 On Tuesday and Wednesday, hearings took place at the High Court of Justice in the United Kingdom to determine the fate of Julian Assange's appeal permission. This is perhaps the last legal process standing between him and extradition to the United States where he will face charges on 18 counts, 17 of them under the infamous Espionage Act. Assange has been in jail for years without charge or trial pending a decision on this appeal process. Throughout these years, US government lawyers have sought to deny the fact that he is a journalist and I have tried to dub him a spy. At the same time, across the world, a powerful movement has arisen demanding his freedom, stressing on his work as a journalist and publisher and highlighting the political nature of the case against Assange. Let's go to Anish to find out what happened during these two days. Anish, thanks for joining us. We saw another crucial chapter in the Julian Assange saga unfolding over the past few or past couple of days, last ditch attempt to prevent his extradition to the United States. Of course, this has been going on for a long time now so for the benefit of our viewers, could you maybe tell us what really was happening over the past few two days? What was the stage of the process and then we'll go into some of the arguments. Let's begin with the fact that this is possibly and potentially as he's pointed out, the final court hearing that Assange would have in the United Kingdom. If it doesn't get through, especially if it does get through, then he has a chance to appeal the extradition ruling. Now this is an appeal permission ruling and so it has a slightly different set of the manner in which the proceedings are going to happen. Obviously, it's a two-judge bench but it definitely has a different tone and tenor in which like compared to past rulings, it is not going to be as detailed. We only had like two days of hearings and the amount of evidence submitted are not that heavy or substantial and that is going to and it's not needed especially, but it is definitely going to mark a significant whatever decision comes out of it is going to have a significant and profound impact on not just the Assange case in general. It is also going to have an impact on free speech or press freedoms pretty much for everyone and that is something that pretty much looms large throughout the case and that is primarily what we see the focus of the defences arguments are about because it is not the focus has all right now centered around the fact that Assange is a journalist and he is being prosecuted for a political crime. So it is it is best for the UK and for pretty much everybody else to not allow for an extradition like this. Right. So any sin going into that point what are some of the arguments you mentioned could you elaborate a bit more on the defense arguments and then we'll come to what the US government was arguing. Well, one of the the first argument that the defense presented was that the entire case itself is a political case. This was not a new one. It was done in the previous set of hearings as well since the beginning since 2020 when the first trial actually happened at the magistrates court before Vanessa Beretsa the judge this should judge Vanessa Beretsa and it pretty much has two aspects. One is the fact that the entire the intention behind is it is political. The fact that the Trump administration went out on a political vendetta against Assange and it is you know steered by political appointees and clearly showing that the entire intentionality and the process that went behind it was definitely quite a political one and that is something that is that is not allowed or that will not stand as grounds for extradition as per the US UK extradition treaty. On the other hand it defense lawyers also pointed out the fact that the case against him is that of espionage and espionage primarily since it's it's an offense against the state it is going to be a political one and that definitely you know that will mark the manner in which he will be prosecuted back in the United States as well because the state then obviously becomes the one who is prosecuting the ones who is accusing becomes untouchable in that sense and that is definitely what the prosecution has concentrated on a large part. The fact that this entire thing is political that there is a significant you know conflict of interest considering the fact that the state is both the accuser and the prosecutor and also the judge in this case and especially so because there are already allegations or the fact that Assange there were attempts to shut down Wikileaks there were attempts to kidnap or assassinate Assange by the state itself or arms of the state including the intelligence community. So this these factors should be taken into account which was not done by previous judges including the including Vanessa Bredser who actually you know rejected the extradition plea based on many health issues or the fact that he's a suicide risk and you know the fact that the possibility of death is something that can actually kill an extradition plea. So that is that was the only ground she did not consider the political aspect of the crime or the offense in question or for that matter the entire manner in which there is a significant conflict of interest behind this entire prosecution in itself. Then obviously they brought out you know the significant human rights issues that you know that can actually arise once he's exredited. This includes the fact that Assange being a foreign citizen he's not he's not a US citizen and also is somebody who's based out of the United States he will not be entitled to the First Amendment rights which includes you know press freedom so he cannot appeal against the prosecution under the First Amendment right as a journalist or as a publisher. He is also not entitled to a fair trial in many ways because a large part of his rights can be set aside especially when it comes to a spinach the spinach act in itself is a very restrictive piece of legislation. It is already quite controversial among civil liberties circles in the United States and has been criticized for how it pretty much infringes on human rights and a person's right to a fair trial and that is already there in the United States. There's an ongoing debate and you know controversy around it and that is not being considered as well by the courts and obviously there is the fact that the United States has not given any assurance that there will not be new charges coming up and this includes the fact that the Vault 7 disclosures the publication of Vault 7 documents which was pretty much the trigger for this prosecution has not been taken into account by federal prosecutors in the United States so additional charges can happen and that also means that he can be charged with you know crimes including you know war against the state or sedition seditious like legal provisions that carry death penalty which is again something that the US has not assured they have only assured that there is some there will be a framework for a fair trial and that he will be kept under you know human conditions or basic human conditions in the prisons and nothing else there was nothing no other assurances given by the United States and the prosecute sorry the prosecutors were not able to and in fact denied that there will be any kind of assurances coming on these matters and these factors where there were other factors that were obviously taken up but these are some of the most crucial aspects of the defense's argument. Anish and finally what next doesn't what are the next stages in the process when do we get to know what happens you're not sure because the judges have reserved the judgment so that means that until and unless they give a date on for a decision we are not sure when it is going to happen it can take a couple of weeks or maybe even months for the decision to come in the meanwhile a science continues to be in prison in high security prison virtually in isolation from the rest of the world in Belmarsh and it is going to near complete about five years in that prison cell without any charge virtually speaking he's from the judicial demand and he's already serving a prison sentence by going through this entire process the delays in this process as well so this is pretty much a situation that we are in we are pretty much hinging at a very last resort judicial process within the UK obviously the defense team is talking about approaching the European Court because at the time when Assange was being prosecuted he was essentially also UK was essentially also part of the European Union and was is still party to the ECHR which means that it can be taken up in the European Court but we are not sure if that means that there will be a stay or a hold on the extradition so this this legal this appeal permission appeal is going to be the final say in many ways if the courts for some reason allows for this appeal to go through and permits it then that we will have some further legal procedures but that is something that is that is only if there is a positive outcome for this decision thank you so much for that update after an extremely controversial election Pakistan is said to have a new government the establishment parties that is the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz or the PMLN or former prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif and the Pakistan's People's Party have come together to form a coalition Shahbaz Sharif will return as the prime minister and PPP leader Asif Ali Sardari is said to become the next president now these parties were in power before the elections too having come together after the overthrow of then prime minister Imran Khan in 2022 Khan's party was not allowed to officially contest in the elections but independence backed by it emerged as a single largest force the PTI has alleged large-scale rigging of results and claimed that the victory was stolen from it it is clear that Pakistan is set for more turmoil even as the economic situation remains grim we go to Abdul for more details on what happened Abdul thank you so much for joining us so it does look like there's some kind of a political arrangement that is concretizing in Pakistan of course the controversies have not ended a lot of contentious issues remaining around the election we'll come to that but first of all what is the new arrangement that is a new dispensation that is likely to take power and you know what is the electoral strength or strength in the legislature? Well as for the latest reports which are coming from Pakistan the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz basically the party of the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif which basically emerged as the first single largest party if we minus PTIs independence because of the circumstances in which they were forced to contest as independent has kind of agreed to form an alliance with Pakistan people's party PPP again the party of the former prime minister now deceased Benazir Bhutto and they have kind of agreed to also bring in smaller parties like Mutahedakami movement which has some 18 seats from sin sorry and apart from that these major parties there are also smaller parties which are going to be the part of that alliance and they will together form a government both in the national assembly and they have agreed to kind of try their luck in Balochistan and in Punjab province as well in Sindh of course PPP has single majority so it does not need an alliance as much but apart from the fact that in the alliance Abbas Sharif former prime minister who was who's also a brother of Nawaz Sharif will be the prime minister and speaker of the national assembly will also be from the same Nawaz Sharif's party the rest of the posts and the posts of governors in different other states like say Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab will go to PPP but PPP had decided not to be a part of a future government formally they will support them in the assembly but they will not be a formally part of it but other smaller parties may become part of the government so in a way it is a repeat of the PDM which was there in power before the character government took over seven months before and Shabas Sharif under Shabas Sharif's prime ministership so that is the larger arrangement as I said before they are also going to have try at least we are not sure whether they will be successful or not to form governments in Balochistan and in Punjab in coalition so that is the latest arrangement which has been made this was decided of course this was this proposal was there on the table for ever since the official results were by and large declared by the ECP but there were some problems in between but suddenly there was an over night development on Wednesday and this final agreement was reached I believe Asif Ali Sardari the husband of Benazir Bhutto and the father of the current party leader will also be the president of the country as well exactly that is the part of the arrangement yeah right Abdullsoh now this the next question naturally is what does this mean for the country we know that the mandate was of course in some senses the Pakistan Tehrik Ensaaf party of former prime minister Imran Khan did morally at least emerge as a single largest force but like you said it was not allowed to contest for the elections so you have a kind of a government where the single largest party is probably excluded from power and that does look like the mandate has kind of been twisted by this arrangement as well well PTI in fact has decided as per the latest news to go to the Supreme Court and appeal against the results and insist it insists that the mandate was stolen from it and around 50 odd even more of the seats which PTI claims to have won were not basically given to some other parties that's the claim they are making meanwhile they have also joined a smaller party which is of course not represented in the National Assembly in order to claim the reserve seats we should remember that there are around 670 reserve seats which will be distributed to the parties in the National Assembly so the as far as the the kind of trajectory of the Pakistan politics is concerned after the formation of this government if at all it happens it will be decided of course before 29th of February but there are there will be issues which we which every Pakistani will be very keen keenly watching of course one is what will be the fate of the PTI whether it will have its claims verified by the courts or that will lead to another confrontation between PTI and the government and the larger establishment which Pakistan is always credited to credited to have like armies and so on so forth that is one of course that will decide the political stability in the future of Pakistan's politics apart from that the new government whenever it is formed will have a massive challenge to deal with the economic situation which Pakistan is facing at the time much of this of course is a problem which is created during Shaba Sarif's previous term in power and it seems now he is coming back to power and how he will deal with it given the fact that Shaba Sarif is not seen so far as a as a person who has an economic vision for for the country nevertheless since he is going to be the prime minister and there will be a massive set of people who will be kind of looking forward towards this government it will there will be a challenge to deliver on that front particularly immediately the front which is related to the price rise of the essential commodities in fact there are already news coming that the prices of electricity is going to be further up in the coming days which was already very high much before the formation of the current government so the economic issues will be the dominating factor but the political stability which PTI and the easily stolen elections has created will be something which everyone needs to watch carefully to see what where Pakistan is going from now on. Petal thank you so much for that update and that's all we have time for in daily debrief we will be back at the fresh episode tomorrow in the meanwhile do visit our website peoplesdispatch.org follow us on all the social media platforms and if you're watching this on youtube please hit the subscribe button