Pak court indicts Musharraf; rejects plea to travel abroad

April 1, 2014

Indicts_MusharrafIslamabad, Apr 1: In a double whammy, former dictator Pervez Musharraf was today indicted by a court on five counts of high treason and his plea to travel abroad rejected as he became Pakistan's first ever military ruler to face criminal prosecution that entails death penalty.

Musharraf, who personally appeared in the special court for the second time since proceedings began in December, pleaded "not guilty" to all the charges against him read out by Justice Tahira Safdar of the Balochistan High Court.

The high-profile treason case against the 70-year-old former president is seen as a setback for the country's powerful army that apparently looked like moving to protect Musharraf when he was shifted to a military hospital in early January.

Musharraf is accused of treason for suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of superior courts.

If found guilty, he faces the death sentence or life imprisonment.

Reading out from his notes, Musharraf said that he gave 44 years of his life to the Pakistan Army and made defence invincible. He said he gave repute and progress to the country.

"I honour this court and prosecution, I strongly believe in law, I don't have ego problems and I have appeared in court 16 times in this year in Karachi, Islamabad and Rawalpindi," Musharraf said.

"I am being called a traitor, I have been chief of army staff for nine years and I have served this army for 45 years. I have fought two wars and it is treason?," he questioned.

Prosecutor Akram Sheikh in reply said he has never used the word "traitor".

Amid tight security, the three-judge bench headed by Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court read out the indictment against Musharraf.

Prior to the indictment, Farogh Naseem, a new lawyer in Musharraf's defence team, requested the court to allow the former president to travel to the UAE to meet his 95-year-old ailing mother.

Rejecting his application for seeking permission to travel abroad, the special court ruled that it did not have the powers to do so as it was functioning under a specific law.

Musharraf came to power in a bloodless coup in 1999, deposing then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

Musharraf, facing impeachment following elections in 2008, resigned as president and went into self-imposed exile in Dubai.

The court ruled that it did not put Musharraf's name on the Exit Control List (ECL) and a review can be done by the federal government.

Anybody whose name is on ECL cannot leave the country without permission.

The court said Musharraf is not in its custody and he is a free man.

Postponing the hearing to April 14, the court said he will have to appear before it as and when asked to do so.

However, it ruled that exemption can also be granted on specific days in case of a justifiable reason.

Security measures at the court were beefed up in anticipation of Musharraf's appearance in court, in compliance with an order issued on March 14, demanding his presence enforced or voluntary in the dock.

Musharraf was admitted to the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC), Rawalpindi, on January 2 after he complained of "heart problem" on his way to the court.

Following the hearing, Musharraf was rushed back to the hospital in Rawalpindi accompanied by a security convoy of dozens of vehicles and government-provided security personnel.

The military has ruled Pakistan for about half of its 66-year history and no ruler or top military commander has ever faced criminal prosecution before Musharraf.

Musharraf said the real "ghaddar" (traitor) are those who create hindrances in the country's socio-economic development and those who looted the national exchequer.

Musharraf in his defence said he had spent night with soldiers in Siachen and Kargil.

He proudly claimed to a former member of the Special Services Group whose moto was "ghazi and shaheed" (to kill or be a martyr).

He also listed out the steps that he had taken for the betterment of the country.

While commenting on the indictment of Musharraf, Cabinet Minister Ahsan Iqbal said Pakistan made another history.

"For the first time trial against a dictator brought him to face charges in court. It is a victory for all those who refused to bow against dictatorship, struggled and sacrificed to uphold the cause of rule of law in Pakistan," Iqbal said.

Iqbal, in a Facebook message, said Musharraf still showed his contempt for law and cowardice by trying to escape appearances.

"If Mush (Musharraf) had shown courage to appear on first call, he would have saved personal embarrassment and millions of rupees. But if he was so wise, why would he impose emergency in the first place," he said.

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Agencies
June 6,2020

The President of United States Donald Trump has said that countries like India and China would have much more coronavirus cases than America if they conduct more tests.

“I say to my people every time we test; you find cases because we do more testing. If we have more cases, if we wanted to do testing in China or in India or other places, I promise you there would be more cases you are doing a fantastic job in getting out the swabs,” the US president said on Friday.

Trump said that the US has carried out 20 million tests while compared to America, Germany is at four million and much talked about South Korea is about three million tests. He made the remarks at Puritan Medical Products in Maine, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

The US has reported nearly 1.9 million cases and over 1,09,000 deaths while the total number of coronavirus cases in India and China stand at 2,36,184 and 84,177 respectively, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center data.

India has so far conducted over 4 million COVID-19 tests, according to the health ministry.

Trump said, “we will be well over 20 million tests. Remember this, when you test more, you have more cases.”

“Puritan is one of the only manufacturers in the world producing high-quality medical swabs that are crucial for rapid testing. And every swab you make at Puritan is proudly stamped with the beautiful phrase made in the USA,” Trump said.

“Thanks to the testing capacity that you are making possible, our country is reopening and our economy is recovering like nobody would’ve thought possible,” he added.

Trump also spoke about the huge unemployment problem the country is currently facing. He said that the economy is now back on track, referring to the latest monthly employment numbers,.

“We absolutely shattered expectations, and this is the largest monthly jobs increase in American history, think of that; that’s a long time,” Trump said

“I think it’s more than double or about double of what our highest was before so this is the largest monthly job increase in American history. And we’re going to have a phenomenal next year. We’re going to have a tremendous couple of months prior to the election on November 3 very, very important date,” the president said.

Keeping an eye on the November 3 presidential elections, Trump is seeking re-election for his second consecutive term. He is pitted against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden who in opinion polls is surging several points of Trump.

“It’s going to be a very important election because the only thing that can screw it up is if you get the wrong president and they raise your taxes, and they open up your borders so that everybody pours into our country,” Trump said.

Trump also vowed to bring the American economy back on track, which has been badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic. He reiterated that his administration has built a strong economy in the last three years.

Describing the fight against coronavirus as the greatest national and industrial mobilisation since the World War II, Trump said that his administration has marshaled the full power of the US government and US industry to defeat the invisible enemy.

“It is indeed an enemy. It came from China, should have been stopped in China. They didn’t do that,” he alleged.

The administration, he said, has delivered over 1.5 billion pieces of personal protective equipment to doctors and nurses on the front lines. We slashed the red tape to speed up the development of vaccines.

“And vaccines are coming along incredibly well, wait till you see, and therapeutics. And we partnered at private sector leaders such as Puritan to build the largest and most advanced testing capacity on the face of the earth, like this one,” the US president said.

The Puritan factory in Maine, he said, quickly ramped up the production to produce nearly 20 million foam-tipped swabs each month.

“Then in April, my administration invoked the Defence Production Act to help you scale up even more. Under a USD 75 million public-private partnership, Puritan will soon double production to 40 million swabs per month,” Trump added.

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News Network
February 4,2020

Kolkata, Feb 4: A Thailand national on Tuesday gave birth during a flight from Doha to Bangkok.

The unnamed woman passenger went into labour and delivered the baby with the help of a cabin crew of Qatar airways at around 3 am.

The aircraft made the emergency landing in Kolkata and the woman was admitted to a private hospital here. Both the mother and the baby are doing fine.

"An unscheduled flight from Doha to Bangkok QR-830 landed around 03:09 am at Kolkata airport in medical priority landing. The pilot of Qatar flight had asked SOS to ATC for medical priority landing. The flight landed safely, the airport team with the doctor was attending the concerned." Kolkata Airport official said while speaking to news agency.

More details in this regard are awaited.

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News Network
May 3,2020

London, May 3: The British government had a contingency plan for prime minister Boris Johnson’s death as his condition deteriorated while he battled COVID-19 last month in intensive care, Johnson said in an interview with The Sun newspaper.

Johnson returned to work on Monday, a month after testing positive for COVID-19. Johnson, 55, spent 10 days in isolation in Downing Street from late March, but was then was taken to London’s St Thomas’ Hospital where he received oxygen treatment and spent three nights in intensive care.

“They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario,” Johnson, 55, was quoted as saying by The Sun. “It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it.”

After Johnson was discharged, St Thomas’ said it was glad to have cared for the prime minister, but the hospital has given no details about the gravity of his illness beyond stating that he was treated in intensive care.

Johnson and his fiancée, Carrie Symonds, on Saturday announced the name of their newly born son as Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas, partly as a tribute to two of the intensive care doctors who they said had saved Johnson’s life.

“The doctors had all sorts of arrangements for what to do if things went badly wrong,” Johnson said of his COVID-19 battle. “The bloody indicators kept going in the wrong direction.”

He said doctors discussed invasive ventilation.

“The bad moment came when it was 50-50 whether they were going to have to put a tube down my windpipe,” he said. “That was when it got a bit . . . they were starting to think about how to handle it presentationally.”

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