PESHAWAR: Pakistani police have arrested a cleric after a video of him went viral on social media, in which he threatens Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai over her recent comments about marriage, officials said Thursday.
The cleric, Mufti Sardar Ali Haqqani, was arrested in Lakki Marwat, a district in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on Wednesday, said Waseem Sajjad, a local police chief.
In the video, the cleric threatens to target Malala with a suicide attack when she returns to Pakistan, allegedly because of her comments earlier this month to British Vogue magazine about marriage that he claims insulted Islam.
Yousafzai has been living in Britain since 2012, after the Pakistani Taliban shot and seriously wounded her. She was just 15 years old at the time and had enraged the Taliban with her campaign for girls' education.
At one point in the Vogue interview, Malala says: “I still don’t understand why people have to get married. If you want to have a person in your life, why do you have to sign marriage papers, why can’t it just be a partnership?”
The remark caused a stir on social media in Pakistan and angered clerics like Haqqani. Under Islamic laws, couples cannot live together outside marriage.
Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, defended her on Twitter, saying her remarks were taken out of context.
Malala, now 23, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for working to protect children from slavery, extremism, and child labor. She briefly visited Pakistan in 2018.
She remains highly popular in Pakistan but is also widely criticized by hard-liners.
In February, Malala's 2012 attacker threatened a second attempt on her life, tweeting that next time, “there would be no mistake.” Twitter subsequently permanently suspended the account with the menacing post.
The threat prompted Yousafzai to tweet herself, asking both the Pakistani military and Prime Minister Imran Khan to explain how her alleged shooter, Ehsanullah Ehsan, had escaped from government custody.
Ehsan was arrested in 2017 but escaped in January 2020 from a so-called safe house where he was being held by Pakistan’s intelligence agency. The circumstances of both his arrest and escape have been shrouded in mystery and controversy.
Pakistani police arrests cleric over threats to kill Malala
https://arab.news/99p4k
Pakistani police arrests cleric over threats to kill Malala
- The cleric, Mufti Sardar Ali Haqqani, was arrested in Lakki Marwat
- He had threatened to target Malala with a suicide attack when she returns to Pakistan
Pakistan increases Reko Diq investment to $244 million as Barrick reviews project
- State-owned PPL injects $50.2 million more in special purpose vehicle formed to manage Islamabad’s 25 percent stake in copper-gold mine
- Canadian operator Barrick Mining Corporation this month ordered project’s review following deadly separatist attacks in Balochistan province
KARACHI: The state-run Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has invested an additional Rs14 billion ($50.2 million) equity in the multi-billion-dollar Reko Diq copper-gold mine, the company said in its latest financial report on Thursday, as the project’s Canadian operator reviews the project following recently deadly attacks.
Canada’s Barrick Mining Corporation owns a 50 percent share in Reko Diq in the southwestern Balochistan province, along with three Pakistani federal state-owned enterprises including PPL that own 25 percent, while the Balochistan government has the remaining 25 percent share in the project.
The Canadian company announced earlier this month it planned to “immediately” begin a comprehensive review of all aspects of the Reko Diq project following coordinated attacks in Balochistan on Jan. 30-31 that killed 36 civilians and 22 security forces personnel.
“With respect to the Reko Diq project, the company has made further equity investment in Pakistan Minerals Private Limited (PMPL) during the period amounting to Rs14,025 million ($50.2m),” PPL told its shareholders in its financial statement for the half year ending at Dec. 31.
The additional equity has increased PPL’s total cost of investment in the PMPL to Rs68.1 billion ($243.6 million), it added.
The PMPL is a special purpose vehicle formed to manage the federal government’s 25 percent stake in the Reko Diq project. It is a consortium of three state-owned enterprises (SOEs) namely the PPL, the Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and Government Holdings (Private) Limited (GHPL) which is responsible for handling financing, equity contributions and strategic, legal or technical dealings with partners like Barrick.
“The project continued to advance site works during the period (July-December FY26),” the PPL said. “The operator (Barrick) is undertaking a review of all aspects of the project, including with respect to the project’s security arrangements, development timetable and capital budget.”
This week, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti assured investors that Pakistan has the “capacity and capability” to secure the Reko Diq project amid surging militancy.
The PPL explores, drills, and produces oil and natural gas. Its current portfolio, together with its subsidiaries and associates, consists of 47 exploratory blocks that include one offshore Block-5 in Abu Dhabi and one onshore block in Yemen.
In December, PPL signed a strategic Deed of Assignment under which it assigned 25 percent of its participating interest (PI) and operatorship of Eastern Offshore Indus C block to Turkish Petroleum Overseas Company, a unit of state-owned Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı.
Assigning 20 percent PI each to OGDCL and Mari Energies Limited, the company has retained the remaining 35 percent PI to play a key role in the block’s development.
