Infinity Social Updates

Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir has met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, according to a post on the Turkish Presidency’s X account. The presidency’s post on Tuesday, which also had a picture of the two, said Erdogan received Munir at the Ankara airport. Reuters reported that the meeting was held behind closed doors at the Ankara airport. The report said that Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, Chief of Turkish General Staff General Selcuk Bayraktaroglu and National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) Director Ibrahim Kalin also attended the meeting. Separately, an X post by the Turkish embassy in Pakistan said CDF Munir was accorded a guard of honour by a tri-services contingent of the Turkish armed forces following his arrival in Ankara. General Bayraktaroglu welcomed him during his official visit, the post said. “Rooted in brotherhood, mutual trust and a shared strateg...

Teacher Raja Dey fears attendance might drop now that government-run schools have stopped serving eggs for lunch in his eastern Indian state, a dietary change that has stirred a political storm. The humble egg, a popular food in West Bengal, was taken off the menu after the state’s recently elected Hindu nationalist government said a religious charity will provide free, vegetarian cooked meals in state-run schools. The new arrangement has rekindled a long-running debate over food, faith and nutrition in the world’s most populous country, with critics accusing the government of trying to turn schoolchildren vegetarian. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, which swept to power in West Bengal for the first time in regional elections held in May, often promotes vegetarianism as a part of its nationalist agenda, although most Indian Hindus eat meat and fish. Eggs, which Hindus generally consider non-vegetarian, are even more widely consumed. Former West Bengal chief minister Mamata...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Two cops were martyred and as many injured on Monday in what police suspect was an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tank district. Sources in police told Dawn it appeared that an IED was used to target an armoured personnel carrier (APC) of the police in the incident that took place on Tank-Jandola Road. They said initial reports suggested that the IED was planted along the roadside and was detonated while the APC was on routine patrol in the limits of Shaheed Mureed Akbar Police Station. Consequently, Assistant Sub-Inspector Fareedullah and Constable Akhtar Zaman were martyred while Constables Abdul Malik and Qudratullah sustained injuries, the sources said. They added that the injured were taken to the district headquarters hospital. The sources said security forces and police had cordoned off the site of the incident. Police had also launched a search operation, and evidence from the scene was also being collected, the sources s...

LAHORE: A sessions court on Monday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar and his wife, both of whom have been facing legal proceedings for allegedly harassing television actress Momina Iqbal, till July 28. Chadhar appeared before the court accompanied by his lawyers, while his wife was absent from the proceedings. During the hearing, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) investigating officer sought more time to complete the investigation. Subsequently, Additional District and Sessions Judge Nusrat Ali Siddiqi extended the couple’s bail until July 28, directing the IO to submit a progress report at the next hearing. The NCCIA had registered the case against Chadhar and his wife early last month on a complaint filed by Iqbal. The case was registered under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data), 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 21 (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor) and 24 (cyber ...

Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) on Sunday decided to establish a “grand” Kashmir peace jirga to facilitate dialogue between the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government and the banned Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) in an effort to restore stability and normalcy in the region. The decision was taken at a meeting of the party’s central Majlis-i-Shura chaired by JI Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman at Mansoorah, Lahore. According to a press release, the jirga will engage both the government and the JAAC, with the restoration of peace and the resolution of issues in AJK identified as its top priorities. To oversee the initiative, Rehman constituted a committee headed by JI Deputy Emir Liaqat Baloch. The committee included JI AJK Emir Dr Muhammad Mushtaq Khan and the party’s former regional chiefs Abdul Rashid Turabi and Dr Khalid Mahmood. The JI chief also indicated that the committee would be expanded to include former civil bureaucrats, retired judges, ex-military officials and members of civil soc...

Politicians, journalists and experts have taken to social media to criticise Friday’s approval by a Senate panel of a bill allowing blue passports for ex-legislators’ children under the age of 28. If it becomes law, the legislation would bring ex-members of parliament in line with the existing entitlement available to dependent children of retired Grade-22 government officers. State Minister for Interior Tallal Chaudhry denied that he supported the bill, saying he opposed it when it was introduced in the Senate. He further asserted that he had told the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control, which passed the legislation, that the matter should first be discussed with the federal cabinet and relevant stakeholders. “Despite my reservations, the Senate & Standing Committee on Interior proceeded with its decision to pass the bill,” he said. Senior PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique condemned the bill, comparing i...

Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi will visit Washington on Monday to deepen strategic ties with the United States, with oil and gas deals expected to be signed as part of a broader push for economic, trade and investment cooperation. Iraq has been seeking to balance its ties with neighbouring Iran and the US as military escalation between the two rivals continues. “The agreements to be signed will include several memorandums of understanding in the oil and gas sector as Iraq prepares to bring in various US companies that will provide momentum to increase oil production capacity,” government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said. Iraq’s state news agency, citing al-Aboudi, said the planned oil and gas agreements would also seek to create alternative export outlets to reduce Iraq’s exposure to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz . Iraq, like other Gulf oil producers, has suffered a drop in oil revenue due to the effective closure of the vital shipping route during the US-Iran war. Al-...