Supreme court dismisses appeal, acquits Daniel Pearl murder case accused

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed the appeal of the Sindh government and acquitted the accused of the 2002 murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl.

A bench of the apex court headed by Justice Mushir Alam announced a brief verdict over the appeal of the Sindh government against the Sindh High Court’s April 2020 decision.

In the majority verdict a member of the bench wrote his note of dissent.

Four convicts of the murder case, British national Ahmed Omer Saeed Shaikh, co-accused Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adil had moved the Sindh High Court (SHC) in 2002 challenging their convictions handed down by the Hyderabad Anti-Terrorism Court after finding them guilty of abducting and killing American Journalist Daniel Pearl.

The high court overturned the verdict of the ATC and acquitted convicts on April 02, 2020.

The 38-year-old South Asia bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Pearl, was researching for a story on religious extremists in January 2002 in Karachi, when he was abducted and slain.

Earlier, the government of Sindh submitted sensitive information in a sealed envelope to the court.

Advocate General Sindh said that the main accused Ahmed Omer Saeed have links with the outlawed banned groups. “There is evidence but we could not prove it before the court,” Sindh’s counsel said.

Governor Sindh issues clarification on protocol video

After the emergence of the video of protocol given to one of the vehicles of the Governor House Sindh, Governor Imran Ismail has clarified that the pet was travelling along with his family members and the police mobile was not accompanying them for protocol instead it was there to protect his family.

In his clarification statement, Governor Imran Ismail said that the video is based on the lie and added that his daughter and wife were travelling in the car and that was not a protocol but the security of his family.

He termed the move of recording such videos as “frivolous” and alleged that the person who made the video is part of a corrupt government.

The governor came under fire after a video of a dog riding in a Sindh Governor House four-wheel vehicle went viral on social media a day earlier.

ATC sends accused to jail, seeks challan in usama muder case

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Thursday sent five accused to Adiala Jail on judicial remand in the Osama Satti murder case.

The arrested cops were presented before the court of Judge Raja Jawad Abbas as he resumed hearing.
Sending the accused to jail, the court directed the jail authorities to present them before it on next hearing on Feb 10. The judge directed the investigation officer of the case to submit a challan.

The accused include Muddasir, Shakeel, Mohammad Mustafa, Saeed Ahmed and Iftikhar Ahmed.

On Jan 2, the five Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel were taken into custody for indiscriminately gunning down 22-year-old Osama in the Sector G-10 area on Srignagar Highway within the jurisdiction of Ramna police station in the federal capital.

Pakistan records 64 fresh corona deaths in last 24 Hrs

Pakistan has recorded 64 more coronavirus-related deaths in past 24 hours, surging the overall death toll to 11,514, on Thursday.

According to the latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the COVID-19 has claimed 64 more lives and 1,910 fresh infections were reported.
In the past 24 hours, as many as 2,371 patients have recovered from the virus in a day and 2,147 patients are still in critical condition.

The total count of active cases is 33,295.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), with fresh inclusion of the infections in the country the national tally of cases now currently stands at 539,387.

A total of 40,821 tests were conducted across the country during this period. Overall 494,578 people have recovered from the deadly disease so far while 7,804,935 samples have been tested thus far.

Earlier on Wednesday, Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar had announced that Pakistan will launch its COVID-19 vaccination drive next week, starting with front-line health workers.

Biden's nominee Antony Blinken confirmed as secretary of state

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed President Joe Biden’s nominee, veteran diplomat Antony Blinken, to serve as secretary of state.

The 100-member Senate backed Blinken 78-22, meaning he could be sworn in as the nation’s top diplomat later in the day. A simple majority was needed in the Democratic-controlled chamber for his confirmation.

Blinken is a longtime Biden confidant who has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate before, most recently to serve as No. 2 at the State Department during former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration, when Biden was vice president.

At his confirmation before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, Blinken pledged to work more closely with allies after former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach to foreign affairs. Blinken said he would work to revitalise damaged American diplomacy and build a united front to counter the challenges posed by Russia, China and Iran.

The 100-member Senate is divided 50-50 but controlled by Biden’s fellow Democrats because Vice President Kamala Harris can break any tie.

All of the votes against Blinken’s confirmation came from Republicans.

Blinken’s confirmation hearing went smoothly, with both Democrats and Republicans offering praise. Blinken was a committee staff director - when Biden, who spent decades in the Senate, was chairman - before he joined the Obama administration.

YouTube suspends Trump indefinitely, stops Giuliani from monetising clips

YouTube has suspended Donald Trump indefinitely from the platform and said it will also prevent the former president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani from being able to monetise his clips, United States media reported.

It comes a week after the social media giant confirmed it would extend a ban on Trump's channel — which has just under three million subscribers — joining other social media platforms in banning his accounts following the deadly January 6 Capitol riot.

The Google-owned firm has faced some criticism over its slow response following the violence in Washington, as well as the proliferation of conspiracy theories on the platform.

“In light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, the Donald J Trump channel will remain suspended,” a YouTube spokesperson told Politico.

The company said separately that Giuliani's account would be barred from the Partner Program — which allows creators to make money off their videos — after repeatedly violating its policy against posting misleading information about the US election.

The 76-year-old has posted videos titled “The Biden Crime Family's Payoff Scheme” and “Election Theft of the Century” to his channel, which has around 600,000 subscribers.

The ban on making money off his clips comes as the former New York mayor faces a $1.3 billion lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems after alleging on social media that the firm had engaged in election fraud.

According to YouTube, Giuliani will be able to appeal the decision in 30 days — providing the underlying issues have been fixed.

NCOC unveils strategy to administer Covid vaccine across country

The National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday unveiled a comprehensive plan to administer the vaccine for the Covid-19 across the country to curb the pandemic's spread.

The plan has been adopted after taking all the provinces and other stakeholders onboard, a meeting of NCOC held today in Islamabad in this regard was apprised. It added that the strategy has been evolved in light of the established international regulations and health guidelines.

The session was chaired by Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives Asad Umar, accompanied by National Coordinator NCOC Lieutenant General Hamood-uz-Zaman Khan and Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood.

The provincial health minister of Sindh and chief secretaries of all federating units joined the meeting via video link.

The purpose of the strategy is to administer the vaccines through a coordinated system in a safe and healthy environment. In this regard, it said, National Immunisation Managment System (NIMS) will be run by the National Vaccine Administration and Coordination Cell (NVACC).

In additition to Adult Vaccine Centres (AVC), the attendees were apprised, the provincial and district administrations, PVACC and DVACC respectively, and coordination cells have been established to aid in the efforts.

The meeting was informed that the NIMS is fully digital, aimed at limiting the human error, and it will impart the information relating to the AVCs and appointments for vaccinations to the masses automatically.

The forum was apprised that vaccination centres have been established across the country, while the training of staff and other arrangements have been completed to begin the inoculation.

Vaccination process

Once informed about the vaccination, the masses as well as the frontline healthcare workers will have to send an SMS to 1166 or visit the NIMS website for registration.

Afterwards, a PIN code will be sent to the applicant while an AVC will be designated to them based on their present address. Once the vaccine is made available, the applicants will receive further details.

Prior to the vaccination, the system will authenticate the Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) number of the applicant.

Once confirmed by the NIMS, the vaccine will be administered to the masses. The details will be viewable through a real-time dashboard of the system.

Educational institutes

The meeting was told that after consultation with all the stakeholders, it has been decided to reopen the universities as well as the primary and middle classes across the country from February 1.

Further, the educational institutions in four major cities including Karachi, Hyderabad, Lahore, Peshawar will be ensuring 50 percent strength of the students on alternative basis.