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LAHORE: Jamat-e-Islami (JI) Ameer Syed Munawar Hasan on Saturday advised the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government to take all other political parties in the province onboard to resolve the national and provincial issues, Geo News reported.

Senior Minister KP Siraj ul Haq called on Munawar Hasan in Mansoora (JI headquarter). On the occasion, the both leaders reviewed the newly formed government and the current situation prevailing in the country.

Siraj ul Haq said that maintaining peace and getting rid of the terrorism was the largest issue of the province. However, law and order was not the problem of police only but it also has political reasons that were widely spread at both sides of Pakistan-Afghanistan borders.

Country’s 14th National Assembly comes to life

With around 301 members-elect taking oath to become members of the Lower House of parliament, proceedings of the 14th National Assembly (NA) on Saturday were limited to oath taking and sign rolling by members, including the PML-N leader and prime minister-designate Nawaz Sharif.

However, the session looked lacklustre as top opposition leaders, including PTI chairman Imran Khan, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Jamshed Dasti and some others remained absent.

Members-elect Asad Qaiser, Pervez Khattak and Shahbaz Sharif have already opted to retain their respective provincial assembly seats.

The House burst into uproar and desk-thumping as soon as the name of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif was announced for roll-signing.

Before Nawaz could rise from his seat and proceed to the speaker’s desk, the PML-N members and workers stood up to give him a standing ovation and shouted raising slogans, “the lion has come”, “Nawaz Sharif we are with you”. However, members of the opposition remained in their seats.

Following the roll-signing, Nawaz went to the opposition leader’s seat and shook hands with PPP leader Khurshid Shah, but arrogantly ignored his former loyalist and deputy, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, who was sitting next to Shah.

Later, the PTI parliamentary party also named Hashmi as its candidate for the slot of Leader of the House. So, Hashmi would now face an imminent defeat against Nawaz, who has the support of over 190 members, while the PTI has the support of only 35 members.

During the proceedings, most PML-N members went to the seat of Nawaz and paid regard to their party head.

PML-N’s female members Marvi Memon, Myza Hameed and Zaib Jaffer also went to Nawaz and conveyed regards to him.

Myza handed him over some written notes while Zaib Jaffer gave him some written application, which was reluctantly accepted by Nawaz.

The newly-elected members of the 14th National Assembly took oath on Saturday in the maiden session called after the May 11 general elections, marking the first historic transition of power from one democratically-elected government to another in the country’s history.

Dr Fehmida Mirza, speaker of the outgoing assembly, presided over the proceedings that started an hour and 55 minutes late. Simultaneously, she also took oath herself as a member and also administered the oath to other members.

As many as 301 members took oath in the first sitting which met for two hours and 23 minutes. The oath was followed by the signing of ‘roll of members’. The speaker also informed the House about the election of the speaker and the deputy speaker, which will be held on Monday.

The House adjourned at 2:18pm to meet again on Monday, June 3, at 1100 hours.

As many as 300 members were present at the start, while only 47 members were there at the time of adjournment.

‘Order of the Day’ was available to the legislators, observers and others; however, information on members’ attendance was not available to the observers and the public.

In the House of 342 members, 301 took oath, 10 were yet to take oath, nine seats were held with the members who succeeded on more than one seats, while decision on 10 reserved seats for women from Punjab is awaited and election was not held in nine constituencies and three candidates have opted for provincial assemblies.

The National Assembly Secretariat said Nawaz had decided to vacate NA-68 Sargodha, Sadaruddin Rashidi of PML-F had vacated NA-235, Javed Hashmi had vacated NA-48 and Faryal Talpur had vacated her seat reserved for women.

As Imran Khan, Javed Hashmi, Jamshed Dasti and Maulana Fazlur Rehman were not present for taking oath and signing the roll of members, therefore, decision about their retaining or vacating any of seats won by them, is awaited. Mahmood Khan Achakzai, who holds two seats of National Assembly Balochistan seats, is stated to decide on retaining one seat by June 10.

The only Senator who took oath as MNA was Maulana Mohammad Khan Sherani, who has decided to vacate the Senate seat.

Earlier, long queues of vehicles were seen in front of Parliament House as large number of visitors had also reached the capital to witness oath-taking of their popular leaders.

The galleries were flooded with visitors as the secretariat had issued passes over and above the capacity of the National Assembly hall galleries. Opposition members came first to the House as the PML-N members were busy in parliamentary party meeting and reached the House almost an hour later. – See more at: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2013/06/01/news/national/countrys-14th-national-assembly-comes-to-life/#sthash.6Hx7IwDh.dpuf

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Saturday extended the judicial remand of Chief of All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) and General Pervez Musharraf (Retd) for 14 days in judges’ detention case. Syed Kausar Abbas Zaidi, while hearing the case, extended the remand of Musharraf and adjourned the hearing till June 1. Police could not produce Musharraf in the court for security reasons.

The court also acceded to the plea made by the lawyers from the former President and allowed the exemption of his presence in the court for one day. During the course of hearing, the court was informed that Aamir Nadeem Tabish was appointed as the new public prosecutor of the said case.

Furthermore, Musharraf’s counsel Ilyas Siddiqui informed the court that Advocate Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam Ghumman, the plaintiff in the case, had announced his decision to withdraw his petition, but had not submitted a written notification to the court. Aamir Nadeem Tabish, while talking to the media, said the announcement by the case’s plaintiff, Ghumman, to withdraw the case was only confirmed to media. According to him, the court shall take due action after it receives an official notification from Ghumman with regard to his withdrawal of the case. Aamir said he had requested the court to give him time for preparation. Meanwhile, Ghumman said that he had taken back his complaint without any threat or pressure.

Advocate Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam Ghumman while talking to Business Recorder claimed that the Islamabad police had cautioned him against life threats and offered security. He said before he took that decision, he consulted his friends. “When the court summons me, I will explain my point of view before the court as the court does not believe in media reports. It is up to the court to decide the fate of the case against Musharraf,” he said.

The judges’ detention case was registered by the Secretariat Police Station on August 11, 2009 and the complainant had sought legal proceedings against Musharraf for confining 60 judges of the superior courts for over five months at their residences, and restraining them from administering justice.

KARACHI: Re-polling in 43 polling stations in Karachi’s NA-250 constituency officially began amidst tight security on Sunday, DawnNews reported.

Along with police and Rangers, military personnel were also present at the polling stations to provide security.

Earlier, polling was not held in these stations as per schedule on May 11 due to the absence of presiding officers and electoral staff.

Due to widespread complaints of alleged rigging and irregularities, the ECP had postponed polling in 43 polling stations of the NA-250, PS-112 and PS-113 constituencies.

Meanwhile, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) boycotted the re-polling in protest.

The MQM had announced its boycott of the re-polling on Friday after its demand for re-polling in the entire NA-250 constituency was rejected. On the other hand, PPP’s local leader Najmi Alam in an about-face told a news conference on Saturday night that the party was boycotting the re-polling saying the ECP was not willing “to listen to us”.

The PPP’s decision to boycott the re-polling came hours after PPP Sindh’s General Secretary Taj Haider, in a statement, urged party workers and supporters to fully participate in the election process.