Islamabad—Attorney General Malik Qayyum said on
Friday that emergency would be lifted on
Saturday night at midnight. Talking to media, he
said that after lifting the emergency,
constitution will be restored and the measures
taken under emergency rule need no approval from
parliament as Supreme Court of Pakistan has
secured all these measures. He said that the
judges of Supreme Court and high court will take
the oath under 1973 constitution adding that the
judges who did not take oath under PCO will not
be reinstated even after the restoration of
constitution. He said that five presidential
orders would be issued on Dec 15 regarding
lifting of emergency, elimination of PCO,
restoration of constitution, pension and other
facilities of judges retired under PCO and
establishment of high court in Islamabad are
included.
Lahore—Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz announced
its election manifesto carrying the slogan of
‘RESTORE’, which stands for restoration of
judiciary, democracy and 1973 constitution,
elimination of military’s role in politics,
security of life and property of the people,
tolerant and pluralistic society, overall
national reconciliation and institutional
development, relief for the poor through poverty
alleviation and employment, education and
health. Announcing the PML-N manifesto at a news
conference, PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif accompanied
by Shahbaz Sharif, Senator Ishaq Dar, Senator
Sartaj Aziz and Siddiqueul Farooq said that
Rawalpindi—The National Command Authority (NCA)
which met here on Friday under the chairmanship
of President Musharraf cautioned against those
contemplating any “misadventure” asserting that
Pakistan was fully capable of defending its
interests. Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian
Soomro, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee
General Tariq Majid, Services Chiefs and senior
military officers and scientists attended the
meeting. The meeting took note of the hostile
campaign in a section of international media
regarding Pakistan’s nuclear assets and
reiterated that their security was “foolproof”
and advised against creating irresponsible
alarm.
Islamabad—Observers believe that the Western
media reports regarding so-called “security
risk” and an alleged plan to “secure” Pakistan’s
strategic assets have hidden agenda aimed at
exerting pressure and provoking Pakistan.
According to a senior observer, “Pakistan will
neither be provoked nor intimidated by such
conspiracies by vested circle and will continue
to proceed with its own stratagem and line of
action without external influence”. One
source claimed that “the vested circle was
hopeful that following recent campaign Pakistan
would re-locate or re-adjust its strategic
assets and the moves could be monitored through
satellites in the region.” However, he claimed
that Pakistan will not be provoked by such
budges and will not allow exposure of its
strategic assets.
Washington—Pakistani elections will be flawed as
the rigging had already taken place by
suspending the independent judiciary and that
the US need not to send observers. This was
stated by Ms. Hina Jilani a Pakistani women’s
rights activist and UN Spe-cial rapporteur on
Human Rights Defenders while addressing a
Congressional hearing in Washington on the
ongoing political crisis in Pakistan here
Thursday evening (Friday morning PST). Miss
Jilani who is in the US on the invitation of
Amnesty International told an anxious Con-gressional
audience that President Musharraf had already
taken steps to manipulate the outcome of the
polls and had destroyed much of the judiciary
and the press. “There is no point in monitoring
the elections or watching the poll - the rigging
has already happened,” she said in response to a
question. “Freedom of assembly is totally
curtailed, freedom of expression is curtailed.
Lahore—Punjab PML-Q President and former chief
minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi has said Benazir
has formed an election rigging plan on the basis
of files of rigging prepared by her father
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. He was addressing a meeting
in which Cheema Group of PML-N from Sheikhupura
announced to join Pakistan Muslim League here
Friday. Pervaiz said Benazir who fled from
Larkana due to fear of defeat is now dreaming of
making Okara another Larkana in Punjab which is
already a stronghold of Pakistan Muslim League.
He said Nawaz Sharif proved his political
naivety by supporting Benazir but all the Muslim
League voters will demonstrate sanity by giving
votes to the PML. He said elections are not won
by estimates, they are won by serving the masses
as done by the PML in the last five years.
Karachi—The coal price hike by 23-27% will
consequently push the cement prices by 4-5
percent due to higher production cost right from
January 2008. Actually, the coal price hike is
followed by oil price hike which consequently
have increased the freight charges. Pakistan
instead of using indigenous coal heavily relies
on imported coal for industrial consumption. In
fact the increasing cost of energy mix is feared
to transform into a vicious cycle to cast a
damaging effect on the economics of various
manufacturing units which by and large use
energy almost as a basic raw material to run
their units.
Islamabad—The President has promulgated the
Constitution
(second amendment) order 2007. Through amendment
in article 193, the age of High Court Judges has
been
reduced from 45 to 40 years. Through amendment
in article 270-C, those judges who did not take
oath under the first amendment order 2007 will
cease to hold their office with effect from Nov
3, 2007. Those judges who have taken oath under
the first order shall continue to hold office
under the constitution Article 175 has been
amended to provide for the establishment of High
Court for Islamabad capital territory. The
President has also promulgated the Supreme Court
Judges (Pension Benefits) order 2007.
Islamabad—The head of the JUI (S), Maulana
Sami-Ul-Haq, has announced his boycott of the
forthcoming general elections. Addressing
a crowded press conference, he accused President
Musharraf of conspiring of creating divisions
amongst the nation with his slogan and
endeavours for a moderate and enlightened
Pakistan. He also strongly urged all other
candidates to withdraw their nomination papers
right today on 15th Dec, as it would be extreme
sin to contest the elections, blaming PML (N)
and PPP of contesting the elections over the
directions of America.
