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Pakistan confirms virtual participation in SCO India meeting

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1 year ago

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  • FO will announce decision on Pakistan’s participation in coming days.
  • “We have received official invitation from Indian premier,” FO says.
  • India changed SCO summit’s format without any reason.

ISLAMABAD: After India changed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit’s format to a virtual meeting without providing any reasons, the Foreign Office confirmed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the meeting virtually.

The regional summit will be held in the Indian capital New Delhi on July 4 but will be virtually attended by member countries, including Pakistan, Russia and China. 

The two latter nations would not have been able to attend the meeting in-person either.

“We have received the official invitation from the Indian prime minister for our prime minister to attend the virtual meeting of the Heads of State of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation due to take place on July 4. Pakistan will be represented at the summit,” said FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in the weekly briefing.

She added that the FO would announce Pakistan’s participation in the coming days.

Talks with Taliban

Moreover, the FO spokesperson also commented on the possibility of holding talks with the Afghan Taliban, who have once again proposed Pakistan enter into talks with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) to take up issues of terrorist activities by the latter in the country. 

“We have responded to such questions in the past as well. I would like to invite you to a statement made by our foreign minister in which he stated Pakistan will not negotiate with individuals who are responsible for killing of Pakistani civilians and law-enforcement officials,” the FO spokesperson remarked.

However, she said, Pakistan continues to engage with the Afghan interim government in Kabul, adding she would not go into the specifics of these talks.

She said the counter-terrorism threat remains high on the country’s agenda. 

Pakistan regularly engages with the interim Afghan government in countering the menace of terrorism.

“And this is an ongoing process. We hope and expect the commitments made in the trilateral outcome declaration between Pakistan, Afghanistan and China will be fulfilled, so that Afghanistan is not a source of terrorism and instability faced by its neighbours, including Pakistan,” she said.

Greek shipwreck

Furthermore, commenting on the recent boat tragedy off the coast of Greece, where several Pakistanis lost their lives, the spokeswoman said: “We have been unable to verify [the] number and identity of Pakistani nationals among the deceased and missing. Greek authorities have recovered 84 bodies. Their identification will take place through DNA matching.”

Relevant authorities have started collecting DNA samples from the families of those suspected to be aboard the ship and will share this with the Greek authorities, she said. 

Bilawal’s Japan visit

Meanwhile, she added Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari will visit Japan on July 2-3.

He will hold substantive talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa in Tokyo, during which they will discuss bilateral trade and investment, cooperation in science and technology, education, information technology, culture and human resource development.

Baloch said the two ministers would also deliberate over significant regional and global developments, cooperation, and multilateral dialogue.

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Imran Khan’s bail request in the Toshakhana-II case has had its objections dismissed.

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In the Toshakhana-II case, the Islamabad High Court has dismissed the objections to PTI founder Imran Khan’s bail request.

IHC instructed the registrar’s office to schedule the hearing for the case for Monday.

Imran Khan’s attorneys, Shaheena Shahab, Ayesha Khalid, and others, arrived in court today as IHC Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the case.

The registrar’s objections to the plea were questioned by Justice Aurangzeb. In the Toshakhana-II case, Imran Khan submitted a bail application, according to counsel Ayesha Khalid.

Justice Miangul said that previous rulings in circumstances comparable to this one adhered to the consistency principle. In this instance, the petitioner was a man, he added.

Bushra Bibi was given bail because she was a woman, according to the justice, and an application like this one was denied yesterday.

Given that the case action date was November and the power of attorney was executed in July, Justice Aurangzeb raised a concern about the timing.

Justice requested the help of Advocate Shah Khawar in this case.

When an applicant was held in jail, Shah Khawar retorted that it was standard procedure to obtain signatures on required documents, such as a power of attorney.

Imran Khan’s attorney, Shaheena Shahab, asked the court to send out notices regarding the bail plea. A judge named Aurangzeb said that the law would be observed.

Following arguments, the court dismissed the registrar office’s objections and ordered that the case hearing be scheduled for Monday.

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PTI presents seven nominations to Imran Khan for the judicial commission.

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2 days ago

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Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has proposed seven individuals to its founder, Imran Khan, for consideration as founding members of PTI for membership in the next Judicial Commission.

None of the nominated individuals are attorneys; rather, the roster includes four Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) and three senators.

The proposed MNAs are Umar Ayub, Asad Qaiser, Ali Mohammad Khan, and Aamir Dogar, while the senators are Shibli Faraz, Mohsen Aziz, and Aun Abbas Bapi. Sources suggest that the Judicial Commission will include one opposition member from both the National Assembly and the Senate.

The PTI founder will evaluate and endorse two names from the suggested list, which will then be sent to the Speaker for future actions.

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Miller confirmed that Biden’s administration got a letter from a congressman requesting the release of the PTI founder.

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3 days ago

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Following his removal as prime minister in 2022, Khan started a protest movement against a coalition of his enemies led by current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Since then, he has been in jail since August 2023 and has been involved in hundreds of cases.

In response to ARY News’ question over the congressmen’s letter during a media briefing in Washington on Monday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller stated, “We will respond in due course to the members.”

The United States wants to see Pakistan maintain its democracy, Miller stated.

The release of the PTI founder’s wife and sisters was a result of a meeting between the US Deputy Assistant Secretary and a Pakistani government representative in Islamabad, which was further questioned during the press briefing.

“I won’t be addressing that,” Miller said when asked if the United States was involved in their release. Miller did, however, affirm that the conference included the defense of Pakistan’s basic liberties and rights.

Sixty-two members of the US Congress urged President Joe Biden on October 24 to support the release of Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, and other political prisoners.

The congressmen, who included well-known Muslim members Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, said in their letter that the Biden administration should ask Pakistani authorities to guarantee the safety of PTI founder Imran Khan.

They also underlined that US policy should concentrate on Pakistan’s human rights situation and asked that US ambassadors attend the PTI leader’s incarceration.

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