Pakistan defense minister says ex-spymaster Faiz Hameed involved in ‘political’ events post-retirement

In this file photo, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif speaks during a joint press conference with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Afghanistan's Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani after the first China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers' Dialogue in Beijing on Dec. 26, 2017. (AFP/File)
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Updated 13 August 2024
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Pakistan defense minister says ex-spymaster Faiz Hameed involved in ‘political’ events post-retirement

  • Pakistan army has arrested, started court martial of Hameed on extortion, land grabbing allegations leveled by housing society’s owner
  • Defense minister says the former DG ISI may have acted as a “strategic adviser” during May 9 riots by alleged supporters of ex-PM Khan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has said former spymaster Lt. Gen. (retired) Faiz Hameed was involved in political events after his retirement, hours after the military announced it had arrested him and initiated court martial proceedings.

The Pakistan army’s media wing said on Monday the military had held a detailed inquiry against Hameed, a former chief of Pakistan’s premier Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency, in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court on a petition filed by the management of the Top City housing society, which alleged extortion and land grabbing, among other charges, saying the ex-DG ISI had “misused” his office. 

The army said other than the Top City case, multiple instances of violation of the Pakistan Army Act post-retirement had also been established against Hameed.

Speaking on the matter to Geo News on Tuesday night, Defense Minister Asif said the former general was interfering in politics after his retirement from the army in December 2022.

“General Faiz was definitely involved in the events that took place in the political scene post his retirement,” Asif told a private news channel on Monday night. 

When asked about reports that Hameed was involved in May 9 riots last year by supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the minister said it was a possibility. 

“He might have provided a little bit of logistics and provided his experience of conspiracies and may have defined targets [for protesters] to inflict maximum damage,” Asif said. “You can say he might have had the role of a strategic adviser in the May 9 [attacks]. I can’t say with certainty, but the events and circumstances point toward him.”

Alleged supporters of ex-PM Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party attacked and damaged government and military installations on May 9, 2023, after his brief arrest that day in a graft case. The attacks took place a little over a year after Khan fell out with Pakistan’s powerful military, blaming the institution for colluding with his rivals to oust him from office in a parliamentary vote in April 2022. The military rejects the allegations.

Hundreds of PTI workers and leaders were arrested following the May 9 riots and some continue to remain behind bars as they await trial. The military has also initiated army court trials of at least 103 people accused of involvement in the violence. 

Throughout his tenure as DG ISI from June 2019 till October 2021, Hameed was widely seen as being close to then prime minister Imran Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023 on a slew of charges that he says are politically motivated. Many of Khan’s closest associates are in jail or have left his party since last year. 

In the past, Hameed was also accused by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of bringing down the government of his elder brother, Nawaz Sharif, in 2017. The PML-N alleges Hameed worked with then opposition leader Khan to plot Nawaz’s ouster through a series of court cases, culminating in the Supreme Court’s disqualifying of him from office in 2017 for failing to disclose income and ordering a criminal investigation into his family over corruption allegations.

Investigations against senior officers of the all-powerful army are extremely rare in Pakistan, where the military has ruled for almost half of the country’s history and wields extraordinary power even during periods of civilian rule.

Last month, a retired army officer, Lt. Col. Akbar Hussain, was convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison for “inciting sedition among army personnel,” according to the Pakistani military.


Pakistan decries Israel’s ‘genocidal designs’ against Palestine as 40 killed in strikes on tent camp

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Pakistan decries Israel’s ‘genocidal designs’ against Palestine as 40 killed in strikes on tent camp

  • Israeli strikes blasted a huge crater in a designated safe zone in southern Gaza before dawn on Tuesday
  • More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the latest round of the war in Gaza that began on Oct. 7 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday “strongly” condemned predawn Israeli airstrikes in a designated safe zone in southern Gaza earlier this week, saying the attacks demonstrated a disregard for human life and Israel’s “genocidal designs” against the Palestinian people.
At least 40 Palestinians were killed in the airstrikes on the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone in Gaza on Tuesday, setting tents ablaze and burying Palestinian families under sand. 
The Israeli military said it had struck a command center for Hamas fighters it said had infiltrated the designated “humanitarian” area in Al-Mawasi, a vast camp on sandy soil where the military has told hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to shelter since ordering them out of their homes. Hamas denied any fighters were present.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the air strikes by Israeli occupation forces on the Al Mawasi Humanitarian Zone in Khan Younis, Gaza, on September 10, which claimed the lives of 40 civilians,” foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at a media briefing. 
“Executed in an area designated as a safe zone for displaced persons by the Israeli occupation forces themselves constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. The carnage in Khan Younis without prior warning and in defiance of basic protections demonstrates a disregard for human life and Israel’s genocidal designs against the Palestinian people.”
Baloch called on the UN Security Council to play its role in preventing Israeli forces from continuing with their “genocidal campaign” against the Palestinian people and holding them accountable for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
The latest round of the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7 after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures. Israel’s Gaza campaign has since demolished swathes of the enclave, displaced nearly all of its 2.3 million people multiple times, given rise to deadly hunger and disease and killed more than 40,500 people.
The two warring sides each blame the other for a failure so far to reach a ceasefire that would end the fighting and see the release of hostages. 
Nearly all of Gaza’s people have been forced from their homes at least once and some have had to flee as many as 10 times.


Pakistan commits to maritime decarbonization, environmentally friendly ship recycling at Islamabad summit

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Pakistan commits to maritime decarbonization, environmentally friendly ship recycling at Islamabad summit

  • UN maritime chief is in Pakistan on first-ever visit as Islamabad hosts International Maritime Sustainability Conference
  • Pakistan says ready to work with global organizations to promote ship making, ship recycling and the blue economy

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday pledged to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the global maritime sector, make greater use of green technology to improve ships’ energy efficiency and carry out more environmentally friendly ship recycling, as the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) arrived in Islamabad to attend the International Maritime Sustainability Exhibition and Conference (IMSEC).
This is the first-ever visit to Pakistan by the chief of the IMO, a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating shipping and ensuring maritime safety, environmental protection and security on international waters. Established in 1948, its primary role is to develop and maintain a comprehensive regulatory framework for shipping, which includes standards for safety, pollution prevention and legal matters surrounding global maritime operations.
“Pakistan fully complies with IMO regulation,” Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh said at the opening session of Thursday’s conference. 
“We are striving to reduce the global [carbon] footprint and make greater use of green technology. Such measures must be taken in every institution to deal with climate change.”
The minister said Pakistan was invested in ensuring the protection of biodiversity and the oceans and would work to make ship recycling “safe and environmentally friendly.”
“We are ready to work with global organizations to promote ship making, ship recycling and the blue economy,” Sheikh added.
Addressing the conference, IMO chief Arsenio Antonio Dominguez Velasco said his visit to Pakistan would give him the opportunity to “come back in the future and assess and evaluate all the promises and the conversations and the challenges that we are going to put toward each other, from Pakistan government as well as from IMO in order to work better in the different aspects of shipping.”
He said he looked forward to working with Pakistan on decarbonization and ship recycling, where Pakistan is one of the leading nations in the world.
In a statement shared with media on Wednesday, the foreign office said Velasco’s visit would afford an opportunity for Pakistan and the IMO to exchange views on the maritime sector and the blue economy:
“As a founding member of IMO, Pakistan is deeply committed to IMO’s vision of safe, secure and efficient shipping on clean oceans … Pakistan has served for five terms on the IMO Council and has consistently contributed in upholding the IMO objectives.”
The foreign office said Velasco would be in Pakistan from September 12 to 14 and would hold meetings with Pakistani leaders and senior government officials.
He is scheduled to attend IMSEC, which began in Islamabad on Thursday and will continue in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi over the next two days.


Pakistan cancer survivors turn to art for healing and hope

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Pakistan cancer survivors turn to art for healing and hope

  • Two-day exhibition at PNCA in Islamabad featured work by nine cancer survivors 
  • In Asia, Pakistan regionally represents the most significant breast cancer rate

ISLAMABAD: Fatima Salman, a 43-year-old miniature painter, found solace in art after being diagnosed with cancer in 2019, using her brush and canvas as therapy to overcome the disease and paint her way to healing. 
Nearly five years later, she curated the two-day Connecting Dots art exhibition at the Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) this week, featuring the work of nine cancer survivors whose techniques range from oil, watercolors, mixed media and calligraphy.
Cancer has become a growing burden in Pakistan in recent years, posing a significant cause for concern. An International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report in 2021 says the proportion of newly diagnosed cancers is 0.18 million in Pakistan, the number of cancer fatalities is 0.11 million, and the number of prevalent cases (5 year) is 0.32 million. In Asia, Pakistan regionally represents the most significant breast cancer rate, with one out of nine women now having a lifetime risk of the disease. Pakistan also has one of the highest breast cancer mortality rates globally.
“Initially, after my diagnosis, I had taken a little break from painting,” Salman, who graduated from Lahore’s renowned National College of Arts in 2001, told Arab News at the exhibition. 

Pakistani artist Fatima Salman gestures as she displays her artworks during the two-day Connecting Dots art exhibition at the Pakistan National Council of Arts on September 11, 2024. (AN Photo)

“But soon I felt a void … So, that’s when I thought that I don’t have much time, and I have so much work to do. So, I started painting, that was my therapy.”
Even after her recovery from stage four metastatic cancer, Salman said her creative work proved vital for her to open a new chapter of hope in her life.
“As I went through all the life-changing challenges, I thought that I could not be the only one going through this,” she added. 
Salman then started looking for other cancer survivors interested in exhibiting their artwork.
“The basic idea is to create a platform for artists who can just come together and voice their feelings through art,” she said about the exhibition this week, which also saw the launch of a deeply personal memoir, My Cancer Journey, by Shirin Gheba Najib.

Pakistani artist Shirin Gheba Najib speaks to former Pakistani culture minister, Jamal Shah, during the two-day Connecting Dots art exhibition at the Pakistan National Council of Arts on September 11, 2024. (AN Photo)

A 70-year-old retired school principal, Najib said painting had always been a “constant” in her life since she completed her first oil painting at the age of 12 but she had to put her passion on hold when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021.
Weakened by the illness and the relentless trips to the hospital, she found refuge in writing instead. 
“I used to take my laptop to chemotherapy as each session used to take six to eight hours, where [one could] write very freely,” Najib told Arab News. 
The articles crafted while battling for her life became the foundation for the newly launched book and also gave Najib the impetus to go back to painting. 
“Now that I’m completely out of cancer, which was within 15 months, now I’ve started painting again,” she said with a smile.
Speaking to Arab News, another artist, Ambreen Rashid Khan, reflected her newfound appreciation for life following her battle with stage 4 breast cancer, diagnosed four years ago. 
“It’s strange,” the 65-year-old retired schoolteacher said. “You take life for granted until something like this happens. After that you learn that your time is short. So that is it, I love color and I love happiness.”
Khan said she started painting flowers in bright colors after her recovery as a display of her “gratitude and happiness.” 
Experimenting with both oil and watercolors, she said her aim was to paint life and nature itself.
Asked about her ambition, she said that she wanted to “leave something behind” as her legacy but also to live out the rest of her days “in happiness.”
Sixty-year-old Nafisa Ather, an Islamic calligrapher, also said painting became her biggest source of solace when she was diagnosed with cancer.
“Cancer struck me [and] the thing which I didn’t have in me before was the fear that you are going to die,” she told Arab News. “And I just felt that I still have to fulfill some of my responsibilities, which have not been fulfilled. So, I think that gave me courage.”
Painting had helped her fight her fear of death, Ather said. 
“You are creating something, you are making something and actually you forget your fear. That’s the beauty of it.
“Don’t give up on life,” she added. “If you give up, you’ll lose the battle. You have to believe you will survive.”


CM of Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan says will hold direct talks with Kabul on militancy

Updated 12 September 2024
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CM of Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan says will hold direct talks with Kabul on militancy

  • Islamabad says it has consistently taken up the issue of cross-border attacks with Kabul
  • Over 75 policemen have been killed in ambushes, target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, said this week he would hold direct talks with Kabul to take action against Afghanistan-based militant groups that Islamabad says launch attacks inside Pakistan.
Pakistan has seen a rise in militant attacks in recent weeks, with many of them taking place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where groups like the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have stepped up attacks, daily targeting security forces convoys and check posts, and carrying out targeted killings and kidnappings of law enforcers and government officials.
Over 75 policemen have been killed in ambushes and target killings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2024, according to police data. In the latest killing, unidentified gunmen on Thursday shot dead a policeman in Domail, a town on the outskirts of Bannu district. Police, joined by representatives of civil society and political parties as well as tribal elders and members of the public, are currently holding protests in a number of districts of the province against the spike in militancy and attacks on officers.
Islamabad says militants mainly associated with the TTP frequently launch attacks from hideouts in neighboring Afghanistan, targeting police and other security forces. Islamabad has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers for facilitating anti-Pakistan militants. Kabul denies the charges.
“My [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] police has lost trust, my people have lost trust, where are you [federal government, army] taking my youth, my people?” Gandapur said as he addressed a ceremony on Wednesday evening.
“I am saying let me send a representative to Afghanistan to talk to them. Afghanistan is our neighbor, we speak the same language, we have a longer than 1,200 km border. Let me talk to them that what is happening in Afghanistan.
“I announce here … I will talk to Afghanistan myself, I will talk to them as a province. I am telling you as the representative of this province, I will send an emissary and arrange a meeting, I will sit with them and talk and Inshallah I will solve this issue through talks.”
Islamabad says it has consistently taken up the issue of cross-border attacks with the Taliban administration, which denies allowing Afghan soil to be used for attacks.
The matter has led to clashes between the border forces of the two countries on multiple occasions in recent months, including on Sunday when security forces in Pakistan killed eight Afghan Taliban fighters in a border clash following what Islamabad described as “unprovoked firing” on Pakistani checkpoints.


Pakistan register 2-1 win against Japan in Hockey Asian Champions Trophy match

Updated 12 September 2024
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Pakistan register 2-1 win against Japan in Hockey Asian Champions Trophy match

  • Tournament started on Sunday with six continental heavyweights going head-to-head in China
  • Six nations participating are India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Japan, Pakistan and hosts China

ISLAMABAD: Unbeaten Pakistan bagged their first victory in the Hero Asian Champions Trophy by beating Japan 2-1 here at the Moqi Hockey Training Base in Hulun Buir, China, on Wednesday, the International Hockey Federation (IHF) said.
From the Pakistan side, Ahmad Nadeem and Sufyan Khan netted one goal each while Japan’s Raiki Fujishima scored one goal. Pakistan will now lock horns with host China tomorrow, Friday. 
“We are happy to walk away with the winning points,” Khan was quoted as saying in an IHF statement. 
“Our Coach’s instructions was to not make errors, in the first two matches we got too many cards that cost us dearly. We wanted to play a disciplined match today and we defended with all our heart. I am also happy to score for my team when we needed it the most.”
With this win, Pakistan is placed second in the pool standings with five points behind India on the top. The much-awaited India vs Pakistan match of the tournament will be played on September 14.
The championship started on Sunday with six continental heavyweights going head-to-head at the Moqi Training Base.
The six nations participating in the Asian Champion Trophy 2024 are India, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Japan Pakistan and hosts China.
India are the most successful side in the Asian Champions Trophy, having won it four times. They enter the 2024 edition as the defending champions, having beaten Malaysia 4-3 in the final in Chennai last year.