ISLAMABAD: The leadership of the PTI and the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) on Thursday unanimously announced that they would not compromise on the health of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan, and urged the nation to join the nationwide shutter-down strike scheduled for February 8 (Sunday).
The remarks were made during a meeting of the PTI’s joint parliamentary committee at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House in Islamabad.
The meeting was attended by prominent leaders, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, TTAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja, and PTI stalwarts Asad Qaiser and Taimoor Saleem Jhagra, among others. The meeting was closed off to the media.
Addressing the participants, Qaiser said that the meeting was called because of Imran’s health. He said that representatives of 40 million people were in attendance and unanimously announced that they would not compromise on the health of the PTI founder.
“Don’t push us against the wall; otherwise, all options are open,” Qaiser said in a warning to the ‘powers that be’.
Talking about the Feb 8 protest, he said, “Today, we pledge that we will make the February 8 protest successful.”
He further said that the PTI would meet the Supreme Court chief justice at 10am on Friday and share the resolution passed by today’s meeting regarding Imran’s health.
Reading out the declaration, Qaiser said that the meeting, chaired by Achakzai, expressed concerns over the PTI founder’s health and demanded that his visitation rights be restored.
The meeting also expressed concern over the law and order situation in Balochistan, which witnessed a spate of attacks over the weekend, and showed solidarity with the martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the country.
Additionally, the participants demanded that steps be taken to ensure the welfare of the people in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tirah and to rehome those who had been displaced. They also elected to intensify the PTI’s ongoing street movement, so that the nationwide protest would be successful.
The participants also condemned the arrest of party leaders and workers in Sindh and announced that rallies would be staged after Isha prayers on February 8.
They also showed solidarity with the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir and emphasised their right to self-determination. They also denounced the revocation of Article 370-A by the Indian parliament in 2019, which stripped the region of its autonomy.
However, the participants expressed their appreciation for the meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and KP CM Afridi, demanding that the province’s dues be cleared.
Before attending the meeting, Raja said that all issues, including the upcoming protests, would be discussed during at the gathering.
He further said that a statement by Achakzai and Senate opposition leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas had been misunderstood, as they said that it would not be a one-day protest.
“They meant that the struggle for democracy will carry on even after February 8,” he clarified.
The development comes after the government last week admitted that Imran was treated at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), days after reports regarding the treatment of the ex-premier emerged in mainstream media.
Speaking to Geo News, Tarar said the former premier, who is imprisoned at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, was taken to Pims in Islamabad for a “20-minute” medical procedure on the night of January 24.
He added that at Pims, Imran’s “eyes were further examined, and after his written approval, a 20-minute medical procedure was performed”. He said the ex-premier was then taken back to the Adiala jail with “important instructions”.
Subsequently, the Pims executive director, Professor Dr Rana Imran Sikander, said that Imran’s eye procedure was completed “smoothly” and that he remained “stable” during the intervention.
Achakzai on Tuesday wrote a letter to PM Shehbaz, seeking his “personal intervention” for the PTI founder’s medical examination by the jailed leader’s “trusted” doctors.
Meanwhile, the PTI has called a massive nationwide shutter-down strike on February 8 against the alleged rigging in the 2024 general elections.
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan on Wednesday urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to move swiftly to designate the banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) as a terrorist organisation under its sanctions regime, saying the listing request was already under consideration by the council.
“We hope the council will act swiftly to designate BLA under the 1267 sanctions regime, acceding to the listing request that is currently under consideration,” Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, told a UNSC briefing on ‘Threats to International Peace and Security caused by Terrorist Acts’.
In his remarks, the envoy thanked UNSC members for issuing a press statement condemning the recent attacks in Balochistan and expressed appreciation for what he described as an international “outpouring of support and solidarity with Pakistan”.
“We remain resolute in eliminating this externally sponsored scourge from our soil and exposing the sponsors, financiers, aiders and abettors sitting across our borders,” Ambassador Ahmad said.
Ambassador Ahmad said Pakistan had paid a heavy price in the global fight against terrorism.
“As a frontline state in the global counterterrorism effort, we have sacrificed blood and treasure — with more than 90,000 casualties and staggering economic losses over the years,” he said.
Recalling Pakistan’s role in earlier counterterrorism efforts, he said the Al Qaeda “core” was “largely decimated in Afghanistan due to Pakistan’s instrumental efforts,” adding that Pakistan had also played a leading role in combating the militant Islamic State group’s regional affiliate.
However, Ambassador Ahmad warned that the security situation had deteriorated in recent years, particularly after the Taliban takeover of Kabul.
“Externally sponsored and foreign-funded proxy terrorist groups such as Fitna al Khawarij TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan) and Fitna al Hindustan BLA and its Majeed Brigade have got a new lease of life,” he said.
“Operating with virtual impunity from Afghan soil and with the active support of our eastern neighbour, these groups are responsible for heinous terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.”
Referring to the latest violence in Balochistan, he said the BLA had claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks across multiple locations.
“Just this weekend, BLA claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks across multiple locations in Balochistan Province that resulted in the martyrdom of 48 innocent civilians, including five women and three children,” he said, adding that “145 BLA terrorists were neutralised during the effective riposte by our valiant security forces”.
It is worth mentioning that last year in August, the US State Department added BLA and its alias, the Majeed Brigade, to its Foreign Terrorist Organisation list.
In his remarks, Ambassador Ahmad also raised concerns about the evolving regional threat emanating from Afghanistan, citing findings by the UN’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team.
“These terrorist groups pose a threat not only to Pakistan, but to the entire region and beyond,” he warned, pointing to recent attacks in Central Asia near the Afghan border as validation of earlier concerns.
He also cautioned against the proliferation of advanced weapons left behind after the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
“It has become imperative to prevent the billions of dollars of sophisticated weapons and equipment left behind by foreign forces in Afghanistan from falling into the hands of terrorists,” he said, calling for accountability of “external destabilising actors who support, finance and arm these groups, including their proxies in Afghanistan”.
He urged the international community to respond collectively, without double standards.
“The international community must address the contemporary terrorist threat through a collective, comprehensive and coordinated response, including through the balanced implementation of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy,” he said.
Ambassador Ahmad also criticised what he described as selective approaches to counterterrorism, arguing that “counterterrorism policies have so far singled out only the adherents of one religion”.
“There must be zero tolerance for state terrorism,” he said, referring to the situation in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and called for recognition of “legitimate struggles of peoples against foreign occupation” in line with UN resolutions.
He said the upcoming ninth review of the Global Counterterrorism Strategy later this year provided an opportunity to “renew our collective resolve” and address existing gaps.
“Pakistan will continue to support multilateral efforts aimed at devising comprehensive and holistic strategies to combat and eradicate this menace through collective endeavours and cooperation,” he added.
KARACHI: In family lore, the year 1976 shines with a particular light. It was the year of the Montreal Olympics, and a young man from Karachi named Marghoob Hasan Ansari carried the dream of representing Pakistan in field hockey.
Whether he stood on the turf or carried the hope only in his heart, that dream became a family heirloom — a lost legacy of sporting ambition that his daughter, Shehla Nasir, would hold onto. With time and distance, it faded into the realm of proud, silent ghosts.
Almost 49 years later, and 3,800 kilometres south, that ghost found its voice.
It did not speak on the AstroTurf, but on a perfect, frozen sheet in Coral Springs, Florida. It did not cheer for a field hockey flick, but for the thunderous clap of a puck against plexiglass. And it did not watch a son, but a grandson.
In the stands, surrounded by a sea of opposing colours, a small, defiant cluster of green flags fluttered. Among them stood the Olympian’s daughter, Shehla — her heart a storm of memory and miracle — as her son, Mahd Nasir, weaved through defenders in the colours of Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Mahd Nasir in action during the Latam Cup. — Courtesy Shehla Nasir
Her feelings, when asked, stuttered into fragments.
“It’s beyond,” she told Dawn. “It’s just … so emotional, so nostalgic, so overwhelming.”
The words failed. They had to. How does one articulate the resurrection of a dream?
This is not a sports fairytale. This is a story of reclamation — of a diaspora stitching together a national team from WiFi signals and sheer will; of families bankrolling glory with second jobs and sacrificed vacations; and of a generation discovering, on the most improbable stage, a belonging they never knew they lacked.
The Pakistan men’s ice hockey team was not born in an arena, but in the ether.
Speaking from Karachi during a visit — where the idea of a national ice hockey team still sounds like fiction — Mahd recalled his first connection to the team.
After a humble, fun-first showing in 2022, the call went out on Instagram. Mahd, a forward raised in the hockey crucible of Vancouver, saw it.
“I saw on Instagram that they were reaching out,” he told Dawn. “They were featured on a couple of big hockey outlets during that first tournament, and that’s where I found them.”
He reached out to a captain. For six months, they talked. Then came the invitation.
Mahd hesitated.
“I didn’t know how the players would be. I didn’t know if I would click.”
He flew to New York to meet his new teammates for the first time. The first gathering was a study in awkwardness.
“It started at breakfast,” he recalled. “It was a little awkward.”
The silence of strangers — bound by a shared passport but separated by different lives — hung in the air. Then something melted.
“By lunch, we broke that awkward boundary. By dinner, everybody was laughing and eating together.”
In twelve hours, they lived the entire metaphor of their project: from disparate parts to a whole. They won bronze at that tournament — Pakistan’s first-ever international ice hockey medal — a historic moment wrapped in the quiet pride of beginnings.
The economy of dreams
Behind the glory lies an economy of dreams, and its currency is sacrifice. There is no federation money. No state sponsor.
“We don’t have any support,” Shehla said plainly. “We’re hoping we get some. We don’t have any support there, and we don’t have any support here [in Pakistan]. So we’re kind of struggling.”
The logistics are a high-wire act funded by parental love.
“For every tournament these guys go to, we as parents have to fund it,” she explained. “Flights, lodging, ice time — ice time is very expensive. It takes a toll on families.”
Pakistan’s Mahd Nasir in action during the Latam Cup. — Courtesy Shehla Nasir
The costs are covered through a patchwork of GoFundMe drives, pooled donations and the kind of communal ingenuity familiar to every immigrant story.
“It’s the Pakistani culture coming together,” she said, and you can almost smell the steam. “It’s biryanis on the table for bachas [kids] and things like that.”
Players don’t stay in hotels. They stay in the homes of other parents, welcomed as sons. They are not just athletes; they are a community’s shared investment, fed on rice and hope.
They have signed formal, five-year contracts binding them to Pakistan — a semi-professional commitment sustained by amateur means, a profound promise made on unstable ground.
A different kind of ice
For Mahd and players like him, hockey has always been a space of cultural dissonance.
“Ice hockey is not a very brown-dominated sport, especially not a Muslim-dominated sport,” he said. “Growing up in Vancouver, there weren’t many Muslim kids playing hockey.”
He is diplomatic but honest.
“It’s not always easy to click with everyone because of cultural differences. Everyone is super nice, but it’s still a different feeling playing with a bunch of white players versus playing with people who come from the same place you came from.”
The Pakistan team is not just a team; it is a homeland on ice. Its chemistry is its most guarded asset.
“We just came from gold, so we’re always looking for new players,” Mahd said. “But we definitely want to keep this chemistry moving forward.”
That sense of identity was tested in Florida in a moment of historical symmetry. For the first time ever, Pakistan faced India — on ice.
“That was the first time India and Pakistan played each other,” Mahd recalled. “It was really cool to see. Everyone was super nice.”
There was respect, not rancour. There was also a glimpse of a path not taken.
“They’re a good team. They’re actually a division higher than us,” he noted. “The Indian community is well-funded. They have a lot of support. India supports its sports better than Pakistan does.”
The observation was not bitter — just clear-eyed.
The new professionals
Mahd is 22. The traditional hockey dream — the NHL — has passed.
“Most people going into the NHL are scouted by 18 or 19,” he said, without self-pity.
“Professional, NHL-level hockey may not be in the cards for me,” he added. “But representing Pakistan on a national stage — and hopefully being inducted into the IIHF — that would be professional.”
His ambition has shifted from personal stardom to national elevation. He studies the hockey map not as a hopeful recruit, but as a strategist.
“In Division Two you have South Korea, China, Spain,” he said. “That’s where we see Pakistan.”
The goal is to host camps in Pakistan’s northern areas — to plant the flag at home.
After the Florida tournament, the world took notice. Instagram reels of their gold-medal run amassed more than two million views.
Mahd was in Europe recently when strangers from Spain recognised him.
“They knew about our team,” he said, smiling. “That was really cool.”
The digital scavenger hunt had come full circle.
The small unit in the stands
Through it all, the parents remain the silent, steadfast chorus.
“The Pakistani community in Vancouver is very small,” Shehla said. “So whoever is there, we’re in the stands. We’re always a very chota [small] unit.”
She described the scene with painful clarity.
“If it’s a Florida team, they have big crowds. We’re always a very small unit.”
Outnumbered, out-spent and out-voiced — but never out-prided.
And for Shehla, the bridge stretches even further back, to Montreal in 1976. Her father’s legacy, once lost to time and silence, now screams back to life in the chill of an ice rink.
“To have a grandson stand there and cheer him on — it’s an honour,” she said. “I can’t tell you how proud I am.”
The lost is found — not preserved, but transformed. From field to ice. From an individual dream deferred to a collective future unfolding.
Her father played for Pakistan that was. Her son plays for the Pakistan that could be.
The foundation
Mahd knows this is only the first shift.
“Of course, this is just the start,” he said. He envisions a five-year horizon. “Eventually, by year five or six, we’ll have a foundation. We won’t need to struggle like this. We can just focus on playing.”
For now, the work is the bond.
“It’s a whole team effort,” he said. “We’re a family.”
A family built on WhatsApp groups and biryani, on GoFundMe pages and gold medals, spanning Vancouver to London, aged 16 to 28.
They are playing for more than promotion. They are playing to turn viral fame into structure, nostalgia into opportunity — to ensure the next wide-eyed Pakistani kid sees not a ghost of a legacy, but a clear path on the ice.
In a Florida arena, a chant began small, born from a small unit in the stands. Fed by the ghosts of Montreal and the hopes of millions, it grew until it shook the glass.
It already lives — in the scrape of a skate, the crack of a puck, and the quiet, overwhelming pride of a mother who finally found the missing photograph not in an album, but in the reflection of the ice, in the eyes of her son.
• Pakistan among top-weighted countries in planned benchmark
• Proposed gauge targets high-yield local bonds in 20-25 economies across Asia, Africa and beyond
LONDON: JPMorgan is finalising plans for a new index to track frontier market local currency bonds, investors consulted on the details told Reuters, as the bank looks to satisfy a growing appetite for riskier and more diversified high-yield debt.
The move, which comes 15 years after the Wall Street bank launched its hard-currency Next Generation Markets Index (NEXGEM) frontier index, coincides with the year-long slump in the dollar and some extraordinary recent rallies in markets like Argentina, Ecuador and Uganda.
JPMorgan declined to comment on the plans.
Six leading money managers who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said the bank’s engagements with them reached an advanced stage in the second half of last year.
The proposed index includes 20 to 25 countries, with Egypt, Vietnam, Kenya, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh having the largest “weightings”, three of the managers said.
Bond sizes and caps on weighting
According to one source, there would be a limit that means no country has a weighting of more than 8 per cent. A second source said an earlier consultation document had a proposed 10pc limit.
It is also set to only include bonds of at least $250 million equivalent, although that has raised issues around Zambia, which many would like to see included but has traditionally only sold smaller individual bonds.
“We expect they (JPMorgan) will give us a formal structure for the index around June with the opportunity to make some final comments,” said one senior fund manager.
“They are then likely to formally launch the index next year, we think.” Another senior fund manager said the initial announcement might be as early as the end of March, which could also bring the formal launch date forward.
Trillion dollar market FTSE
Russell has already had an equivalent index since 2021. JPMorgan’s versions, however, are more prominent among emerging market money managers, who effectively use them to compile their funds and measure their performance.
Analysis by Neuberger Berman estimates tradable local-currency debt has trebled over the last decade to around $1 trillion.
It also calculates that over the last eight years, frontier market local FX debt had outperformed JPMorgan’s mainstream emerging market local currency index by almost 2.5 percentage points, and also outstripped the EM dollar bond index.
“We see that as a confirmation that frontier market growth and general economic performance has been systematically underpriced,” Neuberger Berman’s Rob Drijkoningen said.
According to the World Bank, frontier economies are home to a fifth of the world’s population but account for just 3.1pc of global capital flows and less than 5pc of global GDP.
Their populations, however, are expected to increase by another 800 million over the next 25 years more than the rest of the world combined — meaning they will play an increasingly important role in global economic growth.
Analysts expect JPMorgan’s new debt index to help expand local currency bond markets — something long-championed by the World Bank and IMF as a way to reduce the number of debt crises caused when currency crashes leave governments unable to pay hard-currency debt.
Zambia and eligibility requirements
The rising interest in frontier market debt also comes as shaken confidence in once-safe debt in the developed world pushes capital flows to other parts of the globe.
Three of the investors raised questions about Zambia, which until recently had only sold sub-$250 million local-currency bonds.
It was not in some of JPMorgan’s early outlines, the investors said, but the country has since issued at least one larger bond, raising hopes it will now make the cut.
One eligibility requirement that mirrors JPMorgan’s GBI-EM index of major emerging economies is that included bonds will have more than 2.5 years of remaining maturity — the time before full repayment is due.
JPMorgan estimated in September the index will have approximately 400 basis points or more of “pick-up” in yield over the GBI-EM, with over 60pc of the index constituents yielding more than 10pc.
A potential promotion of top-weighted countries like Egypt and Nigeria to the GBI-EM index in coming years is another issue that could alter the index’s makeup, possibly putting off some investors.
“It will be important to nail that down,” one senior fund manager said.
The US military on Tuesday shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, it said.
The Iranian Shahed-139 drone was flying toward the carrier “with unclear intent” and was shot down by an American F-35 fighter jet, it said.
“An F-35C fighter jet from Abraham Lincoln shot down the Iranian drone in self-defence and to protect the aircraft carrier and personnel on board,” said Navy Captain Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson at the US military’s Central Command.
No American service members were harmed during the incident and no US equipment was damaged, he added.
The incident came as diplomats sought to arrange nuclear talks between Iran and the United States, and US President Donald Trump warned that with US warships heading toward Iran, “bad things” would probably happen if a deal could not be reached.
The Lincoln carrier strike group is the most visible part of a US military buildup in the Middle East following a crackdown against anti-government demonstrations last month.
Trump, who stopped short of carrying out threats to intervene during the crackdown, has since demanded that Tehran make nuclear concessions and sent a flotilla to its coast.
He said last week Iran was “seriously talking,” while Tehran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, said arrangements for negotiations were under way.
Central Command said that in another incident today, hours later in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces harassed a US-flagged and crewed merchant vessel.
“Two IRGC boats and an Iranian Mohajer drone approached M/V Stena Imperative at high speeds and threatened to board and seize the tanker,” Hawkins said.
Meanwhile, the White House said talks between US and Iranian officials were “still scheduled” this week after the drone was shot down.
US envoy Steve Witkoff “is set to have conversations with the Iranians later this week; those are still scheduled as of right now”, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Fox News.
AIN QANA: Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike targeted a building in this southern Lebanese village, violating a truce.—AFP
BEIRUT: One person was killed and eight others were injured on Monday as the Israeli military conducted strikes on multiple locations in southern Lebanon, targeting civilian areas in two villages.
Despite a November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war between Israel and the group, Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon and has maintained troops in five areas it deems strategic.
Justifying the destruction, the Israeli military claimed that it was targeting “weapons storage facilities”. It further attempted to legitimise the bombing of residential neighbourhoods by reciting its standard claims, saying fighters hiding among “civilian infrastructure”.
The Israeli army had previously sent evacuation warnings for the towns of Kfar Tibnit and Ain Qana in southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported strikes on the targeted buildings in both towns.
Earlier on Monday, the Lebanese health ministry said an Israeli strike on Ansariyeh in southern Lebanon killed one person and wounded four others.
Another strike on Qleileh, elsewhere in the south, also wounded four people, according to the ministry.
The NNA reported Israeli strikes on vehicles near both areas, which came without warning. Lebanon has repeatedly protested Israeli strikes on Lebanon as violations of the ceasefire. More than 360 people have been killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon since the ceasefire.
LAHORE: The federal government has decided to transfer Punjab Inspector General of Police Dr Usman Anwar and appoint him as the director general (DG) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), it emerged on Monday.
A highly-placed source confirmed to Dawn that the government has given approval to change the Punjab police high command.
The source said that a summary has been submitted to the prime minister for final approval.
It added that Anwar’s posting as the FIA DG was likely on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, reports suggested that the provincial government has prepared a panel of three candidates for the role of the Punjab police chief.
Lahore Capital City Police Officer Bilal Siddique Kamyana, Punjab Counter Terrorism Department Additional Inspector General Wasim Sial and Special Branch Additional Inspector General Rao Abdul Kareem are among those under consideration.
As per reports, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Inspector General Zulfiqar Hameed is also in the race.
Dr Anwar was appointed Punjab IG during a large reshuffle by the Punjab caretaker government in January 2023. He was performing his duties with the National Highways and Motorway Police before being appointed Punjab’s police chief.
He was posted at the Punjab Counter Terrorism Department while he served as the Faisalabad senior superintendent of police (operations) and the Rawalpindi chief traffic officer.
Dr Anwar also performed duties in the Prime Minister’s Office in Islamabad. He also served as the district police officer in Okara and Sargodha as well as with the Telecommunications and Elite Police.
