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Tag: PTI

  • KP, Centre agree to work together after long spat

    KP, Centre agree to work together after long spat

    The provincial government of Khyeber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the federal government have finally agreed to work together after months of heated arguments over arrears, deciding to put differences aside for the betterment of the people of Pakistan, Geo reported on Monday.

    The development came during a meeting in Islamabad between the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Ali Amin Gandapur and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi. The Federal Minister for Energy, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, also attended the meeting.

    After that, they also held joint press conferences.

    Addressing a joint presser, following a “meaningful” dialogue, CM Gandapur said: “The federal and provincial institutions will work together. [We] will work together to remove the causes of line losses.”

    The federal government and the KP government are clashing and disagreeing over multiple issues. Power cuts in KP are one of the major reasons for the spats between the Centre and KP, with Gandapur even threatening to take control of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) due to excessive power outages in the province.

  • ‘Over my dead body’; Malik Riaz says won’t be pressurised

    ‘Over my dead body’; Malik Riaz says won’t be pressurised

    Bahria Town Chairman and real estate tycoon Malik Riaz on Sunday alleged that he was being immensely pressurised for “political motives” but will not bow down before anyone.

    In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Riaz wrote that there has been a “recurring pattern of victimization against me and my business for introducing state-of-the-art projects in Pakistan.”

    It should be noted that Malik Riaz did not name anyone despite complaining he was being pushed to the wall.

    Dawn News reported that it reached out to numerous political experts and politicians but “nearly everyone was reluctant to comment on his ‘sad tale’.”

    It is, however, widely believed that Riaz was referring to the Al Qadir Trust/University case, which was filed by NAB against PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.

    The case alleges that PM Imran Khan and his spouse obtained land spread over hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd to legalise Rs50 billion, the same amount which was returned to Pakistan by UK authorities.

    Reacting to the tycoon’s statement, former president and PTI leader Arif Alvi asserted that the pressure cooker will ‘burst one of these days’.

  • Shah Mahmood Qureshi implicated in eight more cases related to May 9

    Shah Mahmood Qureshi implicated in eight more cases related to May 9

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi was implicated in eight more cases related to the May 9 riots on Sunday.

    Qureshi is currently incarcerated in Adiala Jail on multiple charges while also serving a 10-year sentence under the Official Secrets Act by a special court.

    May 9 riots took place when PTI founder Imran Khan was arrested from the premises of Islamabad High Court (IHC). Scores of PTI workers and senior leaders were imprisoned for involvement in violence and attacks on military installations in 2023.

    Meher Bano Qureshi, a PTI leader and the daughter of Shah Mahmood Qureshi, took to X to condemn the action taken by Lahore Police saying, “After 281 days in jail l, as a consequence of a sham trial, Lahore Police has arrested Shah Mahmood Qureshi in 8 cases related to 9th May incidents in Lahore. The arrest comes after he was interrogated by Lahore police yesterday. Incidentally, it’s a well-established and documented fact that my father was in Karachi on the 9th.”

  • PIMS Hospital lays off more than 100 nursing staff on verbal order

    PIMS Hospital lays off more than 100 nursing staff on verbal order

    More than 100 nursing staff recruited under the Federal Medical Teaching Institutes (FMTI) Act from Islamabad’s largest hospital, PIMS, were dismissed and ordered to leave the hostel on verbal orders.

    The nursing staff protested against the dismissal, saying they are being fired on just a single day’s notice in an unprofessional manner. They have been working without pay for four months on the oral promises of the hospital management to extend their contracts. Now, preparations are being made to recruit untrained individuals in their place.

    PIMS Executive Director Rana Imran Sikander says that the contracts have expired and now the matter is between the Establishment Division and the Health Department.

    During the PTI regime, nursing staff was recruited on a two-year contract. Under the PDM regime, the tenure of the nursing staff was further extended, which expired in December 2023.

  • Kabhi haan, kabhi na; Gandapur to attend SIFC meeting after all

    Kabhi haan, kabhi na; Gandapur to attend SIFC meeting after all

    Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur has said that he will attend the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) meeting in Islamabad today after receiving an invitation from the federal government, The News reported on Saturday.

    “Yes, surely, I will represent my province in the SIFC meeting,” replied Gandapur when he was asked about whether he would attend the meeting or not.

    Earlier, the KP government had strongly criticised the federal government for apparently ditching CM Gandapur.

    “Ignoring the province and its people from their representation in the Special Investment Facilitation Council is a great injustice to this province,” said KP government’s spokesperson Barrister Saif.

    The SIFC meeting will be chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif at PM House today.

    The country’s top civil and military leadership, federal ministers and chief secretaries would attend the meeting.

  • Panicked govt brought students back from Kyrgyzstan over fake news, says journalist Azaz Syed

    Panicked govt brought students back from Kyrgyzstan over fake news, says journalist Azaz Syed

    Journalist Azaz Syed in his political talk show ‘Talk Shock’ recently revealed that the government of Pakistan spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring back students from Kyrgyzstan over “fake news and propaganda” while no other country did that.

    Syed said, “A panic spread over social media over fake news due to which students got scared and the government also panicked even though the Pakistani Ambassador over there insisted that students are safe.”

    “PM Shehbaz ordered the evacuation plan for students due to which 12 chartered planes were organized,” said The News journalist.

    Azaz added that the government government paid fines for the few illegal migrants that were present in Kyrgyzstan. “More than four thousand people returned and many of them had no money to travel further in Pakistan or to eat, so the government made those arrangements as well.”

    Azaz noted, “All of this over fake news. Look at India, their embassy released a press release for students to stay there because there are no threats. Almost 19,000 Indian students are present there and multiple other foreign citizens were also there and none of them returned.”

    He further said that most of the Pakistani students who returned “were in their initial study years while those doing their house job or final exams before graduation are still there.”

    “How will the returned students continue their studies now?” asked Azaz Syed.

    Fakhar Durrani, another senior journalist with The News, stated, “There was intense pressure on the government by PTI propaganda online that they completely panicked.”

  • PML-N’s Talal Chaudhry blames awaam for always abandoning political leaders

    PML-N’s Talal Chaudhry blames awaam for always abandoning political leaders

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senator Talal Chaudhry recently castigated the people of Pakistan for abandoning political leaders throughout history such as Zulifqar Ali Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and even Imran Khan.

    Chaudhry stated on Azaad Urdu’s podcast, “The people used to say that if something happened to Bhutto, the Himalayas would cry. The day Bhutto was hanged, the people went to work the next day.”

    He further said, “The people told Nawaz Sharif ‘Qadam Barhao, ham tumhare saath hain’ (Step up, we are with you) and when he [Nawaz Sharif] did – he became a hijacker [Sharif’s conviction in 2000 Musharraf’s Plane Hijacking case] but people went to work.”

    Similarly, he said “Then the same people claimed, ‘Imran Khan is our redline.’ He is now inside [prison] and the people are at work.”

    The PML-N senator then blamed the PTI government for their past behaviour of not engaging with political leaders and opposition when they [PML-N] wanted a charter of the economy.

    Social media reactions were mostly critical of senator’s views.

  • Islamic scholar Assim Al-Hakeem comes to Khan’s defense

    Islamic scholar Assim Al-Hakeem comes to Khan’s defense

    In an interesting Twitter clash, renowned Saudi cleric Assim Al-Hakeem clapped back at an X user when he posted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s picture showing him apparently prostrating at a shrine and asked the Islamic scholar whether the act was shirk in Islam.

    The scholar criticised the intent behind posting the picture and stated, “When one sees such a photo which is about 8 years old, one knows that the motive behind such a question is political and not religious.”

    Al-Hakeem further wrote, “You should fear Allah and when you hate someone, fight like a man and not use such dirty cheap tactics, trying to use Islam and religious rulings to support your party when you yourself most likely don’t even know the basics of Islam nor care about Islam or even the county!”

    The user later shared on X that the scholar had blocked him.

  • SIFC ditches CM Gandapur and he’s not happy about it

    SIFC ditches CM Gandapur and he’s not happy about it

    The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has strongly criticised the federal government for not inviting KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to the upcoming apex committee session of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).

    Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif summoned the SIFC’s session at 11:45 am on May 25. KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur was not invited to the meeting.

    Chief Ministers of all other provinces have been invited to the SIFC meeting except Gandapur.

    KP government’s spokesperson Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif condemned the federal government, saying that the “Form 47 government of Shehbaz Sharif” showed bias towards the province.

    Earlier this month, CM Gandapur had come down hard on the federal government, warning of a strong reaction if the Centre failed to give an exact timeframe for resolving the province’s core issues.

  • Maulana urges PTI to revamp anti-government campaign

    Maulana urges PTI to revamp anti-government campaign

    Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam – Fazal (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that he will join the opposition alliance only when the fresh movement against the government starts on a new platform. The development came during a consultative meeting between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders and JUI-F members on Wednesday.

    As per the report of The Express Tribune, Maulana demanded support from the PTI, specifically from its founding chairman and former prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, for his party.

    The JUI-F chief also demanded from PTI during Wednesday’s meeting that PTI form a committee with the authority to negotiate for the protest movement.

    Maulana has also asked the PTI delegation to discuss the “authorised” committee with Imran Khan and present the names of the committee members.

    However, a PTI insider told The Express Tribune that the party delegation will meet Maulana Fazlur Rehman again next week to discuss further about re-launching the protest movement against the government.