ISLAMABAD: The two-day visit by Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan to Iran, which was scheduled to start from Wednesday, has been called off, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce told Dawn on Tuesday. He declined to disclose the reason. The visit aimed to pave way for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by the end of 2017. According to information shared Pakistan has already forwarded the FTA draft to Tehran. Speaking to Radio Tehran earlier,…
Posts published in “Day: December 28, 2016”
The writer is the Senior Superintendent of Police, Special Branch, Lahore Will the New Year bring any solace to the war-torn Afghanistan? Who will play a critical role to ensure peace in the coming year? Will Taliban hold on for another year or buckle down under pressure from the US and its allies in Afghanistan? These questions will depend upon the nature of the insurgency, type of intelligence operations, reactions of inside actors and locus…
The US is currently “annoyed” with Pakistan for strengthening strategic ties with Russia, though there is little instance when it is not. Although a direct message to restrict involvement has not been received from Washington, not-so-subtle hints have been aplenty.The US is hardly in a position to express its misgivings, as it has long left its Cold War politics aside and forged a new relationship with India, distancing itself from its then ally Pakistan.It cannot…
KABUL – Kabul voiced displeasure over the planned trilateral meeting between China, Russia and Pakistan on Afghanistan in Moscow on Tuesday, Tolo News reported. Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ (MoFA) spokesman Ahmad Shekib Mustaghni said Monday that the agenda of the meeting was a matter of concern. Despite Afghanistan being the focus of their agenda, Kabul was not consulted, he said. “Talking on Afghanistan without consulting the country raises serious questions for the Afghan people.…
The Afghan government officials have reacted towards a trilateral meeting involving Pakistan, China, and Russia to discuss Afghanistan, expressing concerns regarding the absence of Afghan officials in the summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Ahmad Shekib Mostaghni said the Afghan government is not optimistic regarding the outcome of the meeting. Raising questions regarding the absence of Afghan officials in the meeting, Mostaghni said such meetings without the presence of Afghan officials will not represent…
ISLAMABAD: A senior leader of the Hizb-e-Islami Afghanistan (HIA) has said that Pakistan has neither interfered nor opposed its peace talks with the administration of President Ashraf Ghani. “Pakistan had supported the HIA-Kabul negotiations which led to the signing of a peace deal in September,” Dr Ghairat Baheer, the head of HIA’s political affairs committee, told The Express Tribune in an exclusive interview. Afghan diplomatic sources endorsed Dr Baheer, saying that Pakistan had not interfered…
The writer is a foreign policy expert based in Washington, DC. THERE is a lot of curiosity about how the Donald Trump administration may deal with Pakistan and the broader South Asian region. But there is too much uncertainty still for political analysis to produce anything truly meaningful in response. More useful would be to explain the various nodes of uncertainty and narrow down the focus of the discussion to developments that would matter most…
Islamabad: Dr Humayun J.Chaudhry, president and chief executive officer of the Federation of State Medical Boards of United States, said that till to date, 12,000 Pakistani national physicians and specialists doctors are working in 50 different states of USA. He added that out of 12,000 doctors 3,100 doctors had graduated from Dow University of Health Sciences, 1,900 from King Edward Medical college, then from Agha Khan University and also Allama Iqbal Medical College, Lahore. He…
On the economic front, the big news this year is the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which consists of a series of rail and road network projects that by all accounts could have a long-term positive impact on Pakistan’s economy. The transportation networks and pipelines which form the CPEC will connect Kashgar, China with Gawadar after passing through large swathes of Pakistan. It is expected that the project will promote trade not only by promoting…
GILGIT: Gilgit-Baltistan will be drawing greater benefit from the multibillion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as the region is set to get a sizeable economic zone to boost trade and commerce. “The economic zone, spreading over 250 acres, will have scope for economic activities at larger scale,” said a government official while referring to a joint coordination committee meeting on CPEC which was held in Islamabad recently. China would like to involve other countries in…
ISLAMABAD: Beijing has pledged to finance three more road projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), making its total contribution to the corridor-related road projects to Rs1.025 trillion so far. China will provide Rs107.76 billion as soft loan for the three new projects, National Highway Authority (NHA) spokesman Kashif Zaman told Dawn on Monday. It is already providing Rs917bn for another three road projects. The three new projects to be financed by China fall on…