ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday arrived in the Saudi capital of Riyadh to attend an Arab-Islamic summit on the situation in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East, Sharif’s office said on Sunday, amid ongoing Israeli military campaigns in the region.
Saudi Arabia will host the extraordinary Arab–Islamic summit between the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Monday to address Israel’s bombardment and ground offensives in Gaza and Lebanon.
Upon arrival at the airport, Prince Mohammed bin Abdurrahman bin Abdulaziz, deputy governor of the Riyadh region, and Pakistani diplomatic officials in Saudi Arabia received the prime minister, according to Sharif’s office.
“Landed in Riyadh where I will join the leaders of the Muslim Ummah at the Joint Arab Islamic Summit being convened to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza and speak with one voice for the rights of the Palestinian people and reaffirm our collective call for regional peace,” Sharif said on X.
Sharif’s office earlier said the prime minister was also expected to meet with world leaders on the sidelines of the summit.
Since Oct 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed over 43,000 people and injured thousands more. Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Iran and Syria have also heightened fears of a wider war in the Middle East.
Muslim countries have called on Israel to announce an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East.
Monday’s summit in Riyadh will be a follow-up to the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit held in November 2023 in Riyadh, according to the Pakistani foreign ministry. PM Sharif will reiterate Pakistan’s full support to the Palestinian cause in his address with the gathering.
On Sunday, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, attended a meeting of the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) in Riyadh, wherein he called on the world to hold Israel accountable for its “war crimes” in Gaza.
“[Dar] expressed alarm at Israeli adventurism in the Middle East that is endangering peace and security in the region,” the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement. “[He] called on the international community to bring an end to Gaza genocide.”
Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters.”
The South Asian country has also dispatched more than 1,300 tons of relief goods for Gaza and Lebanon, besides establishing the ‘Prime Minister’s Relief Fund for Gaza and Lebanon’ that aims to collect public donations for the war-affected people.
Pakistan PM arrives in Riyadh to attend Arab-Islamic summit on Gaza, Middle East situation
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Pakistan PM arrives in Riyadh to attend Arab-Islamic summit on Gaza, Middle East situation
- Saudi Arabia is hosting the extraordinary summit to discuss Israeli military actions in Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East
- Muslim countries have called on Israel to stop its military campaigns that have raised fears of a wider conflict in the region
Religious affairs ministry signs Hajj flights agreement with PIA
- 179,210 Pakistani pilgrims to perform Hajj under government and private schemes next year
- Religious affairs minister has announced instalment plan for pilgrims to pay Hajj fees this year
ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Pakistan’s national carrier PIA have signed an agreement on Hajj flights, a spokesperson for the ministry said on Wednesday.
The Pakistani government approved the new Hajj policy earlier this month under which 179,210 Pakistanis would perform the pilgrimage next year under the government and private schemes.
“The national airline will provide travel facilities to 35,000 official pilgrims,” the spokesperson for the religious affairs ministry said in a statement.
“Agreements with Saudi Airlines and other local airlines will also be finalized soon,” the statement added, as PIA CEO Air Vice Marshal Aamir Hayat reiterated his commitment to provide the best facilities to Hajj pilgrims.
On Monday, Religious Affairs Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain announced an instalment plan for pilgrims to pay Hajj fees.
The cost of next year’s Hajj under the government scheme is expected to range between Rs1,075,000 to Rs1,175,000, while an additional cost for the sacrifice of animals during the pilgrimage will be Rs55,000, according to the religious affairs minister.
The first installment of Hajj dues, amounting to Rs200,000, have to be deposited at the time of the application, while the second installment of Rs400,000 will be paid within ten days of the balloting and if your name is picked in the lucky draw.
The remaining amount can be paid by Feb. 10 next year.
Meet Major Sania Safdar, Pakistani peacekeeper recognized by UN for gender advocacy
- Safdar from Pakistan is first peacekeeper from UNFICYP to receive 2023 Certificate of Recognition for gender advocacy
- In Cyprus, Safdar, who has an engineering degree, served as Mission’s Force Signal Officer as well as gender focal person
RAWALPINDI: When Major Sania Safdar was posted with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) last year, she never expected that her service would lead her to becoming the first peacekeeper from the mission to receive the 2023 Certificate of Recognition for gender advocacy.
Safdar, 36, was presented the certificate in August this year by the New York-based UN Department of Peace Operations for advocating gender equality as a member of the UNFICYP. She served from July 2023 to November 2024 as the mission’s Force Signal Officer and one of its military gender focal points.
“I am the first [Pakistani] peacekeeper from that mission who received this certificate of recognition for gender advocacy, and I am very happy and proud,” Safdar told Arab News in an interview this week.
She said her work involved promoting equal representation of women in all activities, organizing initiatives for them and ensuring their participation in planning, exercises, and operations throughout the mission. Since her deployment to the mission last year, she proactively took charge of several initiatives “by focusing on integrating the Women, Peace, and Security Agenda into military components of the Mission’s work,” the UN said.
Getting the certificate of recognition is not the soldier’s only memorable achievement as a member of the UNFICYP.
After she left the peacekeeping force in Cyprus, the chief of the mission wrote a letter of appreciation to Pakistan Army Chief Gen. Asim Munir, recognizing Safdar’s efforts as a staff officer.
“I am really happy and really proud to have two certificates with me when I finish my UN mission,” she said.
Safdar was also nominated for the 2023 UN Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award that “recognizes a military peacekeeper who has best integrated a gender perspective into peacekeeping activities.”
While the award went to Major Radhika Sen, an Indian peacekeeper deployed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Safdar said being nominated was achievement enough.
“Because of all my performance, I was nominated for this award,” she said.
“DREAM JOB”
Safdar hails from a small village in Pakistan’s Gujur Khan district and has a background in engineering.
“It was not very common in our village for the ladies to go outside and to live in the hostels for higher education,” Safdar said.
But her father, a retired teacher, encouraged her to join a post-graduate college in the city of Rawalpindi, from where she completed her Faculty of Science degree.
“When I came to know that now there is an opportunity for ladies from the engineering department to join the army, so it was my dream job,” Safdar said.
“Even after my BS [Bachelor of Science degree], I got the scholarship for my MS [Master of Science] education and it was a very good scholarship from abroad but I rejected that scholarship and I joined the military [in 2012].”
But life has not always been easy for Safdar, who is married to an army officer and has two sons under the age of ten. Indeed, while she described her service in Cyprus as a “wonderful experience,” living thousands of miles away from her young family came with its own set of challenges:
“In the middle of the mission, my elder son was facing some medical problem … and I was so much worried and so much concerned that my family responsibilities were being compromised.”
At one point, the major considered quitting the mission but her husband and family motivated her to continue serving.
It has all worked out for the best, as she said her family and especially her children were proud of her.
“When I visit their school they tell their class fellows, ‘Look, my mother is serving, my mother is in uniform,’ and sometimes they request me to, ‘Please come to our school and mama, please come in uniform’,” she said with a smile.
“This is, I think, the most proud moment for me that my kids, my parents, and my husband, they are proud of me.”
In the future, Safdar hopes other young women will learn from her example and follow their passions with “determination and faith.”
“If you really want to do something just go for it,” she said, “take the initiative and Allah Almighty will never, ever waste your efforts.”
Pakistani PM says 7 million at risk from flooding in glacial lakes
- Pakistan boasts over 7,000 glaciers, one of the highest totals for any country in the world
- 2022 floods killed 1,700 people and affected more than 33 million, with economic losses over $30 billion
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday over 3,000 lakes had been formed in Pakistan due to accelerated glacial melt, posing an increased risk of flooding and putting the lives of over seven million people at risk.
Sharif was addressing a ceremony in connection with steps taken for the protection of glaciers in Baku where leaders of nearly 200 nations have gathered for COP29 climate talks this week.
“Accelerated glacial melt has led to the formation of more than 3,000 glacial lakes in the northern part of Pakistan, beautiful though but at the same time posing great threat,” Sharif said in a speech.
“It is estimated that out of these, 33 are at high risk of outburst flooding, putting at risk the lives of over 7 million people. This is a very grave situation and demands urgent action and now.”
The UN defines Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) as sudden events that can occur when glaciers melt and release millions of cubic meters of water and debris. In Pakistan, GLOFs can be a threat to the lives and livelihoods of people living in remote mountain areas, especially in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.
Outside the polar region, Pakistan is the country with the highest number of glaciers in the world at over 7,000. However, a combination of climate change and air pollution, including from neighboring countries like India and China, has significantly contributed to the rapid melting of these glaciers, causing devastating floods that have affected Pakistan’s people, livelihoods and the economy.
In 2022, the country experienced an unprecedented deluge and unexpected monsoon rainfall. It resulted in one-third of the nation being submerged and claiming the lives of 1,700 people.
Pakistan estimates the floods affected more than 33 million people, mainly in the Sindh and Baluchistan provinces, and caused economic losses that exceeded $30 billion.
IMF delegation in Pakistan, discusses ‘key benchmarks’ of $7 billion loan program — official
- IMF has said Porter’s visit is not part of the first review of loan program
- First review not scheduled to take place before the first quarter of 2025
ISLAMABAD: An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation is in Islamabad this week and will hold discussions with top Pakistani officials on the “key benchmarks” of a $7 billion loan program approved in September, a finance ministry official said on Tuesday.
The IMF delegation led by Pakistan mission chief Nathan Porter arrived in Islamabad on Monday on an unplanned visit. The team is expected to hold meetings until Friday with top officials from ministries such as finance and energy and the Federal Board of Revenue, the main tax collection agency, to collect data on “loan program performance to date,” a finance ministry official told Arab News, seeking anonymity.
The IMF has said Porter’s visit is not part of the first review of the loan program, which is not scheduled to take place before the first quarter of 2025.
“Some key benchmarks of the loan program will come under discussion during the meetings, as Islamabad faces some revenue shortfall and a recent botched attempt to privatize the Pakistan International Airlines,” the finance ministry official said.
“Matters like external financing gap and reforms in the energy sector are also expected to be discussed with the IMF delegation.”
The IMF reached a staff-level agreement with Pakistan in July for a 37-month $7 billion bailout package, which the Fund’s Executive Board approved in September. This was the 25th loan program that Pakistan has obtained since 1958.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the ministry of finance said a delegation led by Porter had an “initial meeting” with finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.
Minister of State for Finance Ali Pervez Malik, Governor State Bank Jameel Ahmed, Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial and senior finance ministry officials were also present in the meeting, the ministry said.
Islamabad secured the bailout loan, critical to keeping its $350 billion fragile economy afloat, after taking painful measures such as hiking fuel and food prices and implementing reforms to broaden the country’s tax base and privatize state-owned entities.
“INTERIM CHECKS”
Pakistan’s macroeconomic conditions and investor sentiment have improved in recent months, which analysts say has led to a bullish trend in the country’s stock market.
Syed Atif Zafar, the chief economist at Topline Securities, said the IMF delegation’s meetings with Pakistani officials were part of “interim checks” to ensure a successful review of the loan facility next year.
“The government failed to achieve the tax revenue target in the first quarter that has perhaps necessitated this IMF visit, but still the authorities have multiple options and time to overcome this gap,” he told Arab News.
“The good thing at this point is that all structural and quantitative benchmarks of the loan program are on track.”
Tahir Abbas, a senior economist and head of research at Arif Habib Limited, said Pakistan last month requested the IMF for a $1 billion climate financing facility to mitigate climate risk, which would be discussed during the ongoing IMF visit.
“Pakistan’s revenue shortfall of around Rs200 billion ($720 million) in the first quarter has mainly necessitated this IMF visit,” he told Arab News.
“The finance ministry will now inform the IMF delegation about the possible revenue measures to overcome the shortfall and cut the expenditures.”
After primary schools, Pakistan’s Punjab closes high schools as smog crisis deepens
- Record air pollution has triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, school closures, lockdowns in Punjab this month
- On Tuesday, provincial capital Lahore, home to 13 million people, had worst air quality globally, according to IQAir
ISLAMABAD: The government of Punjab has closed all educational institutions in the province up to the higher secondary level from tomorrow, Wednesday, until the end of the week because of record-breaking smog that has already prompted the closure of primary schools and government offices and has sickened tens of thousands of people.
Record-high air pollution levels have triggered hundreds of hospitalizations, junior school closures and stay-at-home orders in several districts of Punjab, including the provincial capital of Lahore, which has been enveloped in a thick, toxic smog since last month.
On Tuesday, Lahore, home to 13 million people, had the worst air quality of any city in the world, according to live readings by IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring company.
“All the educational institutions […] up to higher secondary level shall remain closed and will shift to online mode with effect from Nov 13 within […] DG Khan, Bahawalpur, Sahiwal, Sargodha and Rawalpindi divisions […] till Nov 17,” the province’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in a notification issued on Tuesday, ordering schools to shift to “online mode.”
In Pakistan, the higher secondary level refers to upper secondary education, which includes grades 11 and 12. It is also known as intermediate education.
Speaking to reporters, Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat said the decision to close higher secondary institutes was taken “in light of the complaints received from the district.”
“This drastic decision had to be taken to protect children from the deadly effects,” he said. “There is a sense of educational loss, but the decision to close educational institutions is being taken out of compulsion.
Primary schools and government offices had already been closed until Nov. 17 in many districts of Punjab earlier this month, with school closures likely to affect the education of more than 20 million students, according to associations representing private and government schools.
Authorities in 18 districts of Punjab also closed all public parks, zoos and museums, historical places, and playgrounds for ten days last week.
On Friday, a court in Lahore ordered the government to shut all markets after 8pm. Authorities have already banned barbecuing food without filters and ordered wedding halls to close by 10pm.
On Monday, the UN children’s agency said the health of 11 million children in Punjab province was in danger because of air pollution
“Prior to these record-breaking levels of air pollution, about 12 percent of deaths in children under 5 in Pakistan were due to air pollution,” UNICEF’s representative in Pakistan, Abdullah Fadil, said.
“The impact of this year’s extraordinary smog will take time to assess, but we know that doubling and tripling the amount of pollution in the air will have devastating effects, particularly on children and pregnant women.”
