US calls for media safety following journalist’s killing in Pakistan’s northwest
US calls for media safety following journalist’s killing in Pakistan’s northwest/node/2552556/pakistan
US calls for media safety following journalist’s killing in Pakistan’s northwest
Vedant Patel, the US State Department’s principal deputy spokesperson, speaks during a briefing at the State Department in Washington, DC, on July 19, 2024. (Screengrab)
ISLAMABAD: The US State Department on Thursday emphasized the importance of journalist safety worldwide while commenting on the killing of a Pakistani reporter in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province by unidentified gunmen last week.
Malik Hassan Zaib, who was fatally shot by unknown people on a motorbike in KP’s Nowshera city, was the eighth journalist to be killed in Pakistan in the ongoing year.
His assassination was condemned by press freedom organizations that maintained it highlighted the increasing dangers faced by journalists in the South Asian state.
Asked about the development during the State Department media briefing, the principal deputy spokesperson, Vedant Patel, said it was vital for journalists to be able to carry out their responsibilities anywhere in the world.
“Journalists need to be protected and they need to be allowed to do their jobs, whether that be the United States, whether that be Pakistan, whether that be in the Gaza Strip,” he said. “That is something that we feel strongly, and it’s something that is deeply personal to the Secretary [Antony Blinken].”
“It’s obviously personal to us and this team having – spending most of our days engaging with you all,” he continued. “But simply put, journalists need to be protected and need to be able to do their jobs.”
The Pakistani correspondent’s death also prompted New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists to urge the Pakistani authorities to deal with the “horrifying wave of violence” against the media.
It also asked the government to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice.
“The continued impunity for those who attack journalists is creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in Pakistan, which prevents the practice of free and independent journalism,” it added.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson recently acknowledged that some “outstanding issues” between Islamabad and Dhaka were discussed this week amid reports of Bangladesh seeking an apology from Pakistan over alleged war crimes committed in 1971.
Bangladesh and Pakistan were two parts of the same country from 1947 till 1971 till the former seceded after a bloody war. Bangladesh says about three million people were killed and thousands of women were raped during the war by Pakistani soldiers, allegations that Islamabad rejects.
Pakistan and Bangladesh started their first Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) in 15 years in Dhaka on Thursday, signaling a thaw in relations long strained by historical grievances and regional alignments. Responding to a question about Dhaka seeking an apology from Pakistan for the alleged massacre in 1971 during the recent talks, Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said a “torrent of fake news or sensational news” was trying to undermine ties between the two nations.
“Some outstanding issues were indeed discussed during the consultations,” Khan said during the weekly press briefing on Friday.
“However, both sides stated their respective positions on them in an environment of mutual understanding and respect.”
He said the discussions were held in a “cordial and constructive” manner, saying that talks between the two sides being held after a gap of 15 years was a testimony to the existing goodwill and cordiality between Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The latest meetings between Pakistani and Bangladeshi officials come amid significant political shifts in Bangladesh following the ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid in a popular student uprising last year.
Hasina’s government was hostile toward Pakistan but closely allied with India, where she remains exiled. While her removal from office was followed by the cooling of relations between Dhaka and New Delhi, exchanges with Islamabad have started to grow.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar is scheduled to visit Bangladesh at the end of the month, the first such visit by a Pakistani foreign minister since 2012.
KARACHI: Pakistani artists have been receiving increasing international recognition, but many still grapple with limited opportunities and visibility at home, a participant at a major Gulf art fair said this week.
Her comments coincided with Art Dubai 2025, the Middle East’s leading contemporary art fair, where 10 Pakistani artists are exhibiting their work this year.
The event, running since 2007, draws galleries and collectors from across the globe and has become a vital platform for people with creative abilities in places like Pakistan.
“It’s wonderful that we as artists who have been invisible because of the greater struggles of [our] country are visible through this platform in the Gulf,” said Faiza Butt, a London-based Pakistani artist currently attending the fair, told Arab News over the phone.
Artist Faiza Butt poses against the backdrop of her artwork ‘The Male Figure’ during the Art Dubai 2025 preview at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai on April 17, 2025. (Photo courtesy: Handout/Grosvenor Gallery)
“It’s really a matter of pride that despite all the odds, Pakistani artists continue to appear, and work and make themselves visible, especially female artists.”
Butt maintained Pakistani artists are shaped by the country’s complex realities, adding that is what gives their work its depth.
“Our social and political struggles really feed the artists’ imagination,” she said. “Art doesn’t come from a happy place. So one of the reasons our artists are so strong is because our country has gone through a great deal of strife.”
She also credited the country’s mature art education institutions, such as the National College of Arts in Lahore and the Indus Valley School of Arts in Karachi, for nurturing generations of artists despite systemic challenges.
Artwork ‘The Male Figure’ by Pakistani artists Anwar Saeed and Faiza Butt on display by Grosvenor Gallery during the Art Dubai 2025 at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai. (Photo courtesy: Handout/Grosvenor Gallery)
Karachi-based visual artist Sana Arjumand, who is also exhibiting at the fair, echoed similar views.
“There is now more and more interest coming into Pakistani art because we are really making very good art,” she said.
“Because of so many different experiences here [in Pakistan], we have that informed kind of making of art. It’s more vibrant and alive. It stands out as well — that is why more and more interest is coming here.”
Arjumand, who studied painting at NCA, said her early work focused on self-reflection but has since evolved to include themes of Sufism, mysticism and human interconnectedness with nature.
Her new work, presented at the fair, explores the idea that human behavior mirrors elements in the natural world.
“It’s for everyone,” she said. “It has a storyline that anybody can relate to.”
A total of ten Pakistani artists, including one posthumously, are featured in the fair’s Contemporary Art section. Among them is the late Sadequain, whose pioneering calligraphy and figurative works helped define Pakistan’s post-Partition art movement and continue to influence generations of artists.
Sana Arjumand’s painting ‘The Perfect Mirror’ on display by Aicon Gallery at Booth E5 as they set up for the Art Dubai 2025 preview at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai on April 16, 2025. (Photo courtesy: Handout/Sana Arjumand Studio)
Also exhibiting are Rasheed Araeen, a Karachi-born conceptualist known internationally for his contributions to British minimalist and postcolonial art, and Imran Qureshi, whose fusion of classical Mughal miniature techniques with contemporary themes has earned him acclaim worldwide.
Other featured names include Anwar Saeed, celebrated for his explorations of identity and sexuality, and Shezad Dawood, a London-based multidisciplinary artist with Pakistani and Indian heritage.
Butt is being represented by Grosvenor Gallery in London, which is exhibiting her work alongside that of Anwar Saeed under a shared curatorial concept focused on representations of the male form.
“The female figure is represented enough in the arts,” said Butt. “Anwar and I both discuss the male form but with our own unique politics based on our unique ethnography. But we are both Pakistanis, and there are overlaps in our concerns.”
She will also deliver a talk on behalf of Saeed, reflecting on his practice and political engagement through art.
Despite global attention, Butt stressed that Pakistan lacks the institutional and financial infrastructure to support a thriving art scene.
“Art is a very priced project, and Pakistan cannot afford having art fairs or a very established art market,” she said. “Pakistani artists get absorbed by galleries from other countries.”
She described Art Dubai as a great opportunity for artists in her country.
“Dubai is a very stable financial hub of the Gulf region,” she continued. “It has welcomed a great deal of migration from India and Pakistan. You get a diverse audience. It’s a beautiful coming together, in a positive way, of ideas, culture and exchange of thought.”
Pakistan foreign minister due in Kabul as deportations rise
Pakistan has launched strict campaign to evict over 800,000 Afghan Citizen Card holders by end of April
Ishaq Dar will hold meetings with senior Afghan Taliban officials, including Prime Minister Hasan Akhund
Updated 42 min 25 sec ago
AFP
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign minister was due to visit Afghanistan on Saturday after his country expelled more than 85,000 Afghans, mostly children, in just over two weeks.
Islamabad has launched a strict campaign to evict by the end of April more than 800,000 Afghans who have had their residence permits canceled — including some who were born in Pakistan or lived there for decades.
Convoys of Afghan families have been heading to border towns each day fearing the “humiliation” of raids, arrests or being separated from family members.
Pakistan’s foreign office said its top diplomat Ishaq Dar will hold meetings with senior Afghan Taliban officials, including Prime Minister Hasan Akhund during a day-long visit.
“There will not be any sort of leniency and extension in the deadline,” Pakistan’s deputy interior minister Talal Chaudhry told a news conference on Friday.
“When you arrive without any documents, it only deepens the uncertainty of whether you’re involved in narcotics trafficking, supporting terrorism, or committing other crimes,” he added.
Chaudhry has previously accused Afghans of being “terrorists and criminals,” but analysts say it is a politically motivated strategy to put pressure on Afghanistan’s Taliban government over escalating security concerns.
He said on Friday that nearly 85,000 Afghans have crossed into Afghanistan since the start of April, the majority of them undocumented.
The United Nations’ refugee agency said on Friday more than half of them were children — entering a country where girls are banned from secondary school and university and women are barred from many sectors of work.
The United Nations says nearly three million Afghans have taken shelter in Pakistan after fleeing successive conflicts.
Pakistan was one of just three countries that recognized the Taliban’s first government in the 1990s and was accused of covertly supporting their insurgency against NATO forces.
But their relationship has soured as attacks in Pakistan’s border regions have soared.
Last year was the deadliest in Pakistan for a decade with Islamabad accusing Kabul of allowing militants to take refuge in Afghanistan, from where they plan attacks.
The Taliban government denies the charge.
In the first phase of deportations in 2023, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Afghans were forced across the border in the space of a few weeks.
In the second phase announced in March, the Pakistan government canceled the residence permits of more than 800,000 Afghans, warning those in Pakistan awaiting relocation to other countries to leave by the end of April.
More than 1.3 million who hold Proof of Registration cards issued by the UN refugee agency have been told to leave Islamabad and the neighboring city of Rawalpindi.
ISLAMABAD: United Arab Emirates Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan will arrive in Pakistan on a two-day official visit starting April 20 to strengthen bilateral cooperation, state media reported on Friday.
Pakistan and the UAE have deepened their economic partnership in recent years. The UAE is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner after China and the United States, and a major source of foreign investment, with over $10 billion invested in the last two decades.
“Deputy PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the UAE Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan will undertake a two-day official visit to Pakistan from Sunday,” Radio Pakistan said on Friday.
It added that the visit reflected the “deep-rooted” ties between the two countries and underscored their shared commitment to cooperation across all areas of mutual interest.
The UAE is home to over a million Pakistani expatriates — the second-largest overseas Pakistani community globally — and a major source of remittance inflows to Pakistan.
Policymakers in Islamabad view the UAE as an ideal export destination due to its geographic proximity, which lowers freight costs and facilitates smoother trade.
In recent months, the two countries have signed a series of agreements to boost economic ties.
In February, during the Abu Dhabi crown prince’s visit to Pakistan, the two sides signed accords in mining, railways, banking and infrastructure.
Last year in January, Pakistan and the UAE signed deals worth more than $3 billion covering railways, economic zones and infrastructure development.
KARACHI: Pakistan’s privatization board on Friday reviewed various options to sell off the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, a long-held property of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), as part of ongoing efforts to divest loss-making state assets under an International Monetary Fund-backed reform agenda.
The 19-story Roosevelt Hotel, located in midtown Manhattan, has been closed since 2020 and is owned by the Roosevelt Hotel Corporation, a subsidiary of PIA. Its fate has been under discussion for years amid attempts to generate funds from the government’s assets.
The Privatization Commission mentioned its deliberations in a statement, saying that it discussed various transaction options developed by its financial adviser — a consortium led by Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc. (JLL) — and finalized recommendations to be presented to the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCOP).
“Various transaction structure options developed by the Financial Adviser ... for privatization of Roosevelt Hotel Corporation (RHC), New York were discussed,” the statement read.
However, it did not divulge further details.
The Roosevelt Hotel is one of the assets included in the first phase of Pakistan’s privatization roadmap, which also features the sale of national flag carrier PIA and Zarai Taraqiati Bank (ZTBL). The government aims to complete these transactions within a year.
Pakistan is working to privatise several state-owned enterprises as part of structural reforms under a $7 billion loan program with the IMF. Many of these entities, including PIA, have long struggled with debt, mismanagement and operational inefficiencies.
The Roosevelt Hotel was earlier used to house asylum seekers under a temporary agreement with New York City but remains a financial burden on PIA, which is itself undergoing a separate privatization process. The government is seeking to sell a 51-100 percent stake in the airline and will invite expressions of interest next week.
