No signs of thaw in India-Pakistan relations as Islamabad prepares to host SCO summit

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Updated 14 October 2024
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No signs of thaw in India-Pakistan relations as Islamabad prepares to host SCO summit

  • Analysts believe high-level participation from regional states will dispel the perception of Pakistan’s diplomatic isolation
  • Summit is also expected to bolster Pakistan’s economic standing, reflecting an intent to integrate into regional market

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan gears up to host its first-ever Council of Heads of Government meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Islamabad, analysts warn that hopes for a breakthrough in ties with arch-rival India remain slim despite the participation of a delegation from the neighboring country.
The summit, scheduled for October 15-16, is considered significant as Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar will attend the gathering, marking the first visit by a senior Indian official to Pakistan in nearly a decade. However, no bilateral talks are expected due to ongoing tensions over Kashmir. The last high-level interaction between the two nations took place during the SCO meeting in Goa in May 2023, where strained relations persisted.
“They are coming here not for Pakistan but for the SCO meeting, and given the past and the recent history of our relationship, I don’t think we can expect a significant softening, especially when it’s a minister-level official, not a leader of the country,” Dr. Nafees Zakaria, who served foreign ministry spokesman, told Arab News this week while responding a question about the Indian delegation.
The summit comes amid heightened security concerns, following the killing of two Chinese nationals in a suicide bombing in Karachi earlier this month, as well as a general rise in militant attacks across the country.
Asked about his expectations from the regional summit, Zakaria expressed a desire for the SCO to take concrete steps toward promoting peace in the region.
“It would be a significant milestone if these countries could agree on a security arrangement, making the security of this region a shared and collective responsibility,” he said.
REGIONAL INTEGRATION
Speaking to Arab News, Dr. Talat Shabbir, Director of the China-Pakistan Study Center at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, emphasized the significance of the summit, noting the participating states would focus on trade, connectivity and security.
He stressed that member nations need to set aside their territorial disputes in order to enhance business opportunities and strengthen regional economies for the benefit of their populations.
“We increase our business, we enhance our connectivity, we enhance our economy, and we have to think for the good of the general population of our country, of the region,” he said while also highlighting the political benefits for Pakistan in hosting the multilateral forum.
“There is propaganda against Pakistan that it is being isolated by the world powers, but [this meeting] will prove it’s not true,” he continued. “Had it been isolated, a number of heads of state would not have come to our country.”
Dr. Khaqan Najeeb, former adviser to Pakistan’s finance ministry, said the upcoming SCO meeting could foster regional cooperation on economic issues while addressing shared challenges like security and trade barriers.
“The summit can help Pakistan bolster its economic standing by demonstrating its intent to integrate more deeply into regional and global markets,” he said. “Any enhanced trade agreements with SCO member states could open new markets for Pakistani goods.”
Another analyst, Shakeel Ramay, who writes on regional economic developments, agreed, noting the SCO presents multiple opportunities for Pakistan to tackle its economic and energy challenges.
“Pakistan can benefit from the vast market, as SCO member states constitute 40 percent of the world’s population and have a combined GDP of around $24 trillion,” he told Arab News. “They control 20 percent of the world’s oil and 44 percent of its gas reserves.”
He further added: “With the inclusion of Saudi Arabia and other aspirants, the market size, energy resource share and economic potential will be further enhanced.”
Pakistan has announced that the prime ministers of China and Russia, the vice president of Iran, India’s external affairs minister, along with other heads of government and representatives from multilateral organizations, will attend the regional summit.
To ensure the safety of approximately 900 delegates, stringent security measures have been implemented, with over 10,000 police, paramilitary and army personnel deployed.
Additionally, the federal government has declared public holidays in Islamabad and Rawalpindi on the two days of the summit.


Pakistan deputy PM says hopeful of finalizing US trade deal ‘in days’

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Pakistan deputy PM says hopeful of finalizing US trade deal ‘in days’

  • The US is Pakistan’s top export destination, with shipments totaling 5.44 billion dollars in fiscal year 2023-2024
  • Deputy PM Ishaq Dar says both sides have recently held discussions relating to textiles, digital trade and agriculture

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said on Friday that his country was hopeful of finalizing a trade deal with the United States “in days.”

Pakistan and the United States (US) have been engaged in talks after Washington announced a 29 percent “reciprocal tariff” on Pakistani exports in April. Islamabad said the move, paused in June for a 90-day period, may undercut its fragile, export-led recovery.

The US is Pakistan’s top export destination, with shipments totaling $5.44 billion in fiscal year 2023-2024, according to official data. From July 2024 to February 2025, exports rose 10 percent from a year earlier.

Speaking at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, the Pakistani deputy premier said both sides have recently held discussions relating to textiles, digital trade and agriculture.

“Pakistan seeks better market access in the US. On our part, we are working toward granting greater market access to the US products in the large Pakistani markets,” he said.

“We hope to conclude a mutually beneficial trade agreement at the earliest, hopefully in days not in weeks.”

Under US President Donald Trump, Washington has attempted to renegotiate trade agreements with many countries that he threatened with tariffs over what he calls unfair trade relations. Many economists dispute Trump’s characterization.

Dar also met Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday.

“Met with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister @MIshaqDar50 today to discuss expanding bilateral trade and enhancing collaboration in the critical minerals sector,” Rubio said on X.

“I also thanked him for Pakistan’s partnership in countering terrorism and preserving regional stability.”

The Pakistani foreign ministry also said Dar “appreciated the pivotal role” by Trump and Rubio “in de-escalating tensions between Pakistan and India by facilitating a ceasefire.” The State Department statement did not mention India.

Trump has repeatedly taken credit for the India-Pakistan ceasefire he announced on social media on May 10 after Washington held talks with both sides. India disputes Trump’s claims that the ceasefire resulted from his intervention and trade threats.

An April 22 militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 26 men and sparked heavy fighting between the nuclear-armed Asian neighbors in the latest escalation of a decades-old rivalry. India struck Pakistan on May 7 and the two nations exchanged hostilities, killing dozens across three days. The ceasefire was declared on May 10.

New Delhi blamed the April attack on Pakistan, which denied responsibility and called for a neutral investigation. Washington condemned the attack but did not blame Islamabad.


For one filmmaker, telling Pakistan’s untold stories has become a path to healing

Updated 7 min 42 sec ago
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For one filmmaker, telling Pakistan’s untold stories has become a path to healing

  • Insulting remark pushed Athar Abbas to leave corporate job, find healing in the stories of strangers
  • Abbas’s social media documentaries spotlight working-class lives, mental health stigma in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Mobile phones, data cables and memory cards sprawl across the editing table in Athar Abbas’s modest Islamabad apartment.

It’s an organized chaos the 38-year-old filmmaker fully embraces — a far cry from the mental turmoil that once engulfed him.

Abbas, a former commercial producer, now documents the lives of ordinary Pakistanis in short, emotionally charged videos he publishes on social media. His mini-documentaries — raw, personal and deliberately unpolished — have attracted tens of thousands of followers across platforms, racking up over a million views in the past year.

But Abbas’s foray into digital storytelling wasn’t born of ambition. It was a survival tactic.

He began filming after quitting his job at a construction company, where a senior colleague dismissed his work as “pathetic.”

The insult gnawed at his confidence and spiraled into a depressive episode. Eventually, Abbas turned to the one outlet that had always brought him calm — the camera.

“I picked up my camera and started making stories,” Abbas told Arab News. “And unintentionally, I realized that maybe for an artist, there’s no therapy greater than his art.”

Pakistani filmmaker and content creator Athar Abbas speaks during an interview with Arab News in Islamabad on July 18, 2025. (AN Photo)

Pakistan, a country of over 240 million people, faces a chronic shortage of mental health services.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 24 million people in Pakistan are in need of psychiatric support. Yet the country has only around 500 trained psychologists and 400 psychiatrists, roughly one mental health professional for every 260,000 people.

The stigma around mental illness remains deeply entrenched, especially for men. Talking about emotional vulnerability is often seen as weakness, a perception Abbas says is reinforced in professional environments.

“He feels that his manly personality will be affected,” he said, referring to why many Pakistani men hesitated to express emotions, especially those that communicated perceived weakness.

“So he doesn’t even share that he has a problem with something.”

In Pakistan’s corporate sector, long working hours, harsh managerial practices and lack of mental health policies have contributed to high stress levels.

A 2024 review by the Pakistan Society of Human Resource Management found that most companies lacked formal emotional wellness programs.

Creative professionals, Abbas said, often bore the brunt of toxic leadership.

“If you talk to anyone in the creative field, they will tell you they are distressed because of senior management’s behavior,” he said.

“Unfortunately, it greatly affects mental health.”

A separate 2025 study in the Pakistan Social Sciences Review noted that while some younger professionals are more aware of mental health issues, institutional support remains weak, leaving them vulnerable to burnout and depression.

‘UNTOLD PAKISTAN’

For Abbas, the path to stability came through storytelling.

He launched a series titled Untold Pakistan, filming everything from a street vendor’s hustle to a single mother’s struggle for dignity. In one video, a man named Kamran Ali cycles from Germany to Layyah, Punjab, only to learn of his mother’s death upon arrival.

“Storytelling became a way to survive,” Abbas said.

This combination of screenshots, taken on July 26, 2025, shows stills from short videos by Pakistani filmmaker and content creator Athar Abbas. (Courtesy: Instagram/@athar.abbass_)

His films resist sensationalism. There are no stunts or celebrity cameos. Instead, they dwell in moments often overlooked: fatigue, memory, longing, resilience. The comment sections on his pages are peppered with viewers opening up about their own traumas, some for the first time.

Abbas recalls a message from a young man in Lahore who said one of the videos gave him the courage to speak to his father about something he’d been avoiding for a long time.

“That one message made all the late nights worth it,” Abbas said.

After 15 years of directing ads, music videos and corporate content, Abbas has no interest in going back. His priorities have shifted.

“I didn’t set out to become an influencer,” he said. “I just needed to breathe.”


Pakistan’s Air Karachi in talks with Chinese jetmaker for aircraft as it gears up for operations

Updated 26 July 2025
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Pakistan’s Air Karachi in talks with Chinese jetmaker for aircraft as it gears up for operations

  • New airline is backed by 100 Pakistani businessmen who pooled $17.6 million in seed funding
  • Air Karachi is also exploring aircraft deals with Boeing and Airbus to launch domestic flights

KARACHI: Air Karachi, Pakistan’s new private airline in the making, has engaged the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) for the supply of airliners to start its flight operations, the group chairman Hanif Gohar told Arab News on Friday.

Spearheaded by a group of leading businessmen from Pakistan’s southern port city, the airline is also negotiating with global aerospace giants like Boeing and Airbus for the acquisition of at least three passenger aircraft. It was launched in November 2024 by 100 stakeholders with Rs5 billion ($17.6 million) in seed money.

“We are talking with COMAC regarding the 919, as well as with Boeing and Airbus, to acquire the aircraft,” Gohar said, referring to a narrow-body passenger jet developed by China.

Business leaders in the South Asian nation have stepped up to fill the gap as the state-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has become a liability for the cash-strapped government, which is now making a second attempt to privatize the national carrier.

“We will start our flight operations as soon as we reach an agreement with any of the suppliers, whoever comes first,” Gohar said when asked about the timeline to start operations.

Gohar, a business tycoon himself, expects a deal within the next month.

He said Air Karachi would initially fly three aircraft domestically, and the fleet would later be expanded with four more planes to start international flights within a year.

The idea to launch a business-backed airline was conceived to develop an entity that can operate with efficiency and financial autonomy amid growing challenges faced by PIA.

Last month, Air Karachi received its Regular Public Transport (RPT) license from Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority.

The airline has been modeled after the success of Air Sial, another private carrier launched by industrialists in Sialkot, the manufacturing hub of Pakistan’s exportable sports and surgical goods.


Pakistan approves Skills Impact Bond for youth employment through private investment

Updated 25 July 2025
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Pakistan approves Skills Impact Bond for youth employment through private investment

  • New ‘pay-for-success’ model will fund market-relevant skills training for youth
  • PM Sharif calls for roadmap to boost domestic and overseas job opportunities

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday approved Pakistan’s first Skills Impact Bond, a new financing model aimed at mobilizing private investment to equip young people with market-relevant skills and improve their access to employment, both at home and abroad.

The approval came during a high-level meeting in Islamabad focused on youth employment. According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, the initiative is part of a broader government effort to align vocational training with labor market demands and make Pakistani youth self-reliant through entrepreneurship and income-generating opportunities.

The model, also known as “pay-for-success,” links funding to independently verified outcomes such as job placement or minimum income levels.

“Pakistan’s talented youth are the country’s greatest asset,” the prime minister said at the meeting. “By equipping them with education and skills tailored to market needs, we will transform the future of this nation.”

Sharif instructed federal ministries and agencies to accelerate skills training, expand employment outreach through digital platforms and present a comprehensive roadmap based on estimates of domestic and overseas job opportunities for Pakistani youth.

The prime minister approved a public awareness campaign to promote the use of the Digital Youth Hub, which has already registered over 500,000 users.

The platform currently lists over 47,000 job openings in Pakistan and more than 100,000 overseas, along with 2,000 scholarship opportunities.

He also emphasized preparing skilled workers specifically for international job markets and directed relevant departments to offer foreign language training for countries with high demand for labor.


US state secretary meets deputy PM, lauds Pakistan’s counterterror role amid thaw in relations

Updated 25 July 2025
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US state secretary meets deputy PM, lauds Pakistan’s counterterror role amid thaw in relations

  • Dar, Rubio discuss trade, investment, counterterrorism and regional stability in first face-to-face meeting
  • The Pakistani deputy premier calls his country an attractive destination for US businesses and investors

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held his first face-to-face meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Friday, with the US official acknowledging Pakistan’s role in promoting international peace and his Pakistani interlocutor seeking broader ties between the two countries.
The meeting is widely viewed as yet another sign of a diplomatic reset after years of estrangement between Islamabad and Washington, particularly during the Afghan war, where diverging perspectives deepened mistrust. High-level bilateral exchanges gradually faded as the US withdrew from Afghanistan.

Earlier this week, however, US State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce hinted at a bilateral meeting between the two countries without disclosing details. According to Pakistan’s foreign office, Dar and Rubio held detailed discussions on bilateral relations and explored opportunities for cooperation in trade, investment, agriculture, technology and minerals.
Counterterrorism and regional peace efforts were also high on the agenda.
“Met with Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister @MIshaqDar50 today to discuss expanding bilateral trade and enhancing collaboration in the critical minerals sector,” Rubio said in a social media post after the meeting. “I also thanked him for Pakistan’s partnership in countering terrorism and preserving regional stability.”

Dar responded by reaffirming Pakistan’s commitment to strengthening ties with Washington.

“We wish to broaden and deepen our relationship with the United States across the political, economic and security domains,” he said according to an official statement. “Pakistan remains a credible partner for peace, progress and prosperity in the region and beyond.”

Last month, President Donald Trump hosted Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, for a rare one-on-one lunch at the White House in a visit that followed an intense, four-day India-Pakistan military standoff, which ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on May 10.

Dar also paid tribute to Trump for his role in de-escalating the tensions between the two South Asian nuclear-armed neighbors.

The revival of military and political dialogue between the two countries comes as Pakistan is also holding trade talks with Washington after the Trump administration imposed 29 percent “reciprocal tariffs” on Pakistani exports in April.

Pakistan’s finance chief, Muhammad Aurangzeb, who also visited Washington this month, said the two countries were working to shift their economic ties “from one focused on trade to one anchored in long-term investment.”

After meeting US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Aurangzeb said priority sectors had been identified, including minerals, mining, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency regulation.

During Friday’s meeting, Dar also described Pakistan as an attractive destination for US investors and highlighted the role of the Pakistani-American diaspora in strengthening bilateral ties.

“We are optimistic about progress in the ongoing trade dialogue,” he said. “There is alignment between our regional peace objectives and strategic interests.”

Dar is currently on an eight-day visit to the United States, where he kept a busy schedule in New York and chaired several high-profile United Nations Security Council meetings under Pakistan’s rotating presidency this month.

He highlighted the need for multilateralism, peaceful dispute resolution and his country’s own strategic concerns during his engagements at the world body.