The Meteorological Department has predicted heavy rain and strong winds in Karachi today. In Lahore, strong winds have caused the temperature to drop.
According to the Meteorological Department, it may drizzle at some places in Karachi, Sajawal, and Thatta today. Strong winds will continue to blow in Karachi till this evening with cloudy skies.
There is a possibility of rain and snowfall in the mountains today in the Pothohar region, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, North Balochistan, Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan, reports Geo News. Various areas of the country including Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, Kohat, Malakand, Muzaffarabad, Diamar, Chilas, and Chaman received rain while snowfall was recorded in the mountains.
Rescue teams have been put on high alert in Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhelum, Chakwal, Talagang, and Murree due to strong winds and rain.
Commissioner Rawalpindi said that they are monitoring the situation caused by wind and rain in Murree, the Deputy Commissioner has given specific instructions to Murree for necessary arrangements.
On the other hand, in Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, heavy snowfall occurred in Neelum Jhelum Valley, which affected the movement of traffic due to slippage on connecting roads, the weather became colder due to snowfall in Swat, Upper and Lower Dir, Karam district.
Abbottabad and Mansehra are experiencing rain in the plains and light snow in the upper reaches, with up to 2 inches of snow in Shogran and 4 inches in Naran.
Additionally, the western system of rainfall entered North Balochistan after which heavy rain and hailstorms occurred in Pak-Afghan border areas including Chaman, Qila Abdullah, Muslim Bagh, Toba Kakadi, Toba Achakzai, and Sheila Bagh.
Lilian was 20 when her newborn baby died of medical complications at a hospital in El Salvador, where abortion is a crime and even the suspicion of one can land a woman in jail.
Lilian was arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison for “aggravated homicide” after her infant daughter passed away at a public hospital in Santa Ana in the country’s west in November 2015.
“I gave birth naturally, but I had a tear in my uterus,” recounted Lilian, now 28, who declined to give her full name to protect her family.
She was sedated for a procedure to fix the tear, and when she awoke, “I knew my baby was dead.”
Her nightmare did not end there.
“I was first accused of abandonment and neglect, but the prosecution called it ‘aggravated homicide’ and I was convicted in May 2016,” she told AFP.
A report found Lilian’s baby had died of neonatal sepsis, yet she spent eight years behind bars for ‘aggravated homicide’
Last year, a medical report concluded that her baby had died of neonatal sepsis, a finding that resulted in Lilian’s early prison release in November with the aid of women’s rights NGOs.
By then, she had already served eight years behind bars.
“If she (the baby) had been treated in time, she would not have died. I wouldn’t have wasted so many years of my life in prison,” said Lilian, whose other daughter was just two when it happened and was raised by her grandparents.
“I only saw her twice, I did not see her grow up.”
Lilian is the last of 73 Salvadorans to be released from prison in the last decade under a campaign by rights groups to free women serving sentences of up to 50 years for abortions, miscarriages, or birthing complications.
In Latin America, elective abortion is legal in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba and Uruguay
Almost all are from poor backgrounds in rural areas where health services are precarious, said Arturo Castellanos, a social worker with the Citizens’ Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion.
Alba Lorena Rodriguez, now 36, became pregnant at 21 after an acquaintance raped her.
Five months pregnant, she went into premature labor at home.
“I had to give birth to him myself, I fainted, I dropped” the baby, she told AFP.
A neighbor called the police, and Rodriguez, who has two other daughters, was arrested at the infant’s funeral.
“I felt the world come crashing down on me, because I knew I wasn’t going to see the girls, and they were punishing me for something I hadn’t done,” she said.
“The one who raped me was on the outside with his family and I (was)… imprisoned. The law is unfair,” said Rodriguez, who said she had no defense lawyer and no chance for anything like a fair trial.
Rodriguez served 10 years of a 30-year sentence before she, too, was released.
Both women chose to talk to AFP in the capital San Salvador, far from their own villages where the punishment has not stopped.
When the jailed women leave prison, “the community discriminates against them and stigmatizes them,” Castellanos said.
Alba Lorena Rodriguez, now 36, became pregnant after she was raped by an acquaintance at the age of 21
In Latin America, elective abortion is legal in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Cuba and Uruguay.
It is banned outright, without exceptions for health risks or other circumstances, in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Nowhere are the penalties as severe as in El Salvador, however.
Under the law there, abortion is punishable by two to eight years in prison. But the charge is often changed to “aggravated homicide,” which carries a penalty of 30 to 50 years.
Since 1998, when abortion was criminalized in El Salvador, 199 women have been sentenced.
Since Lilian’s release last year, none remain imprisoned, but seven women are awaiting trial, according to the Citizens’ Group.
“No one can give me back my lost time. I’m rebuilding the bond with my daughter,” said Lilian, who would like to see the law changed so that other women do not have to go through what she has.
But President Nayib Bukele, newly elected to a second five-year term with near-total control of parliament, has said there will be no change to abortion laws in the deeply Christian country.
“The struggle continues,” said Lilian.
Since abortion was criminalized in El Salvador in 1998, a total of 199 women have been sentenced
The killer of seven-year-old Abaan Mazhar has been arrested in the Federal B area of Karachi and in a shocking turn of events, he is the cousin of the victim.
According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Central Zeeshan Siddiqui, the arrested suspect Sufyan is between 14 and 15 years old and he is the cousin of the deceased Abaan and lived with him.
The police informed Geo News that the suspect said that Abaan used to complain to his father about him, leading to the older boy getting scolded many times.
The accused killer said in his statement, “I made a mistake”.
On the day of the incident, he took Abaan to the park from a back street and killed him inside the bushes at Dhobi Ghat.
Sufyan then washed the knife and kept it in the kitchen.
The police are still investigating the matter.
In an exclusive footage obtained by Geo News, it can be seen that the cousin was taking Abaan along with him while the little boy was strolling totally at ease holding his hand.
Regarding this, SSP Central Zeeshan Siddiqui said that two teams were working on this high-profile case. The accused was put on the suspect list on the first day, but being a family member, it was difficult to arrest him immediately.
Previously, the body of a seven-year-old boy, Abaan Mazhar, was found in bushes in the Federal B Area in Karachi on Wednesday afternoon.
The boy, whose throat had been slit with a sharp instrument, was found within the limits of the Yousuf Plaza police station near the Cardio Hospital Federal B Area Block 16. Station House Officer (SHO) Shahid Rao told The News that around 3:30 pm, a call was received by Madadgar-15 about an injured boy found in bushes.
A police team rushed to the location in Federal B Area Block-16 and shifted Abaan Mazhar to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. SHO Rao said the boy was alive when he was found and when people heard him screaming, they immediately contacted the Madadgar-15 hotline.
Witnesses saw the child lying injured, trying to speak but was unable to do so. They added that they had not seen any suspect near the boy when they found him.
Abhan was a resident of Federal B Area Block 16. He was a student of second grade and the second of three brothers. According to his family, he had left home two hours ago. They maintained that the family had no enmity with anyone.
SHO Rao said they had talked to Mazhar, the aggrieved father, who said his son studied in a private school in the area and as he worked in a private firm, he had hired a private person to pick up and drop his son from school.
The father also said that as per the daily routine, Abaan had returned from school at 2 pm but after a few minutes, someone knocked on the door of his residence and the boy again left the house. It was at around 3:30 pm, the family received the information about the boy’s death. The father told the police that he had no enmity with anyone and he did not know who had killed his son.
The post-mortem report revealed that the throat of the minor boy was slit with a sharp weapon, while no evidence of abuse was found, reports ARY News.
Samanabad DSP Asghar Mehdi told the media that the child died on his way to the hospital. He added that a woman living in a nearby flat first saw the child and shouted for help.
The police has been making efforts to obtain CCTV footage. A case has been registered and investigations are underway.
Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) leader and lawyer Salman Akram Raja has been arrested by the police near PTI’s Jail Road office, for participating in the party’s call for nationwide protest against electoral rigging. Salman participated as a PTI backed independent candidate in general elections
“They’re arrested me illegally, and I’m with the public, we will continue raising my voice for truth” he said while being arrested
PTI yesterday had called for nationwide protests against electoral rigging.
A New York judge ordered Donald Trump to pay $355 million over fraud allegations and banned him from running companies in the state for three years Friday in a major blow to his business empire and financial standing.
Trump — almost certain to be the Republican presidential nominee this November — was found liable for unlawfully inflating his wealth and manipulating the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.
Trump lashed out on social media calling the ruling a “Total SHAM,” the judge in the case “crooked” and the prosecutor who brought it “totally corrupt.” His legal team said he would “of course” appeal.
As the case was civil, not criminal, there was no threat of imprisonment. But Trump said ahead of the ruling that a ban on conducting business in New York state would be akin to a “corporate death penalty.”
Trump, facing 91 criminal counts in other cases, has seized on his legal woes to fire up supporters and denounce his likely opponent, President Joe Biden, claiming that court cases are “just a way of hurting me in the election.”
However, Judge Arthur Engoron said the financially shattering penalties are justified by Trump’s behavior.
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Engoron said of Trump and his two sons, who were also defendants, in his scathing ruling.
“They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money… Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways,” he added, referring to the perpetrator of a massive Ponzi scheme.
Trump’s sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were also found liable in the case and ordered to pay more than $4 million each, prompting Don Jr. to claim on social media that “political beliefs” had determined the outcome.
Engoron also extended the mandate of retired judge Barbara Jones as an independent monitor of Trump’s business affairs, as well as ordering the appointment of an independent director of compliance to the Trump Organization, with candidates to be nominated by Jones.
“Conditions that Judge Engoron imposed, such as having Judge Jones monitor the Trump companies, may be onerous. I do expect an appeal,” said Richmond University law professor Carl Tobias.
It was as a property developer and businessman in New York that Trump built his public profile which he used as a springboard into the entertainment industry and ultimately the presidency.
The judge’s order was a victory for New York state Attorney General Letitia James. She had sought $370 million from Trump to remedy the advantage he is alleged to have wrongfully obtained, as well as having him barred from conducting business in the state.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) will hit the streets today at 12pm across the country to protest against what they claim is rigging and tampering with election results from February 8th.
Major parties that won the most seats have been looking for allies and making alliances to form the next governments at both the national and provincial levels.
The PTI expressed disappointment with the election results, where its affiliated candidates won over 90 National Assembly seats, making them the largest group. They announced plans to hold peaceful protests countrywide against what they called “record-high rigging” in the recent general elections.
“The PTI has called for country-wide protests against the unprecedented, massive, brazen rigging in general elections 2024, where PTI’s win of 180 National Assembly seats and a two-thirds majority in the parliament, was cut down to half,” the party said in a statement.
As confusion around the formation of the government rages, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Faisal Karim Kundi has said that if his party had chosen to sit in opposition, the country would’ve gone towards another election.”The PPP will stay in Parliament for constructive criticism,” he stated.
While addressing a press conference in Islamabad today, Kundi said PPP will contest the seats of Senate Chairman and Speaker of the National Assembly (NA), adding that PPP will also help Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) form a government in the centre.
The politician also urged all political parties to work together for political stability in Pakistan.
Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar has directed the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK) to give the students of Pre-Engineering, Pre-Medical, and General Science Part-I up to 15 percent additional marks in their exams, reports Geo News.
The Sindh caretaker CM approved recommendations of a fact-finding committee formed to investigate Intermediate Part-I students’ getting unusually low marks this year.
The committee submitted its report to the chief minister, following which BIEK’s IT in-charge was removed from his post.
The CM said it had been decided on the committee’s recommendation that the students of pre-engineering, pre-medical, and general science would be given 15 percent extra marks.
The committee advised forming paper patterns and a scheme for giving marks before the beginning of the educational year. It also said that the paper pattern and marking scheme would be implemented for three years. The Sindh CM ordered the relevant departments to increase the number of paper inspection centres to 10 in the city. He added that the MCQs papers should be checked with an optical marks recognition system so that there is no mistake.
CM Baqar ordered that employees including head examiners, examiners, and invigilators should be trained, adding that the rules and regulations of BIEK should be strictly implemented.
“The controller of examinations, all deputy controllers, and the IT manager are responsible for conducting the examinations in 2023,” he said. He also mentioned that notices should be issued against the board officers who do not follow the rules and regulations.
Background
On January 23, the BIEK released the results for Part I (first year) of the examination, revealing a concerning decline in the students’ performance. The statistics indicated that 80% of candidates failed in Arts (Regular), 72% failed in Arts (Private) and 63% failed in Commerce (Private) groups. Earlier in the results released, only 36.51% of candidates were successful in Pre-Medical, 34.79% in Pre-Engineering, and 38.69% in computer science groups.
Most students who passed their matriculation exams with lower marks faced potential challenges in securing admissions to professional universities and colleges, given that admissions are typically based on Inter Part-I marks.
The Federal Ministry of Health has imposed a ban on eating sweet items in its subordinate institutions, reports Samaa News.
According to the spokesman of the Ministry of Health, many diseases are caused by sweet drinks so the Federal Ministry of Health has banned the use of sweet items in its subsidiaries. Eating and drinking sweets are no longer allowed in all institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Health.
An advisory has been issued by the Caretaker Health Minister Dr. Nadeem Jan that sugary drinks cause communicable and non-communicable diseases and that is why confectionery of all sorts will not be served in official meetings or functions.
India’s main opposition Congress party said on Friday that its bank accounts had been frozen by the tax department just weeks before the expected announcement of national elections.
Critics and rights groups have accused India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using law enforcement agencies to selectively target its political foes.
Congress spokesman Ajay Maken said the action against his party was aimed at sidelining it ahead of the polls.
“When the principal opposition party’s accounts have been frozen just two weeks before the announcement of the national elections, do you think democracy is alive in our country?” he asked reporters.
“Don’t you think it is going towards one party system?” he added.
Four of Congress’s accounts had been frozen after an investigation of the party’s 2018-19 income tax returns, Maken said.
He added that the tax department had issued a payment demand for 2.1 billion rupees ($25.3 million) in relation to its probe.
Maken conceded that the party had filed its returns late by up to 45 days but insisted it had done nothing to warrant such a penalty.
“Today is a sad day for Indian democracy,” he said, adding that the party was appealing the decision in court and would stage public protests.
India’s Congress party spokesman Ajay Maken addresses a press conference at All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in New Delhi on February 16. — AFP
Friday’s announcement follows numerous legal sanctions and active investigations against leading opponents of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, scion of the dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi’s party.
His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament for a time until the verdict was suspended by a higher court, but raised concerns over democratic norms in the world’s most populous country.
‘Face the consequences’
Congress is a member of an opposition party alliance hoping to challenge Modi at this year’s polls, and other leading figures in the bloc have also found themselves under investigation.
Arvind Kejriwal, leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and chief minister of the capital region Delhi, has repeatedly been summoned by investigators probing alleged corruption in the allocation of liquor licences.
Earlier this month police arrested Hemant Soren, until then the chief minister of eastern Jharkhand state and another leading figure in the opposition alliance, for allegedly facilitating an illegal land sale.
India’s main financial investigation agency, the Enforcement Directorate, has ongoing probes against at least four other chief ministers or their families, all of whom belong to the BJP’s political opponents.
Other investigations have been dropped against erstwhile BJP rivals who later switched their allegiance to the ruling party.
Virendra Sachdeva, president of the BJP’s Delhi branch, said on Friday that Congress had only itself to blame for the freezing of its accounts.
“It is unfortunate that a big party like Congress is not following government rules,” he told the Press Trust of India news agency.
“If it is not following the rules, then it has to face the consequences. “
