Current Final

Category: National

  • Journalist, who released footage of Capt (r) Safdar’s arrest, goes missing

    A reporter who released the footage of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Capt (r) Safdar’s arrest from his hotel room has been missing since last night.

    Ali Imran Syed, a journalist based in Karachi, left his home between 7pm and 8pm after telling his family he would be back home in half an hour. He has not returned home since, said Geo News.

    According to the wife of the reporter, his car was parked outside the house and he had left his mobile phone at home.

    According to the report, the Geo News administration has approached the Karachi police over the disappearance of the journalist. The family had also submitted a report to Sachal police station, it added. However, Dawn quoted a police official saying that a case has yet to be registered.

    Meanwhile, Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab said Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has taken notice of the incident.

    Reacting to the disappearance of the reporter, the human rights organisations have called upon the government to ensure the release of the journalist.

    Amnesty International stated that Imran was “feared to have been subjected to an enforced disappearance for his reporting”. “The authorities must establish his whereabouts immediately,” the human rights group said.

    The Human Rights Commission Pakistan also demanded “immediate release” the Geo News reporter.

    PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz also condemned the reporter’s disappearance. “I have heard that he has been picked up for allegedly sharing CCTV footage of [retired Captain Safdar’s arrest]. This is unfortunate,” she said while speaking to reporters in Lahore.

    Safdar was arrested from his hotel room in the early hours of Monday from his hotel room for raising slogans at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and jumping over the grill surrounding the grave.

    The Sindh government led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had distanced itself from the matter soon after the arrest.

  • Army needs to distance itself from PTI, says retired general

    Army needs to distance itself from PTI, says retired general

    Defence analyst Lt Gen (r) Ghulam Mustafa has urged the Pakistan Army to distance itself from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in order to kill the impression that the ruling party has the support of the military.

    In a TV show, the analyst said the impression that the army has gotten PTI’s back needs to be defused as it is damaging the reputation of the state institution.

    Mustafa said the opposition, however, was being unfair for claiming that the army was supporting the ruling PTI. He said the military stood by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government in 2014 during the protests led by Imran Khan, but nobody accused it of “supporting the Nawaz-led government”.

    He said the army chief needed to take measures to take his force out of the tug of war between the political parties, as the current situation was rapidly heading towards disaster.

    The defence analyst’s comments came in the wake of countrywide protests by the joint opposition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement.

    During its first rally in Gujranwala on Oct 18, former prime minister and PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif hit out at the security establishment for ousting his government and installing Imran Khan in power. This was the first time that the opposition named a sitting army chief for meddling in the elections.

    Nawaz addressed the crowd via video link from London. “Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, you packed up our government, which was working well, and put the nation and the country at the alter of your wishes,” the former PM added.

  • Will travel to UK myself if needed to bring Nawaz back: Imran

    Will travel to UK myself if needed to bring Nawaz back: Imran

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that he would himself travel to the United Kingdom (UK) if that is what’s needed to bring former premier Nawaz Sharif back to Pakistan to face the corruption charges against him.

    Corruption convict Nawaz, who was last year granted bail and the permission to travel abroad for medical treatment, has been in London for almost a year now. He has time and again been accused by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of faking health issues to flee the country and avoid accountability.

    “I will travel to [the] UK and bring him [Nawaz] back myself if that is what’s needed,” the premier reportedly said in an interview that will air on ARY News tonight at 7 pm.

    The statement comes after Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said that the deposed PM will be in a Pakistan jail by January 15.

    Addressing the media, the federal minister maintained that everything was being done to stop the legal process behind the arrest of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo. However, he added that the federal government was doing all in its power to bring Nawaz back.

    Faraz said that PM Imran would not leave Nawaz off the hook, and that the government was building diplomatic pressure for the PML-N supreme leader’s return.

  • Boxer Amir Khan calls army ‘backbone’ of Pakistan, declines to join politics

    Boxer Amir Khan calls army ‘backbone’ of Pakistan, declines to join politics

    British-Pakistani boxer Amir Khan is all-praise for the Pakistan Army, saying the military was the “backbone of the country”.

    In a couple of tweets, the former boxing champion, who was invited to enter the politics, said that he wouldn’t join the politics on the advice of his counsels. He added that Pakistan was run by an “amazing PM” whom “we trust”. But Khan said he would continue to do “charity work @AKFoundation in UK, Pakistan and rest of the world to make areas better and safer”.

    The boxer said he has “big respect” for the Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, and Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) head Major Gen Babar Iftikhar. “Every attack, floods, earthquakes the Pakistan army are the first to reach and help,” he added.

    Earlier this week, the British-Pakistani sportsman revealed that he was asked to join the politics during his visit to Pakistan.

    “I have been asked numerous times if I would join politics in Pakistan. Being a sportsman and being an ambassador for the country, I’m honoured to [be] asked if I would take part in politics, in fact, I would love to help the country,” said the former boxing champion after the visit.

    He continued: “I’ve sat with many politicians and army generals agreeing and disagreeing on topics in the country. My heart is clean and I would want the best for Pakistan.”

  • Nawaz unhappy after PML-N leaders meet Shehbaz on ‘request’ of establishment

    Nawaz unhappy after PML-N leaders meet Shehbaz on ‘request’ of establishment

    Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is reportedly upset because of a secret meeting of three senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders with party president Shehbaz Sharif on the “request” of a senior representative of the establishment.

    According to a local media outlet, Nawaz was reportedly unhappy because he was told that top party leaders Khawaja Asif, Ahsan Iqbal and Rana Tanvir Hussain met Shehbaz while he was in the custody National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on the “request of a senior representative of the establishment”.

    However, PML-N Secretary-General Iqbal dismissed the reports, claiming that they had met their party president after duly informing the former premier.

    While denying that the establishment arranged their meeting, the PML-N leader said they had only requested the accountability body for the meeting.

  • PM likely to appoint brother of Nawaz’s blue-eyed Fawad Hasan Fawad as new special assistant

    PM likely to appoint brother of Nawaz’s blue-eyed Fawad Hasan Fawad as new special assistant

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan is likely to appoint the brother of former PM Nawaz Sharif’s blue-eyed Fawad Hasan Fawad as his new special assistant on information and broadcasting, ARY News reported.

    According to reports, Raoof Hasan will be replacing former Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general (DG) Lt Gen (r) Asim Bajwa, who stepped down as the premier’s media aide earlier this month.

    Interestingly, Raoof is the brother of former civil servant Fawad who served in BPS-22 grade as the principal secretary to two PMs, namely Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

    The former bureaucrat was accused of corruption and misuse of authority by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the Ashiana Housing scam, which led to his arrest in July 2018.

    He was accused of directing the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) management to cancel the contract of Ashiana Iqbal without any inquiry. In February 2019, the Lahore High Court (LHC) had granted Fawad bail but denied the same in another NAB case pertaining to assets beyond means.

    Later, in January 2020, Fawad was set free on the grounds that no illegitimate asset belonging to him had been unearthed by the anti-graft watchdog, no charge had been framed and that there was no nexus between him and any asset, however, he had been arrested at the inquiry stage.

    Fawad was also one of the first to be nabbed as part of the Imran-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government’s accountability drive.

    Raoof, on the other hand, is the founder and chief executive of the Regional Peace Institute.

  • Video shows two cops breaking into Safdar’s hotel room

    A video footage of the arrest of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Capt (r) Muhammad Safdar has surfaced, which shows two Sindh police officials breaking into the lawmaker’s room.

    The footage acquired by Geo News showed that Safdar was detained by the officials of the Sindh police from his hotel room at 6:45am.

    As per the video, two police vans entered the hotel premises at 6:08am and it took the cops approximately 35 minutes to detain the lawmaker from his room on the 15th floor. In the video, a plainclothed man can be seen taking instruction on phone, while another is busy in making a video of the arrested MNA.

    The video was also tweeted by PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, who is the spouse of Safdar. She wrote that the video reflected that a ‘state above state’ existed in Pakistan.

    Safdar was arrested from his hotel room in the early hours of Monday from his hotel room for raising slogans at the mausoleum of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, and jumping over the grill surrounding the grave. The Sindh government led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had distanced itself from the matter soon after the arrest.

    Afterwards, the Sindh police tweeted that the arrest was lawful, but the tweet was deleted soon after it was put up. But after a few hours, the tweet was updated again, wherein the police said that Safdar was arrested as per law.

    Amid reports that the Sindh Rangers took IGP Mushtaq Mahar hostage to get Safdar arrested, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) asked army general Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa to launch a institutional probe into the incident. Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that every police officer in Sindh, from a station house officer to senior police officers, were wondering who had “surrounded IG Sindh Mushtaq Mahar’s office at 2am on Sunday night”, asking Gen Bajwa to take notice.

    Subsequently, the military’s media wing tweeted that Gen Bajwa has ordered a probe into the episode. According to a statement shared by the ISPR, Gen Bajwa directed the Karachi Corps commander to “immediately inquire into the circumstances to determine the facts and report back as soon as possible”

  • ‘Inconvenience is highly regretted’: IBA cancels Dr Atif Mian’s lecture on economy

    The Institute of Business Administration (IBA), one of the best business schools in Pakistan, has cancelled a talk by top economist Atif R Mian on Pakistan’s poor economic growth without any plausible cause.

    In a tweet, the IBA wrote: “Dr Atif R. Mian’s lecture “Why has economic growth fallen behind in Pakistan?” scheduled on November 5, 2020 has been cancelled. Inconvenience is highly regretted.” There was no further explanation by the school on why the lecture was cancelled. Dr Mian has yet to comment on the development.

    Observers say that the economist was disinvited from the lecture probably because of his affiliation with the minority Ahmadiyya community. However, this is not the first time Atif Mian, who teaches at ivy league Princeton, has faced discrimination due to his faith.

    He was appointed by Prime Minister Imran Khan in the Economic Advisory Council after the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). However, the post was short-lived after the government came under fire for appointing an Ahmadi to the economic body. It subsequently backtracked and sacked Atif Mian from the advisory council, much to the chagrin of progressive quarters.

    Dr Atif is John H. Laporte, Jr. Class of 1967 Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Finance at Princeton University, and director of the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance at the Woodrow Wilson School. He is the first and only person of Pakistani origins to have been named on the IMF’s list of ‘top 25 brightest young economists.’  

    The 39-year-old has dedicated his time to studying the connections between finance and the macro economy. An expert on international debt markets, his latest book, House of Debt, builds on data to describe how debt precipitated the ‘Great Recession’. He is often the go-to economist for the world media on the subject.

  • Saudi Arabia backstabbing Pakistan at FATF?

    Saudi Arabia backstabbing Pakistan at FATF?

    Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri has rejected “false media reports” regarding Saudi Arabia’s role in the assessment of Pakistan’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan.

    According to a press release, FO categorically rejected the story circulating on a segment of the media as false and baseless.

    Earlier in the day, Azhar Mashwani, Punjab chief minister’s focal person for digital media, tweeted that reports of Saudi Arabia voting against Pakistan at FATF were fake and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would issue a statement on this.

    “Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong fraternal ties and the two countries have always cooperated with each other on all matters of bilateral, regional and international importance,” said the statement by the FO spokesperson.

    “Pakistan greatly values its relations with the brotherly Saudi Arabia and firmly rejects such malicious propaganda.”

    The statements come after renowned journalist, Sabir Shakir, claimed that Saudi Arabia had voted against Pakistan in the virtual plenary of the FATF.

    He had asserted that Saudi Arabia lobbied to woo the support of other Muslim countries including Turkey to move Pakistan into the blacklist of the global financial watchdog.

    FATF:

    According to Dawn, a virtual meeting of the FATF, from October 21-23, will decide if Pakistan should be excluded from its ‘grey list’, based on a review of Islamabad’s performance to meet global commitments and standards on fight against money laundering and terror financing (ML&TF).

    The FATF plenary was earlier scheduled in June but Islamabad got an unexpected breather after the global watchdog against financial crimes temporarily postponed all mutual evaluations and follow-up deadlines in the wake of grave health risk following COVID-19 pandemic. The Paris-based agency also put a general pause in the review process, thus giving additional four months to Pakistan to meet the requirements.

    The plenary had formally placed Pakistan in the grey list in June 2018 due to “strategic deficiencies” in anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) after a push from India supported by the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and some European countries.

    The FATF will examine if the country had demonstrated remedial actions and sanctions applied in cases of AML/CFT violations, relating to terrorist financing (TF) risk management and TFS (terror financing sanctions) obligations.

    The FATF will also judge if competent authorities were cooperating and taking action to identify and taking enforcement action against illegal money or value transfer services (MVTS) and had proven implementation of cross-border currency and bearer negotiable instruments (BNI) controls at all ports of entry, including applying effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.

  • Pakistan reacts to Indian claims of civil war in Karachi with memes

    Pakistan reacts to Indian claims of civil war in Karachi with memes

    With Indians being brutally trolled by the entire world for sensationalising the rebellion of Sindh police officials with civil war claims, Twitter is flooding with memes depicting the war that not just Indian media but also prominent citizens are claiming is going on in the southeastern province of Pakistan.

    Amid the controversy surrounding Sindh police following Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Captain (r) Safdar’s arrest in Karachi, India on Wednesday once again lost it as it claimed that clashes were taking place between the army and the provincial police as a civil war erupted in the port city.

    READ: ‘IG was kidnapped’: Hamid Mir takes a dig at Kamran Khan for contesting his claim

    According to reports now retracted by multiple Indian media outlets, Karachi is burning with shootouts between civil and military bodies after the army took over the provincial metropolis and the control of all police stations as well as government buildings.

    This time, however, it wasn’t just Indian media that made baseless claims, cracking people up on this side of the border…

    “10 police officers of Sindh police martyred during their line of duty of saving people of Karachi from atrocities of army [sic],” prominent Indian lawyer Prashant Patel Umrao claimed.

    https://twitter.com/ippatel/status/1318743674105233408

    He went on to say that the United States (US) Navy may enter Karachi port soon, drawing strong reactions from Twitterati, and not just those from Pakistan.

    While many resorted to reacting strongly to Indian claims, such as deputy director of the Asia Program and senior associate for South Asia at the Wilson Center, Michael Kugelman, who said that Indian disinformation accounts were exploiting Pakistan’s current political crisis, some chose to give their peers a good laugh.

    Here are some of the memes that’ll make your day:

    https://twitter.com/iKarachiwala/status/1319013537826639873
    https://twitter.com/haris1khan/status/1318924695752802304
    https://twitter.com/ThisMyHandle/status/1318888540718178313
    https://twitter.com/umerbinajmal/status/1318987098066718725

    Have something to add to this story? Let The Current know in the comments…