Category: 1. Pakistan

Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi on Tuesday filed an application in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for an early hearing of the plea for the suspension of their conviction in the £190m Al-Qadir Trust case, in which both of them face a 14-year and a seven-year prison term, respectively.

Imran and Bushra were convicted on January 17 in the case which alleges that the couple obtained billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd to legalise Rs50 billion identified and returned to the country by the United Kingdom during the previous PTI government.

On January 27, the couple moved IHC against the decision, asking the court to set aside their conviction, emphasising that the ruling lacked credible evidence and suffered from procedural lapses.

In an application filed on behalf of Imran, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, it was requested that an early hearing be fixed without any further delay, as it is a question of “liberty and freedom”.

It was stated that “an application for suspension of sentence was filed but has not been heard in accordance with the Judicial Policy and Court’s routine, depriving the applicant of his constitutional right to a speedy hearing”, referring to an earlier plea that was filed on behalf of Imran against the conviction in the case.

The appeal called the conviction of the jailed leader a result of “political victimisation”.

The appeal noted that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has “repeatedly sought adjournments in the hearings on the suspension “on the pretext of engaging special prosecutors in the instant matter.”

It stated that the petition filed earlier for the suspension of the conviction under Section 426 of the Pakistan Criminal Procedure Code — the hearings for which were held on May 15, May 27, June 5 and June 26 — gave assurances that an actual date for the suspension hearing will be decided but no specific date for adjudication has been given yet.

The plea further added that on the next hearing, the special prosecutor sought more time and assured the lead counsel of an early date, but no such decision has been made yet.

Stressing the urgency of matters, the statement said that there should be no “legal or procedural impediment in fixing the application for suspension” as it involves the fundamental right of liberty of a citizen under Article 9 of the constitution, which entails that no citizen can be tried without due legal process.

The counsel urged that the applicant is being denied his fundamental right under Article 4 of the Constitution — which ensures that every Pakistani citizen must be treated by the law — due to these delays.

It added that the applicant’s case has been deprioritised without any lawful justification, even though it is standard practice to hear bail matters and suspension applications on priority.

In a similar application, filed on behalf of Bushra Bibi, who is serving a seven-year sentence in the same case, it was stated that the applicant, being a woman, has faced repeated prosecutions with “malicious intent”, citing her involvement in 13 different cases for which he has been acquitted.

They included the Iddat case — filed by her ex-husband, Khawar Fareed Maneka, who alleged that Imran and Bushra contracted marriage during the former first lady’s Iddat period.

The petition highlighted that the delays violate Article 4 of the Constitution, particularly in light of the applicant’s gender and the protective provisions of the law favouring women in bail matters.

Under Article 9 of the Constitution, the petition stated that, “as a woman, she is entitled to additional protections under Islamic jurisprudence and Pakistani law, which mandate leniency and priority in bail matters for female detainees.”

In December 2023, the National Accou­n­t­a­bility Bureau (NAB) had filed a corruption reference against Imran and seven others, including his wife, in connection with the Al-Qadir University Trust.

The reference filed by NAB alleged that Imran played a “pivotal role in the illicit transfer of funds meant for the state of Pakistan into an account designated for the payment of land by Bahria Town, Karachi”.

It also claimed that despite being given multiple opportunities to justify and provide information, the accused deliberately, with mala fide intention, refused to give information on one pretext or another.

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QUETTA: The Balochistan Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education has officially announced the Matric Annual Examination results for 2025, ARY News reported.

Chairman of the Board, Muhammad Ishaq, made the formal announcement on Tuesday. Aftab Alam, a student from Balochistan Residential College, secured the first position with an impressive score of 1,051 marks. Muhammad Hashir clinched the second position with 1,043 marks, while Muhammad Tufail and Saqib Ali jointly secured the third position, each scoring 1,038 marks.

A total of 148,114 students participated in the Matric Annual Examination, with 100,870 candidates successfully passing, according to Chairman Muhammad Ishaq. The overall pass percentage for the examination stood at 68.10%.

In a separate development, earlier, the process of verifying matric and inter certificates in Sindh was shifted online, according to a notification issued by the Inter Boards Coordination Commission (IBCC).

Read more: Matric, inter exams rescheduled

As per details, under the new directive, all sealed envelopes containing certificates submitted for verification will no longer be accepted.

Instead, verification will be conducted exclusively through an online system.

The IBCC has instructed that all educational boards in Sindh must be linked with its platform to ensure seamless verification.

Currently, the system is being implemented in the Karachi Matric Board, Sukkur Education Board, and Ziauddin Board.

The remaining boards in Sindh have been urged to upload and digitize their academic records promptly to be integrated into the online verification mechanism.

As people continue to be evacuated from nearby structures following a deadly building collapse in Karachi’s congested Lyari neighbourhood that left 27 people dead, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Memon said on Wednesday it would not be possible for the government to provide housing to all residents living in dilapidated buildings.

The five-storey building on Fida Husain Shaikha Road in Lea Market collapsed on Friday morning, with the rescue operations concluding on Sunday. The building had already been declared uninhabitable by authorities due to its dilapidated structure, with the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) saying it had issued multiple prior notices to residents to vacate the structure since 2023.

Speaking to GeoNews, Memon said that there were 740 dilapidated buildings across Sindh, out of which 51 were in “extremely dangerous” condition, out of which 11 buildings had been vacated.

“Orders have been issued to vacate the others in the next 48 hours for residents’ safety,” Memon said.

“However, it won’t be possible for the government to provide housing to all residents living in dilapidated buildings,” the minister said, adding that there was no such law obligating the government to do so.

“Nonetheless, the government in the past had provided temporary shelters to flood victims and Covid-19 patients for quarantine,” he added.

“Whatever space is available with the government, we will provide that for housing to the most deserving residents who have no other option available [for housing].”

Memon’s comments come a day after the Sindh government announced the suspension of SBCA Director General Ishaque Khuhro over the building collapse.

According to Local Government (LG) Minister Saeed Ghani, other SBCA officials who were suspended included the director, deputy director and building inspectors assigned to Lyari. He also noted that the Sindh government has announced Rs1 million in compensation to the families of the 27 deceased people.

Major opposition parties — the PTI, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Jamaat-i-Islami — have condemned the PPP’s Sindh government, the SBCA and other authorities, accusing them of “criminal negligence” that led to the disaster.

They not only demanded compensation and alternative residences for the affected families but also called for the registration of manslaughter cases against the officials responsible for the tragedy.

Previous deadly building collapses

In April, a 10-year-old girl died when a three-storey building in Bhains Colony suddenly collapsed, while a man and a woman were pulled alive from the debris.

In October 2023, five people were killed and four others injured when an under-construction building collapsed in Shah Faisal Colony.

The city witnessed two such incidents within 72 hours in September 2020, claiming the lives of at least three people and injuring over a dozen.

Lyari also faced a similar incident in June 2020, when 22 people were killed after a five-storey residential building housing about 40 apartments collapsed.

A building collapse in Karachi’s Gulbahar area in March 2020 killed 27 people. A similar 2011 incident in Lyari’s Musa Lane neighbourhood took 33 lives.

Four people were killed and two others were injured after a fire broke out in a house located in Peshawar’s Kochi Bazar on Tuesday morning, rescue officials said.

Spokesperson for Rescue 1122 Bilal Ahmed Faizi said in a statement, “Six people were rescued from the fire in critical condition and taken to the hospital.

“However, four of them succumbed to their injuries. They have been identified as Rafiq, Shehnaz, Riaz and his wife.”

Faizi added that the firefighters and ambulances reached the site of the incident soon after receiving information and started rescue operations.

“The firefighters initially rescued three people trapped in a house adjacent to a market and transported them to the hospital for medical assistance,” Faizi detailed in the statement.

During the rescue efforts, two firefighters fainted due to the blazing flames. They were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital for treatment, where their condition became stable, he said.

Six fire vehicles and 40 personnel participated in the firefighting efforts, the rescue official continued.

“Firefighters faced extreme difficulty as the house was located in a congested area with narrow alleyways. After hectic efforts, the rescue official confirmed that the flames had been brought under control and the cooling process was underway.”

Fire incidents usually occur due to a combination of human negligence, faulty infrastructure, poor safety standards, and environmental factors. Peshawar has faced frequent residential and commercial fires and periodic industrial infernos.

In October 2024, a fire at a tissue paper factory in the Hayatabad area was doused after more than 26 hours in an operation involving 130 fighters and 31 fire tenders.

The rescue team said the fire erupted as a huge quantity of polythene was stashed inside the factory, which melted due to the fire, and the blaze was difficult to douse.

In June 2024, a fire broke out in the Nauthia Phattak area of Peshawar, destroying at least 80 shops mostly selling used goods and injuring three people.

The officials said the fire erupted at one of the makeshift structures before engulfing the adjacent shops, which mostly dealt in secondhand clothes, shoes and curtains, and a power transformer.

Rescue 1122 workers and firefighters from Peshawar, Nowshera, Khyber and Charsadda districts controlled the fire in six hours with around 80,000 litres of water and foam.

Around 110 personnel took part in the operation. Rescue officials said the wooden cabins caught fire due to strong winds and fire engulfed three markets before being brought under control.