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Tag: Shehbaz Sharif

  • Punjab govt gives 25-acre army land to 47 civilian officials

    Punjab govt gives 25-acre army land to 47 civilian officials

    An approval has been given for the allotment of up to 25 acres of state land, which was meant for the families of the martyred soldiers and war veterans under the Army Welfare Scheme (AWS), to 47 civilian government officials instead.

    According to Dawn, the Punjab government has made the allotments without legal sanction on the orders of former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf in contravention of merit and law. The report also quoted two officials at the Chief Minister’s (CM) Secretariat also confirming this on the condition of anonymity.

    The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had cancelled the allotment, which had been ordered by the former dictator during January 2004 and May 2008 in alleged violation of the Colonisation of Government Land (Punjab) Act 1912 and the allotment policy framed in 1962 under it for the AWS.

    After the cancellation order, the PML-N government had also rejected multiple summaries put up to former CM Shehbaz Sharif for ratification. The land branch of General Headquarters (GHQ) had first approached the Punjab government in April 2009 to not revoke the allotments. The military was of the opinion that the “allotments made to the civil officials may be treated as closed chapter” and offered to work out allotment modalities for the future in consultation with the provincial government and the provincial Board of Revenue (BoR). However, Shehbaz had not obliged.

    CM Secretariat reportedly said that around 837 acres of the AWS land had been allotted to civilian officials without consulting the provincial government. The land had been allotted in districts of Bahawalpur, Pakpattan, Khanewal, Sahiwal, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalnagar, Rahim Yar Khan and Sadiqabad.

    The former CM rejected another summary prepared by the BoR in February 2012, as the then Punjab chief secretary noted that it didn’t augur well for the civil service and the overall good governance.

    According to the fresh summary approved by the Usman Buzdar government to restore and validate the allotments, the Shehbaz government had cancelled the allotments and retrieved the allotted land from the beneficiary officials in 2010, because the land was actually allotted to the military for a specific purpose under the law.

    Those who had sold the land allotted to them were told by the Shehbaz administration to deposit the sale proceeds to the provincial treasury. The provincial officials who had benefited from the GHQ’s decision were suspended while the matter of the three DMG officers who got the land was sent to the Establishment Division. Apparently, the Establishment Division did not take any action against them.

    The prominent beneficiaries include DMG officers – Sardar Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera (currently the federal cabinet division secretary), Dr Faisal Zahoor and Syed Imtiaz Hussain Shah. Ex-PCS officials who will benefit from the government decision include Mohammad Zahid Ikram, Sikandar Ali Bokhari, Syed Najaf Abbas Bokhari, Malik Mohammad Ramzan, Mohammad Ashraf Yousufi, Abdul Ghafoor Virk, Dur Mohammad Khan, Irshad Mohyuddin, Syed Zahid Hussain Jilani, Mohammad Ashfaq, Mohammad Akram Bhatti, Amir Karim Khan (currently PSO to CM Buzdar), Mushtaq Ahmed Anjum and Mohammad Azam Khan. The remaining officials mostly included district revenue officials.

    Eight beneficiary officers then filed a petition with the Lahore High Court (LHC) against the cancellation order of the Punjab government. In June 2013, the court directed the BoR member (colonies) to set aside the cancellation order and decide the matter afresh in accordance with the law after considering all the legal and factual submissions made by the parties and after following the due process as per law.

    The GHQ then cancelled the allotments in October 2013 in its papers.

    Officials at the CM Secretariat said as long as Shehbaz was there, no one dared to bring the matter up again.

    Later in November 2019, the DG Lands at GHQ wrote to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government led by Usman Buzdar for the restoration of the allotments, stating that “all the orders of president/chief executive of Pakistan were subsequently given constitutional protection and also upheld by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the Tikka Iqbal case”.

    Strangely enough the DG Lands did not mention that the said judgement was overturned by a 14-member bench in July 2009 in the PCO Judges case.

    Two days after the receipt of the DG Lands’ letter, the BoR member (colonies) initiated a fresh summary for the Punjab CM, requesting Buzdar to “take an explicit decision whether to withdraw the order cancelling the impugned allotments”. The CM referred the matter to the standing committee of the cabinet on legislative business that in February endorsed the viewpoint of the DG Lands, GHQ.

    The CM later approved the allotments “as recommended by the standing committee subject to ratification by the cabinet” given last week.

  • ‘Disgruntled’ Aleem Khan to be re-inducted to Punjab cabinet days after ‘contacting PML-N’

    ‘Disgruntled’ Aleem Khan to be re-inducted to Punjab cabinet days after ‘contacting PML-N’

    After a break lasting over a year, senior member of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former Punjab minister Aleem Khan, who according to reports was “disgruntled” ever since a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) investigation was launched into his assets, is making his way back to the provincial cabinet, coincidentally days after he contacted the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

    As per the details, the development comes after a meeting between Aleem and Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Sardar Usman Buzdar on the behest of Prime Minister Imran Khan, which had followed a telephonic conversation between the “disgruntled” PTI leader and PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah to  discuss the fast-changing political scenario, especially in Punjab.

    Sanaullah had immediately brought the conversation to the attention of party chief Shehbaz Sharif, who had reportedly told him to wait for orders regarding befriending Aleem for any changes in the provincial house where the PTI sits on the treasury benches following a neck-and-neck with the PML-N and owing to the support of Chaudhrys of Gujrat’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML) as well as independent lawmakers.

    Sources had last week informed The Current that the PML-N leadership would assess all political options but was likely to keep a safe distance from “segments of PTI allegedly involved in the wheat or sugar crises” and who had allegedly made billions through government subsidies and subsequent price hike.

    When contacted, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah had confirmed having a detailed telephonic conversation with Aleem and that the two discussed the current political situation in the country. To a question, he had said it was too early to say if the PML-N and the disgruntled PTI group led by Aleem would put in any efforts to bring in-house changes in Punjab because his party had a principled stance in that respect.

    “First we want electoral reforms and then we seek fresh general elections but there can be an interim arrangement till the completion of these goals,” Sanaullah had said, adding that if someone said that Aleem had the support of only 20 to 25 PTI lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly, they would be underestimating him.

    “I personally know his real strength among the ranks of the PTI.”

    The little telephonic conversation between the PML-N and disgruntled PTI leader had followed a meeting between PML-N’s Khawaja brothers and Punjab Assembly speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi — an important ally of the PTI government in Punjab.

    With reports claiming that the fate of PTI’s Buzdar administration in Punjab was hanging in balance, it has been learnt that Aleem would soon be re-inducted to the provincial cabinet.

    “It was quite obviously an attempt to keep Aleem and friends from joining hands with the PML-N for any changes in the Punjab Assembly,” sources said and added the PML-N, however, seemed confident about the bond it was forging with the PML to turn tables on the ruling party.

    While Aleem has neither confirmed nor denied claims regarding his re-induction to the cabinet, The Current has learnt that he will be handed back his previous position of senior minister or “de facto provincial chief executive” along with the reins of the Local Government Department.

    He is also likely to be given the control of the Punjab Food Department and an additional charge of the Planning and Development (P&D) Department, sources said and added that Aleem will be administered oath within a day or two.

  • ‘Disgruntled’ Aleem Khan to befriend PML-N, turn tables on PTI in Punjab?

    ‘Disgruntled’ Aleem Khan to befriend PML-N, turn tables on PTI in Punjab?

    Senior member of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and former Punjab minister Aleem Khan, who according to reports is “disgruntled” ever since a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) investigation was launched into his assets, has telephoned rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Punjab President Rana Sanaullah to discuss with him the fast-changing political scenario, especially in Punjab, The News reported.

    According to reports, Aleem contacted the PML-N stalwart and told him that he wanted to discuss “some important issues in the context of the fast-changing political scenario”, which Sanaullah immediately brought to the attention of party chief Shehbaz Sharif.

    “PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah immediately informed PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif about this political development. He [Sanaullah] was told to wait until he gives him directives in this regard,” the report quoted sources as saying.

    They said the PML-N leadership would assess all political options but is likely to keep a safe distance from “segments of PTI allegedly involved in the wheat or sugar crises” and are being accused of making billions through government subsidies and price hike, the report stated.

    “Aleem Khan had also approached Rana Sanaullah in the past when he was practically sidelined due to his growing differences with Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan over the state of affairs in Punjab,” sources told The News and added that when Sanaullah was arrested in the controversial narcotics case, the PTI member had back then also sent him text messages, saying he hoped that the PML-N leader comes out clean.

    When contacted, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah confirmed that he had a detailed telephonic conversation with Aleem and the two discussed the current political situation in the country.

    To a question, he said it was too early to say if the PML-N and the disgruntled PTI group led by Aleem would put in any efforts to bring in-house changes in Punjab because his party had a principled stance in this respect.

    “First we want electoral reforms and then we seek fresh general elections but there can be an interim arrangement till the completion of these goals,” Sanaullah said, adding that if someone said that Aleem had the support of only 20 to 25 PTI lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly, they would be underestimating him. “I personally know his real strength among the ranks of the PTI.”

    To another question, he said some PTI members from Punjab had contacted the PML-N in the past as well but the leadership had decided that it would be useless to participate in power politics without having any people-oriented political agenda.

  • Coronavirus: PM Imran walks out of high-level meeting ‘paid for by Bilawal’

    In what is being termed as his “non-serious attitude towards a health crisis”, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan on Wednesday walked out after addressing parliamentary leaders on the coronavirus outbreak via video link that, according to sources, was paid for by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

    “The link… the subscription of the software is owned by the PPP and was shared with the government for the emergency moot as it only had Skype and couldn’t manage,” sources informed The Current.

    Earlier, the premier said he wanted all political parties to unite on one forum and fight against COVID-19. “All political parties and provinces will be included in the victory against corona[virus],” he reportedly said in his address at the parliamentary leaders’ conference that he later left midway, drawing a strong reaction from opposition leaders.

    Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif also left the meeting in protest over the “carefree attitude” of PM Imran while the country suffered because of what Shehbaz said was the worst health crisis in its history.

    With the PPP chief following suit, Shehbaz tweeted:

    Meanwhile, party sources informed The Current that Bilawal will soon be addressing a press conference over the events that marred Wednesday’s high-level meeting between national leaders.

  • ‘Won’t deny Nawaz met establishment officials from UK, US’

    ‘Won’t deny Nawaz met establishment officials from UK, US’

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah has said that he won’t deny former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s meeting with officials from establishments of the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US).

    The former premier had last month held a meeting with a “mystery man” at his London residence. PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif had brought the man for a meeting with his elder brother Nawaz. The man, who had covered his face, had held a meeting with Nawaz for around 40 minutes until he was guided out the back door of Avenfield Apartments.

    A British journalist of Pakistani origin had, however, recorded a video of the mysterious visitor who didn’t utter a word in response to any questions asked about the meeting. With the video making headlines, speculations regarding the person’s identity had run rife.

    “I won’t deny these meetings. I am not in a position to comment as I have no permission of the party for it,” Sanaullah said when asked about such reports as he spoke to journalists outside the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday.

    “Shehbaz Sharif intends to return home in March,” he further said, adding that the PML-N president would return after the cardiac surgery of ailing ex-PM and his brother Nawaz in London.

    To another question, the PML-N leader said a legal team was holding consultations for extension in bail term of Nawaz as he seeks medical treatment abroad despite jail term after conviction in a corruption case against him.

  • Bilawal ‘hopes’ PML-N hasn’t ‘struck a deal’

    Bilawal ‘hopes’ PML-N hasn’t ‘struck a deal’

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has hoped that the prolonged stay of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif in London with his brother and convicted former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif, and the “silence” of the latter’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, are not because a deal has been struck.

    “Every political party has a role to play. I hope that all this is not part of any deal or understanding. Everyone should make efforts to fulfil the wishes of the people of Pakistan. As the PPP chairman, I am here in the country and will not run away,” Bilawal said in an exclusive conversation with Dawn, to a question regarding rumours that Maryam was not issuing any statements because of some kind of understanding with the establishment for her to leave the country despite the cases against her.

    When asked about reports of a “London plan” due to the presence of some prominent personalities in the United Kingdom, Bilawal said he did not know anything. “I believe these are conspiratorial talks. Only the people of Pakistan should be decision-makers.”

    He also expressed ignorance about any possible agreement between Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the establishment at the time of the party’s sit-in in Islamabad in October last year, saying that his party had categorically stated even during the sit-in that it would not support any such agreement nor would it back any kind of deal in future to oust the rulers.

  • REBUTTED: Gen Bajwa, ex-ISPR chief meet Sharif family in London

    A report in The News has rebutted claims regarding Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa and former Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) director general Major General Asif Ghafoor meeting the Sharif family in London, which had earlier led to intense speculations and discussion about the ongoing political situation as well as the future of the same back in Pakistan.

    A few Twitter accounts had claimed that the army chief and Maj Gen Ghafoor were in London, holding important meetings.

    The tweets had spread like wildfire as they also claimed that the military leadership was staying in a hotel on a walking distance from Avenfield Flats — the London residence of former prime minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif and his sons Hasan and Hussain Nawaz.

    The report quoted both official and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) sources as saying that the tweets were factually wrong as neither the COAS nor the former ISPR chief was in London. Both Gen Bajwa and Maj Gen Ghafoor have not been in London for several months, in fact, the latter was in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah around the time of speculation, it added.

    Sources said that a few serving and retired military officers were in London to take part in a few seminars on security on South Asian by a leading think-tank in London and for a few official meetings, but none of the military leaders, as claimed, were in London.

    The delegation stayed in London for a week and then left for Pakistan on the weekend. A PML-N source termed it unfortunate that social media was used to spread news as if the military leadership was engaged in discussions with Nawaz or his brother and PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif, both of whom are in London.

    The PML-N source further told the English daily that Nawaz was in London for medical treatment and was not holding any talks with anyone. Shehbaz, on the other hand, has reportedly not held any meeting with anyone on Pakistani politics.

  • Fawad Ch says PML-N’s Khawaja Asif ‘lobbying to become prime minister’

    Fawad Ch says PML-N’s Khawaja Asif ‘lobbying to become prime minister’

    Federal Minister for Science & Technology Fawad Chaudhry has claimed that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Muhammad Asif “is lobbying to become the prime minister (PM)”.

    Speaking to a private media outlet, the minister claimed that Asif wanted both former PM Nawaz Sharif and his brother, PML-N chief Shehbaz Sharif, to seek British citizenship and leave Pakistan for good. “He wants the entire [Sharif] family to move there [United Kingdom], and that he be granted the reins of PML-N.”

    When asked by anchor and host Arshad Sharif as to what would that mean for other senior leaders such as ex-PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Fawad said Asif believes he played an important role in securing Nawaz the permission to seek medical treatment abroad. “He thinks he is on really good terms [with the Sharif family] nowadays, and so is the best candidate,” the federal minister added.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    To this, the journalist asked if Asif was in contact with federal cabinet members and that was how he managed to pave way for convicted former premier’s foreign travel. Fawad, however, did not answer the question.

  • ‘Defamation’: Shehbaz moves London court against British journalist

    ‘Defamation’: Shehbaz moves London court against British journalist

    PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif has filed a defamation case in the London High Court against UK journalist David Rose and Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) – publishers of the Mail Online and Mail on Sunday for carrying “utterly false allegations” against him.

    According to a report in The News, Shehbaz’s lawyers, Alasdair Pepper and Antonia Foster shared the details of the defamation suit in a press conference at their office. The former chief minister of Punjab was also present.

    Pepper revealed that the defamation claim has been filed at the London High Court’s Queen’s Bench Division against the defendants DMGT and David Rose, author of the story. The case will go to a trial before a judge at the Royal Court of Justice in under a year as the minimum time to get a trial date is between nine months to a year.

    The lawyer elaborated they decided to approach the court after failing to get a substantive response from the newspaper in several months, despite repeated requests.

    He said that the article, which alleged that Sharif misappropriated UK taxpayers’ money in the form of DFID aid intended for the victims of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and the author’s “social media campaign” was “gravely defamatory” of Sharif.

    He asserted that DFID denied the allegations and labelled the claims as false proving that their client was not involved. The lawyer added that the article was part of a “politically motivated campaign” against the PML-N leader and that Sharif is renowned for his professional and personal ethics.

    In a statement, a DFID spokesperson had said, “The UK’s financial support to ERRA over this period was for payment by results – which means we only gave money once the agreed work, which was primarily focused on building schools, was completed, and the work audited and verified.”

    Speaking at the press conference, Shehbaz said that he was determined to prove that the allegations against him were false, baseless and politically motivated to malign him, adding that it was clear that Rose was used by the PTI government as they granted him “exclusive access to some of the tempered results of a high-level probe ordered by Khan” including a “confidential investigation report” and unusual access to interview “key witnesses” held on remand in jail.

    The Daily Mail UK report, published on July 14, 2019, claimed that the paper was given exclusive access to some of the results of a high-level probe ordered by the government of Pakistan and it was also able to interview key witnesses held on remand.

    One of the witnesses had claimed that he laundered millions on behalf of Shehbaz’s family from a nondescript office in Birmingham without attracting suspicion from Britain’s financial regulators.

    The paper had also alleged that Shehbaz and his family were embezzling tens of millions of pounds of public money and laundering it in Britain.

    Shehbaz had served a first legal notice to the newspaper on July 26, alleging that David Rose’s report was “politically motivated”.

    Despite this, Rose had on multiple occasions thrown shade at Sharif for taking no action.

  • Research proves stress speeds up hair greying process

    Research proves stress speeds up hair greying process

    Marie Antoinette’s hair turned white overnight, according to folklore, before she was executed by guillotine in 1793 during the French Revolution. The ill-fated queen embodied an extreme example of the phenomenon of stress-induced graying of the hair. The biological mechanism behind such graying had long remained a mystery.

    But researchers at Harvard University have now figured out how it happens: it is driven by the body’s “fight-or-flight” response to danger.

    The researchers used mouse experiments to look at how stress affects the stem cells in hair follicles that are responsible for making melanocytes, the pigment-producing cells that give hair its colour – black, brown, blonde, red or somewhere in between.

    People generally have around 100,000 hair follicles on their scalp. Researchers initially suspected that a stress-induced immune attack might be targeting the melanocyte stem cells, but that hypothesis did not pan out. They then explored whether the hormone cortisol, elevated under stress, might be the culprit, but also was a dead end.

    Instead, they found that the body’s sympathetic nervous system, which governs the mammalian “fight-or-flight” response to danger, played a central role. It comprises a network of nerves that go everywhere including the skin, in which they are like ribbons wrapping around each hair follicle and are very close to the melanocyte stem cells.

    When mice were subjected to short-term pain or placed in stressful laboratory conditions, these nerves released the chemical norepinephrine, which was then taken up by the stem cells in the hair follicle that serve as a finite reservoir of melanocytes.

    “Normally, when hair regenerates, some of these stem cells convert into pigment-producing cells that colour the hair. But when they are exposed to norepinephrine from the sympathetic nerve, all of the stem cells are activated and convert into pigment-producing cells,” said Ya-Chieh Hsu, associate professor of stem cell and regenerative biology at Harvard University and a Harvard Stem Cell Institute principal investigator.

    “That means there are none left. In just a few days, the reservoir of pigment-regenerating stem cells is depleted. And once they’re gone, you can’t regenerate pigment anymore,” added Hsu, senior author of the research published in the journal Nature.

    Hair graying is one of the many ways that stress exacts a toll on the body. The findings could guide development of treatments for stress-related graying, or potentially other stress-related changes in tissues, though this could take years, she said.

    Stress is not the only reason hair can turn gray. The natural aging process is the leading cause. Genetic mutations and in some cases immune attacks also can contribute to hair losing its colour.