Tag: NSA

  • British government calls off Pakistan’s visit to the UK over stance on Russia

    British government calls off Pakistan’s visit to the UK over stance on Russia

    The British government called off National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf’s United Kingdom (UK) visit on Friday without giving a reason, reports The News.

    According to a report, the visit was called off because of Pakistan’s policy towards the Russia and Ukraine war.

    Previously, the European Union (EU) ambassadors in Islamabad issued their reply to Pakistan’s neutral response after United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session, saying that Pakistan should condemn Russia. In response, the spokesman for the Foreign Office (FO) Asim Iftikhar said, “We expressed concern over the statement because as I said that is not the way diplomacy should be practised, and I think they have realised.”

    While replying to a query that the NSA visit cancellation was linked to the expression of its reservations about the rejoinder to the EU envoys, Iftikhar termed it “baseless”.

    In the UNGA emergency session on Wednesday, Pakistan abstained from voting to censure Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

  • PM Khan launches first-ever National Security Policy, original document remains classified

    PM Khan launches first-ever National Security Policy, original document remains classified

    Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan launched the public version of the country’s first-ever National Security Policy (NSP) which aimed at addressing the external imbalance, socio-economic inequalities, and geographic disparities, reports Radio Pakistan.

    It is reported that the original version of the policy will remain classified.

    According to PM Khan, the nation is now headed in the right direction and added that national security was defined “in the right manner” in the new policy.

    Speaking about the International Monetary Fund (IMF), PM said, “We approach IMF under duress as in the end, only IMF is ready to help us and provide the cheapest loans. We have to abide by their conditions, and as a result, impose a burden on the people.”

    National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf also addressed the launching ceremony.

    He said, “We are not seeking hostility with India for the next 100 years. The new policy seeks peace with immediate neighbours.”

    The NSP will mainly secure Pakistan’s interest and position globally. Moreover, the document would provide for pursuing youth-focused policies, guaranteeing food security, improving preventive healthcare, and mainstreaming climate adaptation.

  • ‘Smartphones are worse than a spy in your pockets’: Edward Snowden

    ‘Smartphones are worse than a spy in your pockets’: Edward Snowden

    Ex-computer intelligence consultant at the United States (US) National Security Agency (NSA) Edward Snowden has said that smartphones are “worse than a spy in your pockets”, reports Geo News.

    Snowden urged governments to impose a global delay on the international spyware trade or face a world in which no mobile phone is safe from state-sponsored hackers, reported The Guardian.

    In the wake of the revelations about Israeli NSO Group, whose software Pegasus was used to hack mobile phones for surveillance, Snowden said the consortium’s findings illustrated “how commercial malware had made it possible for repressive regimes to place vastly more people under the most invasive types of surveillance”.

    “If you don’t do anything to stop the sale of this technology, it’s not just going to be 50,000 targets. It’s going to be 50 million targets, and it’s going to happen much more quickly than any of us expect,” he warned.

    Snowden said commercial malware such as Pegasus was so powerful that ordinary people could in effect do nothing to stop it.

    Asked how people could protect themselves, he said: “What can people do to protect themselves from nuclear weapons?”

    “There are certain industries, certain sectors, from which there is no protection, and that’s why we try to limit the proliferation of these technologies. We don’t allow a commercial market in nuclear weapons.”

  • 300 CCTV camera data collected, abduction not confirmed: IG Islamabad

    300 CCTV camera data collected, abduction not confirmed: IG Islamabad

    Inspector-General (IG) Islamabad Qazi Jameel-ur-Rehman, during a press conference on Monday in Islamabad, said that the police have formed five teams to probe the “abduction” of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter.

    “We traced the entire route on which the daughter of the Afghan ambassador travelled and also traced both the taxi drivers who drove her,” he said. “Before going to the city’s F-9 Park, the ambassador’s daughter first went to the F-6 area,” added IG Islamabad.

    He said the purported abduction of the Afghan envoy’s daughter was a complete “blind case” and they collected data of around 300 CCTV cameras installed in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.

    As per police investigation, her abduction has not been proven yet, he maintained.

    Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, said, “Pakistan wants to arrest and punish the culprits involved in alleged kidnapping as soon as possible.”

    The foreign minister further added, “I told the Afghan ambassador that we are aware of the security concerns he is having, therefore, we have beefed up all Afghan diplomats’ security.”

    National Security Adviser Dr Moeed Yusuf said on Monday that Pakistan was currently a target of “hybrid warfare” and an entire network of information warfare was being used against the country.

    He said fake accounts and bots were being used to create a “narrative” against Pakistan, including regarding the incident involving the Afghan envoy’s daughter.

    Sharing slides on data gathered by the government, Yusuf said hashtags were being trended on a daily basis to create false impressions including that Pakistan “is doing something [wrong] in Afghanistan” and that the security situation in Pakistan was poor.

    “This is part of an orchestrated campaign of which various fronts have been opened against Pakistan,” he said, adding that the same accounts that did “fake propaganda” regarding Balochistan or Kashmir were also doing propaganda ever since the alleged abduction incident took place. According to Yusuf, some of these accounts were operated from inside Pakistan, while the rest were controlled from Afghanistan, India, and the West.

    FM Qureshi said that he spoke to his Afghan counterpart this morning and discussed the steps that the Government of Pakistan has so far taken to investigate the matter. 

    “We have assured the Afghan government that Prime Minister Imran Khan is personally overseeing the probe into the alleged abduction of the Afghan ambassador’s daughter,” he said. 

    Qureshi reiterated that the Afghanistan government should reconsider its decision to pull out its ambassador and diplomats from Pakistan, adding that if they want the investigation to be transparent, it will have to cooperate with Pakistan. 

    “We don’t have any intention to hide anything… we need their [Afghanistan’s] cooperation to take the investigation to its logical conclusion,” he added.

    Earlier today, Foreign Minister Qureshi informed his Afghan counterpart Mohammad Haneef Atmar that the security of the Afghan embassy and consulate in Pakistan had been further enhanced.

    The development comes a day after the Afghanistan government decided to withdraw its ambassador and senior diplomats from Pakistan, a move that Islamabad termed as “unfortunate and regrettable”.

  • Teammates defend flip-flop on trade with India; say PM, Commerce Minister Imran ‘wear different hats’

    Teammates defend flip-flop on trade with India; say PM, Commerce Minister Imran ‘wear different hats’

    Teammates of Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan have defended his move to defer cotton and sugar trade plans with India as the PM after approving the same as the commerce minister earlier.

    Defending the move, National Security Adviser (NSA) Dr Moeed Yusuf said that the premier wear two hats as both the commerce minister and the chief executive of the country.

    When asked if Imran, as the commerce minister, believed the proposal should be forwarded to the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) for approval, but differed on his own idea as the PM, the NSA didn’t respond.

    “I am not the bureaucrat here to determine the technicalities,” he said, adding that it was just irrelevant.

    Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry also went for a similar choice of words, saying that the premier “wore two hats”.

    “As the PM chairing the federal cabinet meeting he also has to take into account the recommendations of other stakeholders, including the foreign, defence and interior ministries,” the minister maintained.

    The statements come days after the federal cabinet rubbished plans to resume cotton and white sugar import from India despite Commerce Minister Imran Khan’s proposal approved by ECC headed by Finance Minister Hammad Azhar.

    The federal cabinet chaired by PM Imran deferred the proposal despite improving Pakistan-India ties, saying New Delhi should first restore the autonomous status of the troubled disputed valley of Kashmir.