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PISJ-ES principal refuses to vacate post

November 21, 2013

PISJ-ES

Jeddah/Riyadh, Nov 21: The principal of the Pakistan International School Jeddah English Section (PISJ-ES), who was sacked by the Pakistan ambassador earlier this week, has rejected allegations against her and refused to vacate her position.

Sehar Kamran has instead accused Mohammad Naeem Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador, of playing politics because she is a member of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that was defeated in the recent elections by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

Khan fired Kamran Tuesday following several allegations against her including corruption, mismanagement of funds, gross indiscipline, favoritism and using her political connections to get the job in 2008. Khan appointed Imran Raza Khan as acting principal with immediate effect.

Kamran allegedly refused to allow the new acting principal to enter the school premises on Wednesday morning, ordered that the school close early and that it would remain close on Thursday, a move that angered some parents.

“We received a message to pick up the children around 10 a.m. The school belongs to the community. It is not her personal property to do what she likes with it,” said Imran Abasi, a parent. He said it took him almost an hour and a half to find his children.

Another parent, Khalid Cheema, said: “Parents do not want a political personality as principal.”

However, Arshad Javaid, also a parent, claimed that “90 percent of the parents are with Kamran and want her to run the school.”

The school’s link officer, Sohail Ali Khan, went to the school to pacify parents and said it would be open on Thursday. He said the decision to terminate Kamran had been taken by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and was in accordance with Saudi regulations.

Aftab Khokhar, the Pakistan consul general, said Kamran’s decision to shut the school was illegal. He said the consulate would ensure that the school remains open and the Pakistan ambassador’s orders implemented.

Kamran rejected the allegations against her and lashed out at the embassy officials.

“I’ve served Pakistan for more than 21 years with honesty, love and loyalty. I’ve always worked for the development of Pakistan. I’ve served this school with my expertise and love for more than six years,” she said.

Kamran accused the ambassador of firing her because of her political affiliations. She said the officials had acted in an “unscrupulous” manner following the establishment of the government under the PML-N, and because she is a member of the PPP.

Kamran is the first woman to enter the upper house of Pakistan’s Parliament and won a senate election. The allegations were from people “playing high level politics ... and trying to destroy the image of Pakistan,” she said.

Some Pakistani parents and students came out in support of Kamran and held a demonstration at the Saudi Ministry of Education. The parents said they met with Khalid Al-Harthy, director of Foreign Education for the Western Region, and claimed he sent a letter to the Riyadh Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Education Ministry “for a decision.”

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Naveeda Shahzad
 - 
Sunday, 19 Aug 2018

Why a political worker was appointed as principal of Pakistani School?

Was it a favour to her by Zardari govt?

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News Network
April 20,2020

Riyadh, Apr 20: Six more people have died in Saudi Arabia after contracting coronavirus as 1,122 new coronavirus cases were reported on Monday.

The Saudi health ministry said that total number of cases in the Kingdom had increased to 10,484. It also recorded 92 new recoveries, raising the total to 1,490.

The ministry said precautionary measures shall remain to limit the virus spread.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

Kuwait will allow citizens and residents to travel to and from the country, starting August 1, the government communication center tweeted on early Thursday, citing a cabinet decision.

The decision excludes residents coming from Bangladesh, Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran, Nepal.

Last month, Kuwait announced it would partially resume commercial flights from August, but does not expect to reach full capacity until a year later, as its aviation sector gradually recovers from a suspension sparked by the Covid-19 crisis.

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News Network
January 16,2020

Abu Dhabi, Jan 16: The number of people being killed by terrorism activities worldwide has decreased significantly over the recent years, according to the latest Global Terrorism Index.

The 2019 Global Terrorism Index, which was presented at a forum in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday also showed that the UAE improved its ranking in the index by coming down to 130th rank among the 163 countries. The terrorism impact in the UAE is categorised as 'very low'. In the UAE, only two terrorism incidents were reported over the past decade - one in 2010 and another in 2014 - and there were no casualties.

Commenting on the report, Mansour Al Mansouri, director of the UAE National Media Council (NMC) said: "These findings rightly show the UAE as one of the safest countries in the world in terms of terror threat."

The index showed that the total number of deaths from terrorism declined for the fourth consecutive year in 2018, falling by 15.2 per cent to 15,952 deaths. This represents a 53 per cent reduction since its peak in 2014 when 33,555 people were killed in terrorist attacks.

The index published for the seventh year in a row, ranks 163 countries across the globe according to the relative impact of terrorism. This takes into account the number of terrorist incidents, deaths caused by terror and total value of property damage.

The latest results saw three Middle East countries - Iraq, Syria and Yemen - continue in the top 10 positions of the index.

The findings also showed Taleban overtaking Daesh as the deadliest terrorist group in the world, accounting for 38 per cent of all terrorist deaths. This is an increase of 71 per cent. Afghanistan is the country most affected by terrorism in 2018 followed by Iraq, Nigeria, Syria and Pakistan, according to the report. The least impacted nations were Belarus, Guinea-Bissau, Oman, The Gambia and North Korea.

During his presentation of the key findings of the index at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of the UAE (FCC), Serge Stroobants, director of Europe and Mena at the Institute of Economics and Peace, said lesser people were now being killed in terrorism activities.

"There have been long-term trends in global terrorism, with deaths caused by terror down by 52 per cent compared to high point of 2014, which saw Daesh and Boko Haram at their peak," said Stroobants attributing the decrease in the deaths to the increase in security measures and cooperation among nations in the fight against terrorism.

In contrast to this, there has been a 320 per cent increase in far-right terrorist incidents in the West, with political ideology being the driving force behind an increased proportion of terror motivation.

"There has been an increase in far-right terrorism in Western Europe, North America and Oceania for the third consecutive year," said Stroobants.

Terrorism still remains a global security threat, according the index, with 71 countries recording more than one death - the second highest number of countries since 2002.

Stroobants said conflicts remain the main cause of terrorism with 90 per cent of terrorist incidents occurring in places where there are conflicts or insurgencies.

The report said the global economic impact of terrorism was $33 billion in 2018, a substantial decrease of 38 per cent from the previous year.

Boko Haram was responsible for 80 per cent of all female suicide attacks, said the terrorism index.

Global Terrorism Index: Most affected countries

>Afghanistan (7379 deaths)

>Iraq (1,054 deaths)

>Nigeria (2,040 deaths)

>Syria (662 deaths)

>Pakistan (537 deaths)

>Somalia (646 deaths)

>India (350 deaths)

>Yemen (301 deaths)

>The Philippines (297 deaths)

>Democratic Republic of the Congo (410 deaths)

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