January 2023 - Page 18 of 20

Pakistan, UAE reaffirm resolve to further bolster bilateral ties

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Tuesday reaffirmed their resolve to further expand and diversify bilateral relations between Islamabad and Abu Dhabi.

The development came during a telephonic conversation between the two leaders today.

According to a statement issued by the PM Office, the premier thanked the UAE president for the financial and material support to Pakistan after the recent devastation caused by climate-induced floods in the country.

PM Shehbaz briefed him on the upcoming ‘International Conference on Resilient Pakistan’, scheduled to be held in Geneva on January 9 and solicited his support for high-level participation from the UAE.

President Sheikh Mohamed expressed UAE’s whole-hearted support for the initiatives to strengthen Pakistan’s climate resilience which is the main agenda of the conference.

The prime minister also extended an invitation to the UAE president for a visit to Pakistan.

“Pakistan and the UAE enjoy close fraternal ties for five decades that are rooted firmly in common belief and shared values and culture. The UAE is Pakistan’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and a major source of investments,” read the statement.

Pakistan, UAE agree to enter into GtG deal

In a major development, Pakistan and the UAE decided to enter into a GtG long-term agreement for the import of petrol, jet fuel and crude oil to ensure sustainable availability of petroleum products in the country.

Pakistan would import 1.5 million tons of Motor Spirit (Mogas) i.e. 30 cargoes in one year under a 5-year deal, which means that PSO would import two and a half to three cargoes a month.

To this effect, on behalf of Pakistan, the public state-owned company, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and on behalf of the UAE, ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) will sign a business pact on a GtG basis, and the import of petrol from the UAE’s ADNOC is most likely to begin from January 2023 under the GtG deal.

“This has been decided in recent talks held in Abu Dhabi wherein Pakistan’s delegation was headed by Musadik Masood Malik, Minister of State, comprising the secretary of petroleum, secretary of the Board of Investment, MD PSO, MD PARCO and other officials of the Petroleum Division,” a senior official who was also a part of the talks told The News.

US says Pakistan ‘has right to defend itself from terrorism’

The statement from US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price comes two days after the NSC — the highest civil-military forum for decisions on matters pertaining to national security — expressed firm resolve to crush terrorist groups operating against Pakistan.

In the NSC meeting that spanned for two days from Dec 31 to Jan 1, the forum had categorically asked Afghanistan’s rulers — without directly naming them — to deny safe haven to Pakistani terrorist groups on its soil and end their patronage, while reiterating its intent to crush terrorist groups operating inside the country with full force.

The uncharacteristically strong-worded statement issued at the end of the NSC meeting said: “Pakistan’s security is uncompromisable and the full writ of the state will be maintained on every inch of Pakistan’s territory.”

At a press briefing on Tuesday, the US State Department spokesperson said the US was aware of the NSC’s recent statement.

“The Pakistani people have suffered tremendously from terrorist attacks. Pakistan has a right to defend itself from terrorism,” Price said in response to a question.

He said that the [Afghan] Taliban must uphold the very commitment they had made that their soil would never be used as a launchpad for international terrorist attacks.

“These are among the very commitments that the Taliban have been unable or unwilling to fulfil to date,” he added.

The meeting, which was chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and attended by key ministers, services chiefs, and top intelligence officials, also endorsed the government’s road map for the restoration of economic stability in the country.

The NSC meeting was called to deliberate on the surge in terrorist attacks and the deepening economic crisis.

Most of the attacks have been carried out by the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

The increase in border incidents involving Taliban forces was also discussed at the forum.

The committee agreed on a number of steps to deal with the worsening security situation, which has also drawn the attention of a number of important capitals prompting them to issue advisories for their nationals residing here.

The most important of all these actions was to send an unequivocal message to neighbouring Afghanistan to end all its support to TTP.

“No country will be allowed to provide sanctuaries and facilitation to terrorists and Pakistan reserves all rights in that respect to safeguard her people,” the NSC statement read.

The warning was sent out in the midst of an escalating war of words between the two countries over TTP and the border dispute.

Tears, outrage at Paris funeral for Kurdish shooting victims

Buses were chartered to bring people from across France and some neighbouring countries to the ceremony in Villiers-le-Bel, north of Paris, local sources said.

Tears and cries of “Martyrs live forever!” greeted the coffins, wrapped in the flags of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdish-controlled Rojava territory in northern Syria.

The huge crowd followed the funeral on giant screens erected in a car park, showing the coffins surrounded by wreaths beneath a portrait of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan. Police and security volunteers were on duty outside a hall hired for Tuesday’s proceedings.

A xenophobic gunman, William Malet, is suspected of killing two men and one woman in a December 23 attack on the Ahmet Kaya Kurdish community centre in Paris’s 10th district.

His victims were Abdurrahman Kizil, singer and political refugee Mir Perwer and Emine Kara, a leader of the Movement of Kurdish Women in France.

Arrested after the shootings and formally charged on December 26, 69-year-old Malet told investigators he had a “pathological” hatred for foreigners and wanted to “murder migrants”, prosecutors said.

Distrust of Turkiye

Malet, a retired train driver, had a violent criminal history and had just left detention over a previous incident. But many Kurds in France’s 150,000-strong community refuse to believe he acted alone, calling his actions a “terrorist” attack and pointing the finger at Turkiye.

“The anger of the people gathered today has again proven to us how much the Kurdish community believes these murders are political,” said a spokesman for the Democratic Council of Kurds in France (CDKF).

Tuesday’s funeral recalled another held at the same spot almost exactly 10 years ago after three Kurdish activists linked to the PKK were shot dead, also in Paris’s 10th district.

The Turkish suspect in the killings, believed to have had ties to Ankara’s secret services, died of cancer in pre-trial detention.

More recently, an April attack in which men were beaten with iron bars at a Kurdish cultural centre in eastern French city Lyon was blamed on members of the banned Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves group.

The PKK, which has waged an almost four-decade armed struggle for greater rights for Turkiye’s Kurdish minority, is categorised as a terror group by Ankara, Europe and the United States.

Its leader Ocalan is serving a life sentence on a prison island off Istanbul after being captured by Turkish agents in Kenya in 1999.

‘Battle must continue’

Often described as the world’s largest people without a state, Kurds originate in regions spread across Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and Iran, with Ankara especially hostile to their striving for a country of their own.

“We feel like they’re doing everything they can to crush us, whether it’s here or in Turkiye,” said Celik, a local who attended the funeral. “We’re here because it’s our duty, it’s a battle our parents fought for many years and that we must continue,” she said.

Clashes between police and Kurdish demonstrators in the immediate aftermath of the December killings ratcheted up tensions between nominal Nato allies Turkiye and France.

Ankara’s foreign ministry summoned the French ambassador to complain of “black propaganda launched by (the) PKK”. The CDKF called Tuesday’s ceremony an “opportunity for those who wish to pay their final respects… before the bodies are repatriated to their native soil” for burial.

CDKF activists plan a march on Wednesday in tribute to the December victims, on the street where the shootings took place.

On Saturday, a “grand march” of the Kurdish community — originally planned to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2013 shootings — will set off from Paris’s Gare du Nord rail hub.

Palestinians have condemned a visit to a contested holy site in Jerusalem by a far-right Israeli minister as an “unprecedented provocation”.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has called for a harder line towards the Palestinians, walked around the site surrounded by police.

Competing claims to the compound bitterly divide Israel and the Palestinians.

Tensions have risen with the advent of Israel’s new nationalistic government.

Mr Ben-Gvir’s visit was his first public act since the government, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was sworn in five days ago.

The hilltop site is the most sacred place in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam. It is known to Jews as the Temple Mount, site of two Biblical temples, and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, the site of Muhammad’s ascent to Heaven. The entire compound is considered to be al-Aqsa Mosque by Muslims.

Jews and other non-Muslims are allowed to go to the compound but not pray, though Palestinians see visits by Jews as attempts to change the delicate status quo.

Mr Ben-Gvir, leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, has long said that he wants to bring about a change to the rules to allow Jewish worship at the site. There is no indication that Mr Ben-Gvir prayed during Tuesday’s visit.

“The Temple Mount is open to everyone,” he tweeted, accompanied by a photograph of him surrounded by a security cordon with the golden Dome of the Rock in the background.

Itamar Ben-Gvir has said he wants to change rules to allow Jewish prayer at the site

Ahead of November’s election, Mr Ben-Gvir said that he would demand that Benjamin Netanyahu introduce “equal rights for Jews” there.

However, Mr Netanyahu has sought to reassure Israel’s allies that he will not allow any changes. A clause in his coalition deals states that the status quo “with regard to the holy places” will be left intact.

Mr Ben-Gvir was given the go-ahead for his first visit since becoming a minister after consulting Mr Netanyahu and security officials.

Following the 15-minute walkaround, the Palestinian foreign ministry denounced what it described as “the storming of al-Aqsa mosque by the extremist minister Ben-Gvir and views it as unprecedented provocation and a dangerous escalation of the conflict”.

Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh called for “thwarting the raids that aimed at turning the al-Aqsa Mosque into a Jewish temple”, saying Mr Ben-Gvir’s visit was “a violation of all norms, values, international agreements and laws, and Israel’s pledges to the American president”.

A spokesman for the Palestinian militant Islamist group, Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, called it a “crime” and vowed the site “will remain Palestinian, Arab, Islamic”, AFP news agency reported.

Jordan, one of a small cluster of Arab countries to formally recognise Israel, summoned Israel’s ambassador in protest.

In his tweet, Mr Ben-Gvir sent a message of defiance to Hamas, declaring: “No Israeli government that I’m a member of is going to bow to a despicable and murderous terror organisation… and if Hamas thinks that I’ll be deterred by its threats, it needs to accept that times have changed and that there’s a government in Jerusalem.”

Tensions between Israel and Palestinians which escalated into violence at the site in May 2021 saw Hamas fire rockets towards Jerusalem, triggering an 11-day conflict with Israel.

A visit to the site in 2000 by Israeli right-winger Ariel Sharon, then opposition leader, infuriated Palestinians. Violence which followed escalated into the second Palestinian uprising, or intifada.

The Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif is the most sensitive site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Situated in East Jerusalem, it was captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war. Under a delicate set of arrangements, Jordan was allowed to continue its historical role as custodian of the site, while Israel assumed control of security and access.

Muslim prayer continued to be the only form of worship allowed there, although a bar on Jewish visits was lifted. Palestinians argue that in recent years, steps have been taken that undermine the status quo, with Orthodox Jewish visitors often seen praying quietly without being stopped by Israeli police.

The number of visits by Jews has swelled in the past few years, something Palestinians claim is part of a surreptitious attempt to take over the site

The Chinese government has suggested that travel restrictions imposed by several countries on Chinese arrivals are politically motivated – and has warned that it may retaliate.

The US, India and the UK are among the nations that have introduced mandatory testing for arrivals from China.

The country has recently seen a surge in Covid cases following the easing of its strict controls.

And there are fears that cases and deaths are being vastly underreported.

China’s last daily Covid update, on 24 December, reported fewer than 5,000 cases – but some analysts claim the daily caseload is already over two million, and could peak at almost four million this month.

A lack of data – and China’s announcement that it was easing curbs on travel from 8 January – led to more than a dozen countries announcing Covid testing on arrivals from China.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged China to share more real-time information and a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry on Tuesday said that Beijing was willing to “improve communication with the world”.

However, spokeswoman Mao Ning said the government was “firmly opposed to attempts to manipulate the epidemic prevention and control measures for political purposes, and will take corresponding measures…according to the principle of reciprocity.”

China’s borders have been largely closed since March 2020 – meaning few foreigners were able to enter and those that did had to undergo rigorous testing and quarantine.

The European Union’s disease prevention agency and Australia’s Chief Medical Officer have both argued that high levels of vaccination and immunity reduce the threat that Covid poses.

But despite that, countries – including in the EU – have imposed testing for Chinese arrivals.

“I think we’re performing our duty in protecting French people by asking for tests,” France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Tuesday.

“We’re doing it while respecting the rules of the World Health Organization and we will continue to do it.”

The European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, has said an overwhelming number of member states favour introducing travel restrictions. Some countries have already introduced their own measures but a decision on whether that will be extended to all EU countries is expected on Wednesday.

The US has also defended its testing requirements, saying that its approach is based “solely and exclusively on science”.

It’s not the first time that Beijing has been at odds with the international community over the virus. It was first detected in Wuhan in central China in late 2019 and the government resisted attempts to investigate the origins.

Meanwhile, China has on Tuesday rejected an offer from the European Union to supply an unspecified number of Covid-19 vaccines to help deal with the surge in cases, saying it has an “adequate supply”.

Official data shows China has given more than 3.4 billion doses – the vast majority of which are CoronaVac.

The government has so far insisted in using only Chinese-made vaccines, which have been proven to be less effective than other Western-developed mRNA vaccines against the Omicron variant.

On a day of political drama not seen in Congress for a century, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy repeatedly failed in his bid to be elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

The House adjourned without a speaker on Tuesday night – the first time since 1923 they had failed to choose a leader after a first round vote.

The start of a new Congress was supposed to be a victory lap for the Republican Party as it took control of the lower chamber following November’s elections. Instead, Mr McCarthy faced a rebellion from within his own ranks and made history for all the wrong reasons.

The California congressman has lost three consecutive votes for Speaker so far, and it’s unclear what his path to victory could be when the House returns on Wednesday to try all over again. They will keep voting until someone wins a majority.

And even if Mr McCarthy finds a way, analysts warn, the turmoil on the floor of the House foreshadows a tumultuous two years of moderate and right-wing Republicans at war with each other.

‘Negotiations made him look weak’

Republicans narrowly won control of the House in November, so Mr McCarthy only had a few votes to spare in his bid to become Speaker. That allowed a group of hardline conservatives to band together to oppose his nomination.

The rift was a long time coming, according to Republican observers.

“Kevin McCarthy has not made friends with certain segments of the caucus for a while, he’s made a lot of enemies,” said one Republican lobbyist, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about Tuesday’s vote. “There’s people who don’t like him for political reasons, for personal reasons.”

Mr McCarthy entered into negotiations with his detractors – who see him as too mainstream and power hungry – offering concessions to try to win their vote. At one point, he reportedly agreed to change the House rules to make it easier to oust a sitting Speaker, handing his opponents an enormous check on his power.

“The fact he was negotiating with the Republicans at all made him look very, very weak to the point of being desperate,” the Republican lobbyist said.

His opponents feel emboldened

The futility of that approach became clear on Tuesday.

In three consecutive votes, Mr McCarthy failed to reach the required 218 vote threshold. Though Republicans hold 222 seats, a bloc of 19 hard-right Republicans had solidified in opposition to him. They oppose Mr McCarthy on ideological and personal grounds, but also see an opportunity to exploit Republicans’ narrow majority to force further concessions from him.

They would “never back down” Representative Rob Good, a Virginia Republican, told reporters on Tuesday.

Representative Matt Gaetz is one the Republicans plotting against Mr McCarthy

In one of the day’s most dramatic moments, they even nominated Representative Jim Jordan to challenge him, just moments after Mr Jordan himself nominated Mr McCarthy for Speaker.

Even after Mr Jordan – who is a leading figure in the hard-right Freedom Caucus – urged Republicans to “rally around” Mr McCarthy in the third round of voting, 20 Republicans voted for Mr Jordan, again denying victory to Mr McCarthy.

Meanwhile, Democrats remained unified behind their party’s new leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

A few could not help publicly teasing their Republican counterparts about their party’s difficult afternoon. One congressman, Ruben Gallego of Arizona, tweeted that Democrats were “breaking the popcorn out,” and as evidence included a photo of the snack.

What are McCarthy’s options now?

Political observers in Washington have begun spinning out various theories about how this all could end. Their predictions to the BBC ranged from the feasible (Mr McCarthy holds out and wins, but walks away seriously weakened) to the entirely possible (he bows out and backs his second in command, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana). One suggestion verged on fantasy (five Republicans decide to vote for Mr Jeffries, a Democrat, and deliver him control of the House).

As it stands, Mr McCarthy is “essentially hostage to one side of his party,” said Ruth Bloch Rubin, a political scientist at the University of Chicago who studies partisanship.

Mr McCarthy has pledged not to make any more concessions, but may not have a choice. He could try to win over obstinate lawmakers with plum committee assignments or new leadership roles.

“He’s got to give the people who are against him something to hang their hat on,” said Aaron Cutler, a lobbyist who once worked for former congressman Eric Cantor, another politician who was ousted by conservative opposition. The other Republican lobbyist, however, believed there was “no path to victory, at all, period.”

Members will reconvene for a fourth time on Wednesday, though it’s unclear if the stalemate will break.

“We haven’t heard anything new from McCarthy,” one of the conservative holdouts, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, told reporters. “So I guess we’ll just keep doing this.”

The prime minister is looking at plans to ensure all pupils in England study some form of maths until the age of 18.

Rishi Sunak will announce the aim in his first speech of 2023 later, which he will use to set out his priorities for the year.

It comes amid a winter of multiple strikes, huge pressures in the NHS and a cost of living crisis.

Mr Sunak is expected to say the UK must “reimagine our approach to numeracy”.

“In a world where data is everywhere and statistics underpin every job, our children’s jobs will require more analytical skills than ever before,” he will say.

“And letting our children out into the world without those skills, is letting our children down”.

During his speech, Mr Sunak is also expected to expand on his vision for the UK, and revisit comments made in December about giving people “peace of mind”.

The Daily Mail reports that Mr Sunak will take “personal charge of tackling the NHS crisis”.

The prime minister is likely to use Wednesday’s speech to acknowledge pressures facing the UK’s health system, the paper adds.

On Tuesday, a No 10 spokesman said the government was “confident” it was “providing the NHS with the funding it needs”.

The number of 16 to 18-year-olds is projected to rise by a total of 18% between 2021 and 2030.

Just half of 16 to 19-year-olds study maths, according to Mr Sunak – but this figure includes pupils doing science courses and those who are already doing compulsory GCSE resits in college.

It is not clear what the plans will mean for students who wish to study humanities or creative arts qualifications, including BTecs.

No new qualifications are immediately planned and there are no plans to make A-levels compulsory.

The government is instead exploring expanding existing qualifications as well as “more innovative options,” a 10 Downing Street spokesperson said.

The prime minister is expected to begin working on the plan in this parliament and finish it after the next general election.

The Autumn Statement unveiled an extra £2.3bn in core school funding for five to 16-year-olds over the next two years – reversing the real terms cuts of the last decade.

But no extra funding was given to further education colleges, which educate many of the most disadvantaged 16 to 18-year-olds, nor to sixth form colleges.

This is compounded by a predicted rise in the 16 to 18-year-old population in the next eight years.

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies the number of 16 to 18-year-olds is projected to rise by a total of 18% between 2021 and 2030, equivalent to 200,000 extra students.

‘Show working’

The Association of School and College Leaders said there was a “chronic national shortage of maths teachers”.

And Labour’s shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson called on Mr Sunak to “show his working” on how greater participation in maths will be funded.

“He cannot deliver this reheated, empty pledge without more maths teachers, yet the government has missed their target for new maths teachers year after year,” she said.

Liberal Democrat education spokesperson, Munira Wilson, called the aim “an admission of failure from the prime minister on behalf of a Conservative government that has neglected our children’s education so badly”.

“Too many children are being left behind when it comes to maths, and that happens well before they reach 16,” she added.

In 2011, the then education secretary Michael Gove said he would like to see the “vast majority” of pupils in England studying maths to the age of 18 within a decade.

The year ahead

Mr Sunak will also use the speech to set out his priorities for 2023 after one of the most tumultuous years in politics.

Strikes have disrupted everything from train services to postal deliveries and hospital care.

More workers are expected to take industrial action, as demands grow for better working conditions and pay increases to keep up with rising prices.

Previously Mr Sunak has promised “tough” legislation to clamp down on strikes by setting minimum service levels on railways and in the NHS.

Pakistan won’t let anyone ‘facilitate, shelter terrorists’

The National Security Committee (NSC), under the leadership of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, decided that no country will be allowed to provide sanctuaries and facilitation to terrorists and Pakistan reserves all rights to safeguard its people.

The resolves come during the 40th meeting of the NSC held in Islamabad, according to an official statement issued by the Prime Minister’s House on Monday.

On Friday, the NSC vowed to respond firmly to resurgent terrorism in the country and declared militants as “enemies of Pakistan”.

The law and order situation in the country has worsened over the past few months. Terrorist groups, including the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), executed terror attacks across the country.

The forum also reiterated its resolve to have zero tolerance for terrorism in Pakistan and reaffirmed its determination to take on any and all entities that resort to violence.

“This [terrorism] will be dealt with the full force of the state. Pakistan’s security is uncompromisable and the full writ of the state will be maintained on every inch of the territory,” the committee decided as the nation of 220 million continue to deal with rising terrorism in the country.

The forum underscored that comprehensive ‘national security’ revolves around economic security and that sovereignty or dignity comes under stress without self-sufficiency and economic independence.

The committee was also apprised on the security situation of the country with a particular focus on recent terrorist incidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

PM Shehbaz emphasised that the war against terrorism will be led by federal and provincial governments as per National Action Plan (NAP) in accordance with National Internal Security Policy (NISP) with people-centric socio-economic development as a priority while armed forces will provide resolute deterrence and a secure conducive and enabling environment.

Provincial apex committees are being revived in full earnest and law enforcement agencies especially Counter-Terrorism Departments (CTD) will be brought up to the required fighting standards with requisite capabilities.

Consensus on import rationalisation

The statement revealed that the forum undertook a comprehensive view of the ongoing economic situation keeping in view the challenges being faced by the common people of Pakistan, particularly the lower and middle-income classes.

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Ishaq Dar briefed the forum about the economic stability roadmap of the government including the status of discussions with international financial institutions, exploring other financial avenues based on mutual interests as well as relief measures for common people.

In order to strengthen the economy, the committee agreed on undertaking concrete steps including import rationalisation as well as preventing illegal currency outflows and hawala business.

“Emphasis will be specially made to improve agricultural output and manufacturing sector to ensure food security, import substitution and employment. It was resolved that people-centric economic policies with trickle-down effects to common people will remain a priority,” the statement read.

The forum also agreed to involve all stakeholders for consensus to realise effective and fast-track economic recovery and road map.

Flood rehabilitation reviewed

While taking into account the efforts for mitigating the challenges of 33 million flood affectees, the forum resolved to mobilise all resources for their rehabilitation and reconstruction in coordination with the provincial governments and multilateral financial institutions.

The 40th meeting was attended by relevant federal cabinet members, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, all services chiefs, and heads of intelligence services.

Nawaz Sharif directs party leaders to start preparing for general elections

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif issued directives to his party regarding the upcoming general elections, asking the leaders to start a mass mobilisation campaign,

Issuing political instructions to the PML-N’s political team in Lahore, the former premier asked the party members to start preparing for general elections, and confront the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its allies in the public, as per the party sources.

Sources said Nawaz held a series of online meetings with his party stalwarts and directed them to speed up their political activities before the vote of confidence in Punjab.

It was decided that the Governor’s House and State Guest House will be used to hold public meetings and federal ministers would also hold open courts — “khuli kacheris” — to hear public problems and on-the-spot orders to solve them.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was also asked to engage with his allies to find a solution to stop the PTI from dissolving the Punjab Assembly. In this regard, the prime minister had recently contacted former president Asif Ali Zardari and discussed the political situation with him.

Meanwhile, the date of the Punjab Assembly’s session, on the vote of no-confidence motion against Chief Minister Parvez Elahi, has been changed and it will be held on January 9, instead of January 11.

The assembly secretariat has also issued a gazette notification.

Sources said the upcoming session was extremely important for both PML-N and its allies and the PTI and its allies. They said it was most likely that Punjab CM Parvez Elahi might take a vote of confidence and in case the opposition alliance fails to complete the number of 186, then Imran Khan’s announcement of the dissolution of the assemblies would be implemented.

Both PML-N and PTI are claiming to have the required number to deal with the motion. Presently, PML-N has 167 members, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) 7, and Rah-e-Haq Party 1, while five independent members are with the opposition and one has not joined any party, while the PTI has 180 members and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) 10.

Country-wide protests

On December 29, the PTI announced to start country-wide protest movement, constantly pressurising the ruling coalition to hold snap polls. However, the government has ruled out staging early elections and has told the PTI that given the current situation — floods, census, and new delimitation — the elections cannot be held before October

“From tomorrow, country-wide protests will start against rising inflation, deteriorating economy, and shortage of gas,” PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry said on December 29.

In the first phase, Fawad said PTI’s members of national and provincial assemblies would lead the protests for three weeks in their constituencies across the country.

“After three weeks, Imran Khan will join the campaign and this process will continue till this government is ousted,” the PTI leader said, asking the nation to join hands with the party.

The announcement to return to the streets comes after PTI’s chief in November called off the long march in Rawalpindi and announced plans for the dissolution of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies, but it is yet to materialise.

The dissolution of the KP Assembly has been linked to Punjab, whose disbandment plans hit a snag last week when the Lahore High Court reinstated Parvez Elahi as Punjab’s chief minister and ordered him to not dissolve the legislative.

South Korea, US discuss nuclear exercises as tensions flare with North

Yoon’s comments, in a newspaper interview published on Monday, come after he called for “war preparation” with an “overwhelming” capability, following a year marked by the North’s record number of missile tests, and the intrusion of North Korean drones into the South last week.

“The nuclear weapons belong to the United States, but planning, information sharing, exercises and training should be jointly conducted by South Korea and the United States,” Yoon said in the interview with the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.

The newspaper quoted Yoon as saying the joint planning and exercises would be aimed at a more effective implementation of the US “extended deterrence,” and that Washington was also “quite positive” about the idea.

The term “extended deterrence” means the ability of the US military, particularly its nuclear forces, to deter attacks on US allies.

A Pentagon spokesperson said: “We have nothing to announce today,” when asked about Yoon’s comments, adding that the alliance remains “rock-solid.” Yoon’s remarks were published a day after North Korean state media reported that its leader Kim called for developing new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and an “exponential increase” of the country’s nuclear arsenal.

At a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party meeting last week, Kim said South Korea has now become the North’s “undoubted enemy” and rolled out new military goals, hinting at another year of intensive weapons tests and tension.

Month: January 2023