Pakistan condemns Israel for cutting off Gaza’s power supply, blocking aid

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s coordinator to the federal tax ombudsman on Tuesday urged entrepreneurs to seize business opportunities offered by Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program and use it to expand their businesses and access new markets, state-run media reported. 

Saudi Arabia is consolidating its economy on modern lines under the Vision 2030, which is a strategic development framework intended to cut the Kingdom’s reliance on oil. It is aimed at developing public service sectors such as health, education, infrastructure, recreation and tourism.

Speaking to a delegation of food exporters in Riyadh, Saif Ur Rehman, coordinator to the federal tax ombudsman, emphasized the “transformative potential” of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 program, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said. He urged Pakistani businessmen to actively explore partnerships and investments in Saudi Arabia and leverage strategic ties between the two countries. 

“He noted that ‘Saudi Vision 2030’ offers a unique platform for Pakistani entrepreneurs to expand their businesses, access new markets and contribute to the economic development of both countries,” APP reported. 

Rehman urged entrepreneurs to engage proactively with people in Saudi Arabia by participating in trade exhibitions, business forums and networking events to build lasting connections.

He underscored the Pakistani government’s role in facilitating these opportunities, assuring entrepreneurs of continued support through policy initiatives and diplomatic efforts.

“By capitalizing on these initiatives, Pakistani industrialists can play a pivotal role in strengthening bilateral relations, driving economic growth, and exploring untapped potential for collaboration between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in the years to come,” APP quoted Rehman as saying. 

Pakistan enjoys strong ties with Saudi Arabia and cooperates with the Kingdom in several areas such as defense, trade, agriculture, livestock and other priority sectors. 

Pakistanis constitute one of the largest migrant communities in Saudi Arabia, with more than 2 million working in the Kingdom and making it the largest source of remittances to the South Asian country. While a significant majority of these Pakistanis comprises blue-collar workers, there is still a growing demand for skilled labor in the Kingdom as it seeks to modernize its economy.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s United Nations Ambassador Munir Akram has said that Islamabad has evidence of Kabul being “complicit” in cross-border militant attacks in Pakistan, the country’s mission to the UN announced on Tuesday, warning that surging militancy in Afghanistan poses security dangers for its immediate neighbors. 

Akram’s statement at the UN comes amid Pakistan’s struggles to contain rising militancy in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province since November 2022, when a fragile truce between the state and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or the Pakistani Taliban, collapsed. Pakistan says the takeover of Kabul by the Afghan Taliban in 2021 has emboldened the group as it is able to operate out of and launch attacks from safe havens in neighboring Afghanistan, whose government denies the charges.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council on Afghanistan’s security, Akram said the TTP is the “largest designated terrorist organization operating from Afghanistan” with an estimated 6,000 fighters. Akram said that through safe havens close to the border with Pakistan, the TTP has conducted numerous attacks against Pakistani soldiers, civilians and institutions resulting in “hundreds of casualties.”

“We have evidence that the Kabul authorities have not only tolerated but are complicit in the conduct of the TTP’s terrorist cross-border attacks,” Akram said according to a statement by Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN on Mar. 10. 

He said the TTP is collaborating with other “terrorist groups” present in Afghanistan, such as the separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and its Majeed Brigade unit, reiterating that they seek to destabilize Pakistan and disrupt its economic cooperation with China. 

The BLA is the most prominent separatist militant outfit in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province by land but its poorest by almost all economic indicators. The outfit has launched attacks against Pakistan’s security forces and targeted Chinese interests in Balochistan and Karachi frequently in the past. The BLA accuses Pakistan’s federal government and China— which has invested in Balochistan through an infrastructure network— of denying the locals a share in the province’s natural resources. Both governments deny the allegations and say they are working for Balochistan’s development.

Without naming India, Akram said the TTP also receives support from Pakistan’s “principal adversary.”

“TTP, perceived as enjoying Kabul’s patronage, is fast emerging an umbrella organization for regional terrorist groups whose objectives are to undermine the security and stability of all of Afghanistan’s neighbors,” he said. “Given its long association with Al-Qaeda, the TTP could pose not only a regional but a global terrorist threat.”

He pointed out the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American forces from the country, adding that aid for the 20 million people in Afghanistan should be “unconditional and generous.”

“Pakistan supports the call to unfreeze the assets of Afghanistan’s Central Bank,” he said. “This will revive the banking sector and end the cash transfers which are partially responsible for money flowing into the hands of terrorists.”

Akram concluded his statement by saying that the destinies of Pakistan and Afghanistan are intertwined via shared bonds of history, geography, ethnicity, language, faith and culture. 

“We are steadfast in our commitment to support all possible efforts at the bilateral, regional and global level to achieve peace, stability and development in Afghanistan,” he said. “After 40 years of conflict, the people of Afghanistan deserve no less.”