Infinity Social Updates

Motaz Azaiza, an independent Palestinian photojournalist who extensively documented Israeli aggression and the widescale destruction of Gaza has evacuated the Strip “with a broken heart” and is now in Doha, Qatar. On Tuesday, Azaiza shared his decision to leave the besieged strip on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) with his combined 19.4 million followers. “I had to evacuate for a lot of reasons. You all know some of it but not all of it,” he wrote in the caption. “This is the last time you will see me with this heavy, stinky [press] vest. I decided to evacuate today,” he said in the video. “I’m sorry but, Inshallah (God willing), hopefully soon I will come back […] and help build Gaza again,” he said as he bid farewell to the friends and colleagues around him. A day later, he shared his departure as he boarded a Qatari military aircraft at Egypt’s El Arish International Airport. The 24-year-old Palestinian drew attention across the world after he began to capture the b...

The PML-N delivered the “best performance in managing the economy over the past three decades” compared to its political rivals, according to a report from Bloomberg Economics . The report issued a day ago said that the PML-N “scored better” than the PTI and the PPP when using a combination of unemployment and inflation data called the misery index. Screengrab of Bloomberg report. The report explained that it used an average of the index values over the respective years when each of the three parties was in power, adding that a higher value indicated more economic hardship for citizens. It noted that with PTI chief Imran Khan’s legal troubles, as he remains incarcerated while his party is deprived of its election symbol, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif “looks set to resume power” after the February 8 general polls. However, the report said that Imran was “still the most popular politician, with an approval rating of 57 per cent, according to a recent Gallup opinion poll” while Nawa...

Twelve people were injured on Tuesday when a Myanmar military plane overshot a runway while landing in India to collect soldiers who had fled armed insurgents fighting their country’s junta. The Chinese-made Shaanxi Y-8 turboprop skidded off the tarmac shortly before midday at Lengpui, the main airport of India’s Mizoram state. An Airport Authority of India (AAI) official at Lengpui told AFP that the flight was collecting 92 soldiers who had crossed into India from neighbouring Myanmar last week. Of the 12 injured, “four are stated to be serious,” added the official, who requested anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media. Footage of the crash’s aftermath aired by local broadcasters showed the bent fuselage of the transport plane, which had cut a swath through tall grass after sliding down an embankment. The crash was caused by “sudden engine failure” while landing at the airport, Myanmar’s junta said in a statement. It said eight crew members were injured...

Asif Ali Zardari was born in 1955 to a well-known Baloch family from Nawabshah, Sindh. He married Benazir Bhutto, who later became Pakistan’s first female prime minister, in 1987. Zardari’s initiation into politics was not very successful but his career began to take off after his marriage to Benazir. In both her governments, he was appointed federal minister — first with the portfolio of environment and later with that of investment. In 1990, he was accused of tying a bomb to a businessman’s leg and sending him into a bank to withdraw cash from his account as a pay-off. The charge was never proven and Zardari was released after spending three years in prison. In 1996, after the dismissal of Benazir’s second government, Zardari was arrested and charged with several offences, including the murder of his brother-in-law, Murtaza Bhutto. He remained in prison for eight years and was released on bail in 2004, which was followed by his acquittal four years later. Following his release...

Baloch protesters, who had been camped outside Islamabad’s National Press Club (NPC) since December, called off their sit-in on Tuesday. The announcement came a day after the NPC penned a letter to the Islamabad police requesting the removal of the Baloch rights camp. The NPC’s request was later withdrawn following severe criticism from all quarters, including journalists. The protesters had been demonstrating in a sit-in organised in front of the NPC by the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. The camp was established on December 22 and had persisted despite harsh weather. Further, organisers of the Islamabad sit-in had also accused police of harassing their supporters and profiling them as well as registering first information reports against them. In the letter to the Islamabad police, the NPC had requested that a plan be drawn up to relocate the protesters to a different location so “the difficulties for the press club and...

In Karachi’s redrawn PS-102 constituency, the Pakistan Peoples Party has picked a youthful ideologue to take on established politicos, including a former MPA and an ex-deputy commissioner. Hailing from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s hometown of Larkana, Syeda Aqraba Fatima is a third-generation PPP worker — her grandmother Afroz Bibi worked alongside Begum Nusrat Bhutto, while her mother Bilqees Fatima has been a member of the PPP’s women’s wing. Aqraba, too, is an active political worker, being a member of the Peoples Youth Organisation — the PPP’s youth wing. A law graduate from Iqra University, Aqraba will be facing former PTI MPA Jamaluddin Siddiqui and MQM candidate Aamir Siddiqui in her constituency. Talking about her political experience, Aqraba told Dawn that she had joined the PYO at the age of 19, working her way up to its executive committee. “We have plenty of young men, but we felt it was important to encourage young women,” she says. If elected, Aqraba wants to tackle ...

The Foreign Office (FO) said on Monday that Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian would visit Pakistan on January 29. The visit comes days after tensions escalated between the two countries following an Iranian air strike in Pakistan, leading Islamabad to strike terrorist hideouts in the neighbouring country’s Sistan-Baluchestan province. “Following the telephone conversation between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, it has been mutually agreed that ambassadors of both countries may return to their respective posts by January 26, 2024,” the FO said in a statement. The FO said that that the Iranian foreign minister would travel to Pakistan on Jan 29 at the invitation of FM Jilani. Information Minister Murtaza Solangi credited FM Jilani, saying that he “deserves all the credit for his visionary engagement and managing possibly one of the fastest de-escalation of the diplomatic history”. Last week, Iran had laun­ched attacks in ...