ISLAMABAD: Angry women Opposition parliamentarians in Pakistan have criticised Prime Minister Imran Khan over his controversial statement on women’s dressing, amidst growing cases of rapes in the country.

Apparently stunned by Khan’s response, interviewer Jonathan Swan rephrased his question, “But is it really going to provoke acts of sexual violence?” Maintaining his stance, the 68-year-old flamboyant cricketer-turned-politician went on to elaborate, “It depends on which society you live in.”

He added that: “If in a society people haven’t seen that sort of thing, it will have an impact [on them]. Growing up in a society like yours, maybe it won’t impact you. This cultural imperialism… Whatever is in our culture must be acceptable to everyone else.”

Criticising the Khan’s controversial remarks, Opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman tweeted that, “Whether it’s our laws or even our religion, which is very clear that respect for women is the responsibility of the beholder, no man has the right to blame women or how they dress, for violence, rape and crimes against women. Shocked that our PM is doing this.”

“Does IK [Imran Khan] not know that by saying women should dress a certain way, he is giving oppressors and criminals against women a new narrative to justify their behaviour. There is NO justification for a prime minister to talk this way. Highly irresponsible and condemnable,” she said in another tweet.

Sindh Minister for Women Development Shehla Raza said Prime Minister Khan should focus on the issues being faced by the country instead of “keeping an eye on the women”.

The provincial minister said Khan should not have said this while sitting on the seat of the prime minister of the country, the Dawn newspaper reported.

“The world got an insight into a mindset of a sick, misogynistic, degenerate & derelict IK. It’s not women’s choices that lead to sexual assault rather the choices of men who choose to engage in this despicable and vile CRIME,” Pakistan Muslim League-(Nawaz) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb in a tweet.

“Maybe the misogynist, degenerate can defend paedophiles and murderers, as he advocates for rapist, after all men cannot be expected to control temptation. Just FYI Mr degenerate, self-control is a little thing upon which Allah places a great premium,” she added.

Stung by the angry reaction to Khan’s controversial comments, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) fielded prominent party women leaders to defend the prime minister.

Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul and PTI lawmakers Maleeka Ali Bokhari and Kanwal Shauzab held a press conference on Tuesday to tell everyone they misinterpreted Khan’s comments.

The PTI-led government mobilised women for the first time in Pakistan, she was quoted as saying by Geo News.

“A woman like me became a member of Parliament from a tribal area,” she said, adding that there are five women in the Cabinet for the first time.

She described Khan as a “symbol of women’s empowerment”.

“We are strong women and we have been strengthened by our leader Imran Khan,” Bokhari said.

Shauzab said she believes that if you are among those who are “fighting” against the premier’s statement in his interview, then you are “disagreeing with the orders of Allah”.

She went on to say that Prime Minister Khan explained the commands of Allah regarding women.

During the HBO interview, Khan was also asked about his earlier comments about temptation, women’s dressing and men’s “willpower” — and how he was accused of rape victim blaming.

Khan, brushing it off as nonsense, said the concept of purdah is to avoid temptation in society.

“We don’t have discos here, we don’t have nightclubs, so it is a completely different society, way of life here, so if you raise temptation in society to the point and all these young guys have nowhere to go, it has consequences in the society,” Khan said.

There are at least 11 rape cases reported in Pakistan every day with over 22,000 rape cases reported to police across the country in the last six years, according to official statistics reported by the Pakistani media.

However, only 77 accused have been convicted which comprise 0.3 per cent of the total figure, The News International reported in November last year.

LONDON: Five years ago Wednesday, Britons voted in a referendum that was meant to bring certainty to the UK’s unsettled relationship with its European neighbors. Fat chance.

It took over four years to actually make the break and the former partners are still bickering, like many divorced couples, over money and trust.

And five years after a fractious referendum campaign that sparked family arguments and neighbourhood disputes, Britain is still as split over Europe as ever.

“Britain is still significantly divided over the merits of Brexit,” said polling expert John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde.

He says voters are split almost exactly 50-50 between “remain” and “leave” supporters, and relatively few have changed their minds since 2016.

“Over four in five people still say that they would vote exactly in the same way as they did five years ago,” Curtice said.

The country is also split on whether Brexit has been a success.

In 2016, Brexit campaigners claimed leaving the EU would not only restore British sovereignty, but save the country money.

Notoriously, campaigners emblazoned a double-decker bus with the claim that Brexit would give the U.K. an extra 350 million pounds ($486 million) a week to spend on its beloved national health service.

The U.K.’s net contribution to the EU was actually about half that much.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government insists that Brexit is bringing new economic opportunities.

Britain recently signed its first full post-Brexit trade deal, with Australia, and has applied to join a trade partnership of Pacific-rim countries.

But Britain’s trade with the EU, which before Brexit accounted for about half of all imports and exports, plummeted by 20% after the U.K. made a full economic break at the end of 2020, although the disruption from the coronavirus pandemic makes it hard to tell how much of that impact is from Brexit.

Jonathan Portes, professor of economics at King’s College London, said Brexit will be “a significant but not catastrophic” drag on U.K. economic growth for many years.

“Not a blowout, but a slow puncture,” he said.

The referendum ended the career of then-Prime Minister David Cameron, who had championed staying in the EU and quit soon after.

His successor, Theresa May, tried and failed to strike a divorce deal that both the EU and Britain’s Parliament would accept and resigned in 2019.

The two most prominent Brexit champions have had mixed fortunes.

Former U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage arguably did more than anyone to make Brexit happen, but never won a seat in Parliament despite repeated attempts.

He founded, and then left, the Brexit Party, and remained in the public eye as Britain’s most vocal supporter of Donald Trump.

He is currently out of frontline politics.

Johnson, who led the official “Vote Leave” campaign, became prime minister in 2019 by promising to “get Brexit done” after years of wrangling.

He succeeded in leading Britain out of the EU — and straight into another crisis, the coronavirus pandemic.

He leads a nation divided over more than just Brexit.

Far from bringing the U.K. together, Brexit has frayed the bonds between the different parts of the United Kingdom.

It has increased support for independence in Scotland, which voted in 2016 to remain in the EU but had to leave the bloc when the rest of the U.K did.

It also has destabilized Northern Ireland, which borders EU member Ireland, by imposing new trade barriers between it and the rest of the U.K. that have angered Northern Ireland’s pro-British unionist community.

As for the divorced couple itself, Britain and the EU are squabbling, with Britain urging the bloc to show flexibility and the EU threatening legal action unless the U.K. sticks to the Brexit agreement.

British Brexit minister David Frost, who led negotiations for the U.K. side, said Tuesday that many Brexit supporters like him were surprised at how rocky the relationship had become.

“It’s not something that we want,” he said.

“The sooner we can move beyond the settling-down process the better.”

With the previous allocation of 25 million, the Biden-Harris Administration has so far announced to distribute 80 million doses of America’s own vaccine supply which President Joe Biden had pledged to allocate by the end of June in service of ending the pandemic globally.

“As we continue to fight the COVID-19 pandemic at home and work to end the pandemic worldwide, President Biden has promised that the United States will be an arsenal of vaccines for the world.

Part of that plan is donating vaccines from our domestic supply, and the President has pledged 80 million doses to be allocated by the end of June,” the White House said.

Earlier this month, the administration announced the plan for the first 25 million doses that the US has already begun shipping.

For these 80 million doses, the US will share 75 per cent through COVAX and 25 per cent will be targeted to help deal with surges around the world.

“Our goals are to increase global COVID-19 vaccination coverage, prepare for surges and prioritise healthcare workers and other vulnerable populations based on public health data and acknowledged best practice, and help our neighbours and other countries in need,” the White House said.

The Biden-Harris Administration will not use its vaccines to secure favours from other countries, it asserted.

Of the 41 million to be shared through COVAX, 14 million will go to Latin America and the Caribbean nations and 16 million to Asia.

Among the Asian countries include India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives, Bhutan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Papua New Guinea, Taiwan, Cambodia, and the Pacific Islands.

Another 10 million will be shared with African nations.

The White House said approximately 14 million – or 25 per cent of these 55 million vaccines – will be shared with regional priorities and other recipients, such as: Colombia, Argentina, Haiti, other CARICOM countries, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Panama, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Tunisia, Oman, West Bank and Gaza, Ukraine, Kosovo, Georgia, Moldova, and Bosnia.

The White House said, in addition to sharing doses from its own vaccine supply, the Biden-Harris Administration is also committed to working with US manufacturers to produce more vaccines to share with the world.

To that end, ahead of the G7, Biden announced that the US will purchase half a billion Pfizer doses and donate them to 92 low- and lower middle-income countries and members of the African Union.

In total, the G7+ agreed to provide an additional more than 1 billion doses starting summer 2021, it said.

“In addition, the US is committed to expanding local production of vaccines, and through our Quad partnership and the International Development Finance Corporation’s support for vaccine manufacturing, more than 1 billion doses will be produced in Africa and India in 2021 and 2022,” the White House said.

“This vaccine strategy is a vital component of our overall global effort to lead the world in the fight to defeat COVID-19 and to achieve global health security,” it said.

NEW DELHI: A magistrate court in Dominica on Thursday sent businessman Mehul Choksi to a state prison, his lawyer in India said, but added that he would continue to remain in hospital as his medical condition “deteriorated”.

The diamond trader was earlier in police custody.

“Yes, police custody has been changed to prison custody but he shall remain in hospital as his medical condition has deteriorated,” lawyer Vijay Aggarwal said.

The development is being seen as a ray of hope for India which has approached the Dominica High Court seeking to be impleaded as a party in the case filed by lawyers of Choksi whose bail plea was earlier rejected.

Choksi is wanted in India in a case of loan fraud worth about Rs 13,500 crore in the state-run Punjab National Bank.

British scientists and doctors urged the prime minister to err on the side of caution and postpone implementing the fourth stage of his government’s four-step unlocking plan for England.

LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to confirm Monday that the next planned relaxation of coronavirus restrictions in England will be delayed as a result of the spread of the delta variant first identified in India.

“Clearly, what you’ve got is a race between the vaccines and the virus, and the vaccines are going to win,” he told the BBC. “It’s just a question of pace.”

With the delta variant estimated by some health experts to be at least 60% more contagious than the previous dominant strain, British scientists and doctors urged the prime minister to err on the side of caution and postpone implementing the fourth stage of his government’s four-step unlocking plan for England. 

Under his government’s road map, nightclubs were set to reopen for the first time since the pandemic struck in March 2020 and all other legal limits on social contact were due to be scrapped by June 21 at the earliest, if coronavirus trends supported the moves. 

Professor Andrew Hayward, an epidemiologist from University College London who is a member of a group advising the government, said that removing remaining restrictions could “fan the flames” of rising infections. He compared the process to driving a car around a bend without knowing what was around the corner.

“I think it’s clear we will have a substantial third wave of infections, the really big question is how much that wave of infections is going to translate into hospitalizations,” Hayward told the BBC.

On Sunday, the British government reported 7,490 new confirmed cases, one of the highest daily numbers since the end of February. While daily infections have increased threefold over the past few weeks, they are still way down from the nearly 70,000 cases recorded in January at the peak of the pandemic’s second wave.

Still, the speed at which cases have been rising put pressure on Johnson to delay, potentially for four weeks or longer, so more people can get vaccinated before what has been dubbed by sections of the British media as “Freedom Day.” 

The U.K.’s vaccine rollout has won plaudits as one of the world’s speediest and most coherent. As of Sunday, around 62% of the British population had received one shot, while about 44% had gotten the two needed to produce what health experts consider an acceptable level of immunity. 

The government’s aim is to have offered every adult in the U.K. one vaccine dose by the end of July. The devolved administration in Wales said it will have offered one jab to every adult by Monday, six weeks ahead of schedule.

The rapid rollout of vaccines and a strict months-long lockdown helped drive down the number of virus-related deaths in the U.K. in recent months. Despite that, the country has recorded nearly 128,000 deaths in the pandemic, more than any other nation in Europe. 

The improved backdrop led to the loosening of lockdown restrictions, with stores, theaters, gyms and most sectors of the economy operating within social distancing guidelines. The four nations of the U.K. — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have lifted restrictions at different paces but generally pursued similar plans. 

NEW DELHI: Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing the PNB bank fraud case against fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi, filed an affidavit in Dominica High Court opposing his bail petition and said he “is and remains an international fugitive who continues to evade law enforcement in India”.

The affidavit stated that Choksi was the mastermind behind a series of companies, and he and others conspired with officials of the bank to unauthorizedly raise credit by abusing the procedures. On the complaint made by Indian government, a “red notice” has been issued against Choksi by the Interpol, CBI told the Dominica Court.

“Mehul Choksi is fully aware of proceedings in India. He has appointed lawyers in India and one of them recently gave a press interview about the happenings in Dominica supporting the version being advanced by Choksi. It is unfortunate that Choksi has suppressed all this from the court and has instead suggested that there are no proceedings against him in India,” Indian probe agencies told the Dominica court.

After taking note of the facts of the case, the Dominica High Court dismissed Choksi’s bail petition and noted that he is “flight risk”. Choksi’s counsel argued for bail citing medical grounds. However, Counsel for the State opposed the bail and told the court that Mehul Choksi is “flight risk” and has an Interpol red notice issued against him.

The 62-year-old fugitive businessman, who fled to Antigua and Barbuda, is wanted by the Indian probe agencies for allegedly cheating the Punjab National Bank of over Rs 13000 crore rupees, one of the largest bank frauds in the country.

SAO PAULO: Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro led a throng of motorcyclist supporters through the streets of Sao Paulo on Saturday – and got hit with a fine for failure to wear a mask, in violation of local pandemic restrictions.

The conservative president waved to the crowd from his motorcycle and later from atop a sound truck, where helmeted but largely maskless backers cheered and chanted as he insisted that masks were useless for those already vaccinated – an assertion disputed by most public health experts.

Sao Paulo’s state government press office said a fine – equivalent to about USD 110 – would be imposed for violation of a rule that has required masks in public places since May 2020. Bolsonaro’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The procession of cyclists wound out of the city and back, arriving at Ibirapuera Park, where the president clambered atop a car to defend his denunciation of masks for the vaccinated. “Whoever is against this proposal is because they don’t believe in science, because if they are vaccinated, there is no way the virus can be transmitted,” he said.

Vaccines are designed chiefly to protect recipients from getting sick, not necessarily from being infected. While studies show many vaccines reduce viral load, and likely spread, not all varieties have been fully studied.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, “The risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection in fully vaccinated people cannot be completely eliminated as long as there is continued community transmission of the virus.”

Less than 12 per cent of Brazil’s population so far has received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Ministry of Health, and many Brazilian experts say masks can only be abandoned after the majority of the population has been vaccinated.

Bolsonaro also was fined for failure to wear a mask during a rally with supporters in May in the northeastern state of Maranhao. Governors of that state and Sao Paulo have been feuding with Bolsonaro over their restrictive measures to stifle the spread of the coronavirus.

Tirana (Albania): The Albanian Parliament on Wednesday impeached President Ilir Meta for violating the constitution and discharged him from the post.

In an extraordinary session, the parliament voted 104-7 to discharge the president. Three abstained. The final approval comes from Albania’s Constitutional Court within three months.

A report of a parliamentary investigation concluded that Meta had violated the constitution with his biased approach against the ruling Socialists during the April 25 parliamentary electoral campaign. The report said Meta violated 16 articles and also incited violence.

Ilir Meta has betrayed the mission of the president of … Albania, Prime Minister Edi Rama said in his speech before the vote. Ilir Meta has humiliated the constitution.

Meta has denounced the investigation and impeachment attempt, arguing they are illegal.

There was no reaction from Meta during the debate or after the vote. During the parliamentary debate Meta continued his daily agenda, awarding a medal to a folk music ensemble.

In late April, 49 governing Socialist lawmakers asked for the investigative committee. They accuse Meta, a former Socialist prime minister who left the party many years ago, of inciting instability and violence in the Balkan nation and siding with the political opposition ahead of the election. They say Meta should be impeached for failing in his constitutional duty to guarantee national unity.

The governing Socialist Party ended up winning a landslide of 74 of parliament’s 140 seats in the April 25 election, winning their third four-year term.

President of the Republic’s acts, behavior and approach … run counter to his constitutional role and position, said the report. It said Meta should be removed from the post of the President of the Republic for grave violation (of the constitution).

Albania’s presidency is largely ceremonial but carries some authority over the judiciary and the armed forces. The role is also generally understood to be apolitical, but Meta has regularly clashed with Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist government.

Since assuming the office of president in 2017 with the support of the ruling Socialists, Meta has opposed their agenda, blocking the nominations of ministers and vetoing legislation.

Meta has accused Rama of running a kleptocratic regime and concentrating all legislative, administrative and judiciary powers in his hands.

Meta argues that the outgoing assembly is in a post-election transition period and therefore is ineligible to conduct such investigation activities. The parliament elected in April is not formally seated until September.

NEW DELHI: The Dominica High Court has adjourned the bail hearing of fugitive diamond merchant Mehul Choksi till June 11, local media reports stated.

The bail hearing took place before high court judge Wynante Adrien-Roberts through video-conferencing on the plea of Choksi’s local legal team comprising Julien Prevost, Wayne Norde, Wayne Marsh and Cara Shillingford-Marsh.

The government side represented by Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Sherma Dalrymple “strongly objected” to Choksi’s plea calling him a flight risk, Dominica News Online reported.

The judge adjourned the matter till June 11, it said.

The high court is also hearing a separate matter of habeas corpus filed by Choksi’s team in which the hearing has also been adjourned.

Choksi had mysteriously gone missing on May 23 from Antigua and Barbuda where he has been staying since 2018 as a citizen.

He was detained in neighbouring island country Dominica for illegal entry after a possible romantic escapade with his rumoured girlfriend.

His lawyers alleged that he was kidnapped from Jolly Harbour in Antigua by policemen looking like Antiguan and Indian and brought to Dominica on a boat.

The businessman was also brought before a Roseau magistrate on the orders of high court judge Bernie Stephenson, hearing the habeas corpus matter, to answer charges of illegal entry where he pleaded not guilty but was denied bail.

SINGAPORE: A Singapore polytechnic lecturer of Chinese-origin has been suspended from teaching duties for allegedly making racist remarks towards an interracial couple of a half-India and a half-Chinese descent, local media reported on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) said the Chinese-origin lecturer has been suspended.

The polytechnic is aware of the video, the Channel News Asia quoted an NP spokesperson on Monday.

“We regret that the individual in question is a member of our staff. We take a very serious view of the matter as the remarks made by the individual are highly offensive, disrespectful and goes against our staff Code of Conduct and values as a community,” said the spokesperson.

“We are investigating this matter internally, including considering the appropriate disciplinary action to be taken. Meanwhile, the staff in question has been suspended from his teaching duties.”

The polytechnic cannot comment further as police investigations are ongoing, said the spokesperson.

The police said on Sunday night that a 60-year-old man was assisting with investigations, after confirming that reports had been lodged and investigations were ongoing.

In the video uploaded by Dave Parkash, a man in a red polo shirt with the word “Singapore” across it can be heard telling Parkash and his girlfriend to date people of their “own race”.

The man in red, who acknowledged he is a “Chinese Singaporean”, then added: “I’ve got nothing against you personally, but I think it’s racist that the Indian prey on a Chinese girl.”

When Parkash, 26, called him a racist, the man in red agreed that he was.

In the video, Parkash said he is “half Indian, half Filipino”, while his girlfriend is “half Singaporean Chinese, half Thai”.

Parkash was with his girlfriend, Jacqueline Ho, 27, on Saturday night in Orchard Road when they were approached by the Chinese man, who said that it was a disgrace for a Chinese girl and an Indian man to be together, among other disparaging remarks.

Shocked at the remark, Parkash confronted the man, while Ho began recording the nine-minute-long video.

Parkash said that by posting the video online, he hoped that people will know it is “not okay to shame others based on their race and skin colour”.

Sharing the video on Facebook on Sunday, Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam wrote: “I used to believe that Singapore was moving in the right direction on racial tolerance and harmony.

Based on recent events, I am not so sure anymore.

“If it’s accurate – then it’s horrible. It seems like more people are finding it acceptable, to make ‘in your face’ racist statements – openly. And some try to explain away, each time something like this happens,” he continued, adding that this is “quite unacceptable” and “very worrying”.