Pakistan Army and the Royal Saudi Land Forces soldiers photographed during a joint military training exercise in Multan, Pakistan on February 27, 2024. (Photo courtesy: Military's media wing)
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The exercise continued from Jan. 15 to Feb. 26 with a view to foster joint employment techniques, exchange expertise- Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong defense ties and regularly engage in joint air, ground and sea military exercises
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army and the Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) this week concluded a joint military training exercise in the eastern city of Multan that was aimed at enhancing their military capabilities and exchanging expertise, the Pakistani military said on Tuesday.
The exercise continued from January 15 to February 26 with a view to foster joint employment techniques and benefiting from each other’s experiences, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
“The training, which encompassed conventional as well as sub-conventional operations, culminated with field maneuver and battle inoculation exercise, employing air and ground forces,” the ISPR said in a statement.
The commander of Pakistan Army’s Multan Corps witnessed the exercise as the chief guest and expressed his satisfaction over mutual understanding and the training standards achieved, according to the ISPR.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong defense ties and bilateral security cooperation. The two nations regularly engage in joint air, ground, and sea military exercises, while several cadets from the Kingdom, along with counterparts from other Middle Eastern nations, annually visit Pakistan to undergo specialized military training.
The joint exercise that concluded in Multan further consolidated longstanding fraternal relations between Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the ISPR added.
- Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong defense ties and regularly engage in joint air, ground and sea military exercises
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Army and the Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF) this week concluded a joint military training exercise in the eastern city of Multan that was aimed at enhancing their military capabilities and exchanging expertise, the Pakistani military said on Tuesday.
The exercise continued from January 15 to February 26 with a view to foster joint employment techniques and benefiting from each other’s experiences, according to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani military’s media wing.
“The training, which encompassed conventional as well as sub-conventional operations, culminated with field maneuver and battle inoculation exercise, employing air and ground forces,” the ISPR said in a statement.
The commander of Pakistan Army’s Multan Corps witnessed the exercise as the chief guest and expressed his satisfaction over mutual understanding and the training standards achieved, according to the ISPR.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong defense ties and bilateral security cooperation. The two nations regularly engage in joint air, ground, and sea military exercises, while several cadets from the Kingdom, along with counterparts from other Middle Eastern nations, annually visit Pakistan to undergo specialized military training.
The joint exercise that concluded in Multan further consolidated longstanding fraternal relations between Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the ISPR added.
Pakistan policewoman praised for rescuing woman from blasphemy mob
- The woman was surrounded in a Lahore restaurant by men who wrongly claimed her shirt was adorned with verses from Qur’an
- Blasphemy is incendiary charge in ultra-conservative Pakistan, where mobs have lynched people they deem to have insulted Islam
LAHORE: A police officer who saved a woman accused of blasphemy from a mob of 200 men in eastern Pakistan has described how she had to negotiate with the crowd to lead her to safety.
The woman, who has not been named for security reasons, was surrounded in a Lahore restaurant by men who wrongly claimed her shirt was adorned with verses from the Qur’an.
Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in ultra-conservative Pakistan, where mobs have lynched people they deem to have insulted Islam.
Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, an assistant superintendent with Punjab police, was among the first officers on the scene on Sunday.
“The crowd was pretty charged, and they were chanting slogans. They were talking about how people who commit blasphemy must be punished,” Naqvi told AFP.
A video shared on social media showed the woman sitting in a corner of a cafe protecting her face with her hands.
Crowds were later heard chanting: “The only punishment for blasphemy is beheading.”
“There was a confusion and nobody was willing to listen to us. We feared that if the dialogue didn’t begin, the woman’s life would be in danger,” Naqvi added.
In the end, Naqvi appealed with the crowd to let police determine whether Pakistan’s blasphemy laws had been breached.
Officers then formed a human chain to help lead the woman out of the restaurant.
The woman was in fact wearing a shirt with the Arabic word for “beautiful” written on it.
“We have experienced at least two such events before in Lahore. Religious crowds are always pretty charged and we had no idea what we were going to deal with,” Naqvi said.
The officer has since been recommended for an award by the chief of Punjab police.
On Monday, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the first woman to be chief minister of a Pakistani province, took her oath as the head of Punjab’s province assembly.
In her inaugural address, she highlighted Naqvi’s actions: “I want to praise the lady officer who has saved the life of a woman.”
Police have not made any arrests of those involved in the mob aggression, while the victim gave a video statement apologizing for causing offense.
- The woman was surrounded in a Lahore restaurant by men who wrongly claimed her shirt was adorned with verses from Qur’an
- Blasphemy is incendiary charge in ultra-conservative Pakistan, where mobs have lynched people they deem to have insulted Islam
LAHORE: A police officer who saved a woman accused of blasphemy from a mob of 200 men in eastern Pakistan has described how she had to negotiate with the crowd to lead her to safety.
The woman, who has not been named for security reasons, was surrounded in a Lahore restaurant by men who wrongly claimed her shirt was adorned with verses from the Qur’an.
Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in ultra-conservative Pakistan, where mobs have lynched people they deem to have insulted Islam.
Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, an assistant superintendent with Punjab police, was among the first officers on the scene on Sunday.
“The crowd was pretty charged, and they were chanting slogans. They were talking about how people who commit blasphemy must be punished,” Naqvi told AFP.
A video shared on social media showed the woman sitting in a corner of a cafe protecting her face with her hands.
Crowds were later heard chanting: “The only punishment for blasphemy is beheading.”
“There was a confusion and nobody was willing to listen to us. We feared that if the dialogue didn’t begin, the woman’s life would be in danger,” Naqvi added.
In the end, Naqvi appealed with the crowd to let police determine whether Pakistan’s blasphemy laws had been breached.
Officers then formed a human chain to help lead the woman out of the restaurant.
The woman was in fact wearing a shirt with the Arabic word for “beautiful” written on it.
“We have experienced at least two such events before in Lahore. Religious crowds are always pretty charged and we had no idea what we were going to deal with,” Naqvi said.
The officer has since been recommended for an award by the chief of Punjab police.
On Monday, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, the first woman to be chief minister of a Pakistani province, took her oath as the head of Punjab’s province assembly.
In her inaugural address, she highlighted Naqvi’s actions: “I want to praise the lady officer who has saved the life of a woman.”
Police have not made any arrests of those involved in the mob aggression, while the victim gave a video statement apologizing for causing offense.
Pakistan’s National Assembly to convene inaugural session on March 1 for lawmakers’ oath-taking
Ex-PM Khan’s party says National Assembly session cannot be called before reserved seats are allotted
- The inaugural session of Pakistan’s National Assembly has to be held by February 29 as per law
- Pakistan’s election regulator is yet to notify all reserved seats in provincial, national legislatures
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said on Tuesday that the National Assembly’s inaugural session, slated to be held this week, would be “illegal” if summoned before the country’s election oversight body notifies all the reserved seats in the parliament for women and minorities.
The PTI emerged as the largest group in Pakistan’s National Assembly after bagging the highest number of seats in the Feb. 8 polls. However, its winning candidates joined the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) party last week to claim a share of the reserved seats. A court ruling forced PTI contestants to run as independent candidates during this month’s national polls. According to Pakistani law, independent candidates are neither allowed to form the government nor are entitled to a share in the reserved seats.
The SIC has not been allocated a share in the 70 reserved seats for women and minorities in the provincial legislatures so far. The party has filed at least four separate applications with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seeking its share of the seats, before the inaugural sessions of the national and provincial legislatures are held this week.
The provincial assemblies of Sindh and Punjab convened their sessions last week and elected their chief ministers on Monday. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s election regulator has yet to decide about the SIC’s reserved seats.
“If the National Assembly session is called, that will be illegal because the assemblies should be convened after all members of the House are notified,” PTI leader Barrister Gohar Khan told reporters outside the ECP’s headquarters in Islamabad.
He described the recently held sessions of Sindh and Punjab assemblies as “illegal,” saying that they had been conducted when there were still reserved seats left to be notified.
The maiden National Assembly session is expected to be held on February 29, according to Pakistan’s constitution, which says the inaugural session should be convened within 21 days of national elections.
Three other major political parties including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) have filed applications with the election regulator, demanding their share in the remaining reserved seats. They argued that the SIC is not a parliamentary party as its candidates had not contested polls from the party’s platform.
After a brief hearing into the matter, the ECP adjourned the case for Wednesday.
“The public has given us the mandate and we hope the election commission will decide on the matter as per the public’s aspirations,” the PTI leader said. “These [reserved] seats are for the SIC and no other party can lay claim on them.”
He said independent candidates who had won elections could join any political party within three days after they were notified as winners.
SIC chairman Sahibzada Hamid Raza said his party had moved the ECP for their share of the reserved seats six days ago. However, he regretted that a decision on the matter was yet to be made.
“We hope the ECP will decide on the matter this time as per law and the constitution,” he said.
PML-N’s Senator Azam Nazir Tarar, however, said the SIC is not a parliamentary party as it did not take part in the elections, hence it cannot lay claim to a share in the reserved seats.
“This is a party that didn’t contest elections, didn’t win a single seat, and they are saying they have the right to reserved seats because a bunch of independent candidates joined them,” Tarar said.
X platform’s disruption in Pakistan enters 11th day amid government silence
X first went down on Feb. 17 when an official admitted he manipulated votes in Pakistan’s elections
- Pakistani digital rights activists have labelled X’s disruption as “blatant violation” of people’s civil liberties
ISLAMABAD: Social media platform X, formerly Twitter, continues to be remain inaccessible for millions of users in Pakistan on Tuesday, marking eleven days since its services were first disrupted countrywide following protests against alleged election rigging.
X first went down on Feb. 17 when a government official admitted he had manipulated votes in Pakistan’s Feb. 8 polls. The admission came while former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and other political parties in the country staged protests countrywide, blaming Pakistan’s election regulator of rigging the polls. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) denies the allegations.
The social media platform’s disruption has raised widespread concerns about the state of democratic expression and media freedom in the country, with the United States and several international organizations urging Pakistan to provide unhindered Internet access to people. Pakistan’s leading digital rights activists last week said the move was a “blatant violation” of the masses civil liberties, as authorities remain tight-lipped about the ban.
The website remains inaccessible in Pakistan despite the Sindh High Court’s (SHC) Feb. 21 order, in which it directed Pakistan’s telecommunications authority to restore social media platforms, including X, across Pakistan
Independent Internet watchdog Netblocks pointed out that on Monday, X’s disruption entered the 10th day. “The nation joins an exclusive set of countries that have imposed extended or permanent bans on international social media platforms,” Netblocks posted on X, without mentioning the specific countries it spoke of.
Pakistan’s indecisive Feb. 8 national elections were marred by a nationwide mobile service shutdown followed by delays in polls results, leading to accusations that the election was rigged and drawing concerns from rights groups and foreign governments. Authorities, meanwhile, said the suspension was due to security measures amid rising militant violence in the country.
In the past, Pakistani authorities have placed restrictions on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube during political protests and events, indicating a pre-emptive approach by authorities to curtail the mobilization and dissemination of dissenting views.
Lithuania-based Internet shutdown tracker, Surfshark, said last week that Pakistan has experienced five Internet service interruptions since the beginning of 2024, affecting its 128 million users.
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