Tag Archives: says minister

BANGKOK: Jailed former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is to be freed, the kingdom’s justice minister said Tuesday, possibly as soon as the weekend — just six months after returning from 15 years of self-imposed exile. The controversial billionaire, twice elected premier and ousted in a 2006 military coup, was jailed for eight years on graft and abuse of power charges in …

ISLAMABAD: Care­ta­ker Minister for Informa­tion and Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Solangi has assured foreign and national media that all is set to hold peaceful, free, fair and transparent elections on February 8. “More than ample reso­u­rces are available to ens­ure peaceful, free and fair elections,” he added at a press briefing here on Saturday. Foreign Office spokes­pe­rson Mumtaz Zahra Bal­och, special …

PARIS: French authorities are to ban the wearing in school of abaya dresses worn by some Muslim women, the education minister said Sunday, arguing the garment violated France’s strict secular laws in education. “It will no longer be possible to wear an abaya at school,” Education Minister Gabriel Attal told TF1 television, saying he would give “clear rules at the national level” …

ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement — Pakistan (MQM-P) will regain the seats it lost in 2018 as the unification of almost all of the party’s factions has consolidated its vote bank, federal minister Aminul Haque asserted on Tuesday. “MQM will be able to win 16 seats, or maybe more, of the National Assembly from Karachi,” Syed Aminul Haque, the federal …

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia could start making investments in Iran “very quickly” after they agreed to restore diplomatic ties, the Saudi finance minister said on Wednesday, despite sweeping US sanctions against Tehran. Mohammed Al Jadaan said there were “a lot of opportunities” in Iran and that he could not see any reason to prevent investments from taking place between the two Gulf heavyweights. …

ISLAMABAD: Keeping in view the prevailing situation in the country, the government has planned to expand the scope of the social safety net Benazir Income Support Prog­ram­me (BISP) and increase the number of beneficiaries to 10 million, said Federal Minister for Poverty Alleviation and Social Welfare Shazia Marri. The minister said that at present, eight million people were enrolled as …

ISLAMABAD: The government has introduced significant changes to the rules controlling citizens’ exit from the country in an attempt to end the practice of keeping people on the no-fly list for years and even for over a decade. In his first press conference on Friday after assuming charge as the interior minister, Rana Sanaullah said a person’s name put on …

ISLAMABAD: Railways Minister Azam Khan Swati on Tuesday informed a Senate committee that Pakistan Railways (PR) has been suffering a loss of Rs2 billion annually due to electricity theft. He told a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Railways presided over by Mohammad Qasim at the Parliament House that electricity was being stolen in connivance with officials of the …

PESHAWAR: The federal government is devising a comprehensive national sports policy, which will be announced soon in order to resolve pending issues in a befitting manner and ensure promotion of sports in the country. This was stated by Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination and Sports Dr Fehmida Mirza while talking to mediapersons at the Peshawar Sports Complex here on Sunday. …

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Railways Azam Khan Swati on Wednesday said railway hospitals in the country were being outsourced in order to upgrade, expand and rehabilitate them under the public-private partnership mode. The Ministry of Railways had organised a roadshow to attract the private sector to join the government in its efforts to improve and upgrade health services in railway hospitals …