Foreign Office dismisses Indian accusations as baseless and frivolous.

During a press conference in Vienna, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar made a veiled allusion to the fact that the effects of cross-border terrorism cannot be contained to a single geographic area.

Particularly when they are intricately linked to the trafficking of illegal drugs and weapons and other types of international crime.

Without mentioning Pakistan, Jasishankar said,

“Since the epicentre (of terrorism) is so near to India, our experiences and insights are inherently helpful to others.”

In response to questions from the media regarding the Indian minister’s statement, the FO spokesperson insisted that,

India has been in a malicious campaign for the past few years to deceive the international community by spreading “vile anti-Pakistan propaganda” and a “fictitious narrative of victimhood.” This practice ought to end.

The Spokesperson stated

Despite India’s persistent anti-Pakistan rhetoric, the country’s open support for terrorism on Pakistani soil and the existence of state-sponsored terrorism in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) cannot be hidden.

Instead of blaming others, the FO officer counselled India to stop its baseless and frivolous accusations against Pakistan.

The spokesperson claimed that a few weeks ago, a dossier with concrete proof of India’s complicity in the 2021 terrorist assault in a quiet Lahore neighbourhood was made public.

“The evidence of Indian involvement in terrorism and sabotage spans decades and geographical areas, from the 2007 Samjhota Express incident, which resulted in the deaths of more than 40 Pakistani nationals on Indian land, to the 2016 arrest of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a serving Indian Navy Commander, from inside Pakistan.”

By highlighting the “saffron terror” of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a group of Hindu supremacist paramilitary volunteers who have influenced Prime Minister Narendra Modi and helped shape his political ideology, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari earlier delivered a scathing rebuttal to India’s renewed call for terrorism against Pakistan.

When he served as the state’s chief minister in 2002, Modi earned the nickname “Butcher of Gujarat,” and Bilawal used it to describe him.

India was upset by Bilawal’s criticism of Modi, which prompted the Bharatiya Janata Party, the country’s ruling party, to call for a national protest (BJP).

“I would like to remind the Indian Minister of External Affairs that although Osama Bin Laden is no longer alive, the Butcher of Gujarat is still in power in India. After India’s foreign minister S. Jaishankar accused Pakistan of being the “epicentre of terrorism” for “harbouring Osama bin Laden,” Bilawal claimed that he had been barred from entering the nation until he was elected prime minister.

Delayed municipal elections in 45 areas due to unfortunates deaths.

Elections in 45 municipalities will take place at a subsequent time as a consequence of the periodic delays and cancellations of the second phase of the municipal elections in Hyderabad and Karachi. 33 contestants who had filed their certificate of candidacy the previous year have unfortunately passed away.

In the meanwhile, 704 of the 19,867 candidates in the race for multiple positions have been nominated unanimously to preside as chairperson, vice chairmen, and general members of union councils, town councils, and district councils in sub-districts of the Karachi and Hyderabad legislative zones.

As per data from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), half of the 16 contestants who perished from the Karachi Division had submitted their candidacy for the chairman and vice chairman positions, and the other eight were contesting for general member vacancies.

Consonance:

In accordance with the official data, one general member contender perished in the district of Malir, one vice chairman candidate, one chairman candidate, and one general member contender each died in the district of Korangi, and two general member contestants died in the district of East.

Additionally, one chairman candidacy and four general member candidates perished in District Keamari, while four vice chairman candidates and one chairman nominee perished in the Central and West districts. In the Hyderabad Division, seventeen further hopefuls perished.

During the general election in Pakistan, a woman casts her vote at a voting station.

The ECP had assured the Sindh government that the second round of the LG elections will take place in Karachi and Hyderabad on July 24, 2022, but it later postponed those elections due to torrential rainfall and ensuing flooding in those cities.

The regional government petitioned their deferral for three months after the ECP adjourned the elections for October 23 on October 18. Because the regional government had dispatched police in the wetlands, it was unable to provide the polling places with the necessary level of protection.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Jamaat-e-Islami petitioned the Sindh High Court after the setbacks started happening, and on November 15 it compelled the ECP to publish the date of the LG elections within 15 days. The ECP revealed the amended date of January 15 on November 22.

As per the official results, five general member aspirants and one chairman candidate won in the Malir, East, and Keamari districts of Karachi, while the rest of the candidates won a variety of seats in the nine districts of Hyderabad, including general member, town councilor, and district member.

Govt mandate close by 8:30 PM, weds by 10:00 PM, aiming to save Rs 62B

At a press conference today, Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif made the announcement. Govt offices are no longer permitted to purchase inefficient electrical equipment. He also made several cost-cutting announcements since the nation’s economy remains fragile

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif gave the order to reduce electricity use in federal government offices by 30% and forgo any superfluous electricity use during the federal cabinet meeting earlier today.

Government offices are no longer permitted to purchase inefficient electrical equipment. Beginning on July 1, 2023, the production of inefficient electric fans will be prohibited.

A new tax will be levied starting on July 1 on the production of inefficient electric fans. Annual savings of Rs. 15 billion are anticipated.

Beginning on February 1, 2023, incandescent bulb production will be prohibited. The manufacture of incandescent bulbs will be subject to an extra duty as of February 1. 22 billion rupees are anticipated to be saved yearly.

The federal government must install conventional baffles in geysers within a year. 92 billion rupees should be saved as a result.

To save Rs. 4 billion yearly, the Federal Govt has also ordered that alternate street lights be turned on at night.

Additionally, the federal government has mandated hastened e-bike introduction. Fuel bikes consume $3 billion in gasoline annually. The introduction of e-bikes will eventually phase out fuel bikes.

A comprehensive awareness campaign has also been established by the federal government to encourage people to adopt austerity measures.

PEMRA will see to it that during the previously allotted 10% of their advertising time, TV and radio networks air advertisements regarding this awareness campaign.

After gaining clearance from PM Shehbaz, the federal Govt would notify the work-from-home (WFH) policy for public sector employees in the following 8–10 days.

The FBR has been urged by the federal Govt to issue a separate tax directory of the lawmakers. It will make it possible for citizens to learn how much tax their elected officials truly pay.

 

 

BBC Urdu discontinue radio news update to Pakistan after over 20 year.

On Saturday night, the broadcast of the BBC Urdu service’s final radio newscast officially ended the service.

According to Asif Farooqi, editor of the BBC Urdu service, BBC broadcasts won’t be available on the radio any longer, but that does not imply the broadcaster is losing its “relationship with audio.”

The BBC Urdu website showed a video of Farooqi saying, “The Urdu service is entering a new era…

This infrastructure will still be present, and we’ll use it to give you audio in a digital format

In the film, several BBC staffers are shown discussing similar briefings and their termination.

Mehwish Hussain, a member of the BBC Urdu service staff, claimed that FM bulletins and her job with the Pakistan regional service started around the same time.

“When we began publishing these bulletins in 2004, it was a tremendously exciting event. It was such an innovative and well-received product that it gained popularity rapidly, she said.

“I have a great sense of pride in having been a part of launching the bulletins”

Saad Sohail, a different BBC employee, asserted that they were conscious of their obligations each time they took the stage for these programs.

In addition, Sohail said, “This journey was more significant because when people wrote letters to us from Balochistan and other far-flung areas and said they could acknowledge our voice, one feels that joy that we were able to spread information that they could not have discovered through the mainstream media.”

According to Farooqi, the broadcaster was developing a strategy for the impending release of podcasts and audio stories.