Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari criticised Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and said that he is complaining about the institutions being neutral since undemocratic parties like his cannot win otherwise. Bilawal’s comments were in response to the allegations made by PTI after the first phase of local body elections held in Sindh.
“The beneficiaries of rigging are complaining before you. They cannot win. Imran Khan is complaining about our institutions being neutral since undemocratic parties like his cannot win otherwise. This is why today they are running a movement for our institutions to play a controversial role instead of a neutral and constitutional one,” said Bilawal addressing the National Assembly (NA) today (June 29).
“مخالفین کا ڈر یہ ہے کہ ادارے مداخلت نہیں کررہے، کیونکہ جب مداخلت نہیں ہوتی ہے تو پاکستان پیپلز پارٹی ہی جیتی ہے۔” وزیر خارجہ بلاول بھٹو زرداری@BBhuttoZardari 2/2 pic.twitter.com/pvI6MzI7gS
“Like Imran Khan, there are a few parties, politicians, and puppets in Sindh who are helped and made to come forward in a dictatorial rule. They were hoping, like Khan, for our institutions to not be neutral but controversial,” said the foreign minister.
“When our institutions started becoming neutral, be it the Election Commission, the courts, or other institutions who used to take interest in elections, these people started panicking,” said Bilawal.
Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain was found dead on Thursday at his residence. Aamir’s son Ahmed and daughter Dua Aamir refused the postmortem of their father. His funeral prayers will be held today.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday restrained the police from exhuming his body for a post-mortem examination to determine the “actual cause of his death”.
Following Hussain’s sudden death on June 9, the police had said an autopsy would be conducted but performed only a preliminary examination before relinquishing custody of the body to his family after they refused an autopsy. He was buried the following day.
His ex-wife Syeda Bushra Iqbal on Wednesday could not control her emotions and her eyes filled with tears after hearing the Sindh High Court’s ruling about suspending the orders for the exhumation of Hussain’s body for an autopsy.
In a video, Bushra Iqbal can be seen with tears in her eyes while standing with her daughter in the corridor of the SHC.
A two-member bench of the SHC suspended the judicial magistrate’s order. Aamir Liaquat’s children, Ahmed Aamir and Dua Aamir had moved the court against the order.
Last week, a Karachi judicial magistrate had ordered authorities to conduct a post-mortem on the televangelist’s body after which a six-member medical board was constituted for the purpose on June 23.
However, Hussain’s children, Ahmad and Duaa filed a petition in the SHC expressing that they were “aggrieved” and “dissatisfied” at the judicial magistrate’s “baseless and meritless” order and appealed for it to be dismissed.
When the news of the Aalim Online star’s demise surfaced, his third wife In a video message was seen weeping and pleading to “meet her husband for the last time”. She, however, asked the provincial government to “provide her security” so she could visit Karachi.
She further claimed that the couple was about to reconcile, adding that she had no idea that Hussain would “leave her behind” and bid farewell to the world.
Expressing her sorrows, Dania once again appealed to CM Punjab to allow her to be a part of Hussain’s last rites.
The PTI leader was found unconscious at his home in Khudad Colony in Karachi and was shifted to a private hospital in critical condition.
Hussain, 50, reportedly felt chest discomfort the night before but refused to go to the hospital. His employee, Javed, said he heard Hussain scream in the morning.
The TV personality’s domestic staff broke down his room’s door when they did not receive any reply from him. When rushed to the hospital, doctors said he had already passed away by the time he reached the facility.
He was found unresponsive at his house and was rushed to Aga Khan University Hospital.
The post-mortem examination of the politician was going to be conducted at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.
Liaquat had won the elections from National Assembly constituency NA-245 Karachi-I East-IV in 2018.
Earlier this year in April Liaquat was taken to the emergency room of a hospital in Karachi, when he complained of a heart ailment, with people speculating it was a heart attack.
A 32-year-old Hindu woman from a village in Chhachhro, Tharparkar, delivered a dead breech baby girl at a charity hospital on June 16.
Breech delivery is when a baby’s bottom comes out first during the delivery.
In Chhachhro the hospital staff tried to deliver the breech baby’s head for half an hour but failed. After failing to deliver the rest of the baby, the hospital staff cut off the head before the mother was sent to Mithi hospital. The procedure was done in the absence of a gynaecologist and female staffers. The woman was then taken to the Mithi district headquarters hospital, where she was advised to rush to Liaquat University of Medical & Health Sciences, Jamshoro (LUH), which was 220 km away from Mithi. Altogether, she had to travel 319 km with the baby’s head inside her womb.
According to the baby’s father, they had an X-ray taken from a hospital, where the doctor had told him that his wife would have an operation because the baby was upside down in the mother’s womb. According to him, the doctor also told him the date of delivery. He said that as soon as his wife’s condition deteriorated, he took her to a local midwife who said that she was not feeling well, after which he took his wife to the hospital.
In LUH, an abdomen surgery was performed on her and the baby’s head was taken out after 18 hours of back-to-back delivery pains. This was the woman’s fifth child who died during delivery.
Prof Dr Raheel Sikandar of LUH said that usually breech babies are delivered and they survive. According to him, the woman had a ruptured uterus.
“Healthcare providers [in Chhachhro] might have tried to save the baby, but in vain. The baby’s head was entrapped. In such breech baby cases, deaths occur in one minute if they are not fully delivered.”
“The baby’s buttocks and legs were fully developed, but unfortunately it was a dead breech baby,” Dr Sikandar added. However, the woman’s life has been saved. She is currently admitted to the gynecology unit of LUH.
The charity hospital in Chhachhro said that while the nurses were cleaning the patient, the dead baby’s torso detached from the neck because the neck had already been broken. They revealed that at the time they didn’t have any gynaecologist, which is why they could not operate. The hospital further claimed that the woman’s family was told to go to Mithi but they insisted on getting the treatment at the charity hospital, reports BBC Urdu.
Action taken by the authorities:
A notification issued by the Director-General (DG) Sindh Health on Saturday stated: “The fetus was not in a cephalic position. So the head got stuck after delivering the torso because the delivery was done by inexperienced hands.” DG Sindh Health said that an investigation has been started in which the statements of the staff of the missionary hospital have been recorded. An inquiry was also ordered by the provincial health secretary.
Pakistan has the highest infant mortality rate in South Asia. According to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the country reported 54 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
News of infant deaths and the non-availability of doctors in hospitals have been circulating in the media for the last decade in Tharparkar. Several times, this issue was brought up in the Supreme Court (SC), High Court, and the Sindh Assembly but all in vain.
The People’s Bus Service will be launched in Karachi and Larkana today. Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will inaugurate the bus service in both cities today (June 21). The bus service is being launched by the Sindh government.
In the initial phase, around 140 buses have been purchased for the service out of which 130 will be used in Karachi and 10 in Larkana.
The bus will operate on the following routes in Karachi:
— Sindh Information Department (@sindhinfodepart) June 20, 2022
Seats are also reserved for persons with disabilities and women on these buses. The ticket prices have yet to be announced by the Sindh government. However, according to unofficial reports, the government would establish a minimum and maximum tariff of Rs 25 and Rs55.
The Peoples’ Bus Service is a separate project from the network of Bus Rapid Transit lines.
The latest data from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) reveals that the number of 3G and 4G users grew by 1.14 million from 112.75 million in April 2022 to 113.89 million in May 2022.
Pakistan’s cellular subscriber base grew by 0.25 million to 193 million by the end of May 2022, up from 192.75 million at the end of April, according to Brecorder.
By the end of May, cellular mobile teledensity had risen from 87.6 per cent to 87.67 per cent. By the end of May, the total teledensity had risen to 88.81 per cent, up from 88.74 per cent in April.
The monthly penetration of Next Generation Mobile Services (NGMS) at the end of April had risen to 51.73 per cent, up from 51.24 per cent.
Network providers
The total number of 3G users on Jazz fell from 6.222 million at the end of April to 6.068 million at the end of May, a reduction of 0.154 million. By the end of May, the number of Jazz 4G users had risen from 36.567 million to 37.168 million.
Zong 3G subscribers fell from 3.357 million at the end of April to 3.272 million at the end of May, while 4G users grew from 27.952 million at the end of April to 28.317 million at the end of May.
Telenor 3G subscribers fell from 3.696 million at the end of April to 3.613 million at the end of May, whereas Telenor 4G users enhanced from 21.216 million at the end of April to 21.494 million at the end of May.
By the end of May, there were 3.576 million Ufone 3G users, up from 3.673 million at the end of April. Ufone’s 4G users increased from 8.761 million at the end of April to 9.052 million at the end of May, a 0.291 million increase over the previous month.
The government has proposed allocating Rs699 billion to multiple sectors in order to provide relief to the masses during the new fiscal year 2022-23.
According to budget estimates, the government plans to boost subsidies by Rs17 billion to Rs699 billion for the next fiscal year, up from Rs682 billion in the previous fiscal year.
The government has reduced power sector subsidies by Rs26 billion to Rs570 billion for the next fiscal year, down from Rs596 billion in the previous fiscal year and proposed increasing the total subsidy for the power sector for PEPCO by Rs18 billion to Rs275 billion. The budget 2022-23 proposed reducing the subsidy amount for K-Electric by Rs5 billion to Rs80 billion.
Moreover, subsidies for Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are slashed by Rs39 billion to Rs215 billion for the coming fiscal year.
The amount of petroleum subsidy has been upped from Rs51 billion to Rs71 billion. During the next fiscal year, the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) will receive a Rs17 billion subsidy. PASSCO will also receive Rs7 billion subsidy.
During the next fiscal year, Rs8 billion has been set aside for wheat subsidies to Gilgit-Baltistan. For the coming fiscal year, the subsidy for the metro bus service has been increased to Rs4 billion. Similarly, the fertiliser plant subsidy has been increased to Rs15 billion.
The new government has reduced the Naya Pakistan Housing and Development Authority (NAPHDA) subsidy amount to Rs500 million for the next fiscal year, down from Rs30 billion in the previous fiscal year. NAPHDA’s markup subsidy has also been reduced, from Rs.3 billion to Rs.500 million for the coming fiscal year.
In an attempt to lessen the impact of inflation, the government is considering raising salaries by 5 to 15 per cent in the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, according to The News, following the Pay and Pension Commission’s inability to submit a report ahead of the next budget, which led to the prime minister’s decision to grant another extension.
The deadline for submitting the Commission’s recommendation is being extended to June 30, 2022, as per a statement released by the Finance Division.
According to top official sources, the former PTI-led government gave a 15 per cent allowance to officials in grades 1 to 19, effective March 1, 2022.
The new Shehbaz Sharif-led administration, on the other hand, pledged a 10 per cent rise in the pension and a 25,000-per-month minimum wage.
A Finance Ministry official stated that in the future budget, pay for grades 1 to 19 may be boosted by another 5-10 per cent as an adhoc allowance. Employees in grades 20 to 22 could see a pay raise of 10 per cent to 15 per cent.
In addition, due to increased inflationary pressures, the government may boost pensions by 5-10 per cent. The Regulation Wing of the Ministry of Finance has completed its internal work in this regard. It was also resolved to form a Pay and Pension Commission, which would make recommendations.
The commission was established by the PTI-led government in April 2020, and its chairman was former Secretary of Finance Abdul Wajid Rana. He resigned, however, and former bureaucrat Nargis Sethi was named Chairperson of the Pay and Pension Commission. She later quit as well.
The Pay and Pension Commission was then chaired by Zafar Ahmed Khan, who was chosen by the government. So far, the commission has requested two extensions but has yet to present its recommendations.
The text box was included in the Pay and Pension Commission’s terms of reference, which included studying the adequacy of the existing basic pay scale system and evaluating the current salaries of government employees.
It also includes making recommendations for streamlining existing classification from BPS 1-22, studying the separation of existing basic pay scales for dedicated departments, occupations/cadres, reviewing special scales such as management grades, management position scales (MP Scales), special professional pay scales (SPPS); project pay scales, and proposing measures for uniformity and improvement, reviewing admissible regular allowances, special incentives, and all other supplementary pay scales.
The panel was tasked with identifying current shortcomings in the Pension Scheme and making recommendations for a corrective revision along with ensuring the current model’s long-term viability and recommending a system with clear timelines that is more efficient and sustainable given the available resources.
The Sindh government has issued a warning to car owners who have not paid their taxes. The Excise, Taxation, and Narcotics Control (ET&NC) Department has been conducting a road inspection for more than a week now. Authorities have inspected a total of 21,303 vehicles across the province.
A total of 1,358 automobiles were seized for various reasons, with the paperwork of 1,958 vehicles also being confiscated during the road check, according to The News.
Mukesh Kumar Chawla, the provincial minister in charge of (ET&NC), has planned a tax-collecting campaign. He went on to say that the campaign will run until June 3, after which the government will take action against automobiles that have not paid their taxes.
Kumar issued a statement urging citizens to pay their taxes as soon as possible. Meanwhile, authorities claim to have recovered over Rs252 million in taxes from non-compliant car owners.
The authorities had collected about Rs21.4 million in taxes from the car owners by the fourth day. Chawla has directed that non-compliant car owners be dealt with harshly by the authorities.
Keeping in view the meteorological department’s prognosis of a heatwave for the coming week, the Punjab government issued an advisory on Friday, requesting that all relevant ministries in the province take steps to mitigate the effects of the heat.
The provincial and district crisis management agencies have been activated across the province to avert health-related occurrences, according to Punjab Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal, who issued an advisory to several ministries.
Hospitals and the emergency service Rescue 1122 have also been placed on high alert, he said. For sensitive areas, temporary water-drinking sites and early reaction centers, according to the chief secretary, should be erected. He urged individuals to take all necessary precautions to protect themselves from the heatwave and to heed the health department’s advice.
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has already issued a warning for severe heatwave conditions in upper, central, and southern Punjab during the next week.
From May 15, a high-pressure system is expected to hold the upper atmosphere, according to the Met Office.
Day temperatures are expected to rise to 7-9 degrees Celsius above normal owing to the high pressure in upper Punjab, and 6-8 degrees Celsius beyond average in the central and south Punjab, during the heatwave.
On May 30, the Sindh government will finally launch the Rescue 1122 service in Karachi, which would provide emergency aid to those in need.
The approval was announced at a briefing held on Thursday at the Sindh Secretariat, with Sindh Chief Secretary Dr Muhammad Sohail Rajput in the chair. The initiative to open the trauma center and Rescue 1122 service in Larkana would also be finished by May 30, according to relevant officials.
Later on, the service would be expanded to include the province’s other divisions. The meeting resolved that on the motorway and the Indus Highway, fire engines and ambulances would be available every 50 kilometers.
Once the ambulance service is established under the Rescue 1122 service, the fire department would follow suit. Barrister Murtaza Wahab, the Administrator of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and Adviser to the Sindh Chief Minister on Law, said that a fleet of 50 ambulances will begin operating in Karachi on May 30 as part of the Rescue 1122 service.
According to him, the Sindh government chose to introduce the rescue service in Karachi after improving the city’s civic infrastructure and transportation amenities. Under the rescue plan, he said, a quick response centre would be constructed in the city every 10 kilometres.
Meanwhile, another meeting, chaired by the Sindh chief secretary, resolved to enlist the help of the Sindh police and Rangers to combat wheat hoarding and smuggling in the state.
