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☆ Pakistan's finance minister to meet IMF in Geneva, with bailout stalled
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ISLAMABAD, Jan 8 (Reuters) - An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation will meet Pakistan's finance minister on the sidelines of a conference in Geneva beginning on Jan. 9, a spokesperson of the lender said on Sunday, as Pakistan struggles to restart its bailout programme. "The IMF delegation is expected to meet with Finance Minister (Ishaq) Dar on the sidelines of the Geneva conference to discuss outstanding issues and the path forward," a spokesperson of the IMF said in a message to Reuters. The conference in Geneva, co-hosted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, will look to gather international support for the country in the aftermath of devastating floods last year. Dar has been critical of the IMF lately, publicly saying that the lender was acting "abnormally" in its dealings with Pakistan, which entered the $7 billion bailout programme in 2019. The IMF spokesperson also said its Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva had a "constructive call" with Sharif regarding the Geneva conference and supported Pakistan's efforts to rebuild.

☆ Taliban criticises Prince Harry over Afghan killings comment
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Harry's highly personal book "Spare" went on sale in Spain days before its global launch on Jan. 10. When asked about Harry's comments, a spokesperson for Britain's Ministry of Defence said: "We do not comment on operational details for security reasons." Representatives of Prince Harry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. As is usual for the royal family, spokespeople for King Charles and Prince William have declined to comment. Some of those who were willing to talk said they thought Harry had gone too far.

☆ 30,000 jobseekers almost filled Pakistan's biggest stadium as its capital's police force tried to hire 1,600 new officers
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Over 30,000 people attended a recruitment event for a Pakistani police force hiring around 1,600 new staff. So many people applied for jobs with the Islamabad police that they two-thirds filled the country's biggest stadium. Nearly a third of Pakistani's aged 15 to 29 are unemployed, 2022 data showed. There were so many applicants that they took up almost two-thirds of Pakistan's biggest stadium, the 48,000 capacity Jinnah Sports Stadium, which is usually used for soccer matches. Candidates who clear the written application will next be given physical tests, the police force said.

☆ Pakistan to shut malls, markets early in energy saving plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ISLAMABAD, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Pakistan's government has ordered all malls and markets to close by 8:30 p.m. among other measures in a new energy conservation plan, the defence minister said on Tuesday, as the country grapples with an economic crisis. Khawaja Asif told journalists the cabinet-approved measures to shut markets, including restaurants, aimed to save the cash-strapped country about 62 billion Pakistani rupees ($273 million). Pakistan's total liquid foreign exchange reserves stood at $11.7 billion - $5.8 billion with the central bank - as of late last month, having fallen 50% in 2022. Asif said the energy conservation plan also included banning the production of energy inefficient bulbs and fans from February and July respectively. ($1 = 226.7500 Pakistani rupees)Reporting by Gibran Peshimam; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Islamic State claims responsibility for Kabul attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

RIYADH/KABUL, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Islamic State on Monday claimed responsibility for an attack on Taliban forces in Kabul. A spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban-run interior ministry said an explosion outside the military airport in the capital Kabul had caused multiple casualties. read moreThe interior ministry denied the casualty figures claimed by Islamic State and said it would release the official death toll. Islamic State has claimed several high-profile attacks in Kabul, including the storming of a hotel that caters to Chinese businessmen and a shooting at Pakistan's embassy that Islamabad called an assassination attempt against its ambassador, who escaped unharmed. Reporting by Nadine Awadallah and Mohammad Yunus Yawar; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Pakistan says it has provided list of nuclear facilities to India under annual practice
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ISLAMABAD, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Pakistan said it had handed a list of its nuclear installations and facilities to the Indian mission in Islamabad on Sunday under a decades-old agreement between the two nuclear-armed rivals. It said lists are exchanged annually on Jan 1 and that India had simultaneously handed over a list to the Pakistani mission in New Delhi. Pakistan first officially tested nuclear weapons in 1998 and has since developed a significant stockpile of nuclear capable missiles, as has India. The list included 705 Indian prisoners detained in Pakistan, including 51 civilians and 654 fishermen, the statement said. It added that the Indian government also shared with the Pakistani mission in New Delhi a list of 434 Pakistani prisoners in India, including 339 civilians and 95 fishermen.

☆ Suicide bombing in Pakistan's capital kills 2 suspects and a policeman
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

At least three police officers and seven passersby were wounded in the bombing in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the explosion. Friday’s bombing happened about 9 miles from the garrison city of Rawalpindi, home of the military and government spy agencies. Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks on security forces since November, when they unilaterally ended a monthslong cease-fire with the country’s government. The Pakistani Taliban are separate but allied with the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan last year as U.S. and NATO troops withdrew after 20 years of war.

☆ Pakistan suicide car bombing kills one police official, injures others
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Asif Shahzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Police officers and rescue workers gather at the site of a suicide car bombing in Islamabad, Pakistan December 23, 2022. "Our initial information says that there was a man and a woman in the car," Islamabad operations police chief, Sohail Zafar, told reporters. "Had the car reached its target, it would have caused heavy losses," Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told Geo News TV. Pakistani Taliban claimed the car bombing, saying it was revenge for the killing of one of their leaders. The bombing came two days after a Pakistani military operation killed 25 TTP militants after a standoff at a counter-terrorism facility.

One hostage, a security official, died during the raid , he said. The army spokesman's comments provided the first detailed official account of the standoff, in which two security personnel were killed when the militants first took over the compound, and two commandoes killed in the ensuing raid. Later other militants at the centre broke into a storeroom where confiscated weapons had been stored. STANDOFFAfter talks failed to resolve a two-day standoff, army commandos stormed the centre on Tuesday. Earlier, residents said they heard explosions coming from the vicinity of the centre on Tuesday as helicopters hovered overhead.

Pakistani Taliban militants detained at the centre had snatched interrogators' weapons and taken them captive on Sunday. Asif did not say how many militants were killed or how many hostages they had held. Residents said they heard explosions coming from the vicinity of the centre on Tuesday as helicopters hovered overhead. The army operations forced the militants and their leaders to flee to neighbouring Afghan districts. There, Islamabad says, they set up training centres to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan, a charge Afghan authorities deny.

According to a provincial government spokesman, the militants were demanding safe passage to Afghanistan. "We are in negotiations with the central leaders of the Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan," Mohammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, said. He said the authorities were yet to receive a response from the Pakistani Taliban, adding that relatives of the militants and area tribal elders had also been involved in initiating talks with the Islamists inside the facility. The militants in control of the interrogation facility had demanded a safe passage to Afghanistan, a TTP statement sent to a Reuters reporter said. It added the TTP had also conveyed the demand to Pakistani authorities, but hadn't heard back any "positive" response.

☆ Pakistan to approach UN after blaming India for bombing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Asif Shahzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Mohsin RazaISLAMABAD, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Pakistan will take a dossier to the United Nations alleging its neighbour India has backed incidents of terrorism, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday, a day after Islamabad said India was behind a high-profile bombing. "We will call it information based evidence," Rabbani Khar said about the dossier. Khar said the facilitators and mastermind of the bombing that killed four people in eastern city of Lahore were based in India. "We would want India to hand them over, and as responsible nations do... and if India is a responsible nation, they will cooperate," she said. Arch-rivals Pakistan and India have fought three wars since 1947, when British colonial ended and the two independent nations were created in a blood-drenched process known as partition.

☆ Factbox: Recent attacks on foreigners in Afghanistan
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KABUL, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The Taliban took back control of Afghanistan last year as U.S. and foreign troops withdrew after 20 years of conflict following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Following is a list of recent attacks on foreigners in Afghanistan:December, 2022* At least three attackers were killed by security forces in Afghanistan on Monday after armed men opened fire inside a hotel in central Kabul popular with Chinese nationals. * Cross-border shelling and gunfire between Afghanistan and Pakistan killed six Pakistani civilians and one Afghan soldier, officials on both sides of the frontier said, with each side accusing the other of starting the fighting. September, 2022* Two Russian embassy staff were killed in a suicide bombing near the country's diplomatic mission in the Afghan capital, Kabul, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Compiled by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Editing by Arun KoyyurOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Pakistan expects multibillion-dollar support from Saudi Arabia -sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Asif Shahzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ISLAMABAD, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Pakistan will likely secure a multibillion-dollar financial support package from long-time ally Saudi Arabia this month, two sources said, as the country awaits the ninth review of a $7 billion IMF bailout package. The two finance ministry officials said the Saudi package would include deposits boosting the country's foreign reserves and oil on deferred payments. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said earlier he hoped talks with Saudi Arabia would materialise soon. "We are expecting that we will, God willing, get financial support from Saudi Arabia, most likely this month," one of the senior officials told Reuters, adding it would be around a $4 billion package. "Pakistan has brotherly relations with Saudi Arabia.

☆ Six Pakistanis, one Afghan soldier killed in cross-border clash
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Gul Yousafzai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

QUETTA, Pakistan, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Six Pakistani civilians and one Afghan soldier were killed on Sunday in cross border shelling and gunfire, according to officials on both sides of the frontier. Six civilians were killed and another 17 wounded on the Pakistani side by the Afghan fire, leading Pakistani troops to retaliate, the Pakistan military said in a statement. Afghan security sources said the clash started after Pakistani forces demanded Afghan forces stop building a new checkpost on their side of the border. Kandahar police spokesman Hafiz Saber said one Afghan soldier was killed and 10 other people, including three civilians, were injured. The busy Afghan border crossing at Chaman, used for trade and transit, was closed for some hours before reopening, officials on both sides said.

☆ Pakistan Curbs Imports as It Struggles to Convince IMF of Economic Plans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Saeed Shah | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan—Pakistan is restricting imports and trying to get an International Monetary Fund bailout back on track, as it struggles to find dollars to pay a mountain of foreign debt. The country disclosed this week that its foreign-exchange reserves have dwindled to the lowest level in nearly four years, with only enough to cover about six weeks of imports.

☆ Pakistani journalist's killing in Kenya a pre-meditated murder -report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Asif Shahzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

TV journalist Arshad Sharif, who had fled Pakistan citing threats to his life, was shot dead in Nairobi in October. The fact-finding team highlighted one wound in particular on Sharif's back, saying it appeared to have been inflicted from relatively close range. The fact-finding team's report also pointed out apparent contradictions in the autopsy reports in Kenya and Pakistan. The post-mortem report in Pakistan identified 12 injuries on Sharif's body whereas the Kenyan report identified just two injuries pertaining to gunshot wounds. The fact-finding team report said doctors believed the injures may be the result of torture or a struggle, but it could not be established until verified by the doctor who conducted the post mortem in Kenya.

☆ Taliban carry out first public execution since Afghan takeover
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

ISLAMABAD — The Taliban authorities on Wednesday executed an Afghan convicted of killing another man, the first public execution since the former insurgents took over Afghanistan last year, a spokesman said. The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the victim’s father, took place in western Farah province before hundreds of spectators and many top Taliban officials, according to Zabihullah Mujahid, the top Taliban government spokesman. The executed man, identified as Tajmir from Herat province, was convicted of killing another man five years ago and stealing his motorcycle and mobile phone. Taliban security forces had arrested Tajmir after the victim’s family accused him of the crime, said a statement from Mujahid, the spokesman. During the previous Taliban rule of the country in the late 1990s, the group carried out public executions, floggings and stoning of those convicted of crimes in Taliban courts.

☆ Pakistan FX reserves held by central bank fall to $6.7 bln
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ISLAMABAD, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank fell $784 million to $6.7 billion as of Dec. 2, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday, as the country struggles to meet external financing needs. "This decline is on account of the payment of US $1,000 million against maturing Pakistan International Sukuk and some other external debt repayments," the statement said. It said some debt repayments were offset by inflows, mainly $500 million received from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Local media reported on Thursday that Pakistan had sought $4.2 billion from Saudi Arabia to shore up its reserves. Saudi Arabia, China and the United Arab Emirates have already parked funds in Pakistan's central bank to help Islamabad.

☆ Pakistan's top court sets up supervisory panel on TV scribe killed in Kenya
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

[1/2] A general view of the Supreme Court of Pakistan building at the evening hours, in Islamabad, Pakistan April 7, 2022. REUTERS/Akhtar SoomroISLAMABAD, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court has set up a panel of five judges to supervise an investigation into the killing of a prominent television journalist shot dead in Kenya, it said on Tuesday. The court has sought initial responses from the South Asian nation's foreign office, the interior ministry and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), it said in a statement. The matter, voluntarily taken up by the court, centres on an incident in which the journalist, Arshad Sharif, was shot and killed in October on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Russia to sell discounted crude to Pakistan -minister
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Asif Shahzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ISLAMABAD, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Russia will sell crude oil to Pakistan at a discounted price, Pakistan's state minister for petroleum said on Monday, days after he led a government team to Moscow to negotiate the deal. Russia will also supply discounted petrol and diesel to Pakistan, Musaddiq Malik told a news briefing in Islamabad. He did not specify the price of the discounted Russian oil or say whether the imports would comply with a $60 per barrel cap imposed by the G7 rich nations and the EU on Russian seaborne oil from this week over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Local media has also reported that oil supplies remain tenuous owing to difficulties in paying for imports. Moscow and Islamabad have also long been working on a gas pipeline project with not much success.

☆ Islamic State claims responsibility for attack on Pakistani embassy in Kabul
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Dec 4 (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on Pakistan's embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday, a statement carried by one of the militant group's affiliated channels on Telegram said on Sunday. The embassy came under attack on Friday with gunfire wounding a Pakistani security guard, officials said, in what Islamabad called an attempt to assassinate its head of mission, who was unhurt. Islamic state claimed the attack was carried by two of its members armed with "medium and sniper weapons" and was targeting the ambassador and his guards who were present at the courtyard of the embassy. The attack injured at least one guard and caused damage to the building, the group said. Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Pakistan repays $1 bln international bond -central bank spokesman
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam | Fergal Smith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ISLAMABAD, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Pakistan repaid a $1 billion international bond, the central bank spokesman said on Friday, amidst growing uncertainty about the country's ability to meet external financing obligations. "The payment (was) made to Citibank New York," State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) spokesman Abid Qamar told Reuters in a message. The bond repayment, which matures on Dec. 5, totals $1.08 billion, the central bank chief said last week. During the week ended Nov. 25, SBP reserves stood at $7,498.7 million. Saudi Arabia on Friday also extended the term of a $3 billion deposit it has in Pakistan's foreign reserves.

☆ Pakistani embassy in Kabul attacked, one injured
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A spokesperson for Kabul police said the embassy compound was targeted by gunfire from a nearby building. Pakistan's Foreign Office said the attack had been aimed at the head of mission, Ubaid-ur-Rehman Nizamani. It said Nizamani was safe, but a Pakistani security guard, Sepoy Israr Mohammad, was critically wounded in the attack while protecting the ambassador. A spokesperson for Pakistan's foreign office said they had no plans to evacuate the embassy after the incident. "(The) Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns the attempted shooting and failed attack on the Pakistani embassy in Kabul," spokesperson Abdul Qahar Balkhi said on Twitter, adding that Taliban security agencies would investigate.

☆ Saudi Arabia extends $3 bln deposit term to cash-strapped Pakistan
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

CAIRO, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Friday extended the term of a $3 billion deposit it made to Pakistan's foreign reserves, state news agency SPA and Pakistan's central bank said. Saudi Arabia deposited the money in Pakistan's central bank late last year as a loan to shore up the cash-strapped country's reserves. The central bank reserves stood at $7.5 billion as of Nov 25 this year. "Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) extended the term for the deposit provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the amount of 3 billion dollars to the State Bank of Pakistan," the bank said in a statement. Reporting by Alaa Swilam in Cairo and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Editing by Alex Richardson, William MacleanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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