Month: June 2024

HYDERABAD: Five more people injured in the deadly gas cylinder blast in Hyderabad succumbed to their wounds on Wednesday, pushing up the number of casualties from the explosion to 23.

The Hyderabad assistant commissioner confirmed the latest deaths that come almost a week after the blast in the city’s densely populated area Preetabad.

The tragic explosion occurred last Thursday on May 30 at a shop of liquefied petroleum gas (LNG) cylinders, leaving two people dead on the spot and over 60 others injured.

However, the death toll continued to rise on a daily basis.

The dual explosions set the shop and other shops and houses present nearby ablaze. According to eyewitnesses, one of the fires also burned a rickshaw and injured several passers-by. People sitting in houses around the shop suffered burn injuries as well.

Some of the injured who sustained severe burns were shifted to Karachi’s Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital, while some were admitted to Civil Hospital Hyderabad and Combined Military Hospital.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday, assuring all-out facilitation to Chinese investors, and security of Chinese individuals, projects and investments in Pakistan, emphasised that mutually rewarding business-to-business cooperation was key to a bright future for the two people.

The prime minister, addressing the Pakistan-China Business Forum during his five-day China visit, highlighted bilateral trade and investment potential, especially in key sectors including transfer of Chinese technology, industry and partnership in IT, agriculture, mining, steel, textiles and renewable energy.

The premier repeatedly lauded the Chinese model of development and economic transformation and vowed to replicate the same in Pakistan.

“I will go back to Pakistan with this resolve, come what may, we will follow this model of great economic transformation in Pakistan,” he told the gathering of hundreds of business leaders from both countries.

“This model is enough to copy and simulate if we are sincere to our purpose and people. By God, I can tell you this is difficult but not impossible.”

As the Business Forum also marked the B2B matchmaking, he urged the Pakistani businessmen to sit with their Chinese counterparts and find out ways to move Chinese textile industries to Pakistan and make collaborations in steel and other industries.

“Today is the opportunity, time and moment to capture. Sit down with Chinese friends to have serious discussions. I want to ensure you not as prime minister but as Chief Executive of Pakistan that I will give you the fullest support so that businessmen of Pakistan and China get benefits jointly,” he remarked.

He told the forum that Pakistan had mineral deposits of around $10 trillion while the country’s exports stood at $30 billion. The minerals deposits offer huge potential to dig out and convert them into finished and semi-finished goods for exports.

He assured the Chinese side that his government had already started structural changes in Pakistan to control corruption.

PM Shehbaz drew a comparison between the $500 billion GDP of the 13-million city of Shenzhen and the $380 billion GDP of Pakistan with a 250 million population and called the Chinese city’s swift transformation a “miracle of this century” and the “eighth wonder of the world” necessitating for others to learn the lesson from.

He appreciated Chinese President Xi Jinping’s dynamic and visionary leadership which elevated his country to become the second-largest economy and military power within a short span of time and steered 700 million people out of poverty, despite pressures and challenges.

The prime minister also lauded President Xi’s vision of peace and development including the Belt and Road Initiative under China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) had benefited Pakistan immensely through huge investment.

Referring to a terror attack on Chinese workers in Besham in the recent past, the prime minister conveyed his condolence for the “dastardly and heart-wrenching” incident and called it “one of the saddest” days of his life when the whole nation felt saddened.

He said the government had taken various measures to ensure foolproof security to protect the lives of Chinese workers in Pakistan.

“I will spare no effort to protect the lives of Chinese workers and assure and guarantee that we will provide them security more than our children. This will never happen again,” he assured.

High-time to consider B2B joint ventures

In his remarks, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar sharing a past account of Pakistan’s good track record of economic performance being 24th largest economy, said the frequent change of governments and political uncertainty led to serious setbacks in the program.

However, he said PM Shehbaz had a very clear roadmap featuring export-led growth coupled with industrialisation and import-substitution-driven industry with a core idea to reduce the fiscal deficit.

The deputy prime minister highlighted the country’s potential in IT, agriculture, mining and minerals and said that the Business Forum was different from the previous typical events as it featured matchmaking of business entities from Pakistan and China.

He urged the Chinese businessmen to look into Pakistan’s potential and told them that the labour costs in Pakistan were very competitive. Besides, for facilitation and smooth processing of investment, the Special Investment Facilitation Council has been formed under the prime minister with all relevant ministries and provincial chief ministers working under one umbrella for the purpose.

“This is the high time you considered B2B joint ventures. The outline is clear. We are going for a deep structural economic transformation. We are working on a fast track to reach the target of joining G20. You will see, the government will be exiting from business,” he remarked.

He urged the Chinese firms to participate in the privatisation process of around 84 state-owned enterprises under consideration.

Agriculture GDP growth real bright spot

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb highlighting the country’s overall economic outlook told the gathering that all economic indicators were in the right direction and with a positive trajectory.

“The agriculture GDP growth during this fiscal year of 6.25% is a real bright spot,” he said.

He said on the current account side, remittances had held ground and the exports have moved up not only in terms of traditional sectors of textile but also agriculture, on the back of bumper crops, and Information Technology.

The finance minister said that the country’s current account deficit was going to be less than a billion dollars during this fiscal.

He said that Pakistan was in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a longer and larger programme, which was crucial to ensure permanence in microeconomic stability and to execute the structural changes.

Forum to pave new pathway for economic, trade cooperation

In his opening remarks, Pakistan’s Ambassador in Beijing Khalil Hashmi said the forum would pave the new pathway for economic and trade cooperation.

He said the forum had been organised in the city considering its remarkable growth, innovation culture, and global reputation for Shenzhen Speed.

He said the conference, attended by around 500 business leaders from Pakistan and China, would also provide an opportunity for the businessmen of both sides to network and forge mutually beneficial ventures.

United States President Joe Biden has congratulated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a phone call after his party, along with allies, clinched the most number of seats in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections.

According to the White House, the US president also discussed his national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s upcoming visit to India in the call with Modi.

Separately, the State Department expressed Washington’s anticipation towards its cooperation with New Delhi to ensure a free Indo-Pacific region.

Biden, a day earlier, posted about the US’s “friendship” with India on X, formerly Twitter.

“The friendship between our nations is only growing as we unlock a shared future of unlimited potential,” the president said in the post.

Modi, whose National Democratic Alliance retained power with a surprisingly slim majority in voting results announced on Tuesday, called the US-India partnership “a force for global good.”

The US and India have deepened ties in recent years given shared concerns about China’s growing power, even as New Delhi has maintained its long-standing relationship with Russia despite the war in Ukraine, and even as rights advocates have raised concerns about the human rights situation in India, particularly surrounding treatment of minorities.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller on Tuesday called the US-Indian relationship “a great partnership,” although the US had concerns about human rights, which he said it would continue to raise openly with New Delhi.

The White House’s statement after the call between the two leaders did not give the date of Sullivan’s upcoming New Delhi visit. It said he will engage with the Indian government on shared priorities, including over technology.

Last year, during a visit by Modi to the US, the two countries announced a range of agreements on semiconductors, critical minerals, technology, defense and space cooperation.

Ties between the two countries have been tested recently by the discovery of assassination plots against Sikh separatists in Canada and the United States.

In November, US authorities said an Indian government official had directed the plot in the attempted murder of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the United States and Canada.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in September that Canadian intelligence agencies were pursuing credible allegations linking the Indian government to the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in June 2023 in Canada.

Trudeau also congratulated Modi in a statement on Wednesday and said Canada was ready to advance ties between the countries “anchored to human rights, diversity, and the rule of law.”

Last month, the US ambassador to India said Washington was satisfied so far with India’s moves to ensure accountability in the alleged plots, but many steps were still needed and there must be consequences for what was a “red line for America.”

India has expressed concerns about the linkage to officials and dissociated itself from the plots, saying it would formally investigate the concerns.

Political analysts say Washington is restrained in public criticism because it hopes India will act as a counterweight to an expansionist China.

Four people died and dozens were injured when an express train crashed head-on with a freight train in the Czech city of Pardubice late Wednesday, an emergency services spokesperson said.

“I can confirm that four people suffered injuries incompatible with life,” local emergency spokeswoman Alena Kisiala told broadcaster Czech TV.

The accident had occurred shortly before 23:00 (2100 GMT) near the main train station in Pardubice, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) east of the capital Prague, Czech TV reported.

The express train had been carrying more than 300 passengers, many of them foreigners, it added.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala offered condolences on social media platform X, saying the crash was “a great disaster” and that “we all think of the victims and the injured”.

The interior and transport ministers arrived at the site around 01:00 am Thursday (2300 GMT Wednesday).

Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said the majority of the injuries were light, and that the passengers were evacuated into the train station building.

The express train, operated by the private Regiojet company, was heading to the western Ukrainian town of Chop close to the border with Slovakia.

The timetable shows the train leaving Prague at 1952 GMT was due to leave Pardubice at 2047 GMT.

It was expected in Chop at 0835 GMT on Thursday after crossing Slovakia.

Czech TV footage showed at least one of the carriages had derailed and that passengers were being ushered into buses near the Pardubice main station.

Rakusan said that police were identifying the passengers gathered at the train station after Regiojet had provided the passenger list.

Rescuers said that nine ambulance vans, two helicopters and more than 60 firefighters, both professional and voluntary, had been deployed.

“The rescue work was complicated because the first carriage was deformed. That made it hard to access the injured people,” firefighter Pavel Ber told reporters at the site.

Local fire brigade spokeswoman Vendula Horakova told Czech TV the freight train was transporting calcium carbide.

Investigation into the cause of the accident is underway, said Transport Minister Martin Kupka.

He added that the main train corridor connecting Prague with the second Czech city of Brno and the third city of Ostrava would remain closed for at least several hours.

Pardubice was also the scene of the worst-ever Czech railway accident in 1960 when 118 people died and around 100 were injured in a head-on collision of two passenger trains just north of the city.

Putin said that the West had repeatedly accused Russia of nuclear sabre-rattling, but said this was wrong, and pointed out that it was the United States which had used nuclear weapons against Japan in World War Two.

Putin was speaking to senior editors of foreign news agencies on the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. He said that Russia’s nuclear doctrine permits nuclear weapons to be used in response to a number of threats.

“For some reason, the West believes that Russia will never use it,” Putin said. “We have a nuclear doctrine, look what it says. If someone’s actions threaten our sovereignty and territorial integrity, we consider it possible for us to use all means at our disposal. This should not be taken lightly, superficially.”

 

In reply to a question about the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the Russian president said Moscow should “build up” relations with it.

“We have always believed that we need to deal with reality. The Taliban are in power in Afghanistan… We have to build up relations with the Taliban government.” Putin’s comments came hours after a Taliban delegation arrived in St Petersburg to attend the economic forum.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had said last week that Moscow planned to take the Taliban off its list of banned terrorist organizations, nearly three years after the group seized power from a US-backed government.

“They are the real power” in Afghanistan, Lavrov said at the time, speaking during a visit by Putin to Uzbekistan. The Taliban were designated a terrorist organisation by Moscow in 2003.

The Russian leader’s statement could further boost diplomacy between Moscow and Kabul, but would fall short of an official recognition of the Taliban government. Russia has for years fostered ties with the Taliban.

The head of US forces in Afghanistan alleged in 2018 that Moscow was providing weapons to the group accusations Moscow denied.

Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which had ruled for the past decade with an outright majority, had been expecting another landslide win.

But results of the six-week election released on Tuesday ran counter to exit polls, seeing the BJP lose its majority and sending it into quick-fire talks to lock in a 15-member coalition that would allow it to govern.

That grouping — the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition — announced late on Wednesday that they had agreed to form a government.

“We all unanimously choose respected NDA leader Narendra Modi as our leader,” a BJP-issued alliance statement said.

 

 

The alliance holds 293 seats in parliament, giving it control of the 543-seat body. Indian media reports said Modi would be sworn in as prime minister on Saturday.

Modi’s new reliance on “the minefield of coalition politics” means he faces the prospect of a far tougher-than-expected third term, the Hindustan Times warned in its Thursday editorial.

“Consensus building will have to be the bedrock of governance,” it added, noting the right-wing BJP will have to “recalibrate its expansion plans”.

Commentators and exit polls had projected an overwhelming victory for Modi, who critics have accused of leading the jailing of opposition figures and trampling on the rights of India’s 200-million-plus Muslim community.

 

But the BJP secured 240 seats in parliament, well down from the 303 it won five years ago and 32 short of a majority on its own.

The main opposition Congress party won 99 seats in a remarkable turnaround, almost doubling its 2019 tally of 52.

Analysts said Modi’s reliance on coalition partners means he faces the prospect of a far tougher-than-expected third term.

“It will force Modi to take the point of view of others — we shall see more democracy and a healthy parliament,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, who has written a biography of Modi.

“He will have to be a leader that he has never been; we will have to see a new Modi.”

“Today’s masters are not as strong as they were,” Christophe Jaffrelot, a professor at King’s College London.

“For the first time in his political career, Narendra Modi will have to play the coalition game.”

Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge said the result was a vote against Modi “and the substance and style of his politics”. “It is a huge political loss for him personally, apart from being a clear moral defeat as well,” he told party leaders at an opposition alliance meeting.

In a personal sting, Modi was re-elected to his constituency representing the Hindu holy city of Varanasi with a far lower margin of 152,300 votes. That compared with nearly half a million votes five years ago.

 

 

“Elections expressed a yearning for the defence of constitutional values and citizen dignity,” Ashutosh Varshney, a political scientist at Brown University, wrote in the Indian Express on Thursday.

Varshney argued Modi’s setback reflected concerns about what the “idea of India” meant to voters — against a backdrop of a “rise of animosities and polarisation in society, people’s concern about rights and the steeply rising inequalities”.

Some newspapers offered a less exhilarated view.

“India cuts Modi down,” The Telegraph daily, from the opposition stronghold state of West Bengal, splashed across its front page.

“Coalition Karma,” read the headline of India’s Mint newspaper.

‘New chapter of development’

While Modi faces a more complicated political environment at home, he won the plaudits of leaders from around the world.

 

 

US President Joe Biden congratulated Modi on his coalition’s victory, and the State Department said the United States hoped to work with the Hindu nationalist leader on a “free and open” Asia.

“The friendship between our nations is only growing,” Biden wrote, while French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated his “dear friend”.

 

 

 

 

China congratulated Modi and said it was “ready to work” with its neighbour, while the coalition’s win was also applauded by Britain’s Rishi Sunak, European Union chief Charles Michel, Russia and Japan.

 

 

 

 

Modi, 73, insisted on Tuesday night that the election results were a victory that ensured he would continue his agenda.

“Our third term will be one of big decisions and the country will write a new chapter of development,” Modi told a crowd of cheering supporters in the capital New Delhi after his win. “This is Modi’s guarantee.”

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi was grilled by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) at the Adiala jail over incidents related to the May 9 riots.

The eight-member JIT — led by Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohammad Usman — presented written questions and interrogated Qureshi for more than two and a half hours over his alleged involvement in last year’s violence.

The development comes days after Qureshi, incarcerated in the Adiala prison, was acquitted alongside PTI founder Imran Khan in two cases pertaining to the long march vandalism.

Judicial Magistrate Ehtesham Alam, on Monday, had approved the acquittal against the petitions filed by Khan and Qureshi.

Others absolved in the said cases included Ali Mohammad Khan, Murad Saeed and former party leader Asad Umar.

On the same day, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) annulled Khan and Qureshi’s conviction in the infamous cipher case containing charges of misusing and misplacing the classified diplomatic document.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb announced the short verdict on pleas challenging the conviction in the cipher case.

Both leaders were sentenced to 10 years each in prison in the cipher case in January this year.

A day earlier, the IHC, while hearing a petition filed by Qureshi seeking details of cases registered against him, was told that a total of 38 cases had been registered against the politico — of which 17 are registered in various police stations in Islamabad.

The report revealed that not a single case had been registered against the ex-FM in Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Furthermore, the court was told that Qureshi doesn’t face any case from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) or the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

During the hearing, PTI leader’s counsel Taimoor Malik stressed that his client was, in fact, in Karachi on May 9.

At this, the IHC chief justice questioned the genuineness of the cases and remarked that two or three cases would have made sense but 38 were beyond comprehension.

Seeking a report from the assistant attorney general, the court adjourned the hearing until next week.

Hundreds gathered in Taiwan on Tuesday night to commemorate the 35th anniversary of China’s deadly crackdown at Tiananmen Square, after the island’s President Lai Ching-te vowed that the memory of those killed would not disappear.

Chinese troops and tanks forcibly dispersed peaceful protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, quelling huge, weeks-long demonstrations demanding greater political freedoms. Decades on, China still censors any mention of the crackdown.

On Tuesday evening, hundreds of people converged around Taipei’s Liberty Square for an annual vigil, placing candles on a laid-flat banner with the date of the crackdown, while listening to activists criticise the Chinese government for alleged rights abuses.

China claims democratic, self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory, to be seized one day.

“We will continue to work hard to keep this historical memory alive and touch everyone who cares about Chinese democracy,” Lai, Taiwan’s newly inaugurated president, said in a Facebook post Tuesday.

“Because this reminds us that democracy and freedom are not easy to come by, we must… respond to autocracy with freedom, face the expansion of authoritarianism with courage.”

China has repeatedly lashed out against Lai, branding him a “dangerous separatist” and a “saboteur of peace and stability”.

His inauguration in May prompted Beijing to launch military drills around the self-ruled island.

Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party has long defended the sovereignty and democracy of Taiwan, which has its own government, military and currency.

“China is becoming more and more authoritarian and (Chinese President) Xi Jinping is like an emperor,” said Taipei vigil attendee Vincent Lee, 46.

“I think commemorating June 4th is a way to protect Taiwan’s democracy and freedom against China’s dictatorship… we need to protect Taiwan’s free and democratic values.”

Tourists at Tiananmen 

China’s Tiananmen crackdown killed hundreds of people, with some estimating the death toll was higher than a thousand.

Beijing described the events as riots, while rights groups and exiled dissidents depict it as a massacre of innocent people, including many students.

Many young people today in China are unaware of the 1989 events due to wide-reaching censorship.

In Beijing on Tuesday, tourist groups visited Tiananmen Square donning matching neon hats and posing for pictures beside the mausoleum of China’s founding leader Mao Zedong.

The Tiananmen Mothers, a group comprised of relatives of victims of the 1989 crackdown, called for the tragedy to be resolved “in an open, fair and just manner” in a statement.

“We shall never allow your lives to be sacrificed in vain. The historical tragedy must not repeat,” it said.

Asked about the anniversary on Tuesday, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said “the Chinese government has long since reached a clear conclusion”.

“We have always opposed anyone using this as a pretext to attack and smear China and to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

The European Union said Tuesday it “stands in solidarity with the families of the victims and calls on the Chinese authorities to… take concrete steps towards accountability.”

It also expressed concern over “recent measures to curtail commemorations and censor discussions about Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong”.

People still remember’ 

 In Hong Kong, once the sole place on Chinese soil where public commemoration was allowed, an annual Tiananmen vigil has been banned, and AFP journalists on Tuesday saw scores of police patrolling an area of the city where tens of thousands previously gathered each year to mourn the dead.

As night fell, police intensified searches of people around Victoria Park and the surrounding district where the vigil was once held.

The mass mourning was a symbol of Hong Kong’s unique freedoms, but public tributes have not been permitted since 2020, the year that Beijing imposed a national security law to quell dissent.

In the week leading up to the anniversary, Hong Kong police arrested eight people over commemorating the Tiananmen crackdown on social media, with authorities accusing them of publishing “seditious” online posts.

On Tuesday, AFP journalists saw police take away an elderly activist, Benedict Ng, who held up posters with dates of democracy movements written on them — including the Tiananmen anniversary. His lawyer later told AFP he was released.

Police did not respond to queries on deployment numbers, but said it was done “in accordance with the threats to public safety, public order and national security”.

Seated on a park bench reading the play “May 35” — a coded reference to June 4 — theatre worker Tsang said she “came here for those who can’t speak out for themselves”.

“I want to show that people still remember,” she told AFP. “People may not come out because they are worried, but there is still a seed in their hearts.”