Shahid Khaqan Abbasi elected Pakistan PM by National Assembly

Agencies
August 1, 2017

Islamabad, Aug 1: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a die-hard supporter of Nawaz Sharif, was today elected Prime Minister by Pakistan's National Assembly and put up a strong defence of the ousted leader saying that he may have been disqualified by the Supreme Court but remains the "people's premier".

Abbasi, 58, was elected after getting 221 votes in the House of 342, defeating his three rivals emphatically.

Naveed Qamar of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got 47 votes, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, an Awami Muslim League leader who was Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's candidate, got 33 votes, while Jamaat-e-Islami's Sahibzada Tariqullah managed just four votes.

Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) nominated Abbasi as interim Prime Minister until Sharif's brother Shehbaz is elected as a National Assembly member.

"Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has been declared as elected as Prime minister of Islamabad Republic of Pakistan," National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq announced amid sloganeering.

He then asked Abbasi to take the seat of the prime minister and address the House.

Abbasi, while addressing Parliament after the voting, said that his election was a victory for democracy.

He heavily criticised the Supreme Court judgement which disqualified Sharif.

"Sharif has been sent home but he is still people's premier," he said.

"Justice demands that 1,000 guilty are set free than one innocent is convicted," Abbasi said.
He also hailed his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party for standing united after Sharif was disqualified.

Abbasi also promised that there would be no power shortage in the country after December.
After the voting and counting process, many of the PML-N National Assembly members entered the House with posters of Sharif. The National Assembly Speaker objected to this and asked them to put away the placards and posters.

Abbasi will be sworn-in in later at a special ceremony at the President's House, where President Mamnoon Hussain will administer the oath to him.

He is a true loyalist of Sharif and stood with him when his government was toppled in 1999 by Musharraf. Abbasi was imprisoned after the coup and was kept in jail for two years.

The Supreme Court on Friday disqualified 67-year-old Prime Minister Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing him to resign.

Abbasi will remain premier till Shehbaz is elected to the House to take over as prime minister and lead the government till next year when the general election will take place.

Pakistan has seen such arrangements in the past too.

During former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf's time, politician Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was appointed as an interim prime minister until Shaukat Aziz, who was nominated by Musharraf, got elected by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q).

Earlier in the day, the opposition parties' meeting failed to result in agreement over a joint candidate.
Hours before the scheduled National Assembly session, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) announced to withdraw its candidate Kishwar Zehra in favour of Abbasi. The MQM's 24 MPs backed Abbasi.

Major political parties fielded their respective candidates for the premier's post.

The National Assembly's second biggest party in terms of numbers, the PPP, nominated Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah and Qamar. However, at the eleventh hour Shah withdrew from the election leaving Qamar as the sole PPP candidate.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf fielded Rashid as its nominee. Jamaat-e-Islami fielded Tariqullah as their candidate for the new prime minister.

The PML-N party holds 188 seats in the 342-member Parliament.

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News Network
January 22,2025

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Israeli forces have killed at least eight Palestinians and injured 35 others in an attack on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, prompting Hamas to call for full mobilization of Palestinian youths against the occupation forces.

Palestinian media reported that the regime’s forces, backed by helicopters, raided Jenin and its refugee camp on Tuesday morning following several drone strikes.

The spokesman for the Palestinian security forces, Anwar Rajab, said in a statement that Israeli forces had "opened fire on civilians and security forces, resulting in injuries to several civilians and a number of security personnel, one of whom is in critical condition".

Israel’s military also confirmed that its soldiers, police and intelligence services had begun an operation, which Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, described as a "large and significant" operation to "eradicate terrorism.”

The attack on Jenin, where the regime’s forces have carried out multiple raids and large-scale incursions over the past year, comes only two days after the start of a long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas.

Hamas said in a statement that people in Gaza “mourn the martyrs of Jenin who fell to the fire and bombardment of the occupation.”

The resistance group also urged Jenin’s “rebellious youth to mobilize and escalate confrontations with the Israeli army.”

Hamas said that the offensive “launched by the occupation in Jenin will fail, just like all its previous military operations against our people,” in Gaza.

The resistance group, which fought Israeli forces for 741 days in the besieged Gaza Strip, said its unprecedented operation against the occupied territories in October 2023, was “the final nail in the coffin of the collapsing Israeli regime.”

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News Network
January 17,2025

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Despite the announcement of a ceasefire deal, Israel has intensified its airstrikes and artillery shelling on Gaza, especially its residential buildings, killing more than 100 Palestinians.

Gaza’s civil defense said on Friday at least 101 Palestinians, including 27 children and 31 women, have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza since the ceasefire announcement on Wednesday.

The attacks have also left more than 264 injured, according to the rescue agency.

Most of the killings came in Gaza City.

The report comes as Israeli attacks have shown no sign of slowing on the ground, with dozens of strikes reported on Friday.

In northern Gaza’s Jabalia, nine members of a Palestinian journalist’s family, including women and children, were killed.

Two more Palestinians were killed in a separate Israel airstrike in the Jabalia al-Balad area, in the north of Gaza. 

Jabalia has come under fierce attack since the Gaza ceasefire announcement this week. On Thursday, at least 20 were killed in one attack in the area.

At least five others were also killed in another attack that targeted a home, east of Khan Younis City, in Southern Gaza on Friday.

To the west of Khan Younis, three people were killed in attacks on tents housing displaced people.

Another tent was targeted in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, killing one person.

That's while Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would convene his cabinet later on Friday to approve the long-awaited ceasefire.

Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 46,788 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 110,453 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

The ceasefire, announced on Wednesday, consists of three phases and would come into effect on Sunday over 42 days.

The truce deal stipulates that a large-scale prisoner exchange will occur, including the release of 1,000 prisoners from Gaza and hundreds of detainees serving lengthy sentences.

The first stage involves the release of 33 captives, including "children, women, female soldiers, men above 50, and the wounded and sick," as well as a gradual, partial withdrawal of invading Israeli units.

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News Network
January 17,2025

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Bengaluru: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar asserted on Friday that the opening of "long-in-waiting" US consulate in Bengaluru was the "very important milestone" in the bilateral ties and urged the American authorities to ensure that the mission starts visa operations at the earliest.

"This will be my number one talking point with Secretary (of State Nominee Marco) Rubio when I go and see him. The sooner we get it done, the better it is," said Jaishankar.

The External Minister was in Bengaluru today to attend the "site dedication ceremony" of the fifth United States consulate in India, which will start operating in Bengaluru soon.

Delivering his speech, Eric Garcetti, US Ambassador to India, said the consulate in Bengaluru will not be offering visa services for the time being.

In his speech, Jaishankar pointed to statistics to nudge the US to get around to issuing visas from Bengaluru as early as possible.

"I was checking figures, and was very glad to see that last year, the RPO (Regional Passport Office) Bengaluru issued 8,83,000 passports. That's just for one year. Do the math, and you will see how important it is to ensure that travel is smooth," added Jaishankar.

He also added that there are three flights every week from here to San Francisco. "Hopefully, if Boeing and Airbus deliver, there'd be more. I think that's a legitimate expectation," said Jaishankar.

Jaishankar said a US consulate in Bengaluru has been "long-in-waiting".

"One, which I believe, Bengaluru legitimately deserved and expected," he added.

"I think Bengaluru has such an important place that it was for me an imperative that there is a permanent resident presence of American diplomats here," said Jaishankar.

He also said every time he had visited the city in the last five years, there was always somebody who would ask him, 'so, when is that consulate coming?'.

"It was from, really, I would say, the cross section of the society. It was from businessmen; it was from the tech world; it was from academics. It was even from people you would meet in a restaurant," added Jaishankar.

According to him, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2023 had brought up the issue of opening a consulate in Bengaluru when he visited the US.

He also said India had promised to open a consulate in Los Angeles if the United States "get the Bengaluru consulate done". He said now, with the opening of the consulate, collaborations in defence and education would reach new heights.

"I think the formal opening of this consulate is one more sign that we are overcoming the hesitations of history. It is now within our grasp, within the realm of possibility, that we realise more fully the potential of India-US relations. And I think it is important that Bengaluru too realises its potential in the relationship," said Jaishankar.

In his address, US Ambassador Garcetti, who would be relinquishing his responsibility in India soon, said he was glad that getting a consulate up and running in Bengaluru would be his last task in India.

"You know, our relationship in India is not new. Our second consulate in the world was here in India. After the independence of a new America in 1776, we opened a consulate in Lyon, France, and then the second was in Kolkata, showing, back then, the importance of India to a new American nation," said Garcetti.

India, said Garcetti, is now the second largest mission of America anywhere in the world.

"It produces the second most visas, the most students we're breaking records every single year '“record employees, record visas, record students, record military exercises, record engagement from the seabed to space," added Garcetti.

Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who was also present during the "site dedication ceremony" said the opening of the consulate in Bengaluru is a testament to the growing importance of Karnataka in the global stage.

"Nowadays, the world is looking at India through Bengaluru. We know there are a lot of hiccups there, as Bengaluru is not a well-planned city. But still the city has proved itself to be the safest city in the entire country for the global firms to have their headquarters," said Shivakumar.

Other dignitaries present for the ceremony include MP Tejasvi Surya, Karnataka's Minister for Large & Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development M B Patil, Minister for IT & BT Priyank Kharge.

Several entrepreneurs from the city, including Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, executive chairperson and founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics Limited, had also attended the 'site dedication ceremony'.

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