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ISLAMABAD, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Pakistan's three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to arrive back home on Saturday after four years of self-imposed exile in London to kick-start his party campaign three months ahead of a general election. Sharif has not set foot in Pakistan since he left for London in 2019 to receive medical treatment while serving a 14-year prison sentence for corruption. When he was removed as premier in 2017, Pakistan's GDP growth rate was 5.8% and inflation was hovering around just 4%. In September, inflation registered at over 31% year-on-year, and growth is projected to be less than 2% this financial year. "Over his long political career, Sharif's relationship with the military brass has blown hot and cold.

Persons: Nawaz Sharif, Sharif, Imran Khan, Khan, Sharif's, Shehbaz Sharif, Michael Kugelman, Asif Shahzad, Stephen Coates Organizations: London, International Monetary Fund, South Asia, The Wilson, Thomson Locations: ISLAMABAD, London, Lahore, Dubai, Pakistan

He had arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Friday from Saudi Arabia after traveling there last week from London. He said Pakistan's economy and political situation both declined in recent years, according to multiple videos shared by his Pakistan Muslim League party on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. In 2020, an anti-graft court in Islamabad issued a warrant for his arrest after he failed to return home. Another federal court has granted Sharif bail until Oct. 24, giving him protection from arrest until then. His party became hugely unpopular after Khan's removal when Nawaz Sharif's brother Shehbaz Sharif replaced Khan, a former cricketer turned politician.

Persons: — Pakistan's, Nawaz Sharif, Sharif, Allah, ”, Imran Khan, Khan, Sharif's, Nawaz Sharif's, Shehbaz Sharif Organizations: United Arab Emirates, Pakistan Muslim League, Twitter Locations: ISLAMABAD, Dubai, London, Lahore, Pakistan, Islamabad, Saudi Arabia, Sharif

Sharif, who has served as Pakistan’s prime minister three times and was once ousted in a military coup, landed at Islamabad airport on Saturday, according to airport officials. Sharif was the former head of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), or the PML-N, one of two dynastic parties that have traditionally dominated the country’s politics. Supporters of Nawaz Sharif wait for his arrival for a welcoming rally at a park in Lahore on October 21, 2023. Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother, Shehbaz, welcomed the news of his brother’s bail, writing on Twitter that it was a “fundamental right.”“The elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, was disqualified based on a fictitious and fabricated story,” Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Nawaz Sharif is expected to head its election campaign.

Persons: Pakistan CNN — Nawaz Sharif, Sharif, Nawaz, Imran Khan, Khan’s, Nawaz Sharif, Aamir Qureshi, Nawaz Sharif’s, Shehbaz, ” “, ” Shehbaz Sharif, Khan, Shehbaz Sharif Organizations: Pakistan CNN, Pakistan Muslim League, Getty Locations: Islamabad, Pakistan, Sharif, Lahore

☆ Pakistan coach says ‘I’ve not seen so many grown men cry in all my life’ after first-ever World Cup qualifying round win
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Ben Morse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Stephen Constantine, the head coach of Pakistan’s men’s national football team, said he has “not seen so many grown men cry in all my life” after his side claimed its first-ever World Cup qualifying round win. Pakistan beat Cambodia 1-0 at Islamabad’s Jinnah Sports Stadium thanks to a 67th-minute goal from Harun Hamid. “It is an unbelievable atmosphere here, I’ve not seen so many grown men cry in all my life,” Constantine told the BBC. Pakistan is ranked 197th in the world and will now face matches against Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Jordan in the second round of qualifying, which begins in November. “We don’t have regular football; half of them have part-time jobs … and that makes the double result even more impressive.

Persons: Stephen Constantine, Pakistan’s, Harun Hamid, I’ve, ” Constantine, haven’t, “, I’m, Li shanze, Constantine, ” Organizations: CNN, football team, Pakistan, Islamabad’s Jinnah Sports, BBC, Saudi, Pakistan Football Federation, FIFA Locations: Cambodia, India, Nepal, Malawi, Sudan, Rwanda, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Jordan

Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif gestures as he boards a Lahore-bound flight due for departure, at Abu Dhabi International Airport, UAE July 13, 2018. REUTERS/Drazen Gorgic/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsISLAMABAD, Oct 19 (Reuters) - A Pakistan court on Thursday barred authorities from arresting a former three-time prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, upon his expected return home on Saturday from four years in self-imposed exile, his lawyer said. Nawaz Sharif was in 2018 convicted on corruption charges, which he denied, in two cases and sentenced to a total of 14 years in prison. Upon his return on Saturday, he would address a rally in his old stronghold of Lahore, Tarar said. Sharif returned to Pakistan and to politics in 2007.

Persons: Nawaz Sharif, Drazen Gorgic, Azam Nazeer Tarar, Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif, Tarar, Pervez Musharraf, Musharraf, Asif Shahzad, Muralikumar Anantharaman, Robert Birsel Organizations: Pakistani, Abu, Abu Dhabi International Airport, REUTERS, Rights, Thomson Locations: Lahore, Abu Dhabi, UAE, Rights ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, London, U.S

Afghan women who are living in Pakistan wait to get registered during a proof of registration drive at United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Peshawar, Pakistan September 30, 2021. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsWASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The United States "strongly" encouraged Afghanistan's neighbors, including Pakistan, to allow entry for Afghans seeking protection and urged them to uphold obligations in treatment of refugees, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday. Pakistan has hosted the largest number of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979. Islamabad says the number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan totaled 4.4 million. KEY QUOTE"We strongly encourage Afghanistan's neighbors, including Pakistan, to allow entry for Afghans seeking international protection and to coordinate with international humanitarian organizations ... to provide humanitarian assistance," a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters on Thursday.

Persons: Fayaz Aziz, Simon Lewis, Kanishka Singh Organizations: United Nations, Refugees, REUTERS, Rights, U.S . State Department, Thomson Locations: Pakistan, Peshawar, United States, Islamabad, Kabul, Afghanistan, U.S

☆ Why Pakistan's rupee has soared the most against the US dollar among global currencies
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Filip De Mott | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Pakistani rupee has become the top performer in global currency markets. The currency's strength could bring some relief to Pakistan's inflation, which hit 31.4% year-on-year in September. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Pakistani rupee has surged to the top of global currency markets, sharply increasing from a record low in early September. The rebound has made the rupee September's top global performer, based on LSEG data cited by CNBC. "Pakistan's rupee was the top performer globally this month as a government crackdown on the illegal dollar trade helped reverse its fortunes," it said.

Persons: — Organizations: Service, CNBC, HDFC Securities, South Korean, Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency, World Bank Locations: Islamabad

REUTERS/Ali Khara/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsKABUL, Oct 14 (Reuters) - The Taliban will attend China's Belt and Road Forum next week, a spokesman said on Saturday, underscoring Beijing's growing official ties with the administration, despite its lack of formal recognition by any government. Taliban officials and ministers have at times travelled to regional meetings, mostly those focussed on Afghanistan, but the Belt and Road Forum is among the highest-profile multilateral summits it has been invited to attend. China has been in talks with the Taliban over plans, begun under the previous foreign-backed government, over a possible huge copper mine in eastern Afghanistan. Officials from China, the Taliban and neighbouring Pakistan said in May they would like Belt and Road to include Afghanistan and for the flagship China Pakistan Economic Corridor to be extended across the border to Afghanistan. China has boosted engagement with the Taliban, becoming the first country to appoint an ambassador to Kabul since the Taliban took power, and invested in mining projects.

Persons: Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, Wang Yu, Ali Khara, Xi, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, Akhundzada Abdul Salam Jawad, Azizi, Akhundzada, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Charlotte, Joe Cash, William Mallard Organizations: Afghan, REUTERS, Rights, China Pakistan Economic, Taliban, Thomson Locations: China, Islamic Emirate, Afghanistan, Kabul, Rights KABUL, Beijing, Pakistan, China Pakistan, Charlotte Greenfield, Islamabad

But on Saturday, for the first time in seven years, these two rivals will play each other on Indian soil in the opening stages of Cricket World Cup, which India is hosting. As Pakistan’s cricket team arrived in India’s southern city of Hyderabad last month, they were met with rapturous applause from Indians waiting at the airport for the star players. Even the Pakistan cricket team were only able to obtain visas at the eleventh hour, after complaints of a delay in the process which the Pakistan Cricket Board said disrupted the team’s preparation for the event. Chaudhry Abdul Jalil, popularly known as Chacha Cricket, waves after crossing the India-Pakistan border in Wagah on March 29, 2011, on the eve of the India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup semi-final match. “The World Cup is the one with the history and the legacy, it’s the one you want to win,” Shah said.

Persons: Farees Shah, ”, Vijay Hazare, Pakistan's Amir Eliah, Babar Azam, Azam, Abdul Jalil, Chaudhry Abdul Jalil, Narinder Nanu, “, ” Hadeel Obaid, Asif Hassan, Punit Paranjpe, Mukerji, Imran Khan, “ Ajay Jadeja, Waqar Younis, Venkatesh Prasad, Amir Sohail, Divya Bakhshi Bhatnagar, It’s, Narendra Modi, Money Sharma, Modi, Modi –, Shah, ” Shah Organizations: Islamabad CNN —, Indian, Pakistan cricket, Cricket, Keystone, Hulton, Sri, Pakistan Cricket Board, CNN, India’s Sports Ministry, Ministry, Pakistan Cricket, Getty, Gaddafi, Pakistan, Pakistan …, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Western, India, Pakistani, team, – Locations: Delhi, Islamabad, Pakistan, Republic of India, Lahore, Amritsar, Hindu, India, New Delhi, India’s, Hyderabad, Sri Lanka, Wagah, AFP, Australia, Chennai, Gurgaon, Kashmir, UAE, Ahmedabad, India's, Gujarat, China

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A senior Taliban delegation was visiting western Afghanistan’s Herat province on Monday in the aftermath of the powerful earthquake that killed at least 2,000 people over the weekend and flattened entire villages, a statement said. Aid agencies and nongovernmental groups have appealed for the international community to come forward but only a handful of countries have publicly offered support, including neighboring China and Pakistan. “CARE is deeply saddened by the devastating earthquake that struck the western province of Herat," said Reshma Azmi, the group's deputy director for Afghanistan. "This comes less than seven months after another powerful earthquake hit the country, leaving thousands homeless and displaced.”Azimi was referring to the magnitude 6.5 earthquake in March that struck much of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. In neighboring Pakistan, the government held a special session to review aid for Afghanistan, including relief teams, food items and medicines, as well as tents and blankets.

Persons: —, Abdul Ghani Baradar, Reshma Azmi, Azimi, “, ”, Thamindri de Silva, Irfanullah Organizations: Taliban, Geological Survey, Aid, CARE USA, CARE International, CARE, Afghan Red Crescent Society Locations: ISLAMABAD, Herat, Kabul, The U.S, Afghanistan, Israel, Gaza, China, Pakistan

REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsISLAMABAD, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Friday that it would repatriate all illegal immigrants including hundreds of thousands of Afghan nationals in orderly phases rather than in one go. She did not have exact data on the total number of illegal immigrants, including Afghans. Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said on Tuesday some 1.73 million Afghans in Pakistan had no legal documents and the number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan totalled 4.4 million. Pakistan has hosted the largest number of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979. Pakistan's foreign minister Jalil Abbas Jilani defended the order for the departure of illegal immigrants, saying no other country allowed illegal immigrants to stay and live.

Persons: Fayaz Aziz, frayed, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, Sarfraz Bugti, Bugti, Jalil Abbas Jilani, Hong, Albee Zhang, Ryan Woo, Robert Birsel, William Maclean Organizations: United Nations, Refugees, REUTERS, Rights, Aid, Phoenix TV, Thomson Locations: Pakistan, Peshawar, Rights ISLAMABAD, Islamabad, Kabul, Afghanistan, U.S, Tibet, Beijing

Islamabad, Pakistan CNN —Pakistan, home to more than 1.7 million people who have fled violence in neighboring Afghanistan, is launching a mass deportation of “illegal immigrants,” authorities said Tuesday. But their presence in Pakistan has long been controversial, with police crackdowns and threats of deportation in previous years. Hundreds of Afghans have already been deported from Pakistan this year, according to volunteer groups, citing local records. Many Afghans fled the Soviet invasion of their country in 1979, settling in Pakistan during the biggest refugee crisis in the world at the time. “It is deeply concerning that the situation of Afghan refugees in Pakistan is not receiving due international attention.”

Persons: Sarfraz Bugti, ”, Bugti, Rizwan Tabassum Organizations: Pakistan CNN —, United Nations ’, Getty, National Apex Committee, Nonprofit, Amnesty Locations: Islamabad, Pakistan, Pakistan CNN — Pakistan, Afghanistan, Karachi, AFP, Soviet, Kabul, United States

RAW Chief Ravi Sinha, the only serving official publicly affiliated with the agency, did not return messages seeking comment. All six officials denied that RAW engages in targeted killings, noting that the agency has no mandate for such operations. Fallout from the Vancouver incident has also raised concerns that RAW will come under greater global monitoring, Indian intelligence officials and analysts said. "The current developments have undoubtedly increased global curiosity about RAW," said Dheeraj Paramesha Chaya, an expert on Indian intelligence at Britain's Hull University. "Our footprint is growing in parts of the world which were not important earlier," a recently retired senior RAW official said, without providing specifics.

Persons: Blair Gable, Justin Trudeau's, Hardeep Singh, RAW's, Narendra Modi, Ravi Sinha, Sinha, Ajit Doval, Paramesha, Trudeau, David Headley, Headley, Adrian Levy, Levy, Modi, Krishn Kaushik, Sanjeev Miglani, Katerina Ang Organizations: High Commission of, REUTERS, Canadian, Reuters, RAW, National, Britain's Hull University, Ottawa, Washington Post, MUMBAI RAW, Indian Foreign Ministry, Indian, Islamabad, American Embassy, Intelligence Bureau, Hull, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, India deniability, South, CIA, U.S . Council, Foreign Relations, PRS, Thomson Locations: High Commission of India, Ottawa , Ontario, Canada, DELHI, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vancouver, India, Ottawa, Mumbai, West, Delhi, China, Washington, U.S, MUMBAI, Islamabad, North America, Chicago, United States, London, Britain, Australia, South Asia, Europe, Southeast Asia, New Delhi

☆ Afghan Refugees Not Involved in Pakistan's Security Problems - Taliban
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Oct. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: 1 min

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Afghan refugees are not involved in Pakistan's security problems, a spokesman for the Taliban administration in Kabul said on Wednesday, calling on Islamabad to reconsider plans to expel illegal Afghan immigrants. Zabihullah Mujahid also said in a post on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the refugees should be "tolerated" by Pakistan as long as they did not leave voluntarily.

Persons: Zabihullah Mujahid Locations: ISLAMABAD, Kabul, Islamabad, Pakistan

The chief minister said the gang lured patients from hospitals and performed the operations privately in the region of Taxila, the city of Lahore and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Three deaths have so far been confirmed, according to the chief minister, but authorities were still confirming the data. Fawad had previously been arrested five times but was released on each occasion and was able to resume his operations, Naqvi said. Later, when he went to another doctor for further treatment, he was told he didn’t have a kidney, according to the chief minister. But the practice has continued and local media have reported that illegal kidney transplants have made a comeback in recent years.

Persons: Fawad, ”, Mohsin Naqvi, Naqvi, ” Naqvi, didn’t Organizations: Pakistan CNN — Police, Police Locations: Islamabad, Pakistan, Pakistan’s Punjab, Fawad, Taxila, Lahore, Kashmir, “, Punjab

Rescue workers clear the rubble from a damaged mosque, after a suicide blast in Hangu, Pakistan September 29, 2023. It was not immediately clear how Pakistani authorities could ensure the illegal immigrants leave, or how they could find them to expel them. Bugti said some 1.73 million Afghan nationals in Pakistan had no legal documents to stay, adding a total of 4.4 million Afghan refugees lived in Pakistan. "There are no two opinions that we are attacked from within Afghanistan and Afghan nationals are involved in attacks on us," he said. Islamabad has received the largest influx of Afghan refugees since the Soviet invasion of Kabul in 1979.

Persons: Stringer, Sarfraz Bugti, Bugti, Asif Shahzad, Jon Boyle, Nick Macfie Organizations: REUTERS, Afghan, State, Thomson Locations: Hangu, Pakistan, ISLAMABAD, Kabul, Afghanistan, Islamabad, Taliban Pakistan, Afghan

Vaccine providers and the police assigned to protect them have been attacked during past anti-polio campaigns, which militants falsely claimed were a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. Pakistan has registered two new polio cases since January, a blow to the goal of eradicating a disease that affects the nervous system and can cause severe paralysis in children. Pakistan came close to eradicating polio in 2021, when only one case was reported, and last year reported about two dozen cases. The cases so far this year were reported from northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban rulers last week launched a four-day polio vaccine drive targeted at children under 5. In 2022, only two polio cases were reported from Afghanistan, raising hopes for the eradication of disease.

Persons: Anwaarul, Kakar Organizations: —, Caretaker Locations: ISLAMABAD, — Pakistan, Islamabad, Pakistan, Afghanistan

☆ Visas issued for Pakistan team for World Cup in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Amlan Chakraborty | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Visas have been issued for the Pakistan team for their participation in the 50-overs World Cup in India, the governing International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Monday, following complaints of a delay in the process. "Visas have been issued to the Pakistan team," an ICC spokesperson told Reuters without elaborating further. "There has been an extraordinary delay in getting clearance and securing Indian visas for the Pakistan team for ICC World Cup," Farooq said in the statement. "It's a matter of disappointment that Pakistan team has to go through the uncertainty ahead of the major tournament." Pakistan will play two warm-up matches before beginning their World Cup campaign against the Netherlands on Oct. 6.

Persons: Umar Farooq, Farooq, Amlan Chakraborty, Christian Radnedge Organizations: Pakistan, International Cricket Council, ICC, Pakistan Cricket Board, Reuters, Asia, Thomson Locations: DELHI, India, Islamabad, Pakistan, Netherlands, Ahmedabad, Sri Lanka, New Delhi

Details of how the Taliban intend to expand and manage mass surveillance, including obtaining the U.S. plan, have not been previously reported. "At the present we are working on a Kabul security map, which is (being completed) by security experts and (is taking) lots of time," he said. The Taliban strongly denies that an upgraded surveillance system would breach the rights of Afghans. A July U.N. monitoring report said there were up to 6,000 Islamic State fighters and their family members in Afghanistan. The Afghan "home base" locations of Islamic State fighters are in the eastern mountainous areas, said Schroden.

Persons: Ali Khara, Abdul Mateen Qani, Washington, didn't, Qani, Amrullah Saleh, Saleh, Jonathan Schroden, Matt Mahmoudi, ETIM, ETIM couldn't, Afghanistan Thomas West, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Charlotte, Jonathan Landay, David Kirton, Liz Lee, Katerina Ang Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Islamic, Huawei, U.S, of Interior, Reuters, U.S.A, U.S State Department, RIC, Bloomberg News, Foreign Ministry, NATO, Center for Naval, Protect Journalists, Taliban, Amnesty International, East Turkestan Islamic, Security, Special, State, Ece Toksabay, Thomson Locations: China, Kabul, Afghanistan, Rights KABUL, Islamic State, —, Turkey, Turkish, Pakistan, United States, East Turkestan, Xinjiang, State, Russian, Charlotte Greenfield, Islamabad, Washington, Shenzhen, Beijing, Ankara

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's health minister said Sunday that an injectable medicine that was causing a severe eye infection and sight loss in diabetic patients in the province of Punjab has been recalled and an investigation ordered while police are looking for the suppliers. Federal Health Minister Nadeem Jan said in Islamabad that a case has been lodged against the two absconding suppliers of locally manufactured injection Avastin. The Punjab government has formed a five-member committee of experts to look into the matter and report in three days. In a televised news conference along with Jan, provincial Health Minister Jamal Nasir said diabetic patients in Lahore, Kasur and other districts were administered Avastin injections to address retinal damage. However, the injections led to severe infections, ultimately resulting in the loss of sight of a dozen patients.

Persons: Nadeem Jan, Jamal Nasir, Jan Organizations: Federal, Associated Press Locations: ISLAMABAD, Punjab, Islamabad, Lahore, Kasur

☆ Hardeep Singh Nijjar: Who was the Sikh leader murdered in Canada?
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Sakshi Dayal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A sign outside the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara temple is seen after the killing on its grounds in June 2023 of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada September 18, 2023. Here is what is known about Hardeep Singh Nijjar, the man at the centre of the row. - He was initially associated with the Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) Sikh separatist group, according to India's counter-terrorist, National Investigation Agency. - For supporters demanding a so-called independent Sikh state of Khalistan, Nijjar was a prominent leader and a strong voice for the cause. - He was elected head of the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara, a Sikh place of worship, in Surrey, the Vancouver suburb where he lived.

Persons: Nanak, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, Chris Helgren, India's, Nijjar, Sakshi Dayal, YP Rajesh, Sharon Singleton Organizations: REUTERS, Khalistan Extremism Monitor, for Conflict Management, Babbar Khalsa International, National Investigation Agency, Pakistan's Inter, Services Intelligence, Khalistan Tiger Force, YP, Thomson Locations: Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, DELHI, Ottawa, New Delhi, India, Jalandhar district, India's, Punjab, Islamabad, Indian, Vancouver

[1/2] Lawyers, some of them look on television screen, dispaying the live broadcast of the proceeding from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, at the Sindh High Court Bar Association in Karachi, Pakistan September 18, 2023. The move marks the beginning of the tenure of new Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa as Pakistan's top judge. Isa's first move as the top judge was to open proceedings for live broadcast. "It is a majority consensus decision to telecast live," Isa said at the start of proceedings shown live by state-run broadcaster Pakistan Television. Previous attempts to broadcast proceedings live had been blocked by the court.

Persons: Akhtar Soomro, Qazi Faez Isa, Isa, Umar Ata Bandial, Isa's, Shehbaz Sharif, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Imran Khan, Faiz Hameed, Asif Shahzad, Mark Potter Organizations: Court Bar Association, REUTERS, Rights, Pakistan Television, Inter - Services Intelligence, Former, Thomson Locations: Pakistan, Sindh, Karachi, Rights ISLAMABAD

PESHAWAR/KABUL, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The main Afghanistan-Pakistan land border crossing reopened on Friday after being closed for nine days following firing between guards on both sides, a senior Pakistani official told Reuters. Thousands of travellers and hundreds of trucks laden with goods were left stranded last week by the closure the Torkham border crossing, at the western end of the fabled Khyber Pass. Spokespersons for Pakistan's foreign ministry and the Afghan authorities in Nangarhar province confirmed the reopening of the crossing. "The border closure was causing huge losses to traders and common people of the two neighbouring countries," Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry said. The Taliban foreign ministry criticised the closure of the crossing and said Pakistan security forces had fired on its border guards as they fixed an old security outpost.

Persons: It's, Abdul Nasir Khan, Torkham, Ziaul Haq Sarhadi, Amir Khan Muttaqi, Mushtaq Ali, Mohammad Yunus Yawar, Gibran Peshimam, Tom Hogue, Gerry Doyle, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: Reuters, Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Thomson Locations: PESHAWAR, KABUL, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Pakistan's Khyber, Nangarhar province, Pakistani, Peshawar, Jalalabad, Nangarhar, Kabul, Torkham

CNN —The Taliban has welcomed Zhao Sheng as China’s new ambassador to Afghanistan during a lavish ceremony held at the presidential palace in Kabul on Wednesday. China is among a handful of countries, including Pakistan, Iran and Russia that have maintained a diplomatic presence in Afghanistan since the Taliban retook control of the country in 2021. In the palace ceremony, Taliban Prime Minister Mohammad Hasan Akhund shook hands with Zhao and “accepted the credentials of the new Chinese Ambassador,” the prime minister’s office said on X, formerly known as Twitter. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement the appointment was the “normal rotation of China’s ambassador to Afghanistan” and was “intended to continue advancing dialogue and cooperation” between the two countries, according to Reuters. The ministry said, “China’s policy toward Afghanistan is clear and consistent.”CNN has reached out to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Persons: Zhao Sheng, Mohammad Hasan Akhund, Zhao, “, Mr Zhao Sheng, Zabiullah Mujahid, ”, Mujahid, Afghanistan ”, Qin Gang Organizations: CNN, Taliban, Honorable, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Reuters, Pakistan Economic Locations: Afghanistan, Kabul, Wednesday, China, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, China’s, Islamabad, Xinjiang

Tens of millions of dollars have poured back into Pakistan's interbank and openmarkets, dealers say, since raids on black market operators began on Sept. 6. Ninety percent were going to black market dealers, cutting our supply of foreign exchange," Bostan explained. While a crackdown on the black market was needed to stabilise the rupee, it "is a temporary fix," said Fahad Rauf, Head of Research at Ismail Iqbal Securities. High inflation and chronic external deficits lie at the heart of the currency's problem, and closing off people's access to black market dollars risks storing up pent-up demand. "There is an unprecedented demand for the dollar," Hanifullah Mohmand, a trader in the Peshawar market, said.

Persons: Akhtar Soomro, Asim Munir, Malik Bostan, Bostan, General Munir, Haji Luqman Khan, Sheikh Allauddin, ECAP, Fahad Rauf, Ismail Iqbal, Ariba Shahid, Mushtaq Ali, Gibran Peshimam, Simon Cameron, Moore Organizations: REUTERS, Pakistan, Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan, Reuters, Federal Investigation Agency, FIA, Inter, Services Intelligence, ISI, Locals, International Monetary Fund, IMF, Research, Ismail, Ismail Iqbal Securities, Thomson Locations: Karachi, Pakistan, KARACHI, PESHAWAR, Peshawar, Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta, Afghanistan

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