After the convictions of PTI activists by military courts, all eyes are on the constitutional bench which will decide the legality of this form of justice. The constitutional bench, with a fresh six-month extension, is likely to resume hearing the military courts' case soon after winter vacations. On October 23 last year, the larger bench, led by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, declared that trials of civilians in military courts are unconstitutional. Subsequently, the government filed intra-court appeals against the SC judgment. The larger bench, led by Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, suspended the SC judgment and allowed the trials of civilians in military courts. Recently, the constitutional bench allowed military courts to announce the decisions. Interestingly, the bench did not refer to any legal provision in the Constitution in its interim order. So far, the constitutional bench has been unable to create a significant impact as it has not passed a judgment on a legal matter. However, the government is satisfied with the constitutional bench's performance. That is why it got a six-month extension by a majority of seven to six members of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP). However, the majority of the JCP desired that all SC judges be nominated for constitutional benches. With this in mind, lawyers are skeptical whether the present constitutional bench will decide the military courts' case in an expeditious manner. On the other hand, the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom are raising their voice against the trials of civilians in military courts. Lawyers believe it is not easy for the constitutional bench to endorse these trials after the international backlash. During the tenure of former CJP Umar Ata Bandial, the government told the SC that a lengthy sentence would not be awarded to the accused persons. Justice Bandial hoped that the right to appeal would be granted to suspects being tried in military courts. However, this was not entertained. Advocate Abdul Moiz Jaferii says that on May 9, 2023, rioters belonging to a political party acted criminally and damaged public property. "Instead of being prosecuted for this offence with the due process in civil courts, we saw the target of their ire, a government department, decide that it was going to deliver a befitting response," he says. "The army proceeded to play judge, jury, and executioner with these individuals," he adds. Jaferii also says that the Supreme Court declared these military trials and the detentions of civilians by the military to be illegal. "We then saw a new law allow for a new appeal against the Supreme Court decisions, and that pronouncement was suspended. Thereafter, we have seen absolute stagnation and no recognition of the urgency involved here. Justice Shahid Waheed was on the appellate bench, and he remarked that the scope of an intra-court appeal in the Supreme Court was very limited." The lawyer recalls that the next time a bench was assembled, Justice Waheed was absent. "In Justice Qazi Faez Isa's tenure, Justice Aminuddin led this bench and achieved absolutely nothing other than allowing the military more and more space to do what they wanted as interim measures. Then came the 26th Amendment and it has borne fruit today." He states that a bench, unwilling to decide fundamental issues of liberty, allowed the military to announce conditional judgments, which have been duly given with much sternness and warning. Jaferii continues that this is not justice. "It is the usurpation of due process allowed by our own Supreme Court. It is a lesson taught to all of us through the barrel of a gun. This is an example of the warnings lawyers issued about fundamental rights violations that can occur post the 26th Amendment, when you allow the executive to capture the judiciary. On the other hand, Hafiz Ehsaan Ahmad says the trial of civilians by military courts on violation of military laws had never been the subject of any discussion or controversy since 1975 in Pakistan. "Every political party, including their heads, supported such trials in military courts on different occasions. It is also important that no foreign government ever remarked on such military trials under the Pakistan Army Act 1952. It is also important that after the judgment of the Field General Court Martial, the right of appeal is available to the accused under the Pakistan Army Act. After being aggrieved, the accused can challenge the sentence before the high court under Article 199 of the Constitution, and then before the Supreme Court under Article 185 as a matter of right, and finally under Article 188 of the Constitution in the form of a review. He further explains that since 1972, the military courts in Pakistan tried 1,875 civilians for the commission of offences under the Pakistan Army Act and of Official Secrets Act. He adds that of them, only 180 civilians were tried by the military courts from 2018 to 2022 in the PTI govt tenure. "The accused convictions since had been regularly challenged in the superior courts of Pakistan, and most of the time, these sentences were upheld by the high courts and the supreme court. He said statements by the USA, European Union, and the Foreign Office of the UK on military trials of civilians, particularly on the announcement of sentences of 25 persons issued in pursuance of a Supreme Court order dated 13th December 2024, are uncalled for. "It seems to be only for public optics, and a matter of meddling in the internal affairs of Pakistan. This is particularly true since the Supreme Court of Pakistan, vide its 1975 judgment and thereafter, repeatedly held in various decisions that the trial of civilians for violating military laws, including the Pakistan Military Act 1952 and Official Secrets Act 1923, was not against fundamental rights. He continues that the court additionally decided that it was not against due process of law nor discriminatory, nor a violation of any transparency. "Resultantly, it was not against the concept of a fair trial, and the present sentences have also been announced by military courts in pursuance of the Supreme Court orders issued on December 13, 2024. He also clarifies that the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbitrator in the Constitutional and judicial system of Pakistan. "The matter of the trial of civilians by military courts is still pending in the Supreme Court, and even the sentences announced recently will be subject to the final decision of the Supreme Court. "Therefore. It is unnecessary to make immature statements at this stage, and we should wait for the final outcome." COMMENTS Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. For more information, please see ourCUPERTINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 10, 2024-- Aizip, Inc. in partnership with SoftBank Corp., announced the release of customized Small Language Model (SLM) and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) solutions for enterprise applications. The system operates locally on mobile devices or on-premises servers, addressing the pressing concerns of enterprise data safety. Fine-tuned with domain specific data, these SLMs can address unique enterprise tasks with comparable accuracy to 100x larger cloud LLMs. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241210832520/en/ (Graphic: Business Wire) This announcement comes as many companies have implemented bans on cloud-based LLMs for business-related tasks, citing concerns about leaks of private information. A recent survey from Menlo Ventures found that 21% of failed AI pilots were due to data-privacy hurdles. Fine-tuned SLMs are an alternative to general LLMs, offering security and privacy of information along with the benefits of AI-enabled work. Many enterprises have explored using open-source Small Language Models that run locally and efficiently on-premises as replacements for cloud-based LLMs. However, these models have generally turned out to be too unreliable to meet production-level performance requirements. Aizip and SoftBank address this challenge with innovative new solutions. The joint team developed and delivered a customized SLM integrated into a RAG system, running locally as a mobile application. When applied to SoftBank’s internal documents the application offers employees a Q&A platform that generates accurate, up-to-date response, running entirely on an iPhone 14. Testing shows that the system satisfactorily addresses 97% of employee questions, and response quality measured on a dataset of 22,000 questions matched responses generated by a GPT-4o-based RAG system. The key to this unique reliability is Aizip’s SLM-customization pipeline, which includes high-quality data generation, fine-tuning, and multifaceted evaluation. “While there are an increasing number of open-source SLMs available today, off-the-shelf models often fall short of the production accuracy required for enterprise tasks,” noted Aizip SLM-development lead Weier Wan. Aizip’s SLM-customization pipeline is run iteratively until target accuracy is achieved, so enterprises no longer need to choose between privacy and performance. Although the first product was developed for the iPhone, Aizip’s flexible SLM-deployment tools allow SLMs and RAG systems to run on a variety of edge platforms, including on-premises servers, PCs, and even IoT devices like microprocessors (MPUs), as announced in June 2024. Looking ahead, the joint team aims to leverage SoftBank’s rich expertise in enterprise services and Aizip’s cutting-edge AI technology to expand customized SLM solutions to a broader range of applications and customers. “Privacy-critical and offline-required use cases can benefit greatly from Aizip’s on-device AI technology,” described SoftBank vice president Katsuya Kitazawa, head of the Information Technology & Architect Division. “Whether assisting flight attendants on airplanes or supporting field workers in remote locations, we’re excited to collaborate with Aizip to bring this innovation to more users and businesses.” Aizip remains committed to delivering production-grade AI solutions for a variety of on-device applications. With extensive experience in developing robust and efficient AI models across Aizip Intelligent Audio (AIA), Vision (AIV), and Time-Series (AIT) product lines, Aizip continues to pioneer SLM technology, focused on improved accuracy, reliability, speed, and development efficiency. For additional information, please contact info@aizip.ai . About Aizip, Inc. Situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, Aizip, Inc. specializes in developing superior AI models tailored for endpoint and edge-device applications. Aizip stands apart for its exemplary model performance, swift deployment, and remarkable return on investment. These models are versatile, catering to a spectrum of intelligent, automated, and interconnected solutions. Discover more at www.aizip.ai . View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241210832520/en/ Nathan Francis, Nathan@aizip.ai KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: BANKING TECHNOLOGY IOT (INTERNET OF THINGS) PROFESSIONAL SERVICES SECURITY APPS/APPLICATIONS SOFTWARE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MOBILE/WIRELESS HARDWARE FINANCE SOURCE: Aizip, Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 12/10/2024 04:30 PM/DISC: 12/10/2024 04:33 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241210832520/en
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Watch the Dallas Mavericks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder on KFAAWASHINGTON , Nov. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States Postal Service is primed and ready to deliver exceptional service during the 2024 holiday rush thanks in large part to the investments and strategies identified in its 10-year Delivering for America plan. Today, the Postal Service provided updates on its peak holiday season preparations, as well as its readiness to deliver another successful holiday season of extraordinary service. "Thanks to the substantial progress we have made under the Delivery for America plan, we are ready and confident to handle the holiday surge," said USPS Chief Retail and Delivery Officer and Executive Vice President Dr. Joshua Colin . "Our ability to move packages and mail throughout our network has never been stronger. USPS continues to be the most affordable and reliable way to ship packages and mail this holiday season and year-round." Throughout the year, USPS has maintained strong service performance while engaging in numerous transformational initiatives across the organization and the country. Because of the ongoing implementation of the Delivering for America strategic plan, 98 percent of the nation's population currently receives their mail and packages in fewer than three days. The nation's postal network is operating effectively without any major reported disruptions. "The United States Postal Service's portfolio of shipping products make holiday shipping easy," said Steve Montieth , USPS chief customer and marketing officer and executive vice president. "Both USPS Ground Advantage and USPS Priority Mail are priced lower than competitors, meaning customers can save more this holiday season. So, ship early and enjoy your holiday season." Key Investments Ahead of 2024 Peak Season Specifically, key Delivering for America investments in the Postal Service's workforce, package processing, and delivery operations ahead of the 2024 peak holiday season include: Using 83 revitalized sorting & delivering centers: In alignment with the Delivering for America plan, the Postal Service is revamping its network of nearly 19,000 delivery units, which are the final stop for mail and packages before they are delivered by letter carriers. These revitalized sorting and delivery centers have allowed USPS to expand its daily package processing capacity, increase its efficiency and deliver more value to its customers. Implementing 506 new package sorting machines: These new machines are strategic investments in the local community's postal infrastructure, enabling postal workers to sort and process packages of all sizes more quickly and reliably. Since the previous peak season, 158 new sorting machines have been installed across the nation. This is part of the organization's $40 billion investment in new technology and facilities under the Delivering for America plan. Increased daily processing capacity to approximately 60 million: An expanded daily processing capacity, stabilized workforce, improved operating precision, and well-planned transportation practices has allowed for packages to move through the postal network more quickly and helps eliminate the need for short-term annexes. Moving more than 95 percent of volume via more reliable ground transportation: More precise operating and logistical strategies have positioned the Postal Service to handle the high mail and package volumes anticipated during the peak holiday season. USPS continues to transition more volume from expensive air transportation to its redesigned ground transportation network. Currently, nearly 95 percent of First-Class Mail and more than 95 percent of first-class packages are moved through the improved, more reliable ground transportation system. Hiring 7,500 seasonal employees: Because of its experienced and stable workforce, USPS anticipates the need for less seasonal employees this holiday season. The initial release of the new next generation delivery vehicles: This holiday season will also mark the initial release of the brand-new BEV Next Generation Delivery Vehicles, which will be on select roads and routes this winter. Additionally, this holiday season, there will be more than 27,000 new commercial off-the-shelf vehicles on the road with more than 500 being battery-electric. USPS Makes Holiday Shipping Easy for Consumers In addition to key investments, USPS is simplifying the process and reducing customers' cost to ship packages this holiday season. USPS Ground Advantage: This enhanced shipping solution provides a simple, reliable and more affordable way to ship packages this holiday season in just 2-5 business days across the contiguous United States . USPS Ground Advantage provides America's businesses and the public with a compelling ground shipping option, using the Postal Service's unparalleled last-mile delivery route system and improving the integrated mail and package postal logistics network. The most affordable rates: Priority Mail is an offering included in USPS Ground Advantage that provides a fast and affordable way to deliver mail to every address in the United States . During peak season, priority mail offers a price that is on average 35 percent lower than similar competitor services. For tips on preparing shipments, including recommended mailing and shipping dates, packaging guidelines, ordering free shipping supplies and information on local Post Office location hours, visit usps.com . Please Note: The United States Postal Service is an independent federal establishment, mandated to be self-financing and to serve every American community through the affordable, reliable and secure delivery of mail and packages to 169 million addresses six and often seven days a week. Overseen by a bipartisan Board of Governors, the Postal Service is implementing a 10-year transformation plan, Delivering for America , to modernize the postal network, restore long-term financial sustainability, dramatically improve service across all mail and shipping categories, and maintain the organization as one of America's most valued and trusted brands. The Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. For USPS media resources, including broadcast-quality video and audio and photo stills, visit the USPS Newsroom . Follow us on X , formerly known as Twitter, Instagram , Pinterest , Threads and LinkedIn . Subscribe to the USPS YouTube Channel and like us on Facebook . For more information about the Postal Service, visit usps.com and facts.usps.com . Contact: Jonathan Castillo [email protected] usps.com/news SOURCE U.S. Postal ServiceOil prices edge up on demand hopes from China's 'looser' monetary policyThe US believes journalist Austin Tice is alive after disappearing in Syria in 2012, Biden says
Democrats plan to elect new party leader just days after Trump's inaugurationDemocrats can work with DOGE. I know exactly where to start.