A senior Pakistani minister has admitted that the country failed to capitalize on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), citing attempts by the previous government to undermine Chinese investments, leading to investor flight.
The development comes as relations between the two countries showed marked improvement following the four-day military conflict between Pakistan and India in May.
While Asim Malik's role in Pakistan's recent warming up of relations with the US is acknowledged, army watchers note a recent distancing, what with Asim Munir not wanting his DG, ISI to share the limelight during his subsequent sojourns to Tampa and Brussels, points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
Dar recalled that when he met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in July and asked about dialogue with India, the top US diplomat clarified that India has maintained it is a "bilateral issue."
Pakistan has approached the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a USD 7 billion loan to upgrade a major railway line after China apparently declined to support the project. The development of Mainline-I (ML-I) railways between Peshawar and Karachi is stuck due to a lack of funds.
Hydrology experts suggest that India cannot be directly blamed for the devastating monsoon flooding in Pakistan this year, citing greater destruction upstream of the border and lack of evidence for intentional action.
Speculation swirls in Pakistan regarding potential changes in the political landscape, fueled by rumors of the army chief's possible presidential aspirations and discussions between top civilian and military leaders.
It was said that Sharif wanted the PML-N-led coalition government to utilise all available diplomatic resources to restore peace between the two nuclear-armed states, saying he was not keen on taking an aggressive position, The Express Tribune reported.
According to sources, India would be invited to the new proposed forum, while countries like Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Afghanistan are expected to be part of the grouping.
India has vehemently denied Pakistan's accusations of involvement in a bomb attack on a school bus in Balochistan's Khuzdar region, calling the allegations "baseless." The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that Pakistan consistently blames India for its internal issues to deflect attention from its reputation as a global terrorism hub. The MEA spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, asserted that this attempt to deceive the world will ultimately fail. The suicide attack resulted in the tragic deaths of five people, including three children, and left several others injured. While India expressed condolences for the loss of life, it firmly rejected Pakistan's claims. The MEA highlighted Pakistan's tendency to scapegoat India for its internal problems, a tactic aimed at obscuring its own failings in combating terrorism. The blast, reportedly carried out through a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), was condemned by Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of innocent children and teachers.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has slapped 11 new conditions on Pakistan for the release of the next tranche of its bailout programme and warned that tensions with India could heighten risks to the scheme's fiscal, external, and reform goals, according to a media report on Sunday.
The disbursement of the second tranche comes on a day when the International Monetary Fund is holding virtual discussions on Pakistan's upcoming budget, as the visit of its mission to Islamabad was delayed due to security concerns in the region.
Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Jiang Zaidong urged that the government should launch a crackdown against all anti-China terrorist groups after two deadly attacks took place in Pakistan within only six months, The Express Tribune reported.
Wanted for alleged money laundering charges, controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik has arrived in Pakistan on Monday morning at the invitation of the Government of Pakistan, amid tight security for his lecture series at Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.
Khan will remain in jail as he is convicted in many other cases.
Khan also insisted on protecting 'Form 45' to guard the people's mandate and expressed confidence over his victory, saying, "no force can defeat an idea whose time has come."
There was no progress in the formation of a new coalition government in Pakistan on Tuesday as top leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) failed to agree on a power-sharing deal in their latest round of talks, indicating deepening fissures in the country's political landscape.
Islamabad also summoned the Iranian charge d'affaires here and issued a strongly worded condemnation of Iran's "violation of its airspace", the Foreign Office said.
Shoaib Akhtar revealed that he was approached for the Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt's crime-drama movie Gangster, which released in 2005 with the offer to play the lead role.
A strong 6.8 magnitude earthquake with the epicentre in Afghanistan shook Pakistan, killing at least 12 people and injuring nearly 250 others in both the countries, authorities said on Wednesday.
According to flight radar, the Indian plane with a ground speed of 454 knots entered north of Lahore at about 7:30 pm on Saturday and returned to India at 8:01 pm, the Dawn newspaper reported.
Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch during her briefing on Friday was asked to comment on the successful soft-landing of the Chandrayaan-3 mission on the Moon.
The three main political parties in Pakistan on Sunday intensified their efforts for the formation of a coalition government after it became clear that the coup-prone country faced a hung Parliament after general elections marred by allegations of rigging.
Various Hindu families, including children and women, from the interior parts of Sindh, reached the Wagah border on Tuesday for going to India on the visas for religious pilgrimage, The Express Tribune reported.
'You must have heard that Pakistan is going bankrupt or that a default or meltdown is taking place. It (default) has already taken place. We are living in a bankrupt country,' Defence minister Khawaja Asif said.
At least two policemen were killed and many others injured when Pakistani Taliban militants seized a counter-terrorism centre and took some people hostage in the Bannu district of Pakistan's troubled Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
A top commander of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Omar Khalid Khorasani and three other top terrorists have been killed in a mysterious blast in eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province, a Pakistani media report said on Monday.
Chief Justice Athar Minallah of the Islamabad high court delivered a reserved verdict during which he also fined the petitioner Maulvi Iqbal Haider Rs100,000, the Express Tribune newspaper reported.
All eyes went teary as wheelchair-bound Singh had an emotional meeting with his sister Kulsoom Akhtar at Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur in Pakistan's Punjab province on Wednesday.
If the Pakistani foreign minister attends the meeting in person, it will be the first such visit from Islamabad to India since 2011.
A 15-point agenda of Friday's session issued by the Secretariat on Thursday night also includes the no-confidence motion.
Pakistan's new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Russian President Vladimir Putin have quietly exchanged letters to strengthen bilateral relations, a media report said on Sunday, amidst allegations by Imran Khan that his maiden visit to Moscow, much against Washington's wishes, led to his ouster.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president and Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif, 70, who is the Opposition's candidate for the new prime minister, will announce his possible government priorities after taking the oath.
Unlike Israeli company NSO, whose sale of Pegasus cyber tech grabbed worldwide attention, and other manufacturers of offensive-cyber products, Cellebrite operates in a grey area between security exports and civilian ones.
Pakistan's top election body has imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Prime Minister Imran Khan for violating election code of conduct by addressing a rally in Swat ahead of the local government election in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan's former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has been issued a passport to return to his home country from the UK where he was seeking treatment, a media report said on Monday.
Pakistan's powerful Army has contradicted Prime Minister Imran Khan's remarks accusing America of hatching a conspiracy to topple his government, saying there was no evidence of interference in the country's internal matters, according to a media report.
A video shared by Qureshi's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Twitter shows plain-clothed men taking him away, with him waving at party workers before departing from the location where he was detained.
Pakistan has rejected India's action over the March 9 accidental firing of a supersonic BrahMos missile that landed in its territory as "totally unsatisfactory, deficient and inadequate" and reiterated its demand for a joint probe into the incident.
Bugti announced that he would support the Opposition in the wake of the no-confidence motion submitted against Imran Khan. Imran Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf set to face a no-trust motion in the National Assembly.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances