RAWALPINDI: As the deadline for private educational institutions to vacate residential areas expired on Dec 31, the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment boards plan to seal schools, colleges as well as shops from Monday (tomorrow). On the other hand, the All Private Educational Institutions Joint Action Committee pledged to resist any move to seal the institutions until the Supreme Court’s decision on their review petition. The petition was filed against an apex court directive issued in 2019 to the boards to clear cantonment residential areas of commercial activities. A senior official of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) told Dawn that teams had been…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
KARACHI: A model court has ruled that an accused can evade punishment following an out-of-court settlement in a manslaughter case but his guilt will remain intact. The ruling was given by Additional District and Sessions Judge Liaqat Ali Khoso of the Model Criminal Trial Court (Central) in his judgement in a case pertaining to the death of two labourers in a boiler blast in a pharmaceutical company in Federal B. Industrial Area in 2018. Talking to Dawn, former Sindh High Court Bar Association president Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed explained that an accused would neither be jailed or fined or face any other…
RAWALPINDI: Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ali on Saturday took charge as the Rawalpindi administrator after Sardar Naseem’s term as mayor ended with the expiry of the local government’s (LG) tenure on Dec 31. The deputy commissioner will also run the affairs of the district council. In Murree, the assistant commissioner was given the charge of the tehsil’s administration. Similarly, assistant commissioners in other tehsils will run their respective municipal committee affairs. After the expiry of the local government’s term in the province, Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar issued a notification to appoint deputy commissioners in place of elected mayors and…
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has given cooperative housing societies using the names of ministries or government departments three weeks to change their names or face strict action. This public interest matter has lingered on for quite some time, first coming up before the Islamabad High Court in the year 2020. At the time, IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had observed that titles of government ministries or divisions could not be used by private individuals to run housing societies. The latest move came after similar orders were issued by the high court this week. The civic body wrote to…
ISLAMABAD: Senior journalist Ansar Abbasi filed an application before the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday seeking the modification of an order passed in connection with the contempt of court proceedings over an affidavit of former chief judge of Gilgit-Baltistan Rana Mohammad Shamim. Mr Abbasi pointed out that the order passed by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah stated: “They (Ansar Abbasi and Aamir Ghouri) were explicitly asked whether they would report and publish the copy of a leaded document in the form of an affidavit if it contained untrue facts intended to influence the outcome of pending judicial proceeding. They…
ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the idea of granting Pakistani citizenship to investors from Afghanistan alone, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that such a policy should not be limited to any single country. According to official circles, the idea of granting permanent residency or citizenship to foreign nationals interested in investing in Pakistan was shared during a recent meeting of the Afghanistan Inter-ministerial Coordination Cell (AICC), which was chaired by the prime minister. The meeting specially focused on Afghan nationals living in Pakistan or those willing to leave the country after the rise of the Taliban. The AICC is headed by the…
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has predicted “widespread rain and thunderstorms” in Karachi and other parts of Sindh between Jan 4 (Tuesday) and 7 (Friday) under a new weather system expected to enter the country through Balochistan by Monday. The PMD had on Dec 30 said it expected Karachi to receive a second spell of winter rain in the first week of January. The first spell of winter showers were seen in the last week of December. In its latest advisory issued today, the Met office said a strong westerly wave will enter north Balochistan from Monday (tomorrow), which is…
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday said that the government has instructed the attorney general to ask the Lahore High Court (LHC) to either bring back PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif or take action against Shehbaz Sharif for submitting in court a “fake” undertaking ensuring the return of his brother to the country. Nawaz had left the country in 2019 after his seven-year sentence for corruption was suspended by the Islamabad High Court for eight weeks so he could seek medical treatment abroad. He never returned and was declared a “proclaimed offender” by multiple courts and “absconder” by the government. The brothers were given the permission to travel abroad…
ISLAMABAD: As local transmission of the most transmissible variant of Covid-19, Omicron, is now being reported from all across the country, Pakistan’s positivity rate remained over 1 per cent for the second consecutive day on Saturday. Earlier positivity rate had remained less than 1pc for almost two months and it was being believed that Pakistan may not be forced by the virus to go for restrictions again. Since Pakistan started releasing the data regarding positivity rate in March 2020, the rate has remained over 1pc. However, on November 8, 2021, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced that for…
Prince Harry is trying to avoid actor Kristen Stewart after the Spencer star played the royal’s deceased mother, Princess Diana, in the new movie. As per OK Magazine, Kristen’s dark role in the film has disturbed both Harry and wife Meghan Markle, who are now planning to avoid the star during upcoming award shows. “It’s struck a sour note with Harry. He’s pretty appalled by the film,” spills the source. Harry, 37, and Markle, 40, “have been invited to all the big events and planned on attending the Oscars too, but they’d almost certainly come face-to-face with Stewart since she’s…
