Tag: accountabilty

  • Nawaz Sharif’s close aide Ishaq Dar to take charge of finance ministry on Tuesday

    Nawaz Sharif’s close aide Ishaq Dar to take charge of finance ministry on Tuesday

    Former Finance Minister and Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) leader Ishaq Dar is ready to take charge of the finance ministry on September 27 (Tuesday), reports Geo News.

    Currently, Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif is in London, where he held a meeting with Nawaz Sharif and Nawaz’s close aide Dar, where the decision took place.

    The incumbent Finance Minister Miftah Ismail will continue to work with the government after leaving his post as Finance Minister.

    It is pertinent to mention that Ismail is an unelected member and thus cannot continue in office for more than six months. He took charge of the ministry in April.

    Earlier, Dar, himself said that he would take oath as a Senator immediately after his return

    Dar is set to come back to Pakistan next week. The PML-N leader has been living in London since 2017 to receive medical treatment. He served as a federal minister of finance four times between 1998 and 2017.

    The former finance minister was elected as a PML-N senator on a technocrat seat in the Senate election on March 3, 2018. He is considered to be quite close to PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

    Rana Sanaullah hints at Ishaq Dar becoming finance minister again

    Prior to this, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah hinted a Dar becoming finance minister once again, saying that the senator “can assume the finance ministry”.

    Talking about the possibility on Geo News‘ programme Naya Pakistan, Rana said, “There is no problem for him to become a finance minister. However, the PML-N has not made any decision so far in this regard.”

    According to Sanaullah, the government will definitely consult Ishaq on economic matters as he is experienced and a senior leader.

    When asked about Miftah Ismail, the minister said that he doesn’t have a problem. “He is ready to work with the party with or without ministry”, he stressed

    Is Ishaq Dar coming back to Pakistan?

    An accountability court on Friday, September 23, suspended the arrest warrant against Dar and dismissed orders for arrest upon his arrival in Pakistan.

    Accountability court judge Mohammad Bashir issued the orders, stating that once Dar returns to Pakistan, the court will decide whether it should revoke his arrest orders permanently or not.

    “We will consider permanently suspending Dar’s arrest warrants once he appears before the court in person,” the judge added.

    In 2017, an accountability court, while hearing a corruption reference against Dar, declared him a proclaimed offender due to his continued absence from the proceedings.

    However, Dar had not taken oath as a senator since 2017. The accountability court had declared Dar an absconder in a corruption reference.

  • Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for George Floyd murder

    Derek Chauvin sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for George Floyd murder

    A judge sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to 22 years and six months in prison on Friday for the murder of George Floyd during an arrest in May 2020. Floyd’s murder galvanised a national protest movement against racism, reports Reuters.

    A jury found Chauvin guilty on April 20 of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in the death of Floyd. The verdict was widely seen as a landmark rebuke of the disproportionate use of police force against Black Americans.

    Chauvin’s sentence was one of the longest ones to be given to a former police officer for using unlawful deadly force in the United States, said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office prosecuted the case. Successful prosecutions of police officers in such cases have been rare.

    “Today’s sentencing is not justice but it is another moment of real accountability on the road to justice,” Ellison said outside the courtroom, calling on law enforcement leaders around the US to see it as a moment for reform.

    Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill said it was important to recognise the pain of the Floyd family.

    “I’m not basing my sentence on public opinion,” Cahill said. “I’m not basing it on the attempt to send any messages. The job of a trial court judge is to apply the law to specific facts and to deal with individual cases.”

    In a 22-page sentencing memorandum, Cahill gave weight to prosecution arguments that Chauvin acted with cruelty and abused his position of authority, aggravating factors that allowed him to give a harsher sentence than would be indicated by state sentencing guidelines for first-time offenders.

    Prosecutors had asked for a 30-year prison sentence, double the upper limit indicated in sentencing guidelines.

    Video of Chauvin kneeling on the neck of the handcuffed Floyd for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, caused outrage around the world and led to one of the largest protest movements seen in the US in decades.