Pakistani official praises innovation as UAE

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ISLAMABAD: The top central bank official in Pakistan has praised the country's financial sector for making technological upgrades after a private commercial bank inaugurated its first "digital lifestyle branch" in the southern Karachi port city to improve the overall customer experience and reduce the brick-and-mortar footprint earlier this week.

Launched by Bank Alfalah, a Pakistani subsidiary of a company based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the initiative seeks to provide a unique digital experience and meet the lifestyle and financial needs of customers.

According to the bank, the state-of-the-art branch will offer a 24/7 digital self-service banking area comprising a virtual self-service machine (VSM), biometrically secured digital lockers, cash-deposit machines (CDMs), auto-teller machines (ATMs), and tech-gadget machines along with round-the-clock Wi-Fi access, among other facilities.

The branch was launched in Karachi by Pakistan's top central bank official on June 1.

"Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Mr. Jameel Ahmad has said that Pakistan's banking industry was investing in technological upgrades to facilitate its customers and improve their overall banking experience," said a statement circulated by the bank.

"He was optimistic that exciting projects like Bank Alfalah's first digital lifestyle branch will unlock new opportunities, making banking easier to access and leading to a more financially inclusive and digitally empowered nation."

According to the statement, Ahmad said that digitalization would entail a reduction in the brick-and-mortar footprint of the banking industry globally, adding that Pakistan was no exception.

"The governor of SBP was confident that the successful implementation of this model will show the way forward to the new entrants of the banking industry in Pakistan. In his concluding remarks, he stressed the need for a proactive approach by the banking industry in tailoring customers’ products and services based on their specific preferences and changing behavior," it added.

The top SBP official further maintained that customers’ fair treatment and protection should be a top priority of banks.

The virtual self-service machine will allow customers to instantly open accounts, receive debit cards swiftly, and get statements printed by a video teller immediately after a transaction, the bank said.

The facility will also provide "easy-to-use and biometrically secured digital lockers" which will be accessible to customers at any time of the day or night without any staff interaction.

Bank Alfalah witnessed an exponential growth of over 95 percent in digital banking transactions with an annualized volume of over Rs3.5 trillion. The bank's record further reveals that 77 percent of new-to-bank (NTB) account holders prefer digital transactions over conventional methods.

Over 75 percent of the bank's transactions are now online, and 70 percent of bank accounts are opened via digital channels.

ISLAMABAD: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) rugby team will be arriving in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore next month to take part in two matches of the Asia Rugby Championship Division 1 that will be hosted by Pakistan this year, Pakistan's Rugby Union confirmed on Tuesday.

Pakistan and the UAE regularly have cultural, educational and business exchanges as well as sports events, which provide a platform for people of both countries to know more about each other and strengthen bilateral ties.

"Pakistan has received the hosting rights for the Asia Rugby Championship Division 1, 2023, this year and will be hosting the UAE team in Lahore to play two matches on July 4 and July 8, respectively," Salman Sheikh, secretary of the Pakistan Rugby Union, told Arab News on Tuesday.

The Pakistani team is currently busy training for the tournament under the guidance of South African coach Gert Mulder, according to the Pakistan Rugby Union.

"Mulder also coached the Pakistan team for the Asia Rugby Division 2 in May 2022, in which the ‘Men in Green’ defeated Thailand," Sheikh said.

He said the venue for the two matches with the UAE had not been decided yet, but they would most likely be played at Lahore's Punjab Stadium.

Rugby is a close-contact team sport in which players have to run with the ball in their hands. In its most common form, a game is played between two teams of 15 players each, using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field called a pitch. The field has H-shaped goalposts at both ends.

Pakistan's national rugby team made its international debut in a match against Sri Lanka in 2003, while the UAE, which had been part of the Arabian Gulf Rugby Football Union since 1974, became a full member of Asia Rugby in 2012.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) has seized 26.5 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, or ice, in a major drug bust in the country's south, the ANF said on Tuesday.

Meth is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system of a user, while it is illegal to possess such intoxicants under Pakistan's Control of Narcotic Substances (Amendment) Act, 2022 due to their high potential for abuse.

The ANF seized the sizeable cache during a raid at the Karachi International Container Terminal, according to an ANF spokesperson.

"The anti-narcotics force has carried out a big operation at the Karachi International Container Terminal and seized 26.5 kilograms of ice from a container," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"Smugglers were trying to transport the drug to Malaysia by sea under the guise of salt."

The consignment was hidden in special boxes secretly embedded into the floors of the container, the ANF said, adding it was taking further action against those involved in the smuggling bid.

Pakistan is part of a transit route in the lucrative drug smuggling trade due to its proximity with Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium.

Despite the Taliban administration imposing a ban on the cultivation, production, and trafficking of all illicit narcotics, experts say the land-locked country has become a significant supplier of crystal meth in recent years, according to a report by Radio Free Europe.

Pakistani authorities seize hundreds of metric tons of narcotics annually, but a seizure of such a huge quantity of a high-end drug like meth is rare.

ISLAMABAD: Hammad Azhar, who has served as Pakistan's finance and energy minister, says police and plain-clothed officials have burst into his home six times in recent weeks, smashed his belongings, and threatened his 82-year-old father, warning that his daughter would be abducted.

Last weekend, he said police and "unknown people" took his father to a police station and released him after they went through his phone for an hour.

Azhar, who is in hiding, says he is under pressure from a "fascist regime" to leave the political party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

"All this is being done because I continue to stand with my party and Imran Khan," he told Reuters by telephone.

Like other senior members of the PTI who have been arrested in recent weeks, in some cases several times, Azhar avoided directly naming the powerful army as being responsible.

Khan however has done so, throwing down the gauntlet to an institution that has ruled the country directly for three decades or exerted considerable influence on the civilian government.

"It is completely the establishment," the former cricket hero said in an interview. "Establishment obviously means the military establishment, because they are really now openly — I mean, it's not even hidden now — they’re just out in the open."

The government and police deny any coercion of Khan's supporters. An army spokesman did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Azhar is wanted on terrorism charges for violent nationwide protests in May and no warrants were needed to raid his home, said Punjab police chief Usman Anwar. Azhar denies the charges.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan has been unsettled since Khan was ousted from office as prime minister in 2022 and launched street protests for fresh elections. A full-blown economic crisis, with runaway inflation, a plunge in the currency, and the possibility of a debt default, has added to the turmoil.

Khan's arrest on corruption charges in May, which he says was at the behest of the generals, led to violent nationwide protests, attacks on an air base, military buildings, including its army's headquarters, and the burning of a top general's home, allegedly by the former prime minister's supporters.

There has never been that kind of challenge to Pakistan's military, which has held sway over the country since independence in 1947 with a mixture of fear and respect.

Full-blown campaign

Nearly 5,000 of Khan's aides and supporters have been arrested since May 9, according to Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah. Rights groups have raised concerns over arbitrary arrests and forced disappearances.

Of the many pro-Khan parliamentarians arrested in the weeks-long crackdown, several have been re-arrested after securing bail from the courts.

All the leaders who have been set free have publicly distanced themselves from Khan, denounced the protests, and praised the military.

"The entire senior leadership is in jail," Khan said in the interview. "And the only ones who can now get out of jail are the ones who then say that we renounce being part of PTI."

His spokesman Iftikhar Durrani added: "It is a full-blown campaign to dismantle the party."

"(Party members’) families are being threatened with consequences — physical, mental and financial... to force a leader to quit," Durrani said.

When Reuters reached out to four of the released politicians for comment on their departures from the party, a former government minister replied in a WhatsApp message: "Situation doesn't allow."

One said he didn't want to talk about it, and the other two did not respond.

The first of the key aides to quit Khan's party was former Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, who was a close confidant of Khan.

She was arrested on May 11 in a police raid on her home, and a court ordered her release five days later. However, she was re-arrested just as she stepped out of jail and taken to another premises. This happened three more times.

Finally, on May 23, shortly after being released for a fifth time, she held a press conference announcing she was quitting politics. She was not re-arrested after that.

'Parting ways'

Fawad Chaudhry, a former information minister, and a close Khan aide, was arrested on May 10 outside the Supreme Court despite having protective bail. He was surrounded by police again after a court ordered his release a few days later.

"I have decided to take a break from politics, therefore, I have resigned from party position and parting ways from Imran Khan," Chaudhry said in a post on Twitter after he was finally released.

Other top aides who have been re-arrested despite release orders from courts include former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and former ministers Ali Muhammad Khan, Shehryar Afridi, and Yasmin Rashid, who walked out of jail only to be redirected to a waiting police vehicle, which took them to another detention site.

"Yes, there is a lot of pressure, but I’m not ditching the party," another senior leader, Mehmood-ur-Rasheed, 69, told reporters in handcuffs as he appeared for a court appearance. He remains in custody.

He told a court last week that he had been tortured in custody, his lawyer Masood Gujjar said. Police deny torturing Rasheed.

Malaika Bukhari, a staunch Khan loyalist who exited the party in late May, cited the ordeal of being incarcerated in a "c-class" cell, where she spent about two weeks, in the summer heat.

C-class cells are small rooms usually crammed with multiple inmates without proper ventilation and a hole in the corner without a door to use as a toilet.

"I announce that I’m resigning from PTI and ending all association with the party," she said in a press conference, condemning the attacks on military property. She said she was doing so of her own volition.

People from Khan's party have said, like her, many of the others arrested in the crackdown were held in similar, if not worse, conditions.

Lawyers say political prisoners are usually entitled to B-class cells, which come with a clean toilet and other facilities such as newspapers and the availability of books.

Ali Zaidi, a former minister for maritime affairs, left the PTI late last month after spending over a week in a prison in the city of Jacobabad — often the hottest place on earth — where he was transferred after being re-arrested.

"I’ve decided, and it was a tough decision, that I will quit politics," he said, adding: "The armed forces are our pride."

Past campaigns

There has been no mention of Khan on local television since the government issued a directive last week not to give air time to "hate mongers, rioters, their facilitators, and perpetrators." It did not name Khan.

Most newspapers have also stopped covering him.

"Media has completely been muzzled," Khan said. "My name cannot be mentioned on media now. My PTI representatives cannot appear on the media anymore."

Critics and analysts say the crackdown replicates past military-led campaigns used to break other political parties in a country where no elected prime minister has ever completed a full term since independence.

Ahead of the 2018 elections which brought Khan to power, the outgoing party of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had also alleged that the army was forcing its parliamentarians to switch sides to tip the scale in favor of the former cricket hero.

But the threats were veiled then, analysts said. Now the magnitude is higher and more open, largely because the military is outraged by the attacks on its assets, the analysts say.

Spokespersons for the military did not respond to requests for comment on this.

"The military is striking back with a vengeance," said Aqil Shah, an academic and author of the book "The Army and Democracy in Pakistan."

Outgoing army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa said during his last days in office last year that the army had meddled in the country's politics for decades but had decided that it will no longer do so.

Khan has accused current army chief General Asim Munir of continuing Bajwa's campaign against him. The army has said the attacks on military installations on May 9 were "pre-planned" by Khan's party leaders and had resolved to bring to book everyone involved.

Khan is facing abetment charges, according to a police report seen by Reuters.

"The military is in command of operation ‘get PTI’," said Shah, the author.

"I think we’re seeing the PTI's controlled demolition," he said.

DADU: Noor Bibi lost her mother, her daughter and the roof over her head in the catastrophic floods that drowned Pakistan last summer.

One year later she remains homeless, living with the remnants of her family in spartan tents marking where the village of Sohbat Khosa was gutted by the deluge in southern Sindh province.

Noor, a farm worker approaching her 60s, prays for "someone with righteous thoughts that will help us build some good houses in an elevated place."

"If it flooded again, we would not bear such big losses," she told AFP.

But government pledges to rebuild flood-ravaged swathes of Pakistan so they are resilient to future extreme weather have largely failed to materialize.

The monsoon deluges of last summer submerged a third of the country, killing 1,700 people and displacing eight million more.

Climate change is making those seasonal rains heavier and more unpredictable, scientists say, raising the urgency of flood-proofing the country.

A failure to do so will be most acutely felt by the poor, who tend to live in the most vulnerable areas.

Here in Dadu district, which was heavily flooded, no rehabilitation is visible. Rare pieces of public infrastructure remain in disrepair and housing reconstruction is left to locals or NGOs.

In January, Islamabad announced a "Resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework" valued at $16.3 billion, but it remains confined to paper.

International donors have also pledged $9 billion, but most of the cash will come in the form of loans.

Villagers’ crops were swept away in the floods, depriving them of livelihoods that might have allowed them to pave their own way to recovery.

With pooled funds, the residents of Sohbat Khosa only raised enough for a toilet and water tank.

Their best hope is the Alkhidmat Foundation, a Pakistani NGO, which plans to build around 30 new homes.

"The government seems to not exist here, and if anything is done by the government, that is only corruption," said Ali Muhammad, a coordinator for Alkhidmat in Dadu.

Pakistan is currently mired in dual political and economic crises that have brought all public initiatives to a standstill.

But decades of entrenched corruption and mismanagement are also to blame.

"Building back better is expensive, and the amount of damage is colossal," Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari told AFP.

He said he "can't speak to what the federal government has done," but in Sindh province, controlled by his party, "we’ve started a couple of initiatives."

"One is the financing of the reconstruction of houses, through NGOs and charity organizations," he said.

However, Alkhidmat, like two other NGOs interviewed by AFP, has not received any public money and relies entirely on private funds.

Thanks to Alkhidmat's efforts, a few dozen homes have been built in the district, but it's nowhere near the two million damaged or destroyed in the floods.

The village of Bari Baital, submerged until November, is expected to eventually host 80 houses built by the foundation — far too few for its thousands of inhabitants.

To resist future rains they are raised on brick pillars, and built with reinforced roofs and water-resistant cement.

"People are completely unaware of climate change," said village teacher Imtiaz Ali Chandio.

All they know is that their village has been a "passage for floods for centuries," he said.

But moving is not an option, meaning the scenario will likely soon be repeated.

"Where else could we go?" asked Abdulrahim Brohi, who already weathered catastrophic floods in 2010. "Everything of ours is here."

"Somewhere else people won't accept us," added Brohi, who estimates his age to be between 50 and 60. "We don't have resources to rebuild our houses here, so how can we afford land somewhere else?"

Prized by tourists for its scenic mountain vistas, the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan was also hit hard by last year's floods.

Hundreds of hotels, restaurants, businesses and homes perched on the banks of the Swat river were swept away as ferocious waters were funnelled down the ravine.

To prevent a repeat of the disaster, authorities have "imposed a complete ban on the construction of any sort of building on the river," said Irfanullah Khan Wazir, Swat's deputy commissioner.

Nonetheless, in Bahrain, a small resort town once half underwater, the government's writ is so weak that builders are riding roughshod over the ban.

A number of shops, restaurants and hotels have been renovated or rebuilt just meters from the coursing water. Even the mosque has been rebuilt on the same spot where it was heavily damaged.

"People are doing illegal construction on weekend nights, but [authorities] are not paying any heed — their silence is baffling," said hotel manager Zafar Ali.

His own property is under construction 20 meters (65 feet) from the river, in a zone he says is authorized.

It is now protected by a flood wall twice the height of the previous one. Economic considerations also prevented them from relocating away from their waterfront vantage.

"Tourists want to be able to open their windows and see the river outside," Ali said. "Those built further away struggle to cover their expenses."

Locals in Swat also condemned the inaction of authorities. The main road following the river has been reopened, but whole sections of tarmac remain torn away.

Compensation schemes have been limited to certain people who lost their homes. They are granted 400,000 rupees ($1,400), nowhere near enough to rebuild.

Muhammad Ishaq, a tailor in Bahrain, built his house near the river for easy access to the water. He watched as his home was swallowed by the floods, and has since been forced to move in with his father further up the mountainside.

Life there is harsher, he told AFP, but even if he manages to rebuild, he knows he "will have to stay away from the river."

ISLAMABAD: Police officers took away a Pakistani journalist, Zubair Anjum, from his home in the southern port city of Karachi, the broadcaster Anjum works for said on Tuesday, citing his family.

Two police vans and double-cabin vehicles arrived at Anjum's home near the Model Colony intersection late last night and took him away, according to Pakistan's Geo News channel.

Some of the police personnel were uniformed while others were in plain clothes.

"They asked for Zubair bhai and took him away at gunpoint. They also took along his mobile phone," Anjum's brother was quoted as saying.

"The police did not give any reason for the arrest. They did not even let him wear his slippers. We repeatedly kept asking what the matter was."

The policemen forced their way into Anjum's home and "manhandled" the family, according to the report. They also took away the digital video recorder (DVR) of a CCTV camera installed in the neighborhood.

Speaking to Geo News, Faisal Bashir Memon, senior superintendent of police (SSP) in Korangi district, said his force had no information about Anjum's arrest.

"Police from stations in the Korangi district have not arrested Anjum," Memon told the broadcaster. "We are investigating the incident."

Meanwhile, the police have lodged a case relating to Anjum's "disappearance" at the Model Colony police station, the report read.

Anjum's disappearance comes days after a prominent Pakistani human rights activist, Jibran Nasir, was "picked up" by about 15 men, dressed in plain clothes, in Karachi, his wife said. Nasir returned a day later, his cousin confirmed to Arab News, without divulging further details.

As a rights activist, Nasir raised alarm over the crackdown against former prime minister Imran Khan's party members and supporters over the violent protests that erupted after Khan's arrest on May 9.

The government denies reports it is illegally abducting dissenters, maintaining that only those who partook in violence and vandalism are being dealt with under the law.

Last month, Sami Abraham, a prominent Pakistani television journalist, went missing apparently because of his public support to Khan.

Abraham has long publicly opposed the government of Khan's successor, PM Shehbaz Sharif. Khan, who has been at loggerheads with the government and the military, was in office in 2018-2022 and was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament last year.

Abraham returned home days later on May 30. No one claimed responsibility for Abrahim's abduction, but it was widely believed that he was being held by the country's security agencies, which are often accused of abducting, harassing and torturing journalists. The security agencies deny the allegation.

Another pro-Khan TV journalist, Imran Riaz, went missing last month and has yet to be found.