Karachi

KARACHI: A Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre medico-legal officer, accused of raping a trainee nurse, was granted bail against a surety bond of Rs 200,000 by sessions court on Friday.
Abdul Jabbar Memon, who was removed from service after the alleged offence, was booked for raping and then attempting to murder a student of the JPMC nursing school in the residential area of the hospital on July 13. Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Abdul Razzaq pronounced the order

KARACHI: Anarchy prevailed at the University of Karachi (KU) on Friday after a lingering dispute between two student organisations over invigilation matters turned violent. Exasperated law enforcers moved from one point to another to arrest the student's involved, but failed to arrest a single student involved in the clash.
Among the many wounded, three students have been described as "critically injured" as the violence engulfed several departments in its wake. The KU

KARACHI: More than three years after a case was lodged against 16-year-old Asif for raping his maternal uncle Raza Khan's 18-year-old wife, and a little over two years after he murdered Khan, Asif was sentenced earlier this week to 10 years in prison for the rape, and ordered to pay a fine of Rs 10,000.
According to a press release issued by War Against Rape (WAR), which has been pursuing the case since the start, an FIR regarding the rape was lodged on July 27, 2007. The trial

KARACHI: At least 480 Pakistani illegal immigrants, who were deported from Muscat, the capital city of Oman, arrived here on Wednesday. Officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) told Pakistan Today that the deported illegal immigrants arrived at Port Qasim in a ship.
They were deported because of valid passport and incomplete documents, they said. They said deported Pakistanis belong to different parts of the country. The FIA has released all deportees after

KARACHI: The health experts have expressed their grave concern over the increasing oral diseases in Pakistan on World Oral Health Day 2010 observed around the globe on Wednesday and have said that due to the oral diseases children and adults are unable to attend their school or work, causing millions of hours to be lost each year.
They also said that the most common oral diseases worldwide are dental cavities and periodontal (gum) diseases. Addressing an awareness event organized

KARACHI: "Hamari Manzoori Ho Gai!" chanted Fauzia, a transgender, as she clapped and triumphantly danced to the beat of a drum on Tuesday outside the Karachi Press Club (KPC).
Along with many of her ilk, Fauzia was rejoicing the inclusion of the third gender column in the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) registration form for computerised national identity cards (CNICs). "We have got our identity!" Fauzia said when asked about the benefits of a separate box for

KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided that a letter with serious reservations would be sent to the federal government about the delay in the transfer of assets and funds of the five departments transferred to the provinces by the centre.
The decision was made in a meeting at the Chief Minister's House headed by Qaim Ali Shah. The meeting reviewed various matters related to the transfer of the five departments from the federal government in accordance with the 18th

KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday restricted all public universities of the province from borrowing overdrafts from banks for meetings their financial needs.
Sindh PAC Chairman Jam Tamachi Unnar presided chaired the committee meeting at the Sindh Assembly in which he directed the universities' management to contain their expenses within their annual budgetary limits.
The decision was taken after the committee reviewed the 2006-07 and

KARACHI: The speakers of a consultative workshop on agriculture issues, jointly organised by Participatory Development Initiatives (PDI), Oxfam GB and European Commission, on Monday demanded proper implementation of Land Tenancy Act in Sindh.
They urged the country's commercial banks to decrease the interest rate on agricultural loans for small farmers, adding the government should give subsidy to the banks for this purpose.
They also asked the State Bank of Pakistan to

KARACHI: Defence cogent power plant is not functioning for six months due to compressor faults and the Defence Cogent Ltd (DCL) management, major share holder of the project, is not willing to repair it, sources said on Monday.
The plant is the only steam power plant of the city that can produce 84 megawatts but is switched off because the DCL management claiming scarcity of funds required for plant reparation, sources told Pakistan Today.
The plant generates electricity as

KARACHI: The growing political pressure has become a hurdle in appointment of faculty of Islamic learning dean at the University of Karachi despite passing nearly two years of Jalaluddin Noori's suspension as a dean, Pakistan Today learnt on Monday.
Faculty of Islamic Learning has been working without permanent dean for the last 21 months due to growing political pressure for reappointment of Jalaluddin Noori as dean. Noori was suspended by syndicate of the varsity when he was

KARACHI: The Unite Sikh, Sri Guru Singh Sabha and United Sikhs of Thailand, the international organisations have sent a container of 25,000 kilograms of rice for the flood survivors as a token of support.
The container was handed over to the National Trust for population Welfare (NATPOW) chairperson, Senator Suriya Amiruddin on Sunday. The container containing 2,500 rice bags - 10 Kgs each, would be distributed among the flood victims in Kyber-Phaktoonkhwa and three worst

KARACHI: While people in the city are facing unabated power outages, The Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has started "preventive maintenance" of its power plants, to be completed during the next five months, causing further electricity shortages.
According to sources in KESC the maintenance works of all power generating units were to be carried out to ensure the functions of all plants during the summers. With the change in weather, which they claimed, was the perfect time

KARACHI: Death toll rose to 11, including eight crew members, as a Russian-made cargo plane crashed in the Naval area near Dalmian in Karachi soon after taking off from airport in the wee hours of Sunday, officials said.
Senior officials of the Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA), Pakistan Navy and other law enforcement agencies visited the scene while investigation into the incident would take a few days, Pakistan Today learnt.
Sindh Health Minister Sagheer Ahmed has sent the

KARACHI: Since independence, the country has witnessed 13 air crashes, none of which have been investigated even after assurances by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the government.
Sources told Pakistan Today that orders were issued for their investigation from time to time, but not a single report of any crash was made public.
The situation is so distressing that even the investigation reports on plane crashes of former president Gen Ziaul Haq and Air Chief Marshal

KARACHI: The Crime Investigation Department (CID) arrested four alleged Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) members believed to be involved in the CID office blast, and recovered a huge cache of weapons from their possession in Sohrab Goth on Saturday.
Sources told Pakistan Today that a CID team, headed by SP Chaudhry Aslam, received a tip off about six TTP men being present at a place in Gharo and raided it. However, the militants managed to flee. Later, the team conducted a raid

KARACHI: Contrary to popular belief, Sindh's agriculture sector had achieved its government-fixed target of Rs470 billion, provincial Tourism Minister Shazia Marri said while addressing a workshop arranged by the Liberal Forum on Saturday.
"Why should be expect help from others? We will be the first ones to help the people of our province," she said. Political parties were misguiding people on the Reformed GST issue and should apologize to people for supporting dictatorship in