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JOHANNESBURG: The third and last Twenty20 between South Africa and Pakistan was washed out on Saturday at the Wanderers.
Match officials waited two hours after the scheduled late-afternoon start before abandoning the game without a ball bowled due to rain and lightning.
South Africa won 2-0, its first bilateral series victory since August 2022.
The teams begin a three-match one-day international series on Tuesday in Paarl, followed by two tests.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday vowed stern punishment for human traffickers after at least five people were killed when a boat full of illegal migrants, many Pakistanis among them, capsized off the southern island of Gavdos.
So far 39 men — most of them from Pakistan — have been rescued by cargo vessels sailing in the area. They have been transferred to the island of Crete, a Greek coast guard said, adding that the number of those missing off the wooden boat which capsized on Friday, had not yet been confirmed.
Many Pakistanis undertake the dangerous and illegal voyage to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea in hopes of securing a brighter future for themselves and their families as Pakistan reels from a macroeconomic crisis.
“Such persons [human traffickers] should be identified and they should be handed strict punishments so that they do not repeat such heinous crimes again,” Sharif said in a statement shared by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
“Concrete steps should be taken to prevent such incidents from happening in future,” he added.
Sharif instructed Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi to submit an inquiry report on the matter, describing human traffickers as a “cruel mafia” who extort money from the poor by selling them lofty dreams.
“Human trafficking is a heinous crime due to which many lives are lost and many houses are destroyed every year,” he said.
In June 2023, an estimated 350 Pakistanis were on board an overcrowded fishing boat carrying 700 migrants that sank off the coast of Greece.
Only 104 people, including 12 Pakistanis, were rescued and 82 bodies were recovered after the incident.
The incident prompted Pakistani authorities to launch a nationwide crackdown against human smugglers.
ISLAMABAD: The provincial government in Pakistan’s Punjab province has installed a Smog Clean Tower in the eastern city of Lahore to reduce air pollution, state-run media reported this week.
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.
Last month, the province closed down schools and offices, banned outdoor activities and shortened timings for restaurants, shops and markets in a bid to control smog as Lahore consistently ranked among the world’s most polluted cities in the world.
“Punjab Government has installed Smog Clean Tower in Lahore in collaboration with National University of Science and Technology,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported on Saturday.
“It has the capability of cleansing poisonous particles present in the air and will play an important role to reduce the pollution level in the city.”
Senior Punjab Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb described the initiative as a “revolutionary step,“saying that the use of modern technology is the need of the hour to control smog.
“She said that this tower will prove a model for Lahore and Pakistan,” Radio Pakistan said.
The dangerous smog is a byproduct of large numbers of vehicles, construction and industrial work as well as burning crops at the start of the winter wheat-planting season, experts say.
ISLAMABAD: Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party will hold a public gathering in Peshawar today, Sunday, to honor those who allegedly died during last month’s protest in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, party leaders said.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Nov. 24 led thousands of supporters to Islamabad, seeking to pressure the government to release the ex-premier from jail and order an audit of Feb. 8 national election results. The protests resulted in clashes that Pakistan’s government says killed four law enforcers and injured hundreds of others.
The PTI says at least 12 of its supporters were killed and another 37 sustained gunshot injuries due to firing by law enforcers near Islamabad’s Jinnah Avenue on Nov. 26, while 139 of its supporters were still “missing.” Pakistani authorities have denied the deaths, saying security personnel had not been carrying live ammunition during the protest.
In a video message on Saturday, Qasim Suri, former deputy speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly from the PTI, said Khan had instructed Pakistanis to observe Sunday as the “martyrs’ day” to honor the ones who died during the Islamabad protest, urging Pakistanis in the country and abroad to observe the day in their respective areas.
“The blood of those martyrs will never go in vain,” Suri said. “Hundreds of our supporters are still missing. Our mothers, sisters, our families are worried [about them].”
The development comes two days after the PTI filed a petition in an Islamabad court against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials over “firing” on its supporters during last month’s protest.
The government has accused the PTI of waging a “propaganda” regarding the Islamabad protest, following statements by several PTI members that gave varied accounts of casualties.
It formed two task forces in the aftermath of the Islamabad protest: one to identify and take legal action against rioters and another to track and bring to justice suspects behind what the government described as a “malicious campaign” to spread “concocted, baseless and inciting” online news, images and video content against the state and security forces.
The PTI has staged several protests this year to demand the release of Khan and to challenge results of the Feb. 8 national election, which it says were manipulated to favor its opponents. The Pakistani government and election authorities deny this.
Last month’s protests were by far the largest to grip the capital since the poll, while Khan, who remains a popular figure in Pakistan despite being in prison and facing several court cases, has also threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement.
KARACHI: A special court in Islamabad on Saturday granted a week-long, pre-arrest bail to Harmeet Singh, a Pakistani Sikh journalist from Peshawar, after he was accused by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of launching a “misleading campaign” against Pakistan’s state institutions and security agencies during last month’s protest by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party in the Pakistani capital.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Nov. 24 led thousands of supporters to Islamabad, seeking to pressure the government to release the ex-premier from jail and order an audit of Feb. 8 national election results. The protests resulted in clashes that Pakistan’s government says killed four law enforcers and injured hundreds of others.
The PTI says at least 12 of its supporters were killed and another 37 sustained gunshot injuries due to firing by law enforcers near Islamabad’s Jinnah Avenue on Nov. 26, while 139 of its supporters were still “missing.” Pakistani authorities have denied the deaths, saying security personnel had not been carrying live ammunition during the protest.
In a case registered against Singh, the FIA said the journalist built “false narrative and propagated misleading, concocted and baseless campaign against State Institutions and Security Agencies of Pakistan,” and promoted it through his X account on various instances, including the incident of Nov 24-27, when Khan supporters clashed with law enforcers in Islamabad.
“These false cases are meant to suppress the voices that criticize the government for its wrongdoings,” Singh said on Saturday, after being granted pre-arrest bail by the Islamabad court till Dec. 21.
The Sikh journalist said the charges against him were part of a “broader effort” to silence critics of the government.
“Their wish has always been to break the mirror that we hold up. It is our duty to show them the mirror, and we will keep showing it,” he added.
Singh, one of the few Pakistani Sikh journalists and anchors who has been critical of the government and Pakistan’s powerful military, is widely recognized for his outspoken stance on political issues.
The development comes weeks after police booked another journalist, Matiullah Jan, on charges that he was found in possession of 246 grams of narcotic methamphetamine (crystal meth) when his vehicle was stopped at the capital’s E-9 area.
Jan, a broadcaster working with Neo TV, was “picked up” from outside a hospital in Islamabad, where he was investigating alleged fatalities during the recent protests in support of jailed ex-premier Imran Khan, according to his son. He was released three days later.
A recent report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) ranked Pakistan as the 12th-worst country for press freedom in South Asia. According to the CPJ, 103 journalists and media workers have been killed in Pakistan between 1992 and 2024.
In recent years, journalists in Pakistan have complained of increasing government and military censorship, intimidation and harassment as well as digital abuse. Authorities deny they persecute journalists. This has been an especially dangerous year for the press in Pakistan, with at least six journalists killed in direct or suspected relation to their work, the CPJ said in October.
Arab News approached the FIA and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar but they did not respond to requests for comment.
“The contents promulgated through his [Singh’s] tweets are inciting the general public of Pakistan toward the acts of violence and terrorism, and are coercing general public to commit offenses against the State Institutions and Security / Law Enforcement Agencies,” the FIA said in its report against the Sikh journalist, adding that they tended to create “a sense of fear, panic and insecurity” among people.
The FIA lodged the case against Singh under sections 9 (glorification of an offense), 10 (cyber terrorism), 11 (electronic forgery) and 24 (legal recognition of offenses) of Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act and section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Singh’s lawyer, Beena Faraz, condemned the government’s treatment of journalists, saying that “intimidation and harassment of the press have been a constant” in Pakistan’s history.
“If such things are happening under this government, they have happened in the past as well. It is part of every era to abduct journalists, intimidate them, and silence them through harassment,” she added.
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government has signed a loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the Integrated Social Protection Development Program (ISPDP) additional financing amounting to $330 million, the government said on Saturday.
The ISPDP builds on the ongoing ADB-funded program for strengthening and expanding social protection systems in Pakistan through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), according to the Pakistani government’s Press Information Department (PID).
In Pakistan, the federal government disburses billions of rupees annually to the underprivileged and vulnerable people through the BISP. The agreement was signed by Secretary Economic Affairs Dr. Kazim Niaz and ADB Country Director Emma Fan from respective sides.
“In his remarks, the Secretary, Ministry of Economic Affairs highlighted the importance of this additional financing from concessional lending for enhancing institutional capacity and improving access to education and health care, particularly among women, adolescent girls, and children from low-income families,” the PID said in a statement.
The ADB country director reaffirmed the bank’s commitment to supporting Pakistan’s objectives in strengthening social safety nets.
“This additional financing will support in achieving the program objectives of achieving inclusive growth, poverty reduction skills development and health care access for vulnerable populations,” Fan was quoted as saying.
The regional development bank has committed over $52 billion to Pakistan, one of its founding members, since 1966 in public and private sector loans, grants, and other forms of financing to promote inclusive economic growth in the country.
Last month, Pakistan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $500 million loan agreement under the ‘Climate and Disaster Resilience Enhancement Program,’ according to Pakistani state media.
The program is aimed at strengthening Pakistan’s capacity for climate change adaptation and disaster risk management and will address the country’s vulnerabilities to natural disasters and climate impacts.
