ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan met with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Dushanbe on Friday, and said the two nations were working closely with Afghanistan’s six neighbors to ensure a “coordinated regional approach” to ending the crisis in the war-torn country.
Khan is in Tajikistan for the 20th Shanghai Cooperation Organization Council of Heads of State summit where neighboring Afghanistan has been at the top of the agenda.
“Pakistan and China had maintained close collaboration for the meeting of six neighbouring countries of Afghanistan for a coordinated regional approach,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement. “The Prime Minister underlined that a peaceful and stable Afghanistan was of critical importance for Pakistan and the region.”
World powers have told the Taliban the key to peace and development is an inclusive government acceptable to all people of Afghanistan, including women and minorities. But an all-male interim cabinet announced earlier this month saw key positions going to veteran players of the Taliban movement, which captured Kabul on August 15.
The Persian-speaking Tajiks of Afghanistan’s western and northern regions have long been opposed to the southern and eastern Pashtuns who make up the core of the Taliban.
In his address at the SCO summit on Friday, Khan said the Taliban must fulfill their promises to the international community.
“For their part, the Taliban must fulfill the pledges made above all for inclusive political structure where all ethnic groups are represented,” Khan said. “This is vital for Afghanistan’s stability. Also, it is important to ensure respect for the rights of all Afghans, and ensure that Afghanistan is never again a safe haven for terrorists.”
He said it was a “matter of relief” that the sudden change of government in Afghanistan had not caused bloodshed, civil war or the mass exodus of refugees, calling on the international community to ensure there was no renewed conflict in Afghanistan.
“Urgent priorities are to prevent a humanitarian crisis and an economic meltdown,” the PM said. “This is a moment to stand by the Afghan people, firmly and unequivocally.”
The PM said sustainable peace and stability in Afghanistan would also help realize the regional vision of “an inter-connected, prosperous and economically vibrant region.”
“Pakistan’s geostrategic location as a natural bridge connecting Central Asia with South Asia finds its manifestation through the platform of SCO,” he said. “Pakistan offers the shortest route to the sea for many of our partners in Central Asia.”
He commended the initiative by the president of Uzbekistan to host the International Conference on Central Asia-South Asia Connectivity in Tashkent last July.
“There is no doubt that the web of rail, road, sea and air links across the SCO region will usher in a new era of enhanced trade, energy flows, and people-to-people exchanges,” Khan said. “ This hard and soft connectivity will contribute significantly to progress and prosperity in the region and beyond. These trans-regional linkages will be reinforced by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of BRI, which is making steady progress.”
On Thursday, Khan addressed the Pakistan-Tajikistan Business Forum in Dushanbe where he met and interacted with members of the business communities of both Pakistan and Tajikistan.
“I believe we have some 67 companies here from Pakistan today, in different fields of textiles, minerals, pharmaceuticals,” the PM said at the business forum.
He praised Tajikistan for being a “very resourceful country.”
“You have cheap, clean hydroelectricity and in Pakistan, unfortunately, we have very expensive electricity,” Khan lamented.
“And so, we hope that CASA-1000 will be expedited so that we can also benefit from your clean and cheap energy,” the PM said, referring to a regional electricity generation project linking Central Asia and South Asia.
He said Pakistan, with its 220 million population, offered a “huge market” to Tajikistan and an opportunity to expand the existing “minuscule” trade volume of $80 million.
“We hope and I invite you [Tajikistan’s business community], our business community will invite you, and I assure you that we will facilitate you in every way,” he said. “I can assure you that we will be giving you all the incentives, the government will do everything to make it easier for you to do business.”
In June, PM Khan attended the Pakistan-Uzbekistan “Silk Route Reconnect” Business Forum and signed a significant transit agreement with Uzbekistan to allow Tashkent to utilize Pakistani seaports for much of its trade, bypassing Iran.
Uzbekistan is a landlocked country that heavily relies on Iran’s Bandar Abbas port for international business and commerce. Islamabad wants to tap the unlocked states through its deep-sea Gwadar port in southwestern Balochistan to boost its geo-economic position in the region.
Central Asia also offers Pakistan a $90 billion export market.
Khan also signed deals for the transportation of goods, cooperation between chambers of commerce of both countries, education, culture and tourism during the June trip.
The Pakistani foreign office said on Thursday the PM’s visit to Tajikistan this week was part of Pakistan’s vision to deepen its engagement with Central Asia and focus on enhancing political ties, trade and investment, energy and connectivity, security and defense, and people-to-people contact.
Pakistan, China leading ‘coordinated approach’ on Afghanistan together with its six neighbours — PM Khan
https://arab.news/mvm6b
Pakistan, China leading ‘coordinated approach’ on Afghanistan together with its six neighbours — PM Khan
- In address to Shanghai Cooperation Organization, PM Khan says Taliban must fulfill promises on inclusive government, rights
- Calls on international community to continue aid, prevent economic collapse, ensure there is no renewed conflict in Afghanistan
PM Sharif says Saudi business delegation’s visit to benefit Pakistan’s economic future
- The prime minister says the Saudi minister leading the delegation described it as ‘a new era’ for Pakistan
- Pakistan is seeking foreign investment to navigate a path to economic recovery as it seeks another IMF bailout
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed confidence on Tuesday the Saudi business delegation’s visit to Pakistan would prove beneficial for his country while applauding his cabinet ministers for playing a constructive role in their dealings with the visiting investors.
The delegation, which comprised representatives of 30-35 Saudi companies, was led by the kingdom’s Saudi Assistant Minister of Investment Ibrahim Al-Mubarak and arrived in Pakistan on Sunday.
Its members held several business-to-business meetings to explore investment opportunities in various economic sectors of the country.
The prime minister said in the opening remarks of the cabinet meeting the delegation was satisfied with its engagements in Pakistan before returning to the kingdom. He particularly mentioned the head of the delegation, saying he praised the performance of Pakistani ministers.
“He said, ‘We are very satisfied and happily returning.’ And he said, ‘I will report that we have seen a new era in Pakistan.’ In this, the commerce minister has a very big role, as does the ministers of petroleum and finance,” the PM told the cabinet meeting.
“It augurs very well for our future,” he added.
The kingdom’s business delegation’s visit to Islamabad followed Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan’s visit to Islamabad last month, when he was briefed by the authorities on various avenues to invest in the country.
Pakistan is trying to navigate a path to economic recovery by securing an International Monetary Fund bailout.
It also needs foreign investment to help fight a chronic balance of payments crisis.
Pakistan expecting investment in port infrastructure by global shipping giant Maersk — minister
- AP Moller-Maersk has a market share of around 20 percent in Pakistan’s containerized import-export activities
- Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh says there is a lot of interest in Pakistan’s port as a global hub for transshipment
KARACHI: Pakistan is expecting investment from a Denmark-based global shipping giant, AP Moller–Maersk (Maersk), in its port terminal and infrastructure, the Pakistani maritime affairs minister said on Tuesday, amid growing global interest in Pakistani ports.
The statement comes more than a week after Maersk Chief Executive Officer Keith Svendsen’s visit to Pakistan, where he met top officials to explore opportunities in Pakistan’s maritime sector.
Maritime Affairs Minister Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh told Arab News the Danish shipping firm was interested in investing in a terminal and port as well as allied infrastructure, including connecting bridges.
“We had very good discussions with them and they had shown eagerness and told us that they will submit proposal in a few days,” he said. “They want to take a terminal. There is some area where there is depth in the sea, where big ships can be anchored.”
Maersk has grown into a leading provider of logistics and supply-chain services across Pakistan. It has around 20 percent market share in Pakistan’s containerized import-export activities, according to Pakistan’s information ministry.
In January, the Danish shipping firm announced new smart logistics and warehouse facilities in China, Norway and Pakistan.
“With a vast network of warehousing and depot facilities across the country, including our flagship logistics hub in Port Qasim, Karachi — a sprawling 27-acre complex encompassing over 650,000 square feet of warehouse space — we ensure unparalleled support to Pakistani exporters and importers,” the shipping company said in a written response to Arab News.
“In total, Maersk now operates over a 1.5 million square feet footprint across 7 cities in Pakistan.”
Sheikh said many companies were interested in investing in the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) despite a limited space available there.
“We have limited space available in KPT and many, including foreign, companies are taking interest in it, particularly in the deep-water areas where water depth is high and we have the location,” he said.
“The point is that there is a lot of interest in Pakistan’s port right now because they are seeing this as a global hub for transshipment and they will also run the feeder vessels in the Gulf from here.”
To a question about a visiting Saudi delegation, the maritime affairs minister said “there are many breakthroughs” during the visit. “They are looking for areas of mutual interest which both sides can benefit from,” he added.
The South Asian nation has already signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi (AD) Ports Group which is investing about $395 million for the development of a container and cargo terminal under a government-to-government (G2G) agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan.
FBI’s fallen Pakistani agent Kamran Faridi says returning to Pakistan will be ‘dangerous’
- Faridi was recently released from a Florida prison on the condition he would deport himself to Pakistan permanently
- Faridi ran off to Sweden and then to the US in the 1990s after falling out with the law over his links with criminal gangs
KARACHI: Kamran Faridi, a fallen undercover FBI agent from Karachi who was recently released from a Florida prison on the condition he would surrender his American nationality and deport himself to Pakistan permanently, said on Tuesday it would be “dangerous” for him to return to his home country from where he had escaped a life of crime nearly 30 years ago.
Faridi, 60, worked as an informant and agent for the FBI for nearly 15 years and was the architect of the plan to entrap Karachi businessman Jabir Motiwala, arrested by Scotland Yard in London in 2018 on the request of the United States. After years working for the FBI, he was sentenced to 84 months in jail on Dec. 9, 2022, after he refused to testify against Motiwala.
“It will compromise my well-being, it’s going to be difficult,” Faridi told Arab News in a phone interview from Florida, speaking about the prospect of returning to Karachi after nearly 30 years. “It’s going to be dangerous but what choices do I have?”
Faridi, who lives in the US with his American wife, said the judge had reduced one year from his prison sentence on account of a recent law where a first offender gets a two-point sentence reduction.
Good conduct in prison and a verbal agreement with American authorities that he would surrender his nationality and return to Pakistan before August this year further reduced his sentence, Faridi said. Another stipulation of the agreement was that he would not appeal the court’s decision.
VETERAN SPY
Faridi worked for the FBI from 1995 till 2020 and helped the American agency nab several targets associated with transnational terrorist organizations. However, a 25-year relationship with the American agency turned sour in 2020 after Faridi said he refused to testify against Motiwala, allegedly a high-ranking member of the Indian organized crime syndicate D-Company.
Motiwala was arrested in London in August 2018 for conspiring to launder money into the United States and using force to extort funds. Faridi, who played a pivotal role in his arrest, said he later refused to testify against Motiwala after he realized the businessperson had been framed on bogus charges.
Faridi said his FBI colleagues had informed him that FBI was involved in a joint operation with India’s spy agency the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to establish a link between Motiwala, the D-Company and Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) military spy agency.
Faridi was arrested in London in 2020 after FBI agents intercepted his conversations with Motiwala’s lawyers, revealing his intent to testify in Motiwala’s favor. He was apprehended at the London Heathrow Airport while attempting to enter the UK, intending to testify against the FBI’s actions regarding Motiwala.
Charged with being a threat to his former FBI colleagues, Faridi was swiftly extradited back to the US and jailed.
“It’s a very complex case, the FBI wants to punish me for not testifying against D-Company,” Faridi said.
FROM KARACHI TO ATLANTA
Faridi was a member of the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party and subsequently of its rival, the Peoples Student Federation (PSF), in the 1990s. Both groups were widely known to be involved in criminal activities like kidnappings and armed robberies, which Faridi also became linked to. He later went on the run and escaped to Sweden, where he sought asylum almost three decades ago. He was later arrested by authorities after getting into fights with local gangs there, but broke out of prison and managed to escape to the US, where he ran a gas station in Atlanta.
It was there that he came into contact with the Atlanta Police Department after he complained to them about “corrupt” police officers whom Farid said were harassing him. Thus began his work as an informant with Atlanta police, who later introduced him to the FBI. Impressed with his proficiency in the Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi, and Spanish languages, the FBI decided to recruit him as an informant and agent.
“So that’s how I got introduced to FBI and they introduced me to the Drug Enforcement Authority, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and after 9/11 the Central Intelligence Agency, MI6, French intelligence and many others,” Faridi said.
Faridi said he had paid a “hefty” price for refusing to testify against Motiwala but would now return to Karachi with his wife.
“I was a gangster but I am neither a criminal nor a gangster now,” he said. “I am returning to my city as a normal man.”
Pakistan army says March suicide bombing that killed five Chinese planned in Afghanistan
- Spokesperson says spike in militant attacks in recent months linked to groups operating from Afghanistan
- Taliban government in Kabul denies it allows anti-Pakistan militants to operate from sanctuaries in Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Maj-Gen Ahmed Sharif repeated Islamabad’s accusations that militants were launching attacks on Pakistan from Afghanistan and said a recent attack in which five Chinese nationals were killed was also planned in the neighboring country.
A suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into a convoy of Chinese engineers working on a hydropower project at Dasu in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver on Mar. 26.
The assault was the third major attack in little over a week on China’s interests in the South Asian nation, where Beijing has invested more than $65 billion in infrastructure projects as part of its wider Belt and Road initiative. It came amid a recent surge in militant violence in the country that the government — without providing evidence — has said mostly involved Afghans. The Taliban government in Kabul denies it allows anti-Pakistan militants to operate from its soil.
“The attack [against the Chinese engineers] was planned in Afghanistan,” the spokesperson of the Pakistan army said at a press conference.
“The explosives-laden vehicle used in the attack was also prepared in Afghanistan and sent to Pakistan. The attacker was also an Afghan national. When the network [that carried out the attack] was exposed, its central characters like Adil Shahbaz, Zahid Qureshi, Nazir Hussain and another one of their companions were arrested.”
However, the DG ISPR said the government was working to strengthen the security of Chinese workers and make it “fool-proof,” saying the attacks on Chinese workers were aimed at undermining Pakistan’s economic interests and its strategic relations with longtime ally Beijing.
Sharif said Pakistan had taken up the issue of militant violence with Afghan authorities, who were unhelpful.
“There is solid evidence of TTP terrorists using Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan,” he added.
The Taliban say Pakistan’s security issues are an internal challenge.
The Mar. 26 bombing followed a Mar. 20 attack on a strategic port used by China in the southwestern province of Balochistan, where Beijing has poured billions of dollars into infrastructure projects, and a Mar. 25 assault on a naval air base, also in the southwest. Both attacks were claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of several separatist groups in Balochistan.
Dasu, the site of a major dam, has been attacked in the past, with a bus blast in 2021 killing 13 people, nine Chinese among them, although no group claimed responsibility, like the Mar. 26 bombing.
Pakistan is home to twin insurgencies, one mounted by religiously-motivated militants like the TTP that Islamabad says operate from Afghanistan, and the other by ethnic separatists who seek secession, blaming the government’s inequitable division of natural resources in southwestern Balochistan province.
Pakistan mulls pension reforms as government moves to curtail expenditure ahead of IMF talks
- Muhammad Aurangzeb says IMF delegation to visit Pakistan this month to discuss size, duration of next loan program
- In March this year, media widely reported the finance ministry had shared a pension reform program with the IMF
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government said on Tuesday it was vital to reform the country’s pension system, including by raising the retirement age, to mitigate expenditure as Islamabad aims to save the system billions of dollars per year, with a committee formed to propose recommendations.
The belt tightening moves come as Islamabad — which is facing a balance of payment crisis — is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure a new long-term bailout deal. In the past, Pakistan has faced the challenges of revenue generation and government expenditure and struggled with high levels of debt, a large fiscal deficit and an ongoing need for structural reforms to improve its fiscal sustainability.
Under the last $3 billion bailout, Pakistan implemented several IMF-mandated reforms, such as budget adjustments, increasing interest rates, and higher energy prices. Among expected reforms under a new program are strengthening public finances through gradual fiscal consolidation, broadening the existing tax base and improving tax administration, and debt sustainability, all while protecting the vulnerable.
An IMF mission is expected in Pakistan in the next ten days to discuss a new loan program that the finance minister has said would be “larger and longer.”
“Age is just a number,” Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said at a press conference in Islamabad, calling for reforms in the pension system and saying pension payments were a “huge liability.”
“Sixty is the new 40. In the [private sector] institution I left before coming here [as finance minister], we raised the retirement age from 60 to 65. These are your most productive years when you have maximum experience.”
He recognized that changes to the service structure could not be carried out overnight but said Pakistan would need to move in this direction to control the pension costs.
Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar said pension reforms would be held across the board, for which legislation was required.
“A large chunk of yearly revenue is utilized on paying retirement benefits and pensions,” Tarar said at the press conference with Aurangzeb. “Legislation is required for this as civil servants, armed forces, judicial organs, and executive organs are included.”
The law minister said a committee had been formed under the chair of the finance minister to propose recommendations pertaining to pension reforms.
In March this year, Pakistan’s media widely reported that the finance ministry had shared a pension reform program with the IMF to contain growing pension liabilities, with the consolidated federal and provincial pension expenditure projected to increase by over 20 percent from Rs1.252 trillion last year to Rs1.513tn this year.
The reforms scheme shared with the lender reportedly seeks to cut the annual federal pension expense on existing employees by changing the formula for pension calculation, slashing the commutation rate, discouraging early retirement through the imposition of a penalty, restricting the list of beneficiaries of the deceased employees, and ending the current practice of multiple pensions.
In a 2021 report, the State Bank of Pakistan said the federal pension expenditure was increasingly becoming unsustainable:
“When we look at the federal pension bill, there has been a significant rise. Pension bill has increased at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of almost 14pc during 2012-23.”
According to the bank, overall pension spending as a percentage of total budgeted expenditure for FY20 exceeded the federal and provincial health and education spending and was almost half the level of consolidated development expenditures.
The World Bank in 2020 warned that salary and pension costs in Pakistan would persistently grow and crowd out other public expenditures in the coming years.
