Current Final

Tag: Prime Minister Imran Khan

  • Coronavirus: Pak-China trade suspended, Opp demands bringing students back

    Coronavirus: Pak-China trade suspended, Opp demands bringing students back

    With the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring a global emergency over the spreading coronavirus, as Chinese authorities increase the toll to 213 dead and nearly 10,000 infections, trade between Pakistan and China has been suspended while opposition demands bringing back Pakistanis stuck in China.

    According to reports, while it was also decided that all Chinese imports will be sprayed with disinfectants, Pakistan on Friday suspended flight operations — except those of Pakistan Internation Airlines (PIA) — to the neighbouring country.

    TRADE SUSPENDED:

    According to a statement, trade has been suspended between the two countries for at least a month, while the issuance of Chinese visas to traders has also been halted.

    The volume of trade between the two countries is around $15 billion — around 30 per cent of Pakistan’s total trade — and the country is now mulling to import goods from other countries instead, a report said.

    Also, the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) will quarantine the Chinese and Southeast Asian ship personnel, its chairperson, Rear Admiral Jamil Akhtar, said. He added the containers, especially those arriving from China and Southeast Asia, would be thoroughly checked, and that special care would be taken to ensure that the staff on these ships remained limited to the port only.

    NO FLIGHTS TO OR FROM CHINA:

    “We are suspending flights to China until February 2,” Aviation Additional Secretary Abdul Sattar Khokhar told Reuters, adding the situation would be reviewed after that date. He declined to comment on the reason for the closure.

    Some airlines, including British Airways, have suspended flights to China due to warnings of the coronavirus outbreak. Germany, Britain and other countries have issued warnings about travel to China.

    Russia also sealed its remote far-eastern border with China as a precaution on Thursday. Some countries have banned entry for travellers from Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus first surfaced, while reports said that PIA would continue to operate between the two countries.

    OPPOSITION WANTS STUDENTS RESCUED:

    Meanwhile, opposition leaders have demanded that the government take responsibility of the Pakistani students stuck in China, and bring them back to the country.

    Reports quoted Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Usman Kakar as saying in the Senate that over 28,000 Pakistanis, 10,000 of which are students, were stuck in China, and the government’s decision to not bring them back was no less than “attempted murder”.

    While Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Mushahidullah said that the government should take responsibility of the students stranded in China, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Rehman Malik said that military’s C-130 aircraft should be sent to rescue them

    ‘WE’RE MONITORING SITUATION’:

    The Pakistani government is monitoring the situation in China and is in close contact with the relevant authorities in order to ensure the safety of Pakistani students in Wuhan, said the Foreign Office on the other hand. 

    “Islamabad has taken up the issue of food shortages with concerned officials and we are assured by the Chinese government of full cooperation in this regard,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Aaisha Farooqui said at a press briefing.

    In response to questions about the evacuation of Pakistani citizens from Wuhan, the spokesperson said, “Islamabad is monitoring the evolving situation and will take a decision after consultations among all the stakeholders.”

  • PM’s ‘inadequate’ salary to be increased from Rs0.2 million to Rs0.8 million?

    PM’s ‘inadequate’ salary to be increased from Rs0.2 million to Rs0.8 million?

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s salary, which he had earlier said “wasn’t enough to run his household”, is being increased from Rs0.2 million (Rs200,000) to Rs0.8 million (Rs800,000), a private media outlet has reported.

    While the report claimed that his salary was being increased by 300%, it was rejected by the PM’s Office that termed the report as “baseless” and “unfortunate”.

    “At a time when the PM was carrying out a campaign to slash the government’s expenditures which he initiated from his own, the propagation of such a baseless and concocted news report was unfortunate,” a spokesperson remarked, according to a press release.

    The spokesperson quoted PM Imran as saying that expenditures incurred on the head of the government were borne out of the people’s hard-earned money, so it was a must to keep it at the minimum level.

    During a speech earlier this month, the premier had cited his expenses as an individual and as a public servant to make a point to traders while accusing opposition leaders of minting money by cheating on taxes.

    While it is no secret that inflation has badly hit the average Pakistani citizen, PM Imran has been under fire as a nationwide shortage of wheat has led to a surge in prices of bread and roti.

    The country’s economy has seen the rupee plummeting as it battles rampant price rise of various commodities, including pulses and flour.

    Despite this, the fact that the PM tried to play a political game by trying to identify with an average citizen, didn’t make many people happy. His basic pay alone is enough to feed an average Pakistani household, leave alone the gross amount.

  • Four Pakistani students in China tested positive for coronavirus

    Four Pakistani students in China tested positive for coronavirus

    Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Zafar Mirza has confirmed that at least four Pakistani students in China have tested positive for coronavirus as the outbreak claims at least 132 lives, leaving thousands of others affected.

    According to Dawn, Dr Mirza, while addressing a press conference on Wednesday, said that a large proportion of Pakistanis living in China were students, of which over 500 are based in the central city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the new virus.

    The premier’s special assistant said that four Pakistani students had tested positive for coronavirus with links to Wuhan. On PM Imran Khan’s behalf, Mirza assured the families of the children of the government’s support. He said that they will take on the responsibility of these children and all Pakistanis in China.

    “We will take care of them the same way we would care for our own children,” he said. However, he added, that no case of the coronavirus has been confirmed in Pakistan yet.

    The report comes days after Pakistani students studying at the Engineering and Science University of Wuhan requested help from the Pakistani and Chinese governments amid the alarming outbreak of the virus. A video message that was sent by the students stated that due to the virus, no communication between Wuhan and China was possible and more than 2,000 Pakistani students were facing food shortage.

    The students had requested the premier and foreign minister to send help and facilitate their evacuation from the province.

    On Monday, the PM Office had also convened a meeting in light of 2,000 coronavirus cases being confirmed across the globe amid the presence of a large number of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, and frequent travel between the two countries.

    CORONAVIRUS:

    In mid-December, some people in the central Chinese city of Wuhan began complaining of flu and pneumonia-like symptoms. Some had a high fever. Doctors were perplexed. To find out what might be causing their illness, geneticists analysed the DNA of the virus that had infected them.

    At once, the scientists realised the virus was new to science.

    As of January 23, experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Switzerland estimated that at least 557 people have contracted the rapidly spreading disease.

  • Here’s who paid $450,000 for PM Imran’s two-day Switzerland trip

    Here’s who paid $450,000 for PM Imran’s two-day Switzerland trip

    Terming his participation in the recently concluded World Economic Forum (WEF) as the “cheapest” official visit, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that his trip was sponsored by two of his friends and renowned businessmen Ikram Sehgal and Imran Chaudhry.

    A former army officer, Sehgal is the chairperson of Pathfinder Group Pakistan that includes two of the country’s largest private security companies. Chaudhry, on the other hand, is a decades-old close friend of the premier. He is a Dubai-based businessman and philanthropist, having investments in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

    According to reports, the two friends of PM Imran bore the expenses for his trip to Davos, and the same was also confirmed by the premier himself. Addressing the ‘Breakfast at Davos’, an event jointly organised by Pathfinder Group and Martin Dow Group last week, Imran said his trip cost 10 times less than those of the previous leaders.

    He recalled that his trip to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last November, which cost $160,000, was cheaper than the visits of former president Asif Ali Zardari ($1.4 million), and former PMs Nawaz Sharif ($1.3 million) and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi ($800,000).

    Thanking Sehgal, Imran added, “He is instrumental in getting me here. Otherwise, I would not have burdened my government to pay a sum of $450,000 for two nights.”

    Reiterating that this was an “austerity programme”, he maintained the government should rely on the over nine million Pakistanis residing overseas. “The GDP of those nine million overseas Pakistanis, in my opinion, is almost 50 per cent of Pakistan’s (overall) GDP of 200 million people. So we can use this resource and they can sponsor these things,” he said.

    To be able to attend the WEF annual meeting, a person has to be invited — in which case the event is free — or has to be a member of the forum. Membership of the WEF costs about $60,000 to $600,000 plus an additional fee needed to acquire an attendance badge, which runs about $27,000 per person to get into the conference.

  • Jahangir Tareen’s sugar mills post profit of Rs138.92 million in three months: report

    Jahangir Tareen’s sugar mills post profit of Rs138.92 million in three months: report

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) stalwart Jahangir Tareen’s sugar mills have reportedly posted a profit after tax of Rs138.92 million — a 170% increase in gross profits in three months — as compared to a loss of Rs353 million recorded in the same period last year.

    According to media reports, JDW Sugar Mills Limited has announced its financial results for the first quarter that ended on December 31, 2019, which show that the revenue of the largest white sugar producer in the country went up by 61.45% to Rs13.19 billion during the first quarter as compared to Rs8.17 billion recorded in the same period last year.

    The sales have increased mainly due to an increase in average selling prices of sugar, molasses and carryover sugar stocks.

    The sugar division comprises three sugar mills units, JDW Unit-I, JDW Unit-II and JDW Unit-III in Rahim Yar Khan and Ghotki districts. It is one of the largest groups in the sugar sector and contributes approximately 15-17% of the country’s sugar production. It is also managing Sugarcane Corporate Farms over an area of 24,000 acres in Punjab and Sindh.

    While people allege that the government had a role to play in scoring Tareen these profits, it is pertinent to note that as of last week, a serious case of sugar shortage had emerged as the country already stumbled amid a wheat crisis.

    During the PTI government’s 15 months, sugar prices have shot up to as high as Rs64 a kilogram (kg). However, over the past week, the wholesale rate rose from Rs64 to Rs74 per kg and an acute shortage surfaced in the country. Last year, Pakistan produced 600,000 tonnes of sugar. Now, however, the wholesale rate of sugar is expected to reach Rs80 per kg, The News reported.

    Further, if the government does with sugar what it did with wheat-flour and does not halt exporting it, prices could reach up to Rs100 per kg in Pakistan.

  • VIDEO: PM says ‘nurses appeared like hoors after injection’

    VIDEO: PM says ‘nurses appeared like hoors after injection’

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has said that nurses at Shaukat Khanum Hospital, who looked after him after he fell from the stage back in 2013, looked like hoors (companions from paradise) following painkillers.

    “I was in deep pain due to injuries after I fell from the stage. The injection by Shaukat Khanum Hospital not only removed the pain but enabled me to make a speech as well. The nurses who made my pain go away looked like hoors at that time,” he can be heard as saying in a video doing rounds over the internet.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    Imran also said he repeatedly asked the doctor to give him more of that painkiller injection but he refused. At one point the premier recalled threatening the doctor to do his bidding but he did not allow another injection.

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan had in May 2013 sustained serious injuries on his head and back after falling from a lifter while climbing up the stage installed for an election rally in Lahore.

    TV footage showed him tumbling down along with three or four personal bodyguards on a pickup truck. The PTI chief was seen bleeding when he was taken away by his party supporters to the city’s Liberty Hospital.

    The then 60-year-old, who had undertaken a punishing schedule of daily rallies but is known for his physical fitness, tumbled from the riser, seemingly after one of them lost their balance.

  • Bye Bye Buzdar? ‘Chaudhrys mulling no-confidence motion against Punjab CM’

    Bye Bye Buzdar? ‘Chaudhrys mulling no-confidence motion against Punjab CM’

    While rumour has it that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Punjab “is about to collapse”, Chaudhry brothers’ Pakistan Muslim League (PML) – a much-needed ally of the PTI on both provincial and federal levels – is mulling to get done with Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s blue-eyed Chief Minister (CM) Usman Buzdar, The Current has learnt.

    According to sources, the PML had taken after the 2018 general election a principled stance to not join hands with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) so as to not get itself labeled as blackmailers of the country’s political quarters, and had helped the PTI form its government instead.

    “Moonis Elahi had decided that the party would support the PTI in both Punjab and centre, where we are an important ally of Imran [Khan] considering how his party cannot do much with its strength in the hung houses of parliament,” party sources said.

    They added that Moonis had been commended by both his father and uncle, as well as other veteran politicians of the PML, since it was a principled stance. “But it wasn’t later that we realised we had shot ourselves in the foot.”

    “We could’ve joined hands with the PML-N and easily been handed the Punjab CM slot, but we decided to form the coalition with PTI in good faith and support Buzdar. [Punjab Assembly Speaker] Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi supported him [Buzdar] like he would support any person from his own family, but what we got in return was the fear of drowning,” they said.

    Sources added that the party was mulling to get rid of Buzdar because they were being compelled by no delivery of works in their constituencies in particular and in Punjab in general. “We don’t want to be among those lawmakers in Punjab who are drowning under Buzdar’s leadership. We do not want to lose our constituents’ support only because we contested elections with the PTI and can’t do anything for our people after coming to power.”

    When asked about how the PML was planning to remove Buzdar as the provincial chief executive of Punjab, they said, “We have the support of around 20 to 25 lawmakers from the PML-N and PTI each. A majority among the group is that of women lawmakers of the PML-N on reserved seats.”

    “We gave Buzdar multiple chances but he doesn’t care about all what we have done. He knows he doesn’t have to cave since he enjoys the support of PM Imran,” sources said, adding that the party leadership was discussing if a no-confidence motion should be tabled against him.

    “Both Buzdar and the premier know we can gather the support needed to get the Punjab CM changed, and that is why Imran has now hit at us by indirectly calling us ‘conspirators’. Although it’s not like how the PM thinks that someone in our party wants the CM slot for himself, but enough is enough.”

    ‘DO WE?’:

    Speaking to The Current, Moonis Elahi neither confirmed nor denied the claims made by his colleague on the condition of anonymity. “Do we?” he said with a winking emoji when asked about the support of around 60 lawmakers his party allegedly enjoys in Punjab.

    Responding to other queries, the lawmaker said the PML had undoubtedly formed the coalition in good faith and the party were sure about it back then, however, he did not comment over if they regretted it now.

    “We don’t want to topple Buzdar government. On the contrary, we are seriously contemplating not to support any other candidate from [the] PTI,” he said further, adding that the PML was satisfied with Buzdar.

    Moonis maintained that Imran should clearly name the ‘conspirators’, and distanced himself from any of the claims made by his colleague. “The pressure group has nothing to do with the PML. It is, in fact, supporting Buzdar.”

    The PML leader, however, said that they did not want to be among Punjabis drowning because of the PTI government. “We are an independent party that is accountable to its constituents and will keep their interest above all,” he said.

  • PM convenes high-level meeting on coronavirus outbreak

    PM convenes high-level meeting on coronavirus outbreak

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has convened a high-level inter-ministerial meeting to formulate a strategy for tackling the outbreak of coronavirus as it claims at least 81 lives in China, and leaves thousands of others affected.

    According to a notification issued by the PM’s Office on Monday, the meeting has been convened “in light of 2,000 coronavirus cases being confirmed across the globe amid the presence of a large number of Chinese nationals in Pakistan and frequent travel between the two countries”.

    In mid-December, some people in the central Chinese city of Wuhan began complaining of flu and pneumonia-like symptoms. Some had a high fever. Doctors were perplexed. To find out what might be causing their illness, geneticists analysed the DNA of the virus that had infected them.

    At once, the scientists realised the virus was new to science. As of January 23, experts at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Switzerland estimated that at least 557 people have contracted the rapidly spreading disease.

    As Pakistan remains at risk if necessary precautions are not taken, the federal-level meeting has been summoned by the premier’s office under the chairmanship of special assistant to the PM on national health services, regulations and coordination.

    Outcome of the meeting along with recommendations will be furnished to the PM’s office within one week, the notification said.

  • Widening rift? Pervaiz Elahi says coalition experience with Zardari was good

    Widening rift? Pervaiz Elahi says coalition experience with Zardari was good

    At a time when cracks continue to appear between the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its coalition partners, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has said his party’s experience in government with that of former president Asif Ali Zardari, was good.

    “The prime minister (PM) doubts his allies. He doesn’t verify what he’s told. We negotiated with Maulana Fazlur Rehman and got his sit-in in Islamabad wrapped up, but instead of appreciation, we were doubted,” he was quoted as saying.

    Speaking to a private media outlet, Elahi also reportedly said that his party’s experience of forming a coalition government with Zardari of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was a pleasant one.

    “Advised [Punjab Chief Minister] Usman Buzdar to not reshuffle officers in the province, and also suggested him to not block the supply of wheat from Sindh, but my suggestions were not considered by the Buzdar administration,” the Punjab Assembly speaker added.

    He also said that the provincial chief executive of Punjab could somewhat be held responsible for the poor administrative affairs.

  • VIDEO: ‘PM Imran’s killer smile is enough for any doubts in crises,’ says Zartaj Gul

    VIDEO: ‘PM Imran’s killer smile is enough for any doubts in crises,’ says Zartaj Gul

    Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir, who is known for making statements that leave people in fits, has showered praise on Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan for having a charismatic personality and killer smile.

    “If we talk about the body language of PM Imran Khan, I think he is the finest charismatic man,” she can be heard as saying a video doing rounds over the internet.

    “The manner in which the premier walks, which can be seen in various videos, he comes with so much confidence and authority, which removes all doubts from our minds amid crises,” she adds.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    This is not the first time the minister has expressed how starstruck does the premier leave her.

    Believe it or not, she had once said that the reason Pakistan was getting an abundance of rain and snowfall was because an honest man like Imran Khan was the country’s PM.