Category: Politics

News stories of Politics, for the topics that matter the most to young professionals and college students, political news reported with a different angle.

  • After Punjab, KPK assembly also approves motion against ECP chief

    After Punjab, KPK assembly also approves motion against ECP chief

    A day after Punjab Assembly, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly on Monday also approved a motion expressing no-trust in Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja.

    The development was shared by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) official Twitter handle.

    The resolution demanded immediate general elections in the country and called for the ECP members and CEC to step down.

    Punjab Assembly approves motion for ECP chief’s resignation

    On Sunday, the Punjab Assembly (PA) approved a motion today on Sunday calling for CEC Sikandar’s resignation.

    This development came after PTI candidate Sibtain Khan was elected the Speaker of the Punjab Assembly.

    The session of the provincial assembly began with newly-elected PA Speaker Khan administering the oath to his deputy, Wasiq Qayyum.

    Later, PTI Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Syed Abbas Shah presented the motion against Sultan. After the motion was approved, the Assembly was adjourned till August 15.

    PTI Information Secretary Farrukh Habib issued a statement on Saturday and said the party had prepared to file a disqualification reference in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) against the CEC. He said the CEC met PDM leaders after reserving a judgment in the prohibited funding case.

    “By doing so, the chief election commissioner violated his oath, the code of conduct as well as his constitutional duty,” he added.

    In an address to his supporters, PTI Chairman Imran Khan expressed his complete lack of trust in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and CEC Raja. Khan accused the ECP of supporting former Chief Minister (CM) Punjab Hamza Shehbaz.

  • Religious minorities allotted sites for burials, cremation

    Religious minorities allotted sites for burials, cremation

    The National Assembly (NA) was told that all religious minorities living in Islamabad have been allotted burial sites, reports Dawn.

    Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah informed the House about this development. He said that all religious minorities have been given cremation grounds and graveyards in the capital.

    About the Hindu community, he said that they have been given grounds in the H-9 sector of the capital. The Buddhist community also has its cremation grounds in this sector.

    Other religious minorities including Christians, Baháʼís and Ahmadis have their graveyards in the same sector.

    The House was told that there is no demand for new sites but if the religious communities will demand more sites, it will be allotted to them.

  • Supreme Court uploads audio of JCP meeting on its website

    The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) uploaded the audio of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan’s (JCP) meeting on its website.

    The recording was of the letters issued by two JCP members — senior puisne SC judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood — both of whom claimed the meeting had disapproved the nominations of judges, proposed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan, for elevation to the top court.

    Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, in a letter, highlighted the need for putting out factual and correct minutes of the meeting, in which details of observations and discussions of each member should be mentioned.

    “The correct minutes of the meeting, if made publically, will stop needless rumours,” Justice Masood wrote in his two-page letter.

    In a similar letter written to other JCP members, Justice Qazi Faez Isa also highlighted that the acting secretary, who had attended the meeting in the absence of the JCP secretary, should immediately release this decision to the media, which would also stem unnecessary speculation and misreporting, as the meeting was held behind closed doors.

    “In these exceptional circumstances the Hon’ble chairman JCP has been pleased to relax the restriction under Rule 5(4) of the JCP Rules, 2010 and has directed for the audio recording of the JCP proceedings of 28.07.2022 to be made available on the official website of the SCP,” said a statement issued by the apex court.

    The audio recording from time slot 1:29:45 to 1:38:08 contains the statement by Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Ashtar Ausaf that the matters under discussion should be deferred to frame appropriate rules. He did not assess or reject the merits of any of the high court judges proposed for appointment to the apex court. As a result, five members of the JCP supported the deferment of the meeting as reported in the press note of Thursday,” the fresh statement said.

    In the audio tape, the AGP can be heard saying “when we talk of seniority, ability, integrity, and temperament, we should also consider whether the appellate courts have appreciated their judgements or overturned them”.

    “While nominating judges we should also consider how much time they will have in the Supreme Court to decide matters,” he said, pointing out that if they had only three years, then it would not be enough.

    Justice Isa, who spoke in the end after the CJP, expressed surprise that while the two senior-most CJs of the high courts could sit in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), they were not fit to be elevated to the Supreme Court. “What an irony?” he remarked.

    “What does a CJ of the high court bring to this court? [He] brings experience as a CJ. What I have learnt as CJ, I would never have learned as a judge. It is altogether a different ball game,” he emphasised.

    “We all are equal and can nominate and all of us carry one vote to decide. This is not about winning or losing but a question of the future. You are bypassing chief justices,” said Justice Isa.

    “We will be short of five judges next month and we have 50,000 cases,” the CJP pointed out.

  • Punjab Assembly session: Who will be the new Speaker?

    Punjab Assembly session: Who will be the new Speaker?

    The Punjab Assembly (PA) session to elect its new Speaker has started today (Friday). Today’s session will be chaired by Panel of Chairman Wasim Badozai.

    The seat fell vacant when the previous Speaker, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, was sworn in as Punjab Chief Minister (CM) after the Supreme Court’s (SC) verdict in his favour.

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) have the majority in the Assembly, and have nominated Sibtain Khan as their joint candidate while the Opposition parties, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), have nominated Saiful Malook Khokhar as their joint candidate.

    Khan is currently serving as Provincial Minister of Punjab for Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries since 2020.

    Sibtain Khan claimed that the PML-N would “fail to cause any interruption” during the Speaker’s election. He hoped that he would win the contest “effortlessly”.

    PML-N’s Khokhar said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) will win. “They [PTI] will know who is better and who is a thief,” he added.

  • Army chief asks US to help Pakistan secure early dispersal of loan from IMF: report

    Army chief asks US to help Pakistan secure early dispersal of loan from IMF: report

    Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa has appealed to the United States (US) to help Pakistan secure an early dispersal of $1.2 billion in funds under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, reported Wajahat S Khan for Nikkei Asia.

    Gen Bajwa spoke by phone with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman earlier this week.

    “The IMF has already granted Pakistan staff-level approval for the loan in question on July 13. But the transaction — part of the IMF’s $6 billion Extended Fund Facility for Pakistan — will only be processed after the multilateral lender’s executive board grants final approval,” said the report.

    According to an IMF official who also spoke on condition of anonymity, the IMF is going into recess for the next three weeks and its board will not convene until late August. Because of the recess, no date has been set for announcing the loan approval for Pakistan.

    “There is a major difference between staff-level approval and board approval. Our stakeholders, the countries that take the vote as to whether they are supporting this or not, make the final decision. This is a difference. So the legally binding step is a board approval, not the staff level agreement,” said the official.

    Pakistan’s former ambassador to Washington, Husain Haqqani, said, “This reflects the Pakistan army’s concerns about the state of the economy. It also reflects that the Pakistan army chief is the authority with whom the global players feel the final word rests.”

    Haqqani said that Pakistan has developed a habit of getting on an IMF plan, getting quick access to a couple of tranches, but then abandoning the deals without making the important structural and systemic changes required for further financing. This has left Pakistan little leverage with international financiers.

    “The reason why the IMF program has been delayed is that Pakistan has a track record of not keeping its word with the IMF,” Haqqani said.

    “Gen Bajwa calling the US administration, if he has done so, suggests that he is assuring the US — and through the US, the IMF — that any promises made will be kept.”

  • PML-Q unanimously decides to remove Chaudhry Shujaat as party head

    PML-Q unanimously decides to remove Chaudhry Shujaat as party head

    Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid’s (PML-Q) Central Working Committee (CWC) has decided to remove Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Federal Minister Tariq Bashir Cheema from their party positions.

    The decision to remove Shujaat from the party command was taken at a CWC meeting headed by Senator Kamil Ali Agha in the chair at the Muslim League House on Thursday. Shujaat has been the PML-Q president for the last two decades after Mian Azhar. He also served as a prime minister and senator.

    “It has become necessary to isolate Chaudhry Shujaat to save the party from destruction,” said Kamil Ali Agha while talking to the media after the CWC meeting. He said that due to a conspiracy hatched by Salik Hussain and Cheema, a letter was used to ask PML-Q MPAs to vote for the PML-N, damaging the party’s reputation.

    Chaudhry Shafaat Hussain said that the PML-Q’s central committee meeting cannot be held without the approval of Shujaat as no decision had been taken to convene the meeting of PML-Q’s central committee.

    He said that Kamil Ali Agha was the general secretary of PML-Q’s Punjab chapter and he cannot act against the central president. He said that the PML-Q’s central working committee does not exist and there was no central working committee nor an executive committee and there was no information about the party meeting.

  • Regulate CJ’s powers to constitute benches, say lawyers

    Regulate CJ’s powers to constitute benches, say lawyers

    The legal fraternity on Wednesday demanded the regulation of the exercise of jurisdiction of the Supreme Court (SC), particularly ending the sole discretion of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) in the constitution of benches and fixing cases.

    The request was made in a joint meeting of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Pakistan Bar Council (PBC).

    The meeting emphasised its demand that the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) immediately amends its rules to allow nominations for judicial appointments to be initiated by any member of the Judicial Commission rather than the chief justice alone (which is even otherwise violative of Article 175-A of the Constitution) and, moreover, to frame fair, transparent and objective criteria and procedures to gauge the suitability of prospective appointees.

    Moreover, they demanded that Article 184(3) of the Constitution be amended in order to provide one right of appeal. They asked the federal government to immediately withdraw the curative review filed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

    SCBA President Ahsan Bhoon in a press conference said that the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary was not a matter of election, adding that the chief justice of Pakistan and members of the Judicial Commission should strictly adhere to the principle of seniority.

    Govt to withdraw review petition against Justice Qazi Faez Isa

    The federal cabinet on July 27 decided to withdraw the curat­ive review petitions filed against Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

    The cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif, observed the action taken against Justice Isa by the Pakistan Thereek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was through “unfair use of authority”.

    An inquiry committee was constituted, which includes Minister for Kashmir Affairs Qamar Zaman Kaira, Minister for National Food Security Tariq Bashir Cheema and Minister for Education Rana Tanveer.

    The committee, after an assessment of the review petitions filed against Justice Isa, would present a report to the cabinet.

    Justice Faez Isa advised CJP not to bulldoze the due process of judges’ appointment

    Justice Qazi Faez Isa advised Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial not to bulldoze the “due process” for the appointment of more than one-third of the total number of judges in the apex court.

    In a letter written to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), Justice Isa said that it was surprising that the JCP’s meeting had been convened to consider the appointment of five SC judges during summer vacations. It is pertinent to mention here that JCP is headed by CJP Bandial.

    “When availing of annual leave no meeting of the JCP was scheduled but as soon as I left Pakistan the CJP decided to hold two meetings of the JCP to consider appointments to the Sindh and Lahore High Courts, and now a third unscheduled meeting of the JCP is to be held during the summer vacations of the SC. The summer vacations of the SC were notified by the CJP himself, and then these were gazetted in the Official Gazette. If the CJP renders his own notification utterly meaningless then let him first withdraw it, instead of violating it,” wrote Justice Isa in his letter.

    “It suggests that the CJP does not want me to be physically present, which is illegal and unconstitutional.”

    Justice Isa said that the matter of appointing judges to the superior courts requires utmost care and due deliberation as it is a delicate matter.

    Addressing the CJP, the judge said: “Please do not ridicule the JCP and your nominees by contravening the Constitution. Restricting the JCP to consider only the CJ’s pre-selected nominees is inappropriate. The JCP deserves to be treated with respect and consideration by its chairman.”

    Justice Isa stressed the need that “all appointments must be made in accordance with the Constitution, on the basis of a predetermined and non-discriminatory criteria. And above all without any impression of favouritism. The Constitution does not grant the CJP any powers additional to those of the other members of the JCP; the CJP is only designated as the Chairman of the JCP.”

    JCP meeting underway to discuss CJP Bandial’s five nominees for elevation to SC

    JCP meeting is underway to discuss CJP Bandial’s five nominees for their elevation to Supreme Court. Justice Isa is attending the meeting from Spain and Attorney General for Pakistan Ashtar is participating from the USA.

  • ‘Can talk to TTP, not with thieves’: Imran Khan rules out possibility of talks with the govt

    ‘Can talk to TTP, not with thieves’: Imran Khan rules out possibility of talks with the govt

    Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan addressed his supporters on Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Court verdict declared Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as the new chief minister of Punjab. He demanded immediate elections that should be free and fair. Khan ruled out any possibility of holding talks with the coalition government.

    ‘Can talk to the TTP and separatists but not with thieves’

    “I can talk to the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the separatists of Balochistan and Sindh, but not with thieves,” said Khan while ruling out the possibility of holding talks with the coalition government.

    “Will you speak to someone who robs your home?” 

    ‘A new Election Commission should be formed’

    Once again, Khan expressed his complete lack of trust in the incumbent Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikander Sultan Raja. Khan accused the ECP of supporting former CM Punjab Hamza Shehbaz.

    “The Election Commission was involved and tried to defeat us in the by-polls.”

    Terming his party’s win in the Punjab by-elections a “miracle”, he said that despite the government’s attempts, his party managed to win because of the people.

    “First of all, Hamza was illegally imposed on us, and even when he was ordered by the top court to refrain from using any state machinery and administration for personal gains, he used all of the aforementioned to rig the elections.”

    He demanded that a new Election Commission should be formed.

    “Such an Election Commission should be formed that no political party should have an issue with it.”

    ‘Yeh jo bikay hain hamaray log, yeh bhi aik shirk hai’

    Khan said that those who defected from his party committed shirk.

    “Jab yeh apni naukri ko bachanay ke liye ghalat kaam kartay hain, gunnah kartay hain, yeh bhi aik shirk hai. Aap apnay zameer ko bechtay hain, laalach de kar jo aap ko khareedta hai, yeh jo bikay hain hamaray log bhairr baqriyon ki tarah, yeh bhi aik shirq hai kyun ke Allah Al-Haqq hai.”

    (Those who do wrong things to save their jobs commit sin, it is shirk [idolatry]. Those who sell their self-respect and themselves, it is also counted as shirk because Allah is Al-Haqq).

    Azadi March and Haqeeqi Azadi

    Khan recalled that when his party announced its “Azadi March” on May 25, the coalition government attacked the women, children, and families who came out to support PTI.

    “They tried to silence us.”

    “Today, I want to thank the Almighty that despite all the impediments, people came out to show support rather than staying at home out of fear,” adding that he is glad that the people of Pakistan have started becoming a nation now.

    ‘Free and fair elections should be held immediately‘

    Khan stressed that there is only one way forward and that is through immediately holding free and fair elections.

  • Asif Ali Zardari tests positive for Covid-19

    Asif Ali Zardari tests positive for Covid-19

    Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari has tested positive for Covid-19.

    “He is fully vaccinated, boosted, isolating with mild symptoms and undergoing treatment,” tweeted Foreign Minister and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari.

    “We are praying for his swift recovery.”

    Bakhtawar Bhutto said that when her father landed in Dubai, his PCR test was positive.

    “His symptoms are mild – he is resting & isolating (Day 4) & will return when recovered,”

    “Thank u 4 your prayers & remind everyone to remain precautions,” she said.

    Asif Ali Zardari left for Dubai four days ago to celebrate his 67th birthday with his nine-month-old grandson, Mir Hakim Mahmood Choudhry.

    Zardari turned 67 on July 26.

  • ‘If I am stopped from entering Punjab, this will be the beginning of Governor Raj,’ threatens Rana Sanaullah

    ‘If I am stopped from entering Punjab, this will be the beginning of Governor Raj,’ threatens Rana Sanaullah

    Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah warned that if he is stopped from entering Punjab, it will be the beginning of Governor Raj.

    “The summary to impose Governor’s Rule is being drafted, and I — personally — have started work on it,” said Rana while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

    PTI leaders had suggested banning Rana Sanaullah’s entry into Punjab after winning Punjab by-elections.

    Rana Sanaullah also said that the political situation has worsened due to the decision of the Supreme Court.

    Sanaullah added that after the no-confidence motion against former prime minister Imran Khan was successful, the PML-N proposed moving towards early elections, indicating that the coalition partners did not agree.

    He also added that once the general elections are announced, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif will come back to the country and lead the election campaign.

    “But now, the federal government is a government of coalition partners, and this coalition has formed governments in Sindh and Balochistan. The federal government has its own significance,” he said.