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Saturday, 21 January, 2023 I 28 Jamadi us Sani, 1444 Govt increases profit rates on Naya Pakistan Certificates to lure dollars
Crackdown on petroleum smuggling fails
PTI demands election date after ‘immoral, illegal’ acceptance of resignations
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Rs 15.00 | Vol XIII No 203 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
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Govt, opposition aGree to appoint azam Khan as caretaKer cm of Kp g
aKram durrani says treasury, oPPosition jointly named azam Khan
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Pervez KhattaK Played Key role in consensus nomination
PESHAWAR
i
staff report
n a rare consensus between the treasury and opposition benches in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, both the sides agreed on Friday to appoint former chief secretary azam Khan as caretaker chief minister of the province. the decision was announced during a joint press conference by cm mahmood Khan and opposition leader akram durrani. durrani said that the government and the opposition jointly nominated azam Khan, adding that names of zafarullah Khan and sahibzada saeed were also considered. he said that Pti leader and former defence minister Pervez Khattak played an important role in reaching the consensus. a former bureaucrat, azam Khan remained minister for Finance, Planning & development K-P from october 24, 2007 to april 1, 2008. he was undP advisor to lachi Poverty reduction Project (lPrP) from january 1997 to june 6, 2007. azam Khan was also the chairman Pakistan tobacco Board, ministry of commerce. he was also the secretary of ministry of Petroleum & natural resources in islamabad. he was the chief secretary in K-P from september 1990 to july 1993. azam Khan has also served as vice President children’s sos villages of Pakistan in Peshawar, director imran Khan Foundation (Flood relief and rehabilitation), member national oversight disaster management council (nodmc) Pakistan and chairman supreme court Flood commission enquiry. earlier on Wednesday, KP Governor haji Ghulam ali signed the summary for dissolution of the provincial assembly following advice from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief minister mahmood Khan, mere days after the dissolution of the Punjab assembly. the governor directed mahmood Khan to continue working as acting chief minister until the interim government takes office.
Governor Ghulam ali also expressed the willingness to arbitrate between mahmood Khan and the leader of the opposition.
on tuesday, the KP cm had sent advice to the governor seeking the dissolution of the provincial assembly under article 112(1) of the constitution on the instructions of Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (Pti) chairman imran Khan. the dissolution of the assembly will trigger the process of consultation between the outgoing chief minister and the opposition leader for installing an interim government. sources have said that both sides were preparing the list of their nominees for the caretaker chief minister. the dissolution of the KP assembly comes days after the dissolution of the Punjab assembly, which was also dissolved on the instruction of imran. the Pti chief had announced on november 26 at the culmination of the haqeeqi azadi march that he would dissolve the two provincial assemblies, where the Pti was at the helm. imran had said that if the elections were to be held in 66 per cent of the country after the dissolution of the assemblies, the government would be unable to stop general elections from taking place.
ECP to decide on interim Punjab CM as Parliamentary committee fails LAHORE: The ball is now in court of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to decide on Punjab caretaker chief minister as the parliamentary committee constituted to appoint the interim chief minister failed to develop a consensus. The ruling PTI-PML-Q alliance had initially proposed former Punjab chief secretary Nasir Mahmood Khosa, serving bureaucrat Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera and Naseer Khan, for the caretaker CM in Punjab. However, the notification issued on Thursday reduced the nominations from three to two, with the second one a new entry; Sukhera and Naveed Akram Cheema, a former chief secretary. Meanwhile, opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz had nominated Ahad Cheema, a former bureaucrat and Special Assistant to prime minister, and Mohsin Naqvi, owner of a media house. Former minister Raja Basharat, Mian Aslam Iqbal and Hashim Jawan Bakht represented the ruling PTIPML-Q alliance during today’s meeting, while the opposition was represented by PM’s special assistant Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, PPP’s parliamentary leader Syed Hassan Murtaza and Malik Nadeem Kamran. Talking to the media in Islamabad after the meeting, Basharat said the names submitted on behalf of the PTI for the caretaker chief minister were better than the opposition’s picks from “every angle”. staff report
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ECP denotifies another 35 PTI MNAs three days after similar move ISLAMABAD staff report
the election commission of Pakistan (ecP) Friday denotified 35 more members national assembly (mnas) of the Pakistan tehreek-e-insaf (Pti) after speaker raja Pervaiz ashraf accepted their resignations, three days after making a similar move with 34 Pti lawmakers. according to an ecP notification, the resignations of the Pti lawmakers have been approved from april 11, 2022. it is to be recalled that the Pti had resigned en masse from the national assembly following the success of a no-confidence motion against Pti chief imran Khan in april last year. however, later na speaker ashraf accepted only 11 of the resignations, stating that the remaining lawmakers would be summoned individually for verification. after stalling the process for eight months, ashraf on tuesday, accepted the resignations of 34 more Pti mnas and awami muslim league chief sheikh rashid as the party hinted it would “test” Prime minister shehbaz sharif with a confidence vote. the total number of mnas whose resignations have been accepted stands at 81 so far. according to a notification issued quoting clause (1) of ar-
ticle 64 of the constitution of the islamic republic of Pakistan, read with rule 43 of the rules of Procedure and conduct of Business in the national assembly of Pakistan 2007, the resignations of dr haider ali Khan, na-2; saleem rehman, na-3; sahibzada sibghatullah, na-5; mehboob shah, na-6; muhammad Bashir Khan, na-7; junaid akbar, na-8; sher akbar Khan, na-9; ali Khan jadoon, na-16; engr usman Khan tarakai, na19; mujahid ali, na-20; arbab amir ayub, na-28; sher ali arbab, na-30; shahid ahmed, na-34; Gul dad Khan, na-40; sajid Khan, na-42; mohammad iqbal Khan, na-44; aamer mehmood Kiani, na-61; syed Faiz-ul-hassan,na-70; ch shoukat ali Bhatti, na-87; umar aslam Khan, na-93; amjad ali Khan, na-96; Khurram shahzad, na-107;Faizullah, 109; malik Karamat ali Khokar, na-135; syed Fakhar imam, na-150; zahoor hussain Qureshi,na-152; ibraheem Khan,na-158; tahir iqbal,na164; aurangzeb Khan Khichi, na-165; makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, na-177; abdul majeed Khan, na-187; ms andaleeb abbas, reserve seat (rs)Women; ms asma Qadeer, rsWomen; ms maleeka ali Bokhari, rs-Women and ms munawara Bibi Baloch, rs-Women.
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Pakistan, Russia vow to strengthen energy cooperation, enhance investment ISLAMABAD ahmad ahmadani
Pakistan and russia Friday agreed to strengthen energy cooperation, enhance energy trade and broaden energy infrastructure investment based on strategic and favourable commercial terms on Friday, january 20. they arrived at this understanding at the conclusion of the eighth session of the Pakistan-russia intergovernmental commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation (iGc) held in islamabad. it was led by nikolay shulginov, minister of energy for the russian Federation and ayaz sadiq, Pakistan’s Federal minister for economic affairs. senior level delegates, including ministers and officials from both sides, also attended the session. the two sides agreed on march 2023, as the timeline for crude oil export. Working under the express guidance of Prime minister shahbaz sharif, and President of the russian Federation, vladimir Putin, both sides took the op-
portunity to reaffirm their commitment to a strong and comprehensive economic relationship. they reiterated that such a relationship contributes to the economic well-being of the two countries, as well as the entire region. Both sides proceeded from the discussions and decisions of the seventh iGc and carried the process forward, and explored additional avenues of cooperation. reading out a joint statement alongside the russian energy minister, sardar ayaz sadiq said the two sides agreed to further strengthen and enhance collaboration in the fields of trade and investment, energy, communication and transport, higher education, industry, railways, finance and banking sector, customs, agriculture, science and technology, and information technology. they noted positive prospects for implementable and concrete projects in the above-mentioned sectors of the economy with a huge potential for the socio-economic development of both countries.
the commission agreed that the relevant ministries and departments from both sides will vigorously follow-up to exploit this potential for common prosperity. they agreed too, that the oil and gas trade transaction will be structured in a way that has mutual economic benefit. the process will be completed within march 2023, said sadiq. Both sides have agreed to strengthen energy cooperation, enhance energy trade and broaden energy infrastructure investment based on strategic and favourable commercial terms. they have agreed to work on a “comprehensive Plan for energy cooperation,” which will form the foundation for future work. this is to be finalised in 2023. additionally, the two sides agreed that the Pakistan stream Gas Pipeline Project should be considered in terms of a comprehensive infrastructure which is economically viable for sustainable gas infrastructure development ensuring affordable gas supplies. the russian side was invited toward potential projects of the federal and
provincial governments of Pakistan, including in PPP mode and requested the russian businessmen to explore these possibilities. all pending issues related to the exchange of information on “certificates
of origin of goods” with the use of electronic verification systems have been resolved. the plan is to endeavour to finalise the above-mentioned protocols by the end of may 2023.
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