Ousted Pak PM picks brother Shahbaz Sharif as successor

News Network
July 30, 2017

Karachi, Jul 29: Pakistan’s ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday picked his brother and Punjab province Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as his successor and nominated former Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as interim Prime Minister for 45 days.

“Now that I have left the Prime Minister’s Office, I propose the name of Shahbaz Sharif as Prime Minister. But it will take some time as he has to contest election on a National Assembly seat. So for an interim period, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has agreed to become the Prime Minister,” Mr. Sharif said in an address to party legislators in Islamabad.

Defiant note

Mr. Sharif, who was disqualified on Friday by the Supreme Court after a probe into his family’s assets following last year’s Panama Papers revelations that linked his children to offshore companies, struck a defiant note in the speech, taking credit for Pakistan’s nuclear tests and recalling the history of the country’s military coups.

“I have made Pakistan a nuclear power. I was offered $5 billion not to conduct nuclear tests, but I refused. I have made relations better with our neighbours. But I was handcuffed for that…. Whenever martial law is imposed in the country, it was because of a handful of people, not by the entire military,” he added.

The five-member bench of the top court unanimously ruled that Mr. Sharif had been “dishonest” in not disclosing his earnings from a UAE-based company in his nomination papers.

Mr. Sharif, however, said the Supreme Court ruling surprised him. “I was not holding any public office when my son set up the company in Dubai and we were in exile. I have not received any salary from my son’s company. I have not received any kickback and done anything wrong.”

He also recalled how prime ministers in Pakistan have been sent packing in the past 70 years. “Our 70 years’ history is regrettable. If the practice of sending Prime Ministers home is not stopped, the country will face greater problems.”

No Pakistani Prime Minister has completed a full five-year term.

Pakistan Muslim League-N sources said Mr. Shahabaz Sharif would contest from Mr. Sharif’s NA-120 constituency, a stronghold of the party. The Election Commission will issue the date of the election next week. Till the elections are over, Mr. Abbasi will remain the interim Prime Minister.

Mr. Abbasi, a Sharif loyalist, has been a member of the National Assembly since 1998. He has a masters degree in electrical engineering from George Washington University in Washington and had served as the chairman of the Pakistan International Airlines and the chief executive of private airline Air Blue. He was the Petroleum Minister in the out-going Sharif cabinet.

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News Network
May 10,2020

New Delhi, May 10: The Delhi government has asked district magistrates to release 2,446 Tablighi Jamaat members from quarantine centres and ensure that they do not stay in any other place except their homes.

The district magistrates will explore the possibility of sending those Tablighi members, who belong to other states, in buses to their designated places in accordance with social distancing norms and other protocols, DDMA Special CEO K S Meena said in a letter to deputy commissioners (administration).

As man as 567 foreign attendees of the congregation held in Delhi's Nizamuddin area in March, will be handed over to the police, Meena said.

"They (foreign Jamaat attendees) will be handed over to police in connection with several violations like visa violation," a government official said on Saturday.

Delhi Home Minister Satyendar Jain had recently ordered the release of Tablighi members who have completed their required quarantine period in centres and tested negative for COVID-19.

"Out of such people belonging to Delhi, who could be released as per prescribed guidelines should be issued passes to travel from the quarantine centres.

"Under no circumstances, the aforesaid persons should be allowed to stay in any other places including mosques," Meena said in the letter.

In respect of those Tablighi members belonging to other states, it should be ensured by the nodal officer and the area ACP that such people reach their place of residence, he also said.

"The DC should also inform the respective resident commissioner of their states in respect of each and every movement of such persons from Delhi," the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) Special CEO said.

Thousands of Tablighi Jamaat members had been taken out of its Markaz (centre) in Nizamuddin, where they had gathered for a religious congregation, and quarantined as the area became a major hotspot after a number of members tested positive for coronavirus.

On March 31, the Delhi Police's Crime Branch had lodged an FIR against seven people, including Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, on a complaint by Station House Officer, Nizamuddin, for holding the congregation.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Kolkata, Jan 27: The West Bengal government on Monday tabled a resolution against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the Assembly.

The resolution appeals to the Union government to repeal the amended citizenship law and revoke plans to implement NRC and update NPR.

As per reports, state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee introduced the resolution in the House around 2 pm.

Three states - Kerala, Rajasthan and Punjab - have already passed resolutions against the new citizenship law.

The law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state, with the TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation.

The new citizenship law has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the state, with the TMC opposing the contentious legislation tooth and nail, and the BJP pressing for its implementation.

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Agencies
February 7,2020

Washington DC, Feb 7: United States on Thursday asked all countries to speak out against mistreatment of Muslims living in China especially in Xinjiang region by Chinese authorities.

Alice G. Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, while talking to reporters appreciated the steps taken by Central Asian states to ensure that no ethnic Kazakh, Uighur, Kyrgyz is refouled to China and that the human rights of individuals who reach Central Asia are observed.

"As a matter of principle we urge all countries, not just Central Asian countries, to speak out against human rights abuses that are evident against Muslims in all of China but certainly in Xinjiang. And the countries of Central Asia, several of the countries of Central Asia have deep first-hand knowledge of those abuses given the direct impact it has on their own populations who have loved ones, family members, that are swept up in these detention centers," Wells said.

"We appreciate steps by Central Asian states to ensure that no ethnic Kazakh, Uighur, Kyrgyz is refouled to China, that the human rights of individuals who reach Central Asia are observed. And we also appreciate I think what countries like Kazakhstan can do to promote the free and safe travel of compatriots, ethnic compatriots across the border," she added.

China has been accused of oppressing the Uighurs by sending them to mass detention camps, interfering in their religious activities and sending the community to undergo some form of forceful re-education or indoctrination. However, Pakistan has stayed mum over this issue.

As many as 1 million people, or about 7 per cent of Xinjiang's Muslim population, have been incarcerated in a sprawling network of "political re-education" camps, according to US and UN studies.

In 2018, the New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report accusing Beijing of a "systematic campaign of human rights violations" against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

Beijing says its camps in Xinjiang are "vocational training centres."

Last year, several documents leaked revealed details about Beijing's fears about religious extremism and its wholesale crackdown on Uighurs.

The US had called on the Chinese government to "immediately release all of those who are arbitrarily detained and to end its draconian policies that have terrorised its own citizens in Xinjiang."

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