Pak couple arrested on blasphemy charges
Lahore, Sep 10: A Pakistani Christian couple has been arrested on blasphemy charges after ‘torn pages of Quran’ were recovered from the rooftop of their house and in the street in Lahore, police said on Sunday. The couple – Shaukat Masih and Kiran Masih – are facing life imprisonment as they have been booked under section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPP) which carries a life sentence for the desecration of the holy book. The case has been registered against the Christian couple of Docage Town, Rangers Headquarters, Harbanspura Lahore on the complaint of a Muslim man, Mohammad Taimur, of the same area. According to the FIR, Taimur said he was standing at a food shop of Docage Town Street on Friday when he found some pages of the Muslim holy book there. “It appeared that the pages had been thrown from the roof of a house under which they were found. I knocked on the door and a woman named Kiran Masih opened the door. I showed her the torn pages of the Quran to her. She responded that her minor daughters – Sundas and Rubi, and son Sabir – might have thrown the pages. Taimur went to the rooftop of the house and found a pink colour bag with more pages of the Quran,” the FIR says. (PTI)
Air China plane makes emergency landing
Singapore, Sep 10: An Air China flight made an emergency landing in Singapore’s busy Changi Airport on Sunday after its left engine caught fire and nine passengers sustained minor injuries due to smoke inhalation and abrasions during the evacuation process. The incident prompted airport authorities to close one of the three runways and divert a plane, media reports said. The CA403 flight from Chengdu in Sichuan province “encountered smoke” in its forward cargo hold and lavatory on its way to Changi Airport on Sunday, Channel News Asia reported. The Airbus A320 aircraft flew from Tianfu International Airport landed at Changi’s Runway 3 with all passengers and crew members evacuated safely. (AP)
Pakistan unveils new visa policy to attract foreign investors
Islamabad, Sep 10: Pakistan, in a bid to revive its ailing economy, has introduced a new visa policy to attract business communities from across the world to invest in the cash-strapped country. The decision was taken in the two-day consultation meeting held under the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a civil-military hybrid body set up by the previous Shehbaz Sharif government to tackle the country’s economic woes. Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, who chaired the fifth apex committee meeting of SIFC, announced in a recorded message that a new easy visa regime has been approved for foreign businessmen desiring to visit Pakistan. He said foreign businessmen who want to visit Pakistan would be issued easy visas on the basis of a single document from their country or international business organisations. (AP)