Month: August 2018

ISLAMABAD:Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has rejects the assertion of Election Commotion of Pakistan (ECP) that the voting process was above suspicion and that people exercised their right to vote in a free environment without any complaints.

“Hollow claims and even more hollow explanations are worse than the flawed voting exercise”, said PPPP secretary general ex Senator Farhatullah Babar in a statement responding to the claims of the Election Commission.

The claim that ECP ensured “swift access of people to all electoral process” is belied by the breakdown of Result Transmission System (RTS) on one hand and inexplicable delay in transmission of results physically on the other, he said.

Manipulation in the past was believed to have taken place at the time of consolidation of results in offices of Returning Officers after poll results had been sent by polling officers.

To minimize the role of RO this year, for the first time, the RTS was introduced so that polling officers directly transmitted the results to the ECP, he said.

The RTS however worked for some time on July 25 after the end of polling time until a sudden announcement said it had collapsed and poling officers were asked to submit results to ROs as in the past.

The role of Returning Officers that has always been mired in controversies in the past was thus revived, he said and asked: At what time the RTS collapsed and why? Why was no instant revival system or back up mechanism put in place?

If the collapse claim was false who decided to make the RTS dysfunctional through fake announcement and for what purpose?

He said NADRA has been designing special transmission systems for banks, passport offices and money transactions services both nationally and internationally and none failed. Why this particular transmission system devised by it failed irreversibly, he asked adding ‘answers to these questions will make all pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fall into place’.

The claim that national and international observers had endorsed fairness of the polls and that polling stations were not taken over by state agencies is not the whole truth, he said.

First, far from giving a clean chit the observers have expressed serious concerns over reshaping of the political environment ahead of the polls.

Secondly, if indeed the result transmission system was deliberately made dysfunctional there was no need for direct takeover of the polling stations by the state agencies, he said.

ISLAMABAD:Caretaker Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Mohammad Yusuf Sheikh on Wednesday visited Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and praised its academic standing and rich country-wide infrastructure network.

On his arrival, he was welcomed by the university’s Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Shahid Siddiqui and senior academicians and officers.

While acknowledging the university’s academic contribution, the minister said it was doing a great job in the educational sector. The initiatives taken during the last four years, particularly for the professional development of its employees and the students are highly praise-worthy, he added.

He also commended the university for its special focus on the society’s welfare activities, providing free education to the marginalized sections of the society as well as the area like FATA and Baluchistan, the students of which get free Matric education.

The minister said he also briefed the Senate Committee on Education about the good work of the university. It was noted that there has been tremendous progress at its part since its establishment in 1974.

He said the university has honour of having Dr Shahid Siddiqui as its Vice Chancellor who enjoys high professional calibre, with illustrious academic background.

Stating with pride, his personal years’ long interaction with this university, Yusuf Sheikh said he knew how it built up its image as a Mega educational institution in the country.

Earlier, the Vice Chancellor gave a detailed briefing to the minister, highlighting the initiatives taken during the last about four years.

He particularly mentioned the targets achieved during the period that included promotion of research culture, professional development, revision of curricula and text-books, development of new academic programs, reconstruction of University’s image and establishment of accessibility center for visually impaired persons.

He also told the minister about the University’s financial assistance schemes and the employees’ welfare initiatives.

The university also took responsibility giving educational response to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, setting Chinese language centers with the collaboration of the Chinese universities, he added.

ISLAMABAD:In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the monsoon tree plantation campaign is in full swing.

In an interview, a spokesman of the provincial Forest Department, Dawood Afridi said upto one hundred million saplings are being planted in different areas of the province.

He said saplings are being planted in hilly and plain areas, government offices, schools, colleges and universities. He said environment pollution can be controlled by planting maximum trees.

ISLAMABAD:In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops, in their unabated acts of state terrorism martyred twenty-one Kashmiris including four young boys and a woman during the month of July 2018.

According to the data issued by the Kashmir Media Service on Wednesday, one of those martyred was killed in custody; three hundred ten people were critically injured due to the use of brute force including firing of bullets, pellets and teargas shells by the Indian police and paramilitary personnel on mourners and peaceful demonstrators in the occupied territory.

As many as one hundred sixty nine Hurriyet leaders, activists and youth were arrested. The troops also damaged forty six houses during the period.

ISLAMABAD:Chief Justice Supreme Court Justice Mian Saqib Nisar has said that water shortage has emerged as a serious issue in the country during the past few years.

He gave these remarks on Wednesday during hearing of a suo motu case based on media reports that Katas Raj temple pond is drying out due to water consumption by nearby cement factories.

The Chief Justice said underground water level has dropped considerably in the country. He said the cement factories in Chakwal used water worth billions of rupees without any payment.

ISLAMABAD:A two-day training workshop on reconstruction of an inclusive Islamic society concluded here at the Islamic Research Institute (IRI) of the International Islamic University Islamabad which was attended by faculty members of different public sector universities and representatives of religious seminaries.

The aim of the workshop was to sensitize the target audience on countering violent extremism by highlighting various aspects of extremism, its stages and counter strategies. It also provided an opportunity for training of faculty members of different universities and representatives of madaris.

Faculty members from International Islamic University Islamabad, Karakuram International University, Shaikh Zaid Institute, Peshawar University, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Fatima Jinnah Women University, National Defense University, University of Gujrat, Centre for Sustainability, Research and Practice, University of Lahore, University of Faisalabad and University of Punjab participated in the event, besides representatives of Jamia Binnoria, Jamia Ashrafia, Khair ul Madaris and others religious seminaries.

The programme also covered the social and traditional implications of changing and emerging roles of the faculty for peace building and countering extremism by discussing contemporary challenges and their solutions. Dr. Qibla Ayaz, Chairman Council of Islamic Ideology addressed the concluding ceremony as chief guest. He said that negative elements have lethal objectives and they are targeting “ fault lines” prevailing in the society. He added that such fault lines included sectarian differences. He also hailed IIUI and IRI for an exquisite role in preparing disseminating the Paigham e Pakistan narrative.

Dr. Masoom Yasinzai, Rector IIUI called for involving 56 million youth in peaceful activities and cultivate its mind with a “ soft approach”. He added that Paigham e Pakistan narrative was accepted across the world and even UN assembly heard its voice. Earlier, Dr. Muhammad Zia ul Haq, Director General IRI talked about reconstruction of society and told that multiple workshops and programmes will be conducted in different universities where 500 master trainers will take part to learn about promoting Paigham-e-Pakistan initiative of the government of Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD:Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made a telephone call to Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan.

He felicitated him on victory of his party in general election 2018 and expressed well wishes for upcoming democratic government in Pakistan.

Both leaders agreed to start new relation era between the two brotherly Islamic countries.