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.

  • Race for Deputy Chairman Senate

    Prime Minister Imran Khan has nominated Mirza Mohammad Afridi as the PTI government’s candidate for the post of Deputy Chairman Senate, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz has announced.

    “Prime Minister Imran Khan has nominated Senator Mirza Mohammad Afridi for Deputy Chairman Slot giving representation to ex-FATA PTI member,” wrote the Minister.

    Earlier, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak had offered the position of deputy chairman Senate to JUI-F’s Abdul Ghafoor Haideri. JUI-F had subsequently rejected the government’s offer.

    A day before the elections of Chairman Senate, PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz has alleged that their senators are being called and asked not to vote for PDM candidate.

    “Our senators are being called and asked not to vote for PDM candidate. Some of them have recorded the evidence,” wrote Maryam on social media.

    Meanwhile, the government has announced the candidature of Sadiq Sanjrani as its nominee for Senate chairman while the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) has nominated Yousuf Raza Gilani as its joint candidate for the position.

  • After pigeons, India arrests Pakistani balloon

    Indian police in occupied Kashmir have taken into custody a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) plane-shaped balloon. According to Indian news agency ANI, the balloon landed in Sotra Chak village of Hiranagar on March 9.

    While the detention of balloon with the logo of Pakistan’s national carrier seems silly, the incident was not the first of its kind. Indian security personnel have taken several pigeons and balloons into custody for their alleged links with Pakistan. A Pakistani villager had last year appealed to India to release his pigeon which was being held for spying after it crossed the border between the nuclear rivals.

    Meanwhile, on Twitter:

  • Government offers Senate deputy chairmanship to JUI-F

    The PTI government has offered the post of Senate deputy chairman to Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F). Defence Minister Pervez Khattak says he offered the position of deputy chairman Senate to JUI-F’s Abdul Ghafoor Haideri. 

    JUI-F, led by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, is part of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM). Reports indicate that PDM will offer deputy chairman slot to JUI-F and Leader of Opposition in Senate to the PML-N. However, these decisions have not been officially announced. PDM has officially nominated Yousaf Raza Gilani as its joint candidate for Senate chairman. Haideri said that he cannot predict who will become Senate Chairman on March 12. He also said that he has not been informed about PDM’s decision about candidates for the slot of deputy chairman.

    Maulana Ghafoor Haideri told the media that he condemns the government ministers’ discussion about this issue. “We don’t accept this government so there is absolutely no standing of any offer from this government,” Haideri added.

  • Moonis Elahi denies PPP asking for Q’s support in Senate

    Moonis Elahi denies PPP asking for Q’s support in Senate

    Chairman Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari went to see Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Sunday.

    Reports suggested that apart from inquiring after his health, Bhutto-Zardari asked the Chaudhrys for their support in the upcoming elections for chairman Senate.

    However, PML-Q’s Moonis Elahi has denied these reports in a tweet.

    Geo News anchorperson Shahzad Iqbal tweeted to Moonis Elahi that this news was confirmed by Tariq Bashir Cheema in his show Naya Pakistan and a press release was also issued by the PML-Q saying that Chaudhry Shujaat said we have committed our allies for senate chairman vote.

    Speaking exclusively to The Current, Moonis Elahi said: “Yes, we are committed to our allies, but Bilawal did not ask for our vote nor did he come there seeking it. If he was seeking it, I am sure he would have brought the candidate along.”

  • ECP rejects PM’s reservations on Senate elections

    ECP rejects PM’s reservations on Senate elections

    The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has issued a statement rejecting the “discussion and unhappiness” over the way Senate polls were conducted.

    “It is a shocking matter that under the same staff in the same [election] under the same roof on the same day, [what they won] is acceptable and [what they lost] is unacceptable. Is this not [an] open contradiction?” questioned the commission.

    A day earlier, Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan had criticised the election watchdog for allowing “foul play” in the elections for the upper house of the parliament.

    “The ECP rejects this,” Friday’s statement added. “This is democracy and free elections and the beauty of free elections which the entire nation saw and which is mandated by the Constitution.”

    Every political party and politician should have the courage to accept its defeat, it said.

    The electoral body said that if someone disagreed with the ECP’s results, they should come forward with evidence.

    “We have neither come under pressure from anybody and neither will we [do so in the future].”

    The ECP’s statement came after an urgent meeting was convened following the premier’s accusations.

  • Modi tragically driving India towards authoritarianism: Washington-based watchdog

    Modi tragically driving India towards authoritarianism: Washington-based watchdog

    Freedom House, a Washington-based human rights watchdog has downgraded India from a free to partially free democratic state.

    “Rather than serving as a champion of democratic practice and a counterweight to authoritarian influence from countries such as China, Modi and his party are tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism,” the democracy research institute stated in its annual assessment.

    Under the Modi government, India is consistently backsliding from a free democracy to an authoritarianism state.

    Political, social and civil rights and liberties have deteriorated in India since Modi became Prime Minister (PM) in 2014 and they further degenerated after the 2019 election, said the report.

    Freedom House is a US-funded Non-governmental organisation (NGO) and it is a champion of democracy for eight years.

    They have assigned an overall score of 67 to India in their annual freedom in the world report.

    There are several factors for the decline in the ranking which including legislation and policies that undermine the political rights of Muslims, increased government pressure on human rights organizations, and rising intimidation of academics and journalists in the country.

    “I’m not surprised at all. Since Modi’s election, India has become a more regulated society. One way of judging it is how dissenters and journalists are being treated. In the last couple of years India has become a very dangerous place for journalists, particularly those who criticize Modi or his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),” said Dr Talat Wizarat, a noted scholar of International Relations.

    According to the Washington-based research institute, India has witnessed a 9-point decline since 2005. This year’s report also raises several questions about the Indian judiciary’s role. Citing the recent acquittal of BJP leaders who were credibly accused of orchestrating the demolition of the Babri Mosque in 1992, the report said judicial independence had also come under strain since Modi’s re-election.

  • Senate Election: After Gillani’s video, Sindh minister’s alleged audio suggests horse-trading

    Senate Election: After Gillani’s video, Sindh minister’s alleged audio suggests horse-trading

    As lawmakers elect colleagues to the upper house of the Parliament amid controversies, Sindh Information Minister Nasir Hussain Shah has purportedly been heard in a leaked audio making assurances to ruling party lawmakers.

    The audio clip being reported as a conversation between Punjab MPA Ali Haider Gillani and Shah emerged shortly after a video of former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gillani’s son instructing a lawmaker on how his vote can be wasted in the Senate election went viral on social media.

    In the audio, two people can be heard talking about offers of millions of rupees to PTI lawmakers ahead of the Senate polls.

    Ali can allegedly be heard saying that he spoke to Shah, who asked him to bring down the “offer”. An assurance is given in the audio that development work will be done in constituencies as per the wishes of PTI lawmakers.

    “We could carry out uplift projects worth around Rs100 million,” said a voice being attributed to Ali.

    The son of the Senate candidate allegedly said it would be difficult to carry money if payments are made in cash as it would attract attention.

    The same voice further said that ‘friends’ (PTI lawmakers) were standing with him and wanted to talk to the provincial information minister.

    “Tell four of them that they would be taken care of,” another man responded. The voice is said to be of Shah.

    The provincial information minister has denied that the voice is his.

  • ‘ECP should ask IT Ministry, not PTA for phone data,’ says Fawad Chaudhry

    ‘ECP should ask IT Ministry, not PTA for phone data,’ says Fawad Chaudhry

    The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has approached the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to share the call record data of the 20 presiding officers who went ‘missing’ during the Daska by-polls in NA-75, The News has reported.

    Last week, the ECP had announced that new elections in the entire constituency will be held in NA-75 (Daska) after its returning officer alleged irregularities during the by-polls in a report submitted to the commission. Government sources told The News that the PTA has asked the government whether to share the data with the ECP or not.

    Speaking to The Current, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said that the ECP has all the right to secure phone data though it “should ask the IT Ministry and not PTA under rules of business”.

    According to the story published in The News, the government may be uneasy about the phone data as it could reveal who had planned and supervised the Daska by-poll rigging. The phone records “will not only establish the whereabouts of these 20 presiding officers during the time when they were missing but will also uncover those they were in contact with”.

    On February 22, Prime Minister Imran Khan had tweeted that as he had always struggled for fair and free elections, he would ask the PTI candidate in NA-75 to ask for re-polling in the 20 polling stations that had become controversial. But the ECP later called for new elections in the entire constituency.

    The PTI has now decided to challenge the ECP’s decision for re-polls.

  • VIDEO: PTI members wrestle each other in Sindh Assembly

    VIDEO: PTI members wrestle each other in Sindh Assembly

    Just a day before the Senate Elections, lawmakers from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) decided to wrestle each other in the Sindh Assembly creating havoc.

    As per details, PTI’s disgruntled MPAs – Aslam Abro, Shehryar Shar and Karim Bakhsh Gabol – were beaten up by their own party members during a session of the Sindh Assembly.

    The three MPAs had earlier said that they will not vote for PTI candidates in the Senate polls. The fighting match that ensued can be seen in the tweets shared by journalists Murtaza Ali Shah and Gharidah Farooqi.

    https://twitter.com/MurtazaViews/status/1366702520467415042

    Later, a video of PPP MPA Sharmila Faruqi running out of the assembly emerged and the lawmaker clarified that she was running to get security.

    When asked about this incident by journalists outside the Sindh Assembly, PTI’s Haleem Adil Sheikh started shouting at them.

    He said that he is very sad that today, some senior journalists are posing as PPP workers and also called them lifafa sahaafi (journalists who take money). He also raised slogans against journalists.

    Responding to Sheikh’s comments, senior journalist Asma Shirazi asked why is it that whenever tough questions are asked, PTI members resort to attacks on journalists.

  • Khashoggi: Pakistan in solidarity with KSA while world demands holding MBS accountable

    Khashoggi: Pakistan in solidarity with KSA while world demands holding MBS accountable

    While rest of the world demands that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman be held accountable for journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, Pakistan has said it stands in solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

    “We have noted that the Saudi government termed Jamal Khashoggi’s murder as an ‘abhorrent crime’ and a ‘flagrant violation of the Kingdom’s laws and values’,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement after public release of the US Administration’s declassified intelligence report, containing its “assessment” on the killing of Khashoggi.

    The Saudi government has further underlined that it took all possible measures within its legal system to ensure that the individuals responsible were properly investigated, convicted and sentenced and that justice was served, the Pakistani statement maintained.

    “Pakistan recognises Saudi efforts in this regard and expresses solidarity with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” said the press release.

    It added that Pakistan underscores adherence to the rule of law, respect for national sovereignty, and protection and promotion of human rights by all states, in accordance with their respective constitutional frameworks and international obligations.