A day earlier, the board announced names of the top position holders. Danish Athar clinched the overall first position in both sciences and humanities groups by scoring 1,092 marks out of 1,100.
Anoosha Zikriya, Syed Hassan Abbas and Muhammad Affan Amir shared the second position with 1,090 marks each and Saba Iqbal and Saira Hayyat shared the third position.
A prize-distribution ceremony in the honour of the position holders will also be held today at a local hotel where Provincial Minister for Higher Education Raja Yasir Humayun Sarfraz will be the chief guest.
As car sales drop amid rising prices due to the imposition of higher taxes and rupee depreciation, Honda Atlas Cars Pakistan (HACP) has halted production in the country for 10 days, Dawn reported Saturday.
According to reports, HACP shut down its plant for 10 days as its inventories piled up to 2,000 units while Indus Motor Company (IMC), which produces Toyota models in Pakistan, has also decided to stop car production for eight days, two days every week, during this month.
The report quoted HACP and IMC executives as saying that their decision to scale down production during July was informed by plummeting sales in the first 10 days of the month.
“Our inventories from the last month and the first 10 days of July have grown rapidly because of the steep increase in car prices after currency devaluation as well as the imposition of Advance Customs Duty (ACD) on all our imports and Federal Excise Duty (FED) on assembled cars,” an HACP senior executive said.
“It has left us with no option but to shut down the plant to cut production. If the present trend holds, we expect our sales to drop to less than 30,000 units this business year (April 2019-March 2020) from over 48,000 units last year.”
An IMC official also gave the same reasons for “observing eight no-production days” during July. The executive, however, did not give the size of inventory the company has built so far, saying the production cuts could increase next month if sales do not pick up.
Members of Senate Standing Committee on Narcotics Control have doubted the government’s version that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Rana Sanaullah had 15 kilograms of drugs worth Rs220 million in his car, Dawn reported.
Sanaullah was arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) earlier this month after the stash was discovered in his vehicle while travelling via the Faisalabad-Lahore Motorway.
Protesting against the apprehension, members of opposition parties condemned the episode as they argued that the MNA was arrested without any allegation and case against him. They termed it the “worst example of lawlessness and political revenge”.
“There is a general scare that anyone can plant drugs in anyone’s car. The matter has been hushed up. We want to know exact details of the case of Rana Sanaullah’s arrest,” said PML-N Senator Saleem Zia, who raised the issue during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Narcotics Control on Friday.
“Why would a politician and a former law minister be carrying drugs with him and that too in such huge quantities?” Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Anwar Lal Dean asked senior officials from the Narcotics Ministry and the ANF.
While the senators implied that the drugs were planted in Sanaullah’s car, ANF Director General (DG) Major General Mohammad Arif Malik urged them to not make assumptions.
“The minister for narcotics has already given a briefing on the matter. It would be unreasonable to assume that drugs were planted on him [Sanaullah]. Members should either come forward with proof that he was framed or believe the version of the ANF that drugs were recovered from him,” he was quoted as saying.
With the tragic train accident in Sadiqabad claiming over 20
lives, an old tweet of the now ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has come
back to haunt the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led government.
At least 24 people were killed and over 100 injured when the Akbar Bugti Express travelling from Lahore to Quetta on Thursday collided with a stationary freight train at the Walhar Railway Station.
It wasn’t later that opposition leaders stepped up to seek Federal Minister for Railways Sheikh Rasheed’s resignation.
Blaming human negligence for the accident, Rasheed rubbished the opposition’s demands. “I will step down if [PM] Imran Khan asks me to do so,” a private media outlet quoted the minister as saying.
However, soon after the opposition parties’ demand made headlines, an old PTI tweet quoting its chief started doing rounds on social media.
All over the world, just on an incident of railway accidents, minister resigns. This is real democracy, says Imran Khan
“All over the world, just on an incident of railway accidents, minister resigns. This is real democracy, says Imran Khan [sic],” the tweet from August 2014 stated. It had come as Imran demanded Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and then railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique’s resignation.
This isn’t the first time an old tweet has come back to bite the PTI government.
As PM Imran reached China amid Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) nationwide protests last year, a 2012 tweet of his, went viral. In the tweet, he had criticised the then premier for traveling abroad as the country “burned”.
Karachi to Gilgit Pak is burning & rulers least bothered. Instead they are travelling abroad or boasting of invisible “achievements”!
It was aimed at criticising former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, who had traveled to China for the Boao Forum while violence linked to sectarian, ethnic and political tensions continued in different parts of the country.
Mir Iftikhar Ahmed Khan Lund, who allegedly violated his poor driver by inserting an iron rod into his rectum, has been appointed as a human rights focal person by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
According to a Human Rights Ministry notification dated July 10, Minister Shireen Mazari has appointed Lund as a focal person on the issues of human rights in Sindh.
“He shall assist the office of the federal minister on the issues of human rights while keeping liaison with relevant stakeholders,” the notification read.
While the appointment is “purely voluntary without the ministry bearing any expenses”, the news has taken social media by storm owing to the gross violation allegedly committed by Lund in April.
Lawyer and activist Mohammad Jibran Nasir was among the first to point out.
As per the details, a van driver named Allah Rakhio was allegedly assaulted and meted out inhumane punishment in Sindh’s Ghotki district on the orders of his employer, Lund, and his three relatives.
According to the victim’s son, Zahid Hussain Rakhio, his father had a disagreement with Shafiq Lund, following which he was called to Iftikhar’s residence where he was mercilessly beaten up by Shafiq, Rafiq Lund and Mumtaz Ali Lund in Iftikhar’s presence.
Injured Rakhio called Hussain, who took him to the hospital, where he received eight stitches on his private parts. A video of Rakhio lying on his back on a stretcher and narrating his ordeal was also widely shared over the internet.
FIR AGAINST LUND:
A First Information Report (FIR) against Iftikhar, Mumtaz, Shafiq and Rafiq on the victim’s complaint was filed at the Khanpur Mahar police station.
The FIR was filed under sections 324 (attempt to commit qatle amd), 355 (assault or criminal force with intent to dishonour a person), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 143 (punishment for being a member of unlawful assembly).
Hussain, however, claims that police have not yet made any arrests and are trying to brush the incident under the carpet.
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has decided to sack Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik, who convicted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Al-Azizia corruption reference, a private media outlet reported Friday.
Earlier, the judge had written a letter to the IHC, refuting Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz’s allegations and the leaked tapes that purportedly showed him admitting to sentencing Nawaz after being blackmailed.
PML-N leadership last Saturday had released the tapes that allegedly showed Malik confessing in front of a party worker named Nasir Butt.
In the tapes, the judge was heard claiming he was coerced to hand down the prison sentence against the former PM despite there being no proof of corruption against him.
In a subsequent press release, Malik had denied the contents of the video and termed them as edited, fabricated and aimed to defame him. He, however, had admitted knowing the PML-N worker and his brother.
Meanwhile, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb has demanded that Nawaz’s sentence be nullified and the former premier be immediately released.
Former caretaker minister for information, broadcasting and law Barrister Syed Ali Zafar on Thursday announced to join the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Radio Pakistan reported.
According to reports, Zafar made the formal announcement during his meeting with Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan in Islamabad, following which the premier welcomed him on-board.
Punjab Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) and former senior minister Abdul Aleem Khan was also present on the occasion.
Barrister Zafar is a renowned law expert and has also served as the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). He was the information, broadcasting and law minister in Justice (r) Nasirul Mulk’s caretaker setup ahead of last year’s general election.
Amid the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s claims of continuing its austerity drive to save taxpayers’ money, a luxury car worth Rs8 million (Rs8,000,000) has been imported for a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) minister.
According to Dunya News, the 2800cc luxury car has been imported for KP Information Minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, who is only entitled to an 1800cc vehicle.
It was decided that a double cabin worth around Rs5.5 million would be imported, however, the minister insisted on getting the luxury sport utility vehicle (SUV), reports said.
The move comes despite Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan pushing for austerity measures to reduce the burden on the national exchequer ever since he assumed office last year.
The austerity drive has faced multiple setbacks over the past 10 months owing to the apparent reluctance of the lawmakers in cutting down expenses.
Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur has shared the video of a simulation from popular video game Grand Theft Auto (GTA) V, assuming it to be real.
Tweeting the video which showed a plane miraculously avoiding colliding with an oil tanker as it descended on the runway, Gandapur wrote, “Narrow escape of an aircraft which could have ended in a great disaster. Miraculous save by the pilot’s presence of mind.”
The clip had originally been shared to Youtube on June 20 by The UiGamer, who has amassed millions of views with clearly labelled videos of plane stunts on GTA V.
While Khurram mistook the animated video for a real-life clip, Twitterati did not and most of them were quick to troll anyone who thought it was actually a “miraculous save”.
How difficult is it to know that this was a clip from the game GTA5? Heard of Grand Theft Auto V??? Even Khurram Nawaz Gandapur, who is secretary-general of Pakistan Awami Tehreek party did this same mistake. God!
This isn’t the worst that happens daily in that city. There’s heists everyday, there’s a bunch of gangs, drugs all over the city, destruction, murders. This is a calm day.
Wow man, I have a hanger right across from there. It has 2 smaller choppers with homing missiles and machine guns. I also have a larger chopper with carpet bombing capabilities.
“As if our politicians are super intelligent,” one said while suggesting in a joke the United States (US) might sell virtual fighter jets to Pakistan instead of F-16s. “These innocuous mistakes are what we live for,” another wrote.
A resolution seeking ‘Medal of Democracy’ for Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, has been tabled in the Punjab Assembly, a private media outlet reported.
According to reports, ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA Haroon Gill submitted the resolution wherein he stated that the provincial house acknowledged Gen Bajwa’s unbiased role in promoting democracy in the country.
“The [Punjab] assembly sees with respect the role army chief has played in establishing peace,” the resolution said further.
It also demanded that the government awards ‘Medal of Democracy’ to the army chief for promoting, stabilising and protecting Pakistan’s democratic institutions.
“I got this idea because the 2018 general election was free and fair,” Gill said when approached by a private media outlet. He added that all political parties were independent and the military was playing a crucial role in these testing times.
