ISLAMABAD: Pakistan can harness its strategic geopolitical potential, improve regional and international economic connectivity and become an economic hub for Asia if the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is implemented successfully, but without structural reforms the country will not be able to achieve optimal benefits. This was stated by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in a fresh report released on Wednesday. The study “Economic Corridor Development in Pakistan: Concept, Framework, and Case Studies” coincided with Prime Minister Imran Khan’s three-day visit to China along with a high-level delegation of cabinet members and government officials. “If CPEC is successfully implemented, Pakistan can…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
Pakistan’s economy is set to keep on recovering in fiscal year 2022, with real GDP growth projected at four per cent, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday, hours after approving the continuation of an extended loan arrangement. The IMF Executive Board also approved Pakistan’s request for waivers of applicability and nonobservance of performance criteria. The board met in Washington on Wednesday for further consultations with Pakistan on an extended loan facility (EFF) and completed its sixth EFF review. The completion allows Pakistan to draw about $1 billion from the fund, bringing total budget support under the programme to about $3bn,…
KABUL: Two Afghan journalists detained by the Taliban earlier this week were released on Wednesday, the news editor of their media organisation said. Since returning to power in August the Taliban have increasingly cracked down on dissent, and local journalists have been beaten and intimidated while covering protests. On Monday Ariana TV reporters Waris Hasrat and Aslam Hijab were detained by the Taliban, according to the Afghan Media Association, a newly founded journalists’ rights group. A Taliban spokesman said he did not have any information on the pair, but both the United Nations and Amnesty International blamed the hardline Islamist group for…
ISTANBUL: Turkey on Wednesday accused neighbouring Greece of allowing 12 migrants to die in the winter cold after stripping them of their clothes and then pushing them back across the border. The charges from Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu — dismissed as “utter nonsense” by Greece — threaten to escalate simmering tensions between the rival members of the Nato defence alliance. They also highlight Turkey’s fears that EU countries were turning a blind eye to concerns that its existing refugee camps near Syria will be overrun by desperate Afghans fleeing the Taliban following their return to power. Soylu posted blurred…
ISLAMABAD: India on Wednesday declined to issue visas to Pakistani pilgrims at the eleventh hour for attending the annual Urs of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti in Ajmer from February 3 to 14. Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Pir Noorul Haq Qadri, in a statement, expressed dismay over the non-issuance of visas to the religious tourists, which was beyond his comprehension. The Indian embassy, he said, had asked the ministry to complete all the arrangements for the departure of pilgrims for the Urs following all the standard operating procedures issued by it. The pilgrims belonging to far-flung areas of…
LAHORE: Pakistan’s leading businessman Mian Muhammad Mansha claims that backchannels are working between Pakistan and India that will hopefully yield good results. “If things improve between the two neighbours, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi could visit Pakistan in a month,” the chairman of Nishat Group told a gathering of businessmen at the Lahore Chambers of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday. He advised the two countries to resolve their disputes and start trade to fight poverty in the region. “If the economy does not improve, the country may face disastrous consequences. Pakistan should improve trade relations with India and take a…
MANAMA: Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz landed in Bahrain on Wednesday, the latest high-profile diplomatic trip since the countries normalised ties, the Gulf country said. “The defence minister, Lieutenant General Abdullah bin Hassan al-Nuaimi, received Mr Benny Gantz, the minister of defence of the State of Israel, upon his arrival at Bahrain International Airport,” the Bahraini Defence Ministry said. Gantz, who is the first Israeli defence minister to ever officially visit the Gulf country, travelled with several top military and security officials, including navy chief Admiral David Saar Salama. “The aircraft carrying the delegation is the first IAF (Israeli Air…
WASHINGTON: The United States said on Wednesday it was deploying thousands of troops to bolster Nato forces in eastern Europe, ratcheting up its military response to fears that Russia could invade Ukraine. Russia has massed than 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders, and Western leaders have warned that any incursion into the ex-Soviet nation would be met with “severe consequences.” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said 1,000 US troops in Germany would deploy to Romania, and 2,000 based in the United States would be sent to Germany and Poland. “It’s important that we send a strong signal to (President Vladimir) Putin and…
The United Arab Emirates said it intercepted three drones that entered its airspace over unpopulated areas early on Wednesday in the fourth such attack on the Gulf commercial and tourism hub in the past few weeks. The first three assaults, including a missile attack on Monday during a visit by Israel’s president, were launched by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis in an escalation with a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and which includes the UAE. The Houthis have not yet announced a new operation and Wednesday’s drones attack was claimed by a little-known group calling itself the “True Promise Brigades”, according to US-based…
The Taliban are inching closer towards international recognition but any concessions Afghanistan’s new rulers make will be on their terms, the regime’s foreign minister clamed in an interview with AFP. In his first interview since returning from talks with Western powers in Oslo, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi also urged Washington to unlock Afghanistan’s assets to help ease a humanitarian crisis. No country has formally recognised the government installed after the Taliban seized power in August as US-led forces withdrew following a 20-year occupation. But Muttaqi told AFP late on Wednesday that Afghanistan’s new rulers were slowly gaining international acceptance. “On the process of getting…
