Pakistan News

“If our people have committed any sort of crime against the state, then by all means, try them in a court of law. Don’t kidnap them and leave the families wondering if their loved ones are dead or alive,” said Sammi Deen Baloch, her voice quivering with emotion. Protesters gathered outside Karachi’s Frere Hall on August 30, to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.— Photo by author She was one of the 100 or so protesters — including children — who had gathered outside Karachi’s Frere Hall yesterday to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, a day that recognises and amplifies the concerns of those whose loved ones have disappeared. They then marched to the Karachi Press Club (KPC), where activists and family members delivered speeches describing the cruelty of enforced disappearances. Even though the UN has designated this one day to highlight the pain of the loved ones, the agony of Sammi, and others like her, is year-...

The social media platform X will begin offering video and audio calling, owner Elon Musk announced on Thursday, a step towards turning the former Twitter into an “everything app”. “Video & audio calls coming to X,” Musk wrote in a post on the platform, without specifying when the new features would be available. The calling features would work on iOS, Android, Mac and PC systems, and no phone number would be needed, he said. “X is the effective global address book,” the billionaire added. “That set of factors is unique.” Last month, Musk and his newly hired chief executive Linda Yaccarino announced the rebranding of Twitter as X , saying it would become an “everything app” inspired by China’s WeChat that would allow users to socialize as well as handle their finances. X’s payment branch Twitter Payments LLC was granted a “crucial” currency transmitter license from the US state of Rhode Island on Monday, allowing it to “engage in cryptocurrency-related activities” such as ...

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has stated lawyer Jibran Nasir and his wife Mansha Pasha’s inclusion in the watch list — which led to them being stopped from travelling to Dubai last month — was done “secretively”, adding that the move to bar them from travelling abroad was “without lawful authority”. Earlier this month, Nasir — who was “picked up by unidentified men” outside his residence in Karachi in June and released 24 hours later — revealed that he was stopped from travelling to Dubai by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) last month. “We checked in our luggage, got boarding passes, cleared immigration and got the exit stamps but while approaching the departure lounge we were called by an FIA official who appeared to be receiving instructions from someone on his phone,” he said in a post on social media platform X. The official, he continued, took their passports and read the names to the person he was on the phone with. Nasir quoted the officer as saying “ yahi log hain a...

The Pakistani rupee extended its losses on Thursday, sliding another Rs1.10 against the US dollar in the interbank market. According to the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan, the greenback was changing hands at Rs305.55 at 12:30pm. Yesterday, it closed at 304.45. The consistent devaluation of the rupee is not only causing inflation but is also compelling the central bank to raise interest rates to mitigate the repercussions of uncontrolled depreciation of the local currency, according to bankers who manage exchange rates and imports. “The market is not in control of anyone. The steep devaluation will continue and even cross the limit given by the IMF,” a senior banker had said, adding that nobody knows what is next for the exchange rate. “This fast deprecation of local currency is alarming for the government in charge. There must be some pause in the frequent free fall of the rupee,” Atif Ahmed, a currency dealer in the inter-bank market, had said. More to follow. fr...

Captain Babar Azam said his team will be brimming with confidence for Saturday’s Asia Cup blockbuster against arch-rivals India after kicking off their campaign with a comprehensive victory against Nepal on Wednesday. Babar led from the front with a masterly 151 and Iftikhar Ahmed produced an unbeaten 109 to power Pakistan to a commanding 342-6 at the Multan Cricket Stadium. The tournament co-hosts returned to skittle out Asia Cup debutants Nepal for 104 in 23.4 overs for what was their third-biggest victory in a one-day international. “This game was good preparation for the India game because it gave us confidence,” Babar, who was named Player of the Match for his 19th one-day hundred, said. “India-Pakistan will always bring high intensity. We want to give 100 per cent in every match, hope to do that there as well.” Babar is the top-ranked ODI batter and the stylish right-hander proved why with his excellent pacing of his knock. Pakistan lost both their openers early but Babar ...

US President Joe Biden’s administration has for the first time approved direct US military aid to Taiwan under an assistance programme aimed at foreign governments, officials said on Wednesday, as worries grow over China. The State Department informed Congress on Tuesday of the $80 million package, which is small compared with recent sales to Taiwan but marks the first assistance to Taipei under the Foreign Military Financing programme, which generally involves grants or loans to sovereign countries. The move is sure to anger China. For five decades, the United States has officially recognised only Beijing although Congress, under the Taiwan Relations Act, requires the supply of weapons to the self-governing democracy for its defense. Successive US administrations have done so through sales rather than direct aid to Taiwan, with formal statements speaking in the tone of business transactions with the island’s de-facto embassy in Washington. The State Department insisted that the f...

A policeman was martyred in Quetta on Wednesday when unidentified assailants opened fire at him while he was heading home, an official said. Sariab Superintendent of Police (SP) Zia Mandokheil told Dawn.com that Akhtar Husain, deployed at the entrance of the Special Branch office in Sariab Mills Colony, was heading home after completing his night duty when armed men opened fire at him. He added that the policeman embraced martyrdom on the spot and his body was shifted to Civil Hospital, Quetta, and later to the Quetta Police Lines for funeral prayers. The SP further said that police reached the incident’s site to initiate an investigation and collected shells of a 9mm pistol. In a similar incident on Monday, two police officials were martyred and three were injured in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat when unidentified gunmen attacked a patrolling vehicle. Late on Sunday, a senior officer of Balochistan’s Khuzdar Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) and his team members survived a...

Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and opted to bat in the opening match of the Asia Cup against Nepal in Multan on Wednesday. The six-nation Asia Cup is being co-hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka, a hybrid model agreed after World Cup hosts India refused to tour Pakistan, with the final on September 17 in Colombo. Pakistan will fly to Sri Lanka to play India in Pallekele on September 2 before playing a Super Four match in Lahore and then returning to Sri Lanka for the remaining matches. Pakistan, India and Nepal are in Group A while defending champions Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are in Group B. Nepal qualified for the Asia Cup after winning the Asian Cricket Council Premier Cup in April at home, beating Oman and the United Arab Emirates. “We are playing in the Asia Cup for the first time and it’s a big occasion,” said captain Rohit Paudel a day earlier. “We want to give a competitive game to Pakistan and India as well. “We deserved to be here. We have been...

The Sindh Wildlife Department on Wednesday shifted a lion, that managed to escape from its owner’s custody on Sharea Faisal a day earlier, to the Karachi Zoological Garden as five suspects were booked for allegedly keeping the animal in their custody. On Tuesday evening, the lion being illegally transported in a vehicle managed to escape from its owner’s custody near Aisha Bawany College, creating a panic among commuters and pedestrians who saw the big cat prowling on the streets and forcing the police and the wildlife staff to capture the wild animal. The young lion was later caught with the help of its keepers and handed over to the wildlife department. According to Sindh Chief Wildlife Conservator Javed Mahar, the wild animal was a pet. Following the episode, the owner of the lion, identified as Shamsul Haq, was taken into custody along with four houseworkers by the police. Today, a first information report was registered against the suspects by Wildlife Inspector Aijaz Ali N...

US Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland held a phone call with Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on Wednesday during which she assured him of Washington’s support to stabilise Pakistan’s economy and its continued engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Last month, the global lender’s executive board had green-lit a $3 billion nine-month standby arrangement (SBA) for Pakistan in order “to support the authorities’ economic stabilisation programme”. The board had approved the bailout package for the country for an amount of $2.25bn Special Drawing Rights — reserve funds that the institution credits to the accounts of its member nations — the IMF had said in a statement, adding that this amounted to about $3bn, or 111pc of Pakistan’s quota. Last week, caretaker Finance Minister Shamshad Mirza had an introductory virtual engagement with the staff mission of the IMF and was reported to have promised steadfast implementation of the policy actions committed un...

The Pakistani rupee continued its downward march on Wednesday, sliding Rs1.45 against the US dollar in the interbank market. According to the currency rate list of the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan, the dollar was changing hands in the interbank market for Rs304.50 at 12pm. It had closed yesterday at Rs303.50, according to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data. In the open market, however, the dollar was trading for much higher — Rs323, similar to yesterday’s rate. However, the ECAP quoted the open market rate at Rs318. Currency experts have said the dollar rates quoted by the banks and exchange companies are not real. The banks are reluctant to depict the real situation fearing the central bank’s reaction, while the exchange companies don’t want to tell the truth fearing action taken against them, they had added. Sources in banks had said that with the opening of imports — a condition of the IMF — the banks feared that poor dollar inflows were not enough to meet the hig...

On May 24, earlier this year, in response to protests outside the Supreme Court premises in Islamabad, during the pendency of a review petition filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial told AGP Mansoor Usman Awan to ask the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition to restrain from criticising the court . PDM leaders had staged a sit-in outside the SC, accusing it of granting unprecedented relief to Imran Khan. This incident was reminiscent of similar public uproar that had erupted against the United States Supreme Court after the draft of Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion in Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organisation had leaked in May, last year. A week after the leak, Justice Alito was scheduled to speak at George Mason University in Virginia, but protests and ensuing security issues forced him to deliver the speech via video link, from inside the US Supreme Court building. In an interview given to the Wall Street Journal later, Justic...

India’s Supreme Court has asked the Narendra Modi-led government if there was a “timeframe” and a “roadmap of progression” to restore the special status of held Kashmir, Indian media outlets reported on Tuesday. The remarks were passed by a five-member bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud during a hearing on a batch of petitions challenging the reading down of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which bestowed special status on India-held Jammu and Kashmir. The move allowed people from the rest of the country to have the right to acquire property in occupied Kashmir and settle there permanently. Kashmiris, international organisations and critics of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government had termed the move an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers. During the hearing today, The Indian Express quoted the CJI as asking Solicitor General Tushar Mehta: “We understand that these are matters of national securit...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not go to the funeral of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who died last week in a plane crash , the Kremlin said on Tuesday. Prigozhin — a Putin confidant turned “traitor” — was killed last Wednesday two months after ordering his troops to topple Russia’s military leadership, in what observers deemed the biggest challenge to Putin’s authority since he came to power. “The president’s presence is not envisaged,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday when asked whether Putin would attend the funeral. There have been no public announcements of when or where Prigozhin, who was 62, will be buried. “We have no information specifically about the funeral. The decision in this regard is made by family and friends,” Peskov added. Putin, last week, described Prigozhin as a man who had made “serious mistakes in his life, but he achieved the right results.” The Kremlin has dismissed speculation that it orchestrated the crash ...

The rupee remained under pressure and slid further against the US dollar in the open market on Tuesday, trading above Rs320 to the greenback. According to the Forex Association of Pakistan (FAP), the rupee had depreciated to Rs323 in the open market against the dollar, while remaining under pressure in the interbank market, where it lost 70 paise more to the greenback. It was being traded at Rs302.70 by afternoon. The rupee had fallen by 0.33pc yesterday to the dollar in the interbank market, with trade closing at Rs302, according to the State Bank of Pakistan data. More to follow. from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/rZ2Febc

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Islamabad on Tuesday handed over lawyer and human rights activist Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir to police on three-day physical remand. A day earlier, Imaan and former lawmaker Ali Wazir — who have both been facing cases due to a recent rally held by the Pashtun Tahaffuz Move­ment (PTM) in Islamabad — had been granted bail in a sedition case. However, hours later, she was re-arrested by Islamabad police in connection with a case registered on terrorism charges at the Bhara Kahu police station on Sunday. View this post on Instagram The fresh FIR has been sealed, but according to a copy seen by Dawn , the case was registered under Section 11-N of the Anti-Terrorism Act, as well as sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Section 11-N of the ATA deals with punishment under sections 11-H to 11-K, which include cha...

from Sportsnet.ca https://ift.tt/ncN02ZD

The difference between good art and bad art is that good art is subtle. Pakistan struggles to do subtle. There is certainly your everyday slapstick comedy, the tragic heroine, and the flippantly violent hero. But no, Pakistan is not at all good at subtle, which is why Sarmad Khoosat’s Zindagi Tamasha is banned. To put it succinctly, this film is about how a non-minority becomes a minority. The protagonist is a religious devout, who gets an instant rogue status for the crime of loving to dance effeminately. Had our hero danced unnoticed, he would have survived, but he gets caught [on camera] by the ridicule-addicted world of viral social media take downs and cancel-culture. Zindagi Tamasha is old world meets new, but it’s also the worst of both worlds. We are a country that prefers staying within social constructs. A daughter must be dutiful towards a father. The respectable must not have whims. The wives must be able-bodied. The community must have only men and women. This is the o...