ISLAMABAD: In comments that could add more fuel to the diplomatic fire between Islamabad and Washington, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi termed US President Donald Trump as a “reckless man”, even as he urged both the countries to work toward “resetting ties”.
Qureshi is the latest leader to join the war of words between Trump and Prime Minister Imran Khan after the former alleged that Pakistan had not done a “damn thing” for the US in exchange for all the aid provided by Washington.
In an interview with a local television channel aired on Monday night, Qureshi said: “Blaming Pakistan for the US’ failures in Afghanistan is not fair.” He said the world knew Trump as a “reckless man”, adding that “resetting ties was a need for both countries”.
“The US is in dire need for a partner to help it in Afghanistan and do some face-saving for it. Therefore, if the US seeks Pakistan’s role in bringing peace and stability in Afghanistan, it should acknowledge Pakistan’s cooperation and support rendered thus far,” he said.
After Trump responded to Khan’s tweet claiming that Pakistan is among many countries that take from the US without giving anything in return, Khan, on Monday, fired back saying Trump’s false assertions only added insult to injury and that Pakistan would now do what was best for its own interests.
“Trump’s false assertions add insult to the injury Pakistan has suffered in the US War on Terror in terms of lives lost and destabilized economic costs. He needs to be informed about historical facts. Pakistan has suffered enough fighting US’s war. Now we will do what is best for our people and our interests,” Khan tweeted.
His comments follow other tweets posted on Monday where he sought to set the record straight by telling Trump to quit using Islamabad as a “scapegoat” in his “tirade” against the country.
In a four-point tweet, Khan explained why Trump’s comments were unjustified, reasoning that “No Pakistani was involved in 9/11 but Pakistan decided to participate in the US war on terror” nevertheless.
He added that while Pakistan suffered 75,000 casualties in the war and incurred losses of more than $123 billion to the economy, the aid provided by the US was “a minuscule $20 billion”.
Elaborating on the catastrophic effect that the war on terror had on Pakistan’s tribal region and on the lives of its ordinary citizens, he said: “Our tribal areas were devastated and millions of people uprooted from their homes. The war drastically impacted the lives of ordinary Pakistanis.”
In his concluding remarks PM Khan said that instead of making “Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures, the US should do a serious assessment of why, despite 1,40,000 NATO troops plus 250,000 Afghan troops and reportedly $1 trillion spent on the war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before.”
He ended his statement by asking Trump is he could “name another ally that gave such sacrifices”.
Trump then responded to Khan by saying that: “Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan billions of dollars and they never told us he was living there. Fools!”
He further claimed that “we no longer pay Pakistan the $billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ENDING!”
In an interview with Fox News aired on Sunday, Trump justified the cancelation of $300 million in military aid to Pakistan by saying that “we’re supporting Pakistan, we’re giving them $1.3 billion a year — which we don’t give them any more, by the way, I ended it because they don’t do anything for us, they don’t do a damn thing for us.”
Talking about slain Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden who was found hiding in Pakistan, a short distance away from the country’s prestigious military academy, Trump added that “everybody in Pakistan knew he was there”.
Federal Minister for Human Rights, Dr. Shireen Mazari, issued a statement on Monday terming “Trump’s tirade against Pakistan” a lesson for all those Pakistani leaders “who kept appeasing the US especially after 9/11!”
She added that the “loss of Pakistani lives in the US war on terror, the free space for Raymond Davis and other operatives, the illegal killings by drone attacks — the list is endless…once again history shows appeasement does not work”.
“Whether China or Iran, the US policies of containment and isolation do not coincide with Pakistan’s strategic interests,” she said.
Former Senate Chairman, Raza Rabbani, termed Trump’s remarks “contrary to the facts” and reminded the US president that his “language regarding a sovereign state was aggressive”.
“He should be careful; Pakistan is not a state or colony of the US,” Rabbani said, further reminding Trump that “the US killed Pakistanis in unauthorized drone attacks, the US-sponsored terrorism in Kabul, and a drug industry was created on the Pak-Afghan border for the financial assistance of the US”.
“The Pakistani nation is paying the price of political and economic instability due to its alliance with the US,” he said.
Former Foreign Minister, Khawaja Asif, also took to Twitter to rebuff the US president’s remarks saying, “We continue to pay in blood for what we did for the USA.”
In a tweet which was later deleted, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party claimed that the US government “is having an extremely hard time accepting the fact that the current Government of Pakistan being led by @ImranKhanPTI will not accept the terms and conditions they want to enforce on Pakistan; Wake up! #PMIKSaysNoMore”
The already strained relations between the US and Pakistan took a turn for the worse in January this year when Trump suspended security assistance to Islamabad over the alleged presence of Afghan militant groups in Pakistan’s tribal belt — a claim rejected by Islamabad.
Qureshi terms Trump “reckless”, says blame game unfair
Qureshi terms Trump “reckless”, says blame game unfair
- Foreign Minister reacts to unsavory comments posted by US president on social media
- Tweets forced PM Khan to hit back with an equal measure
X working with Pakistan to ‘understand concerns’ over ban
- X has been rarely accessible since Feb. 17, when jailed ex-PM Khan’s party called for protests over poll results
- Interior Ministry said X was blocked on security grounds, according to report submitted to Islamabad High Court
ISLAMABAD: Social media platform X said Thursday it would work with Pakistan’s government “to understand its concerns” after authorities insisted an ongoing two-month ban was based on security grounds.
The platform, formerly known as Twitter, has been rarely accessible since February 17, when jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s party called for protests following a government official’s admission of vote manipulation in the February election.
“We continue to work with the Pakistani Government to understand their concerns,” X’s Global Government Affairs team posted, in their first comments since the site was disrupted.
The Interior Ministry on Wednesday said X was blocked on security grounds, according to a report submitted to the Islamabad High Court where one of several challenges to the ban is being heard.
On the same day, the Sindh High Court ordered the government to restore access to social media platform X within a week.
“The Sindh High Court has given the government one week to withdraw the letter, failing which, on the next date, they will pass appropriate orders,” Moiz Jaaferi, a lawyer challenging the ban, told AFP.
The court’s full decision is expected to be published this week.
Both the government and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had for weeks refused to comment on the outages.
“It is the sole prerogative and domain of the federal government to decide what falls within the preview of terms of ‘defense’ or ‘security’ of Pakistan and what steps are necessary to be taken to safeguard National Security,” said the interior ministry’s report, submitted by senior official Khurram Agha.
The interior ministry suggested intelligence agencies were behind the order.
The closure of a social media service “when there is request from any security or intelligence agency” is “well within the scope of provisions of the PTA act,” the report said.
Digital rights activists, however, said it was designed to quash dissent after February 8 polls that were fraught with claims of rigging.
Access to X has been sporadic, occasionally available for short cycles based on the Internet service provider, forcing users to use virtual private networks.
Mobile services were cut across Pakistan on election day, with the interior ministry also citing security reasons.
It was followed by a long delay in issuing voting results, giving rise to allegations of tampering.
Khan’s opposition party had already faced heavy censorship in the weeks before the election, banned from television channels and from holding rallies, forcing its campaign online.
Despite the crackdown, his party won the most seats but was kept from power by a coalition of rival parties that had the backing of the military.
As crime rates soar in Karachi, tea cafe deploys unlikely guards: stray dogs
- Cafe owner says dogs raise alarm whenever something out of the ordinary is about to happen, alerting security guard
- Customers say they have bonded over time with the dogs at Chai Master and find it comforting to be around animals
KARACHI: At a popular tea cafe in Karachi, customers sip piping hot cups of tea and chat with friends. An armed guard keeps watch for something suspicious, and with him, seven unlikely helpers: stray dogs adopted by the cafe owner.
This is the scene at Karachi’s popular tea cafe Chai Master, located in the city’s Defense Housing Authority neighborhood in a vacant plot. Pakistan’s financial hub has seen a surge in street crimes, with the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) reporting 6,102 cases of mobile snatching from January to March 2024. Sixty persons who resisted street muggings were shot dead this year, according to police data.
The surge in street crimes in the metropolis has forced restaurants and tea cafes to hire armed guards for protection. Haris Ibrahim, Chai Master’s 33-year-old owner, did the same but found security guards were not enough for the job.
But an incident three years ago opened his eyes to a unique, yet more effective solution: stray dogs.
In 2021, a drug addict entered Chai Master premises and started harassing Ibrahim’s customers. While his security guard proved ineffective, a stray escorted the addict out of the place, much to everyone’s relief.
“I was like, wow, this is amazing. This is brilliant,” Ibrahim told Arab News. “This is better than having an armed, like gunmen, so then I was like, ‘Okay, you know what, I’m doubling down on the dogs’.”
Now, Chai Master has seven stray dogs: Tails, Spot, Speedy, Snoopy, Dozzer, Minnie, and Buddy. Ibrahim, an animal lover, has deployed all seven at the tea cafe as a security measure for his customers.
“I slowly started constructing this pack,” he explained, adding that all the dogs are neutered, spayed, vaccinated, and properly trained to perform their duties of keeping customers safe from muggers.
To train these strays, Ibrahim began with feeding them to build a bond.
“Once a bond was developed, I used the carrot and the stick method. Meaning I would reward for behavior I encourage. For that I would have dog treats lying around,” he said.
“Penalizing for undesired behavior, for which they would get a slap from me.”
For the dogs, Ibrahim said, the undesirable behavior meant barking at customers or fighting with each other.
But how do they keep the customers safe?
“Anybody who they think is catchy or could be a problem, they bark and it alerts us,” Ibrahim said. “It alerts my guard. It’s brilliant.”
Ibrahim likes to keep the dogs in their natural habitat, the streets, after he closes up. When Chai Master opens during the evenings, the strays return.
The customers are fond of the dogs too. Zahra Tafseer, an IT professional who refers to herself as a ‘cat person,’ has bonded over time with the dogs at Chai Master.
“Thanks to this place, and the dogs over here, I have sort of started to bond with dogs as well,” she told Arab News. “I’ve never found them to be scary.”
Mossa Khan, a 30-year-old who works at an advertisement agency, says he finds it comforting to be around animals at the cafe.
“So that’s the miraculous thing about animals, they can sense danger,” he said. “So, if there’s someone who’s out of place, somehow, they have a sixth sense, they know that something is off and they should be alerted.”
Ibrahim agreed, recounting an incident when the stray dogs raised alarm when a man tried to steal a side mirror from a car.
“The dogs are definitely to make this place safer for customers to feel safer,” he said.
Tafseer said the dogs were a “success story” of what one can achieve with a little bit of love.
“These dogs are the prime example of a success story, basically, of what can be achieved when you give the love and care to this species, because they’re a living thing,” she said.
Ibrahim says customers who throw stones at the dogs or act violently toward them are not welcome at his cafe.
“If you cannot respect another living creature, we do not want you as a customer,” he said.
33 killed, 46 injured in recent torrential rains in northwest Pakistan
- Pakistan has received heavy rains in last three weeks that have triggered landslides, flash floods in several areas
- Authorities have warned of another spell of heavy rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province from April 17 till April 21
ISLAMABAD: At least 33 people have been killed and another 46 injured in various rain-related incidents in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in the last six days, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said on Thursday.
The rains that began last Friday have completely destroyed 336 houses and partially damaged another 1,606 in different districts across the province, according to the PDMA.
The incidents occurred in Khyber, Upper and Lower Dir, Upper and Lower Chitral, Swat, Bajaur, Shangla, Karak, Tank, Mardan, Peshawar, Charsadda, Hangu, Battagram, Dera Ismail Khan and other districts.
“The deceased include 17 children, eight men, eight women, while the injured included 32 men, six women and eight children,” the PDMA said in its daily situation report on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the authority warned of another spell of heavy rains in the province from April 17 till April 21, which could trigger landslides and flash floods.
“The district administrations should take proactive and immediate measures before the second spell of the rains begins … and ensure the availability of small and large machinery,” it added.
The PDMA said it had issued Rs50 million to the administration of 12 affected districts for financial assistance to families of those who lost their lives in the recent rains.
“Rs80.1 million have been released by the PDMA since March 29 to the administration of various districts to deal with the emergency situation,” the authority added.
Pakistan has received heavy rains in the last three weeks that have triggered landslides and flash floods in several parts of the South Asian country.
The eastern province of Punjab has reported 21 lighting- and roof collapse-related deaths, while Balochistan, in the country’s southwest, reported 10 deaths as authorities declared a state of emergency following flash floods.
In 2022, downpours swelled rivers and at one point flooded a third of Pakistan, killing 1,739 people. The floods also caused $30 billion in damages, from which Pakistan is still trying to rebuild. Balochistan saw rainfall at 590 percent above average that year, while Karachi saw 726 percent more rainfall than usual.
Pakistan’s Lahore hosts 24th edition of Asian Forum’s tech innovation event
- The three-day exhibition is set to fetch nearly $500 million investment from a dozen countries
- These companies participating in the expo include Microsoft, Inbox, Lenovo, HP, NetSol and Dell
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore is set to host the 24th edition of Asian Forum’s Information Technology Commerce Network (ITCN) today, on Thursday, Pakistani state media reported.
State Minister for Information Technology Shaza Fatima will be the chief guest, while Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) Secretary-General Deemah Al-Yahya will be guest of honor on the opening day of summit at Lahore’s Expo Center.
The main sessions include Artificial Intelligence Summit, Global Security Symposium, Gaming and Scholars Roundtable, Investor Summit, Freelancer Summit, Made in Pakistan Roundtable Conference, the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“In this edition, a delegation of international investors belonging to twelve counties will participate along with an investment of five hundred million dollars,” the report read.
“Over seven hundred stalls will be established and renowned international and national technology companies will participate in this event.”
These companies include Microsoft, Inbox, Red Hat, TP-Link, Lenovo, HP, NetSol, Abacus and Dell, according to the report.
The event is being jointly supported by the Pakistani Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), Pakistan Software Export Board and Pakistan Software Houses Association.
Pakistan wants to re-engage with Middle Eastern banks to boost investment — finance minister
- Statement came during Mohammad Aurangzeb’s meeting with his Emirati counterpart on sidelines of his US visit
- The Pakistani finance minister briefed about priority areas of taxation, energy and privatization of state entities
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday met with his Emirati counterpart and expressed his country’s desire to re-engage with Middle Eastern banks to boost investment in Pakistan, the Pakistani finance ministry said.
Aurangzeb’s meeting with UAE’s Minister of State for Financial Affairs Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini came on the sidelines of his visit to the United States to meet International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank officials.
The Pakistani finance minister acknowledged long-standing brotherly ties between Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and appreciated the Gulf country’s support to help Pakistan deal with its economic challenges.
“He highlighted Pakistan’s firm resolve to address economic challenges and create a conducive environment for sustainable growth and investment,” the Pakistani finance ministry said in a statement.
“He also expressed Pakistan’s keen interest to re-engage with Middle Eastern Banks to revive their interest in potential investment opportunities in the country.”
He said his government intended to continue with reforms initiated under a $3 billion IMF program in priority areas of taxation, energy and privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), according to the statement.
Aurangzeb arrived in Washington on Sunday to participate in spring meetings organized by the IMF and World Bank. His tour is an important one for the South Asian country as the ongoing nine-month, $3 billion loan program with the IMF designed to tackle a balance-of-payments crisis, is set to expire this month.
With the final $1.1 billion tranche of that deal likely to be approved later this month, Pakistan has begun negotiations for a new multi-year IMF loan program worth “billions” of dollars, according to the finance ministry.
Pakistan seeks at least a three-year IMF program and plans to continue with necessary policy reforms to rein in deficits, build up reserves, and manage soaring debt servicing.
On Wednesday, Aurangzeb attended the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Ministers and Governors meeting with the IMF managing director and highlighted geo-economic fragmentation and its impact on Pakistan.
“He thanked IMF, MDBs (multilateral development banks) and its time-tested sincere bilateral partners for their support in helping the country respond to unprecedented challenges,” Aurangzeb’s ministry said in a separate statement.
“He further underscored aggressive reforms including broadening the tax net, privatizing loss making SOEs, expanding social safety net and facilitating the private sector.”
The minister underlined the importance of rechanneling special drawing rights (SDRs), reviewing surcharges policy, and prioritizing the Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) in view of climate vulnerabilities.
“The minister called for a more proactive and responsive Global Financial Safety Net to tackle the elevated risks,” the statement read.
“He welcomed the renewed emphasis of the Fund on Capacity Building through Regional Capacity Development Centers (RCDCs).”
During the engagements, Aurangzeb also met with Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) Executive Vice President Hiroshi Matano and appreciated the Agency’s continued support to Pakistan in attracting foreign investments.
“The minister discussed the ongoing economic reforms, investment climate and measures to enhance investor confidence in Pakistan,” his ministry said.
