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Sunday, 26 February, 2023 I 5 Shaʻban, 1444
Rs 15.00 | Vol XIII No 239 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
‘Fake news’: Govt rejects reports of salary, pension suspension
IMF flags debt restructuring hurdles, says banning crypto should be an option
Boeing temporarily halts 787 deliveries
Meta heats up Big Tech’s AI arms race with new language model
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Pakistan delivers tough message to afghan taliban over ‘cross-border attacks’ g
taliBan told pakistan would have no other choice But to target ttp hideouts inside afghanistan if they failed to take action
KABUL
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AnAdolu Agency
akistan has warned the interim taliban administration that if terrorists involved in cross-border attacks in the country are not eliminated, islamabad would take action against them within afghanistan, an official said. a high-level delegation led by defense minister khawaja muhammad asif delivered this message to afghanistan’s acting deputy prime minister mullah abdul ghani Baradar during his daylong visit to kabul this week. asif was accompanied by lt. gen. nadeem ahmed anjum, the head of the inter-services intelligence (isi) agency, and other senior officials from the defense and foreign ministries. “our delegation delivered a very loud and clear message to afghan taliban leadership to stop afghanistan-
based militants of the tehreek-i-taliban pakistan (ttp) from launching any spring offensive inside pakistan and eliminate them from afghan soil,” a senior security official told anadolu agency on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media. “in case of failure to stop the ttp from cross-border attacks and does not take any action to eliminate them or expel them from their hideouts, then pakistan has no other choice except to target their hideouts in border areas inside afghanistan,” said the official, who claimed to be well aware of the meeting’s details. in response, the official claimed that Baradar denied the presence of ttp, a conglomerate of several militant groups in pakistan that islamabad believed were currently inside afghanistan. later, the meeting was also joined by acting afghan interior minister sirajuddin haqqani and acting defense minister mullah mohammad yaqoob, where
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pakistani officials showed proof of how ttp planned and carried out recent attacks in Bannu and peshawar from afghanistan
yaqoob took the matter of the drone attack carried out by the us last year in kabul, according to the official source. in august of last year, us president joe Biden announced that his forces had killed al-Qaeda chief ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike, which the taliban interim administration refused to accept openly. the afghan officials alleged that the us launched the attack while using pakistani airspace, but islamabad rejected the claim, saying the us was never allowed to use its airspace against afghanistan. taliban officials also insisted that the ttp has no presence in afghanistan, with all of its leadership having relocated to pakistan following the taliban’s takeover of kabul in august 2021. “we showed them proof of how ttp planned and carried out recent attacks in Bannu and peshawar from afghanistan and warned them that any further attack would result in a tough response from pakistan,” the security official said. he was referring to the Bannu counter-terrorism facility, which was taken over by ttp militants for three days in december last year, killing at least two security personnel before the pakistan army killed all of the terrorists in an operation. over 100 people, mostly police officers, were also killed in a suicide bombing at a mosque inside a police compound in northwestern peshawar late last month. when asked about the expected pakistani response in the event of an attack, the official said, “we have no other option but to target militants’ hideouts in border areas inside afghanistan.”
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Staff level agreement with IMF still awaited g
weekly inflation jumps to 40pc as another policy rate hike Becomes almost certain profit report shAhnAwAz Ali
despite the conclusion of the mission’s physical visit two weeks ago, there is still a stall in the signing of the imf staff level agreement. the pakistan government has been in virtual negotiations with the washington-based fund, ever since. according to media reports and officials close to the development, the hold in the fund’s disbursement is due to differences in the power sector debts and the current policy rate. the imf requires an at least 2% increase in the policy rate, which was hinted at in the recent t-bill auction. meanwhile, the week on week inflation, on the basis of the sensitive price index (spi)
exceeded the 40% mark this week for the first time in five months. as per official data by the pakistan Bureau of statistics, the short-term prices on the week ending in february 2022 was 41.5% lower than the same week in 2023.
the onus of this inflation is mainly on the back of cigarettes, fuel, onions, chicken and eggs. the week preceding this one, saw an year-onyear inflation of approximately 38%. even on a weekly basis,
the previous week-on-week reading of 2.9% was the highest since october 27, when the change in spi was 4.1 %, as per official data. the headline inflation calculated through the consumer price index (cpi) was recorded at 27.6% in january and is expected to be significantly higher during the ongoing month. after the new taxes introduced in the mini budget, inflation figures are expected to go north of 30% in the monthly statistics. as of now, pakistan awaits the imf tranche as funds from the chinese development fund, worth 700 billion were realized on february 25, according to a tweet by finance minister ishaq dar.
Trade through Torkham border resumes PESHAWAR: the normal trade and movement of people between pakistan and afghanistan fully resumed on saturday after the two sides reopened a key border crossing that was shut nearly a week ago by kabul’s taliban rulers, stranding people and thousands of trucks carrying food and essential items. the afghan embassy in islamabad announced the reopening of the torkham border on saturday on twitter. officials from pakistan and a taliban-appointed administrator in afghanistan’s nangarhar province also confirmed the border crossing is open to passengers and trade. the announcement sparked a wave of joy among those who had been waiting for the reopening of the international trade route since sunday, when afghanistan’s taliban rulers closed the crossing. the taliban had claimed islamabad was not abiding by an agreement with kabul to allow sick afghan patients and their caretakers to cross into pakistan without travel documents for medical care. last monday, afghan taliban forces and pakistan’s border guards exchanged fire, wounding a pakistan army soldier. since then, officials from the two sides were in talks to resolve the issue amid demands from people on both sides to immediately reopen the crossing. The AssociATed Press