ISLAMABAD: Sentiment and support for Saudi Arabia remained high in Pakistan, a day after attacks on two Saudi oil facilities in the kingdom’s Eastern province caused widespread fear and damage, and which official statements in Pakistan described as acts of sabotage.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Chairman, Raja Zafarul Haq, told Arab News on Saturday that the country was ready to safeguard Saudi Arabia’s security and sovereignty.
“Pakistan is ready to take any step for the safety and security of the Kingdom,” he said and added that countries who “claim to be friends of Saudi Arabia should stand by it” to stop such attacks on its sovereignty.
Latif Khosa, former governor of Punjab province and a central leader of Pakistan Peoples Party, shared the same views, and urged world powers to come out in support of Saudi Arabia.
“World powers should support Saudis against such militant groups,” he said.
In Pakistan, a Muslim majority country of 208 million people with close political and people-to-people ties with Saudi Arabia, the sentiment from the general public was one of shock and horror.
“We condemn the attack on Saudi Arabia,” said 38-year-old Asif Ali, a technician. “It’s our holy land and must be defended by the entire Muslim Ummah at all costs.”
“This attack is highly condemnable. The Saudi oil company must be protected and the world community should help eliminate such militants,” a telecom professional, Ammar Hyder, 40, told Arab News.
The country’s foreign ministry said in an official statement on Saturday that the country “reiterates its full support and solidarity with the brotherly Kingdom of Saudi Arabia against any threat to its security and territorial integrity.”
Pakistan’s government and people condemn attacks on Saudi oil facilities
Pakistan’s government and people condemn attacks on Saudi oil facilities
- High level members of political parties call on world community to stand with Saudi Arabia during attacks on its sovereignty
- Pakistan’s has strong people-to-people ties with Saudi Arabia, with public sentiment one of shock and horror
PCB chief vows to put in full efforts to ensure Pakistan hosts Champions Trophy 2025
- India’s refusal to tour Pakistan for the tournament could see some of its matches shifted to neutral venues
- Political tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan mean both haven’t played a bilateral series since 2013
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) would put in its full efforts to ensure the country hosts the Champions Trophy 2025 cricket tournament next year, the board’s chairman Moshin Naqvi said this week, amid fears that some matches of the tournament would be shifted to neutral venues to accommodate the Indian cricket team, which has refused to travel to Pakistan in the past.
Pakistan, which won the last edition of the tournament played in 2017, has the hosting rights for the 50-over cricket tournament. The teams confirmed for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy are Pakistan, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Afghanistan, England, Bangladesh.
However, Pakistan’s efforts to ensure the tournament is played in its entirety on its soil may be hampered by the Indian team’s refusal to tour the country due to political tensions. Last year, India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan to play their Asia Cup fixtures there forced the PCB to settle for a “hybrid model.” As per the model, Pakistan hosted only four matches of the Asia Cup while the other nine were played in Sri Lanka.
Naqvi, who is also the country’s interior minister, embarked on a daylong trip to Dubai last week to attend an International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting where he met Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
“Some things are sensitive which I don’t want to get into myself before something happens,” Naqvi told reporters during a press conference in Karachi on Monday. “[We are putting in] full efforts but the rest is up to Allah. But we will not leave behind anything in our efforts to hold the Champions Trophy in Pakistan.”
The PCB chairman said the stadiums in Pakistan’s Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi cities would be upgraded before the mega tournament kicks off.
“We are targeting these three stadiums. Once work on them is completed then I will go toward other stadiums,” he said.
India’s refusal to tour Pakistan disappoints millions of cricket fans on both sides of the border. An India-Pakistan cricket match is always a big-ticket clash, raking in millions of eyeballs across the world and drawing in renowned broadcasters.
Despite India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup, the Pakistan cricket team traveled to the neighboring country in September 2023 to participate in the 50-over World Cup there.
It was the first time in seven years that the South Asian country sent its cricket team to India. The last time Pakistan’s men’s cricket team set foot on Indian soil was in 2016 to take part in that year’s T20 World Cup.
The two teams will once again lock horns in this year’s T20 World Cup on June 9. The match is scheduled to take place in New York.
Speakers at Pakistan-hosted UN event demand rights for women in Palestine, Kashmir
- UN’s diplomatic community, women’s rights organizations and academia attend Pakistan-hosted event at UN headquarters
- Panelists demand greater global efforts to end situations of foreign occupation, conflicts facing women around the world
IMF expected to conclude final review today of Pakistan’s $3 billion loan program
- IMF delegation arrived in Pakistan last week to carry out second and final review of its loan program
- Pakistan, IMF to discuss letter of intent, staff-level agreement today, says finance ministry official
ISLAMABAD: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will conclude its review of Pakistan’s $3 billion short-term bailout program today, Tuesday, which was due to be completed on Monday, a Pakistani finance ministry official said amid Islamabad’s efforts to avoid a macroeconomic crisis and stabilize its fragile $350 billion economy.
The finance ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the visiting IMF delegation had decided to extend the deadline by a day on Monday as the review agenda couldn’t be completed in the scheduled period.
The IMF team arrived in Pakistan last week to carry out the second and final review under the short-term loan program secured by Islamabad last summer. Pakistan has said it has met all the structural benchmarks and targets set by the lender, hoping that a successful completion of the evaluation will be followed by the release of a remaining tranche of around $1.1 billion.
“The review agenda couldn’t be completed in the scheduled period, therefore the mission has extended it for a day for now,” the official told Arab News on Monday. “The letter of intent and staff-level agreement will be discussed tomorrow [Tuesday] now.”
Islamabad has expressed its interest in securing a new loan under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program as it continues to carry out reforms to strengthen its debt-ridden economy.
On Monday, Pakistani financial authorities briefed the IMF mission on the country’s annual taxation targets, ways to abolish subsidies in different sectors, digitization of the tax system and expansion in the tax net, the official said.
“At the moment, Pakistan has been lagging on two fronts that are digitization of the taxation and bringing over 3 million retailers in the tax net,” he said. “The FBR has signed a memorandum this week for the digitization while the work on bringing the retailers into the tax net is underway.”
The global lender wants Pakistan to continue the economic stabilization and reforms agenda “till negotiation of the new loan program,” the official added.
Citing officials, Pakistani state media last week reported that Islamabad’s talks with the global lender for the second review of the ongoing program were “progressing positively.”
Pakistan secured the $3 billion IMF program in last June after it narrowly escaped a sovereign default. Its economy has been under extreme stress with low reserves, a balance of payment crisis, inflation at 23 percent, policy interest rates at 22 percent and record local currency depreciation.
Washington urges Pakistan to ‘exercise restraint’ following Afghanistan airstrikes
- White House official Karine Jean-Pierre urges Taliban to ensure “terrorist attacks” are not launched from Afghan soil
- Pakistan conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Khost and Paktika provinces on Monday against alleged militant targets
ISLAMABAD: The White House this week urged Pakistan to exercise restraint and the Afghan Taliban to rein in militants from launching cross-border attacks, as tensions escalated between Islamabad and Kabul following Pakistan’s airstrikes in neighboring Afghanistan on Monday.
Pakistan conducted airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Khost and Paktika provinces early Monday against what it said were militant targets. The move infuriated the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan, which said the strikes killed five women and three children, prompting their forces to fire at Pakistani forces along the border.
The incursions occurred at a time when relations between the two neighbors have been soured by an increase in militant attacks in Pakistan that Islamabad has blamed on militant groups operating from Afghanistan. Kabul denies the use of its soil against any country.
In a press briefing to reporters, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Washington deeply regrets the loss of lives and injuries sustained during Saturday’s attack on Pakistani security forces, which saw seven soldiers killed in the country’s northwest. She also regretted the loss of civilian lives during the strikes in Afghanistan.
“We urge the Taliban to ensure that terrorist attacks are not launched from Afghan soil,” Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday. “We urge Pakistan to exercise restraint and ensure civilians are not harmed in their counterterrorism efforts.”
The White House official urged both sides to resolve their differences through dialogue.
“We remain committed to ensuring that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists who wish to harm United States or our other partners or allies,” she said.
Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, particularly in its western provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bordering Afghanistan, after the Pakistani Taliban called off a fragile truce with Islamabad in Nov. 2022.
In a separate development, US Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome extended his condolences over the loss of lives of Pakistani soldiers in Saturday’s attack in the North Waziristan district. The remarks came after his meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari.
“The Ambassador conveyed his condolences for the loss of Pakistani soldiers in the recent terrorist attack in Waziristan and assured the President the United States stands with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism,” the US embassy said in a statement.
The two figures discussed a broad range of issues, including US support for continued economic reforms, human rights, and regional security, as well as the two countries’ shared interests and goals, it added.
Bangladesh, Pakistan and India bottom in air quality rankings in 2023 — data
- Pakistan remained one of the world’s three smoggiest countries in 2023
- Concentrations of PM2.5 reached 73.7, WHO recommends 5 micrograms
SINGAPORE: Pakistan remained one of the world’s three smoggiest countries in 2023, as Bangladesh and India replaced Chad and Iran, with particulate matter about 15 times the level recommended by the World Health Organization, data published on Tuesday showed.
Average concentrations of PM2.5 — small airborne particles that damage the lungs — reached 79.9 micrograms per cubic meter in Bangladesh in 2023, and 73.7 micrograms in Pakistan. The WHO recommends no more than 5 micrograms.
“Because of the climate conditions and the geography (in South Asia), you get this streak of PM2.5 concentrations that just skyrocket because the pollution has nowhere to go,” said Christi Chester Schroeder, air quality science manager at IQAir, a Swiss air-monitoring organization.
“On top of that are factors such as agricultural practices, industry and population density,” she added. “Unfortunately, it really does look like it will get worse before it gets better.”
In 2022, Bangladesh was ranked as having the fifth-worst air quality, and India was eighth.
About 20 percent of premature deaths in Bangladesh are attributed to air pollution, and related health care costs amount to 4 percent-5 percent of the country’s GDP, said Md Firoz Khan, an air pollution expert at Dhaka’s North South University.
Indian pollution also increased last year, with PM2.5 levels about 11 times higher than the WHO standard. India’s New Delhi was the worst-performing capital city, at 92.7 micrograms.
China also saw PM2.5 rise 6.3 percent to 32.5 micrograms last year, after five consecutive annual declines.
Only Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand met WHO standards in 2023.
The IQAir report was based on data from more than 30,000 monitoring stations in 134 countries and regions.
Chad, the world’s most polluted country in 2022, was excluded from the 2023 listings because of data issues. Iran and Sudan were also taken off the 2023 list.
Christa Hasenkopf, director of the Air Quality Life Index at the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, said 39 percent of countries have no public air quality monitoring.
“Considering the large potential benefits and relatively low cost, it’s stunning that we don’t have an organized global effort to deploy resources to close these data gaps, especially in places where the health burden of air pollution has been largest,” she said.