Pakistan’s ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been barred from holding office for life after the Supreme Court today ruled that disqualification of a lawmaker under the Constitution is for life. The verdict was issued unanimously by all five judges of the bench while hearing a case related to the determination of time duration for disqualification of a lawmaker under the Constitution, the Dawn reported.

The court had grappled with Article 62(1)(f) which only stated that a lawmaker is disqualified under specified conditions but did not set out the duration of the disqualification. Article 62, which sets the precondition for a member of parliament to be “sadiq and ameen” (honest and righteous), is the same provision under which Sharif, 68, was disqualified on July 28, 2017, in the Panama Papers case.

Likewise, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Tareen was disqualified on December 15 last year by a separate bench of the apex court under the same provision. Following the verdict, both Sharif and Tareen have become ineligible to ever hold public office.

It has been stated in the decision read out by Justice Umar Ata Bandial that the disqualification of any member of parliament or a public servant under Article 62 in the future will be permanent. Such a person cannot contest elections or become a member of parliament.

British banks must severe ties with Kremlin-linked tycoons if they want continued access to American financial institutions, the US has said as it ratcheted up its efforts to block Russian industrialists from doing business in the West.

Sigal P. Mandelker, a top US Treasury official in London to meet her counterparts, said on Tuesday that British banks could face “consequences” if they continued to carry out significant transactions on behalf of the 24 influential Russians sanctioned by Washington last week, the New York Times reported.

The list included Russian President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law Kirill Shamalov and industrialists Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg.

“These are blocking sanctions,” said Mandelker, Under Secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“There of course would be consequences for UK financial institutions” that continued to do business with the Russians, he warned.

The warning, according to the daily, resonated in London as for decades it has served as a haven for Russia’s wealthiest families. Russian investors own iconic British assets like the Chelsea Football Club and swaths of high-end London real estate and they support thriving networks of lawyers, financial advisers and estate agents.

Mandelker said there had been great unity on Russia among European nations since March 4 when former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal was found poisoned in southwestern England.

She said the US was consulting intensively with British financial institutions and oversight agencies as it prepared to impose the latest round of sanctions.

“We have very strong and close allies and partners in the UK,” she said. “They understand clearly what the risks are. We continue to communicate those risks to them.”

The new US sanctions expose financial institutions outside the US to penalties if they “knowingly facilitate significant financial transactions” on behalf of the listed Russian oligarchs.

Malaysia’s closely-watched 14th general elections will fall on May 9, with nomination day on Apr 28, the Election Commission announced on Tuesday (Apr 10).

Polling will fall on a Wednesday, a departure from past elections.

The minimum campaigning period is 11 days.

“The EC has held a meeting and established that polls must be held within 60 days of the date of dissolution,” the commission’s chairman, Mohd Hashim Abdullah, told a news conference.

Early voting will take place on May 5.

Eurocontrol cautions airlines to avoid Syria due to possible launch of air strikes within the next 72 hours.

The international air traffic control agency Eurocontrol has warned airlines to exercise caution in the eastern Mediterranean due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria in the next 72 hours.

Eurocontrol said that air-to-ground and/or cruise missiles could be used within that period and there was a possibility of intermittent disruption of radio navigation equipment.

US President Donald Trump and Western allies are discussing possible military action after they blamed Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected poison gas attack on Saturday on a rebel-held town that long had held out against government forces.

Trump on Tuesday cancelled a planned trip to Latin America later this week to focus instead on responding to the Syria incident, the White House said. Trump had on Monday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the Syria attack was established.

“Due to the possible launch of air strikes into Syria with air-to-ground and/or cruise missiles within the next 72 hours, and the possibility of intermittent disruption of radio navigation equipment, due consideration needs to be taken when planning flight operations in the Eastern Mediterranean/Nicosia FIR area,” it said, referring to the designated airspace.

The Eurocontrol warning on its website did not specify the origin of any potential missile threat.

UN deadlock
The statement came after rival draft resolutions by the US and Russia to set up a new expert body to probe chemical weapons attacks in Syria both failed to pass at the United Nations Security Council.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macaron said on Tuesday that after further discussions with the US and UK, a decision to execute military strikes will be taken within days, stressing that the strikes will target Syrian chemical weapons facilities.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said during a joint press conference with Macaron in Paris that there was a possibility that his country would take part in strikes against the Damascus if necessary.

Aviation regulators in countries including the US, UK, France and Germany have previously issued warnings against airlines entering Syrian airspace leading most carriers to avoid the area.

The only commercial flights above Syria as of 01:15 GMT on Wednesday were being flown by Syrian Air and Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

The Eurocontrol statement included a broader area outside the airspace controlled by Damascus.

Aljazeera

Russia and Syria have invited a probe into the alleged chemical attack on the rebel-held town of Douma after US President Donald Trump threatened that there would be a “big price to pay”.

Speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday, Russia’s Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia denied that chemical weapons had been used in Douma and said Syrian authorities and Russian troops would provide facilities for experts from the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to visit the attack area.

According to the reports, the chemical attack on Saturday killed at least 49 people and injured 500 others, Thomas Markram, the deputy to the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, told the Council.

During a bitter clash at the Council, US Permanent Representative Nikki Haley said that the hands of the Russian “regime” were “covered in the blood of Syrian children” and warned that Washington would respond to the attacks even if the Council would not.

On Monday night, Trump met defence officials along with his newly appointed National Security Adviser John Bolton after warning that that there would he would decide within 48 hours on a military response to the “barbaric” act.

“If it’s Russia, if it’s Syria, if it’s Iran, if it’s all of them together, we’ll figure it out and we’ll know the answers quite soon,” he told reporters earlier on Monday.

Haley said those responsible for the attacks were “monsters”, adding: “We must not overlook Russia and Iran’s roles in enabling the Assad regime’s murderous destruction.”

With tensions between Russia and the West rising to Cold War levels, Nebenzia told the West: “We are not begging to be friends with you.”

He objected to Haley referring to his government as a “regime” and warned that he would raise a point of order the next time she did that – a move that could disrupt Council meetings, a frequent happening during the height of the Cold War.

He said the “hawkish rhetoric” in the Council and threats to use force had gone beyond what had prevailed during the Cold War.

Britain’s Permanent Representative Karen Pierce said the situation today was worse than that during the Cold War because then there was no such flagrant disregard of the universal prohibition against chemical weapons.

Nebenzia alleged that the anti-government forces had chemical weapons and could stage an attack.

But France’s Permanent Representative Francois Delattre countered that only the Syrian government and its allies had the capability to developing the chemical and said that there was no doubt about who carried out the attacks.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters: “While the UN is not in a position to verify these reports, the Secretary-General notes that any use of chemical weapons, if confirmed, is abhorrent, and requires a thorough investigation.”

Guterres’s Speical Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the Council via a video link from Geneva that the terrorist group Jaish al-Islam that was in control of Douma had asked for UN intervention, but the Syrian government did not respond to it.

British Prime Minister Theresa May says the Syrian regime “and its backers, including Russia, must be held to account” if the government is found to be responsible for a suspected poison gas attack in the country.

May says those who back “the brutal actions by (Syrian President Bashar) Assad and his regime … they need to look very carefully at the position they have taken.” She calls Saturday’s suspected attack on the besieged town of Douma “a reprehensible attack,” adding Britain is in talks with its allies about “what action is necessary.”

After meeting with her Danish counterpart Lars Loekke Rasmussen during a visit to Copenhagen, May said: “it is a brutal regime that is attacking its own people and we are very clear that it must be held to account.

China on Monday hinted it won’t push for fugitive Indian jeweller Nirav Modi’s arrest, who is suspected to be in Hong Kong, saying the Chinese autonomous region has its own set of judicial rules and India can deal with the authorities directly.

India has reportedly asked Hong Kong to arrest the main accused in the $2billion fraud bank fraud who is believed to be in Chinese territory, a former British colony which enjoys a high degree of autonomy.

“According to the one country two system and basic laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the assistance and authorization of the central government, the Hong Kong SAR can make a proper arrangement on judicial mutual assistance with other countries,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said.

“If India has made a relevant request to the Hong Kong SAR (Special Administrative Region), we leave the matter to the Hong Kong SAR and hope that it will follow the basic laws and relevant judicial system agreement with India to deal with the relevant issue,” Geng said.

Hong Kong has its own independent system where China has its say only in defence and external affairs. While India has an extradition treaty with Hong Kong, there is no such agreement with China.

Modi, a regular on the lists of rich and famous Indians since 2013, along with his group companies — Diamond R US, Stellar Diamond and Solar Exports, and an uncle and business partner and others have been named in the huge scam, admitted by the PNB in February and leading to a massive upheaval in the country’s banking system.

Modi owned a chain of boutiques in Hong Kong.

As violence spread across the campus, thousands of male and female students launched into pitched battles with police.

Thousands of students across Bangladesh staged protests and sit-ins Monday after clashes at the country’s top university left at least 100 people injured.
Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at Dhaka University students fighting what they consider “discriminatory” government job quotas in favour of special groups.
It was one of the biggest protests faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her decade in power.

A minister was due to meet protest leaders in Dhaka on Monday.

But students at state-run universities in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barisal, Rangpur, Sylhet and Savar boycotted classes and staged sit-ins, police and media said.

“More than 1,000 students joined the demonstrations at Jahangirnagar University,” said Ataur Rahman, a protester in Savar where the university is located.

The clashes, which began Sunday night and went into the early hours of Monday, turned Dhaka University into a battleground.

Copycat protests soon started in other major cities as thousands of students boycotted classes and staged sit-ins.

Organisers in Dhaka said they were holding peaceful protests when police started firing tear gas and rubber bullets. They used batons and water cannon to clear a central square.

As violence spread across the campus, thousands of male and female students launched into pitched battles with police.

“More than 100 people were injured,” police inspector Bacchu Mia said, adding they were treated in hospital but their condition was not serious.

Protesters threw rocks, vandalised the home of the Dhaka University vice-chancellor, torched two cars and ransacked the fine arts institute, said senior police officer Azimul Haque.

Fifteen people were detained, police said.

The students are angry at the government’s decision to set aside 56 percent of civil service jobs for the families of veterans from the 1971 war of independence and for disadvantaged minorities. That leaves most university graduates to fight for only 44 percent of the jobs.

Hasan Al Mamun, a leader of the protests, said tens of thousands of students joined the demonstrations nationwide. Police declined to estimate the number.

Al Mamun said the quota for top-grade jobs should be reduced to only 10 percent.

“These quotas are discriminatory. Due to the quota system, 56 percent of the jobs are set aside for five percent of the country’s population. And 95 percent of the people can compete for the 44 percent,” he said.

Students are particularly upset at the 30 percent quota set aside for descendants of veterans of the independence war.

Sheikh Hasina, whose father was the architect of the country’s independence from Pakistan, has rejected demands to slash the quotas.

An airbase in Syria’s Homs province was hit by “several missiles” in a “likely attack by the US” on Monday, according to state media reports.
The Tayfur airbase, also known as T4, is located in a strategic position between the cities of Homs and Palmyra, reports CNN.

Citing a military source, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said the attack had caused an unspecified number of deaths and injuries.

It said the airfield was targeted with several missiles. The Syrian air defence had responded and shot down eight incoming missiles, the agency added.

Video footage on social media in Lebanon showed aircraft or missiles flying low over the country, apparently heading east towards Syria.

However, the Pentagon has denied the Syrian claims of the airbase attack that comes hours after President Donald Trump tweeted “Animal Assad” would have a “big price to pay” for an alleged chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma.

“At this time, the Department of Defence is not conducting air strikes in Syria. However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable,” a Pentagon statement said early Monday.

On Sunday, Trump said there would be a “big price to pay” after the alleged chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held city of Douma, which the US blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

In a series of tweets, Trump also slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin and Tehran, saying “Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad”.

It was not clear what retaliatory action Trump has in mind, but the issue is expected to be discussed at a “small group” meeting of the National Security Council on Monday, led by John Bolton on his first day as White House National Security Adviser, administration officials told CNN.

Last April, the US launched Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase after Washington and others accused Assad’s forces of perpetrating a deadly chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun that killed 80 people, which the Syrian military denied.

In Saturday’s attack, toxic gas inside barrel bombs were dropped from helicopters over Douma that killed over 40 civilians.

Images showed people, including children, apparently dead and injured with some kind of spittle or foam in their mouths in makeshift medical centres.

The authenticity of the images could not be immediately confirmed.

Survivors and activists share their stories of horror and shock after a chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta’s Douma.

By his third frantic dash down the stairs, with a wet piece of cloth over his mouth and a little girl in each arm, everything went dark for Khaled Abu Jaafar.

“I lost consciousness. I couldn’t breathe any more; it was like my lungs were shutting down,” recalled the resident of Douma, in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta.

“I woke up about 30 minutes later and they had undressed me and were washing my body with water,” Abu Jaafar told Al Jazeera on Sunday. “They were trying to make me vomit as my mouth was emitting a yellow substance.”

Abu Jaafar is one of the survivors struggling to cope with the effects of a chemical attack on Saturday in the besieged town of Douma, the last rebel stronghold near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Rescue workers and medical staff have said at least 85 people were killed in the chlorine gas attack – an accusation dismissed by the Syrian government as “farcical”.

Among those killed, witnesses said, were many women and children who had sought refuge in the basements of buildings to escape heavy bombardment by pro-government forces.

Abu Jaafar, a radio station worker, said that as panicked residents started running around after the attack, he rushed to one of these hideouts to check on his friends and help get people out.

“While people were in the shelters, some on the roof managed to see the gas bombs as they dropped from the planes,” Abu Jaafar said, describing what he said was green gas emanating from the canisters falling from the sky.

“Those who saw them rushed to tell everyone in the basement to evacuate,” he added. “I went up and down the stairs about three times to help evacuate children from the building.”

Evacuation deals
The attack came on the second day of a fierce ground and air push by pro-government forces after a period of relative calm.

The Syrian army said the offensive was in response to deadly shelling by Jaish al-Islam, the last remaining opposition group in Eastern Ghouta, on residential areas in Damascus. Jaish al-Islam denied the allegation.

The group is currently in negotiations with the Russian army, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, over a possible evacuation deal, according to reports carried by state media and pro-Syrian opposition Orient TV.

Last week, two other rebel groups reached evacuation agreements with the Russians, which resulted in about 19,000 people leaving for the northern province of Idlib.

They included fighters from the Faylaq al-Rahman and Ahrar al-Sham groups, their relatives and other locals.

Rebel groups argued that the evacuation amounts to forced displacement, but gave in after weeks of intense bombardment.

Meanwhile, remaining civilians continue to endure a bombing campaign and the effects of a crippling government siege that has been in place since 2013.

‘Unbearable scenes’
The chemical attack in Douma is the largest of its kind in Syria since April last year, when nerve agent sarin or a sarin-like substance was dropped onto the town of Khan Sheikhoun, killing at least 85 people.

Symptoms of a chlorine attack include dyspnea and coughing, as well as intensive irritation of the mucous membrane and breathing difficulties.

On Saturday evening, rescue workers posted videos on social media of people appearing to show symptoms consistent with a gas attack. Some appeared to have white foam around their mouths and noses.

Abu Jaafar said that those who did not manage to evacuate their shelters died instantly.

“There were basements in other buildings with people who didn’t see the gas in time. We entered those buildings and found bodies on the staircases and on the floor – they died while attempting to exit,” he said.

Although some Douma residents rushed to various medical points, a shortage of supplies and doctors meant that treatment options were limited.

Activists said that several of Douma’s clinics and ambulance teams had been hit during the bombardment campaign, largely disrupting the town’s medical assistance capacity.

When we arrived to the roof of the building I was helping at, I saw the lifeless bodies of a mother in her 50s, with two of her adult daughters and a child with their arms around each other, all foaming at the mouth
ALAA ABU YASSER

Local activist Alaa Abu Yasser was also among those who tried to help evacuate people.

“I went to a building where about 35 people had died as a result of this attack; the scenes I saw were unbearable, it’s like nothing I have ever seen even in the movies,” he told Al Jazeera, describing the aftermath of the attack.

“As I approached the building, a father was crying hysterically as he dragged his feet towards us carrying his two children … he was hugging them, smelling and kissing them after they suffocated to death,” Abu Yasser added.

Several witnesses speaking to Al Jazeera said that during a chemical attack it is common practice for people to rush to the top floors and on the roofs of buildings in a bid to avoid inhaling the gas that tends to “stick to the ground”.

“When we arrived to the roof of the building I was helping at, I saw the lifeless bodies of a mother in her 50s, with two of her adult daughters and a child with their arms around each other, all foaming at the mouth,” said Abu Yasser.

“I mostly saw bodies of women and children in three separate rooms; they’ve been placed there to isolate the smell of the gas from those who survived,” he added.

Although the White Helmets, a group of rescuers operating in opposition-held areas in Syria, and Syrian American Medical Society have given a death toll of at least 85, there are fears that the number of people killed in the attack could be higher.

“The rescue teams have not been able to document all the cases,” local activist Mansour Abu al-Khair told Al Jazeera. “They’re overwhelmed and cannot deal with the impact of the attack.”

He explained many of those who lost their lives were still under destroyed buildings and have not yet been pulled from the rubble.

“Others are instantly being buried by their families, so they aren’t accounted for in terms of registered numbers,” al-Khair said.

“We expect the death toll to surpass 100,” he added.

Aljazeera