‘Education apartheid’: schooling in crisis in Pakistan

KARACHI: Flyadeal, a low-cost Saudi airline, has commenced its operations in Pakistan with a fully booked inaugural flight carrying 186 passengers from Riyadh to Karachi, an airline official said on Saturday.
Headquartered in Jeddah, Flyadeal is a subsidiary of Saudi national flag carrier, Saudia, and was launched on Sept. 23, 2017. Initially, it flew to destinations within the Kingdom, but expanded its network by launching flights from Dammam to Cairo in Jun. 2022.
Flyadeal’s move to expand operations to Pakistan comes as Saudi Arabia seeks to boost its tourism sector under the Vision 2030 program, which aims to attract over 150 million domestic and international tourists annually to the Kingdom by the end of the decade.
The inaugural Flyadeal flight, F3-661, arrived at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport at 8:04am on Saturday, according to the Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA). 
“We are very proud that today was the first departure from Karachi to Riyadh of our flight,” Farooq S. Ahmad, Flyadeal’s head of sales told Arab News on Saturday.
“The capacity of the aircraft is 186 seats and the aircraft went full. In fact, [for] the next one week, all our flights are full to Jeddah and to Riyadh.”
The official said a ceremony was held at the Karachi’s Jinnah International airport to mark the occasion, with passengers receiving gifts by the airline. He said consumers inevitably benefit whenever a new airline enters the market and competition increases.
Ahmad highlighted an existing strong demand for travel between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, driven by religious tourism, the presence of a large Pakistani diaspora in the Kingdom, and general travel between the two countries.
“In the Pakistani market, Saudi Arabia is probably the number one destination,” Ahmad said. “There is, of course, the biggest attraction of Haramain Sharifain. So, people go for Hajj and Umrah there. Also, there’s a large diaspora of Pakistanis living in Saudi Arabia. So, there’s a lot of home return and, blue-collar, white-collar traffic going to Saudi Arabia.”
Flyadeal’s competitive fares are expected to appeal to a broad range of travelers, according to the airline official. While the airline operates on a low-cost model, it caters to all passenger segments.
“We are a low-cost airline, but it’s not that we are targeting people only on a budget. We have more than 200 flights per day out of Jeddah, Riyadh and Damam. And our clientele is of all categories,” Ahmad said.
“So, it’s not that we are only targeting a specific class of people or specific group of people. What it is that it’s just another option in the market. We are very competitive.”
Following immense response in Pakistan, Flyadeal has already decided to double its weekly flights from two to four.
The additional flights are scheduled to commence from March 1, according to Ahmad. The airline also has ambitious plans to expand its network within Pakistan.
“We have already increased our flights,” he shared. “We also have a complete plan of going to various parts of Pakistan and northern Pakistan. Eventually, Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, hopefully Multan and Sialkot. We have a very comprehensive plan for Pakistan.”
Flyadeal has established an office in Karachi and currently, it is partnering with Matchless Global Group as its General Sales Agent (GSA) in Pakistan, leveraging their existing network of offices, according to the official.
The airline’s expansion into Pakistan is also expected to create employment opportunities in the South Asia country.
“Any business opportunity to any country opens up opportunities for employment,” Ahmad added.

QUETTA: The Pakistan army said on Saturday 18 security forces had been killed while trying to thwart an “act of terrorism” in the country’s insurgency-plagued Balochistan province, while 23 militants had been killed in clearance operations following the attack. 
The incident took place in Kalat district’s Mangochar town on the night between Friday and Saturday when militants attempted to establish roadblocks in the area, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the army’s media wing. The banned Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of the most prominent separatist groups operating in the southwestern province, claimed responsibility. 
“Security Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies were immediately mobilized, who successfully thwarted the evil design of terrorists,” ISPR said. “However, during the conduct of operations, eighteen brave sons of soil, having fought gallantly, made the ultimate sacrifice and embraced shahadat.”
In a second statement, the army said it had conducted several “sanitization operations” following the Kalat attack, killing 23 militants. 
While the army did not specify which forces the 18 soldiers belonged to, government officials in Balochistan told Arab News they included 17 soldiers and one Frontier Corps trooper. 
Deputy Commissioner Kalat Bilal Shabbir said the attacks took place in the Pidrang, Khazeni and Mangochar Bazaar areas of Kalat. 
In one incident, a van carrying 17 soldiers from Panjgur to the provincial capital of Quetta was targeted near Khazeni, killing onboard. 
In another incident, one member of the FC force was killed in clashes with militants while three FC personnel were injured, Shabbir said, adding that militants also set a private bank on fire in Mangochar Bazaar. 
“The bodies of the slain soldiers were shifted to Quetta,” Shabbir said. 
The BLA claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it had captured a Pakistan security forces camp in Mangochar. Arab News could not independently verify the claim.
Assistant Commissioner Mangochar Ali Gul Hassan said two civilians were separately injured when a Quetta-Karachi passenger bus was sprayed with bullets in Mangochar bazaar. Security forces subsequently took control of the area.
“Security forces have completed the clearance operation in the area during the early hours of Saturday and the Quetta-Karachi highway (N-25) is open for traffic,” Hassan told Arab News.

BALOCHISTAN INSURGENCY
Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by landmass and rich in mineral resources, has long faced a low-level insurgency led by separatist groups like the BLA, who accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources while neglecting the local population.
Pakistani governments have for decades denied these allegations, saying they have prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.
The BLA has emerged as a significant security threat in recent months, carrying out major attacks in Balochistan and other parts of Pakistan and targeting security forces, ethnic Punjabis they consider outsiders in Balochistan, as well as Chinese interests and nationals working on investment projects.
Over 50 people, including security forces, were killed in August last year in a string of attacks in Balochistan claimed by the BLA. Last month, dozens of fighters of the separatist outfit gained control of a small town in Khuzdar for hours. They snatched weapons and vehicles from the local Levies paramilitary force and set the Levies station on fire.
Violence by Baloch separatist factions, primarily the BLA, killed about 300 people last year, according to official statistics, marking an escalation in the decades-long conflict.
Recent attacks on Chinese interests, including one in October 2024 in which two Chinese workers were killed in a suicide bombing in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, have forced Beijing to publicly criticize Pakistan and slowed work on the joint multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).