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Tag: Pakistan

  • Imran reminded of Pakistanis and armed forces’ sacrifices as he calls Osama bin Laden a ‘martyr’

    Imran reminded of Pakistanis and armed forces’ sacrifices as he calls Osama bin Laden a ‘martyr’

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s words have yet again landed him in crosshairs of the general public as well as opposition leaders, who are training guns at him for calling notorious terrorist and al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden a “martyr”.

    Making a rare appearance in the National Assembly (NA), Imran on Thursday took the floor and among other things, elaborated how Pakistan had been humiliated despite having sacrificed lives in the war against terrorism.

    “The way we helped America in the war on terror and the humiliation that my country had to face. I don’t think there has ever been any other country that supported war on terror and had to face criticism from them. If they are not successful in Afghanistan, Pakistan is held responsible for that too,” he said.

    The premier went on to add that the United States (US) “martyred” bin Laden in Abbottabad.

    “Pakistanis were deeply embarrassed when Americans killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. Shaheed kar diya [was martyred]. But what happened after that? The entire world hurled abuses at us. Our ally [the US] entered our country and killed someone without even telling us. It was a big humiliation,” he said before going on to describe the drone attacks as the second set of incidents that embarrassed the country.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    https://twitter.com/ventdeInde/status/1276144510121148417

    Osama bin Laden was killed in a military operation by US Navy Seals in 2011 in Abbottabad — a few kilometres away from the Pakistan Military Academy (PMA) — and ended a nearly 10-year search for bin Laden, following his role in the 9/11 attacks on the US.

    “Whose side are you on? The head of al-Qaeda, a terrorist organisation, who died in Abbottabad or the 70 to 80 thousand Pakistani civilians and military men who laid down their lives in the war on terror?” Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair said while reacting to Imran’s statement.

    He, however, wasn’t the only one the premier’s speech attracted a strong reaction from. Here’s what Twitterati have to say:

    Meanwhile, a viral clip showed former foreign minister Khawaja Asif also calling Imran out in his speech on the floor of the Lower House.

    Addressing the NA, he reminded the premier that Osama bin Laden was responsible for instability in the region, especially Pakistan, and was nothing but a terrorist.

  • Punjab Police wants to ban PUBG after 2 suicides

    Punjab Police wants to ban PUBG after 2 suicides

    Punjab Police wants to ban the popular video game ‘Players Unknown’s Battlegrounds’ (PUBG) after two young people in Lahore committed suicide over the game.

    According to reports, a 16-year-old boy took his own life on Tuesday when his parents stopped him from playing PUBG. His parents called the Hanjarwal police in Gulshan-e-Abbas’s Phase 2 when they found his body.

    The parents refused to allow a post-mortem autopsy. Police have registered this as a case of suicide and further investigation is in process.

    In a similar incident, another 20-year-old boy also committed suicide in Saddar Bazaar in North Cantonment when his parents told him to stop playing the online game.

    As per reports, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police (Operations Wing) Lahore, Ashfaq Khan has decided to write a letter to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to ban PUBG.

    PUBG is a battle royale game developed by a South Korean company. The game involves multiple players that are connected online as they face off and kill each other to become the last survivor.

  • Hafeez, who tested positive for coronavirus at PCB, tests negative at private lab a day later

    A day after testing positive for coronavirus at Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Mohammad Hafeez says he has tested negative at a private facility.

    On Tuesday, Hafeez was announced as one of ten Pakistani national cricket team players who tested positive for the virus as the entire 29-man squad due to fly out to England on June 28 underwent COVID-19 testing.

    Hafeez, however, got himself tested from a different lab in Lahore for a “second opinion” for him and his family. That result, he said in a tweet, was negative.

    https://twitter.com/MHafeez22/status/1275689746765840395

    All of PCB’s tests were conducted by Shaukat Khanum Laboratory.

    Other players who tested positive for the virus include Fakhar Zaman, Imran Khan, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Rizwan, and Wahab Riaz.

    Apart from the seven players, one support personnel — the masseur — also contracted the illness after the cricket body had 35 tests carried out for COVID-19 in Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar.

    Pakistan’s Test and limited-overs squads will tour England for three Tests and three T20 internationals.

    England director of cricket Ashley Giles has said that the tour is expected to go ahead.

  • Groundbreaking: Islamabad to get its first Hindu temple

    In a first, a ceremony was held to start construction of a Hindu temple in the federal capital, Dawn reported.

    According to reports, a crematorium will also be built in Islamabad for the Hindu community, members of which earlier had to travel out of the city to perform religious rituals.

    The Krishna temple will be constructed on a 20,000 sq ft plot in the H-9 sector, and has been named Shri Krishna Mandir by the Islamabad Hindu Panchayat.

    According to Religious Affairs Minister Pir Noorul Haq Qadri, the government will bear the construction cost, presently estimated to be Rs100,000,000.

    Parliamentary Secretary on Human Rights Lal Chand Malhi had on Tuesday performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the temple.

    While addressing the gathering at the ceremony, Malhi mentioned the presence of pre-1947 era temple structures in the capital and its adjoining areas, including one in Saidpur Village and at the hill point overlooking the Korang River near Rawal Lake. However, they have been abandoned and not used.

    “Besides, there is no crematorium in Islamabad,” he said, adding the Hindu population in Islamabad had increased significantly in two decades, therefore, the temple was necessary.

    “The Hindu community in Islamabad has been demanding a temple for a long time now. The population has also increased while many Hindu temple structures in the capital have been abandoned,” he said. “Besides, there is no crematorium in Islamabad.”

    The plot on which the temple is being built was allotted to the Hindu Panchayat by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in 2017. However, the construction work could not begin on time because of some formalities, like the site map’s approval by the CDA and other authorities.

  • VIDEO: 9-year-old boy steals car, gets away with police warning

    VIDEO: 9-year-old boy steals car, gets away with police warning

    A 9-year-old boy stole a car from the Karachi’s Sea View area and drove it until it ran out of fuel. The Darakhshan police caught the boy but later released him with a warning and allowed him to go with his parents.

    As per reports, the child had stolen the car from Khayaban-e-Mujahid. His act was caught on the closed-circuit television (CCTV) and footage of the incident went viral on social media.

    The boy is the resident of Machar Colony. Police officials said that the minor boy liked driving and had stolen a few motorcycles in the past. They added that he would drive vehicles until the fuel ran out after which he leaves them where they stop.

    According to police, the little boy’s father is a drug addict. Police noted that they have warned the boy and let him go.

  • Govt to reopen schools with strict COVID-19 SOPs: Shafqat Mahmood

    Govt to reopen schools with strict COVID-19 SOPs: Shafqat Mahmood

    Federal Education Minister on Monday said the government was considering reopening of schools under the implementation of COVID-19 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

    Talking to the media after a meeting at the minister’s office, the minister said suggestions had been taken from the private schools and Madaris of all provinces, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.

    Mahmood said a meeting had also been arranged with the Ministry of Health in this regard, and that the decision would be taken keeping in view the NCOC data. He said the education ministry also discussed with those countries that had opened schools under various SOPs through UNICEF.

    The minister said according to the Gallup Survey, around 70% of parents were willing to send their children to school under COVID-19 SOPs.

    “We want to end the uncertainty on the basic important issue like education,” he said.

    The minister hinted at holding a press conference on the issue to take parents into confidence after the preparation of a road map.

    While the Provincial Minister of Punjab for School Education took to Twitter and stated that there is no definite date announced for reopening of schools in the province.

  • Areas in Islamabad to be sealed in 36 hours

    Areas in Islamabad to be sealed in 36 hours

    Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqat has announced that following a sharp rise in cases in Sector G-6/2, G-6/1, G-10/4, G-7/2 and Ghori Town, the areas will be sealed in next 36 hours. The DC asked residents to plan their activities accordingly.

    Earlier, Sector G-9/2, G-9/3 were also sealed to curb the coronavirus cases.

    While talking to the Arab News, Islamabad’s Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat told that the number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan’s federal capital has significantly decreased in the wake of the smart lockdown in the city.

    10,912 coronavirus cases have been reported in Islamabad so far.

  • Cockpit crew, air traffic control responsible for plane crash: report presented to PM today

    Cockpit crew, air traffic control responsible for plane crash: report presented to PM today

    Exactly a month after the fatal Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane crash in Model Colony, Karachi, the preliminary investigation report was presented to Prime Minister Imran Khan today. Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan met the prime minister and briefed him on the investigation into the incident.

    Read more – PIA crash survivor recalls what happened

    The crash claimed 97 lives and two survivors and according to Geo News, the report details that the air traffic control and the cockpit crew of the plane were responsible for the crash but it also says that the deterrents in place by PIA and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) were not enough to avoid the plane crash and they also share equal responsibility of the crash.

    The report has also stated that investigation into any technical failure is still on-going but no technical issues have been determined yet. It is pertinent to mention here that this is a preliminary one and the detailed report will take upto six months or a year.

    Read more – The Sher I knew

    Following the crash, the prime minister had ordered a probe into the incident to determine why the plane had crashed and Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan had said that he would present the report to the national assembly today (June 22nd).

    According to a recording of a Mayday call, the pilot told controllers the aircraft had lost power when he tried to land for the second time.

    Read more – Currency worth Rs3 crores was being smuggled on PK8303; discovered in PIA plane’s debris

    The aircraft had tried to land earlier but went around for a second attempt. According to the recording, an air traffic controller told the pilot that he might be off-course. The pilot told him that he had lost the engines. The pilot had been cleared to use any runway but called, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday,” and the plane crashed minutes later.

    After the aircraft reportedly called off an earlier attempt to land and went around for a second attempt, a controller radioed the pilot of flight 8303 that he appeared to be turning left, suggesting he was off-course.

    The pilot replied, “We are returning back, sir, we have lost engines,” and the controller cleared the plane to land on either of Karachi airport’s two West-Southwest-facing runways.

    Meanwhile, the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder (CVR) have been been decoded in France and the inquiry committee has received a report.

  • Teenager accidentally kills himself while recording TikTok video

    Teenager accidentally kills himself while recording TikTok video

    A teenager accidentally shot himself while recording a TikTok video in Karachi’s Sikandarabad on Sunday.

    As per reports, the deceased, who was 17 years old, was reportedly filming himself while holding his father’s pistol when he accidentally pulled the trigger, killing himself.

    VIDEO: Hassan Ali, wife turn filmy on TikTok

    According to the Sachal police, the family declined a post-mortem. After the completion of medico-legal formalities, the body was handed over to the family. The police said that the pistol was licensed and belonged to the boy’s father.

  • Malala’s future

    Malala’s future

    Pakistani women have time and again proven that despite the country’s patriarchal setup, they can always be counted on to make a mark. Malala Yousafzai, the country’s second and the world’s youngest Nobel laureate, is continuing the legacy of Pakistan’s iconic women.

    Malala graduated from Oxford University earlier this week. “Hard to express my joy and gratitude right now as I completed my philosophy, politics and economics degree at Oxford. I don’t know what’s ahead. For now, it will be Netflix, reading and sleep,” she tweeted.

    For someone so young, Malala has achieved what most of us cannot even imagine in our lifetimes. But it did not come easy; in fact, it was at a great personal cost. In 2009, Malala started writing a diary for BBC Urdu under the pen name ‘Gul Makai’. Swat Valley was under Taliban rule at the time. In one of the entries, she wrote, “I am sad watching my uniform, school bag and geometry box. I felt hurt on opening my wardrobe and seeing my uniform, school bag and geometry box. Boys’ schools are opening tomorrow. But the Taliban have banned girls’ education.”

    Malala and her family received multiple threats from the Taliban even after their rule ended in Swat.

    She was shot by the Taliban in October 2012 when she was on her way home from school in Swat. The Taliban tried to assassinate her because she had become an ambassador for girls’ education. The assassination attempt left her in a critical condition when she was taken to a hospital in Rawalpindi. She was later transferred to a hospital in the United Kingdom (UK).

    Malala went on to become a global icon. From writing a diary under a pseudonym at an incredibly young age to surviving a brutal assassination attempt, her bravery makes one wonder about the determination and grit this young woman has shown over the years. Despite her success, Malala remains down to earth and humble. One can see that there is no pretense.

    After her graduation, many are wondering what role she would take on in the future. It is for Malala to decide what is next but we can say with certainty that her future will not be anything ordinary. For an extraordinary woman like Malala, an ordinary job would obviously not do. She will always be a global ambassador for girls’ education and may well continue her work since it is a huge task indeed. Some speculate whether she will enter politics at some stage. Whatever she decides, we know she will continue to make Pakistan proud of her work.

    May your light continue to shine bright, Malala!