LONDON: Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai called for Pakistan to stop deporting undocumented Afghans, saying she was especially concerned about the “dark future” awaiting women and girls sent back.
“It is deeply concerning that Pakistan is forcing Afghan refugees based in Pakistan back into Afghanistan, and I’m deeply concerned about the women and girls,” the activist, who was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2014, told AFP in an interview on Friday.
Despite extending leave for Afghan refugees with permits to stay in Pakistan for another year, Islamabad this week said it would remove illegal migrants.
More than 600,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan since Islamabad last year ordered undocumented migrants to leave or face arrest.
Human rights monitors have warned that some sent to Afghanistan faced persecution by the Taliban, who came into power in 2021 and have imposed an austere form of Islam, barring girls from higher education and excluding women and girls from areas of public life.
“A lot of these girls in Pakistan were studying, they were in school, these women were doing work,” said Malala, 27, who grew up in Pakistan’s Swat valley.
She had to move to the UK after she was shot, aged just 15, for resisting the Pakistan Taliban’s then-ban on girls’ education in her hometown.
“I hope that Pakistan reverses its policy and that they protect girls and women especially because of the dark future that they would be witnessing in Afghanistan,” she added.
Speaking to AFP on her birthday, recognized by the UN as Malala Day, the activist launched into the challenges facing the only country in the world where girls over 12 are barred from school.
“I cannot believe that I’m witnessing a time when girls have been banned from their education for more than three years,” she said, adding that while the situation was “shocking,” she “admired the resilience of the Afghan activists.”
The Malala Fund is campaigning for the UN to formally broaden their definition of crimes against humanity to include “gender apartheid” — a phrase the UN has used to describe the situation in Afghanistan.
Earlier this month, the UN and Taliban sat down for talks in Doha for the first time since the latter came to power but without women in attendance.
Malala said the Doha talks made a “compromise on the future of women and girls,” calling for a “principled engagement” with the Taliban.
“World leaders need to realize that when they sit down with the Taliban... and they’re excluding women and girls, they are actually doing a Taliban a favor,” she said.
“I want to call out those countries as well — that includes Canada and France — who have a feminist foreign policy” to “condemn” conversations like the Doha talks, she added.
Malala also called for an “urgent” ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
“It is horrifying how many schools have been bombed in Gaza, even more recently the four schools,” she added, referring to four schools that were hit by Israeli air strikes this week.
According to the education ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, 85 percent of educational facilities in the territory are out of service because of the war.
“It is deeply concerning because we know that children do not have a future when they’re living under a war, when their schools and homes are destroyed,” said Malala.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which coordinates nearly all aid to Gaza, said it used more than half its budget before the war to fund education.
However, it is facing funding woes after several countries including the United States and Britain suspended aid following Israeli accusations that its workers were involved in Hamas’s attack against Israel on October 7.
Some countries like Australia and Germany have however resumed funding when evidence could not be found to support Israel’s claims.
“When it comes to humanitarian support, all countries should be making no compromise. They should make sure that all the immediate and urgent needs of people are provided, and UNRWA is an example of that,” Malala said of countries resuming funding for the group.
“I do hope that all countries are providing aid and support because it’s about those innocent people and civilians who need to be protected.”
Malala calls for Pakistan to stop deporting undocumented Afghans
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Malala calls for Pakistan to stop deporting undocumented Afghans
- More than 600,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan since Islamabad last year ordered undocumented migrants to leave or face arrest
- Human rights monitors have warned that some sent to Afghanistan faced persecution by the Taliban, who came into power in 2021
Pakistan fears lower production as ‘severe’ drought dents winter harvest
- Pakistan ranks among countries most vulnerable to climate change, which scientists say is making extreme weather events more common and more severe
- Analysts say a fast-growing population, climate change and poor resource management with an over-reliance on Indus River are all spurring water scarcity
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan fears lower production as a “severe” winter drought has ravaged several crops in the country’s breadbasket, an official said on Sunday, stressing the need to build more water reservoirs and restore wetlands.
The South Asian country — home to more than 240 million people — ranks among the nations that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is making extreme weather events more common and more severe.
According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), rainfall from Sept. 1 to Jan. 15 was 40 percent below normal across Pakistan, with Sindh, Balochistan, and Punjab being the most affected provinces with deficits of 52 percent, 45 percent, and 42 percent respectively.
Muhammad Saleem Shaikh, a spokesperson for Pakistani climate change ministry, said the ongoing severe drought is in fact part of a larger trend of increasing climate variability that threatens to disrupt agriculture and exacerbate water shortages, the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“Reduced water availability due to low rainfall was adversely impacting the growth of crops like wheat, a staple food, as well as vital cash crops like potato, leading to fears of lower production and rising food prices and their shortages in future,” he was quoted as saying.
“The ongoing winter drought conditions in the country underscore the urgent need for a unified response to address the country’s water crisis.”
The agriculture sector contributes nearly a quarter of Pakistan’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 37 percent of the national labor force, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.
Pakistan generally relies on water from the Indus river which bisects the country from north to south, where it empties into the Arabian Sea.
But analysts say a fast-growing population, climate change and poor resource management with an over-reliance on a single water source are all spurring scarcity.
Shaikh said building water reservoirs, restoring wetlands and promoting drought-tolerant crop varieties is vital to mitigating recurring and intensifying drought risks in the country.
“Rainwater harvesting, groundwater recharge and the adoption of modern irrigation methods like drip and sprinkler systems are no longer optional,” he said. “They are critical tools in our survival weaponry.”
Pakistani women voted differently from men in 18 percent communities in 2024 general election — report
- Pakistan held a general election on Feb. 8 last year that was marred by a mobile Internet shutdown and unusually delayed results
- The polls threw up a hung parliament and were followed by weeks of protests over vote count fraud, an allegation denied by authorities
ISLAMABAD: Women voters in 18 percent communities in the jurisdiction of male and female polling stations voted differently from their men counterparts during General Elections in Pakistan in Feb. 2024, a Pakistani election monitor said on Sunday.
Pakistan held its general election on Feb. 8, 2024 that was marred by a mobile Internet shutdown and unusually delayed results. The polls threw up a hung National Assembly and were followed by weeks of protests by opposition parties over allegations of rigging and vote count fraud.
Pakistani election authorities denied the allegations, and Shehbaz Sharif, who was favored by a coalition of political parties, secured a comfortable win over Omar Ayub of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which was backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
The Free and Fair Election Network (FAFEN), which aims to promote electoral transparency in Pakistan, compared results of male and female polling stations in the same communities and found that in 82 percent of the communities, male and female voters’ choice of winner was aligned.
“In 18 percent of the communities, male and female voters diverged in their choice of winner as they returned different winners from their respective polling stations,” FAFEN said in its report issued on Sunday.
“Compared to rural areas, communities in urban areas showed more divergent choices among male and female voters.”
The federal capital of Islamabad had the highest proportion (37 percent) of electoral communities with different winners in male and female polling stations. Balochistan had the second-highest proportion (32 percent), followed by Sindh (19 percent) and Punjab (18 percent), while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) had the lowest proportion (13 percent) of such electoral communities, according to the report.
Of the 3,884 communities where women’s choice of winner for National Assembly (NA) seats was different, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won more support from women in 1,260 communities, followed by the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) in 1,027 and the Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) in 694 communities. Regional trends showed that while the PTI performed well across the country in terms of women voters’ choice, the PML-N remained strong in Punjab, and the PPPP dominated in Sindh.
The assessment included 21,188 communities, comprising 42,804 comparable male and female polling stations. In 37 NA constituencies, the largest proportion of voters in female polling stations did not vote for the winning candidates, according to the report.
In 226 NA constituencies, the largest proportion of voters in female polling stations voted for the constituency winner. In 166 of those NA constituencies, compared to voters in male polling stations, a larger proportion of voters in female polling stations polled for the winner.
Pakistan’s National Assembly has a total 336 seats, of which members are directly elected on 266, 60 are reserved for women and a further 10 for religious minorities.
“In seven constituencies – NA-43 Tank-cum-Dera Ismail Khan, NA-49 Attock-I, NA-55 Rawalpindi-IV, NA-87 Khushab-I, NA-94 Chiniot-II, NA-128 Lahore-XII and NA-163 Bahawalnagar-IV – the lead at female polling stations determined the winner,” FAFEN said.
Trump refugee embargo cancels hope for Afghan migrants in Pakistan
- Trump’s order to pause admissions for 90 days starting Jan. 27 has blocked around 10,000 Afghans from entry in US
- Tens of thousands more applications in process have also been frozen, according to a US-based non-profit AfghanEvac
ISLAMABAD: After working for years alongside the United States to combat the Taliban in Afghanistan, Zahra says she was just days from being evacuated to America when President Donald Trump suspended refugee admissions.
She sold her belongings as she awaited a flight out of Pakistan, where she has been embroiled in a three-year process applying for a refugee scheme Trump froze in one of his first acts back in office.
“We stood with them for the past 20 years, all I want is for them to stand up for the promise they made,” the 27-year-old former Afghanistan defense ministry worker told AFP from Islamabad.
“The only wish we have is to be safe and live where we can have peace and an ordinary human life,” she said, sobbing down the phone and speaking under a pseudonym to protect her identity.
The 2021 withdrawal of US-led troops from Kabul ended two decades of war but began a new exodus, as Afghans clamoured to escape Taliban government curbs and fears of reprisal for working with Washington.
Trump’s executive order to pause admissions for at least 90 days starting from January 27 has blocked around 10,000 Afghans approved for entry from starting new lives in the United States, according to non-profit #AfghanEvac.
Tens of thousands more applications in process have also been frozen, the US-based organization said.
“All sorts of people that stood up for the idea of America, now they’re in danger,” #AfghanEvac chief Shawn VanDiver told AFP.
“We owe it to them to get them out.”
Trump’s order said “the United States lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees,” and stopped the relocation scheme until it “aligns with the interests of the United States.”
But campaigners argue the country owes a debt to Afghans left in the lurch by their withdrawal — which Trump committed to in his first term but was overseen by his successor president Joe Biden.
A special visa program for Afghans who were employed by or on behalf of the United States remains active.
But the more wide-reaching refugee scheme was relied on by applicants including ex-Afghan soldiers and employees of the US-backed government, as well as their family members.
With America’s Kabul embassy shut, many traveled to neighboring Pakistan to enter paperwork, conduct interviews and undergo vetting.
Female applicants are fleeing the country where the Taliban government has banned them from secondary school and university, squeezed them from public life and ordered them to wear all-covering clothes.
“I had a lot of hopes for my sisters, that they should graduate from school and pursue education,” said one of five daughters of an ex-government employee’s family seeking resettlement from Pakistan.
“All my hopes are shattered,” said the 23-year-old. “I have nightmares and when I wake up in the morning, I feel like I can’t fall asleep again. I’m very anxious.”
The European Court of Justice ruled last year that Afghan women have the right to be recognized as refugees in the EU because Taliban government curbs on women “constitute acts of persecution.”
This week, the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor said he was seeking arrest warrants for Taliban government leaders because there are grounds to suspect they “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
Moniza Kakar, a lawyer who works with Afghan refugees in Pakistan, said some women told her they “prefer suicide than going back to Afghanistan.”
The Taliban government has announced an amnesty and encouraged those who fled to return to rebuild the country, presenting it as a haven of Islamic values.
But a 2023 report by UN rights experts said “the amnesty for former government and military officials is being violated” and there were “consistent credible reports of summary executions and acts tantamount to enforced disappearances.”
Last summer, Pakistan’s foreign ministry complained as many as 25,000 Afghans were in the country awaiting relocation to the United States.
Islamabad announced a sweeping campaign in 2023 to evict undocumented Afghans , ordering them to leave or face arrest as relations soured with the Taliban government.
At least 800,000 Afghans have left since October 2023, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
But Afghans awaiting refugee relocation have also reported widespread harassment to leave by authorities in Pakistan.
A foreign ministry spokesman told reporters this week Trump’s administration had not yet communicated any new refugee policy to Pakistan.
Islamabad is following “the same old plan” where Washington has committed to taking in refugees this year, Shafqat Ali Khan said.
Afghans awaiting new lives abroad feel caught between a canceled future and the haunting prospect of returning to their homeland.
“I don’t have the option of returning to Afghanistan, and my situation here is dire,” said 52-year-old former Afghan journalist Zahir Bahand.
“There is no life left for me, no peace, no future, no visa, no home, no work: nothing is left for me.”
At UN, Pakistan calls for concessional financing for transition to clean energy
- Fossil fuels are the largest contributor to climate change, accounting for 75 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions
- Pakistan is among the countries most affected by climate change, with less than 1 percent contribution to global gas emissions
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has called for supportive global policies to enable cash-strapped developing countries to navigate energy transition at an event Islamabad co-sponsored to commemorate the ‘International Day of Clean Energy’ at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, Pakistani state media reported on Sunday.
The International Day of Clean Energy, observed on January 26 each year, is a UN-designated day to raise awareness and encourage action toward a transition to clean energy sources for the benefit of people and the planet.
The event at the UN headquarters was organized by the “Group of Friends of Energy,” an informal coalition of member states that actively collaborate and advocate for policies and initiatives focused on promoting sustainable energy access and development on a global scale.
“Developing countries with limited fiscal space are unable to invest in costly energy projects without enhanced access to finance,” Ambassador Usman Jadoon, Pakistan’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, told delegates this week.
“On this International Day of Clean Energy, we must commit to taking the necessary actions, at both national and international level, to achieve our global energy transition goals.”
Analysts say increasing climate threats have accelerated the clean energy policies and big tickets investments that are needed to transition to renewable energy, especially wind and solar energy, around the world.
Fossil fuels are the largest contributor to climate change, accounting for 75 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. The world must slash greenhouse emissions 45 percent by 2030 to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above late-19th-century levels. Warming beyond that threshold, scientists warn, could push Earth toward an unlivable hothouse state.
Pakistan is among the countries most affected by climate change, while its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is less than 1 percent, according to Pakistani officials. The South Asian country suffered from deadly deluges in 2022, which were blamed on unprecedented monsoon rains and glacier melts due to climate change. The floods killed more than 1,700 Pakistan, affected 33 million and caused more than $30 million losses.
Ambassador Jadoon said developing countries were dedicated to making their contribution to the just energy transition, with Pakistan having committed to increasing the share of renewable energy in its energy mix to 60 percent by 2030.
“We plan on adding an additional 13,000MW [megawatts] of hydro-power capacity by 2030,” he said.
However, Pakistan’s energy transition goals were estimated to cost over $100 billion, the Pakistani envoy said, pointing out that capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius would require $150 trillion investments globally in transition technologies and infrastructure by 2050.
“Undoubtedly, partnerships are essential to aid developing countries in overcoming these obstacles,” he added.
One killed, 15 injured in southwestern Pakistan as IED blast targets Punjab-bound bus
- Pakistan army soldiers among 15 injured in blast, says paramilitary force Levies official
- No group has claimed responsibility for attack but suspicion likely to fall on separatist BLA
QUETTA: One person was killed while 15 others, including army soldiers, were injured in southwestern Pakistan on Sunday when a passenger bus headed toward Pakistan’s Punjab province was targeted by an improvised explosive device (IED), an official of the paramilitary Levies force said.
The blast occurred in Khori, a small town located at a distance of 40 kilometers from Khuzdar city in southwestern Balochistan province, Ali Nawaz, a Levies official in Khori, told Arab News.
He said the bus carrying 30 passengers was headed to the eastern city of Rawalpindi from Khuzdar when it was targeted by an IED blast fitted in a vehicle parked on the M-8 highway at 9:30 am.
“One passenger was killed on the spot while 15 were injured,” Nawaz told Arab News. “Initial investigations by police have revealed that around 25 kilograms of explosive material were used in the attack, which destroyed one side of the passenger bus.”
Nawaz said the injured have been shifted to the District Headquarters (DHQ) hospital and the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Khuzdar.
“Soldiers of Pakistan’s armed forces are among the injured who were traveling in the bus,” he said, without specifying how many of the injured were soldiers.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast. However, the separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed killing ethnic Punjabi laborers in the past.
BLA militants claimed responsibility for killing at least 23 residents of Punjab in Balochistan’s Musakhel district in August 2024. The victims were forced out of their vehicles by the militants, who shot them after checking their identity.
Simultaneous attacks were also launched on the same day that killed over 50 in one of the deadliest attacks in Balochistan in recent years.
Balochistan, a mineral-rich province that shares borders with Iran and Afghanistan, has faced an insurgency for decades which has intensified in recent years.
Baloch separatist groups and nationalist political leaders accuse the central government in Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources such as gold and copper while neglecting the local population.
Successive Pakistani governments have denied the allegations, saying they have prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.
Earlier this month the BLA targeted a convoy of paramilitary soldiers in the province’s Turbat city with a vehicle-borne bomb. Five Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed in the attack.
