EXCLUSIVE: Pakistan PM contender Imran Khan pledges stronger ties with Saudi Arabia

Cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan during the interview with Arab News. (AN photo)
Updated 30 September 2018
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EXCLUSIVE: Pakistan PM contender Imran Khan pledges stronger ties with Saudi Arabia

  • Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari are the symbols of corruption, says Khan
  • PTI chairman says he wants a mutually beneficial relationship with Washington

ISLAMABAD: A leading contender to be Pakistan’s next prime minister has pledged to boost ties with Saudi Arabia if his party wins this month’s general election.
In an exclusive interview with Arab News, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said his country enjoyed a “very special relationship with Saudi Arabia” and he planned to nurture it further.
He said it was important for Pakistan to have good relations with other countries, and its ties with Saudi Arabia were unique since the Kingdom had “always been a friend to Pakistan in its difficult times.”
Discussing the ongoing political turmoil in the Middle East, Khan said: “Pakistan should play the role of a healer and bring people together. What it should not do, however, is be partisan because we have already suffered by joining a conflict that was led by the United States … So we need peace and the best thing for us would be to play a role of conciliation among Muslim countries.”
Khan said he believed the military was the only state institution that is properly functioning in Pakistan.

Exclusive interview with Imran Khan

EXCLUSIVE: Pakistan has very special relationship with Saudi Arabia. It has always been very special, because of the sacred sites Makkah and Madinah, but also Saudi has been friend to Pakistan in our difficult times – Imran Khan (official)

Read the full interview here: https://goo.gl/pxbqgi

Posted by Arab News Pakistan on Sunday, 15 July 2018

“All the other state institutions have been devastated by corruption, cronyism and destruction of merit,” he said. “That explains why other institutions are lagging behind. What we need is to raise all institutions up and then make them work together.”
Khan was about to sit in his helicopter to visit Mardan and Swabi when Arab News caught up with him for an interview. The PTI leader exuded confidence as he prepared to meet the public — although according to Pakistan’s top counterterrorism authority, his name features high on a hit list prepared by various militant factions operating in this volatile region.
The PTI leader said he was more confident than ever that his party was in a position to win the election on July 25. “This is the best campaign we have run,” he said. “I think we are the party that is prepared for it and I feel this is our time.”
Khan has woven his election narrative around the twin problems of corruption and selective implementation of the law. After struggling for 22 years, his moment arrived last July when the Supreme Court of Pakistan first barred the three-time prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, from holding public office, before an anti-graft tribunal recently convicted him of owning assets beyond his stated means of income.
Sharif was in London to meet his wife, who suffered a heart attack last month, when the accountability court announced the verdict against him. There was some speculation that he might not return to the country. However, he flew back to Pakistan last Friday with his co-convicted daughter, Maryam, to face the justice system and was immediately thrown behind bars.
“This is the first time a powerful crook has been brought through a court of law and put into prison,” Khan said. “It is a big achievement for Pakistan.”
However, it was still not enough, he said. “Sharif is not the only one. Asif Zardari [of the Pakistan Peoples Party] is the other leader in this country who has accumulated billions of dollars of wealth outside Pakistan … These are the two symbols of corruption.”
Khan said the two politicians had not only “damaged the country by siphoning off money which should go to the people” but also “put pressure on the rupee” by keeping their wealth abroad. “The rupee falls, the dollar rises because of money-laundering, and it is a double blow to the country.”
The PTI leader said that Pakistan was awaiting across-the-board accountability. “Justice is blind,” he said. “It does not care whether someone belongs to PTI, Peoples Party or PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz). Anyone who steals should be put behind bars.
“The problem with Pakistan is that we have not followed this principle. We have one law for the powerful and one for the weak … Only the weak go to jail, the powerful go to the assemblies … That is why this country is suffering.”

Exclusive interview with Imran Khan

EXCLUSIVE: This is the first time a powerful crook has been brought through a court of law. It’s a big achievement for Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif is not the only one, Asif Zardari is the other leader. These are the two symbols of corruption – Imran Khan (official)

Read the full interview here: https://goo.gl/pxbqgi

Posted by Arab News Pakistan on Sunday, 15 July 2018

Khan did not deny that he might have disbursed party tickets among some individuals who reek of corruption. “We do not have any intelligence agency to test if someone is corrupt or not,” he said. “If the law allows, we give them tickets to contest elections. But what we will do when we acquire power is to initiate a robust accountability process. No one will be spared.”
Asked about his top priorities if he managed to form the next government, he said that he would strengthen the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and fix the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR). The former, he noted, would clamp down on corruption, while the latter, mandated to collect taxes, would make it easier “to pay for our expenditures and have enough money to spend on our human beings.”
Khan once ran a potent campaign against US drone strikes in Pakistan’s troubled northwestern territories and even instructed his party workers in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to block NATO supply lines to Afghanistan. However, he said his administration would like to have “mutually beneficial” relations with Washington, though he also expressed his discontent with American governments for using Pakistan “liked a hired gun.”
“Fighting their wars has proved very costly for Pakistan. What we would like to have is a mutually beneficial relationship with the US and with all the neighbors,” he said.


TikTok is restoring service in US, thanks Trump

Updated 19 January 2025
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TikTok is restoring service in US, thanks Trump

  • TikTok stopped working for US users late Saturday before law shutting it down on national security grounds took effect
  • US officials had warned that under Chinese parent company ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans’ data being misused

WASHINGTON: TikTok said on Sunday it was restoring its service after President-elect Donald Trump said he would revive the app’s access in the US when he returns to power on Monday.
The statement came after US users reported being able to access the Chinese-owned service’s website while the far more widely used TikTok app itself began coming back online for some users with just a few basic services.
“In agreement with our service providers, TikTok is in the process of restoring service,” TikTok said in a statement that thanked Trump for “providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties (for) providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive.”
TikTok stopped working for US users late on Saturday before a law shutting it down on national security grounds took effect on Sunday. US officials had warned that under Chinese parent company ByteDance, there was a risk of Americans’ data being misused.
Trump said he would “extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security.”
“I would like the United States to have a 50 percent ownership position in a joint venture,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump said the executive order would specify there would be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before his order.
Trump had earlier said he would most likely give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from the ban after he takes office, a promise TikTok cited in a notice posted to users on the app.
“A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the US Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now. We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned,” a message notified users of TikTok, which disappeared from Apple and Google app stores late on Saturday.
Even if temporary, the unprecedented shutdown of TikTok is set to have a wide-ranging impact on US-China relations, US politics, the social media marketplace and millions of Americans who depend on the app economically and culturally.
Trump saving TikTok represents a reversal in stance from his first term in office. In 2020, he aimed to ban the short-video app over concerns the company was sharing Americans’ personal info with the Chinese government. More recently, Trump has said he has “a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” crediting the app with helping him win over young voters in the 2024 election.
In August 2020, Trump signed an executive order giving ByteDance 90 days to sell TikTok but then blessed a deal structured as a partnership rather than a divestment that would have included both Oracle and Walmart taking stakes in the new company.
Not everyone in Trump’s Republican Party agreed with efforts to get around the law and “Save TikTok.”
Republican senators Tom Cotton and Pete Ricketts said in a joint statement: “Now that the law has taken effect, there is no legal basis for any kind of ‘extension’ of its effective date. For TikTok to come back online in the future, ByteDance must agree to a sale that satisfies the law’s qualified-divestiture requirements by severing all ties between TikTok and Communist China.”
The US has never banned a major social media platform. The law passed overwhelmingly by Congress gives the incoming Trump administration sweeping authority to ban or seek the sale of other Chinese-owned apps.
Other apps owned by ByteDance, including video editing app CapCut and lifestyle social app Lemon8, were also offline and unavailable in US app stores as of late Saturday.
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
MOVE TO ALTERNATIVES
Under the law passed last year and upheld on Friday by a unanimous US Supreme Court, the platform had until Sunday to cut ties with its China-based parent or shut down its US operation to resolve concerns it poses a threat to national security.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Friday accused the US of using unfair state power to suppress TikTok. “China will take all necessary measures to resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” a spokesperson said.
Uncertainty over the app’s future had sent users — mostly younger people — scrambling to alternatives including China-based RedNote. Rivals Meta and Snap have seen their share prices rise this month ahead of the ban, as investors bet on an influx of users and advertising dollars.
‘HAIR ON FIRE’ MOMENT
Web searches for “VPN” spiked in the minutes after US users lost access to TikTok, according to Google Trends.
Users on Instagram fretted about whether they would still receive merchandise they had bought on TikTok Shop, the video platform’s e-commerce arm.
Marketing firms reliant on TikTok have rushed to prepare contingency plans in what one executive described as a “hair on fire” moment after months of conventional wisdom saying that a solution would materialize to keep the app running.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to attend the US presidential inauguration and attend a rally with Trump on Sunday, a source told Reuters.
Suitors including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt have expressed interest in the fast-growing business that analysts estimate could be worth as much as $50 billion. Media reports say Beijing has also held talks about selling TikTok’s US operations to billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, though the company has denied that.
US search engine startup Perplexity AI submitted a bid on Saturday to ByteDance for Perplexity to merge with TikTok US, a source familiar with the company’s plans told Reuters. Perplexity would merge with TikTok US and create a new entity by combining the merged company with other partners, the person added.
Privately held ByteDance is about 60 percent owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20 percent each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the US.


Suspected Bangladeshi arrested in stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan

Updated 19 January 2025
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Suspected Bangladeshi arrested in stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan

  • Thursday’s attack on Khan, one of India’s most bankable stars, shocked the nation’s film industry and Mumbai residents
  • The suspect, arrested on the outskirts of Mumbai, was using the name Vijay Das and was working with a housekeeping agency

MUMBAI: A man thought to be a citizen of Bangladesh was arrested in India’s financial capital Mumbai on Sunday and is considered the prime suspect in the stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan, police said.
Thursday’s attack on Khan, one of India’s most bankable stars, shocked the nation’s film industry and Mumbai residents, with many calling for better policing and security. He was out of danger, doctors said, and has left the hospital.
“Primary evidence suggests that the accused is a Bangladeshi citizen and after entering India illegally he changed his name,” Dixit Gedam, a deputy commissioner of police, told a press conference.
The suspect, arrested on the outskirts of Mumbai, was using the name Vijay Das but is believed to be Mohammad Shariful Islam Shehzad and was working with a housekeeping agency after having come to the city five or six months ago, Gedam said.
The police will seek custody of the suspect for further investigation, he added.
Khan, 54, was stabbed six times by an intruder during a burglary attempt at his home. He had surgery after sustaining stab wounds to his spine, neck and hands, doctors said.
Police in Mumbai detained a first key suspect in the attack on Friday, while police in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh detained a second person on Saturday.


Afghanistan blames US invasion, sanctions for environmental damage, delayed climate action

Updated 19 January 2025
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Afghanistan blames US invasion, sanctions for environmental damage, delayed climate action

  • Afghanistan ranked 7th on global index of countries most vulnerable, least prepared to adapt to climate change
  • Use of bombs and mines during wars destroyed agricultural land, left toxic footprint on environment

KABUL: The US invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent sanctions exacerbated the impacts of climate change in the country, the National Environmental Protection Agency said on Sunday, as Kabul called on the international community for support in combating the ecological crisis.

Between the 2001 US-led invasion and its chaotic withdrawal in 2021, the US military had dropped tens of thousands of bombs on Afghanistan, many of which are munitions that can leave a toxic footprint on the environment.

“The presence of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan for 20 years has had a wide-ranging impact on Afghanistan,” Dr. Zainul Abedin Abed, technical and policy deputy director-general at NEPA, told Arab News.

“Among the environmental impacts, we can mention cases such as the destruction of agricultural land … These impacts have put pressure on the Afghan environment and accelerated climate change. The US and NATO have used weapons and chemical substances, which is irreparable.”

In April 2017, the US military dropped the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb, known as “the mother of all bombs,” on Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province. It is the most powerful non-nuclear bomb ever used by Washington in a conflict.

“The adverse effects of the MOAB in Tora Bora district of Nangarhar province included an increase in premature births, skin diseases and neurological problems,” Abed said, adding that the bomb also destroyed homes and caused damage to the local economy.

Afghanistan has suffered through decades of war even before the US-led invasion, including a decade of Soviet invasion that also saw foreign forces deploying chemical weapons, such as napalm, to destroy crops.

The country lost around 80 percent of its forests in the conflicts, according to Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai.

“The destructive bombs that the Soviet Union used on our forests have destroyed a major part of the country’s forests. Our country faced another crisis as the US and NATO forces experimented with their weapons in Afghanistan, which couldn’t be used anywhere else, without any mercy on the people of Afghanistan,” Stanikzai said at the national climate change conference in Kabul on Wednesday.

“Now, I call on the world countries, the United Nations, the European Union, America as well as neighboring and regional countries to support Afghanistan in these difficult times. It’s their moral responsibility, especially those countries that contributed to climate change.”

Dr. Abdul Latif Nazari, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of economy, said at the conference that it was “important to lift sanctions and remove restrictions so the international organizations can work with our entities,” such as NEPA.

Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable and least prepared countries to adapt to climate change, ranking seventh on the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index, despite being a country with the 11th lowest contributor per capita to global carbon emissions.

“Afghanistan’s contribution to global climate change has been inconsequential,” Kabul-based environmental expert Noorudin Jalali told Arab News.

“However, the impact of international interventions on Afghanistan has been huge. Consecutive drought, deforestation, air pollution and huge damage to the country’s ecosystem are some of the major effects that climate change has had on the country’s environment.”

The use of bombs and mines “devastated the country’s environment and agriculture” and will take years and billions of dollars to recover, he added.

Afghanistan is already suffering from the impacts of climate change. After three consecutive years of drought, Afghanistan experienced severe flooding in 2024 that killed hundreds of people, devastated vast agricultural land in its northern provinces and left millions of people without their primary source of income and food.

Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Afghanistan has been excluded from representation under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — which leads efforts in global climate cooperation — while major sources of funding for climate adaptation have also been suspended.

“Without the support of the international community and international organizations, Afghanistan will not be able to fight the climate change challenge. The sooner this support is facilitated, the better for the country and its people,” Jalali said.


Nigeria tanker truck blast toll rises to 86: rescuers

Updated 19 January 2025
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Nigeria tanker truck blast toll rises to 86: rescuers

LAGOS: The death toll from the explosion of a petrol tanker truck in Nigeria that killed people rushing to gather fuel has risen to 86, emergency services said Sunday.
"The final death toll from the tanker explosion is 86," said Ibrahim Audu Husseini, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency in Niger state.
The truck carrying 60,000 litres of gasoline exploded after flipping over on a road in the centre of the country on Saturday, authorities said.


Pope Francis calls for Gaza ceasefire to be ‘immediately respected’

Updated 19 January 2025
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Pope Francis calls for Gaza ceasefire to be ‘immediately respected’

  • Pope Francis: I also hope that humanitarian aid will even more quickly reach... the people of Gaza, who have so many urgent needs

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis called Sunday for a ceasefire in Gaza to be “immediately respected,” as he thanked mediators and urged a boost in humanitarian aid as well as the return of hostages.
“I express gratitude to all the mediators,” the Argentine pontiff said shortly after the start of a truce between Israel and Hamas began.
“Thanks to all the parties involved in this important outcome. I hope that, as agreed, it will be immediately respected by the parties and that all the hostages will finally be able to go home to hug their loved ones again,” he said.
“I pray so much for them, and their families. I also hope that humanitarian aid will even more quickly reach... the people of Gaza, who have so many urgent needs,” Francis said.
“Both Israelis and Palestinians need clear signs of hope. I hope that the political authorities of both, with the help of the international community, can reach the right two-state solution.
“May everyone say yes to dialogue, yes to reconciliation, yes to peace,” he added.
A total of 33 hostages taken by militants during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel are scheduled to be returned from Gaza during an initial 42-day truce.
Under the deal, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are to be released from Israeli jails.
The truce is intended to pave the way for an end to more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’s attack, the deadliest in Israeli history.
It follows a deal struck by mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt after months of negotiations, and takes effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president.