KARACHI: Pakistan’s media community on Wednesday condemned a notice issued by the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) to a local journalist, Muhammad Akbar Notezai, calling it a direct assault on press freedom.
According to reports, the notice stemmed from an investigative report Notezai published in Dawn newspaper more than a year earlier, probing allegations of administrative mismanagement, misuse of authority, and corruption in Balochistan.
Established last year in May, to replace the cyber‑crime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the NCCIA has drawn criticism for its expanding scope and its involvement in cases traditionally outside its mandate.
“Investigative journalism in Pakistan has witnessed a steady decline over the years, largely due to increasing censorship,” Fazil Jamili, President of Karachi Press Club, told Arab News. “In this environment, the work of journalists like Akbar Notakzai becomes all the more vital.”
Jamili said Notezai’s reporting consistently reflected rigorous research, professional integrity and the highest journalistic standards.
“It is deeply alarming that a journalist of his caliber is now being targeted by a state institution,” he added. “Such actions not only undermine press freedom but also discourage much-needed investigative reporting.”
Reacting to the development, veteran journalist Mazhar Abbas noted a newspaper report or article did not fall under the jurisdiction of the NCCIA.
“If someone had objections to the report, they could have issued a rebuttal or approached the court under relevant defamation laws,” he said. “In this context, the NCCIA should not have entertained the complaint at all.”
Abbas said the real purpose behind the action was to “pressure journalists and obstruct independent reporting.”
“Tactics like these are clearly aimed at curbing investigative journalism, so that government officials and institutions are not held accountable,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shahid Rind, a spokesperson for the Balochistan government, clarified via social media the provincial administration was not the complainant in the case, distancing it from the notice.
Based in Pakistan’s volatile southwestern Balochistan province, Notezai covers security, political, and social issues.
ISLAMABAD: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday said the recent standoff between India and Pakistan was rooted in the unresolved Kashmir dispute, urging the global community to press New Delhi for a “peaceful and expeditious” settlement to ensure regional stability.
The remarks came during an event marking the sixth anniversary of India’s 2019 decision to revoke the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir and integrate the Muslim-majority Himalayan region into the rest of the Indian union. The move triggered a sharp response from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties, a situation that remains unresolved. Both countries claim Kashmir in full but control only parts of it.
Speaking at the United Nations, OIC Permanent Observer Ambassador Hameed Opeloyeru linked the latest military escalation to the decades-old territorial conflict.
Earlier this year, India and Pakistan engaged in a brief but intense four-day exchange of drone strikes, missiles and artillery fire in May, following a gun attack on tourists in the Indian-administered town of Pahalgam. New Delhi blamed Islamabad for the attack, while Pakistan denied any involvement and demanded an independent probe.
“The OIC has continued to renew its call on the global community to lean on the Government of India to allow an expeditious but peaceful resolution of the Jammu Kashmir dispute, in line with the UN Charter and the basic principles of international law,” Opeloyeru said. “Without doubt, the people of Jammu Kashmir do enjoy the inalienable rights to self-determination as established under international law, including the UN Charter.”
“It is evident that the unresolved Kashmir dispute is the root cause of the recent hostilities in West Asia,” he added. “To this end, the OIC promptly expressed its concern on the Pahalgam attack on Azad Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April 2025 and later welcomed the ceasefire, which was established on 10 May 2025 and which continues to hold.”
The OIC also criticized India’s decision to suspend the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, a World Bank-brokered agreement governing river water distribution with Pakistan, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack. Islamabad has already described such a move as “an act of war,” though the OIC has urged both sides to adhere to bilateral agreements and resume dialogue.
At the same event, the OIC reiterated its rejection of India’s 2019 revocation of Kashmir’s special status and what it described as efforts to alter the region’s demography. The group reaffirmed its support for the Kashmiri people’s “legitimate struggle” for self-determination, citing resolutions adopted at its ministerial session in Istanbul in June 2025.
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan Army major was among three soldiers killed when their vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device in Balochistan’s Mastung district, the military said late Wednesday night, adding that security forces later killed four militants in a retaliatory operation.
Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is strategically important due to its mineral wealth and its role as a transit hub for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
However, the province has long been gripped by a separatist insurgency, with groups such as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) ramping up attacks in recent years. Islamabad calls these outfits proxies of Indian intelligence, branding them “Fitna-e-Hindustan,” India’s mischief, though the charge is denied by New Delhi.
“On night 5/6 August 2025, terrorists belonging to Indian proxy Fitna al Hindustan, targeted a Security Forces’ vehicle with an improvised explosive device in Mastung District,” the Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
This handout photo, released on August 6, 2025 shows three Pakistan army soldiers killed in Balochistan blast. (Handout/ISPR)
“Resultantly, three brave sons of soil; Maj Muhammad Rizwan Tahir (31, Narowal), Naik Ibni Amin (37, Swabi), and Lance Naik Muhammad Younas (33, Karak), paid the ultimate sacrifice and embraced shahadat [martyrdom].”
The army said Major Tahir was a decorated officer who had led numerous counterterrorism missions from the front. A subsequent “sanitization operation” in the area led to the killing of four “Indian-sponsored terrorists,” the statement added.
The military said its operation in the area was still continuing, vowing to eliminate all threats.
“Such sacrifices further strengthen our resolve to wipe out the menace of Indian-sponsored terrorism from the country,” the ISPR added.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack in a statement, paid tribute to the fallen soldiers, and lauded the military’s swift response.
“Security forces are standing like a wall in defense of the nation,” he said, adding the country remains committed to eradicating militancy and extremism in all its forms.
Balochistan has seen a string of high-profile militant attacks this year. In March, the BLA hijacked a passenger train, and in May, a suicide bombing in Khuzdar killed several children after targeting their school bus.
Security forces, civilians and non-local workers are frequently targeted in coordinated attacks across the province.
Pakistan’s deadly monsoon floods were worsened by global warming, study finds
Scientists warn 2050 climate projections are already unfolding in 2025 amid rising temperatures
Study says half of Pakistan’s urban poor live in flood-prone, fragile housing, leading to greater losses
Updated 07 August 2025
AP
ISLAMABAD: Heavy rainfall that triggered floods in Pakistan in recent weeks, killing hundreds of people, was worsened by human-caused climate change, according to a new study.
The study by World Weather Attribution, a group of international scientists who study global warming’s role in extreme weather, found that rainfall from June 24 to July 23 in the South Asian nation was 10% to 15% heavier because of climate change, leading to many building collapses in urban and rural Pakistan.
Pakistan’s government has reported at least 300 deaths and 1,600 damaged houses due to the floods, heavy rain and other weather since June 26.
Saqib Hassan, a 50-year-old businessman in northern Pakistan, said flooding on July 22 destroyed his home and 18 of his relatives’ homes, along with their dairy farms. His farm animals were washed away, resulting in heavy losses — likely 100 million rupees ($360,000) — for him and his family.
Businessman Saqib Hassan gestures toward debris of his family homes, which were damaged by July 22 floods, at the bank of Hunza River in Sarwarabad, a town in the northern Pakistan on August 6, 2025. (AP)
Last-minute announcements from a nearby mosque were the only warning they got to evacuate their homes in the small town of Sarwarabad and get to higher ground.
“We are homeless now. Our houses have been destroyed. All the government has given us is food rations worth 50,000 rupees ($177) and seven tents, where we’ve been living for the past two weeks,” Hassan told The Associated Press over the phone.
HEAVY RAINS CAUSE SERIES OF DISASTERS
High temperatures and intense precipitation worsened by global warming have accelerated the pace of recent extreme weather events faster than climate experts expected, said Islamabad-based climate scientist Jakob Steiner, who was not part of the WWA study.
“In the last few weeks, we have been scrambling to look at the number of events, not just in Pakistan, but in the South Asian region that have baffled us,” he said.
“Many events we projected to happen in 2050 have happened in 2025, as temperatures this summer, yet again, have been far above the average,” said Steiner, a geoscientist with the University of Graz, Austria, who studies water resources and associated risks in mountain regions.
Heavy monsoon rains have resulted in a series of disasters that have battered South Asia, especially the Himalayan mountains, which span across five countries, in the last few months.
Local residents collect useful items through the rubble of their houses, which were damaged by July 22 floods, at the bank of Hunza River in Sarwarabad, a town in the northern Pakistan on August 6, 2025. (AP)
Overflowing glacial lakes resulted in flooding that washed away a key bridge connecting Nepal and China, along with several hydropower dams in July. Earlier this week, a village in northern India was hit by floods and landslides, killing at least four people and leaving hundreds missing.
The authors of the WWA study, which was released early Thursday, said that the rainfall they analyzed in Pakistan shows that climate change is making floods more dangerous. Climate scientists have found that a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, which can make rain more intense.
“Every tenth of a degree of warming will lead to heavier monsoon rainfall, highlighting why a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is so urgent,” said Mariam Zachariah, a researcher at the Center for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London and lead author of the WWA study.
EXTREME WEATHER’S IMPACT ON PAKISTAN
Even though Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of planet-heating gases in the atmosphere, research shows that it incurs an outsized amount of damage from extreme weather. Pakistan witnessed its most devastating monsoon season in 2022, with floods that killed more than 1,700 people and caused an estimated $40 billion in damage.
According to the United Nations, global funds set up to deal with loss and damages because of climate change or funds set up to adapt to climate change are falling well short of the amounts needed to help countries like Pakistan deal with climate impacts. The UN warns that its loss and damage fund only holds a fraction of what’s needed to address yearly economic damage related to human-caused climate change.
Similarly, UN reports state that developed countries such as the United States and European nations, which are responsible for the largest chunk of planet-heating gases in the atmosphere, are providing far less than what’s needed in adaptation financing.
Motorists drive through a flooded road caused by heavy monsoon rain in Lahore, Pakistan on July 23, 2025. (AP/File)
These funds could help improve housing and infrastructure in areas vulnerable to flooding.
The WWA report says much of Pakistan’s fast-growing urban population lives in makeshift homes, often in flood-prone areas. The collapsing of homes was the leading cause of the 300 deaths cited in the report, responsible for more than half.
“Half of Pakistan’s urban population lives in fragile settlements where floods collapse homes and cost lives,” said Maja Vahlberg of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center, who also helped author the WWA report, in a press statement. “Building flood-resilient houses and avoiding construction in flood zones will help reduce the impacts of heavy monsoon rain.”
KARACHI: Pakistan and Iraq have agreed to strengthen their maritime cooperation by exploring new sea routes after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to launch a ferry service between the port cities of Umm Qasr and Gwadar, Pakistan’s maritime affairs ministry said this week.
Islamabad this week granted its first-ever ferry service license to an international operator, Sea Keepers, for routes connecting Pakistan with Iran and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Pakistan’s Maritime Affairs Minister Junaid Anwar Chaudhry said the move would boost regional connectivity, religious tourism and economic activity via sea routes.
The agreement to launch the ferry service between Umm Qasr and Gwadar was reached in a meeting between Maritime Affairs Minister Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, and a three-member delegation from the Iraqi Embassy in Islamabad, led by its deputy head of mission, Abdulqadir Sulyman Alhimiri.
“Welcoming the initiative, Minister Junaid Anwar Chaudhry described it as ‘a new chapter’ in bilateral relations, emphasizing that maritime passenger and cargo links could build on expanding economic ties and religious travel between the two countries,” Pakistan’s maritime affairs ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Chaudhry highlighted that Islamabad can meet Baghdad’s potassium sulphate needs through the ferry service, noting that a manufacturing facility is present in the southwestern Gwadar Free Zone.
“The ferry connection can leverage our shared cultural and religious bonds while unlocking new business opportunities,” the minister said.
He underscored the potential for increased port activity and expansion of the supply chain under Pakistan’s blue economy strategy.
The ministry said last year, over 88,000 Pakistani pilgrims visited Iraq to observe the Ashura religious occasion.
Chaudhry informed the Iraqi delegation that Pakistan was also working to set up ferry routes with Iran and GCC countries.
He said similar arrangements with Iraq could complement these plans, fostering a regional maritime network that meets both economic and strategic goals.
“The minister proposed expanding goods trade by boosting Pakistani exports of medicines, meat and rice to Iraq while increasing Iraqi oil imports into Pakistan, which could help elevate bilateral trade well beyond current levels,” the ministry said.
Alhimiri expressed “strong support” for the minister’s proposals, calling the maritime sector a “key enabler” for future collaboration, the Pakistani ministry said.
Chaudhry said the proposed ferry link would serve as a vital corridor to access broader Asian markets for Iraq, reduce transportation costs, improve logistics, and significantly boost bilateral trade between the two countries.
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) announced on Wednesday it would hold the first-ever futsal national team tryouts in Lahore on Aug. 10, as it gears up for its upcoming AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2026 qualifiers to be held in next month.
Futsal is a fast-paced indoor variant of football played on a smaller, hard court with five players per side. Emphasizing close control, quick passes and creativity, it is known for its speed and frequent goal-scoring opportunities.
In Pakistan, the game has rapidly gained popularity over the years, particularly among youth, thanks to its dynamic and skill-driven nature.
“Open to futsal players across the country, the tryouts will take place on August 10, 2025, at the 5th Generation Sports Complex in DHA Phase 8, Lahore, from 9am to 6pm,” the PFF said in a statement.
“The players must bring valid identification, including a passport and CNIC, to be eligible for selection.”
The PFF will finalize the squad in due course and the training camp will begin in the first week of September, it added.
With the announcement of the national team’s first-ever tryouts, Pakistan is making its official entry into international futsal, which marks a significant milestone in the sport’s growth within the country.
Pakistan has been placed in Group D alongside , Iraq, and Chinese Taipei for the AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2026 qualifiers, scheduled from Sep. 20 to 24.
Group stage matches will be held in Dammam, with Pakistan set to face Iraq on Sep. 20, on Sep. 22, and Chinese Taipei on Sep. 24.
AFC Futsal Asian Cup 2026 will be held in Indonesia next year.
