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Tag: home-politics

  • Walmart to keep selling guns despite recent shootings at its store

    Walmart to keep selling guns despite recent shootings at its store

    Despite two deadly shootings at its stores in less than a week, American retail giant Walmart has no plans to stop selling guns and ammunition, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported.

    A man opened fire with an assault rifle at a Walmart in Texas on Saturday, killing 20 people, just four days after a disgruntled employee shot dead two coworkers and wounded a responding police officer at one of the massive chain’s stores in Mississippi.

    “We are focused on supporting our associates, our customers and the entire El Paso community,” reports quoted Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove as saying.

    Following the El Paso shooting, Walmart Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Doug McMillon posted a note on Instagram saying he “can’t believe” it was the second such in a week.

    “My heart aches for the community in El Paso, especially the associates and customers at store 2201 and the families of the victims,” he wrote.

    “I’m praying for them and I hope you will join me.”

    Walmart founder Sam Walton loved guns — so much so that the American gun manufacturer Remington named a hunting rifle model after him. But the retail giant maintains that its target audience is sport shooters and hunters.

    Walmart has made gun policy changes over the years, such as in 1993, when it stopped selling handguns.

    The company stopped selling semi-automatic rifles in 2015, and after the Parkland, Florida shooting in February 2018 — which saw 17 people killed at a high school — Walmart raised the minimum age to buy guns and ammunition in its stores to 21.

    Additionally, “Walmart goes beyond federal law requiring all customers to pass a background check before purchasing any firearm,” said Hargrove.

    He also noted that all new Walmart employees are required to complete an active shooter training program, which they then must pass on a computer four times a year.

    But since it is the largest retail chain in the United States, Walmart continues to attract criticism for its enduring stock of firearms.

    When the company tweeted it was “in shock” after the tragedy in El Paso, many Twitter users replied: “Stop selling guns.”

  • Chinese company to provide millions of job, business opportunities to Pakistani women

    Chinese company to provide millions of job, business opportunities to Pakistani women

    Chinese services company, Timesaco, will be providing millions of jobs and business opportunities to women through different e-commerce platforms in six major cities of the country, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.

    Reports quoted Timesaco Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Donald-Li as saying that the company plans to introduce different e-commerce platforms for women, through which they will be able to do different online businesses.

    He said Timesaco’s e-services platform would create millions of jobs for women and help them start their own businesses without any investment.

    Li said that Timesaco’s platform will uplift women living in poverty and facing greater challenges in earning a steady income, educating and feeding their children.

    Earlier it was reported that the company is looking to invest $600m in the country in service sectors. Eyeing opportunity in the country’s transport business, Timesaco has prepared to launch a new ride-hailing service called Buraq Taxi Service across 10 major cities on August 10.

    Devised using a comprehensive strategy to take on the current titans in the market, the taxi service will provide five types of services to customers, including taxi service, heavy cargo delivery, orders delivery, moving automated teller machines (ATM) and vehicle advertisement facilities.

  • PML-N MPA ‘rapes, records, blackmails’ university student

    PML-N MPA ‘rapes, records, blackmails’ university student

    Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) MPA Attaur Rehman has been accused of raping, recording and blackmailing a university student in Multan, The Express Tribune has reported.

    According to reports, the Punjab Assembly lawmaker was sexually assaulting the girl for over 11 months and was blackmailing her on the basis of the video he had recorded of the victim’s ordeal.

    The police, under political influence, initially refused to lodge a complaint despite repeated attempts made by the victim, reports said and added that she was a first-year student at National College of Business Administration & Economics (NCBAE) in Multan.

    Due to studies, she relocated from Lahore to Multan over a year ago and had been working at Pakistan Human Development Foundation (PHDF), a local non-government organisation (NGO) run by the accused lawmaker.

    The accused took her to an undisclosed location, around 11 months back, in the guise of office work, where he allegedly raped and filmed her.

    Rehman later threatened her of dire consequences if she refused to obey him.

    The victim has filed an application with a local magistrate for her medical examination and attached medical records of the hospital she was recently admitted to after sodomy.

  • Anupam Kher believes Muslim genocide is ‘Kashmir solution’?

    Anupam Kher believes Muslim genocide is ‘Kashmir solution’?

    With tensions mounting in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) as the government revokes special status granted to the valley, calls in additional troops and orders tourists to evacuate the region, a statement by veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher has left people stunned.

    Prominent Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani had on Saturday taken to Twitter to urge the global Muslim community to help “save their souls” from “the biggest genocide” India is about to launch in held Kashmir.

    With the situation in the Himalayan territory worsening as Indian armed forces martyr at least 10 Kashmiri youth within the last three days and the government announcing its decision to scrap Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, actor Anupam Kher believes that “Kashmir solution has begun”.

    Kher, a Kashmiri Pandit, has been seen supporting Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on several occasions. His wife Kirron Kher is also a lawmaker of the hardliner ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

    The veteran actor had earlier said that “all the issues in the valley will be resolved if Article 370, which provides special autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir is abolished”.

    ARTICLE 370:

    Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is a “temporary provision” that grants special autonomous status to occupied Kashmir. All the provisions of the constitution that are applicable to other states are not applicable to the disputed territory.

    According to this article, except for defence, foreign affairs, finance and communications, the Indian Parliament needs the state government’s approval for applying all other laws.

    The residents of occupied Kashmir, therefore, live under a separate set of laws as compared to Indian citizens elsewhere in the country, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights.

    As a result, Indian citizens from other states cannot purchase land or property in occupied Kashmir. With the government moving to revoke the article, fate of IoK’s 13 million population hangs in balance.

  • WATCH: President Trump says he has ‘good chemistry’ with PM Imran

    WATCH: President Trump says he has ‘good chemistry’ with PM Imran

    It has been a few days since Prime Minister Imran Khan returned from his first official visit to the United States and it appears that he left quite an impact on the US President, who continues to shower praises on him.

    President Donald Trump, in a recent media interaction, said that he has a lot of respect for PM Khan with whom he had developed “good chemistry.”

    “We’re doing very well, as you know, with Pakistan,” Trump said, “I met a gentleman who I liked a lot — as you know — last week, from Pakistan. I have a lot of respect for him. We have a good friendship — a good feeling, good chemistry. I think Pakistan will help us, and I think others will get involved.”

    The two world leaders met late last month when PM Imran visited the US on Trump’s invitation. During their meeting, while talking to the media, the President had described PM Khan as “one of the greatest athlete and a very popular PM”, and said that he would help him get re-elected.

  • BBC clarifies Channel 5 misreporting on Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik

    BBC clarifies Channel 5 misreporting on Hurriyat leader Yasin Malik

    Amid fear that grips Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) ever since the government called in additional troops and ordered tourists to evacuate the region, Channel 5 reported that Hurriyat leader Mohammad Yasin Malik is dead as reported by BBC.

    The reports came a day after the Kashmiri separatist leader’s wife, Mushaal Hussein Mullick, demanded notice of her husband’s fast deteriorating health in the notorious Tihar Jail for raising voice against atrocities unleashed by Indian occupying forces.

    She said that Yasin was in solitary confinement for the past four months, strengthening the perception that unspoken orders to inflict miseries had been given to the jail authorities so that the Hurriyat leader may die a slow and painful death.

    The statement was followed by reports citing BBC as claiming the separatist leader’s death in confinement.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    With the video report taking over the internet by storm, it wasn’t later that BBC took to Twitter and issued a clarification.

    “The claim circulating on social media that the BBC has reported the death of Yasin Malik is fake,” it tweeted, urging the people to verify stories they see on social media by visiting its official news website.

    While the reports regarding his death have been rejected, it is pertinent to note that incarcerated Yasin is being tortured and denied basic health facilities by the Indian government for being a political adversary.

    According to his wife, being a heart patient, the separatist leader suffers from certain serious ailments related to vital organs of his body and needs certain life-saving drugs, which he was not allowed to take in jail.

  • India using toy bombs to target children in Neelum Valley: report

    India using toy bombs to target children in Neelum Valley: report

    Cluster toy bombs, which are being traced back to India, have been recovered from near the Line of Control (LoC) in Neelum Valley, ARY News reported Saturday.

    According to reports, the toy bombs were placed in the peripheries of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), near the Working Boundary (WB) of the two countries. WB is the line where Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) meets Pakistan’s border.

    The bombs, reports said, have so far killed three, including a four-year-old child, besides injuring 11 others.

    Cluster bombs have been banned under the Geneva Convention, which India is a signatory of.

    Shaped like harmless toys, they can be devastating after detonation — exploding into millions of razor-sharp blades that pierce through whatever stands within its range.

  • Pakpattan’s woman SHO solves 200 rape cases in two months

    Pakpattan’s woman SHO solves 200 rape cases in two months

    Pakpattan district’s first woman Station House Officer (SHO), Kulsoom Fatima, has solved 200 rape and sexual abuse cases within just two months of her appointment, BBC Urdu reported.

    In an interview to BBC, she said that the incidents of sexual abuse of minor girls made her angry, but she was not able to do anything at that time.

    “I got the opportunity. I was appointed as a sub-inspector in Punjab Police after passing the competitive exams,” Fatima said, adding that she had earlier hoped to be in the position one day so she could do something for the little survivours.

    The cop said that she was handed over cases related to women and minor girls — a task she always wanted.

    Pakpattan District Police Officer (DPO) Ibadat Nisar had appointed Fatima as SHO at Model Police Station Daloryam. He said that the appointment of women officers in Pakpattan has helped in dispensing justice to people.

  • Senator vs ISPR: Army rejects claims that Senate vote was ‘hijacked by ISI’

    Senator vs ISPR: Army rejects claims that Senate vote was ‘hijacked by ISI’

    Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor has rubbished Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo’s remarks that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief was “involved in manipulating the results” of the no-confidence motion against the Senate chairman.

    The National Party president and losing candidate for Senate chairman slot had on Thursday accused the country’s premier spy agency of hijacking the Senate vote by indulging in horse-trading.

    “Remarks by Senator Mir Hasil Bizenjo implicating head of national premier institution are unfounded,” the military spokesperson tweeted Thursday night.

    “The tendency to bring [the] entire democratic process into disrepute for petty political gains doesn’t serve democracy,” he added.

    The response came as Bizenjo’s reply to a journalist’s query, following his shocking defeat in the upper house, started doing rounds over the internet.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    “[ISI DG] General Faiz’s people are behind this,” he was heard as saying when asked to name those responsible for the defeat.

    Earlier in the day, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani survived a no-confidence resolution tabled against him by the joint opposition.

    The opposition’s no-trust motion against Sanjrani failed to receive the 53 votes required for his removal even though at the start of the session, 64 senators had stood up in support of the motion.

    Following the secret balloting, it was revealed that the motion received only 50 votes in its favour.

  • ‘Petrol should be sold at Rs58 per litre, demands Imran Khan’

    ‘Petrol should be sold at Rs58 per litre, demands Imran Khan’

    With Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan approving the Rs5.15 hike in petrol price, yet another tweet from the past has come back to haunt the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

    On Wednesday night, the premier approved an Oil and Gas Development Authority (OGRA) summary recommending an increase in per litre prices of all petroleum products.

    The prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene oil and light diesel were jacked up by Rs5.15, Rs5.65, Rs5.38 and Rs8.90, respectively.

    With people starting to express their frustration over the development that could result in yet another inflation bomb, some took to Twitter to share a statement by the premier from back when he sat in the parliament on opposition benches.

    “Petrol should be sold at Rs58 per litre, demands @ImranKhanPTI [sic],” the 2015 tweet on PTI’s official handle read.

    This isn’t the first time an old tweet has come back to bite the PTI government.

    “All over the world, just on an incident of railway accidents, minister resigns. This is real democracy, says Imran Khan [sic],” a tweet from August 2014 stated.

    It had started making rounds last month after the tragic train accident in Sadiqabad, which claimed over 20 lives.

    Prior to this, as PM Imran reached China amid Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) nationwide protests last year, a 2012 tweet of his, went viral. In the tweet, he had criticised the then premier for traveling abroad as the country “burned”.

    It was aimed at criticising former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, who had traveled to China for the Boao Forum while violence linked to sectarian, ethnic and political tensions continued in different parts of the country.