ISLAMABAD: An All Parties Conference (APC) in Pakistan on Monday called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to convene an emergency summit to address the situation in Palestine, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announcing the formation of a special working group to engage other Islamic countries in raising a collective voice on Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza.
The APC came as Pakistan observed Palestine Solidarity Day to mark one year of Israeli invasion of Gaza that has claimed the lives of more than 41,800 Palestinians so far.
The conference took place at the Presidency in Islamabad, with President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Sharif, and leaders of key Pakistani political parties in attendance.
Speaking at the APC, PM Sharif said it was time for the Muslim World to move forward and take practical steps to prevent Israel from further bloodshed in Palestine.
“Pakistan has decided to form a special working group which will go to different lobbies and reach out to other countries in the Islamic world to raise a collective voice against Israeli atrocities,” he said.
“The first priority should be to stop the bloodshed in Palestine, which is a foremost duty and for this, the platform of the OIC is available.”
While reading out a joint communique by all parties, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said the APC called for full implementation of a UN General Assembly resolution, ES 10/24 of September 18, which inter alia demanded an end to Israeli occupation.
“[This APC] calls on the OIC to convene an emerging emergency summit to discuss the situation in Palestine, Israel’s brutal aggression in the region and its implications for the regional peace and security and underscores the need for unity of the Islamic ummah,” Dar said.
He demanded implementation of provisional measures by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which called for preventing Israel from committing further acts of genocide against the Palestinian people, as well as the ICJ’s advisory opinion of July 19 that reaffirmed the illegality of the Israeli occupation.
Dar said the APC expressed full support for the ongoing political and diplomatic efforts by the OIC, the League of Arab States, the United Nations and brotherly countries in addressing the prevailing situation in Palestine as well as for peace and stability of the broader region.
In his speech at the conference, President Zardari regretted the fact that the international community had failed to stop Israel from committing the “genocide” in Palestine.
“The prevailing culture of impunity and disregard for international law must be urgently addressed and it is crucial for the international community to take swift action to de-escalate the situation,” he said.
The president reiterated Pakistan’s firm support and vowed to continue raising its voice at all regional and international forums to stop Israel’s human rights violations and aggression against the Palestinians.
Nawaz Sharif, a three-time former prime minister and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party supremo, questioned the world silence on Israel’s “genocide and war crimes” in Gaza.
“The government should contact the Islamic community after preparing recommendations for an effective role in the Palestine conflict, reflecting the nation’s desire to contribute decisively,” he said.
Nawaz urged Muslim countries to unite and develop a joint strategy to stop the ongoing bloodshed in Palestine.
“We have not seen such atrocities anywhere in the world as those being committed by Israel, yet many countries do not recognize it as a humanitarian crisis,” he added.
Speaking at the conference, Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman called for practical steps to help the Palestinians, instead of “passing resolutions and issuing condemnations.”
“A joint platform of leading Muslim countries should be formed to evolve a common strategy to face multiple challenges in Palestine,” he added.
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Naeem-ur-Rehman said Pakistan had to take a very clear stance on Israeli brutalities against the Palestinians.
“Pakistan should take steps to convene a meeting of the Islamic countries to adopt a common stance in this regard,” he said, adding that Islamabad should play a proactive role to launch a diplomatic campaign to highlight this issue at world fora.
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.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, Pakistan has repeatedly raised the issue at the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other multilateral platforms and demanded international powers and bodies stop Israeli military actions in Gaza. The South Asian country has also dispatched several aid consignments for the Palestinians.
Pakistan all-parties conference urges OIC to call emergency summit on Gaza war
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Pakistan all-parties conference urges OIC to call emergency summit on Gaza war
- PM Shehbaz Sharif says Pakistan will form a special working group to engage Islamic countries in raising a collective voice against Israeli actions
- Joint communique of All Parties Conference calls for full implementation of UN General Assembly Resolution demanding end to Israeli occupation
Pakistan stresses increasing defense, agriculture and economic cooperation with Italy
- Pakistan, Italian delegations hold sixth round of Bilateral Political Consultations in Rome
- Both sides appreciate “similarity of views” on regional, international issues, says state media
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign secretary stressed increasing bilateral cooperation with Italy in defense, agriculture, and economic sectors, state-run media reported this week, as the South Asian country eyes increased foreign trade and investment with other nations.
Pakistan has always aimed to enhance its ties with European Union (EU) countries. The EU is Pakistan’s second most important trading partner, accounting for over 14 percent of Pakistan’s total trade and absorbing 28 percent of Pakistan’s total exports.
The sixth round of Pakistan-Italy Bilateral Political Consultations (BPC) convened in Rome on Saturday, in which both sides expressed satisfaction at the “positive trajectory” of bilateral relations, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.
“Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch while highlighting the growing trade relations between the two countries underscored the immense potential to further expand cooperation in the areas of economy, development, agriculture, defense, higher education and people-to-people contacts,” APP said.
Italian foreign ministry’s Secretary General Ricardo Guariglia led the talks from the Italian side, state media said.
“Both sides appreciated the similarity of views on a number of international and regional issues as well as close coordination in the UN,” the report said.
The two representatives agreed to convene the seventh session of the dialogue next year in Pakistan, APP said.
Pakistan has increasingly eyed foreign trade and investment from friendly countries and regional partners ever since it came to the brink of a sovereign default in 2023, before it was saved by a last-gasp bailout deal that it clinched with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The South Asian country has since then attempted to undertake long-term financial reforms, increasing its exports and attracting foreign investments from other countries to ensure sustainable growth.
It formed the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) to attract international investment in agriculture, energy, livestock, tourism, mining and minerals and other priority sectors.
Pakistan begins Ramadan 2025 after Taraweeh prayers, suhoor meals
- Taraweeh is a non-obligatory night prayer offered across mosques worldwide during holy month of Ramadan
- Pakistan is a predominantly Muslim country where more than 90% of its over 240 million people practice Islam
ISLAMABAD: Pakistanis offered special Taraweeh prayers late last night and consumed pre-dawn suhoor meals across the nation, marking the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan from today, Sunday.
Ramadan, the exact start date of which depends on the sighting of the new moon, began in Pakistan on Sunday, the first day of fasting, and a day after it started in most other parts of the world.
Fasting in Ramadan, the ninth and the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, is one of the five pillars of Islam and this is the time of the year when religious fervor is rekindled throughout the Muslim world.
One of the significant features of Ramadan each year is the Taraweeh prayer, a non-obligatory night prayer during the holy month. Thousands across the country offered the Taraweeh prayers in well-lit mosques on Saturday night.
“Today is the first day of Taraweeh,” Nadeem Aftab, a resident of Karachi, told Reuters on Saturday night. “We have to keep up this prayer the whole month with enthusiasm and should also invite others to this prayer every day.”
Others were busy buying items for the first suhoor meal or pre-dawn meal Muslims consume ahead of fasting.
Javed Ali Baloch was among several customers at a shop buying “pheni,” or fried vermicelli for suhoor.
“I am here to buy pheni, which is only available during Ramadan for suhoor, and people love to eat it,” he said. “I buy it for my family.”
Pakistan is a predominantly Muslim country where more than 90% of its over 240 million people practice Islam, and most of them fast during the holy month.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday launched a Rs20 billion ($71.4 million) relief package for Ramadan which aims to benefit 4 million families across the country.
As part of the package, the government has decided to provide Rs5,000 ($17.87) each to around 4 million families across the country to support them during the month of Ramadan, officials said.
Attorneys sue to keep 10 migrants, including Pakistani, out of Guantanamo Bay
- Out of 10, seven men are from Venezuela, others from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan
- As per the lawsuit, Afghan and Pakistani migrants came to US fleeing threats from Taliban
Civil rights attorneys sued the Trump administration Saturday to prevent it from transferring 10 migrants detained in the US to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and filed statements from men held there who said they were mistreated there in conditions that of one of them called “a living hell.”
The federal lawsuit came less than a month after the same attorneys sued for access to migrants who were already detained at the naval base in Cuba after living in the US illegally. Both cases are backed by the American Civil Liberties Union and filed in Washington.
The attorneys also filed statements translated from Spanish into English from two men still held at Guantanamo Bay, four men held there in February and sent back to Venezuela, and a Venezuelan migrant sent back to Texas.
The men said they were kept in small, windowless cells, with lights on around the clock, hindering sleep, and had inadequate food and medical care. One man reported attempting suicide there, and two said they knew of others’ attempts. The men said migrants were verbally and physically abused by staffers.
“It was easy to lose the will to live,” said Raul David Garcia, a former Guantanamo detainee sent back to Venezuela. “I had been kidnapped in Mexico before, and at least my captors there told me their names.”
Another former detainee sent back to Venezuela, Jonathan Alejandro Alviares Armas, reported that fellow detainees were sometimes denied water or “tied up in a chair outside our cells for up to several hours” as punishment, including for protesting conditions.
“Guantanamo is a living hell,” he said.
In another, separate federal lawsuit filed in New Mexico, a federal judge on Feb. 9 blocked the transfer of three immigrants from Venezuela being held in that state to Guantanamo Bay.
Trump says Guantanamo Bay can hold thousands of ‘the worst’.
The White House and the Defense and Homeland Security departments did not immediately respond to emails Saturday seeking comment about the latest lawsuit. The two agencies are among the defendants.
Trump has promised mass deportations of immigrants living in the US illegally and has said Guantanamo Bay, also known as “Gitmo,” has space for up to 30,000 of them.
He also has said he plans to send “the worst” or high-risk “criminal aliens” to the base in Cuba. The administration has not released specific information on who is being transferred, so it is not clear what crimes they are accused of committing in the US and whether they have been convicted in court, or merely been charged or arrested.
At least 50 migrants have been transferred already to Guantanamo Bay, and the civil rights attorneys believe the number now may be about 200. They have said it is the first time in US history that the government has detained noncitizens on civil immigration charges there. For decades, the naval base was primarily used to detain foreigners associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
A separate military detention center once held 800 people, but that number has dwindled to 15, including 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Critics have said for years that the center is notorious for poor conditions for detainees. A 2023 report from a United Nations inspector said detainees faced “ongoing cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment,” though the US rejected much of her criticism.
Migrants say they were tortured or threatened before coming to the US
The 10 men involved in the latest lawsuit came to the US in 2023 or 2024, seven from Venezuela, and the others from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The lawsuit said the Afghan and Pakistani migrants were fleeing threats from the Taliban, and two of the Venezuelans had been tortured by the government there for their political views. One of the Venezuelans, Walter Estiver Salazar, said government officials kidnapped him after he refused to follow an order to cut off his town’s electricity.
“The officials beat me, suffocated me, and eventually shot me,” he said. “I barely survived.”
Salazar said he had been convicted in the US of driving under the influence, “which I deeply regret,” while another of the Venezuelans said charges against him tied to a domestic dispute had been dropped.
The men’s attorneys allege that many of the people who have been sent to Guantanamo Bay do not have serious criminal records or even any criminal history.
Four Venezuelans said they had been falsely accused of being gang members based on their tattoos, including one who said his tattoo was of a Catholic rosary.
Transfer to Guantanamo violates constitutional right, attorneys say.
The latest lawsuit contends that the transfers violate the men’s right to due legal process, guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution.
The lawsuit also argues that federal immigration law bars the transfer of non-Cuban migrants from the US to Guantanamo Bay; that the US government has no authority to hold people outside its territory; and the naval base remains part of Cuba legally. The transfers are also described as arbitrary.
Their first lawsuit, filed Feb. 12, said Guantanamo Bay detainees had “effectively disappeared into a black box” and couldn’t contact attorneys or family. The Department of Homeland Security said they could reach attorneys by phone.
One of the formerly detained Venezuelans, Yoiker David Sequera, said he was permitted to make one phone call to the ACLU, but when he asked to speak with his family, he was told “it was not possible.”
A current detainee, Tilso Ramon Gomez Lugo, said that for two weeks he was not able to communicate “with anyone in the outside world” until he was allowed to make a single call to attorneys.
The lawsuit also argues that Guantanamo Bay “does not have the infrastructure” to hold even the 10 men. Garcia said a part of the base for migrants like him known as Camp 6, where he was confined, seemed “prepared at the last minute” and was “not even finished.”
“It was freezing, and I felt like chicken trapped in an incubator,” he said.
Pakistan and Denmark discuss multilateral cooperation, strengthening economic ties
- Both countries began their two-year terms as non-permanent Security Council members in January
- They discuss trade and investment by leveraging public-private partnership, says the foreign office
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday discussed cooperation on multilateral platforms with Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, with the foreign office in Islamabad describing their conversation as “productive.”
Both Pakistan and Denmark began their two-year terms as non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in January 2025, joining the 15-member body responsible for maintaining international peace and security.
The Council comprises five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States — and ten non-permanent members elected for two-year terms by the General Assembly.
Non-permanent members play a crucial role in shaping the Council’s agenda, participating in decision-making processes, and contributing to resolutions on global issues.
“Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar had a productive phone conversation with Denmark’s Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen,” the foreign office said in a social media post. “The two leaders expressed their resolve to strengthen the long-standing friendship between Pakistan and Denmark into a strong economic partnership.”
“They explored ways to expedite collaboration in trade and investment through the promotion of Public-Private Partnerships,” it continued. “Additionally, as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for 2025 and 2026, they pledged to cooperate on multilateral platforms to advance mutual interests, peace, and sustainable development.”
In August 2022, Pakistan and Denmark signed the Green Framework Engagement Agreement, aiming to enhance collaboration on climate change mitigation, renewable energy and sustainable development. While the volume of trade between the two countries remains modest, Pakistan has sought to intensify economic diplomacy with European nations in recent years.
The relations between both sides have also faced challenges in the past. In 2005, anti-Islam caricatures published in a Danish newspaper led to public protests in Pakistan.
In 2008, the Danish embassy in Islamabad was targeted in a bombing that led to several casualties, with Al-Qaeda claiming responsibility and citing the cartoons as its motivation.
More recently, Denmark faced criticism from Muslim states for allowing public burnings of Islamic scripture.
In December 2023, however, the Danish government enacted a law criminalizing the public desecration of religious texts, deescalating tensions and aiding in the normalization of diplomatic relations with Muslim-majority countries.
Pakistan ruling coalition ally criticizes cyber law amendments, warns of threat to free speech
- Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act is widely criticized as a tool to stifle dissent
- PPP’s Raza Rabbani calls the PECA amendment bill ‘black law,’ says it can weaken the state
KARACHI: A senior Pakistani politician from a party supporting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition on Saturday condemned the recent amendments to the country’s cyber laws, warning they would jeopardize freedom of speech and weaken the state.
Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) was originally enacted in 2016, but an amendment bill passed in January 2025 expanded its scope by broadening the definition of “fake news” and criminalizing defamation against government officials.
The law also established a new social media regulatory authority to oversee digital content and a cybercrime agency with the power to prosecute violations.
Speaking at a convention related to the issue, Raza Rabbani of the Pakistan Peoples Party denounced the PECA amendments as a “black law,” asserting they would further restrict an already regulated digital space, especially for journalists.
“Trying to stop or restrict freedom of the press actually weakens the state. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right,” Rabbani said, highlighting the law’s “vague provisions on fake news” and other reforms that he warned could be easily manipulated.
He criticized the government for failing to consult stakeholders before enacting the amendments and urged an immediate suspension of the law’s implementation. Rabbani called for dialogue with journalists, civil society and other relevant groups to revise the legislation.
Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed, a legal expert, told the gathering the amendments undermined democratic principles by granting the government disproportionate power.
He also warned against the new authority mandated to take swift action against social media platforms during his speech.
“This authority is empowered to block platforms and remove content within 24 hours of a complaint being filed,” Ahmed said. “This gives an alarming level of unchecked power to a single body, which could easily be misused to stifle dissent.”
Sohail Afzal Khan, secretary of the Karachi Press Club, where the convention was held, echoed these concerns, arguing PECA was designed to suppress journalists rather than combat disinformation.
“If the government had been sincere in combating fake news, it would have enacted legislation in consultation with journalist leadership and other stakeholders. Instead, it seeks to suppress the voice of journalists,” Khan said.
The event was attended by representatives from major political parties, lawyers, rights activists and media workers, culminating in a resolution rejecting PECA 2025.
The resolution called for the removal of restrictions on free speech and an end to legal actions against journalists under the pretext of combating misinformation.
“The meeting resolves to continue its struggle against PECA and similar laws, within democratic frameworks, by collaborating with civil society and democratic forces,” it said.
