ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister and head of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz, and son-in-law Safdar Awan — all currently imprisoned on corruption charges, reportedly spent a low-key Eid Al-Adha in jail without any celebratory activities. Local media reports, citing unnamed sources, claimed Sharif offered his Edi prayers in the high-security barracks of the Rawalpindi jail.
According to a security official who spoke to Arab News, it is unlikely that the Sharifs would have been allowed to sacrifice an animal — a common practice during Eid celebrations — in the prison.
Sharif’s younger brother Shahbaz — now the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly — met with all three inmates on Wednesday, according to local media reports.And a number of PML-N members were allowed to visit the Sharifs on Friday. The former foreign minister, Khawaja Asif, arriving outside the Rawalpindi jail, told reporters, “I have come to meet Nawaz today as we weren’t allowed (in) over the last two days.”
PML-N spokesperson and former information minister Maryam Aurangzeb told Arab News that Sharif, “gave no statement and didn’t send any message” on the occasion of Eid. The PML-N leadership declined to answer further questions relating to the Sharifs.
This is the second time Sharif has spent Eid in jail, Mushahidullah Khan, information secretary for the PML-N, told Arab News. During his second tenure as prime minister, he was jailed after the October 1999 coup staged by General Pervez Musharraf and exiled to Saudi Arabia in December 2000.
Sharif has been sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined £8 million for the ownership of assets beyond his income, while his pollical heir-apparent Maryam Nawaz, was sentenced to 7 years for abetting and forgery, and fined £2 million. Awan was sentenced to one year in prison by an accountability court in July in the Avenfield property case — one of three references implicating the powerful political family in corruption.
Earlier this week, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) adjourned the Sharif family’s appeals to suspend their conviction. The hearing will resume in the second week of September. The three convicts had hoped for a swift judgment in their favor, and reportedly expected to celebrate Eid out of jail.
Legal expert Sharafat Ali, an assistant to Sharif’s defense team, believes the case will be passed up to the Supreme Court. He explained: “Appeals and petitions for suspension of sentence and grant of bail are two different cases for each convict.”
He said he was “flabbergasted” when the court decided to join the “bails (hearings) with appeals” when “at length, exhaustive arguments from both (defense and prosecution) have been heard (by the court) for over two weeks.”
Ali told Arab News, “These petitions should have been decided, regardless of whether they were accepted or rejected” by the court. “Since Awan was convicted for one year, he could have been granted bail immediately.”
The country’s ex-president, Asif Ali Zaradari, who is also embroiled in corruption and money-laundering cases, was granted protective bail immediately by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) last week against the non-bailable arrest orders issued by a banking court. This has once again raised questions of judicial impartiality and military interference.
However, political analyst Qamar Cheema said, “There is an impression that unelected institutions are manipulating Pakistan’s judiciary but that’s not true. The judiciary is independent, strong, assertive and capable of implementing its decisions.
“Any impression that Sharif and his daughter are facing discrimination from the judiciary is baseless,” he added.
Muted Eid celebrations in prison for Pakistan’s former premier and family
Muted Eid celebrations in prison for Pakistan’s former premier and family
- Nawaz Sharif offered Eid prayers in high-security facility
- PML-N members permitted to visit the Sharifs on Friday, after refusal on first two days of Eid Al-Adha
At $306 million, Pakistan reported highest ever single-month IT exports in March — representative
- The Pakistani IT exports surged by $49 million in the last month from $257 million recorded in Feb.
- Representative calls the achievement a result of hard work of all stakeholders and favorable policies
KARACHI: Pakistan recorded highest ever single-month exports in the field of information technology (IT) in March, chairman of the country’s software houses association said on Tuesday.
The Pakistani IT exports surged by $49 million in the last month from $257 million recorded in the month of February, according to Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@SHA).
The exports, which stood at $225 million in March 2023, recorded an increase of 36 percent on a year-on-year basis.
“Crossing $300 million in a single month makes the IT industry second to only textiles in Pakistan,” Zohaib Khan, the P@SHA chairman, said in a statement.
“It is pertinent to note that IT exports for the month of March 2024 is also the highest exports of the industry in a single month in the country’s history.”
Khan said this achievement was a result of hard work of all stakeholders and favorable government policies over the past several months.
“All we need is policy continuity coupled with new initiatives vis-a-vis skills development and branding of the IT sector on a global-scale for the country’s soft-image,” he said, urging the country’s finance and revenue authorities to give due consideration and incorporation to their budgetary proposals that had already been submitted at concerned forums.
The P@SHA Chief reiterated the IT industry would fully support the initiatives of the Pakistani IT ministry in achieving the export target of $3.5 billion for the outgoing fiscal year, which ends in June.
“We should aim for $5 billion for the forthcoming fiscal year, i.e. FY25,” he added.
PepsiCo. reports double-digit revenue growth in Pakistan, China and other nations
- The company reported better-than-expected revenue in first quarter on strong demand for snacks, beverages
- PepsiCo. has leaned heavily into price increases over the past two years to combat higher ingredient costs
PepsiCo. reported better-than-expected revenue in the first quarter on strong international demand for its snacks and beverages.
The Purchase, New York-based company said revenue rose 2 percent to $18.3 billion for the January-April period. That was higher than the $18 billion Wall Street forecast, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Pepsi reaffirmed its financial guidance for 2024, including organic revenue growth of 4 percent. The company has said it expects to return to more normal rates of growth this year after several years of inflation-driven price increases.
That may have disappointed investors who have grown used to stronger growth at PepsiCo. Last year organic revenue grew 9.5 percent, for example. PepsiCo’s shares fell more than 2.5 percent in morning trading Tuesday.
In North America Frito-Lay revenue rose 2 percent while Pepsi beverage sales were up 1 percent. Sales were hurt by a recall early in the quarter of Quaker Oats cereal, bars and snacks because of potential contamination with salmonella. Quaker Foods sales dropped 24 percent during the quarter.
But the company saw 11 percent sales growth in Asia Pacific and 10 percent sales growth in Europe.
PepsiCo. Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said the company is optimistic that consumer demand will continue to rise this year in the US and elsewhere.
“The consumer, globally, we think is very resilient,” Laguarta said during a conference call with investors. “It’s basically supported by two facts: very low unemployment or quite low unemployment globally and wages growing at a good pace in the majority of the countries where we participate.”
In Europe, sales were driven by demand in Eastern Europe, Laguarta said. In Western Europe, consumers saw fewer PepsiCo. snacks and drinks on grocery shelves during the quarter. Carrefour, one of Europe’s largest supermarket chains, announced in January that it was pulling PepsiCo. products from stores in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy due to unacceptable price increases. The two companies resolved their pricing dispute and Carrefour began restocking PepsiCo. products in early April.
The company said it also saw double-digit organic revenue growth in Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, Pakistan, China and Australia.
But Laguarta added a note of caution. Consumer spending in China remains cautious, he said, and PepsiCo. is also keeping a close eye on lower-income consumers in the US, who are buying fewer snacks or switching to store brands in the face of higher prices.
“The lower-income consumer in the US is stretched,” he said. “That’s a consumer that we are emphasizing in our commercial programs and we are learning how best to keep that consumer in our categories.”
PepsiCo. has leaned heavily into price increases over the past two years to combat higher ingredient costs. The fourth quarter of 2023 was the company’s eighth straight quarter of double-digit percentage price increases.
Those increases moderated in the first quarter. PepsiCo. said net pricing was up 5 percent globally during the quarter, while volumes fell 2 percent. PepsiCo. has said some of that volume decline is strategic. The company has been shrinking package sizes to meet consumer demand for convenience and portion control.
PepsiCo. said its net earnings rose 5.6 percent to $2 billion in the first quarter. Excluding special items, the company earned $1.61 per share. That beat Wall Street’s forecast of $1.52.
Pakistani families urge visiting President Raisi to release cargo crew detained in Iran
- Jalal Ahmed, the cargo boat captain, was on his way from Dubai to Somalia when he was caught by Iran four years ago
- The families of detained Pakistanis say they have not been informed of the charges against Ahmed, others on the boat
KARACHI: Families of Pakistani crew members aboard a cargo boat, which set sail from Dubai to Somalia but was detained by Iran four years ago, appealed to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Tuesday for their release, citing a lack of cooperation from Iranian authorities.
Raisi, who arrived in Pakistan on Monday for a three-day visit, flew to Karachi today after a brief stopover in Lahore. During his stay in Karachi, the Iranian president is slated to meet with government officials and businessmen.
The family of Jalal Ahmed, the captain of the cargo boat, along with others, staged a demonstration in front of the Karachi Press Club to highlight the difficulties they have faced in securing the release of their loved ones, who have been incarcerated in Iran’s Minab city for the past four years.
“We have come here because my brother is imprisoned in the city of Minab in Iran,” Gul Saba, Ahmed’s sister, told Arab News while urging Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to intervene in the matter to secure the release of the detained crew members.
“We also appeal to Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi to release our brother and the other ten [people] who accompanied him,” she continued.
Saba added her 45-year-old brother, who has three children, was transporting cargo from Dubai to Somalia when his ship was stopped by the Iranian authorities.
She said her family members had traveled to Iran, but there had been no response from Iranian authorities.
“No statement has come [from Iranian officials] regarding why [the Pakistani crew members] have been imprisoned,” she added. “There may be no crime involved as their cargo ship was legal.”
Arab News could not independently verify the claims made by the affected family.
Jawad Jalal, Ahmed’s 10-year-old son, also participated in the protest along with his mother, Sadia Ahmed, and aunt Saba.
“When I was six, my father was imprisoned in Iran,” he said while reminiscing how Ahmed escorted him to school before being detained.
“He should be released so he can drop me off at school once again,” he continued, holding a placard emblazoned with the demand for his father’s release from Iranian prison.
Pakistan says will reconstitute panel on ‘enforced disappearances’ after US report points out rights abuses
- Pakistan has long been plagued by disappearances of political workers, rights activists and professionals
- Families say people picked up by security forces often disappear for years, security agencies deny involvement
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will be reconstituting a committee to address the longstanding issue of “enforced disappearances,” Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said on Tuesday, hours after the release of a US report highlighting rights abuses in the South Asian country.
Over the years, hundreds of political workers, rights activists and professionals have gone missing in Pakistan, particularly in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the southwestern Balochistan provinces, where militants have waged a war against the state for decades.
Families say people picked up by security forces often disappear for years, and are sometimes found dead, with no official explanation. Pakistani security agencies deny involvement in such disappearances.
Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, Tarar noted the former Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government had formed a committee on the issue with the representation of all stakeholders.
“Now the work is being initiated on this again on the directives of the prime minister. A committee is going to be reconstituted, there will be parliamentary presence in that committee,” he said. “There is no lack of seriousness on the government’s part to resolve this issue.”
The minister said they visited the Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, met with stakeholders there as well as reviewed reports on the matter from the tenure of the caretaker government.
Tarar said 10,200 cases of “missing persons” had been registered in the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (CIoED), out of which around 8,000 cases had been addressed.
He, however, said the issued could not be resolved “overnight,” adding that there had been no “concrete evidence” of the involvement of state agencies in these cases.
The law minister’s comments came hours after a report released by the US State Department said Pakistan’s government “rarely” took steps to identify and punish officials who may have been involved in rights abuses in 2023, pointing out incidents of extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, violence against journalists and restrictions on media freedom.
“The government rarely took credible steps to identify and punish officials who may have committed human rights abuses,” the State Department said, pointing out Pakistan last year had seen incidents of restrictions on freedom of expression and media, violence against journalists, unjustified arrests, disappearances of journalists, censorship and criminal defamation laws.
Pakistan’s actions in recent months to restrict Internet and mobile services throughout the country, especially on days when elections are held, have invited criticism from rights organizations and Washington.
The interior ministry last week confirmed it had banned social media platform X in February to protect national security, maintain public order, and preserve the country’s “integrity.”
The South Asian country has seen an uptick in violence, mainly suicide attacks, since November 2022 when a fragile truce between militants and the state broke down.
Pakistan has since then carried out military operations against the Pakistani Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and a Baloch separatist militant organization, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in the country’s two western provinces that border Afghanistan.
Saudi Arabia to invest $5 billion to boost Pakistan’s economy – planning minister
- Ahsan Iqbal says the national economy can reach a $3 trillion mark by 2047 with 9% growth rate
- He informs a summit the government plans to maximize investment from UAE, Kuwait and Qatar
KARACHI: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal announced on Tuesday Saudi Arabia was expected to invest $5 billion in Pakistan, adding the administration in Islamabad was also trying to secure investment from other Gulf states to strengthen the national economy.
Amid economic challenges, Pakistan has been actively trying to attract foreign investment and established the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a civil-military hybrid body, last year for the purpose.
The SIFC was created to serve as a single window for all foreign investment activities, offering a simplified and more direct route for international investors interested in various sectors such as mining, agriculture, energy, information technology and defense manufacturing.
The body was tasked to address procedural bottlenecks, accelerate policy reforms and create a more favorable investment climate, with a special focus on Gulf economies.
“Saudi Arabia will soon invest $5 billion in Pakistan and in this regard, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will soon visit Saudi Arabia, followed by an expected visit of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Pakistan,” the Planning Commission of Pakistan quoted the minister as saying in an official statement.
Iqbal issued the statement while speaking at a business summit in Islamabad.
He mentioned that discussions were ongoing with the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar to maximize investment in Pakistan.
The planning minister said if Pakistan managed to increase its exports to $100 billion in the next seven to eight years, it would achieve a significant economic takeoff.
He maintained that Pakistan could become a $2 trillion economy by 2047 with 7 percent growth, adding it could also reach a $3 trillion mark by maintaining 9 percent growth.
