Month: June 2022

As many as 1.7 million bonded labourers are there in Pakistan’s Sindh province, a non-governmental organisation said on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour.

Out of the 1.7 million, 700,000 are children, working under indecent and inhumane working and living conditions imposed on them by their landlords, the Dawn newspaper reported citing Hari Welfare Association (HWA).
Over 6.4 million children are out of school in Sindh, most of them engaged in the worst forms of indecent child labour, HWA said.

From 2013 to 2021, on the orders of courts in Sindh, 3,329 children were released along with their adult family members from the custody of landlords in the agriculture sector, according to the data collected by the HWA.

“Besides the agriculture sector, children under 15 years of age are exploited, abused, and tortured in bangle, brick kiln, fisheries, auto workshops, cotton picking, and chilli picking sectors/activities in the province,” Dawn quoted HWA’s president Akram Khaskheli as saying.

The HWA president said that the relevant authorities had completely ignored the future of these children adding that most of them work as domestic slaves and their wages are paid to the agents, which pay nominal money to their parents.

According to Khaskheli, the government’s sheer ignorance and absence of policy and plan to eradicate child labour have also added to the miseries of children. “The government is good at introducing laws, but worst at implementing these laws,” he said.

Roughly 160 million children were subjected to child labour at the beginning of 2020, with 9 million additional children at risk due to the impact of COVID-19, according to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

This accounts for nearly 1 in 10 children worldwide. Almost half of them are in hazardous work that directly endangers their health and moral development.

Children may be driven into work for various reasons. Most often, child labour occurs when families face financial challenges or uncertainty – whether due to poverty, sudden illness of a caregiver, or job loss of a primary wage earner.

“The consequences are staggering. Child labour can result in extreme bodily and mental harm, and even death. It can lead to slavery and sexual or economic exploitation. And in nearly every case, it cuts children off from schooling and health care, restricting their fundamental rights and threatening their futures,” UNICEF said this week. (ANI)

Upon Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) announcement of a ceasefire, Foreign Minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday slammed the Shehbaz government and formed a three-membered committee as he decided to take up the issue in the parliament.

The three-member committee formed by Bhutto-Zardari comprised of Qamar Zaman Kaira, Sherry Rehman and Farhatullah Babar, Dawn reported.
The banned TTP formally announced an indefinite ceasefire with Pakistan following two days of talks with a grand tribal jirga in Kabul this month, with a major condition of reversal of the merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to cut any peace deal with Pakistan.

Considering the parliament as the best forum for a conversation on the issue, the PPP meeting discussed questions like the purpose of the entire exercise, the forces behind it, and the desired objectives, as well as the issue of terrorism in the country, particularly in the light of recent developments in Afghanistan involving Afghan Taliban and the banned TTP.

Pakistan has long supported the Taliban, thinking that it will boon Islamabad’s security but it has only posed risk to the country. Since the Taliban returned to power, TTP has launched over 124 terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

“If we have to talk to them, we should only negotiate on the terms of surrender,” Former corps commander and inspector general (IG) of Frontier Corps retired Lt Gen Tariq Khan said while speaking to Dawn.

He further said that the condition of the TTP about the reversal of Fata’s merger only raises questions on how a militant group can demand to govern a part of Pakistani territory.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered the country’s premier spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), to screen civil servants before their appointments, postings and promotions

This decision comes as the country is deep into political instability and has corruption at stumping levels.

Pakistan slipped three spots to rank 120 out of 180 countries in the global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2019 released by Transparency International. The country was assigned a score of 32 on a scale of zero to 100 — with zero being highly corrupt — which is 11 points lower than the global average of 43.

This year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) shows corruption is more pervasive in countries where big money can flow freely into electoral campaigns and where governments listen only to the voices of wealthy or well-connected individuals. (ANI)

Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram suffered a fracture in his left rib after he was pushed away by Delhi Police during the party’s protest in support of Rahul Gandhi who was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the National Herald case, said the party on Monday.

The Congress party organised a ‘Satyagrah’ march against the government and in support of Gandhi across the country in which many party leaders were detained during the day by the police.
According to the sources, Chidambaram has consulted a doctor who advised him to take rest and medication. The Congress leader, however, is not hospitalised and is under observation at his residence.

“When three big, burly policemen crash into you, you are lucky to get away with a suspected hairline crack! Doctors have said that if there is a hairline crack, it will heal by itself in about 10 days. I am fine and I will go about my work tomorrow,” he tweeted.

This comes after Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was detained by the Delhi Police on Monday during the ‘Satyagrah’ march in support of Gandhi, alleged manhandling by police personnel on the way to the ED office.

Chowdhury wrote a letter to SHO Tughlaq Road alleging manhandling by Delhi Police personnel and asked to take action against them.

“This is to intimate you that today I have been badly manhandled by the Delhi Police on the way to the ED office without even an iota of provocation. During the phase of police atrocities, I got an injury in the upper jaw of my mouth. May I request you to treat my letter as an allegation against those police personnel and do the needful,” he said in a letter.

Notably, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, along with other top Congress party colleagues Adhir Ranjan Chaudhari and KC Venugopal were among those detained as party leader Rahul Gandhi arrived at the Enforcement Directorate office here today for questioning in the National Herald money laundering case.

After the incident, Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, and other party leaders, including Raghu Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, Rajeev Shukla, Ajay Maken, TS Singh Deo, met at the party office in Delhi in the evening.

Earlier today, Congress workers staged a protest holding placards and amidst massive sloganeering in support of Rahul Gandhi. ‘Rahul Gandhi zindabad, zindabad’ shouts resonated at the Congress party headquarters here.

Rahul Gandhi was summoned by the ED to join the investigation on June 13. He was earlier summoned to join the investigation but he was out of the country and later he was given a fresh date of June 13 to join the probe.

On Friday the ED also issued a fresh summons to Sonia Gandhi asking her to appear on June 23 for questioning in connection with the National Herald money laundering case. (ANI)

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) started the second round of questioning of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday in the alleged money laundering case linked to the National Herald.

The investigators in the federal agency questioned the 51-year-old leader for over three hours in the first round which started at its headquarters at 11 am.
The first round of questioning concluded at around 2.15 pm for a lunch break. Congress leader returned to his residence followed by his visit to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in the national capital where his mother and party interim president Sonia Gandhi is admitted due to COVID-related issues.

Rahul Gandhi’s questioning resumed after he rejoined the probe for the second round at around 3.45 pm.

Rahul Gandhi is being questioned by an Assistant Director level officer– the investigating officer of the case– being supervised by a Deputy Director and a Joint Director.

Another officer is learnt to be typing Gandhi’s statement which is being recorded under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

ED is questioning the Lok Sabha member from Wayanad in Kerala regarding alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL) that owns the National Herald newspaper.

ED is likely to probe about the shareholding pattern, transfer of AJL assets to YIL and other related issues.

The ED is also investigating financial transactions as well as the role of party functionaries in the functioning of AJL and YIL.

National Herald is published by the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by YIL.

The ED will also question Rahul Gandhi’s mother and Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi in the matter. It recently issued fresh summons to her to appear before it on June 23 in the case.

The case to investigate alleged financial irregularities under the PMLA was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax Department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.

Swamy had approached the court alleging that the assets of AJL were fraudulently acquired and transferred to YIL, in which Sonia Gandhi and her son owned 38 per cent shares each.

The YIL promoters include Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis misappropriated funds, with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.

Congress argued that YIL was a not-for-profit company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 that can neither accumulate profits nor pay dividends to its shareholders.

Calling it a case of political vendetta, senior Supreme Court advocate and Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi had said, “This is truly a very weird case — an alleged money laundering case on which summons are issued with no money involved.”

The federal agency’s move followed the questioning of senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress treasurer Pawan Bansal in April this year in in connection with its money laundering probe into the National Herald case.

The agency then recorded the statements of both the Congress leaders. While Kharge is the CEO of YIL, Bansal is the Managing Director of AJL.

Meanwhile, all roads leading to the ED office in central Delhi are still barricaded by the police amid heavy deployment of Rapid Action Force personnel.

The Delhi Police has imposed provisions under Section 144 CrPC to prohibit assembly and entry of people on roads leading to the ED headquarters in Pravaratan Bhawan on A P J Abdul Kalam Road.

Delhi Traffic Police had issued an advisory for residents of the national capital asking them to avoid certain roads in wake of the proposed march by the Congress party from its headquarters to the ED office where Rahul Gandhi is being questioned. (ANI)

Pune Rural Police on Monday said they have arrested a man and his aide, who has been named as a suspect in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala.

Addressing a press conference, Kulwant K Sarangal, Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Law and Order said that further probe will be done including their links with Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang and in the murder of Moose Wala.
Santosh Jadhav and Navnath Suryawanshi were produced before a court in Pune around midnight on Sunday and they were remanded in police custody till June 20.

“Santosh Jadhav and Navnath Suryawanshi were arrested from Gujarat last night. We have their remand till June 20. Further probe to be done including their links with Lawrence Bishnoi’s gang and in the murder Moose Wala.”

He further said that Jadhav was earlier wanted by the Pune Rural police in connection with the brutal murder of criminal Onkar Bankhule from the Manchar area of Pune in August 2021.

Earlier, Sourav Mahakal an accomplice of Santosh Jadhav and a suspect in Singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s murder case was also arrested on June 8.

The Delhi Police had earlier said gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, currently in its custody, was the mastermind behind singer Sidhu Moosewala’s murder, and that a close associate of the main shooter involved in the brutal killing in Punjab’s Mansa last month had been arrested.

On the trail of singer Sidhu Moosewala’s killers, the Punjab Police on June 6 arrested Sandeep alias Kekra, who allegedly provided real-time information to the eight sharp-shooters on the singer’s movement. Police officials said Kekra had provided clues that pointed to the involvement of Lawrence Bishnoi, his brother Anmol and nephew Sachin.

Singer Sidhu Moose Wala was shot dead by assailants in Jawaharke village of Punjab’s Mansa district on May 29. The incident took place a day after his security was withdrawn by the Punjab police among 424 others. (ANI)

The upcoming animated Hollywood flick, ‘Lightyear’ has become the latest Disney movie to be banned in various Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The news has been confirmed by The Hollywood Reporter with sources stating that the decision is linked to the inclusion of a same-sex kiss in Pixar’s ‘Toy Story’ prequel spin-off.
The scene, involving the female character Hawthorne (voiced by Uzo Aduba) and her partner, was originally cut from the film, but reinstated following the uproar surrounding a statement from Pixar employees.

In that statement, they had claimed that Disney had been censoring “overtly gay affection” and Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s handling of Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill.

On June 13, the UAE’s Media Regulatory Office announced that ‘Lightyear’, set to release on June 16, was not licensed for public screening due to its “violation of the country’s media content standards.”

This movie has now become the latest in a growing list of major Disney features including ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ and ‘Eternals’, that have been faced issues in Gulf countries due to scenes involving LGBTQ references or issues, which often fall foul of censors for theatrical releases due to homosexuality being officially illegal across the region, as per The Hollywood Reporter.

In January, ‘West Side Story’ was also stopped from reaching cinemas in Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E., Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait. (ANI)

Archer Ridhi Phor is used to being on top. After all, the Haryana lass spends a lot of time on the terrace of her Karnal home, practising her art with targets set up by her father Manoj Kumar.

On Sunday, she made it to another top, winning the Recurve Archery for girls in the Khelo India Youth Games here.
“I owe my success to my father,” she said, dedicating the gold to him.

Ridhi was a studious girl. She got hooked to archery when her father brought the sport home, setting up facilities on their terrace and providing her with competition-type bows and arrows.

Manoj Kumar didn’t know much about archery but he was fascinated by it. He researched long and hard to personally groom Ridhi as there were no coaches in and around Karnal.

Ridhi made her Khelo India debut in 2018 but failed to make it to the semifinals. In 2019, she lost to Amanpreet Kaur in the bronze medal play-off in 2019. In 2020, she won the bronze.

Finally, in 2021, the World No. 47 won the gold, adding to Haryana’s tally as the hosts desperately looked to regain their position at the top of the table.

A Khelo India scholar since June 11, 2018, the 2020 National Junior silver medallist is among the band of Recurve archers in the development group of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme. The hard-working Ridhi has the motivation, hunger and talent to succeed. She has already won 10 international medals, including as part of the team which won the World Cup Stage 1 gold this year.

Ridhi’s first big medal came in the 2012 Under-14 Nationals in Vijayawada. In her first international competition, as a 14-year old, she won the women’s recurve and mixed recurve team bronze medals in the Asia Cup Stage 2 in Manila in 2018. (ANI)

The Legal and Human Rights Department of Delhi Congress on Monday moved National Human Right Commission (NHRC) alleging that Delhi Police forcefully and illegally detained the advocates who were present at the spot to assist the Congress Party to render legal help and to protect constitutional rights.

The complaint stated that the lawyers were not a part of the protest and were performing their professional duty towards the Congress party.
Advocate Sunil Kumar, Chairman Legal and Human Rights Department of Delhi Pradesh Congress Party (DPCC) seeks NHRC to investigate the same, take stern action against the erred police officials and save the lives and limbs of the advocates falsely implicated in the above-mentioned facts and circumstances.

The complaint also mentioned that the advocates were in robes showing that they were doing their professional duty and were not part of the protest. The advocates informed the police that they were there to render legal help to the congress party, but the police took them in custody, stated the complaint.

The complaint further alleges that during the custody of the advocates, the police officials harassed them, which is an illegal, unethical and unconstitutional act on the part of the police.

Protests are being staged by Congress workers in several parts of the country as the ED quizzes MP Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case. (ANI)

Sindh’s all three barrages, Guddu and Sukkur barrage in upper Sindh and Kotri Barrage downstream witnessed a 61 per cent water shortage in Indus water.

The water at Tarbela Dam and Taunsa Barrage in upstream of Guddu has been still at dead level, ARY News reported citing water figures shared by Sukkur Barrage Control Room in charge.

According to the water figures, the water inflow of Indus at Tarbela has been 89,400 cusecs, while the outflow at the dam has been 88,600 cusecs. The water inflow at Kalabagh has been 79,387 cusecs, while discharge has been recorded at 76,387 cusecs.

Flowing in the water of the Indus river has been 81,814 cusecs at Taunsa Barrage, while the outflow has been 74,422 cusecs, according to the river water data.

The water inflow of the river at Guddu Barrage has been recorded at 55,628 cusecs, while the outflow at the barrage has been 46,266 cusecs.

The water shortage in Sindh has been a great issue. Not only Sindh province but also Punjab province is facing up to 75 per cent water shortage. The Punjab province supplied 53,100 cusecs of water against its needs of 1,27,800 cusecs on Thursday.

According to the data shared by the Punjab Irrigation Department, the Taunsa Barrage supplied only 6,700 cusecs. It is 73 per cent less than its requirement of 25,000 cusecs. Moreover, the Thal Canal was facing 75 per cent scarcity as 2,000 cusecs of water were released into it against the need of 8,000 cusecs.

The Panjnad Barrage was also running with a 66 per cent shortage, receiving 4,300 cusecs against the requirement of 12,700 cusecs. Rasul Barrage was suffering 59 per cent water stress with a supply of 9,900 cusecs against the need of 24,200 cusecs.

Both Sulemanki Barrage and Lower Bahawal Canal were facing 54 per cent shortage each, Sidhnai Barrage 51 per cent, Islam Barrage 50 per cent and Trimmu Barrage 43 per cent water scarcity. There was a 33 per cent water shortage in the Mailsi canal.

Acute water shortage, along with a searing heatwave, has sparked tensions between Sindh and Punjab in Pakistan over their share of the nation’s water resources. (ANI)