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Elections conundrum: Nawaz says 3-member SC bench hearing case ‘unacceptable’

PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Friday cast doubt on the verdict — which is yet to to come — by the three-member Supreme Court bench hearing the petition against the postponement of polls in Punjab.

A diminished Supreme Court bench — comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar — is currently hearing the PTI’s petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to postpone elections to the Punjab Assembly till Oct 8.

The three-member bench was constituted after the original five-member bench was disbanded following the recusals of Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail.

Earlier today, the three-member bench had rejected Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Awan’s request for the formation of a full court to hear the PTI’s petition.

In a press talk from London, Nawaz was asked whether the three-member bench’s decision would be acceptable. “It is a straightforward thing. When the bench itself is not acceptable, then how can its decision be acceptable?” the ex-premier asked.

“What is the wisdom behind it? […] the whole nation needs to understand this.”

Nawaz noted that a bill aimed at curtailing the chief justice’s suo motu powers had also been passed by parliament and was now with the president. He said that the attorney general and a “majority of judges” in the country had also expressed their opinions in this regard.

“When there is a united voice, then why this stubbornness that only these three judges will be on the bench? This is a national issue, not a minor one.”

He said there were many capable judges in the top court “yet in every case these three come to the fore and make decisions regarding Pakistan’s future”.

Nawaz said that a “similar bench” was constituted in 2017 that had taken the country to a point where its future “had turned black”.

The PML-N supremo called on the people to “open your eyes”. He went on to say that the country was thriving in 2017, talking about his government’s achievements.

“After 2017, we have to plead for our friends to give us $1 billion […] and this is because of the decisions of our benches,” he said, again calling on the nation to “open your eyes”.

“Once again, Pakistan has been brought to the edge of destruction due to the decisions of these benches,” he said, alleging that “those same three judges” were involved in disqualifying him while the rest, including ex-chief justices Saqib Nisar and Asif Khosa, had retired.

While the PML- leader did not name the judges in his press talk, the bench that disqualified him in the Panama Papers case only featured one of the judges hearing the Punjab polls case, Justice Ahsan.

He wondered where the decision in the case at hand would take the country. “Protect yourselves from the decision they’re about to take […] stand up against such people who want to take Pakistan to the edge of destruction,” he said, addressing the nation.

In an apparent reference to PTI chief Imran Khan, he alleged that moves were being made for the sake of “one person”.

He pointed out that the top court did not take suo motu notice of the things that ex-judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui said.

“Is suo motu not warranted after the things ex-army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa said? That there was an injustice against Nawaz Sharif and a wrong verdict was announced against him?” he asked.

Bajwa has reportedly said that there was nothing credible in the furore created over a Dawn story published in 2016, claiming that the issue was hyped up by his predecessor in a bid to secure an extension from then-prime minister Nawaz.

Nawaz said that a full court bench would have the party’s “full confidence”. Without taking any names, he said that two of the judges included in the bench had issued verdicts against him in the past.

“And every past decision seems to be against us yet the judges are still sitting there. One person on this bench has recused himself yet he is still there,” he said.

During the media talk, Nawaz was also asked about whether an inquiry should be initiated against Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, who has been the subject of recent audio leaks.

“Justice Mazahir’s case should go to the Supreme Judicial Council. What he has said and the proof against him, audio and video leaks […] there is no doubt about this.”

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NA continues to pick apart judiciary’s performance

• 38 posts of judges lying vacant, state minister says JCP not convened in a long time
• Lawmakers protest withdrawal of power subsidy to textile industry

ISLAMABAD: The performance and working of the judiciary came under scrutiny of the National Assembly for the second consecutive day when the house was informed that over 380,000 cases were pending before the Supreme Court and all the five high courts of the country.

During the alternate private member’s day, the lawmakers also protested over the government’s move to withdraw subsidy on power tariff for the textile industry as per conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Both the issues came up under discussion during the Question Hour and lawmakers, who had lashed out at the judiciary during the sitting on Monday at the time of the passage of the controversial bill clipping the suo motu power of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP), once again consumed significant time on discussing reasons for the huge backlog of cases in the country, causing problems to litigants and the masses.

One of the reasons for this heavy backlog, according to Minister of State for Law and Justice Shahadat Awan, is the inaction on the part of the judiciary to fill vacant posts in all courts.

Presenting the data in response to a question asked by a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) dissident Nuzhat Pathan, the minister told the assembly that a total of 380,436 cases had been pending in the higher courts till Dec 31, 2022, whereas 38 posts of judges were at present lying vacant.

Providing a break-up, the minister told the lower house of the parliament that a total of 51,744 cases had been pending before the SC where three posts of judges had been lying vacant for a long time. Similarly, the data shows that 179,425 cases were pending before the Lahore High Court, where a total of 19 posts of judges are lying vacant against the sanctioned strength of 60.

As many as 85,781 cases were pending before the Sindh High Court which is also facing a shortage of 11 judges.

The number of pending cases before the Peshawar High Court stands at 41,911 whereas Baloch­istan High Court and Islamabad High Court have backlogs of 4,198 and 17,104 cases, respectively.

The five-year data, however, shows that the number of pending cases had come down from the previous year when there were 389,392 cases pending in the courts.

When the members and Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf asked the minister to explain the reason for not appointing judges in the courts, the minister said that his ministry or the federal government had no role in it, stating that judges themselves “control and supervise the judiciary”.

He said it was the responsibility of the judicial commission to recommend names of the judges to the parliamentary committee, but regretted that there had been no meeting of the judicial commission for quite a while.

“It is said that why the parliament is looking at the judiciary. When one institution will not function properly, it is the job of the parliament to look into it,” said Mr Awan in an apparent reference to the criticism on the government for the legislation on the CJP’s powers.

He alleged that instead of looking into the problems of the litigants, the judicial commission had remained busy in focusing on other issues. He also called for merit-based appointment of judges on seniority basis.

The speaker termed the situation “alarming” and referred the matter to the law reforms committee asking it to approach judges to get the vacant posts filled and suggest mechanism to clear the backlog of cases.

Protest over subsidy withdrawal

Earlier, the members in their speeches lamented the government’s decision to withdraw subsidy on power tariff for the textile industry, stating that the move would further damage the industry which was facing hardships due to decline in exports.

Responding to a question by PML-N’s Sheikh Fayyazuddin, parliamentary secretary for energy Rana Iradat Sharif told the house that the government had to withdraw the subsidy on the IMF’s demand, saying that they had done so “under compulsion and unwillingly”.

The NA also passed a bill seeking to set up Pakistan Institute of Research and Registration of Quality Assurance at Gwadar and introduction of six other private member’s bills.

The National Assembly will meet again on Friday at 11am.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2023

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Senior doctor shot dead in Karachi in suspected targeted attack

A senior doctor, who had recently retired as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s (KMC) medical and health services director, was killed after armed assailants opened fire on his vehicle as he was leaving his private clinic in the city’s Garden area on Thursday evening, officials said.

Garden police said that 62-year-old Dr Beerbal was gunned down while his assistant, 35-year-old Dr Qurutulain, was injured by armed assailants on a motorcycle near the Lyari Expressway junction.

The dead and the injured were subsequently shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said that Dr Beerbal sustained two bullet injuries to the head. She said that he was already dead when he was brought to the hospital at 6:46pm.

She said that Dr Qurutulain was shot in the shoulder but her condition was out of danger. The police surgeon said that the injured was also a member of staff at the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD).

South Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Irfan Ali Baloch told Dawn.com that the incident appeared to be a targeted killing but officials had yet to determine the exact motive.

He said that Dr Beerbal had left his private clinic near Anklesaria and was dropping his assistant home when the armed assailants opened fire. CCTV footage aired on television showed the car swerving to the side after coming under attack, before hitting a wall.

City Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Arif Aziz told the media that dropping his assistant home was part of Dr Beerbal’s daily routine. The official reiterated that it appeared to be a targeted killing but the exact motive would be ascertained after conducting a thorough investigation.

He said that the injured was being questioned regarding the incident. The official asserted that it was too early to comment on the motive at this time.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Secretary General Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro demanded an impartial inquiry into the incident.

Condemning the incident, he said that Dr Beerbal had served as the medical superintendent of Spencer Eye Hospital in Lyari, and the director of the KMC’s health services.

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KP bureaucrats threaten strike over ‘misuse’ of powers by minister

PESHAWAR: Bureaucrats threatened a pen-down strike across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday accusing information minister Feroze Jamal Shah Kakakhel of overstepping his powers by trying to occupy the office of additional secretary of the department Arshad Khan.

The minister claimed that he visited the secretary’s office and wanted to sit on his chair but the latter didn’t allow that prompting him to step out and go to the office of the director-general (public relations).

“I held the same chair during an earlier visit to the office,” he told Dawn.

Mr Kakakhel alleged that the province’s bureaucracy had a tilt to the former ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Minister Kakakhel claims secy denying him record of official cars

Official sources claimed that the DG was away but still, the minister occupied his chair.

The minister said he had sought details of official vehicles used by officers of his department, but the records weren’t shared.

“I want to see how many official vehicles are used by the families of these bureaucrats, but the secretary is reluctant to respond to my repeated queries,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Management Services resented the minister’s “unbecoming” conduct towards bureaucracy and asked the chief minister to act against him to prevent a pen-down strike by government officials.

In a letter to Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan, the association of the provincial management services said the information minister had overstepped his powers.

“The information minister transgressed his jurisdiction by insisting that he would occupy the chair of the secretary. He even threatened the secretary with a news conference against him,” read the letter.

The PAS said the minister’s conduct was extremely unprofessional and that many members of the government had sought official vehicles used by the secretaries for themselves in violation of rules and regulations.

“Some departments are being pressured to take policy decisions, which is the mandate of the elected government only,” it said in the letter.

The association said the Constitution and Elections Act 2017 declared that the mandate of caretakers was just to hold free and fair elections and not to take policy decisions.

It warned that if the chief minister didn’t address the issue immediately, it could announce a pen-down strike across the province.

Later in the day, minister Kakakhel told a presser that the government departments would be cleared of all political appointees and the caretaker government had the constitutional mandate to do so.

He said he would move a summary to the chief minister for terminating the services of social media influencers recruited by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf.

The minister accused the bureaucracy of creating hurdles for caretakers to perform their duties.

He said a proforma was sent to the information secretary to share details of official vehicles used by bureaucrats but such records were still awaited.

About stampedes in flour distribution centres, the minister said the government was increasing the number of such points while expanding the coverage of the initiative to village council level.

He said officials of the district administration were told to ensure presence at flour distribution points.

“We have given away around 7.7 million flour bags to 22 per cent of the targeted population,” he said, adding that a committee has been formed comprising administrative secretaries to ensure trouble-free exercise.

The minister said there were no plans to call or deploy Frontier Constabulary personnel at those points.

He said the caretaker government would terminate the services of all political appointees to departments.

“We have the mandate to assist the Election Commission of Pakistan for holding free, fair and transparent elections,” he said.

Recently, Mr Kakakhel had claimed that it was not possible to hold a fair election to the provincial assembly as there’s a “100 per cent” tilt to former prime minister Imran Khan’s party, PTI, in the entire local bureaucracy.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2023

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Biden announces $690m for world democracies

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced new funding to bolster democracies around the world amid criticism his administration has made little progress in advancing human rights and democracy as a focus of its foreign policy.

Biden announced he planned $690 million in funding to help fight corruption, support free and fair elections and advance technologies that support democratic governments at a second White House-led Summit for Democracy.

He announced over $400 million for similar programmes in 2021 when he last held such an event.

“We’re turning the tide here. As we often say, we’re at an inflection point in history here, when the decisions we make today are going to affect the course of our world for the next several decades for certain,” Biden said.

Rights advocates say there is little evidence the countries joining the summit have made progress on improving their democracies, and that there is no formal mechanism to hold participants to the modest commitments made at the first meeting even as Biden and South Korea announced plans to host a future third summit.

Freedom House said this month that global freedom had declined for the 17th consecutive year, but there are signs the tide is turning, said Katie LaRoque, the monitoring group’s deputy director for policy and advocacy, explaining that while 35 countries scores declined in Freedom House’s annual rankings, 34 countries improved.

Out of the countries that participated in the first Summit for Democracy, 77 countries’ scores remained the same in 2022, 17 declined and only 16 improved.

In addressing the summit on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu voiced confidence that a political compromise could be reached on the judicial reforms, which he argued could be reconciled with civil liberties even as his opponents have accused him of seeking to curb judicial independence.

He called Biden “a friend of 40 years”. “Israel and the United States have had their occasional differences, but I want to assure you that the alliance between the world’s greatest democracy and the strong, proud and independent democracy — Israel — in the heart of the Middle East, is unshakable. Nothing can change that,” Netanyahu said.

Addressing foreign critics, Netanyahu promised that Israel “was, is and will always remain a proud, strong and vibrant democracy as a beacon of liberty and shared prosperity in the heart of the Middle East”.

Biden on Tuesday warned that Israel “cannot continue down this road” and called on Netanyahu to reach a compromise, while calling himself a “strong supporter” of Israel.

The summit is co-hosted by the governments of Costa Rica, the Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia. The event involves 120 countries including Taiwan, civil society groups and technology companies.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2023

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President Alvi questions timing, manner of bill aimed at clipping CJP’s suo motu power

President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday acknowledged that there was “some need to streamline” Supreme Court’s internal matters but questioned the timing as well as the manner of the government’s bid to curtail the chief justice’s power to take suo motu notice in an individual capacity among other things.

Earlier in the day, the National Assembly passed the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure), Bill 2023’s passing after it was presented by Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar.

Regarding exercising the apex court’s original jurisdiction, the bill said that any matter invoking the use of Article 184(3) would first be placed before a Supreme Court committee comprising the CJP and two most senior judges.

“If the committee is of the view that a question of public importance with reference to enforcement of any of the fundamental rights conferred by Chapter I of Part II of the Constitution is involved, it shall constitute a bench comprising not less than three judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan which may also include the members of the committee, for adjudication of the matter,” the bill reads.

The president discussed the matter during an appearance on Geo News show Capital Talk, saying: “I think the timing could have been better. [Perhaps], it should have happened before as [passing this bill during a political] crisis raises a question mark on its timing.”

He reiterated that “the timing could have been better” but also said that according to analysis he had listened to, “there was some need to streamline how the Supreme Court conducts itself.”

Alvi said opinions to this effect arose from within the apex court. “This discussion was taking place within the Supreme Court for many days so this matter should be settled by taking it (apex court) into confidence,” the president added.

Reiterating that the Supreme Court should have been involved in the process, he said that when such changes are implemented “by force”, questions marks are put on them, pointing out that developed democracies try and reach a consensus on such matters.

The president said he hoped that “the judges will cooperate with one another as there does not seem to be consensus in their verdicts when their internal circumstances come to light, and then the nation quarrels over their decisions.”

Questioned on whether he would give his assent to the bill, Alvi said he had only seen the draft version of the bill and it would be “premature” to say what he would do.

“I want to play a positive role in a country in which there are many crises and don’t want to create more,” he said. “I am in a crisis-solving mode. [That said], crisis solving becomes very difficult when there are extreme positions so whatever you say somehow becomes controversial.”

The president decried that often his own opinion was chalked off as the PTI’s opinion even though “I fully try to be impartial and give my own stance.”

The president rued Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s response to his letter and said he was “saddened” to see himself being labelled partisan.

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Justice Musarrat Hilali to become first female CJ of Peshawar High Court

President Dr Arif Alvi on Wednesday appointed Justice Musarrat Hilali as the first female chief justice of the Peshawar High Court (PHC), according to a notification from the Ministry of Law and Justice.

The notification, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, said she was promoted to the position since she was the most senior PHC judge and will assume office from April 1 “till the appointment of a regular chief justice by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan”.

She will be the second female to become the chief justice of a high court after Justice Tahira Safdar, the chief justice of the Balochistan High Court from September 2018 to October 2019.

Born in Peshawar on August 8, 1961, Hilali received her law degree from Khyber Law College of the University of Peshawar and enrolled as an advocate of district courts in 1983, as an advocate of the high court in 1988 and as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2006.

She was the first female elected office-bearer on the post of secretary at the bar from 1988-1989, twice the vice president at the bar from 1992 to 1994, the general secretary from 1997 to 1998 and the first female twice elected as an executive member of the Supreme Court Bar Association from 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.

Hilali was also the first female additional advocate general of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from November 2001 to March 2004 and was later appointed as the first female chairperson of the KP Environmental Protection Tribunal.

She also served as the first female Ombudsman for the Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace.

Hilali was elevated to the bench as an additional judge on March 26, 2013, and confirmed as a permanent PHC judge on March 13, 2014.

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SECP asked to reverse ‘hostile takeover’ of Ecopack

KARACHI: Minority shareholders of Ecopack Ltd — a listed company that makes plastic bottles for beverage firms — have sought the intervention of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) to protect the entity from hostile and allegedly illegal takeover by a group of seven investors.

The seven acquirers “acted in concert” to accumulate over 50 per cent shareholding within a few months without making any regulatory disclosures or tender offer to small investors, according to the minority shareholders.

The hostile takeover attempt culminated on Oct 28, 2022 when four individuals gained control of the company by getting elected to the board of directors. As a result, Kamran Nasir, who served as CEO of JS Global Capital Ltd until September 2022, became chairman of Ecopack Ltd.

The pattern of shareholding shows that the group of seven investors collectively held just 1.28pc shares in the company until February 28, 2022. But their shareholding increased to 36.9pc within the next one month. They kept on accumulating shares from the stock market and crossed the 50pc threshold by June 30, 2022.

Minority shareholders allege a few investors ‘acted in concert’ to buy over 50pc shares in three months

Importantly, none of the seven acquirers crossed the individual limit of 10pc shares to avoid mandatory reporting, which would’ve red-flagged the accumulation of shareholding.

What blew the lid off the takeover attempt were a number of “off-market transactions” carried out at the same rate of Rs18 per share on March 21, 2022. Commonly known as the Negotiated Deals Market (NDM), the trading counter helps brokers conduct transactions among themselves outside the trading system of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

Data from the PSX website shows three NDM transactions involving 13.7 million shares, constituting 32.69pc of the total shareholding, took place on the same day and at the same rate among brokers.

The NDM transactions should trigger the takeover laws as the cumulative shareholding bought by two individuals and two companies on March 21, 2022 was well above the threshold of 30pc prescribed in Section 111 of the Securities Act 2015.

In a subsequent letter to the SECP’s Supervision Department, two small shareholders of the company demanded the apex regulator should look into the Unique Identification Number (UNI) data through its surveillance system to confirm the “connivance” of the small group of acquirers that, they believe, have a “direct relationship” with a prominent brokerage house.

“The acquirers acquired shares within a short span of three months and got their four directors elected on the board of (the) target company by issuing proxies in their favour. The intermingling of proxies shows clear collusion to act in concert and hence to take control of the company,” they said.

Speaking to Dawn, Ecopack Ltd Chairman Mr Nasir denied any wrongdoing in the whole affair and added that his shareholding in the company was limited to only 500 shares.

Responding to a question as to how he ended up as chairman despite owning a negligible number of shares, Mr Nasir said the question should be put to those who elected him to the board of directors. “I cannot speak on behalf of anyone else against whom any allegation is made or is a person who is (making) any allegations,” he said.

Ecopack Ltd CEO Hussain Jamil, who’s also the largest shareholder of the company, went to court against Mr Nasir and others in December and obtained a stay order against the attempt to remove him from the position of CEO.

In response to a query, the SECP said the matter is “already under consideration of the commission” and that further action will be taken in accordance with the law.

The PSX spokesperson didn’t respond to the request for comment until the filing of this report.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2023

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Thirty-nine killed in fire at Mexico migrants facility

CIUDAD JUAREZ: At least 39 migrants from Central and South America died after a fire broke out at a migrant holding centre in the Mexican northern border city of Ciudad Juarez, the government’s National Migration Institute (INM) said on Tuesday.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the blaze apparently broke out after migrants set fire to mattresses in protest after discovering they would be deported.

“They didn’t think that would cause this terrible tragedy,” Lopez Obrador told a news conference, noting that most migrants at the facility were from Central America and Venezuela.

President Obrador says asylum seekers apparently burnt mattresses to stop being deported

There were 68 adult men from Central and South America staying at the facility in the city opposite El Paso, Texas, the INM said in a statement. Twenty-nine of them were injured in the blaze and taken to four hospitals in the area.

Those who died included migrants from Guatemala and Honduras, a Mexican official said.

“I was here since one in the afternoon waiting for the father of my children, and when 10pm rolled around, smoke started coming out from everywhere,” said 31-year-old Viangly Infante, a Venezuelan national.

Her husband, 27-year-old Eduard Caraballo, was in a holding cell inside the facility when the fire started.

Recent weeks have seen a buildup of migrants in Mexican border cities as authorities attempt to process asylum requests using a new US government app known as CBP One.

Many migrants feel the process is taking too long and earlier this month hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants got into a scuffle with US officials at the border after their frustration welled up about securing asylum appointments.

The blaze in Ciudad Juarez is one of the deadliest incidents to afflict migrants in Mexico in recent decades.

Forty-nine children died following a blaze in a daycare centre in the northern city of Hermosillo in 2009, while 72 migrants were massacred by drug cartel gunmen in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas the following year.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2023

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Opinion split in legal fraternity after bill clipping CJP’s powers tabled in NA

After a bill aimed at curtailing the chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) powers to take suo motu notices and constituting benches of the Supreme Court (SC) was approved by the federal cabinet and presented in the National Assembly on Tuesday, the opinion in the legal fraternity was split.

The cabinet summary for the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023, states that “every cause, matter or appeal before the apex court would be heard and disposed of by a bench constituted by a committee comprising the CJP and the two senior-most judges,” adding that “the decisions of the committee would be taken by a majority.”

Regarding exercising the apex court’s original jurisdiction, the bill said that any matter invoking the use of Article 184(3) would first be placed before the abovementioned committee.

“If the committee is of the view that a question of public importance with reference to enforcement of any of the fundamental rights conferred by Chapter I of Part II of the Constitution is involved, it shall constitute a bench comprising not less than three judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan which may also include the members of the committee, for adjudication of the matter,” the bill reads.

Here is what the legal eagles had to say about the bill’s proposed amendments to curtail the top court’s powers.

Asad Rahim

Barrister Asad Rahim Khan told Dawn.com that the government’s legislation was a “clownish attempt — in the same vein as Israel’s Netanyahu — to declaw the one institution standing in the way of the Constitution’s violation”.

“It can’t be done through ordinary legislation, and it attacks both the independence of the judiciary as well as the principle of trichotomy of powers,” he said.

Salahuddin Ahmed

Terming the amendments as “excellent and much-needed”, Lawyer Salahuddin Ahmed said the proposed changes were in line with what all the bar associations had been demanding.

Ahmed said the bill was in line with the suggestions of the bars regarding the CJP’s “absolute discretion to constitute benches for well over a decade now”.

“In fact, even CJP Asif Khosa had proposed regulating the power of suo motu along similar lines but unfortunately the Supreme Court did not frame rules in this regard,” he said. “As a result, the Parliament has had to act in the exercise of its law-making powers under Article 191 of the Constitution.”

Ahmed said the right of one appeal against decisions made by the Supreme Court in its original jurisdiction under Article 184 (3) is also a long-standing demand of bars.

“Another excellent part of the bill is the stipulation that urgent matters will be fixed for hearing within two weeks. Presently, urgent applications can remain pending before CJ for months at end,” he added.

Abdul Moiz Jaferii

Lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii said the proposed act sought to override the relevant chapter of the Supreme Court rules which have been in place since 1980 and termed it a “great solution to suo motu engineering and unilateral bench fixing by the CJP that should have come from the court itself.”

“Article 191 of the constitution makes very it clear that the Supreme Court can make rules regulating the practice and procedures of the court, but this power is subject to the constitution and the law.”

He added that an ordinary piece of legislation can effectively fill the void which exists in the rules and better structure the discretion that vests in the chief justice with regard to the formation of benches and the fixation of cases before them as well as the right of appeal for suo moto decisions.

Muhammad Ahmad Pansota

Barrister Muhammad Ahmad Pansota said that while he supported the reform, the manner in which it was being conducted was “improper and violative” of the Constitution.

“I am all for reform in the power of the CJP to take suo motu action. It must be structured, however, the process being adopted by the government in curtailing the suo motu power through subordinate legislation is improper and violative of Articles 238/239 of the Constitution,” he said.

Hassan Niazi

Lawyer Hassan Niazi disagreed with Barrister Pansota’s take, saying the apex court’s power was being “structured instead of curtailed”.

“The amendment does not appear to take away the SC’s original jurisdiction, it merely describes how it will be exercised. That doesn’t require a constitutional amendment,” he said.

He said the parliament was “well within its rights” to regulate how the CJP’s powers are to be exercised, adding that it was a “longstanding” demand which should be welcomed.

Basil Nabi Malik

Advocate Basil Malik said Article 191 of the Constitution allowed the appropriate legislature to regulate practices and procedure of the Supreme Court.

“As such, certain subject matters of the bill, such as regulating bench fixing and exercise of suo motu powers, appear to be within its competence via a simple majority,” he said.

“However, considering that the Constitution already delineates the Supreme Court’s appellate powers, it is arguable as to whether the parliament, through a simple majority, can carve out a fresh appellate jurisdiction in the Supreme Court against an order of that very Supreme Court.”

Salaar Khan

Lawyer and columnist Salaar Khan said that while regulating the apex court’s procedure did not necessarily require a constitutional amendment, it was possible that any law passed would be struck down by the Supreme Court for “violating the promised independence of the judiciary” since laws were still subject to the Constitution.

“One can even imagine the SC will consider such a law, or laws, within the present context (the government’s design to delay elections, in violation of the Constitution). As such, the SC may even fashion a way to bring that to the fore,” he explained.

He recalled that there were many calls for reforms over the years, including from within the apex court and “this is not the first time this issue has been raised.”

He also pointed out that the issue of the provincial elections could not be separated from the entire matter.

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Pemra requested to stop coverage of Sheikh Rashid for smoking cigars

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan National Heart Association (Panah) has appealed to the electronic media regulator to stop media coverage of former federal minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed as he smokes cigars during press conferences and this can influence the young generation.

Moreover, it has demanded from Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to issue a general instruction not to provide coverage to any person who promotes smoking.

The letter signed by Panah General Secretary Sanaullah Ghumman stated that the association has been working to minimise cardiovascular diseases since 1984.

“This association had also put in its good share in helping people who suffered in the natural disasters that struck the nation in the past and is also helping poor patients get expensive cardiac investigations, angioplasty, stents and cardiac surgery at various hospitals. The president of Islamic Republic of Pakistan by virtue of his position is our patron-in-chief. Panah works closely with policy makers to advocate for policies to reduce non communicable diseases (NCDs) and many other fatal diseases,” it stated, adding that Panah has been running an aggressive campaign against tobacco use in the country as a part of the Heart Disease Prevention programme because tobacco is one of the leading causes of heart and many other fatal diseases.

The letter stated that Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, renowned politician of Pakistan always waves his cigar and its pack during his media talks while saying: “I have been the federal minister of Pakistan several times”.

“We know that youngsters always follow their elders and especially renowned personalities. Due to his action of waving the cigar, our young generation may think that Sheikh Rashid Ahmed became the federal minister just because of the use of cigar and also suppose that it is the symbol of personality and they should also start smoking.

“In Pakistan, already 1,200 new children start smoking every day,” it stated.

While talking to Dawn, Mr Ghumman said showing a smoker on media was a violation of tobacco control laws of Pakistan and legal action could be taken against media houses for showing smokers.

“We also request the media that they should show responsibility and not give coverage to people while smoking as it gives a wrong impression to the young generation,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2023

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Saim Ayub, Ihsanullah sparkle for young Pakistan to avert Afghanistan whitewash

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Legal experts weigh in on judges’ call for revisiting CJP’s powers

Legal experts and lawyers on Monday weighed in after Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail of the Supreme Court called for revisiting the power of the “one-man show” enjoyed by the chief justice.

The two judges made the remarks in a detailed dissenting note — released on Monday hours after the SC took up the PTI’s plea challenging the postponement of elections in Punjab — for the top court’s March 1 verdict regarding holding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The top court, in a 3-2 verdict, had directed the electoral watchdog to consult with President Arif Alvi for polls in Punjab and Governor Ghulam Ali for elections in KP, so that elections could be held within the stipulated timeframe of 90 days.

In the dissenting note, the two judges said that the reconstitution of the bench hearing the suo motu notice case regarding the delay in the provincial elections was “simply an administrative act”.

“Therefore, we are of the opinion that the dismissal of the present suo motu proceedings and the connected constitution petitions is the order of the court by a majority of 4 to 3 of the seven-member bench,” the two judges said.

---

Speaking on Samaa TV programme ‘Nadeem Malik Live’, Supreme Court advocate Salman Akram Raja said that the five-member bench hearing the PTI’s plea challenging the electoral body’s orders to put off Punjab Assembly elections would decide whether the 3-2 or 4-3 ruling was applicable to the March 1 order.

“It will be clear in a day or two. This is no big matter,” he said.

Raja argued that according to the Constitution, smaller benches also represented the apex court’s stance. “There is no rule which says a full court will sit […] we consider the bench to be the Supreme Court. Now, a bench is hearing the matter and it will decide what the previous verdict was. We will have to accept that decision.”

He said “all issues” raised in the dissenting note were important. “They are all good things and they should be carried out in the future,” he said.

Raja said the demand for having certain rules for invoking the top court’s suo motu jurisdiction was also valid. “We should formulate rules immediately. However, we cannot just reject the past by saying that ‘it was a one-man show’ or ‘chief justices made the benches’,” he added.

Raja said that the reason why such rules had not yet been formulated was due to a lack of consensus among the top court judges.

---

Legal expert Salahuddin Ahmed, while speaking on Geo News, said that bar councils and associations had long demanded that the CJP’s powers be structured and regularised.

“You can’t leave it completely to his discretion and as today’s judgement [shows], very harsh language has been used and judicial imperialism has been mentioned.”

Ahmed said the issue of reforms was one that had been raised many times in the past, adding that many judges in their retirement speeches had voiced complaints about the so-called selective composition of benches in political or sensitive matters.

“When seven to eight or a dozen judges are saying this, then the chief justice is responsible for not allowing the people to get the impression that you are running the institution through certain judges.”

Ahmed said he would not touch upon the merit of who was right between the 3-2 or 4-3 verdicts, adding that he himself thought that elections should take place within 90 days.

He questioned why the chief justice was hesitating to form a full bench so that all judges could sit together and “speak with a collective authority so matters are actually solved instead of becoming more complicated”.

Echoing Raja, he said the current five-member bench would have to decide whether the 3-2 or the 4-3 verdict was applicable.

Ahmed said the sanctity of the SC was being affected by the recent turn of events. “The matter is simple. When you include the same three to four judges in important constitutional and political cases, then naturally people will have reservations,” he added.

He said it was “natural” for doubts and suspicions to arise when the above happened repeatedly.

---

Barrister Taimur Malik said that while all apex court judges were honourable, “for now, the CJP is the first among equals when it comes to exercising suo motu powers or constituting benches”.

---

Lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii said the development would prove to be the “final push” the SC needed. He said that the CJP should either not interfere or do so with the “full might” of the SC.

“Anything less will lead to a fracturing of the court’s power, its majesty already having been denuded,” he said.

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Cameron Bancroft joins Somerset for early season County Championship stint

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Nato criticises Putin for ‘dangerous and irresponsible’ nuclear rhetoric

Nato on Sunday criticised Vladimir Putin for what it called his “dangerous and irresponsible” nuclear rhetoric, a day after the Russian president said he would station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.

Putin announced the move on Saturday and likened it to the US stationing its weapons in Europe, while insisting that Russia would not violate its nuclear non-proliferation promises.

Although the move was not unexpected, it is one of Russia’s most pronounced nuclear signals since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine 13 months ago, and Ukraine called for a meeting of the UN Security Council in response.

While Washington, the world’s other nuclear superpower, played down concerns about Putin’s announcement, Nato said the Russian president’s non-proliferation pledge and his description of US weapons deployment overseas were way off the mark.

“Russia’s reference to Nato’s nuclear sharing is totally misleading. Nato allies act with full respect of their international commitments,” a Nato spokesperson said in emailed comments to Reuters on Sunday.

“Russia has consistently broken its arms control commitments, most recently suspending its participation in the New START Treaty,” the unnamed spokesperson said.

New START caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them.

A top security adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Oleksiy Danilov, said Russia’s plan would also destabilise Belarus, which he said had been taken “hostage” by Moscow.

Experts said Russia’s move was significant since it had until now been proud that unlike the United States, it did not deploy nuclear weapons outside its borders. It may be the first time since the mid-1990s that it has done so.

Another senior Zelenskiy adviser on Sunday scoffed at Putin’s plan, saying the Russian leader is “too predictable”.

“Making a statement about tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, he admits that he is afraid of losing and all he can do is scare with tactics,” Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter.

Washington appeared to see no change in the potential for Moscow to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine, and it and Nato said the news would not affect their own nuclear position.

“We have not seen any changes in Russia’s nuclear posture that would lead us to adjust our own,” the Nato spokesperson wrote.

Tactical nuclear weapons refer to those used for specific gains on a battlefield rather than those with the capacity to wipe out cities. It is unclear how many such weapons Russia has, given it is an area still shrouded in Cold War secrecy.

Ukraine urges UNSC meeting

Ukraine’s foreign ministry called for an extraordinary meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) after Putin’s announcement, and it asked the international community to “take decisive measures” to prevent Russia’s use of nuclear weapons.

“Russia once again confirms its chronic inability to be a responsible steward of nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence and prevention of war, not as a tool of threats and intimidation.”

Analysts at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said the risk of escalation to nuclear war “remains extremely low”.

In Washington, Rep Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, said he regarded Russia’s plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus as disturbing and designed to intimidate the West.

“Tensions are rising. I think this is saber-rattling on the part of Putin basically to try to frighten,” McCaul told the Fox News Sunday programme.

“These tactical nukes are disturbing.”

But the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons called Putin’s announcement an extremely dangerous escalation.

“In the context of the war in Ukraine, the likelihood of miscalculation or misinterpretation is extremely high. Sharing nuclear weapons makes the situation much worse and risks catastrophic humanitarian consequences,” it said on Twitter.

Putin decries Western ‘axis’

Putin said Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko had long requested the deployment. There was no immediate reaction from Lukashenko.

While the Belarusian army has not formally fought in Ukraine, Minsk and Moscow have close military ties. Minsk allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to send troops into Ukraine last year.

Putin on Sunday also denied Moscow was creating a military alliance with Beijing and instead asserted that Western powers are building a new “axis” similar to the partnership between Germany and Japan during World War Two.

This was a reprisal of a theme he has often used in his portrayal of the Ukraine war — that Moscow is fighting a Ukraine in the grip of supposed Nazis, abetted by Western powers menacing Russia.

Ukraine — which was part of the Soviet Union and itself suffered devastation at the hands of Hitler’s forces — rejects those parallels as spurious pretexts for a war of conquest.

On the battlefield, Russian forces hit military targets in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, causing significant Ukrainian casualties, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday.

Russia’s TASS news agency quoted a law enforcement source as saying a Ukrainian drone packed with explosives hit the centre of the Russian town of Kireyevsk in the Tula region on Sunday, injuring two people.

Russia has said in the past that Ukrainian drones have flown into its territory and caused damage to civilian infrastructure, an assertion that Kyiv denies.

Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said Russian forces had destroyed two apartment buildings in a missile strike on the eastern city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region. He said there were no casualties.

Ukraine’s General Staff said on Sunday Ukrainian forces had repelled 85 Russian attacks over the past 24 hours across the eastern front, including the Bakhmut area, the scene of brutal fighting in the last few months. Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.

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Citizens to be counted where they live, says PBS official

KARACHI: With over 60 per cent of the job done in Sindh, an official from the Pakistan Bureau of Statis­tics (PBS) made it clear on Saturday that “persons will be counted in the area or city where they live and whose resources they use, regardless of [the place] where their identity card is based”.

Teams carrying out the first-ever digital census have so far counted over 31 million people in the province, of which 8.5m are living in Karachi alone.

The fresh numbers were shared by Chief Census Commissioner Dr Naee­muz Zafar during an interaction with media on Saturday.

Mr Zafar clarified a “few myths” about the gigantic task going on simultaneously across the country. Though he would not share any specifics, he did say that PBS had faced some hurdles in the initial days of the exercise when it was launched more than a month ago.

He maintained that the provincial administration had been given access to “digital census monitoring dashboards”, as per their demand.

“We have some 9.7m listed households,” he said, while referring to a presentation made at the PBS office showing the data gathered so far. “More than 6.1m [households] have already been enumerated and process for the remaining is underway. So far, we have counted 31.39m people in Sindh. And in this huge exercise, we have not only counted people or gathered data which we used to collect during the past censuses but also everything which relates to socio-economy.”

The presentation referred to by the chief census commissioner suggests that among the 31.39m people counted in Sindh so far, 16.4m are males, 14.98m females and 1,496 transgender persons.

When asked about the population of Karachi counted so far, he cited the current data showing 8.5m people living in the metropolis.

In reply to a question about the reservations of Sindh government about the digital census and assurances given by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to address them through the PBS mechanism, Mr Zafar said the federal government had allowed all the provincial administrations to access the census monitoring dashboards.

In this connection, he “clarified the misunderstanding” doing the rounds since the exercise began and wondered why it’s still continuing despite the fact that everything was clear to every stakeholder from day one.

“Everyone should understand this; a citizen will be counted in the area or city where he lives and whose resources he uses, regardless of the place where his identity card is based,” Mr Zafar declared while answering a query. “This was clear from the very first day. Your identity card would definitely determine your area of vote or other things, but when it comes to census you would be counted where you live and whose place or resources you use.”

He was confident that migration of flood victims in Sindh would not affect the actual number of population of any district as the methodology designed to count the people carried the provision of such calamity-hit segments of society.

“For instance for around 2.2m people, who migrated from their native towns and villages after the floods, we have an option in the enumeration to mention the migration or displacement. Then for another check, we would share their data with the provincial government. We would also create the table of migration in the final count of the population carrying details of the flood victims,” he explained.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2023

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Pakistan’s exports to Middle East fall 12pc

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s exports to the Middle East shrank 11.87 per cent on a year-on-year basis to $1.491 billion in the first eight months of FY23 mainly driven by a substantial decline in exports to the United Arab Emirates.

The exports to the region saw a mixed trend with an increase to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, while a decline to other countries of the region, data compiled by the State Bank of Pakistan showed on Saturday.

The UAE has emerged as the leading country for Pakistan’s export of goods as nearly 64pc of the total exports to the region go to the UAE market alone, however, it suffered a decline of 19.91pc to $0.945bn in 8MFY23 from $1.180 over the corresponding months last year (FY22).

Out of seven UAE states, the bulk of exports was destined for Dubai amounting to $856.27 million during 8MFY23 against $996.32m in the corresponding months last year, showing a decline of 14pc.

Pakistan’s top export products to UAE include rice, bovine carcasses and half carcasses, men’s/boys’ cotton ensembles, guavas, mangoes, etc.

Similarly, Pakistan’s top sectoral exports to the UAE include cereals, articles of apparel and clothing, meat and edible offal etc.

The second biggest market for Pakistan’s exports in terms of value is Saudi Arabia. However, the exports witnessed an increase of 15pc to $300.61m in 8MFY23 from $260.26m in the preceding fiscal year.

Pakistan’s exports to Saudi Arabia have stagnated at around $500m in the last decade, showing that no significant growth was seen in the market access as compared to the UAE.

Pakistan’s top exports to Saudi Arabia include rice (semi- or wholly milled), bovine carcasses and half carcasses, tents, textile materials, etc.

Pakistan’s exports to Qatar dipped 3pc to $119.17m in 8MFY23 from $122.87m during 8MFY22, which include rice, bovine carcasses, potatoes, onions, guavas, mangoes, etc. However, one of the most exported goods to Qatar during 7MFY23 remained footballs as Pakistan was the official football supplier to the FIFA World Cup 2022 held in November in Doha, Qatar.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2023

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PTI moves SC against ‘unconstitutional’ delay in elections

ISLAMABAD: The PTI has moved the Supreme Court to set aside the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) order to put off Punjab Assembly elections till Oct 8.

The petition, moved by PTI Secretary General Asad Umar, former Punjab Asse­m­bly speaker Mohammad Sib­tain Khan, former Khy­ber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani and ex-lawmakers of Punjab Abdul Rehman and Mian Mahmoodur Rashid, pleaded that the ECP’s decision was in violation of the Constitution and tantamount to amending and subverting it.

On March 22, the ECP had put off the elections for more than five months citing the deteriorating security situation in the country and the unavailability of security personnel.

Barrister Syed Ali Zafar moved the petition on behalf of the PTI officials on Saturday with a request to order the ECP to hold the elections on the date fixed earlier — April 30. The petition also sought directions for the federal government to ensure law and order, provisions of funds and security personnel as per the ECP’s need to hold the elections.

Party says shortage of funds, personnel can’t be used to justify putting off general elections

It also requested the court to direct the KP governor to announce the date for elections to the provincial assembly. A day ago, KP Governor Ghulam Ali also proposed Oct 8 as the date for holding elections in the province. Earlier, he had announced May 28 as the date for polls.

Tantamount to amending Constitution

The PTI’s petition questioned the ECP’s authority to “amend the Constitution” and asked how it could decide to delay elections to any assembly beyond the period of 90 days from the date of dissolution of the said assembly as mandated by the Constitution.

The petition argued that the ECP was bound to obey and implement the judgments of the Supreme Court and had no power or jurisdiction to overrule or review them.

In its March 1 verdict, the Supreme Court ordered to hold the election to the Punjab Assembly within 90 days and that the date be announced by the president. It also directed the authorities to provide funds and security personnel to ECP for the elections, the petition recalled.

The ECP cannot act in defiance of the Supreme Court’s directions as it has done in this case which was illegal and liable to be set aside, the petition pleaded.

By announcing Oct 8 as the date, the ECP has delayed the elections for more than 183 days beyond the 90-day limit as prescribed in the Constitution.

The petitions said the ECP’s excuses to justify the delay were “flimsy, irrational, absurd and fabricated”.

The inevitable consequence of the postponement of elections will be that the caretaker government will continue to remain in office, the petition stated, adding that the Constitution has no provision to extend “unelected” caretaker governments beyond 90 days.

“It is very clear in the Constitution that the tenure of the caretaker government is temporary and it is only to facilitate the transition from one government to another,” the petition said.

Referring to the excuse that the armed forces were involved in counter terrorism activities and cannot provide personnel for election duties, the petition argued that the armed forces may not be required to enforce law and order which was the duty of the federal and caretaker provincial governments through the police and other personnel.

Wrong precedent

The petition said that if the excuse of unavailability of security personnel was accepted this time, it will set a precedent to delay any future elections.

The petition added that there was no assurance that these factors — financial constraints, security situation and non-availability of security personnel — would improve by Oct 8.

The petition said the ECP’s reason that the law and order situation was not conducive to holding elections was “legally flawed and a disingenuous excuse to postpone the elections” because such a reason was not recognised by the Constitution to be the pretext for delaying polls.

Law and order was the responsibility of the federal and provincial governments and the provincial caretaker government or the Centre express their inability to provide security for elections nor can the ECP rely on such pretexts to delay the election, the petition said.

The “so-called excuse” would mean the Constitution could be held in abeyance every time elections were due, the petitioners feared adding that in the past similar situations have persisted, but elections were held in spite of them.

These situations can’t be used as excuses to “subvert” the Constitution and deny people their right to elect representatives.

“Not holding elections in case of threats by terrorists will amount to giving in to the threats, which is in fact the aim of all terrorist activities,” the petition explained.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2023

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GB police ‘barred’ from escorting CM outside region

• CM usually moves with eight-man security detail
• Aide to CM snubs ‘discriminatory’ interior ministry order, vows to move court
• Accuses interior minister of trying to ‘create tiffs between units and federation’

GILGIT: After the interior ministry stopped the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) chief minister and the governor from using regional police as their security detail during visits outside the region, CM’s aide Shamsul Haq Lone hit back at the interior minister, saying the regional government would challenge the directive in court.

The GB CM usually has a security detail of eight police personnel, led by an official of the rank of SP.

In a letter sent by the interior ministry to the GB chief secretary, chief secretaries and police chiefs of all provinces and Azad Kashmir and the chief commissioner and SP Islamabad, the federal government directed that security arrangements for the GB governor and Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid during their visits outside the region would be arranged by the respective provincial and regional governments. According to the letter, seen by Dawn, the GB government will not deploy its police officials for the security of the CM and the governor.

The communique drew a strong response from the aide to the CM, who condemned the move and announced that the GB government would not accept the order. He said the regional government would take the interior ministry to court for issuing such directives. The adviser called Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah “mentally unstable” for attempting to create such tiffs between the units and the federation.

“GB is a sensitive area, Rana Sanaullah played with the sentiments of two million people of the region,” Mr Lone said, accusing the minister of “hatching conspiracies to create a rift between the federal and GB governments.”

Referring to allegations of a standoff between GB and Punjab police personnel at Zaman Park earlier this month, Mr Lone said the allegations had already been rejected by the IG of Punjab.

The adviser also called out the discriminatory interior ministry order and asked, “Did the ministry also ask other provinces for such measures?”

On March 15, the federal government transferred GB police chief Muhammad Saeed from his post in the wake of the information minister’s claim that GB police personnel were being used against Punjab police in the latter’s attempt to arrest PTI chief Imran Khan from his Zaman Park residence in Lahore.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2023

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Bairstow ruled out of IPL 2023; Australia's Matthew Short named replacement

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Mississippi tornado and storms kill at least 23

At least 23 people were killed and dozens injured after thunderstorms spawning high straight-line winds and tornados ripped across Mississippi late on Friday, leaving hundreds without shelter, state officials said on Saturday.

Four people were missing following the storms, which left a trail of damage for more than 100 miles (161 km). The tornados struck Silver City, a town of 200 people in western Mississippi, as well as Rolling Fork, with a population of 1,700, which was hardest hit. Parts of the state remain under tornado warnings.

“At least 23 Mississippians were killed by last night’s violent tornados,” Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves wrote on Twitter. “We know that many more are injured. Search and rescue teams are still active. The loss will be felt in these towns forever.”

Reeves declared a state of emergency in the affected areas, which he said would remain in effect “until such time as this threat to public safety shall cease to exist.”

President Joe Biden described the images from Mississippi as “heartbreaking,” and said in a statement that he had spoken with Reeves and offered his condolences and full federal support for the recovery.

“To those impacted by these devastating storms, and to the first responders and emergency personnel working to help their fellow Americans, we will do everything we can to help,” Biden said. “We will be there as long as it takes. We will work together to deliver the support you need to recover.”

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director Deanne Criswell told CNN that she would be traveling to Mississippi on Sunday. Criswell pledged to process quickly an anticipated request from Mississippi for a major disaster declaration to enable full federal support now and over the long term.

FEMA was already on the ground, she said, adding that the American Red Cross was setting up shelters.

Search and rescue teams combed through the destruction looking for survivors in Silver City and Rolling Fork.

“My city is gone, but we are resilient,” Rolling Fork Mayor Eldridge Walker said on CNN. “We are going to come back strong.”

Walker said several people were trapped in their homes, adding that rescue efforts were underway.

He said 12 of the people who died were in Rolling Fork. Television images showed uprooted trees, houses ripped apart, and damaged motor vehicles. Many areas were without electricity.

Humphreys County Sheriff Bruce Williams told CNN that “this town has been destroyed as a bomb hit it.”

Williams said there were no missing persons reported, but three deaths had been confirmed in the county.

Grim situation

Yazoo Constable Jeremy McCoy, who had gone to Rolling Fork to assist with rescue efforts told CNN of the grim situation on the ground and stepping on nails.

“I’ve never seen anything like that,” said McCoy. “You hope to hear somebody call, a baby crying, a dog barking or something, but hear nothing.”

Tracy Harden, the owner of Chuck’s Dairy Barn, told the network that she and her husband sought shelter in a cooler. Others hunkered down in their homes, finding refuge in bathtubs.

The organisation Volunteer Mississippi, through the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, asked citizens, not to self-deploy but welcomed donations of water, canned food, and other resources.

It said unaffiliated volunteers would be matched with affiliated groups on the ground when the time was right.

A Rolling Fork resident, Brandy Showah, also told CNN that the town was gone. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she said, adding that her grandmother’s house suffered damage.

“My friend was trapped in her home a few houses down, but we got her out,” Showah said, adding that people who lived next to her grandmother were still trapped in their houses.

Todd Terrell, who heads a volunteer rescuers group called United Cajun Navy, told ABC News that Rolling Fork was “pretty much devastated” and many people remained trapped in their homes. Terrell compared the destruction to a tornado in Joplin, Missouri, that killed 161 people in 2011.

At least 24 reports of tornadoes were issued to the National Weather Service on Friday night and into Saturday morning by storm chasers and observers.

The reports stretched from the western edge of Mississippi north through the center of the state and into Alabama. Unconfirmed reports said one person had died in Alabama.

Photographs of the destruction published by news networks showed entire buildings left in rubble and cars turned over on their sides as people climbed through the debris in darkness.

“Many in the MS Delta need your prayer and God’s protection tonight,” the governor, Reeves, said late on Friday in a tweet. “We have activated medical support - surging more ambulances and other emergency assets for those affected.”

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Powell and King's fury takes West Indies over the finish line

Victory in a shortened but tense affair in Centurion puts the visitors 1-0 up in three-match series

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Rahul expelled from parliament after conviction

NEW DELHI: Top opposition figure Rahul Gandhi was expelled from India’s parliament on Friday, a day after his defamation conviction for a remark seen as an insult against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Modi’s government has been widely accused of using the law to target and silence critics, and the case in the premier’s home state of Gujarat is one of several lodged against his chief opponent in recent years.

Rahul Gandhi, of the opposition Congress party, was sentenced to two-year imprisonment but walked free on bail after his lawyers vowed to appeal Thursday’s verdict. However, the conviction has ruled him ineligible to continue sitting as a lawmaker in the lower house of parliament, a notice from the chamber’s joint secretary said.

Rahul Gandhi, 52, is the leading face of the Congress party, once the dominant force of Indian politics, but now a shadow of its former self. But he has struggled to challenge the electoral juggernaut of Modi’s party and its nationalist appeals to the country’s Hindu majority.

Thursday’s case stemmed from a remark made during the 2019 election campaign in which Gandhi had asked why “all thieves have Modi as (their) common surname”. His comments were seen as a slur against the prime minister, who went on to win the election in a landslide.

Members of the government also said the remark was a smear against all those sharing the Modi surname, which is associated with the lower rungs of India’s traditional caste hierarchy.

‘Habitual loose cannon’

“Rahul Gandhi is a habitual loose cannon and he thinks he can say anything without ever facing the consequences,” information minister Anurag Thakur told reporters. “Wherever he goes he tries to create a rift between communities.”

Ravi Shankar Prasad, a spokesman for Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told reporters after Thursday’s verdict that the court had acted with “due judicial process”.

But Nilanjan Mukho­padhyay, a New Delhi-based writer and analyst, said the conviction showed the BJP “does not want Rahul Gandhi in parliament”. He said the disqualification followed a “big storm” of disruptions to parliamentary proceedings by Congress lawmakers demanding a probe into Modi’s relationship with tycoon Gautam Adani.

The two men have been close associates for decades but Adani’s business empire has been subject to renewed scrutiny this year after a US investment firm accused it of “brazen” corporate fraud.

Congress lawmakers gathered outside parliament on Friday morning to protest Gandhi’s conviction and renew their demand for a probe into the Adani allegations. The lawmakers were taken into custody for defying an ordinance banning demonstrations in the area.

“We have detained over two dozen members of opposition parties,” an officer at New Delhi’s Parliament Street police station said. “They will be released soon.”

Action against critics

Several senior lawmakers have been disqualified from Indian legislatures in the past, including a state chief minister. Indira Gandhi, Rahul’s grandmother, was briefly forced out of the chamber by a court decision in 1977 while she was prime minister.

But legal action has been widely deployed against opposition party figures and institutions seen as critical of the Modi government in recent years.

Gandhi himself faces at least two other defamation cases in the country and a money laundering case that has been snaking its way through India’s glacial legal system for more than a decade.

Federal investigators last month arrested a top member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which governs New Delhi on allegations he had corruptly benefitted from reforms to the capital’s liquor licensing rules. The party is seeking to supplant Congress as the main opposition to Modi’s government and its members have decr­ied the arrest as politically motivated.

Also in February, Indian tax authorities raided BBC’s local offices, weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary on Modi’s conduct during deadly sectarian riots decades ago.

The Editors Guild of India said then that the raids were part of a wider “trend of using government agencies to intimidate or harass press organisations that are critical of government policies”.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2023

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Russia presses along Ukraine front after Bakhmut slowdown

KREMINNA: Russian forces attacked northern and southern stretches of the front in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on Friday, even as Kyiv said Moscow’s assault was flagging near the city of Bakhmut.

Ukrainian military reports described heavy fighting along a line running from Lyman to Kupiansk, as well as in the south at Avdiivka on the outskirts of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.

Both areas have been major Russian targets in a winter campaign to fully capture Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region. The offensive has so far yielded scant gains despite the death of thousands of troops on both sides in the bloodiest fighting of the war.

At a Ukrainian artillery position in lush pine forests behind the northern stretch of the front, troops fired 155 mm rounds from a French TRF-1 howitzer towards a highway used as a supply road for Russian-held Kreminna.

“Luckily we are holding the same position,” a soldier using the call sign “Greenwich” said. “Because we are facing a very strong enemy with very good arms. And it’s a professional army: airborne troops.”

As orders came in with coordinates, the crew jumped into position around the gun, removed camouflage, aimed, loaded and fired. After three rounds, they lowered the barrel, covered it back up and went back to bunkers in the forest to await further orders. Artillery and small arms fire could be heard in the distance.

The front lines have barely budged since November, despite intense fighting. Ukraine recaptured swathes of territory in the second half of 2022, but has since kept mostly to the defensive, while Russia has attacked with hundreds of thousands of freshly called-up reservists and convicts recruited from prison.

As winter turns to spring, the main question in Ukraine is how much longer Russia can sustain its offensive, and when or whether Ukraine can reverse the momentum with a counterassault.

On Thursday, the commander of Ukrainian ground forces said Russia’s assault on Bakhmut, a small city that has been the focus of the biggest battle of the war, appeared to be losing steam and Kyiv could go on the offensive “very soon”.

‘People pushed to the very limits’

For now, Ukrainian forces are still focused on preventing the Russians advancing along more than 300 km (185 miles) of Donbas front, from Kupiansk in the north to Vuhledar in the south.

“All day yesterday the enemy tried to attack in the Avdiivka direction,” said Oleksiy Dmytrashkyvskyi of Ukraine’s Tavria military command, responsible for southern areas. “Shelling of Avdiivka does not stop - artillery, rockets, mortars. It is sad to see how people survive there who do not want to leave, they are mostly elderly people.” Serhiy Cherevatyi, spokesperson for the East command defending the front further north, said Russia’s main focus lately had been on the stretch from Kupiansk to Lyman, territory recaptured by Ukrainian forces last year.

Both said the Russians were reinforcing after heavy losses. There was no similar update from the Russian side, which has long claimed to be inflicting heavy casualties on the Ukrainians.

In Bakhmut itself, Ukrainian troops who weeks ago had appeared likely to pull back have instead dug in, a strategy some Western military experts say is risky because of the need to conserve forces for a counterattack.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said some 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, many elderly and with disabilities, were clinging on in horrific circumstances in Bakhmut and surrounding settlements.

“They are living in very dire conditions, spending almost the entire days in intense shelling in the shelters,” the ICRC’s Umar Khan told a news briefing by video link from Dnipro, in Ukraine.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2023

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How will situation in October be any better, asks Imran

• Fears further delays in elections; calls on people to participate in today’s rally at Minar-i-Pakistan
• Claims police officers informed him about Punjab IG’s ‘murder plan’, asked him to move to GB or AJK

LAHORE: Visibly upset over the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to postpone the April 30 Punjab Assembly elections until October, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has asked how the situation would be any different five to six months from now.

“Will the economic or the security situation improve by then,” he asked, saying the ground realities suggested that the situation would be worse in October.

“Does this mean the ECP will stretch the elections even further,” he questioned, stressing that the nation was now looking towards the Supreme Court to uphold the Constitution of Pakistan.

Speaking to media persons after appearing at the Lahore High Court on Friday, the former prime minister said if authorities had decided once to violate the Constitution, anything could happen afterwards. Citing an example, he said Ziaul Haq had announced he would hold elections in 90 days but stretched it to 11 years.

Mr Khan said the PTI in particular and the people of Pakistan in general were looking towards the Supreme Court to act against the ‘law of the jungle’ as party leaders and workers were being picked up and their whereabouts were being kept hidden.

Referring to cases against PDM coalition leaders, the PTI chief said both PPP and PML-N had instituted some 95 per cent of these cases against each other when they were in power.

Claiming that the PTI did not institute any case against them, Mr Khan said Nawaz Sharif was caught in the Panama Papers case, while Ishaq Dar and Shehbaz Sharif’s son-in-law had absconded during the PML-N government. “Only one case against Shehbaz Sharif was registered during the PTI government,” he asserted.

The PTI chief said the entire nation had known him for the past 50 years, and yet around 40 terrorism cases had been registered against him. “Can anyone in the country believe that I committed terrorism 40 times,” he said, adding that the nation was now losing trust in the incumbent government.

Mr Khan said the country had been converted into a ‘banana republic’ where law and justice stood nowhere. He also regretted the treatment being meted out to his nephew, advocate Hassaan Niazi. “He gets bail in one case and gets arrested in another,” the PTI chief said.

In a video message to garner public participation in the party’s rally at the Minar-i-Pakistan, Mr Khan said he would hold this year’s first public rally at 9pm on Saturday (today), where he said he would also give a programme to pull the country out of the crises it currently faced.

Referring to his claim that Punjab’s inspector general of police was planning to kill him, the PTI chief claimed some senior police officers had told him about the “murder plan” and suggested that he move to Gilgit-Baltistan or Azad Jammu and Kashmir, where the PTI is in power.

“Life and death are in the hands of Allah. Whoever wants to kill me, come here to my Zaman Park residence [in Lahore] and target me. I will not run away for fear of death,” he said.

Expressing his distrust of a joint investigation team formed by the government to investigate 10 FIRs registered in Lahore, Mr Khan asked the government, “If you are serious about constituting a JIT, it should constitute the team under the chief justice’s supervision.”

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2023

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Sri Lanka bowl in first ODI; Chad Bowes, Rachin Ravindra debut for New Zealand

Visitors had Angelo Mathews back, who had last played an ODI two years ago, but there was no Dhananjaya de Silva

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Afghanistan's bowlers script their first-ever win over Pakistan

Pakistan fought hard with ball but Mohammad Nabi steered the chase with an unbeaten 38

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Nottinghamshire's snow-hit photocall wins Wisden Cricket Photograph of the Year 2022

Matthew Lewis becomes first photographer to claim honour twice

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Pakistan’s forex reserves up $280m to $4.6bn

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank increased by $280 million to $4.598 billion during the week ending on March 17, after receiving an inflow of a commercial loan.

“The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) received $500m as GoP commercial loan disbursement,” the central bank said. The country’s total foreign reserves, including commercial bank deposits, stood at $10.139bn on March 17.

Arif Habib Limited calculated that the reserves were enough to cover only about four weeks of necessary imports.

Last week, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had announced that Pakistan had another received the second instalment of $500 million from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC), which had earlier approved a rollover of a $1.3bn loan.

The increase in forex reserves comes as short-term inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Index hit an all-time high of 46.65 per cent year-on-year (YoY) for the week ending on March 22, driven mainly by a major increase in food prices.

The coalition government and IMF have been negotiating since early February on an agreement that would release a $1.1bn tranche, from a $6.5bn bailout agreed upon in 2019, to the cash-strapped country.

The government has already implemented several fiscal measures, including devaluing the rupee, lifting subsidies and raising energy prices as preconditions for the agreement.

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Imran says ‘enough is enough’ as PTI activist Azhar Mashwani nabbed

LAHORE: PTI social media activist Azhar Mashwani was picked up on Thursday, apparently on charges of criticising the Punjab police and the caretaker government for allegedly using high-handed tactics against party workers.

The arrest of Mr Mashwani, a former focal person for digital media in Punjab, prompted PTI chief Imran Khan to say, “enough is enough”, as he accused the authorities of abducting the party activist.

“Enough is enough. Police in Punjab and Islamabad are breaking all laws with impunity as they target PTI. Today Azhar Mashwani was abducted in the afternoon from Lahore and his whereabouts are unknown,” the former prime minister tweeted on Thursday and demanded Mr Mashwani’s immediate release.

On March 18, Senator Shibli Faraz and Omar Sultan were “badly beaten” by Islamabad police, Mr Khan said, insisting that they both had permission to be inside the Judicial Complex, where the PTI chief went to attend a hearing in the Toshakhana case day.

Mr Khan said his nephew, Hassaan Niazi, was abducted immediately after getting bail and later charged with “sham FIRs” to keep him locked up.

Former PM says sending pictures of Punjab, Islamabad IGs to international human rights organisations for ’criminal behaviour

“I am sending pictures of IGs [inspectors generals] of Punjab and ICT [Islamabad Capital Territory] and of all officers indulging in this criminal behaviour” to international human rights organisations, he said, “so they can identify those working for the state and indulging in abductions, illegal break-ins into homes, custodial torture and violence against political leaders and unarmed workers of PTI.”

Meanwhile, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that Mr Mashwani had been “abducted” after the Punjab’s inspector general of police allegedly used threatening language against the party activist.

In a Twitter post, he said Mr Mashwani should be immediately presented before a court and his offence be explained. “If the IG police thinks he will not even be criticised after torturing and killing party worker Zille Shah, he is living in a fool’s paradise,” Mr Chaudhry said.

Earlier in the day, the PTI also alleged that party worker Malik Qaiser, a union council president in Lahore’s Data Ganj Bakhsh town, was also abducted by the police because he was actively working for the preparations of a PTI rally planned for March 25 at Minar-i-Pakistan.

“Today is March 23 and we are facing the worst kind of fascism,” a PTI leader tweeted. Another said, “The country is being ruled by kidnappers and traitors with literally a jungle rule. The country has become a banana republic.”

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2023

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