KHAIRPUR, Nov 18: The general secretary of the Sindh chapter of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI), Dr Khalid Mehmood Soomro, on Sunday called for the reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Choudhry and his appointment as acting president of the country.

Dr Soomro said at a press conference that it was impossible to hold general elections in a free and fair manner under emergency and demanded that the government should appoint honest and impartial persons in the election commission.

The Musharraf’s caretaker set-up was unacceptable to all the mainstream political parties of the country because the caretaker prime minister and his cabinet were not impartial, he said.

He slammed ban on TV news channels and said that on the one hand the government had turned a blind eye to the objectionable programmes being aired while it had imposed ban on exclusively news channels.

He said that president Musharraf’s emergency had targeted some 57 judges and demanded release of political leaders, lawyers and journalists.

KILLED: Twelve-year-old Shumaila was killed when armed tribesmen attacked Hameed Kalhoro village of Sobhodero taluka in the jurisdiction of Teepani Bahlem police station early on Sunday.

The attack was an offshoot of a running dispute between Kalhoro and Channa communities, villagers said.

NAZIM DISSATIFIED: District Nazim Pir Niaz Hussain Shah Jilani on Sunday expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of monitoring committees, which were tasked with keeping an eye on the performance of district government departments.

The nazim said at the concluding session of a training workshop of monitoring committees that he was not satisfied with their performance.

He directed the heads of all the district government departments to extend cooperation to the committees and warned he would take action if they failed to cooperate in future.

Opinion

Editorial

On press freedoms
Updated 03 May, 2026

On press freedoms

THE citizenry forgets, to its own peril, how important a free and independent media is in the preservation of their...
Inflation strain
03 May, 2026

Inflation strain

PAKISTAN’S return to double-digit inflation after 21 months signals renewed economic strain where external shocks...
Troubled waters
03 May, 2026

Troubled waters

PAKISTAN’S water crisis is often framed in terms of scarcity. Increasingly, it is also a crisis of contamination....
Iran stalemate
Updated 02 May, 2026

Iran stalemate

THE US and Iran are currently somewhere between war and peace. While a tenuous ceasefire — extended largely due to...
Tax shortfall
02 May, 2026

Tax shortfall

THE Rs684bn shortfall in tax collection during the first 10 months of the fiscal year is a continuation of a...
Teaching inclusion
02 May, 2026

Teaching inclusion

DISCRIMINATORY and exclusionary content in Punjab’s textbooks has been flagged in Inclusive Education for a United...