PESHAWAR: The Information Technology Board of Pakistan’s northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) has launched a project titled Durshal to help youths set up their own businesses.
Provincial authorities say it is the first project of its kind in KP. Durshal, Pashto for “gateway,” is aimed at the digital transformation of KP via a network of community spaces to enable youths to launch start-ups, said provincial government officials.
Durshal Project Manager Ismail Shah said it was launched initially in Mardan district and will be extended to six others: Peshawar, Swat, Kohat, Dera Ismail Khan, Abbottabad and Swabi.
“These centers will hopefully prove to be a gateway to knowledge and information technology (IT) skills,” he told Arab News.
It is not possible for the government to provide jobs to all youths completing their university education, but the project will help those with a workable business proposal, he said.
“This will generate employment opportunities for many others if the business idea becomes successful,” Shah added.
The first community innovation lab under the project was launched in Mardan on Feb. 8. The inaugural ceremony was attended by KP’s Education Minister Muhammad Atif and Health and IT Minister Shahram Khan, among others.
Hudaibia Iftikhar, a student at Abdul Wali Khan University in Mardan, said she believes Durshal will promote self-employment in society.
“I wish to launch a news website soon after graduating from the university, because this is an age of online media that can be accessed from any part of the world,” she told Arab News.
Assistant director of projects at the Information Technology Board, Zia-ur-Rehman, said any young graduates with basic IT skills can apply to the project.
“In addition to Durshal, the board also runs the Digital Internship Program, a six-month program for IT students offering a monthly stipend of 14,000 Pakistani rupees ($126.42) to trainees, and a Youth Employment Program for IT professionals, offering further guidance on IT-related tasks and digital skills,” Zia-ur-Rehman told Arab News.
Project launched to boost youth self-employment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
Project launched to boost youth self-employment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
No casualties as blast derails Jaffar Express train in Pakistan’s south
- Passengers were stranded and railway staffers were clearing the track after blast, official says
- In March 2025, separatist militants hijacked the same train with hundreds of passengers aboard
QUETTA: A blast hit Jaffar Express and derailed four carriages of the passenger train in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province on Monday, officials said, with no casualties reported.
The blast occurred at the Abad railway station when the Peshawar-bound train was on its way to Sindh’s Sukkur city from Quetta, according to Pakistan Railways’ Quetta Division controller Muhammad Kashif.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bomb attack, but passenger trains have often been targeted by Baloch separatist outfits in the restive Balochistan province that borders Sindh.
“Four bogies of the train were derailed due to the intensity of the explosion,” Kashif told Arab News. “No casualty was reported in the latest attack on passenger train.”
Another railway employee, who was aboard the train and requested anonymity, said the train was heading toward Sukkur from Jacobabad when they heard the powerful explosion, which derailed power van among four bogies.
“A small piece of the railway track has been destroyed,” he said, adding that passengers were now standing outside the train and railway staffers were busy clearing the track.
In March last year, fighters belonging to the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group had stormed Jaffar Express with hundreds of passengers on board and took them hostage. The military had rescued them after an hours-long operation that left 33 militants, 23 soldiers, three railway staff and five passengers dead.
The passenger train, which runs between Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta and Peshawar in the country’s northwest, had been targeted in at least four bomb attacks last year since the March hijacking, according to an Arab News tally.
Pakistan Railways says it has beefed up security arrangements for passenger trains in the province and increased the number of paramilitary troops on Jaffar Express since the hijacking in March, but militants have continued to target them in the restive region.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s southwestern province that borders Iran and Afghanistan, is the site of a decades-long insurgency waged by Baloch separatist groups who often attack security forces and foreigners, and kidnap government officials.
The separatists accuse the central government of stealing the region’s resources to fund development elsewhere in the country. The Pakistani government denies the allegations and says it is working for the uplift of local communities in Balochistan.
