JERUSALEM: Israeli police demolished the home of a Palestinian family and arrested at least 18 people as they carried out a controversial eviction order in the sensitive east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah early on Wednesday. The looming eviction of other families from Sheikh Jarrah in May last year partly fuelled an 11-day war between Israel and armed Palestinian factions in Gaza. Before dawn, Israeli officers went to the home of the Salhiya family, who were first served with an eviction notice in 2017, after courts ruled the house had been built illegally. Jerusalem authorities have said the land will…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
KABUL: Afghanistan’s prime minister called on Muslim nations on Wednesday to be the first to officially recognise the Taliban government, as the aid-dependent country faces economic collapse. No country has yet recognised the Taliban, with most watching to see how the group — accused of human rights abuses during their first stint in power — restrict freedoms. Although the group has promised a softer rule in line with their interpretation of Islamic Sharia, women are largely excluded from government employment and secondary schools for girls are mostly shuttered. “I call on Muslim countries to take the lead and recognise us…
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected former President Donald Trump’s request to block the release of White House records sought by the Democratic-led congressional panel investigating last year’s deadly attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. The decision means the documents, held by a federal agency that stores government and historical records, can be disclosed even as litigation over the matter continues in lower courts. Trump’s request to the justices came after the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Dec 9 ruled that the businessman-turned-politician had no basis to challenge President Joe Biden’s…
US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday his administration is considering re-designating Yemen’s Houthi movement as an “international terrorist organisation” following drone and missile attacks on the United Arab Emirates claimed by the group. His comment at a news conference came shortly after the Emirati Embassy said on Twitter that UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba urged the Biden administration to restore the designation in response to Monday’s strikes on Abu Dhabi airport and a fuel depot. Asked if he supported returning the Iran-aligned Houthis to the US list of foreign terrorist organisations, from which they were removed nearly a year ago, Biden replied,…
KARACHI: A district and sessions court has extended till Jan 22 the interim pre-arrest bail of the owner of Nasla Tower and former administrator of the Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society (SMCHS) in a case pertaining to encroachment upon a service lane for construction of the multi-storey plaza. Currently, the 15-storey commercial-cum-residential building is being demolished on the directives of the Supreme Court. Abdul Qadir; the owner of Nasla Tower, and Muhammad Wilayat Ali Data and former administrator of SMCHS along with key officers of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), director and deputy director of the master plan department and their…
KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over reports filed by police in missing persons’ cases and directed the provincial authorities to constitute an enforced disappearance task force to exclusively focus on such cases. A two-judge bench headed Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro said that the task force must have officers not below the rank of DSP in every district of the metropolis for recovery of the missing persons. It deplored that only stereotype reports were being filed in the cases of missing persons without any substantial progress. While hearing a set of identical petitions seeking whereabouts of missing…
KARACHI: City’s Covid-19 situation driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant is turning from bad to worse as new cases jumped from 2,000 plus to over 3,000 in the last 24 hours, official figures said on Wednesday. With 3,081 new cases, Karachi’s positivity rate stands at 40.13pc, the highest in the country. The infection rate is also rising in Hyderabad from where a total of 242 new cases are reported in a day. Keeping in view the situation and in compliance with the decisions of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC), the Sindh government banned all types of indoor gatherings, including…
RAWALPINDI: The Meteorological Department on Wednesday issued a red alert to the district administration about heavy snowfall in Murree and rain in the twin cities during the weekend. Another weather system was likely to enter upper and central parts of the country on Friday, which would produce heavy rain and snowfall on the hills, the Met Office said. It asked the relevant authorities to remain on alert and take precautionary measures on Saturday and Sunday. Under the influence of this weather system, rain-thunderstorm and snowfall over the hills were expected in Islamabad, Murree, Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa…
ISLAMABAD: With no let-up in the number of Covid-19 cases, the capital administration on Wednesday issued a list of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to prevent spread of the virus. Islamabad’s positivity rate jumped to 11.8 per cent on Wednesday from 8.86pc the previous day. Besides, three more educational institutions were sealed in Islamabad and two in Rawalpindi after both districts reported 702 and 155 new Covid-19 cases, respectively. The NPIs, issued by the office of Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Hamza Shafqaat on Wednesday, are a set of safety measures other than medicines for protection against Covid-19. According to the notification, all types of…
ISLAMABAD: Sarina Isa, the wife of Justice Qazi Faez Isa, has complained to the chairman and the prosecutor general of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) that the government had recently amended the Income Tax Ordinance (ITO) through the Finance (Supplementary) Bill simply to protect “top elected functionaries” from any criminal proceedings for disclosing personal tax information about her. In a two-page letter, Mrs Isa said Law Minister Farogh Naseem broke the law only to protect himself from criminal proceedings through an amendment in Section 216 of the ITO for violating the confidentiality of her tax records at a time when…
