Beauty and the virus: Pakistani salons reopen with new safety measures 

Beauticians at a NABILA salon wear protective gear as beauty parlors in several parts of Pakistan have been allowed to reopen if they follow necessary safety measures. (Photo courtesy: NABILA)
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Updated 01 July 2020
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Beauty and the virus: Pakistani salons reopen with new safety measures 

  • Restrictions imposed by authorities and salon owners are changing personal grooming into a highly regulated affair
  • Beauticians say Sindh’s ban on their operations is resulting in services shifting to clients’ homes, which may be riskier than allowing parlors to reopen

KARACHI: As hair roots grow longer, nail polish chips away, and nicely arched eyebrows lose their shape, many cannot wait to reconnect with their beauticians. At some popular Pakistani salons it is now possible, but with strict safety measures in place.

Shutdowns due to the coronavirus outbreak have upended many daily routines, including those around beauty. As in some parts of Pakistan, salons are starting to reopen, restrictions imposed by authorities and owners themselves are changing the enjoyable experience of personal grooming into a highly regulated affair.




Workers at a NABILA salon wear protective gear as beauty parlors in several parts of Pakistan have been allowed to reopen if they follow necessary safety measures. (Photo courtesy: NABILA)

“Our primary concern is the safety of our clients and stylists. We have a process to take client history and reserve the right to refusal wherever we see a slight risk,” said Nabila Maqsood, owner of NABILA, the most prominent name in the country’s beauty business.

Her salons in Lahore and Islamabad have already reopened. Covering roots and getting trims are now in particular demand, while makeup “would take a backseat,” she said, until public events and weddings resume.

Prior to appointment, Maqsood said, her clients are interviewed about their travel history and general health condition. They are sprayed with disinfectant, their body temperature is checked before entering the salon and, like staff members, they are obliged to wear face masks and protective gloves. 

She said that chairs are placed at least six feet apart, while all surfaces and tools at her salons are sterilized frequently and with surgical precision. 




A worker at a NABILA salon wearing protective gear checks the temperature of a client. (Photo courtesy: NABILA)

Maqsood told Arab News that NABILA’s beauticians all undergo regular virus testing. “Because of our vigilance, our clients are very confident about our operations,” she said.

Her Karachi salons, however, remain closed as the Sindh government introduced a new set of restrictions in early June to contain the outbreak.

“The salons in Karachi have not reopened yet. However, whenever they do open, we are prepared for a much smaller footfall. It is partly because we have to practice social distancing and work with 50 percent and partly because a lot of individuals will be apprehensive to risk visiting salons during the pandemic.”

Another Pakistani beauty giant, DEPILEX, which has almost 40 years of experience and many branches all over the country, has also announced detailed safety measures, which it says are in accordance with World Health Organization antivirus guidelines.

“The government gave us 25 points to follow, however, we are following 165 points. At a service provider set up, a lot more goes into safety measures than just PPE (personal protective equipment) and safety distance markers,” DEPILEX director Redah Misbah told Arab News.

The company’s most wanted services are currently waxing, threading and roots retouching.




Beauticians at a NABILA salon wear protective gear as beauty parlors in several parts of Pakistan have been allowed to reopen if they follow necessary safety measures. (Photo courtesy: NABILA)

“Our SOPs and policies are very in-depth. We made our policies public so other peers from our industry can benefit from them in better preparing themselves for the new normal,” she said, referring a set of guidelines the brand shared on its official website and on social media pages.

But are customers themselves concerned about safety? Misbah said that 90 percent of them are and they openly ask what precautions does DEPILEX follow.

“However, 10 percent of clients coming in have actually made fun of us for being so strict about safety measures,” she added.

She complained that a lack of clarity from the government leaves many business owners unprepared for resuming their services.

“We are already operating on 50 percent capacity following the government’s directive and our SOPs. There has been a severe downward trend in the number of clients coming in after reopening. The government gives us a new directive on an average every two weeks which has really ill prepared business owners to make a plan or strategy as the directive is so unclear.”

As salons still cannot reopen in Sindh, beauticians say the ban is resulting in services shifting to clients’ homes, which may be riskier than allowing beauty parlors to operate.

According to Sadaf Arshad, a London-certified beauty trainer who runs Bellagio — a famous Karachi salon frequently visited by top celebrities — it would be much safer if parlors were allowed to reopen in the country’s largest city.

“I think coming to salons is safer than calling services at homes, as in the first situation the salon is responsible for the client’s safety, while in the second option you never know what precautionary measures the beautician has taken,” Arshad told Arab News.

She said it is possible to comply with all necessary safety measures, as when Bellagio was reopened for a week before Eid Al-Fitr when restrictions were relaxed in Karachi.

“We only offered hair services like cuts, dyes and treatments as it doesn’t need direct contact between the client and staff. I used to take four clients at a time — two upstairs and two downstairs — to maintain the required distance of six feet.”


Six Indian gray wolf puppies rescued in southwest Pakistan

Updated 02 May 2025
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Six Indian gray wolf puppies rescued in southwest Pakistan

  • The puppies were moved to a wildlife rescue center in Balochistan
  • These wolves inhabit dry grasslands of India, Pakistan and Nepal

KARACHI: Six Indian gray wolf puppies, found in the care of local residents in Pakistan’s southwestern Zhob district, were relocated to a rescue center in Balochistan province, the Wildlife Department said on Friday.
The Indian gray wolf, also known as canis lupus pallipes, is a small, slender subspecies of the gray wolf found in India, Pakistan and Nepal, particularly in dry grasslands and scrublands. It has a pale brown or reddish-gray coat with short fur suited to hot climates.

The rescue followed a video that went viral on social media, showing locals playing with the puppies in the Kakar Khorasan area of Zhob. Wildlife officials then sought assistance from the police and Levies to take the animals into their custody, which they did.

“We have transferred all six to the rescue center in Zhob where they are being cared for,” Chief Wildlife Conservator Sharifuddin Baloch told Arab News over the phone. “Once they reach an appropriate age, they will be released into the wild.”
He said initial reports suggested that one wolf puppy had died, but wildlife officials later found all the puppies alive.
Compared to other wolves, Indian gray wolves form smaller packs, are more elusive and less vocal. They prey on livestock, small mammals and occasionally wild ungulates.
Genetically distinct and among the oldest wolf lineages, the Indian gray wolf is listed as endangered in India due to habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict and persecution.


Pakistan’s UN envoy says India’s suspension of water treaty ‘illegal,’ poses ‘existential threat’

Updated 02 May 2025
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Pakistan’s UN envoy says India’s suspension of water treaty ‘illegal,’ poses ‘existential threat’

  • Ambassador Ahmad warns India’s action could set a dangerous precedent undermining rights of lower riparian states
  • He says Pakistan rejects any attempt to associate it to the April 22 attack, which it condemned alongside other nations

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top diplomat at the United Nations on Friday raised alarm over India’s decision to suspend a decades-old river water sharing mechanism between the two nations after a gun attack killed 26 people in the disputed Kashmir region on April 22.
New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the assault in Pahalgam, a tourist hotspot in Indian-administered Kashmir, despite Pakistani denial of involvement and calls for an independent investigation. India also expelled Pakistani diplomats, shut a major border crossing and suspended the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in the wake of the attack.
Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, told a media briefing at the UN his country “categorically rejects any attempt to associate it with the 22 April terrorist incident” and had condemned it alongside other Security Council members.
He described India’s conduct as “incendiary,” saying it disregarded international law and could have “far-reaching consequences for global peace and stability.”
“Of grave and particular concern is India’s irresponsible decision to hold in abeyance the historic Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, a landmark, legally binding agreement brokered and guaranteed by the World Bank,” he said.
“Holding of IWT in abeyance is unilateral and illegal,” he continued. “There are no such provisions in the Treaty. India’s unilateral and unlawful actions are bound to undermine regional peace and stability with catastrophic implications.”
The Pakistani envoy warned that the suspension of the IWT posed “an existential threat to the people of Pakistan” and amounted to the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian states.
“If left unchecked by the international community, such actions risk setting a dangerous precedent that could undermine the legal rights for lower riparian states, potentially triggering new global conflicts over shared water resources,” he said.
Ahmad also expressed concern over escalating rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority region under New Delhi’s control, since the Pahalgam attack.
He cited reports of arbitrary detentions, home demolitions and “collective punishment” imposed on civilians by the Indian authorities.
He reiterated Pakistan’s longstanding position that the root cause of instability in South Asia was the unresolved Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and warned of the risk of wider conflict in the nuclear-armed region.
“Escalation in South Asia, home to nearly two billion people, favors none,” Ahmad said. “It is time for sanity to prevail and allow dialogue and diplomacy to prevent the situation from spiraling out of control.”


Pakistan sees tax-to-GDP ratio hitting 10.6% by June as reform efforts continue

Updated 02 May 2025
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Pakistan sees tax-to-GDP ratio hitting 10.6% by June as reform efforts continue

  • The country’s tax-to-GDP ratio was among the lowest in the region and stood at 8.8% in FY2023-24
  • Pakistan’s finance chief projects foreign exchange reserves to reach $14 billion by the end of June

KARACHI: Pakistan’s finance chief said on Friday the country’s tax-to-GDP ratio was expected to reach 10.6% by the end of the current fiscal year, according to an official statement, as the government works to build on economic progress made under recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programs.
Pakistan’s tax-to-GDP ratio, one of the lowest in the region, stood at around 8.8% in fiscal year 2023-24. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has repeatedly warned that such low levels of revenue mobilization are unsustainable and pose long-term risks to fiscal stability.
Aurangzeb shared the projection while briefing representatives of Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings as part of Pakistan’s ongoing sovereign ratings review.
“The Finance Minister presented a detailed overview of the government’s macroeconomic reform agenda and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to achieving sustainable and inclusive economic growth by enhancing productivity and promoting exports,” the finance ministry said in a statement after the meeting.
He said Pakistan’s external portfolio was well-managed, with foreign exchange reserves projected to reach $14 billion by the end of June.
“He further stated that the tax-to-GDP ratio was expected to reach 10.6 percent by the end of June, which would mark progress toward the government’s target of raising it to 13 percent by the conclusion of the 37-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” the statement said.
Pakistan has taken several steps to improve revenue collection, including the automation of processes at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the operationalization of the National Tax Council and the imposition of agricultural income tax.
It has also separated the Tax Policy Office from the FBR to better align tax policymaking with broader economic goals.
Aurangzeb also highlighted recent surpluses in both the primary balance and the current account, along with falling inflation and current account deficit figures, which he said were contributing to improved economic fundamentals.
During last month’s IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, the Pakistani finance chief held over 70 engagements with rating agencies, development finance institutions, investors and think tanks.
The government also maintains the international community broadly supports Pakistan’s reform agenda, as it tries to maintain its overall economic momentum.


India asks IMF to review loans to Pakistan, Indian government source says

Updated 02 May 2025
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India asks IMF to review loans to Pakistan, Indian government source says

  • The adviser to Pakistan’s finance minister says the IMF program is ‘well on track’
  • The soaring tensions between the two states has drawn calls for cooling tempers

NEW DELHI/KARACHI: India has asked the International Monetary Fund to review loans disbursed to Pakistan, an Indian government source told Reuters on Friday, as tensions between the South Asian neighbors escalated following a deadly attack in Kashmir.
India and Pakistan have announced a raft of measures after an attack on Hindu tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last week killed 26 men and there is a fear that the latest crisis between the nuclear-armed rivals could spiral into a military conflict.
New Delhi has identified the three attackers, including two it says are Pakistani nationals, as “terrorists.” Islamabad has denied any role and called for a neutral investigation.
India suspended a critical river water sharing treaty and the two countries have closed their airspace to each other’s airlines.
Pakistan secured a $7 billion bailout program from the IMF last year and was granted a new $1.3 billion climate resilience loan in March.
The program is critical to the $350 billion economy and Pakistan said it has stabilized under the bailout that helped it stave off a default threat.
India raised concerns with the IMF on its loans to Pakistan, asking for a review, a government source told Reuters without elaborating.
The IMF and India’s finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The adviser to Pakistan’s finance minister said the IMF program is “well on track.”
“The latest review has been done well and we are completely on track,” adviser Khurram Schehzad told Reuters, adding that Pakistan had very productive spring meetings with financial institutions in Washington.
“We did about 70 meetings ... interest has been very high for investing and supporting Pakistan as the economy turns around,” Schehzad said.
The soaring tensions between the two countries has drawn global attention and calls for cooling tempers.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full by both Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan, but each rules it in parts.
While New Delhi accuses Pakistan of backing an uprising in Indian Kashmir since 1989, Pakistan says it only offers diplomatic and moral support to a Kashmiri demand for self-determination.


Pakistani generals link Kashmir attack to India’s ‘governance failures,’ vow to defend sovereignty

Updated 02 May 2025
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Pakistani generals link Kashmir attack to India’s ‘governance failures,’ vow to defend sovereignty

  • Army says India uses such incidents for political gains like suspending Indus Waters Treaty
  • The generals says the Pahalgam attack was to help ‘Indian terror proxies’ targeting Pakistan

KARACHI: Pakistan’s top generals on Friday blamed last month’s tourist shootings in Indian-administered Kashmir on New Delhi’s “governance failures” and its strategy of using such incidents for political gain, while warning Pakistani security forces were ready to respond to any attack on the country’s sovereignty, according to an official statement.
India blamed Pakistan for the April 22 attack in the scenic town of Pahalgam, in Kashmir’s Anantnag district, where gunmen killed 26 people in one of the deadliest assaults on civilians in nearly two decades.
Pakistan denied involvement, though tensions escalated as India expelled Pakistani diplomats and nationals, closed a key border crossing and suspended the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), which has governed the distribution of river waters between the two countries since 1960.
Pakistan’s top general gathered at the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi earlier today to review the geo-strategic environment, with particular focus on the Pakistan-India standoff and the broader regional security situation, the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said.
“The Forum noted, with serious concern, India’s consistent pattern of exploitation of crises to achieve political and military objectives,” the ISPR said. “They have been following a predictable template — whereby internal governance failures are externalized.”
“These incidents have often coincided with unilateral moves by India to alter the status quo, as seen in 2019 when India similarly exploited the Pulwama incident to unilaterally alter the status quo of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir, through revocation of Article 370,” it added.
The 2019 Pulwama attack killed 40 Indian paramilitary personnel and was also blamed on Pakistan before New Delhi revoked the region’s special constitutional status to integrate it in the Indian union, a move repeatedly condemned by Islamabad.
The generals expressed concern that India was now using the Pahalgam shootings to undermine the IWT and “usurp Pakistan’s legitimate and inalienable water rights.”
The statement called the move a dangerous attempt to “weaponize water,” threatening the livelihoods of more than 240 million Pakistanis and increasing strategic instability in South Asia.
The commanders also voiced alarm over what they described as credible evidence of Indian military and intelligence involvement in orchestrating militant violence inside Pakistan.
They accused New Delhi of using the Kashmir attack to divert attention from its own domestic challenges and to provide “operational breathing space” to what they called “Indian terror proxies” targeting Pakistan.
While reaffirming Pakistan’s commitment to regional peace and stability, the generals warned that any attempt to impose conflict would be met with a “sure and decisive” response.
Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir praised the operational readiness and morale of Pakistan’s armed forces and emphasized the need for vigilance and proactive readiness across all fronts.
“Deliberate destabilization efforts by the Indian government will be confronted and defeated with resolve and clarity,” the ISPR said.