Tag: politics-stories

  • US visit: PM Imran to fly on commercial flight

    US visit: PM Imran to fly on commercial flight

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan will fly to the United States (US) on a commercial flight rather than a charter plane, a PM aide has confirmed.

    “PM Imran Khan will fly to Washington by Qatar Airways [sic],” Special Assistant to the PM on Political Affairs Naeemul Haque tweeted Thursday.

    This will be the first time that PM Imran travels on a commercial plane for an official visit as previously he used a charter jet for state visits to countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Malaysia.

    Earlier it was also reported that the premier is planning to not stay at some lavish hotel to save money as part of his government’s austerity drive that continues ever since the PTI rose to power.

    The premier, since assuming office last year, has been pushing for austerity measures to save taxpayers’ money and reduce the burden on the national exchequer.

    Despite the steps taken by PM Imran in this regard, the austerity drive has faced multiple setbacks over the past 10 months owing to the apparent reluctance of the lawmakers in cutting down expenses.

    VISIT TO US:

    In his maiden visit to the US, the premier will travel from July 21-23 on the invitation of President Donald Trump in a bid to mend the strained ties between the two countries.

    Both the leaders will discuss a range of issues, including counterterrorism, defence, energy and trade, with the goal of creating the conditions for a peaceful South Asia and an enduring partnership between the two countries.

    “The visit will focus on strengthening cooperation to bring peace, stability and economic prosperity to a region that has seen far too much conflict,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement.

    PM Imran will also be meeting prominent members of the US Congress, corporate leaders and opinion makers as well as overseas Pakistani.

  • VIDEO: Rana Sanaullah challenges PM Imran to a ‘drug test’ in court

    VIDEO: Rana Sanaullah challenges PM Imran to a ‘drug test’ in court

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA and former Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah has challenged Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan to a “drug test”.

    “Sentence me without a trial if even nicotine traces are found in my blood,” the PML-N leader, who was arrested for possession of drugs earlier this month, said while appearing before an anti-narcotics court.

    “But also test this incompetent PM and sentence me without trial if you do not find [traces of] cocaine, ice (crystal meth), hashish and heroin,” Sanaullah added.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    He went on to say that the “victimisation of political opponents” by the ruling party would not continue for long.

    Sanaullah is in judicial custody till July 29 in a drug possession case. The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) claims to have seized 15 kilogrammes of heroin from his car upon arrest over two weeks ago.

    The PML-N leader, on the other hand, denies the charge while his wife suggests the drugs “were planted in the vehicle”.

  • Kulbhushan Jadhav case: Both Pakistan and India claim victory, but who really won?

    Kulbhushan Jadhav case: Both Pakistan and India claim victory, but who really won?

    With the International Court of Justice (ICJ) pronouncing the long-awaited verdict in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, both Pakistan and India have claimed victory.

    The narrative in Indian media paints a different picture of the judgment than the one shown by Pakistan. But how is that even possible?

    PAKISTAN’S WIN:

    According to the ICJ, Jadhav’s conviction and sentence by a military court were not to be regarded as a violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention, which India had claimed.

    “As regards India’s claim based on the Vienna Convention, the court considers that it is not the conviction and sentence of Jadhav which are to be regarded as a violation of the provisions of the Vienna Convention,” read the verdict.

    Article 36 states that foreign nationals who are arrested or detained be given notice without delay of their right to have their embassy and consulate be notified of the arrest and have consular officers visit them.

    Among other Indian demands were the annulment of the military court’s decision and permitting Jadhav a safe passage to India. However, the same was denied.

    But what exactly is that India is celebrating?

    INDIA’S WIN:

    India had also demanded that Jadhav be tried once again by a civilian court after giving him consular access. No retrial was granted, however, Pakistan was ordered to grant the convicted spy consular access.

    India also demanded the relief of “review and reconsideration” for its spy, which ICJ has granted, but by means of Pakistan’s own choice.

    It means that Islamabad is now required to judicially review Jadhav’s trial and assess if denial of consular access prejudiced his trial.

    FOREIGN MEDIA:

    Meanwhile, international media reports focused on the ICJ’s directive to Pakistan to review its death sentence to Kulbhushan Jadhav.

    “World Court Orders Review of Pakistan Death Sentence for Indian Convicted of Spying”, The New York Times‘ headline said. The Washington Post story on the judgment said: “Alleged Indian spy on death row in Pakistan wins reprieve from execution”.

    British media also focussed on the part of the ICJ judgment which went in India’s favour. “UN court orders Pakistan not to execute Indian man accused of spying” The Guardian said in its report.

    KULBHUSHAN JADHAV:

    Commander Jadhav — an Indian Navy officer working for Indian covert agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) — was arrested on March 3, 2016, from Balochistan after he entered Pakistan from Iran.

    Jadhav was tried in a military court that sentenced him to death for espionage and subversive activities. In a reaction to the move, Pakistan’s relations with neighbouring India tensed and New Delhi approached the ICJ to hear the case.

    On May 18, 2017, the ICJ had ordered Pakistan to halt the execution of Jadhav until a final decision was made.

  • NAB arrests ex-PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

    NAB arrests ex-PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

    The National Accountancy Bureau (NAB) has arrested former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) scandal case.

    Abbasi is facing accusations of handing over a tender worth Rs220 billion to a company in which he himself was a shareholder. His name is also on the Exit Control List (ECL) so as to stop him from leaving the country.

    The arrest comes after the former premier skipped a NAB hearing pertaining to the case at the bureau’s Rawalpindi office.

    According to reports, Abbasi was due in Lahore for a press conference to be addressed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif at 4 pm. He, however, was intercepted on his way and taken into custody.

    “I received the NAB notice yesterday and it was not possible for me to appear before the bureau on such short notice,” he had stated in a letter to NAB earlier in the day. He had also reportedly sought three days from the anti-graft watchdog for appearance.

    The PML-N is yet to react to the arrest.

  • Huawei to invest $170 million in Pakistan this year

    Huawei to invest $170 million in Pakistan this year

    Chinese tech giant Huawei Group has unveiled an $170 million investment plan to set up its regional headquarters and upgrade technical support centre in Pakistan, a private media outlet reported.

    Huawei Group Vice President Mark Xueman said on Wednesday that his company would invest around $100 million in Pakistan this year.

    “Huawei will also set up a regional headquarters in Islamabad at a cost of $55 million that will create job opportunities for young engineers in Pakistan,” he said while talking to Planning, Development and Reforms Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar.

    Huawei’s official further informed the minister that the company would also invest $15 million more in its technical support centre and it will also hire more workforce for the centre, taking the number of its staff to 800 from 600 this year.

    “Huawei is eager to initiate more projects in Pakistan on grant funding from the Chinese government,” Xueman said; responding to which the minister assured him of all cooperation in future joint ventures.

    Pakistan is a fast-growing telecom market with subscribers of mobile phones having crossed the 160 million mark compared with the country’s population of 210 million. Of total subscribers, 68 million use 3G/4G. There are 70 million broadband subscribers.

    The country imports millions of dollars of mobile phones to meet the local requirements with manufacturing and assembling of handheld devices not present in the country.

    According to the government, Huawei has a 25 per cent share in the country’s mobile industry and is also the top tax paying Chinese company in the country.

  • PTI declares critical media coverage as ‘treason’

    PTI declares critical media coverage as ‘treason’

    In another episode of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) alleged bars on press freedom, critical media coverage has been linked to potential “treason”.

    The PTI, on its official Twitter handle, has fired off over two dozen tweets in English and Urdu, lambasting the press for coverage that criticises the government and Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, which it deemed “anti-state”.

    “Freedom of expression is [the] beauty of democracy. Expressing [the] enemy’s stance is not freedom of speech, but treason against its people,” read one tweet.

    “Media houses and journalists must take care that in their quest for criticism on state, they intentionally or unintentionally do not end up propagating enemy’s stance,” it added with the hashtag ‘#JournalismNotAgenda’.

    The tirade comes two weeks after an interview of former president Asif Ali Zardari was stopped from being aired shortly after it started on a private news channel.

    It was followed by an interview of Maryam Nawaz Sharif, a vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), being “forcefully” taken off air soon after it was run.

    https://twitter.com/nadeemmalik/status/1149336805516464129

    “Just came to know Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s interview has been stopped forcefully just [a] few minutes after it started live,” tweeted show host Nadeem Malik.

  • SAPM Shabaz Gill corrects false information about new taxes on graves

    SAPM Shabaz Gill corrects false information about new taxes on graves

    Spokesperson to Punjab Chief Minister (CM), Dr Shahbaz Gill, has debunked reports claiming a new tax has been imposed on burial services.

    “The Punjab government is planning to impose tax on the purchase of new coffins and graves in Lahore. A tax of Rs1,000 would be imposed on smaller ones (for children) and Rs1,500 on bigger ones (for adults),” a private media outlet had claimed Tuesday.

    According to reports, Lahore Metropolitan Corporation had forwarded a request to the Local Government Department, seeking approval for the tax on graveyards that come under its jurisdiction.

    Lahore Mayor Mubashir Javid had distanced himself from the reports, saying that he had nothing to do with it.

    “The Punjab government has dissolved the rights of the mayor as well as the local bodies and assigned administrative powers to the commissioner,” he had said while speaking to a private media outlet, adding that the tax “was proposed by the commissioner”.

    However, all claims were rubbished by Punjab CM’s spokesperson, who questioned if the reports were nothing but an “attempt to malign the government and tax culture”.

  • $60,000 to be spent on PM Imran’s US visit unlike Nawaz’s $460,000

    $60,000 to be spent on PM Imran’s US visit unlike Nawaz’s $460,000

    Members of the federal cabinet have been informed that around $60,000 will be spent on Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s forthcoming visit of to the United States (US), unlike ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s $460,000.

    As per the details, PM Imran on Tuesday chaired a meeting of his cabinet wherein the members were informed about the $400,000 cut.

    They were also provided details of over Rs27 billion expenditure incurred on security, camp offices and foreign visits of former presidents Asif Ali Zardari and Mamnoon Hussain, former PMs Nawaz Sharif, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Yousuf Raza Gilani and Raja Pervaiz Ashraf besides ex-Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif.

    Addressing a post-meeting press conference, Federal Minister for Communication Murad Saeed said that more than Rs4.3 billion had been spent on security, camp offices and travels of Nawaz, Rs3.16 billion on Zardari, Rs8.72 billion on Shehbaz, Rs350 million on Abbasi, Rs245 million on Gilani, Rs32 million on Ashraf and Rs300 million on Mamnoon back when they were in power.

    He added that an amount of Rs8.3 billion was spent on the security of the Sharif family members within the past 10 years, while over Rs2 billion was spent on renovation and other expenditures of the Sharif family’s Raiwind residence, Jati Umra.

  • Woman commando with henna on hands breaks the internet

    Woman commando with henna on hands breaks the internet

    The picture of a woman commando of Punjab’s Elite Force, holding a gun in her hands with henna tattoos, has gone viral over the internet.

    The image, first shared by self-proclaimed security analyst Zaid Hamid, took social media by storm on Tuesday.

    https://twitter.com/ZaidZamanHamid/status/1150842268162699273

    “Super cute… Hina on hands and guns in hands… on duty Pakistani girls… [sic],” he wrote while tweeting the image that has now gone viral. Hamid also wondered if the commando had recently gotten married.

    The image has been receiving mixed reaction on Twitter.

    The Elite Force of Punjab Police specialises in counter-terrorist operations and VIP security duties. It is known for acting against serious crimes and performing high-risk operations that can’t be carried out by the regular police.

    According to information released by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in 2010, women first became part of the police force in the subcontinent in 1939 when seven female constables and a head constable were inducted to contain female agitators of a farmers’ movement in Punjab.

    There was no significant change in numbers until 1952 when 25 constables, two head constables and an assistant superintendant were recruited.

    Inclusion of women to Pakistan’s anti-terror squads was initiated in the 1990s. With women joining the force in large numbers over the years, the trend has continued since.

    In October 2001, less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, the first women-only anti-terror squad was established in the country.

  • Khadija Siddiqui case: War of words erupts between lawyers

    Khadija Siddiqui case: War of words erupts between lawyers

    Barrister Hassaan Niazi, who represented stabbing victim
    Khadija Siddiqui in court, has called out activist Nighat Dad’s “fraud” over
    the latter’s claims regarding her role in bringing the culprit to justice.

    Now a barrister and then law student Khadija was attacked by
    her class fellow Shah Hussain on May 3, 2016, near Shimla Hill where she, along
    with her driver, had gone to pick her younger sister from school.

    Dad, a lawyer and activist who runs the not-for-profit
    organisation Digital Rights Foundation, had on Monday claimed to have “advised
    Siddiqui on how to spread the word on her case”.

    “Khadija Siddiqui initially lost her case in the lower courts because the father of the attacker was the president of the Lahore Bar and they pressured the judges. But Khadija appealed to the Supreme Court. She reached out to me for advice on how to use the internet to spread the word about the case,” she had claimed in an interview to Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

    “When cases are pending in courts, you are not allowed to
    talk publicly about them. But Khadija was like, ‘I’m not going to stop, because
    I know that technology has so much power and I can reach out to millions of
    people and get support’. And that’s when we decided that we are not going to
    obey the court orders.”

    Dad went on to claim that she “designed a strategy for social media” and Khadija started tagging people, making short videos, showing her wounds. “On Twitter and Facebook, she got support not only from women’s groups, but also political parties and leaders. And that’s why Khadija won the case,” she said.

    It wasn’t later that Niazi, who represented Khadija in the case along with Barrister Salman Safdar and other lawyers, took to Twitter to call out Dad over her claims.

    “Nigat Dad this is not even a lie, but a fraud. YOU DID NOT
    DO ANYTHING FOR KHADIJA,” he wrote while also sharing screengrabs of Nighat’s
    claims from the interview.

    Niazi also accused Dad of “misusing the #MeToo movement for foreign funds and advised actor Meesha Shafi, who is being represented by Dad in her sexual harassment case against musician Ali Zafar, “to change her lawyer”.

    The tweet was followed by that of Khadija, who seemed to support Niazi’s statement.

    “I have been misquoted completely. I request CFR to please clarify, Barrister Hassaan Niazi was solely responsible for media and social media,” she wrote while also “disagreeing to the facts stated in the article”.

    ‘THERE’S BEEN A MISUNDERSTANDING’:

    Responding to the allegations, Dad said that there had been a misunderstanding.

    “It appears there is a misunderstanding. The interview was a longer conversation and like any interview, answers were condensed for length. Supported you all along in your fight, never took credit for your legal or SM team’s work & continue to respect their efforts,” she tweeted.

    In a subsequent tweet, she wrote:

    The excerpts, highlighted by Khadija’s legal team, have been removed from the interview.