Pakistan PM directs creation of skills database to boost local industries, overseas employment

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has become the second-most affected country in the world by “terrorist” violence, with deaths rising 45 percent to 1,081 in 2024, primarily due to attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) 2025 released this week.
The 12th annual GTI report, published by the Institute for Economics and Peace, an Australian-based global think tank, ranked 163 countries in 2024, covering 99.7 percent of the world’s population and analyzing the impact of militant activities worldwide.
Pakistan has witnessed a massive surge in militant violence, including deadly suicide attacks, in its two western provinces bordering Afghanistan. Officials in Islamabad have accused Afghan authorities in Kabul of harboring anti-Pakistan groups and “facilitating” cross-border attacks, an allegation denied by the Afghan government.
The province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been mostly targeted by the TTP, while Balochistan remains in the crosshairs of BLA separatists.
“Burkina Faso remains the country most impacted by terrorism this year [2024], despite attacks and deaths falling by 57 and 21 percent respectively,” the report said on Wednesday. “A fifth of all terrorism deaths globally were in Burkina Faso, followed by Pakistan and Syria.”
“Niger and Pakistan had the largest increases in deaths from terrorism, with increases of 94 and 45 percent respectively,” it added.
The report noted the impact of militant violence had increased significantly in Pakistan, with the number of deaths rising by 45 percent over the past year to 1,081.
It said the TTP was responsible for 52 percent of deaths in the country in 2024, carrying out 482 attacks, which resulted in 558 casualties.
Attacks by Baloch militant groups, including the BLA, also increased sharply, rising from 116 in 2023 to 504 in 2024. Deaths surged more than fourfold to 388, from 88 in the previous year.
Pakistan has continued its fight against militant factions, with the government saying it has lost over 80,000 civilians and security personnel in the post-9/11 militant wave.
The GTI also noted that Daesh’s Khorasan chapter was evolving into one of the most active militant groups globally, expanding its operations beyond Afghanistan into Pakistan, Iran, Russia and Central Asia.
“It carries out more deadly attacks outside of Afghanistan than within, highlighting its growing transnational threat,” it said.
 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar left for Saudi Arabia on Thursday to attend a special Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting focused on the situation in Palestine and the “immoral proposal” to displace its residents from their homeland, the foreign office said in a statement.
Dar, who also holds the diplomatic portfolio, will participate in the OIC foreign ministers’ session, scheduled to be held in Jeddah on Friday.
US President Donald Trump announced a plan to permanently uproot more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza after assuming office, saying his country would turn the area into an international beach resort.
The plan was widely denounced by majority-Muslim nations and global rights organizations, as the US suggested that the Palestinian population could relocate to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.
“Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50, departed for Saudi Arabia to attend the Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers,” the foreign office announced in a social media post.
“The deteriorating situation in Palestine, resulting from Israeli aggression against Palestinians, the ensuing humanitarian crisis, and the illegal and immoral proposals of displacement of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland [will come under discussion],” it added. “At the conference, the DPM/FM will reaffirm Pakistan’s unwavering support for the Palestinian people and their just cause.”
Radio Pakistan reported earlier this week the Pakistani deputy prime minister will advocate for Israel’s full withdrawal from all occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and denounce the proposal for further Palestinian displacement.
Dar will also call for the restoration of the “inalienable rights” of the Palestinian people, including their right to return to their homeland and the establishment of a viable, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state based on pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Earlier this week, Arab leaders adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza worth $53 billion, which seeks to avoid Palestinian displacement, in contrast to Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Tuesday Egypt, in cooperation with Palestinians, had worked on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats to govern Gaza after the Israel-Gaza war ends.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the Arab League’s approval of the Egyptian plan, urging the United Nations to ensure the implementation of its resolutions calling for a two-state solution in the Middle East.