ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered authorities to resolve all issues relating to Meta operations in Pakistan, Sharif’s office said on Tuesday, amid complaints of slow Internet in the South Asian country.
Sharif issued the directives at a meeting with a five-member Meta delegation, led by Meta Vice President for Asia Pacific Simon Milner, in Islamabad.
The development came amid snail-paced Internet speeds in the country in recent weeks, which have particularly affected online businesses and freelancers.
During the meeting, the Meta delegation apprised the prime minister of their services in Pakistan and the Asia Pacific region, according to Sharif’s office.
“Both sides expressed their resolve to work together for the development and promotion of digital media and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors in Pakistan,” Sharif’s office said in a statement.
Meta, a California-based American multinational technology conglomerate, owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp among other products and digital services.
The meeting came days after the Pakistan Business Council (PBC) warned that frequent Internet disruptions and low speeds caused by poor implementation of a nationwide firewall had led many multinational companies to consider relocating their offices out of Pakistan, with some having “already done so.”
Pakistan has been installing the firewall to block malicious content, protect government networks from attacks, and allow the government to identify IP addresses associated with what it calls “anti-state propaganda,” according to officials.
Separately, the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) said last Thursday that Pakistan’s economy could lose up to $300 million due to Internet disruptions caused by the imposition of the firewall.
PM orders authorities to resolve all issues relating to Meta operations in Pakistan
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PM orders authorities to resolve all issues relating to Meta operations in Pakistan
- The development comes amid snail-paced Internet speeds in Pakistan that have affected online businesses, freelancers in recent weeks
- Pakistan has been installing a firewall to block malicious content, protect cyberattacks and curb what it calls ‘anti-state propaganda’
Policeman shoots and kills blasphemy suspect held at Pakistan police station
- Syed Khan was arrested on Wednesday after officers snatched him from an enraged mob that claimed he had committed blasphemy
- Accusations of blasphemy are common in Pakistan, often spark rioting and rampage by mobs that escalate into lynching and killings
QUETTA: A policeman opened fire inside a police station in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Thursday, killing a suspect held on accusations of blasphemy, a local official said.
The slain man was identified as Syed Khan. Police said he had been arrested the day before, after officers snatched him from an enraged mob that claimed he had insulted Islam’s Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
According to police official Mohammad Khurram, the officer involved in the fatal shooting has been arrested. Khurram did not provide further details.
Killings of suspects while in police custody are rare in Pakistan, where accusations of blasphemy — sometimes even just rumors — are common and often spark rioting and rampage by mobs that can escalate into lynching and killings.
Under Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam or Islamic religious figures can be sentenced to death, though authorities have yet to carry out a death sentences for blasphemy.
In the case of Khan, the man killed on Thursday, local residents claimed he had used derogatory remarks against the prophet and went after him. After he was arrested, the mob surrounded the station, demanding police hand Khan back to them so they could kill him.
At one point, a man hurled a grenade at the station on Wednesday while a group of religious hard-liners briefly blocked a key road in the city, demanding punishment for Khan. The crowd dispersed later in the day after officials managed to calm them down.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in attacks on blasphemy suspects in recent years.
In June, a mob broke into a police station in the northwestern town of Madyan, snatched a man who was held there and then lynched him over allegations that he had desecrated Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an. The attackers also torched the station and burned police vehicles parked there. The slain man was a tourist staying at a hotel in town when the locals turned on him and accused him of blasphemy.
Last year, a mob in the eastern Punjab province attacked churches and homes of Christians after claiming they saw a local Christian and his friend desecrating pages from a Qur’an. The attack in the district of Jaranwala drew nationwide condemnation, but Christians say the men linked to the violence are yet to be put on trial.
In 2021, a mob of factory employees in eastern Pakistan tortured and burned a Sri Lankan manager over apparent blasphemy.
A policeman in 2011 killed a former governor of Punjab province after accusing him of blasphemy. That officer, Mumtaz Qadri, was later sentenced to death and hanged. However, support for him grew after his hanging, with tens of thousands attending his funeral in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. Many in Punjab still today considered him a martyr.
Quetta, a conservative city in southwestern Pakistan, is also the capital of the restive Balochistan province, where militant groups stage near daily attacks and where separatists have waged a decades-long insurgency against the government in Islamabad.
Gunmen kill cop guarding polio vaccinators as Pakistan police protests against militancy grow
- Police sit-in against surge in militancy, assassinations of officers entered fourth day in Lakki Marwat
- At least 77 policemen have been killed in ambushes and target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A sit-in by police in the Lakki Marwat district of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province against a surge in militancy and the targeted assassinations of officers entered its fourth day on Thursday, with seven people killed in attacks in the region in the last 24 hours, police said.
Security officials, policemen and polio vaccinators were among the seven fatalities. In a latest attack in Bannu, a southern district in KP, unidentified gunmen opened fire on police guards escorting a polio vaccination team on Thursday morning, killing a policeman.
Pakistan has seen a number of militant attacks in recent months, with most of them taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where religiously motivated groups like the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) have stepped up assaults, daily targeting security forces convoys and check posts, and carrying out targeted killings and kidnappings of security and government officials.
At least 77 policemen have been killed in ambushes and target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024, according to police figures.
“Unfortunately, another brave colleague, police officer Noor Alam Jan, lost his life in a targeted attack by unidentified gunmen when he was guarding a polio team this [Thursday] morning in Domail,” Matiullah Khan, a police officer with Bannu police, told Arab News.
The killing comes a day after police in the Bajaur tribal district announced a boycott of polio security duties following the killing of a cop by unknown gunmen.
Last week, 13 people were wounded when a roadside bomb targeted a police vehicle escorting an anti-polio team in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal district, officials said.
On Tuesday this week, Bajaur police said a security official was killed and four were injured when their vehicle was hit by a planted bomb near the Niamat Khan village of the volatile district.
On Thursday, police officer Zabihullah Wazir said two laborers and a Frontier Corps paramilitary soldier were killed during an exchange of gunfire between security officials and suspected militants in Angoor Adda, an area bordering Afghanistan in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal district.
The Pakistan army has a heavy presence in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, where it has been battling militants from the Al-Qaeda, Pakistani Taliban and other groups for nearly two decades.
There have been protests in several districts of KP since July, when Pakistan’s cabinet announced that a new military operation would be launched amid a surge in terror attacks across the country. People in the northwestern region have rejected plans for an armed operation and demand that civilian agencies like the provincial police and the counter-terrorism department be better equipped.
PROTESTS GROW
Police in Lakki Marwat have been staging a sit-in for the last four days after unidentified gunmen attacked a police van in the district, killing an officer. Two brothers of a serving police man in the district were separately gunned down.
Police and local elders in Lakki Marwat are demanding the military’s complete withdrawal from KP and the transfer of power to civilian law enforcers to restore peace and stability in the region.
Lakki Marwat police spokesman Shahid Marwat told Arab News the protests had “gained momentum” on Thursday, with more and more people and policemen joining the protest camp and loudspeaker announcements asking businesses to remain shut.
Marwat said police officials from other districts like Bannu were also arriving in Lakki Marwat to join the sit-in in solidarity with their colleagues.
“Today, protesters closed down all main arteries linking Peshawar-Karachi and Lakki Marwat-Punjab on the Indus Highway,” he said.
The sit-in by policemen has also been joined by representatives of civil society and political parties as well as tribal elders and members of the public, the spokesman added.
KP government Spokesman Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif did not return phone calls and text messages on Thursday inquiring about the government’s plans to deal with the protests in Lakki Marwat.
Islamabad says militants mainly associated with the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistan frequently launch attacks from hideouts in neighboring Afghanistan, targeting police and other security forces.
Islamabad has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers for facilitating anti-Pakistan militants. Kabul denies the charges.
Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said this week he would hold direct talks with the rulers in Kabul to take action against Afghanistan-based militant groups.
“My [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] police has lost trust, my people have lost trust, where are you [federal government, army] taking my youth, my people?” Gandapur said as he addressed a ceremony on Wednesday evening.
“I am saying let me send a representative to Afghanistan to talk to them. Afghanistan is our neighbor, we speak the same language, we have a longer than 1,200 km border. Let me talk to them that what is happening in Afghanistan.
“I announce here … I will talk to Afghanistan myself, I will talk to them as a province. I am telling you as the representative of this province, I will send an emissary and arrange a meeting, I will sit with them and talk and Inshallah I will solve this issue through talks.”
Islamabad says it has consistently taken up the issue of cross-border attacks with the Taliban administration. The issue has also led to clashes between the border forces of the two countries on multiple occasions in recent months, including on Sunday when security forces in Pakistan said they had killed eight Afghan Taliban fighters in a border clash following what Islamabad described as “unprovoked firing” on its checkpoints.
Pakistan decries Israel’s ‘genocidal designs’ against Palestine as 40 killed in strikes on tent camp
Pakistan decries Israel’s ‘genocidal designs’ against Palestine as 40 killed in strikes on tent camp
- Israeli strikes blasted a huge crater in a designated safe zone in southern Gaza before dawn on Tuesday
- More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the latest round of the war in Gaza that began on Oct. 7
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday “strongly” condemned predawn Israeli airstrikes in a designated safe zone in southern Gaza earlier this week, saying the attacks demonstrated a disregard for human life and Israel’s “genocidal designs” against the Palestinian people.
At least 40 Palestinians were killed in the airstrikes on the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone in Gaza on Tuesday, setting tents ablaze and burying Palestinian families under sand.
The Israeli military said it had struck a command center for Hamas fighters it said had infiltrated the designated “humanitarian” area in Al-Mawasi, a vast camp on sandy soil where the military has told hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to shelter since ordering them out of their homes. Hamas denied any fighters were present.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the air strikes by Israeli occupation forces on the Al Mawasi Humanitarian Zone in Khan Younis, Gaza, on September 10, which claimed the lives of 40 civilians,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a media briefing.
“Executed in an area designated as a safe zone for displaced persons by the Israeli occupation forces themselves constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. The carnage in Khan Younis without prior warning and in defiance of basic protections demonstrates a disregard for human life and Israel’s genocidal designs against the Palestinian people.”
Baloch called on the UN Security Council to play its role in preventing Israeli forces from continuing with their “genocidal campaign” against the Palestinian people and holding them accountable for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The latest round of the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s Gaza campaign has since demolished swathes of the enclave, displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people multiple times, given rise to deadly hunger and disease and killed more than 40,500 people.
The two warring sides each blame the other for a failure so far to reach a ceasefire that would end the fighting and see the release of hostages.
Nearly all of Gaza’s people have been forced from their homes at least once and some have had to flee as many as 10 times.
Pakistan commits to maritime decarbonization, environmentally friendly ship recycling at Islamabad summit
- UN maritime chief is in Pakistan on first-ever visit as Islamabad hosts International Maritime Sustainability Conference
- Pakistan says ready to work with global organizations to promote ship making, ship recycling and the blue economy
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday pledged to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the global maritime sector, make greater use of green technology to improve ships’ energy efficiency and carry out more environmentally friendly ship recycling, as the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) arrived in Islamabad to attend the International Maritime Sustainability Exhibition and Conference (IMSEC).
This is the first-ever visit to Pakistan by the chief of the IMO, a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating shipping and ensuring maritime safety, environmental protection and security on international waters. Established in 1948, its primary role is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping, which includes standards for safety, pollution prevention and legal matters surrounding global maritime operations.
“Pakistan fully complies with IMO regulation,” Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh said at the opening session of Thursday’s conference.
“We are striving to reduce the global [carbon] footprint and make greater use of green technology. Such measures must be taken in every institution to deal with climate change.”
The minister said Pakistan was invested in ensuring the protection of biodiversity and the oceans and would work to make ship recycling “safe and environmentally friendly.”
“We are ready to work with global organizations to promote ship making, ship recycling and the blue economy,” Sheikh added.
Addressing the conference, IMO chief Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco said his visit to Pakistan would give him the opportunity to “come back in the future and assess and evaluate all the promises and the conversations and the challenges that we are going to put toward each other, from Pakistan government as well as from IMO in order to work better in the different aspects of shipping.”
He said he looked forward to working with Pakistan on decarbonization and ship recycling, where Pakistan is one of the leading nations in the world.
In a statement shared with media on Wednesday, the foreign office said Velasco’s visit would afford an opportunity for Pakistan and the IMO to exchange views on the maritime sector and the blue economy:
“As a founding member of IMO, Pakistan is deeply committed to IMO’s vision of safe, secure and efficient shipping on clean oceans … Pakistan has served for five terms on the IMO Council and has consistently contributed in upholding the IMO objectives.”
The foreign office said Velasco would be in Pakistan from September 12 to 14 and would hold meetings with Pakistani leaders and senior government officials.
He is scheduled to attend IMSEC, which began in Islamabad on Thursday and will continue in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi over the next two days.
Pakistan cancer survivors turn to art for healing and hope
- Two-day exhibition at PNCA in Islamabad featured work by nine cancer survivors
- In Asia, Pakistan regionally represents the most significant breast cancer rate
ISLAMABAD: Fatima Salman, a 43-year-old miniature painter, found solace in art after being diagnosed with cancer in 2019, using her brush and canvas as therapy to overcome the disease and paint her way to healing.
Nearly five years later, she curated the two-day Connecting Dots art exhibition at the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) this week, featuring the work of nine cancer survivors whose techniques range from oil, watercolors, mixed media and calligraphy.
Cancer has become a growing burden in Pakistan in recent years, posing a significant cause for concern. An International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report in 2021 says the proportion of newly diagnosed cancers is 0.18 million in Pakistan, the number of cancer fatalities is 0.11 million, and the number of prevalent cases (5 year) is 0.32 million. In Asia, Pakistan regionally represents the most significant breast cancer rate, with one out of nine women now having a lifetime risk of the disease. Pakistan also has one of the highest breast cancer mortality rates globally.
“Initially, after my diagnosis, I had taken a little break from painting,” Salman, who graduated from Lahore’s renowned National College of Arts in 2001, told Arab News at the exhibition.
“But soon I felt a void … So, that’s when I thought that I don’t have much time, and I have so much work to do. So, I started painting, that was my therapy.”
Even after her recovery from stage four metastatic cancer, Salman said her creative work proved vital for her to open a new chapter of hope in her life.
“As I went through all the life-changing challenges, I thought that I could not be the only one going through this,” she added.
Salman then started looking for other cancer survivors interested in exhibiting their artwork.
“The basic idea is to create a platform for artists who can just come together and voice their feelings through art,” she said about the exhibition this week, which also saw the launch of a deeply personal memoir, My Cancer Journey, by Shirin Gheba Najib.
A 70-year-old retired school principal, Najib said painting had always been a “constant” in her life since she completed her first oil painting at the age of 12 but she had to put her passion on hold when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021.
Weakened by the illness and the relentless trips to the hospital, she found refuge in writing instead.
“I used to take my laptop to chemotherapy as each session used to take six to eight hours, where [one could] write very freely,” Najib told Arab News.
The articles crafted while battling for her life became the foundation for the newly launched book and also gave Najib the impetus to go back to painting.
“Now that I’m completely out of cancer, which was within 15 months, now I’ve started painting again,” she said with a smile.
Speaking to Arab News, another artist, Ambreen Rashid Khan, reflected her newfound appreciation for life following her battle with stage 4 breast cancer, diagnosed four years ago.
“It’s strange,” the 65-year-old retired schoolteacher said. “You take life for granted until something like this happens. After that you learn that your time is short. So that is it, I love color and I love happiness.”
Khan said she started painting flowers in bright colors after her recovery as a display of her “gratitude and happiness.”
Experimenting with both oil and watercolors, she said her aim was to paint life and nature itself.
Asked about her ambition, she said that she wanted to “leave something behind” as her legacy but also to live out the rest of her days “in happiness.”
Sixty-year-old Nafisa Ather, an Islamic calligrapher, also said painting became her biggest source of solace when she was diagnosed with cancer.
“Cancer struck me [and] the thing which I didn’t have in me before was the fear that you are going to die,” she told Arab News. “And I just felt that I still have to fulfill some of my responsibilities, which have not been fulfilled. So, I think that gave me courage.”
Painting had helped her fight her fear of death, Ather said.
“You are creating something, you are making something and actually you forget your fear. That’s the beauty of it.
“Don’t give up on life,” she added. “If you give up, you’ll lose the battle. You have to believe you will survive.”
