ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will participate in the high-level segment of the 79th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York from September 23 to 27, Pakistan’s foreign office said on Thursday.
Each September, world leaders and delegates gather at the UN Headquarters in New York to discuss the most pressing global issues within the framework of the UN Charter. The UNGA opened the 79th session on September 10, with the high-level general debate scheduled to begin on September 24 and conclude on September 30.
“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif will participate in the high-level segment for the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York from 23rd to 27th of September,” the foreign office spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said during her weekly news briefing in Islamabad.
She noted that Sharif would be accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and other senior government officials.
In his address to the world body, the prime minister will emphasize the importance of addressing longstanding issues on the Security Council’s agenda, including the question of Palestine and the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, she added.
“The prime minister will attend several high-level meetings on the sidelines of the UNGA session including the high-level meeting on existential threat posed by sea level rise and the UN Security Council’s open debate on leadership for peace,” she said, adding that his program would also include bilateral meetings with world leaders and members of the Pakistani diaspora.
INDUS WATER TREATY
Asked about the notice sent by India to Pakistan under Article 33 of the Indus Water Treaty, calling for the reassessment of the agreement on a bilateral basis, Baloch said Pakistan expected India to remain committed to the accord.
India sent a notice to Pakistan on August 30, requesting a review of the water-distribution mechanism outlined in the treaty, signed by the two countries on September 19, 1960, citing “fundamental and unforeseen” changes in circumstances.
The treaty, brokered by the World Bank, grants India control over the Beas, Ravi, and Sutlej rivers, while Pakistan controls the Indus, Chenab, and Jhelum rivers. Both nations can seek arbitration from the World Bank in case of any water disputes.
In 2016, Pakistan requested arbitration over India’s Kishanganga and Ratle hydropower projects. While India claims its water usage complies with the treaty, Pakistan opposes some of these projects, arguing they violate the agreement, which is crucial for its agriculture as 80 percent of the country relies on the Indus River.
“The Indus Waters Treaty is an important treaty that has served both Pakistan and India well over the last several decades,” Baloch said, adding that Pakistan believed it was a “gold standard” of bilateral treaties on water sharing.
“Pakistan is fully committed to its implementation, and we expect India to also remain committed to the treaty,” she added.
The spokesperson said Pakistan believes it is a collective responsibility to maintain ecological balance, protect the environment, and avoid measures that may have adverse implications for the region’s climate.
“The two countries have a mechanism of water commissioners, and we believe all issues pertaining to this treaty can be discussed in this mechanism,” she added.
PAKISTAN’S NATIONAL ANTHEM
Responding to a query about the incident of purported disrespect toward Pakistan’s national anthem during a ceremony in Peshawar by an Afghan diplomat, Baloch said Pakistan had rejected the explanation the acting consul general provided for his actions and lodged a strong protest with Afghan authorities.
Videos circulated on social media showed Afghan Consul General Mohibullah Shakir seated while the Pakistani anthem was played during a religious conference, as others stood in respect. According to a representative of the Afghan diplomatic mission, Shakir had no intention of disrespecting Pakistan, explaining that he did not stand because of the background music.
He further maintained that Afghan authorities had banned their own national anthem for the same reason.
The Afghan Taliban believe music is forbidden in Islam, though several schools of thought within the same religion do not agree with their stance.
“We have raised this issue with the Afghan authorities and conveyed our strong displeasure on this and we also reject the explanation that the acting council general has given for his actions,” Baloch said, adding that Pakistan believed this action had hurt the sentiments of its people.
Asked about a media report suggesting that Shakir had been staying in Pakistan without valid documentation, she said, according to available data, the acting Afghan consul general was in possession of a valid visa and enjoyed diplomatic status.
She also mentioned Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Asif Durrani’s recent termination from his position, saying such appointments were made by the government based on the country’s requirements at specific times.
“Ambassador Asif Durrani was appointed as Special Representative of Pakistan for Afghanistan in May 2021 and after serving three years in this position, the government has decided to terminate his contract,” she said, adding it had been done in keeping with the present requirements.
“No decision has been made so far on his replacement,” she added.
Pakistan PM to attend UNGA from Sept. 23-27, focus on highlighting Gaza and Kashmir
https://arab.news/pbuu9
Pakistan PM to attend UNGA from Sept. 23-27, focus on highlighting Gaza and Kashmir
- PM to attend several high-level sideline meetings including on existential threat of sea level rise, leadership for peace
- UNGA opened the 79th session on Sept. 10, with high-level general debate scheduled to begin on Sept. 24
Pakistan to participate in upcoming International Taekwondo training camp in Sharjah
- Saudi Arabia, UAE, Uzbekistan, Russia and other countries to take part in camp underway in Sharjah till Feb. 5
- Camp to provide athletes opportunity to engage in high-level training sessions, foster international collaboration
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is participating in the upcoming 11th Sharjah International Taekwondo Training camp alongside teams from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and other countries, state-run media recently reported.
Taekwondo is a traditional Korean martial art practiced across 206 countries, according to the official Olympics website. In taekwondo, hands and feet can be used to overcome an opponent but the trademark of the sport is its combination of kick movements.
Pakistan’s team arrived in Sharjah this week to participate in the international training camp, which will be underway till Feb. 5, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported. More countries expected to join in the coming days.
“The 11th Sharjah International Taekwondo Training Camp will provide a valuable opportunity for athletes to enhance their skills, engage in high-level training sessions and foster international collaboration in the sport,” APP said on Sunday.
Pakistan has made some gains in the martial art sport over the past few months. In October 2024, Pakistan’s taekwondo team made history by winning the 6th Asian Open (Khyurogi) Taekwondo Championship held in Indonesia from Oct. 14-17 last year.
Pakistani twin sisters Manisha Ali and Maliha Ali, hailing from the country’s northern Hunza valley, were part of the team that secured three gold, three silver, and two bronze medals in the championship.
The tournament featured over 275 athletes from across Asia, including participants from India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Nepal and Indonesia.
The same month Pakistan’s youngest taekwondo champion Ayesha Ayaz took part in the Qatar International Open Taekwondo Championship. Ayaz was among 1,440 players from 40 countries who competed in the event across four categories: cadet, juniors, youth and adults.
Pakistani firms showcase national heritage, tourism services at New York travel show
- Financial Times, CNN recently featured the South Asian country among top destinations worldwide to visit in 2025
- In a bid to boost tourism, cash-strapped Pakistan last year began offering free visas to citizens of over 120 nations
ISLAMABAD: More than a dozen Pakistani firms and provincial tourism departments showcased the country’s heritage and tourism potential at the Travel & Adventure Show 2025 in New York, Pakistani state media reported on Sunday.
For over 20 years, the Travel & Adventure Show has connected more than 2.7 million travel enthusiasts and over 16,500 unique travel advisers with over 5,800 different exhibiting companies from around the world, influencing over $7 billion in travel bookings, according to the show’s website.
This year, the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP), in collaboration with the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) and the Pakistani consulate in New York, set up the Pakistan Pavilion at the show held on Jan. 25-26.
“Pakistan Pavilion showcased Pakistan’s breathtaking destinations, rich cultural heritage, and a wide range of tourism services,” the Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
Pakistan Pavilion received the award for ‘Best Partner Pavilion’ at the Travel & Adventure Show 2025, according to the report. A large number of attendees visited the pavilion and expressed their keen interest in mountaineering, and adventure and religious tourism.
Pakistan is home to the ancient Indus Valley and Gandhara civilizations, sacred places of Sikhs and Hindus and followers of other faiths as well as five of the 14 world peaks above the height of 8,000 meters in its north.
International business publication Financial Times recently featured Pakistan in its list of 50 places worldwide to visit on holidays, citing its “dramatic mountain scenery” and an improved security situation as reasons worth visiting the area.
Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region also made it to CNN’s list of 25 destinations that are particularly worth visiting in 2025. Thousands of tourists and foreign climbers visit the sparsely populated northern region each year for expeditions on various peaks, paragliding and other sports activities.
In a bid to boost its tourism sector, cash-strapped Pakistan also began offering free visas online to citizens of more than 120 nations in August 2024.
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.”
