Sindh police have added rape charges in the FIR [first information report] against the purported husband of teenage Christian girl Arzoo Raja who married the minor after forced proselytisation.
Along with Syed Ali Azhar, six other people, including two lawyers and justice of peace, were also booked in the case. They have been charged under Section 3 (punishment for male contracting party), Section 4 (punishment for solemnising a child marriage) and Section 5 (punishment for parent or guardian concerned in a child marriage) of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act.
Azhar has also been charged with Section 375 (v) (sexual intercourse with a minor) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
#ArzooRaja Case: Copy of Hon' SHC Order: 1. Arzoo sent to shelter home with officer appointed for her physical & mental well being 2. "Ex-Husband" Azhar and his relatives not allowed to meet Arzoo. 3. Offence under 375(5) PPC added in FIR 4. Directions to arrest all absconders pic.twitter.com/oPd8KezryE
The brothers and a friend of the prime suspect were absolved of all charges for lack of evidence, whereas the kidnapping charge was also struck down following Arzoo’s denial, who has been sent to a shelter home by the court.
Meanwhile, a report in Geo News claimed that Arzoo Raja has tested positive for coronavirus and is in isolation at Panah Shelter Home.
CASE:
Prime suspect Ali Azhar allegedly abducted Arzoo from Karachi’s Muhalla Railway Colony West Camp Road locality on Oct 13, according to the family, which registered a kidnapping case on the same day. On Oct 15 police summoned them to the local station and showed them documents claiming that Arzoo was 18 years old and had willingly converted to Islam to marry Azhar.
Subsequently, a plea was filed in the Sindh High Court and the court allowed Arzoo Raja to stay with her alleged husband. However, following an uproar, a review plea was filed and the court ordered the formation of a medical board to determine the age of the girl.
The medical board report found out that the girl was a teenager, strengthening the family’s claims that their girl was abducted was forced to convert for marriage.
You can apply online for renewal of your machine readable passport if it has been expired.
What documents are required?
The following documents are required while applying for renewal of Machine Readable Passport through online passport service provided that your current passport is expiring within a period of seven months :
Color scanned copies of valid CNIC or NICOP or Smart CNIC or NICOP both sides
Color scanned copies of existing Passport (First two pages and one random page asked by system).
Color scanned copy of Valid Visa/ Aqama/ Residence Permit/ Asylum card/ Other Nationality Passport
For minors (less than 18)
The following documents are pre-requisite for issuance of passport to minors below 18 years:
Color scanned copies of valid NICOP or Smart card (both sides) or Computerized B- Form or Family Registration Certificate
Color scanned copies of mother and father valid National ID Cards (both sides)
Guardianship certificate/ court decision in case of separation.
Color scanned copy of minor’s attestation form ( available in the download tab).
Color scanned copy of Death Certificate if mother or father has passed away.
Color scanned copy of Valid Visa/ Aqama/ Residence Permit/ Asylum card/ Other Nationality Passport
Government employees
f the applicant is an employee of the Government of Pakistan, the following documents will be required:-
Color scanned copies of valid CNIC or NICOP or Smart CNIC or NICOP both sides
Applicant must provide No-Objection Certificate (NOC) in case he/ she is working as Government Officer/ Official, Armed forces Officers/ or employee of employee of Semi Government/ Autonomous Bodies/ Corporation. The NOC with be subject to confirmation/ verification by the department concerned.
Color scanned copies of existing Passport (First two pages and one random page asked by system).
Color scanned copy of Valid Visa/ Aqama/ Residence Permit/ Asylum card/ Other Nationality Passport.
Note:
Online portal is only for renewal of Machine Readable Passport. Following categories of passports cannot be applied through online portal.
New:
Issuance of Machine Readable Passport first time.
Modification:
In case applicants wants any changes in existing Machine Readable Passport i.e. name, father name, husband name, date of birth, caste, profession, dual nationality, marital status, religion and official to ordinary.
Reprint Exhaust:
In case applicant wants a new passport as all pages of previous passport utilized due to several visas/ frequent travelling.
Loss of Passport:-
In case applicant’s existing passport has been lost (misplaced and not in his possession) and they want a new passport.
In the above cases, the passport applicants are requested to approach nearest Pakistan Embassy/ High Commission/ Consulate General where MRP facility is available
How to upload documents?
You can upload supporting documents from the ‘Document’ tab in your e-Services Portal application session.
Before you start attaching files to your application, please remember:
There is a limit to the type and size of file that you can attach.
If you attach low quality scanned documents, it might slow down the processing of your application.
Type of files
We are able to accept the following types of files:
.JPEG
.JPG
.PNG
Size of files
We are able to accept the following sizes of file types:
Supporting document: 1MB
Fingerprint Form: 3MB
Photograph: 5MB
Naming tips
When naming your files to be attached to an online application only use numbers 0–9 and letters A–Z (upper and lower case), dashes ‘–’ and underscores ‘_’.
You must avoid using spaces ‘ ‘, periods ‘.’, ampersand ‘&’, hash ‘#’, star ‘*’, exclamation marks ‘!’, quotations ” “” and any other character that is not a letter, a number, a dash or an underscore.
How much will it cost?
How long will the Online Application Process take?
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who has been in London for over a year due to health concerns, will not able to accompany his deceased mother to Pakistan owing to poor health and other reasons.
Shamim Begum, the Sharif family matriarch, breathed her last in London on Sunday due to a chest infection at the age of 89. The death prompted PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz to abandon a joint opposition rally in Peshawar and return to Lahore.
Maryam, who complained about the government’s apathetic attitude in a tweet, also shared that she would ask her father Nawaz Sharif not to come back to Pakistan.
کسی حکومتی شخص میں اتنی انسانیت نہیں تھی کہ مجھ تک دادی کی وفات کی اطلاع پہنچا دیتے۔ میں نے میاں صاحب کو درخواست کی ہے کہ بالکل واپس نا آئیں۔ یہ ظالم اور انتقام میں اندھےلوگ ہیں جن سے کسی بھی قسم کی انسانیت کی توقع نہیں۔
“I have requested Mian sahab not to come back [to Pakistan] at all. These are tyrants, these are the people hellbent on exacting revenge, and no humanity is expected from them,” Maryam Nawaz wrote on Twitter.
Furthermore, a report published in The News also claimed that the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will not be coming back with the dead body on the advice of his doctors. “Nawaz Sharif has been advised by doctors not to travel because of his ailing health,” the report quoted PML-N leader Ishaq Dar as saying.
It may be noted here that the PML-N supreme leader was taken to a hospital last week after his condition deteriorated due to kidney pain.
According to the report, the body will be brought back to Pakistan sometime later this week after the issuance of the death certificate.
Meanwhile, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif along with his son Hamza Shehbaz has also applied for parole to attend the funeral of his mother. Subsequently, the Punjab government granted permission to attend the last rites of Shamim Begum. The father-son duo is in jail on suspicion of corruption.
Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood announced on Monday that all schools across the country will close down from November 26 to January 10, 2021, to control the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
“All ministers have mutually decided that to keep all educational institutions, including schools, colleges, universities, and tuition centres closed. However, online classes will continue from November 26 to December 24 after which winter break will start. Schools will reopen on January 11, 2021,” he said.
“When we say all educational institutions will close on Nov 26 and students will home learn, we mean ALL institutions without exception,” clarified the minister later.
When we say all educational institutions will close on Nov 26 and students will home learn, we mean ALL institutions without exception
As per reports, the decision was taken during the Inter-Provincial Education Ministers Conference (IPEMC) to discuss school closures, headed by Mahmood.
He said that all examinations will be postponed, except for a few professional exams which will take place.
The minister added that a “review session” will be organised during the first week of January to analyse the country’s virus outbreak and that a decision will be taken accordingly.
As the country witnessed a surge in coronavirus cases, the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) had suggested early and extended vacations.
In recent weeks, the country’s COVID-19 cases and deaths have seen a sharp increase. The country has reported 376,929 coronavirus cases and 7,696 deaths so far.
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that the careless actions of the opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), can result in a second lockdown for the country, and would adversely affect people’s livelihoods.
“Opposition is callously destroying people’s lives & livelihoods in their desperation to get an NRO. Let me make it clear: they can hold a million jalsas but will not get any NRO,” he tweeted.
Opposition is callously destroying people"s lives & livelihoods in their desperation to get an NRO. Let me make it clear: they can hold a million jalsas but will not get any NRO.
While the premier has been against going into lockdown, he felt that the actions of the PDM and their refusal to stop their rallies would result in faster spread of the novel coronavirus, and this in turn would leave the country with no choice but to go into lockdown.
“If [coronavirus] cases continue to rise at the rate we are seeing, we will be compelled to go into complete lockdown and the PDM will be responsible for [the] consequences,” he said further.
I do not want to take measures like a lockdown that will start hurting our economy which at the moment is showing signs of a robust recovery. Unfortunately, the Opposition's only goal is NRO at whatever cost to the lives of people & the country's economy.
PM Imran said that another lockdown would be terrible to the economy, which declared was “showing signs of a robust recovery”. However, he added that should the PDM continue with its actions, the government would have no choice but to impose another lockdown.
At the moment, there are a number of smart micro-lockdowns taking place across the country, where those streets with more than eight cases reported are shut down. Similarly, wedding halls, large public gatherings, and indoor events have been banned as per the official orders of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
On Friday, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government had refused to grant permission for a public meeting planned by the PDM due to the rising number of coronavirus cases in the country.
In response to the notification, the PDM had refused to back down and claimed that this is a ploy by the ruling party to prevent the rallies from taking place.
Ikhtiar Wali, the spokesperson of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) KP chapter, had insisted that the coalition would go ahead with the rally.
Speaking to media persons on Friday, the spokesperson had said that the premier had held a rally in Swat a week ago and that the KP chief minister had held a large public gathering two days ago.
“Who did they ask for permission? And who granted them permission? So if there is no rule for the ruling party, then why is [there one] for us?” he had asked.
Separately, referring to the government as ‘Covid-18’, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz had rejected the government’s demands to postpone jalsas and public gatherings as coronavirus cases rise across the country.
“While a mask gives you protection from COVID-19, ‘Vote ko izzat do’ narrative & struggle will protect you from ‘Covid-18’ & all such future attempts, Insha’Allah. Protect yourself, protect your vote,” she tweeted.
Police arrested a woman in Sukkur on Saturday for allegedly setting her house on fire after her father refused to pay for her TikTok video.
As per reports, Marvi Khilji was arrested after her father, Abdul Aziz, registered a complaint at a police station that she had set fire to their house when refused to finance a modelling video for her TikTok account.
Abdul Aziz who is a retired employee of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA), with Rs25,000 as pension claimed in his complaint that she had demanded for Rs200,000. When he refused, she got angry and set fire to the house that destroyed a fridge and a washing machine.
Upon the father’s complaint, police arrested Khilji and the court then sent her to Sukkur jail for 14 days.
France on Sunday objected to a statement by Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari equating President Emmanuel Macron’s new measures to counter “Islamist separatism” in France with the anti-semitic policies of Nazi Germany, however, the issue was later resolved when both sides held dialogue after a false claim in the cited news article came to light.
Earlier this week, Macron issued a “charter of republican values”, detailing a series of steps aimed at purging France of what he declared as “radical Islam”. One of the measures made it necessary for school-going children to wear an identification number that would be used to ensure they are attending school.
Mazari, who apparently understood that the identification number would be issued exclusively to Muslim children, censured the move, saying through the new measures, “Macron is doing to Muslims what the Nazis did to the Jews” in Nazi Germany.
“Muslim children will get ID numbers (other children won’t) just as Jews were forced to wear the yellow star on their clothing for identification,” she added linking to an online article.
Responding to the tweet, the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs on Sunday issued a statement, calling the minister’s remark “insulting […] blatant lies, loaded with an ideology of hatred and violence.”
The rather unceremonious statement asked Pakistan to “return to the path of dialogue based on respect.”
The publication later amended the article and issued a clarification stating that the law mentioned in the article applies to all children in France, not specifically Muslim children.
The embassy also sent a series of tweets to point out the mistakes in the article.
In response to the French envoy’s message, Mazari deleted her tweet and issued a clarification on Twitter and admitted her mistake. “The French Envoy to Pak sent me the following message and as the article I had cited has been corrected by the relevant publication, I have also deleted my tweet on the same,” she tweeted.
Responding to the minister’s tweet, the French Embassy thanked Mazari for the clarification and apology, and wrote that “freedom of expression and debates are essential in democracies, based on verified and accurate facts.”
Macron on Wednesday unveiled the bill and asked Muslim leaders in France to agree to its instructions as part of a broad clampdown on so-called “Islamic extremism”. He gave the French Council of the Muslim Faith 15 days to work with the interior ministry.
The bill includes measures which include: restrictions on home-schooling and harsher punishments for those who intimidate public officials on religious grounds; giving children an identification number under the law that would be used to ensure they are attending school and a ban on sharing the personal information of a person in a way that allows them to be located by people who want to harm them.
Parents who break the law could face up to six months in jail as well as large fines, it said.
The draft law — which Macron said will strengthen a 1905 law separating Church and state in France — will be discussed by the French cabinet on December 9.
The new bill comes on the heels of three separate instances of terrorism following the publication of blasphemous caricatures by Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical weekly best known for vulgar irreverence, and Macron’s insistence on defending the act in the name of freedom of expression.
Following the publication of these cartoons and Macron’s defense of it, relations between France and the Muslim world grew sour as tens of thousands of Muslims in several countries joined protests, burned effigies of Macron, chanted anti-French slogans and called for a boycott of French goods.
The National Institute of Electronics has developed an artificial intelligence-based software that would detect the coronavirus in the lungs in 60 seconds.
The AI software was developed by the institute to upgrade the testing process, as currently, it takes several hours for the PCR tests to detect the virus in a patient. The new virus detecting system named ‘Cov-Raid AI Detection’ has already been approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP).
DRAP said that the Cov-Raid “shall employ Convolutional Neural Networks to predict [presence of] Covid-19 in suspected individuals” by using X-rays and it has been approved for “secondary detection” of the virus, reported Dawn.
According to the creators of the software, ‘Cov-Raid’ has been developed by “creating a data repository of Chest X Rays (CXR) for Covid-19 or non-Covid-19 detection”.
“The Cov-Raid requires a chest X-Ray image as an input for the detection of Covid-19 positive or negative patients in less than one minute,” the description on the website said.
“The algorithm has been trained on more than 35,000 CXRs (data authentication done through multiple certified radiologists and PCR reports),” the website said, adding that the test can be used to test a large number of patients in a limited time.
Meanwhile, DRAP Chief Executive Officer Dr Asim Rauf has reportedly said that the new software is registered under the DRAP Act of 2012.
Following a sharp increase in cases of coronavirus, the Punjab Primary and Secondary Healthcare Department has enforced a smart lockdown in six cities in the province including Lahore to control the spread of the disease.
According to a notification issued by the department, hotspot areas of district Lahore included Block F1, Valencia Town, Nishtar Town; Blocks E1, E2, F1, F2, G2, G4, G5 Johar Town; Boys’ Hostel No. 11, Superintendent House, PU, Allama lqbal Town; Sector AA, Sector BB, Sector CC, Sector FF, Phase 4, DHA; Sector XX, Phase 3, DHA; Sector N, DHA Phase 1; Paragon City, Lahore Cantt; and Block A, Block B, FCC, Gulberg-4, Gulberg Town. Other areas of Lahore shall remain open.
In the closed areas, the following shall be exempted from this order: grocery stores, general/karyana stores, atta chakkis, fruit & vegetable shops, tondoors & petrol pumps shall be open from 9am to 7 pm for seven days a week; all medical services and pharmacies/medical stores, laboratories and collection points, hospitals and clinics for 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and milk shops, chicken & meat/fish shops, and bakeries shall remain open from 7am to 7pm seven days a week. Large departmental stores will only keep their grocery/pharmacy sections open while all others sections will remain closed.
A TikToker was arrested by the police in Sialkot for posing as a beggar.
As per reports, the TikToker was found begging in Daska after disguising himself as a beggar. The patrolling police of the area found him suspicious and took him into custody. Upon interrogation, they discovered US dollars, Riyals and Pounds from his pocket.
The police said that the youth was misleading people by disguising himself as a beggar but was later identified as a TikTok star, when he washed out his face.
He has been taken into custody by the police over charges of deceiving people.
