Current Final

Tag: Pakistan

  • Groom beaten after first wife ‘crashes’ third marriage

    Groom beaten after first wife ‘crashes’ third marriage

    A groom was beaten over contracting third marriage in Karachi without the consent of his first two wives.

    As per reports, a groom named Asif was subjected to torture by his first wife and her family at the valima reception of his third marriage in Karachi.

    Failing to convince his first wife and her family, Asif ran to the police station to save his life and when he was coming out of the police station, his in-laws attacked him again. Seeing the media on the spot, the groom ran from the spot and saved his life by taking shelter beneath the truck.

    “Asif has already two wives and now he has contracted the third marriage without any consent from them”, said Asif’s first wife.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/B8a-ZwfhBVz/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

    She asked for legal action against her husband and his family for hiding the facts.

    Meanwhile Asif said that he has lodged an FIR against his first wife and her family for attacking him.

  • New survey reveals Pakistani businesses positive about future

    New survey reveals Pakistani businesses positive about future

    A new report has revealed that international investors are looking towards Pakistan for business opportunities and queries regarding this have increased to a great extent.

    Dun & Bradstreet (D&B), which provides commercial data globally in the form of ‘Business Optimism Index’ (BOI), presented the report which stated that the business community in the country is optimistic about their position.

    Read more – Imran’s ‘blue-eyed’ Shabbar Zaidi resigns as FBR chairman: report

    In an official statement, D&B said: “We used to collect data of Pakistani companies located in Dubai, We had data of around 100,000 Pakistani companies but looking at the rising demand we [D&B] decided to launch our office in Pakistan.”

    Read more – As Dar’s residence is converted into Panahgah, Musharraf’s farmhouse remains untouched

    As per the report, large companies are relatively more optimistic than small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Similarly, companies in the services sector are more hopeful as compared to the trading and manufacturing sectors.

    D&B, initiated in the early 1900s, will publish a report quarterly, in a bid to measure the progress of the business community and serve as a tool to assess the position of the businesses in Pakistan.

    Read more – Naya Pakistan: Govt to set up 50,000 shops to sell daily-use items on subsidised rates

    The response from the business community reflects respondents’ position regarding the current business situation, and forecast business situation. Based on the results, respondents are more optimistic regarding the forecast business situation in comparison to the current business situation.

    Around 66% of the respondents expect business situation to be good in the upcoming quarter compared to 42% of respondents in the current quarter. However, 9% of the respondents expect their business situation to be poor in the upcoming quarter, compared to 16% in the current quarter which is a positive indicator for businesses.

  • Edhi Foundation wants to evacuate Pakistani students from China

    On the request of Pakistani students stranded in Wuhan, the Abdul Sattar Edhi Foundation had decided to evacuate them by arranging chartered flights.

    The Edhi Foundation on Sunday wrote a letter to Foreign Minister (FM) Shah Mehmood Qureshi asking for permission to evacuate students from China’s city of Wuhan.

    In the letter, Faisal Edhi, managing trustee of the foundation formally requested the foreign minister to grant them permission to evacuate Pakistani students that have been trapped in Wuhan of Hubei province of China.

    “The Pakistani students are in our contact and we want to evacuate them from China,” Edhi wrote in the letter.

    The letter states that coronavirus has been spreading fast and Pakistani students are suffering from stress and facing a serious food shortage.

    “Most of the Pakistani students are not infected and we can save them,” said the letter.

    The letter highlights that many countries such as America, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and India have already evacuated their citizens from Wuhan and are taking precautionary measures on their own.

    He not only asked the government for permission but also asked to assist in identifying the areas where students will be quarantined until they are tested and cleared.

    Once the government grants them permission, the Edhi Foundation will contact airlines and arrange chartered flights to evacuate the students at the earliest, elaborated Faisal Edhi.

  • Karachi man takes up educational expenses of boy selling samosas

    A man in Karachi has come forward to bear the educational expenses of a child who recently went viral on social media. Video shows the boy selling samosas outside a local hospital.

    https://www.instagram.com/tv/B8L8dU4pXD6/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

    “I come here after I am done with school,” the boy had said in the video. When asked about the grade he studied in, he replied, “I am in class four.”

    A school principal, Basim Ahmed Faridi took to social media to announce that he had decided to take up his educational expenses.

    “I got a chance to meet this child whose videos went viral past day, Zahid is a son of an Afghan-origin family and he lives near Mamji Hospital water pump in a house where his grandfather and mamu worked for 30 years,” he wrote, adding that Zahid’s family was an upright and honest one.

    “I have offered to his parents that Zahid can study at my school, Speak & Spell Schooling System near Ayesha Manzil, up to his matriculation and I can even teach him up to his intermediate.

    “All the time I only thought that these days do bring joy to that poor hardworking child, but where this community will take this child, by interviewing him, calling him on media sets, boosting their TRPs and then leave him alone to the same life pattern that he is living right now,” he wrote.

    “This will definitely hurt this child a lot, so I just decided to take a permanent and long-lasting step for him just by giving him what can never be taken away education,” he added.

    Praising the boy, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar on Friday said: “We can all learn from him.”

  • ‘India offered to evacuate Pakistani students from coronavirus-hit China’

    ‘India offered to evacuate Pakistani students from coronavirus-hit China’

    India had offered to evacuate Pakistani students from China’s Wuhan — the epicentre of deadly coronavirus –, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar told Rajya Sabha [Upper House of Indian Parliament], India Today reported.

    According to reports, replying to a question posed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-nominated lawmaker Rupa Ganguly, S Jaishankar told the house that before the two Air India flights were sent in, India had offered ‘bring back all the people in our neighbourhood’.

    “At the time when two flights were going, we had told all the students and the larger community in Wuhan that we were prepared not only to bring back our own people but bring back all the people in our neighbourhood who would like to come back,” Jaishankar said.

    “This was an offer which was made to all our neighbours, but of them, seven nationals of Maldives chose to avail the offer. But the offer was made to everybody,” the minister clarified.

    Last week, two Air India flights had brought back 638 Indian nationals and seven nationals of Maldives. 80 Indian students left behind in Wuhan

    The minister of external affairs informed the fouse that despite an evacuation effort, 80 Indians — including 10 who were barred from boarding the evacuation flight as they showed symptoms of coronavirus — have remained back in Wuhan.

    Jaishankar said that the 70 Indians chose not to be evacuated, but the Indian Embassy is in constant touch with them all. “I want to assure the house and the families of those in Wuhan that the embassy is in touch with all students and is regularly monitoring their welfare,” he said.

    The minister also applauded the efforts of two embassy officials who risked their lives and traveled from Beijing to Wuhan to help in evacuation efforts.

  • You can now report corruption, bribery on Pakistan Citizen’s Portal

    You can now report corruption, bribery on Pakistan Citizen’s Portal

    A category for ‘Corruption and Malpractices’ has been introduced on the Pakistan Citizens’ portal to curb these illegal practises from the government departments. The portal now allows people to report corrupt practices on the complaint lodging mechanism.

    The Prime Minister’s Performance Delivery Unit (PMDU) has introduced the category on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan. As per the unit, subcategories have also been made to help citizens classify the nature of the complaint.

    Matters related to the corruption in public funds, bribery, and kickbacks can be reported under financial corruption. While irregularities in recruitment, procurement, and allotment processes fall under the Violation of Merit/Rules category.

    Similarly, favoritism, unauthorized privileges, etc. characterise the Power Abuse section.

    In addition to this, citizens can also report physical or sexual harassment, threatening and blackmailing, under the harassment category. Any case regarding fake documents and impersonation will go under the Fraud/Mockery section.

    PMDU said these categories will not only facilitate the public, but they will also organise the complaint lodging process. It will also protect the integrity of the portal as most of the cases received through this platform are proved to be mala fide and irrational serving only vested interests.

  • Govt launches ‘Sehat Tahaffuz’ helpline to provide health-related information

    Govt launches ‘Sehat Tahaffuz’ helpline to provide health-related information

    Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, Dr Zafar Mirza introduced the ‘Sehat Tahaffuz’ helpline ‘1166’ at a ceremony in Islamabad to provide health-related information services to the public.

    As per reports, through the helpline, people will be able to get instant assistance to their queries and concerns, particularly related to polio and routine immunization services.

    The helpline will also provide information and address queries of parents related to the vaccine. It will be active from eight in the morning to twelve midnight daily.

    Pakistan remains one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where the poliovirus is still prevalent.

    There is a strong national and international commitment to eradicate polio. It is a collective responsibility to ensure all children are protected and vaccinated against the poliovirus.

  • Coronavirus: Let’s do what needs to be done

    According to the National Health Commission’s latest figures, coronavirus has so far killed 636 people and infected 31,161 in mainland China. The death toll includes 73 new ones reported Thursday. Two people have died in Hong Kong and the Philippines, while 25 countries have confirmed cases of the novel virus.

    Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) is also ringing alarm bells to address the global outbreak.

    Although Pakistan has not yet confirmed any case of coronavirus, panic is running through the country due to trade worth over $15 billion between Islamabad and Beijing, besides China being a geographical neighbour. Pakistan has around 500 students in Wuhan — the epicentre of the coronavirus — and multiple video messages from Pakistanis in the Chinese city, who want the government to extract them, have also flooded the internet. Many other countries have rescued their nationals from Wuhan, while Pakistan, so far, hasn’t officially done so even though flights from China have resumed.

    The reason Pakistani health officials have been reluctant to bring Pakistanis back from Wuhan is not only because they feel that Pakistan is not capable of providing basic medicare to coronavirus patients and/even suspected cases, but also maybe because they know that not everyone would be risking their lives to save others, as seen in China. An evidence of this remains the Sindhi youth, who was not even provided necessary aid after doctors suspected he had contracted the virus from China.

    We don’t have proper quarantine facilities either. Others feel that these are just excuses and if countries like India and Bangladesh can bring back their citizens and quarantine them, so can Pakistan. It was quite insensitive of our embassy officials in China to tell those stuck there that death can come anywhere, be it Pakistan or China. Even if we could not evacuate them, there is a way of saying it in a more sensitive way rather than telling them that “one could die anywhere”. Our diplomatic staff definitely needs a crash course in diplomacy!

    It would be a tragedy if something were to happen to any corona-infected Pakistani in China. They and their loved ones deserve the full support of our government. Given the proximity to China and the presence of the Chinese workforce in Pakistan, we should definitely be prepared to deal with the virus in any case. We should not just be ready to deal with coronavirus cases, but we should also have special quarantine facilities ready in every major city. Our airports should have proper monitoring systems in place for people coming back from China. Preemptive measures should be our top priority.

    While this is what The Current believes should be done in times of this global health emergency, another thing — a rather social aspect — remains the apparently unintentional racism against Chinese nationals. At a time when certain people are antagonising the Chinese on the basis of their nationality, the least we can do is to not let our inner racist take over us as we try to help the world deal with the menace that is the coronavirus.

  • Prime accused of APS attack, Ehsanullah Ehsan, claims breaking out of military jail

    Former spokesperson of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Ehsanullah Ehsan, who is a prime accused in the 2014 Army Public School (APS) Peshawar massacre and has also claimed responsibility for life attempts on Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai and journalist Hamid Mir, has claimed to have escaped from the custody of Pakistani security authorities along with his wife and two children.

    According to The News, Ehsan, whose real name is Liaqat Ali, released an audio message to confirm his dramatic escape from the custody of Pakistani security agencies.

    “I am Ehsanullah Ehsan. I am the former spokesman of TTP and Jamaatul Ahrar. I had surrendered to Pakistani security authorities on February 5, 2017, under an agreement. I honoured this agreement for three years, but Pakistani authorities violated it and kept me in a prison along with my children,” he alleged in the statement released to the media.

    He claimed he had faced hardships during his imprisonment for three years, was compelled to make a plan for escape from their custody, and executed it on January 11, 2020.

    “On January 11, 2020, with the help of Allah, I succeeded in escaping from custody,” Ehsan claimed, adding that he would release a detailed statement later and mention the agreement he had made with Pakistani security authorities.

    “I will also mention on whose approval this accord was made with me. And what were the terms and conditions of the agreement and which prominent figure had assured me that the agreement will be implemented,” he said and added that he would also share details of the conditions in which he and his family were held in Pakistan.

    Speaking to The News later, Ehsan claimed he had arrived in Turkey along with his family. However, he refused to mention how he had managed to escape and safely shift to another country. “I can’t tell you more than that I am in Turkey at the moment along with my wife, son and daughter. Don’t ask me how I reached here as I can’t tell you right now,” the report quoted the former TTP spokesperson as saying.

  • Police arrest woman for supplying drugs in a rickshaw

    Police arrest woman for supplying drugs in a rickshaw

    Police officials claimed to have arrested a woman along with her partner from the Sohrab Goth area of Karachi over charges of providing ice drug to posh areas and universities using an auto-rickshaw.

    As per reports, the woman used to sell ice and other types of drugs through rickshaw that was usually driven by her husband or son so that she could not be caught by the police

    The arrested woman, Gul Bibi, and her accomplice identified as Inayat used to smuggle ice drug from Balochistan.

    During the raid, the police team seized ice drugs and other narcotics from their possession. According to police, the gang had been arrested twice in the past while further investigation is underway.