Category World News

Some Palestinians continue to play informal sports as a way to deal with years of trauma, despite the fact that organized sports in Gaza have been almost completely banned by Israel’s devastating war. In the center of Gaza, Tareq Abu Azzoum played volleyball.

Imran Khan, 73, was detained by his family for almost a month, according to his 73-year-old former prime minister, Imran Khan, who has been in jail. This has sparked protests and concerns about his health.

However, after his sister, Uzma Khanum, finally came to visit him on Tuesday this week at Adiala jail, the central jail in Rawalpindi, close to Islamabad, she claimed Khan’s health appeared to be good.

She continued, noting that his conditions are poor and that his imprisonment has been characterized as “mental torture.”

Khan has been found guilty of corruption charges and is currently serving protracted prison terms.

Bushra Bibi, Khan’s wife, is also serving a seven-year term in prison for accepting land bribes in the al-Qadir Trust case. All of the allegations made against them have been refuted by Khan and Bibi.

What we know about the reasons behind blocked visits to Khan are as follows.

Khan is in jail, why?

Khan, who was Pakistan’s prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been incarcerated since being arrested in August of this year on corruption charges. Following a number of legal cases, including:

A trust called al-Qadir, which was established in 2018, was accused of paying a real estate developer a bribe of 7 billion rupees ($25.12 million) as a bribe in exchange for illegal favors. After being found guilty, Khan received a 14-year prison sentence from the Islamabad accountability court, and Bibi received a seven-year prison sentence.

Toshakhana case: In August 2023, Khan was detained and later found guilty of selling state gifts valued at more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($497, 000) that he allegedly received while serving as prime minister. He received a 14-year prison sentence.

Anti-terror charges: Following Khan’s arrest in May 2023, his supporters erupted frequently violent demonstrations all over Pakistan. In addition to the protests, Khan is currently facing anti-terrorism charges. In a Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court in December 2024, he entered a not-guilty plea. He has not yet been put on trial.
• Cypher case: Khan was accused of disclosing a classified cable that Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington had sent to Islamabad in 2022. In October 2023, he and senior PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi were charged. A special court, which was established under the Official Secrets Act, found Khan and Qureshi guilty, and were found guilty in January 2024. Qureshi and Khan each received a 10-year prison sentence.
• Iddat case: After her divorce from her previous husband, Khan and his wife were accused of getting married before his wife was required to wait. In July, they were found not guilty.

Khan contends that all of the allegations against him are politically motivated.

What was Uzma Khanum’s opinion of her visit to Khan?

Khanum, a doctor, informed reporters in Rawalpindi that her brother is restricted to his cell for the majority of the day and is only permitted to go outside for a brief period of time following her visit on Tuesday.

He is well-weight physically. However, he is constantly confined inside and only leaves for short periods. No one is in contact with them. He claimed that they were treating him with mental torture and was very angry.

She continued, noting that no mobile devices were permitted during the 30-minute meeting with Khan.

She later told the media that when she met him, he was very disturbed and enraged, along with her sister Aleema Khanum and the party’s leaders in Pakistan. He claimed that they are putting him and Bushra Bibi through mental torture in a small room and that they are preventing them from meeting for four weeks. He claimed that this mental torture was even worse than physical torture.

Has Khan’s use of a formal blockade been authorized?

The authorities in Pakistan have not established whether or not there is a legal ban on visits to Khan or what might cause it.

Following allegations that Khan’s family and PTI leaders had been prevented from seeing him despite court orders, his sister and his sister were scheduled for a Tuesday meeting.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued a directive to the Adiala jail superintendent in late October of this year to implement a directive from the court that allowed Khan to meet with designated visitors on Tuesday and Thursday of every week.

However, family members claim that these visits were never permitted. In response, Khan’s supporters began to spread rumors that he was either being treated for cancer or being transferred to another jail. Khan’s death was the subject of some speculation.

What steps have his supporters and family taken?

Khan’s imprisonment has drawn the opposition of his sisters and supporters for a long time. On November 18, they physically protested the restricted access outside the Adiala jail.

They added that their demonstration was in solidarity with the families of PTI members killed in earlier popular demonstrations calling for Khan’s release from prison on May 9, 2023, October 4, 2024, and November 26, 2024.

The sisters of Khan claimed on November 18 that they had been “violently detained” and “manhandled” while camping outside the Adiala jail.

Aleema said, “Who knows, maybe Imran has been shifted. ” In a second protest outside the jail on November 25, which was livestreamed on the PTI YouTube channel. Why won’t they let us meet him?

Then, on November 28, PTI member and chief minister of Pakistan’s northwestern province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sohail Afridi, staged a live-streamed sit-in outside the Adiala jail, alleging eight times he had been denied access to Khan.

Peshawar, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that has been a PTI stronghold since 2013 when the party first established a provincial government there, also saw protests calling for Khan’s release.

As protests continued outside the Adiala jail on Tuesday, Khan and his sister finally met.

Then, on Tuesday, local authorities passed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which forbids district governments from assembling four or more people in public spaces for a limited time until Wednesday this week in Rawalpindi. This includes the two-month period in Islamabad, which runs until Wednesday.

What has the government stated?

The government hasn’t explicitly stated why access to Khan has been impeded or provided any justification for this.

On November 28, Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, a politician from Shehbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), told the National Assembly that the rumor about Khan’s health had been spread by the Indian and Afghan media.

According to Chaudhry, “His health is in good hands and there is no danger to his life.”

Why has Pakistan’s political climate been sparked by Khan’s jail visits?

According to some experts, the government of Pakistan’s PML-N may use a political strategy to prevent visits to Khan in jail.

Political analyst Imtiaz Gul, executive director of the Islamabad-based think tank Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), claimed that “the primary objective of blocking access and keeping Khan in solitary confinement is apparently meant to break him into] agreeing to] a compromise and neutralize the groundswell of antigovernment sentiment.

Politicians are either in the government or in jail, according to Usama Khilji, a Pakistani columnist and director of Bolo Bhi, a digital rights advocacy organization. Imran Khan is currently a victim of politically motivated cases where the judiciary’s increasingly controlled approach undermines due process.

Numerous party leaders have been detained, and Khan’s PTI has been denied the right to participate in the 2024 national elections. More seats were won by party members than any other candidate during the election campaign.

However, the PTI claimed that the election was rigged by the military and the government to prevent them from getting any more seats, and independent observers also cited a number of vote-counting irregularities. The accusations of election manipulation have been consistently refuted by the military and the government.

His political party’s protests have been met with violent counterreaction and the virulent outlaw of any kind of demonstrations, according to Khilji, who is the most well-known politician in Pakistan right now.

By November 2027, Russia will no longer import any additional gas from the EU.

On Wednesday, the “provisional agreement” between the European Council and the group of member states’ 27 governments was revealed.

The agreement advances efforts to end all energy imports into the bloc from Russia, which continue to give Moscow crucial funding to fuel its war on Ukraine, despite the fact that the parliament and some member states have requested earlier.

By the end of 2026, member states will no longer import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia as per the agreement. By November 2027, imports of pipeline gas will be discontinued.

Over the past four years, efforts to stop purchases have struggled because many member states are so heavily dependent on Russian energy. Before Moscow unleashed its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, the bloc’s overall reliance was close to 50%.

According to a statement from the European Council, the move “aims to end Russian energy dependence following Russia’s significant impact on the European energy market” regarding the weaponization of gas supplies.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, welcomed the announcement, saying: “Europe is finally shutting down the supply of Russian fossil fuels.” Now is the time to achieve energy independence.

“No more blackmail,” the message read.

EU leaders applauded the conclusion of the long-awaited agreement that would finally put an end to Russian gas imports. This required a compromise between the member states and the European Parliament regarding the cut-off date.

Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen declared, “We’ve chosen Europe for energy security and independence. Blackmail has stopped. No more Putin’s tyranny of the market. We support Ukraine with all of our strength.

Before the end of 2027, Russia will no longer import gas. Our proposed import ban was approved by @Europarl_EN and @EUCouncil.

Russia will never again be allowed to use its energy supply as a weapon, as we have stated in our letter.

Europe is currently pursuing independence.

Long-term pipeline contracts will be prohibited as of September 30th, 2027, provided storage levels are sufficient, and not later than November 1st, 2027, as per the agreement. By June 17th, 2026, short-term contracts will no longer be permitted.

Beginning January 1, 2027, long-term contracts on LNG will be exempt, with the end date of April 2026.

The European Parliament and the European Council have yet to give final approval to the timelines.

Invoking the EU import ban will allow European companies to use “force majeure” to legally justify breaking existing agreements.

Political challenges

The EU still relies heavily on Russian gas at this time, with the majority of its member states switching suppliers more logistically challenging than oil.

Russian gas was imported into the EU from a proportion of 45 percent in 2021, but it was still 19% in the previous year.

Russia continues to be a significant importer of LNG despite Europe’s reduced pipeline deliveries, accounting for 20% of imports in 2024, or roughly 20 billion cubic meters (US$), only trailing it (45%) behind.

However, there have also been political challenges.

Sanctions against Russian energy have long been opposed by Hungary and Slovakia, which are diplomatically closer to Moscow and import the most of it. They have also hampered EU efforts to pass them.

Additionally, the agreement calls for the European Commission to create a strategy to end the sanctions that prevent the two landlocked Central European nations from continuing to purchase Russian oil in the coming months.