ISLAMABAD: Thousands of protesters from the Shia Hazara minority community in Balochistan continued a sit-in on Friday, saying they would not bury their relatives, killed by Daesh gunmen on Sunday, until Prime Minister Imran Khan visited the province and ensured justice.
Gunmen abducted a group of minority Hazara Shia coal miners and killed 11 on early Sunday, Pakistani officials said. The Daesh group later claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its website. The militant group has repeatedly targeted Pakistan’s minority Shias in recent years.
Families of the victims placed the dead bodies on a road connecting Quetta with Sukkar on Sunday, but later moved them to the provincial capital where they have been sitting with the coffins on a major highway since. They demand that they will call off their sit-in only whenPM Khan visits Quetta to meet protesters.
A member of Khan’s cabinet, who declined to be named, said the PM’s plans to travel to Quetta were “not yet finalized.”
Bilalwal Bhutto-Zardari, chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, and Maryam Nawaz Sharif, vice president of the Pakistan Muslim-League Nawaz, on Thursday arrived in Quetta to meet with protesters.
On Wednesday, Khan urged relatives of the slain miners to end their protest and bury their loved ones, saying he would visit the mourners for condolences “soon.”
“I share your pain & have come to you before also to stand with you in your time of suffering,” the PM tweeted, addressing relatives of the deceased. “I will come again very soon to offer prayers and condole with all the families personally. I will never betray my people’s trust. Please bury your loved ones so their souls find peace.”
But the Majlis-e-Wihdatul Muslimeen, a Shia political group that is heading the protests, said the sit-in would be called off only when the PM came to Quetta.
Quetta is home to roughly 600,000 Hazara Shias, largely confined to two fortified enclaves.
On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the killing of the 11 miners, saying seven of them were Afghan citizens.
An official with the Levies Force, which serves as police and paramilitary in the area, told local media the gun attack took place near the remote Machh coal field, about 48 km east of the provincial capital Quetta.
Agha Syed Muhammad Raza, a senior leader of the Majlis-e-Wihdatul Muslimeen, said the victims had been blindfolded, with their arms and legs tied up, and were killed with knives.
“We have become tired of picking up the bodies of our people,” Syed Agha Raza, a Hazara political leader, told Reuters.
Masooma Yaqoob Ali said her elder brother along with four other relatives was among those killed.
“Now we have no male member [of our family] to take coffins of our brother and other relatives to the graveyard for burial,” she said, shedding tears as she spoke.
Mourners of slain miners continue sit-in with coffins in Quetta as protests enter sixth day
https://arab.news/4e8u6
Mourners of slain miners continue sit-in with coffins in Quetta as protests enter sixth day
- Opposition leaders Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Maryam Nawaz met with mourners from Shia Hazara community on Thursday
- Mourners and protest organizers say sit-in to be called off when PM Khan visits Quetta, PM’s plans not yet final
IMF board to approve Pakistan reviews today ‘if all goes well,’ say officials
- IMF’s executive board is scheduled to meet today to discuss the disbursement of $1.2 billion
- Economists say the money will boost Pakistan’s forex reserves, send positive signals to investors
KARACHI: The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board is scheduled to meet today, Monday, to approve the release of about $1.2 billion for Pakistan under the lender’s two loan facilities, said IMF officials who requested not to be named.
The IMF officials confirmed the executive board was going to decide on the Fund’s second review under the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and first review under the $1.4 billion Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF), a financing tool that provides long-term, low-cost loans to help countries address climate risks.
“The board meeting will be taking place as planned,” an IMF official told Arab News.
“The board is on today yes as per the calendar,” said another.
A well-placed official at Pakistan’s finance ministry also confirmed the board meeting was scheduled today to discuss the next tranche for Pakistan.
The IMF executive board’s meeting comes nearly two months after a staff-level agreement (SLA) was signed between the two sides in October.
Procedurally, the SLAs are subject to approval by the executive board, though it is largely viewed as a formality.
“If all goes well, the reviews should pass,” said the second IMF official.
On approval, Pakistan will have access to about $1 billion under the EFF and about $200 million under the RSF, the IMF said in a statement in October after the SLA.
The fresh transfer will bring total disbursements under the two arrangements to about $3.3 billion, it added.
Experts see smooth sailing for Pakistan in terms of the passing of the two reviews, saying the IMF disbursements will help the cash-strapped nation to strengthen its balance of payments position.
Samiullah Tariq, group head of research at Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company Limited, said the IMF board’s approval will show that Pakistan’s economy is on the right path.
“It obviously will help strengthen [the country’s] external sector, the balance of payments,” he told Arab News.
Until recently, Pakistan grappled with a macroeconomic crisis that drained its financial resources and triggered a balance of payments crisis.
Pakistan has reported financial gains since 2022, recording current account surpluses and taming inflation that touched unprecedented levels in mid-2023.
Economists also viewed the IMF’s bailout packages as crucial for cash-strapped Pakistan, which has relied heavily on financing from bilateral partners such as Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates, as well as multilateral lenders.
Saudi Arabia, through the Saudi Fund for Development, last week extended the term of its $3 billion deposit for another year to help Pakistan boost its foreign exchange reserves, which stood at $14.5 billion as of November 28, according to State Bank of Pakistan statements.
“In our view this [IMF tranche] will be approved,” said Shankar Talreja, head of research at Karachi-based brokerage Topline Securities Limited.
“This will help strengthen reserves and will eventually help a rating upgrade going forward,” he said.
The IMF board’s nod, Talreja said, would also send a signal to the international and local investors regarding the continuation of the reform agenda by Pakistan’s government.
