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Thousands rally for peace in Pakistan’s Swat valley after attack on diplomats’ convoy

Activists and supporters of different political parties and local residents gather to take part in a demonstration against militancy following a blast targeting diplomatic convoy, in Mingora city, in Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on September 27, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 28 September 2024
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Thousands rally for peace in Pakistan’s Swat valley after attack on diplomats’ convoy

  • Pakistani army and counter-terror forces maintain a strong presence in Swat valley, long a hotbed of militant insurgency
  • TTP insurgents took partial control of Swat Valley in 2007, before being driven out by years-long military operations
Updated 28 September 2024
WASIM SAJJAD

PESHAWAR: Thousands came out in protest in Swat valley in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, days after a roadside bomb hit a convoy of foreign diplomats visiting the area, killing a police officer in their security detail. 
While most militant attacks in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan are claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the group has distanced itself from last week’s attack on the diplomats convoy, which took place as it was en route to a hill station and ski resort called Malam Jabba. All the nearly dozen diplomats were unhurt.
Pakistan has seen a rise in militancy in recent months, with most attacks taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Islamabad says fighters mainly associated with the Pakistani Taliban or TTP group frequently launch attacks from hideouts in 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.
Over 80 policemen have been killed in attacks, ambushes and target killings in KP in 2024, according to police data.
“The protest is meant to give a message for the restoration of peace,” said Mazhar Azad, a representative of the Swat Qami Jirga that led Friday’s protest in a famous town square in Mingora city called Nishat Chowk. 




Activists and supporters of different political parties and local residents gather to take part in a demonstration against militancy following a blast targeting diplomatic convoy, in Mingora city, in Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on September 27, 2024. (Photo courtesy: Mazhar Azad/ Swat Qaumi Jirga)

“We want peace at any cost, we want an end to terrorism. We don’t want any kind of war on our land.”
The protest was joined by representatives of nearly all political parties, members of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement civil rights group as well as activists, lawyers and trade union representatives from Swat.
Friday’s protest took place despite the Deputy Commissioner’s Office in Swat issuing a “high-level” threat alert for district Swat on Thursday, banning large public gatherings. 
“We are being told that militants are present in the mountains of Swat,” Swat Qami Jirga member Khalid Mehmood Khan said as he addressed the gathering. “If this is true, then it is evidence of state failure. We will no longer accept unrest and militancy in Swat under any circumstances.”
When asked about public reservations about the deteriorating security situation in Swat and the rest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a spokesperson for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Muhammad Saif, said KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur had constituted a fact-finding committee on the attack on foreign diplomats:




Activists and supporters of different political parties and local residents gather to take part in a demonstration against militancy following a blast targeting diplomatic convoy, in Mingora city, in Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on September 27, 2024. (Photo courtesy: Mazhar Azad/ Swat Qaumi Jirga)

“The government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is doing everything possible to restore and maintain peace in the province.”
Spokesperson for Swat Police, Moen Fayaz, said Friday’s protests had concluded in a “peaceful manner.”
“People of Swat and police have given sacrifices in the past and the police are ready to fight against militancy in future,” he told Arab News. “Both government and public respect the sacrifices of police and police will fight in the future as well to restore peace in the region.”
Pakistani army and counter-terrorist forces maintain a strong presence in Swat valley, which has long been a hotbed of militant insurgency, though militants have stepped up their attacks since late 2022 after breaking a ceasefire with the government. 
In 2012, Islamist militants shot and wounded Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai in the valley. TTP insurgents took partial control of Swat Valley in 2007, before being driven out by years-long military operations.

Topics: Malam Jabba Swat protest

Pakistan eyes $25 billion IT exports in three years, 5G rollout despite roadblocks 

Updated 4 sec ago
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Pakistan eyes $25 billion IT exports in three years, 5G rollout despite roadblocks 

  • Pakistan’s IT exports face significant challenges due to Internet connectivity issues stemming from firewall installations to regulate content
  • In August, the Pakistan Software Houses Association said the country’s economy could lose up to $300 million due to Internet disruptions
Updated 4 sec ago
Hasaan Ali Khan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday reaffirmed Pakistan’s ambitions to boost its information technology (IT) exports to $25 billion in the next three years and to roll out 5G Internet services, despite challenges from firewall installations.
The Pakistan prime minister expressed these plans during his meeting with a delegation of VEON, an Amsterdam-based multinational telecommunication and digital services company, led by its chairman Augie K. Fabela, to discuss his government’s efforts to “develop and promote” the telecommunications sector, according to Sharif’s office.
The South Asian country’s IT exports face significant challenges due to Internet connectivity issues stemming from firewall installations to regulate content and social media platforms that hinder the ability of local tech firms to communicate with international clients. This results in delayed deliveries, loss of business opportunities and a tarnished reputation for Pakistan’s IT industry, ultimately stifling growth and costing millions of rupees in losses.
In August, the Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA) said the country’s economy could lose up to $300 million due to Internet disruptions caused by the imposition of the firewall. However, State Minister for IT Shaza Khawaja repeatedly denied the use of firewalls by the government as a form of censorship.
“We are determined to achieve the target of increasing IT exports from Pakistan to 25 billion dollars in the next three years,” Sharif was quoted as saying by his office. “Steps are being taken to introduce 5G Internet services for faster and reliable Internet services in Pakistan.”
Sharif said the rollout of 5G services would make it possible for his government to achieve the vision of “Digital Pakistan.” He said the telecommunications sector would play an important role in promoting a cashless and digital economy, praising the work of a VEON subsidiary, Jazz Group, and expressing his government’s willingness to promote IT, digitization and artificial intelligence (AI) in Pakistan.
The visiting delegation appreciated the Pakistani government’s efforts to stabilize the economy and termed Pakistan an important country for investment in the IT sector, according to Sharif’s office.
Pakistan recorded $298 million in IT exports in June, up 33 percent from the year before. During the fiscal year that ended in June, Pakistan recorded overall IT exports of $3.2 billion, up 24 percent from $2.5 billion in the previous year.
The South Asian nation has lately encouraged its IT sector and facilitated collaborations with firms in several countries, including Saudi Arabia, China and Qatar, to boost its IT exports.
However, IT-related associations and businesses this year raised alarm over slowing Internet speeds as the federal government moved to implement the nationwide firewall to block malicious content, protect government networks from attacks, and allow authorities to identify addresses associated with what it calls “anti-state propaganda.”
In August, the Pakistan Business Council warned that frequent Internet disruptions and low speeds caused by poor implementation of the firewall had led many multinational companies to consider relocating their offices out of Pakistan, with some having “already done so.”

Pakistan’s Punjab province shuts public spaces in smog-hit cities

Updated 46 min 53 sec ago
AFP
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Pakistan’s Punjab province shuts public spaces in smog-hit cities

  • Access to parks, zoos, playgrounds, historic monuments, museums and recreational areas will be banned until Nov. 17
  • Punjab residents have been trapped in thick smog for over a week ever since the air quality index spiked above 1,000
Updated 46 min 53 sec ago
AFP

LAHORE: Pakistan’s most populated province of Punjab ordered public spaces closed in smog-hit main cities, authorities said Friday, as the country battles record air pollution.

Access to parks, zoos, playgrounds, historic monuments, museums and recreational areas will be banned until November 17 due to poor air quality, according to a local government directive seen by AFP.

The concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Lahore’s air was more than 20 times higher than the level deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization (WHO). In Multan, it was up to 48 times higher on Friday.

Punjab residents have been trapped in thick smog for over a week ever since the air quality index (AQI), which measures a range of pollutants, spiked above 1,000 — well above the level of 300 considered ‘dangerous’ — according to data from IQAir.

Schools in some of Punjab’s major cities were ordered shut on Tuesday until November 17.

The province extended that order on Wednesday to several more cities enveloped by smog, a mix of fog and pollutants caused by low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal agricultural burning and winter cooling.

The decision follows restrictions imposed last month on four “hot spots” in Lahore that banned tuk-tuks with polluting two-stroke engines, along with restaurants that operate barbecues without filters.

Seasonal crop burn-off by farmers on the outskirts of Lahore also contributes to toxic air, which the WHO says can cause strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases.

Excess pollution shortens the life expectancy of Lahore residents by an average of 7.5 years, according to the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute.

According to UNICEF, nearly 600 million children in South Asia are exposed to high levels of air pollution, which is also linked to half of childhood pneumonia deaths.

Topics: smog

Pakistan can serve as bridge between China and US — Islamabad envoy to Washington

Updated 31 min 44 sec ago
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Pakistan can serve as bridge between China and US — Islamabad envoy to Washington

  • Relations between the US and China have been strained over the past several years as both world powers seek to increase their global influence
  • The complex US-China rivalry impacts Pakistan as it navigates its strategic partnerships with both while grappling with a prolonged economic crisis
Updated 31 min 44 sec ago
KASHIF IMRAN

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan can help bridge differences between the United States (US) and China, Islamabad’s envoy to Washington said on Thursday, amid the South Asian country’s efforts to strike a balance in its ties with the two world powers.
Relations between the US and China have been strained over the past several years as both world powers seek to increase their global influence in several domains. The two nations have often had disagreements over trade, Taiwan, the South China Sea and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Pakistan maintains a delicate balance in its relations with China and the US. While aligned with the US for military cooperation and counter-terrorism efforts, Islamabad has strengthened economic ties with Beijing through initiatives like the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
In a talk delivered at the University of California, Pakistan’s Ambassador to Washington Rizwan Saeed Sheikh underscored the strength of Pakistan-US relations and highlighted the role of the Pakistani-American community in fostering mutual growth, the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“Pakistan has the potential to serve as a bridge between China and the United States,” Sheikh was quoted as saying at the event.
The statement came hours after the Pakistani Foreign Office said its relations with key longtime ally China would remain “unaffected” by Donald Trump winning the US presidential election
“Pakistan’s relations with China are all-weather,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said during a weekly press briefing when asked if Trump’s victory will affect the country’s China policy.
“They are strategic and a source of stability in our foreign policy.”
Baloch said Islamabad does not even need to consider the possibility that its relationship with China will be affected by any domestic development in another country.
The complex US-China rivalry impacts Pakistan as it navigates its strategic partnerships with both world powers while grappling with a prolonged economic crisis.
“Our relations with the United States are decades old, and we look forward to further strengthen and broaden Pakistan-US relationship in all fields,” Baloch said.
“As the Deputy Prime Minister said in a tweet yesterday, we look forward to fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation between Pakistan and the United States.”
Pakistan and the US cultivated strong defense ties during the Cold War days yet their relationship was also tested by divergent priorities on various issues.
In recent years, Washington and Islamabad’s ties deteriorated as the former suspected the latter of supporting the Taliban in their 2021 takeover of Kabul, allegations which Islamabad rejected. Tensions rose further in 2022 when former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan accused the Biden administration of orchestrating his ouster via a parliamentary vote, a charge the US denied.
Pakistan, under PM Shehbaz Sharif’s two separate stints as prime minister in 2022 and 2024, has actively sought to improve its relations with the US.

Topics: Pakistan US Ties Pakistan China Ties CPEC Donald Trump

Pakistan parliamentary panel passes bill proposing three-year jail term for preaching Zionism

Updated 08 November 2024
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Pakistan parliamentary panel passes bill proposing three-year jail term for preaching Zionism

  • Draft law proposes imprisonment and fines for individuals involved in preaching and displaying symbols of Zionism
  • Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state
Updated 08 November 2024
Aamir Saeed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Senate Standing Committee on Interior has this week approved a bill proposing a three-year jail term and fines for individuals involved in propagating Zionism or displaying the movement’s symbols.
Zionism emerged in the late 19th century as an ethnic and religious movement but later converted into a political movement for the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel through the colonization of land outside Europe, which is Palestine. 
Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters” and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
The anti-Zionism bill approved by the Senate committee on Thursday was introduced in the upper house of parliament by Senator Dr. Afnan Ullah Khan, a lawmaker from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party. He has tabled the bill as a private member, which means its approval does not signify government policy. This bill will become law only if it is passed by both houses of parliament, Senate and National Assembly, with majority vote.
“Whoever knowingly or intentionally is engaged in the preaching of Zionism to incite and provoke hatred in society shall be punished with three years imprisonment, or with forty thousand rupees ($145) fine or with both,” says the draft law.
“Whoever knowingly or intentionally display symbol of Zionism to spread hatred and cause a disturbance in public peace shall be punished with two years imprisonment, or with thirty thousand rupees ($108) fine, or with both.”
Being a Muslim state, the bill says, Pakistan “should never allow display of symbols depicting Zionism for spreading unrest in Pakistan.”

Topics: Pakistan senate

Three-year-old girl sues Punjab government as smog crisis worsens in Lahore

Updated 20 min 33 sec ago
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Three-year-old girl sues Punjab government as smog crisis worsens in Lahore

  • Record air pollution has triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, school closures, stay-at-home orders in Lahore
  • On Friday, Lahore, home to 13 million people, had the worst air quality of any city in the world, according to IQAir
Updated 20 min 33 sec ago
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A three-year-old girl in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore has sued the government of the Punjab province as record-high air pollution levels have triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, school closures and stay-at-home orders in the city, which has been enveloped in a thick, toxic smog since last month.
On Friday, Lahore, home to 13 million people, had the worst air quality of any city in the world, according to IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring company.
Research shows children exposed to high levels of smog may suffer from reduced lung capacity, pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung infections and more asthma attacks and worse symptoms than adults. 
“Under Article 9-A of the Constitution, the government is obligated to provide citizens with a clean and healthy environment,” said the petition filed by three-year-old Amal Sekhera, who appeared in court with her mother Mehek Zafar on Thursday. 
Sekhera said she was seeking justice for herself, her friends and the future generations as children and the elderly were the most badly hit by air pollution and smog. She also criticized the Punjab government for failing to protect fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution of Pakistan.


The Lahore High Court issued notices in response to the petition to the Punjab government, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the City Traffic Police. The hearing has been adjourned till Nov. 12, with the court instructing the government to ensure the presence of the provincial secretary of the Environment Protection Department and the director general of the EPA in court at the next hearing. 
Authorities earlier this week shut down schools in Lahore and said 50 percent of government employees in the city were told to work from home until next week. On Wednesday schools in 18 surrounding districts were also shut. Marriyum Aurangzeb, a senior minister in the Punjab province, has urged residents to voluntarily wear face masks and avoid unnecessary travel, and said that “otherwise, the government will be forced into a complete lockdown.” 
Authorities in the city have already banned barbecuing food without filters, as well as the use of motorized rickshaws, and wedding halls must close by 10pm. The government has also said it was looking into methods to induce artificial rainfall to combat the pollution, which has been sending patients to hospitals and private clinics complaining of coughs and burning eyes.
“Tens of thousands of patients suffering from respiratory diseases were treated at hospitals and clinics in a week,” Salman Kazmi, vice president of the Pakistan Medical Association, told media on Thursday.

Topics: Pakistan Smog smog Lahore Smog

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