Pak court delays ruling on army chief’s status
ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: Pakistan’s Supreme Court has given government lawyers an extra day to argue their case in favour of extending the army chief’s term. Wednesday’s decision adjourned the case until Thursday.
The government will use that time to fix what the court says are procedural mistakes made this summer, when Qamar Javed Bajwa was reappointed for another three years.
PM Imran Khan had hoped to keep Bajwa on for another three years, but Farogh Naseem, who resigned as law minister on Tuesday, appears to have fumbled the application by not submitting it to the president.
The supreme court temporarily suspended Bajwa’s term extension on Tuesday, just two days before his scheduled retirement. He will be forced to step down if the court overturns the government’s extension order.
Later, the Pakistan Bar Council announced a countrywide strike on Thursday to protest what it called “unconstitutional” efforts of the government to extend service of the army chief.
JOURNALIST SHOT DEAD BY HUSBAND
A 27-year-old female Pakistani journalist was killed in Lahore on Monday allegedly by her husband, also a scribe, for not quitting her job. The couple got married seven months ago but then the relations turned sour soon, according to an FIR.
Urooj Iqbal was associated with an Urdu daily and was entering her office in Qila Gujjar Singh in central Lahore when her husband Dilawar Ali shot her in the head, leaving her dead, Dost Mohammad, a senior police officer said. Urooj, a crime reporter, was living in a room adjacent to the newspaper office in the same building after her relation with her husband deteriorated.
PM KHAN’S GAFFE SPARKS OUTRAGE
In an embarrassing goof-up, PM Khan was allegedly heard saying that “trees produce oxygen at night and absorb CO2”, sparking an outrage on social media. He was reportedly addressing a programme on the importance of planting trees.
COURT STOPS VERDICT IN MUSHARRAF CASE
The Islamabad high court stopped a special court from announcing its judgment in a treason case against Pervez Musharraf. The special court on November 19 concluded the trial in the case against Musharraf for declaring a state of emergency in 2007, and had ruled that a verdict would be given on November 28.