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Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan granted bail, but release uncertain

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(Last Updated On: December 23, 2023)

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday granted former Prime Minister Imran Khan bail in a case related to a leak of state secrets, but it was not clear how he could be released while serving a three-year sentence for corruption and facing other charges.

The 71-year-old former cricket star has been embroiled in a tangle of political and legal battles since he was ousted as prime minister in April 2022. He has not been seen in public since he was jailed for three years in August for unlawfully selling state gifts while in office from 2018 to 2022.

Khan remains disqualified from contesting national elections scheduled for Feb. 8 because of the corruption conviction, which a high court refused to suspend on Thursday. Khan nevertheless filed nomination papers for the elections on Friday, his party’s media team said, Reuters reported.

In a written court order, the Supreme Court judges said they could not find “sufficient incriminating material” to show that Khan leaked state secrets intending to benefit a foreign power.

The order said Khan’s release on bail “during the period of elections would ensure ‘genuine elections’ and thus enable the people to exercise the right to express their will effectively and meaningfully. There are no exceptional circumstances to decline the concession of bail.”

But it was not clear how Khan could be released on bail because of the number of arrest warrants issued against him and the three-year sentence.

The state secrets charge is related to a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington last year, which Khan is accused of making public. He denies the charge, saying the contents appeared in the media from other sources.

Even if he were unable to contest the election, any release on bail would be a major shot in the arm for his party as it would enable him to lead its campaign in the lead-up to the polls.

Khan is widely believed to be the country’s most popular leader and won the last general elections in 2018.

He says he is being targeted by the powerful military, which wants to keep him out of the polls. The military denies the charge.

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Israel will enter Rafah with or without Gaza hostage deal, Netanyahu says

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(Last Updated On: May 1, 2024)

Israel will carry out an operation against Hamas in the southern Gaza city of Rafah regardless of whether or not a ceasefire and hostage release deal is reached, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

“The idea that we will stop the war before achieving all its objectives is out of the question,” Netanyahu said, according to a statement from his office.

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Reported Indian role in assassination plots a ‘serious matter’, White House says

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(Last Updated On: April 30, 2024)

The White House said on Monday it viewed the reported role of the Indian intelligence service in two assassination plots in Canada and the United States as a serious matter.

The Washington Post reported that an officer in India’s intelligence service was directly involved in a foiled plan to assassinate a U.S. citizen who is one of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s most vocal critics in the United States.

It said the officer was also involved in the separate shooting death of a Sikh activist last June in Canada.

India’s foreign ministry said the Washington Post report made “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter” while New Delhi is investigating the issue.

“Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful,” foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.

“This is a serious matter, and we’re taking that very, very seriously,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

“We’re going to continue to raise our concerns.”

In November, U.S. authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the United States and Canada, Reuters reported.

India has expressed concern about the linkage and dissociated itself from the plot, saying it would formally investigate the concerns of the United States, and take ‘necessary follow-up action’ on the findings of a panel set up on Nov. 18.

Pannun is the general counsel of Sikhs for Justice, a group that India labeled an “unlawful association” in 2019, citing its involvement in extremist activities. Subsequently, in 2020, India listed Pannun as an “individual terrorist”.

The issue is a delicate one for both India and the Biden administration in the United States as they try to build closer ties in the face of shared concerns about China’s growing power.

News of the U.S. plot came two months after Canada said it was looking at credible allegations potentially linking Indian agents to the June murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another Sikh separatist, in a Vancouver suburb.

India strongly rejected Ottawa’s accusations.

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Dubai ruler approves new $35 billion airport terminal

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(Last Updated On: April 29, 2024)

Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum approved a new passenger terminal in Al Maktoum International airport worth 128 billion AED ($34.85 billion), he said on Sunday in a post on X.

The Al Maktoum International Airport will be the largest in the world with a capacity of up to 260 million passengers, and five times the size of Dubai International Airport, he added, saying that all operations at Dubai airport would be transferred to Al Maktoum in the coming years, Reuters reported.

The Al Maktoum airport will also include 400 terminal gates and five runways, he said.

The airport will be the new home of flagship carrier Emirates and its sister low-cost airline Flydubai along with all airline partners connecting the world to and from Dubai, Dubai state-owned airline Emirates chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said.

The move “further solidifies Dubai’s position as a leading aviation hub on the world stage”, the CEO of Dubai Airports, Paul Griffiths, was quoted as saying by the Dubai Media Office.

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