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LAHORE: The Pakis­tan Peoples Party has demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan hold early elections to the 11 Senate seats presently lying vacant. In a letter written to the chief election commissioner on Thursday, PPP Central Election Cell in-charge Senator Taj Haider asked the former to hold elections to the 11 vacant seats of the Senate as soon as possible. Senator Haider said the upper house of the bicameral parliament is incomplete because its 11 seats, or about 10 per cent of the total strength, are lying vacant. He said Section 127 of the Elections Act deals with by-elections to vacant seats in the Senate, while Section 107 prescribes the procedure for all elections to the Senate under which not more than one day is given to complete each stage of the schedule. “It is requested that elections be held for the vacant seats in the Senate as soon as possible,” he said, giving names of the senators who have vacated the seats. These senators are Yousuf Raza Gilani, Jam...

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to respond to a petition seeking orders for it to allocate seats reserved for women and non-Muslims to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) in the national, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab assemblies. A bench consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Wiqar Ahmad took up for preliminary hearing the petition filed by a member of the Insaf Lawyers Forum, Azmatullah Afridi, who requested it to declare illegal the delay on part of the ECP in allocating those reserved seats to the SIC, which was joined by independently-elected members of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf after the Feb 8 general elections. The bench directed the ECP to respond to the petition within seven days. Petitioner insists ECP ‘illegally’ delaying allocation of those seats to Sunni Ittehad Council The counsel for the petitioner, Shah Faisal Uthmankhel, contended that the ECP had deprived the PTI of its election symbol, so t...

LONDON: Bitcoin hit $60,000 on Wednesday for the first time in more than two years, as a flurry of capital into new US spot bitcoin exchange traded products fuelled a 42 per cent price rally in February, which would mark its largest monthly gain since December 2020. Bitcoin was last up 6 per cent at $60,131, its highest since November 2021, when it hit a record just below $70,000. Bitcoin was also heading for its largest week-on-week gain in a year, up 18.5pc since Feb 21. Traders have poured into bitcoin ahead of April’s halving event — a process designed to slow the release of the cryptocurrency. In addition, the prospect of the Federal Reserve delivering a series of rate cuts this year has fed investor appetite for higher-yielding or more volatile assets. The bigger bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen a definite pickup in interest this week. “Bitcoin is being driven by the support of consistent inflows into the new spot ETFs and outlook for April’s halving event an...

ISLAMABAD: The prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) are estimated to increase by Rs1-4 per litre on Thursday (February 29) for the next fortnight due to minor adjustments in international prices, import premiums, and the exchange rate. Informed sources said that the prices of both major petroleum products — petrol and HSD — moved slightly in both directions (10 to 50 cents per barrel) in the international market over the past fortnight, and the Pakistan State Oil (PSO) had to pay higher import premiums on petrol. As a result, the price of petrol is estimated to be higher by Rs3-4 per litre than that of HSD by Rs1-1.5 per litre, depending on the final exchange rate calculation. The US dollar lost about 15 paise against the rupee on February 28. The prices of kerosene and light diesel oil are expected to remain stable. For the purpose of price calculations, officials said the price of petrol had risen by about $0.5 per barrel to $90.78 from $89.20 per barrel over the last t...

ISLAMABAD: Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday kept Pakistan’s ratings unchanged at ‘Caa3’ with a stable outlook but highlighted that significantly high risks of liquidity and external vulnerability challenges following highly controversial elections, severely constrained decision-making capacity of the coalition government-in-waiting. The international rating agency — one of the top three global rating firms — said it had completed last week review of Pakistan rating assessments but neither it was announcing a credit rating action, nor an indication of whether or not a credit rating action is likely in the near future. “Pakistan’s ratings, including its Caa3 long-term issuer rating, with stable outlook remain unchanged,” it said. The agency had downgraded the country’s rating to Caa3 from Caa1 in February last year, owing to challenges with the IMF programme and the resultant depletion of foreign exchange reserves. “Political risks are high, following a highly controversial gener...

• PPP, PML-N, MQM-P challenge allocation of seats to PTI-SIC alliance, argue it is not a ‘parliamentary party’ • ECP takes up parties’ challenges before original SIC plea, proceedings to continue today • PTI’s Gohar says assembly sessions without allocation of seats will be ‘illegal’ ISLAMABAD: With only one day left before the first session of the National Assembly is convened, the Election Com­m­ission of Pakistan (ECP) has yet to clear the air over the allocation of reserved seats to the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), following a PTI-SIC ‘merger’ for this very purpose. The issue became further complicated on Tues­day after at least three political parties, the PPP, PML-N, and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakis­tan (MQM-P), approached the commission to lay claim to the seats dem­a­nded by SIC in parliament. During a hearing on a set of petitions filed against the proposed allocation of seats to the SIC as demanded by the PTI, it emerged that the PML-N, PPP, and the MQM-P opposed ...

Lahore Qalandars’ troubles were further compounded after they received another beating at the hands of Multan Sultans at Qaddafi Stadium on Tuesday. Chasing a mammoth target of 215, thanks to a superb 96 off 55 by Usman Khan who played his first game of this year’s Pakistan Super League edition, Lahore got bundled out for 154, primarily because of Multan’s frontline leg-spinner Usama Mir who picked up six wickets for 40 runs. Despite a decent start to the chase, Lahore struggled to keep the momentum up once Multan broke the opening partnership. With Fakhar Zaman being the first Lahore wicket to fall, nobody from the top and the middle-order was able to convert their starts. For Lahore, Sahibzada Farhan top scored with 31 off 21 with Fakhar scoring 23, the centurion from Lahore’s previous game Rassie van der Dussen 30, Kamran Ghulam 12, and Sikandar Raza managing only 17 runs. In yet another bizarre move by Lahore, captain Shaheen Shah Afridi came ahead of the West Indian star allr...

QUETTA: Balochistan caretaker Minister for Information Jan Achakzai has claimed the caretaker provincial government is leaving with Rs50 billion in the provincial treasury for the new elected government to spend on welfare and development projects. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the minister said the caretaker government took measures to check unnecessary expenditures and provided funds to complete ongoing development projects. “Over the last six mon­ths, efforts were made by the caretaker government to resolve problems of the people of the province.” “No scandal of corruption has surfaced under the caretaker government,” the minister claimed. He congratulated the newly-elected members of the provincial assembly and expressed good wishes for them. “I welcome the new assembly members on behalf of the caretaker government,” remarked Mr Achakzai. He said the biggest challenge for the caretaker government was to send illegal immigrants back to their countries, which “we ha...

People were determined to vote in the 2024 elections. However, despite the increase in absolute terms, voter turnout dipped in terms of percentage. Harsh winter in parts of the country, fears of violence and terrorism in KP and Balochistan, as well as uncertainty about the conduct of elections, may have also adversely affected the turnout , states an analysis by the Free & Fair Election Network (Fafen). Voter turnout has decreased since the 2013 elections, though it is higher than what it was in the 1980s and the 1990s. (The 1990s saw the musical chair of the Bhutto and Sharif family, though the bitter rivalry then could not have foreseen the coalition government today.) The percentage of youths as voters has increased, and so has awareness through social media and the internet. It may account for a higher absolute voter turnout increase in the recent elections. Research suggests that a poor economy may depress voter participation in some countries, hence under-penalising incum...

• Dar says outgoing speaker to convene the maiden session if president fails; expects it by tomorrow • PPP, PML-N leaders urge head of state not to abuse powers ISLAMABAD: With only three days left in the constitution-mandated deadline to summon the session of the National Assembly, President Arif Alvi has come under severe criticism from the political parties, particularly the PPP and the PML-N, for resorting to delaying tactics instead of convening the session of the lower house of parliament. Sources in the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that a summary requisitioning the session of the assembly was sent to the president by the parliamentary affairs division four days ago, but there has been no official res­ponse from President Alvi. A National Assembly Secretariat official said the president was bound to summon the session within 21 days and if he failed to do so, then the NA secretariat could bypass him and summon the session under Article 91(2) of the Constitution. The offi...

Peshawar Zalmi handed Lahore Qalandars their fifth consecutive defeat of the ongoing Pakistan Super League (PSL) on Sunday despite the fireworks from the latter’s Rassie van der Dussen, who scored a brilliant hundred. In the end, Lahore fell short by 8 runs while chasing 212 as Peshawar moved to 4th on the points table. Dussen kept Lahore in the game till the last over but little support from the other end meant that Peshawar were always ahead in the game. With 18 needed off the last over, Peshawar’s Paul Walter conceded only nine runs to ensure Lahore remained winless in the ongoing edition with Dussen stuck at the other end at 104 off 52 which featured seven 4s and six 6s. Hero from the previous game, Lahore’s opening batter Sahibzada Farhan’s stay at the crease lasted for only two overs as he lost his wicket to Afghanistan’s Naveenul Haq, trying to slash him through the square region. He was caught for 15 off 12 by Peshawar’s wicketkeeper batter Haseebullah Khan. Fakhar Zaman’...

ISLAMABAD: The PTI has issu­­ed a show-cause notice to Advocate Sher Afzal Marwat over rema­rks against PTI leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan that had triggered a controversy within the party. Mr Marwat has been advised to tender an unconditional apology within two days and has been informed that if he did not reply or his reply was unsatisfactory, further action would be taken as per the party policy. Amid wild rumours taking rounds about why the PTI founding chairman Imran Khan did not decide to continue with Mr Gohar as the party chairman, Mr Marwat claimed in a talk show that Mr Gohar was not competent enough to be continued as the party chairman. He claimed that it was the reason the party had decided to nominate Barrister Ali Zafar as a candidate for the chairman’s slot. “Mr Gohar is a gentleman, but his performance was unsatisfactory. A cha­irman needs to be active all the time,” Mr Marwat said. He said that Mr Go­­har got three months but could not perform well, adding that...

PESHAWAR: Newly elected members of the Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies will be sworn in on Wednesday (Feb 28), as the governors of both provinces have requisitioned assembly sessions. KP Governor Ghulam Ali has summoned the session following advice from the KP caretaker chief minister, Syed Arshad Hussain Shah. On Friday, the provincial law department requested Mr Shah to advise the governor to convene the provincial assembly meeting. “The chief minister is requested to advise the governor to summon the provincial assembly on a date to be mentioned in the draft order regarding summoning of the provincial assembly,” read an official summary sent by the law department to the caretaker chief minister. On Saturday, the governor signed the summary and summoned the KP Assembly meeting. ECP allocates reserved seats for women in KP Assembly, SIC matter remains pending “In exercise of the power conferred by clause (a) of Article 109 of the Constitution of the Islamic Repub...

LAHORE: In the presence of heavy police deployment, led by none other than the inspector general of police himself, the embattled PTI-backed winning candidates on Friday employed different tactics to enter the Punjab Assembly premises or reach close to the gate to protest against the “snatching of their mandate through rigging in elections”. Some policemen told Dawn they were there to provide foolproof security to the assembly’s maiden session while also hunting those involved in the May 9 arson attacks, largely blamed on PTI workers and leaders. Even PTI nominee for the Punjab top slot, Mian Aslam Iqbal, could not reach the assembly despite an announcement by his party. There were speculations that he had been picked up by the police and finally PTI leader Amir Dogar gave credence to it when he told the media that police arrested the PTI-backed nominee for the CM position and did not let him reach the assembly hall. According to Mr Dogar, Mr Iqbal was supposed to lead the pro...

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said on Friday that it had removed the United Arab Emirates from its “grey list” of countries subject to increased monitoring, while Kenya and Namibia were added. Countries on the list have “strategic deficiencies” in their efforts to counter money laundering and terrorist financing, but are cooperating with the global anti-money laundering watchdog to correct the problems and are subject to increased monitoring. FATF head Raja Kumar said that Kenya and Namibia suffered deficiencies in their anti-money laundering systems and that action plans had been developed to remedy them. A total of 21 nations are on the grey list. In addition to the UAE, Barbados, Gibraltar and Uganda were removed from the grey list. “They’ve all taken substantial steps to improve the anti-money laundering and countering financing of terrorism safety systems and address all items on their actions plans,” said Kumar. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nah...

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has initiated the process of gathering tax proposals from all stakeholders for consideration in the upcoming budget for the fiscal year 2024-25. Three different notifications were issued on Thursday to solicit feedback from all taxpayers, including chambers of commerce and industries, associations, and trade bodies. All proposals should reach the FBR by March 11, 2024. The proposals may suggest amendments to the income tax ordinance, sales tax act, federal excise act, and customs act. According to the notifications, the proposals may focus on coping with any tax avoidance, leakages, broadening of the tax base, removal of any procedural lapses, removal of difficulties and anomalies, abolishing any outdated or obsolete provisions, simplification of the laws and rules, and tax facilitation. The FBR further stated that the proposals are expected to be clear, meaningful, and implementable through further amendments to the laws, taking int...

A woman and a man were shot dead, allegedly by the former’s father and brother, in the Kolai Pallas area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohistan district in an act of ‘honour’ killing, the police said on Thursday. A first information report (FIR) was registered today at the complaint of Pallas police Station House Officer Javid Khan under Sections 109 (abetment), 302 (intentional murder) and 311 (Fasad Fil Arz or mischief on earth) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The FIR said that upon receiving information, police reached Bar Paro in Kolai Pallas and found two bodies lying in a pool of blood. It said the deceased were identified as Ubaidullah of Ghato, Sherakot, and Baloo Bibi of Bar Paro, who were allegedly shot dead by her father Angeel and brother Muhammad Islam. It added that the two suspects fled the scene after committing the crime, following which the police had launched an investigation. In November, a girl was killed allegedly by her father on the orders of a jirga in the Barsha...

LAHORE: The Punjab government on Wednes­day transferred Multan Division Commissioner Muhammad Abdul Aamer Khattak and posted him as Rawalpindi Division Commissioner. The reshuffle relieves Rawalpindi Development Authority Director General Muhammad Saif Anwar Jappa of additional charge of the Pindi commissioner post. The post of Rawalpindi Division commissioner had fallen vacant when the then office-holder, Liaqat Ali Chattha, tendered his resignation after alleging massive rigging on all national and provincial assembly seats in his jurisdiction in the Feb 8 general election. I&C and Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD)Secretary Marryam Khan has been transferred and posted as Multan commissioner. Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2024 from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/sLEhnlA

LONDON: An international operation led by the UK and US law enforcement agencies has severely disrupted “the world’s most harmful cybercrime group”, the Russian-linked ransomware specialist LockBit, officials announced on Tuesday. LockBit and its affiliates have targeted governments, major companies, schools and hospitals, causing billions of dollars of damage and extracting tens of millions in ransoms from victims. Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol and agencies from nine other countries in Operation Cronos, said it had infiltrated LockBit’s network and taken control of its services. “We have hacked the hackers, we have taken control of their infrastructure, seized their source code, and obtained keys that will help victims decrypt their systems,” NCA director general Graeme Biggar told reporters in London. LockBit and its affiliates hacked govts, major firms, extracted tens of millions in ransoms from victims L...

• Zardari named as next president, Shehbaz to be premier; PPP steers clear of federal cabinet • PML-N to get National Assembly speaker slot, PPP will have its deputy speaker • Senate chairmanship to go to PPP; deputy chairman to come from N-League ISLAMABAD: After multiple rounds of talks spanning over one week, a consensus was reached between the PML-N and the PPP to share power in order to form the next government, claiming a comfortable majority in the lower house of parliament to clinch the slot of the prime minister. In a joint press conference at Zardari House in the federal capital at midnight, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said the PML-N and the PPP have sufficient numbers to form the federal government, with PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif nominated as the candidate for the post of the prime minister. Similarly, PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari will be the joint candidate for the president’s office. About other coveted offices, such as the National Assembly speaker a...

ISLAMABAD: In yet another blow to struggling electricity consumers, the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) has sought a massive Rs7.13 per unit increase in fuel charges in the upcoming bills on account of electricity consumed in January to generate an additional Rs57 billion for power distribution companies (Discos) formerly under Wapda. This is the highest-ever increase in fuel cost adjustment (FCA) demanded by the CPPA in history — almost 96pc higher than the pre-fixed fuel cost of Rs7.50 per unit already charged to consumers in January — and calls into question the capabilities of the power sector bureaucracy to forecast fuel costs even for six to seven months. This increase in FCA is on top of about 26pc increase in the annual base tariff and another 18pc hike under the quarterly tariff adjustment currently in place. As a result, consumers will have to pay excessive bills despite minimum consumption in peak winter months. The Nat­­ional Electric Power Regu­­latory Authority (...

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday approved the transit bail pleas of four PTI leaders, including nominee for the provincial chief minister’s office Ali Amin Gandapur, Senator Faisal Javed and MNAs-elect Shahram Khan Tarakai and Atif Khan, in cases registered against them. During the hearing by Chief Justice Ibrahim Khan into Mr Gandapur’s bail application, counsel for the PTI leader, including Syed Sikandar Shah, Shah Faisal Utmankhel, Nomanul Haq Kakakhel and Inam Yousafzai, said his client wanted to appear before an Islamabad court in a case registered by the local police against him under Pakistan Penal Code’s sections 395, 380, 440, 435, 506, 427, 186, 353, 148 and 149, and Anti-Terrorism Act’s Section 7. Justice Khan observed that it was an old case. The lawyers argued that they just learned about that case and rushed to the court for transit bail. CJ Khan asked lawyers whether the bail applications of their clients in other cases were accepted. The counsel replied i...

KARACHI: A banking court has granted exemption to Pakistan Peoples Party-Parliamentarian president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur from appearing in a fake bank accounts case. Senior lawyer Farooq H. Naik filed applications on Monday before the court on behalf of his clients, pleading that Mr Zardari was unable to appear in court due to his political engagements in Islamabad. Regarding Ms Talpur, the counsel informed the court that she was unwell. The court granted them exemption from appearance for one day and adjourned the hearing till April 22. Mr Zardari, Ms Talpur, and others have been facing cases pertaining to the alleged opening of fake bank accounts and using them for illicit transactions amounting to billions of rupees. In 2018, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) formed by the Supreme Court had identified at least 29 bank accounts as fake and claimed in its report that these had been used for laundering Rs42 billion. The apex court had in Jan 2019, referred...

RAWALPINDI: The fallout of bombshell allegations about election rigging levelled by former Rawalpindi commissioner Liaquat Ali Chattha continued to unfurl on Sunday as the Punjab government has decided to register a case against the ex-bureaucrat. On the other hand, PTI has sought an “independent and empowered” judicial commission to probe the allegations without the chief justice being made part of it, while the PML-N termed Mr Chattha’s statement ‘May 9 part-II’ aimed at creating unrest in the country with PTI ‘provoking’ hatred against bureaucracy. At a press conference on Saturday, Mr Chattha accused the CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja and CJP Qazi Faez Isa of being involved in “rigging” and claimed that results were changed to ensure the victory of candidates who were losing. Following the press conference, the Punjab caretaker chief minister ordered the formation of an inquiry committee. When contacted, Punjab caretaker Information Minister Amir Mir said no committee has been fo...

ISLAMABAD: Amid a growing controversy over the variance between forms 45 and 47 and allegations of massive rigging, an election watchdog has called for an independent audit of election results. The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) has proposed a three-stage methodology for the audit of results of the recently held general elections. In a statement, it urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to scrutinise the results of constituencies duly challenged by political parties and candidates at the appropriate legal fora, using data analytics and forensics to establish the legitimacy of the outcome of general elections. “Such an audit must include representatives nominated by political parties concerned as well as independent observers to ensure the transparency and credibility of the process,” Fafen stressed. Fafen says post-election situation warrants an urgent response to claims of illegalities by ECP It said the post-election situation warrants an urgent and prompt re...