Over 97,000 Pakistani pilgrims arrive in Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj /node/2526651/pakistan
Over 97,000 Pakistani pilgrims arrive in Saudi Arabia for this year’s Hajj
In this handout photograph, taken and released by the Saudi Press Agency, people attend Friday prayers at Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah on June 7, 2024, ahead of annual Hajj pilgrimage. (SPA)
ISLAMABAD: More than 97,000 Pakistani pilgrims under the government and private Hajj schemes have arrived in Saudi Arabia to take part in the annual Islamic pilgrimage, state-run media reported this week, with Pakistan expected to conclude its month-long pre-flight Hajj operation today, Sunday.
Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, requiring every adult Muslim to undertake the pilgrimage to the holy Islamic sites in Makkah at least once in their lifetime if they are financially and physically able.
Pakistan has a Hajj quota of 179,210 pilgrims this year, of which around 70,000 people will perform the pilgrimage under the government scheme, while the rest will use private tour operators. This year’s pilgrimage is expected to run from June 14-19.
Pakistan kicked off a month-long pre-Hajj flight operation on May 9 to transport pilgrims to the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah for the pilgrimage.
“More than 97,000 pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia under both Government and Private Hajj schemes,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported on Saturday.
About 65,000 Pakistani pilgrims have arrived via 243 flights under the government scheme while more than 36,402 have arrived under the private scheme, the state broadcaster said.
“The last flight from Pakistan will operate on Sunday which will end the month-long operation,” Radio Pakistan said, adding that the overall Hajj operation was proceeding as per schedule.
Muhammad Umer Butt, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s religion ministry, said the government has deployed 375 doctors and paramedical staff, and 511 assistants in Makkah to serve pilgrims free of cost.
A 400-member dedicated Pakistan Hajj Medical Mission is also working around the clock to serve Pakistani pilgrims in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan has established two hospitals and 11 dispensaries in the Saudi cities of Makkah, Madinah and Jeddah to provide health care to Hajj pilgrims.
A government official said last week that out of Pakistan’s total quota of 179,210 pilgrims, around 160,000 pilgrims from the country are expected to perform the pilgrimage.
KHAPLU, Gilgit-Baltistan: In a first, the high-altitude Khunjerab Pass, the only land-connected route between China and Pakistan and a major trade station between the two nations, will remain open year-round for all types of trade and transportation, officials confirmed on Monday, with businesses welcoming the move.
At over 4.600 meters above sea level, Khunjerab, which connects Gilgit-Baltistan with China’s Xinjiang region, is the highest paved international crossing in the world and an important gateway to South Asia and Europe.
The pass is located in the Karakoram and holds a significant strategic position on the northern border of Pakistan, specifically in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Hunza and Nagar Districts. China mainly imports textiles, agricultural products and daily commodities through the pass, and exports plants and herbs.
Due to high altitude and harsh weather conditions, the border was previously open only between April to November and remained closed from December to March. Last October, however, Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing that the pass would be converted into an all-weather border.
“The Government of the People’s Republic of China has formally concurred to the year-round opening of the Khunjerab Pass,” a latest notification from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
“Consequently, operation of the Khunjerab-Sost border crossing are hence forth expanded from 1st April – 30thNovember each year to year-round operation,” the statement said, instructing all relevant agencies and government departments to continue their operations at the port from Dec. 1.
Confirming the development, Faizullah Faraq, the spokesperson for the Gilgit-Baltistan regional government, said authorities were “utilizing all resources” to clear the roads of snow on the Pakistani side to ensure smooth functioning of trade and transport activities.
The Gilgit-Baltistan region in northern Pakistan, flanked by soaring mountain ranges and glaciers, is also a major tourist destination in the country.
“The year-round opening of the border will also help in the promotion of tourism,” Faraq added. “The economic engagement of people of both regions [China and Pakistan] is associated with this border. So the local economy will be uplifted.”
Speaking to Arab News, Muhammad Iqbal, the president of the GB Importers and Exporters Association, welcomed the decision.
“The historic decision to keep the border open for the whole season will help boost import and export trade, and commerce between Pakistan and China,” he said. “For traders, this decision will ensure uninterrupted access to the Chinese market. This route will also give access to Central Asian and other countries and people-to-people contact between Pakistan’s G-B and China’s Xinjiang province will be enhanced.”
Imran Ali, the president of the Gilgit-Baltistan Chamber of Commerce, said “new avenues of development” would be opened by keeping the border open throughout the year.
“More than 20,000 people, including traders and laborers, are associated with this border, and due to this decision, business activities will be increased and traders and locals will directly get benefits,” he added.
According to APP, Pakistan’s state-run news agency, Khunjerab Pass recorded over 50,000 inbound and outbound passengers between Apr. 1 and the end of October, while import and export cargo volume reached 40,900 tones, up 42.6 percent and 72.7 percent year-on-year respectively.
China is a major ally and investor in Pakistan. The two countries collaborate on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a flagship project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative, with more than $65 billion pledged for road, rail, and other infrastructure developments in the South Asian nation.
Pakistan sectarian clashes toll reaches 133 since Nov. 21 — provincial government
A tribal jirga, or council of elders, had been formed to ensure a truce that has remained elusive so far
Government says bunkers set up by armed groups to be dismantled and heavy weaponry confiscated
Updated 50 min 52 sec ago
AFP
PESHAWAR: The death toll from sectarian clashes in northwest Pakistan has risen to 133, the provincial government said Monday, as tribal elders failed to ensure a truce between the feuding Sunni and Shiite Muslim communities.
Pakistan is a Sunni-majority country, but Kurram in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, near the border with Afghanistan, has a large Shiite population and the communities have clashed for decades.
At least “133 precious lives have been lost, and 177 people injured” in sporadic clashes since November 21, said a statement issued after a provincial cabinet meeting.
A tribal jirga, or council of elders, had been formed to ensure a truce that had remained elusive so far, it said.
“Bunkers set up by armed groups in Kurram will be dismantled and heavy weaponry ... will be confiscated,” the statement added.
The latest fighting broke out last Thursday when two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims traveling under police escort were ambushed, killing more than 40.
Since then days of fighting with light and heavy weapons have brought the region to a standstill, with major roads closed and mobile phone services cut as the death toll surged.
Anfal Hussain, who owns a pharmacy in Parachinar area, said “2024 has been extremely tough for Kurram” with dozens killed in clashes.
“I’ve been running this pharmacy for 11 years, but during the recent clashes the highway has been practically closed since October. This has caused significant shortages of food supplies and medicines,” Hussain, 36, told AFP.
“Many major illnesses cannot be treated in Parachinar’s hospitals, but they remain helpless due to the road closures,” he added.
A senior security official in the provincial capital Peshawar, speaking on condition of anonymity, on Friday told AFP that officials with the help of tribal elders were “close to achieving a truce,” after two earlier deals had failed to stymie the fighting.
“There are only two villages now where the sporadic firing is still taking place,” he said.
Police have regularly struggled to control violence in Kurram, which was part of the semi-autonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas until it was merged with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 79 people had been killed in the region between July and October in sectarian clashes.
The feuding is generally rekindled by disputes over land in the rugged mountainous region, and fueled by underlying tensions between communities from different sects.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will leave for Riyadh tomorrow, Tuesday, to attend the One Water Summit from Dec. 3-4, the premier’s office said in a statement on Monday.
A joint initiative of Saudi Arabia, France, Kazakhstan and the World Bank, the summit aims for high-level political commitments to promote global cooperation and a coherent international approach toward water resource management.
“At the Summit, the Prime Minister will deliver a keynote address at a roundtable focusing on restoration, preservation, and adaptation in the context of fresh water resources and wetlands,” Sharif’s office said.
“He will also highlight steps being taken by Pakistan to promote water conservation, strengthen climate resilience, improve water quality, create livelihoods, and conserve biodiversity.
“The prime minister will underline the importance of international cooperation to tackle the impact of climate-induced floods, erratic and extreme weather patterns, and heat stress on water resources and ecosystems. He will also call for meaningful international collaboration for sustainable water resource management.”
Sharif is also expected to hold bilateral meetings and engagements on the forum’s sidelines.
The summit is being held on the margins of the next high-level session of the sixteenth session of COP16 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). It aims to contribute to ongoing United Nations discussions and processes to enhance global water governance, accelerate action on SDG6 on water and sanitation, and build on the momentum of the UN Water Conference in 2023.
The forum will also act as an incubator for solutions in preparation for the next UN Water Conference in 2026, and integrate its agenda into the other existing water processes and initiatives such as the World Water Forum, the Dushanbe Conference and the World Water Week.
“The One Water Summit’s ambition is to scale-up projects by stimulating partnerships between states, international organizations, local authorities, development and private banks, businesses, philanthropies, scientific experts, NGOs and civil society, in line with previous One Planet Summits,” the forum’s website said.
KARACHI: Every year, enthusiasts of an ancient Japanese art form gather in the port city of Karachi to show off their works at the annual exhibition of the Pakistan Bonsai Society.
This year’s edition too saw members of the group putting on display trees that they had grown in containers to create a realistic miniature of mature forms. The members consider themselves artists and the miniature trees, shaped and pruned with precision and care, are not just plants for them but living sculptures rooted in history, tradition and deep personal devotion.
The practice of bonsai, or miniaturizing plants, is thought to have come to Japan from China sometime around the seventh century, when the two countries formally established diplomatic ties. Similar art forms exist in other cultures, including Korea’s bunjae, the Chinese art of penjing, and the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese Hòn non bộ.
In the world of bonsai, every twist, turn and trim is an artistic act in which horticulture meets creativity.
“We are artists, using our horticulture knowledge and aesthetic sense, we create these bonsai,” Salman Farooqui, an enthusiast with over a decade of experience, told Arab News on Sunday, as his hands gently guided a tiny tree branch into shape.
Farooqui described bonsai as the only “recognized” living art form that traces its origins back to the ancient Gandhara civilization, which existed from around 500BC to 900AD in what is now northern Pakistan and Afghanistan, long before it became synonymous with Japan.
Buddhist monks in the ancient Taxila and Harappa cities meditated under the shade of the Peepal tree, or Ficus religiosa, with its roots intertwining with the spiritual practices of the time, according to Farooqui. The art form then shifted to Tibet in China, before it finally reached Japan.
Visitors attend the annual exhibition of Pakistan Bonsai Society in Karachi on December 1, 2024. (AN Photo)
“The imagination of Buddha was under the Peepal tree,” Farooqui said. “Japan gave it an official recognition.”
For many Karachiites, the journey into the world of bonsai began with the efforts of a visionary, the late Maj. Gen. Dr. Shaukat Ali Syed, who brought the art form to Pakistan in the 1960s and is often credited with popularizing it in the South Asian country. The Pakistan Bonsai Society itself was established in 1998, the brainchild of Dr. Syed, whose legacy lives on through its annual exhibitions and workshops.
“I saw a live bonsai for the first time at his [Dr. Syed’s] residence in Karachi when I was a child. He had been growing them since the ‘60s,” Khawaja Mohammad Mazhar, an engineer who retired from the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and took up the cultivation of bonsai in 1980, told Arab News. “POTTED PLANTING”
Bonsai plants, unlike traditional potted ones, require care, patience, and expertise. They can be grown from seeds, cuttings or nursery stock. Beginning with a thicker trunk to form the base of the tree is often the quicker method but regardless of the starting point, all bonsai are treated as living sculptures that are pruned and shaped meticulously over time.
Various techniques, including painstaking pruning and wiring, are used to give the trees a mature appearance, Mazhar explained. It could take decades to complete one tree, meant to symbolize a scene from nature, and they could then survive for centuries.
Bonsai trees are seen exhibited by the Pakistan Bonsai Society in Karachi on December 1, 2024. (AN Photo)
“It’s the same normal plants, they are only trained,” Mazhar said:
“They have a shallow pot, the roots do not spread much as they are constantly trimmed, and they are kept in the same shallow container, while the shaping is controlled from the top through wiring, through weights.”
The “clip and grow” method, in which parts of the plant were selectively trimmed to encourage specific growth patterns, is a main technique of the art.
Local plants are best suited for bonsai cultivation and Karachi’s enthusiasts recommended training native species into sculptural forms that express their unique ecological and cultural climates.
“An imported plant from outside will not survive here as a bonsai,” Manzar said.
Mansoor Alam Khan, another enthusias who found his passion for the art form through the Pakistan Bonsai Society, began cultivating about 10 years ago. The practice allowed him to continue his love for planting trees in Karachi, where space is often limited.
In fact, bonsai, which literally means “potted planting,” became popular as a way of bringing nature inside for many Japanese whose small houses made gardens impossible.
“I was inclined toward planting trees since childhood but there isn’t enough space in Karachi so we couldn’t grow trees,” Khan told Arab News. “When I met these people [at the Pakistan Bonsai Society] and saw that they are growing these trees in their homes so I followed suit too. I have made a really good collection in the last 10 years.”
Visitors attend the annual exhibition of Pakistan Bonsai Society in Karachi on December 1, 2024. (AN Photo)
“Everyone talks about planting trees these days to save the environment. So, if there is not enough space, you can start gardening from your home too,” he added. “For instance, if someone has 50 plants on their rooftop, they can turn them into bonsais.”
Farooqui, who practices bonsai with his wife Ruby Salman, said though the art was in its “introductory conditions,” in Pakistan, more young people were becoming interested.
“Now, as we train more youngsters into this art form, I hope it will become known in this country in the future,” he said.
His wife added that the Internet was helping to boost interest in bonsai among younger people.
“Yes, I feel that when kids do come [to Bonsai Society] and when they come to know the whole story about the bonsai, when we tell them that how it started, they really take an interest in it.”
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday set a new record as it cruised past 103,000 points during the intraday trading, stock analysts said.
The benchmark KSE-100 index was at 103,036 points at around 250pm on Monday, recording a 1.66 percent gain from Friday’s close of 101,357 points.
The development came as Pakistan’s statistics bureau said annual consumer inflation had slowed to 4.9 percent in November, lower than the government’s forecast, largely due to a high base a year earlier.
Analysts said the stocks showed record bullish activity amid upbeat data on CPI inflation, which was likely to ease the central bank policy.
“Strong economic data and surging foreign exchange reserves [$11,418.5 million in week ending on Nov. 22] played a catalyst role in bullish activity at the PSX,” Ahsan Mehanti, chief executive officer (CEO) of Arif Habib Corporation, told Arab News.
Consumer inflation cooled from 7.2 percent in October, a sharp drop from a multi-decade high of nearly 40 percent in May 2023. The PSX breached the 100,000-mark for the first time on Thursday to close at 100,082 points. The South Asian country slashed interest rates by 250 basis points earlier in November to help revive a sluggish economy amid a big drop in the rate of inflation.
The market rally is also attributable to Pakistan’s new $7 billion loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that has bolstered investor confidence, according to some analysts. The IMF’s disbursement of the first tranche of approximately $1 billion in September, along with fiscal and monetary reforms, improved the sentiment.
But Muhammad Ali Khan, an investment banker and analyst, downplayed the IMF factor and pointed to low interest rates and correction in the market, which had been undervalued for years, as the main reasons behind the bullish trend.
“The stock market had come down to very low valuations, especially in the region, the interest rate is going down and a lot of cash was sitting on the sidelines before this rally,” he told Arab News.
Khan was skeptical of the market performance in the long run, though he expected the market to go up to 110,000 points in the coming days before undergoing another correction.
“This is a speculative market at this point in my view, given that large-scale manufacturing, exports and all other major indicators are crippling,” he said.
“We came off the ventilator. That doesn’t mean we are healthy. IMF saved us, IMF did not solve anything for us.”
