ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday met executives from Chinese space technology company GalaxySpace and discussed increasing cooperation in the fields of space and satellite technology and telecommunications.

Pakistan and China have deepened their space cooperation in recent months through the joint development of satellites and are planning a lunar mission in 2028. China has been key in advancing Pakistan’s space program, supporting satellite launches like PakSat-MM1 and PakSat-1R, and offering technical training through collaboration between the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO). 

On Tuesday, Sharif received a delegation from GalaxySpace, which specializes in developing and manufacturing low-cost, mass-production low earth orbit (LEO) satellites for the commercial space sector, with the aim of delivering high-speed broadband connectivity to remote and underserved regions around the world. The firm is often likened to US company SpaceX’s Starlink.

“GalaxySpace delegation expresses keen interest in investing in Pakistan’s space technology industry and joint ventures with Pakistani space technology institutions and private telecom companies,” Sharif’s office said in a statement after he met with the company’s chairman Xu Ming.

Sharif said Pakistan was looking to increase cooperation with China in space and satellite technology, telecommunications and the development of satellite Internet.

“Pakistan is giving utmost importance to the space technology sector,” the statement quoted Sharif as saying. 

In February this year, Pakistan and China signed an MoU for Pakistan’s first lunar rover to be included in Beijing’s Chang’E 8 mission, which is a robotic exploration of the lunar south pole expected to launch in 2028. Pakistani scientists will operate the rover from Earth to map the lunar terrain, examine soil composition, assess radiation and plasma conditions and test emerging technologies to support long-term human presence on the moon.

Pakistan’s space agency has also signed an agreement with China for Pakistan’s first astronaut to embark on a mission to a Chinese space station.

In May 2024, Pakistan launched its first lunar satellite aboard China’s Chang’e-6 probe, which successfully landed on the moon’s far side, which is not visible from Earth. The mission returned in June, making China the first nation to bring back samples from this remote lunar region.

Torkham: Pushed out of Pakistan where she was born, Nazmine Khan’s first experience of her country, Afghanistan, was in a sweltering tent at a border camp.

“We never thought we would return to Afghanistan,” said the 15-year-old girl, who has little idea of what will become of her or her family, only that she is likely to have fewer freedoms.

“When our parents told us we had to leave, we cried,” added Khan.

Having nowhere to go in Afghanistan, she and six other family members shared a stifling tent in the Omari camp near the Torkham border point.

Islamabad, accusing Afghans of links to narcotics and “supporting terrorism,” announced a new campaign in March to expel hundreds of thousands of Afghans, with or without documents.

Many had lived in Pakistan for decades after fleeing successive wars and crises but did not wait to be arrested by Pakistani forces before leaving, seeing their removal as inevitable.

Since April 1, more than 92,000 Afghans have been sent back to their country of origin, according to Islamabad, out of the some three million the United Nations says are living in Pakistan.

Khan’s family fled Afghanistan in the 1960s. Her four brothers and sister were also born in Pakistan.

“In a few days we’ll look for a place to rent” in the border province of Nangarhar where the family has roots, she told AFP, speaking in Pakistan’s commonly spoken tongue of Urdu, not knowing any Afghan languages.

In the family’s tent there is little more than a cloth to lie on and a few cushions, but no mattress or blanket. Flies buzz under the tarpaulin as countless children in ragged clothes come and go.

When it comes to her own future, Khan feels “completely lost,” she said.

Having dropped out of school in Pakistan, the Taliban authorities’ ban on girls studying beyond primary school will hardly change the course of her life.

But from what little she heard about her country while living in eastern Pakistan’s Punjab, she knows that “here there are not the same freedoms.”

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban authorities have imposed restrictions on women characterised by the UN as “gender apartheid.”

Women have been banned from universities, parks, gyms and beauty salons and squeezed from many jobs.

“It is now a new life... for them, and they are starting this with very little utilities, belongings, cash, support,” said Ibrahim Humadi, program lead for non-governmental group Islamic Relief, which has set up about 200 tents for returnees in the Omari camp.

Some stay longer than the three days offered on arrival, not knowing where to go with their meager savings, he said.

“They also know that even in their area of return, the community will be welcoming them, will be supporting them... but they know also the community are already suffering from the situation in Afghanistan,” he added.

Around 85 percent of the Afghan population lives on less than one dollar a day, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

“We had never seen (Afghanistan) in our lives. We do not know if we can find work, so we are worried,” said Jalil Khan Mohamedin, 28, as he piled belongings — quilts, bed frames and fans — into a truck that will take the 16 members of his family to the capital Kabul, though nothing awaits them there.

The Taliban authorities have said they are preparing towns specifically for returnees.

But at one site near Torkham, there is nothing more than cleared roads on a rocky plain.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) believes “greater clarity” is needed to ensure that the sites intended for returnees are “viable” in terms of basic infrastructure and services such as health and education.

It’s important that “returnees are making informed decisions and that their relocation to the townships is voluntary,” communications officer Avand Azeez Agha told AFP.

Looking dazed, Khan’s brother Dilawar still struggles to accept leaving Pakistan, where he was born 25 years ago.

His Pakistani wife did not want to follow him and asked for a divorce.

“When we crossed the border, we felt like going back, then after a day it felt fine,” said the former truck driver.

“We still don’t understand. We were only working.”