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Posts published in “Pak Media Report”

Iran, Pakistan to kick off discussions on stalled gas pipeline project

report in Daily Times, November 20th 2018. Pakistan’s minister for petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan has reportedly written to his Iranian counterpart seeking resumption of talks on the gas pipeline, also known as ‘peace pipeline’, which experts believe can prove instrumental in address Pakistan’s power crisis. According to sources, an Iranian delegation is expected visit Islamabad by the end of this month or in the beginning of next month to hold talks with their Pakistani counterparts…

We don’t give Pakistan aid anymore: Trump

report in The News, Nov 19, 2018 WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Sunday defended his administration’s decision to stop hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Pakistan, saying the country does not do “a damn thing” for the US and its government had helped al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden hide near its garrison city. Referring to Laden and his former compound in Abbottabad, Trump in an interview to Fox News said, “You know,…

Global Competitiveness Index: Pakistan faces supply-side constraints

By HUSSAIN H ZAIDI in The Express Tribune, November 19th, 2018. ISLAMABAD: The latest edition of the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR), the GCR 2018, has introduced two changes to the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). One, the 12 pillars and their components have been revised to reflect the changing contours of competitiveness. Two, a scorecard, ranging from 0 to 100, has been introduced for an economy’s overall ranking as well as its ranking on specific pillars…

Fact-check: Is this a photo of FM Qureshi receiving a standing ovation at the UN?

AFP report in The News, Nov 16, 2018 A photo posted to Facebook purports to show Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi receiving a standing ovation at the United Nations General Assembly. The photo is manipulated from an original image of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This Facebook post dated October 1, 2018 says “When leaders are honest then the world will respect itself. Look at the respect for Foreign Minister in America because behind…

JuD, FIF no more on list of banned outfits, court told

by Malik Asad in Dawn, October 26th, 2018 ISLAMABAD: The Jamaat-ud Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF) headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed are no more on the list of banned outfits after the presidential ordinance that proscribed them under a UN resolution lapsed. During the hearing on Thursday of a petition filed by Hafiz Saeed, his counsel informed the Islamabad High Court that the presidential ordinance had lapsed and it had never been extended. The…

Inspectors not impressed with Pak work done on FATF list

by Khaleeq Kiani in Dawn, October 11th, 2018 ISLAMABAD: Not impressed with the progress made so far, a delegation of the Asia Pacific Group (APG) has asked Pakistan to do more and get its house in order so that it may get out of the grey list of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Apparently the group members found the legal framework insufficient, and the institutional arrangements weak. According to sources, the delegation feared…

Islamabad likely to expel Bangladeshi high commissioner

by Mateen Haider in Daily Times, October 9th 2018 Diplomatic row between Islamabad and Dhaka has escalated as Islamabad is considering expulsion of Bangladeshi high commissioner following Dhaka’s refusal to accept the Pakistani high commissioner. Diplomatic sources told Daily Times that the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad had informed Prime Minister Imran Khan about the diplomatic row between the two countries and recommended the expulsion of the Bangladeshi High Commissioner to Pakistan Tarik Ahsan. Pakistan’s high…

Pak Govt issues phone tapping alert

By Riazul Haq in The Express Tribune, Sept 30, 2018 ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be a serious warning to foreign missions and local government officials, the government has issued an advisory about the presence of machines intercepting cellular communication. In his letter to federal ministries and offices in the Constitution Avenue and Diplomatic Enclave, Deputy Secretary National Telecom and Information Technology Security Board (NTISB) Lieutenant Colonel Ishtiaq Mahmood Kiani warned about the activities of…

Getting petty with the Pak press: by Umber Khairi in TNS, September 23, 2018

The author is a former BBC broadcaster and producer, and one of the founding editors of Newsline. We probably all remember some episode from our childhood whereby we might have rescinded an invitation out of pique or anger. You know — the sort of episode in which you perhaps ‘uninvited’ a classmate to your birthday party because of a playground squabble or else maybe insisted on snubbing somebody thus because you’d had a hurtful falling…

Pakistan’s effort to end terrorist financing remains uneven: US

by Anwar Iqbal in Dawn, September 21st, 2018 WASHINGTON: As the new government in Islamabad starts work on addressing the concerns related to money laundering and terror financing, a US State Department report released on Thursday said that Pakistan criminalised terrorist financing through the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), but its implementation remained uneven. Pakistan is a member of the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering — a Financial Action Task Force (FATF)-style regional body. In June,…

14 Pakistani Schools Burn and the Army Pounces, Stoking Suspicions

By Meher Ahmad in The NY Times, Sept, 19, 2018 GILGIT-BALTISTAN, Pakistan — On a clear night last month, Shams al-Haq woke to the smell of smoke and the sight of the schoolhouse near his fruit farm going up in flames. Mr. Haq and his neighbors spent hours fighting the fire until dawn, when it became a lost cause. They soon learned that it was one of 14 schools, most of them for girls, set…