News Asia
Pakistan Launches First Anti-Polio Campaign to Target 44mn Children

(CTN News) – More than 44 million children under five will get immunizations as part of Pakistan’s first statewide anti-polio campaign of the year.
The three-day campaign began on Monday in more than 150 regions, one of just two nations (the other being Afghanistan) where the crippling neurological illness is still widespread.
Shehbaz Sharif officially launched the campaign in Islamabad on Sunday and gave polio doses to children.
At a gathering in the nation’s capital, Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif officially launched the campaign on Sunday and gave polio doses to youngsters.
Sharif said in his statement during the occasion, “I have the confidence that all the province governments together with the federal government would continue to collaborate to eliminate the illness forever.”
According to Sharif, the reappearance of the virus has caused worry among stakeholders, including the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Global Polio Eradication Initiative states that for a nation to be recognized as polio-free, there must have been no wild poliovirus transmission for at least three years.
According to a representative of the National Emergency Operations Centre, the current countrywide effort is the first since May of last year.
“Due to the flooding, we could not launch a national campaign in August last year.
He stated on the condition of anonymity, “We are now hoping to use more than 350,000 health professionals to deliver not only polio drops but also supplementary vitamin-A supplement.”
33 million people were impacted by the devastating floods that devastated Pakistan last year, which also claimed more than 1,700 lives. Children are among those who have perished from waterborne illnesses brought on by the sluggish floods.
Religious and military organizations in Pakistan have often opposed efforts to eradicate polio, claiming the vaccine campaign is a part of a “Western plan” to sterilize the nation’s young.
Others assert that the vaccinations are not halal because they include pig fat, although authorities have denied these claims.
Over the past ten years, over 100 deaths and many injuries have been related to the polio vaccination program nationwide.
In the most recent incident, four police officers were hurt in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Dera Ismail Khan area on January 5 during a local anti-polio operation.
Following the death of Osama bin Laden, the former head of al-Qaeda, by American forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in 2011, resistance to the polio vaccination also became more pronounced in certain regions of Pakistan.
The CIA set up a phony polio vaccination effort in the region to find a bin, Laden.
According to a statement from the prime minister’s office, Pakistan was regrettably one of the few nations where polio infections have returned.
It referred to his older brother, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister, and said that “a few years ago, under his regime, these crimes were fully eliminated.”
Pakistan had only one new incidence of virus in 2021, which gave reason for optimism in the country’s efforts to eradicate the disease.
However, in 2022, that number increased to 20, with each one being discovered in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region in the northwest.
Three instances were discovered in the Lakki Marwat area, while seventeen were discovered in the tribally predominate region of North Waziristan.
Yet to be deemed free of the Wild Poliovirus Type 1 (WPV-1) illness are Pakistan and Afghanistan.
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News Asia
Bangladesh Supreme Court to Rule on Controversial Job Quotas Amid Nationwide protests

(CTN News) – The future of public service hiring regulations, which have provoked national conflicts between police and university students that have resulted in at least 133 fatalities so far, is set to be decided by Bangladesh’s Supreme Court on Sunday, or today.
Later in the day, the nation’s highest court will meet to declare its decision about the controversial job quotas—either in favor of or against their elimination.
This week’s protests over politically motivated admission quotas for highly sought-after government posts turned into some of the worst instability during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s watch.
Due to the ongoing turmoil, a curfew has been in place since Friday. In addition, the government has declared a two-day holiday during which all offices and institutions would be closed.
After riot police were unable to restore order, soldiers are now policing cities throughout Bangladesh, and since Thursday, there has been a statewide internet blackout that has severely limited the flow of information to the outside world.
SEE ALSO: Nearly 1,000 Indian Students Return from Bangladesh Amid Deadly Unrest Over Job Quota System
Hasina made hints to the public this week that the plan will be abandoned, which comes after her opponents accuse her government of using the judiciary to further its own agenda.
However, a positive decision is unlikely to calm the nation’s simmering rage in the wake of the intensifying crackdown and growing dead toll.
Business owner Hasibul Sheikh, 24, told AFP, “It’s not about the rights of the students anymore,” while observing a Saturday street demonstration in the capital city of Dhaka against a statewide curfew.
“Our demand is one point now, and that’s the resignation of the government,” he stated.
A system that reserves more than half of civil service positions for particular groups, like as children of veterans of the 1971 war, is the driving force behind the upheaval this month.
Hasina, 76, has ruled the nation since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January following a ballot in which there was no real competition, according to critics who claim the program helps families who support her.
Rights organizations accuse Hasina’s government of abusing state institutions, including as the extrajudicial assassination of opposition activists, in order to strengthen its grasp on power and quell dissent.
Bangladesh’s 170 million people lack access to sufficient employment possibilities, therefore the quota system is a major cause of anger for recent graduates who are struggling to find work.
“The government’s actions have made the situation worse, rather than trying to address the protesters’ grievances,” Pierre Prakash, Asia director of Crisis Group, told AFP.
After a week of increasing violence, Hasina canceled her intentions to depart the nation on Sunday for a diplomatic trip to Spain and Brazil.
Source: The Indian Express
News Asia
Pakistani Government Plans to Ban PTI

(CTN News) – The Pakistani government has announced measures to outlaw Pakistan Terheek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar made the declaration on Monday, only days after the Supreme Court declared the PTI eligible for a share of reserved seats in national and provincial assemblies.
After reviewing all relevant information, the government has decided to ban PTI. “We will file a case to ban the party,” he said, citing claims such as inciting violent protests last year and leaking confidential information.
Tarar stated that the case would be moved to the Supreme Court.
He also stated that the government intended to file treason charges against Khan and two other senior party leaders, former President of Pakistan Arif Alvi and ex-Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Suri, as well as a review appeal against the Supreme Court’s ruling that the PTI should be allocated some assembly seats reserved for women and members of religious minorities.
According to Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari, a top PTI politician and party spokesperson, the government’s action “betrays their complete panic”.
“After realizing that they could no longer threaten, compel, or blackmail judges, they decided to make this move through the cabinet. “All of their attempts to stop us have been declared illegal by the courts,” he stated.
Last week, the Supreme Court recognized the PTI as a political party and confirmed that the party’s lack of an electoral emblem did not affect its legal right to field candidates.
The verdict was in response to the PTI being barred from competing in parliamentary elections in February using its party emblem, the cricket bat, forcing it to field candidates as independents.
Despite the setback, PTI-backed candidates emerged as the largest parliamentary bloc, winning 93 seats.
After Khan declined to cooperate with his political opponents, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) formed a coalition government with other smaller parties.
Ex-Governor Sindh Zubair, who formerly served in the PMLN, stated that the government’s action was in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling last week and warned of political upheaval ahead.
“The powers that be are trying to disenfranchise the largest majority of voters of the country, who voted for PTI,” he disclosed to Al Jazeera.
Khan was appointed prime minister in August 2018 but was dismissed from power in April 2022 after a parliamentary vote of no-confidence.
The cricketer-turned-politician has since faced a slew of legal issues, including charges of misplacing and leaking the contents of a confidential cable delivered to Islamabad by Pakistan’s then-ambassador in the US in 2022.
Khan has continually disputed the charge, claiming that the dossier contained evidence that his resignation as prime minister was orchestrated by his political opponents and the country’s powerful military, with assistance from the US administration. Both Washington and Pakistan’s army deny the accusation.
Despite multiple recent court verdicts in his favor, Khan has been in prison since August of last year.
Source: Aljazeera
News Asia
NAB Re-Arrests Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi After Iddat Case Conviction Overturned

(CTN News) – Former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were acquitted in the Iddat case by a sessions court on Saturday, less than 24 hours after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the PTI in reserved seats.
However, their relief was short-lived when Imran Khan was detained by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for selling official goods. Bushra Bibi was also rearrested in this case while being released from Adiala Jail’s Gate No. 3.
According to sources, the NAB detained Bushra Bibi after the bureau’s chairman issued arrest warrants for her and Imran Khan. Both are to be investigated in Adiala Jail.
Opposition leader Omar Ayub Khan condemned Bushra Bibi’s imprisonment and criticized the Adiala Jail administration. He also cautioned the jail superintendent of the repercussions and announced that a privilege motion would be filed against him.
Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi were acquitted in the Iddat case after Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Mohammad Afzal Majoka reversed their previous verdict, which sentenced them to seven years in prison on February 3, five days before the general election.
Imran Khan’s lawyers, Usman Gill and Zaheer Abbas, were in court when the verdict was pronounced.
In the 28-page ruling, Judge Majoka rejected Khawar Fareed Maneka, Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband,’s arguments that Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi’s nikah was illegally performed and that Mr. Maneka was denied Buju (reconciliation rights) under religious law.
The court also rejected the allegation of fornication under provision 496-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), stating that no charge was filed under this provision against both Imran Khan and his spouse “because there was no evidence of a second witness”. The trial court heard only one witness, Mr Maneka’s domestic servant.
“In these circumstances, it cannot be said that the appellants committed fornication,” the judge wrote. Regarding the charge of contracting marriage fraudulently during the Iddat period, the judge found that in a video given as evidence during the trial, Mr. Maneka lauded his ex-wife, Bushra Bibi, and “deposed that his ex-wife is a pious lady.”
The magistrate inquired about “how this witness [Mr Maneka] can claim that the appellant No. 2 [Bushra Bibi] committed fraud with him” .
The court announced its decision: “From a perusal of Section 496 PPC and the above-mentioned esteemed citations, this court is of the view that the appellants have not gone through any marriage ceremony fraudulently or with dishonest intention because none of the parties claimed that nikah was not performed and fraudulently he or she was supposed to believe that marriage ceremony was solemnised.”
The court judgment added: “In the instant instance, it is the complainant’s case that the appellants’ nikah was done on January 1, 2018, followed by the second nikah in February 2018. By no stretch of the imagination, it was a marriage with dishonest or deceptive intentions.”
Regarding Mr. Maneka’s claim that he was denied reconciliation rights and so deceived by Imran Khan and Ms. Bibi, the court noted that during cross-examination, Mr. Maneka stated that he learned of the appellants’ marriage on the second day of their nikah.
Before submitting the complaint, the judge questioned why Mr Maneka had been silent on his reconciliation rights for six years.
The judge stated, “The complainant has failed to prove his case against the appellants.” As a result, both appeals filed by appellants No. 1 [Imran Khan] and No. 2 [Bushra Bibi] are accepted, the judgment of the learned trial court of February 3, 2024, is overturned, and both appellants are acquitted of the accusation.”
The court ordered their freedom unless they needed to be imprisoned in other cases.
Source: DAWN
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