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Pakistani PM hopes for independent Palestine, says global opinion turning against Israel

A screen grab taken from Pakistan premier Imran Khan's video message on the Israel-Palestine conflict, released on May 21, 2021 by Prime Minister's Office. (Photo courtesy: @PakPMO/Twitter)
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Updated 22 May 2021
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Pakistani PM hopes for independent Palestine, says global opinion turning against Israel

  • Khan recalls how the world's powerful states favored the apartheid regime in South Africa before changing stance due to world opinion against racism
  • The Pakistani PM says he found out about the Al-Aqsa attack and eviction of Palestinian families while visiting the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah
Updated 22 May 2021
Aamir Saeed

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said in a video message on Friday that global public opinion was gradually beginning to turn against Israel, hoping that the people of Palestine would soon have their own independent country. 

"I can see that the international public opinion on the [Palestinian] issue is changing," he said as the Pakistani nation observed Palestine Solidarity Day. "I have spent a lot of time in the West, but I never witnessed newspapers or politicians in those countries criticize Israel when it perpetrated similar brutalities in the past ... This is the first time the Western media and politicians have condemned Israel." 

Khan attributed the change to the rise of social media, saying that it played a vital role in keeping an eye on the mainstream media and allowing people to see what was actually happening in the occupied Palestinian territories. 

The prime minister recalled how the leading powers of the world favored South Africa's apartheid regime in the past, though they ultimately changed their stance when the global public opinion transformed against the apartheid regime. 

"I am quite certain that the changing international public opinion on Palestine will also force the countries supporting Israel to ultimately accept the rights of the Palestinians," he said. "There will come a day when the people of Palestine will get their own country and a just settlement." 

Reflecting on how Israel launched its recent attack on Gaza, Khan said he was visiting the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah on 27th Ramadan when he discovered that Israeli forces had tortured Muslim worshippers in Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque and evicted Palestinian families from their homes. 

This, he said, led to the fresh bout of violence in the region, adding that he took up the issue with the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation the next day and urged him to raise it in the United Nations. 

The prime minister said he discussed the development with Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz after returning home  

"I called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and assured him that we in Pakistan, along with the rest of the Muslim world and those people who believed in justice, firmly stood with him," he continued. "I also instructed [Foreign Minister] Shah Mahmood Qureshi to go to the United Nations General Assembly and raise the issue … I appreciate him for doing it forcefully." 

 

 

Earlier, Pakistan welcomed the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after 11 days of Israeli aerial bombardment that killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, with the information minister calling it a “leap forward.” 

The Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas took hold on Friday at 2:00 a.m. local time, after the worst violence in years.  

Since the crisis began on May 10, Palestinian health officials say 232 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes on the densely populated Palestinian territory that have worsened Gaza’s already dire humanitarian situation, damaged thousands of homes and disabled critical infrastructure. Rocket attacks fired by Hamas — which controls Gaza — killed 12 people in Israel.  

“Pakistan welcomes the announcement of a cease-fire. This is the power of collective, unified action; this is the effort of every person and every nation, together for a just cause. May this ceasefire be the 1st step toward peace in Palestine,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a tweet on Friday morning. 




 Pakistan's Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi gives a joint press conference with his German counterpart on April 12, 2021 at the Foreign Office in Berlin. (AFP/File) 

Qureshi met António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, on Friday and “heard our deep concern for the people of #Palestine and Pakistan’s unwavering support for their right to self determination.”  

“While cease-fire is welcomed, Israel’s occupation of Palestine must end,” he added.  

Federal Minister for Information Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Friday termed the ceasefire a “leap forward” and vowed to continue diplomatic efforts for peace in the Middle East.  

“Prime Minister Imran Khan has been leading this diplomatic effort to expose Israeli onslaught against Palestinians,” he said in a briefing with a select group of foreign media reporters in Islamabad.  

The information minister said the prime minister was “liaising closely” with other OIC countries to put an end to Israeli atrocities against innocent Palestinians.  

“We reaffirm our political, moral and diplomatic support to Palestinians and will continue raising this issue at all international platforms,” the information minister added.  

A day earlier, Qureshi — who was on a Palestine peace mission at a United Nations General Assembly emergency meeting called by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League — called on the UN to hold Israel accountable for its “war crimes.”  

“Israel’s crimes against humanity should not escape accountability,” he said. “There should be no impunity for violation of international law.”  

Over 50,000 Palestinians have been rendered homeless by the recent Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip where they already have limited access to water, food and health services.  

The recent attacks were the deadliest outbreak of violence in the region since the seven-week Israeli war on Gaza in 2014, during which 2,300 Palestinians were killed as Israeli forces bombed residential buildings, hospitals and schools.  

On Friday, Palestinians who had spent 11 days huddled in fear of Israeli shelling poured into Gaza’s streets, embracing one another in celebration in front of bombed-out buildings on streets covered in wreckage.  

Mosque loudspeakers feted “the victory of the resistance achieved over the Occupation (Israel).” Cars driving around East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah at dawn flew Palestinian flags and honked horns, echoing the scenes in Gaza.  

In the countdown to the 2 a.m. (2300 GMT Thursday) cease-fire, Palestinian rocket salvoes continued and Israel carried out at least one air strike.  

Each side said it was ready to retaliate for any truce violations by the other. Egypt said it would send two delegations to monitor the cease-fire it had mediated. 

Topics: Pakistan Gaza Palestine Israel Ceasefire

Pakistan’s second biggest city Lahore sizzles amid scorching heatwave

Updated 6 sec ago
Reuters
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Pakistan’s second biggest city Lahore sizzles amid scorching heatwave

  • Met Office warns of heatwave from May 20-24, temperatures to be 4-6 degrees above average in three main provinces
  • In June 2024, almost 700 people died in heatwave in less than a week, 2015 heatwave claimed over 2,000 lives in Karachi alone
Updated 6 sec ago
Reuters

LAHORE: Pakistan’s second biggest city, Lahore, sizzled under scorching heat this week as residents tried to stay hydrated in temperatures of 43 degrees Celsius (109 Fahrenheit).

The Pakistani Meteorological Office on Monday issued a heatwave alert saying temperatures would be four to six degrees above average in the Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan provinces from May 20-24.

The Met Office also advised people to avoid prolonged exposure to direct sunlight and stay hydrated.

“The heat is so intense in Lahore at the moment that it is difficult to go out. People should take caution, wear caps soaked in water, and they should drink plenty of water,” resident Wasif Khan said. 

“They should use sunglasses. There are juice stalls at different places, they can consume that. Anyway, they should protect themselves from heat.”

Pakistan experiences a long and hot summer season.

“The work cannot stop. We have to carry out our work in any circumstances,” resident Mohammad Shehzad said as he poured a bottle of cold water on his head.

“I am drinking juices and trying to remain under shade to protect myself from the heat. You know, the work goes on whether it is intense heat or it is very cold.”

The current heatwave comes amid increasingly erratic climate patterns across South Asia, with cities in Pakistan experiencing more frequent and intense heat waves in recent years, a trend climate experts link to global warming and climate change. 

A 2015 heatwave claimed over 2,000 lives in Karachi alone while floods in 2022 left more than 1,700 dead and over 33 million displaced nationwide.

In June 2024, almost 700 people died in a heat wave in less than a week, with most deaths recorded in the port city of Karachi and other cities of the southern province of Sindh, according to the Edhi Foundation charity.

Topics: Lahore heatwave Pakistan

PIA announces direct flights from Lahore to Paris from June 18

Updated 3 min 35 sec ago
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PIA announces direct flights from Lahore to Paris from June 18

  • PIA is already operating two weekly flights from Islamabad to Paris 
  • PIA resumed flights to Europe in January after 4.5-year-long ban
Updated 3 min 35 sec ago
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines is launching direct flights from Lahore to Paris, with the first flight taking off on June 18, the national carrier said in a statement on Thursday. 

PIA resumed flights to Europe in January after a four-and-a-half-year ban was lifted by EU regulators. A flight of the state-owned airline, plagued by a history of deadly crashes and a pilot license scandal, took off from Islamabad for Paris on Jan. 10, becoming the only carrier to offer a direct route to and from the European Union.

“PIA’s first flight from Lahore to Paris will take off on June 18,” the airline said. “A weekly flight from Lahore to Paris will take off directly on Wednesday.”

PIA is already operating two weekly flights from Islamabad to Paris and would “soon” launch flights to other cities in Europe, the airline said. 

Debt-ridden PIA was banned in June 2020 from flying to the EU, United Kingdom and the United States, a month after one of its Airbus A-320s plunged into a neighborhood of Karachi, killing nearly 100 people.

The disaster was attributed to human error by the pilots and air traffic control, and was followed by allegations that nearly a third of the licenses for PIA pilots were fake or dubious.

On November 29, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency announced it had lifted the ban on EU flights. 

PIA still remains barred from flying in the UK and the United States.

Topics: Pakistan International Airlines

Sifting through the rubble of latest Pakistan-India conflict

Updated 33 min 9 sec ago
AFP
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Sifting through the rubble of latest Pakistan-India conflict

  • Clearance teams are combing through fields for unexploded shells so residents can safely build back from rubble of their homes
  • Unexploded ordnance dating from conflicts past killed several children in 2021 and 2022 in Azad Kashmir
Updated 33 min 9 sec ago
AFP

NEELUM VALLEY, Pakistan: Two weeks after Pakistan and India’s most intense military clashes in decades, clearance teams along the border comb through fields for unexploded shells so residents can safely build back from the rubble of their homes.

Around 70 people, mostly Pakistanis, were killed in the four-day conflict that spread beyond divided Kashmir, over which the neighbors have fought three major wars.

The military confrontation — involving intense tit-for-tat drone, missile, aerial combat and artillery exchanges — came to an abrupt end after US President Donald Trump announced a surprise ceasefire, which is still holding.

On the Pakistan side of Kashmir, called Azad Kashmir, 500 buildings were damaged or destroyed, including nearly 50 in the picturesque Neelum Valley, where two people were killed.

“There is a possibility that there are unexploded shells still embedded in the ground,” said local official Muhammad Kamran, who has been helping clear educational institutions near the border.

Unexploded ordnance dating from conflicts past killed several children in 2021 and 2022 in Azad Kashmir.

Headmaster Muhammad Zubair follows a mine detector into a classroom of his high school in the valley where a writing on a whiteboard standing in the debris reads “we are brave” in English.

“Although the fighting has stopped, people still hold so much fear and anxiety,” he told AFP.

“Despite calling them back to school, children are not showing up.”

Abdul Rasheed, a power department official, said he worked “day and night” to repair power lines damaged by Indian firing.

Over the years, investment in roads has helped to create a modest tourism sector in the Neelum Valley, attracting Pakistanis who come to marvel at the Himalayan mountains.

Hotels reopened on Monday, but they remain deserted in the middle of peak season.

Alif Jan, 76, who has lived through multiple clashes between the two sides, is yet to call her grandchildren back to her border village after sending them away during the latest hostilities.

“It was a very difficult time. It was like doomsday had arrived,” she said.

The children were sent to Azad Kashmir’s main city of Muzaffarabad, usually safe but this time targeted with an Indian air strike.

Jan wants to be certain the fighting doesn’t resume and that she has enough to feed them before they eventually return.

In a schoolyard, she collects a 20-kilogram (45-pound) bag of flour, a can of oil, and some medicine from a local NGO.

Thousands of other families are still waiting to be relocated or compensated for damage.

“We have identified 5,000 families,” said Fawad Aslam, the program manager of local aid group.

“Our first priority is families who suffered direct damage, while the second priority is those who were forced to migrate — people who had to leave their homes and are now living in camps or temporary shelters.”

For 25-year-old Numan Butt whose brother was killed by shrapnel, the aid is little consolation.

“This conflict keeps coming upon us; this oppression is ongoing,” he told AFP.

“It is a good thing that they have agreed to peace, but the brother I have lost will never come back.”

Topics: Pakistan India Ties Pahalgam attack Kashmir Bombing Ceasefire

Pakistan will not get water over which India has rights, India PM Modi says

Updated 40 min 55 sec ago
Reuters
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Pakistan will not get water over which India has rights, India PM Modi says

  • India suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty last month after a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir
  • Pakistan has denied involvement and this month engaged in the worst military confrontation with India in decades 
Updated 40 min 55 sec ago
Reuters

NEW DELHI: Pakistan will not get water from rivers over which India has rights, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, a month after a deadly attack in Indian-administered Kashmir led New Delhi to suspend a key river water-sharing treaty between the neighbors.

The suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, negotiated by the World Bank in 1960, was among a slew of measures announced by India against Pakistan last month after the April 22 attack that killed 26 men, mostly Hindu tourists.

New Delhi had said the attack was backed by Pakistan – an accusation Islamabad denied – and the nuclear-armed neighbors were involved in their worst military fighting in nearly three decades before agreeing to a ceasefire on May 10.

“Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack ... Pakistan’s army will pay it, Pakistan’s economy will pay it,” Modi said at a public event in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, which borders Pakistan.

The Indus treaty provides water for 80 percent of Pakistan’s farms from three rivers that flow from India but Pakistan’s finance minister said this month that its suspension was not going to have “any immediate impact.”

The ceasefire between the countries has largely held, with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar saying that there is no exchange of fire currently and “there has been some repositioning of forces accordingly.”

“If there are acts of the kind we saw on April 22, there will be a response, we will hit the terrorists,” Jaishankar told Dutch news outlet NOS.

“If the terrorists are in Pakistan, we will hit them where they are,” he added.

There was no immediate response from Pakistan to comments by Modi and Jaishankar.

India and Pakistan have shared a troubled relationship since they were carved out of British India in 1947, and have fought three wars, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.

New Delhi also blames Pakistan for supporting Islamist separatists battling security forces in its part of Kashmir, but Islamabad denies the accusation.

The arch rivals have taken several measures against each other since the April attack in Kashmir, including suspension of trade, closure of land borders, and suspension of most visas.

Topics: Pakistan Narendra Modi Pakistan India Ties

Pakistan’s award-winning Loralai Olives eyes exports to US, Japan, Gulf markets

Updated 45 min 46 sec ago
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Pakistan’s award-winning Loralai Olives eyes exports to US, Japan, Gulf markets

  • Khaity Technologies owns Loralai Olives which recently won silver for olive oil quality at New York International Olive Oil Competition
  • Pakistan had potential to export $2 billion worth of olive oil if it can grow 10 million fruiting trees across Pakistan in next five years
Updated 45 min 46 sec ago
Ismail Dilawar

KARACHI: A Pakistani olive oil firm is eyeing the US, Gulf and Japanese markets for exports as world leaders Italy and Spain see a decline in production, creating space for new entrants, the chief executive officer of the company said in an interview this week.

Khaity Technologies (Pvt.) Ltd., is a top AI-powered agriculture app that owns Loralai Olives (LO), named after an olive-producing district in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. In recent weeks, LO has received global recognition by securing silver for olive oil quality at the 2025 New York International Olive Oil Competition. 

Olive production is beneficial for Pakistan due to its potential to reduce the country’s reliance on imported edible oils, create jobs, and promote sustainable agriculture. Additionally, it can boost the economy by establishing a new export market and fostering entrepreneurship. Olive trees are hardy and can thrive in various conditions, including water-stressed areas, making them an environmentally sustainable crop.

“We will be doing some exports when Pakistan starts harvesting olive crop this year in October- November,” Shaukat Rasool, the CEO of Khaity Technologies, told Arab News in a telephone interview, saying Pakistan had the potential to export as much as $2 billion worth of olive oil if it could grow 10 million fruiting trees across Pakistan in the next five years.

“The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] can be a big market for us as they too import a big chunk of olive oil,” said Rasool, adding that the US and Japan were key export markets to tap.

The olive production decline in Italy and Spain is largely due to the impacts of climate change, including prolonged droughts and increased heat, which negatively affect olive tree growth and yields.

With depleting production in the two leading manufacturing countries and space for new entrants in the market, Pakistan needed to look to tap the $15 billion olive oil exports market, Rasool said. 

“Their [Italy and Spain] production is decreasing, leading to a price hike that is forcing their global customers to look for a substitute to fill this gap,” said Rasool, who has set an annual target for his company to export more than 200 tons of Pakistani olive oil in the next five years.

“Pakistan can fill that gap and produce as much olive oil as Italy and Spain are producing.”

Pakistan’s olive oil production is already experiencing a boom, with the country aiming to produce 4,600 tons by 2030. While currently producing around 861 tons of table olives annually, Pakistan has the potential to become a major olive oil producer, with 10 million acres of land suitable for cultivation, almost twice the area of Spain. Production had increased from 90 kilograms in 2019 to over two tons in 2022 and 2023 in the Hazara region alone.

SUPPORTIVE ECOSYSTEM

Rasool, whose company employs 60 people, launched the LO brand last year after harvesting his first olive crop at orchards spread over 50 hectares in the Chakri village of Rawalpindi as well as what his company collected from farmers in the Loralai district of Balochistan.

“This year we have extracted around 10 tons of olive oil while next year our target is to scale this up to 25 to 30 tons,” he said.

Increased local production will save most-needed forex reserves for Pakistan which last year had to spend $2.9 billion on the import of palm and soya bean oil for domestic consumption, according to official data. This year through April, the country’s imports surged as much as 140 percent to $3.2 billion.

Pakistan is also seeking to promote drought-resistant crops like olives that can live for a thousand years without consuming much water, said Rasool.

Pakistan has collaborated in the past with Italy, the world’s biggest olive producer, to develop its olive sector and has so far grown as much as six million trees in the Balochistan, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces.

“The government has identified more than 95 districts across Pakistan for cultivating olive,” said Rasool.

While Khaity Technologies is currently selling its olive oil nationwide through Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms, the firm is hoping to secure as much as $1 million in investment from local and international partners to set up an extraction plant at the site of its olive farm in Rawalpindi.

“Extraction mills must be set up inside the olive farms because the quality of oil is time-bound in terms of extraction,” Rasool explained. 

Pakistan currently has three extraction plants, two set up by the government and one by a private party, in Loralai, which have a 600 kilograms per hour crushing capacity. LO uses a government extraction plant to extract olive oil within six to eight hours of harvesting.

To produce the best quality olive oil, the fruit must be harvested and milled for the extraction of oil within 10 hours, Rasool explained. 

In Loralai, the government has established a mill with a capacity to crush 600 kilograms of olive fruit in an hour, helping farmers extract oil within six to eight hours of harvesting.

“Next time, maybe we can win gold if we could be able to bring down our milling time to three to four hours,” Rasool said. 

“There should be an ecosystem that addresses the entire olive oil supply chain ranging from harvesting to extraction and storage.”

Topics: olive oil Pakistan olive oil Loralai Olives

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