Pakistan’s army chief inaugurates combat simulation center in Bahawalpur sector

PESHAWAR: Pakistani and Afghan forces traded fire overnight at a key northwestern border crossing that has been closed for more than a week over a dispute between the two neighbors, officials said Monday.

No casualties were reported on either side of the Torkham crossing, which has been shut for 11 days due to Pakistan disputing Afghanistan’s construction of a new border post there.

Both countries have in the past closed Torkham and the southwestern Chaman border crossing, most often over deadly shootings and cross-fire. The crossings are vital for trade and travel between Pakistan and landlocked Afghanistan.

A Pakistani official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said that Taliban security forces opened fire unprovoked in the early hours of Monday, targeting Pakistan’s border post with automatic weapons. Pakistani personnel returned fire, the official said.

There was no immediate comment on the exchange from the Taliban government in Kabul.

Thousands of trucks and vehicles are stranded on both sides of the Torkham crossing, leaving people stuck in harsh winter conditions.

ISLAMABAD: The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) recently lifted the international suspension it had imposed on Pakistan after the country unanimously approved its proposed constitutional amendments, the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) said recently. 

FIFA hit Pakistan on Feb. 6 with a third international suspension in less than eight years after the federation rejected its electoral reforms. Following the suspension, the PFF unanimously approved FIFA’s proposed constitutional amendments in an extraordinary meeting in Lahore last Thursday. 

“The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) welcomes FIFA’s decision to lift the suspension imposed on February 6, 2025,” the PFF said in a statement on Sunday. “The decision follows the unanimous approval of FIFA-proposed amendments by the newly elected PFF Congress in the PFF constitution during an Extraordinary Congress meeting held in Lahore on February 27, 2025.”

PFF Normalization Committee Chairman Saud Hashimi congratulated the nation on the development. 

“This is a historic day for Pakistani football, and we are committed to fulfilling FIFA and AFC’s mandate to ensure a stable and progressive future for the sport in the country,” Hashimi said. 

The move means Pakistan will now be able to play Syria on Mar. 25 in its first qualifier for the upcoming 2027 Asian Cup.

The PFF has been mired in crisis and controversy since 2015 and this was the third time since 2017 that Pakistan has been suspended.

In June 2022, FIFA lifted the PFF’s suspension, which had been imposed due to undue third-party interference a year earlier. A group of officials led by Ashfaq Hussain Shah, which was elected by the Supreme Court in 2018 to run the PFF but was not recognized by FIFA, took over the headquarters in March 20121. 

They had seized control from FIFA’s normalization committee headed by Haroon Malik. The committee had not conducted elections for the body in the 18 months since it took charge.

FIFA suspended the PFF due to the “hostile takeover” but lifted the ban after confirmation the committee had regained full control of the PFF’s premises and was in a position to manage its finances.

Pakistan was also suspended by FIFA for third party interference in 2017.