MM News

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said due to the sincere efforts of Prime Minister Imran Khan for the Kuwaiti government had restored visas and Pakistanis will get employment opportunities in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Sheikh Rashid said that the credit goes to the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan, adding that Saudi Arabia has 3 million job opportunities, of which 30% will go to Pakistanis.

The minister said he had undertaken a successful visit to Kuwait on the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan. After a lapse of around 11 years Kuwait had restored visas for Pakistani businessmen, he said, adding doctors, petroleum sector and families while the Kuwaiti prime minister had also expressed eagerness to issue visas for the construction sector.

Around 425 Pakistani doctors would leave for Kuwait during the current week, Rashid informed. The interior minister said some 52 Pakistanis were in Kuwaiti jails and six of them wanted to return.

Sheikh Rashid said the country’s Gross Domestic Product GDP growth rate was touching 4 percent and the remittances from overseas Pakistanis had played a vital role in that regard.

As regards the Cyber Crime Wing, the minister said 9.4 million reports were received during the last year and 36,000 reports during his tenure. Inquires had been completed on 5,355 reports while 399 cases were lodged.

The government was equipping the Cyber Crime Wing with modern gadgets while National Database Registration Authority would be also strengthened, he added.

The minister said authorities were close to tracing one of the suspects involved in torturing journalist Asad Ali Toor last week at his Islamabad apartment.

He said the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and police were probing the incident. “The suspects will be identified through fingerprints in a day or two.”

The building’s receptionist, in his statement, told the investigators that he did not stop the culprits because they had visited Toor in the past, he added. “I have called the IGP Islamabad, NADRA and FIA officials, who told him they are close to identifying one of the accused,” the minister said.

Earlier, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) haD issued a notice to journalist Asad Ali Toor to appear before it and record his statement in an inquiry over the denigration of a state institution through social media platforms.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crime Reporting Centre in Rawalpindi sent the notice titled ‘Order for attendance under Section 160 CrPC for a recording of a statement, to the journalist’s Islamabad residence on Monday.

According to the notice, criminal proceedings could be initiated against the journalist in case of non-compliance. FIA Cyber Crime Rawalpindi was conducting a probe regarding “defamation of institution of Government of Pakistan through social media on the complaint of one Fayyaz Mehmood Raja, read the notice.

“The available facts suggest that you are well aware of the facts/circumstances of said inquiry,” FIA said in the notice. “Therefore, you are instructed to appear before the undersigned at FIA police station, Cyber Crime Reporting Centre, Rawalpindi on June 4, 2021, at 11 am to answer such question as put forth to you, it added.

However, the notice did not specify which institution the inquiry concerned. Earlier in 2020, Asad Toor was accused of defaming the military and also faced a court case in this regard.

The journalist had allegedly indulged in propaganda against Pakistan and its institutions on social media for a long time, police had said. Later, the Lahore High Court absolved him of the charges after the FIA prosecutor told the court that no evidence was found to support the charges.