FM Qureshi travels to US to discuss peace in Middle East

In this photo, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (R) meets with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi at the US State Department in Washington, DC on October 2, 2018. (AFP)
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Updated 15 January 2020
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FM Qureshi travels to US to discuss peace in Middle East

  • Pakistan's foreign office says the objective of the visit is to support efforts for de-escalation in the region
  • Qureshi earlier visited Riyadh and Tehran to convey his country's willingness to play a constructive role in the Middle East

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi left for the United States on Wednesday to redouble diplomatic efforts to bring down tensions in the Middle East, said an official statement circulated by the country’s foreign office in Islamabad.

Qureshi will first visit New York to interact with the top United Nations leadership, including the secretary general of the world body.

He embarked on his Middle East peace mission on the instruction of Prime Minister Imran Khan who asked him to travel to Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States last week to convey Pakistan’s willingness to play a constructive role for peace in the region.

Khan’s announcement came after the Middle East found itself on the brink of another conflict when the US killed a top Iranian military commander, Major General Qassem Soleimani, in an attack authorized by US President Donald Trump.

Describing the aim of the foreign minister’s visit to the US, the official statement specified that the objective was “to support efforts for de-escalation and resolution of differences and disputes through political and diplomatic means.”

While in Washington, Qureshi will meet US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser Robert O’ Brien and other senior administration officials.

He will also have meetings on the Capitol Hill, besides engagements with the media, think tank community and the Pakistani diaspora.

“The Foreign Minister, while reviewing full spectrum of bilateral relationship, will underscore the value Pakistan attaches to a broad-based, long-term and enduring partnership with the US in line with the vision of the leaders of the two countries,” the foreign office said.

According to the official statement, Qureshi will also brief his interlocutors on the prevailing situation in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Other than that, he will highlight Pakistan’s role and continued resolve to support the Afghan peace and reconciliation process.

Earlier this week, the Pakistani foreign minister visited Saudi Arabia and Iran as part of his tri-country diplomatic tour in an attempt to defuse tensions in the Middle East.

During the meeting between Qureshi and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, both sides exchanged views “over tensions in the Middle East and the security situation in the region along with key regional and global issues,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in statement on Monday.

Qureshi expressed concern over mounting tensions in the Gulf region and “stressed on peaceful resolution of issues through diplomatic means in order to normalize the situation and ensure regional peace and stability,” the foreign office said.

The statement informed that the Saudi foreign minister appreciated Prime Minister Imran Khan’s peace initiative to save the region from crisis and prevent regional tensions from further escalating.

On the first leg of his peace mission, Qureshi also met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Iranian FM Javad Zarif in Tehran on Sunday.


Pakistani passenger, bound for Karachi, ‘mistakenly’ flies to Jeddah

Updated 11 July 2025
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Pakistani passenger, bound for Karachi, ‘mistakenly’ flies to Jeddah

  • Civil aviation regulator requested to impose a ‘heavy fine on the airline that is guilty of negligence’
  • No explanation yet on how the passenger cleared immigration at Lahore airport without a passport

KARACHI: In a bizarre turn of events, a Pakistani man, who was supposed to travel to Karachi from Lahore, boarded a wrong flight and landed in the Saudi city of Jeddah this week, the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) confirmed on Friday.

The passenger, Malik Shahzain Ahmed, was traveling to Karachi through a private airline, Air Sial, but instead boarded the airline’s flight to Jeddah from the Lahore airport, local media reported, citing the passenger.

Ahmed told media that immigration authorities at the Jeddah airport briefly detained and questioned him upon landing in the Kingdom without a passport and deported him to Lahore after the situation became clear.

In a statement, the PAA said higher officials had taken notice of the lapse and written letters to civil aviation regulator and the station manager.

“In the letter, the civil aviation regulator has been requested to impose a heavy fine on the airline that is guilty of negligence,” PAA spokesman Saifullah said.

The PAA statement did not offer an explanation as to how the passenger cleared immigration at the Lahore airport before boarding the Jeddah-bound flight.

In a video clip circulating online, Ahmed said he went to Lahore airport to board the Karachi-bound flight on July 8, but he “mistakenly” sat in the Jeddah-bound flight after collecting his boarding pass for the domestic flight.

“After two hours, I asked [myself], ‘This plane doesn’t seem to be landing [soon]’,” he said. “Then I got to know that I had taken boarded the wrong plane.”
 


Gunmen kidnap and kill nine bus passengers in Pakistan’s Balochistan

Updated 11 July 2025
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Gunmen kidnap and kill nine bus passengers in Pakistan’s Balochistan

  • Armed men offboarded passengers, who hailed from the Punjab province, from two buses in the Zhob district
  • No group has claimed responsibility for the incident, but suspicion is likely to fall on Baloch separatist militants

QUETTA: Armed men killed nine bus passengers after kidnapping them in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Friday, in the latest attack on commuters hailing from the eastern Punjab province.

The attackers took the passengers with them after intercepting two buses on the N-70 highway in Balochistan’s Zhob district, according to a senior official of the paramilitary Levies force. Their bodies were found in the nearby mountains in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack on the Punjab-bound buses, but suspicion is likely to fall on Baloch separatist groups who have been involved in multiple such attacks targeting ethnic Punjabi commuters in the past.

“Armed men intercepted two Lahore-bound passenger buses at the Balochistan-Punjab national highway near Sara Dhaka area and kidnapped nine ethnic Punjabi travelers after checking their national identity cards (NICs),” Yasin Mandokhail, the Levies station house officer (SHO) in Zhob district, told Arab News.

“The bodies are being shifted to Rakhni Hospital for medico-legal procedure.”

Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, said security forces immediately responded to the attack but the attackers fled under the cover of darkness.

“Security forces are conducting a thorough search operation in the area,” he said in a statement.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but most impoverished province, has been the site of a long-running insurgency that has intensified in recent months, with separatist militants attacking security forces, government officials and installations and people from other provinces, particularly Punjab, who they see as “outsiders.”

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is the strongest of a number of insurgent groups long operating in the mineral-rich region bordering Afghanistan and Iran, who accuse the central government of stealing their resources to fund development in Punjab.

The federal government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan, where China has been building a deep-sea port as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.

Last August, nearly two dozen passengers were killed after BLA militants forcibly removed them from Punjab-bound buses in a string of coordinated attacks in Balochistan. Another seven Punjabi commuters were offboarded from buses and killed in Balochistan’s Barkhan district in February this year.

In March, the BLA separatist hijacked a train with hundreds of passengers aboard near Balochistan’s Bolan Pass, which resulted in the deaths of 23 soldiers, three railway employees and five passengers. At least 33 insurgents were also killed.

On Thursday, Pakistan Railways suspended train service from Balochistan provincial capital of Quetta to the rest of the country for a day after law enforcement agencies shared security concerns.


Climate change makes South Asia’s monsoon season more prone to floods, landslides and heavy rains

Updated 11 July 2025
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Climate change makes South Asia’s monsoon season more prone to floods, landslides and heavy rains

  • Hundreds of rain-related deaths have already occurred this year in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives and Nepal
  • Climate experts say high temperatures and heavy rain are contributing to melting of glaciers in the Himalayan region, causing flooding and landslides

BENGALURU: Each year from June to September, a series of heavy rains known as monsoons, sweep through the Indian subcontinent, providing relief from heat, irrigating the country’s farms and replenishing its rivers.

However, as global heat increases, the rain is becoming more erratic and intense, creating the conditions for deadly floods. Nearly 1,300 people died in India throughout 2024 due to heavy rain and floods. Hundreds of rain-related deaths have already occurred this year in the South Asian region, which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Maldives and Nepal.

Climate experts say the high temperatures and heavy rain are also contributing to the melting of glaciers in the mountainous Himalayan region, causing catastrophic flooding and landslides.
 

MONSOON BECOMES MORE DANGEROUS

The South Asian region has traditionally had two monsoon seasons. One typically lasts from June to September, with rains moving southwest to northeast. The other, from roughly October to December, moves in the opposite direction.

But with more planet-warming gases in the air, the rain now only loosely follows this pattern. This is because the warmer air can hold more moisture from the Indian Ocean, and that rain then tends to get dumped all at once. It means the monsoon is punctuated with intense flooding and dry spells, rather than sustained rain throughout.

“We are witnessing a clear climatic shift in monsoon patterns across South Asia,” said Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune and author of several United Nations climate reports.

Traditionally, people in India and neighboring countries excitedly awaited the monsoon rains, which would finally mean the end of summer heat. But attitudes are changing as disasters increase during the rainy seasons.

“The frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events are increasing, often overwhelming drainage infrastructure in urban areas and triggering flash floods,” Koll said.

Higher temperatures and longer periods of drought are also making farming harder in South Asia, climate experts said.

“More than 60 percent of the people in South Asia are dependent on agriculture, and almost all of them are dependent on monsoon rainfall,” said Finu Shrestha, a climate scientist at Katmandu, Nepal-based International Center for Integrated Mountain Development.
 

MOUNTAIN REGIONS SEE MORE GLACIAL LAKES OVERFLOWING

A 2023 report by Shrestha’s organization found that glaciers are melting at unprecedented rates across the Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountain ranges. The study found that at least 200 of the more than 2,000 glacial lakes in the region are at risk of overflowing, which can cause catastrophic damage downstream. Heavy monsoon rains can exacerbate the problem.

“A lot of the mountain areas tend to have more warming than the global average, resulting in more glaciers melting,” said Miriam Jackson, glaciologist at the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative.

An October 2023 glacial lake overflow in the Indian state of Sikkim triggered flooding that killed 55 people and damaged bridges, buildings and a hydropower dam that was under construction.

Heavy rainfall and increasing heat are leading to snow and ice avalanches, rockfalls and other events that can trigger the lakes to breach or overflow, Shrestha said.

“Even small glacial lakes are now breaching and causing damage,” she said.
 

EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS CAN HELP

Installing early warning systems and building in less risky areas can help reduce damage from heavy rains, climate experts say.

“If you know a flood is coming, then people can get to higher ground and there could be a sort of standard early warning system along a river that sends out a siren,” Jackson said, adding that social media and messaging applications can help people spread warnings to those downstream.

Koll, the Pune-based scientist, said that rapid urbanization, shrinking floodplains and loss of natural drainage also exacerbate damage from heavy rains. Koll said that most government response currently comes after disasters, and there is a lack of long-term planning.

“In the future monsoon, extreme rains are projected to intensify further, in addition to sporadic water shortages. Hence, we need proactive, long-term strategies that combine science, policy, and community engagement,” he said.

Jackson said the biggest issue, however, is to try to reduce emissions of planet-heating gases because there are limits to adapting to extreme weather.

“If we continue with, you know, business as usual, and we have the same kind of emissions, then the world is going to keep on getting warmer and there will be more intense rain and floods. At some point, we could go beyond the limits of adaptation,” she said.
 

 


Brother claims body of Pakistani actress Humaira Asghar Ali, denies family disowned her

Updated 11 July 2025
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Brother claims body of Pakistani actress Humaira Asghar Ali, denies family disowned her

  • Actor’s brother says family searched for her months ago but lost contact
  • Culture ministry had offered to arrange burial after initial reports of family refusal

KARACHI: The brother of Pakistani actress and model Humaira Asghar Ali, whose decomposed body was discovered in her Karachi apartment this week, collected her remains on Thursday and rejected widespread media reports claiming the family had disowned her.

Ali’s body was found on Tuesday when a court bailiff arrived at her rented flat in Karachi’s upscale Ittehad Commercial area to vacate the property following a complaint by the landlord. A post-mortem conducted by Karachi Police Surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed indicated the body had decomposed for more than a month, but further forensic investigation suggests Ali likely died in October 2024, nearly nine months ago.

Police initially said Ali’s family had declined to claim her body, prompting Sindh’s Minister for Culture and Tourism, Syed Zulfiqar Ali Shah, to announce that the provincial government would arrange her last rites. Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori also offered to assist with the burial.

However, Naveed Asghar, the deceased actor’s brother, arrived from Lahore to claim her remains from the Chhipa morgue. Speaking to reporters before leaving for Lahore, Asghar refuted reports that the family had refused to take responsibility for his sister’s burial.

“We have come here and after fulfilling all the legal requirements, have received the dead body,” Asghar said.

Naveed Asghar, brother of late Pakistani actress and model Humaira Asghar Ali, speaks to media personnel outside Chippa morgue in Karachi on July 10, 2025. (Photo courtesy: Independent Urdu)

Asghar said his sister moved to Karachi from Lahore seven years ago on her own accord and had distanced herself from the family, telling their father that she was “responsible for my own affairs.” She would visit their home once every six months to a year but had not been in touch for the past year and a half.

He added that the family had attempted to trace Ali about six months ago but her phone numbers were switched off and she had never shared her exact address. When they contacted one of her friends, they were told that she “did not know the actress.”

“Then when this incident happened, we were suddenly shocked, especially since there was already a situation at home with our paternal aunt,” Asghar said, referring to an aunt who had died in a recent road accident. He explained that the stress of persistent calls from reporters had added to their grief.

“That is why my father said that if there is any emergency, then you can bury her there [in Karachi],” Asghar said.

He also criticized sections of the media for focusing on the family’s absence rather than investigating the circumstances surrounding his sister’s death.

“Whatever matters took place with the landlord, did any of you interview him?” he asked reporters. “You created noise all over Lahore, across Pakistan, and even around the world. But we have come here to take our sister. There are certain formalities that the police have to complete, after which the body is handed over.”

The condition of Ali’s remains made the situation even more distressing. Dr. Syed, the Karachi police surgeon who conducted the post-mortem, said:

“Viscera completely autolyzed and reduced [to an] unidentifiable blackish mass. We have collected hair and specimen from [the] abdomen for chemical analysis. For positive identification, the blood sample of the brother has been collected.”

Ali rose to fame after winning the Veet Miss Super Model title in 2014 and appearing in the reality show Tamasha Ghar in 2022. She also featured in several television dramas, including Just Married, Ehsaan Faramosh, Guru, and Chal Dil Mere. On the big screen, she appeared in the 2015 action-thriller Jalaibee and in Love Vaccine in 2021.


Pakistan’s national airline concludes month-long post-Hajj flight operation

Updated 10 July 2025
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Pakistan’s national airline concludes month-long post-Hajj flight operation

  • Pakistan International Airlines’ final post-Hajj flight arrived in Islamabad from Madinah, says airline
  • PIA says repatriated over 41,500 pilgrims in total since June 10 using Boeing 777, Airbus A320 aircraft

KARACHI: Pakistan’s national flag carrier announced concluding its month-long post-Hajj flight operation on Thursday, saying it had repatriated 41,500 pilgrims since June 10 from Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan concluded its 33-day pre-Hajj flight operation in May, transporting more than 115,000 pilgrims to Saudi Arabia under both the government and private schemes for the annual Islamic pilgrimage. The Pakistan International Airline (PIA) began its post-Hajj flight operation on June 10.

The final post-Hajj flight operated by PIA arrived in Islamabad from Madinah at 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, the national airline’s spokesperson said in a statement.

“In total, over 41,500 pilgrims were repatriated to Pakistan via 147 flights operated by PIA,” the spokesperson said. “PIA maintained an on-time departure rate of over 90 percent for its Hajj flights.”

The airline said its post-Hajj operation was conducted from Pakistan’s Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Quetta, Multan and Peshawar cities. The airline used its Boeing 777 and Airbus A320 aircraft for the operation.

“Pilgrims expressed satisfaction with the arrangements made by PIA,” the airline’s spokesperson said.

Pakistan has already started the registration process for Hajj 2026, with over 313,000 individuals completing the process. Intending pilgrims can register for the annual Islamic pilgrimage next year through the religion ministry’s online portal and 15 designated banks.

Pakistan has extended the deadline to register for Hajj 2026 till July 11.