Nasheman News : Pakistan’s Chief Justice Saqib Nisar on Wednesday said that the country’s Supreme Court will not allow Indian content to be shown on Pakistani TV channels as it “damages our culture”.

Nisar’s remarks came as a three-member apex court bench heard an appeal filed by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) against the High Court’s decision to ban the broadcast of Indian content on TV channels in the country, Dawn newspaper reported.

Pemra’s counsel Zafar Iqbal Kalanauri told the Supreme Court that foreign content was banned on court orders before a High Court issued a stay.

The authority’s Chairman Saleem Baig said that 65 per cent of the content shown on Filmazia channel was foreign and that the number at times goes as high as 80 per cent.

At this, the Chief Justice remarked: “We will not allow Indian content to be aired on (Pakistani) channels.”

On being told that “Filmazia was not a news channel but was an entertainment channel and that it did not do any propaganda”, the Chief Justice countered the Pemra counsel by saying: “It is, however, damaging our culture.” 

The top judge adjourned the hearing in the case till the first week of February as the Pakistan Broadcasters Association’s counsel Faisal Siddiqui was not in attendance. 

In 2016, Pemra had imposed a ban on airing Indian content on local television and FM radio channels.

The decision was largely seen as a tit-for-tat move after similar actions were taken by some channels and the entertainment industry in India against Pakistani content and artists, the report said.

In 2017, the Lahore High Court lifted the Pemra-imposed ban, declaring it null and void as the federal government had no objections regarding the same.

In October 2018, the Supreme Court reinstated the ban on the transmission of Indian content on local television channels.

A massive fire broke out on Wednesday at an under-construction building of a hospital in Nagpur.

According to initial reports, at least 20 people are trapped inside the building, most of them labourers.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known but it is believed that short circuit caused the blaze. No casualty has been reported so far. Eyewitnesses said that thick black smoke was rising from the 10-storey building. 

At least 10 fire tenders are at the spot and efforts are on to control the raging inferno. Army jawans are also helping firefighters in controlling the blaze.

Rescue operations were underway when the last reports came in. Some reports claimed that the fire has been brought under control.

On December 29, 12 firefighters were injured while trying to douse the flames when a fire broke out in Sadhana House in Worli, Mumbai.

On Dec 27, seven people lost their lives after a broke out on the 14th floor of an apartment in Chembur, Mumbai.

Nasheman News : A burglar slipped from the ninth floor of a building at Indirapuram here and fell to his death — along with some stolen ornaments, cash and a pepper spray.

The incident occurred on Tuesday midnight in Ambaji Apartments in Ghaziabad city. 

Superintendent of Police Shlok Kumar said the security guard of the society informed the police about the incident. 

When police reached the spot, he was found dead. The crime scene suggested he was attempting to commit or had committed a burglary in the apartment complex. 

He succeeded climbing to the ninth floor from the rear side of the building. But he slipped and fell all the way to the ground floor, dying instantly. 

“We are trying to identify him. He may be a suspect in the burglaries which have occurred in the past in the same society and in adjoining housing societies,” the officer said.

Nasheman News : Five persons of a family were on Tuesday found dead in their home in Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh, police said.

The family members went to sleep after having their dinner in Benipur village of the district but did not wake up till late, leading to suspicion among neighbours. When they went to their house, they found all the five persons dead, the police said. 

Those dead include three women and two men. They have been identified as Begraj (65), a retired Railway employee, his wife Ramwati (60), son Nem Chandra (35) daughter-in-law Mamta (32) and daughter Gayatri (28). 

While no injury mark was found on any body, a half empty utensil of milk was found near the deceased, raising suspicion of poisoning.

A forensic team has reached the crime scene and is questioning neighbours and relatives, the police added.

Nasheman News : Prime Minister Imran Khan has again accused New Delhi of opting out of a bilateral dialogue and claimed that anti-Pakistan sentiments were being aroused in India for the sake of campaigning for the forthcoming general election.

Khan made the comments in an interview to Turkish broadcaster TRT in which he said that two nuclear-armed neighbours opting for the resolution of bilateral issues through a war would be a suicide, Geo News reported on Tuesday. 

“Two nuclear-capable states can’t even afford a cold war, let alone a nuclear war,” Khan said in the interview. He was in Turkey last week for a two-day visit.

The Pakistan’s Premier claimed that New Delhi opted out of a bilateral dialogue several times due to the upcoming polls. He said “India was told that if it takes one step forward, we will take two… but it rejected Pakistan’s offer for talks several times”.

Talking about the Kashmir issue, Khan blamed India for “committing human rights violations in the region” and said “it will never succeed in suppressing the freedom movement of Kashmiris”.

But he added that the solution to the Kahsmir lies in talks between the two neighbours. He, however, claimed that even the UN admitted to the indigenous Kashmiri struggle for independence, the report said.

Khan had earlier also slammed New Delhi, saying that India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party had an “anti-Muslim” and “anti-Pakistan” approach.

Praising Pakistan’s ties with China in the TRT interview, he said when his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party came to power, the country was facing a record current account deficit, but Beijing turned out to be “a breath of fresh air at the critical juncture”.

[Nasheman news] JammuIndian and Pakistani soldiers traded heavy fire on the Line of Control (LoC) on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, defence sources said.

According to the sources, the Pakistan side used automatics and mortars to target Indian positions in Gulpur and Khari Karmara areas.

“Our troops retaliated effectively. Firing exchanges continued from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. No casualty or damage was reported from our side,” they said.

[Nasheman news] ShimlaWith the interiors of Himachal Pradesh still recovering from last week’s heavy snowfall, the weatherman on Tuesday forecast more rain and snow in the state this week.

“Some areas are likely to experience snow and rain till Wednesday,” a meteorological official told IANS.

He said chances of snow in the upper reaches of Shimla, Kullu, Kinnaur, Lahaul and Spiti and Chamba districts are high.

After this spell, another western disturbance is likely to hit the region and adjoining plains on Thursday, bringing more rain and snow.

Meanwhile, Keylong in Lahaul and Spiti district was the coldest town in the state with a low of minus 10.8 degrees Celsius.

The minimum temperatures in Shimla and Manali were 2.2 degrees and minus 3.4 degrees Celsius, respectively.

Kalpa, some 250 km from Shimla, saw the night temperature at minus 6.8 degrees Celsius.

Snow could still be seen in certain areas of Shimla like the Mall Road, Ridge, US Club and Jakhu hills after snowfall on Sunday.

Areas near Shimla like Kufri and Narkanda and popular tourist resorts of Manali and Dalhousie are covered under a thick blanket of snow.

Officials said the entire Kinnaur, Lahaul-Spiti and Pangi and Bharmour areas in Chamba were still cut off as roads were under a thick blanket of snow and efforts were being made to reopen them.

Shimla Deputy Commissioner Amit Kashyap has appealed to the tourists to avoid travelling in their vehicles towards Kufri beyond Shimla as the road is slippery after snowfall.

“We are advising the motorists, especially the tourists, to park their vehicles at Dhalli and use public transport to reach Kufri and its nearby destinations,” he told IANS.

[Nasheman news] New Delhi Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Monday again suspended four TDP and AIADMK for two consecutive sittings for causing “grave disorder” in the house.

The Speaker’s action came as members of the two parties were agitating near the Speaker’s podium shouting slogans in support of their demands like special status for Andhra Pradesh and against the proposed dam on the Cauvery river in Karnataka, issues on which they have been protesting ever since the start of the session.

The House could not proceed with the Question Hour as there was pandemonium and the Speaker adjourned it till noon. The situation was no different when the House resumed and Mahajan issued a warning and suspended the four members of both the parties including AIADMK leader P. Venugopal and TDP’s N. Shivaprasad.

Last week, the Speaker had suspended 45 Lok Sabha members belonging to AIADMK and the TDP.

“You have come to the well of the House and you are abusing the rules by persistently and wilfully obstructing the business. By your wilful and persistent obstruction, grave disorder is being occasioned. I am, therefore, constrained to name you under Rule 374A. 

“Therefore, all of them stand automatically suspended from the service of the House for two consecutive sittings of the session under provision of Rule 374A. They may forthwith withdraw from the precincts of the House,” she said.

Mahajan requested the suspended members to withdraw themselves from House but they did not relent and continued with their protest.

Mahajan then adjourned the House till 12.30 p.m.

By Sanu George (12:08) 

Thiruvananthapuram (IANS) At a time when politicians are seen to increase their personal wealth when in public life, a Congressman in Kerala, currently on a sabbatical from politics, is seeking to build a self-sustainable housing facility for the homeless in his home town in Kollam district, about 70 km from the state capital.

What’s more, he is doing this on his ancestral property of about one acre and 10 cents (4,451 sq m) that he has divided between 20 beneficiaries, with each getting four cents. The market value of the land is about Rs 8 crore ($1.1 million).

Speaking to IANS, 42-year-old Niyaz Chithara said he is an advocate by training and has taken a break from active politics to ensure his “Gandhigram” project materialises.

“I was shocked to see a mentally challenged four-year-old boy waiting at the Mudackal panchayat with an old lady. When I spoke to the old lady, she said she was the boy’s grandmother and she had come to see if the village council has any scheme for the poor and homeless. I came to know that the boy’s mother had deserted the child and his father was bedridden due to an accident,” Chithara said.

Returning home, Chithara said that he was too pained and remembered the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

“I did not take much time to decide that I will play my role for the upliftment of the downtrodden. I decided that the ancestral share of mine, which was 110 cents of land in the Chithara village council, would be gifted to the landless and I started work to accomplish this,” Chithara said.

A former chairman of the Government Law College and an office bearer of the Youth Congress, he soon send out postcards to all the landless families in two nearby village councils.

“I got a response from 300 people and I called all of them to an auditorium. I then spoke to each of them and made my own assessment of who should get the four cents. I selected 19 beneficiaries (the 20th was the mentally-challenged child) across caste, creed, community and religion. I registered the land in the names of the women in the respective families,” said Chithara.

The only condition that he has put up is that these beneficiaries should build a home through any of the government schemes and if they do not do it in three years, the land will be taken back. And once the home is built, it should not be sold or transferred for 15 years.

“I decided to take on the responsibility of building a home for the young mentally challenged boy and will approach people to give a helping hand. We plan to build a 500 sq ft home at a cost of Rs 5 lakh. Next week, the official handing over of the land to the 20 beneficiaries will be done by (Leader of Opposition) Ramesh Chennithala, while (state Congress president) Mulapally Ramachandran will hand over the first instalment of assistance to build the home for the boy,” said Chithara.

Chithara has already spent Rs 5 lakh to level the entire plot and dig a pond.

“In the Gandhigram village, I am planning a library, a place for the women to start their own vocation and an anganwadi, so that the small community gets an inbuilt facility for all their basic needs,” said Chithara.

[Nasheman news] LucknowA cold wave intensified across Uttar Pradesh on Monday, forcing the closure of schools in the state capital and some other places, weather officials said.

According to the officials, rains on Sunday added to the winter chill.

While it was expected to be sunny on Monday, the weatherman said the winter chill would continue for the next few days. 

More than four dozen trains were running behind their schedules and two others were cancelled. 

Fog has been reported from most highways and outskirts of cities and towns.

The maximum temperature recorded in the last 24-hours was 21 degrees Celsius while the minimum on Monday as 5.4 degrees celsius. 

State Met Director J.P. Gupta informed that the sudden chill was due to a western disturbance over the Himalayas.

The Regional Met Office has predicted scanty rains with thundershowers at some places in the state.