‘To protect women’: Pakistan’s first female anti

https://arab.news/9qx43 QUETTA: The first ever Women Anti-Riot Unit has been

https://arab.news/9qx43

QUETTA: The first ever Women Anti-Riot Unit has been established in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan to deal with public disorder, with a special focus on handling female protesters through negotiations, the top commander of the force and several officers said.

Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province by size but most backward in terms of almost all social indicators and the site of a long-running separatist insurgency, currently has a police force comprising 36,000 male officers and over 600 women.

But to deal with the cultural challenges of women protesters in the deeply conservative province, the first batch of the Women Anti-Riot Unit (ARU) was launched last month. The 48 officers of the force have special training in safety and security protocols during VIP movements in the city, and especially in controlling women protesters during rallies and protests.

Earlier this month, the arrest in Islamabad of former Prime Minister Imran Khan unleashed nationwide protests by his supporters, which turned violent in many cities, including the provincial capital of Balochistan, Quetta, where at least one person was killed and dozens were injured.

"Peaceful protest is the right of every single citizen but somehow there are situations when people provoke the protesters, including women," Zarmina Imran, the platoon in-charge of the Women ARU, told Arab News. "Thus, we have established this unit to negotiate and protect women in mass protests."

The unit had not been set up, she assured, to "misbehave" with female protesters or use heavy handedness against them but to initiate peaceful talks and convince them not to become violent and to end their protests peacefully.

"To protect the women, negotiate with them and address their issues because being women we can better understand their problems," Imran explained.

Many in the new force are no strangers to the police force.

Irum Kakar, 28, a commando in the force, said she was following in the footsteps of her elder brother who served in Quetta's Anti-Terrorist Force (ATF) and was among over 30 policemen who died in a suicide attack on the Police Line Mosque in August 2013.

"I had a passion because my brother was martyred in the police force. He was an ATF (Anti-Terrorist Force) commando. Looking up to him, this was my childhood dream," Kakar told Arab News as she readied her safety equipment, consisting of body armor, a riot shield, helmet and a face visor, to participate in a routine anti-riot demonstration.

"In our family, all of us siblings wanted to join the police force. When my brother was martyred, our passion increased even more, especially my mother's."

Kakar joined the police force in November 2022 and recently completed the 45-day course to become part of the province's first all-women ARU. She said her mother and other family members supported her in her passion to join the police force.

"Now we are fully trained to clamp down on any violent protest and protect women protesters in Quetta city," she added.

Shazia Aman, 28, said her father and other family members, who also served as security officers in Balochistan, had encouraged her to become a policewoman.

"After being part of this unit, now I feel physically strong, because instead of sitting inside the office we [policewomen] can face the situation outside," the constable told Arab News. "In the current circumstance, we will become stronger if we walk along with male officers."

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Muhammad Hafeez, who is leading the Anti-Riot Units in Balochistan as its commander, said the first batch of the Women ARU had two platoons who would be deployed in Quetta.

"We have divided the Women Anti-Riot Unit in two platoons and they are based at the Quetta level," he told Arab News. "In other districts, fresh recruits have been appointed and we are taking measures to train them like we trained the girls here."

Hafeez said the women officers felt "comfortable and safe" being part of the new force.

"There were negative thoughts about Police Department in society, that this is not a safe profession for girls, but now the bad perceptions have ended because of young girls joining the force."

KARACHI: Pakistan has missed its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) target by 4.7 percent and is likely to post GDP growth of 0.29 percent in the fiscal year ending June 2023, well below the target of 5 percent set last year, according to the country's economic survey launched on Thursday.

This was revealed as Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presented the Pakistan Economic Survey 2022-23, a yearly flagship publication of the Ministry of Finance which highlights the trend of macro-economic indicators and development policies and strategies, as well as sectoral achievements of the economy.

Dar will present the annual budget document before parliament tomorrow, Friday.

Addressing a press conference, Dar called the outgoing year "a difficult year for the economy," saying the coalition government faced "extreme challenges" when it came to power in April 2022.

Indeed, the country's economy has suffered record high inflation and an economic slowdown compounded by devastating floods last year and a failure so far to unlock crucial finances from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF had demanded a number of prior actions from Pakistan, including reversing subsidies, a hike in energy and fuel prices, jacking up its key policy rate, a market-based exchange rate, arranging for external financing and raising over 170 billion rupees ($613 million) in new taxation.

The fiscal adjustments have already fuelled Pakistan's highest ever inflation, which hit 37.97% year-on-year in May, but the IMF has yet to release the $1.1 billion funding stalled since November as part of the $6.5 billion Extended Fund Facility agreed in 2019.

"Pakistan has paid a huge political cost of meeting IMF reforms … the structural reforms, the power reforms, gas reforms, the fiscal reforms … we had to do the pending actions," Dar told reporters.

"For Pakistan, this political cost was worth it … The revival of this [IMF] program was important because of Pakistan's credibility."

Dar said he was hopeful the 9th review of the program would be concluded soon.

"The first priority is to pay off sovereign debts, then food and pharmaceutical imports," Dar said, adding that the government had repaid $6.5 billion in international commercial loans, with $1.0 billion of that amount being in the form of international Sukuk.

The Economic Survey document said the Pakistan economy lost momentum in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year "due to the severe downturn in the global economy and flash floods of July-August 2022 and as a result the economy suffered from significant domestic supply disruptions."

Pakistan estimated flood damage at Rs3.2 trillion ($14.9 billion) and loss to GDP at Rs3.3 trillion ($15.2 billion), and recorded the need for rehabilitation of damages at Rs3.5 trillion ($16.3 billion). On the international front, the prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict had adversely affected global growth and inflation remained unexpectedly high, the document said.

The survey report revealed that agriculture sector growth remained 1.55 % as compared to 4.27% last year, industry posted negative growth at -2.94 % against 6.83% last year while manufacturing posted -3.91% against 10.86 % last year and wholesale and retail trade posted -4.46% as compared to 10.3% last year.

Average year-on-year inflation rate for the period up to May 2023 was recorded at 29.2 percent, the survey found.

In April and May, the country's inflation hit record levels, which were also the highest in Asia.

The survey said Pakistan's inflation had been driven by international commodity prices, global supply disruptions, flood damage to crops, currency depreciation, and political uncertainty in the country.

The fiscal deficit was 4.6 percent of GDP for the fiscal year up until April, a slight improvement from last year's 4.9 percent, the survey showed, adding that the primary balance recorded a surplus of 99 billion Pakistani rupees.

ISLAMABAD: Estranged associates of former Prime Minister Imran Khan came together on Thursday and announced setting up a new political party, the Istihkam-e-Pakistan Party, creating a fresh challenge for the embattled ex-premier amid a widening crackdown.

The announcement of a new party by sugar baron Jahangir Khan Tareen, who was for over a decade Khan's closest confidant but fell out with him in 2020, will add fuel to the fire of widespread speculation that a ‘king's party’ was being primed as a viable alternative to Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is arguably the most popular political party in the country.

In Pakistan, the king's party is a common euphemism for one favored by the all-powerful military.

Since being ousted from the PM's office in a no-trust vote in April last year, Khan has launched an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the military, which independent analysts say helped him rise and fall from power.

His tensions with the military reached a crescendo last month when Khan was arrested in a land fraud case on May 9, prompting violent nationwide protests in which rioters attacked an air base, military properties, including the army's headquarters, and burnt a top general's home. The military has since said it will punish the enactors and masterminds of the violence, including by trying them in military courts. The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has threatened to ban Khan's PTI and dozens of his close associates and party members have announced quitting his party while hundreds of his supporters are under arrest.

"Today we are setting the foundations of a new party, the Istihkam-e-Pakistan Party," Tareen announced at a press conference in which he appeared with some of Khan's closest ex-aides, including Ali Haider Zaidi, Aleem Khan, Imran Ismail and Tanveer Ilyas.

"We have all gathered here today because we want to make a serious effort together to get Pakistan out of this quicksand of difficulties."

Tareen, who was widely known as one of the main financiers of Khan's party and seen as instrumental to his rise to the PM's office in 2018, said he had joined the PTI to bring promised reforms to Pakistan.

"I was sure we would be able to use the platform of this [PTI] party to bring those reforms that Pakistan always needed and still needs," Tareen said. "That's why we worked day and night to make PTI a strong political force. All of the people sitting here were part of that struggle."

He said people had voted for the PTI in 2018 because it had promised to fix the economy, improve foreign relations and above all, root out corruption and carry out accountability.

"But things did not go on as we had planned and people started to feel disillusioned," Tareen said.

"Pakistan today needs a political leadership that eliminates social and political divisions. Our nation needs hope … our politics need a new face."

Speaking about the violence that took place after Khan's arrest on May 9, Tareen said it was his belief that Pakistan would plunge into chaos if those behind the actions were not punished.

In a strongly-worded statement released on Wednesday and seen as a reference to Khan, the army said it was time to tighten the "noose of law" against those who had masterminded the attacks of May 9.

In recent days, Khan has openly accused the military of trying to destroy his party, saying he has "no doubt" he will be tried in a military court and jailed as part of the army-backed crackdown on his party.

Responding for the first time to widespread accusations that the army was behind a crackdown against Khan, his party and its supporters and carrying out human rights violations, the military on Wednesday called this "fake news and propaganda" that it would defeat with the support of the Pakistani public:

"Unfounded and baseless allegations on Law Enforcement Agencies and Security Forces for custodial torture, human rights abuses and stifling of political activities are meant to mislead the people and malign Armed Forces in order to achieve trivial vested political interests."

Pakistan is likely to post GDP growth of 0.29 percent in the fiscal year ending June 2023, the country's economic survey released on Thursday said, well below the target of 5 percent set last year.

The country's economy has suffered record high inflation and an economic slowdown compounded by devastating floods last year and a failure so far to unlock crucial finances from the International Monetary Fund.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told a news conference on the annual report that 0.29 percent GDP growth was a "realistic achievement" and anything higher was not achievable.

Average year-on-year inflation rate for the period up to May 2023 was recorded at 29.2 percent, the survey found.

In April and May, the country's inflation hit record levels, which were also the highest in Asia.

Pakistan's difficulties have included plummeting foreign exchange reserves, which have shrunk to cover barely a month's worth of imports, leading the government to enforce measures to curb imports.

The current account deficit had narrowed to $3.3 billion by April — a 76 percent drop over the last year, the survey showed.

The country's trade deficit to May also declined by 40.4 percent to $25.8 billion, as imports fell by 29.2 percent to $51.2 billion, while exports declined by 12.1 percent to $25.4 billion, the report said.

Remittances of money sent from relatives abroad were down 13 percent for the FY23 until April, to $22.7 billion.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's religious affairs ministry said on Thursday Pakistani pilgrims who had traveled to Saudi Arabia for Hajj this year were being provided round-the-clock transportation facilities to and from the Great Mosque of Makkah or Masjid Al-Haram.

This January, Saudi Arabia reinstated Pakistan's pre-pandemic Hajj quota, allowing 179,210 pilgrims from the South Asian country to participate in the annual Islamic religious ritual. The kingdom also removed the upper age limit of 65 years.

Out of Pakistan's total Hajj quota, approximately 80,000 pilgrims will carry out the pilgrimage under a government scheme, while the remaining are using private tour operators.

"Pakistani pilgrims are being provided with 24-hour Haram transport facilities via modern passenger buses," a spokesperson for the religious affairs ministry said in a statement.

"For the convenience of pilgrims, 190 modern passenger buses have been provided for transportation to and from the Haram."

Prior to the commencement of Hajj, which is expected to begin on June 26, the ministry said it would increase the number of buses to 360 once all intending Pakistani pilgrims reached Makkah. Bus stops had been set up at various locations around Haram, including Ajyad, Ghaza, Jorwal, and Kadi, while 28 guides had been appointed to instruct pilgrims about internal and external routes of the Haram.

"During Friday prayers, the guides of the Hajj mission from other areas will also be on duty as Haram guides," the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the ministry said that it was accommodating Pakistani pilgrims in Makkah's Aziziyah and Bataha Quraish colonies, while nine residential sectors had been additionally established for them in Makkah.

Hajj is an obligatory religious ritual for adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of carrying it out. It involves visiting the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah at least once in a lifetime and takes place during the last month of the lunar Islamic calendar called Dhu Al-Hijjah.

KARACHI: Pakistani finance minister Ishaq Dar said on Thursday the government had paid a "huge political cost" of carrying out reforms to satisfy the International Monetary Fund in order to secure bailout funds.

Dar was speaking at a press conference to reveal the Economic Survey for fiscal year 2022-23, a day before he presents the annual budget on Friday.

The finance minister had promised earlier this year Pakistan would take fiscal measures set by the IMF to meet its budgetary targets for the 2022-23 financial year. The prior actions included reversing subsidies, a hike in energy and fuel prices, jacking up its key policy rate, a market-based exchange rate, arranging for external financing and raising over 170 billion rupees ($613 million) in new taxation.

Meanwhile, foreign exchange reserves with the central bank have fallen to barely a month's worth of imports.

"Pakistan has made a huge political cost of meeting IMF reforms … the structural reforms, the power reforms, gas reforms, the fiscal reforms … we had to do the pending actions," Dar told reporters.

"For Pakistan, this political cost was worth it … The revival of this [IMF] program was important because of Pakistan's credibility."

On Thursday, a top IMF official said Pakistan had to satisfy the IMF on three counts, starting with a budget to be presented on Friday, before its board will review whether to release at least some of the $2.5 billion still to be disbursed under the lending programme that will expire at the end of June.

Esther Perez Ruiz, the International Monetary Fund's resident representative for Pakistan, said that there was only time for one last IMF board review before the scheduled end of the $6.5 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

The IMF had tasked Pakistan with securing external financing commitments for $6 billion from other sources, but so far it has only obtained commitments for $4 billion, mostly from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

At least 15 killed as anti

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