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BEIJING: A sweeping purge of Chinese generals has weakened the People’s Liberation Army, exposing deep-rooted corruption that could take more time to fix and slow Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s military modernisation drive amid geopolitical tensions, analysts say. China’s top lawmakers ousted nine senior military officers from the national legislative body on Friday, state media reported, a step that typically precedes further punishment for wayward cadres. Many of these were from the Rocket Force, a key arm of the PLA overseeing tactical and nuclear missiles. The recent downfall of generals and military equipment suppliers, however, has punctured some of this aura, and raised questions over whether there has been adequate oversight over these massive military investments as China vies with the United States in key areas, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. Since Xi took power in 2012, he has embarked on a wide-ranging anti-corruption crackdown among Communist Party and governme...

• Palestinians long for peace, but hopes of ceasefire seem farther than ever • Israeli minister calls for return of settlers to Gaza GAZA CITY: Israeli jets intensified attacks on central Gaza on Sunday, residents and medics said, as battles raged through the rubble of towns and refugee camps in a war that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would take “many more months” to end. Netanyahu’s comments signal no let-up in a campaign that has killed many thousands and levelled much of Gaza, while his vow to restore Israeli control over the enclave’s border with Egypt raises new questions over an eventual two-state solution. Air strikes pounded al-Maghazi and al-Bureij in the centre of Gaza, killing 10 people in one house and driving more to flee to Rafah on the border with Egypt from front lines where Israeli tanks are battling Hamas fighters. At least 48 Palestinians were killed in overnight bombing in Gaza City, the health ministry said, with many still buried under the r...

• Omar Ayub alleges ‘status quo forces’ resorting to underhanded tactics • Barrister Gohar says ECP failed to perform its constitutional duties ISLAMABAD: The PTI decried on Saturday the rejection of the nomination papers of several of its election candidates, including Murad Saeed and Sahibzada Sibghatullah. PTI’s Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan has branded these rejections as “politically motivated”, accusing the “forces of status quo” of resorting to underhanded tactics because they lacked the courage to face the PTI in a free and fair election. In a statement issued on Saturday, Mr Ayub warned that such “pre-poll rigging” threatened the transparency of the election process, potentially exacerbating political instability and undermining national unity. He condemned the rejection of the nomination papers of several PTI candidates, including Murad Saeed, Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Dr Amjad Khan, Fazal Hakim Khan, Mian Sharafat and Salimur Rahman. “I had already predicted that...

LAHORE: Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday emphasised that the upcoming elections on February 8 are not ordinary, calling on the people to cast their votes with renewed passion to save the country as it faces some existential issues. Speaking to workers in Sheikhupura, the PML-N president emphasised, “We have to fight poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment. It doesn’t matter if the country lacks oil wealth; we have a talented youth that can lead the country out of any crisis.” Referring to the upcoming election as “very important”, he stated, “We have not taught the youth abuses and hatred. On election day, people will have to decide who has served the country with sincerity and who has attacked and sabotaged the state.” Under the rule and guidance of its Quaid Nawaz Sharif, the PML-N eliminated the menace of loadshedding in the country, which was suffering up to 20 hours of electricity absence. It was Nawaz Sharif who fought terrorism and put an end to it, bringin...

QUETTA: South Asian Partnership (SAP) and Aurat Foundation have asserted that considering population statistics, the proportion of reserved seats for women should be increased in all elected assemblies and local bodies. They emphasised that this increase should be implemented immediately through a constitutional amendment, raising it to 33 per cent. Shahida Kakar, representative of SAP, along with Yasmeen Mughal, Alauddin Khilji, and Shugufta Khan of Aurat Foundation, stated this during a joint press conference on Saturday. Ms Kakar, while referring to the lists issued by political parties, said it shows that once again, active women workers, trans­g­ender individuals, and pers­ons with disabilities have been neglected. She criticised the practice by political parties of nominating women from influential families only. Highlighting the issue, she added: “Only 11pc of women candidates have been nominated for election on general seats of national and provincial assemblies, which is ...

LARKANA: People ride a rickshaw on a foggy morning, on Saturday. Although Punjab suffers the most from air pollution, the menace has started troubling Sindh as well. Poor visibility led to cancellation of several flights and delayed departure of trains from Lahore and other stations in Punjab.—AFP LAHORE: The foggy weather continues to disrupt flight and train schedules adversely, leading to the cancellation of various flights and delaying the departure of express trains from Lahore and other major stations in Punjab. Official sources said fli­ghts, including PIA’s Jed­­dah-Karachi, Islamabad-Jeddah, Peshawar-Kara­chi, and some others, were ca­­ncelled, while several others either couldn’t land or depart from Karachi and other airports in Punjab. Similarly, trains, including Karakoram Express, Business Express, Millat Express, and some others, also departed from Lahore to various destinations late by three to four hours from their actual departure timings. Traffic disrupted Hea...

• State joins Colorado in disqualifying him over role in assault on US Capitol • Campaign spokesman says ex-president will appeal the decision Donald Trump WASHINGTON: The US state of Maine on Thursday blocked former president Donald Trump from its Republican presidential primary ballot, the second state to disqualify him over his role in the January 2021 assault on the US Capitol. Maine’s top election official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, decided in favour of the citizens who had claimed that Trump should be constitutionally barred from seeking re-election after trying to upend the 2020 election. Bellows said in her decision that the January 6 attack “occurred at the behest of, and with the knowledge and support of, the outgoing President”. “The US Constitution does not tolerate an assault on the foundations of our government and (Maine law) requires me to act in response,” read the decision, which came in response to challenges filed by a handful of Maine voters. Mai...

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday ruled that the federal capital’s deputy commissioner, who also acts as the district magistrate, does not have the authority to issue detention orders under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) Ordinance, 1960. The ordinance provides the government with vast powers of detention and has been used by authorities to round up and detain PTI leaders following the May 9 riots. Section 3 of MPO states: “The government, if satisfied that with a view to preventing any person from acting in any manner prejudicial to public safety or the maintenance of public order, it is necessary to do, may, by an order in writing, direct the arrest and detention in such custody […] and [the] government, if satisfied that for the aforesaid reasons, it is necessary so to do, may extend from time to time the period of such detention, for a period not exceeding six months at a time.” Justice Babar Sattar presided over the hearing today on petitions filed by...

RAWALPINDI: Police have implicated PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi in at least 12 different cases registered by the district police in connection with the May 9 violence — erupted after the arrest of former PTI chairman Imran Khan — as a magistrate on Thursday sent him to Adiala Jail on a two-week remand in a case regarding the attack on the General Headquarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi. The court rejected the Punjab police request for a 30-day remand of the former foreign minister and sent him to prison for two weeks. The former foreign minister, who was whisked away by the police from prison, claimed that he was “mentally and physically tortured” on Wednesday night. He was detained in a case regarding the attack on the General Headquarters (GHQ) on May 9. Sources said the Rawalpindi police have implicated the PTI leader in 12 different FIRs registered with the district police in connection with the May 9 violence. The PTI leader was brought to the court of Magistrate Syed Jhangeer Ali i...

LAHORE: With elections just round the corner, the PML-N on Wednesday unveiled an online portal to seek inputs from Pakistani nationals at home and abroad by Jan 5 for its upcoming manifesto, likely to be launched in the second week of next month. PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif underscored the participation of people in this endeavour and said the former ruling party aimed to enter elections “with a mission to identify Pakistan’s main issues across various sectors and propose implementable solutions”. “We extend an invitation to you, the people of Pakistan, to help us achieve this objective. Visit ‘pmln2024.com’ now and be an integral part of shaping a meaningful manifesto that propels Pakistan forward,” the PML-N president said on the occasion. PML-N Chief Organiser Maryam Nawaz tweeted, “PML-N’s unbreakable bond with the people is its greatest strength! We are excited to take this cornerstone of our politics into the digital age with an online portal that empowers every Pakistani, ...

ISLAMABAD: Senators from different political parties on Tuesday called into question the caretakers government’s move to legislate, with just 45 days left before the general election. As a result of the outcry and subsequent ruckus, as well as a lack of quorum, the Senate chairman was forced to adjourn proceedings until Friday. As per the day’s agenda, caretaker ministers were supposed to introduce four bills in the Senate, besides laying an equal number of ordinances before the house. But when caretaker Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi began to introduce a bill seeking amendment to The Motion Pictures Ordinance, 1979, senators from different political parties, including PML-N and PTI, raised objection. The lawmakers wondered what the urgency was to introduce legislative business at a time when parliament was incomplete. They also disputed the promulgation of ordinances. PML-N Senator Saadia Abbasi was the first to raise an objection, pointing out that the c...

LAHORE: The award of tickets has become a thorny issue in the PML-N camp, with former Punjab chief minister Hamza Shehbaz reportedly asking his uncle, Nawaz Sharif, not to ignore party loyalists in the distribution of tickets for general and reserved seats. The PML-N leadership’s decision to nominate women, either from influential families or the upper echelons of society, for reserved seats has already sparked discontent among women workers, who are questioning the criteria of the selection process. “Now, Hamza Shehbaz has joined [this chorus] and requested the party supremo to give importance to loyal workers,” a party insider told Dawn on Tuesday. The source said the party’s old guard was worried over the preference being shown for new faces. It may be noted that Hamza, who is the son of PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, has kept a low profile since he lost the chief minister’s office to Chaudhry Parvez Elahi in July last year. Ex-Punjab CM asks uncle Nawaz not to ignore ‘party l...

NAWABSHAH: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Monday that 17 federal ministries had become redundant after the 18th Amendment, and would be abolished if his party came to power, adding that the Rs300 billion saved in this way would be utilised for the people’s welfare through the kissan, mazdoor and youth cards. Energy parks will be set up at the district level under the public-private partnership and up to 300 units of free electricity will be provided to poor families, he announced. Sharing key points of PPP’s manifesto while addressing the 3rd passing-out parade of Bakhtawar Cadet College for Girls Nawabshah as the chief guest, he said Pakistan was facing an economic crisis, climate change issues, population explosion and poverty but all these problems would be overcome by burying the politics of divide and hatred. He said it was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who gave an ideology and the slogan of roti, kapra and makan decades ago, adding that these basic necessities are still nee...

SRINAGAR: Three days after the death of at least three Kashmiri civilians after being tortured in the custody of Indian forces whose video leak sparked outrage in the disputed region, a military official said on Monday that the Indian army launched an investigation into the incident and moved senior officers from the disputed area, though the defence spokesperson claimed he was unaware of any inquiry. Residents in the area said that the civilians had been detained for questioning after an alleged attack on Indian army vehicles on Thursday, killing four soldiers.A purported video clip showing Indian personnel stripping three men and sprinkling chili powder on them has gone viral on social media, causing widespread outrage in the region. The inquiry was ordered as a result of the civilians’ deaths, said the official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Indian army chief Manoj Pande visited Poonch on Monday to review the operational prep...

PESHAWAR/LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The PTI is expected to approach the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday (today) in a bid to retain the ‘bat’ as the party’s symbol for the upcoming elections. “It is our legitimate right to contest the upcoming general election with the symbol of bat,” party spokesperson Raoof Hasan told Dawn , referring to the Election Commission of Pakistan’s Dec 22 order , which declared its intra-party polls void and stripped the party of its election symbol.. “On Tuesday, we will file the petition in the PHC, hoping that the court will direct the ECP to allow the party to contest under the slogan of bat,” he said. Meanwhile, in Peshawar, Advocate Shah Faisal Uthmankhel, senior vice president of the Insaf Lawyers’ Forum, told Dawn that the party’s chairman, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, had met founder Imran Khan in prison and consulted him over the filing of the petition. Submits 230 nomination papers for 44 NA and 435 for 97 PA seats in central Punjab “Imran Khan h...

GAZA: Even on Christmas day, the land where Jesus Christ was born remained in the crosshairs of the Israeli military, which continued its relentless bombing of Gaza, as well as launching raids in West Bank cities such as Bethlehem, on Sunday. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that war with Israel since early October has killed at least 20,674 people in the Palestinian territory. The ministry added that 54,536 people have been wounded since the start of Israeli hostilities. The health ministry said that an Israeli air strike killed at least 70 people at the Al-Maghazi refugee camp. Biblical Bethlehem also among West Bank towns raided by Israeli forces Palestinian health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said the toll was likely to climb, adding: “What is happening at the Maghazi camp is a massacre that is being committed on a crowded residential square”. Before dawn, an Israeli strike “targeting a house” in the central Al-Zuwaida area killed at least 12 peopl...

LAHORE: The PTI has not managed to catch a break, as it claimed that several of its candidates were left injured, harassed and intimidated and unable to file their nomination papers for the Feb 8 elections until the closing of the process on Sunday evening. However, the party said it still managed to submit nomination papers of a large number of its aspirants. The PTI was dealt yet another blow when the ECP did not share the lists of names of its aspirants for reserved seats for women and minorities. The party is now hoping to get relief from the Peshawar High Court, where it has challenged the watchdog’s decision of depriving it of its election symbol. The situation has forced the party to employ multiple means to stay in the election arena against all odds. Though the party’s status remains unclear, the potential candidates did mention in their nomination papers that they belong to the PTI. The PTI has also filed a large number of complaints with the ECP against the “highhandedne...

ISLAMABAD: The Emergency Committee under the International Health Regulations on the international spread of poliovirus has warned that re-infection of epidemiologically-critical areas and historical reservoirs in Pakistan and Afghanistan represent a significant risk to the gains made during the last 18 months. The emergency committee, in a statement issued in Geneva on Friday, says the risk of international spread of wild poliovirus remains since the actual spread of Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) lineages seen predominantly in Afghanistan in 2022 now being detected in Pakistan in 2023. In this regard, the statement mentioned historical reservoirs like Karachi and the Quetta block in Pakistan and Kandahar in Afghanistan. According to the statement, high-risk mobile populations in Pakistan represent a specific risk of international spread to Afghanistan in particular, compounded by the large number of returnees from Pakistan into various parts of Afghanistan. The large pool of unvacc...

• Apex court says plea suffers from ‘deficiencies’ • Khosa’s clerk ‘mugged on SC premises’ • Appeal claims ECP blocked ex-PM’s right to contest polls ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Court office on Saturday returned an appeal seeking to set aside the three-year conviction awarded to former prime minister Imran Khan in the Toshakhana case. The registrar’s office returned the appeal moved by Mr Khan through his counsel Sardar Latif Khosa under Article 185 of the Constitution, challenging the Dec 11, 2023, Islamabad High Court (IHC) decision of rejecting a similar plea for lacking necessary requirements, including absence of actual controversies or chronology of the past litigation. The petition was filed with a plea to overturn the Aug 5 conviction awarded by additional sessions judge, Islamabad, for illegally selling state gifts. The registrar’s office, however, returned the appeal with observations that the same was suffering from a number of deficiencies, like the concise statement...

• BYC issues ultimatum for withdrawal of cases; demands UN probe • 160 protesters granted bail, police claim ISLAMABAD: As a protest outside the National Press Club in Islamabad against the enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings continued, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee — organiser of the long march — gave the authorities a three-day ultimatum to quash cases registered against students and activists and release all protesters. A statement issued by the BYC on their social media platform said over 100 Baloch students were “missing” after the crackdown on the march by the police on Wed­nesday night. “Nearly 350 of our students and families were arrested…the females and 33 students were granted bail the next day, while more than 250 of our students are still in jail…more than 100 still have not been presented before court,” it claimed. The protesters demanded the withdrawal of all cases registered in different cities — including Islamabad — against the participants of...

• 13 of 15 members back resolution seeking immediate acceleration of aid supplies, US and Russia abstain • UN chief laments how Israeli bombing is hampering humanitarian relief efforts UNITED NATIONS: Following numerous delays and intense negotiations, the UN Security Council finally adopted a significantly diluted resolution on Friday, which calls for an immediate acceleration of aid deliveries to Gaza. But it falls short of demanding an “urgent suspension of hostilities,” as originally proposed in the UAE draft. Thirteen of the 15 council members voted in favour of the resolution, with no member state voting against it. The United States, leading the weeklong consensus negotiations, abstained due to the absence of a condemnation of Hamas. Russia also abstained, labelling the resolution as ‘toothless’ and asserting that it permits Israel to continue military operations against the Palestinians. Their abstentions, however, allowed the resolution to pass, as a negative vote by any ...

ISLAMABAD: A senior counsel representing some petitioners before the Supreme Court on Thursday requested the secretary for placing a letter he wrote to the special three-judge committee stating that the earlier six-judge bench that heard intra-court appeals (ICAs) against the military court case has not been constituted properly and, therefore, it should be reconstituted. On Thursday, Advocate Faisal Siddiqui wrote a four-page letter to the secretary with a request to place the letter before the committee constituted under Section 2 of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act, 2023, that fixes cases before different benches so that the six-judge Supreme Court bench, which will resume hearing on a set of ICAs against the Oct 23 judgement, should be reconstituted. The bench is likely to hear the matter in the third week of Jan 2024. Headed by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, the bench by a majority of five to one had suspended on Dec 13 the Oct 23 short order of declaring as unconst...

ISLAMABAD: After Lal Masjid started unauthorised construction on a plot adjacent to it in Sector G-6, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) swung into action on Wednesday and asked the mosque administration to halt the construction and remove the erected structure within 15 days. The land on which the construction is ongoing had once housed Jamia Hafsa and the Children’s Library, which were demolished following the military operation in 2007. After the operation, the government and the mosque administration, led by Maulana Abdul Aziz, reached an agreement under which the CDA provided an alternative site for the reconstruction of Jamia Hafsa in H-11. Similarly, the CDA also altered the master plan for the G-6 civic centre and left the entire area around the mosque vacant. Previously, in the vicinity of the mosque, plots were reserved for a children’s library, a gymnasium, an author’s corner etc. Civic body asks mosque admin to remove encroachment within 15 days or face action T...

WASHINGTON: In a two-hour engagement with US scholars and policymakers on Tuesday, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Gen Syed Asim Munir highlighted Pakistan’s desire to develop as a hub of economic connectivity without getting involved in bloc politics and the US-China rivalry. “Pakistan is a country of consequence both from geopolitical and geoeconomic perspectives and wishes to develop itself as a hub of connectivity and a gateway to Central Asia and beyond,” he told US think tank experts at a gathering at the Pakistan Embassy. The army chief stressed the need to “eschew bloc politics” and maintain “balanced relations” with all friendly countries, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations. On the last day of his eight-day visit, Gen Munir engaged in a candid discourse, highlighting Pakistan’s perspective on security, transnational terrorism, and importance of maintaining strategic stability in South Asia. Interacts with US scholars, policymakers on last day of visit; reaffi...