Friday, 23 September, 2022 I 26 Safar, 1444 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XIII No 85 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
Gates pledGes support for flood hit pakistan in meetinG with pm
NEW YORK
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staff report
RIMe Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif Thursday met Bill Gates, cochair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to discuss recent devastation caused by flooding in Pakistan, which has displaced 33 million people, as well as polio eradication and primary health services in the country. The Prime Minister updated Mr. Gates on the impact the floods on people’s lives and livelihoods, and public health in Pakistan, and the work the Government was urgently undertaking to alleviate suffering. Bill Gates expressed his concern for the people of Pakistan following the floods and reiterated the Foundation’s continuous support and partnership with Pakistan during this challenging time. He affirmed that the Gates Foundation will continue its current support including the disaster relief efforts in flood-affected areas of
Balochistan and Sindh. The Prime Minister and Mr. Gates discussed the impact of the floods on immunization and maternal health services, and polio eradication in particular. The Prime Minister acknowledged the need to prioritize maternal and newborn care in flood-affected areas and thanked Mr. Gates for the Foundation’s support to Pakistan’s relief efforts thus far. On polio eradication, the Prime Minister and Mr. Gates discussed that eradication efforts were facing a challenging situation because of the floods, especially after a recent rise in the number of wild polio cases. The Prime Minister reaffirmed the government’s resolve to pursue the campaign relentlessly. They agreed to continue their collaboration with polio partners to urgently reach vulnerable children with polio vaccines through the remainder of 2022 and prevent the disease re-establishing itself in Pakistan’s major cities. Mr. Gates thanked the Prime Minister for his continued prioritization of polio eradication.
The Prime Minister and Mr. Gates also spoke of how the polio program was using its robust infrastructure to support the acute phase of the flood response, including deploying its surveillance system to monitor for malaria, dengue, and water-borne disease outbreaks as well as helping to deliver other life-saving vaccines to children. The polio program, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is currently conducting 1,200 health camps in the worst flood-affected districts across Pakistan. They exchanged views on the need to continue their close partnership together to ensure Pakistan can continue to make progress on health and development including for enhancing agricultural resilience and rebuilding sustainable infrastructure that can withstand future climate shocks. PM acknowledges empathy of Angelina Jolie for flood victims Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday acknowledged the “empathy and compassion” of United Nations special envoy Angelina Jolie, who is currently on a visit to Pakistan in solidarity with the flood-affected people. “Pakistan thanks Angelina Jolie, a special UN envoy, and other unsung heroes for becoming the voice of millions of people whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by raging floodwater,” he said in a tweet. The prime minister said, “We will forever remember their empathy and compassion for suffering humanity.” Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie visited the flood-hit areas and urged the international community to do more as millions of people are in trouble in the flood-hit areas of Pakistan. During her visit to the National Flood Response Coordination Centre (NFRCC) late Wednesday, Jolie said that she has never seen anything like this disaster before. Besides Jolie, renowned Islamic scholar Mufti Menk and Turkish actor Celal Al also visited the flood-affected areas of Pakistan and extended assistance to the families who suffered the devastation.
SC again advises PTI to return to NA ISLAMABAD staff report
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday advised the PTI MNAs to return to the National Assembly (NA) by withdrawing their resignations. He said that PTI must not act in haste and the court was offering it another opportunity to reconsider its decision. After giving his remarks, the CJP adjourned the case till indefinite time period. The Supreme Court heard an appeal filed by the PTI against an Islamabad High Court decision
about ‘piecemeal’ approval of the resignations purportedly from its 123 MNAs. The PTI wants all of the 123 resignations declared approved. In its original petition before the IHC, it had sought an injunction against NA Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s decision to approve resignations after giving personal audience to the MNAs – something the PTI has termed as ‘piecemeal’ approval of the resignations. After the IHC rejected the PTI petition earlier this week, the party challenged the ruling before the apex court, which heard the ap-
peal on Thursday. During the hearing, CJP Bandial while directing the PTI lawyer Faisal Chaudhry to seek fresh instructions from the party, saying that the verdict of High Court in the acceptance of phase-vise resignations is final as speaker enjoyed the constitutional right to accept the resignations. The court said that doing intervention in the order of speaker can lead to the breach of Article 69, the PTI side must convince the court that what was wrong in the High Court’s ruling? CJP Bandial said that people had elected MNAs for five years
and the PTI must play its role in the Parliament. The top judge said that floods had displaced millions of people who do not have potable water and food and holding bye-elections on 123 seats would incur huge expenses. Look at the country’s economic situation, he questioning, said if PTI knew how much money will be spent on holding bye-elections. The CJP also said that it was difficult to interfere with the work of the speaker and Justice Minallah had given the verdict after careful consideration.
PTI chief evades indictment as IHC accepts his apology in contempt case ISLAMABAD staff report
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday decided against indicting PTI Chief Imran Khan in a contempt of court case after he apologized on his “threatening remarks” against a woman judge. The IHC adjourned the hearing till Oct 3, directing Imran Khan to submit an affidavit regarding his statement and said that further case would be proceeded in light of it (affidavit). A larger bench of five judges headed by IHC Chief Justice (CJ) Athar Minallah presided over the case. The bench also included Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb, Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri and Justice Babar Sattar. “We are, prima facie, satisfied with the apology rendered by the respondent. Let him file an affidavit for consideration of this court before the next date fixed. Let the matter be adjourned to 03-10-2022 for framing of charge against the respondent. The proceedings will be taken up at 02:30pm on the date fixed”, the court’s written order stated. As the hearing begin, Imran Khan arrived at court rostrum and said that he was ready to visit the woman judge Zeba Chaudhry to clarify his position and extend apology as he had no intention to threat the additional session judge. He assured the bench that he would not do such act again in the future. The PTI chief said that he always talk about rule of law and had been struggling for 26 years for independence of judiciary in the country. “If the court thought he had crosses the line then he wanted to explain that he had not given the threatening remarks intentionally instead he had talk about a legal action against the said judge in public rally,” Imran Khan added. He said that he had realized the seriousness of the matter as the case proceeding moved forward. Chief Justice Athar Minallah remarked that the court appreciated the act of PTI chief for withdrawing his words about the judge. He said that the court was not framing charges against him today. The chief justice remarked that they did not encourage contempt of court cases but the way PTI chief gave remarks in public gathering was a serious matter. The court instructed Imran Khan to submit affidavit regarding his apology and adjourned hearing of the case. It may be mentioned here that the IHC had served a show-cause notice to Imran Khan on his remarks about the woman judge. The court previously twice expressed dissatisfaction over the comments submitted by PTI chief in this case and fixed this day to frame charges against him. Strict security in place Strict security arrangements were made inside and around the court prior to the hearing, security was increased in various areas of the federal capital to deal with any potential untoward situation. The number of personnel deployed at sensitive places and important routes was increased. The entry of lawyers, law officers and journalists in the courtroom was subject to entry passes, while the registrar of the high court also provided the facility to listen to audio cases in the press room and bar room. A 15-member legal team of Imran, 15 law officers from the attorney general and advocate general office, three court assistants and 15 court reporters were allowed to be present in the courtroom. The circular stated that five lawyers each from the high court and district bar will be allowed in the courtroom.
Time ripe to rid country of corrupt rulers: Imran Khan ISLAMABAD staff report
Former Prime Minister and PTI Chairman Imran Khan Thursday said it was time ripe to rid the country of corrupt rulers, saying that he would take millions of people to the federal Capital after fully preparing PTI’s tigers to fight the ‘decisive battle’ for liberating the country from the corrupt rulers, once and for all. Speaking at an oath-taking ceremony of office-bearers of the Organisational Advisory Council here at Jinnah Convention Centre, Imran Khan said that they were not fully ready on May 25 when Rana used massive teargas and shelling against PTI women and children because they had intended to hold a peaceful long march on the federal capital.
Reacting to the threats of Interior Minister, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan made it clear that they would come to Islamabad with full preparation now and Rana Sanaullah would not find a place to hide in the federal capital if he resorted to use brutality and violence against peaceful marchers this time. He stated that these corrupt rulers would not easily give us freedom as the current system is nourishing them and increasing their corrupt money massively,” he added. He said that one has to struggle for freedom and sacrifices have to be made, because the current system served the interest of the powerful ruling elites, adding that the real freedom movement was the biggest movement after the freedom move-
ment of Pakistan. He maintained that no one gave independence in the plate, they would have to sacrifice for it, adding that that a coward person cannot become a great leader and a person, who can control and end his fear, can become a big leader. Imran said that he was trying to explain to the nation what kind of Medina welfare state was. He urged the party workers to join his long march when he gave a call, as this was a testing time for the PTI workers and the nation. “Seeing the preparation of the PTI tigers and tigresses on Saturday-next then he would give a final date for a long march,” Imran added. PTI Chairman went on to say that no nation sacrifices its people to fulfill others’ wishes but the corrupt rulers of Pak-
istan had allowed the West to carry out around 400 drone attacks in the country and brought foreign war in the mother-
land, leaving thousands of Pakistanis martyred and injured.
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