fate] be decided by Allah.”
He later deleted his tweet when Twitterati gave him a piece of their mind.
Sahibzada Jahangir, also known as ‘Chico Jahangir’, is the elder brother of Fauzia Kasuri. Ms. Kasuri parted ways with PTI after almost 17 years.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has known Mr. Jahangir for more than three decades. Khan’s walima with Jemima Goldsmith was held at Jahangir’s residence in London.
Pakistan Army is all set to generate electricity for its garrisons and establishments across Pakistan to cut their expenditure on power which is estimated to be around Rs 15 billion for 240 MW (megawatt), a private news outlet has reported.
As per reports, the Pakistan army is planning on harnessing renewable energy through solar parks with an aim to establish 1-5MW solar parks in each garrison. The pilot project will generate 40MW energy and no public money will be used on solar parks for 25 years.
This step will reduce the burden on the Army’s budget as a huge portion of it goes to electricity payments to various electricity distribution companies, and the costs are rising due to increasing tariffs.
The Defence Division has informed the federal cabinet that army possesses robust distribution systems, which means that it can easily shift to renewable energy alternatives.
The division has sought the government’s approval for making the payment on account of purchasing equipment from private companies offering solar solutions, adding that it will be at least 20-30% cheaper than DICSOs.
The cabinet was also informed that the stakeholders including Public-Private Partnership Authority (PPPA), Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), Power Division and Finance Division have also endorsed the electricity project.
PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz has been released on bail, the only condition being that she cannot leave the country. Speculations regarding her joining Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s ‘Azadi March’ have already begun.
Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul has said that the (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government is “proud to have the army as its spokesperson”.
“We are proud that we are judiciary’s spokespersons [and] we are proud that the army is our spokesperson,” Gul said during her appearance on a SAMAA TV talkshow as she slammed the opposition for accusing the government of making state institutions controversial.
She said that neither had the PTI government burdened the country with loans worth Rs31,000 billion nor had it enslaved the masses. “This is why the people and the army are with us.”
Calling out opposition members, including former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman “for making judges and the armed forces controversial”, she also questioned their ideology and what they were standing for.
When asked about the way forward with the opposition, she said a “13th player” of the team was doing politics and wished to take others’ children to D-Chowk in Islamabad.
Gul added that opposition leaders at the Islamabad sit-in were “only troubled by the fact that this time they were not a part of the parliament”.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) has granted bail to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz in the Chaudhry Sugar Mills (CSM) case.
A two-member bench of the LHC comprising Justice Ali Baqar Najafi and Justice Sardar Ahmad Naeem announced the verdict. The legal representatives of Maryam and National Accountability Bureau (NAB) were also present in the court.
Maryam Nawaz had approached the high court on September 30 seeking post-arrest bail in the CSM case, in which she is suspected of money laundering.
Following the sudden deterioration in the health of her father, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, she then filed a miscellaneous petition on October 24 seeking immediate bail on the basis of fundamental rights and humanitarian reasons.
The bench had reserved its verdict in the case on October 31 after both the petitioner and NAB had concluded their arguments.
In its verdict, the court on Monday directed Maryam to submit her passport with the court besides two surety bonds of Rs100 million each. The court also directed the PML-N leader to deposit Rs70 million separately with the court.
According to her lawyer, bail has been granted on the merits of the case and not on humanitarian grounds.
Maryam and her cousin Yousuf Abbas were arrested by NAB on August 8 in the CSM case. Later, on September 25, they were sent to jail on judicial remand by an accountability court in Lahore.
NAB suspects PML-N president of involvement in money laundering through investments of variable heavy amounts being the main shareholder of the CSM. It has alleged that she was involved in money laundering with the help of some foreigners during the period of 1992-93, when Nawaz was the prime minister.
Saying that a meeting did take place between Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, senior journalist and analyst Rauf Klasra has revealed further details of the encounter that some say “never took place”.
A journalist affiliated with a private media outlet had last month quoted the army chief as telling Fazl that “there was no possibility of a minus-Imran Khan concept”.
In the “important” meeting held ahead of JUI-F’s Azadi March, the journalist had claimed that Gen Bajwa “made it clear to Fazl that they wouldn’t permit destabilisation at a time when the regional situation was critical”.
While some, including an ex-army official, had denied the claims regarding any meeting between the two, no official statements were made as the journalist claimed it was “common knowledge”.
With Fazl going ahead with his anti-government protest, staging a sit-in in the federal capital and demanding Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s resignation, Rauf Klasra has two weeks later claimed that not only did the meeting take place, but it also saw a “heated exchange of words” between the COAS and the religio-political party chief.
“Even though both sides state otherwise, it has been confirmed that the meeting did take place. Not only did it occur, but it was also marred by a heated argument as Maulana Sahib defied the army chief,” Klasra said in a video doing rounds over the internet.
He claimed that Fazl refused to budge on his plans and the situation got tense enough for the army chief to gift him a perfume on his way out. “My sources say that Maulana was gifted a bottle of perfume to calm him down.”
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According to earlier claims, Gen Bajwa had reminded Fazl that he was a responsible political leader and must be aware that the regional situation was critical. “The situation on the border with India is volatile due to the Kashmir crisis and Afghanistan’s situation is also a source of trouble.”
The army chief had reportedly also referred to Iran-Saudi Arabia affairs and told the JUI-F chief that it was not an appropriate time for staging the protest since the economy had been brought on the right track after herculean efforts within the country and abroad.
