US envoy hosts Pakistan cricket team in display of support ahead of T20 World Cup/node/2502196/pakistan
US envoy hosts Pakistan cricket team in display of support ahead of T20 World Cup
United States (US) Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome playes cricket during a meet-and-greet session with the Pakistan cricket team held at the US embassy in Islamabad on April 30, 2024. (Photo courtesy: @usembislamabad/X)
ISLAMABAD: United States (US) Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome held a meet-and-greet session with the Pakistan cricket team at the US embassy in Islamabad in a display of support for the ‘Green Shirts’ ahead of the highly anticipated Twenty20 World Cup 2024, the US embassy said on Tuesday.
The development came amid Pakistan’s preparations for the mega event that will be co-hosted by the West Indies and the US in June.
Ambassador Blome welcomed the Pakistan team and cricket board chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, at his residence and extended his best wishes for the matches in the US.
“In dual gestures of sports diplomacy, Ambassador Blome presented the team members with a commemorative embassy cricket ball and autographed softball bat,” the US embassy said in a statement.
“The Pakistani team reciprocated by presenting the Ambassador with a signed cricket bat and team jersey.”
The US envoy later participated in an impromptu cricket demonstration with members of the Pakistan side.
Both Pakistan and the US have been slated to play within the same group stage and will compete in a highly anticipated game scheduled for June 6.
Organizers of the T20 World Cup games in the US have said that early ticket sales showed there was a huge demand for the sport in the country.
The highly anticipated clash in New York between cricket rivals Pakistan and India was over-subscribed by 200 times in the public ballot for tickets, the International Cricket Council said in Feb.
The 34,000-seat temporary venue, Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Long Island, is already assured of a sell-out crowd for the June 9 encounter.
Pakistan moves to ensure security of its students as clashes rock Bangladesh, curfew imposed
At least 55 people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes in Bangladesh as police tried to disperse protesters calling for PM Hasina to resign
One-third of 144 Pakistani students in Bangladesh have already gone to Pakistan, while a few more will be leaving in next few days, high commission says
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s high commission in Dhaka has asked Pakistani students to stay indoors and away from renewed anti-government protests in Bangladesh, which killed dozens of people and injured hundreds on Sunday.
At least 55 people were killed and hundreds injured in clashes in Bangladesh as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse tens of thousands of protesters calling for Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.
The government declared an indefinite nationwide curfew starting at 6pm on Sunday, the first time it has taken such a step during the current protests that began last month. It also announced a three-day general holiday starting from Monday.
Pakistan’s high commission in Dhaka said it was closely monitoring the changing situation and was in constant contact with Pakistani citizens, especially students.
“As soon as the situation started to deteriorate, the students were asked to reach the High Commission immediately,” it said in a statement. “Those who could not reach have been contacted through telephone and asked to be confined to their rooms and separate themselves from the current situation.”
One-third of the 144 Pakistani students studying in Bangladesh have already gone to Pakistan, while a few more students are leaving for Pakistan in the next few days, according to the high commission. Some of the students who remained in Bangladesh have reached the high commission.
“The High Commission is in constant touch with the students and will continue to take all possible measures to ensure their safety,” it said. “High Commission officials are also in touch with Bangladesh authorities.”
The unrest, which has prompted the government to shut down Internet services, is Hasina’s biggest test since January when deadly protests erupted after she won a fourth straight term in elections that were boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Critics of Hasina, along with human rights groups, have accused her government of using excessive force against protesters, a charge she and her ministers deny.
Last month, at least 150 people were killed and thousands injured in violence touched off by student groups protesting against quotas for government jobs.
The protests paused after the Supreme Court scrapped most quotas, but students returned to the streets in sporadic protests last week, demanding justice for the families of those killed.
KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has initiated departmental action against an employee who is the brother of a former army chief over a “bogus” degree and warned him of termination if he fails to prove his credentials as valid, an airline spokesperson said on Sunday.
Javed Iqbal Bajwa, the brother of former army chief General (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa, is a PIA deputy station manager in Birmingham, United Kingdom. A PIA official confirmed to Arab News that Bajwa is the brother of former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, who retired in Nov. 2022 after completing a six-year tenure as head of Pakistan’s all-powerful army.
In a show-cause notice issued on July 30, PIA told Bajwa his high school certificate, bearing the roll number 25703, had been declared “bogus” by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Lahore, after the airline authorities sent the documents for verification. The airline has given Bajwa seven days to respond and explain why disciplinary action should not be initiated against him.
“Departmental action is being taken against Javed Iqbal Bajwa,” Abdullah Khan, a PIA spokesperson, told Arab News. “If his degree is found to be fraudulent, he will face disciplinary measures, including potential termination of employment.”
The airline noted that sharing false information about one’s name, age, educational or professional qualifications at the time of joining the service or during the service constituted “misconduct” under the PIA Employees Disciplinary Policy.
There has been no immediate comment from Bajwa on the development.
Marred by financial crises, the PIA suffered a major setback when a fake pilot license scandal emerged in June 2020, prompting the airline to ground a third of its 434 pilots on suspicion that they hold “dubious” licenses and flying certificates and unleashing concern from international safety and transport bodies.
The recent revelation of Bajwa’s fake degree comes as another blow to the loss-making airline, which the government is struggling to privatize this year.
News of action against Bajwa also comes amid unprecedented criticism of the army for its role in politics and society in Pakistan, where the military has ruled for nearly half of the country’s history. Even when not directly ruling after coups, the army is widely seen as the invisible guiding hand in politics. The current military regime says army intervention in politics is a thing of the past.
In recent years in particular, Pakistan’s army has come under intense criticism from followers of former prime minister Imran Khan, who blamed generals for siding with his rivals to oust him in a parliamentary no-trust vote in 2022. The army denies the charge.
KARACHI: Haseeb Ullah Malik received this advice from his father two weeks ago as he prepared to leave for a trip to Karachi from Islamabad:
“Don’t argue, just hand over your cellphone and wallet if you’re confronted by street criminals.”
After all, Malik was traveling to a city that was last month ranked by Forbes as the second-riskiest city for tourists, with a rating of 93.12 out of 100, second only to Venezuela’s Caracas, which had a score of 100, while Myanmar’s Yangon ranked third with a score of 91.67 out of 100.
Karachi, a metropolis of 20 million that hosts the stock exchange and central bank, has for decades been beset by armed violence. While an armed campaign led by the military against gangs and suspected militants in the city brought down crime rates after 2013, violence and crime rates have been on the rise again since last year, with shooting deaths in muggings and robberies once again becoming a daily headline.
Police stand guard on a street during an interview with Arab News in Karachi on August 3, 2024. (AN Photo)
According to data from police, 72 people were killed in street crimes in Karachi in the first half of this year.
“I have heard on the news that there are incidents of phone snatchings in Karachi and if you argue, they shoot you,” Malik, the tourist from Islamabad, told Arab News.
Karachi resident Muhammad Masood Ahmed Usmani agreed.
“The perception of Karachi has become very negative. In all of the world, Karachi is considered a hotspot for crime, this is how it is understood,” Usmani told Arab News.
“There is a lot of crime. Cars are being snatched, motorcycles are being stolen, people’s lives are being lost.” “MEDIA OVERHYPE”
Karachi’s newly appointed police chief, Additional Inspector-General Javed Alam Odho, admitted crime in the city had increased but challenged the Forbes’ rating, blaming “media overhype” for the city’s negative image.
“It’s just hearsay that we’ve fallen behind cities like Timbuktu and Khartoum in Sudan,” Odho told Arab News. “I don’t think their [Forbes] rating is rational or logical.”
But Kashif Mushtaq, a prominent crime reporter in Karachi, disagreed with Odho, saying the media’s coverage of crime in Karachi reflected the ground realities.
“I believe that what’s happening [on the ground] is exactly what the media is showing,” Mushtaq said. “And since it’s being highlighted, as it is the [commercial] hub [of the country], we [media] perhaps show it more.”
Kashif Mushtaq, a prominent crime reporter, works on his laptop at the Karachi Press Club during an interview with Arab News in Karachi on August 4, 2024. (AN Photo)
But some tourists have had a different experience.
Infal Zafar, a local tourist from Punjab, said there was crime everywhere in the world and Karachi was no exception.
“If you look at the news about street crime, many incidents are reported even from New York where people are killed,” he said. “But in Karachi, there are many places where you don’t feel scared. For example, I am here at Clifton Beach, it feels like I was in a completely free environment. There is no fear of anything. My mobile is in my pocket, and I am with my family.”
Muhammad Sufiyan, another visitor from Pakistan’s eastern city of Faisalabad, also said his nerves had been calmed after visiting several areas in the metropolis.
“From what we had heard in the media about violence, killings, and such things, it’s not like that at all in Karachi,” Sufyan told Arab News as he visited Sea View beach, arguably the city’s most popular hangout spot on weekends.
“There is peace here, there are no issues.”
Commuters passing Zainab Market in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi on August 3, 2024. (AN Photo)
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad police have arrested Ali Wazir, a prominent Pashtun rights activist, after his car allegedly hit and injured a motorcyclist in the Pakistani capital, Wazir's lawyer and aides said on Sunday.
Two motorbikes had a collision near Zero Point in Islamabad late Friday and one of the bikes hit Wazir’s car, according to Badshah Wazir, a close aide of Wazir.
Wazir, who is also a former lawmaker, immediately transported the wounded motorcyclist in his car to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital for treatment.
“Within no time, a large number of police with personnel in plainclothes arrived at the hospital and took away the former lawmaker with them,” Badshah told Arab News.
Wazir is a prominent member of a socio-ethnic movement, the Pashtun Tahaffuz Movement (PTM), which campaigns for the rights of the Pashtun people, who it says have suffered from years of conflict between the security forces and militants in the country's troubled northwest.
On Saturday, the Islamabad police presented Wazir before an anti-terrorism court, which remanded him into police custody for six days, according to Wazir's lawyer.
Arab News made multiple attempts to reach Zia Qamar, a spokesman of the Islamabad police chief, to seek details of charges against Wazir, but did not get a response to its phone calls and text messages.
“The road accident was just an excuse but the police had already had a mind to detain Ali Wazir,” Attaullah Kundi, Wazir's attorney, told Arab News.
He said his client was implicated in three cases, including the road accident, possession of unlicensed weapons and drugs, and obstruction of police duty, as well as under Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act. The provision relates to endangering life of or causing grievous bodily harm or injury to someone.
Kundi said the prosecutor accused his client of "manhandling the cops and snatching their gun," adding that all these cases had no grounds and would be quashed in the court.
In February 2023, Wazir was released from prison by a court in Karachi after spending more than two years in custody in a slew of cases.
Comment on his fresh arrest, PTM leader Manzoor Pashteen said the Islamabad police had detained Wazir in “extremely false FIRs (first information reports)” after a road accident.
“He has been produced before the court in extremely fabricated cases, including an attack and fire on the police, drug smuggling and road accident,” Pashteen wrote on X. "Our lawyers’ team is there to defend [him in] these fake cases."
PTM was launched to fight against what it says are military excesses committed during anti-terrorism operations in the country's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where most Pashtuns live. The military denies the accusations.
In a first, Pakistan Cricket Board to host women’s trials in far-flung Sost Valley
Sost Valley in northern Gilgit-Baltistan is the last town located on Karakorum Highway connecting Pakistan to China
PCB to hold trials across 14 Pakistan cities from August 5 to September 3 under U19 and Emerging categories
Updated 04 August 2024
Shahjahan Khurram
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday announced it would host open trials for women cricketers for the first time in the picturesque northern remote village of Sost, saying the initiative highlights the board’s commitment to exploring women’s talent in far-flung areas.
Sost, situated in Pakistan’s mountainous northern Gilgit-Baltistan region, is the last town located on the high-altitude Karakorum Highway that connects Pakistan and China.
The PCB will hold open trials for women at the grassroots level across 14 cities of the country from Monday, August 5, to September 3, the board said.
“Among the 14 cities, PCB will host first-ever women’s cricket trials in the Sost Valley, a region known for its picturesque landscapes and passionate cricketing community,” the board said in a statement. “This initiative highlights PCB’s commitment to explore women’s talent in far-flung areas.”
The PCB said that the trials would be held in two phases, with Gilgit, Hunza and Sost regions hosting the trials from August 5-7 while the second phase will begin from August 21 and conclude on September 3.
In case of rain on any given date of the trials, the trials of the respective city will be conducted between 4 to 5 September.
“Former international cricketers Asad Shafiq and Batool Fatima – members of the women’s national selection committee — will hold the trials across the country,” the board said.
The board said that the trial would include two categories, U19 and emerging, with players born on or after September 1, 2005, being eligible for the U19 trials.
“These trials will help the selectors to discover and develop the next generation of women’s cricketers,” Shafiq said in a statement. “We are keen to ensure that talent from every corner of the country gets a fair chance to shine.”
He said the selection process would enable women to represent domestic teams, ultimately leading them to play for the national sides in the future.
Fatima described the open trials as “a crucial step” in efforts to nurture young talent.
“We are excited to see the future stars of women’s cricket come forward and showcase their potential,” she said. “I will urge all parents to support their daughters in pursuing their cricket dreams by helping them participating in the nationwide selection trials.” SCHEDULE
5 Aug – Venue: Cricket Ground for Girls Cricket at Public Schools and Colleges, Gilgit. Selectors: Asad Shafiq and Batool Fatima
6 Aug – Venue: Boys Degree College Ground, Hunza. Selectors: Asad Shafiq and Batool Fatima
7 Aug – Venue: Sost Valley, Hussainabad Cricket Ground, Hunza. Selectors: Asad Shafiq and Batool Fatima Second phase:
21 Aug – Venue: Hanif Mohammad High Performance Center, Karachi. Selector: Asad Shafiq
22 Aug – Venue: Jinnah Stadium, Gujranwala. Selector: Asad Shafiq
23 Aug – Venue: Crescent Cricket Ground, Sialkot. Selector: Asad Shafiq
26 Aug – Venue: LCCA, Lahore. Selectors: Asad Shafiq and Batool Fatima
27 Aug – Venue: Saeed Ajmal Academy, Faisalabad. Selector: Batool Fatima; Venue: Qayyum Stadium, Peshawar. Selector: Asad Shafiq
28 Aug – Venue: Mardan Sports Complex, Mardan. Selector: Asad Shafiq
29 Aug – Venue: Abbottabad Stadium, Abbottabad. Selector: Asad Shafiq; Venue: Bugti Stadium, Quetta. Selector: Batool Fatima
30 Aug – Venue: Viqar Un Nisa College, Rawalpindi. Selector: Asad Shafiq
2 Sep – Venue: Inzamam ul Haq High Performance Center, Multan. Selector: Batool Fatima
3 Sep – Venue: Women Sports Stadium, Bahawalpur. Selector: Batool Fatima
