Four Afghanistan-based militants arrested in southwest Pakistan, were planning ‘major attack’ — state media

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan army chief General Syed Asim Munir said on Thursday Afghanistan continued to be a “safe haven” for militants, a day after the military said an attack on a cantonment in the country’s northwest had been planned and orchestrated from the neighboring country, 

Suicide bombers drove two vehicles packed with explosives into a military base in Bannu city in an attack staged by more than a dozen militants on Tuesday. The army said five soldiers and 13 civilians had been killed in the assault, which caused a partial collapse of the military compound’s outer wall and damaged nearby infrastructure, including a mosque and residential building.

Pakistan is battling a surge in attacks by its own chapter of the Taliban movement, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), on police and military in areas near the Afghan border. Islamabad says the militants operate from neighboring Afghanistan, whose rulers deny the charge.

“Terrorist groups … continued to operate from Afghan soil against Pakistan,” the military said in a statement, quoting Munir after he visited Bannu on Thursday. “The use of foreign weapons and equipment in recent terrorist attacks was clear evidence that Afghanistan remained a safe haven for such elements.”

The army chief added that “no entity would be allowed to disrupt Pakistan’s peace and stability.”

The Afghan government has not responded to Pakistan’s accusations. 

In a statement released on Wednesday, the military said intelligence reports had “unequivocally confirmed the physical involvement of Afghan nationals” in the Bannu attack, adding that evidence proved the attack was orchestrated and directed by insurgents operating from Afghanistan.

“Pakistan expects the Interim Afghan Government to uphold its responsibilities and deny its soil for terrorist activities against Pakistan. Pakistan reserves the right to take necessary measures in response to these threats emanating from across the border,” the military said.

Jaish-e-Fursan Muhammad, a militant faction affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released to media.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban authorities in Kabul of facilitating cross-border militant attacks, a charge Afghan authorities deny. 

The TTP was formed in 2007 as an umbrella organization of various hard-line groups operating individually in Pakistan.

The TTP pledges allegiance to, and gets its name from, the Afghan Taliban, but is not directly a part of the group that now rules Afghanistan. Its stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, as the Taliban have done in Afghanistan.

The TTP is responsible for some of the bloodiest attacks in Pakistan, including on churches and schools and the shooting of Malala Yousafzai, who survived the 2012 attack after she was targeted for her campaign against the Taliban’s efforts to deny women education.

Militants have targeted Bannu several times in the past also. Last November, a suicide car bomb killed 12 troops and wounded several others at a security post. In July, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle and other militants opened fire near the outer wall of the military facility.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Privatization Abdul Aleem Khan said on Thursday the privatization process of loss-making national carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) would be completed in three months. 

Cash-strapped Pakistan is looking to offload a 51-100 percent stake in debt-ridden PIA to raise funds and reform state-owned enterprises as envisaged under a $7 billion International Monetary Fund program approved last year. A final bidding process for the airline’s privatization last October attracted just one bid of $36 million for a 60 percent stake in the national flag carrier. The government had pre-qualified six groups in June, but only real-estate development company Blue World City participated in the bidding process, placing a bid that is below the government-set minimum price of 85 billion Pakistani rupees.

Among concerns raised by potential bidders for the PIA stake include policy continuity, honoring contracts, inconsistent government communication, unattractive terms and taxes on the sector, and the flag carrier’s legacy issues and reputation.

Officials say PIA’s cumulative losses alone are close to $3 billion, with the total asset valuation of the airline standing at approximately $572 million.

“Federal Minister further mentioned that to make PIA’s privatization more attractive, a new roadmap is being provided and it is expected that all stages of this privatization process will be completed within the next three months,” Khan’s office said in a statement after he met the Australian High Commissioner to Pakistan and discussed the privatization of PIA. 

Last year, PIA resumed operations in Europe, after a 2020 ban by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) over concerns about the ability of Pakistani authorities and its Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) to ensure compliance with international aviation standards. EASA and UK authorities both suspended permission for PIA to operate in the region after Pakistan began investigating the validity of pilots’ licenses following a deadly plane crash that killed 97 people.

Pakistan hopes new European routes and flying approval to the UK will boost PIA’s selling potential.

“The privatization minister emphasized that there is an expectation of better expressions of interest from investors this time around as the introduction of PIA flights to Europe has made the privatization environment even more lucrative and favorable,” the statement said. “Due to recent measures, the national airline is ready to become profitable again.”

Khan added that PIA flights to the UK would also begin in three months.