Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Political Affairs Naeemul Haque has confused former Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar for PM Imran Khan.
“PM Imran Khan 1969,” Haque wrote while tweeting a monochrome picture of a batsman raising his bat.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister’s aide shares @sachin_rt old picture mistaking him for his leader and Pakistan cricket star @ImranKhanPTI in an embarrassing gaffe.. This happens so frequently these days that no one even notices. https://t.co/bYCRsMqG5l
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has dropped its earlier plan of converting the Prime Minister’s (PM) House into a research university and instead an “emerging technologies and engineering” university will be established.
As per the details, the new idea will be materialised at a cost of around Rs30 billion and the university will be headed by former Higher Education Commission (HEC) chairman Dr Attaur Rahman.
“The proposal to have a policy institute at the PM House has been abandoned on my advice and rather an emerging technologies and engineering university will be set up in the vacant area of the venue,” Dr Rehman told a local English daily.
Earlier, the Education Ministry had completed the process of making the PM House a research university, named as “Islamabad National University”, in the first phase.
The university was to be constructed on 30 acres of land acquired from the polo ground, stables and mountains of the PM House in the second phase.
Reports had said that a research institute was to be made initially which was to be further given the status of a university.
Interim chief executive officer (CEO) of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), Asadullah Khan, has said that Afghanistan is currently better than Pakistan in all aspects of cricket.
According to senior sports journalist Ibrahim Momand, Asadullah in a recent television interview said that Pakistan should “seek Afghanistan’s help to improve their cricket”.
“We are currently far better than Pakistan in cricket and they should ask us for technical, coaching and more support for the betterment of their cricket [sic],” Asadullah is reported to have said.
A majority of fans have been left disheartened ever since Pakistan’s humiliating defeat against arch-rivals India in the 2019 Cricket World Cup.
While some hope for a comeback from the Green Shirts as witnessed in the 2017 Champions Trophy and many other times, everyone is confused over the national cricket team’s future in the tournament.
CAN PAKISTAN STILL QUALIFY FOR THE SEMIS?
The simple answer to this question is yes. Pakistan can still manage to secure a spot among the four teams that will be playing in the semi-finals of the World Cup.
As per the current table, Pakistan are at number nine out of the ten teams playing in the tournament.
The situation doesn’t look very good; however, Pakistan still has another four matches to play against South Africa on June 23, New Zealand on June 26, Afghanistan on June 29 and Bangladesh on July 5.
In order to qualify, Pakistan need to win all four matches while maintaining a good Net Run Rate (NRR) — a statistical method used in analysing teamwork and performance in cricket.
Other than performing well, Pakistan also has to hope that New Zealand loses all its remaining matches because considering their current forms, India, Australia and England will most probably be the top three teams that will qualify.
Minister for Power Division Omar Ayub Khan has said his grandfather and former president of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, had “laid the foundation of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)”.
Taking the floor of the National Assembly on Wednesday, Omar Ayub said, “Former president of Pakistan Ayub Khan had laid the foundation of CPEC by starting work on the Karakoram Highway.”
He further said that the Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan-led government was determined to achieve the set target of Rs5,500 billion in the financial year 2019-20.
The minister added that the country had to pay billions of rupees as interest on the loans taken by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) governments.
CPEC:
CPEC is a collection of infrastructure projects that are currently under construction throughout Pakistan with China’s help. Originally valued at $46 billion, the value of CPEC projects is worth $62 billion as of 2017.
The project is expected to generate employment and boost the country’s economy in the years to come.
Soon after Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said the British government has agreed to extradite Ishaq Dar, it was reported that the former finance minister had approached Home Office in London “to apply for political asylum”.
Dar, 69, is currently in London, “undergoing medical treatment”. He is absconding from several cases in Pakistan since 2017 and has been declared a proclaimed offender by the courts.
He is facing charges of accumulating assets beyond known sources of income.
With the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government continuing to claim Dar is only evading the cases against him since he has been spotted walking upright on the streets of London time and again, PM Imran Khan’s special assistant on Tuesday said the former finance minister “will be brought back soon”.
A day later, a private media outlet claimed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader had reached the Home Office in London for a second interview with regard to political asylum in the United Kingdom (UK).
Rejecting the reports, a close aide of Dar told The Current that he had visited the UK Home Office “only to inform them about the fabricated reports in the name of a recently-signed extradition agreement between the two countries”.
The source’s claim was validated when British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the United Kingdom (UK) would not sign any extradition treaty that could be used for “politically-motivated” cases.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister (FM) Shah Mahmood Qureshi at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Hunt confirmed the two had discussed the issue of an extradition treaty between Pakistan and the UK.
WATCH VIDEO:
“Let me say it straightforward. The UK will never sign any treaty allowing for politically motivated extradition,” said the British official to which Qureshi added that Pakistan did not intend to use the treaty against political rivals.
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has misquoted Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore — tweeting his words while crediting Lebanese-American writer and poet Khalil Gibran instead, journalist Gharidah Farooqi pointed out Wednesday.
“Those who discover and get to understand the wisdom of Gibran’s words, cited below, get to live a life of contentment [sic],” the premier had tweeted earlier in the day.
Those who discover and get to understand the wisdom of Gibran's words, cited below, get to live a life of contentment. pic.twitter.com/BdmIdqGxeL
While the tweet was liked and retweeted by thousands of PM Imran’s follower, journalist Gharidah Farooqi pointed out what was wrong with it.
Retweeting, she wrote: “Sir, these are Rabindranath Tagore’s words, not Khalil Gibran’s. I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
Sir, these are Rabindranath Tagore's words, not Khalil Jibran's.
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. https://t.co/OVIkBdxh9c
Days after Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry slapped senior anchorperson Sami Ibrahim, a video of the incident has emerged.
The incident took place last week at a wedding in Faisalabad, where the minister slapped Ibrahim “after getting angry” in wake of the ongoing spat between the two.
Earlier in June, the senior anchorperson had alleged that some elements within the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were hatching a conspiracy against Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan to oust him and to weaken the Pakistan Army.
He had alleged that Fawad was a part of the group conspiring against the government.
The minister had responded by using slurs against the anchorperson, drawing widespread criticism from politicians, civil society and members of the journalist community.
He had also accused Sami of blackmailing him when he was the information minister for refusing to put his channel, Bol TV, into category A for advertisements.
Last Friday, Fawad tweeted that he had initiated criminal proceedings against the senior anchorperson and he would teach him a lesson in accordance with the law.
However, later that night when both of them met at the wedding function in Faisalabad, they had a bitter argument, which led to the minister slapping him on the face.
WATCH VIDEO:
The incident had led to PM Imran speaking to the journalist and telling him “his party doesn’t encourage any individual acts that intentionally or unintentionally undermine someone’s self-esteem.”
Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari has tweeted to pay her respect to Nigar Johar Khan, the third woman in the country’s history to hold the rank of major general in the Pakistan Army.
“Respect. #womenempowerment,” Mazari wrote while sharing a picture of the officer.
Hailing from a Pashtun family of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Panjpir village in Swabi, Maj Gen Nigar Johar Khan is the daughter of Col Qadir, who served in the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
She is from the 5th MBBS course of Army Medical College (AMC) and has served as female company commander of Ayesha company at the same college.
In 2015, she was featured in an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) video honouring women officers of the country’s armed forces. At the time, she was the deputy commandant of Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Rawalpindi.
Apart from being a doctor, she is a sharpshooter and is currently serving as the commandant of Pak-Emirates Military Hospital, Rawalpindi.
The first two major generals, Shahida Badsha and Shahida Malik also belong to the Army Medical Corps. Another officer, Dr Shehla Baqai became the fourth female Major General in Pakistan Army last year.
