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Top court to rule on political crisis, adjourns hearing until Monday

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Updated 03 April 2022
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Top court to rule on political crisis, adjourns hearing until Monday

  • Deputy speaker disallowed voting on no-trust motion before the president dissolved the National Assembly on PM's advice
  • Opposition leaders say the government has committed a serious act of treason by violating the consitution
Updated 03 April 2022
KASHIF IMRAN and Shahjahan Khurram

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's top court said on Sunday the prime minister's advice and the president's decision to dissolve the National Assembly would be subject to its final verdict while adjourning its proceedings to look into the recent political developments in the country until Monday.

Earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan “congratulated” the nation after the deputy speaker of the assembly disallowed voting on a no-confidence motion against the premier on grounds it was "unconstitutional," with the president subsequently dissolving the national assembly.

A three-member Supreme Court bench refused to suspend the deputy speaker's order to provide interim relief to the opposition, though it issued notices to all relevant officials, including the defense and interior secretaries, to conduct further hearings.

The prime minister has said the campaign to oust him through a no-trust vote was part of a foreign conspiracy orchestrated by the United States.

As Sunday’s session began, Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain said in light of the alleged foreign interference in domestic politics, the no-trust motion was against Article 5, which deals with obedience and loyalty to the state and constitution.

Deputy speaker Qasim Suri accepted Hussain's points as "valid," and threw out the motion on the grounds it was "unconstitutional."

“We will not let such a [foreign] conspiracy succeed,” Khan said in an address to the nation after the parliament session. “I have just now sent my advice to the president of Pakistan to dissolve the assemblies.”

Khan then called on the public to prepare for elections: “No foreign government or corrupt people will decide [the fate of the nation].”

 

The president subsequently dissolved the national assembly.

The Supreme Court took notice of these developments, as opposition parties called the speaker's ruling illegal and decided to challenge it.

However, the prime minister told his party parliamentarians that Pakistan’s National Security Council had seen a communique by the country’s ambassador in Washington after his “official meeting” with a senior American official Donald Lu that proved the no-confidence motion was the result of external interference in Pakistan’s politics.

He added that all the security chiefs were also present at the gathering.

“When the highest security body of the country confirms it, then the numbers [in the national assembly] become irrelevant,” he said.

Deputy speaker Suri also mentioned the same document in his detailed ruling to justify his decision to disallow the no-trust voting against the prime minister.

"Suffice it to say that to me it is now clear that there has been blatant foreign interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan and there exists a close nexus between such foreign interference and the campaign to oust and remove the democratically elected government headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan through different means including the motion for no-confidence," he wrote.

He added "no self respecting independent, democratic country and people with national pride and dignity" should ever allow such external interference in national politics while demanding a probe into the issue.

"This would require a thorough investigation by appropriate forum or authority under the law," he added. "However, without such thorough probe, if such motion no-confidence is entertained in the garb of parliamentary process now or allowed to succeed and foreign country is able to achieve its goal to oust a democratically elected Government and/or Prime Minister in this manner, we shall cease to be an independent and sovereign country governed by the Constitution and the law."

 

 

However, the opposition questioned the legality of the ruling, saying the government had committed a serious act of treason by violating the constitution.

“Today, a man obsessed with power trampled on the constitution,” the country's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif wrote in a Twitter post. “Imran Khan, who puts his ego before the country and the nation, and all the conspiratorial characters involved in this scheme are guilty of serious treason to which Article 6 applies. Abuse of Pakistan and desecration of the constitution will not go unpunished.”

 

 

"Pakistan's constitution has been subverted," opposition leader Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said after the National Assembly session. "We will do a sit-in at the National Assembly until the vote is allowed to take place."

"The Supreme Court has to decide that the vote must take place today."

The joint opposition filed the no-trust motion against PM Khan earlier this month, accusing him of economic meltdown, foreign policy failures and poor governance.

 

 

Under the Pakistani constitution, a prime minister is elected by a majority of the lower house, the National Assembly. A candidate needs a simple majority of legislators, 172, to vote for him to become prime minister. That is the same number of votes against him in a no-confidence vote needed to oust him and dissolve his cabinet.

The opposition collectively had 162 members, while the government had the support of 179 lawmakers, including its coalition partners.

In recent weeks, however, defections by over a dozen of his party's lawmakers and the exit of coalition partners, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP), have left Khan short of a simple majority.

Topics: Pakistan politics no confidence motion PM Imran Khan

Eight-month peace deal reached after deadly clashes in Pakistan’s Kurram district

Updated 29 March 2025
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Eight-month peace deal reached after deadly clashes in Pakistan’s Kurram district

  • The peace deal follows last year’s Kohat Agreement, which called for a ceasefire and removal of private bunkers
  • Violence in Kurram lasted for months, triggered a humanitarian crisis, cutting off access to food, fuel and medicine
Updated 29 March 2025
REHMAT MEHSUD

PESHAWAR: An eight-month peace agreement was reached on Saturday between warring factions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s restive Kurram district, with all sides pledging to resolve future disputes through legal means, according to a statement shared by a police official.
Kurram, a tribal district of around 600,000 people bordering Afghanistan, has long been a flashpoint for sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni tribes. Clashes between the two sides have killed more than 150 people since November, while militant attacks and retaliatory violence have claimed even more lives of people and security personnel during months of unrest.
The violence also created a humanitarian crisis, with road blockades cutting off access to food, fuel and life-saving medicines, leading to the reported deaths of dozens of children.
“Representatives of both sides agreed to maintain peace for a period of eight months in order to prevent any kind of conflict in the area and to work toward improving the situation,” said a statement shared by district police spokesperson Riaz Khan.
The deal was struck following a jirga, or tribal council, held in the presence of provincial authorities and the local administration.
The agreement builds on the Kohat Agreement, a peace framework developed last year that called for a ceasefire, disarmament, the dismantling of private bunkers in the area and government oversight to ensure sustainable peace.
“Under this agreement, if any untoward incident occurs on the road, legal action will be taken against the responsible party in accordance with the ‘Kohat Agreement,’” the statement continued.
“Both sides pledged that in the event of any incident that could harm peace in the area, they would consult with each other and seek a solution through legal means,” it added.
It was also agreed that the main road through Kurram, closed for months due to violence, will be formally reopened in a joint announcement by the government and state institutions to ease public hardship and facilitate travel.

Topics: kurram district kurram parachinar

Eleven dead in drone strikes in northwest ahead of Pakistani Taliban Eid ceasefire announcement

Updated 29 March 2025
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Eleven dead in drone strikes in northwest ahead of Pakistani Taliban Eid ceasefire announcement

  • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration says an ‘anti-terror operation’ was launched on credible intelligence on Friday
  • It confirms the killing of women and children during the action, regretting their loss of life in the operation
Updated 29 March 2025
REHMAT MEHSUD

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa administration on Saturday confirmed an “anti-terror operation” after an international wire agency reported that drone strikes killed at least 11 people, including women and children, just hours before the Pakistani Taliban announced a three-day Eid Al-Fitr ceasefire.
The strikes targeted what officials described as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) hideouts in the Katling area of Mardan district, following a TTP attack a day earlier that killed seven soldiers during an army operation elsewhere in the province.
“An anti-terror operation was conducted in the Katling mountainous area of Mardan district based on credible information about the presence of terrorists,” said Muhammad Ali Saif, spokesperson for the provincial government. “According to reports, this location was being used for the hideout and movement of terrorist elements.”
However, he added as per the information received later, there were some unarmed civilians around the scene of the incident as well.
“It is regrettable that unarmed people were killed in the operation, including women and children,” he added.
While the military has not commented publicly on the incident, police sources confirmed to AFP that three drone strikes were carried out on Friday night. It was only on Saturday morning, they said, that officials learned two women and three children were among the dead.
“In protest, local residents placed the bodies of the victims on the road,” a senior police officer told AFP, saying they were being described by locals as “innocent civilians.”
Another official said an investigation was under way to determine whether militants were present at the time of the strikes.
“It is too early to say whether the places affected were civilian areas or whether they were sheltering Taliban,” he said.
Shortly after reports of the casualties emerged, the TTP released a statement announcing a three-day ceasefire on the occasion of Eid Al-Fitr.
“The leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has decided that, on the joyous occasion of Eid Al-Fitr, a three-day ceasefire will be observed as a gesture to allow the people of Pakistan to celebrate in peace,” the group said in a statement.
It added that TTP fighters would refrain from operations on the last day of Ramadan, Eid day, and the day after Eid, but reserved the right to respond in self-defense if attacked.
The TTP, which announced a “spring offensive” earlier this month, has claimed responsibility for around 100 attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in recent weeks.
In Friday’s separate incident, seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an hours-long gunbattle with Taliban fighters holed up in a house in the province.
The army later deployed helicopter gunships, killing eight militants, while six other soldiers were wounded, according to police sources.
According to an AFP tally, over 190 people — mostly security personnel — have been killed in militant violence in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan since the start of the year.
Last year was the deadliest in nearly a decade, with more than 1,600 fatalities nationwide, nearly half of them security forces, according to the Center for Research and Security Studies.
Islamabad blames the surge in attacks on militants using Afghan territory as a base, particularly the TTP, which Pakistan says enjoys sanctuaries across the border.
The Afghan Taliban-led government in Kabul denies this, and accuses Pakistan in return of harboring Daesh militants.
With input from AFP

Topics: Mardan Pakistan Taliban Eid 2025

11 dead in drone strikes against Taliban in northwest Pakistan

Updated 29 March 2025
AFP
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11 dead in drone strikes against Taliban in northwest Pakistan

  • Security forces carried out three drone strikes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, targeting ‘Pakistani Taliban hideouts’
  • Local residents protested the killings of ‘innocent civilians,’ saying women and children were among the victims
Updated 29 March 2025
AFP

PESHAWAR: Eleven people were killed in drone strikes in northern Pakistan on Saturday launched by the army against the Taliban, who had killed seven soldiers a day earlier, police told AFP.
Three drone strikes were carried out on Friday night in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, a senior police officer said on condition of anonymity, targeting “Pakistani Taliban hideouts” in the region bordering Afghanistan where violence has erupted in recent months.
“It was only this morning that we learned that two women and three children were among the victims,” he said.
“In protest, local residents placed the bodies of the victims on the road,” saying that they were “innocent civilians” killed in the strikes, he added.
Another police source said that “an investigation is under way to establish whether Taliban fighters were indeed present at the sites at the time of the attack.”
“It is too early to say whether the places affected were civilian areas or whether they were sheltering Taliban,” he added.
The Pakistani Taliban — known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) — announced in mid-March a “spring campaign” against security forces, threatening “ambushes, targeted attacks, suicide attacks and strikes.”
The TTP has since claimed responsibility for around 100 attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
In the same province, “armed Taliban” fighters hiding in a house shot and killed seven soldiers who were carrying out an operation against them, a police source said on Saturday.
During the shoot-out, which lasted several hours, the army deployed helicopter gunships, killing eight Taliban, while six other soldiers were wounded, according to the source.
Since January 1, more than 190 people, mostly members of the security forces, have been killed in violence carried out by armed groups fighting against the government both in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and in Balochistan provinces, according to an AFP count.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a blast from a bomb planted by separatists on a motorbike also killed a soldier and a civilian further south in Balochistan, police officer Mohsin Ali told AFP.
The area was the scene of a spectacular attack last month when militants held hundreds of train passengers hostage and killed dozens of off-duty soldiers.
Attacks are reported every day in Pakistan’s western regions bordering Afghanistan, where the army regularly says it is killing “terrorists” during sweep operations, without, however, curbing the violence.
Attacks have increased in Pakistan in particular since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021.
Islamabad accuses the Taliban government in Kabul of failing to eliminate militants who take refuge on Afghan soil to prepare attacks against Pakistan.
The Taliban government denies these accusations and in return accuses Pakistan of harboring “terrorist” cells on its soil, pointing the finger in particular at the regional branch of Daesh.
“Pakistan expects the Afghan government to assume its responsibilities,” the army said at the beginning of March, reserving “the right to take the necessary measures to respond to these threats coming from across the border.”
Last year was the deadliest year in almost a decade in Pakistan, with more than 1,600 people killed in attacks — nearly half of them security forces personnel — according to the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies.

Pakistan markets bustle with shoppers for Eid final preparations

Updated 29 March 2025
Reuters
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Pakistan markets bustle with shoppers for Eid final preparations

  • At bazaars, shoppers browse through glittery sandals, bangles, clothes hoping to find special items for the festival
  • Although inflation has eased recently, some shoppers complained of price increases compared to regular days
Updated 29 March 2025
Reuters

KARACHI/LAHORE: Pakistani Muslims on this week crowded the night markets soon after ‘iftar’ (breaking of fast at sunset) in the final week of Ramadan as they geared up in preparation for Eid-Al-Fitr celebrations.
Markets in the biggest city Karachi and the second largest city Lahore were bustling with activity as the holy month of Ramadan neared the end ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid.
For Pakistan the festival will fall on either Monday (March 31) or Tuesday (April 1), depending on the sighting of the moon.
Shoppers browsed through glittery sandals, bangles, and new clothes hoping to find special items for the festival.
“Shopping is really an enjoyment in last days [of Ramadan]. The bazar is very lively during the last days of Ramadan, which is fun to watch,” said housewife Subia Arshad in Karachi.
Although inflation has eased recently, some shoppers complained of price increases compared to regular days.
Prices generally rise in Ramadan and ahead of Eid in Pakistan.
“Items that cost 600 ($2.14), 700 rupees ($2.50) normally, they are selling it for two thousand rupees ($7.14),” said housewife Mrs. Irfan in Lahore.
Pakistan’s annual inflation rate slowed to 1.5 percent in February, the lowest in nearly a decade and below the finance ministry’s estimates, according to early March data from the statistics bureau.
Inflation has cooled significantly, easing from 23.1 percent in February 2024.
The South Asian country, currently bolstered by a $7 billion facility from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) granted in September, is navigating an economic recovery.
Pakistan government has announced Eid Al-Fitr holidays from Monday (March 31) to Wednesday (April 2).

Topics: Ramadan 2025 #EidAlFitr Eid 2025

Afghan refugee leaders urge Pakistan to reassess expulsions ahead of Eid deadline

Updated 29 March 2025
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Afghan refugee leaders urge Pakistan to reassess expulsions ahead of Eid deadline

  • The government has decided to begin expelling refugees holding Afghan Citizen Cards from April
  • UN data suggest around 800,000 of the 2.8 million Afghans in Pakistan face imminent deportation
Updated 29 March 2025
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: Refugee leaders in Karachi on Saturday urged the Pakistani authorities to reconsider their plan to expel Afghan nationals, saying the prospect of deportation during Eid was the harshest blow they could expect from a country that had generously hosted them for nearly five decades.
Earlier this month, the government announced that Afghan Citizen Card (ACC) holders must leave Pakistan by March 31, a deadline expected to coincide with Eid al-Fitr.
According to UN data, Pakistan hosts more than 2.8 million Afghans, many of whom fled decades of war and instability in their home country. Around 1.3 million of them are formally registered as refugees and hold Proof of Registration (PoR) cards, which grant them legal protections.
Another 800,000 Afghans possess ACCs, a separate identity document issued by the Pakistani government that recognizes them as Afghan nationals without offering refugee status.
With the government now requiring ACC holders to leave by March 31, a deadline expected to coincide with Eid al-Fitr, nearly 800,000 Afghans, including an estimated 65,000 in Karachi, face the prospect of being forcibly returned to a country many have never even seen.
“We appeal to the government of Pakistan to reconsider its decision to expel Afghans holding Afghan Citizen Cards,” said Haji Abdullah Shah Bukhari, chairman of the refugee community in Sindh, at a news conference in Karachi.
“Pakistan has generously hosted us for nearly 47 years, and a large portion of these refugees were born in Pakistan,” he continued. “Even if the government decides to expel us, it should not be done during Eid.”
Bukhari urged the authorities to allow more time for refugees to prepare, warning that many would be forced to live in tents in Afghanistan, where they have no homes to return to.
Islamabad has previously attributed militant attacks and other crimes to Afghan nationals, who make up the largest share of migrants in the country. The government claims that militants, particularly from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), operate from safe havens in Afghanistan and maintain ties with Afghans living in Pakistan to stage cross-border attacks. Kabul has consistently denied these accusations.
Bukhari, however, stressed that Afghan refugees in Pakistan had no links to militant violence in the country.
“We ourselves are victims of war and terrorism,” he said.
Mufti Rahim Ullah, another refugee elder, said his fellow nationals consider Pakistan their home.
“I arrived in Pakistan over three decades ago with my parents. I married a refugee woman born in Pakistan, and all my children were born and raised here. Pakistan is our country, and we love it. We condemn anyone who wants to harm Pakistan,” he said, adding that fear had gripped refugee settlements across Karachi.
Agha Syed Mustafa, another Afghan national and school principal, said law enforcement agencies lacked clarity during crackdowns, leading to the harassment of all of his community members, including those holding PoR cards.
“There should be clarity, and any operation should be conducted in consultation with the local [Afghan] community,” he said.
Mustafa urged the government to urgently review the deportation decision and allow refugees more time.
“They should be given more time so that they can plan their return to Afghanistan,” he said.

Topics: Afghan Refugees in pakistan

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