‘SEEING AMICABLE END,’ TARAR SAYS TECHNICAL COMMITTEE TO REVIEW JI DEMANDS
g SAY TALKS WITH JI DELEGATION HELD IN A PLEA SANT ATMOSPHERE, HOPING ISSUES WILL BE RESOLVED IN NEXT ROUND ON MONDAY
g JI EMIR WARNS TO EXTEND RAWALPINDI SIT-IN TO ACROSS COUNTRY IF DEMANDS NOT ACCEPTED
PESHAWAR/LAHORE
S TA F F R E P O R T
The Khyber Pakhunkhwa government, led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on Sunday wrote a letter to Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) Chief Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim requesting for the constitution of a judicial commission to investigate the May 9 incident Confirming the development, KP Law Minister Aftab Alam Afridi, told to a private TV channel that: “The letter requesting the establishment of a judicial
‘Fake
S TA F F R E P O R T
The Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday denied authenticity in the report circulating on social media about Germany handing over of those involved in the attack on Pakistani consulate in Frankfurt When asked whether the suspects involved in the vandalism were handed over to Pakistan, as being claimed in a report on social media FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch termed the report a fake news Dozens of miscreants had at-
commission was sent to the chief justice by the administration department Afridi said that that the PHC CJ will announce the names for the commission, with a judge from PHC to head it On the other hand Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari criticized the KP government s request for a judicial commission to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) over the May 9 incidents, calling it a failed attempt to hide under the judicial hammer and an admission of their crimes Bukhari alleged that there is substan-
so factories should be established here which would help end unemployment
tacked the Pakistani consulate during a protest in Frankfurt on July 20 Following which, the German police had arrested two suspects Reports indicated that German authorities had allowed Afghan nationals to hold a peaceful protest However the demonstration s participants turned violent lobbed stones at the consulate building, and removed the country’s flag, leading to heightened tensions After arresting two Afghan nationals German police had anticipated more arrests as they continued to identify additional protesters with the help of video footage
tial evidence including videos pictures and audio of the failed May 9 conspiracy The instigator has already admitted to the rebellion, with confirmation from Salman Akram Raja, the legal counsel of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan” she claimed She further noted that the identities of all the characters facilitators and masterminds behind the May 9 conspiracy are now clear Bukhari used the metaphor, “When a jackal sees death, it runs towards the city ” implying that judicial commissions are typically formed
A day after the incident Pakistan condemned the attack by the gang of extremists on its consulate as well as the failure of the German authorities to protect the sanctity and security of the premises of its consular mission Meanwhile Pakistan had summoned Germany s senior most diplomat to register a strong protest over the incident The FO statement had said that the responsibility to protect the premises and ensure the security of diplomats falls under the host government under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963
for hidden and unresolved matters
The provincial information minister labelled the failed May 9 uprising as a conspiracy against the country , asserting that “no one can become a Che Guevara or Nelson Mandela by using the judiciary’s shoulder” Bukhari condemned the KP government s move to seek a judicial commission equating it to an admission of guilt Bukhari concluded by saying, Alhamdulillah, our leader returned, his disqualification was overturned and the people gave him their mandate”
Trump vows to make US cr ypto capital and Bitcoin super power
and
Trump
if the Republicans do not win the election, “the country will be in bad shape ” adding: “We have to fight and we have to win ” I pledge to the Bitcoin community the day that I take the oath of the office Joe Biden-Kamala Harris anti-crypto crusade will be over It will end It will be done,” he added
and other ailments
to further prevent
Five years on, APHC condemns August 5 militar y siege of Kashmir
a thorough investigation They have also detained and quizzed several people after the video went viral Defense Minister Khawaja Asif had asked whether Afghans should be hosted after the incident in Germany Asif had termed the Afghans thankless and said that Pakistan was still hosting four million Afghans He had said that Pakistan fought a war with Russia for Afghans and was now fighting against terrorism Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar while addressing a press conference about the attack on the Pakistani consulate had had said that the National Database and Registration Authority s chairman had been tasked to review the attack s footage and check whether any Pakistani citizen was involved or was just one nation’s people who attacked Tarar had said that if any Pakistani was found to be involved then their ID card and passport would
Pakistani officials take note of China’s success in pover ty alleviation during Beijing seminar
BEIJING
S tA f f R e P o R t
A delegation of 19 officials, business representatives, and experts from Islamabad, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab recently participated in a two-week seminar in China
Hosted by the China Center for Urban Development of the National Development and Reform Commission this seminar was part of the 2024 bilateral training programs supported by Chinese aid
The seminar provided a comprehensive overview of China’s poverty alleviation process covering topics such as China s land system urbanization development relocation for poverty alleviation industrial policies and practices food security smart agriculture and rural public services improvement
The seminar concluded on July 24, as reported by Gwadar Pro on Sunday In Guizhou Province’s Zunyi and Bijie Cities, the participants experienced China’s poverty alleviation and rural revitalization efforts firsthand They visited Zhijin County known for its Miao ethnic group s batik and embroidery techniques with over 2 000 years of history
The delegation toured local production workshops and folk villages to learn about traditional handicrafts their market value and their impact on local employment and income
They also visited Huawu, a village that has transformed from poverty to boasting clean roads and charming antique houses The participants praised the village’s successful integration of poverty alleviation with rural revitalization noting improvements in ecological industrial and cultural aspects
During the exchange sessions participants shared updates on poverty reduction, public service improvements, and sustainable development efforts in their provinces They also discussed the potential for enhanced China-Pakistan cooperation in poverty alleviation under the “Belt and Road” initiative
One attendee expressed deep gratitude to China stating I am profoundly thankful to China for sharing its successful poverty alleviation experiences and results Pakistan faces significant challenges in rural development and poverty alleviation, but seeing China’s achievements has strengthened our confidence in overcoming these challenges by applying the lessons learned
NEWS DESK
Cambridge International Education (CIE) has officially canceled the AS-Level Mathematics paper that was leaked and announced that students will not be graded based on it In a recent statement CIE confirmed that students marks will be determined by their performance in the second AS-Level Mathematics paper and other examinations
This decision follows the leak of the Mathematics paper on May 2 which was widely circulated on social media platforms particularly Facebook The paper leak created a challenging situation for students, raising concerns about the potential cancellation of the exam and its impact on their overall grades Initially addressing these concerns, CIE stated, “We are looking into concerns raised about a potential paper leakage on 02 May 2024 for AS Level Mathematics 9709 Paper 12 This is being investigated and Cambridge and the British Council are in close communication To maintain fairness and integrity in the examination process, CIE has taken this step The official report from Cambridge International Education UK revealed that the breach occurred in Pakistan and was exposed by students before the exam took place The report detailed that CIE s decision not to award marks for the leaked paper aims to ensure all students are fairly assessed based on their performance in the remaining exams
To further support affected students Cambridge has announced that those wishing to retake the exam will have the opportunity to do so in November without incurring any re-examination fees C
Power protests
Jamaat Islami knows which buttons to push whatever the countr y
THE Jamaat Islami Pakistan is at the forefront of the protests against power price hikes that are at the heart of pub;iv discontent against inflation Meanwhile though the protests seems to have died down, the Jamaar is accused by the ruling Awami League of being behind the protests against hob quotas which led to almost 200 people being killed by police or Army firing While the Jamaat may be viewed with cynicism for its involvement in such nitty-gritty issues it should not be denied that it has chosen issues which appeal to large sections of the public Perhaps more a cause of concern for Jamaat opponents the issues have not gone away, and may not just recur in the countries they are now occurring in but may well break out elsewhere in areas where the Jamaat is present In Pakistan, the Jamaat is plowing a lonely furrow, not being in alliance with any other party neither being in the ruling alliance nor the opposition While it strongly criticizes the electricity price hikes carried out by the former it does not join the latter ’s calls for fresh elections It perhaps recognizes that, whichever side holds office the power tariffs will be determined by the need for an IMF programme It is also a tacit acknowledgement that the Jamaat is unlikely to improve on its tally of seats in any immediate election which was zero, and as a result of which the party s Amir, Sirajul Haq, resigned, with Naeemur Rehman elected in his place The Jamaat did garner about a million votes nationwide, which gives it a base, though a small one on which to build for the future Its sister party in Bangladesh is accused of trying to use the student protests to overthrow the Awami League government which was reelected for a third consecutive term in the recent election The protests were over quotas for the descendants of 1971 War veterans in government jobs The Awami League sees the descendants of historical supporters getting jobs, while the Jamaat, which was not just on Pakistan’s side during the War but also recently lost its Amir and other leaders to trials for alleged war crimes during the 1971 War, opposes them Both are potentially explosive issues Bangladesh also has sought an IMF package and if power tariffs there too rise the issue could rise there too Not that it is over in Pakistan, as the government has engaged the Jamaat in talks without making any promises Pakistan too has a young population, for which there are not enough jobs, government or private Here too there is a tinder-box just waiting for a spark And in either country It is the Jamaat doing the waiting
Dedicated to the legac y of late Hameed Nizami Arif Nizami (Late) Founding Editor
M A Niazi Editor Pakistan Today Babar Nizami Editor Profit
N o N e w s
THE International Monetary Fund (IMF), which came into existence around the end of World War II turned 80 The reason for its formation was primarily to give it an oversight role so that countries could not manipulate domestic currencies as a number of countries did during the Great Depression of the 1930s whereby they devalued their currencies to give positive impetus to exports In addition to the oversight role, the IMF was mandated to provide balance of payments (BoP) support to member countries to correct these fundamental imbalances Highlighting the historical aspects of how it came into existence a recently released report The Bretton Woods institutions at 80: towards a bigger better and more inclusive global economic governance architecture by Boston University s Global Development Policy Center ’ pointed out ‘July 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Agreement that established the post World War II multilateral economic order The agreement reached at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods New Hampshire in 1944, led to the establishment of the Bretton Woods institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the precursor to the World Bank both of which in their current forms “remain at the centre of global financial governance today While the original agreement also considered trade to be a key pillar proposing the International Trade Organization (ITO), progress towards a multilateral
i e s , g i v e n t h e a l r e a d y w e a k f i s c a l s p a c e s i t u a t i o n f a c i n g d e v e l o p i n g c o u n t r i e s , i n g e n e r a l , i n t h e w a k e o f C o v i d p a n d e m i c , a n d t h e f a s t - u n f o l d i n g c l i m a t e c h a n g e c r i s i s Making it par t of the solution, not the problem
organization governing global trade took consider-
ably longer In the meantime, a handful of countries joined the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947 which would eventually provide the structure and form of the World Trade Organization (WTO) established in 1995
Moreover the IMF provided assistance to needful member countries on the basis of programme conditionalities; where the scope of such assistance increased considerably both after the break-up of the USSR, where a number of countries gained independence and also given the inherent flaws of the programme itself pushing countries to keep coming back for more programmes Hence the Washington Consensus basis of IMF programmes which is highly tilted towards a neoliberal policy thought process, has not allowed sustained macroeconomic stability, and economic growth for recipient countries mainly because of over-emphasis on aggregate demand squeeze policies or in other words emphasis on practice of over-board austerity policies instead of much-needed balanced approach on both aggregate demand-, and aggregate squeeze policies
The other problem has been the governance of the IMF itself, whereby allocation of resources, and decision-making favours the rich, advanced countries who contribute more resources to the IMF The same Report pointed out in this regard For the IMF and the World Bank a significant rebalancing of voting power must be complemented by fundamental governance reforms to ensure more voice and representation for EMDEs [emerging market and developing economies] ’ Instead, every member country should be given equal voice in terms of voting Moreover instead of making allocation of resources on the basis of quota sharing formula financial allocation should be made on need basis For instance enhanced allocation of special drawing rights (SDRs) in the wake of the covid-18 pandemic in August 2021, and on the basis of ‘quota-sharing’ formula, meant that countries, which already have ample fiscal space received most of the allocation of $650 billion while it should have been the other way round given much higher fiscal and debt repayment needs of developing
t h e t o pt e n m o s t c l i m a t e c h a l l e n g e d c o u n t r i e s A l s o , t h e I M F s h o u l d d o a w a
n
c
In this God-granted Islamic Republic of Pakistan, gods have overgrown; humans have shrunk
consider the plentiful resources nature provides as exclusively their own They dole out a fraction of that to people and think they own them also Revolutions can only correct this outrage or God’s hand that fell on the Pharaohs or Nimrods In Pakistan the situation is the opposite Our politicians rulers and the departments judiciary the military and the police all live on peoples resources the taxes they pay the food they grow, and the industry they run with their sweat and blood They have just no right to treat people as their subjects and slaves They are, in fact the peoples’ servants in every derivative of the word How can they frame rules asking the masters not to question the servants? If a servant fails to perform deserves to be admonished That applies to all the categories of servants in any position of responsibility Pakistan is supposed to be a democratic country We have a constitution that guarantees rights to every Pakistani It fully protects the rights of government servants to prevent their exploitation If someone is guilty of violating the Constitution the courts and courts alone must decide the matter In a democracy, a woodcutter s son can rise to be the president of the USA, and a nobody’s son could become the prime minister of Pakistan The woodcutter ’s son never tried to behave like a king of his country; a nonentity s son also has no right to act like one My friend Shabbir from the UK sounded utterly despairing Pakistan is finished; there is no hope,” he said I told him, “Not me I will never lose hope in Pakistan I firmly believe in the truth of its birth: It was ordered by the Prophet (PBUH) All those who were responsible for its dismemberment in 1971 Bhutto Mujib and Indira met with unenviably ignominious ends as they had sinned against Pakistan It is not a human judgment It is the verdict of history The present enemies of Pakistan will also meet a similar fate There should be no doubt that those who have ruthlessly sucked the
blood of the people of Pakistan and committed untold heinous crimes against them
from murder grabbing and looting to violating female modesty will face the wrath of Allah here and hereafter They have rubbished the law and made a mockery of the Constitution They have destroyed institutions and created a culture of lawlessness and might be right They have openly nurtured relations with the enemies of Pakistan and Islam They only accord cosmetic treatment to Shariah Their men and their women consider immorality as understood in Islamic tradition a mere ultra-fundamentalism They make no bones about it One of them said that sexual relations before marriage are perfectly normal, blatantly mocking the Quranic injunction
people They are tremendously loving
A Hear tfelt Critique of PIA’s Decline
not allow enough time to make amends The torture of regrets however is forever
The writer has served in the Pakistan Army as Major General)
askari raza malik
Decentralization of he Power System
China is expor ting its AI sur veillance state
to support its own surveillance state, we recently set out to explore the patterns and political consequences of trade in these technologies After constructing a database for global trade in facialrecognition AI from 2008 to 2021 we found 1 636 deals from 36 exporting countries to 136 importing countries From this dataset, we document three developments
First, China has a comparative advantage in facial-recognition AI It exports to roughly twice as many countries as the United States does (83 versus 57 links), and it has about 10% more trade deals (238 versus 211) Moreover its comparative advantage in facial-recognition AI is larger than in other frontier-technology exports such as radioactive materials steam turbines and laser and other beam processes
While different factors may have contributed to China’s comparative advantage, we know that the Chinese government has made global dominance in AI an explicit developmental and strategic goal and that the facial-recognition AI industry has benefited from its demand for surveillance technology often receiving access to large government datasets
Second, we find that autocracies and weak democracies are more likely to import facial-recognition AI from China While the U S predominantly exports the technology to mature democracies (these account for roughly two-thirds of its links or three-quarters of its deals) China exports roughly equal amounts to mature democracies and autocracies or weak democracies
Does China have an autocratic bias or is it simply
exporting more to autocracies and weak democracies across all products? When we compared China s exports of facial-recognition AI to its exports of other frontier technologies, we found that facial-recognition AI is the only technology for which China displays an autocratic bias Equally notable, we found no such bias when investigating the U S One potential explanation for this difference is that autocracies and weak democracies might be turning specifically to China for surveillance technologies That brings us to our third finding: autocracies and weak democracies are more likely to import facial-recognition AI from China in years when they experience domestic unrest The data make clear that weak democracies and autocracies tend to import surveillance AI from China but not from the U S during years of unrest rather than pre-emptively or after the fact Imports of military technology follow a similar pattern By contrast we do not find that mature democracies import more facialrecognition AI in response to unrest A final question concerns broader institutional changes in these countries Our analysis shows that imports of Chinese surveillance AI during episodes of domestic unrest are indeed associated with a country s elections becoming less fair less peaceful and less credible overall And a similar pattern appears to hold with imports of U S surveillance AI, though this finding is less precisely estimated At the same time, we do not find any association between surveillance AI imports and institutional quality among mature democracies So rather than interpreting our findings as the causal impact of AI on institutions we view imports of surveillance AI and the erosion of domestic institutions in autocracies and weak democra-
c e i n t h e M i d d l e E a s t a r e h i g h l y u n i f i e d a n d h a v e g r e a t e r c o n t i n ui t y M o r e o v e r, C h i n a ' s l o n g - t e r m g o a l i s s u p p o r t e d b y R u s s i a , E u r o p e a n d m o s t c o u n
TAnzEEl KHAnzADA
ISRAEL’S DEMAND FOR CHANGES TO PL AN COMPLICATES GA Z A TRUCE AGREEMENT
New government declares Britain ‘ broke and broken’
Britain’s government declared the country was “broke and broken” ahead of an assessment of the public finances on Monday which the newly-elected Labour Party will use to blame their predecessors for a 20 billion pound ($26 billion) shortfall
Elected to run the world’s sixth-largest economy in a landslide victory on July 4 Labour has spent much of its first three weeks in power telling the public that things are worse than expected in almost every area of public policy Finance Minister Rachel Reeves will set out the findings of a fiscal review in a statement to parliament that will accuse the Conservative Party – which led the country for the previous 14 years – of making unfunded spending commitments to try to win public support
“The assessment will show that Britain is broke and broken –revealing the mess that populist politics has made of the economy and public services a statement issued by Prime Minister Keir Starmer s office said
“It will show that the previous government made significant funding commitments for this financial year without knowing where the money would come from The Conservatives have dismissed Labour’s widely-previewed announcement of a ‘black hole’ in the public finances as a fabricated pretext for tax rises it did not disclose during the election campaign Some economists were also sceptical, saying there were few
and
have mooted that
use Monday s statement to pave the way for other tax rises at the subsequent budget The Financial Times said she would delay some road and hospital building projects The government statement did not set out any measures but senior Labour minister Pat McFadden said: We will not shy away from being honest with the public about the reality of what we have inherited ”
Bangladesh students vow to resume protests unless leaders freed
DHAKA A G E N C I E S
A Bangladeshi student group has vowed to resume protests that sparked a lethal police crackdown and nationwide unrest unless several of their leaders are released from custody on Sunday
Last week’s violence killed at least 205 people, according to police and hospital data in one of the biggest upheavals of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina s 15-year tenure Army patrols and a nationwide curfew remain in place more than a week after they were imposed, and a police dragnet has scooped up thousands of protesters including at least half a dozen student leaders Members of Students Against Discrimination whose campaign against civil service job quotas precipitated the unrest, said they would end their weeklong protest moratorium The group’s chief Nahid Islam and others should be freed and the
cases against them must be withdrawn”, Abdul Hannan Masud told reporters in an online briefing late Saturday
Masud who did not disclose his location because he was in hiding from authorities also demanded visible actions be taken against government ministers and police officers responsible for the deaths of protesters
“Otherwise Students Against Discrimination will be forced to launch tough protests from Monday, he said Islam and two other senior members of the protest group were on Friday forcibly discharged from a hospital in the capital Dhaka and taken away by a group of plainclothes detectives
Earlier in the week Islam told media that he was being treated at the hospital for injuries police inflicted on him during an earlier round of detention and said he was in fear for his life
Home minister Asaduzzaman
Khan told reporters Friday that the trio were taken into custody for their own safety but did not confirm if they had been formally arrested Police told reporters on Sunday that detectives had taken two others into custody while a Students Against Discrimination activist informed that a third had been taken on Sunday morning
At least 9 000 people have been arrested nationwide since the unrest began according to Prothom Alo Bangladesh s largest daily newspaper While a curfew imposed last weekend remains in force, it has been progressively eased through the week in a sign of the Hasina government s confidence that order was gradually being restored Telecommunications minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak told reporters the country s mobile internet network would be restored later
CORPORATE CORNER
FPCCI ADVOCATES FOR BOOSTING TOURISM TO DRIVE ECONOMIC GROWTH
encroachments are distributed as follows: approximately 5,809 acres in Punjab 1 181 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 5 948 acres in Sindh and 1 034 acres in Balochistan
The occupied land includes commercial, residential, agricultural, and other types of encroachments
To address the issue the department has decided to expedite its anti-encroachment operations across the
The goal is to recover railway land that has been used for residential, commercial, and agricultural purposes for decades Joint procedure orders have been issued to all Divisional Superintendents of Pakistan Railways to facilitate the recovery of land from encroachers Anti-encroachment operations are being initiated by the concerned divisions, and notices under the Possession Ordinance 1965 are being issued to encroach-
ers giving them 14 days to vacate the railway land and structures Pakistan Railways has enlisted the support of Pakistan Railway Police District Administration and law enforcement agencies to assist in these operations Currently Pakistan Railways owns 167 690 acres of land nationwide: 90,326 acres in Punjab, 39,428 acres in Sindh, 28,228 acres in Balochistan, and 9 708 acres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
PTI leader Shibli Faraz has approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC), seeking removal of his name from the Exit Control List (ECL) The registrar's office has scheduled Faraz’s petition for a hearing on Monday (tomorrow) with Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri set to preside over proceedings of the case
lamabad, Rawalpindi, and other cities in Punjab The courts have granted him bail in these cases Case filed against PTI legislators in Mailsi An anti-corruption case has been registered against PTI MNA Aurangzeb Khichi and MPA Jahanzaib Khichi from Mailsi
According to the FIR, the MNA and MPA allegedly used political influence and colluded with government officials The brothers are also accused of illegally constructing a road on 17 kanals of land belonging to the Khalsa College adjacent to a boys' college managed by the Auqaf Department
The petition names the Interior Secretary and other officials as respondents Shibli Faraz is currently facing over 20 different cases in Is-
The FIR states that the illegal construction increased the commercial value of their private town potentially causing the government a loss of millions of rupees The AntiCorruption Establishment has initiated further inquiries into the matter S h i b l i Fa ra z m ove
The Anti-Corruption Establishment has accused the Khichi brothers of illegally occupying and selling government land The FIR also names Patwari Saqlain Shah, Iftikhar Khichi, and frontman Qaiser Abbas
The 2nd meeting of FPCCI Central Standing Committee on Public Relations in Karachi/Lahore/Islamabad was held Attendees
Shujat Ali Baig, Syed Turab Shah, Muddasir Alam Irfan Bhai Ammar Mazafar Zahid
Iqbal Ali Pesnani Mahmood Ahmed Khan Changgaiz Hussain Khan, Akhtar
(Lhr - Zoom)
(Zoom)
I T E D E F F O R T S T O E R A D I C AT E H E PAT I T I S C
Israel vows
‘vengeance’ as rocket kills 12 at football ground; Hezbollah denies responsibilit y
A G E N C I E S
A rocket
PPP prepared for talks with PTI if Imran agrees: Shah
Senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Khurshid Shah has stated that his party is prepared to facilitate dialogue if Imran Khan the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-eInsaf (PTI), is willing to engage Speaking to the media in Quetta, Shah welcomed the possibility of talks as a positive development “It is being said that the PTI founder is ready to talk If Imran Khan is ready to talk then that s a positive thing President Asif Ali Zardari has always tried to solve problems through negotiations, and the PPP would play its role if needed ” Shah said The PPP’s willingness to engage comes amidst a period of heightened political instability following the PTI s hard-line stance
against the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government
The PPP along with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and other allies supports the PML-N
Since Khan s ouster through a vote of no confidence in 2022, the PTI has maintained a strong opposition to the PPP-PML-N alliance
Political tensions increased after the February 8 elections which saw the two parties forming a coalition government in the Centre Calls for reconciliation have been growing from various societal and political quarters, urging the PTI to negotiate with the government
The PTI had previously rejected talks with what it termed the Form-47 government instead showing a preference for dialogue with the military establishment
In April, PTI s Shehryar Afridi indicated a preference for negotiations with the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and the Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (DG ISI)
Subsequently PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub mentioned that Imran Khan had assigned significant responsibility to former President Dr Arif Alvi Last month, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar confirmed that Khan had approved discussions with the government Similarly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan s sister Aleema Khan called for state institutions to remain neutral for the country’s progress Federal Minister for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik also urged the PTI to come to the table for talks to resolve ongoing issues
Sharp decline in cotton prices sparks concerns among ginners and growers
