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Authorities revoke permit for Imran Khan’s party to hold public rally in Islamabad today

Authorities revoke permit for Imran Khan’s party to hold public rally in Islamabad today
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party supporters hold portraits of Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan, as they protest against the alleged skewing in Pakistan's national election, in Peshawar on March 10, 2024. (AFP/File)
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Updated 06 July 2024
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Authorities revoke permit for Imran Khan’s party to hold public rally in Islamabad today

Authorities revoke permit for Imran Khan’s party to hold public rally in Islamabad today
  • The decision was mentioned by the capital police that warned of legal action against anyone who violated it
  • Earlier, the PTI accused state agencies of ‘abducting’ media team member to quell dissenting political voices
Updated 06 July 2024
Arab News Pakistan
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ISLAMABAD: Police in Pakistan’s federal capital said on Friday the district administration had revoked the permission to “a political party” to hold a rally on July 6 and warned of legal action against anyone who violated the decision.
The announcement came as former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was preparing to hold the rally to protest the tax-laden budget presented last month, along with the spiraling cost of living in the country.
PTI said earlier this month that the federal government was delaying the issuance of a no-objection certificate for it to hold the public meeting, as its leaders promised record-breaking numbers.
The party maintained it never stopped its rivals from holding political rallies during its tenure in power.
“The district administration has revoked the permit for a political party’s rally on July 6,” the police announced in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “No rally will be allowed without a permit.”
“Legal action will be taken against those who take the law into their own hands,” it added. “Islamabad police will ensure the maintenance of law and order in the city at all costs.”
Earlier, the PTI criticized the state for “abducting” a senior member of its media team ahead of the rally in Islamabad, accusing it of focusing more on quelling dissent than dealing with the problem of militant violence.
“Rizwan Ahmad, a senior member of the PTI Media Department, has been abducted by agencies a short while ago,” Omar Ayub, a top PTI leader, said on social media. “This action by the agencies is just to silence his voice.”
“The agencies are not doing their job of countering terrorism and the latest assassination of Senator Hidayat Ullah Khan is an example, but they are busy silencing the voices of PTI that dare to speak the truth,” he added, referring to the killing of a Pakistani lawmaker in the northwestern Bajaur district in a blast that killed four others.
Only a day earlier, Amnesty International condemned such incidents against PTI workers and their family members, pointing out that they had been “forcibly disappeared since June 2024.”

Topics: PTI Ex-PM Imran Khan Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

Imran Khan says no more talks with military or government, announces rally on Sept. 22

Imran Khan says no more talks with military or government, announces rally on Sept. 22
Updated 13 sec ago
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Imran Khan says no more talks with military or government, announces rally on Sept. 22

Imran Khan says no more talks with military or government, announces rally on Sept. 22
  • Khan says the ‘establishment’ asked him to postpone Islamabad rally from Aug. 22 to Sept. 8 for security reasons
  • He maintains they promised to facilitate the rally in return, but instead blocked all roads leading to the venue
Updated 13 sec ago
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced his refusal to engage with the “establishment or government,” according to a message from prison shared by his sister on Wednesday, warning that his party is ready to proceed with another public rally on September 22, even without official permission.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party held a rally on the outskirts of Islamabad on Sunday, demanding his release from prison after his arrest over a year ago on multiple charges, which he claims are fabricated to keep him out of power. Clashes broke out between his supporters and the police on the day of the rally, with a top PTI leader and Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, warning the government to release Khan within two weeks or his party would free him from jail on its own.
This was followed by a police crackdown on PTI lawmakers, who were arrested from the parliament building, prompting the party to announce a nationwide protest on Friday.
In his message, Khan said the “establishment,” a euphemism for the country’s powerful military, had previously asked to postpone his rally from August 22 to September 8, citing intelligence reports of security threats.
“They gave their reassurance for complete facilitation if the jalsa [rally] was shifted to 8th September,” the ex-premier’s message, shared by his sister Aleema Khanum on social media, said. “Instead, they placed thousands of containers across every entry point into Islamabad.”
Objecting to the dispersal of his party supporters with tear gas and the arrest of lawmakers from parliament, he said, “There will be no further talks with the establishment or government.”
“Rest assured,” he continued, “We will go ahead with the jalsa on [September] 22. NOC [no-objection certificate] or no NOC.”
Khan’s party had already announced a rally in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on September 22.
His message comes after PTI leaders held a news conference on Tuesday, saying they would take their party’s political struggle to the streets, apart from fighting legal and political battles in court and parliament.

Topics: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan Imran Khan

Pakistani national charged in alleged Iran plot to kill US official

Pakistani national charged in alleged Iran plot to kill US official
Updated 11 September 2024
AFP
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Pakistani national charged in alleged Iran plot to kill US official

Pakistani national charged in alleged Iran plot to kill US official
  • Asif Raza Merchant was arrested on July 12 as he planned to leave the US
  • He allegedly sought to hire a hitman to avenge an Iranian general’s killing
Updated 11 September 2024
AFP

NEW YORK: A Pakistani man with ties to Iran has been charged for allegedly plotting to assassinate a US official in retaliation for the US killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a US government official in the United States, the Justice Department and prosecutors said in a statement.
“As these terrorism and murder for hire charges against Asif Merchant demonstrate, we will continue to hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
Soleimani, the head of Iran’s foreign military operations, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020. Iranian officials have repeatedly vowed to avenge his killing.
“As alleged, Merchant orchestrated a plot to assassinate US politicians and government officials. Today’s indictment is a message to terrorists here and abroad,” United States Attorney Breon Peace added.
The intended victim was not identified but the attorney general has previously said no evidence has emerged to link Merchant with the July 13 assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the Pakistani national had “close ties to Iran” and that the alleged murder-for-hire plot was “straight out of the Iranian playbook.”
Another FBI official said the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were in fact undercover FBI agents.
“After spending time in Iran, Merchant arrived in the United States from Pakistan and contacted a person he believed could assist him with the scheme to kill a politician or government official,” the Justice Department said in a statement.
“That person reported Merchant’s conduct to law enforcement and became a confidential source.”
Merchant was arrested on July 12 as he planned to leave the country.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in August it had “not received any report on this from the American government.”
“But it is clear that this method is contrary to the Iranian government’s policy of pursuing Soleimani’s killer,” the mission said in a statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
In August 2022, the United States charged a member of the Revolutionary Guards with plotting to assassinate former US National Security Adviser John Bolton.
The Justice Department said Shahram Poursafi, who remains at large, had offered to pay an individual in the United States $300,000 to kill Bolton.

Topics: Asif Raza Merchant General Qassem Soleimani

Afghanistan says to begin work on $10 billion gas pipeline through Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan 

Afghanistan says to begin work on $10 billion gas pipeline through Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan 
Updated 11 September 2024
AFP
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Afghanistan says to begin work on $10 billion gas pipeline through Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan 

Afghanistan says to begin work on $10 billion gas pipeline through Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan 
  • Work on the TAPI pipeline has repeatedly been delayed due to security issues in conflict-ravaged Afghanistan
  • Afghan officials Wednesday joined dignitaries in Turkmenistan to celebrate pipeline’s completion on that side of border
Updated 11 September 2024
AFP

Afghanistan said Wednesday work would begin on a $10 billion gas pipeline traversing South Asia as officials joined dignitaries in neighboring Turkmenistan to celebrate its completion on that side of the border.
Progress on the TAPI pipeline — running through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India — has been repeatedly delayed because of security issues in conflict-ravaged Afghanistan.
“From today the operations will start on Afghanistan’s soil,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at the ceremony in comments broadcast by Afghan state television.
At the border ceremony in Islim Cheshma in Turkmenistan, officials on both sides, including Afghan Prime Minister Hassan Akhund, hailed the project.
“This project will benefit not only the economies of the countries participating but also the countries of the whole region,” Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedow said in a video broadcast live at the ceremony.
In the Afghan border province of Herat, a public holiday was declared to mark the occasion, with posters celebrating the project plastered around the capital of the same name.
The pipeline will see around 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year extracted from the Galkynysh gas field in southeast Turkmenistan.
It will be pumped through a 1,800-kilometer (1,120-mile) pipeline traversing Afghanistan, including Herat and Kandahar in the south, before crossing into restive Balochistan province in Pakistan and ending in Fazilka in Indian Punjab.
Pakistan and India will each purchase 42 percent of the gas deliveries, and Afghanistan 16 percent, while Kabul will also benefit from lucrative transit fees of around $500 million per year, according to Afghan media.
Work on the Turkmen side began in 2015 and was initially scheduled to start in Afghanistan in 2018, but has been repeatedly delayed.
India’s commitment to the pipeline has also previously been questioned over its relationship with Pakistan and its already easy access to liquefied natural gas markets.
- Jobs and cheap gas -
The ceremony was an opportunity to simultaneously launch various bilateral projects, including a fiber-optic line to Herat, an electricity line, and the inauguration of a railway bridge.
In a country plagued by unemployment, TAPI “will provide jobs for 12,000 people in Afghanistan,” the government spokesman Mujahid told AFP.
Neither Afghan nor Turkmen officials have provided details on the financing or the expected date for TAPI to come online.
However, Swapnil Babele, an analyst with the research group Rystad Energy, expects further delays “as a lot of work remains to be done and the question of future financing is unclear.”
“We expect it to be operational only in the next decade,” he told AFP.
For the three recipient countries, the pipeline will have the advantage of “delivering gas cheaper than liquefied natural gas and ensuring consistent supply.”
It is the most significant development project for Taliban authorities since they seized power in 2021, ending their two decade-long insurgency against the foreign-backed government.
The pipeline gives the government, which is not officially recognized by any nation, a strategic role in regional cooperation between Central Asia and South Asia, which is facing huge energy deficits.
Afghanistan, although still under economic and financial sanctions from the West, is currently trying to relaunch ambitious projects, particularly in energy, mines and infrastructure.
At the end of July, Afghanistan and China officially relaunched a major copper-extraction project in the world’s second-largest known deposit, near Kabul, which had been bogged down since 2008.

Topics: Afghanistan gas pipeline TAPI pipeline

Saudi naval delegation discusses maritime security with Pakistani task force commander in Bahrain

Saudi naval delegation discusses maritime security with Pakistani task force commander in Bahrain
Updated 11 September 2024
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Saudi naval delegation discusses maritime security with Pakistani task force commander in Bahrain

Saudi naval delegation discusses maritime security with Pakistani task force commander in Bahrain
  • Pakistan assumed command of the multinational Combined Task Force 150 earlier this year in July
  • The task force is to counter smuggling, narcotics trafficking and ensure the region’s maritime security
Updated 11 September 2024
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: A delegation of the Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) on Wednesday met with Pakistan’s Commodore Asim Sohail Malik, who is currently commanding the Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150) in Bahrain, to explore potential avenues for collaboration and discuss the region’s maritime security.

CTF 150 is part of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), a multinational naval partnership aimed at ensuring the security in critical regions like the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman.

CTF 150’s mission is to counter illicit activities at sea, including smuggling, trafficking of narcotics and other non-state actor threats, to promote stability and security in these vital international waters.

Pakistan assumed command of this task in July for the 13th time, with the country’s naval officials pointing out its frequent leadership of CTF 150 highlighted the trust placed in it by other coalition partners.

“During the meeting, both [sides] shared their perspectives on regional maritime security challenges and explored potential avenues for collaboration between CTF 150 and the upcoming RSNF Maritime Component Command to maintain security and stability in the region,” an official statement circulated by the naval headquarters in Islamabad said.

“Discussions focused on CTF 150’s ongoing operations aimed at disrupting illicit activities in the Arabian Sea and ensuring maritime security in the region,” it added.

The statement said Pakistani official and Saudi Arabia’s Commodore Othman Oqab Al Zahrani also reaffirmed the excellent relationship between the naval forces of their countries, emphasizing the necessity of working together to ensure greater maritime security.

The RSNF delegation also engaged with the entire Pakistan Navy team currently leading CTF 150 and exchanged views on viable options to counter contemporary maritime security challenges.

Commodore Malik assured the Saudi delegation that his team would continue to strengthen the efforts of the multinational task force to ensure robust security in the maritime domain of its responsibility. He also assured the visiting delegation Pakistan Navy’s commitment to working with other coalition navies.

 

Topics: Pakistan Saudi Ties Pakistan Saudi Navy

Pakistan PM promises to promote football after street team’s stellar Norway performance

Pakistan PM promises to promote football after street team’s stellar Norway performance
Updated 11 September 2024
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Pakistan PM promises to promote football after street team’s stellar Norway performance

Pakistan PM promises to promote football after street team’s stellar Norway performance
  • Pakistan’s street child football team is primarily composed of underprivileged children with limited resources
  • Shehbaz Sharif says a comprehensive plan for the development of football in Pakistan will soon be implemented
Updated 11 September 2024
Kashaf Rehman

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Pakistan’s street child football team on Wednesday, which recently delivered an outstanding performance at a tournament in Norway, and promised to do everything possible to promote the sport in the country.
Football enjoys a significant fanbase in Pakistan, but it has often been overshadowed by the nation’s obsession with cricket. Efforts to uplift the national football team are gaining momentum, however, with its players facing veteran teams from Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The Pakistani street child football team also displayed a stellar performance in the Norway Cup 2024, advancing to the semifinals after remaining undefeated in its group stage matches.
“The players of the Pakistani street child football team are making the country proud worldwide,” the prime minister was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office after the meeting. “Your outstanding performance proves that Pakistani youth can exhibit their talents globally if they have the opportunity.”
“We will take every possible step for the development of football in Pakistan,” he added. “A comprehensive plan for the development of football in the country will soon be implemented.”
Pakistan’s street child football team is primarily composed of underprivileged children who have very limited resources.
These children come from marginalized backgrounds and face significant challenges, including lack of access to proper education, training facilities and basic necessities.
The team is promoted and supported by Muslim Hands, a UK-based non-profit organization that focuses on humanitarian aid, education, and poverty alleviation.
The prime minister also praised Muslim Hands for its initiative and assured the team of his government’s full support.
He also directed the relevant authorities to fully restore departmental sports on a priority basis and to submit a report.

Topics: Pakistan’s street child football team

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