Omar Abdullah submits resignation over sex scandal

Indian-held Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah resigned on Tuesday over what he called “baseless” allegations of his involvement in a sex scandal. In response, Governor NN Vohra asked Abdullah to continue his duties as chief minister. Vohra said he would not accept the resignation until he had fully investigated the allegations and verified the claims.

Abdullah has been accused by a former finance minister of being party since 2006 to a prostitution racket, which involved 40 women and underage girls whose clients allegedly included politicians, bureaucrats, security officials and businessmen in IHK. The case is being investigated by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation, which has charged several former state ministers and top security officials in the scandal.

Katreena won’t marry Salman, claims astrologist

An astrologist in India has predicted that Bollywood actress Katreena Kaif would not marry Salman Khan.

Heart-throb with pleasant smile, Katreena was born on July 16, 1984 in London and thus her number is seven while Salman’s number is nine.

Indian astrologist Bhawik Sanghvi said that this year would prove the best year for Katreena.

Predicting about Katreena’s personal life, he said that katreena would not marry Salman as there is not only their ideas and concepts differ but their likes and dislikes are also contradicting with each other’s.

Sufi Mohammad arrested in Peshawar

A prominent religious leader in Pakistan's Swat valley has been arrested after allegedly speaking against the government and encouraging violence.

Maulana Sufi Mohammed, who brokered a failed deal with Islamabad that would have seen a stricter interpretation of sharia - or Islamic law - in Swat was seized on Sunday in the city of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

"The government has arrested Maulana Sufi Mohammed. A formal case against him will be registered soon," Mian Iftekhar Hussein, the information minister for NWFP, said.

"He killed a lot of people. Again he was planning for this. We will not allow anyone to destroy peace at Malakand and Swat."

Sufi Mohammed's two sons, Ziaullah and Rizwanullah, were reportedly arrested with him during a police raid. His third son, a teacher, was killed in a Pakistani military bombardment in May.

"Many people here will tell you that Sufi Mohammed was an arbiter of peace," Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from the capital, Islamabad, said.

"There has been much disagreement over who broke the [peace] deal."

Pervez Musharraf summoned in judges case

The 14-member larger bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday summoned former President Pervez Musharraf to defend charges leveled against him for imposing emergency on November 3, 2007.

The larger bench issued a notice to Pervez Musharraf to appear in person or through counsel on July 29.

The PCO judges case hearing was adjourned till July 29.

A 14-member larger bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry heard the case relating the promulgation of emergency on November 3 and the appointment of judges of higher judiciary.

Giving his remarks, the CJ said justice will not meet its demands, if the court gives verdict without giving explanation chance to Musharraf; thereupon, Sindh High Court Bar counsel Hamid Khan retorted former Gen Yahya Khan appeared before court in Aasma Gilani case.

The CJ said the case is highly important.

CJ Chaudhry queried Hamid Khan Advocate regarding the repercussions of the verdict of this case, adding, ‘We will have to muse seriously why July 5, 77 happened, what effects judicial rulings had on national life.’

‘The case may have effects on our judges ranks, we will have to spot repercussions of the case ruling outside the courtroom.’

Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday said in his remarks that the judges who took oath on PCO on November 3, 2007, ran foul of the order of 7 SC judges.

FIA detects forged ATM card scam

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has unearthed illegal bank transactions through forged Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) cards and arrested a senior banker allegedly involved in the scam.

FIA sources told that though not big in terms of the money involved, the scam had to be investigated thoroughly because it was the first crime of its kind in the country.

Detectives of the FIA found that Rs820,000 was siphoned off from different banks last month using forged cards at the ATM installed at the Bank Al Habib, Gulbarg branch, in Lahore.

A case has been registered against Khawaja Muhammad Usman Ghani, manager of operations at the bank, and two residents of Lahore --- Muhammad Imran Butt and Suleman Maqbool.

The scam came to light when representatives of the Allied Bank, Habib Bank, United Bank and National Investment Bank visited the FIA’s Cyber Crime Cell in Lahore with complaints that cheats had hacked into their security systems and withdrawn amounts from their clients’ accounts using forged ATM cards, wreaking havoc through their online business.

Subsequent investigations revealed that white plastic cards, widely available in the market, had been used by criminals to produce counterfeit ATM cards with relevant data of bank account holders provided by an insider.

Every customer using the machine gets a printed receipt showing details of his/her transaction from the machine. A copy of the same transaction is printed inside the ATM for the bank. Its officer deputed to feed the machine takes the prints at the time of reloading currency and compares the balance with this report. This process is linked with the bank’s main server online.

According to the complaints filed by the HBL, the data of their six ATM cards had been skimmed by the culprits and on the basis of this data, six illegal transactions had been carried out by transferring the data over white plastic cards and subsequently using this card at ATMs. It was further reported that in two cases, the amounts were illegally transferred to different bank accounts.

Three illegal transactions totalling Rs559,000 were traced to the bank account of accused Muhammad Imran Butt and Rs50,000 to the bank account of accused Suleman Maqbool.

Camera recording of Bank Al Habib showed that the accused obtained PIN codes from Khawaja Muhammad Usman, operations manager of the bank. In order to obtain the PIN code the accused, with the help of the same bank officer, mounted a small wireless camera inside the ATM booth and skimmed the data from there and carried out a number of illegal transactions from the accounts of a number of card holders.

Accused Khawaja Muhammad Usman Ghani was arrested on Tuesday. During interrogation, he disclosed that to date he had provided details of 1500 PIN codes of different ATM cards to one Hafiz Waseem.

He disclosed that his share in the funds amassed through the illegal transactions was 50 per cent.
Teams have been constituted for the arrest of Muhammad Imran Butt and Suleman Maqbool who are at large.