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Friday, 9 September, 2022 I 12 Safar, 1444 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XIII No 71 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
Imran to be IndIcted In contempt case on sept 22 g
JuSTICe MINALLAH TeRMS CRIMINAL CONTeMPT A SeRIOuS MATTeR, HAVINg NO JuSTIfICATION
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BOTH AMICuS, PBC RePReSeNTATIVe SuggeST ONe MORe OPPORTuNITy TO IMRAN fOR uNCONDITIONAL APOLOgy
ISLAMABAD
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Staff RepoRt
He Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday expressed dissatisfaction with the supplementary reply submitted by former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and decided to indict him in a contempt of court case on September 22. The IHC larger bench led by Chief Justice Athar Minallah and comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri and Justice Babar Sattar was hearing the contempt of court case against Imran following his remarks against Additional Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry. During hearing, the IHC bench expressed dissatisfaction over Imran’s supplementary reply in the contempt case, saying the party chief’s statement ‘incitement’. Both the amicus suggested the IHC discharge show cause notice against the former prime minister and even Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) representative
Akhtar Hussain requested the court to give another opportunity to Imran for tendering an unconditional apology. However, the IHC unanimously decided to indict him. The former premier was present in court with his lawyer Hamid Khan. “As per the court’s observation we have submitted the reply”, Hamid said,
referring to Imran’s statement regarding the case. After the IHC’s show cause notice, the former premier submitted a second written reply yesterday, expressing his deep regret for the “unintentional” words he spoke about the judge. “There will be no shame in expressing regret to the judge for my words,” the PTI leader
had said. Hamid maintained that his client wanted the matter to be closed, which was mentioned in the written reply to the court. He further said that during the hearing on August 31, the court handed over the cases of Daniyal Aziz and Talal Chaudhry. He added that he would explicate how Imran’s case was different from those Supreme Court decisions. “I will also place the decision of the Supreme Court in the Imran Khan case before the court”, he said. IHC CJ Minallah said that the aim was to highlight three judgments of the Supreme Court, that in the firdous Ashiq Awan case, three types of contempt of court are mentioned and that the Talal Chaudhry case was not criminal contempt of court. The chief justice reiterated that criminal contempt of court was serious and intent could not be mentioned in it. He further stated that the counsel was told during the last hearing that this reference was of criminal contempt of court. CJ Minallah maintained that there were no criminal contempt proceed-
US okays possible sale of F-16 equipment to Pakistan: Pentagon g
WASHINGTON The uS State Department has approved the potential sale of f-16 aircraft sustainment and related equipment to Pakistan in a deal valued at up to $450 million, the Pentagon said. The principal contractor will be Lockheed Martin Corporation, the Pentagon said. In a notification to Congress, the
State Department “made a determination approving the possible sale”, arguing it will sustain Islamabad’s capability to meet current and future counterterrorism threats by maintaining its f-16 fleet. The package includes the uS government and contractor engineering, technical, and logistics services, a press statement issued to this effect said. But the sale won’t provide Pakistan with any new capabilities, weapons, or muni-
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Battle on to save Dadu, Jamshoro amid mass evacuation
STATe DePARTMeNT SAyS SALe WON’T ALTeR ‘BASIC MILITARy BALANCe’ IN RegION
Staff RepoRt
ings against Daniyal Aziz or Talal Chaudhry and that the high court was bound by the apex court’s decisions. Imran’s counsel restated that they wanted to close this matter and had submitted the reports with the utmost respect. “The court gave another opportunity to which a detailed reply was filed,” Hamid said. Justice Minallah stated that criminal contempt was a serious matter which had no justification. “We are defenders of freedom of expression but incitement cannot be allowed. In criminal contempt, you cannot plead your intentions,” he said. On the direction of the court, Hamid read a part of a Supreme Court case. The chief justice maintained that the PTI leader had tried to give justifications in his response and questioned if any former premier could justify that the IHC CJ did not know the law. “We have to follow the law, no one can influence us”, he said, adding that a great crime was committed but that there was no realisation of it.
tions. The programme will not alter the basic military balance in the region either, the statement said in an apparent reference to India who the uS sees as a bulwark to counter China. There will also be “no adverse impact” on uS defense readiness as a result of this proposed sale, it added. The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), which oversees foreign arms sales, underscored: “This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the united States by allowing Pakistan to retain interoperability with uS and partner forces in ongoing counterterrorism efforts and in preparation for future contingency operations.” Pakistan has a long history of buying American military hardware, especially in the years after 2001 when Islamabad was seen as a key partner in the uS-led War on Terror. Pakistan bought several batches of f-16 planes, built by Lockheed Martin, from Washington before relations soured and the united States cut off subsidised sales in 2016.
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KARACHI/HYDERABAD/ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
The authorities on Thursday engaged in hectic efforts to plug a breach in Main Nara Valley Drain — also known as Right Bank Outfall Drain-I (RBOD) to stop gushing water flowing towards Dadu city amid mass evacuations in parts of Sindh while from the death toll from the unprecedented flood rose to 1,391 with 36 more people perished during the past 24 hours. According to authorities and relief agencies, a breach had occurred in RBOD-I at RD-10, which was expected to ease the risk of flooding in Dadu and Jamshoro districts. However, the situation turned ugly on Thursday flow of water towards Dadu city increased. PPP MPA Pir Mujeebul Haq, elected from Dadu’s PS-85 constituency, informed that the water is flowing rapidly towards Dadu city. Dadu Deputy Commissioner (DC) Syed Murtaza Ali Shah said additional machinery was being em-
ployed to plug the breach, adding that work was also under way to raise embankments to protect the city. He claimed that 90 percent of the breach had been plugged, expressing the hope that the situation would be brought under control soon. In recent days, two breaches were deliberately made in Manchhar Lake’s protective dyke to divert the flow of floodwaters draining into it towards less populated areas and prevent flooding in the densely populated cities of Sehwan and Bhan Syedabad. A Reuters report on Wednesday mentioned that country’s largest freshwater lake was “dangerously close to bursting its banks, even after having been breached in an operation that displaced 100,000 people”. And the threat has lingered even as the water level in the lake dropped, albeit marginally, amid reports of water from the lake continuing to submerge parts of the province.
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PM Shehbaz says Imran Khan ‘out to undermine Pakistan’ ISLAMABAD Staff RepoRt
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday criticised the economic policies of the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government and said Imran Khan is out to “undermine Pakistan”. Referring to two news stories published in the British weekly The economist, the premier said the international publication had “validated” what the government had been saying regarding PTI’s handling of the economy. The prime minister said the magazine had stated that the former premier “blew up” the IMf deal and Imran was “exploiting the disaster to score political points”. Senior leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) have also criticized Imran, accusing him of doing divisive politics amid devastat-
ing floods in self-serving interest. Later in the day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that with the country facing severe challenges including the worst flooding in history, there was a need for all to join hands to pay heed to the miseries of floodhit masses by leaving political differences aside. “Millions of people are sitting under the open sky and waiting for some Masiha to come to their help. If we have to save the people of Pakistan and its future, we have to work together with courage, brotherhood and harmony. Let’s resolve to be together in this hour of need,” the Prime Minister told media-persons from the print and electronic mediums. Prime Minister Sharif, who informed the newsmen about the huge human and material losses caused by the floods, observed that at a time when the nation was facing the severe floods’ situation, those
who talk about Riasat-e-Madina were busy in the activities, contrary to their claims. “Is it the politics,” he remarked without naming any party. The Prime Minister also urged media to play their role in uniting the nation to face the challenges. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that with the province of Sindh hit most by the current floods, which were worst in the country’s history, were much bigger than the 2010 floods in terms of its spread and devastation. “Over 1300 deaths and many more injured due to floods, thousands of villages in Sindh were inundated; rice, cotton and datepalm crops on millions of acres were destroyed and the human life had come to a standstill,” he added. The Prime Minister said that with poor people’s houses destroyed and around 700,000 cattle and livestock lost in the floods, over 33 million people have been affected due to
floods. After Sindh, Balochistan was the most affected province followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Southern Punjab and some parts of gilgit Baltistan, he added. The Prime Minister said that as rescue and relief efforts were continuing in the flood affected areas through effective coordination among the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), the Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs) and the National flood Response and Coordination Center (NfRCC), the federal and provincial government were doing their best to help the flood-hit people. Besides, he said, the country’s armed forces personnel from Army, Navy and Air force were also working day and night in the flood affected areas in the rescue and relief efforts by using their resources including boats and helicopters.
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