In a recent interview, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that rapists should be hanged publicly or chemically castrated. In response to a question about the motorway gang-rape case, the premier commented that sexual offenders should be handed down the most severe punishments to curb rising sexual violence in the country. Prime Minister Imran said the motorway rape had “shaken the entire nation”.
Coronavirus vaccines being developed in China may be ready for use by the general public as early as November, an official with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. China has four Covid-19 vaccines in final stage of clinical trials. At least three of those have already been offered to essential workers under an emergency use programme launched in July.
An accomplice of the main suspect in the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway gang-rape case has confessed to the crime. Shafqat Ali, with whom key suspect Abid used to commit crimes, confessed to gang-raping a woman when her car had broken down on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway on Sept 9 even before his DNA test was carried out. The key suspect Abid Ali remains at large.
Lahore Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Umer Sheikh apologised to the motorway gang-rape victim for his earlier remarks implying that she shared responsibility for her rape. Last week, two robbers gang-raped a mother of two on Lahore to Sialkot Motorway, while the woman waited for help in her car. Following the incident, the CCPO invited criticism for victim-blaming comments.
The provincial health authorities have told the Lahore High Court that the two-finger test (TFT), an old practice of examining sexual assault survivors, has limited evidentiary value and will be abolished from the protocol of medico-legal certificate (MLC) unless necessitated. The test is usually used in Pakistan despite calls for its revocation by healthcare professionals and human rights organisations world over.
Fifty-three DNA samples were taken after a woman was raped in front of her children on the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway late Wednesday. One of the samples taken from the crime scene has matched with DNA already in the Punjab Forensic Authority’s database. The match is of a 25-year-old man who raped a mother and daughter in 2013, according to police sources.
A low-cost Turkish airline, Pegasus, will be launching flights from Karachi to Istanbul on September 25. Flights from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport to Quaid-e-Azam International Airport will operate every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 8:35pm, while flights from Quaid-e-Azam International Airport to Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport will depart every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 04:55am.
US President Donald Trump announced on another “peace deal”, this time between Israel and Bahrain. This deal makes Bahrain, the second Arab country to settle with its former foe in less than a month, United Arab Emirates (UAE) being the first one. A joint US-Israel-Bahrain statement said there would be “full diplomatic relations”.
The Intelligence Bureau (IB) in an official report on CCPO Lahore Umer Sheikh had described him as ‘womaniser’ who was ‘financially and morally corrupt’. According to a copy of the report being shared on social media, the incumbent city police chief ‘remained involved in corrupt practices for financial gains’ during his tenure as a district police officer (DPO) of Sargodha.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has topped the list of politician across the globe for successfully fighting the impact of COVID-19 in the country. The list released by the British news outlet, Asian World, ranked Prime Minister Imran Khan at the top for launching a relief fund for those who were made jobless due to the current pandemics.