ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday said the formation of a caretaker government in the South Asian country was subject to its verdict in a case pertaining to the blocking of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan and the subsequent dissolution of parliament.
Pakistan’s National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri on Sunday threw the South Asian nation into a political crisis, when he refused to allow a scheduled voting on the no-confidence motion in light of it being orchestrated by a foreign power, and dismissed the motion on grounds it was “unconstitutional.”
The president then dissolved the National Assembly on the advice of the prime minister so new elections could be held. The moves have since triggered a political and constitutional crisis in Pakistan.
The dramatic episode was the latest in an escalating dispute between Khan and parliament, after defectors from his own party and coalition partners joined the opposition and attempted to oust him from power. Khan alleges the campaign to topple his government is a foreign conspiracy orchestrated by the United States in connivance with his political opponents. The US has denied the allegations.
Opposition parties say the deputy speaker’s dismissal of the no-trust motion without a vote and the subsequent dissolution of the National Assembly are both unconstitutional.
“The formation of the caretaker government remains subject to the court ruling. We want to dispose it [the case] off tomorrow,” Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial, who is heading a larger bench of the apex court, remarked at Tuesday’s hearing.
“The formation of the caretaker government is on hold due to this case.”
President Arif Alvi on Monday initiated the process of appointment of the caretaker prime minister after the dissolution of the assembly by writing separate letters to the prime minister and the opposition leader. In response to the president’s letter, PM Khan has nominated former chief justice Gulzar Ahmed for the post.
The opposition leader has refused to become part of the exercise, saying the dissolution of the parliament was “unconstitutional.”
During Tuesday’s proceedings, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) opposition party counsel Makhdoom Ali Khan requested the court to seek an “in-camera briefing” on the alleged foreign conspiracy from the intelligence chief.
“We don’t want to interfere in the state or foreign policy,” the chief justice said. “We don’t want to indulge in policy matters.”
Raza Rabbani, counsel of the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), urged the court to declare the speaker’s ruling “unconstitutional” and reinstate the assembly. He moved the court to seek minutes of the National Security Committee (NSC) meeting that termed the US letter as “blatant interference” in Pakistan’s domestic politics and the letter itself.
“It was not disclosed on what basis the speaker gave the ruling,” Rabbani said. “Any judicial order or inquiry report on the conspiracy was not available to the speaker.”
He termed dissolution of parliament a “civilian martial law,” saying the prime minister could not dissolve the assembly after a no-confidence motion was filed against him.
The court then adjourned the hearing till Wednesday.
The counsels representing the president, prime minister, speaker and others will begin their arguments on Wednesday.
Attorney General of Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan has requested the court to allow him to speak on the case the day after tomorrow, saying this was a case of “national importance” and he wanted to assist the court in detail.
“This is going to be the most important case of my life,” the attorney general added.
Speaking on the court’s premises, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said Pakistan was slipping into a crisis and therefore the court should decide on the case on priority.
“You [Khan] have thrown Pakistan into the confrontation between two super powers, America and Russia, just to save your integrity, but you couldn’t keep it,” she said.
Pakistan top court says formation of caretaker government subject to its verdict
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Pakistan top court says formation of caretaker government subject to its verdict
- Pakistan has been embroiled in a crisis since a no-trust vote against PM Khan was disallowed
- The move was followed by dissolution of parliament, leaving the South Asian nation in a limbo
Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province launches cash cards for minorities
- Punjab government to provide $37.65 per family every quarter to minorities under ‘Minority Card’
- Pakistan’s minorities have suffered attacks from religiously motivated militants in the recent years
ISLAMABAD: The chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province, Maryam Nawaz, launched cash cards for minorities on Wednesday, stressing the importance of undertaking measures to ensure they are not marginalized in the country.
Nawaz announced the ‘Minority Card’ in October last year during the Hindu festival of Diwali. Through the card, the provincial government will provide Rs10,500 [$37.65] per family every quarter to Sikhs, Christians, Hindus and other minorities residing in Punjab.
The chief minister had said that 50,000 individuals from minority communities in Punjab would receive the card during the first phase of its launch. She had said that the provincial government would increase both the number of beneficiaries to 75,000 and the per quarter funds as well.
“I am very happy that that for the first time in Pakistan and Punjab’s history we have launched the minority card,” Nawaz said at the launching ceremony of the card.
She thanked Punjab Minority Affairs Minister Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora and the Bank of Punjab for helping the provincial government in “making and implementing” the card.
Emphasizing that minorities were like the “crown on her head,” Sharif said the true identity of minorities was not non-Muslims but “true Pakistanis.” She distributed minority cards among participants at the ceremony.
Pakistani minorities have often suffered attacks at the hands of religiously motivated militants and hard-liners. There have been dozens of instances of mob violence against religious minorities in the South Asian nation in recent years, including an attack on Christians in Punjab’s Jaranwala town in August 2023. An angry mob had torched churches, homes and businesses targeting the Christian community there over blasphemy allegations.
In the country’s southern Sindh province, Hindus have frequently complained about forced conversions, particularly of young girls, and attacks on temples.
Over 96 percent of Pakistan’s population is Muslim, according to the population census of 2023, with the remaining four percent comprising 5.2 million Hindus, 3.3 million Christians, 15,992 Sikhs and others.
Islamabad, Ankara discuss enhancing training and job opportunities for Pakistanis in Turkiye
- Pakistan’s religious affairs minister meets Turkish Ambassador Irfan Nazir Oglu in Islamabad to discuss matters of bilateral interest
- Foreign remittances sent by thousands of overseas Pakistanis help cash-strapped country keeps fragile $350 billion economy afloat
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain met Turkish Ambassador Irfan Nazir Oglu on Wednesday to discuss provision of modern technical education and enhancing job opportunities for the country’s skilled workers in Turkiye, the religion ministry said in a statement.
Pakistan exports skilled manpower to several countries around the world such as Turkiye and the Gulf countries. Foreign remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis help the cash-strapped country keep its fragile $350 billion economy afloat.
Pakistan enjoys cordial relations and cooperation with Turkiye in various sectors such as trade, defense, media and economy. In May 2024, both countries resolved to enhance the volume of bilateral trade to $5 billion.
“During the meeting, various proposals were discussed regarding religious harmony, respect for humanity and providing more job opportunities for Pakistani workers in Turkiye,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs said.
Hussain pointed out that both countries share similar stances on regional and global issues, and have supported each other on various global issues at the international stage.
“Turkish Ambassador Irfan Nazir Oglu expressed sorrow over the deaths of Pakistanis in the Morocco boat incident and reaffirmed the commitment to providing more job opportunities for skilled Pakistanis in Turkiye,” the religion ministry said.
The ambassador pointed out that Turkiye is working on increasing the supply of machinery to Pakistani industries and expanding technical training and educational projects in the South Asian country.
He said that though several Turkish companies are operating in Pakistan, there remains significant potential to increase joint investment and trade volume between the two countries, the religious affairs ministry said.
Hussain said 600,000 Pakistanis went abroad for employment last year, adding that by December 2024 overseas Pakistanis sent a record remittance of 3.1 billion dollars to Pakistan.
“The establishment of better banking channels between Turkiye and Pakistan is also essential for promoting mutual trade,” the ministry said.
It said the meeting concluded with an agreement to enhance cooperation toward eliminating extremism and “terrorism,” promoting interfaith harmony and providing skilled Pakistanis with modern technical education.
Pakistan seeks to boost trade through infrastructure, logistics cooperation with Dubai’s DP World
- Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb meets top officials from logistics giant DP World on sidelines of Davos conference
- Meeting comes days after DP World launched a feeder service to transport shipping containers from Dubai to Karachi
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb met top officials from Dubai-based logistics giant DP World and discussed boosting trade through cooperation in infrastructure and logistics frameworks, Pakistani state media reported on Wednesday.
The meeting comes days after DP World, in collaboration with Pakistan’s National Logistics Corporation, launched a feeder service to transport shipping containers from Dubai to Karachi. DP World operates in over 75 countries, specializing in port operations, terminal management and logistics services. Feeder services use smaller vessels to transport containers between regional ports, reducing shipping costs and transit time.
Earlier this month, Pakistani officials and DP World also finalized terms for a freight corridor project from Karachi Port to the Pipri Marshalling yard in southern Pakistan.
“Aurangzeb met with Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of DP World Rizwan Soomar and Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer Yuvraj Narayan in Davos, Switzerland,” Radio Pakistan reported after the meeting.
“During the meeting, discussions focused on enhancing infrastructure and logistical frameworks in Pakistan to boost trade,” the report said, adding that the finance minister assured DP World it wanted to advance business-to-business and business-to-government collaboration with the company.
The UAE is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner after China and the United States, and a major source of foreign investment, valued at over $10 billion in the last 20 years, according to the UAE foreign ministry. It is also home to more than a million Pakistani expatriates.
In January last year, Pakistan and the UAE signed multiple agreements worth more than $3 billion for cooperation in railways, economic zones and infrastructure.
The agreements cover the development of a dedicated freight corridor, multi-modal logistics park, and freight terminals.
Under the agreements, DP World will carry out infrastructure improvement at Qasim International Container Terminal, Pakistan’s leading trade gateway. The Emirati firm also plans to develop an economic zone near the terminal.
DP World is also involved in the Karachi Freight Corridor, an infrastructure project in Pakistan aimed at improving the movement of freight from the port city of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest, to various parts of the country. The project involves the construction of a dedicated double-track corridor and other related facilities that will run 50 km from Karachi port to the Pipri Marshalling yard.
Militants launch fresh attacks in southwest Pakistan, targeting paramilitary check-post, trucks convoy
- In one attack on Wednesday, unidentified gunmen attacked, set on fire paramilitary Levies check-post in Panjgur
- In second attack on Tuesday, attackers stopped and set on fire a convoy of trucks carrying minerals in Nushki
QUETTA: Militants set on fire a paramilitary forces check-post and a convoy of trucks carrying minerals in two separate attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, officials said on Wednesday, the latest assaults in a region plagued by a decades-long separatist insurgency.
Groups like the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) seek independence for Balochistan, a mineral-rich, southwestern province bordering Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west. The region, Pakistan’s largest in terms of land mass but its most impoverished, is home to key mining projects, including Reko Diq, run by mining giant Barrick Gold, and believed to be one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines. China also operates a gold and copper mine in the province, is building a deep-sea port in the coastal town of Gwadar and has funded an international airport, among several other projects that are part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) scheme.
Separatist groups often target key infrastructure projects and security posts in Balochistan as well as Chinese interests, in particular the port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit the province.
Nearly 300 people, including soldiers, were killed and dozens injured in more than 500 attacks reported in Balochistan in 2024.
In the last attack, Zahid Langove, Deputy Commissioner Panjgur, told Arab News unidentified gunmen attacked a paramilitary Levies check-post with a rocket in the district’s Pullabad area during the early hours of Wednesday.
“The midnight attack on Levies check-post was not of a large-scale,” Langove said. “No casualty was reported in the attack but the attackers set the check-post ablaze and escaped in the nearby mountains.”
In a separate attack, unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks carrying minerals in the province’s Nushki district.
Zafar Sumalani, Station House Officer at the Nushki Police Station, said unidentified attackers stopped a convoy of trucks on the Pak-Iran highway, some four kilometers outside of Nushki city on Tuesday night.
“Two trucks carrying minerals were torched and the attackers burst the tires of a truck with gunfire,” Sumalani said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the two attacks but most attacks in the region are claimed by the BLA and other separatists who accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources such as gold and copper while neglecting the local population. Successive Pakistani governments have denied the allegations, saying they have prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.
On Jan. 13, the military said Pakistani security forces had killed 27 militants in Balochistan in an intelligence-based operation in Kacchi district.
The operation came after dozens of fighters of the BLA stormed the small town of Zehri in Khuzdar district and took control of the town for hours. The group set government buildings, including a Levies police station, ablaze and robbed 768,000 rupees ($2745) from a private bank.
In August last year, separatists killed over 50 people, including security forces, in a string of coordinated attacks in Balochistan, the deadliest the region had seen in decades.
Security forces to resume demolishing bunkers today in Pakistani district wracked by sectarian feuds
Security forces to resume demolishing bunkers today in Pakistani district wracked by sectarian feuds
- At least 150 people have been killed in Kurram district since sectarian clashes broke out in November
- Police and security forces confiscate large number of illegal weapons from district, says state media
ISLAMABAD: An armed crackdown in the northwestern Pakistani district of Kurram that has been marred by sectarian clashes since November continued on Wednesday, with the provincial chief minister’s office saying the process of demolishing bunkers would resume today.
Kurram, a tribal district of around 600,000 where federal and provincial authorities have traditionally exerted limited control, has frequently experienced violence between its Sunni and Shiite communities over land and power. Travelers to and from the area often ride in convoys escorted by security officials.
The latest feuding started on Nov. 21 when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy and killed 52 people, mostly Shiites. The assault triggered road closures and other measures that have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education and work and created a humanitarian crisis in the area, where authorities say at least 150 people have been killed in two months of feuding.
Media widely reported on Monday that Pakistani security forces had launched a “large-scale” operation targeting militants in the restive northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, after unidentified gunmen ambushed and burned aid trucks on Friday, killing up to 10 people. Pakistani forces had earlier this month also launched an operation to demolish bunkers established by warring factions in the district. The action was in accordance with a peace agreement signed by the warring tribes on Jan. 1 in which they had committed to demolish bunkers and hand over heavy weapons to authorities within two weeks.
“The process of demolishing illegal bunkers in Kurram is being resumed from today,” a statement from the chief minister’s office said. The decision was taken after Gandapur presided over a meeting of senior provincial officials to take stock of the situation in the district.
“Four convoys of vehicles containing essential items will be sent to Kurram by the end of this month.”
The provincial government also decided to summon a jirga or tribal council meeting of the signatories of the peace agreement. It said that the responsibilities of the signatories in implementing the agreement should be highlighted in the jirga.
“Both sides will formulate a procedure to clear Kurram of weapons and submit it to the government as soon as possible,” the chief minister’s office said.
It reiterated that indiscriminate action will be taken against “terrorists” and “hard-liners” belonging to either of the rival tribes, adding that those nominated in police complaints for attacks on aid convoys will be arrested.
Earlier, Pakistani state media said a large number of weapons were confiscated from Bagan in Kurram district on Wednesday.
“In a joint search and clearance operation by the district administration, police and security forces in the conflict-affected area of Bagan, district Kurram, a significant number of illegal weapons were recovered,” the Associated Press of Pakistan said.
Feuding tribes have been engaging in battles with machine guns and heavy weapons, isolating the remote, mountainous Kurram region. Parachinar is the main town in Kurram and a main road that connects the town to Peshawar, the provincial capital of the larger Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been blocked since sectarian fighting began in November.
Provincial and federal authorities have been supplying relief goods and evacuating the injured and ailing from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters since last month.
Shiite Muslims dominate parts of Kurram, although they are a minority in the rest of Pakistan, which is majority Sunni. The area has a history of sectarian conflict.
