Who will be next Pak PM? Here are 6 aspirants

Agencies
July 29, 2017

Islamabad, Jul 29: With Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif quitting his job after the Supreme Court disqualified him on Friday, questions are swirling over who will succeed him.

The court’s decision to dismiss the thrice-elected Prime Minister followed a petition by the Opposition, which had levelled corruption charges against him and his family members. Mr. Sharif will now face criminal charges.

Legal experts say that under constitutional rules, Mr. Sharif and his Pakistan Muslim League will have to nominate a lawmaker to replace him. That nominee will then have to be elected by the National Assembly, where the party enjoys a comfortable majority.

Here are the prime minister probables:

Ahsan Iqbal, minister for planning and development, is an engineering graduate who has been a member of Mr. Sharif’s party since 1988. He studied business in the United States and is considered a close ally of Mr. Sharif. He was elected from Narowal, a city in Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, where 60 per cent of the country’s 200 million people live.

Yaz Sadiq, Parliamentary Speaker, was elected from Lahore, capital of eastern Punjab province. He defeated a close associate of Mr. Sharif’s chief opponent, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, who spearheaded the Opposition petition that triggered the Supreme Court’s ruling. Political analysts say Mr. Sharif could select Mr. Sadiq as his successor just to annoy Mr. Khan.

Hurram Dastgir Khan, commerce minister, is also an engineer. He was elected from the industrial city of Gujranwala, also in eastern Punjab province, a stronghold of the Sharifs.

Hahid Khaqan Abbasi, petroleum minister, is another close ally of Mr. Sharif. He faced charges along with Mr. Sharif following the 1999 bloodless coup by Gen. (retd.) Pervez Musharraf. Abbasi was elected from the mountain resort area of Murree, also in Punjab.

Hwaja Muhammed Asif, defence minister, has been a harsh critic of Pakistan’s powerful military and its propensity to involve itself in the country’s civilian affairs. He was elected from Sialkot, also in Punjab.

Shahbaz Sharif, who is the Chief Minister of Punjab province and Mr. Nawaz Sharif's brother,would first have to win a by-election for a seat in Parliament if his brother chooses him.

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SYED
 - 
Saturday, 29 Jul 2017

Our MP Mr. Kateel is hiding behind MATCH BOX....Haahahaha LOL

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News Network
May 29,2020

Karachi, May 29: Investigators and rescue officials have found around Rs 3 crore in cash in the wreckage of the Pakistan International Airlines' aircraft that crashed wth 99 people on board, killing 97 people, including nine children.

Flight PK-8303 from Lahore to Karachi crashed in a residential area near Karachi International Airport on Friday, with only two passengers miraculously surviving the crash.

Investigators and rescue officials have found currencies of different countries and denominations worth around Rs 30 million from the aircraft's wreckage, an official said on Thursday.

"An investigation has been ordered into how such a huge amount of cash got through airport security and baggage scanners and found its way into the ill-fated flight," the official said.

He said that the amount was recovered from two bags in the wreckage.

"The process of identifying the bodies and their luggage which will be handed over to their families and relatives is going on," he said.

A total of 97 people including the aircraft crew died in the crash, one of the most catastrophic aviation disasters in Pakistan's history.

A government official said on Thursday that the identification of 47 bodies had been completed, while 43 bodies were handed over for burial.

Friday's accident was the first major aircraft crash in Pakistan after December 7, 2016 when a PIA ATR-42 aircraft from Chitral to Islamabad crashed midway. The crash claimed the lives of all 48 passengers and crew, including singer-cum-evangelist Junaid Jamshed.

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News Network
May 12,2020

Washington, May 12: The US Federal Bureau of Investigation and cybersecurity experts believe Chinese hackers are trying to steal research on developing a vaccine against coronavirus, two newspapers reported Monday.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are planning to release a warning about the Chinese hacking as governments and private firms race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported.

The hackers are also targeting information and intellectual property on treatments and testing for COVID-19.

US officials alleged that the hackers are linked to the Chinese government, the reports say.

The official warning could come within days.

In Beijing Foreign Affairs ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian rejected the allegation, saying China firmly opposes all cyber attacks.

"We are leading the world in COVID-19 treatment and vaccine research. It is immoral to target China with rumors and slanders in the absence of any evidence," Zhao said.

Asked about the reports, President Donald Trump did not confirm them, but said: "What else is new with China? What else is new? Tell me. I'm not happy with China."

"We're watching it very closely," he added.

A US warning would add to a series of alerts and reports accusing government-backed hackers in Iran, North Korea, Russia and China of malicious activity related to the pandemic, from pumping out false news to targeting workers and scientists.

The New York Times said it could be a prelude to officially-sanctioned counterattacks by US agencies involved in cyber warfare, including the Pentagon's Cyber Command and the National Security Agency.

Last week in a joint message Britain and the United States warned of a rise in cyber attacks against health professionals involved in the coronavirus response by organised criminals "often linked with other state actors."

Britain's National Cyber Security Centre and the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said they had detected large-scale "password spraying" tactics -- hackers trying to access accounts through commonly used passwords -- aimed at healthcare bodies and medical research organisations.

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News Network
June 13,2020

Shanghai, Jun 13: Authorities in Beijing have temporarily shut a major wholesale agricultural market following a rise in locally transmitted novel coronavirus infections in China's capital city over the past two days.

The closure of the Xinfadi wholesale market at 3 a.m. local time on Saturday (1900 GMT on Friday), came after two men working at a meat research centre who had recently visited the market were reported on Friday as having been infected by the novel coronavirus. It was not immediately clear how the men had been infected.

Concern is growing of a second wave of the new virus, even in many countries that seemed to have curbed its spread. It was first reported at a seafood market in Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province, in December.

Beijing authorities had earlier halted beef and mutton trading at the Xinfadi market, alongside closures at other wholesale markets around the city.

Reflecting concerns over the risk of further spread of the virus, major supermarkets in Beijing removed salmon from their shelves overnight after the virus causing COVID-19 was discovered on chopping boards used for imported salmon at the market, the state-owned Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Beijing authorities said more than 10,000 people at the market will take nucleic acid tests to detect coronavirus infections. The city government also said it had dropped plans to reopen schools on Monday for students in grades one through three because of the new cases.

Health authorities visited the home of a Reuters reporter in Beijing's Dongcheng district on Saturday to ask whether she had visited the Xinfadi market, which is 15 km (9 miles) away. They said the visit was part of patrols Dongcheng was conducting.

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China reported 11 new COVID-19 cases and seven asymptomatic cases for Friday, the national health authority said on Saturday. And all six locally transmitted cases were confirmed in Beijing.

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