Here’s what’s happening across the border: Nawaz Sharif chucks boring jail food & orders McDonald’s; important Maulana says elections and Imran’s govt a sham.
Imran Khan wanted to protect his country during the 1965 war with India
In a short video clip shared by a Twitter user, prime minister Imran Khan is giving a speech on the occasion of ‘Defence Day’ — Pakistan’s commemoration of the 1965 war — Thursday.
RT if you cried … ????#DefenceDay2018 #PakistanArmy #PakistaniTujheSalam pic.twitter.com/f2YG6b0Ddd
— افشاں مصعب (@AfshanMasab) September 6, 2018
Khan was heard saying that there was a “council of war” set up by his elder cousins, where everybody had assembled to discuss a rumour that the Indian “paratroopers” were going to invade Lahore.
He said a “civil force” had congregated at a spot where his elder cousins set up a “morcha” in their wait for the Indian paratroopers. Khan, then 12 years old, said he caught hold of a gun from his father and reached the spot as he was eager to do “guard-duty”. However, he was stopped by his cousins who told him he was too little for the task, leaving him to curse himself for his age.
The next day he got to know that the paratroopers did not arrive, but his cousins instead shot at their own relative in the night. The relative was spared his life as they missed.
On a serious note, the PM said people’s passion to stand with the country’s armed forces at the time was unparalleled. He claimed that during those days, everybody wanted to become a soldier.
The clip ends with Khan saying if it weren’t for cricket, he could have been a retired army official today.
Bored of jail food, Sharif asks for McDonald’s burgers
In the midst of a hearing at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court Thursday, jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif demanded to have fast food, The Express Tribune reported.
The judge gave permission for food to be brought into the court premises, and Chaudhry Tanveer, a leader of Sharif’s party PML(N), asked his domestic staff to bring some. The report said Sharif was later seen enjoying his McDonald’s burger and cold drinks with fellow leaders in a judge’s room adjoining the courtroom.
WATCH: Nawaz orders McDonald's family meal during accountability court hearing https://tribune.com.pk/story/1797012/1/
Express Tribune यांनी वर पोस्ट केले गुरुवार, ६ सप्टेंबर, २०१८
The report further said that Sharif was reportedly seen enjoying his McDonald’s burger and cold drinks with fellow leaders in an adjoining room of a judge.
Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar Awan are in jail for the London Avenfield luxury flats case.
Interesting tweets of the day
After India’s Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality Thursday, anonymous Twitter user Jungjoo Gernail, known for his scathing remarks, has taken a dig at Pakistan’s intolerance towards homosexuality.
He tweeted that Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar should also include homosexuals in the fund collection drive for the construction of dams.
https://twitter.com/GernailSaheb/status/1037643890495553536
Meanwhie, journalist Reham Khan, PM Imran Khan’s ex-wife, trolled foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi for his expressions during conferences.
He is adorable. Enjoying his position so much. I find the pics him on the phone of the FO so cute.
Copying pics of the U.S presidents.#SadaNixon https://t.co/ianajYHSv3
— Reham Khan (@RehamKhan1) September 6, 2018
Woman moves top court to get absentee father’s surname removed from documents
In a first, a three-judge bench at Supreme Court of Pakistan headed by Chief Justice Nisar heard a case filed by a 22-year-old woman, Tatheer, who sought the removal of her absentee biological father’s surname from all her official documents and records.
The Express Tribune reported that Tatheer was finding it difficult to secure official documents including the national identity card and passport because of her father’s absence. Justice Nisar felt compelled to observe that “I am witnessing in my career first such matter brought before the court.”
Fehmida Butt, Tatheer’s mother, asserted that if law granted a father the right to disown his child, the same judicial setup should also allow a child to disown a parent. Justice Ijazul Ahsan, however, maintained that “there is no concept of dissociation in the eye of the law”.
The bench adjourned further hearing of the case for a week and the petitioner has been asked to submit required details of her father to Zulfiqar Ali, director-general projects with the National Database and Registration Authority, who claims the father can be traced.
Maulana Fazl calls elections and Imran Khan’s government a ‘sham’
Jamiat Ulema-e Islam (F) leader Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman Thursday called the Imran Khan government a sham and also demanded the resignation of the chief election commissioner, alleging rigging in the 2018 general elections, Geo TV reported.
Speaking to the media in Peshawar, Rehman said: “The present government is a sham, the prime minister and the chief ministers are a sham.”
He added: “Parties have not accepted the result of the polls. There is still time for the election commission to accept its failure and the chief election commissioner to tender his resignation.”
The former federal minister, who is considered pro-Taliban, went on to say that the current leadership cannot defend the country. However, he extended support to the army, saying: “The country’s armed forces are fully capable of defending the motherland. We pay tribute to the armed forces; the nation stands united with them.”
Pakistan evades the term Ancient India in the depiction of its own history
In a travelogue-cum-reportage story first published by Scroll.in and later covered by Dawn, author Haroon Khalid has pointed out the problematic usage of the term ‘Ancient Pakistan’ as the title of an exhibit at a newly-opened museum in Lahore. The exhibit covers what is generally known as ‘Ancient India’ — the Indus Valley Civilisation, the Mauryan Empire etc.
Khalid said the current nationalistic discourse in Pakistan could be the reason for the museum refusing to include and duly credit the presence of ‘Ancient India’ narratives within the country’s history.
However, he added that this nationalistic discourse was not unique to Pakistan — that India had projected itself as the only “rightful inheritor” of the subcontinent’s legacy, which is a fallacy.
The author said while considering Pakistan a part of the heritage of ‘Ancient India’ might have political repercussions, referring to the country as ‘Ancient Pakistan’ would be equally problematic and misleading. Khalid said there was a possibility that even if Pakistan reversed its age-old policy on this ignorance and indeed accommodated the reality of Indian heritage in its roots, it would be difficult for the country to shape the global narrative that it is actually a successor of ‘Ancient India’, along with Bangladesh and India.