News ki dunya

• Dar gives PM progress report on dialogue with PTI, Nawaz will try to win over Fazl • PTI announces intention to attend Tuesday’s session despite ‘sabotage attempts’ • Imran says will exit talks if National Assembly not disbanded before May 14 LAHORE: Unless something dramatic happens, it seems Tuesday will be a tough day for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and government negotiators, with the former seeking the dissolution of assemblies before May 14 and the latter appearing in no mood to entertain this demand. The bonhomie on display throughout this week between the two sides was jolted by the late-night raids on former Punjab chief minister Parvez Elahi’s home. But with both major parties refusing to budge from their respective stances, cha­nces that the dialogue will yield positive results are starting to look “very slim”. Speaking to party workers on Satur­day, Imran Khan said his party would be ready to discuss the election date only after the dissolution of the NA before...

ISLAMABAD: To address concerns over the exercise of digital census, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) after a detailed briefing to ministers, lawmakers and leaders of political parties on Friday decided in principle to extend digital census for another 15 days. PBS spokesperson Sarwar Gondal told Dawn the digital census, previously scheduled to conclude on April 30, would be extended till May 15. To work out an operation plan during the extended days, he said, the bureau would hold a meeting with chief secretaries on Saturday (today). “We will present the request of the political parties in a meeting of census monitoring committee,” he added. Need for the extension was felt after it emerged during the exercise that Karachi and Lahore populations showed little increase since the 2017 census. PBS asks political parties to identify areas not covered by enumeration teams The PBS at the briefing requested political parties to identify the areas that had not been covered by...

ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday appeared to be in a defensive mode, as the CJP implored all parties to sit together to break the political impasse, while also clarifying that the court on April 20 had not directed political parties to negotiate rather it was a mere suggestion. At the last hearing on April 20, the CJP through an order had asked political parties to sit together and chalk out a strategy for deciding the date for simultaneous polls and update the apex court on the progress in negotiations by April 27. During the hearing on Thursday, CJP Bandial implored political parties to sit together to break the political impasse in the wake of a delay in elections. “Constitution violation has already taken place (due to delay in elections) but we want to abide by the Constitution so that nobody disregards it,” observed the CJP while heading the bench inclulding Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Mu...

MUZAFFARABAD: Azad Kashmir Election Commission on Wednesday fixed June 8 as the date for a by-election in the constituency of former prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas. According to a notification, candidates could submit their nominations for in LA-15, Bagh-II seat by 4pm on May 10. After scrutiny, the list of valid candidates would be published while appeals against rejection of nominations could be filed before the election tribunal by 2pm on May 15. Candidates could withdraw their nominations before 2pm on May 18, and the final list of candidates with election symbols would be published on May 19. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the election commission asked the intending candidates to submit details of their movable and immovable assets on the prescribed form before filing nominations. Mr Ilyas was disqualified by the AJK high court on April 11 under contempt of court charges, following which he was unseated by the commission. Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2023 http://...

WASHINGTON: Pak­istan’s former ambassador to the United States Husain Haqqani has sent a legal notice to PTI Chairman Imran Khan for accusing him of playing a role in his ouster in April last year. In the notice, Mr Haqqani’s US attorney Steven Barentzen warned the former prime minister that a defamation case will be initiated against him if he continued to make false allegations against his client. In recent statements, the PTI chief has accused several people of orchestrating his ouster through a vote of no confidence last April. In one of the statements, Mr Khan claimed that former army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and military intelligence hired Mr Haqqani to lobby against him in the United States. Mr Haqqani has already rejected these allegations as false and baseless. In the legal notice, Mr Barentzen asked Mr Khan to “immediately cease and desist from making false and defamatory state­ments” about Mr Haqqani. The notice specifically mentioned the “false accusation” that Mr Ha...

LAHORE: Days before a Supreme Court hearing on the date for elections across the country, PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Monday asked the ruling coalition to conduct elections, warning that in case of the government’s failure to call snap polls, the PTI alongside its supporters would take to the streets to protect the Constitution. Speaking to party workers through video link from his Zaman Park residence, Mr Khan said the rulers were afraid of elections, knowing well that “they would be defeated and Imran Khan might revert the NRO and recover Rs1,100 billion looted money stashed abroad”. “If this government violated the Constitution and the Supreme Court decision, the party workers and supporters as well as each Pakistani should get ready to come out on the roads for peaceful protests across the country,” Mr Khan said in his message to the nation. He asserted that a country become a ‘Banana Republic’ if its Constitution was violated. “It is mandatory for every Pakistani to come ou...

PPP leader Nisar Khuhro announced on Sunday that the party will stage a protest across Sindh on April 25 (Tuesday) against piecemeal elections in the country, saying that the province will not let Pakistan be divided into two parts. “Sindh will only accept one-day polls, not piecemeal elections,” he said. The announcement comes as the country sees an impasse regarding elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab — where assemblies were dissolved earlier this year. While the PTI has been adamant about holding polls in the provincial legislatures, the government maintains its stance on holding polls across the country on the same day. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court (SC) — while hearing a PTI petition — had directed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold general elections to the Punjab Assembly on May 14. However, the government had rejected the apex court’s orders. After repeated back and forth last week, the SC on Thursday afforded a temporary respite to the coun...

TAXILA: Three vehicles worth millions of rupees of health department were sold in scrap by officials of the health department without going through standard operating procedure. The scam unearthed in Pindigheb town of Attock district where three Potohar jeeps were sold in scrap without going through auction. The official sources said these three Suzuki Potohar Jeeps were handed over to health department Pindigheb under National Health Programme for official use. Later, the vehicles were thrown in the residential compound of the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital where they have been lying in the open since 2009. The official sources said that these vehicles required little maintenance and could have been put in provincial transport pool for further allocation so that the vehicles could be saved from being scrapped. Sources claimed that the officials had kept the district government officials and provincial health authorities in the dark about these vehicles while seeking new o...

LARKANA: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and a former federal minister Ali Amin Gandapur was remanded in judicial custody till April 25 when he was produced in the court of Civil Judge Sajjad Ali Abbasi of Shikarpur district on Friday. Mr Gandapur was brought to Sukkur on Thursday night from Lahore by police to produce him in the court in a case (No.78/2023) registered against him under Sections 131, 153, 504 and 505 of the Pakistan Penal Code. The FIR was registered on the complaint of a citizen, Amanullah Brohi. Stringent security arrangement were made when Mr Gandapur was escorted by police to the court. A large number of PTI workers were present outside and raising slogans against alleged excesses against their leader. They showered rose petals on the vehicle carrying him. PTI Senator Saifullah Abro and other local leaders were also present. The police had sought a five-day physical remand of Mr Gandapur but the judge remanded him in judicial custody. Lawyer Abd...

ISLAMABAD:Work on the two-kilometre portion of Expressway from Korang Bridge to PWD Interchange is likely to miss the deadline of June this year and it could be extended for three months. Last year, the CDA had awarded the contract to Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) for widening of the road including construction of a Railway bridge worth over Rs2 billion. CDA officials said that work was being executed as per scheduled and it will be completed within the deadline of June this year. However, they said that the Railway bridge (near PWD interchange) is a huge structure and it could take some extra time. “The project could be extended for two to three months,” said an engineer of CDA. He, however, said that extra efforts were being made to complete the work within this deadline. CDA official says extension of deadline not uncommon in projects with large amount of work “In such a huge amount of work, extension of a few months in contract is not a big deal. Our focus is ...

Applying henna right before Eid has been a tradition in Pakistan since forever and at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) for the past four years. Keeping this tradition alive, the KPC organised its annual Mehndi Mela on Thursday where its members and their families were invited to get henna applied on their hands ahead of Eidul Fitr. And henna artists at this event, too, were the daughters of journalists, media workers and KPC members. National hockey player Fatima Zehra was the chief guest on the Thursday occasion, who distributed Eidi among young henna artists. Several female KPC members and wives and daughters of male KPC members attended the event to get their hands adorned with henna designs and patterns without being charged for the service. KPC governing body member Kashmala Najeeb applying henna designs on Thursday. — Photo by author The KPC has been holding this event ahead of Eidul Fitr since 2019. In its first year, the press club had approached several beauty p...

• FO confirms minister will attend SCO summit in Goa next month • No word on whether he will meet Indian premier or his counterpart ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will be the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in nearly 12 years, as the Foreign Office confirmed on Thursday that he would attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Goa next month. This is also the first time since 2016 that the most senior Foreign Office representative would visit India. Mr Bhutto-Zardari will be leading the Pakistan delegation to the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), which will take place in the Indian city of Goa on May 4 and 5, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahrah Baloch announced at a weekly media briefing. She said the foreign minister would be attending the meeting at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, who currently heads the foreign ministers’ council of SCO, which is a regional political and...

LAHORE: PTI Chair­man Imran Khan on Wednesday claimed that “total fascism” prevailed in Pakistan as he referred to the crackdown on his party supporters and leaders by the coalition government. Mr Khan tweeted that Pakistan had descended into becoming a ‘banana republic’, where there was no rule of law and only the law of jungle triumphed. It was clear that this reign of terror was not controlled by the PDM puppets but by another force that sees itself totally above the law, the former premier claimed. “Our people are abducted and afterwards sham FIRs are registered. As bail in one FIR is granted, another FIR pops up,” he wondered and claimed that there were over 145 FIRs again­­st him. “It is a circus of FIRs,” he added. Mr Khan stated that the caretaker of his Banigala residence, the cook employed at his Zaman Park residence, social media team member Azhar Mash­wani, Waqas and his security in charge Ghum­man were abducted and tortured in a bid to “update their s...

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was approached on Tuesday with a plea to declare President Dr Arif Alvi unfit to hold the high office of president within the meaning of Article 41 of the Constitution. The petition filed by a private citizen, Chaudhry Mohammad Imtiaz, highlighted that the prevalent instability in the country was the main source of inconvenience to the nation. This insecurity is the result of the alleged conflict between the government and the president on the instance of PTI Chairman Imran Khan, the petition argued, adding that the latter refused to provide assent to a number of bills presented to him after being approved by both houses of parliament such as Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023, Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022, Islamabad Capital Territory Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2022, The National Account­ability (Second Amend­ment) Bill 2021 etc. The events clearly showed that Dr Alvi was allegedly unfit to hold the president’s position becau...

ISLAMABAD: The murderer of Noor Mukadam has raised 23 objections on his conviction. Zahir Jaffer challenged the Islamabad High Court (IHC)’s decision of upholding his conviction by the trial court in the murder case. He filed an appeal through his lawyer Barrister Salman Safdar in the Supreme Court on April 12, which is yet to be taken up by the apex court’s bench. In the appeal, he termed the verdict of the IHC division bench erroneous for 23 reasons. The IHC division bench headed by its Chief Justice Aamer Farooq had confirmed the death penalty of Jaffer last month. It questioned the conviction claiming that the case was dealt with “differently” than the routine cases. It stated that the evidence against him was “weak and incomplete”, the prosecution “failed to bring on record solid, concrete evidence”, charge was not proved “beyond reasonable doubt”, the First Information Report (FIR) was registered with a delay, it contains “hearsay evidence”, a key witness was introduc...

Religious Affairs Minister Mufti Abdul Shakoor, who had died last night in a road accident in Islamabad, was laid to rest on Sunday in Tajbi Khel area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district. The federal minister and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) leader had died in a road accident in the capital’s Red Zone area on Saturday evening. According to the police, the minister, 55, was heading towards Secretariat Chowk on Constitution Avenue when his car was hit by a Hilux vehicle with five passengers on board. The minister was immediately shifted to the Polyclinic Hospital in a critical condition, but he couldn’t be resuscitated. At the time, police said all the five occupants of the other vehicle had been arrested and shifted to a nearby police station for investigation. Mufti Shakoor’s funeral prayers in Lakki Marwat were attended by many JUI-F workers, politicians and locals of the area. MNA Mohsin Dawar and JUI leader Maulana Muhammad Anwar were also present. ...

QUETTA: Train services from Quetta to other parts of the country were restored on Saturday after a major bridge swept away by floods in the Bolan district eight months ago was repaired. The first train left for Peshawar from Quetta, carrying over 300 passengers. Train services to Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad will soon be restored. Besides, a special train will also depart from Quetta on Eidul Fitr. Balochistan Governor Malik Abdul Wali Khan Kakar formally marked the restoration in a ceremony held at the Quetta Railway Station. The rail link was disconnected in August after the century-old bridge — located between Mach and Kolpur at Hirak in the mountainous Bolan valley — was damaged due to heavy rains and floods. Pakistan Railways partially restored train services between Mach and Rawalpindi in November, but passengers had to travel to Mach by road to board the trains . The rebuilding of the railway bridge was started in September jointly by Pakistan Railways and the N...

LAHORE: Making an impassioned appeal to all segments of society to lend support to the top court, PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Friday said that democracy in Pakistan is now hanging by a thread called Supreme Court. “All those, who want democracy in the country, should stand with the Supreme Court and the Constitution of Pakistan,” he emphasised. Addressing the nation from his Zaman Park residence, the PTI chairman said that the ruling mafia had weakened all institutions creating hatred among them [institutions] and people of Pakistan. “If this trend continues, the nation must get ready to take to the streets for peaceful protests after Eid. I will lead you from the front,” Mr Khan announced while addressing his supporters. PTI chief to lead street protests after Eid if ‘ruling mafia’ continues to ‘weaken state institutions’ Noting that with economy already ruined and democracy and people of Pakistan facing a debacle, he asked the powers that be to take remedial measures immed...

LAHORE: Punjab’s excise and taxation department has served a notice on the Lahore residence of PTI chief Imran Khan, seeking information about the property size and other details to calculate a luxury tax. The notice issued on Thursday said the provincial government imposed a luxury tax from July 2014 on houses measuring at least two kanals (around 1,200 square yards) under Section 8 of the Punjab Finance Act 2014. “You are required to furnish the information in the enclosed form (LT-I see Rule 3(1)) within seven days from the receipt of this letter,” it said.” The short letter was addressed to Mr Khan’s deceased mother, Shaukat Khanum. According to an official in the department, the property in question — Mr Khan’s Zaman Park residence — is still listed in her name. He said the notice was issued to collect information about the current status of the residence ahead of assessing and imposing a luxury house tax. Notice addressed to Shaukat Khanum as property still in her n...

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday warned that the failure of the federal government to comply with the April 4 direction regarding the release of Rs21 billion to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, prime facie amounts to disobedience. “The consequences that can flow from such prima facie defiance of the court are well settled and known,” said an order issued by the Supreme Court registrar in which the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan, the finance secretary, and the ECP representatives were asked to appear in chambers on Friday (April 14) at 11:00 am. The order was issued after the matter was placed before the judges — who decided the case on April 4 — in chambers. On Tuesday, ECP furnished documents and reports in pursuance of the April 4 order. The court order said that every person who embarks upon, encourages or instigates disobedience or defiance...

ISLAMABAD: Using his “residuary powers” given in the rules, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani on Wednesday constituted an eight-member parliamentary committee to examine the amendments proposed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to poll laws. The move from the Senate chairman came two days after receiving a letter from Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja suggesting that the parliament should do legislation to do away with the president’s role in determining date for general elections. The CEC also sent a similar letter to National Assem­bly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf. Letters on similar lines, signed by ECP Secretary Omar Hamid Khan, were also sent to the principal secretary to the prime minister and secretary for parliamentary affairs. Through these letters, the ECP proposed amendments to Sections 57(1) and 58 of the Elections Act 2017, reportedly stating that the commission wants its power back to announce and alter election schedule at any stage withou...

LAHORE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) on Tuesday summoned former Sindh governor Imran Ismail and former MNA Amir Mahmood Kayani of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on April 13 in a housing society scam. According to the ACE, Mr Ismail and Mr Kayani jointly launched an “illegal” housing society in Rawalpindi where development was carried out allegedly without proper planning. The ACE accused them of defrauding people by selling more files than the existing plots. It said the suspects did not have an approved map of the housing society. “Even now the publicity campaign of the unapproved housing scheme was in full swing,” it alleged. Both have been summoned at ACE Lahore office on April 13 to record their statements. Meanwhile, the ACE also launched an investigation against another former PTI MNA Chaudhry Tahir Iqbal in a probe into the grant of Vehari local government in 2021-22 for laying sewerage in various streets of Karampura. It said Mr Iqbal allegedly...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Monday filed a petition asking the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to quash the mutiny case regis-tered against him at Ramna police station. Separately, the former prime minister demanded an inquiry into the death of a police officer on whose complaint a case was registered for assassination attempt on his life. IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq will conduct hearing on Tuesday (today) on the administrative objections raised by the regis-trar office on Mr Khan’s plea seeking to quash the FIR registered against him for allegedly inciting mutiny. The petition, filed by the PTI chief’s legal team, contended that the incumbent government had lodged the case against Mr Khan for political reasons and to tarnish his reputation. According to the petition, the government has failed to find an iota of corruption against Mr Khan and therefore, it is now dragging him into frivolous cases to blackmail him. The petition urged the court t...

RAWALPINDI: Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Liaquat Ali Chattha as an administrator of Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation has notified The Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation, Regulation of Burial Places/Graveyard by-laws, 2023 for graveyards of Rawalpindi. As many as 209 graveyards on 6,365 kanals of land were identified in the garrison city alone while the number of graveyards in the jurisdiction of the cantonment is not in the record of Rawalpindi and Chaklala Cantonment Boards. Private housing societies have to transfer the land of graveyards in the name of the state but not a single housing society has done the job yet. According to the notification issued by the commissioner Rawalpindi, the instant enforcement of these by-laws shall extend to all municipal/metro corporations, excluding cantonment, area of Auqaf department and Punjab Shaher-i-Khamoshan Authority. Committee to be formed to make policies for maintenance, management As soon as these by-laws come into fo...

LAHORE: The Sikh pilgrims from India reached Lahore on Sunday to attend celebrations of the 10-day Baisakhi festival at various Gurdwaras in Punjab. As many as 2,470 pilgrims crossed the Wagah-Attari border on foot to enter Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi mainly at Gurdwara Panja Sahib (Hasanabdal), Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib, Gurdwara Dera Sahib (Lahore) and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib (Kartarpur), Narowal. Greeted by the officers of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) and other departments concerned at Wagah border, the pilgrims were also offered langar there. Talking to the media, the pilgrims expressed happiness, saying they were feeling as if Pakistan was their own land where they could have the darshan of their gurus. They expressed gratitude to the government of Pakistan for making elaborate arrangements for them on the occasion of Baisakhi. The pilgrims to visit gurdwaras across Punjab during next 10 days On this occasion, the ETPB officers said Pakistan always w...

LAHORE: As rates of white sugar have soared up apparently because of smuggling of the sweetener with the advent of Ramazan, the Punjab government has decided to devise a mechanism with the help of other provinces and local sugar mills to check the menace. Punjab Food Secretary and Cane Commissioner Muhammad Zaman Wattoo says for hauling of sugar from Punjab to other provinces a permit issued by the district administration concerned will be mandatory. He says check-posts on borders with other provinces are being made effective. A spokesperson for the Customs says that they have foiled bids to smuggle out of the country at least 848 tonnes of sugar during the last two weeks. Mr Wattoo says a crackdown has been launched against hoarders in the province. He claims that so far 46,000 bags of sweetener have been recovered from different hoarders in Punjab and raids are being conducted on many more storages on receiving secret information. He says that cases are being regist...

ISLAMABAD: The chasm in the Supreme Court continued to grow on Saturday, as a judicial note penned by senior puisne judge Qazi Faez Isa, said that a six-member bench that overruled his order regarding a freeze on suo motu proceedings did not “constitute a constitutional court nor possessed with any jurisdiction”. On April 4, the six-judge bench affirmed the registrar’s circular dated March 31 to disregard Justice Isa’s direction for putting a halt on cases under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. The order of the larger bench followed a circular by the SC registrar and validated the contents of the circular. In light of the circular issued by the registrar on March 31, Justice Isa had asked the Cabinet Division to recall his services. Subsequently, the services of the registrar were recalled. In addition to the six-judge bench order, a three-member bench headed by the chief justice, while hearing a case regarding the polls delay under Article 184(3), observed the hearing was wholl...

QUETTA: The government has decided to reopen Taftan Bazarcha Business Gateway on a trial basis from Saturday (today), almost nine years after it was closed in 2014 over security reasons. According to officials, the high-ups of Pakistan Customs, National Logistic Cell (NLC) and business leaders of Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (QCCI), have reached Taftan to make arrangements for the reopening of the gateway. The QCCI has long been demanding reopening of the Bazarcha Gateway. They claimed that the closure affected small businesses and deprived the locals of jobs. On Friday, QCCI President Haji Abdullah Achakzai, Senior Vice President Haji Agha Gul Khilji and Vice President Syed Abdul Ahad Agha inaugurated the restoration of trade activities on a trial basis. Mr Agha said that reopening of the Bazarcha Gateway will prove a breath of fresh air for local businesses. He expressed hope that very soon the gate­way will be opened for regular trade, providing boost t...

ISLAMABAD: Months after unprecedented floods, Pakistan is set to face about 37 per cent water shortage during the ongoing Kharif cropping season, the water regulator has confirmed. This could be potentia­lly damaging for key cash crops like cotton, whose output has already slum­ped to multi-decade lows. As a result, a meeting of the advisory committee of the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) on Thursday decided with a consensus to continue with a three-tier formula for distributing water shares among the provinces, as currently in practice. The meeting — presided over by Asjad Imtiaz Ali, Irsa’s chairman and federal member — concluded that Punjab and Sindh would face a 27pc water shortage in the early Kharif and 10pc in the late Kharif season. The water regulator, however, could not bridge differences between the two large provinces over the conveyance losses. As a result, the meeting set up a committee led by Irsa’s member for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa “to determine actual syst...

KARACHI: Minister of State for Petroleum Mus­adik Malik on Wednesday disclosed that natural gas cannot be supplied round the clock due to its depleting reserves in most parts of the country. During a meeting with members of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and later in a media talk, he said efforts were being made to ensure that gas supply remains unin­te­rrup­ted during sehri and iftar. While rejecting reports that gas is being diverted to Punjab from Sindh despite its shortage in the south-eastern province, Mr Malik said he had been tasked to resolve the problem both in the domestic and industrial sectors. He claimed that gas shortage had emerged due to its supply to the domestic sector of Balochistan. “Our gas resources are depleting by 10 per cent every year. We have only 1,600mmcfd of gas left for the entire country while the demand is on the rise,” he added. The government, he said, would ensure that poor households are provided gas on priority. However...