Synopsis
Nine major opposition parties formed a joint platform called the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) last month to begin a nationwide agitation against the government.
KARACHI: Tens of thousands of opposition supporters rallied on Sunday in the city of Karachi as part of a campaign to oust Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, who they accuse of being installed by the military in a rigged 2018 election.
Nine major opposition parties formed a joint platform called the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) last month to begin a nationwide agitation against the government.
"We've come together to protect and rescue the people of Pakistan," said Maryam Nawaz, the daughter and political heir of the former three-time premier Nawaz Sharif.
"If this government is allowed to complete its term, that will destroy this country," she told reporters before joining the rally.
The protest campaign comes at a time when Pakistan is facing economic crisis, with inflation touching double digits and negative growth.
"Inflation has broken back of poor citizens forcing many to beg to feed their children," said Faqeer Baloch,63, at the Karachi rally. "It is high time that this government should go now."
The next general election is scheduled for 2023.
The rally in Karachi followed a protest by the alliance in eastern Gujranwala city on Friday, which was the biggest demonstration against Khan since he took office.
Speaking via video link from London to the Gujranwala gathering, Sharif accused army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa of rigging the 2018 elections and orchestrating his ouster in 2017 in what he said were trumped up charges aided by judiciary.
The military, which has ruled Pakistan for half of its history since independence in 1947, denies meddling in politics or electoral wrongdoing. It has yet to respond specifically to Sharif's accusations.
Khan came to power on an anti-graft platform and denies the army helped him win. On Saturday he defended the military and the judiciary, threatening to get tougher on the opposition parties.
But the opposition says Khan has failed the nation on all front from the economy to governance.
Sharif, whose Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is the main opposition party, has been a long-standing critic of the military. He was sacked by the Supreme Court in 2017 on corruption charges, and left for London last November for medical treatment
( Originally published on Oct 18, 2020 )
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...morelessFeb 04, 2020, 11:42 ISTSource: Times Now
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The 24-hour analogue clock
This is the Shepherd Gate Clock, which since 1852 has been installed outside the gates of the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Notice anything strange?
Instead of the usual numbers 1-12 on its clock face, it has 24 Roman numerals. That means that the hour hand goes round only once in every 24 hours.
At 12 noon, instead of pointing straight up, the hour hand points straight down at XII. If you want to confuse your friends, you can own your very own replica version.
But this clock has another secret. The Shepherd Gate Clock was linked to the main 'motor clock' inside the Royal Observatory, which from 1852 to 1893 was the central clock that determined the whole British time system.
By using telegraph wires, the time determined by this highly accurate Observatory clock could be shared across the country. For the first time, cities from London to Glasgow to Belfast could share exactly the same time.
By 1866 Observatory time was even being sent to the United States, with transatlantic submarine cables connecting Greenwich with Harvard University in Massachusetts.
If all this talk about time has got you in a spin, why not visit the Royal Observatory for yourself? Explore the home of Greenwich Mean Time, and find out more about the mysteries of space at London's only planetarium.