Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday called for teamwork and collective efforts to end the period plaguing Karachi, highlighting that the upcoming elections would determine the city’s fate.
The PML-N president arrived in Karachi on Thursday evening to meet MQM-P leaders to finalise a deal on an electoral alliance between the two parties. In November, the parties had announced their decision to jointly contest the upcoming polls in Sindh and strengthen local governments nationwide through constitutional cover.
In the run-up to polls, the PML-N has set its sights on the port city. Last week, Shehbaz filed his nomination papers from Karachi National Assembly constituency NA-242 (Baldia Town) — the same seat that he had contested in the 2018 elections. However, that time around, he had lost to then-PTI leader Faisal Vawda in NA-249, which has now been renumbered to NA-242.
Earlier, party sources had toldDawn that one of the main reasons why Shehbaz was contesting from Karachi was to negate the impression that the city has never been important for the PML-N.
His candidature was one of the points agreed upon with MQM-P leaders during a recent meeting. The party had planned to field Mustafa Kamal from the same constituency but reportedly backed down after it emerged that Shehbaz was seeking to contest from there.
In a press conference alongside MQM-P leaders today, Shehbaz highlighted the collective achievements both parties had achieved through their partnership during the Pakistan Democratic Movement-led government.
“I want to say this without any fear that I found MQM-P leaders very enthusiastic,” he said.
Shehbaz highlighted that the upcoming elections would decide if Pakistan wanted to embark on the development path but at the same time warned that some elements sought to see division in the country.
“There is only one solution to this […] these elections have to prove whether the political leadership can resolve this situation with mutual consultation,” he stressed.
Addressing the ladla (blue-eyed) label pinned to PML-N Supremo Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz questioned whether a ladla was someone who had been arrested in front of his daughter and stripped of premiership.
“No, a ladla is the person who is greeted in courts with ‘good to see you’,” he said.
Shehbaz highlighted that untiring efforts were required to give Karachi its due share. “Undoubtedly, I am sure this city’s fate will change after these elections, but this requires teamwork. No single person can handle these changes alone,” he added.
Earlier in the day, while speaking to media persons, the younger Sharif promised to put an end to the water tanker mafia in Karachi, develop public infrastructure and empower the youth with technical skills to accelerate Pakistan’s development.
He praised residents for forging an honest living for themselves and making Karachi the highest tax-paying city in Pakistan.
At the same time, Shehbaz lamented the unrest that had befallen the city in the past and led to its downfall, referring to target killings and extortion.
“When Nawaz Sharif was elected prime minister in 1998, he had put an end to all of this by working with various law enforcement agencies,” the PML-N leaders recalled, adding that Nawaz had always prioritised Karachi while in power.
“Had he not been deprived of the premiership, the Hyderabad-Karachi motorway would have been completed by now, alongside various other projects in rural Sindh,” Shehbaz said.
He also expressed the PML-N’s intent for strong election campaigns in Karachi, other parts of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Shehbaz acknowledged that Pakistan was far behind other countries when it came to public welfare projects, infrastructural development and public transport, promising that the PML-N, under the leadership of Nawaz, would bridge this gap.
“Public transport is the backbone of any country’s development, and PML-N will bring that to Karachi as best as we can,” he said, praising Nawaz for laying the foundation for Karachi’s Green Line in 2016.
Shehbaz emphasized that the PML-N would work collectively with all stakeholders to improve Karachi’s situation.
The office of the provincial election commissioner in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has asked returning officers in different districts to ensure the recovery of unpaid fines from political leaders, including former premier Imran Khan, who owes Rs200,000 to the electoral watchdog, during the scrutiny of their nomination papers for Feb 8 elections, it emerged today.
According to a letter to returning officers dated Dec 28 issued by the provincial election commissioner — which Dawn.com has seen — it is disclosed that a total of 62 political figures from KP and Punjab are indebted to the ECP with fines ranging from Rs5,000 to Rs50,000. The fines are contingent on the severity of the committed violations.
As per the letter, Imran allegedly committed four separate violations, and each time, he received a fine of Rs50,000, which he has yet to pay. All these violations occurred in March 2022, just a month before his ouster through a parliamentary vote.
In the ECP’s list, the largest outstanding amount is attributed to Imran, with a total of Rs200,000 owed. Following him is the former chief minister of KP, Mahmood Khan, who has a fine of Rs150,000 for three violations, and ex-federal minister Murad Saeed with Rs100,000 for two violations.
Among other notable figures on the list are PTI’s Azam Khan Swati, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Kamran Bangash, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, and JUI-P’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, each having outstanding amounts of Rs50,000 owed to the ECP.
“Candidates and public office holders [in the past] violated code of conduct during election campaigns of various previous elections to National Assembly, provincial assembly and local government elections. Accordingly, the DMOs imposed fines upon them under Section 234 sub-section (3) of the Election Act 2017 and the said persons failed to deposit the same and some of them filed appeals before the ECP which were rejected being devoid of merit,” reads the ECP letter.
The letter further adds: “It has been desired by the competent authority that the said list/detail of defaulters be shared with the returning officers appointed for general elections to the constituencies of National Assembly/provincial assembly and recovery of unpaid fines may be ensured during scrutiny of nomination papers of said defaulters.”
According to the election schedule, the last date to scrutinise their nomination papers would be Dec 30. The process had started on Dec 24.
The last date for filing appeals against the RO’s decisions on rejecting or accepting nomination papers is January 3 with the last date for deciding the appeals by an appellate tribunal on Jan 10.
The revised list of candidates will be published on Jan 11 and the last date for withdrawing one’s candidature is Jan 12. The polling day will be Feb 8.
Israeli high tech firms raised $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, preliminary data showed on Thursday, in a sign that foreigners are still investing in Israeli startups despite Israel’s war.
The Israel Venture Capital (IVC) Research Centre and LeumiTech said fundraising in the quarter up until Dec 26 dipped 15 per cent from the third quarter but 75 deals were done. The war began on Oct 7.
Early stage “seed” funding was $220 million in 31 rounds.
The report said that foreign participation rose in the fourth quarter after a decline earlier in 2023, saying “the presence of foreign investors is a significant indication of the availability of funds for investments”. Last week, a group of 70 US tech executives came to Israel in a show of support.
LeumiTech CEO Mia Eisen-Tzafrir said the fourth quarter data, were “an indication of the high durability of the Israeli high-tech industry and an important reminder of the role this sector in the Israeli economy has especially these days”.
High-tech accounts for 12pc of employment, more than half of Israel’s exports, 25pc of income taxes and nearly a fifth of its overall economic output.
At least 15pc of the tech workforce has been called up for military reserve duty.
Overall, Israeli startups raised about $7bn in 2023 versus close to $16 billion in 2022 — mainly in the first half of the year before the global economy began to slow.
In addition to a drop in funding due to the economy, foreign investors were spooked by Israel’s plan to overhaul its judicial system, a proposal that has since been shelved.
Eisen-Tzafrir said that 2023 reflected a return to the levels of investment and volumes of activity from 2018 and 2019 - before the peak years of relative anomalies in 2020 to 2022. Tech fundraising in Israeli startups reached $26 billion in 2021 in 779 rounds.
IVC CEO Ben Klein said 2023 was challenging for the Israeli economy and high-tech.
“The results of the entire year, especially the fourth quarter, support an optimistic approach towards the local industry,” he said. “Despite the complexity, foreign investors’ participation level is a clear sign of the attractiveness of Israeli high-tech companies, even in difficult times”.
India may be forced to forfeit a Davis Cup play-off hosted by rival Pakistan, with the local tennis association saying on Thursday that the team was waiting on government approval to travel.
The All India Tennis Association (AITA) asked the sports ministry for approval to travel to Pakistan after a request to shift the fixture to a third country was rejected by the International Tennis Federation tribunal.
“The proposal is still pending with the ministry and we are awaiting a decision,” AITA secretary-general Anil Dhupar told AFP.
The World Group 1 clash is scheduled for February 3-4.
New Delhi last hosted the Pakistani tennis team in 2006 and the Indian Davis Cup team last travelled to Islamabad in 1964, according to news outlet India Today.
Local media reports said a 2019 match was moved to Kazakhstan, with the AITA citing political tensions as the reason for the request.
Sports matches between Pakistan and India are rare owing to decades of hostility between the two nations.
They share one of the world’s great sporting rivalries in cricket, by far the most popular sport in both countries.
But their teams have not played a bilateral series in more than a decade, and typically only face each other in larger tournaments.
India refused to travel to Pakistan for the 50-over Asia Cup in September, a move that forced its neighbour to partially relinquish hosting duties to Sri Lanka.
Pakistan travelled to India the following month for the World Cup after its request to stage some matches in a third country was rejected.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday rejected a petition seeking the removal of caretaker Federal Minister for Privatisation and Inter-Provincial Coordination Fawad Hasan Fawad from the caretaker cabinet, deciding that the official would remain in his position.
The petition was filed in October seeking the removal of “biased” members of the federal cabinet to ensure the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections in February next year.
The verdict of the electoral watchdog comes days after the ECP ordered the removal of Adviser to the Prime Minister on Establishment Ahad Cheema from his post in the same case.
Fawad was principal secretary to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, while Cheema was an aide to Shehbaz Sharif when the latter was premier.
In the short order issued last week, the ECP had said the petitioner’s request for Cheema to be removed was “reasonable and is accepted” on the basis that the latter was a part of the previous government and could thus “influence the holding of free, fair and transparent elections” if he continued in his post.
The ECP had directed that Cheema be removed from his position and ordered the Cabinet Division secretary to immediately issue the notification in this regard.
The petition had noted that transparency of elections was not possible due to certain persons being in the caretaker government.
“If the government wants a transparent election, these people should be removed from their positions,” the petition had said.
Today, the ECP pronounced its reserved verdict, stating that Fawad’s role could not exert influence on the elections.
The watchdog noted that the respondent’s role as a minister for privatisation did not have a significant impact on the electoral process.
The ECP observed that Fawad had previously held government positions, suggesting that the plea against him appeared to stem from a “personal vendetta”.
Fawad has served as principal secretary to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. He had also faced NAB investigation for several years in an alleged white-collar crime case but was acquitted of all charges.
Over the last 14 years, I have travelled to Islamabad many times, holding a framed picture of my father, Dr Deen Mohammed Baloch, and screaming my heart out, demanding to know his whereabouts. Each time I have come to Islamabad, it is with the hope that one day, the authorities will listen to me and give me back my father.
Or at the very least, give me some answers as to where he disappeared.
You see, my father was abducted from Ornach hospital in Khuzdar, Balochistan, on June 28, 2009. I was a little girl of hardly 10 years old. Two years after his abduction, in April 2011, I participated in a train march along with seven other families, followed by another train march in 2013.
Sammi Deen Baloch sitting outside the Frere Hall in Karachi on August 30, to mark the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.— Photo: Anushe Engineer/ Dawn.com
In 2014 came the most difficult journey of my life — the long march to Islamabad — when I, along with relatives of other missing persons, marched on foot for 116 days from Quetta to Islamabad — a journey of almost 2,000 kilometres. I was 15 years old then. By the time we reached the capital, my body was shattered and my feet were completely swollen, but I was hopeful that this time, those in power would show some mercy and release our loved ones.
I was so wrong.
Fighting for hope
Each time I come to Islamabad, my sorrows seem to intensify, and the pain becomes more pronounced. I feel increasingly isolated and abandoned — as if I am an alien, a terrorist, or an immigrant in my own country. Journalists and media workers bombard us with countless painful questions, demanding that we condemn armed groups in Balochistan as if I am not a victim but a decision-maker of this country.
Politicians and bureaucrats appear exhausted and fed up whenever we come to Islamabad to meet them. From being subjected to media trials to our pleas being turned a deaf ear, all of this hurts and reopens our wounds each time.
Families like ours live in an unending trauma with this uncertainty. With each passing day, the feeling of hopelessness sinks in even further, and yet we try different ways to keep the hope alive. I often wonder if the authorities know how many times over the last 14 years I have talked myself out of giving up hope. Infinite.
As a young girl, I did not fully comprehend what enforced disappearance meant or the pain associated with it. Following my father’s abduction, I started organising and participating in protests. When I took to the streets, I mainly observed men, much older than me at the time, participating in the demonstrations. There were hardly any younger people at the protests. Unfortunately, this has changed now.
Today, protest camps are filled with infants and their mothers, school-going kids, newborns, and children who haven’t even seen their fathers yet. These children deserve a better life, but it is their fate to grow up in a protest camp, just like me and my younger sister.
Like all other young girls, I should have dreamt about a career, to get married and raise my own children one day, to live a fulfilled life and grow old in peace — but the only dream I have is to see my father one day. To realise this dream, I have been marching, organising protests, staging sit-ins, and moving from one office, court, and commission to another for the last 14 years.
Dead or alive
My mother, who does not know if she is a widow or if her husband is alive, accompanied me in the 2011 train march. She has joined me again for the current march. Last Friday night, she said to me: “I wish we would not have come here for the protests only. I wish one day, we can come here as tourists with your father.”
People ask us why we come to Islamabad to protest. I explain to them that our loved ones are missing, and that we are helpless; we can’t do anything else but come to Islamabad, where important decisions are made for the entire country. We come to Islamabad to plead to the rulers to give us answers that we can’t get in Balochistan. You took them alive, we want them back alive. We don’t want them in coffins; hundreds of families live with this hope that their loved ones are alive, even if they are behind bars.
Over the last 14 years since I have been coming to Islamabad, three governments have changed and various commissions have been formed, but each of their promises are yet to be fulfilled.
Haseeba Qambrani came to Islamabad for the first time with us in 2021; she was lucky the authorities heard her and released her missing brother and cousin. I did not see her in any protest after that. None of us would protest if our loved ones are released. Who would like to sleep under the open sky in the freezing cold weather? We are helpless.
I have lost all hope in Islamabad now, especially after the recent unpleasant events, when the police fired tear gas and doused us in ice-cold water using a water cannon on the frosty night between Wednesday and Thursday [December 20 and 21]. Subsequently, the police arrested 283 peaceful protesters, including 47 women and five children; 87 are still in their custody. They then bundled us into buses and attempted to send us back to Quetta as if we were illegal immigrants who had crossed the border illegally.
Baloch protesters stage a sit-in on a cold December night outside the National Press Club in Islamabad. — Photo courtesy BYC/X
But what else can we do?
Peaceful protests and marches are our only option. We cannot sit silently at home. The only thing left for us is to protest and march. If we could forget and ignore our loved ones, we would not even protest. However, moving forward and forgetting our loved ones is difficult and painful, especially when you don’t even know if they are alive or not.
All families of missing persons, including my own, see no future. The state has stolen our childhood. We are broken from within, helpless, and our desires and wishes have died. Our only option is to raise our voices peacefully, but even that is intolerable and unacceptable for the state.
The state behaves like a stepmother. Instead of paying heed to our concerns and listening to our justified demands, it launches propaganda campaigns against us through its ministers and lodges fake and fabricated cases against us.
The catalyst
As victims and helpless citizens, we have to live in this system and fight. As children, sisters, and mothers, we have a responsibility to raise our voices. This is why, when Balaach Mola Bakhsh, a young man in his 20s, was taken from his home, then presented before a court by the Counter Terrorism Department, before being killed in an alleged encounter, his family decided they would not remain silent. The whole of Turbat — people from all walks of life, irrespective of caste, creed, social status, political ideology, and religious beliefs — stood with Balaach’s family.
When I traveled to Turbat, I encountered dozens of low-income families from the remote areas of Kech district who could barely afford to travel to the district headquarters. Their loved ones had gone missing unnoticed. Their cases were undocumented. Some poor families did not even own mobile phones; several said their loved ones had been killed during extrajudicial encounters. They had just collected the bodies and returned home.
But Balaach’s case changed everything. The court took up his case in the last week of November. Scores of families of missing persons just like mine marched with his lifeless body outside the court premises. It was a unique case where a deceased individual was presented in court. It was then that we decided to travel across Balochistan, visit families, document their cases, and take them to Islamabad — where decisions are made.
This time, I did not come alone. We are not a dozen or a hundred; instead, hundreds of mothers, wives, children, brothers and fathers of missing persons have come to Islamabad to be heard, healed and helped.
Baloch protesters continue a sit-in outside the National Press Club in Islamabad on Saturday. — Baloch Yakjehti Committee/ X
We reached Islamabad on Wednesday after sunset, but were not allowed to march to the National Press Club. The state welcomed us with baton charges, sprayed cold water on aged mothers, young students and children and dragged them on the roads before shifting them to prisons. The next day, screaming women and young girls were dragged out of the women police station and forced into buses to send them back to Quetta.
But why? To not allow us to protest and ask questions about our loved ones who have been forcibly disappeared?
Over 14 years, I have taken the path of peaceful activism and I will always opt for that. All the families have come to Islamabad with the hope that they will be heard and healed. But the state’s attitude towards them has made many angry and despondent. The least the authorities can do is hear them out instead of inflicting violence upon them and rubbing salt on their wounds.
Politicians, journalists and civil society resoundingly lambasted the manner of former foreign minister and PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s re-arrest from outside Adiala Jail on Wednesday in a case yet to be disclosed.
Footage shared by the PTI on Instagram showed Qureshi, clad in a cardigan and a shalwar kameez, attempting to speak to police personnel gathered outside the jail while he remained inside its premises. However, an official wearing the Punjab police uniform refused to listen and proceeded to shove Qureshi out the gate and toward an armoured police vehicle.
“Look at this. What is this?” Qureshi said as he was pushed the entire way to the van while the crowd urged the officials to be careful.
President Arif Alvi denounced the incident, saying that the treatment meted out to a former foreign minister “in an undignified manner must draw the attention of the authorities”.
He said Pakistan should not become a state where human rights and dignity are “trampled upon with impunity”, adding that “Pakistan must change, and if we as a nation agree, there is no better time than starting now.”
Kasim Gillani, son of Yousuf Raza Gillani, also condemned the incident. He said that having suffered the consequences of state violence himself, he would never support such actions.
“Such attitude of the administration is never acceptable,” he said in a post on his X account.
“Acts of violence and aggression have no place in civil discourse and we stand united against any form of harm towards public figures,” said Fiza Batool Gilani, daughter of Yousuf Raza Gillani.
Qureshi’s daughter Gauhar Bano questioned how a “man in solitary confinement be a threat to the nation?”
Lawyer and human rights activist Jibran Nasir said the Supreme Court should take cognisance that such actions were not merely against the individual but had also violated the apex court’s order.
“This is not an arrest. It is an abduction in broad daylight by a gangster state,” said academic and activist Dr Ammar Ali Jan.
Senior journalist Mubashir Zaidi termed the incident “fascism at its peak.”
Journalist Absa Komal said it was “sad to see how a two-time foreign minister is being treated.”
Mosharraf Zaidi, CEO of advisory services firm Tabadlab, questioned how the incident served the country and rued how a former foreign minister was treated.
Lawyer Khadija Siddiqi said that how Qureshi, a senior politician and an elderly man, was “manhandled” for the “despicable purpose of re-arrest shows the desperation”.
“Court orders are flouted every minute, constitutional guarantees buried. But who cares. Pre-poll rigging first,” she said.
PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan termed the Punjab police actions “sheer thuggery”.
Qureshi’s lawyer Barrister Taimur Malik said his client was arrested in the “most despicable manner by pushing and shoving him into an armoured vehicle”.
“Why are the authorities bent upon making a mockery of the justice system!” he questioned
He added that Qureshi’s entire immediate family had “witnessed SMQ being treated in this inhumane, immoral and unlawful manner. Shameful!”
PTI Senior Vice President Sher Afzal Khan Marwat called for active resistance and advocacy.
“Use your voting power to support policies and leaders committed to ending cruelty,” he said
PTI leader and former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa finance minister Taimur Saleem Khan Jhagra said the only path left for Pakistan was to heal and move forward.
“It is the only path that works, and it is one that involves holding the constitution supreme,” he said.
Jhagra said that if the country treated its dignitaries in such a manner then what respect could it expect from others.
Former special assistant to the prime minister, Sayed Zulfiqar Abbas Bukhari, called the arrest “outrageous and unacceptable”.
“This is a blatant violation of justice and the rule of law. It must be condemned by all.”
