Tag: politics-stories

  • British journalist claims Shehbaz Sharif still hasn’t filed a lawsuit

    British journalist claims Shehbaz Sharif still hasn’t filed a lawsuit

    British journalist, David Rose of Daily Mail, has once again denied receiving any lawsuit from former Punjab chief minister and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif against his story exposing alleged theft of earthquake relief funds.

    “Hello Pakistani friends. A lot of you have been asking if Shehbaz Sharif has commenced a lawsuit against me and my newspaper yet. He hasn’t [sic],” he tweeted.

    Resharing his July 14’s story, the journalist wrote, “Sources tell me that investigation by NAB [National Accountability Bureau] and the Asset Recovery Unit into allegations against Shahbaz Sharif have continued with some vigour since my article was published. This may explain why he hasn’t filed a lawsuit: they have been keeping him busy.”

    Shehbaz had earlier claimed having served a legal notice to the newspaper on July 26, alleging it was a “politically motived” report. He had also shared a copy of the legal notice on Twitter.

    The tweets had come after a series of indirect spats between Shehbaz and Rose over Twitter following the latter’s news story according to which British authorities had decided to initiate a probe into the funds worth millions of Pounds that were sent to the Shehbaz-led Punjab government as aid for quake victims.

    The Daily Mail UK report claimed that the paper was given exclusive access to some of the results of a high-level probe ordered by the government of Pakistan and it was also able to interview key witnesses held on remand.

    One of the witnesses had claimed that he laundered millions on behalf of Shehbaz’s family from a nondescript office in Birmingham without attracting suspicion from Britain’s financial regulators.

    The paper had also alleged that Shehbaz and his family were embezzling tens of millions of pounds of public money and laundering it in Britain.

  • Pakistan owes China more money than it owes the IMF

    Pakistan owes China more money than it owes the IMF

    Pakistan needs to repay China more than double the amount it owes the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the next three years, Al Jazeera reported.

    According to the details, the country owes $6.7 billion in commercial loans to China over the three years through June 2022, according to the IMF, which this year approved a new program to bail out Pakistan from an economic crisis.

    On the other hand, the country needs to pay the multilateral lender $2.8 billion in the same period.

    “The borrowing picked up after the Belt and Road started,” said Hafiz Faizan Ahmed, head of research at Karachi-based Optimus Capital Management Pvt.

    He added, “A bulk of the Chinese lending happened about two years ago when dollar reserves were dwindling, so the government kept borrowing and borrowing.”

    Pakistan, one of the biggest beneficiaries of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, has been borrowing from Beijing to tide over a financial crisis.

    Still, the money was not enough to completely bridge the financing gap and pushed the country to knock at the IMF’s doors.

  • PTI leader resigns after Jahangir Tareen forced him to change party’s constitution

    Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Central Additional Secretary-General Abu Hassan Ansari has resigned after developing differences with former secretary-general Jahangir Tareen over the party’s constitution, Dawn has reported.

    As per reports, Hassan is the author of the PTI party constitution 2019. He was being forced by Tareen, who holds no official position in the party, to alter the constitution as per his recommendations. The two also had arguments in the past during several party meetings.

    Reports further reveal that Hassan believes that Tareen has taken over the party. “Although Tareen has spent his money for the party, we all spent our time and money for the PTI,” he was quoted as saying.

    Hassan
    submitted his resignation to PTI Chief Organiser Saifullah Niazi,  However, no decision has been taken on the
    resignation as Prime Minister Imran Khan has told the party’s members that he
    will take up the matter after his return from China.

  • NAB ‘creating hurdles’ in execution of govt decisions: report

    NAB ‘creating hurdles’ in execution of govt decisions: report

    The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is creating hurdles in the implementation of some of the federal cabinet’s decisions, a report presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan has revealed, Express Tribune reported.

    According to the details, the report reveals that the federal cabinet had decided to hold talks with the LNG terminal firms in its meeting held in October last year and the Ministry of Finance and Petroleum had to talk with these companies on profit rates.

    However, these talks could not move forward because NAB is holding an inquiry against an LNG terminal company and they have to wait while the inquiry is underway.

    The report also said that all the LNG terminals are fully functional right now and any action can disturb the situation.

    After the consultation, the federal cabinet decided that the talks with the LNG terminal companies should be postponed till the completion of the inquiry.

    The federal cabinet in a recent meeting had proposed to reopen agreements with LNG companies, however, Minister of Law Farogh Naseem opposed the proposal and said that new investors will hesitate to invest if the agreements were reopened.

  • Women banned from being part of JUI-F’s ‘Azaadi March’

    Women banned from being part of JUI-F’s ‘Azaadi March’

    The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) has decided to not allow women to attend its October 27 anti-government march towards Islamabad.

    According to reports, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman wrote to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) informing them of the decision to not include women in the upcoming Islamabad sit-in. The reason behind this decision has not yet been shared.

    The JUI-F chief is preparing to take down the government with his Azaadi march and has said the march would only end when the government falls.

    Speaking at a press conference, Maulana Fazlur Rehman said: “The entire country will be our battleground,” adding that people from all over the country will be joining the march.

    It is important to note than in the past Maulana Fazlur Rehman has been very critical of women’s participation in Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI jalsas. He had compared PTI sit-ins to mujras.

    Meanwhile, in 2015 Maulana Sahab had asked the armed forces to launch a military operation against women wearing jeans all over Pakistan saying that the immodesty of women is the cause behind earthquakes, inflation and other kinds of disasters. He went on to say that if a woman is not covered like a ‘sack of flour’ she is a mobile weapon of mass destruction for her state.

  • PM Imran plans to hand over Pakistan Steel Mills to China

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has decided to hand over Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) to China for its revival through government to government deal, Geo News has reported.

    According to the details, PM is also exploring options to finance multi-billion-dollar railways Mainline (ML-1) during his upcoming visit to Beijing.

    PM will take up five issues during his visit, he will offer China to get Pakistan Steel Mills, finalise deal on modernisation of ML-1, financing of Bunji hydropower project, agriculture and social sectors-related projects in and outside the ambit of CPEC.

    Pakistan’s top leadership will give assurances to the Chinese side that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) would not slow down, but its next phase would be pursued with zeal and vigour despite passing through under the IMF [International Monetary Fund] programme.

    PM Imran will leave for a three-day visit to China on Monday, where he would also discuss Kashmir dispute.

  • ‘PTI government will continue to rule country’, business tycoon quotes Gen Bajwa

    ‘PTI government will continue to rule country’, business tycoon quotes Gen Bajwa

    All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) patron-in-chief Gohar Ijaz has said that COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa told businessmen that “the sitting government will continue to rule the country”, The News International reported.

    According to the details, Gohar while talking in Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, said that Thursday’s meeting of the army chief with the businessmen was arranged to give confidence to them.

    He added that the COAS said they fully support the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and the business community should also support him. Gohar said the business leaders assured that they will stand by the PM and will also guide the government in case it makes any mistakes.

    The APTMA patron-in-chief said that the army chief assured the businessmen that no undue cases will be instituted against them through the National Accountability Court (NAB) and no businessman will face injustice.

    “The business community continuously holds meetings with the economic team and military leadership and the meeting with the COAS was not an unusual thing”, added Gohar Ijaz.

    Watch Video:

    Top business leaders of the country had earlier called on COAS General Bajwa on Wednesday night to convey their serious concerns about Pakistan’s stagnating economy.

  • Burqas distributed among KP school girls

    Burqas distributed among KP school girls

    The government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has distributed “Burqas” among students in girls model school in Cheena village of Rustam valley.

    According to the pictures circulating on social media, the authorities with the help of funds provided by Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf’s (PTI) former district council member, Muzaffar Shah, distributed 69 burqas among students in KP girls school.

    The development has come after the provincial government made it mandatory for the girls in schools to wear a veil.

    Earlier, the KP government had decided to make it mandatory for female students of government-run schools to cover themselves up in educational institutions with an abaya, gown or chador for protection against “unethical incidents” — harassment.

    But after facing widespread public criticism the KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan directed the authorities to withdraw the mandatory burqa order.

  • Gandhi’s ashes stolen, memorial vandalised on 150th birthday

    Gandhi’s ashes stolen, memorial vandalised on 150th birthday

    Some of the remains of India’s founding father, Mahatma Gandhi, were stolen on his 150th birth anniversary, a BBC report quoted local police as saying.

    According to the report, the ashes were stolen from the memorial where they had been kept since 1948 — the year of Gandhi’s assassination by a Hindu extremist.

    The thieves also defaced his photographs by scrawling “traitor” in green paint all over them. Some Hindu hardliners view Gandhi as a traitor for his advocacy of Hindu-Muslim unity.

    This is despite Gandhi being a devout Hindu himself.

    Madhya Pradesh Police confirmed to BBC Hindi that they were investigating the theft on the grounds of actions “prejudicial to national integration” and potential breach of peace.

    Mangaldeep Tiwari, caretaker of the Bapu Bhawan memorial, where the ashes were being held, said the theft was “shameful”.

    “I opened the gate of the Bhawan early in the morning because it was Gandhi’s birthday,” he told an Indian media outlet. “When I returned at around 11 pm, I found the mortal remains of Gandhi missing and his poster was defaced.”

  • ‘Drug tests to be made mandatory for teachers, students in Islamabad’

    ‘Drug tests to be made mandatory for teachers, students in Islamabad’

    Minister of State for Narcotics Control Shehryar Afridi has said that the government is planning to make drug tests mandatory for school staff and students in Islamabad, The Express Tribune reported.

    According to the details, in a session of the Senate Standing Committee on Narcotics Control, Afridi asserted that no person responsible for propagating drugs to the youth would be spared, “even if they are members of the parliament”.

    He claimed that the government is working on legislation to punish the possession and distribution of crystal methamphetamine, commonly known as crystal meth or ice and added that the ministry had collected data of “drug dealers and money launderers” from over 250 international law enforcement agencies.

    Narcotics Control  Secretary Amjad Javed Saleemi also informed the Senate panel that they are maintaining a record of criminal entities involved in narcotics trade, adding that the system helps track drug peddlers and their facilitators.