Tag: Saudi Arabia

  • ‘Pakistan to expedite work on joint entertainment productions with Saudi Arabia’

    ‘Pakistan to expedite work on joint entertainment productions with Saudi Arabia’

    Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz has said that Pakistan is working to speed up work on joint entertainment productions with Saudi Arabia. Three serials – Dhoop Kinare, Tanhaiyan and Aahat – have been selected for dubbing in Arabic.

    According to a report in Arab News, Faraz said that Islamabad wanted to enhance cultural cooperation with Riyadh, which is why the government aims to ‘speed up’ work on joint film and television productions to bring the people of the two countries closer.

    “Some dramas and films have been dubbed and sent there [Saudi Arabia],” said Faraz, adding that a few were even watched by the royal family, including Hareem Farooq and Ali Rehman Khan’s Parchi.”

    Parchi was the first Pakistani film ever to release in Saudi Arabia in 2018 and one of the first international releases in the Kingdom after a nearly 40-year ban on cinemas came to an end.

    In April 2019, the then Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, in a press conference in Riyadh, had announced that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were in talks for increasing cultural exchange between the two countries.

    Chaudhary confirmed Pakistan’s wish to participate in Saudi Arabia’s cultural revival and said it was willing to support its newly established performing arts academies by sharing the expertise of its actors, directors and other artists like calligraphers.

  • Women workforce boosted in Makkah’s Grand Mosque

    Women workforce boosted in Makkah’s Grand Mosque

    The female workforce has been increased in the Grand Mosque in Makkah. As per details, 1,500 females have been appointed in different departments to serve female visitors.

    A total of 600 women have been recruited in the Technical and Service Affairs Agency while other staff will be appointed in electric vehicles department, Zamzam watering unit, guidance and intellectual affairs, administrative affairs, public relations, media and communication and the General Department of Internal Auditing.

    Dr Al-Anoud bint Khaled Al-Aboud, deputy president for women’s development affairs, said the step is part of the General Presidency for the Affairs of the Two Holy Mosques’ transformational initiatives 2024. The move aims to increase the level of services provided in the Two Holy Mosques,

    It is also a part of the Saudi leadership’s plans to empower women and to provide the best possible services to all female pilgrims visiting the Grand Mosque in line with Saudi Vision 2030.

  • Sixth consecutive month: Remittances remain over $2 billion

    Sixth consecutive month: Remittances remain over $2 billion

    Pakistan has maintained a strong momentum in workers’ remittance for the sixth consecutive month in November with over $2 billion, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has reported.

    Workers’ remittance increased 28.4% year-on-year in November 2020, pushing the cumulative flows to $11.8 billion during the July-November FY21 with a rise of 26.9% compared to same period last year.

    “This significant growth reflects continued government and SBP efforts to formalise remittances under Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI), growing use of digital channels amid limited international travel, orderly exchange market conditions and improved global economic activity,” said the central bank.

    The top four countries that contributed to the highest inflows are Saudi Arabia ($3.3 billion), United Arab Emirates ($2.4 billion), United Kingdom ($1.6 billion) and the United States ($1 billion).

  • Pakistan becomes founding member of Digital Cooperation Organization

    Pakistan has joined the Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) as a founding member.

    The organisation has been established under an initiative of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that has also invited other countries to join as founding members, including Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and the UAE.

    The organisation was launched at a virtual event on Thursday, hosted by Saudi Arabia Minister of Communication and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha. Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi participated with a video statement.

    The foreign minister noted that the creation of DCO would cater to the growing need for international cooperation and collaboration in the digital domain at a time when the digital economy is estimated to be worth over $11 trillion and set to expand further in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The organisation will offer a platform to promote the global digital agenda in the scientific, health, educational, commercial, social, agricultural, investment and security spheres.

  • First women’s football league kicks off in Saudi Arabia

    First women’s football league kicks off in Saudi Arabia

    Saudi Arabia’s first-ever Women’s Football League tournament kicked off on Tuesday with 24 teams across Jeddah, Riyadh, and Dammam competing for a championship cup and a cash prize of $133,000.

    According to reports, more than 600 players are competing in the tournament. The teams will have to win matches in their local cities to qualify for the nationwide championship stage.

    However, the matches of the championship won’t be televised.

    Seven matches took place in the capital Riyadh and the Red Sea city of Jeddah on the opening day of the Saudi Women’s Football League (WFL), which had been due to kick off in March but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    It was only in 2018 that Saudi authorities first allowed women to watch football matches in stadiums.

    Meanwhile, the first international women’s golf tournament also took place in Saudi Arabia this week.

    The step is the part of one of many reforms happening in Saudi Arabia under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Several social reforms including concerts, movie theaters, a lift on the ban on women driving have been introduced in the ultraconservative kingdom in a bid to improve its reputation.

  • Saudi Arabia angers India over new currency notes

    Saudi Arabia angers India over new currency notes

    India has lodged a protest over the issuance of Saudi Arabia’s new currency notes that do not feature Jammu and Kashmir as a part of India.

    The 20 Riyal bank note was issued by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority on October 24 to mark the Kingdom’s presidency of the upcoming G20 summit in November. The note, with an image of the world map, has shown Kashmir as separate states and not belonging to any of the rival Asian states of Pakistan and India.

    Anger erupted in India because of the map, even though the country has illegally occupied the territory of Kashmir and there is a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decree recognising it as an international dispute.

    External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava is reported to have said that New Delhi has raised “serious concerns” about the banknote both at the Saudi Embassy in India, as well as at India’s embassy in Riyadh.

    “We have taken up this gross misrepresentation of India’s external territorial boundaries on an official and legal banknote of Saudi Arabia… we’ve asked the Saudi side to take urgent corrective steps in this regard,” he said.

    Additionally, it was found that the distortion was in the Pakistani map as well.

    The G20 summit is set to be held from November 21-22 this year in Saudi Arabia and India is a part of it. Although the relations between Saudi Arabia and India are seen as healthy, with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman referring to India’s Narendra Modi as his “elder brother” during a meeting last year, the new developments might create some hurdles.

    Earlier, India put a ban on Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera in 2015 for publishing a map of the country that excluded Kashmir. Also, the country has frequently censored the Economist magazine for showing Kashmir as a disputed region.

  • VIDEO: Driver rams car into gate of Masjid al-Haram

    VIDEO: Driver rams car into gate of Masjid al-Haram

    A driver rammed his car into the outer-perimeter gate of Masjid al-Haram — the Grand Mosque in Makkah — late on Friday in an incident that did not cause any casualties, local media reported.

    Videos posted on social media showed the car plowing through plastic barricades in the outer courtyard of the mosque before driving straight into one of the large outer doors.

    Saudi newspaper Okaz reported that no civilians were injured in the crash, while other videos posted on social media showed a number of people pushing the vehicle away from the mosque complex.

    WATCH VIDEO:

    It said the driver, a Saudi citizen, was arrested and being referred to the public prosecutor for questioning.

    Saudi Arabia’s state-run channel Saudi Qur’an continued to broadcast live video from inside the mosque during and after the incident.

  • Saudi Arabia backstabbing Pakistan at FATF?

    Saudi Arabia backstabbing Pakistan at FATF?

    Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri has rejected “false media reports” regarding Saudi Arabia’s role in the assessment of Pakistan’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan.

    According to a press release, FO categorically rejected the story circulating on a segment of the media as false and baseless.

    Earlier in the day, Azhar Mashwani, Punjab chief minister’s focal person for digital media, tweeted that reports of Saudi Arabia voting against Pakistan at FATF were fake and that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would issue a statement on this.

    “Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong fraternal ties and the two countries have always cooperated with each other on all matters of bilateral, regional and international importance,” said the statement by the FO spokesperson.

    “Pakistan greatly values its relations with the brotherly Saudi Arabia and firmly rejects such malicious propaganda.”

    The statements come after renowned journalist, Sabir Shakir, claimed that Saudi Arabia had voted against Pakistan in the virtual plenary of the FATF.

    He had asserted that Saudi Arabia lobbied to woo the support of other Muslim countries including Turkey to move Pakistan into the blacklist of the global financial watchdog.

    FATF:

    According to Dawn, a virtual meeting of the FATF, from October 21-23, will decide if Pakistan should be excluded from its ‘grey list’, based on a review of Islamabad’s performance to meet global commitments and standards on fight against money laundering and terror financing (ML&TF).

    The FATF plenary was earlier scheduled in June but Islamabad got an unexpected breather after the global watchdog against financial crimes temporarily postponed all mutual evaluations and follow-up deadlines in the wake of grave health risk following COVID-19 pandemic. The Paris-based agency also put a general pause in the review process, thus giving additional four months to Pakistan to meet the requirements.

    The plenary had formally placed Pakistan in the grey list in June 2018 due to “strategic deficiencies” in anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) after a push from India supported by the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK) and some European countries.

    The FATF will examine if the country had demonstrated remedial actions and sanctions applied in cases of AML/CFT violations, relating to terrorist financing (TF) risk management and TFS (terror financing sanctions) obligations.

    The FATF will also judge if competent authorities were cooperating and taking action to identify and taking enforcement action against illegal money or value transfer services (MVTS) and had proven implementation of cross-border currency and bearer negotiable instruments (BNI) controls at all ports of entry, including applying effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.

  • Saudi Arabia suggests citizens ‘boycott everything Turkish’ after Erdogan’s accusations

    Saudi authorities called upon citizens to “boycott everything Turkish” following a statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan where he accused some Gulf countries of pursuing policies that were destabilising the region, Gulf News reported.

    “The boycott of everything Turkish, whether on the level of import, investment or tourism, is the responsibility of every Saudi — trader and consumer — in response to the continued hostility of the Turkish government against our leadership, our country and our citizens,” Saudi Arabia’s Chamber of Commerce head Ajlan Al Ajlan said.

    In addition to accusing some Gulf countries of targeting Turkey and following policies that led to instability, the Turkish president had, during an address to the country’s General Assembly, also said: “It should not be forgotten that the countries in question did not exist yesterday, and probably will not exist tomorrow; however, we will continue to keep our flag flying in this region forever, with the permission of Allah.”

    Relations between Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been thorny especially since the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi that took place in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

    Erdogan has said the order to murder Khashoggi came from “the highest levels” of the Saudi government but has never directly blamed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is widely believed to be behind the gruesome murder.

    Earlier this week, Turkey indicted six Saudi suspects in Khashoggi’s murder case. None of the suspects are in Turkey and will be tried in absentia. Twenty Saudi nationals are already on trial in an Istanbul court for Khashoggi’s killing.

    The indictment came weeks after a Saudi court overturned five death sentences issued after a closed-door trial in Saudi Arabia that ended last year, sentencing them to 20 years in prison instead.

    Recently, Erdogan also condemned the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain’s decision to normalise ties with Israel. After the announcement of normalisation of ties between UAE and Israel, Erdogan had warned Turkey could suspend diplomatic relations with the Gulf state in response.

    Turkey has had diplomatic relations with Israel for decades, but under President Erdogan, has positioned itself as a champion of the Palestinians.

  • Saudi Arabia to resume Umrah gradually from October 4

    Saudi Arabia will gradually resume the year-round Umrah pilgrimage from October 4, the interior ministry said on Tuesday, seven months after it was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

    In the first stage, “6,000 citizens and residents within the Kingdom will be allowed to perform the umrah per day from October 4”, the ministry said in a statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency.

    Visitors from outside the Kingdom will be permitted from November 1, when Umrah’s capacity will be raised to 20,000 pilgrims per day, the ministry said.

    The Umrah, which refers to the Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah that can be undertaken at any time of year, attracts millions of Muslims from across the globe each year.

    The ministry said Umrah would be allowed to resume at full capacity once the threat of the pandemic is eliminated.

    Saudi Arabia suspended the Umrah in March and scaled back the annual Hajj over fears that the coronavirus could spread to the holiest cities.

    IN PICTURES: Hajj 2020

    The decision to resume Umrah was in response to the “aspirations of Muslims home and abroad” to perform the ritual and visit the holy sites, the interior ministry said.

    Saudi Arabia’s custodianship of Makkah and Madinah – two holiest sites – is seen as the Kingdom’s most powerful source of political legitimacy.

    The holy sites, which draw millions of pilgrims every year, are a key revenue earner for Saudi Arabia, which hopes to welcome 30 million pilgrims to the Kingdom annually by 2030.