Pakistan announces joint body on transit trade with Tajikistan amid Central Asia investment push

Pakistan’s Minister for Power, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari (center), and Tajikistan’s Minister for Energy and Water Resources, Juma Daler Shofaqir (right), attend the 7th session of Pakistan-Tajikistan Joint Commission in Islamabad, on December 11, 2024. (PID)
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Pakistan announces joint body on transit trade with Tajikistan amid Central Asia investment push

  • Pakistan wants to consolidate its role as a pivotal trade and transit hub for landlocked Central Asian republics
  • Tajikistan is Pakistan’s closest neighbor in Central Asia with narrow strip through Wakhan corridor separating them

ISLAMABAD: Power Minister Sardar Awais Leghari on Wednesday announced that Islamabad and Dushanbe had agreed to set up a joint coordination committee to address transit trade challenges, as Pakistan pushes to consolidate its role as a pivotal trade and transit hub connecting the landlocked Central Asian states with the rest of the world. 

In recent weeks, there has been a flurry of visits, investment talks and economic activity between officials from Pakistan and the Central Asian nations. Tajikistan is Pakistan’s closest neighbor in Central Asia with a narrow strip of 14km through the Wakhan corridor separating the two countries. 

On Wednesday, speaking at the seventh session of the Pakistan-Tajikistan Joint Commission in Islamabad along with Tajikistan Energy Minister Juma Daler Shofaqir, Leghari said both nations needed to explore “new avenues of cooperation” in commercial and economic fields.

“I’m pleased to note that both sides have agreed to create a joint coordination committee on transit trade under the Tajikistan-Pakistan trade transit agreement, which will play a pivotal role in addressing operational challenges and ensuring the smooth implementation of transit trade provisions,” Leghari said. 

He hoped deliberations of the joint commission would aid in preparing “concrete” recommendations to advance further growth in the fields of trade, energy, agriculture and education as well as the industrial sector.

Leghari also called for a “plan of action” to raise the current volume of trade through more trade activities and the removal of barriers. According to data published by Tajik Customs, during 2023 (Jan-Dec), the volume of bilateral trade between Pakistan and Tajikistan stood at $52.73 million, an increase of 62.3 percent in comparison with the previous year.

“I want to emphasize the significance of extending our regional connectivity and welcome Tajikistan to avail all trade corridors from Dushanbe to Gwadar and Karachi under the Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation program and other multi-model transnational trade corridors,” Leghari added.

He said proximity between Pakistan and Tajikistan through the Wakhan corridor presented an “excellent opportunity” to establish direct connectivity.

Leghari also spoke about the significance of the $1.2 billion Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000) project, that aims to bring 1,300 megawatts of surplus electricity from Central Asia to high-demand electricity markets in South Asia. This project involves the construction of a 1,227km-long cross-border transmission line that will connect Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan 

“I sincerely hope that the remaining work can be expedited to fully realize the potential of this vital energy cooperation ensuring mutual benefits in the power sector,” the Pakistani minister said.


Pakistan’s Punjab to develop ‘advanced air quality management system’ with Chinese help

Updated 11 min 43 sec ago
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Pakistan’s Punjab to develop ‘advanced air quality management system’ with Chinese help

  • Beijing-Punjab Clean Air joint working group set up during chief minister’s ongoing visit to China
  • Nearly two million people in Pakistan fell ill when smog choked Punjab for over two weeks last month

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab will develop an advanced air quality management system with the help of China to combat an enduring smog and pollution crisis, a statement from the provincial chief minister’s office said on Wednesday. 

Smog had choked Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province for weeks last month, sickening nearly two million people and shrouding vast swathes of the province in a toxic haze. 

On Wednesday, Lahore, the capital of Punjab, was listed as the world’s sixth most polluted city by Swiss air monitor IQAir, and its PM2.5 concentration, which comprises air particles that damage lungs, was 20.5 times the World Health Organization annual guideline value. The province had closed down schools and offices for days last month, banned outdoor activities and shortened timings for restaurants, shops and markets in a bid to control smog.

“Agreement reached to develop an advanced air quality management system in Punjab with China’s collaboration,” the ruling PML-N party in Punjab said in an X post after Sharif met Chinese environment authorities. “Decision to establish the ‘Beijing-Punjab Clean Air Joint Working Group’ has been made.”

The officials also discussed wildlife conservation and plantation projects, with Sharif saying Punjab would leverage China’s expertise and experience in implementing an e-transport system in the province.

China has taken significant steps to combat its worsening air quality, declaring a “war on pollution” in 2015. Key measures include reducing coal consumption, increasing renewable energy capacity, and improving air quality monitoring systems. 

However, researchers said last month China’s emissions of carbon dioxide were on course to rise slightly this year, despite rapid progress on renewables and electric vehicles, putting a key 2025 climate target further out of reach.

China wants to cut the amount of CO2 it produces per unit of economic growth by 18 percent over the 2021-2025 period, but it fell further behind this year as a result of rising energy demand, said the Helsinki-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) in its annual assessment.


Pakistan, China hold three-week-long joint war exercise

Updated 11 December 2024
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Pakistan, China hold three-week-long joint war exercise

  • China is pushing to join Pakistani security efforts to protect its citizens, last month unveiled plan for joint counterterror exercises
  • Warrior-VIII exercise between Pakistan Army and Peoples’ Liberation Army of China held from Nov. 19 to Dec. 11 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan army said on Wednesday it had held a joint war exercise with China from Nov. 19 to Dec. 11 amid a push for deeper security ties between Islamabad and Beijing. 

Following a string of deadly attacks that targeted its citizens in recent months, China has pushed to join Pakistani security efforts to protect them, and last month unveiled a plan for joint counter-terrorism exercises in Pakistan.

The exercise, which both the sides called Warrior-VIII between the Pakistan Army and Peoples’ Liberation Army of China, was launched at a northwestern Pakistani counter-terrorism facility, a Pakistani army statement said last month, adding that the exercise was aimed at “refining professional skills through joint training, besides harnessing (our) historic military-to-military relations.”

In a statement released on Wednesday, Pakistan said the exercise concluded today, Wednesday. 

“Pak-China Joint Exercise Warrior-VIII between Pakistan Army and Peoples Liberation Army of China was conducted from 19 November to 11 December 2024,” the army’s media wing said. 

“Three weeks’ long Exercise in Counter Terrorism domain is 8th in the series of bilateral exercises being held annually.”

Attacks on Chinese nationals have put the bilateral relations between both states under increasing stress, with Chinese officials breaking from diplomatic norms in recent months and publicly calling on Islamabad to provide better security. 

Media reports in recent weeks have also widely speculated that Beijing has said it will not continue with projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion investment in President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, unless Pakistan can guarantee security. 


Pakistanis displaced by Diamer-Bhasha dam hold protests, block Karakoram Highway to China

Updated 11 December 2024
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Pakistanis displaced by Diamer-Bhasha dam hold protests, block Karakoram Highway to China

  • Protest leaders say highway temporarily opened until 10am on Wednesday to facilitate stranded commuters
  • Protesters’ demands include the resettlement of those displaced by the dam as well as financial compensation

KHAPLU, Gilgit-Baltistan: Demonstrators who have been blocking the Karakoram Highway linking the remote northern Gilgit-Baltistan region to the rest of Pakistan to protest the construction of a dam in the region have allowed the road to be opened until 10am today, Wednesday, to facilitate stranded commuters, officials and protester leaders said.

The government plans to build the Diamer-Bhasha dam on the River Indus between Kohistan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Diamer district in Gilgit Baltistan by 2028-29. It is estimated that plans to build the dam and reservoir will displace more than 4,200 families in nearby areas. Once constructed, the dam will submerge a large section of the Karakoram Highway to China, Pakistan’s Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) estimates.

For the last two days, hundreds of protesters have been blocking the KKH in the Diamer district in protest against WAPDA, whom they say has not paid them compensation for land they gave up for the construction of the dam. 

Three rounds of negotiations with the government had failed, Shahid Iqbal, a member of the protesters’ core committee, told Arab News in a phone interview on Tuesday evening.

“However, we have decided to open the road for traffic just to facilitate the stranded commuters. Meanwhile, we have presented a 21-point charter of demands to the government and given the deadline till tomorrow [Wednesday] 10am. If they fail to meet our demands, we will block the road again.” 

The demands include the resettlement of those displaced by the dam’s construction as well as financial compensation for affectees. 

Speaking to Arab News, the spokesperson of the Gilgit-Baltistan government, Faizullah Faraq, said the government was considering all valid demands by protesters. 

“Officials from WAPDA, the district administration, and police are representing the government side, while five members of [dam] affectees are taking part in the negotiation process,” Faraq told Arab News.

He said Diamer-Bhasha dam affectees had protested multiple times in the past but their latest move to block the KKH had left “hundreds of passengers stranded on both sides.”

“They have presented their demands and the government will leave no stone unturned to fulfil their valid demands,” the official added. 

The $12-$14 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam should generate 4,500 megawatts (MW) of electricity, and a vast new reservoir would regulate the flow of water to farmland that is vulnerable to increasingly erratic weather patterns. With a gross water storage capacity of 8.1-million-acre feet (MAF), the dam is expected to help irrigate 1.23 million acres of additional land. 

China and Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding in December 2016 for Beijing to help fund and develop Pakistan’s Indus Basin dams, though no timelines were released. Pakistan estimates there is 40,000 MW of hydro potential.

Pakistan has been keen for years to build a cascade of mega dams along the Indus flowing down from the Himalayas, but has struggled to raise money from international institutions amid opposition from its nuclear-armed neighbor India.

Those ambitions have been revived by China’s Belt and Road infrastructure plans for Pakistan, a key cog in Beijing’s creation of a modern-day Silk Road network of trade routes connecting Asia with Europe and Africa.


Pakistani PM slams Imran Khan’s call for civil disobedience

Updated 11 December 2024
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Pakistani PM slams Imran Khan’s call for civil disobedience

  • Khan has said his PTI party will lead a civil disobedience movement from Dec. 14 if political prisoners are not released
  • Party also demands judicial investigations into crackdowns on supporters during protests in May 2023 and Nov. 2024

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday denounced calls for a civil disobedience movement by jailed former premier Imran Khan, describing the move as being “antagonistic” towards the country’s interests at a time it was heading towards economic recovery.

On Dec. 5, Khan, jailed since August 2023 on charges he says are politically motivated to keep him away from power, said in a message to supporters that he was setting up a five-member negotiations committee to hold talks with the federal government for the release of political prisoners. He also demanded judicial commissions to investigate protests on May 9 last year and Nov. 24 this year in which the government says supporters of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party partook in violence and caused vandalism. If the two demands were not met, Khan said, the party would launch a civil disobedience movement from Dec. 14.

“Economic stability is linked with political stability and vice versa but unfortunately, there is another attempt which they [PTI] call civil disobedience,” Sharif said in an address to his cabinet. “What could be more antagonistic towards Pakistan than this?”

Pressure on the PTI, at loggerheads with the government and military for months, has increased since last month, when thousands of the party’s supporters stormed Islamabad, demanding Khan’s release from prison. The government says protesters killed four security officers in clashes while the PTI says at least 12 of its supporters died and "hundreds" were injured as security agencies used live ammunition rounds to disperse protesters, which authorities deny.

PTI leaders have described last month’s raid on their protest site as a “massacre,” with social media platforms awash with pictures and video footage that the government has called “fake propaganda” by PTI followers. The government also says there were no civilian casualties. The army was deployed by the government during the raid to disperse protesters, but authorities say only police and paramilitary troops participated while the military acted as a "third line of defense."

In the aftermath of the protests, the Sharif coalition government formed two task forces: one to identify and take legal action against rioters and another to track and bring to justice suspects behind what the government describes as a “malicious campaign” to spread “concocted, baseless and inciting” online news, images and video content against the state and security forces.

In a strongly worded statement released last week, the Pakistan army also called on the government to take action against the rioters as well as those who had launched “fake” online campaigns against the state and its security agencies. 

“Those who made a foul attempt to attack Islamabad and caused vandalism, I have issued a clear instruction that those who are involved in this conspiracy against Pakistan, with evidence, won’t be spared under any circumstances,” Sharif said at Tuesday’s cabinet address.

“But if someone is innocent, no one is going to touch him.”

Khan, who remains a popular figure in Pakistan despite being in prison and facing several court cases, has led a campaign of unprecedented defiance against the PM Sharif ruling coalition and the all-powerful military, which he accuses of being behind his ouster from office in 2022. The army denies it interferes in politics.


Pakistan says Israeli assault on Syria ‘grave breach of international law’

Updated 11 December 2024
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Pakistan says Israeli assault on Syria ‘grave breach of international law’

  • After fall of Assad regime, Israeli troops moved into demilitarized zone inside Syria set up after 1973 Middle East war
  • Israeli military said on Tuesday a wave of air strikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday condemned what it called Israel’s seizure of Syrian territory, saying it was a “grave breach” of international law that Israeli troops had moved into a demilitarized zone inside Syria after Damascus fell to opposition forces last week. 

After the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad on Sunday ended 54 years of rule by the Assad family, Israeli troops moved into the demilitarized zone set up after the 1973 Middle East war, saying the incursion was a temporary measure to ensure border security. Israel aims to impose a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria that would be enforced without a permanent troop presence, Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday, as the military said a wave of air strikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles.

Over the past 48 hours, the Israeli military said jets had conducted more than 350 strikes on targets including anti-aircraft batteries, military airfields, weapons production sites, combat aircraft and missiles. In addition, missile vessels struck the Syrian naval facilities of Al-Bayda port and Latakia port, where 15 Syrian naval vessels were docked.

“Pakistan condemns in the strongest possible terms, Israeli aggression against Syria and its illegal seizure of the Syrian territory,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement. “This assault on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria is a grave breach of international law.”

She said Israel’s actions were a “dangerous” development in the already volatile Middle East region and violated United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, urging the international community, including the UNSC, to take immediate steps against Israel’s “repeated violations of aggression” against regional countries.

“Pakistan expresses full support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and rejects Israeli acquisition of territory by force,” she said. 

“We reaffirm our support for the UNSC Resolution 497, which declares Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights null and void and without international legal effect.”

The hilly, 1,200-square-kilometer (460 square-mile) Golan Heights is a fertile and strategic plateau that overlooks Israel’s Galilee region as well as Lebanon, and borders Jordan. The Heights were part of Syria until 1967, when Israel captured most of the plateau in the Six-Day War, occupying it and annexing it unilaterally in 1981. That annexation was not recognized by most countries. Syria still holds part of the Golan and has demanded that Israel withdraw from the rest of it. Israel has refused, citing security concerns.

With inputs from Reuters