US should leave Afghanistan as friends of the region — DG ISPR

Pakistan military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor addresses a press conference in Rawalpindi, April 17, 2017. (AP/File)
Updated 27 January 2019
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US should leave Afghanistan as friends of the region — DG ISPR

  • Head of Pakistan army’s media wing gives wide-ranging, exclusive interview to Arab News
  • Says Pakistan has done its job of bringing insurgents to the negotiating table

RAWALPINDI: The United States should leave Afghanistan as a friend of the region and commit to rebuilding the country when it exits more than 17 years since American-led forces invaded, the head of the Pakistan army’s media wing said as Taliban officials and US negotiators agreed on the draft of a peace agreement that could potentially end the United States’ longest war.
This week, the Taliban resumed stalled peace talks with US special peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha, where the insurgents have long maintained an office. The dialogue, originally meant to run over two days, entered its sixth day on Saturday, raising hopes that the latest efforts to find a mechanism to end the 17-year Afghan war might be the most serious yet. 
Taliban sources told media on Saturday night that a draft peace deal decided between the Taliban and US official stipulated that troops would leave within 18 months of the agreement being signed.
“Afghanistan should not go into turmoil” when US forces leave, Major General Asif Ghafoor, the head of the army’s media wing, said in a wide-ranging interview to Arab News on Friday evening: “The US should leave Afghanistan as friends of the region, with a commitment to assist Afghanistan in becoming self-sustaining and help in socio-economic development.”
The US has long been pressuring Pakistan to use its influence over the Taliban to bring them to the negotiating table. Last week, Khalilzad visited Pakistan to push the peace process forward amid media reports that the Taliban had refused to meet him in Islamabad, insisting that they preferred to hold talks in Qatar and did not want Pakistan, the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia to be involved. 
“We are a facilitator” in the peace process, the military spokesman said. “We have done our job of bringing them to the negotiating table. What is discussed and how the process moves forward will depend on progress during every meeting.”
When asked if the Taliban had refused to meet Khalilzad in Islamabad, Ghafoor said: “There are so many factions and stakeholders involved in the process. Coordination takes time. One faction or party gets out of coordination, [which] can result in changes in schedule or place.”
He said Pakistan had pushed for the dialogue to restart but had “no preference for time or place.”
“Our intent is a peaceful Afghanistan, we have no other intent,” the general said. 
Taliban sources have told media the Doha talks have focused on a roadmap for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and a guarantee the country will not be used for hostile acts against the United States and its allies.
The Taliban have so far refused direct talks with the Kabul government, which it views as an illegitimate, foreign-appointed force. Ghafoor said there was as yet no certainty on whether the insurgents could be persuaded to engage with the Afghan government but added that progress from the meetings would determine all outcomes. 
Islamabad fears that increased turmoil in Afghanistan would mean more sanctuaries there for Pakistani Taliban [TTP] militants who have lost control of all territory in Pakistan since a major counter-terrorism operation was launched after a 2014 attack on an army school.
Pakistan has also fenced part of its porous 2,500 km border with Afghanistan to prevent incursions by the Pakistan Taliban who have waged a decade-long insurgency in the South Asian nation.
Ghafoor said the Afghan government did not currently have the capacity to eliminate all sanctuaries given that it was embroiled in fighting an insurgency, but once the Taliban entered the political mainstream, Kabul would be in a better position to tackle groups like the Pakistan Taliban and Daesh. 
“If there is peace in Afghanistan and greater control of the area by Afghan forces, it will be difficult for TTP to continue their sanctuaries there,” the military spokesman said. 
The general dismissed fears that the US would lose interest in Pakistan once it exited Afghanistan, or be free to take harsh actions when it no longer needed Islamabad’s help to end the conflict.
“Pakistan has always remained relevant and will continue to be relevant,” Ghafoor said. “And when the US leave Afghanistan, it will leave acknowledging Pakistan’s role in ending the conflict. Our relationship shall further strengthen.”
But as Pakistan’s ties with the US have soured in recent years over the war in Afghanistan, Islamabad has turned to neighboring China to fill the void. The countries are partners in a $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) of infrastructure and energy projects that Beijing touts as the flagship program in its vast Belt and Road Initiative.
Responding to media reports that Pakistan was building military jets, weapons and other hardware with funds received under the CPEC umbrella, Ghafoor said the corridor was “purely an economic project.”
“We have separate defense cooperation with China but that has nothing to do with CPEC,” he said. “We had F-16 deals with the US That was our requirement. Later we have jointly made the JF-17 Thunder with China. Like any sovereign country, Pakistan takes decisions suiting its national interest.”
Speaking about a growing protest movement by Pakistan’s ethnic Pashtuns who want the army to remove land mines and check-posts from the country’s northwest where most Pashtuns live, and allege extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and “disappearances” of young Pashtun men, which it vehemently denies, the army spokesman said: 
“Till such time that the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement [PTM] is peaceful and they stick to their genuine demands, which are natural in a post-conflict environment, the state is committed to take care of them.”
Responding to a question about PTM leaders Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar who, along with the movement’s founder Manzoor Pashteen, have emerged as the strongest voices against alleged military high-handedness, Ghafoor said the demands of the Pahstun people were genuine and the state was committed to addressing them.
“But instigating people against institutions is neither within the law nor a public sentiment,” he said. “Once we have fulfilled the genuine demands which are already in the overall plan, then we see how to deal with anyone who still tries to exploit.”
The army’s media chief also said the movement was being exploited by Pakistan’s enemies, in a veiled reference possibly to arch-rival India and neighboring Afghanistan: “When there are fault lines, then enemies will always try to exploit them. So there is an effort to exploit PTM, whether with their connivance or not.”
The general warned that India needed to “stop using proxies against us,” adding that “just as we are concerned that an unstable Afghanistan is not in our interest, India should also know that an unstable Pakistan is not in its interest. They need to change their behavior.”
Responding to a question about an extension in military courts first set up by parliament in 2015, and decried for their lack of transparency, Ghafoor said the courts were a “national requirement” because the country’s civilian judicial infrastructure was ill-equipped to deal with terrorism cases.
Ghafoor said verdicts could be appealed at several levels, including in military appellate and civilian courts, and those on death row had the right to file mercy petitions with the army chief and the president of Pakistan. 
“Military courts proceed as per law; there is a laid down legal process with full transparency. Courts decide on evidence and not emotions,” the army’s media chief said. However, he added, “should parliament decide that military courts are not needed, then they will not be renewed.”


Pakistan reports fresh polio case from Balochistan, taking 2024 tally to 46

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Pakistan reports fresh polio case from Balochistan, taking 2024 tally to 46

  • Poliovirus detected in male child from Killa Saifullah district, says polio eradication program
  • Pakistan’s immunization campaigns suffer from misinformation campaigns and militant attacks

KARACHI: Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province has detected a fresh poliovirus case in a male child, the country’s polio eradication program said on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases reported this year to 46 as Islamabad struggles to clamp down on the infection. 

The National Institute of Health’s (NIH) laboratory confirmed detecting the virus in a male child from Killa Saifullah district in Balochistan, the program said. 

“This is the second polio case from Killa Saifullah, where several environmental samples have tested positive for WPV1,” the Pakistan Polio Eradication Program said. “So far, 23 cases have been reported from Balochistan province, 12 from Sindh province, nine from KP and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.”

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains endemic. Since late 2018, Pakistan has seen a resurgence of cases and increased spread of poliovirus, highlighting the fragility of gains achieved in the preceding years when cases dropped in 2023 to six, from 20 in 2022 and just one in 2022. Misinformation about vaccinations and attacks by militants on polio teams have been major impediments to immunization campaigns.

At least seven people, including five school students, were killed and 23 injured in a blast in southwestern Pakistan that targeted a polio vaccination team vehicle on Friday, police said. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Last Tuesday, a policeman was killed in an attack on a health office that manages door-to-door polio vaccination campaigns.

The attacks have coincided with Pakistan’s third nationwide polio campaign this year, launched last week with the aim to administer vaccine drops to more than 45 million children.

Pakistani Prime Minister’s Focal Person for Polio Eradication, Ayesha Raza Farooq, has said that the government is revamping its polio eradication program to make the country free of the virus by mid next year.

“WPV1 has been detected in 76 districts, indicating widespread circulation of the virus and a continued serious risk to children’s well-being from a disease that can paralyze them for life,” the polio eradication program said. 
“Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five is essential to keep them protected.”


Pakistan PM says policy rate reduction to enhance business activities, boost employment

Updated 5 min 40 sec ago
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Pakistan PM says policy rate reduction to enhance business activities, boost employment

  • Pakistan’s central bank slashed key policy rate by 250 basis points to 15 percent on Monday 
  • With fourth straight reduction since June, Islamabad aims to revive sluggish economy 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has welcomed the central bank’s decision to cut the policy rate by 250 basis points, saying the move would help boost the country’s business activities and enhance employment opportunities, state-run media reported on Tuesday.

Pakistan’s central bank slashed its key policy rate by 250 basis points to 15 percent on Monday for a fourth straight reduction since June. The development takes place as Islamabad attempts to revive a sluggish, fragile $350 billion economy as inflation eases. 

Monday’s move follows cuts of 150 bps in June, 100 bps in July, and 200 in September that have taken the rate from an all-time high of 22 percent, set in June 2023 and left unchanged for a year. It takes the total cuts to 700 bps in under five months.

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says the reduction in policy rate will enhance business activities, exports and employment opportunities in the country,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported. 

Sharif was chairing a meeting of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) parliamentary party on Monday when he touched upon the central bank’s move. The premier noted that inflation has reduced from an alarming 38 percent in May 2023 to 7 percent at present.

The Pakistani premier informed members of the PML-N parliamentary party about his visit to Saudi Arabia and Qatar last week, saying that “a new chapter” has been added to the Pakistan-Saudi investment partnership. 

“The Saudi leadership assured all kinds of support for the stability and development of Pakistan’s economy,” Sharif said according to the state broadcaster. 

The Pakistani prime minister also informed the lawmakers about his visit to Qatar, saying that the Qatari leadership also assured an increase in investment for Pakistan. He said talks were held between both sides on giving “a practical shape” to projects worth $3 billion in Pakistan. 

“He said Qatar will invest in various sectors including aviation, hoteling, information technology and energy sectors in Pakistan,” the state broadcaster said. “Shehbaz Sharif said the government is taking steps on a priority basis to facilitate investment and increase foreign investment in Pakistan.”


Pakistan parliament approves bills to extend tenure of services chiefs to five years

Updated 04 November 2024
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Pakistan parliament approves bills to extend tenure of services chiefs to five years

  • Extension in services of army, navy and air force chiefs follows controversial amendments to the constitution last month
  • The opposition PTI party condemns the amendments for changing Pakistan “from a democracy into a monarchy”

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Assembly and Senate on Monday approved bills to extend the tenure of the army, navy, and air force chiefs from three to five years, amid protests by the opposition benches. 

The office of the army chief is considered to be the most powerful in the country, with the army having ruled Pakistan for almost half of its 75-year history. Even when not directly in power, the army is considered to be the invisible guiding hand in politics and holds considerable sway in internal security, foreign policy, and economic affairs, among other domains. 

Six bills were passed by the upper and lower houses on Monday evening, including one to increase the term of the services chiefs.

“In the said Act, in section 8A, in sub-section (1), for the expression “three (03)” the word “five (05)” shall be substituted,” read the bill, seeking to amend the Pakistan Army Act, 1952.

Similar bills were passed to increase the duration of the country’s naval and air force chiefs to five years also. 

“The purpose of these amendments are to make consistent the Pakistan Army Act, 1952 (XXXIX of 1952) The Pakistan Navy Ordinance, 1961 (Ordinance No. XXXV of 1961) and The Pakistan Air Force Act, 1953 (VI of 1953) with the maximum tenure of the Chief of the Army Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff and the Chief of the Air Staff and to make consequential amendments for uniformity in the aforementioned laws.” 

Speaking outside parliament, the chairman of the opposition PTI party, Gohar Ali Khan, said:

“Today, democracy has been changed into a monarchy.”

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Omar Ayub Khan, said “modifying the service chiefs’ tenure is not a good thing for the country and the armed forces.”

The passage of the new bills follows controversial amendments made to the constitution last month, granting lawmakers the authority to nominate the chief justice of Pakistan, who previously used to be automatically appointed according to the principle of seniority.

The amendments allowed the government to bypass the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, and appoint Justice Yahya Afridi as the country’s top judge, replacing former chief justice Qazi Faez Isa. 

The opposition and the legal fraternity had opposed the amendments, arguing that they were aimed at granting more power to the executive in making judicial appointments and curtailing the independence of the judiciary. The government denies this.


Pakistani forces kill six militants in shootouts near border with Afghanistan — military

Updated 04 November 2024
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Pakistani forces kill six militants in shootouts near border with Afghanistan — military

  • Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, has witnessed a number of attacks recently
  • Pakistan blames the surge in militancy on militants operating out of Afghanistan, Kabul denies the allegations

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces have killed six militants in two separate engagements in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, the Pakistani military said on Monday.
A militant was killed in an exchange of fire during an intelligence-based operation in North Waziristan’s Dosali area, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing.
In the second incident, Pakistani forces intercepted a group of militants while infiltrating the country’s border with Afghanistan in the South Waziristan district. Five militants were killed as a result.
“Pakistan has consistently been asking Interim Afghan Government to ensure effective border management on their side of the border,” the ISPR said in a statement.
“Interim Afghan Government is expected to fulfil its obligations and deny the use of Afghan soil by Khwarij [militants] for perpetuating acts of terrorism against Pakistan.”
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which borders Afghanistan, has witnessed a number of attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups that targeted security forces convoys and check posts, besides targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials in recent months.
Pakistan has frequently accused neighboring Afghanistan of sheltering and supporting militant groups, urging the Taliban administration in Kabul to prevent its territory from being used by armed factions to launch cross-border attacks.
Afghan officials, however, deny involvement, insisting Pakistan’s security issues are an internal matter of Islamabad.
 


Pakistan Navy test-fires ship-launched ballistic missile ranging 350 kilometers

Updated 04 November 2024
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Pakistan Navy test-fires ship-launched ballistic missile ranging 350 kilometers

  • The missile is capable of striking land and sea targets with ‘high precision’
  • Pakistan, India consider their missile programs as deterrent against each other

KARACHI: Pakistan Navy has successfully test-fired a ship-launched ballistic missile having a range of 350 km and capable of striking both land and sea targets, it said on Monday.
Pakistan sees its missile development as a deterrent against nuclear-armed arch-foe India. Both countries have fought multiple wars since their independence from Britain in 1947.
The two South Asian neighbors have long been developing missiles of varying ranges in a bid to ensure deterrence against possible attacks from each other, with analysts often warning these developments could push the region into an arms race.
“Pakistan Navy conducted a successful flight test of an indigenously developed ship-launched ballistic missile,” the Directorate General of Public Relations (DGPR) of Pakistan Navy said in a statement.
“The weapon system with 350km range is capable of engaging land and sea targets with high precision.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikldB3jieWo
The flight test of the weapon system, equipped with a state-of-the-art navigation system and maneuverability features, was witnessed by Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf, senior naval officers, scientists and engineers.
President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir and Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu congratulated the participating navy units and scientists on the development.