In remarks made during the Islamabad High Court’s hearing of the Tiktok ban case, IHC Chief Justice Mr Justice Athar Minallah has questioned the new social media rules, which require social media platforms to set up offices in Pakistan if they wish to operate in the country. Though the government argues that it is imposing the rules to protect citizens from harm, Mr Justice Minallah noted that they were not in consonance with Articles 19…
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The writer is bureau chief of The News in MultanAseefa debuts in PDM’s Multan rally, her mannerism reminiscent of Benazir Bhutto. Despite blockades and arrests, crowds gather The Pakistan Democratic Movement rally in Multan appeared different from the four rallies that have been held in Karachi, Quetta, Gujranwala and Peshawar. The PDM held the rally at Chowk Ghanta Ghar despite the blocking of all roads with containers and barriers on all chowks and major roads…
The PDM and the government scenario, as the PDM prepares for its rally in Lahore on December 13, seems to be heading towards the final scene. The PDM is focusing hard on its Lahore rally and according to analysts and reports, Maryam Nawaz has been asked by Shahbaz Sharif as well as her father to ensure that the Lahore rally is a success, after which a march to Islamabad followed by possible resignations from assemblies…
by Shahzad Chaudhry in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2020.The writer is a retired air vice marshal and a former ambassador. He tweets @shazchy09 and can be contacted at [email protected] is back with a vengeance. Hardy, mutated and sly it has this time round learnt the ways through defences hardened with Senna leaves and doses of extra Vitamins. While the world learned about ‘viral load’ and ‘period of exposure’ Covid kept knocking at the reinforced…
by Hina Butt in Daily Times, Dec 6, 2020The writer is a LUMS graduate and currently serves as PMLN MPA.This government learned once again the hard way in Multan, like it does just about everything, that all forms of threats and intimidation are useless when the people decide to take things in their own hands. It shamelessly used the apparatus to do what it could to paralyse the opposition, hurled threats, even arrested scores if…
edit in The Daily Star, Dec 5,2020As of yesterday, the government has started relocating Rohingyas from the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal under Hatiya upazila of Noakhali, amidst calls by the UN and other human rights organisations to halt the relocation process. In a statement on December 2, the UN stated that it had not been allowed to carry out technical protection assessments and humanitarian…
THE new Civil Servants (Efficiency & Discipline) Rules, 2020, recently approved by Prime Minister Imran Khan, are a significant improvement over the existing ones as they provide for a more transparent process of internal accountability of the civil bureaucracy within a certain timeframe. One can assume that the new rules would ensure that delinquent bureaucrats will not get away with misconduct or unscrupulous actions of any kind if found guilty after an internal inquiry, and…
by Mohammad Ashfaq in Dawn, December 6th, 2020PESHAWAR: Senior officials fear that the ongoing reshuffle of government employees holding the same positions for many years will slow down the disposal of official business and cause institutional memory loss. The cabinet recently decided about the transfer of the officials working on the same post for more than two years. The officials welcomed the cabinet’s decision but felt that it should have been implemented gradually as transferred…
By Zulqernain Tahir in Dawn, December 6th, 2020LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has opened a probe against PML-N’s Khokhar brothers for their alleged involvement in money laundering and land grabbing, summoning them on Dec 7. Prior to the FIA investigation, the Anti-Corruption Establish-ment (ACE) had also initiated a probe against the PML-N former lawmakers for alleged illegal land transfer, grabbing. The FIA’s anti-corruption wing on Saturday served notices to MNA Afzal Khokhar, former MPA…
Prime Minister Imran Khan this week promised ‘upgrading’ another federally administered territory to democratically-elected provincial status and with it, the provision of his party’s championed universal health insurance plan. Clearly, many amongst the newly-elected members of the Gilgit-Baltistan Legislative Assembly looked eager for the change that has been promised in the northern territory. Sitting in the hall, watching most of the newly-elected treasury benchers take oath in the new cabinet of the Gilgit-Baltistan, Imran looked…
‘Bad journos’: Editorial in Dawn, December 7th, 2020
THE open season on journalists is acquiring a darker edge. When the government itself becomes party to smear campaigns against journalists, an important line is crossed. It means the state no longer believes in its duty to protect journalists and their right to freedom of speech. On Thursday, when Twitter was abuzz over Stephen Sackur’s punishing interview of Ishaq Dar on Hard Talk and comparing it with ‘softer’ approaches by some Pakistani anchors, the PTI’s…