Pakistan honors female polio workers ahead of International Women’s Day

ISLAMABAD: The chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Maj Gen (retd) Hafeez ur Rehman, met Starlink officials in Spain this week as the international telecommunications provider seeks approvals to launch operations in Pakistan.
US businessman Elon Musk, who owns Starlink, has said the company is awaiting government approval to launch services in Pakistan. Starlink has completed registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), according to Musk. The PTA, however, has said Starlink is yet to obtain security clearance, a prerequisite for obtaining a license and launching services in Pakistan.
Starlink users access the Internet for data or voice communication by using a small dish antenna to bounce signals off a constellation of satellites overhead.
“The discussion focused on improving affordable broadband access, particularly in underserved areas, to bridge the digital divide and accelerate digital transformation,” the PTA said in a statement after the meeting between the authority’s chairman and Starlink officials on the sidelines of the GSMA Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona.
The PTA chairman confirmed that Starlink’s registration was in process with the national satellite regulatory body, a legal prerequisite for getting a PTA license for satellite-based Internet services.
“The Starlink team shared insights on satellite-based Internet solutions in competitive World of Cellular Mobile services and its potential impact on remote regions. Both sides discussed regulatory frameworks and operational strategies for seamless service integration,” the statement added.
Pakistan’s telecom sector has evolved significantly over the past two decades, but still faces challenges in terms of infrastructure development, especially in rural and remote areas, gaps that the possible entry of Starlink could address, its proponents say.
Pakistan, with a population of over 240 million, has experienced a 40 percent drop in Internet speeds in recent months, due to what is widely believed to be the government’s implementation of a nationwide firewall that it says is aimed at blocking malicious content and protecting networks.
The South Asian nation incurred $1.62 billion in losses due to Internet outages and social media shutdowns in 2024, surpassing losses in war-torn Sudan and Myanmar, according to a Top10VPN.com report. Rights activists say the disruptions are part of a state-led digital crackdown aimed at censoring critical voices. The government denies this.

ISLAMABAD: Dr. Mahrang Baloch, a leading rights activist for the ethnic Baloch minority in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, has said she has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, the most prestigious prize in the world that recognizes peace efforts.

Baloch leads the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), a human rights movement based in Balochistan that has led protests and sit-ins in the province, and organized marches to the federal capital, Islamabad, against alleged enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and other human rights abuses. The government and military, which has a huge presence in the rugged, impoverished region bordering Afghanistan and Iran, deny involvement. 

Baloch became an activist after her father’s abduction and eventual death in 2011 at the hands of what she says were state authorities, who deny the allegations. 

“Media personnel have been reaching out to me about this news, and I can confirm that it is true,’ Baloch wrote on X in response to a tweet about her being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

“I am deeply honored by this nomination, but it is not about me. It is about the thousands of Baloch who have been forcibly disappeared and the families demanding justice. The fight for human rights in Balochistan must not be ignored by global civil society and civilized nations.”

Nobel prize nominations are strictly kept a secret but several Norwegian parliamentarians and other academics are privileged to publicly announce their preferred candidates each year to raise publicity both for the nominee and the nominator.

Baloch insurgent groups have been fighting for a separate homeland for decades to win a larger share of benefits for the resource-rich Balochistan province. The military has long run intelligence-based operations against insurgent groups, who have escalated attacks in recent months on the military and nationals from longtime ally China, which is building key projects in the region, including a port at Gwadar.

Balochistan has also been plagued by enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings for decades. Families say men are picked up by security forces, disappear often for years, and are sometimes found dead, with no official explanation. Government and security officials deny involvement and say they are working for the uplift of the province through development projects. 

International rights bodies like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as well as opposition political parties have also long highlighted enforced disappearances targeting students, activists, journalists and human rights defenders in Balochistan. The army says many of Balochistan’s so-called disappeared have links to separatists. Military spokesmen have also variously accused rights movements like the BYC of being “terrorist proxies.”

Last year, Baloch was stopped at the airport and barred from traveling to New York to attend an event in New York City in honor of her and 99 others recognized on the 2024 TIME100 Next list.

In July last year, she was part of the Baloch Raji Muchi sit-in in Gwadar, an event aimed at uniting the Baloch against rights abuses. 

In 2023, Baloch led the Baloch Long March, journeying by foot with hundreds of others from the city of Turbat in Balochistan to Islamabad to protest human rights violations and enforced disappearances.