Current Final

Author: News Desk

  • Hindutva activists attack, terrorize Muslims during Ramazan

    A mob of Hindutva activists has been attacking and terrorizing the Muslim community in different parts of India during the holy month of Ramazan.

    Disturbing videos have been shared on the Microblogging site, Twitter in which extremist Hindus are making hate speeches against the Muslim community in Hyderabad, Gujarat, Karnataka, Goa, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Bengal.

    On the occasion of the Hindu festival, Ram Navami in Hyderabad, a rally was taken out in which the Hindu extremists were singing a hatred song against Muslims, which says, ” Saare Bharat ko Hindu Rashtra banana hai ( We need to turn India into a Hindu country)” which goes on, “Jo Ram ka naam na le usko Bharat se bhagana hai (Whoever do not take RAM name, they have to go from India”. The song was targetting minorities, especially the Muslim community living in India.

    In Himmat Nagar, Gujarat, the miscreants involved in the Ram Navami procession targeted mosques, dargahs, and shops.

    In Goa, a Hindu mob tried to enter a mosque who were intended to attack Muslims. The Hindu mob accused Muslims that someone from the mosque threw stones at the Ram Navmi procession.

    Communal violence also erupted in Bengal, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka, during the Hindu festival of Ram Navmi procession and the police have banned large gatherings in some areas.

    Riots during Ram Navami procession in Khargone, MP. The Ram Navami procession entered the Muslim locality Kazipura and raised slogans, stone-pelting.

    A bangle shop of a Muslim family was set on fire by the Hindutva activists during the celebration of Ram Navami.

  • ‘Martial law or elections – your choice’: Khan threatened to impose martial law, states report

    ‘Martial law or elections – your choice’: Khan threatened to impose martial law, states report

    Imran Khan, who was ousted as Pakistan’s prime minister (PM) on Saturday, April 9, had threatened to impose martial law rather than facing the no-trust motion and handing over the power to the Opposition, reports The Guardian.

    The news outlet writes, “On Friday, a senior minister from his ruling government sent a message to an Opposition leader that read: “Martial law or elections – your choice.”

    “It appeared to threaten the Opposition with the ultimatum that they should agree to Khan’s demand for fresh elections or he would bring in Pakistan’s powerful military to take control, as has happened repeatedly in the country’s history,” writes The Guardian.

    “Imran Khan believed it should be him or no one,” says the news report, attributing, to one figure from the Opposition who said he had refused the demand.

    The news report also states that the premier had attempted to sack Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa in order to provoke the military into taking control and imposing martial law.

    “Imran Khan wanted to sack the army chief, but the forces received information about it and they thwarted his plan after they came to know about it,” said a security official on condition of anonymity. “Khan wanted to create a huge crisis to remain in power,” writes The Guardian.

    There were also reports that the COAS and the former PM had 45 minutes meeting in Prime Minister House. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)  has dismissed BBC Urdu’s story that claims that Khan was pushing for the removal of COAS.

    The Opposition’s no-confidence motion against former Prime Minister Imran Khan succeeded on Sunday with 174 members voted in favour of the motion. The magic number to oust Khan was ‘172’. The National Assembly debated on the matter for more than 12 hours and the political situation in the country took a critical turn.

    Later, PM Khan was voted out as Prime Minister of Pakistan a little after midnight with 174 votes.

  • Top ten billionaires: Elon Musk tops the list, India’s Mukesh Ambani at number 10

    Top ten billionaires: Elon Musk tops the list, India’s Mukesh Ambani at number 10

    The Forbes’ has published its 36th annual World’s Billionaires List recently, revealing a total of 2,668 billionaires with 236 newcomers. As per the report, “America still leads the world, with 735 billionaires worth a collective $4.7 trillion, including Elon Musk, who tops the World’s Billionaires list for the first time.”

    India’s Mukesh Ambani is listed on number 10 on the list.

    Profile of the richest man Elon Musk:

    • Elon Musk is working to revolutionize transportation both on Earth, through electric car maker Tesla — and in space, via rocket producer SpaceX.
    • He owns 21% of Tesla but has pledged more than half of his stake as collateral for loans. Forbes has discounted his stake to take the loans into account.
    • A regulatory filing in early April 2022 revealed that Musk had purchased 9.2% of Twitter. The company invited him to join its board the next day.
    • SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, is valued at $74 billion after a funding round in February 2021.
    • He grew up in South Africa, then immigrated to Canada at age 17. He landed in the U.S. as a transfer student to the University of Pennsylvania.
    Top 10 Billionaires:
    1. Elon Musk

    2. Jeff Bezos

    3. Bernard Arnault and family 

    4.Bill Gates 

    5.Warren Buffett

    6.Larry Page 

    7.Sergey Brin

    8.Larry Ellison

    9.Steve Ballmer

    10.Mukesh Ambani

  • Lahore Police arrested 648 dacoits, recovering more than Rs27 crore in three months

    Lahore Police arrested 648 dacoits, recovering more than Rs27 crore in three months

    Lahore Police has recently revealed performance statistics on eliminating crime during the first three months of 2022.

    According to Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Additional IG Fayyaz Ahmad Dev, the first three months of the current year were peaceful in terms of overall law, order and security.

    He stated that the Lahore Police Department has applied advanced operational techniques, effective modalities, and systemic reforms to help bolster its force’s capacity to limit violence and preserve tranquility in the city.

    Performance Statistics

    Lahore Police detained 648 wanted members of 253 dacoit gangs and recovered cash and precious items valued at more than Rs27 crore.

    From the criminals, police recovered nearly 70 vehicles, 1,123 motorcycles, 14 laptops, and 843 cell phones. During the city’s big anti-illegal weapons operation, Lahore Police detained 1,214 criminals and registered 1,207 cases against them. From these criminals, police confiscated 05 Kalashnikovs, 90 rifles, 41 guns, 1,007 pistols, 01 carbine, 07 revolvers, and over 6,000 bullets.

    During the last three months, police arrested 1,973 criminals, filed 1,939 FIRs against them, and recovered more than 19 kg heroin, 843 kg charas, three kg ice, 50 kg opium, and 13,815 liters of liquor from them.

    Likewise, the Lahore Police Department nabbed 1,119 gambling suspects and filed 237 cases against them, collecting more than Rs23 lakh 69 thousand in gambling money. Moreover, the Punjab Police is aggressively chasing violators of the tenancy registration, displaying weapons, and violation of the Loudspeaker Act throughout Punjab. There were 1,117 incidents of exhibiting firearms, 4,795 cases of illegal possession of arms, and 624 licenses cancelled.

    Read more: Motorway Police distribute prizes to the best drivers

    According to a Punjab Police spokesperson, 882 cases of tenancy law violations were reported in the metropolis, with 1,233 people arrested. Similarly, 304 cases of violation of the Loudspeaker Act were registered, 310 individuals were arrested, and 1,203 cases of exhibiting and carrying illegal weapons were registered, with stern legal action being taken.

    Special squads have been created on the orders of IG Punjab Rao Sardar Ali Khan to apprehend the culprits, while the effectiveness of the Anti-Riot Force, Dolphin Squad, and Police Response Unit has also been improved. The Commander of Lahore Police is closely watching the productivity of police officers in order to meet crime-control objectives.

  • Who will be next PCB chairperson after Ramiz Raja resigns?

    Who will be next PCB chairperson after Ramiz Raja resigns?

    The incumbent Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairperson Ramiz Raja is likely to quit from the position following the defeat of Former Prime Minister Imran Khan in a no-confidence motion on Sunday, reports SAMAA.

    Former Captain Ramiz Raja was elected unanimously as the 36th PCB chairman for a three-year term in September 2021.

    According to a report by Cricket Pakistan, Ramiz Raja is currently in Dubai for the International Cricket Council (ICC) board meeting. During the meeting, he shared his proposal for a four-nation T20 series ( Pakistan, India, Australia, England) which is rejected because it could not fit in the next media cycles due to the packed Future Tour Program (FTP).

    However, Ramiz Raja expressed his satisfaction with how the meeting underwent through his Twitter account.

    News reports claim that Ramiz is expected to quit his office and former PCB chairperson Najam Sethi is expected to become the next head of PCB.

    Najam Sethi served in 2013 as head of PCB. However, he faced a legal battle with Chaudhry Muhammad Zaka Ashraf, another former chairperson of PCB. He later took up the position again in 2014 but Shahryar Khan replaced him and Sethi was given the charge of the executive committee.

    In 2017, he was appointed again as PCB chairperson but after one year he soon gave up his position in 2018.

    Najam Sethi was the person who launched the Pakistan Super League (PSL) in 2016 and was the president of PSL at that time.


  • Prominent Russian activist detained after anti-war protest

    Prominent Russian activist detained after anti-war protest

    Oleg Orlov, a prominent Russian human rights activist, has been detained after staging a one-man protest in Moscow’s Red Square against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Members of Memorial, a now-banned human rights organisation of which Orlov had been a leader, shared a video of him on Sunday holding a banner before being taken away by police.

    The sign read, “Our unwillingness to know the truth and our silence makes us conspirators to this crime.”

    Human rights group OVD-Info also reported one other isolated protester – a man arrested in front of Moscow’s city hall for wearing blue and yellow, the colours of Ukraine’s flag.

    OVD-Info, which monitors political arrests, says more than 15,000 people have been detained at rallies across the country to protest against the war.

    Demonstrators taking to the streets risk fines and possible prison sentences.

    Orlov himself had his front door tagged with “Z” and his photo pasted on with the word “collaborator”.

    The Z symbol is widely used by Russian authorities and Putin supporters, decorating building facades, bus doors, car windscreens and T-shirts.

    In late December 2021, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that Memorial should be shut down, part of a sweeping crackdown by authorities on rights activists, independent media and opposition supporters.

    Prosecutors had accused the Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Centre and its parent structure, Memorial International, of violating Russia’s “foreign agent” law.

    The court ruled in favour of the prosecution, which charged at the hearing that Memorial “creates a false image of the USSR as a terrorist state, whitewashes and rehabilitates Nazi criminals”, referring to the Soviet Union.

    Memorial, which has spoken out against the repression of critics under Russian President Vladimir Putin, dismissed the lawsuit against it as politically motivated.

  • Thousands rally in Sri Lanka, asking Rajapaksa family to quit politics

    Thousands rally in Sri Lanka, asking Rajapaksa family to quit politics

    Thousands of people demanding “total system change” have rallied in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo, calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his powerful brothers to quit politics amid a deepening economic crisis.

    At the Galle Face Green on Colombo’s waterfront, students, teachers, lawyers, actors and architects – many of whom said they were protesting for the first time – chanted “madman Gota” and “Go home Gota”, referring to the president’s nickname, as they gathered under a blistering sun.

    They waved the Sri Lankan flag and held up hand-written placards in Sinhalese and English that carried messages such as “No more corrupted politicians” and “Save Sri Lanka from the Rajapaksa family”.

    “This is a do-or-die moment,” said 29-year-old Buddhi Karunatne, who works in advertising.

    “For the first time, people of all kinds of political and social beliefs are coming together, with non-negotiable demands for the president to resign and hand over power to people who are capable of getting us out of this socioeconomic crisis.”

    The display of anger marked a stunning reversal for Rajapaksa, 72, who won the presidency in 2019 by a big margin and whose party went on to secure a two-thirds majority in the parliament less than a year later. Those victories allowed Rajapaksa to appoint his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister and amend the constitution to strengthen the president’s powers.

    He also went on to hand three other Rajapaksa family members key positions in his cabinet, including the finance, agriculture and sports portfolios.

    ‘No Rajapaksa should be there’

    Sparked by a foreign exchange crunch, the economic downturn is Sri Lanka’s worst in decades. It has resulted in soaring inflation that has left the poor struggling to afford enough to eat and caused fuel shortages and hours-long power cuts that have threatened to close down businesses.

  • ‘Amazing outpouring of support’: PTI supporters rock streets countrywide

    ‘Amazing outpouring of support’: PTI supporters rock streets countrywide

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters took to the streets across all major and small cities in massive numbers to show their solidarity with their leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan. Party supporters came out following a call given by Khan for peaceful protest.

    A day after Khan was voted out of power, he, during an address to the nation, had said that he will not tolerate the installation of a “foreign government” in Pakistan and that he will turn to the public for support if such a thing happens.

    “We are not a nation that can be used like tissue papers,” Khan said during a live telecast, maintaining that Pakistan does not want unilateral relations with any country.

    Earlier in the day on April 10, Khan tweeted that today marked the beginning of a “freedom struggle” against what he called was a “foreign regime-change conspiracy”. In an attempt to galvanize his supporters, he said “it is always the people who protected their own sovereignty and democracy.”

    PTI had shared the venues for the protests hours before their supporters took to the streets. 

    Islamabad

    The protest in the capital started from Zero Point. People waved flags while chanting slogans in favour of the former prime minister.

    Former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry thanked PTI supporters for turning out to Rawalpindi for the protest.

    Lahore

    PTI leader Hammad Azhar posted a video of a rally from his constituency of NA-126 leaving for Liberty Chowk.

    Peshawar

    A large number of protesters including women and children turned up at Peshawar Press Club and expressed solidarity with the ousted prime minister.

    Karachi

    A protest was held in Karachi on Rashid Minhas Road where a large number of supporters, including women and children, were in attendance.

    Overseas Pakistani too came out in support of Khan.

    Khan thanks protestors for ‘amazing outpouring of support’

    Imran thanked his supporters in a tweet done prior to midnight.

    “Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support and emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail,” he tweeted.

    “[It] shows Pakistanis at home and abroad have emphatically rejected this.”

  • SBP determined to curb inflation, improve foreign exchange reserves

    SBP determined to curb inflation, improve foreign exchange reserves

    In a recent interview, the Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Dr. Reza Baqir expressed concern over the continuous deterioration in foreign exchange reserves but remained optimistic that a renewal of loans will be witnessed in the near future, which, coupled with SBP’s initiatives, will enhance market confidence.

    He claimed that the decline in reserves is “clearly alarming, but we are convinced that the central bank’s initiatives will prevent further deterioration”.

    According to data issued by the central bank on April 7, the reserves massively declined by $728 million to $11.32 billion as of April 1.

    The decline, according to SBP, is primarily attributable to debt repayment and government payments linked to the settling of an arbitration judgment.

    In addition to this, the currency even hit new lows in the week, forcing the SBP to intervene by boosting the policy rate, declaring a 100 per cent cash margin on 177 commodities with instant effect, and hiking the markup percentage by 2.5 per cent for borrowing under the Export Finance Scheme (EFS).

    In response to the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) recent rate hike, Baqir stated that the move was made to tackle growing inflation and lessen external pressures. “The foreign exchange market has been under a lot of pressure for more than a month. A number of factors contributed to it: first, there was political uncertainty; second, our reserves were drained due to debt payments”.

    Consequently, the Pakistani rupee ended its devaluation run on April 8, and the KSE-100 Index witnessed positive sentiment, ending the day with an impressive gain of 658 points.

    The SBP Governor also discussed the skyrocketing petrol prices, which remain elevated because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, adding more pressure on the local currency.

    The central bank made a determined decision after analyzing the statistics to lower inflation, improve foreign exchange reserves, and boost business confidence.

  • Pakistan to choose its new Prime Minister today

    Pakistan to choose its new Prime Minister today

    The National Assembly is set to choose a new Prime Minister (PM) of Pakistan today (Monday) at 2pm after the removal of Imran Khan from the premiership in a no-confidence vote.

    On Sunday, the Joint Opposition’s candidate and Pakistan Muslim-League (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s nomination papers were accepted.

    The former minister for information and broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry also announced that PTI’s MNA will resign from their posts on Monday.

    In the early hours of Sunday, Imran Khan was ousted as the PM of Pakistan from office through a no-confidence motion after a 12-hour heated NA session.

    The session was chaired by Ayaz Sadiq after the resignation of NA speaker Asad Qasier.

    “174 members have recorded their votes in favour of the resolution, consequently the resolution for the vote on no-confidence against Mr Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, has been passed by a majority,” Ayaz Sadiq announced after the process of voting was completed.