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elections 2024
elections 2024

US says ‘concerned’ about restrictions on Internet, mobile service on polling day 

US says ‘concerned’ about restrictions on Internet, mobile service on polling day 
Vedant Patel, the US State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC, on February 9, 2024. (Screengrab)
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Updated 09 February 2024
ARAB NEWS PAKISTAN 
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US says ‘concerned’ about restrictions on Internet, mobile service on polling day 

US says ‘concerned’ about restrictions on Internet, mobile service on polling day 
  • Pakistan’s national polls were marred by restrictions on mobile data, Internet services as millions across the country voted 
  • US State Department official says Washington will continue to stress on importance of democratic institutions, free press
Updated 09 February 2024
ARAB NEWS PAKISTAN 
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ISLAMABAD: The US Department of State said on Thursday it was “concerned” about Pakistan’s restrictions on mobile and Internet services on polling day, as millions of Pakistanis headed to polling booths across the country to vote during the country’s general elections. 

Pakistani authorities decided to suspend mobile data services across the country minutes before voting began Thursday morning. The move was seen by many as an effort to keep opposition voters from getting information or coordinating activities. However, Pakistan’s interior ministry said it opted for the blockade to ensure the security of polling stations after at least 28 people were killed in two explosions near election offices in the southwestern province of Balochistan on Wednesday. As of 3:00 a.m., mobile phone services remained suspended across the country even after polling had ended at 5:00 p.m.

Vedant Patel, the US State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, said during a media briefing that Washington condemned election violence that impacted polling stations, election officers and Pakistan’s election regulator. 

“And as you heard me say earlier in the week, we are concerned about the restrictions on the exercise of freedom of expression,” Patel said. We’re tracking reports of restrictions on Internet and cell phone access across Pakistan on polling day.” 

He said the US, along with the international community, will continue to stress the importance of democratic institutions, a free press, a vibrant civil society, and “expanded opportunities for political participation of all of Pakistan’s citizens.”

When asked to comment on concerns of rigging, especially against former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, the US official declined to comment on preliminary election results and media reports. 

“I am not going to get ahead of any official results, and so I’m not going to comment or speculate further on what a government could look like, what the makeup could be or anything like that,” he added. 

Khan, arguably the central pole of Pakistani politics, was missing from Thursday’s elections, as he has been in jail since August last year and is also disqualified from running for public office for ten years. The former premier was convicted in three back-to-back cases this month and faces dozens of other legal challenges, including one case in which he is accused of ordering violent attacks on military installations on May 9, 2023, which could entail the death sentence. Khan says all the cases are politically motivated to sideline him and his party from elections.

In the run-up to the polls, Khan’s PTI complained of a widening crackdown against the party, including not being allowed to campaign freely, and analysts questioned the legitimacy of an election that Khan, the main opposition leader and arguably the country’s most popular politician, was not allowed to contest.

Topics: elections 2024

In new challenge to army, Islamabad court questions ‘legal standing’ of military’s media wing

In new challenge to army, Islamabad court questions ‘legal standing’ of military’s media wing
Updated 8 sec ago
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In new challenge to army, Islamabad court questions ‘legal standing’ of military’s media wing

In new challenge to army, Islamabad court questions ‘legal standing’ of military’s media wing
  • Pakistan’s media watchdog has instructed TV channels to seek army media wing’s approval before inviting retired officers as defense analysts 
  • Justice Babar Sattar is among six Islamabad judges who accused army’s ISI spy agency of coercing them in ‘politically consequential’ cases
Updated 8 sec ago
Shahjahan Khurram

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday sought a clarification from Pakistan’s electronic media watchdog about the legal standing of the military’s media wing and its “exclusive authority” to decide who could appear on television talk shows as a defense analyst.

The court was hearing a case challenging a much-debated April 2019 notification by the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) in which it instructed TV channels to seek clearance from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the military’s media wing, before inviting retired military officers on current affairs programs as analysts “to solicit their views on matters of national security.”

Following PEMRA’s notification, the ISPR released a list of 26 retired officers that it said were allowed to appear as defense analysts. 

“When asked as to what is the legal standing of ISPR and how is ISPR assuming the exclusive right to determine who can be a Defense Analyst in Pakistan, the learned Assistant Attorney General seeks time to assist the Court,” Justice Babar Sattar’s written order read. “Let the matter be fixed for 20-11-2024.”

The court also questioned why PEMRA had issued that notification in the first place and whether it had received a request from within the Pakistan army or ISPR.

PEMRA’s lawyer sought more time from the court to respond.

“Let PEMRA produce before the Court the original noting file on the basis of which the impugned notification was processed, recommended and issued to assist the Court as to why PEMRA felt the need to issue the said notification,” Justice Sattar wrote. 

During the hearing, the court also asked PEMRA’s counsel about the watchdog’s authority to regulate the content of discussions on TV and issue directions for the pre-clearance of individuals by ISPR or others. 

PEMRA’s lawyer pointed to Section 20-A of the PEMRA Ordinance, which relates to the obligation of licensees to uphold the sovereignty, integrity and security of Pakistan. 

“When asked as to what does pre-clearance of individuals providing content on TV have to do with the sovereignty or security of Pakistan and how can PEMRA impose a prior restraint on speech, the learned counsel for PEMRA seeks further time to assist the Court,” the written order read. 

Pakistani journalist bodies and many journalists have long accused the government and the powerful military of censoring the press. Both deny allegations and insist they do not supress the freedom of the press.

Justice Sattar’s new order is nit his first challenge to the army. He was among six Islamabad High Court judges who earlier this year wrote a letter to the Supreme Judicial Council watchdog and accused the military’s ISI spy agency of intimidating and coercing them over legal cases, particularly “politically consequential” ones.

The judges provided various examples of alleged interference, including a case concerning Pakistan’s imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan. The letter also mentioned incidents where the judges said their relatives were abducted and tortured and their homes were secretly surveilled, aiming to coerce them into delivering favorable judgments in specific cases.

In February 2019, the Supreme Court had also delivered a scathing verdict on the military and intelligence agencies exceeding their mandate and meddling in politics over their handling of protests in 2017 by a religious-political party. 

In the past, Imran Khan’s main opponent, PM Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had also accused the ISI of intimidating court decisions, including those that led to convictions of his elder brother Nawaz Sharif after his ouster from the prime minister’s office in 2017.

The powerful army plays an oversized role in Pakistani politics. The country has been ruled by military regimes for almost half its history since independence from Britain in 1947. Khan and the elder Sharif both have alleged that they were ousted by the military after they fell out with the generals.

The army denies it interferes in political matters. It has so far refrained from commenting on the judges’ letter regarding the ISI’s alleged interference and intimidation.

Topics: islamabad high court

Committee formed to probe bomb attack on foreign diplomats in northwestern Pakistan

Committee formed to probe bomb attack on foreign diplomats in northwestern Pakistan
Updated 25 September 2024
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Committee formed to probe bomb attack on foreign diplomats in northwestern Pakistan

Committee formed to probe bomb attack on foreign diplomats in northwestern Pakistan
  • One policeman was killed, three others injured in IED explosion targeting convoy of foreign diplomats in Swat last Sunday
  • Two-member committee to submit report within seven days, says KP Home and Tribal Affairs department
Updated 25 September 2024
REHMAT MEHSUD

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government announced on Wednesday it had formed a fact-finding committee to probe an attack on a convoy of foreign diplomats in northwestern Pakistan last week. 

At least one policeman was killed while three others were injured in Swat’s Malam Jabba tourist resort on Sunday in a roadside bomb attack targeting a convoy of foreign diplomats. Police said the diplomats, who hailed mostly from Central Asian and European countries, were visiting Malam Jabba’s scenic spots when the incident took place. All diplomats remained unhurt and returned safely to Islamabad after the attack.

The two-member committee includes Zubair Ahmed, a grade 20 officer of KP’s Home and Tribal Affairs department and Muhammad Alam Shinwari, additional inspector-general (investigation) of the Central Police Office, Peshawar. 

“The committee shall submit the report within seven days positively,” a notification from the Home and Tribal Affairs department read. 

Pakistan has seen a rise in militant attacks in recent months, with many of them taking place in KP that borders Afghanistan where Islamabad says groups like the outlawed Pakistani Taliban are hiding and from where they daily target police and security forces.

Swat, known for its picturesque landscape and historic religious sites, hosts thousands of local and foreign tourists each year.
In 2007, the Pakistani Taliban seized partial control of the district before being ousted two years later in a major military operation. During this time, the militants had unleashed a reign of terror, killing and beheading politicians, singers, soldiers and opponents. They banned woman education and destroyed nearly 200 schools for girls.
Last week, militants opened fire on a security post in KP’s South Waziristan district and killed at least six Pakistani soldiers, the military said.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, including the one on the convoy of diplomats but officials in Islamabad say militants associated with the Pakistani Taliban are primarily responsible for violence in the region. Islamabad has even blamed Kabul’s Afghan Taliban rulers for “facilitating” anti-Pakistan militants, a charge Kabul denies.

Topics: Bomb explosion bomb attack foreign diplomats

Pakistani nurse addresses press conference, says was ‘misguided by terrorists’ to become suicide bomber 

Pakistani nurse addresses press conference, says was ‘misguided by terrorists’ to become suicide bomber 
Updated 29 min 37 sec ago
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Pakistani nurse addresses press conference, says was ‘misguided by terrorists’ to become suicide bomber 

Pakistani nurse addresses press conference, says was ‘misguided by terrorists’ to become suicide bomber 
  • Adeela Baloch was recently arrested in connection to alleged suicide bombing attempt
  • It was unclear if she addressed the press conference freely or under pressure from authorities 
Updated 29 min 37 sec ago
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A Baloch woman recently arrested over an alleged bombing attempt addressed a government-organized press conference on Wednesday and said that she had been “misguided by terrorists” and recruited to carry out a suicide attack.

It was unclear under what circumstances Adeela Baloch addressed the press conference and whether she spoke freely or under pressure from state authorities in Balochistan, a resource-rich but impoverished province where separatist militants have been fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the region. The Pakistani government and military deny they are exploiting Balochistan and have long maintained that neighbors such as India, Afghanistan and Iran foment trouble in the remote province and support and fund the insurgency there. 

Army and government officials have also referred to a Baloch ethnic rights movement that has held protests across the province in recent months as a “terrorist proxy” and rejected their allegations of a pattern of enforced disappearances and other human rights abuses by security forces. The movement is being led by young people, many of them educated women. Independent experts have criticized the state for ignoring what they say are the genuine grievances of the youth of Balochistan, and warned that a heavy-handed approach toward the protests could drive more educated people toward militancy. 

“The perception nowadays that Baloch women willingly carry out suicide attacks is wrong. I am an eyewitness to this, I have seen it myself, these people use blackmail,” Baloch told reporters at a press conference in Quetta where she was sat alongside Balochistan government spokesperson Farah Azeem Shah.

Baloch, who had worked at a government hospital in the district of Turbat , was reported missing by relatives on Sept. 19. 

She said her job had involved helping people and saving lives but she was “misguided and led astray” by militants who convinced her to become a suicide bomber. 

“I didn’t even consider that while I would lose my life in the attack, many others could also lose their lives because of me,” she added. “I realized my mistake when I went to the mountains [where militants have taken sanctuary]. There, I saw other people who had been misled, with guns in their hands.”

Adeela thanked the provincial Balochistan government for “rescuing” and saving her from militants. She did not name the group that had allegedly enlisted her or describe the target of the planned attack.

Arab News could not independently confirm her identity or verify her claims.

Last month, the outlawed separatist Balochistan Liberation Army, said a woman was among a group of its fighters who had killed more than 50 people in a series of coordinated attacks in the restive province.

In April 2022, a highly educated female suicide bomber who was a mother from a well-to-do family killed three Chinese teachers in Karachi along with their local driver. Shari Hayat Baloch, 30, was a science teacher who had a masters degree in Zoology and was planning to enroll in a second masters degree at the time she detonated explosives in her rucksack as a minivan carrying three Chinese teachers drove by, police said at the time. While studying at university in the Balochistan capital Quetta, she had been a member of the Baloch Students Organization (BSO).

In 2019, a female suicide bomber in northwestern Pakistan killed at least eight people and wounded 26 more in an attack outside a local civilian hospital. In 2017, Noreen Leghari, a would-be woman suicide bomber, was taken into custody by the Pakistan army over accusations she was planning an attack on a church in the eastern city of Lahore. She was a second-year medical student. 

In 2012, a woman suicide bomber targeted Pakistani religious-political leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad but he escaped unhurt in the attack. 

Topics: Suicide bomber Nurse

Pakistan PM condemns Israel’s ‘catastrophic’ airstrikes on Lebanon, urges immediate ceasefire

Pakistan PM condemns Israel’s ‘catastrophic’ airstrikes on Lebanon, urges immediate ceasefire
Updated 25 September 2024
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Pakistan PM condemns Israel’s ‘catastrophic’ airstrikes on Lebanon, urges immediate ceasefire

Pakistan PM condemns Israel’s ‘catastrophic’ airstrikes on Lebanon, urges immediate ceasefire
  • Shehbaz Sharif says ‘two-state solution is the only answer’ to the protracted Israel-Palestine dispute
  • He discusses ‘mutually beneficial economic investments’ in a meeting with the crown prince of Kuwait
Updated 25 September 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned Israel’s attack on Lebanon while interacting with the media on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly Session on Wednesday, calling the recent airstrike “catastrophic” and calling for an immediate ceasefire.
After nearly a year of war against the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Stripe on its southern border, Israel is shifting its focus to the northern frontier, where Hezbollah has been firing rockets into Israeli cities in support of Hamas.
Israel’s offensive since Monday morning has killed 569 people, including 50 children, and wounded 1,835 in Lebanon, Health Minister Firass Abiad told Al Jazeera Mubasher TV.
“The recent attack launched in Beirut is nothing but a ploy to expand this war theater, which will be catastrophic for this peace-loving world,” the prime minister told the media. “And I think we must all condemn this act on the part of Israelis.”
“Two-state solution is the only answer,” he continued. “Immediate ceasefire, immediate ceasefire, and then two-state solution. There is no other option.”
The Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander on September 24 as cross-border rocket attacks by both sides increased fears of a full-fledged war in the Middle East and Lebanon said only Washington could help end the fighting.
Israel said Qubaisi headed the group’s missile and rocket force.
Pakistan’s foreign office also described Israel’s attack as an “act of aggression” against Lebanon that violated the UN Charter and international law.
The UN Security Council is expected to meet later today to discuss the conflict.
BILATERAL MEETING
The prime minister also met with Crown Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah and reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations, ranging from political, economic and defense cooperation to people-people exchanges.
Last year, Pakistan signed 10 multibillion-dollar agreements with Kuwait aimed at boosting cooperation in sectors such as trade, energy, information technology, labor and infrastructure development.
As part of the government’s broader engagement with the Middle East, these agreements included Pakistan’s request for greater recruitment of its workers in Kuwait, particularly in health, security and construction fields.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif holds a meeting with the Crown Prince of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly Session in New York on September 25, 2024. (PMO)

“The Prime Minister of Pakistan expressed his desire to engage with Kuwait in mutually beneficial economic investments under the rubric of Special Investment Facilitation Council,” his office in Islamabad said in a statement issued after their meeting, referring to a hybrid civil-military body to facilitate foreign businesses.
Both leaders affirmed to closely collaborate bilaterally, as well as on regional and global issues of mutual interest.
With input from Reuters

Topics: Israel-Lebanon Israeli war on Gaza

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In Pakistan, Afghan refugees face uncertain future amid resettlement rejections

In Pakistan, Afghan refugees face uncertain future amid resettlement rejections
Updated 25 September 2024
NAZAR UL ISLAM
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In Pakistan, Afghan refugees face uncertain future amid resettlement rejections

In Pakistan, Afghan refugees face uncertain future amid resettlement rejections
  • More than 40,000 Afghans in Pakistan are currently awaiting their resettlement to Western countries, Pakistani foreign office says
  • The United States has already provided a list of 25,000 Afghan refugees for resettlement, but the pace of progress remains slow
Updated 25 September 2024
NAZAR UL ISLAM

ISLAMABAD: In a cramped guesthouse in Islamabad, Sadiqullah Azizi, a pseudonym for a 59-year-old Afghan refugee, last week hurriedly packed what remained of his family’s belongings. His wife and children, with little choice, helped as they prepared to vacate the premises as a result of a final, devastating blow: rejection of their case for resettlement in Canada.
Azizi’s family, comprising more than a dozen members, did not come to Islamabad by choice. In August 2021, they received an email from the Canadian authorities, instructing them to travel to Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport for evacuation to Canada. That email, reviewed by Arab News, represented a lifeline that has since reduced to three years of uncertainty, fear and disappointment.
Now exhausted, Azizi recounts how he started working with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in 2002, shortly after the US-led coalition toppled the first Taliban regime. Although Azizi and his family are not paying for their accommodation or meals, he says it’s far from sufficient.
“Our children are our top priority and none of them have attended school due to the uncertainty of our future,” Azizi told Arab News, with his voice cracking.
He was involved in construction and logistics, and provided critical support to the US, Canadian, Dutch and Australian forces in Kandahar, Uruzgan and Nangarhar from 2002 till 2013. He still has dozens of certificates and photos of himself alongside Western forces during their deployment in Afghanistan, but his accomplishments feel distant and hollow.
Fearing deportation, the 59-year-old doesn’t even allow his family to visit a nearby public park since the Pakistani authorities launched a crackdown on undocumented foreign nationals last November and has since deported nearly 700,000 people, the majority of whom were Afghans.
“Our [Pakistani] visas have also expired and it feels as though the ground is slipping from beneath my feet,” he shared.
More than 40,000 Afghans are still in Pakistan and awaiting their resettlement abroad, according to the Pakistani foreign office. Pakistan has been in talks with various Western nations to help facilitate the relocation process and the United States has already provided a list of 25,000 Afghans for resettlement. However, the pace of progress remains slow.
For families like Azizi’s, life in Islamabad is one of isolation. The guesthouse where they stay offers no sense of security or future.
Engineer Ahmed, another pseudonym for a 38-year-old father of six who worked as an interpreter for the US and allied forces in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2018, said they were only provided accommodation and meals at the guesthouse and no other essentials.
“In fact, the meals aren’t enough to fill our stomachs,” he said, adding that they had to buy essentials like baby diapers, milk and medicines from their own pockets.
Ahmed shared his family had sold nearly all of their belongings in Kabul as they had burned all bridges in the hope of resettling in Canada.
“We have nothing left, no house, car or motorcycle. Everything was sold at a very cheap rate,” he said.
Another 35-year-old Afghan refugee, who assumed the name Amin Nasiri, awaits his family’s relocation to the US.
“It’s been three years since we arrived in Islamabad. We have no freedom here. We can’t access government hospitals or even buy a SIM card because our visas have expired,” Nasiri, who worked as a warehouse employee at the ISAF headquarters in Kabul from 2009 to 2012, told Arab News.
The 35-year-old lives with another Afghan family along with his wife, three sons and a daughter as he could not secure an accommodation in his own name due to his lack of documentation.
“I don’t know how much longer it will take,” said Nasiri, whose case remains unresolved. “I’ve borrowed a lot of money from friends and my eyes are constantly on my phone, hoping for an email about my case, but that moment hasn’t come yet.”
As Azizi continued packing at his guesthouse in Islamabad, he wrestled with the thought of how to break the news to his grandchildren.
He shared that over the past three years, whenever a bus headed to the airport stopped at the guesthouse’s gate, he would hide it from his grandchildren to avoid their inevitable question: “When will it be our turn to leave?”
Arab News tried to speak with others awaiting resettlement, but most were unable to summon the strength to recount their three years in Islamabad.
Now, with an eviction notice looming, Azizi feels trapped.
“My only question is why did Canadian immigration take so long? If they had rejected my case in the early months, I would have returned to my country. I would have told the Taliban that I had gone for medical treatment and had now come back. But after three long years, I no longer know what excuse I can offer,” he said as his voice tinged with despair.
The Canadian High Commission in Islamabad refused to discuss specific immigration cases but sent an email in response to Arab News queries.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) sympathizes with the people in this extremely difficult situation as we continue to process applications as quickly as possible under the circumstances,” it said.
“Security screening is a complex process involving the decision of IRCC’s Migration Officer and various security partner experts,” it added. “Individuals are normally provided with a procedural fairness letter before negative decisions are made to provide them with an opportunity to provide additional information.”
The letter pointed out that how quickly an Afghan client was processed and subsequently approved depended on a variety of factors, many of which were beyond the control of the Canadian authorities, and were often directly related to where Afghans were located.
It noted that it was difficult to finalize the applications of Afghan nationals still residing in their country, urging them to move to a third country.
Meanwhile, Azizi, who complied with a similar request and arrived in Pakistan, says the fear of returning to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan weighs heavily on him.
“I wonder how Western countries can speak about human rights, yet when I look at my own case, I’m left questioning what world they live in,” he said.
“I can’t return to Afghanistan because the Taliban will think I’ve been sent on another spy mission,” he added. “Pakistan isn’t offering us refuge, and with no options left, I truly wonder where on earth we can find a place to call home.”

Topics: Afghan refugee in Pakistan

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