Category: 1. Pakistan

One attacker seriously injured when some of his accomplices started firing on a police raiding team in Islamabad in an attempt to free him from police custody, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday.

The firing incident took place in the Green Area under the jurisdiction of Shalimar Police Station of Islamabad. 

According to details, the police raiding team was on its way to arrest the accused’s colleagues after receiving credible information from Asim Jahangir arrested earlier.

When the police team reached Green Area, some accomplices of the accused opened fire on the police raiding team.

Due to severe firing, the accused Asim Jahangir received serious bullet injuries, and one tyre of the police van was burst, but all the policemen remained safe. All the accused escaped from the 

Accused Asim Jahangir was on physical remand vide case no. 850 registered against him in Shalimar Police Station for attacking the police and other serious sections.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) Mohammad Jawwad Tariq said that the accused Asim Jahangir was a police record holder and nominated in 19 serious criminal cases.

Later, the police team shifted the injured accused, Asim Jahangir, to the hospital for treatment. The DIG said that the police team police started a search operation to apprehend the accomplices of the accused.

Reporter: Mohammad Awais

LAHORE  –  On the final day of her five-day official visit to Japan, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif met Expo Association General Manager Achinoki Manatsu and lauded the World Expo 2025 theme centered on saving lives, improving public services, and enhancing public facilities. According to a handout, the chief minister underlined that Expo experts are offering valuable recommendations to address pressing social challenges. She highlighted Pakistan’s rich tradition of handicrafts, particularly Ajrak and Blue Pottery, and noted that Punjab’s natural resources, combined with the skills of its craftsmen, have the potential to be transformed into unique products of global appeal.

Maryam Nawaz Sharif pointed out that the arrival of 1.2 million visitors to Pakistan’s pavilion reflects the growing international interest in Pakistani products. Senior officials of the Expo Association welcomed her keen interest, while General Manager Achinoki Manatsu expressed gratitude for her visit.

PARONG, India: India fears a planned Chinese mega dam in Tibet will reduce water flows on a major river by up to 85 percent during the dry season, according to four sources familiar with the matter and a government analysis seen by Reuters, prompting Delhi to fast-track plans for its own dam to mitigate the effects.

The Indian government has been considering projects since the early 2000s to control the flow of water from Tibet’s Angsi Glacier, which sustains more than 100 million people downstream in China, India and Bangladesh. But the plans have been hindered by fierce and occasionally violent resistance from residents of the border state of Arunachal Pradesh, who fear their villages will be submerged and way of life destroyed by any dam.

Then in December, China announced that it would build the world’s largest hydropower dam in a border county just before the Yarlung Zangbo river crosses into India. That triggered fears in New Delhi that its longtime strategic rival — which has some territorial claims in Arunachal Pradesh — could weaponize its control of the river, which originates in the Angsi Glacier and is known as the Siang and Brahmaputra in India.

India’s largest hydropower company in May moved survey materials under armed police protection near a prospective site of the Upper Siang Multipurpose Storage Dam, which would be the country’s biggest dam, if completed. Senior Indian officials have also been holding meetings about accelerating construction this year, including one organized in July by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, according to two of the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive government matters.

Delhi’s concerns were described in the undated Indian government analysis of the Chinese dam’s impact, the specifics of which Reuters corroborated with four sources and is reporting for the first time.

Beijing hasn’t released detailed plans about the dam’s construction, but the analysis drew on past work conducted by Indian government-affiliated institutions like the Central Water Commission and accounted for the expected size of the Chinese project, which broke ground in July and will cost nearly $170 billion.

Delhi estimates the Chinese dam will allow Beijing to divert as much as 40 billion cubic meters of water, or just over a third of what is received annually at a key border point, according to the sources and the document. The impact would be especially acute in the non-monsoon months, when temperatures rise and lands become barren across swathes of India. The Upper Siang project would alleviate that with its projected 14 BCM of storage capacity, allowing India to release water during the dry season. 

That could mean the major regional city of Guwahati, which is dependent on water-intensive industry and farming, would see a reduction in supply of 11 percent, according to the sources and the document, as opposed to 25 percent if the Indian dam isn’t built.

The project could also mitigate any move by Beijing to release devastating torrents of water downstream, the sources said. If the dam is at its minimum drawdown level — where water is stored at less than 50 percent of its height — it would be able to fully absorb any excess water released from a breach in Chinese infrastructure, according to the document and the sources. India is considering a proposal to keep 30 percent of its dam empty at any time in order to account for unexpected surges, two of the sources said.

A spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry said in response to Reuters’ questions that the hydropower projects “have undergone rigorous scientific research on safety and environmental protection, and will not adversely impact the water resources, ecology, or geology of downstream countries.”

“China has always maintained a responsible attitude toward the development and utilization of transboundary rivers, and has maintained long-term communication and cooperation with downstream countries such as India and Bangladesh,” the spokesperson added.

Modi’s office and the Indian ministries responsible for water and external affairs did not respond to Reuters’ questions. State-owned hydropower major NHPC also did not return a request for comment.

India’s foreign ministry has said that top diplomat S. Jaishankar raised concerns about the dam during a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Aug. 18. A Jaishankar deputy also told lawmakers in August that the government was implementing measures to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of citizens in downstream areas, including building the dam.

India has itself been accused by Pakistan, a Chinese ally that it briefly clashed with in May, of weaponizing water. Delhi this year suspended its participation in a 1960 water-sharing treaty with Islamabad and is considering diverting flows from another crucial river away from its downstream neighbor.

An international tribunal has ruled that India must adhere to the agreement but Delhi says the panel lacks jurisdiction.

DEVELOPMENT OR DESTRUCTION?

When NHPC workers moved surveying materials near the village of Parong in May, angry locals damaged their machinery, destroyed a nearby bridge and looted the tents of police sent to guard the operation.

Many of them are members of Arunachal’s Adi community, who live off paddy, orange and sweet lime farms in the mist-shrouded hills and valleys nourished by the Siang.

The villagers have set up makeshift watch posts on regional roads to deny access to NHPC workers. That has forced security personnel to trek miles, often under cover of night, to reach a prospective site of the dam.

At least 16 Adi villages are likely to be lost to the storage area of the dam, directly affecting an estimated 10,000 people, according to two of the sources. Community leaders say more than 100,000 people will be impacted overall.

“The cardamom, paddy, jackfruit and pear we grow on this land help educate our children and support our family,” said Odoni Palo Pabin, an Adi grocer and mother of two. “We will fight the dam to death.”

The dam has the support of Arunachal’s chief minister, who is a member of Modi’s party and has called the Chinese project an existential threat. The project will “ensure water security and provide flood moderation to counter any potential water surges,” the state government said in a statement, adding that it decided in June to engage in detailed compensation discussions with families that could be affected by the dam.

Lawmaker Alo Libang, an Adi who represents an area that would be submerged by the Indian project, said he believed locals could be convinced to move if they received generous compensation.

NHPC has plans to spend more than $3 million on education and emergency infrastructure to incentivize the villagers to move elsewhere, three of the sources said, citing instructions from Modi’s office.

In one sign of progress, three villages in the area recently agreed to let NHPC officials carry out dam-related work, according to the Arunachal government and dozens of locals.

India has a history of activist movements against large dams, which have sometimes slowed these projects by years or forced them to scale down.

Even if the Upper Siang dam gets the go-ahead, it could take a decade to build after breaking ground, according to four of the sources. That means the project would likely be completed after China’s project, which Beijing expects to start generating power by the early-to-mid 2030s.

The delay means an Indian project would be vulnerable during construction if Beijing suddenly releases water during the monsoon season, triggering a surge that could wash away temporary dams, two of the sources said.

International experts and Adi activists have also warned that building large dams in seismically active Tibet and Arunachal could heighten risks for downstream communities.

The Chinese “dam is being built in a zone of high seismicity and in a zone that experiences extreme weather events,” said Sayanangshu Modak, an expert on the India-China water relationship at the University of Arizona.

“These kinds of extreme weather events trigger landslides, mudslides, glacial lake outburst flooding,” he said. “So that raises concerns about dam safety… it’s a very legitimate concern and India should engage with China.”

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani foreign affairs experts on Sunday urged Islamabad and Dhaka to institutionalize their relations through increased trade and investment, terming the rapprochement between the former rivals as a “key paradigm shift” in their ties.

Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Sunday concluded a two-day visit to Bangladesh, where he met senior officials of the country, including Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. The two nations signed agreements to abolish visas for diplomatic and official passport holders, promote trade, investment and economic cooperation.

Pakistan and Bangladesh were once one nation, but they split in 1971 as a result of a bloody civil war, which saw the part previously referred to as East Pakistan seceding to form the independent nation of Bangladesh. Ties between Pakistan and Bangladesh have warmed up since ex-PM Sheikh Hasina’s ouster as a result of a student-led uprising in August 2024.

Islamabad has attempted to forge closer ties with Bangladesh in recent months as relations remain frosty between Dhaka and New Delhi over India’s decision to grant asylum to Hasina after she fled the country. Both Pakistan and Bangladesh began sea trade last year and began expanding government-to-government commerce in February.

“It [rapprochement] has a very huge strategic value as this is one of the key paradigm shifts in Pakistan and Bangladesh relations that we are witnessing now,” Dr. Sajid Amin, deputy executive director at Islamabad-based Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) think tank, told Arab News.

“Pakistan and Bangladesh must prioritize institutionalizing relations through a free trade agreement and conducive investment policies, so ties remain stable and long-term, beyond changes in government,” he explained.
Amin noted that new governments often reverse policies of their predecessors, saying the positive shift should not be person- or government-specific.

“It needs a proper mechanism through agreements and MoUs to ensure that with a change of government, it does not go back to square one,” he said, adding that increased trade between the two countries can positively impact the inter-regional South Asian trade patterns, given Bangladesh’s economic potential in the region.

On Sunday, the Pakistani and Bangladeshi commerce ministries signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a Joint Working Group on Trade, aiming to raise their bilateral trade volume to $1 billion in the financial year that began in July.

In 2023-24 Pakistan exported goods worth $661 million to Bangladesh, while its imports were only $57 million, according to the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan.

“Bangladesh is one of the most active economies as it is expected to surpass India in GDP per capita in the next 5-10 years,” Amin said, adding that Islamabad has much to learn from Dhaka, particularly in developing a vibrant small and medium enterprises sector, promoting women’s economic inclusion, and diversifying beyond textiles and other traditional areas.

Shuja Alam, former Pakistan high commissioner to Bangladesh, agreed with Amin. He said that while Islamabad and Dhaka are “natural allies,” both must work hard to cement rapprochement in ties.

Alam said Pakistan’s longtime ally China could help ensure longevity to Islamabad’s ties with Dhaka.

“Pakistan and China are close allies and since China maintains good ties with Bangladesh, it would welcome stronger and long-term Islamabad–Dhaka relations to strengthen its regional influence and curb India’s sway,” he said.

The former diplomat said to turn this opportunity into a “long-term partnership,” Pakistan and Bangladesh must enhance engagement at the ministerial level to translate it into economic benefits.

“Many Pakistanis initially invested in Bangladesh’s textile and other sectors, but hostile policies of the Awami League hindered success,” Alam noted.

Amin believed there is ample opportunity for Islamabad to increase trade with Dhaka.

“We have a good market there, for example motorcycles, bikes and others, which were dominated by Indians earlier,” he said. “Now, Pakistan has an opportunity to fill that vacuum.”

PROCEEDING CAUTIOUSLY

But Shahid Kiani, a former Pakistani ambassador who served in the country’s mission in Dhaka, urged Islamabad to proceed cautiously, warning that Hasina’s Awami League party still holds influence in Bangladesh which shares a border with India on three sides.

“Emotions alone cannot dictate foreign policy, improved people-to-people contacts through business, student, and youth exchanges, can strengthen Pakistan–Bangladesh relations,” Kiani said.

Reconciliation has its obstacles, as calls for Pakistan to apologize for the alleged 1971 killings of Bangladeshi civilians remain popular in Bangladesh. Pakistan’s military denies it carried out any such killings.

On Sunday, Bangladesh’s Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain told reporters a after meeting his Pakistani counterpart Dar that all three unresolved issues had been raised, and Pakistan had presented its position. The three issues for Dhaka concern an official apology for the killings in the 1971 war of Bangladesh’s independence, the return of due assets, and the repatriation of stranded Pakistanis.

“Pakistan is an important neighbor of ours in South Asia. Our relationship with Pakistan is historical and diverse,” Hossain said. “In this context, at today’s meeting, we expressed a firm determination to advance our existing ties.”

During Dar’s visit, Bangladeshi media reported that enhanced ties with Pakistan need not be seen as antagonistic to India, rather they can serve as a “pragmatic” regional balancing tool.

Kiani said the previous Bangladeshi government of Hasina had suspended ties with Pakistan for too long and Pakistan has received this opportunity not because of India, but due to the historical connections and potential between both countries “despite unfortunate happenings of 1971.”

“Pakistan should capitalize on this chance by enhancing people-to-people, business-to-business, and government-to-government contacts to ensure the engagement is deep and lasting, not a one-time event,” he added.

But whether there will be significant cooperation between the former foes is not likely to be decided by the current government, Shomsher Mobin Chowdhury, Bangladesh’s former foreign secretary, told Arab News, as Yunus’s administration is expected to hold general elections in February 2026 and remains cautious in its steps.

“We know that interim government tenures are always short lived. How long will this one last — we do not know. So, Pakistan is showing its eagerness to establish its relations with Bangladesh … The signal is coming from Pakistan, and we are being typically receptive,” Chowdhury said.

“Pakistan is trying to send a political message … It is up to us to decide how we react to it in the midterm and long term. And it is for the next political government to decide what to do with it.”

Burhanul Islam, another former Pakistani diplomat, urged Islamabad to win Dhaka’s trust by respecting its people, culture and aspirations, noting that India’s ties with Bangladesh may not improve “soon.”

“I hope Islamabad and Dhaka will be able to resolve the issues of the past if they sit with an open mind, and with a positive approach to have long-term, sustainable friendly relations,” Islam said, adding that once a common text of apology is agreed upon, the question of compensation would become irrelevant.

“Both countries have to solve these issues of the past. Without it, moving ahead will face a lot of issues and hurdles.”

The only airport in Larkana, the district home to the Bhutto family, is at Mohenjo-daro, about 30 minutes south of Larkana city, and about an hour south of Garhi Khuda Buksh, where both former prime ministers Bhutto – Zulfikar and Benazir – are buried. Standing in the ruins of Mohenjo-daro, it is impossible to escape a sense of history, and marvel at the length of the history of human civilization in our part of the world.

It is also impossible – as a resident of Karachi – to not look at the drains that run alongside literally every single street in that ancient city and not feel a spurt of homicidal rage at the Bhuttos and the party they lead, the Pakistan Peoples Party, which rules over Sindh and its capital city of Karachi. Around the time the Great Pyramid of Giza was being constructed, and 2,000 years before the founding of the Roman Republic, there existed a city in Sindh that had drains that have lasted thousands of years after the city itself perished, all while the current capital of Sindh drowns after the faintest of rain spells.

Karachi, the financial capital of Pakistan, still its largest city, and its single largest concentration of middle class economic opportunity, is one of the most dysfunctional large cities in the world. There are many historical political reasons why Punjab’s politicians dote over Lahore, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s politicians have finally gotten around to building up Peshawar, but Karachi languishes in neglect so willful as to border on malicious.

We are a financial publication, so we will largely stay out of the political commentary of it all. And we will also not engage in the canned blather of “the resilience of Karachi” nonsense. No, this is the unhappy tale of the sad fact that Karachi is being strangled and struggling to breathe.

That struggle is reflected in the economic map of the city, where the rich, middle-class and poor all pay in one form or another to deal with Karachi’s dysfunction. The rich pay in money, the middle-class pay in time, and the poor pay with their health.

Five years ago, prompted by the same monsoon-driven madness witnessed on Karachi’s roads this year, we wrote about how the country needs its largest city to help lead its economic growth story, and talked about the role the government could play in helping make that a reality. We have since abandoned such naïve hopes about anything positive ever coming from the government.

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Updated On: Mon, 25 Aug 2025

20:15:11 PKT

TOKYO (Dunya News) – Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari strongly condemned a social media campaign targeting the Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’ official visit to Japan, calling it an attack on Pak-Japan diplomatic ties.

Reacting to a list circulating on social media allegedly naming members of the delegation visiting Japan, Azma dismissed it as a “pack of lies.”

She clarified that the individuals mentioned in the viral list were not part of the official delegation.

“The disgraceful campaign against the first-ever visit to Japan by a chief minister after 25 years reflects the extreme of anti-national behaviour. The list being shared online is completely baseless,” she said.

Maryam Nawaz attends World Expo 2025 in Japan, visits to Pakistan Pavilion

She added that all non-government members of the delegation paid for their travel expenses from their own pockets, while only official members were funded by the government.

“The start of a new era in Pakistan-Japan relations has clearly disturbed those who thrive on falsehoods,” she added.

According to Azma, some elements are disturbed due to CM’s successful Japan visit.

“By the grace of Almighty, Maryam Nawaz will continue to work for the progress of the people of Punjab,” she concluded.

Pakistan inherited the legacy of British Forestry institutional and legal framework. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) holds 40% of the country’s forest share, making it the richest province in this respect.

Within K-P, 14.1% of the total land area is covered with forests. The northern, north-western, and eastern parts of K-P are steep and mountainous, making them highly vulnerable to erosion and landslides.

Yet, these forests provide freshwater to major rivers running from north to south of the country. They also offer habitat for biodiversity, promote tourism, preserve natural beauty, and stabilise climate impacts on humans and other species.

Forests act as the lungs of Pakistan by absorbing carbon dioxide and supplying oxygen through carbon sequestration. They balance the environment in both time and space. Beyond these services, they provide food, shelter, fruit, and livelihoods. Forestry plays many roles in stabilising nature, but flood and erosion control is one of the most vital.

Forests and their ecosystems stabilise soil and protect it from erosion. The K-P forest department, working with local communities, forest landowners, and other stakeholders, carries out plantation drives twice a year during spring and monsoon seasons.

Major programmes include the Tarbela watershed plantation, social and farm forestry, Kalam integrated forestry, and the Billion and Ten Billion Tree plantation drives. Recently, the Green Pakistan Programme was also launched.

Hundreds of thousands of acres have been planted and protected through natural regeneration. Some of these projects received technical and financial support from the World Bank, WFP, GIZ, KFW, USAID, FAO, Dutch agencies, and UN organisations, while others were locally supported.

The Billion Tree programme was entirely funded by K-P, while the Ten Billion and Green Pakistan initiatives were financed jointly by the provinces and the federation.

Pakistan gained significant recognition for these pioneering projects, particularly the Billion and Ten Billion Tree programmes. They helped the country achieve the Bonn Challenge; restoring 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020 and targeting 350 million hectares by 2030. These efforts brought international goodwill and respect for Pakistan’s commitment to forestry.

Despite these achievements, the recent floods in K-P sparked criticism, with some blaming deforestation for the devastation. Most critics, however, are either non-professionals or using the argument for point-scoring.

Monsoon rains have been part of the region’s history for centuries, and the north-eastern parts of K-P regularly receive heavy showers. Flood disasters are not unique to Pakistan, India, China, and other regional countries also face similar challenges.

Forests do reduce the intensity of rainfall by intercepting drops, but steep terrain, surface runoff, and soil saturation often result in flash floods regardless. Trees are living entities with life cycles, and their timber supports many needs at an economically viable age.

Exploitation beyond carrying capacity poses risks, but the forest department is already regulating usage under forestry laws. Importantly, Pakistan also achieved its first carbon credits in the forestry sector for mangrove restoration in Sindh.

If deforestation alone were responsible for floods, then how do we explain Karachi’s crisis? With less than two days of rain, life in the city is paralysed, schools close, offices shut, and people face severe losses. Karachi is flat and barely above sea level, yet devastation is immense.

In contrast, K-P has endured downpours for nearly two weeks. This contrast highlights the real culprits: unplanned infrastructure and obstruction of natural waterways.

Blaming forests or climate change alone oversimplifies the issue. Climate change is indeed a pressing factor, but it is often discussed superficially.

A look back at the Ice Age reveals that CO2 once fell below 190 ppm, with the lowest levels at 182 ppm. Below 150 ppm, most terrestrial plants could not survive. This shows that while global warming beyond tolerable limits is dangerous, some degree of warming is essential for life on Earth. Human responsibility for pushing warming beyond safe thresholds cannot be ignored.

Most natural forests in K-P belong to local communities but are managed by the forest department. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports that only 7% of forests are government-owned, while 93% belong to people and communities.

Legal forest categories in K-P include reserved forests, which are government-owned, and protected or Guzara forests, which belong to local people but are managed by the department. Community and private forests also exist.

In the early 1970s, the K-P forest department-initiated tree plantations and soil conservation on private grazing lands in the Tarbela watershed. Agreements with landowners allowed planting of trees and soil conservation to reduce erosion and prolong Tarbela reservoir’s life.

Accusing the forest department alone for deforestation is therefore unjustified, since most forests belong to communities. Still, under law, the department must manage them to protect ecosystems. Property rights, community ownership, and open access make management highly challenging.

Another obstacle is the sheer scale of forest areas, which are open and boundary-less, unlike urban banks that are heavily guarded yet still robbed. Expecting forest staff to control vast, open lands without strong governance structures is unrealistic.

Thus, the issue goes deeper than forestry staff or tree cover. It is about poverty, community rights, and governance. Policymakers must recognise these ground realities.

Strengthening forest protection requires supporting local communities, reducing poverty-driven dependence on forests, and improving management practices. Only then can K-P’s forests be safeguarded while also minimising flood risks.

THE WRITER HOLDS A PHD IN FORESTRY AND IS A CLIMATE CHANGE, FORESTRY, AND ENVIRONMENT EXPERT

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa CM advisor finance Muzzammil Aslam said on Sunday the provincial government would demand changes in the formula of horizontal resources distribution within the federating units at the NFC forum.

He said 82 percent of resources were distributed among the provinces on the basis of population and 10.6pc on of backwardness. The KPK government would demand a decrease in population, prosperity and forestation as criteria for distribution of resources under National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, he said.

“Under the vertical formula, the provinces got 57.5 percent shares and the remaining went to federal government”, he said. The KPK would demand changes in the criteria of horizontal distribution of resources, with the provinces where major chunk of 82 percent was distributed on the basis of population, he said.

“We will demand population and backwardness should be disincentives for resource distribution among the provinces”, the KP minister said.

Muzammil Aslam was addressing the first-ever two-day Prosper Pakistan conference organised by FPCCI Regional Office Peshawar in collaboration with KP’s Board of Investment and Trade as well as other partners at Nathia Gali.

The Prosper Pakistan team, led by Hiba Fawad and Aun Ali Syed, organised the event. Representatives of chambers across the country attended the conference.

The federal government has constituted the NFC. Its maiden session is scheduled to meet next week to kick-start deliberations for striking a consensus on NFC Award.

He said it was not yet known whether the NFC Award would be a continuation of 7th NFC Award, or a new debate would start on resource distribution under 11th NFC Award.

He said there were 12 ongoing hydropower projects in the province to generate 1000MW. The electricity could be provided at 8 cents per unit. The government has increased wheeling charges up to Rs27 per unit to block cheaper electricity from his province, he said.

He said IRSA distributed 110MAF of water among provinces. It was agreed four canals would be constructed, but the Left Bank Canal could not be constructed, he told.

The KP CM advisor quoted Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal as saying federal government was heading towards economic collapse in a five-year period because the national kitty was empty and federal development budget was less than Punjab and Sindh.

He lamented National Highway Authority (NHA) was used to undertake road development projects in Punjab and Sindh, but ignored KPK and Balochistan. “The imbalance in development approach has aggravated the situation in the smaller provinces”, he said.

He criticised the federal government for claiming deforestation in the province, saying KP government increased its budget, as 45pc forests of Pakistan exist in the province. He said provincial government has provided a compensation package to the families of deceased died in recent flash floods in the province.

On this occasion, Tajikistan’s Ambassador in Pakistan said CASA-1000 project for provision of cheap electricity would be completed by 2026. “Bilateral trade continues, and 250 to 400 trucks are transporting goods from each side” he informed.

He asked for enhanced cooperation in the banking sector to promote bilateral trade. He disclosed there was one unit in Tajikistan exporting $120 million worth of cotton. In Pakistan, it was shown only $50 million, he said.

Business leader Anjum Nisar highlighted the “blunders” committed by all regimes. State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) were causing losses of Rs850 billion or $3billion on annual basis, he said.

The country, he said, struck Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) without undertaking any spadework, while the IPPs destroyed economy to unimaginable levels.

He said flight of capital to the tune of $12 billion occurred in the Gulf and UAE, while investment touched its lowest ebb within the country. The corporate sector, he said, was paying 61pc Income Tax instead of the perception the sector rate stood at 29pc.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has submitted an application to the City Police Officer (CPO) for the registration of a case against Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and others.

Advocate Tabish Farooq sent the request to the CPO office via courier service. The application highlighted the lack of facilities provided to PTI founder during his imprisonment.

The lawyer has requested the registration of a case against eight individuals, including CM Maryam Nawaz and the Superintendent of Jail. The application also names ASP Zainab, SHO Aizaz, and others as respondents.

The request states that Imran Khan is being denied the rights of a prisoner in jail on the instructions of the Chief Minister. It claims there is no light in Imran Khan’s cell, and his family is not allowed to meet him. All these actions against the PTI founder are allegedly being carried out on Maryam Nawaz’s directives.

The application further argued that Adiala Jail falls within Punjab’s jurisdiction, and Maryam Nawaz has previously issued threats, stating that the PTI founder is a “fitna” (troublemaker) who will be being dealt with.

It alleged that ASP Zainab, SHO Aizaz Azeem Raja, and others, in collusion, harassed Imran Khan’s family. The denial of meetings with his sisters has also violated High Court orders, it added.