Month: December 2020

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday was declared a “proclaimed offender” by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

The orders were issued by the two-member bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani on the appeals filed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif against his sentences in the Al Azizia and Avenfield cases, reported Geo News.

Foreign Ministry Director Europe Mubashir Khan told the IHC that he had received the court’s advertisements regarding Nawaz Sharif and sent it to the Pakistani High Commission in London.

“Two appeals are from Nawaz Sharif and two NAB appeals are against Nawaz Sharif. A notice has been issued against NAB’s appeal to increase the sentence, but no notice has been issued in the flagship reference,” said Justice Amir Farooq while addressing NAB’s Additional Prosecutor Jahanzaib Bharwana.

Upon hearing Justice Farooq, the NAB lawyer had asked the court to dismiss the appeals filed by Sharif on merit, adding that the former prime minister can be sentenced for not surrendering to the court.

Justice Farooq asked the NAB prosecutor to present judicial precedents at the next hearing on what should be done about the appeal of the former prime minister, reported Geo News.After hearing the arguments, the court decided to declare Nawaz a proclaimed offender and stated that it will issue its written orders shortly.

The case was adjourned until December 9. The court will hear both appeals along with two other cases — one filed by the NAB against Maryam Nawaz and another filed by the latter against her conviction in the Avenfield corruption reference reported Dawn.

In 2018, accountability court Judge Mohammad Arshad Malik had convicted Nawaz in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills Company (ASCL) and Hill Metal Establishment (HME) reference and awarded him seven years imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 1.5 billion and USD 25 million.

The IHC on October 29 will hear Sharif’s plea against his conviction in the reference case.On September 15, the IHC had rejected the exemption plea of Nawaz Sharif and released non-bailable arrest warrants in Al-Azizia and Avenfield cases. (ANI)

Farmers unions on Wednesday demanded that a special Parliament Session be convened to repeal the three agricultural reform laws.

“We demand that the Central government should call a special Parliament Session to repeal the farm laws. We call for burning of effigies throughout the country to protest against Modi government and corporate houses on December 5,” Darshan Pal, chief of the Krantikari Kisan Union said while addressing a press conference at the Delhi-Haryana border at Singhu.

Dr Darshan Pal Explains Farm Bills & Farmers Protests

The Krantikari Kisan Union is one of the farmers’ unions which is leading the protests against farm laws at Delhi-Haryana borders. Pal is one of the 32 representatives of farmers’ union who attended the meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Tomar and Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital on Tuesday.

“We have also held talks with Rakesh Tikait of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, and he has also agreed to fight together with us,”. Pal added.

Responding to the call given by Darshan Pal, Pratibha Shinde of Lok Sangharsh Morcha said, “We will burn effigies in every district of Maharashtra tomorrow and on December 5 in Gujarat to protest against Centre. Tomorrow is the last chance for the government to take the decision to repeal the laws otherwise this movement will become huge and the government will fall.”

Watch – Punjab Stood As One Against Farm Laws

Meanwhile, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that the government will hold discussions with farmer leaders on Thursday.

“We will hold discussions with farmers’ leaders tomorrow. Let’s see to what extent issues can be resolved. The draft that was to be given to the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) would come by night. We are waiting for their draft, we will discuss it tomorrow,” he said.

The Singhu and Tikri borders continue to remain closed to traffic due to the large number of farmers that have amassed there in protest of the three farm laws that were passed in the monsoon session in September by voice vote amid despite objection from the Opposition.

The Centre held talks with representatives of farmer unions on Tuesday and the two sides will now meet again on December 3. The farmer unions rejected the government’s offer to set up a committee to look into issues raised by them and said they will intensify their stir until their demands are met.

The farmers are protesting against The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. (ANI)

After megastar Amitabh Bachchan heaped praises on actor Aahana Kumra for her pathbreaking performance in Voot’s crime thriller ‘Marzi’, the young actor has now marked another milestone by earning herself a nomination at the prestigious Asian Academy Creative Awards in the ‘Best Actress In A Leading Role’ category.

The ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ actor has been nominated along with actors from across the world. The winners of the Awards will be announced on December 4, hence there’s a lot of excitement amongst her fans.

In the show ‘Marzi’, Kumra played the role of Sameera Chauhan, a teacher who accuses a surgeon of rape post a dinner date. Kumra has received appreciation for her acting skills in the web series from critics and audiences alike.

Ecstatic about the big nomination, Kumra said, “It’s such an honour for me to be able to represent my country on a global platform. Marzi is such a special show and I will always be grateful for the amount of love people have given me for my performance.”

She said that she is excited about the big day and it would be the best feeling in the world to get lauded for her work at the Asian Academy Creative Awards. “It’s every actor’s dream and I am totally looking forward to it,” she added.

Streaming on the OTT platform Voot Select, ‘Marzi’ stars Aahana Kumra and Rajeev Khandelwal in the lead roles. It is based on the novel ‘Liar’ which is written by the BAFTA and Emmy nominated Jack and Harry Williams. (ANI)

Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday hit out at Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, over his allegations that Delhi Chief Minister had passed the three farm laws in Delhi.

“Punjab Chief Minister has made allegations against me that I’ve passed the black laws in Delhi. How can he do such low-level politics at this crucial time? It’s not up to the State government to implement it. Had it been so why would farmers of the country hold talks with Centre,” said Kejriwal.

Addressing a press briefing the Delhi Chief Minister also hit out at the Centre for not converting the nine stadiums in the city into jails for protesting farmers.

“I will tell you why Captain Sahab is alleging this. We did not allow the nine stadiums in Delhi to be converted into jails. Centre had plans to put the farmers in these stadiums. Centre is upset with me as I didn’t give permission for making them jails,” Kejriwal further said.

The Delhi chief minister alleged that his Punjab counterpart was making false allegations against him.

“Are you under the pressure of the Centre government and making fake allegations against me and speaking Bharatiya Janata Party’s language? Are you doing all due to any pressure because Enforcement Directorate (ED) is investing a case against your family? ,” Kejriwal said

“Singh got several opportunities to stop these farm bills but he did not do so. The people of Punjab are now questioning him on why he did not attempt to stop them. In 2019 the Centre formed a committee to formulate these laws and Amarinder Singh was part of that committee. Why did he not his voice against these laws? Why did he not tell people about these laws, why?” Kejriwal asked.

“We need to make a decision are we with farmers or with the people who are calling them terrorists, I request Centre to accept demands of farmers and guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) into the law,” he added.

Meanwhile Amarinder Singh said “Do they have no shame?” slamming AAP for misleading the Kisan Unions by pretending to be supporting their cause. He said that all this time, Kejriwal’s party was indulging in political theatrics.

“First, they failed to pass any amendment laws in the Delhi Assembly to negate the central laws, as was done in Punjab. And now they have gone so far as to officially notify the agricultural legislations in Delhi, where

AAP is in power. The party’s true intent and affiliation has been utterly exposed,” Captain Amarinder said in a press release on Tuesday. (ANI)

The trailer of Varun Dhawan and Sara Ali Khan starrer ‘Coolie No. 1′ which released four days ago, has crossed the 50 million views’ milestone on YouTube.

The film which is slated for a Christmas release would be out on Amazon Prime Video on December 25 this year. The film is expected to be full of fun and laughter as the audience seems to love Varun and Sara’s chemistry who are paired opposite each other for the first time.

The ‘Kedarnath’ star and Varun took to their respective Instagram handles to share their excitement on the trailer crossing 50 million view-mark.

Sara shared the film’s poster on her Instagram account, using the ‘story’ feature, and tagged co-star Varun celebrating the milestone. “50 Million views and counting,” she wrote.

On Saturday, Varun and Sara dropped the much-anticipated trailer for their upcoming drama ‘Coolie No 1’ in a live event.

After the box office success of ‘Judwaa 2’, this will be the second film of Varun with his father. The movie which is a remake of the 1995 Govinda and Karisma Kapoor starrer by the same name will see the fresh pairing of Varun and Sara.

‘Coolie No. 1’ will see Varun in place of Govinda from the classic and Sara Ali Khan in the place of Karisma Kapoor.

Produced by Vashu Bhagnani, JackkyBhagnani, and Deepshikha Deshmukh, the film also stars Paresh Rawal, Javed Jaffrey, Johnny Lever, Rajpal Yadav, and Shikha Talsania among others. (ANI)

The total active caseload of COVID-19 in the country dropped to 4,28,644 on Wednesday.

India’s total active caseload has significantly dropped to 4.28 lakh (4,28,644) today. This is the lowest after 132 days. The total active cases were 4,26,167 on July 23, 2020, a statement from the Union government read.

According to the statement, there has been a sustained decrease in the number of active cases. India’s present active caseload consists of just 4.51 per cent of country’s total positive cases.

The daily new cases added to the country’s COVID numbers have been around 30,000 since the past three days. The number of daily new cases in the last 24 hours is 36,604.

43,062 cases recovered and discharged in the last 24 hours. The number of daily recovered cases has surpassed the daily new cases since the past five days.

The difference in new recoveries outnumbering new cases has also improved the recovery rate to 94.03 per cent today.

According to the statement, the total recovered cases stand at 89,32,647. The gap between recovered cases and active cases, that is steadily increasing, has crossed 85 lakh today and presently stands at 85,04,003.

78.35 per cent of the new recovered cases are observed to be concentrated in 10 States and UTs.

Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 6,290 newly recovered cases. 6,151 people recovered in Kerala followed by 5,036 in Delhi.

77.25 per cent of the new cases are from 10 States and UTs.

Kerala reported the highest daily new cases at 5,375. It is followed by Maharashtra with 4,930 new cases.

501 case fatalities have been reported in the past 24 hours.

Ten States and UTs account for 79.84 per cent of new deaths. Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties (95). Delhi and West Bengal follow with 86 and 52 daily deaths, respectively. (ANI)

The Chinese government had “planned” the June Galwan incident even as Beijing ramped up its multiyear coercion campaign against its neighbors, provoking military or paramilitary standoffs with countries from Japan to India, the United States top panel said in its report released on Wednesday.

Months after the Galwan clashes that resulted in the brutal death of 20 Indian soldiers, United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) in its report ‘2020 Report To Congress of the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission’ said, “Some evidence suggested the Chinese government had planned the incident (Galwan), potentially including the possibility for fatalities.”

The report read, “In June 2020, the PLA and Indian troops engaged in a massive physical brawl in the Galwan Valley, located in the far-western Ladakh region along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) separating the two countries. The clash, which followed a series of standoffs beginning in early May along multiple sectors of the LAC, led to at least 20 Indian deaths and an unconfirmed number of Chinese casualties, the first time since 1975 that lives were lost in fighting between the two sides.

“Beijing ramped up its multiyear coercion campaign against its neighbors, provoking military or paramilitary standoffs with countries from Japan to India and much of Southeast Asia.Shortly after China’s defense minister urged Beijing to use military force to stabilize its periphery, a violent clash on the China-India border in June led to the first loss of life between the two countries since 1975,” it said.

Quoting Tanvi Madan, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, the report said, “According to Dr Madan, if China’s goal from its actions was “to acquire territory… [the Chinese government] might deem the moves a success”. If Beijing intended to dissuade India from building infrastructure on its side of the LAC or warn it against aligning with the United States, however, “then the Chinese moves have been ineffective, if not counterproductive.”

“Some evidence suggested the Chinese government had planned the incident, potentially including the possibility for fatalities. For instance, several weeks prior to the clash Defense Minister Wei made his statement encouraging Beijing to “use fighting to promote stability,” the report said.

Citing another incident before the Galwan clashes, it said, “Just over two weeks before the incident, in another potential indication of Chinese leaders signaling their intent to escalate tensions, an editorial in China’s state-owned tabloid Global Times warned that India would suffer a “devastating blow” to its trade and economic ties with China if it got “involved in the U.S.-China rivalry.” Satellite images depicted a large Chinese buildup in the Galwan Valley, including potentially 1,000 PLA soldiers, the week before the deadly skirmish.”

The US top panel said that though both the countries have had ” multiple physical clashes along their border” but “since General Secretary Xi assumed power in 2012 the two countries have seen five major altercations along their border”. “The exact motivations behind the Chinese government’s provocative behavior on the LAC this year remain unclear.”

The Chinese and Indian troops are engaged in a stand-off since early May along LAC in eastern Ladakh.

The situation along the LAC deteriorated in June following the Galwan Valley clash in which both sides suffered casualties.

Twenty Indian soldiers lost their lives in the violent face-off on June 15-16. It happened as a result of an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during the de-escalation in eastern Ladakh. (ANI)

A Punjab-based lawyer has sent a legal notice to Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut for allegedly misidentifying an old woman at the farmers’ protest in the national capital as Bilkis Bano, famously known as the ‘Shaheen Bagh dadi’.

Advocate Harkam Singh, in the legal notice dated November 30, suggested Ranaut should have authenticated information before posting it on social media and demanded an apology over her tweets, in which she allegedly misidentified the woman.

“I sent a legal notice for a tweet misidentifying Mohinder Kaur as Bilkis Bano with an insinuation that she (Kaur) was available as a hired protestor for Rs 100. The notice gives Ranaut seven days to issue an apology failing which a defamation case will be pursued,” Singh told ANI here on Wednesday.

The legal notice said Ranaut, in her tweet, claimed that Bilkis Bano was present at the farmers’ protest and was available in Rs 100.

“It is to inform you that the said lady is not a fake lady. Her name is Mahinder Kaur and she belongs to Bathinda. She is the wife of farmer Labh Singh Nambardar. She in her life, has always remained connected with fields and filed work and she is the wife of a farmer,” the notice said.

It said by using such remarks, Ranaut has not only lowered down the prestige and image of the lady but has also lowered down the image and prestige of each lady as well as of each person who takes part in protests for a noble cause and for fighting for their rights.

“That by tweeting in such a manner, the same also points out towards the fact that the protest which is being conducted by the farmers, is being conducted by bringing persons on rent. Such low thinking from you, who herself is lady and celebrity, is not acceptable,” the notice said.

“That you have further made a mockery of the farmers who, by putting their life to risk, have been protesting for their rights. It is known to one and all that in the said farmers’ protest, a number of farmers have already lost their lives,” it added.

Notably, Ranaut had deleted her tweet allegedly misidentifying the woman after she was slammed for the same on social media. (ANI)

Amid growing tension between China and Australia, Taiwan has called on Canberra to help defend the island territory against threats from Beijing.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu has warned that matters with China can escalate amid aggressive military activities, ABC News reported. He said that Taipei could be used as a scapegoat to relieve increasing pressures at home.

“If you look at the Chinese military activities around Taiwan, it’s been intensifying. We see that the Chinese military vessels, as well as its military airplanes, cross into Taiwan’s ADIZ, especially in the southwest corner of Taiwan’s ADIZ almost on a daily basis,” Wu was quoted as saying by ABC News.

“If an authoritarian country is facing domestic difficulties, the easiest way for them to keep the country together will be … to find a scapegoat outside,” he added.

The Foreign Minister has called on like-minded countries including Australia to back Taiwan against the Chinese “expansionism”.

“I see like-minded countries like Japan and Australia and India and the United States can also work together to prevent China from further expansionism,” Wu said.

This comes as a growing diplomatic dispute between China and Australia on trade, defence, and foreign policy matters.

China continues to regard Taipei as a “breakaway province” and has said that it wouldn’t mind using force to claim it.

In recent years it has also increased military drills around Taiwan, with almost 40 Chinese warplanes crossing the median line between the mainland.

Taipei, on the other hand, has countered the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the United States. (ANI)