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ISLAMABAD/LAHORE/SIALKOT: As the formation of a future government following the February 8 polls remains shrouded in uncertainty, the fifth round of talks is set to take place between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) with the former looking for the latter’s role in government

Both the PPP and the PML-N, since the elections, failed to see either party securing a simple majority in the National Assembly and have been engaged in negotiations over the formation of the future government after PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto announced to support the PML-N’s candidate, Shehbaz Sharif, for the prime minister’s post.

With the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed candidates emerging as the largest group by winning more than 90 NA seats, followed by the PML-N and the PPP’s 79 and 54 seats, respectively, the latter two will need to forge an alliance along with other parties to reach the necessary 169 seats in the 336-member lower house of parliament.

However, the negotiations have not been so seamless as the PPP chairman, despite his announcement regarding support to PML-N for the chief executive slot, has repeatedly turned down the possibility of the party’s inclusion in the PML-N’s government.

“PPP won’t be a part of a government like Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) II,” Bilawal had said in a press conference last week.

The former foreign minister once again reiterated this stance during the party’s yesterday’s “Youm-e-Tashakur” (thanksgiving day) rally in Thatta to celebrate the election victory in Sindh.

“We neither want the prime minister’s chair nor any ministry,” the PPP chairman said while stressing that PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari will be the party’s candidate for the president’s office.

His remarks come as senior PML-N leader Ishaq Dar, who is also heading the party’s coordination committee, has called on leaders from both parties to refrain from giving any statements before finalisation of terms for the future coalition.

“The leaders of the PML-N and PPP are requested to adhere to the rules laid down between the committees for discussion [as] it was decided that no member or leader of the coordination committees would comment on the ongoing process of discussion and the points discussed in it,” the former finance minister said in a social media post on X.

Stressing that final points have not yet been settled between the parties, Dar said that major breakthrough is expected in the negotiations during today’s meeting and a formal joint declaration of both parties would be issued once the talks culminate.

Despite the PPP’s insistence on not being part of the future government, PML-N leader Irfan Siddiqui has claimed that the Bilawal-led party would ultimately become part of the federal government.

Speaking in the Geo News programme “Naya Pakistan with Shahzad Iqbal,” Siddiqui cited the PPP chairman’s comments regarding helping Pakistan and its people and said that the party would join the federal government as the country is facing serious crises, and now making one party’s prime minister would not help the country come out of the challenges.

Both parties should share the benefits and losses of running the government jointly in these challenging times, he noted.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued on Sunday a written order following its directives to caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, as well as secretaries of ministries concerned to personally appear in the next hearing tomorrow (Monday) of the missing Baloch students case.

The 4-page written order, issued by the IHC’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, stated that the prime minister of Pakistan, defence, human rights, and interior ministries along with the secretaries of the ministries concerned should ensure their physical appearance in the February 19 hearing at 10am.

 

In the previous hearing on February 13, the court had directed the interim premier to appear before the bench.

At the outset of the previous hearing, the assistant attorney general  (AAG) asked the court to adjourn the hearing as the attorney general was unavailable. However, the request was rejected.

Justice Kayani further remarked that the death penalty should be awarded to those involved in enforced disappearances.

“People involved [enforced disappearance] should be given the death penalty twice,” remarked Justice Kayani. He then asked the caretaker PM to appear in person to explain why a case should not be registered against him.

However, the advocate general pleaded to the court that they required more time in the case. But Justice Kayani refused to entertain the government’s plea.

This is the second time that PM Kakar has been summoned by IHC. He was last summoned on November 29, 2023, to personally appear before it in the case filed by Advocate Imaan Mazari.

Rights groups say police have detained over 400 people at gatherings for the politician, a leading critic of President Vladimir Putin who died in an Arctic prison Friday.

Ambassador Lynne Tracy was pictured on Sunday at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to political repression that has become a major site of tributes for Navalny.

“Today at the Solovetsky Stone we mourn the death of Alexei Navalny and other victims of political repression in Russia,” the US embassy in Moscow said on social media.

US envoy visits opposition leader’s shrine amid heavy police curbs

“We extend our deepest condolences to Alexei Navalny’s family, colleagues and supporters. His strength is an inspiring example. We honour his memory,” it said.

At a separate makeshift memorial known as the “Wall of Grief”, a bronze monument to Soviet-era repression, police had set up fences in a bid to ward off mourners. Several dozen police officers could be seen standing nearby, but some people were allowed to enter through the fence and lay flowers, a reporter saw.

Navalny, aged 47, was seen by many Russians as their best hope for change after years of perceived corruption and spiralling state oppression. His death after over three years behind bars sparked a storm of condemnation from the West and despair among his supporters, many of whom are young people.

“It was not a death, it was murder,” Leonid Volkov, a top Navalny ally, wrote on Telegram on Saturday. “His life’s work must win out,” he said.

Trump’s silence slammed

Donald Trump’s last remaining Republican rival for the US election in November bashed the ex-president on Sunday for his continued silence over the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his recent outburst over Nato.

“The fact that he won’t acknowledge anything with Navalny — either he sides with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and thinks it’s cool that Putin killed one of his political opponents, or he just doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Nikki Haley said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Either one of those is concerning. Either one of those is a problem,” added the Republican candidate, who is trailing far behind Trump in the race for their party’s nomination.

Navalny’s still-unexplained death in a prison in Russia’s Arctic has drawn powerful condemnations from leaders around the world, starting with US President Joe Biden, who has squarely blamed Putin. But Trump, Biden’s likely opponent in November, has yet to say a word about it at any of several public appearances since Navalny’s death was reported.

The Trump campaign, asked for comment, has directed reporters to a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform that says, “America is no longer respected because we have an incompetent president who is weak and doesn’t understand what the World is thinking.” The post does not mention Navalny, Russia or Putin.

The lack of comment comes days after Trump stunned Western allies by saying he would “encourage” Russia to attack members of the Nato military alliance who had not met their financial obligations.

The suggestion cast a pall over a major global security conference in Munich, drawing a warning from Nato Secretary General Jens Stolten­berg that Trump should not “undermine” the alliance’s security.

Biden also lashed out at Trump’s remark as “dangerous” and “un-American.” Haley, the former UN ambassador under Trump, has not spared Biden from foreign policy criticism, but she called her former boss’ Nato comment “bone-chilling.”

Tear gas and barricades were used to deter the farmers, who form an influential voting bloc, months ahead of a general election due by May, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks a record third term.

 

Sunday’s comments followed marathon talks with farmers’ unions after the protesters, who are demanding higher prices backed by law for nearly two dozen crops, were halted at a distance of about 200km from New Delhi.

Goyal said the government had proposed five-year contracts for a minimum support price to farmers who diversify their crops to grow pigeon peas, black matpe, red lentils and corn, paid by cooperative groups it promotes.

“These organisations will buy the produce and there will be no limit on quantity,” Goyal told reporters in the northern city of Chandigarh, adding that a similar price guarantee would also be offered to farmers who diversify and produce cotton.

The farmers’ unions said they would decide on the proposal within a day or two, after reaching a consensus among themselves.

Switching more crops to pulses from those such as rice and wheat that require more water will not only benefit a depleting water table but also help cut back on imports of pulses.

The world’s biggest importer of pulses, India has struggled to hold back increases in the prices of pigeon peas and black matpe.

Domestic corn demand has also been rising as the poultry and ethanol industries boost consumption.

Police have used tear gas and barricades to stop thousands of farmers, who mainly grow wheat and rice, from marching to New Delhi, to press their demand that the government ensure a minimum price for all their produce.

ISLAMABAD: Amid allegations of manipulation of results in the February 8 elections, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has urged Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa to take suo moto notice over the alleged rigging in the polls.

In a letter addressed to the CJP, PTI spokesperson Shoaib Shaheen has sought the apex judge’s action over alleged rigging in NA-47 and NA-48 constituencies which, according to him, will prove to be a first drop of rain for supremacy of the Constitution, rule of law, ensuring fundamental rights as well promoting democracy in the country.

The February 8 polls have been marred by allegations of rigging with the PTI, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and others complaining of fraud results in various constituencies across the country.

A day earlier, Rawalpindi Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha made shocking revelations of abetting large-scale electoral rigging while hurling serious allegations against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja and the CJP.

“We converted the losers into winners with a 50,000 votes margin,” he said during a press conference at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium while tendering his resignation and surrendering himself before the authorities.

Reacting to the accusations, CJP Isa demanded evidence of his involvement in the rigging of the February 8 elections.

“You level baseless allegations. There is no truth to it nor is evidence presented,” the top judge said in a statement.

Shaheen, in his letter to the chief justice, narrated the details of alleged rigging in the NA-47 constituency stressing that as per Form 45, he secured 104,578 votes to win by a margin of 53,000 votes.

However, he underscored that in Form 47, he was declared invalid with only 86,794 votes whereas Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Tariq Fazal Chaudhry was declared successful with 101,397 votes.

“Although I had secured the lead with 104,577 votes according to Form 45 while the said candidate got only 51,613 votes,” Shaheen contended, adding that the same form is kept by all 45 contending candidates, including Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Kashif Chaudhary and Hafiz Khawar Ikhlas and others

“After verifying Form 45, it should be ordered to issue Form 47 and final result and notification in the light thereof and it should also be ordered that the person bringing or using the tampered document will go to jail and this exercise can be done in just three days,” he said.

Furthermore, he stressed that this verification can be done by every district and session judge, who can be assisted by additional sessions judges and senior civil judges as well.

Lamenting that there are question marks on the enforcement of basic human rights and especially the sanctity and honour of the vote where billions of rupees were spent on elections, he said: “The right to vote has become a mere spectacle among the common citizens and if this is not addressed in time, anarchy will spread inside Pakistan,” the PTI leader concluded.