Latest news with #Yasmeen
Malaysia Sun
2 days ago
- Politics
- Malaysia Sun
Nine months of silence: Pakistan accused of enforced disappearance of Baloch brothers, family left in agony
Balochistan [Pakistan], July 14 (ANI): Nine months have passed since the alleged enforced disappearance of two Baloch brothers, Junaid Hameed and Yasir Hameed, yet their family remains without any official word on their fate or whereabouts, deepening their anguish and sense of abandonment, The Balochistan Post reported. According to The Balochistan Post, Junaid Hameed was allegedly abducted on October 8, 2024, near the Bhawani Shah Pump in Hub Chowki by Pakistani security forces. Merely three days later, on October 11, his elder brother Yasir Hameed was reportedly picked up from Khil, Kalat. Since then, both have remained missing, with no legal acknowledgement or explanation provided by the authorities. In a statement issued this week, their sister Yasmeen Hameed described the past nine months as a 'relentless nightmare' marked by fear, uncertainty, and psychological torment. 'These nine months have been like living through a horror story,' she said. 'Every moment is filled with restlessness, fear, and hopelessness. The silence of the state institutions only deepens our despair.' The Balochistan Post reported that Yasmeen has taken all legal avenues available to her. She has filed numerous petitions, taken part in protest demonstrations, and met with officials who repeatedly assured her of progress. Despite these efforts, no meaningful information has been shared, and no developments have occurred. 'Despite being promised by officials that our loved ones would be surfaced, nothing has changed. My brothers have disappeared,' Yasmeen told The Balochistan Post. Their case highlights a wider pattern of enforced disappearances in Balochistan, where families often face silence, fear, and harassment. Human rights organisations have long raised concerns over the state's failure to ensure justice and accountability in such cases. Yasmeen has now become the public face of her family's struggle. 'We want answers. We want justice. We want the safe recovery of our loved ones. Please raise your voice with us,' she pleaded to the public through The Balochistan Post. (ANI)
Express Tribune
13-06-2025
- Express Tribune
Infant smuggling bid thwarted; two female doctors held
The FIA has arrested five suspects, including two female doctors, for their alleged involvement in an attempt to smuggle a nine-month-old infant from Karachi to Mozambique, The Express Tribune learnt on Wednesday. According to sources, FIA Immigration officials at Jinnah International Airport intercepted a female passenger, identified as Kiran Sohail, who was attempting to board a flight to Mozambique while carrying a nine-month-old baby under suspicious circumstances. When questioned, the woman reportedly confessed that the infant had been handed over to her at the airport by a woman named Yasmeen. She further revealed that all travel arrangements had been facilitated by an agent identified as Shazi. Kiran admitted that she was in contact with two men, Suhail and Sohail Ali, based in Mozambique, as well as Yasmeen and Lakshmi Mukesh in Karachi. She also disclosed that a group of four accomplices had arranged fake documents — including a passport, airline tickets, and forged papers declaring her the biological mother of the infant. Among those arrested are two female doctors — one running a private NGO in Karachi and the other operating a private clinic. The case, registered by the FIA's Anti-Human Trafficking Circle, names Yasmeen as the prime accused, along with Mozambique-based Suhail and Sohail Ali, and the impersonating mother Kiran and her husband Sohail.
Express Tribune
27-04-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
Meeting benchmarks but missing growth
Pakistan faces over $8 billion in external debt maturities in FY25 (excluding $13 billion in routinely rolled-over bilateral loans) and any delay in debt rollovers can put the IMF programme at risk. photo: file Listen to article Pakistan has made considerable progress in meeting the structural benchmarks under the IMF's Extended Fund Facility (EFF), such as the approval of the National Fiscal Pact to enhance fiscal coordination, harmonisation of provincial agricultural income tax laws with federal tax laws, publication of PSDP project criteria and progress reports, and the non-provision of tax amnesties. However, some benchmarks, particularly those in the energy sector, may not prove as sustainable as projected. One such case is the elimination of captive power from the gas sector. While aimed at reducing the Rs2,083 billion circular debt in the gas sector, this benchmark could potentially harm the industry by causing a $3 billion loss in exports, as reported by Socioeconomic Insights and Analysis (SIA). With an already struggling industrial base, this policy could further damage the sector, which serves as the backbone of Pakistan's economy. Secondly, the reliability of such a policy is also questionable; without ensuring uninterrupted energy supply for the industry, the losses could be multifold. The textile industry alone could face a 24% revenue loss (Yasmeen et al, 2022). These kinds of experiments could prove troublesome for the industrial sector. Even though some benchmarks, including the one discussed above, might not be industry friendly, if meeting the benchmarks were a sign of a healthy economy, there should have been visible signs of growth. However, despite compliance with most of the IMF's structural benchmarks and a positive signal from the IMF staff regarding Pakistan's economic stability and recovery, the economy doesn't reflect any meaningful signs of growth. This disconnect between the reform programme and actual economic recovery is stark, and is evident when we analyse the performance of the large-scale manufacturing (LSM) sector, which showed a 1.7% decline on a year-on-year basis. This can challenge the perception that meeting structural benchmarks alone can restore growth momentum. In its recent World Economic Outlook report, the IMF revised Pakistan's growth projection downward from 3% to 2.6%. While global growth slowdown has been significantly attributed to external shocks, including the protectionist trade measures introduced by the Trump administration, Pakistan's deeply rooted domestic structural issues cannot be ignored. The country's export base remains narrowly concentrated in low value sectors, which are further expected to plummet due to tariffs and considering that the US is Pakistan's major export destination, initial tariffs of 29%, which are currently at 90 days pause, may cause an export loss of $564 million in fiscal year 2025-26. This makes the country vulnerable to external shocks and limits its growth potential. These external shocks coupled with domestic constraints such as weak private sector confidence and underinvestment continue to weigh heavily on economic recovery. A UK-based economist Ahmed Jamal Pirzada rightly pointed out that despite the increase in credit to the private sector, the investment in the private sector has been stagnant. This reveals a fundamental issue that Pakistan is unable to offer a business environment conducive to long-term investment. Businesses are hesitant to commit their capital domestically (despite the availability of credit and low interest rates) and are instead looking for opportunities to move their assets to countries which promise steady returns on their investments. While Pakistan has met several structural benchmarks and is making progress on the remaining, it is important to note that the completion of the programme does not depend entirely on compliance with these reforms. The fragility of the external account remains the Achilles' heel for the completion of the programme. If Pakistan is not successful in securing timely rollovers of maturing debt or negotiating favourable terms for debt re-profiling, this can put the IMF programme at risk. Last month, a $2 billion rollover from China provided the country with temporary breathing space, but this doesn't address the structural weaknesses of Pakistan's external sector. In line with the economic stability, Fitch Ratings for Pakistan upgraded to B- with a stable outlook signals for the economy. This offers some confidence to consumers and businesses in short-term macroeconomic management. However, the rating agency also warned that Pakistan's external financing needs are still substantial. Pakistan faces over $8 billion in external debt maturities in FY25 (excluding $13 billion in routinely rolled-over bilateral loans) and any delays in rollovers of debt can seriously risk the IMF programme. While Pakistan has achieved certain stability goals including the stable inflation leading to low interest rates, the broader economic challenges, particularly low investment, concentrated exports, and external account vulnerabilities continue to hinder the path towards the growth-based economy. Even if the IMF programme is successfully completed, the government's priority should not be to secure another bailout programme but to focus on the structural issues that are holding back sustainable growth. The writer is affiliated with the PRIME Institute as a research economist
Hindustan Times
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Art sees the dragonfly's dream
Art is a powerful tool for the conservation of nature. It captures the luminous sparks of inner consciousness. It blazes into a canvas of visual expression whose meaning is muted but nevertheless is possessed with a powerful voice. 'A bridge between imagination and reality where colour, form and texture touch the deepest layers of human emotion'. At last week's national-level exhibition, 'Ethereal Visions' (Punjab Kala Bhawan, Chandigarh), Odisha's Sofaiya Yasmeen put up sets of paintings titled, 'Turbulent' and 'Cheering a Dream', comprising seven and four works respectively. 'Turbulent' evoked the disaster wrought upon wild creatures by the proliferation of plastic wastes and harmful human practices. We want the trees but not the bees, her honey and all her money, so as to say. Yasmeen painted a bee hive with smoke around it to depict their homes and larvae cradles being burnt down. Another artwork depicted a beautifully-plumaged Ring-necked pheasant lying dead after literally drowning in a rising sea of plastic wastes. The other series, 'Dream', was ensconced in nostalgia and positivity. Unlike most artists whose depiction of insects is confined to butterflies, fireflies, honeybees, etc, Yasmeen innovatively introduces dragonflies who are painted hovering around old utensils. One is depicted happily toying with the string of a quaint artefact. No fly swatters for the insects of those times. 'In the 'Dream' series, I use the artefacts to depict the good times gone by which were less polluted for these little creatures. An era where fewer humans and many creatures lived in harmony,' Yasmeen told this writer. The wounded trees of Kashmir The oddity of seeing a tin roof on top of a tall tree. The roof had been blasted upwards and hurled high after the security forces chucked an IED through a window into a hut storing coal and sheltering a terrorist, Saifullah, in Gundh Rahman village near Srinagar. On its return down, it got stuck on top of the poplar tree next door. The plight of apple trees quavering and leaves shivering with the impact and detonation waves unleashed by a Carl Gustav 84mm rocket launcher's HE shell discharged at a frail, wooden house sheltering terrorists in Panzgam village of Kupwara. Pakistani artillery shells landing on sweet-as-sugar pear trees of the Uri LoC sector, the fruits fallen much before their time. These were spectacles that this writer witnessed while reporting Army operations live from the inner or point-of-contact cordons. The Kashmir countryside is so quiet that it would seem the gods blessed it with an eternally-peaceful soul. The meadows bubble with soft sounds of moos and merry brooks, the clucks and quacks of hens and ducks. The discharge of war munitions in a setting so idyllic cannot but impose a searing memory of 'paradise lost' and a contrast of apocalyptic proportions. The flying larks end singing above the roar of the guns. Kashmir's trees are the imprisoned bystanders to battles. They cannot run away. Terrorists hide behind them to ambush soldiers in orchards and coniferous forests. The bullets leave the bark pockmarked with battle scars. No medals for the unspeaking trees, which took the bullet for the man. vjswild2@
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Child welfare council raises alarm over rising mental health crisis among Malaysian youths
The Malaysian Council of Child Welfare (MKKM) is concerned about the increasing rate of mental health issues among Malaysian youths. Its president, Datuk Yasmeen Shariff, said it is a national concern that requires a strategic framework to address and mitigate the problem. 'We are at a crossroads because we are hearing more and more about youths taking their lives due to their inability to manage the daily challenges they face,' she said. Yasmeen's comments are in response to a recent report by The Guardian titled 'Mental health crisis means youth is no longer one of the happiest times of life'. The report is from a United Nations-commissioned study in the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, which found that satisfaction with life tends to rise with age. The article revealed that one of the major contributing factors to youths' mental health struggles is excessive smartphone use, which has become integral to their daily lives. The introduction of online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic has inadvertently led to a generation highly dependent on their smartphones, which has significantly contributed to a deterioration in mental health. In response, MKKM believes that in a society often shrouded in misconceptions about mental illness, it is time to embrace the World Health Organisation's theme of 'Mental Health for All: Let's Make It a Reality' with a holistic approach. Professor Dr Kamal Kenny, vice president of MKKM, said: 'The mental wellbeing of today's youth must be taken seriously, or they risk becoming a lost generation. Do we want this to happen to our future leaders?' He also said that another often-overlooked issue is the vulnerability of children to perpetrators lurking on the dark web through social media. Extended time spent online without proper supervision can expose children to these dangers. Efforts by various agencies to address the underlying mental health issues among youths are commendable, and Kamal emphasised that Malaysia must focus on sustainable programmes and contextually relevant materials to help children and adolescents through this challenging phase. 'This is the time for us to work together as a nation for the wellbeing of our youth's mental health. Youths of all ages and backgrounds should be the central concern of all agencies as we continue to tackle this issue. 'A comprehensive curriculum, support systems, policies, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, and most importantly, strategic collaboration need to be in place to bridge the gap and ensure the principle of the Sustainable Development Goals – 'leaving no one behind' – is upheld in our efforts to safeguard the mental health of our children.' The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are 17 global objectives established by the United Nations, focused on ending poverty, safeguarding the planet, and ensuring peace and prosperity for everyone.
