In Pakistan’s Gilgit city, new women’s market is ‘one-stop shop’ for gems and handicrafts

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Updated 01 October 2023
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In Pakistan’s Gilgit city, new women’s market is ‘one-stop shop’ for gems and handicrafts

  • Riverside market in Gilgit was inaugurated in August to develop tourism and economically empower local women
  • With 24 shops, market has a wide variety of handmade products that showcase the rich cultural heritage of the region

GILGIT: Every day at the break of dawn, 28-year-old Haseena Farman unlocks her riverside shop of handcrafted shawls, sweaters, gemstones and decorative items and waits for customers.

Business has been going well since she opened the store in a recently inaugurated, eco-friendly women’s market that has become a godsend for women entrepreneurs in the mountainous northern city of Gilgit.

The market, which was inaugurated in August and has 24 shops so far, is a joint project of the Gilgit Development Authority and the Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry and has, in the words of businesswomen like Farman, given them a “special place” of trade in a region where, like many other parts of Pakistan, cultural and religious norms and social expectations act as barriers to prevent women’s entry into the business sector.

According to Gilgit-Baltistan’s Education Department, the female literacy rate in the area has been recorded at 41 percent while the male literacy rate has been recorded at 66 percent. Despite high literacy rates, women form only 15.5 percent of the labor force in Gilgit-Baltistan, according to data by the Agha Khan Rural Support Network, a non-profit company. 

“Earlier, we [women] didn’t have a special space [to sell our products],” Farman told Arab News. “I used to make these items for my cousins, relatives and sisters … After the opening of this market, we have got a proper setup.”




The photo taken on September 30, 2023 shows a shop at the Gems and Handicraft Market in Gilgit, Pakistan. (AN Photo)

“So far, it’s going well and I hope it will also continue to be like this in the future.”

Razia Asif, another female entrepreneur at the market who sells gems, jackets and decorative items, said she used to sell her goods from home until the market launched. 

“We opened this shop a month ago,” she said. “We have been given the opportunity by the government to bring our products to market.”

Speaking to Arab News, GDA director Sajid Wali described the market as a “one-stop shop” to buy local handicrafts, gemstones, dried fruits and traditional cuisines at affordable rates while enjoying a beautiful riverside view.

Wali also hoped, he said, that the market would serve both as a bustling tourist spot in the near future while empowering women of the region at the same time.

“We know the women of Gilgit-Baltistan have the skills,” he said.




The photo taken on September 30, 2023 shows a videw of the Gems and Handicraft Market in Gilgit, Pakistan. (AN Photo)

“However, only a limited number of products prepared by them reach our markets due to lack of opportunities. Their [home-based] businesses don’t run very smoothly all the time. We know these things and have tried to bring these women into a proper retail market.”

Mubareka Gul, an executive member of the Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Gilgit division, said women of the area previously found it difficult to market and sell their goods.

“For the first time in history [in Gilgit], women can run these businesses in a friendly environment under tight security,” she said. “This is a family market and families come and visit this place.”

“The women trained by us, who did not have direct market access, have become successful due to the government of Gilgit-Baltistan and the Women Chamber of Commerce,” Gul added. “We hope that this market will become a business hub.”

Gul urged the public to visit the newly inaugurated trade center with family members and explore the products being sold.

“I have visited this market two, three times,” Sultana Karim, a visitor, told Arab News as she bought cushions for her drawing room. 

“Each time it is a pleasure to come here because a variety of products are available.”


Senior Pakistani official killed in Balochistan as government blames ‘Indian-backed’ militants

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Senior Pakistani official killed in Balochistan as government blames ‘Indian-backed’ militants

  • Balochistan CM says Hidayatullah Buledi was shot dead when he tried to protect civilians in a local market
  • Pakistan’s PM and army chief say the country’s war will continue until militant violence is fully eradicated

KARACHI: The Pakistani government on Friday condemned the killing of a senior administration official in a gun attack in the volatile southwestern Balochistan province, with top officials attributing the assault to what they described as “Fitna Al-Hind” — or Indian-sponsored proxies — fueling unrest in the region.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Hidayatullah Buledi was shot dead by armed militants in the Sorab area as he reportedly intervened to protect civilians, including women and children, during an armed assault in a local market.

In a post on social media platform X, the province’s chief minister, Sardar Sarfraz Bugti, said the attack was carried out by militants affiliated with the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist group banned in Pakistan, which he said was backed by the neighboring Indian state.

“Despite holding the office of ADC Revenue, when terrorists of Fitna Al-Hind BLA opened fire on women and children in Sorab today, Hidayatullah Buledi honored the traditions of Baloch valor and sacrificed his life in defense of the Pakistani state,” he said in the post while praying for the deceased officer and his family.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also issued a statement, condemning the “cowardly attack” on a local bank, civilians and public officials in Sorab and paying tribute to Buledi for defending his community.

“The entire nation stands with the family of Shaheed [martyr] Hidayatullah Buledi,” he said, vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice.

“Their attack reflects a mindset that is openly hostile to Pakistan’s progress and stability in Balochistan,” he added.

The prime minister also praised the efforts of the Pakistani armed forces and reiterated the government’s commitment to eradicating militant violence from the country.

Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, who was in Quetta during the day to address officers at the Command and Staff College, also promised to take Pakistan’s war against militancy to its “logical conclusion.”

“The nation’s fight against terrorism will be driven to a logical conclusion — success against all forms and manifestations of terrorism,” the military’s media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations, quoted him as saying in a statement.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but least developed province, has long been the site of a separatist insurgency, with militants blaming the state for exploiting the mineral resources of the region without doing much for the local population.

The government has repeatedly denied the allegation, pointing to the infrastructure and livelihood projects it has been carrying out in the area for years.

Pakistan has also frequently accused India of funding and arming militant groups, a charge New Delhi denies.


Afghans married to Pakistanis fear split from families amid deportation drive

Updated 30 May 2025
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Afghans married to Pakistanis fear split from families amid deportation drive

  • Around 1.3 million Afghans, both undocumented and those with Afghan Citizen Cards, have left Pakistan since expulsion drive started in 2023
  • Afghans married to Pakistanis have found themselves in a legal limbo and have had to leave families and lives behind after being deported

PESHAWAR: Muhammad Alam, 40, wakes up daily to the laughter and noise of his seven children as they begin their day at the family’s rented home in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar while their mother prepares breakfast in a small kitchen.

These days, Alam’s heart is full of dread, and he is having frequent arguments with his wife over whether she and the children, six daughters and one son, will accompany him to Afghanistan if he has to leave. 

Alam is an Afghan refugee who is married to a Pakistani woman. Under an ongoing repatriation drive targeting "illegal" foreigners that was launched by the Pakistan government in November 2023, Alam may have to leave the country soon. If that happens, he will be separated from his family, all of whom are Pakistani nationals and are refusing to accompany him. 

Around 1.3 million Afghans have left Pakistan since the expulsion drive was started.

“We are in trouble because of the deportation drive,” Alam told Arab News at his home in Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. 

“I can’t refuse to leave but who will convince my family? Just for me, these seven children will not go to Afghanistan and I can’t leave these seven behind.”

Alam holds a Proof of Registration (PoR) card, a document issued by the National Database and Registration Authority that provides temporary legal status and freedom of movement for registered Afghan refugees. It serves as an identification document, allowing Afghan refugees to legally reside in Pakistan. The PoR card was initially issued in 2007 and has been extended multiple times, currently valid until June 30, 2025.

Alam is unsure what will happen after that deadline passes next month: “If the government arrests and deports me, who will take care of my family?”

When he spoke to his children about going to Afghanistan with him, one of them replied: “You are an Afghan, you should go.”

Alam’s wife holds a Pakistani Computerized National Identity Card (CNIC) and his children all have the Form-B, an important document for children under 18 years old in Pakistan, serving as a child's identification document and necessary for various purposes like school admissions, passports, and international travel.

One of Alam’s daughters Laiba, 14, said the government should make a special case for her father as he had a Pakistani family. 

“We and our mother have Pakistani identification documents, only he doesn’t have it. He should be given the [CNIC] card, the whole fight will end,” she said. 

“What will we do in Afghanistan? We have neither seen nor gone there.”

Troubles have already begun for the family. 

Laiba said she was refused enrollment in the 8th standard after she failed to present a Pakistani CNIC for her father. 

“They asked for my mother’s [CNIC] card, I produced it. Then they asked for my father’s card. My father didn’t have a [CNIC] card, from where should I have produced it? So, they expelled me from the school,” the teenager said. 

“Our school is gone already. What should we do?”

Qudratullah, 38, another Afghan refugee from Jalalabad who is married to a Pakistani women, is facing the same issue, saying his children and wife were refusing to accompany him to Afghanistan.

While he has an Afghan passport, his Pakistan visa had expired, after which he was deported to Afghanistan in October 2024. It took him nearly four months to get a new visa from Afghanistan and return to Pakistan in February this year, with a multiple-entry family visit visa that expires in February 2026. 

“I have married a Pakistani woman but my wife doesn’t want to go with me to [Afghanistan],” Qudratullah told Arab News. “When I tell her to go, she starts fighting with me. She doesn’t want to go with me at any cost.”

Qudratullah's wife Nasreen Bibi described the situation as “too difficult.”

“Sometimes he [my husband] gets a visa and sometimes the visa is rejected, and he sometimes gets stuck there [in Afghanistan] and we are left alone,” she said at the couple’s home in Peshawar. 

“We have children who are studying here, we have a house. We can’t go with him there, our children can’t live in that country.”

“HOSPITALITY”

Nauman Mohib Kakakhel, a Peshawar High Court advocate, has fought cases for families, where a Pakistani is married to an Afghan with Proof of Registration (POR) or Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC). The ACC is a document issued by the Pakistan government to undocumented Afghan nationals, allowing them to legally reside in Pakistan for a limited time and provides temporary protection from deportation.

“We filed a case for hundreds of families, and it was decided by the Peshawar High Court that since NADRA already has records of these families in the shape of Afghan Citizen Cards or Proof of Registration cards, as they enjoy refugees’ status in Pakistan and that’s a legal status,” Kakakhel said.

“And now they have got married to a Pakistani citizen, so this should be sufficient for them to get permanent residency in Pakistan.”

As per the law, children born to a couple where one partner is Pakistani and the other is Afghan, will automatically be entitled to the citizenship of Pakistan by descent when they turn 21, the lawyer explained.

After they turn 21, they must opt for the nationality of one country while Pakistani women married to an Afghan can hold the citizenship of both countries under Pakistani law.

Speaking to Arab News, Qaisar Afridi, a spokesperson for UNHCR in Pakistan, said Afghans, including human rights activists, journalists and others married to Pakistani nationals, were facing challenges in Pakistan:

“As the Pakistani government and the people of Pakistan have hosted Afghans for the past 40-45 years, we request the government of Pakistan that this hospitality should be continued until the situation in Afghanistan improves.”


Pakistan formally initiates talks with US on ‘reciprocal tariffs’ amid export concerns

Updated 30 May 2025
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Pakistan formally initiates talks with US on ‘reciprocal tariffs’ amid export concerns

  • US imposed a 29% tariff on Pakistani goods as Islamabad pushes for export-led growth
  • Pakistan says it sees the move as both a challenge and an opportunity to reset trade ties

KARACHI: Pakistan has formally begun negotiations with the United States over newly imposed “reciprocal tariffs,” an official statement said on Friday, with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb holding a conference call with US Trade Representative Ambassador Jamieson Greer to launch the process.

The talks come after US President Donald Trump imposed steep tariffs on a number of countries earlier this year, a move widely viewed as a setback for the global economy still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. Defending the action, Trump said the tariffs were necessary to correct trade imbalances and counter what he described as unfair treatment of American goods abroad.

Pakistan was among the countries affected, with a 29 percent tariff placed on its goods at a time when Islamabad is pushing for export-driven growth.

Aurangzeb called the development both a challenge and an opportunity to reset trade ties in April, adding that a high-level delegation would soon travel to Washington to pursue the matter further.

“Pakistan’s formal negotiations on US reciprocal tariffs kick-started between Mr. Muhammad Aurangzeb, Pakistan’s Finance Minister and Ambassador Jamieson Greer, United States Trade Representative through a telephonic/conference call on 30th May, 2025,” the finance ministry said.

“The two sides exchanged their viewpoint through a constructive engagement with the understanding that technical level detailed discussions would follow in the coming few weeks,” it added.

The ministry said both sides expressed confidence in advancing the negotiations toward a successful conclusion at the earliest.

The US is Pakistan’s largest export destination, and the newly imposed duties threaten to undermine Islamabad’s fragile economic recovery.

According to Pakistan’s central bank, the country exported $5.44 billion worth of goods to the US in 2024. From July to February of the current fiscal year, exports to the US reached $4 billion, up 10 percent from the same period last year.

Nearly 90 percent of those exports are textiles, which analysts say will be hardest hit.

Experts have also warned previously the tariffs could reduce Pakistan’s competitiveness, especially if regional exporters such as China, Bangladesh and Vietnam redirect more goods to Europe, intensifying competition in alternative markets.


Pakistan plans virtual assets regulator as crypto council convenes next week

Updated 30 May 2025
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Pakistan plans virtual assets regulator as crypto council convenes next week

  • Pakistan says it aims to shape a future-ready financial infrastructure while ensuring stability and compliance
  • The country has announced this month to allocate 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity to power bitcoin mining

KARACHI: Pakistan plans to establish a regulatory body to oversee digital assets, with the proposal set to be discussed at a meeting of the Pakistan Crypto Council next week, the finance minister said on Friday.

The move marks a significant shift for the South Asian nation, which had previously banned cryptocurrency transactions in 2018, citing financial risks and lack of regulation.

The Pakistan Crypto Council, set up in March, was formed to guide policy on blockchain, digital currencies and attract crypto-related investment as the government reconsiders its approach to digital finance.

“The Pakistan Crypto Council will convene a high-level meeting on Monday, 2nd June 2025, to be chaired by Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue,” the ministry said in an official statement.

“Key items on the agenda include the development of a robust regulatory framework to govern digital and virtual assets in Pakistan, in alignment with global standards and technological advancements,” it continued. “A focal point of discussion will be the groundwork for the establishment of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) — a proposed autonomous body to oversee the digital finance and crypto ecosystem in the country.”

Earlier this month, Pakistan announced the allocation of 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity in the first phase of a national initiative to power bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

Additionally, Bilal Bin Saqib, CEO of the Pakistan Crypto Council, unveiled the country’s first government-led strategic bitcoin reserve at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas.

The upcoming council meeting aims to lay down the foundation for a secure, transparent and innovation-friendly regulatory environment.

The finance ministry said the upcoming meeting would reflect the government’s commitment to shaping a future-ready financial infrastructure while ensuring stability and compliance in the emerging digital economy.


Pakistan’s deputy PM says Islamabad to appoint envoy to Kabul, signaling thaw in ties

Updated 30 May 2025
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Pakistan’s deputy PM says Islamabad to appoint envoy to Kabul, signaling thaw in ties

  • Announcement comes days after trilateral talks in China where both countries agreed to upgrade relations
  • It remains unclear who will be Pakistan’s new envoy to Afghanistan and when the appointment will take effect

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday Islamabad would upgrade diplomatic relations with neighboring Afghanistan by appointing an ambassador in Kabul in a bid to deepen engagement between the two neighboring countries.

The move comes amid long-running tensions, with Pakistan repeatedly accusing the Afghan Taliban administration of “facilitating” cross-border attacks by militant groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA).

Kabul has denied the allegations, insisting Pakistan’s security challenges are its internal issue. Relations have further deteriorated in recent years after Islamabad launched a nationwide deportation drive targeting undocumented foreigners, the majority of whom are Afghan nationals. Pakistani authorities also maintained that some of them were linked to a spate of militant attacks in the country including suicide bombings.

Despite the strains, both countries have sought to improve ties in recent months. Dar led a delegation to Kabul in April and later participated in trilateral talks involving Chinese and Afghan foreign ministers in Beijing earlier this month.

“Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are on [a] positive trajectory after my very productive visit to Kabul with Pakistan delegation on 19th April 2025,” he said in a post on social media platform X. “To maintain this momentum, I am pleased to announce the decision of the Government of Pakistan to upgrade the level of its Chargé d’Affaires in Kabul to the level of Ambassador.”

“I am confident this step would further contribute towards enhanced engagement, deepen Pak-Afghan cooperation in economic, security, CT [counterterrorism] & trade areas and promote further exchanges between two fraternal countries,” he added.

 

The announcement comes after the recent trilateral meeting in Beijing, where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said both Pakistan and Afghanistan had “clearly expressed” a willingness to elevate diplomatic ties, according to an official statement.

At the same meeting, the three countries also agreed to expand cooperation under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), including the extension of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Afghanistan.

The BRI — China’s multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure plan — aims to build land and maritime trade routes linking Asia with Africa and Europe. CPEC, considered the flagship of the initiative, includes over $60 billion in Chinese investments in Pakistan’s energy, transport, and industrial sectors.

It remains unclear who will be Pakistan’s new envoy to Kabul or when the appointment will take effect.