Monday, 26 September, 2022 i 29 Safar, 1444 i rs 40.00 i Vol Xiii No 88 i 44 Pages i islamabad Edition
Leaked audio cLips raise concerns about prime minister office security g
UNPRECEDENTED BREACH SEES RECORD OF PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS, GOVERNMENT BUSINESS BEING SOLD ON INTERNET
ISLAMABAD
a
staff report
number of purported audio clips of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, PMLN Vice President Maryam Nawaz and leaders of the ruling coalition surfaced on social media on Sunday, which prompted many quarters including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to raise concerns about security of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The development came a day after PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry had also shared an audio clip on his official Twitter handle of a conversation allegedly between the premier and a senior government official.
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CONVERSATIONS REVEAL EMBARRASSING ExCHANGE ON FINANCE MINISTER, REQUEST TO FACILITATE MARYAM SON-IN-LAW
In the clip, a voice – said to be that of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – informs the government official about Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz looking to import machinery from India for a power plant, upon the request of her son-in-law Raheel. lEakEd CliPS PUt UP fOr SalE ON darkNEt: Information about sensitive government business and private conversations between the prime minister and members of his administration has apparently been leaked and put up for sale on the dark web, in what would be one of the biggest data breaches in Pakistan’s history. The data — mainly a collection of telephone records of Shehbaz Sharif and a former prime minister whose identity wasn’t revealed,
totalling about 100 hours in length — was priced at 180 bitcoin, a digital currency, which at its Sunday afternoon trading rate translated into over $3.4 million. Sized at 8 gigabytes, the data also includes conversations between the prime minister and “all high-profile people including those who are influential and not in power,” the description of the advertisement posted on an unidentified dark web marketplace read. Pakistan Today couldn’t independently verify the authenticity of the post. The seller, who goes by Indishell, has also released three conversations — including one between Sharif and an unidentified member of his team to discuss the potential import of machinery for a relative of the former, reported on in the press — apparently after being asked to produce evidence to support the claim. According to an analysis by an opensource intelligence (OSINT) account on Twitter, the seller has no prior history on the forum. “It looks like he created this account just to post about these leaks,” OSINT Insider tweeted. “Two threads, 16 posts — all about this alleged data leak in the PM Office.” iMPOrt Of MaChiNErY frOM iNdia: In the first of the multiple audio conversations leaked later, a voice — said to be of Sharif — can be heard saying that Maryam Nawaz, vice president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), has asked him to facilitate her son-in-law Raheel Munir for the import of machinery for a power plant from India. Nawaz’s daughter Mehr un-Nisa Safdar married Munir in 2015. “If we do so, we will get a lot of flak when this matter goes to the ECC [Economic Coordination Committee] and cabinet,” the official, whose identity couldn’t be ascertained immediately, can be heard saying.
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Efforts made at UN, SCO to present Pakistan as credible partner: PM ISLAMABAD staff report
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Sunday said he and his team, during meetings with a wide array of global leaders during Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)
and United Nations General Assembly sessions, made an effort to present Pakistan as a credible partner of the international community. In tweets on social media platform Twitter, he said, “In our meetings with a wide array of global leaders & other stakehold-
ers during SCO & UNGA, my team and I made an earnest effort to present Pakistan as a credible partner ready to do business with the world. The damage inflicted on our foreign policy needed a healing touch.” “Presenting Pakistan’s case at
both the international forums was the result of excellent team work. I particularly appreciate Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto, Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb & Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman for their hard work & assistance,” he added.
Miftah steps down as dar hand picked to regain ‘political capital’ LONDON staff report
The top PML-N huddle headed by party supremo Nawaz Sharif decided on Sunday that former Finance Minister Ishaq Dar will return to Pakistan along with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and would replace Miftah as new finance minister. The party top brass advised Ishaq Dar to travel along with prime minister by Nawaz Sharif and he would take oath as finance minister on Tuesday. The finance wizard had previously booked return ticket for Wednesday. Sources further said that Miftah Ismail, the current finance minister, will remain part of the government’s economic team, while Ishaq Dar will assume charge as the coalition government’s new finance minister. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday reached London to meet his brother and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif to discuss the ongoing political situation in the country. Both leaders discussed the strategy to deal with PTI Chief Imran Khan’s call for a long march, sources informed ARY News. Miftah iSMail StEPS dOwN aS fiNaNCE MiNiStEr: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail on Sunday tendered his resignation to PML-N supremo Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in a party meeting held in London. Senior PML-N leader Ishaq Dar would replace Miftah as new finance minister. Ishaq’s nomination was put forth by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in a meeting, held under the chair of PML-N supremo. The meeting threadbare discussed overall political and economic situation of the country. It was of the opinion that the incumbent government had to steer the country out of the economic crisis caused by the previous government of PTI. Miftah Ismail thanked Nawaz Sharif for reposing confidence in him. He said he served the country in last four months with best of his abilities. Nawaz Sharif appreciated the efforts of Miftah for carrying out the responsibilities under the most difficult conditions. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Ishaq Dar, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb, Miftah Ismail, Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, and Ahad Cheema attended the meeting. “I worked to the best of my ability for four months, and remained loyal to the party and the country,” the PML-N statement quoted Miftah as saying during the meeting. During the huddle, PM Shehbaz and party supremo Nawaz nominated Dar as the new finance minister of the country. dar SEt tO bECOME fiNaNCial Czar – agaiN: Former financial czar Ishaq Dar is all set to become Pakistan’s finance minister again in what appears to be a desperate move by the bigwigs of the PML-N not only to revive the country’s faltering economy but to regain its lost political capital ahead of the next general elections. If all goes as per plan, the senior PML-N leader and the senator-elect is likely to take oath as the finance minister as early as the coming Tuesday. The premier, who had gone to the UK to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, had met his elder brother in London to discuss key political issues before departing to the US to attend the UN General Assembly session. After the UNGA session, PM Shehbaz returned to London again and had a long meeting with his brother and Dar, who had left for the UK in October 2017 while he was standing trial in a corruption reference. The PML-N officials accompanying the prime minister revealed that Miftah had opted to resign instead of taking a new portfolio after the party leadership decided in the London huddle to replace him with Dar. Miftah’s term as the finance minister is ending on September 27 as he could only serve for six months as an outsider. He either needed to be elected as a member of the National Assembly or Senate to continue holding his portfolio.
Pakistan offers to trade financial debts with big nations’ climate debts ISLAMABAD staff report
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said Pakistan is willing to trade its financial debts for big countries’ climate debts as “we have a climate catastrophe, a natural disaster, a health emergency and food security crisis and potentially extremely difficult economic times to come.” He also said Pakistan would like to hold talks with India but it would only be possible if the neighbouring country reverses its extremist position on Occupied Kashmir status and Islamophobia on Sunday. In an interview with Al Arabiya TV, Bilawal said: “We like to be in a position to deal with India, to talk with India, to live peacefully with our neighbours, to solve the Kashmir dispute but they can only do so if India walks back its extremist position on Kashmir and Islamophobia.”
He said: “Well as the chair of the council of foreign ministers of the OIC, we obviously highlighted this topic significantly at our OIC Annual meeting and our Kashmir group meeting on the sidelines of the UN session. I think what has made this issue particularly difficult is the recent unilateral actions by India on August 2019 where they tried to unilaterally and illegally undermine the disputed status of this region and then push forward with converting the last area of the Muslim majority within their region into a minority in their own land. These things are totally unacceptable for us.” Talking about the dire floods in Pakistan, Bilawal said: “The situation is really dire right now. The climate catastrophe that we are facing is truly one of apocalyptic proportions. We all know the story of Noah’s floods that they say it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. “Well in Pakistan our monster mon-
soon started in early June and ended at the end of August. By the time, the rain finally stopped a 100-kilometre lake formed in the middle of my country covering a third of my country’s landmass. One in seven people 33 million affected, 16 million of which are children, and 600,000 pregnant women now waiting to give birth under the open sky. “This is the compounding tragedy because not only do we have to deal with the initial impacts of flooding, we are also staring at a potential health crisis with the water-borne disease spreading at epidemic rates across the affected areas. Then more than four million acres of standing crops were destroyed. We are potentially staring at a food security crisis and to top it all off, we just engaged with our agreement with IMF. We were receiving our payment and looking forward to some economic breathing space and obviously,
the estimates/figures of that deal are based on what is now also washed away by the floods. So, we have a climate catastrophe, a natural disaster, a
health emergency and food security crisis and potentially extremely difficult economic times to come.”
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