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Pakistan dispatches seventh consignment of relief goods for Gaza as death toll from Israel’s war tops 30,000

Pakistan dispatches seventh consignment of relief goods for Gaza as death toll from Israel’s war tops 30,000
Diplomats and Pakistan’s disaster management authority officials dispatch relief goods to Gaza via cargo ship from Karachi on February 25, 2024. (NDMA)
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Updated 26 February 2024
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Pakistan dispatches seventh consignment of relief goods for Gaza as death toll from Israel’s war tops 30,000

Pakistan dispatches seventh consignment of relief goods for Gaza as death toll from Israel’s war tops 30,000
  • Israel’s relentless bombing and ground assaults continue despite ceasefire calls from rights groups and governments
  • Pakistan’s latest assistance, sent via cargo ship, contains 300 tons of blankets, tents, medicines and tinned food items
Updated 26 February 2024
SAIMA SHABBIR
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday dispatched a seventh consignment of relief goods for Palestinians in Gaza, the country’s disaster management authority said, amid continuing air and ground assaults by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Thousands more have been injured as Israel continues to ignore calls for a ceasefire from rights groups and governments around the world, amid warnings from the United Nations (UN) of an outbreak of disease and starvation.

To mitigate the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) dispatched another consignment of relief goods through a cargo ship, which would be delivered via Port Said in Egypt.

“The government of Pakistan has dispatched the seventh batch of relief goods to the people of Gaza by a cargo ship,” the NDMA said in a statement. “The relief package consists of 300 tons of essentials, including blankets, basic food, and other essential items.”

Officials of the Pakistani foreign ministry, NDMA, and the Palestinian ambassador to Pakistan, Ahmad Jawad Rabei, attended the sending-off ceremony at the South Asia Pakistan Terminal in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi.

The South Asian country has previously sent six flights, carrying 330 tons of relief goods, including blankets, tents and food items, for Palestinians in Gaza.

“Pakistan will continue to support and help its brothers and sisters in times of trouble,” the NDMA said.

Topics: Gaza Palestine Pakistan Arab News Pakistan

Ex-PM Khan party files petition against PM Sharif, others for ‘firing’ at supporters in Islamabad

Ex-PM Khan party files petition against PM Sharif, others for ‘firing’ at supporters in Islamabad
Updated 12 sec ago
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Ex-PM Khan party files petition against PM Sharif, others for ‘firing’ at supporters in Islamabad

Ex-PM Khan party files petition against PM Sharif, others for ‘firing’ at supporters in Islamabad
  • Khan’s party on Nov. 24 led thousands of supporters to Islamabad, seeking to pressure the government to release the ex-premier from jail
  • The protests resulted in clashes that government says killed four law enforcers, while the party says 12 supporters were killed in crackdown
Updated 12 sec ago
KASHIF IMRAN

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s party on Friday filed a petition against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials over “firing” on its supporters during last month’s protest in Islamabad, which the party says killed at least 12 people and injured more than a hundred others.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Nov. 24 led thousands of supporters to Islamabad, seeking to pressure the government to release the ex-premier from jail and order an audit of Feb. 8 national election results. The protests resulted in clashes that Pakistan’s government says killed four law enforcers and injured hundreds of others.
The PTI says at least 12 of its supporters were killed and another 38 sustained injuries due to firing by law enforcers near Islamabad’s Jinnah Avenue on Nov. 26, while 139 of its supporters were still “missing.” Pakistani authorities have denied the deaths, saying security personnel had not been carrying live ammunition during the protest.
“On the 26th November, 2024 when thousands of peaceful demonstrators had assembled on the Jinnah Avenue Islamabad, the lights were switched off and the armed personnel/snippers got on top of all the adjacent buildings,” PTI Chairman Gohar Khan said in a complaint filed in a local court in Islamabad on Friday.
“The law enforcing agency persons equipped with teargas machines started profuse firing adulterating the entire atmosphere with tear gas, smoke and suffocation. Flurry of firing by the snippers followed by indiscriminate straight firing at the crowd resulted in bullet injuries causing instant deaths and the panic stricken people started running who too were sprayed with bullet fires.”
The party has named PM Sharif, Interior Ministry Mohsin Naqvi, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Information Minister Ataullah Tarar, Islamabad police chief Ali Nasir Rizvi and others as accused persons. It requested the court to accept the complaint, issue non-bailable warrants for the accused persons and punish them as provided by law.
The government has accused Khan’s party of waging a “propaganda” regarding the Islamabad protest, following statements by several PTI members that gave varied accounts of casualties.
The coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formed two task forces in the aftermath of the Islamabad protest: one to identify and take legal action against rioters and another to track and bring to justice suspects behind what the government described as a “malicious campaign” to spread “concocted, baseless and inciting” online news, images and video content against the state and security forces.
The PTI has staged several protests this year to demand the release of Khan and to challenge results of the Feb. 8 national election, which it says were manipulated to favor its opponents. The Pakistani government and election authorities deny this.
Last month’s protests were by far the largest to grip the capital since the poll, while Khan, who remains a popular figure in Pakistan despite being in prison and facing several court cases, has also threatened to launch a civil disobedience movement.

Topics: PTI protest Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif

Punjab invites China’s Jinko Solar to set up manufacturing plant in Pakistan

Punjab invites China’s Jinko Solar to set up manufacturing plant in Pakistan
Updated 45 min 22 sec ago
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Punjab invites China’s Jinko Solar to set up manufacturing plant in Pakistan

Punjab invites China’s Jinko Solar to set up manufacturing plant in Pakistan
  • Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif meets Chinese solar company officials in Shanghai during factory visit
  • Experts say Pakistan has ideal climatic conditions for solar power generation with over nine hours of daily sunlight
Updated 45 min 22 sec ago
Hasaan Ali Khan

ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has invited China’s Jinko Solar Company to set up a manufacturing plant in Pakistan’s most populous province, according to televised comments by the provincial chief executive released on Friday.

Pakistan’s energy sector has long struggled with financial strain due to circular debt, power theft and transmission losses, leading to blackouts and high electricity costs. 

Experts say Pakistan has ideal climatic conditions for solar power generation, with over nine hours of daily sunlight in most parts of the country. According to the World Bank, utilizing just 0.071 percent of the country’s area for solar power generation would meet Pakistan’s entire electricity demand.

Currently, only 5.4 percent of Pakistan’s installed power generation capacity of 39,772 megawatts comes from renewables like wind, solar and biomass, while fossil fuels still make up 63 percent of the fuel mix, followed by hydropower at 25 percent, according to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority.

“I think it’s high time that you set up a manufacturing unit in Pakistan,” CM Sharif said in televised comments during a factory visit to Jinko Solar Company in Shanghai.

“Pakistan has abundant solar resources. It’s a country that has sun all the time.”

She said Pakistan, with a population of around 240 million people, was a huge market where the demand for solar power was increasing, with the potential to make it Jinko Solar’s fourth biggest market.

“The cost of the energy power in Pakistan’s electricity is coming down and there is no dearth of workforce in Pakistan which should not be a problem,” Sharif added. “Then we have the infrastructure that is required to set up a factory, we’ve got tax-free zones where we have all the facilities available.”

Sharif said the Punjab government was incentivizing the use of solar power and launching two projects where free solar panels would be given out to users of 200 or fewer units.

“We are also providing long-term loans with easy instalments without interest for a huge, huge population that consumes electricity between 200 to 500 units,” she said. “And this is an upcoming project, we haven’t yet started it but we’re working on it, it’s been finalized and we will be launching it in a week.”

According to a World Economic Forum report last month, Pakistan was now the sixth-largest solar market in the world.

Topics: Jinko Maryam Nawaz Sharif Punjab Pakistan China Ties

Pakistan reports four new polio cases, raising 2024 tally to 63

Pakistan reports four new polio cases, raising 2024 tally to 63
Updated 13 December 2024
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Pakistan reports four new polio cases, raising 2024 tally to 63

Pakistan reports four new polio cases, raising 2024 tally to 63
  • New cases detected in DI Khan, Tank, Jacobabad and Sukkur
  • Pakistan, Afghanistan are last polio-endemic countries globally
Updated 13 December 2024
REHMAT MEHSUD

PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s polio eradication program said on Friday four new cases of the crippling virus had been detected in the country, bringing the nationwide tally for 2024 to 63.

Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. 

The next national polio vaccination campaign is planned from Dec 16-22 to reach more than 44 million children under five in 143 districts. Pakistan’s chief health officer said last month an estimated 500,000 children had missed polio drops during a recent countrywide inoculation drive due to vaccine refusals.

“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of four wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan, bringing the number of total cases in the country this year to 63,” the polio program said.

The lab said one polio case each in female children had been detected in DI Khan, Tank and Jacobabad, and one male child had contracted the virus in Sukkur.

This is the ninth polio case from DI Khan, third from Tank, third from Jacobabad, and the first from Sukkur this year.

The polio program said 26 cases had been confirmed this year in Balochistan province, 18 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 17 in Sindh, and one each in Punjab and the federal capital, Islamabad.

Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.

In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021. 

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams. 

In July 2019, a vaccination drive in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was thwarted after mass panic was created by rumors that children were fainting or vomiting after being immunized.

Public health studies in Pakistan have shown that maternal illiteracy and low parental knowledge about vaccines, together with poverty and rural residency, are also factors that commonly influence whether parents vaccinate their children against polio.

Topics: Polio Pakistan

Pakistan Taliban emerging as Al-Qaeda arm with ‘regional, global terrorist agenda’ — envoy

Pakistan Taliban emerging as Al-Qaeda arm with ‘regional, global terrorist agenda’ — envoy
Updated 13 December 2024
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Pakistan Taliban emerging as Al-Qaeda arm with ‘regional, global terrorist agenda’ — envoy

Pakistan Taliban emerging as Al-Qaeda arm with ‘regional, global terrorist agenda’ — envoy
  • Acting envoy to UN says Afghan government fighting Daesh but not addressing other groups such as Al Qaeda, TTP 
  • Says TTP also collaborating with suicide squad of separatist Baloch Liberation Army in Pakistan’s Balochistan province
Updated 13 December 2024
Hasaan Ali Khan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s acting UN envoy Usman Jadoon said this week the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group, which Islamabad accuses of operating from safe havens in neighboring Afghanistan, was poised to become Al-Qaeda’s regional and global arm, with a far-reaching “terrorist agenda” that threatened international security.

Islamabad says the TTP uses Afghanistan as a base to launch attacks, accusing the ruling Taliban administration of providing safe havens to the group along their shared border. Pakistan also says Afghans have been found to be involved in multiple recent attacks, amid a militancy spike. The Taliban deny militants are using Afghan soil to launch attacks or that Afghans are involved in militancy in Pakistan. They say Pakistan’s security challenges are a domestic issue. 

The TTP is separate from the Afghan Taliban movement but pledges loyalty to the group that now rules Afghanistan after the US-led international forces withdrew in 2021.

“Given its long association with Al Qaeda, the TTP could emerge as Al Qaeda’s arm with a regional and global terrorist agenda,” Jadoon said on Thursday while addressing a UN Security Council meeting. 

“Terrorism within and from Afghanistan poses the single most serious threat to the country, to the region and the world … While the Afghan interim government is fighting Daesh, the threat from various other terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, TTP and others is yet to be addressed.”

Jadoon said the TTP was fast emerging as an “umbrella organization” for other terror groups in the area with the “clear objective of destabilizing Afghanistan’s neighbors.”

“We have evidence of its collaboration with other terrorist groups like the Majeed brigade which is utilizing terrorism to disrupt Pakistan’s economic cooperation with China, especially the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” the diplomat added, referring to the suicide squad of the separatist Baloch Liberation Army which has been fighting a decades long insurgency in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province. 

Jadoon said with 6,000 fighters, TTP was the largest listed militant group operating close to Pakistan’s borders.

“In countering the TTP cross-border operations, our security and border officials have confiscated some of the modern weapons acquired by the Afghan interim government from stocks left behind by foreign forces,” he said, adding that the TTP also received external support and financing from Pakistan’s adversary India. 

Last month, the Pakistan army said it had killed three militants trying to infiltrate its frontier with Afghanistan, calling on Kabul to ensure “effective border management” on its side. 

A deportation drive launched last year against Afghans living in Pakistan and border restrictions have also led to a spike in tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan. 

Topics: Taliban Al-Qaeda Afghanistan

Pakistan top court allows army to announce military trial verdicts of pro-Khan protesters

Pakistan top court allows army to announce military trial verdicts of pro-Khan protesters
Updated 13 December 2024
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Pakistan top court allows army to announce military trial verdicts of pro-Khan protesters

Pakistan top court allows army to announce military trial verdicts of pro-Khan protesters
  • On Oct. 23 last year, three-member Supreme Court panel had declared military trials of civilians unconstitutional, suspending all proceedings
  • On Dec 13, six-member bench provisionally approved military court trials of over 100 supporters of ex-premier Imran Khan 
Updated 13 December 2024
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday conditionally allowed military courts to announce the reserved verdicts of 85 civilians tried over their alleged involvement in last year’s May 9 riots, a major blow to the party of jailed ex-premier Imran Khan that the violence has been linked to. 

The ruling comes a little over a year after a three-member bench of the top court said last October military trials of civilians were unconstitutional and ordered the trials of some 103 people moved to civilian criminal courts, a relief for dozens accused of ransacking military installations during protests after the brief arrest of Khan on May 9, 2023. However, on December 13, 2023, a six-member bench conditionally suspended its own Oct. 23 ruling, pending a final judgment as it heard a set of intra-court appeals (ICAs).

Hundreds of alleged Khan supporters were arrested after they stormed military and government installations, and even torched a top commander’s house, following the former premier’s brief arrest by paramilitary soldiers in a land bribe case. Though Khan was released just days after the violence of May 9, he was arrested again that August following an accountability court’s ruling in another corruption case and has been in jail since, facing a slew of legal charges he says are trumped up to keep him away from politics. 

The military initiated army court trials of at least 103 people accused of involvement in the violence and there have been widespread reports it also plans to prosecute Khan under the Pakistan Army Act on charges of treason and attempting to incite a mutiny in the military.

Announcing Friday’s verdict, Justice Aminuddin Khan, the head of the constitutional bench said:

“Suspects who can be accorded concessions in their sentences, should be given so and released … Suspects who cannot be released should be moved to jails once their sentence has been pronounced.”

In March, a six-member SC bench had also conditionally allowed military courts to pronounce reserved verdicts in the May 9 cases. It had also modified its Dec. 13 injunction, ordering that military courts could commence trials but they would not convict or acquit any suspects as long as the government-instituted intra-court appeals were pending.

Local and global rights groups have expressed concerns over the military trials, saying such courts do not have the same standards of evidence and due process as civilian courts.

Pakistan’s Army Act of 1952 established military courts primarily to try members of the military or enemies of the state, and they operate under a separate legal system.

The decision to use military courts was taken by the government of Khan’s rival, Shehbaz Sharif, and backed by the army.

Topics: Pakistan military courts Imran Khan PTI May 9 riots Arab News Pakistan

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