KARACHI: Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), founded by political dissidents of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) in March this year, has emerged as the largest party in the province but has failed to win a clear majority.
The situation is leading the southwestern Pakistani province toward a coalition government.
Three out of four independent members of the Balochistan Assembly — Mitha Khan Kakar, Sardar Masood Khan Looni and Mir Arif Jan Muhammad Hassani –- have joined the BAP, taking its numbers to 18 in a house of 51 members.
The fourth independent candidate, Naimatullah Zehri, is highly unlikely to join the BAP owing to his serious differences with its leadership. However, after getting reserved seats for women and minorities, the party’s strength will get a further boost.
Patron-in-chief of the BAP Saeed Hashmi saidon Saturday that being the largest political party in the province, they have to be allowed to form the government in Balochistan.
Meanwhile, the Awami National Party (ANP), which has three members in the new assembly, and the Hazara Democratic Party, which has two legislators, have also shown their willingness to join the coalition government.
“The majority of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) Balochistan leaders are also in favor of joining the government as their previous experience of remaining in opposition was not good,” Raza-ur-Rehman, a senior journalist in Quetta, told Arab News.
The BAP is interested in forming a coalition government with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, which has won four seats in the province.
These four seats, which will increase after the announcement of reserved seats, are enough for the BAP to form a government in the province.
When asked about the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) condition that the slot of chief minister should be given to it and the PTI’s Balochistan President Yar Muhammad Rind, Qasim Khan Suri, the PTI Balochistan general secretary, said: “Everyone wants an effective and good position, and if the PTI take the driving seat it will benefit the province.”
The BAP’s members of the national assembly have already announced their support for PTI in the center, Suri told Arab News. “We have yet to start formal talks with BAP but the process has started and I have briefed chairman PTI Imran Khan about the likely coalition government in Balochistan.”
Jam Kamal Khan, chief of the BAP, who has won his PB-50 by grabbing 36,885 (58.76 percent) votes, is the main contender, whereas Muhammad Saleh Bhootani, who has 30,007 (56.34 percent) votes from BA-49; former CM, Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo, who has been elected as an assembly member by getting 8,055 (34.28 percent) votes from PB-44; Mir Jan Muhammad Khan Jamali, who has been elected as member of the Balochistan assembly by getting 19,092 (31.23 percent) votes from PB-14 from the platform of BAP, are also in the race, whereas Nawabzada Tariq Magsi, who has won PB-16, is among the aspirants, making it difficult to form a consensus.
“There were several aspirants for the slot of party president but they agreed on one. They will do the same now as the decision is taken somewhere else,” Arif Baloch, editor of the Balochistan Express, told Arab News.
Saeed Hashmi, the BAP’s patron-in-chief, says the leading party deserves top slots.
“We are negotiating with different parties and will soon reach a decision regarding the future government,” Hashmi told.
This time several high-profile politicians have made it to the Balochistan assembly and their presence will be felt.
Former Chief Minister and leader of Pakistan Muslim League (N), Sardar Sanaullah Zehri, who got 11,814 votes from PB-38; Muhammad Akhtar Mengal, former CM and chief of the Balochistan National Party (BNP), who has been elected member by getting 22,114 votes from PB-40; and the BNP’s Sana Ullah Baloch, who has got 15,354 (60.04 percent) from PB-4, will be part of the house.
Party Position in Balochistan: The MMA is the second largest party with nine seats, the BNP has six seats, the PTI has four seats, the ANP three seats, Balochistan National Party (Awami), three seats, Hazara Democratic Party (HDP) two seats, and Jamhoori Wattan Party, Pakistan Muslim League (N) and Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party one seat each.
PTI in talks with BAP for coalition government in Balochistan
PTI in talks with BAP for coalition government in Balochistan
- Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), with 18 out of 51 seats in Balochistan assembly, has started negotiations with different political parties to form coalition government
- BAP government may face an opposition from heavyweights such as former Chief Ministers Sardar Akhter Mengal (BNP) and Sardar Sanaullah Zehri (PMLN) and the outspoken politician and intellectual Sanaullah Baloch
Pakistan seeks to boost trade through infrastructure, logistics cooperation with Dubai’s DP World
- Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb meets top officials from logistics giant DP World on sidelines of Davos conference
- Meeting comes days after DP World launched a feeder service to transport shipping containers from Dubai to Karachi
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb met top officials from Dubai-based logistics giant DP World and discussed boosting trade through cooperation in infrastructure and logistics frameworks, Pakistani state media reported on Wednesday.
The meeting comes days after DP World, in collaboration with Pakistan’s National Logistics Corporation, launched a feeder service to transport shipping containers from Dubai to Karachi. DP World operates in over 75 countries, specializing in port operations, terminal management and logistics services. Feeder services use smaller vessels to transport containers between regional ports, reducing shipping costs and transit time.
Earlier this month, Pakistani officials and DP World also finalized terms for a freight corridor project from Karachi Port to the Pipri Marshalling yard in southern Pakistan.
“Aurangzeb met with Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of DP World Rizwan Soomar and Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer Yuvraj Narayan in Davos, Switzerland,” Radio Pakistan reported after the meeting.
“During the meeting, discussions focused on enhancing infrastructure and logistical frameworks in Pakistan to boost trade,” the report said, adding that the finance minister assured DP World it wanted to advance business-to-business and business-to-government collaboration with the company.
The UAE is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner after China and the United States, and a major source of foreign investment, valued at over $10 billion in the last 20 years, according to the UAE foreign ministry. It is also home to more than a million Pakistani expatriates.
In January last year, Pakistan and the UAE signed multiple agreements worth more than $3 billion for cooperation in railways, economic zones and infrastructure.
The agreements cover the development of a dedicated freight corridor, multi-modal logistics park, and freight terminals.
Under the agreements, DP World will carry out infrastructure improvement at Qasim International Container Terminal, Pakistan’s leading trade gateway. The Emirati firm also plans to develop an economic zone near the terminal.
DP World is also involved in the Karachi Freight Corridor, an infrastructure project in Pakistan aimed at improving the movement of freight from the port city of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest, to various parts of the country. The project involves the construction of a dedicated double-track corridor and other related facilities that will run 50 km from Karachi port to the Pipri Marshalling yard.
Militants launch fresh attacks in southwest Pakistan, targeting paramilitary check-post, trucks convoy
- In one attack on Wednesday, unidentified gunmen attacked, set on fire paramilitary Levies check-post in Panjgur
- In second attack on Tuesday, attackers stopped and set on fire a convoy of trucks carrying minerals in Nushki
QUETTA: Militants set on fire a paramilitary forces check-post and a convoy of trucks carrying minerals in two separate attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, officials said on Wednesday, the latest assaults in a region plagued by a decades-long separatist insurgency.
Groups like the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) seek independence for Balochistan, a mineral-rich, southwestern province bordering Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west. The region, Pakistan’s largest in terms of land mass but its most impoverished, is home to key mining projects, including Reko Diq, run by mining giant Barrick Gold, and believed to be one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines. China also operates a gold and copper mine in the province, is building a deep-sea port in the coastal town of Gwadar and has funded an international airport, among several other projects that are part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) scheme.
Separatist groups often target key infrastructure projects and security posts in Balochistan as well as Chinese interests, in particular the port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit the province.
Nearly 300 people, including soldiers, were killed and dozens injured in more than 500 attacks reported in Balochistan in 2024.
In the last attack, Zahid Langove, Deputy Commissioner Panjgur, told Arab News unidentified gunmen attacked a paramilitary Levies check-post with a rocket in the district’s Pullabad area during the early hours of Wednesday.
“The midnight attack on Levies check-post was not of a large-scale,” Langove said. “No casualty was reported in the attack but the attackers set the check-post ablaze and escaped in the nearby mountains.”
In a separate attack, unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks carrying minerals in the province’s Nushki district.
Zafar Sumalani, Station House Officer at the Nushki Police Station, said unidentified attackers stopped a convoy of trucks on the Pak-Iran highway, some four kilometers outside of Nushki city on Tuesday night.
“Two trucks carrying minerals were torched and the attackers burst the tires of a truck with gunfire,” Sumalani said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the two attacks but most attacks in the region are claimed by the BLA and other separatists who accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources such as gold and copper while neglecting the local population. Successive Pakistani governments have denied the allegations, saying they have prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.
On Jan. 13, the military said Pakistani security forces had killed 27 militants in Balochistan in an intelligence-based operation in Kacchi district.
The operation came after dozens of fighters of the BLA stormed the small town of Zehri in Khuzdar district and took control of the town for hours. The group set government buildings, including a Levies police station, ablaze and robbed 768,000 rupees ($2745) from a private bank.
In August last year, separatists killed over 50 people, including security forces, in a string of coordinated attacks in Balochistan, the deadliest the region had seen in decades.
Security forces confiscate illegal weapons in operation in Pakistani district wracked by sectarian feuds
- At least 150 people have been killed in Kurram district since sectarian clashes broke out in November
- Road closures and continued fighting have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education, work
ISLAMABAD: An armed crackdown in the northwestern Pakistani district of Kurram that has been marred by sectarian clashes since November continued on Wednesday, with state media reporting that security forces had confiscated a large cache of illegal weapons in a search and clearance operation.
Kurram, a tribal district of around 600,000 where federal and provincial authorities have traditionally exerted limited control, has frequently experienced violence between its Sunni and Shiite communities over land and power. Travelers to and from the area often ride in convoys escorted by security officials.
The latest feuding started on Nov. 21 when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy and killed 52 people, mostly Shiites. The assault triggered road closures and other measures that have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education, and work and created a humanitarian crisis in the area, where authorities say at least 150 people have been killed in two months of feuding.
Media widely reported on Monday that Pakistani security forces had launched a “large-scale” operation targeting militants in the restive northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, after unidentified gunmen ambushed and burned aid trucks on Friday, killing up to 10 people.
“In a joint search and clearance operation by the district administration, police and security forces in the conflict-affected area of Bagan, district Kurram, a significant number of illegal weapons were recovered,” the Associated Press of Pakistan said. “Strict action would continue against elements involved in any unlawful activities.”
Violence has persisted in the region despite a peace agreement signed between the warring tribes on Jan. 1 under which both sides had committed to demolishing bunkers and handing over heavy weapons to authorities within two weeks.
Feuding tribes have been engaging in battles with machine guns and heavy weapons, isolating the remote, mountainous Kurram region. Parachinar is the main town in Kurram and a main road that connects the town to Peshawar, the provincial capital of the larger Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been blocked since sectarian fighting began in November.
Provincial and federal authorities have been supplying relief goods and evacuating the injured and ailing from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters since last month.
Shiite Muslims dominate parts of Kurram, although they are a minority in the rest of Pakistan, which is majority Sunni. The area has a history of sectarian conflict.
Pakistan court issues arrest warrants for top Imran Khan aides over riots led by supporters in 2023
- Khan was himself indicted last month on charges of inciting supporters to attack military’s GHQ headquarters on May 9, 2023
- Hundreds of PTI supporters and leaders were arrested while police registered cases against top leaders, including Khan
ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for key aides of former premier Imran Khan, local media widely reported, in a case involving riots by supporters of the jailed PM’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, including attacks on military installations.
Khan was himself indicted last month on chparges of inciting his supporters to attack the military’s GHQ headquarters during protests on May 9, 2023. That day, after Pakistan’s powerful army publicly rebuked the PTI founder for repeatedly accusing a senior military officer of trying to engineer his assassination, Khan was arrested by the national anti-corruption agency in a land graft case. The arrest sparked a wave of protests by Khan supporters across the country, with rioters attacking important state buildings and ransacking military facilities, including the GHQ in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and the residence of the army’s top commander in the eastern city of Lahore.
Hundreds of PTI supporters and dozens of leaders were subsequently arrested while police registered cases against the party’s top leaders, including Khan.
Pakistan’s top TV news channel, Geo News, reported on Wednesday that non-bailable arrest warrants had been issued for Omar Ayub Khan, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, and Shibli Faraz, the opposition leader in Senate, after both failed to appear before an anti-terrorism court in a case registered at the Civil Lines Police Station.
“Warrants have also been issued ... against PTI’s Kanwal Shauzab as well as former party leader Fawad Chaudhry,” Geo reported. Several other Pakistani news channels also reported on the development.
Nearly 2,000 people were arrested following the May 9 protests and at least eight were killed. The government had called out the army to help restore order.
Though Khan was released on bail within days of the May 9 arrest, he was later arrested in August 2023 after he was handed a three-year prison sentence in a corruption case. He has been in jail since then.
His party was barred from Pakistan’s election on Feb. 8, 2024, but the would-be candidates stood as independents.
Despite the ban and Khan’s imprisonment for convictions on charges ranging from leaking state secrets to corruption, millions of the former cricketer’s supporters voted for him. Independent candidates from his party won the highest number of seats but not enough to form a government on their own. Khan cannot be part of any government while he remains in prison.
Khan and his party say all legal cases against him are based on made-up charges to keep him out of politics at the behest of the army after he had fallen out with the military’s generals. The army denies the accusation.
Last month, the government launched talks with the PTI to cool political temperatures in the South Asian nation. The two sides have met thrice and the PTI has said it will only attend a fourth round of talks if the government announced judicial commissions into accusations Khan’s party and supporters led violent protests on May 9, 2023, and Nov. 26, 2024, when protests in Islamabad demanding Khan’s release turned violent, with the PTI saying 12 supporters were killed while the state said four troops had died.
China’s ADM Group announces $250 million investment to set up EV manufacturing plant in Pakistan
- ADM Group last year announced an investment of $350 million in Pakistan’s electric vehicle sector
- Group will set up manufacturing plant, over 3,000 electric vehicle charging stations across Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: China’s ADM Group will invest $250 million to set up an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Pakistan, state media reported on Wednesday, as Islamabad seeks for Beijing to collaborate in setting up industrial zones to manufacture electronic cars.
The government of Pakistan approved an ambitious National Electric Vehicles Policy (NEVP) in 2019 with the goal of electric vehicles comprising 30 percent of all passenger vehicle and heavy-duty truck sales by 2030, and an even more ambitious target of 90 percent by 2040. For two- and three-wheelers, as well as buses, the policy set a goal of achieving 50 percent of new sales by 2030 and 90 percent by 2040.
“Chinese Company ADM Group has announced an investment of two hundred and fifty million dollars to set up an EV manufacturing plant in Pakistan,” Radio Pakistan reported, saying the initiative was part of efforts by the Special Investment Facilitation Council set up last year to attract foreign investment.
“Transition to EVs is expected to cut fuel import costs, saving billions of dollars.”
Last year, ADM Group announced an investment of $350 million in Pakistan’s EV sector, saying it would establish more than 3,000 electric vehicle charging stations across the South Asian country.
Earlier this month, Pakistan said it would cut the power tariff for operators of electric vehicle charging stations by 45 percent as part of the ongoing reform of the energy sector designed to boost demand. The government is also planning to introduce financing schemes for e-bikes and the conversion of two- and three-wheeled petrol vehicles.
The cabinet on Jan. 15 approved a reduced tariff of 39.70 rupees ($0.14) per unit, down from 71.10 rupees previously, which will be in place within a month. The government expects an internal rate of return of more than 20 percent for investors in the sector.
According to a report submitted to the government by power ministry adviser Ammar Habib Khan and reported by Reuters, there are currently more than 30 million two- and three-wheeled vehicles in Pakistan, which consume more than $5 billion worth of petroleum annually.
The ministry plans to convert 1 million two-wheelers to electric bikes in a first phase, at an estimated net cost of 40,000 rupees per bike, according to the report, saving around $165 million in fuel import costs annually.
BYD Pakistan, a partnership between China’s BYD and Pakistani car group Mega Motors, told Reuters in September that up to 50 percent of all vehicles bought in Pakistan by 2030 will be electrified in some form in line with global targets.
