Ismail Gulgee, late Pakistani calligrapher and abstract artist, honored with dedicated museum

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the European Union (EU) officials held their 9th Counter-Terrorism Dialogue in Brussels and discussed regional and global challenges, including the situation in the Middle East and Afghanistan, the Pakistani foreign office said on Thursday.
The dialogue is part of the broader 2019 Strategic Engagement Plan between the EU and Pakistan, which seeks to enhance mutual engagement on security matters and regional cooperation. It reflects a shared determination to address the evolving challenges posed by militancy.
The development comes amid a turmoil in the Middle East resulting from Israeli military actions against several regional countries, including the war on Gaza, as well as fears among some nations, including Pakistan, about the resurgence of militant groups in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has repeatedly called on Israel and world powers for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon and Syria. Islamabad has also accused Afghanistan of supporting militant groups amid a recent surge in militancy in Pakistan’s western regions, an allegation denied by Kabul.
“The European Union and Pakistan condemned terrorism in all its forms and confirmed their steadfast commitment to fight it. The Dialogue allowed for an exchange on regional and global challenges, including the security implications of the situation in Afghanistan and in other areas, like the Middle East,” the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
“Both parties confirmed the importance of a strong cooperation with international partners in multilateral fora. This includes the work in the United Nations’ framework and in the Global Counter-Terrorism Forum, which the EU has been co-chairing since 2022.”
Abdul Hameed, director-general for counter-terrorism at the Pakistani foreign ministry, led the Pakistan side, while the EU delegation was headed by Maciej Stadejek, director for security and defense policy at the European External Action Service.
“The European Union and Pakistan also discussed areas for exchange of best practices and for concrete cooperation, with a focus on common actions on prevention and countering of violent extremism, recruitment and movement of foreign fighters, offline and online radicalization, combating terrorism financing and more topics that are relevant to address the growing challenges posed by terrorism,” the foreign office added.

JACOBABAD: In Pakistan’s hottest city, fresh and filtered water can quench the searing onslaught of climate change — but US President Donald Trump’s foreign aid freeze threatens its vital supply, an NGO says.
Sun-parched Jacobabad city in southern Sindh province sometimes surpasses 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in increasing heatwaves causing critical health problems like dehydration and heat-stroke.
In 2012, USAID committed a $66 million grant to uplift Sindh’s municipal services, including the flagship renovation of a plant pumping and purifying water from a canal 22 kilometers (14 miles) away.
But Pakistani non-profit HANDS says Trump’s aid embargo has blocked $1.5 million earmarked to make the scheme viable in the long-term, putting the project at risk “within a few months.”
“This has transformed our lives,” 25-year-old Tufail Ahmed told AFP in Jacobabad, where wintertime temperatures are already forecast to pass 30C next week.
“If the water supply is cut off it will be very difficult for us,” he added. “Survival will be challenging, as water is the most essential thing for life.”
Between September and mid-January Sindh saw rainfall 52 percent below average according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, with “moderate drought” predicted in the coming months.
Heatwaves are becoming hotter, longer and more frequent due to climate change, scientists say.
The project pipes in 1.5 million gallons (5.7 million liters) daily and serves about 350,000 people in Jacobabad, HANDS says — a city where grinding poverty is commonplace.
HANDS said it discovered Trump’s 90-day freeze on foreign assistance through media reports with no prior warning.
“Since everything is just suspended we have to withdraw our staff and we have to withdraw all services for this water project,” HANDS CEO Shaikh Tanveer Ahmed told AFP.
Forty-seven staff, including experts who manage the water purification and service the infrastructure, have been sent home.
The service will likely stop functioning “within the next few months,” Ahmed predicted, and the project will be “a total failure” unless another funder steps in.
The scheme is currently in the hands of the local government who lack the technical or revenue collection expertise HANDS was developing to fund the supply from bill payments, rather than donations.
The international aid community has been in a tailspin over Trump’s campaign to downsize or dismantle swathes of the US government — led by his top donor and the world’s richest man Elon Musk.
The most concentrated fire has been on Washington’s aid agency USAID, whose $42.8 billion budget represents 42 percent of humanitarian aid disbursed worldwide.
But it accounts for only between 0.7 and 1.4 percent of total US government spending in the last quarter century, according to the Pew Research Center.
Trump has claimed USAID is “run by radical lunatics” while Musk has described it as a “criminal organization” needing to be put “through the woodchipper.”
In Jacobabad, 47-year-old local social activist Abdul Ghani pleaded for its work to continue.
“If the supply is cut off it will severely affect the public,” he said. “Poverty is widespread here and we cannot afford alternatives.”
Residents complain the Jacobabad supply is patchy but still describe it as an invaluable service in a city where the alternative is buying water from private donkey-drawn tankers.
Eighteen-year-old student Noor Ahmed said before “our women had to walk for hours” to collect water.
HANDS says the private tankers have a monthly cost of up to 10 times more than their rate of 500 rupees ($1.80) and often contain contaminants like arsenic.
“The dirty water we used to buy was harmful to our health and falling ill would cost us even more,” said 55-year-old Sadruddin Lashari.
“This water is clean. The supply cannot be stopped,” he added.
Pakistan — home to more than 240 million people — ranks as the nation most affected by climate change, according to non-profit Germanwatch’s Climate Risk Index released this year and analizing data from 2022.
That year a third of the country was inundated by unprecedented monsoon floods killing more than 1,700 and causing an estimated $14.9 billion in damages after a punishing summer heatwave.
Jacobabad’s water system also suffered heavy damage in the 2010 floods which killed almost 1,800 and affected 21 million.
Pakistan produces less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions which scientists say are driving human-made climate change.
Islamabad has consistently called for countries which emit more to contribute to aid for its population suffering on the front line of climate change.
“It’s incredibly hot here year-round,” said Lashari. “We need water constantly.”