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Pakistan PM visits Turkish embassy amid ongoing relief efforts

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(Last Updated On: February 13, 2023)

As the world rallies in support of earthquake-stricken Turkey, leaders of multiple countries have reached out to Turkish officials to express condolences and to offer support in their time of need.

Among those has been Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who visited the Turkish Embassy in Islamabad on Monday to pay his respects.

Sharif was accompanied by Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayyaz Sadiq, and Minister for Law Azam Nazeer Tarrar, among others.

This comes after another plane carrying humanitarian aid from Pakistan landed in Turkey on Sunday. The PIA flight delivered five tonnes of relief goods.

A PIA spokesman confirmed that the airline had transported a 51-member rescue team to Turkey in the past week, along with a total so far of about 72 tonnes of relief assistance.

“The relief flights are being operated by Boeing-777 aircraft from Lahore and Islamabad,” he said, adding PIA is actively participating in the relief activities on behalf of the government of Pakistan.

In his visit on Monday to the Turkish embassy in Islamabad, Sharif assured the Turkish Ambassador Mehmet Paçaci “that in these testing times, the government and the people of Pakistan stand in strong solidarity with the people of Turkiye.”

According to a statement issued by his office, Sharif reiterated that “Pakistan will continue its rescue and relief efforts for Turkish brothers and sisters until the last affected person is rehabilitated”.

He also highlighted the relief efforts of Pakistan for the earthquake victims of Turkey. In turn, Paçaci thanked the people of Pakistan for their support.

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US says it doesn’t support Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project going forward

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

The U.S. said on Tuesday it does not support a Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project from going forward and cautioned about the risk of sanctions in doing business with Tehran, Reuters reported.

The Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline, known as the Peace Pipeline, opens new tab, is a long-term project between Tehran and Islamabad, and has faced delays and funding challenges for several years. The pipeline would transport natural gas from Iran to neighboring Pakistan.

Iran and Pakistan had signed a five-year trade plan in August 2023 and set a bilateral trade target at $5 billion.

Pakistan’s Petroleum Minister Musadik Malik said this week that his country was seeking a U.S. sanctions waiver for the gas pipeline from Iran, read the report.

“We always advise everyone that doing business with Iran runs the risk of touching upon and coming in contact with our sanctions, and would advise everyone to consider that very carefully,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told reporters in a press briefing.

“We do not support this pipeline going forward,” the spokesperson added, saying that Donald Lu, the State Department’s top official for South and Central Asia, had said as much to a congressional panel last week.

A few weeks ago, Pakistan and Iran engaged, opens new tab in tit-for-tat strikes when they exchanged drone and missile strikes on militant bases on each other’s territory, Reuters reported.

Washington’s relations, opens new tab with Iran have been thorny for a long time and the U.S. has issued multiple rounds of sanctions on Iranian entities.

Officially allies in fighting extremism, Pakistan and the U.S. have had a complicated relationship, opens new tab over the years, bound by Washington’s dependence on Pakistan to supply its troops during its long war in Afghanistan but plagued by accusations Islamabad played a double game.

Some Pakistani politicians have also accused Washington of meddling in Pakistan’s domestic politics, charges that Washington denies, read the report.

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Kyrgyzstan urges citizens not to fly to Russia unless necessary

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(Last Updated On: March 28, 2024)

Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry has urged its citizens to put off unnecessary travel to Russia after a deadly mass shooting at a concert hall near Moscow that was blamed on migrants from Central Asia, Reuters reported.

Last Friday’s attack by camouflague-clad gunmen has fanned anti-immigrant sentiment in Russia, especially towards labourers from the predominantly Muslim countries of Central Asia. Seven suspects originally from Tajikistan and one from Kyrgyzstan have been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention.

Islamic State has said it was responsible for the attack and has released video footage of the massacre, in which at least 139 people were killed and 182 wounded. Russia, without providing evidence, has said it suspects a Ukrainian link in the attack, something Kyiv strongly denies.

Videos and photographs circulated online appear to show the suspected gunmen in detention being tortured. The Kremlin declined to comment on the matter and many Russian politicians have praised the security officers involved in the detentions, read the report.

In an advisory issued this week, the Kyrgyz foreign ministry urged citizens to visit Russia only if necessary and, if they do, to make sure they have all the required documents on them at all times and comply with lawful orders of Russian police.

Authorities in neighbouring Uzbekistan issued similar advice to any Uzbek citizens currently in Russia or planning to go there, local media reported.

Hundreds of thousands of Central Asians work in Russia, and some have already said it has become tougher for them to do so. Some passengers, for example, refuse to board taxis with Tajik drivers.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that many passengers trying to fly to Moscow on Monday from the capital of Turkmenistan, another Central Asian state, were not allowed to board. It said they were told by immigration and law enforcement officials that this was connected to “the recent terrorist attack in Moscow”.

Any fall in the availability of migrant labour could cause problems for the Russian economy, which relies heavily on Central Asian workers in sectors such as construction, retail and delivery services.

Russia is suffering an overall labour shortage because of the demands of its war in Ukraine, which led it to call up 300,000 reservists to join the army in 2022 and prompted hundreds of thousands of others to flee the country, Reuters reported.

Alexandra Prokopenko, an economist and analyst at Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said the inflow of migrants had “almost stopped” since the start of the war – partly because immigrants could face pressure to join the Russian army and partly because of competition from other countries to attract them.

“All these people from Central Asia can go and work in Gulf states, South Korea or Turkey – they can get jobs and there would be no problems with money transfers because of (Western) sanctions, there would be fewer problems in terms of safety and security, and probably local authorities would treat them better than in Russia,” she said.

The head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, suggested Friday’s attack was an attempt by those who wish Russia ill to stir up interreligious tensions.

“An attempt was made to pit two traditional religions (Christianity and Islam) against each other, an attempt was made to divide people according to religious principles and also pit one against the other. Of course, we cannot allow anything like this in Russia,” the RIA news agency quoted him as saying.

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Russia’s FSB chief says U.S., Britain, Ukraine behind Moscow attack

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(Last Updated On: March 27, 2024)

The director of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, said on Tuesday that the United States, Britain and Ukraine were behind the Moscow concert hall attack that killed at least 139 people on Friday, state news agency TASS reported.

Ukraine has denied Russian accusations of involvement in the attack, for which the Daesh militant group claimed responsibility. Western countries have said their intelligence indicates that ISIS-K, Islamic State’s Afghan offshoot, was responsible, Reuters reported.

Russia said on Saturday it had arrested all four gunmen suspected of carrying out a shooting massacre in a concert hall near Moscow.

ISIS claimed responsibility for Friday’s rampage, but there were indications that Russia was pursuing a Ukrainian link, despite emphatic denials from Ukrainian officials that Kyiv had anything to do with it.

Moscow regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov said 133 bodies had been recovered from the rubble in 24 hours and doctors were “fighting for the lives of 107 people”. State TV editor Margarita Simonyan, without citing a source, had earlier given a toll of 143.

In a televised address, Putin said 11 people had been detained, including the four gunmen. “They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” he said.

Russia’s FSB security service said the gunmen had contacts in Ukraine and were captured near the border. It said they were being transferred to Moscow, Reuters reported.

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