Latest news with #ShebazSharif
New Indian Express
27-05-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Hostilities with Pak suspended, but it's not business as usual yet
Though hostilities with Pakistan have been suspended, it is not business as usual. Following security concerns expressed by the Union government, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has revoked the security clearance of Istanbul-based airport ground handling firm, Celebi Airport Services India. Celebi, an old player in airport services, and with 10,000 employees in India, now faces the prospect of being ousted from the 9 airports it had ongoing contracts. The trigger has been Turkey's undiluted support for Pakistan. Not only did Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greet the Pakistani PM Shebaz Sharif as 'his brother', but he ensured a steady supply of Turkey's advanced Bayraktar drones launched on India. In its defense, Celebi has said it has no political affiliations, that it is not a Turkish government organization, and it is not owned by Turkish capital. The company points out it is in existence since 1958 as a global airport services firm. Its majority 50 percent owner is Actera Partners, a New Jersey-registered fund, while 15 percent is held by Alpha Airport Sevices BV, a Netherlands company. It goes without saying national and security interests are paramount, and must prevail over business interests. Business organisations have been known to be moles working for the enemy. In this case though, Celebi has run the security gauntlet and had been given a license to operate in India. Has some new, palpable evidence changed that perception? One can understand Turkey needs to be taught a lesson. But should a company with a fairly long run in India, and with no apparent evidence of security breaches, become the collateral damage?
News.com.au
06-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
India launches ‘precision strikes' on Pakistan, retaliation looms
Pakistan's Prime Minister has labelled Indian air strikes on its territory – which reportedly killed at least three people – an 'act of war' as retaliation looms. India on Wednesday confirmed its military conducted 'precision strikes at terrorist camps' in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian side of the disputed region. 'A little while ago, the Indian Armed Forces launched 'OPERATION SINDOOR', hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,' the government said in a statement. India has said it had hit nine sites, with Pakistan Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif labelling the attacks 'cowardly' in a post on X. 'Pakistan has every right to respond forcefully to this act of war imposed by India, and a forceful response is being given,' he wrote. 'The entire nation stands with the Pakistani armed forces, and the morale and spirit of the entire Pakistani nation are high. 'The Pakistani nation and the Pakistani armed forces know how to deal with the enemy. 'We will never allow the enemy to succeed in their nefarious goals.' Earlier, the Pakistani army announced towns in Pakistan-administered Kashmir and another in Punjab, bordering India, were targeted in what it called a 'heinous provocation'. 'Pakistan will respond to (India's attacks) at a time and place of its own choosing,' military spokesperson Lieutenant-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said. At least three civilians, including a child, were killed, according to Pakistan's Minister of Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif. 'They have targeted multiple locations, which all are civilian … We have confirmed reports of three civilians killed that includes one child,' Mr Asif told AFP. Confirmed strike locations inside Pakistan so far include Bahawalpur, Kotli, Muzaffarabad, Bagh, and Muridke, according to local media. A state of emergency has been declared in Punjab, Pakistan's most-populous province, with schools closed and the leave of medical staff and civil defence personal cancelled. It marks a major escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours, which have been engaged in cross-border gunfire since a terror attack on Indian nationals in Kashmir two weeks ago. New Delhi has blamed Islamabad for backing the attack, which killed 26 people, sparking a series of heated threats and diplomatic tit-for-tat measures. Pakistan rejects the accusations, and the two sides have exchanged nightly gunfire since April 24 along the de facto border in Kashmir, the militarised Line of Control, according to the Indian army. Speaking at the White House after the strikes, US President Donald Trump said he hoped the conflict would end 'very quickly'. 'It's a shame, we just heard about it,' he said. 'I guess people knew something was going to happen based on the past. They've been fighting for many, many decades and centuries, actually, if you really think about it.' India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since gaining independence from the British in 1947. Both claim Kashmir in full but administer separate portions of the disputed region. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was 'very concerned' about the strikes, according to his spokesperson. 'The Secretary-General is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries,' Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson, said. 'The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.'
Arab News
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
‘Strive for peace': Saudi Arabia seeks de-escalation of Pakistan-India tensions
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia has expressed concern over heightened tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India amid exchanges of fire along their disputed border separating Kashmir and fears of an Indian military incursion, state news agency SPA reported on Wednesday. Relations have plummeted following a deadly attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir on Apr. 22 that New Delhi has said Pakistan was involved in. Islamabad denies the charges. Fears have risen since that India may conduct limited airstrikes or special forces raids near its border with Pakistan. Pakistan's information minister said on Tuesday night the country had 'credible intelligence' India intended to carry out military action against it in the 'next 24-36 hours on the pretext of baseless and concocted allegations of involvement in the Pahalgam incident.' 'The Kingdom appealed to both nations to de-escalate, avoid further escalation, resolve their disagreements through diplomatic channels, uphold the principles of good neighborliness, and strive for stability and peace for the welfare of their people and region,' SPA said. Meanwhile United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke separately on Tuesday with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif and India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. 'The Secretary-General also expressed his deep concern at rising tensions between India and Pakistan and underscored the need to avoid a confrontation that could result in tragic consequences. He offered his Good Offices to support de-escalation efforts,' UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. The US State Department has also said Washington was in touch with both India and Pakistan while urging them to work toward what it called a 'responsible solution.' In public, the US government has expressed support for India after the attack but has not criticized Pakistan. Since the attack, in addition to soldiers shooting over the Line of Control frontier that divides disputed Kashmir between the two nations, India and Pakistan have announced tit-for-tat diplomatic measures that included cancelation of visas and a recall of diplomats. New Delhi also suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty with Islamabad and ordered its border shut with Pakistan. In response, Pakistan has closed its airspace to Indian airlines. Kashmir is disputed between India and Pakistan since 1947, with both ruling it in part but claiming it in full.
Indian Express
27-04-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Why Pakistan has put its ambitious canals project on hold
After weeks of protest in Sindh, the Pakistan government on Thursday (April 24) put its ambitious canals project on hold. The project, meant to irrigate millions of acres of previously uncultivable land, triggered a political storm in Pakistan, revived old provincial rivalries, and fomented tensions within the ruling alliance of the Punjab-based Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Sindh-based Peoples Party of Pakistan. Green Pakistan Initiative The canals project is the centrepiece of the larger $3.3 billion Green Pakistan Initiative (GPI), launched by Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif and army chief General Asim Munir in 2023. Run by an army-owned private company, GPI seeks to 'modernise' Pakistan's agriculture sector by introducing new technologies, providing farmers high-quality inputs, and creating irrigation infrastructure. The ultimate goal is to increase yields, and bring new areas under cultivation. 'Revitalising agriculture is essential for the economy, particularly as Pakistan faces climate-related threats,' retired army general Shahid Nazir, who heads the GPI, told Al Jazeera. In recent years, the crisis-ridden Pakistan has struggled with food shortages, forcing it to expend valuable foreign exchange to import foodstuff. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the country's import of food commodities will once again cross the $9 billion mark in the FY 2025. (It has crossed $6 billion in July-March 2024-25, data released earlier this month show). Six 'strategic' canals In July 2024, President Asif Ali Zardari, also the co-chairman of the PPP, approved the construction of 'six strategic canals' which he said were 'vital for agricultural development and food security'. The most significant among these — and also the most criticised — is a 176-km long canal meant to irrigate the arid lands of Cholistan in southern Punjab. Bordering the state of Rajasthan in India, Cholistan is a part of the larger Thar desert, and 'faces significant challenges in meeting its total water requirements' according to a 2023 paper by the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources. 'The construction of the Cholistan Canal is therefore seen as a critical intervention to transform the region by bringing reliable and sustainable water supplies to large areas of previously uncultivable land,' according to the working paper prepared by the federal Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Al Jazeera reported. To be built at an estimated cost of almost $800 million, upon completion, the Cholistan Canal will irrigate almost 5,000 sq km (1.2 million acres) of land, Dawn reported. Its construction began earlier this year, but has since been halted, according to reports from local media. Officially, the Cholistan Canal was meant to be supplied entirely by flood water released by India on the Sutlej. However, according to data from Pakistan's Ministry of Water Resources, in 2018-19, only 3.4% of the water (4.9 million acre feet) received by the country from the Indus and its five tributaries came from the three India-controlled 'eastern rivers' — Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi. As such, experts say that it is virtually impossible to supply the canal from the Sutlej alone. This raises a larger issue. Pakistan is dependent on the Indus and its tributaries for water. And the river system is already very stressed. Critics say the six new canals will exacerbate pre-existing water scarcity. As a lower riparian province, this is of particular concern to Sindh. As one opinion article in The Nation put it, '…the federal government seeks to cultivate 1.2 million acres in Cholistan at the cost of jeopardising 18 million acres of Sindh's land.' Sindh is already a water-stressed province. The new canals will not only make things worse for its people, it will also starve the Indus delta, and thus hasten seawater intrusion and decimate fragile eco-systems, according to Dawn. So when Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, of the PML-N, and General Munir inaugurated the construction of the Cholistan Canal in February, the people of Sindh took to the streets in huge numbers. Student leader Muneer Hussain, leading a sit-in in Karachi, told The Nation: '… this issue is existential… it is the poor people who will suffer…'. One reason why opposition to the canals project is so resonant among the people of Sindh is its larger historical gripe with Punjab. Over the years, many have called Pakistan 'Punjab-istan' owing to the dominance of Punjabis in all walks of life, from the military to its cricket team. All other states — Sindh, Balochistan, and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa — have felt (or continue to feel) marginalised. The canals project evokes larger anti-Punjab sentiments among the people of Sindh, who have historically felt hard done by upstream hydro projects in Punjab. 'Punjab's own share of water is guaranteed through the existing system of canals. But when new irrigation areas are planned, without explaining where the water is coming from, it is inevitable that people in Sindh will express their anger and protest,' Naseer Memon, an Islamabad-based environmentalist, told Al Jazeera. PPP in a pickle Caught in the crossfire of the ongoing controversy is the PPP, the party which is in power in Sindh and whose support ostensibly keeps the government in Islamabad afloat. That its initial response to the GPI bordered on an endorsement — indeed party co-chairman Zardari called the canals 'vital' to Pakistan's interests — was not received well on the streets of Karachi. Various reports indicate that it was also not received well by the rank-and-file members of the party, as well as parts of its leadership in Sindh and beyond. The PPP has since made a drastic u-turn. In recent weeks, there were even murmurs that the PPP and PML-N were headed for an immediate split, largely over the canals project and the protests it had triggered in Sindh. But that's not what happened. The decision to put the project on hold was announced by Shebaz with PPP co-chairman Bilawal Ali Bhutto-Zardari sitting next to him. Bilwal later said 'as long as the PPP exists, not a single drop of Sindh's water will be given away,' but added his party would 'continue to work with the PML-N'. As the canals project is deliberated further — as the PM said it will be — people from Sindh remain wary. Indeed the strikes have not yet been called off, despite repeated requests from the Chief Minister, who belongs to the PPP. If the project is reintroduced — perhaps with some modifications and more guarantees for Sindh, as some experts say is likely — it will be interesting to see how the PPP responds.
