The army's media wing on Wednesday announced that Lt Gen Asim Munir has been appointed the new director general (DG) of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Following reports that former DG ISI Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar would be retiring, various sections of the media speculated that Lt Gen Munir was next in line for the post.

The Pakistan Army had in September approved the promotion of Munir and five other major generals to the rank of Lt Gen.

Lt Gen Munir's previous appointment was as DG Military Intelligence. He received a Hilal-i-Imtiaz in March 2018.

He has also served as commander of the Force Command Northern Areas.

In addition to announcing Munir's new charge as DG ISI, the Inter-Services Public Relations also announced that Lt Gen Azhar Saleh Abbasi will take over as chief of Logistics Staff at General Headquarters, Lt Gen Nadeem Zaki has been appointed commander Peshawar Corps, Lt Gen Abdul Aziz has been posted as the GHQ military secretary, Lt Gen Muhammad Adnan has been appointed vice chief of general staff, while Lt Gen Waseem Ashraf is set to take over as the IG Arms.

The Karachi police chief has discouraged cops from harassing couples and asking them to prove that they are married.

In a notification dated Oct 9 newly appointed Additional Inspector General of Police Amir Sheikh noted: "There is a general complaint that policemen in mobiles and motorcycles harass and humiliate couples by asking them to show 'nikahnama' to prove their credentials as husband and wife."

"You are hereby directed to issue strict instructions to the subordinate staff not to demand 'nikahnama' from any person. In future, such complaints shall not be tolerated and action against supervising officers will also be initiated," the notification added.

The letter was addressed to the Deputy Inspector Generals (DIG) South, West and East Zones Karachi, Javed Alam Odho, Khadim Hussain Rind and Amir Farooqui.

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday said that a soundbite from a phone call — made on July 25 regarding RTS failure — has been sent to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to determine who had given the instructions.

Members of the ECP, including DG IT Khizar Aziz and DG Law Arshad Mehmood, shared this information with the Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs during a briefing on the alleged failure of RTS on election night.

At the outset, the committee expressed dissatisfaction at the ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh's absence from the meeting.

"The by-polls are about to take place and the ECP secretary is not even in the country," members of the committee remarked when they were told that Fateh was abroad on an official visit.

A letter from the ECP to the FIA was also produced during the briefing, chaired by Senator Sassui Palijo. The letter, dated August 30, said that a USB drive containing the soundbite has been sent to the FIA to run forensic tests to identify the person that had made the phone call.

According to the letter, FIA has been asked to respond to the matter swiftly.

The Senate committee was told that the RTS had only yielded 20 per cent results when it was tested in PP-20 (Chakwal) ahead of the General Elections.

"A number of returning officers in the district did not have the kind of mobile phones required [to upload the results]," the ECP members said.

At this, Senator Javed Abbasi asked why the ECP had not objected to the use of RTS if it had such faults.

"In fact, at that time, the ECP had claimed to have a backup of the system," Abbasi pointed out.

"The ECP had expressed its reservations regarding the RTS system. In fact, it was said on May 21 that the RTS trial had failed," Senator Palijo said in response.

According to members of the ECP, the RTS was not even part of the Election Act [then bill] till August 6, 2017.

"The system was made part of the bill on August 22, 2017," a member of the ECP said.

Separately, the committee was also told that the ECP still has reservations on the functioning of the iVote that is to be used by overseas Pakistanis in the Oct 14 by-polls.

"The Supreme Court has been informed about the ECP's reservations on the iVote system," the ECP team told the Senate committee.

The RTS controversy

The RTS controversy came to surface when results of the elections were abruptly stopped around midnight after the daylong polling. Later ECP Secretary Fateh appeared on TV screens and informed the perplexed nation that the RTS had “collapsed” and that the ECP was now returning to the traditional and manual method of tabulating the results and, therefore, there could be an inordinate delay in the announcement of the unofficial results.

According to sources, soon after the secretary’s news conference, the senior and top officials of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) — the creators of the RTS mobile app — had protested with the ECP and claimed that the RTS was fully functional and they also provided some documentary evidence to prove their claim.

However, Nadra officials were simply told by ECP officials that they had decided to stop using RTS since it had started “malfunctioning”.

The RTS was developed by Nadra after an agreement with the ECP in February when the commission had expressed the desire to receive the results directly from polling stations as done by newspaper and TV reporters. The system, they said, was only meant for the quick announcement of the results for the media through the ECP and that was why its link was provided to the PTV.

Some Nadra officials allege that perhaps it was the ECP’s own costly Result Management System (RMS), installed at the offices of the returning officers (ROs) for tabulation of the results, that had stopped functioning and the commission had put the blame on Nadra only as a cover-up as the RTS and RMS were independent systems and there was no integration between the two softwares.

On the other hand, a spokesman for the ECP had refuted Nadra’s claim that the RMS had failed on the election night, reiterating the stance that the RTS had crashed.

He alleged that Nadra was making these claims only to hide its own “weaknesses”.

PPP Secretary General Farhatullah Babar had stated that traditionally the polls day manipulation took place in the RO offices at the time of consolidation of results and the RTS had been introduced to reduce the role of the ROs.

“The RTS worked perfectly well on the election day for some hours until someone was scared by prospects of eliminating the role of ROs altogether and decided to discontinue it,” he had alleged, while calling for a “forensic audit” to find answers to a number of questions.

Islamabad police arrested former senator Faisal Raza Abidi on Wednesday on an FIR registered against him last night for using "highly insulting and inappropriate language" against the chief justice, DawnNewsTV reported.

Abidi was arrested by officials of Secretariat police station outside the Supreme Court, where he appeared for a hearing of a suo motu case regarding anti-judiciary remarks made by him in an interview that was aired on Channel 5. During his hearing, he told the court that his lawyer had gone for Umrah. The SC, after issuing notices to Abidi and the deputy attorney general, adjourned the hearing until October 30.

A first information report (FIR) — a copy of which is available with DawnNewsTV — was lodged against Abidi in the Secretariat police station last night under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). It also includes Sections 500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), 505 (II) (statements conducing to public mischief), 228 (intentional insult or interruption to public servant sitting in judicial proceeding), 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against the state) and 109 (punishment of abetment if act abetted in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The FIR, registered under the complaint of assistant sub-inspector of Secretariat police station Shaukat Mehmood Abbasi, alleges Abidi of using "highly insulting and inappropriate language" against the chief justice and the judiciary in an interview. It also accuses him of "undermining the honour of the chief justice [and] inciting the public".

The FIR does not specify the programme it is referring to.

This is the third case that has been registered against Abidi for defamation of judiciary and usage of threatening language.

The former senator first came under heat after a video of his interview went viral on social media, in which his language was deemed abusive, contemptuous and threatening in an FIR that was registered earlier. He was also accused of levelling allegations against government institutions which have been created via the Constitution. He also levelled accusations against individuals holding the highest constitutional posts, the FIR said.

The case was registered with the Secretariat police under different sections of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 7 of ATA in response to a complaint lodged by Shahid Hussain Kambyo, the public relations officer of the SC.

Another case was registered against Abidi with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) under the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act 2016 for his remarks in another programme titled Subah Subah Naya Pakistan aired on web channel Naya Pakistan on July 2.

It says that during the course of his appearance on the show, the accused, with criminal intent and ulterior motives and without any lawful justification used sarcastic, derogatory, disrespectful and defamatory language against the chief justice etc. which it says is tantamount to creating a sense of fear, panic and insecurity among the government, general public and society.

It says that Abidi is prima facie guilty of offences punishable under sections 10(a), 11 and 20 of the Prevention of Electronic Crime Act, 2016 read with sections 109 and 509 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

An anti-terrorism court had granted Abidi bail in that case — that is ongoing — until October 11 earlier this month.

An FIA official said the case will be registered by the FIA’s cybercrime wing as well, which was registered under the prevention of the Electronic Crimes Act and the PPC.

The police are holding a separate investigation of the case.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday sought to allay concerns regarding an impending economic meltdown in the country, saying he will take the country out of this "difficult time".

Addressing a ceremony in connection with the launch of the Naya Pakistan Housing Project, Khan said he will present a roadmap before the nation listing steps the government will take to stabilise the economy.

The premier said he will "guide" the nation every week on his government's economic plans.

"Have courage, there is nothing to worry about," the prime minister said, assuring the nation that the turbulence in the economy won't last long.

Khan said an impression had been created in the last 48 hours "as if the sky is going to fall [or] the day of judgement is upon us", but instead sought to explain the issues faced by the economy.

He said the previous governments had taken loans recklessly, which has resulted in the country's debt ballooning from $6 trillion to $30 trillion in the past 10 years alone.

He said the previous PML-N government had started its term with a $3 billion current account deficit, but the 40-day-old Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government inherited an $18bn current account deficit.

More to follow.

Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing on Wednesday said China had no objection to Saudi Arabia investing in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

"We welcome investment in CPEC," the ambassador told journalists at the Quetta Press Club.

Following Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to Saudia Arabia last month, the government had announced that the kingdom has signed grant agreements with Pakistan to finance three road infrastructure and energy projects under CPEC.

The government, however, had clarified that Saudi Arabia would not be made part of the $50 billion CPEC framework and the kingdom’s proposed investments would fall under a separate bilateral arrangement.

“The framework between China and Pakistan is bilateral and Saudi Arabia is not entering that framework as a third-party investor, rather the base of CPEC will be broadened and its pace will be expedited,” Minister for Planning and Development Khusro Bakhtiar had said during a press conference.

Also read: Dealing with the Saudis

During his visit to Quetta, Ambassador Jing also addressed the Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industry and met people from a broad cross-section of society.

He stated that after the formation of the new government, CPEC had been reviewed and consensus had been developed over the inclusion of new projects.

"Both sides will keep working on the ongoing projects under CPEC and have them finished as scheduled," Jing said of the projects that are already underway.

"For the next stage of the project, we will focus on joint ventures and the social sector. We have also decided that more resources should be given to the western provinces," he revealed.

He expressed the desire to link the mega project to Central Asian states via Afghanistan. He said CPEC would open new vistas of development and prosperity in the region.

The Chinese Ambassador stated that CPEC had entered "a new era" and that jobs would be created for the people of Pakistan through its various projects. He said Balochistan offers numerous opportunities to investors in terms of agriculture, livestock, mines and minerals.

At the chamber of commerce, businessmen urged the Chinese ambassador to establish a Chinese consulate in Quetta to address their business needs. The ambassador promised the business community that their request would be discussed with Chinese higher ups.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday sought to allay concerns regarding an impending economic meltdown in the country, saying he will take the country out of this "difficult time".

Addressing a ceremony in connection with the launch of the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme, Khan said he will present a roadmap before the nation listing steps the government will take to stabilise the economy.

"Have courage, there is nothing to worry about," the prime minister said, assuring the nation that the turbulence in the economy won't last long.

Read: Economy cries for instant healing

The premier said he will "guide" the nation every week on his government's economic plans.

Khan said an impression had been created in the last 48 hours "as if the sky is going to fall [or] the day of judgement is upon us", but instead sought to explain the issues faced by the economy.

He said the previous governments had taken loans recklessly, which has resulted in the country's debt ballooning from Rs6 trillion to Rs30 trillion in the past 10 years alone.

He said the previous PML-N government had started its term with a $3 billion current account deficit, but the 40-day-old Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government inherited an $18bn current account deficit.

Pakistan today faces a shortfall of $10-12 billion to pay its loans and purchase imports in the short term, he said, adding that his government has been debating seeking help from friendly countries and approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout programme as well.

He reiterated that the government is seeking funds from external sources only for the short term, as the economic reforms and austerity measures initiated by his government "will take six months to show results".

Talking about possible recourses to bridge the deficit, Khan said the total amount laundered out of Pakistan annually, according to the US State Department, is $10bn.

"So if we had curbed the money laundering [in the past], we wouldn't have to pursue loans today," he said.

The country also wouldn't have to knock on the Fund's door if the government managed to convince overseas Pakistanis to send $20bn in remittances through banking channels, he said.

Khan said the incentives given by his government can also lead to exports rising by $10bn from a current $20bn.

The options available show that "ours is a wealthy country," the prime minister said. "The only misfortune of this country has been the lack of management."

'5 million affordable homes in 5 years'

Giving details of the Naya Pakistan Housing Project, the prime minister revealed that five million affordable houses will be constructed in five years targeting the low-income segments of society.

The scheme will bring long-due prosperity in the country, he said, adding that at least 40 other industries connecting with housing will also be set in motion as soon as construction is started for the project in urban as well as rural areas.

Examine: Is PTI’s affordable housing programme just old wine in a new bottle?

"The target of this [plan] is the common man, who could not even think about owning a house."

Khan said while citizens of many other countries build their houses through loans, only 0.25 per cent of Pakistani citizens take loans for the purpose due to a lack of appropriate legal structures. The government's housing policy will seek to eliminate these hurdles, he said.

The construction for the scheme will be carried out by the private sector, while the government will facilitate it by removing hurdles and providing the land for the construction.

In this regard, the prime minister announced the formation of the 'Naya Pakistan Housing Authority' that will provide one-window operations to facilitate the construction industry. The authority will be set up in three months, while a 17-member task force will oversee the housing project until then.

Yet another session of the Senate was disrupted on Wednesday because of the running spat between Minister of Information Fawad Chaudhry and PML-N Senator Mushahidullah Khan.

The episode was the latest in a series of arguments between the two triggered after Chaudhry targeted Mushahidullah on the floor of the National Assembly, accusing him of getting members of his family inducted into lucrative posts in the Pakistan International Airline (PIA) using latter's political clout.

A similar episode had taken place last week when the minister took the floor to 'explain' the remarks he had made in the National Assembly. Before he could offer the 'explanation', however, he was told by Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani and the PML-N senator to apologise.

When Chaudhry dodged the request, the Senate witnessed the unprecedented scene of a federal minister being asked to leave the upper house.

Today, as Chaudhry took the floor of the Senate again, Mushahidullah was quick to ask him to tender an apology.

To this, the information minister said that he would not apologise as the matter was being investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency.

"Then let the inquiry end before you come to parliament," retorted Mushahidullah.

"Senator Mushahidullah's whole family is in the PIA. There is no way I will apologise for what I said. I still stand by it," the information minister snapped back.

"If he manages to find six people from my family who are part of PIA, I will resign from my position," Mushahidullah replied, adding that if the information minister fails, he should be the one to resign from his position.

As the back and forth between the minister and the senator continued, Senator Raza Rabbani, the former chairman of the house, took the floor and said that the behaviour shown by both sides was unprecedented and unbecoming.

"I have been in the Senate for 26 years; never have I witnessed such an environment [in all that time]," he said.

"Such an environment has been created that Senate proceedings have to be postponed. In such circumstances, you [the Speaker] should exercise your authority," he continued.

Senator Rabbani also pointed out that the Senate chairman's ruling cannot be challenged.

Later, the Senate chairman managed to broker a tentative truce between the two sides. However, soon after that, Chaudhry issued what was allegedly a list of all the 'members' of Senator Mushahidullah's family who are currently employed by the PIA.

The two were back at it when the proceedings resumed.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday sought to allay concerns regarding an impending economic meltdown in the country, saying he will take the country out of this "difficult time".

Addressing a ceremony in connection with the launch of the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme, Khan said he will present a roadmap before the nation listing steps the government will take to stabilise the economy.

"Have courage, there is nothing to worry about," the prime minister told the audience, assuring the nation that the turbulence in the economy won't last long.

Read: Economy cries for instant healing

The premier said he will "guide" the nation every week on his government's economic plans.

Khan said an impression had been created in the last 48 hours "as if the sky is going to fall [or] the day of judgement is upon us", but instead sought to explain the issues faced by the economy.

He said the previous governments had taken loans recklessly, which has resulted in the country's debt ballooning from Rs6 trillion to Rs30 trillion in the past 10 years alone.

He said the previous PML-N government had started its term with a $3 billion current account deficit, but the 40-day-old Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government inherited an $18bn current account deficit.

Pakistan today faces a shortfall of $10-12 billion to pay its loans and purchase imports in the short term, he said, adding that his government has been debating seeking help from friendly countries and approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout programme as well.

He reiterated that the government is seeking funds from external sources only for the short term, as the economic reforms and austerity measures initiated by his government "will take six months to show results".

Talking about possible recourses to bridge the deficit, Khan said the total amount laundered out of Pakistan annually, according to the US State Department, is $10bn.

"So if we had curbed the money laundering [in the past], we wouldn't have to pursue loans today," he said.

The country also wouldn't have to knock on the Fund's door if the government managed to convince overseas Pakistanis to send $20bn in remittances through banking channels, he said.

Khan said the incentives given by his government can also lead to exports rising by $10bn from a current $20bn.

The options available show that "ours is a wealthy country," the prime minister said. "The only misfortune of this country has been the lack of management."

'5 million affordable houses in 5 years'

Giving details of the Naya Pakistan Housing Programme, the prime minister revealed that five million affordable houses will be constructed in five years targeting the low-income segments of society.

The scheme will bring long-due prosperity in the country, he said, adding that at least 40 other industries connecting with housing will also be set in motion as soon as construction is started for the project in urban as well as rural areas.

Examine: Is PTI’s affordable housing programme just old wine in a new bottle?

"The target of this [plan] is the common man, who could not even think about owning a house."

Khan said while citizens of many other countries build their houses through loans, only 0.25 per cent of Pakistani citizens take loans for the purpose due to a lack of appropriate legal structures. The government's housing policy will seek to eliminate these hurdles, he said.

The construction for the scheme will be carried out by the private sector, while the government will facilitate it by removing hurdles and providing the land for the construction.

In this regard, the prime minister announced the formation of the 'Naya Pakistan Housing Authority' that will provide one-window operations to facilitate the construction industry. The authority will be set up in three months, while a 17-member task force will oversee the housing project until then.

The government will also locate katchi abadis across the country and regularise them, he announced.

Khan disclosed that a 60-day pilot project will be commenced tomorrow in coordination with the National Database and Registration Authority in seven districts to assess the demand and payment capacity for affordable houses.

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) secretary general Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri on Wednesday opposed any amendments to the blasphemy law, which was under discussion in a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee for Information and Technology.

As a discussion on amendments to curtail the misuse of the law started, Maulana Haidri said: "Why is the blasphemy law alone the topic of so much discussion?"

To this, he was told that the law was being reviewed as it was being widely misused.

Also read: A brief history of the anti-blasphemy laws

The Maulana's retort was that, "other laws are also being misused in the country, but no one seems to mind that and thus we will not let this law be changed either."

He also dropped a threat, saying that the blasphemy law had previously "taken a lot of lives, and if anyone tries to touch it, they will be the ones held responsible for any damage caused."

He also said that if any step to amend the law is taken, his party will show "complete resistance" and even block it in the National Assembly and Senate.

"We will tell the people the complete truth behind this," he said before marching out of the meeting along with Senator Fida Muhammad Khan.

As a result of the walkout, the committee's meeting was adjourned indefinitely.

National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Wednesday issued directives to convene session of the National Assembly on October 17 following a requisition made by the opposition parties.

Additionally, the NA Secretariat also issued production orders to ensure the presence of Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif, who is currently in the National Accountability Bureau's custody.

The opposition parties, however, are adamant to protest outside the Parliament House on Thursday, saying the NA speaker did not accept their demand for calling the NA session this week.

"We had requested for the NA session to be called 'timely' but the NA speaker did not accept our request," said PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb.

On October 5, the evening when Sharif was arrested, a requisition to call an NA session to deliberate the matter had been submitted to the NA secretariat.

The next day, on October 6, a delegation of opposition leaders comprising the PML-N chairman and Leader of the Opposition in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq, former NA speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl leader Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and PML-N lawmaker Rana Tanvir met the incumbent NA speaker at his residence and urged him to summon the session soon as they wished to raise the issue of Shahbaz’s arrest.

PML-N protest outside Punjab Assembly

Meanwhile, the PML-N's provincial lawmakers, led by Hamza Shahbaz, gathered outside the Punjab Assembly today to condemn Sharif's arrest by NAB authorities in connection to their investigation into the management of the Punjab Land Development Company (PLDC) and the Lahore Development Authority (LDA).

The protesting members of Punjab Assembly were barred from entering the premises, upon which they attempted to break the gate down.

The parties had earlier planned on staging a peaceful demonstration on the steps of the Punjab Assembly. Upon their being not being allowed to enter, slogans of "jaali wazeer-e-azam" (fake prime minister) and "jaali wazeer-e-aala" (fake chief minister) erupted outside the premises.

Among those present were Hamza Shahbaz, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Khwaja Imran Nazeer, Hina Pervaiz Butt, Bushra Anjum Butt, and Uzma Bukhari, among others.

Hamza Shahbaz, while addressing the gathering, proclaimed that the "true face" of the government — "which had won hundreds of thousands of votes raising slogans against the parliament" — had been exposed before the people.

Party member Mian Naseer Ahmed also expressed strong reservations about the treatment meted out to the protesters.

"Not calling a [timely] session is one thing but barring us from entering the premises is unethical," he declared, adding that in the country's 71-year history, the MPAs and media were barred from entering the Punjab Assembly for the first time.

Khwaja Saad Rafique said that the closing of the Punjab Assembly's doors is a dictatorial move and signifies that "these people have no relation to democracy whatsoever".

He said that the prime minister was unsuccessful in his efforts to govern the country and that "his tone was unacceptable and intolerable".

The former minister for railways said that there was only one motive behind the arrest of the leader of the opposition.

"Imran Khan has no agenda and just wants to clash with the opposition. He is a most unusual leader," he said.

Rafique challenged the prime minister to "catch" them, like he [Imran] repeatedly promises he will. "It will be our hand and your collar," Rafique boldly declared, promising that with the power of the vote they will oust "this Bal Thackeray".

The former minister also warned that if the prevailing situation in the country is not resolved, the opposition will have no other choice but to protest. He said to the media present that the protest was not only against Shahbaz's "illegal" arrest but also against rising inflation in Pakistan.

With additional reporting from Ali Waqar.

The prosecution has requested an anti-terrorism court in Karachi to re-open the trial against detained convict Saad Aziz in a case pertaining to an attempt on the life of American educationist Debra Lobo in 2015.

Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin, along with his four accomplices, had been charged with shooting at and wounding Lobo, the vice principal of Karachi’s Jinnah Medical and Dental College, on Shaheed-i-Millat Road in April 2015.

Read more: What does the attack on Debra Lobo mean?

According to the prosecution, Lobo was on her way to her residence located in the Defence Housing Authority when the attack took place. Although she survived the attack, Lobo suffered two bullet wounds on her hand and face.

During an identification parade conducted by a judicial magistrate on June 27, 2015, an eye-witness had rightly picked out the main accused, Saad Aziz, as the primary shooter.

The ATC-XVI judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, had reserved the verdict in the case after recording evidence and hearing final arguments from both sides.

However, the assistant prosecutor general has moved an application arguing that additional evidence is available which needs to be recorded and has pleaded the court to re-open the trial.

In May, the main suspect Saad Aziz had testified before the court, wherein he had denied his association with any militant outfit after police investigators claimed that he was inspired by the Islamic State (IS) and was associated with Al Qaeda.

He had further deposed that he did not even know Lobo before the incident, adding that plain-clothed personnel of law enforcement agencies had picked him up from his house on May 18, 2015.

The accused deposed that the law enforcers showed his arrest after a fake encounter in Gulshan-e-Maymar on May 20, 2015. He said an alleged witness, Javed, had identified him as one of the attackers during an identification parade before a judicial magistrate, adding that later Javed kept visiting the office of the Counter-Terrorism Department.

Read: Anatomy of a murder

The accused testified that the law enforcers had already shown his face to Javed, who even sat with him in the vehicle when he was being taken to the court for the identification parade.

A business graduate from a prestigious Karachi business school, Saad and his other accomplices were handed over to military authorities in January 2016 to face trial before military courts in 18 cases, including cases of the Safoora Goth bus carnage, murder of Sabeen Mahmud, killing of policemen, attempted murder and carrying explosive substances and illicit weapons.

The military court had sentenced Saad Aziz, Tahir Minhas, Asadur Rehman, Mohammad Azhar Ishrat and Hafiz Nasir Ahmed to death in May 2016 in these cases.

Later, the convicts were handed back to jail authorities to face trial in other cases pending before the antiterrorism courts.

A meeting of the PPP's policy board on Wednesday decided to initiate bidding for the Yellow Line bus rapid transit system (BRTS) afresh after a Chinese firm remained unable to secure financing for the mass transit project.

The decision was taken during the 26th meeting of the Public-Private Partnership Policy Board chaired by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, according to a statement issued by the provincial government's spokesperson.

The meeting, which was attended by provincial ministers, advisers and MPAs, took some important decisions to expedite the procedures for the construction of Yellow and Blue Lines BRT and improve functioning of other development projects.

The board was informed that the Sindh Transport and Mass Transit Department (TMTD) had launched the Yellow Line project through an international competitive bidding process.

A Chinese firm and the TMTD signed the concession agreement for the project in September 2016.

However, the project faced delays after the Chinese firm remained unable to secure financing for the Yellow Line from Chinese Banks despite efforts in this regard.

As per the Sindh PPP Act, the private party is required to achieve financial close within 12 months of signing the agreement.

Because the Chinese firm remained unable to do so, the policy board approved the scrapping of the existing procurement process under 'PPP mode'.

"The board... directed the PPP unit to start bidding for the project afresh so that it could be started," read the statement.

Earlier this month, the World Bank had proposed $400 million for the Karachi Urban Mobility project aimed at improving urban mobility, accessibility and road safety in Karachi.

Under the project, the WB would construct the Yellow Line corridor, including development of infrastructure, rehabilitation and BRTS construction.

ISLAMABAD: Lt Gen Asim Munir was on Wednesday named as the new director general of premier spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence. He will assume office on the retirement of incumbent ISI chief Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar on Oct 25.

The appointment of the new ISI director general was announced by Inter-Services Public Relations, the army’s public affairs wing.

The ISI chief’s appointment is a prerogative of the prime minister and as such it is the first significant military-related posting made by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government. The spymaster’s choice is, however, made by the prime minister in consultation with the army chief.

Gen Munir, who had been promoted as a three-star general on Sept 28, was previously heading the Military Intelligence as its director general. He was always believed to be a strong contender for the ISI appointment because of his intelligence background.

There are very few examples of a Military Intelligence chief being posted as head of the ISI. There are three such instances in the past nearly three decades — Lt Gen Nadeem Taj (2007-08), Gen Ehsanul Haq (2001-04), Lt Gen Asad Durrani (1990-91) and Lt Gen Hamid Gul (1987-89).

Chief of the Army Staff Gen Qamar Bajwa had picked Gen Munir as the Military Intelligence chief months after assuming command in November 2016. Before his MI assignment, he was Force Commander Northern Areas, where he had for sometime also worked under Gen Bajwa, who was then heading Corps X that is responsible for Northern Areas. He is, therefore, believed to be Gen Bajwa’s most trusted person.

A former defence secretary, while appreciating the appointment, said: “It is always better to appoint someone well versed with intelligence to head ISI.”

Another retired general said it was important that Gen Munir was coming to the ISI “with complete insight of the developments that have been taking place”.

His immediate priority in office will be to fine-tune the strategy for countering the hybrid war that the country is encountering. Another major challenge for him will be evolving regional and international environment.

Gen Munir was conferred Hilal-i-Imtiaz in March this year.

Other postings

The ISPR also announced the appointments of six other recently promoted three-star generals.

Lt Gen Muhammad Adnan was appointed as Vice Chief of General Staff (B), Lt Gen Nadeem Zaki Manj as Corps Commander Mangla, Lt Gen Shaheen Mazhar as Commander Peshawar Corps, Lt Gen Abdul Aziz as Military Secretary at GHQ, Lt Gen Azhar Saleh Abbasi as Chief of Logistic Staff and Lt Gen Wasim Ashraf as Inspector General Arms.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2018

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sent to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) an audio clip of a mysterious phone call containing the voice of an unidentified person ordering shutdown of Result Transmission System (RTS) on the election night, and requested its forensic analysis to identify the caller who had given the instruction.

ECP officials disclosed this during a briefing on RTS failure to Senate’s standing committee on parliamentary affairs, headed by Sassui Palejo, on Wednesday.

The officials also shared with the committee the copy of a letter, dated August 30, stating that a USB drive containing the sound bite has been sent to the FIA for a forensic test to identify the person who had made the phone call.

According to the letter, FIA had been asked to respond to the matter swiftly. However, the ECP has yet to receive a forensic report from the investigation agency.

The audio clip had also been played during the Senate proceedings by former interior minister Rehman Malik recently.

A senior ECP official when contacted rejected the rumour that it was some provincial election commissioner who was issuing instructions. He said it was not ‘humanly’ possible to pass on such instructions across the country within a short span of time. He said the RTS worked well on server side but had a glitch on client side.

Audio clip of mysterious phone call sent for forensic analysis, Senate committee told

The ECP officials, including Information Technology (IT) DG Khizar Aziz and Law DG Arshad Mehmood, candidly held the parliament responsible for imposing RTS in haste. They said there was no mention of RTS in the draft elections bill, 2017, but Section 13(2) was included in the bill that had been tabled in the National Assembly on August 22, 2017.

It was explained that there was no mention of RTS in the meeting of the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms held on July 19, 2017 though a proposal by Dr Arif Alvi, who now holds office of the president, was adopted by a sub-committee of the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms.

The Senate committee was informed that the RTS had only yielded “20 per cent results” when it was tested in the provincial assembly constituency of Chakwal (PP-20) ahead of the general elections.

Senator Javed Abbasi asked why the ECP had not objected to the use of RTS if it had such faults. “In fact at that time the ECP had also claimed to have a backup system,” he recalled.

ECP’s reservations over I-voting

The committee was told that the ECP also had reservations over the functioning of Internet-voting (I-voting) facility being provided to the overseas Pakistani voters for the Oct 14 by-elections in 37 national and provincial assembly constituencies.

An ECP official told the Senate committee that chairman of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) had proposed before the Supreme Court in January that the overseas Pakistanis could be allowed to vote through internet.

He said to assess the workability of I-voting, the ECP had set up a task force that warned the system was highly susceptible to misuse. When members of the task force expressed their reservations over the I-voting facility, no political party came to the Supreme Court to oppose the idea, the ECP official added.

The RTS controversy erupted when transmission of election results stopped abruptly around midnight after daylong polling.

A couple of hours later, ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad addressed an urgent press conference and informed the nation that the RTS had “collapsed” and the ECP had returned to the traditional and manual method of tabulating the election results, and it was for this reason that there could be an inordinate delay in the announcement of the results.

Soon after the ECP secretary’s news conference, senior and top officials of Nadra — the creators of the RTS mobile app — protested with the ECP claiming that the RTS was fully functional when the ECP high-ups declared that they had decided to stop using RTS due to ‘malfunctioning’. The Nadra officials also provided documentary evidence to prove their claim that the app was working properly.

The RTS was developed by Nadra after an agreement with the ECP in February when the commission had expressed the desire to receive the results directly from polling stations as done by newspapers and TV reporters. The system, they said, was only meant for the quick announcement of the results for the media through the ECP and that was why its link was provided to PTV.

Senate adopts election report Meanwhile, in a related development, the Senate on Wednesday adopted fourth and final report on holding of free, fair and transparent elections presented by chairman of the Senate’s standing committee on interior Rehman Malik.

Mr Malik informed the house that on the directions of his committee, the ECP asked the director general of the FIA to conduct forensic audit for confirmation of a voice message containing orders to halt RTS use.

While talking to reporters, the interior committee chairman said he was shocked to know that over “4,200 presiding officers did not comply with the ECP orders” to install the RTS app in their mobile phones.

He also said a sitting member of the federal cabinet was consultant of the company that had a role in testing the system. He added that the company had one of its offices in a hostile country, India.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2018

ISLAMABAD: Not impressed with the progress made so far, a delegation of the Asia Pacific Group (APG) has asked Pakistan to do more and get its house in order so that it may get out of the grey list of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Apparently the group members found the legal framework insufficient, and the institutional arrangements weak. According to sources, the delegation feared that the set-up installed for scrutinising the activities of non-profit organisations, brokerage houses, exchange companies and donations of corporate entities — registered under the companies act — was not robust enough.

The sources said that the APG believed that even in areas where the legal framework appeared vigorous, the implementation mechanism was not geared to track down financial flows of the entities in question, because the agencies involved were not well-connected. This weakness was prominent in real estate brokerages where large business transactions remained outside the ambit of legal records.

Team of Asia Pacific Group asks authorities to issue deadlines for removal of weaknesses

A team of the Securities & Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) reported to the APG that brokerage houses were largely documented though real estate dealers and their operations were generally outside its area of regulation. The APG also noticed shortcomings in commodity trading — and the effectiveness of laws against money laundering through cross-verification of service providers.

The sources said the delegation asked the relevant authorities to issue deadlines for resolving the flagged weaknesses so that the problems could be remedied and future performance evaluations be made on the proposed matrix. The authorities would also have to properly record the number of donation boxes placed by religious and other organisations at restaurants and business centres among other places. Besides, all currency and real estate dealers would have to record every transaction — both small and large.

The purpose of the mutual evaluation onsite visit is to assess the effectiveness of Pakistan’s Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime under FATF methodology. The visiting team included Ian Collins of the United Kingdom’s Scotland Yard, James Prussing of the United States Department of the Treasury, Ashraf Abdullah of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Maldives, Bobby Wahyu Hernawan of the Indonesian Ministry of Finance, Gong Jingyan of the Peoples Bank of China and Mustafa Necmeddin Oztop of the Turkish Ministry of Justice.

The ministries of interior, finance, foreign affairs and law besides the SECP, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the National Counter-Terrorism Authority (Nacta), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the Federal Board of Revenue, the National Accountability Bureau, the Anti-Narcotics Force, the Financial Monitoring Unit, the Central Directorate of National Savings and provincial counter-terrorism departments would remain available for briefings and explanations.

In June 2018, Pakistan made a high-level political commitment to work with the FATF and the APG to strengthen its AML/CFT regime and to address its strategic counter-terrorism financing-related deficiencies by implementing a 10-point action plan. The successful implementation of the plan and its verification by the APG is a prerequisite for the FATF to remove Pakistan from its grey list.

Earlier in August, the APG — as part of the mutual evaluation — had identified a series of deficiencies in Pakistan’s AML/CFT mechanisms. By the end of September next year, Pakistan must comply with the 10-point action plan it committed to with the FATF or else it will fall into the black list.

The authorities are required to upgrade agencies and their human resource assets to be able to handle foreign requests to block terror financing and freeze illegal assets. The authorities are working on strengthening laws for extradition of those involved in terror financing and money laundering on requests from FATF-member countries.

By January next year, Pakistan will identify and assess domestic and international terror financing risks to and from its system to strengthen investigations and improve inter-agency cooperation, the FIA, the SBP, the SECP, banks, the interior department as well as all other associated federal and provincial agencies.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2018

WASHINGTON: Pakis­tan is seeking its largest loan package of up to $8 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail itself out from a severe crisis that threatens to cripple its economy, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

The sources said that the IMF could place strict conditionalities, forcing Pakis­tan to seek additional loans for meeting those restrictions and this could expand the loan facility to $12bn.

Pakistan began exploring the possibility of yet another loan package with the IMF while the PML-N was still in power and the exploratory talks continued under the interim government as well.

The final decision, however, was announced on Monday night when Finance Minister Asad Umar confirmed that the government was going to the IMF to bail Pakistan out of its foreign currency crisis.

The announcement followed the highest single-day loss in a decade in the stock market, which plunged by over 1,300 points, losing almost Rs270bn of its capitalisation.

On Tuesday, the IMF said that it would listen to Pakistan’s request for financial support “very, very attentively”, as it did with any member with good standing.

Pakistan has received more than a dozen financial support packages from the IMF in the past. It completed the last three-year package of $6.4bn in August 2016, which was 216 per cent of Pakistan’s quota at the IMF.

The previous programme also aimed at “bringing down inflation and reducing the fiscal deficit to more sustainable levels”. It included measures to “help achieve higher and more inclusive growth, in particular through addressing bottlenecks in the energy sector”.

At a news briefing on Tuesday, IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld outlined the economic challenges that Pakistan was facing now and also commented on its ability to finance itself.

Asked how would the IMF react to Pakistan’s request for an emergency bailout package, he said: “As with any member in good standing, they are certainly entitled to request financial support from the Fund. So, we will be listening very, very attentively when and if they come to us.”

He noted that Pakistan has “frequently… had programmes in the past several times… and that is a very good sign going forward”.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2018

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to issue a notice to the attorney general's office when a senior counsel requested it to seek assistance for determining whether divergent and inconsistent opinions could flow from a court.

“We are not going to issue any notice, therefore, the counsel should elaborate his arguments and point out flaws in the earlier judgement,” observed Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar while heading a three-judge bench.

The court had taken up a petition filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Hanif Abbasi seeking review of the Dec 15, 2017 ruling that had exonerated Imran Khan in a case pertaining to alleged mis-declaration of assets. Last year the court had dismissed an application moved by senior counsel Mohammad Akram Sheikh to form a full bench of the apex court.

Abbasi sought review of ruling exonerating Imran in a case pertaining to alleged mis-declaration of assets

On Sept 27, an SC bench rejected Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader Jahangir Khan Tareen’s petition that had sought a review of his disqualification through the Dec 15 verdict.

On Wednesday, Mr Sheikh highlighted that the July 28, 2017 judgement in the Panama Papers case issued by a five-judge Supreme Court bench had laid down strict liability on unintentional mis-declaration of assets by shifting the burden to prove innocence to the respondent (Nawaz Sharif).

However, in the Hanif Abbasi case the burden was shifted away from the respondent (Mr Khan), the counsel argued, adding that the Dec 15, 2017 verdict of exonerating the PTI chairman had overlooked a series of alleged non-declarations and admissions on the part of the latter. It even ignored that concise statements filed on Mr Khan’s behalf amended his earlier statements.

The counsel argued that the court could not have different scales for two cases, therefore, divergent and inconsistent opinions could not be issued by the same court.

But Chief Justice Nisar observed that the Panama Papers case was different from Mr Khan’s case because former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was disqualified for life for making mis-declarations in his nomination papers, was holder of a public office during the period concerned. Also, the Hanif Abbasi case was inquisitorial in nature.

The counsel argued that the trappings of Rule 26(1) of the Supreme Court Rules of 1980, which dealt with the review petitions, was not applicable on petitions moved under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. He recalled that the apex court had itself expressed willingness to determine the contours of Article 184(3) in some other cases.

He contended that 57 countries had promulgated laws for regulating how to revisit judgements if they were inconsistent. He argued that Mr Khan disclosed neither his own assets and liabilities nor that of his former spouse Jemima Khan.

Citing Article 17(3) of the Constitution, which guaranteed freedom of association, the counsel argued that it did not provide for any period but the apex court through its Dec 15 verdict provided a five-year term to look into the accounts of political parties. This had exposed the parties to the danger of being funded by enemy countries, even India.

But the chief justice observed that the court had provided reasons for this by stating that only the federal government had the authority to initiate such proceedings. He asked why the previous government, which belonged to the party being represented by the counsel, had failed to address the matter. At this, the counsel explained that he was a professional lawyer and had no link with the government.

The court, however, asked the counsel to explain which law the court had violated by providing a period of five years.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2018

ISLAMABAD: Senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Saad Rafique and his brother Salman Rafique on Wednesday filed in the Islamabad High Court petitions seeking protective bail and legal protection against alleged harassment by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

In the petitions filed through their counsel Amjad Pervaiz and Kamran Murtaza, the two brothers expressed apprehensions about their arrest at the hands of NAB.

They named the NAB chairman and Lahore director general as respondents.

Citing the recent arrest of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif, the ex-railways minister said the NAB chairman and officials subordinate to him were acting like an agent of the present regime. “The bureau is abusing the process of law for political victimisation,” said Salman Rafique.

Saad Rafique said he had been scrutinised by NAB several times. His petition read: “In the post-coup 1999 era, an inquiry was authorised against him [Saad Rafique] under NAB Ordinance 1999, during which his entire career was probed into at length. Yet, NAB could not find any wrongdoing against him.”

Notwithstanding immense pressure by the then military dictator, the petition added, the inquiry was closed and the inconvenience caused was regretted by NAB after probing the matter for three years.

Before July 25, 2018 polls, it stated, the petitioner was served with call up notice on March 20, 2018, on the subject of an inquiry against management/evelopers of Para­gon City Private Limited, and others. In compliance, the petition added, the requisite information and documents were submitted along with a written reply on March 28.

The counsel said that Saad Rafique also appeared in person before a combined investigation team on the same date and extended full cooperation and divulged whatever information was within his knowledge. The petition said that the categorical stand of the petitioner was that he had neither been director nor a shareholder of Paragon City Private Limited or ever had any say in its affairs.

Under the garb of the inquiry, the petition added, Saad Rafique was interrogated regarding business income in the name of M/s Saadain Associate which he had been duly declaring in his income tax returns/wealth statement regularly.

It revealed that the petitioner was again served with a call up notice on June 25 on the subject of an inquiry against officials/management of the Punjab Land Development Company, although he had never had any concern with the said matter.

The petitions requested the court to direct the NAB chairman to intimate them about cases pending inquiry or investigation and grant them two weeks time in case of issuance of warrants of arrest to enable them to approach the court of competent jurisdiction for bail in accordance with law. They have also sought protective bail.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2018

ISLAMABAD: Former finance minister Ishaq Dar had sold six acres of his land in the suburb of Islamabad well before the National Accountability Bureau launched investigation against him, a report submitted by NAB to the accountability court revealed.

Moreover, NAB also failed to locate six vehicles of Mr Dar that it intended to attach as his asset. The NAB report said six acres of land in Mauza Milot had already been sold before the initiation of the investigation.

NAB’s special prosecutor Imran Shafique submitted the report before accountability judge Mohammad Bashir in compliance with his recent order for auctioning Mr Dar’s movable and immovable assets.

He said the trial court had directed the investigation officer on Oct 2 to take possession of Mr Dar’s vehicles. The investigation team visited the residence of the accused in 7-H Gulberg-III, but no vehicle was found there, he said.

Bureau also failed to locate former minister’s six vehicles that it intended to attach

The digital video recorder (DVR) of the house was taken into possession for analysis, but data retrieved so far showed that no vehicle was parked there.

Submitting the compliance report on attachment of bank accounts of Mr Dar, the special prosecutor informed the accountability judge that a sum of Rs508.31 million had been attached and placed at the disposal of the Punjab government.

On the request of NAB, the court placed Mr Dar’s properties at the disposal of the provincial government.

Following the filing of the reference in September last year, NAB has seized all of Mr Dar’s moveable and immoveable assets, including a house in Gulberg-III, Lahore; three plots in Al-Falah Housing Society, Lahore; six acres of land in Islamabad; a two-kanal plot in the Parliamentarians Enclave, Islamabad; a plot in the Senate Cooperative Housing Society, Islam­abad; another plot measuring two kanals and nine marlas in Islamabad; and six vehicles.

NAB alleges that Mr Dar has acquired in his name and/or in the names of his dependants assets worth Rs831.7m, which are disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The prosecutor requested the court to appoint a “receiver” who would receive and deposit the revenue collected from the properties in government’s treasury.

In the order announced on Tuesday, Judge Bashir stated: “As per available record, compliance report regarding attachment of property House No 7, Block-II, Gulberg-III, Lahore, belonging to accused Muhammad Ishaq Dar is available, similarly compliance report of attachment of bank accounts is also available.”

The order said: “A period of more than six months has expired to attachment of said property and bank accounts, but accused Muhammad Ishaq Dar who was declared as proclaimed offender did not appear within time specified in proclamation, therefore, above said property as well as banks accounts shall be at the disposal of concerned provincial government within the meaning of section 88 (7) of the Criminal Procedure Code.”

The prosecutor informed the judge that the accountability court had in December last year attached three plots of Mr Dar situated in Al-Falah Housing Scheme. He sought the court’s directive for auctioning these plots as well.

Regarding attachment of shares, the report said: “The compliance report regarding shares amounting to Rs3.4 million of Hajveri Holding (Private) Limited in the name of Mohammad Ishaq Dar and Tabassum Ishaq Dar and shares amounting to Rs2700 in Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) is awaited from the joint registrar Securities and Exchange Com­mission of Pakistan (SECP) that will be submitted on next date of hearing.”

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2018