Half a million Afghans return from Pakistan in four months — IOM 

Half a million Afghans return from Pakistan in four months — IOM 
This photo taken on November 23, 2023 shows Afghan refugee on a truck after visiting the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Azakhel Voluntary Repatriation Centre in Nowshera, Pakistan. (AFP/File)
Short Url
Updated 22 January 2024
Follow

Half a million Afghans return from Pakistan in four months — IOM 

Half a million Afghans return from Pakistan in four months — IOM 
  • Islamabad ordered undocumented migrants, mostly Afghans, to leave by Nov. 1 or face arrest
  • 500,200 Afghans left Pakistan between Sept. 15, 2023 to Jan. 13, 2024, UN migration agency says

KABUL: More than 500,000 Afghans have fled Pakistan in the four months since Islamabad ordered undocumented migrants to leave or face arrest, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Monday. 

According to the latest figures reported by the UN migration agency, 500,200 Afghans left Pakistan between September 15, 2023 and January 13, 2024. 

Most rushed to the border in the days leading up to a November 1 exit deadline Islamabad set for the 1.7 million Afghans it said were living illegally in Pakistan, and as police opened dozens of holding centers. 

“Since the initial peak around November 1, the number of individuals crossing these official border points have consistently decreased but remains higher than pre-September 15th,” an IOM statement said. 

Pakistan defended the crackdown by pointing to security concerns in its regions bordering Afghanistan and pressure on its struggling economy. 

“Some Afghans forced to return may be at risk of persecution, arbitrary arrest and detention and/or torture or ill-treatment,” the UN’s Afghan mission said in a report on Monday. 

Meanwhile, the busiest border crossing between the two countries remained closed for the tenth day running in a dispute over document rules for commercial drivers. 

The row centers on demands for drivers from both sides to have visas and passports — documents many Afghans do not have — as Pakistan cracks down on cross-border movements. 

More than 400 trucks were stranded on the Pakistan side of the Torkham crossing on Monday, according to a border official who asked not to be named. 

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have grown increasingly fraught in recent months, with Islamabad accusing the Taliban government of failing to root out militants staging attacks in Pakistan from their soil. 

Kabul has always rejected the allegations. 

Millions of Afghans fleeing conflict have poured into Pakistan over the past four decades, including some 600,000 since the Taliban ousted the US-backed government and imposed its harsh interpretation of Islamic law. 

Some of the Afghans crossing into Afghanistan as a result of Islamabad’s eviction scheme were entering the country for the first time, having lived their whole lives in Pakistan. 

Upon arrival, migrants have received modest assistance from the government and NGOs in a country contending with one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. 


Pakistan PM to leave for Saudi Arabia today to attend Future Investment Initiative conference

Pakistan PM to leave for Saudi Arabia today to attend Future Investment Initiative conference
Updated 29 sec ago
Follow

Pakistan PM to leave for Saudi Arabia today to attend Future Investment Initiative conference

Pakistan PM to leave for Saudi Arabia today to attend Future Investment Initiative conference
  • FII conference to focus on global investments aimed at addressing issues such as AI, robotics, education and energy 
  • Shehbaz Sharif expected to hold talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, key Saudi officials during two-day trip 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will embark on a two-day visit to the Kingdom today, Tuesday, to attend the eighth edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference being held in Riyadh, the foreign office said, where he is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other Saudi officials. 

The FII conference started in 2017 as an annual event bringing people together to invest in the most promising solutions worldwide. It serves as an important platform for countries to showcase their economic strength, draw foreign investments, and engage in dialogue to shape a sustainable future. 

The eighth edition of the conference will be held from Oct. 29-31 under the theme: ‘Infinite Horizons: Investing Today, Shaping Tomorrow,’ and is expected to feature discussions on how investment can serve as a catalyst for a prosperous and sustainable future. 

“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif will undertake an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to attend the 8th Edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) being held in Riyadh from 29 to 30 October 2024,” Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement issued on Monday. “The Prime Minister will be accompanied by key Cabinet ministers.”

The foreign office said Sharif will hold bilateral talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other officials of the Kingdom during his visit. 

“The two sides will discuss economic and strategic partnership between Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and explore bilateral cooperation in the economic, energy, and defense domains,” the statement said. 

It added that Sharif is also expected to engage with participating leaders and entrepreneurs at the FII conference. 

In April this year, Sharif met the Saudi crown prince on the sidelines of a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in Riyadh. The two figures had discussed bilateral ties and regional issues, including Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Sharif’s office.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong trade, defense and cultural ties. The Kingdom is home to over 2.7 million Pakistani expatriates and serves as the top source of remittances to the cash-strapped South Asian country.

Both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have also been closely working to increase bilateral trade and investment deals, and the Kingdom this year reaffirmed its commitment to expedite an investment package worth $5 billion.

Islamabad has sought to bolster its trade and investment ties with regional countries, including those in the Middle East, to escape a prolonged macroeconomic crisis that has depleted its foreign exchange reserves over the past couple of years and pushed inflation to double-digit figures. 


Pakistan to open two-day International Conference on Agriculture in Karachi today

Pakistan to open two-day International Conference on Agriculture in Karachi today
Updated 12 min 51 sec ago
Follow

Pakistan to open two-day International Conference on Agriculture in Karachi today

Pakistan to open two-day International Conference on Agriculture in Karachi today
  • The conference is being organized under the Green Pakistan Initiative that focuses on improving agricultural production
  • Agriculture contributes about 24 percent of Pakistan’s GDP and accounts for half of the employed labor force in the country

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will be hosting a two-day International Conference on Agriculture in the southern port city of Karachi on Oct. 29-30 aiming to improve production through modern technology, Pakistani state media reported on Monday.
The conference is being organized under the Green Pakistan Initiative of the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), a civil-military hybrid forum established in 2023 to boost foreign investment.
The Green Pakistan Initiative focuses on water conservation, sustainable farming, and agricultural research and development in the South Asian country through modern technology and innovative approaches.
“Experts from Pakistan’s sustainable agriculture ecosystem will discuss organic farming and development of sustainable agriculture [at the conference],” the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
Agriculture is the backbone of Pakistan’s economy and constitutes its largest sector. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), agriculture contributes about 24 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and accounts for half of the employed labor force in the country.
Provincial agriculture departments will also highlight their achievements in the field of agriculture at their respective pavilions at the conference.
The conference comes at a time when Pakistan is seeking to boost production to increase its agricultural exports to overcome a prolonged economic crisis.
In June, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country was looking forward to benefit from China’s agricultural prowess and modernization as he visited the Chinese city of Xi’an.
Sharif toured the Yangling Institute of Modern Agriculture and said his government was keen to explore new avenues of cooperation in agriculture to enhance Pakistan’s food productivity and quality.


Jeddah-based IsDB helps Pakistani female doctors reclaim careers through e-learning

Jeddah-based IsDB helps Pakistani female doctors reclaim careers through e-learning
Updated 42 min 40 sec ago
Follow

Jeddah-based IsDB helps Pakistani female doctors reclaim careers through e-learning

Jeddah-based IsDB helps Pakistani female doctors reclaim careers through e-learning
  • Over 30,000 woman doctors, who graduated between 1989 and 2017, either did not join the profession due to societal norms or quit it after marriage
  • Of them, around 1,500 Pakistani woman doctors have been reintegrated into the health care system, primarily in telemedicine, over the last six years

KARACHI: Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, of which Saudi Arabia is the largest funder, turned out to be a blessing for women doctors such as Farah Farooq, who dreamt of becoming the first female doctor in her conservative family and finally did so, before marriage threw a spanner in the works.

While Farooq’s struggle paid off and she graduated in medicine from the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) in Karachi in 2000, her family married her off shortly after her final-year exams, dashing her hopes of serving people and causing significant distress to her.

Dr. Farooq was one of over 30,000 women doctors in Pakistan who graduated between 1989 and 2017 but either did not enter the medical profession due to societal pressures or left it after marriage, despite completing five years of rigorous studies and a one-year house job.

However, the IsDB came to her rescue. It provided a second chance for doctors such as Farooq to fulfill their dreams by extending financial support to the Pakistani educational technology platform EduCast and Dow University of Medical Sciences, enabling the re-entry of doctors who had left the profession— after the government had invested Rs10 million ($35,947) in each of them.

Dr. Farooq, who returned to the field in 2021, almost two decades after her graduation, says she had gone into depression after distancing herself from her profession due to a lack of family support and her responsibilities as a mother of three.

“I couldn’t pursue any of my dreams, for which I had worked so hard for 5 years, almost 6 years with the house job. It did bother me a lot,” she said, adding that the e-doctor program by EDUCAST reopened that “bright window.”
“It bridged that gap of 20 years. It brought me back into it and it created that ambition again,” said a smiling Farooq, who now sees patients from her home clinic.

Societal norms, under which many Pakistani families often marry off their daughters at a young age or do not allow them to work even after completing professional education, have driven tens of thousands of woman doctors away from practice, according to Professor Dr. Jahan Ara Hasan, the DUHS pro-vice-chancellor and a key member of the e-doctor program.

“They are simply wasting the resources of the country,” she said, highlighting that nearly 70 percent of all medical students in Pakistan were women.

Over the past six years, she said, the e-doctor program had trained around 1,500 woman doctors and brought them back into the profession.

“Through this digital learning program, we train them on the principles and certain aspects of family medicine,” she said. “And we made a lot of them to come back into clinical practice and into telemedicine too.”

Potential trainees in Saudi Arabia

Abdullah Butt, the EDUCAST chairman, explained that many “missing” woman doctors were married abroad to Pakistani husbands, including 1,500 in Saudi Arabia who have been identified as potential EDUCAST trainees.

“We have trained 75 of them till date and now we are targeting more,” Butt told Arab News, mentioning their plans to develop a training program for Pakistani woman doctors in Saudi Arabia that is aligned with the Kingdom’s health care system as well as to teach them the Arabic language.

“This we have been discussing with Islamic Development Bank and King Salman Relief to prepare special incentive for these Pakistani doctors to learn Arabic language, to get trained into Arabic language.”

Dr. Nibah Badshah, a 2011 graduate of the DUHS, moved to Saudi Arabia a year after completing her MBBS degree, but could not practice medicine due to family responsibilities.

“It wasn’t expected of me, but I felt it necessary to take that decision myself,” she said, crediting a friend’s introduction to the e-doctor program for her return to the medical field.

“It really was that stepping stone for me to come back into the medical field that took a lot of time, effort and dedication to earn that medical degree.”

Dr. Badshah, who completed her online master’s degree in public health from the King’s College in London in August this year, says this is an “exciting time” to be in Riyadh, with all the transformation happening under Vision 2030 that aims to cut the Kingdom’s reliance on oil and develop public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation and tourism.

“I hope I can align my efforts to one of these goals to bring about sustainable change that is focused on improving quality of life,” she added.


Sindh CM expresses concern over high rate of polio vaccine refusals in Karachi, Hyderabad

Sindh CM expresses concern over high rate of polio vaccine refusals in Karachi, Hyderabad
Updated 28 October 2024
Follow

Sindh CM expresses concern over high rate of polio vaccine refusals in Karachi, Hyderabad

Sindh CM expresses concern over high rate of polio vaccine refusals in Karachi, Hyderabad
  • Pakistan on Monday launched a week-long, nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign amid a deepening crisis
  • CM Murad Ali Shah says 81,000 workers will go door-to-door in Sindh to ensure every child receives vaccine

KARACHI: Murad Ali Shah, chief minister of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, on Monday said that polio vaccine hesitancy and refusals were major challenges in Pakistan’s efforts to eradicate polio, amid a deepening polio crisis in the South Asian country.
The Sindh chief minister said this while launching an anti-polio eradication campaign at SMB Fatima Jinnah School in Karachi’s Garden West area as part of a nationwide drive to vaccinate more than 45 million children.
In the week-long campaign from October 28 till November 3, 10.6 million children under the age of five years will be inoculated across 30 districts of Sindh to protect them against the debilitating disease, according to Shah.
“Vaccine hesitancy and refusals present significant obstacles to polio eradication initiatives in Pakistan,” the Sindh CM was quoted as saying by his office.
“In Sindh, particularly in the cities of Karachi and Hyderabad, a considerable number of parents are reluctant to permit their children to receive the oral polio vaccine (OPV).”
Pakistan has reported a total of 41 polio cases so far this year, of which 12 have been reported in Sindh, according to authorities.
Shah said the challenge was particularly severe in Karachi, which accounted for 85 percent of all refusals documented in Sindh. He said his government had begun the deployment of support teams, and engagement of parliamentarians and local committees to support the polio eradication efforts.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where polio remains an endemic. Since late 2018, Pakistan has seen a resurgence of cases and increased spread of poliovirus, highlighting the fragility of gains achieved in the preceding three years.
The presence of polio-positive environmental samples in various parts of Sindh indicates active virus circulation, according to the chief minister.
“To meet this challenge, 81,000 frontline workers will be mobilized to go door-to-door, ensuring that every eligible child receives the life-saving vaccine,” Shah said.


Pakistan’s Punjab alters school hours as severe smog threatens health of students

Pakistan’s Punjab alters school hours as severe smog threatens health of students
Updated 28 October 2024
Follow

Pakistan’s Punjab alters school hours as severe smog threatens health of students

Pakistan’s Punjab alters school hours as severe smog threatens health of students
  • The provincial capital of Lahore near the border with India regularly registers among world’s most polluted cities
  • Smog is particularly bad in winter due to low-grade fuel from factories, vehicles in the low-lying city of 14 million

ISLAMABAD: Authorities in the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab have altered timings for all public and private schools as prevailing smog continues to threaten lives in the country’s most populous province.
The Punjab Environmental Protection Authority (PEPA) this week issued a notification, detailing the adjusted timings and additional precautionary measures.
Effective from Oct. 28 till Jan. 31, schools in the province will begin at 8:45am, while morning assemblies will be held indoors to reduce students’ exposure to hazardous air.
The decision to alter school timings and suspend outdoor activities aims to minimize exposure to hazardous air quality, according to the provincial authorities.
“In the morning, the smog is more intense. Keeping this in mind, the government has wisely taken measures to prioritize children’s health by rescheduling school timings” Sarah Ather, principal of SAINT ANDREWS CHURCH CATHEDRAL SCHOOL SYSTEM, told Reuters.
“This is a good initiative by the government to provide safer facilities for children.”
Smog is particularly bad in winter as a result of low-grade fuel from factories and vehicles in the low-lying megacity of 14 million, where denser cold air traps emissions at ground level. Seasonal crop burn-off by farmers on the outskirts of Lahore is also a major contributing factor.
Lahore, the provincial capital, topped the global pollution charts on Monday, earning the dire distinction of the world’s most polluted city, when the air quality index (AQI) hit 507 at around 10am local time (0500 GMT), with the Switzerland-based air quality watchdog IQAir categorizing the air quality as “hazardous.”
But some parents say the change in school hours won’t reduce smog and they will have to readjust their schedules for transportation of children.
“The change in school hours hasn’t reduced the smog. It remains a constant issue,” said Mohammad Shahbaz.
“The revised timing has only caused disturbance in public schedules. Earlier, schools ran from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm, but now children return home at 3:00 pm, creating logistical challenges for parents.”
Breathing the toxic air has catastrophic health consequences, with the World Health Organization saying strokes, heart disease, lung cancer and respiratory diseases could be triggered due to prolonged exposure.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), nearly 600 million children in South Asia are exposed to high levels of air pollution.