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monday, 13 march, 2023 I 20 shaban, 1444 ‘Instead of checking corruption’, FBR continues ‘crackdown’ on whistleblowers
Silicon Valley Bank failure rattles US startup ecosystem
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PTI TAkEs ouT ‘PosTPoNEd’ rAlly TodAy As AdmIN grANTs PErmIssIoN g
IMRAN SAyS PoSTPoNED SUNDAy g oPPoSITIoN PARTy MoVES CoURT, ECP RALLy To ‘PREVENTING BLooDSHED’ AGAINST IMPoSITIoN oF SECTIoN 144 LAHORE
T
staff report
HE Lahore district administration granted permission to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) for its public rally in the provincial capital, scheduled to take place on Monday (today) in connection with its campaign for the upcoming general elections in Punjab. According to sources, the Lahore administration allowed the party to hold public rally on the instructions of caretaker Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Mohsin Naqvi. In this regard, the district administration officers met with the PTI leaders and apprised them of the decision. Earlier, the PTI announced the party will hold its rally on Monday (today) after the administration did not allow its scheduled public rally for a second time on Sunday. According to the schedule released by the party’s Lahore chapter, the rally will be taken out from Zaman Park at 2pm on Monday and it will culminate at Data Darbar after passing through Allama Iqbal Road and Railway Station. The PTI Lahore president claimed that it will be the biggest rally in the country’s history. adequaTe securITy: Earlier in the day, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) demanded adequate security arrangements for public rally in Lahore, which was postponed till Monday after the Punjab government imposed Section 144 for a day. The PTI has penned down a let-
ter to Secretary Home Department, Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) Police Lahore and Superintendent of Police (SP) Security, demanding adequate security arrangements for public rally in Lahore – on Monday in connection with upcoming general elections in Punjab. The letter noted that the rally – which was scheduled to be held on Sunday – has been postponed till tomorrow (Monday). It added that the party has apprised the district administration of the rally. The letter further stated that PTI Chairman Imran Khan will lead the rally, pointing out that Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Mohsin Naqvi said – in a tweet – that there is no ban on political activities in Lahore. “No ban can be imposed on rallies as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced the election schedule”, it said,
adding that the route will remain the same. Imran PosTPones PTI rally aFTer ‘Illegal’ ImPosITIon oF secTIon 144: Earlier, Imran Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), cancelled his party’s scheduled election rally in Lahore on Sunday following the eleventh-hour imposition of Section 144, suspending public gatherings in the provincial metropolis, by the caretaker government of Mohsin Naqvi. The ban on public gatherings in the provincial capital was put in place last night for unspecified “security threats,” hours after Khan announced a fresh rally as an act of defiance against the interim setup’s crackdown on the party’s March 8 rally, which killed at least one supporter of the former prime minister. The district administration cited concerns in the aftermath of an HBL
No ban on political activities in Lahore, claims Naqvi
Maryam castigates Imran for displaying ‘cowardly behaviour’
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rs 15.00 | Vol XIII no 254 I 08 Pages I Islamabad edition
Pakistan Super League (PSL) match in the city for invoking the law and forbidding public gatherings. Police also sealed off all roads leading to Khan’s residence in Lahore to prevent PTI workers from attempting to reach the venue. Subsequently, PTI challenged the imposition of the ban by approaching the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) offices and the courts, seeking to declare Section 144 null and void. Despite the legal challenges, Khan eventually decided to call off the rally, urging his party workers to avoid falling into the “trap”. In a series of tweets, he claimed that Section 144 had been unlawfully imposed exclusively on his election campaign, while other public activities in Lahore, including a political gathering by rival Maryam Nawaz, continued as usual. “Clearly, like March 8, Punjab [chief minister Naqvi] and police want to provoke clashes to file more sham FIRs against the PTI leadership and workers and use it as a pretext for postponing elections,” he said. “I AM TELLING ALL PTI WoRKERS NoT To FALL INTo THIS TRAP,” he added, in an all-caps tweet. PeaceFul sTruggle: Separately, during a press conference in Lahore, another Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader, Hammad Azhar, announced the party would be postponing their rally, declaring that they didn’t want “more bodies to fall.”
CONTINUED ON PAGE 03
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By-polls to 37 NA seats halted: ECP scuttles to comply with high courts’ order ISLAMABAD/LAHORE staff report
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday announced suspension of the schedule for byelections to 37 National Assembly (NA) seats in compliance with the orders of the Islamabad, Peshawar, Sindh and Balochistan high courts. These National Assembly seats had fallen vacant after the resignations of PTI lawmakers. The Election Commission of Pakistan, on Jan 27, had announced by-elections to 33 National Assembly seats on March 16 while on February 3, the commission announced by-elections to another 31 NA seats after the NA speaker accepted more resignations of the PTI MNAs. But earlier this month, the high courts of Peshawar, Sindh and Balochistan had suspended by-elections in their respective provinces while the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had suspended the de-notification of three PTI MNAs from the capital territory. In four separate notifications issued on Sunday, the electoral watchdog said that until further orders from the respective courts, the by-elections schedule for one NA seat in Balochistan, three in Islamabad, nine in Sindh and 24 in KP is being suspended. This includes the following constituencies: NA-02 SwatI; NA-03 Swat-II; NA-04 Swat-III; NA-05 Upper; Dir-I; NA-06 Lower Dir-I; NA-07 Lower Dir-II; NA-08 Malakand Protected Area, NA-09 Buner; NA-16 Abbottabad-II; NA-17 Haripur-I; NA-18 Swabi-I; NA-19 Swabi-II; NA-20 Mardan-I; NA-25 Nowshera-I; NA-26 Nowshera-II; NA28 Peshawar-II; NA-30 Peshawar-IV; NA-32 Kohat; NA-34 Karak; NA-38 D I Khan-I; NA-40 Bajaur-I; NA-42 Mohmand; NA-43 Khyber-I; NA-44 Khyber-II; NA-52 Islamabad-I; NA-53 Islamabad-II; NA-54 Islamabad-III; NA-241 Korangi Karachi-III; NA-242 Karachi East-I; NA243 Karachi East-II; NA-244 Karachi East-III; NA-247 Karachi South-II; NA-250 Karachi West-III; NA-252 Karachi West-V; NA-254 Karachi Central-II; NA-256 Karachi Central-IV and NA-265 Quetta-II. PTI resIgnaTIons and hIgh courTs’ orders: The National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf, after stalling the process for eight months, swiftly moved to accept the resignations of PTI lawmakers, pending since April 2022, in an apparent bid to scuttle the opposition’s purported plan to bring a confidence motion against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Ksa extends $1.2b deferred oil payment facility till Feb 2024 g
PAKISTAN IMPoRTS oIL oN DEFERRED PAyMENT BASIS WoRTH $50M EVERy MoNTH ISLAMABAD shahzad paracha
Saudi King Salman has approved the extension of a deferred oil payment facility worth $1.2 billion to Pakistan till February 2024. According to sources, the Saudi government has extended the facility through the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD). “It is expected that Pakistan will avail the extended facility from March 23 to Feb 24,” they claimed. It may be noted that the facility was going to expire this month due to which the government of Pakistan asked for a
year’s extension. It is worth mentioning here that the SFD and Economic Affairs executed an export finance agreement for imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products from Saudi Arabia in Feb 2019 on deferred payment basis. Sources said that Pakistan had imported oil worth $769 million in the first year and $1.11 billion during the second year under the agreement. They said that Pakistan imports oil on a deferred payment basis worth $50 million every month. Under this facility, the Saudi government has tasked Saudi Arabian oil Company (Saudi Aramco) and Saudi Aramco
Products Trading Company to export crude oil and PoL products wherein PARCo and NRL are designated importers from Pakistan due to long term crude oil agreements with Aramco. Sources said that the Pakistani government is liable to bear the exchange rate differential due to variation in exchange rates over the period of deferred payments. It is worth mentioning here that the government is negotiating with the Russian government for importing oil. Reportedly, the first cargo of oil from the world’s largest country will land in Pakistan in the current month.