PTI distances itself from Sheikh Rashid’s move against Shahbaz
RAWALPINDI: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Naeemul Haq on Saturday distanced the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) from the announcement by Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed that he would challenge in court the appointment of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif as the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman.
Speaking at a news conference here on Saturday, Mr Haq defended the government’s decision to nominate Mr Sharif as the PAC head, saying the opposition leader had assured the government through National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser that he would not preside over the meetings of the committee when the audits of the projects undertaken during the term of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government would come up before it.
Denying any differences within the ruling coalition over the issue, Mr Haq said that Prime Minister Imran Khan agreed to Mr Sharif’s nomination as the PAC head as the opposition had stalled the legislative process in parliament by refusing to become part of its committees if the opposition leader was not offered the PAC’s chairmanship.
PM’s aide denies any differences within ruling coalition over PAC chief selection issue
He said the government wanted to carry out some important legislation for the welfare of the public for which the committees were required. The government had decided to give the chairmanship of 18, out of 38 committees, to the opposition.
In response to a question, Mr Haq said it would be wrong to say that the railways minister had not accepted the prime minister’s decision, adding: “As far as I know, he [Mr Ahmed] only wants an interpretation from the SC over whether a person facing a NAB [National Accountability Bureau] inquiry can head the PAC. It does not mean that he is not accepting Imran Khan’s decision.”
The senior leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and close aide to Prime Minister Khan acknowledged that the nation was presently facing a difficult time due to the economic conditions, but claimed that the country was moving towards prosperity. He said that Mr Khan would next week announce “revolutionary measures” for eradication of poverty.
He said that friendly countries like China, Saudi Arabia and the UAE had helped Pakistan in improving its economy.
The prime minister, he said, did not believe in “political victimisation” and all the cases presently being faced by the PML-N and PPP leaders had been filed by the previous governments. Even the government was perturbed over some of the actions taken by NAB against the corporate sector, but it did not want to influence or interfere in the bureau’s affairs.
He made it clear that those people who had plundered the nation’s wealth would be brought to justice.
In response to another question, Mr Haq said the prime minister had already taken notice of the shortage of gas and electricity in the country. He said the government was making all-out efforts to eliminate the menace of loadshedding from the country before the next summer.
Talking about the retrenchments in the media industry, Mr Haq said the prime minister was constantly in touch with the owners of media houses and the government was making every effort to stop sackings from newspapers and TV channels.
“It is intolerable to see people losing jobs during our government. We will stop it and there will be a [good] development within this month,” he said. But at the same time, he said the government had no resources to release advertisements to the news organisations like the previous governments used to do.
He said there were outstanding dues of Rs9 billion which the previous governments had not paid to the news organisations. He alleged that it had been revealed during the audits that some of the advertisements which had been released had not been published.
He also expressed the hope that soon there would be peace in Afghanistan due to the efforts of the prime minister. He said that US President Donald Trump had also expressed the desire to meet Mr Khan.
He said the US was presently holding direct talks with Taliban and hopefully there would be peace in Afghanistan in the next few months.
Published in Dawn, January 6th, 2019
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The former international cricket star Imran Khan has declared victory in Pakistan’s general election, hailing what he described as “the fairest” vote in the country’s history, despite widespread allegations it was rigged in favour of his Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
In a televised address to the nation from his house in Bani Gala, a wealthy suburb of Islamabad, Khan struck a unifying tone, pledging to rise above personal attacks and lift up the poor.
With half the vote counted – more than 15 hours after the official result was due – the PTI was projected to win about 120 of the 272 contested seats in the national assembly, leaving it only a few shy of a majority coalition.
Early on Thursday morning, Shahbaz Sharif, the leader of the second-placed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), said his party would “wholly reject” the result. “It is a sheer rigging. The way the people’s mandate has blatantly been insulted, it is intolerable,” Sharif said.
Leaders from six major parties alleged that their polling agents – workers who keep an eye on the count – were evicted from ballot-booths by security officials in contravention of electoral rules.
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Khan said: “I feel that this election has been the fairest in Pakistan’s history. If any party has any doubts, we will open the results of those constituencies up for investigation.”
Appearing calm, the 65-year-old promised to improve Pakistan’s governance, widen the tax base and shun the VIP lifestyle of previous rulers. He said he would be “ashamed” to live in the lavish prime minister’s house, and would turn it into an “educational institution”.
“His speech will calm people down a bit,” said Asad Liaqat of Harvard University, describing it as Khan’s best in years and in contrast to the “obnoxious victory speech” many would have expected.
Although results are not expected to be finalised until late on Thursday evening or early on Friday, the PTI seems likely to make an unprecedented sweep of Pakistan. It stands to control the central government, provincial governments in the crucial province of Punjab and northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as well as holding a dominant position in the southern business capital of Karachi.
This means the party will find it easier to implement policies across the nation.
“His first priority needs to be macroeconomic stability,” said columnist Mosharraf Zaidi, “and addressing the balance of payments crisis that is staring Pakistan in the face.”
The election marked only the second time in Pakistan’s 71-year history that one civilian government has handed power to another in the country of 200 million people. There was, however, still widespread concern during the campaign about manipulation by the military, which has directly or indirectly ruled Pakistan for most of its existence.
Ram leela movie online watch movies free full. The PML-N, the party of Shahbaz Sharif’s brother, the jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, repeatedly complained that it was being targeted by the security establishment during the campaign.
Khan has staunchly denied allegations by PML-N that he is getting help from the military. The army, which also dismisses allegations of meddling, deployed 371,000 soldiers at polling stations across the country, nearly five times more than the last election in 2013.
As voting got under way on Wednesday in the south-western city of Quetta, the Balochistan provincial capital, a suicide bomber attacked a crowded polling station, killing 31 people. Balochistan also saw the worst violence during campaigning earlier this month, when a suicide bomber struck a political rally, killing 149 people.
While there was no sign of popular protests on Thursday, Sen Mir Hasil Khan Bezinjo, president of the National party, said that “all major political parties who rejected the vote” would hold a press conference on Friday.
The EU’s Election Observation Mission will also give its report on the conduct of the poll on Friday. The results from the respected organisation – which also observed the previous vote in 2013 – are likely to impact what the losing parties do next.
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Shahbaz Sharif has not been heard from since his firebrand speech on Thursday, and one PML-N insider said that he decided at a party meeting later in the day to protest against the vote in parliament and not on the streets, in a move that reduces the chance of prolonged instability.
Complaints have also emerged from Pakistan’s independent human rights commission, which issued a statement saying women had not been allowed to vote in some places.
In other areas, it said “polling staff appeared to be biased toward a certain party”, but did not name the party. In the days before the election, the rights activist IA Rehman called the campaign the dirtiest in his country’s troubled journey towards sustained democracy.
Provisional results put the liberal Pakistan Peoples party (PPP), led by Bilawal Bhutto, the son of assassinated two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in third place, ahead in 42 constituencies.
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Far-right religious parties did not make any significant gains, to the relief of many Pakistanis, although Aamir Liaquat Hussain, a controversial TV host banned from screens for inciting violence against minorities, won a seat for the PTI in Karachi.
Khan’s success in the election is a stunning rise for the charismatic anti-corruption crusader who has spent much of his political career on the fringes of Pakistani politics.
On foreign policy, he lamented on Thursday that Indian media had portrayed him as a “Bollywood villain” ahead of the vote, but said that if Pakistan’s warring neighbour took one step towards peace “we would take two”. He also promised stronger relations with Saudi Arabia and China, while coolly demanding a less “one-sided” relationship with the United States, which he came to political prominence for criticising over its drone strikes in 2011.
Analysts noted that Khan’s call for open borders and trade with Afghanistan contrasted with the ongoing, military-led construction of a fence along the Durand Line separating the two nations – an early sighting of potential conflict between the army and the man many term their “blue-eyed-boy”.