ISLAMABAD: This weekend, starting Friday, 8th February, the Documentary Association of Pakistan (DAP) will bring to the nation’s capital the Chalta Phirta Documentary Festival in collaboration with the Nomad Art Gallery.
DAP is an initiative to promote the art of documentary films, to strengthen the community of documentary filmmakers, and to provide mentorship and training to documentary filmmakers working in Pakistan.
The organization is working toward popularizing the culture of documentary watching in Pakistan by arranging film screenings in public spaces across the country for free. One of those initiatives is the Chalta Phirta Documentary Festival.
“It’s a traveling documentary film festival that will go to Pakistani cities, such as Karachi, Hyderabad, Jamshoro, Lahore, Multan, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Quetta, Peshawar, and Gilgit,” DAP members Tazeen Bari and Anam Abbas told Arab News over email.
DAP aims “to broaden its audience and outreach to cities that are frequently ignored when it comes to the provision of thriving cultural and social events” through the festival.
Chalta Phirta will showcase a new set of documentary films in each of these cities on a biannual basis, hoping to spark important conversations through them on national level.
“Our primary goal was to reach varied and diverse audiences and the only way to do this is to bring documentaries to their doorstep,” Bari told Arab News.
“The festival also allows us to connect with filmmakers from outside our own circles and help this community grow. It also connects us to various arts and community spaces and actors in different cities, which will hopefully lead to continued engagement.”
To date, films have been screened in Quetta, Faisalabad, Jamshoro, Peshawar and Karachi with plans to head to Gilgit, Lahore and Multan next. This weekend the festival will be running simultaneously in both Islamabad and Hyderabad.
“It gives us great joy that we can have these films screened in two cities at the same time,” Said Abbas to Arab News.
In each city, films are being screened at small to medium scale local venues and organizations and educational institutes.
Have DAP faced censorship in their quest?
“We are working with small venues which are generally safe spaces. Censorship has not yet been an issue as it would be in cinema halls or state operated spaces. While we may be surveilled, we have not been stopped,” said Abbas.
The festival also includes “The Feeling of Being Watched,” by Arab-American filmmaker Assia Bendaoui, “Sindhustan” from India, and “The Judge,” an American film following the life of a female Palestinian judge. In total Chalta Phirta is taking 22 films to 11 cities.
So far, the ambitious festival has been met with warmth.
“In our first event in Gujranwala, the projectionist at the venue came up to DAP member Risham and thanked her for opening his eyes to what documentary films can do,” said Bari.
Additionally, the festival has been gaining interest.
“We have been receiving requests from cities outside our 11 city program, and we are working together with them to see how we can expand our journey,” said Abbas.
Asked what DAP hoped Chalta Phirta to achieve, Bari and Abbas said: “Divide and rule seems to be the modus operandi everywhere. It is important that we are able to reach and talk to each other and hear and watch each other’s stories without the mitigation of corporate media or paranoid rulers. Whether it is a story about a bomb disposal squad, or a transwoman in politics, young disaffected men trying to flee to a better life or feminist activists reforming their cities, this festival seeks to make space for a conversation about Pakistani identity and a Pakistani dream that is inclusive.”
Chalta Phirta Documentary Festival reaches Islamabad this weekend
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Chalta Phirta Documentary Festival reaches Islamabad this weekend
- The organizers say it is important to reach and talk to each other and hear and watch each other’s stories
- The festival also makes it possible for filmmakers to connect and form a bigger community
Committed to upholding ceasefire with India, Pakistan tells UN envoys from Arab nations
- Four-day-long military confrontation earlier this month was ended with US-brokered ceasefire
- Nuclear-armed neighbors pounded each other with drones, missiles and artillery during the conflict
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top diplomat at the United Nations, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, briefed his counterparts from Arab nations about a recent military standoff with India and said Islamabad was committed to upholding a ceasefire and taking “all necessary steps” toward de-escalation, his office said on Tuesday.
Tensions surged between India and Pakistan after New Delhi accused Pakistan of supporting an Apr. 22 militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that left 26 dead. Islamabad has denied any involvement.
The tensions blew up into a full-on military conflict after India said it had hit “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan on May 7. What followed was four days of the two nuclear-armed neighbors pounding each other with drones, missiles and artillery, until the United States brokered a ceasefire on May 10.
“Ambassador Ahmad expressed Pakistan’s commitment to upholding the ceasefire and taking all necessary steps toward de-escalation and regional stability,” the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN said in a post on X following a meeting with Gulf nation counterparts.
“He informed the Arab Group that Pakistan’s response to the blatant act of aggression by India was measured and proportionate, in exercise of its right to self-defense under the Charter.”
Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations and frequently accuse each other of fomenting militancy in the other’s territory.
Kashmir, divided between the two countries since their independence from Britain in 1947, has been a flashpoint for decades, with the neighbors having fought two of their three wars over the region.
They both acquired nuclear weapons in 1998.
Pakistani delegation to visit US, Europe in diplomatic push following India standoff — minister
- PM announced last week he was setting up diplomatic team headed by Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari
- Team’s mandate is to highlight in world capitals “India’s disinformation campaign and attempts to destabilize regional peace”
ISLAMABAD: A high-level delegation set up by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to present Pakistan’s position and advocate for the country in world capitals following a recent military conflict with India will start with visits to the United States and Europe, a federal minister who is a member of the team said on Tuesday.
Sharif announced last week he was setting up the diplomatic team, which is headed by Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is a former foreign minister.
“Our team … will visit Europe and US to represent our stance,” Climate Minister Dr. Musadik Malik, who is a member of the delegation, told a local Pakistani news channel, saying it would visit Washington, London, France and Brussels first and also Moscow at a later date.
“We are trying that with a small team, we visit the big areas of the world who are influencers in creating an opinion for the world and also forming policies. This team’s focus will be the US and Europe.”
Last week, state media reported that the team had been set up “to highlight India’s disinformation campaign and its attempts to destabilize regional peace” as well as put the spotlight on “Pakistan’s sincere efforts for peace and stability in the region.”
The United States played a major role in de-escalating the worst fighting in decades between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, who fired missiles and drones onto each other’s territory and fought with gunfire on their de facto border following weeks of tensions after a deadly April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad.
Pakistan denies involvement.
Pakistani deputy PM in Beijing in aftermath of worst standoff in years with India
- Dar’s visit comes as Pakistan Air Force has hailed the use of Chinese J-10Cs to shoot down six Indian fighter jets
- India and China are competing regional giants and nuclear powers and widely seen as long-term strategic rivals
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar began meetings today, Tuesday, with Chinese officials during a three-day visit to Beijing to discuss “the evolving regional situation in South Asia and its implications for peace and stability,” the foreign office said.
The Beijing visit comes as the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has hailed the use of Chinese J-10Cs to shoot down six Indian fighter jets, including three French Rafales, during a flare-up in hostilities that saw the nuclear-armed neighbors pound each other with missiles, drones and artillery for four days until the United States brokered a ceasefire earlier this month.
For China, Pakistan is a strategic and economic ally. It is investing over $60 billion to build infrastructure, energy and other projects in Pakistan as part of its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
India and China, on the other hand, are competing regional giants and nuclear powers and widely seen as long-term strategic rivals, sharing a 3,800 Himalayan border that has been disputed since the 1950s and sparked a brief war in 1962. The most recent standoff — that started in 2020 — thawed in October as the two sides struck a patrolling agreement.
Starting a day of meetings on Tuesday, Dar, who is also the foreign minister of Pakistan, met with the Minister of International Department of the Communist Party of China (IDCPC), Liu Jianchao.
“The DPM/FM appreciated China’s firm support to Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and issues of its core interest,” the foreign office said in a statement.
“Liu reiterated that as All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partner and ironclad friend, China would continue to prioritize its relations with Pakistan.”
In an earlier statement, the foreign office in Islamabad said Dar would discuss with Chinese leaders “the evolving regional situation in South Asia and its implications for peace and stability.”
“The two sides will also review the entire spectrum of Pakistan-China bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” the statement added.
The conflict between India and Pakistan has offered the world a first real glimpse into how advanced Chinese military technology performs against proven Western hardware and Chinese defense stocks have already been surging as a result.
A rising military superpower, China hasn’t fought a major war in more than four decades but has raced under President Xi Jinping to modernize its armed forces, pouring resources into developing sophisticated weaponry and cutting-edge technologies.
It has also extended that modernization drive to Pakistan, long hailed by Beijing as its “ironclad brother.”
Over the past five years, China has supplied 81 percent of Pakistan’s imported weapons, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Those exports include advanced fighter jets, missiles, radars and air-defense systems. Some Pakistan-made weapons have also been co-developed with Chinese firms or built with Chinese technology and expertise.
Pakistan regulator unveils new measures to strengthen Shariah-compliant market intermediaries
- SECP has outlined phased approach encouraging institutional investors to engage with Shariah-compliant brokers
- Islamic financial institutions being urged to channel takaful, investment activities through specialized intermediaries
KARACHI: The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) is proposing new measures aimed at strengthening the presence and operations of Shariah-compliant intermediaries within the capital market, the regulator said in a statement this week.
Pakistan’s Federal Shariat Court (FSC) directed the government in April 2022 to eliminate interest and align the country’s entire banking system with Islamic principles by 2027. Following the order, the government and the State Bank have taken several measures ranging from changing laws to issuing sukuk bonds to replace interest-based treasury bills and investment bonds.
However, documents seen by Arab News earlier this year showed Pakistan’s government had failed to achieve a target set by the central bank to increase the share of Islamic banking deposits in the country by 50 percent by January this year.
“The paper proposes a phase-wise approach for Shariah-compliant institutional investors to route their business through Shariah-compliant brokers based on a plan to be prepared by their respective boards of directors,” the SECP said about the latest proposal.
“The paper encourages Islamic financial institutions, including providers of Islamic window services, to utilize Shariah-compliant intermediaries for takaful and investment purposes in situations where they are not obligated to do so.”
Other proposed measures include creating a specific category for Shariah-compliant intermediaries for greater visibility on the Centralized Gateway Portal and a dedicated list of Shariah-compliant asset management companies on EMLAAK Financials, Pakistan’s first digital mutual fund aggregator. The platform brings together multiple Asset Management Companies (AMCs) and their mutual funds under one roof. It is a venture of ITMinds Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Central Depository Company of Pakistan (CDC).
In order to facilitate Roshan Digital Account (RDA) clients, creating a separate category of Shariah-compliant intermediaries on the websites and mobile apps of Islamic banks would also be explored in coordination with relevant stakeholders, the SECP said.
Pakistan navy thwarted Indian aircraft carrier threat during latest standoff — PM
- PM Shehbaz Sharif says Indian aircraft carrier Vikrant reached close to Pakistan by 400 nautical miles before retreating
- During latest standoff, Indian navy had deployed at least 36 warships which included INS Vikrant-led Carrier Battle Group
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday an Indian aircraft carrier that had reached as close as 400 nautical miles to Pakistan retreated after realizing the country’s navy was prepared to “respond vigorously” during a military confrontation between the two nations earlier this month.
The United States played a major role in de-escalating the worst fighting in decades between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, who fired missiles and drones onto each other’s territory and fought with gunfire on their de facto border following weeks of tensions after a deadly April 22 attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad. Pakistan denies involvement..
On Monday, the Pakistani PM visited the Naval Dockyard in Karachi to pay tribute to the Pakistan navy for its role in Operation Bunyan-um Marsoos, the code-name given by the Pakistan army to what it calls a retaliatory strike launched in the early hours of May 10 after India attacked at least three of its air bases with missiles.
“The Prime Minister particularly praised the Navy’s critical role in safeguarding sea lines of communication and ensuring the uninterrupted flow of maritime trade, while maintaining absolute maritime sovereignty through a layered and assured seaward defense,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
In his address, Sharif said Indian aircraft carrier Vikrant had retreated after “sensing the preparedness” of the Pakistan Navy.
During the latest standoff, the Indian navy had deployed at least 36 warships which included an INS Vikrant-led Carrier Battle Group including 8 to 10 warships
“Indian Navy’s [aircraft carrier] Vikrant had reached close to Pakistan by 400 nautical miles, but after suffering immense losses inflicted by Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Army [in May 10 retaliatory strikes], Vikrant retreated, sensing the preparedness of the Pakistan Navy to respond vigorously,” Sharif said.
India’s navy is believed to hold significant advantage over Pakistan’s, boasting a larger fleet and more diverse capabilities. India’s navy includes aircraft carriers, destroyers, and a substantial submarine fleet, allowing it to project power beyond regional waters, whereas Pakistan’s navy is primarily focused on coastal defense in the Arabian Sea.
India’s navy comprises over 293 vessels, including two aircraft carriers, 13 destroyers, and 18 submarines, making it a “blue-water” navy with the ability to operate in global maritime zones. INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant give India the capability for air power projection and anti-ship operations.
Pakistan’s navy operates 121 ships, with no aircraft carriers or destroyers.
