Pakistan’s president dissolved Parliament on Sunday setting
the stage for early elections after the prime minister sidestepped a no-confidence
move earlier in the day.
Imran Khan asked President Arif Alvi to dissolve the
National Assembly, or law-making lower house of Parliament, accusing his
political opposition of working with the United States to overthrow his
government.
Pakistan’s constitution calls for the establishment of an
interim government to see the country toward elections, which are to be held
within 90 days.
Khan’s political opponents have called a decision by the
Parliament’s deputy speaker to throw out their no-confidence resolution illegal
and vowed to go to the Supreme Court.
The battle between Khan, a cricket star turned conservative
Islamic leader, and his political opposition has mired the nation in political
turmoil.
Pakistan’s embattled Prime Minister Imran Khan said Sunday
he will seek early elections after sidestepping a no-confidence challenge and
alleging that a conspiracy to topple his government had failed.
The deputy speaker of Pakistan’s Parliament threw out the
opposition parties’ no-confidence resolution and abruptly ended the session.
Minutes later, Khan went on national television to say he will ask Pakistan’s
president to dissolve Parliament and call early elections.
The developments came after Information Minister Fawad
Chaudhry accused the opposition of colluding with a “foreign power” to stage a
“regime change.”
“I ask people to prepare for the next elections. Thank God,
a conspiracy to topple the government has failed,” Khan said in his address.
The opposition, which said it would stage a protest sit-in
in Parliament, called the deputy speaker’s ruling throwing out the
no-confidence vote illegal and vowed to go to Pakistan’s Supreme Court.
The opposition arrived in Parliament ready to vote Khan out
of power. They needed a simple majority of 172 votes in Pakistan’s 342-seat
Parliament to unseat Khan, a cricket star turned conservative Islamic
politician. Khan’s small but key coalition partners along with 17 of his own
party members joined the opposition to oust him.
The no-confidence vote had been expected sometime after
Parliament convened Sunday but parliamentary rules allow for three to seven
days of debate. The opposition had said it has the numbers for an immediate
vote.
Giant metal containers blocked roads and entrances to the
capital’s diplomatic enclave and to Parliament and other sensitive government
installations in the capital. A defiant Khan called for supporters to stage
demonstrations countrywide to protest the vote.
Khan has accused the opposition of being in cahoots with the
United States to unseat him, saying America wants him gone over his foreign
policy choices that often favor China and Russia. Khan has also been a strident
opponent of America’s war on terror and Pakistan’s partnership in that war with
Washington.
Khan has circulated a memo which he insists provides proof
that Washington conspired with Pakistan’s opposition to unseat him because
America wants “me, personally, gone ... and everything would be forgiven.”
A loss for Khan would have given his opponents the
opportunity to form a new government and rule until elections, which had been
scheduled to be held next year.
Residents of Pakistan’s largest province Punjab were set to
vote Sunday for a new chief minister. Khan’s choice faced a tough challenge and
his opponents claimed they had enough votes to install their choice.
With 60% of Pakistan’s 220 million people living in Punjab,
it is considered the most powerful of the country’s four provinces. Also on
Sunday the government announced the dismissal of the provincial governor, whose
role is largely ceremonial and is chosen by the federal government. But it
further deepened the political turmoil in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s main opposition parties, whose ideologies span
the spectrum from left to right to radically religious, have been rallying for
Khan’s ouster almost since he was elected in 2018.
Khan’s win was mired in controversy amid widespread
accusations that Pakistan’s powerful army helped his Pakistan Tehreek Insaf
(Justice) Party to victory.
Asfandyar Mir, a senior expert with the Washington-based
U.S. Institute of Peace, said the military’s involvement in the 2018 polls
undermined Khan’s legitimacy from the outset.
“The movement against Imran Khan’s government is inseparable
from his controversial rise to power in the 2018 election, which was
manipulated by the army to push Khan over the line,” said Mir. “That really
undermined the legitimacy of the electoral exercise and created the grounds for
the current turmoil. ”
Pakistan’s military has directly ruled Pakistan for more
than half of its 75-year history, overthrowing successive democratically
elected governments. For the remainder of that time it has indirectly
manipulated elected governments from the sidelines.
The opposition has also accused Khan of economic
mismanagement, blaming him for rising prices and high inflation. Still, Khan’s
government is credited with maintaining a foreign reserve account of $18
billion and bringing in a record $29 billion last year from overseas
Pakistanis.
Khan’s anti-corruption reputation is credited with
encouraging expatriate Pakistanis to send money home. His government has also
received international praise for its handling of the COVID-19 crisis and
implementing so-called “smart lockdowns” rather than countrywide shutdowns. As
a result, several of Pakistan’s key industries, such as construction, have
survived.
Khan’s leadership style has often been criticized as
confrontational.
“Khan’s biggest failing has been his insistence on remaining
a partisan leader to the bitter end,” said Michael Kugelman, deputy director of
the Asia Program at the Washington-based Wilson Center.
“He hasn’t been willing to extend a hand across the aisle to
his rivals,” said Kugelman. “He’s remained stubborn and unwilling to make
important compromises. As a result, he’s burned too many bridges at a moment
when he badly needs all the help he can get.”
Khan’s insistence there is U.S. involvement in attempts to
oust him exploits a deep-seated mistrust among many in Pakistan of U.S.
intentions, particularly following 9/11, said Mir.
Washington has often berated Pakistan for doing too little
to fight Islamic militants even as thousands of Pakistanis have died in
militant attacks and the army has lost more than 5,000 soldiers. Pakistan has
been attacked for aiding Taliban insurgents while also being asked to bring
them to the peace table.
“The fact that it has such easy traction in Pakistan speaks
to some of the damage U.S. foreign policy has done in the post 9/11 era in general
and in Pakistan in particular,” said Mir. “There is a reservoir of
anti-American sentiment in the country, which can be instrumentalized easily by
politicians like Khan.”
Pakistan President Parliament Election
Comment
American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels.
The strikes "specifically targeted 18 Huthi targets across eight locations in Yemen" including weapons storage facilities, attack drones, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter, a joint statement said.
It was co-signed by Australia, Bahrain, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and New Zealand, who gave unspecified "support" to the new round of strikes, the second this month and fourth since the rebels began their attacks on ships in the region.
"The Huthis' now more than 45 attacks on commercial and naval vessels since mid-November constitute a threat to the global economy, as well as regional security and stability, and demand an international response," the statement said.
Huthi-run Al-Masirah television reported "a series of raids on the capital Sanaa," while AFP correspondents in the rebel-controlled city in western Yemen said they heard several loud bangs.
"The United States will not hesitate to take action, as needed, to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world's most critical waterways," Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement after the strikes.
"We will continue to make clear to the Huthis that they will bear the consequences if they do not stop their illegal attacks, which harm Middle Eastern economies, cause environmental damage, and disrupt the delivery of humanitarian aid to Yemen and other countries."
Huthi military spokesman Yahya Saree was defiant, vowing in a social media statement that the rebels would "confront the American-British escalation with more qualitative military operations against all hostile targets in the Red and Arab Seas."
The UK Ministry of Defence said four Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s targeted "several very long-range drones, used by the Houthis for both reconnaissance and attack missions," on Saturday, at a site north-east of Sanaa.
Saturday's operation comes after several merchant vessels were struck this week in the region, including the fertilizer-filled Rubymar, whose crew had to abandon ship after it was hit Sunday and began taking on water.
Apart from the joint operations with Britain, the United States has also carried out unilateral strikes against Huthi positions and weaponry in Yemen, and downed dozens of missiles and drones in the Red Sea.
- Anti-ship missile downed -
Earlier on Saturday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced that an American Navy ship had shot down an anti-ship ballistic missile "launched into the Gulf of Aden from Iranian-backed Huthi controlled areas of Yemen."
The missile "was likely targeting MV Torm Thor, a US-Flagged, owned, and operated chemical/oil tanker," CENTCOM said on X, formerly Twitter.
US forces on Friday also shot down three attack drones near commercial ships in the Red Sea and destroyed seven anti-ship cruise missiles on land, CENTCOM said.
The Huthis say they are targeting Israel-linked vessels in support of Palestinians in Gaza, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war.
Following previous US and UK strikes, the Huthis declared American and British interests to be legitimate targets as well.
The Huthis will "persist in upholding their religious, moral and humanitarian duties towards the Palestinian people, and their military operations will not stop unless the aggression stops and the siege on the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is lifted," military spokesman Saree said.
Anger over Israel's devastating campaign in Gaza -- which began after an unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7 -- has grown across the Middle East, stoking violence involving Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Comment
Israel launched air strikes Thursday on southern Gaza's Rafah after threatening to send troops into the city, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have sought shelter from around the territory.
Global powers trying to navigate a way to end the Israel-Hamas war have so far come up short, but a US envoy was expected in Israel on Thursday to try to secure a truce deal.
International concern has spiralled over the high civilian death toll and dire humanitarian crisis in the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack against Israel.
More than four months of relentless fighting and air strikes have flattened much of the Hamas-run coastal territory, pushing its population of around 2.4 million to the brink of famine, according to the UN.
International concern has in recent weeks centred on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million people forced to flee their homes elsewhere in the territory are now living in crowded shelters and makeshift tents.
The last city untouched by Israeli ground troops, Rafah also serves as the main entry point via neighbouring Egypt for desperately needed relief supplies.
Israel has warned it will expand its ground operations into Rafah if Hamas does not free the remaining hostages held in Gaza by next month's start of the Muslim holy month Ramadan.
- 'My daughter' -
The war started when Hamas launched its attack on October 7, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Hamas militants also took about 250 hostages -- 130 of whom remain in Gaza, including 30 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed at least 29,313 people, mostly women and children, according to the latest count by the Hamas-run health ministry in the territory.
War cabinet member Benny Gantz said Israel's operation in Rafah would begin "after the evacuation of the population", although his government has not offered any details on where civilians would be evacuated to.
In the early hours of Thursday, AFP reporters heard multiple air strikes on Rafah, particularly in the Al-Shaboura neighbourhood.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said early Thursday that 99 people had been killed around Gaza during the night, most of them women, children and elderly people.
Abdel Rahman Mohamed Jumaa said he lost his family in recent strikes on Rafah.
"I found my wife lying in the street," he told AFP. "Then I saw a man carrying a girl and I ran towards him and.... picked her up, realising she was really my daughter."
He was holding a small shrouded corpse in his arms.
- 'Possibility of progress' -
Brett McGurk, the White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, was expected to arrive in Israel Thursday -- his second stop in the region after Egypt as part of US efforts to advance a hostage deal and broker a truce.
Hamas's chief Ismail Haniyeh was in Cairo for talks as well, according to the group.
Israel's Gantz said there were efforts to "promote a new plan for the return of the hostages".
"We are seeing the first signs that indicate the possibility of progress in this direction."
Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesman, said Washington was hoping for an "agreement that secures a temporary ceasefire where we can get the hostages out and get humanitarian assistance", but declined to give details on ongoing negotiations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted the army will keep fighting until it has destroyed Hamas and freed the remaining hostages.
Israel's parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed a proposal by Netanyahu to oppose any unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.
The vote came days after the Washington Post reported that US President Joe Biden's administration and a small group of Arab nations were working out a comprehensive plan for long-term peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
It included a firm timeline for the establishment of a Palestinian state, the report said.
Separately, a report by an Israeli group that fights sexual violence said Hamas's October 7 attack also involved systematic sexual assaults on civilians, based on witness testimonies, public and classified information, and interviews.
The report came the same week UN rights experts called for an independent probe into alleged Israeli abuses against Palestinian women and girls -- which Israel rejected as "despicable and unfounded claims".
Israeli officials have repeatedly alleged the militants committed violent sexual assaults during the attack -- something Hamas has denied.
- 'Waiting for death' -
Combat and chaos have stalled sporadic aid deliveries for civilians in Gaza, while in Khan Yunis -- a city just north of Rafah -- medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said an Israeli tank had fired on a house sheltering their employees and families.
Two relatives of MSF staff were killed and six others injured, it said, condemning the strike in the "strongest possible terms".
When contacted by AFP about the incident, the Israeli army said its forces had "fired at a building that was identified as a building where terror activity is occurring", adding that it "regrets" harm to civilians.
In the same town, the Palestinian Red Crescent said another hospital was also hit by "artillery shelling".
Israel has repeatedly said Hamas militants use civilian infrastructure including hospitals as operational bases -- claims that Hamas has denied.
Comment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today stressed the need for expanding business between Bangladesh and India using their own currencies.
"We can do our business through exchanges of Bangladeshi Taka and Indian Rupee. It has already started, but we have to expand it further so that we can increase our businesses," she said while Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid a call on the Prime Minister.
The meeting was held at Hotel Bayerischer Hof, the conference venue, here on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024, this morning.
Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud briefed newsmen about the outcome of the meeting upon its completion.
The Foreign Minister said the Bangladesh Premier and Jaishankar attached importance to doing business between the two friendly countries through their own currencies to reduce dependency on other currencies like the US dollar.
He said Bangladesh and India have excellent bilateral relations and it has elevated to another height under the leadership of the prime ministers of the two countries.
"The relations between the countries are getting stronger day by day," he said, adding that the two leaders discussed the issues during the meeting.
Quoting Jaishankar, Hasan said, "Our relations will further be closer in the days ahead."
Bangladesh Ambassador to Germany Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and PM's Deputy Press Secretary Md. Noorelahi Mina were present during the briefing.
Bangladesh Prime Minister arrived in Munich on February 15 evening on a three-day official visit to join the Munich Security Conference 2024.
Upon completion of the tour, Sheikh Hasina will leave Munich tomorrow night and is scheduled to reach Dhaka on February 19.
(BSS)
Comment
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon all concerned to find ways to stop Russia-Ukraine war while holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy here.
"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always says we are against all kinds of war. Today, she discussed time and again about how the war can be stopped while holding talks with Zelenskyy," said Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at a news briefing after the meeting.
The meeting between the two leaders was held at Hotel Bayerischer Hof here on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) 2024, this morning.
Hasan also said that they also discussed how the attacks on innocent men and women in Gaza can be stopped.
The Premier reminded all that war can't bring wellbeing for any one.
"Others can be benefitted from the war. But the war cannot bring welfare for the countries involved in war and their people have to be affected by the war," said Sheikh Hasina.
In this connection, the Prime Minister recollected her memories about the sufferings of the countrymen and she herself faced during the Great War of Liberation in 1971.
She recalled her inhuman sufferings and the birth of her only son Sajeeb Wazed Joy under the captivity of the Pakistani occupation forces during the War.
"Bangladesh's foreign policy - 'Friendship to all, malice to none’ - prominently came up in the discussion between Prime Minister and Zelenskyy," the foreign minister said.
Replying to a query, Hasan said the friendly relations between Bangladesh and Russia which got foundation during the Liberation war , will not hamper at all.
"Our relationship with Russia is very wonderful. Russia stood beside us during the Liberation War and played a pivotal role in rebuilding Bangladesh after the war," he said.
He said they only discussed how to stop the war.
Bangladesh Ambassador to Germany Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and PM's Deputy Press Secretary Md. Noorelahi Mina were present during the briefing.
Bangladesh Prime Minister arrived in Munich on February 15 evening on a three-day official visit to join the Munich Security Conference 2024.
Upon completion of the tour, Sheikh Hasina will leave Munich tomorrow night and is scheduled to reach Dhaka on February 19.
(BSS)
Comment
Comment
American and British forces carried out a fresh wave of strikes Saturday against 18 Huthi targets in Yemen, following weeks of unrelenting attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed rebels. The strikes "specifically targeted 18 Huthi targets across eight locations in Yemen" including weapons storage facilities, attack drones, air defense systems, radars, and a helicopter, a joint statement said.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today stressed the need for expanding business between Bangladesh and India using their own currencies. "We can do our business through exchanges of Bangladeshi Taka and Indian Rupee. It has already started, but we have to expand it further so that we can increase our businesses," she said while Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid a call on the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon all concerned to find ways to stop Russia-Ukraine war while holding a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy here. "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina always says we are against all kinds of war. Today, she discussed time and again about how the war can be stopped while holding talks with Zelenskyy," said Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud at a news briefing after the meeting.