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Tag: UK

  • Jalsa attend karein Khan ka magar reply sirf Bilawal ko, Humza Yousaf ignores Imran after becoming Scotland’s leader

    Humza Yousaf has made history by becoming Scotland’s first Muslim First Minister.

    Yousaf has ignited considerable curiosity in Pakistan as to his roots and political inclinations.

    Digging deep, we found a very old tweet of Humza and it seems like he had been an admirer of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan. In 2012, the newly-elected Scotland leader attended Khan’s jalsa and met him.

    He wrote: “Great rally amazing energy at Imran Khan rally and very good meeting with him afterward.”

    Recently, when Imran congratulated Humza on being elected, Scotland’s First Minister ignored the tweet, however, he replied to current Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari instead.

    The minister wished him well saying, “Wishing you all the best for your term in Bute House and looking forward for strong partnership in the domains of trade, investment, culture and education.”

    In response, Humza mentioned that “Pakistan will always have a special place in his heart”.

    “Scotland’s relationship with Pakistan is a friendship that has blossomed through many generations, I look forward to it growing stronger, ” he added.

  • Footage shows unidentified men breaking into Jemima Khan’s house

    Footage shows unidentified men breaking into Jemima Khan’s house

    Activist, screenwriter and producer Jemima Khan has shared a picture of two unidentified men who were caught trying to break into her London flat a few days ago. Khan asked her followers to identify the men so they could be reported to the police.

    Speaking to Geo News, Khan said that she had immediately called the police and a report was registered with Scotland Yard.

    “And then these two guys captured on camera trespassing a few weeks later in the day,” Khan revealed about the men whose pictures she had shared online.

    This is not the first time Khan’s house has been targeted by critics, as last year she shared a picture of the protests organized by PMLN supporters outside her home, who were targeting her and two children, Suleiman and Kasim, with anti-semitic slurs.

  • EU removes Pakistan from its high-risk third countries list

    EU removes Pakistan from its high-risk third countries list

    The European Union (EU) has officially removed Pakistan from its “List of High-Risk Third Countries” due to the country’s successful implementation of measures to address the strategic deficiencies in their Anti Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime. This means that Pakistani businesses and individuals will no longer be subjected to “Enhanced Customer Due Diligence” by the EU’s legal and economic operators.

    According to the delegated regulation, Pakistan has remedied the strategic deficiencies in its AML/CFT regime and no longer poses a significant AML/CFT threat to the international financial system. This decision has led to the removal of Pakistan from the list of nations with strategic deficiencies in their respective AML/CFT frameworks, and they do not pose a significant threat to the financial system of the European Union.

    As a result of this decision, the “Obligated Entities” in EU member states would no longer be required to apply “Enhanced Customer Due Diligence” while dealing with individuals and legal entities established in Pakistan. The “Obligated Entities” include credit institutions, financial institutions, natural or legal persons acting in the exercise of their professional activities, auditors, external accountants, tax advisors, notaries, and other independent legal professionals.

    Pakistan was initially included in the “List of High-Risk Countries” on October 22, 2018, by the EU. However, the decision to remove Pakistan from the list will add to the comfort level of European economic operators and is likely to ease the cost and time of legal and financial transactions by Pakistani entities and individuals in the region. The UK had previously removed Pakistan from its high-risk list in November 2022.

  • WHO report reveals smoking causes 166,000 deaths every year in Pakistan

    WHO report reveals smoking causes 166,000 deaths every year in Pakistan

    In Pakistan, smoking contributes to around 166,000 deaths annually, of which 31,000 are caused by passive smoking.

    The World Health Organization predicts that this figure won’t go down considerably in the upcoming years despite health warnings, quitting initiatives, and expanded tobacco control measures. These combustible cigarettes not only endanger the environment but also the human body.

    The industry’s carbon footprint from the manufacture, processing, and transportation of tobacco is comparable to one-fifth of the CO2 produced by the commercial aircraft industry each year, according to the WHO study “Tobacco: Poisoning our world,” which furthers the effects of global warming.

    According to Brecorder, the ultimate objective to completely remove the hazards of climate change, according to experts, is to stop smoking, but doing so can be challenging and come with a risk of relapse. Scientists across the world have been researching for years to develop possibly less dangerous substitutes that smokers can switch to as their initial step to stop smoking.

    They said that countries like Japan, US, UK, Sweden, Norway, and Iceland took it upon themselves to lower these numbers and by legalizing and funding research towards HTPs and adopting Tobacco Harm Reduction (THR) strategies. The results have been very promising as most of these countries saw a sharp decline in the number of smokers and the risks associated with it.

  • Lahore police arrests three people involved in online gambling

    Lahore police arrests three people involved in online gambling

    Lahore police arrested three people for engaging in online (digital) gambling and recovered Rs1 lakh cash and three cell phones from their possession.

    According to The News, the accused were named as Shoaib, Salim, and the ringleader, Faizan.

    The accused Faizan developed the betting app, in which more than 100 people were involved. The accused used to bet on all sporting events, including football, hockey, tennis, and cricket, through the app.

    Besides this, there are still a number of gambling applications available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store that anybody can download and use for betting purposes.

    Numerous websites provide advice on how to gamble, such as by changing a few personal details or signing up to bet using a random name.

  • Nawaz, Maryam leave with family for European trip

    Nawaz, Maryam leave with family for European trip

    Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, her brother Hussain Nawaz and her son Junaid Safdar have reached an unspecified European country on Sunday night, reports Geo News.

    The Sharif family will visit five European countries in the next ten days.

    Three years after her passport was confiscated, Maryam Nawaz travelled to London in October to spend time with her father and the rest of her family.

    According to media reports, Nawaz Sharif wants to return to Pakistan soon while his trusted circle discusses a possible return date for the former Prime Minister.

    He has been living in London since 2015 when he was granted an eight-week bail on medical grounds and was allowed to travel to London for treatment for four weeks.

  • Fact Check: Is the viral video of Shehbaz Sharif with UK lawyer legit?

    Fact Check: Is the viral video of Shehbaz Sharif with UK lawyer legit?

    Claim: A video of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (PM) in London is being shared on social media.

    Users are claiming that the video depicts the Premier sitting in a court in the United Kingdom (UK) where he and his son-in-law, Imran Ali Yousaf, are being panelised in the Daily Mail defamation case.

    Shehbaz Sharif had sued the Daily Mail in 2019 for an article which had suggested that he along with Yousaf “stole British taxpayers’ money” given to Earthquake Relief and Reconstruction Authority (ERRA) set up to help the victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.

    In this particular video, the man sitting next to Sharif can be heard saying, “Mr Sharif misappropriated UK taxpayers’ money and particular government aid intended for the victims of the devasting 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.”

    Fact: The video is of a press conference held by Sharif himself in 2020, in which he formally launched a defamation suit against journalist David Rose and Daily Mail and Associated Newspaper Limited (ANL) — the publishers of Mail Online.

    The disclosure of formal court action was made at a press conference at the offices of British law firm Carter-Ruck by Alasdair Pepper and Antonia Foster, who are representing Shehbaz in his legal case against the paper. Shehbaz was present with his lawyers at the press conference where the announcement was made.

    The lawyer said that Carter-Ruck had decided to move the court after failing to get a substantive response from the newspaper despite several requests over a passage of several months. He said that in nearly seven months the Mail had refused to engage with Sharif’s lawyer.

    Pepper argued that the article in the Mail, followed by a social media campaign launched by journalist David Rose, was gravely defamatory for Shehbaz, carrying false allegations that he misappropriated UK taxpayers’ money in the form of aid intended for the victims of the devastating 2005 earthquake in Pakistan.

    Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) official Twitter account also corrected the false claim and blamed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for spreading “lies”.

    Verdict: FALSE

  • UK removes Pakistan from list of ‘high risk’ countries

    UK removes Pakistan from list of ‘high risk’ countries

    The United Kingdom on Monday removed Pakistan from its list of “high risk” countries, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari tweeted.
    “Some good news. The United Kingdom has officially removed Pakistan from its list of ‘High Risk Third Countries’ following our early completion of FATF action plans,” the minister wrote in a tweet.

    “His Majesty’s Treasury issued an amendment to the UK’s High-Risk Third Countries’ list ON November 14, 2022, through a Statuary Instrument. The amendment removes Pakistan from the list in accordance with the decision taken by the FATF on October 21, 2022,” the official document read.

    “The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office recognizes the progress Pakistan has made to improve money laundering and terrorist financing controls,” it further added.


    The UK government included Pakistan to its list of 21 high-risk nations with inadequate measures in place to combat money laundering and terrorism funding in April 2021.

  • Lizz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

    Lizz Truss resigns as UK prime minister

    After only 45 days in the position, Prime Minister Liz Truss abruptly announced her resignation. The Prime Minister said that a Tory leadership election will be held in the coming week to choose her successor.

    After her government was overthrown and the majority of her economic policies were abandoned, Tory MPs pushed Ms Truss to leave.

    According to Al Jazeera, Ms Truss was elected by the Conservative membership in September, but after making a number of U-turns, she was forced to resign. In a speech outside Downing Street, Ms Truss said: “I recognise that I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party.”

    Ms Truss declared that she would stay in her position until a replacement legally assumes the role of party leader and is chosen as King Charles III’s prime minister.

    When Ms Truss leaves office, she will hold the record for the shortest tenure as prime minister in British history. She took office 44 days ago. Following Ms Truss’ resignation address, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer demanded a quick election.

    In her speech, Ms Truss said she entered “office at a time of great economic and international instability”, as war rages in Ukraine and living costs skyrocket. However, her retirement follows the resignation of a crucial minister, former home secretary Suella Braverman, and a disorderly parliamentary vote in which Tory MPs dissented.

  • Court issues notice to NAB on Dar’s plea to cancel warrants

    Court issues notice to NAB on Dar’s plea to cancel warrants

    An accountability court has served a notice to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) today (Wednesday) after newly-appointed Finance Minister Ishaq Dar surrendered himself before the court and submitted a petition pleading for the cancellation of his arrest warrants.

    The court then issued a notice to the NAB and ordered Dar to appear before the court on October 7.

    “We will hear the application for cancellation of warrants along with assets’ reference,” the judge remarked.

    In 2017, Dar was a declared a proclaimed offender in a NAB reference due to his continued absence from the proceedings.

    NAB accused Dar of possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.

    The case was filed by NAB in light of the Supreme Court’s July 28 verdict in the Panama Papers case.

    The same year, Dar flew to United Kingdom due to seek medical treatment. He stayed there for almost five years until his return to Pakistan on Monday.