Islamabad: The basic structure of the Pakistan-Arab Federation — a non-government body aimed at improving Pakistan’s relations with Islamic countries, enhancing people-to-people contact and promoting cooperation in various fields — would be ready within two weeks, the Pakistani prime minister’s special adviser on religious harmony and the Middle East, Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi, said on Thursday.
Last month, Ashrafi said Pakistan had started work on setting up the “autonomous, non-government” Pakistan-Arab Federation in pursuance of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s policy to improve economic and strategic ties with Arab countries. In October last year, the government founded a specialized research center on the Middle East at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad.
“This initiative will be at the non-governmental level to improve ties with Arab Islamic countries at the public level,” Ashrafi told Arab News. “The purpose of this is to strengthen people-to-people contact between Pakistan and Arab countries. We want businessmen, religious scholars and intellectuals to meet with each other at different levels and play their role in improving ties.”
Ashrafi said the Pakistani government had discussed the idea of the federation with Arab diplomats in Pakistan as well as prominent figures in Arab countries: “Their response to this initiative is quite encouraging.”
He added: “Pak-Arab Federation will help strengthen economic, cultural and tourism-related cooperation.”
In an interview last month, Ashrafi said the forum would be an “autonomous non-governmental federation comprising businessmen, chambers of commerce, religious scholars, intellectuals, academicians, journalists and other professional bodies.”
The federation would also serve as an advisory body for the Pakistani government to help it boost Pakistan’s image in Arab countries, Ashrafi had said.
“This federation will also work as a crisis management forum to remove misconception which can hamper bilateral relations of Pakistan with any of the Arab countries,” he said, adding that it would act as a “back-channel diplomacy forum” to help to quickly resolve important issues through people-to-people contact.
The federation will also help Pakistan connect with the more than five million Pakistanis living in Arab countries, Ashrafi said, and “will work to facilitate our Arab brothers to improve their people-to-people contact with Pakistan.”
Basic structure of Pak-Arab Federation to be ready in two weeks — PM aide
https://arab.news/pj346
Basic structure of Pak-Arab Federation to be ready in two weeks — PM aide
- Federation will function as a non-government body comprising representatives of Pakistan and all major Arab nations
- Will promote people-to-people contact, help connect with more than five million Pakistanis living in Arab countries, Tahir Ashrafi says
Imran Khan’s party shutdown draws mixed response; government calls it ‘ineffective’
- Ex-PM Khan’s PTI party had called for a ‘shutter-down strike’ to protest Feb. 8, 2024 general election results
- While businesses reportedly remained closed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, they continued as normal elsewhere
ISLAMABAD: A nationwide “shutter-down strike” called by former prime minister Imran Khan’s party drew a mixed response in Pakistan on Sunday, underscoring political polarization in the country two years after a controversial general election.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PIT) opposition party had urged the masses to shut businesses across the country to protest alleged rigging on the second anniversary of the Feb. 8, 2024 general election.
Local media reported a majority of businesses remained closed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, governed by the PTI, while business continued as normal in other provinces as several trade associations distanced themselves from the strike call.
Arab News visited major markets in Islamabad’s G-6, G-9, I-8 and F-6 sectors, as well as commercial hubs in Rawalpindi, which largely remained operational on Sunday, a public holiday when shops, restaurants and malls typically remain open in Pakistan.
“Pakistan’s constitution says people will elect their representatives. But on 8th February 2024, people were barred from exercising their voting right freely,” Allama Raja Nasir Abbas Jafri, the PTI opposition leader in the Senate, said at a protest march near Islamabad’s iconic Faisal Mosque.
Millions of Pakistanis voted for national and provincial candidates during the Feb. 8, 2024 election, which was marred by a nationwide shutdown of cellphone networks and delayed results, leading to widespread allegations of election manipulation by the PTI and other opposition parties. The caretaker government at the time and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) both rejected the allegations.
Khan’s PTI candidates contested the Feb. 8 elections as independents after the party was barred from the polls. They won the most seats but fell short of the majority needed to form a government, which was made by a smattering of rival political parties led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The government insists the polling was conducted transparently and that Khan’s party was not denied a fair chance.
Authorities in the Pakistani capital deployed a heavy police contingent on the main road leading to the Faisal Mosque on Sunday. Despite police presence and the reported arrest of some PTI workers, Jafri led local PTI members and dozens of supporters who chanted slogans against the government at the march.
“We promise we will never forget 8th February,” Jafri said.
The PTI said its strike call was “successful” and shared videos on official social media accounts showing closed shops and markets in various parts of the country.
The government, however, dismissed the protest as “ineffective.”
“The public is fed up with protest politics and has strongly rejected PTI’s call,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on X.
“It’s Sunday, yet there is still hustle and bustle.”
Ajmal Baloch, All Pakistan Traders Association president, said they neither support such protest calls, nor prevent individuals from closing shops based on personal political affiliation.
“It’s a call from a political party and we do not close businesses on calls of any political party,” Baloch told Arab News.
“We only give calls of strike on issues related to traders.”
Khan was ousted from power in April 2022 after what is widely believed to be a falling out with the country’s powerful generals. The army denies it interferes in politics. Khan has been in prison since August 2023 and faces a slew of legal challenges that ruled him out of the Feb. 8 general elections and which he says are politically motivated to keep him and his party away from power.
In Jan. 2025, an accountability court convicted Khan and his wife in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust land corruption case, sentencing him to 14 years and her to seven years after finding that the trust was used to acquire land and funds in exchange for alleged favors. The couple denies any wrongdoing.
