ISLAMABAD: Federal interior minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told a news conference on Tuesday the government was willing to accept all the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) party’s demands but it was not in a position to shut down the French embassy or expel its ambassador.
Thousands of workers and supporters of the banned TLP religious faction decided to march on Islamabad on Friday, seeking the release of their top leader, Saad Rizvi, and demanding the expulsion of the French envoy to Pakistan over the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) published in France last year.
The government formed a committee to negotiate with the group and pacify the situation while asking the TLP leaders to review their demand regarding the expulsion of the European envoy.
“The top issue of the TLP leadership is the closure of the French embassy and expulsion of the French ambassador,” Ahmed said while addressing the news conference, adding: “Pakistani security forces, its institutions and democratic government are on the same page and they have decided that all [of the TLP] demands are legitimate except for the one that relates to the French diplomatic mission.”
He said fulfilling the TLP demand could create significant problems for Pakistan that is already facing tough economic circumstances.
The minister urged Saad Rizvi and the consultative body of his religious faction to deliberate over the issue more carefully.
“We want them to review their demand,” he said.
Ahmed informed that Pakistan was also planning a conference of the foreign ministers of various Muslim countries, adding that the government did not want any unpleasant circumstances to emerge right ahead of that event.
Founded in 2015, the TLP religious group has made the sanctity of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) central to its politics.
Its leadership has also opposed any amendments to the country’s blasphemy laws and tried to put the government under pressure to adopt a more aggressive posture toward France after the repeated publication of the anti-Islam caricatures.
Pakistan refuses to expel French ambassador, asks banned religious group to review its demand
https://arab.news/54jug
Pakistan refuses to expel French ambassador, asks banned religious group to review its demand
- Interior minister says military and civilian institutions agree expelling French envoy would create economic problems for Pakistan
- Urges TLP leader Saad Rizvi and the consultative body of his religious party to review their demand "more carefully"
Bangladesh to tour Pakistan for five-match T20 series in May
- Bangladesh last toured Pakistan in August 2024 and achieved a historic 2-0 Test series victory
- The upcoming five-match series in May is scheduled to prepare for T20 World Cup next year
ISLAMABAD: Bangladesh will tour Pakistan in May for a five-match Twenty20 International series, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said on Wednesday, confirming the shift from the originally planned three One Day Internationals and three T20s to an all-T20 format ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup.
The announcement of the series, scheduled from May 25 to June 3, comes as Pakistan hosts the Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches.
Bangladesh last toured Pakistan in August 2024 for a Test series, where they achieved a historic 2-0 whitewash, marking their first Test win on Pakistani soil.
“Bangladesh team will arrive on 21 May and will undergo training sessions at the Iqbal Stadium [Faisalabad] from 22 to 24 May,” the PCB said in a statement.
The upcoming T20 series will be played in Faisalabad and Lahore.
Iqbal Stadium, which last hosted an international match in 2008, will stage the first two T20Is on May 25 and 27.
The remaining three matches will be held at Lahore’s Qaddafi Stadium on May 30, June 1 and June 3. All matches are scheduled to begin at 8:00 PM local time.
The series is part of the ICC’s Future Tours Program (FTP). The decision to replace the ODIs with additional T20Is was made mutually by both boards to better prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup, said the PCB.
Riyadh-based digital bloc says Pakistan’s 2026 presidency to boost country’s global tech standing
- Pakistan is a founding member of the Digital Cooperation Organization which was established in November 2020
- Its secretary general, Deemah AlYahya, is currently in Pakistan where DCO is co-hosting a digital investment summit
ISLAMABAD: The Secretary-General of the Riyadh-based Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO), Deemah AlYahya, said on Tuesday Pakistan’s forthcoming presidency of the multilateral body was part of ongoing efforts to position the country as a regional and global digital leader.
Founded in November 2020, the DCO is an intergovernmental organization aimed at accelerating digital transformation and encouraging collaboration among member states. The organization’s founding members include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Pakistan, with Nigeria and Oman joining shortly thereafter. Pakistan is scheduled to assume the DCO presidency in 2026, following Kuwait’s term in 2025.
AlYahya, a Saudi digital economy expert and the organization’s Secretary-General since April 2021, is responsible for engaging with heads of state, ministers and private sector leaders to bridge digital divides across member nations. She is currently in Islamabad for a two-day Digital Foreign Direct Investment (DFDI) summit, organized by Pakistan’s Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication in collaboration with the DCO.
The event has attracted over 400 delegates and more than 200 IT and telecom companies from over 30 countries.
“The presidency of Pakistan that is planned for 2026 for DCO is a continuous effort for positioning Pakistan as the digital powerhouse for the region and for the globe as well,” the DCO secretary-general told Arab News in an exclusive conversation on the sidelines of the forum in Islamabad.
She said Pakistan’s leadership role would not only benefit the country in terms of infrastructure and technological advancement but also put it in a position where it will be able to support other countries to grow as well.
“The DCO is working to open markets for enterprises across all member states, enabling smooth and healthy cross-border collaboration, so Pakistan will have a leading role in making such kind of advancement happen,” she added.
AlYahya said that seeing the youth and the growth in Pakistan’s digital sector gave her a great sense of optimism.
“It gives us a lot of motivation to put hands in hands with all our member countries and utilize the amazing advancement in each and every country,” she added.
She noted that DCO believed every country had a unique competitive advantage that can help address challenges faced by others, adding it was her organization’s role to identify these imperatives, strengths and areas for improvement.
“The Digital FDI event here in Pakistan … is one example of how can we explore the competitive advantage of the great infrastructure, youth, talent, the advancement in software and hardware here in Pakistan and attract the private sector to harness these opportunities in the land of Pakistan,” she added.
Pakistan’s IT exports reached a record $3.2 billion in FY2024, reflecting a 24 percent increase from the previous year, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. In the first half of the current fiscal year (FY2025), exports rose further to $1.86 billion, up 28 percent year-on-year, with monthly figures averaging around $310 million.
This growth trajectory is underpinned by a number of factors, including an expanding global client base, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Pakistan is now aiming to cross the $4 billion mark in IT exports by the end of FY2025.
Pakistan tells UN Israel killing Palestinians at ‘four times the rate of previous conflicts’
- Asim Iftikhar Ahmed says peace will remain an illusion until Israel’s occupation of Arab lands continues
- He calls for a ceasefire, full humanitarian access to Gaza and a credible path to Palestinian statehood
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top diplomat at the United Nations said on Tuesday Israel was killing civilians in Gaza at “four times the rate of previous conflicts” as he urged the international community to move toward permanent peace in the Middle East by ending Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Arab territories.
The war in Gaza, which began in October 2023, has so far killed around 52,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials.
Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmed, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, raised the issue during a high-level debate at the Security Council on the Middle East. He described Israel’s ongoing military campaign as “the erasure of a nation’s right to exist” and accused it of war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
“Israel’s unilateral breach of the ceasefire agreement — brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United States [earlier this year] — was a deliberate choice of return to war over diplomacy,” Ahmed said. “This assault on Gaza is killing civilians at four times the rate of previous conflicts. Since hostilities resumed, nearly 2,000 more Palestinians have been killed, adding to the staggering death toll of over 52,000, among them more than 17,000 children.”
Ahmed condemned the attack earlier this month on Al-Ahli hospital, the last major facility providing critical health care in Gaza, calling it a “horrific massacre.”
He said Israeli forces were deliberately targeting civilians, aid convoys and critical infrastructure, while using starvation as a weapon of war.
“The deliberate targeting of civilians and essential infrastructure, the use of starvation as a weapon, and the incineration of displaced families in tents — these are not collateral damages of war; they are methods of war,” he said.
The Pakistani envoy also blamed Israel for violating ceasefire agreements and UN resolutions in Lebanon and Syria, calling the pattern “clear.”
“As long as the root cause, the illegal occupation of Palestinian and Arab lands, is ignored and not addressed, peace will remain an illusion,” he added.
Calling for immediate international action, Ahmed urged the Security Council to pursue a permanent ceasefire, full humanitarian access to Gaza and a credible path to Palestinian statehood.
He welcomed the upcoming June peace conference co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia as a “vital opportunity” and called for concrete outcomes, including a timeline for statehood, protection of civilians and full UN membership for Palestine.
“Seventy-five years of failure have shown one immutable truth: peace cannot coexist with occupation, justice cannot thrive under apartheid and stability cannot take root where millions remain stateless,” Ahmed added.
Pakistan’s Noor Zaman revives family legacy with epic Under-23 world squash championship comeback
- Zaman defeated opponents from Kuwait, Poland, France and Malaysia on his path to the final
- His epic win has got him a wildcard entry to Senior World Championship in Chicago next month
PESHAWAR: Noor Zaman found himself on the brink of defeat after losing the first two games to his Egyptian counterpart in the final of the Under-23 Men’s World Squash Championship in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi this month.
The 21-year-old faced a moment of truth in front of a roaring home crowd and decided he could not lose the world championship Pakistan was hosting for the first time in 30 years and what followed was an epic comeback from Zaman to beat Egypt’s Karim El Turky 3-2.
His victory was not just a personal milestone but a symbolic moment for Pakistani squash, a sport once dominated by legends like Jahangir Khan, Jansher Khan, and Zaman’s own grandfather, Qamar Zaman.
“When I got 2-0 down, only one thing was coming to my mind that ‘a world championship is being held in Pakistan after three decades, the whole crowd is sitting here to support me, if I lose, I will regret it a lot’,” Zaman recalled.
“I thought to myself that ‘all the hard work I have done in the past three, four months to prepare for this tournament, I should go to the court and fight for every single point.’ Thank God, I fought for every point and Allah made me the world champion.”
Zaman, who hails from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, says for him, squash was more of an obligation than a passion.
“When I was young, I used to be taken for playing squash [by my grandfather]. I was not as passionate in childhood,” he said.
But with time, the sport became his calling.
Zaman’s ascent began with two consecutive Asian Junior Championship titles last year, followed by a silver medal at the Asian Games after graduating to the senior category.
The Under-23 World Squash Championship saw participation from 32 countries, with Zaman defeating opponents from Kuwait, Poland, France, and Malaysia on his path to the final. Zaman defeated 3-0 the players he had narrowly contested against as a junior, which was a testament to his growing dominance in the game.
His final opponent, Egypt’s El Turky, pushed him to the limit, but Zaman staged a spirited comeback, cheered on by an electrifying crowd in Karachi.
But there has hardly been any official recognition of Zaman’s feat.
“Everyone congratulated me — government officials, seniors, everyone — but no one has yet invited me for any honors,” he shared.
The 21-year-old remains grounded, driven by the legacy of his grandfather who continues to nurture talent in Peshawar by organizing regular tournaments.
“This is our family game and all the players emerging from Peshawar are emerging because of him, because of his support,” Noor said.
“He organizes 2-3 tournaments every month, which gives motivation to kids and they improve further.”
Zaman’s victory in the Under-23 championship has earned him a direct wildcard entry to next month’s Senior World Championship in Chicago.
The young Pakistani squash star is hopeful of not just carrying forward his family’s legacy, but also helping his country reclaim its former glory in the sport.
“God willing, now, I am going to play the Senior World Championship, [and] the goal is to become the Senior World Champion,” he said.
Pakistan says India planning military action within ‘24 to 36 hours’ as US calls for restraint
- Ataullah Tarrar warns ‘onus of escalatory spiral and its ensuing consequences shall squarely lie with India’
- US says Secretary of State Marco Rubio will contact Pakistan and India ‘as early as today or tomorrow’
ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Information Ataullah Tarrar said on Wednesday Islamabad had “credible intelligence” India was planning to launch a military action against Pakistan within the next “24 to 36 hours,” as the United States urged both nuclear-armed neighbors to resolve their differences peacefully.
Relations between the two South Asian nations have deteriorated sharply following an attack on April 22 in Pahalgam, a tourist hotspot in Indian-administered Kashmir, which killed 26 people.
New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing the assault, but Pakistan denied any involvement and called for an independent investigation while warning India against any escalation.
Tarrar issued the warning in a video statement, hours after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with his top military commanders alongside the country’s defense minister and national security adviser, reportedly granting them “operational freedom” to respond to last week’s attack.
“Pakistan has credible intelligence that India intends carrying out military action against Pakistan in the next 24 to 36 hours on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement in the Pahalgam incident,” he said.
“Indian self-assumed hubristic role of judge, jury, and executioner in the region is reckless and vehemently rejected,” he added.
Tarrar reiterated that Pakistan had itself suffered from militancy and “always condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations anywhere in the world.”
He said Islamabad had proposed a credible and transparent probe by a neutral commission of experts to ascertain facts around the Pahalgam attack, but “India had decided to tread the path of confrontation.”
“Evasion of credible investigation is in itself sufficient evidence exposing India’s real motives, consciously making strategic decisions hostage to public sentiments purposefully trumped up for securing political objectives is unfortunate and deplorable,” he said.
“Pakistan reiterates that any such military adventurism by India would be responded to assuredly and decisively,” he added. “The international community must remain alive to the reality that the onus of escalatory spiral and its ensuing consequences shall squarely lie with India.”
Meanwhile, the United States said it was closely monitoring the situation and had reached out to both governments.
“We’re also monitoring the developments across the board in that region, and we ... are in touch with the governments of India and Pakistan, not just at the foreign minister level, certainly, but at multiple levels,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said during a media briefing.
“The Secretary [of State Marco Rubio] expects to speak with the foreign ministers of Pakistan and India as early as today or tomorrow,” she added. “He is encouraging other national leaders, other foreign ministers, to also reach out to the countries on this issue.”
On Friday, US President Donald Trump had sought to downplay the tensions, saying tensions over Kashmir had lingered for a significantly long period and the matter would be “figured out, one way or another.”
