Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister on Friday announced an “international alliance” to press for Palestinian statehood, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the “International Alliance to implement the two-state solution” included Arab and Islamic countries, as well as European partners, the Saudi Press Agency said.
The Gaza crisis has revived talk of a “two-state solution” of Israeli and Palestinian states living in peace side by side, but analysts said the goal seems more unattainable than ever.
The hard-right Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains implacably opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, paused US-brokered talks on recognising Israel after the Israeli invasion of Gaza in October last year.
Earlier this month, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman toughened his tone, explicitly saying that an “independent Palestinian state” is a condition for normalisation.
A senior official of the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said the new coalition “consists mainly of Islamic and Arab members of OIC plus some European countries”.
“There will be meetings in Arab and European countries to discuss the practical execution of the initiative and a conference later this year in Riyadh,” added the official, who asked to remain anonymous.
Prompting Israeli anger, Ireland, Norway and Spain announced their recognition of a Palestinian state in May. Slovenia followed, bringing the number of countries that recognise a Palestinian state to 146 out of the 193 United Nations member states.
Prince Faisal said the nearly year-long Gaza conflict could not be justified by Israel as “self-defence”.
“Self-defence cannot justify the killing of tens of thousands of civilians, the practice of systematic destruction, forced displacement (and) the use of starvation as a tool of war,” Prince Faisal told a ministerial meeting on the Palestinian crisis, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
World record-winning Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar has announced his retirement at the end of the 2024-25 domestic season.
Aleem Dar’s illustrious and distinguished career spans over a quarter of a century. Three-time winner of the David Shepherd Trophy for International Cricket Council (ICC) umpire of the Year (2011-2009), seen as a true gentleman on and off the field.
On his decision to retire, Aleem Dar said, “Umpiring has been my life for almost 25 years, and I have had the privilege of umpiring some of the most memorable matches involving the greatest players of this generation. Throughout my career, I have strived to uphold the highest standards of sports, and it has been an honour to work with some of the best match officials in the world, but all great journeys eventually come to an end, and now the time has come. That I should focus fully on my social and charity work.”
“My hospital project and other initiatives are very close to my heart, and they need my full dedication and attention. Having achieved almost everything I aspired to in umpiring with the unwavering support of my colleagues, I also feel the need to step aside and allow budding umpires to emerge and shine, says Aleem Dar. This is the right time to give,” he added.
He said, “I hope he will get similar opportunities to make his mark on the great game of cricket and represent Pakistan with pride. Committed to mentoring and supporting the next generation of match officials, I will always be available to guide those making a career in this great field.”
He has played 17 first-class and 18 List A matches between 1986 and 1998.
He made his first-class umpiring debut during the 1998 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, from 2003 to 2023, he served on the ICC Elite Panel of Umpires, where he demonstrated his managerial skills, understanding of game situations, calm demeanour and Gained a global reputation for excellent decision-making.
He is currently part of the PCB’s elite panel and is one of the four Pakistani umpires on the ICC’s international panel.
Dar has so far umpired a record 145 Tests, 231 One Day Internationals, 72 T20 Internationals, 5 Women’s T20 Internationals, 181 First Class matches, and 282 List A matches.
An eliminator match of the Champions One Day Cup between Makhors and Lions got cancelled after rain, driving the Lions out of the event, and taking Markhor to the finals.
Shaheen’s Lions did not perform well in the round matches, but they had a better run rate and a win in the league stage.
Earlier, Panthers also reached the final of the Champions Cup.
The final of the Champions Cup between the Panthers and Markhors will be played at Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad on Sunday.
Pakistan’s headline inflation may drop to 8-9 per cent in the next two months, according to the finance ministry.
In a recent economic update, the finance division said that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation in the country has come down to single digits. This is the lowest level recorded in almost 14 months.
Experts had earlier predicted that the inflation will drop to single digits soon with further decline expected in the coming months.
Last month, CPI-based inflation was seen at 9.6 per cent on an annual basis. This represents a massive decline from the from 27.4 per cent recorded in August 2023.
The finance ministry also noted positive indicators in the first two months of ongoing fiscal year in its recently released monthly report, confirming that the industrial output has increased, and big exporting sectors have also recorded notable growth.
Moreover, the current account deficit has shrunk due to strategic measures taken by the government.
The finance division expcts the trajectory to continue in the upcoming months.
On May 22, 2020, PIA flight 8303 crashed in Karachi, killing nearly everyone on board and leaving many families in grief.
Munawar Saeed was among the families anxiously waiting for news about his son, Zafar Masud, who was on the flight.
During an appearance as a guest on Nadan Maizban hosted by Danish Nawaz, Yasir Nawaz and Nida Yasir, Munawar Saeed shared a touching story about his son Zafar and how he survived the terrible PIA plane crash.
The host Yasir Nawaz asked, “How did he (Zafar) survive?”
Munawar Saeed replied, “Well, there was a seat right at the corner of the plane next to the door. When the plane started shaking, that seat came off, and the door opened. He got out of the seat because it was chaotic, and Zafar fell onto the roof of a house. After falling, he slipped off the roof and landed on the bonnet of a car that was parked below. He was still strapped in with the seatbelt, so he fell onto the car.”
“Zafar Masud survived because of that seat, and Allah’s mercy was such that he didn’t land headfirst because fell with the seat. The car he fell onto had a family inside who were on their way to drop someone off at the station. When he fell, they were startled and got out to see what had happened. They saw a man lying there. They noticed that the plane had caught fire and were worried. They came closer and realized that he was alive. Zafar asked them to help him, but he didn’t remember being my son at that moment. They helped him up, and right in front of them was an ambulance. They immediately placed him in the ambulance and took him to a hospital that was near the airport. It is truly remarkable; Allah’s mercy saved him,” Saeed added.
Out of the ninety-one passengers and eight crew members on the plane, ninety-seven were killed. Only two passengers survived but were injured. Eight people on the ground were also hurt in the accident, and sadly, one of them later died from her injuries.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) announced on Friday that it has received the much-anticipated first tranche of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) worth 760 million, equivalent to USD 1.03 billion, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In a statement, the SBP said, “Following the approval of the IMF Executive Board of a 37-month Extended Fund Facility amounting to US$7 billion, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has received the first tranche of SDR 760 million (equivalent to USD 1.03 billion) from the IMF today.”
The central bank confirmed that these inflows would be reflected in the SBP’s liquid reserves, which are scheduled to be released on Thursday, October 3, 2024.
The IMF’s Executive Board granted approval for the 37-month, $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan on Wednesday, marking a significant financial lifeline for the country.
Pakistan and the IMF initially reached a staff-level agreement on the EFF, worth SDR 5,320 million (roughly USD 7 billion), on July 12, 2024, paving the way for today’s disbursement.
A big shock for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) as PTI Member National Assembly (MNA) Adil Khan Bazai has joined the incumbent government ahead of proposed constitutional amendments, ARY News reported.
PTI-backed independent candidate Adil Bazai secured his National Assembly seat from Quetta constituency NA-262 in the general election of 2024.
After Bazai joined the incumbent government, the coalition government number rose to 215 seats in the National Assembly.
Earlier, the coalition government attempted to pass the constitutional amendments from parliament but was unsuccessful due to the insufficient number of lawmakers required to pass the amendments.
Chief Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman had been the decision maker by having only five votes of the Upper House in his pocket.
Veteran journalist Azaz Syed, on the YouTube channel ‘Talk SHOCK’, claimed that the coalition government intends to introduce the twenty-sixth constitutional amendment drafts to parliament in the first week of October.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has challenged the Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan’s September 14 detailed verdict regarding the allotment of women and non-muslim reserved seats to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The ECP explained in its plea that the apex court’s July 12 ruling came before the Election Amendment Act 2024; on this amendment, the ECP sought clarification from the apex court on whether to follow the amended parliamentary law or the top court’s September 14 detailed verdict.
The 8-5 majority ruling of the Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats read, “Withdrawal of election symbol cannot disqualify a political party from elections.”
It further read, “The PTI was and is a political party.”
On September 14, the top court issued the detailed verdict of its July 12 ruling, directing the ECP to allot reserved seats to PTI.
Meanwhile, the Election Amendment Act 2024 stated, “A candidate who does not submit the party certificate before obtaining the election symbol will be considered an independent candidate. If the list of candidates for reserved seats is not submitted within the specified period, no political party will be entitled to those seats.”
Shaza Fatima Khawaja, the minister of State for IT and Telecommunication, was quoted by Business Recorder as saying that former caretaker federal minister Dr Umar Saif sabotaged a deal to bring PayPAYal to Pakistan by leaking the news before time.
As per Business Recorder, the IT Minister told a presser, “Bringing PayPal to Pakistan was a private deal, which Dr Saif leaked before time. This action annoyed PayPal and he (Dr Umar) sabotaged it”.
IT Minister released her response in a tweet to the viral statement: “I have been quoted out of context.” She further elaborated that her intention was never to name or blame anyone.
The Current talked to Shaza Khawaja about her statement. “The comment was mainly that he deal was private and it didnt go through with no intention of accusing anyone,” she stressed. While mentioning her tweet, in which she said, “I have always respected Dr. Umar’s contribution to the sector,” she added that she had tweeted about it and made an official statement about it as well.
The Current inquired her if she meant that the deal was made privately by Dr Umar, but she declined. “I just said that PayPal was a deal between two private entities that didnt go through,” she emphasised.
Notably, a year ago, on October 25, it was reported that Umar Saif, the then Minister for IT and Telecommunication, had shared that Pakistan would hear “good news” regarding Paypal in the near future.
However, the Current reached out to Dr Umar Saif, who refused to comment on it.
Pope Francis said Friday that the Catholic Church must “seek forgiveness” over the “scourge” of child sexual abuse, during a visit to Belgium where the Church’s dark past looms large.
In a speech before political and civil society leaders that opened his three-day visit to the country, Francis denounced the “tragic instances of child abuse” as a stain on the Church’s legacy.
“It is our shame and our humiliation,” Francis told the gathering at the Laeken Palace royal residency.
“The Church must be ashamed and must seek forgiveness,” he said.
The 87-year-old pontiff is due to meet with a group of clerical sexual assault victims in Brussels in the afternoon, as part of a three-day stay in the European nation tarred by decades of scandals and cover-ups.
The meeting with around 15 victims, taking place at 6:30 pm (1630 GMT) at the Vatican’s diplomatic mission, was being held with the “utmost discretion”, according to the Belgian church.
It was arranged after a hard-hitting documentary last year put Belgium’s abuse scandal back on the front pages, prompting many new victims to come forward.
In an open letter published by Le Soir newspaper this month, some demanded the pope address paedophilia and set up a process for financial reparations.
“Words alone are not enough. Concrete measures must also be taken,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said in a preamble to the pope’s speech.
The pontiff said the abuse scandal was “a scourge that the Church is addressing firmly and decisively by listening to and accompanying those who have been wounded, and by implementing a prevention programme throughout the world”.
Forced adoptions
Francis has made combating sexual assault in the Church a main mission of his papacy, and insisted on a “zero tolerance” policy in the wake of wide-reaching abuse scandals around the world.
During his speech, Francis also said he was “saddened” to learn about a forced adoptions scandal in Belgium that saw institutions run by nuns give up the babies of thousands of underage girls and unmarried women.
“We see how the bitter fruit of wrongdoing and criminality was mixed in with what was unfortunately the prevailing view in all parts of society at that time,” he said.
Belgium’s HLN news site estimates that up to 30,000 children were taken from their mothers in Belgium between 1945 and the 1980s.
Bishops in Belgium apologised in 2023 and requested an independent investigation after fresh testimonies emerged from women and people claiming to have been “sold” by the Catholic Church to their adoptive family.
Child sexual abuse and forced adoptions have “badly damaged trust” between the Church and society, De Croo said.
In a sign of the work yet to be done, the program of an open-air mass concluding Francis’s trip on Sunday had to be changed at the last minute after it emerged that the closing hymn was composed by a priest accused of sexual abuse.
The blunder prompted the head of the Belgian bishops’ conference, Archbishop Luc Terlinden, to admit that the Church needed to get better at keeping a tab on cases and perpetrators.
“This represents a great challenge for us, but we must think about it seriously with the help of lawyers and psychologists,” he told a local broadcaster. The composer, who died this month, reportedly settled a sexual abuse case in 2002.
On the wane
The Argentinian pope arrived in Belgium on Thursday evening after spending the day in neighbouring Luxembourg, where he made a plea for international diplomacy amid flaring conflicts across the globe.
He was welcomed by King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, who hosted him on Friday morning, and he will head on to meet with academics at the Catholic university of Leuven in Dutch-speaking Flanders — whose 600th anniversary next year is the official reason for Francis’s visit.
On Saturday, during what is his 46th trip abroad, Francis will meet the clergy at the vast Basilica of the Sacred Heart before holding discussions with students at Louvain-la-Neuve in French-speaking Wallonia, notably on climate issues.
The last papal visit to Brussels was in 1995, when John Paul II attended the beatification of Saint Damien, who dedicated his life to lepers.
Nearly 65 percent of Belgium’s population is Christian, including 58 percent who are Catholic, according to figures from Louvain university.
But their numbers are on the wane, reflecting a decline across Europe.
During his weekly general audience, Francis said he hoped his visit could be “the opportunity for a new impetus of faith”.
