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Pakistan’s parliament, SC on collision course

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Pakistan's parliament, SC on collision course

Pakistan’s parliament and judiciary have arrived at a standoff as the ruling alliance rejected the eight-member bench constituted to hear the petitions challenging the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023, a media report said.

The Pakistan Supreme Court, on the other hand, while exercising “anticipatory injunction”, stayed the operation on the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure Bill) 2023 aimed at curtailing the powers of the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice and constitute benches, The News reported.

The PDM coalition government released a statement, which rejected the eight-member bench, terming it controversial. The allies in the federal government vowed to resist attempts to take away parliament’s authority and to interfere in its constitutional scope, The News reported.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 was passed by a joint sitting of parliament after Pakistan President Arif Alvi returned it. Following the development, an eight-member bench was constituted to hear petitions arguing that the “concept, preparation, endorsement and passing of the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill 2023 is an act tainted with mala fide”.

Subsequently, four separate petitions were filed under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, asking the top court to set aside the bill.

The ruling coalition statement termed the development “unprecedented” as the pleas were admitted even before the completion of the legislative process. It said the move was equivalent to sabotaging the credibility of the country’s highest court, making the constitutional process of justice “meaningless”, The News reported.

“This bench itself is a testament to the division of the SC, which once again supports the earlier stated position of the ruling parties,” the statement said. It said that the ruling alliance considers this an “attack” on parliament and its authority, The News reported.

The statement lamented the formation of the “controversial” bench – which does not include any of the judges who raised questions on the powers of the CJP — and the non-inclusion of judges from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It said that attempts to snatch the authority of parliament and to interfere in its constitutional domain will be resisted. “No compromise will be made on the authority of parliament in the light of the Constitution of Pakistan,” the coalition partners maintained.

They said that the top court judges – Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail – had in their earlier judgments expressed their objection to the “one-man show”, biased and dictatorial behaviour, and the formation of special benches. “With the formation of the eight-member controversial bench, the facts stated in the judgments of these honourable judges have become more clear,” the statement said, The News reported.

“The constitution of the controversial bench in haste and fixing the bill for hearing, apart from the will and intent, also clearly expresses the decision to come which is sad and tantamount to murder of justice,” the ruling alliance maintained.

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Nepal MP takes off clothes in House after not being allowed to speak

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Nepal MP takes off clothes in House after not being allowed to speak

Kathmandu:  An Independent MP in Nepal, Amresh Kumar Singh, on Monday took off his shirt and vest in the House in protest against not being given time to speak.

Singh, a former Nepali Congress leader, contested the elections last year as an Independent candidate from Sarlahi after the Nepali Congress did not give him a ticket.

Singh, who had done Ph.D from Jawaharlal Nehru University in the Indian capital of Delhi, took off his clothes after Devraj Ghimire, Speaker of the House of Representatives (HoR) did not allow him to speak.

Ghimire warned him that “action would be taken if he did not behave politely in the HoR meeting.

“I am ready to become a martyr for speaking against corruption,” said Singh before taking off his clothes.

Ghimire asked him to take care of “parliamentary dignity and decorum”.

Singh, however, refused to listen to any of the requests by the Speaker and began taking off his clothes.

Reacting to this, some lawmakers have demanded a medical test of Singh, who left the House after the episode.

This was the first-ever such incident to have happened in the history of Nepal’s Parliament.

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Woman injured following train station can explosion in Tokyo

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Woman injured following train station can explosion in Tokyo

Tokyo: A woman was injured following a coffee can exploding and splashing her with the contents at a train station in northern Tokyo, local media and police said on Monday.

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, what was believed to be a can of coffee exploded just before 4:00 p.m. (local time) at Nishiarai Station in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward.

The police received an emergency call from an employee at the station operated by private railway operator Tobu Railway following the explosion, saying, “There was a sound like an explosion or a burst.”

The can was placed near a ticket vending machine and following its explosion doused the woman aged in her 20s or 30s in its liquid contents, Xinhua news agency reported.

As a result of the explosion and the contents hitting the woman, she said her forehead had been hurt and she had felt the heat from the liquid.

The police have since recovered the suspicious can and an investigation is underway as to the cause of the explosion and the exact contents contained in the suspicious can.

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Indian-American doctor indicted for sexually assaulting patients

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Indian-American doctor indicted for sexually assaulting patients

New York: An Indian-origin primary care physician in US’ Georgia has been accused of sexually assaulting four of his female patients during routine check-ups over a 12-month period.

Rajesh Motibhai Patel, 68, was indicted last week on multiple counts of violating his patients’ constitutional right to bodily integrity while acting under colour of law and for engaging in unwanted sexual contact, a Department of Justice release said.

According to information presented in court, between 2019 and 2020, Patel, a physician at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Decatur, allegedly assaulted four of his female patients by touching them improperly during routine exams. Investigators believe that Patel may have victimised additional patients.

“Patel allegedly sexually abused his female patients and violated his oath to do no harm to patients under his care,” US Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan said.

“Veterans and their families expect and deserve the highest quality of healthcare delivered in a safe and accountable setting,” Veteran Affairs Inspector General Michael J. Missal said.

He said that the department has been cooperating the law enforcement to ensure the safety of patients.

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China wants ‘new fields’ of cooperation with Pakistan military

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China wants ‘new fields’ of cooperation with Pakistan military

Beijing:  China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu on Monday told Pakistan’s Navy Chief Amjad Khan Niazi that their militaries, including their navies, should “expand into new fields of cooperation” to bolster the capability of the two neighbours in safeguarding security in the region, Pakistan media reported.

Ties between the two militaries stretch back years, with their navies and air forces holding bilateral exercises in each other’s territory.

Shangfu told Niazi, who was visiting Beijing, that the two countries’ military relationship was a key part of bilateral ties, Geo News reported.

“The two militaries should expand into new areas of exchanges, create new high points of cooperation to continuously enhance their ability to deal with all sorts of risks and challenges, and jointly maintain the security interests of the two countries and of the region,” said Li, according to a statement on China’s Ministry of National Defence website.

Niazi’s visit comes after Zhang Youxia, Vice-Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, said in late April that the Chinese military is willing to build a closer China-Pakistan community with a shared future in the new era, Geo News reported.

“Chinese military is willing to work with the Pakistani military to further deepen and expand practical cooperation, continuously push mil-to-mil relationship to a higher level, and jointly safeguard the common interests of the two countries, as well as the regional peace and stability,” General Zhang said during a meeting with Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir.

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China using its currency to insulate against future sanctions

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China using its currency to insulate against future sanctions

Beijing:  In the wake of sanctions on Russia, China has pushed to conduct more trade using the yuan in an effort to reduce its reliance on the dollar, a UK newspaper reported.

In the last year, a drive to insulate China’s economy from dollar-based sanctions has emerged as possibly the most important incentive for decoupling from the dollar, as China looks to prepare for the possibility of conflict with Taiwan.

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the most powerful tools for inflicting economic harm on Moscow was to essentially cut the country off from transactions based on US dollars, limiting its ability to trade with other countries, The Guardian reported.

But as well as punishing the Kremlin, there has been an unintended winner from West’s sanctions regime: the Chinese yuan. Last year the share of Russian imports paid for in yuan rose from 4 to 23 per cent. In February the yuan overtook the dollar as the most traded currency on the Moscow exchange for the first time in its history.

China’s push to boost the internationalisation of its currency predates the war in Ukraine and although the yuan is still far behind the dollar in terms of global activity, between March 2021 and March 2023 its share of the trade finance market — the multi-trillion dollar ecosystem that underpins 80 per cent of world trade — more than doubled, according to data from Swift, an interbank messaging platform, The Guardian reported.

China is also encouraging other countries to adopt the yuan for international transactions. Argentina and Brazil recently reached agreements to pay for Chinese imports in yuan rather than US dollars.

In April Bangladesh announced that it had approved a payment in yuan worth $318 million to settle part of a Russian loan that had been used to finance a nuclear power plant development. It is a rare example of the yuan being used for an international transaction that does not involve China, The Guardian reported.

In March, a Chinese company used yuan to buy 65,000 ton of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from TotalEnergies, a French multinational, the first time that China’s currency has been used in an international LNG transaction.

Beijing does not want to be dependent on the use of dollars for essential imports, so this is a key step in ensuring China’s energy security, The Guardian reported.

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