QUETTA, Oct 25 (DNA): A bomb explosion left many people injured in
Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan, which took place within
the vicinity of Shalkot police station on Sunday evening.

Police officials told media that the explosive material was planted on a
motorcycle while one vehicle and motorcycles parked at the scene caught
fire after the bomb explosion.

Heavy contingents of law enforcement agencies rushed to the incident’s
site and cordoned off the whole area. However, the number of casualties
is still unknown.

The National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) had earlier issued a
security alert on October 22 that outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is
planning attacks on political and religious leaderships across Quetta
and Peshawar in the near future.

According to the alert issued by the counter-terrorism watchdog, TTP is
planning a terrorist attack on political and religious leaders of the
country in the two provincial capitals.

It is pertinent to mention here that the explosion rocked the Quetta
city when the opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM),
organized a public gathering on Sunday at Ayub Stadium. DNA

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ISLAMABAD : Federal Minister for Postal Services and Communications, Murad Saeed on Sunday said that opposition parties want to see Pakistan on Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) blacklist.

Addressing a presser in Islamabad, Murad Saeed said that the opposition tried to get National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) when the government was doing legislation related to FATF laws.

Taking on former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the minister said that the PML-N supreme leader is carrying out Indian narrative and his statements about Mumbai attacks and Dawn Leaks were presented as proofs in the international court.“India has done investment over Nawaz Sharif.”

Murad Saeed said the Kashmir issue was put on the backburner during the tenure of Nawaz Sharif. Modi was warmly welcomed in Raiwind when he was slaughtering Kashmiris, he added.

He said the anti-Pakistan narrative of Nawaz Sharif is getting full coverage in Indian media, which raises question that why India is giving so much coverage to him?

ISLAMABAD : Prime Minister Imran Khan has condemned the publication of blasphemous cartoons to target Islam and Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) in France and said that President Emmanuel Macron attacked and hurt sentiments of millions of Muslims in Europe and across the world.

PM Imran Khan said in a series of Twitter messages that the last thing the world wants or needs is further polarisation and public statements based on ignorance will create more hate, Islamophobia and space for extremists.

The French president Emmanuel Macron has attacked and hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims in Europe and across the world by attacking Islam clearly without having any understanding of it.

“It is unfortunate that he has chosen to encourage Islamophobia by attacking Islam rather than the terrorists who carry out violence, be it Muslims, White Supremacists or Nazi ideologists. Sadly, President Macron has chosen to deliberately provoke Muslims, incl his own citizens, through encouraging the display of blasphemous cartoons targeting Islam and Prophet Muhammad PBUH.”

He added, “Hallmark of a leader is he unites human beings, as Mandela did, rather than dividing them. This is a time when Pres Macron could have put healing touch & denied space to extremists rather than creating further polarisation & marginalisation that inevitably leads to radicalisation.”

French magazine Charlie Hebdo had reprinted blasphemous cartoons in September which unleashed a wave of anger in the Muslim world. However, French President Emmanuel Macron had rejected to condemn the blasphemous caricatures by calling it freedom of expression in his country.

Pakistan’s government strongly condemned the reprinting of the cartoons and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a video message that these caricatures have hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims across the world.

“Pakistan has conveyed its concerns to the French government on the despicable act,” said Qureshi and added that those behind the publication of blasphemous caricatures must be taken to task.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi had said that Prime Minister Imran Khan last year had raised the issue of blasphemous caricatures in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session. FM Qureshi expressed the confidence that the world will take immediate steps to put a stop to such acts and tendencies.

He had said that Pakistan is a democratic country and believes in freedom of expression, but freedom of expression does not give license to anybody to hurt the sentiments of others.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had slammed France and Europe on Saturday and warned that Europe is preparing its own end amid rising Islamophobia across the continent. He had asserted that European fascism had entered a new phase with attacks on the rights of Muslims.

KARACHI, OCT 25 (DNA) – The APNS expresses its appreciation over the release of the abducted Geo News and Jang group senior reporter Ali Imran Syed after 22 hours on the strong protest of media and human rights organisations.

Mr Hameed Haroon President and Sarmad Ali Secretary General of All Pakistan Newspapers Society have stated that the disappearance of Mr Ali Imran was strongly condemned as a pressure tactic on journalists and the media in performing their professional duties.

The APNS office bearers thanked the Prime Minister for forming a fact finding committee in this regard and hoped that this will help identify elements involved in activities of harassing the media.

The APNS office bearers stated that there is an increasing perception that the freedom of press is being eroded and physical as well as financial security of journalists and media is being targetted.

These practices have resulted in hampering and distorting the democratic despensation as well as development of a civilised society in Pakistan. The peoples right to know and freedom of press must be respected for the formation of a country where rule of law prevails.

They urged upon the government to provide security to and protect the lives and freedom of journalists.=DNA

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DNA

KARACHI – The United Business Group of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry unanimously nominated Khalid Tawab for the post of President and Abdul Rauf Mukhtar for the post of Senior Vice President. Khalid Tawab hails from Karachi and has previously served as the Senior Vice President of FPCCI  while Abdul Rauf Mukhtar belonging to Lahore has remained the Vice President of FPCCI.

These candidates were announced by UBG Patron in Chief S. M. Munir during a meeting of the UBG Core Committee at the residence of UBG Chairman Iftikhar Ali Malik.

In this meeting, the members of the core committee gave full authority to S. M. Munir for these two decisions whch were announced by mutual consent.The members of the core committee from all across the country participated in the meeting.

Sheikh Tanveer Ahmed, Zubair Tufail, Riaz-ud-Din Sheikh, Ghazanfar Bilour, Darukhan, Abdul Rauf Alam, Amir Ata Bajwa, Zafar Bakhtawari, Qazi Akbar, Zahid Iqbal Chaudhry, Sohail Altaf, Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, Mazhar Ali Nasir, Abdul Sami Khan, Noor Ahmed Khan, Mian Waqar Ahmed, Sohail Malik, Samina Fazil, Shireen Arshad Khan, Shabnam Zafar, Sheikh Mumtaz Ahmed and others also attended the meeting.

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 25 /DNA/ – With the operational of Orange Line Metro Train, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is considered as the flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative has smoothly transitioned from its first phase to the second phase.

This will be another landmark of Pak-China collaborative aprtnership under CPEC for promoting the living conditions of the people, Gwadar Pro reported on Sunday.

Orange Line Metro Train is one such project which was constructed to promote inter-city connectivity in Lahore. Lahore is the second-largest city of the country and provincial capital of the most populous province Punjab.

In May 2014, both Pakistani and Chinese governments had signed MOU for the initiation of the project. Project financing was secured in December 2015 through China’s Exim Bank. In October 2015, the construction of the project began. The first phase of construction was awarded to Habib Construction Services.

The second phase of the project was awarded to ZKB Engineers and Constructors for civil works. CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive rolled out the first of the 27 trains in 2017. The 27 units are energy-saving trains and comprising five fully air-conditioned wagons. Testing and trial runs began in 2018.

The train was cleared for the test run in December 2019. It will cover 26 stations – 24 of them are elevated and the remaining two are underground.

On any given day, the train has a built-in capacity to transport about 250,000 people. In other words, 30,000 passengers will be facilitated through this service every hour. By 2025, nearly 500,000 will be getting facilitated by this service. Each train will contain 200 seats.

Overall, this new transportation project will help both the local populace and the environment. With the reduction of vehicular traffic on roads, the project is expected to lessen air pollution and reduce travelling time of daily commuters.

The train will also provide safe transit to women and other vulnerable social factions. Additionally, the project will help in addressing the worsening traffic situation of the city.

DNA

ISLAMABAD OCT 25 – An international webinar of the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) held at its Secretariat at Islamabad.

Experts from Ghana, Jordan, Oman, Pakistan, and Turkey, participated and shared ideas, experiences, best practices and policy measures from the platform of the webinar on “Sustainable Water Governance in the Global South under Changing Climate”.

The webinar held by COMSATS Centre for Climate and Sustainability (CCCS) in collaboration with Princess Sumaya bint Hassan led Royal Scientific Society of Jordan that is also COMSATS’ Centre of Excellence.

The webinar’s discussions revolved around the overarching theme of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG6) – Clean Water and Sanitation.

Speakers of the international webinar included three from COMSATS Centres of Excellence in Ghana, Pakistan and Turkey, i.e., Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), respectively. Other experts belonged to International Water Management Institute (IMWI), Jordan; and Middle East Desalination Research Centre (MEDRC), Oman.=DNA

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ISLAMABAD, OCT 25 (DNA) – Poor services of PTCL continue to irk customers. Adding fire to the fuel, the 1218 service of PTCL has miserably failed to rectify complaints of customers on time.

Due to this fact, a number of customers of switched to other telecom networks.

It may be mentioned here that a customer got his phone number shifted almost four months ago. After installation he received a call from 1218 asking to press 1 if the number is installed and working. The customer did the same.

But even after lapse of four months 1218 continues to call the same customer at his cell number 03335203232 whether his number has been shifted or not.

This call is made even at odd hours. Similarly telephone numbers 2261960, 2280072 and 2266165 installed in Sector G 8 Markaz remain out of order even for weeks.

Upon contacting the said lineman comes up with the excuse that since he is alone and he has to cover the entire sector therefore he cannot attend to all complaints.

It has been observed that After privatization the PTCL services have degraded significantly. Customers are left with no option but to switch the network.=DNA

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