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Friday, 5 February, 2021 I 22 Jamadi-ul-Sani, 1442 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XI No 218 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
PDM announces long March, will contest elections jointly g
Opp believes in the Overall package Of electiOn refOrms, says fazl
NewS DeSk the pakistan Democratic movement has announced that it will hold its long march against the ruling pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (pti) on march 26, and has also stated that the 11-party opposition alliance will contest the upcoming senate elections jointly. pDm president and Jamiat Ulema-eislam-fazl (JUi-f) chief maulana fazlur rehman made the above announcement to reporters after an hours-long meeting of the alliance’s leadership in the federal capital on thursday. rehman stated that the caravans will leave from all over the country towards islamabad on march 26 and termed it a “mehengai march (march against inflation)”. he also affirmed that the pDm opposes the open ballot method. “the opposition believes in the overall package of election reforms,” he said. “it seems as if pti does not believe in its members and the pti leadership wishes to make such unsavoury people senators that their own members are not willing to vote for them,”
fazl remarked. rehman claimed that prime minister imran is distributing development funds in a way that is tantamount to “bribery”. “now the supreme court judges have taken a suo moto notice, the dissemination of these funds should be stopped,” he said, adding that for those government employees protesting against the government on february 10, they would find the support of the pDm. regarding the senate elections, fazl said: “We will contest the senate elections jointly; there will be a joint strategy for it and we will not compete against each other. We will field joint candidates.” When asked about the pDm’s plans to resign from the assemblies, he said the option would be considered later. “you must have patience,” added pakistan muslim league-nawaz (pml-n) vice president maryam nawaz the pDm president also said that the skyrocketing prices of electricity, gas and petroleum have made the lives of the common man difficult and declared that the opposition would stand
coronavirus in
Pakistan
CONFIRMED CASES:
550,540
LAST UPDATED AT 7:32 AM ON FEBRUARY 4, 2021
DAY'S DEATH TOLL:
31
RECOVERED:
NEW CASES:
1,508 DEATHS:
505,818 11,833 SINDH:
PUNJAB:
248,919
159,311
KP:
BALOCHISTAN:
AJK/GB:
ISLAMABAD:
67,803
18,840
9,100 / 4,912 41,655
“shoulder-to-shoulder” against the “illegitimate rulers”. “[We] are ready to give any sacrifice required to bring them out of this difficult situation,” the JUi-f chief said on the occasion. in regard to the foreign funding case against the pti, rehman alleged that 23 accounts were brought to attention, “but 18 are being hidden”. to this effect, he said that pm imran can no longer be considered honest. - advertisement “Justice demands a prompt decision in this regard, otherwise it is the murder of justice,” said fazl. “the talk of an open trial of the matter was nothing but a drama and has no standing,” he added. “the opposition will continue its protest against the behaviour of the speaker and the chairman in the national assembly (na) and senate and we will not cooperate with them in running proceedings of the house at any cost,” the pDm president added. the alliance also “rejects” the onemember inquiry commission comprising former supreme court judge, Justice (r) azmat saeed sheikh, set up by the government to probe the broadsheet scandal, and “declares it an attempt by the government to mask its corruption”, he added. speaking on the report by transparency international (ti) in which pakistan fell four places in the corruption perception index (cpi), rehman said that imran, who once lauded the agency, has now himself been declared as “the most corrupt man”. “he has been declared a certified thief,” rehman maintained. to a question by a journalist of what the pDm has decided about bringing a no-confidence motion to overthrow the government, fazl said that since the alliance has decided to contest the senate elections, “until the elections are over we will not announce anything final”.
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Real journalists being thrown out of the country, says Justice Isa ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
Justice Qazi faez isa remarked during a supreme court (sc) hearing that media is not free in the nation when real journalists are being thrown out of the country. When he asked attorney-general of pakistan (agp) khalid Javed khan if media was free, the agp requested the chance to answer in more than just a yes or no. to this, Justice isa said that a referendum should be held with the media persons present in the courtroom. he said that the media in the court should raise their hands if they think the media is free and, in another question, to raise their hand if they think there was freedom of the press in the country. in both cases, no journalist raised their hand. On the occasion, he also opined on local government (lg) elections, stating that local body (lb) elections are a constitutional requirement but the provinces would rather list their problems than fulfil their constitutional duty. Justice isa even said that punjab had “killed” democracy by dissolving the local government before the expiry of its term and inquired into why this was done. he asked if punjab was in the mood to abolish the lg system
Govt will not offer Sinopharm Covid-19 jabs to people over 60 ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
Days after punjab minister for health Dr yasmin rashid generated concerns by suggesting the chinese sinopharm may not be risk-free, state minister for health Dr faisal sultan on thursday said that the jabs were not recommended for individuals over the age of 60. his statement comes a day after the government began the distribution of half a million stateowned sinopharm doses donated by china simultaneously in all provinces and administrative units of the country. speaking to reporters, Dr faisal said that a government expert committee after considering the preliminary analysis of sinopharm data had recommended the shots be distributed among people aged 18-60 “at this stage”. “at this stage, the [committee] did not authorise the vaccine for people older than 60,” he added. Dr faisal observed this was not an “unusual” scenario. “When new medicines come, they have some restrictions or such things and the basis is whether that population or people with certain conditions
altogether. to this, the punjab additional advocate-general said a new law had been made for local governments in the province. Justice isa pointed out that while local bodies have been dissolved during martial law, such a move is “unheard of ” during democratic rule. he said that punjab had violated the constitution by doing so and wondered if it would keep repeating the move until a government of its liking came along. if democracy is lost, half the country will be gone, he warned. “ecp says there will be huge cost of rs18 billion on local bodies elections,” Justice isa remarked. “yet huge development funds are being released for politicians.” Justice maqbool baqir, another member of the sc bench hearing the case, said that judges should ideally avoid such comments, but what can be done when the country itself is not in an ideal situation. “how long can judges remain silent?” Justice baqir asked. speaking on a separate matter, agp khan told the court that a nationwide census was conducted in 2017, but a final notification has yet to be issued on it.
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MORE INSIDE
Sindh vaccinates 979 medics against Covid-19 in 24 hours STORY ON PAGE 02
scuffles, abuses are ‘new normal’ in parliament now STORY ON BACK PAGE were included in the research for it,” he said. “so we hope that when we get more data, perhaps it will be used for people above 60 as well.” in a similar development in norway, health authorities on thursday announced they will not offer the astrazeneca vaccine, co-developed by the University of Oxford, against covid-19 to people over the age of 65. norwegian institute of public health (niph) said there had been few participants above the age of 65 in the trial conducted by astrazeneca, meaning there was a lack of documentation as to the effect of the vaccine on older age groups. pakistan received its first
Pakistan’s leadership reaffirms support for Kashmiris’ struggle
tranche of the sinopharm shots on tuesday. the shipment marked the first shots to be imported into the country where more than 550,540 cases of the disease have been reported since the outbreak in february last. in addition, the government is due to receive a further 1.1 million doses of the sinopharm vaccine by the end of february, foreign minister shah mahmood Qureshi had announced late last month. separately, Dr faisal had last week announced the government has secured 17 million doses of astrazeneca’s vaccine through the World health Organisation’s (WhO) cOvaX initiative.
public empowerment, relief for masses top priorities: pm
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