PARIS: France’s left put up a united front on Friday, vowing a “total break” with President Emmanuel Macron’s policies if it wins polls on June 30 and July 7 that could propel the far right to major gains in parliament. Far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen, also making a pitch to voters, pledged a “national unity government” if her party takes power in the snap legislative elections. Macron stunned France on Sunday by calling polls after Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) scored more than double his centrist alliance’s result in last week’s European elections. Left-wing outfits, including hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), the Socialist,…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
JANNATA: Plumes of smoke billowed on Friday over a south Lebanon village after a deadly Israeli strike as shopkeepers swept shattered glass and vowed to stay put despite soaring cross-border violence. Jannata had been largely spared more than eight months of clashes between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces as war rages in Gaza, but the Lebanese village was shaken by an overnight strike that officials say killed two civilians. “We were sitting on the balcony at night, and we felt a rocket fly over our heads. Then the world started to shake,” resident Khadija Husseini told AFP. On Friday morning, she found…
More than 1.5 million Muslims will pray on Mount Arafat in soaring temperatures on Saturday, in the high-point and most gruelling day of the annual Haj pilgrimage. Worshippers from all over the world will climb the rocky, 70-metre (230-feet) hill, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Makkah, where Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) gave his last sermon. The desert summer heat is expected to hit 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit), creating challenges especially among the elderly during a day of prayer and reciting the Holy Quran. Haj, which takes at least five days to complete and is mostly outdoors, “is not easy because it is…
ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Friday claimed he was a more senior journalist than those doing court reporting and to substantiate his claim, he cited several articles he authored, including those published in this newspaper. According to the CJP, after the Supreme Court judgement on March 6, regarding a presidential reference in which the apex court declared the trial of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as unfair, a Christian foreigner said to him, “Can you revisit that decision (trial of Jesus Christ) also”. In his article ‘Trial of Jesus Christ, The Negation of Justice’ published in…
KARACHI: The PPP government in Sindh on Friday presented a Rs3.056 trillion balanced budget for the next fiscal year, proposing a salary hike of up to 30 per cent for provincial government employees and allocating around a third of the total outlay, or Rs959 billion, for development expenses. In percentage terms, the development budget for the next year is almost equal to the current year’s estimates of Rs735bn, though the provincial government has ended up spending a far lower amount, Rs529.6bn, under this head. Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who has also held the Sindh finance minister portfolio for over a decade,…
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Federal Education has announced that a high-level team from Google will be visiting Pakistan to explore potential collaboration in the education and technology sectors. The team, comprising top officials, will be in Pakistan immediately after Eid. The visit follows a request from the education ministry to Google to support Pakistan’s efforts to create a digitally-enabled education system. Advance teams from Google have already conducted preliminary work. Education Secretary Mohyuddin Wani said the Google team would hold a national workshop with stakeholders to explore technology solutions for out-of-school children. “Discussion on potential collaboration in education and technology…
ISLAMABAD: A number of police officials were injured and at least eight activists of a religio-political party taken into custody after an anti-Israel protest outside a well-known fast food chain in the capital turned violent on Friday. The Islami Jamiat Talba (IJT) had called for a demonstration against Israel outside the McDonald’s outlet in Sector F-9, a spokesperson for the Jamaat-i-Islami told. Islamabad police said that they had received information on the 15 helpline regarding a group that was beating up women near a restaurant. When police reached the scene, the protesters attacked them as well, leading to a physical…
ISLAMABAD: Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Romina Khurshid Alam on Friday urged all federal and provincial departments to complete measures to protect the lives and livelihoods of people from ongoing heatwaves and possible monsoon floods. She also directed all provinces, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), to ensure the maintenance of sufficient stocks of disaster relief items to ensure in-time preparedness against above-normal rainfall. In a statement, the PM’s coordinator was chairing the meeting of the second National Task Force on Global Warming and Heatwaves with representatives of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Global Change…
Two lawyers were shot dead in Kachhari district of Attock on Saturday after an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) officer of the elite forces opened fire at them over a personal grudge. Former president of District Bar Attock, Advocate Israr Ahmed, and Advocate Zulfiqar Mirza were the two deceased, police said. According to a statement issued by Attock police’s spokesperson, the ASI was upset that he had to divorce his wife in a family court case because of Advocate Ahmed. “ASI Intizar Shah of Elite Force Attock opened fire on Advocate Malik Israr due to a previous grudge, which killed Advocate Malik…
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan stated on Friday that engaging in talks with politicians would be futile if decisions are dictated from elsewhere. He made these remarks while speaking to media personnel after a hearing in the GBP190 million corruption case. Mr Khan clarified that the PTI was not opposed to political dialogue. But during previous talks with politicians, facilitated by former chief justice Umar Ata Bandial, political parties insisted that the “top man” had decided not to participate in elections until his retirement, he alleged. Mr Khan emphasised that politicians always seek dialogue, citing PTI’s talks with General Pervez Musharraf’s…
