New lawsuit aims to oust Christina school board member living in Pakistan
The district may have a new superintendent on deck, but infighting on the Christina school board continues.
Board member Doug Manley filed a lawsuit April 23 angling to force the removal of fellow board member Naveed Baqir. The lawsuit urges the Delaware Court of Chancery to declare his colleague – who has been living in Pakistan for over a year – no longer a district resident eligible for board service.
'In promoting false representations to his constituents, Baqir has breached his duties to the CSD, as a result of which Baqir obtained improper personal benefits including influence over the board during meetings and voting sessions to which he is not lawfully entitled,' Manley's lawsuit reads.
Baqir, a co-founder of the private Tarbiyah School near Newark with his wife and once executive director of the Delaware Council on Global and Muslim Affairs, was elected to the board in 2021. His term expires in June 2026. Manley seeks more immediate action.
He claims votes from that District F seat have been cast virtually since January 2024, while Baqir has been out of the district, out of the state and out of the country. Most recently, the board selected a new superintendent in Deirdra Joyner on April 18, after months of turmoil following the ouster of its former district head in July 2024.
Christina Board Member Douglas Manley, Nominating District C, takes notes during the Christina school board regular meeting at the Glasgow High School Auditorium in Newark, Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024.
Baqir has often been a deciding vote of a four-person bloc on board decisions, including the 4-3 ouster of former superintendent Dan Shelton. He's still suing for more than $2.7 million. Manley has repeatedly protested these votes, along similar concerns that line this April lawsuit.
Also in summer 2024, Board President Donald Patton publicly confirmed Baqir had been out of the country due to "severe health issues" affecting elderly family, but that regular attendance had been kept remotely from Pakistan. Baqir is now also enrolled in medical school at Pakistan-based Dow University of Health Sciences, according to the lawsuit and supported by previous comments from Baqir.
"This is ridiculous. It just gets the public riled-up," Patton said Friday morning. The board's lawyer has been clear, he said, that the body does not have authority to adjudicate disputes on an elected board member's residency. The president called the lawsuit a distraction, while Baqir has kept up with board duties.
Baqir has argued Delaware remains his permanent address. The board member did not respond to request for comment on this lawsuit by time of publication.
Looking back: Ousted superintendent sues Christina school board for millions over 'destroyed' reputation
So far, just how to define "resident" in this context, as well as the authority to do anything about it, seems caught up in debate.
A bill in Dover aims to clear it up.
Sponsored by Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton, one bill in the state House would set residency requirements for school board members, mandating that any member is an 'inhabitant' of a designated area or school district for at least 75% of the days in any one year of their term. Absence due to military service is not counted.
Patton noted another board member would have fallen under that ratio for virtual meeting attendance in the last year, but he did not specify whom.
Naveed Baqir was elected to the Christina school board in 2021.
It would also allow residents to bring an action to the Superior Court if there is reason to believe a member is no longer residing in the district. The court could then declare a vacancy.
That draft legislation now heads to the full floor for consideration. It joins about four other bills hoping to tighten up Delaware school board governance. This April lawsuit seeks an immediate injunction to block Baqir from board service, a directive to the district to legally fill the seat and award all attorney fees.
In Delaware, when a school board seat becomes vacant the district must notify the Department of Elections so a new member can can be appointed or a special election can be held. Christina School District has not declared any vacancy.
Got a tip or story idea? Contact Kelly Powers at kepowers@gannett.com or (231) 622-2191.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Lawsuit aims to oust Christina school board member living in Pakistan
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Closed Kazakhstan test site misrepresented as 'Pakistan nuclear facility'
"Members of the US Department of Energy were seen near Pakistan's Kirana Hills which were hit by India on May 9," reads the caption of images shared in an X post from May 13, 2025, alongside the hashtag "NuclearLeak". The post's three images show people wearing face masks and protective gear emerging from tunnels that have been cut into the side of a hill and a structure built into the landscape. They were shared after India and Pakistan agreed a ceasefire on May 10, bringing to a halt four days of deadly jet fighter, missile, drone and artillery attacks between the nuclear-armed neighbours (archived link). The fighting was touched off by an attack on April 22 in the Indian-administered side of Kashmir that killed 26 tourists, mostly Hindu men, which Delhi blamed on Islamabad. Pakistan denies any involvement and has called for an independent probe. Posts on social media claim Kirana Hills was struck during the latest conflict, and articles on Indian news sites have also speculated about whether the location had been targeted. Similar posts were shared elsewhere on X. But India has denied that Pakistan's nuclear facilities were targeted during the countries' most recent conflict, with Air Marshal A.K. Bharti telling reporters they "have not hit Kirana Hills" (archived link). Islamabad's foreign office separately dismissed media reports alleging Pakistani nuclear facilities were compromised during the conflict, leading to radiation leaks (archived link). And, responding to a query from the Indian Express, the International Atomic Energy Agency refuted reports of a radiation leak from any nuclear facility in Pakistan (archived link). Reverse image searches on Google found the three images used in the false posts were in fact taken at the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site, where 456 nuclear tests were conducted over 42 years until Kazakhstan shut down the facility on August 29, 1991 (archived link). The photo of people wearing face masks emerging from a tunnel was taken from an August 2012 blog titled, "Visit to the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site" (archived link). According to the blog poster's biography, they work as a nuclear engineer and use the platform to share their nuclear-themed travel experiences. The image of people in protective gear walking out of a tunnel can be found in a press release issued by the Kazakhstan government in 2021 for a photo exhibition dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the closure of the Semipalatinsk nuclear test site (archived link). The final image of a structure built into the landscape was sourced from an ABC news article titled, "The Polygon: Former Soviet Union nuclear test site on Kazakh Steppe now open for tours" (archived link). The image is captioned, "An underground bunker used to monitor Soviet era nuclear tests". AFP has debunked other false claims related to the recent conflict between India and Pakistan here.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
How is Pakistan raising money for a 20 percent hike in defence spending?
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan has increased its defence spending by more than 20 percent – the most substantial hike in a decade – following last month's military confrontation with neighbouring India. Presenting the annual federal budget on June 10, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb proposed an allocation of 2.55 trillion rupees ($9bn) for the country's three armed services – the army, air force and navy – amounting to 1.97 percent of Pakistan's gross domestic product (GDP), up from 1.7 percent in the previous budget. 'The security situation in the country is precarious, and the armed forces have rendered commendable service in protecting the borders,' Aurangzeb said during his speech, as India has threatened to carry out strikes if armed groups carry out attacks on India or Indian-administered Kashmir. But analysts say that Islamabad will need to walk a fine balance in spending more on defence at a time when its fragile economy is under strict oversight from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and cuts in social sector expenditure could embolden the opposition. On May 7, India carried out missile strikes on what it called 'terrorist infrastructure' in Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir after blaming Islamabad for backing fighters responsible for the killing of 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir's Pahalgam town on April 22. Pakistan denied involvement in the Pahalgam attacks, demanding a 'credible, transparent, independent' investigation. Islamabad said innocent civilians were killed in India's attacks on May 7. Tensions escalated after the two nuclear-armed neighbours engaged in tit-for-tat missile and drone attacks over four days, primarily targeting each other's military installations. By the time a ceasefire was announced by United States President Donald Trump on May 10, in excess of 70 people had been killed – more than 50 in Pakistan and at least 20 in India. Against that backdrop, Pakistan's defence hike was expected, say analysts. India, which presented its budget before the conflict, also increased its defence spending to $78.7bn, a 9.5 percent rise from the previous year. But unlike India, Pakistan has more than a neighbour to keep an eye on: It also confronts pressure from the IMF. The IMF approved a 37-month, $7bn loan programme for Pakistan last September, its 25th since 1958. The most recent tranche of $1.3bn was released in May this year, a day before the ceasefire between India and Pakistan took place. But in exchange, the global lender has been pressuring Pakistan to streamline its expenditure, reduce subsidies and improve the efficiency of its governance structures. Pakistan appears to have paid heed to those demands from the IMF. Even as its defence spending has gone up substantially, its overall budget for the next fiscal year has been reduced to 17.57 trillion rupees ($62bn), marking a 6.9 percent decrease from last year. The defence spending hike, while massive, is in line with growing defence allocation in recent years. The military's budget has nearly doubled in the past five years. In fiscal year 2020-21, the allocation stood at 1.28 trillion rupees ($4.53bn). The army, long seen as the most powerful institution in Pakistan's defence and political spheres, has received 1.17 trillion rupees ($4.1bn), accounting for nearly 46 percent of the total defence budget. The air force and navy received just more than 520 billion rupees ($1.8m) and 265.9 billion rupees ($941m), respectively. Pakistan's military budget increase also reflects a broader global trend. A report published in April by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which specialises in conflict and arms control research, stated that global military expenditure reached $2.7 trillion in 2024, a 9.4 percent increase from the previous year and the 'steepest year-on-year rise since the end of the Cold War'. Hina Shaikh, a Lahore-based economist with the International Growth Centre (IGC), said the increase in Pakistan was expected and reflects the government's continued prioritisation of security amid geopolitical tensions and domestic instability. 'While understandable from a strategic lens, this increase does come when economic recovery is just beginning to happen, but still fragile, inflation is easing and fiscal space is constrained,' she told Al Jazeera. Ali Hasanain, an economics professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), called the hike in defence spending both 'inevitable and necessary' but warned against sacrificing long-term development. 'The only way out of this dilemma for Pakistan is to undertake deep structural reforms of the sort which no government has shown a commitment to yet, so that both the economy and defence spending can stay robust over the medium and long terms,' Hasanain said. While most analysts agree that the defence spending hike is a fallout of the May conflict, a major challenge for the government is to fund it without compromising the social welfare, health, or education sectors. Due to Pakistan's sizable external debt, recorded at $87.4bn according to the latest government figures, the largest share of the national budget is consumed by debt servicing, which stands at $29bn, which is almost 47 percent of total expenditure. In the budget announced on Tuesday, Pakistan's government has cut subsidies. The budget also outlines plans to expand the tax base, removes exemptions, and introduces new taxes to raise public revenue. The opposition party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan dubbed the budget 'anti-people' and 'crafted for the elite.' The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the opposition party said on Wednesday that the budget provided no real relief to the public, as government staff salary raises were low and agriculture, the mainstay of the country's economy, witnessed decline. Sajid Amin Javed, a senior economist at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), said that the combination of a decline in the interest payments Pakistan owes its debtors this year, and the cut in subsidies had provided the government 'some fiscal space'. Still, others highlighted that Pakistan's defence spending, while the highest in South Asia as a percentage of GDP, has declined in relative terms compared to past decades as it has been forced to set money aside to repay loans. Hasanain of LUMS said that Pakistan now spends less, as a percentage of GDP, than countries like Singapore (2.8 percent), Greece (3.1 percent), Poland (4.2 percent), or the United States (3.4 percent), and nearly three times less than Saudi Arabia (7.3 percent), Russia (7.1 percent), or Israel (8.8 percent). But he pointed out that Pakistan also collects far less tax than most other countries, so the defence spending hike still eats up a giant chunk of the government's revenue. 'A low tax to GDP ratio means that defence spending is a bigger burden for the government in Pakistan than most other countries in the world.' The last few years have been deeply turbulent for Pakistan's economy. Foreign reserves fell to just under $3bn in 2023, bringing the country of 250 million people to the brink of default. Foreign reserves have since risen to $11bn following IMF deals. Similarly, the Pakistani rupee, having lost more than 60 percent of its value against the US dollar over the last two years, has now stabilised between 280 and 282 rupees per dollar. Javed of SDPI says these indicators show Pakistan's macroeconomic fundamentals are stabilising, but the public impact remains uncertain. 'It is a budget of stabilisation, made in consultation with the IMF, to ensure that the country's revenue, growth and fiscal deficit targets are met. But on the whole, it remains a traditional budget, with no deep-rooted structural changes or strategic change visible, at least for now,' he said. Economist Shaikh argued that the budget lacks inclusive or pro-poor reforms and shows limited investment in sectors like health and education. 'This may be called a technocrat's budget under IMF constraints, fiscally conservative, tax-heavy, and focused on short-term stabilisation. It is focused on restoring macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, and building reserves,' she said. Hasanain, however, says that the IMF principally concerns itself with helping countries move back towards stability, and does not consider long-term, sustainable growth as its purview. 'By cutting expenditures and running primary budget surpluses, the government is indeed moving out of the acute debt crisis it found itself in two years ago, but the larger project of correcting longstanding structural deficiencies is, despite receiving some lip service, largely neglected to date,' he said. 'Given the lack of any serious political opposition, this excessive caution towards reform is deeply frustrating.' Erreur lors de la récupération des données Connectez-vous pour accéder à votre portefeuille Erreur lors de la récupération des données Erreur lors de la récupération des données Erreur lors de la récupération des données Erreur lors de la récupération des données
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Mother of protester says trial wait 'outrageous'
The mother of a man charged in relation to an alleged break-in at the UK site of an Israel-based defence firm has said it is "outrageous" that he faces 21 months in prison before his case goes to trial. William Plastow, 34, is one of the 'Filton 18' accused of taking part in a Palestine Action protest at an Elbit Systems UK factory in Filton, Bristol last August. Mr Plastow is still awaiting his trial which is scheduled for April next year. His mum, Jane Plastow, believes it is the longest anyone has been held in prison pre-trial on protest-related charges. The Judicial Office told the BBC it could not comment on individual cases. An earlier court hearing was told that during the incident a vehicle was driven into the doors of buildings and two responding police officers and a security guard were injured. Along with many of the rest of the group, Mr Plastow, from Manchester, is charged with criminal damage, violent disorder and aggravated burglary which he denies. The Home Office has previously told the BBC: "The CPS has decided that there is sufficient evidence to submit to the court that these offences have a terrorism connection." However, none of the 18 have been charged with terror offences. Elbit Systems UK is run separately to Israel-based Elbit Systems. It previously told the BBC that claims the facilities supply the Israeli military are "completely false". An Elbit Systems UK spokesperson told the BBC it will not comment on an ongoing legal process. "I think [for Mr Plastow] there's a great sense of helplessness and hopelessness," Ms Plastow said. "There have been lots of people locked up as political prisoners in Britain recently, there is Palestine Action and Just Stop Oil - but nobody has been locked up longer than my son and some of his comrades." Ms Plastow said her son applied for bail, promising the judge that he would stay with his mother and wear an electronic tag. "We had discussed the most onerous terms, it basically amounted to house arrest," Ms Plastow said. She said she offered to pay £50,000, from a recent inheritance, but he was denied bail. "My son has never been violent. It is a gross overreach," Ms Plastow added. "The idea that at the moment it looks like he will be locked up for 21 months is outrageous." More news stories for Bristol Watch the latest Points West Listen to the latest news for Bristol Follow BBC Bristol on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. UN expert's concern over activist charges 'My daughter was branded a terrorist'
