Pakistan inaugurates nation’s first maritime science and technology park
Pakistan inaugurates nation’s first maritime science and technology park /node/2580167/pakistan
Pakistan inaugurates nation’s first maritime science and technology park
Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf (second from left) is being briefied at International Defense Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) exhibition in Karachi, Pakistan, on November 20, 2024. (Pakistan Navy)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s naval chief inaugurated the country’s first Maritime Science and Technology Park (PMSTP) in the southern port city of Karachi on Wednesday, according to the navy’s media wing, which said the facility would prove to be a “significant step” in addressing the country’s economic challenges.
The navy said in its press release that the PMSTP is Pakistan’s first dedicated maritime science park integrating academia, industry and the government in a unique collaboration to foster growth across the country’s maritime sectors.
It said the park’s initiatives will target diverse fields including naval technologies, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, ocean renewable energy, seafood processing, shipbuilding and coastal tourism. Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf inaugurated the park on Wednesday during the second day of the International Defense Exhibition and Seminar (IDEAS) exhibition in Karachi.
“PMSTP is envisioned as a transformative hub for innovation and advancement, focusing on maritime science and technology to bolster Pakistan’s blue economy,” the navy said. “The project represents a significant step toward addressing Pakistan’s economic challenges, with plans for expansion beyond Karachi to Islamabad, Lahore, and Gwadar.”
Pakistan, home to multiple sea ports, has tried to tap into them to enhance its economic growth especially in the trade and tourism sectors. Pakistan’s ports, which have access to the Arabian Sea, employ thousands of people in fishing, shipping and other marine sectors.
IDEAS is Pakistan’s premier weapons expo, held biennially since its inception under former army chief General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s administration in 2000 and has grown into a key event for the defense sector.
This year’s exhibition is running from Nov.19 — Nov. 22 and is expected to host over 550 exhibitors, including 340 international defense companies, alongside more than 350 senior civil and military officials from 55 countries.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday vowed legal action against “rioters” involved in anti-government protests led by ex-premier Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) last month, as the party decried a state-backed crackdown against its supporters.
Thousands of supporters of the PTI stormed Islamabad last month, demanding Khan’s release from prison. The government said protesters killed four security officers in clashes, while the PTI says 12 supporters had died and, without immediately providing evidence, that hundreds had suffered gunshot wounds during chaotic scenes overnight in the heart of Islamabad as police dispersed marchers who had broken through security barricades. The PTI also says thousands have been arrested and social media platforms have been awash for days with pictures and video footage that the government has called “fake propaganda,” insisting there were no civilian casualties.
In the aftermath of the protests, Sharif formed two task forces: one to identify and take legal action against rioters and another to track and bring to justice suspects behind what the government describes as a “malicious campaign” to spread “concocted, baseless and inciting” online news, images and video content against the state and security forces.
On Tuesday, Sharif chaired a meeting of the task force formed to investigate and take legal action against rioters involved in the PTI sit-in.
“Those who violated the law during the sit-ins, damaged government property and injured and martyred the officials of the law enforcement agencies should be punished as per the law,” Sharif was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office.
“The process of identifying the rioters present at the scene of the incident is also being completed quickly … After identification, all the rioters will be presented in the courts, briefing.”
The PM said weapons, cartridges, shells and other evidence left by PTI protesters had been collected from the scene and would be sent for forensics.
The PTI has denounced the two task forces created by the government, saying they were meant to target the party and its supporters.
“The task force is just another sham committee to basically violate all human rights of PTI workers and leaders,” Khan’s close aide and PTI spokesperson Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari told Arab News, speaking about the second body formed to investigate anti-state online campaigns allegedly launched by PTI followers.
“It is further an attempt to increase scrutiny and torture of PTI workers, using the recent massacre as an excuse to try to eliminate the party.”
The Islamabad police chief has said authorities arrested nearly 1,000 supporters of Khan who were involved in last month’s protests. Speaking to reporters last Wednesday, Ali Rizvi denied that live ammunition had been used during the operation, which he said police had conducted alongside paramilitary forces. He said weapons, including automatic rifles and tear gas guns, were seized from the protest site where thousands had gathered. The site was cleared in a matter of hours.
Khan has been in prison since August 2023 and faces a slew of legal cases he says are politically motivated to keep him away from public office.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s interior ministry announced on Tuesday over 200 militants had been killed in nearly 8,000 intelligence-based operations between January and October this year, as the South Asian nation battles a militancy surge.
Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and southwestern Balochistan provinces have both been racked by militant attacks in recent months. The assaults in KP, Islamabad says, are mostly carried out by Afghan nationals and their facilitators, or by Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups who cross over into Pakistan using safe haven in Afghanistan. The Taliban government in Kabul denies the charges, saying Pakistan’s security challenges are a domestic issue.
The remote Balochistan region has also seen an increase in strikes by separatist ethnic militants this year. The province is home to key Chinese Belt and Road projects.
“206 terrorists were killed in 7984 intelligence-based operations till October this year,” the interior ministry said in a readout of a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi.
Commenting on the rise in militancy in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Naqvi said the professional capabilities of the provincial counterterrorism departments as well as police and paramilitary Frontier Constabulary would be enhanced.
“Everyone has to work together to improve the law-and-order situation,” Naqvi was quoted as saying. “Along with increasing capacity, the police of all provinces should be equipped with modern technology … needs of law enforcement agencies must be fulfilled on a priority basis.”
Last month, the Pakistan government said it had approved a “comprehensive military operation” against separatist militant groups operating in Balochistan. The government did not provide any details of the military operation such as when it would be launched and in which parts of the province and which security agencies would participate.
Pakistan’s military already has a huge presence in the rugged region bordering Afghanistan and Iran, where insurgent groups have been fighting for a separate homeland for decades to win a larger share of benefits from the resource-rich province.
The military has long run intelligence-based operations against the insurgent groups, the most prominent being the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), which escalated attacks in recent months on the military and nationals from longtime ally China.
The region is home to Gwadar Port, built by China as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $65 billion investment in President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative to expand China’s global reach.
In addition to the recent attacks, the BLA claimed a suicide bombing last month outside the international airport in the southern port city of Karachi that killed two Chinese engineers.
The military has also carried out dozens of armed operations in KP since 2007 when the indigenous Taliban movement, the TTP, was formed.
PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s polio eradication program said on Tuesday three new cases of the crippling virus had been detected in the country, bringing the nationwide tally for 2024 to 59.
Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. The nation’s polio eradication campaign has hit serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.
The next national polio vaccination campaign is planned for mid-December to reach more than 44 million children. Pakistan’s chief health officer said last month an estimated 500,000 children had missed polio vaccinations 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 three wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan, bringing the number of total cases in the country this year to 59,” the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication said in a statement.
The new cases have been confirmed in DI Khan, Karachi Keamari and Kashmore.
“DI Khan, one of the seven polio endemic districts of southern KP, has now reported eight polio cases, Karachi Keamari has three cases, while Kashmore has the first polio case this year,” the statement added.
Of the 59 cases reported in 2024, 26 are from Balochistan province, 16 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 15 from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad, the federal capital.
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.
ISLAMABAD: Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition party has said a task force set up by the federal government this month to counter online ‘propaganda’ against the state was meant to target the party and its supporters, with digital rights activists warning that it set a “dangerous and chilling” precedent.
Thousands of supporters of the PTI stormed Islamabad last month, demanding Khan’s release from prison. The government said protesters killed four security officers in clashes.
The PTI says 12 supporters died and “hundreds” were injured as security agencies used live ammunition rounds to disperse protesters, which authorities deny. Party leaders have described the raid on the protest site as a “massacre,” with social media platforms awash with pictures and video footage that the government has called “fake propaganda” by PTI followers. The government also says there were no civilian casualties.
On Dec. 1, the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a 10-member joint task force to identify and bring to justice suspects behind a “malicious campaign” to spread “concocted, baseless and inciting” online news, images and video content in the aftermath of the protests.
“The task force is just another sham committee to basically violate all human rights of PTI workers and leaders,” Khan’s close aide and PTI spokesperson Sayed Zulfikar Abbas Bukhari told Arab News.
“It is further an attempt to increase scrutiny and torture of PTI workers, using the recent massacre as an excuse to try to eliminate the party.”
Bukhari said the party had evidence, including burial records and death certificates, of at least 12 protesters killed, proving that the government’s claim there were no civilian casualties was false.
“We do believe that the government is doing a huge cover-up about the total deaths,” Bukhari added. “The death toll will only continue creeping further up as the government is doing all they can to cover this up.”
Speaking to the media last week, Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal asked the PTI to share the names of its supporters who had been killed, saying the government had exercised “utmost restraint” to prevent bloodshed at the hands of what he described as a “violent mob.”
Last week, Pakistani journalist Mattiullah Jan was arrested after investigating claims of casualties in the PTI protest march, his lawyers said. He was released on bail on Sunday.
Arab News could not reach members of the task force or a government spokesperson for comment.
In Pakistan, a country of 240 million people, Internet use has risen at staggering rates recently owing to cheap 4G mobile Internet. Around 110 million Pakistanis were online this January, 24 million more than at the beginning of 2023, according to monitoring site DataReportal. In this environment, social media has become a hotbed of unverified news, pictures and video clips, according to fact checkers.
But digital rights also warn of the perils of deploying measures like task forces against online spaces.
Nighat Dad, executive director of the non-profit Digital Rights Foundation, said nothing could be “more dangerous and chilling” than setting up a task force without accountability mechanisms like parliamentary oversight.
“This move further entrenches a culture of impunity and raises serious concerns about transparency,” she told Arab News.
Instead of resorting to “draconian measures,” the government should have focused on building a “robust and responsive narrative” to counter disinformation and fake news.
“Establishing a task force without clearly outlining its own accountability in decision-making is a massive question mark on the government’s intent and process,” Dad added.
“Such measures not only stifle dissent but also undermine fundamental rights and democratic principles in Pakistan.”
Usama Khilji, a director at Bolo Bhi, an advocacy forum for digital rights, also said the announcement of the task force reflected shrinking democratic space in Pakistan:
“It shows the intolerance of the regime to accept any criticism from those who do not support them.”
Deepfakes weaponized to target Pakistan’s women leaders
Sexualized deepfake videos being published to discredit role nation’s few female leaders, targeted politicians say
Deepfakes now prevalent across the world but Pakistan has legislation to combat their deployment in disinformation campaigns
Updated 03 December 2024
AFP
LAHORE: Pakistani politician Azma Bukhari is haunted by a counterfeit image of herself: a sexualized deepfake video published to discredit her role as one of the nation’s few female leaders.
“I was shattered when it came into my knowledge,” said 48-year-old Bukhari, the information minister of Pakistan’s most populous province of Punjab.
Deepfakes — which manipulate genuine audio, photos or video of people into false likenesses — are becoming increasingly convincing and easier to make as artificial intelligence (AI) enters the mainstream.
In Pakistan, where media literacy is poor, they are being weaponized to smear women in the public sphere with sexual innuendo deeply damaging to their reputations in a country with conservative mores.
Bukhari — who regularly appears on TV — recalls going quiet for days after she saw the video of her face superimposed on the sexualized body of an Indian actor in a clip quickly spreading on social media.
“It was very difficult, I was depressed,” she told AFP in her home in the eastern city of Lahore.
“My daughter, she hugged me and said: ‘Mama, you have to fight it out’.”
In this photograph taken on November 20, 2024, Azma Bukhari (C), Information Minister of Pakistan’s province of Punjab, speaks with media after attending her deepfake video case hearing in Lahore. (AFP)
After initially recoiling she is pressing her case at Lahore’s High Court, attempting to hold those who spread the deepfake to account.
“When I go to the court, I have to remind people again and again that I have a fake video,” she said.
In Pakistan — a country of 240 million people — Internet use has risen at staggering rates recently owing to cheap 4G mobile Internet.
Around 110 million Pakistanis were online this January, 24 million more than at the beginning of 2023, according to monitoring site DataReportal.
In this year’s election, deepfakes were at the center of digital debate.
Ex-prime minister Imran Khan was jailed but his team used an AI tool to generate speeches in his voice shared on social media, allowing him to campaign from behind bars.
Men in politics are typically criticized over corruption, their ideology and status. But deepfakes have a dark side uniquely suited to tearing down women.
“When they are accused, it almost always revolves around their sex lives, their personal lives, whether they’re good mums, whether they’re good wives,” said US-based AI expert Henry Ajder.
“For that deepfakes are a very harmful weapon,” he told AFP.
In patriarchal Pakistan the stakes are high.
In this photograph taken on October 21, 2024, staff members work at the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF), an NGO aims to strengthen protections for human rights defenders in digital spaces, in Lahore. (AFP
Women’s status is typically tied to their “honor,” generally defined as modesty and chastity. Hundreds are killed every year — often by their own families — for supposedly besmirching it.
Bukhari describes the video targeting her as “pornographic.”
But in a country where premarital sex and cohabitation are punishable offenses, deepfakes can undermine reputations by planting innuendo with the suggestion of a hug or improper social mingling with men.
In October, AFP debunked a deepfake video of regional lawmaker Meena Majeed showing her hugging the male chief minister of Balochistan province.
A social media caption said: “Shamelessness has no limits. This is an insult to Baloch culture.”
Bukhari says photos of her with her husband and son have also been manipulated to imply she appeared in public with boyfriends outside her marriage.
And doctored videos regularly circulate of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif — Bukhari’s boss — showing her dancing with opposition leaders.
Once targeted by deepfakes like these, women’s “image is seen as immoral, and the honor of the entire family is lost,” said Sadaf Khan of Pakistani non-profit Media Matters for Democracy.
“This can put them in danger,” she told AFP.
Deepfakes are now prevalent across the world, but Pakistan does have legislation to combat their deployment in disinformation campaigns.
In 2016, a law was passed by Bukhari’s party “to prevent online crimes” with “cyberstalking” provisions against sharing photos or videos without consent “in a manner that harms a person.”
Bukhari believes it needs to be strengthened and backed up by investigators. “The capacity building of our cybercrime unit is very, very important,” she said.
In this photograph taken on October 21, 2024, Nighat Dad, a Pakistan-based digital rights activist, works on her laptop during an interview with AFP in Lahore. (AFP)
But digital rights activists have also criticized the government for wielding such broad legislation to quash dissent.
Authorities have previously blocked YouTube and TikTok, and a ban on X — formerly Twitter — has been in place since after February elections when allegations of vote tampering spread on the site.
Pakistan-based digital rights activist Nighat Dad said blocking the sites serves only as “a quick solution for the government.”
“It’s violating other fundamental rights, which are connected to your freedom of expression, and access to information,” she told AFP.
