PTI changes its mind, postpones intra-party polls until after Feb 8 elections

By: Inter News on February 02, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

A day after announcing the schedule for fresh intra-party polls, the PTI said on Friday that it had decided to postpone them until after the upcoming general elections over the “unfortunate security situation created by the administration” and concerns expressed by members.

After a long battle and marathon hearings last month, the PTI was stripped of its symbol when the Supreme Court upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to declare the party’s internal polls as “unconstitutional”.

As a result, the party’s members are now contesting the elections as independent candidates with different electoral symbols, which has raised fears of horse-trading and floor crossing. The PTI also no longer has the right to reserved seats for women and minorities.

In another bid to reclaim its symbol, the PTI had decided to hold intra-party polls on Feb 5 during its general body meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting, which was supposed to take place at PTI’s Central Secretariat in Islamabad’s Sector G-8, was shifted online after police and security officials in plainclothes allegedly raided and took control of the premises and stopped members from entering, party sources had told Dawn.

An official of the capital police had denied the allegation, pointing out that a raid could not be conducted without having permission from a magistrate and no such order was issued that day.

A day earlier, PTI information secretary Raoof Hasan told Dawn that all arrangements had been finalised for the intra-party elections.

“We have opened a portal on the website…and only registered members will be allowed to contest elections. Candidates can get nomination papers from offices across the country or can download them from the website,” he said.

Hasan added that they would submit the result to the ECP, but they were not hoping for any relief from the watchdog. He feared the ECP may not allot the PTI its symbol or say that the elected independent members would not be allowed to join the party since it did not have lawmakers in the lower house of parliament.

Meanwhile, former ECP secretary Kanwar Dilshad told Dawn that the election wat­chdog would be the final decision-making authority in this regard.

However, in a notification issued today, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the PTI said its internal polls were being rescheduled and would now take place after the date for the general elections.

“At the time of holding the general body meeting of the PTI on Jan 31, the designated venue of the party where the meetings were set to take place and the entry of participants were unlawfully blocked by the administration, including sealing of the Islamabad office, thus forcing us to search for and confirm alternate places and seek legal remedies,” it said.

“While we are ready for holding intra-party elections on the basis of secret ballot through digital balloting, the arrangements for availability of alternate venues requires additional time,” the statement, issued by Hasan, said.

It added that the party also received requests by its members that they were unable to find time to participate in the internal elections due to preparations for the Feb 8 polls.

“Taking cognisance of the security situation created by the administration and the views expressed by some of our members, the holding of intra-party elections needs to be rescheduled.

“They will now take place after the national elections on a date within the mandate and timeframe approved by the general body meeting. The amended schedule will be duly announced by the office of the federal election commission shortly,” the PTI said.

It concluded that federal and provincial offices of the party would continue to receive nomination forms till 10pm tonight and urged members to complete all formalities before that.

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‘Job 98pc done’: Caretaker govt seals plan to sell national carrier

By: Inter News on February 02, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

The caretaker government is making binding plans for the new set-up to sell loss-making Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), according to the privatisation minister and other officials.

In the past, elected governments have shied away from undertaking unpopular reforms, including the sale of the flag carrier. But Pakistan, in deep economic crisis, agreed in June to overhaul loss-making state-owned enterprises under a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $3 billion bailout.

The government decided to privatise PIA just weeks after signing the IMF agreement.

The caretaker administration, which took office in August to oversee the Feb 8 election, was empowered by the outgoing Parliament to take any steps needed to meet the budgetary targets agreed with the IMF.

“Our job is 98 per cent done,” Privatisation Minister Fawad Hasan Fawad told Reuters when asked about the plan to sell the airline. “The remaining 2pc is just to bring it on an excel sheet after the cabinet approves it.”

Fawad said the plan, drawn up by transaction adviser Ernst & Young, will be presented to the federal cabinet for approval before the tenure of the administration ends following the election.

The cabinet will also decide whether to sell the stake by tender or through a government-to-government deal, Fawad said.

“What we have done in just four months is what past governments have been trying to do for over a decade,” Fawad said. “There is no looking back,” he said.

Details of the privatisation process have not been previously reported.

PIA had liabilities of Rs785bn ($2.81bn) and accumulated losses of Rs713bn as of June last year. Its CEO has said losses in 2023 were likely to be Rs112bn.

Progress on the privatisation will be a key issue if the next government goes back to the IMF once the current bailout programme expires in March.

Caretaker Finance Minister Shamshad Akhtar told reporters last year that Pakistan would have to remain in IMF programmes after the expiry.

Two sources close to the process told Reuters that a 51pc stake with full management control would be offered to buyers after parking the airline’s debts in a separate entity, under the 1,100 page report from Ernst & Young.

Reuters could not independently confirm the contents of the report. Fawad did not give specific details of the size of the stake to be sold, but confirmed the plan involved the carrier’s debts being spun off into a separate entity.

Ernst & Young did not respond to requests for comment.

PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez Khan said the airline was assisting the privatisation process, extending “full cooperation” to the transaction adviser.

Fast-tracked

Ishaq Dar, who has previously served as the finance minister previously and has been named by the PML-N to retain the portfolio if it forms the next government, told Reuters that the sale of PIA will be fast-tracked.

“It will, God willing, move ahead with fast speed,” he said.

In a report in mid-January, the IMF expressed satisfaction over the measures initiated by the caretaker government to accelerate reforms of state-owned enterprises, specifically mentioning the amendment of the PIA privatisation law.

Under the privatisation plan submitted by Ernst & Young to the government on Dec 27, government-guaranteed legacy debt and payables — which are held by a consortium of seven domestic banks — will be parked in a holding company, Fawad and two sources involved in the process said.

Fawad said the government and the consortium had an agreement in place regarding the settlement of the legacy debt, which includes negative equity of Rs825bn in loans, creditors’ money and the losses. He provided no further details.

The sources had earlier said the banks wanted a five-year bond issued against the debt with a 16.5pc coupon on the paper, while the finance ministry was offering only 10pc.

The banks have not commented on the deal.

Besides its losses and debt, PIA’s governance and safety standards have been questioned by global aviation authorities for some years.

In early 2020, Czech and Hungarian air force jets were scrambled to intercept a PIA flight with 300 people on board as it went astray due to an “avoidable human error” by its pilot, according to a previously unreported confidential report by a PIA inquiry board, which was reviewed by Reuters.

In May that year, the crash of a PIA plane in Karachi killed nearly 100 people and a fake pilot licence scandal erupted later in 2020.

The scandal led to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) banning the national carrier from flying to its most lucrative routes in Europe and the UK.

The 2020 ban is still in place and has cost the airline nearly Rs40bn in revenue annually, according to government records presented in parliament.

The airline has been pleading with EASA to lift the ban even provisionally, but to no avail, according to correspondence between it and PIA reviewed by Reuters.

The financial crisis has also led to seizure of PIA aircraft by creditors in recent months, according to the airline. One aircraft was taken at Kuala Lumpur airport for non-payment of lease fees, and another in Toronto for non-payment of ground handling, PIA said.

While the airline awaits the government’s decision on a sale, it continues to need financial support: Rs23.7bn are required to keep it afloat for another five to six months before control is given to a new buyer, three government and PIA sources said.

Challenging sale

Not everyone agrees with pressing ahead speedily with the sale.

Three senior airline officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said a fast sale could devalue the airline’s worth, and that it would not be a transparent transaction without due diligence.

“We are not against its privatisation, and all we want is that you don’t just throw it away,” said one of the officials.

But Singapore-based aviation analyst Brendan Sobie said PIA is in dire straits: the plan submitted to the government was “essentially the only option to save the airline”.

“The privatisation will be challenging and a sale is likely not possible unless it first undergoes a deep restructuring and the debts are cleared,” he said.

PIA’s assets include key slots at the world’s busiest airports and air routes to top European destinations, the Middle East and North America.

PIA has air service agreements with more than 150 countries and generates about Rs280bn annually in revenues despite the EU ban, airline records show.

It has 10 slots at Heathrow, which, according to two PIA officials, are currently worth Rs70bn annually. It has a further nine slots at Manchester and four at Birmingham.

Turkish and Kuwaiti airlines have been operating 70pc of the slots under a business arrangement with PIA that also allows the airline to retain them, the PIA officials said.

Separately, PIA’s physical assets, which include aircraft, hotels in Paris and New York and other properties, are worth Rs105.6bn ($375 million) as per book value, according to the airline’s annual report for 2023.

PIA officials, however, said the market value of the assets could be above $1bn. In any case, the hotels and other properties would not be up for sale, they said.

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‘Hostage’ voters or game changers? The politics of (s)electables

By: Inter News on February 02, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

With the Feb 8 general elections fast approaching, major political parties have scrambled to woo electables across Pakistan, trying to out-manoeuvre each other in a bid to boost their prospects post-Feb 8.

Over the past few months, the PML-N and PPP appear to have made decent inroads in Balochistan and south Punjab, which are ground zero for all electable contests ahead of a major election.

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, whose PML-N now carries the tag of ‘king’s party’, visited Balochistan in November and managed to add over two dozen electables to his arsenal. The party also managed to secure a foothold in South Punjab by relying on electables.

Following in the footsteps of the Sharifs, the father-son duo Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari also kicked off the PPP’s election campaign in Balochistan in a bid to make inroads in the province to some degree of success. The PPP also upped its presence in Punjab, intending to lure electables to improve its position in a province otherwise dominated by PTI and PML-N supporters.

For the PTI, which is facing myriad challenges in the upcoming polls, electables are off the list.

It must be noted that electables played a significant role in forming the Imran Khan-led government in 2018. However, it looks like the PTI — which has fallen from grace in spectacular fashion — has failed to get its hands on any this time around.

Who are electables?

The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines an electable as: “(of a politician or political party) having the qualities that make it likely or possible that they will win in an election.”

While the term electables may be a recent coinage, the phenomenon has a long history tracing back to the colonial days when the British used the intervention of the rural elite for an effective rule.

Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob tells Dawn.com that electables are political leaders who can be elected without the support of a political party because of their cultural or religious clout.

“These people usually hail from places where there is large land ownership, for example south Punjab and Sindh,” he says, explaining that land workers are dependent on such leaders and become “hostage voters”.

Electables, Mehboob continued, are not bound by party discipline and can easily be made to join any political party — usually at the “whims and wishes of the establishment”.

According to a report published in Republic Policy in November 2023, the origins of electables can be traced back to the 1985 non-party elections held during the regime of military dictator General Ziaul Haq.

“In a bid to prolong his authoritarian grip, Zia sought to empower local strongmen, allowing them to contest elections without formal party ties. This resulted in a surge of electables, primarily drawn from the ranks of landlords, tribal chiefs, and influential figures, who capitalised on their entrenched power bases to secure victories,” the report said.

Similarly, the late Gen Pervez Musharraf carved out the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) from the PML-N at the turn of the century.

Over the years, electables have become a crucial pillar in the political arena as their influence extends beyond constituencies, over districts and sometimes even cities.

For instance, former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his family enjoy unwavering support in Multan. He had joined the PML-N before the 1988 general election. Just before the 1993 general election, he joined the PPP after Nawaz Sharif declined to make him PML-N’s candidate for a National Assembly.

In 2011, he ended his 18 year-long association with the PPP, months after being stripped of the portfolio of foreign minister amid a controversy regarding diplomatic immunity for a CIA contractor who killed two Pakistanis in Lahore in January. That same year, he then joined Imran Khan’s PTI, which he is still a part of.

Can they make or break polls?

But do these electables play such an important role in elections that an entire article is dedicated to them? Unfortunately, yes.

Usually, the party that emerges victorious in the general elections as well as the runner-up do not have much difference in the number of seats they have clinched, Pildat’s Mehboob explained. The gap usually amounts to five to 10 seats.

“Any party that succeeds in wooing electables and bringing them to its side is the winner. This way, electables can make or break polls,” he says.

PTI founder Imran Khan formed his government in 2018 in a similar fashion. Despite enjoying massive popularity, his party was only able to secure a majority in the National Assembly after electables joined the PTI ahead of the polls.

More than 60 electables from Punjab, especially those who had belonged to the PML-N and PPP, had joined the PTI ahead of the 2018 general elections. The party of the Sharifs had alleged that the establishment had compelled these leaders to ditch the PML-N so that Imran could be conveniently “brought to power”.

But with 172 seats in a 342-member house, the PTI had gained only a simple majority. Some nudging here and there could topple his government like a house of cards, which is exactly what happened in the run-up to his ouster on April 9, 2022.

Further, after the events of May 9 — when violent protests erupted across the country following Imran’s arrest outside the premises of the Islamabad High Court — analysts say political engineering was deployed to force or tempt away those political leaders and electables who were earlier sent to the PTI.

But PTI is not the only major political party to have adopted the strategy. The PML-N has also shown a preference for electables in a number of instances, including the upcoming polls.

The fault in our stars

Dawn’s Islamabad bureau chief Journalist Amir Wasim says that the number of electables has shrunk over time. “You will find more of these people in rural areas as compared to urban areas.”

“But these people have always played an important role in elections,” he says, adding that these political leaders do not have ideologies. Instead, they only possess constituencies and join political parties on their own terms and conditions.

Basically, with the right number of electables on its side, a political party can easily win the numbers game.

However, Pildat’s Mehboob says that the establishment has a hand in nudging electables in a particular direction. In 2018, it appears that it was Imran Khan. Four years later, it seems as if the stars are in the favour of Nawaz.

But electables are like coins — they have two sides. Also termed turncoats, the role of electables has led to the destructive practice of floor crossing and horse-trading.

Former lawmakers including Noor Alam Khan, Raja Riaz, Ramesh Kumar and Basit Bukhari were part of PPP and PML-N before they switched to the PTI and then again changed loyalties ahead of Imran’s ouster.

According to the Republic Policy report, there are, however, signs of a gradual shift in the political landscape as political parties reclaim some of their lost ground.

The new outlet attributes it to rising urbanisation and increasing political awareness among the youth, who are less susceptible to the influence of traditional power brokers.

“The upcoming general elections will serve as a litmus test for this trend. Suppose political parties can successfully mobilise their supporters and defeat the electables in key constituencies. In that case, it will mark a significant step towards strengthening the party system and fostering a more ideologically driven political environment,” the report adds.

A concern for democracy

Certainly, it is a party’s right to select whichever candidate it prefers, and the length of affiliation with a political party cannot be the sole criterion on which tickets are handed out.

But, as a Dawn editorial puts it, embracing the culture of electables, major political parties diminish the role of the party and negate the very idea of ideology in politics.

“While electables will emphasise patronage politics at the constituency level — the ability to remain a formidable constituency candidate depends on distributing patronage to supporters — they may not have a veto over a party’s policy, governance and reform agendas.

But no political party can reasonably claim to be strengthening its organisational structure while allowing large-scale lateral entry into the party. Weak political parties tend to weaken democracy as all party decision-making is concentrated in a few hands at the top,“ it says.

That may suit the party leaders, especially those who wield hereditary power, but it tends to weaken ties to the local party member or activist and thwarts democratic debate inside political parties.

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8 electoral battles to watch out for on NA seats in Feb 8 elections

By: Inter News on February 01, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Disqualification of prominent leaders and depriving PTI of its electoral symbol means the 2024 general elections are not as exciting as its predecessors have been.

The campaigning has picked up some pace of late, but even then it is clear that in terms of excitement, the Feb 8 polls will be a shadow of its former self.

That said, in isolation, there are still some constituencies where big-name candidates are expected to stage neck-and-neck battles.

Dawn.com has sifted through the 272 NA constituencies and compiled a list of eight seats where major high-profile candidates are anticipated to give each other tough competition.

Yasmin Rashid vs Nawaz Sharif

PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif and PTI’s former provincial health minister Dr Yasmin Rashid will face off in NA-130, Lahore, in what could be a heated electoral battle.

Former PM Nawaz, who could not take part in the 2018 elections due to his conviction in the Panama Papers case, is back in the election arena after getting a clean chit from the courts. He will also be running from NA-15 in Mansehra against Gustasif Khan of the PTI and JUI-F’s Mufti Kifayatullah.

However, his main competition will be in his traditional stronghold of Lahore, where it will be interesting to see if he has lost any ground due to his party’s controversial 16-month rule. He will be up against Dr Rashid, whose stock among the PTI faithful has been boosted for not budging or leaving the party’s embattled leader despite months of detention.

In 2018, Rashid was a close second to PML-N’s Waheed Alam Khan in Lahore’s NA-125. She managed to secure 105,857 votes but was ultimately unsuccessful against Khan, who got 122,327 votes. She was later elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of PTI on a reserved seat for women.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari vs Ataullah Tarar

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari is contesting the 2024 general elections from three NA constituencies: two from his home province of Sindh and one from NA-127 Lahore in what will be his electoral debut in Punjab. In Lahore, he will be facing PML-N firebrand Ataullah Tarar as well as Chaudhry Shabbir Gujjar — an independent associated with the PTI.

Despite Bilawal’s stature in Pakistani politics, he has yet to personally win an electoral battle outside the comfort zone of Larkana. In 2018, his attempt for NA seats in Karachi and Malakand was thwarted. For this reason alone, his decision to try his luck in the uncharted waters of Lahore is an even bigger risk.

Tarar has already criticised Bilawal’s foray into Lahore, saying, “What kind of significant project had been completed in Karachi that you (Bilawal) now make your way to Lahore? How dare they (PPP) come to Lahore?”

“Lahore is the stronghold of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif. The people of the city love Nawaz Sharif. PML-N had clinched victory in Lahore even in difficult circumstances,” the former SAPM said.

Bilawal has remained undeterred in his speeches, and urged the people of Lahore to vote for the PPP, saying, “For the last 30 years, a party (PML-N) has ruled Lahore, but its condition is worse than any other city in the country. That party, in fact, represented the elite and not the common man, and therefore, it served only the former’s interests.

“On the contrary, the PPP is a party representing all segments of society and works for their welfare,” he said.

Maryam Nawaz vs Mian Abaad Farooque vs Iftikhar Shahid

One of the most anticipated battles will be seen in Lahore’s NA-119 where Maryam Nawaz, the apparent political heir of three-time premier Nawaz, will be contesting the general elections for the first time this year against Mian Abaad Farooque of the PTI and Iftikhar Shahid of the PPP.

The last time polls were held in 2018, 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 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 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.

Maryam, along with her cousin Hamza Sharif — son of former PM Shehbaz Sharif and former Punjab chief minister— are also contesting on provincial assembly seats from Lahore and perhaps eying the chief ministership of the country’s largest province.

It will be interesting to see if Maryam can at last become a part of the National and provincial assemblies, defeating PTI and PPP leaders in Lahore.

Ali Musa Gilani vs Mehr Bano Qureshi

The rivalry between the Qureshis and the Gilanis goes back decades long before any elections as both are ‘spiritual’ families. In Multan, as in many rural parts of the country, the Makhdooms are seen as intercessors. Their status, as custodians of revered local shrines, can also lend candidates an advantage in the “city of saints”.

This year PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s daughter Mehr Bano Qureshi will face PPP’s Ali Musa Gilani — son of former PM Yousuf Raza Gilani in Multan’s NA-151.

In Multan, Qureshi boasts a personal vote bank that supports him regardless who his party is. Thus, when he switched from PML-N to PPP in 1993, and from PPP to PTI in 2011, his core supporters stood by his side. This year, his daughter Mehr Bano Qureshi will fight the electoral battler in Multan on behalf of the family.

Like the Qureshis, the Gilanis also have a strong voter base in Multan. However, they were unable to get any joy from the City of Saints in the 2018 elections when the PTI had clean swept all six of the city’s NA seats. With the Qureshis under the cosh this year, the Gilanis may smell an opportunity to stage a comeback and regain some of the lost ground.

Khawaja Saad Rafique vs Sardar Latif Khosa

In Lahore’s NA-122, another one of PML-N’s traditional strongholds, it’s senior leader leader Khawaja Saad Rafiq will be up against PTI’s Sardar Latif Khosa — a new PTI member who joined the party from PPP and has represented party founder Imran Khan in several high-profile cases.

While addressing a workers’ convention in Lahore in Dec 2023, Rafique questioned PTI’s contributions during its nine-year rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, asking, “Did it build any children’s hospital, any cardiology institute or generate a single megawatt of electricity?”

“Rather than being influenced by performance on social media and narratives, the general elections will be grounded in the realities of towns and villages of the country,” he said, criticising the PTI’s reliance on social media.

Stressing that voter decisions should be based on tangible performance, Rafique detailed what he said were PML-N’s achievements, including a network of motorways and energy projects, in contrast to “PTI’s lack of major projects” during its four years of rule.

Khosa, whose PPP membership was suspended in September last year for representing Imran in several cases “without prior approval of [party] leadership”, joined the PTI in December. Despite being new to the party, he is not at all new to the world of politics and served as the Governor of Punjab from 2011 to 2013 and was one of Benazir Bhutto’s top aides.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman vs Ali Amin Gandapur vs Faisal Karim Kundi

A tough competition is likely in NA-44, Dera Ismail Khan, among three regional heavyweights — Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader and former federal minister Ali Amin Gandapur, and Pakistan Peoples Party’s central information secretary Faisal Karim Kundi.

In the 2018 election, Gandapur, then contesting on the PTI ticket, defeated JUI-F chief Fazl by a massive margin.

In December last year, Kundi invited Gandapur to join PPP. While talking to media persons, he said the invitation was extended so they could work jointly for the development of Dera Ismail Khan.

Kundi had also urged PTI workers to join PPP to defeat what he said was their common opponent, Fazl.

Farooq Sattar vs Khurram Sher Zaman

In Karachi’s NA-241, Dr Farooq Sattar of the MQM-P will be up against PTI Karachi president Khurram Sher Zaman.

Sattar’s association with the party goes back decades. He was one of the earliest members of APMSO (All Pakistan Muhajir Students Organisation), which was formed in 1978 and was a precursor of to MQM.

In 1987, at the age of 28, he was elected the mayor of Karachi and ran the party in close coordination with party founder Altaf Hussain.

In 2018, after MQM was divided into factions, Sattar contested from NA-245 but lost to late Amir Liaqat Hussain — then of the PTI. This year, his main opponent will against be a PTI member in the form of Zaman.

Sattar is also a candidate from Karachi’s NA-244, where another former PTI MNA Aftab Jahangir — who won from Karachi in 2018 — will be his primary rival.

Zaman, who was recently allowed by an election tribunal to contest elections, was triumphant on PTI’s ticket on a provincial seat in 2018 but has been given an NA ticket this year.

Sheikh Rasheed vs Hanif Abbasi

In Rawalpindi’s NA-56, Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid and PML-N’s Hanif Abbasi will be rekindling their long-time rivalry.

In 2018, Rashid won from Rawalpindi’s NA-62, defeating the PML-N candidate after the PTI, as part of its alliance with Rashid, did not field a candidate.

However, come 2024, Rashid has severed ties with the PTI, and so this time around he will not only have to face PML-N’s Abbasi, but also take on PTI’s Shahryar Riaz.

Meanwhile, Abbasi and Rashid, both local heavyweights, will finally see each other in the electoral battle. They was supposed to clash in NA-60 in 2018 but the elections had to be postponed due to Abbasi’s arrest and subsequent conviction in a narcotics case.

Last year, the Lahore High Court set aside his conviction and acquitted Abbasi earlier this month following his successful appeal.

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Centuries-old mosque torn down in Indian capital

By: Inter News on February 01, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

Bulldozers have knocked down a centuries-old mosque in India’s capital, a member of the mosque’s managing committee said on Thursday during a demolition drive to remove “illegal” structures from a forest reserve.

The demolition comes at a sensitive time in India with nationalist activists emboldened in their long campaign for the replacement of several prominent mosques with Hindu temples.

The Masjid Akhonji in New Delhi, which its caretakers say is around 600 years old, was home to 22 students enrolled in an Islamic boarding school.

It was torn down on Tuesday in a forest of Mehrauli, an affluent neighbourhood dotted with centuries-old ruins from settlements predating modern Delhi.

Mohammad Zaffar, a member of the mosque’s managing committee, told AFP that it had not received any prior notice before a demolition carried out “in the dark of the night”.

He said many graves in the mosque compound were also desecrated, and no one was allowed to take out copies of the Holy Quran or other materials from inside the mosque before it was razed.

“Many of our revered figures and my own ancestors were buried there. There is no trace of the graves now,” Zaffar told AFP.

“The rubble from the mosque and the graves has been removed and dumped somewhere else.”

The Delhi Development Authority, the city’s main land management agency responsible for carrying out the demolitions, did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.

A heavy police presence had barricaded roads outside the grounds on Thursday and refused access to the site.

The demolition took place barely a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a grand new Hindu temple in the northern city of Ayodhya, built on grounds once home to the centuries-old Babri mosque.

That mosque was torn down in 1992 in a campaign spearheaded by members of Modi’s party, sparking riots that killed 2,000 people nationwide, most of them Muslims.

Hindu activist groups have also laid claim to the disputed Gyanvapi mosque in the Indian holy city of Varanasi, which they say was built over a Hindu temple during the Muslim Mughal empire centuries ago.

Hindu worshippers entered the Gyanvapi mosque on Thursday to pray after a local court gave them permission to do so.

Calls for India to enshrine Hindu supremacy have rapidly grown louder since Modi took office in 2014, making the country’s roughly 210-million-strong Muslim minority increasingly anxious about their future.

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1 killed in Quetta blast

By: Inter News on February 01, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

One person was killed in a blast on Quetta’s CPEC road on Thursday, police said.

The incident came hours before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was scheduled to hold a high-level meeting to discuss the deteriorating law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balo­chistan in the lead-up to the Feb 8 elections.

SSP Operations Tariq Jawad told Dawn.com that around eight to 10 kilogrammes of explosives were used in the blast. He said that further investigations were under way to ascertain the identity of the deceased.

He said that initial investigation showed that the deceased was a pedestrian passing by when the blast occurred.

“There was no election programme within the vicinity of the blast,” SSP Tariq said. “Security is high alert for election gatherings,” he said.

A day earlier, a leader of a political party was killed and eight other people, including political workers and two security officials, were injured in separate attacks at election offices and residences of the political party candidates in Balochistan.

Officials said that a local Awami National Party (ANP) leader, identified as Zahoor Ahmed, was killed when armed assailants opened fire at the election office of party candidate Engineer Zamrak Khan Piralizai in the Mazaiadha area of Chaman, a district bordering Afghanistan.

They said the incident happened after a dispute between two groups on the issue of hoisting party flags escalated. Ahmed received multiple bullets and died on the spot, while another party worker, Moin, was injured in the firing, a senior Levies official said.

In another incident, unknown people attacked the residence of a former provincial minister and PPP candidate for provincial assembly from Kech district, Zahoor Ahmed Buledi, with a hand grenade in his native town of Buleda.

“Two grenades lobbed at the residence of Buledi exploded in the courtyard of the house,” the police said, adding that no casualty was reported in the attack.

The banned group Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement, Buledi condemned the attack and said that he and his family would not be afraid of such attacks.

Separately, five PPP workers were injured when unknown motorcyclists hurled a grenade at the election office of Mir Ali Madad Jattak, a former president of PPP’s Balochistan chapter, who is contesting on a provincial assembly seat, at Ghahi Chowk area of Sariab.

Jattak, who was present in the election office, remained unhurt. The injured party workers were identified as Ghulam Ullah, Nasarullah, Muhammad Javed, Abdul Latif and Obaidullah.

In another incident, a Levies official was critically injured in Khuzdar when unidentified individuals attacked the Levies patrolling vehicle with hand grenades in the Khatan area of Khuzdar late evening.

Another explosion took place in front of the residence of PPP’s provincial assembly candidate Shakeel Durrani in Khuzdar. However, no casualty was reported in the incident.

A police constable was injured in a grenade attack on a police picket in the Josak area of Turbat town late in the evening.

In Sibi, a man lobbed a grenade at a police checkpoint, slightly damaging the post. However, no one was hurt in the attack.

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The return of Nawaz Sharif

By: Inter News on February 01, 2024 / comment : 0 NEWS, The Dawn News - Home

OF all the comebacks he has mounted since his first ouster from power more than 30 years ago, the latest one has been the most improbable.

The odds that Nawaz Sharif will be forming the next government after the Feb 8 elections are rising, although it cannot be known with any certainty at this stage. Even if he is not the prime minister himself, chances are whoever assumes the position will do so with his blessings.

The tide has been turning in his favour in slow motion for months now, but the coming weeks will see an acceleration. It began with the announcement of the date of his return to Pakistan after almost five years of exile. Next came the day of his return and first rally in Lahore, in which he laid out his credentials as the prime minister most suited to deliver development and growth for a country wracked by inflation and unemployment

Then came the brief interlude of bargaining for distribution of party tickets, seat adjustments with other parties in the running, and laying down the order of battle for the coming electoral contest. And as the last of the doubts over whether or not the elections would be held were finally removed, once the Supreme Court stripped his main rival, the PTI, of its election symbol, the campaigning began.

Listen to his campaign speeches and you will see the strategy at play here. He is doing two things in his rallies. First is connecting with voters and the second is asserting the old patronage machines that run the rural or peri-urban constituencies he has mainly focused his campaign energies on so far. To voters he is asking questions like ‘how much did one roti cost when I left in 2017? How much was one unit of electricity? How much did you pay for a kilo of sugar? How much for a bag of urea fertiliser?’

The message Nawaz is sending out is to climb onto his bandwagon, because soon it will be the only show in town.

The list of products he reads out varies from one constituency to another, depending on its urban or rural character. And for each product whose price he asks for, he asks the attendees how much they are paying for that commodity today. ‘Who did this to you?’ he asks them. ‘Who committed this cruelty?’ he continues. ‘You should go and ask them, whoever did this, why did they do this to you!’

It’s a crafty message. From 2017 till now, the country has seen an unprecedented surge in inflation. We can debate what caused this. I have written my own views on this numerous times already. But for campaign purposes, it is not necessary to go into why it happened. All he has to do is point out that it happened. And by making 2017 the starting point, he can glide over the fact that the bulk of this inflation came during the period when Shehbaz Sharif was prime minister.

For narrative purposes it doesn’t matter. “I have missed you” he said in one of his campaign speeches. “I have been away too long, and it hurts me to see all that you have had to suffer while I was away.” The campaign message is crafted to first connect with what is hurting voters the most: the difficulty in making ends meet. In Hafizabad, for example, a small industrial town with a large working class, he told the rally-goers “there would be no unemployment in Hafizabad today had I not been removed in 2017!”

In Sialkot, he promised to build a new motorway connecting that city with Lahore, after pointing out all the deficiencies in the current one which was opened to traffic in 2020, during Imran Khan’s tenure. In Mansehra, he promised a railway stop once the revamped railroad under the CPEC ML1 project is completed — it is an $8 billion-plus project. In Vehari, he casually threw in a medical college, saying that is what Tehmina Daultana asked for her constituency. “Ok, we will give you a medical college, but first get the votes and win!”

Which brings us to the second plank in his strategy: leveraging the power that he believes is about to come into his hands to work the patronage machines of Punjab, and rebuild his relationships with the dominant political families of this bellwether province.

In rural and small-town constituencies especially, political families are important. Nawaz knows this better than anybody else, and he and his coterie have the detailed knowledge of who is who, where and for how much. The message he is sending out now is to climb onto his bandwagon, because soon it will be the only show in town.

Then there is his manifesto and the larger macroeconomic promises made in it, like reviving GDP growth to six per cent, resolving the circular debt, and so on. For now, though, his persona is invested in campaign promises, and connecting with voters and political families, and promising them a resolution of the economic issues plaguing their lives.

Next come the elections. After that the summoning of the new parliament, the invitation by the president to the party with the largest votes to step forward and form their majority, the election of the Leader of the House, the appointment of the federal cabinet.

By then, close to nine months would have passed since word first wafted past us of Nawaz’s imminent return from exile. And Imran Khan’s woes would have multiplied manifold, buried under an avalanche of cases, convictions, appeals, disqualifications, defections, arrests, leaks, and so on.

The tide is turning, in slow motion. Nawaz Sharif has returned and will now cement his position in power. The big question is whether he will find the resources to deliver even half of what he is promising. Given how heavily he has invested himself in reviving growth, his commitment to a new IMF programme will become complicated. Nawaz may have returned, but growth and employment may not follow.

The writer is a business and economy journalist.

khurram.husain@gmail.com

X: @khurramhusain

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2024

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