Elections to be held on time, govt to complete its tenure: PDM

Amid calls by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for snap polls in the country, the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) has reiterated its stance that the general elections will be held on time and the coalition government will complete its tenure. The announcement was made after the alliance's top brass meeting held in Islamabad on Thursday following the Supreme Court's verdict in the Punjab chief minister case. The meeting was also attended by PML-N supreme leader and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif via a video link.  It discussed the ongoing political crisis in the country after the top court's verdict. https://ift.tt/V9L8HJi During the meeting, some resolutions were also passed. The PDM, an alliance of nearly a dozen of opposition parties, reiterated that the elections will be held on time and the assemblies will complete their tenure. It was decided that the federal government will send a Presidential Ordinance to the Supreme Court for the interpretation of Article 63A via a full court bench. It said that as per the Constitution of Pakistan, the executive and judiciary have been given responsibilities and no institution should cross the domain of the other. The PDM expressed concern over the recent verdict of the Supreme Court which created "chaos, confusion and political crisis" in the country. Read more: ‘Govt may call snap polls if PTI dissolves Punjab, K-P assemblies’, Sanaullah tells Imran On Tuesday, the Supreme Court struck down Punjab Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari's ruling on the election of 'trustee' chief minister, paving the way for PTI-PML-Q joint candidate Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi to ascend to the throne in the country’s political heartland. "The country's representative parties have expressed their anxiety on this issue. Legal experts, media and civil society have also not agreed with this decision," the resolution added. It further said that the different standards of justice and interpretations have justified the concerns of the ruling coalition, therefore, the presidential reference should be sent to the Supreme Court as soon as possible. Addressing a press conference flanked by PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz and other PDM leaders, Maulana Fazlur Rehman demanded the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce the verdict of the foreign funding case which had been pending for the last eight years.  "The PDM demands that the ECP must fulfil its mandate as per the Constitution," he added. The PDM president said that the PTI received funds from Indian and Israeli citizens and proof of it was presented during the foreign funding case hearings. "Turning a blind eye on the case is against national security." He said that this important case related to the organisation and financial affairs of political parties should be announced immediately. The JUI-F chief further said that former prime minister Imran Khan can only hurl accusations and he does not have a narrative. Speaking on the occasion, Maryam Nawaz said that everyone feared the demand of a full court bench because the one-sided decision was to be made and Ladla — a term coalition government leaders use for Imran Khan which literally means darling — was made the beneficiary. She said that if there was no malicious intention then a full court bench would have been formed. "If the court had made a mistake in its previous verdict then why did the correction result in the favour of Ladla," she questioned and termed the decision "murder of justice". Maryam said that if the courts wanted to correct their decisions then they should start with the Panama Papers case. Fazl proposes black day over SC verdict Sources told Express News that during the PDM meeting, Fazl proposed to observe a black day over the Supreme Court’s verdict. The PDM president also officially asked the PPP and the ANP to rejoin the PDM. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Aftab Sherpao, Owais Noorani, Tahir Bizenjo, Ghafoor Haidari and others also participated in the meeting.

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National Assembly speaker accepts resignations of 11 PTI MNAs

National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has accepted the resignations of 11 Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) parliamentarians, almost two months after 131 MNAs of the opposition party were summoned to verify if their resignations were “genuine and voluntary”. In an official statement issued on Thursday, the NA spokesperson said a notification of the resignations had been issued by the National Assembly Secretariat. “The Speaker of the National Assembly accepted the resignation by exercising the powers conferred under Clause (1) of Article 64 of the Constitution of Pakistan,” the statement added. اسپیکر قومی اسمبلی @RPAPPP نے پی ٹی آئی کے 11 مستعفی ممبران قومی اسمبلی کے استعفے قبول کر لیے۔ قومی اسمبلی سیکرٹریٹ کی جانب سے استعفوں کے نوٹیفیکیشن جاری۔ اسپیکر قومی اسمبلی نے استعفے آئین پاکستان کی آرٹیکل 64 کی شق (1) کے تحت تفویص اختیارات کو بروئے کار لاتے ہوئے منظور کیے۔ https://t.co/oOOxPuqyyb — National Assembly of Pakistan🇵🇰 (@NAofPakistan) July 28, 2022 The 131 PTI lawmakers had announced en masse resignations moments before Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the new prime minister on April 11 — a day after PTI chairman and former premier Imran Khan was voted out from the coveted slot through a no-confidence motion. Also read: Question lingers over PTI MNAs’ resignations Those whose resignations have been accepted include Ali Muhammad Khan (NA-22), Fazal Muhammad Khan (NA-24), Shaukat Ali (NA-31), Fakhr Zaman Khan (NA-45), Farrukh Habib (NA-108), Ejaz Ahmad Shah (NA-118), Jameel Ahmad Khan (NA-237), Muhammad Akram Cheema (NA-239), Abdul Shakur Shaad (NA-246), Dr Meher Ansa Shireen Mazari (reserved seat), Shandana Gulzar Khan (allocated seat), as per the NA statement. اسپیکر نےممبران قومی اسمبلی علی محمد خان(NA-22)، فضل محمد خان(NA-24)، شوکت علی(NA-31)،فخر زمان خان(NA-45)، فرخ حبیب(NA-108)، اعجاز احمد شاہ(NA-118)، جمیل احمد خان(NA-237)،محمد اکرم چیمہ(NA-239)، عبدل شکور شاد(NA-246)،ڈاکٹر مہر انساء شیریں مزاری،شندانہ گلزار خان کےاستعفے قبول کیے۔ — National Assembly of Pakistan🇵🇰 (@NAofPakistan) July 28, 2022 It added that the notifications of the resignations will be forwarded to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for further action. The PTI leaders had said that their resignations were accepted by then NA deputy speaker Qasim Suri on April 14. Suri had made the decision in his capacity as the acting speaker. However, the succeeding government made it clear that the resignations could not be considered valid unless they were verified.

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PTI's Barrister Ali Zafar won five legal victories in a row

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Barrister Ali Zafar is making strides in the superior courts after winning five high-profile cases in a row, shaking the country’s political earth with each legal victory secured for the party. The rulings on his pleas have rewritten the rules of Pakistan’s parliamentary democracy, notably his successful bid to convince the majority judges of the Supreme Court that voting by lawmakers against party directions under Article 63A automatically nullifies their vote. Although other legal wizards of the PTI have been also nailing their colours to the mast in the superior courts since April. However, Ali Zafar holds the distinction of grabbing key victories that have effectuated tectonic shifts in Punjab – the political heartland of the country now under PTI’s control after a series of single-minded, well-crafted legal bids. "I argued that the votes of the members which have been cast contrary to the directions of the parliamentary party have to be disregarded and cannot be counted under Article 63A of the Constitution,” Zafar, who is also chairman of Insaf Lawyers' Forum (ILF), said while talking to The Express Tribune. He shared that his argument was based on the principle that the fruit of a poisonous tree was fated to be poisonous and therefore, cannot be eaten. The apex court subsequently accepted this proposition on May 17 when it delivered its verdict on the presidential reference seeking interpretation of Article 63-A – a godsend ruling for the PTI that employed the premises of the ruling as a mainstay for its legal battles since ouster. Sieving the ambiguities out More than a month later, when the same provision of the Constitution became a bone of contention in the Punjab Assembly and landed back at the SC’s bench for clarity, Zafar appeared before the court again to challenge Deputy Speaker Dost Mazari’s decision to not count 10 votes polled in Elahi’s favour. This time, the ruling pronounced from the three-member bench served to sieve all ambiguities out from the majority opinion, enunciating the nuances and technicalities. “I had contended that the 10 votes could not be discarded because no directions of the parliamentary party had been violated by any of the members and therefore, Article 63-A could not be applied,” Zafar said. Twenty-five dissidents The PTI was still reeling from twin painful defeats it faced one after the other until May. Twenty-five of its members had pedalled out of the party’s folds and voted for Hamza Shehbaz in April 16 chief minister’s elections – a few days after it lost Islamabad to a mighty assemblage of parties that ‘roped in’ its allies and muscled the PTI out of power. In Punjab, the decisive factor in Hamza’s ascension to office was the support of dissident PTI lawmakers that were part of the Jahangir Tarin and Aleem Khan groups. Both groups announced they were backing opposition candidate Hamza Shehbaz. However, the calculations had altered in light of the SC’s majority opinion on Article 63A. The PTI's counsel mounted a legal challenge before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) that the MPAs were issued instructions by the party's chief whip in the Punjab Assembly, as well as, Secretary General Asad Umar through a letter. Subsequently, on May 20, the ECP ruled that the 25 PTI lawmakers who voted in favour of PML-N’s Hamza Shehbaz as Punjab chief minister would be de-seated for defying their party. “Everybody was convinced that we will not be able to secure relief from the ECP. But we won the case and the 25 members were de-seated and by-elections were ordered. This was the second victory without which the elections would have never taken place,” he said. Five important seats However, in the wake of the decision that supposedly put the lid on the matter, the question that still lingered unanswered was as to who will replace the five de-seated defectors elected on reserved seats. In order to salvage the uncertain political future of the disqualified lawmakers, the PML-N deliberated upon ways in which legal nuts and bolts could be tapped into. The allocation of five vacant reserved seats assumed a great deal of political weightage. Of the 25 de-seated PTI MPAs, five were elected on reserved seats, which were to be distributed among parties on the basis of their current strength in the PA. “The opposition parties were of the view that the five members will be determined after the election of the 20 members on the general seats on the basis of proportionality. Hence, they requested ECP to wait for the completion of the House after the by-election. PTI’s case before ECP was that the five seats should be filled from the list of nominees of PTI,” the lawyer said. While the electoral watchdog decided to wait for the elections, Zafar filed a writ petition in the Lahore High Court (LHC) which then set aside the ECP’s decision and directed that the five reserved seats are to be filled only by the PTI. Accordingly, five members of the PTI were notified on these seats which became instrumental in enabling the numerical strength for Elahi to win the Punjab CM elections. Challenge to Hamza’s office Emboldened by a series of victories in his deliberate and well-crafted legal defence, Ali Zafar went on to challenge the election of Hamza Shehbaz by filing a writ of quo warranto in the Lahore High Court (LHC). The LHC ordered the re-counting of votes for the election of Punjab's chief minister held on April 16, instructing that the votes of 25 dissident PTI lawmakers be excluded from the counting process. A five-member bench comprising Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan, Justice Shahid Jamil Khan, Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry, Justice Sajid Mahmood Sethi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh announced the verdict with a 4-1 majority. "My argument was that in the first round of the election, a chief minister needs a majority of the total House. Accordingly, in the Punjab Assembly this meant that a person who has acquired 186 votes could become the CM,” Zafar explained. However, since the Supreme Court had ordered that 25 defectors’ votes are to be ignored, Hamza had actually secured only 172 votes which meant that he was not validly elected under Article 130(4). He requested the court to order run-off elections for the chief minister’s slot to settle the constitutional crisis. “The matter was fixed before the full bench of five members. Hamza’s lawyers and the opposition lawyers argued that the election had validly taken place and that the judgement of the Supreme Court in the presidential reference was not applicable retrospectively,” the lawyer said, recapping the events and arguments in the case. “The court accepted my argument and passed the judgement that Hamza has not been elected as the chief minister in the first round of election because he has not obtained 186 votes and therefore was not validly elected chief minister." “The court held that the judgement of the Supreme Court in the presidential reference was applicable since the very beginning when Article 63A was introduced. The reason being that it was a declaration of law by the court and there was no question of retrospectivity.” In a short order issued after the hearing, the LHC instructed that votes in the election held on April 16 be recounted after excluding 25 votes of the defecting lawmakers. If the required majority for Hamza to stay the CM is not secured, the election will be held again under Article 130(4), unless another candidate has majority votes. According to Article 130(4), in the second round of voting, a member will not require 186 votes but simply needs a majority of those "present and voting" to be elected the chief minister.

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Chomsky urges Pakistan, India to accommodate each other

Renowned philosopher, linguist and cognitive scientist Prof Noam Chomsky has said that for Pakistan to start a new journey on the right track, first of all, it has to get itself free from the clutches of colonial legacy and institutions. Chomsky was speaking in the “PIDE debate” conversation with Dr Abdul Jalil, Prof of Economics at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE), Islamabad. The conversation between Prof Chomsky and Dr Jalil is part of the series of podcasts that PIDE regularly generates, with experts from around the world on various economic, governance, and public policy issues. When asked about his views on the reasons behind Pakistan's sad state of affairs; on the economic front in particular, and where should be the starting point for Pakistan to reset with the current circumstances, Chomsky started by mentioning multiple factors: country-specific, impeding growth, pluralism, openness within the society, and of course, development. “Pakistan, over the decades, has been pushed towards a certain type of religious orthodoxy that limits the growth of culture and rationality. In parallel, it is in constant conflict with India. So, these are the biggest roadblocks for Pakistan on the road to development. Nonetheless, these things are not only Pakistan-specific. The United States is also feeling the heat of religious extremism in recent years – very unusual for a western country. This phenomenon is also gradually squeezing the space for cultural and intellectual development in the US,” he said Chomsky mentioned that Pakistan is in a complicated position, as it has one foot in China and the other in America/west. Still, it can move with a degree of independence. However, Pakistan and India have to move towards a point of accommodation and constructive cooperation, and there is no other way. This may sound utopian now, but it may happen. It has happened in the past. Take, for instance, the case of France and Germany. Both, for centuries, massacred each other. Now both are cooperating, he said. Chomsky believed that there is an inherent ambiguity when talking about intellectual honesty and responsibility. “First of all, we should know what our moral responsibility as human beings is. Secondly, what service is expected of them within the existing power systems? I would mention Henry Kissinger here. He clearly identified that a polity intellectual's role is to formulate the ideas of the powerful in a clear and applicable form. "In simple words, it means to be a stenographer for power,” he said. “In contrast, there is a moral responsibility to be truthful and honest, certain values we should uphold, and so on. If you look at the history of intellectuals, almost all of them happened to be on the first side. They were in the chambers of power instead of being the critics. Those who had and have questioned have suffered and were dismissed to the margins,” enunciated Prof Chomsky.   Published in The Express Tribune, July 28th, 2022.

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JCP meets today amid criticism

Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial has summoned the meeting of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) to consider the names of high court judges for their appointment as apex court judges on Thursday (today). The five judges of the high courts would be considered for the Supreme Court. The JCP is responsible for approving the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and five high courts of the country. The CJP also heads the commission as its chairman. The body comprises of four senior-most judges of the SC, the former judge, a federal law minister, the attorney general for Pakistan and a senior advocate nominated by the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC). One representative each is nominated by the provincial and Islamabad bar councils. According to Article 175-A of the Constitution, the JCP, after confirmation, will propose the names to the parliamentary committees for the appointment of judges in the superior courts. Controversy and rising criticisms It is noteworthy that the anticipated JCP meeting had earned vehement criticisms from within the legal fraternity that smells “favouritism” in the appointments and has demanded a restructuring of the laws pertaining to appointments of the judges and the discretionary powers enjoyed by the CJP. A day earlier, senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faez Isa had advised CJP Umar Ata Bandial not to bulldoze the “due” process for appointment of more than one-third of the total number of judges in the apex court. In a letter written to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan, headed by CJP Bandial, Justice Isa deplored the manner of summoning the JCP’s meeting to consider the elevation of high court judges to the Supreme Court. READ Justice Isa pens letter against CJP Bandial's summoning of JCP meeting Justice Isa said it was surprising that the JCP’s meeting had been convened to consider the appointment of five SC judges during summer vacations. Justice Isa stated in the letter that “while on my annual leave I received a Whatsapp message from the Additional Registrar of the Supreme Court informing me that the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan has convened a meeting of the JCP on 28 July 2022 to consider appointing five judges to the SC. “When availing of annual leave no meeting of the JCP was scheduled but as soon as I left Pakistan the CJP decided to hold two meetings of the JCP to consider appointments to the Sindh and Lahore High Courts, and now a third unscheduled meeting of the JCP is to be held during the summer vacations of the SC. He stressed the need that “all appointments must be made in accordance with the Constitution, on the basis of predetermined and non-discriminatory criteria. And above all without any impression of favouritism. The Constitution does not grant the CJP any powers additional to those of the other members of the JCP; the CJP is only designated as the Chairman of the JCP.” It is pertinent to note that the JCP meeting was held on June 28, a day after Justice Isa’s three-page letter criticised the meeting and called for its postponement until the scheduled vacations of the court were over. Amendment in Article 175-A sought Similarly, superior bar associations from across the country on Wednesday strongly opposed the elevation of junior judges of the high courts to the Supreme Court. A joint meeting of the representatives of the SCBAP, high court bar associations of all the provinces, PBC and members of bar councils to the JCP demanded amendments in Article 175-A and Article 209 of the Constitution in order to unify the forum for appointment and removal of judges and to make it more inclusive and comprising equal representation of all the stakeholders (i.e. judges, bar, executive and the parliament). Likewise, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Hamid Khan and other leaders of lawyers’ professional group have also strongly opposed the JCP's move to ignore the seniority policy in elevating judges to the apex court. Khan regretted that chief justices of the high courts were being ignored by the JCP and the Supreme Court was being filled with junior judges on personal preferences.

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Petroleum levy set to rise on IMF demand

Pakistan was ready to meet the remaining one prior condition of a further increase in the levy on all petroleum products that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had set for calling the board meeting to revive the programme, said Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on Wednesday. The minister’s statement should quell speculations that the government might not increase the taxes from August due to the ongoing political crisis. “There is a schedule to gradually increase petroleum levy rates according to which the levy will increase further in the future,” said the finance minister while sticking to the commitments given to the IMF. The finance minister spoke at a seminar that had been organised under a condition of the foreign lender to qualify for the loan to reform the state-owned enterprises. The seminar was funded through foreign loan proceeds at a time when the country is at the verge of default. Ismail said that the IMF had set the prior conditions of approval of the new budget, a memorandum of understanding with the provinces to create cash surpluses, raising petroleum levy rates, increasing electricity prices in July, August and October and increasing interest rates. He said that these conditions have been met. Under the deal with the IMF, the government had imposed Rs10 per litre levy on petrol from July, which will have to be further increased by another Rs10 on August 1 until it gradually reaches to Rs50 per litre. The petroleum products prices may significantly go up from August due to massive currency devaluation during the past 10 days, which could stoke hyperinflation in the country. The rupee closed at Rs236, having depreciated 1.31%, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The finance minister said that the IMF board meeting would take place later in August, although he wanted the meeting to be held in early August. The IMF board is expected to meet on August 25th. The finance minister also said that there was a structural benchmark to form a team of experts for the diagnosis of effectiveness of anti-corruption laws. “I have added strings to it that the team will also be determined whether these laws have been used in the past against political opponents and what is the trade-off between efficiency and the anti-corruption laws.” The previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government delayed the signing of the cheapest LNG deals in fear of being chased by the NAB, said the finance minister. “In consultations with the IMF, we will appoint a team of world and Pakistani experts to review these laws,” he added. “Even though we have NAB and PPRA rules for the last 20 years, the corruption in Pakistan has not reduced and the successive governments have not bought cheaper goods,” he said. He again made the case for government-to-government sale deals with the foreign countries by bypassing the existing laws. Read Pakistan 'will not default', assures Miftah “It is not only a matter of good boards and management but it is the matter of better laws, as the existing law does not facilitate the privatisation process,” Ismail said. He added that the privatisation law was not the right law, as it did not allow the privatisation. “If we want privatisation, we need to come up with better laws,” the minister emphasised. Pakistan’s privatisation policy has not succeeded over the years. The SME bank that has been making losses since 2007 and is on the privatisation list since 2008 could not be privatised till today, he added. “The Roosevelt Hotel may not be privatised right now but it is on the privatisation agenda for 36 years.” The federal cabinet on Wednesday allowed the president to present the Inter-government Transactions Bill 2022 in parliament by changing its earlier plan to implement the new law through a presidential ordinance. The Express Tribune reported last week that in a desperate attempt to save the country from default through emergency sale of state’s assets to foreign countries, the federal cabinet had approved an ordinance to bypass all the procedures for the process and also abolished regulatory checks, including the applicability of six relevant laws. Through the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions bill, the Centre wants to empower itself to issue binding instructions to the provincial governments for land acquisition, according to a copy of the proposed law. The government has also barred the courts from entertaining any petition against the sale of assets and shares of the government companies to foreign countries, as per the ordinance. The finance minister said that Pakistan was in talks with a friendly country for the purchase of shares of Pakistani companies that were listed on the stock market. However, he said: “We have not yet begun the negotiations,” adding that the government wanted to sell minority stakes with the buy-back option; therefore today’s prices were not relevant. The deal’s size is estimated at around $2-2.5 billion, depending on the number of shares being offered to the UAE and the price of the two-LNG power plants, according to people privy to these discussions. The finance minister said that the government might lift the ban on the import of luxury items in the next couple of weeks, including pet food. He said that the condition about vetting letters of credits for imports had helped reduce the import bill this month, which so far stood at only $3.7 billion. The imports may remain only at $4.4 billion, which would take the pressure off from rupee from next month, he added.

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Bars oppose elevation of junior judges to SC

Bar associations from across the country have strongly opposed the elevation of junior judges of the high courts to the Supreme Court and have pressed the government to enact laws to regulate the discretionary powers vested in the chief justice to constitute benches and fix cases. The resolution was adopted in a joint meeting of the representatives of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan (SCBAP), high court bar associations of all the provinces, Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) and members of bar councils to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan held here at the Supreme Court building on Wednesday. The meeting, presided over by SCBA President Ahsan Bhoon and PBC chairman of executive committee Pir Muhammad Masood Chishti, considered the situation arising out of the controversies linked to the judiciary’s independence with regard to the functioning of courts as well as the appointment of judges in the superior courts. It unanimously resolved that the legal fraternity did not harbour any personal agenda and that it practised complete impartiality, emphasising that the lawyers wanted strict adherence to the rule of law and principle of seniority. The meeting emphasised that the nominations for the appointment of junior judges to the apex court were in violation of the seniority principle and therefore, it was disapproved by the house. READ PM Shehbaz stresses equal justice for everyone after SC verdict Moreover, it reiterated its long-standing demand that the JCP immediately amend its rules to allow nominations for judicial appointments to be initiated by any member of the commission rather than the chief justice alone. It stressed the need to frame fair, transparent and objective criteria and procedures to gauge the suitability of prospective appointees. It was demanded that amendments in Article 175-A and Article 209 of the Constitution should be made in order to unify the forum for appointment and removal of judges and to make it more inclusive and comprising equal representation of all the stakeholders (i.e. judges, bar, executive and the parliament). Moreover, the house demanded that Article 184 (3) of the Constitution be amended in order to provide one right of appeal. Legislation to regulate suo motu powers Furthermore, the bar associations further demanded that the federal government immediately frame legislation in terms of Articles 175(2) and 191 of the Constitution regulating the manner of exercise of jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The legislation, in particular, should be aimed at ending the sole discretion of the CJP to constitute benches, fix cases and initiate suo motu proceedings and vest the same in a committee comprising the five senior-most judges of the court. It also asked the federal government to immediately withdraw the curative review filed against the senior most judge of the Supreme Court Justice Qazi Faez Isa “as admittedly, it was wrongly filed”. And lastly, the house resolved that the Supreme Court rules be amended to ensure that the review petitions are heard by a bench different from the original bench and allow the engagement of different counsel for the review petition.

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