Tag: politics-stories

  • PM Imran second most searched leader at UN General Assembly

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has become the second most searched personality among the leaders currently in the United States (US) for the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

    According to Google Trends, PM Imran has secured the second slot in the list of most searched UNGA leaders on Google, while Indian PM Narendra Modi stands fifth and United States (US) President Donald Trump has topped the list.

    Among other most searched UNGA leaders are British PM Boris Johnson at the third place and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on the fourth. The Brazilian president had recently made headlines after severe criticism over his lack of efforts to protect the Amazon rainforest.

  • Modi expresses grief over Pakistan earthquake

    Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has expressed grief over the loss of lives and damage to property after an earthquake in Pakistan killed at least 40 and left more than 500 people injured.

    The Twitter handle “PMO India” wrote, “PM has expressed grief on the loss of lives and damage to property due to an earthquake in parts of India and Pakistan”.

    “PM expresses condolences to the families of the deceased and prays for the speedy recovery of those injured”, said the Tweet.

    A powerful 5.8-magnitude earthquake jolted several parts of Pakistan on Tuesday, particularly areas of Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

    According to the geological wing of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the epicenter of the quake was stated to be one kilometer (km) southeast of Mirpur, 10 km beneath the earth’s surface.

  • ISB: Sixth grader accidentally shot dead by school guard

    ISB: Sixth grader accidentally shot dead by school guard

    A sixth grade boy was killed outside his school in Islamabad after a security guard accidentally shot him.

    The incident took place on Wednesday outside a private school in Nilore, Islamabad.

    The guard was cleaning his gun and accidentally fired it. He has been taken into custody and it is unclear why he was cleaning his gun during school time.

    According to reports, there was an eyewitness who said that after the boy was shot, he cried in pain for 10-15 minutes. The school did not provide a vehicle to take the child to the hospital and closed its gates instead.

    The boy was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead on arrival.

    Police are investigating the incident and the parents are protesting against the school.

  • CCTVs to be installed in police stations to curb torture cases

    CCTVs to be installed in police stations to curb torture cases

    Interior Minister Brigadier (retd) Ijaz Ahmad Shah has directed for the installation of CCTV cameras in all police stations across the country. An official order has been issued to all provincial police heads.

    As per reports, the decision has been taken to discourage the prevailing culture of torture inside police stations. The initiative is also expected to ensure transparency in investigations.

    A digital control room will also be built in every police station for effective monitoring.

    Meanwhile, during the departmental meeting to improve the policing system in the country, Brig Shah took several other decisions as well. This includes presenting a Safe City Project in Balochistan in coordination with the provincial government. Apart from that, the government is also considering reopening the Chaman border. It was decided that after taking necessary measures, the Pak-Afghan border will be opened in three months.

  • Another Indian MiG-21 crashes during training

    An Indian Air Force (IAF) MiG-21 aircraft has crashed near the Gwalior airbase in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday. , Hindustan Times reported.

    According to the reports, both pilots of the MiG-21 trainer aircraft including a group captain and a squadron leader managed to eject safely before the crash.

    Crashes involving fighter planes are common in India which is in the midst of upgrading its Soviet-era military. Most of the crash incidents involve the MiGs that India bought decades ago from the Soviet Union, earning it the unflattering “flying coffin” tag.

    The IAF lost 27 aircraft, including 15 fighter jets and helicopters, in crashes since 2016, as mentioned by Indian Minister of State for Defence, Shripad Naik, in June 2019.

    Earlier on February 27, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had also shot down MiG-21 fighter jet and captured its pilot Abhinandan Varthaman who was later handed over by Pakistan to India at the Wagah-Attari border crossing on March 1 as a peace gesture.

  • Sindh govt to award Rs1 lakh to those identifying trash throwers

    Sindh govt to award Rs1 lakh to those identifying trash throwers

    The Sindh government has announced prize money of Rs1 lakh for those who will help to identify garbage throwers in Karachi, Dawn has reported.

    According to the details, Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani has made the announcement on media while urging the citizens to record videos of those who throw garbage outside and inform the relevant authorities.

    Ghani has announced two mobile numbers where citizens can send videos of people throwing trash around the city through WhatsApp. Citizens can send videos on 0300-0074296 and 0300-0084296.

    The provincial minister said that he had personally witnessed people purposely throwing heaps of garbage on roads, adding that those who “claimed that they have inherited the city” were polluting Karachi.

    “This is a conspiracy to damage the cleanliness drive,” he added. The minister promised that the identity of citizens reporting such incidents will be kept secret.

    The Sindh government last week initiated a cleanliness campaign called “Clean My Karachi” after facing massive criticism over failure to clean the metropolis.

  • Erdogan slams int’l community for its silence on Kashmir

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised the international community for failing to pay attention to Kashmir conflict, urging dialogue to find a solution of decades-long row between Pakistan and India, Express Tribune reported.

    According to the details, in his address at UN General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York, Erdogan said that the stability and prosperity of South Asia cannot be separated from the Kashmir issue, awaiting solution for 72 years.

    “In order for the Kashmiri people to look at a safe future together with their Pakistani and Indian neighbours, it is imperative to solve the problem through dialogue and on the basis of justice and equity, but not through collision,” said Erdogan.

    He added, “Despite the resolutions adopted, [India-occupied] Kashmir is still besieged and eight million people are stuck in Kashmir”.

    Following Erdogan’s remarks, Prime Minister Imran Khan thanked him for raising the issue of occupied Kashmir at the UNGA and calling for a solution to the long-standing dispute.

    In a subsequent tweet, PM said: “I appreciate President Erdogan’s statement that the stability and prosperity of South Asia cannot be separated from the Kashmir issue.”

    People of Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) have been held hostage by Indian occupying forces since August 5 when New Delhi abrogated the article to rob the disputed territory of its autonomy.

  • VIDEO: Dr Firdous says earthquake sign of ‘tabdeeli’

    VIDEO: Dr Firdous says earthquake sign of ‘tabdeeli’

    The PTI government’s ministers seem to be on a roll, making one gaffe after another.

    In the first instance, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan on Tuesday made light of yesterday’s devastating earthquake and said that the earthquake was a sign of tabdeeli.

    She said: “These are signs of change. Whenever there is any tabdeeli [change], tremors are felt. This is a sign of tabdeeli that even the earth is changing positions as it isn’t adapting to change quickly.”

    It is important to note that the quake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale shook parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and left multiple people dead and scores injured.

    While Dr Awan faced criticism for her insensitive remarks, another PTI minister tried to board a flight on someone else’s passport.

    On Monday, Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan used his wife’s passport to travel to Turkey. He was stopped by the immigration authorities at the Islamabad airport just before boarding a flight to Turkey. It turned out that he was carrying his wife’s passport instead of his own. Khan’s protocol team came to his rescue by bringing his passport from home just in time.

  • Imran draws flak for saying ‘Pakistan army, ISI trained Al Qaeda’

    Imran draws flak for saying ‘Pakistan army, ISI trained Al Qaeda’

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has landed himself in hot water as netizens train guns at him for saying that “Pakistan army and intelligence agency trained global terror outfit Al Qaeda”.

    Speaking at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York on Monday, when asked if any investigation was conducted by Pakistan over Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden’s capture in Abbottabad by United States (US) forces, the premier said that there had been a probe.

    “I know that the Abbottabad commission sat down. I don’t know what the conclusion was. But I can tell you one thing. You see I go back again. The Pakistan army and ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] trained Al Qaeda and all these groups to fight in Afghanistan. There were always links between them. There has to be links because they trained them.”

    “Now as I said after the 9/11, when we did a 180-degree turn and went after those groups. You know not everyone agreed with it. Within the army, people did not agree with this. And so as I said there were insider attacks. There were two suicide attacks on General Musharraf.”

    “As far as I think, there was a statement by President Obama that Pakistan army, military and ISI had no idea about this because I know they were listening to the conversations the night the raid took place. And if there was any link, it was at a lower level,” he added.

    PM Imran’s statements were not very well received by Twitterati, mainly journalists, who took to the micro-blogging website to criticise him.

  • Corruption worth over Rs18bn discovered in PML-N’s motorway projects

    Corruption worth over Rs18bn discovered in PML-N’s motorway projects

    A recent audit of the National Highway Authority (NHA) has unearthed corruption worth Rs18.9 billion in three motorway projects completed during the tenure of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government.

    According to a private media outlet, a report by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) has revealed the irregularities in the Karachi-Lahore, Sukkur-Multan and Havelian-Thakot motorways.

    Irregularities of over Rs7.31 billion were discovered in Lahore’s Abdul Hakeem section of the Karachi-Lahore Motorway, Rs4.9 billion in the Sukkur-Multan section, while those worth Rs6.7 billion were unearthed in the Havelian-Thakot section.

    The report mentions that the contractors reduced the scope of work, however, the cost was not revised. It added that the contractors did not return the extra amount to the NHA.

    The AGP also mentioned that the first notification about the problem was sent to NHA in September last year. Responding to the report, NHA spokesperson Mushtaq Ahmed said that any excess payment made during the projects will be recovered.