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  • Protesting govt employees face authorities’ wrath in Islamabad

    Protesting govt employees face authorities’ wrath in Islamabad

    Protesting government employees on Wednesday faced wrath of authorities in Islamabad as they headed towards the Parliament House on Constitution Avenue.

    According to Geo News, the protesters have reached D Chowk while Islamabad authorities have blocked the way towards the Parliament with containers. Demonstrators have started bypassing the containers because of which the police once again resorted to tear gas shelling to disperse them.

    Because of the tear gas, some police and Rangers personnel also had to retract for a while, reports said.

    The protesters have demanded that the containers be removed or else they will remove it themselves.  

    The federal government employees are demanding a raise in their salaries and had gathered today after their leader Rehman Bajwa and nine others were arrested overnight.

    Following the arrests, the government workers in the federal capital had announced they will march towards the Parliament House from Pakistan Secretariat for their demands and the release of their leaders.

    The police had resorted to tear gas shelling after they made a move towards the parliament. The protesters at one point also encircled Federal Minister for Information Shibli Faraz.

    At another, the protesting employees also closed the doors to the secretariat bringing the government machinery to a halt.

    At least two dozen protesting employees were taken into custody under Section 16 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO).

    The government employees were protesting against the income disparities between various federal government employees. They have been demanding a 40% increase in their salaries.

    The protesters have received support from government employees over grade 17, who have also demanded an increase in their salaries.

    The All Pakistan Clerks Association and government employees of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh are also supporting the protest.

    Speaking on the matter, Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said that the government dealt with the protesters “correctly” and it was the demonstrators who had backtracked on the agreement.

    “We dealt with this correctly we are increasing the salaries of 95% of employees at an average of 40%,” the minister told Geo News when asked about the situation.

    “The matter will be resolved [if] they go back to their initial demands,” said the interior minister.

    Geo also quoted sources as saying that a two-member committee, comprising interior and defence ministers, had been tasked with dealing with the protesters and was in contact with the finance ministry over the raise.

  • Hina Altaf, Aagha Ali turn hosts with a new ‘couples show’

    Hina Altaf, Aagha Ali turn hosts with a new ‘couples show’

    Real-life couple Aagha Ali and Hina Altaf are all set to host their own talk show.

    Titled ‘The Couple Show‘, the show will see Hina and Aagha chat with other couples from the industry.

    According to a press release, the show is “expected to bring some entertaining stars and Pakistan’s biggest celebrity couples to the couch in a candid conversation with the couple.”

    Hina and Ali, who gained popularity after their brilliant performance in the hit drama serial Dil-e-Gumshuda, is one of Lollywood’s most loved couples. The two tied the knot in an intimate ceremony on May 22, 2020

    Announcing the news on social media, Ali said: “Here I am. Your host for this very amazing show called The Couple Show.”

    “The great news is that I’m not hosting this show alone…my beautiful co-host for the show is the love of my life and my wife Hina Altaf,” he added. “Jald hi inkay saath bhi picture upload karunga (I will upload a picture with her soon).

    The show is expected to air on Aaj Entertainment and Urduflix.

    If Instagram posts are to be believed, Sarwat Gilani and Fahad Mirza will be one of the couples to be a part of the show.

    The Couple Show will be the latest celebrity-hosted show to hit our screens. Earlier this year, Ahsan Khan’s new show Time Out with Ahsan Khan started on Express Entertainment and Vasay Chaudhry’s Ghabrana Mana Hai aired on ARY Digital.

  • Did PM always know about MPAs selling their votes?

    Did PM always know about MPAs selling their votes?

    Prime Minister Imran Khan had claimed in April 2018 that he had a video of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lawmakers taking money ahead of the Senate election to vote against the party lines, but the video was released after a period of more than two years, only a day ahead of the Supreme Court hearing over the issue.

    The PM had said that he had proof of people selling their votes for money and he could show them the video where they were seen “counting money”.

    But if the PM had the video and knew about the people involved in horse-trading then what took the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) so long to release it and that too a day before the court hearing, Shahzeb Khanzada asked the federal minister for information on his show.

    As per Khanzada, another question that the video poses is the KP law minister, Mahmood Sultan, who stepped down from the post after the video emerged? If the PM had seen the video, as he has claimed multiple times in past, then why was Sultan made the minister in the KP cabinet? And if he didn’t know about it then why did he claim otherwise.

    Information Minister Shibli Faraz said that the PM hadn’t seen the video, but he did know that something like that existed. “He was only aware of its existence,” he said, adding that the PM took the decision to sack the minister involved right away and this should be praised.

    Speaking during the show, Faraz asserted that the PM hadn’t watched the video, but trusted his “strong sources”. Shibli said that the government was trying to end the menace of corruption during the Senate polls and the media should support its cause.

    ‘LEAKED VIDEO’:

    On Tuesday, the video first released by ARY News showed lawmakers belonging to the now ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) counting bundles of cash and then stashing the same in a bag.

    The video showed how, during the critical period, loyalties were switched by PTI’s 20 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lawmakers, all of whom were reportedly expelled by the party’s central leadership after an investigation. The money was dished out in Feb-March 2018, it was reported.

    It may be noted that the damning video comes at a time when Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan expresses aims to hold Senate elections through open ballot in 2021 in a bid to eliminate horse-trading. Defending his party’s move to hold the elections through open ballot, the premier had last week spoken of bribes paid to buy loyalties, revealing that he himself had been offered some.

    He had further revealed that 20 members of the KP Assembly belonging to the PTI, likely the ones from the video, were paid Rs50 million each during the last Senate polls to vote in favour of certain candidates.

    On February 6, President Dr Arif Alvi signed Elections (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 that will pave way for the organisation of Senate elections through open ballot.

  • ‘Rs50 to Rs70 crores’: PM goes on to reveal corruption surrounding Senate polls

    ‘Rs50 to Rs70 crores’: PM goes on to reveal corruption surrounding Senate polls

    Continuing his tirade against secrecy in polls for the upper house of the parliament while his party also campaigns for election through open ballot, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has gone on to reveal further details of corrupt practices surrounding the vote.

    Speaking to journalists in Kallar Syedan, the premier said the rate for a single Senate vote in Balochistan ranged between Rs50 to 70 crores (Rs500 to Rs700 million), which was unfortunate.

    “The market of corruption in politics is on the rise, but no other party is willing to change it,” he said, regretting that in the past, people became senators by buying votes from members of national and provincial assembly votes.

    “Those involved in such extravagance will later recover by minting money from the public exchequer,” he said.

    PM Imran said that vote-purchase in Senate elections for the past 30 years was a big question mark over the credibility of politicians who supported a corrupt system and “traded conscience in the name of democracy”.

    “A big question lies ahead, whether to go for Senate polls with the old corrupt system or to act transparently instead,” he said in response to queries regarding the leaked videos showing politicians buying and selling votes before the 2018 Senate elections.

    The PM said that corrupt practices were revealed to him after he and his party members received offers from multiple sides for vote-selling before the 2018 Senate elections.

    He recalled that he was approached by different people for money and offered funds for Shaukat Khanum Hospital as another mode of bribe.

    “What kind of democracy is this where votes are sold? This is nothing, but a blot on democracy.”

    He recalled that he ousted 20 from his party who took money for votes in the last Senate elections, adding some of them also invoked the jurisdiction of the court against the action.

    He dismissed the allegations of the opposition for being in knowledge about the video way earlier, saying had he known about it, he would have presented it before the court.

    Training guns at the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), he said the opposition alliance’s aim was to protect their corruption and ill-gotten money.

    To a question on Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who advised Imran to learn politics from him, he said the JUI-F chief himself was the one who most benefited from secret ballot.

  • Pakistan wants China to ease terms on debt repayment, says report

    Pakistan has approached China with an informal request to ease terms on the repayment of debt on about a dozen power plants set up under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor over the past eight years, Bloomberg reported.

    “The parties have canvassed Beijing’s willingness to stagger debt payments, as opposed to lowering equity returns,” the report said, adding that Pakistan has yet to make a formal offer. The report claimed that “Pakistan will formally make the request…after it concludes deals with those local power producers to reduce electricity tariffs”.

    A spokesperson at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they aren’t aware of Pakistan’s plan to seek debt relief.

    “Energy projects have provided Pakistan with a large amount of stable and low-priced electricity, effectively reducing the overall price of electricity in Pakistan,” the spokesperson told Bloomberg. “China-Pakistan energy cooperation has progressed smoothly and brought about real economic and social benefits,” it quoted the official as saying.

    Pakistan’s power division didn’t respond to the US-based business media outlet for comments.

    According to Bloomberg, an enormous build-out of Chinese-financed power plants in Pakistan, which was originally intended to solve its electricity shortages, has resulted in a surplus that Islamabad isn’t able to afford.

    While Chinese financing has helped Pakistan diversify fuel supplies, it has also resulted in a surplus of electricity, which is problematic for the government in Islamabad because it is the sole buyer and pays producers even when they don’t generate. To help tackle the issue, the government has negotiated with power plants, which produce roughly half of its electricity, to lower rates.

    After these negotiations, the government will approach the Chinese government for debt relief, it added.

  • Ex-PTI MPA, who was seen receiving money in leaked video, swore on Quran that he didn’t

    An old but viral video has shown former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) lawmaker Sardar Idrees swearing on the Holy Quran that he didn’t receive any money to sell his Senate vote.

    On Tuesday, a leaked video recorded ahead of the 2018 Senate elections had purportedly shown Idress and a number of other colleagues of his receiving what were reported to be bribes for their votes for the upper house of the parliament.

    “I deny these allegations of receiving Rs4 crores (40 million) and swear that I voted as per the list given to me by the chief minister,” Idrees could be heard as saying in the video of a press conference he reportedly held after his expulsion from the now ruling PTI over said accusations.

    As per the details of the episode, the video first released by ARY News showed lawmakers belonging to the PTI counting bundles of cash and then stashing the same in a bag.

    The video showed how, during the critical period, loyalties were switched by PTI’s 20 KP lawmakers, all of whom were reportedly expelled by the party’s central leadership after an investigation. The money was dished out in Feb-March 2018, it was reported.

    It may be noted that the damning video comes at a time when Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan expresses aims to hold Senate elections through open ballot in 2021 in a bid to eliminate horse-trading. Defending his party’s move to hold the elections through open ballot, the premier had last week spoken of bribes paid to buy loyalties, revealing that he himself had been offered some.

    He had further revealed that 20 members of the KP Assembly belonging to the PTI, likely the ones from the video, were paid Rs50 million each during the last Senate polls to vote in favour of certain candidates.

    On February 6, President Dr Arif Alvi signed Elections (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 that will pave way for the organisation of Senate elections through open ballot.

  • Bilawal accuses PM of only wanting Sindh’s money while ignoring its people

    Bilawal accuses PM of only wanting Sindh’s money while ignoring its people

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari launched a vicious verbal assault against Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan, wherein the PPP chairman accused the premier of only wanting Sindh for its resources while ignoring the people.

    “[Imran] neither needs Sindh nor Sindh’s people but he wants Sindh’s islands, gas, coal, tax revenue, the money you give,” Bilawal said, adding that Imran had failed to spend money on Sindh to solve its problems.

    The PPP chairman claimed that Imran had refused to give the province its due Rs160 billion last year, and had projected to deny Rs200 billion this year.

    Speaking to a fired up crowd at the Hyderabad rally of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), Bilawal alleged that PM Imran had refused to accept Sindh as a province of the country and therein asked who the province actually belonged to.

    “He can only rob your rights but you, the people of this country will not tolerate him. We will protect our rights and our democracy and make this PM run away,” he added.

    Bilawal told the crowd to think of “how much employment we could have provided to the youth of Hyderabad” with the aforementioned Rs200 billion.

    “This is the same government that promised one crore jobs. I ask the people of Hyderabad whether they have gotten even one job from those one crore jobs,” he said on the occasion.

    “This is not Imran Khan’s money, this is the money of the people of Hyderabad and we will go to Islamabad and take back our right from them,” he added.

    He further stated that none of the provinces, including Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), belonged to PM Imran.

    Bilawal, terming the ruling party as “puppet, selected and formed as a result of rigging”, said that Imran’s vision for a Naya Pakistan had only resulted in a more “expensive Pakistan”.

    The PPP chief lamented the inflation that had struck the country, wherein food items like wheat and sugar were beyond the people’s purchasing power. “Imran’s tabdeeli (change) has brought so much inflation, unemployment and poverty in the last year that half of Pakistan’s families have food deficiency,” he said.

    In further criticism of the government, he said that the prime minister had once said that he would “commit suicide before going to the IMF (International Monetary Fund)” to ask for a loan.

    On the occasion, he accused the government of giving relief to the rich while bringing pain to the poor. He said that Imran had also promised houses to the people, but so far no results from the affordable housing schemes had been shown.

    He said that the people have been “suffering the burden of an incompetent and corrupt government”.

  • 1st century murals discovered from Buddhist site in Swat

    Intact murals dating back to the 1st century have been discovered from a Buddhist site in Swat, Dawn News has reported.

    Saqib Raza, who was leading the team of archaeologists on the site, while speaking about the murals said: “We have discovered some rare fresco paintings belonging to the first century from the Abbasahib-China Buddhist site in Barikot during our recent exactions. The paintings are in different poses including namaskar pose. Six of them are visible and intact.”

    Director of Archaeology and Museums Dr Abdul Samad while speaking to the publication referred to the discovery of the murals as a landmark achievement, adding “there is no other example here in Gandhara of finding intact paintings”.

    He further shared that rare Kharosthi script inscriptions and coins were also discovered by the archaeologists in the area.

    According to Director of Italian Archaeological Mission Prof Luca M Olivieri, the discovery is really important because it provides evidence of a painting school at Swat and Gandhara “whose traces have unfortunately faded away”.

    Earlier, a Hindu temple, believed to be 1,300 years ago, was discovered at a mountain in Swat district. Researchers from Shah Abdul Latif University’s Department of Archaeology also found traces of a third-century settlement in Brahmanabad, Sindh.

  • ‘Inhumane’: SC says ‘mentally-ill’ death row prisoners cannot be executed

    ‘Inhumane’: SC says ‘mentally-ill’ death row prisoners cannot be executed

    The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday commuted the death sentences of three “mentally-ill” prisoners to life imprisonment, saying executing a person who doesn’t understand the rationale behind their punishment is “inhumane” and doesn’t meet the ends of justice.

    The apex court announced this verdict on a point whether or not mentally ill death-row prisoners can be executed. The pleas were filed on the behalf of Kanizan Bibi, Imdad Ali and Ghulam Abbas who have spent 30, 18 and 14 years on death row, respectively, while exhibiting acute symptoms of mental illness, reported Dawn.

    A five-judge bench, headed by Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, comprising Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah gave this verdict at SC’s Lahore registry.

    In its verdict, the apex court that not every mental illness shall automatically qualify for an exemption from carrying out the capital sentence.

    “This exemption will be applicable only in that case where a medical board, consisting of mental health professionals, certifies after a thorough examination and evaluation that the condemned prisoner no longer has higher mental functions to appreciate the rationale behind the sentence of death awarded to them,” the judgement stated.

    “It is with the developing nature of medical science that scope of these terms may also evolve. Therefore, we are of the view that a limited definition of the terms ‘mental disorder’ or ‘mental illness’ should be avoided, and the provincial legislatures may […] consider to appropriately amend the relevant provisions of mental health laws to cater for medically recognised mental and behavioral disorders as notified by the World Health Organisation.”

    The top court also barred the use of “stigmatic labels”, like “unsound mind”, “lunatic” and “insane” to refer to the prisoners who suffer from mental disorders.

    “Latest legislations all over the world do not use such terms. Therefore, we consider it appropriate to direct that the terms ‘unsoundness of mind’ and ‘unsound mind’ occurring in Pakistan Penal Code, the Criminal Code of Procedure and the Prison Rules be substituted with term ‘mental disorder’ or ‘mental illness’.

    “The term ‘lunatic’ wherever it occurs shall also be substituted appropriately,” the judgement stated.

  • ‘Jald mulaqat ho gee’: Cengiz Coşkun hints he will visit Pakistan soon

    Cengiz Coşkun, popularly known as Turgut Alp from Dirilis: Ertuğrul has signed up as the brand ambassador of Dr Fazeela Abbasi’s first-ever men’s exclusive skincare line. Dr Fazeela is Hamza Ali Abbasi’s sister.

    Announcing the news on social media, the Turkish star said that he was excited to be representing the brand and hinted that he will be visiting Pakistan soon.

    “l am excited to announce that l will be endorsing the first-ever men’s exclusive skincare line by Dr Fazeela as a brand ambassador,” wrote Coşkun alongside a picture of the two. “Jald mulaqat ho gee.”

    Dr Fazeela also shared the news on Instagram, writing: “Announcing the pioneer launch of the first-ever men’s exclusive skincare line in Pakistan and Gulf with Cengiz Coşkun as the face of the DFA brand.”

    Earlier in September 2020, the Turkish actor had also been signed as the brand ambassador on J. Fragrance.

    Diriliş: Ertuğrul has been trending in Pakistan ever since its first episode aired on PTV Home in Ramzan 2020. Pakistanis are loving the drama series and it has become a sensation in the country. According to some estimates, millions of people have tuned in to watch the show on PTV and YouTube.

    Read more – ‘Diriliş: Ertuğrul’ star Cengiz Coşkun says he has been receiving marriage proposals from Pakistan

    Recently, several Turkish actors from the super hit series Diriliş: Ertuğrul have visited Pakistan for different purposes. From Engin Altan Düzyatan (Ertuğrul Bey) to Cavit Çetin Güner (Dogan Alp) and Celal AL (Abdur Rehman Alp), almost every prominent actor from the drama series has visited different cities of the country. Fans had been eagarly awaiting Coşkun’s visit and it appears that they will not have to wait much longer.