Canvassing by women against sharia, declare Kohistan clerics

By: Inter News on January 27, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

MANSEHRA: A group of Kohistan clerics, mostly members of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, on Friday issued a fatwa (Islamic decree) against canvassing by and for women election candidates and declared the act un-Islamic.

“The women’s act of going from door to door to solicit votes is against sharia [Islamic laws],” declared seminary head Mufti Gul Shahzada after a meeting of clerics in the Kandia area of Upper Kohistan district.

He said the fatwa against women’s election campaign was issued by 30 authorised religious scholars and endorsed by participants, including around 400 clerics from Kohistan region.

For the first time in Kohistan, three women have entered the electoral arena.

They insist it is sinful to defy fatwa

They include the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-backed Tehmina Faheem (PK-31 Kohistan-I) and Momina Basit (PK-33 Kolai-Palas) and independent Sannaya Sabeel (PK-33 Kolai-Palas).

Cleric Shahzada claimed that it was sinful to defy the fatwa.

He also said the sharia disallowed the casting of vote along ethnic lines, so residents shouldn’t do so.

When contacted, women contender Tehmina Faheem said she would respond to the decree after consulting her party’s leadership.

The other candidates didn’t comment on the issue.

NO SEAT ADJUSTMENT: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl provincial emir and Senator Maulana Attaur Rehman on Friday said his party didn’t make electoral alliance or seat adjustment with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz for the Feb 8 general elections.

“The PML-N leaders are falsely propagating that we [JUI-F] will withdraw our election candidate in favour of their supreme leader, Nawaz Sharif, in Mansehra’s NA-15 constituency.

This is not going to happen as there is no electoral alliance or seat adjustment between us,“ Mr Rehman told a public meeting here.

The JUI-F leader said the PML-N feared its leader’s defeat in the constituency and therefore, it had resorted to “false propaganda.”

He said the party’s parliamentary board led by central emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman fielded Mufti Kifayatullah as the NA-15 candidate against Mr Sharif and it won’t withdraw him from the electoral contest.

“Maulana Kifayatullah is the strongest candidate in NA-15, so he will win the election convincingly,” he said.

The JUI-F provincial emir said Mr Sharif publicly acknowledged that JUI-F emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman offered help to the PML-N to form a coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after the 2013 elections but the offer was rejected clearing the way of the PTI to power.

He said had Mr Sharif accepted Mr Fazl’s offer, thecountry’s politics and economy would not have been shattered by the PTI government.

Mr Rehman said his party was committed to bringing about an “Islamic revolution” in the country through people’s votes.

JUI-F candidates Mufti Kifayatullah, Maulana Nasir Mehmood, Abrar Hussain Tanoli, Fahd Habib and SardarWaqarul Muluk also addressed the gathering.

DIES: Senior lawyer and former principal of the SM Law College Karachi Umar Farooq passed away here on Friday.

His funeral prayers were attended by people from all walks of life, especially lawyers.

Mr Farooq was laid to rest at a local graveyard.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2024

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Maryam Nawaz — PML-N’s heir apparent

By: Inter News on January 26, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Maryam Nawaz, the apparent political heir of three-time premier Nawaz Sharif, is a familiar face in Pakistani politics. Known for her biting rhetoric and ability to both pull and rouse a crowd, Maryam has made a name for herself in a political sphere dominated by men.

The three-time ‘first daughter’ was born in 1974. She married Mohammad Safdar, then a captain in the Pakistan Army, in 1992 during her father’s first term as prime minister.

She largely remained behind the scenes till 2013 when she helped manage her father’s re-election campaign. Maryam, then 39 years old, was the PML-N’s counter to the popularity that PTI’s Imran Khan enjoyed among the youth.

Once her father was in power, Maryam was appointed as the chairperson of the Prime Minister Youth Loan Programme. However, her appointment was challenged by the PTI in the Lahore High Court (LHC), which raised questions about her qualifications and asked the government to replace her. Subsequently, Maryam took charge of a social media wing within the party to counter the challenges posed by PTI.

By the time Maryam stood by her father at a series of rallies in the spring of 2018, she was already a name to reckon with, both within the PML-N and in national politics in general. She was considered a crowd-puller in her own right, and an organiser, delivering sharper responses to those she deemed her father’s opponents.

When general elections rolled around, Maryam was given party tickets for one National Assembly and one Punjab Assembly seat. But ahead of the elections, Maryam, along with Nawaz and her husband, was convicted in the Avenfield reference, in which she was accused of being “instrumental in concealment of the properties of her father” and given a seven-year prison term.

She was subsequently disqualified from contesting elections for a decade.

Maryam appealed her conviction in the Islamabad High Court later that year — the court suspended the sentences awarded to her and her husband till the final verdict and released them on bail. But she was arrested in August 2019 from Kot Lakhpat Jail, where she was visiting her father, in connection with the Chaudhry Sugar Mills case.

She then approached the LHC which granted her bail in November of that year.

Maryam became more active in politics during her father’s almost four-year self-exile in the United Kingdom; she was appointed vice president for the first time in 2019. She led large anti-government rallies across the country, fiercely criticising Imran and the PTI as well as the army and judiciary for her father’s ouster and allegedly bringing the then-PTI chairman into power.

However, she appeared to take a back seat as the Pakistan Democratic Movement — the coalition of political parties — gathered steam and her uncle Shehbaz Sharif became the opposition’s nominee for the next prime minister.

Zaigham Khan wrote for Prism in October 2023 that Maryam’s “inconsistent style of political activism, characterised by alternating periods of high activity followed by prolonged absences, made it challenging for her to maintain a consistent political persona. This approach seemed to have been employed ostensibly to provide Shehbaz with an opportunity to negotiate with the establishment.”

Maryam and her husband’s convictions in the Avenfield reference were finally overturned by the IHC in 2022, paving the way for her to contest elections.

In January 2023, Maryam was also elevated in the party’s ranks and appointed senior vice president and chief organiser, making her one of the PML-N’s senior-most leaders.

She became active again ahead of her father’s return from self-exile, whipping up enthusiasm and emphasising how he would rebuild the economy that had been battered during the PTI’s tenure.

This time around, she is in the running for one National Assembly seat (NA-119) and one Punjab Assembly seat (PP-159). This will be the first time she is contesting the general elections.

Key stances

• Maryam has been a vocal critic of the judiciary, claiming that they facilitated former premier Imran Khan and has held them responsible for her father’s ouster in 2017, and has repeatedly called for judges’ accountability.

• She has also lambasted a former intelligence official for allegedly supporting Imran’s bid to become prime minister and cracking down on the opposition.

• She has also called for involving the youth in the PML-N’s campaigns and urged the party to award the maximum number of tickets to the youth for the upcoming elections.

• She had very publicly disowned some of the tough measures taken by the PML-N-led coalition government, including the mini-budget. She also publicly stated that she did not agree with the decision to hike electricity and fuel prices, adding that her first responsibility was to the people in a bid to placate the party’s voter base.

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Header artwork by Abdul Sattar Abbasi

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PTI says its websites ‘blocked’ in Pakistan ahead of Feb 8 polls

By: Inter News on January 26, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

The PTI on Friday alleged that its websites were “blocked” in Pakistan and demanded an answer from the federal authorities.

The PTI, deprived of its iconic ‘bat’ symbol for the upcoming polls, has fielded its leaders as independent candidates with different electoral symbols.

To combat confusion among voters and to ease access to election-related information, the party launched an online portal on its website insaf.pk, as well as a “back-up site”, pticandidates.com.

It also introduced a feature whereby voters can message on Imran Khan’s official Facebook account to get information about PTI-backed candidates.

Dawn.com staffers tried accessing the PTI’s websites on Friday but were unable to do so through Wi-Fi or mobile data, except when using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

The party’s official X account tagged the official handles of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), interim information minister Murtaza Solangi and interim IT minister Umar Saif.

“Can you explain why PTI’s websites are blocked in Pakistan?” the party asked in the post.

“People are still getting symbol information from Imran Khan’s Facebook page so the question is what purpose is this block serving?” it asked.

Jibran Ilyas, a member of the PTI’s social media team, also tagged Saif in his post, asking, “Can you tell Pakistanis why the websites of [the] country’s most popular political party [are] blocked by you?”

The PTA has not responded to Dawn.com’s request for a comment on the matter.

The issue comes after a fake web portal — mimicking one launched by the party to provide information on PTI-backed candidates — emerged and was found to be providing incorrect information to voters.

It should also be noted that in recent weeks, multiple countrywide internet outages have been witnessed that coincided with the party’s online events. In the most recent occurrence on January 20, internet services were interrupted an hour before the PTI’s “virtual power show”.

Before that, similar disruptions were reported on December 17 and January 7 as well, leading the party to urge the Supreme Court to take notice of the internet suspension.

For their part, the interim government had blamed “technical” issues and system installations for the disruptions. Earlier this week, information minister Solangi had said that there was “no guarantee” that such incidents would not occur in the future.

In the same press conference, PTA Director General Ahmed Shamim Pirzada attributed the outages to “technical glitches” and system upgrades. “You can face this for the next two to three months,” he had warned.

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Alabama carries out first US execution using nitrogen gas

By: Inter News on January 26, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

The southern US state of Alabama on Thursday put to death a convicted murderer using nitrogen gas, the first time the controversial method criticised by human rights advocates has been used in the country.

Kenneth Eugene Smith was pronounced dead at 8:25pm (0225 GMT Friday), according to the state attorney general.

“Justice has been served. Tonight, Kenneth Smith was put to death for the heinous act he committed over 35 years ago,” the statement by Attorney General Steve Marshall said.

Smith, 58, was on death row for more than three decades after being convicted of the 1988 murder-for-hire of a pastor’s wife.

He was put to death at Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama by nitrogen hypoxia, which involved pumping nitrogen gas into a facemask, causing him to suffocate.

According to media witnesses, he “began writhing and thrashing for approximately two to four minutes, followed by around five minutes of heavy breathing,” local news outlet AL.com reported.

Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner John Hamm told reporters that it appeared Smith was “holding his breath as long as he could” and that there was “involuntary movement” and gasping, which was “expected”.

The curtain over the media witness room opened at 7:53pm, AL.com said, with Smith pronounced dead less than 35 minutes later.

Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Centre said previously that Alabama was “using an untested, unproven method of execution”.

“It’s never been used before to execute anyone in the United States, or anyone in the world as far as we know,” Maher told AFP.

Smith was subjected to a botched execution attempt in November 2022, when prison officials were unable to set intravenous lines to administer a lethal injection.

Smith’s last words on Thursday were, “Tonight, Alabama caused humanity to take a step backward,” according to the local CBS affiliate, whose reporter witnessed the execution.

“I am leaving with love, peace and light […] I love you. Thank you for supporting me. I love all of you,” Smith said.

According to the Alabama Department of Corrections, Smith had a last meal of steak, hashbrowns and eggs on Thursday morning.

The last US execution using gas was in 1999 when a convicted murderer was put to death using hydrogen cyanide gas.

There were 24 executions in the United States in 2023, all of them carried out by lethal injection.

Alabama is one of three US states that have approved the use of nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution, along with Oklahoma and Mississippi.

‘Torture’

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the UN rights office in Geneva, urged Alabama last week to abandon the plan to execute Smith using what she called a “novel and untested” method.

Shamdasani said it could “amount to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, under international human rights law.”

While nitrogen gas had never previously been used to execute humans in the United States, it is sometimes used to kill animals.

But Shamdasani pointed out that even the American Veterinary Medical Association recommends giving large animals a sedative when being euthanised in this manner.

Alabama’s protocol for execution by nitrogen asphyxiation makes no provision for sedation.

The state of Alabama defended the method of execution, claiming it is “perhaps the most humane method of execution ever devised.”

Smith and an accomplice, John Parker, were convicted of the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett for which they were each paid $1,000. Parker was executed by lethal injection in 2010.

Charles Sennett, who had arranged his wife’s murder, killed himself a week after her death.

Speaking to reporters after the execution on Thursday, Elizabeth Sennett’s son Mike Sennett said it had been a “bittersweet” day for his family, as “nothing that happened here today is going to bring Mom back”.

“We’re not going to be jumping around, hooting and hollering and hooray and all that, that’s not us. But we’re glad this day is over,” he said.

Smith had appealed to the US Supreme Court for a stay of execution but the nation’s highest court denied the request.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, 53 per cent of Americans support the death penalty for someone convicted of murder, the lowest level since 1972.

Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 US states, while the governors of six others — Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee — have put a hold on its use.

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Senate committee wants Pakistanis stopped from begging in Saudi Arabia

By: Inter News on January 26, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee has expressed grave concern over the growing trend amongst Pakistanis resorting to begging in Saudi Arabia after going there for Umra and directed the government to take all possible measures to stop this ignominy.

The Sub-Committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development had been especially convened to discuss the problems confronting overseas Pakistani workers in different countries. Senator Eng. Rukhsana Zuberi chaired the meeting.

Officials from the Interior Ministry said that the ministry has offloaded 44,000 individuals in the past two and a half years. However, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials suggested that checks and balances should be kept in place for passport issuance, and the ministry should increase the screening of individuals before issuance of passports.

Moreover, officials of the Overseas Pakistanis Ministry proposed that NADRA block the CNICs of individuals involved in begging, as it will help in breaking the rackets of begging.

Senator Engr. Rukhsana Zuberi directed the Interior Ministry to take necessary actions against the growing begging in Middle Eastern countries.

The chairperson of the committee remarked that Pakistan encompasses 60 per cent unemployed youth, and there is a dire need to provide employment opportunities to this youth. She stated that smart and short training programmes in medical, nursing, midwifery, and other potential sectors will serve as a guiding light in relinquishing the overgrowing unemployment rate.

Senator Zuberi also recommended that an online portal providing real-time details of job opportunities available in several countries with details of the skills required for the job and the necessary details of the institutions specialising in such training be established. However, the Overseas Ministry suggested that the Information Technology Ministry and Pakistan Information Technology Board should be taken on board for this purpose.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2024

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India rolls out red carpet for Macron as France eyes trade deals

By: Inter News on January 25, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

President Emmanuel Macron was given a red carpet welcome and an elephant honour guard on Thursday as he started a two-day visit to India, with France eyeing lucrative deals with the world’s fifth-largest economy.

Landing in Jaipur, state capital of Rajasthan, Macron will be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a banquet in a 19th-century maharaja’s palace.

On Friday, he will be the chief guest in New Delhi at a colourful military march-past with massed ranks of tanks, dancing troupes, camel cavalry and a fighter jet fly-past.

India’s foreign ministry says New Delhi and Paris are “strategic partners”, while the French presidency says the trip will “consolidate and deepen diplomatic and economic relations”.

Despite concerns over human rights, differences over the war in Ukraine and Delhi’s close ties with Moscow — India’s key military supplier — the US and its European allies are courting New Delhi as a military and economic counterweight to China.

France hopes to build on its military contracts after the Indian defence ministry purchased French-made Rafale fighter jets and Scorpene-class submarines in multibillion-dollar deals.

Macron — who, according to Indian media, is coming after US President Joe Biden was unable to take up an invite — is also hoping France can sell six EPR nuclear reactors.

‘Peace and security’

Modi was guest of honour at France’s annual Bastille Day celebrations last July, and Macron is to receive a similar welcome.

The French president was last in India for the G20 summit in September. Paris and New Delhi collaborate on space and satellite technology, and the French delegation includes astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

The visit includes a stop at Jaipur’s 18th-century Jantar Mantar astronomical observation site, before dinner with Modi at the Rambagh Palace, a luxury hotel.

On Friday, Macron will watch a military parade in New Delhi for Republic Day, the 75th anniversary of India’s constitution. Just as Indian soldiers marched down the streets of Paris in 2023, a French contingent will join the military spectacle, as French-built jets roar overhead.

India is “a key partner in contributing to international peace and security”, the French presidency said ahead of the visit.

Last year, Macron visited neighbouring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and also took a Pacific trip aimed at “recommitting” France to the wider Asia-Pacific region.

‘No taboo subjects’

Rights issues will also be discussed. Journalists, activists and religious minorities have complained of harassment since Modi’s Hindu nationalist government took power in 2014, with accusations of rising religious intolerance towards the country’s Muslim minority.

Modi’s government has been accused of stifling independent media, with India falling 21 places to 161 out of 180 countries in rights group Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index since he took office a decade ago.

French journalist Vanessa Dougnac was told this month that she is facing expulsion after more than two decades in India for what authorities have termed “malicious and critical” reporting.

The visit also comes days after Modi opened a Hindu temple, built on grounds where a mosque stood for centuries before it was torn down in 1992 by Hindu zealots incited by members of his party.

Modi said the temple heralded a “new era” for India after a ceremony that embodied the triumph of his muscular Hindu nationalist politics and galvanising loyalists ahead of elections later this year.

Macron is slated to visit a Muslim Sufi shrine in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin West neighbourhood during his visit.

A Sikh group in Britain also called on Macron to skip the parade “or raise concerns directly” with Modi after the alleged targeting of Sikh separatists abroad, an issue that sparked a major diplomatic row with Canada last year.

“There are no taboo subjects,” a French presidential adviser said ahead of the visit. “But the goal is to discuss them with respect and with the aim of achieving concrete results”.

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Veteran politician Javed Hashmi says Punjab police raided Multan residence, arrested son-in-law and grandson

By: Inter News on January 25, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Veteran politician Javed Hashmi has alleged that Punjab police raided his Multan residence early on Wednesday and arrested his son-in-law and grandson.

Hashmi, who was once president of the PTI, made the claim in a post on social media platform X. He said around 20 police officers entered his residence in Makhdoom Rasheed town in Multan district illegally at 1am and made the arrests without showing any warrants.

“They violated the sanctity of my home,” he added. He further said his son-in-law Shahid Bahar and grandson Qasim were taken into “illegal custody”.

Several workers in his house were also arrested, he said. He also shared photos of his home, including a broken-down door.

Dawn.com has reached out to Multan police for a comment.

Earlier this week, Hashmi had announced his withdrawal from the NA-149 election and the launch of a movement for the release of former premier Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated in Adiala Jail for corruption and treason charges.

Addressing a press conference at his Lahore residence, Hashmi said he had always supported anyone who fought against the establishment. He said he had backed Nawaz Sharif when he was excluded from the 2018 election by the establishment, which had allegedly supported Imran and PTI.

Hashmi said he had left the party in 2014 after disagreeing with Imran’s decision to stage a sit-in in Islamabad against the elected government of Nawaz. He said he had rejoined the PML-N in 2018 after reconciling his differences with the Sharifs.

Hashmi accused the establishment of being responsible for the country’s economic and political woes, and said no establishment could make the country and nation prosperous. He said Imran was now standing in front of the establishment, and that was why he was supporting him.

Hashmi said Nawaz had compromised principles for power. He said Jahangir Tareen, a former PTI leader, was not a politician. He said it would have been better if Sheikh Tariq Rasheed or any other Muslim League candidate was given the ticket for NA-149.

He said he was a Muslim League member and would remain a Muslim Leaguer till he died. He hoped that the people of Pakistan would support his cause and stand with him.

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