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  Dawn December 13, 2020 Zulquernain Tahir  • Govt says people from outside city won’t be stopped from joining rally • PML-N workers break locks of Minar-i-Pakistan’s main gate, make arrangements for event LAHORE: The 11-party opp­osition alliance, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), is all geared up for putting up its much-hyped “power show” at Minar-i-Pakistan here on Sunday (today), the last one in its first phase of anti-government rallies that began three months ago. The PDM is expected to announce the “decisive phase” of its struggle against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) led government in this public meeting. A senior PML-N leader told Dawn that the next phase of its struggle would begin in January in which the PDM had planned 16 more rallies across the country before the final showdown — a long march on Islamabad and resignations from the national and provincial assemblies. “We expect that some ‘behind the scenes’ development may take plac...

The HIndu June 24, 2020 Pakistan received another extension on the “greylist”, as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) plenary session on Wednesday decided to continue all countries under scrutiny for Terror Financing and Money Laundering until October 2020. However, Islamabad faced setbacks on other fronts, with the United States slamming its record on terrorism, including its failure to act against groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), and received a U.S. veto against its joint effort with China to list an Indian engineer on the UN Security Council (UNSC)’s 1267 list. Reference:  https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pakistan-to-remain-on-greylist-of-terror-financing-watchdog-fatf/article31908685.ece

Dawn May 29, 2020 Author :  Baqir Sajjad Syed ISLAMABAD: The United Arab Emirates and the Maldives together thwarted a Pakistani attempt to set up an informal group of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) envoys at the United Nations on Islamophobia. A senior diplomatic source told Dawn that Pakistan’s permanent representative at the United Nations Munir Akram highlighted the issue of Islamophobia at a recent virtual meeting of the envoys of OIC member countries at the UN. It was a routine meeting of the envoys of OIC countries, which discussed other issues as well. The Pakistan envoy specifically highlighted the plight of the Muslims in India and the people of occupied Kashmir, who are suffering at the hands of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He told the meeting that Islamophobia in India had become more pronounced during the Covid-19 pandemic and recalled the actions taken by Modi government to change demography of occupied Kashmir by allowing non-Kashmiris ...

Hindustan Times Published By: Anonymous Anwar, who was an encounter specialist served as the Senior Superintendent of Police in Malir district of Pakistan’s Sindh province, and is accused of extrajudicial killings. The US has blacklisted Rao Anwar Ahmed Khan, a retired Pakistani police officer, for his involvement in serious human rights violations, the US Department of Treasury has said. Anwar, who was an encounter specialist served as the Senior Superintendent of Police in Malir district of Pakistan’s Sindh province, and is accused of extrajudicial killings. “During his tenure as the SSP in Malir, Anwar was reportedly responsible for staging numerous fake police encounters in which police killed individuals,” the department said on Tuesday. Anwar during his service was also responsible for extortion, land-grabbing, narcotics and murder. “Anwar staged over 190 police encounters in the Malir District that led to the deaths of over 400 people, many of which wer...

Dristikone October 09, 2019 Pakistan is in the midst of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action on its blacklisting.  And despite its best attempt spinning the whole situation, better than the legendary Abdul Qadir could do with the ball, things are looking ugly. And, to think of it, in the last five years, five law enforcement agencies investigated 2,420 cases related to money laundering.  Guess how many were indicted?  Only one accused under investigation of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was convicted.  That was Nawaz Sharif. That’s not fighting against terror.  That is the fight against your political opponent!  Imran Khan and the Pakistani establishment think that they can put anyone behind the bars and call it a victory on terror and money laundering, even when it was their own political opponent! This is the level of seriousness when Pakistan is on the brink of complete economic disaster – Terror-Hub Pakistan’s Economi...

Hindustan Times October 10, 2019 By Sutirtho Patranobis, Beijing In a swift response, India’s external affairs ministry said Kashmir is an integral part of the country and it was not for other nations to comment on India’s internal affairs. Two days ahead of his informal summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India, President Xi Jinping said China was closely following the situation in Kashmir and will support Pakistan on issues related to its “core interests”. Xi’s remarks, made during a meeting with visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday, reflected China’s consistent support to its all-weather ally Pakistan – an issue that emerged as an irritant in the run-up to the second India-China informal summit on October 11-12. After Khan called for efforts to avoid the deterioration of the situation in Kashmir, Xi said the “right and wrong of the situation was clear”, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. Xi added that the two parties should r...

Zee News October 09, 2019 Pakistan has been misusing diplomatic channels in Nepal, Bangladesh and other countries to bring and distribute consignments of Fake Indian Currency Notes. hree years after India demonetised high currency notes to crackdown on black money, Pakistan has started producing, smuggling and circulating better quality Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) to finance illicit activities and militant groups, including the Lashkar-e-Toiba and its affiliates, Jaish-e-Mohammad.  Senior officials reveal that a large amount of counterfeit currency from Pakistan is making its way into India using pre-2016 system and infrastructure- of gangs, their syndicate, channels, and routes. Most surprisingly, Pakistan has been misusing diplomatic channels in Nepal, Bangladesh and other countries to bring and distribute consignments of Fake Indian Currency Notes. Sources reveal that Pakistan`s secret agency, the ISI, manages to create this currency of better visual quali...

The Hindu October 08, 2018 Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security said Umar was a Pakistani citizen, though some reports claim he was born in India. The leader of al-Qaeda’s South Asian branch was killed in a U.S.-Afghan joint raid in southern Afghanistan in September, Afghan officials confirmed on October 8. Asim Umar, who led al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) from its inception in 2014, was killed during a raid September 23 on a Taliban compound in the Musa Qala district of Helmand Province. Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security said Umar was a Pakistani citizen, though some reports claim he was born in India. He “was #killed along with six other AQIS members, most of them Pakistani”, the NDS tweeted, adding that Umar had been “embedded” with the Taliban. NDS Afghanistan @NDSAfghanistan 1/2: BREAKING: # NDS can now confirm the death of Asim Omar, leader of # Al_Qaeda in the # Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), in a joint US-Afghan rai...

REUTERS July 17, 2019 Mubasher bukhari LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities arrested Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of a four-day militant attack on the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, on Wednesday on terrorism financing charges. U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed the move and said it was the result of pressure from his administration on Pakistan to get tougher on militants, while an Indian government official said that merely arresting Saeed was not enough and that he should be put on trial and convicted. The arrest, announced by the spokesman for the chief minister of Punjab province, came days before a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has promised to crack down on militant groups operating in Pakistan. “After a ten year search, the so-called “mastermind” of the Mumbai Terror attacks has been arrested in Pakistan. Great pressure has been exerted over the last two years to find him!,” Trump tweeted. Previous U.S. adminis...

India Today July 17, 2019 Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamat ud Dawa (JuD) chief Hafiz Saeed has been arrested. The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) of Punjab Police (Pakistan's) arrested Hafiz Saeed from Lahore when he was on his way to Gujranwala. Hafiz Saeed has been reportedly sent on judicial remand. As per sources, Hafiz Saeed has said he will challenge cases against him in the court. The arrest comes a day after Pakistan opened its airspace and before Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s maiden trip to the White House to help repair its relationship with the United States. The Imran Khan government has been under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to act against terror outfits and terrorists operating out of Pakistan. Hafiz Saeed was earlier booked along with 12 accomplices for terror funding. He is facing 23 terror-related cases in Pakistan. Saeed was, however, granted bail as the government said they could not produce concrete ev...

The Dawn July 16, 2019 Staff Reporter KARACHI: The foreign direct investment (FDI) dipped 50 per cent to hit a four-year low as inflows from Beijing dried out after completion of the first phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Data published by the State Bank of Pakistan revealed that FDI halved to $1.737 billion from $3.471 same period last year. The bleak figures come at a time when the government is struggling to contain significant economic challenges on the back of large fiscal and financial needs and weak and unbalanced growth. Inflows from China, leading investor in the country, during FY19 fell to $540 million compared to $2bn during FY18 as the CPEC enters into the second phase. On the other hand, data showed that US, with inflows of $155m during FY18, reported outflows of $575m during FY19 as relations between Islamabad and Washington have worsened in the last year. Inflows from UK during the period under review remained almost unchanged at $230...

The Tribune July 14, 2019 ISLAMABAD:  Prime Minister Imran Khan has issued orders for the formation of a commission to investigate and fix responsibility for the massive $6 billion penalty imposed on Pakistan by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in the Reko Diq case. The premier’s directives were communicated in a statement issued by the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Office on Sunday. The statement is the first official response to the $5.976 billion penalty imposed on Pakistan by the ICSID. The ICSID penalty comes weeks after PM Imran secured a $6 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund, amid devaluations of the rupee and soaring inflation. “The prime minister has directed formation of a commission to investigate into the reasons as to how Pakistan ended up in this predicament; who were responsible for making the country suffer such a loss and what are the lessons learnt, so that mistakes made are not repeated in t...

The Hindu July 15, 2019 By AFP Pakistan will have to pay almost $6 billion in damages to a foreign gold mining firm whose dig was shut down by the government in 2011, the World Bank said on Sunday. The consortium Tethyan Copper company is the largest Foreign Direct Investment mining project in the country. More than a decade ago the group found vast gold and copper deposits at Reko Diq, in the turbulent southwestern Baluchistan province, and had planned a hugely lucrative open-pit mine. But the project came to a standstill in 2011 after the local government refused to renew the consortium's lease, and in 2013 Pakistan’s top court declared it invalid. On Friday, the World Bank’s international arbitration tribunal committee awarded $5.84 billion in damages to Tethyan, according to a statement from the company, because of the government’s decision to shut down the mine. Pakistan Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan said in a statement they had noted the deci...

The Dawn July 15, 2019 By Afshan Subohi    The staff report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week must have provided some measure of comfort to the champions of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as well as China that chose Pakistan to be the first key destination for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which aims to sustain its economic triumph and realise future ambitions. If this is just a coincidence, it is intriguing. After a long lull, there is light blipping again on the CPEC drawing board. Last Friday, a 55-member Chinese delegation of business executives met Prime Minister Imran Khan and reportedly committed to ploughing $5 billion investment over the next five years. “Probably the interaction with the Chinese delegations was already planned, but the fact that it did materialise as soon as details of the IMF deal were made public kindled new hope for the future,” commented a top leader of the government’s economic team. ...

The Indian Express July 02, 2019 Akash Joshi The June 30 editorial in Dawn takes umbrage at Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Bajwa’s remarks about the economic (mis)management of the country by previous civilian governments and his endorsement of the PTI government led by Imran Khan. While much of the conversation in and about Pakistan’s curious de facto state structure has centred around the relationship between the civilian government and the army — whether through coups or “remote controlling” the government — there is little discussion about the relationship of the Pakistan “deep state” and the country’s judiciary. An article by Faisal Siddiqui in Dawn asks whether there are now the beginnings of “judicial-military” conflict in Pakistan. Siddiqui writes: “The judicial side of this civil-military conflict has either been denied by contending that the judiciary has been the alleged ‘B team’ of the military or, if acknowledged, the judicial-military conflict has been pe...