Tag: Mps

KARACHI - Women parliamentarians have sought electoral reforms in the country with particular focus on cutting the size of expenses required to run for a parliamentary seat. In a discussion with the members of the Legislative Watch Group of the Aurat Foundation, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM)'s women legislators said that there was a need to change the political culture of extravagance during polls.
The dialogue that ensued during a ceremony organised for presenting shield to

LAHORE - To register their protest and anger, the PML-Q's MPAs Wednesday staged a protest demonstration in front of the Punjab Assembly building against the party turncoats. PML-Q parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Zaheer along with the party MPAs including Dr Samia Amjad, Majida Zaidi, Amna Ulfat, Seemal Kamran, Bushra Nawaz Gardezi and Khadija Farooqi led the protest, which was also joined by the party workers.
The protesters chanted anti-Punjab government

ISLAMABAD - Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, who governs the poorest province of the country, has assets worth millions of rupees in immovable property in six districts, including agricultural land, plots, houses and godowns, painting a clear divide between the rich and the poor.
Per the asset declarations for year 2010 submitted to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Maulvi Abdul Samad, a member of the Balochistan Assembly, is the poorest member of the

ISLAMABAD - All political parties, including the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP), demanded on Friday that Interior Minister Rehman Malik resign for not providing adequate security to slain Minorities Affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti.
Malik, however, refused to resign and accept responsibility, saying that no such precedence existed as hundreds of people were killed in a number of terrorist attacks in Punjab but no one had resigned. It was not only the opposition parties that

ISLAMABAD - Law Minister Babar Awan led a token walkout of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) members of the National Assembly on Thursday against the government - which is led by the PPP itself - to join the Pakistan Muslim League-N, PML-Q, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement to condemn the murder of slain Minorities Affairs minister Shahbaz Bhatti and hold the government responsible for it, just as Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani announced a three-day official

ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday announced that it would initiate a legal action against the parliamentarians having dual nationality. After holding consultations with political parties, ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan told a press conference that under Article 63 of the constitution, dual nationality holders could not become members of the Parliament.
"Currently, the ECP have no record of the MPs with dual nationality; however, we are working in

SANAA - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978, on Monday said only defeat at the ballot box will make him quit, even as MPs joined thousands of protesters in Sanaa calling for his departure. In the country's south, police shot dead a protester in the regional capital, Aden, where protests have raged killing 12 people and wounding dozens since February 16, medics and witnesses said.
"If they want me to quit, I will only leave through the ballot box," Saleh told

ISLAMABAD - The British Parliament is interested in finding a permanent solution to the dispute of Kashmir between India and Pakistan. All political parties of the United Kingdom are united over the issue and All Parties Parliamentary Group on Kashmir, a group of parliamentarians from the UK, said on Sunday.
The group, headed by Lord Nazir Ahmed currently on a visit to Pakistan, held meetings with various leaders and later in the evening, addressed a press conference along with

MANAMA - Two protesters died in clashes with Bahraini police, sparking angry calls from young cyber-activists for regime change and a walkout on Tuesday of Bahrain's main Shia opposition bloc in parliament. The Islamic National Accord Association which has 18 seats in the 40-member house has suspended its membership in the parliament, said a member, MP Khalil al-Marzooq.
The decision was taken because of "the deterioration in security and the negative and brutal way in which (the

TEHRAN - Furious Iranian lawmakers on Tuesday demanded the hanging of opposition leaders who had called anti-government protests which left one person dead, saying they had been "misled" by Iran's arch-foes.
MPs singled out Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who had called for protests in Tehran on Monday in support of Arab uprisings that quickly turned into anti-government demonstrations and ended in clashes with police in which several people were hurt, including nine

ISLAMABAD - Frustrated by the entire political leadership of the country, PML-N's Makhdoom Javed Hashmi on Thursday warned the parliamentarians against a massive public reaction, asking them to rise and revolt against their party leaders to get Pakistan freed from their dynastic clutches and monopoly.
"Pakistani leaders say that situation in Pakistan and Egypt is not identical. Had it been true, I would have been happy, but it's not so. Uprising of the suppressed will not stop in

ISLAMABAD - Refuting the impression that the parliamentarians were aware of the state of the economy, the lawmakers demanded on Wednesday of the government to increase their privileges and also allot them residential plots in the capital.
Speaking on a point of order, MNA Kashmala Tariq expressed resentment over cancellation of entitlement to the parliamentarians in hospital for provision of medical facility to their parents. She said parliamentarians were being asked to pay Rs

KARACHI - The local bourse saw investors book profits as the market awaits the Monetary Policy Statement (MPS), due on Jan 29, 2011. The index dwindled 0.1 percent to close at 12,477 points, while volumes declined by 19 percent to reach 112 million shares.
The major trigger was FFC's result, which was above market expectations. FFC announced a 25 percent bonus, in addition to the anticipated cash dividend. Furthermore Engro's price remained stagnant despite a rise in it's DAP

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court on Tuesday accepted a miscellaneous application by 26 senators seeking to become party to the pending petitions against leasing of Reko Diq gold and copper reserves in Balochistan.
Senators Dr Ismail Buledi, Azam Khan Swati, Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, Hafiz Abdur Rasheed and others filed the miscellaneous petition for becoming party to the case on Monday. The senators said in their application that since the Reko Diq project involved national interest,

ISLAMABAD - The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed on Monday that the Ministry of Interior had traced 1014 arms licence applications that had parliamentarians' forged signatures.
The PAC, which met with Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in the chair, directed the Ministry of Interior to make a report to the committee on the cancellation of arms licences issued on forged signatures, in three months. Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry informed the committee that his ministry

ISLAMABAD - Partially accepting the PML-N's concerns on the parliament lodges' extension project, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani referred the plan to House and the Library Committee of the National Assembly, saying that the government would accept whatever decision the committee took.
In response to the opposition leader's point of order on the project, the prime minister informed the House that it was initiated in 2008. "The CDWP with Assef Ahmed Ali as Planning Commission

ISLAMABAD - Disappointed with Leader of the Opposition Nisar Ali Khan's move to scandalise the issue of construction of parliamentary lodges for political point-scoring, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has decided to lave the matter to parliament and the National Assembly speaker.
"The prime minister will speak on this issue in the National Assembly today to explain why this projected had been undertaken," a source close to the prime minister told Pakistan Today. He said that