Voice For Peace calls for political stability in Pakistan

Now this is the time that saner elements prevail and start mediation among politicians as their lust for money and greed for power has endangered the very integrity of Pakistan, a state created in the name of Islam. Voice For Peace representing millions of tribesmen leading life Pak-Afghan border called for formation of a commission or Jirga for removing differences among the politicians as their misadventure will be harmful for Pakistan.

?Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz found themselves embroiled in a Twitter war on Saturday as they exchanged digs and barbs with each other over the latter’s concerns regarding the two top court judges being "biased" towards their party.

The trigger for the heated exchange was the reaction from the PML-N leaders over the presence of two judges in the nine-member bench, which is hearing the suo motu notice taken by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial — earlier this week — over an apparent delay in the elections of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

This did not set well with the PTI chief as he took to Twitter and lambasted the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and “spoilt brat” Maryam for what he termed as “shameless and calculated attacks on SC judges”.

“Shameless [and] calculated attacks on SC judges by PDM [and] spoilt brat Maryam, nurtured on corruption money, have one purpose only — to run away from elections even by violating Constitution,” Khan wrote on Twitter.

The disposed prime minister — who was thrown out of power in April through of vote of no-confidence submitted by the PDM —further mentioned that by attacking the supreme court, they are damaging the federation and ensuring the law of the jungle prevails in Pakistan.

Within minutes the PML-N’s chief organiser responded on Twitter with equal venom for the cricketer-turned-politician.

“Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Your squeals are not amiss as you have been the king of conspiracies, thriving [and] surviving on them with the help of your Godfather Faiz and his vestiges,” she wrote.

Maryam challenged Khan to “watch the spoilt brat checkmate you so Godsons [and] pawns like you are relegated to irrelevance.”

The PML-N vice president further wrote: "Your chor daku narrative has not only fallen flat on its face but from being caught red-handed stealing ￡190m (Rs58bn), to [your' wife's jewellery [and] Toshakhana heist, to signing files for 5-carat diamond ring, you are the first ever PM to be guilty of all forms of corruption."

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance on Saturday rejected the reports claiming that the federal government issued instructions to stop payment of pay and pensions, saying all such rumours are completely false.

The clarification comes after a local English daily reported that the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) was directed by the finance ministry to stop clearing all the bill of the “federal ministries/divisions and attached departments till further orders”.

Even the clearance of salary bills has also been stopped, the report added.

“This is completely false as no such instructions have been given by the Finance Division, which is the concerned federal ministry,” a press release issued by the finance division said.

The statement further said that AGPR has confirmed that pay and pension have already been processed and will be paid on time.

“Further, other payments are being processed as per routine. There are certain rumours doing rounds that the government had instructed to stop such payments,” it added.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar also termed the reports as ‘fake news,’ saying that spreading the same caused harm to the national economic interests.

“Kindly refrain from circulating such reports/news without verifying same from the concerned ministry,” he added.

The development comes as confusion surrounding the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement with Pakistan on Wednesday failed to break impasse with the global lender on a new contentious issue of permanently imposing a Rs3.82 per unit debt surcharge to recover Rs284 billion more from electricity consumers.

Against the government’s decision to impose the new surcharge for eight months (March-October 2023), the IMF has asked the government to keep the levy as a permanent fixture in electricity bills until the government settles the Rs800 billion circular debt parked in a company.

The sources said that the finance minister urged the IMF to announce the staff-level agreement since the country had met more than 90% of the conditions. But the IMF termed Rs3.82 per unit debt surcharge as “critical” for the resolution of the power sector circular debt, which will still climb to Rs2.4 trillion despite massive increase in the power tariffs.

The 10-day IMF staff-level visit ended on February 9 and despite taking two more weeks both sides have yet to end their differences on major policy matters.

She further accused Khan of avoiding courts and "begging for adjournments", saying that this is a "glaring admission of you being guilty."

"Plastered leg will no more save you. Man up [and] face the law," she said challenging the former prime minister to face the judiciary.

This was not the first time the two have played the blame game as the verbal war between the two most prominent leaders has been making rounds since the PTI was elected back in 2018.