ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Hassan Shoukry in New York on the sidelines of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday, with both leaders agreeing to enhance bilateral political exchanges.
Qureshi is leading Pakistan’s delegation at the UNGA, which Prime Minister Imran Khan will address virtually.
“(They) agreed to enhance the frequency of bilateral political exchanges to foster understanding between the leadership and eventually the peoples of our brotherly countries,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said about the Pakistani and Egyptian leaders’ meeting.
They agreed to remain in close contact to upgrade ties and discussed important developments in the Middle East, South Asia and Gulf region. Both leaders emphasized the importance of finding “peaceful solutions through diplomatic means.”
“Situation in Afghanistan also came under discussion between the two Foreign Ministers. Qureshi apprised his Egyptian counterpart about continued humanitarian support by Pakistan in several ways for their Afghan brethren through air and land routes,” the statement said.
Qureshi visited Cairo in February this year and met President El-Sisi.
Pakistani, Egyptian foreign ministers meet on UNGA sidelines
https://arab.news/2bh7c
Pakistani, Egyptian foreign ministers meet on UNGA sidelines
- Discuss finding peaceful solutions to crises in Middle East, South Asia
- Qureshi visited Cairo in February this year and met President El-Sisi
In a first, foreign minister replaces finance chief in Pakistan’s largest decision-making body
- The CCI decides matters like distribution of natural resources upon which there is disagreement between center, provinces
- Members of the council include four provincial chief ministers as well as foreign, defense and frontier regions ministers
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government this week constituted the Council of Common Interests (CCI), with the foreign minister replacing the finance chief in the decision-making body.
The CCI is a constitutional body and its members are appointed by the president on the advice of the prime minister. The council resolves power-sharing and other disputes between the federation and the provinces.
Members of the council include four provincial chief ministers, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, and State and Frontier Regions Minister Ameer Muqam, according to a government notification.
“In exercise of the powers conferred under Article 153 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the president, on the advice of the prime minister, has constituted the Council of Common Interests, with effect from 21st March,” read the notification dated March 25.
“This supersedes Secretariat of CCI’s notification of even number, dated 9th January.”
The CCI is the largest decision-making body in the country that decides matters like the distribution of natural resources, upon which there is a disagreement between the center and provinces.
The top forum is headed by the prime minister.
Pakistan official says China halts work on two projects after deadly attack
- The companies have demanded Pakistan authorities come up with new security plans before reopening the sites
- The security of Chinese workers, who are frequently targeted by militants, is a major concern to both countries
PESHAWAR: Chinese contractors have halted construction on two major dam projects in Pakistan after a suicide bomber killed five Chinese engineers and a Pakistani driver this week, a provincial official told AFP on Friday.
The companies have demanded that Pakistan authorities come up with new security plans before reopening the sites where around 1,250 Chinese nationals are working, the official said.
The security of Chinese workers is a major concern to both countries, with nationals frequently targeted by militants hostile to outside influence.
The workers were targeted on Tuesday by a suicide bomber who rammed into their vehicle on a mountainous road near one of the dam sites.
He detonated his explosives on impact, plunging their vehicle into a deep ravine.
A senior official from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa interior department told AFP on condition of anonymity that since Wednesday, China Gezhouba Group Company has halted work on the Dasu dam in the province and Power China has stopped work on Diamer Bhasha dam, which straddles two provinces.
“They have demanded new security plans from the government,” he said.
“Around 750 Chinese engineers are engaged in the Dasu Dam project, while 500 are working on the Diamer Bhasha Dam,” he added.
He said the movement of Chinese engineers has been restricted to the compounds where they live, close to the sites.
China has not commented, but this week repeatedly urged Pakistan to ensure the safety of its nationals.
Beijing is Islamabad’s closest regional ally, readily providing financial assistance to bail out its often-struggling neighbor.
China has inked more than two trillion dollars in contracts around the world under its Belt and Road investment scheme, with billions pouring into infrastructure projects in Pakistan.
But Pakistanis have long complained that they are not getting a fair share of jobs or wealth created by the projects.
Tuesday’s attack sparked a flurry of diplomatic activity at the Chinese embassy in Islamabad, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the foreign and interior ministers offering condolences in quick succession.
China’s foreign ministry declared the countries “iron-clad friends” but asked Pakistan to “take effective measures to ensure the safety and security of Chinese nationals, projects, and institutions.”
Tuesday’s attack came just days after militants attempted to storm offices of the Gwadar deepwater port in the southwest, considered a cornerstone of Chinese investment in Pakistan.
In 2019, gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Balochistan province overlooking the flagship Chinese-backed deepwater seaport in Gwadar that gives strategic access to the Arabian Sea — killing at least eight people.
In June 2020, Baloch insurgents targeted the Pakistan Stock Exchange, which is partly owned by Chinese companies, in the commercial capital of Karachi.
Pakistan reviewing proposal for resumption of trade with India — Foreign Office
- Pakistan suspended trade with India after New Delhi’s revocation of special autonomy of Indian-administered Kashmir in 2019
- The rift has since impacted businesses on both sides who previously traded in textiles, agricultural products and medical supplies
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Thursday it was reviewing a proposal from the business community to resume trade with India.
Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic relations and suspended bilateral trade with India after New Delhi’s revocation of the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019.
The geopolitical rift between the two countries has since impacted businesses on both sides who previously benefited from cross-border trade in textiles, agricultural products and medical supplies.
Speaking at a weekly press briefing, Foreign Office spokesperson referred to a statement by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and said the business community had expressed in review of trade with India.
“Examination of such proposals is a regular exercise in the Government of Pakistan, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where we continue to consider all such requests and assess our policy,” she said.
Baloch, however, clarified that there was no change in Pakistan’s position at present.
The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir has been a flashpoint between Pakistan and India since their independence from the British rule in 1947.
Both countries rule parts of the Himalayan territory, but claim it in full and have fought three wars over the disputed region.
Pakistan PM says modernizing revenue collection system to revive frail economy
- Pakistan is currently making efforts to introduce economic reforms under an IMF program that helped it avert a default last year
- Islamabad has expressed interest in a new program, expected to come with fiscal tightening measures, including increase in revenue
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday his government was working to modernize the country’s revenue collection system to revive the frail $350 billion South Asian economy, describing it as “top priority” of his administration.
Pakistan, which has been facing an economic meltdown, is making efforts to introduce structural reforms under a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program that helped it avert a sovereign default last year.
The country this month cleared second and final review of its $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program which would pave the way for the release of $1.1 billion after helping Islamabad avert a default in last June.
Islamabad has expressed its interest in securing a new loan under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program with the IMF, which is expected to come with fiscal tightening measures, including an increase in revenue.
“A plan is underway to modernize revenue collection system,” PM Sharif was quoted as saying by the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster.
“The Federal Board of Revenue is being fully digitized and efforts are afoot to increase the tax base.”
He said a “whole-of-government approach” was being adopted to check power theft that was worth billions of rupees, according to the report.
Privatization of government-owned enterprises, institutional reforms, internal and external investment and austerity were also the government’s priorities in this regard, he added.
‘Act of Devotion’: Pakistani artist turns worn Qur’anic pages into works of art
- 28-year-old visual artist Saad Mehmood began restoring Qur’an pages ready for ritual disposal as part of BA final-year thesis
- Renowned artists describe the effort as “positive,” say it is vital to expand ways in which we experience the holy book
LAHORE: For Saad Mehmood, it was a routine visit to a mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore for Friday prayers in 2017 when the then 22-year-old stumbled upon a store room with sheaves of paper stored carefully on a shelf.
The worn pages were fragments from everyday copies of the Qur’an, which were awaiting ritual disposal. In Pakistan, pages of the holy book that are disposed are often called shaheed, or martyred, copies.
In Islam, widely accepted methods of disposing worn pages of the holy book are to wrap them in a cloth and bury them, ideally in a mosque, or to burn them respectfully.
But Mehmood, at the time a final year student of fine arts at the Beaconhouse National University (BNU), was inspired by the worn copies and decided to restore them as part of his thesis.
“Saad asked for some of these pages that were torn or worn out, and started to restore the ordinary, mass-printed sheets with gold paper and the finest ink — bringing that which was ‘martyred’ back to life,” the artist’s statement accompanying an ongoing exhibition of his works in Lahore reads.
The effort is “an act of artistic devotion,” Mehmood told Arab News at the exhibition last week, saying all his work now revolved around restoring the holy pages and turning them into artforms.
“This work started in 2017,” Mehmood, now a 28-year-old visual artist, said. “I collect the pages of the Qur’an that are shaheed, then there’s an entire process to their restoration, I fill in the damaged parts so that the pages are readable again.”
Mehmood said he had done extensive research on damaged Qur’anic pages and what happened to them and where they went from storerooms of mosques and homes.
“I saw that they’re buried in graveyards, or floated in clean and flowing water. Sometimes, I even saw the pages being burned and their ashes buried in some corner of a graveyard,” he explained.
This got Mehmood thinking: instead of disposing of the sacred texts, he could restore them.
The process of restoration was a difficult one, as many Qur’an pages Mehmood came across had no references.
“When we open these [Qur’anic] collections… there are [some] smaller pages which don’t have any references [which ayat, surah, what page number],” he said. “So, this was a conundrum… how do I restore them when there’s no reference to work with?“
Mehmood decided to make a collage of such pages.
“So, at least they are still visible, still accessible,” he said. “So, we don’t accidentally disrespect the words, they will remain in front of our eyes, and then turn them into art to be appreciated.”
Mehmood has also visited multiple religious scholars to present his idea and his work.
“There are a lot of organizations in Pakistan like Tahaffuz-e-Auraq [who dispose of pages in the prescribed manner],” Mehmood said. “I restored them and then I started showing people that basically this is the work I’m doing.”
The idea found wide acceptability, he said.
“GOLD LEAF”
The ongoing exhibition in Lahore, organized by the Pakistan Art Forum, includes collages of restored Qur’anic fragments, concentric circles around Islamic calligraphy, decorative additions like gold leaves, and paintings with Arabic diacritics on Vasli and white paper. And this is all by design.
Mehmood said he wants to further explore this Islamic art form and create something new, like his painting of the diacritics without any words, or of punctuation marks without any sentences.
“The Qur’an came to us from Arabia, and the diacritics were added later, so that non-native Arabic speakers [Ajmi] could understand the text,” he said. “[Helping] in how to pronounce and enunciate it, zeir, zabr, that is also something I’ve worked on, and will continue to work on.”
There is also a reason why Mehmood uses gold leaf so often.
“When you look at my work… I have used gold leaf on the shaheed [damaged] Qur’anic pages,” he said.
“I used that gold leaf specifically and consciously, because gold is considered a divine material. And where the words are missing, pages torn, I’ve also used gold leaf to show the preciousness of the lost words, using a precious material.”
“EXPAND WAYS TO EXPERIENCE QUR’AN”
The visual artist has held a number of group exhibitions at the Alhamra Arts Center in Lahore and Sanat Gallery in the southern port city of Karachi. Last week, he held his second solo show in Lahore, titled Al-Qadr, referring to the night when Muslims believe the Qur’an was first revealed.
While most of the visitors to the Lahore exhibition said they had come out of curiosity, they left with admiration for the intricate work and beautiful calligraphy or collage technique that Mehmood uses.
“Calligraphy is a part of [what I do], but this is something else [entirely],” he explained. “You can call it a collage. You can call it an installation. You can call it painting, you can call it artwork.”
Shahid Rassam, a famous Pakistani painter and sculptor, described Mehmood work as “positive,” saying he had seen other works, though rare, in which worn Qur’an pages were restored as a form of art.
Rassam, who has himself made contemporary forms of the Qur’an, including one in which he used metal engravings, said it was “vital to expand the ways in which we experience the sacred text, even as art installations.”
“I think what this young man [Saad Mehmood] is doing is objectively a positive thing,” the artist said. “He’s taking sacred pages and giving them their rightful respect, instead of just letting them lie in poorly-kept stores and boxes.”