Will not take extension, retire in five weeks, says COAS General Bajwa

• Army will not play any role in politics, says General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
• Extended term of General Bajwa is ending on November 29.
• govt says appointment of his successor will be made in due course and according to Constitution.

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa Friday said that he will not seek an extension and retire after five weeks, Geo News reported, quoting unnamed sources.

The COAS, according to the sources,  said that the army will not play any role in politics.

It is pertinent to note that the extended term of General Bajwa is ending on November 29 and the government has announced that the appointment of his successor will be made in due course and according to the Constitution.

PTI Chairman Imran Khan called for deferring the appointment, saying the incumbent rulers were "not qualified" to make a decision in this regard.

In reaction to Khan's statement, Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir on September 17 said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will take the decision on the appointment of the chief of army staff in London after holding consultations with party supremo Nawaz Sharif.

Addressing a press conference in Gujranwala, the energy minister, without mentioning the PTI chairman's name, said that no matter how many times Khan meets with the army chief, the final decision will be taken by the prime minister.

On the other hand, Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif said that no process has been started to extend the army chief's tenure nor there has been any suggestion in this regard.

 Azam Swati granted bail in controversial tweets case

• Court approves Azam Swati's post-arrest bail plea.
• Babar Awan alleges his client was tortured.
• FIA says Swati had given a hateful statement about army chief.

ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court in Islamabad on Friday granted post-arrest bail to PTI leader Azam Swati in a case related to controversial tweets.

Special Judge Central Raja Asif Mehmood announced the verdict today which was reserved a day ago. The court directed Swati to deposit surety bonds worth Rs10,000.

PTI senator Azam Swati was taken into custody by the FIA's Cybercrime Wing (CCW) from his home in Islamabad on October 13 after registering a case against him over the tweets.

At the previous hearing, Special Prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi raised objections at the court’s jurisdiction and said this case should be transferred to the session court.

He said that the accused had given a hateful statement about the head of a state institution through the tweet.

The institution had no connection with the courts’ decisions, he said, adding the accused had used a provoking way against the state institutions at a public forum.

Swati had also admitted that during the investigation, Abbasi said.

In his concluding arguments, Swati’s counsel Baber Awan said that his client had used the right of freedom of expression through his tweet.

My client was tortured and humiliated during the custody, he alleged.

After listening to arguments, the court reserved the decision and adjourned the case till today.

Major legal victory for ruling alliance as ECP disqualifies Imran Khan in Toshakhana case.

• Imran Khan found guilty of corrupt practices.
  
• PTI slams ECP after Imran Khan's disqualification.
• PTI workers baton charged outside ECP office.

ISLAMABAD: In a major legal victory for the ruling coalition on Friday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), in a consensus verdict in Toshakana reference, disqualified former prime minister Imran Khan and ruled that the PTI chairman is no more a member of the National Assembly.

Criminal proceedings will be initiated against the PTI chairman for misdeclaration, the verdict said.

The ECP stated that Imran Khan submitted a false affidavit and was found involved in corrupt practices under Article 63(1)(p).

Under the said article, a lawmaker is disqualified for the time being from being elected or chosen as a member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) or of a provincial assembly.

The decision was taken unanimously by the ECP’s five-member bench but the Punjab member Babar Hassan Bharwana was not present today as he was unwell.

"As a sequel to our abovementioned findings, facts available on record and keeping in view the argument of learned counsel for parties herein, we are of the considered opinion that the Respondent has become disqualified under Article 63(1)(p) of the Constitution read with Section 137,167 and 173 of the Elections Act,2017, consequently he ceases to be a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan and his seat has become vacant accordingly," the ECP order stated. 

"As the respondent has made false statements and incorrect declarations, therefore he has also committed the offence of corrupt practices defined under Sections 167 and 173 of the Elections Act,2017, punishable under Section 174 of the Elections Act, 2017. The office is directed to initiate legal proceedings and to take follow-up action under Section 190(2) of the Elections Act, 2017."

The verdict was announced amid tight security in the Red Zone where at least 1,100 police officials were deployed under the command of a senior superintendent of police to control the law and order situation in the area. The officer was assisted by five superintendents and six deputy superintendents of police.

The ECP had reserved its verdict in the Toshakhana case on September 19 after arguments were completed from both sides. A five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, heard the case.

'Imran Khan disqualified for 5 years', says law minister

Meanwhile, Federal Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarrar said that Khan has been disqualified for "five years" by the Election Commission.

Speaking after the ECP ruling in the Toshakana case, the federal minister said Khan provided "wrong information" to the electoral body.

“The Election Commission showed restraint otherwise a separate action could have been taken against him.”

He said that Imran Khan’s aides are calling the verdict unjust, which is wrong.

‘Shameful decision’

Meanwhile, reacting strongly to the party chairman’s disqualification, PTI leader Fawad Hussain Chaudhry slammed the ECP and said that the election body's attitude had been the worst. “We never pinned any hopes on it.”

“This is a shameful decision. They have disgraced the 220-million-strong-nation.”

‘Caught red-handed’

Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said: "[Khan], who would spread lies about the alleged corruption of his political opponents, has been caught red-handed."

She alleged that the husband and wife together looted the national kitty.

The case

In August 2022, National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf sent a reference to the ECP under Articles 62A, 63A, and 223, seeking former prime minister Imran Khan’s disqualification in the light of the Toshakhana scam.

The disqualification reference was filed by Ali Gohar Khan, PML-N’s Mohsin Nawaz Ranjha, and five others.

The 28-page reference identified 52 gift items of Toshakhana received by the former prime minister Khan, violating the law and rules, taken away at nominal prices and most of the gifts were sold in the market, including some precious watches.

The assessed value of the gifts has been put at Rs 142,042,100. The gifts were received between August 2018 and December 2021.

According to PML-N MNA Ranjha, Khan concealed information about the gift of watches by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in his statement of assets submitted in 2018-2019.

This withholding of information is tantamount to lying which, according to Ranjha, is a crime under Section 137. 

He thus said that Khan was no more Sadiq and Ameen and should be slapped with disqualification for life from contesting the election under Article 62(1)(f), Article 2, Article 3 of the Constitution.

Article 62(1)(f) is the same legal instrument that disqualified former PM Nawaz Sharif from contesting elections and led to his removal from power, Ranjha said.

 UK interior minister quits with criticism of Truss as lawmakers row.

• Home Secretary resigns over security incident.
• Truss answers questions to jeers, laughter from lawmakers.
• Chaotic scenes in parliament as govt wins fracking vote.

LONDON: Britain's interior minister quit on Wednesday with a broadside at Liz Truss before her lawmakers openly quarrelled in parliament, underscoring the erosion of the prime minister's authority after just weeks in the job.

The departure of Suella Braverman, over a "technical" breach of government rules, means Truss has now lost two of her most senior ministers in less than a week, both replaced by politicians who had not backed her for the leadership.

Hours after the resignation, lawmakers openly rowed and jostled amid confusion over whether a vote on fracking was a confidence vote in her administration.

Opposition parliamentarians complained that Truss's politicians were being manhandled to make them vote with the government, though two lawmakers from her Conservative party said they had not seen any such behaviour.

"Discipline is falling apart, we can't go on like this," one Conservative lawmaker told Reuters.

Another, Charles Walker, told BBC television he was "livid" at the "talentless people" who had put Truss into power, just because they wanted a job. "I think it is a shambles and a disgrace," he said, in a video that a couple of other Conservative lawmakers tweeted in agreement.

Truss, in power for just over six weeks, has been fighting for her political survival ever since Sept. 23, when she launched a "mini-budget", an economic programme of vast unfunded tax cuts that sent shockwaves through financial markets.

A handful of lawmakers have openly called for her to quit, and others have discussed who should replace her. Following the scenes in parliament, there were reports that the person responsible for Conservative party discipline, and their deputy, had quit.

Business minister Jacob Rees-Mogg, asked on television if the reports were correct, said: "I'm not entirely clear on what the situation is."

Truss's office said later they both remained in their posts, but the episode illustrated the confusion in government and underscored the prime minister's faltering authority.

The latest turn in what seems to be a never-ending drama at Westminster comes as millions of Britons worry about rising inflation and cuts to public spending, with the political elite seen to be doing little to ease those concerns.

Truss had just told lawmakers that she was sorry for the mistakes she had made but was not going to quit, when reports swirled that her interior minister, or home secretary, had gone.

Confirming her departure, Braverman said she had broken the rules by sending an official document from her personal email to a parliamentary colleague. But she added she had serious concerns about the government and that just hoping problems would go away was not a viable approach.

"I have made a mistake, I accept responsibility, I resign," she said in a letter to the prime minister.

As a replacement, Truss appointed former minister Grant Shapps, who said recently that Truss faced a massive battle to survive.

He also failed to offer a ringing endorsement of the prime minister. On arrival at his new workplace, Shapps admitted the government had "obviously had a very difficult period."

But he added, referring to Truss's new finance minister: "Jeremy Hunt, I think, has done a great job of settling the issues relating to that mini budget."

Media reports suggested Truss and Braverman may have clashed over immigration. Braverman, who said recently that she dreamt of seeing asylum seekers being deported to Rwanda, has advocated a hard line on immigration numbers.

Truss had suggested restrictions could be lifted in some sections of the economy; as Hunt works to find ways to boost the economy, easing immigration rules further could be one option.

Laughter and jeers

After a move to make a vote on fracking a confidence matter, scenes in parliament descended into chaos as Conservative lawmakers were confused over whether they were obliged to vote in line with the government.

The motion by the main opposition Labour Party was defeated by 326 votes to 230 and the government proposal won, but some lawmakers said they were angry over the tactics, or lack of them, used by the government.

Voting results showed that tens of Conservative lawmakers did not take part in the vote, although some of those were on work trips or unwell.

Hours earlier, Truss had faced a raucous prime minister's questions session in parliament for the first time since Hunt scrapped most of her tax-cutting plan. She came out fighting.

Asked by Labour leader Keir Starmer why she should remain in power, she said: "I am a fighter and not a quitter."

"I have been very clear that I am sorry, and I have made mistakes," Truss told jeering opposition lawmakers in parliament. "...I'm prepared to take the tough decisions."

The prime minister was met with laughter, boos and jeers, especially when she told Labour it needed to grasp economic reality.

She also tried to appease lawmakers over her future spending plans. After days of uncertainty, she said she was committed to increasing state pension payments in line with the level of inflation.

But some were not convinced.

Conservative lawmaker William Wragg said he had submitted a letter of no confidence in the prime minister, joining a handful of others who have called for her to go. Wragg said he was "ashamed" of facing voters after the mini-budget.

Former science minister, George Freeman, said; "Enough is enough. The Cabinet need to get a grip, fast."

The Conservative Party is some 30 points behind Labour, according to opinion polls, and YouGov ranks Truss as the most unpopular leader the pollster has ever tracked.

 Putin demands all-Russia war effort as he declares martial law in occupied Ukraine

• Putin tells all Russian regions to support needs of army.
• Order meets low-key response from regional heads.
• Martial law in occupied regions under Ukrainian counter-attack.

LONDON: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he was introducing martial law in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine that Moscow claimed last month as its own territory but is struggling to defend from Ukrainian advances.

In televised remarks to members of his Security Council, Putin boosted the security powers of all Russia's regional governors and ordered the creation of a special coordinating council under Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to step up the faltering war effort.

He said the "entire system of state administration", not only the specialised security agencies, must be geared to supporting what Russia calls its "special military operation".

The package of moves, nearly eight months into the war, marked the latest escalation by Putin to counter a series of major defeats at the hands of Ukrainian forces since the start of September.

The US State Department said Russia was resorting to "desperate tactics". A Kyiv official said it would change nothing.

The published Kremlin decree ordered an "economic mobilisation" in eight regions adjoining Ukraine, including Crimea, which Russia invaded and annexed in 2014.

It placed them in a special regime one step below martial law and allowed for the restriction of people's movements.

Putin conferred additional powers on the leaders of all Russia's 80-plus regions to protect critical facilities, maintain public order and increase production in support of the war effort.

But it was far from clear how fast or how effectively the new measures might bolster Russia's military position on the ground. They came as Russian-installed officials in Ukraine's occupied Kherson region told civilians to leave some areas as soon as possible in anticipation of an imminent Ukrainian attack.

Russia expert Mark Galeotti said on Twitter the moves amounted to "a declaration of variegated martial law across the whole of Russia", with some level of emergency regulation now applying across the whole country.

He said it was unclear whether regional officials would use the extra powers as Moscow wanted, ignore them, or exploit them as opportunities to embezzle state resources.

The Russian-installed acting governor of occupied Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, confirmed that he would hand power to the military, according to Russian news agencies. But many regional chiefs - including Moscow's mayor Sergei Sobyanin - said they did not plan to make any immediate changes.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter: "This does not change anything for Ukraine: we continue the liberation and de-occupation of our territories."

Urgent measures

Ukrainian gains have forced Putin into a series of escalatory steps within the past month: the unpopular call-up of hundreds of thousands of extra troops, the unilateral annexation of the four Ukrainian regions — condemned as illegal by an overwhelming majority of nations at the UN General Assembly — and a threat to resort to nuclear weapons to defend what Russia sees as its own lands.

After months of assurances from the Kremlin that the campaign was going according to plan, the increasingly urgent measures have brought the reality of the war much closer to home for many ordinary Russians.

The failings of the military and the chaotic state of the mobilisation — which prompted hundreds of thousands of men to flee abroad — have drawn unprecedented criticism even from Putin allies.

Some regions have resorted to public appeals to provide newly mobilised soldiers with basic equipment to head to the front — a problem implicitly acknowledged by Putin.

"Our soldiers, no matter what tasks they perform, must be provided with everything they need. This applies to the equipment of barracks and places of deployment, living conditions, kit and gear, food and medical care," he said.

"We have every opportunity to resolve all the issues that arise here — and they do exist — at a modern level that is worthy of our country."

Paul Stronski, a Russia expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Putin was placing more responsibility on regional heads by ordering them onto a war footing, but without making clear what they actually needed to do.

Stronski, a former Russia specialist at the US State Department, said the president's orders epitomised Moscow's struggles to implement an effective war plan.

"Putin had a vision seven months ago, it's gone horribly wrong and he still hasn't quite figured out how to fix that vision of how to run a war," he said.

 US, allies discuss Iranian drone transfers to Russia at UN.

• US, UK, France raised issue of Iran's drone transfer to Russia.
• We will not hesitate to use our sanctions: US State Department.
• Iran denies supplying drones to Russia.

The United States, Britain and France raised the issue of Iran's alleged transfer of drones to Russia at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

"We expressed our grave concerns about Russia’s acquisition of these UAVs from Iran," Price said in a statement. "We now have abundant evidence that these UAVs are being used to strike Ukrainian civilians and critical civilian infrastructure."

"We will not hesitate to use our sanctions and other appropriate tools on all involved in these transfers," Price said.

Ukraine has reported a spate of Russian attacks using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. Iran denies supplying the drones to Russia, while the Kremlin has not commented.

The State Department assessed that Iranian drones were used on Monday in a morning rush hour attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, an official said. White House spokesperson Karinne Jean-Pierre also accused Tehran of lying when it says Iranian drones are not being used by Russia in Ukraine.

Resolution 2231 endorsed the deal between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States that limited Tehran's uranium enrichment activity, making it harder for Iran to develop nuclear arms while lifting international sanctions.

Under the resolution, a conventional arms embargo on Iran was in place until October 2020. Despite US efforts under former president Donald Trump, who took the United States out of the deal in 2018, to extend the arms embargo, the Security Council rejected this, paving the way for Iran to resume arms exports.

 US considering joint weapons production with Taiwan.

• US govt considering plan to jointly produce weapons with Taiwan.
• Initiative intended to bolster Taipei's deterrence against China.
• China leader said China would never renounce right to use force over Taiwan.

The US government is considering a plan to jointly produce weapons with Taiwan, a business lobby said on Wednesday, an initiative intended to speed up arms transfers to bolster Taipei's deterrence against China.

US presidents have approved more than $20 billion in weapons sales to Taiwan since 2017 as China has ramped up military pressure on the democratically-governed island Beijing claims as its own territory.

But Taiwan and the US Congress have warned of delivery delays because of supply chain difficulties and backlogs caused by increased demand for some systems due to the war in Ukraine.

"It's right at the beginning of the process," Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council, which counts numerous US defense contractors as members, said of the plan.

Hammond-Chambers said it was yet to be determined which weapons would be considered as part of the effort, though it would likely focus on providing Taiwan with more munitions and long-established missile technology.

But he cautioned that any such move would require weapons makers to obtain co-production licenses from the State and Defense departments. Hammond-Chambers added there could be resistance within the US government to issuing co-production licenses due to uneasiness about approving critical technology for a foreign platform.

"It's a piece of the puzzle, not a game changer," Hammond-Chambers told Reuters after Japan's Nikkei newspaper first reported on the plan, citing three unidentified sources.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry declined to comment, but reiterated that Taiwan-US relations were both "close and friendly".

Possibilities would include the United States providing technology to produce weapons in Taiwan, or producing the weapons in the United States using Taiwanese parts, the Nikkei report added.

Asked about the effort, a US State Department spokesperson said: "The United States is looking at all options to ensure the rapid transfer of defensive capabilities to Taiwan."

"The United States' swift provision of Taiwan defensive weaponry and sustainment via Foreign Military Sale and Direct Commercial Sale is essential for Taiwan's security and we will continue to work with industry to support that goal," the spokesperson said.

News of the plan came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a forum at Stanford University on Monday that "Beijing was determined to pursue reunification (with Taiwan) on a much faster timeline," though he did not specify a date.

China's leader Xi Jinping said on Sunday that China would never renounce the right to use force over Taiwan, but that it would strive for a peaceful resolution.

Taiwan's presidential office said this week Taiwan would not back down on its sovereignty and would not compromise on freedom and democracy, but that meeting on the battlefield was not an option.

US officials have been pushing Taiwan to modernize its military so it can become a "porcupine," hard for China to attack.

US officials have criticized Beijing for using a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August as a pretext to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait by ramping up nearby military drills.