Category: ENGLISH

QUETTA/BANNU: Around 132 people were killed and 180 injured in two separate terrorist attacks during election-related activities in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday. Nawabzada Siraj Raisani, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) candidate for a Provincial Assembly seat, was among 128 people killed in a shocking suicide attack on an election gathering in the Mastung area, some 60km south-west of Quetta. As many as 150 people were injured in the tragic incident. The suicide bombing came hours after Akram Khan Durrani, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal candidate from NA-35, survived an attack when a…

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At least four persons including Awami National Party (ANP) leader Haroon Bilour were killed in a suspected suicide blast which targeted an election gathering of ANP in Yakatoot area of Peshawar on Tuesday night, DawnNewsTV reported. Initial reports reveal that more than a dozen people have been injured in the explosion, who have been shifted to nearby Lady Reading Hospital. The blast took place when Haroon Bilour, who was contesting elections from PK-78 constituency, arrived at the site where the ANP workers had gathered for a party meeting. Bilour suffered serious injuries…

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KARACHI: Despite the incident of stone-pelting on the opening day of Pakistan Peoples Party’s election campaign, people of Lyari are seemingly little moved to go for another political choice in the coming vote as the congested neighbourhood is getting adorned with the flags of the PPP along with the ongoing World Cup’s South American favourites Brazil. Though almost all parties and individuals have their share in expressing themselves through banners and flags, the banners carrying pictures of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and South American football heroes are generally seen together…

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ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has directed the media not to announce election results before 7pm on July 25. The polling time is from 8am to 6pm and the ECP has also asked the media to observe its code of conduct. Chairman of the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) Salim Beg called on Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Mohammad Raza on Thursday. The meeting, also attended by ECP secretary Babar Yaqub Fateh Mohammad, was informed that to facilitate media, mainly electronic media, the ECP has for the first time established…

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ISLAMABAD: In their separate remarks, both the chief justice of Pakis­tan and the chairman of the anti-corruption watchdog said on Sunday that they didn’t have anything to do with the July 25 elections. Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said he was not facilitating anyone in the elections while National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal rejected allegations of pre-poll rigging levelled by some political parties. “I am not running the campaign of any political party,” CJP Nisar said during a visit to the under-construction 400-bed Rawalpindi Child and…

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KARACHI: Tehreek Lab­baik Pakistan chief Allama Khadim Hussain Rizvi has said that the TLP has no competition in the general elections-2018 with any party. Talking to reporters, he said: “We are quite confident that that all those who believe in Khatm-i-Nabuwat would side with us and the TLP would give surprising results on July 25.” Allama Rizvi, who arrived here on Sunday to launch the electioneering campaign of his party, answering questions said: “We have launched our election campaign and fielded our candidates on all seats in Karachi as we…

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Six suspected terrorists were killed in an intelligence-based operation carried out by security forces in the Ladha region of South Waziristan, an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) press statement said on Saturday. The operation, carried out under the broader Operation Raddul Fassad, was initiated on intelligence reports that militants had entered the area along with returning TDPs (temporarily displaced persons). Among those killed by the forces was a “high-value target” identified as Nanakar, who is said to be involved in the killing of locals. Two hawaldars, Razzaq Khan and Mumtaz Hussain,…

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An independent candidate contesting from NA-182 and PP-270 in Muzaffargarh has declared around Rs403 billion in assets, it emerged on Saturday. The candidate, Mohammad Hussain Shaikh, claims that he owns land comprising almost 40 per cent of Muzaffargarh city as well as the Lang Malana, Taliri, Chak Taliri and Latkaran areas. He claims that the land had previously been disputed, but a Supreme Court bench comprising the chief justice, Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Umar Atta Bandial recently decided in his favour in a case that had went on for…

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Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has reportedly decided to postpone his return to Pakistan for the time being following the worsening condition of his ailing wife Kulsoom Nawaz, who is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in London, DawnNewsTV quoted sources as saying. The former first lady has been in critical condition after she suffered a cardiac arrest late on Thursday and was admitted to the ICU in London’s Harley Street Clinic and placed on ventilator. Nawaz Sharif, along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz, travelled to London on the same day. Nawaz and…

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Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has ruled out the possibility of leaving the field open for Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz dissident and former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. Talking to Dawn, PTI Information Secretary Fawad Chaudhry said that they have already fielded party’s vice-president Ghulam Sarwar Khan against Chaudhry Nisar in three out of the four constituencies he is contesting. Fawad Chaudhry further ruled out the possibility of a seat adjustment with Nisar. He said Nisar had never been a part of the PTI and he had already announced that he would contest…

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Chairman Ruet-i-Hilal Committee Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman announced that the moon for the month of Shawwal was not sighted on Thursday, and that Eidul Fitr will be celebrated across Pakistan on Saturday. Since the crescent moon which marks the new lunar month was not sighted today, Friday will be the 30th and final day of Ramazan. The announcement was made by Mufti Muneeb after chairing a meeting of the Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee. He said evidences of moon-sighting were not received from anywhere in the country. The Central Ruet-i-Hilal Committee had convened the…

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The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday ruled in Awami Muslim League leader Sheikh Ahmed Rashid’s favour in the misdeclaration of assets case against him, DawnNewsTV reported. A three-member bench of the apex court, comprising Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, rejected the election appeal of Malik Shakeel Awan who had accused Rashid of misdeclaring his assets in the nomination forms that he had submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for the general elections in 2013. The SC bench ruled 2-1 in Rashid’s favour, with Justice Isa…

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In a reply submitted to the Supreme Court on Saturday in the Asghar Khan case, former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has denied allegations of receiving Rs3.5 million for his 1990 election campaign. Sharif, who is among a number politicians accused of receiving money to contest elections against the PPP, denied the allegations against him, saying that he had never received Rs3.5m or Rs2.5m from either the former director general (DG) of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), retired Lt Gen Asad Durrani, or Mehran Bank’s Younus Habib, or anyone else. The former premier…

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Several hundred university students sit enraptured as Hammad Safi lectures them on the merits of bettering their diction by watching Barack Obama speeches on YouTube. The elegantly dressed motivational speaker is something of an internet sensation and regularly draws large crowds. But it’s not just because of his infectious enthusiasm and engaging smile. It’s also because he’s only 11 years old. Safi speaks into his wireless microphone, his hand gestures practised and his confidence unwavering before the attention of his elders at the University of Spoken English (USECS) in Peshawar.…

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Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Thursday said that former president Pervez Musharraf will not be arrested if he arrives in Pakistan to file his nomination papers for the upcoming general elections. The chief justice was hearing a case filed by Musharraf in 2015 against the rejection of his nomination papers in the 2013 general elections. Musharraf has not visited Pakistan since leaving for Dubai in March 2016. In today’s hearing, Musharraf’s lawyer asked the chief justice to issue a written order saying that the former president must not be arrested if…

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