ISLAMABAD: Clad in a tracksuit and ankle weights, Imran Khan lounges in a plush chair and announces this is his political moment: the World Cup cricket champion believes power in Pakistan is his for the taking.
After years in the wilderness the former all-rounder is riding a wave of populism as rival parties stumble, decrying the venality of Pakistan’s political elite and promising an end to rampant corruption if he can win a general election due this year.
Often likened to US President Donald Trump for his populist flair and Twitter tirades, he prefers to draw parallels with former US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders or British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“It is one of the most ridiculous comparisons,” he sighs, when asked about Trump during an interview at his hillside home near Islamabad.
But despite once describing a potential meeting with the US president as a “bitter pill,” Khan says he would be prepared to work with Trump to stop the “insanity” in Afghanistan.
“This war will only end through talks,” he says. “The solution does not lie in more bombs and guns.”
In the West, the man who led Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup champion cricket team is typically seen through the prism of celebrity, with memories of his headline-grabbing romances and playboy reputation standing out.
Back home, the 65-year-old cuts a more conservative persona as a devout Muslim, often carrying prayer beads and nurturing beliefs in living saints.
To his legions of fans, Khan is uncorrupted and generous, spending his years off the pitch building hospitals and a university.
“(He) deserves a chance over all the other leeches,” says supporter Shahid Khan, a 26-year-old engineer.
But Khan is also described as impulsive and brash, too tolerant of militancy and fostering close links to Islamists, amid speculation over his ties to Pakistan’s powerful military establishment.
Khan entered Pakistan’s chaotic politics more than two decades ago promising to fight graft and build a welfare state in the nation of over 200 million.
But for his first 15 years as a politician he sputtered, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party never securing more than a few seats in the national assembly.
“Sports teaches you that life is not in a straight line,” he says.
“You take the knocks. You learn from your mistakes.”
In 2012 PTI’s popularity surged with hordes of young Pakistanis who grew up idolizing Khan as a cricket icon reaching voting age.
The wave of youth support accompanied festering dissatisfaction among the middle class with the country’s corrupt and dynastic political elite.
Khan admits his party was ill-prepared to capitalize on the gains in time for the 2013 election.
But that was then. “For the first time, we’ll be going into elections prepared,” he says of 2018.
He points to his party’s governance of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province as a blueprint for nationwide programs focusing on human development.
Rahimullah Yusufzai, a veteran journalist based in KP’s capital Peshawar, says the party has done well on legislation — but implementation has been slow, as PTI grapples with inexperienced political newcomers and indiscipline.
“He has been there for more than four and half years,” Yusufzai says. “People are trying to figure out, what change did he bring?“
Others fear Khan’s mercurial nature is unsuited to being prime minister.
Last month he made headlines after asking his supporters in a tweet to pray he finds “personal happiness which, except for a few years, I have been deprived of,” following still unverified claims he had married his spiritual adviser.
“Imran Khan is very, very impulsive — a trait leaders score low on,” says Harris Chaudhry, a 23-year-old student.
Detractors have also attacked Khan for his repeated calls to hold talks with militants and for his party’s alliance with Sami ul Haq, the so-called Father of the Taliban whose madrassas once educated militant supremos Mullah Omar and Jalaluddin Haqqani.
Khan defends the partnership, saying Haq is instrumental to reform and helping poor students at risk of being radicalized in Pakistan’s long war on extremism.
To his opponents, he is merely latching on to a groundswell of naked populism.
“Imran Khan is right now the beneficiary of a wave of celebrity politicians who are anti-politicians,” explains Husain Haqqani from the Washington-based Hudson Institute, suggesting Khan has also benefited from ties with the military, whose penchant for meddling in Pakistani politics is well known.
Still, many believe this is the best political opportunity Khan will ever have.
His arch nemesis Nawaz Sharif was ousted from the premiership in July, leaving the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in disarray; while the once mighty Pakistan People’s Party has wilted into a shell of its former self.
This election, Khan says, is PTI’s “biggest chance” at victory, even as doubts reverberate after his party lost a by-election this week.
But when asked if, should he lose, would he hand over the party leadership to a successor, Khan is cryptic.
“I’m the only cricket captain in our history who left when he still could have been the captain,” he says.
First the world, now Pakistan: Imran Khan seeks election glory
First the world, now Pakistan: Imran Khan seeks election glory
Social media adverts offer illegal migrants ‘package deals’ to UK
- Home Office vows to crackdown on ‘despicable’ gangs promoting services on TikTok
- Over 450 migrants cross English Channel in small boats on Christmas Day
LONDON: People smugglers are using TikTok adverts to lure migrants to the UK with “package deals.”
More than 150,000 people have crossed the English Channel in small boats from mainland Europe to try and enter Britain illegally since 2018, the UK said on Friday.
Traffickers have started to deploy new techniques advertised on social media to encourage more people to make the perilous journey in winter, The Times newspaper reported.
These include deals offered on TikTok for as little as £2,500 ($3,140) with payment only required on reaching the UK coast. The adverts said specialized handlers would collect the migrants, take them to rented accommodation and find them work.
The Times said the adverts were being run by Albanian smuggling gangs. One TikTok account named “Journey to London” offered deals to get people from Albania to England.
Another used a photo of the boat that would carry the migrants and the promise of a “secure crossing.”
The smugglers also offered to fly customers into the UK on stolen passports for £12,000. They urged one prospective client to make use of the Christmas period when airports are busier, The Times reported.
The recent calm weather has sparked a surge in small boat crossings, with more than 850 people making the journey across the Channel on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
While the adverts predominantly targeted Albanians, the highest numbers of migrants using small boats in the year up to September were from Afghanistan, Iran and Syria.
A Home Office spokesperson described the smuggling gangs as “despicable” and said they were “exploiting vulnerable people by peddling lies on social media and placing them in horrendous conditions, working for next to nothing.”
“Anyone found to be doing this will face severe penalties and we are working with the National Crime Agency and major social media companies to rapidly remove online adverts promoting dangerous small boat crossings,” the person said.
TikTok told The Times it had proactively removed adverts posted by the users.
The number of small boat crossings hit a peak in 2022, when 45,774 people made the journey. More than 36,000 have done so this year.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to “smash” the people smuggling gangs, with the issue of immigration featuring heavily in campaigning for the July election.
UN warns nearly a fifth of world’s children affected by war
- Numbers at their highest since Second World War, almost doubled since 1990
- Gaza, Sudan among worst affected, more children expected to be casualties in Ukraine as toll continues to rise
LONDON: The UN has warned that nearly one in five children around the world live in areas affected by war. The global body’s children’s agency UNICEF has said 473 million children face the worst violence seen since the Second World War, with the number having almost doubled since 1990.
The UN said it had identified a record 32,990 grave violations against 22,557 children, the highest number on record. It added that around 44 percent of the nearly 45,000 victims of Israel’s war in Gaza were children, whilst there had been more child casualties in the war in Ukraine in the first nine months of 2024 than in the entirety of the previous year.
“By almost every measure, 2024 has been one of the worst years on record for children in conflict in UNICEF’s history, both in terms of the number of children affected and the level of impact on their lives,” said UNICEF’s Executive Director Catherine Russell.
“A child growing up in a conflict zone is far more likely to be out of school, malnourished, or forced from their home — too often repeatedly — compared with a child living in places of peace.
“This must not be the new normal. We cannot allow a generation of children to become collateral damage to the world’s unchecked wars.”
UNICEF added that there had been a significant increase in sexual violence toward young women and girls, and highlighted an explosion of reports in Haiti where rape and sexual assault cases increased 1,000 percent in 2024.
Malnutrition, too, is a major cause of trauma for children in conflict zones, with UNICEF focusing in particular on its effects in Sudan and Gaza. Around half a million people in five conflict-affected countries, it added, are affected by famine.
Gaza is also the center of a crisis regarding access to healthcare, with a polio outbreak detected in July this year. The UN responded with a mass vaccine campaign, which has so far reached 90 percent of the enclave’s children despite the hazardous conditions. But beyond Gaza, the UN said, 40 percent of the world’s unvaccinated children live in or near conflict zones.
UNICEF added that over 52 million children lack access to education, with Gaza and Sudan again at the forefront of this crisis.
Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Syria have also seen swathes of their education infrastructure destroyed. The charity War Child, meanwhile, reported earlier in December that 96 percent of children in Gaza believe death is imminent, with almost half describing trauma that made them feel dying would be desirable.
“Children in war zones face a daily struggle for survival that deprives them of a childhood,” Russell said. “Their schools are bombed, homes destroyed, and families torn apart. They lose not only their safety and access to basic life-sustaining necessities, but also their chance to play, to learn, and to simply be children. The world is failing these children. As we look towards 2025, we must do more to turn the tide and save and improve the lives of children.”
Afghan Taliban hit several locations in Pakistan in ‘retaliation’ for attacks
- Pakistani air raids on southeastern Afghanistan killed at least 46 people on Tuesday
- Pakistan’s attacks took place as Islamabad’s special envoy visited Kabul for talks to strengthen ties
KABUL: Afghan Taliban forces targeted several locations in Pakistan on Saturday, Afghanistan’s defense ministry said, days after the Pakistani military launched deadly air raids on its territory in the latest flare-up of tensions.
The Pakistani Air Force bombed Afghanistan’s southeastern Paktika province on Tuesday, claiming it was targeting alleged hideouts of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan — the Pakistani Taliban — a militant group separate from the Afghan Taliban.
The raids killed at least 46 people, most of whom were children and women, the Afghan Ministry of National Defense said after the attack.
Announcing Saturday’s strikes, the ministry said in a statement that “several points beyond the assumptive lines ... were targeted in retaliation.”
While the statement did not mention Pakistan, the “assumptive lines” is a reference to the Afghan-Pakistani border, part of the Durand Line — a colonial-era boundary dividing the regions and communities between Afghanistan and what is now Pakistan. The boundary has never been officially recognized by any Afghan government.
Citing ministry sources, local media reported that 19 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the clashes. There was no official comment from Pakistan, but a security source confirmed that the confrontation with Afghan forces took place.
Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021, Pakistan has repeatedly accused them of allowing TTP militants to use Afghan territory for cross-border attacks — a claim the Taliban have denied.
The latest escalation of hostilities comes as TTP fighters last week claimed responsibility for killing 16 Pakistani soldiers in the border region of South Waziristan. The area targeted by Pakistani strikes days later was the nearby Barmal district on the Afghan side of the border.
“Pakistan claims that by targeting alleged TTP hideouts and training venues in Barmal district in southeast of Afghanistan, it ensures security inside the country. This means that by challenging the security of its neighbors, Pakistan is trying to strengthen its own security,” Abdul Saboor Mubariz, board member of the Center for Strategic and Regional Studies in Kabul, told Arab News.
The Pakistani attack took place on the same day that Islamabad’s special representative for Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, was in Kabul for talks to strengthen bilateral ties.
“A major problem that exists in Pakistan’s politics is that the civil government is not aligned with the military ... The civil government is backing negotiations, while the army is after a military solution,” Mubariz said.
“TTP has been a major barrier in relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan ... the Taliban, however, have continuously shown willingness for talks.”
Abdul Sayed, a Sweden-based analyst and expert on the politics and security of the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, interpreted Pakistan’s attack just hours after the Islamabad envoy’s visit as a “strategic message from Pakistan’s military establishment, signaling that failure to meet their demands through dialogue may result in the application of force.”
The subsequent responses from Taliban officials and Saturday’s retaliation by Taliban forces “appear to underscore their resolve not to yield to such pressure,” Sayed told Arab News.
“The Taliban’s stance suggests a commitment to defending Afghanistan’s territorial sovereignty and an unwillingness to capitulate under the threat of force. This approach of employing force is unlikely to yield a sustainable resolution; instead, it risks exacerbating security challenges for both states, particularly Pakistan, while further destabilizing the broader regional security landscape.”
Several airlines cancel flights to Russia after Azerbaijan Airlines crash
- Turkmenistan Airlines was the latest airline to announce cancelations Saturday
- Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air has suspended its flights to Yekaterinburg until the end of January
MOSCOW: Several airlines have announced the suspension of flights to Russian cities, after Western experts and the US suggested the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines this week may have been caused by a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
Moscow has declined to comment on reports the plane could have been accidentally shot down by its air defense.
Russia has said that Grozny, the Chechen capital where the plane was meant to land, was being attacked by Ukrainian drones that day.
It crashed near the Kazakh city of Aktau Wednesday, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.
Turkmenistan Airlines — the national carrier of the reclusive Central Asian state — was the latest airline to announce cancelations Saturday.
It said that “regular flights between Ashgabat-Moscow-Ashgabat were canceled from 30/12/2024 to 31/01/2025,” without giving an explanation.
The decision came after UAE airline flydubai suspended flights between Dubai and the southern Russian cities of Mineralnye Vody and Sochi that were scheduled between December 27 and January 3.
Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air has suspended its flights to Russia’s Urals city of Yekaterinburg until the end of January.
Earlier this week, Israeli airline El Al said it was suspending its flights to Moscow for a week.
The Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 crashed near the western Kazakh city of Aktau, on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
It was carrying out a flight between Azerbaijan’s capital Baku and the city of Grozny in Russia.
For several days, some Western experts have been pointing to a crash caused by a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
Citing preliminary results of an investigation, Azerbaijan’s transport minister said Friday that the crash suffered physical “external interference.”
Statements from Azerbaijan citing the investigation into the incident suggest Baku believes the plane was hit mid-air.
On Friday, White House spokesman John Kirby said Washington has “indications” Russia may have been responsible, without giving details.
Cyber attack on Italy’s Foreign Ministry, airports claimed by pro-Russian hacker group
- The pro-Russian hacker group Noname057(16) claimed the cyberattack on Telegram
MILAN: Hackers targeted around ten official websites in Italy on Saturday, including the websites of the Foreign Ministry and Milan’s two airports, putting them out of action temporarily, the country’s cybersecurity agency said.
The pro-Russian hacker group Noname057(16) claimed the cyberattack on Telegram, saying Italy’s “Russophobes get a well deserved cyber response.”
A spokesperson for Italy’s cybersecurity agency said it was plausible that the so-called “Distributed Denial of Service” (DDoS) attack could be linked to the pro-Russian group.
In such attacks, hackers attempt to flood a network with unusually high volumes of data traffic in order to paralyze it.
The spokesperson said the agency provided quick assistance to the institutions and firms targeted and that the attack’s impact was “mitigated” in less than two hours.
The cyberattack has not caused any disruptions to flights at Milan’s Linate and Malpensa airports, a spokesperson for SEA, the company which manages them, said.
While the websites were inaccessible, the airports’ mobile apps continued to function, the SEA spokesperson added.
