UN watchdog says Australia violated rights of asylum seekers from Pakistan, other nations

UN watchdog says Australia violated rights of asylum seekers from Pakistan, other nations
Refugee advocates hold signs as they protest against the detention of asylum seekers being held at Australian-run offshore detention centers located on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, and the South-Pacific island of Nauru, in central Sydney on August 31, 2017. (REUTERS/File)
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Updated 10 January 2025
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UN watchdog says Australia violated rights of asylum seekers from Pakistan, other nations

UN watchdog says Australia violated rights of asylum seekers from Pakistan, other nations
  • Under a hard-line policy, Australia sent thousands of migrants attempting to reach the country by boat to ‘offshore processing’ centers
  • The first case examined by the panel involved 24 unaccompanied minors from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar

GENEVA: Australia violated the rights of asylum seekers arbitrarily detained on the island of Nauru, a UN watchdog ruled Thursday, in a warning to other countries intent on outsourcing asylum processing.
The UN Human Rights Committee published decisions in two cases involving 25 refugees and asylum seekers who endured years of arbitrary detention in the island nation.
The panel of 18 independent experts found that in both cases Australia violated the rights of migrants, including minors who received insufficient water and health care.
“A state party cannot escape its human rights responsibility when outsourcing asylum processing to another state,” committee member Mahjoub El Haiba said in a statement.
The UN body called on Australia to provide adequate compensation to the migrants and to take steps to ensure similar violations do not recur.
The committee has no power to compel states to follow its rulings, but its decisions carry reputational weight.
Australia’s government said it was considering the committee’s views and would give a response “in due course.”
“It has been the Australian government’s consistent position that Australia does not exercise effective control over regional processing centers,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs.
“Transferees who are outside of Australia’s territory or its effective control do not engage Australia’s international obligations.”
Under a hard-line policy introduced in 2012, Australia sent thousands of migrants attempting to reach the country by boat to “offshore processing” centers.
They were held in two detention centers — one on Nauru and another, since shuttered, on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island.
The UN committee rejected Australia’s argument that rights abuses that occurred on Nauru did not fall within its jurisdiction.
It highlighted that Australia had arranged for the establishment of Nauru’s regional processing center and contributed to its operation and management.
El Haiba said Australia “had significant control and influence over the regional processing facility in Nauru.”
A number of European countries have been examining the possibility of similar arrangements to outsource their migration policies.
Thursday’s decisions “send a clear message to all states: Where there is power or effective control, there is responsibility,” El Haiba said.
“The outsourcing of operations does not absolve states of accountability. Offshore detention facilities are not human rights-free zones.”
The first case examined by the committee involved 24 unaccompanied minors from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
They were intercepted at sea by Australia and transferred in 2014 to Nauru’s overcrowded Regional Processing Center.
They were held there “with insufficient water supply and sanitation, high temperatures and humidity, as well as inadequate health care,” Thursday’s statement said.
“Almost all of these minors have suffered from deterioration of physical and mental well-being, including self-harm, depression, kidney problems, insomnia, headaches, memory problems and weight loss.”
Even though all but one of the minors were granted refugee status around September 2014, they remained detained in Nauru, the committee said.
It added that Australia had failed to justify why the minors could not have been transferred to centers on the mainland more suitable for vulnerable individuals.
The committee separately evaluated the case of an Iranian asylum seeker who arrived by boat on Christmas Island with several family members in August 2013 and was transferred seven months later to Nauru.
The woman was recognized as a refugee by Nauru authorities in 2017, but was not released.
In November 2018, she was transferred to Australia for medical reasons, but remained detained in various facilities there, the committee said.
It determined that Australia had failed to show that the woman’s prolonged and indefinite detention was justified.


Pakistan revises solar net-metering buyback rate to ease burden on grid consumers

Pakistan revises solar net-metering buyback rate to ease burden on grid consumers
Updated 13 March 2025
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Pakistan revises solar net-metering buyback rate to ease burden on grid consumers

Pakistan revises solar net-metering buyback rate to ease burden on grid consumers
  • Economic Coordination Committee allows power regulatory authority to revise electricity buyback rate periodically
  • Committee says decision taken due to “significant increase” in solar consumers, financial burden on grid consumers

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Thursday revised the buyback rate for solar net-metering electricity from Rs27 per unit to Rs10 per unit, saying the move was intended to ease the burden on grid consumers. 

The net-metering policy approved in 2017 allows homeowners and businesses to generate electricity using solar panels and export any excess to the national grid. In Pakistan, it is a billing system where consumers receive credits or monetary compensation for the surplus electricity they send to the grid. 
Pakistan’s energy ministry said in April 2024 that the subsidy burden due to the net-metering policy is being shared by the government, domestic and industrial electricity consumers for other affluent consumers who are capable of generating power from solar panels. 

The ECC met under Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb to approve a set of amendments to the existing net-metering regulations, a press release from the Finance Division said. 

“As part of the approved changes, the ECC has revised the buyback rate from the National Average Power Purchase Price (NAPP) to Rs 10 per unit,” the Finance Division said. 

“Furthermore, the committee allowed the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to revise this buyback rate periodically, ensuring that the framework remains flexible and aligned with evolving market conditions.”

It added that the new framework would not apply to existing net-metered consumers who have a valid license, concurrence or agreement under the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Alternative & Renewable Energy) Distributed Generation and Net Metering Regulations, 2015.

“Any such agreements will remain effective until the expiration of the license or agreement, whichever occurs first,” it said, ensuring the rights and obligations of these consumers, including agreed-upon rates, will continue as per existing terms.

The statement said the ECC also approved an updated settlement mechanism, under which exported electricity units would be purchased at the new buyback rate of Rs10 per unit, while imported units would be billed at the applicable peak and off-peak rates, inclusive of taxes and surcharges.

The ECC said that these amendments were made after a record decline in solar panel prices that led to a sharp increase in the number of solar net-metering consumers.

“As of December 2024, solar net-metering consumers had transferred a burden of Rs 159 billion to grid consumers,” it said.

The statement also highlighted the need for regulatory reforms to ensure balance in the energy distribution system, noting that 80 percent of net-metering consumers are concentrated in nine major cities.

Pakistan has ideal climatic conditions for solar power generation, with most areas receiving over nine hours of sunlight daily. According to the World Bank, using just 0.071 percent of the country’s land for solar photovoltaic (solar PV) power could meet its electricity demand.

With a population of 241 million, Pakistan aims to transition to 60 percent renewable energy by 2030 and reduce projected emissions by 50 percent. Despite recent growth in solar power adoption, the country is still far from achieving these goals.


Pakistan says train hijacking ‘orchestrated’ from Afghanistan, urges Kabul to rein in militants

Pakistan says train hijacking ‘orchestrated’ from Afghanistan, urges Kabul to rein in militants
Updated 13 March 2025
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Pakistan says train hijacking ‘orchestrated’ from Afghanistan, urges Kabul to rein in militants

Pakistan says train hijacking ‘orchestrated’ from Afghanistan, urges Kabul to rein in militants
  • Separatist Baloch Liberation Army outfit stormed train in Balochistan on Tuesday, held over 400 passengers hostage 
  • Analysts say attack reflects “strategic shift” in BLA’s approach of moving away from just military targets to civilians 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said on Thursday a train hijacking by separatist militants in southwestern Balochistan was orchestrated from neighboring Afghanistan, calling on Kabul to crackdown on insurgents operating from its soil.

Militants blew up the rail tracks and opened fire on the Jaffar Express as it made its way to Peshawar in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Quetta, the capital of mineral-rich Balochistan, on Tuesday. 

Separatist groups are fighting a decades-long insurgency to win secession of the southwestern mineral-rich province, home to major China-led projects such as a port and a gold and copper mine. Balochistan is also home to key other mining projects, including Reko Diq, run by mining giant Barrick Gold, and believed to be one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines. Though Pakistan’s largest province by area, Balochistan is the smallest by population. Balochistan also has a long Arabian Sea coastline, not far from the Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz oil shipping lane.

The decades-old insurgency has continued to keep the province of some 15 million people unstable and created security concerns around Pakistan’s plans to access untapped resources. 

A total of 21 hostages and four security troops were killed in the latest standoff, according to the military, but the BLA — the largest of Balochistan’s armed ethnic groups battling the government, which claimed the attack — said 50 hostages were executed.

On Wednesday night, the military said the day-long rescue operation had ended, with 21 hostages and four security troops killed.

“The latest terrorist attack against Jaffar Express near Sibi, Balochistan, was also orchestrated and directed by terrorist ringleaders operating from abroad,” Khan said in a weekly press briefing. 

“Terrorists were in direct communications with Afghanistan-based planners throughout the incident.”

The spokesman said Pakistan had repeatedly asked the interim Afghan government to deny the use of its soil to terror groups.

“We urge Afghanistan to hold perpetrators, organizers, financiers of this reprehensible acts of terrorism accountable and cooperate with the government of Pakistan to bring all those who are concerned with this attack, including the real sponsors of terrorism, to justice.”

Khan added that the government remained determined to take care of the problem of terrorism “aggressively.”

“STRATEGIC SHIFT?”

The BLA is the strongest of a number of insurgent groups long operating in Balochistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran. The insurgents have been fighting to lay a claim to local resources which they say belong to their people.

Balochistan’s mountainous and remote border regions serves as a safe haven and training ground for the Baloch island other militants. 

The BLA shocked the country’s security establishment when it stormed army and navy bases in 2022. Last August it conducted a series of coordinate attacks in Balochistan in which over 50, including troops, were killed. It has deployed women suicide bombers in recent years, including in an attack on Chinese nationals at a university in Karachi and a bombing in southwest Balochistan. An umbrella group of several Baloch ethnic groups said last week that it had convened all factions in a bid to unite them under a unified military structure. A dormant BLA splinter group called BLA (AZAD) became active in recent weeks.

Hundreds of Baloch activists, many of them women, have protested in Islamabad and Balochistan over alleged abuses by security forces — accusations the government denies.

Islamabad accuses India and Afghanistan of backing the militants to damage Pakistan’s relations with China, a charge both countries deny.

Speaking to Arab News, security analysts described Tuesday’s hijacking of the train as a “strategic shift” by the BLA in terms of moving away from just military targets to unarmed civilians.

“This may give them instant public and media attention but will weaken their support base within the civilian population which is their ultimate objective,” Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security analyst, told Arab News. “This attack on train passengers will reduce sympathy for BLA and improve public support for military action against terrorists.”

Another security analyst, Dr. Qamar Cheema, Executive Director at the Sanober Institute, said the real challenge was the vast and mountainous terrain of Balochistan, which militant organizations were able to exploit. 

He said Pakistan needed to invest in more technology including drones, artificial intelligence and other advanced systems, to monitor and manage remote areas in Balochistan where there was little to no population presence.

Dr. Talat Shabbir, director of the China Pakistan Study Center at the Institute of Strategic Studies, said the BLA’s attack on a passenger train is a reflection of its increasing capacity to carry out acts of “terrorism” and killing people on a larger scale. 

“This also speaks of some gaps somewhere due to which terrorists could have that intelligence to carry out such an operation,” he told Arab News.

However, Shabbir acknowledged that Pakistan’s security forces also responded swiftly to effectively manage the situation.

He said the train hijacking would not only impact investor confidence in Balochistan, but also create a “ripple effect” across the country.

“The solution to this problem lies in simultaneously implementing security measures to suppress terrorist attacks and politically engaging with the people of Balochistan,” he added. 

Brig. (Retd.) Masud Ahmed Khan, a defense analyst, said the main target of the attacks was the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project in Balochistan with Chinese investment. 

“The real target is CPEC and Chinese investment, with an aim to destabilize Balochistan and target Chinese interests in the province,” Khan said. 

With inputs from Reuters


Pakistan PM calls for national unity to address Balochistan crisis after train hijacking

Pakistan PM calls for national unity to address Balochistan crisis after train hijacking
Updated 13 March 2025
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Pakistan PM calls for national unity to address Balochistan crisis after train hijacking

Pakistan PM calls for national unity to address Balochistan crisis after train hijacking
  • PM Shehbaz Sharif chairs high-level meeting to review security situation in Balochistan 
  • Separatist BLA outfit stormed train in southwest Pakistan on Tuesday, held over 400 hostages 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday called on political parties to forge unity to combat surging militancy in southwestern Balochistan province, a day after the military announced it had conducted a successful operation against separatists who hijacked a passenger train with over 400 people on board, rescuing hostages and killing 33 militants.

The separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) had bombed part of a railway track and stormed the train on Tuesday afternoon in Mushkaaf, a rugged area in the mountainous Bolan range of Balochistan.

Security forces had killed militant suicide bombers sitting among the hostages before swiftly executing the rescue operation and securing the Quetta-Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express on Wednesday night, the military said, adding that 21 hostages had been killed in the episode. 

Sharif chaired a high-level meeting in Balochistan’s provincial capital Quetta on Thursday to review the security situation in the province, with senior officials including Chief Minister Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti in attendance. 

“If there ever was a need for something more than before, it is national unity and national alliance,” Sharif told participants of the meeting in a televised address. 

“We will keep on doing our politics and keep on saying what we want to say but on this one issue, that we must save this country from these khawarij, this trial, this terrorism, we must become united,” he added. 

The prime minister said his government would “soon” convene a meeting to discuss the Balochistan crisis. He called for Pakistan’s political leadership to sit with the military to discuss the challenges that the country was facing.

Sharf said Pakistan can’t prosper until the pace of development in Balochistan catches up to that of other provinces. 

“Peace can’t be established in Pakistan until terrorism is completely eliminated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,” he said. 

Balochistan, Pakistan’s biggest in terms of landmass, has long been the site of a low-level insurgency, with separatist groups accusing the government of exploiting the province’s natural resources while leaving its people in poverty. 

Government officials deny the allegation and say they are developing the province through multibillion-dollar projects, including those backed by China.


One paramilitary soldier, 12 militants killed during attack in northwestern Pakistan 

One paramilitary soldier, 12 militants killed during attack in northwestern Pakistan 
Updated 13 March 2025
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One paramilitary soldier, 12 militants killed during attack in northwestern Pakistan 

One paramilitary soldier, 12 militants killed during attack in northwestern Pakistan 
  • Militants carry out suicide blast at Frontier Corps headquarters in northwestern Tank district
  • No group has claimed responsibility for attack but suspicion likely to fall on Pakistani Taliban 

PESHAWAR: One paramilitary soldier and 12 militants were killed during a gunbattle in Pakistan’s northwestern Tank district on Thursday after militants carried out a suicide blast at the Frontier Corps (FC) headquarters in the area, a police official with direct knowledge of the development said. 

The attack took place in district Tank’s Tehsil Jandola, located in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province bordering Afghanistan. 

No group has claimed responsibility for the incident but suspicion is likely to fall on the Pakistani Taliban or the Tehreek-e-Talban Pakistan (TTP). 

“An officer on duty shot the suicide bomber driver of an explosive-laden vehicle which detonated the blast,” the Tank district police officer told Arab News on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media. 

“One soldier was martyred, twelve terrorists were killed, two FC personnel injured while four civilians have sustained normal injuries during the clearance operation,” he added.

The police officer said the situation was “under control” following the FC’s clearance operation. 

The attack takes place amid rising militant attacks in Pakistan, especially in KP province bordering Afghanistan. KP has suffered a surge in militant attacks since November 2022 when a fragile truce between the state and the TTP collapsed. 

Pakistan says the takeover of Kabul by the Afghan Taliban in 2021 has emboldened the group as it is able to operate out of and launch attacks from safe havens in neighboring Afghanistan, whose government denies the charges.

The TTP has carried out some of the deadliest attacks against Pakistan’s security forces and civilians since 2007 in its bid to impose its strict version of Islamic law in the country.


Karachi man arrested in child pornography case involving US minors — Pakistani investigators 

Karachi man arrested in child pornography case involving US minors — Pakistani investigators 
Updated 13 March 2025
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Karachi man arrested in child pornography case involving US minors — Pakistani investigators 

Karachi man arrested in child pornography case involving US minors — Pakistani investigators 
  • Suspect Agha Sarwar Abbas was arrested on Mar. 11 on complaint of US Consulate in Karachi
  • Court in Karachi has granted Federal Investigation Agency five-day physical remand of Abbas

KARACHI: A Pakistani man has been arrested in Karachi on charges of possession of child pornography and blackmailing minors in the United States following a complaint from the American consulate in the port city this week, a Pakistani official said on Thursday

The suspect, Agha Sarwar Abbas, was arrested on Mar. 11 following a complaint filed by a special agent of the US Department of State that alleged he was in possession of child pornography and was extorting US minors by using material obtained through various online platforms, the First Information Report (FIR) filed by police said. After a request from the US Consulate in Karachi, a case was registered under Sections 16, 22 and 24 of Pakistan’s Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016, which criminalizes offenses related to child pornography and online exploitation.

“Agha Sarwar Abbas has been arrested on a complaint from the US consulate for his alleged involvement in child pornography and blackmailing minors in the US,” Ameer Ali, an investigation officer with the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), told Arab News. “The court granted us a five-day physical remand for further questioning.”

The US Consulate said it could not comment on an ongoing legal case. 

On Wednesday, FIA informed Judicial Magistrate East Karachi that Abbas had admitted to creating a fake online identity and was pretending to be a US citizen named Brandon Liechier to gain the trust of minors. 

According to the FIR, the suspect has confessed during interrogation “to using personal data for the purposes of blackmail and threats based on recorded videos of US minor citizens.” 

The agency said it had raided Abbas’s residence in Karachi’s New Rizwia Society and seized multiple devices, including a laptop and an iPad, that allegedly contained child pornographic material. Investigators said they had also identified several online platforms, including Whereby.com, Google Meet, Snapchat, and 411.com, that the suspect was using to establish contact with victims. Through these platforms, he engaged in video calls and text chats, allegedly forcing minors to share personal and objectionable content.

According to the police report, the investigation had so far revealed that Abbas used personal data, including home addresses, to threaten victims with the release of “compromising material” unless they complied with his demands. Abbas also allegedly accessed adult websites to facilitate his activities, with a digital forensic analysis confirming the presence of child pornographic content and extortion messages on his seized devices.

On Wednesday, the FIA sought a 14-day police remand for Abbas from a local magistrate who only granted five days, until Mar. 18. 

Child pornography is illegal in Pakistan. Suspects convicted in child pornography cases can be subject to up to 20 years in prison and large fines.