Pakistan's new Army Chief General Bajwa removes ISI head in major reshuffle

December 12, 2016

Dec 12: Pakistan's new army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa today abruptly removed the head of the country's spy agency ISI and made several other significant changes in the Army's top brass, as part of a major reshuffle.

pakGen Bajwa, who took over from Gen Raheel Sharif two weeks ago, however, did not name Lt Gen Rizwan Akhtar's successor at the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Lt Gen Akhtar has been appointed President of the National Defence University (NDU), the army said in a statement.

The newly-promoted Lt Gen Bilal Akbar has been appointed Chief of General Staff, it said.

Lt Gen Nazir Butt - presently President of the NDU - has been appointed Corps Commander Peshawar (11Corps), replacing Lt Gen Hidayat-ur-Rehman, who was appointed Inspector-General Training and Evaluation (IGT&E) at General Headquarters (GHQ).

Lt Gen Asim Salim Bajwa, presently heading army's media wing, has been appointed Inspector-General Arms (IG Arms) at GHQ.

ISI, ISPR HEADS AWAITED

On December 9, seven major generals were promoted to lieutenant generals, the statement said. And On November 29, Gen Javed Bajwa officially took charge as the 16th Chief of Army Staff during a ceremony in Rawalpindi.

A career infantry officer belonging to the Baloch Regiment, Gen Javed Bajwa is said to have extensive experience of handling affairs in Kashmir and northern areas of Pakistan.

Among other changes he undertook today, the newly promoted Lt Gen Hamayun Aziz has been appointed Inspector General C&IT at GHQ, while newly promoted Lt Gen Qazi Ikram has been appointed Chief of Logistic Staff at GHQ.

Another newly promoted Lt Gen Sher Afgun has been posted 31 Corps Commander which is based in Bahawalpur near Indian border, while newly Promoted Lt Gen Muhammad Afzal will continue as DG FWO and newly promoted Lt Gen Naeem Ashraf has been appointed Chairman Heavy Industries Taxila(HIT).

The army chief has not appointed heads of ISI, ISPR and Rangers in Sindh.

Officials said the army chief might consult the political leadership before making these "politically sensitive appointments."

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News Network
May 9,2020

Islamabad, May 9: A female doctor posted at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Mother and Child Hospital (MCH), who was tested Covid-19 positive, has exposed Pakistan's mismanagement in handling the patients affected with the deadly virus.

Identified herself as Dr. Sharbat, she made a video of herself locked in an isolated room when the authorities failed to provide any medical assistance to her.

According to Pakistani media, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) and the operating theatre in the Children's Hospital were sealed on Tuesday after 15 people from both facilities were diagnosed with Covid-19.

Dr. Sharbat said that despite having Covid-19 symptoms after her colleague doctor was tested positive, she was forced to perform duty by the hospital authorities.

After she tested positive, Dr. Sharbat has isolated herself in a room and has requested the hospital authorities to provide her a bed in the hospital.

She said, "I am isolated in a small room. There is no toilet and other facilities at this place. I have requested the authorities several times to provide me proper bed because I cannot go home as my son and father is there. I have no other place to go. Its been several hours now and the administration is busy doing meetings. They have no idea about my location. I have called the concerned officials several times and requested for a room in the hospital, but they said that they are looking for it. This is the kind of arrangements we have that a doctor, who was serving the patients, is not able to get proper care".

Dr Sharbat said that she is feeling depressed after seeing the response of authorities tackling with Covid-19 crisis in the country.

She added, "It is unfortunate that the government salutes [health professionals] but is not willing to provide isolation rooms."

Pakistan's position in the global ranking in respect of Covid-19 dropped from 24th to 22nd after the number of positive cases increased to 26,806 (till May 08) with the addition of 1,791 new cases.

However, the National Coordination Committee (NCC), chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan, had decided to substantially ease the lockdown from Saturday after detailed deliberations and consultations with the provinces.

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Agencies
June 24,2020

Washington, Jun 24: Twitter has once again flagged a tweet from US President Donald Trump which promoted violence by saying if protesters tried to set up an "autonomous zone" in Washington, DC they would be met with "serious force".

This is the fourth time Twitter has red flagged Trump's tweet for glorifying violence or violating its policies.

Trump has been critical of the "autonomous zone" in Seattle, an area occupied by protestors for much of this month.

"We've placed a public interest notice on this Tweet for violating our policy against abusive behaviour, specifically, the presence of a threat of harm against an identifiable group," Twitter's safety team tweeted late Tuesday.

Trump had tweeted: "There will never be an ‘Autonomous Zone' in Washington, D.C., as long as I'm your President. If they try they will be met with serious force!"

Twitter earlier labeled a video tweeted by him which mocked CNN as manipulated media.

According to Twitter, "this Tweet has been labeled per our synthetic and manipulated media policy to give people more context".

In May, Twitter labeled two Trump tweets that made false claims about mail-in ballots in California.

Twitter later labeled another Trump tweet glorifying violence in which he said, "when the looting starts, the shooting starts."

Facebook also removed a Trump campaign ad featuring a symbol used by Nazis for political dissenters, saying the ad violated its policies.

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News Network
May 7,2020

Islamabad, May 7: Pakistan's COVID-19 cases have crossed 24,000 after 1,523 new infections were detected, while the death toll has jumped to 564 with 38 more people succumbing to the coronavirus, health officials said on Thursday.

Even as the country is seeing an increase in the number of coronavirus cases and fatalities, Prime Minister Imran Khan will discuss the easing of lockdown restrictions with his top aides on Thursday.

The Ministry of National Health Services said that out of the 24,073 total cases, Punjab reported 9,077, Sindh 8,640, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 3,712, Balochistan 1,495, Islamabad 521, Gilgit-Baltistan 388 and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 76 cases.

After 38 more deaths on Wednesday, the total coronavirus patient death toll jumped to 564. Another 6,464 have recovered. A total of 1,523 new patients were added in a single day, the ministry.

So far, 244,778 tests have been conducted, including 12,196 in the last 24 hours, it said.

Prime Minister Khan will chair the National Coordination Committee (NCC) meeting on easing the lockdown restrictions in the country. The meeting will be attended by all chief ministers.

The issue was debated in the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday and in the Cabinet on Tuesday.

Planning Minister Asad Umar said that different proposals to allow certain businesses to open were prepared and will be presented before the Prime Minister for a final decision.

Earlier, Khan, undeterred by the mounting number of deaths and the new cases, announced that he was against a lockdown as it hits the poor people badly.

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