KARACHI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) completed its inaugural direct flight from Lahore to Baku on Sunday, a development Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described as a “major diplomatic success” and a step toward deepening ties with regional allies.
The new air link is part of Islamabad’s broader strategy to strengthen economic, tourism and diplomatic ties with Central Asian countries. Pakistan has been pushing to expand trade routes and people-to-people connectivity to boost its economy through enhanced trade, tourism and investment.
“This is a major diplomatic success for Pakistan,” Sharif said in a statement issued by his office after the flight arrived in Baku. “Azerbaijan is among our closest friends in the region, and we are striving to build partnerships with it across sectors, including tourism.”
Flight PK-159 departed Lahore at 11:50 AM with 152 passengers and landed at Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku, where it received a warm welcome.
Pakistani Ambassador to Azerbaijan Qasim Moinuddin, Airport Director Taimur Hassan and Azerbaijan’s Transport Minister Rashad Nabi greeted passengers on arrival.
The flight was celebrated onboard with a cake-cutting ceremony. Passengers received gift packs and mobile phones through a lucky draw. PIA’s return flight, PK-160, later departed from Baku for Lahore.
A formal send-off ceremony was held in Lahore earlier in the day, attended by Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif and Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Khazar Farhadov.
“PIA is expanding its network, and Baku is an important addition to this chain,” Asif said. “This flight will significantly strengthen relations between Pakistan and Azerbaijan.”
Sharif said similar air links with other friendly countries would follow soon, as part of Pakistan’s plan to strengthen regional integration.
“The launch of direct PIA flights between Lahore and Baku will help promote tourism,” the prime minister said. “We will soon begin similar direct flights with other friendly nations.”
ISLAMABAD: More than 11 million Pakistanis faced acute food insecurity between November 2024 and March 2025 amid erratic changes in Pakistan’s weather patterns, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report this week, as food insecurity and child malnutrition rose for the sixth consecutive year in 2024.
Since 2017, flood-affected rural districts of Pakistan’s Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces as well as drought-affected areas in Balochistan and Sindh have witnessed persistent high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises.
While above-average rainfall supported agricultural production in Pakistan, abnormally heavy monsoon rains from July 2024 to September 2024 resulted in flooding and landslides in parts of Balochistan and Sindh provinces, causing localized crop losses and damage to housing and agricultural infrastructure.
Agricultural recovery remained uneven as regions affected by the 2022 climate-induced floods continued to struggle with limited access to inputs, livestock losses and economic constraints in the South Asian country of over 240 million people.
“In Pakistan, 11 million people or 22 percent of the analyzed population were facing high levels of acute food insecurity in 68 flood-affected rural districts across Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the report read.
“This includes 1.7 million people in emergency.”
The FAO’s population coverage in Pakistan increased by 38 percent between 2024 and 2025, from 36.7 million people to 50.8 million, covering 25 additional districts.
The South Asian country ranks among the nations that are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which scientists say is making extreme weather events more common and more severe.
A “severe” drought ravaged several crops in the country’s breadbasket this winter, with officials stressing the need to build more water reservoirs and restore wetlands. In 2022, devastating floods killed more than 1,700 Pakistanis, affected another 33 million and caused the country over $30 billion in economic losses.
“Low female workforce participation also creates a substantial loss of income in Pakistan (24.3 percent), limiting households’ access to food,” the report said.
Globally, more than 295 million people across 53 countries and territories experienced acute levels of hunger in 2024, an increase of 13.7 million from 2023, according to the report.
Conflict remained the top driver of acute food insecurity, affecting around 140 million people in 20 countries and territories. Famine has been confirmed in Sudan, while other hotspots, which have people experiencing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, include the Gaza Strip, South Sudan, Haiti, and Mali.
Economic shocks including inflation and currency devaluation, drove hunger in 15 countries affecting 59.4 million people — still nearly double pre-COVID-19 levels despite a modest decline from 2023. Some of the largest and most protracted food crises were primarily driven by economic shocks, including in Afghanistan, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, and Yemen.
“The 2025 Global Report on Food Crisis paints a staggering picture,” said Rein Paulsen, a senior FAO official.
“The main factors behind these increasing numbers are threefold. In the first instance, conflict and insecurity is the primary driver, remains the primary driver for acute food insecurity. Weather extremes is the second most important factor. And economic issues and challenges the third most important factor. And the analysis shows, of course, that in many of the crisis contexts, these three factors are often overlapping.”
Malnutrition, particularly among children, reached extremely high levels, including in the Gaza Strip, Mali, Sudan, and Yemen. Nearly 38 million children under five were acutely malnourished across 26 nutrition crises.
“When we talk about the most extreme form of acute hunger, what we classify as IPC five, as we are seeing in Gaza, as we are seeing in Sudan, as we are seeing in Haiti and Mali, that these contexts are all touched by conflict and violence in different ways,” Paulsen said.
“And in practical terms, what this often means is an inability to physically access people who are most urgently in need of assistance.”
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, will be visiting China on May 19-21 to discuss “evolving regional situation in South Asia,” the Pakistani foreign office said on Sunday.
The development comes amid a ceasefire between Pakistan and India after a four-day military conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors this month that saw the use of fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery against the other, leaving around 70 people, including civilians, dead on both sides of the border.
In recent years, India has been seen as an important partner by Western powers as a counter-balance to China’s rising influence, while the relationship between Pakistan and Beijing has strengthened further, particularly over the last decade, with China rolling over loans and investing in multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects in Pakistan.
During his visit, Dar will hold in-depth discussions with Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the evolving situation and its “implications for peace and stability” in South Asia, according to the Pakistani foreign ministry.
“The two sides will also review the entire spectrum of Pakistan-China bilateral relations and exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” it said in a statement.
This month’s military conflict between India and Pakistan was triggered by an attack by gunmen on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir’s Pahalgam town, which killed 26 people on April 22. India blamed the attack on Pakistan. Islamabad denies the charge and has called for a credible, international probe into it.
Bitter rivals India and Pakistan have fought three wars, including two over the disputed region of Kashmir, since gaining independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety but rule it in part.
Analysts and diplomats have long feared that a conflict between the arch-foes could escalate into the use of nuclear weapons, in one of the world’s most dangerous and most populated nuclear flashpoint regions.
China, which borders both Pakistan and India, this month urged the arch-foes to exercise restraint, like the rest of the major world powers.
“The visit forms part of the ongoing high-level exchanges between Pakistan and China. It also underscores the two countries’ shared commitment to further strengthen the All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership,” the Pakistani foreign ministry said.
ISLAMABAD: The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Pakistan this week said it strongly opposes a proposed move to transfer endangered snow leopards from northern Pakistan to Moscow in Russia, calling on the government to strengthen its rehabilitation center for the animals.
Various studies indicate that as the snow leopard is an elusive animal, hence it is difficult to record its exact population in the distribution range across Central and South Asia. However, in 2020 WWF research indicated that fewer than 7,000 snow leopards remain globally, of which approximately 200 to 420 individuals inhabit the northern mountain ranges of Pakistan including the Gilgit-Baltistan region, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and Azad Jammu Kashmir (AJK).
In a press release issued on Saturday, WWF-Pakistan said it had written a letter to the climate change ministry saying that it opposed the proposed transfer of two snow leopards, currently at the Naltar Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Gilgit-Baltistan, to the Moscow Zoo in Russia.
The WWF said it had stressed in the letter that transferring leopards to Russia would not only contradict national and international conservation commitments but also risk setting a “highly detrimental precedent” for the future transfer of threatened and iconic wildlife species from Pakistan.
“WWF-Pakistan expressed its deepest concern and opposition to the move and demanded that the proposed export of snow leopards be immediately canceled,” the non-government organization said.
“The organization also called for the reaffirmation of Pakistan’s commitment to the conservation of its iconic wildlife species and emphasized upholding the obligations under international agreements.”
It said that the snow leopard, listed as a threatened (vulnerable) species on the IUCN Red List for threatened species (2017), receives the highest level of legal protection under Pakistan’s national and provincial wildlife legislation.
This also extends to Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK, the statement added.
Additionally, it said the species is included in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which strictly prohibits international trade except under exceptional and non-commercial circumstances.
“It further said there is no compelling conservation rationale for transferring these snow leopards to Russia, a country that already hosts a significantly larger wild population of the species,” WWF-Pakistan said.
The NGO recommended that instead of exporting the animals, Pakistan should demonstrate global leadership by reinforcing its commitment to protecting its remaining wild snow leopard populations.
“The organization also highlighted the risk that once the snow leopards are transferred, it would be difficult to monitor or ensure the well-being of these animals under Russian jurisdiction,” it added.
Hammad Naqi Khan, director general of WWF-Pakistan, said that the approval of this transfer would undermine decades of conservation progress and significantly damage Pakistan’s standing in the global conservation community.
“We need to uphold Pakistan’s obligations under international agreements such as CITES and the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) by prioritizing the protection of vulnerable and critically endangered species within national borders,” Khan said.
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan: The Pakistani military warns that any Indian attempt to follow through on recent threats to cut Islamabad’s share of the Indus River water system would trigger consequences lasting for generations, as tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors are running high.
New Delhi unilaterally suspended a decades-old water-sharing agreement with its nuclear-armed neighbor last month, as it blamed Pakistan for a deadly militant attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir — Islamabad denied any involvement.
The incident was followed by days of cross-border fire as India launched on May 6 a series of strikes across the Line of Control — the de facto border that separates the Indian-controlled and Pakistani-controlled parts of the disputed Kashmir territory. It also hit other sites on the Pakistani mainland, targeting what it claimed were militant positions.
Pakistan retaliated with strikes on Indian military targets before a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on May 10. Despite the ceasefire, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced this week that his country would stop the water from flowing — a move Pakistan has earlier said was a direct threat to its survival and an act of war.
A general view of the partially damaged Neelum Jhelum Hydropower Project following Indian strikes in Nausari, about 40kms from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, on May 8, 2025. (AFP)
Brokered by the World Bank, the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty has withstood multiple Indian-Pakistani wars. If India weaponizes water and blocks the flow of an Indus River tributary — vital to Pakistan’s food security — its military says it will act.
“I hope that time doesn’t come, but it will be such actions that the world will see and the consequences of that we will fight for years and decades to come. Nobody dares stop water from Pakistan,” Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, spokesperson of the Pakistan Armed Forces, told Arab News on Friday.
“It is some madman who can think that he can stop water of 240 million plus people of this country.”
India’s recent attacks have killed 40 civilians, including 22 women and children, according to Pakistan’s official figures. As Pakistan retaliated, it hit 26 Indian military targets. It stopped the retaliatory strikes as soon as the ceasefire was reached.
“Pakistan armed forces are a professional armed forces and we adhere to the commitments that we make, and we follow in letter and spirit the instructions of the political government and the commitments that they hold,” Chaudhry said.
“As far as Pakistan army is concerned, this ceasefire will hold easily and there have been confidence building measures in communication between both the sides.”
Both countries have already blamed each other for violating the ceasefire multiple times since it took effect.
“If any violation occurs, our response is always there ... but it is only directed at those posts and those positions from where the violations of the ceasefire happen. We never target the civilians. We never target any civil infrastructure,” Chaudhry said.
According to the Pakistani military, India has lost six airplanes and an S-400 air defense system — Russia’s most advanced surface to air missile system — in the four-day conflict. Among the downed warplanes were several French aircraft Rafale.
Earlier reports suggested India had lost five fighter jets, but Pakistan’s prime minister announced earlier this week that there were six.
“I can confirm that the sixth aircraft is a Mirage 2000,” Chaudhry said. “We only targeted the aircraft ... We could have taken out more, but we showed restraint.”
Satellite photos captured after India’s strikes on May 6, show significant damage to multiple Pakistani air bases. High-resolution images from Maxar Technologies show large craters on runways and destruction of hangars and support structures at these facilities.
Chaudhry said that despite damage to infrastructure, they remained active: “There are ways through which Pakistan Air Force immediately sets these bases operational — they are all operational.”
He warned of a high potential for renewed conflict despite the ceasefire, as long as the core issue, Kashmir, remains unaddressed.
Predominantly Muslim, Kashmiri territory has been the subject of international dispute since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Both countries claim Kashmir in full, and rule in part.
Indian-administered Kashmir has for decades witnessed outbreaks of separatist insurgency to resist control from the government in New Delhi.
In 2019, the Indian government revoked the region’s constitutional semi-autonomy and downgraded it from a state to a union territory under New Delhi’s direct control.
Indian officials have repeatedly said that the move aimed at tackling separatism and bringing economic development and peace to Kashmir.
“Their policy on Kashmir — of oppression and trying to internalize it — is not working,” Chaudhry said.
“Till the time Indians don’t sit and talk about Kashmir, then (as) two countries we sit, and we find a solution to it, the conflict potential is there.”
ISLAMABAD: Around 10 Pakistani gems and minerals companies are showcasing their specimens at the ongoing China Nanjing (International) Mineral, Gemstone & Fossil Expo to prospective buyers, state-run media reported this week.
The third edition of the expo, which is being held from May 15-19 in the Chinese city of Nanjing, has attracted over 500 exhibitors from more than 50 countries, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said in a report on Saturday. Various companies from around the world have displayed minerals, gemstones, fossils, and meteorites at the exhibition.
“Pakistani exhibitors are presenting a dazzling array of emeralds, tourmalines, topaz, morganite, quartz, aquamarine, pyrite, marble and onyx specimens from regions such as Gilgit Baltistan, Balochistan, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” APP reported.
It cited a report from Chinese business news website China Economic Net as saying that Pakistani specimens have attracted “significant interest” from international buyers and collectors at the expo.
Pakistan has significant gemstone reserves, particularly in its northern and northwestern regions, which include a variety of high-quality stones such as peridot, aquamarine, topaz, ruby, and emerald.
There are 18 types of gemstones in Pakistan for which 178 major mining licenses have been issued.
“Pakistan possesses extraordinary geological treasures, and our trade ties with China are expanding beyond gemstones to industrial minerals,” Ghulam Mustafa, an exhibitor representing the Fine Art Minerals company, told APP.
“The response to our display has been phenomenal. Visitors are truly impressed by Pakistan’s natural wealth,” he added.
Muhammad Sadiq from Fine Nagar Gems and Minerals company returned to this year’s exhibition with a larger collection of specimens.
“Last year feedback was incredibly positive and we are very optimistic about this year sales and orders,” Sadiq said.
Pakistan hosted an international minerals summit in Islamabad last month. The summit aimed to attract foreign investment in the country’s mining sector, seeing participation from major international companies including Canada-based Barrick Gold and government officials from the United States, Saudi Arabia, China, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, Azerbaijan and other nations.
Islamabad hopes it can export its precious gemstones and minerals as it eyes sustainable economic growth driven largely by exports.
