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Thursday, 13 April, 2023 I 22 Ramzan, 1444
Rs 15.00 | Vol XIII No 285 I 8 Pages I Islamabad Edition
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PUNJAB ELECTIONS
SC ISSUES NOTICES TO AGP, ECP, FINANCE SECRETARY OVER NON-PROVISION OF FUNDS g
APEX COURT DIRECTS TOP BUREAUCRATS TO APPEAR IN JUDGES’ CHAMBER ON APRIL 14
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OBSERVES GOVT’S FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH COURT ORDER IS PRIMA FACIE DISOBEDIENCE
ISLAMABAD
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STAFF REPORT
HE Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday issued notices to the finance secretary, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad, Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Awan and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) over the government’s failure to release Rs21 billion for Punjab and KP elections. The apex court has directed the top bureaucrats to appear in the judges’ chamber on April 14. In its April 4 verdict — an SC bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Munib Akhtar — had ordered the government to provide Rs21 billion in funds to the ECP to conduct elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa by April 10. The court had directed the ECP to provide a report to the court on whether or not the government complied with the order on April 11. The ECP, in a report submitted on Tuesday, informed the court about the government’s reluctance to release the funds needed for elections. The government, meanwhile, has referred the matter to Parliament to decide.
In a notice issued by the SC registrar on Wednesday, the apex court noted that the report submitted by the ECP yesterday stated “no funds have at all been released and provided to it as required by the order of the court”. “The failure of the federal government to comply with the order of the court as aforesaid is prima facie disobedience,” it observed. “The consequences that can flow from such prima facie defiance of the court are well settled and known. “Every person who embarks upon,
NEPRA makes electricity more expensive
encourages or instigates disobedience or defiance of the court can be held liable and accountable,” the notice pointed out. It highlighted that the “disobedience” by the federal government would put the conduct of timely elections as mandated by the Constitution in “jeopardy”. “The question of the provision of funds for such a vital constitutional purpose is something that requires immediate attention which takes priority over proceeding against those who may have committed contempt of the court,” the SC said.
WASHINGTON United States Congressman Brad Sherman has written to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, voicing concerns over “democracy, human rights, and rule of law” violations in Pakistan, it emerged on Wednesday. In a letter dated April 11, Sherman asked Blinken to “guide the United States’ Pakistan policy toward a greater commitment to human rights and to use all US diplomatic channels to urge Pakistani authorities to investigate the alleged abuses and to hold accountable anybody who may be responsible”. “I urge the authorities to make sure that going forward political figures or citizens who simply
ISLAMABAD The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has increased the price of electricity by 46 paise per unit under the quarterly fuel price adjustment and forward the decision to the federal government for approval. NEPRA, in its decision, said that the electricity consumers will have to make additional payments in three months. However, this additional charge will not be applied to K Electric. Due to the increase in the cost of electricity, there will be an additional burden of more than 15 billion 45 crore rupees on the consumers, said sources. They added that the decision has been made after considering the rising cost of fuel and other factors that affect the generation and distribution of electricity in the country. It is pertinent to mention that if the government approves the decision, the consumers will have to make extra payments on their electricity bills. And, this decision to increase the electricity price has caused concern among the general public, especially at a time when the masses are already facing skyrocketing inflation.
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Congressman writes to Blinken about ‘HR abuses’ in Pakistan STAFF REPORT
AHMAD AHMADANI
Subsequently, the court issued a notice to the SBP governor and the next senior most official of the bank, and directed them to appear before the chamber of the judges on April 14 (Friday) at 11am. It directed them to bring the record and details of money owned by the federal government lying with or under the control, custody or management of the central bank. The court also issued notices to the AGP, the finance secretary and the “next most senior official” in the Ministry of Finance for an in-person appearance the same day. “The said officials shall bring with them all the relevant record and shall place before the court a detailed report as to why the order of the court made in para 5 of Const. P. 5/2023 has not been complied with, as stated by the commission,” it said. Issuing similar notices to the ECP secretary and director general law, the court directed them to prepare and submit the full record pertaining to the general elections to the Punjab and KP assemblies. ELECTION COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN REPORT: The election watchdog submitted a one-page report in the top court, informing about the government’s reluctance to issue the Rs21 billion funds as ordered by the court for the elections to the Punjab and KP assemblies.
want to demonstrate are not subjected to anti-democratic consequences,” he added. He highlighted several alleged cases of human rights violations in Pakistan, including cases against PTI Chairman Imran Khan and media ban on his speeches, detention of protesters, the alleged torture of PTI leader Shahbaz Gill and journalist Jameel Farooqui, and the recent arrest of PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur. The letter also mentioned the delay in Punjab and KP elections — terming it “another sign of skirting democratic processes” — as well as Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah’s statement that “either he (Imran) will be eliminated from the political arena or us
(PML-N)”. It said: “The United States does not involve itself in Pakistan’s internal governmental matters — I respect its Constitution and its democratic process — but we must not shy away from raising our voice when the human rights of the Pakistani people are at stake. It recalled Human Rights Watch’s statement asking for “urgent investigations into Mr Gill’s complaints” and questioning sedition charges against him. Regarding the ban on broadcasting Imran’s speeches, Sherman also recalled Amnesty International’s statement that called it a “disturbing demonstration of targeting critical voices”.
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SC hears pleas against bill ‘clipping’ CJP’s powers today ISLAMABAD STAFF REPORT
The larger bench of the Supreme Court (SC), comprising eight judges, will take up three identical petitions against the recently passed bill seeking to curtail suo moto powers of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) on Thursday (today). The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023, aims at ‘clipping’ the powers of the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan. The bill was initially passed by both houses of parliament and subsequently sent to the President for his assent. He, however, sent it back, saying that the proposed law is “beyond the competence of parliament”.
On Monday, the government convened a joint session of the parliament to pass the bill with certain amendments, amid strong opposition by the PTI lawmakers. According to the roster issued on Wednesday, the eight-member bench is comprised of: CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Munib Akhtar, Justice Sayyad Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Ayesha Malik, Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Shahid Waheed. Both Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Aminuddin Khan are not part of bench who have earlier ruled that the CJP did not have the power to make special benches or decide its members and ordered the postponement of all suo moto matters.
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Despite challenges, govt committed to steer country out of crisis: PM Shehbaz DERA GHAZI KHAN STAFF REPORT
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday visited the free flour distribution centre here and reviewed the overall arrangements. The prime minister inquired about the problems faced by the beneficiaries of the scheme gathered there to receive free flour bags under the PM’s Special Ramzan Package and directed the authorities concerned to immediately resolve all their issues. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Maryam Aurangzeb accompanied the prime minster. PM VISITS FREE FLOUR DISTRIBUTION CENTRE: During the visit free flour distribution centre, PM Shehbaz Sharif was informed that so far, some 4.9 million flour bags had been distributed to the deserving families in Dera Ghazi Khan Division alone. On the occasion, the prime minister said the distribution process of free flour was going on smoothly under the supervision of the Punjab Chief Minister. He also directed giving priority to women, the elderly and the handicapped during the distribution process. He also personally distributed free flour bags to the elderly citizens as well as differently-abled people. PM Shehbaz said the country was facing challenges but with the blessings of the Almighty, the coalition government was on track to steer it out of the crisis. He said for the first time in history, the government was providing free flour to the needy. After Ramzan, he said the government would continue subsidies on wheat flour for the deserving. He also expressed his resolve to build Pakistan as per the vision of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Allama Muhammad Iqbal. Meanwhile, representatives of the Girls Guide Association (GGA) also met with the prime minister at the distribution point. The prime minister was informed that the Association – a representative forum of girls’ colleges of the district – was actively supporting the distribution process by guiding the people. PM Shehbaz lauded the efforts of the Association. The occasion, PM Shahbaz Sharif announced to provide a bus to the girls’ guide training centre and promised the development of the training centre. The PM was informed that 5,000 girls were registered under the girls’ guide campaign in the DG Khan division. Commissioner DG Khan Dr Nasir Mahmood Bashir gave a detailed briefing to the PM stating that over 4.8 million free wheat flour bags have so far been distributed among the poor people through 44 centres set up in all the four districts including DG Khan, Layyah, Rajanpur and Muzaffargarh.
The results are in: Paper continues to dominate payments landscape g
SBP’S QUARTERLY REPORT HIGHLIGHTS HOW E-COMMERCE TRANSACTIONS HAVE FALLEN WHILE POS AND RAAST TRANSACTIONS HAVE SEEN AN UPTICK AnAlysis KARACHI MARIAM UMAR FAROOQ
The verdict for last year is in. Despite the ongoing efforts to promote digital banking, paper-based transactions continue to dominate the payments landscape in Pakistan according to the recently released numbers from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). The SBP released the first and second quarterly reports on the Payment Systems Review for the Fiscal Year 2022-23, which covers a time period from July to December 2022. The SBP has been sitting on the reports for a few months and has only now gotten around to releasing them. While digital payments seem to be on a downward
trend, it is not all bad news, particular for the central bank. According to the same data, the number of transactions through the SBP’s RAAST platform have seen a steady increase. In addition to this, transactions made at Point of Sale machines using debit and credit cards have also seen an uptick. How much have digital payments fallen The value of transactions conducted through paper-based methods stood at Rs 54.8 trillion at the end of Q2FY23, while transactions through e-banking amounted to Rs 42.3 trillion. Although the value of paper-based transactions increased by 2.7% from Rs 46.7 trillion in Q2 FY22 to Rs 54.8 trillion in Q2 FY23, the volume of these transactions declined by 6.4%. This suggests that for larger value transactions, paper-based methods are still preferred by businesses and individuals. The report also shed light on the signifi-
cant growth of internet and mobile phone banking users. Since Q4FY22, the number of internet banking users has increased by 21% (10.1 million users) and the number of mobile phone banking users has increased by 22% (15.0 million users). Transactions conducted through these channels have also shown continued growth in both quarters, with a combined quarterly growth rate of 11% in both volume and value in Q1FY23. In Q2FY23, volume grew by 18% and value by 15%. Increased penetration of mobile and internet banking has led to an increase in ebanking. Contrastingly, the value of e-banking transactions declined by 5% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, while the volume increased by 4%. However, in the second quarter of 2023, e-banking showed impressive improvement in both volume (12.6%) and value (6.5%) of transactions,
reaching 515 million and Rs 42.5 trillion, respectively. On the contrary, the number of ecommerce transactions declined in both quarters but the value of these transactions increased by 11.6% in Q1FY23 and 2.2% in Q2FY23. This suggests that high inflation has impacted the number of e-commerce transactions, resulting in a lower volume but higher value of transactions. RAAST records steady growth One of the key highlights of the report is the impressive growth of Raast, the instant payment system launched by SBP. Raast was launched in 2021. Its first phase – bulk payments – was launched in January 2021. The other phase – Person to Person (P2P) was launched in February 2022. Within the two years, the number of Raast users has skyrocketed from 15 million in June 2022 to a staggering 25.8 million by
December 2022, showing an astounding growth rate of 72% in just six months. Similarly, the number of transactions processed through Raast has witnessed a remarkable increase, from 7.1 million in June 2022 to 21.5 million in December 2022, reflecting a staggering growth rate of 202.1%. The value of these transactions has also witnessed a significant surge, reaching Rs 578.6 billion in December 2022, compared to Rs 98.4 billion in June 2022, marking an impressive growth rate of 488.1%. POS transactions continue to grow The report also highlights the growth of Point-of-Sale (POS) deployments across the country, which increased by 3.8% compared to the previous fiscal year FY22, reaching a total of 108,899 by the end of Q2FY23.
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