Month: May 2023

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and Punjab caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi have slammed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan’s serious allegations against the army.

Berating the PTI chief, the PM said that Imran Niazi’s act of routinely maligning and threatening the Pakistan Army and an intelligence agency for the sake of petty political gains is highly condemnable.

“His levelling of allegations without any proof against Gen Faisal Naseer and officers of our Intelligence Agency cannot be allowed and will not be tolerated.”

On the other hand, former president Asif Ali Zardari said the PTI chief has crossed all limits to defame institutions, which will not be tolerated anymore.

“The attempt to discredit institutions has exposed the true face of the man and now enough is enough, after listening to the foreign agent’s speech, no patriot can even think of following him,” said Zardari in a statement without naming the PTI chief.

Zardari said the allegations against the brave and distinguished officers of the Pakistan Army was an attack on the institution with which the whole of Pakistan stands.

“A person is fooling his innocent workers with lies and deceit, I am seeing the downfall of this person,” he said. The former president said this is the country where we all have to be buried, we will not allow one person to play with our values and our country.

“A person is bent on destroying our ancestors, our children and our country, which we will not allow,” said Zardari.

Meanwhile, Punjab Caretaker CM asserted that the interim government will not allow anyone to humiliate or threaten institutions and intelligence agencies in the province.

Taking to Twitter, the Punjab CM said: “We will not allow anyone to humiliate or threaten our institutions and intelligence agencies in Punjab. It is our foremost responsibility as responsible Pakistani citizens to condemn these elements who are actually benefiting enemies of Pakistan.”

CM Naqvi assured that the provincial government will implement the law and that culprits will be held accountable.

Reacting to the PM’s tweet, PTI leader Asad Umar questioned the premier why he was quite when his brother, Nawaz Sharif, attacked the then army chief and director general Inter Services Intelligence.

“Did you utter a single word when your brother and niece were attacking the then Army chief and DGI by name in jalsas and blaming them for destroying Pakistan? Don’t try to hide behind the army to attack Imran Khan because you cannot compete with him politically,” said Umar.

The Arab League on Sunday welcomed back Syria’s government, ending a more than decade-long suspension and securing President Bashar al-Assad’s return to the Arab fold after years of isolation.

In November 2011, the body suspended Damascus over its crackdown on peaceful protests which began earlier that year and which spiralled into a conflict that has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country’s infrastructure and industry.

While the front lines have mostly quietened, large parts of the country’s north remain outside government control, and no political solution has yet been reached to the 12-year-old conflict.

“Government delegations from the Syrian Arab Republic will resume their participation in Arab League meetings” starting Sunday, said a unanimous decision by the group’s foreign ministers.

Assad has been politically isolated since the war began, but recent weeks have seen a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of an Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19.

The ministers in a statement emphasised their “keenness to launch a leading Arab role in efforts to resolve” the Syria crisis.

They agreed to form a ministerial committee to continue “direct dialogue with the Syrian government in order to reach a comprehensive solution”.

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, head of the 22-member Arab League, said the decision “brings the Arab side into communication with the Syrian government for the first time in years, in order to look into all aspects of the problem”.

Syria’s return to the body is “the beginning… not the end of the issue”, he added, noting it was up to individual countries to decide whether to resume ties with Damascus.

– ‘Diplomatic victory’ –

Following the announcement, Syria’s foreign ministry stressed the importance of “Arab cooperation”, in a statement carried by state news agency SANA.

“The next stage requires an effective and constructive Arab approach… based on dialogue, mutual respect and common Arab interests”, it added.

Several Arab countries cut ties with Syria early in the conflict, betting on Assad’s demise, while some including Qatar and Saudi Arabia provided support to the Syrian opposition.

The last Arab League summit Assad attended was in 2010, while the opposition attended the pan-Arab group’s summit in Doha in 2013, sparking a furious reaction from Damascus.

Aboul Gheit told a press conference Assad was welcome to attend the summit later this month once invited by host Saudi Arabia.

Regional capitals have gradually been warming to Assad as he has stubbornly held onto power and clawed back territory lost earlier in the conflict with crucial support from Iran and Russia.

The United Arab Emirates, which re-established ties in late 2018, has been leading the recent charge to reintegrate Damascus into the Arab fold.

A February 6 earthquake that wreaked devastation in Turkey and Syria sparked Arab outreach to Assad’s government, while intensified regional diplomatic activity has been underway since a March decision by rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran to resume ties in a China-brokered agreement.

“Syria’s regional isolation is officially broken,” analyst Fabrice Balanche said, calling Sunday’s decision a “diplomatic victory” for Assad.

“The earthquake is the best opportunity to get closer without losing face,” he told AFP, adding that “Saudi Arabia’s concern for Syria is part of the context of reconciliation with Iran.”

– ‘Pushed out of our homes’ –

In April, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan made the first visit to Damascus by a official from the kingdom since the start of the war, days after Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad visited Saudi Arabia, also on the first such trip.

Mekdad has visited a string of Arab countries in recent weeks in a diplomatic push.

On Monday, he attended talks in Amman with foreign ministers from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Egypt to discuss the long-running conflict.

Nine Arab countries including Gulf states met in Saudi Arabia last month to discuss ending Syria’s possible return to the Arab League.

Assad is hoping normalisation with wealthy Gulf nations could bring economic relief and money for reconstruction, while analysts say sanctions will likely continue to deter investment.

But with foreign forces including from Turkey and the United States still present on Syrian territory, the war is far from over and Assad remains internationally isolated.

In northwest Syria’s rebel-held Idlib region, displaced Syrians expressed frustration at the Arab League’s decision.

“We were pushed out of our homes,” said Ghassan Yussef, 54.

Kishida was in Seoul for the first visit to the South Korean capital by a Japanese leader in 12 years, returning the trip South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made to Tokyo in March where they sought to close a chapter on the historical disputes that have dominated Japan-South Korea relations for decades.

Speaking to reporters after his summit with Yoon, Kishida stopped short of offering a new official apology for wrongs committed under the 1910-1945 occupation, but said his government inherits the stance of earlier administrations, some of which have issued apologies.

“For me personally, my heart hurts when I think of the many people who endured terrible suffering and grief under the difficult circumstances of the time,” he said.

Yoon said unresolved historical issues should not mean that no forward steps can be taken to deepen ties.

A senior official at Yoon’s office said Kishida’s remarks had not been pre-arranged and Yoon thanked him for “showing his sincere position even though there was no such request,” and said it would be “greatly helpful for future cooperation.” The pledge by the leaders to boost cooperation has been welcomed by the United States as a way to better confront threats from North Korea and competition from China.

“Cooperation and coordination between South Korea and Japan are essential not only for the common interests of the two countries, but also for world peace and prosperity,” Yoon said in opening remarks at their meeting.

ISLAMABAD: After curtailing the powers of the chief justice of Pakistan, the government on Friday got passed the “Supreme Court Review of Judgments and Orders Bill 2023” — regarding the right of appeal in suo motu cases — through the Senate amid the ongoing tussle between parliament and the judiciary.

The bill — tabled by Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz’s (PML-N) Irfan ul Haque Siddiqui — was passed by a majority of 32 votes despite the opposition’s uproar.

The bill that aims to facilitate and strengthen the SC in the exercise of its powers to review its judgments and orders was earlier passed by the NA on April 14.

On April 10, the federal government also got the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023, passed in a joint session of parliament after President Arif Alvi returned the bill seeking to curtail the chief justice’s suo motu powers.

In his remarks today, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar alluded to Article 188 of the Constitution saying it empowers the SC subject to the provision of any Act of Majlis-e-Shoora and any rules made by the top court, to review any judgement pronounced or any order made by it. He said the latest legislation is procedural in nature.

The law minister said the bill has been formulated in accordance with the spirit of Article 188 of the constitution.

Key features of the bill:

• It shall come into force at once.
• In case of judgments and orders of the SC in exercise of its original jurisdiction under Article 184 of the Constitution, the scope of review on both facts and law, shall be the same as an appeal under Article 185 of the Constitution.
• A review petition shall be heard by a bench larger than the bench which passed the original judgment or order.
• The review petitioner shall have the right to appoint any advocate of the SC of his choice for the review petition.
• The right to file a review petition shall also be available to an aggrieved person against whom an order has been made under clause (3) of Article 184 of the Constitution, prior to the commencement of this act. Provided that the review petition under this section shall be filed within sixty days of the commencement of this Act.
• A review petition may be filed within sixty days of the passing of the original order.
• The provisions of this Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything contained in any other law, rules or regulations for the time being in force or judgment of any court including the Supreme Court and a High Court.

The Five Star Movement, the opposition party led by Conte, wrote on Facebook that Conte had been “attacked by an anti-vaxxer in Massa”, a small Tuscan city where he was attending an election rally.

News agency Ansa said the man struck Conte in the face, blaming him for the lockdown policies imposed during the pandemic and other measures. Police officers later took him away.

As well as his own party, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “solidarity” with Conte.

“Any form of violence must be condemned without hesitation,” Meloni said in a statement.

“Dissent must be civil and respectful of people and political groups.” Prime minister from June 2018 to February 2021, Conte was the head of government when the Covid-19 outbreak suddenly struck northern Italy in February 2020.

Italy was the first country outside China to suffer a major outbreak of Covid-19.

The virus has killed nearly 190,000 people in Italy to date, according to the health ministry.

Conte imposed stringent coronavirus restrictions in the early phase of the pandemic, including an economically crippling shutdown and the mandating of face masks in public.

His successor as prime minister, Mario Draghi, imposed a compulsory coronavirus health pass in September 2021 tied to the Covid-19 vaccine.

Conte’s early decisions during the breakout, including one not to impose “red zones” in two hard-hit areas, are the subject of an ongoing judicial inquiry.

Investigating magistrates suspect that Conte and his government underestimated the contagiousness of Covid-19 even though available data showed that cases were spreading rapidly.

No threat of a tsunami is in sight as an earthquake of magnitude 6.5 shook Japan’s western prefecture Ishikawa Friday, authorities said on Friday amid reports of injuries and collapsed buildings.

The quake had a depth of 12 kilometres.

The earthquake struck 2:42pm on the northern tip of Ishikawa Prefecture’s Noto Peninsula on the Sea of Japan coast.

Meteorological Agency said: “There was no threat of a tsunami, but sea level changes of less than 20 cm were possible.”

According to the NHK reports, local police in the city of Suzu, Ishikawa Prefecture — near the quake’s epicentre — the seism has reportedly damaged many buildings and hospitals were receiving patients with quake-related injuries.

It reported: “One man who fell off a ladder was showing no vital signs. Suzu Fire Department noted that three houses had collapsed and that two people were trapped in two of the structures.”

Strong 6, which was recorded in the city of Suzu, is the second-highest level on Japan’s intensity scale. The level of shaking can make it “impossible to remain standing or move without crawling,” the Meteorological Agency said.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, in a press conference, noted that the government was responding to the emergency and is in the process of damage assessment.

Matsuno said: “We will continue to assess the extent of the damage and, in close cooperation with local authorities, will do our best to implement emergency-disaster measures.”

He also urged citizens of Japan to remain alert if local authorities announce any evacuation measures in any form.

The area could be hit by aftershocks of similar strength. An earthquake measuring Shindo 4 followed soon after the initial jolt, Matsuno added.

West Japan Railway said: “The earthquake led to the suspension of some train lines, including the Hokuriku Shinkansen between Nagano and Kanazawa stations. The shinkansen later resumed service.”

No abnormalities were reported at the Shika nuclear power plant located in Ishikawa prefecture, as well as at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant in the neighbouring prefecture of Niigata, said Matsuno.