KARACHI: The provincial government of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Sunday signed over 40 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) at Expo 2020 Dubai that would bring foreign investment worth $8 billion home, the KP investment board and officials said. 
Described as “the event of the century,” the expo kicked off in October, bringing together representatives from more than 190 countries. The exhibition is the largest global gathering since the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic and will run until April 2022. 
Pakistan’s pavilion at the expo has been highlighting investment opportunities, tourism potential and cultural magnificence of the country. In January, its highlight is the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 
Foreign firms and investors expressed their keen interest in various projects in tourism, industrial, infrastructure, food processing, livestock, energy and power sectors, and a water sports theme park in KP’s Swabi district at an investment conference at Expo Dubai on Sunday. 
“International firms have signed 44 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth $8 billion during the Expo 2020 Dubai,” KP finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra said, while addressing attendees at the conference. 
Jhagra said the KP government had presented these projects in a better way. “For the promotion of tourism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the government is presenting ready projects at the expo for investment,” he said. 

KP had vast investment opportunities in tourism, energy and power, infrastructure and other sectors, according to the minister. The Swat Expressway was built under a public-private partnership and now it was being extended to other cities to boost trade and economy, he said. 
Among the attendees at the conference were chief executive officers (CEOs) of the Samara Group, Mazaya Group (EGI), Jannat & AJ Group, Almasa Group and a number of Dubai-based and international investors, who expressed their willingness to invest in various tourism projects in the northwestern Pakistani province. 
“Investment groups that have signed MoUs include Enertech-Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP), Private Office of Sheikh Ahmed Dalmook-Al-Maktoum, Samara Group, VR Group, Sigma Group, Malik Foams, Nobel Future Land & many others,” KP chief minister Mahmood Khan said on Twitter. 
“Investments in the development of food processing zones, integrated tourism zones (ITZ), Solarization of Economic Zones, Construction of Transmission Lines across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will help in transforming KP by creating economic opportunities and increase in employment.” 

 Jhagra said his government had planned to establish an Overseas Pakistan Council to facilitate investors, saying the process was currently in the legislation stage. The KP government had established a special economic zone (SEZ) in Rashakai and that people were now coming to invest in the province, he added. 
KP culture minister Shaukat Yousafzai said the province had a huge potential for investment and these agreements would help increase the flow of foreign investment into the province. 

Shahab Ali Shah, the KP additional chief secretary, said only those projects were presented at the expo, whose feasibility reports were complete and only investors were needed. 
“The government is ready to provide a one-window facility to investors,” he added. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday called on the international community, particularly the United Nations and international human rights groups, to hold India accountable for its “unabated harassment and illegal arrests” of journalists, human rights defenders and civil society activists in India-administered Kashmir. 
Journalists have increasingly voiced concerns about harassment and threats by the police that have effectively restricted reporting after India revoked Kashmir’s semi-autonomy and divided the region under its control into two federally governed territories in 2019. Many journalists have been arrested, beaten, harassed and sometimes investigated under antiterrorism laws. 
On Saturday, a group of journalists, with the alleged help of local administration, forced their way into the Kashmir Press Club’s (KPC) administration office in Srinagar and announced themselves “interim” KPC office-bearers, prompting condemnations from independent journalist bodies in India. 
Pakistan condemned the “increasing harassment, illegal arrests and registration of fake criminal cases” against journalists and civil society activists in India-administered Kashmir, the Pakistani foreign office said. 
“The reported attack on Kashmir Press Club yesterday manifestly reflects India’s entrenched use of brute force and coercion to forcibly silence those raising voices against its horrendous crimes and egregious human rights violations,” it said in a statement. 
“Equally condemnable is the increasing use of draconian and inhumane laws including Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Public Safety Act (PSA) and Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) with impunity in IIOJK (Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir), which reflects India’s colonial mindset.” 
On Sunday, the Editors Guild of India, a non-partisan association of editorial leaders committed to free, fair and independent journalism, said it was “aghast at the manner in which the office and the management of Kashmir Press Club, the largest journalists’ association in the Valley, was forcibly taken over by a group of journalists with the help of armed policemen on January 15, 2022.” 

Earlier this month, Indian soldiers picked up a Kashmiri journalist, Sajjad Gul, from his home in northeastern Shahgund village and later handed him over to the police, his family said. He had posted a video of family members and relatives protesting the killing of a rebel commander on Monday. 
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said it was “deeply disturbed” by the arrest of Gul and asked Indian authorities to immediately release him. 
India’s decision to strip the region of its special powers in August 2019 brought journalism to a near halt in Kashmir for months. India began implementing a policy in 2020 that gives the government more power to censure independent reporting. 
Fearing reprisals from government agencies, most of the local press has wilted under pressure. Journalists have also come under scrutiny through anonymous online threats the government says are linked to rebels fighting against Indian rule. 
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim it in full. 
Since 1989, a full-blown armed rebellion has raged in Indian-controlled Kashmir seeking a united Kashmir — either under Pakistani rule or independent of both countries. 
The region is one of the most heavily militarized in the world. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.