Category: PAKISTAN

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday said the Supreme Court’s queries to better understand others’ perspective should not be construed as the court’s interference in the legislative process. The chief justice made those remarks while heading a three-member SC bench hearing a case about the media commission “Yesterday it was again asked how the judiciary could interfere with the legislative process,” the chief justice said, without naming anyone. “Parliament is supreme but there is also the Constitution above it,” he said, adding that no legislation could be done in…

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KARACHI: Mohammad Zaryab, son of former cricketer Amir Hanif, committed suicide after alleged heartbreak over non-selection in an Under-19 cricket team. Zaryab was heart-broken after he was declared too old to be selected for the Under 19s (U-19) and hanged himself the previous day. The young cricketer was a first-year student at a college and Hanif’s oldest son. According to Hanif, Zaryab had represented Karachi in an U-19 tournament in Lahore last month, from where he was sent home citing an ‘injury’. The teenager had resisted the move, claiming his injury…

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Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday left for Russia on a four-day visit at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, state-owned broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. Asif is expected to hold official talks with Lavrov during his stay in Moscow. The two sides will deliberate upon the entire spectrum of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest, the report said. The visit will provide opportunity to explore ways to further strengthen cooperation in the political, economic, trade and investment, defence, education and cultural sectors. Russia enjoys…

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In a tit-for-tat action, Pakistan Army on Monday destroyed an Indian army post across the Line of Control and killed two soldiers hours after a Pakistani minor boy lost his life in Indian firing on a border village. “Pakistan Army troops neutralised [an] Indian post which targeted a minor along [the] LoC,” killing two soldiers, the military’s media wing said in a brief statement. Nearly two hours earlier, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor had said in a tweet that an eight-year-old boy named Ayan was killed…

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Nine candidates put forward by the Farooq Sattar-led faction of the MQM-P for the upcoming Senate elections had their nomination papers withdrawn by the party’s Rabita Committee on Monday, DawnNews reported. The nine candidates withdrawn include Kamran Tessori, whose nomination by Sattar seems to have further split the party between the ‘PIB’ and ‘Bahadurabad’ factions. According to reports, the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) returning officer had received a letter signed by MQM Bahadurabad convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui informing the body that nine of its candidates had been withdrawn. Siddiqui had earlier…

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MNA Ayesha Gulalai has claimed that the ruling PML-N had offered her a ticket for the upcoming Senate elections, but she turned down the proposal as it came with the requirement that she speak ill of the country’s armed forces. Speaking to reporters outside Parliament House on Friday, the dissident leader alleged that the Sharif family has an agenda against the judiciary and the army, which she termed the “only institution” working for the country. “Talking against institutions is tantamount to treason in my view,” she said, adding that PML-N…

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Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday took notice of media reports about Shahrukh Jatoi — the main accused in the 2012 Shahzeb murder case — being shifted to a hospital in Karachi. Jatoi had been shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre from Karachi Central Jail on Saturday, just a week after the Supreme Court set aside the bail granted to him in the murder of 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan. The CJP “has taken notice of reported shifting of accused Shahrukh Jatoi, and/or others from jail to hospital after cancellation…

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An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore on Monday charged a man with raping and murdering six-year-old Zainab Amin in a case that enraged the country and sparked riots in his home district of Kasur last month. Imran Ali, 24, pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting and murdering Zainab, said defence lawyer Mehr Shakeel Multani. “The police have levelled baseless and false allegations against my client,” Multani told AFP. The hearing was held in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail for security reasons. Witnesses will be called on Tuesday. Zainab’s rape and murder last…

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KARACHI: The Sindh Home Department formed a Joint Interrogation Team (JIT) to probe the Intezar murder case on Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah’s instructions Monday afternoon. Intezar Ahmed, 19, was killed after the police’s Anti Car Lifting Cell (ACLC) officials opened fire on his vehicle on Khayaban-e-Ittehad, DHA on January 13. Father of the murdered youth Ishtiaq Ahmed met the Sindh chief minister earlier today who ordered a notification about the JIT to be issued within an hour. In a prompt response to Shah’s order, the Sindh Home Department issued a notification…

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The Election Commission of Pakistan on Sunday allowed Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) deputy-convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui to hand out party tickets for the upcoming Senate elections. Speaking to DawnNews, former ECP secretary Kanwar Dilshad said that MQM-P leader Dr Farooq Sattar will no longer be able to submit nominations for the Senate elections. Instead, the nominations would require the signature of Siddiqui. Soon after the ECP announced its decision, Sattar and other party leaders arrived at the election body’s office in Karachi. “I am the party convener, only I have the…

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ISLAMABAD: The second round of Pakistan-Afghanistan talks on an engagement plan on peace and security issues ended on Saturday without making any headway on its key elements because the Afghan delegation felt that their priorities were not being addressed. The two sides could not only agree on a joint statement to sum up the two-day proceedings, but gave divergent accounts about the outcome. The Pakistani version came through Foreign Office spokesman Dr Muhammad Faisal’s 12-word tweet that essentially said more needed to be done to bridge the difference of opinion…

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Former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Saturday he has made it clear that he would not serve in the ruling PML-N under the leadership of “juniors” — a reference to Maryam Nawaz who is widely tipped to assume the mantle of the party in the future. When questioned at a press conference in Taxila about his previous remark that Maryam lacked the experience to lead PML-N, Nisar in turn asked whether he had said anything wrong at the time. “You tell me, can I work under children?”…

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