GILGIT: Pakistan’s decision last week to free a popular political activist who was serving a life sentence in the country's semi-autonomous northern Gilgit-Baltistan area has been seen by observers as a “reconciliatory gesture” at a time when the administration of Prime Minister Imran Khan is gearing up to grant provincial status to, and uplift, the long-neglected region.
Baba Jan, a left-wing political activist from the Hunza Valley in Gilgit-Baltistan, which forms part of the disputed Kashmir region, was convicted under anti-terrorism laws in 2011 and lost an appeal against his life sentence in 2016. He was arrested for leading protests on behalf of his community over compensation for more than 6,000 people displaced by a devastating mountain landslide.
This October, thousands of people took part in a seven-day protest in Hunza asking for the release of Jan and other activists ahead of a legislative assembly election in Gilgit Baltistan on November 15. Jan was finally set free after the caretaker government struck a deal with the protesters that it would release 14 political prisoners by November 30 if they called off their sit-in.
Jan has vocally protested what he and supporters, as well as independent analysts, describe as political, constitutional and human rights violations in the region. The government denies this.
Observers have previously warned that Jan’s continued imprisonment was fuelling militancy and nationalist views in the region. His release, they say, has raised hope that the long suppressed and neglected region might see some improvements.
“Baba Jan 's sudden release showcases a grand reconciliation gesture from the government,” political observer and researcher Aziz Ali Dad of Hunza said. “Because Baba Jan was gaining more fame due to his imprisonment and grievances were gradually increasing among the public, so they released them [political prisoners] after election to get public sympathies as a good gesture.”
Analyst Afzal Shigri said it was a long-time demand of the people of the region that they get “constitutional rights” and the move to release the prisoners seemed to be a step in that direction.
Political analyst from Hunza, Amir Hussain, called the release of the prisoners, including Baba Jan, a “good gesture” from the federal government.
Gilgit-Baltistan, which borders Afghanistan and China, is the gateway of the $65 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure plan, and Hussain said there might also now be Chinese pressure on Pakistan to “mainstream” the area, including by granting it provisional provincial status.
China denies it has ever interfered in Pakistan’s internal decisions.
Faizullah Faraq, a spokesperson for the Gilgit-Baltistan government, said the issue of Baba Jan and other political prisoners was a judicial matter and there had been no pressure from “external powers” to release them, and they had been freed as per a pact with protesters in October.
Gilgit-Baltistan, impoverished and remote, has never formally been part of Pakistan but rather of the larger Kashmir region that is also claimed by India.
Locals fought pro-India forces and opted to join Pakistan in 1948, a year after the partition of India after independence from British rule. But since then Gilgit-Baltistan has not been granted full inclusion by the Pakistani constitution, over fears doing so would jeopardize Islamabad’s international stance that all of Kashmir is disputed territory.
The local assembly, for which the November 15 elections were held, has few powers. Pakistan’s National Assembly and Senate have no representation from Gilgit-Baltistan, and the region receives only a fraction of the national budget. But Prime Minister Imran Khan has said recently his government will grant provisional provincial status to the region, giving it greater political representation.
Rights activists and reporters have also long spoken of human rights abuses in the region.
“Gilgit-Baltistan has erupted in protest a number of times over the last decade over a range of questions, including environmental issues, subsidies and autonomy,” an editorial in The News, a popular Pakistani Daily, said on Jan’s release.
“As the region has begun finding its political voice … there is now a need for a larger recognition that a return to the old status quo is not possible in Gilgit-Baltistan,” the editorial said. “A new consensus will need to be found in which the people of the region define their own needs and future. This will require activists like Baba Jan to be able to freely represent the voice of their people.”
On his part, Jan says him and other prisoners were “tortured and badly treated” while in jail.
“We were treated like professional culprits despite being political prisoners,” he told Arab News in an interview. “There were no facilities inside the jail for us.”
“Finally we were freed from the jail due to the public’s struggle and power,” he added. “And I want to thank all my well-wishers.”
But Arshad Wali, the deputy superintendent of Damas Jail in Gilgit-Baltistan where Jan was incarcerated from 2014 to 2020, rejected the claims the prisoners had been mistreated.
“In Damas jail, Baba Jan and other political prisoners were treated like common culprits,” he said, “as in GB there is no classification for political prisoners.”
Political prisoners' release in Pakistan’s north seen as ‘reconciliatory’ move ahead of provincial status plans
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Political prisoners' release in Pakistan’s north seen as ‘reconciliatory’ move ahead of provincial status plans
- Left-wing activist Baba Jan and over a dozen other political prisoners were released last month
- Analysts say the releases have raised hope the long neglected region might see improvements
South Sudan lawmakers to arrive in Islamabad today to enhance parliamentary ties, bilateral cooperation
- South Sudanese lawmakers to meet prominent political figures, government leaders during three-day visit
- Delegation arrives at a time of conflict and turmoil in Sudan, where a 20-month war has killed over 24,000
ISLAMABAD: A delegation of South Sudan’s legislative assembly is arriving in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad today, Monday, on a three-day visit to boost bilateral relations and parliamentary ties with Pakistan, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
The delegation will be headed by Nathaniel Oyet Pierino, the first deputy speaker of the South Sudan parliament. Pierino is visiting Pakistan on the invitation of Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq to enhance parliamentary diplomacy, Radio Pakistan said.
“These meetings will focus on fostering closer parliamentary cooperation, addressing mutual interests, and expanding the scope of bilateral relations across various sectors,” the state media reported.
The South Sudanese delegation will engage in a series of important meetings with Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Deputy Speaker Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah and Deputy Chairman of the Senate Syedaal Khan.
The Sudanese delegation will meet prominent political figures and government leaders to further solidify ties between the two nations, Radio Pakistan added.
The delegation arrives at a time when the African region is engulfed in turmoil as a civil war between a paramilitary group in Sudan and the country’s army rages on. The 20-month war has killed over 24,000 and driven over 14 million people from their homes, according to the UN.
An estimated 3.2 million Sudanese have crossed into neighboring countries, including Chad, Egypt and South Sudan, to escape the horrors of the conflict.
Pakistan has repeatedly called on the international community to support efforts for a ceasefire in the African country and urged both warring parties to desist from further bloodshed in the country.
Pakistan says progress on resettling Afghans in Western countries remains ‘painfully slow’
- Thousands of Afghans who helped American troops and diplomats during Afghan war await resettlement in US
- Pakistan says would have been “more appropriate” if world did not abandon the Afghan people after the war
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office has said that progress on the cases of thousands of Afghans seeking resettlement in Western countries remains “painfully slow,” insisting that it was only repatriating Afghan nationals who were residing illegally in Pakistan.
Thousands of Afghan locals put themselves in danger to serve alongside US troops, diplomats, and contractors during the war in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks. These individuals provided linguistic, cultural and geographic knowledge to the United States at great personal risk to themselves and their families.
Since 2006, the American Congress has established several Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) programs that allow eligible applicants to resettle to safety in the US. After the fall of Kabul in August 2021, thousands of Afghans who had filed such refugee resettlement applications entered neighboring Pakistan, but remain trapped in legal limbo, while facing persistent threats for their collaboration with the US.
In 2023, Islamabad began a drive to expel what it said were all undocumented foreigners, a campaign that has disproportionately hit Afghans, with reportedly 800,000 repatriated so far. Afghan rights activists and applicants of SIVs have said the deportation drive has also forcibly repatriated scores of Afghans awaiting resettlement in the United States, which Islamabad denies.
Pakistan has consistently called on Western countries to expedite the approval and visa issuance of Afghan nationals that are currently in Pakistan but awaiting to be resettled in the West.
“Progress on the cases of thousands of Afghan nationals who were promised resettlement in Western countries remains painfully slow,” Pakistan’s foreign office wrote on social media platform X on Sunday.
It was responding to Jan England, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who had highlighted the plight of Afghan refugees being repatriated from Pakistan and Iran.
The foreign office pointed out that Pakistan had hosted over four million Afghan refugees that had escaped their war-torn country for the past 40 years, adding that those being sent back were those that were “residing illegally without any documentation or proof of residence.”
“It would have been more appropriate had the world not abandoned the Afghan people after the war and if conducive socioeconomic conditions had been created inside the country for the Afghan people to prosper,” the foreign office said. It said that the United Nations’ humanitarian aid to Afghanistan remains “critically underfunded” with only 37.5 percent of the required funds secured last year.
“Pakistan has been and will continue to support all efforts aimed at addressing the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan as well as for lasting peace and stability in the country,” the foreign office concluded.
PAKISTAN’S DEPORTATION DRIVE
Pakistan launched the deportation drive in October 2023 after a spike in suicide bombings which the Pakistan government, without providing evidence, said were carried out by Afghan nationals. Islamabad has also blamed them for smuggling, militant violence and other crimes.
A cash-strapped Pakistan navigating record inflation, alongside a tough International Monetary Fund bailout program in 2023, had also said undocumented migrants had drained its resources for decades.
Until the government initiated the expulsion drive, Pakistan was home to over four million Afghan migrants and refugees out of which around 1.7 million were undocumented, as per government figures.
Afghans make up the largest portion of migrants, many of whom came after the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021, but a large number have been present since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Islamabad insists the deportation drive is not aimed specifically at Afghans but at all those living illegally in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s new Gwadar airport set to begin operations today
- The opening of Chinese-funded airport was delayed because of security review due to militant attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan in August
- The airport will begin operations with the arrival of an inaugural Pakistan International Airlines flight from Karachi, airports authority says
KARACHI: Pakistan’s new Gwadar International Airport is set to begin operations today, Monday, with a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight due to arrive from the southern port city of Karachi, a Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) spokesperson said, following a months-long delay in the opening of the airport.
A security review, prompted by deadly attacks by separatist militants in Balochistan in August last year, had delayed the airport’s opening to the end of 2024. The airport was due to begin operation on Jan. 10, but it was once again postponed.
The $200-million Chinese-funded airport, which will handle both domestic and international flights, is expected to become one of Pakistan’s largest, according to the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA).
A ceremony will be held to mark the airport’s opening on Monday, which would be attended by senior federal and provincial government officials, according to PAA spokesperson Saif Ullah.
“The first flight will be given a traditional water salute by Rescue and Fire Fighting Service (RFFS) water bowsers after landing,” the PAA spokesperson said in a statement.
China has pledged over $65 billion in infrastructure, energy and other projects in Pakistan under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Part of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, the program in Pakistan is also developing a deep-water port close to the new Gwadar airport, a joint venture between Pakistan, Oman and China that is close to completion.
Last month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said the Gwadar airport would be able to handle A-380 aircraft and capable of accommodating 4 million passengers annually.
The airport will feature various facilities, including cold storage, cargo sheds, hotels and shopping malls, with banking services arranged through the State Bank of Pakistan, according to the PM’s office. PIA also planned to increase
flights between Karachi and Gwadar to three times a week, while discussions were ongoing with private airlines and carriers from China, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to launch both domestic and international services.
Sharif had highlighted that the Gwadar International Airport symbolized the strong China-Pakistan friendship, expressing gratitude to Beijing for constructing an airport with international standards and modern facilities.
Although no Chinese projects were targeted in militant attacks in August, they have been frequently attacked in the past by separatists who view China as a foreign invader trying to gain control of impoverished but mineral-rich Balochistan, the site of a decades-long insurgency.
Recent attacks, including the one in October 2024 in which two Chinese workers were killed in a suicide bombing in Karachi, forced Beijing to publicly criticize Pakistan over security lapses and there had been widespread media reports that China wanted its own security forces on the ground to protect its nationals and projects, a demand Islamabad has long resisted.
Pakistan launches operation in Kurram district, sets up camps for displaced families
- Tribal and sectarian clashes since Nov. 21 have killed at least 136 people in Kurram and caused medicine, food and fuel shortages
- A senior police official says military will lead the operation in Kurram’s Bagan area, with police providing ‘second-tier support’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces have launched an operation to clear the northwestern Pakistani district of Kurram of militants, a senior police official said on Sunday, following months of unrest in the region.
Kurram, a district of around 600,000 people in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, has been rocked by tribal and sectarian clashes since November 21, when armed men attacked a convoy of Shia passengers, killing 52 people.
The attack sparked further violence and blockade of a main road connecting Kurram’s main town of Parachinar with the provincial capital of Peshawar, causing medicine, food and fuel shortages in the area, as casualties surged to 136.
The operation in Lower Kurram comes after the KP government announced the establishment of camps for temporarily displaced persons (TDPs), following an ambush on a supply convoy that killed 10 people on Thursday.
“The operation has commenced in Lower Kurram’s Bagan area and the sanitization process to clear the area is underway,” Abbas Majeed Marwat, the Kohat regional police officer (RPO), told Arab News.
“The military will lead the operation, with the police providing second-tier support through the Elite Force, regular police, and other security forces.”
Asked about the scale of the operation, Marwat said it was targeted at specific areas where militants were using hideouts to sabotage peace efforts.
“The operation will focus on certain pockets, particularly in Bagan and its adjacent areas,” he said.
Thursday’s ambush targeted a convoy of 33 vehicles set to resupply local traders in the region with rice, flour and cooking oil and two aid vehicles carrying essential medicine. It followed a similar attack on a supply convoy this month that injured five people, including a top administration official in the region.
The violence has continued despite a peace agreement signed between the warring tribes on Jan. 1. Under the peace agreement, both sides had agreed on the demolition of bunkers and the handover of heavy weapons to authorities within two weeks.
RPO Marwat said the operation aimed to target elements “embedded within the local community who were acting as spoilers.” He said authorities had completed arrangements for TDPs, while some families had already left the most affected areas to stay with their relatives elsewhere.
“The commissioner of Kohat and I visited the proposed sites for TDP camps in Hangu to inspect the administrative and security arrangements,” he told Arab News on Sunday.
“As of yesterday, more than 20 families had relocated [from Bagan] and more are leaving because the situation here remains critical.”
Separately on Sunday, the KP government announced action against militants in violence-hit areas of Kurram, following a high-level huddle in Peshawar.
“Action against few miscreants in the affected areas has become unavoidable and a decision has been made to take strict and indiscriminate action against miscreants,” said a statement issued from the office of KP government spokesperson Mohammad Ali Saif.
For the past three months, the statement said, the KP government had been working hard to restore peace and stability in Kurram, and a peace agreement was reached through a grand jirga in line with Pashtun traditions.
“A few miscreants in Kurram have attempted to sabotage the peace agreement,” it said, adding that the militants attempted to assassinate Kurram Deputy Commissioner Javedullah Mehsud, leaving him seriously injured, and were also targeting security personnel and supply convoys.
The statement said the government feared that the “miscreants” had infiltrated peaceful communities, and to protect peaceful citizens, they would be separated.
“Alternative housing arrangements have been made for the affected population,” it added.
Feuding tribes have battled with machine guns and heavy weapons in Kurram, cutting off the remote and mountainous region bordering Afghanistan from the outside world.
Provincial authorities have been supplying relief goods and transporting ailing and injured people from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters since late last month.
Pakistan commerce minister arrives in Cambodia to hold bilateral trade talks
- The development comes amid Pakistan’s push to revive its $350 billion economy since avoiding a default in June 2023
- Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan will attend the inaugural Joint Trade Committee and Ministerial Meeting in Phnom Penh
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan on Sunday arrived in Cambodia on a three-day official visit to hold bilateral trade talks, his ministry said, amid Pakistan’s push for trade and investment.
The commerce minister will participate in the inaugural Joint Trade Committee and Ministerial Meeting in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, according to the Pakistani commerce ministry.
Upon arrival, Khan was received by Pakistan’s Ambassador to Cambodia Zaheer Uddin Baber Thaheem and Tith Rithipol, undersecretary of state from the Cambodian ministry of commerce.
“The visit aims to strengthen bilateral trade ties, explore new economic opportunities, and enhance cooperation between the two nations,” the Pakistani commerce ministry said in a statement.
“The meetings are expected to cover a range of topics, including trade facilitation, investment prospects, and market access.”
The development comes amid Pakistan’s efforts to revive its $350 billion economy since avoiding a default in June 2023. The South Asian country last year secured a new $7 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and has been actively pursuing trade and investment opportunities to put the economy on the path of recovery.
The Pakistani commerce ministry said Khan’s visit marked a “significant step” toward deepening economic engagement between Pakistan and Cambodia.
“Further discussions and agreements are anticipated during the visit,” it added.
