Pakistan Navy cadets win multinational sailing championship in Sri Lanka
Pakistan Navy cadets win multinational sailing championship in Sri Lanka/node/2568760/pakistan
Pakistan Navy cadets win multinational sailing championship in Sri Lanka
In this handout photograph, taken and released by Director General Public Relations Pakistan Navy on August 25, 2024, cadets from the Pakistan Naval Academy compete at the International Inter-Navies Sailing Championship in Sri Lanka. (Photo courtesy: Pakistan Navy)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Navy cadets have a multinational sailing championship held at Naval & Maritime Academy Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, the navy’s media wing said on Sunday.
The championship, Commandant Cup Sailing Regatta, saw participation from Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Chinese and Indian navies, according to the Directorate General Public Relations (DGPR) of Pakistan Navy.
The competition was held on internationally recognized classes of boats, including Laser Radial and Enterprise categories.
“Pakistan Naval Academy won the competition with Silver medal in Laser Radial and Gold medal in Enterprise category,” the DGPR said in a statement.
“The victorious team of Pakistan Naval Academy comprised Officer Cadets Syed Sakhir Ali Shah, Saad Bin Khalid and Muhammad Abdullah Akram.”
Sri Lankan Naval Chief Vice Admiral Priyantha Perera gave away medals and trophy to the winning team, according to the statement.
“The competition provided competitive environment for young cadets to polish the skills of sailing in general and competing on international arena in particular,” the DGPR added.
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani government has criticized former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party for announcing a protest in Islamabad on October 15, the first of a two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Pakistan is hosting the SCO Council of Heads of Government summit in Islamabad on Oct. 15-16 under its rotating chairmanship of the organization, with the participants expected to discuss issues related to trade, economic cooperation, security, and regional stability.
Khan’s PTI party on Friday announced a protest on the D-Chowk square in the federal capital, saying it would proceed with the plan if the government failed to grant the ex-premier access to doctors and lawyers. The development followed restrictions imposed by the Punjab provincial administration on meetings with inmates at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where the ex-premier is imprisoned on multiple charges, in view of a threat alert issued by authorities in the lead-up to the summit.
In his televised comments, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif criticized the PTI for announcing the protest at a time when leaders of more than a dozen countries are expected to visit the South Asian country, accusing the party of trying to “destabilize” Pakistan.
“They want to take Pakistan hostage again, but the state will crush their motives with full force,” the defense minister said. “We won’t let Pakistan become a hostage of one man or his accomplices.”
Asif accused the PTI of being part of “international conspiracies,” saying the protest was being announced in retaliation to Pakistan’s “moral and diplomatic victory” in the form of the SCO summit, improving economic indicators and approval of a $7 bailout by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, a former federal minister and Khan aide, denied the allegations, saying his party would never want to detriment any foreign visit, however, the government was trying a create a “false case of normality.”
“A former prime minister and leader of the largest party is illegally in prison (according to the UN) along with his wife, and to top it off has been banned to meet his legal team, doctor or family, which is against all human right conventions and our constitution,” Bukhari told Arab News on Saturday.
He said issues at home needed to be resolved before “faking business as usual.”
“Our only demand is let a doctor or sister meet Imran Khan. That’s all,” he said. “It’s completely illegal and unacceptable [not to let doctors and relatives meet he ex-PM]. And the world should know it.”
KARACHI: Police in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Friday registered a case against Dr. Mahrang Baloch, a prominent Baloch rights activist, accusing her of facilitating operations of Baloch separatist organizations in the country.
The development came days after the killing of three people, including two Chinese nationals, and injuries to 10 others in a roadside bomb attack near the Karachi airport. The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) separatist group claimed responsibility for the attack on Oct. 6.
A fierce critic of Pakistan’s powerful military, Baloch has been vocal about alleged enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in Balochistan, a region struggling with a decades-long separatist insurgency. Baloch, recognized by the Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 emerging leaders for her peaceful advocacy of Baloch rights, was also barred this week from flying to the US to receive the honor.
On Friday, a citizen named Asad Ali filed the case against Baloch at the Quaidabad police station in Karachi under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Pakistan Penal Code, accusing Baloch and her group, the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), of blocking highways, leveling “false accusations” against security agencies, inciting educated Baloch youth to violence, obstructing movement of non-Baloch individuals, and targeting laborers arriving in Balochistan.
“To continue this, Mahrang Baloch has been brought to the forefront, who brings terrorists to the cities in the form of groups during her rallies,” read the police report seen by Arab News.
“These terrorists conduct reconnaissance on sensitive locations and target foreign, Chinese nationals, orchestrating attacks to undermine peace and stability of our homeland.”
Baloch and her BYC group last December led hundreds of women in a long march to the Pakistani capital of Islamabad to demand justice for their “disappeared” husbands, sons, and brothers. Earlier this year, she organized the ‘Baloch Raaji Muchi,’ or Baloch National Gathering, in the strategic port city of Gwadar to unite the Baloch people against alleged rights abuses in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.
At a press conference in August, Pakistani military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry had said the purpose of the BYC and the Baloch Raaji Muchi it had convened in July in Gwadar, where China is building a deep seaport, was to make development projects and investments “controversial” and incite people against the Pakistan army and other security forces involved in operations against insurgency and crime in Balochistan.
Pakistan’s Balochistan province, which shares porous borders with Afghanistan and Iran, has been the scene of a low-level insurgency for nearly two decades. Ethnic Baloch militants often target police, security forces, foreigners and workers from other provinces over what they call as the exploitation of the mineral-rich region’s resources. The Pakistani state denies the allegations.
Late on Thursday, unidentified gunmen killed 20 miners and injured another seven in Balochistan’s Duki district in the latest attack to hit the volatile region, according to police. The laborers, who hailed from various Pashtun-dominated areas of Balochistan and the neighboring Afghanistan, came under attack while they were asleep in their accommodation outside a private coal mining site.
In August, the BLA, the most prominent of separatist groups, carried out multiple attacks in Balochistan that killed more than 50 people, while authorities responded by killing 21 insurgents in the province. Those killed included 23 passengers, mostly from the eastern Punjab province, who were fatally shot after being taken from buses, vehicles and trucks in the Musakhail district.
Pakistan women’s captain Sana back home after father’s death
All-rounder Sana, the youngest captain at World Cup at 22, top-scored with 30 and took two wickets in opening win over Sri Lanka
Pakistan went down to arch-rivals India in their second group match but remain in the hunt to make the final-four from their group
Updated 12 October 2024
AFP
DUBAI: Pakistan captain Fatima Sana flew back home after the death of her father ahead of the team’s group clash against Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup on Friday.
Wicketkeeper Muneeba Ali stood in to lead the team in their Group A match as they sought a win to stay in line for a berth in the semifinals.
“It’s a sad news, but these things are not under our control,” stand-in-skipper Ali said at the toss in Dubai. “We will miss her.”
Bowling all-rounder Sana, the youngest captain at the World Cup at 22, top-scored with 30 and took two wickets in their opening win over Sri Lanka.
Pakistan went down to arch-rivals India in their second group match but remain in the hunt to make the final-four from their group, where the top two teams will advance.
ISLAMABAD: Namira Salim, who became the first Pakistani woman astronaut to travel into space last year, on Saturday expressed regret for not receiving any official recognition for the journey, saying it was a “larger than life accomplishment” and didn’t come without a “serious risk” to her life.
Salim traveled into space in October last year aboard Virgin Galactic’s fifth successful flight, according to the US company. The adventurer, who previously traveled to both North and South poles and has also parachuted over Mount Everest, was among the first customers to buy a ticket with billionaire Richard Branson’s space company after it was founded almost two decades ago.
Salim said she invested her own resources in her spaceflight ticket, which cost her $200,000 in 2006. For her space mission, she said she had traveled to the US and Europe from 2006 to 2023 and attended all milestone events in the process during which they built a fleet of motherships and spaceships.
While Pakistani sports and entertainment industry figures have been conferred with civilian awards at special investiture ceremonies in recent years, no ceremony has been organized to highlight Salim’s challenging, high-risk and self-funded space flight, in which she passionately invested 18 years of her time and resources.
“I must confess with a very heavy heart that my previous civil award nomination in early 2023 before my space flight for services renderred to Pakistan’s space sector and SUPARCO [Pakistan’s Space & Upper Atmosphere Research Commission] was sadly blocked by the concerned individual at the Ministry of Science and Technology despite the highest recommendations and support,” she said in a statement.
“Therefore, my civil award nomination was not approved due to this bureaucratic hurdle. My civil award application was obviously merit based.”
Salim said Pakistan’s space sector needed to be more highlighted and promoted.
She appreciated that on the recommendation of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, President Asif Ali Zardari had conferred her with the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz civilian award in 2011 for her polar expeditions as first Pakistani at the North Pole in 2007 and at the South Pole in 2008 and for her skydive over Mount Everest during the historic First Everest Skydive 2008.
Salim said she merited official recognition for being the first Pakistani astronaut and for her tireless efforts in glorifying the name of Pakistan globally.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif inspected late on Friday arrangements in Islamabad for an upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on October 15-16, Pakistani state media reported.
The SCO is an important Eurasian political, economic and security alliance founded in 2001 by China, Russia and several Central Asian nations. Over the years, it expanded to include countries like India and Pakistan, making it a significant regional bloc.
Pakistan is hosting the SCO Council of Heads of Government summit in Islamabad under its rotating chairmanship of the organization, with the participants expected to discuss issues related to trade, economic cooperation, security, and regional stability.
Sharif, accompanied by Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and other officials, visited various areas of the Pakistani capital Friday night, where he was briefed on preparations for the two-day conference.
“All preparations for hosting the SCO meeting are complete,” Tarar, who described it as a “great honor” for Pakistan, was quoted as saying by the state-run Radio Pakistan broadcaster.
“Pakistan is looking forward to warmly welcome esteemed heads of government and dignitaries.”
The information minister said that law enforcement agencies were on high alert to ensure the security of the summit, adding that PM Sharif personally reviewed the arrangements to guarantee a hospitable reception.
Among other international leaders, Pakistan also extended invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, though the delegation from New Delhi will be spearheaded by External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Founded in 2001, the SCO is a major trans-regional organization spanning South and Central Asia, with China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan as its permanent members. The SCO member states collectively represent nearly half of the world’s population and a quarter of global economic output.
The organization’s agenda of promoting peace and stability, and seeking enhanced linkages in infrastructure, economic, trade and cultural spheres, is aligned with Pakistan’s own vision of enhancing economic connectivity as well as peace and stability in the region.
Since becoming an SCO member in 2017, Pakistan has consistently and constructively worked to strengthen good neighborly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation among SCO member states. Hosting of SCO summit in Islamabad also reflects the abiding commitment of Pakistan to the purposes and principles of the SCO charter and the values of the Shanghai spirit.