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Government, opposition and public!

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The " criminal act" of petrol price hike that happened late Friday night (November 5), provoked public outrage. The hike was postponed till November 1, but was implemented on the night between November 3 and 4.

Imran Yaqub Khan Profile Imran Yaqub Khan

I am saying it a "criminal act" again and again because it was a routine decision that should have been made in broad daylight, but at 2am in the morning the news broke and the people woke up in the morning to find that a petrol bomb had dropped on them. Now the rise in prices and the pace of inflation is so fast that even the column written on inflation last week before November 5 seems old and this repeated cry is causing boredom.

Apart from petrol prices, electricity rates have also been increased. Basic electricity prices have been increased by Rs1.68 per unit. For commercial and industrial consumers, the price has been increased by Rs 1.39 per unit. For consumers using 300 units, the price of electricity has gone up to Rs13.83 per unit. The government believes that a household using 300 units of electricity is prosperous. And he can afford to raise rates, and if that is true, it would be pointless to talk about it.

Like the people under the news of inflation, the most important news of Friday was also suppressed and this was the news, the report of the Election Commission of Pakistan on the rigging in the by-election of Daska, this report is eye-opener and biggest charge sheet against the PTI government.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has detected systematic rigging in the NA-75 by-election investigation report. What do they think and do when they come to power, this report has put all the truth in front of them. This report is not limited to the disclosure of fraud but it is a criminal case. Several names have been written in this report but this systematic fraud must be thoroughly investigated. According to the report, the education department, police and district administration, ie the entire government machinery were used in the scam. The mastermind behind the rigging and its full implementation cannot be held responsible alone. Criminal proceedings should be initiated on the basis of this report and the culprits should be identified.

Reading this report, the question arises as to whether those who came with the mission of eradicating corruption have corrupted the entire government machinery. The Deputy Director of Colleges, the Presiding Officer, several officers of the Department of Education and then an army of police officers, all of which could not be managed by a single person. How SHOs remained election managers, police personnel stationed at polling stations continued to kidnap presiding officers instead of security, ignorance of returning officer and deputy returning officer, how many factors and roles are involved in this rigging. The story unfolds in layers.

Playing the role of opposition, the same PTI used to call others as ballot box thieves. Here, the entire election was rigged under the scheme. It will happen and the government will come down with a bang but now their own organized fraud has been proved. Those who call others "box thieves" are now ready for self-accountability.

The opposition's reservations about EVMs, ie electronic voting machines, seem to have come true after this report and the plan to snatch the powers of the Election Commission of Pakistan, this report has exposed the government's intentions. Who will now trust those who bulldoze the opposition and institutions and insist on bringing electronic voting machines? Û”

The political and administrative turmoil in the country over the last four or five weeks has made me think that the PTI government is on a "suicidal mission". Inflation bombs are being set off one after another and when there is a backlash against them, the captain addresses his Wasim Akram Plus (Usman Buzdar): "Whenever they ask you about performance tell them ask us after completion of five-year mandate."   

Someone reminded the captain that if he had any mandate, it was economic justice, justice system, social justice, poverty alleviation, job creation, breaking status, eradicating corruption. The captain has a long list of promises that he may not even remember.

When the captain was saying this to the Chief Minister of Punjab Usman Bazdar, surely Bazdar must have been very encouraged that whoever had to ask me gave both a deal and a relaxation but is there any politician who is surrounded by political and economic challenges? Valuable can boldly reject all these questions under the pretext of a five year mandate ?? These are the evidences on which I believe that the captain and his team are on a mission of political suicide and the captain's advice to Bazdar was apparently a message to someone else.

The role of the opposition in this situation is also deplorable. The people are dying of poverty and inflation but the opposition is not making any effort to change the public mood into a movement. It seems that the opposition is thinking that the government may fall from its own stupidity or carry out the mission of political suicide itself. Perhaps that is why the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly and PML-N leader Hamza Shahbaz talking to the media had said that it is the national responsibility of all political parties to find a constitutional way to handle the sinking economy of Pakistan and to get rid of the incumbant government. "

According to political analysts, if the opposition awaits like this, it should know that it will not be possible to get the people out to vote without representing the people. If politicians remain indifferent to the people today, then tomorrow the people will also be indifferent to them and then no one should complain that those who raised the slogan of step up didn't come along.

 

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Pakistan

Gaza campaign to start in Pakistani universities

The protests will be conducting on mass level.

Published by Qurrat Tul Ain

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Peshawar: Islami Jamiat Talba has announced to start the Gaza campaign in educational institutes of Pakistan.

According to the details, Nazim high Islami Jamiat Talba Pakistan Hassan Bilal Hashmi was doing a press conference in Peshawar press club in which he stated that justice for Gaza campaign is starting under the slogan of “We are one”.

He said that by this campaign Pakistan’s civil society should be activated for the cause of Palestine. The information campaign should be running in educational institutes regarding the current situation in Gaza.

Hassan Bilal also said that seminars and conferences will be held for that purpose. The protests will be conducting on mass level. The demands will be putting before the government for the supply of aid and immediate cease fire in Gaza.

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Interior Minister assures security of Chinse nationals in Pakistan

Mohsin Naqvi visits Chinese Consul General in Lahore and briefs him about the measures taken for the security of the Chinese citizens in Pakistan.

Published by Hussnain Bhutta

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Lahore:  Chinese Consul General Zhao Shiren on Saturday extended a warm welcome to Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.

The both sides discussed the matters of mutual interest and to enhance the bilateral cooperation during the meeting.

They also held discussions regarding the security of Chinese citizens in Pakistan.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi briefed the Chinse diplomat about the measures taken for the security of Chinese citizens.

Naqvi said,  “The protection of Chinese citizens residing in Pakistan is our national responsibility,”.  He stated that all the relevant authorities were instructed according to SOPs to ensure the security of Chinese citizens.

The interior minister also said that they would not allow any conspiracy to harm Pak-China friendship to succeed.

“No stone will be left unturned to ensure the security of our Chinese brothers,” said Interior Minister Naqvi.

On it, Chinese Consul General Zhao Shireen said, “China and Pakistan are friends in every season,”.

He said that the bonds of mutual trust between Pakistan and China are growing stronger with each passing day.

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Sports

Reggie Bush's restored Heisman a natural progression in new college sports world

Reggie Bush getting his Heisman back is a natural result of college sports' new name, image and likeness rules. Will the NCAA follow suit with similar cases?

Published by Web Desk

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Reggie Bush is getting his Heisman Trophy back.

That sentence has felt inevitable for nearly three years now, since June 30, 2021. That's when the NCAA's name, image and likeness era began -- and also the day that Bush himself, who had remained relatively quiet on the subject for more than a decade, began openly lobbying to have his 2005 award reinstated by the Heisman Trust.

Now it has. And there was much rejoicing.

First, a recap of Bush's Heisman saga:

In the early 2000s, Reggie Bush was the OG high school internet viral sensation. YouTube was filled to the brim with grainy home video clips of a Barry Sanders reincarnation out of San Diego's Helix High School. Then he became the flashiest star on college football's most Hollywood of teams, the Pete Carroll-led USC machine that defined the BCS era. From 2001-09, the Trojans earned nearly 100 wins, a pair of national titles and three Heismans. But in 2010, the program was stripped of nearly two years of victories, including the 2004 BCS title, and handed a list of sanctions that crippled the program for years.

Bush was also barred from any formal association with the school for a decade. In reaction to it all, the caretakers for most of the major awards he'd won in '05 started demanding he return their trophies. Amid noise that the Heisman Trust would do the same, Bush preemptively gave it back.

Why was this rack of hammers dropped on USC and No. 5? Because of an NCAA investigation that uncovered improper gifts to Bush, including the use of a San Diego home where his family lived, owned by an agent named Lloyd Lake who planned to represent the running back once he turned pro. During the legal sparring between Bush and Lake, which continues to this day, the number that received the headlines -- what the agent claimed Bush owed him -- was just under $300,000. While USC had no formal ties to Lake, it was ultimately determined that they should have devoted more resources to tracking any potential pitfalls when it came to monitoring an athlete as famous as Bush had already become. As stated by then-chair of the NCAA Infractions Committee, Miami AD Paul Dee: "High-profile players merit high-profile enforcement."

Before Bush finally started pushing for his Heisman over the past three years, he seemed resigned to his pigskin purgatory, confessing in an early 2021 chat with me that, "Not a day goes by that I don't feel guilty for what happened to USC football, all because of something that is tied to me and my family."

But when viewed through today's prism, all that is tied to Bush from back in the day reads like no big deal. What was against the rules in 2005 is business as usual in 2024. A college student dealing with an agent who provides them with nice stuff in exchange for the promise of a long and lucrative professional relationship? These days that's no red flag. It's the modus operandi. Heck, in 2024, $300,000 wouldn't be enough for USC to get a five-star running back for a couple of weeks, let alone an entire season.

Since the summer of 2021, as athletes, boosters, collectives and even state legislatures and coaches have continuously run through the NIL era like Bush following former USC fullback David Kirtman into the gap, the initial scandalous shock of what he and USC were punished for has been reduced to a shrug.

Over recent weeks, those shrugs have also come with a pair of very loud amplifiers. In early March, Heisman winner Johnny Manziel, who said on Shannon Sharpe's Club Shay Shay podcast that his father tried to get $3 million for Johnny to stay at Texas A&M for two more years after his 2012 award, announced on social media: "After careful thought and consideration I will be humbly removing myself from the Heisman trophy ceremony until @ReggieBush gets his trophy back. Doesn't sit right with my morals and values that he can't be on that stage with us every year. Reggie IS the Heisman trophy. Do the RIGHT thing @NCAA the ball is in your court." The Heisman Trust responded that they would gladly bring Bush back should he be reinstated by the NCAA, but the NCAA declined.

Then, on April 10, after the death of O.J. Simpson, that same Heisman Trust posted a social media tribute mourning the loss of USC's second Heisman-winning running back, who was never stripped of his trophy. An overwhelming percentage of the more than 3,000 replies to the post mentioned Reggie Bush.

So, as Bush celebrates and USC celebrates and, on some level, so does common sense, it also feels fair to ask another question.

In the search for Heisman peace, are we opening a room full of college sports Pandora's boxes? Are the courts about to become packed with filings from those who were rightfully punished for breaking rules of their time, seeking retroactive corrections and erasures based on what the norms are now?

Are the Fab Five and Chris Webber on line 2 wanting their two Final Four banners pulled out of storage, sent there because Webber received money from a booster? Is the 1990 Syracuse lacrosse team going to roll up in cars bought with suspicious loan papers and demand a national championship trophy with an actual NCAA shield on it to replace the logo-less one they had made to replace the one taken away from them for, yes, a suspicious car loan? Does Georgia Tech send a $312 check -- the amount of clothing that wide receiver Demaryius Thomas allegedly received from a former Yellow Jackets player -- as payment for the restoring of its 2009 ACC Championship Game victory?

A decade ago, I received a speeding ticket for driving 66 in a 55 mph zone. Last month I noticed that the same stretch of highway is now a 70 mph zone. So, can I go back and get my fine, court fees and insurance premium payments refunded?

Not all of that will happen. But certainly, someone will try. Multiple someones. Even though the NCAA has not and will not budge on USC's punishment, those folks and their attorneys can now point to Bush and his welcoming back to the "Heisman family" as a pretty solid argument. Especially USC, should they choose to go down that road.

However, those who fight back to deny any would-be reputation retrofitters still have a pretty nice little argument themselves. The same one they've always had.

High-profile players merit -- check that -- merited high-profile enforcement.
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