ECP suspends membership of 141 parliamentarians

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has suspended membership of 141 parliamentarians for not submitting financial details Monday.

The suspended members included Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman, Engineer Amir Maqam, Atta-ur-Rehman, Noor Aalam, Sardar Asif Ahmed Ali, Syed Khursheed Ahmed, Kashmala Tariq and others.

ECP has suspended membership of 34 members of National Assembly, 69 of Punjab Assembly, 16 of Sindh Assembly, 10 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 12 of Balochistan provincial assembly.

Four members of the Senate are also mentioned in the list released by ECP. SAMAA

President, PM hosts dinner for PPP’s federal cabinet

ISLAMABAD, May 21 (APP) – President Asif Ali Zardari Friday night hosted dinner for the members of federal cabinet belonging to Pakistan Peoples Party here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani also attended the dinner meeting during which the current political situation in the country was discussed.

PPP members of the cabinet who attended the dinner included Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Dr. Arbab Alamgir Khan, Pir Aftab Shah Jilani, Ch. Ahmed Mukhtar, Abdul Qayyum Khan Jatoi, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Senator Rehman A. Malik, Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, Senator Dr. Babar Awan, Humayun Aziz Kurd, Shahbaz Bhatti, Syed Naveed Qamar, Dr. Firdous Ashiq Awan, Syed Hamid Saeed Kazmi, Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani, Najamuddin Khan, Lal Muhammad Khan, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Shahid Hussain Bhutto, Ch. Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Sardar Salim Haider Khan, Ghulam Farid Kathia, Hina Rabbani Khar, Mohammad Tariq Anis, Dr. Ayatullah Durrani, Syed Sumsam Ali Bukhari, Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi, Nabil Ahmed Gabol, Mohammad Afzal Sandhu, Shagufta Jumani, Dr. Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali, Sardar Latif Khan Khosa and Nawabzada Ghazanfar Ali Gul. MNAs Fouzia Wahab, Fouzia Habib and Rukhsana Bangash were also attended the dinner meeting.

Abbotabad incidents denounced in Senate

ISLAMABAD: Senators from treasury as well as opposition benches Monday strongly condemned the alleged misuse of powers by police force in Hazara division against the protesting people that resulted in killing of more than seven persons and injuring over 100.

The senators called for judicial inquiry into the incident and suspension of DIG police for abusing powers against the peaceful protestors. They also called upon the Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to review the renaming of NWFP province in order to resolve the issue amicably while keeping in view the sentiments of Hazara people.

Soon after the start of Senate session, PML-N Senator Zafar Ali Shah and JUI-F Senator Talha Mehmood rose from their chairs and raised the incident in the House.

They said that the proceedings of the House should be suspended to discuss the Hazara situation.

Zafar Ali Shah alleged that the Karakurm Highway has been blocked by the protestors after misuse of power by police. He said that the issue must be taken seriously to avoid further unrest in the area.

Senator Talha claimed that 10 persons have been killed and over 100 received bullet injuries as a result of police firing. He said the federal and provincial governments should consider the severity of the situation and take immediate notice of the situation.

Leader of Opposition, Wasim Sajjad said people were protesting in Hazara, Hari Pur, Abbotabad, Manshera, Dera Ismail Khan, Lakki Marwet against renaming of NWFP province.

He said that the political parties and the government should review the renaming of the province and resolve the matter with consensus and aspiration of Hazara people.

He said that the House”s Business Advisory Committee has already decided to discuss the issue in the House, therefore, it should be talked about. Leader of the House Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari said that as agreed in the House BAC meeting the matter should be discussed. The government is ready to listen to the parliamentarians.

The Chairman Senate allowed discussion by the parliamentary leaders over the ssue.

Senator Prof Khursheed Ahmed proposed four measures to normalize thesituation including suspension of DIG, conducting a judicial inquiry, seek apolitical solution and convene an all parties meeting.

He regretted and condemned the brutal use of force, dragging people outof their homes and shooting at them. “It is a sensitive issue. All politicalforces should join heads to resolve it.”

He advocated not to delay the bill only for one reason of renaming theprovince as there are 101 other clauses as well, but urged not to use forceagainst peaceful protestors.

Zafar said it seems that NWFP is a victim ofconspiracies. It might be a bad management or a local or an international conspiracy.

“It is highly condemnable that Police brutally tortured the peacefulpeople. They have the right to protest, as it was the matter of their feelings that were earlier hurt by renaming the province and now by firing bullets on them,” he said.

Shah questioned, “What is going on over there, is it a service to theConstitution. Is it a conspiracy to create unrest in the area from where wehave the only link to our time tested friend China. Let us collectively think and penalize the officials whose orders resulted in loss of precious lives.”

Ready to meet political challenges: President Zardari

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan News : President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday said that the PPP was a huge political force and it was fully prepared to face all challenges confronting it politically. He said this while addressing the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the party here.

The meeting was also attended by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jahangir Badar, Mian Raza Rabbani, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Ms. Faryal Talpur, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Naveed Qamar, Dr. Babar Awan, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, Shahbaz Bhatti, Rehman A. Malik, Sardar Latif Khosa, Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali, Yousaf Talpur, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Farahnaz Ispahani, Mir Ejaz Jhakrani, Farzana Raja besides members from all provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Kashmir.

Briefing the media, Spokesperson to the President former Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the President said that the PPP had formed government with coalition partners in the centre and all provinces and had thrown out dictatorship restoring Presidency to democratic forces and had embarked upon a course of political and economic reformation and reconstruction.

He said that the PPP was not doled out political victories through the charity of anyone but it had triumphed politically with the help of people of all provinces.

The President said that “no matter what our opponent said and no matter how much the party leadership was subjected to a campaign of vilification, the party will not be deterred and will continue its forward march in the service of the people”.

The Party Co-Chairman said that the vilification campaign against the party was aimed at weakening the party politically and warned that those hoping to weaken us politically were living in a fools’ paradise.

He said that the party had a long history of rendering great sacrifices for the sake of democracy and peoples’ rights and was not afraid of rendering sacrifices if need arose.

President Zardari said that the results of elections in Gilgit-Baltistan had convincingly demonstrated yet again that the people stood by the party and rejected the vilification campaign against it, Babar informed.

Without naming anyone, the President said that some people write our obituaries almost daily but the more they write our obituaries the more they are disappointed and frustrated. “I salute the party, its workers and the people. We have stood together in the past and will stand together in the future as well,” Babar quoted the President.

A number of participants spoke on the occasion and gave their own assessment of the political situation.

The meeting also adopted a unanimous resolution reposing complete confidence in the leadership of the party Co-Chairman and President Asif Ali Zardari and the Government.

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Ready to meet political challenges: President Zardari was first posted on November 17, 2009 at 9:24 am.