National Security Committee discusses regional, domestic issues

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. (AP/file)
Updated 29 May 2018
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National Security Committee discusses regional, domestic issues

  • Reforms introduced by the government in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Gilgit-Baltistan will have far-reaching outcomes.
  • The NSC emphasized the need for more proactive diplomacy.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi chaired the 24th meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) in Islamabad on Tuesday.

It was attended by Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership. According to an official handout, the participants “condemned the reign of terror unleashed by Indian occupation forces on innocent Kashmiris,” and resolved that Pakistan will continue to support the right to self-determination of the region’s people.
The NSC condemned Israel’s repression of the Palestinians, and reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for their cause.
Reforms introduced by the government in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Gilgit-Baltistan will have far-reaching outcomes, and the country has fulfilled the aspirations of the regions’ peoples, the committee said.
The Interior Ministry briefed the NSC on the basic features of the new visa policy aimed at making Pakistan more tourist- and business-friendly. 
While appreciating the ministry’s efforts, the NSC said its officials must ensure that all support systems, databases and verification networks are in place and fully operational. 
It was agreed during the meeting that the visa-on-arrival facility should be initiated as a pilot project in the first instance.
The NSC reviewed in detail recent global and regional developments, and their implications for Pakistan. 
As the region’s geopolitics are rapidly evolving, Pakistan will continue to strive for peace and stability, the participants said. The NSC emphasized the need for more proactive diplomacy.
Geo News reported that the committee discussed next month’s meeting of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and reviewed steps that have been taken by Pakistan to eliminate terrorism.
The news channel reported that the NSC also discussed a controversial book co-authored by former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Asad Durrani. 


India brings home nearly 300 citizens rescued from Southeast Asian scam centers

Updated 6 sec ago
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India brings home nearly 300 citizens rescued from Southeast Asian scam centers

  • Thousands of people have been freed from cyber scam centers
  • Countries are working together to crack down on the criminal networks
NEW DELHI: India has brought home nearly 300 of its nationals who were lured to various southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar, with fake job offers and made to engage in cybercrime and other fraudulent activities in scam compounds, the government said.
Thousands of people have been freed from cyber scam centers along the Thailand-Myanmar border this year as countries work together to crack down on the criminal networks.
China and Indonesia repatriated some of their citizens last month.
“Indian embassies in Myanmar and Thailand have coordinated with local authorities to secure the repatriation of 283 Indian nationals today by an IAF (Indian Air Force) aircraft from Mae Sot in Thailand,” India’s foreign ministry said late on Monday.
Thailand arrested 100 people last week as a part of its crackdown on the scam centers.
Criminal gangs have trafficked hundreds of thousands of people to the centers, which generate billions of dollars a year from illegal online schemes, according to the United Nations.
India also warned its citizens against the scams, advising them to “verify” the credentials of foreign employers and check the “antecedents” of recruiting agents and companies before taking up job offers.

WHO warns difficult decisions ‘unavoidable’ as it slims down recruitment

Updated 3 min 26 sec ago
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WHO warns difficult decisions ‘unavoidable’ as it slims down recruitment

  • The WHO has begun “prioritization” work to make the global health agency sustainable, the document says

GENEVA: The World Health Organization has warned that difficult decisions will be “unavoidable” in an internal memo seen by Reuters on Tuesday announcing a recruitment freeze and a one-year limit on new fixed-term contracts.
The WHO has begun “prioritization” work to make the global health agency sustainable, the document says, adding that staff are working to secure additional funding from countries, private donors and philanthropists.


UN migration agency in turmoil after US aid freeze

Updated 11 March 2025
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UN migration agency in turmoil after US aid freeze

  • The UN agency, which at the end of last year employed around 22,000 people, has already laid off thousands
  • The IOM announced on February 1 that it was scaling up its efforts across Latin America and the Caribbean

GENEVA: Hit hard by US aid funding cuts, the UN migration agency is battling claims from current and former staff of now pandering to Washington and providing cover for mass deportations.
Like many humanitarian agencies, the International Organization for Migration has been reeling since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, pushing an anti-migrant agenda and immediately freezing most US foreign aid funding.
“These funding cuts directly affect IOM’s ability to support some of the world’s most vulnerable people,” an IOM spokesperson said, warning this would “lead to more suffering, increased migration, and greater insecurity.”
The United Nations agency, which at the end of last year employed around 22,000 people, has already laid off thousands.
It has also been accused of allowing its assisted voluntary return (AVR) program to be used to “bluewash” — or give a UN stamp of approval — to Trump’s mass deportation scheme.
IOM announced on February 1 that it was scaling up its efforts across Latin America and the Caribbean “to help migrants return home, reintegrate and rebuild their lives.”
It said it had resumed its AVR programs in Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, as well as Panama, which with Costa Rica has reached an agreement to take in migrants from other countries deported by the United States.
Describing its activities as “a lifeline for stranded migrants,” it said it aimed to provide “urgent support” to those “unable or unwilling to remain where they are and need help to return home safely and with dignity.”
“Without this vital support, conditions for the people impacted would be far worse,” the spokesperson insisted.
But one of the thousands of IOM employees who received notice last month warned it looked “like there is an effort to align ourselves with the administration.”
This was “very concerning,” she said, asking not to be named.
“It really looks very bad for IOM’s reputation,” agreed a former agency staff member, also speaking on condition of anonymity.
The criticisms come as the IOM seeks its footing after the threat that all US funding — accounting for around 40 percent of its total financing — could evaporate indefinitely.
“We have to make some really hard decisions about staff because we simply can’t afford to pay staff when we’re not actually being paid for our work,” IOM chief Amy Pope said recently.
The biggest impact so far has been seen in connection with the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), since the Trump administration has suspended all refugee entries into the country.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden embraced the program designed to facilitate legal resettlement of vetted refugees, resettling over 100,000 refugees in the United States last year.
Trump’s sudden about-face prompted the IOM last month to send pink slips to 3,000 staff, warning more “adjustments” were likely.
“It was quite a shock,” the dismissed staff member said.
Another former employee said staff were “appalled” by the swift pace of the layoffs.
Those at IOM headquarters in Geneva were especially bracing for more mass job cuts.
According to an internal memo from the IOM’s Global Staff Association Committee, seen by AFP, management last month ordered directors to slash a certain percentage of their department costs.
Word inside headquarters is that around one third of around 550 staff there will soon get the axe, the former employee said, with “managers under huge pressure to meet quotas.”
“People are terrified... They’ve got laser beams pointed at their heads.”
IOM staff and union representatives have sent complaints to management about the abrupt layoffs, warning of detrimental impacts on employees and on many of the tens of millions of migrants the organization serves.
Also sparking outrage was a report by the Devex news organization last month suggesting IOM had scrubbed its website of content that could be construed as promoting Trump’s bete noir — DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion).
IOM did not respond directly to that allegation but said it had “recently relaunched its global website following a year-long review, refining content to align with evolving contexts and in accordance with United Nations humanitarian principles.”
The laid-off employee said the Devex report “really hurt.”
“We can align ourselves with certain priorities of this (US) administration,” she said.
“But we shouldn’t lose our identity in the process.”


UN migration agency says aid to Rohingya in Indonesia reinstated

Updated 11 March 2025
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UN migration agency says aid to Rohingya in Indonesia reinstated

  • Chief of mission, Jeff Labovitz, said there is no current planned reduction in services

JAKARTA: The United Nations’ migration agency has reinstated its humanitarian assistance to Rohingya refugees in Indonesia, its chief of mission in Jakarta told Reuters on Tuesday.
Chief of mission, Jeff Labovitz, said there is no current planned reduction in services.
A Reuters report last week cited the agency as saying it would slash aid to hundreds of Rohingya sheltering in the city of Pekanbaru on the island of Sumatra.


Dalai Lama says his successor to be born outside China

Updated 11 March 2025
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Dalai Lama says his successor to be born outside China

  • Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death
  • Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death

NEW DELHI: The Dalai Lama’s successor will be born outside China, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism says in a new book, raising the stakes in a dispute with Beijing over control of the Himalayan region he fled more than six decades ago.
Tibetans worldwide want the institution of the Dalai Lama to continue after the 89-year-old’s death, he writes in “Voice for the Voiceless,” which was reviewed by Reuters and is being released on Tuesday.
He had previously said the line of spiritual leaders might end with him. His book marks the first time the Dalai Lama has specified that his successor would be born in the “free world,” which he describes as outside China. He has previously said only that he could reincarnate outside Tibet, possibly in India where he lives in exile.
“Since the purpose of a reincarnation is to carry on the work of the predecessor, the new Dalai Lama will be born in the free world so that the traditional mission of the Dalai Lama – that is, to be the voice for universal compassion, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, and the symbol of Tibet embodying the aspirations of the Tibetan people – will continue,” the Dalai Lama writes.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled at the age of 23 to India with thousands of other Tibetans in 1959 after a failed uprising against the rule of Mao Zedong’s Communists.
Beijing insists it will choose his successor, but the Dalai Lama has said any successor named by China would not be respected.
China brands the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for keeping alive the Tibetan cause, as a “separatist.”
When asked about the book at a press briefing on Monday, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said the Dalai Lama “is a political exile who is engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion.
“On the Tibet issue, China’s position is consistent and clear. What the Dalai Lama says and does cannot change the objective fact of Tibet’s prosperity and development.”
Supporters of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause include Richard Gere, a follower of Tibetan Buddhism, and Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the US House of Representatives. His followers have been worried about his health, especially after knee surgery last year. He said in December that he might live to be 110.
In his book, the Dalai Lama says he has received numerous petitions for more than a decade from a wide spectrum of Tibetan people, including senior monks and Tibetans living in Tibet and outside, “uniformly asking me to ensure that the Dalai Lama lineage be continued.”
Tibetan tradition holds that the soul of a senior Buddhist monk is reincarnated in the body of a child on his death. The current Dalai Lama was identified as the reincarnation of his predecessor when he was two.
The book, which the Dalai Lama calls an account of his dealings with Chinese leaders over seven decades, is being published on Tuesday in the US by William Morrow and in Britain by HarperNonFiction, with HarperCollins publications to follow in India and other countries.
He expressed faith in the Tibetan government and parliament-in-exile, based with him in India’s Himalayan city of Dharamshala, to carry on the political work for the Tibetan cause.
“The right of the Tibetan people to be the custodians of their own homeland cannot be indefinitely denied, nor can their aspiration for freedom be crushed forever through oppression,” he writes. “One clear lesson we know from history is this: if you keep people permanently unhappy, you cannot have a stable society.”
Given his advanced age, he writes, his hopes of going back to Tibet look “increasingly unlikely.”