Current Final

Category: Politics

  • US wants to investigate Pakistan’s role in Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

    US senators have introduced a bill in the US Senate calling for an investigation into the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan and those groups, and people, who helped oust the Ashraf Ghani-led government, Geo News has reported.The bill was presented by 22 Republican senators.

    The ‘Afghanistan Counterterrorism, Oversight, and Accountability Act’ also seeks to establish a task force that will focus on continued evacuation of American citizens, legal permanent residents and Special Immigrant Visa holders from Afghanistan.

    The presented bill states that the “support by state and non-state actors, including the Government of Pakistan, for the Taliban between 2001 and 2020, provision of sanctuary space, financial support, intelligence support, logistics and medical support, training, equipping, and tactical, operational, or strategic direction” should be investigated.

    The bill also seeks to investigate the support provided to Taliban allegedly by non-state actors and the government of Pakistan into the Panjshir Valley operation by the Taliban. The bill further seeks to place restrictions on non-humanitarian foreign assistance to Afghanistan.

    Federal Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, while reacting to the bill, tweeted, “So again Pak will be made to pay heavy price 4 being an ally of US in its War on Terror.”

  • ‘Photoshopped image’, New York Times issues correction about PM Modi’s fake picture

    ‘Photoshopped image’, New York Times issues correction about PM Modi’s fake picture

    Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi’s ‘fake image’ started doing the rounds on social media.

    In the picture, which seems to be a cover photo for the New York Times (NYT), Modi can be seen writing something. The headline of the cover photo glorifying Narendra Modi is, “LAST, BEST HOPE OF EARTH”.

    Indian and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) followers shared the fake image so many times that the New York Times had to give a clarification.

    Taking to Twitter, NYT wrote, “This is a completely fabricated image, one of many in circulation featuring Prime Minister Modi.”

    “Resharing or circulating photoshopped images online only adds to misinformation and uncertainty, at a time when truthful, trusted journalism is needed most,” read the statement.

    Twitterati reacted to the fake image even more after the clarification was issued.

    Columnist and writer, Ashok Swain tweeted, “Nothing hurts when you have no shame left!”

    https://twitter.com/ashoswai/status/1442958821031174151

    Indian journalist, Rana Ayyub took to Twitter and wrote, “What an embarrassment !! If nothing, the photoshop skills of our politicians is making international news.”

    Congressman Saral Patel tagging PM Modi on Twitter wrote, “One more feather in @narendramodi’s hat.”

    Journalist Swati Chaturvedi tweeted, “I feel embarrassed as an Indian at this persistent fakery is @narendramodi embarrassed or not?”

    A Twitter user wrote, “Modi has made India the laughing stock of the world, with his IT Cell !!”

  • Taliban ban women from teaching, attending Kabul University until Islamic environment is created

    Taliban ban women from teaching, attending Kabul University until Islamic environment is created

    Newly Taliban-appointed Kabul University Chancellor Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat announced that women would be banned from the institution either as instructors or students.

    In a tweet, Ghairat said, ” I give you my words as the chancellor of Kabul University, as long as a real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work. Islam first.”

    https://twitter.com/MAshrafGhairat/status/1442385192824487937?s=20

    While speaking with New York Times, one female lecturer said, “Presidents, teachers, engineers and even mullahs are trained here and gifted to society. Kabul University is the home to the nation of Afghanistan.”

    Earlier, the chancellor tweeted in Pashto that the university was working on a plan to accommodate teaching female students.

    “Due to shortage of female lecturers, we are working on a plan for male lecturers to be able to teach female students from behind a curtain in the classroom. That way an Islamic environment would be created for the female students to get an education,” he wrote.

    https://twitter.com/MAshrafGhairat/status/1442127895204442112?s=20

    Upon this Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid said that the ban on women would stay until there is a safer transportation system and an environment where female students are protected.

    The Taliban replaced the previous serving president of the university with Mr. Ghairat, a 34-year-old devotee of the movement who has referred to the country’s schools as “centers for prostitution,” reports CNN.

    Thousands of public university students are staying home. The American University in Afghanistan, in which the U.S. invested over a hundred million dollars has been abandoned completely and taken over by the Taliban.

  • Govt vs PML-N: Clash over UK’s unfreezing of Shehbaz’s accounts

    Govt vs PML-N: Clash over UK’s unfreezing of Shehbaz’s accounts

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders have said that the government’s claims that it was not involved or pursuing the money laundering cases against PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif have been exposed. 

    Addressing a press conference, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said, “The government had embarrassed itself in front of the world with the National Crime Agency (NCA) probe.”

    “The standard set by this government, when it comes to lying, is totally unique. The prime minister of this country, in his own office, creates an Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) that has no legal basis. And what has that ARU done?” Abbasi questioned. 

    “Time and again, the NCA told the court that it has the complete support and cooperation of the Pakistani government and its agencies,” added Abbasi.

    PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said the government is failing the masses as it is busy registering fake cases against the Opposition. “However, your failure is becoming a matter of life and death for the public,” he said.

    PML-N leader Atta Tarar on Tuesday shared on Twitter the letter written by the office of the prime minister’s adviser on accountability to the NCA in the UK.

    “For [three] years [you] have levelled false allegations; ARU’s letter to NCA written on December 11, 2019, by your office is attached,” Tarar wrote, addressing Adviser to Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Mirza Shahzad Akbar, whose office had sent the letter to NCA.

    However, in a virtual press conference on Tuesday, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Interior and Accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar pointed out that there was no asset freezing order (AFO) against Shehbaz in the UK.

     He also shared the document on Twitter and said: “Cheap tricks won’t work. Shehbaz still need[s] to answer in courts in Pakistan.”

  • 40 per cent educated women are jobless in Pakistan, 1.5 million people applied for peon position

    40 per cent educated women are jobless in Pakistan, 1.5 million people applied for peon position

    The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) informed the Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development that 40 per cent of educated women across the country are jobless, Nadir Guramani reports for Dawn.

    The PIDE in its briefing, stated that 24 per cent of educated people were jobless, adding that the unemployment rate in the country has reached an alarming figure of 16 per cent contrary to the government’s claim of 6.5 per cent.

    The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Chairman of the Senate, Saleem Mandviwala.

    According to the PIDE, the study was done by a company abroad as no research has been conducted by the government, although several research institutes were operating in the country.

    The study also states that 80 per cent of people get themselves enrolled in M.Phil after failing to get a job and they have not been included in the given statistics.

    The Senate committee was told that at least 1.5 million people applied for a peon’s position in a high court that was recently advertised. “Among those applying for the job included M.Phil degree holders,” PIDE officials stated.

    The officials proposed that laws should be made to grant licenses to hawkers to enable them to get a job, this would create 20 to 30 million employments for the citizens. They also debated that universities in Pakistan were approved through a “flawed” bill by the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

    In June, the Economic Survey 2020-21 revealed that the spread of the coronavirus pandemic had severely affected businesses and other economic activities due to the imposition of lockdowns which left approximately 20.71m workers jobless.

  • Taliban ban barbers from trimming beards in Afghanistan

    Taliban ban barbers from trimming beards in Afghanistan

    The Taliban have banned hairdressers in Afghanistan’s Helmand province from shaving or trimming beards, saying it breaches their interpretation of Islamic law, reports the BBC.

    “Anyone violating the rule will be punished,” Taliban religious police say. Some barbers in the capital, Kabul have said they also received similar orders.

    The instructions suggest a return to the strict rulings of the group’s past tenure in power.

    In a notice posted at salons, Taliban officers warned that hairdressers must follow Sharia law for haircuts and beards.

    “No one has a right to complain,” the notice stated, which was seen by the BBC.

    “Stop following American styles,” said another hairdresser, who received a call from someone claiming to be a government official. 

    A barber said that although he has not received an official order, he stopped offering beard trims.

    “Customers don’t shave their beards because they don’t want to be targeted by the Taliban fighters in the streets. They want to blend in and look like them,” he said.

  • Former High Commissioner of Pakistan to UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan passes away

    Former High Commissioner of Pakistan to the United Kingdom (UK), Wajid Shamsul Hasan, has passed away. Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) stalwart Wajid Shamsul Hasan was a veteran journalist and a columnist. He was seriously ill and critical for the past few days.

    Condolences and tributes poured in for the deceased’s soul.

    PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said Wajid Shamsul Hasan was a national asset.

    Aseefa Bhutto Zardari in a tweet said, “He was a brave man who held to his convictions and has stood by three generations of our family”.

    PPP leader Senator Sherry Rehman tweeted, “He spent a lifetime of devotion to democracy, human rights, free press and the PPP. What a loss! Heartfelt condolences to his family and the broader civil society community he was deeply involved with.”

    Member of Parliament for Gillingham and Rainham, Rehman Chishiti, tweeted about Wajid Shamsul Hasan’s death. He also shared a picture of him with Benazir Bhutto.

    Ziauddin Yousafzai in a tweet said that Wajid Shamsul Hasan had been a great support to their family when they moved to the UK.

  • ‘Pretty impressive swag’: PPP’s Sharmila Faruqi all praise for Maryam Nawaz’s fashion choices

    ‘Pretty impressive swag’: PPP’s Sharmila Faruqi all praise for Maryam Nawaz’s fashion choices

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sharmila Faruqi took to Twitter to praise Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz’s fashion choices.

    Sharmila Faruqi commented on how Maryam Nawaz’s floral kameez and pants were complementing the heels she wore.

    “Can’t decide which came first? The shoe or the dress but pretty impressive swag,” tweeted Sharmila.

    The floral patterned white kameez and pants Maryam wore is by designer Sania Maskatiya. She wore the perfectly matched outfit to a PML-N divisional meeting in Sahiwal recently.

  • British court orders unfreezing of Shehbaz Sharif, son’s UK bank accounts

    British court orders unfreezing of Shehbaz Sharif, son’s UK bank accounts

    A United Kingdom (UK) court has ordered to unfreeze Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif and his family’s bank accounts for lack of evidence of corruption and money laundering, reported Geo News.

    The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) unfroze the bank accounts of former Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and those of his son, Suleman Shehbaz, on Monday.

    The NCA had conducted a 17-month long probe in which it examined Shehbaz Sharif’s financial transactions over the past 20 years. It said that no evidence of money laundering or criminal activities against the PML-N president or his family was found.

    The UK’s top anti-corruption agency filed a unilateral application before Judge Rimmer to declare that its two-year high-profile investigation in the jurisdictions of Pakistan, UK, and Dubai found no evidence of money laundering and criminal conduct on part of the two Sharifs who were investigated. 

    The NCA had initiated the probe after Pakistan’s Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) had shared evidence with the UK crime agency.

    After the Westminster Magistrates Court allowed the accounts to be frozen and issued a probe consent to the NCA on December 19, 2019, Suleman Shehbaz’s declared Barclays account, Shehbaz Sharif’s HBL UK and Barclays account were immediately probed, seized and monies were frozen.

    Usually, anti-money laundering investigations go back only six years, but in this case, the NCA used its excessive powers and investigated Shehbaz Sharif and his son’s transactions dating back to around 20 years.

    NCA’s investigators started the probe from the first flat that Shehbaz Sharif bought in 2004 on Edgware Road when he was in exile and asked him to produce evidence of the clean origin of the money, including mortgage payments, sources of proceeds in his accounts, salaries and dividends, and full proceeds of the property purchase in the UK bought during exile.

    The NCA investigated Suleman Shehbaz’s Barclays account declared in Pakistan with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and looked into all transfers that were made from Pakistan after the State Bank of Pakistan’s approval. The NCA went through each receipt of transfers from the official money exchangers.

    The court documents obtained by this correspondent from credible sources show that the NCA received a letter from the ARU on December 11, 2019, in which it levelled allegations of criminal conduct against Shehbaz Sharif and Suleman Shehbaz.

    The government of Pakistan had requested the UK government to seize all assets and funds of Shehbaz Sharif and his family and asked them to return the same to Pakistan and extradite Suleman Shehbaz with his family.

    Advisor to the Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said that reports of Shehbaz Sharif being acquitted by the British court were incorrect, clarifying that neither had the ARU nor NAB requested the UK government to initiate a probe against the PML-N leader.

    “[These transactions] were declared as a suspicious transaction by the UK authorities and the NCA secured an asset freezing order(AFO) from the court against these funds,” he tweeted.

    “The news about the alleged acquittal of Shehbaz Sharif or his son Suleman run by one news channel is incorrect and misreporting. It was a result of a suspicious transaction reported by a bank to NCA. The investigation by the NCA against Suleman Shehbaz and some of his family members was not initiated at the request of Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) or National Accountability Bureau (NAB),” tweeted Akbar, who had been keeping a low profile for the last couple of months.

    PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb said: “The UK court’s decision has unequivocally exonerated Shehbaz Sharif and his family of all malicious and vexatious claims of corruption and money laundering by Imran Khan. The NCA conducted a 21-month global investigation spanning across a 20-year timeframe whilst overcoming unprecedented jurisdictional challenges.”

    “Never in the history of Pakistan has such a public office-holder been subjected to global scrutiny and multi-jurisdictional probing. Imran Khan has been exposed as a charlatan, willing to malign and assassinate characters of honest public office-holders. False corruption narrative exposed as nothing more than a smokescreen and Imran Khan to be an unscrupulous ringmaster of a circus built on incompetence, deceit and stained by the indignation of the innocent and the poor,” she said.

  • Al-Qaeda, TTP members in possession of Pakistani ID cards: report

    Al-Qaeda, TTP members in possession of Pakistani ID cards: report

    Members of Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Indian and Afghan nationals have been found to be in possession of Pakistani Identity Cards (ID), according to a government report.

    The report was presented by Senator Faisal Sabzwari of the Muttahida Qaumi Moment Pakistan (MQM) in the Senate Standing Committee on Interior.

    It states that some arrested Afghan citizens had ID cards issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) Karachi where allegedly 50% to 60% of employees are involved in corruption.

    According to the report, Abdullah Baloch of Al-Qaeda and an Indian citizen who was involved in the Safoora Goth also had an identity card.

    NADRA chairman Muhammad Tariq Malik said that the matter is under investigation, 12 officers have been arrested and 29 have been suspended.