LAHORE: The Central Working Committee (CWC) of Pakistan’s ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), on Tuesday elected Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif as the party’s acting president. His brother, Nawaz Sharif, was declared “Leader for Life” through a new resolution.
Nawaz, who was removed from his position as prime minister in July over allegations of corruption, proposed his brother for the office of party president to a thunderous round of applause from CWC members.
The party’s chairman, Raja Zafarul Haq, then nominated the former prime minister as “Leader for Life,” saying, “Nawaz Sharif was, is and will remain the leader of PML-N.”
Prime Minister Shahid Khan Abbasi endorsed that sentiment.
“These are peoples’ decisions and the courts have no right to make such choices,” he said. “This is what our party wants.”
Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that a person disqualified from holding public office, as Nawaz was, could not lead a political party, hence Shabaz’s election as “acting president.”
Nawaz resigned as party president after his disqualification, but regained the position in October after the legislature approved the Electoral Reforms Bill, 2017. Section 203 of that bill states that any citizen, except for civil servants, can form a political party and become its office bearer.
That law was then challenged in the Supreme Court, which declared it null and void, and Nawaz had to quit his position once again.
Addressing the 109-member CWC, Nawaz strongly criticized the judiciary and reiterated his reservations about its recent decisions.
Referring to the judges who took oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) issued by the former military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, he said: “It is the greatest crime when you (forsake) your country’s constitution and take an oath of allegiance to a military dictator. What is a bigger crime than that?”
Shahbaz Sharif, accepting his nomination, said that he would follow the party line and his brother’s work.
“I will move forward under the leadership of Mian Nawaz Sharif,” he said.
Political pundits see Shahbaz’s presence in the office as a good omen for the party.
“He is non-confrontational and will be acceptable to the establishment,” said Pakistan Today Editor Arif Nizami.
Veteran journalist Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami agreed. “Shahbaz Sharif is different from his brother. He mostly focuses on development work and is likely to avoid confrontation,” he said.
“This nomination was made with the next general elections in mind,” said Salman Ghani, editor, Current Affairs at Dunya TV. “Shahbaz Sharif enjoys a good reputation and people like him since he carried out development work. He is also the most acceptable person in the party, and his leadership can ensure PML-N’s victory in the coming elections.”
The CWC will present its decision at the PML-N’s General Council meeting on March 6 in Islamabad. The council is likely to endorse the decision, confirming Shahbaz as the new party chief.
Shahbaz Sharif named president of PML-N, brother Nawaz becomes ‘Leader for Life’
Shahbaz Sharif named president of PML-N, brother Nawaz becomes ‘Leader for Life’
‘One hell after another’: US travel ban deepens despair for Afghans awaiting visas
- Trump’s sweeping new travel ban on 12 countries, including Afghanistan, will go into effect from Monday
- Thousands of Afghans have applied for visas to settle in US, either as refugees or under Special Immigrant Visa program
KABUL: Mehria had been losing hope of getting a visa to emigrate to the United States but her spirits were crushed when President Donald Trump raised yet another hurdle by banning travel for Afghans.
Trump had already disrupted refugee pathways after he returned to power in January but a sweeping new travel ban on 12 countries, including Afghanistan, will go into effect on Monday.
The ban changes little for most Afghans who already faced steep barriers to travel abroad, but many who had hung their hopes on a new life in the United States felt it was yet another betrayal.
“Trump’s recent decisions have trapped not only me but thousands of families in uncertainty, hopelessness and thousands of other disasters,” Mehria, a 23-year-old woman who gave only one name, said from Pakistan, where she has been waiting since applying for a US refugee visa in 2022.
“We gave up thousands of hopes and our entire lives and came here on a promise from America, but today we are suffering one hell after another,” she told AFP.
The United States has not had a working embassy in Afghanistan since the Taliban ousted the foreign-backed government in 2021, forcing Afghans to apply for visas in third countries.
The Taliban’s return followed the drawdown of US and NATO troops who had ousted them two decades earlier in response to the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The Taliban government has since imposed a strict view of Islamic law and severe restrictions on women, including bans on some education and work.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have applied for visas to settle in the United States, either as refugees or under the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program reserved for those who aided the US government during its war against the Taliban.
Afghans with SIV visas and asylum cases will not be affected by Trump’s new order but family reunification pathways are threatened, the Afghan-American Foundation said in a statement condemning the ban.
Some 12,000 people are awaiting reunification with family members already living in the United States, according to Shawn VanDiver, the president of the AfghanEvac non-profit group.
“These are not ‘border issues’. These are legal, vetted, documented reunifications,” he wrote on social media platform X. “Without exemptions, families are stranded.”
Refugee pathways and relocation processes for resettling Afghans had already been upset by previous Trump orders, suddenly leaving many Afghans primed to travel to the United States in limbo.
The Trump administration revoked legal protections temporarily shielding Afghans from deportation in May, citing an improved security situation in Afghanistan.
“We feel abandoned by the United States, with whom we once worked and cooperated,” said Zainab Haidari, another Afghan woman who has been waiting in Pakistan for a refugee visa.
“Despite promises of protection and refuge we are now caught in a hopeless situation, between the risk of death from the Taliban and the pressure and threat of deportation in Pakistan,” said Haidari, 27, who worked with the United States in Kabul during the war but applied for a refugee visa.
Afghans fled in droves during decades of conflict, but the chaotic withdrawal of US-led troops from Kabul saw a new wave clamouring to escape Taliban government curbs and fears of reprisal for working with Washington.
Pakistan and Iran have meanwhile ramped up deportation campaigns to expel Afghans who have crossed their borders.
The Taliban authorities have not responded to multiple requests for comment on the new travel ban but have said they are keen to have good relations with every country now that they are in power — including the United States.
Visa options for Afghans are already severely limited by carrying the weakest passport globally, according to the Henley Passport Index.
However, travel to the United States is far from the minds of many Afghans who struggle to make ends meet in one of the world’s poorest countries, where food insecurity is rife.
“We don’t even have bread, why are you asking me about traveling to America?” said one Afghan man in Kabul.
Sahar, a 29-year-old economics graduate who has struggled to find work amid sky-high unemployment, said the new rules will not have any impact on most Afghans.
“When there are thousands of serious issues in Afghanistan, this won’t change anything,” she told AFP.
“Those who could afford to travel and apply for the visa will find another way or to go somewhere else instead of the US.”
Dutch election set for October 29 after government falls
- Far-right leader Geert Wilders pulled out of the ruling coalition, bringing down the government
- The vote in the EU’s fifth-largest economy and major global exporter will be closely watched in Europe
THE HAGUE: The Netherlands will hold snap elections on October 29, authorities announced Friday, after far-right leader Geert Wilders pulled out of the ruling coalition, bringing down the government and sparking political chaos.
“We have officially set the election date: the... elections will take place on Wednesday 29 October 2025,” Interior Minister Judith Uitermark wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“In the coming period, I will work with the municipalities and other stakeholders to prepare so that this important day in our democracy goes smoothly,” added the minister.
The vote in the European Union’s fifth-largest economy and major global exporter will be closely watched in Europe, where far-right parties have made significant electoral gains.
Polls suggest Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) is running neck-and-neck with the Left/Green group of former European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans.
The liberal VVD party stands just behind in the polls, suggesting the election will be closely fought.
The election was prompted by the dramatic withdrawal of Wilders and the PVV from a shaky ruling coalition in a row over immigration policy.
Wilders grumbled that the Netherlands was not fast enough to implement the “strictest-ever” immigration policy agreed by the four-way coalition – and pulled out.
He had stunned the political establishment in the Netherlands by winning November 2023 elections by a significant margin – clinching 37 seats out of the 150 in parliament.
The fractured nature of Dutch politics means no one party is ever strong enough to win 76 seats and govern with an absolute majority.
Wilders persuaded the VVD, the BBB farmers party, and the anti-corruption NSC party to govern with him – but the price was to give up his ambition to become prime minister.
The PVV has apparently lost some support since that election, with recent surveys suggesting they would win around 28 to 30 seats.
But the issue after the coming election will be: who will enter into a coalition with Wilders and the PVV?
There was widespread fury with the far-right leader for bringing down the government over what many saw as an artificial crisis.
Far-right parties have been on the rise across Europe. In May, the far-right Chega (“Enough“) party took second place in Portugal’s elections.
In Germany, the anti-immigration far-right AfD doubled its score in legislative elections in February, reaching 20.8 percent.
And in Britain, polls show the anti-immigration, hard-right Reform UK party of Nigel Farage is making significant gains following a breakthrough in local elections.
Red Cross confirms office closures in Niger and the departure of its foreign staff
- The ICRC said it had been in dialogue with Niger’s authorities since February to understand the reasons for their decision and provide any necessary clarification but that these efforts were unsuccessful
DAKAR: The International Committee of the Red Cross announced the closure of its offices in Niger and the departure of its foreign staff, four months after the ruling junta ordered the organization to leave the country.
The ICRC confirmed the closure and departure in a statement on Thursday.
“We reiterate our willingness to maintain constructive dialogue with the authorities of Niger with a view to resuming our strictly humanitarian protection and assistance activities,” Patrick Youssef, the ICRC’s regional director for Africa, said in the statement.
In February, Niger’s Foreign Affairs Ministry had ordered the ICRC to close its offices and leave the country. No official reason was given for the military junta’s decision to shut down the organization’s operations in the country at the time.
The ICRC said it had been in dialogue with Niger’s authorities since February to understand the reasons for their decision and provide any necessary clarification but that these efforts were unsuccessful.
On May 31, Niger’s junta leader, Abdourahamane Tchiani, justified the ICRC expulsion on Nigerien state television, accusing the organization of having met with “terrorist leaders” and funding armed groups.
The ICRC refuted the accusations in its statement on Thursday, saying that dialogue with all sides in the conflict is necessary to carry out its humanitarian mandate and that it “never provides financial, logistical, or any other form of support” to armed groups.
The humanitarian organization had been active in the West African country since 1990, mainly helping people displaced by violence by Islamic extremists, food insecurity and natural disasters. According to the organization, it provided humanitarian aid to more than 2 million people in Niger.
Niger’s military rulers took power in a coup two years ago, the latest of several military takeovers in Africa’s Sahel, the vast, arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert that has become a hotspot for extremist violence by militant groups.
Since the coup, Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, such as France and the United States, turning instead to Russia for security.
Last November, the country’s military junta banned the French aid group Acted from working in the country amid tensions with France.
France cools expectations of swift Palestinian state recognition
- France is due later this month to co-host with Saudi Arabia a UN conference in New York on a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians
PARIS: France on Friday dampened expectations Paris could rapidly recognize a Palestinian state, with the French foreign minister saying while it was “determined” to make such a move, recognition had to be more than “symbolic.”
France is due later this month to co-host with Saudi Arabia a UN conference in New York on a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
There had been expectations that France could recognize a Palestinian state during that conference, with President Emmanuel Macron also growing increasingly frustrated with Israel’s blocking of aid to the Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
“France could have taken a symbolic decision. But this is not the choice we made because we have a particular responsibility” as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, while saying Paris was still “determined” the make the move.
He said France would not recognize a Palestinian state alone, in a possible reference to the eagerness of Paris to see any French recognition matched by Gulf Arab allies — notably regional kingpin Saudi Arabia — recognizing Israel.
Several EU countries including Ireland, Spain and Sweden recognize a Palestinian state. But Germany, while backing a two-state solution, has said recognition now would send the “wrong signal.”
France is reportedly working closely on the issue with the United Kingdom, which also so far has not recognized a Palestinian state, at a time when French-British diplomatic ties are becoming increasingly tight after Brexit.
Macron on Thursday said that he expected the conference in New York would take steps “toward recognizing Palestine,” without being more specific.
He has said he hopes French recognition of a Palestinian state would encourage other governments to do the same and that countries who do not recognize Israel should do so.
Barrot meanwhile also stressed the “absolute necessity” to address the issue of the disarmament of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Hamas-run Gaza has killed 54,677 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry there, figures the United Nations deems reliable.
Relations between Israel and France have deteriorated over the last weeks, with Israel’s foreign ministry accusing Macron of undertaking a “crusade against the Jewish state” after he called on European countries to harden their stance if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not improve.
Modi inaugurates ambitious rail project connecting Kashmir to Indian plains
- 272-kilometer line begins in garrison city of Udhampur in Jammu, runs through Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar
- The line travels through 36 tunnels and over 943 bridges, Indian government has pegged the total project cost at around $5 billion
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated one of the most ambitious railway projects ever built in India, which will connect the Kashmir Valley to the vast Indian plains by train for the first time.
Dubbed by government-operated Indian Railways as one of the most challenging tracks in the world, the 272-kilometer (169-mile) line begins in the garrison city of Udhampur in Jammu region and runs through Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar. The line ends in Baramulla, a town near the highly militarized Line of Control dividing the Himalayan region between India and Pakistan.
The line travels through 36 tunnels and over 943 bridges. The Indian government pegged the total project cost at around $5 billion.
One of the project’s highlights is a 1,315-meter-long (4,314-foot) steel and concrete bridge above the Chenab River connecting two mountains with an arch 359 meters (1,177 feet) above the water. Indian Railways compared the height to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which stands 330 meters (1,082 feet), and said the bridge is built to last 120 years and endure extreme weather, including wind speeds up to 260 kph (161 mph).
Modi visited the Chenab bridge with tight security, waving an Indian tri-color flag before boarding a test train that passed through picturesque mountains and tunnels to reach an inauguration ceremony for another high-elevation bridge named Anji.
The prime minister also helped launch a pair of new trains called “Vande Bharat” that will halve the travel time between Srinagar and the town of Katra in Jammu to about three hours from the usual six to seven hours by road.
Modi traveled to Indian-administered Kashmir on Friday for the first time since a military conflict between India and Pakistan brought the nuclear-armed rivals to the brink of their third war over the region last month, when the countries fired missiles and drones at each other.
The conflict began with a gun massacre in late April that left 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, dead in Indian-administered Kashmir. India blamed Pakistan for supporting the attackers, a charge Islamabad denied.
Addressing a public rally in Katra, Modi lashed out at Pakistan and alleged Islamabad was behind the massacre. He said the attack was primarily aimed at Kashmir’s flourishing tourism industry and meant to fuel communal violence.
“I promise you, I won’t let developmental activities stop in Kashmir,” Modi said, adding that local industries and businesses will get a boost from the new rail connectivity.
The railway project is considered crucial to boosting tourism and bringing development to a region that has been marred by militancy and protests over the years.
The line is expected to ease the movement of Indian troops and the public to the disputed region, which is currently connected by flights and mountain roads that are prone to landslides.
India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies.
Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
