ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top diplomat at the United Nations on Friday urged the world body to expand the role of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), calling it integral to the international architecture and emphasizing that justice is crucial for preserving global order.
The ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the UN, settles legal disputes between states and provides advisory opinions on international legal questions. Its relevance has grown amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, with countries like South Africa taking Israel to the ICJ under the Genocide Convention for the killing of tens of thousands of unarmed Palestinians.
The court’s active role in the matter was reflected in the recommendation by its prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, solidifying the ICJ’s position in addressing pressing international issues.
“Given the proven capacity of the ICJ to play a meaningful role in the defense of international law and justice, it is essential to further strengthen the role of the ICJ in the preservation of world order,” Ambassador Munir Akram said during a UN discussion focusing on the world court.
He noted that 75 countries, including Pakistan, had accepted its compulsory jurisdiction, adding that these member states valued its ability to resolve complex international disputes.
Akram emphasized the ICJ had become amid ongoing global conflicts, particularly when the Security Council “is virtually paralyzed” by the frequent use or threat of veto power.
He called for expanding the ICJ’s compulsory jurisdiction “for all items on the Security Council’s agenda or at least those where the Charter’s principles and Security Council resolutions are being violated.”
“The ICJ is also well placed to play a larger role in ensuring accountability of Member States for the violations of international law and determining the damage and compensation due to aggrieved parties,” he added.
The Pakistani diplomat further advocated for enlarging the ICJ to handle its growing case-load and ensuring it receives adequate budgetary resources to undertake its work.
Pakistan urges UN to strengthen role of International Court of Justice for global order
https://arab.news/5jpz8
Pakistan urges UN to strengthen role of International Court of Justice for global order
- Munir Akram says ICJ’s relevance has increased amid global conflicts when Security Council is ‘paralyzed’
- He says ICJ should be able to hold member states accountable for violations of international law
Roadside blast kills two tribal leaders, injures seven in southwestern Pakistan
- The incident took place some 35 kilometers from Balochistan’s provincial capital
- The IED attack took place the day Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was visiting Quetta
QUETTA: A blast triggered by an improvised explosive device (IED) killed two tribal leaders and injured seven others on Saturday in a remote mountainous town in Quetta district, located in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province, a senior police official said.
The roadside blast took place in Mangla, an area of the Hanna Urrak valley located some 35 kilometers from the provincial capital of Quetta, when a convoy of tribal leaders was passing through the area.
“Sardar Abdul Salam Bazai and Sardar Nafay Bazai, accompanied by their companions, were heading toward a mining site when a powerful explosion hit their vehicle,” Naveed Khan, Station House Officer (SHO) in the area, told Arab News.
“Both the tribal elders were killed on the spot,” he continued. “Police have commenced an investigation into the IED blast, while the injured have been shifted to Quetta city.”
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. However, Balochistan has witnessed a surge in separatist violence in recent months, including attacks on a passenger train and a school bus carrying children.
The latest attack took place on the day Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif was in Quetta and addressed a grand jirga of influential Baloch leaders alongside senior military officials.
Pakistan has blamed the recent surge in militant violence in Balochistan on “Indian proxies,” calling groups like the Baloch Liberation Army “Fitna Al-Hind.”
New Delhi denies any involvement in backing Baloch ethnic separatist groups in Pakistan’s southwestern province, which shares borders with Iran and Afghanistan and has witnessed an insurgency for decades.
Speaking to Arab News, Dr. Arbab Kamran Kasi, head of the Trauma Center in Quetta, confirmed that those injured in Saturday’s attack were brought to the medical facility.
“Seven injured were brought to the center and are now in a stable condition,” he said.
Pakistan’s deputy PM discusses trans-Afghan railway with Uzbek foreign minister
- Envisioned in 2021, the project is expected to improve trade relations among all three countries
- Ishaq Dar discusses the modalities for early finalization of the project’s framework agreement
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar held a phone call with his Uzbek counterpart on Saturday to discuss steps toward advancing the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (UAP) railway project, including the framework agreement and its signing mechanism, said the foreign office.
The UAP railway is a trilateral initiative aimed at enhancing regional connectivity by linking Central Asia with Pakistan’s southern ports of Gwadar and Karachi through Afghanistan.
Envisioned in 2021, the project is expected to improve trade access for landlocked countries and bolster economic integration in the region.
“Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50, held a telephone conversation today with Uzbekistan’s Foreign Minister, Saidov Bakhtiyor Odilovich @FM_Saidov,” the foreign office said in a social media post on X.
“They discussed the modalities for early finalization of the framework agreement for the Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (UAP) Railway Line Project, including details of its signing ceremony in consultation with leadership of Afghanistan,” it added.
The conversation came a day after Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to upgrade diplomatic relations, with Islamabad announcing it would elevate its chargé d’affaires in Kabul to ambassadorial rank. Kabul said it would reciprocate the move.
Ties between the two countries have been tense in recent years, with Pakistan accusing Afghanistan’s Taliban administration of harboring militants involved in cross-border attacks, leading to a deportation drive against undocumented Afghan nationals.
The Taliban have denied facilitating any violence inside Pakistan and criticized the deportations.
Efforts to ease tensions between the two neighboring countries also gained momentum in recent months. During a trilateral meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing, Pakistan and Afghanistan announced plans to exchange ambassadors.
Afghan authorities have also said Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is due to visit Pakistan “in the coming days.”
The UAP railway, first agreed in February 2021, envisions a 573-kilometer track linking Tashkent to Peshawar via Kabul, with an estimated cost of $4.8 billion.
The project faces significant logistical challenges, including security concerns in Afghanistan and the need to reconcile different railway gauges across the three countries.
However, Pakistan has already sent agricultural consignments to Uzbekistan last year.
Implementation of the UAP railway is expected to further deepen trade ties among the three nations.
Pakistan concludes pre-Hajj flight operation with over 115,000 pilgrims flown to Saudi Arabia
- The country launches special Hajj flight operation each year to assist pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia
- The operation involves multiple airlines and serves pilgrims under both government and private schemes
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has successfully concluded its 33-day pre-Hajj flight operation, with more than 115,000 pilgrims transported to Saudi Arabia ahead of this year’s pilgrimage, the state media reported on Saturday.
The country arranges special Hajj flights annually to facilitate thousands of Pakistani Muslims traveling to the Kingdom for the pilgrimage. The operation involves both government and private schemes, as well as coordination with multiple airlines to ensure smooth transit.
The final flight, PK-759 from Karachi, carrying 307 pilgrims, landed in Jeddah at 6:55 PM local time, the state-owned Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) news agency said.
“Under the Government Hajj Scheme, as many as 88,260 intending pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia via 342 flights from various cities of Pakistan,” APP quoted the religious affairs ministry spokesperson, Muhammad Umar Butt, as saying.
“Similarly, over 27,000 [pilgrims] arrived in the holy land under the Private Hajj Scheme,” he added.
The Hajj flights were operated by a range of air carriers including Pakistan International Airlines, Saudi Airlines, SereneAir, Airblue and AirSial.
The spokesperson said to support the pilgrims during the five key days of Hajj, the ministry has deployed approximately 470 coordinators, with each assigned to a group of 188 to 200 pilgrims.
Each coordinator will remain with their designated group throughout the pilgrimage, helping its members during the journey from Mina to Arafat, Muzdalifah, Jamarat and back to Makkah.
This year, Hajj rituals will commence on June 4, with the Day of Arafah on June 5, and Eid Al-Adha observed on June 6 in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan says 96% of children vaccinated in ongoing anti-polio drive
- Pakistan launched the campaign after 74 children were diagnosed with polio last year
- Balochistan offered swings and camel rides in Quetta to draw children for vaccination
KARACHI: Polio vaccinations continued across Pakistan for the sixth consecutive day on Saturday, with 96% of targeted children receiving doses during the first five days of the campaign, the country’s National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) said in a statement.
Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the world where polio is still endemic, alongside neighboring Afghanistan.
Efforts to eliminate the disease have been hampered by parental refusals, widespread misinformation and repeated attacks on polio workers by militant groups.
In remote and volatile areas, vaccination teams often operate under police protection, though security personnel themselves have also been targeted during these campaigns.
“During the first five days, 96% of children across the country have been administered polio drops,” the NEOC said at the start of the campaign’s sixth day.
“The vaccination campaign is underway simultaneously in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” it continued, adding this was to curb cross-border transmission of the virus, especially in frontier regions where mobility between the two countries remains high.
According to Pakistani officials, the current vaccination drive aims to reach more than 45 million children nationwide. It is part of Pakistan’s intensified response following a sharp uptick in cases last year, when 74 children were diagnosed with the crippling virus.
Ten cases have been reported so far in 2025, prompting authorities to step up outreach and door-to-door campaigns.
According to the NEOC, provincial breakdowns so far show 97% coverage in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 96% in both Punjab and Balochistan, 94% in Sindh, 98% in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and 101% in Gilgit-Baltistan, where more children were reached than initially estimated.
Islamabad reported 97% coverage.
In Balochistan, the country’s most underdeveloped province that reported 27 cases last year, local authorities introduced recreational activities such as free swings and camel rides in Quetta to attract children and facilitate their vaccination.
The effort drew large crowds, allowing teams to immunize children while they took part in the festivities.
“This initiative is critically important as we enter the high-transmission season,” said Ziaur Rehman, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Polio Program. “It will play a key role in timely containment of the virus.”
He urged parents to ensure that all children under five receive polio drops to protect them from lifelong disability.
PM Sharif announces 25% federal development share for insurgency-hit Balochistan
- The prime minister calls for efforts to bring back ‘misguided’ individuals who have joined militant groups
- He recognizes Balochistan’s history of economic deprivations but says ‘terrorists’ know nothing but brutality
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said Pakistan’s restive southwestern province of Balochistan will receive 25% share from the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) in the upcoming budget, as the government continues to grapple with a decades-long separatist insurgency that has surged in recent years.
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least populated province, is strategically significant as the centerpiece of the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a major infrastructure development and regional connectivity initiative linking western China to the Arabian Sea.
While the state touts CPEC as a game-changer for the region’s development, Baloch separatist groups accuse the government of exploiting the province’s vast mineral resources without benefiting the local population. Officials reject the narrative, pointing to ongoing investments in various sectors aimed at improving livelihoods.
Sharif announced the allocation while addressing a grand jirga, an assembly of provincial elders and influential figures alongside top military leadership, in Quetta, where he reaffirmed the government’s commitment to Balochistan’s development.
“I think that PSDP will be of Rs1,000 billion [in the next budget],” he told the gathering. “So, out of this [amount], a fund of approximately Rs250 billion is for Balochistan alone. That is, 25% of the total federal PSDP for Balochistan.”
The PSDP is Pakistan’s central development program used to fund infrastructure, energy, education and other long-term public investment projects across the country.
It includes both federal initiatives and financial support for provincial projects, particularly in underdeveloped regions like Balochistan.
The prime minister said the allocation was the province’s “right.”
“Along with this,” he continued, “these resources should be used transparently, whether it is Gwadar, whether it is Pasni, whether it is Chaman, whether it is Killa Saifullah, whether it is Quetta, whether it is Jhal Magsi or any other areas,” he continued. “Every single penny there should be used honestly for the development and prosperity of the people.”
Addressing the challenge of militancy in the province, Sharif said efforts must continue to bring back “misguided” individuals who had joined militant groups.
He acknowledged Balochistan’s history of economic deprivation, while reiterating that those engaged in violence offer no solutions.
“Terrorists do not know anything but brutality,” he said.
Calling for national unity, Sharif maintained: “Let’s sit together and talk. It is only by sitting together that a family becomes strong and prosperous. No evil eye can harm a united household.”
