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RAWALPINDI: More than 5,000 police personnel, including Elite Force commandos and Dolphin Force will be deployed to ensure foolproof security for Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches being played at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. Additionally, 347 traffic police officials will be on special duty to maintain the flow of traffic which will be diverted to alternate routes. Inspector General of Police Punjab Dr Usman Anwar directed Rawalpindi police to remain vigilant and conduct intelligence-based operations (IBOs) to foil any attempt to damage Pakistan’s brand and ensure provision of a conducive environment for the public to watch cricket matches. In order to prevent any attempts to harm Pakistan’s reputation, Inspector General of Police for Punjab Dr Usman Anwar gave the Rawalpindi police the go-ahead to conduct IBOs and to remain vigilant during PSL cricket matches. He also instructed them to provide a comfortable environment for spectators to watch cricket matches. Following the IGP’s ...

Supporters, as well as unknown armed men, storm judicial complex Police detain 35 people, thrash journalists covering Imran’s appearance ISLAMABAD: As former prime minister Imran Khan arrived at the judicial complex to secure bail in multiple cases, fragile security measures put in place by the police provided Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) supporters and some “unidentified individuals” who were armed with automatic weapons to storm the complex without facing resistance from police. The visit of the police chief and the DIG Operations failed to boost security measures as they remained inadequate giving supporters who had accompanied Mr Khan a free hand to enter the complex. However, the police were quick to beat up a number of journalists who had converged at the Islamabad High Court for the coverage of the PTI chief’s visit. Police officials told Dawn that the capital police imposed “fragile security measures” in and around the judicial complex as mere 64 police were deployed ...

KARACHI: The US does not care about Dr Aafia Siddiqui and if the Pakistani government wanted to bring her back, she would be here in the country, a prominent human rights lawyer said on Tuesday. Clive Stafford Smith is the lawyer who paved way for the return of two Pakistani brothers — Abdul Rabbani and Ahmed Rabbani — who were detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison for the last 20 years. They were released and returned to Pakistan last week. Addressing the press conference along with Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s sister, Dr Fauzia Siddiqui, Mr Smith said Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who was ‘abducted’ in 2003, “holds no special importance for the US” and it’s the government of Pakistan that didn’t do enough to bring her back. Responding to a question, he said if Dr Shakeel Afridi had to be traded for Dr Siddiqui’s release, the Pakistani authorities should do it. Dr Afridi has been incarcerated for more than a decade after he was accused of helping the US in tracing the Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden w...

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has ordered collection of toll tax from everyone, including politicians, judges and generals. Exemption will be given to on-duty personnel of the armed forces and police only. “No one should be exempt, including judges and generals visiting their homes and taking private trips,” said PAC Chairman Noor Alam Khan on Tuesday. The PAC chief said no motorway should be closed due to VIP movement, taking exception to reports that the Islamabad-Lahore motorway was closed for several hours last week. “Nobody is above the law and the Constitution.” He stressed that it was imperative to eradicate “VIP culture” to ensure the country’s political and economic stability. The secretary for the Ministry of Communications informed the committee that the payment of toll tax was being relaxed for legislators on the parliament’s directive, but they were now being asked to pay the levy after withdrawal of the exemption. “We are bound by the PAC’s directive...

TEHRAN: Dozens of Iranian schoolgirls needed hospital treatment on Tuesday after another mysterious poisoning, a news agency reported, the latest in a spate of suspected attacks in the Islamic republic. Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported in the past three months among schoolgirls mainly in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, with some needing hospitalisation. A government official said on Sunday that the attacks were believed to be a deliberate attempt to force the closure of girls’ schools. “Today (Tuesday) at noon, a number of students were poisoned at the Khayyam Girls’ School in the city of Pardis, Tehran province,” Tasnim news agency reported. It said 35 students had been taken to hospital so far, adding to hundreds of cases of reported poisoning since November in at least two other cities, including Qom. Official terms attacks a deliberate attempt to force closure of girls’ schools The poisonings come more than five months into protests that sp...

Brendon McCullum has promised that England will keep faith with their attacking game during the Ashes despite Tuesday’s extraordinary one-run loss to New Zealand in Wellington. The hosts levelled a two-match series by becoming just the fourth side in 146 years of Test cricket to win after following on. The Basin Reserve contest will go down as an all-time classic, with England asking New Zealand to follow on 226 runs behind, only to struggle in pursuit of a target of 258. England, despite being denied a seventh successive victory, has won 10 out of 12 Tests since captain Ben Stokes and coach McCullum, himself a former New Zealand skipper, joined forces last year following a woeful run of one win in 17 matches at this level. McCullum, while disliking the ‘Bazball’ reference to his nickname, was adamant there would be no let-up in England’s aggressive approach during a five-match series at home to arch-rivals Australia. “We’ll try to play the cricket that we want,” McCullum told th...

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Tuesday said it has called a meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee on March 2 — two weeks earlier than scheduled — when it is expected to raise the main policy rate. “The forthcoming meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee has been preponed and now it will be held on Thursday, March 02, 2023,” the SBP said in a brief statement. The next meeting of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee was initially scheduled for March 16. Off-cycle rate reviews are not uncommon though. Pakistan is undertaking key measures to secure International Monetary Fund (IMF) funding, including raising taxes, removing blanket subsidies, and artificial curbs on the exchange rate. While the government expects a deal with the IMF soon, media reports say that the agency expects the policy rate to be increased as well. Market participants in a recent treasury bill auction are expecting at least a 200 basis points increase in the policy rate, which stands at 17 ...

PTI Chairman Imran Khan is expected to appear in person in various courts in Islamabad in four different cases pertaining to foreign funding, terrorism, Toshakhana, and attempted murder on Tuesday (today). The former premier has left for Islamabad with party leaders to appear in courts, the party said on its official Twitter account. It said a large number of people welcomed Imran and his caravan at different spots along the motorway as the party chief headed for his appearance in the courts. The banking and the anti-terrorism courts are located in the judicial complex in Sector G-11, while the sessions court is housed at F-8 Kacheri in the capital. Cases against Imran The ECP had in November 2022 approached the Islamabad sessions court with a copy of the Toshakhana reference, seeking proceedings against Imran under criminal law for allegedly misleading officials about the gifts he received from foreign dignitaries during his tenure as the prime minister. In another action,...

QUETTA: The Balochistan High Court on Monday rejected a bail plea of Haq Do Tehreek chief Maulana Hidayatur Rehman in a case pertaining to violence that resulted in the death of a police official. A division bench comprising BHC Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Gul HassanTareen rejected the post-arrest bail plea filed by defence lawyers, with the observation that the protest launched by the group became “violent on the provocation of the petitioner that resulted in the murder of a police constable”. In its order, the court noted that freedom of expression, speech, and holding gatherings was a constitutional right of everyone but the life of a police constable was also precious as the life of a political leader and a worker. The applicant of the bail before an arrest seems to be involved in a non-bailable crime, so he could not be granted bail after arrest, the court order stated. Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2023 from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/ypuLg4F ...

KARACHI: With weekly inflation surging above 40 per cent, millions of Pakistanis have found their purchasing power further eroded, with many struggling to cover even the most basic necessities. Meanwhile, those at the helm of power scramble to put in stop-gap measures by imposing more taxes and blocking imports to shore up the country’s foreign reserves. The worst hit by this are the poor, who cannot even afford two full meals a day. Hailing from a small village near Nawabshah, Imam Ali lost most of his livestock and crops in 2020 due to floods, forcing him to come to Karachi to find a job. Ever since, he has been working as a security guard in Karachi’s FB Area, earning a meagre Rs15,000 a month. However, the minimum wage in Sindh is mandated at Rs25,000. “We are solely reliant on God, we cannot make ends meet in this inflation,” said 55-year-old Ali. “If our children ask for food, we simply make excuses. If we eat one time, the second meal is hard to manage … we tell the children ...

BARA: Atop a police outpost in northwest Pakistan, Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Faizanullah Khan stands behind a stack of sandbags and peers through the sights of an anti-aircraft gun, scanning the terrain along the unofficial boundary with the tribal districts. On this cold and rainy February morning, he is not looking for aircraft, but for the militants behind the attacks against his force, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police. It is daytime so he could relax a bit, but night was a different story, the ASI said, pointing to the marks left by bullets fired at the Manzoor Shaheed outpost. The outpost is one of dozens that provide defence against the militants waging a fresh assault on the country’s law enforcers from hideouts in the border region adjoining Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The threat the insurgency poses to Pakistan was illustrated last month when a bombing at a mosque inside Peshawar’s police compound killed more than 80 police personnel. Jamaatul Ahrar, a faction of the ...

Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch on Monday confirmed that 16 Pakistani survivors seemed to be in “good physical condition” after a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants crashed against rocks on the southern Italian coast over the weekend. The vessel had set sail from Turkiye several days ago with migrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries, and crashed in stormy weather near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria, with bodies, shoes, and debris washing up along a long stretch of shoreline. The death toll rose on Monday to 62 people, a coast guard official told AFP — and that number looked likely to increase. The FO spokesperson said that a senior embassy official today met the 16 Pakistani survivors of the capsised vessel. “They seemed in good physical edition,” she added. “According to them there were 20 Pakistanis on the ship,” the FO spokesperson said. “Embassy is in close contact with Italian au...

Twitter Inc has laid off at least 200 employees, or about 10 per cent of its workforce, the New York Times reported late on Sunday, in its latest round of job cuts since Elon Musk took over the micro-blogging site last October. The layoffs on Saturday night impacted product managers, data scientists and engineers who worked on machine learning and site reliability, which helps keep Twitter’s various features online, the NYT report said, citing people familiar with the matter. Twitter did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The company has a headcount of about 2,300 active employees, according to Musk last month. The latest job cuts follow a mass layoff in early November when Twitter laid off about 3,700 employees in a cost-cutting measure by Musk, who had acquired the company for $44 billion. Musk said in November that the service was experiencing a “massive drop in revenue” as advertisers pulled spending amid concerns about content moderation. Twitter r...

KARACHI: The opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Sunday staged a big rally against growing inflation in the country and announced that it would build a mom­entum from Karachi that would lead to the fall of the “imported government”. A large number of PTI workers and supporters, including women and children, took out smaller rallies from different parts of the city to reach Liaquatabad, where the main rally turned into a protest demonstration. Carrying placards, portraits of Imran Khan and party flags, the workers shouted slogans against the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led coalition government at the Centre for hatching “conspiracies against PTI leadership and totally ignoring the current economic crisis. However, the protest rally caused a traffic mess on Shahrah-i-Pakistan and adjoining arteries since the Liaquatabad flyover and the road leading to Dakkhana flyover were closed for vehicular traffic. Addressing the demonstration, party leaders vowed that the workers were ...

GILGIT: Every year, from October to April, residents of Gilgit-Baltistan spend most part of their day sitting in front of fireplaces in large, but poorly ventilated halls, to brave the frigid weather. As the region lacks clean energy sources, the primary mode of heating is traditional stoves called ‘Bukhari’. These wood-burning metal heaters are made up of three parts — a fire chamber, a chimney, and a cooking surface — and are used throughout the year. It is not just the firewood, cow dung, or coal that is used as fuel. People in urban parts of the region burn plastic bags and similar synthetic waste in addition to rubber acquired from tyres to keep these stoves running amid freezing temperatures. These stoves are tried-and-tested heaters — meeting the needs of the populace for centuries. But there is a major downside to their use — the impact on the pulmonary system of people huddling around them, chiefly children and elderly people. Gohar Balti, a resident of Skardu, tells Dawn ...

This year Ramazan will definitely be tougher than previous years for many low and middle-income group people, especially in terms of skyrocketing prices in the last year. After over 12 hours of fasting, people try to enjoy lavish iftar by arranging many items. But many people with mediocre wages and salaries are likely to limit their purchases this year. All responsibility lies on the government to ensure the availability of edible items at cheaper rates not only throughout the year but especially in the holy month. As the government is more occupied in political and economic chaos besides pinning hopes on approval of the International Monetary Fund loan (IMF), it is hard to expect any special measures that could bring any impressive price relief. While consumers have witnessed a price spiral in the last year, the government is not in a position to offer any huge subsidies or duty/taxes relaxations to lower prices. Any efforts to curtail prices by lowering taxes and duties may ir...

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Mohsin Leghari of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) won the by-election to NA-193 (Rajanpur) with a huge margin on Sunday, unofficial result shows. According to the unofficial result, Mr Mohsin bagged 90,392 votes as compared to 55,218 and 20,074 votes secured by Ammar Awais Khan Leghari of the Pakistan Muslim League-N and Akhtar Hassan Khan Gorchani of Pakistan Peo­ples Party, respectively. While congratulating Mr Mohsin, PTI Chairman Imran Khan expressed the fear that the victory would “scare” the government and its “handlers”. “Congratulations to Mohsin Leghari, Meena Leghari, PTI workers & voters for the NA 193 emphatic victory despite govt machinery, neutrals & ECP all working against PTI,” he tweeted. “My only worry is that this will scare PDM & its handlers more. Therefore, expect greater pressure on SC judges,” he said. The seat had fallen vacant after the death of PTI MNA Jafar Khan Leghari. The result was not unexpected as Jafar Khan was qu...

• Inaugurates “dynamic registration” of deserving women through Nadra • Says Rs1,000 “could change fortune of a poor person” KARACHI: PPP chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday announced a 25 per cent immediate increase in the amount of Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) stipends. Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of “dynamic registration of deserving women” under BISP through the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), he announced that the provincial government would accelerate the provision of relief money to small flood-affected farmers. “The politics of Pakistan Peoples Party is based on safeguarding the rights of the common man,” he said adding that the concept of the revolutionary BISP was given by Benazir Bhutto in her manifesto in view of poverty, inflation and economic crisis in the country. Mr Bhutto-Zardari said that when the BISP was being launched, the country’s bureaucracy, opposition politicians and so-called intelle...

• Further hike in flour prices feared due to short wheat supply to mills • Milk being sold at Rs210 per litre • Chicken boneless meat reaches Rs1,100-1,200 per kg • Mutton, veal meat available at Rs1,700 and Rs850 a kilo, respectively KARACHI: As the cost of living is rising sharply with each passing day, the life of the common man is fast becoming difficult and tough while the series of measures announced by authorities to control skyrocketing prices of essential food items are yet to produce results which could be deemed advantageous to consumers. The provincial government on Friday launched a crackdown on profiteers and hoarders to control prices of essential commodities and arrested two alleged profiteers in Karachi and collected a total fine of Rs161,000 from different shopkeepers for violating official rates in the city, according to a statement issued here on Saturday. Four shops were sealed during the raids carried out by district administrations while cases were register...

LAHORE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has launched a fresh probe against Farhat Shahzadi, known as Farah Khan, a close friend of PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, and Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid in inquiries pending with it against them to determine whether they committed money laundering or not. The PTI Punjab government’s tenure has also come under scrutiny as the ACE initiated a probe into all mega housing and other development projects on complaints of irregularities to ‘take action against those involved’. “We have launched a review into the inquiries against Farhat Shahzadi and Sheikh Rashid with regard to their alleged involvement in money laundering. If the money laundering allegations are established, the matter will be referred to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for legal action against them,” ACE Punjab Director General Sohail Zafar Chattha told Dawn on Saturday. Matter to be referred to FIA if allegations established He further s...

KARACHI: A number of former PTI lawmakers approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Saturday to challenge the decision of the National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to accept their resignations. The counsel for PTI said that Aftab Siddiqui, Saifur Rehman Khan, Faheem Khan, Attaullah Khan, Aftab Jahangir, Najeeb Haroon and others have also approached the SHC. The lawyer contended that the speaker’s act of accepting their resignations was a violation of law, as he has to ascertain personally whether it was signed by the person concerned. They asserted that the Lahore High Court had annulled the decision of the NA speaker to accept the resignation of the party MNAs in Punjab, as well as notifications of the ECP. They asked the SHC that notifications to de-seat the petitioners may also be declared void and issue directives to the respondents to restore them as members of the National Assembly. PTI Karachi president Aftab Siddiqui told the media the party MNAs had resigned on Apri...

ISLAMABAD: The Election Com­mission of Pakistan (ECP) has rej­e­c­ted the Punjab government’s request and decided to hold the by-election in Rajanpur on Sunday (today). The by-election will take place on the seat, NA-193 (Rajanpur), which had fallen vacant following the death of PTI’s Sardar Jaffar Khan Leghari in December 2022. Two days before the polling, the interim government of Punjab on Friday requested the commission to postpone the by-election. The government said that the Dera Ghazi Khan division commissioner has raised security concerns in a letter to the home department. The commissioner also wrote to the ECP requesting postponement over security concerns. The ECP, in a statement, said the Punjab government’s requested couldn’t be entertained as all arrangements for the by-election were already in place. It added that the deputy commissioner, Punjab Police, Army and Rangers would be present in the monitoring room and respond to any untoward situation. The ECP sai...

• Matches from Tuesday may be shifted to Karachi if deadlock persists • Govt agrees to light up teams’ route to stadium, says no further talks until board commits funds • PCB accuses provincial govt of ‘changing its stance’ on budget LAHORE: The Punjab government may have agreed to light up the route from the team hotels to the Gaddafi Stadium, but its sta­ndoff with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) continues to drag on, making it seem like the Pakistan Super League would be shifted from Lahore and Rawalpindi to Karachi after an agreement on security expenditure eluded the two sides, on Saturday. The Punjab government has lowered its demand for security funds — from Rs450 million to Rs250m — but the PCB is refusing to flinch, stating that it is the obligation of the government to provide protection to the teams, as per the agreements signed in 2014 for the restoration of international cricket in Pakistan. The PCB has taken its patron-in-chief Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in th...

IN military regimes, which have together ac­­c­o­unted for almost half of the country’s history, it was technocrats, for most purposes, who led the government. Even in many civilian governments, key positions such as the finance and commerce ministries were often imposed upon them. Despite their seemingly strong credentials, however, their performance remained mostly unsatisfactory, and if the experiment were to be repeated, there is no reason to expect any different outcome. It is, therefore, necessary to reconsider how technical expertise may best be availed in matters of governance. What did our past technocrat governments fail to achieve? Well, for one, they could not achieve a taxation system that is fair and where what is due gets collected, nor did they manage to increase and diversify exports with goods and services that are internationally competitive, whose sale is not dependent upon receiving state subsidies and grants of ‘favoured’ status by buyer countries. They were no...

ISLAMABAD: Taking a stand, three parties from the ruling coalition stated before the Supreme Court on Friday that two members of its nine-judge bench, hearing the suo motu case about delay in the announcement of a date for elections to the Punjab and KP assemblies, should recuse themselves from the case. The PML-N, JUI-F and PPP further said that the two judges should never be part of any bench hearing any case involving these three parties and their leadership. “At the very outset, [the] PPPP, PML-N and JUI-Pakistan with utmost respect submit that it is apparent from the Feb 16, 2023 [order] passed by two-member bench, comprising Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan [and] Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, that they have already disclosed their mind,” said a signed document furnished by senior counsel Farooq H. Naek, Mansoor Usman Awan and Kamran Murtaza, respectively, with the court. The counsel, however, hastened to add that the ruling parties did not have any personal reason or grievance ...

ISLAMABAD: Despite the lapse of the constitutionally mandated 30-day period, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is yet to declare vacant six of the seven National Assembly seats won by PTI chief Imran Khan in October last year. These by-polls were held on nine seats after the National Assembly speaker accepted the resignations of some PTI lawmakers who resigned en masse in April , following Mr Khan’s ouster as prime minister through a no-confidence vote in parliament. When Mr Khan won the seven seats in October, he was already holding a National Assembly seat from Mianwali. He won six seats on October 16 and bagged another seat from NA-45 (Kurram) on October 30. Mr Khan then contested eight of those vacant seats and emerged victorious on seven of them after losing one seat to PPP’s Abdul Hakeem Baloch in Karachi’s Malir area. If PTI chief does not indicate preference within 30 days, he automatically retains only the last seat contested, i.e. NA-45 (Kurram) Under the law, ...