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President summons joint Parliament session on March 2

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned a joint session of Parliament on March 2, at the start of the new parliamentary year. A notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat on Wednesday said that in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 54 read with clause (3) of Article 56 of the Constitution, the president has summoned both Houses of Parliament to assemble together at the Parliament House in Islamabad on March 2 (Monday) at 10:30am. Earlier, a post on the Presidency’s X account stated that he had approved the summary for convening the session. The post also said that the session would be convened at 3pm on March 2. Later, the National Assembly Secretariat issued its notification, in which the time was revised to 10:30am. The session is being convened in continuation of the practice of a joint sitting behind held at the start of every parliamentary year. According to Article 56 of the Constitution, the president addresses both Houses of...

Cost of added scrutiny testing airports’ limits

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• Passengers travelling abroad have complained of long queues stretching out of terminals, repeated questioning, delays in immigration at three main international airports • Situation ‘has improved’ in recent weeks; officials insist there are ‘no unnecessary delays’, added scrutiny takes time • Airport authority, FIA deflect blame for overcrowding onto other agencies THE never-ending queue had already spilled beyond the glass doors when Jawad Ahmad Rizvi arrived at Lahore airport for his flight to Dubai. The line snaked past the entrance, with passengers clutching their passports and boarding passes, shifting their luggage inch by inch. “On my arrival, I found the queue extending beyond the entrance of the main terminal, making me wonder how many people were travelling by air these days. “As the queue was moving slowly, it took me about 20 minutes to put my luggage on the scanner belt, and an additional 15 minutes for the belt to clear,” he told Dawn. The checks did not end there...

‘Our fate is not in our hands’: Shaheen on T20 World Cup semi-final prospects following defeat by England

After England beat Pakistan in the T20 World Cup Super Eight clash by two wickets on Tuesday, Pakistani pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi acknowledged that his side’s fate was not in its hands anymore. Pakistan have only one point from two Super Eight matches so now must win their final game and rely on other results going their way to have any hope of reaching the semi-finals. “We know our fate is not in our hands,” he admitted, “But we need to beat Sri Lanka in our last match on Saturday and then hope other results go our way.” “It’s not ideal, but it’s like this,” Shaheen said during a press conference after the match. He also hailed Harry Brook’s century in the match against England as a “world-class knock”. Brook reached his maiden T20 International hundred off 50 balls, with four sixes and 10 fours, as England went past their 165-run target with five balls to spare to win by two wickets. Afridi jolted the England top order with a burst of three wickets before Brook played the u...

Eye for an eye

EVERY body part is important, but few are as important as an eye. I use the singular for a body part that comes in pairs because its function is so crucial that one outweighs the combined functions of many others. Even diminished sight is so essential that ‘in the land of the blind, one-eyed man is king’ has become an idiom. Its vernacular version goes something like ‘andhon mein kana raja’ (‘among the blind, the one-eyed rules’). In an old interview, one of Imran Khan’s sisters reminisced that even as a child he likened himself to a tiger. It’s a coincidence that a very charismatic Indian cricketer of the 1960s and 1970s, Nawab Mansoor Pataudi, was nicknamed Tiger Pataudi. He was a stylish right-handed batsman and considered the best fielder of his day, despite losing vision in his right eye in a traffic accident. He was named captain of the national team at the age of 21. Gen Amir Abdullah Niazi, who surrendered during the 1971 war, also styled himself as ‘Tiger Niazi’. Though his s...

‘Pakistan cannot tolerate this anymore’, says minister as he outlines terrorist attacks preceding Afghanistan strikes

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry briefed the Senate on Monday on recent strikes targeting terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan, pointing out that they were carried out following multiple attacks by militants in Pakistan and saying that Islamabad “cannot tolerate this anymore”. Pakistan carried out airstrikes on Afghanistan in a retaliatory operation late on Saturday night, targeting groups responsible for recent attacks in its territory. The strikes were conducted in retaliation for a series of suicide attacks in Islamabad , Bajaur , and Bannu that had claimed the lives of Pakistani security personnel and civilians. Mentioning these incidents, Chaudhry said they were “linked” to Afghanistan-based actors, adding that it was subsequently decided to give a “decisive response” to the neighbouring country. “As a result, our Air Force carried out strikes in three Afghan provinces, Paktika, Nangarhar and Khost on February 21,” he said, adding that there were reports...

Food delivery rider killed after speeding car overturns, crashes into his motorcycle in Karachi: police

KARACHI: A food delivery rider lost his life after a speeding vehicle flipped over and crashed into his stationary motorcycle in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area, according to police. The video of the incident that took place on Sunday was widely shared on social media. South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) told Dawn that the food delivery rider was on his motorcycle outside a bungalow in DHA’s phase IV when a speeding car turned over and crashed into his vehicle. “Both the rider and the car driver were injured in the incident,” he said, adding that they were initially taken to a private hospital in the Clifton area. The rider was later taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in critical condition and died during treatment, the official said. Meanwhile, the car’s driver was at the private hospital in Clifton, and a police mobile was deployed outside the facility for the arrest of the car driver after treatment, DIG Raza said. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/KnR...

14 labourers kidnapped in Khuzdar, Barkhan

QUETTA: Armed men abducted 14 workers of a construction company wor­king on a government project and at a crushing plant at two different places in Khuzdar and Barkhan districts of Balochistan, police said on Sunday. A senior police officer said the armed men barged into the construction company’s camp in Mula area, some 60 km from Khuzdar, and kidnapped 11 workers including a project manager. “Six labourers belonged to Sindh province who were working with the com­pany while five others are residents of Khuzdar and other areas of the province,” the police official said. He said the armed men attempted to take away arms and ammunition of the police station but police personnel offered resistance, forcing the kidnappers to flee. Six out of 11 labourers have been identified as Project Manager Gul Sher, Ghulam Sarwar, Abdul Malik Bugti, Maulana Bakhsh, Muhammad Irfan and Ikhtiar. Security forces reached the area after getting information of the incident and launched a search operation...