#release imran khan

[bristolmuslimheritage]

Signage, Map location & Unmarked Graves of Murdered Girls at Avonview Cemetery (Muslim Section) Ignored: Letter of Complaint Raises Issues - Dawn - Founded By Quaid E Azam, Mohammed Ali Jinnah (Pakistani Newspaper - ABC Certified)

[aurora-borealis-love]

Imran Khan now on the apartheid wall in Palestine...

[xtruss]

In this file photograph, taken on March 10, 2024, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party supporters hold portraits of Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, as they protest against the alleged skewing in Pakistan’s national election, in Peshawar. (AFP/File)

UK Parliamentarians Demand Release of Jailed Pakistan Ex-Premier Imran Khan

Khan has been in jail since August last year, even though all four convictions handed down to him ahead of an election in Feb have either been suspended or overturned

A UN panel of experts this month found that Khan’s detention ‘had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office’

— Arab News | July 24, 2024

Islamabad, Pakistan: A number of British Parliamentarians on Tuesday called for the release of former Pakistan premier Imran Khan, who has been in jail since August last year, Khan’s party said.

The UK parliament held a hearing on Tuesday that saw over a dozen parliamentarians listen to members of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party speaking about his incarceration, deteriorating law and order as well as growing censorship in Pakistan.

The event, jointly hosted by Conservative Peer Lord Daniel Hannan and British-Pakistani Labour MP Naz Shah, was attended by former Tory home secretary Priti Patel, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Labour MP Naushaba Khan, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon and others.

The hearing resolved that the parliamentarians will call on British PM Keir Starmer and State Secretary David Lammy for the UK government to take note of a recent United Nations report into Khan’s incarceration and demand his release from prison, Khan’s PTI party said.

“As friends of Pakistan and friends of Pakistani democracy, we want to see that country prosper. We want to see the UN’s recommendations implemented, including an end to the detention of Imran Khan and a timetable for free and inclusive elections,” the PTI quoted Lord Hannan as saying.

“We will continue to press for democracy on a cross-party basis, and in both parliamentary chambers. And we will link up with parliamentarians in other friendly countries to make the case internationally.”

Khan has been in jail since August last year, even though all four convictions handed down to him ahead of a parliamentary election in February have either been suspended or overturned.

After being acquitted on the last of those four convictions, authorities rearrested Khan and his wife in an old corruption case on charges of selling state gifts unlawfully. He also faces an accusation of inciting his supporters to attack military installations in May last year. Khan denies all the accusations.

A UN panel of experts this month found that Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office.”

During the event, Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, a key Khan aide, and PTI member Meher Bano Qureshi apprised the UK parliamentarians of their concerns with regard to the situation in Pakistan.

“As somebody with a large Pakistani constituency and as an MP of Pakistani heritage, I want to see Pakistan succeed, particularly democracy in Pakistan, as well as freedom of the press, and justice,” MP Shah was quoted as saying.

“The UN report into the incarceration of Imran Khan should be of great concern to all of us. We cannot shy away from it and we must continue to work across parliament to ensure progress is made for Pakistan.”

The development followed fresh arrests of PTI members, including Information Secretary Raoof Hasan and senior media manager Ahmed Waqas Janjua.

Last week, Pakistan’s government announced it would move to ban the PTI for involvement in anti-government and anti-military riots last year, for leaking state secrets and for receiving illegal foreign funding. Khan and the PTI say all charges against them are motivated to keep them out of politics and dent their popularity.

Khan’s PTI party secured the largest number of seats in parliament in the February general election despite what it says is a military-backed crackdown that aims to keep him out of power. It also won nearly two dozen extra parliament seats after a court ruling last week.

Khan blames his 2022 ouster in a no-confidence vote on Pakistan’s powerful army generals after he fell out with them, a charge the army denies.

[astrosblogs]

"Release Imran Khan": Pakistan Supreme Court Calls Arrest "Illegal"

The Supreme Court, after hearing Imran Khan's request for relief, strongly criticised the NAB for arresting the former Prime Minister from the Islamabad High Court's premises, where he had come to appear in a case

New Delhi: Imran Khan’s arrest by Pakistan’s top anti-corruption body is illegal and he should be released immediately, the country’s Supreme Court said on Thursday amid violent protests by supporters of the former Prime Minister who faces corruption allegations. Mr Khan is under the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

The order to bring Mr Khan, 70, to the Supreme Court was issued by a three-member bench of Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Athar Minallah.

The Supreme Court, after hearing Mr Khan’s request for relief, strongly criticised the NAB for arresting the former Prime Minister from the Islamabad High Court’s premises, where he had come to appear in a case.

The Supreme Court said Mr Khan should return to the Islamabad High Court at 10 am today and follow whatever the high court decides. Only 10 of his supporters will be allowed to meet him, the Supreme Court said.

Mr Khan heads the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Chief Justice Bandial said a person cannot be arrested from the court premises without the permission of the registrar. “If an individual surrendered to the court, then what does arresting them mean?” the Chief Justice said, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

Mr Khan has alleged he was tortured in the NAB custody and was not allowed to even use the washroom. The former cricketing superstar, who remains popular in Pakistan, alleged he was given an injection to induce a slow heart attack.

Mr Khan’s arrest follows months of political crisis and came hours after the powerful military rebuked the former international cricketer for alleging that a senior officer had been involved in a plot to kill him.

Some protesters took out their wrath on the military, torching the residence of the corps commander in Lahore and laying siege at the entrance to the army’s general headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

Pakistan politicians have frequently been arrested and jailed since the country’s founding in 1947, but few have so directly challenged a military that has staged at least three coups and had ruled for more than three decades.

[clearcatmoon]

Today is back day for pakistan 🇵🇰 🌑

# Release imran Khan

[zvaigzdelasas]

[BBC is UK State Media]

Pakistan's powerful army chief has urged the country to leave "anarchy and polarisation" behind as two ex-prime ministers declared victory in an election that has defied expectations.

With most results in, independent candidates linked to jailed former PM Imran Khan have won most seats.

But Nawaz Sharif, another ex-PM widely seen as having the army's backing, has urged others to join him in coalition.

Officials have also rejected Western criticism of how the election was run.[...]

Mr Khan released an AI-generated video message rejecting his rival's claim and calling on supporters to celebrate. He has been jailed on charges of leaking state secrets, corruption and an unlawful marriage and his PTI party was banned from taking part in the polls.

About 100 of the winning candidates are independents and all but eight of them are backed by the PTI, the non-profit Free and Fair Election Network said.

On Saturday PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan said the party would try to form a government and would start protesting on Sunday if complete election results had not been released by then.

Mr Sharif's PML-N party won 73 seats and he acknowledged that he did not have the numbers to form a government alone, but insisted he could remove the country from difficult times at the head of a coalition.

The PPP of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated PM Benazir Bhutto, got 54 seats and the rest - the largest number of seats - were won by smaller parties and independents.

10 Feb 24

[mariacallous]

Ads containing abortion-related misinformation are allowed to run on Facebook and Instagram in countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, while legitimate health care providers struggle to get theirs approved, new research has found.

The report, released today from the Center for Countering Digital Hate and MSI Reproductive Choices, an international reproductive health care provider, collected instances from across Vietnam, Nepal, Ghana, Mexico, Kenya, and Nigeria. Between 2019 and 2024 in Ghana and Mexico alone, researchers found 187 antiabortion ads on Meta’s platforms that were viewed up to 8.8 million times.

Many of these ads were placed by foreign antiabortion groups. Americans United for Life, a US-based nonprofit whose website claims that abortion pills are “unsafe and unjust,” and Tree of Life Ministries, an evangelical church now headquartered in Israel, were both linked to the ads. Researchers also found that ads placed by groups not “originating in the country where the ad was served were viewed up to 4.2 million times.”

In the report, researchers found that some of the ads linked out to websites like Americans United for Life, whose website describes abortion as a “business” that is “unsafe” for women. The abortion pill is widely considered safe and is less likely to cause death than both penicillin and Viagra. Other ads, like one run by the Mexican group Context.co, linked to a Substack dedicated to the topic that implied there is a secret global strategy to manipulate the Mexican populace and impose abortion on the country.

One ad identified in Mexico alleged that abortion services were “financed from abroad … to eliminate the Mexican population.” Another warned that women could suffer “severe complications” from using the abortion pill.

Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels told WIRED that the company allows “posts and ads promoting health care services, as well as discussion and debate around them,” but that content about reproductive health “must follow our rules,” including only allowing reproductive health advertisements to target people above the age of 18.

“This is money that Meta is taking to spread lies, conspiracy theories, and disinformation,” says Imran Khan, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

In these countries, where Meta often has partnerships with local telecom companies that allow users to access its platforms for free, Facebook is a key source of information. Some of these ads also ran on Instagram. “Anybody with a cell phone can access information. People use it to find services. When we ask clients, how did you hear about us? a lot of them will cite Facebook, because they live on Facebook. It's where they know to search for information,” says Whitney Chinogwenya, marketing manager at MSI Reproductive Choices. So when disinformation runs rampant on the platform, the impact can be widespread.

“Good health information saves lives. By actively aiding the spread of disinformation and suppressing good information,” Khan says, “[Meta is] literally putting lives at risk in those countries and showing that they treat foreign lives as substantially less important to them than American lives.”

Many of the countries impacted by this report also have high maternal mortality rates, making access to reproductive services particularly crucial. In Nepal, for instance, there are 239 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, as opposed to only 32 in the United States. In Ghana, it’s even higher: 319 deaths per 100,000 live births. This comes as the US continues to grapple with the implications of the 2022 Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v. Wade. On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a milestone abortion case that will determine access to the abortion pill across the country. These laws and policies in the US are often fodder for those seeking to roll back abortion rights elsewhere in the world.

These findings are not the first instances of right-wing groups using social media to promote antiabortion messaging abroad. In 2022, the Spanish far-right group CitizenGo orchestrated a disinformation campaign on Twitter to rebrand a reproductive health bill focused on regulating surrogacy as an “abortion bill.” (The legislation did not address abortion.) A 2023 report from Amnesty International also cited social media as a key way that antiabortion groups disseminate their messaging and target reproductive-health workers.

The report also found that the problem extends beyond just abortion. In one instance, Meta removed one MSI Reproductive Choices ad for cervical cancer screenings in Nepal, saying it involved “sensitive information.” Another ad promoting breast cancer awareness in Ghana was also flagged, as was one in Kenya providing information on vasectomies.

After trying and failing to place ads on Meta’s platforms in Nepal and Vietnam, MSI’s local accounts were restricted from placing any further ads, forcing the organization to start new ones. “But of course, it doesn't have as much audience as we did on the original page,” Chinogwenya says.

Glenn Ellingson, a former Meta employee who worked on civic misinformation, tells WIRED that there are several factors that might lead to an ad being rejected from the platforms, including if it’s targeting a group considered “sensitive,” particularly in an automated system.

“When you’re operating at the scale Meta is at, there are always going to be errors,” he says, adding that greater investment in humans who could review and flag content would likely help the platform distinguish between content that violates its policies and content that doesn’t.

[beardedmrbean]

KARACHI (Reuters) - Pakistan's economy could lose up to $300 million due to internet disruptions caused by imposition of a national firewall, the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) said in a press release on Thursday.

Islamabad is implementing an internet firewall to monitor and regulate content and social media platforms, according local media reports. The government denies the use of the firewall for censorship.

Ali Ihsan, senior vice chairman of P@SHA, said the imposition of the firewall has already caused prolonged internet disconnections and erratic VPN performance, threatening a "complete meltdown of business operations".

"These disruptions are not mere inconveniences; but, a direct, tangible and aggressive assault on the industry's viability – inflicting an estimated and devastating financial losses estimated to reach $300 million, which can further increase exponentially," he said in the statement.

Pakistan's telecommunication authority and Pakistan's Minister of State for Information Technology Shaza Fatima Khawaja did not immediately respond.

Earlier this month, Khawaja told local media that the government did not plan to use firewalls as a form of censorship.

Pakistan has already blocked access to social media platform X since the February elections in which jailed former prime minister Imran Khan won the most seats despite a crackdown and ban on his party.

The government has said the blocking was to stop anti state activities and a failure by X to adhere to local Pakistani laws. Rights activists say the blocking of X is designed to stifle critical voices and democratic accountability in the country.

In its statement, P@SHA said that the government's lack of transparency around the firewall had "ignited a firestorm of distrust" among internet users and Pakistan's global IT clients who fear their proprietary data and privacy will be compromised.

P@SHA demanded an "immediate and unconditional halt to this digital siege" and called on the government to engage with the industry to develop a cybersecurity framework.

Pakistan recorded $298 million in IT exports in June, up 33% from the year before. During the fiscal year that ended in June, IT exports were worth $3.2 billion, up 24% from $2.5 billion in the fiscal year 2023.

[starlightshadowsworld]

Pakistan's Supreme Court has ruled that Imran Khan.

Pakistan's former prime minister's arrest on Tuesday 8th May.

Was illegal.

His lawyers are arguing that it was unlawful.

The court are ordering his immediate release.

Though as of the writing of this post, Thursday 11th May 14:40 BST, Imran Khan has yet to be released.

It's believed approximately 10 people have being killed and 2,000 arrested from the protests.

-Information comes from BBC News.

[stele3]

[humanrightsupdates]

Urgent Action: MAN AT RISK OF PROTEST-RELATED EXECUTION (Pakistan: UA 63.23)

Take action now - write to the Pakistani authorities to demand the release of YouTuber Riaz Khan before 30 August 2023:

I write to you out of extreme concern about the fate and whereabouts of Imran Riaz Khan, a Pakistani YouTuber and TV anchor who has been forcibly disappeared. Imran was arrested and detained in Sialkot on May 11th, 2023. Imran was detained at the Sialkot International Airport by the Sialkot police and taken to the Sialkot Cantt police station at around midnight on May 11th, 2023. Only subsequently was a detention order issued claiming that Imran was inciting violence in the village of Dhana Wali, a claim his lawyer vehemently denies.

Authorities claim that Imran was released on May 12th, at 11.20pm however his family say they have not seen or heard from Imran since his arrest. Imran has been missing for over one month now in a suspected case of enforced disappearance by state authorities and his fate and whereabouts remain unknown. The police claim that Imran is no longer in their custody and it is distressing that the police have not been able to locate Imran despite court orders requiring the authorities to work together to ascertain his whereabouts.

In keeping with government’s international human rights obligations, I urge you to:

Ensure a prompt, and impartial, investigation into the fate and whereabouts of Imran Riaz Khan;

Should Imran Riaz Khan be in state custody, immediately release him, or if there is sufficient evidence of wrongdoing, promptly charge him with an internationally recognizable crime and produce him before a civilian court;

End the practice of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions, immediately and unconditionally disclose the fate and/or whereabouts of forcibly disappeared people to their families and immediately release forcibly disappeared people or promptly bring them before a judge in a civilian court of law to rule on the lawfulness of their arrest or detention and whether they should be released.

[ukrfeminism]

2 minute read

A senior Conservative MP has been reported to the police by a group of fellow Tories over allegations of rape and sexual assault.

An independent law firm has been brought in to investigate the claims but the unnamed MP retains the Conservative whip.

The allegations span two years and were reported to the police in the form of a dossier compiled by Tory MPs, according to TalkTV and The Sun. Scotland Yard is yet to launch a formal investigation.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “On October 28, police received allegations of serious sexual assault reported to have taken place on unknown dates at undisclosed locations. The reports were submitted via a third party. Officers are making inquiries into these allegations.”

Jess Phillips, the shadow domestic violence minister, said the revelations were “flabbergasting”.

A different Tory MP was released on bail earlier this year after being accused of rape and sexual assault offences between 2002 and 2009. The unnamed man in his fifties was told to stay away from parliament. The Sun also revealed last week that a former Tory MP was arrested in June last year for historic sex crimes.

In total six MPs are currently suspended from their parties because of claims relating to sexual misconduct.

The City of Chester by-election took place yesterday after the former Labour MP, Chris Matheson, was forced to stand down for making unwanted sexual advances at a junior member of staff. Matheson denies any wrongdoing.

The two previous by-elections were also triggered in similar circumstances.

Neil Parish stood down as Tory MP for Tiverton & Honiton after he was caught watching porn in the House of Commons and Imran Ahmad Khan resigned as Conservative MP for Wakefield after he was sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually assaulting a 15-year old boy.

Meanwhile, Chris Pincher, the former deputy chief whip, remains an MP despite allegations that he groped two men while drunk, as does Rob Roberts, the MP for Delyn, who asked a 21-year old female intern to “fool around” with him after she confided in him that she was suffering from mental health issues.

Pincher has refused to comment on the incident since his resignation as deputy chief whip, when he acknowledged he had drunk “far too much” and “embarrassed myself”. Roberts responded to a parliamentary inquiry that recommended his suspension from the Commons by saying he was in a “challenging place personally”.

The former Tory minister Conor Burns was sacked from the government after he was seen stroking a young man’s thigh at the party’s conference earlier this year but also remains an MP. Burns denies any wrongdoing.

[darkmaga-retard]

Andrew Korybko

Sep 10, 2024

The Establishment fears the power of the Pakistani people.

Tens of thousands of PTI supporters peacefully rallied alongside their MPs outside of Islamabad on Sunday for former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s release from jail, where he’s been held for over a year already on dubious and in some cases outright ridiculous charges. The security services then arrested at least a dozen party leaders the next day, including some MPs from the premises of Parliament itself, in what PTI described as “a slap to the face of an already decimated democracy”. Here’s what it all means:

----------

1. PTI Lives On Despite Nearly 30 Months Of Repressions

The abductions, torture, state persecution, and even in some cases assassination of opposition members like journalist Arshad Sharif since April 2022’s US-backed post-modern coup haven’t destroyed PTI, which remains intact and is still genuinely popular as proven by Sunday’s peaceful rally. This speaks to the continued appeal of their anti-corruption and pro-sovereignty message. It also shows that people are increasingly fed up with the ruling PMLN-PPP duopoly and their powerful military-intelligence backers.  

2. Hearts & Minds Were Always The Establishment’s To Lose

The Establishment, which in the Pakistani context refers to its powerful military and intelligence services that run the country behind the scenes, is responsible for society’s polarization. None of the abovementioned repressions would have happened without their approval. They’re hellbent on keeping PTI out of power due to an understanding that they reached with their American counterparts. The resultant policy of “state terror” irreparably lost countless hearts and minds to their cause.

3. The US Predictably Turned A Blind Eye To This Crackdown

The most that the US will do in response to the latest crackdown is repeat platitudes about democracy and the rule of law due to the aforesaid understanding that they reached with the Pakistani Establishment, which became obvious after the de facto imposition of martial law in May 2023. The Intercept also proved last year that Pakistan sold arms to Ukraine as a quid pro quo for IMF aid. PTI activists therefore shouldn’t get their hopes up about the US dumping its Pakistani toadies.

4. The Establishment Fears The Power Of The Pakistani People

PTI is the only force capable of mobilizing a broad swath of the Pakistani people, whose combined efforts in the form of peaceful rallies and other manifestations are feared by The Establishment. They’re also paranoid that PTI has sympathizers within the military and intelligence services who might disobey speculative shoot-to-kill orders if they’re ever issued, thus explaining the persecution of Imran Khan’s former ISI chief Faiz Hameed in order to stifle internal dissent. All these moves are self-defeating.

5. Is A False Flag Provocation Or Conspiracy Theory Imminent?

These four observations lead to concern that The Establishment might stage a false flag provocation or concoct an associated conspiracy theory to connect PTI with the latest upsurge of terrorism. The “Taliban Khan” smear that their PMLN-PPP puppets used to popularize to defame the former premier could therefore be revived through similarly artificial means as the US Establishment’s Democrat puppets’ latest Russiagate conspiracy for the same politically self-serving reasons against the opposition.

[tfgadgets]

Imran’s flock detained after protest for his release

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani police have detained several leaders and lawmakers of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) from parliament’s compound, days after the party held a rally and served a two-week ultimatum for the release of the jailed former PM. The detentions followed alleged violation of norms during the rally.In a separate development, Ali Amin Gandapur, chief minister of Khyber…

[zvaigzdelasas]

26 May 23

[sa7abnews]

Thousands rally in Pakistan demanding for Imran Khan

New Post has been published on Sa7ab News

Thousands rally in Pakistan demanding for Imran Khan

Thousands of protesters rallied in Islamabad, calling for Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, Imran Khan, be released from prision.

... read more !