Imran
Khan defeated their own system and became the PM of Pakistan .. and immediately
spit venom .. .. on twitter taking a
potshot at our Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji, over the cancellation of meeting between
India and Pakistan. “Disappointed at the arrogant & negative response by
India to my call for resumption of the peace dialogue,” he tweeted. “However,
all my life I have come across small men occupying big offices who do not have
the vision to see the larger picture.”
.. one cannot expect anything more undiplomatic from someone who had
buoyed up suddenly. The little crooked
mind cannot understand the bigger properly elected PM of the World’s largest
democracy. The meeting had been called off because of two “deeply disturbing
developments”—the brutal killing of a BSF jawan by Pakistan, and the release of
20 postage stamps in July “glorifying” terrorist Burhan Wani. India was
in right in asserting what they knew was right !
Pakistan’s world
record holding cricketer Yasir Shah called on Prime Minister Imran Khan here at
his Banigala residence. Imran Khan
congratulated the team’s leg-spinner for setting the world record of taking the
fastest 200 wickets in Test cricket history, having broken the previous record
set by Australian bowler Clarrie Grimmett some 83 years ago. Imran Khan himself was a great Cricketer
before entering politics. Looking at the
way Ishant Sharma bowled a vital no-ball at Adelaide when Aaron Finch was out
and now at Perth where more than few times, Aussies were not called for
overstepping though the feet appeared clearly over the line, one recalls that
tour of 1983 – Imran Khan, Sarfraz Nawaz, Sikhandar Bakht, Jallaluddin –
repeatedly overstepped as Indian batsmen found the pace and swing too
uncomfortable and lost the series badly.
After 2 decades of international
cricket, Khan born in Lahore and later
at Oxford, became a fulltime politician.
In its long political history,
Pakistan peppered with military coups
and martial law, elections 2018 were to be the second successive transition of power
through a constitutional process from one elected government to another. However,
political opponents, the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, and
international observers such as the European Union alleged that irregularities
and election rigging occurred in many parts of the country, particularly in
rural and urban Sindh and Punjab provinces.
Cash-strapped
Pakistan on Friday received USD 1 billion from its close ally Saudi Arabia as
part of a second bailout package to boost the country's dwindling dollar
reserves, according to media reports. The latest package has shored up the
central bank's foreign reserves, hitting the USD 9.4 billion mark, said State
Bank of Pakistan Spokesman Abid Qamar. He said another Saudi financial package
was expected in January next year, Dawn newspaper reported. In October, Saudi
Arabia agreed to provide Pakistan USD 3 billion in foreign currency support for
a year to address its balance-of-payments crisis.
Despite that
financial boon, there is more trouble - Imran Khan, Pakistan’s prime minister,
has appeared to drop his promise to grant citizenship to hundreds of thousands
of Afghan refugees living on the margins of Pakistani society. On Sunday Khan
announced that he would start work immediately to provide passports to the
children of refugees born in the country. However, after a backlash from
politicians and supporters of the country’s powerful military, he said on
Tuesday that no decision had been made. About 2.7 million Afghan refugees have
crossed the border into Pakistan since the Soviet invasion in 1979. Without
official documentation they are shut out of schools and employment. As many as
1.5 million children born to refugees in Pakistan are denied citizenship. After
a strong push-back, Khan said he had raised refugee citizenship “just to
initiate a debate”. The founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party,
which swept to power in July, has a reputation for retracting his words, reported
Pak Newspapers.
More on
corruption was to flow as the Paki Supreme Court on Thursday ordered Aleema
Khanum, Prime Minister Imran Khan's sister, to pay Rs29.4 million in taxes and
fines. A three-judge
SC bench, while hearing a case against 44 politically exposed individuals or
their benamidars who possess properties in the United Arab Emirates, remarked
that failure on Khanum's part to oblige to court orders will result in
confiscation of her properties. In its hearing, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)
told the court that a fine and tax worth Rs.29.4m has been placed on Khanum,
who has been identified as benamidar of a property. Khanum, who was present in court, took the
stand and said that she had bought the property abroad in 2008 against $370,000
and that she had sold the said property in 2017.
According to the
summary, 96 more Pakistanis have been identified for having properties abroad.
The total number of Pakistanis with properties abroad is now 2,154. Out of
these, 1,208 people own properties in the UAE.
At least 21 Pakistanis that own these properties have been sent notices
in accordance with the court's orders, the summary said and at least Rs45m have
been recovered from these people. This case is the result of a list of
politically exposed people which was submitted as part of an annexure to a
three-judge SC bench comprising Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Faisal Arab
and Justice Ijazul Ahsan. Taking suo motu notice of the matter, the apex court
had observed that it appeared the money siphoned off abroad without payment of
taxes through illegal channels represented either ill-gotten gains or kickbacks
from public contracts. “Such money creates gross disproportion, inequality and
disparity in society, which warps economic activity and growth, and constitutes
plunder and theft of national wealth,” it had said.
Imran Khan’s sister
Aleema Khanum has been fined for not
disclosing her property in the UAE, with the Supreme Court (SC) ordering her to
submit Rs29.4 million as a fine. However, she was not asked to disclose her
source of income and neither was a joint investigation team (JIT) ordered to
probe her source of income or for the authenticity of the money trail she presented
in court. No reference of assets beyond known means was filed against her in
the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) either. On the other hand, on the same day, the SC
ordered a JIT against former premier Nawaz Sharif for allegedly allotting an
Auqaf land in the Pakpattan district back in 1986, when he was the chief
minister of Punjab. Moving beyond Nawaz, Maryam Nawaz was also asked to prove
her innocence in front of a JIT in connection to the Mayfair apartments.
Similarly, Saad Rafique and Shehbaz Sharif are both facing prison sentences for
‘misusing’ their authority and for their alleged involvement in corrupt
practices.
Pak
press reported that Khanum’s case is an
exception. She came to court, offered a simple explanation – saying she bought
the property in Dubai with half of her own capital and half taken from a
mortgage loan – and her justification was accepted without any inquiry being
deemed necessary. This begs the question: is there a double
standard of justice and accountability prevalent in the country? After all, if
a former prime minister, his brother, daughter and other party members can face
inquiries pertaining to assets beyond their means that they failed to reveal,
then we have to wonder why Khanum should not be subjected to the same process.
After all, if she proves her innocence in front of a JIT, she can easily get a
clean chit and would set the perfect example of how in Naya Pakistan
accountability truly is across the board, and not just another drive meant to
dent parties of the opposition.
Sure,
such things would go unheard and unnoticed by those in India, who acclaim the present leadership
of Pak and those (couple of Minister of erstwhile regime) who went over to Pak and spoke disparagingly
about our Nation. Fie upon such
politicians !!
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
16th Dec
2018.
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