Infinity Social Updates

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Saturday rejected a plea by the Balochistan government to grant lifetime facilities to retired chief secretaries and their widows. Justice Aamer Farooq, who headed the FCC two-judge bench, observed that the Balochistan government notification was over and above the pensionary benefits granted to chief secretaries. The judgment explained that the Rules of Business do not empower the provincial government to issue such directions by way of notification, especially when there was no legal backing. The FCC ruling came on an appeal filed by Balochistan’s chief secretary against the May 29, 2023, Balochistan High Court (BHC) judgment, which had also struck down Notification No. 13-25(5)/2019/SO-1(S&GAD) extending lifetime facilities to retired chief secretaries and their widows. The controversy arose from a notification challenged before the BHC by Bayazid Khan Kharooti, which the court accepted. The high court held that such benef...

MANDI BAHAUDDIN: Police in Punjab’s Hafizabad district said on Saturday they have arrested one of the suspects for the alleged rape and kidnapping of a 13-year-old girl. The arrested suspect was named in a first information report (FIR) registered by the Jalalpur Bhattian police on April 30 on the complaint of the victim’s mother. The FIR also nominated two unidentified suspects. Constable Waqar Yousuf, a spokesperson for Hafizabad Police, told Dawn that the prime suspect was arrested last night in the district’s Tahli Goraya village. Yousuf further said that the girl’s medical examination had been conducted, which provided evidence of sexual assault. The policeman added that the detained man was being interrogated in order to arrest the other two suspects. The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn , invoked sections 375-A (rape) and 365-B (kidnapping, abducting or inducing a woman to compel for marriage etc) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). In her complaint, the mother sa...

ISLAMABAD: Power Minister Awais Leghari on Friday declared the end of a month-long loadshedding period after a shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived in Pakistan a day earlier. The power minister made the announcement in a recorded televised message, saying that the recent power outages were caused by a gas shortage linked to the war between the US and Iran, and were not the result of “incompetence or system failure”. He recalled that on “April 13 and 14, consumers faced power outages of up to five hours, while on April 15–16, they lasted around seven hours”. Leghari added that in the following days, outages were “brought down to zero,” and until April 29, the loadshedding duration was reduced to 2–2.5 hours. He also recalled that the ministry held a press conference to clarify the government’s stance on the matter. “Loadshedding had not been experienced for six to seven years, having been eliminated during the tenure of N...

Japanese police arrested a man for allegedly incinerating his dead wife at the zoo where he worked, officials and local media said Friday, following the discovery of human remains. Police arrested Tatsuya Suzuki on Thursday evening on suspicion that he “transported the victim’s body to a tourist facility” in the northern island of Hokkaido and “destroyed it through incineration there,” a local police official told AFP. The victim, 33-year-old Yui Suzuki, was identified by local media as his wife. Police have not said how she died. While held in voluntary police questioning, Suzuki said he used his zoo’s incinerator —meant to dispose of waste and dead animals —to burn the woman’s body “for a few hours,” local media reported. His confession sent police scouring the incinerator for her remains, whose partial discovery paved the way for Suzuki’s arrest, local media said. While alive, the wife once told her relatives that her husband was ...

KARACHI: The Sindh Education and Literacy Department is set to introduce religious textbooks for Hindu students to be taught in grades three to five across government schools in Sindh, it emerged on Thursday. In a letter dated April 29 to the chairman of the Sindh Textbook Board (STBB), the education department requested the distribution of “three religious books for grades III to V for the current academic year 2026–27”, referring to a decision taken at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Sindh Curriculum Council on April 20. Chief Executive Advisor Dr Fauzia Khan wrote in the letter that the cost of publication will be borne by a social welfare organisation, Prem Sagar Sanstha Karachi, for the current academic year. “The distribution of the books will be carried out through STBB,” the letter said. Khan also requested the board to “allocate/adjust budget for the publication of the religious books for the next academic year”. A similar move was made by the federal governme...

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday launched the “PM Apna Ghar Programme” under which housing loans of Rs10 million will be given on easy instalments. The scheme will be implemented in the federal capital, all four provinces, as well as Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing the launch ceremony in Islamabad, PM Shehbaz said a total of 500,000 housing units will be constructed under the programme, supported by a total allocation of Rs3.2 trillion. The loans are to be returned in 20 years, he said. During the first 10 years, the markup on the loan will be 5 per cent, while in the next 10 years it will be charged at the market rate at the time. The premier said that for the first year, the government has set a target to fund 50,000 houses for which an amount of Rs321 billion had been earmarked. Under the scheme, a maximum of 10 marla housing units will be allowed to be built. PM Shehbaz said he would personally review the programme’s progress o...

President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday invited Chinese investment into “priority sectors,” particularly alternative energy sources, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. The president arrived in China on Saturday for a week-long visit to the Hunan and Hainan provinces for engagements related to economic and trade cooperation. President Zardari held a meeting with the chief executive officer (CEO) of Hangzhou Jinjiang Group, Wang Jian, in Sanya, where he invited the Chinese company to invest in “priority sectors, including alternate energy, water treatment, and electric vehicle battery systems”, according to Radio Pakistan. The president, according to the report, “noted that Pakistan is actively encouraging foreign investment in various sectors, especially water treatment, electric vehicle battery systems and alternate energy”. “Such partnerships could support sustainable growth and industrial development,” the report said, adding that President Zardari assured the company of “all p...