Tag Archives: ISLAMABAD

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LFK launches dossier on extra-judicial execution of Zia Mustafa in IIOJK

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Islamabad: Legal Forum for Kashmir launched a comprehensive dossier on Pakistani prisoner, Zia Mustafa’s extrajudicial execution in a staged encounter in Poonch district of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The dossier exposes the lies of Indian occupational forces on Zia’s involvement in militancy. As per the dossier, Zia Mustafa 15-year-old from Rawalakot AJK inadvertently crossed the LoC on January 13, 2003 and was arrested by the Indian forces. The family members of Zia Mustafa lodged a missing report before the concerned police station.

While the Indian army and police led by the then Director General IIOJK Police, A.K.Suri, in a joint press conference on 11 April 2003 projected and presented Zia as a foreign militant involved in so-called terror incident. However, the dossier reports that Zia was a minor when he crossed over the border unknowingly and was later falsely implicated in militancy by the Indian forces and agencies.

The LKF report further states the trial court in Shopian (IIOJK) framed charges against Zia under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and black laws. However, the state out of prosecution witnesses failed to produce a single piece of evidence against Zia. Accordingly, the court closed the prosecution evidence. The authorities in IIOJK filed a criminal appeal before the High Court Srinagar wing, which was meritless and accordingly dismissed by the court. The authorities again approached the Supreme Court of India and filed a criminal appeal with the condonation of delay application which is still pending.

Zia’s lawyer Mubashir Gattoo while talking to local media said, “Zia an under-trial for 17 years was facing a case before session’s court, but there was no evidence for his conviction”.

The dossier highlights the extra-judicial execution of an under-trial who was in a judicial custody when the joint counter-insurgent group including Indian army without following the mandate of law took Zia outside the jail and killed him in a staged encounter. It also revealed the important documents showing Zia a minor boy at the date of his arrest, moreover, the prisoners list exchanged by the foreign offices listed Zia an under-trial prisoner.

The dossier also highlights the 111 fake encounters and the perpetrators involved in these war crimes.

Meanwhile, LFK held a roundtable debate inviting law experts and key stakeholders on the ‘universal jurisdiction’ case submitted before the metropolitan war crime unit in the UK. The experts hailed the efforts of Stoke White Investigation unit for filing a suit against the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other six Indian officials responsible for torture and extra-judicial killing of the duo.

Hakan Camus head of Stoke White hoped the request to British police seeking the arrest of Indian officials will be followed by other legal actions also focusing on Kashmir. We are sure this is not going to be the last one, there will probably be many more applications, he said.

Prof Dr Muhammad Mushtaq, former Director General Shariah Academy, eulogized the remarkable work of Stoke White and also pitched for constitution of war crime tribunal for the case of war crimes and crimes against humanity in IIOJK.

Towards the end, Executive Director Legal Forum for Kashmir, Nasir Qadri, said, this is the beginning of Lawfare against the occupier and his organization would further pursue the war crime cases to different available forums so that the perpetrators involved are apprehended for their crimes.

He further said that Kashmir has faced worst human carnage for the last 74 years and the international community can no longer be spectators to India’s atrocity crimes and impunity.

ISLAMABAD, LATEST

PTA to be approached for blocking crypto portals

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KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director-General Dr Sanaullah Abbasi on Saturday said the agency will approach the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) for blocking websites dealing in cryptocurrencies to prevent fraud and possible money laundering.

He was talking to the media after holding a meeting with a team of senior officials of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) at the Cyber Crime Circle Office. “The SBP officials gave a presentation in the meeting about a regulating mechanism,” said the FIA chief.

The SBP team informed the participants of the meeting that the central bank had submitted recommendations recently under the directions of the Sindh High Court for regulating cryptocurrencies.

Mr Abbasi said legal experts would also be approached to deal with fraud and other issues arising out of cryptocurrencies. “Crypto has given a new dimension to the fraud,” remarked Mr Abbasi.

FIA chief says virtual currency has given a new dimension to fraud

Pointing out that the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have declared cryptocurrency legal but it is banned in China and other countries, the FIA DG observed that we were mainly concerned about fraud and possible money laundering aspects.

Earlier, it was pointed out in the meeting that there was no section of law available in the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act 2016, Foreign Exchange Remittance Act 1947 (FERA) and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 (AMLA) regarding illegal/misuse of cryptocurrency.

“In some cases, the Cyber Crime Wing took cognisance under section-23 of FERA and AMLA.”

“There is no regulatory framework for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in order to comply with the FATF requirements,” the meeting was informed.

It was further informed that the SBP and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan have adopted a ‘prohibited approach’ and issued various instructions on VCs (virtual currency).

“The SBP had issued an advisory to general public and banks to refrain from dealing with virtual currencies, initial coins offering, etc.”

“The FIA has taken action over complaints of the people that they have been cheated,” said Mr Abbasi. He revealed that data was being collected about possible suspects involved in this scam with the citizens.

The FIA has recently initiated a probe into the mega financial scam after 11 apps linked to popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance had stopped working, defrauding Pakistani investors of over $100 million (Rs17.7 billion).

Also, it had arrested Dr Zafar from Faisalabad five months back on the charges of defrauding people through cryptocurrency.

ISLAMABAD, LATEST

Security reviewed in commanders conference

ISLAMABAD: Army Chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Tuesday expressed satisfaction over operational preparedness of the army’s formations.

He made these remarks while chairing the 246th Corps Commanders’ Conference at the General Headquarters. The participants of the conference reviewed the security situation with particular focus on border management and internal security.

Bajwa satisfied with operational preparedness of army’s formations

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations, Gen Bajwa emphasised continued mission-oriented training for the formations to ensure combat readiness in view of the emerging threats and challenges.

The participants were also apprised of the progress and achievements of operation Radd-ul-Fasaad.

The ISPR said the army chief appreciated the efforts of the formations involved in relief operations to mitigate challenges of the people affected due to snowstorm in Murree and heavy rainfalls in Balochistan.

ISLAMABAD, LATEST

PTI tried to keep a lid on foreign accounts, reveals ECP

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• Report claims party under-reported Rs312m funds between 2009 and 2013
• Fawad calls report ‘inaccurate’, claims certain transactions counted twice
• PTI demands public scrutiny, open hearing of ‘identical’ cases against itself, PPP, and PML-N

ISLAMABAD: A damning report compiled by the scrutiny committee of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has confirmed that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) received funding from foreign nationals and companies, under-reported funds, and concealed dozens of its bank accounts.

The report, also mentions a refusal by the party to divulge details of large transactions and the panel’s helplessness to get details of PTI’s foreign accounts and the funds collected abroad.

According to the report, the party under-reported an amount of Rs312 million over a four-year period, between FY2009-10 and FY2012-13. Year-wise details show that an amount of over Rs145m was under-reported in FY2012-13 alone.

“A perusal of the chartered accountant’s opinion on the accounts of PTI for this period does not indicate any deviation from the reporting principles and standards,” the report points out.

It also calls into question the certificate signed by PTI chairman Imran Khan, submitted along with the details of PTI’s audited accounts.

The report also refers to the controversy over allowing four PTI employees to receive donations in their personal accounts but says it was out of the scope of its work to probe their accounts.

The report emerged as the ECP resumed hearing of the foreign funding case against PTI on Tuesday after a gap of around nine months.

The case has been pending since Nov 14, 2014. Since then, the ECP and the Scrutiny Committee have heard the case over 150 times, with PTI seeking adjournment on 54 occasions.

The scrutiny committee was formed in March 2018 to completely scrutinize PTI accounts, but it took almost four years to present its report to the ECP, which was submitted in Dec 2021.

The last hearing took place on April 6, 2021, after which the ECP had directed the petitioner, PTI founding member Akbar S. Babar, to employ two auditors for the perusal of documents submitted by PTI.

A PTI request to keep the scrutiny committee report secret was turned down by ECP, and the next hearing in this matter will be held on Jan 18.

Ministers defend PTI

Following Tuesday’s proceedings at ECP, government ministers came out in support of the ruling party. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry termed the report “inaccurate” and called for a public comparison of all the parties’ foreign funding so people knew where they all stood.

He claimed that there were “two relevant transactions of Rs150m and Rs160m, which had been duplicated and therefore counted twice by the committee”. Referring to the matter of the underreported funds, Fawad said a transaction of Rs160m was counted twice because the party had received the money in its central account and transferred it to another.

“In the same way, Rs150m transferred from the center to the provinces from a PTI subsidiary was also counted twice.” He said these facts would be laid before the ECP during arguments in the case.

The minister said the report showed that the PTI had 26 accounts out of which eight were inactive.

“Out of the remaining 18 accounts, eight are functional and have transactions and also show funds coming in,” he added.

He said that 10 of the accounts in question did not actually belong to the PTI, while six were subsidiary accounts, while the party has distanced itself from the remaining four.

The minister claimed that it was now evident that there was “no question of foreign funding”, adding that Mr. Khan had always given a record of every single penny and his party had done the same.

The minister called on the election commission to also conduct a scrutiny of the accounts of the two other major political parties — the PPP and the PML-N. “It is important to have a comparison with the accounts of Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N as well as the PPP,” he added.

“People give $10, $25, $55 or $100,” he said, adding that people trusted Imran Khan ever since he had campaigned for and built the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital.

State Minister for Information Farrukh Habib also said that scrutiny committees formed in PPP and PML-N cases were identical to the body constituted to audit the bank accounts of the ruling party.

Flanked by Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar and PTI leader Aamir Mehmood Kiani, he said the reports of the scrutiny committees for the bank accounts of the PPP and PMLN had been completed and they should also be ordered to submit these reports before the national election watchdog at the earliest.

The state minister was of the view that cases of the PTI, PML-N, and PPP were of a similar nature, adding that the scrutiny committees were formed in light of the Supreme Court’s decision which said that all parties’ bank accounts would be scrutinized in accordance with the law and without discrimination.

“We have no objection if the ECP hears all three parties’ cases in open court as PTI fully believes in transparency,” he added.

ISLAMABAD, LATEST

Four soldiers martyred in gun battle with terrorists in North Waziristan: ISPR

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Four soldiers of the Pakistan Army embraced martyrdom in an exchange of fire with terrorists during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan tribal district, the military’s media wing said in a statement on Friday.

According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), security forces conducted an IBO on the reported presence of terrorists in the area.

During the raid, an intense exchange of fire ensued between the terrorists and the troops, as a result of which four soldiers embraced martyrdom. The martyred soldiers were identified as Havaldar Munawar, Sepoy Zaka Ullah, Sepoy Farhan and Sepoy Sheraz.

Meanwhile, security forces conducted another operation in the Tank area following reports of terrorists’ presence in the vicinity.

During the operation, two terrorists were killed, who were later identified as Shahzeb alias Zakir and Daniyal. The forces also recovered weapons during the raid.

“These terrorists were involved in multiple terror activities including attacks against security forces, targeted killings and kidnapping for ransom,” the ISPR statement said.

Earlier on December 24, two soldiers were martyred when terrorists attacked a security forces check post in Balochistan’s Kech district.

The ISPR had said a follow-up operation was in progress in the area to search for the terrorists when the attack took place.

Similarly, on December 14, a member of the security forces was martyred when terrorists attacked a post close to the Pak-Iran border in Balochistan.