The top diplomats of the United States, Australia, Japan and India opened talks in Melbourne Friday on deepening their Quad alliance, hoping to blunt China’s expanding power across the Asia-Pacific region. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison kicked off the day by highlighting the group’s importance in building cooperation among democracies while making a thinly-veiled allusion to his country’s troubled relationship with Beijing. “We live in a very fragile, fragmented and contested world,” he told the visiting officials. “We stand up to those who would seek to coerce us,” he said. Without mentioning China by name, Morrison said it was a…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said Russia is amassing yet more troops on Ukraine’s border, and warned an invasion could come “any time”, including during the Winter Olympics which end on February 20. “We’re in a window when an invasion could begin at any time, and to be clear that includes during the Olympics,” he said, brushing aside suggestions that Moscow would wait until after the Beijing Games to avoid upstaging its ally China. “Simply put, we continue to see very troubling signs of Russian escalation,” Blinken said after a meeting of counterparts from the so-called Quad countries —…
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has registered a case against six officials of Capital Development Agency (CDA) on the charge of having contributed towards irregularities in development work of I-12. A source said FIA, on the complaint of CDA Human Resource Development Director Fiaz Ahmed Watto, registered a first information report (FIR) dated Feb 9 against the six officials and a contractor. The complainant shared a fact-finding report with the agency which stated that work on construction of service roads East, West and North was awarded to a contractor. Subsequently, the file was given to the competent authority with…
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday observed that the trust deed executed by Maryam Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz in connection with the Avenfield properties was not forged. An IHC division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, while hearing appeals of PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz and her husband retired Capt Muhammad Safdar against their conviction in the Avenfield properties reference, noted that since both siblings, Maryam and Hussain, never disowned the said trust deed, it could not be termed forged. According to Justice Farooq: “The trust deed can be termed back-dated or that the font…
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS) on Thursday approved a bill that suggests putting an end to charlatanism in the medical field on the condition that five points in it be amended. The bill has been moved as allegations against a number of health practitioners have emerged with people saying that they falsely presented themselves as specialists besides prescribing unregistered medicines. The title of the bill has also been changed. It will now be called ‘Allied and Health Professional Council Bill’. The bill was moved on behalf of Zaheeruddn Babar Awan, adviser to the prime minister…
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued a stay order against holding elections for Islamabad’s mayor under temporary legislation and advised the government to conduct the polls through an Act of parliament. The ruling PTI had invited applications for the slot from its candidates till Feb 19. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani while hearing identical petitions filed against the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Local Government Ordinance 2021 remarked that an ordinance could only be issued in an extreme emergency situation when the parliament’s sessions could not be possible to convene. The judge questioned how the LG ordinance was promulgated…
LAHORE: A 10-year-old girl was hospitalised in a critical condition after she was raped in the washroom of a private school at Shahdara on Thursday. The incident came to the surface after the girl, a student of class-III, was found in a critical condition in the washroom after the close time of the school. A police official said the victim was found in a semi-conscious condition and the crime scene showed she had resisted the assault when the unidentified suspect raped her. Quoting initial inquiry, he said she went to the washroom after school time where the suspect reached and…
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has struck down para 51 of the Passport and Visa Manual 2006, which the federal government invokes to blacklist citizens. Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh observed that the Passports Act 1974 did not contain any provision for blacklisting. “Section 8 of the Act empowers the federal government only to cancel, impound or confiscate a passport while ‘blacklisting’ is a separate concept and has a different connotation,” the judge said in a verdict that allowed pleas of four petitioners who were blacklisted. The counsel for the petitioners mainly argued that it was the fundamental right of…
LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Thursday Prime Minister Imran Khan had himself admitted failure of his entire cabinet by awarding ‘best performance’ certificates to only 10 ‘blue-eyed’ federal ministers. He was addressing a workers’ convention of the party’s south Punjab chapter at the Gilani House in Multan. Almost all PPP office-bearers, including divisional, district, tehsil and union councils and other allied wings of lawyers, labour, youth and students were present at the convention. He said Imran Khan had committed a ‘great injustice’ to Multan for not conferring a certificate on Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi…
LAHORE: The PML-Q leaders’ meetings with PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and government ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leaders have compelled the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government to launch a counter-offensive and assess what’s cooking in the PML-Q camp. The Chaudhrys are an important ally of the government in the centre and Punjab. In a related development, PTI dissident Jahangir Tareen’s group has also emerged on the scene and held a meeting to review the political situation. It is also weighing options to meet major opposition parties — PML-N and PPP which are fervently moving ahead “to oust the PTI government”.…
