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PML-N leader criticises govt on petrol price hike from Samaa Digital http://bit.ly/2Ic4uj8

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A municipal employee sprayed gunfire "indiscriminately" in a government building complex on Friday in the US state of Virginia, police said, killing 12 people and wounding four in the latest mass shooting to rock the country. The shooter was also killed after an extended gun battle with responding officers, in a scene that "best could be described as a war zone," Virginia Beach police chief James Cervera told a news conference. The shooting happened just after 4:00 pm (2000 GMT), when the gunman entered one of the buildings at the Virginia Beach municipal complex and "immediately began to indiscriminately fire on all of the victims," Cervera said. One victim was killed outside in his vehicle, while the others were found on all three floors of the building. Police upgraded the casualty toll to 12 dead and at least four wounded Friday night, after earlier reporting 11 dead and six wounded. The shooter was armed with a .45-caliber handgun fitted with a so

MAKKAH: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said the Muslim world must use the platform of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to disassociate terrorism from Islam, Radio Pakistan reported.  Addressing the 14th OIC Summit in Makkah early this morning, the prime minister urged OIC to play an effective role in safeguarding the rights of Muslims and their religious sentiments. Terming the phenomena of blasphemy and Islamophobia in the west as a failure of the OIC, he pointed out that the Organization’s “inability has also led to delegitimizing the Muslim political freedom struggles, which were termed as ‘Islamic radicalism’.” Kashmir had been carrying out their political struggle for freedom but after 9/11, it was dubbed as ‘Islamic radicalism and terrorism’: PM PM Khan said the people of Indian occupied Kashmir had been carrying out their political struggle for freedom but after 9/11, it was also dubbed as ‘Islamic radicalism and terrorism’. Similarly, he said Israel star

Team must look to the future, not towards 1992 from Samaa Digital http://bit.ly/2YYasLf

The fixture will be played at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff from Samaa Digital http://bit.ly/2JSpQp8

MAKKAH: Prime Minister Imran Khan met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman on Saturday on the sidelines of the 14th Summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Radio Pakistan reported.  According to details, the two leaders discussed matters of mutual interest during their meeting in Makkah and took stock of the current state of bilateral, political, economic and trade relations. They also agreed to expedite decisions taken during the visit of the crown prince to Pakistan in February this year, in particular, early implementation of decisions taken during the first meeting of the Supreme Coordination Council. The prime minister also thanked the Saudi government for extending oil facility to Pakistan on deferred payments. Both sides agreed to regularly exchange views on all issues of mutual interest. Prime Minister Khan is currently in Saudi Arabia to represent Pakistan at the 14th Summit of OIC being held in Makkah. The conference titled ‘Makkah Summit: Together f

Members urged to "boycott" countries with diplomatic missions in Jerusalem from Samaa Digital http://bit.ly/2Kqtar9

ISLAMABAD: Ruckus dominated the proceedings of the National Assembly on Friday over the ongoing controversy surrounding the violent incident at a military check post in North Waziristan tribal district and shortage of water in Sindh as outraged members from the treasury and opposition benches gathered in front of the speaker’s dais and hurled accusations at each other, but stopped short of coming to blows. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Mohammad Khan delivered a fiery speech and asked Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, who was presiding over the session, to cancel the membership of Mohsin Dawar and Ali Wazir for their alleged involvement in ‘anti-state’ activities. He said both MNAs were responsible for the recent attack on security check post at Kharqamar in North Waziristan. “It is because of your wrongdoings my people lost their lives,” he said, adding that both Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar had no right to sit in parliament and the country had no place for them. “We have g

SRINAGAR: Three pro-independence fighters were martyred in a gun battle with security forces in India-held Kashmir on Friday amid widespread protests across the disputed Himalayan region, police said. They said all those martyred in the shootout in Shopian district were fighters, but villagers insisted one was a local youth, Jasim Shah. They said the teenager’s body was found in an orchard near the site of the battle. “Jasim was with the militants for the last three days, so he too was a militant,” Kashmir police official Munir Khan claimed. Dozens of rallies call for world community to help resolve decades-old dispute Meanwhile, dozens of rallies involving hundreds of people were held across the disputed region calling for action over the conflict raging there. Holding placards and banners, protesters appealed to the world community to resolve the long pending disputes of Kashmir and also Palestine. Protesters also gathered in the main Kashmir city of Srinagar and chanted anti

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PM Imran talks tackling Islamophobia in maiden OIC Summit speech from Samaa Digital http://bit.ly/2W2EE6g

ISLAMABAD: Senior officials insist that deterrence did not fail during the military confrontation between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pulwama incident. Two senior officials — Director General Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs, Strategic Plans Division (SPD) Brig Zahir Kazmi, and Director General Arms Control and Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kamran Akhtar — told journalists at an interaction hosted by the Islamabad Policy Institute (IPI) that deterrence worked despite dangerous escalation witnessed in the last week of February. They were speaking on the topic ‘Pakistan’s Nuclear Journey: 21 Years of Deterrence and Stability’. The discussion largely remained focused on post-Pulwama confrontation between the two nuclear-armed arch-rivals during which the Indian Air Force violated Pakistan’s airspace and when Pakistan retaliated the following day, India mobilised its missile batteries and nuclear submarines. The situation later de-escalated due to intervent

RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan Inter­natio­nal Airlines has made a Boeing 777 aircraft, which had been grounded for over one and a half years, operational to be used for Haj flights and on all other routes, it emerged on Friday. With the latest addition, the number of Boeing 777 planes in the PIA fleet has risen to 12, while the airline also expects to make two more aircraft — an ATR and an Airbus A-320 — operational by the end of June. Both planes have been lying out of service for the past one year. Making the two aircraft operational, too, will help the PIA increase its revenue while facilitating maximum number of passengers. Two more aircraft being repaired to make them operational by end of June PIA CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik had soon after assuming his charge instructed the engineering team to make the aircraft operational at the earliest so that it could generate revenue. PIA spokesman Mashhood Tajwar told Dawn that the CEO congratulated the engineering team on making the air

ISLAMABAD: The Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Friday launched a five-year project aimed at averting the risk of glacier lake outburst floods that can cause havoc in northern parts of Pakistan. The agreement for launching the project under the second phase of the Glacier Lake Outburst Flood Risk Reduction in Northern Pakistan Project (GLOF-II) was signed by the acting UNDP Resident Representa­tive, Ignacio Artaza, and the GB government’s additional chief secretary for development. The agreement will strengthen coordination between the GB government and the UNDP and facilitate implementation of activities as approved by the project steering committee. Various studies suggest existence of over 3,044 lakes as a result of melting glaciers in GB and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of which 36 are considered hazardous, putting some 7.1 million people at risk. After the signing ceremony, the UNDP official recalled his recent visit to several glac

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has informed an anti-terrorism court (ATC) that the United Kingdom is ready to share evidence in the Imran Farooq murder case provided the accused is not be given the death penalty in case of conviction. The FIA’s special prosecutor, Khawaja Imtiaz, told the ATC that the UK Central Authority, in response to correspondence related to sharing of evidence in the murder case of Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Dr Imran Farooq, said that the European laws did not permit sharing of evidence with a country where the offence was punishable by death. He added that the UK government had asked Pakistan to give assurance that the convict would not be given death sentence on the basis of the evidence related to the murder. European laws don’t permit providing evidence to a country where the offence is punishable by death, court told Mr Imtiaz, while talking to Dawn, said that the Pakistani government had replied to the UK Central Authority that

WASHINGTON: Islam­abad’s bureaucratic red-tapism caused Pakistan a major diplomatic embarrassment recently when the US State Department withdrew a tax exemption facility for Pakistani diplomats, official sources told Dawn. The sources said that Pakistani tax officials’ inability to clear bills on time was the main reason for the US action, which took effect on May 15. An official US statement, shared with Dawn by a spokesperson for the State Depart­ment, also confirms the information the newspaper receiv­ed from official sources. “There are pending tax exemption issues related to the US diplomatic mission in Pakistan and we are in discussions with our counterparts in the Pakistan government in order to resolve them,” the spokesperson said. “The issue is the subject of ongoing bilateral discussions, and we hope to be able to resolve the issue and restore the tax privileges.” The United States and Pakistan have provided this facility to each other’s diplomats for decades. But earlie

OXON HILL: Eight young super spellers beat the dictionary to be crowned co-winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, in what officials said was a first since the US word contest started in 1925. After a marathon session stretching into early Friday, the contestants simply could not be separated. Each winner received a $50,000 prize and a trophy — and they coined their own word for their joint success, “octochamps”. “Were throwing the dictionary at you, and, so far, you are showing the dictionary who’s boss,” the bees pronouncer, Jacques Bailly, told the finalists. The competition started on Tuesday with 562 word whizzes from across the nation, US territories and six other countries: the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea. Officials say that while there have been co-champions in the past, there have never been eight. The final round that started on Thursday night was televised live across the United States. As the tension mounted, the young scholars worked o

ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Friday adopted by a majority vote a resolution demanding withdrawal of references filed against two superior court judges. The house expressed its grave concern over filing of references against two judges of the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court by the president ‘in a secretive way’ while the judges concerned were unaware of the move. The resolution said that the filing of references had evoked serious criticism, caused split in the bar and led to resignation of the additional attorney general. “There is a lingering suspicion that the arbitrary and suspicious filing of references is linked with some recent verdicts of these judges,” the resolution said. It termed the filing of references a direct attack on the independence of the judiciary aimed at stifling the voices of reason, truth and justice in the highest judiciary. The Senate expressed solidarity with ‘the judges under siege’, lawyers’ elected representatives and the bar councils and demanded w

ISLAMABAD: The law ministry has finally expla­ined that the reference against two superior court judges originated in a complaint by Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Accou­ntability Shahzad Akbar’s Asset Recovery Unit (ARU) while the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) has convened a countrywide meeting on the explosive issue. “The (law) ministry on its own has no mechanism to look into the assets of any judge and therefore is bound to process complaints it receives from the ARU and the Federal Board of Revenue in the best interest of the country,” a spokesman for the ministry said. He said the ministry believed in upholding the rule of law and would continue to do so. In October last year, Mr Akbar had announced setting up of the ARU comprising officials of the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency with the task of probing thousands of properties held by Pakistanis abroad. PBC convenes meeting on June 12 to discuss issue; Pemra stops TV channels from airi

JEDDAH: Prime Minister Imran Khan will represent Pakistan at the 14th Summit of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) being held in Makkah on Friday (today).  The conference titled ‘Makkah Summit: Together for the Future’ is being hosted by Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The conference aims to unite Muslim countries on one platform to better tackle the difficulties and challenges they are facing. Earlier, on his arrival in Madina Munawwarah, Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Roza-e-Rasool (PBUH) and offered nawafil and prayed for the progress and prosperity of the country and Muslim Ummah. On the occasion, the doors of Roza-e-Rasool (Peace Be Upon Him) were specially opened for the premier. Read more:   PM Imran Khan lands in KSA for OIC summit, visits Roza e Rasool (PBUH) Prior to the Prime Minister’s visit, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mehmood Qureshi who had arrived earlier to Saudi Arabia and participated in the ministerial meetings of Organization of

RAWALPINDI: Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Major General Asif Ghafoor has said that an effective and strict accountability process exist in armed forces which is evident from sentences awarded by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa . Major Gen Ghafoor said sentences awarded to three including two army men and a civilian were given in three separate cases. “Officers were given stern punishment on the crime they had committed”, the DG ISPR said. He further said that no one is above the law. Earlier on Thursday, Chief of Army Staff  General Qamar Javed Bajwa had signed death warrants for a retired Brigadier and a doctor along with awarding 14 years imprisonment to a Lt. General (retd.). According to Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), “Two officers namely Brigadier Raja Rizwan (Retd) and a civilian officer Dr. Waseem Akram were awarded death sentences by COAS along with awarding 14 years worth of imprisonment to Lt. General Javed I

WASHINGTON: Rare earth elements are used in a wide range of consumer products, from iPhones to electric car motors, as well as military jet engines, satellites and lasers. Rising tensions between the United States and China have sparked concerns that Beijing could use its dominant position as a supplier of rare earths for leverage in the trade war between the two global economic powers. WHAT ARE RARE EARTHS USED IN? Rare earths are used in rechargeable batteries for electric and hybrid cars, advanced ceramics, computers, DVD players, wind turbines, catalysts in cars and oil refineries, monitors, televisions, lighting, lasers, fiber optics, superconductors and glass polishing. Several rare earth elements, such as neodymium and dysprosium, are critical to the motors used in electric vehicles. RARE EARTHS IN MILITARY EQUIPMENT Some rare earth minerals are essential in military equipment such as jet engines, missile guidance systems, antimissile defense systems, satellites, as well

ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Judicial Council (SJC) finally removed doubt about filing of references against superior court judges when it issued on Thursday a notice to the federal government through Attorney General Anwar Mansoor for June 14. The government through Law Minister Farogh Nas­eem is expected to furnish its reply to the notice within the stipulated period on the references filed a few days ago in the SJC against Jus­tice Qazi Faez Isa of the Supreme Court and Justice K.K. Agha of the Sindh High Court. Informed sources said the references filed after app­roval by President Dr Alvi alleged that Justice Isa had allegedly acquired three properties in London on lease in the name of his wife and children between 2011 and 2015, but these were not disclosed in wealth returns. The alleged properties on lease include 90 Adelaide Road, London E10 5NW, which was purchased for 270,000 pounds sterling on June 28, 2013; 50 Conistan Court, Kendal Street, London, bought on Oct 20, 2011; and

PESHAWAR: An internal government document has pinned blame on two PTM-affiliated parliamentarians for instigating protesters at a military check post in North Waziristan that led to the death of 13 of them besides a soldier and causing injuries to 25 others. The two-page Special Situation Report, titled “Clash and Casualties in North Waziristan District” and submitted to the government by the deputy commissioner of North Waziristan on May 28, provides by far the most detailed account of the incident at a military check post in Kharqamar on Sunday. On the other hand, the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) contests the government account and blames security forces for firing at unarmed civilians. There is, however, no independent corroboration of either of the versions. Recounting events leading to the unrest, the deputy commissioner said in the official report, Tochi Valley, particularly Dattakhel, Alwara, Admi Kot, Doga Macha, Kharqamar, Degan, Boya and other areas, had been hot spots

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) informed the Islamabad High Court on Thursday that out of Rs4.4 billion suspicious transactions through a fictitious bank account, the company owned by former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur received only Rs30 million. NAB investigation officer Mohammad Ali Abro, who is probing the fake bank accounts case, told a two-judge IHC bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had registered an FIR in the case in which Mr Zardari and his sister were also entangled at a later stage. The FIR was based on the suspicious transactions of Rs4.4bn, he added. He said the account titled M/s A One International was fake and it received a sum of Rs4.4bn out of which Rs30m was paid to the Zardari Group at two different times. When the court asked the investigation officer if there was any evidence that showed the amount was proceeds of crime, he said it was

ISLAMABAD: A Senate special committee on Thursday urged the security forces and the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM) to exercise restraint, stressing the need for resolving the crisis created after the May 26 incident in North Waziristan through negotiations. Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif, the convener of the Senate special committee formed to “examine purported grievances amongst some sections of the society and reach out/engage with the genuinely aggrieved persons to create national cohesion”, said the PTM issue was “political” in nature and its solution lay in dialogue, according to an official handout issued by the Senate Secretariat after an in-camera meeting. The committee’s convener called for devising a roadmap for making further progress on the issue while stressing the need for taking measures to restore confidence and remove “misunderstandings”. Barrister Saif made these remarks after a PTM delegation headed by its chief Manzoor Pashteen briefed the committee members on the

KARACHI: The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will resume its flight operation on the Beijing-Tokyo sector on Friday. “The airline will now operate twice a week flights for the sector Islamabad-Beijing-Tokyo every Friday and Monday,” the PIA said in a statement issued here on Thursday. “The Tokyo sector was suspended earlier this year in February due to passenger and cargo uplift limitations by Japan Civil Aviation Authority. Under the suspension, upon completion of required monthly passenger quota, the airline was not allowed to operate flights to Tokyo, thereby making it non-viable destination on commercial basis,” it added. However, PIA’s CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik took up the matter with authorities concerned in Tokyo and after lengthy deliberations, the national flag carrier got additional access to uplift passengers and cargo for Tokyo. Published in Dawn, May 31st, 2019 from The Dawn News - Home http://bit.ly/2JMyaGP via IFTTT

KARACHI: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Thursday filed a reference against Sindh Assembly speaker Agha Siraj Durrani and his family members, among 20 persons, in an accountability court. In the reference, the federal anti-graft watchdog alleged that the Mr Durrani accumulated assets worth over Rs161 billion through illegal means. Mr Durrani, a senior leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was arrested by the NAB from an Islamabad hotel on Feb 20 for investigation into his alleged movable and immovable assets beyond his known sources of income, making 352 illegal appointments, embezzlement of public funds in the construction of the MPA Hostel and the new Sindh Assembly building, as well as the appointment of project directors for these schemes. The administrative judge Dr Sher Bano Karim fixed the matter on June 17 to pass an order about accepting the reference or otherwise since the summer vacations would start on June 2. The reference was filed after Mr Durrani was int

LARKANA: The team of World Health Organisation that arrived in the country on Tuesday to probe reasons behind the spread of HIV and investigate from where the virus had travelled to the area, visited the children’s treatment centre for HIV/AIDS in Chandka Medical College children’s hospital on Thursday and inquired the staff about how they handled the patients. The team asked project manager of Sindh AIDS Control Programme who accompanied them about the facilities and the protocol for treating AIDS patients. On Friday, the team members would visit Ratodero taluka hospital to personally observe the ongoing process of blood screening for HIV, said sources. Before the visit of the healthcare facility, the WHO team held a meeting with Sindh Minister for Health Dr Azra Pechuho and other stakeholders at Darbar Hall to review the overall situation regarding the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in Ratodero and the efforts put in so far to fight the virus. Olive Morgan, the team leader, told that meetin

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations has assured Pakistan that the international community will help ascertain the source of the recent HIV outbreak and work with local authorities to curb it. A team of experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has arrived in Pakistan following an HIV outbreak in Sindh, where more than 600 cases have been identified so far. The majority of those infected are children and young people — more than half of them are children under the age of five. “The WHO team will try to ascertain the source of the outbreak and control it, as well as provide its expertise in the areas of HIV testing, paediatric HIV treatment and family counselling,” said UN Secretary General’s Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq. Speaking at a Wednesday afternoon news briefing at the UN headquarters in New York, Mr Haq noted that prior to this outbreak, there were just over 1,200 children diagnosed with HIV and receiving antiretroviral treatment in the whole of Pakistan. The outbreak wa

ISLAMABAD: The government is unlikely to achieve the export target set for current fiscal year despite massive devaluation of the local currency, Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood said on Thursday. He said that his earlier projections of $27-28 billion exports were unrealistic despite government’s efforts including the release of massive subsidies to various sectors. “Now, I think that even my realistic figure of $25bn is not achievable”, he said in an answer to a question at the press briefing. The country’s export proceeds during July-April decreased by 0.12 per cent to 19.169bn despite a 19pc decline in local currency. Dawood went on to say that exports are expected to decline further in the coming months. The adviser had earlier criticised the PML-N government for their failure to increase exports. He added that export performance can be measured from three indicators — growth in dollar terms, rupee terms and quantity. He said that export proceeds in d

Prime Minister Imran Khan urged citizens to declare their benami assets and bank accounts under the government's Assets Declaration Scheme by June 30 in order to avoid legal action. In a video message released on Thursday, the prime minister said that the scheme was a "chance for [the people] to declare their benami properties and bank accounts" so they can become a part of the tax net. He revealed that only one per cent of the population pays taxes. "One per cent Pakistanis are bearing the burden of 220 million people. This is impossible," he said. "No country can serve its people if the citizens don't pay taxes." He cautioned that government institutions were gathering data regarding undeclared assets and wealth at home and abroad that are owned by Pakistanis. "It is better that you serve Pakistan and declare your wealth," the premier said. "This would [enable] us to create a better future for our children, make our country

Quetta police on Thursday killed an alleged suicide bomber in the city's Mecongi road area when he attempted to gain entry into Imambargah Nasirul Aza, according to Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Abdul Razzaq Cheema. A policeman was also injured when the bomber, reportedly dressed in a woman's attire, hurled a hand-held bomb towards the Imambargah, the DIG said, adding that a "major terror bid has been foiled." The injured policeman was rushed to the nearby civil hospital for medical treatment. The doctors later described his condition as "out of danger". The bomber was carrying almost 12 to 15kg of explosives, an official of the bomb disposal squad who wished not to be named told DawnNewsTV . Following the incident, additional police force reached the crime scene and initiated their investigation. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The Imam Bargah Nasirul Aza is located in the heart of Quetta city and has been targ