Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada

UNITED NATIONS: Fifty-five journalists and media professionals were killed last year, with nearly nine in 10 killings since 2006 still unresolved, the latest UN data showed. Women journalists continue to be particularly at risk as they also have to face “a shocking prevalence of harassment online”, said the report released in New York on Thursday. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Orga­nisation (Unesco), which collected the data, stated that nearly three-quarters of female media professionals surveyed had experienced online violence linked to their work. According to the report, 1,490 journalists have been killed across the globe since 1993, including in…

Read More

KOLKATA: An Indian court on Friday rejected a bid to cancel a major Hindu festival despite fears the vast gathering could spread coronavirus infections as the country sees an Omicron-driven surge in cases. Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to attend the annual Gangasagar Mela festival, which begins on Saturday on an island where the river Ganges enters the Bay of Bengal. It marks the harvest season and will reach a climax next weekend ahead of the new moon on January 17. Kolkata-based doctor Avinandan Mondal sought a court order to ban the festival over coronavirus concerns, with infection…

Read More

DUBAI: Employees and schoolchildren juggled work and studies with weekly congregational prayers on the first-ever working Friday in the United Arab Emirates as the Gulf country formally switched to a Saturday-Sunday weekend. Some grumbled at the change and businesses were split, with many moving to the Western-style weekend but other private firms sticking with Fridays and Saturdays, as in other Gulf states. The weekly day of prayer has always been a free day in the UAE, which had previously observed a Thursday-Friday weekend until 2006. However, mosques appeared busy as worshippers carrying prayer mats arrived as usual, before many of…

Read More

KABUL: The Taliban’s religious police have put up posters around the capital Kabul ordering Afghan women to cover up, an official said on Friday, the latest in a string of creeping restrictions. The poster, which includes an image of the face-covering burqa, was slapped on cafes and shops this week by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Since returning to power in August, the Taliban have increasingly curtailed freedoms — particularly those of women and girls. “According to Sharia law, Muslim women must wear the hijab,” the poster reads, referring to the practice of covering…

Read More

LAHORE: Deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif has directed his Pakistan Muslim League not to let Imran Khan off the hook on the basis of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) damning report on the ruling PTI’s foreign funding case, aggressively agitate the matter and not let both houses of parliament run smoothly till “justice” is done. The PML-N supreme leader directed his party chief, Shehbaz Sharif, to start holding workers’ conventions at the district and divisional levels in Punjab to mobilise party workers ahead of the Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) planned anti-inflation march on Islamabad in March. “Do not let (prime…

Read More

LAHORE: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said the government was not scared of the opposition’s claims of launching a movement, but any such move must be within the ambit of law. “It is the constitutional right of the opposition to launch or not any movement, but remaining under the law,” he said addressing the Multan District Coordination Committee (DCC) meeting along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar here at the commissioner’s office on Friday. Mr Qureshi said the so-called champions of democracy were trying to dislodge the…

Read More

ISLAMABAD: Terming Prime Minister Imran Khan’s act of allowing exemption to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman from attending meetings of the parliamentary committees ‘interference’ in the affairs of the parliament, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani on Friday asked National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to take notice of the situation. “The executive, even if it be the prime minister, cannot exempt or nominate another person to appear before the parliament in place of the one who is summoned. The step so taken by the prime minister in the matter of the NAB chairman is an infringement on the powers of the…

Read More

ISLAMABAD: A Russian woman, who was arrested by the capital police for trying to enter the heavily-guarded Diplomatic Enclave, was sent to jail on judicial remand on Friday. Station House Officer (SHO) of Secretariat police station Qurban Ali told Dawn that the woman was produced in court which sent her to jail on judicial remand. He said earlier police in Multan had arrested the woman when she was found roaming around the city and entering restricted areas. “She was taken into custody over security reasons and later brought to Islamabad by the Multan police on Jan 4,” the SHO added. The Multan…

Read More

RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD: A large number of tourists remained stranded in Murree and flights faced delays as rain continued to lash the federal capital and Rawalpindi for the fourth consecutive day on Friday. Due to continuous snowfall and traffic congestion in Murree, the district administration imposed a ban on entry of more vehicles. Snowfall, which began on Tuesday night, continued till Friday with regular intervals, attracting thousands of tourists. However, due to rush of visitors, many families ended up getting stranded on roads. It has been reported that over 100,000 vehicles entered the hill station. On the other hand, a Pakistan International Airlines…

Read More

TOBA TEK SINGH: The Garh police in Tandlianwala on Friday registered a case against 35 people of Okara’s Sheiku Sharif area for allegedly exhuming the body of spiritual figure Pir Syed Ali Bahadur Gilani and taking it to Okara for reburial there. Gilani was laid to rest and a shrine built in his honour six months ago. The suspects included two sons of Gilani from his first wife. The spiritual figure had left his first wife in Okara and contracted second marriage and settled at Garh several years ago. Complainant Syed Shahzaib, a son of Gilani from his second wife,…

Read More