ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday arrived in Saudi Arabia to participate in an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Executive Committee on Aug. 7 to discuss Israel’s ongoing war in Palestine, the Pakistani foreign office said.
The meeting was convened on requests by Palestine and Iran to discuss the ongoing Israeli aggression against Palestine and other regional states. At least 39,550 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli military campaign in Gaza triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year.
Upon arrival at the Madinah airport, FM Dar was received by Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Ahmad Farooq, and Saudi foreign ministry director-general in Madinah, Ibrahim bin Muhammad Saeed Al-Sobhi, according to the Pakistani foreign office.
“As one of the staunchest supporters of the Palestinian cause, Pakistan has always been at the forefront in raising its voice at all international fora, including the OIC,” the foreign office said in a statement.
Dar would use the meeting to present Pakistan’s “serious concerns about the dire situation in Gaza and the wider Middle East region,” according to the foreign office.
“He will emphasize the urgency of peace and provision of relief assistance to the people of Gaza,” it said. “On the sidelines, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other OIC member states.”
Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters” and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, Pakistan has repeatedly raised the issue at the United Nations, the OIC and other multilateral platforms and demanded international powers and bodies stop Israeli military actions in Gaza. The South Asian country has also dispatched several aid consignments for the Palestinians.
Pakistani FM arrives in Saudi Arabia to attend special OIC meeting on Palestine
https://arab.news/gz58g
Pakistani FM arrives in Saudi Arabia to attend special OIC meeting on Palestine
- Meeting convened by State of Palestine and Iran to discuss ‘Israeli aggression against Palestine and other regional states’
- Dar will use OIC meeting to present Pakistan’s ‘serious concerns about dire situation in Gaza and wider Middle East region’
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.
