Ruet-e-Hilal Committee meets today to sight Zil-Haj moon

KARACHI: The Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee will meet in Karachi this evening to sight the Zil-Haj moon which marks the advent of the 12th month in the lunar Islamic calendar.
Chairman of the Committee Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman will preside over the meeting.

The Zonal Ruet-e-Hilal Committees will also hold separate meetings to collect evidence of sighting of the moon.

Yesterday, Saudi Arabia’s Supreme Court announced that the kingdom will mark August 12 as first day of the holy month of Zil-Haj.

According to Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi apex court announced this decision after a session presided over by the President of the Supreme Court Ghihab bin Mohammed al-Ghihab.

The kingdom marks Sunday (August 12) as first day of the holy month while Eid-ul-Azha will be celebrated on August 21.

Eid Al Adha, falls on the 10th day of Zil-Haj, is celebrated by Muslims around 70 days after Eid Al Fitr which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Also known as the Feast of Sacrifice is one of two Eid festivals celebrated by the Muslim faithful to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his own son to God. Traditionally marked by the slaughter of animals, whose meat is shared with family members and the poor.

The faithful slaughter their sacrificial animals in remembrance of Sunnat-e Ibrahimi, which continues for three days of Eid.

Read More

Former employee takes factory workers hostage, demands ‘unpaid salary’

KARACHI: An armed man took employees of a factory in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Maymar area over alleged unpaid dues by owners of the mill, ARY News reported.

According to ARY News correspondent Salman Lodhi, the man who is a former employee of the factory claims that he was unjustly fired from his job and was not even paid at least three months salary by the owners of the mill.

“I will blow myself and my colleagues up if I am not paid,” said the man identified as Saleem Shahzad, a former employee.

Huge contingents of police cordoned off the area and surrounded the factory premises to negotiate with him but so far, the attacker has refused to budge.

Police say they have offered Shahzad to surrender and they will make sure he gets his dues but he wants his salary without delay.

A video obtained by ARY News shows one of the hostages saying Shahzad was fired three months ago and was not paid his dues despite repeatedly visiting the factory.

Read More

Karachi police baffled by mysterious child kidnapper

KARACHI: Police in Karachi’s Quaidabad area are looking for a mysterious kidnapper who is abducting children only to torture them for hours before release, ARY News reported.
According to police, at least three children were temporarily abducted, tortured and then released after being severely tortured sending shock-waves among residents of Quaidabad area’s Sherpao colony.

Medical reports suggest children were tortured using electric wires and metal nails while one of the three victims was thrown off the roof of an empty building in the area.

A police team also searched the empty building named Mian Khel Manzil after the incident but didn’t find any evidence related to the kidnappings.

SSP Malir Munir Ahmed Sheikh said that the children had severe injury marks on their bodies adding that the criminal could be mentally ill.

Read More

Fehmida Mirza retains NA-230 Badin seat after recount

 

KARACHI: Former National Assembly speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza has retained the NA-230 seat in Badin following recounting of votes ordered by the Sindh High Court (SHC).

Dr Mirza of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) bagged 95,064 votes while Pakistan Peoples Party’s Haji Rasool Bakhsh Chandio secured 93,999. According to unofficial results, Mirza retained the seat with a lead of 1,065 votes.

On Friday, the SHC had dismissed a petition of the former NA speaker to stop the recount in the NA-230 constituency, from where she has been elected for the fifth consecutive time.

She had prayed to the court to suspend the Election Commission of Pakistan’s July 30 directives to the Returning Officer to complete the recounting in the Badin constituency.

 

Read More

MQM-P's defeat was a joint effort of humans, aliens: Sattar

 

KARACHI: Leaders of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have alleged that the combined efforts of “aliens and humans” were behind their defeat in the 2018 general elections from Karachi. They demanded that reelections be held in the constituencies where rigging has taken place.

A large number of the party’s supporters and workers, led by Dr Farooq Sattar, Faisal Subzwari, Rauf Siddiqui, Mehfooz Yar Khan, Abdul Haseeb and Amir Khan, protested against alleged rigging in the general elections by staging a sit-in outside the Election Commission of Pakistan’s Karachi office on Thursday.

Earlier, the district administration had barred the MQM-P from holding the protest. Police officials even asked Subzwari to remove the signboard put on the make-shift stage. They warned that the leaders could be charged over violation of the Loudspeaker Act. On hearing this, Subzwari refused to negotiate with the police personnel and contacted the information minister, Jamil Yusuf, asking him to intervene. “When other parties can protest, why are we being stopped?” he questioned, adding that when others protested, they were provided security but when the MQM-P wanted to protest, they were not allowed to exercise their right.

Addressing the gathering, MQM-P senior deputy convener, Amir Khan, said that those who wanted to bury the MQM-P were themselves in a grave situation now. “They say the RTS malfunctioned, but which system malfunctioned while giving results to polling agents?” he questioned, adding that by ordering polling agents to leave the premises, systemic rigging had been carried out in the elections.

“We demand that the chief election commissioner resign immediately,” said Khan, calling for reelections to be conducted in the constituencies where the polling process or results were compromised. Khan warned it would be a mistake for institutions to consider the MQM-P weak. “If need be, we will come out with full force,” he said.

When it was his turn to speak, Dr Sattar laid out the steps through which the party had been defeated in the polls. “Humans and aliens have defeated the MQM-P,” he said. “First, our population wasn’t counted in the census. Now, our votes aren’t being counted,” he claimed.

Dr Sattar termed the 2018 general elections the dirtiest in the country’s history. “These weren’t elections, this was selection,” he said. “We reject this selection,” he said, calling on the ECP, caretaker government and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan to actually recount the votes in some constituencies for transparency.

Meanwhile, Rauf Siddiqui said that on polling day, rigging began after 6pm. “The chief election commissioner is responsible for the rigged elections and he should resign immediately,” he said.

Other leaders also spoke on the occasion.

Application for recount

The MQM-P has filed an application with the provincial election commission, seeking recount of votes in all constituencies across the city. The application, filed by MQM-P convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, also calls for verification of thumb impressions and demands permission for polling agents to attend the recounting process.

Siddiqui has maintained that his party has serious reservations over the counting process on the day of the elections. “Our polling agents were kept out throughout the counting process,” he alleged, adding that his party had strong reservations over the serious violations of ECP rules and regulations. “We demand that ECP to hold the results until it conducts a recount of votes in the provincial and national constituencies of Karachi. We also want to ensure that our polling agents are present during the counting process.

After submitting the application, MQM-P leader Kanwar Naveed Jameel told the media that the elections had become controversial. “We had strong reservations over the ECP process even before the elections,” he said. “Our suspicions have proven correct after the elections results.”

Read More

'Land grabbers' set eyes on government school in Gulshan-e-Iqbal

KARACHI: Land grabbers allegedly tried to occupy Ali Muhammad Iqbal Government School’s building in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, block 10 on Thursday morning.


“When we reached the school in the morning the gates were locked and we had no option but to return,” said Ali Muhammad, a student of the school. It was then that the headmaster, Tariq Javed, came and decided to conduct the classes on the road just outside the school.

The news of the alleged attempted encroachment of the school circulated and media vans soon lined up outside the school. Talking to The Express Tribune, Javed said that before the incident on Wednesday, some people had barged inside the school claiming ownership of the building. He said that the school’s building was in rickety shape and the Education Works Department was carrying out some construction work inside.

 “One key of the school remains with me and the other with the builder,” he said, adding that on Wednesday, the school management had gone to the District East deputy commissioner’s (DC) office to register their complaint. The DC, he said, wasn’t present and they were told to see the mukhtiarkar. “We remained seated in his office until 8pm and after that he told us that he would visit the school on Thursday,” he said, adding that the school was already padlocked on Thursday.

According to Javed, land grabbers have been trying to grab the school, which occupies an area of 600 square yards, for the last three months. For this purpose, he has also filed an application to the secretary and director of the education department, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune.

“This school has been functional since 1978 but for the last few months, some individuals have been claiming their ownership over the school,” the application reads and adds that the encroachers also forcibly stopped construction work initiated by the Education Works Department. He had later requested the authorities to resume the construction work, which was later resumed.

After the incident gained coverage on media, the Caretaker Education Minister Dr Saadia Virk Rizvi took notice and asked the secretary of education to inquire into the matter. “If any employee of the Sindh Education Department is found guilty in the incident, strict action will be taken against them,” she said. After this, the police reached the school, broke all the locks and allowed the educational activities to resume inside.

According to the police, a lady named Sobia has been claiming the ownership of the school and threatening the school staff. An FIR of the incident has been lodged at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal police station under sections of encroachment on public property and life threats against Sobia’s alleged henchman, Sobu Khan. Two sub-inspectors, Sajid and Riaz Mehr, have also been accused of being in connivance with Sobia. They were also nominated in the FIR.

Read More

Edhi Foundation receives 50 ambulances from Australian chapter

KARACHI: The Edhi International Foundation Australia donated 50 new ambulances to the Edhi Foundation in Pakistan. The Australian community donated 32 ambulances last year, confirmed Faisal Edhi. He added that they will also be contributing towards a training institute and a 100-bed hospital in Lyari in the coming days.



At a ceremony at the North Karachi’s Edhi centre on Tuesday, Faisal thanked the foundation’s Australia chapter and the donors who helped them. He added that in the past three to four years, especially after his father had passed away, the support of Edhi International Foundation Australia representative Hamid Khan and his team helped them run the service.

Khan said he was working with foundation on various projects, including the hospital sector. He said that substantial funds were sent to the foundation, expressing his resolve to continue working and take the late philanthropist Edhi’s mission forward. He added that they will put in efforts to ensure that all the Pakistanis living in Australia and other communities support the foundation so that this mission can be taken forward.

Edhi Foundation does not take aid from any government. Faisal appealed to the Pakistani community all over the world for support so that their mission could continue. The foundation has a fleet of 1,800 vehicles and needs 200 ambulances every year, Faisal said.

Read More

Meet Rana Hamir Singh, PPP's first pick on minority reserved seat in Sindh

KARACHI: Known for his royal air as he belongs to the former ruling family of Amerkot, now Umerkot, Rana Hamir Singh is the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) first pick on the reserved seats for minorities in the Sindh Assembly.

Singh, the 26th Rana of Dhat, was crowned after the demise of his father Rana Chandar Singh in 2010.
The lawmaker’s family home is being flocked by people belonging to Muslim and non-Muslim communities from Tharparkar, Umerkot, Sanghar and Hyderabad at Rana Jageer situated at a distance of 12 kilometers from Umerkot.
Clad in a potiya [turban], lungi and kameez and occasionally a gold kara [anklet] on his right foot that only the Rana is entitled to wear, the royal can usually be seen welcoming people amid the sound of drums beating.

“We, Sodha Rajputs, have a history of 900 years in Umerkot when Sodha ji from Ratokot conquered Amerkot in 1125 AD. My ancestor, Rana Prasad, also gave Mughal emperor Humayun shelter at the Umerkot Fort when Shershah Suri drove him out from the ruling seat of India. I take pride as Emperor Akbar was born in the family fort situated in Umerkot in 1542,” Hamir said.

He shared that another ancestor, Rana Ratan Singh, was impaled by the British in 1847 for continuously waging war against them and not letting them enter Umerkot and Tharparkar for four years as they had conquered Sindh much earlier in 1843.
Hamir’s grandfather, Rana Arjun Singh, contested the elections from the platform of Muslim League in 1946 against Congress. He preferred to stay in the newly-emerged state – Pakistan – in 1947.

“My father, Rana Chandar Singh, was a close friend of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was also one of the founding members of the PPP. He was elected member of the provincial and National Assembly nine times consecutively and served as a minister on several portfolios, including irrigation minister for East and West Pakistan,” Hamir told The Express Tribune.

In 1990, Hamir’s father left the PPP and formed his own political party, the Pakistan Hindu Party.

Meeting with his supporters.

Hamir has also been a member of the Sindh Assembly thrice and served as a minister for science and technology and research in irrigation in 1993, provincial assembly member and Sindh Arid Zone Development Authority (SAZDA) vice chairperson and has served as the naib nazim of Umerkot district.

In 1990, he was first elected on a separate electorate from the platform of Pakistan Hindu Party where non-Muslims were supposed to vote and elect their own representative initiated by Ziaul Haq.

Hamir could not participate in elections in 2002 as he did not meet the education criteria of being a graduate. Hamir has completed his education till intermediate.

After the 2013 election, Hamir helped five out of six PPP candidates win and later joined the party. This is why PPP’s leadership put his name on the top priority of their candidates for nine reserved seats for non-Muslims in Sindh.

 

Rana Hamir Sindh belongs to former ruling family of Amerkot, now Umerkot.

This election, PPP swept the Umerkot district and restricted strong opponents belonging to the Arbab family to only one provincial seat in Tharparkar district due to a large Hindu vote bank in the area. After winning 76 seats out of 130, PPP is set to form its government in the province once again.

“I want to serve the people of my areas where the majority of Hindus reside in Tharparkar, Umerkot, Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts by resolving their revenue and agriculture related issues,” Hamir claimed, saying that Tharparkar and Umerkot are geographically distinct from the rest of Sindh due to the arid nature of its land.

Hamir’s only son, Kanwar Karni Singh, is a lawyer in Tharparkar district. His marriage in the Kanota Rathore royal family of Jaipur in 2015 made headlines on both sides of the border as well as internationally.

Read More

Zardari, Faryal Talpur summoned in FIA case today: sources

ISLAMABAD: A Join Investigation Team (JIT) probing a money-laundering scam involving Rs35 billion has summoned Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur today for questioning, ARY News reported.

Sources said a Federal Investigation Team (FIA) team from Karachi will visit today the federal capital where it will hand over evidences it has gathered so far to the JIT.

The PPP leaders have been asked to appear before the JIT probing the money laundering allegations against them. If they both turn up they will likely be quizzed about the scam.

The FIA team is said to have tracked down money trail of Rs23 billion out of the total Rs35 billion involved in the case.

Earlier, the FIA State Bank Circle submitted a charge-sheet of the case against Hussain Lawai and other accused in the relevant court.

Zardari and his sister were among over a dozen suspects declared absconders in the money-laundering scam.

According to the FIR registered by FIA, transactions of billions of rupees were made into suspicious accounts, including the one owned by the PPP leaders, the Zardari Group, which is accused of receiving Rs 15 million of the laundered money.

Read More

Karachi’s new attraction ‘China Port’ is now a ‘no go’ area for public

KARACHI: Authorities played a ‘spoilsport’ for Karachiites after an order issued closing China Port for the public who had been making frequent sightseeing tours to the newly-discovered location.

The spot had been drawing a lot of visitors after pictures of the fascinating Oyster Rocks started getting viral on the social media.

As seen in the pictures circulating on Twitter and Facebook with horde of people roaming there, now a makeshift blockade of concrete barriers, wooden planks, old bushes have been placed that bar all vehicles from turning towards the sandy area to get on the path from the Marine Promenade leading to China Port.

Besides, a police van has also been deployed there with cops signalling every incoming motorist to turn away.

Reports quote Karachi Port Trust (KPT) as saying that security issues were cropping up after visitors in large numbers were making it to the spot and taking photographs (thus revealing the entire vicinity).

The place is not that far away from sensitive locations such as the Naval Dockyard, the Naval Academy PNS Rahbar, PNS Himalaya, etc, the reports cite as KPT official as saying.

Also known as ‘Oyster Rocks’, the spot is a about 2.5 kilometers long breakwater built by China to protect the South Asia Pakistan Terminal, but the citizens find it fascinating enough to spend time there with families.

The Oyster Rocks strip was originally built to protect large freight ships from the hazards of a high tide, protect erosion of sand and the coastline.

The rock-filled pavement also serves a purpose to protect nearby structures. These rocks are actually called ‘tetra pods’ and they are placed in an interlocking pattern, so they form a porous boundary.

Read More