by Editor | May 25, 2021 | World
Home Secretary Amber Rudd
By Naresh Kaushik,
London : One of Britains most senior cabinet ministers has resigned after growing pressure over her handling of targets to deport illegal immigrants. The resignation of Home Secretary Amber Rudd came after documents leaked in the British press showed that she set a target to increase the number of deportations by 10 per cent, despite her denials.
Rudd has been forced to quit after weeks of criticism of the British government’s treatment of long-term migrants from the Caribbean, known as the Windrush generation. They were threatened with deportation and some were even denied medical treatment because they didn’t have documents to prove that they had been living in the UK for decades.
But ironically, and perhaps unfairly, for Rudd, leaked documents also indicate that the policy of forced removal of illegal immigrants was aimed at recent arrivals, mainly from India and Pakistan, and not for the Windrush generation, though some were affected by it.
The letter she wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May in January last year, which was published in the Guardian on Sunday, mentioned her forthcoming visit to Pakistan to finalise an agreement on biometric returns which would make it easier to deport illegal immigrants to that country. And she did visit Pakistan three months later. A leading think tank, Migration Watch, has estimated that there are about 200,000 Pakistanis living illegally in the UK.
There are no such estimates available for illegal immigrants from India but another recent study by Oxford University’s The Migration Observatory has said that 6,580 Indian were deported in 2016, the top country of enforced removals or voluntary departures from Britain. Pakistan, with 3,857, stood at second place. Both countries together made it 27 per cent of such removals. No wonder illegal immigration from these two countries is a major cause for concern in Britain.
In January, India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, signed an agreement with Britain on the swift return of Indian illegal immigrants from the UK, an issue that has been repeatedly raised by British government officials to their Indian counterparts.
Rudd has only followed her predecessor and the current Prime Minister May’s policy of creating a “hostile environment for illegal immigrants”. Her departure now puts May in the firing line because the opposition in Britain is unlikely to keep quiet on the issue after Rudd’s resignation.
(Naresh Kaushik is a senior journalist based in London. He can be contacted at uknaresh@gmail.com)
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan authorities are working to introduce a new policy to build new tourism infrastructure and devise focused promotional strategies to uplift the country’s image.
Managing Director of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor said they were going to introduce the National Tourism Policy which would have various aspects, including promotion, awareness, branding and marketing, and it will help the government to uplift existing infrastructure, reports Xinhua news agency.
He said that the new policy also aims at encouraging the private sector to come up with innovative ideas to promote the tourism industry.
Ghafoor said that the PTDC was struggling to create a tourist friendly image of Pakistan to lure foreign tourists.
In January, the Pakistan’s civil aviation authority announced on-arrival visas for tourists of 24 different countries.
A PTDC report last year stated that number of foreign tourists in Pakistan tripled since 2013, mainly due to the country’s great efforts to restore peace and stability.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistani Nobel laureate and education activist Malala Yousafzai arrived here on Thursday, more than five years after she left the country following a failed assassination attempt by the Taliban for advocating girls rights to education.
Yousafzai’s flight landed at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport at 1.41 a.m., reports Geo News. The 20-year-old was accompanied by her parents and CEO of the Malala Fund.
She is expected to hold meetings with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, as well as other important figures.
Yousafzai will also participate in the “Meet the Malala” programme during her four-day stay in Pakistan.
In October 2012, Yousafzai – then 15-years-old – was shot in the head at point-blank range by Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) gunmen as she was returning from her school in Swat valley.
She suffered bullet injuries and was admitted to the military hospital Peshawar but was later flown to London for further treatment.
The shooting drew widespread international condemnation, Geo News reported.
She has become an internationally recognised symbol of resistance to the Taliban’s efforts of denying women education and other rights.
In 2014, Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17 in recognition of her efforts for children’s rights.
Earlier this month, the Nobel laureate appeared on “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman” on Netflix.
Speaking of Swat, Malala stated: “It is just like a paradise on Earth.”
She said she “did not realise how beautiful Swat was” until she moved to the UK.
During a visit to Canada last year, she was provided an opportunity to address the country’s parliament, Dawn news reported.
Last April, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres selected Malala Yousafzai to be a UN messenger of peace, the highest honour bestowed by the UN chief on a global citizen.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbassi on Saturday refuted the possibility of a judicial coup or martial law in the country.
Inaugurating the first cable and Aluminium Alloy Plant at Sundur Industrial Area in Lahore Abbassi said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has added 10,000 MW of electricity to the system and started projects which will meet future energy requirements of the country.
He said the next polls will be held in July this year in which people will elect their new government and the course of development will continue.
“The present government has carried out historic work in different spheres, including infrastructure development and energy,” he added.
He was confident that the development of infrastructure will give further impetus to bringing investment in the country. He said the economy is expected to grow by 5.6 per cent this year while for the next year our target is 6 per cent.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan and Sri Lanka have agreed to further diversify and enhance relations especially in the realm of trade and people-to-people contacts, a statement from Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
The move came after Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi briefed visiting Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on issues of regional and international importance. President Sirisena concluded his three-day visit here on Saturday.
“The Sri Lankan President appreciated the support and assistance extended by Pakistan to his country during the difficult times,” the statement said.
The Sri Lankan President presented 20 corneas (10 corneas each) to the president and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, who appreciated the generous donation for the people of Pakistan.
Three MoUs were signed during the visit of the Sri Lankan president to further strengthen bilateral cooperation on capacity building of diplomats, public policy research and training of civil servants.
“President Maithripala Sirisena’s visit further cemented the good will between the two countries and provided renewed impetus to strength bilateral cooperation,” the statement said.
According to the statement, Pakistan also sought help from the Sri Lankan president to convene the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
—IANS
