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Pakistan's Newsmakers in 2018

Updated 29 December 2018
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Pakistan's Newsmakers in 2018

Updated 29 December 2018
Naimat Khan

KARACHI: 2018 was the year of politics in Pakistan: a new political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, and a new leader, Imran Khan, came to power in a landmark general election that signalled victory against old-style dynastic politics. On the other hand, three-time prime minister and political survivor Nawaz Sharif was barred from politics over corruption by the country's top court and is currently in jail serving seven years for corrupt practices linked to the setting up of a steel mill. Ultra-right leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi, whose Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan became the sixth largest party at the polls, kept the country on its toes with mass protests but was finally arrested for challenging the writ of the state. Asia Bibi, a poor Christian woman acquitted in a landmark blasphemy case after eight years on death row, still remains in protective custody. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah won the title of the fastest cricketer to take 200 Test wickets and Meesha Shafi unleashed Pakistan’s own #MeToo moment with allegations of sexual harassment against singer and actor Ali Zafar.

Here are some of the people who mattered most in Pakistani politics, society and sports, in 2018:

Imran Khan – The Man Who Would Be King

Sportsman-turned-politician Imran Khan was sworn in as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan this August in what is the apogee of a 22-year-long political career spent prowling the margins of Pakistani politics and railing against the country’s corrupt, dynastic politicians. In the first four . months of his terms, he had made headlines for opening the Kartarpur border with India, a twitter war with U.S. President Donald Trump and bagging enough loans from Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and China.

Asia Bibi – Free, But In Chains

Asia Bibi, a poor Christian woman who was acquitted in October in a landmark blasphemy case, remains in "protective custody" of the state, unable to walk free because ultra-right extremists have threatened her life and mass protests across the country if she is released. Asia was the first Pakistani woman to be sentenced under the country's blasphemy laws in 2010. This year was her ninth Christmas unable to celebrate and worship as a free women.

Nawaz Sharif – The Perpetual Political Survivor

One of Pakistan's most high-profile politicians of the last four decades, Nawaz Sharif had a truly bad year. He was ousted from his third term as prime minister last year but this year was jailed for ten years in one case involving corrupt practices linked to the purchase of luxury London flats, and in another case related to the source of funds for setting up a steel mill. He has been prime minister three times and was unable to complete his term all three times, removed once by presidential order, then in a military coup, and finally by the country’s top court in July 2017. He is currently serving seven years in jail in the steel mills case.

Bushra Bibi – From Faith Healer To First Lady​

Bushra Bibi is the first lady of Pakistan and the third wife of Prime Minister Khan. She is a faith healer from the Pakpattan district of Pakistan's Punjab province and has five children from a previous marriage. She is considered a great influence on the prime minister. Little is known about her daily routine, except that she is deeply spiritual and spends most of her time in prayers.

Maryam Nawaz – Heir Apparent On The Edge Of Prison

Maryam Nawaz is the daughter of former PM Nawaz Sharif and was jailed along with her father earlier this year in the London apartments' money trail case, though she is now out on bail. She leapfrogged several influential relatives to emerge in recent years as a long-term heir of her father’s Pakistan Muslim League party. She has been known for years as one of her father’s closest advisers, but more recently took a much more public role in the party’s leadership. Since being convicted in July, she has shied away from public life.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi – The Star Of Pakistan’s Ultra-Right

Foul-mouthed, wheelchair-bound cleric Khadim Hussian Rizvi shot to fame during protests against the 2016 execution of Mumtaz Qadri, a police guard who murdered a popular governor who spoke up against the country’s draconian blasphemy laws. This year he was in the news for leading protests against the acquittal of Asia Bibi, after which he called for the murder of the judges who had ruled in her favour and incited rebellion against the army chief. He was finally booked under terrorism charges earlier this month and is now in police custody.

Young Tribesman Becomes Voice of Pashtuns​

Tens of thousands of Pashtuns have defied authorities to attend rallies let by Manzoor Pashteen this year, demanding an end to what they allege are extrajudicial killings and abductions of ethnic Pashtun people. The protests have mushroomed into a wider movement, and Pashteen has emerged as its unlikely spokesman, speaking for people brutalised during military operations in Pakistan's tribal regions and asking for the return of hundreds who have 'gone missing'. Last month, the military warned that it would take action against the movement if it crossed a red line.

Yasir Shah – Fastest To 200 Test Wickets

Pakistani leg-spinner Yasir Shah became the fastest cricketer to take 200 wickets in the history of Test cricket, breaking an 82-year-old record on the fourth day of the third Test against New Zealand earlier this month. Shah reached this milestone in his 33rd Test, beating Australian leg-spinner Clarrie Grimmett’s record of 36 Tests achieved against South Africa in 1936.

Mullah Fazlullah – Pakistan’s Most Wanted Terrorist

Mullah Fazlullah, the leader of the Pakistan Taliban (TTP), was the country’s most-wanted militant, notorious for attacks including a 2014 school massacre that killed 132 children and the 2012 shooting of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was in hiding in Afghanistan since 2009 and was killed in a U.S.-Afghan airstrike in June this year.

Asma Jahangir – The Conscience of Pakistan

Asma Jahangir, Pakistan’s leading rights activist, staunch defender of rule of law and a fearless critic of the all-powerful army’s interference in politics died In February this year. She was a a human rights lawyer who won international fame for being the conscience of a country where liberal, secular voices have been suppressed for decades and defending the weak and the marginalized in society, particularly women and minorities.

Meesha Shafi - The Face Of Pakistan’s #MeToo

Singer and actress Meesha Shafi launched Pakistan’s version of the viral #MeToo campaign that has exposed sexual harassment around the world and created a public platform for victims and their supporters. Shafi accused Pakistani superstar Ali Zafar of sexually harassing her, an allegation he denies. Though several Pakistani celebrities have come forward to reveal their personal experiences of child sexual abuse, Shafi’s statement against Zafar was the first instance of a Pakistani entertainer publicly calling out a peer for sexual misconduct and ignited a much needed public debate.

Topics: Newsmakers 2018 Pakistan Karachi pakistan politics Pakistan political party society sports

Transporters continue protest in southwest Pakistan after talks fail over new highway security plan

Updated 8 sec ago
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Transporters continue protest in southwest Pakistan after talks fail over new highway security plan

  • The Balochistan government has decided to established new security check-posts where soldiers would check all passenger buses
  • The decision came after the killing of nine passengers from Punjab province, but transporters say it would cause massive delays
Updated 8 sec ago
SAADULLAH AKHTER

QUETTA: Transporters in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province continued their protest on Thursday, they said, after the failure of a second round of talks with the government over a new security plan for highways.
An alliance of transporters in the provincial capital of Quetta has been protesting for the last two weeks the government’s new standard operating procedures (SOPs) aimed at providing maximum security to passengers traveling through one of the key provincial highways in Pakistan.
The government in the restive province last month announced to revise its security plan for the Quetta-Taftan highway after gunmen killed nine passengers, who hailed from the eastern Punjab province, after abducting them from a bus near the Noshki district in Balochistan.
The second round of talks between representatives of the transporters and the government failed and the transporters said they would continue their protest in the provincial capital.
“A 12-member delegation of transporters met with the government’s negotiation committee today for the 2nd round of talks in order to discuss concerns of local transporters, but the meeting ended without any result,” Mehmood Badini, a representative of the transporters’ alliance who was part of the talks, told Arab News on Thursday.
“We stand on our demands but the government officials have said that they will call a high-level meeting to discuss our demands in the coming days. We have decided to continue our strike on all major routes unless our demands are met.”
The mineral-rich province of Balochistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by Baloch separatist groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. The militants usually target police and security forces or infrastructure.
Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in Balochistan has persisted. The attack in Noshki sparked widespread condemnation and prompted the provincial government to revise its security plan for highways.
Saeed Ahmed Lehri, chairman of the All Balochistan Transporters Alliance, said the transporters were on a strike at the N-40 Quetta-Taftan highway, N-85 Quetta-Makran Highway, N-25 Quetta-Karachi highway and N-65 Balochistan-Sindh highway against government’s new travel security SOPs.
“The government has established new security check-posts at the N-40 Quetta-Taftan highway and security forces are directed to check all buses at every check-post,” he said. “The New SOPs would cause delay for passengers and drivers, even the government is going to prevent transporters from the deployment of two private security guards inside buses at their own expense.”
Shahid Rind, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, said they would keep negotiating with the transporters in the coming days to find a “concrete solution” to the issue.
“The government’s prime responsibility is the passengers’ safety and security, hence we won’t step back from this stance,” he told Arab News. “But there will be more rounds of talks with the transporters.”
Rind said the government had revised its security plan and decided to establish new security check-posts at all highways after the Noshki attack.
“Balochistan has a vast landscape while in some areas mobile networks do not work,” he added.

Topics: Transport Strikes

Pakistan pushes back deadline for expressions of interest to buy national airline

Updated 48 min 21 sec ago
Reuters
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Pakistan pushes back deadline for expressions of interest to buy national airline

  • The extension came a day before the expressions of interest had originally been due
  • Pakistani tycoon Arif Habib, aviation-based company Gerry’s Group were among bidders
Updated 48 min 21 sec ago
Reuters

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will push back the deadline for companies to express interest in buying national carrier Pakistan International Airlines to May 18, the country’s privatization minister said on Thursday.
The extension, announced in a statement by Minister for Investment and Privatization Abdul Aleem Khan, came a day before the expressions of interest had originally been due. He said 10 companies had already expressed an interest.
“The Board accorded approval for extension in the date for submission of interests on the request of interested parties,” he said, referring to the Privatization Commission Board he leads.
Pakistani tycoon Arif Habib and aviation-based company Gerry’s Group were among the 10 bidders looking to buy a majority stake in Pakistan International Airlines, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.
Arif Habib, Pakistan International Airlines and Gerry’s Group did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Pakistan’s government has previously said it was putting on the block a stake of between 51 percent and 100 percent in the loss-making airline as part of reforms urged by the International Monetary Fund.
The disposal of the flag carrier is a step that past elected governments have steered away from as it is likely to be highly unpopular, but progress on the privatization will help cash-strapped Pakistan pursue further funding talks with the IMF.

Topics: PIA privatization Abdul Aleem Khan Pakistan International Airlines (PIA)

A village in Pakistan keeps business and tradition of pottery alive

Updated 03 May 2024
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A village in Pakistan keeps business and tradition of pottery alive

  • At least 150 families are engaged in pottery-making in Tehi, village in Talagang district of Punjab province
  • Young craftsmen are trying to expand businesses by introducing innovation, delivering customized products
Updated 03 May 2024
Aamir Saeed

ISLAMABAD: Sitting in the veranda of his house, Muhammad Shabbir picked up a lump of clay and set it on a potter’s wheel as it spun before him, producing a whirring sound. A few meters away in a large courtyard, his two sons kneaded clay and put finished pots out to dry in the sunlight before they would be taken to a furnace to bake.

The scene is from Shabbir’s home in Tehi village of district Talagang in Pakistan’s vast Punjab province, some 150 kilometres from Pakistan’s federal capital, Islamabad, where over 150 families are involved in pottery as their primary source of livelihood. They have learnt the techniques and styles from their ancestors and continue to uphold the age-old tradition of fashioning clay wares by hand.

Around the world, pottery was replaced at the beginning of the 20th century by glass, aluminum, tin and plastic, materials all cheaper and better suited to most tasks than clay.

But Shabbir and his two sons remain steadfast in keeping the craft alive even as it no longer earns them enough to live a prosperous life.

“I have been doing this for the last twenty years,” Shabbir told Arab News. “I used to see my elders, first they used to make them [pots] and now I have engaged my sons to work in the business.”

A special, fine-grained soil sourced from a nearby village is used to make the pots, Shabbir said, which was mixed with sand and shaped into dough to be turned into different designs.

“We knead the mud, make a dough and bring it to the potter’s wheel and then design it into a pot. We put them out to dry and then bake them in the furnace to get the final product,” Shabbir explained.

Across the streets of Tehi, clay pots of different shapes and sizes were displayed at wholesale shops from where they are bought by locals, traders in Punjab and also exported to retailers across the country.

“GOVERNMENT SUPPORT”

Craftsmen in the village make the clay pots five months in a year, three months in summer and two in winter, and pause work in the rainy season when the weather is humid and frequent rains drench the giant clay furnaces used to bake the utensils.

Like Shabbir’s sons, many children in the village started learning pottery-making at a very young age to lend a helping hand to their elders.

Shabbir said his two sons had ambitions to leave the business and graduated high school but could not find jobs.

“We went to school, did matriculation, applied for a job but didn’t get it, and then decided why shouldn’t we learn the craft of our forefathers and do it,” Muhammad Kabeer, a young potter and Shabbir's son, told Arab News as he prepared dough in a barrel.

Kabeer and his younger brother said they wanted to expand their business and the family’s earnings by introducing innovation in the field and making customized pots on order.

“If a customer comes with their own designs, we give them two, three days’ time to deliver the order,” Kabeer said.

The family mainly makes clay pots for wholesalers and while loyal customers do keep ordering, Shabbir said the pottery business had been impacted by inflation and high transportation rates, forcing many people to switch to other lines of work.

Pakistan has been beset by inflation above 20% since May 2022, registering a high of 38 percent in May 2023 mainly due to high food and energy costs. Inflation eased off to 17.3%, the lowest since May 2022, on a year-on-year basis in April 2024 from 20.7% recorded in March 2024 and 36.4% in April 2023, official data issued this week.

His father added: “We work for five months and have to make do with those earnings for the whole year,” Shabbir lamented.

Kabir added:

“We sell them [the pots] to wholesalers and they pay us labor cost only ... If we get the government’s support, we can really expand this business and provide jobs to our friends as well.”

Topics: art of pottery Pakistani potter labor day

‘Historic moment’: Pakistani satellite bound for orbit in Chinese high-stakes moon mission today

Updated 03 May 2024
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‘Historic moment’: Pakistani satellite bound for orbit in Chinese high-stakes moon mission today

  • Chang’e 6 is a planned robotic Chinese and Pakistani lunar exploration mission that will attempt China’s second sample return mission
  • Around 100 students from Pakistan’s Institute of Space Technology have contributed to the satellite set for launch on Friday
Updated 03 May 2024
SAIMA SHABBIR

ISLAMABAD: ‘ICUBE-Qamar’ (ICUBE-Q), a cube satellite, is poised to become Pakistan’s first entry into the lunar orbit as part of China’s Chang’e-6 mission today, Friday, with developers describing it as a “historic moment” that would open new avenues for future deep space missions from the South Asian nation.

Chang’e 6 is a planned robotic Chinese and Pakistani lunar exploration mission that will attempt Beijing’s second sample return mission and aims to obtain the first-ever soil and rock samples from the lunar far side and return them to earth. The samples will contain material ejected from the lunar mantle and will be used to provide insight into the history of the moon, earth, and the solar system.

The primary phase of the mission is expected to last about 53 days. Like its predecessors, the spacecraft is named after the Chinese moon goddess Chang’e.

Around 100 students from Pakistan’s Institute of Space Technology (IST) have contributed to developing the satellite, scheduled to launch into lunar orbit at 12:50 PM PST on Friday, May 3, 2024, from the Wenchang space launch site in Hainan, China.

“This is Pakistan’s first deep space mission which is indeed a historic moment and following that maybe in the future other deep space missions can be planned,” Khurram Khurshid, the head of the electrical engineering and computer science department at IST and a co-lead on the satellite project, told Arab News.

Pakistan’s proposal to build the satellite was accepted by the China National Space Agency (CNSA) from plans submitted by eight member states of the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO).

“In the first month of 2022, out of all the proposals from the APSCO member states, the Chinese space agency thoroughly evaluated and selected one, which happened to be ours which was a significant moment for us as our proposal was chosen in deep space mission.”

The design, development, and qualification of the ICUBE-Q satellite were spearheaded by faculty members and students of the IST in collaboration with China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), with support from Pakistan’s National Space Agency, SUPARCO.

“Along with faculty members, around 100 students contributed to various aspects of the satellite, including electrical engineering for electronics, aerospace engineering for control systems, computer science for software, and mechanical/materials engineering for identifying materials suitable for the moon’s harsh environment,” Khurshid said. 

The ICUBE-Q has two cameras as payload for taking images of the lunar surface that will be transmitted back to earth for analysis, the official said. 

Khurshid said after selection in 2022, it took two years of round-the-clock work by students and researchers to complete the project within the deadline. 

“The design and development of the satellite were finished approximately eight months ago after rigorous qualification tests, some conducted in-house and others by SPARCO,” he said.

The satellite was then sent to China eight months back for further verification to ensure it met all requirements. 

“China’s stringent standards meant even minor discrepancies could result in rejection, emphasizing the importance of successful qualification tests,” he added, “and once these tests were successfully completed, it marked a significant milestone as it validated our designs and confirmed the satellite’s readiness for the mission.” 

The major cost in such missions was the substantial funding required to launch a satellite, Khurshid said, adding that the cost of manufacturing the satellite was not high and was funded by SUPARCO:

“It is a small satellite, like a 7 kg satellite, so it was not a big cost as major cost required for launching a satellite will be provided free by China.” 

After securing the free launch opportunity, all the faculty and students involved “got very excited and devoted their efforts to this project,” Khurshid said. 

Four of the Pakistan team members are in China to witness the historic launching. 

Topics: ICUBE-Qamar Chang’e 6

Pakistan double landmine blasts kill one person, wound at least 18 

Updated 02 May 2024
AP
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Pakistan double landmine blasts kill one person, wound at least 18 

  • First mine exploded when a truck was passing through a valley in coal-rich Duki district in Balochistan province
  • Second detonated when counter-terrorism officials and civilians were examining initial blast site, police said
Updated 02 May 2024
AP

QUETTA, Pakistan: Double landmine blasts killed one person and wounded at least 18 on Thursday in Pakistan’s southwest, a police officer said.

The first mine exploded when a truck was passing through a valley in coal-rich Duki district in Balochistan province. The second detonated when counter-terrorism officials and civilians were examining the initial blast site, said district police officer Asif Haleem.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. But Baloch separatist groups have previously struck security personnel or infrastructure in the southwest.

They initially wanted a greater share of provincial resources, but later initiated an insurgency for independence from the central government.

Also on Thursday, an Islamabad-based think tank said that militant assaults killed 70 people nationwide in April, mostly in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies also said the country experienced 323 militant attacks in the first four months of the year, resulting in 324 deaths.

Such incidents are unusual in eastern Punjab province, but police said militants from banned groups are responsible for killing three uniformed officers in Lahore city during the past 10 days.

Inspector General of Punjab Usman Anwar urged people to report any suspicious activity.

A report issued in January by another think tank, the Pak Institute for Peace Studies, said there were 306 attacks last year, killing 693 people.

Topics: land mine blasts Pakistan

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