Indian envoy meets Imran Khan; discusses bilateral ties, terrorism
Islamabad, Aug 10 : Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan Ajay Bisaria on Friday met Prime Minister-in-waiting Imran Khan and the two pushed for the resumption of bilateral talks and the envoy briefed New Delhi's concerns about terrorism, an official said.
The envoy was accompanied by his deputy J.P. Singh.
The meeting with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief took place in the presence of senior party leaders, including former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
The Indian diplomat congratulated Khan for his party's victory in the last month's general elections.
During the meeting, Khan "expressed his grave concerns on the human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir", a PTI spokersperson said.
Khan also hoped that the Saarc leaders' conference will take place in Islamabad soon, he said.
Bisaria, too, hoped that a new chapter in the Pakistan-India relations would begin soon.
During the 30-minute meeting, the High Commissioner briefed the PTI leadership on India's concerns about terrorism and cross-border infiltration.
Bisaria also presented to Khan a cricket bat signed by the members of the Indian national cricket team.
In July, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had telephoned Imran Khan, saying his country was ready to enter a new era of relations with Pakistan.
Imran Khan will take oath as Prime Minister on August 18, Senator Faisal Javed said on Friday.
Javed also confirmed that three former Indian cricketers -- Kapil Dev, Novjot Singh Sidhu and Sunil Gavaskar -- had been invited to the oath-taking ceremony.
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SC to hear on May 4 PIL seeking stringent guidelines for issuing Aadhaar to adolescents, adults
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea seeking a direction to the Unique Identification Authority of India to issue new Aadhaar cards only to citizens up to the age of six years, and frame stringent guidelines for its issuance to adolescents and adults to stop infiltrators from masquerading as Indian citizens.
As per the apex court's causelist of May 4, the plea would come up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay has also sought a direction to the authorities to install display boards at common service centres stating that the 12-digit unique identification number is only a "proof of identity" and not a proof of citizenship, address or date of birth.
Besides all the states and Union Territories, the plea has made the UIDAI -- which is the authority that issues Aadhaar -- and the Union ministries of home, law and justice, and electronics and information technology as parties.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, said Aadhaar, originally intended as a proof of identity, has increasingly become a "foundational document" enabling individuals to obtain other identification documents, such as ration cards, domicile certificates and voter identity cards.
"The UIDAI has issued 144 crore Aadhaar and 99 percent Indians have been enrolled. Therefore, the petitioner is filing this writ petition as a PIL under Article 32, seeking a direction to UIDAI to issue new Aadhaar to children only and frame new stringent guidelines for adolescents and adults, so as to stop infiltrators from getting it and masquerading as Indian citizens," the plea said.
It said the need to file the plea arose when the petitioner came to know the manner in which infiltrators are able to procure Aadhaar through a verification process that is weak and can be easily manipulated.
"Foreigners apply for Aadhaar under the 'foreign' category. But infiltrators apply for Aadhaar under the 'Indian citizen' category and get it easily made. Thereafter, they obtain a ration card, birth and domicile certificate, driving licence, et cetera, essentially becoming indistinguishable from Indian citizens…," it said.
Besides seeking other directions, the plea has raised legal questions, including whether the Aadhaar Act 2016 has become "temporally unreasonable" for failing to keep up with the legislative intent of distinguishing foreigners from Indian citizens.
It said the alleged misuse of Aadhaar undermines targeted welfare delivery and leads to diversion of public resources.
