ISLAMABAD: Global commodities trader Gunvor Group has expressed its “keen” interest in investing in Pakistan’s petroleum sector, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said on Monday.
The statement came after Sharif’s meeting with Gunvor Group Chairman Torbjorn Tornqvist and Total Energies Vice President Oceania & Southeast Asia Mehmet Celepoglu
During the meeting, the prime minister highlighted the rapid reforms that were underway to increase investment and business activities in Pakistan, according to PM Sharif’s office.
“Chairman Torbjorn Tornqvist expressed the Gunvor Group’s keen interest in investment in the petroleum sector of Pakistan,” it said in a statement.
The prime minister was informed that the Gunvor Group had signed an agreement in August to acquire 50 percent shares of Total Parco Pakistan Limited, a subsidiary of French oil giant Total Energies.
A joint venture between Total Energies and Pak-Arab Refinery Limited in Pakistan, Total PARCO Pakistan Limited has a retail network of more than 800 service stations and is involved in fuel logistics and lubricants.
“The prime minister directed the relevant authorities to provide all possible facilities to the Gunvor Group,” Sharif’s office said.
Since avoiding a default last year, Islamabad has been making attempts to boost foreign investment and trade to drive economic growth in the South Asian country.
In recent months, Pakistan has reached multiple investment deals with a number of countries, mainly the Gulf states, in infrastructure, energy, maritime, ports and other sectors.
Pakistan says global commodities trader Gunvor Group ‘keen’ to invest in petroleum sector
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Pakistan says global commodities trader Gunvor Group ‘keen’ to invest in petroleum sector
- Last month, Gunvor Group signed an agreement to acquire 50 percent shares of Pakistan’s Total Parco oil marketing company
- PM Shehbaz Sharif informs Gunvor Group chairman of reforms undertaken to increase foreign investment in Pakistan
Pakistan says it is targeting militant infrastructure in Afghanistan as Kabul threatens to hit Islamabad
- Ata Tarar says Pakistan is carrying out ‘precise intelligence-based operations’ to avoid civilian casualties
- Afghan defense minister says the underlying dispute between the two sides is over the ‘Durand Line’ border
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Saturday it was conducting intelligence-based operations against militant infrastructure inside Afghanistan while attempting to avoid civilian casualties, as a senior Afghan Taliban official warned Kabul could retaliate by targeting Islamabad if Pakistani forces struck the Afghan capital.
The escalating rhetoric comes as cross-border fighting between the two neighbors intensifies following clashes that began last month when Afghan forces launched attacks on Pakistani military installations along the frontier. Kabul said the assault was retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes targeting what Islamabad called militant camps inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s defense minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said last week the situation had effectively become “open war” between the two countries.
“Pakistan is only targeting terrorist infrastructures and support system with precise intelligence based operations ensuring no collateral damage takes place,” Pakistan’s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said in a statement.
He challenged the recent claims made by an Afghan defense ministry spokesperson earlier this week who said his country was making significant battlefield gains against Pakistan including the killing of 109 soldiers and the capture or destruction of 14 military posts in large scale attacks.
“These so called attacks by Afghan Taliban in coordination with FAK [Fitna Al Khawarij] Terrorists once again confirm the nexus of Afghan Taliban regime and multiple terrorist organizations operating from within their territory,” Tarar continued. “All such attempts are responded to, immediately and effectively with severe retributive punishment that is swift, precise and effective.”
“The imaginary numbers being floated by Afghan Taliban regime are however not worth any serious comment,” he added.
Tarar said Pakistan’s military campaign — described as Operation Ghazb Lil Haq — had inflicted heavy losses on Afghan Taliban forces.
According to figures shared by the minister, 527 Taliban fighters had been killed and more than 755 injured since the clashes began, while 237 check posts were destroyed and 38 captured and destroyed. He said 205 tanks, armored vehicles and artillery guns were destroyed and 62 locations across Afghanistan had been targeted by air strikes.
Arab News could not independently verify the claims made by either side.
CIVILIAN CASUALTIES
Earlier this week, the United Nations raised concern over the toll of the escalating conflict on civilians.
UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Friday that 56 Afghan civilians — nearly half of them children — had been killed since hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan intensified.
However, Tarar questioned the UN findings, saying its assertions appeared to rely heavily on information provided by Taliban authorities and did not adequately reflect independently verified intelligence.
“Pakistan categorically reiterates that all counter-terrorism operations conducted by its security forces are carried out with the highest degree of precision, professionalism, and responsibility,” he said.
Islamabad has long accused the Taliban government of allowing militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), to operate from Afghan soil, a charge Kabul denies.
“Operations are meticulously planned so that civilian areas remain completely safe,” the minister said. “The locations targeted are remote terrorist hideouts and facilities far removed from populated zones, including sensitive areas such as Kabul’s Green Zone.”
AFGHAN WARNING
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob issued a warning to Pakistan in remarks circulated by Afghan broadcaster TOLOnews.
“If Kabul lacks peace, there will be no peace in Islamabad. If Kabul is attacked, Islamabad will be attacked,” Yaqoob said in a promotional clip of an interview shared on social media.
Yaqoob rejected Pakistan’s justification that the presence of the TTP in Afghanistan warranted military action and suggested the underlying dispute was over the contested “Durand Line” border between the two countries.
So far, there has been no official response from Pakistan to Yaqoob’s remarks.
