Suspect in headline-grabbing Karachi hit-and-run accident tests positive for meth — report

August 29, 2024 16:58

Suspect in headline-grabbing Karachi hit-and-run accident tests positive for meth — report

Lab report shows urine sample of suspect in accident that killed two people had tested positive for ice
Blood sample showed “no narcotic, sedative, psychoactive, toxic or any other foreign compound/element”

Updated 29 August 2024

August 29, 2024 16:58

KARACHI: The urine sample of the main suspect in a headline-grabbing hit-and-run accident in Karachi in which two people were killed earlier this month had tested positive for methamphetamine or ‘ice,’ a lab report seen by Arab News on Thursday said.

CCTV footage of the accident widely circulated on social media showed a fast moving Toyota Land Cruiser hitting a motorbike from behind, killing a female student and her father on August 19. Five others were also injured in the incident. The driver of the car, Natasha Iqbal, the wife of well-known businessman Danish Iqbal, was arrested at the spot of the accident.

As part of the investigation, blood and urine samples were collected on the day of the accident and submitted to a lab on Aug. 21. A report was released to police on Wednesday.

“Methamphetamine (ice) detected in the given sample,” the report, a copy of which is available with Arab News, said of Iqbal’s urine sample.

Her blood sample, however, showed “no narcotic, sedative, psychoactive, toxic or any other foreign compound/element.”

Soon after the accident, Iqbal was admitted to Jinnah Hospital’s psychiatry ward after her family claimed she was suffering from psychiatric issues, and being treated with medication. She was sent on 14-day judicial remand last Wednesday.

The incident sparked outrage on social media, with many accusing the police of providing preferential treatment to Iqbal since she comes from a rich and influential family.

Two officials with direct knowledge of the investigation also confirmed the suspect had tested positive for methamphetamine. Arab News reached out to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Investigations Aleena Rajpar who did not comment on the lab report.

“The report confirms that she was under the influence of ice,” a senior police official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media on the subject. “This finding will lead to an additional charge of driving under the influence of drugs.”

Another top official privy to the details of the case also said methamphetamine had been found in Iqbal’s urine sample.

“It also didn’t find any signs of any medicines which the family claimed she was taking for psychiatric issues.”

The senior police official said Iqbal would be tried for manslaughter regardless of whether or not it was proven that she was intoxicated at the time of the incident. If a blood money compromise was reached between the two parties, Iqbal would still be tried for driving under the influence, he said.

“The settlement might happen but the crime of drugs itself won’t be settled through compensation,” the official explained. “If the prosecution can prove this in the trial, she will be punished, if not, she will be acquitted.”

Prominent lawyer and rights activist Jibran Nasir agreed with the police official, saying if methamphetamine had been detected in Iqbal’s test results, then offenses under the Provincial Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1965 would be applicable in her case.

Section 9 (2) under the Control of Narcotics Substances Act 1997 should also be added to the charges for the use or consumption of the drug, he added.

Nasir said Iqbal would be charged with manslaughter and not murder since the drugs were not consumed with the intention to run over someone.

“The use of drugs, however, will prove the element of rash and negligence beyond reasonable doubt.” he added, “and the driver can get the maximum penalty of 10 years jail term.”

Topics: Karachi

PM calls for improving licensing regulations for electric vehicles manufacturing in Pakistan

Updated 40 sec ago

September 14, 2024 11:06

PM calls for improving licensing regulations for electric vehicles manufacturing in Pakistan

Pakistan approved National Electric Vehicles Policy in 2019 with the goal of electric vehicles comprising 30 percent of all passenger vehicles
Road transport is a significant contributor to air pollution as around 23 percent of Pakistan’s greenhouse gas emissions originate from vehicles

Updated 40 sec ago

September 14, 2024 11:06

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has asked officials to improve licensing regulations regarding the manufacturing of electric vehicles in the country, Pakistani state media reported on Saturday.
Pakistan approved an ambitious National Electric Vehicles Policy (NEVP) in 2019 with the goal of electric vehicles comprising 30 percent of all passenger vehicles and heavy-duty truck sales by 2030, and an even more ambitious target of 90 percent by 2040.
Presiding over a meeting with regard to country’s shift to electric vehicles, Sharif directed officials to finalize a policy after consultations with all the federating units and stakeholders, the Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“The government is taking priority steps to promote electric vehicles in the country,” he was quoted as saying by the broadcaster. “These vehicles will not only save valuable foreign exchange in terms of import of petrol and diesel but will also be environment friendly.”
Pakistan, which has been struggling with an economic crisis, imports most of its energy needs. The country’s urban areas exhibit some of the world’s highest levels of air pollution, primarily due to sub-2.5 μm particulate emissions. This issue significantly impairs both the country’s economy and the quality of life of its residents.
Road transport is a significant contributor to air pollution as around 23 percent of Pakistan’s greenhouse gas emissions originate from vehicles.
Official informed participants of the meeting that since 2022, 49 licenses had been issued for the production of two and three-wheeled electric vehicles at the local level, of which 25 plants had started manufacturing, according to the Radio Pakistan report.
The first license for domestic production of four-wheeled electric vehicles was issued in September this year and the first indigenously manufactured electric car will come into the market by December. The meeting was informed that recharging stations for electric vehicles would also set up on priority basis.
The prime minister announced providing electric motorbikes to outstanding students of government-run schools on the pattern of the government’s laptop distribution scheme. He also asked the Capital Development Authority to prepare a comprehensive plan for electric-powered public transport in Islamabad.

Karachi’s iconic clock towers keep time and heritage alive for over a century

Updated 14 September 2024

September 14, 2024 08:31

Karachi’s iconic clock towers keep time and heritage alive for over a century

Clocktowers were first introduced in the Indian Subcontinent during an exhibition by Bennett and Co. in Agra in 1867, researcher says
Most of the over a dozen clock towers scattered across Karachi have ceased functioning but serve as visual reminders of British colonial era

Updated 14 September 2024

September 14, 2024 08:31

KARACHI: As the southern Pakistani city of Karachi evolves into a sprawling metropolis, one constant has stood the test of time: the rhythmic chime of its historic clock towers — relics of the British colonial era that serve not only as timekeepers but as enduring symbols of the rich history of the seaside metropolis.
With over a dozen of these monuments scattered across the city, the clock towers remind residents of an era when punctuality and precision were highly valued. At the heart of this legacy lies the iconic clock tower atop the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) building. Built in 1935 to commemorate King George V’s Silver Jubilee, the historic timekeeper remains the only one still functioning on its original mechanics.
Each day, technician Saleem Ahmed Khan Zubairi climbs the five-story structure of the KMC building to maintain the clock’s intricate machinery. With a simple turn of a key, he sets the mechanism in motion and the clock’s chimes ring out through the bustling streets below.
“It’s been operating for nearly 90 years and is still in almost in perfect original condition,” 55-year-old Zubairi, who has been working at the clock tower for the last 15 years, told Arab News.
Most of the other 13 clocktowers documented by Arab News in Karachi have ceased functioning, now only serving as visual reminders of a bygone era.
“Only two [of Karachi’s clock towers] are in working condition. One of them, as you can see at the KMC Head Office, it is in 100 percent genuine condition,” Zubairi said. “The others, like Merewether Tower, are no longer genuine because electronic machines have been installed in it.”
The clock towers were more than just functional structures but also were symbolic of the value placed on time during the British colonial era, according to Shaheen Nauman, a researcher specializing in Karachi’s heritage buildings.
“These clock towers were built to instill a sense of time and its value in the local population,” Nauman explained, standing outside the Edulji Dinshaw Charitable Dispensary, the oldest clock tower in Karachi, built in 1882. “They [the British] not only valued it, but they also tried to inculcate this value in the natives of Karachi.”
Clock towers were first introduced in the Indian Subcontinent during an exhibition by Bennett and Co. in Agra in 1867, according to Nauman, referring to a company owned by Sir John Bennett (1814-1897), a clock and watch maker. Over the decades, they continued to help residents tell time before wristwatches and household clocks became commonplace.
“The first person who purchased the clock was Lala Sohan Lal and he gave it to his municipality in Mirzapur,” she said, referring to the famous Punjabi historiographer who died in 1852.
“FALL INTO DESPAIR”
The clock towers of Karachi, like much of the city’s colonial architecture, are diverse in their design. Many were constructed with Gizri stone but the KMC clock tower is unique, built using red sandstone imported from Jodhpur.
The towers were strategically placed in busy marketplaces or public spaces, ensuring that the sound of their chimes would reach far and wide. Some of them include Merewether Tower (1884), Trinity Church Cathedral (1885), Denso Hall & Library (1886), Empress Market (1889), Poonabai Mamaiya (1889), Jaffer Fuddoo Dispensary (1904), Sydenham Passenger Pavilion at Keamari (1913), Lakshmi Building (1924), and Lea Market (1927).
“They were built in a crowded area, especially the market area, like the Empress Market or the KMC building, so that people could not only hear it, they can, because it was an hour bell and a quarter bell, quarter-hour bell, the time can visually be seen.,” Nauman said.
Yasmeen Lari, a pioneering Pakistani architect and historian, writes in her book, “The Dual City: Karachi During the Raj,” that the native agrarian society had continued to subsist in the pre-industrialized, colonized Subcontinent, unaware of the greater importance attached to time by industrialized Britain.
“The fascination [of the British] with clocks was reflected by their placement on prominent buildings such as the Edulji Dinshaw charitable dispensary and Empress Market in Karachi,” she wrote.
Today, while the clock towers may no longer serve as vital timekeepers in Karachi, they still stand as “silent witnesses to the passage of time” and as symbols of a “city that has not forgotten its heritage,” Zubairi, at the KMC Clock Tower, said.
A proposal was once floated to automate the tower’s winding process through electric motors, but it was abandoned to preserve the originality of the clock, Zubairi said.
The mayor’s office has recently developed a plan to restore the dysfunctional timekeepers, starting with one at Empress Market.
“We will soon bring it back to working condition,” Zubairi said, as the KMC clock tower struck four in the evening behind him.

Topics: Karachi Karachi Clock Tower

Pakistani-American aide says majority of Muslim electorate supports Trump for stance on Gaza

Updated 14 September 2024

September 14, 2024 08:26

Pakistani-American aide says majority of Muslim electorate supports Trump for stance on Gaza

Trump is facing Democratic nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election due to be held on November 5
Both candidates are struggling to get maximum support of all communities, including Pakistani and Muslim diaspora, ahead of polls

Updated 14 September 2024

September 14, 2024 08:26

ISLAMABAD: Sajid Tarar, a Pakistani-American businessman and close aide to former president Donald Trump, said on Friday that a majority of Muslim population in the United States (US) supported the Republican nominee in the upcoming presidential election, following the failure of President Joe Biden’s administration to have a ceasefire in Gaza.
Trump is facing Democratic nominee and US Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election due to be held on November 5, with both candidates struggling to get maximum support of all communities, including Pakistani and Muslim diaspora, in the upcoming elections.
Tarar, who lives in Maryland and met Trump through his lawyer in 2016, is one of 136 members of Trump’s finance team and is believed to be instrumental in raising funds and organizing election campaigns for the former president across the US.
Speaking to Arab News, the Pakistani-American aide said Trump had repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s “weak foreign policy” that led to Gaza and Ukraine wars and promised that he would stop both wars, if elected to power.
“The majority of Muslim voters, including the Pakistani diaspora in the US, has been aligning with Trump after the Biden administration’s failure to manage a ceasefire in Gaza,” said Tarar, who moved to the US from Pakistan’s Mandi Bahauddin district to study law some 36 years ago.
The US presidential election campaign is at its peak now and both candidates are struggling to woo voters, promising different reforms and policies, according to Tarar. Some 17 percent Muslims voted for Trump in the previous election, but this is going to be more than 50 precent in this election.
Tarar is currently in California for Trump’s fundraising and has been mobilizing Muslim communities, including 0.7 million Pakistanis, in the US. He believes Pakistan-US diplomatic and defense relations would improve under the Trump administration, which will bring peace and stability to the region and the world.
“Majority of Pakistani diaspora will vote for Trump for his stance on Gaza war and overall policies to foster peace across the globe,” the aide said. “Pakistan being next to China and Afghanistan cannot be ignored at all [by the US] as the Trump administration will be fully focusing on terrorism eradication and stability in the region.”
About the notion that Trump could push Pakistan to release former prime minister Imran Khan from jail if he was elected, Tarar said the Pakistani diaspora was divided over their party affiliations back home and its influence in the US presidential election was “minimal.”
“Even if Trump wins, obviously, he won’t be interfering in Pakistan’s judicial system to get Imran Khan released,” he said. “Some Pakistani-Americans have been pedaling this thing on social media, but there is no truth to it that President Trump would interfere in local Pakistani politics.”
Tarar said a few Pakistani-Americans had tried to discuss Khan’s imprisonment and local Pakistani politics with Trump at a fundraiser, but the US presidential nominee “did not pay any heed to it.”
He expressed his hope that Trump would win the election on the basis of his “vibrant and dynamic” campaign. “If the US presidential election is free, fair and legal, there is no doubt Donald Trump will win the polls with a thumping majority,” Tarar added.

Topics: Donald Trump US elections 2024

Pakistan PM praises Saudi Arabia, UAE and China for helping with $7 billion IMF loan

Updated 14 September 2024

September 14, 2024 08:13

Pakistan PM praises Saudi Arabia, UAE and China for helping with $7 billion IMF loan

Pakistan’s key allies helped with external financing gap, debt reprofiling after the staff-level agreement
The prime minister says he wants the new IMF loan program to be the last one the country ever needs

Updated 14 September 2024

September 14, 2024 08:13

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday praised Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China for playing a crucial role in helping Pakistan with the $7 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan, which is expected to be finalized when the global lending agency’s executive board meets on September 25.
Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF for a fresh loan program in July to keep its fragile economy afloat, with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb expressing hopes of sealing the deal by the end of August.
However, the delay was caused by an external financing gap, prompting Pakistan to seek commitments from key allies and request debt reprofiling.
The prime minister, speaking to a group of young parliamentarians from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party in Islamabad, shared background details of the efforts to secure the loan.
“Once again, Saudi Arabia, which is our very dear brotherly country, China, which is Pakistan’s trusted partner, and the UAE, which is also a brotherly state [assisted Pakistan],” he said. “If these three countries had not contributed and played their role in this IMF program, it would not have been possible to secure it.”
Sharif also highlighted improvements in the country’s macroeconomic indicators, noting that inflation had decreased and remittances from overseas Pakistanis were on the rise.
He acknowledged the need to expand the tax net, recognizing the financial burden on the salaried classes, but expressed optimism that the situation would stabilize as Pakistan made economic progress.
The prime minister further emphasized that Pakistan needed to break its reliance on borrowing, expressing hope that this would be the last IMF program the country would ever need.

Topics: Pakistan IMF Talks Pakistan Saudi Ties Pakistan UAE ties IMF bailout

Pakistan lock horns with India today in Asian Hockey Champions Trophy

Updated 14 September 2024

September 14, 2024 08:08

Pakistan lock horns with India today in Asian Hockey Champions Trophy

Pakistan, who have remained unbeaten, won 5-1 against China on Thursday
The Pakistani team has already qualified for the semifinal of the tournament

Updated 14 September 2024