Summary Forwarded To Reduce POL Prices By Up To Rs8.48 In March

ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on Friday forwarded a summary to the ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources to reduce the prices of petroleum products by up to Rs 8.48 per litre from March 1.

A reduction of Rs8.48 per litre for petrol and Rs4.67 for diesel has been recommended in the summary whereas the prices of high-octane and light-diesel are proposed to be reduced by Rs2.98 and Rs1.97 respectively. Kerosene oil price is likely to be reduced by Rs1.66 in the month of March.

According to the OGRA summary, new petrol price would be Rs62.77, diesel Rs71.12, high-octane Rs72.68 and light-diesel is likely to be Rs37.97 from March 1. Kerosene oil would be sold for Rs44.91 per litre.

PM Gives Two-year Extension To DG IB Aftab Sultan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday gave an extension of two years to the service of Director General Intelligence Bureau Aftab Sultan.

Sultan was set to retire in April. This is the second time that his term of service has been extended. 

“The prime minister has extended the contract of DG IB Aftab Sultan for two years," said a statement by the PM Office.

Sultan took was appointed as DG IB in Oct 2011, taking over the key post as the head of the country’s top civilian intelligence agency after the retirement of Additional IG Javed Noor. Sultan previously served as the Additional IG Welfare and Finance in Punjab.

Taseer Murderer Mumtaz Qadri Hanged

                                       RAWALPINDI: Mumtaz Qadri, convicted for the murder of former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, was executed in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail early Monday morning, jail and Punjab police said.

Qadri was hanged after President Mamnoon Hussain dismissed his clemency appeal.

Mumtaz Qadri, a bodyguard of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, shot him dead in the federal capital Islamabad in 2011.

"Qadri was hanged at around 4:30am," senior police officer Rizwan Omar Gondal said.

Late in 2011, an anti-terrorism court handed down a double death sentence to Qadri for murder and terrorism.

The sentence was appealed and upheld by the Supreme Court late last year.

The jail authorities arranged a meeting of Mumtaz Qadri with his family before he was hanged. His body was later handed over to his family members.

Thank-you-Raheel-Sharif-says-Imran-for-hospital-land-in-DHA-Karachi

                         ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Sunday thanked Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif for granting land in DHA Karachi for building a cancer hospital.

“Want to thank COAS General Raheel for helping SKMTH by granting land in DHA Karachi for the hospital,” he tweeted.

Apple To Launch New IPhone, IPad In March

                                       Apple Inc is on target to introduce its next iPhone and iPad models on March 15, and aims to start selling the devices in the same week, technology blog 9to5Mac reported, citing sources.

Apple, which will introduce a new 4-inch iPhone, dubbed the "iPhone 5se", and a new iPad Air at a launch event, is unlikely to take pre-orders for the new devices, the blog reported.

The technology giant has hit a trough in iPhone demand. The 0.4 percent rise in shipments in the fiscal first quarter was the slowest-ever increase in iPhone sales since the phone was launched in 2007.

The new 4-inch iPhone 5se is designed to spur iPhone hardware upgrades for customer seeking faster devices without upgrading to the far larger iPhone 6s and 6s Plus screen sizes.

Apple could not be immediately reached for comment.

Bollywood Actor Sanjay Dutt Released From Jail

NEW DELHI: Indian film actor Sanjay Dutt was released from jail on Thursday after serving imprisonment for three-and-a-half years, India media reported.

The Indian Express reported that Sanjay had been awarded five years of imprisonment by a special court, and confirmed by Supreme Court in 2013 in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts.

Sanjay Dutt, 56, walked free from Pune’s Yerawada jail on Thursday morning.

Actor’s full sentence period would have ended in November this year, but after being granted remission of seven days per month, his date of release was set around February end.

The remission was granted to him based on his behaviour in jail and the good work that he has done.

In 2007-08, Dutt had served 18 months in jail.

Four Hearing and Speech impaired pakistanis languish in indian jail

ISLAMABAD: 

Four hearing and speech impaired Pakistanis have been languishing in a jail in the Indian state of Punjab for years, show records of Pakistan’s Foreign Office. They are among the 28 Pakistani nationals incarcerated in the Amritsar jail on different charges.

While the Foreign Office has verified particulars of 22 Pakistani prisoners, it does not have the names and residential addresses of six prisoners – including the four hearing and speech impaired men. Authorities in both Pakistan and India have so far failed to verify their particulars.

Territorial violation: 88 Indian fishermen caught, 16 boats seized

The Foreign Office, however, has records of the charges against these inmates. “Goonga & Behra (deaf and dumb), son of (not known),” is written before a list of charges against the four special persons. In the column for ‘address in Pakistan’, the word ‘unknown’ is written.

The first ‘deaf and dumb’ was booked under FIR No 17/2011 registered on January 28, 2011. He is being held under Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 14 of the Foreigners Act. IPC’s Section 34 deals with criminal acts ‘done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention of all’. Under this section, each of such persons is liable for that act in the same manner as ‘if it were done by him alone’.

Section 14 of India’s Foreigners Act of 1946 prescribes penalties to those who remain in any Indian area for a period exceeding the period for which a visa was issued to them.  The other three ‘deaf and dumb men’ were booked under FIR No 182/07, 58/07 – the last two in one FIR, all on same charges under 3-34-20 IPC and 14 Foreigners Act.

Another two persons whose credentials are yet to be verified by Pakistan’s interior ministry are Miraj, son of Babimal Walait, resident of Kotri in Sindh, and Chanda Khan, wife of Salman Khan from Karachi. Their complete addresses are available in the documents provided to Pakistani authorities but their names are not included in the list of those whose addresses have been verified.

It is unclear when India provided this information and why it took the interior ministry so long to verify the stated addresses. Miraj was booked in 2012 while Chanda was arrested in 2015, according to their FIR records.

Territorial violation: 88 Indian fishermen caught, 16 boats seized

Two other Pakistani prisoners – Fatima Bibi and Mumtaz Bibi – are apparently sisters, who are serving 10-year imprisonment under India’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act 1985. Fatima Bibi was married to Saifur Rehman, from the Bhulliary area of Gujranwala. She also has a daughter who was born in the jail.