Tag: Top News

  • Khan says won’t believe Azam called US cypher ‘Khan’s conspiracy’ until he hears Azam say it himself

    Khan says won’t believe Azam called US cypher ‘Khan’s conspiracy’ until he hears Azam say it himself

    Azam Khan, the former principal secretary of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief’s “cypher drama” was a preplanned conspiracy, Geo News has reported.

    Azam Khan has been ‘missing’ since last month, however, he recorded a statement under CrPC 164 before a magistrate on Wednesday, damaging Imran’s claims that he was ousted through a US orchestrated by Donald Lu, a senior officer of the Biden administration.

    PTI’s government was removed via a vote of no confidence last year in April. The then Prime Minister alleged on March 27, 2022, that Washington planned the movement to remove him from office and used the so-called cypher to back his claims. The US has repeated denied his accusations.

    Later, Khan changed his story, accusing former Chief of Army Staff, General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa of conspiring to remove him.

    Azam Khan also confessed that when he provided Imran with the cypher, he was very happy and labelled the language a “US blunder”.

    The ex-prime minister then said, according to Azam, that the cable could be used for “creating a narrative against the establishment and opposition”.

    It is also mentioned in the confession that Imran Khan told his principal secretary that the cypher could be used to divert the public’s attention towards “foreign involvement” in the no-confidence motion.

    Azam Khan states that when he told Imran Khan that the cypher had secret content and could not be disclosed in a public gathering, the former prime minister suggested a strategy.

    He said that Imran called a meeting, which included then-foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and then-foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood, who would tell him the minutes of the meeting as the PTI chief had lost the original copy of the cable.

    Reacting to the sensational disclosure of his once most trusted officer, Imran Khan said on Wednesday that Azam Khan is an honest man and he will not believe any statement until he hears everything from Azam himself.

  • National Assembly will be dissolved in August; PPP, PML-N agree

    National Assembly will be dissolved in August; PPP, PML-N agree

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the two major political parties in the ruling coalition, have agreed to dissolve the National Assembly on August 8, Geo News has reported.

    However, Information Minister Mariyum Aurangzeb has tweeted that the date of the dissolution of the National Assembly has not been decided yet.

    “The date [of dissolution] will be decided in consultation with the PDM and other allied parties. The decision on the date of dissolution of the National Assembly will be officially announced,” she added.

    The National Assembly is completing its tenure on August 12 at midnight, but it seems like the lower house is going to be dissolved before time. According to sources, August 9 and 10 also came under discussion, but both major political parties agreed on August 8 to dissolve the National Assembly.

    “A general election to the National Assembly or a provincial assembly shall be held within a period of sixty days immediately following the day on which the term of the assembly is due to expire, unless the Assembly has been sooner dissolved,” Article 224 of the Constitution states.

    In the previous week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had said, “Next month, our government will complete its tenure. We will leave before the completion of our tenure, and an interim government will come”.

  • Judge in Toshakhana case denies he posted against Imran Khan on his Facebook page

    Judge in Toshakhana case denies he posted against Imran Khan on his Facebook page

    Justice Humayun, the judge presiding over the Toshakhana trial, has disowned anti Imran Khan posts made on his Facebook page when he was sensationally shown the social media material by the former Prime Minister’s lawyers.

    Imran Khan’s lawyer, Gohar Ali, showed the Facebook posts in court to argue that the Judge should not be hearing the case. In reply, Justice Humayun admitted that the Facebook page was his, however, he denied making the posts.

    He also asked the PTI lawyer if he thought that a judicial inquiry should be made about the Facebook posts.

    Gohar Ali replied that it was upto the judge to send the posts through a judicial inquiry, but stressed that it was appropriate if the court did not continue to hear the case.

    The court reserved it’s verdict on the plea as well as another plea by Imran Khan to exempt him from in-person hearings.

  • Ready to hold elections in 60 or 90 days: ECP Secretary

    Ready to hold elections in 60 or 90 days: ECP Secretary

    Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Umar Hamid has said while talking to SAMAA TV that ECP is ready to hold election in 90 or 60 days after the end of the tenure of the coalition government.

    The ECP secretary said that holding election in 60 or 90 days is a prerequisite of the constitution of Pakistan.
    “ECP has been trying to hold polls, whether the assemblies are dissolved or complete their term,” he added.

    He further added that “The government will tell whether the assemblies will complete their term or not.”

  • Caretaker prime minister should be a politician: Qamar Zaman Kaira

    Caretaker prime minister should be a politician: Qamar Zaman Kaira

    Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said on Monday that the incoming caretaker prime minister should be a politician, adding that political people should be in political offices.

    The PPP leader gave the statement after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that the government’s tenure is going to end next month, in August 2023.

    He also said, if the national assembly dissolves before time, then the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will fix a date in the next 90 days for general elections. On the other hand, if the government completes its tenure, the Election Commission of Pakistan will be bound to conduct an election in 60 days.

    The senior PPP leader has said that political offices can only be run by politicians.

    He added that the most elevated political office of the country is that of prime minister. “If a judge, general, bureaucrat, technocrat, journalist, or any corporate sector employee is appointed to it, it will be a disgrace to the post and cannot work.”

    He further asked, “Can I be appointed, on the seat of a judge in a high court or the Supreme Court is vacant? How will I be able to do justice there?”

  • Defiant Pervez Khattak forms political party, names it ‘PTI Parliamentarians’

    Defiant Pervez Khattak forms political party, names it ‘PTI Parliamentarians’

    Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s once-trusted aide Pervez Khattak has formed a new party ‘Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Parliamentarians’, Geo News has reported.

    The former Chief Minister announced the name of his party days after being thrown out of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for allegedly asking members to ditch the party.

    According to the sources in The News, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan has also joined PTI Parliamentarians. According to the report, 57 ex-assembly members have joined the party.

    Former provincial ministers have also joined the new party, in which Ishtiaq Armar and Shaukat Ali are included.

    Khattak was largely credited for forming a PTI government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in 2013, becoming a powerful chief executive of the province and jump starting Imran Khan’s eventual ascent to the Prime Minister’s office in 2018.

    However, the mercurial politician had often been at odds with his party head, most notably when the two clashed in 2018 after Imran Khan chose Mahmood Khan to head the province.

  • PTI should also be taken into confidence over electoral reforms: Shah Mahmood Qureshi

    PTI should also be taken into confidence over electoral reforms: Shah Mahmood Qureshi

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said on Monday that his party was not being taken into confidence over electoral reforms, emphasizing that PTI is an important stakeholder.

    In a media talk, he said that “Section 9 of the Election Act 2017 is very vague.”
    Criticising the leading government coalition party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Qureshi said the party is suffering from instability.
    “The PTI chairman and former Prime Minister Imran Khan has gotten relief from the courts despite the fact that the government is fabricating cases against him,” he said.
    Speaking on the matter of dissolving the National Assembly, Quershi remarked: “It seems that the government is leaning towards 90-day elections. However, the date of the election has to be been given by the Election Commission of Pakistan.”

  • Orangi Town trolls Mayor of Karachi for claiming Jahangir Road storm water drainage has been completed

    Orangi Town trolls Mayor of Karachi for claiming Jahangir Road storm water drainage has been completed

    On Saturday, the Mayor of Karachi, Murtaza Wahab, published a tweet claiming that work on the storm water drain of Jahangir Road had been completed, and now contractors are beginning the construction phase of the road itself. 

    However, the tweet read that road work would not be finalised and that the storm water train would be ‘tested’ during the oncoming expected rain before a final binder takes place.

    It didn’t take long for the Orangi Town Twitter to clap back with its response: “It’s time to do the test, why is Murtaza bhai making a fool of the public? Now when this road sinks, you’ll say we were only testing it.” 

    Many Twitter users chimed in with similar opinions.

    One account tweeted, “Testing the drainage or [testing] public patience? This road has been in poor condition for ages. But now you have the plausible deniability, have to give it to you.”

    Another one added, “I hope the root of issue was solved or else it will be the same after a month just like at NIPA, where you posted pictures too.”

    Jahangir Road has for years been subject to terrible conditions, with poor drainage systems leading water to inundate the 1.5 kilometre long road, triggering terrible congestion as well as accidents. 

    Many residents complain that Jahangir Road is practically inundated the entire year, according to Geo News.

  • Police arrest suspect behind rape at Islamabad’s Margalla hill hiking trail 

    Police arrest suspect behind rape at Islamabad’s Margalla hill hiking trail 

    Islamabad police have on Sunday arrested the suspect involved in the alleged rape of a woman that took place on trail 3 of the capital’s Margalla Hills.

    Last week Friday, the Islamabad police registered a first information report (FIR) after a woman complained that a man had lured her with a job prospect before raping her at gunpoint on Thursday afternoon. 

    According to the FIR, the complainant had been looking for a job and received a message via WhatsApp from a person around two months ago, Dawn reports.

    “He told me he was an accountant in the education department, where some vacancies were available,” the victim is quoted as saying in the FIR. In return for a job, the man asked for Rs50,000. 

    After some correspondence, where the victim met the suspect and provided him with her curriculum vitae and Rs30,000, saying she would pay the remaining 20,000 once she received a written order of employment.

    Under the guise of picking up the victim for a job interview, the suspect drove her to Margalla Hills’ trail 3, where the victim said she was taken to the jungle and raped at gunpoint around 3pm. 

    In a statement issued on Sunday, the Islamabad Police said it was successful in arresting the suspect after a three-day effort, adding that they arrested the man on ‘technical bases’, claiming the victim was not assisting the police in the investigation. 

    Statement issued by Islamabad Police via Twitter.

    Moreover, they said that the investigation is taking place ‘on merit’, citing the victim’s medical report in which apparently no evidence of abuse was found. 

    Furthermore, the statement reveals the complainant and the accused knew each other. However, Islamabad Police asserted that all aspects of the case will be investigated.

  • Ulema are not allowing Zakat funds to be spent on the education of the needy: Shehbaz

    Ulema are not allowing Zakat funds to be spent on the education of the needy: Shehbaz

    Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addressed a ceremony at the National University of Technology, Islamabad, and said that the government faces hurdles in using Zakat funds to spend on the education of the needy as the Ulema had issues with using these funds for educational purposes.

    Shehbaz Sharif also said that if the Zakat funds can’t be used for the education of the needy students, then what is the logic in spending this money on other necessities for the students.

    The prime minister also said that if we want to progress, we should not create issues over very small things.

    Addressing the ceremony, Shehbaz Sharif also mentioned that the promotion of skilled and technical education should be a priority.

    He further stated that technical education is the key to the success of any country.