Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan has attained all of the 27 recommended conditions of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) action plan, hence there is no justification left to keep Pakistan in the grey-list. FM issued this statements ahead of the ongoing five-day meeting of the FATF. The outcomes of the FATF meeting will be out on June 25th.

The minister further blamed the previous governments of PML-N and PPP for their erroneous strategies which led the current government to take loans from the IMF and the country remained in the FATF grey-list because none of the said previous governments took steps to curb money laundering and terrorism financing, but the current government has taken solid measures to deter these issues.

Qureshi also acknowledged that the PTI government took some tough steps in the initial three years of rule, which burdened the masses, but the country was required to concentrate on its economic growth.

Earlier, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published its 2nd Follow-Up Report (FUR) on Pakistan’s progress on account of FATF recommendations and the technical compliance deficiencies. Pakistan made notable progress as Pakistan requested a re-rating of 23 recommendations, out of which 22 were re-rated.

Pakistan is facing several social, political and economic issues at this time. When we talk about social issues, certain issues cannot be ignored and they are getting worse due to the lack of addressing. Rape is one of the worst problems women are facing across the world. According to a United Nations report, Globally, an estimated of 736 million women, almost one in three have been subjected to rape, non-partner sexual violence or both at least once in their life (30 percent of women aged 15 and older).

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), an incident of rape occurs every two hours and an innocent victim is gang-raped after four to eight days.

Omer Aftab, CEO of White Ribbon Pakistan, an organisation that is trying to create awareness to end gender discrimination. He said that three main reasons in Pakistan are lack of education, Sexual frustration and the third one is poor implementation of law in our society.

Lack of education gives rise to a patriarchal society in which men exploit women sexually for their gains. Sexual frustration comes up when we don’t talk about this openly, as in other societies, and the third one is the absence of the rule of law that means everyone before the law is not equal and rich ones do not get punished whenever they commit such a crime.

In this era, parliamentarians, women advocates and gender rights activists have raised this issue to make it prioritise. Certain Acts have been passed to protect women at the workplace and outside. The Protection of Women Act 2006 favours rape victims and removes the strict punishments imposed on them under the Zina Ordinance. Rape is now adjudicated as part of the Pakistan Penal Code. Various bills are also passed to protect women. Nowadays, women can get help from online services when they find anyone teasing or trying to physically abuse them.

The situation is getting better, but we have to create more awareness in our society to eradicate this issue. We have to give women their equal rights as stated in Islam and written in our constitution. There should be justice and the rule of law because both of these can make a greater difference.

Author: Aqsa Razzaq

Pakistan made a mistake in the past by choosing among conflicting Afghan parties. We have learned from our experience and would never repeat the mistake of joining the U.S again, said Prime Minister Imran Khan in his opinion article for the Washington Post.

He stated that the losses Pakistan suffered from the Afghanistan War, which was a result of joining the U.S efforts, were unbearable. More than 70,000 Pakistani people have been killed, tourism has declined, Pakistan’s economic losses have exceeded $150 billion, while the United States provided only $20 billion in aid, he added.

The executive also expressed his concerns about the aftermath of allowing U.S military bases in Pakistan. He said that our country was labeled as a collaborator previously as well, which led to terrorism against Pakistan from the Tehreek-e-Taliban and other groups. If Pakistan were to agree to host U.S bases this time as well, the U.S would bomb Afghanistan, and Pakistan would be targeted for revenge by terrorists again. We simply cannot afford this. We have already paid too heavy a price, said the PM.

Imran Khan further questioned the demand for military bases by U.S, “If the United States, with the most powerful military machine in history, couldn’t win the war from inside Afghanistan after 20 years, how would America do it from bases in our country?”

The Prime Minister conclusively showed his proponency of negotiated peace and development in the region and ensured that Pakistan is ready to work with anybody that considers the confidence of Afghan People, but will never allow U.S military bases in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Imran Khan recently gave an interview to Jonathan Swan from HBO Axios which got wide attraction because of some exclusive statements by Imran Khan. The interview got viral because Imran Khan clearly stated “absolutely not” when he was asked about allowing US bases in Pakistan.

Another statement from the same interview was widely reported in which Imran Khan said that if a woman was wearing short clothes, it would have an impact on men unless they were robots.

Imran Khan tried to highlight the importance of “parda” (modesty) and resist those elements spreading vulgarity through electronic media

However, Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) released an unedited version of the interview which unveiled many other statements of Imran Khan which were not aired by HBO Axios. Imran Khan’s statement about the situation in India caused by the rise of Hindutva was also censored by HBO. Pakistan demanded clarification from HBO for censoring PM Imran Khan statements

Prime Minister Imran Khan said: “the moment there is a settlement in Kashmir, the two neighbours would live as civilised people. There will be no need to have nuclear deterrent”

While being interviewed by Jonathan Swan on Axios, PM Khan declared the nuclear arsenal of Pakistan as a deterrent for protection against India.

Swan asked: “Intelligence analysts say Pakistan has the fastest-growing nuclear arsenal anywhere in the world. Why?”

“I don’t know where they have come up with this. Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is simply a deterrent to protect ourselves. As far as I know, it’s not an offensive thing. Any country which has a neighbour seven times its size would be worried”, the PM responded.

He added that “I am completely against nuclear arms. We had three wars against India, and ever since we have nuclear deterrent, there has been no war, only border skirmishes.”

PM Imran Khan said that once the Kashmir issue was settled, there won’t be a need for nuclear deterrents.

A Bangladeshi converted Muslim, Omar Farook, has been martyred by Christian Separatists in Bangladesh. He was reportedly martyred on his way back from the Mosque that he had built on his own land.

Omar Farook, previously Purnochandra Tripura, converted to Islam in 2015. He was a resident of Tulachhari hill in the south eastern district of Bandarban. He also converted more than 30 Christian families to Islam, and built the first Mosque of his area, on his own land.

The Christian Separatists group in Bangladesh killed him, allegedly to stop the spread of the message and to silence the voice of Islam

Bangladeshi Public is showing their grief and agony on this highly condemnable murder and is demanding fair investigation and justice from the Bangladeshi authorities.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Pakistan would confront any Indian act for the division of Kashmir. The Foreign Minister issued the statement ahead of the Indian Prime Minister’s meeting for holding assembly elections in the Indian occupied territory.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi further said in the statement that India must abstain from taking any further illegal steps to change the demographics of the territory after its illegal revocation of article 370 in August 2019 that revoked the special status of Indian occupied Kashmir.

Pakistan had firmly opposed India’s illegal actions of August 2019 and taken up the issue at the UN Security Council and all the other possible international forums, said the Foreign Minister. He further added that he had notified the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council about India’s possible illegal moves.

The statements came after Narendra Modi invited 14 political leaders from Kashmir to partake in a high-level meeting on June 24 in which the framework is expected to be set for holding assembly elections in the occupied territory, which would be another illegal step to change the demographic structure of Kashmir and may result in further conflicts.