Current Final

Category: Politics

  • ‘Saudi crown prince desperate for patchup with Pakistan while Imran, Gen Bajwa may have moved on,’ claims journalist

    ‘Saudi crown prince desperate for patchup with Pakistan while Imran, Gen Bajwa may have moved on,’ claims journalist

    Anchor Usama Ghazi, among other journalists with a presence on YouTube, has claimed that Saudi Arabia is desperate to improve ties with Pakistan as it needs to get closer to the new Biden administration in the United States (US); however, it seems that the civil and military leadership in Pakistan may have moved on.

    Islamabad recently returned $1 billion to Riyadh as the second instalment of a $3 billion soft loan, as the country reached out to Beijing for a commercial loan to help it offset pressure to repay the last $1 billion in January.

    “Now that Pakistan will no longer be under Saudi pressure but the Kingdom will be fearing missing out on a lot under a new US government; it is trying to improve relations with Pakistan that have suffered blows over the past few months,” Ghazi said in a YouTube video, citing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s closeness with former US president Donald Trump as a major reason.

    He went on to claim that a new world was being formed with Pakistan, China, Russia, Turkey and even Iran if Biden’s US removes Trump-imposed sanctions on the country.

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    “Saudi Arabia is regretting not outrightly supporting Pakistan on the Kashmir issue against India and seeking back the loan […] but now the ball is in Pakistan’s court,” he said and added that leadership in Pakistan was no longer under any burden. “They have appointed Bilal Akbar as the new envoy [to Saudi Arabia] and Gen (r) Raheel Sharif is already there.”

    While the journalist also mentioned the under-construction Iran–Pakistan gas pipeline and what impact would it have in the new world, it is relevant to note that Ghazi is not the only one to have come forward with such claims regarding alleged Saudi desperation for better ties with Pakistan.

    Senior journalist Irshad Bhatti had earlier claimed that the Saudi government has refused to let former convicted PM Nawaz Sharif, leading to speculations if it was an attempt to appease the Pakistani government.

  • ‘Chinese govt has given proof of Shehbaz Sharif’s innocence’

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Deputy Secretary General Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday said that the Chinese government has given proof of innocence of party chief and former Punjab chief minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif, who is currently in jail over money laundering charges.

    “This letter from the Chinese Embassy to Shehbaz Sharif goes on to prove our innocence,” the party leader was heard as saying in the video of a media talk.

    Earlier in the day, the incarcerated PML-N chief, during an accountability court hearing of the Ramazan Sugar Mills case of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against him, presented a letter from the Chinese Consul General in Lahore appreciating him for his efforts into the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) projects in Punjab.

    According to a report in Daily Jang, the judge asked whether Shehbaz had something to say after the anti-graft watchdog’s arguments.

    “I have brought a letter sent to me by the Chinese Consul General in Lahore,” said the PML-N president as he started reading the letter before the court. “I have been facing a barrage of accusations for two years, yet the Chinese Consul General is praising my work as the CM. He is appreciating a prisoner – it is no doubt an honour for me.”

    NAB prosecutor objected to Shehbaz Sharif reading the contents of the letter during the hearing, stressing that it was irrelevant to the ongoing case and a waste of the court’s time.

    To this, the judge said he had already directed Shehbaz to stay on topic.

  • Hussain Nawaz challenges govt to trace Sharifs’ alleged $1 billion

    Hussain Nawaz challenges govt to trace Sharifs’ alleged $1 billion

    Hussain Nawaz, son of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has challenged that the government can keep 90 per cent of the amount if it can trace the $1 billion allegedly stashed by the Sharif family in offshore accounts.

    According to Geo News, Hussain Nawaz said that claims made by the government that Sharifs have stashed $1bn in foreign accounts are propaganda against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and his family.

    Speaking about the Broadsheet scandal, Hussain said that the government of Pakistan had to pay $60 million to the asset recovery firm in a bid to implicate the Sharifs in corruption cases.

    Hussain said the judgement authored by Sir Anthony Evans had stated that the London asset recovery firm hired Matrix Research Limited to investigate assets of Nawaz and eight members of the Sharif family for a year soon after NAB signed a contract with Broadsheet LLC but it did not find anything illegal.

    The former premier’s son said foreign governments don’t believe in the “lies” told on Pakistani media about Nawaz and his family. He further said that ex-PM Nawaz was disqualified as the prime minister of Pakistan on the account of “not taking a salary from his son”.

    Nawaz had left for London for a medical check-up last year after his health deteriorated in jail. The ex-premier, who was convicted in two graft cases, has refused to return since. The government also decided to cancel his passport on Feb 16 in a bid to bring him back.

  • Republic Day: Thousands of protesting farmers converge on Indian capital in convoy of tractors

    In a high-profile protest against controversial agricultural reforms, tens of thousands of farmers drove a convoy of tractors festooned with brightly-coloured flags through the outskirts of India’s capital of New Delhi on the country’s Republic Day.

    Growers, angry at what they see as laws that help large, private buyers at the expense of producers, have been camped outside Delhi for almost two months.

    Thousands more, steering tractors bearing the flags of India and farm unions, had streamed in from neighbouring states for several days ahead of the rally, planned to coincide with celebrations of Republic Day.

    “Our word should travel around the world, that we are fighting for our living,” said Devinder Singh, a 36-year-old farmer from Punjab, seated on his tractor. “If we lose our farmland, how will we survive?” he asked.

    Some took to Twitter to dispel rumours of the Indian flag being removed from Delhi’s Red Fort.

    The protests have so far been peaceful, and farm leaders have urged rally participants to refrain from violence. 

    Authorities used trucks to barricade the main route to the site, where hundreds of police, some armed with assault rifles, tear gas, and a water cannon, stood guard.

    Although some protesters breached police barricades at Singh and Tikri, another site, early on Tuesday, there were no immediate reports of violence.

    https://twitter.com/swatijaihind/status/1353941486673379328?s=21

    Agriculture employs about half of India’s population of 1.3 billion, and unrest among an estimated 150 million landowning farmers presents one of the biggest challenges to the authority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014.

    Nine rounds of talks between the government and the farmers’ unions have failed to end the protests, with farm leaders rejecting the government’s offer to delay the laws for 18 months, as they push for repeal.

    “The farm organisations have a very stronghold,” said Ambar Kumar Ghosh, an analyst at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think-tank.

    “They have the resources to mobilise support and to continue the protest for a long time. They have also been very successful in keeping the protest really focused.”

    Police have allowed farmers to rally along approved routes on the outskirts of Delhi. But the tractor march threatens to overshadow the annual Republic Day military parade in the centre of the capital on the anniversary of India’s 1950 adoption of its constitution.

    “They could have chosen any other day instead of January 26 but they have announced now,” Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told media on Monday. “Conducting the rally peacefully without any accident would be the concern for farmers as well as police administration.”

  • PTI’s Khattak approached Ayaz Sadiq for talks, says PML-N leader

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawa (PML-N) leader Attaullah Tarar has said that Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak approached PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq with an offer for a dialogue between the government and opposition.

    In a TV show, Tarar claimed the government had approached the PML-N with a dialogue offer. But his claim was contested by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) minister Zartaj Gul, who challenged him to name the minister who approached the opposition leader.

    At this, Tarar said that PTI’s Khattak approached Sadiq with a reconciliation offer. Zartaj, however, said that PTI government doesn’t believe in backdoor talks with the “criminals” and added that it would hold talks with the opposition on the floor of parliament only.

    On Monday, a meeting between the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), PTI, and PML-N to be held with NA Speaker Asad Qaiser in the chair was cancelled after the PML-N leader skipped it.

    Subsequently, the PML-N vice president, Maryam Nawaz, said there would be no talks with the government. Maryam Nawaz had claimed that the government was “begging” before the opposition for a dialogue, but the opposition had decided against it.

    “You will be surprised if I tell you the details as to how they [the government people] are begging before the opposition for talks,” she said, adding that long march and mass resignations will take place when the time will come.

  • Govt of Pakistan’s official Instagram following one ‘мαиσ вєℓι ??’ besides president, PM, ministers

    In what appears to be a rather confusing episode, it has emerged that the official Instagram account of the Pakistani government is following an account titled ‘мαиσ вєℓι ??’, purportedly run by one Maham, among the total 14 accounts it follows, including President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and his teammates.

    While it is not yet confirm who the handler of the account is or why it is followed by the government of Pakistan, netizens seem to be having a field day coming up with theories as to why does the official government handle follows it.

    Among other users followed by the official account are:

    President Arif Alvi

    PM Imran Khan

    Information Minister Shibli Faraz

    Radio Pakistan

    PM’s ex-information aide Asim Saleem Bajwa

    Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad

    Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi

    Foreign Office of Pakistan

    PM’s aide in capacity of Minister of State Zulfi Bukhari

    Ministry of Overseas and Human Resource Development

    Kashmir Committee Chairperson Shehryar Afridi

    PM’s aide on Youth Affairs Usman Dar

    The complete list can be viewed here.

    UPDATE: Later in the day, The Current was informed by sources that someone from the government’s social media team had accidentally followed the account.

    They further said that the Instagram account had now been unfollowed.

  • Maryam says no U-turn on long march, mass resignations

    Amid reports of a rift in the opposition’s ranks, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Maryam Nawaz has said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will decide on Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) proposal to move a no-trust motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

    Addressing media persons after a parliamentary meeting of the PML-N, Maryam Nawaz said every decision regarding the anti-government movement will be taken through consensus.

    Speaking about the long march and mass resignations, she said the PDM is united and the time will come soon when it will march on Islamabad and resign en masse.

    It was the first time Maryam presided over a meeting of the PML-N. The pictures of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and former foreign minister Khawaja Asif, who are incarcerated, were also placed in the meeting as symbolic gesture.

    On Saturday, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had said that the opposition should bring a no-trust vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan to send his government home. His remarks had prompted a strong response from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), with its leader Ahsan Iqbal asking the PPP chairman to show the numbers.

    The response had given rise to speculations of a rift between the PPP and other PDM parties.

    Subsequently, in an apparent attempt to bridge the rift, former president Asif Ali Zardari said the PPP and the PDM will send the “failed and incompetent” government home by all means.

    In a statement issued by PPP leader Chaudhry Manzoor on Sunday, the former president said that the next few months were “very important for the future of the country’s politics”.

    According to the PPP co-chairman, the PDM is united and would use all means to send the government home. “These selected rulers will fall with their own weight and they just need the last push,” he added.

  • Zardari says PDM united to send govt home

    Zardari says PDM united to send govt home

    In an apparent attempt to bridge the rift between the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) parties, former president Asif Ali Zardari said the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the PDM will send the “failed and incompetent” government home by all means.

    In a statement issued by PPP leader Chaudhry Manzoor on Sunday, the former president said that the next few months were “very important for the future of the country’s politics”.

    According to the PPP co-chairman, the PDM is united and would use all means to send the government home. “These selected rulers will fall with their own weight and they just need a last push,” he added.

    Zardari said the government will have to go home as its “inexperience and ineptness might plunge the country into a bigger crisis”.

    He further criticised the government for its inability to handle the coronavirus crisis, saying the PTI government would neither procure coronavirus vaccine nor spend anything on the public.

    The PPP government had increased the country’s exports from Rs19 billion to Rs26bn in 2008 despite global economic recession and its revenues had also doubled, he said, adding that the government also increased the salaries of the government employees by 125 per cent.

    On Saturday, PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had said that the opposition should bring a no-trust vote against Prime Minister Imran Khan to send his government home. His remarks had prompted a strong response from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), with its leader Ahsan Iqbal asking the PPP chairman to show the numbers.

    The response had given rise to speculations of a rift between the PPP and other PDM parties.

    Chaudhry Manzoor was quoted by Express Tribune saying that the PPP would use all available options to send the government “home”. He said that PPP hasn’t ruled out mass resignations and the long march, adding that a final decision will be taken with consensus.

    He also denied reports of a rift between the PDM parties, saying the difference of opinion shouldn’t be misconstrued. “The Senate elections will expose fissures in the government, which is when the option of no-confidence motion can bear fruit,” he was quoted as saying.

    Meanwhile, PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal welcomed Zardari’s statement, as reported by the newspaper. “If PPP has a surprise up its sleeves regarding the no-confidence motion then it should bring it on the table,” he said, reiterating that all PDM decisions are consensual.

  • ‘Humble Gen Bajwa waits in line for omelette brunch at Islamabad Club’, meets PML-N’s Zubair again

    Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa had Sunday brunch with his family at Islamabad Club and freely mingled up with other guests present there, The News has reported.

    According to the report as well as a letter to a local English daily by an eyewitness, the army chief of the world’s tenth strongest military seemed to direct the staff to remove all special arrangements that had been put up for him and his family ahead of their arrival.

    “At the omelette station, the waiting line was rather long. It was so heartening to see that Gen Bajwa stood in the queue (me and my family noticed with surprise and delight) for about 18 minutes before he was served with his omelette (no one wanted to give him his slot nor did the general ask for [it], he was totally comfortable),” read the letter.

    The letter went on to claim that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Muhammad Zubair, who had in the recent past made headlines for meeting military leadership despite his party’s strained relations with the establishment, and his family “were the only people who were not allowed to meet the general”.

    However, the PML-N leader rubbished the claim in conversation with The Current. “I met him with his family. We exchanged pleasantries for about 10 minutes. And that’s it. More than 150 people present there watched it all,” he said.

    “Why wouldn’t he meet me?” he went on to ask.

  • Qavi stripped of ‘mufti’ title, isolated by family after getting slapped

    Qavi stripped of ‘mufti’ title, isolated by family after getting slapped

    Abdul Qavi, who has remained in the limelight for his controversial actions and alleged involvement in the Qandeel Baloch murder case, has been stripped of his ‘mufti’ title by the family that says Qavi is being hospitalised in a “mental institution because his thoughts are not in control”.

    In a press conference, Qavi’s uncle Wahid Nadeem announced that the cleric has been isolated in his house. “Abdul Qavi has been used by different people over the years for media attention,” the uncle said, referring to the recent controversies that the cleric had embroiled himself in.

    Nadeem said that Qavi shouldn’t be addressed as a ‘mufti’ because he brought shame to the family. “We have seized his mobile phones and now he is under treatment for mental illness he is suffering from,” he added.

    Dr Hafiz Abdul Kadir, personal physician of the scholar, reportedly said that Qavi will be kept away from the public eye.

    Recently, Qavi was reportedly slapped by TikTok star Hareem Shah after he passed “inappropriate comments and was rude” to her. The video of the incident was also shared by Hareem on her Instagram.

    In May 2020, Qavi had said that drinks with less than 40% alcohol by volume were halal. “Whichever drink contains alcohol below 40 per cent… that drink is halal. It means we can drink it. In my opinion, even the drinks that contain 100 per cent alcohol but are extracted from minerals… are also halal,” he had said during an interview.

    Earlier in 2018, the mufti was among five suspects, who were indicted in the case pertaining to the murder of social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch.

    The murdered social media star had posted selfies and a video with Qavi on social media weeks before her death.

    It was alleged that he had incited Waseem Baloch, brother of Qandeel, to get rid of his sister in the name of honour after he received flack for his pictures with the girl. Qavi was also removed from the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee after his pictures with Qandeel went viral.

    Some of his endeavours include, brazenly flirting with transgender Almas Bobby during a television show in 2015, and being accused of sexual harassment by a female reporter in 2017. He has also time and again been spotted in several videos on social media featuring various showbiz stars and internet celebrities.