SC reinstates NA, orders voting on No-Confidence motion

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has restored the National Assembly, annulling the Deputy Speaker’s ruling of dismissing the no-confidence resolution against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

A five-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial announced the verdict in Islamabad on Thursday evening in the suo-moto case regarding the Deputy Speaker’s ruling.

The unanimous decision also set aside the dissolution of the National Assembly by the President on Prime Minister’s advice.

Declaring Deputy Speaker’s ruling as unconstitutional, the apex court ordered for the session of the National Assembly to reconvene on Saturday at 10:30 in the morning. It said that the session cannot be adjourned till the conclusion of the no-trust motion against the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Imran Khan Thursday launched a 911 Helpline to provide all emergency relief services through a single platform, which he believed, was a major step forward to developing Pakistan on the pattern of the Madina welfare state.

“Now, every citizen in any part of the country will get the state’s response (in case of any emergency). This is a major move forward towards our mission statement of making Pakistan an Islamic welfare state,” the prime minister said addressing the launching ceremony of the helpline.

The integrated Pakistan Emergency Helpline (PEHEL)-911 would provide emergency services like fire brigade, police, health assistance, disaster recovery and motorway police etc. A needy person will have to dial just 911 and the call center would forward the call to the relevant government agency.

The prime minister said the government was striving to ease people’s lives as in any welfare state, the citizens should have the confidence of receiving the state’s response in case of any threat to life and property.

He said besides being a major facility, the PEHEL helpline would also give the people a feeling that Pakistan was for all as earlier, there were two parallel discriminatory systems supporting rich and poor respectively.

The prime minister, who earlier launched the helpline by pushing a button, also lauded the interior ministry and other collaborating departments for establishing the helpline and said that it would also require constant coordination among all provinces.

“This project should have all the provinces on the same page because it was about the benefit of all,” he remarked.

The prime minister said the PEHEL helpline would also enable the government to maintain the crimes data besides assessing the requirement of resources in different sectors.

Reiterating his vision of making Pakistan a welfare state, said his government had launched Sehat Insaf Card providing Rs 1 million health insurance to every family across the country, except the opposition-led Sindh province. He said being, a provincial subject, the people of Sindh could not get the facility of health insurance.

He said the government introduced a core national single curriculum to do away with the discriminatory education system and also launched multiple welfare initiatives under the umbrella of the Ehsaas and Kamyab Jawan Program including skill training, interest-free loans, housing loans, and farmers loans.

Moreover, the introduction of a legal aid system to provide free legal services to needy people was also on his government’s agenda.

Imran Khan said the Madina welfare state took the responsibility of all of its citizens without considering the dearth of resources. Following the same model, China also steered around 700 million people out of poverty within 35 years, he added.

He said the country could not achieve progress sans inclusivity and without breaking the elite system.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) continued protest for the third consecutive day at F-9 Park against a “foreign conspiracy” allegedly hatched against the PTI government.

PTI leaders including Murad Saeed, Ali Muhammad Khan, Farrukh Habib, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, Arbab Ghulam Rahim, Raja Khurram Nawaz, Zahid Kazmi, Faisal Javed, Ali Nawaz Awan and others participated in the protest. A large number of PTI workers and families have attended the protest that started after Iftar on 9 pm.

Addressing the participants, PTI leader Farrukh Habib said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has foiled the foreign conspiracy for a regime change in the country.

He said that today entire nation stood by the prime minister. He said 220 million had decided to stand by the country’s sovereignty, thus, supporting Prime Minister Imran Khan.

He said that PTI government had exposed the foreign conspiracy against the country. He said that PM Imran Khan had won the hearts of Pakistanis by announcing not to compromise on national interests.

PTI leader Ali Muhammad Khan said that PTI is fully respect the court decision. He said that the whole nation firmly stands with Prime Minister Imran Khan. He asked PTI workers to spread the message of PTI to make Pakistan an independent, sovereign and prosperous country in the leadership of PM Imran Khan.

PTI leader Ali Nawaz Awan thanked PTI workers and supporters for attending the protest rally on the call of party leaderships. He said that government under the leadership of PM Imran Khan took strict wise decisions to control spread of the pandemic and to overcome the economic crisis engulfing the country.

He said the prime minister had effectively fought the case against Islamophobia in the United Nations General Assembly and termed himself an ambassador of the Muslim Ummah. Earlier, PTI leader Senator Faisal Javed Khan welcomed the participants.