US lawmakers pass bill to curb NSA

WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives approved late Thursday a bill that would restrict the electronic surveillance powers of the National Security Agency (NSA).The margin was wide, 293 to 123, for the bill attached to the defense budget for 2015, which begins October 1.For now, however, the bill will have no effect on the NSA as it has not been debated by the Senate.

But the message from the lower house is clear.

It wants to embrace a court ruling and bar the National Security Agency from using personal electronic information from US citizens without a prior court order.

As it currently stands, under the so-called Prism program, the NSA focuses on foreign targets on the Internet via Facebook, Gmail and other services.

But the NSA has acknowledged it used information taken from the servers of such companies, without approval from a judge.

The Constitution and US laws require that the government obtain a court order before searching among data of US citizens.

Thursday´s amendment would bar the NSA from carrying out any search without a court order, including information from Americans, even if their communications were picked up inadvertently. The bill would bar the NSA and the CIA from including secret "back doors" allowing the NSA to skirt coded gateways and gain access to users´ personal data. The NSA is accused of having done this for several years. A year after the revelations made by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Congress is still debating how to reform US surveillance programs.

PTI govt in KP may struggle to pass budget

PESHAWAR: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its allies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly would definitely have difficulty in passing the next annual budget if the disgruntled members including deputy speaker from the treasury benches boycotted the upcoming budget session.

The 14-member ‘forward bloc’ led by PTI MPA Qurban Ali Khan from Nowshera had walked out from the assembly proceedings in protest against what they called ‘false and fabricated’ campaign against Deputy Speaker Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi.

They threatened to boycott the budget session if their grievances were not addressed and the elements behind the smear campaign against the deputy speaker and his family were not exposed.

Though Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser formed a committee to probe the matter, the disgruntled PTI lawmakers didn’t end the protest and stayed away from the assembly business.

In the 124-member House, the PTI and its coalition partners, Jamaat-e-Islami and Awami Jamhoori Ittehad Pakistan, enjoy the support of 69 members including an independent MPA Jamshed Mohmand. It would be difficult for the treasury benches to pass the budget if the 14 PTI dissidents stick to their guns.

On the other hand, the five-party opposition benches would definitely give a tough time to the government as the 10-member Qaumi Watan Party would be more aggressive against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak-led government as the Aftab Sherpao-headed party was part of the treasury benches during the last budget session in 2013.

When contacted, Qurban Ali Khan said that they had not taken any step against the party manifesto or their own government in the provincial assembly, but had sought justice for Deputy Speaker Imtiaz Shahid Qureshi.

“We are waiting for Imran Khan’s return to the country and the decision of the committee formed by the speaker. We have no trust in some of the government functionaries,” said Qurban Khan, who was elected to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly from PK-16 Nowshera.