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RIYADH: Saudi Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Waleed bin Abdulkarim Al-Khuraiji met his Indonesian counterpart Pahala Nugraha Mansury in Jakarta on Wednesday, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The two sides reviewed ways to strengthen bilateral ties and discussed issues of mutual interest.
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will hold its presidential election on Saturday in a vote that will decide the future of the South Asian nation struggling to recover from its financial collapse in 2022, which spurred a popular uprising and drove former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from power.
In the two years since the worst crisis in history hit the country and Rajapaksa fled, his successor, current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, has managed to introduce policy reforms to obtain an International Monetary Fund bailout.
While the austerity measures he introduced — including tax hikes — eased the shortage of essentials such as food, fuel, and medicines, they did not help his popularity.
Wickremesinghe, 75, will nevertheless be among the main figures in the election running as an independent candidate.
A six-time prime minister belonging to the old guard, which Sri Lankans blame for the 2022 crisis, he will compete with over 30 candidates running for office. Among them are Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, the leader of a Marxist-led coalition National People’s Power, and Sajith Premadasa, 57, Wickremesinghe’s former deputy and the leader of the largest opposition party, the United People’s Power.
“The election is significant because there is a degree of ideological polarization that we have never seen in a Sri Lankan election, at least since pre-independence really, (since) 1947,” Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, academic and Sri Lanka’s former envoy to the UN, told Arab News.
Elections have traditionally been contested between coalitions of center-right and center-left parties but in the upcoming vote, competition will involve a boarder political spectrum.
“The sitting president is a right-wing conservative, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe. And the main challenger is the leader of the opposition, Mr. Sajid Premadasa, who has repeatedly called himself a social democrat,” Jayatilleka said.
“He’s a moderate progressive of a centrist nature, running against a sitting right-wing president, on the one hand, and a former revolutionary, still Marxist-Leninist, Anura Kumara Dissanayake … on the other. This is very, very new for Sri Lanka.”
The fourth main contender is Namal Rajapaksa, the 38-year-old heir apparent to the Rajapaksa and the son of Mahinda Rajapaksa — Gotabaya’s brother who had served several terms both as Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister.
“Namal Rajapaksa is running for the presidency now, but he’s a serious contender for the presidency next time, in five years,” Jayatilleka said.
“This is a trial run … It’s aimed to retain the vote base of the Rajapaksas and their party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (Sri Lanka People’s Front) and prevent that vote from going with certain ministers of their party, who have defected to the side of President Wickremesinghe.”
Sri Lanka has a presidential system, in which the president heads the government and can appoint and dismiss the prime minister and the other ministers.
Almost 17 million of the island nation’s 22 million people are eligible to take part in Saturday’s vote, where they can select three candidates from the ballot paper.
The first preferences will be counted first and the candidate who secures more than 50 percent of the valid votes will win. If there is no clear winner, the first two candidates will be retained, and the ballot papers will be checked again to see if either of them was a second or third preference.
Those votes will be added to the tally of the two candidates and the one who receives the highest number will be declared the winner.
While the country’s economy is the key issue in the election, Dr. B.A. Husseinmiya, a Sri Lankan historian and former professor at the University of Brunei Darussalam, said there is also a need for change due to public disillusionment with mainstream politicians.
The mass protest movement that erupted in 2022 against then-president Rajapaksa and his prime minister brother, and forced both to quit, was what gave rise to the leftist National People’s Power.
“It’s a most historic occasion when an underdog like the NPP emerges so fast, which is (the result of) all the mistakes the past regimes have made,” Husseinmiya told Arab News.
“I think people everywhere are coming to believe that change is very important if you want to move forward.”
ISLAMABAD: Militants opened fire on a security post in northwest Pakistan late on Thursday, killing at least six personnel, the military said in a statement on Friday.
Pakistan has seen a rise in militant attacks in recent weeks, with many of them taking place in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan where Islamabad says groups like the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, are hiding and from where they daily target security forces convoys and check posts, and carry out targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials.
Militants, particularly from separatist groups, have also repeatedly struck in the southwestern Balochistan province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran.
“In general area Ladha, South Waziristan District, a group of [militants] attacked a security forces’ post,” the military’s media wing said in a statement.
“Own troops fought bravely, foiling the attempts of intrusion and killed five [militants]. However, during intense exchange of fire, six brave sons of soil, having fought gallantly, paid the ultimate sacrifice and embraced shahadat.”
In a second incident on Sept. 19, the army said it foiled an attempt by a group of seven militants to infiltrate the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area of Spinwam in the North Waziristan district:
“The infiltrators were surrounded, effectively engaged and after an intense fire exchange, all seven [militants] were sent to hell. A large quantity of weapons, ammunition and explosives was also recovered.”
Islamabad says militants mainly associated with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) frequently launch attacks from Afghanistan and has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers for facilitating anti-Pakistan militants. Kabul denies the charges.
On Wednesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the international body was “particularly worried” about the penetration of militants from Afghanistan into Pakistan, calling on Kabul not to allow its soil to be used by terror groups.
“We are particularly worried… when we look into the neighboring countries, we are particularly worried with the fact that there is a penetration of terrorists from Afghanistan into Pakistan and that that is creating, of course, many innocent victims and being a threat to Pakistani security,” Guterres told reporters in response to a question about what the UN planned to do about militants using safe havens in Afghanistan to launch attacks in Pakistan.
“So, one of the things that is absolutely essential is that Afghanistan controls its territory and doesn’t allow terrorist groups from any other country to operate from Afghanistan.”
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday signed into law the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Amendment Ordinance 2024, legislation widely believed to have curtailed the powers of the country’s senior judiciary and which was passed by parliament last year but blocked by the top court.
The Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023 was passed in the last days of the first term in government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. However, before the law could be enacted on April 21, 2023, an eight-member bench constituted by then Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial issued a stay order on it on April 13, 2023.
“Every cause, appeal, or matter before the Supreme Court shall be heard and disposed of by a Bench comprising the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the next most senior judge of the Supreme Court and a Judge of the Supreme Court nominated by the Chief Justice of Pakistan from time to time,” the ordinance, which was signed into law, said.
One provision, which is widely seen as limiting the power of Supreme Court judges to initiate cases of public importance or fundamental laws on their own through suo moto proceedings, said a bench hearing a matter under Article 184(3) of the constitution would decide and identify through a “reasoned and speaking order” the question of public importance in the case and what fundamental right it was seeking to enforce.
Article 184 of the constitution confers original jurisdiction, the authority to hear a case at its initiation, often referred to as Public Interest Litigation, in the form of judicial review to Pakistan’s Supreme Court. Clause (3) of Article 184 is cited as the source of suo motu powers. In essence, it gives the apex court the extraordinary power to assume jurisdiction over any “question of public importance with reference to the enforcement of any fundamental right”.
Under the new law, each case would be heard in turn, that is the cases filed first will be heard first, and a reason furnished for taking up cases out of turn. All hearings will be recorded and transcripts publicly available.
Hearings on petitions against the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Act 2023 began in September 2023 and were broadcast live by Pakistan’s state television.
Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa had taken up the petitions challenging the law as his first order of business shortly after taking oath the same month and had constituted a full-court bench of the apex court comprising all 15 judges.
TAIPEI: Authorities in Taiwan and Bulgaria on Friday denied involvement in the supply chain of thousands of pagers that detonated on Tuesday in Lebanon in a deadly blow to Hezbollah.
Tuesday’s attack, and another on Wednesday involving exploding hand-held radios used by Hezbollah, together killed 37 people and wounded about 3,000 in Lebanon.
How or when the pagers were weaponized and remotely detonated remains a public mystery and the hunt for answers has involved Taiwan, Bulgaria, Norway and Romania.
Security sources said Israel was responsible for the pager explosions that raised the stakes in a growing conflict between the two sides. Israel has not directly commented on the attacks.
Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said this week it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack, and that Hungary-based company BAC to which the pagers were traced had a license to use its brand.
“The components are (mainly) low-end IC (integrated circuits) and batteries,” Taiwan’s Economy Minister Kuo Jyh-huei told reporters.
When pressed on whether the parts in the pagers that exploded were made in Taiwan, he said, “I can say with certainty they were not made in Taiwan,” adding the case is being investigated by judicial authorities.
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung, also speaking to reporters at parliament, answered “no” when asked if he had met with the de facto Israeli ambassador to express concern about the case.
“We are asking our missions abroad to raise their security awareness and will exchange relevant information with other countries.”
Bulgaria also became a focal point for investigations on Thursday after local media reported that Sofia-based Norta Global Ltd. was involved in selling the pagers.
But Bulgaria’s state security agency DANS said on Friday it had “indisputably established” that no pagers used in the Lebanon attack were imported to, exported from, or made in Bulgaria.
It said neither Norta nor its Norwegian owner had traded, sold or bought the pagers within Bulgaria’s jurisdiction.
Taiwan Probe
As Taiwanese authorities look into any potential link between its sprawling global tech supply chains and the devices used in the attacks in Lebanon, Gold Apollo’s president and founder, Hsu Ching-kuang, was questioned by prosecutors late into the night on Thursday, then released.
Another person also at the prosecutors’ office was Teresa Wu, the sole employee of a company called Apollo System, who did not speak to reporters as she left late on Thursday.
Hsu said this week a person called Teresa had been one of his contacts for the deal with BAC.
Photos posted to Gold Apollo’s official Facebook page showed Teresa Wu at a Singapore trade show in 2016 wearing a Gold Apollo lanyard. Reuters was unable to contact Wu for comment.
A spokesperson for the Shilin District Prosecutors Office in Taipei told Reuters that it had questioned two people as witnesses and was given consent to conduct searches of their firms’ four locations in Taiwan as part of its investigation.
“We’ll seek to determine if there was any possible involvement of these Taiwanese companies as soon as possible, to ensure the safety of the country and its people,” the spokesperson said.
Iran-aligned Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for the detonations. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border warfare since conflict in Gaza erupted last October.
Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron was on Friday weighing a new government proposed by Prime Minister Michel Barnier which includes new faces in almost all key posts and marks a fresh shift to the right.
The full cabinet line-up was due to be announced later Friday or by Sunday at the latest, multiple sources told AFP, ending two-and-a-half months of deadlock created by inconclusive legislative elections that wrapped up in July.
While there appeared to be no major surprises or big name entrants into the cabinet, there are set to be new foreign, economy and interior ministers, with only the defense minister remaining unchanged among the key offices of state.
Barnier is proposing Europe Minister Jean-Noel Barrot as foreign minister, a source close to Macron’s political faction, asking not to be named, told AFP.
The move would be a major promotion for the 41-year-old, whose slick media appearances have impressed observers, but he would face the challenge of boosting France’s presence on the international stage.
Meanwhile Bruno Retailleau, who heads the faction of the right-wing The Republicans (LR) in France’s upper house Senate, is to take on the interior ministry, according to several sources who spoke to AFP.
Landing the interior ministry, which oversees the police and domestic security, would be seen as a major success for the right.
And another meteoric rise will see Antoine Armand, 33, the head of parliament’s economic affairs commission installed as economy minister.
One key person said to be staying on is Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu who is believed to enjoy a close and trusting relationship with Macron.
Barnier was at the Elysee Palace late Thursday to discuss the nominations with Macron.
The list is a government “ready to act in the service of the French people,” the premier’s office said. It later said the new government would be unveiled “before Sunday.”
Macron could seek to veto Barnier’s proposals but doing so would cause immense tensions with his premier at this stage.
Sources added that names still need to be vetted to ensure they have no conflicts of interest before entering government, as is customary.
But Macron “will not censor any name,” said a source close to him asking not to be named.
There had been tensions earlier this week between centrist Macron and Barnier, who comes from the LR, over the balance of the government notably at a lunch earlier this week that reports said was far from cordial.
Le Monde daily said that Barnier had even raised the possibility of resigning just days into the job. But the tensions were then resolved on Thursday.
Politics in France has been deadlocked since the June-July snap legislative elections left it with a hung parliament.
Barnier, the European Union’s former top Brexit negotiator and a right-winger, was appointed earlier this month by Macron in an attempt to breach the impasse.
Key posts were vacant with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stepping down after occupying his post since Macron came to power in 2017 and Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne tapped by Macron to be France’s new EU commissioner.
However there seems to be no place in the cabinet for the ambitious Gerald Darmanin, interior minister since 2020 and who had reportedly long coveted the job of foreign minister.
The 73-year-old Barnier minister has faced a raft of challenges since taking office.
The prime minister had warned on Wednesday that France’s budgetary situation was “very serious.”
France was placed on a formal procedure for violating EU budgetary rules before Barnier was picked as head of government.
Macron had hoped to reassert his relative majority in parliament by calling for the elections in late June and early July, but the plan backfired.
A left-wing alliance nabbed the most seats in the lower house National Assembly, but does not have a working majority.
Macron’s centrist faction is now the second largest bloc.
The far right is third, but the anti-immigration National Rally emerged from the election as the single largest party.
