Category: News

A total of eight out of 15 terrorists have been arrested from Islamabad and other areas of Punjab who were planning to target the President at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), where Hakim Ali Zardari was admitted.

The sources said that the President visited PIMS many times when Hakim was admitted there. Many terrorists pretending to be as labourers kept monitoring the movement of the President and providing information to their mastermind at Bhara Kahu, Islamabad. The sources said that later the security agencies arrested the mastermind from Bhara Kahu. During interrogation he revealed that 15 terrorist were given the task to attack the President at PIMS.

According to the TV channel, the security forces first got information about the plan from some terrorists to kill the President on May 21 by intercepting a call and arrested four of them from Islamabad and another four from different areas of Punjab on Saturday.

Eight dengue patients were confirmed by senior bacteriologist Dr Zarafshan Tahir and two were diagnosed by Jinnah Hospital doctors. Another dengue patient was reported at Services Hospital.

Some hospitals are making emergency arrangements to treat dengue patients. The Jinnah Hospital administration has formed Dengue Surveillance Cell and appointed senior registrar Dr Zeman Khan as the focal person.

Dr Zeman Khan said all diagnostic facilities were available at the hospital for dengue patients and added that anti-mosquito measures had been taken at the health facility and a 23-bed dengue ward had been set up in the Medical Unit-I.

Federal budget 2011-2012 is expected to announce today. From a business man to a common man, from large entrepreneur to a small, all are very impatient to have new policies made by policy makers. There are many pre-budget debates on tax allocation. Now let’s see that how does 45 min speech full of complex financial words react on people of Pakistan.

According to a senior government official tax revenue target has been proposed at Rs1.952 trillion for the fiscal year 2011-12. He said that except for unpacked food items, education, health and agriculture produce, almost every segment of economy would be brought under the consumption tax, widely known as GST, but it would not be called reformed general sales tax for being too controversial. Equipment and machinery relating to the CNG sector, fertilizers, pesticides, computers and other professional materials would come under 17 per cent GST.

The size of Public Sector Development Programme has been set at Rs280 billion against the current year’s original estimate of Rs270 billion which was brought down to Rs180 billion. Another Rs35 billion will be spent on flood relief assistance, slightly less than current year’s Rs40 billion.

Pensions will require Rs118 billion against this year’s Rs107 billion. An amount of Rs495 billion has been earmarked for defence, about 12 per cent more than current year’s allocation of Rs442 billion. Total security-related expenditures will increase by 15 per cent to Rs835 billion against this year’s Rs727 billion.

The tax rate on cellular sector has raised up to 31% which is very high as compare to other sectors in Pakistan. Cellular companies demand for tax rationalization to reduce the burden of high tax which results less revenue.

Zafar Usmani, CEO of Zong said “The tax rate on cellular sector is a case of severe discrimination and should be brought down to a comparable industry level”

He said that the telecom sector is not growing since many years and if the Government wants to see this sector boom then it should cut down the taxes. The tax rate is not only the problem for cellular companies but the mobile user also has to suffer the tax charges. Due to the cost burden the cellular operators think that the population at rural areas could not afford services.

Over the last few years, GST has increased from 15% to 19.5% and Advance tax was also recently increased from 10% to 11.5%. These increases in taxes limit customers’ usage and reduce overall communication level of the customers.

The workshop organised by the Individualland, a non-partisan consultancy, under the umbrella of Free, Independent and Responsible Media (FIRM) in collaboration with Fur Die Freiheit on Wednesday with the morning session focused on various journalism tools and techniques that could equip the journalists in reporting in new and dangerous environment. The participants included a range of journalists hailing from several cities of all the four provinces.

The journalists and mass communication students observed that though freedom of speech and independence of the media were provided by the Constitution of Pakistan, there were numerous factors out there which hampered the pursuit of truth and threaten the integrity. The pressures, the journalists observed, were manifold and multi-dimensional. A journalist braved numerous pressures from all sides including from own organisation, advertisers and the security institutions that the independent nature of the profession was threatened. Moreover, there was no security and insurance for the journalists who laid down their lives in the line of duty.

However, the group agreed that in the face of tremendous challenges faced by the media, there were journalists out there who did not compromise on facts and truths and those were the real unsung heroes and flag-bearers of the profession.

Where, on one side all fans of Shahid Afridi get upset due to his resignation from cricket, on the same side elders of Afridi tribe also expressed their views and said that they want Shahid back in the ground and Ijaz Butt should be kicked out of PCB.

While addressing to the conference they said that PCB had failed to select players on merit as all the decisions were taken by Ijaz Butt. The PCB usually selected players on basis of personal relations for international cricket team which was totally unfair and in violation of procedure and criteria. They said that favoritism and biasness in selection of team may cause a sense of deprivation among young and talented players.

They alleged that PCB chairman created disputes among players since he had resumed charge of his office. Three captains had been changed during his three-year tenure, whereas the cricket team of neighboring India was captained by Mahindra Singh Dhoni for the last five years.

They said the Shahid Afridi had tendered resignation owing to pressure from Ijaz Butt otherwise he wanted to play in the team. They demanded removal of PCB chairman and rejection of Afridi`s resignation.

After an intelligence warning about terrorist attack, PAF Chaklala Airbase and Benazir Bhutto airport were put on high alert on Tuesday night.

There found high level of security after intelligence agency did report to security officials about the terrorist attacks. As the security measures were already very tight in the city of Islamabad after the death of Osama Bin Laden.

On Tuesday night, after the threat was received, the Elite Force commandos, local police, military police and intelligence officials were deployed at the Chaklala base in addition to launching police patrolling and surveillance in the sensitive areas.

Police stopped motorists and searched cars on roads that ran beneath the airport`s flight path and keeping a vigil on passersby. The senior police official said: “The security alert remained till Wednesday morning to ensure that the airport and other important installations were safe. However, nobody was arrested.”