As the opposition-led movement to oust the Imran government gains momentum, Human Rights Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf senior leader Shireen Mazari has alleged that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), a joint opposition alliance, is receiving foreign funding.
In an interview with Dawn News, the federal minister claimed that a lot of people who are part of the PDM have received “a lot of foreign funds”. She, however, couldn’t provide any proof.
“If we get the evidence […] but when we receive hardcore evidence, then it will become the responsibility of the government to take action,” she said, adding that “let’s see how things unfold”.
According to Mazari, it had come to her knowledge that that evidence was now surfacing regarding funding for the opposition alliance from abroad.
“[I have] heard that a lot of evidence has been found that funding, encouragement is being sent. You know Pakistan has dissident groups abroad. Every country has them, dissident groups from Pakistan are also abroad, the way they are living, after all they are receiving money from somewhere.”
A similar claim was made by the prime minister of Pakistan a couple of days, when he told a delegation of senior journalists that certain countries were supporting the PDM in its bid to oust his government, Daily Pakistan reported.
It may be noted here that PTI is also case pertaining to foreign funding in the Election Commission of Pakistan. The ECP officials will meet on Dec 31 to discuss the audit of the PTI after multiple delayed hearings.
Meanwhile, PDM Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, flanked by PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, addressed a press conference on Wednesday. He had said that the rally at Minar-e-Pakistan on December 13 will be held “at all costs”.
The cabin crew of the all-new local Pakistani airline, AirSial, will be wearing the uniforms designed by Nomi Ansari.
Ansari, who is renowned for his aesthetically-pleasing designs, took to Instagram to announce the news.
“We are delighted to announce our affiliation with AirSial,” wrote the designer. “As the airline is set to spread its wings, we have designed a range of sleek yet stylish uniforms for its crew members.”
AirSial also made the announcement about their affiliation with the designer on its Twitter account.
“It is with immense pleasure AirSial announces, that Pakistan’s topmost performing designer in the fashion industry known for his exceptional and astounding dresses, having bagged countless awards has designed uniforms for us and it is none other than Nomi Ansari the styling icon of Pakistan,” read the post.
“We would like to thank Nomi Ansari for his tremendous and tireless effort in shaping our uniforms to the international standards giving them the most modest image matching our culture and traditions,” it further added.
India is once again planning a false flag operation against Pakistan to divert international attention from its internal issues, including the ongoing farmers’ protests and the Khalistan movement, and Indian atrocities in held Kashmir.
According to reports, the armed forces of Pakistan have been put on high alert as New Delhi, despite humiliation at the hands of Islamabad time and again, once again trying to harm regional peace by resorting to unprovoked border action or surgical strikes.
Earlier, India had in 2016 falsely claimed to have carried out surgical strikes in Pakistan and in 2019 attempted an unsuccessful cross-border aerial operation.
While Pakistan had rebutted Indian claims of surgical strikes, in response to the 2019 misadventure it had shot down two Indian jets a day later and also captured Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday posted some beautiful pictures of Skardu, Gilgit Baltistan on his Twitter account but this time the photographer has been credited for his work.
“I have been sent more pictures,” he wrote on Twitter. “This time from around Skardu after my last tweet with pictures from GB.”
I have been sent more pictures, this time from around Skardu, after my last tweet with pics from GB. pic.twitter.com/3coB1X6Ruv
The photographer Abrar Khawja also took to social media to express his joy over his work being shown to the world.
“My passion for photography has delivered results today,” wrote Abrar, sharing the premier’s tweet. “My beautiful Pakistan, captured through my lens, is being shown to the whole world by my own prime minister.”
My passion for photography has delivered results today as it's being an honor that my beautiful Pakistan captured thru my lens is being shown to the whole world by my own Prime Minister @arslankhalid_m@PakPMOhttps://t.co/8tTZDA0fJ9
At least 18 Saudi and Qatari royals, including Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, will visit Pakistan to hunt rare houbara bustard after the confirmation of their special hunting licences.
The members of royal families have obtained permission to hunt houbara bustard in Balochistan in spite of the international and local bans on the hunt of the endangered species.
Media reports suggest that Saudi CP Muhammad Bin Salman will hunt the bird in Layyah and Bhakkar region, whereas another Saudi royal Prince Fahad Bin Sultan has been allotted Awaran and Chaghi areas of Balochistan for the hunting of the rare bird.
Qatari royal Muhammad Bin Khalifus Sani and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamadus Sani will be hunt the migratory bird in Loralai and Musakhel, respectively. Sheikh Muhammad bin Ali Sani was allotted Barkhan while Sheikh Sani Abdul Aziz was given Kalat and Surab.
In total 18 sheikhs from Saudi Arabia and Qatar succeeded in getting permission for hunting in Balochistan and other provinces. In return, the Balochistan government will receive Rs150 million for granting this permission.
The Dubai ruler had needed younger falcons to hunt houbara bustards, and permission in this regard was issued by the foreign ministry.
The permit issued on Sept 15 this year had read: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs…has the honour to inform that the esteemed embassy may export one hundred and fifty (150) falcons from Pakistan to the United Arab Emirate (UAE) for the personal use of His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed Al Maktoum, vice president of UAE and ruler of Dubai, from Karachi/Bahawalpur/Rahim Yar Khan/Islamabad/Quetta.”
A high-tension video doing the rounds has shown Punjab Police personnel detaining popular disc jockey and political activist DJ Butt.
According to journalist Munizae Jahangir, Butt, who is responsible for the sound system arrangements at the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) anti-government protest in Lahore on December 13, was “forcefully taken to Model Town police station”.
The video that shows Butt resisting arrest and seeking the reason behind his detention comes at a time when tensions run high among the country’s political quarters.
The joint opposition is determined to send the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government packing with its protests.
The government, on the other hand, has refused to let the opposition “blackmail the state into giving them a clean chit in corruption cases”.
While the government has also not allowed the PDM member parties to gather in Lahore amid the second wave of COVID-19, leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) among other joint opposition parties say the gathering will be held come what may.
Meanwhile, the premier has also announced to hold by-elections on vacant seats if PDM leaders go forth with plans of resigning from assemblies.
Supreme Court (SC) Justice Umar Ata Bandial took exception to the remarks made by Sarina Isa, wife of SC judge Qazi Faez Isa, and warned her not to “overstep her limits”.
Sarina, who appeared in the top court in a case pertaining to the review plea against the June 19 verdict in the Justice Isa case, said that Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmad should be impartial. “Why didn’t the CJP order the formation of a full-bench to hear review pleas against a judgement of a seven-member bench,” she asked, questioning the “objectivity” of CJP Gulzar in the matter.
“You should be careful while talking about the CJP and the institution,” Justice Bandial responded, adding that as the head of the institution, the chief justice left the matter related to the inclusion of three judges to this larger bench.
At this, Muneer A Malik, counsel representing Justice Isa, quoted precedents to make his case for the inclusion of the three judges. Similarly, Rashid A Rizvi, counsel for Sindh High Court Bar Association, said that a lack of inclusion of the three judges could harm the public perception.
To this, Justice Qazi Amin Ahmed remarked that the court decides cases in accordance with the law and the constitution rather than on the basis of public perception.
Hearing of the case is adjourned until Thursday.
On Friday, Justice Qazi Faez Isa had submitted a petition seeking an additional review of the ruling on the presidential reference filed against him, wherein he had requested that an order be passed for the hearing of the petition to be broadcast live on television.
He had demanded at the time that Justices Maqbool Baqar, Mansoor Ali Shah, and Yahya Afridi also be made part of the bench to hear the petition and that his petition be declared admissible in Justice Afridi’s ruling.
Air pollution contaminates the air in Punjab and it shoots up in winter as farmers burn rice stalks left behind after harvesting to clear their fields to plant wheat.
During these cooler months, Lahore, which is surrounded by rice-growing districts, is covered with thick smog, putting people, especially the elderly and sick, at an increased risk.
“It is a health emergency – the air quality monitors in Lahore routinely show hazardous levels in November,” said Farah Rashid, a climate and energy program coordinator for green group WWF-Pakistan.
Now the Punjab government hopes to tackle the problem by providing 500 rice farmers around Lahore with a set of machines named ‘Happy Seeder’ that together eliminate the need to burn crop stubble.
The machines include a shredder that breaks down rice stubble and mulches it into the ground and a seed drill that follows to sow wheat through the mulch.
Malik Amin Aslam, climate change adviser to Prime Minister Imran Khan, called air pollution a “silent killer” and said Lahore’s smog had increased in intensity and frequency over the last five years.
He explained that rice farmers traditionally use combine harvesters to cut their rice in October, leaving behind about four inches of stubble.
With less than two weeks before they have to ready their fields to sow wheat, burning is the fastest way to clear the land, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
In Pakistan, rice is grown on an area of about 2 million hectares (5 million acres), mainly in the Punjab and Sindh provinces. Many of the fields are cleared by burning every year.
Commuters drive their vehicles amid heavy smog conditions in Lahore
In October and November, Lahore’s Air Quality Index level can jump to over 300, a number that the US Environmental Protection Agency says corresponds to a “health warning of emergency conditions.”
CUTTING EMISSIONS
Farmers say the new farm equipment can help combat smog but note that crop burning produces only a small share of the province’s pollution.
“The stubble is burned only for a few weeks in the winter. It is a fact that the problem becomes worse during this short period,” Bhandara said.
“But farmers are not the only reason for this pollution,” he added.
A 2018 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on the underlying causes of smog in Punjab noted that agriculture — mainly rice residue burning — accounts for 20 percent of total air pollutant emissions.
That puts it behind the industry, which produces a quarter of the air pollution in the province, and transport, which contributes more than 40 percent.
Tackling air pollution — and leaving stubble on the soil as mulch, rather than burning it — also has the benefit of reducing carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.
In India, where farmers have been using the rice stubble shredder and Happy Seeder for the past few years, a group of scientists published a report last year stating the technology could cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 78 percent.
CHOSEN BY LOTTERY
In Mandi Bahauddin district, where famed Basmati rice is grown, Muhammad Afzal, an agriculture officer at Punjab’s Government Agriculture Seed Farm, has been experimenting with the Happy Seeder for the past two years.
“Stubble management is a serious issue for farmers,” said Afzal, who helps farmers adopt new farming techniques.
Pakistan has penalties for rice stubble burning, including fines of up to Rs20,000 per acre — but most farmers have little other choice and simply continue the practice and pay the penalty when they are charged.
But a growing number are looking for alternative solutions, Afzal said.
The total cost for the stubble shredder and Happy Seeder is about Rs637,500 rupees, and the government this year is paying about 80 percent of the price for 500 farmers, he noted.
“For those who can’t afford it, bigger farmers are willing to rent out the machines. In the future, more service providers will come up to rent them out,” Afzal said.
One drawback to the machines, he noted, is the need to mount them on the back of a tractor — and not just any tractor will do.
“It requires a large, 85-horsepower tractor,” he noted, something most rice farmers in Pakistan do not have.
Bhandara, the farmer in Pakpattan, said the subsidised machines also are only available in certain districts around Lahore, in the so-called smog “red zone.”
“The subsidised machines should be made available to rice farmers in South Punjab and Sindh as well, otherwise they are too expensive for most farmers,” he said.
Despite the limitations, the Happy Seeder has proven so popular that the government has had 10 applicants for each of its 500 machines, according to Aslam, the climate change adviser.
He said authorities are using a lottery system to decide who gets the subsidised equipment.
The government has plans to expand the Happy Seeder program next year and cover the whole of the Punjab rice belt by 2023, Aslam noted.
In the meantime, he added, it is already working on a technology upgrade.
“The agriculture extension department has developed a prototype to combine the two shredder [and] seeder machines into one ‘Pak Seeder’, which will be even more effective and efficient” — plus 30 percent cheaper, he said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced holding by-elections on vacant seats if joint opposition’s lawmakers step down as part of anti-government protests.
“The government will hold by-elections if they leave the assemblies. If the opposition is confident, then so am I,” he said while speaking to senior journalists on Tuesday.
The premier was referring to threats by opposition parties to resign from the parliament as part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s protests against the government.
While a decision in this regard is yet to be taken by the opposition parties, it is being said that mass resignations could lead to a full fledged general election.
Speaking to journalists, PM Imran also said he was aware of the fact that the opposition has support from abroad.
“Some countries do not want to see Pakistan progress. Muslim countries around the globe have been destabilised under a well-conceived conspiracy, which is being replicated in Pakistan,” he alleged.
The premier said that whenever the government sat down with the opposition, their leaders brought up their cases. “The opposition wants to disband NAB so that their cases can be disposed of.”
PM Imran also admitted that his biggest mistake was not going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier. He said that the IMF wants to raise electricity prices but the government is not in favor of it.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz is practically steering the PML-N in the absence of party president Shehbaz Sharif, who is not even consulted on important political decisions.
According to a report in The News, Maryam, due to her hawkish stance, has gained popularity in the party and the public. Her control on the party is strengthened to such an extent that she has stopped “consulting him [Shehbaz] for political advice”.
Quoting an unnamed N-League leader, the report stated that Maryam doesn’t discuss “party’s confrontational approach towards the establishment” with Shehbaz because both stand poles apart on the issue.
But it is Maryam’s word against Shehbaz because it’s supported by her father Nawaz Sharif and Maryam’s the real crowd puller.
Shehbaz Sharif, the party president facing imprisonment on graft charges, is not happy with this new arrangement. He still insists on a “national dialogue to steer the country out of the present crisis”, the report adds.
“Shahbaz Sharif is extremely worried that the outcome of the confrontational strategy could be ugly and could benefit someone else,” the report quotes an aide of Shehbaz as saying. The PML-N president also relayed his reservations to the senior leadership of the party in a meeting.
Also, Shehbaz “firmly believes that PM Imran Khan is targeting him because he is the only acceptable alternative to the establishment”.
“And if there is a process of forming a national government or any future national dialogue, he will be a key player,” the report added.
However, Shehbaz, due to his non-confrontational approach, is losing grip on the party. Whereas, Maryam has proved her as the future leader of the PML-N and the party stalwarts, who don’t agree with her approach, also acknowledge her as de facto president.
