Tag: politics

  • Fathers to get paid paternity leave

    Fathers to get paid paternity leave

    The Senate on Monday passed ‘The Maternity and Paternity Leave Bill, 2018’ that was moved on private members’ day by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Quratulain Marri.

    According to the details, while the bill was passed by the Upper House with a majority, the treasury benches opposed it. The bill will now go to the National Assembly for a vote.

    The said bill increases paid maternity leave of working mothers both in public and private sectors, and for the first time in the country, also grants paid paternity leave to fathers.

    The bill says that employees of every establishment should be provided six months paid maternity and three months paternity leave as and when applied by employees, separately from their leave account, commencing from the date as applied by the applicant in the application and supported by a medical certificate.

    It adds that the employees shall also be provided with an additional three months optional unpaid maternity and one-month paternity leave, separately from their leave account, if required by the employee.

    The Maternity and Paternity Leave Bill

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government opposed the bill saying that such long maternity leave was not allowed anywhere in the world. Economic Affairs Minister Hammad Azhar said mothers can get 90-day maternity leave under the already-existing law.

  • More than 2,500 govt officers were taking benefits from the Benazir Income Support Programme

    More than 2,500 govt officers were taking benefits from the Benazir Income Support Programme

    PTI government decided to delete over 800,000 names from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) last month as it had come to their notice that some government officers and their families were also BISP beneficiaries. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Welfare and Poverty Alleviation Sania Nishtar explained that they did this by utilising forensic data as these people were ‘undeserving’.

    The more astounding part is that over two thousand top officials of provincial and federal governments were also BISP beneficiaries. According to details shared by ARY News, 2,543 government officials of Grade-17 to Grade-21 were receiving the BISP income support tri-monthly handouts, meant for the poor segments of society.

    Sania Nishtar confirmed the news on Twitter.

    Some officers were receiving money in the name of their wives and other members of families, which were registered in the list of the people entitled for income support.

    The highest number of undeserving beneficiaries were in Balochistan where 741 registered officials were registered.

    In Sindh, 342 officials of grade-18 gained profit from the scheme.

    The decision to exclude more than 800,000 people from BISP list was criticised by the PPP. Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto had demanded the government to retract from the decision.

  • Video: PM Khan loses his way in Parliament

    Video: PM Khan loses his way in Parliament

    Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday lost his way in Parliament House.

    After attending a meeting of the PTI parliamentary committee, PM Khan started walking towards his chamber in the Assembly. PM Khan was so busy talking to Interior Minister Ijaz Shah that he suddenly found himself in unknown territory.

    He asked his security official where he was. “Where are you taking me?” asked a perplexed prime minister in a corridor. His security officer then told him that this secret passage will also take him to the Assembly Hall.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pobhe8BLIw

    Meanwhile, Pakistani Twitter did not leave a chance to troll the PM.

    Meanwhile, this is not the first time, PM Imran got lost in the National Assembly.

    Interestingly, PM Imran wasn’t the only one who lost his way in parliament yesterday. PML-N MNA Maiza Hameed went to the room where PTI parliamentary committee was being held instead of PML-N meeting.

    Twitter didn’t even spare Hameed.

  • PTI’s Fawad Chaudhry slaps Anchor Mubasher Lucman at a wedding

    PTI’s Fawad Chaudhry slaps Anchor Mubasher Lucman at a wedding

    Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry slapped anchorperson Mubasher Lucman at Punjab’s irrigation minister, Mohsin Legharis, son’s valima.

    Other PTI representatives were present at the Valima when the incident occurred, including Jehangir Tareen.

    After the incident, Fawad Chaudhry criticised Lucman, saying that Lucman cannot be considered as a journalist.

    Fawad tweeting citing the story of him slapping Mubasher

    Fawad had earlier tweeted that ‘so called journalists’ malign ministers and respectable people for viewership.

    “There was a scuffle that broke out. A small fight broke out. In a fight, as usually is the case, he may have got one (slap) in, I may have hit one,” said the minister during Geo News talk show “Naya Pakistan” on Sunday evening.

    “I have been a minister earlier as well. I will not tolerate personal attacks against myself. We are all human beings and will react when someone makes such false allegations.”

  • ‘Ahsan Iqbal should be hanged for 3 days’: Faisal Vawda

    ‘Ahsan Iqbal should be hanged for 3 days’: Faisal Vawda

    Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda had said on Monday that Ahsan Iqbal should be hanged for three days.

    In a tweet, Mr. Vawda said: “Ahsan Iqbal alias Aristotle alias hypocrite is a bigger thief than Nawaz Sharif. He should have been arrested first but he was caught so late. I will bring forward the list of his front companies and relatives. Their looting [corruption] has brought our country to the edge of destruction. Such people should be hanged for at least 3 days.”

    Read also: ‘If found dead, Musharraf’s corpse should be dragged to D-Chowk, hanged for three days’

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ahsan Iqbal was arrested on Monday by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in relation to the Narowal Sports City Complex case

    Ahsan Iqbal is accused of using funds of the federal government and the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) for a sports city being established in Narowal, which is a multi-billion-rupee project.

    Iqbal while speaking to the media before heading to NAB had said that when the PML-N came to power in 2013, he, as planning minister, had taken up several projects that were incomplete and sports city was one of them.

    He said that the funds spent on NSC were approved by the cabinet, parliament and the National Economic Council (NEC).

  • Rao Anwar blacklisted by the US

    Rao Anwar blacklisted by the US

    On International Human Rights’ Day, former Malir SSP Rao Anwar was blacklisted by the United States. Rao Anwar was blacklisted on Tuesday for engaging in “serious human rights abuse” by carrying out alleged fake police ‘encounters’ in which scores of individuals including Naqeebullah Mehsud were killed.

    Rao Anwar is among 18 individuals from six countries that the Trump administration has imposed economic sanctions on for suspected human rights violations.

    “During his tenure as the Senior Superintendent of Police in District Malir, Pakistan, Rao Anwar Khan (Anwar) was reportedly responsible for staging numerous fake police encounters in which individuals were killed by police, and was involved in over 190 police encounters that resulted in the deaths of over 400 people, including the murder of Naqeebullah Mehsood,” the US Treasury said in a statement.

    It said Rao Anwar “helped to lead a network of police and criminal thugs that were allegedly responsible for extortion, land grabbing, narcotics, and murder”.

    According to the press release, Rao Anwar has been designated “for being responsible for or complicit in, or having directly or indirectly engaged in, serious human rights abuse.”

  • Aurat March 2020 receives backlash on social media

    The poster Aurat
    March was met with rape and death threats after it was upload on social media
    last week.   

    Aurat March
    (women march) calls for women, transgender, and other suppressed gender groups
    to raise voice against injustice and deeply embedded patriarchy in our society.
    Unfortunately, within an hour of upload – the post was bombarded with crushing
    sexist and misogynist comments

    While talking to
    Express Tribune, the organizers said that they can take little action against
    such response on social media.

    “The maximum we
    can do is to report it on Facebook,” said the organizers adding, “We’ll stand
    for the cause and call out this unjust treatment – those who’re posting threats
    will not get away with all this.”

    The Aurat March
    team said that they are partnering with legal teams to tackle bullying and
    threats. 

    It is ironic that
    these people are getting uncomfortable because suppressed genders are demanding
    equal rights and better treatment in society, whereas when people like Khadim
    Hussain Rizvi outrageously abused and curse publically – the only concern for
    people is the inconvenience in traveling and day to day life.

  • ‘Wait four years for Buzdar to be replaced,’ PM tells CM’s foes in PTI

    ‘Wait four years for Buzdar to be replaced,’ PM tells CM’s foes in PTI

     Prime Minister Imran Khan made it clear that
    Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar will complete his time as he supported him
    in different meetings he lead at the CM Secretariat during his one-day visit to
    Lahore.

    According to the reports, during one of the meetings with members of the Punjab cabinet and MPAs at the CM Secretariat, the PM said that he knew everyone sitting in the meeting wanted to become the chief minister, but he would continue standing with CM Buzdar.

    “Those who want to replace Usman
    Buzdar should wait for the next four years,” said the prime minister.

    He said Buzdar was neither living in
    lavish houses nor spending Rs800 million per annum on his personal security.

    “The reforms implemented during the
    PTI government’s tenure have never happened before in Punjab. We need to hold
    seminars and publicize the reforms implemented in Punjab,” he said.

  • Right to appeal: Army Act to be amended for relief to Indian spy

    Right to appeal: Army Act to be amended for relief to Indian spy

    The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Isnaf (PTI) government has decided to amend the Army Act so as to allow Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav to appeal against his conviction on charges of espionage before a civilian court, Dunya News reported.

    Jadhav of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was arrested from Balochistan three years ago. In 2017, he was convicted by a military court in Pakistan and sentenced to death on charges of espionage and terrorism.

    The punishment was awarded by the Field General Court Martial (FGCM), a military court consisting of Pakistan Army officers.

    While Jadhav had confessed to working for the covert agency to destabilise Pakistan, India had rejected the charges and maintained that he was a former Indian Navy officer “kidnapped by Pakistani forces”.

    The Indian spy’s death sentence had later been challenged in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

    After a long battle, the court, in its verdict, had rejected a number of Indian demands, including the annulment of the military court’s decision, Jadhav’s release and safe passage to India.

    It had, however, directed Pakistan to provide appropriate remedies to the spy, such as providing him effective review and reconsideration of his conviction and sentences according to its own justice system.

    The Army Act forbids any individuals or groups being tried in a military court from filing an appeal and seeking justice from a civilian court, but a special amendment is now reportedly being made for Jadhav.

  • No conditions: Nawaz decides not to leave the country

    No conditions: Nawaz decides not to leave the country

    After the government announced earlier that former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif would be allowed to leave the country on ‘conditional permission’, Nawaz has refused to leave Pakistan.

    Sources claim that a one-and-a-half hour meeting took place between Nawaz and his brother Shahbaz Sharif at Nawaz’s residence where he took this decision.

    Analysts say the only course of action for the Sharifs is to take the case to court but that might take time. Since Nawaz’s doctors have stated that he is in immediate danger and needs to be treated abroad, going to court might be a difficult decision for the family.

    Nawaz’s departure is now unconfirmed and Geo News sources are claiming that an air ambulance has not been called for transporting Nawaz, as previously claimed by the media.

    On the other hand, the cabinet committee will officially announce tomorrow if Nawaz’s name has been taken off the exit control list. The decision will be announced at 10 am Wednesday morning.