KARACHI: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief General Asim Munir will personally finance the reconstruction of a mosque damaged by an Indian missile strike in the Muridke city of Punjab’s Sheikhupura district, a Pakistani federal minister announced on Monday.
India last week struck multiple Pakistani cities with missiles over an attack in the disputed Kashmir region. The strikes drew a “precise, proportionate” response from Islamabad.
However, four Indian missiles hit a mosque and an adjacent house within a complex in Muridke that New Delhi said belonged to a militant group, an allegation Pakistan has denied.
On Monday, Food Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, Gen Munir and other officials paid a visit to the Government Jamia Ummul Qura Mosque in the eastern Pakistani city.
“Announcing the government’s decision to reconstruct the mosque, he (Hussain) stated that the PM and the army chief have pledged to rebuild the mosque at their personal expense,” the Pakistani Ministry of National Food Security and Research said in a statement.
The Indian strikes had killed three Pakistani civilians and injured two others, according to Pakistani media.
During Monday’s visit, Pakistani officials met with the injured civilians and inquired about their well-being, according to the national food ministry. They announced top-tier medical care along with support for the families of the martyrs.
The visit came as director generals of military operations from India and Pakistan held talks, Reuters reported, following a US-brokered ceasefire that stopped four days of intense drone, missile and artillery fire.
Last week’s hostilities were triggered by a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam resort town that killed 26 tourists on April 22. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the assault, Islamabad denied it.
Kashmir has remained a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the region in full but ruling it in part. Both countries have fought two of their three wars over the region.
Army chief, PM to fund reconstruction of Pakistan mosque damaged by Indian strikes — minister
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Army chief, PM to fund reconstruction of Pakistan mosque damaged by Indian strikes — minister
- India last week struck multiple Pakistani cities with missiles over an attack in the disputed Kashmir region
- Four missiles struck a mosque and an adjacent house in Muridke, killing three civilians and injuring two others
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.”
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.
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
- 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
- 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
- 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.
Pakistan president invites Saudi investment, praises Riyadh’s support in critical times
- Ali Ali Zardari highlights the historic ties between the two countries in a meeting with the Saudi envoy
- The meeting came as Pakistan tries to attract foreign investment to accelerate its economic recovery
KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday invited Saudi businesses to explore investment opportunities in Pakistan, underscoring the historic relationship between the two countries and Riyadh’s critical role in helping Islamabad through difficult times.
Zardari’s remarks come as Pakistan looks to attract foreign investment to strengthen its economy. Saudi Arabia played a key role in stabilizing Pakistan’s finances in recent years, depositing $2 billion into Pakistan’s central bank in June 2023 to bolster foreign reserves.
The Kingdom also helped unlock a $3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund later in the same year.
“Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy deep-rooted and historic relations based on shared faith and mutual trust,” the president said during a meeting with Saudi Ambassador Nawaf bin Said Al-Malki in Islamabad according to a statement circulated by the presidency. “We invite Saudi investors to explore investment opportunities in various sectors of the Pakistani economy.”
The Saudi financial assistance to Pakistan two years ago came as the South Asian nation’s reserves had dropped to a level where it could barely cover a few weeks of imports, bringing the country to the brink of sovereign default.
Zardari expressed appreciation for Riyadh’s continued support during the meeting and called for deeper engagement between the two nations on regional and international forums.
Pakistan has been trying to further strengthen its economic relations with the Gulf countries amid improving macroeconomic indicators.
It also signed 34 memorandums of understanding worth $2.8 billion with Saudi Arabia in October 2024, part of Islamabad’s broader push to accelerate its economic recovery through export-led growth and foreign investment.
