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Pakistan PM to attend Iranian president’s oath ceremony next week

Pakistan PM to attend Iranian president’s oath ceremony next week
In this file photograph, taken and released by Prime Minister Office on May 23, 2024, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif boarding a Pakistan Air Force aircraft at the Nur Khan Airbase in Rawalpindi. (Photo courtesy: PMO/File)
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Updated 25 July 2024
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Pakistan PM to attend Iranian president’s oath ceremony next week

Pakistan PM to attend Iranian president’s oath ceremony next week
  • Masoud Pezeshkian won the presidential election held after Ebrahim Raisi’s death in helicopter crash
  • Pakistan and Iran have made peace overtures after exchanging airstrikes earlier this year in January
Updated 25 July 2024
SAIMA SHABBIR
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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office announced on Thursday Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Iran on July 30 to attend the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian.
This will be Sharif’s second visit to Iran in three months, as he previously visited the neighboring state to offer condolences on the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.
Earlier this month, voters in Iran gave a decisive win to reformist candidate Pezeshkian in the runoff election against the ultraconservative Saeed Jalili to replace Raisi.
Pezeshkian is now required to take an oath in Iranian parliament before assuming the office of the head of the state next week.
“At the invitation of the Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, [Shehbaz] Sharif, will visit Tehran on 30 July to attend the inauguration ceremony of the President-elect of Iran, Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian,” the foreign office spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, informed during her weekly media briefing.
She said the visit demonstrated the dedication of both countries to enhancing high-level interactions and bilateral collaboration.
“The visit attests to the commitment by the two countries to strengthen leadership level engagements and bilateral cooperation,” Baloch said.
Pakistan and Iran have had a history of rocky relations despite several commercial pacts. Their highest profile agreement is a stalled gas supply deal signed in 2010 to build a pipeline from Iran’s Fars gas field to Pakistan’s southern provinces of Balochistan and Sindh.
Pakistan and Iran also find themselves at odds due to the instability along their shared porous border, with their leaders routinely trading blame after militant attacks in their respective territories.
Earlier this year in January, Pakistan and Iran exchanged airstrikes, with each government claiming to have targeted militant hideouts in the other country.
Both states have since made peace overtures and restored bilateral ties through multiple high-level visits.

Topics: Pakistan Iran Masoud Pezeshkian

12 more Karachi cops suspended for posting ‘inappropriate’ social media videos

12 more Karachi cops suspended for posting ‘inappropriate’ social media videos
Updated 12 sec ago
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12 more Karachi cops suspended for posting ‘inappropriate’ social media videos

12 more Karachi cops suspended for posting ‘inappropriate’ social media videos
  • Suspended police personnel have been directed to report to the Zonal Headquarters to face departmental action
  • Karachi police have taken action against the cops on the instructions of Sindh Inspector General Ghulam Memon
Updated 12 sec ago
NAIMAT KHAN

KARACHI: Twelve more police constables including three women in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi have been suspended for posting “inappropriate” viral videos on social media, police said on Friday, days after the suspension of their seven colleagues for the same reason.
On Tuesday, a female cop, Maria Gill, was suspended after posting a TikTok video in which she could be seen inviting viewers to meet her at a location where she and her colleagues had been deployed on duty. She was suspended for “unnecessarily endangering the privacy and lives” of her teammates.
On Thursday, Karachi police said six police constables, including two women, had been suspended over videos posted on different social media platforms, calling on them to “report to their respective Zonal Headquarters, where they will be attending daily roll call and parade.”
“On the orders of Sindh Inspector General Ghulam Nabi Memon, Additional IG Karachi suspended 12 more TikTokers,” the Karachi police said in a post on social media site X.


The suspended police personnel included Majid Ali, Kamran Ghulab, Noman Khan, Noman, Waqas, Muhammad Sohail, Irfan Shahbaz, Ahmed Ali, Huzaifa, Sonia, Mehak Khan and Woronika. They were also directed to report to the Zonal Headquarters to face departmental action.
This is not the first time police employees in Pakistan have faced disciplinary action for social media activity deemed inappropriate by high-ups.
In August 2024, Lady Constable Maryam Bhatti was dismissed from Rawalpindi police for similar reasons.
On July 31, 2024, Constable Muqaddas from Islamabad was dismissed from the Federal Police’s Counter-Terrorism Department for making a TikTok video while using an official vehicle.
On July 29, 2024, Assistant Sub-Inspector Inayatullah Niazi was suspended in Chiniot for allowing a transgender person to film a video in the SHO’s office, which was deemed “disrespectful” to the police uniform.
On February 27, 2024, Constable Bahawal Sher was suspended in Faisalabad for sharing a video on social media where he was seen smoking while in uniform and displaying pistols.
Lady Constable Sumbul from Sindh faced an investigation on October 14, 2023, for posting a controversial video supporting Israel while Lady Constable Mehwish Khan was suspended on May 16, 2022, in Muzaffargarh for uploading videos in police uniform.
On July 24, 2020, Constable Wafa Tauqeer was also suspended in Lahore after a TikTok video of her in uniform went viral.

Topics: Karachi Police socia media TikTok

‘Great feeling’ to win for Pakistan, says chocolatier who bagged prestigious French pastry award

‘Great feeling’ to win for Pakistan, says chocolatier who bagged prestigious French pastry award
Updated 36 min 58 sec ago
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‘Great feeling’ to win for Pakistan, says chocolatier who bagged prestigious French pastry award

‘Great feeling’ to win for Pakistan, says chocolatier who bagged prestigious French pastry award
  • Lals Pâtisserie, a luxury chocolate shop that opened in Karachi in 2006, won the ‘Pastry Discovery Gem Award 2024’ 
  • Award is given by Paris-based La Liste, world’s most selective global guide of restaurants, pastry shops and hotels
Updated 36 min 58 sec ago
BURAQ SHABBIR

KARACHI: Lal Majid, whose Lals Pâtisserie won the prestigious La Liste ‘Pastry Discovery Gem Award’ 2024, said this week it was a “great feeling” to be the only winner from Pakistan, able to be in a room full of world-renowned chefs in Paris wearing a Pakistan pin and traditional salwar kameez. 
La Liste, the world’s most selective global guide of restaurants, pastry shops and hotels, puts out the awards annually, celebrating the “diversity of talents, the creativity and audacity, education, and the commitment to values such as seasonality and biodiversity.”
This year, the platform announced a total of 25 winners from 14 countries across the world in 10 categories. The Canadian Farine & Cacao pastry shop, which has been named one of the top pâtisseries in the world in the past, Chez Dodo, a charming pastry shop near St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest, and Alanya, a pastry shop in Lima’s bohemian Barranco district, also won in the same category as Lals.
Majid got her award at a ceremony held on June 17, 2024, in Paris. She runs the business with her daughter Madiha Sultan Tai, who serves as CEO.
“Till now, I am the first one [from Pakistan to feature on La Liste],” Majid, a florist turned chocolatier, told Arab News in an interview. “We researched if any Pakistani has won this award previously and we learnt that I was the first one to get this award.”
When Majid first started getting email inquiries from La Liste, she thought they were fake.
“I didn’t realize [it was happening] till the time I entered that area,” Majid said, describing the ceremony in Paris where she stood shoulder to shoulder with some of the world’s best chefs and chocolatiers, many of whose creations she had been admiring for years from a distance and whose books she had read and reread.
“I was lucky to get the award. It was all about my pastry [and] my chocolate,” Majid said.
“When it was announced that I was [from] Pakistan, and I was the only one from this area, it was a great feeling, of course. I was wearing my flag. I was wearing my Pakistani shalwar kameez.”
“HANSEL AND GRETEL”
Born and raised in Peshawar, Majid was not very good at studies and got married while she was still in college.
“[As a child,] I loved chocolates. I don’t know why but I was very much inspired by the story of Hansel and Gretel,” Majid said, referring to a German fairy tale in which siblings Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in a forest and fall into the hands of a witch who lives in a bread, cake, and sugar house.
“I always used to dream that I could have a chocolate, biscuit and candy house and I could break [off a piece] and have it myself. But I never thought I’d be able to make a chocolate factory,” the chocolatier said. 
Majid was initially importing chocolate but then started taking classes on how to make it herself.
“I studied and did a lot of courses,” she said. “Then we started making gelatos. We made this [Shahbaz Commercial] outlet. And now, we are making our own chocolate. And the interesting thing is that now our chocolates, except the cocoa mass and cocoa beans which we don’t grow in Pakistan, every ingredient is local and Pakistani.”
Lals has multiple outlets in Karachi and Lahore and in March this year launched an online shop in Dubai, with a small kiosk in a physical outlet also.
“Dubai is a very tough market. It’s very initial so I can’t say anything about the response yet but inshaAllah, soon,” Majid said.
“We are expanding to Islamabad and opening one more outlet in Lahore [soon]. I hope [to launch an outlet] in Peshawar. That’s my hometown. I live in Karachi but my heart is in Peshawar.”

Topics: chocolate chocolate market Lals Pâtisserie

Pakistan deputy PM praises UAE for reviving Joint Ministerial Commission after a decade

Pakistan deputy PM praises UAE for reviving Joint Ministerial Commission after a decade
Updated 46 min 25 sec ago
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Pakistan deputy PM praises UAE for reviving Joint Ministerial Commission after a decade

Pakistan deputy PM praises UAE for reviving Joint Ministerial Commission after a decade
  • Ishaq Dar discusses trade and investment in a phone call with UAE state minister for foreign affairs
  • The two sides are expected to hold the JMC meeting on October 1, strengthen business-to-business ties
Updated 46 min 25 sec ago
Arab News Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday praised the United Arab Emirates for agreeing to hold the Pak-UAE Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) meeting next month after more than 10 years during a phone call with UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Ali Al Sayegh.
Dar is currently on a five-day visit to the United Kingdom where he has met top British officials and interacted with members of the Pakistani diaspora.
The Pakistani deputy PM, who also holds the foreign minister’s portfolio, took the UAE minister’s phone call in which they discussed other issues of mutual interest.
“UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed bin Ali Al Sayegh, spoke with Deputy Prime Minister/ Foreign Minister @MIshaqDar50 who is currently visiting the UK,” the Pakistan foreign office said in a social media post. “They discussed OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation] related issues and key areas of bilateral cooperation in the field of trade and investment.”
“[Dar] welcomed the holding of 12th session of Pak-UAE Joint Ministerial Commission in the UAE next month after a hiatus of 13 years,” the post added.

 
Pakistani media reported earlier last week the Pak-UAE JMC was scheduled to take place on October 1, adding it would focus on different economic and financial fields.
The two countries are expected to hold a joint business council meeting on the sidelines of the JMC and work toward the establishment on greater business-to-business relations.
The UAE is Pakistan’s third largest trading partner after China and the United States. Policymakers in Pakistan consider the Emirates an optimal export destination due to geographical proximity, which minimizes transportation and freight costs while facilitating commercial transactions.
The UAE is also home to more than a million Pakistani expatriates and the second-largest source of remittances to the South Asian country after Saudi Arabia.

Topics: Ishaq Dar Pakistan UAE ties

Pakistan’s counterterrorism force kills five militants in shootout in southwest

Pakistan’s counterterrorism force kills five militants in shootout in southwest
Updated 07 September 2024
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Pakistan’s counterterrorism force kills five militants in shootout in southwest

Pakistan’s counterterrorism force kills five militants in shootout in southwest
  • CTD says it carried out operation against TTP ‘sharpshooters’ planning militant attacks in Balochistan
  • Official statement says these militants were based in a compound of an Afghan refugee camp in Pishin
Updated 07 September 2024
SAADULLAH AKHTER

QUETTA: The Counterterrorism Department (CTD) of the police in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province announced in a statement on Friday night it had killed five militants of the proscribed militant network Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in the Surkhab area of Pishin district after a shootout.
Balochistan, a strategic region bordering Iran and Afghanistan, hosts key China-led infrastructure projects, including a port and a gold-copper mine. The province has long grappled with a separatist insurgency, with Baloch militants accusing the central government of exploiting its mineral and gas resources. The Pakistani state denies these allegations, asserting it is working to uplift the region through development initiatives.
Last month, over 50 people were killed in coordinated attacks claimed by one of these militant groups. While the TTP, which emerged from the northwestern tribal areas with Al Qaeda-inspired ideology, does not share the Baloch separatists’ objectives, it has a deadly history of targeting civilians and security forces. Pakistani officials suggest it has also forged ties with Baloch militants, intensifying activities in the southwest.
“Five terrorists belonging the banned TTP were killed during an exchange of fire between the CTD personnel and the terrorists,” a CTD spokesperson, who did not want to be named, told Arab News. “A cache of arms and explosives, including hand grenades, improvised explosive devices and a motorbike were seized from their compound.”
He further, said one of the militants belonged to Spin Boldak, a bordering town in Afghanistan and close to Pakistan’s southwestern bordering city of Chaman.
“The CTD has lodged a first information report of the incident and started looking for other group members in the nearby areas,” he added.
According to the department’s official statement, it received information that five sharpshooters belonging to the TTP were residing in a compound of an Afghan refugee camp in Surkhab and planning militant activities.
The Pakistani security forces have intensified intelligence-based operations in the area since the deadly Balochistan attacks last month.
The federal government on Friday also granted special powers to the army, civilian armed forces and the provincial authorities to combat militants in the region after amending the Anti-Terrorist Act of Pakistan to deal with the uptick in militant violence.

Topics: Balochistan Attacks Balochistan Liberation Army Counter Terrorism Department

India releases five fishermen among nine Pakistani prisoners — Pakistan high commission

India releases five fishermen among nine Pakistani prisoners — Pakistan high commission
Updated 07 September 2024
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India releases five fishermen among nine Pakistani prisoners — Pakistan high commission

India releases five fishermen among nine Pakistani prisoners — Pakistan high commission
  • Pakistan and India exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody through diplomatic channels on Jan 1 and July 1 each year
  • Indian and Pakistani fishermen are routinely detained by both maritime agencies on charges of illegally entering each other’s waters
Updated 07 September 2024
NAIMAT KHAN

ISLAMABAD: India has released nine Pakistani prisoners, including five fishermen, who have been repatriated home, the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi said on Friday.
Pakistan and India exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody through diplomatic channels each year on Jan 1 and July 1, in pursuance of the Consular Access Agreement of 2008.
On July 1, India shared the names of 366 civilian prisoners and 86 fishermen in its custody who are Pakistanis or believed to be Pakistanis, according to a report published by The Hindu, citing Indian foreign ministry.
Similarly, Pakistan shared the names of 43 civilian prisoners and 211 fishermen in its custody who were Indians or were believed to be Indians.
“Today, 9 Pakistani civil prisoners & 5 fishermen were repatriated through Attari-Wagah border,” the Pakistani high commission said on X.
“Our efforts will continue for the release and repatriation of all Pakistani prisoners in India.”


Indian and Pakistani fishermen are routinely detained by both maritime agencies on charges of illegally entering each other’s territorial waters.
The nuclear-armed nations’ borders are not clearly defined in the Arabian Sea and many fishing boats lack the technology to steer clear of any intrusion.

Topics: Pakistan India Wagah Border

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