https://www.scmp.com/rss/325917/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com While coronavirus fears in Pakistan were initially centred on the thousands of Chinese and Pakistani nationals travelling between the two countries every month, a surge of cases in Iran, with which the South Asian nation shares a border, has fuelled new concerns and led to a host of measures to contain the spread of the virus. Pakistan on Tuesday confirmed its fifth patient with Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that emerged in China’s Hubei province late last year. The... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3065053/pakistan-quarantines-hundreds-pilgrims-iran-it-steps?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3065053/pakistan-quarantines-hundreds-pilgrims-iran-it-steps?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 04 Mar 2020 13:30:08 +0000 Police in Pakistan are investigating a toxic gas leak in the port city of Karachi that killed five people and saw more than 100 others hospitalised. On Sunday night, dozens of people were rushed to hospital after complaining of respiratory problems. The five who died include two elderly women and a child, while another 103 remain in hospital in serious condition. All of the affected were residents of Keamari, a seaside municipality in Karachi. Situated on Hawke’s Bay, Keamari comprises western... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3051028/pakistan-five-dead-more-100-hospitalised-after-toxic-gas-leak?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3051028/pakistan-five-dead-more-100-hospitalised-after-toxic-gas-leak?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 17 Feb 2020 11:51:59 +0000 Pakistan has alerted hospitals and clinics across the country to the threat posed by the Wuhan coronavirus, amid fears that the thousands of Chinese and Pakistani nationals who travel between the two countries every month could help spread the disease. A letter issued by Pakistan’s health ministry on Wednesday said that following a report by the China National Health Commission that the virus could be transmitted between people, it was directing the Disease Surveillance Division and Central... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3047233/chinese-belt-and-road-workers-could-spread-coronavirus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/health-environment/article/3047233/chinese-belt-and-road-workers-could-spread-coronavirus?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 23 Jan 2020 01:15:12 +0000 Britain’s Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge left Pakistan on Friday afternoon after concluding their inaugural visit, which captured the nation’s attention for five days but will be remembered for years to come. The royal couple arrived in the capital of Islamabad on Monday night to a red-carpet welcome and an eager media scrum. Kate Middleton’s decision to don an elegant aqua shalwar kameez, Pakistan’s national dress of a tunic with trousers, was received positively by many in the nation. On... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3033677/photos-prince-william-and-kate-middletons-first-royal-trip?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3033677/photos-prince-william-and-kate-middletons-first-royal-trip?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Oct 2019 09:00:10 +0000 Prince William and his wife Kate arrived in Pakistan to a red carpet welcome late on Monday for their “most complex” tour to date, with Islamabad eager to tout improved security after years of violent militancy. The couple – the Duchess of Cambridge in a sea-green shalwar kameez, and the Duke in a dark suit – were greeted by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and presented with flowers after they landed in a British government plane at a military base in Rawalpindi, the garrison city adjacent... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3032888/1000-policemen-guard-pakistan-welcomes-prince-william-and-kate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3032888/1000-policemen-guard-pakistan-welcomes-prince-william-and-kate?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 14 Oct 2019 13:10:01 +0000 It’s midnight in Islamabad. Most of the shops in the Pakistani capital’s upscale Jinnah Super Market are closed. But there’s an inexplicable rush at Tandoori Junction, an open-air tea stall at the heart of the market. Nearly a hundred people, including foreigners, are seated in small groups on low stools, sipping on piping hot milk tea served in clay terracotta mugs. Dozens queue patiently nearby for their turn to get a seat at the stall, owned by Sanaullah Javed, a former chartered... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3021218/tandoori-junctions-smoky-milk-tea-pakistan-finds-fans-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3021218/tandoori-junctions-smoky-milk-tea-pakistan-finds-fans-chinese?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 03 Aug 2019 02:30:07 +0000 Excitement is building in Pakistan ahead of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s arrival in the South Asian country this autumn, but one question most observers have is what arrangements Britain will make to protect the royal couple. Britain’s Foreign Office has a warning on its website advising against travel to multiple areas in Pakistan, noting threats such as “terrorism, kidnapping and sectarian violence throughout the country, including the cities of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3017406/prince-william-and-kate-middleton-are-going-pakistan-even?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3017406/prince-william-and-kate-middleton-are-going-pakistan-even?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 07 Jul 2019 08:30:05 +0000 Embattled Chinese firm Huawei has been caught in the crosshairs of Pakistan’s crackdown on illegal structures after authorities tore down security barriers at the telecommunications giant’s offices in Islamabad, saying they encroached on state land. Enforcement teams from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on May 15 removed the barriers and other structures from high-rise buildings, including the tower housing Huawei’s office, in the Blue Area business hub. The management of Huawei’s... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3010711/chinas-huawei-outraged-pakistan-authorities-tear-down?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/3010711/chinas-huawei-outraged-pakistan-authorities-tear-down?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 May 2019 12:30:12 +0000 As the three gunmen forced their way into Pakistan’s Zaver Pearl Continental Hotel on May 12, the management of the only five-star hotel in the city of Gwadar, Balochistan province – where China is building a multibillion-dollar port – had a prompt response. They contacted Pakistan’s Special Security Division (SSD), which dispatched a team of commandos within seven minutes of the call. The team killed the assailants, but one member, from the Pakistani Navy, and four hotel employees lost their... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3010528/chinese-are-our-no-1-enemy-why-beijings-us62-billion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3010528/chinese-are-our-no-1-enemy-why-beijings-us62-billion?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 16 May 2019 11:21:28 +0000 Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have reached a new agreement securing a US$6 billion bailout package, in a move that came as China on Monday gave a US$2.2 billion loan to the cash-strapped nation. The agreement came after months of painstaking negotiations between the two sides and marks Pakistan’s 22nd bailout with the IMF. “The programme aims to support the authorities’ strategy for stronger and more balanced growth by reducing domestic and external imbalances, improving the... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3010028/cash-strapped-pakistan-receive-us6-billion-bailout-package-imf?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/south-asia/article/3010028/cash-strapped-pakistan-receive-us6-billion-bailout-package-imf?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 13 May 2019 09:22:26 +0000 Rabia Bibi considered herself the luckiest woman on Earth when she tied the knot with a Chinese man living in Pakistan. Her parents gave her away during a respectable wedding ceremony in January at Gujranwala, 60 miles from Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore. Soon afterwards the couple left the country for a new life in China. Sadly, the marriage would not last. Rabia, 22, became the victim of persistent physical abuse at the hands of her new husband, which eventually prompted her to seek... https://www.scmp.com/society/how-pakistani-christian-women-are-lured-sexual-slavery-china/article/3009673?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/how-pakistani-christian-women-are-lured-sexual-slavery-china/article/3009673?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 May 2019 09:20:13 +0000 Rabia Bibi considered herself the luckiest woman on Earth when she tied the knot with a Chinese man living in Pakistan. Her parents gave her away during a respectable wedding ceremony in January at Gujranwala, 95km from Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore. Soon afterwards the couple left the country for a new life in China. Sadly, the marriage would not last. Rabia, 22, became the victim of persistent physical abuse at the hands of her new husband, which eventually prompted her to seek refuge... https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3009555/abroad-alone-and-abused-how-young-pakistani-brides-lured-china?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3009555/abroad-alone-and-abused-how-young-pakistani-brides-lured-china?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 10 May 2019 01:00:21 +0000 The anticipation around the possible release of an imprisoned Pakistani doctor may coincide with a thaw in the South Asian nation’s relations with its traditional ally, the United States, and disquiet over the financial hazards of deepening ties with China. In the corridors of power in Islamabad, there is a growing expectation that Pakistan could free Shakil Afridi – who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden – as part of a goodwill gesture towards the US. Pakistani sources said Islamabad is not... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2148823/pakistan-waves-bin-laden-olive-branch-us-chinese-cash-loses?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2148823/pakistan-waves-bin-laden-olive-branch-us-chinese-cash-loses?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 03 Jun 2018 02:18:20 +0000 Having your sight taken away, a sense most of us take for granted, could easily be described as a living nightmare – imagine going through it as a seven-year-old boy in a government-run school in Karachi, Pakistan. “I’ve had trouble reading books,” said second-grader Master Junaid, a resident of Kausar Niazi Colony, one of Karachi’s poorest areas. “I had a dream to become a doctor to serve humanity. However, cataracts came as a great hurdle to transform my dream into reality,” he told This Week... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2130389/how-eye-doctors-are-helping-china-and-pakistan-see-clear-dream?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/geopolitics/article/2130389/how-eye-doctors-are-helping-china-and-pakistan-see-clear-dream?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 24 Jan 2018 09:41:27 +0000 Pakistan’s powerful military has once again proved exactly who is running the country. The army yesterday brokered a deal between the civilian government and Islamist protesters who had paralysed life in the Pakistani capital by blocking a main road connecting the federal capital to the garrison city of Rawalpindi for almost 22 days. Islamists lifted the blockade after the government agreed to force federal law minister Zahid Hamid to resign. The resignation paved the way for the two sides to... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2121993/if-you-doubt-who-charge-pakistan?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2121993/if-you-doubt-who-charge-pakistan?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 28 Nov 2017 11:45:49 +0000