As the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led Punjab government
boasts reforming the police culture, a rather questionable video, showing cops dragging
a protester on the road, has surfaced.
In the undated video making rounds over social media, at least three personnel of Punjab Police can be seen dragging a man to make way for a VIP motorcade.
The protester can be heard crying for help as he is dragged to the side of the road, while the cops return to their vehicles and drive away.
The video has widely been shared with the claim that the police
brutality victim was “protesting his son’s murder” in front of the convoy of an
unknown official when the cops charged.
The official version to the incident will be added to the
story as soon as The Current receives
it.
In an attempt to bag maximum votes in the ongoing Indian
general elections, Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has launched “Indian
Air Force (IAF) pilot Abhinandan Varthaman” for electioneering.
Hailed a hero in India, Wing Commander Abhinandan was captured when his fighter jet was shot down by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in February. He, however, was later released as a peace gesture by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
With the Hindu nationalist BJP campaigning for Lok Sabha polls
in national defence’s name, a fake picture of Abhinandan urging Indians to vote
for the ruling party is being shared on social media.
The picture has been breaking the internet with a claim that
the IAF pilot is supporting the BJP and has voted for Modi.
In the photo, the pilot’s doppelganger — having his trademark handlebar moustache and a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses — can be seen wearing a muffler with the BJP’s electoral symbol.
The Hindi caption of the viral post urges people to vote for
the BJP.
Nonetheless, upon examining the picture closely, its
falsehood is narrated. Indians too are pointing out the deception of the BJP,
while IAF has also reportedly declared the poster as fake.
Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Khan Afridi has said
that Prime Minister Imran Khan had a detailed conversation with the late former
Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani over the situation following the
suicide attack on Hazara community.
“PM [Imran Khan] had a detailed discussion with Rafsanjani Sahib,”
he said while addressing a press conference after meeting the victim families
of April 12’s Quetta bombing.
With the statement from the interior minister coming two
years after Rafsanjani passed away, Twitterati sprung to action to call out Afridi’s
blunder.
It's not a slip of the tongue, unfortunately these jokers don't have an idea about the position they are holding at the moment. No capacity nor capability to handle his ministry! #SHAMEFUL
Yes, then he had a detailed discussion with Winston Churchill saheb and J F. Kennedy saheb. Tomorrow he will be taking to Chairman Mao saheb and Tipu Sultan saheb.
Just a slip of tongue or lack of information, not good. But yr taunt is even worse, to be on the look out for finding fault on others seems political. He probably Rouhani. But have U never made a mistake or slip of tongue? be more visionary and don't waste time on trivialities.
PM Imran is set to pay an official two-day visit to Iran on April 21 on the invitation of President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hassan Rouhani.
According to the Foreign Office, the premier will meet Iranian Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei, besides holding detailed consultations with President Rouhani.
Claim: ARY News ran the headline that Asad Umar was removed from his position as Finance Minister
Fact: Severl PTI polticians clarified on Twitter that Asad Umar is still the Finance Minister
Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has made major shuffles within its cabinet, removing at least five cabinet members, including Finance Minister Asad Umar, media reports claimed Monday.
Among other ministers were interior and petroleum ministers, reports said.
While it was claimed that Umar will be handed over the portfolio of the petroleum minister instead, amid all the confusion, The Current went the extra mile for verification of the claims.
“No such decision to change ministries or the ministers’ portfolios has been taken,” PTI Public Relations head said.
No such decision to change Ministries and their portfolios.
Not later, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry also stepped up to refute the claims.
حکومتی وزراء کے قلمدان تبدیل کئے جانے کے حوالے سے خبروں میں کوئ صداقت نہیں، وزراء کی تبدیلی وزیر اعظم کا صوابدیدی اختیار ہے میڈیا اس ضمن میں ذمہ داری کا مظاہرہ کرے۔ اس وقت پاکستان اہم مرحلے سے گزر رہا ہے اور اس نوعیت کی قیاس آرائیوں سے ہیجان جنم لیتا ہے، جو ملک کے مفاد میں نہیں
“No truth to reports claiming change in the portfolios of ministers,” he tweeted, adding that “media should act responsibly”. The info minister further said that spreading such rumours wasn’t in better interests of the country.
Pakistan’s paramilitary troops have successfully rescued dozens of Hindu pilgrims trapped near Gandawa in Balochistan after a flood hit the area on late Saturday night.
According to the details, over 150 Hindu pilgrims were rescued through helicopters and shifted to safe places.
The personnel of Pakistan Army, Frontier Corps (FC), Levies Force and Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) took part in the operation launched on the directions of Balochistan chief minister.
170 Hindus went to Harisar dewta and were stranded due to flood 2 x QRFs ex 144 and 131 Wings, SS UC WCs were despatched towards the area.Heli ex SC reached evac / dropping of food items and 170 rescued safely. Civ adm and local razakars also played a vital role with armed forces pic.twitter.com/8zPIQgO3OB
Well done Balochistan Govt; Well Done Pakistan Army for this timely and successful rescue operation of Hindu pilgrims. Well Done Volunteers for this service to humanity! https://t.co/wUXyaVTRAl
— احمد بلال محبوبAhmedBilalMehboob (@ABMPildat) April 15, 2019
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General (DG) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor has trolled a leader of India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for stealing the composition of a song released earlier this year by the media wing of Pakistan’s military.
As per the details, Raj Singh of Narendra Modi’s party copied the song ‘Zindabad Pakistan’ and recorded it by changing it to ‘Zindabad Hindustan’. He also dedicated the song to Indian armed forces.
“Glad that you copied. But copy to speak the truth as well. #PakistanZindabad,” the ISPR chief tweeted while sharing the clip that later went viral over the internet.
With
the democratic process continuing in the country for the third consecutive
tenure, revelations are being made about the national and provincial
assemblies’ lawmakers who are currently representing the people of their
respective constituencies.
As per these revelations, as many as 33 Punjab Assembly members of three political parties are facing criminal proceedings in different courts across the country, while the assembly also houses four billionaires. The case in Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan assemblies is quite similar as well.
According
to Free & Fair Election Network’s (FAFEN) “Parliament Monitor”, here is all
you need to know about your provincial representatives.
Punjab Assembly:
Nearly
one-third (123) legislators in the Punjab Assembly have declared that they
possess assets of a cumulative worth between Rs11 million to Rs50 million,
while 18 per cent own assets ranging between one million rupees to
Rs10 million. The worth of around 16 per cent legislators’ assets
ranges from Rs101 million to Rs500 million while 12 per
cent legislators have assets of worth between Rs51 million to 100 million
rupees.
There
are four billionaires in the Punjab Assembly with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) leader Sheikh Allauddin being the richest with assets worth more than
Rs1 billion. On the other hand, six and three legislators belonging to PML-N
and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), respectively, have assets worth less than a
million.
Moreover,
as many as 33 (9%) incoming legislators of Punjab have mentioned in their
affidavits that they have criminal cases pending against them.
18 of
these lawmakers belong to PTI, 14 to PML-N and one to Pakistan Rah-e-Haq.
Sindh Assembly:
As
many as 59 legislators have declared that they possess assets of cumulative
worth between Rs11 million to Rs50 million. 30 per cent have assets
that range from Rs1 million to Rs10 million. The worth of around 15 per
cent legislators’ assets ranges from Rs101 million to Rs500 million, while
11 per cent legislators have assets between Rs51 million to 100
million.
The
richest declared legislator in the Sindh Assembly is Pakistan People’s Party
(PPP leader) Mukesh Kumar Chawla, who owns assets worth Rs550 million while
four legislators – two of PTI, one each of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan
(MQM-P) and Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) – have assets worth less than a
million rupees.
Meanwhile,
20 (12%) legislators have criminal cases pending against them. Half of these
lawmakers with pending criminal cases belong to PPP, four to Grand Democratic
Alliance (GDA), three to PTI and two to MQM-P while one is an independent
lawmaker.
KP Assembly:
One-third
(45) lawmakers have declared that they possess assets of cumulative worth
between Rs11 million to Rs50 million while 20 per cent have assets of
worth ranging from one to Rs10 million. The worth of around 9 per
cent legislators’ assets ranges from Rs101 million to Rs500 million.
As
many as two PTI legislators own declared assets worth more than a billion
including the incumbent Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who is the richest among
provincial legislators with assets more than Rs2.5 billion. In addition, four
legislators have assets of worth less than a million.
Out
of the total number of incoming legislators, eight (6%) mentioned in their
affidavits that they have criminal cases pending against them. Five of these
belong to PTI while three to Awami National Party (ANP).
Balochistan Assembly:
At
least 22 legislators have declared the cumulative worth of their assets between
Rs11 million to Rs50 million, while 21 per cent have assets of worth
ranging between one to Rs10 million. The worth of around 8 per
cent legislators’ assets ranges between Rs101 million to Rs500 million and
as many as three Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and two independent legislators
own declared assets worth more than Rs100 million.
Nawabzada
Tariq Magsi is the richest legislator of the Balochistan Assembly, with assets
more than Rs324 million. Two legislators have assets of worth less than a
million rupees.
As
for the criminal cases, 10 (15%) legislators have criminal proceedings pending
against them. At least three of these legislators belong to BAP, two to ANP,
and one each to PTI and Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP). Three alleged
criminals are independent legislators.
Generally considered a conservative political party that supports
free market capitalism, democratic ideals and is anti-censorship, the Shehbaz
Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is among the few major political
entities that shaped Pakistan as it is today.
While the party’s popularity has taken massive blows in recent years owing to the alleged involvement of its leadership, especially former party chief and thrice-elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif, in corrupt practices, here are five reasons you have to love PML-N for, nonetheless.
Too lazy to read the entire article? Watch the video:
5. Punjab Protection
of Women Against Violence Bill:
The Shehbaz administration passed in the provincial assembly
the Protection of Women Against Violence Bill 2015, granting sweeping powers to
women, particularly in their marital life.
While the bill invited strong criticism from religious
circles that termed some of the clauses of the new law “repugnant to the basic
canons of Islam”, it was finally passed by the Punjab Assembly in February 2016,
providing comprehensive protection to women against a range of crimes.
4. 126 days of
patience:
Among other achievements of the PML-N during its last tenure
were the 126 days of patience while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran
Khan continued his Azadi march and subsequent sit-in in the federal capital
from August 14 to December 17, 2014.
The patience that the then ruling party resorted to –
without launching a rigorous crackdown and later accepting the protesters’
demands – calls for accepting it as a reason to love the PML-N.
3. China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor:
PML-N supremo Nawaz is credited for the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor (CPEC) project which has brought $46 billion investment to
Pakistan.
The project is a collection of infrastructure projects that
are currently under construction throughout the country, the value of which was
worth $62 billion as of 2017.
Officials predict that CPEC will result in the creation of over
2 million jobs by the year 2030 and will add 2 to 2.5 percent points to the
country’s annual economic growth.
2. Dealing with the
energy crisis:
The PML-N government launched several power plants in
Sahiwal, Port Qasim, Jamshoro, Faisalabad, Mianwali and DG Khan besides a solar
park in Bahawalpur and wind farms in Sindh to overcome the once
“uncontrollable” power shortage.
Its pre-2013 polls promise to bring about US$20 billion for
the energy sector was also fulfilled which positively impacted the lives of the
people, at least until 2018.
1. War on terror:
The then premier Nawaz launched the Karachi operation in
2013 as part of which hundreds of criminals, gangs and terrorist were held and
sentenced.
Zarbe Azab was also one of the biggest and most successful
anti-terrorism operations ever, which was launched by the Nawaz government. The
operation launch was followed by the formation of the National Action Plan
later in 2015 to crack down on terrorism and supplement the anti-terrorist
offensives.
It was considered as a major coordinated state retaliation
following the deadly APS Peshawar attack and received unprecedented levels of
support and co-operation across the country’s political spectrum.
As many as 0.6 million Pakistanis “will lose their jobs by
July 2019”, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Mohammad Zubair Umar
has claimed amid questions being raised over the government’s efforts for the
uplifting of the country’s economy.
“Unemployment is rising by the day and it is expected that
by end of the fiscal year, 600,000 Pakistanis will have lost their jobs,” Zubair
said in a statement issued after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government
completed 200 days in centre.
Due to the poor economy, he added, more than four million people “will also go below the poverty line”.
WATCH THE VIDEO INSTEAD:
The claims, however, were refuted by Minister of State for
Revenue Hammad Azhar, who termed Zubair’s statement “the worst case of
inaccurate numbers and half-truths”.
“Pure conjecture. With private sector borrowing up and
exporters gearing up for higher productions and foreign investors showing
unprecedented interest, Pakistan is readjusting for investment and
employment-led growth,” Azhar said.
He further stated the most comprehensive and consolidated
poverty alleviation programme was being developed by the government and there
was no truth to Zubair’s statement regarding millions of people going below the
poverty line.
With the row between members of the ruling PTI and PML-N
continuing, The Current reached out to a Lahore-based political
economist and public policy professional Rahema Hasan for the validity of
either side’s claims.
“People may not be losing their jobs by the end of the
fiscal year, but it’s the number of people entering the labour force annually,
which will add to the unemployment rate,” she said.
“Unemployment figures are high for Pakistan, but estimations
need to be made on concurrent information and not perceptions,” she said and
added that such claims could discourage private sector investment confidence
and put pressure on public resources.
On the other hand, the government needs to put down
estimations of how much employment is expected out of the investment coming to
Pakistan; for example, 1,000 jobs per every $100 million invested in the
agriculture sector, Rahema said further.
“Perception is a key to economic decision making, however,
necessarily based on incomplete and unverified information, it is equated with
reality for most practical purposes and guides human behavior,” she said.
Rahema was of the view that mere assumptions and political
gimmicks could have devastating effects on economic decision-making.
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is considered centre-left in the country’s political spectrum owing to its support towards public ownership, egalitarianism, equality and a strong national defence.
Since its foundation in 1967, it has been a major political
left-wing force in the country. Although the party’s leadership has been
dominated by the members of the Bhutto family, it has been voted to power on
five separate occasions on the basis of the close affiliation it has had with
the masses.
While the fate of one of the country’s largest political entities hangs in balance amid the entire fake accounts case fiasco against party President Asif Ali Zardari and co, here are five ways you can defend the PPP.
Too lazy to read the entire article? Watch the video:
5. Bhutto’s UNSC video:
On December 15, 1971, Bhutto walked out of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) after accusing it of “legalising aggression”.
The then foreign minister Bhutto strode down the carpeted
main hall past milling groups of surprised diplomats and was followed by seven
members of his delegation.
While the positive and negative impacts of the move remain
debated till date, it is a bit too hard to get over Bhutto’s boldness.
4. Call for maximum
provincial autonomy:
PPP has always been a staunch supporter of provincial
autonomy, which it proved by passing the 18th Amendment to the
Constitution of Pakistan in 2010.
The 18th Amendment has led to a significant increase in
provincial autonomy on the basis of ethnic diversity, multiple political
parties and diverse political spectrum.
The major crux of the 18th Amendment with regards to
political autonomy was the dissolution of 17 ministries, including education,
food, agriculture and health, from the centre to provinces allowing the latter
to formulate policies and projects in their own domain.
3. ‘Lionhearted’
leaders:
The PPP, in its own words, has always been led by courageous
leaders; from its founding chairman, the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, to his
daughter the late Benazir Bhutto.
While Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did not strike a deal during the
dark days of dictatorship and preferred to lay down his life, Benazir returned
to the country, knowing her life was in danger.
The unfortunate series of events that followed Benazir’s
return are known to all, however, the legacy lives on.
2.Undeterred activism:
At a time when Pakistan witnesses a significant surge in
political awareness, PPP is the only political party that speaks for the rights
of people, including minorities, missing persons and women, while not
succumbing to any pressure.
A recent example is Senator Mustafa Khokhar urging the
authorities concerned to lodge the long-pending First Information Report (FIR)
into the murder case of teacher and activist Arman Loni, who was allegedly
killed in a police crackdown on peaceful protesters.
Raising its voice for the rights of minorities and openly
speaking against the misuse of blasphemy laws, as now accepted by the state as
well, is another reason for the PPP to be loved.
1. Senator Krishna
Kumari:
PPP’s Krishna Kumari Kohli is the first-ever senator from a scheduled
caste. Krishna was elected to the Senate after campaigning for women’s rights,
having previously been forced into bonded labour for three years.
Hailing from Nagarparkar, a village in Tharparkar where
women are to date deprived of basic facilities, Krishna continued to strive for
a better future, all of which paid off after she was awarded a ticket to
contest the polls for the upper house of the parliament by PPP in 2018.
She also chaired the Senate session on International Women’s
Day 2019.
