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PTA to be signed with Jordan to boost trade

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Jordan have agreed to move toward a preferential trade agreement (PTA) and broaden bilateral cooperation across various sectors, marking a shift toward deeper economic engagement between the two countries. The two countries signed the protocol to translate long-standing historical, political and diplomatic ties into measurable economic and institutional outcomes. The protocol was signed at the sidelines of the 10th session of the Pakistan-Jordan Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC), held on Feb 4-5. The JMC was co-chaired by Pakistan’s Minister for Commerce Jam Kamal Khan and Jordan’s Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply Yarub Qudah. Both sides agreed significantly expand bilateral cooperation across 16 priority sectors, ranging from trade, finance and industry to climate change, maritime affairs, health, technology and education. The session marks a renewed push and a milestone to operationalise cooperation under the JMC framework established in 1975. Commer...
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PTI, TTAP say will not compromise on Imran’s health; urge nation to participate in Feb 8 protest

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 again...
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Russia says ball in Kyiv court to end war as UAE talks open

ABU DHABI: Russia on Wednesday demanded Ukraine accept its conditions to end the four-year-war and vowed to press on with its invasion otherwise, as negotiations between the two sides opened in Abu Dhabi. The US-mediated talks are the latest round of negotiations in a flurry of diplomacy that has so far failed to strike a deal to halt the war, unleashed by Russia’s February 2022 invasion . The war has spiralled into Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, with hundreds of thousands killed, millions forced to flee their homes in Ukraine and much of eastern and southern Ukraine decimated. “Our position is well known,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday as the talks got underway. EU member states agree Ukraine may use 90bn-euro loan to buy arms from close allies “Until the Kyiv regime makes the appropriate decisions, the special military operation continues,” he said, using Russia’s term for the offensive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ha...
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Iran-US talks ‘back on track’ after setbacks

• Araghchi says talks with US ‘scheduled’ for Friday in Oman • Regional leaders urge United States to proceed with dialogue following reports of breakdown • Uncertainty triggered after Rubio said talks should include missile programme; Iran wanted issue kept ‘off the table’ • Trump says Iran supreme leader ‘should be very worried’ • Regional players like Pakistan, S. Arabia, Turkiye, Egypt ‘unlikely’ to take part at this stage ISLAMABAD / WASHINGTON: The prospects for talks between Iran and the United States seemed fraught with uncertainty on Wednesday, even after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi publicly announced the date and timing of the proposed negotiations. “Nuclear talks with the United States are scheduled to be held in Muscat on about 10 am Friday. I’m grateful to our Omani brothers for making all necessary arrangements,” he posted on X late on Wednesday night. A US official also confirmed that the neg­o­tiations are on track, Reuters reported. The statem...
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Pakistan urges UNSC to designate BLA as terrorist group

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 sponso...
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That’s not cricket: How ‘creeping Hindutva’ stumped sportsmanship ahead of the T20 World Cup

In 1993, a rising star kicked off a legendary Bollywood career with back-to-back megahits in Darr and Baazigar , where he introduced audiences to the concept of the ‘anti-hero’. Thirty-three years later, it led to Bangladesh being expelled from a World Cup. If this paragraph makes no sense to you, there are some crucial details that need to be unpacked to make this connection clear. But at the heart of this story is one disturbing new reality — international cricket today has become a tool of India’s ruling Hindutva regime. From Mustafizur’s ouster to Bangladesh’s expulsion Let’s begin with the basic details. On January 2, a member of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Sangeet Som, attacked India’s most popular Muslim figure , Shahrukh Khan, calling him a traitor. Shahrukh owns the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), a cricket franchise of the Indian Premier League that had selected Bangladesh cricketer Mustafizur Rahman. Threatening Mustafizur with “dire consequences” and cla...
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JPMorgan plans frontier bond index

• 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, ...
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