ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will undertake an official visit to Qatar from Oct. 30-31 to discuss bilateral ties with a special focus on trade and investment, the Pakistani foreign office said on Wednesday.
In 2022, the Qatar Investment Authority said it aimed to invest $3 billion in Pakistan, lending support to the South Asian nation’s cash-strapped economy. Doha has also shown interest in airport management partnership and the Roosevelt Hotel in New York’s Manhattan owned by the Pakistan International Airlines.
During a visit to Qatar in 2022, Sharif, then in his first term as PM, invited QIA, Qatar’s $450 billion sovereign wealth fund, to invest in Pakistan’s energy and aviation sectors. He had previously mentioned renewable energy, food security, industrial and infrastructure development, tourism and hospitality, among sectors of interest.
“In Doha, the Prime Minister will hold bilateral meetings with the His Highness, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Amir of the State of Qatar and H.E. Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, Prime Minister / Minister for Foreign Affairs,” the foreign office said in a statement.
“In these meetings, the two sides will review the entire gamut of bilateral relations and explore new of cooperation especially in trade and investment.”
Delegations from the Qatar Investment Authority and Qatar Businessmen Association will also call on Sharif to explore investment opportunities in Pakistan, the foreign office added.
Sharif will also inaugurate the cultural exhibition, “Manzar: Art and Architecture in Pakistan from 1940 to Present,” on October 31.
“The exhibition will showcase Pakistan’s rich cultural and architectural heritage and underline deep people-to-people linkages between Pakistan and Qatar,” the foreign office said.
PM Sharif to visit Qatar today amid trade, investment push by Islamabad
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PM Sharif to visit Qatar today amid trade, investment push by Islamabad
- In 2022, Qatar Investment Authority said it aimed to invest $3 billion in Pakistan, lending support to its cash-strapped economy
- During a visit to Qatar in 2022, Sharif invited Qatar’s $450 billion sovereign wealth fund to invest in energy and aviation sectors
Chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab calls for diplomacy with India to tackle smog
- Maryam Nawaz Sharif says contemplating writing letter to Indian counterpart to seek “joint measures”
- New Delhi was world’s second most polluted city on Wednesday followed by Lahore in neighboring Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: The chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province on Wednesday called for diplomacy with neighbor and arch-rival India to combat smog as both nations grapple with hazardous levels of air pollution ahead of the winter months.
Rated the world’s most polluted capital by Swiss group IQAir for four years in a row, New Delhi was the world’s second most polluted city on Wednesday, the group’s live rankings showed, followed by Lahore in neighboring Pakistan. Baghdad in Iraq was ranked number one on the list.
When cooler temperatures take hold, pollution spirals and air quality deteriorates as temperature inversion traps pollution closer to the ground, packing hospital wards in Lahore and New Delhi with patients with respiratory problems.
Rising air pollution can cut life expectancy by more than five years per person in South Asia, one of the world’s most polluted regions, according to a report published last year which flagged the growing burden of hazardous air on health.
Addressing a ceremony to mark the Indian cultural festival of Diwali on Wednesday, the Punjab CM Maryam Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan and India needed to coordinate actions to temper toxic smog, which winds carry across the border.
“There is an issue of smog in Pakistan’s Punjab, especially in Lahore. So, we must do this diplomacy with India,” Sharif said. “For the health of people there [Indian Punjab], for their betterment and the betterment of our side of the border, for our health, for the health of our people, until both Punjabs take joint measures, we won’t be able to fight smog.”
The annual practice of burning crop stubble left after harvesting paddy to clear fields for wheat planting is widely blamed for toxic pollution in the region before winter, causing disruptions such as school closures and construction curbs.
But people often also flout New Delhi’s ban on smoke-emitting firecrackers, usually burnt in celebration of the Diwali festival which runs from Wednesday to Friday this year, worsening pollution.
Sharif said she was contemplating writing a letter to her Indian counterpart, Bhagwant Mann, on the issue of combating smog.
“This is not a political issue, it’s a human issue, on which if we [Pakistan] are taking steps, then the Indian side should have a matching response, the same measures should be taken there because the winds don’t know that there is a boundary in between,” Sharif added.
Relations between India and Pakistan have gone through periods of thaw but have been largely frozen since they downgraded diplomatic ties in tit-for-tat moves in 2019.
In Pakistan’s Punjab, authorities have enforced new measures to combat hazardous smog, including making mask-wearing mandatory across the city of Lahore. New, shorter school timings have also been announced in the city while student assemblies will be conducted in classrooms rather than outdoor spaces. All outdoor activities at schools have been temporarily suspended. A ban has also been imposed on fireworks in Lahore until Jan. 31, 2025.
Breathing toxic air has catastrophic health consequences, with the World Health Organization saying strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases can be triggered due to prolonged exposure.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, nearly 600 million children in South Asia are exposed to high levels of air pollution.
Pakistan dispatches firefighters to combat Koh-e-Sulaiman forest blaze in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Two years ago, a significant fire broke out in the same mountain range in Balochistan that lasted for two weeks
- The fire that burnt over 100,000 pine nut trees damaged people’s livelihood and was extinguished with Iranian help
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pakistan dispatched a 16-member team of firefighters to respond to a blaze in the pine nut forests of the Koh-e-Sulaiman range in the Darazinda subdivision on Wednesday, according to a statement circulated by Rescue 1122, the country’s premier emergency response service.
This is not the first such incident in the region’s pine nut forests. A significant fire broke out in the Sherani district, part of the same range that straddles Pakistan’s western provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in May 2022.
The blaze lasted over two weeks, destroying a large portion of the ancient pine nut trees, with reports suggesting over 100,000 trees were burned, causing significant damage to the local ecosystem.
Rescue 1122 said in a statement it constituted the firefighting team and immediately dispatched it to the area upon receiving information about the latest fire.
“The rescue team has been equipped with all necessary firefighting gear, including fire extinguishers, personal protective equipment and other essential items required for working in mountainous areas,” the statement said.
“In such emergencies, methods like smoldering and starvation are employed to extinguish the fire, which involves cutting off the fire’s access to oxygen and fuel,” it added.
The rescue service explained such firefighting approach is used in areas where it is impossible to reach with fire trucks or tenders due to the high mountains, requiring firefighters to travel long distances on foot to implement the strategy based on the site’s conditions.
The 2022 fire in the Sherani district in Balochistan prompted Pakistan to seek assistance from Iran, which sent an air tanker to help extinguish the flames.
Such recurrent fires highlight the vulnerability of the region, where pine nut forests are not only ecologically valuable but also provide a livelihood for many locals.
Rescue 1122 noted that its Dera Ismail Khan team previously helped extinguish the fire in the Koh-e-Sulaiman mountain range within the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region before assisting in firefighting efforts in Balochistan.
The team participated in the operation for several days alongside Rescue 1122 emergency response groups from Tank, Lakki Marwat and Bannu the statement added.
Road accidents kill 12 in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province
- Three accidents were reported in Balochistan’s Sibi, Washuk, and Chaghi districts, injuring several people
- Fatal road accidents are common in Pakistan due to dilapidated infrastructure and reckless driving
QUETTA: At least 12 people were killed and several others injured in three deadly road accidents in Pakistan’s impoverished southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday, according to government officials.
Fatal accidents are common in Pakistan, where traffic rules are rarely followed and roads, particularly in rural and mountainous areas, are in poor condition. Such incidents are frequent in Balochistan, where single-carriage roads connect various cities, and even some highways lack modern safety features.
Speaking to Arab News about the first incident, Assistant Commissioner of Sibi Mansoor Ali Shah confirmed that a Jacobabad-bound passenger van from Quetta collided with a truck, resulting in fatalities and injuries among the travelers.
“At least six people from various districts of Balochistan were killed and 13 injured in the incident,” Shah said over the phone. “The injured were shifted to nearby hospitals.”
He added that the crash occurred due to speeding, as the van driver was attempting to overtake another vehicle on the single-carriage Quetta-Sukkur highway.
Another incident occurred in the evening when two vehicles, locally known as Zambad, had a head-on collision while traveling in the mountainous Washuk district, resulting in the deaths of four people.
“One Zambad vehicle was carrying smuggled Iranian oil, while the other had only the driver when they collided near a mountainous area close to the Washuk-Panjgur district,” Assistant Commissioner Shahzad Zehri told Arab News.
“Fire broke out in both vehicles due to the smuggled Iranian oil, and the people onboard were burnt to death,” he continued, adding that the bodies had been shifted to a local hospital for medico-legal procedures and identification.
Blue-colored right-hand-drive Iranian Zamyads, locally known as Zambads, are frequently used for smuggling Iranian goods that enter Pakistan through various points along the 904-kilometer border between the two countries.
In the third accident, two people, including a woman, were killed after attending a wedding party. They were traveling in a vehicle that overturned due to speeding in Dak, an area in Chaghi district.
Assistant Commissioner of the region, Basit Buzdar, said seven people were on board the vehicle, which was coming from Nushki.
“Two people, including a woman, were killed, and five others were injured in the accident,” he told Arab News.
Buzdar added that the injured were shifted to Prince Fahad Hospital Dalbandin.
“The speeding vehicle overturned after the driver lost control on a muddy track along the Quetta-Taftan highway,” he said, sharing details of the accident.
Real estate developer says cleared to bid for Pakistan’s flag carrier
- Government said earlier this month six companies have been shortlisted as potential PIA bidders
- Top Blue World City official says the group is also planning to acquire Islamabad airport operations
KARACHI: A Pakistani real estate development company said on Wednesday it had completed requirements to enter the bidding process for a stake in the country’s flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), scheduled for later this week.
The cash-strapped government, which is looking to privatize the loss-making airline, said earlier this month six companies had been shortlisted as potential bidders.
But only one company met a Tuesday deadline to submit “earnest money” prior to final bidding, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday citing a privatization commission official.
The chairman of Blue World City, Saad Nazir, confirmed to Reuters in a text message that his company is the only one to enter the final bidding process, declining to disclose the earnest money it had submitted.
The privatization ministry did not immediately reply to request for comment outside business hours.
Islamabad has previously said it was putting on the block a stake of between 51 percent and 100 percent in the debt-ridden airline as part of reforms urged by the International Monetary Fund.
Blue World City, a real estate developer, has a consortium that includes Blue World Aviation and IRIS Communication Limited.
Nazir said the group is also looking into acquiring operations of the Islamabad International Airport which the government is looking to outsource.
The group is in talks with global aircraft manufacturers and airport operators, including Chinese and Turkish companies, he said.
Pakistan PM urges global action over Israel’s ban on UN agency serving Palestinians
- UNRWA was established in 1949 to help Palestinians and has long been a target of Israeli criticism
- PM Sharif condemns Israel’s decision to obstruct the UN agency’s work in the occupied territories
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday condemned Israel’s decision to ban the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from operating in the occupied Palestinian territories, urging the international community to hold the administration in Tel Aviv accountable for violating international law and the United Nations Charter.
UNRWA was established in 1949 to provide education, health care and other services to Palestinian refugees and has long been a target of Israeli criticism. Since October 2023, Israel has accused it of facilitating Hamas activities, leading to its ban earlier this week on Monday.
The decision coincides with the deaths of nearly 180 UNRWA staff members in the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, part of a broader toll of over 220 humanitarian workers killed. The situation has drawn global condemnation, with UN officials highlighting the unprecedented loss of life among aid workers.
“Strongly condemn Israel’s actions aimed at obstructing UNRWA’s operations inside the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” Sharif wrote on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
“By preventing critical relief assistance from reaching millions of helpless Palestinians, Israel is committing yet another blatant violation of international humanitarian law and the @UN Charter for which it must be held accountable by the international community,” he added.
A day earlier, Pakistan’s top diplomat at the UN also raised the issue at the world body, calling the UN agency “irreplaceable” due to its vital role in serving millions of Palestinians.
“The passage of the bills by Israeli parliament concerning UNRWA is further evidence that Israel is doubling down on its genocidal war against Palestinians by cutting off the lifeline for the Palestinians provided by UNRWA and other UN entities,” Ambassador Munir Akram said, according to an official statement released by Pakistan’s diplomatic mission.
Nearly two million people in Gaza rely on the agency for aid, with about one million using its shelters for food and health care in the enclave. The agency has provided Palestinians with everything from food and health care to education and psychological support for decades.
“Any effort to diminish its role will have severe humanitarian and regional consequences,” Akram added.
