Tag: politics-stories

  • Imran Khan says ‘became PM by taking U-Turns’

    Imran Khan says ‘became PM by taking U-Turns’

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that he became the prime minister of Pakistan by taking “U-turns”.

    He was speaking at the inauguration of a new academic block at the Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute (GIKI) of Engineering Science and Technology in Topi, where he said his opponents often accused him of taking U-turns from a particular stance.

    PM said “I make compromises for achieving my goals, rather than compromising on my goals”, adding that “The opponents are raising hue and cry so that I give them NRO. This is simply out of question”.

    This is not the first time Imran Khan has said something like that. Last year in November 2018, PM Imran on Twitter wrote that “Doing a U-turn (sic) to reach one’s objective is the hallmark of great leadership just as lying to save ill-gotten wealth is the hallmark of crooks”.

  • Video: Police torture cell run by SHO, constables unearthed in Lahore

    Video: Police torture cell run by SHO, constables unearthed in Lahore

    A secret torture cell run by station house officer (SHO) and constables has been unearthed in Lahore’s Gujjarpura area, exposing the mistreatment of Punjab police, Dawn has reported.

    According to the details, Gojjar Pura police has set up a private torture cell in a forest near Karol village which was unearthed by officials of the anti-corruption department, who were in the field for investigation of a case.

    During their investigation, the anti-corruption officials heard cries, traced them to a building located right in the middle of a jungle and filmed whatever they saw. 

    They found six locked men, including a bedridden man in serious condition due to apparently third-degree torture by the suspected policemen.

    The bedridden man, identified as Amjad claimed that the suspected police officials entered his house by scaling the boundary walls, dragged his wife and children and then bundled him in a police van without informing him of the reason of his arrest.

    Other captives said the police officials would come over in the night to torture them only.

    The Lahore Operations DIG has taken notice of the report and summoned Gujjarpura SHO Raza Jaffery and three other police personnel.

  • Senator Rehman Malik tags ‘Uno’ game instead of UN in Tweet

    Senator Rehman Malik tags ‘Uno’ game instead of UN in Tweet

    Senior Pakistan People’s Party leader and Senator Rehman Malik has made a hilarious social media blunder.

    While criticising Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not allowing the opposition delegation to visit Indian occupied Kashmir, Malik mistakenly tagged the UNO game instead of the United Nations.

    In case you didn’t know Uno is a multiplayer card game.

    What’s even more surprising is that Malik did not delete the tweet and is seemingly unaware of his gaffe.

    The former interior minister has been openly criticising the Modi government for their atrocities in Kashmir and has even written a letter to the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in this matter. The senator has demanded that the UNHCR constitute a parliamentary committee consisting of parliamentarians from different countries and make them visit Indian Held Kashmir (IHK) and observe the worst kind of human rights violations there.

  • No corruption found in Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro project

    No corruption found in Rawalpindi-Islamabad metro project

    An audit by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) into the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Service has failed to find any irregularities in the process of the project’s development, The Express Tribune reported Monday.

    According to reports, a team led by Punjab Works director-general (DG) conducted the audit, and PAC has so far reviewed some 53 audit papers while the Special Departmental Accounts Committee (SDAC) has reviewed around 97.

    However, the authorities have found no evidence of corruption so far.

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government last year in September had ordered the audit of all the metro bus projects started by the former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi-Islamabad.

    Jailed ex-prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif had laid the foundation of the 23 km project in March 2014.

    The project in twin cities initially was estimated to cost Rs44.8 billion, however, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) had revised the cost of project downwards by Rs285.4 million to Rs44.56 billion.

  • Man striving for Jinnah’s Pakistan passes away at 90

    Man striving for Jinnah’s Pakistan passes away at 90

    Lahore’s 90-year-old Ikramul Haque, who stood all alone at Liberty Roundabout with a poster stating “Humein Jinnah ka Pakistan chahiye [We want Jinnah’s Pakistan]” for the past six years, has passed away, Dawn reported.

    Known as “the old Jinnah man”, Haque stood at the roundabout every Tuesday. Passing away last Friday, his funeral prayers were held on Sunday at 5 pm at 112/5 F Model Town.

    He had been part of the Pakistan Movement as a student from 1944 to 1948 and was a member of the Muslim Students Federation of Dayal Singh College.

    Haque strongly believed in and advocated Quaide Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s vision of Pakistan that was not a theocratic state, rather it was about the Muslims, who were a minority in India, and their basic rights.

    He started standing at the Liberty Roundabout in 2013 after growing terrorism and extremism in the country.

    Starting his career as a junior clerk at the Caltex Oil Company in Karachi, he retired as managing director of National Fertiliser Marketing Limited. Haque has left behind a wife and three sons.

  • Saudi Arabia, Palestine, UAE among six Muslim states that awarded Modi with high civilian awards

    Saudi Arabia, Palestine, UAE among six Muslim states that awarded Modi with high civilian awards

    Despite the crisis in occupied Kashmir and after the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain has also conferred upon Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi its top award, “The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance”.

    While the Modi-led government paves way for a Muslim genocide in the troubled valley, India’s relations with Islamic nations are better than ever before.

    Several other Islamic nations also honoured Modi with their high civilian award in the recent past. Here’s a list of awards the Indian premier has been conferred with by Muslim-majority countries:

    The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance, Bahrain – August 2019

    Order of Zayed, UAE’s highest civilian award – August 2019

    Grand Collar of the State of Palestine – February 2018

    Amir Amanullah Khan Award, Afghanistan – June 2016

    King Abdulaziz Sash Award, Saudi Arabia – April 2016

    Rule of Nishan Izzuddeen, Maldives – June 2019

    Both recent awards have led to an uproar as a human rights crisis brews in Muslim-majority occupied Kashmir with New Delhi continuing its clampdown in the disputed territory.

  • Punjab govt removes name of Hamid Mir’s father from underpass

    Punjab govt removes name of Hamid Mir’s father from underpass

    The Punjab government has renamed the Waris Mir Underpass on the provincial capital’s Canal Bank Road near the Punjab University (PU), where the late writer and intellectual taught journalism for about 25 years.

    The name of Waris Mir, a Hilale Imtiaz recipient, was removed from the underpass on Saturday and renamed the Kashmir Underpass in a sudden and mysterious move that has been condemned by the Waris Mir Foundation.

    Senior journalist and anchorperson Hamid Mir’s father, Waris, taught for 30 years at the PU’s Mass Communication Department.

    He was not the only one to be honoured by the state in March 2013, since all newly-constructed underpasses, which tallied up to more than a dozen across the city, were named after outstanding intellectuals and prominent personalities, including Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ashfaq Ahmed, Habib Jalib, Justice A R Cornelius, Ustad Daman, Chaudhry Rehmat Ali, Khushaal Khan Khatak, Liaqat Ali Khan, Chakare Azam Rind, Justice A R Kiyani and Patras Bokhari.

    The names had been decided through a procedure in several meetings of the City District Government, headed by a former judge of the Supreme Court (SC).

    Commenting on the move, Waris Mir Foundation spokesperson said “it was nothing but an act of aversion, not against Waris Mir alone, but a sequence of hatred and uncalled-for enmity towards the Pakistani media, in general, which seems to be a line of action of the government”.

    “This act, in general, has only been secretly carried out to hurt the sentiments of hundreds of Waris Mir’s students, readers and his posterity,” the spokesperson added.

  • CM Buzdar sends mangoes as gifts to TV anchors and party workers

    Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Usman Buzdar has been alleged of using public money to send mangoes as gifts to T.V anchors, ministers and party workers.

    A Daily Times writer, Zeeshan Khan Niazi from his Twitter account had yesterday posted pictures of the list including names of Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf (PTI) party workers, ministers, T.V anchors from ARY News channel, among else, to whom mangoes were being sent as a gift.

    Further proving those pictures to be authentic, Arshad Sharif, who is a programme host on ARY news channel has posted pictures of courier boxes and wrote that he has returned the gift and urged Usman Buzdar to give them to “deserving people”, instead.

    Furthermore, in another tweet, he wrote that he has received multiple calls from the chief minister’s staff from different numbers and told them that he “does not accept gifts from government officials”.

    However, chief minister’s spokesperson Dr. Shahbaz Gill has rejected claims of using public money and clarified that CM Buzdar has used his own money to buy these gifts, that are worth a few hundred only.

  • Breaking all records, tax filers number increases by 69% under PTI

    Breaking all records, tax filers number increases by 69% under PTI

    The number of income tax-filers in Pakistan has jumped to 2.5millions recording a rise of 69% during the current fiscal year, ARY News has reported.

    According to the details, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has reported that over 1.36 million people have been added to the number of income tax filers in the country.

    FBR also aims to achieve a target of 4 million tax returns by the end of tax year 2019.

    Chief In-Land Revenue (Operations) of FBR Bakhtiar Muhammad said that according to the facts and figures, the number of income tax filers reached over 2.5 million till August 21, while the number of income tax return filers was over 1.5 million last year.

    Earlier in July, FBR Chairman Shabbar Zaidi had said all measures are being taken to include more people in the tax net, adding that “We cannot have stabilized and equitable society unless we have a fair taxation system”.

  • VIDEO: PTI MNA calls fellow MPA a ‘jew’, accuses him of ‘stealing funds’

    VIDEO: PTI MNA calls fellow MPA a ‘jew’, accuses him of ‘stealing funds’

    Calling an MPA of his own party a “jew”, an MNA of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has accused the provincial lawmaker of “stealing his constituency’s funds”.

    As per the details, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Finance Minister Taimoor Saleem Jhagra and MNA Noor Alam Khan have come face-to-face on Twitter over a dispute on development funds.

    In an August 3 Twitter thread, that has now gone viral over the micro-blogging website — Jhagra said that his attention was drawn towards a video of Khan, wherein he has used inappropriate language against him.

    The series of tweets came after a viral video showed Khan criticising his own party’s MPA. He called Jhagra a “jew”, adding that he was not a popular politician and had come from former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

    Khan was also heard accusing Jhagra of misappropriating funds of his constituency and that he would go to the village of the provincial finance minister and “deal with him there”.

    Reacting to the accusations, Jhagra responded by sharing clips from Khan’s speech and translating his words before clarifying his position.

    The clips were followed by tweets wherein Jhagra shared “how he had promised Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan to ensure financial discipline”.

    In his last tweet of the thread, the provincial minister wrote:

    While the spat reveals the rift that appears to be widening within the ruling party, it has not yet attracted an official response. PTI activists from PK-70, however, have reportedly held a rally to condemn the use of objectionable language by the MNA.