Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko visited South Korea to discuss the Ukrainian war and bilateral ties, Seoul’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, as the two countries trade increasingly heated rhetoric over the nuclear-armed North.
Rudenko, Russia’s deputy foreign minister handling Asia-Pacific affairs, met his South Korean counterpart Chung Byung-won on Friday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
Chung expressed Seoul’s “grave position” on Moscow’s growing military cooperation with Pyongyang and urged Russia to take “responsible actions”, the statement said.
His visit came the day after Moscow’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that heightened tension on the Korean peninsula was “primarily due to the brazen policy of the United States and its allies, including the Republic of Korea and Japan”, referring to South Korea by its official name.
Zakharova made the remarks when asked about South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s recent description of North Korea as the only country in the world that has legislated the preemptive use of nuclear weapons.
Calling Yoon’s remarks “blatantly biased”, she also said Seoul “doesn’t seem to realise that the United States’ leading position is irrevocably becoming a thing of the past”, and that the South “may turn out to be no more than a small bargaining chip in Washington’s geopolitical games”.
Seoul’s foreign ministry summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev on Saturday to protest the “rude, ignorant” comments.
Since invading Ukraine in 2022, Russia has forged closer ties with Pyongyang, which South Korea and Washington accuse of shipping weapons to Moscow to help the war effort.
North Korea this year declared the South its “principal enemy” and threatened war over “even 0.001 millimetres” of territorial infringement.
Analysts have recently warned that North Korea could be testing cruise missiles ahead of sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine.
Kim made a rare trip to Russia in September to meet President Vladimir Putin, who is set to pay a visit to Pyongyang in return.
Heavy rain lashed several parts of Karachi for the second consecutive day on Sunday.
Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, DHA, Clifton, II Chundrigar Road, Saddar, and Lyari were among the localities where moderate to heavy rainfall coupled with cold winds were reported.
Cold, which had reduced to a great extent, made a sudden comeback in Karachi a day earlier when heavy showers soaked the metropolis. Subsequently, major arteries of the city were flooded.
In its forecast today, the Met Office said the current spell of rains was due to a westerly wave prevailing over Balochistan and Sindh.
It said rain and thunderstorms with light to moderate intensity were likely to occur in Karachi, Hyderabad, Thatta, Badin, Tharparkar and other areas of the province.
Speaking to Dawn.com, chief meteorologist Sardar Sarfraz said the current radar showed rain bands over the northern outskirts of the country. “This indicates intermittent rain/showers will continue till evening in Karachi,” he said.
Sarfraz added that scattered and light rain was predicted in other areas of the province as well.
According to data from the Met Office, Saadi Town received the highest amount of rainfall i.e. 17 millimeters on Sunday, followed by Nazimabad (12.8mm), Orangi Town (12.5mm), University Road (8.5mm), Surjani Town, (7.4mm), Gulshan-i-Hadeed (7mm), North Karachi (7mm), PAF Faisal Base (6mm), Jinnah Terminal (5.8mm) and Korangi (4.2mm).
CM issues directives
Meanwhile, caretaker Sindh Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar has issued directives to government officials in view of the heavy rainfall.
According to a statement issued today, CM Baqar held a telephonic conversation with Mayor Murtaza Wahab and instructed him to take measures for the drainage of water.
CM Baqar also directed the chief of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board to use water pumps and other machines for water drainage.
Meanwhile, the chief minister instructed the traffic police head to take necessary measures for the smooth flow of traffic.
“All the commissioner, deputy commissioner and district police officers should step out of their houses to help the nation,” he added.
Major arteries of Karachi were flooded on Saturday night as rain lashed most parts of the city.
“The public is requested to avoid going out on the roads unnecessarily. Rescue teams are facing difficulties in emergency responses due to severe traffic jams on roads,” said a statement from Rescue 1122.
It added that teams were dispatched and present in various parts of the city to help the public. It further said that there were no reports of any building collapsing and two people were only slightly injured due to a wall collapse near Kashmir Road.
The statement said the two individuals were moved to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for treatment.
According to data from the Met office till 11pm, PAF Faisal Base received the highest amount of rainfall i.e. 75 millimetres, followed by Malir (64mm), Surjani Town (63.8mm), Keamari (55mm), Quaidabad (52mm), old airport area (51mm), Gulshan-i-Hadeed (50mm), PAF Masroor Base (47.2mm), Jinnah Terminal (42mm), Saadi Town (37.6mm), North Karachi (33.6mm), University Road (30mm), Gulshan-i-Maymar (23.8mm), Nazimabad (23.5mm), Korangi (15mm) with trace rainfall in Orangi Town and Defence Housing Authority.
The data showed that the figures came from showers after 8pm since till then, the figures were negligible showing trace to no rain.
Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab urged people to avoid unnecessary movement, saying that teams were deployed to clear major roads.
“Issues are being addressed. Will keep people posted,” he said.
He said there were issues at Tipu Sultan Road and Nursery on Shahrae Faisal that were “impeding discharge of water”.
The office of the South deputy commissioner also urged the public to avoid unnecessary travel, adding that “almost all teams have got stuck up in traffic congestion” and drainage efforts were being impeded.
Visuals from citizens showed “urban flooding” at Tariq Road and Shahrae Faisal with cars submerged in water.
Meanwhile, K-Electric (KE) spokesperson Imran Rana said 600 out of 2,100 feeders were shut due to safety reasons.
Varanasi, where Hindus travel to cremate their dead by the Ganges river, is the latest flashpoint in a running battle to claim centuries-old Islamic monuments for the country’s majority faith.
Campaigners have found an ideological patron in Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who last month inaugurated a grand new temple on the site of a mosque notoriously demolished by Hindu zealots decades earlier.
“We are witnessing repression and cruelty,” Yaseen, 78, told AFP.
“This is not just the issue of one mosque. Their slogan says that … ‘not even one tomb or mosque will be spared.’”
Yaseen is joint secretary of the Gyanvapi mosque, one of the largest Muslim congregations in the heart of Varanasi.
Hindus in the city have long maintained that the structure was built over a shrine to the Hindu deity Shiva during the Mughal empire that ruled over much of India centuries ago.
Muslim worshippers have been attending the mosque under police guard for years to prevent the simmering dispute from boiling over.
But this week marked a major escalation with a local court ordering the mosque’s basement thrown open to Hindu worshippers within seven days of its ruling.
A Hindu prayer ceremony was held there the following morning and India’s top court has refused to hear a request by Muslim petitioners to invalidate the order.
Yaseen said the ruling and subsequent rush of worshippers to the site, unimpeded by authorities, had demonstrated official backing for the Hindu claim, leaving him deeply distressed.
“They are coming through the courts, through the system,” he said.
“Whatever hurt I could feel as a Muslim, I felt it. I was restless the entire night.”
Tensions outside the mosque on Friday were palpable, with a bolstered police presence and around 2,500 Muslims, nearly double the usual congregation, arriving for afternoon prayers.
Dozens of Hindu faithful milled about the street outside the police barricades shouting devotional slogans to Shiva, the patron god of both creation and destruction.
‘Shackles of slavery’
Calls for India to more closely align the country’s officially secular political system with its majority faith have rapidly grown louder since Modi was swept to office in 2014.
His government’s championing of Hindu causes reached a new zenith last month when Modi presided over the inauguration of a new temple in Ayodhya, a once-sleepy town near Varanasi.
The opening of the immense complex, carrying an estimated cost of $240 million, was a major event that saw public celebrations and weeks of breathless cable news coverage.
Modi hailed the ceremony as a decisive moment in India’s liberation from the “shackles of slavery”.
But many among India’s 210-million-plus Muslim minority considered the gala event as another sign of their growing marginalisation.
The temple was opened on the site of what was once the 500-year-old Babri mosque, which was demolished in 1992 by a crowd of Hindu zealots in a campaign spearheaded by eminent leaders of Modi’s ruling party.
The sectarian riots that followed were the worst since India’s independence and killed 2,000 people nationwide, most of them Muslims.
‘One step forward’
As in Varanasi, Hindu activists had claimed the Babri mosque was built atop an earlier shrine to a Hindu deity during the Mughal empire, which they see as an era where their faith was oppressed.
Sohanlal Arya, a long-time advocate for Hindu causes, said the court’s decision to open the Varanasi house of worship to Hindus was “one step forward” in the campaign to right historical wrongs.
“This is a matter of pride for us,” the 72-year-old told AFP.
“They destroyed our holy place, they made a mosque. Our evidence is accurate. That is why we have full confidence in the courts.”
He added that the struggle to “reclaim” the site had been ongoing since the Gyanvapi mosque was built more than three centuries ago and said that his co-religionists were becoming impatient.
“How much more time will it take? One generation, two generations, three generations?” he added. “We are waiting.”
Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi’s conviction and sentencing to seven years of imprisonment in the Iddat case on Saturday generated a strong backlash from lawyers and civil society who denounced the verdict.
The latest conviction was the fourth for the beleaguered PTI founder. He was sentenced to 14 years in jail in the Toshakhana reference by an accountability court on Wednesday, sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday for leaking state secrets and convicted in a separate Toshakhana case in August last year with a sentence of three years imprisonment.
Regarding the former premier’s fourth conviction, this is what the experts had to say:
Lawyer Basil Nabi Malik told Dawn.com that when a former prime minister’s marriage resulted in not only a seven-year conviction but also a fine, “one should not only be worried about where we are headed but also about the intellectual bankruptcy of our preoccupations.”
He explained that a marriage contracted during the Iddat period would “at best, appear to be irregular and not void”.
Malik added that such an irregularity as per Sunni law and available case law “extinguishes on the expiry of the Iddat period itself”.
“The accused have been convicted under Section 496 which makes its applicability circumspect, especially when keeping in mind that such sections require intent and/or knowledge of ‘not lawfully being married’.
“Furthermore, the sheer coincidence of three back-to-back decisions against Imran Khan etc. right before elections, is, perhaps, one coincidence too many. But again, does anyone really care?”
Lawyer Rida Hosain told Dawn.com that the past week’s convictions had “completely discredited” the judiciary.
“It is clear that none of these convictions have anything to do with the law. The fact that the courts have failed to stop, and in fact, become part of the weaponisation of justice is tragic. Last year, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah ruled that ‘the right to dignity stands at the top, like a jewel in the crown of fundamental rights.’
“The right to dignity is absolute, and cannot be subjected to any restrictions, no matter how ‘reasonable’ they may be. Despite the Constitution guaranteeing these basic, fundamental rights, a married couple were forced into the courtroom, and required to defend entirely private decisions they had made. The message that this sends is that: nothing is sacred,” she opined.
Lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii referred to the verdict as a “joke”, saying that they “serve only to expose the circus that is our judicial system. They bring to the world the rot that is the rule of law in our country.”
Lawyer Reema Omer castigated the verdict as a “damning blot on our justice system”, saying it was horrifying how “the state stooped this low seemingly just to humiliate” the husband and wife.
“By making a woman’s menstrual cycle the subject of criminal inquiry (as well as public debate), this case has cast a blow to women’s right to dignity and privacy, as well as their freedom to make decisions about divorce and marriage without fear of being dragged in court,” she pointed out.
Senior journalist and former Dawn editor Abbas Nasir termed the sentence a “travesty” and “massive overkill which was wholly unnecessary”.
He said the verdict would only inflame the PTI support base and “make them vote with a sense of vengeance”.
Civil rights activist and independent candidate for the February 8 general elections Dr Ammar Ali Jan also lent his voice to criticising the verdict.
“Welcome to Pakistan where an iddat case will get you a seven-year sentence while committing genocide and subverting the Constitution will get you free plots,” Dr Jan said.
Meanwhile, Reuters bureau chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan Gibran Peshimam rued that it would only have been news if Imran was not convicted in a case, adding that three guilty verdicts in six days in three different cases had to be “some sort of record”.
A Rawalpindi court on Saturday sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to seven years in jail each in a case related to their marriage during the latter’s Iddat period.
Senior civil judge Qudratullah announced the verdict on the complaint filed by Bushra’s former husband Khawar Fareed Maneka in a makeshift court at the Adiala district jail. The court also imposed Rs500,000 fines each on the couple.
According to the written order, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the two were found guilty under Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) Section 496 (marriage ceremony fraudulently gone through without lawful marriage)
According to legal precedence, Section 496 is considered an offence completely distinct from zina, an offence that ensues from not having a contracted marriage.
The order further said that the two would be imprisoned for a further four months if they failed to pay the fines.
The verdict comes in the same week Imran and Bushra Bibi were sentenced to 14 years in the Toshakhana case. Imran and fellow PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi also received a 10-year sentence in the cipher case this week.
As per Pakistan’s superior courts, formalising nikah during iddat does not entail annulment of marriage as that requires a separate declaration; it will be treated as irregular but not void, in terms of legal fiction.
Imran and Bushra Bibi can appeal the verdict in the high court — something that the PTI says is already planning to do.
The charges against the couple were framed by Judge Qudratullah on a complaint filed in November by Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband Khawar Farid Maneka under PPC Sections 34 (common intention), 496 and 496-B (fornication).
However, the 496-B charge was dropped by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) later.
Days after Imran and Bushra had been indicted in the case, the IHC on January 19 had stopped the proceedings against the couple and restrained the prosecution from producing the evidence in the case.
On Wednesday, the IHC refused to quash proceedings in the case, saying the charge had already been framed by the trial court. It, however, gave the couple some relief by dropping the “illegitimate relations” charge of section 496-B of the PPC, which had not been framed by the trial court.
IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq had disposed of Bushra Bibi’s petition, observing that the “required procedure was not adopted” for invoking section 496-B.
On Thursday, the day both were convicted in the Toshakhana case, Imran vehemently denied rumours of an alleged deal resulting in the Banigala residence being declared a “sub-jail” for the former first lady.
Bushra had claimed the military establishment contacted her indirectly, but the initial dialogue was termed “futile”. She said she avoided further contact with them.
A day ago, judge Qudratullah reserved the verdict after recording the statements of the couple under Section 342 (power to examine the accused) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
During proceedings, the defence counsel had concluded the cross-examination of Maneka, Aun Chaudhry, who was a witness to the Nikkah ceremony; and Mufti Saeed, who solemnised the Nikkah. Imran’s counsel also cross-examined Maneka.
During the cross-examination of Mufti Saeed, the defence counsel had argued that the witness was part of the team of ‘Operation Khalifa’, a coup attempt made in 1995.
The PTI founder had also confirmed backchannel contacts with the establishment but claimed that he had refused the offer. He once again dispelled the impression that his spouse was shifted to Banigala to serve a 14-year sentence under a deal.
In a message on his X account, Imran had said the case had been expedited as “they want to create a narrative against my dream of establishing Pakistan on the principles of Riasat-i Madinah”.
Will prefer death over striking a deal: Imran
Meanwhile, PTI chief Imran Khan said he has neither accepted nor would accept in future any deals with the powers that be, going as far as saying that he would “choose death over making a deal with anyone”.
In a brief chat with court reporters after the verdict, he said, “I have not made a deal, nor will I ever make one.”
Imran also said that the case against him was created to “humiliate and disgrace” both him and his spouse, Bushra Bibi.
“This marks the first instance in history where a case related to Iddat has been initiated,” he said.
Imran said it was also the first time that someone was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment in a Toshakhana case.
He said that his party’s top leadership was targeted right after the announcement of the election schedule.
“Now, election candidates are not even being allowed to run their campaigns,” he rued.
Will challenge verdict in high court: Barrister Gohar
Speaking to the media outside Adiala Jail, PTI leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan confirmed that the party would challenge the Iddat case verdict in the high court, and expressed hope that justice would be delivered.
He said the Iddat case was “shameless and baseless”, adding that such cases were created to subject Imran to character assassination.
“We didn’t get the chance to produce evidence or show it during cross-examination. Our acquittal was dismissed within 10 minutes,” he said, noting that the judge delivered his verdict verbally and not through a written document.
He noted that this was the first time in Pakistan’s history that a political party’s intra-party elections had been challenged and its electoral symbol revoked.
He lamented the speed at which cases against PTI members were taking place, as well as the accused being given the maximum sentence in each case.
The case
According to Maneka, he was “happily married” to Bushra Bibi since 1989 “till the intrusion of” Imran Khan into their marital affair “under the garb of peeri mureedi”. He recalled that his sister-in-law, Maryam, who resides in the UAE, introduced Imran to them during the 2014 sit-in held by PTI in Islamabad.
Imran then started visiting his house in his absence, Maneka claimed, adding that he used to stay there for hours in his absence. “[This] conduct on his part was highly unethical, un-Islamic [as] he had no reason to stay,” he alleged, adding that the visits “became very frequent with the passage of time, and at one point, respondent No. 1 [Imran Khan] was ousted by me with disgrace”. He said his servant, Lateef, informed him about Imran’s frequent visits.
The petition said Imran’s close friend Zulfi Bukhari used to accompany him even though he was never Bushra Bibi’s disciple. On instances, Bukhari also came to Maneka’s house alone, he claimed.
The PTI founder and Bushra Bibi remained in contact with each other for which cell phones and SIMs were provided to the latter by her friend, Farah Khan aka Farhat Shahzadi, Maneka alleged. “I have reason to believe that they have developed illicit relations with each other even prior to their so-called nikah.”
He stated that harsh words were exchanged between the couple over his ex-wife’s conduct, but she “came up with a cover-up story of spiritualism”.
“I tried my best to reconcile the situation for the sake of my family,” Maneka stated, adding that contact between his ex-wife and Imran continued till Nov 14, 2017, when he “half-heartedly divorced” Bushra Bibi.
Maneka claimed that even after the divorce, he was interested in reconciliation through his mother, but “my plans of reconciliation were frustrated due to [their] premature nikah” allegedly solemnised without observing the iddat period.
A month after their divorce, Farah Khan contacted him and asked to change the date on the divorce papers, Maneka claimed, added that he “flatly refused” to do so.
He accused Imran Khan of ruining his life and stigmatising his entire family. He claimed that the former premier and Bushra Bibi “committed a heinous offence by having illicit relations with each other before marriage and contracting nikah during the iddat period”, which contravenes the teachings of Islam.
“I avoided reporting the matter because I was considering it my family matter … but now, things have gone public; that’s why I am before the court,” Maneka added.
Twenty-four terrorists were killed during firefights and clearance operations in the Mach and Kolpur towns of Balochistan in the past three days, the military’s media affairs wing said on Friday.
On Monday night, security forces had thwarted three “coordinated attacks” launched by terrorists using rockets and sophisticated weapons in Mach, some 70 kilometres from the provincial capital. The terrorists also targeted a hotel and six shops in the Kolpur area and set them on fire.
While interim Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai had initially attributed the attack to terrorists affiliated with the Aslam Acho group, responsibility was later claimed by the Majeed Brigade of the proscribed Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).
Security forces immediately responded to the attack and took up positions. The gun battle between terrorists and security forces had continued for several hours.
According to a statement issued by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) today, terrorists attacked Mach and Kolpur complexes in Balochistan on the night of January 29 and 30.
“Law enforcement agencies deputed on security offered stiff resistance and forced the attackers to repulse. These terrorists were then hunted down in the ensuing sanitisation and clearance operations which have now been concluded after clearing and securing the area,” the ISPR said.
“During the firefights and sanitisation/clearance operations, in the last three days, 24 terrorists have been sent to hell,” the army’s media wing said.
It identified Shehzad Baloch, Attaullah, Salah Uddin, Abdul Wadood and Zeeshan as “key terrorists” among the dead. The ISPR said the identification process of remaining terrorists was in process.
During the intense exchange of fire, “four brave members of law enforcement agencies, having fought gallantly, embraced martyrdom” along with two innocent civilians, it added.
“Effective response by law enforcement agencies is a testament to their unrelenting resolve in the fight against terrorism,” the ISPR said, adding that Pakistan’s security forces stood “shoulder to shoulder” with other LEAs to ensure peace and stability in the country.
Pakistan has recently witnessed an uptick in terror activities, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.
According to an annual security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 — marking a record six-year high.
KP and Balochistan were the primary centres of violence, accounting for over 90 per cent of all fatalities and 84pc of attacks, including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations.
