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NEW YORK / WASHINGTON: Demonstrators at Columbia University barricaded themselves inside a campus building on Tuesday, escalating a standoff with officials, but the White House chided them for using “the wrong approach”.
Demonstrators vowed to remain at the hall until their demands are met, including that Columbia divest all financial holdings linked to Israel, after administrators began suspending protesting students for failing to comply with an order to disperse.
Protests have swept through US higher education institutions, with many erecting tent encampments on campus grounds after around 100 protesters were first arrested at Columbia on April 18.
At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, police moved in Tuesday morning to clear one encampment, detaining some protesters.
TV footage showed police at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond on Monday evening pushing and shoving away protesters, with students saying teargas and pepper spray was deployed.
On Tuesday, access to Columbia was restricted to residential students and essential staff.
One graduate student protester, who asked to be identified only as “Z,” told AFP: “It’s finals week, everyone is still working on their finals. But at the end of the day, school is temporary.”
But White House spokesman John Kirby denounced the actions, saying: “The president believes that forcibly taking over a building on campus is absolutely the wrong approach. That is not an example of peaceful protests”.
However, he said there was no active effort to mobilse the National Guard, adding that he was not aware of any evidence of ‘bad actors’ at the college protests sweeping the country.
The government on Tuesday slashed the price of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) for the next fortnight by Rs5.45 and 8.42, respectively.
In a notification, the finance ministry said the reduction was due to price variations in the international market because of a decreasing trend in prices of petroleum products during the last fortnight.
It said the new petrol price was Rs288.49 per litre and that of HSD was Rs281.96.
A fortnight ago, the government had increased the price of petrol and HSD by Rs4.53 and Rs8.14 per litre.
The government has already achieved Rs60 per litre petroleum levy — maximum permissible limit under the law — on both petrol and HSD.
Informed sources had earlier toldDawn that the prices of petrol and diesel were expected to drop by about Rs5 and Rs9 per litre, respectively, mainly because of a fall in the international prices and import premiums.
The sources said the prices of petrol and HSD had declined in the international market by about $3 and $5 per barrel, respectively, in the last fortnight.
Seven new deaths from rain-related incidents has raised the death toll in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa since April 26 to 17, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority.
PDMA spokesperson Anwar Shahzad confirmed the death toll to Dawn.com today and said 23 were injured in different parts of the province.
Shahzad said that nine men, three women and five children were among the deceased whereas nine men, three women and 11 children were injured.
He said the Bajaur district of Malakand division was the most affected district where five people died, ten were injured and 20 houses were damaged.
The KP PDMA spokesman said that 116 houses were damaged due to landslides, roofs and wall collapses.
According to the PDMA report dated April 29, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, 148 cattle also perished in different areas of the province in the landslide and collapse of houses.
Four schools and nine other government infrastructures were damaged during rainfall since April 26.
Shahzad said that the districts most affected by the rain-related incidents were Bajaur, Swat, Mansehra, Battagram, Dir Lower, Malakand, Luki Marwat, Kohat, Orakzai, Shangla, Dir Upper, Mohmand, Buner, Chitral Lower, North Waziristan and Nowshehra.
“We have directed the district administrations of respective districts to be vigilant and continue relief activities in the rain emergency and provide shelters, and food timely if required anywhere in the province,” the PDMA spokesperson said.
National Highway Authority Deputy Director Ghulam Abbas told Dawn.com that the Karakoram highway (KKH) was blocked at Battagram’s Thakot and in parts of Kohistan and Diamer, adding that clearance work was underway to reopen it for traffic.
He said the artery was opened for traffic on Monday late at night and strandees managed to pass the landslide blockades but it was subsequently blocked again after heavy landsliding in the Diamer and Thakot areas.
Abbas added that the road would be opened for traffic in a few hours as the rain had stopped and machinery of the Frontier Works Organisation was at the field for clearing the road.
Separately, the KKH was blocked by women protesters who staged protests against the shortage of wheat and a power outage at Hunza.
Hunza local Muhammad Amen told Dawn.com that the women came out onto the road today demanding wheat and an end to the power outage which was causing problems for them.
He said the protest would continue until the demands were accepted by the government and issues resolved.
The Institute of Space Technology on Tuesday said Pakistan’s “historic” lunar mission iCube-Q will be launched on May 3 at 12:50pm on board China’s Chang’e 6 lunar probe from Hainan, China.
According to the Institute of Space Technology (IST), the satellite ICUBE-Q has been designed and developed by IST in collaboration with China’s Shanghai University SJTU and Pakistan’s national space agency Suparco.
ICUBE-Q orbiter carries two optical cameras to image the lunar surface.
Following successful qualification and testing, iCube-Q has now been integrated with the Chang’e 6 mission.
Chang’e 6 is the sixth in a series of China’s lunar exploration missions.
The launch activity will be telecast live on the IST website and IST social media platforms.
China’s lunar mission will touch down on the moon’s far side to collect samples from the surface and return to Earth for research.
The mission holds significance for Pakistan as it will also take a CubeSat Satellite iCube-Q, developed by IST.
CubeSats are miniature satellites typically characterised by their small size and standardised design.
They are constructed in a cubic shape, consisting of modular components that adhere to specific size constraints.
These satellites often weigh no more than a few kilogrammes and were deployed in space for various purposes.
The primary purpose of CubeSats was to facilitate scientific research, technology development, and educational initiatives in space exploration.
These satellites were utilised for a wide range of missions, including Earth observations, remote sensing, atmospheric research, communications, astronomy and technology demonstration.
Due to their compact size and relatively low cost compared to traditional satellites, CubeSats offered opportunities for universities, research institutions and commercial entities to participate in space missions and gather valuable data for scientific advancement and innovation.
They serve as platforms for testing new technologies and concepts, enabling access to space for a broader range of users and promoting collaboration within the space community.
Last year in August, India became the first nation to land a craft near the Moon’s south pole, a historic triumph for its ambitious, cut-price space programme.
ISLAMABAD: The Karachi-based K-Electric has sought approval to charge up to Rs18.6 per unit additional fuel cost from power consumers at an average monthly burden of about Rs2 per unit to mop up about Rs28bn additional funds and clear a backlog of about nine months (July 2023 to March 2024).
In a series of petitions filed before the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), the KE presented three different options for additional fuel cost recovery from consumers on a “provisional basis” to clear the backlog and avoid a sudden increase in burden on its consumers.
Nepra has called a public hearing on May 9 for the KE’s petition on provisional monthly fuel charges adjustments (FCA) for the period of July 2023 to March 2024. The KE explained that since its multi-year tariff (2024-30) was currently under regulator’s deliberation, it has filed FCAs based on three scenarios with the request for the approval of any one of the three scenarios and guide recovery mechanism for these nine months to facilitate timely recovery of costs and avoid further accumulation of adjustments to be recovered from customers.
Under the first scenario, the KE has proposed that the FCA be calculated as the difference between actual fuel cost and the reference monthly fuel cost as per the interim tariff currently in place. In this option, the KE sought increase in rates for seven months and reduction in rates for two months, with a net additional revenue of about Rs19bn. The cumulative net impact for nine months works out to be about Rs13 per unit or an average of Rs1.45 per unit per month.
Higher FCA won’t apply to ‘lifeline consumers’
In the second option, the KE demanded that it be allowed to charge consumers the difference between the actual and reference monthly fuel cost as per the tariff petition filed by the KE and currently under Nepra’s deliberation. In this case, the utility has also sought fuel cost increase for seven months and reduction for two months with the net accumulative additional fuel cost of Rs18.6 per unit at a monthly average of Rs2.06 per unit for nine months to raise about Rs28bn.
In the third scenario, the KE proposed that the difference between actual fuel costs versus annual weighted average fuel reference costs being considered as per the tariff petition filed by the KE and currently under Nepra’s deliberation. In this case, too, the utility sought additional fuel cost for seven months and reduction for two months. The net combined impact works out to be Rs16.9 per unit at a monthly average of about Rs1.90 per unit and entails a financial impact of about Rs24bn.
The consumers of ex-distribution companies (Discos) have already paid these additional fuel costs ranging between Rs3 and Rs7.5 per unit a month.
On approval, Nepra will also set the mechanism and schedule for recovery of increase in FCAs. The FCA is normally reviewed every month as per the tariff regime applicable across the country and is usually applicable to the consumer’s bills for one month only. However, the KE has a backlog given its delayed tariff petitions and regulatory approvals for monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
The higher FCA, on approval, would be applicable to all consumer categories except lifeline power consumers and protected domestic consumers using up to 300 units, and agricultural consumers and electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. The adjustment on account of monthly FCA is also applicable to the domestic consumers having Time of Use (ToU) meters irrespective of their consumption level.
Under the tariff mechanism, changes in fuel cost are passed on to consumers only on a monthly basis through automatic mechanism while quarterly tariff adjustments on account of variation in power purchase price, capacity charges, variable operation and maintenance costs, use of system charges and including impact of transmission and distribution losses are built in the base tariff by the federal government.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) on Monday said it had arrested “four key terrorists” belonging to the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group involved in the suicide attack in Bisham last month.
On March 26, five Chinese engineers — and their Pakistani driver — were killed in a suicide bombing in KP’s Bisham while travelling between Islamabad and a hydroelectric dam construction site in Dasu. The bus was attacked in the Bisham city of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district.
The attack prompted China to demand a thorough probe into the deadly blast and security for its citizens. In response, Islamabad had announced a swift probe to hold the “perpetrators and accomplices” accountable. Chinese investigators had also arrived to join the probe.
In response to the Chinese government’s demand to promptly investigate the incident and act against those involved, the government had also decided to form a joint investigation team to probe the attack.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had ordered action against five senior police officers over negligence and security lapses, which led to the Bisham attack.
Terming the arrests a big headway, the KP CTD spokesperson said in a statement today that the department had arrested four suspects — Adil Shehbaz, Muhammad Shafiq Qureshi, Zahid Qureshi and Nazeer Hussain — who were residents of Mansehra district.
The statement said that all four arrested were linked with the TTP, adding that Shehbaz had “confessed to the attack”.
The CTD identified him as the mastermind, adding that Shehbaz had admitted to playing a pivotal role in the execution of the Bisham attack and that he was a resident of Afghanistan’s Jalalabad district.
PEOPLE stand near a flower arrangement reading ‘Free Palestine’ during a demonstration against Israel’s atrocities in Gaza at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, on Saturday.—Reuters
At 7am on Thursday, minutes after a fifth-year PhD student at Princeton University’s economics department stepped on campus, he was arrested and detained in a holding cell.
His crime? Being at the site of a protest camp, set up by students demanding the university divest from organisations and companies facilitating or profiting from Israel’s ongoing atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza.
The student, a US national of Pakistani origin, told Dawn that he was held by the university police, detained in a holding cell and charged with trespassing.
“[It] felt quite surreal,” he said about the charge, given that he was a university student and had the right to be present on campus at the time.
“Out of 100 people at the protest, only two of us were arrested, both of us of South Asian ethnicity.”
He said the protesters want the varsity to divest from entities such as G4S (a UK-based security company) and the Department of Defence.
Most colleges and universities in the US have endowment funds to support the expenses incurred in teaching, research, student aid, and other services. They mostly comprise money donated to the university.
According to the American Council on Education, a US-based nonprofit association for higher education, these funds are usually invested for long-term returns.
Princeton’s endowment fund was $34.1 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023.
According to the student, there was “no financial transparency at all” regarding the university’s investments from its endowment.
He said the protesters making these demands come from diverse backgrounds — White, Jews, Arabs, African Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Muslims.
The stated goal of the protest was simple: to force the university to “disclose, divest and disassociate with organisations enabling the assault on Palestinian lives”.
Nationwide protests
Over the past few weeks, similar protests have been held in universities around the US, resulting in heated discussion over the right to free speech and the political discourse on university campuses.
In some universities, the administration called in police and security forces to dislodge protesting students. AFP reported that over the weekend, around 275 people were arrested on four campuses, at times by police in riot gear using chemical irritants and tasers.
The wave of demonstrations started with students setting up their camp at Columbia University in New York last week.
A female student of South Asian origin, who was enrolled in a masters programme, told Dawn that the encampment, which began on Wednesday and has been ongoing since then, was initiated by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition.
On Thursday afternoon, the university’s president, Nemat Minouche Shafik, called the New York Police Department to disperse the protesters.
In the action that followed, 108 students were arrested, according to the student who talked to Dawn on the condition of anonymity.
She said this was the first time that police was called on students since 1968, when anti-war protests broke out amidst the war in Vietnam.
This acted as a catalyst for the protests to spread across US universities. Students turned up at Columbia to protests in droves the very next day.
A similar police action was also witnessed at the University of Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor.
One of the students explained to Dawn that the use of undue and illegitimate force against protesters was jaw-dropping.
She claimed that one of the female protesters was “body slammed” while another had her “hijab ripped off”.
Intimidation tactics
Students who spoke to Dawn believed that university administrations’ were threatening protesters with punitive actions for peaceful assembly.
The student from Princeton believed that peaceful protests on campus “should not be punished via legal recourse”.
The universities “are failing miserably in upholding ideals of the right to express one’s opinions” and have “forcefully and arbitrarily” banned students from campus whilst threatening them with academic consequences.
The student from the University of Michigan claimed the administration was introducing “restrictive policies to repress students”.
The university recently introduced ‘Disruptive Activity Policy’ which “infringed upon the rights bestowed to them under the First Amendment” which guarantees freedoms of religion, expression, assembly, and the right to petition.
The student from Columbia claimed that the administration “refused to negotiate in good faith” and continued to use “fear mongering tactics to scare students”.
The pro-Palestine protests are often met with counter-demonstrations, which the students believed weren’t dealt with the same ferocity.
University of Michigan students claimed that their camps were targeted by counter-protestors who “harass and intimidate” the students. She added that the protesting students have a mechanism to deal with this retaliation and have devised “comprehensive safety protocols” to prevent any altercations and ensure the movement’s growth.
Arsenal held on to beat battling local rivals Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 away and move four points clear at the top of the Premier League after an emphatic first-half display and a nervous second period in an electric derby atmosphere on Sunday.
An own goal by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and efforts from Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz put the Gunners in control at halftime and although Spurs fought back through Cristian Romero’s strike and a Son Heung-min penalty, the visitors claimed the three points.
Victory moved Mikel Arteta’s Gunners further ahead of second-placed champions Manchester City, who have two games in hand and visit struggling Nottingham Forest later on Sunday.
Liverpool are in third spot a point behind City but like Arsenal having played 35 matches with three games left.
Tottenham’s defeat hit their hopes of playing Champions League football next season as they stand seven points off fourth-placed Aston Villa, albeit still with two games in hand.
Having built such a commanding lead it looked as though Arsenal could inflict humiliation on their arch-rivals but in the end they were happy to hear the final whistle — the players celebrating in the corner with their fans.
“I was praying at the end. It was a really emotional game. This is a tough place to come and a great team to play against. We had to dig in and suffer,” Arteta, who reached 100 Premier League wins as Arsenal manager, told Sky Sports.
Arsenal arrived at the home of their neighbours desperate for a win to boost their title challenge and got the perfect start after 15 minutes when midfielder Hojbjerg headed the ball back into his own net from a corner.
Tottenham reacted to going behind and defender Romero hit the outside of the post from a James Maddison cross.
The hosts thought they had equalised when Micky van de Ven placed the ball past keeper David Raya after Pedro Porro’s strike deflected to him and the stadium erupted but after a long delay the goal was ruled out by VAR [video assistant referee] for offside.
Saka strike
The Gunners extended their lead just before the half hour mark, though, when a counter-attack was calmly finished by Saka after Spurs’ Dejan Kulusevski slipped in the Arsenal area.
Havertz added the third with a simple header from a corner that eluded the home defence and the visitors were flying.
It was the first time shell-shocked Tottenham had fallen 3-0 behind at home to bitter rivals Arsenal since 1959.
Spurs replaced Rodrigo Bentancur with Pape Matar Sarr at halftime and they pulled a goal back through Romero just past the hour after Raya played the ball straight to him and the Argentine found the bottom corner to lift the home fans.
Tottenham were awarded a penalty after a VAR check in the 87th minute after Declan Rice kicked Ben Davies just inside the area when the Arsenal midfielder tried to clear the ball and Son stepped up to convert the spot-kick as the noise level rose.
Spurs piled on the pressure but could not breach the Arsenal defence again and the visitors were left to celebrate the win and a healthy lead in the thrilling title race.
Tottenham manger Ange Postecoglou was left to rue the mistakes that have dogged his side all season.
“They’re (Arsenal) a team that deals with the details well and we aren’t,” the Australian said.
KARACH: Forty-three areas in 11 districts, including 34 in Karachi division alone, are at a high polio risk whereas more than 38,000 cases of refusals were reported in the province during the national immunisation days observed in February this year.
This was shared during a meeting of the provincial task force for the eradication of polio held at the CM House on Saturday.
The meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, was organised to discuss the challenges in the upcoming national immunisation campaign scheduled for Monday (April 29) in 25 districts.
Briefing on the latest polio situation in the country, Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho said that two polio cases had been detected this year in Balochistan; one in Dera Bugti and the other in Chaman district.
Anti-polio campaign to begin tomorrow; over 38,000 cases of refusal reported in February
In Sindh, she said, environmental samples had been collected from all the districts and 43 areas of 11 districts were found to have poliovirus in their sewage.
These included 13 areas of Karachi East, three each of Central, Malir and Korangi, Hyderabad and Sukkur, six each of South and Keamari, and one each in Jamshoro, Jacobabad and Badin.
The chief minister was informed that a total of 38,743 cases of refusal were reported during the national immunisation days observed in February this year.
The meeting was informed that over 9.04 million children under the age of five were given polio vaccine at transit points over the last 15 months, starting from Jan 2023 to March 2024.
“A total of 275 transit posts were set up with 1.003 teams across Sindh. The department has also launched the Polio Ambassador Unitive Project in Karachi that is now being expanded across the province with 407 schools participating and 901 new Polio Ambassadors inducted this month,” she said, adding that Polio Ambassadors were advocating for the cause of vaccination in their homes, communities and schools.
Over 0.6m workers to participate in drive
The chief minister was informed that the National Immunisation Campaign would be launched on Monday in 25 districts of the province, during which 8m children below 5 years of age would receive oral polio vaccine (OPV).
Over 600,000 frontline workers would participate in the drive. The anti-polio drive would be carried out in 201 union councils of Karachi in which 24,656 polio workers would perform their duties.
“Eradication of polio is a collective responsibility. Therefore, the district administration, local bodies, civil society members and our partners must work together to save children from the crippling disease. All deputy commissioners and SSPs must ensure its success,” the chief minister said during the meeting.
It was decided that the health department would share the list of the poliovirus-infected union councils with local bodies/towns and the district administrations to ensure proper cleanliness, efficient disposal of wastewater and provision of clean drinking water.
Mr Shah directed the staff to ensure that no parent was allowed to refuse administration of polio drops to his/her children and report the case to the administration for action.
He also directed the polio teams to administer polio drops to 126,553 children who were not available at their homes during the February 2024 campaign.
The CM directed IG Police to provide 3,833 policemen for security. He also directed him [IGP] to provide similar security to other teams to work in rural areas of the province.
The attendees included Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, Secretary to CM Raheem Shaikh, Home Secretary Iqbal Memon, IG Police Ghulam Nabi Memon, Commissioner Karachi Hassan Naqvi, EOC Coordinator Irshad Sodhar, DG Health Dr Waqar and Secretary School Education Zahid Abbasi.
ISLAMABAD: Judge Abual Hasnat Mohammad Zulqarnain, who convicted former prime minister Imran Khan and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cipher case, has been granted a 20-day leave, according to an official notification.
In a related development, the federal government has assigned another judge to the Special Court (Official Secrets Act), set up to prosecute the former premier and foreign minister in the cipher case.
According to the notification issued by the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Special Court’s charge has been assigned to Additional District and Sessions Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra.
He was recently posted as an anti-terrorism court (ATC) special judge.
ADSJ Tahir Sipra given charge of special court
The leave application of Judge Zulqarnain was approved by Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, who is also the inspection judge of the capital’s special courts.
The decision to grant leave to Judge Zulqarnain came days after Justice Kayani recommended the former’s repatriation to his parent department, the Lahore High Court (LHC), over alleged misconduct.
Judge Zulqarnain was posted from the LHC to the Islamabad Judicial Service on a three-year deputation in 2022.
He was the Islamabad ATC presiding judge when he was also given the charge of special court under the Official Secrets Act to oversee the cipher trial.
The recommended repatriation of Judge Zulqarnain came on the back of remarks passed by an IHC division bench regarding his conduct during a hearing to grant bail to PTI leader Aamir Masood Mughal.
The PTI leader, nominated in March last year for allegedly leading a group of rioters that set a police van on fire, had applied for a pre-arrest bail at the Islamabad anti-terrorism court.
During a hearing on Feb 6, he appeared in the court of ATC Judge Zulqarnain and sought an adjournment until after the Feb 8 general elections, which he was contesting as a PTI-backed independent candidate.
The judge accepted the request and adjourned the matter until Feb 13.
The IHC bench noted that Judge Zulqarnain announced the adjournment in the short order dictated in the open court, but later, the said petition [for pre-arrest bail] was “dismissed for non-prosecution”.
According to the bench’s order, the petitioner and his lawyers were asked to submit separate affidavits before the court to affirm the facts, which they did.
The investigation officer also confirmed that the ATC judge had indeed granted an adjournment on Feb 6, the court noted.
“At this juncture, we will exercise restraint to record observations regarding the conduct of the presiding officer [ATC-I judge] in the light of the principle and law laid down by the Supreme Court. However, a separate note is being submitted on the administrative side,” the order said.
Armed men kidnapped a sessions judge on Saturday from the border between Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, police said.
DI Khan Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mohammad Adnan told Dawn.com that the South Waziristan judge was abducted from Bhagwal village near the border between the two districts.
He said he was present at the scene with the Tank district police officer with a heavy contingent of personnel, and raids were being launched as part of a search operation in process.
KP Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Gandapur took notice of the incident and ordered the inspector general of police to ensure the judge’s safe recovery.
“Steps should be taken on an emergency basis to recover the judge. All available resources should be utilised for this purpose,” he was quoted as saying in a statement from the KP government.
“The alleged abduction of the judge is highly condemnable and regrettable. The elements involved in the incident cannot escape from the grip of the law. The provincial government will take all possible steps to recover the judge,” CM Gandapur said.
LONDON: Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf said he intended to fight a vote of no confidence called by political opponents following his decision to withdraw from a coalition agreement and try to run a minority government.
“I’m quite confident, very confident in fact, that I’ll be able to win that vote of no confidence,” he told Sky News on Friday.
Scottish National Party leader Yousaf ended an alliance with the Scottish Greens after a dispute over a decision to scrap a climate change emissions reduction target last week.
The Scottish arm of the Conservative Party that governs Britain then said it would seek to topple Yousaf with a no-confidence motion, calling him a “lame duck”.
His position now hangs on a knife-edge vote after almost all other parties, including his former coalition partners, said they would vote against him.
With the Conservatives, Labour, Greens and Liberal Democrats all indicating they have no confidence in Yousaf, he would need the support of Ash Regan, a one-time leadership rival to Yousaf who acrimoniously left the SNP last year, to cling on as first minister. If Yousaf lost, parliament would have 28 days to choose a new first minister before an election was forced.
Poor judgement
The Scottish Labour Party said they would bring a separate motion of no confidence in the government, which could lead to Scottish elections more immediately.
“It would be untenable for the SNP to assume it can impose another unelected First Minister on Scotland,” leader Anas Sarwar said in a statement, saying an election was needed to give Scotland a “fresh start”.
PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah on Friday requested party supremo Nawaz Sharif to assume its presidency after his relief in legal cases against him.
The senior PML-N leader was addressing a press conference in Lahore flanked by Javed Latif and Khurram Dastgir after an organisational meeting of the PML-N Punjab wing concluded with the unanimous passing of a resolution advocating for Nawaz’s appointment as the party president.
Sanaullah said now that Nawaz had secured legal relief in cases against him, it was the “wish” of PML-N Punjab with the same request to the PML-N supremo to assume the presidency again and lead the party through “this difficult time”.
“We have faith that under his leadership, the PML-N will achieve greater success than ever before,” Sanaullah added.
The former interior minister said that the PML-N Punjab had carefully considered the political climate before and after the general elections when putting forward its request.
“They have determined that he is fit to take the role,” Sanaullah said, adding that a proposal were drafted and would be brought before senior party leaders upon Nawaz’s return from his trip to China.
Sanaullah said that the federal government and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reiterated their commitment today to alleviate the inflation gripping the economy.
“They are working day and night to resolve this and have seen some success,” he added.
Sanaullah further said that the Punjab government led by Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz was working towards a similar goal of “extending relief … to the common man” and tackling inflation.
He said the party session had expressed its satisfaction with both the federal and Punjab governments and stood by them.
“The party has made peoples’ lives easier and ensured progress in the country. This will only increase under the leadership of CM Punjab … and the prime minister,” Sanaullah said.
Responding to questions from reporters, Sanaullah maintained that the party’s stance would remain unchanged if Nawaz assumed a leadership role. “This [change in leadership] happened before in 2017 … we gave him a founder’s role. His stance has not changed.”
He clarified that there was no factionalism within the party. “Both Shehbaz and Nawaz have faith in each other’s leadership and are loyal to each other,” Sanaullah said.
When asked about whether he was allegedly snubbed for major roles, he said it was “a claim we are discussing internally.”
“We will discuss it and issue a statement within a few weeks,” he added.
The PML-N supremo was disqualified in July 2017 from the office of prime minister due to his involvement in the Panama Papers case. He last held the role of party president in February 2018 when the Supreme Court ruled that an individual disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution cannot serve as head of a political party and Nawaz was subsequently removed as the PML-N president by the election commission.
Since his party formed the federal government, the three-time prime minister has kept a low profile, though has expressed discontent at his disqualification. “Had my government not been sent home in 2017, Pakistan would have progressed in leaps and bounds,” he said at a gathering in Lahore last month.
ISLAMABAD: Amid supply chain challenges leading to the closure of refining units and storage constraints, the government has asked the Ministry of Interior and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to start immediate operations against oil smuggling with the support of other stakeholders.
Informed sources told Dawn the prime minister had also taken up the matter with the defence authorities to extend maximum support to the civil agencies concerned in eradicating smuggling, which causes annual losses of hundreds of billions of rupees and negatively affects the smooth functioning of the petroleum supply chain, including refineries and marketing companies.
Separately, the Ministry of Interior and the FBR have been directed to take “appropriate and immediate action to address this critical issue”, according to a communication of the petroleum division based on a complaint by the Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC) to the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and the Prime Minister’s Office.
Interestingly, all the five domestic refineries jointly, individually and as part of the OCAC — an umbrella organisation of about three dozen refineries and petroleum marketing companies — have been writing almost daily to the petroleum division and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) about the challenges to their survival and threat to about $6 billion worth of upgradation plans because of the massive influx of smuggled oil products in the market.
Referring to letters to the SIFC, the petroleum division said the OCAC had highlighted the issue of petroleum smuggling, which posed a grave threat to the forthcoming investments in refinery expansion and upgradation projects under the Oil Refining Policy for Upgradation of Brownfield Refineries, 2023.
“This illicit activity not only bleeds the economy but also jeopardises the opportunity for substantial investments in refinery upgradation,” the petroleum division wrote to the interior ministry and the FBR on Thursday. “The ramifications extend beyond the refinery sector, impacting the profitability of oil marketing companies (OMCs), dealers, and disrupting the white oil pipeline operations.”
The petroleum division said the refineries were currently carrying huge stocks of high-speed diesel (HSD) due to the availability of smuggled fuel in the market. This reduced refinery throughput and production of other petroleum products.
“This situation is disturbing the entire oil supply chain and needs immediate correction,” the Ministry of Interior and FBR were told.
On the same day, the OCAC again reminded Ogra and the petroleum division that HSD stocks had reached a “critically high” level, enough for 44 days of consumption cover.
This posed “significant challenges to the sustainability of the oil industry. The alarming disparity between the high stocks of HSD (650,000 tonnes in storage) and the persistently low sales (14,700 tonnes against the planned 23,000 tonnes) is primarily attributable to the rampant smuggling of POL (petroleum, oil and lubricant) products from Western borders, has started to exert adverse effects on the refineries and OMCs”, the advisory council said.
The OCAC reminded Ogra that extensive deliberations on strategies to address the issue in many monthly product review meetings had been unsuccessful due to the pervasive influence of smuggled products.
“Demand destruction and surplus inventory have created a vicious circle, wherein the industry is struggling to maintain operational viability.”
The oil industry urged Ogra and the petroleum division to “recognise the cascading implications of this challenging situation, exacerbating financial strain throughout the supply chain”.
While the OMCs legitimately sold HSD during the peak agriculture season, suppressed market demand impacted their cash flows, rendering the oil marketing companies unable to fulfil their financial obligations to refineries and simultaneously retire letters of credit (LCs) for imported products.
Consequently, refineries’ ability to make timely payments for crude oil imports will be compromised. Because of these issues, the oil industry will again face similar challenges as encountered in 2022, when establishing LCs became an uphill task due to the country’s rating in the international market.
Due to high HSD stock levels, refineries were also constrained from curtailing their throughput, which also impacted the production of petrol and jet fuel.
The OCAC called upon the government institutions to “take immediate and decisive actions to restore market equilibrium and save the refineries, white oil pipeline and OMCs from collapse. The refineries also warned of “a serious threat to the opportunity of huge investment in the country due to the staggering influx of smuggled petroleum products from Iran”.
“It would, therefore, be most unfortunate if the planned upgradation projects are delayed or abandoned due to continued illicit activity which is already bleeding the economy and has disrupted the entire supply chain of petroleum products, adversely affecting the refinery health, white oil pipeline operations, and the profitability of oil marketing companies and dealers,” the council warned.
Balochistan Assembly Speaker Abdul Khaliq Achakzai was reinstated on Thursday after the Supreme Court annulled the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) orders to suspend him.
The ECP’s order of re-polling at 12 polling stations in Balochistan’s PB-51 (Chaman) constituency was also declared null and void.
Achakzai was removed from his position following the ECP decision earlier this month to suspend his election notification and order re-election in 12 polling stations within PB-51.
The directive for the re-election came after a challenge to his victory by three contenders: Muhammad Asghar Achakzai of the Awami National Party (ANP), Abasin Achakzai and Muhammad Sadiq, all of whom were defeated in the general election for the PB-51 seat.
Achakzai, a PML-N member, challenged the decision in the apex court and a three-member bench headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan conducted the hearing on the matter today.
With the consent of PB-51’s candidates, the court sent the matter back to the ECP, ordering them to hear all candidates and to present a decision within 10 days.
Justice Aminuddin inquired about which regulation required re-polling at the 12 polling stations, adding that the ECP “neither conducted an inquiry nor saw any principle.”
Moreover, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar questioned the ECP about why they observed those 12 stations but “ignored others”.
The ECP’s director general for law said only the 12 stations about whom requests were received about their high turnout were looked at.
“The Election Commission should have performed a second inquiry of the entire constituency,” Justice Mazhar said. “If the Election Commission had done its work, we would not have to come to court.”
QUETTA: Two workers died after inhaling poisonous gas while working deep inside a coal mine in Duki district of Balochistan on Wednesday.
Levies officials said a group of miners were operating hundreds of feet below the ground when lethal methane gas accumulated in the mine located in the Duki coalfield.
Two of the miners fell unconscious after inhaling the poisonous gas while others succeeded in getting out of the mine.
Soon after receiving information about the incident, other mineworkers rushed to the site and launched a rescue operation. They succeeded in reaching the trapped miners, but found them dead.
“The bodies were shifted to the district hospital where doctors confirmed their death,” the officials said, adding that the bodies were later handed over to their families. They were identified as Abdul Bari and Lali Khan.
Hundreds of miners lose their lives every year due to the presence of methane gas in almost all coalfields in in Balochistan.
Last month, 12 workers were killed and six others injured when a powerful blast took place in a coal mine in the Zardalo area of Harnai district.
Chief Inspector of Mine Balochistan Abdul Ghani Baloch had ordered an inquiry into the incident after sealing the mine. However, no report has so far been released about the findings of the probe committee.
According to the Pakistan Central Mines and Labour Federation president Lala Sultan Achakzai, around 300 mineworkers lose their lives every year, but the authorities concerned reported around 25 per cent of deaths officially.
He said the mine owners and the department concerned failed to ensure proper safety measures in the mines which often caused tragic incidents.
Pakistan’s Special Representative on Afghanistan Ambassador Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that the former has suffered more due to the latter’s internal situation than its three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained.
Ambassador Durrani was speaking at the one-day International Conference “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, organised by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).
Durrani said over 80,000 Pakistanis died during the past two decades of the War on Terror, saying that the country was still counting its dead and injured.
“After the withdrawal of Nato forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived.”
He said attacks by the outlawed militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 per cent, while suicide attacks increased by 500pc.
“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan. Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks,” he maintained.
Explaining how Pakistan suffered due to the developments in Afghanistan, he said Pakistan had suffered geopolitically since the Soviet Union invaded the neighbouring country.
“The post-9/11 world order has negatively impacted Pakistan. Apart from losing 80,000 citizens’ lives, including 8,000 law enforcement agency personnel, the country’s economic opportunity cost is estimated at $150 billion,” Durrani said.
He pointed out that while Pakistan was designated as a non-Nato ally, the imposition of travel advisories by Nato members adversely affected the country as doing business with Pakistan became expensive and insurance costs increased. Consequently, Pakistan’s exports remained stagnant.
“Second, Afghanistan has become a permanent fixture in Pakistan’s regional paradigm for over four decades.”
Talking about the future outlook for Pakistan in the regional context, Durrani said that while “our eastern neighbour is likely to continue with its anti-Pakistan pursuits, the western border poses an avoidable irritant in the short to medium term.”
However, with deft diplomacy, Pakistan can overcome its difficulties with Afghanistan, including the TTP challenge, he pointed out.
Ambassador Durrani was of the view that China and Iran would remain friends and offer a sound basis for a durable partnership in terms of security and economics.
“The Indo-US budding romance, flux in Middle Eastern politics and Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians would pose a formidable challenge for Pakistan and its diplomacy,” he said.
The speakers of the session provided a comprehensive analysis of the evolving landscape in Afghanistan, emphasising the long-term consequences of investing in militarised education.
They highlighted the destructive impact of divisive politics, which had weakened the economy and polarised society in the region.
The speakers also pointed out the role of ethnic discord in Afghanistan, with ethnic fault lines contributing to the complex on-ground situation. In particular, the speakers shed light on the challenging situation for women’s education in Afghanistan and emphasised the isolation and humanitarian crisis faced by the people of Afghanistan.
They expressed optimism about Afghanistan’s potential, particularly its historic role as a transit route connecting East and West.
To address Afghanistan’s issues, the speakers recommended a proactive approach and an inclusive strategy.
They suggested regional dialogue and cooperation, border and refugee management, leveraging partnerships and engagement with locals, building the economic capacity of Afghanistan through connectivity, trade, and transit routes, and adopting a broader perspective on the Afghan issue.
The working session on the theme of “Unravelling Afghanistan’s Shifting Landscape” was moderated by Amina Khan, Director of the Centre for Afghanistan, Middle East and Africa.
The speakers concluded by recognising the need for a nuanced understanding of the on-ground situation and the potential consequences of different policy interventions.
The second working session titled, “From Dependency to Diversity: The Evolution of the Middle East” was moderated by Dr Shabana Fayyaz, chairperson and associate professor at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies in Islamabad’s Quaid-i-Azam University.
Speakers emphasised that the current geopolitical landscape of the Middle East was marked by a multitude of dynamic shifts and evolving alliances.
Amid efforts towards economic diversification in the region, there was growing apprehension surrounding security arrangements, particularly in light of the United States’ strategic reorientation towards the Asia Pacific region.
This shift prompted a reassessment of power dynamics within the region, as traditional Western influence faced challenges from the rising prominence of China.
KUALA LUMPUR: Two Malaysian military helicopters collided and crashed during a training session on Tuesday, killing all 10 crew onboard, the country’s rescue agency said.
Footage shared online showed several helicopters flying low in formation over the Lumut naval base, located about 160km from Kuala Lumpur, while participating in a fly-past rehearsal ahead of Naval Day celebrations in May.
One chopper was seen clipping the rear rotor of another, causing both to go into a tailspin and crash.
“The two helicopters collided during flight training,” said Suhaimy Mohamad Suhail, senior operations commander from the fire and rescue department, adding that all 10 crew members on board were confirmed dead by medical officers.
The two aircraft involved were a Eurocopter AS555SN Fennec and an AgustaWestland AW139, the rescue agency said.
Photos showed the Eurocopter model heavily mangled in the wreckage on the naval base stadium track with rescue personnel surrounding it as well as various debris.
The AgustaWestland helicopter crashed at the naval base’s swimming pool area.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim sent his condolences to the families of the victims, saying “the nation mourns the heart-wrenching and soul-wrenching tragedy”.
Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar also shared condolences. “Queen Zarith and I feel very sad over the loss of national heroes in this tragedy,” he said in a social media post.
Pakistani mixed martial arts fighter Shahzaib Rind on Tuesday lamented that it was the government’s “bad luck” that it did not support its country’s heroes after his 2-1 victory over India at Dubai’s Karate Combat 45 event over the weekend.
Karate Combat, which describes itself as the world’s “premier full-contact karate league”, held a “night of martial arts excellence” with its debut event in Dubai on April 20.
The match between India and Pakistan in the combat sport was played over three ties with Rizwan Ali knocking out Pawan Gupta in the first round.
The Indian side had equalised the contest after Himanshu Kaushik defeated Faizan Khan by decision.
Rind and India’s Rana Singh took on each other in the final battle of the contest, leading to a quick victory for the former. Rind, who was “unstoppable” in the pit, had raised both nation’s flags after his victory helped Pakistan take an unassailable lead in the contest.
He had later explained that the purpose of carrying both flags was to show the fight was for peace. “We are not enemies, we are together. Together we can do anything,” he had said, adding that the politics between the countries was separating the people.
Upon his arrival in Quetta today, he bemoaned that it was the government’s “bad luck” that it did not support its heroes.
“If our heroes are supported accordingly, they can become role models for our youth,” he said, adding that the youth would get motivated when they saw their role models getting appreciated and supported.
“They will also be motivated and join sports,” he said.
Rind said his next target was to become the world champion for which he had already started training for the world title.
“It is happening soon in Dubai and I will go there and bring Pakistan the world title,” Rind said.
In an interview with DawnNewsSports yesterday, Rind said that Pakistan’s win over India was a victory for the entire nation.
He had said that he trained throughout Ramazan for the “huge fight” which was very difficult.
Rind said that the contest against India was always big, adding that numerous stars at the venue piled more pressure on him.
He had said that fighters competed for the sake of the entire country however there was not much support for them. “There is no sponsorship, we do everything by ourselves,” he had rued.
Three terrorists were killed by security forces in an intelligence-based operation in Balochistan’s Pishin District, the military’s media wing said on Tuesday.
A press release from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the operation took place last night on the reported presence of terrorists in the area.
“During the conduct of [the] operation, after intense fire exchange, three terrorists were sent to hell, while one terrorist was apprehended in injured condition, who has been identified as an Afghan national,” the ISPR said.
It added that a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives was also recovered during the operation.
“Security forces of Pakistan, in step with the nation, remain determined to thwart attempts of sabotaging peace, stability and progress of Balochistan,” the ISPR said.
Two alleged terrorists were also killed and several injured in a gun battle with security forces in the district a day ago.
According to officials, the local administration had received information about the presence of terrorists in the Sanzalai mountain range of Pishin, following which an operation was planned.
Officials of the Frontier Corps (North) had claimed that the terrorists had crossed into Pishin from Afghanistan and had established their pickets on top of the hills.
Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities in the past year, especially in KP and Balochistan after the banned militant Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022.
According to an annual security report issued by the Centre for Research and Security Studies, Pakistan witnessed 1,524 violence-related fatalities and 1,463 injuries from 789 terror attacks and counter-terror operations in 2023 — marking a record six-year high.
KP and Balochistan were the primary centres of violence, accounting for over 90 per cent of all fatalities and 84pc of attacks, including incidents of terrorism and security forces operations.
Buildings and streets are flooded after heavy rains hit China’s southern Guangdong province.—AFP
QINGYUAN: Floods swamped cities in southern China’s densely populated Pearl River Delta following record-breaking rains, sparking worries about the region’s defences against bigger deluges induced by extreme weather events.
The province once dubbed the “factory floor of the world” is prone to summer floods.
Since Thursday, Guangdong has been battered by unusually heavy, sustained and widespread rainfall, with powerful storms ushering in an earlier-than-normal start to the province’s annual flooding season in May and June.
In Qingyuan, a relatively small city of four million, residents counted their losses. “My rice fields are fully flooded, my fields are gone,” Huang Jingrong, 61, told Reuters.
Over the weekend, waterways in Guangdong overflowed including the river near Huang’s village.
LAHORE: PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif on Monday left for China on a ‘low-profile’ five-day visit, with the ruling party refusing to divulge details about the nature of his trip.
PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar did not confirm the elder Sharif’s “unannounced visit” to Beijing.
“I have no idea (about Nawaz Sharif’s China visit),” Mr Tarar told Dawn. However, a PML-N minister confirmed to Dawn that the elder Sharif had indeed left for China on a “private visit”.
Media reports suggested the visit was of a ‘personal nature’, during which he will undergo a “medical check-up” and hold meetings with some Chinese companies regarding development works in Punjab, where his daughter Maryam Nawaz is the chief minister. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Maryam’s son Junaid Safdar are accompanying him.
CM Maryam directs Punjab govt to provide solar power systems to 50,000 households
A source close to the Sharif family told Dawn that the purpose of the elder Sharif’s visit was not discussed with the party leadership. “The programme of [Nawaz] Sharif’s visit to China has been kept secret from the party and the PML-N government. Perhaps some very close associates of the elder Sharif would know the exact nature of his visit,” he said.
The insider said it was being speculated in party circles whether the elder Sharif had some ‘special assignment’ in China, which could not be carried out by his younger brother, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Nawaz Sharif has never visited China in the past for medical reasons, preferring to travel instead to London, where he has undergone multiple procedures. Most recently, he remained there from 2019 to 2023.
Solar power
The Punjab government will provide 1kV solar power system each to 50,000 households in the province.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz presided over a meeting on ‘Light without Electricity Bill, Roshan Punjab Programme’ for a briefing on technical issues of 1kV solar power for domestic consumers, here on Monday.
The Roshan Punjab Programme of the provincial government aims to provide free electricity to the poor.
Approving the grant of 1kV solar power system to 50,000 households in Punjab, the chief minister directed to start the pilot project immediately. “Protected consumers consuming up to 100 units of electricity will be eligible under the programme in the first phase. In a 1kV system, two solar panels, battery, inverter, and wires will be provided to consumers.”
Up to 16 hours of charging backup can be achieved through the lithium iron battery.
The chief minister directed the officials concerned to install the solar system of the latest technology.
Women police station
The chief minister on Monday inaugurated the first virtual women police station at the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA).
“The Virtual Women Police Station will guide women through all stages of the crime, from registration of the FIR to its investigation and trial.
’’Women can contact police through 15 Call, Women Safety App live chat feature, video call feature, Punjab Police App and Safe City web portal,“ she said.
Three suspects were arrested on Monday for an alleged honour killing in the Bataira area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kolai Pallas district, according to the police.
Kolai Pallas Sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Abdul Raoof had told Dawn.com a day ago that a youth was killed “for honour” on Friday night, allegedly due to his brother who had eloped with a girl, a family member of the suspects, a year ago.
SDPO Raoof had said since the girl and the older brother of the deceased were missing, the girl’s family had allegedly opted to kill Matiur Rehman.
Rauf told Dawn.com today that the police arrested three suspects, the father of the prime suspect and his two cousins, adding that they had helped plan the murder.
A first information report (FIR), a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was lodged on the complaint of the deceased’s uncle Attaur Rehman on April 19 under Section 109 (abetment) and 302 (intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The uncle said that Rehman, mentioned as around 18 or 19 in the FIR, was returning to his home in Bataira from his shop in Bisham, Shangla, in the late evening on Friday when an armed man lying in wait opened fire and killed the youth on the spot.
He said the motive behind the murder was to retrieve the girl who had eloped with the elder brother.
The body was taken to the Bisham Tehsil Headquarters Hospital and later handed over to relatives, according to the FIR and the SDPO.
The uncle told Dawn.com today that the main suspect was initially hiding at his own uncle’s home but had since fled and was at large.
He said his nephew was innocent and the family wanted justice for his death and the immediate arrest of the culprits.
He said the girl had married his older nephew of her own free will and the family had held several rounds of jirgas to resolve the issue but no agreement was reached and the other party killed his younger nephew.
It stated that the motive behind the murder was the girl’s elopement with the victim’s brother and added that the victim was shot dead when returning to his home in Bataira. The gunmen had been waiting for him, Munim alleged.
Mati’s body was shifted to Tehsil Headquarters Hospital Bisham and later handed over to his heirs.
SDPO Abdul Rauf said the accused remained at large, but police are conducting raids in the area to arrest them.
KABUL: One person was killed and three others were wounded in an explosion in Kabul, Afghan police said on Sunday, with the Islamic State group claiming responsibility for the sticky bomb attack.
The improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated in the Kot-i-Sangi neighbourhood, near an enclave of the historically persecuted Shia Hazara community, which has been targeted by the militant group in the past. “The sticky bomb was planted on a minibus,” Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said in a statement late on Saturday.
“The driver of the vehicle lost his life, and three other civilians were injured.” Security personnel were investigating the incident, the statement added.
The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility on its Telegram channel, saying a minibus carrying Hazaras was blown up as it passed through a Taliban checkpoint. The attack “led to its destruction and the killing and wounding of around 10” people, the IS statement said.
The number of bombings and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has reduced dramatically since the Afghan Taliban ended their insurgency after ousting the US-backed government and returning to power in August 2021. But several armed groups, including IS, remain a threat.
MALE: The party of Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu won control of parliament in a Sunday election landslide, results showed, with voters backing his tilt towards China and away from regional powerhouse and traditional benefactor India.
Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) won 66 of the first 86 seats declared, according to the Elections Commission of Maldives results, already more than enough for a super-majority in the 93-member majlis, or parliament.
The vote was seen as a crucial test for Muizzu’s plan to press ahead with closer economic cooperation with China.
The PNC and its allies had only eight seats in the outgoing parliament, with the lack of a majority stymieing Muizzu after his presidential election victory in September.
In 93-member parliament, Muizzu’s party wins 66 of the first 86 declared seats
The main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) — which had previously had a super-majority of its own — was headed for a humiliating defeat with just a dozen seats.
Muizzu, 45, had been among the first to vote on Sunday, casting his ballot at a school in the capital Male — where he was previously mayor — and urging Maldivians to turn out in high numbers.
“All citizens should come out and exercise their right to vote as soon as possible,” Muizzu told reporters.
The Maldives — a low-lying nation of some 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 800kms across the equator — is one of the countries most vulnerable to sea level rises caused by global warming.
Muizzu, a former construction minister, has promised he will beat back the waves through ambitious land reclamation and building islands higher, a policy which environmentalists argue could even exacerbate flooding risks.
Muizzu won last September’s presidential poll as a proxy for pro-China ex-president Abdulla Yameen, freed last week after a court set aside his 11-year jail term for corruption.
Indian troops leaving
This month, as campaigning for the parliamentary elections was in full swing, Muizzu awarded high-profile infrastructure contracts to Chinese state-owned companies.
His administration is also in the process of sending home a garrison of 89 Indian troops who operate reconnaissance aircraft gifted by New Delhi to patrol the Maldives’ vast maritime borders.
The outgoing parliament, dominated by the pro-India MDP of Muizzu’s immediate predecessor Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, has sought to disrupt his efforts to realign Maldivian diplomacy.
Since Muizzu came to power, lawmakers blocked three of his nominees to the cabinet and refused some of his spending proposals.
“Geopolitics is very much in the background as parties campaign for votes in Sunday’s election,” a senior Muizzu aide told AFP ahead of the poll, asking not to be named.
“He came to power on a promise to send back Indian troops and he is working on it. The parliament has not been cooperating with him since he came to power.”
Solih was also among those voting early and expressed confidence his party would emerge victorious. There was no immediate reaction from his party to their poor showing in Sunday’s vote.
Election chief Fuad Thaufeeq said after polls closed that turnout had already reached 73 per cent of the 284,663 electorate when half an hour of voting remained.
Muizzu’s prospects received a fillip with the release of his mentor Yameen from house arrest, on Thursday.
A court in the capital Male, ordered a retrial in the graft and money laundering cases that saw Yameen being sent behind bars, after he lost a re-election bid in 2018.
PERUGIA: The rise of artificial intelligence has forced an increasing number of journalists to grapple with the ethical and editorial challenges posed by the rapidly expanding technology.
AI’s role in assisting newsrooms or transforming them completely was among the questions raised at the International Journalism Festival in the Italian city of Perugia that closes on Sunday.
What will happen to jobs?
AI tools imitating human intelligence are widely used in newsrooms around the world to transcribe sound files, summarise texts and translate.
In early 2023, Germany’s Axel Springer group announced it was cutting jobs at the Bild and Die Welt newspapers, saying AI could now “replace” some of its journalists.
Generative AI — capable of producing text and images following a simple request in everyday language — has been opening new frontiers as well as raising concerns for a year and a half.
One issue is that voices and faces can now be cloned to produce a podcast or present news on television. Last year, Filipino website Rappler created a brand aimed at young audiences by converting its long articles into comics, graphics and even videos.
Media professionals agree that their trade must now focus on tasks offering the greatest “added value”.
“You’re the one who is doing the real stuff” and “the tools that we produce will be an assistant to you,” Google News general manager Shailesh Prakash told the festival in Perugia.
The costs of generative AI have plummeted since ChatGPT burst onto the scene in late 2022, with the tool designed by US start-up OpenAI now accessible to smaller newsrooms.
Colombian investigative outlet Cuestion Publica has harnessed engineers to develop a tool that can delve into its archives and find relevant background information in the event of breaking news.
But many media organisations are not making their own language models, which are at the core of AI interfaces, said University of Amsterdam professor Natali Helberger.
The disinformation threat
According to one estimate last year by Everypixel Journal, AI has created as many images in one year as photography in 150 years.
That has raised serious questions about how news can be fished out of the tidal wave of content, including deepfakes.
Media and tech organisations are teaming up to tackle the threat, notably through the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity, which seeks to set common standards.
From Wild West to regulation
Media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders, which has expanded its media rights brief to defending trustworthy news, launched the Paris Charter on AI and journalism late last year.
“One of the things I really liked about the Paris Charter was the emphasis on transparency,” said Anya Schiffrin, a lecturer on global media, innovation and human rights at Columbia University in the United States.
AI editorial guidelines are updated every three months at India’s Quintillion Media, said its boss Ritu Kapur. None of the organisation’s articles can be written by AI and the images it generates cannot represent real life.
Resist or collaborate?
AI models feed off data, but their thirst for the vital commodity has raised hackles among providers. In December, the New York Timessued OpenAI and its main investor Microsoft for violation of copyright.
In contrast, other media organisations have struck deals with OpenAI: Axel Springer, US news agency AP, French daily Le Monde and Spanish group Prisa Media, whose titles include El Pais and AS newspapers.
With resources tight in the media industry, collaborating with the new technology is tempting, explained Emily Bell, a professor at Columbia University’s journalism school. She senses a growing external pressure to “Get on board, don’t miss the train”
Thirteen new deaths from a second spell of heavy rain in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa raised the death toll to 59 on Saturday, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) had predicted more spells of rain across the country on Tuesday, extending until April 22 as “another strong westerly wave” was likely to enter western parts of the country.
In KP, the PMD had predicted “rain-windstorm/thunderstorm (few heavy, with isolated very heavy falls) with snowfall over high mountains” in areas including Shangla, Buner, Bajaur, Khyber and Peshawar from Wednesday night until April 21.
The rain, which started on April 12, triggered flash floods in the northern areas of the province and caused landslides and house collapses across KP.
According to the KP PDMA report issued today, 33 children, 14 men and 12 women are among those killed in rain-related incidents since April 12 with a total of 72 people injured.
Further, 2,883 houses and 68 schools have been damaged while 309 cattle have perished, according to the report.
PDMA spokesperson Anwar Shahzad told Dawn.com that water flow in the rivers on Saturday was normal.
A report from the Irrigation Department’s flood cell also showed that water flow in 12 rivers of the province ranged between low, medium and normal.
The PDMA spokesman further said that Rs110 million was provided to districts for emergency aid while Rs90m was disbursed to the tribal districts to continue relief activities.
Meanwhile, the Balochistan PDMA said normal weather was reported in most districts.
In a letter written to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa on Saturday, incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan called for punishing those who have subverted the Constitution in the matter of allegations by six Islamabad High Court (IHC) judges about interference in judicial affairs by the country’s intelligence apparatus.
The development comes in the wake of allegations made by six IHC judges against interference in judicial affairs by the country’s intelligence apparatus. On March 25, six IHC judges — out of a total strength of eight — wrote a startling letter to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) members, regarding attempts to pressure judges through abduction and torture of their relatives as well as secret surveillance inside their homes.
The letter was signed by judges Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri, Babar Sattar, Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Arbab Muhammad Tahir and Saman Rafat Imtiaz.
A day later, calls had emerged from various quarters for a probe into the investigation, amid which CJP Isa summoned a full court meeting of the Supreme Court’s (SC) judges.
After a meeting between CJP Isa and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on March 28, the duo decided to form a commission to investigate the concerns of interference in judicial affairs following the cabinet’s approval. However, former CJP Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, who was appointed to head the commission, subsequently recused himself from the matter, leading to the apex court taking a suo motu notice of the issue.
On April 3, CJP Isa asserted that “any attack” on the judiciary’s independence would not be tolerated as he hinted at forming a full court to hear a suo motu case pertaining to allegations of interference in judicial affairs.
In today’s letter addressed to the top judge, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, Imran noted that it was “ironical” that those who were supposed to and duty-bound to provide justice were instead, themselves seeking it.
He said the demand of the IHC judges for a judicial convention to look into the matter would have “exposed the scale of this meddling and demonstrated the extent to which, institutionally, those armed with weapons continue to overpower those armed with the pen”, referring to the alleged interference of the executive and intelligence agencies.
However, Imran said the apex court’s actions so far on the issue were “meek and indecisive”.
He said that the situation called for “strict action on part of the SC towards speedily setting the system right” by coming to the aid of all high courts and lower courts.
“This calls for assembling and putting in place a robust mechanism of enforcement and accountability that resurrects the judiciary’s independence. And this calls for punishing those who have subverted the Constitution by unconstitutional means as aforesaid.
“Failing that, the people’s confidence in the justice system of Pakistan, which is undergoing significant erosion already, will stand dismantled and demolished,” he added.
The PTI founder said the rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution had fallen to a “new low” in the country, causing the “gradual emergence of the law of the jungle and the enactment of the primitive doctrine that might is right”.
He said that if the “situation were to prevail, it would be fatal to any civilised order in the world”, particularly if the superior judiciary did not “meaningfully intervene”.
In his letter, Imran raised seven issues with the apex court and said that the circumstances called for a “prompt intervention”.
Taking aim at PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s clean chit in the Toshakhana vehicle reference, Imran criticised the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for “making a mockery of our justice system” by proposing the former prime minister’s exoneration despite it having previously been pursued as an “open and shut case”.
Imran called for a thorough inquiry into Lt-Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed Butt’s conduct as NAB chairman for the “dishonesty, discrimination and double standards employed by NAB”.
Talking about the Bahawalnagar incident that saw an alleged “face-off” between police and army personnel following the arrest of a serving army official, Imran said the incident should serve as an “eye opener on the lopsided state of uniformed vigilante justice” in the country.
“The lines drawn by our Constitution between the various pillars of the state are getting blurred into non-existence.”
Imran also said that he believed that over 90 per cent of the people who are incarcerated for the incidents of violence, arson and looting connected with the May 9 protests were “peaceful and unarmed protesters who did not indulge in any violence whatsoever”.
Imran said a constitutional petition calling for an independent, transparent and thorough inquiry to ascertain the inciters and perpetrators of the May 9 violence, as well as those who allowed it to escalate, was pending in the apex court since May 25, 2023, adding that the case must be taken up and decided on a priority basis in the interest of “complete justice”.
Regarding alleged rigging in the general elections, Imran said the SC should take up the petitions on the conduct of the polls on a priority basis and decide them.
Concluding the letter to CJP Isa, Imran said: “Inaction on your part and that of the SC in the face of each of the aforementioned matters of grave importance would exacerbate the constitutional crisis the country is already faced with and push it closer and closer to the abyss.”
Reminding the CJP of his past remarks, Imran added that “now is the time for you to prove whether your declared belief in the principles and values espoused by Pakistan’s founding fathers, and your proclamation of the supremacy of the Constitution, are for real or were mere hollow rhetoric … The entire nation is looking at you accordingly.”
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and cabinet to convene the assembly session within a fortnight to ensure that those elected on reserved seats for women and non-Muslims take oath.
A PHC bench comprising Justice Syed Mohammad Attique Shah and Justice Shakeel Ahmad, in its 24-page detailed judgement on three identical petitions filed by around 20 MPAs-elect of the opposition in KP, also ordered the provincial assembly speaker to administer the oath to the said MPAs-elect in the session to be requisitioned in accordance with the court order.
While the bench in its March 27 short order had not issued any such directive to the CM and the provincial cabinet, the court in its detailed judgement ordered both to “take all material steps in terms of Article 109 along with all enabling provisions of the Constitution for summoning the session of the provincial assembly within fortnight positively, after receipt of this judgement, so that the oath is administered to the petitioners in term of Article 65 of the Constitution before the upcoming Senate election”.
The PHC in its short order had directed the speaker to administer the oath to the petitioners in the session convened for Senate election of April 2 and also to facilitate voting in the election. But the ECP had to postpone the Senate polls in the province making it conditional with the said oath-taking, as no session was convened by the KP government.
Now multiple petitions have been filed in the high court — one by the speaker requesting the court to review its order and others by the MPAs-elect seeking implementation of the short order and initiating contempt proceedings against the speaker and the deputy speaker.
The PHC in its judgement observed that owing to a dispute over allocation of reserved seats, with the exception of Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) that has a majority in KP Assembly, the present dispensation was resisting oath to those who represent marginalised communities in order to deny them the right to participate in the assembly proceedings and also to deprive them of exercising their right to vote in the April 2 Senate election in violation of the Constitution.
Referring to the notifications issued by the ECP of declaring the petitioners as MPAs elected on reserved seats, the court ruled that after receipt of the said notification, the assembly secretary was obliged under the law to have informed the CM to requisition the assembly session to administer oath to the petitioners accordingly, but he failed to discharge his constitutional obligations for reasons best known to him.
The petitioners, including Shazia Tehmas Khan and 19 other MPAs belonging to the PPP-P, PML-N, JUI-F and PTI-P, had requested the court to declare illegal and unconstitutional the failure of both speaker and deputy speaker to call the assembly’s sitting for administering oath.
Armenia has agreed to return several villages to Azerbaijan in what both sides said on Friday was an important milestone as they edge towards a peace deal after fighting two wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aykhan Hajizada posted on X that Armenia would return four villages near the countries’ shared border that had been “under occupation” since the early 1990s, and called it a “long-awaited historic event”.
In Armenia, the state news agency quoted the prime minister’s office as saying: “In this process, the Republic of Armenia receives a reduction in risks associated with border delimitation and security.”
It said the handover in practice involved only “two and a half villages” because Azerbaijan already partly controlled the settlements involved, but added that the demarcation of the border was a “significant event”.
The settlements are deserted but are strategically important as they are close to Armenia’s main highway north towards the border with Georgia, through which much of its trade is done, and to the pipeline through which it receives gas from Russia.
The agreement was reached at a meeting on the two countries’ border, chaired by their deputy prime ministers.
Azerbaijan has been demanding the villages’ return as a precondition for a peace deal after more than three decades of conflict, mostly centred on the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Momentum shifted dramatically in favour of Azerbaijan last September when its forces staged a lightning offensive to regain control of Karabakh, where ethnic Armenians had enjoyed de facto independence since the mid-1990s.
Virtually the entire population of 100,000 people fled to Armenia within days.
Russia posted peacekeeping troops in Nagorno-Karabakh after the last major war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, but said this week it had begun withdrawing them. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Russia, distracted by its war in Ukraine, risks losing influence in the Caucasus region which it sees as its historic sphere of influence. The United States and the European Union have also been pressing the two sides to reach a peace deal.
