Tag: PMLN

No Assembly session can be called without notifying reserved seats, says Imran Khan’s party

Post By World , , , , ,

Jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party on Feb. 27 said that no provincial Assembly session can be called without notifying the reserved seats, a day after the Assemblies of Punjab and Sindh were summoned and the Chief Ministers were sworn-in.

Speaking to the media in Islamabad, the 71-year-old Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party leader, Barrister Gohar Khan, said the new provincial Assemblies should be convened after all the members of the House are notified, the Dawn newspaper quoted him as saying.

“The Punjab [Assembly] session was carried out in an illegal manner. The Sindh Assembly session was carried out illegally. If the National Assembly session is called, that will also be illegal because the assemblies should be convened after all the members of the House are notified,” he said.

He urged the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to notify the reserved seats for the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), with which his party has entered a formal agreement.

Mr. Khan’s party could not directly participate in the February 8 general elections due to the non-allotment of its iconic electoral symbol — the cricket bat. To receive the party’s share of reserved seats, candidates of the PTI — who fought as independents and won the elections — formally joined the SIC.

The SIC is an alliance of Islamic political and religious parties in the Muslim-majority country, representing followers of the school of Sunni Islam.

The Election Commission of Pakistan will hold an open hearing on Feb. 26 of the PTI-backed SIC’s plea seeking the allocation of its share of reserved seats in the national and provincial Assemblies.

On Feb. 26, President Alvi rejected a summary from the caretaker Parliamentary Affairs Ministry to summon the first session of the newly elected National Assembly session on February 29.

Mr. Alvi maintained that all reserved seats be allocated before the summoning of the session in which newly-elected members of the National Assembly will take oath.

After the denial by Mr. Alvi — a close aide of PTI founder Khan and a former senior member of his party — National Assembly outgoing Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf decided to convene the lower House of Parliament session on February 29.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Assembly session on Feb. 26 saw the election of Maryam, the 50-year-old senior vice president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, as the first-ever woman Chief Minister of Pakistan’s most populous Province.

Later in the day in Sindh, senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader Murad Ali Shah was reelected as the new Chief Minister of the Province after securing 112 votes out of 148 total cast during voting for the coveted position.

Though independents backed by the PTI won majority seats at the National Assembly in the February 8 general election, the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have agreed on a power-sharing deal to form a new coalition government, which may effectively end Mr. Khan’s chances of returning to power.

Mr. Khan’s party has rejected the attempts by the PML-N and the PPP to form a coalition government, warning that robbing its public endorsement by the “mandate thieves” will result in the worst political instability.

Independent candidates — a majority backed by the PTI party — won 93 National Assembly seats.

The PML-N won 75 seats, while the PPP came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has 17 seats.

Imran Khan’s party to call ‘parallel’ Punjab Assembly session to elect CM, Speaker: report

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party plans to call a “parallel” Punjab Assembly session to elect the Chief Minister, Speaker and Deputy Speaker, claiming that newly-elected chief Minister Maryam Nawaz was in the House on “a stolen mandate”, a media report said on Feb. 27.

Ms. Nawaz, the 50-year-old senior Vice-President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, made history by becoming the first-ever woman Chief Minister of Pakistan’s most populous Punjab Province after receiving 220 votes.

She defeated Rana Aftab of 71-year-old Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), who received no votes as his party boycotted the election.

Former-cricketer-turned-politician Khan’s PTI party made a call for a “parallel” Punjab Assembly on Monday after claiming a strength of 250 members, including reserved seats for women and minorities, the Dawn newspaper reported.

To win the Chief Minister’s election, a candidate needs to win the backing of the majority, which is 187 members in the House that currently has 327 seats.

Addressing a press conference, PTI’s central leader, Shaukat Basra, claimed that more than half of the elected Punjab Assembly members, including the newly elected Chief Minister Maryam, were in the House on “a stolen mandate”.

He claimed that Ms. Nawaz was defeated by a PTI-backed candidate, Mehr Sharafat, in Lahore’s PP-159 constituency, according to the report.

Asserting that the results were rigged to ensure the new Punjab Chief Minister’s victory, Mr. Basra said that Ms. Nawaz “won the election on February 9 instead of February 8”.

“PML-N leaders used to say they struck a deal with powers that be, but they failed to strike a deal with the people of Pakistan,” he said.

“This rigged election will result in anarchy,” the PTI leader said.

Claiming that the establishment was still requesting PTI founder Khan to become Prime Minister, Mr. Basra said, “But Mr. Khan is determined that the establishment should ensure the mandate given by the people of Pakistan to PTI-backed candidates be returned,” he said.

Separately, the party criticised Ms. Nawaz’s election as the Chief Minister of the politically crucial Punjab Province and said all democratic and constitutional norms were trampled to elect her.

In a statement, the party’s spokesperson claimed that police “imposed a curfew” outside the assembly to prevent PTI’s members and the nominee for Chief Minister from entering the assembly.

It claimed that the sanctity of the Punjab Assembly was violated by “stealing the public mandate” to bring a “defeated woman” to power.

The spokesperson said the people of Punjab “would not tolerate an insult to their mandate”, according to the report.

At least 103 lawmakers of the PTI-backed SIC staged a walkout after the SIC nominee for Chief Minister, Aftab, was not permitted to speak at the point of order.

The newly-elected Speaker, Malik Ahmad Khan, eventually moved forward with the proceedings to elect a new leader of the House after efforts to bring back the boycotting lawmakers went in vain.

The PML-N clinched both speaker and deputy speaker offices in the Punjab Assembly.

In a marathon session of the Punjab Assembly on Saturday, the lawmakers elected PML-N leader Malik Ahmad Khan as the custodian of the House and Zaheer Iqbal Channar as his deputy.

The PML-N won 137 seats, while independents backed by 71-year-old Khan’s PTI party won 113 in the Punjab Assembly. Separately, 20-odd independents, not PTI-backed, have already joined the PML-N.

Punjab is the most populous Province of Pakistan, home to 120 million people.

Source link

#Assembly #session #called #notifying #reserved #seats #Imran #Khans #party

Imran Khan’s party to sit in Opposition in Pakistan’s Parliament; to protest against poll rigging

Post By World , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has decided to sit in the Opposition in Parliament while launching a countrywide protest against alleged rigging in the elections after its efforts to form the next government failed.

The major political parties in Pakistan have stepped up efforts to form a federal government after the February 8 elections delivered a split verdict.

While Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party-backed independent candidates dominated the election results, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) claimed to have enough numbers to form the government as some independents joined the Nawaz Sharif-led party post-polls.

PTI leader Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif announced on February 16 that following the instructions of PTI founder Khan, the party has decided to sit in the Opposition both at the Centre and in the key province of Punjab.

The decision came a day after the party had named Umar Ayub Khan as its candidate for the Prime Minister and Aslam Iqbal as Chief Minister for Punjab.

Talking to the media on Friday night [February 16] after visiting the Qaumi Watan Party in Islamabad, Mr. Saif said that the party decided to sit in the Opposition in the Centre and Punjab under the instructions of party founder Khan.

“We decided to sit in Opposition despite the reality that if we received seats according to our votes and the results were not changed then maybe today we might have been in the Centre with 180 seats. We have the evidence that our candidates won,” he said.

The party, which also issued a white paper against alleged rigging on Friday, has decided to kick off its demonstrations from February 17.

A PTI source said that the party’s incarcerated founder has tasked former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser with engaging political parties to muster support for the protest drive.

A PTI delegation led by Mr. Qaisar met the leader of Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) and Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) on Friday, while a meeting with Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party’s Mehmood Khan Achakzai is scheduled to take place on Saturday.

Mr. Qaiser-led delegation also met Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader Mian Muhammad Aslam and discussed the post-election scenario. The delegation sought JI’s support for joint protests against the alleged rigging.

It was not clear if the party would participate in the election of the Prime Minister and Punjab Chief Minister after the decision to join the Opposition ranks.

Khan’s party claimed that at least 85 seats won by it in Parliament were snatched in the “biggest voter fraud” in the country’s history and announced plans to hold “peaceful” nationwide protests on Saturday against alleged rigging.

PTI’s core committee met on Friday and finalised the plans for the nationwide protest campaign on the call of the party’s founder Khan.

The meeting urged the whole nation to come out of their houses against the “massive rigging”. The meeting also sought the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner.

Independent candidates — a majority backed by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — won 93 of the 265 National Assembly seats that were contested in the February 8 election.

However, PTI’s two main rivals appear on course to form a coalition government after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) formed a post-poll alliance on Tuesday.

The PML-N won 75 seats while the PPP came third with 54 seats. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) has also agreed to support them with their 17 seats. To form a government, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly. Khan declared on Friday will not seek political vengeance upon returning to power.

“We will not take any political revenge, but we will take the country and the nation forward for the sake of the development of the country and the nation,” he stated, as conveyed by PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan following a 30-minute long meeting with Imran Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.

PTI’s Information Secretary Raoof Hasan and other leaders including Sher Afzal Marwat, Rehana Dar, Shoaib Shaheen and Salman Akram Raja, who challenged their election results before various forums, addressed a press conference in Islamabad.

Mr. Hasan said that 2024 would be remembered due to the “biggest voter fraud” in Pakistan’s history against the party and its candidates.

“According to our estimates, out of 177 [National Assembly] seats which were supposed to be ours, only 92 have been given to us. And 85 seats have been taken away from us fraudulently,” he said.

Editorial | Pakistan in turmoil: On the Pakistan elections and results 

He said that the party was taking constitutional and legal steps to counter the rigging and get its right. “We have verified data about 46 seats and it is being compiled for 39 seats,” he said.

Mr. Hasan also highlighted the discrepancies between Form 45 and Form 47, which respectively deal with counting in each polling station in a constituency and the overall count of all polling stations.

Mr. Hasan claimed there was a huge difference in the numbers of votes polled for National Assembly and provincial assembly seats. He said that the number of rejected votes, in certain cases, exceeded the margin of victory.

Separately, Mr. Hasan affirmed the party’s readiness for dialogue with the establishment, emphasising that the purpose of contacting political parties is not to form an electoral alliance but to bring all political forces together on a unified platform.

Speaking on the Express Tribune newspaper, Mr. Hasan highlighted that PTI’s founder has consistently advocated for engaging with all political parties. He emphasised that if political parties engage in positive politics, there is no harm in holding meetings and fostering collaboration.

“The purpose of contacting political parties is not at all an electoral alliance; our aim is that all political parties come together on one platform,” stated Mr. Hasan during the programme.

Source link

#Imran #Khans #party #sit #Opposition #Pakistans #Parliament #protest #poll #rigging

As Pakistan goes to elections, farmers want climate change action, not words

Post By World , , , , , , , , ,

Tending to his wilting wheat crop after months of drought and smog, Pakistani farmer Aamer Hayat Bhandara said his biggest hope for the general election is that whoever wins makes good on a flurry of campaign promises to tackle climate change. Pakistan goes to polls on February 8.

The two frontrunners – the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – have both proposed similar climate policies in their manifestos, highlighting growing concern about the effects of global warming after devastating 2022 floods.

Changing climate patterns

“The smog and absence of rain for three consecutive months robbed crops of sunlight…and caused rust — or fungal infection — on wheat,” said Mr. Bhandara, 38, a farmer in Punjab province and co-founder of the Agriculture Republic think-tank, which represents small- and medium-scale farmers.

He said changing climate patterns had shortened winters and stretched summers, with heatwaves impacting his rice and corn crops, while untimely rains and hailstorms have battered his wheat harvests. That made the parties’ promises for climate action – from boosting renewable energy to investing in early warning systems for floods and heatwaves – welcome reading for him and other farmers at the sharp end of climate change.

“The pledges are wonderful,” Mr. Bhandara said. “Heightened climate action not only holds the potential to ease economic pressures but also to generate employment opportunities.” He added, however, that “the crux of the challenge is to translate these policies into action”.

Pakistan produces less than 1% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, but ranks 8th among countries most vulnerable to extreme weather linked to climate change, according to the latest edition of the Global Climate Risk Index.

Homes are surrounded by floodwaters in Sohbat Pur city, a district of Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan province, Aug. 29, 2022.
| Photo Credit:
AP

The floods in 2022 killed more than 1,700 people, displaced 8 million and destroyed about a million homes and livelihoods across the country of 220 million – fuelling calls for the Government to prioritise the fight against climate change.

Politicians promise to fight climate change

Outlining his party’s plans to overhaul Pakistan’s development model to stabilise its troubled economy, PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told Reuters this month his strategy would put “the threat of climate change front and centre”.

He said the PPP also aims to ensure global funds exceeding $10 billion pledged last year to help Pakistan rebound from the floods are used to fight climate change.

Similarly, the PMLN has vowed to use the funds to implement the Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation, and Reconstruction Framework, dubbed 4RF, a recovery strategy to build long-term climate resilience and adaptation developed with international organisations.

The party’s proposals also include strict enforcement of environmental protection laws, upgrading brick kilns to fight air pollution, and planting native tree species to curb the use of fertilisers, reduce soil erosion and save water, among others.

Party president Shehbaz Sharif has described climate change as a “development, economic, human and national security issue”.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), left in disarray by the jailing and election ban on its leader Imran Khan last month, has not released its manifesto yet.

Implementation is key, say activists

Economists warn that a lack of adequate measures to fight the effects of climate change could deal another blow to a cash-strapped economy already grappling with historic inflation and an unstable rupee.

A 2022 World Bank report highlighted Pakistan’s staggering financial requirements to combat climate-induced disasters, estimating a $300 billion gap in available funds.

Without urgent action, climate change could shave off one-fifth of GDP, it said.

But Ahmad Rafay Alam, an environmental lawyer and activist, said the frontrunners’ election manifestos neglected the economic effects of climate change. “The transformative effects that [the] climate crisis brings to our economy such as the effects on the market economy of agriculture, coastal resources, energy, forestry, tourism, and water are overlooked,” he said. Authorities often fail to implement their policies, he added.

Despite Government pledges to boost clean energy, Pakistan’s renewable energy growth has lagged — rising from 0% of total power generation capacity in 2010 to 5.7% in 2023, while the global average went from 2% to 12% over the same period.

Part of the challenge stems from the fact that critical sectors such as agriculture, water, transport, energy, urban development and forestry fall under provincial government control.

“Climate governance necessitates a tailored, province-specific approach rather than a federal, one-size-fits-all strategy,” Mr. Alam said by phone from the city of Lahore.

Others have voiced concern that the party manifestos pay scant attention to communities displaced by climate-related disasters or those in climate hotspots including low-lying coastal areas and mountainous regions threatened by glacial melting.

‘We risk losing everything’

But environmental activists and farmers have broadly welcomed the focus on climate issues for the first time in this year’s election campaign.

In a village near Chichawatni in Pakistan’s cotton-growing belt, farmer Jawwad Nawaz, 32, said the PMLN’s manifesto represents “a lifeline for the agricultural community”, adding that he hopes the proposed policies translate into tangible support for farmers.

Lahore-based climate activist Mawra Muzaffar said she had seen progress in Sindh province under the PPP that showed what could be achieved — from growing mangroves to importing electric buses. The PMLN’s vows to boost the use of clean energy in agriculture through solar panels are realistic and feasible, she said. “Moreover, it talks about a 10% reduction in carbon emissions, which if achieved will be very important,” she added.

In his village in Pakpattan district, Bhandara said the success of such policies must go hand-in-hand with climate adaptation measures for farmers.

His think-tank, and Digital Dera, a tech startup, is calling for the establishment of a national fund for research, innovation, resilience, and financial security for farmers. “Farmers need support for adaptation, and the Government must bear the cost of these measures,” he said, calling for urgent action to implement such policies.

“We can’t afford to waste time when it comes to climate change…Otherwise, we risk losing everything – including our food security and livelihoods,” he said, before hurrying off to meet an election candidate visiting his village.

Source link

#Pakistan #elections #farmers #climate #change #action #words