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India succeeds hurting Pakistan’s trade interest in Afghanistan
Development of Iranian port Chabahar and connecting road to Afghanistan by India has started showing results causing huge trade deficit for Pakistan. A senior Pakistani official has acknowledged that India has succeeded to penetrate in Kabul declining their market share by more than 50 per cent falling to $ 1.2 billion from $ 2.7 billion during last two years.
According to Dawn, Zubain Motiwala, Chairman Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry who recently visited Kabul said on Friday that the penetration of India and China into Afghan market has limited Pakistan’s option to retain its market share. He said that India subsidises heavily on its exports. Pakistan has been losing even the traditional markets of flour, men and women’s clothes and red meat.
According to Motiwala, India has been providing goods at subsidised rates to capture the market and are providing air tickets with a 75pc rebate. Afghans find it easy to travel to India with cheap tickets and free multiple visas without police checks.
According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, exports to Afghanistan dropped to $1.271bn in FY17 from $1.437bn in FY16. Exports in the first quarter of 2017-18 stood at $319 million. Traditionally Kabul was natural market for Pakistani exports which is now changing because of cheaper products from China and India.
Rising India’s medical tourism has also affected Pakistan. Earlier thousands of Afghans used to visit Peshawar for medical treatment but now they prefer going to India due to cheaper treatments. “Medical tourism of Peshawar, which was mainly due to Afghans, is now at zero level; hospitals in Hayatabad are empty,” Motiwala added.
Large numbers of Peshawar traders have also lost their business. Out of 200 flour mills, about 100 have been closed down due to a drastic fall in the export of flour to Afghanistan.
Movement of containers’ traffic from Karachi port to Kabul have also decreased from average 70,000 to just 7000 which reflects the change of trading route for imported goods to Afghanistan.
Dawn report further says that Pakistan was the biggest supplier of shalwar qameez suits to Kabul which is now shifted to the supplies from India and China. This was a traditional Pakistani item in Afghan market.
Earlier on February 9, Eurasian Times had reported that over 80% of Afghanistan’s cargo traffic has shifted from Karachi seaport to Bandar Abbas and Chabahar ports in Iran. The move comes as a result to Pakistan’s new trade tariffs and inauguration of Chabahar port, which is expected to greatly impact the Pakistan’s role in trade transit for Afghanistan.
In October last year, India shipped its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan by sea through Chabahar port, launching a trade route bypassing Pakistan. The shipment was sent from Kandla seaport. The shipment was taken by trucks to Afghanistan from the Iranian port.
In May 2016, India, Iran, and Afghanistan had signed a historic three-nation deal to develop the strategic Chabahar port and build a transport and trade corridor through Afghanistan that could halve the time and cost of doing business with Europe.
Since 2001 US-led military operation to remove Taliban government in Afghanistan, militant groups used to attack coalition cargo travelling from Karachi to Kabul in Baluchistan province for black mailing US administration and exerting pressure on Pakistan government.
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Suicide bombing near Turkey Parliament building in Ankara, 2 cops injured
Turkey’s main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has slammed the attack in Ankara and stated that terrorism is a crime against humanity.
Turkey’s interior minister Ali Yerlikaya on Sunday asserted that two terrorists carried out a bomb attack in front of the ministry buildings in Ankara. He added that one of them died in the explosion and the other was “neutralised” by authorities there.
Earlier, Turkish media reported that an explosion was heard near the parliament and ministerial buildings, and broadcasters showed footage of debris scattered on a street near the Interior Ministry. A footage from Reuters showed soldiers, ambulances, fire trucks and an armoured vehicle gathered near the centre of Turkey’s capital, where the police have blocked multiple key roads.
Taking to social media X, formerly Twitter, Ali Yerlikaya, the interior minister, said that two police officers were slightly injured in the incident at 9:30 a.m. He added that two terrorists came with a light commercial vehicle in front of the entrance gate of the General Directorate of Security of their Ministry of Internal Affairs and carried out a bomb attack.
The interior minister further mentioned that one of the terrorists blew himself up and the other was neutralised, which usually means was killed. He noted that their struggle will continue until the last terrorist is neutralised.
Reports said that Ankara’s chief prosecutor initiated an investigation into what it also called a terrorist attack. Authorities did not identify any specific militant group, as yet.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has slammed the attack in Ankara and stated that terrorism is a crime against humanity. The leader of the Republican People’s Party mentioned that no matter from whom and where it came from, they will fight it together as a country and will never give treacherous ambitions a chance.
The concerned authorities in Ankara have cautioned the citizens over suspicious packages and bags that are being detonated in a controlled manner. Ankara Security Directorate asked citizens not to panic.
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Balochistan blast: Pakistan alleges India’s involvement in suicide attack, toll rises to 60
Sarfaraz Bugti told media that civil, military and all other institution will jointly strike against the elements involved in the Mastung suicide bombing.
Pakistan interior minister Sarfaraz Bugti in a shocking claim alleged India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) intelligence agency for the suicide blast in Balochistan. The blast that took place on Friday claimed the lives of nearly 60 people, leaving 60 others injured. The Indian government, on the other hand, is yet to make an official statement on Sarfaraz Bugti’s allegations.
The suicide bomb attack targeted a procession which gathered to celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday near the Madina Masjid at a place called Mastung. The blast tore through the mosque in the southern province of Balochistan after the bomber denoted his explosive near a police vehicle where the people gathered for the procession.
Sarfaraz Bugti told media at Quetta that civil, military and all other institution will jointly strike against the elements involved in the Mastung suicide bombing. Without providing much details or evidence, the Pakistan minister claimed that RAW is involved in the suicide attack.
Wasim Baig, the spokesman for Balochistan’s health department, asserted that seven more people had died in hospital since Friday, which had caused the rise in the death toll. He added that more patients remained in critical condition.
In addition, a second attack on Friday at a mosque in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had killed nearly five people. Police on Saturday lodged a report to initiate an investigation, mentioning that they had sent DNA from the suicide bomb attacker to be analysed.
So far, no group has claimed responsibility for either attack. A surge in terror attacks in Pakistan’s western provinces has cast a shadow on preparations and public campaigning in the run-up to January’s general elections, but until now the attacks had mostly targeted security forces.
The Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which is responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks in Pakistan since the group’s formation in 2007, denied responsibility for Friday’s blasts. On Saturday, a statement from the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) said that an FIR with murder charges and terrorism offences has been registered against an unidentified attacker.
The caretaker government of Balochistan announced three days of mourning in the wake of the attack.
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Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, Mahmood Qureshi held guilty in cipher case
The PTI leaders’ trial has been requested by the FIA, and it is expected that they would be sentenced in accordance with the law.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were found guilty on Saturday by Pakistan’s top investigating agency in the cypher case, a case involving the alleged exposure of state secrets.
The charge sheet against Khan, the Tehreek-e-Insaf party chairman, and Qureshi, who are both presently being held in custody on judicial remand, was submitted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to a special court set up under the Official Secrets Act, according to the Pakistan Observer website.
Imran Khan, 70, was detained last month following the filing of a complaint against him for allegedly breaking the Official Secrets Act by revealing a covert diplomatic cable (cypher) issued by the nation’s embassy in Washington last year in March.
The PTI leaders’ trial has been requested by the FIA, and it is expected that they would be sentenced in accordance with the law.
The vice chairman of PTI is 75-year-old Shah Mahmood Qureshi. Asad Umar, the former general secretary of the PTI, is not on the FIA’s list of suspects, but former principal secretary Azam Khan has been portrayed as a key witness in the FIA’s case against Imran Khan, according to GeoTV, a well-known news outlet. The challan also contains Azam Khan’s statement recorded under sections 161 and 164.
The speeches by Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Imran Khan from March 27 are also included in the FIA’s attachment.
The Pakistan Observer further noted that the FIA had provided the court with a list of 28 witnesses in addition to the charge sheet. According to the report, the list of witnesses includes names such as current foreign secretary Asad Majid, previous foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood, and additional foreign secretary Faisal Niaz Tirmizi.
Imran Khan had been imprisoned on remand three times earlier on September 26. Along with Qureshi, his judicial remand was initially extended until September 13 and then again until September 26.
The former PM was transferred from Attock prison to the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on the same day, one day after the Islamabad High Court instructed authorities to do so.
