ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Bangladesh discussed the resumption of direct flights between Islamabad, Karachi and Dhaka during a meeting in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, signaling a potential step toward closer bilateral cooperation.
Pakistan and Bangladesh were once one nation but split in 1971 after a bloody civil war, which saw the part previously referred to as East Pakistan secede to form an independent nation.
In the decades since, Bangladeshi leaders, particularly former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid, maintained close ties with India, Pakistan’s arch-rival. However, ties between the two countries warmed up since her ouster in a student-led uprising last year in August, marking a new phase of bilateral relations.
The discussion focusing on the ties between both nations took place between Tareq Ahmed, the newly appointed Bangladeshi envoy to the United Arab Emirates, and Faisal Niaz Tirmizi, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UAE.
The interaction happened at Pakistan House in Abu Dhabi.
“During the meeting, matters of mutual interest including cooperation in trade and investment, efforts to increase people-to-people contact, and resumption of direct flights from Islamabad and Karachi to Dhaka, were discussed,” said a statement released after the two diplomats met. “Both sides underscored the importance of supporting the welfare of the large Pakistani and Bangladeshi diaspora in the UAE.”
The Pakistani ambassador highlighted the deep historical and cultural ties between the two nations and stressed the untapped trade potential that could contribute to their economic growth.
His counterpart reaffirmed Bangladesh’s commitment to strengthening ties with Pakistan and emphasized the need for dialogue and cooperation to tackle shared challenges in the region.
There have also been interactions on multilateral forums between the top leaders of both countries since the fall of Wajid’s administration.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar is also scheduled to visit Dhaka in the beginning of February to further consolidate relations between the two countries.
Pakistan, Bangladesh envoys in UAE meet, propose direct flights from Islamabad, Karachi to Dhaka
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Pakistan, Bangladesh envoys in UAE meet, propose direct flights from Islamabad, Karachi to Dhaka
- The two diplomats discuss enhanced trade and investment cooperation, people-to-people contact
- Both envoys agree to support the welfare of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi diaspora in the UAE
Analysts say no threat to Pakistan ruling coalition despite rifts between key members PPP, PML-N
- PPP has reservations over government-proposed canals in Indus River, alleged lack of funds for Sindh
- Ruling party senator admits PPP’s withdrawal of support would trigger coalition government’s collapse
KARACHI: Pakistani political analysts on Thursday said that despite rifts between key ruling coalition members Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on policy issues and allocation of resources, there was no threat to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government.
The PML-N and the PPP emerged as the two largest political parties in parliament after Pakistan’s contentious February 2024 election. The PPP helped Sharif get elected as Pakistan’s prime minister for a second time and settled for the presidency and the governorship in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provinces, areas where it performed poorly in the national polls.
The PPP, however, has recently voiced its displeasure with the Sharif-led government on various issues. The party has expressed reservations over government-proposed canals in the Indus River that it believes would reduce water supply to the southern Sindh province, where it remains in power. Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah this week penned a letter to Sharif, protesting against the National Highway Authority’s (NHA) allocation of inadequate funds for Sindh.
However, political analysts brushed aside concerns the PPP would play a part in toppling the federal government.
“As for leaving the government, that question does not arise as everything happening in the country right now is part of a political arrangement, and this arrangement is intended to move forward,” Salman Ghani, a Lahore-based political analyst, told Arab News.
Ghani said that the PPP initially believed that the PML-N would struggle to manage the country’s economic crisis. However, he said the situation had reversed with visible signs of economic recovery. The PPP’s complaints stem from fears that continued gains by the PML-N could leave the party with no future prospects, he said.
“PPP’s reservations seem more related to political survival than a genuine desire to leave the coalition,” Ghani noted. “In fact, whenever PPP raises issues within the high-level government committees, their demands are met.”
Mazhar Abbas, a Karachi-based political analyst, agreed with Ghani. He said that while differences persist, they are unlikely to cause the coalition to collapse, unless Pakistan’s powerful military decided that the PPP should part ways with the government.
“The PPP will not leave unless the [military] establishment decides that it’s the time for the current regime to go,” he said.
Pakistan’s military, which has directly ruled the country for over 30 years and is believed to wield massive influence indirectly, strongly denies allegations it interferes in political matters.
‘EVERYONE WILL LOSE’
Nadir Nabeel Gabol, a Sindh government spokesperson, warned PPP had the power to oust the federal government if its grievances, especially those related to allocation of resources, were not addressed.
“If this attitude persists, I do not see this federal government surviving much longer,” Gabol told Arab News, noting that PPP had helped topple former prime minister Imran Khan’s coalition government in 2022.
He said the PPP would “consider all options” if the federal government keeps sidelining it.
Senator Dr. Afnan Ullah Khan of the PML-N said the federal government was committed to addressing the PPP’s concerns. He acknowledged that if the PPP withdrew its support, the coalition government would collapse.
“We do not have the numbers without them,” he admitted.
He said tensions between the two allies would not escalate to that point, given the recent economic gains by the coalition government.
“If we maintain stability and the IMF program continues smoothly, the economy can stay on track,” he said. “But if instability sets in, everyone will lose.”
Gabol also expressed hope that the rift would be resolved.
“The Pakistan People’s Party hopes it does not come to that,” he said, referring to the party’s possible withdrawal of support in parliament. “The Sindh government hopes that its grievances will be addressed and that democracy will take its course, as it always does.”
Pakistanis among dozens of migrants who may have drowned while crossing into Spain — NGO
- Moroccan authorities rescued 36 people on Wednesday from boat that left Mauritania on Jan. 2 with 86 migrants
- Forty-four of those presumed to have drowned were from Pakistan, Walking Borders CEO says on X platform
MADRID: As many as 50 migrants, many of them Pakistanis, may have drowned in the latest deadly wreck involving people trying to make the crossing from West Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands, migrant rights group Walking Borders said on Thursday.
Moroccan authorities rescued 36 people on Wednesday from a boat that had left Mauritania on Jan. 2 with 86 migrants, including 66 Pakistanis, on board, the group said.
Forty-four of those presumed to have drowned were from Pakistan, Walking Borders CEO Helena Maleno said on X.
“They spent 13 days of anguish on the crossing without anyone coming to rescue them,” she said.
Asked about what warnings it had received from NGOs regarding a missing boat, Spain’s maritime rescue service said it had learned on Jan. 10 about a vessel that had left Nouakchott in Mauritania and was experiencing problems but it could not confirm if it was the same boat.
The service said it had carried out air searches without success and had warned nearby ships.
Walking Borders said it had alerted authorities from all countries involved six days ago about the missing boat. Alarm Phone, an NGO that provides an emergency phone line for migrants lost at sea, also said it had alerted Spain’s maritime rescue service on Jan. 12 about a boat in distress.
A record 10,457 migrants, or 30 people a day, died trying to reach Spain in 2024, most while attempting to cross the Atlantic route from West African countries such as Mauritania and Senegal to the Canary islands, according to Walking Borders.
Citing the Walking Borders’ post on X, the Canary Islands’ regional leader Fernando Clavijo expressed his sorrow for the victims of the latest wreck and urged Spain and Europe to act to prevent further tragedies.
“The Atlantic cannot continue to be the graveyard of Africa,” Clavijo said on X. “They cannot continue to turn their backs on this humanitarian drama.”
Imran Khan’s party chairman confirms first official meeting with Pakistan army chief
- Meeting caps nearly two years of the PTI’s unprecedented campaign of defiance against the all-powerful military
- Tensions between PTI and the army have remained at fever-pitch since Khan was ousted from PM’s office in April 2022
ISLAMABAD: The chairman of former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Gohar Ali Khan, said on Thursday he had met with the Pakistan army chief, General Syed Asim Munir, capping nearly two years of the party’s unprecedented campaign of defiance against the all-powerful military.
Khan fell out with the military’s top leaders in the lead-up to his ouster from the PM’s office in a parliamentary no-trust vote in April 2022, and his party has since led large street movements, railing against the generals’ iron grip on politics and even blaming senior military officials for an assassination bid on Khan in November 2022. The army denies the allegations.
Tensions between the PTI and the army have remained at fever-pitch especially after Khan’s brief arrest on May 9, 2023, in a land graft case that sparked countrywide protests, with PTI supporters attacking and ransacking military installations in an unprecedented backlash against the army. The military has called the day of the protests a “Black Day” and vowed to punish those involved. Since then, at least 5,000 of Khan’s supporters have been arrested, and dozens of his top party leaders have defected after they faced increasing pressure from the military establishment to do so, according to his supporters. The army denies interfering in politics.
In various press conferences, the military has denied any contact with the PTI and said that it would not talk to the masterminds of the May 9 protests. But Pakistani media has recently widely reported on a meeting this Monday between Army Chief Munir and PTI leaders Gohar and Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the PTI has been in power since 2013.
“Yes, I [Gohar Ali Khan] did meet him [army chief],” Gohar told reporters on Wednesday after he met with Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail where the PTI founder has been in prison since 2023. “See, wherever and for whatever reason I hold meetings, I talk about it only after I have instructions from Khan,” Gohar added, justifying his earlier denial of the meeting with Munir.
He said Khan had described the development as “very welcoming” and said negotiations were “important for the country’s stability.”
“Our doors were always open for negotiations, other people’s doors were closed,” Gohar said, quoting Khan from their meeting. “If negotiations go ahead, it will bring stability in the country.”
The PTI chairman’s disclosure comes as a government negotiation committee and the PTI held a third round of talks on Thursday afternoon in which the party presented its two main demands in writing: the release of all political prisoners and the establishment of judicial commissions to investigate protests led by the PTI on May 9, 2023, and Nov. 26, 2024, in which its supporters are accused of violence and arson.
The first round of talks took place on Dec. 23 and the second on Jan. 2.
The talks opened last month as Khan had threatened a civil disobedience movement and amid growing concerns he could face trial by a military court for allegedly inciting attacks on sensitive security installations during the May 9 protests.
Khan’s ouster in 2022 has since plunged the country into a long-term political crisis, particularly since the PTI founder was jailed in August last year on corruption and other charges and remains behind bars. Khan and the PTI say the charges are trumped up to keep them out of power.
Gunmen attack aid convoy enroute to Pakistani district hit by sectarian clashes, injuring 4
- At least 136 have been killed due to sectarian, land disputes in Kurram district since Nov. 21
- Five persons were injured on Jan. 4 in same locality when armed men attacked an aid convoy
PESHAWAR: Four persons were injured when an aid convoy enroute to Pakistan’s northwestern Kurram district, which has been rocked by sectarian clashes in recent months, was attacked by unidentified armed men on Thursday, police and health officials confirmed, as authorities struggle to main law and order in the restive area.
Kurram, a northwestern district of around 600,000 people in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, has been hit hard by tribal and sectarian clashes since Nov. 21, 2024, when gunmen attacked a convoy of Shia passengers, killing 52. Sporadic clashes since then have killed at least 136 people before the provincial government brokered a peace agreement among the warring tribes this month.
The attack sparked further violence and blockade of a main road connecting Kurram’s main town of Parachinar with the provincial capital of Peshawar, causing medicine, food and fuel shortages in the area.
This is the second such attack on an aid convoy enroute to the district, in the locality. Unidentified gunmen attacked an aid convoy at Bagan, a tense locality, on Jan. 4, injuring five people including a top administration official. Thursday’s attack also took place in Began.
“The aid convoy of more than 30 vehicles en route to Upper Kurram was attacked with gunfire by unknown armed men in Bagan area,” a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, told Arab News.
“A few of the trucks which were loaded with food items were put on fire and have been burnt,” he added.
Police and law enforcement agencies are investigating the matter, the official said.
The attack caused injuries to four persons, according to Zakir Khan, the senior medical officer at the Basic Health Unit in Manduri, Lower Kurram.
“Four injured were brought to the hospital (BHU Manduri) among whom two were serious,” he said, adding that patients critically wounded had been referred to Peshawar for treatment.
The attack takes place days after authorities started demolishing bunkers in Lower Kurram, more than a week after the peace agreement was reached.
Under the peace agreement signed on Jan. 1, both sides agreed on the demolition of bunkers and the handover of heavy weapons to authorities within two weeks.
Any party that launches an attack after the signing of the deal will be considered a “terrorist” and action will be taken against it, as per the agreement. A fine of Rs10 million ($35,933) will be imposed on those who violate the terms of the deal by using weapons against each other, it said.
The agreement called for land disputes in the volatile district to be settled on a priority basis with the cooperation of local tribes and the district administration.
It also said that opening offices of banned outfits will be prohibited in the district, while social media accounts spreading hate will be discouraged via collective efforts backed by the government.
Pakistani PM seeks ‘immediate’ restoration of humanitarian aid to Gaza following ceasefire accord
- Deal between Hamas and Israel outlines six-week initial ceasefire with the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip
- In 15 months of war, Israel has laid to waste much of Gaza, pre-war population of 2.3 million people has been displaced multiple times
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday called for humanitarian assistance to be restored “immediately” to Gaza and other war-torn areas, a day after a ceasefire accord was reached between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
The deal comes after months of mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the US and 15 months of war during which Israel has laid to waste much of Gaza and the pre-war population of 2.3 million people has been displaced multiple times. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave as “catastrophic.”
A six-week initial ceasefire phase includes the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from central Gaza and the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza. The deal requires 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza every day of the ceasefire, 50 of them carrying fuel, with 300 of the trucks allocated to the north.
“It is imperative that provision of urgently needed humanitarian assistance is immediately restored to Gaza and other war-torn areas,” Sharif wrote on X, welcoming the ceasefire and thanking the US, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other nations who helped broker the deal.
“Pakistan stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people and pays homage to the sacrifices of tens of thousands of innocent people who lost their lives as victims of Israeli atrocities over the past several decades.”
If successful, the ceasefire will halt fighting that has razed much of heavily urbanized Gaza and killed over 46,000 people, according to Gaza authorities. That in turn could defuse tensions across the wider Middle East, where the war has stoked conflict in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq, and raised fears of all-out war between arch regional foes Israel and Iran.
“It is hoped that the truce would lead to permanent ceasefire and help in scaling up humanitarian assistance,” Pakistani foreign office spokesman, Shafqat Ali Khan, said at a weekly press briefing, calling for the “immediate and full implementation” of the ceasefire accord.
Islamabad, which does not recognize nor have diplomatic ties with Israel, said “indiscriminate” use of force by Israeli forces had caused unprecedented loss of lives and property and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians while its “expansionist designs” had destabilized the entire Middle East region.
“Pakistan reiterates its support for a just, comprehensive, and durable solution to the Palestinian issue, leading to the establishment of a sovereign State of Palestine based on pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” Khan added.
SALIENT FEATURES OF CEASEFIRE DEAL
Under the deal, Hamas will release 33 Israeli hostages, including all women (soldiers and civilians), children, and men over 50. Hamas will release female hostages and under 19s first, followed by men over 50.
Meanwhile, Israel will release 30 Palestinian detainees for every civilian hostage and 50 Palestinian detainees for every Israeli female soldier Hamas released. Israel will also release all Palestinian women and children under 19 detained since Oct. 7, 2023, by the end of the first phase. The total number of Palestinians released will depend on hostages released, and could be between 990 and 1,650 Palestinian detainees including men, women and children.
Hamas will release the hostages over a six-week period, with at least three hostages released each week and the remainder of the 33 before the end of the period. All living hostages will be released first, followed by remains of dead hostages.
The implementation of the agreement will be guaranteed by Qatar, Egypt and the United States.
Negotiations over a second phase of the agreement will begin by the 16th day of phase one and are expected to include the release of all remaining hostages, including Israeli male soldiers, a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli soldiers.
A third phase is expected to include the return of all remaining dead bodies and the start of Gaza’s reconstruction, supervised by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.
At a news conference in Doha on Wednesday, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said the ceasefire would take effect on Sunday. Negotiators were working with Israel and Hamas on steps to implement the agreement, he said.
“This deal will halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much-needed humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the [Israeli] hostages with their families after more than 15 months in captivity,” US President Joe Biden said in Washington.
Israel’s acceptance of the deal will not be official until it is approved by the country’s security cabinet and government, with votes slated for Thursday, an Israeli official said.
While people celebrated the pact in Gaza and Israel, Israel’s military escalated attacks after the announcement, the civil emergency service and residents said.
Heavy Israeli bombardment, especially in Gaza City, killed 32 people late on Wednesday, medics said. The strikes continued early on Thursday and destroyed houses in Rafah in southern Gaza, Nuseirat in central Gaza and in northern Gaza, residents said.
Israel’s military made no immediate comment and there were no reports of Hamas attacks on Israel after the ceasefire announcement.
A Palestinian official close to the ceasefire negotiations said mediators were seeking to persuade both sides to suspend hostilities ahead of the ceasefire going into effect, Reuters reported.
With inputs from Reuters
