Pakistan presidential election on Tuesday, PTI candidate likely to win

Pakistani lawmakers are set to choose a new President on Tuesday, an election in which the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party's candidate Arif Alvi is expected to win as the Opposition parties failed to field a joint candidate.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday completed preparations for the election. Polling stations have been set up in all four provincial assemblies in addition to the National Assembly. Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Raza Khan will serve as the Returning Officer.

Outgoing President Mamnoon Hussain's tenure ends on September 8. He had declined for re-election to a second 5-year term.

Apart from Alvi, the Pakistan Peoples Party's Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan and Jamiat-e-Ulema (F) chief Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman are also in the race.

Alvi is a Karachi-based dentist-turned-politician, who reportedly stood by prime minister Imran Khan during his political career.

India-Pakistan to hold talks on water storage, hydro projects this week

Pakistan will reiterate its serious objections over two water storage and hydropower projects being built by India during a meet with New Delhi this week in Lahore.

A government official told Dawn news on Sunday that Indian Water Commissioner P K Saxena, along with a delegation, was expected to reach Lahore on Tuesday to begin the discussions with his Pakistani counterpart Syed Mehr Ali Shah from Wednesday.

The official said Pakistan would raise its concerns over the 1000MW Pakal Dul and 48MW Lower Kalnai hydroelectric projects on two different tributaries of River Chenab despite Islamabad's serious objections over their designs.

Pakistan has been raising reservations over the designs of the two projects and would like India to either modify it to make them compliant to 1960 Indus Waters Treaty or put the projects on hold until an understanding is reached between the two sides.

Former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif leaves for London to see his ailing wife

Ousted Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday left for London along with his daughter Maryam Nawaz to see his ailing wife Kulsoom Nawaz, despite the country's anti-graft body's request to put their names on the Exit Control List (ECL) fearing they may not return to face corruption cases in court. Sharif, 68, and his daughter left for London via Qatar from the Lahore airport this morning. "Leaving for London. We will be back next week. Can't wait to meet and hug Ami (mother)," Maryam tweeted. Leaving for London. Back next week IA. Can’t wait to meet & hug Ami. Request all for special dua for her health. May Allah bless you all. — Maryam Nawaz Sharif (@MaryamNSharif) June 14, 2018 Kulsoom is in an advanced stage of throat cancer and is undergoing treatment in London. On the other hand, the caretaker government has neither rejected nor accepted the National Accountability Bureau's to place the Sharif family members on the ECL. The caretaker government could not decide whether to entertain NAB's request or not in this regard, an official of interior ministry said.

Pakistan devalues rupee again, US dollar hits record high against currency

Pakistan’s central bank devalued the currency for a third time since December amid mounting economic pressure and speculation that the country may need International Monetary Fund support. The rupee dropped as much as 5.1 percent to 121.5 a dollar in trade on Monday, according to bank foreign-exchange traders who asked not to be identified since they are not authorized to speak to the media. 

The central bank could not be immediately reached for a comment. The move comes after Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to the lowest in more than three years and the current account deficit widened by 50 percent. The nation’s currency is the worst performer in Asia since December before today’s drop, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Pakistan appointed Nasir ul Mulk, a former chief justice, as Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister this month with a mandate of running the government until a new administration is elected in a nationwide poll next month.

China to roll over $500 mn loan to State Bank of Pakistan for one more year

China has agreed to roll over a loan of $500 million that it has placed with the State Bank of Pakistan as Islamabad's official foreign currency reserves remain in a precarious position despite taking $44 billion in loans in the past five years.

The Express Tribune reported that the People's Bank of China, through China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), had deposited $ 500 million with the SBP in June 2012.

The loan is going to mature in the first week of June this year, but China has agreed to roll it over for one more year, said sources in the ministry of finance.

Pakistan cannot use the $500 million Chinese deposit and its only purpose is to shore up foreign currency reserves.

According to sources, the loan has been rescheduled at the same old terms. Since the money could not be utilised, the interest rate was only 1 per cent, they said.

During the week ended May 18, the SBP's gross reserves dropped $ 479 million to only $10.32 billion due to payments on account of external debt servicing. The reserves are barely enough for two months of imports and are below the International Monetary Fund's adequacy levels.

Modi wants to enforce supremacy; not an advocate of peace talks: Musharraf

Pakistan and India were on the path of peace and reconciliation under his regime, former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf has said while claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not an "advocate of peace talks".

The former president and chief of All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) in an interview with Voice of America claimed that when he was in power, India and Pakistan were on the "path of reconciliation", but that is not the case anymore, the Express Tribune reported.

"At the time, I spoke to both the prime ministers, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, they were both from different political parties but we wanted to move forward from the disputes, he said.

The 74-year-old retired general, who is facing high treason charges, has been living in Dubai since last year when he was allowed to leave Pakistan for medical treatment.

Musharraf claimed that a four-point initiation of peace was strategised by the former president and was put in implementation by the leadership of both countries.

The four points of contention included Siachen and Kashmir as well, he said.

Did Manmohan Singh get the idea of 90s' reforms from a Pakistani economist?

India borrowed Pakistan's economic and reforms plans and implemented them successfully while "we squandered the opportunity largely because of political instability", Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal has said.

"During the 90s the then Indian Finance Minister Manmohan Singh borrowed economic reforms strategies from his Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz and successfully implemented them in India," said Iqbal, who also holds the portfolio of Interior Minister.

He was speaking at the inauguration of Pakistan National Centre for Cyber Security in Islamabad, the Express Tribune reported on Tuesday.

Iqbal claimed that Bangladesh also successfully used the same strategies but Pakistan could not put its own plans to use as the decade was lost to political instability, the report said.

Pak has external debt problem and its date with China is proving expensive

We’re about two months away from elections in Pakistan -- elections that are almost certain to be shrouded in controversy, one way or another. And, worryingly for Pakistan, it appears that the economy is weakening, just in time for the instability that might follow from the country’s turbulent politics.

Under the outgoing government -- led till last April by Nawaz Sharif, three times prime minister -- the economy had appeared to be doing well. In fact, a new energy seemed to have infused Pakistan’s entrepreneurs and investors; in the last fiscal year, the economy grew at 5.8 per cent, the fastest rate in 13 years.

That now appears set to change. Economists polled by Bloomberg worry that, in the coming year, growth will slow to 5.2 per cent -- a full percentage point below the government’s own optimistic forecast.

The problem is that much growth in the recent past has been unbalanced, depending particularly on investment from China in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) -- a branch of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s world-spanning Belt and Road Initiative -- and on Pakistani government spending that matches the CPEC’s aims. China’s big bet on Pakistan’s infrastructure has to be paid for somehow, in part through the purchase of Chinese heavy engineering and other inputs.

Espionage case: Ex-diplomat Madhuri Gupta convicted of spying for Pak's ISI

Former diplomat Madhuri Gupta, who had served at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was on Saturday sentenced to three years in jail for passing on sensitive information to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), with a Delhi court saying her actions caused a "severe security threat".

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma gave her the maximum sentence for the offences of spying and wrongful communication of information protected under the law, observing that an educated woman like her did not deserve any leniency.

Sixty-one-year-old Gupta, who was the Second Secretary (Press & Information) at the high commission from 2007 till her arrest on April 22, 2010, during a visit here, was held guilty yesterday under various provisions of the Official Secrets (OS) Act.

After passing the sentence, the court granted bail to Gupta to allow her to appeal against the conviction and the sentence.

She was suspected by Indian intelligence agencies of spying for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence since 2008.

Jack Ma's Alibaba acquires Pakistan e-commerce retail firm Daraz

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Wednesday said that it had purchased leading Pakistani online retailer Daraz, continuing its overseas expansion by gaining a foothold in the growing South Asian consumer market.

The move came after Alibaba announced in March a doubling of its investment in Southeast Asian e-commerce firm Lazada.

China is seeking closer economic ties with Asian neighbours including Pakistan through its Belt and Road initiative, a strategy to increase trade links that is led primarily by infrastructure projects.

Daraz, founded in 2012, was purchased from Rocket Internet, a Berlin-based incubator of online startups.

Its key markets are Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal, claiming 30,000 sellers and 500 brands on its platform, according to a statement by Alibaba.

Pakistan minister Ahsan Iqbal shot at, attacker nabbed; sad, says Malala

Pakistan's Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal was injured on Sunday in an assassination attempt when an unidentified man opened fire at him in Punjab province after he addressed a political rally, police said.

Following the incident, prominent Pakistani educational activist and the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai condemned the attack.

Iqbal, 59, was hit by a bullet on his right shoulder in the attack in his native Narowal's Kanjrur Tehsil after he addressed a rally, the police said.

Terming the incident as "sad", Malala, who is pursuing a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the Oxford University was quoted by Geo TV as saying, "I wish that every Pakistani [person] remains safe and that no one's life is in danger. I hope for a Pakistan where everyone lives peacefully."

The Nobel laureate further said that she was thankful to God that the murder attempt on Iqbal did not end up being fatal and prayed for his quick recovery.

The incident took place when the US-educated Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader was leaving the rally.

Sikh woman on Pak pilgrimage converts to Islam, marries Lahore man: Reports

A Sikh woman pilgrim from Punjab's Hoshiarpur district has reportedly converted to Islam and married a Lahore-based Pakistan national, reports reaching her family in Punjab have indicated.

Kiran Bala, daughter of Manohar Lal, wrote to the Pakistan Foreign Office that her visa should be extended as she married one Mohammad Azam, a resident of Lahore, during a ceremony held at Jamia Naeemia seminary in Lahore on April 16, The Express Tribune reported.

She went to Pakistan on her Indian passport with Pakistan visa valid till April 21.

Her old father-in-law, Tarsem Singh, alleged on Thursday that his daughter-in-law could have fallen into the hands of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and may have been forced to convert and remarry there.

Suicide bomber strikes Kabul's Shiite area; 7 killed, 22 injured

At least seven people were killed and 22 others injured in a suicide attack in western Kabul near where thousands of members of the Shia Hazara minority had gathered.

An Interior Ministry official told TOLO news that the explosion took place near the Mosalla-e-Mazar area in Police District 6.

Meanwhile, Afghan Public Health Ministry spokesman Wahidullah Majroh told EFE news that the toll could rise.

The gathering, which was attended by senior government officials, marked the death anniversary of Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan's former leader Abdul Ali Mazari.

Pakistan police arrests suspect in student's slaying over blasphemy rumors

Pakistani police say they have arrested a key suspect sought for inciting the lynching of a university student who was falsely accused of blasphemy in the country's northwest.

District police chief Saeed Khan said today that the man, identified as Arif Khan, had been in hiding since April 2016, after a mob killed 23-year-old Mohammad Mashal Khan at his university campus in the town of Mardan over unfounded rumors that he shared blasphemous content on social media.

The arrest came after an appellate court suspended three-year prison terms handed down last month to 25 suspects over the student's slaying.

In February, an anti-terrorism court sentenced one man to death and five others to life imprisonment. Those sentences are still unchanged.
Blasphemy against Islam is punishable by death in Pakistan..

Pak PM Abbasi meets Oli on 2-day Nepal visit to revive stalled SAARC meet

Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today met his Nepalese counterpart K P Sharma Oli here and discussed bilateral ties besides ways to revive the SAARC process.
During the meeting, Abbasi said he was positive to take forward the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) process.
According to sources, the two leaders talked about reviving the stalled SAARC process.
The 19th SAARC Summit, which was scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November 2016, was cancelled after India announced to boycott the meeting citing Pakistan's involvement in the Uri terror attack.

Three other SAARC members joined India, resulting in the cancellation of the summit.
"Prime Minister's visit will provide an opportunity to further expand and strengthen bilateral relations across all areas of mutual interest including trade, education, tourism, defence and people to people contacts. Ways of invigorating SAARC as an important regional organization will also be discussed," Pakistan's Foreign Office said earlier.

Pak proxy war causing planned Bangladeshi influx into Northeast: Army chief

Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat has said that Pakistan and China are behind illegal immigration in the northeast.

He made this statement while addressing North East Region of India Bridging Gaps and Securing Borders Summit in New Delhi on Wednesday.

"Migration from Bangladesh is due to two reasons. One, they are running out of space. Large areas get flooded during the monsoon and they have constricted area to stay. So, people will continue coming into our place," the Army Chief said.

He added: "The other issue is a planned immigration that is taking place because of our western neighbour (Pakistan). They will always try and ensure that this area is taken over through proxy warfare. This proxy game is being very well played by our western neighbour and supported by our northern neighbour (China).

He said we need to understand the problem in northeast.

"Is it identity problem? Is it a problem of development? Is it a problem of security? Or, is it a problem with the demography that is happening right now? I think it is all encompassing and we will have to look at it holistically," the Army Chief said.

SC barring Nawaz Sharif from heading PML-N may create havoc in Pakistan

The recent judgment on former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court of Pakistan might create havoc in the country, according to a meeting chaired by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

An exigent meeting of MQM's Coordination and Central Executive Committees was held under the chair of Convener Dr. Nadeem Ehsan.

The meeting deliberated upon the ongoing overall situation in Pakistan particularly the latest judgment of the apex court of Pakistan.

The meeting unanimously rejected the Supreme Court's judgment, which has barred Nawaz Sharif to lead his political party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as its president.

Pak developing new types of nukes, N Korea the most volatile threat: US

Pakistan is developing new types of nuclear weapons, including short-range tactical ones, that bring more risks to the region, America's intelligence chief warned.

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats' remarks came days after a group of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists struck the Sunjuwan Military Camp in Jammu on Saturday, killing seven people including six soldiers.

Pakistan is developing new types of nuclear weapons, including short-range tactical weapons, Coats told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on worldwide threats organised by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Nirmala Sitharaman says Pak to pay for Sunjuwan attack: Top 10 developments

Pakistan will pay for its "misadventure" and India reserved the right to respond at a "time of its choosing", Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday, while blaming Islamabad for the terrorist attack at the Indian Army's Sunjuwan military camp in Jammu. After a visit to the Army camp, Sitharaman also asserted that Islamabad was expanding its "arc of terror" to areas south of the Pir Panjal Range in the Jammu region.

The defence minister added that Rs 14.87 billion (Rs 1,487 crore) has been allocated to enhance security at military installations.
ALSO READ: Sunjwan: Army sets camp ablaze; Pak alleges India creating 'war hysteria'
A group of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists had struck the Sunjuwan military camp in the wee hours on Saturday, killing six people, including five soldiers. Three terrorists were also gunned down.

However, despite her strong words, the defence minister refused to "set a timeline" for when Pakistan would "pay for its misadventure".

Pakistan cannot be America's friend while supporting terror: Donald Trump

Citing his recent decision to suspend security assistance to Pakistan, US President Donald Trump has said that countries cannot hope to be friends with America while supporting or condoning terror.
"President Trump is making clear to our allies that they cannot be America's friend while supporting or condoning terror," the White House has said in a detailed fact sheet on his foreign policy, which was issued after his first State of the Union Address.

"The President has suspended security assistance to Pakistan, sending a long overdue message to aid recipients that we expect them to fully join us in combating terrorism," the White House said.
Last month, the Trump administration had suspended nearly $2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan accusing the country of not doing enough in the fight against terrorism.