Tag: The Current

  • Khan, Bushra Bibi get room coolers in jail

    Khan, Bushra Bibi get room coolers in jail

    Adiala jail administration has installed room coolers for founder Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to help them deal with the extreme heat in Rawalpindi.

    Prison sources also confirmed to The News that former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is incarcerated in Adiala jail in the cypher case, has also been provided with a room cooler.

    The jail administration has started providing additional facilities to inmates, including cold water and beverages, as well as extra water coolers that have also been installed throughout the jail premises.

    The Adiala jail administration affirmed that various measures have been put in place to protect inmates from the heat wave’s impact, as the weather in Islamabad and Rawalpindi is extremely hot.

  • NAB raids Bahria Town office Rawalpindi

    NAB raids Bahria Town office Rawalpindi

    A team of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has raided Bahria Town’s Rawalpindi office on Tuesday, initiating an investigation into irregularities in the property conglomerate.

    SAMAA TV reported that an investigation has been initiated on Bahria Enclave land, and the land, which was given by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for a zoo, is now under inspection. The anti-graft watchdog team raided the Bahria Town office in Rawalpindi to take records into custody.

    Informed sources told SAMAA that the NAB team stayed at the Bahria Town office for more than two hours, confiscating crucial data, including files of multiple housing projects and other important records.

    During the raid, the anti-graft watchdog team retrieved digital evidence and data from computers.

    Police officials and elite personnel were also with the NAB team during the raid.

    The NAB team will investigate the land of Bahria Enclave and wrongdoings in the attainment of all the lands of Bahria Town.

  • Kitany main parhi aaj ki chuti Pakistanion ko ?

    Kitany main parhi aaj ki chuti Pakistanion ko ?

    Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a public holiday today to celebrate Youm-e-Takbeer. Everything in the country is at a standstill, and the annual exams in schools have been delayed.

    Shehbaz Sharif announced the holiday to commemorate the day when Pakistan conducted a successful nuclear test in Chaghai in 1998.

    Provincial authorities postponed matriculation exams scheduled for today due to the public holiday.

    All government departments, educational institutions, the Stock Exchange, and courts are closed across the country due to the holiday.

    Pakistan, which is already suffering from inflation and has a stable economy, gets 120 public holidays annually. Due to a single day off, the national GDP faces a 1-2% loss, which equals more than Rs 100 billion.
    Economic analyst Khuram Shehzad said that a public holiday affects the national exchequer between $1.1 and $1.3 billion. He also added that the impact could be bigger if the holiday is “sudden.”

  • Israel supporters, including Piers Morgan, changing stance after Rafah massacre

    Israel supporters, including Piers Morgan, changing stance after Rafah massacre

    Israel’s bombing of refugee tents in Rafah on Sunday night left the world horrified. As videos and images of decapitated children, Palestinians burning alive and bodies reduced to char appeared on social media, a wave of outrage spread across the globe.

    Among those who publicly spoke up were many supporters of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including British television presenter Piers Morgan, who became a caricature of himself by continuously asking his pro- Palestinian panelists to “condemn Hamas”.

    On Sunday night, he tweeted, “The scenes from Rafah overnight are horrific.
    I’ve defended Israel’s right to defend itself after Oct7, but slaughtering so many innocent people as they cower in a refugee camp is indefensible.
    Stop this now @netanyahu”.

    Over in America, ‘free-speech activist’ Brianna Wu stopped her non-stop support of Israel to quote tweet Morgan’s tweet:
    “I agree with this.

    I said at the beginning that invading Rafah would be a mistake of historic proportions and would make it difficult for people to stand with Israel.

    None of this is going to make anyone safer.”

    As other Israel supporters scrambled to condemn the incident in Rafah, the internet was having none of it. Many reminded Piers of his complicity in the genocide.

    Even Andrew Tate popped up in the replies to simply say “Told you.”

  • KP, Centre agree to work together after long spat

    KP, Centre agree to work together after long spat

    The provincial government of Khyeber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the federal government have finally agreed to work together after months of heated arguments over arrears, deciding to put differences aside for the betterment of the people of Pakistan, Geo reported on Monday.

    The development came during a meeting in Islamabad between the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Ali Amin Gandapur and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. The Federal Minister for Energy, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, also attended the meeting.

    After that, they also held joint press conferences.

    Addressing a joint presser, following a “meaningful” dialogue, CM Gandapur said: “The federal and provincial institutions will work together. [We] will work together to remove the causes of line losses.”

    The federal government and the KP government are clashing and disagreeing over multiple issues. Power cuts in KP are one of the major reasons for the spats between the Centre and KP, with Gandapur even threatening to take control of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) due to excessive power outages in the province.

  • Hamad Azhar, Mian Aslam to lead PTI in Punjab: Omar Ayub

    Hamad Azhar, Mian Aslam to lead PTI in Punjab: Omar Ayub

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Omar Ayub said on Thursday that PTI founding chairman Imran Khan has given responsibility to PTI leaders, including Hamad Azhar and Mian Aslam, to lead the party in Punjab.

    While talking to journalists on Thursday outside Adiala jail, Omar Ayub revealed that Hamad Azhar and Mian Aslam met the founder PTI in Adiala jail, adding that the party trusts them and always backs them. He stated that Hamad Azhar and Mian Aslam are committed and loyal party workers.

    The opposition leader blamed Shehbaz Sharif’s government for the violence in Azad Kashmir.

  • Governor Punjab urges provincial government to review defamation bill 2024  

    Governor Punjab urges provincial government to review defamation bill 2024  

    Punjab Governor Sardar Salim Khan has called on the provincial government on Thursday to review the controversial Defamation Bill 2024 that the Punjab Assembly approved recently.

    While talking on the Geo News programme Capital Talk, the Governor said that the recently approved bill is not the final word and the provincial government needs to reconsider it.

    He also urged the Punjab government to remove objectionable clauses from the bill.

    Khan stated that he is ready to sit with all stakeholders to solve the issues regarding the bill, as it has sparked a storm in the entire country.

    On Monday, the Punjab Assembly passed the Punjab Defamation Bill 2024 amid a strong and noisy protest by the opposition after it was tabled by Punjab’s Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mujtaba Mian Shuja-ur-Rehman despite media bodies’ requests to defer the legislation.

    As per the constitution, the governor can send this bill back to the Punjab Assembly for reconsideration, and if the provincial government approves it again, it becomes law after a specific period of time, even if the governor doesn’t approve it.

  • UAE allocates $10 billion to expand investment in Pakistan

    UAE allocates $10 billion to expand investment in Pakistan

    The Prime Minister’s office announced on Thursday that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has allocated $10 billion to expand investment in Pakistan as the financially challenged country seeks foreign aid to maintain economic stability.

    The development came after yesterday’s meeting between UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and PM Shehbaz Sharif in Abu Dhabi, during the Pakistani Premier’s day-long visit to the UAE.

    The decision has been taken “to strengthen the Pakistani economy, support it, and enhance cooperation between the two countries”, UAE’s WAM news agency reported.

    In a statement, the government said: “President of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, made a commitment of investing US $10 billion in multiple sectors in Pakistan.”

    The government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is actively seeking investment from brotherly countries to deal with inflation and enhance the country’s financial stability.

  • PM Shehbaz arrives in UAE on important visit

    PM Shehbaz arrives in UAE on important visit

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif has reached the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a one-day-long visit to hold discussions with President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan regarding the shared interests of both countries.

    The vice president and Chairman of the Presidential Court of the UAE, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, received PM Shehbaz at the airport. Multiple individuals, including Pakistani Ambassador to the UAE Faisal Niaz Tirmizi and UAE Ambassador to Pakistan Hamad Obaid, were also present at the airport.

    This is Shehbaz Sharif’s first visit to the UAE after becoming prime minister of the country. Top federal ministers, including Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ataullah Tarar, and Special Assistant to Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi, are accompanying Shehbaz on his visit

  • Hammad Azhar reappears in public after months, escapes police arrest

    Hammad Azhar reappears in public after months, escapes police arrest

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Hammad Azhar reappeared in public on Wednesday after almost a year in hiding following a crackdown on PTI workers after the May 9 riots.

    “Yesterday, I received a message from Imran Khan that it’s time to come out of hiding,” said Azhar as he visited the PTI’s Central Secretariat office in Islamabad.

    The senior PTI leader said that he will go to Peshawar to get pre-arrest bail as he has multiple charges pending against him in connection with the May 9 violent protests that erupted last year after Imran Khan’s arrest in a corruption case.

    “All leaders, including Murad Saeed, will come out of hiding,” he added.

    After knowing about Azhar’s whereabouts, Islamabad police quickly encircled the party’s secretariat in the capital city to arrest him.

    However, the PTI leader managed to escape the party’s office before the police’s arrival.