Nine miners feared dead in KP after landslide

MANSEHRA: Police say at least nine miners are feared dead after they were buried by a large landslide in northwest Pakistan. Local police officer Ali Zia says the phosphate miners were eating lunch Wednesday in the mountain village of Tharnawai in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when the accident occurred. Zia said rescue efforts have been hampered by bad weather and the inability to get heavy machinery to the site. It had been snowing and raining before the slide occurred. Eyewitness Mohammad Khurshid Awan said rescue workers were using shovels in an attempt to uncover the buried miners. Zia, the police officer, said no bodies have yet been recovere...

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LHC declares drug-reaction petition maintainable

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday accepted a petition filed by judicial activism panel over the deaths allegedly caused by reaction of cardiac drugs prescribed by Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), FTNews reported. The LHC registrar declared the petition maintainable. The petitioners adopted the stance that the federal and provincial governments including health secretary and chairman PIC were responsible for loss of dozens of precious lives in Lahore. Justice Omer Ata Bandial will hear the case on Jan 26. Around 70 cardiac patients have died so far for using the medicines allegedly prescribed by the PIC. A senior health official Saeed Illahi said that an investigation has found that a total of 419 heart patients...

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Fraud case: Three officers face legal action

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to take legal action against three senior government officers for their alleged role in letting off the hook former PTV adviser Khurram Rasool who is wanted in a fraud case. The three officers are: Khushnood Lashari, the principal secretary to the prime minister, and former directors general of FIA Waseem Ahmed and Malik Iqbal. Headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the bench directed the FIA to also record the statement of the petitioners, Karachi-based businessmen Pervez Hussain and others. According to the petition moved in December 2011, Mr Rasool working as prime minister’s media coordinator allegedly deceitfully...

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Posted in: REGIONAL