PESHAWAR: Unidentified gunmen abducted 13 laborers on Friday in the northwestern Pakistani district of Tank but released nine, police said on Saturday, amid a surge in militancy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the rest of the country.
Attacks against security targets and the assassination of police and government officials have been on the rise in recent months in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with most assaults claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
In the latest incident, 13 laborers, all from the central Pakistani province of Punjab, were kidnapped in Tank district. No group has as yet claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
“The laborers were hired from a private company and were repairing the poles of a 132KV transmission line in Tatoor village located in Shaheed Mureed Akbar Police Station,” District Police Officer Abdus Salam Khalid told Arab News.
The officer said the gunmen drove off with the 13 laborers but then dropped off nine on a roadside while the whereabouts of four were unknown. He did not specify why the nine workers were released.
“No call for ransom has been received yet and the search operation is underway to locate the persons.”
In April this year, a session judge of the South Wazirstan court, Shakir Ullah Marwat, was abducted by unidentified gunmen from the Dl Khan-Tank road. He was recovered days later with the intervention of local jirga and said he had been abducted by the TTP.
In the past, ethnically-motivated attacks against Punjabis have mostly taken place in the southwestern Balochistan province.
Last month, unidentified gunmen stormed into a house near Gwadar city in Balochistan and killed seven workers in an apparent ethnic attack. All the laberers were from Punjab. A month earlier, the Balochistan Liberation Army sepratist group had claimed responsibility for killing several Punjabi workers who were abducted from a bus on a highway in Balochistan.
Gunmen abduct 13 laborers, release 9 in northwestern Pakistani district of Tank
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Gunmen abduct 13 laborers, release 9 in northwestern Pakistani district of Tank
- Police say whereabouts of four laborers unknown, all laberers were from central Pakistani province of Punjab
- In the past, ethnically-motivated attacks against Punjabis have mostly taken place in Balochistan province
Pakistan says 38 defense personnel missing since 1965 believed to be in Indian custody
- Pakistan, India exchange list of prisoners through diplomatic channels on Jan 1 and July 1 each year
- Repatriation of 62 Pakistani prisoners in 2023, four this year secured so far, foreign office says
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India on Monday exchanged lists of prisoners in each other’s jails, the foreign office said, with Islamabad saying 38 defense personnel missing since the wars of 1965 and 1971 were believed to be in New Delhi’s custody.
Pakistan and India exchange such lists through diplomatic channels on Jan 1 and July 1 each year in pursuance of the Consular Access Agreement of 2008.
“Pakistan handed over a list of 254 Indian or believed-to-be-Indian civilian prisoners and fishermen in Pakistani jails. India shared a list of 452 Pakistani or believed-to-be-Pakistani civilian prisoners and fishermen in Indian jails,” the foreign office said.
“A list of 38 missing Pakistani defense personnel, believed to be in India’s custody since the wars of 1965 and 1971, was also handed over by Pakistan.”
The government has called for the immediate release and repatriation of all Pakistani prisoners who had completed their sentences in India.
“A request for special consular access to various believed-to-be-Pakistani prisoners, including the physically- and mentally challenged prisoners, has been made and for expeditious confirmation of their national status,” the foreign office said.
“The government of Pakistan has also urged India to ensure safety, security, and well-being of all Pakistani or believed-to-be-Pakistani prisoners, awaiting their release and repatriation.”
The repatriation of 62 Pakistani prisoners in 2023, and four in the current year, has also so far been secured, the foreign office added.
The Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, also known as the second India–Pakistan war, was an armed conflict between Pakistan and India that took place from August 1965 to September 1965. Hostilities ended after a ceasefire was declared through UNSC Resolution 211 following diplomatic intervention by the Soviet Union and the United States, and the subsequent issuance of the Tashkent Declaration.
The war of 1971, also known as the third India-Pakistan war, was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that ended with the fall of Dhaka and the creation of Bangladesh.
Pakistani religious party to hold Islamabad sit-in on July 12 against taxes, electricity prices
- Pakistan’s tax-heavy $67.76 billion budget for the new fiscal year came into effect Monday
- Last five months have seen steep increases in electricity and gas bills of consumers, industry
ISLAMABAD: The chief of Pakistani religious-political party, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), said on Monday it would hold a sit-in in Islamabad on July 12 to exert pressure on the federal government to lower taxes and reduce electricity bills.
Pakistan’s tax-heavy $67.76 billion budget for the new fiscal year came into effect today, Monday, amid an annual inflation projection of up to 13.5 percent for June.
The ambitious budget with a challenging tax revenue target of Rs13 trillion ($46.66 billion) has drawn the ire of the government’s allies and opposition alike. The revenue collection target for the new fiscal year is almost 40 percent higher than the last fiscal year. The last five months have also seen steep increases in electricity and gas bills of consumers and industries.
“Today, a joint meeting of party representatives from all over the country was conducted and we decided to hold a large dharna in Islamabad on July 12,” the JI party chief Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman said on Monday at a press conference in the southern port city of Karachi, the country’s commercial hub. “The sit-in will be held to lower taxes and also the per unit value of electricity.”
Lamenting the increase in the new budget on the tax liability of the salaried class, Rehman said many working professionals, including doctors, engineers and chartered accountants, were leaving Pakistan due to the unfair policies.
“Everybody is trying to get out of Pakistan due to inflation, unemployment and increased taxes,” the JI chief said.
The rise in the Pakistan government’s tax target is made up of a 48 percent increase in direct taxes and a 35 percent hike in indirect taxes over revised estimates of the current year. Non-tax revenue, including petroleum levies, is seen increasing by 64 percent. The tax would increase to 18 percent on textile and leather products as well as mobile phones besides a hike in the tax on capital gains from real estate. Workers will also get hit with more direct tax on income.
Opposition parties, mainly parliamentarians backed by the jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and major trade bodies have rejected the budget, saying it will be highly inflationary and lead to industry shutdowns.
Union of salaried Pakistanis petitions Supreme Court against new taxes
- Budget 2024-25 has increased tax liability by Rs22,500 for all persons earning over Rs50,000 a month
- Last year too the government had imposed more income tax on salaried people it deemed “high earners”
ISLAMABAD: The Salaried Class Alliance of Pakistan has petitioned the Supreme Court against what it calls “unfair” taxes imposed on workers under the budget 2024-2025 that came into effect today, Monday, according to a copy of the document seen by Arab News.
The government presented the national budget on June 12 with a challenging tax revenue target of 13 trillion rupees ($46.66 billion) for the year starting July 1, up about 40 percent from the current year, to strengthen the case for a new rescue deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Parliament on Friday passed the finance bill, which has increased the tax liability by Rs22,500 for all persons earning more than Rs50,000 a month. Last year also the government had imposed a higher income tax on salaried persons it deemed “high earners.”
“The salaried class, already strained by high inflation and inadequate services, faces escalated tax rates without corresponding benefits or relief measures,” the union’s petition to the top court read. “The government’s approach neglects opportunities to broaden the tax base by targeting non-filers and the informal sector, crucial for equitable taxation.”
The petition said increased taxation would contribute to the brain drain of skilled professionals and capital flight, which were detrimental to Pakistan’s economic growth and stability, while also highlighting the practice of unjust taxation given the discrepancies in tax treatment for private sector salaried individuals and other sectors like government workers.
The petition called on the court to encourage measures to enforce taxation on non-active taxpayers and informal sectors.
“Request the Supreme Court’s intervention through Suo moto notice to review the constitutional validity and fairness of the tax measures proposed in the Finance Budget 2024-2025,” the petition said, outlining proposed actions for the court.
“We appeal to the Honorable Court, under Article 184(3) of the Constitution of Pakistan, to uphold justice and protect the rights of the salaried class and all taxpayers in Pakistan. The current taxation policies threaten economic stability and fairness. We seek your urgent attention and intervention to ensure that taxation policies align with principles of equity, economic growth, and national development.”
The rise in the Pakistan government’s tax target is made up of a 48 percent increase in direct taxes and a 35 percent hike in indirect taxes over revised estimates of the current year. Non-tax revenue, including petroleum levies, is seen increasing by 64 percent. The tax would increase to 18 percent on textile and leather products as well as mobile phones besides a hike in the tax on capital gains from real estate. Workers will also get hit with more direct tax on income.
Opposition parties, mainly parliamentarians backed by the jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and major trade bodies have rejected the budget, saying it will be highly inflationary and lead to industry shutdowns. On Monday, a main religious political party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, announced it would hold a sit-in in Islamabad against taxes and inflation from July 12.
Pakistan’s central bank has also warned of possible inflationary effects from the budget, saying limited progress in structural reforms to broaden the tax base meant increased revenue must come from hiking taxes.
The upcoming year’s growth target has been set at 3.6 percent, with inflation projected at 12 percent.
Pakistani court sentences Christian man to death for posting hateful content against Muslims
- Ehsan Shan, not party to Qur’an’s desecration, was accused of reposting its defaced pages on TikTok
- Shan to appeal death sentence issued by court in Pakistan’s eastern city of Sahiwal, says lawyer
MULTAN, Pakistan: A court in Pakistan sentenced a Christian man to death for sharing what it said was hateful content against Muslims on social media after one of the worst mob attacks on Christians in the eastern Punjab province last year, his lawyer said Monday.
In August 2023, groups of Muslim men burned dozens of homes and churches in the city of Jaranwala after some residents claimed they saw two Christian men tearing out pages from Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an, throwing them on the ground and writing insulting remarks on other pages, authorities said. The two men were later arrested.
No casualties were reported at the time as terrified Christians fled their homes to safer areas. Though the police arrested more than 100 suspects following the attacks, it remained unclear if any were convicted.
Ehsan Shan, though not party to the desecration, was accused of reposting the defaced pages of the Qur’an on his TikTok account, his lawyer Khurram Shahzad told The Associated Press. He also said he would appeal against the death sentence issued Saturday by a court in the city of Sahiwal in Punjab province.
Amir Farooq, a police officer who arrested Shan, said the man shared “the hateful content at a sensitive time when authorities were already struggling to contain the violence.”
Naveed Kashif, a local priest at a church in Sahiwal, said while he didn’t excuse what Shan posted, he wondered ” why the court ordered such an extreme verdict when those linked to the attacks are yet to be punished.”
Blasphemy accusations are common in Pakistan. Under the country’s blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death. While authorities have yet to carry out a death sentence for blasphemy, often just the accusation can cause riots and incite mobs to violence, lynching and killings.
Earlier this month, 72-year-old Nazir Masih died after he was attacked by an angry mob in May following accusations of blasphemy.
Pakistan’s Muhammad Rizwan appointed captain of Canadian franchise Vancouver Knights for GT20
- Rizwan will lead Pakistan captain Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir and Asif Ali in Vancouver Knights squad
- This will be the first time Pakistani cricketers will be seen in action after humiliating World Cup exit
ISLAMABAD: Canadian cricket franchise Vancouver Knights announced recently it had appointed Pakistan’s Muhammad Rizwan to lead the franchise in the upcoming season of the Global T20 league, which would feature some of the world’s top cricketing talents in action later this month.
The Global T20 Canada is a professional Twenty20 cricket tournament that is played in the country. The first two editions of the tournament were played in 2018 and 2019 before the league was suspended for three years due to the coronavirus pandemic, returning in 2023.
The fourth edition of the tournament will begin in Canada from July 25 to August 11 and will feature six franchises, the Brampton Wolves, Montreal Tigers, Vancouver Knights, Toronto Nationals, Mississauga Panthers and Surrey Jaguars.
“Hear ye, hear ye! The Vancouver Knights have chosen their captain for GT20 Season 4: Sir Mohammad Rizwan,” Vancouver Knights wrote on social media platform X on Sunday. “With his mighty batting skills and sharp wicketkeeping, he’s ready to lead our charge to victory.”
Rizwan will captain fellow Pakistani teammates Babar Azam, Mohammad Amir and Asif Ali, who are also part of the 18-member Vancouver Knights squad. Azam is the T20I captain of Pakistan’s national squad and will play under Rizwan’s leadership for the first time.
The Canadian domestic league will also feature other international stars such as Afghanistan’s Mohammad Nabi, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, West Indian cricketers Sunil Narine, Carlos Brathwaite, Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan, Namibia’s David Wiese and Australian cricketer David Warner.
The Pakistani cricketers will be seen in action for the first time after their humiliating first-round exit from the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2024 in June. The South Asian team crashed out of the World Cup without qualifying for the second round of the tournament after, successive losses to minnows United States and India.
Squad:
Babar Azam, Asif Ali, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Jeremy Gordon, Rishiv Joshi, Sandeep Lamichhane, Dwaine Pretorius, Michael Rippon, Dipendra Singh Airee, Harsh Thaker, Ruben Trumpelmann, Paul van Meekeren, Sarmad Anwar, Mandeep Girdhar, Yuvraj Samra, Shubham Sharma, Ajayveer Singh
