Engineer The World

Panamagate verdict: PML-N declares 'victory', Supreme Court orders JIT probe of Sharif family Neither a clean chit nor a disqualification: the drawn out Supreme Court (SC) case to disqualify Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for allegedly misleading the nation on his family's involvement in corrupt practices, as outlined in the Panamagate scandal, ended today with the court ordering the formation of a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe how the family's money was transferred to Qatar. The final verdict was split 3-2 among the five-judge bench, with two dissenting notes from Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Gulzar Ahmed. Justice Ejaz Afzal authored the majority opinion in the 540-page verdict. The court's short order  can be read here . The two judges who ruled against PM Nawaz Sharif said he should be disqualified as he could no longer be considered 'honest' and 'truthful' ( ameen  and  sadiq ), whereas the other three were in favour of f...

Rouhani, rival to run in Iran's presidential election; Ahmadinejad barred Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and hardline rival Ebrahim Raisi were both approved to run in May's presidential election by a government vetting body, while former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was disqualified, state media reported on Thursday. The approval of Rouhani, a moderate, and Raisi, a political hardliner thought to have the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sets up a showdown between rival political camps. Four other candidates were also qualified to run. Among them are Rouhani's vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. Ahmadinejad (left) and his close ally Hamid Baghaei, right, shake hands after registering their candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections on April 12. ─ AP Khamenei had advised Ahmadinejad not to run, and his attempt to become a candidate was widely seen as a public snub to the Supreme Leader, which is ...

Nisar rejects SC verdict as 'split decision' Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Friday, rejected the notion that the Panama case verdict was a "split decision", adding that although the judges' opinions "may be different, all five judges signed off on formation of a Joint Investigation team (JIT)." Speaking to journalists, Nisar mentioned how the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leadership had initially demanded that a JIT, including members from ISI and MI, be formed to investigate allegations of corruption. Explore:  Imran demands judicial commission under chief justice to probe Panama Papers Now that the Supreme Court verdict had reflected that proposition, Nisar expressed it was important to for all parties to respect the decision. “It is a sign of the end of times, to have Asif Ali Zardari lecture us on Article 62, 63,” he remarked, inviting a faint laughter from journalists present at the confe...

Elon Musk on mission to link human brains with computers: report Tesla Inc founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk said his latest company Neuralink Corp is working to link the human brain with a machine interface by creating micron-sized devices. Neuralink is aiming to bring to the market a product that helps with certain severe brain injuries due to stroke, cancer lesion etc, in about four years, Musk said in an interview with website Wait But Why. “If I were to communicate a concept to you, you would essentially engage in consensual telepathy,” Musk said in the interview published on Thursday. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will create computers so sophisticated and godlike that humans will need to implant “neural laces” in their brains to keep up, Musk said in a tech conference last year. “There are a bunch of concepts in your head that then your brain has to try to compress into this incredibly low data rate called speech or typing,” Musk said in the latest...

15-member women's squad announced for ICC World Cup The Women National Selection Committee, headed by Mohammad Ilyas, on Friday announced the 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC Women's World Cup to be played in England from June 24 to July 24. Pakistan Women's team will feature in two warm-up matches against West Indies and Australia on June 20 and 22, respectively before the start of the mega event, said a spokesman for Pakistan Cricket Board in Lahore. Also read: Women’s cricket The selected players are: Ayesha Zafar, Bibi Nahida, Mariana Iqbal, Bisma Maroof, Javeria Khan, Syeda Nain Fatima Abidi, Sidra Nawaz (wicket-keeper), Sana Mir (captain), Kainat Imtiaz, Asmavia Iqbal Khokhar, Diana Baig, Waheeda Akhtar, Nashra Sandhu, Ghulam Fatima and Sadia Yousuf. The team officials are: Ayesha Ashhar (manager), Sabih Azhar (head coach), Ibrar Ahmed (trainer) Muhammad Zubair Ahmad (video analyst) and Shahid Anwar (batting coach).

Al Qaeda militant behind Marriott bombing, Sri Lankan team attack killed in Afghanistan: Pentagon WASHINGTON: A US drone strike in eastern Afghanistan on March 19 killed the senior Al-Qaeda military commander Qari Yasin, who has been linked to numerous attacks in his native Pakistan, the US military confirmed on Saturday. "The death of Qari Yasin is evidence that terrorists who defame Islam and deliberately target innocent people will not escape justice," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement. A native of the Pakistani region of Balochistan who has ties to the Tehrik-e-Taliban group, Yasin was accused of plotting the September 20, 2008 bombing on a Marriott Hotel in Islamabad that killed dozens of people, including two US service members. He was also said to have been behind a 2009 attack on a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore that killed six Pakistani police officers and two civilians, and wounded six members of the team. Yasin w...

GHALANAI: The bullet-riddled bodies of six unidentified men were found in Michni, a hilly area of Ekkaghound in the Mohmand tribal region, on Saturday, said an official of the political administration. Security sources said that the men were killed during a clash with security forces in Michni. They claimed that the clash occurred after militants attacked security forces in the area. Officials of the local administration shifted the bodies to the agency’s headquarters hospital in Ghalanai for post-mortem and identification of the deceased. A source in the hospital said that the men appeared to be aged between 22 and 35 years. It may be mentioned here that two suicide bombers attacked the FC training school in Michni on Friday in which one soldier of Frontier Constabulary was killed and three others were injured.