Author: Moez Pirzada

KATHMANDU, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Nepal’s Supreme Court ruled on Friday that deputy prime minister Rabi Lamichhane had stood for election with invalid citizenship papers, annulling his status as a lawmaker and effectively removing him from office. Lamichhane became deputy prime minister for home affairs – heading the ministry that oversees identity cards – in a seven-party alliance that took power last month. In its ruling on Friday, a five-member constitutional bench of the top court said the 48-year-old had contested November elections on an invalid citizenship certificate after abandoning his U.S. citizenship. “He loses his ministerial position and there…

The three-day drive aims to immunise more than 44 million children under the age of five against the viral disease. Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan has launched its first nationwide anti-polio campaign for the year, aiming to immunise more than 44 million children under the age of five to protect them from the viral disease. The three-day campaign started on Monday in more than 150 districts of the country, which along with Afghanistan are the only two countries where the debilitating neurodegenerative disease is still endemic. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday formally inaugurated the campaign at an event in the…

Listen to article EVEN at the best of times, it is not easy to access quality public healthcare in Sindh. Since the past few months, conditions have become more lamentable still. The Grand Health Alliance, which represents different bodies of healthcare providers, has been protesting since October against the discontinuation of the risk allowance that was being given to them during the Covid-19 pandemic. As a result, OPD services at government hospitals and crucial health campaigns have been severely disrupted. On Monday, Lady Health Workers boycotted the five-day anti-polio vaccination drive aimed at 340,000 children under five in several districts of Sindh.…

In 1933, Rahmat Ali, a student at Cambridge University envisioned the birth of Pakistan. Its name was an acronym representing the areas that Ali believed should secede from British India – Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh, and Baluchistan. The state of Bengal, then home to more Muslims than any other province of the British Raj, was not part of this plan. The omission of Bengal would prove to be symbolic of Pakistan’s political trajectory, but, even without it, the name would constitute not one unified nation but rather a sum of its parts. Today, Pakistan comprises four administrative units (Punjab, Sindh,…

Taking on Pakistan, not long after they received a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of England at home, will not be an easy task for World Test champions New Zealand, their head coach Gary Stead said on Friday. The BlackCaps are set to play two Tests and three One-day Internationals on effectively their first tour of Pakistan in 19 years. They arrived here on late Thursday morning and will go straight into the first Test at the National Stadium on Monday. “At this stage there is still a bit of jet lag in the group, but in the next few…