The Indian Panorama

Tag: Lahore

  • Ramesh Singh Arora becomes Pakistan’s first Sikh minister in Punjab

    Ramesh Singh Arora becomes Pakistan’s first Sikh minister in Punjab

    Belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, Arora has returned to the Lahore provincial assembly for the third term after winning the February 8 polls

    LAHORE (TIP): Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora, an influential minority leader, has been sworn in as a provincial minister, making him the first Sikh to occupy a ministerial position in post-Partition Punjab.

    Belonging to the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, Arora has returned to the Lahore provincial assembly for the third term after winning the February 8 polls.

    Arora, 49, was recently elected pardhan (president) of the Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and also as the ambassador to the Kartarpur Corridor. He was administered the oath along with 17 others on Wednesday, March 6. Arora has been allotted the portfolio of minorities of Punjab province in the cabinet of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, incidentally, also the first woman to hold the post in the country.

    According to sources, Arora has close connections with the military establishment.

    “Singh’s brother is also looking after the affairs of the Karatarpur Corridor,” another member representing the Christian minority community of Punjab, Khalil Tahir Sindhu, told Press Trust of India on Thursday, March 7.

    Born on October 11, 1974 at Nankana Sahib and hailing from Narowal district, Arora was also the first-ever Sikh member of the Punjab provincial assembly taking oath in 2013. He has done post-graduation in social enterprise and studied at the Government College, Lahore, Punjab University, Lahore, and Harvard Business School in the US. He also served as a member of the National Commission for Minorities, chairman of the Standing Committee on Commerce & Investment and remained as Patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Sikh Council.

    According to Arora’s profile on the official website of the Punjab Provincial Assembly, he is also a renowned human rights activist and a social worker, who played a prominent role in protecting the rights of Sikh community in Pakistan and is credited with the passage of ‘The Punjab Sikh Anand Karaj Marriage Act, 2018.’

    Due to his efforts, Pakistan has become the first country where the Sikh Marriages Registration Act is enforced, it said.

  • ‘False and malicious propaganda’: India dismisses Pak claims of role in terrorists’ killings in Sialkot and PoK

    Lahore (TIP): Hours after Pakistan claimed that it had “credible evidence” of links between “Indian agents” and the murders of two Pakistani terrorists associated with the Jaish-e-Mohammed and the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Sialkot and Rawalkot last year, New Delhi termed the claim as Islamabad’s latest attempt at “peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda”.
    Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday, “We have seen media reports regarding certain remarks by the Pakistan foreign secretary. It is Pakistan’s latest attempt at peddling false and malicious anti-India propaganda.”
    “As the world knows, Pakistan has long been the epicentre of terrorism, organised crime and illegal transnational activities. India and many other countries have publicly warned Pakistan cautioning that it would be consumed by its own culture of terror and violence. Pakistan will reap what it sows. To blame others for its own misdeeds can neither be a justification nor a solution,” he said. Earlier in the day, Pakistan Foreign Secretary Muhammad Syrus Sajjad Qazi alleged at a press conference in Islamabad that India was carrying out “extraterritorial and extrajudicial killings” inside Pakistan.
    Shahid Latif, a key aide to Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar and the mastermind of the 2016 attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot, was gunned down in a mosque at Sialkot in Punjab province on October 11, 2023. On September 8, 2023, Riyaz Ahmad alias Abu Qasim, who was affiliated with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and one of the main conspirators behind the Dhangri terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir on January 1, 2023, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen inside the Al-Qudus mosque during pre-dawn prayers in the Rawalakot area in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
    He alleged that Kumar recruited Muhammad Umair, a labourer in the third country, to act as a contact with local criminals in Pakistan to trace and assassinate Latif. However, “they were unable to carry out the execution”, he added.
    He also said that “Indian agents used technology and safe havens on foreign soil to commit assassinations in Pakistan. They recruited, financed and supported criminals, terrorists and unsuspecting civilians to play defined roles in these assassinations.” (PTI)

  • Lahore is one of the most polluted cities in the world even as government imposes ‘smog emergency’

    Lahore is one of the most polluted cities in the world even as government imposes ‘smog emergency’

    Lahore (TIP): Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s Punjab province, was one of the most polluted major cities across the world for the second consecutive day on November 2, according to a global air quality monitoring platform.
    The Punjab caretaker government on Wednesday imposed a “smog emergency” in the province with 127 million population to control the hazardous air quality as the iqair.com platform said Lahore remained the second most polluted city in the world. The government’s decision came in light of the Lahore High Court’s order to immediately impose a “smog emergency” in the city due to the constantly hazardous air quality index.
    The government said the environment department would seal industrial units with reopening only possible through a court order. The government said district administration will take strict actions to prevent stubble burning and black smoke from any chimney of brick kilns as well as factories and all brick kilns must transfer to zigzag technology. “Every smoke-emitting vehicle will be impounded and will be released only after attaining a proper fitness certificate,” it said, adding that special anti-smog squads consisting of district and highway police will patrol day and night to stop stubble burning.
    On Wednesday, Lahore High Court Justice Shahid Karim chided the Lahore commissioner Muhammad Ali Randhawa for his failure to control the pollution.
    “Smog is not my personal problem but it is a matter of concern for the lives of our children. You are the custodian of Lahore city. See what you have done to it… you should be ashamed of Lahore’s condition,” the judge observed.
    Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi had earlier briefed caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar about the main reason for the spread of smog in Lahore as the burning of residues of crops in India’s Punjab state. Kakar assured the Punjab government of taking up the issue of the smog with India at the diplomatic level. (PTI)

  • Pakistan police obtain a warrant to search former PM Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore

    Pakistan police obtain a warrant to search former PM Imran Khan’s residence in Lahore

    LAHORE (TIP): Punjab Police on May 19 obtained warrants to conduct a detailed search at former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s Zaman Park residence here to find “terrorists” reportedly hiding there, media reports said. The move comes after the Punjab government decided to send a team to hold talks with Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership, according to Geo TV.
    An officer of the rank of a superintendent of police will lead the contingent, which will also include a female police officer, the report said.
    The Commissioner of the Lahore Division will also be accompanying the team.
    According to the statement, the search will encompass a thorough examination of both the entrance and exit points of the residence, with the primary objective of finding “terrorists” hiding at the place, the Dawn newspaper reported. On May 18, the Punjab government claimed that “30 to 40 terrorists were hiding inside Khan’s residence,” and gave an ultimatum of 24 hours to his party to hand over the miscreants.
    However, no action was taken after the deadline expired on May 18.
    Punjab Information Minister Amir Mir said law enforcers will conduct a search operation at Khan’s residence after his permission and in front of cameras to apprehend “terrorists”, the Geo TV report said.
    “We [the interim government] have decided that instead of a head-on collision, we will send a delegation to Khan sahab under the supervision of the Lahore commissioner,” Mir was quoted as saying in the report
    “They will ask him [Khan] to allow them to conduct a search operation. A police party “comprising 400 personnel ” will accompany the delegation as there is a reported presence of terrorists,” he said.
    Meanwhile, Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Bilal Saddique Kamyana claimed to have arrested six more “terrorists” attempting to flee from Khan’s Zaman Park residence.
    On Friday, an anti-terrorism court here approved pre-arrest bail till June 2 to Khan in three terrorism cases filed against Pakistan’s former prime minister in the wake of violence that erupted after his arrest on May 9.
    In a video-link address from his Zaman Park residence here on Wednesday, Khan, 70, said Pakistan is heading towards an imminent disaster and it may face disintegration. Khan on May 9 by the paramilitary Pakistan Rangers at the Islamabad High Court premises triggered unrest in Pakistan.
    For the first time in Pakistan’s history, the protesters stormed the army headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi and also torched a corps commander’s house in Lahore. Police put the death toll in violent clashes to 10, while Khan’s party claims 40 of its workers lost their lives in the firing by security personnel.
    On May 15, the top military brass vowed to bring the arsonists, who attacked the civil and military installations, to justice through trial under relevant laws of the country, including the Pakistan Army Act and Official Secrets Act. Law enforcement agencies have arrested over 7,000 PTI workers across Pakistan, 4,000 of them from Punjab. (PTI)