ISLAMABAD: Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri has said that a two-day Peace conference on Afghanistan is being held in Islamabad on Saturday (tomorrow).
Responding to a host of questions during his weekly news briefing in Islamabad, he said the delegations from Afghanistan will start arriving in Pakistan on Friday.
The spokesperson said peace in Afghanistan is in Pakistan s interest as any security situation in the neighboring country has direct impact on our own security.
He said spoilers should not be allowed to exploit any security vacuum in Afghanistan.
Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry said that Pakistan has been hosting over three million Afghan refugees for decades and now it is not possible to accept more refugees.
He said regional economic activity and connectivity are vital for peace and prosperity of the region, which is directly linked with tranquility in Afghanistan.
Replying to a question, he said Pakistan wants to reopen Chaman-Spin Boldak border crossing with Afghanistan to facilitate cross border movement of the people.
ISLAMABAD: Chaired by Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Muhammad Amjad Khan Niazi, the Command and Staff Conference of Pakistan Navy was held at Naval Headquarters, Islamabad.
Matters related to geo strategic milieu, national security, operational preparedness, training and welfare of troops were reviewed.
The Naval Chief was also given briefings on various ongoing and future developmental projects of Pakistan Navy.
The forum reviewed evolving maritime security situation after US withdrawal from Afghanistan and reaffirmed solidarity with the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJ&K) for the rightful struggle of self-determination.
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Religious Affairs Dr. Noor-ul-Haq Qadri has said that complete religious freedom as per constitution of Pakistan being enjoyed by the minorities in the country.
Addressing Paigham-e-Pakistan ceremony in Islamabad, the minister said minorities in Pakistan have a historical connection to this land and are the valuable citizens of this country.
Noor-ul-Haq Qadri said that Paigham-e-Pakistan document has been prepared after an extensive consultative process and hard work and it should be implemented with latter and spirit.
There is an exemplary interfaith harmony and sectarian unity in Pakistan due to prudent steps taken by the government taking all religious scholars and stakeholders on board, he added.
The Minister Religious Affairs said that elements who hurt the feelings of any religious class are enemies of Pakistan and Islam as well.
ISLAMABAD: King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) medical team has arrived in Islamabad to start coordination meetings with Pakistani doctors for open heart surgeries of needy people.
During a coordination meeting it was announced that the team would work for the holding voluntary medical campaign for open heart surgeries and cardiac catheterization for children in Pakistan.
The Saudi medical team during its visit would meet Pakistani doctors to exchange ideas and coordinate for the implementation of the campaign and will also visit different Cardiac institutions, they said.
The campaign comes within the framework Kingdom of Saudi Arabia relief projects, represented by the KSReIief to alleviate the suffering of the Pakistani people during the current humanitarian crisis.
ISLAMABAD: “The Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood and his entire team deserve huge congratulations for announcing the single largest increase in the federal education development budget in over a decade. However, with merely 10 per cent of the development budget earmarked for school education, there is an immediate need to rationalize this division of funds.”
This statement was made by Ms. Areebah Shahid, Executive Director, Pakistan Youth Change Advocates (PYCA) in light of the recently announced education budget.
The federal government allocated a total of Rs. 140 billion for federal education for the fiscal year 2021-22, compared to the previous year’s Rs. 118 billion. A 44 per cent increase was also observed within the education development budget taking it to Rs. 48 billion during FY 2021-22 compared to the Rs. 34 billion allocated for education development initiatives during the last two fiscal years. While 10 per cent of the development funds will be spent on school education, 90 per cent have been earmarked for higher education.
“Although, after the 18th Amendment the primary responsibility of the federal government is higher education, however the schools in the federal area also come under its purview,” pointed out Hisham Khan, Program Coordinator at PYCA.
“An estimated 30,000 children remain out-of-school in the federal capital, making the current allocation of funds for school education inadequate to bring about any significant improvements in terms of greater enrolment, retention and improved learning among the most marginalized children.”
The need to prioritize school education has become all the more pronounced in the aftermath of the COVID-19 emergency.
Recent data emerging from Pakistan points at a potentially large exodus of children, especially girls from schools owing to the financial strain experienced at the household level.
At the same time, prolonged school closures have also contributed to huge learning losses among the most marginalize learners and any strategy to mitigate this situation will require additional and sustained funding over the next few years.
With these sobering realities threatening the educational future of thousands of the most marginalized children, the Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mehmood must empathetically review the situation and ensure that the educational needs of the most vulnerable young learners in the federal capital are not left unattended.
ISLAMABAD: A bid to smuggle 30 kilogrammes of heroin to the United Kingdom was foiled at Islamabad International Airport, customs officials said Monday.
The heroin, according to the customs officials, was being smuggled in a clothes’ consignment. The contraband was identified at the airport’s scanner.
The suspects were travelling to the UK via a foreign flight, the customs officials, said without naming which airline they were about to board.
Two people involved in the act have been arrested, they added.
ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi will inaugurate a two-day high level international conference at the National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad, on the rise of Hindutva on July 06.
The Department of International Relations of National Defence University is organizing the conference under the title of “Institutionalization of Hindutva in India: A Regional Security Perspective” on July 06 & 07, 2021.
The mega academic huddle will be attended by eminent experts of international relations and scholars from leading universities across the globe and they will present their research papers on the topic.
Dr Khurram Iqbal, Head of Department of International Relations, who is also the chief organizer of the conference, said in a statement that the major focus of the conference is to examine global rise of far-right extremism, its manifestations in South Asia and how this new variant of fundamentalism termed “Hindutva” impacts regional security.
The West tends to examine “Islamic extremism” with a magnifying glass, while turning a blind eye to Hindutva and this is a regional security imperative to deliberate the rise of Saffron Extremism in India, he added.
Renowned scholars, including Prof Arie Kruglanski from University of Maryland-US, Prof. Xie Chao from Tsinghua University-China, Prof. Mezan Bin Aslam from Naif Arab University for Security Studies, Omid Babelian from University of Tehran, Prof. Lubna Abid Ali from National Defence University, Michel Kugelman from Woodrow Wilson Centre-US, Prof. Qiu Yonghui from Sichuan University-China, and many prominent South Asian experts will give presentation on the emerging regional security issue.
ISLAMABAD: An instance of strange theft has been reported at the Embassy of Italy, Islamabad as around 1,000 stickers of Schengen visas have been reported missing, sources informed The News Today.
The Foreign Ministry has written a letter in this regard to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Interior Ministry.
The Foreign Ministry informed the Interior Ministry about the number of the stolen visa stickers. It revealed that 1,000 visa stickers had gone missing from the locker of the Italian Embassy.
The serial numbers of 750 stolen stickers of Schengen visas start from 041913251 to 041914000 and the serial numbers of 250 stolen stickers start from 041915751 to 041916000.
Foreign Ministry said that the Italian Embassy in Islamabad is also investigating the matter itself.
It directed the Interior Ministry to check visas bearing the afore-mentioned numbers at all entry and exit points of Pakistani borders.
A Schengen visa is a short-stay visa that allows a person to travel to any members of the Schengen Area, per stay up to 90 days for tourism or business purposes.
The Schengen visa is the most common visa for Europe. It also enables its holder to enter, freely travel within, and leave the Schengen zone from any of the Schengen member countries.
There are no border controls within the Schengen Zone.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), has signed strategic contracts with Huawei Technologies Pakistan for the transformation of its IP Edge and Optical Transport Network (OTN).
Nadeem Khan, Acting CEO & Group CFO, PTCL & Ufone and Mark Meng, CEO, Huawei Technologies Pakistan, signed the contract during a ceremony held at PTCL HQ, Islamabad. Jafar Khalid, GCTIO (Development), PTCL & Ufone, Ahmed Bilal Masud, Deputy CEO, Huawei Technologies Pakistan, also attended the ceremony, along with senior management from both organizations.
Aimed to meet the exponential growth in traffic, this transformation involves modernization of existing inter-city and long-haul network, with a state-of-the-art OTN network.
Combined with the existing Optical Transport Network backbone, PTCL long-haul capacity will become Multiple Terabits per seconds, capable of delivering better services across the country.
Furthermore, PTCL, in-line with its vision to revolutionize widespread availability of IP connectivity in Pakistan, will deploy a Unified IP Edge network, spreading across more than 130 sites, for providing next generation IP services.
This up-gradation along with PTCL’s recently modernized Multi-Service Core & Internet Gateway network, will enable provisioning of high-speed & reliable ICT services across Corporate, Carrier & Consumers segments, supporting future customer-end demands of 100-400 Gigabit per second scalability.
Speaking on the occasion, Nadeem Khan, Acting CEO & Group CFO, PTCL & Ufone, said, “PTCL continues to transform its network with scalable architecture and futuristic technologies, to meet growing bandwidth demand from our subscribers, corporate and carrier customers. We are glad to partner with Huawei on this strategic initiative that will go a long way in enabling the widespread availability of quality ICT Services across Pakistan.”
On the occasion, Mark Meng, CEO, Huawei Technologies Pakistan, said, “We greatly value our long-term relationship with PTCL Group, and continue to support its vision for technological evolution. PTCL is playing a leading role in enhancing customer experience through innovation, and definitely this network transformation will empower and exceed customer expectations in times to come.”
Being the national flagship carrier, PTCL is fully committed to the vision of a Digital Pakistan, by further strengthening its commitment for continual network infrastructure evolution and resolve for consistent improvement of our valued customer experience.
ISLAMABAD: Protests erupted in Islamabad after the death of a suspect in the custody of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD).
The relatives and acquaintances of the deceased staged a sit-in on IJP Road with the body of the suspect, demanding an inquiry into his death and “justice”.
The sit-in caused a disruption in the flow of traffic. It was called off later in the evening after talks were held with Additional Deputy Commissioner General Islamabad Rana Waqas, who promised a judicial inquiry within three months.
The suspect had been arrested a few days ago on suspicion of involvement in the deaths of two policemen in the G-13 neighborhood of the capital.
The suspect’s mother told the media person that her son had surrendered to the police willingly for questioning and lamented that he had met such a fate. “If he was involved in any way, why do this to him? Why not forward the matter to a judge,” she asked.
She had vowed to continue her protest till she gets answers.
Other protesters, some of whom were neighbours of the suspect, accused the police of torturing and killing him.
“There are signs of torture on the body,” they said, adding that they had been handed over the body after being told he had “died of fever”.
They demanded that the prime minister and senior government officials take notice of the matter.
ADCG Waqas, speaking to the protesters camp, termed the incident “unfortunate” and promised he would get to the bottom of the matter.
Later, the police said a case has been registered against the police personnel involved in the incident — CTD Station House Officer Fayyaz Ranjha and Inquiry Officer Shams Akbar — both of whom have been arrested.
According to a statement by the police, the suspect died due to inadequate medical treatment amid extreme heat and a fever.
