Karachi
December 29, 2020
Speakers at a multi-party conference on Monday demanded of the federal government to withdraw the presidential ordinance that formed a body to govern islands of Sindh and Balochistan, saying that the people of the provinces would not allow the handover of their land to ‘outsiders’.
As part of its ongoing protest against the promulgation of a presidential ordinance on islands, Syed Jalal Mehmood Shah-led Sindh United Party held a multi-party conference at a local hotel.
Shah, Jamaat-e-Islami s central deputy chief Asadullah Bhutto, National Party President and former Balochistan chief minister Abdul Malik Baloch, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Awami National Party Sindh Secretary General Younas Bunairee, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s Taj Muhammand Nahio, Sindh Tarraqi Pasand Party chief Dr Qadir Magsi, Awami Workers Party’s central leader Yousaf Masti Khan, Sindh High Court Bar Association President Salahuddin and lawyer
G-B sees biggest wedding ceremony in its history
AWP G-B chief Baba Jan, who was recently released after nine years of imprisonment, tied the knot
Baba Jan, 42, married Himmat Begum of Ghizer district, in his hometown of Hunza. PHOTO: EXPRESS
GILGIT BALTISTAN:
A recent wedding in Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), which continued for four days and was attended by people belonging to all walks of life, is being hailed as the biggest marriage ceremony in the valley.
Awami Workers Party (AWP) G-B chief Baba Jan, who was recently released after nine years of imprisonment, tied the nuptial knot.
Jan, 42, married Himmat Begum of Ghizer district, in his hometown of Hunza. Thousands of people from G-B, Azad Kashmir and the rest of the country attended the marriage functions that continued uninterrupted for four consecutive days, despite the chilly weather.
Freedom of expression vital for progress: IHC
Asks PTA if stakeholders were consulted before formation of social media rules
PHOTO: REUTERS
ISLAMABAD:
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has noted that a country where freedom of expression is suppressed suffers economically and even the impression of restriction on press should be avoided.
“Freedom of expression is extremely important. A country where freedom of expression is suppressed remains economically backward. The court has written in an earlier order that there should not even be an impression of a restriction on the freedom of press,” IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah said on Friday.
How to hold a grand national dialogue
Opinion
The writer is an analyst and commentator.
A grand national dialogue is an urgent imperative because the institutional arrangements designed to serve the people of Pakistan have now become so heavily burdened with the animus of individual and group interests that they are no longer working.
Parliament’s functioning is compromised, to say the least. The judiciary’s hard-won independence and stature has been undermined by scandal and recriminations. The executive can tweet, but it struggles to get things done. The bureaucracy (as an institutional mechanism) is almost completely incapable of operating outside of the ‘rules of business’ that protect individual and occupational group interests at the expense of the Pakistani people. Most worryingly of all, the military, one that has secured peace for this country after more than a decade-long conflict with violent extremists, is seen as politically partisan.