English – Page 29 – OVERSEAS TRIBUNE

Footprints: when sacrifice is insufficient

August 4, 2017 News Desk

KARACHI: Outside the Garden Headquarters of the Sindh police, I meet Muhammad Hamza. He has come to file a document required to be recruited as a constable in the law enforcement agency. The 21-year-old graduate does not want to be a constable, and would prefer the position of an officer, but there is no choice. Hamza lost his father, constable Muhammad Afzal, last month in an armed attack on a police vehicle in Korangi. Two other policemen also died while doing their duty on one of the city’s busiest roads.…

Petition filed in IHC to put Nawaz Sharif, his children and others on Exit Control List

August 3, 2017 News Desk

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday accepted for hearing a petition calling for the names of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members to be added to the Exit Control List (ECL), and will hold its first hearing of the case on Monday. The petition, filed by lawyer Raees Abdulwahid, asks that the names of Nawaz Sharif, his children, Hassan, Hussain and Maryam, son-in-law Capt Safdar, and former finance minister Ishaq Dar be placed on the ECL and their accounts frozen. The petition comes days after the…

Musharraf conditionally readies to return Pakistan, Says SG of APML

August 3, 2017 News Desk

All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) Secretary General Dr Muhammad Amjad here Wednesdaywhile addressing a press conference said that party Chairman, General (retd) Pervez Musharraf is ready to face accountability and we request judges of Supreme Court to form a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe assets of Gen Musharraf. With Iftikhar Chaudhry heading Supreme Court of Pakistan, public lost faith in judiciary and some controversial decisions were pronounced. After apex Supreme Court rendered judgment in panama case, faith in judiciary has gone restored and Gen Musharraf is ready to face a…

What brings PTI chief to a remote town?

August 3, 2017August 3, 2017 News Desk

SAHIWAL: At a time when Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf faced the media onslaught after ‘startling revelations’ by its MNA Ms Ayesha Gulalai on Tuesday evening, the party chairman who skipped the all-important National Assembly session the same day, travelled all the way to Pakpattan in the dark of night. Mr Khan has been a regular visitor to the ancient town for the last two years. The visits, however, are kept private. Escorted by his personal guards, Khan usually visits the town at night, pays homage to saint Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar by visiting…

COAS, Afghan envoy discuss border management in wake of Herat attack

August 3, 2017 News Desk

A day after a deadly attack on a mosque in Herat province, Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal has discussed security situation and border management with army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, a statement issued by the army’s media wing said. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the envoy, who called on the chief of army staff (COAS) at the General Headquarters, Rawalpindi on Wednesday also shared matters of mutual interest. Gen Qamar also expressed his grief over loss of innocent lives in the recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan.…

PTI issues ‘legal’ notice to Gulalai, demands apology for allegations

August 3, 2017 News Desk

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday issued a “legal notice” to former party member Ayesha Gulalai, demanding she apologise for her allegations against PTI Chairman Imran Khan a day earlier and resign from the National Assembly, or pay Rs30 million in damages to the aggrieved parties. The legal notice was served by Advocate Ahsan Jawed on behalf of the party’s central media coordinator Jawed Bader. The notice presents two options to Gulalai ─ to either tender an “unconditional apology” to Khan and the PTI for her “baseless and indecent allegations” in a…

‘Cabinet to take oath in one or two days,’ PM Abbasi says

August 3, 2017August 3, 2017 News Desk

prime minister of Pakistan Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

Incumbent Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in a press conference on Wednesday said that the government’s incoming cabinet would take oath in a couple of days. “Consultations are underway and the cabinet will hopefully take oath in one to two days,” Abbasi said while speaking to journalists in Murree, following a high-level PML-N meeting chaired by ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif. When asked about the PML-N’s candidate for the upcoming by-poll for the NA-120 constituency ─ a seat left vacant after Nawaz’s disqualification ─ Abbasi said that there was still time left…

References filed in ECP, Punjab Assembly to disqualify Imran Khan over Gulalai’s allegations

August 2, 2017 News Desk

Lawyer Raja Basharat has filed a petition in the Election Commission of Pakistan, seeking Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman’s disqualification on the basis of “shameful” allegations of harassment levelled against him by former PTI lawmaker Ayesha Gulalai. PML-N’s Hina Pervaiz Butt, also on Wednesday, submitted a resolution in the Punjab Assembly for Imran Khan’s disqualification on the basis of Article 62 and 63 in light of Gulalai’s allegations. A day earlier, as she announced to part ways with the PTI, Gulalai accused Khan and his “gang” of having an “immoral character”. She…

Abbasi likely to retain Nawaz’s ministers

August 2, 2017 News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The newly-elected Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is likely to retain all those ministers who had served under Nawaz Sharif, with the exception of a few. Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan is unlikely to rejoin the cabinet under the leadership of the ‘interim’ prime minister. Other members of the cabinet are expected to take oath with the same portfolios they were holding till Friday when Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court as prime minister and his cabinet stood dissolved. According to sources in the PML-N, Nisar…

Moody’s expresses fears about continuity of policies

August 2, 2017August 2, 2017 News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The New York-based credit rating agency Moody’s on Tuesday expressed fears that Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification as a member of parliament in the Panama Papers case could pose risks to continuity of policies in Pakistan and might impact adversely on its rating. “If heightened political uncertainty and strife among the various branches of government disrupt the administration’s economic and fiscal agenda, macroeconomic stability and the government’s access to external finance could be impaired, weighing on Pakistan’s credit profile,” the agency said. Also Read:Widow of late Edhi Ms Bilquis Edhi to visit Norway soon…

For Pakistanis, China ‘friendship’ road runs one way

August 2, 2017August 2, 2017 News Desk

TASHKURGAN, CHINA: The China-Pakistan Friendship Highway runs over 1,300 kilometres from the far western Chinese city of Kashgar through the world’s highest mountain pass and across the border. For China, the two-lane thoroughfare symbolises a blossoming partnership, nourished with tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure investment. But for many businessmen living and working on the Chinese side of the border, the road is a one way street. Also Read:Shehbaz Sharif advised to stay put in Punjab The project is a crown jewel of China’s One Belt, One Road [OBOR] initiative,…

Shehbaz Sharif advised to stay put in Punjab

August 2, 2017 News Desk

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif is likely to suggest to the PML-N chief and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to reconsider his decision to get him (Shehbaz) elected as the next prime minister of Pakistan and to allow him to continue working as chief minister of Punjab. After the apex court on July 28 disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif for hiding assets in his nomination papers for 2013 polls, Nawaz had named his younger brother, Shahbaz, as his successor during the PML-N’s parliamentary party meeting. However, as Shehbaz must first…

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi elected prime minister of Pakistan

August 1, 2017 News Desk

PML-N’s nominee Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected prime minister of Pakistan after bagging 221 votes during a vote carried out to elect a short-term successor to ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Following the announcement by NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in this regard on Tuesday evening, the PML-N lawmakers resorted to sloganeering in favour of Nawaz Sharif. The NA session was called by President Mamnoon Hussain following a landmark Supreme Court ruling on the Panama Papers case in which Nawaz Sharif was disqualified as PM after being deemed unfit to hold…

Khaqan Abbasi faces NAB inquiry over LNG contract

August 1, 2017 News Desk

ISLAMABAD: Following the removal of its chief Nawaz Sharif as prime minister, another problem has arisen for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as the interim premier-in-waiting, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, is also facing a Rs220 billion corruption inquiry being carried out by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Mr Abbasi, the former minister for petroleum and natural resources, is a principal accused in a NAB case registered in 2015 regarding award of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import contract. Other suspects include former petroleum secretary Abid Saeed, Inter State Gas Systems (ISGS) managing…

NAB orders Irfan Naeem Mangi to file references against Sharif family, Ishaq Dar

August 1, 2017 News Desk

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Monday handed Director General (DG) NAB Balochistan, Irfan Naeem Mangi, the responsibility of implementing the Supreme Court’s July 28 order on the Panama Papers case. Mangi, who was part of the joint investigation team (JIT) that probed the Sharif family’s business dealings, will file references against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif; his children Hussain, Hassan and Maryam Nawaz; son-in-law Muhammad Safdar; former finance minister and father-in-law of his youngest daughter, Ishaq Dar, and others named by the Supreme Court in its Panamagate ruling. The references…