ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his official visit to Saudi Arabia starting tomorrow, the foreign office in Islamabad said on Tuesday, to discuss ways to further enhance bilateral trade and strengthen collaboration in key economic sectors.
The two countries have enjoyed close defense, diplomatic, political and cultural relations, though they have consolidated their ties further in recent years as Islamabad grappled with a prolonged economic crisis and sought the kingdom’s help.
Pakistan has tried to strengthen business-to-business (B2B) ties with the Kingdom, with both sides announcing during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Riyadh last October they had signed 34 memorandums of understanding and agreements worth $2.8 billion to enhance private sector collaboration and commercial partnerships.
“Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif will undertake an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 19-22 March 2025,” the foreign office said. “The visit aims to strengthen bilateral ties, enhance economic cooperation and promote investment between the two countries.”
“During the visit, the Prime Minister is scheduled to meet Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman,” it added. “The leaders will discuss and deliberate upon ways to boost trade, enhance partnership in key sectors and facilitate greater economic collaboration.”
Sharif will be accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, along with key federal ministers and senior officials. The delegation is expected to engage with Saudi counterparts to explore new avenues of investment and economic cooperation.
According to the foreign office statement, discussions will also cover regional and global developments, including the Gaza situation, evolving Middle East dynamics and broader issues concerning the Muslim Ummah.
Saudi Arabia presents a key export opportunity for Pakistani businesses, given its strong consumer demand and ambitious Vision 2030 economic reforms that emphasize diversification and foreign investments.
Pakistan has a 2.7 million-strong diaspora in Saudi Arabia, which accounts for the highest remittance inflow, a crucial lifeline for the country’s economy.
Last month, Pakistan’s commerce minister, Jam Kamal Khan, inaugurated the country’s first-ever solo “Made in Pakistan” exhibition in Jeddah, informing participants that over 1.7 million Pakistani workers had migrated to the Kingdom in the past five years, making it the top destination for Pakistani emigrants.
Pakistani PM in Saudi Arabia from Mar. 19-22 to discuss economic cooperation, investments
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Pakistani PM in Saudi Arabia from Mar. 19-22 to discuss economic cooperation, investments
- Pakistani foreign office says Sharif scheduled to meet Saudi crown prince
- Discussions will also cover global developments including Gaza war
Pakistan Stock Exchange surges over 1,000 points amid ceasefire optimism
- The KSE-100 index gained 1278.15 points or 1.09 percent and closed at 118,575.88
- Stocks rallied after President Trump announced ceasefire between nuclear-armed neighbors
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) gained over 1,000 points on Tuesday, driven by investor optimism over ceasefire talks between Pakistan and India boosting regional stability, analysts said.
The KSE-100 index gained 2,769 points to reach 120,067.12 during intraday trading before settling at 118,575.88, up by 1,278.15 points or 1.09 percent from the previous close of 117,297.73.
Pakistan’s stocks had rallied after US President Donald Trump on Saturday announced a ceasefire between nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India.
Both states had exchanged missile, drone and artillery strikes last week amid surging tensions.
“Stocks closed higher as investors weigh Pak-India ceasefire talks fostering stability and the foreign minister’s assurance on thin fiscal impact of conflict,” Ahsan Mehanti, the Chief Executive Officer of Arif Habib Commodities, told Arab News.
Pakistan Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb had also told Reuters in an interview on Monday that the conflict would not have a large fiscal impact on Pakistan. He described the standoff as a “short duration escalation” with minimal fiscal impact, saying it can be “accommodated within the fiscal space which is available to the government of Pakistan.”
Mehanti added that rupee stability, upbeat global equities, and a surge in global crude oil prices also played a catalytic role in the bullish close at the PSX.
Head of Intermarket Securities Raza Jafri highlighted that the KSE-100 was holding its levels following yesterday’s massive rise.
On May 12, Pakistani stocks rose more than nine percent, the highest single-day gain in decades, according to analysts, following a ceasefire with India and the approval of a $1 billion tranche by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which Pakistan is expected to receive today as part of a larger $7 billion bailout agreement.
“The energy sector continues its rebound — on hopes of circular debt clearance — while news reports of a possible construction package (low-income housing units and mortgage financing) saw the Cement sector rally,” Jafri added.
Pakistan says won’t let India stop its water, hopes Trump will help resolve Kashmir issue
- Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations, with disputed Kashmir being a flashpoint between the two for decades
- India suspended key water treaty with Pakistan amid tensions over an attack in Kashmir that escalated into a military conflict last week
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar has said that Islamabad will not let India stop its share of water under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and expressed hope that US President Donald Trump will resolve the Kashmir issue between the neighbors, following a ceasefire between them after last week’s military conflict.
India and Pakistan last week attacked each other with fighter jets, missiles and artillery fire, in worst fighting between them in more than two decades that has killed more than 70 people on both sides.
The fighting, which came to an end on Saturday after the US brokered a ceasefire, had erupted amid heightened tensions between the neighbors over an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22 that India blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad denies involvement.
In an interview with Britain’s Sky News channel, Tarar said since things were moving forward after the ceasefire between the two nations, Pakistan was looking forward to the resolution of its concerns, including India’s suspension of the IWT.
“India has not stopped the water yet and they don’t have the capacity to stop that water,” he said on Monday. “We obviously won’t let India deny the right of water to our people.”
India announced suspending the 1960 World Bank-brokered treaty, which ensures water for 80 percent of Pakistani farms, a day after the April 22 attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 tourists.
The IWT grants Pakistan rights to the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab — for irrigation, drinking, and non-consumptive uses like hydropower, while India controls the eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej — for unrestricted use but must not significantly alter their flow. India can use the western rivers for limited purposes such as power generation and irrigation, without storing or diverting large volumes, according to the agreement.
Last week, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said the treaty would remain in abeyance, signaling deeper diplomatic rifts between the two nations as they traded fire across several cities.
“The fact is that there have been fundamental changes in the circumstances in which the Indus Waters Treaty was concluded,” Indian Foreign Secretary Misri was quoted as saying by NDTV on Thursday.
He said there is now a need to “reassess the obligations under that treaty.”
But Tarar believed Pakistan’s case on the agreement was “very strong,” adding they would wait to see how things unfold.
“At this point in time, the water is flowing normally and there is no stoppage,” he told Sky News.
Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations and frequently accuse each other of fomenting militancy in the other’s territory.
Kashmir, which has been divided between Pakistan and India since their independence from Britain in 1947, has been a flashpoint for decades, with the neighbors having fought two of their three wars over the region. Last week’s military conflict also originated from tensions over an assault in the disputed region.
Asked about details of the ceasefire, Tarar said many countries had been speaking to both Pakistan and India, and President Trump had been “pivotal” in securing the truce.
He hoped the US president would also help bring together the two nuclear-armed neighbors to resolve the enduring conflict in Kashmir.
Trump “has made things abundantly clear because he wants a resolution to major issues between us, between India and Pakistan,” Tarar said.
“And he has specifically mentioned Kashmir that he would like to settle.”
On Sunday, Trump said he would try to work with both India and Pakistan to see if they can resolve their dispute over Kashmir.
“I will work with you both to see if, after a ‘thousand years,’ a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, referring to India and Pakistan.
But India has for years insisted Kashmir is a bilateral issue and not allowed any third-party mediation.
In his first address to the nation since last week’s conflict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made clear that militancy was the only issue he wanted to discuss with Pakistan.
“I will tell the global community also, if we talk to Pakistan, it will be about terrorism only,” Modi said on Monday.
No truce in India-Pakistan disinformation war
- On social media, citizens on both sides are vying to control public perceptions by peddling disinformation
- Now that ceasefire has been declared, analysts warn hate speech “will once again refocus on religious minorities”
NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan have announced a ceasefire after coming close to all-out conflict, but on social media citizens on both sides are vying to control public perceptions by peddling disinformation.
Platforms such as Facebook and X are still awash with misrepresented footage of the attacks that killed at least 60 people and sent thousands fleeing. AFP fact-checkers have debunked many of the clips, which actually show the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the war in Ukraine.
Indian and Pakistani media outlets have also amplified misinformation, including false or unverifiable claims of military victories that experts say have exacerbated tensions and contributed to a flood of hate speech.
“It’s complicated to establish the military facts because, in addition to the reality of strikes that are difficult to ascertain, there’s a communication war going on,” said General Dominique Trinquand, an international relations analyst and former head of the French military mission to the United Nations.
Disinformation peaked when India launched deadly air strikes on Wednesday targeting “terrorist camps” in Pakistan, two weeks after a deadly attack on the Indian-administered side of disputed Kashmir.
New Delhi blames Islamabad for backing the April 22 attack near the tourist town of Pahalgam, which killed 26 people — almost all of them Hindu men. Pakistan denies the claim.
After the first round of Indian air strikes, the Pakistani military shared footage that had previously circulated in reports about a 2023 Israeli air strike in Gaza. The clip quickly appeared on television and social media but was later retracted by numerous media outlets, including AFP.
AI-generated imagery has also muddied the waters, including a video that purportedly shows a Pakistan Army general saying the country lost two of its aircraft. AFP fact-checkers found the clip was altered from a 2024 press conference.
“We have seen a new wave of AI-based content in both video and still images due to increased access to deepfake tools,” said Joyojeet Pal, an associate professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan.
Both India and Pakistan have taken advantage of the information vacuum to raise alarm bells and promote their own claims and counter-claims.
Pakistan appears to have lifted a more than one-year-old ban on X the same day of the Indian strikes, according to an AFP analysis of data from the nonprofit Open Observatory of Network Interference.
“In a time of crisis, the government needed its people’s voice to be heard all around the world and not to be silenced anymore like it was before for domestic political purposes,” said Usama Khilji, a digital rights expert and activist in Pakistan.
The country’s National Cyber Emergency Response Team (NCERT) on May 8 issued an alert about “increased cyberattacks and misinformation via emails, social media, QR codes, and messaging apps.”
Both Pakistan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Karachi Port Trust later said their X accounts had been hacked.
A post from the latter account said the port — one of South Asia’s busiest — was attacked by the Indian military. The page was later restored and the port authority said no attack had taken place.
India, meanwhile, has executed a sweeping crackdown targeting the social media accounts of Pakistani politicians, celebrities and media organizations.
The government ordered X to block more than 8,000 accounts and banned more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading “provocative” content, including news outlets.
Press Information Bureau (PIB) Fact Check, a government-run website, has also refuted more than 60 claims about the ongoing crisis, many having to do with supposed Pakistani military victories.
The avalanche of disinformation online has been accompanied by a spike in hate speech offline.
A report from the US-based India Hate Lab documented 64 in-person hate speech events between April 22 and May 2. Most were filmed and later shared on social media.
“There is a cyclical relationship between offline hate speech and the rise of harmful online content,” said Raqib Hameed Naik, executive director of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate.
He said the Pahalgam attack sparked in India a “significant surge in rallies where far-right leaders weaponized the tragedy to incite hate and violence against Muslim Indians and Kashmiris.”
Several clips online show people dressed in Hindu garb calling for economic boycotts of minority Muslims. Rallies in the northern Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have seen similar incendiary speeches.
Now that a ceasefire has been declared, Naik warned that hate speech “will once again refocus on religious minorities.”
“The war machine may have paused, but the hate machinery never stops. I worry it might return with a greater force.”
Pakistan says committed to ceasefire after Modi warns of more strikes
- Modi has said will hit “terror hideouts” in Pakistan in case of new attacks on India, won’t be deterred by “nuclear blackmail“
- Foreign office says India’s portrayal of Pakistan as seeking a ceasefire in “despair and frustration is yet another blatant lie”
ISLAMABAD: Islamabad said on Tuesday it was committed to a recent ceasefire deal with New Delhi and taking necessary steps toward de-escalation, after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned he would target “terrorist hideouts” across the border if there were fresh attacks on India.
Modi, who also said India would not be deterred by what he called Islamabad’s “nuclear blackmail,” was speaking two days after the nuclear-armed neighbors agreed to a ceasefire, reached after four days of intense exchanges of fire as the old enemies targeted each other’s military installations with missiles and drones, killing dozens of civilians.
The military confrontation began on Wednesday, when India said it launched strikes on nine “terrorist infrastructure” sites in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, with Pakistan retaliating by downing five Indian fighter jets. The escalation was triggered by tensions over an attack on Hindu tourists by militants in Indian-administered Kashmir last month that New Delhi has said Pakistan was involved in. Islamabad has denied any links to the attack and called for a neutral investigation.
In a statement released by the foreign office, Pakistan rejected the “provocative and inflammatory assertions” made by Modi, saying they signaled a “dangerous escalation rooted in misinformation, political opportunism, and a blatant disregard for international law.”
“This statement also reflects a propensity to fabricate misleading narratives to justify aggression,” the foreign office said.
“Pakistan remains committed to the recent ceasefire understanding and taking necessary steps toward de-escalation and regional stability.”
The FO said the ceasefire was achieved through the mediation of several friendly countries and the portrayal of Pakistan as seeking a ceasefire in “despair and frustration is yet another blatant lie.”
On Tuesday morning, the Pakistan army put out figures for deaths in the latest confrontation, saying 11 armed forces personnel and 41 civilians, including women and children, had been killed.
“Indian actions set a dangerous precedent for aggression, dragging the entire region to the brink of disaster. This reflects the mindset of a revisionist actor that seeks to upend strategic stability in South Asia without regard for consequences,” the foreign office added.
“Moreover, India is justifying the cold-blooded murder of innocent civilians, mostly women and children, as well as its highly irresponsible brinkmanship as the new normal for the region.
“Make no mistake, we will closely monitor India’s actions and behavior in this regard in the coming days. We also urge the international community to do the same.”
The statement ended by saying any future aggression would be met with “full resolve” and called on India to prioritize regional stability and the well-being of its citizens “over narrow, politically motivated jingoism.”
Bitter rivals India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, a region split between them, since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Both nations are nuclear-armed, raising global alarm every time an armed conflict breaks out between them.
“If there is a terrorist attack on India, a fitting reply will be given... on our terms,” Modi had said in Monday’s speech in Hindi in a televised address. “In the coming days, we will measure every step of Pakistan... what kind of attitude Pakistan will adopt.”
“India will strike precisely and decisively at the terrorist hideouts developing under the cover of nuclear blackmail,” he said, and listed New Delhi’s conditions for holding talks with Islamabad and lifting curbs imposed after the Kashmir attack.
“India’s position is clear: terror and talks cannot go together, terror and trade cannot go together and water and blood cannot flow together,” he said, referring to a water sharing pact between the two countries New Delhi unilaterally suspended after the April 22 militant attack.
- With inputs from Reuters
Pakistan certifies aviation security officers under UK-led training, aims for stronger global compliance
- Officials of Pakistan’s aviation security directorate have been trained by ICAO-qualified instructors
- The training will help aviation security inspectors increase compliance with international standards
KARACHI: Pakistan’s civil aviation regulator on Tuesday said all officers in its aviation security directorate have been internationally certified as security inspectors, following a UK-sponsored training program conducted by instructors qualified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
The certification, delivered by the UK Department for Transport (DfT), marks a key step in boosting Pakistan’s compliance with global aviation security standards. Officials said the move is expected to strengthen oversight, improve regulatory capability and bolster Pakistan’s standing under ICAO’s global audit regime.
“This training will play a pivotal role in enhancing the capabilities of our national aviation security inspectors and help increase compliance with international standards,” the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said in a statement.
The training, conducted in Pakistan by ICAO-qualified UK instructors, officially recognizes all officers in the CAA’s Directorate of Aviation Security as certified Aviation Security Inspectors, a designation that enables them to conduct safety and compliance assessments in line with international protocols.
Pakistan has previously ranked high in South Asia on ICAO’s Effective Implementation Rating, a global benchmark that measures a country’s adherence to international aviation safety and security practices.
The assessment is conducted under ICAO’s Universal Security Audit Program (USAP), which evaluates how well member states implement aviation security oversight systems.
The PCAA informed it was also expanding safety inspector training through international academic placements, adding two officers had been selected for fully sponsored postgraduate programs in France and South Korea, secured through ongoing coordination with both countries’ civil aviation authorities.
