Tag: topnews

  • Buzdar-led Punjab govt’s tax collection jumps 44%

    Buzdar-led Punjab govt’s tax collection jumps 44%

    Chief Miniter (CM) Sardar Usman Buzdar-led Punjab government has registered a 44% growth to Rs77 billion of tax collection in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year, The Express Tribune reported.

    According to the details, the Finance Department on Monday held a review meeting during which Finance Minister Makhdoom Hashim Jawan Bakht briefed the members about the performance of the provincial government.

    The meeting was told that despite the financial backlog left by the previous government, the incumbent government gave a surplus budget of Rs233 billion in order to meet financial requirements of the federal government to comply with conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme.

    Meeting participants also noted that a revenue collection target of Rs388 billion was fixed for Punjab for the fiscal year 2019-20, which was 44% higher than the previous fiscal year.

  • Deadman wakes up during final rites

    Deadman wakes up during final rites

    55-year-old Simanach
    Mallick presumed dead by his family members but he suddenly woke up before his
    cremation in India.

    As per reports, villagers rushed Simanach Mallick to the nearby community health center of the district after he woke up ahead of the cremation in the village. His condition was stated to be stable after treatment.

     Reports reveal that Mallick had gone to graze
    goats on Saturday but he did not return home, even though the animals returned
    on their own. When his family members and villagers searched for him, they
    found him unconscious at farmland.

    Apparently, instead of
    taking him to hospital, his neighbors and family members assumed that he was
    dead and so decided to carry out his last rites.

     Following the completion of funeral rites when
    Simanchal’s kin lit the pyre, he suddenly woke up, shocking mourners and all
    others present at the spot. Soon after the incident, Simanchal was rushed to
    Sorada Community Health Centre (CHC) where he underwent treatment. His health
    condition is stated to be stable now.

    The man had fallen
    unconscious due to high fever and weakness and his condition has improved after
    getting proper treatment, said a doctor who attended him. He was later
    discharged.

    Happy to see her
    husband alive, Mallick’s wife Soli regretted that as she did not take him to
    the hospital before presuming him dead.

  • KP girl becomes first woman PAF fighter pilot from province

    KP girl becomes first woman PAF fighter pilot from province

    Kainat Junaid has become the first woman from Khyber Pakthunkhwa (KP) to be selected for fighter pilot training in Pakistan Air Force (PAF), The Express Tribune reported Monday.

    According to reports, hailing from Lower Dir’s Balambat area, Kainat not only secured the top position in PAF’s test for GD pilot, but also became Pakistan’s first female fighter pilot to serve the country alongside her father.

    Kainat cleared her matric examinations by obtaining 1,030 marks from PAF College Badaber and aced her intermediate exams by obtaining 937 marks from Jinnah College, Peshawar.

    Kainat’s father, Squadron Leader Ahmed Junaid, has said that his longstanding desire of watching his daughter become a fighter pilot has been fulfilled.

    “I am so proud of my daughter… she is inspired by Marium Mukhtar, the first female pilot of PAF who sacrificed her life in the line of duty and embraced martyrdom,” he added.

    Flying Officer Marium Mukhtiar was a PAF fighter pilot who lost her life after her PAF FT-7PG aircraft crashed near Kundian in Mianwali district on November 24, 2015.

  • VIDEO: ‘Even my mother-in-law was looted in Karachi,’ regrets Sindh IG

    VIDEO: ‘Even my mother-in-law was looted in Karachi,’ regrets Sindh IG

    A video of Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kaleem Imam regretting how his own family members, including his in-laws, have also been looted in Karachi, is going viral over the internet.

    “My mother-in-law was looted… my nephews were looted, my sister and brother were also looted, but I am still smiling in front of you,” the IGP can be heard as saying in the video of his address at a seminar on community policing in Karachi.

    “Just imagine how my married life would be after my mother-in-law was forced to give up her jewelry,” he said, adding that unemployment and illiteracy were to be blamed for street crime in the port city.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://youtu.be/fAd89B2JuSo

    The IGP then claimed that police have largely overcome the menace of serious crimes in Karachi and it was now working hard to eliminate street crime.

    According to a recent survey, at least 31 people have been killed and 282 injured while resisting robberies in Karachi so far this year.

  • Pakistan Railways continues charging dams fund on train tickets

    Pakistan Railways continues charging dams fund on train tickets

    Despite setbacks and disinterest of the people in contributing to the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams fund, Pakistan Railways (PR) is continuing to charge passengers with a surcharge of up to Rs10 on all tickets.

    As per the details, the said surcharge was implemented by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in September last year so as to collect money for the construction of dams while fearing a water crisis in the near future.

    PR had earlier decided to increase fares for all classes to contribute to the fund and the surcharge on tickets was imposed on the directives of Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed.

    The authorities had decided to charge Rs1 on Rs100 economy class tickets and Rs2 on tickets worth more than Rs100. An additional amount of Rs10 is being charged on air-conditioned class tickets as no category has been exempted from the surcharge.

  • Fazl offered ‘tempting political package’ to call off Azadi March

    Fazl offered ‘tempting political package’ to call off Azadi March

    Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has rejected a “tempting political package” offered to call off his upcoming anti-government ‘Azadi March’, The Current learnt Saturday.

    The right-wing political party leader and a vocal critic of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, has announced taking to the roads of the capital on October 31 against the incumbent government’s “selection to power” after “fake election”.

    With the announcement stirring up the country’s dormant political scene overnight and forcing the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to devise a counter-strategy against the challenge, sources have informed The Current of a covert offer recently made to Fazl.

    “Maulana [Fazl] was offered a tempting political package to call off his upcoming protest,” they said.

    Refusing to answer this scribe’s queries pertaining to the details of the offer, sources said that while some leaders had urged the JUI-F chief to consider it, others, including Fazl himself, were against striking any deals and his refusal had also led to “threats from certain quarters”.

    “But the threats didn’t deter him, in fact, he is more determined than ever. The main reason behind his determination remains the fact that the people trying to convince him have backstabbed him in the past.”

    “This is why Fazl has now told the people urging him to call off the march to fulfil their promises first,” sources added.

    To a question pertaining to the motive behind the offer, they said, “Maybe the ruling party fears that opposition will resort to actions similar to those carried out by its workers and leaders during its infamous 126-day siege led by Imran [Khan].”

    “But Maulana has clarified that it will be a peaceful campaign as he doesn’t want any clashes with state institutions.”

    Sources also quoted Fazl as saying that he was ready to join hands with any political leader except PM Imran. “Maulana told this to a close aide of the premier because he believes Imran has made their rivalry a personal one,” they said, adding that PTI government’s actions towards the JUI-F chief and his companions had also played a major role in it.

    ‘NO COMPROMISES NOW’:

    Speaking to The Current, Fazl’s brother and JUI-F Senator Attaur Rehman said that the party had given the federal government an August deadline to step down some three months back, but the warning wasn’t taken seriously.

    “Fazl had demanded Imran Khan to step down or be ready for a long march to Islamabad. Now we’re all set for it,” he said.

    Adding that he was not aware of any offers being made to his party chief, Rehman further said that the government had lost its chance to strike a deal. “We won’t make any compromises now.”

    AZADI MARCH:

    Voicing his concerns against the alleged rigging that marred the country’s last general election, Fazl has announced staging a sit-in at D-Chowk in the federal capital’s red zone — the same place where Imran had demonstrated for five months against then PM Nawaz Sharif in 2014.

    Fazl was earlier approached by leaders of the two major opposition parties — Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) — and requested to postpone the lockdown plan and Azadi March till November, but he has made it clear that it was not his individual decision and he was obliged to stand by that of JUI-F’s Central Working Committee.

    The march — earlier scheduled for October 27 — will now be held three days later on October 31 as according to Fazl, his party would now join Kashmiris in observing the previously announced date as black day in protest against the Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.

  • ‘Women on Wheels’ to launch in Sindh

    ‘Women on Wheels’ to launch in Sindh

    In a bid to encourage women to use bicycles as a mode of transport, the ‘Women On Wheels’ campaign was officially launched in Punjab in 2016. What started with only 40 cyclists in Punjab, has now expanded and ready to make its way to Sindh before the rest of Pakistan.

    The project was originally an initiative of the Government of Punjab. It began with only 40 women and within a year the number of female motorists grew to thousands. All of them undertook complete training with the collaboration Unit on Law & Order and City Traffic Police.

    The initiative also included training women to get motorcycle driving licenses, distribution of pink scooters and pushing for support through civil society. The late Asma Jahangir was among the prominent public figures supporting the project.

    As its success grew and women in Punjab felt confident riding motorbikes on roads, Sindh is planning to adopt the project.

    With the project relaunch nationwide, it has not yet been revealed if the measures for implementation will remain the same.

    Salman Sufi, who spearheaded the initiative, also took to Twitter to share that he is relaunching the project in the coming month and that he hopes that PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will support it in Sindh.

  • VIDEO: Sheikh Rasheed claims discussing ‘nuclear attack’ with ISPR chief

    VIDEO: Sheikh Rasheed claims discussing ‘nuclear attack’ with ISPR chief

    Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed has claimed having discussed with Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Major General Asif Ghafoor what “fireworks” to use and when.

    “In Beijing, I told [the] ISPR DG that I wittingly made the statement regarding the use of quarter or half kilogram fireworks when the time comes,” he said while speaking to journalists on Saturday.

    The minister had earlier warned India that Pakistan “even has small nuclear bombs weighing 125-250 grams”, which can hit and destroy targeted areas.

    “We know if we want to use our 1-inch, 2-inch or half an inch [atomic bombs],” the minister had said last month, leaving netizens all cracked up.

    “My information is more accurate than most of the people… and Pakistan doesn’t want war. But I stand by my words that it would be the last war. I told Asif Ghafoor that I understand better as to what is to be said in public,” he said Saturday.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    He further said that the nation cannot remain silent while Indian atrocities continue in held Kashmir. “We’re standing with Kashmiris. Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan is standing with Kashmiris and so are the country’s armed forces.”

    “India committed two blunders. The first one was carrying out atomic explosions while presuming that Pakistan would not do so and secondly, it scrapped special status of Kashmir on August 5 this year, believing Kashmiris won’t react”, the minister had said last month.

    His statements had come as tensions started to soar on either side of the border ever since New Delhi on August 5 revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution, robbing the people of the troubled valley of their autonomous state.

    India has since kept Kashmir under lockdown.

  • Man sentenced to eight years for sharing indecent photos of ex-fiancée

    Man sentenced to eight years for sharing indecent photos of ex-fiancée

    A cyber-crime court has handed an eight-year sentence to a man for posting his ex-fiancée’s indecent photos on social media and directed him to pay Rs500,000 in damages.

    As per reports, the case had been registered by the woman in the FIA’s cyber-crime wing. During the hearing, the woman told the court that she had been engaged to the suspect Sajjad two years ago but the engagement broke off after her family learnt about his criminal history. Sajjad, in anger, forced her to come to his house where he took pictures of her without clothes and then blackmailed her with them.

    The suspect
    threatened to kill her, post her indecent pictures on social media, and make
    them viral on the Internet.

    Later, when the woman got married to another man, Sajjad uploaded the same pictures on Facebook and shared them with her husband as well as her relatives, resulting in her marriage to end.

    Sajjad was sentenced eight-year jail and fine of Rs 500,000 in accordance with Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.

  • ‘PTI illegally amassed $3 million from offshore firms in 2014,’ founding member

    ‘PTI illegally amassed $3 million from offshore firms in 2014,’ founding member

    A founding member of the Pakistan Tehreeke Insaf (PTI) party, Akbar S. Babar, had filed a case in 2014, alleging that the party had collected nearly $3 million in illegal foreign funds through two offshore companies, Dawn reported.

    Akbar alleged that money was sent through illegal ‘hundi’ channels from the Middle East to certain accounts of “PTI employees” and that the foreign accounts used to collect the funds were not mentioned in the annual audit reports submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

    For investigation in this matter, a scrutiny committee was formed in March last year to complete an audit of PTI’s funding sources in one month. Its mandate was later extended for an indefinite period.

    After the beginning of the probe, PTI submitted four applications to the ECP seeking secrecy during the scrutiny of its foreign funding sources.

    However, the ECP rejected all four applications of PTI and instructed the scrutiny committee to continue its work and instructed PTI representatives to appear before the committee on Oct 14.

    Foreign Funding Case

    Akbar S. Babar had filed the foreign funding case before the ECP in 2014 after he developed differences with PTI Chairman Imran Khan over alleged internal corruption and abuse of laws governing political funding.

    For over a year, the proceedings of the case were delayed in the ECP as the PTI had filed a writ petition in October 2015 in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking to restrain the ECP from scrutinising its accounts.

    Later in February 2017, the IHC had remanded the case back to the ECP for a fresh review of its jurisdiction. On May 8 of the same year, a full bench of the ECP had once again declared its complete jurisdiction over the matter and stated that the PTI had failed to produce any evidence that the petitioner had been expelled from the party and hence lost the right to question the PTI’s accounts.

    In March 2018, a scrutiny panel had been formed to look into PTI’s foreign funding accounts to search for any wrongdoing.