ISLAMABAD: Fawad Chaudhry, Pakistan’s Minister for Science and Technology, said on Saturday that India has launched a cyber war against Pakistan, days after a Europe-based watchdog cracked open a nexus of hundreds of dormant companies and 'fake media outlets' saying that it is promoting India’s diplomatic interests around the world, and kickstarting a conversation about cyber security in Pakistan.
EU DisinfoLab, a nonprofit organization that researches and tackles disinformation campaigns, said on Wednesday that it has uncovered 265 fake media outlets spread across 65 countries managed by an Indian network, with content “designed to influence the European Union and the United Nations by repeatedly criticizing Pakistan,” the organization said in a report.
“It’s a cyber war and they [Indians] are using cyberspace as a weapon,” Chaudhry told Arab News.
“Cyber security has become a major global issue,” he continued, and added Pakistan’s cyber security policy would be announced soon.
Investigating the network, the Lab traced digital prints linked to a group of Indian companies, NGOs, and think tanks, from a little-known company called the Srivastava Group.
Dubious news portals all based at the same New Delhi address and mentioned in the watchdog’s investigation included Times of Los Angeles, Times of Portugal, New Delhi Times, New York Journal American, Times of North Korea and The International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies (IINS), which is the same organization that reportedly invited 27 members of the European Parliament to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visit Kashmir, amid international attention on curbs on free speech and allegations of human rights violations in Kashmir.
On Aug. 5, New Delhi flooded Kashmir valley with troops, enforced a curfew and communications blackout, and scrapped the special legal status of the disputed region which both India and Pakistan own in part but claim in full. Since then, New Delhi has denied its part in any human rights abuses on different media outlets- many of which have turned out to be zombie websites.
Foreign Affairs expert Qamar Cheema said India wanted Pakistan to become globally isolated.
“It is India’s declared position to isolate Pakistan diplomatically and economically,” Cheema told Arab News.
“Both countries are vying to influence the domestic and international audience about their strategic and tactical narratives, but India has developed cobwebs in the virtual world. This is because of India’s IT achievements and expanding global reach,” he said.
“Pakistan is using traditional tools of diplomacy. India is using traditional tools, its web armies and data mining techniques to influence public opinions to which Pakistan may not be able to respond, lacking resources and state of the art IT infrastructure,” he continued.
The fake news websites republished contents from Russia Today and Voice of America, but the report said they also found a large number of articles related to minorities in Pakistan.
In Geneva, the investigating group found that timesofgeneva.com – an online ‘newspaper’ self-professed to be ‘approaching 35 years in business’ – published and produced videos covering events and demonstrations that criticized Pakistan’s role in the Kashmir conflict.
“Media and cyber space are increasingly being used as weapons to influence events and to project national interests. India has been doing it for many years, whether it is hacking our command and control centers... or planting stories about Pakistan,” Ambassador Vice Admiral (R) Khan Hasham Bin Saddique, President of Islamabad Policy Research Institute, told Arab News.
“India’s prowess in the IT field has undermined our national security interests,” he said. “It is time that Pakistan invests in human resource and technological competence because media and cyberspace are the components of 21st century warfare.”
In April, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications, had announced that a comprehensive cyber security policy would be introduced soon.
Domestically however, the country has placed great importance on countering and policing the spread of content and information through special cyber laws-- but these were specific to cyber-crime not cyber-security, experts say.
“We have been creating cyber crime laws but not a cyber security policy,” Ammar Jafri, former head of the Federal Investigation Agency’s National Response Center for Cyber Crime wing, told Arab News.
Jafri was instrumental in drafting Pakistan’s first cyber security policy in 2012 which is still pending approval.
“We are one of the few countries in the world without a national computer emergency response team, cyber security policy and cyber security strategy,” he said.
“There are plenty of challenges that Pakistan faces in cyberspace that need government initiatives to confront. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. The cyber security bill can be reactivated with certain amendments.”
“This is the cyber era and we need to spend on cyber weapons to counter enemies of the state on the internet,” he continued.
Pakistan is one of the least cyber-safe countries in the world according to a 2019 Comparitech study sourced from Kaspersky Lab, International Telecommunication Union, and Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Pakistan accuses India of using cyberspace as weapon, says cyber policy coming soon
https://arab.news/yzyfa
Pakistan accuses India of using cyberspace as weapon, says cyber policy coming soon
- European disinformation watchdog uncovered 265 Indian websites spreading anti-Pakistan content
- Pakistan is one of the world’s least cyber-safe countries
Pakistan interior minister urges new laws for online speech
- Mohsin Naqvi calls for a reassessment of laws after being asked about prolonged disruption of platform X
- He says the social media is used to raise false allegations against people, adding the issue needs to be fixed
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new interior minister said Tuesday the country needed better laws to regulate Internet free speech, as disruption of social media platform X stretched into its fifth week.
Islamabad has declined to clearly say whether it is behind nationwide restrictions to the platform, formerly known as Twitter, which have left it rarely accessible since February 17.
Pakistan’s polls earlier that month were marred by allegations of rigging, and the outages began after a senior government official made a public admission of vote tampering.
“We need to make better laws,” Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said when asked whether his ministry was responsible for the X shutdown.
“Expression is fine, but making false allegations against people is wrong – it’s happening and needs to be fixed.”
“We must reassess our own laws and look into what is being misused,” he told reporters in remarks broadcast on state TV.
X, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were key planks in the election campaigning of jailed ex-prime minister and popular opposition leader Imran Khan.
The former cricket star was barred from running and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was subject to a sweeping crackdown of arrests and censorship ahead of February 8 polls.
Most of their campaigning moved online, where it was shut down by numerous social media blackouts which Islamabad blamed on technical glitches.
Rigging claims were also fueled by a nationwide mobile Internet shutdown on polling day, which the caretaker government said was required for security reasons after twin bombings killed 28 a day earlier.
X remained unavailable to AFP reporters in Islamabad, Peshawar and Lahore on Tuesday afternoon – but the site has been momentarily accessible at times over the past five weeks.
“The problem is there is no transparency by the government,” said Sadaf Khan, an analyst for Pakistani campaign group Media Matters for Democracy.
“Twitter is being banned specifically because it has emerged as a platform where political disclosure takes place,” she told AFP.
Information minister Attaullah Tarar has given mixed signals over disruption, telling one local media outlet it “is working” and another that it was “already banned” when the new government came to power.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – who secured the office through a shaky coalition after Khan’s candidates defied expectations to secure more seats than any other party – has frequently published statements on X.
On Monday, he used the platform to congratulate Russian President Vladimir Putin for his re-election in a poll slammed by independent observers and the West as the most corrupt in post-Soviet history.
US envoy meets Finmin Aurangzeb, assures support for completion of Pakistan’s IMF program
- An IMF team is currently holding talks in Islamabad for the second and final review of the $3 billion loan program
- The global lender is expected to conclude the review today after the agenda could not be completed on Monday
ISLAMABAD: United States (US) Ambassador Donald Blome on Tuesday met with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and assured him support for the completion of Pakistan’s ongoing $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan program, the US embassy said.
The statement came amid talks between Pakistan and the IMF for the second and final review of the program secured by Islamabad last summer. Pakistan says it has met all structural benchmarks and targets set by the global lender. A successful completion of the evaluation will release the remaining $1.1 billion to the South Asian country.
In his meeting with the finance minister, Ambassador Blome discussed US cooperation and support for Pakistan’s efforts to meet its reform targets, including improvement of the country’s tax administration and investment climate, according to the US embassy.
“Ambassador Blome noted the US government’s support for Pakistan’s work with the IMF to complete its current Stand-By Arrangement (SBA),” the embassy said in a statement.
The IMF review was expected to conclude on Monday, but a Pakistani finance ministry official told Arab News on condition of anonymity the visiting IMF delegation had decided to extend the review by a day after the two sides could not complete its agenda.
“The review agenda couldn’t be completed in the scheduled period, therefore the mission has extended it for a day for now,” the official said on Monday. “The letter of intent and staff-level agreement will be discussed tomorrow [Tuesday] now.”
Islamabad has also 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, according to the official.
“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 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.
Pakistani court sentences two female seminary students to death, one to life for teacher’s blasphemy killing
- The students targeted the teacher at the seminary’s gate, beating her with sticks before slitting her throat
- The students said in their confession a relative had seen the teacher committing blasphemy in his dream
PESHAWAR: A local court in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has sentenced two female seminary students to death and another to life imprisonment for killing their teacher on blasphemy charges in March 2022, confirmed the lawyers involved the case on Tuesday.
The three women, Razia Hanfi, Ayesha Naumani, and Umra Aman from Jamia Islamia Falahul Binaat seminary in Dera Ismail Khan were arrested two years ago for murdering their teacher Safoora Bibi, alleging she had committed blasphemy.
The assault took at the seminary’s gate where the convicted students beat their teacher with sticks before slitting her throat. Subsequently, the police said the accused students had confessed to the crime, claiming that a teenage relative had dreamt of the victim committing blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Speaking to Arab News, public prosecutor Tanseer Ali said the court sentenced Razia Hanfi and Umra Aman to death, imposing a fine of Rs2 million each. The third accused, Ayesha Naumani, were given life imprisonment and a Rs1 million fine since she was under 18 when the crime took place.
“The court has decided the case on the basis of concrete evidence,” he said. “Thorough investigations into the matter by the police, confession of crime by the convicts in front of a magistrate and forensic evidence helped the court decide the matter.”
However, defense attorney Asad Aziz said the case became high-profile and sensitive, affecting the court’s verdict.
“We are going to challenge the decision in higher court,” he added. “I’m sure this judgment will not withstand further legal scrutiny and will be suspended.”
The administration of the seminary could not be reached for comment after the announcement of the verdict.
However, Shah Noor, a relative of the convicted girls, vowed to lodge in appeal in the high court during this week.
Pakistan court acquits PM Sharif’s nephews in graft cases
- Hassan Nawaz, Hussain Nawaz left country in 2018 after they were named in the cases linked to Panama Papers
- The brothers this month filed petitions seeking acquittal in the Al-Azizia Steel Mills, Flagship and Avenfield references
ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Tuesday acquitted Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz, nephews of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in three corruption references, local media reported.
Both Hassan and Hussain, sons of three-time former PM Nawaz Sharif, left the country in 2018 after they were named in the three corruption cases linked to the Panama Papers scandal. They were later declared proclaimed offenders by an accountability court for not joining investigation.
Like their father, both had been living in the United Kingdom in a self-imposed exile since 2018. The duo returned to Pakistan this month after filing an application through their counsel that sought suspension of warrants issued against them in the corruption references.
The brothers later filed petitions seeking acquittal in the corruption cases relating to the Al-Azizia Steel Mills, Flagship company and Avenfield apartments, Pakistan’s Geo News channel reported. On Tuesday, their lawyer contended before the court that proceedings could not be carried out against them on allegations of abetting a crime, when the main suspects had been acquitted.
“[The court] granted relief to former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s sons — Hasan and Hussain — on the petitions seeking acquittal in corruption cases related to the Al-Azizia Steel Mills, Flagship company and Avenfield apartments,” the report read.
On March 14, the court had approved bail of both brothers in exchange for Rs50,000 bond each in the three references. Their perpetual arrest warrants and fugitive status had also been canceled.
Hassan and Hussain’s father, Nawaz Sharif, arrived in Pakistan in October last year after nearly four years of self-imposed exile. Nawaz was found guilty in 2017 of dishonest practices and disqualified under a 2018 Supreme Court ruling. He, however, left Pakistan in 2019 after obtaining a court-approved bail for treatment abroad.
Last year, the courts overturned most of the Sharif family convictions. Many suspected the move was part of the Pakistani military’s plan to grant relief to Nawaz after it had a falling out with his rival, ex-PM Imran Khan. Nawaz has denied this, while the military says it does not interfere in politics.
Pakistan’s president calls for translating ties with Bahrain into ‘economic partnership’
- Commander of Bahrain’s National Guard calls on President Asif Ali Zardari in Islamabad
- Both discuss bilateral relations, trade, defense and other matters of mutual interest
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday said Pakistan attached great value to its fraternal ties with Bahrain, stressing the need for both countries to translate their relationship into a “mutually rewarding economic partnership,” a statement from his office said.
The statement followed a meeting between Zardari and General Sheikh Mohammad bin Isa bin Salman Al-Khalifa, the commander of the National Guard of Bahrain, who called on him at the presidency in Islamabad.
Zardari said Pakistan and Bahrain enjoyed excellent relations, which needed to be further strengthened in areas of mutual interest.
“He [Zardari] highlighted the need to translate the bilateral relations between Pakistan and Bahrain into a mutually rewarding economic partnership,” the president’s secretariat said.
Zardari told Al-Khalifa it was his firm belief that Pakistan would grow stronger as it had immense potential to become a prosperous country. Al-Khalifa congratulated the president on assuming office for a second time and hoped the South Asian country would move forward under his leadership, the statement said.
The Bahraini official noted that both countries enjoy excellent defense cooperation, reiterating the Gulf country’s continued support for Pakistan. Al-Khalifa invited Zardari to visit Bahrain, the president’s secretariat said.
Al-Khalifa met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last Wednesday to discuss bilateral trade, defense cooperation and the developing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Pakistan enjoys fraternal relations with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries including Bahrain. Islamabad also has strong defense and trade ties with them and routinely holds military exercises with friendly states to enhance combat skills.
Cash-strapped Pakistan set up the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a hybrid civil-military forum, in June 2023. The SIFC was established to attract international investment, particularly from Gulf countries, in the country’s key economic sectors. The council was set up as Pakistan faced tough economic challenges amid dwindling forex reserves and a rapidly depreciating national currency.