Tag: politics-stories

  • Video: Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan says Nawaz Sharif not unwell, only ‘acting’

    Video: Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan says Nawaz Sharif not unwell, only ‘acting’

    Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has come under fire for her remarks regarding former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s health. Talking to a news channel, she said that Mian Nawaz Sharif is getting ready for a film shoot and all this was part of the plan.

    Mian Nawaz Sharif was taken to the hospital Monday night. His platelets count had fallen drastically but his dengue results have come out negative. His condition is now stable, as per senior PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal.

    Dr Fridous Ashiq Awan’s comments about Mr Sharif’s health were criticised widely and termed insensitive and callous by PML-N leaders and others on social media.

    This is not the first time Dr Awan has made flippant remarks. Last month when Azad Kashmir was jolted by earthquake, she said that the earth has taken a turn as it cannot deal with ‘tabdeeli’.

    Watch the video for Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan’s comments about Mian Nawaz Sharif’s health.

    Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan’s remarks on Nawaz Sharif’s health
  • INFOGRAPH: Will Pakistan ever be polio free?

    INFOGRAPH: Will Pakistan ever be polio free?

    There are three countries in the world that still have an epidemic of the polio virus and the third, Nigeria, is almost polio free. Pakistan, on the other hand, is experiencing a rise in polio cases.

    Pakistan has the highest number of polio cases in 2019

    Pakistan had lowered its polio cases to 12 last year and has increased almost 5 times to 69 cases. Afghanistan is at 12 cases reported this year which is a decrease from 21 cases last year.

    Nigeria has been polio free for the past three years but since they were 4 cases reported in 2016, they have not been declared polio free yet but will most likely get that coveted title by next year.

    Data courtesy: http://polioeradication.org/

  • Saudi Arabia denies asking PM Imran to mediate with Iran

    Saudi Arabia denies asking PM Imran to mediate with Iran

    Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir has denied reports of separate mediation efforts with Iran, one particularly led by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan to reduce tension between the two states, Middle East Eye reported.

    “We are not having any mediation. People come to us with ideas and we give them our response and our response is what we would like the Iranians to do and that is it, and we would like to see actions rather than words,” reports quoted Adel as saying.

    He added that there was compelling evidence that the September attacks on Saudi oil installations were with Iranian-made missiles and “Tehran must stop its rampage across the world”.

    “It [Iran] should behave like a normal country following international laws if it wants to be welcomed,” Adel said.

    Earlier in September, two Saudi Aramco installations were attacked and the Kingdom blamed Iran for it.

    The Saudi foreign minister’s statement comes amid efforts being made by PM Imran to bring both Riyadh and Tehran to the talks table, reportedly on United States (US) President Donald Trump’s suggestion.

    Imran, within the past few weeks, has also visited Saudi Arabia and Iran to push the two nations to bring an end to their long withstanding conflict.

  • ANF embarrasses Afridi, denies his claim of video evidence in Rana Sanaullah case

    ANF embarrasses Afridi, denies his claim of video evidence in Rana Sanaullah case

    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.

  • Modi cancels Turkey visit after President Erdogan supports Pakistan on Kashmir

    Modi cancels Turkey visit after President Erdogan supports Pakistan on Kashmir

    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.

  • VIDEO: ‘Charas expo in KP’ leaves internet stunned

    VIDEO: ‘Charas expo in KP’ leaves internet stunned

    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:

    It shows locals showcasing different kinds of charas as a crowd wanders around buying the drug.

  • Gautam Gambhir helps Pakistani kid get Indian visa for treatment

    Gautam Gambhir helps Pakistani kid get Indian visa for treatment

    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.

    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.

  • Azadi March: Govt’s move to seal twin cities to cost taxpayers over Rs3.3 million a day

    Azadi March: Govt’s move to seal twin cities to cost taxpayers over Rs3.3 million a day

    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.

  • ‘If we were still together’: Reham speaks about ‘puppet’ Imran

    ‘If we were still together’: Reham speaks about ‘puppet’ Imran

    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)”.

  • PM Imran to establish state-of-the-art laboratories in 500 Madrassas

    PM Imran to establish state-of-the-art laboratories in 500 Madrassas

    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.