ISLAMABAD: Families of Pakistanis living in China have expressed grave concern over the well-being of their loved ones due to the outbreak of coronavirus in different Chinese provinces.
“We are worried about the health of our daughter who is studying at Xiamen University since 2018,” Rawalpindi-based Zahoor Ahmad, father of Maham Zahoor who is pursuing her Master’s degree in international relations, told Arab News on Saturday. “I talked to her this morning and advised her to remain indoors and avoid unnecessary movement, especially to markets and other public places.”
The coronavirus, which emerged in December, has now spread to other countries, but the majority of cases and all 41 deaths have been reported in China.
The Chinese authorities shut down transportation from Wuhan, the capital of central China’s Hubei province, hoping to contain the spread of virus, and have since expanded the lockdown to other cities, covering a total population of about 35 million.
The World Health Organization described the outbreak as an emergency for China, though it stopped short of declaring it as a public health emergency of international concern.
“There are approximately 28000 Pakistani students studying all over China, around 800 resident traders and around 1500 Pakistani traders who travel to China frequently. There are close to 500 students in Wuhan alone,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said in a statement on Saturday.
She added that these numbers excluded those students, visitors and traders from Pakistan who were present in China without registering themselves with Pakistan’s diplomatic mission in Beijing.
The Pakistan mission also issued an advisory to Pakistanis living in China on January 24.
“The embassy urges Pakistani students to remain vigilant and adopt good personal hygiene practices such as those shared by the ministry of health of China through its advisory. Pakistani community members and students in Wuhan are advised to comply with the efforts of Chinese authorities and not leave the city without any particular reason,” the Pakistan embassy said in a statement, adding that the mission would continue to stay in touch with its nationals and students.
“There are around 800 Pakistani students in Wuhan, but many of them have gone to their country due to the Chinese new year holidays. We are facing problems as we have been asked to remain in our hostels. We are facing acute shortage of food as shops and restaurants are closed due to the blockade of the city,” Muhammad Atiq, who is doing PhD in Public Administration from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, told Arab News on phone from China.
Atiq added that his family in Pakistan was worried because Wuhan was deeply affected by the epidemic.
“The university promised to provide us special masks, but we haven’t received them yet as air traffic, railways and even taxi services are closed in the city. We even could not offer Friday prayers since all sorts of gatherings have been banned in the city,” he said.
A government school principal, Mumtaz Begum, from southern Punjab city of Bahawalpur, whose daughter Mahnoor Sajwar is studying in Peking University, Beijing, expressed her serious concerns for the health of her daughter while speaking to Arab News on the phone.
“I want her to come back to Pakistan, but she has her exams in a couple of months. I have asked her to remain inside her apartment, wear a mask and avoid going to public places. We all are praying for her health as the virus is spreading to the whole of China,” she said.
Sohail Shaukat, a Pakistani businessman from Karachi told Arab News that he used to visit China at least once in a month for his import and export business, but he decided to cancel his trip due to the outbreak.
Madah-ul-Mustafa, a student in South China University of Technology, Guanzhou, who landed in Multan Friday night, told Arab News that he was screened extensively by the airport authorities in Pakistan.
“I came back from China with my wife last night as we were unable to figure out how to deal with the outbreak. I have to go back on 8th February, but now I will assess the situation and then plan to return to the university,” Mustafa said.
Families of Pakistani students in China fear for children's well-being
https://arab.news/82fz9
Families of Pakistani students in China fear for children's well-being
- As coronavirus breaks out, foreign office says over 28000 Pakistani students are in China
- The country’s embassy in Beijing has asked students to avoid unnecessary movement
Fighting halted on Afghanistan-Pakistan border after skirmishes – Taliban government
- Afghan defense ministry says its border forces retaliated after Pakistani airstrikes by targeting military posts with ‘heavy weapons’
- A Pakistani official says three security posts and five houses of civilians suffered partial damage, with nine individuals wounded
KABUL: Fighting has stopped on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border after Pakistani airstrikes sparked skirmishes, a Taliban government spokesman said Tuesday.
“The situation is calm, the fighting has stopped,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.
Pakistan carried out strikes in the border areas in Khost and Paktika provinces in Afghanistan early on Monday.
Islamabad said it had targeted militants it said were responsible for a recent attack on its soil, but Taliban authorities said eight civilians, all women and children, were killed in the bombardment.
Afghanistan’s defense ministry said its border forces retaliated by targeting Pakistani military posts along the border with “heavy weapons,” with cross-border skirmishes reported by both sides.
A senior police officer in the Pakistani border district of Kurram told AFP that Afghan security forces struck the area with mortar shells.
“As a result, three security posts and five houses of civilians suffered partial damage, with nine individuals, including four security personnel wounded,” the officer told AFP, asking not to be named.
“Silence prevails on the border today, and security forces have reinforced their positions.”
Border tensions between the two countries have steadily escalated since the Taliban government seized power in 2021.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s Taliban government of harboring militant fighters, allowing them to strike on Pakistani soil with impunity.
Kabul has denied the allegations.
Gun battles also regularly erupt over the construction of checkpoints along the disputed border and trade crossings are closed over immigration disagreements.
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.