ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa inaugurated work on border fencing along the Balochistan portion of Pak-Afghan border at Panjpai, on Tuesday.
Chief Minister Balochistan Abdul Qadoos Bazinjo and interior minister Sarfraz Bugti were also at the inauguration.
Pakistan and Afghanistan share a border of nearly 2,600 kilometers. In the middle of last year, Pakistan began to build fences along its porous border with Afghanistan to stop illegal cross border movement, particularly by militants, and to enable effective monitoring of the border.
In first phase, fences were erected in the Bajaur, Mohmand and Khyber tribal regions and now the work has started in Pakistan’s Southwestern province of Balochistan.
General Bajwa thanked tribal leaders and locals for their support in maintaining security.
“The fencing will check cross border movement of terrorists,” General Bajwa said, adding: “Special arrangements have been made to facilitate bilateral economic activity and legal movement in any way or form through designated crossing points.”
During the visit to Balochistan, Gen Bajwa also inaugurated the Quetta Safe City Project in the province capital city, after a five-year delay to the work going ahead.
General also interacted with Quetta university students. He said that Pakistan has rejected terrorism and has achieved greater peace after great sacrifices by Armed Forces, which had been backed by the whole nation.
“Some elements are trying to influence the minds of our youth at this stage to create anarchy and dissatisfaction in the society,” General Bajwa said.
He added: “It is for everyone to ensure that they abide by law of the land and remain within the bounds of constitution.”
Military chief inaugurates Pak-Afghan border fencing in Balochistan
Military chief inaugurates Pak-Afghan border fencing in Balochistan
- General Qamar Javed Bajwa said the fencing will check cross-border movement of terrorists
- He highlighted special arrangements made to facilitate bilateral economic activity and legal movement
Venezuela’s acting president calls for oil industry reforms to attract more foreign investment
- In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez used her first state of the union address on Thursday to promote oil industry reforms that would attract foreign investment, an objective aggressively pushed by the Trump administration since it toppled the country’s longtime leader less than two weeks ago.
Rodríguez, who has been under pressure from the US to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation, said sales of Venezuelan oil would go to bolster crisis-stricken health services, economic development and other infrastructure projects.
While she sharply criticized the Trump administration and said there was a “stain on our relations,” the former vice president also outlined a distinct vision for the future between the two historic adversaries, straying from her predecessors, who have long railed against American intervention in Venezuela.
“Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the US, said Rodriguez, who must now navigate competing pressures from the Trump administration and a government loyal to former President Nicolás Maduro.
The speech, which was broadcast on a delay in Venezuela, came one day after Rodríguez said her government would continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro in what she described as “a new political moment” since his ouster.
Trump on Thursday met at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. But in endorsing Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, Trump has sidelined Machado.
In her speech, Rodríguez said money earned from foreign oil sales would go into two funds: one dedicated to social services for workers and the public health care system, and another to economic development and infrastructure projects.
Hospitals and other health care facilities across the country have long suffered. Patients are asked to provide practically all supplies needed for their care, from syringes to surgical screws. Economic turmoil, among other factors, has pushed millions of Venezuelans to migrate from the South American nation in recent years.
In moving forward, the acting president must walk a tightrope, balancing pressures from both Washington and top Venezuelan officials who hold sway over Venezuela’s security forces and strongly oppose the US Her recent public speeches reflect those tensions — vacillating from conciliatory calls for cooperation with the US, to defiant rants echoing the anti-imperialist rhetoric of her toppled predecessor.
American authorities have long railed against a government they describe as a “dictatorship,” while Venezuela’s government has built a powerful populist ethos sharply opposed to US meddling in its affairs.
For the foreseeable future, Rodríguez’s government has been effectively relieved of having to hold elections. That’s because when Venezuela’s high court granted Rodríguez presidential powers on an acting basis, it cited a provision of the constitution that allows the vice president to take over for a renewable period of 90 days.
Trump enlisted Rodríguez to help secure US control over Venezuela’s oil sales despite sanctioning her for human rights violations during his first term. To ensure she does his bidding, Trump threatened Rodríguez earlier this month with a “situation probably worse than Maduro.”
Maduro, who is being held in a Brooklyn jail, has pleaded not guilty to drug-trafficking charges.
Before Rodríguez’s speech on Thursday, a group of government supporters was allowed into the presidential palace, where they chanted for Maduro, who the government insists remains the country’s president. “Maduro, resist, the people are rising,” they shouted.
