Tag: Pakistan

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The blast in the country’s Bajur district killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 100, according to police.

At least 35 people have been killed after a powerful bomb ripped through a political rally in northwestern Pakistan, local officials said.

The blast took place on Sunday at a gathering of the conservative Jamiat Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) party on the outskirts of Khar in Pakistan’s northwestern Bajur district, which borders Afghanistan.

Azam Khan, head of the emergency room at Khar’s main hospital, said 35 bodies were brought to the hospital and more than 100 others were wounded.

Government administrator Mohibullah Khan Yousufzai confirmed the toll, adding that some of the wounded were being airlifted to the provincial capital, Peshawar.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Senior police officer Nazir Khan said the JUI-F’s workers’ convention was under way when the explosion took place.

Akhtar Hayat Gandapur, the inspector-general of police for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said senior party leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman was not at the event when the explosion took place.

Political meetings such as the one organised by the JUI-F party on Sunday are being held across the country to mobilise supporters for the coming elections, due to be held by October.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif strongly condemned the incident and extended his condolences to the families of the victims, including that of JUI-F leader Ziaullah Jan, who was confirmed killed in the attack, Radio Pakistan reported.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari “expressed deep sorrow over the loss of precious lives”, his Pakistan People’s Party said in a statement.

It added that the “the terrorists, their facilitators and planners need to be eliminated so that peace is established in the country.”

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from Islamabad, said that while the attack had not been confirmed as a suicide bombing, there were fears that the armed group Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, may be responsible for it.

“The Tehrik-e Taliban have declared against the security forces and against the government and Maulana Fazlur Rehman is an ally of the government,” Hyder said.

JUI-F is part of the Pakistan Democratic Alliance, a political coalition affiliated with the government in which Rehman plays a leading role.

Security analyst Zeeshan Salahuddin told Al Jazeera the TTP has “dramatically escalated” the string of attacks since a ceasefire with the government broke down last year.

“All indications point to the fact that this terror group has regained quite a lot of the momentum it had lost between 2014 and 2018, when Pakistan conducted extensive military operations against the group,” Salahuddin said.

The TTP pledges allegiance to, but is not directly a part of, Afghanistan’s Taliban which surged back to power in 2021.

Salahuddin added that the TTP was receiving support from Afghanistan and increasing its capabilities as well as its internal cohesion.

The group has been waging a rebellion against the state of Pakistan for more than a decade, demanding the imposition of Islamic law, the release of key members arrested by the government and a reversal of the merger of Pakistan’s tribal areas with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

In January, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing more than 80 officers.

The attacks have been focused on regions bordering Afghanistan, including Bajur, one of seven remote districts where armed groups have been emboldened by the return of the Afghan Taliban.

The International Monetary Fund’s board approved a $3bn bailout programme for Pakistan on Wednesday, which includes the immediate disbursal of about $1.2bn to help stabilise the South Asian country’s economy.

Pakistan and the fund reached a staff-level agreement last month, securing a short-term pact, which got more funding than expected for the country of 230 million facing an acute balance of payments crisis.

The bailout had been on hold since December when the IMF refused to release a critical $1.1bn part of the loan because of the country’s lack of compliance with a 2019 agreement signed between the IMF and former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The release of funds comes amid longstanding fears the country would default, providing much-needed relief to the incumbent government.

However, the agreement with the international lender also means strict conditions when it comes to spending and structural reforms that are likely to further increase economic hardship for many common people.

Here is what you need to know:

Why was the IMF bailout needed?

Pakistan’s economy has been in dire straits, hit by a balance of payments crisis as it attempted to service high levels of external debt and crushing inflation.

Prior to the bailout, the country’s foreign reserves were teetering at around $4bn, an amount good enough to cover a month’s worth of imports, although Pakistan banned some of the imports to save dollars.

According to analysts, the country needs at least $20bn in the next two years to pay back foreign loans with interest.

Earlier this year, the Pakistani rupee dove to a historic low against the US dollar after an exchange cap was lifted as the cash-strapped nation sought to unlock the vital IMF bailout.

Lahore-based economist Ali Khizr told Al Jazeera that “the currency and inflation could have gone out of control” had the government and IMF not reached this agreement.

“The absence of foreign exchange could have resulted in massive shortages of fuel, food, medicine and other items. Things are likely to improve now – as the currency will stabilise and inflation will slowly come down in the short to medium term,” Khizr said.

In February, Global rating agency Moody’s cut Pakistan’s sovereign credit rating by two notches to ‘Caa3’, saying the country’s increasingly fragile liquidity “significantly raises default risks”. According to local media outlet Express Tribune, more than 750,000 people left Pakistan in 2022, a threefold increase from the previous year.

To make matters worse, the catastrophic floods of last year caused a loss of some $30bn to the economy, from which Pakistan has still not fully recovered.

What is the IMF asking for?

Islamabad has taken a number of steps demanded by the IMF since its mission arrived in Pakistan in February, including revising its 2023-24 budget and raising its policy rate to 22 percent in recent weeks.

The Washington-based international lender also got Pakistan to raise more than 385 billion Pakistani rupees ($1.34bn) in new taxation to meet the IMF’s fiscal adjustments. The IMF has said the central bank should remain proactive to reduce inflation and maintain a foreign exchange framework.

The adjustments have already fuelled all-time high inflation of 38 percent year-on-year in May, the highest in Asia.

Meanwhile, reforms in the energy sector, which has accumulated nearly 3.6 trillion Pakistani rupees ($12.58bn) in debt, have been a cornerstone of the IMF talks.

The IMF said it would want steadfast policy implementation by Pakistan to overcome challenges, “particularly in the energy sector”, where it expects a rise in electricity prices.

What has been the reaction?

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said the agreement was “a major step forward” in his coalition government’s efforts to stabilise the economy and achieve macroeconomic stability.

“It bolsters Pakistan’s economic position to overcome immediate to medium-term economic challenges,” he said. The country’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said things were now “moving in the right direction”.

According to analysts, the approval of the IMF bailout will help Pakistan because it could encourage other international financial institutions to help Islamabad overcome economic challenges.

The approval for the IMF loan came a day after Saudi Arabia deposited $2bn into Pakistan’s central bank. On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates also deposited $1bn into the central bank, according to finance minister Dar.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s sovereign dollar bonds rallied on the back of the IMF deal.

How will the bailout impact the upcoming elections?

While the IMF bailout provides some wiggle room to try to tackle the country’s economic turmoil, it is unclear whether the announcement will bolster Sharif and his PML-N party’s chances at the polling booth.

“This [bailout] will help the government to salvage the loss in popularity of high inflation and negative growth in the last year. This bodes well for the government,” economist Khizr said.

“However, their popularity will remain low due to bad economic management and purchasing power erosion,” he added.

Since former Prime Minister Khan was removed in a vote of no confidence in April 2022 led by the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – a ruling coalition of more than a dozen parties, including Sharif’s PML-N – the political crisis in the country has gone from bad to worse.

In March, a survey published by the polling group Gallup reported that some 62 percent of people in the country blamed the PDM for Pakistan’s economic woes.

Meanwhile, among the 2,000 respondents, some 61 percent had a favourable opinion of Khan, who has also won a majority of national and provincial by-elections that took place in the past year and that have cemented his popularity in the country.

However, Khan’s political future looks uncertain too after the violent protests that occurred following his brief arrest on May 9, which included attacks on military installations. Thousands have been arrested, many without any formal charges, and military courts have been announced to try the alleged perpetrators.