Pakistan restores train services from Quetta after deadly hijacking/node/2595142/pakistan
Pakistan restores train services from Quetta after deadly hijacking
A view shows the railway station, after the train service is halted following the attack on a train by separatist militants in Bolan, in Quetta, Balochistan, Pakistan on March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
QUETTA: Train operations from the Quetta Railway Station were restored on Friday, over two weeks after they were suspended following a deadly hijacking by militants in which 31 soldiers, staff and civilians were killed in the southwestern Balochistan province.
The separatist Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the Mar. 11 attack on the Quetta-Peshawar Jaffar Express, during which they blew up train tracks and held passengers hostage in a day-long standoff with security services in a remote mountain pass.
MP Jamal Shah Kakar and Divisional Superintendent Pakistan Railways Imran Hayat inaugurated the train service in a televised ceremony. The train departed with 400 passengers from Quetta for Peshawar in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province under strict security measures.
The Jaffar Express had started services yesterday, Thursday.
“Although we don’t have enough strength of Railway Police Forces, many stations require fencing and other security equipment,” Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi told reporters earlier this week, admitting that railways facilities in the province faced security challenges.
“We are recruiting 500 soldiers in the Pakistan Railway Police and 70 percent of the recruitment would be for Balochistan,” the minister added. “We have planned new security strategies with the frontier corps and other law enforcing agencies.”
He also announced a special Eid train from Quetta Railway station with fool-proof security for passengers.
“We are very much optimistic about better security to the railway’s passengers in Balochistan,” Abbasi said.
“We have repaired all damaged carriages of the attacked Jaffar Express, and new rack of carriages would be included in the train operations from Balochistan.”
The BLA is the largest and strongest of several ethnic Baloch insurgent groups which have been fighting for decades to win independence for the mineral-rich province, home to major China-led projects including a port and gold and copper mines.
ISLAMABAD: US Republican Congressman Jack Bergman has called for cooperation with Islamabad in the critical minerals and industrial development sectors, aiming to build a strategic partnership that “provides value not only to Pakistan but to the entire world.”
The United States has identified a list of “critical minerals” like aluminum, lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements that it has deemed essential for its economy, national security, and technological advancements. Pakistan is endowed with various mineral resources, including salt, coal, copper, gold, chromite, bauxite, and gemstones. It is also rich in lithium used to make batteries, as well as other minerals. But despite rich natural reserves estimated to be worth $6 trillion, Pakistan’s mineral sector contributes only 3.2% to GDP and 0.1% to global exports.
The country is now aiming to tap into this underutilized potential and last week organized a minerals summit attended by top government officials and heads of companies from various countries including the US, UK, Europe, China and the Middle East.
“The value of the relationship going forward between Pakistan and the United States cannot be overestimated or how positive an impact it’s going to make, not only just here in Pakistan, in the United States, but in developing areas around the world,” said Bergman, who is part of a three-member US congressional delegation visiting Pakistan this week.
“The importance of what we’re doing here in these specific areas is to bring partnerships together in very specific areas, critical minerals being only one of many but it sets the stage for the next steps in the development of good industries that provide value not only to Pakistan but to the entire world.”
“We cannot overestimate the value of the kinds of industries that we are involved with now in developing capabilities, whether it’s industrial techniques, mining techniques, new products, all of those elements that go into the future of our productive world,” Bergman added.
Last week, senior official Eric Meyer from the US Department of State’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs attended the Pakistan Minerals Summit and expressed interest in enhancing cooperation with Pakistan in the minerals sector, citing President Donald Trump’s vision of securing rare materials as a “strategic priority” that could benefit both countries.
Pakistan is home to one of the world’s largest porphyry copper-gold mineral zones, while the Reko Diq mine in southwestern Balochistan province has an estimated 5.9 billion tons of ore.
Barrick Gold, which owns a 50% stake in the Reko Diq mines, considers them one of the world’s largest underdeveloped copper-gold areas, and their development is expected to have a significant impact on Pakistan’s struggling economy.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has joined the ranks of the world’s leading solar markets, importing 17 gigawatts (GW) of solar panels last year alone, according to the Global Electricity Review 2025 by Ember, an energy think tank in the UK.
In 2024, for the first time, solar power supplied more than 2,000 TWh of electricity, increasing by 474 TWh (+29 percent) from the previous year. This was the largest increase in generation from any power source in 2024. It took 8 years for solar to go from 100 TWh to 1,000 TWh of power — and then just 3 years to pass 2,000 TWh, meaning that solar has now been the largest source of new electricity globally for three years in a row.
Solar is now so cheap that large markets can emerge in the space of a single year – as evidenced in Pakistan in 2024. Amid high electricity prices linked to expensive contracts with privately-owned thermal power stations, rooftop solar installations in Pakistan’s homes and businesses soared as a means of accessing lower cost power.
“The country imported 17 GW of solar panels in 2024 to meet this growing consumer demand, double the amount imported the year before,” the Global Electricity Review 2025 said.
“Within just a year, Pakistan became one of the world’s largest markets for new solar installations in 2024.”
Pakistan’s case shows that the low-cost, fast-to-build nature of solar power can transform electricity systems at an unprecedented rate. Updated system planning and regulatory frameworks are needed alongside this deployment to ensure a sustainable and managed transition.
In the Middle East, Saudi Arabia imported 16 GW in 2024, more than double the amount imported the year before. Oman saw the largest percentage growth in imports in the region, with 2.5 GW of imports in 2024 representing a fivefold increase from the year before.
South Africa imported 3.8 GW of solar panels in 2024, following a record-breaking 2023 when 4.3 GW were imported as consumers turned to the technology amid rising blackouts. Nigeria and Morocco imported 1.3 GW and 1.1 GW respectively, marking the first time that either country has imported more than 1 GW in a single year.
The expansion of solar power is a worldwide phenomenon, with 99 countries doubling the amount of electricity they produce from solar power in the last five years. The majority of solar generation now comes from non-OECD countries (58 percent), with China alone making up 39 percent of the global total.
Increases in generation have been achieved thanks to the pace of capacity additions, the Global Electricity Review said. The world installed a record 585 gigawatts of solar capacity last year – 30% more than in 2023, and more than double the amount installed in 2022. Having surpassed 1 TW of solar power in 2022, it took only two years to install the next 1 TW.
“This is not just unprecedented for solar power – it is a rate of growth that no power source has seen before. In fact, the solar capacity installed in 2024 is more than the annual capacity installations of all fuels combined in any year before 2023,” the Global Electricity Review 2025 report added.
As solar’s share of the global electricity mix has risen to 6.9 percent of global generation in 2024, some countries are showing it is possible to incorporate much larger amounts. There are now 21 countries that generate more than 15 percent of their electricity from solar power, up from just three countries five years ago.
Torkham, Pakistan: Muhammad Rasool stood waiting at the Torkham border crossing in northwestern Pakistan earlier this month, set to return to his homeland of Afghanistan after 45 years with only a few belongings on his back.
The journey is not one Rasool, an Afghan refugee, is making by choice.
Earlier this year, Pakistan’s interior ministry asked all “illegal foreigners” and holders of Afghan Citizen Cards — a document launched in 2017 to grant temporary legal status to Afghan refugees — to leave the country before Mar. 31, warning that they would otherwise be deported from Apr. 1. The move is part of a larger repatriation drive of “illegal” foreign citizens that began in November 2023, with over 948,870 Afghans repatriated since, as per figures published on state broadcaster Radio Pakistan on Monday.
The campaign was launched after a spike in militant attacks in recent years that Islamabad says is partly to blame on Afghan nationals residing in the country without offering proof. The drive is also taking place amid worsening relations with Afghanistan, whose Taliban-led government Pakistan has accused of providing sanctuary to militants who carry out cross-border attacks. Kabul denies the accusations.
Millions of Afghans have sought refuge in Pakistan over the past four decades, fleeing successive conflicts including the Soviet invasion, a civil war and the post-9/11 US-led takeover of Kabul by the hard-line Taliban government. Thousands were born in Pakistan or left Afghanistan while they were children, and many have never even visited the country they are now forced to return to.
Rasool, 55, is one such refugee.
“We have lived in Pakistan for 45 years,” Rasool, a daily wage laborer most of his life, told Arab News on Saturday at the Torkham Border Crossing just to the west of the historic Khyber Pass in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province that borders Afghanistan.
Afghan refugees with their belongings arrive on trucks from Pakistan at a registration centre in Takhta Pul district of Kandahar province on April 13, 2025. (AFP)
He was leaving the country with his wife, three daughters and two sons.
“We were so happy here. We are so sad that one can’t imagine.”
Rasool complained of harassment of Afghans by authorities in the days leading up to his departure for Torkham from Taxila in the eastern Punjab province where he was based in Pakistan.
“Afghan refugees were disrespected and harassed by the police. Some of the Afghans living near me were picked up from home,” he said. “I was worried that the police would also come to my home so to save my honor, I packed my belongings and left.”
A short distance away, Muhammad Islam, a man in his mid-thirties who was waiting with his family of five for a transport vehicle to take them to Jalalabad in Afghanistan, also spoke about the fear of harassment.
“Due to the fear that our female family members would be picked up by the police, we rushed to leave for Afghanistan,” he told Arab News.
The Pakistan government says it is ensuring the “dignified” repatriation of all illegal aliens.
“MY HEART ACHES”
As per latest figures obtained from the KP Tribal and Home Affairs Department, 500,040 illegal foreigners, mostly Afghan nationals, have been repatriated through various border crossings in the province since September 2023. Between Apr. 1-11, at least 16,242 ACC holders and 17,689 ‘illegal’ Afghan nationals have been repatriated through the Torkham border, according to the home department’s data.
Among them are many like Rasool, whose children can’t even speak the official languages of Afghanistan, Dari and Pashto, and who don’t know what lies ahead.
“They don’t know a word of Pashto, they are all worried as they don’t know the language and the place is new for them,” he said. “Where should we go? What should we do? We are worried about this.”
Sakhi Gul, a 57-year-old Afghan refugee who has worked as a bread maker in Pakistan’s Attock district for over 35 years, said he was barely ten years old when he left his homeland.
“How should we know now where we are being sent? People are saying that a camp has been established,” Gul said. “We don’t know any place or home to go to.”
When asked what he would do in Afghanistan, he said, “I will see once I cross the border … We worked hard in Pakistan and will try to work harder in Afghanistan. At first, I will try to find work as a laborer to feed my family.”
Muhammad Islam, a man in his mid-thirties, also said his professional and personal future in Afghanistan was uncertain.
“I don’t know what I will be doing in Afghanistan. I have never seen Afghanistan. I will see what to do once I cross my family over.”
What most of the refugees do know is that they will miss the life they are leaving behind.
Gul said his Pakistani friends and neighbors, with whom he had spent most of his life, were pained to see him leave.
“Yesterday, they were also weeping and asking why are we going.”
Islam too said he would miss the Pakistani community he was leaving behind in the eastern Chakwal district where he had lived for several years and worked at a junkyard. His spouse and four children, one of them a baby in his wife’s lap, were accompanying him to Afghanistan.
“I miss my friends, my heart aches for them,” Islam said. “They wept with us when I was getting on the vehicle, and I also wept. My heart says that I shouldn’t go.”
KARACHI: An IMF team visiting Pakistan to undertake a Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCDA) will conclude its mission today, Monday, an official with direct knowledge of the review said.
IMF staff reached a deal with Pakistan for a new $1.3 billion arrangement last month and also agreed on the first review of the ongoing 37-month bailout program. Pending board approval, Pakistan can unlock the $1.3 billion under a new climate resilience loan program spanning 28 months. The IMF will also release $1 billion for the South Asian nation under its $7 billion bailout program, which would bring those disbursements to $2 billion.
“Following a scoping mission in February, an IMF team is in Pakistan until April 14 [Monday] to undertake a Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCDA),” an official privy to the negotiations told Arab News, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media. “A press release will be issued at the conclusion of the mission.”
The IMF bailout program, secured mid-year in 2024, has played a key role in stabilizing Pakistan’s economy and the government has said the country is on course for a long-term recovery.
The GCDA is a detailed assessment tool used by the global lending agency to identify governance vulnerabilities in areas such as fiscal management, financial oversight and the rule of law. It is designed to support targeted reforms to improve transparency, accountability and institutional performance.
The IMF conducted the preliminary phase of the assessment in February at the request of the Pakistani government. Following the visit, it praised the country’s commitment to governance reform. A second review began on Apr. 4.
A separate technical team from the IMF is also scheduled to visit Pakistan this week to hold discussions with senior officials from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) regarding taxation proposals for the upcoming budget of 2025-26.
“The visit … will see talks focused on expanding the country’s narrow tax base, with a particular emphasis on bringing retailers and other untaxed sectors into the tax system,” Profit, a top Pakistani business publication, reported last week.
“One of the key issues on the table will be the government’s desire to reduce tax rates for salaried individuals, a move the IMF will likely evaluate as part of broader fiscal discussions.”
A high-powered Pakistani delegation, led by Finance Minister Mohammad Aurangzeb, will participate in the upcoming annual spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington from April 21-26.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has said Islamabad was concerned about new tariffs imposed by the US administration of President Donald Trump but had no intentions of imposing reciprocal taxes, BBC reported on Sunday.
Islamabad would have been slapped with a 29% tariff rate before Trump’s temporary suspension announcement on Wednesday. A 10% blanket duty on almost all US imports will remain in effect, the White House has said.
“There is a minimum tariff of 10% and then there is an additional tariff, I think we need to talk about this issue,” Aurangzeb said in an interview to the BBC.
In response to a question about reciprocal tariffs, he said: “If your question is whether we are going to give any response [to the US] in return, the answer is no.”
“There is a situation of uncertainty, and we all have to think about how to move forward with this new world order,” the finance minister added.
When asked if he felt Pakistan was losing out in the tug-of-war between the US and China, he said Washington had been a “strategic partner” of Pakistan for a long time, not just in trade but also in other sectors, while relations with China were important in their own right.
A study by the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) entitled ‘Impact of Unilateral Tariff Increase by United States on Pakistani Exports’ said this month when added to the existing 8.6% Most Favored Nation (MFN) tariff, the total duty after the imposition of the 29% tariff could reach 37.6%. This would likely result in a 20-25% decline in Pakistani exports to the US, translating into an annual loss of $1.1-1.4 billion, with the textile sector bearing the brunt of the blow.
The textile sector in Pakistan generates about $17 billion in exports and is the largest employer in the country, according to the Pakistan Textile Council. The industry is expected to face significant challenges from the tariffs, with potential losses of up to $2 billion in textile exports estimated by experts if the 29% tariff rate is reinstated after Trump’s 90-day pause ends.
Despite the risks, the PIDE reports also view the tariffs crisis as an “opportunity for strategic transformation.”
In the short term, it recommended that Pakistan engage in high-level diplomatic efforts to highlight the mutual costs of the tariffs and preserve long-standing trade relations. In the long term, it called for the need to diversify both export products and markets, seeing destinations such as the European Union, China, Asean nations, Africa and the Middle East as offering growth potential in sectors like IT, halal food, processed foods and sports goods.
