ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's attorney general Khalid Javed Khan on Monday submitted a reference in the country's top court on behalf of President Arif Alvi to seek detailed interpretation of Article 63-A of the constitution which deals with the disqualification of parliamentarians on grounds of defection.
The development took place in the context of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan which was filed by an alliance of opposition parties earlier this month.
The government's coalition partners and several lawmakers of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have publicly criticized the prime minister and his administration in recent weeks.
The ruling party also issued show-cause notices to its 14 lawmakers, saying their interviews with media outlets had created a perception that they had abandoned the party. The lawmakers were also given a week to present themselves before the prime minister who is also the PTI party chief.
The presidential reference on Monday described floor-crossing as "constitutionally prohibited and morally reprehensible conduct," asking the Supreme Court how the government should ensure "purification of the electoral process and democratic accountability" by dealing with dissident parliamentarians.
Should Article 63-A be interpreted, it asked, in a way that suggests that "defections warrant no preemptive action save de-seating the member as per the prescribed procedure with no further restriction or curbs from seeking election afresh?"
It also mentioned "a robust, purpose oriented and meaningful interpretation of Article 63A" as an alternative that "visualizes this provision as prophylactic enshrining the constitutional goal of purifying the democratic process, inter alia, by rooting out the mischief of defection by creating deterrence, inter alia, by neutralizing the effects of vitiated vote followed by lifelong disqualification for the member found involved in such constitutionally prohibited and morally reprehensible conduct."
The government has previously accused opposition parties of using money to buy the loyalties of its lawmakers.
However, the dissident PTI members maintain they want to vote during the no-confidence session according to their conscience.
Some of them have also pointed out that their party leaders have been trying to prevent them from participating in the no-trust session.
The presidential reference also requested the court to clarify if a member engaging in "constitutionally prohibited and morally reprehensible act of defection can ... nevertheless claim a vested right to have his vote counted and given equal weightage."
Blast claimed by Daesh kills four in northwest Pakistan
Officials were traveling in a car in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when attack happened in a market in Bajaur city
Around 300 people, mostly security officials, have been killed in attacks in KP and Balochistan provinces since start of year
Updated 6 sec ago
AFP
PESHAWAR: An explosion in northwest Pakistan killed at least four local government officials and police Wednesday, an officer told AFP, in an attack claimed by a branch of the Daesh group.
“One senior government official, along with another government official and two police officers, were killed in the attack. Eleven people were wounded,” said Waqas Rafiq, a senior police official stationed in Bajaur, a city near the border with Afghanistan.
The officials were traveling in a car in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when “the attack happened in a market in Bajaur city,” Rafiq added.
Hours later the IS-K group of Daesh claimed to have detonated an explosives-laden moped that targeted the vehicle in which the officials were traveling.
The deadly blast came four days after 16 soldiers were killed in the same province in an attack claimed by the Pakistan Taliban, a group which is very active in the area.
Around 300 people, mostly security officials, have been killed in attacks since the start of the year by armed groups fighting the government in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, according to an AFP tally.
Last year was the deadliest in a decade for Pakistan, with a surge in attacks that killed more than 1,600 people, according to Islamabad-based analysis group the Center for Research and Security Studies.
Pakistan has witnessed a sharp rise in violence in its regions bordering Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021, with Islamabad accusing its western neighbor of allowing its soil to be used for attacks against Pakistan — a claim the Taliban denies.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb this week stressed on the importance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) for the country’s economy, highlighting his government’s policy to increase their lending portfolio to enhance their contributions to employment, exports and the national GDP.
Pakistan’s finance czar was speaking at a high-level panel discussion titled “Scaling up SME Finance” on Wednesday, hosted at the International Business Forum on the sidelines of the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in Sevilla, Spain.
The minister underscored the importance of SMEs to Pakistan’s economy, noting that these enterprises account for approximately 40 percent of the country’s GDP, 25 percent of exports and nearly 78 percent of non-agricultural employment.
However, Aurangzeb noted that despite their contributions, SMEs access to formal finance remains “disproportionately low,” with a small percentage of private-sector lending currently directed toward them, the finance ministry said. He said the government is actively working through the central bank to encourage commercial banks to expand their SME lending portfolios.
“This expansion is expected to enhance the contribution of SMEs to GDP, exports, employment, youth and women’s digital empowerment, and overall financial inclusion, laying the foundation for sustained and inclusive economic growth,” the finance ministry said.
The minister said the government’s parallel efforts are underway to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) so it can extend market linkages, provide regulatory relief, enhance advisory services and lead capacity-building initiatives.
“Deregulation efforts, such as reducing reliance on NOCs and increasing e-inspections, are also being introduced to reduce compliance burdens for SMEs,” the finance ministry added.
Aurangzeb expressed his desire to learn from successful models across other emerging markets and fostering partnerships that promote technology-driven, climate-compliant, and socially inclusive SME development.
Pakistan’s government has increasingly spoken about achieving sustainable economic growth and moving the country away from his usual “boom and bust” cycle.
The government has attempted to pursue this through financial reforms, signing trade and business agreements with regional allies worth billions of dollars and enhancing its exports.
ISLAMABAD: Arch-rivals India and Pakistan are likely to face each other in the upcoming Asia Cup cricket tournament on September 7 in the UAE, a report by an Indian publication said on Wednesday.
According to a report in Indian publication ‘Times of India,’ the Asia Cup is likely to start on September 5 with the title clash taking place on September 21. It said that all participating nations, including official hosts India, are close to getting clearances from their respective governments for the tournament which is set to be played in the UAE.
Already-soured relations between India and Pakistan further worsened after four days of intense fighting before a ceasefire was announced in May. Bilateral cricket has been suspended since 2013 between the Asian neighbors, who play each other only in multi-team events as per an International Cricket Council arrangement.
“The 17-day window has been almost finalized by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and India are set to take on Pakistan on September 7 as per the initial schedule,” a report by the Times of India said.
The tournament is set to feature hosts India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and UAE, the report said, adding that it is set to follow the group stage and Super Fours format. This means fans will witness the India-Pakistan contest at least twice, and the second contest could take place on September 14, the report said.
Uncertainty has clouded over the Asia Cup after the two countries were locked in conflict in May. Political tensions have always adversely affected cricket ties between the two countries.
India refused to travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy this year and played all their matches, including the March 9 final, in Dubai.
India will host the women’s 50-overs World Cup this year but Pakistan will play all their matches in Sri Lanka under an arrangement made by the International Cricket Council.
India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir is against playing Pakistan even in neutral venues but will follow whatever the BCCI decided, he said in May.
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party announced on Wednesday it would hold a nationwide movement against the government after the Islamic month of Muharram, days after Pakistan’s top court denied the party reserved seats for minorities and women in parliament.
The announcement followed a meeting of the PTI’s parliamentarians in Islamabad. The party’s lawmakers discussed several issues such as the political situation after the Supreme Court’s verdict last week which denied the party reserved seats in parliament, launching a movement to demand the release of Khan and PTI supporters from prison.
The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench on June 27 ruled that former prime minister Imran Khan’s PTI is not entitled to reserved seats in the national and provincial assemblies, upholding an earlier verdict by the Peshawar High Court. The dispute arose after PTI lost its electoral symbol ahead of the February 8 national polls and its candidates contested as independents.
Despite its candidates winning the most general seats, the PTI was denied reserved seats for women and minorities, which are allocated to parties based on proportional representation, by the ECP. The government lost its two-thirds majority in parliament in July 2024 when the top court reversed the ECP’s decision, terming it unconstitutional and ordering the reserved seats to be allocated to PTI. The ECP and the political parties had filed a review petition, which were accepted by the top court last week.
“We [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] are starting a movement after Muharram,” Ali Amin Gandapur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and a senior PTI leader, told reporters after the party’s meeting.
“This will be a Pakistan-wide movement, god willing. We will protest peacefully, politically, like we always do. We will proceed and take it forward but if they [government] fire bullets, we will plan for that as well.”
The government rejects the PTI’s allegations that the February 2024 polls were rigged, accusing Khan’s party of disrupting its efforts of ensuring the sustainable economic growth.
RULING COALITION GETS TWO-THIRDS MAJORITY
The ECP’s latest notification granting parties other than the PTI reserved seats for women and minorities means the ruling coalition government now has two-thirds majority in parliament. The electoral authority also withdrew its earlier notifications of July 24 and July 29, 2024 on Wednesday, which declared the successful candidates on general seats in the national and provincial assemblies as PTI-returned candidates.
Sixteen reserved seats for women and three for minorities in the National Assembly were allocated to various parties, with the lion’s share going to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the PTI’s chief rival. The PML-N were allocated 13 seats, while four were allocated to the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) and two to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan (JUI-F).
In this file photo, taken and released by Pakistan’s Press Information Department on October 21, 2024, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (left) shakes hands with Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, key coalition partner and former foreign minister, at the National Assembly in Islamabad. (PID/File)
With this development, the ruling coalition has crossed the two-thirds majority mark, securing 233 seats in the 336-member National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. A political party or a coalition government needs 224 seats to reach the threshold.
As per the notification, 21 reserved seats for women were reinstated in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly, with eight allocated to the JUI-F, six to the PML-N and five to the PPPP. One seat each was also allotted to the PTI Parliamentarians and the Awami National Party (ANP).
Meanwhile, out of the four reserved seats for minorities in KP Assembly, two were given to the JUI-F and one each to the PML-N and the PPPP.
The ECP restored 24 reserved seats for women in the Punjab Assembly, of which the PML-N received 21, while one seat each was allocated to the PPPP, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).
Additionally, three minority seats were allocated--two to the PML-N and one to the PPPP.
Two reserved seats for women and one for minorities were reinstated in the Sindh Assembly, with two allotted to the PPP and one to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
‘GRAVE INJUSTICE’
Political analysts noted the development would further weaken the PTI’s position at the center.
“This move is likely to further undermine democracy in Pakistan and encourage horse-trading, as the ruling coalition may try to woo legislators particularly in KP,” Mazhar Abbas, a political analyst and journalist, told Arab News.
The PTI has a large support base in KP, where it has been emerging as the largest party since the 2013 polls.
Zahid Hussain, another political analyst, said the move has given the ruling coalition government the much-desired two-thirds majority, enabling them to make constitutional changes as per their will.
“The government and [military] establishment appear intent on securing a two-thirds majority to push through legislation and constitutional amendments of their choosing,” he noted.
Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of the Islamabad-based think tank Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT) said the move would further strengthen the ruling PML-N as it would reduce the party’s reliance on the PPP.
“In National Assembly, PML-N-led coalition has come closer to having a simple majority without the PPP,” Mehboob said.
He added that after securing the reserved seats, the PML-N-led coalition needed only 11 seats to secure a simple majority on its own.
KARACHI: The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index breached the 130,000 points barrier to close at an all-time high on Wednesday, as financial analysts attributed the surge to low inflation and surging crude oil prices.
The development takes place a day after Pakistan’s KSE-100 Index closed at an impressive 128,199.42 points on the first day of the new fiscal year, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif calling the stocks’ performance a sign of growing investor confidence in the economy and government policies. The latest milestone builds on a strong showing in the previous fiscal year, when the KSE-100 Index rose by 60 percent, according to Karachi-based Topline Securities.
The Pakistani stock market closed at 130,344.03 points when trading ended on Wednesday. Continuing its bullish momentum, the index surged by 2,144.61 points, recording a gain of 1.67 percent from the previous day’s close.
“Stocks closed at new all-time high in the earning season at PSX as investors weigh drop in CPI inflation to 3.2 percent YoY and upbeat data on POL sales surging by 7pc for June 25,” Ahsan Mehanti, chief executive officer at Arif Habib Commodities Limited, said.
Mehanti said higher global equities and Pakistani power regulatory authority’s recent move to slash the base power tariff for industries for the current fiscal year also played a role in the bullish close. He also paid credit to surging crude oil prices, saying they had played a “catalyst role” in the surge.
Karachi-based brokerage firm Topline Securities said the surge was fueled by “aggressive institutional buying” and a wave of fresh fiscal-year optimism among investors.
“With the index in uncharted territory, all eyes are now on earnings season and macro signals to see if the bulls have more steam left or if a breather is around the corner,” it said in a statement.
Pakistan’s stocks surge as Islamabad seeks to consolidate its financial recovery after years of economic turbulence.
In recent years, the country has undertaken difficult structural reforms under International Monetary Fund loan programs aimed at curbing fiscal deficits and restoring investor trust.
