ISLAMABAD: The newly elected 329 members of Pakistan’s National Assembly on Monday took oath of their office, vowing to work for betterment of people and strengthening of democracy in the country.
The swearing-in marked the second consecutive democratic transition of power in the country’s history. Visitors’ galleries of the lower house of parliament were packed to capacity to witness the historic moment.
The maiden session of the assembly began in the morning with the members-elect standing up for the national anthem and recitation of the Holy Qur’an. This was followed by the swearing-in of the members.
Outgoing National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq administered the oath to the lawmakers-elect in the 342-member house. He then asked all the legislators to proceed to the speaker’s desk to sign the roll of members in alphabetical order.
Pakistan People's Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was the first to sign the roll amid chants by the party workers sitting in the visitors’ galleries.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman and Prime Minister in-waiting Imran Khan also took the oath. PTI workers sitting in the assembly’s visitors’ galleries chanted: “Prime Minister, Imran Khan,” when he signed the roll. The PTI has emerged as the
single largest party in the July 25 polls with 158 seats -- but it is still short of 14 members in the house to prove its simple majority.
PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who entered the National Assembly for his maiden term, was conspicuous among all other members. When he came in the house, Imran got up from his seat and shook hands with him, and posed for a photo
in the assembly.
Other prominent members who took the oath included Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif, ex-premiers Raja Pervez Ashraf and Mian Muhammad Soomro, former Speakers Fakhar Imam and Fehmida Mirza.
Besides Asif Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto, other father and sons due elected to the assembly include Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his son Zain Qureshi, Pervaiz Malik and his son Ali Pervaiz Malik.
Former chief ministers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Pervaiz Khattak and Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif also made it to the National Assembly this time and took the oath.
Before adjourning the session, the outgoing Speaker Ayaz Sadiq read out procedure for election of speaker and deputy speaker, for which the candidates can submit their nomination papers by Tuesday noon.
The PTI has nominated Asad Qaiser for the coveted slot of Speaker National Assembly, and it has yet to announce a candidate for deputy speaker.
The 11-parties opposition alliance in the assembly has already nominated PPP’s leader Khursheed Shah for the position of speaker, and Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman’s son Asad-ur-Rehman for the post of deputy speaker.
Elections for the post of speaker and deputy speaker will take place on Wednesday. As per rules of business, the speaker is considered custodian of the house. He is also responsible for maintaining decorum and order during the session.
Speaking to media after the swearing-in ceremony, PTI’s central information Secretary Fawad Chaudhry lauded the “positive role” of the opposition members in the lower house of parliament.
“The opposition has played a responsible role (in the assembly),” he said. “The opposition should play an active role to run the proceedings of the house smoothly.”
To a question, he said that his party would try its best to come up to the people's expectations through good governance. “We are in touch with all parliamentary parties and ready to take them on board before making any decision for the welfare of the
people,” he added.
Members from the opposition parties said the incoming government of the PTI will have to deliver on its election promises and they would support it on all positive issues.
“We wish the PTI to fulfill its promises of good governance and improve the education and health sectors through investment on human development,” said Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, spokesman to Bilawal Bhutto, while talking to media persons
outside the Parliament House.
PML-N lawmaker Ahsan Iqbal said the PTI leadership has created high hopes among the masses in the past five years and now is the time that it should come up to people's expectations. “We will keep pressure on the government through peaceful
protest and press it to fulfill its promises of structural reforms in all state-run institutions,” he added.
To avoid any untoward incident, strict security measures were taken during the session. Heavy contingents of police and Rangers were deployed outside the Parliament House while entry of irrelevant persons on the premises was banned.
The National Assembly session will resume on Aug. 15 to elect the speaker and deputy speaker of the House.
Newly elected lawmakers take oath in maiden session of Pakistan’s National Assembly
Newly elected lawmakers take oath in maiden session of Pakistan’s National Assembly
Kremlin says Putin ready for talks with Trump
- Incoming US president has said he can bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine
- Washington has delivered tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its military offensive
Trump, who will be inaugurated on January 20, has said he can bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, without presenting a concrete plan.
“The president has repeatedly stated his openness to contact with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Trump on Thursday said a meeting with Putin was being arranged.
“He wants to meet, and we’re setting it up,” Trump said at a meeting with Republican governors at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
“President Putin wants to meet, he’s said that even publicly, and we have to get that war over with, that’s a bloody mess,” he said.
The Kremlin welcomed Trump’s “readiness to solve problems through dialogue,” Peskov said Friday, adding Moscow had no prerequisites for staging the meeting.
“No conditions are required. What is required is mutual desire and political will to solve problems through dialogue,” he told reporters in a daily briefing.
Trump’s hopes for a swift end to the conflict have stoked concern in Kyiv that Ukraine could be forced to accept a peace deal on terms favorable to Moscow.
Washington has delivered tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale military offensive in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that without such support his country would have lost the conflict.
He is pushing Trump to back his “peace-through-strength” proposal, seeking NATO protections and concrete Western security guarantees as part of any settlement to end the fighting.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry dismissed Trump’s comments on any forthcoming meeting with Putin.
“Trump has talked about plans for such a meeting before, so we see nothing new in this,” said spokesman Georgiy Tykhy.
“Our position is very simple: we all in Ukraine want to end the war fairly for Ukraine, and we see that President Trump is also determined to end the war,” he said, according to the Interfax Ukraine news agency.
Tykhy said Ukraine was preparing for high-level discussions between Kyiv and Washington “immediately” after the inauguration, including between Trump and Zelensky.
The Supreme Court is considering a possible TikTok ban. Here’s what to know about the case
- Three appeals court judges have sided with the government and upheld the law, which bans TikTok unless it’s sold
- The justices largely hold the app’s fate in their hands as they hear the case Friday
WASHINGTON: The law that could ban TikTok is coming before the Supreme Court on Friday, with the justices largely holding the app’s fate in their hands.
The popular social media platform says the law violates the First Amendment and should be struck down.
TikTok’s parent company is based in China, and the US government says that means it is a potential national security threat. Chinese authorities could force it to hand over sensitive data on the huge number of Americans who use it or could influence the spread of information on the platform, they say.
An appeals court has upheld the law, which bans TikTok unless it’s sold.
The law is set to take effect Jan. 19, the day before a new term begins for President-elect Donald Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on the platform. The Republican says he wants to “save TikTok.”
Here are some key things to know about the case:
Is TikTok banned?
Not now, but the short-form video-sharing app could be shut down in less than two weeks if the Supreme Court upholds the law.
Congress passed the measure with bipartisan support, and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed it into law in April.
TikTok’s lawyers challenged the law in court, joined by users and content creators who say a ban would upend their livelihoods. TikTok says the national security concerns are based on inaccurate and hypothetical information.
But a unanimous appeals court panel made up of judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents has upheld the law.
When will the Supreme Court decide?
The justices will issue a decision after arguments Friday, a lightning-fast movement by court standards.
The conservative-majority court could drop clues about how it’s leaning during oral arguments.
TikTok lawyers have urged the justices to step in before the law takes effect, saying even a monthlong shutdown would cause the app to lose about one-third of its daily American users and significant advertising revenue.
The court could quickly block the law from going into effect before issuing a final ruling, if at least five of the nine justices think it is unconstitutional.
What has Trump said about it?
The law is to take effect Jan. 19, the day before Trump takes over as president.
He took the unusual step of filing court documents asking the Supreme Court to put the law on hold so that he could negotiate a deal for the sale of TikTok after he takes office. His position marked the latest example of him inserting himself into national issues before he takes office. It also was a change from his last presidential term, when he wanted to ban it.
Parent company ByteDance has previously said it has no plans to sell. Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, last month.
Who else is weighing in?
Free-speech advocacy groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have urged the court to block the law, saying the government hasn’t shown credible evidence of harm and a ban would cause “extraordinary disruption” in Americans’ lives.
On the other side, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican former Senate leader, and a group of 22 states have filed briefs in support, arguing that the law protects free speech by safeguarding Americans’ data and preventing the possible manipulation of information on the platform by Chinese authorities.
State-run Pakistan International Airlines resumes direct flights to Europe after EU lifts ban
- The curb was imposed in 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in Karachi
- The ban caused a loss of nearly $150 million a year in revenue for the flag carrier
ISLAMABAD: State-run Pakistan International Airlines resumed direct flights to Europe on Friday following a decision by the European Union’s aviation safety agency to lift a four-year ban over safety standards, officials said.
Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif inaugurated the twice-a-week flights to Paris and vowed that PIA will expand its operations to other European countries soon.
The flight from Islamabad was fully booked with more than 300 passengers, the airline said.
Asif said in a speech that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency had imposed the ban on PIA’s operations to Europe because of an “irresponsible statement” by a former aviation minister.
The curb on PIA was imposed in 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in Karachi in southern Pakistan. Then-Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said an investigation into the crash found that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots had cheated on their pilot’s exams. A government probe later concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error.
The ban caused a loss of nearly $150 million a year in revenue for PIA, officials say.
Meanwhile, the first international flight was scheduled to depart from Gwadar, a new airport in southwestern Pakistan, later Friday. The Chinese-funded airport was inaugurated by Chinese Premier Li Qiang in October.
The airport, Pakistan’s largest, is located in restive southwestern Balochistan province and is part of a massive investment by Beijing that links a deep seaport and airport on the Arabian Sea by road with China.
Tajikistan bets on giant dam to solve electricity crisis
- Tajikistan is reviving the colossal project, first planned by Soviet authorities in 1976, before being abandoned due to the end of communist rule
- The plant will not only generate enough power to use domestically, but could supply other Central Asian countries and even Afghanistan, Pakistan
ROGUN: In a remote village in Tajikistan’s soaring mountains, Muslikhiddin Makhmudzoda relies on a mobile phone to light his modest home as his family spends another winter without electricity.
Makhmudzoda’s three children and wife were sitting huddled together to share the phone’s flashlight in their modest brick home.
A shortage of water needed to fuel hydroelectric plants has led to serious power outages in Tajikistan, a poor former Soviet republic nestled in the Central Asian mountains and surrounded by Afghanistan, China, and fellow ex-Soviet states Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The power crisis is only set to worsen, as Central Asia is hard-hit by climate change.
Amid chronic shortages, Tajikistan has promised it will end the power outages and has revived a Soviet-era mega-project to build the world’s highest dam.
Makhmudzoda’s family spend much of their day without power.
“We have electricity from 5:00 am to 8:00 am and then from 5:00 p.m. until 11:00 pm,” the 28-year-old said.
To cope with intermittent power supplies, the family resorts to using a charcoal stove for heating — a risky choice, since many Tajiks die from carbon monoxide poisoning each year caused by such appliances.
Every year, the impoverished country’s state electricity company Barqi Tojik restricts power supplies starting in September to prevent the system’s collapse during the coldest months.
It says this is an “inevitable measure” as demand has skyrocketed.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the small country’s population has doubled to 10 million, with economic growth steady at around eight percent after decades of stagnation.
The rationing is also due to falling water levels in reservoirs used to drive turbines in hydroelectric power plants, which provide 95 percent of Tajikistan’s electricity.
Authorities say “feeble rainfall” means that water levels in the country’s biggest river — the Vakhsh — are low.
“Every centimeter of water counts,” Barqi Tojik has warned, urging Tajiks to pay their bills to renovate aging infrastructure.
The average salary in Tajikistan hovers around $190 (180 euros) a month.
But the government is now promising that all these inconveniences will soon be a thing of the past thanks to the construction of a massive dam and plant.
Tajikistan has placed its bets on Rogun, planned to become the most powerful hydropower plant in Central Asia. It is set to have the highest dam in the world at 335 meters (1,100 feet).
When completed, the plant is intended to produce some 3,600 megawatts — the equivalent of three nuclear power stations.
Tajikistan is reviving the colossal project, first planned by the Soviet authorities in 1976, before being abandoned due to the end of communist rule and then the Tajik civil war.
At the site, dozens of bulldozers go up and down the mountains and dozens of kilometers of underground tunnels are equipped with giant turbines.
Some 17,000 people are working on the site which lies west of the capital Dushanbe, in the foothills of the Pamir Mountains.
The site is already partially functioning but it is not known when construction will be finished.
Giant banners showing President Emomali Rahmon — in power for 32 years — hang over the construction site.
Rahmon has stressed the importance of the dam, calling it a “palace of light,” the “pride of the Tajik nation” and the “construction project of the century.”
Surrounded by giant machinery, engineer Zafar Buriyev said he was certain the dam would end power cuts.
“Once the construction at Rogun is finished, Tajikistan will completely come out of its electricity crisis,” he told AFP.
He stood in what he called “the heart of the dam” in between giant peaks.
“By next summer, this area will be submerged and the water will reach an altitude of 1,100 meters and then eventually 1,300.”
Authorities have said the plant will not only generate enough electricity to use domestically, but could supply other Central Asian countries — and even nearby Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Water resources have long been a source of tension between Central Asian countries as they suffer shortages.
The plant’s technical director Murod Sadulloyev told AFP it will help “reinforce the unified energy system” in Central Asia — a concept dating back to the USSR that enables the former Soviet republics to exchange water and electricity.
Tajikistan’s neighbors are also working to revive Soviet-era energy projects.
Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have pledged to build the Kambar-Ata hydroelectric power plant jointly in a mountainous area of Kyrgyzstan.
Tajikistan’s Rogun project has been criticized for its constantly rising cost — currently more than $6 billion — and its environmental impact, while information on Kambar-Ata has been classified as secret.
The Central Asian power plants are being built in the context of dire climatic realities.
According to the UN, Central Asia is “warming more rapidly than the global average.”
Kyiv begins mass operation to seal borders for draft evaders
- Kyiv has been driving a large-scale mobilization campaign for months to boost its military
- Mobilization has spurred panic among Ukrainian fighting-aged men and has seen thousands flee
KYIV: Ukrainian police said Friday they were conducting hundreds of raids nationwide to shut down routes used by military-aged men to flee the country to avoid military service.
Kyiv has been driving a large-scale mobilization campaign for months to boost its military, which is struggling to hold back Russia’s significantly larger army that is advancing in the east of the country, nearly three years after Moscow invaded.
The divisive campaign has spurred panic among Ukrainian fighting-aged men and has seen thousands flee the country illegally toward Europe, sometimes utilising dangerous smuggling routes over mountains or rivers.
“More than 600 simultaneous searches are being conducted by the SBU (Security Services of Ukraine) operatives and National Police investigators,” police said in a statement.
“This is only the first stage of a special operation to block the channels of trafficking of men of military age abroad,” it added.
It said that the operation was primarily targeting the organizers of schemes that aid draft evaders to illegally cross the Ukrainian border. It said it would provide more information on the operation soon.
Police said “criminals” had helped hundreds of people cross the border via illegal routes and that the operation was being conducted across the country.
“Details of the operation will be made public after all investigative actions are completed,” the statement added.
Kyiv has been battling problems with systemic corruption within its military mobilization infrastructure since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Late last year, Ukrainian former prosecutor general Andriy Kostin resigned after a probe uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme that apparently provided military draft exemptions for government officials.
That followed a decision by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to fire the heads of regional draft offices.
