VERDICT RESERVED ON ASAD UMAR’S BAIL PLEA IN JUDICIAL COMPLEX ATTACK CASE

ISLAMABAD

S ta f f R e p o R t

TH E Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Islamabad has reserved its verdict on PTI leader Asad Umar ’s bail plea in the Judicial Complex attack case

The verdict will be announced today

(Tuesday)

During the hearing, ATC Judge Raja Jawad Abbas remarked that this was a unique case of its kind where the alleged terrorist went to attack empty-handed Judge Abbas will pronounce the verdict on Asad Umar s bail application tomorrow The petitioner s counsel said that on the day of the incident, Asad Umar did not even go to the Judicial Complex, adding he was in the Islamabad High Court He further said that CCTV cameras have been installed but Asad Umar could not be seen

LHC moved for removal of Mohsin Naqvi as Punjab caretaker CM

LAHORE: A petition filed by a citizen in Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday has sought the removal of Punjab caretaker CM Mohsin Naqvi and his cabinet members from office A plea filed in the LHC against Caretaker CM Punjab Naqvi has challenged his term in office According to the petitioner the term of the caretaker government in Punjab has come to an end as per the constitution The Supreme Court has extended the date for the election in the province but didn t increase the term of the caretaker government Caretaker CM Mohsin Naqvi unconstitutionally holding the office The chief minister and his cabinet’s continuing to remain in office has been a blatant violation of the constitution according to the plea Petitioner seeks the court order for the removal of Caretaker CM Mohsin Naqvi from office immediately and to restrain his interim government from functioning S ta f f R e p o Rt

PTI forms committee for LG polls preparation

The judge said that on that day, Judge Zafar Iqbal’s court was held in the same courtroom “I got a message at 1am that night that Judge Iqbal will hold court in my courtroom in the morning,” Judge Abbas remarked Former minister Asad Umar not only brought party workers but also resorted to arson Prosecutor Adnan Ali said The

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Chairman Board of Trustees AAOIFI

Ebrahim Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa said in his keynote address that the principles of Islamic capital markets foster social and economic development and support sustainable growth, job creation, poverty alleviation and the overall well-being of communities

He reiterated AAOIFI s overall commitment to the Islamic finance industry of Pakistan, as well as its capital market, and assured AAOIFI s full support for improving the quality of the implementation of its standards in the country

SECP Chairman Akif Saeed in his speech said that a calculated approach is needed to transform all segments of the financial system to transform into a complete Islamic ecosystem While highlighting key reforms introduced by

SECP in recent years within the sphere of Islamic finance, he assured the audience of SECP’s complete commitment to transform its regulated sectors in accordance with wishes of people of Pakistan as embodied in the Constitution He further laid down priority areas of SECP which include focus on promoting product development & innovative solutions, implementing international best practices in governance and ethical standards enhancing capacity building through collaborations and strengthening the legal and regulatory frameworks for Islamic finance The event was a great attempt at bringing together prominent speakers from Bahrain, Turkey, Malaysia, the UAE, and the UK, in addition to local industry experts scholars and practitioners Through a series of panel discussions and breakout sessions the judge asked him about any case till date where a terrorist goes to attack unarmed

The prosecutor claimed a campaign has been launched to destabilize all institutions, including the judiciary He added that PTI workers burnt vehicles outside the Judicial Complex

The petitioner ’s counsel Sardar Masroof said that if the PDM protests outside the Supreme Court no case is filed against them He further said the prosecution has lowered the standard of terrorists

Over in the district and sessions court, the PTI leader ’s interim bail was extended in a case registered at the Tarnol police station Additional Sessions Judge Tahir Abbas Supra extended the interim bail till June 5 Asad Umar appeared in the court along with his lawyer Sardar Busy Advocate Babar Awan is abroad, give a future date, requested the lawyer Additional Sessions Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra adjourned the hearing till June 5

Senator Saifullah Niazi rejoins PTI three days after depar ture

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) constituted a committee for the preparation of forthcoming Local Government (LG) Elections in Punjab The committee would be chaired by former Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan, which will comprise Humayun Akhtar, Riaz Fatyana, Rai Aziz Ullah, Faisal Sher Jan, Tariq Din Hafiz Farhat Wasim Qadir and Ejaz Minhas The committee will be reporting directly to the Secretary General on a daily basis through the chair Separately the PTI also notified Regional Presidents Punjab as Farrukh Habib was appointed as PTI West Punjab President; Sadaqat Ali Abbasi, North Punjab Dr Yasmin Rashid Central Punjab and Aun Abbass Buppi was appointed as PTI South Punjab Similarly the PTI also appointed Regional General Secretaries Punjab as Rai Murtaza was appointed as PTI West Punjab Regional General Secretary; Hammad Azhar, Central Punjab and Moeen Qureshi was notified as PTI Regional General Secretary South Punjab S ta f f R e p o Rt

KARACHI

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Jamaat-e-Islami on Monday filed a petition in Sindh High Court (SHC) seeking protection of the elected representatives of local councils Petitioner pleads the high court to restrain the chief secretary and I G Police Sindh from harassment of the elected representatives

Petitioner has sought providing details of cases against elected members of different towns The party has also sought court instructions to the election commission, to ensure that all elected representatives of local councils take oath The Election Commission of Pakistan, the Chief Secretary Sindh and I G Police Sindh have been made party in the petition The oath-taking ceremony of elected representatives in the Karachi Local Bodies elections-2023 took place on May 22 (Monday)

A tug of war ongoing between the Pakistan People s Party (PPP) and the JI for the prized post of Karachi Mayor

The PPP has emerged as the largest political group in the council with JI as the second largest party and the PTI third

The PTI has announced its support for the Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, JI s candidate for Karachi s Mayor This sup- participants highlighted growth opportunities in different segments of the Islamic capital market and non-bank financial sectors There was a broad consensus that a strategic development plan needs to be introduced and implemented for the organized development of Islamic finance across all sectors

On the topic of Islamic fintech, experts agreed that in the fast-changing dynamics of the market, propelled by technological advancements and the growing demand for innovative products that cater to emerging sectors tech-based products and services need special focus and facilitation Participants unanimously resolved that all stakeholders must work together for the shared prosperity of the Muslim Ummah through the development of a sustainable and efficient Islamic financial system

ISLAMABAD: Senator Saifullah Niazi has rejoined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) three days after leaving the party over May 9 vandalism The party leader had announced to quit the party over May 9 incidents while addressing a press conference in National Press Club However Saifullah Niazi was among the PTI Senators including Faisal Saleem Rehman, Hamayun Mohmand, Zarqa Taimur, Seemi Ezdi, Falak Naz Chitrali, Fiza Muhammad and Zeeshan Khanzada who addressed a joint press conference outside Parliament House on Monday and condemned the May 9 incidents The PTI Senators said that they had also submitted a condemnation resolution in Senate Secretariat Investigations should be conducted against those involved in May 9 mayhem and they should be tried in civilian courts they added The PTI Senators also supported Pakistan army saying that we salute our armed forces During joint press conference when media questioned Saifullah Niazi about his affiliation with PTI, Senator Zarqa replied that they are respectable Senator S ta f f R e p o R t

Police detains 532 suspects in violent protests on May 9

port gives the JI comfortable majority to win the mayor s office But there is a twist in the situation with reports that a number of union committee (UC) chairmen of the PTI were in contact with the PPP but the PTI has refuted the news

The election of the mayor and deputy mayor will take place on June 15 while the nomination papers can be submitted by June 9-10 The ECP schedule stated that the Returning Officer will check the nomination papers on June 11 and release final list of candidates on June 14 On June 16 the Returning Officers will announce the results whereas the successful candidates will take oath on June 19

RAWALPINDI: Police have detained 532 suspects in connection with violent protests on May 9 and the attack on the General Headquarters (GHQ) and other sensitive installations Police have been verifying their alleged involvement in the attack on GHQ and other sensitive installations to determine whether or not they should be tried under the Army Act 1952 Only after the verification will the cases be sent to military courts according to sources The suspects have been detained after FIRs were registered with the Rawal-pindi, Attock, Jhelum and Chakwal police Out of the 532 suspects, 374 had been arrested under section 7 of the AntiTerrorism Act 1997 which outlined punishments for acts of terrorism Police investigation into the GHQ attack case has not been finalised as the verification of suspects two of whom were women activists was underway They said raids were being conducted to arrest all those who have been nominated in the FIRs or identified through CCTV footage human intelligence and other sources Several suspects have fled their homes over fears of arrest The Rawalpindi police have registered 18 FIRs and arrested more than 356 suspects So far, more than 105 suspects have been held in connection with the GHQ attack and the identification parades for 23 have been completed In Rawalpindi district the cases have been registered with the City Police New Town Sadiqabad, Cantt, R A Bazar, Race Course, Westridge, Civil Lines, Morgah, Taxila, Saddar Wah, and Kallar Syedan S ta f f R e p o R t

TH E chess match between the superior judiciary and the legislature - which in the absence of members of the opposition benches means the executive, basically - continues

With the deadline of the Supreme Court’s decision on conducting polls in the Punjab having lapsed on the 14th of this month, all bets were off, including, if the more alarmist of the rumour mills in the federal capital were to be believed, a dismissal of the premier

That all has been put on hold as the government s lawyer, Mansoor Usman Awan informed the court that a legislation critical to the case has in fact become the law of the land after being signed by the President

The law states that suo motu judgments of the Supreme Court can be reviewed by a bigger bench The law will have retrospective effect which means that the honourable court’s suo motu decision on April 4th regarding the Punjab polls could be challenged

Whatever arguments for or against the Supreme Court (Review of Judgements and Orders) Bill, 2023 could be made, and there can be many, one thing is clear: the government has enacted this law only for the purposes as can be seen from above

Similarly, the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023, that seeks to, amongst other things, limit the powers of the Chief Justice, might have a lot of things going for it but the principal motivation comes from the government being at loggerheads with the current CJP

This is a sad state of affairs where matters as serious as these are seen only in the light of immediate political scuffles

For there to be recourse against a perceived injustice at the hands of a court is a good thing warts and all But it would have been a good thing even without the context of the Punjab polls and the government’s clear unwillingness to carry out the same

Similarly, this should also be a moment of introspection for the court The government, yes, isn t quite the exemplar of democracy, and the flimsy excuses it provides to delay the Punjab polls is evidence enough of that But the court s allegedly partisan decisions have also had a role to play in inducing the sort of desperation that further fuels sneaky behaviour like the one explained above

SH O W me a man who can unlearn silly notions and I will show you somebody who has the capacity to make meaningful progress in learning

A collection of silly ideas deeply entrenched in the mind is the greatest hurdle to intellectual progress Take an apparently innocuous opinion such as man being the best of God’s creation, or the belief that dark tea has a deleterious effect on one’s fair complexion Try making anybody who holds these or other such views see their utter silliness and ninety-nine times out of a hundred you will realize how utterly futile your effort has been

Let me first address a question that may have reared its head in the mind of the reader: What difference can belief howsoever silly on such trivial matters possibly make? The answer to this is that the human mind is supposed to be one whole More than the issue itself it is how one reaches one s conclusions that is important You cannot be whimsical when it comes to some issues and logical on other matters Thinking clearly and logically is a habit, not an arbitrary, case-by-case activity If one is not careful to prune away silly thoughts on the apparently trivial matters it is only a matter of time before one demonstrates a slipshod attitude towards the more serious issues as well Furthermore, reality itself must make a coherent picture in one s mind if one is to place any new items (new knowledge) into the framework already there If reality is a room then your view of it is like a wall-to-wall carpet If it is cut wrong in one c o r n e r i t m a y b e m a d e t o f i t t h e r e b u t w i l l i n - e v i t a b l y l e a v e a g a p o r a b u l g e s o m e w h e r e e l s e Since unscrutinised ideas constitute a large part of most everybody s view of the world, getting rid of these preconceived notions is imperative if one is t o m a k e a n y c o n t r i b u t i o n b e y o n d r e g u rg i t a t i n g t h o u g h t s a n d i d e a s h e a r d f r o m r a n d o m s o u r c e s many of which one does not even recall Until cons c i e n t i o u s m e n t a l h y g i e n e i s p r a c t i s e d a n d s i l l y ideas are continuously got rid of, no real progress can be made in understanding Unlearning, therefore, is an indispensable part of learning Purging the mind of silly ideas is easier said than done though From the moment one opens one’s eyes