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LHC suspends ECP de-notification of 43 PTI lawmakers
from Epaper_23-02-9 KHI
Lahore Staff Report
In a landmark ruling that could have farreaching implications, the Lahore High Court (LHC) Wednesday suspended the decision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to de-notify 43 lawmakers of the Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf (PTI) party.
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The court has also temporarily postponed the by-elections in the constituencies represented by the denotified members, originally scheduled to take place in two phases on March 16 and 19, until further notice.
The ruling came after a plea was filed by Riaz Fatyana and other lawmakers challenging the National Assembly speaker’s approval of their resignations. The commission had acted after the speaker, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, sent the resignation letters to the electoral body.
Ashraf approved the letters last month after former prime minister Imran Khan indicated a return of his party to the parliament to appoint one of its members as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.
However, the development meant that only dissident lawmakers of the party, headed by “turncoat” opposition leader
Raja Riaz Ahmed, remained in the National Assembly.
Fawad Chaudhry, senior vice president of the party, had said the main reason for returning to the parliament was to remove Ahmed from the post since the parliament had “no importance”.
During the proceedings, Syed Ali Zafar, a lawyer for the PTI party, argued that its MPs had withdrawn their resignations prior to being accepted by the speaker of the National Assembly.
Zafar argued the speaker’s decision to accept the resignations was against the law and politically motivated, as the retractions made the speaker powerless to accept the resignations.
He also claimed that the speaker’s order was in violation of Supreme Court rules and that he had not even consulted with the PTI lawmakers before accepting their resignations.
As a result of Zafar’s arguments, the court suspended the speaker’s decision and the order from the election tribunal de-notifying the MPs.
The court also issued notices to the federal government and the ECP, instructing them to submit their responses in the matter at the next hearing.
More than 120 MPs loyal to former prime minister Khan resigned en masse
SC seeks details of earthquake relief funds, spending from ERRA
ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT on April 11, two days after he was ousted following a contentious vote of noconfidence marred by unprobed allegations of military intervention.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) to submit details of funds collected for 2005 earthquake relief and reconstruction. A three-member SC bench comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, and Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi heard the case filed by Prof Muhammad Ibrahim Khan against ERRA regarding funds received from the donor countries for relief and reconstruction of the earthquake affected areas in 2005. During the course of proceedings, the court summoned Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s chief secretary and secretary of relief work. The court asked how much funds were collected for rehabilitation of the earthquake-affected areas and how much funds generated at the national and international levels were spent on the relief and construction in affected areas.
Former deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Qasim Suri — who was performing his duties as acting speaker after then-incumbent Asad Qaiser’s resignation — accepted the resignation letters on April 15. However, once Ashraf was elected as the speaker, he decided to verify the resignations by interviewing lawmakers individually, but instead decided in favour
Bilawal urges IMF to avoid burdening flood-hit people with more inflation
ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari of stalling the entire process by blaming it on the lawmakers’ reluctance to step down.
Wednesday urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and world institutions to avoid burdening the flood hit people of Pakistan with more inflation. The formal talks between Islamabad and IMF started last month to discuss an economy-rescuing plan that also includes an instalment of a $1.1 billion loan payment from a $6.5 billion bailout package, which was designed to ward off Pakistan’s economic meltdown in 2019. The government in pursuance of the IMF’s demand for the much-needed loan has already increased the price of petroleum products which will move the already record-high inflation upwards and increase the rates of power, gas and other commodities that are also in the pipeline. The bailout package is critical for the nation of 220 million as the State Bank of Pakistan-held foreign exchange reserves are at a critical level of around $3 billion, for the week ended January 27, which is enough to cover imports for less than a month.
Such situations require a lot of thought process, he had said, declaring he will not accept the resignation letters until he was completely satisfied they were not stepping down under pressure.
However, after Khan hinted at “testing” the prime minister through a confidence vote in a tit-for-tat move similar to the one he himself had faced, Ashraf hastily accepted the resignations and sent the list to the commission.
Pakistan trashes reports it denied access to Indian flight
ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT problems. However, the ECP highlighted that conducting polls was its constitutional and legal responsibility and it would utilise all resources in this regard.
Pakistan has strongly rejected reports that it denied its airspace access to an Indian Air Force aircraft travelling to Turkey for relief operations, terming them as baseless, false and fabricated. According to diplomatic sources Pakistan never received any request from Indian side for any overflight. The sources said in absence of any request, the question of giving permission to any Indian aircraft for overflight was quite ridiculous. They said Indian media was propagating false and fabricated reports to malign Pakistan. Indian media reported that Pakistan has denied its airspace to Indian Air Force aircraft travelling to Turkey early Tuesday morning. This is the second time that Pakistan has attempted to prevent India from sending humanitarian aid to nations in need of it. Reports said IAF aircraft were following a standard routine for the HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief) missions from India to Turkey.
“The Election Commission will hold its own separate meeting in which the decision [on holding elections] will be taken keeping in mind the security of the people and the peaceful conduct of the election,” the statement said.
Earlier today, President Arif Alvi urged the ECP to “immediately announce” the date for polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab and put an end to “dangerous speculative propaganda” on both the provincial assembly and general elections.
In a letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja today, Alvi said that the election of an assembly is to be held within 90 days of the dissolution as provided by Article 224(2) of the Constitution.
The president conveyed that it was ultimately the commission, which if it failed to discharge its functions and duties, was to be held responsible and answerable for the violation of the Constitution of the country.
The letter came a day after the ruling coalition insisted that the country could not afford separate polls, confirming its intention that elections in Punjab and KP within 90 days were not going to happen.
PTI demands Raja Riaz’s removal as opposition leader after LHC verdict
LAHORE STAFF REPORT
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) demanded National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to issue a notification for removing Raja Riaz as leader of the opposition. Reacting over the LHC’s decision of restoring PTI 43 MNAs, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) urged the NA Speaker to show some decency and issued a notification to change the Leader of Opposition in the lower house. PTI leader and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry and Secretary General Asad Umar made the demand in a tweet after the Lahore High Court (LHC) suspended an order of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to denotify the 43 MNAs of the Imran Khan-led party. All the 43 PTI lawmakers, including Riaz Fatyana, Tahir Sadiq, Nasrullah Khan, moved the high court after the speaker and ECP accepted their resignations, which were submitted following the ouster of Imran Khan as prime minister in April last, despite their announcement regarding withdrawal of the resignations. Last month, the speaker had swiftly approved the resignations after the PTI announced to return to the National Assembly in a bid to bar opposition leader Raja Riaz, a dissident PTI leader, from negotiating with the government on caretaker setup in case general elections are announced or supporting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in noconfidence vote. The PTI wanted to appoint its leaders of the opposition and parliamentary leader to put pressure on the coalition government. Taking to Twitter, Fawad Chaudhry said the NA speaker should show some democracy in his actions and issued a notification to replace the leader of the opposition.
Minister urges export oriented policies to accelerate economic growth
ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
A senior official has said the government is committed to facilitating the country’s exports and urged the exporters to adopt export-oriented policies for the public and private sectors to accelerate export-led growth. Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal made the remarks during a roundtable with the nation’s exporters to review the progress of the exports and issues being faced by them. “Increasing exports is the only solution to get rid of the economic crisis and every sector should set a target to increase exports,” Iqbal said while assuring them the government would facilitate and remove all bottlenecks in this regard. He told the exporters that the government will soon organise a conference in which 50 brands of the country would be invited to highlight their work globally, adding that a body would be established for this purpose as well so that Pakistan’s work could be showcased internationally.