ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday condemned anti-Azaan (Muslims’ call to prayer) measures around various mosques in the Indian state of Karnataka, the Pakistani foreign office said, describing it as a “new level of religious radicalism.”
Rights groups and minority leaders say religious freedom has significantly deteriorated in India under the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which denies it discriminates against Muslims or any other religious minorities.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom last month asked India be placed on a list of “countries of particular concern” — a recommendation that angered New Delhi and was virtually certain to be dismissed by the US State Department.
This is the third straight year, the panel, which is appointed to offer recommendations but does not set US policy, has voiced wide concern about South Asia.
“Pakistan condemns in the strongest possible terms the highly deplorable incidents involving playing of Hanuman Chalisa and other Hindu devotional songs on loudspeakers as a counter to the Muslims’ call to prayer at various mosques in Indian state of Karnataka,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
It said the disturbing incidents occurred only a day after Sri Ram Sena chief made the despicable call for “drowning” the Azaan through provocative playing of Hanuman Chalisa and other Hindu religious hymns.
“It is condemnable that a reprehensible so-called ‘Azan se Azaadi’ campaign has been launched by Hindu fanatic groups in Karnataka which lays bare the new level of religious radicalism in the BJP (Bharataiya Janata Party)-ruled India,” the statement read.
The Pakistani foreign office said loudspeakers were being removed from mosques across various states in India on the pretext of ensuring “communal harmony.”
“The ‘othering’ of Muslims in India and exclusionary policies aimed at denying their fundamental right to profess and practice their religion, only expose the deep-seated anti-Muslim prejudices in the Indian state and society,” it said further.
Islamabad called upon the Indian government to transparently investigate the incidents of widespread violence against minorities, particularly Muslims, and their places of worship, and take measures to stop such incidents in the future.
The government of India must ensure the safety, security and well-being of minorities, it added.
The foreign office urged the international community to take note of the aggravating situation of Islamophobia in India, and play its due role in ensuring religious freedom and safety of Muslims residing in India.
In 2021, several attacks targeted religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians, in India as PM Modi’s government promoted its “ideological vision of a Hindu state” through policies hostile to minorities.
Mobs and vigilante groups have carried out campaigns of threats and violence against minorities, giving rise to a culture of impunity in the South Asian country.
Pakistan condemns anti-Azaan measures in India’s Karnataka, calls it ‘religious radicalism’
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Pakistan condemns anti-Azaan measures in India’s Karnataka, calls it ‘religious radicalism’
- A US commission last month said religious freedom had ‘significantly’ worsened in India
- In 2021, several attacks targeted religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians
Pakistan says Saudi Arabia, China, US among countries participating in Minerals Investment Forum
- Pakistan is hosting summit from Apr. 8-9 in Islamabad to attract international investment in its mining sector
- Ali Pervaiz Malik says around 2,000 people expected to attend conference, out of which 300 will be foreigners
ISLAMABAD: Business representatives and officials from Saudi Arabia, China, US and the UK, among other countries, will participate in the two-day Pakistan Minerals Investment Forum scheduled to take place this week, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik said on Monday.
The summit will be held in Pakistan’s capital from April 8-9 and is part of the government’s recent efforts to attract local and international investment in the mining and minerals sector. Pakistan has vast reserves of minerals and natural resources, which the government hopes can become a key source of economic development in the future.
The country is home to one of the world’s largest porphyry copper-gold mineral zones. The Reko Diq mine in southwestern Balochistan has an estimated 5.9 billion tons of ore. Barrick Gold, which owns a 50 percent stake in the Reko Diq mines, considers them one of the world’s largest underdeveloped copper-gold areas, and their development is expected to have a significant impact on Pakistan’s struggling economy.
Pakistan’s state media said in February that the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), the country’s leading exploration and production (E&P) company, in collaboration with the government and strategic partners, would organize the summit.
“We are expecting participation at the senior level [for the summit] from Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, China and America,” Malik told reporters at a press conference, adding that participants from Denmark, Finland, Kenya and the UK are also expected to attend.
Malik said the government estimates around 2,000 people to participate at the event, out of which 300 are expected to be foreigners. He said Pakistan will sign key agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with other countries at the summit.
“It is the prime minister’s wish that we do not restrict this event to just words, so we will confirm some MoUs in front of you,” Malik said. “Along with this, not just MoUs but a few agreements will also be executed after which we will take these entire matters toward implementation.”
The minister said that the government will formally unveil Pakistan’s newly developed, investor-friendly National Minerals Harmonization Framework 2025, which aims to attract investment in the country’s mineral sector.
Pakistan has designated mining and minerals as a priority sector for national economic development, aiming to reduce its reliance on imports and enhance exports. The country is undertaking efforts to utilize its natural resources through foreign investment and collaboration to stabilize its $350 billion economy, which has suffered a prolonged economic crisis over the past few years.
Pakistan stocks plummet as Trump tariffs hammer global financial markets
- Trading at PSX halted briefly on Monday as benchmark share index slumped by over 5% during day
- Asian equity markets sank, European shares crashed to a 16-month-low and oil prices plummeted
KARACHI: Trading at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was halted briefly on Monday as its benchmark share index slumped by over 5% during the day, as international markets reacted to market volatility caused by sweeping tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump last week.
The PSX suspended stocks trading for an hour at 11:58 am after the KSE-30 index, which tracks the performance of the 30 most liquid companies listed on the exchange, fell by 5.6% or 2,055 points to 34,723 points.
According to PSX rules, trading is halted if the KSE-30 index falls below 5% and keeps trading below that number continuously for five minutes. The benchmark KSE-100 index, which measures the performance of 100 companies, lost 5.3% or 6,287 points, making it the highest intraday drop in terms of points, according to JS Global Capital Ltd.
“Due to a 5% decrease in the KSE-30 index from the previous trading day close of the index, a market halt has been triggered as per PSX regulations and all equity and equity-based markets have been suspended accordingly,” the PSX said in a statement.
Due to the halt, all outstanding orders were automatically canceled before trading resumed at 1:03pm.
The market was reacting to Trump’s recent decision to impose “reciprocal tariffs” on multiple countries, a measure widely viewed as a setback for a global economy still recovering from the pandemic. Washington has also imposed a 29% tariff on Pakistani goods.
“The sharp selloff this morning mirrors a broader wave of global market volatility, driven by the US administration’s recent imposition of sweeping tariffs,” Shahid Ali Habib, chief executive officer at Arif Habib Ltd., told Arab News.
“These measures have intensified fears of a global trade war, shaking investor confidence worldwide,” he added.
Pakistan considers the US an important trade partner, with Islamabad’s exports to the country totaling $5.44 billion in the last financial year that ended in June.
Muhammad Waqas Ghani, head of research at JS Global Capital Ltd., noted that US tariffs were a major cause of uncertainty in equity markets across the world.
“Impact on the KSE-100 index is a reflection of investor anxiety as they anticipate negative effects on overall economic stability,” Ghani told Arab News.
The stock market slump is bound to weigh on investor sentiments in Pakistan, where equity traders had just started earning profits out of a boom triggered by the much-awaited nod from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) mission in Pakistan. The IMF team led by Nathan Porter held discussions with Pakistan officials on the country’s economic performance from February 24-March 14 in Karachi and Islamabad.
Domestically, Habib said the oil sector stocks were bearing the brunt of the selloff as they faced pressure due to concerns of potential inventory losses following last week’s 9.5% sharp decline in oil prices.
Talking about other factors that caused the benchmark index to slump, Ghani said lack of clarity on the government’s part to address the energy sector’s circular debt issue was also making investors cautious.
Last week, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced a relief package for domestic and industrial power consumers, vowing that his government would resolve the longstanding circular debt issue in the next five years. However, the Pakistani premier did not provide much clarity on how his government would achieve that.
As a result, confidence in the energy stocks is on the low leading to a fall in stock prices, Ghani said.
“For now, investors may remain cautious until there’s more clarity on these fronts, and the market may continue to experience volatility until a positive direction is set by the government,” he added.
Global markets fall as Trump’s tariffs roil world trade
- Pakistan Stock Exchange falls rapidly, suspending trading for an hour after a 5% drop in KSE-100 index
- Middle East stock markets tumble as they struggled with dual hit of new US tariffs, oil prices decline
Global markets plunged Monday following last week’s two-day meltdown on Wall Street, and President Donald Trump said he won’t back down on his sweeping new tariffs, which have roiled global trade.
Countries are scrambling to figure out how to respond to the tariffs, with China and others retaliating quickly.
Trump’s tariff blitz fulfilled a key campaign promise as he acted without Congress to redraw the rules of the international trading system. It was a move decades in the making for Trump, who has long denounced foreign trade deals as unfair to the US
The higher rates are set to be collected beginning Wednesday, ushering in a new era of economic uncertainty with no clear end in sight.
Here’s the latest:
Chinese officials meet business representatives from Tesla and other US companies.
Chinese government officials met business representatives from Tesla, GE Healthcare and other US companies on Sunday. It called on them to issue “reasonable” statements and take “concrete actions” on addressing the issue of tariffs.
“The United States in recent days has used all sorts of excuses to announce indiscriminate tariffs on all trading partners, including China, severely harming the rules-based multilateral trade system,” said Ling Ji, a vice minister of commerce, at the meeting with 20 US companies.
“China’s countermeasures are not only a way to protect the rights and interests of companies, including American ones, but are also to urge the US to return to the right path of the multilateral trading system,” Ling added.
Ling also promised that China would remain open to foreign investment, according to a readout of the meeting from the Ministry of Commerce.
Malaysia wants Southeast Asia to present a united response to tariffs
Malaysia’s Trade Minister Zafrul Abdul Aziz said his country wants to forge a united response from Southeast Asia to the sweeping US tariffs.
Malaysia, which is the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, will lead the regional bloc’s special Economic Ministers’ Meeting on April 10 in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the broader implication of the tariff measures on regional trade and investment, Zafrul told a news conference on Monday.
“We are looking at the investment flow, macroeconomic stability and ASEAN’s coordinated response to this tariff issue,” Zafrul said.
ASEAN leaders will also meet to discuss member states’ strategies and to mitigate potential disruptions to regional supply chain networks.
Pakistan plans to send a government delegation to Washington this month to discuss how to avoid the 29% tariffs imposed by the US on imports from Pakistan, officials said Monday.
The development came two days after Pakistan’s prime minister asked its finance minister to send him recommendations for resolving the issue. The US imports around $5 billion worth of textiles and other products from Pakistan, which heavily relies on loans from the International Monetary Fund and others.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange fell rapidly on Monday. The exchange suspended trading for an hour after a 5% drop in its main KSE-30 index.
Mideast markets follow oil prices lower
Middle East stock markets tumbled as they struggled with the dual hit of the new US tariffs and a sharp decline in oil prices, squeezing energy-producing nations that rely on those sales to power their economies and government spending.
Benchmark Brent crude is down by nearly 15% over the last five days of trading, with a barrel of oil costing just over $63. That’s down nearly 30% from a year ago, when a barrel cost over $90.
That cost per barrel is far lower than the estimated break-even price for producers. That’s coupled with the new tariffs, which saw the Gulf Cooperation Council states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates hit with 10% tariffs. Other Mideast nations face higher tariffs, like Iraq at 39% and Syria at 41%.
The Dubai Financial Market exchange fell 5% as it opened for the week. The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange fell 4%.
Markets that opened Sunday saw losses as well. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul stock exchange fell over 6% in trading. The giant of the exchange, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco, fell over 5% on its own, wiping away billions in market capitalization for the world’s sixth-most-valuable company.
Beijing struck a note of confidence on Monday even as markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai tumbled.
“The sky won’t fall. Faced with the indiscriminate punches of US taxes, we know what we are doing and we have tools at our disposal,” wrote The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s official mouthpiece.
China announced a slew of countermeasures on Friday evening aimed at Trump’s tariffs, including its own 34% tariffs on all goods from the US set to go in effect on Wednesday.
Australian dollar drops to levels last seen early in pandemic
The Australian dollar fell below 60 US cents on Monday for the first time since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The drop reflected concerns over the Chinese economy and market expectations for four interest rate cuts in Australia this calendar year, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.
“What our modeling shows is that we expect there to be big hits to American growth and Chinese growth and a spike in American inflation as well,” Chalmers said.
“We expect more manageable impacts on the Australian economy, but we still do expect Australian GDP to take a hit and we expect there to be an impact on prices here as well,” he added.
The Trump administration assigned Australia the minimum baseline 10% tariff on imports in the United States. The US has enjoyed a trade surplus with Australia for decades.
Indian stocks fell sharply on Monday, seeing their biggest single-day drop in percentage terms since March 2020 amid the pandemic.
The benchmark BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 index both dropped about 5% after trading opened but then recovered slightly. Both were later trading down about 4 percent.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the US, digging in on his plans to implement the taxes that have sent financial markets reeling, raised fears of a recession and upended the global trading system.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said he didn’t want global markets to fall, but also that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-off either, adding, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”
His comments came as global financial markets appeared on track to continue sharp declines once trading resumes Monday, and after Trump’s aides sought to soothe market concerns by saying more than 50 nations had reached out about launching negotiations to lift the tariffs.
“I spoke to a lot of leaders, European, Asian, from all over the world,” Trump said. “They’re dying to make a deal. And I said, we’re not going to have deficits with your country. We’re not going to do that, because to me a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses or at worst, going to be breaking even.”
Asian markets plunged on Monday following last week’s two-day meltdown on Wall Street, and US President Donald Trump said he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the US
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost nearly 8% shortly after the market opened on Monday. By midday, it was down 6%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 9.4%, while the Shanghai Composite index was down 6.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi lost 4.1%
US futures also signaled further weakness.
Market observers expect investors will face more wild swings in the days and weeks to come, with a short-term resolution to the trade war appearing unlikely.
Pakistan among four countries that accounted for almost half of 2023 maternal deaths— UN report
- UN report says an estimated 260,000 women died due to pregnancy or childbirth complications in 2023
- With 11,000 maternal deaths, Pakistan accounted for 4.1% of global maternal deaths in 2023, says UN report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was among four countries that accounted for 47% of all global maternal deaths in 2023, a report by the United Nations released on Monday on the occasion of World Health Day said.
The international community marks World Health Day every year on Apr. 7. This year’s theme, “healthy beginnings, hopeful futures,” has been chosen to stress the importance of maternal and child health care. As per the UN, the campaign will urge governments and the health community to ramp up efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths, and to prioritize women’s longer-term health and well-being.
Released on World Health Day, the UN report titled “Trends in Maternal Mortality Estimates 2000-2023” has been compiled by the WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank and UN’s Population Division. The report states that while there has been a 40% global decline in maternal deaths between 2000 and 2023, the pace of improvement has slowed significantly since 2016. It added that an estimated 260,000 women died in 2023 as a result of complications from pregnancy or childbirth.
The report said Nigeria had the highest number of maternal deaths and accounted for more than a quarter (28.7%) of them in 2023, with approximately 75,000 deaths. Three other countries had more than 10,000 maternal deaths in 2023: India (19,000), the Democratic Republic of Congo (19,000) and Pakistan (11,000), accounting for 7.2%, 7.2% and 4.1% of global maternal deaths, respectively.
“Together, these four countries accounted for almost half (47%) of all maternal deaths globally in 2023,” the report said.
The report pointed out that five countries had more than 5,000 maternal deaths but fewer than 10,000 in 2023. These include Ethiopia, Afghanistan, the United Republic of Tanzania, Indonesia and Chad. A total of 84 countries were estimated to have had 20 or fewer maternal deaths in 2023, the report said.
The report was released as humanitarian funding cuts are having severe impacts on essential health care in many parts of the world, forcing countries to roll back vital services for maternal, newborn and child health. These cuts have led to facility closures and loss of health workers, while also disrupting supply chains for lifesaving supplies and medicines such as treatments for hemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and malaria – all leading causes of maternal deaths.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, on his message on World Health Day, said that Pakistan still has a “long way to go” as far as maternal and child health are concerned.
“Pakistan has made remarkable progress in the field of maternal and child health, but we still have a long way to go,” Sharif was quoted as saying by his office. “We must strengthen our health systems in a way that they can effectively address not only medical but also the broader social factors that impact maternal and newborn health.”
The Pakistani premier said his government is committed to harnessing cutting-edge technology in the health sector and building strong partnerships to further improve public health services.
He said that through the use of digital health tools, data-driven policymaking and effective community engagement, Pakistan aims to bridge the gaps that hinder health service delivery, especially in underserved and remote areas.
“As we celebrate World Health Day 2025, let us reaffirm the need for an integrated and multidisciplinary approach to health,” Sharif said. “This should include integrated and practical actions in health care, education, nutrition, environment, and governance.”
Pakistan army says ‘highly wanted’ militant among 9 killed in northwest operation
- Army has been launching frequent operations against militants it says launch attacks from safe havens in Afghanistan, which Kabul denies
- Militants have accelerated their attacks since they revoked a ceasefire with the government late in 2022, targeting the army and its bases
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan army said on Monday a “highly wanted” militant was among nine killed in an intelligence-based operation in the northwestern Dera Ismail Khan district.
The military has been launching frequent operations in recent months in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The army’s target in the area is militants it says launch attacks inside Pakistan, and against the army, using safe havens in Afghanistan, a charge Kabul denies.
Groups like the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) have been waging a war against the Pakistani state for nearly two decades in a bid to overthrow the government and replace it with what they consider an Islamic system of governance.
“During conduct of the operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij [terrorist] location and after an intense fire exchange, nine khwarij including high value target, Kharji Ring leader Shireen were sent to hell,” the military said of the latest operation, adding that weapons and ammunition were also recovered.
The army said Shireen, whom it identified only with one name, had been involved in various militant activities, the target killing of civilians as well as the killing of Army Captain Hasnain Akhtar last month.
“Today’s operation has avenged the heinous act and has brought the main perpetrator to justice,” the military statement said.
Militants have accelerated their attacks since they revoked a ceasefire with the government late in 2022, a campaign that has seen some big hits in recent months, targeting the military and its bases. Islamabad says militants run training camps in Afghanistan and plan attacks from there, which the Afghan government denies.
