ISLAMABAD: British-American author and journalist Charles Glass was deported from Pakistan after he tried to meet former prime minister Imran Khan in prison, a colleague and the ex-premier’s family said.
Glass, 73, is an author, journalist, broadcaster, and publisher who specializes in the Middle East and World War II. He has worked for renowned international media organizations such as Newsweek, ABC TV, and The Telegraph and currently works as a freelance journalist.
Aleema Khanum, former premier Khan’s sister, shared a letter on social media platform X purportedly written by Glass to Pakistan’s interior secretary on Wednesday requesting authorities to allow him to meet Khan at Rawalpindi’s central jail.
The foreign journalist, who arrived in Pakistan last week, said authorities had not allowed him to meet Khan for the past three days despite a court order granting him permission to do so.
Glass was visiting Islamabad-based journalist Zahid Hussain on Wednesday when police arrived at his house. Hussain said the foreign journalist told him the same day that his visa had been canceled despite it being valid until Monday.
Hussain said police informed him that Glass needed to leave the country within four hours.
“He was then put on a flight, and I received his message today that he had reached Dubai,” Hussain added.
Describing it as a “strange move,” he said Glass wasn’t told by police why he was being deported.
“He had been stopped by jail authorities from seeing Khan when he visited Adiala Jail earlier and had returned without meeting him, so why deport him,” he added.
Arab News sent queries to Pakistan’s interior ministry, Islamabad Police, Federal Investigation Agency [FIA] and the information ministry but did not receive a comment till the filing of this report.
Khanum, Khan’s sister, described Glass as ” a very old friend” of her brother and also said he was deported.
“When Mohsin Naqvi has to resort to deporting Imran Khan’s friends visiting from overseas, it speaks volumes about the government’s state of mind and panic,” she wrote on social media platform X.
Khan, a former cricket star, came to power in 2018 and was ousted in 2022 in a parliamentary no-trust vote after what is widely believed to be a falling out with Pakistan’s powerful military, which had helped propel him into office. The army denies political interference.
Since his ouster, Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party have led a defiant campaign against the army, even blaming senior military officials for an assassination bid on Khan in November 2022 as he was leading a protest caravan to Islamabad.
The PTI founder has been in jail since August last year, even though all four convictions handed down to him ahead of a parliamentary election in February have either been suspended or overturned. Khan says all legal cases against him are motivated to keep him out of politics and suppress his party’s popularity.
Khan and his party have complained of an ever-widening crackdown against the party since May 9 last year when alleged supporters of the PTI attacked and damaged government and military installations. Hundreds of PTI supporters and leaders were arrested following the riots and some continue to remain behind bars as they await trial.
Foreign journalist ‘deported’ from Pakistan after attempting to meet Imran Khan — colleague
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Foreign journalist ‘deported’ from Pakistan after attempting to meet Imran Khan — colleague
- Glass, a British-American author and freelance journalist, tried to meet Khan at Rawalpindi’s central prison, Khan’s sister wrote on X
- Islamabad-based journalist, at whose house Glass was when police arrived, says his visa was valid until Monday but was given four hours to leave
Pakistan signs $4.5 billion loans with local banks to ease power sector debt
- The government, which owns much of the power infrastructure, is grappling with ballooning ‘circular debt’
- The liquidity crunch has disrupted supply, discouraged investment and added to fiscal pressure on Islamabad
KARACHI: Pakistan has signed term sheets with 18 commercial banks for a 1.275 trillion Pakistani rupee ($4.50 billion) Islamic finance facility to help pay down mounting debt in its power sector, government officials said on Friday.
The government, which owns or controls much of the power infrastructure, is grappling with ballooning “circular debt”, unpaid bills and subsidies, that has choked the sector and weighed on the economy.
The liquidity crunch has disrupted supply, discouraged investment and added to fiscal pressure, making it a key focus under Pakistan’s $7 billion IMF program.
Finding funds to plug the gap has been a persistent challenge, with limited fiscal space and high-cost legacy debt making resolution efforts more difficult.
“Eighteen commercial banks will provide the loans through Islamic financing,” Khurram Schehzad, adviser to the finance minister, told Reuters.
The facility, structured under Islamic principles, is secured at a concessional rate of 3-month KIBOR, the benchmark rate banks use to price loans, minus 0.9 percent, a formula agreed on by the IMF.
“It will be repaid in 24 quarterly instalments over six years,” and will not add to public debt, Power Minister Awais Leghari said.
Existing liabilities carry higher costs, including late payment surcharges on Independent Power Producers of up to KIBOR plus 4.5 percent, and older loans ranging slightly above benchmark rates.
Meezan Bank, HBL, National Bank of Pakistan and UBL were among the banks participating in the deal.
The government expects to allocate 323 billion rupees annually to repay the loan, capped at 1.938 trillion rupees over six years.
The agreement also aligns with Pakistan’s target of eliminating interest-based banking by 2028, with Islamic finance now comprising about a quarter of total banking assets.
In Pakistan’s Sindh, women farmers grow vegetables against all odds, including weather
- Women farmers in Khairpur protect crops from adverse weather by growing them in artificial environment
- Project targets members of vulnerable communities who suffered immense losses during 2022 floods
KHAIRPUR: Sukhai intently moved about the tunnel farm, plucking out bitter gourds under the harsh, relentless sun. The vegetable is grown usually during the summer months but in the fields of Sindh’s Thari Mirwah village, that isn’t necessarily so.
Sukhai, a 23-year-old intermediate student, is one of several women in her village in district Khairpur battling the effects of climate change through tunnel farming. The agricultural technique extends the growing season of crops by using plastic-covered, greenhouse-like structures to create a controlled environment. These tunnels protect crops from adverse weather conditions, allowing for earlier or later harvests of vegetables.
At Thari Mirwah, these tunnels are formed by fixing rods into the ground in an arch shape, forming a row of hoops. During the winter months, these rods are covered with polythene sheets to protect the crops from rain and cold weather, extending their growing season.
“In these tunnels, we grow off-season and seasonal vegetables,” Sukhai, who only uses her first name, told Arab News. “We now have cultivated bitter gourd, sponge gourd and cucumber,” she said, carrying the vegetable in a basket.
Pakistan is consistently ranked among the world’s worst-affected countries due to climate change. Irregular weather patterns, which include excessive rains and droughts, have hit the country’s agriculture sector. For example, cotton has been the worst-hit crop, with its produce decreasing to five million bales a year this financial year from a record 15 million.
Cataclysmic floods, triggered by the melting of glaciers and unusually heavy rains, killed over 1,700 people and inflicted damages worth $33 billion in June 2022. To help locals recover from the economic losses of the floods, international relief organization Malteser International BMZ and the Sindh government-funded Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO) joined hands to build 10 tunnel farms in Kharirah, Pir Budhro, Sabar Rind, Mehar Veesar, and Hindyari areas in the southern Sindh province.
Sukhai said the floods of 2022 destroyed all of her crops and agricultural lands, dealing a massive economic blow to her family. Now her and several other women of the village are trying to make ends meet through tunnel farming.
Kanwal Hussain, a district project officer at SRSO, said the women farmers are producing 10-15 kilograms of vegetables daily on their 50 by 50 tunnel farms. Malteser International has provided 570,000 euros in funds for the tunnel farming project.
“For tunnel farming, we have selected vulnerable communities which have very little land available for farming,” Hussain explained, adding that all they required to make a tunnel farm was land 100 feet in length and width.
In its recent assessment, the World Bank said 45% of Pakistanis live below the poverty line, up from the previous rate of 39.8%.
Rukhsana is one such 50-year-old mother of five, who is fighting off poverty in Thari Mirwah by growing climate-resistant vegetables.
“I have five kids and my husband is jobless so we grow these vegetables,” Rukhsana told Arab News. “We eat these vegetables as well as sell them when the villagers come to buy some.”
The women farmers say they earn as much as Rs50,000 ($176) profit every month, which is then shared between a three-member Business Development Group that cultivates each of the 10 tunnel farms.
“We are three members who work and grow these vegetables together and share the profits,” Sukhai, who is using her earnings to support her family and complete her education, said.
And the going is getting tough for her as she has a widowed mother and nine siblings to look after.
Hussain, on the other hand, is a bit concerned about the surging temperature in Pakistan. She hoped to convince her foreign donors to extend the tunnel farming project to other areas prone to floods and climate disasters.
“The temperature here stays between 45 to 50 degrees [Celsius] during the daytime and surges to as much as 51 degrees Celsius,” Hussain said.
Tunnel farming is not only a means of sustenance but is also helping people like Sukhai dream big. She wants to complete her studies and help her family out with the money she earns.
“I want to complete my studies to do a job. I want to become a doctor,” Sukhai said.
Pakistan urges IAEA to take clear position on Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites
- Pakistan’s envoy to the UN urges the Security Council to halt Israel’s military actions
- He also stresses the IAEA must be allowed to continue its verification work ‘unimpeded’
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to clearly state its legal position on last week’s Israeli strikes targeting nuclear facilities in Iran while highlighting their grave implications for regional and international security.
The call came during an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday, after Israel launched airstrikes about a week ago that killed several senior Iranian military commanders and nuclear scientists, triggering a direct military confrontation between the two countries.
Israel’s attacks came as Tehran was engaged in negotiations with the United States to reach a nuclear agreement. Iran has repeatedly stated it has no intention of building nuclear weapons but will not surrender its right to a peaceful nuclear program or halt uranium enrichment activities.
Israel, however, contends that Iran is close to developing a bomb. The United States has backed Israel in the conflict and called for Iran’s “complete surrender,” insisting Tehran must not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Pakistan, in its remarks to the Council, reiterated its condemnation of Israel’s “unjustified and illegitimate aggression,” describing the attacks on nuclear facilities as “deeply troubling.”
“It is the responsibility of the IAEA to clearly pronounce its legal position with regard to such attacks as well as to report to its Board of Governors and to the Security Council about the legal, safeguards, safety and security implications of such attacks,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, told the Council.
“The Agency should fulfil that responsibility,” he added.
The Pakistani envoy also denounced Israel’s widening war in the Middle East, including in Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. He maintained that Tel Aviv’s attack on Iran had further inflamed an already volatile regional situation.
Ahmad also said the UN Security Council must act decisively to halt Israel’s military actions and prevent the situation from spiraling further.
He urged the Council to categorically reject Israel’s actions, promote de-escalation and support a comprehensive ceasefire.
The Pakistani envoy further called on the Council to denounce the targeting of nuclear facilities safeguarded by the IAEA, pointing out that diplomacy must remain central to resolving the Iran-Israel crisis.
“Dialogue and diplomacy in full adherence to the principles of international law and the UN Charter remain the only viable path to resolving the crisis,” he said. “This Council must unite in support of the Secretary-General’s call to end the fighting and return to dialogue and negotiations.”
Ahmad also stressed that the IAEA must be allowed to continue its verification work “unimpeded,” and should operate in an “impartial and apolitical manner” to ensure credible and objective reporting on matters under its mandate.
EU imposes measures to curb ethanol imports from Pakistan
- Pakistan became the EU’s top source of non-fuel ethanol in 2024, supplying over a quarter of total imports
- EU ethanol producers welcomed the new two-year measure, though many had hoped for a three-year term
PARIS: The European Commission has ended tariff preferences for non-fuel ethanol imports from Pakistan, answering EU ethanol makers’ calls that a surge in cheap imports from the Asian country was pressuring prices and disturbing markets.
Last year, ethanol imports from Pakistan accounted for more than a quarter of all non-fuel ethanol imports, making Pakistan the largest source of imports to the EU, the Commission said in its decision published in the EU’s Official Journal on Friday.
The rise in total ethanol imports has been lasting for several years with EU customs data showing imports of non-fuel ethanol into the EU nearly doubling between 2021 and 2024 to reach 726,000 metric tons in 2024, from about 376,000 tons in 2021, it said.
Of this, Pakistani ethanol imports jumped by almost 300 percent to 393,590 tons between 2021 and 2022 and were still 244 percent above 2021 imports in 2023.
Meanwhile, EU non-fuel ethanol output dropped. Last year it was 8 percent lower than in 2021, it said.
The data and information available showed a coincidence in time between the evolution of imports from Pakistan and the serious disturbance to Union markets, the Commission said.
“The Commission considers that there is evidence of a serious disturbance in the Union market for non-fuel ethanol, characterised by a significant increase in imports at significantly lower prices compared to Union producers and a decline in Union production,” it said.
EU ethanol makers welcomed the move, set to last two years, although they had hoped for three-year duration and said the fact it did not include ethanol used in fuel raised concerns over potential circumvention.
Pakistan reports new polio case in northwest, raising 2025 tally to 12
- Pakistan and Afghanistan remain the only countries where polio is still endemic
- Pakistan reported 74 cases in 2024, raising alarm over a possible resurgence
KARACHI: Pakistan’s polio eradication program on Friday said a new wild poliovirus case had been detected in the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, bringing the total tally of 2025 cases to 12.
Polio is a paralyzing disease with no cure, making prevention through vaccination critical. Multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine, along with the completion of the routine immunization schedule for all children, are essential to build strong immunity against the virus.
The country conducted three nationwide vaccination campaigns in February, April and May, aiming to immunize around 45 million children across Pakistan with the support of over 400,000 frontline workers including 225,000 women vaccinators.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, has confirmed a new case of wild poliovirus in District Bannu, South Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the body said in a statement.
“The 33-month-old male child from Union Council Shamsikhel, District Bannu is the sixth case of polio reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this year.”
Pakistan has reported 12 polio cases so far this year, including six from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, four from the southern Sindh province and one each from the populous Punjab province and the northern Gilgit-Baltistan region.
Pakistan, one of the last two countries where polio remains endemic along with Afghanistan, has made significant progress in curbing the virus, with annual cases dropping from around 20,000 in the early 1990s to just eight in 2018.
However, the country reported an alarmingly high number of 74 cases in 2024, after six in 2023 and only one in 2021.
Health Minister Mustafa Kamal on Thursday claimed that Pakistan has recorded a 99 percent decline in polio cases, as he urged global vaccine organization Gavi to invest more in efforts to “train and retain” vaccinators.
Pakistan launched its polio eradication program in 1994, but its efforts have repeatedly been hindered by widespread vaccine misinformation and resistance from hard-line religious groups who claim immunization campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize Muslim children or a front for espionage.
Militant groups have also targeted polio workers and police officials providing them security, often with deadly attacks that have hampered vaccination drives, particularly in the country’s remote and conflict-prone regions.
