Imran aSkS party to GEt rEaDy For JaIlBharotEhrEEk

ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt

UPPINGthe ante, Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaaf (PTI) Chairman and former premier Imran Khan Saturday urged the party leadership, workers and supporters to get ready for “Jail Bharo Tehreek” (Voluntary Imprisonment Movement), saying that he would make the announcement in this regard soon.

The former premier while announcing a new movement against the coalition government following the arrests of PTI leaders, said that the party leaders and workers should wait for his signal. The PTI chief said that the movement would convey to the ruling alliance which side the public stands with.

The PTI chairman while addressing his supporters via video link asked the workers and his party leaders to start preparation for the movement. Imran said that the ruling coalition was using tactics to delay the general elections, saying he never saw an interim government in the country’s political history which was allegedly busy targeting the opponents.

In October last year, Imran had also announced a similar movement against the coalition government in an attempt to force the government to announce date for snap polls. However, it didn’t materialise. During the 2014 sit-in, Imran had also announced a civil disobedient movement.

In the televised address, Imran also warned against any move to delay the elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkwa (KP).

Imran said the governors of the provinces are supposed to give date for new elections so that polls could be held in the within 90 days of the dissolution of the provincial legislatures.

“I was advised against dissolving assemblies but I did it keeping in mind that Constitution requires elections to be held within 90 days,” he added.

The PTI chief also claimed that “powerful quarters” used several tactics including intimidation to avert the

World Bank resumes parallel proceedings on concern over Indus Water treaty

NEW DELHI ReuteRS dissolution of the Punjab Assembly. “But despite all this, we secured confidence vote and dissolve assembly.”

The World Bank said its decision to allow two separate proceedings to resolve a long-running disagreement over water between Pakistan and India to run in parallel was because it feared the stalemate endangered the historic Indus Water Treaty. The comments from a World Bank spokesman were provided to Reuters by email and were the first explanation as to why it had resumed parallel proceedings after suspending them in 2016. “The World Bank considers that the lack of success in finding an acceptable solution, despite the best of efforts by all parties involved over the past years, is a risk to the treaty itself,” the spokesperson said. “It has therefore decided to resume the two separate processes requested by India and Pakistan.” To solve the dispute, India has suggested the appointment of a neutral expert, while Pakistan is seeking resolution through proceedings in the Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which began on January 27. The neighbours have been arguing over hydroelectric projects on the shared Indus river and its tributaries for decades.

Pakistan complains that India’s planned hydropower dams will cut flows on the river, which feeds 80 percent of its irrigated agriculture. India has accused Pakistan of dragging out the complaints process since 2015 and says the construction of its Kishanganga and Ratle Hydro Electric projects is allowed by the treaty. India has boycotted The Hague court proceedings and on January 25 sent a notice to Islamabad asking it to agree to modify the 1960 treaty, put together by the World Bank, to bar third parties from intervening in disputes. “The treaty has been a profoundly important international agreement in support of peace and development for South Asia […] its preservation has been among the World Bank’s highest priorities,” the bank spokesperson said. “According to international law, a treaty may be amended by agreement between the parties.” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday that India had asked Pakistan to notify a suitable date to start talks to modify the treaty. Pakistan’s attorney general’s office said on January 27 that the treaty cannot be unilaterally modified and that India was trying to divert attention from proceedings of the Court of Arbitration. The World Bank had said in 2016 the two separate approaches to resolving the water issue risked producing contradictory outcomes.

Imran said despite the passage of 18 days of the dissolution of the provincial assemblies, the Punjab and KP governors have not yet given a date to the ECP for new elections.

“After 90 days, the Article 6 will be applied to all those who are part of this [interim] governments if new elections are not held,” he warned.

Separately, in a meeting with PML-Q leader Pervaiz Elahi, Imran held “some other people” responsible for the latest arrests of PTI leaders. the govt reSpondS: The announcement of Jail Bharo Tehreek soon drew reaction from the government side where Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb chided the PTI leadership by saying that it didn’t even have the courage to go to jail and the announcement was merely to use party workers.

Imran in the meeting said the coalition government is not concerned about law and order situation but to crush its opponents.

Without naming anyone, he said “some other people” are behind the vindictive actions of the government. The matter of elections of Punjab and KP assemblies also came under discussion during the meeting.

The former premier said the incumbent government will have to hold elections in both the provinces within 90 days failing which they will be tried under Article 6 for violating the Constitution.

The government’s spokesperson threw a gauntlet to PTI leadership to lead by example and go to jail before the party workers and supporters. Before that, the information minister challenged the PTI leadership to first surrender before the courts and withdraw bails taken in different cases.

As she was addressing media, PTI’s vice chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi vowed that the party would fill all the jails of Pakistan on Imran’s call, saying this way the “fascist imported government’s wish” would be fulfilled. He said that the handcuff and torture was nothing and they could lay life for the motherland.

During the press conference, Marriyum while referring to Imran said that a man was repeating the same speech that he has been giving for the past 20 years. However, she said, it was not easy to mislead the people of Pakistan. During PTI rule, Marriyum said that Imran put opposition and journalists in jails, saying Imran even went to America and talked about taking revenge from political opponents. She said that people of Pakistan were in trouble due to the wrong decisions of Imran-led government.

Islamabad

ejaz aRShad CheeMa

Two armed men allegedly raped a girl in F9 Park area of the federal capital at gunpoint, police said Saturday, an incident that has sent shockwaves across country.

The incident took place Thursday night when two armed men approached the victim at F-9 Park, who was there with her male colleague, according to the First Information Report (FIR).

The gun-toting aggressors took the two to a nearby thicket at gunpoint and separated them, according to the FIR. The attackers beat the young woman up when she pleaded with them to let her go and even offered them money in exchange for her

Federal Minister for Climate Change, Senator Sherry Rehman said that Imran Khan’s refusal to attend the All Parties Conference (APC) called by the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reflects his priorities do not align with Pakistan’s security and interests.

Minister Rehman said,”As Pakistan goes through a time of great crisis, it is unfortunate to witness that Imran Khan continues to act out a narrative that has lost its relevance & credibility. By calling the APC, the coalition government is trying to bring the country’s political leadership on one-page to discuss collective strategies to overcome the challenges the country is facing, but Khan’s politics of polarization only diminishes the national unity needed to fight national threats, particularly terrorism, on which he still signals ambiguity.” She continued, “Imran’s refusal to attend the Committee Meeting held in Governor House Peshawar to discuss the Peshawar Mosque tragedy anti-terror