Tag: politics-stories

  • Supreme Court orders Modi govt to restore normalcy in Kashmir

    Supreme Court orders Modi govt to restore normalcy in Kashmir

    The Supreme Court of India (SCI) on Monday ordered the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi-led government to restore normalcy in occupied Kashmir “as soon as possible while keeping in mind national safety and security.”

    “Schools, hospitals, public transport should function properly,” said the ruling of a three-member bench of India’s apex court.

    According to Dunya News, the ruling came as the SCI took up multiple pleas against the Indian premier’s August 5 decision of revoking the special autonomy of Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK).

    The court has ordered the government to submit a report mentioning the actual situation in the region that has been lockdown for 43 days with communication blackout.

    During the hearing of petitions, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi remarked that if “requirement arises”, he would himself visit Jammu and Kashmir and expressed concerns over reports of inaccessibility of Kashmiris to the high court.

  • Pakistan unveils schedule for sending first-ever astronaut to space

    Pakistan unveils schedule for sending first-ever astronaut to space

    Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain has said that Pakistan is committed to sending its first astronaut to space by 2022, ARY News reported.

    According to the details, the minister said that China would collaborate with Pakistan in its space mission and the selection process for the astronaut would start in 2020.

    He added that 50 people will be selected in the initial selection process and then the list would come down to 25 in 2022, out of them only one would be sent to space.

    The minister also said that the debris of India’s first space mission namely ‘Shakti’, which had failed, was even posing dangers to the space missions of other countries.

    Furthermore, Fawad said that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) will play an important role in the astronaut’s selection.

    Earlier, on July 25, the minister had announced that Pakistan would send its first citizen to space by 2022 following a selection process.

  • Punjab govt misses tax collection target by over Rs20 billion

    Punjab govt misses tax collection target by over Rs20 billion

    The Punjab government has missed its tax collection target in July, costing the provincial exchequer an amount of Rs20.45billion, The Express Tribune reported.

    According to reports, the provincial government collected Rs11.91billion, down by 63 per cent from its target of Rs32.33billion, and economic experts associate the reduction in tax collections with the fiscal crisis that currently grips the country.

    “If the economy remains in this condition, revenue will continue to fall,” the report quoted an expert as saying.

    Several factors, including lower than usual property tax, irrigation tax, income tax, and land revue, contributed to the overall shortfall. During July, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) collection under stamp duty, property tax, irrigation tax, income tax, and land revenue fell by 20.41 per cent, due to which the tax authority was only able to bag Rs5.38billion instead of Rs6.76billion.

    Similarly, a reduction of 22.16 per cent in property transfer, professional tax, professional excise, and other indirect taxes resulted in a shortfall of Rs0.73 billion.

    The provincial exchequer received another blow in lower than expected collection of sales tax and other indirect taxes. Out of the Rs13.87billion, only Rs318.6million ended up in the provincial coffers.

    Experts believe slowing economic growth will result in lower revenues for the government. And if current trends continue, the government revenue receipts will fail to match the budgeted targets.

    Official sources, on the other hand, confirmed the English daily that the targets were not being met due to the current economic crisis. However, they were hopeful that the coming year would yield better results and bring in greater revenue through taxation.

  • PM claims 58 countries’ support at UNHRC, it has 47 members

    PM claims 58 countries’ support at UNHRC, it has 47 members

    In yet another incident of miscalculation, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that Pakistan enjoys the support of 58 member countries of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) against Indian actions in held Kashmir, while the global rights body only has 47 members.

    “I commend the 58 countries that joined Pakistan in Human Rights Council on 10 Sept reinforcing demands of int community for India to stop use of force, lift siege, remove other restrictions, respect & protect Kashmiris’ rights & resolve Kashmir dispute through UNSC resolutions [sic],” the premier tweeted Thursday.

    He also welcomed “the EU’s call in the Human Rights Council for a peaceful solution of the Kashmir dispute in line with UNSC resolutions, int law and bilateral agreements”.

    Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar also made the same mistake and said that Pakistan has the support of 58 member countries.

    Twitterati, however, didn’t spare the premier. Expectedly, within a short time, several people started pointing out the error and poking fun at him. Here’s what they tweeted:

    https://twitter.com/freakykalin/status/1172140643608481793

    Previously, PM Imran had found himself in a similar soup when, at a conference, he said that Germany and Japan are immediate neighbours who share a border.

    “Germany and Japan killed millions of their civilians until after the Second World War when they decided that they would have, on the border region of Germany and Japan, joint industries,” he had said.

  • Buzdar’s mouthpiece resigns from office

    Buzdar’s mouthpiece resigns from office

    Amid reports claiming that Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar will soon be sacked by Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, his spokesperson, Dr Shahbaz Gill, has resigned from office.

    “I hereby resign from the post of official spokesperson to Punjab CM,” Gill stated in a handwritten note submitted to the office of the provincial chief executive.

    Initially, Gill did not cite any reason behind his abrupt decision, however, reports quoted the former spokesperson as saying that “it was difficult for him to defend the poor performance of the Punjab government”.

    In a tweet posted earlier in the day, Gill had said that he would be sharing an “important decision” very soon.

    Rumour has it that Gill will be replacing Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan as the special assistant to the PM on information and broadcasting.

    Meanwhile, PM Imran’s close aide Awn Chaudhry has reportedly been removed as the advisor to Punjab CM as well. He has been replaced by Asif Mehmood.

  • State Bank’s foreign exchange reserves jump to $8.46 billion

    State Bank’s foreign exchange reserves jump to $8.46 billion

    The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased 2.2 per cent on a weekly basis, data released by the central bank has revealed.

    According to The Express Tribune, the reserves had earlier spiralled downwards, falling below the $7 billion mark, which raised concern over Pakistan’s ability to meet its financing requirements. However, financial assistance from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and other friendly nations helped shore up the foreign exchange reserves.

    On September 6, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $8,462.3 million, up by $181.8 million compared with $8,280.5 million in the previous week. The central bank cited official inflows as the reason for the increase in reserves.

    Overall, liquid foreign currency reserves, held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $15,751.7 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,289.4 million.

    Pakistan received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9, which helped bolster the reserves. Previously, the reserves had jumped on account of $2.5 billion in inflows from China.

    Over time, the declining reserves have forced the central bank to let the rupee depreciate massively, sparking concern about the country’s ability to finance a hefty import bill as well as meet debt obligations in coming months.

  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation under fire for awarding ‘fascist’ Modi

    Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation under fire for awarding ‘fascist’ Modi

    The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is facing massive criticism from prominent South Asian lawyers, human rights activists and philanthropists in the United States (US) after it announced to honour Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi with an award, The Guardian reported.

    According to the details, the foundation is said to give Modi “The Global Goalkeeper” award for his “Clean India Programme” under which millions of toilets were set up and benefits of sanitation and hygiene were publicised.

    Reacting to the news about the award, a group of South Asian Americans working in philanthropy on Tuesday wrote an open letter to the Gates Foundation, alleging that Modi had effectively confined millions to their communities.

    The letter also urged the organisation to rescind the award.

    “For over a month now, PM Modi has placed 8 million people in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) under house arrest, blocked communications and media coverage to the outside world, detained thousands of people, including children, and denied basic benefits,” said the letter.

    The award comes amid growing criticism of detention and deportation of Muslims in Assam and Kashmir and human rights violations in IoK since August 5 under Modi’s rule have made front pages around the world.

    While Modi’s government claims that the programme has given 90% of Indians access to clean toilets, press reports suggest otherwise. Reports claim that many of the newly-built toilets remain unused because of poor access to water and caste rules that restrict people from cleaning them.

  • Abbasi apologises to nation for appointing NAB chief

    Abbasi apologises to nation for appointing NAB chief

    Former prime minister (PM) Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has apologised to the nation for having appointed Justice (r) Javed Iqbal as the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), The News reported.

    A jurist and professor of law, Iqbal has served as a senior justice of the Supreme Court (SC). He was appointed as the NAB chief on October 8, 2017, by then Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government led by Abbasi.

    “The name of NAB chairman had come from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the appointment was made with consensus,” the former premier said in an informal talk with media outside an accountability court Thursday.

    The PML-N leader said the “main aim of NAB was to break the PML-N” and questioned the bureau’s actions for having “instituted the case after arresting an ex-PM”.

    Abbasi said he was accused of using a vehicle of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the PM and had he knew about such allegations beforehand, he would have hired a tonga or taxi for reaching the PM Office.

    “NAB is conducting investigation against me and remand is also continuing for 55 days, but it doesn’t know anything about the case,” he said further.

    Earlier in the day, an accountability court extended the physical remand of former PM Abbasi and former finance adviser Miftah Ismail in the LNG case. Both the leaders were presented before the court that approved NAB’s plea for remand extension and asked it to present the suspects once again on September 26.

  • VIDEO: Indian minister credits Einstein for discovering gravity

    VIDEO: Indian minister credits Einstein for discovering gravity

    Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal made a rather outlandish comment on Wednesday. He said that “maths never helped Einstein discover gravity”.

    Mr. Goyal was rubbishing TV reports that India’s economy wasn’t doing well given the statistics about India’s economic growth.

    “Don’t go by all these calculations you see on TV, that if the country has to become a $5 trillion economy, it will have to grow at 12% but right now it is currently growing at 6-7%,” said Mr. Goyal.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://twitter.com/bhayankur/status/1172068601995522048?s=21

    “Don’t get into those maths; those maths never helped Einstein discover gravity,” Mr. Goyal added. “If he had only gone by structured formulae and what was past knowledge, I don’t think there would have been any innovation in this world.”

    Twitter had a field day following these remarks. Many were quick to point out that Einstein indeed didn’t discover gravity; it was Newton!

    Memes and jokes followed after that.

    https://twitter.com/roshankrrai/status/1172074577075171328?s=21

    https://twitter.com/supariman_/status/1172142047462977537?s=21

    https://twitter.com/coldmine3/status/1172099226219597824?s=21

  • Deal struck, Nawaz to get bail on Sept 18, leave country: analyst

    Deal struck, Nawaz to get bail on Sept 18, leave country: analyst

    With the Islamabad High Court (IHC) set to hear former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s appeal against his conviction, an analyst has claimed that “a deal has been struck” and the former “will soon be leaving the country”.

    Earlier this week, IHC constituted a two-member bench to hear the appeal filed by Nawaz against his conviction in the Al-Azizia reference. The bench, comprising Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, will hear the appeal on September 18.

    This will be the first hearing of Nawaz’s appeal since the controversy regarding the leaked video of accountability court judge Arshad Malik surfaced in July.

    The video, purportedly showing the judge “confessing” that he had convicted Nawaz under duress, was made public by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President (VP) Maryam Nawaz.

    Malik had in December 2018 sentenced the former premier to seven years imprisonment in Al-Azizia reference. After the removal of the judge over the controversy, IHC had ordered to attach Malik’s affidavit with Nawaz’s plea against his sentence.

    Amid rumours that a deal was being struck between the government and jailed Nawaz, analyst and former Balochistan government adviser Jan Achakzai has claimed that the former PM and his daughter will soon be leaving the country.

    “Deal is done as earlier I claimed. Nawaz Sharif will be flying out of the country after bail. Maryam Nawaz will likely join him. Big hurdle in front of stressed govt is almost over. Expect Interesting political roller coaster and fireworks after November [sic],” he tweeted.