Gillani defeats Hafeez Shaikh; Shibli Faraz wins his seat; Faisal Vowda also becomes Senator from Sindh; PPP die-hard Farhatullah Babar loses; Sheery wins; BAP wins most seats from Balochistan; Seven votes rejected in Islamabad

Ansar Mahmood Bhatti

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) has prima facie caused a major dent to the ruling alliance as the govt candidate for Senate from Islamabad and sitting Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has been defeated. Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousaf Raza Gillani defeated Shaikh thus staging a big upset for the ruling party and its allies.

PPP candidate Yousaf Raza Gillani who was backed by PDM parties got 169 votes while Hafeez Shaikh got 164 votes. It is interesting to note here that the government alliance total seats stood at 180 in the National Assembly while the opposition parties had 160, which means Yousaf Raza Gillani got nine additional votes.

This is however uncertain, and perhaps will remain uncertain that as to who from the PTI or govt allied parties voted in favour of Yousaf Raza Gillani. Seven votes were rejected as well.

It is also interesting to note that in the same election PTI and its allies won the women seat. PTI candidate Fouzia Arshad got 174 votes while PML N candidate Farzana Kausar got 161. The PTI win on women seat is a clear manifestation that the party still enjoy majority in the national assembly, therefore those who are suggesting PTI and Imran Khan to seek fresh vote of confidence, may not succeed in their demand.

The Islamabad Senate elections also shows that PTI MPs or MPs from  the allied parties were not happy with the Hafeez Shaikh so they voted against him. There is a perception as if Hafeez Shaikh’s flawed economic polices led the MPs to vote against him, this perception does not hold ground. The real issues appears to be fighting within the party.

Another important factor happens to be the role of the Establishment. It is a widely held view that Hafeez Shaikh always enjoyed support of the Establishment and international monetary bodies that is why he has served in almost all the governments. But in this election, as claimed by the winning candidate Yousaf Raza Gillnai, the Establishment chose to be neutral.

After the result was announced, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and the former prime minister shook hands and hugged each other. The news of Hafeez’s defeat was told to him by Zain Qureshi — who was the minister’s polling agent — following which the two men embraced each other.

Shortly after the announcement of his victory in the Senate election, Yousaf Raza Gilani held a press conference and said that he is thankful to the PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as well as the PDM leadership, including PML-N’s Nawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Akhtar Mengal,  Maryam Nawaz, and ANP leadership, among others.

“This is the victory of democracy,” he said. “The Islamabad seat was the most important seat in the Senate elections and everyone was eyeing it. [Through my win], the PDM has been victorious.”

Adding to Gilani’s point, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that the PDM has won through the votes of MNAs, which is also a win for Pakistan.He went on to say that PM Imran Khan should “resign from his post,” adding that he should adopt sportsmanship and honourably accept his defeat. “The PDM will decide a future course of action after mutual consultation with all members.”

ISLAMABAD, MAR 03 (DNA) – President Dr. Arif Alvi has asked the Department of Auditor General of Pakistan DAGP to strengthen the auditing mechanism by using technology and best International practices to improve service delivery and financial management.

He underscored the need for designing special training modules and a very well structured training programme for the officials of DAGP to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the organization.

He stated this while chairing a briefing, given by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP), Mr. Javaid Jehangir, on reforms being undertaken by the DAGP, at Aiwan-e-Sadr, today. The meeting was attended by Advisor to the PM for Institutional Reforms & Austerity of Pakistan, Dr. Ishrat Hussain, Auditor General of Pakistan, Mr. Javaid Jehangir, Additional Auditor General of Pakistan, Mr. Farrukh Hamidi and Senior Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Mr. Aamer Mahmood Hussain.

The AGP briefed the meeting about the reforms process being undertaken by his organization. He highlighted the initiatives taken by DAGP to conduct improved audit and enhance accountability and ensure fiscal transparency in the governmental organizations.

The President stressed the need for augmenting the culture of professionalism and ensuring better governance, improved transparency and accountability through effective internal control regime within the DAGP.

He added that it was essential to computerize the entire audit processes aiming to bring transparency and eliminate corruption. The President asked the DAGP to develop timelines so as to implement the reforms process timely. = DNA

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KARACHI, MAR 03 (DNA) – The people of Lahore and Islamabad woke up to an update on Wednesday by Pakistan International Airlines that flight operations between the two cities have been resumed with first flight set to board March 8 will depart from Lahore.

The national flag carrier has resumed its domestic flights between Lahore and Islamabad which it had suspended sometime two years back. The first flight since the suspension was imposed will be PK-650 of PIA which will mark its departure from Lahore first thing next week of the month at 08:30 am.

PIA said the frequency for these flights will be 3 voyages a week one-way and the initially announced fares will be Rs6,848. eparately earlier this week, with an aim to promote tourism in the spring season, PIA announced discounted fares for domestic flights.

The national carrier unveiled discounted fares for flights to Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore. The passengers have been offered reduced fares to travel through PIA while carrying 20-kilogram luggage at the price of Rs7,500 for one side, whereas, Rs8,500 will be charged for travelling with 40-kg luggage.

According to the PIA spokesperson, the new fares will come into effect immediately. The spokesperson said that the fares have been reduced to facilitate tourists and nationals during the spring season. = DNA

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DNA

ISLAMABAD, MAR 3 – The 14^th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) will be held virtually on 4 March 2021. The theme of the Summit is “Regional Economic Cooperation in the Aftermath of Covid-19.”

Prime Minister Imran Khan will open the Summit in Pakistan’s capacity as the Chair of the 13^th Summit, held in Islamabad in March 2017. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will Chair the 14^th Summit.

While sharing Pakistan’s perspective on COVID-19 challenges, the Prime Minister will outline his vision for regional economic development in line with ECO’s founding principles of promotion of trade and connectivity.

Pakistan is one of the founding members of ECO, in addition to Iran and Turkey. The Organization was formed in 1985 from the erstwhile Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD). Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan later joined as members of ECO. As a founding member, Pakistan remains strongly committed to ECO which aims at promotion of effective regional cooperation, with focus on communications, trade, culture and connectivity.

The Summit is the highest platform in the 10-member ECO. The Summit meetings entail exchange of views on regional and global issues of interest to the ECO region and review of the progress in implementation of ECO programmes and projects.

Pakistan has been actively contributing towards advancement of the goals and objectives of ECO, including regional economic integration.

DNA

ISLAMABAD, MAR 3 – As part of the Government’s economic outreach initiative, the fifth virtual meeting on Economic Diplomacy was held today. The meeting, chaired by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, focused on Europe. Pakistan’s Envoys to France, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania and Russia participated in the meeting.

Highlighting the growing importance of geo-economics in international politics, the Foreign Minister underscored Economic Diplomacy as an essential part of modern diplomatic practice. He stated that, in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Missions abroad were at the forefront of safeguarding and advancing Pakistan’s economic interests. They played an important role in successful implementation of a range of measures including the Prime Minister’s ‘Global Initiative on Debt Relief’ for developing countries, Prime Minister’s Economic Outreach Initiative (EOI), and the Roshan Digital Account.

Foreign Minister Qureshi encouraged Envoys to cultivate and broaden mutually beneficial trade and economic partnerships with European countries, focusing on key goals of trade promotion, financial inflows, investments, remittances, tourism and technology transfer.

Underscoring the importance of consolidating and expanding Pakistan’s economic outreach with Europe, Foreign Minister Qureshi stressed the need to diversify exports to the EU countries to fully utilize the benefits under the GSP Plus status. He further emphasized the need to constructively engage with Parliamentarians in Europe and EU Parliament with a view to maximizing avenues for economic outreach and collaboration.

The Foreign Minister appreciated the increased inflow of investment from Europe into Pakistan and urged the Missions to proactively engage with their interlocutors to showcase the investment potential of the country. Highlighting the government’s continued efforts in this regard, the Foreign Minister highlighted Pakistan’s impressive improvement in Ease of Doing Business ranking. Pakistan had also secured 6th place among world’s top 10 business climate improvers.

Foreign Minister Qureshi instructed the Envoys to identify and address bottlenecks that hinder expansion of economic collaboration with host countries. The Envoys were also asked to identify sectors where Pakistan could enhance its economic footprint in Europe.

During the virtual meeting, the Pakistani Envoys apprised the Foreign Minister of their activities and programmes in economic and commercial domains. They briefed about measures to strengthen existing linkages and forging new ones for bolstering Pakistan’s economic imprint in Europe.

In keeping with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision, Foreign Minister Qureshi has consistently accentuated promotion of economic diplomacy and increased economic cooperation with partner countries. Regular virtual meetings and interactions on Economic Diplomacy with Pakistani Envoys in key capitals are part of these efforts.

ATTOCK, MAR 3 (DNA) – Two officials of the Education Department Attock were transferred due to alleged malpractices and administrative mismanagement. The transferred officers include District Education Authority (DEA) chief executive officer (CEO) Dr Javaid Iqbal and assistant director (AD) administration Muslim Khan.

Sources in the Education Department informed that Member of the

National Assembly from Attock Major (retd) Tahir Sadiq met with Punjab

Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and apprised him about the alleged

malpractices and administrative mismanagement by the DEA CEO and his

right hand AD administration.

There were unrest among the teaching community over poor state of

affairs especially related to issuance of regularization orders,

salaries, transfers and hiccups in their promotions, the sources said.

The sources said the DEA CEO came under spotlight when he appointed

his two daughters and one other relative in the Education Department

in violation of merit and domicile policy.

Later, the appointment letters were canceled when the local candidates

protested against the appointments outside his office, the sources

said.

The sources further informed that the AD administration was creating

unnecessary obstacles in issuance of regularization orders of teachers

due to his personal interests.

The sources said the matter of malpractice came under notice of the

local MNA who brought the sorry state of affairs in the notice of the

Punjab chief minister who took prompt action against the officials

concerned.

In this connection, the Education Department vide its notification

SO(E-I) i-51/2014 placed the services of DEA CEO at the disposal of

the Education Department while DEA administrator transferred the AD

administration to Jand with immediate effect. When contacted, deputy

commissioner Attock Ali Anann Qammar confirmed that both the officials

were transferred and directed to relive from their posts immediately.=DNA

ISLAMABAD: Today in Senate Elections, Yousaf Raza Gillani won Senate seat by beating Hafeez Sheikh and become the Senator.