Month: November 2022

LAHORE: The coalition government has decided to take action against PTI Chairman Imran Khan and his aides for levelling allegations against the armed forces.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took the decision during a meeting in Punjab’s capital, a statement issued in this regard said, after the PTI chief upped the ante against the government and institutions.

“The federal government has decided to exercise its powers on baseless allegations against institutions. Legal action will be taken against Imran Khan and his associates in the light of ISPR’s (Inter-Services Public Relations) statement,” it said.

The government has also constituted a committee consisting of constitutional and legal experts to formulate a strategy, they added.

In a televised address from the hospital, Khan told his followers that he had already learned about the looming danger and had received information that there was a plan in place to kill him “somewhere between Wazirabad and Gujrat”.

Khan was shot in the leg on Thursday as he waved to crowds from a container mounted on a truck from where he was leading a protest march on the capital to press for early elections and calling for the resignation of PM Shehbaz Sharif.

Khan told reporters that PM Shehbaz — who replaced him as premier following a vote of no confidence in April — masterminded the attack along with Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah and a senior army commander.

“Three people — including Rana Sanaullah, Shehbaz Sharif, and a major in the army — made a plan to assassinate me after they saw that the number of people in my long march was exponentially increasing,” Khan asserted.

But the military rejected the allegations as “baseless and irresponsible” while calling on the federal government to investigate the matter and initiate legal action against those responsible for “defamation”.

“The baseless and irresponsible allegations by Chairman PTI against the institution and particularly a senior army officer are absolutely unacceptable and uncalled for,” the military’s media wing said.

“Pakistan army prides itself for being an extremely professional and well-disciplined organisation with a robust and highly effective internal accountability system,” the ISPR added.

Apart from taking PTI to task for the statements against institutions, the government will also initiate legal action against the party’s workers for vandalism and creating chaos, the statement from the government said.

An India-based computer hacking gang seized control of computers owned by Pakistan’s politicians, generals and diplomats and eavesdropped on their private conversations, apparently at the behest of the Indian secret services, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported.

According to the report, several political targets seem to have arisen from the continued tensions between India and Pakistan. On January 10, the gang was tasked with breaking into the email account of Fawad Chaudhry, then information minister during Imran Khan’s government. It took a screenshot of Fawad Chaudhry’s inbox, which has been seen by the Sunday Times and the Bureau.

The hacking team used malware to take over his computers and targeted the country’s senior generals as well as its embassies in Beijing, Shanghai and Kathmandu in a similar way. The most famous Pakistan-related target was Pervez Musharraf, the former president of the country.

Private investigators linked to the City of London are also using the India-based computer hacking gang to target British businesses, government officials and journalists. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Sunday Times have been given access to the gang’s database, which reveals the extraordinary scale of the attacks.

It shows the criminals targeted the private email accounts of more than 100 victims on behalf of investigators working for autocratic states, British lawyers and their wealthy clients. Critics of Qatar who threatened to expose wrongdoing by the Gulf state in the run-up to this month’s World Cup were among those hacked.

It is the first time the inner workings of a major “hack-for-hire” gang have been leaked to the media and it reveals multiple criminal conspiracies. Some of the hackers’ clients are private investigators used by major law firms with bases in the City of London.

The investigation – based on the leaked documents and undercover work in India – can reveal: Orders went out to the gang to target the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason in May, three weeks after his appointment was announced. The president of Switzerland and his deputy were targeted just days after he met Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in Downing Street to discuss Russian sanctions.

Philip Hammond, then chancellor, was hacked as he was dealing with the fallout of Russia’s novichok poisonings in Salisbury. A private investigator hired by a London law firm acting for the Russian state ordered the gang to target a British-based oligarch fleeing Vladimir Putin.

Michel Platini, the former head of European football, was hacked shortly before he was due to talk to French police about corruption allegations relating to the 2022 World Cup.

The hackers broke into the email inboxes of Formula One motor racing bosses Ruth Buscombe, the British head of race strategy at the Alfa Romeo team, and Otmar Szafnauer, who was chief executive of the Aston Martin team.

The commissioning of hacking is a criminal offence punishable with a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail in Britain. The Metropolitan Police was tipped off about the allegations regarding Qatar in October last year yet chose not to take any action.

David Davis, the former cabinet minister, said the force should reopen its investigation into potential criminal cyberattacks against British citizens.

Davis said the investigation exposed how London has become “the global centre of hacking”.

“It paints a grim picture of a network of criminal hacking that threatens justice and privacy here in the UK and across the world,” he added.

The hacking gang, which operates under the name WhiteInt, is run from a fourth-floor apartment in a suburb of the Indian tech city Gurugram. Its mastermind is 31-year-old Aditya Jain — an occasional TV cybersecurity pundit who also holds down a day job at the Indian office of the British accountancy firm Deloitte.

For seven years, Jain has run a network of computer hackers who have been hired by British private detectives to steal the email inboxes of their targets using “phishing” techniques. Sometimes his team deploy malicious software which takes control of computer cameras and microphones, and allows them to view and listen to their victims.

Earlier this year undercover reporters from the Sunday Times travelled to India posing as corporate investigators seeking to hire a computer hacker and approached a number of suspected cybercriminals. The reporters contacted Jain and began a lengthy exchange of messages.

Jain told them: “I offer access to closed source information of email and computers of the POI (person of interest) anywhere across the globe … an average timeline is around 20 to 30 days.”

Then, he volunteered details about one of his projects that related to FIFA, football’s governing body and the organisers of the World Cup.

“I have successfully worked on obtaining email data of [a] few high profile individuals (in relation to FIFA) based in the UK on the behest of a client sponsored by a Gulf country,” he wrote.

He went on to confirm that the ultimate client was Qatar, in response to questions from the undercover reporters. He said he had been hired for the project by a Swiss-based investigator called Jonas Rey.

Later the Bureau and the Sunday Times were given sight of the secret database detailing Jain’s clients and hacking targets. Seven clients are named on the list and they include British private investigators.

The former Metropolitan Police officer Nick Del Rosso appears to have provided the gang with the targets for at least 40 of the cyberattacks.

Rey was the gang’s most prolific client. He was working for the Swiss corporate intelligence company Diligence Global Business Intelligence, which is owned and run by the former MI5 officer Nick Day. The firm was the sister company of the well-known City of London corporate intelligence firm Diligence.

In January 2019, Diligence Global had been hired to work on a World Cup project, according to court documents. Over the following year Rey began to commission the gang to target people who had exposed wrongdoing by hosts Qatar.

The targets included Jonathan Calvert, the editor of the Sunday Times Insight team which had been at the forefront of exposing the corruption that led FIFA to award the World Cup to Qatar in 2010.

According to the database, Rey instructed Jain to target Calvert on 22 April 2019. Just weeks before, Insight had written a story revealing the rule-breaking $100 million “success fee” Qatar offered to FIFA in return for being given the right to host the World Cup.

There is a note on the database saying the hack of Calvert’s inbox was “completed”. Lawyers for Qatar’s government deny commissioning hacking. Last month they accused Calvert of a “politically motivated crusade” linked to Qatar’s Gulf UAE rival when they were questioned about the hacking of his email account ahead of this article.

“Your readers deserve to know that for several years, Mr Calvert has retained close links with Qatar’s neighbour, the United Arab Emirates,” they wrote. There is no truth in the claim.

Rey also instructed the gang to target Platini, the famous former footballer, on 10 May, 2019. Platini had been one of the FIFA executive committee members that had backed Qatar’s winning bid to host this year’s World Cup. There had been rumours that he had been pressured to do so during a lunch meeting with the then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who was then a prince, a few days before he voted.

At the time Platini was hacked, the Parquet National Financier (PNF), France’s serious and economic crime enforcement unit, were poised to talk to him about the lunch as part of an investigation into corruption in the World Cup bid.

A source close to the PNF’s investigation believes Qatar was “anxious” to find out what Platini was preparing to say when he was interviewed the following month. A representative for Platini said he was unaware he had been hacked but was concerned his private messages may have been compromised.

Rey left Diligence Global in November of that year to set up his own firm Athena Intelligence. By that time his name had appeared against 16 hacks carried out by the gang. After leaving Diligence Global, he told Jain to target several more individuals, according to the database.

Jain hacked Ghanem Nuseibeh, a 45-year-old Mayfair-based businessman, who had become a target for Qatar after writing a report on corruption relating to the 2022 World Cup. His London-based lawyer Paul Tweed was also hacked that November.

The hacker targeted two other people known to Nuseibeh at the same time. One was Mark Somos, a lawyer based in Germany who had made a complaint about the Qatari royal family to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The other was Nathalie Goulet, a French politician who has been a vocal critic of the Gulf state for allegedly financing terrorism. Jain even notes Goulet’s email password in the database, which she says was previously known only to her.

The hacker also went after Yann Philippin, a journalist with the French investigative website Mediapart, shortly after he had written a story in December 2019 providing fresh details about the French judicial investigation into the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar. Rey is again listed as the client. The hack was unsuccessful because Philippin spotted the phishing emails and changed his phone and computer.

Rey passed the hacking gang three more targets: Nick Raudenski, a former investigator for FIFA and UEFA; Alan Suderman, an Associated Press journalist who had written about Qatar’s underhand campaign to host the tournament; and Rokhaya Diallo, a prominent campaigner who had been publicly critical of the Gulf state’s failure to pay migrant workers building the World Cup stadiums.

In all, Rey’s name is against a dozen Qatar-related hacks in the leaked database. In total, he is listed as commissioning Jain to target 48 people. Earlier this year, Rey sent a document to Jain containing a biography and email details of the BBC’s new political editor Chris Mason. The properties of the document state that it was prepared by Rey’s company Athena Intelligence and the last person to edit it is recorded as “JR”.

Soon afterwards, on May 18, Jain’s employees began attempting to hack Mason. He was sent phishing emails pretending to be from Twitter and Facebook and seeking to steal his username and password.

The purpose of hacking Mason is unclear but his new role meant he was privy to sensitive briefings from leading members of the Cabinet and the prime minister’s office. Last month, Mason said: “It is worrying so much enterprise, energy and money goes into these hacking attempts.” He did not believe the hackers accessed his emails.

It was also Rey who instructed Jain to target the Swiss president Ignazio Cassis and his deputy Alain Berset this May. Most recently, the “hack-for-hire” firm attempted to break into the email account of Stefan Quandt, the billionaire German industrialist who co-owns BMW.

Several of the targets on the database are British lawyers and wealthy people involved in cases in London’s high court such as Boris Mints, a British-based oligarch who is on the run from the Russian state, and members of two of the UK’s richest families, Ashok Hinduja and Robert Tchenguiz. British courts do not automatically exclude dubiously obtained evidence.

The London offices of three law firms have all hired investigators who went on to order the gang to target individuals related to cases the lawyers were working on. The law firms deny commissioning or knowing about the hacking.

Del Rosso, who is now based in North Carolina in the United States, instructed the gang to target Mark Fullbrook, who was Liz Truss’s chief of staff when she was prime minister. Fullbrook was targeted by Jain in May 2016 during the Brexit referendum campaign when he was working for CT Group, the lobbying company run by Conservative elections strategist Lynton Crosby. A source close to Fullbrook believes he may have been a target for hacking because there was speculation that he and Crosby were secretly working on the Brexit campaign.

The most high-profile British politician named on Jain’s database is the former MP Philip Hammond. Jain began hacking Hammond when he was the chancellor of the exchequer on 9 April 2018 and the database records the attempt as “completed”.

The work appears to have been commissioned by a businessman who runs a European investment fund. At the time, Hammond was involved in the Brexit negotiations as well as the response to Russia’s Skripal chemical weapons attack perpetrated just weeks before the hack. Hammond said last month: “It’ll be something to do with Brexit. I wasn’t aware of this.”

Last month, Jain admitted that he had hacked people in the past but said he had not done so for several years. He claimed he did not know some of the people named on his database and denied hacking the others listed. “I can say categorically that I have not hacked, launched or attempted to hack any of these people,” he said.

Rey strongly denied commissioning hacking and claimed that our journalists had been fed falsified information to discredit him. His former boss Nick Day said: “Diligence Global denies any allegation of wrongdoing. Diligence always works hard to ensure that its investigations are compliant with all applicable laws and regulations.”

UNITED NATIONS: The impact of climate change on health if carbon emissions remain high, could be up to twice as deadly as cancer in some parts of the world, including Pakistan, according to new data released Friday by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Climate Impact Lab.

The new data shows the need to act quickly, not only to mitigate climate change but also to adapt to its consequences.

For instance, in Faisalabad, Pakistan, even with moderate mitigation, additional deaths due to climate change would average 36 per 100,000 people each year between 2020-2039, according to the data. Without substantially expanding adaptation efforts, Faisalabad could expect annual climate change-related death rates to nearly double, reaching 67 deaths per 100,000 by mid-century. An increment almost as deadly as strokes, currently Pakistan’s third leading cause of death.

“As we face the punishing impacts of global climate change it can be easy to wonder whether efforts to reduce emissions by individual countries, states, or cities really make a difference. This platform shows the direct role these efforts play in shaping our collective future,” Climate Impact Lab’s Hannah Hess, Associate Director at Rhodium Group.

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, where under a scenario of very high emissions by 2100, additional deaths due to climate change could rise to nearly twice the country’s current annual death rate from all cancers, and 10 times its annual road traffic fatalities, according to the data.

“Because of human action, the concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is reaching dangerous levels, driving Earth’s temperatures higher and amplifying the frequency and intensity of extreme events,” says the newly launched Human Climate Horizons platform, adding that without concerted and urgent action, climate change will further exacerbate inequalities and uneven development.

Building on the analyses of 2020, 2021 and 2022 Human Development Reports — and fed by an evolving stream of frontier research — the data shows how climate change can impact people’s lives — from mortality to livelihoods, and energy use.

Although higher temperatures and a warmer climate put cardiovascular and respiratory systems under stress everywhere, outcomes will vary between places, according to communities that have the resources to adapt and those that do not.

The data shows that climate change could increase mortality rates in Faisalabad, Pakistan by nearly 67 deaths per 100,000 population — causing more fatalities than strokes, the country’s third leading cause of death.

In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, however, higher incomes could keep the death toll to 35 per 100,000, which is still deadlier than Alzheimer’s disease — the sixth leading cause of death globally.

Since the late 19th century, the earth’s average temperature has risen by nearly 1.2°C, changing the entire surface area of the planet, according to the research.

However, billions live in regions that have already experienced warming greater than the global average.

As an example, the platform pointed to Maracaibo, Venezuela, noting that in the 1990s it averaged 62 annual days with temperatures exceeding 35°C. However, by mid-century, that number will likely soar to 201 days.

Electricity availability and fuels used to generate it to power air conditioners and heaters, play a crucial role in our ability to cope with extreme temperatures, said UNDP.

Yet, the impacts of climate change on energy use will vary locally, as individuals, communities and businesses adapt to conditions using available resources.

In Jakarta, for example, electricity consumption in response to warmer temperatures is projected to increase by roughly one-third of current household consumption in Indonesia. This will require critical additional infrastructure planning.

More frequent and severe temperature extremes also impact livelihoods, affecting the ability to perform tasks and influencing work intensity and duration.

“The impact of climate change differs across sectors of the economy with workers in high-risk, weather-exposed industries like agriculture, construction, mining and manufacturing most affected”, according to platform data.

In Niamey, Niger, in sectors such as construction, mining and manufacturing, excessive heat was responsible for 36 fewer working hours annually, taking a 2.5 per cent toll on the country’s future GDP.

In Niger, as in many other parts of the Sahel, climate shocks have resulted in recurring droughts with devastating impacts on the region’s already vulnerable populations.

Climate change is not evenly distributed globally, it will generate a significant uptick in inequalities over the coming years and decades.

But by highlighting that the future is not predetermined, UNDP hopes the information can empower people everywhere, to step up climate action.

Meanwhile, UNDP has also launched the How Just Transition Can Deliver the Paris Agreement report this week, highlighting the need to embrace the “green revolution” – or risk increasing social inequality, civil unrest, and economic loss.

Ahead of the UN climate conference, COP27, which kicks off on Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, the report spotlights the importance of “fair and equitable” transitioning to meeting the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

From providing workers with new green economy skills and access to social protection to ensuring that countries lay out a clear pathway to a net-zero future, UNDP chief Achim Steiner said the report provides “real-world insights into how to accelerate momentum around a just transition that is fair and equitable for the energy sector and beyond”.

The report analyses both enhanced short-term climate pledges, known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and long-term strategies in which countries lay out plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero.

Encouragingly, 72 per cent of nations with enhanced NDCs that refer to a just transition are linking them to socio-economic considerations, while 66 per cent are proposing concrete actions and measures factoring in climate justice.

However, they fail to make linkages to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or gender equality in either short or long-term climate plans – missing a significant opportunity, UNDP said.

“As climate change intensifies and the world faces an immense energy crunch…decoupling from fossil fuels and investing in the green energy infrastructure of tomorrow…[is] the only logical economic choice”, said Steiner.

LONDON: British politicians, including Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, condemned the attack on Chairman PTI Imran khan and wished an early recovery for him and others injured in the assassination attempt.

Imran Khan came under the gun attack while he was leading his party’s anti-government protest rally in Wazirabad near Gujranwala on Thursday. The assault left a party activist dead and several leaders including Imran Khan injured.

Giving his reaction in a tweet hours after the attack, the UK foreign secretary James Cleverly said, “Shocking attack on Imran Khan in Pakistan which has left one person dead. My thoughts are with all those affected.”

“There is no space for violence in politics,” he added.

Meanwhile, London Mayor Sadiq Khan also expressed concerns for Imran’s well-being, saying, “My prayers are with Imran Khan and the people of Pakistan at this extremely distressing time.”

The London mayor expressed his concerns over the murder attempt on Imran Khan, saying, “No political leader should ever face violence or intimidation.”

Expressing his shock over the attack on Imran Khan, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office FCDO Minister Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon said, “A thriving democracy is a key to an inclusive & progressive society. Violence is never the answer.”

“Sending my thoughts and prayers to Imran and his family at this time,” he added.

The longest-serving British-Pakistani Member of Parliament (MP) in the British Parliament Khalid Mahmood MP also condemned the assault on Imran Khan, saying, “Very sad to hear about the “attempted assassination” of Imran Khan.”

He prayed for the speedy recovery of Imran Khan and others injured in the attack. “These types of attacks have no place in any politics,” he added.

Labour Party politician Naz Shah also expressed shock on Twitter: “Shocked and saddened by this shooting, wishing Imran Khan a speedy recovery.”

“My thoughts and prayers are with all those injured.”

UK Minister of State Lord Zac Goldsmith also condemned what he described as the appalling news of the attempted assassination of Imran Khan. “Imran Khan is strong and will soon be back on his feet,” he said.

“Those forces in Pakistan who believe they can stifle democracy in that country through murder are wrong and will be seen to be wrong,” he added.

Imran Khan received gunshot wounds to his leg. However, he is stable, according to a doctor, who is heading the panel of doctors constituted for Khan’s treatment.

A suspect involved in the attack — an apparent lone attacker — has been arrested. In a video confessionary statement, the attacker said that he tried to assassinate Imran Khan, not anyone else, as he was misleading people.

Imran Khan had reports about attack

Issuing a video statement following the deadly assault at the party’s protest rally, Asad Umar and Mian Aslam Iqbal said, “Imran Khan has said that he had pieces of information beforehand that these people might be involved in the assassination attempt on him.”

Umar, quoting the PTI chairman, demanded that all three people — the premier, the federal interior minister, and the senior military officer — “be removed from their offices.”

The PTI leader warned that the PTI would hold countrywide protests if these officials are not removed from their positions, as the country cannot run in this manner anymore.

“Khan is ready to sacrifice his life for the nation. There should be no doubt about it now. He is fine, but he says that we should always believe in Allah,” Umar said.