Tag: politics-stories

  • Pakistan to swap Jadhav for ex-army officer ‘in Indian custody’?

    Pakistan to swap Jadhav for ex-army officer ‘in Indian custody’?

    While Indian spy Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav remains in Pakistan’s custody over terror charges, media reports have claimed that a former Pakistan army officer is in Indian custody, raising speculation about a possible prisoner swap.

    “The government is making all-out efforts to locate Lt Col (r) Habib Zahir,” Foreign Office spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said while taking exception to Indian media reports and denying the claims.

    “Pakistan maintains that the involvement of hostile agencies cannot be ruled out,” he was quoted as saying by Dawn.

    Sharing the details of the episode, Dr Faisal said that Zahir was a retired Pakistani officer who went missing in Nepal, where he had gone for a job interview in April 2017.

    The spokesperson added that according to his family, he had posted his CV on LinkedIn and the United Nations (UN) website for a job. “In response, he received a call and email from one Mark stating that he had been shortlisted for the job of vice president.”

    He was asked to visit Nepal and he was sent an Oman Airlines ticket for an interview on April 6, 2017.

    After landing in Nepal, which he visited for the first time in his life, he left Kathmandu airport (from where he had WhatsApped his pictures and boarding pass to his family), for Lumbini airport by Buddha Air.

    At 1300 hours, he messaged his wife from his mobile phone intimating that he had landed safely at Lumbini (a municipality 5 kilometres from the Indian border) after which his mobile appeared switched off and his family lost all contact with him.

    Investigations revealed that Mark’s United Kingdom (UK) cell number was fake and was actually an internet/computer-generated number. The website that he was contacted from was found to be operated from India and was subsequently taken down.

    The government of Nepal constituted a special team to look into his disappearance but there was no progress in the matter so far.

    In view of his disappearance from Lumbini and the involvement of Indian nationals (who reportedly received him at Lumbini, made his hotel reservations and booked his tickets), Pakistan also repeatedly reques­ted the government of India to assist in locating him.

    However, no positive response had been received from the Indian side.

  • VIDEO: Fawad Chaudhry wants to be Deputy Prime Minister?

    VIDEO: Fawad Chaudhry wants to be Deputy Prime Minister?

    Minister of Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry says that he told PM Khan that in countries like Korea, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, the ministers for science and technology are as powerful as a Deputy Prime Minister. (hint hint)

    When we asked Fawad whether he was joking or being serious, he said he meant it as a joke.

    Fawad’s counterparts in the countries he mentioned are:

    The Minister of Science and Tech in Korea is Dr Yanghee Choi since 2014 but doesn’t have an active Wikipedia page. He was previously the Chairman of Samsung Science and Tech Foundation.  

    Minister of Science and Tech in Singapore doesn’t exist. Science and Tech comes under the Ministry of Trade and Industry whose minister is Chan Chun Sing who is a former major general and also served as Singapore’s Chief of Army (Infantry).

    Yeo Bee Yin currently is the Minister of Energy, Science and Tech, Environment and Climate change in Malaysia. A member of parliament, one of her first initiatives was to ban on the import of plastic waste.

    Indonesia’s Science and Tech minister is professor. Mohamad Nasir was also the Dean of the Accounting program at a university and was involved in a major controversy in 2016 when he wanted to ban the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community on campus.

    Indonesia’s Science and Tech minister is professor. Mohamad Nasir was also the Dean of the Accounting program at a university and was involved in a major controversy in 2016 when he wanted to ban the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community on campus.

  • Pakistan to export cigarettes worth $50 million

    Pakistan to export cigarettes worth $50 million

    In a first, Pakistan has received a major export order for cigarettes worth $50 million from Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia.

    According to media reports, Pakistani tobacco companies had also received an import order earlier, however, they were unable to meet the quality standards and the entire stock had to be discarded.

    “All the standards set by the importers have now been met successfully and we are expecting the export of cigarettes to Middle Eastern countries to start by next month,” reports quoted sources in Pakistan Tobacco Board as saying.

    According to the report, Pakistan has a market share of around $25 million in the $80 billion trade of tobacco. The country has been exporting tobacco (unfinished) worth $25 million to the Middle East and some European countries, which is almost 30% of the tobacco being produced in the country.

    The rest of it is used locally.

  • India requests Pakistan to let Modi fly through its airspace

    India requests Pakistan to let Modi fly through its airspace

    India has requested Pakistan to let Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s aircraft fly through its airspace to New York for his week-long trip to the United States (US) from September 21 to 27.

    India has formally requested Pakistan to allow use of its air space for PM Modi’s flight, ANI reported.

    On September 22, Modi will address the Indian community as part of the ‘Howdy Modi!’ event in Houston, Texas. The event will be his third major address to the Indian-American community after he became the prime minister in 2014 and the first after his re-election in May.

    The previous two were at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014 and the Silicon Valley in 2016.

    Modi will then visit New York from September 23, where he will address the 2019 Climate Action Summit hosted by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He is also expected to meet US President Donald Trump.

    Modi had in August used Pakistani airspace for the first time after February’s botched Balakot strike by the Indian Air Force (IAF).

    The flight carrying Modi, callsign Air India One (AI-1), used Pakistani airspace while en route to France from New Delhi.

    Pakistan closed its airspace in February this year after a standoff with India in the wake of an attack on a police convoy in occupied Kashmir that killed 40 paramilitary police.

    In the aftermath, two Indian fighter jets’ were downed. Pakistan also captured one of the Indian pilots who was later released.

    In June, Modi avoided flying over Pakistan during a trip to Central Asia, even though its airspace was opened as a goodwill gesture.

    Islamabad had fully reopened its airspace to civilian flights a month later.

  • Ali Tareen says ‘pepper spray for girls a better idea than abaya’

    Ali Tareen says ‘pepper spray for girls a better idea than abaya’

    Multan Sultans owner Ali Khan Tareen has said that giving pepper spray to schoolgirls to avoid harassment is a better idea than asking them to wear an abaya.

    The son of senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Khan Tareen in a Twitter post wrote, “I still think pepper spray is a good idea if local policy-makers feel those girls need protection”.

    In another tweet, he criticised and questioned the logic behind the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government’s decision to make abaya compulsory in all-girl schools.

    “This is directed to girl schools. In all-girl schools what ‘unethical incidents’ are they worried about? If the male staff is so untrustworthy then I suggest the students be instructed to bring pepper spray instead of chadars.”

    In an official circular on Monday, KP Education Department had directed heads of government schools to ensure that girl students were wearing abaya or gown to “cover up in order to protect themselves from any unethical incident”.

    The government had withdrawn the notification after severe backlash on both social and mainstream media.

  • VIDEO: Putin quotes Quran to urge Muslim countries for peace

    VIDEO: Putin quotes Quran to urge Muslim countries for peace

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for an end to the conflict in Yemen by quoting from the Holy Quran to urge Muslim countries for peace.

    According to RT, the Russian president was speaking in Turkish capital Ankara alongside President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani when he quoted a verse from Surah al-Imran.

    “And remember the favour of Allah upon you — when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favour, brothers,” he quoted.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    The Russian president’s references to the Holy Quran were noted with approval by both Erdogan and Rouhani, the report said.

    Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Yemen’s civil war and millions face the threat of starvation.

    The war in Yemen is an ongoing conflict that began in 2015 between two factions: the Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi-led Yemeni government and the Houthi armed movement, along with their supporters and allies.

  • Naya Pakistan: Police register blasphemy case against 50 rioters for attacking temple

    Naya Pakistan: Police register blasphemy case against 50 rioters for attacking temple

    Police have registered a blasphemy case against 50 rioters for vandalising a Hindu temple following blasphemy allegations against a local teacher in the Ghotki district of Sindh, journalist Mubashir Zaidi has claimed.

    “Police registers balsphemy case against 50 rioters who vandalized Hindu temple in Ghotki,” he tweeted Monday.

    Heavy contingents of police and rangers were deployed in the district Sunday after violent protests over alleged blasphemy by a school principal belonging to the Hindu community. A temple, school and businesses owned by Hindus in the city were ransacked by the rioters.

    The case against the individuals, who attacked the temple, was registered under sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class),  147 (rioting) and 149 (connivance) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

    Dawn quoted Sukkur Additional Inspector General (AIG) Jamil Ahmed as saying that Section 295 was included because the protesters had vandalised a Hindu temple.

    “The Sindh government and its ministers seem serious to bring the culprits to book,” a rights activist from the Hindu community told a private media outlet on the condition of anonymity.

    However, the activist said that the people still felt insecure and wanted an end to injustice on the basis of faith.

    Another case was lodged against 150 people — 27 named and 123 unidentified persons — for blocking roads. A third FIR [First Information Report] pertaining to rioting and theft was filed against 23 people, including 11 unidentified persons, over reports that protesters had stolen goods from multiple shops in Shahi Bazar.

    RIOTS OVER ‘BLASPHEMY’:

    Law and order of Ghotki and surrounding areas deteriorated on Sunday as people in large numbers took to the streets to protest against an alleged incident of blasphemy.

    The protests began on Saturday after an FIR was filed against the principal of Sindh Public School on the complaint of Abdul Aziz Rajput, a student’s father who claimed that the former had committed blasphemy.

    The FIR was lodged under Article 295(c) — that pertains to “derogatory remarks in respect of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)” — of the PPC.

    Residents of the area demanded that the police arrest the principal, issued a call for a shutter-down strike, and took to the streets in protest. Videos of stick-wielding protesters were shared on social media on Sunday, in which they were seen vandalising a Hindu temple and damaging the school where the alleged incident took place.

    The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also shared a video of protesters breaking the infrastructure of the school and expressed concern over the situation.

    “Alarming reports of accusations of blasphemy in Ghotki and the outbreak of mob violence,” it said in a tweet.

  • Shahzeb Khanzada destroys CM KP’s advisor on education

    Shahzeb Khanzada destroys CM KP’s advisor on education

    The most controversial discussion on television last night was the notice to parents by the Khyber Pakhtunkhua government that their daughters will have to wear an abaaya/chadar/burkha when going to and coming from school. This restriction was being placed on them for their “own protection”.

    Social media was in an uproar, as well as television programs. When anchor Shahzeb Khanzada did a program on the issue last night, he took the man who had circulated the notice: the Chief Minister’s advisor on elementary and secondary education, Ziaullah Bangash.

    Shahzeb asked him questions on what the government’s plan was on how to cover up little boys since there were more cases of sexual abuse against boys reported than girls. He also asked Bangash about the co-relation between clothes and abuse, showing data on how there was more sexual abuse of children in madrassahs than schools, and madrassahs being a place where students were fully covered and being given religious teachings, this should not be the case.

    Bangash had no pertinent answer. The notice has since then, been taken back by the Chief Minister.

    Watch Shahzeb’s explosive interview here:

  • PM Imran all set for another modest US trip

    PM Imran all set for another modest US trip

    After his austere United States (US) trip from earlier this year, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan is all set for another one of the same kind as merely $162,000 (Rs25 million) from taxpayers’ money will be spent, The Express Tribune reported.

    The premier will reach Washington on September 21, where he will not only hold meetings with US President Donald Trump among other top government officials, but also address the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session.

    It is also believed that PM Imran will once again take a commercial flight instead of opting to charter a plane in a bid to save money as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government continues to attempt to reduce the burden on the national exchequer.

    Previously, the premier’s visit to the US had cost the treasury around $67,180 (Rs11 million). Around Rs1.35 million were spent on accommodation for PM’s 27-member delegation, while the PM chose to stay at Pakistan Embassy instead of some lavish hotel.

    According to the details of the expenditures, an amount of Rs92,120 were incurred on transport, Rs142,000 on gifts, Rs6,075,800 on airfare, miscellaneous expenditures stood at Rs1,287,460, tips at Rs706,001 and meals at Rs1,389,077.

  • Buzdar’s metro plan backfires, number of commuters falls by 20,000

    Buzdar’s metro plan backfires, number of commuters falls by 20,000

    Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar-led provincial government’s Metro Bus fare policy has backfired as both Lahore and Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro buses have faced a drastic decrease in the number of passengers.

    According to The News, after the Punjab Metro Bus Authority increased the bus fare from Rs20 to Rs30, the number of commuters on Lahore Metro Bus has decreased by up to 20,000 per day while around 10,000 to 20,000 passengers have stopped commuting via the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus.

    “We were expecting an annual increase of Rs800 million in the revenue of Punjab Mass Transit Authority (PMTA) by increasing the fare. However, it is quite surprising that the number of passengers has decreased up to 20,000 in Lahore and 10,000 to 20,000 in Rawalpindi-Islamabad on a daily basis,” reports quoted an official as saying.

    It is very strange for us to know that passengers are so sensitive about the fare, the official said further. “The PMTA management is preparing the report on this unexpected outcome which will be presented to the authorities concerned in a week or two.”