DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Pakistan: Imran Khan is banned from running for office for five years
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-08 | by ( Sahar Akbarzai | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been disqualified from running for office for five years, according to a statement released on Tuesday from the Election Commission of Pakistan. Khan has been banned as a result of being found guilty last week in a corruption trial and sentenced to three years in prison, the statement said. The trial relates to an inquiry conducted by the election commission which found Khan guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022. Khan was arrested at his home in Lahore after the court’s ruling on Saturday and was transported to the capital Islamabad. Several senior party leaders were also detained.

Persons: Imran Khan, Khan, ”, ” Khan, Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s Organizations: CNN — Former Pakistan, PTI Locations: Pakistan, Lahore, Islamabad

Yet the final days of Imran Khan’s political career tell a contrasting tale. Khan’s supporters – some armed with sticks and stones – marched through cities, chanting slogans against the ruling dispensation. To his supporters, Khan was seen as a political martyr, someone they had vowed to defend till the very end. Analysts say Khan’s arrest following a yearlong showdown with the military sends a pointed message to the former prime minister and his supporters. “Imran Khan’s political will wasn’t strong enough to begin with from what we saw.

Persons: Imran Khan’s, Khan, Khan’s, –, ”, Arifa Noor, “, Imran Khan, Jemima Goldsmith, Patrick Durand, Sygma, Pervez Musharraf, Arif Ali, Noor, “ Imran Khan’s, Shehbaz Sharif, Aamir Qureshi, Mr, Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari, Salaar Khan, Khawaja Asif, Khan won’t, “ Imran, ” Noor Organizations: CNN, Cricket, Getty, Oxford University, Movement for Justice, PML, AP, Pakistan’s, PTI, CNN Monday Locations: Pakistan, Lahore, Islamabad, British India, It’s, Melbourne, Australia, Khan, British, AFP, India, Afghanistan, United States, Gujranwala

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pauses as he speaks with Reuters during an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/File PhotoISLAMABAD, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan challenged his conviction on graft charges in a high court on Tuesday, his lawyer said. Naeem Panjutha said the petition to challenge the weekend conviction had been filed in the Islamabad High court. Khan has been jailed for three years on charges of selling state gifts unlawfully during his tenure as premier from 2018 to 2022. The former premier has been detained at a distant prison which according to his lawyers lacks facilities entitled to political prisoners.

Persons: Imran Khan, Akhtar Soomro, Naeem Panjutha, Khan, Khan's, Asif Shahzad, Kim Coghill Organizations: Pakistani, Reuters, REUTERS, Police, Thomson Locations: Lahore, Pakistan, ISLAMABAD, Islamabad, Attock district

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pauses as he speaks with Reuters during an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/File PhotoISLAMABAD, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Lawyers for Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan will be allowed to meet him on Monday before they file an appeal against a graft conviction that has landed the former cricket star in jail, one of his lawyers said. "The jail authorities have given us a time to meet Imran Khan at 12:30 p.m. (0730 GMT). We've reached Attock jail," one of his lawyers, Naeem Panjhuta, said, adding that an appeal against the graft conviction would be filed after Khan completed paperwork. Khan's legal team is also appealing to authorities to secure him better conditions in jail, Panjhuta told reporters in Islamabad earlier.

Persons: Imran Khan, Akhtar Soomro, Pakistan's, Khan, Naeem Panjhuta, Panjhuta, Shehbaz Sharif, Asif Shahzad, Robert Birsel Organizations: Pakistani, Reuters, REUTERS, Police, Monetary, Thomson Locations: Lahore, Pakistan, ISLAMABAD, Attock district, Islamabad, We've, Attock

☆ Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan's lawyers cannot reach him in jail, spokesperson says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Charlotte Greenfield | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Lawyers gather to protest following the arrest of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, outside his residence in Lahore, Pakistan August 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza/File PhotoISLAMABAD, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Pakistani former Prime Minister Imran Khan's lawyers could not reach him on Sunday after he spent the night in a jail near the capital following his arrest the previous day on a corruption conviction, a spokesperson said. Pakistan's information minister referred a request for comment on Khan's access to his lawyers to provincial authorities in Punjab, where the jail is located. Thousands of Khan's aides and supporters have been arrested since May, according to the interior minister. Pakistan's government denies Khan's arrest was related to the election.

Persons: Imran Khan, Mohsin Raza, Imran Khan's, Khan, Naeem Haider Panjotha, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Charlotte Greenfield, Mubasher Bukhari, William Mallard Organizations: REUTERS, PTI, Thomson Locations: Lahore, Pakistan, ISLAMABAD, Islamabad, Attock, Punjab

☆ Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan Convicted in Corruption Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Saeed Shah | Waqar Gillani | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/former-pakistani-prime-minister-imran-khan-convicted-in-corruption-case-749f405c

Persons: Dow Jones, imran

Islamabad CNN —Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to three years in prison after he was found guilty in a corruption trial, a verdict that disqualifies him from holding political office. Khan was arrested at his home in Lahore after the court’s ruling and is now being transported to the capital Islamabad. The trial relates to an inquiry conducted by the election commission which found Khan guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022. The former prime minister has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing. The army has previously rejected Khan’s claims it had anything to do with past purported attempts on his life.

Persons: Islamabad CNN —, Imran Khan, Khan, Saturday Khan, ”, ” Khan, Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s, “ Imran, Maryam Aurangzeb, ” Aurangzeb, Khan’s Organizations: Islamabad CNN, PTI, Saturday, country’s Locations: Islamabad, Lahore, United States

☆ Magnitude 5.5 earthquake strikes northeastern China region
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Asia Pacific category · August 5, 2023 · 12:51 PM UTCPakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, arrested for the second time in four months on Saturday, faces an increasingly tough challenge in his bid to regain office in elections to be held by November.

Persons: Imran Khan Locations: Asia

☆ Imran Khan arrested after Pakistan court sentences ex-prime minister to three years in jail
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Mubasher Bukhari Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam Charlotte Greenfield | Mubasher Bukhari | Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/4] Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks with Reuters during an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. Khan's political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said in a statement it had already filed another appeal to the Supreme Court earlier on Saturday. Khan, 70, is a former cricket star who went on to forge a political career and who was prime minister from 2018 to 2022. Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said in a broadcast statement that Khan's arrest followed a full investigation and proper legal proceedings in a trial court. Khan was convicted by the court in a case that was first investigated by the election commission, which found him guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts while prime minister.

Persons: Imran Khan, Akhtar Soomro, Shehbaz Sharif's, Intezar Panjotha, Bilal Siddique Kamiana, Khan, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Sharif, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Khan's, Qamar Javed Bajwa, Asim Munir, Mubasher Bukhari, Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam, Charlotte, William Mallard, Simon Cameron, Moore, Frances Kerry, Giles Elgood Organizations: Pakistani, Reuters, REUTERS, Police, " Police, Central Adiala, wilfully, PTI, Thomson Locations: Lahore, Pakistan, LAHORE, Islamabad, Central, Rawalpindi, Toshakhana, Khan's, Karachi, Charlotte Greenfield

☆ Khan's arrest was 'political victimization' -lawyer
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Reuters Editorial | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

PoliticsKhan's arrest was 'political victimization' -lawyerPostedShoaib Shaheen, a lawyer on former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's legal team, said on Saturday (August 5) that Khan's arrest was "a fixed match", after a court sentenced him to three years in prison.

Persons: Shoaib Shaheen, Imran Khan's Organizations: Pakistani

☆ Imran Khan Sentenced to Prison, Dashing Hopes of Political Comeback
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Salman Masood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan was arrested on Saturday after a trial court sentenced him to three years in prison, a verdict that will most likely end his chances to contest upcoming general elections. Mr. Khan was taken into custody by the police from his home in the eastern city of Lahore soon after the court decision was announced in Islamabad. He was found guilty of hiding assets after illegally selling state gifts. “The allegations against Mr. Khan are proven,” said Humayun Dilawar, the judge who announced the verdict in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. The case is related to an inquiry by the country’s election commission, which found last October that Mr. Khan had illegally sold gifts given to him by other countries when he was prime minister and concealed the profits from the authorities.

Persons: Imran Khan, Khan, Mr, ”, Humayun Dilawar Locations: Lahore, Islamabad, Pakistan’s

☆ Pakistan police have arrested Imran Khan in Lahore -lawyer
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

India category · August 5, 2023 · 7:34 AM UTCIndian farmers have planted 28.3 million hectares (69.9 million acres) with summer-sown rice, according to the farm ministry's latest data, up 3.28% from the same period last year, as robust monsoon rains encouraged the expansion of acreage.

Locations: India

☆ Pakistan's Imran Khan held after jail sentence
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Reuters Editorial | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

PoliticsPakistan's Imran Khan held after jail sentencePostedPolice arrested Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan in Lahore on Saturday after a court sentenced him to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts, potentially barring the opposition leader from contesting an upcoming election. Edward Baran has more.

Persons: Pakistan's Imran Khan, Imran Khan, Edward Baran Locations: Lahore

☆ Facing lawsuit from Musk, nonprofit head says he won't stop exposing Twitter's problems
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

And he's insisting that researchers at his nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate remain equally unafraid. Earlier this week, the company formerly known as Twitter filed a lawsuit in federal court against the CCDH, after the organization in June published research that Musk didn't like. Rather, Ahmed told staffers in a meeting after he heard about the lawsuit that they should "double down" on probing X. Lawyers representing X alleged in this week's lawsuit that the CCDH improperly obtained access to social media analysis tool Brandwatch and also illegally scraped data from Twitter using other methods. The CCDH said it obtained the tweets using a data-scraping tool and Twitter's search function.

Persons: Elon Musk, Imran Ahmed, Musk, Ahmed, I've, Jo Cox, there's, X, Brandwatch, He's, TikTok Organizations: Center, Twitter, CNBC, Washington , D.C, University of Cambridge, Labour Party, X Locations: Warsaw, Poland, Washington ,

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, addresses the 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit, hosted virtually by India, in Islamabad, Pakistan July 4, 2023. Press Information Department (PID)/Handout via REUTERS /File PhotoISLAMABAD, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has proposed that parliament be dissolved on Aug. 9, three days before the end of its term, political sources said on Friday, paving the way for a general election by November. Parliament's five-year term is set to expire on Aug. 12. Sharif's coalition came to power after former cricket star Khan was ousted in a vote of no confidence in April 2022. The military, which has ruled Pakistan for about half its history, denies that.

Persons: Shehbaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Khan, Asif Shahzad, Robert Birsel Organizations: Pakistan's, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, SCO, Summit, Press Information Department, REUTERS, Pakistani, Sharif, Thursday, Reuters, Information, Monetary, Thomson Locations: India, Islamabad, Pakistan, ISLAMABAD

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pauses as he speaks with Reuters during an interview, in Lahore, Pakistan March 17, 2023. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro/File PhotoISLAMABAD, Aug 4 (Reuters) - A Pakistan high court on Friday temporarily halted former Prime Minister Imran Khan's trial on charges he illegally sold state gifts, his lawyer said, in a case that could end the opposition leader's political career if convicted. Khan's legal team had challenged the commission's complaint, arguing that it was not a criminal case and that the judge conducting the trial was biased against Khan. The high court, however, turned down Khan's appeal to remove the trial court judge from hearing the case. The trial, which is in its final stage, relates to an inquiry conducted by the election commission which found Khan guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

Persons: Imran Khan, Akhtar Soomro, Imran Khan's, Khan, Naeem Panjhuta, Farrukh Habib, Asif Shahzad, Jason Neely, Miral Fahmy, Sharon Singleton Organizations: Pakistani, Reuters, REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Lahore, Pakistan, ISLAMABAD, Dubai

☆ Nonprofit sued by Elon Musk's X claps back: It's 'straight out of the authoritarian playbook'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Gabriel Rivera | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk's X Corp. sued a nonprofit, alleging it made false claims about harmful content on Twitter. The nonprofit's CEO, Imran Ahmed, said the lawsuit was "straight out of the authoritarian playbook." The nonprofit that Elon Musk's X Corp. sued on Monday isn't holding back in its criticism of the billionaire. "Elon Musk didn't like the reflection he saw in the mirror, and so he sued the mirror," Ahmed wrote on X. Advertisers left in part due to rising concerns about hate speech and misinformation circulating on Twitter under Musk's direction.

Persons: Elon, Imran Ahmed, Ahmed, Musk, X Organizations: Elon Musk's X Corp, Twitter, Morning, Center

☆ Democrats press Musk on X's 'hostile stance' toward independent research of its platform
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Three Democratic lawmakers are pressing Elon Musk on his social media platform's "hostile stance" toward independent research efforts after X, formerly known as Twitter, sued a nonprofit research group that found an increase in hate speech after the billionaire's takeover. The lawmakers pointed to X's recent lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, after the nonprofit found an increase in hate speech on the platform in the wake of Musk's takeover. This time, they added a question about whether X had successfully reduced hate speech and extremist content on its platform and if that had been verified by any third parties. The company added that values of platform safety and free expression are not in conflict with one another. X also alleged that CCDH had scraped its platform, in violation of its terms of service.

Persons: Elon Musk, Lori Trahan, Adam Schiff, Sean Casten, Linda Yaccarino, X, CCDH, Brandwatch, Imran Ahmed Organizations: Democratic, Twitter, X Corp, CNBC, Center, Bloomberg

☆ Twitter, now called X, sues researchers who showed rise in hate speech on platform after Musk takeover
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit on Monday in federal court, accusing British researchers of unlawfully accessing data and selectively picking posts to show a rise in hate speech on the platform after Elon Musk acquired the company last year. The suit, against the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, focused on research the organization published in June. In one report, the CCDH looked at 100 different accounts subscribed to Twitter Blue and found that Twitter failed to act on 99% of hate posted by users. Other CCDH research indicated that Twitter failed to act on 89% of anti-Jewish hate speech and 97% of anti-Muslim hate speech on the platform. It also sued Israel-based Bright Data over alleged unauthorized scraping and selling of content and user data pulled from the platform.

Persons: Elon, Elon Musk, Elon Musk's, Imran Ahmed, Ahmed, Ye, West, Satya Nadella Organizations: X Corp, Twitter, Elon, SpaceX, Facebook, Bright Data, U.S, Ninth Circuit, LinkedIn Locations: Northern California, Dallas, Texas, Israel, U.S

☆ Twitter sues watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Washington, DC CNN —Twitter has sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit group that has criticized the company’s handling of hate speech, following through on a litigation threat that had been publicly revealed just hours before. The lawsuit filed Monday in San Francisco federal court accuses CCDH of deliberately trying to drive advertisers away from Twitter — recently rebranded as “X” — by publishing reports critical of the platform’s response to hateful content. It specifically claims CCDH violated Twitter’s terms of service, and federal hacking laws, by scraping data from the company’s platform and by encouraging an unnamed individual to improperly collect information about Twitter that it had provided to a third-party brand monitoring provider. The complaint accuses CCDH of engaging in a wide-ranging campaign to silence users of Twitter’s platform by calling attention to the views they post on social media. But Monday’s complaint does not appear to include such an allegation.

Persons: CCDH, Ahmed, ”, Elon Musk, ” Ahmed, Musk, ‘ I’m, Imran Ahmed, Twitter, “ Organizations: DC CNN, Twitter, Center, CNN Locations: Washington, San Francisco

☆ Twitter, now X, threatens suit against nonprofit studying hate speech and misinformation
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Hayden Field | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk's latest legal adversary: a nonprofit that studies hate speech and misinformation on social media. On July 20, X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, sent a letter to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, or CCDH, threatening to sue the British research nonprofit. The letter follows CCDH research published in June, which studied the propagation of hate speech on the social media platform since Musk's buyout. Other CCDH research found that the social media company failed to act on 89% of anti-Jewish hate speech and 97% of anti-Muslim hate speech on the platform. The letter from X Corp. to CCDH is one of a handful of legal threats or actions by the company in recent months.

Persons: Elon Musk's, CCDH, Musk, Imran Ahmed, Elon Musk, Ahmed, Satya Nadella, Wachtell, Lipton, Katz Organizations: X Corp, Twitter, Center, Meta, Rosen

☆ Twitter threatens to sue hate-speech watchdog group
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

In a July 20 letter shared publicly Monday, Twitter threatened to sue the Center for Countering Digital Hate, accusing the group of a campaign to hurt Twitter by driving away its advertisers. The CCDH has published numerous reports about various social media companies’ approach to everything from vaccine misinformation to online racism and antisemitism. Since taking over Twitter, Musk has slashed roughly 80% of the company’s staff, including many working on the platform’s content moderation teams. Threatening lawsuits has become a favored tactic for Musk as Twitter faces continued pressure. Earlier this month, Twitter threatened to sue Facebook-parent Meta over the launch of its competing app, Threads, accusing the company of copying Twitter’s product through trade secret theft.

Persons: DC CNN — Elon Musk, “, Twitter, Alex Spiro, Musk, CCDH, Spiro, ” Spiro, Imran Ahmed, ”, Spiro didn’t, — Organizations: DC CNN, Twitter, Safety, Defamation League, Tufts University, University of Southern, Facebook, Microsoft Locations: Washington, University of Southern California, Redmond, Wash

"Chinese Exim bank rolled over principal amounts totalling $2.4 bln which are due in next 2 fiscal years," he said in a post on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter. "Pakistan will make interest payments only over the next two years," Dar said, meaning the wavier is only for the principal loan amount. "In principle, China and Pakistan have close cooperation in economic and financial sectors, and we will continue to advance cooperation with Pakistan to support the country in achieving stability and development," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said. The IMF team this month met the leadership of all political parties, including former Prime Minister Imran Khan, to seek a continuation of its bailout objectives irrespective of who comes to power. Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Additional Reporting by Andrew Hayley in Beijing; Editing by Tom Hogue and Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Ishaq Dar, Dar, Mao Ning, Shehbaz Sharif, Imran Khan, Asif Shahzad, Andrew Hayley, Tom Hogue, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Pakistan Finance, Reuters, Foreign Ministry, Longtime, Beijing, Initiative, International Monetary Fund, United, United Arab Emirates, IMF, Thomson Locations: Islamabad, Pakistan, ISLAMABAD, China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab, Beijing

ISLAMABAD, July 26 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected former prime minister Imran Khan's plea that his trial on charges of unlawfully selling state gifts be halted on concerns over the merits of the trial and that the judge hearing it was biased. The Supreme Court asked Khan to go back to the Islamabad High Court to seek a ruling over his objections, according to an order seen by a Reuters reporter who attended the top court's proceedings. Khan's legal team moved to the top court this month after the high court ruled against their plea that the trial couldn't be maintained on the election commission's petition, according to Khan's lawyer Barrister Gohar Khan. The Supreme Court cannot interfere in the trial court proceedings, said one judge on the two-member panel of the top court, which disposed of Khan's petition, directing the high court to hear all his petitions related to the trial. The trial court had indicted Khan in May on the charges and summoned him to commence his formal trial, which is now pending due to the challenge by his legal team in the high court.

Persons: Imran Khan's, Khan, Gohar Khan, Asif Shahzad, Bernadette Baum Organizations: Court, Thomson Locations: ISLAMABAD, Islamabad, Pakistan

☆ Opinion: Twitter is gone. Now we’ll see how many people make X their ‘ex’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Opinion Bill Carter | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

For a whole lot of people, the latter best describes how they are feeling about Twitter, the live social conversation app. Having overseen — devised, really — the demise of Twitter, Musk has also created a reasonable chance that he could now be in charge of a complete brand blowout, should this daring reboot eventuate in extinction for X. The app formerly known as “Twitter” had almost 370 million users globally in December of last year, after Musk paid (overpaid) $44 billion to buy it. Less than a year later, it is already down to 353 million users, and Statista projects the number will decline to 335 million in 2024. Threads reached 100 million users in five days, which was surely the biggest case in history of rustling wandering strays from the herd.

Persons: Bill Carter, Bill Carter Fred Conrad, it’s, Elon Musk, —, Musk, anoint, Molotov, Imran Ahmed, “ Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino, Twitter ”, can’t Organizations: The New York Times, CNN, HBO, Twitter, Black, Center, San Francisco, SpaceX, Meta, Facebook, SNL, Nike

Search resuls for: "imran"

25 mentions found