A Brazilian citizen fell and died while paragliding in the Shigar district of Gilgit Baltistan on Thursday.
Shigar DC Waliullah Falahi told Dawn that the tourist, identified as Raineri Rodrigo Chaddad, started the adventure from a mountain in Askoli Shigar. Raineri didn’t have a permit for the activity, and he died on the spot after the fall.
DC asserted that action will be taken against the managing director of the victim’s tour operator who allowed him to take part in the activity without the requisite permit. An autopsy will be carried out shortly.
While Pakistan’s dangerous adventure sports are generally considered safe, the weather can turn quite fast. Three Japanese climbers have been declared dead in less than a month while descending one of the highest mountains in northern Pakistan.
Shahbaz Ahmed Khan Lund, accused in the murder of journalist Nasrullah Gadani, and the Municipal Chairman of Mirpur Mathelo, has been suspended.
The Sindh government suspended him under the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, and the notification has been issued accordingly.
Journalist Nasrullah Gadani was killed in an attack by armed men on May 25 in Mirpur Mathilo.
A murder case against unknown persons has been registered at Mirpur Mathelo police station.
Gadani sustained three gunshot wounds in a deadly attack last month. Initially, he was transferred to Rahim Yar Khan for treatment and later, on the instructions of Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, he was moved to a private hospital in Karachi. Gadani, however, passed away during treatment there.
The Sindh High Court has ruled that gifts given by a husband to his wife at the time of marriage or before separation cannot be rescinded.
The Sindh High Court conducted a hearing on a petition about the return of gifts given to the wife either at the time of marriage or before separation.
The court dismissed Arshad Jameel’s plea against the trial court’s decision and issued a detailed judgement on the appeal.
According to the court’s decision, gifts given to the wife at the time of marriage or before separation cannot be reclaimed; gifts given during the marriage become the personal property of the wife.
An official notification of a “sale tax invoice” from the Punjab Ombudsman placing an order of five Samsung Galaxy S24 and seven iPhone Pro Max worth Rs. 76 lacs created a stir on social media. Netizens criticised the government for wasting money, but the government claimed otherwise.
A number of X (formerly Twitter) users criticised the government for spending extravagantly on such accessories. Journalist and academic Ali Moeen Nwazish posted on X: “This is exactly why people don’t pay tax in Pakistan. If you want people to pay tax, show that it is being spent on people like their healthcare and education, and not on land cruisers, iPhones, servants, luxuries and plots for the elite bureaucrats, judges and military officers.”
Another user named Osama Yawar shared the notification with the caption, “Is this how taxpayers money is being wasted by officials who can’t even write an email?”
To put more fuel to the fire, a citizen named Sohaib Qureshi, claiming to be an expert on E-Commerce, shared that the company The Laptop Store, with which the Ombudsman has placed an order, is allegedly non-filer. To prove his claim, Sohaib attached a screenshot from the FBR website where the company has no record of tax to its name. “More than one million is a sales tax but this laptop store is non compliant in sales tax,” Sohaib wrote.
Punjab’s Information Minister Azma Bukhari told The Current that Punjab’s Ombudsman is an autonomous body and does not come under Punjab government, “It’s from an autonomous body, not by Punjab government,” she said.
However, the Punjab Ombudsman was reluctant to respond to our request for confirmation of the viral notification. Even after multiple calls, there was no explicit answer, but an inside source revealed that this is a normal process and it seems authentic as it has the signature of the accounts officer of Punjab’s Ombudsman. The same source elaborated that the Punjab Ombudsman has its own budget and works independently. The phones are not for personal use but for official use only.
An account titled Jmhoori Martial Law asked people to explain the difference between Iphone 15 pro max with 512 GB and Samsaung Galaxy with the same storage. “Other Pakistani brands available in Pakistan, do they have better capability to record videos?” the handle asked.
The Ombudsman office is empowered to entertain complaints against any department commission or office of the Provincial Government or a statutory corporation or other institution established or controlled by the Provincial Government but does not include the High Court and the Courts working under the supervision of High Court and Provincial Assembly and its Secretariat, explains the official website as its primary function.
The moon of the new Islamic year 1446 Hijri is likely to be seen in Pakistan on Sunday, July 7.
Thus, the new Islamic year will start in Pakistan on Monday, July 8, and Ashura Days will be on Wednesday, July 17 and 18.
However, the meeting of the central moon sighting committee, which is chaired by Maulana Abdul Khabeer Azad, will be held in Quetta on July 6, while the zonal committee meetings will also be held in the zonal headquarters in Karachi, Islamabad, and Lahore.
In the UAE, the moon of the new Islamic year, 1446 Hijri, is likely to be sighted on Saturday, July 6.
The UAE government has already declared a public holiday on July 7 in the private sector.
The Senate’s Standing Committee on Commerce has been informed that the protocol for exporting donkey skins and meat to China has been finalised.
Ahsan Ali Mangi, Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that in addition to the export of donkey skin and meat, protocols for exporting onions, potatoes, and chillies to China have also been finalised.
Senator Anusha Rehman emphasised that Pakistan produces only one-fifth of its onion demand, making it challenging to justify exporting onions to China.
The ministry has also reportedly proposed establishing nine new missions, including in Malaysia, Iraq, Oman, Tanzania, Kenya, and Mozambique.
The repatriation of illegal Afghans is under way. As of July 3, 2024, a total of 637,427 illegal Afghans have returned from Pakistan.
Between June 1 and July 3 alone, 7,345 men, 4,732 women, and 4,369 children returned, with 432 families repatriated using 496 vehicles.
Aaj News reports that a significant number of illegal Afghans chose to return to Afghanistan from Pakistan to avoid arrest even before the federal government’s announcement of expelling illegal foreigners.
The Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association has decided to close petrol pumps across the country starting from 6 am on Friday, July 5.
The strike was announced after negotiations between the Association and the government fell apart.
A delegation from the Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association held meetings with the Finance Minister, Chairman of FBR, and Chairman of OGRA.
Abdul Sami Khan, President of the Petroleum Dealers Association, stated that the strike may last for more than one day, according to an Aaj News report.
People have been advised to keep petrol tanks filled until July 4, as pumps across the country will begin to run dry tomorrow night.
He also mentioned that negotiations will not resume until the government reverses its decision. Fourteen thousand dealers across the country will shut down their pumps starting July 5.
On the other hand, the Pakistan Oil Tankers Association has declared that it will not be part of the strike.
Shams Shahwani, Chairman of the Oil Tankers Association, stated that petrol and diesel supplies will continue uninterrupted throughout the country. He believes that given the current circumstances, stopping the supply is not an option, and he wants to prevent inconvenience to customers.
In a startling revelation, a candidate who reportedly failed matriculation exams back in 1988 managed to obtain a passing result in 2024, raising questions on the integrity of educational records and administrative oversight.
The candidate, originally from Karachi, appeared in matriculation board’s records from 1988 to have failed the exam. However, documents show that the same individual was later issued a degree, indicating a successful completion.
According to official records, degrees were issued to students who had previously failed under the signature of Secretary Matric, Naveed Gujjar.
In response to inquiries, he stated that a fake certificate of matriculation was issued to the candidate and that he has nothing to do with it.
The bodies of a six-year-old girl and her two-year-old brother were recovered, along with their mother’s, from a drain near their home in Mauripur, Karachi.
The children were subjected to sexual assault before being killed, an investigation into the matter has revealed.
The bodies of the missing 25-year-old woman, her six-year-old daughter and two-year-old son were found in a drain close to their home in Sher Muhammad Village, Mauripur, on Saturday, June 29.
The father of the children, the complainant, told the police that his wife and two children went out of the home to meet Mehran Bibi for ‘religious and spiritual treatment’ on June 28 but disappeared for more than 24 hours and were found dead inside a drain.
Dawn’s Imtiaz Ali reported that Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed, after a post-mortem examination, ‘confirmed’ that both the minor girl and her brother were raped, adding that the girl was subjected to a ‘brutal’ sexual assault.
She also asserted that they had not ruled out the possibility of the mother being raped till the receipt of chemical reports, etc.
The police surgeon also ensured that it was not a natural death, but the exact cause of death had been reserved till receipt of reports.
However, DIG South Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that the case had been registered even though it appeared that the woman’s husband was not ‘interested’ in pursuing the murder case of his wife and children seriously.
He seemed ‘aware’ of something but was hiding it from the investigators. Thus, the police were interrogating him, his cousin and other relatives to get clues about the real culprits but so far, no one has been formally arrested.
