Month: November 2023

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif Wednesday stressed that the general elections, which are slated to be held on February 8 next year, should be conducted on time.

“[Holding the elections on time] is the requirement of law and democracy,” said the former prime minister while speaking to journalists after he appeared before an accountability court in Lahore in the Ramzan Sugar Mills reference.

The court had summoned Shehbaz a reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) alleging that the former chief minister of Punjab misused his authority by using public funds for the construction of a bridge to facilitate the Ramzan mills, owned by his sons.

Shehbaz said that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif will announce the party manifesto in the election campaign, adding that they are starting the campaign with full preparation.

He also addressed the issues raised by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of not being provided equal opportunities to contest the upcoming polls, Shehbaz said: “I went to court today and this is called the level-playing field and Nawaz Sharif will also produce himself in an Islamabad court today.”

The former premier said that the Sharif family has suffered hardships but Nawaz Sharif still bowed before the law. “Nawaz Sharif ended his exile and came back to Pakistan. We always respected the judiciary,” he added.

Shehbaz, speaking about the May 9 incidents which were followed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s arrest in the Al-Qadir Trust case, said that the facilitation of the perpetrators of the May 9 events would be anti-national.

“A conspiracy to overthrow the army was hatched on May 9 and any democratic government will not tolerate treason,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, Shehbaz, during the hearing said that he was summoned in the clean water case but was arrested in Ashiana reference.

“I will not discuss the merits of the case, my lawyer will do it,” he told the court, adding that the court gave me justice in the Ashiana case.

“After that, NAB arrested me in the sewer case. I was told that I had issued a directive for the construction of a drain which was built by an MPA,” he said.

The PML-N president told the court that they have installed thousands of clean water projects during his tenure.

Shehbaz said that he transferred their inherited sugar mill to his son and the government did not give subsidies to sugar mills in his tenure.

ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are in agreement for the local government system to receive constitutional cover through amendment, as it will strengthen it throughout the country.

The two parties agreed on the decision during a meeting at the residence of PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal in Islamabad on Wednesday, The News reported.

The MQM-P delegation included Farooq Sattar, Mustafa Kamal and Aminul Haq, while the PML-N leadership comprised Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Khawaja Saad Rafique and Bashir Memon.

“The MQM delegation handed over a draft of a bill to us and we have promised that a constitutional amendment will be approved by parliament after general elections,” said Ahsan Iqbal during an informal talk with journalists after the meeting.

Iqbal added the PML-N also believed in a strong local government system. He was of the view that for the solution of problems at the grassroots level and training of youth, the best possible way was to ensure that the local body’s system was given constitutional protection.

The PML-N leader said that they also discussed cooperation for the upcoming general elections. In this, he said, it was decided that candidates having chances of winning elections would be supported.

“We will try to secure maximum seats in Sindh,” he said.

Mustafa Kamal said that they did not meet the PML-N leadership to seek seats for elections but they wanted strengthening of local government system.

Farooq Sattar maintained the survival of Pakistan and the solution to people’s problems lies in a strong local government system. “We want the provincial governments not to become the centre of all the power and must share them with the local bodies,” he said.

Earlier this week, MQM-P organised a conference titled “Independent Districts: Strong Pakistan” in Karachi to facilitate “comprehensive” constitutional amendments to decentralise power.

MQM-P Convener Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, during the conference, said that just as the powers of prime minister and chief ministers are listed in the Constitution, the powers of local governments should also be highlighted.

“The real reason behind the crisis in Pakistan is the lack of honest intention which is more problematic than the unfair distribution of resources. Pakistan needs a constitution in which workers are represented by workers and not landlords or feudals,” he added.

Japan’s coast guard said what appeared to be wreckage from the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey and one “non-responsive” person had been found some three kilometres from Yakushima island.

Fishing boats in the area found three people in the surrounding waters, a representative of a local fisheries cooperative said, adding their condition was unknown.

Another Osprey landed safely at the island’s airport on Wednesday afternoon around the time of the crash, a spokesperson for the local government said. US forces in the region were still gathering information, a spokesperson said.

The United States, which pledged to defend Japan after its defeat in World War II, has about 54,000 US troops in the country, many in the strategically important southern island chain, amid growing Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea.

The crash happened just before 3pm with witnesses saying the aircraft’s left engine appeared to be on fire as it descended, media reported. Japan, which also operates Osprey aircraft, said on Wednesday it had no plans to ground the aircraft but had asked the US military to investigate the crash.

Developed jointly by Boeing and Bell Helicopter, the Osprey can fly both like a helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft and is operated by the US Marines, US Navy and the Japan Self Defence Forces.

The deployment of the Osprey in Japan has been controversial, with critics saying it is prone to accidents. The US military and Japan say it is safe.

Local people fled the area on the eastern edge of the city at the start of the fighting and did not return until the truce, which was in its sixth day on Wednesday.

“We were shocked to see this destruction. We were shocked to see our homes, our streets, our lands, our yards and everything demolished,” said Gihad Nabil, who was recently married and had been living in Abu Ta’imah with his wife.

Standing on a roof with a view of ruined buildings and mounds of rubble as far as the eye could see, he said the area had been home to about 5,000 or 6,000 people before the Hamas raid. He asked where they would go.

“My house is completely destroyed. My brother’s home, my uncle’s, my neighbour’s, all of them destroyed. We don’t need this truce, we need a complete ceasefire,” he said, likening what he was seeing to an earthquake zone.

As Nabil and another man sat on the roof, talking and smoking a shisha pipe, a group of children down below sat around a small fire built on a pile of rubble and warmed-up bread, which they shared.

The hostilities have displaced 80pc of Gazans from their homes, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Gute­rres, who on Wednesday described the situation as an epic humanitarian catastrophe.

ISLAMABAD: Brushing aside allegations levelled against the caretaker government in connection with “unequal opportunities” to the political parties for electioneering, caretaker Minister for Information Murtaza Solangi claimed Tuesday that all the political parties were enjoying equal freedom.

Talking to journalists, Solangi said that the freedom that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had the same freedom as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and other parties.

“Everyone in Pakistan has the freedom to express an opinion, complain, and criticise.”

PPP and PTI have repeatedly been accusing the caretakers of giving special treatment to the PML-N in connection with the upcoming elections. The parties alleged that they are being denied a level playing field in the run-up to elections.

Responding to a question, Solangi reaffirmed the interim government’s resolve to assist the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in conducting free, fair, and transparent general elections, slated to be held on February 8, 2024.

“Under Article 218(3) of the Constitution, the ECP will fulfil its responsibility to conduct fair, transparent and impartial elections and the government will support it.”

He said that there were a total of 280 articles in the Constitution, not only the article of elections in 90 days. The Constitution also has Article 254.

Article 254 states that when any act or thing is required by the Constitution to be done within a particular period and it is not done within that period, it won’t render the action illegal or invalid for the sole reason of tardiness.

To another question, the minister said he had a relationship of respect with PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and his father Asif Ali Zardari and he could not comment on their statements.

After Zardari called his son, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, an “inexperienced” politician, speculations were rife that there were rifts between them — and the ex-foreign minister’s departure to Dubai further fueled them.

But Hamir Mir, the journalist who interviewed Zardari in which the ex-president made several startling revelations, said that even if there was a “situation” between the father-son duo, their party was strong enough to get them resolved.

Rejecting the media reports, Bakhtawar Bhutto-Zardari Saturday asked people to not pay heed to the headlines, stressing that the family stands united.

He said that the caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar had informed the public about his visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last night through a video message.

During the visit of the PM, the agreements and memorandums of understanding would be finalised, then the media would be informed in that regard, he added.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan and the UAE signed several MoUs worth multi-billion dollars in a range of areas to boost economic and strategic cooperation between the two countries.

In a phone call ahead of a UN Security Council meeting on Gaza planned for Wednesday, Erdogan and Guterres discussed the “expectations of the international community regarding Israel’s unlawful attacks”, access of humanitarian aid into the enclave, and efforts for a lasting peace, the Turkish presidency said.

“During the call, President Erdogan said Israel continues to shamelessly trample on international law, the laws of war, and international humanitarian law by looking in the eyes of the international community, and it must be held accountable for the crimes it committed in front of international law,” it said in a statement.

In addition, Jordan’s King Abdullah said Israeli aggression in Gaza and army operations in the West Bank “negate human values and the right of life.”

In remarks carried on state media, the monarch who again called for an end to the crisis, said the Israeli siege on the enclave that prevented for weeks the entry of medicine, food and fuel and cut electricity supplies, amounted to war crimes.

With beaming smiles, the rescued men were welcomed as heroes after being hauled through 57 metres (187 feet) of steel pipe on stretchers specially fitted with wheels, where they were greeted by state officials before embracing their families.

“I am completely relieved and happy as 41 trapped labourers in the Silkyara Tunnel Collapse have been successfully rescued,” Minister of Road Transport Nitin Gadkari said in a statement.

“This was a well-coordinated effort by multiple agencies, marking one of the most significant rescue operations in recent years. “

“Hail mother India!” crowds outside the tunnel cheered, as news spread that all had made it safely out of the under-construction tunnel in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, where they had been incarcerated since a partial collapse on November 12.

Relatives outside celebrated after previous hopes of reaching the men were repeatedly dashed by falling debris and the breakdown of multiple drilling machines, in a rescue operation the government said took place in “challenging Himalayan terrain”.

“We are thankful to God and the rescuers who worked hard to save them,” Naiyer Ahmad told AFP, whose younger brother Sabah Ahmad was among the trapped workers, and who had been camping out in bitterly cold temperatures at the site for over two weeks.

“We are extremely happy, no words can explain it,” said Musarrat Jahan, the wife of one rescued worker Sabah Ahmad told AFP by phone from Bihar state, where she had been waiting desperately for news.

“Not only my husband got a new life, we also got a new life. We will never forget it”.

‘Now to celebrate’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the workers in a statement that their “courage and patience is inspiring everyone”.

“Patience, hard work and faith won”, said Uttarakhand state chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, praising the “prayers of tens of millions of countrymen and the tireless work of all the rescue teams.”

The health of the workers was “fine”, with a team of medics in a field hospital assessing them as soon as they were brought out, Dhami added.

Guriya Devi, wife of rescued worker Sushil Kumar, said she had been praying ever since the tunnel collapsed.

“We passed through horrible times, and sometimes we lost hope — but ultimately the time has come to now celebrate”.

Munnilal Kishku, father of freed worker Birendar Kishku, said they had not celebrated Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, because it had happened at the same time as the tunnel collapsed. “We will celebrate it when he reaches the village,” he said.

After repeated setbacks in the operation, military engineers and skilled miners dug the final section by hand using a so-called “rat-hole” technique, a three-person team working at the rock face inside a metal pipe, just wide enough for someone to squeeze through.

‘Effort and sacrifice’

Indian billionaire Anand Mahindra paid tribute to the men at the rock face who squeezed into the narrow pipe to clear the rocks by hand.

“After all the sophisticated drilling equipment, it’s the humble ‘rathole miners’ who make the vital breakthrough,” Mahindra said on X, formerly Twitter.

“It’s a heartwarming reminder that at the end of the day, heroism is most often a case of individual effort and sacrifice.”

Last week, engineers working to drive a metal pipe horizontally through the earth ran into metal girders and construction vehicles buried in the rubble, snapping a giant earth-boring machine.

A separate vertical shaft was also started from the forested hill above the tunnel, as well as from the far side of the road tunnel, a much longer route estimated to be around 480 metres.

Before Tuesday, the workers were seen alive for the first time last week, peering into the lens of an endoscopic camera sent by rescuers down a thin pipe through which air, food, water and electricity were delivered.

Arnold Dix, president of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, who had been advising the engineers, told reporters ahead of the rescue that the men were in good spirits, and that he had heard they had been “playing cricket”.

Such a rule can be imposed “in order to put in place an entirely neutral administrative environment,” the court said.

The judgement derived from a case lodged by a worker in a Belgian local government office who challenged a ban on her wearing an Islamic headscarf, feeling that it infringed on her freedom of religion and she was being discriminated against.

The Luxembourg-based court said a prohibition “of any sign revealing philosophical or religious beliefs… is not discriminatory if it is applied in a general and indiscriminate manner to all of that administration’s staff and is limited to what is strictly necessary”.

The ruling — valid for public sector offices across the EU — backs up previous EU court judgments that found such bans can be legal in private sector workplaces.

It said national courts should decide the applicability of such prohibitions, and that public offices could also have policies limiting such bans to public-facing workers, or decide to authorise the wearing of visible religious or philosophical signs of belief.

“Each Member State, and any infra-State body within the framework of its competences, has a margin of discretion in designing the neutrality of the public service which it intends to promote in the workplace, depending on its own context,” it said.