ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday asked to improve services at airports across Pakistan to facilitate passengers, tourists, and overseas Pakistanis, Sharif’s office said, amid the country’s efforts to boost tourism.
The prime minister gave the directives while presiding over a meeting with regard to the introduction of reforms in the country’s aviation sector, according to a statement issued by Sharif’s office.
In order to promote tourism, Sharif directed authorities to ensure the provision of best facilities for passengers at the Skardu International airport, days after the South Asian country relaxed its visa policy.
“The prime minister ordered to operate more counters in order to save passengers of international flights from waiting for long,” Sharif’s office said. “He further instructed to devise a comprehensive framework related to the extension of Skardu International and Gilgit airports.”
The two airports are located in Pakistan’s northern Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region, which is home to scenic valleys and five of the world’s 14 mountains above 8,000 meters, including K2. More than 8,900 foreigners visited the remote Gilgit-Baltistan region in 2023, according to official figures from the government, where the summer climbing season runs from early June to late August.
The South Asian country has other major tourist attractions in several other cities and towns across its length and breadth.
During the meeting, officials briefed Sharif that the airport management authority and the civil aviation authority had been separated to ensure “efficient performance” of duties of operator and regulator under the aviation act.
The number of counters had been increased at the Lahore airport and an existing waiting room had also been expanded for the convenience of passengers, according to officials. Work on feasibility report for the expansion of Skardu airport was due to start soon.
The prime minister expressed his satisfaction over the measures and said additional facilities would also be available to passengers.
Pakistan this month increased the number of countries exempt from visa fees to 126, while it announced on-arrival visas from businessmen from the Gulf nations, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said on August 13 that people visiting from any of the 126 countries will merely have to fill out a one-page form consisting of 30 questions within a ten-minute process. Visa would be issued directly on the phone through which the form was filled and would be valid for three months apart from also being renewable, he added.
The new visa policy also included religious tourism due to which Sikh pilgrims could easily visit the South Asian country for their religious festivals, according to the minister.
Pakistan PM calls for enhanced airport services amid push to boost tourism
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Pakistan PM calls for enhanced airport services amid push to boost tourism
- Pakistan is home to several tourist destinations across its length and breadth as well as five of the world’s 14 tallest mountain peaks
- Islamabad recently increased the number of countries exempt from visa fees to 126, announced on-arrival visas for the Gulf residents
International UN Peacekeepers Day: Pakistan remembers 181 of its own lost in line of duty
- Over 235,000 Pakistani peacekeepers have served in 48 UN missions worldwide in seven-decade history of UN peacekeeping
- May 29 marks creation of UN Truce Supervision Organization in 1948 to monitor ceasefire after 1948 Arab-Israeli War
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan joined the international community in celebrating the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers today, Thursday, the prime minister’s office said in a message, paying tribute to 181 Pakistanis who had been killed in the line of duty.
The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, May 29, is “an international day to pay tribute to all the men and women who have served and continue to serve in United Nations peacekeeping operations for their high level of professionalism, dedication, and courage and to honor the memory of those who have lost their lives in the cause of peace.”
“In the seven-decade history of UN peacekeeping missions, more than 235,000 Pakistani peacekeepers have rendered distinguished service in 48 UN missions around the world,” PM Shehbaz Sharif said in a message.
“181 Pakistani peacekeepers have made the eternal sacrifice of their lives in achieving international peace and security.”
Sharif said the international day was an opportune occasion to review the many challenges facing UN peacekeeping, such as increasingly unilateral policies, financial sanctions, growing threats to the safety and security of UN peacekeepers, targeting of UN peacekeeping operations based on disinformation, and the destabilizing effects of new and emerging technologies.
In an effort to address these challenges, Pakistan, along with the Republic of Korea, co-hosted the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial Meeting in Islamabad last month with the theme, “Towards a Safer and More Effective Peace: Using Technology and an Integrated Approach”.
Pakistan also hosts the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), one of the oldest UN peacekeeping missions, tasked with monitoring the ceasefire along the Line of Control in the UN-recognized disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The date, May 29, for the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, marks the anniversary of the creation of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in 1948 to monitor the ceasefire after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, which was the first ever UN peacekeeping mission.
Pakistan’s crypto and blockchain chief unveils country’s first strategic bitcoin reserve
- Bilal bin Saqib announced establishment of national Bitcoin wallet holding digital assets already in state custody
- Strategic bitcoin reserve is a reserve asset, funded by US Treasury’s forfeited bitcoin, announced by Trump in March 2025
ISLAMABAD: Bilal Bin Saqib, Pakistan’s minister for crypto and blockchain and the CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council (PCC), unveiled the country’s first government-led strategic bitcoin reserve at Bitcoin Vegas 2025, his office said on Thursday.
The strategic bitcoin reserve is a reserve asset, funded by the United States Treasury’s forfeited bitcoin, announced by President Donald Trump in March 2025. The reserve will be capitalized with bitcoin already owned by the federal government. The United States is the largest known state holder of bitcoin in the world, estimated to hold about 200,000 BTC, as of March 2025.
At Bitcoin 2025, the biggest bitcoin conference in the United States which is underway in Las Vegas, Saqib unveiled “the country’s first government-led Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and with it, a radically new vision of Pakistan on the global map,” his office said in a statement.
“Bilal announced the establishment of a national Bitcoin wallet, holding digital assets already in state custody — not for sale or speculation, but as a sovereign reserve signaling long-term belief in decentralized finance.”
Pakistan set up the PCC in March, with Saqib, 34, as the CEO, to create a legal framework for cryptocurrency trading in a bid to lure international investment. Last month, Pakistan introduced its first-ever policy framework, created by a special government group under the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter Terrorism Financing (CTF) authority, to set rules for how digital money like cryptocurrencies and the companies that deal in it should operate in Pakistan. The policy has been formulated to align with compliance and financial integrity guidelines of the global Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
Earlier this month, the government also approved setting up the Pakistan Digital Assets Authority (PDAA), a specialized regulatory body to oversee blockchain-based financial infrastructure.
Speaking during his keynote at Bitcoin 2025, the PCC CEO highlighted that Pakistan had over 40 million crypto wallets, a median age of 23, and one of the largest and most active freelancer economies in the world.
“Saqib revealed that the government of Pakistan has allocated 2,000 megawatts of surplus electricity in Phase 1 for Bitcoin mining and AI data centers, opening doors to sovereign miners, tech firms, and clean energy partners around the world,” the statement said.
Saqib is also leading the creation of the Pakistan Digital Assets Authority (PDAA) “to empower builders, protect investors, and formalize digital finance frameworks for the future.”
“This wasn’t just a policy moment, it was a rebranding of a nation,” Saqib said at Bitcoin 2025, which featured speakers including White House officials, US lawmakers and crypto industry executives. This year’s keynote speaker was US Vice President JD Vance.
Digital assets have enjoyed a resurgence under President Trump, who courted cash from the crypto industry on the campaign trail by pledging to be a “crypto president.” In his first week in office, Trump ordered the creation of a cryptocurrency working group to propose digital asset regulations. In March, he hosted a group of crypto executives at the White House.
Congress is considering legislation to create a regulatory framework for stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to the US dollar. The crypto industry has lobbied lawmakers to pass legislation creating new rules for digital assets and spent more than $119 million backing pro-crypto congressional candidates in last year’s elections.
Pakistanis among foreign students wary as Trump expands crackdown on elite universities
- Trump’s crackdown is prompting some international students to abandon applications to campuses in the United States
- Sial, Harvard student from Pakistan, says foreign students like him were “made to fight this battle which no one signed up for”
Cambridge, United States: Donald Trump’s expanding crackdown on elite universities is prompting some international students to abandon applications to campuses in the United States and spreading stress and anxiety among those already enrolled.
The president has upended the country’s reputation among foreign students, who number around one million, as he presses a campaign against US universities he sees as obstructing his “Make America Great Again” populist agenda.
He has blocked Harvard hosting international scholars in a maneuver being challenged legally, targeted non-citizen campus activists for deportation, and most recently suspended student visa processing across the board.
Harvard applied mathematics and economic student Abdullah Shahid Sial, 20, said the Trump administration’s campaign against US universities that the president accused of being hotbeds of liberal bias and anti-Semitism had been “dehumanizing.”
“It’s really unfortunate that this is the case for 18, 19, and 20-year-olds who came here without any family, and in most cases, haven’t been to the US before,” said Sial, who is from Pakistan and hopes to be able to return to Harvard next academic year.
Sial said he advised acquaintances to have backup plans if US colleges became inaccessible, and that a friend applied to Harvard’s law school, as well as Columbia’s, and two less reputable British institutions — ultimately opting to go to the UK.
“He definitely liked Harvard way more (but) he doesn’t want this amount of uncertainty surrounding his education,” Sial said.
Karl Molden, a Harvard government and classics student from Austria, said Trump’s move to block the university from hosting and enrolling foreign students meant he was unsure if he would be able to return after summer vacation.
While that decision — affecting some 27 percent of the overall Harvard population — was paused by a judge pending a hearing Thursday, the move still threw student plans into chaos.
“I kind of figured I would be in the target group of Trump. I’m personally right in the middle of it, so an option for me would be to study abroad... I have applied to study at Oxford because of all the action” taken by Trump, said Molden, 21.
“It’s just really hard”
Harvard academics say they have already started to feel the impact of Trump’s vendetta against the school, in feedback from colleagues based outside the United States.
“I’ve already heard this from professors in other countries who say ‘we encourage our best students to go to the United States’,” Harvard professor Ryan Enos told AFP at a noisy rally against Trump’s policies Tuesday, adding “we wonder if we can tell them that anymore.”
The halt to visa processing revealed this week is reportedly to allow for more stringent screening of applicants’ social media — and protest activity.
“International students already represent the most tracked and vetted category of nonimmigrants in the United States. It is a poor use of taxpayer dollars,” said the NAFSA Association of International Educators non-profit.
Trump, meanwhile, continued his assault on Harvard, saying university leaders have “got to behave themselves.
“Harvard is treating our country with great disrespect, and all they’re doing is getting in deeper and deeper,” he said Wednesday in the White House.
One Spanish student of politics and statistics, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, told AFP she would not be deterred from pursuing her planned year abroad at Columbia University.
“It’s scary, because we think to ourselves that all our activity on social networks could be monitored, for example, if we like pro-Palestinian posts or anti-Trump posts. All of that could see us denied a visa,” she said.
Students due to return to Harvard after the summer break are in limbo pending a ruling on Harvard’s exclusion from the foreign student system.
“I’m completely in the dark,” said 20-year-old Alfred Williamson, a Welsh-Danish physics and government student in his second year at Harvard.
“As for my other options, and like all other international students, I’m just clinging on to the hope that Harvard will win this battle against the White House.”
Sial, the Harvard student from Pakistan, said foreign students like him were “made to fight this battle which no one signed up for.”
“It’s really unfortunate that it’s come down to that.”
International rights bodies write joint letter to Pakistani PM calling for releases of Baloch activists
- Dr. Mahrang Baloch, one of the leading campaigners for Baloch minority, was arrested in March on charges of terrorism, sedition
- In Balochistan, impoverished province that borders Afghanistan and Iran, security forces are battling a growing separatist insurgency
ISLAMABAD: Amnesty International along with four other human rights organizations on Wednesday wrote to the Pakistani prime minister, calling for an end to the “harassment and arbitrary detention” of Baloch human rights defenders (HRDs) exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, particularly in Balochistan province.
The letter comes in the wake of Dr. Mahrang Baloch, one of the leading campaigners for the Baloch minority and the leader of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), and a number of other activists, being arrested in March on charges of terrorism, sedition and murder.
Security forces are battling a growing insurgency in Balochistan, an impoverished province that borders Afghanistan and Iran. Rights groups say the violence has been countered with a severe crackdown that has swept up innocent people. Authorities deny heavy handedness.
“All five organizations — Amnesty International, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Front Line Defenders, International Federation for Human Rights, World Organization Against Torture — appeal to Pakistan’s Prime Minister to release Baloch human rights defenders and end the crackdown on dissent in line with Pakistan’s international human rights obligations,” Amnesty Internation said on X, sharing a copy of the joint letter.
The joint letter called on the government to take the following steps:
Immediately and unconditionally release all Baloch HRDs and their family members “arbitrarily detained solely for peacefully exercising their rights in line with the right to liberty and safety”; drop all charges against them; pending their release, ensure the safety of HRDs and family members, including by sharing accurate information about their whereabouts, providing effective access to family members, legal counsel and medical treatment; conduct a thorough, impartial, effective and transparent investigation into the allegations of torture and mistreatment by Pakistani authorities of Baloch HRDs under detention; end the crackdown against HRDs, journalists, protesters and dissidents by ensuring their right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly are fully protected; cease all forms of reprisals against family members of HRDs; and conduct an “effective, prompt, thorough and impartial investigation into the unlawful use of force” against protesters including Dr. Baloch on March 21 in Quetta and bring those suspected of responsibility to justice through fair trials.
Activists say in the crackdown against militancy in Balochistan, authorities have harassed and even carried out extrajudicial killings of Baloch civilians. Pakistani authorities reject the “baseless allegations.”
A dozen UN experts called on Pakistan in March to immediately release Baloch rights defenders, including Dr. Baloch, and to end the repression of their peaceful protests. UN special rapporteur for human rights defenders Mary Lawlor said she was “disturbed by reports of further mistreatment in prison.”
Balochistan is the site of a long-running separatist movement, with insurgent groups accusing the state of unfairly exploiting Balochistan’s rich gas and mineral resources. The federal and provincial governments deny this, saying they are spending billions of rupees on the uplift of the province’s people.
Violent Pakistan storms trigger floods, landslides killing 10
- Strong winds, thunderstorms trigger flash floods, destroy homes in central and northern parts of Pakistan
- Storms on Saturday killed at least 14 people and injured more than 100 more across the country
Muzaffarabad, Pakistan: At least 10 people were killed and 43 injured as strong winds and thunderstorms triggered flash floods and destroyed homes in central and northern parts of Pakistan, officials said Wednesday.
Four women and a man died in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and three in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the State Disaster Management Authority said, while other officials said two died in Punjab.
“One person is still missing,” Haroon Rasheed, a senior government official in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, told AFP, adding that 12 houses and a mosque were destroyed in one village.
Storms on Saturday killed at least 14 people and injured over 100 more across the country, which is grappling with increasingly frequent extreme weather events blamed on climate change.
Stormy weather is expected to continue in northern and central parts of the country until Saturday, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
Soaring temperatures in April and May are becoming more common in Pakistan, which usually sees summer begin in early June.
Temperatures reached near-record levels in April — as high as 46.5 Celsius (116 Fahrenheit) in parts of Punjab.
Schools in Punjab and southwestern Balochistan provinces have closed early for summer vacations because of the heat.
