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Tag: Punjab

  • Imran Khan’s plane escapes an accident

    Imran Khan’s plane escapes an accident

    A plane carrying Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan escaped an accident. Khan was en route to Gujranwala for his jalsa from Chaklala.

    Khan was set to travel on a private plane when some technical problem was detected.

    According to media reports, the former prime minister couldn’t travel because of the weather situation as well.

    After the incident, Khan had to travel by road for his jalsa.

    The news was confirmed by PTI’s Salman Ahmad. He said that a technical fault was discovered in time.

    “We are extraordinarily lucky that Imran Khan plane’s technical fault was discovered in time before it took off,” he tweeted.

    A day earlier, Khan announced that he would share the “next critical phase” of his party’s “Haqiqi Azadi movement” during his Gujranwala rally on Saturday.

  • Punjab CM Pervaiz Elahi increases financial assistance for flood victims to Rs10 lac

    Punjab CM Pervaiz Elahi increases financial assistance for flood victims to Rs10 lac

    Chief Minister (CM) Punjab, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, has increased financial assistance for families of deceased victims from Rs. 0.8 million to 1 million (Rs 8lac to Rs10 lac).

    CM Elahi had a meeting with Provincial Minister Muhammad Muneeb Sultan Cheema in which they discussed the current political situation of the country and relief activities for flood affectees.

    Elahi was of the view that Pakistan has been greatly affected by climate change, with massive destruction caused by unusual rains and floods. For this purpose, the government has to take extraordinary measures, reports Geo Urdu.

    Commissioner Dera Ghazi Khan (DG Khan) said that Rs75,000 will be given for the loss of large animals due to floods.

    The aid for those who lost their cemented houses has been increased from Rs. 100,000 to Rs. 400,000. Similarly, the aid for those who lost their mud houses has been increased to Rs. 200,000 from Rs. 40,000.

    On Friday, Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari presented a cheque of Rs15 million to PM Shehbaz as a contribution from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs towards the PM’s Flood Relief Fund.

    Last week, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif announced that PM Flood Relief Fund will be audited by the Accountant General Pakistan Revenues (AGPR) and a private audit firm to ensure transparency.

    Devastating floods in Pakistan have wreaked havoc across the country, leaving a path of destruction and loss in their wake. More than 1,400 people have lost their lives, one-third of whom are children.

    Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers triggered the disaster. The United Nations (UN) and Pakistan have linked the extreme weather to climate change; some 600,000 people have fled their homes.

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  • ‘Matter of justice’: UN chief appeals to the world to support Pakistan

    ‘Matter of justice’: UN chief appeals to the world to support Pakistan

    United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday, September 10, urged the international community to support disaster-hit Pakistan as the country needed massive financial help to overcome post-flood crises.

    “It is not a matter of generosity, but a matter of justice,” he said reiterating the United Nation’s commitment, strong support, and solidarity with the flood-affected populace of Pakistan.

    Guterres said that huge damages and losses were caused to human lives and properties. The Secretary General further said that the UN absolutely supported Pakistan and requested richer nations to generously help the country so that it could face the future challenges of climatic changes and save its people.

    He stressed that the international community must realize the serious impacts of greenhouse emissions as nature was striking back in the form of natural calamities.

    He continued that greenhouse gases had accelerated climatic changes and that nations with larger greenhouse emission footprints must understand these issues. Citing scientific estimates, the UN secretary-general emphasized that now was the right time to reduce greenhouse emissions.

    He said it was also a fact that they were living in a climatic changing era and have to make efforts to rebuild communities and to enable countries to resist and face future disasters that could be wrought by the natural calamities.

    Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb, provincial ministers, and the relevant authorities were present on the occasion.

    Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah gave a detailed briefing on the damages and loss of lives in the province.

    He said during the current monsoon season, different districts of the province had received unusual rainfall never witnessed in the past.

    He said that 30 districts of the province were affected, displacing about 12 million, adding that a total of 578 people lost their lives. A total of 3 million houses were destroyed and crops grown on an area of about 3.3 million acres were damaged while 500,000 livestock had been swept away.

    Earlier, the prime minister along with the UN secretary general and the federal ministers took an aerial review of the flood-affected areas of the Sindh province.

  • People in Rajanpur await relief packages

    People in Rajanpur await relief packages

    Hundreds of flood affectees in Rajanpur district, Punjab, are awaiting government aid as they continue to camp on roads to escape the devastation of high water levels in their villages and towns, reports Ilyas Gabol for Samaa News.

    According to the affectees, no one from the government has reached out to them with relief packages.

    “No one has come here to deliver relief package to us despite several claims by the government that aid is being disbursed among the needy persons,” a flood victim told Samaa.

    Another woman said, “We are helplessly sitting on the side of the road fending for ourselves and cooking whatever is available.”

    She requested the authorities to send help immediately.

    ’90 per cent of people still await assistance’: Faisal Edhi

    Faisal Edhi of the Edhi Foundation said that the situation is critical and warned that it’s going to worsen.

    He highlighted that people’s participation in relief work as compared to the 2010 floods and 2005 earthquake in Pakistan isn’t sufficient.

    Edhi revealed that despite a great deal of effort made by the Edhi Foundation, government and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), help has reached 10 percent of people. “90 per cent of them still await assistance,” he observed.

    “There are people who say that they don’t want to come to the streets with their children. They only ask for food. Water has entered their houses,” he said.

    Moreover, he said he fears that international migration from Pakistan will begin as thirty to forty million people have been affected by the catastrophe.

    In the last 24 hours, 57 more deaths have occurred which has taken the death toll to 1,265.

    The Current has compiled a list of things that you can donate.

  • Govt to conduct forensic audit of audio call between PTI leaders

    Govt to conduct forensic audit of audio call between PTI leaders

    Federal Law Minister, Azam Nazeer Tarar, has confirmed on Wednesday, (August 31) that the government will be conducting a forensic audit of two leaked audio calls between former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra.

    “Tarin did not obey his oath and attempted to prioritise politics over the state. This case falls under the category of rebellion against the state,” said Tarar, referring to the leaked audio call.

    Tarar also said that action will be taken according to the law once the forensic report is released.

    Read more: Leaked audio: PTI’s Shaukat Tarin allegedly advising finance ministers in Punjab, KP to sabotage IMF deal

    It is pertinent to mention here that on August 29, in a leaked audio, Tarin allegedly instructed Leghari and Jhagra in two separate calls, to write letters withdrawing from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) deal. At the time, the federal government was in talks to finalize the terms of a $1.6 billion bailout package for the country from IMF.

    Read more: ‘Yeh ab tai hogaya hai Imran Khan Pakistan aur 22 crore logo se zyada eham hain’: Twitter reacts to leaked audio

    Tarin, while speaking on a political talk show on Express News, said that he wants to tell Pakistanis that now their WhatsApp calls are also being tapped.

    “It was a WhatsApp call. I am disappointed that a WhatsApp call was being recorded. We can take up this matter legally,” said Tarin.

    Read more: ‘WhatsApp calls are being tapped’: Shaukat Tarin

    However, it remains unclear who recorded and released the alleged audio recording.

  • Two young sisters kidnapped, raped for four months

    Two young sisters kidnapped, raped for four months

    Two young sisters were kidnapped, kept in confinement and then raped for four months allegedly by a landlord and his employee.

    The horrifying incident took place in the Khaur police station area of Pindigheb town in Attock.

    According to the survivors’ father, who is a labourer, his 16-year-old and 18-year-old daughters were abducted by the local landlord and his personal employee four months ago.

    He said that the suspect kept his daughters in illegal confinement and raped them. Later, the girls escaped from confinement, reached their home and narrated the whole incident.

    After a medical examination by the police, it was confirmed that the teenagers were raped, which led to the registration of a case against the suspects.

    However, no arrest has been made so far.

    In Lahore, another incident took place where a 10-year-old girl was allegedly raped and then murdered. The murdered girl allegedly went swimming at a pool with her brother and five-year-old sister.

    The police are investigating the case.

  • ‘Yeh ab tai hogaya hai Imran Khan Pakistan aur 22 crore logo se zyada eham hain’: Twitter reacts to leaked audio

    ‘Yeh ab tai hogaya hai Imran Khan Pakistan aur 22 crore logo se zyada eham hain’: Twitter reacts to leaked audio

    In a leaked audio, former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin allegedly asked Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra to write letters withdrawing from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) deal.

    Moments after the leaked audio surfaced on Twitter, both finance ministers and Tarin were under fire for their comments and how their conversations were an attempt by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to sabotage the IMF deal.

    Here are a few reactions.

    Meanwhile, PTI leader Asad Umar and Taimur Jhagra held a press conference following the audio leak between former federal minister Shaukat Tarin and the finance ministers of Punjab and KP.

    Umar said that Tarin, as a former finance minister, had every right to “give advice” to Jhagra and Leghari.

    “There is nothing wrong in Tarin speaking to Jhagra and Leghari on the phone and giving advice,” said Asad Umar.

  • Asad Umar defends Tarin’s alleged audio leak, Miftah asks Tarin to quit politics

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Asad Umar along with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra held a press conference following the alleged audio leak between former federal minister Shaukat Tarin and provincial finance ministers.

    Earlier in the day, an audio was leaked in which Tarin allegedly asked Punjab Finance Minister Mohsin Leghari and KP Finance Minister Taimur Jhagra to write letters withdrawing from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) deal.

    Umar said Tarin had asked both provincial finance ministers to request the federal government to renegotiate the IMF agreement due to the recent floods and the devastation caused both in KP and Punjab.

    “Can anyone say this isn’t good advice?”

    Umar accused the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) of acting against the state’s interest and international commitments by voting and speaking out against legislation related to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and IMF agreement during PTI’s tenure.

    He said that Tarin, as a former finance minister, had every right to “give advice” to Jhagra and Leghari. “There is nothing wrong in Tarin speaking to Jhagra and Leghari on the phone and giving advice.”

    “If Jhagra felt that there was something wrong in it, then he would not have brought himself before the nation,” he added.

    Taking a jibe at the government, Umar posed a question: “Tell me if you are asking money from foreign governments, then why can’t you ask the IMF to give us space this year to use our money for flood-related expenses?”

    ‘Bring Khan to power but not at the cost of Pakistan’: Miftah Ismail

    Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that Shaukat Tarin should leave politics and “Asad Umar and Taimur Jhagra should be ashamed of themselves”.

    “Imran Khan should ask the nation for forgiveness. Taimur Jhagra should resign and Shaukat Tarin should quit politics. Is this why you do politics?”

    He termed the PTI’s move the “most shameful thing”, saying that the real faces of PTI leaders have now been exposed.

    Referring to the IMF Executive Board meeting, which is set for today (August 29), Miftah said that by the will of God, the country will hear good news tonight after the IMF approves the pending tranche.

    Miftah Ismail also asked PTI supporters to question party Chairman Khan about whether the letter Jhagra wrote was in the state’s interest. “Do support Imran but tell him he is not bigger than Pakistan. Bring him to power but not at the cost of Pakistan.”

    “When they are writing letters against Pakistan’s interest, it is your responsibility to say no. Consider Pakistan’s interest to be sacred. If Pakistan’s interest is not sacred to a person, he is not fit to govern the country.”

  • Dengue cases on the rise in Punjab

    According to a statement issued by the Secretary of Health Punjab, 32 cases of dengue virus have been detected across the province in the last 24 hours.

    At least 70 cases of dengue were reported in Punjab on Sunday.

    According to the Health Department, a total of 1,034 dengue virus cases have been reported in 2022.

    441 cases of dengue were reported in Lahore alone.

    Read more- All you need to know about dengue

    Amid the increase in cases of dengue, the district administration of Rawalpindi has launched a crackdown and sealed 58 buildings for finding dengue larvae and filed cases against 41 people.

    Citizens have been advised to cooperate with the health teams and closely adhere to SOPs in order to avoid contracting the dengue virus.

  • Number of flood affectees may cross 33 million, warns Climate Change Minister

    Number of flood affectees may cross 33 million, warns Climate Change Minister

    Federal Minister of Climate Change Sherry Rehman warned on Sunday (August 28) that the number of those affected by the floods may cross 33 million as the devastating floods continue.

    She said that the government, supported by the United Nations (UN) and other humanitarian agencies, is leading the humanitarian action.

    “Kabul River is still at very high flood level at Nowshera as more than 300,000 cusecs of water was crossing the river,” she said, adding that with 500,000 cusecs, water levels in River Indus at Taunsa, Sukkur and Chashma are at “high flood level”.

    Calling the floods “a perfect storm”, Sherry Rehman added that as relentless rains had battered the southern parts of the country, the floods in the Indus River devastated the northern areas.

    Updating on the relief efforts, she said that as rain has subsided in some areas, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and Pakistan Army have amped up rescue efforts.