London-based Top economists quit Imran's panel over minority colleague's ouster
Islamabad, Sep 8: London-based economist Imran Rasul became the second member of Prime Minister Imran Khan's Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to resign after Atif Mian stepped down from the body following a backlash in Pakistan over his Ahmadi faith.
"With a heavy heart, I have resigned from the EAC this (Saturday) morning," Rasul, a professor of economics at University College London (UCL), tweeted.
"The circumstances in which Atif was asked to step down are ones I profoundly disagree with," Rasul said in a series of tweets.
His resignation comes a day after two prominent Pakistani economists resigned from the EAC after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government asked one of them to step down.
Atif Mian, a professor at Princeton University and Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, had said he was resigning because the government was facing pressure regarding his appointment.
Terming the reasons for Atif's removal and subsequent resignation as "irrelevant factors", Rasul expressed his disappointment and said it would be hard to replace the Princeton economist.
Commenting on the formation of the economic body, Rasul said the body offered a great opportunity for better economic policies but "events these past 10 days have shown the best and worst of Pakistani politics at the moment".
On Thursday, protesting the government's decision to withdraw the nomination of Atif Mian on the EAC, celebrated economist Asim Ijaz Khwaja resigned from the newly-formed body, saying "being a Muslim I can't justify this".
Khwaja - who was one of the initial 18 members of the EAC that Mian was part of - announced his decision on Twitter shortly after news spread that Mian was not part of the EAC.
The first meeting of the recently reconstituted EAC was presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan. With the resignation of Rasul, all three international economists of Pakistani origin on the council are no longer part of the advisory body.
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Supreme Court rejects plea for reverting to ballots in elections
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.
"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.
Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.
When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".
The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.
"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.
After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.
The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.
"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.
There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.
"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".
Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.
"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.
When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."
The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.
The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.
"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.
