ISLAMABAD: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Wednesday Pakistan’s economic growth witnessed a rebound in the last fiscal year to 2.4% and could surge up to 2.8% in the ongoing financial year, though any sustainable improvement was contingent on continued implementation of robust economic reforms.
According to the ADB’s Asian Development Outlook September 2024, an update to its flagship economic publication, Pakistan’s financial recovery was supported by higher domestic consumption from increased agriculture income and workers’ remittances.
It added that adhering to the country’s economic reform program would be critical to strengthening macroeconomic stability and the continued recovery of growth, though the downside risks remained.
“Pakistan’s economic prospects are closely tied to the steadfast and consistent implementation of policy reforms to stabilize the economy and rebuild fiscal and external buffers,” ADB Country Director for Pakistan Yong Ye said in a statement that also mentioned the projected improvement in the country’s gross domestic product.
“It is imperative that Pakistan continues to consolidate public finances, expand social spending and protection, reduce fiscal risks from state-owned enterprises, and improve the business environment to encourage growth led by the private sector,” he continued.
The ADB said the implementation of the economic adjustment program in the ongoing fiscal year was expected to support private investment that needed more favorable macroeconomic conditions, including easier access to foreign exchange, which would also benefit manufacturing and services.
However, it maintained agriculture was projected to remain slow.
The ADB also acknowledged the reduction in headline inflation that it attributed to a decline in food price inflation due to an increase in agricultural production.
It noted that a well-regulated monetary policy could keep inflation to about 15%.
In Pakistan, Afghan refugees face uncertain future amid resettlement rejections
More than 40,000 Afghans in Pakistan are currently awaiting their resettlement to Western countries, Pakistani foreign office says
The United States has already provided a list of 25,000 Afghan refugees for resettlement, but the pace of progress remains slow
Updated 33 min ago
NAZAR UL ISLAM
ISLAMABAD: In a cramped guesthouse in Islamabad, Sadiqullah Azizi, a pseudonym for a 59-year-old Afghan refugee, last week hurriedly packed what remained of his family’s belongings. His wife and children, with little choice, helped as they prepared to vacate the premises as a result of a final, devastating blow: rejection of their case for resettlement in Canada.
Azizi’s family, comprising more than a dozen members, did not come to Islamabad by choice. In August 2021, they received an email from the Canadian authorities, instructing them to travel to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport for evacuation to Canada. That email, reviewed by Arab News, represented a lifeline that has since reduced to three years of uncertainty, fear and disappointment.
Now exhausted, Azizi recounts how he started working with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2002, shortly after the US-led coalition toppled the first Taliban regime. Although Azizi and his family are not paying for their accommodation or meals, he says it’s far from sufficient.
“Our children are our top priority and none of them have attended school due to the uncertainty of our future,” Azizi told Arab News, with his voice cracking.
He was involved in construction and logistics, and provided critical support to the US, Canadian, Dutch and Australian forces in Kandahar, Uruzgan and Nangarhar from 2002 till 2013. He still has dozens of certificates and photos of himself alongside Western forces during their deployment in Afghanistan, but his accomplishments feel distant and hollow.
Fearing deportation, the 59-year-old doesn’t even allow his family to visit a nearby public park since the Pakistani authorities launched a crackdown on undocumented foreign nationals last November and has since deported nearly 700,000 people, the majority of whom were Afghans.
“Our [Pakistani] visas have also expired and it feels as though the ground is slipping from beneath my feet,” he shared.
More than 40,000 Afghans are still in Pakistan and awaiting their resettlement abroad, according to the Pakistani foreign office. Pakistan has been in talks with various Western nations to help facilitate the relocation process and the United States has already provided a list of 25,000 Afghans for resettlement. However, the pace of progress remains slow.
For families like Azizi’s, life in Islamabad is one of isolation. The guesthouse where they stay offers no sense of security or future.
Engineer Ahmed, another pseudonym for a 38-year-old father of six who worked as an interpreter for the US and allied forces in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2018, said they were only provided accommodation and meals at the guesthouse and no other essentials.
“In fact, the meals aren’t enough to fill our stomachs,” he said, adding that they had to buy essentials like baby diapers, milk and medicines from their own pockets.
Ahmed shared his family had sold nearly all of their belongings in Kabul as they had burned all bridges in the hope of resettling in Canada.
“We have nothing left, no house, car or motorcycle. Everything was sold at a very cheap rate,” he said.
Another 35-year-old Afghan refugee, who assumed the name Amin Nasiri, awaits his family’s relocation to the US.
“It’s been three years since we arrived in Islamabad. We have no freedom here. We can’t access government hospitals or even buy a SIM card because our visas have expired,” Nasiri, who worked as a warehouse employee at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul from 2009 to 2012, told Arab News.
The 35-year-old lives with another Afghan family along with his wife, three sons and a daughter as he could not secure an accommodation in his own name due to his lack of documentation.
“I don’t know how much longer it will take,” said Nasiri, whose case remains unresolved. “I’ve borrowed a lot of money from friends and my eyes are constantly on my phone, hoping for an email about my case, but that moment hasn’t come yet.”
As Azizi continued packing at his guesthouse in Islamabad, he wrestled with the thought of how to break the news to his grandchildren.
He shared that over the past three years, whenever a bus headed to the airport stopped at the guesthouse’s gate, he would hide it from his grandchildren to avoid their inevitable question: “When will it be our turn to leave?”
Arab News tried to speak with others awaiting resettlement, but most were unable to summon the strength to recount their three years in Islamabad.
Now, with an eviction notice looming, Azizi feels trapped.
“My only question is why did Canadian immigration take so long? If they had rejected my case in the early months, I would have returned to my country. I would have told the Taliban that I had gone for medical treatment and had now come back. But after three long years, I no longer know what excuse I can offer,” he said as his voice tinged with despair.
The Canadian High Commission in Islamabad refused to discuss specific immigration cases but sent an email in response to Arab News queries.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) sympathizes with the people in this extremely difficult situation as we continue to process applications as quickly as possible under the circumstances,” it said.
“Security screening is a complex process involving the decision of IRCC’s Migration Officer and various security partner experts,” it added. “Individuals are normally provided with a procedural fairness letter before negative decisions are made to provide them with an opportunity to provide additional information.”
The letter pointed out that how quickly an Afghan client was processed and subsequently approved depended on a variety of factors, many of which were beyond the control of the Canadian authorities, and were often directly related to where Afghans were located.
It noted that it was difficult to finalize the applications of Afghan nationals still residing in their country, urging them to move to a third country.
Meanwhile, Azizi, who complied with a similar request and arrived in Pakistan, says the fear of returning to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan weighs heavily on him.
“I wonder how Western countries can speak about human rights, yet when I look at my own case, I’m left questioning what world they live in,” he said.
“I can’t return to Afghanistan because the Taliban will think I’ve been sent on another spy mission,” he added. “Pakistan isn’t offering us refuge, and with no options left, I truly wonder where on earth we can find a place to call home.”
QUETTA: Nearly a month after a series of coordinated attacks in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province killed over 50 people, a senior Pakistan Railways official expressed optimism on Tuesday about completing the restoration work on a key bridge destroyed by militants by October 10.
Built in 1887, the five-span bridge was the second such link constructed by the British Army at the Bolan Pass after sealing a deal with the then Khan of Kalat, Meer Khuda-e-Dad Khan, to expand the railway network to Quetta and Chaman near the Afghan border.
Dozens of armed militants from the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) carried out multiple coordinated attacks, including suicide bombings, in Lasbela, Musakhail, Kachi, Kalat and Mastung districts on August 26. The attacks coincided with the 18th death anniversary of local chieftain Nawab Akbar Bugti, who was assassinated in an army operation in 2006.
During the militant violence, BLA fighters fatally shot commuters on passenger buses, attacked the paramilitary Frontier Corps’ camp and targeted the railway infrastructure.
“As per the engineering design, October 10 is the date [set for the completion of the restoration work],” Imran Hayat, divisional superintendent of Pakistan Railways in Quetta, told Arab News. “But the secretary-chairman [the top railway official] during his recent visit directed for earlier completion of the bridge, and we are working day and night to ensure that.”
This photo taken on September 23, 2024, shows a deserted view of Quetta Railway Station in Quetta, Balochistan, as the railway lines connecting the province to other parts of Pakistan destroyed in militant attacks on August 26. (AN Photo)
“The bridge has a very rich history,” he continued. “Many old citizens [of the province] have expressed their dismay over the incident, which has compromised the bridge.”
The railway official said the suspension of train services since last month had caused around Rs40 million ($144,000) in revenue losses.
This photo taken on September 23, 2024, shows a deserted view of Quetta Railway Station in Quetta, Balochistan, as the railway lines connecting the province to other parts of Pakistan destroyed in militant attacks on August 26. (AN Photo)
The bridge at Bolan Pass, a strategic mountain pass that historically served as a key trade and military route connecting the subcontinent with Afghanistan and Central Asia, primarily served two important train services: the Jaffar Khan Jamali Express, which runs up to Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and the Bolan Mail, which travels between Quetta and Karachi, the capital of Sindh province.
“More than the [revenue] loss, it is about the public service obligation,” Hayat said, adding the government had not lost its “resolve to connect the people of Balochistan” with the rest of the country, noting the railway was the “ultimate travel mode for poor people.”
Laborers carry out restoration work on a destroyed bridge in Kolpur Pakistan on September 22, 2024, as the railway lines connecting the province to other parts of Pakistan destroyed in militant attacks on August 26. (AN Photo)
Baloch separatist groups have previously attacked passenger trains and railway tracks in the Bolan Pass area.
Last year in January, several passengers were injured after a bomb attack on the Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express overturned various carriages near Aab-e-Gum Railway Station.
Later, on October 16, six people were killed and several others wounded after a Punjab-bound passenger train was targeted by double explosions following its departure from Mach Railway Station in Balochistan.
Laborers carry out restoration work on a destroyed bridge in Kolpur Pakistan on September 22, 2024, as the railway lines connecting the province to other parts of Pakistan destroyed in militant attacks on August 26. (AN Photo)
Asked about security arrangements for passenger trains and railway installations in the restive Balochistan region, Hayat said security forces had secured the area, allowing construction work on the bridge to proceed without hindrance.
“We are a service department,” he told Arab News. “Our responsibility is to ensure people have transportation whenever they wish to travel to any part of the country. We have faith in our security forces, who have secured the area up to Rohri and Quetta.”
Pakistan’s militancy-hit Balochistan province shares borders with Iran and Afghanistan, with Baloch separatists accusing the state of exploiting the province’s natural resources, a claim denied by the government.
The southwestern province has seen an uptick in violence by Baloch separatist groups over the last seven months, with militants blocking highways and attacking passengers, particularly those from Pakistan’s populous Punjab province.
Speaking to Arab News, Muhammad Nasrullah, a resident of Mach, a small town located about 50 kilometers from Quetta, said he had to travel with his family to Layyah, a district in Punjab, by passenger bus due to the suspension of train services from Quetta.
“There is a sense of insecurity due to the current situation in Balochistan, but we are compelled to commute on public transport,” he told Arab News. “People are traveling to Punjab by passenger buses because the train service is suspended due to the attack on the bridge.”
“I urge the government to increase the number of trains from Balochistan and provide secure train service to passengers,” he added.
QUETTA: Ten people, including two policemen, were wounded on Wednesday in an IED attack on a police van in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said.
Separatist militants have been fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the resource-rich southwestern province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine. Last month, over 50 people including soldiers were killed in a string of coordinated attacks on police stations, railway lines and highways in the most widespread assault in years.
Quetta Superintendent of Police Muhammad Baloch said a police vehicle was targeted with an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) fitted in a motorbike near Bhosa Mandi in the eastern bypass area of the city on Wednesday.
“The police van was on routine morning patrol duty in the Bhosa Mandi area when it came under attack,” Baloch said.
Dr. Ishaq Panezai, medical superintendent of the Civil Hospital Quetta, said 10 injured people were brought to the hospital. Two were in critical condition and had been shifted to the Trauma Center.
This was the third attack on police in the past 10 days. In the last attack, two policemen were killed in a roadside bomb blast on the Kuchlak-Bostan highway on Sept. 14. The assault was claimed by Daesh.
The attack also comes three days after three officials of Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) were killed in an ambush near Zhob, a district in Balochistan close to Pakistan’s restive northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday Pakistan had met the “tough conditions” set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with the help of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China, as the global lending agency’s board meets today to discuss the $7 billion loan program for the country.
Pakistan reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF in July for a fresh loan to keep its fragile economy afloat. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had earlier expressed hope of sealing the deal by the end of August. However, delays were caused by an external financing gap, which prompted Pakistan to seek commitments from key allies and request debt reprofiling.
Just a day earlier, the finance minister again expressed optimism about securing the loan program after the IMF board meeting, while emphasizing the government’s commitment to structural reforms.
“[Today] is the IMF board meeting, and we have fulfilled all of their conditions, very tough conditions, but praise be to God, we have completed them,” he told the media in New York on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly Session. “I want to express my heartfelt gratitude once again, to our trusted brother nations, Saudi Arabia, China and the UAE. Without their immense support, this would not have been possible.”
“At the final stage, the conditions were related to China, and just like in the past, the Chinese government once again held Pakistan’s hand and offered immense support,” he added. “I am deeply grateful to the Chinese leadership.”
Pakistan’s last $3 billion IMF program helped avert a sovereign default in 2023 amid a sharp decline in foreign exchange reserves, currency depreciation and record inflation.
The government has already maintained that the country’s macroeconomic indicators have improved, though it needs the 37-month-long IMF program to solidify those gains.
“You have to grow and build from a stable base,” Pakistan’s finance minister said on Tuesday while addressing a high-level private sector dialogue, ‘CPEC-II and the Region.’ “We have reached that level now. Now, we can say that we have a good foundation on which we can build from here.”
“Now we need to move forward and stay with the reform agenda whether it’s on the taxation or energy side [or] on the state-owned enterprises or privatization side,” he added.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday urged the world to ensure a fair deal in assisting developing countries like Pakistan in coping with the adverse impacts of climate change, warning that loans for this purpose were debt traps which he described as “death traps.”
Sharif expressed these opinions while addressing an event, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Moment 2024, on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Session in New York.
The high-level discussion week at the UNGA kicked off just a few hours before the prime minister spoke, with world leaders and policymakers attending debates and side events aimed at addressing the most pressing global issues.
Sharif attended a welcome reception hosted by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the participating heads of state and government. The Pakistani premier also participated in the inaugural UNGA session.
“We faced terrorism after 9/11 … and finally, we were able to beat them [the militants] hands down, but in the process, we lost $150 billion as our economic loss, and during [the 2022] floods lost $30 billion, and yet we are asked to borrow money, to pay borrowed money in loans,” Sharif said while addressing the SDG event.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif gestures during a panel discussion with Fiame Naomi Mata’afa Prime Minister of Samoa, Bassirou Diomaye Faye President of Senegal, Mette Frederiksen Prime Minister of Denmark and Bernardo Arévalo President of Guatemala, convened by United Nations Secretary General on spearheading breakthroughs to reach the 2030 promise through just and inclusive transitions in SDG Moment in New York on September 24, 2024. (PMO)
“This vicious circle of debt traps, I call it a death trap, will not help at all the developing societies,” he continued. “So, we have to strike a fair deal.”
Pakistan witnessed unprecedented monsoon rains leading to flash floods in 2022, which were widely attributed to climate change despite contributing less than a fraction of a percent to global carbon emissions.
“Those who play with trillions [of dollars] and are responsible for these emissions, they have to share their responsibility and come to the help of these developing societies,” Sharif said, calling the current situation a result of an “unbalanced, unjust and unfair system [that] will lead to nowhere.”
Speaking about the issues faced by the country in the education sector, he noted that a large number of children were still out of school in Pakistan due to financing issues.
“Twenty-five million children even today are out of school [in Pakistan],” he said, calling it a “big challenge.”
However, he maintained that developing countries like Pakistan struggle to raise funds to meet the SDGs and catch up with the developing world.
BILATERAL MEETINGS
On the sidelines of the UNGA session, the prime minister also held a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (left) shakes hands with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of United National General Assembly meeting in New York on September 24, 2024. (PMO)
“Today, the president of Turkiye delivered a highly enthusiastic speech at the United Nations,” he told reporters after the meeting. “The way the Turkish president presented the issue of Palestine touched the hearts of everyone present in the hall.”
“I congratulated the president of Turkiye on his speech,” he added.
The prime minister said Pakistan and Turkiye enjoyed brotherly relations, adding that Erdoğan would soon visit the country.
He also met with President of Maldives Dr. Mohamed Muizzu and vowed to enhance cooperation with the island nation in various fields, including trade, tourism, education, investment and climate change.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (right) shakes hands with President of Maldives Dr. Mohamed Muizzu on the sidelines of United National General Assembly meeting in New York on September 24, 2024. (PMO)
The PM Office said in a statement that during the meeting, the two leaders underscored the deep-rooted ties between Pakistan and the Maldives.
“Both leaders agreed on the need to increase people-to-people exchanges and collaborative efforts to promote economic growth and sustainable development in their respective countries,” the statement added.
Sharif is scheduled to address the General Assembly on Friday.
