US President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday touted the early results of his immigration crackdown despite concerns over due process, displaying photos of alleged criminal offenders on the White House lawn and preparing to target cities and states that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Trump plans to sign an executive order on Monday directing top officials to identify within a month the cities and states failing to sufficiently comply with federal immigration laws, a White House official said.
Trump launched an aggressive enforcement campaign after taking office, surging troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the US illegally.
The Republican president — who made immigration a major campaign issue in 2024 — said the actions were needed after years of high illegal immigration under his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
At a press briefing, White House officials touted a steep decline in illegal crossings at the border during Trump’s first three months in office — even as concerns have emerged over the due process rights of immigrants and US citizens swept up in the dragnet.
US Border Patrol arrested 7,200 migrants illegally crossing the border in March, the lowest monthly total since 2000 and down from a peak of 250,000 in December 2023.
“We have the most secure border in the history of this nation and the numbers prove it,” Trump border czar Tom Homan said at the briefing.
Democrats and civil rights advocates have criticised Trump’s heightened enforcement tactics, including the cases of several US-citizen children recently deported with their parents, including one with a rare form of cancer, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Homan blamed the parents for putting their children at risk of deportation by remaining in the US. “If you choose to have a US-citizen child, knowing you’re in this country illegally, you put yourself in that position,” he said.
In his first hundred days in office, Trump has moved to strip legal immigration status from hundreds of thousands of people, increasing the pool of those who can potentially be deported.
While arrests of immigrants in the US illegally have spiked, deportations remain below last year’s levels under Biden, when there were more people illegally crossing the border who could be quickly returned.
Deportations were down in Trump’s first three months in office from 195,000 last year to 130,000 this year, Reuters reported last week. Homan defended the figures and said it was not fair to compare them to Biden-era tallies.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities have been over capacity, with some 48,000 in custody as of early April, beyond the funded level of 41,500.
Homan said Texas military base Fort Bliss could be ready “in the very near future” to hold migrant detainees. The Trump administration has already been using the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Photos posted on the White House lawn featured 100 people charged or convicted of serious crimes, including murder, rape and fentanyl distribution.
Numerous studies show immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans.
Trump has criticised cities and states that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, labelling them “sanctuaries” and blaming them for releasing criminal offenders instead of coordinating their transfer to ICE.
Last week, a federal judge blocked Trump’s administration from withholding federal funding from more than a dozen so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that have declined to cooperate with Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.
The executive order planned for Monday, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, would build on Trump’s early efforts to pressure the jurisdictions to cooperate.
“President Trump plans to sign an executive order on Monday, escalating his battle against Democratic-led states and cities that don’t fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities,” a White House official said.
US officials arrested a Wisconsin judge on Friday and charged her with helping a man in her court briefly evade immigration authorities. The arrest triggered backlash from Democrats and immigrant rights advocates who raised concerns that immigrant victims may not feel safe in courthouses.
Homan defended the arrest, saying the administration would enforce laws prohibiting harbouring a person in the US illegally.
“You will be prosecuted, judge or not,” he said.
Trump’s schedule calls for him to sign executive orders at 5pm Eastern Standard Time (2100 GMT, 1am PKT). Americans are split on Trump’s immigration approach, but he has a 45 per cent approval rating on immigration, better than on other major issues, a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in mid-April found.
Top officials in United States President Donald Trump’s administration on Sunday pressed Russia and Ukraine to make headway on a peace deal following a one-on-one meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Vatican a day earlier.
“It needs to happen soon,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’. “We cannot continue to dedicate time and resources to this effort if it’s not going to come to fruition.”
Rubio said the US would consider in the coming week whether to continue mediating talks “or if it’s time to sort of focus on some other issues”.
Trump and Zelensky, in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, met in a Vatican basilica on Saturday to try to revive faltering efforts to end Russia’s war with Ukraine.
The meeting was the first between the two leaders since an angry encounter in the Oval Office in Washington in February and comes at a critical time in negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the conflict.
In a Truth Social post later on Saturday, Trump rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin over recent attacks on Ukraine, saying “there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days.”
In a pre-taped interview that aired on CBS News programme ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would continue to target sites used by Ukraine’s military.
When asked about a Russian strike on Kyiv last week that killed civilians, Lavrov said “the target attacked was not something absolutely civilian” and that Russia only targets “sites which are used by the military”.
Zelensky wrote on the messaging app Telegram that his top military commander had reported that Russia had already conducted nearly 70 attacks on Sunday.
“The situation at the front and the real activity of the Russian army prove that there is currently insufficient pressure on Russia from the world to end this war, he said.
Ukrainian and European officials pushed back last week against some US proposals on how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, making counterproposals on issues from territory to sanctions, Reuters reported on Friday.
The primary areas of difference in the two proposals were over the sequencing for resolving questions over territory, the lifting of sanctions on Russia, security guarantees and the size of Ukraine’s military.
American proposals called for US recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula Moscow seized and annexed in 2014, as well as de facto recognition of Russia’s hold on other parts of Ukraine.
In contrast, the European and Ukrainian proposal defers detailed discussion about territory until after a ceasefire is concluded.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday that Ukraine should not agree to the US proposal, saying it went too far in ceding swathes of territory in return for a ceasefire.
Despite the divergent views, Trump’s national security adviser on Sunday said the meeting with Zelensky showed his determination to reach a deal.
“That meeting is going to go down in the history books for President Trump, to be a president of peace,” National Security Adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News’ ‘Sunday Morning Futures’.
Waltz said Trump has “expressed his frustration” at the leaders of both nations but remained determined to help negotiate an agreement. He also said the US and Ukraine would eventually reach an agreement over rare earth minerals and that talks continued over the weekend.
Democrats in the US Congress have criticised Trump’s approach to the conflict and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday that he was concerned Trump would “cave in to Putin”.
“To just abandon Ukraine, after all the sacrifice that they made, after so much loss of life, and with the rallying of the whole West against Putin, it would just be a moral tragedy,” Schumer said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’.
Schumer said siding with Russia in the conflict would tear apart alliances with Europe and embolden dictators around the world.
Two soldiers have been martyred and 15 terrorists killed in three separate engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the military’s media wing said on Saturday.
A statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the intelligence-based operations (IBO) were conducted on Friday and Saturday.
The ISPR said eight terrorists were “sent to hell” after troops effectively engaged them at their location during an IBO in Karak district based on the reported militant presence.
It said that four more were killed by the security forces in another IBO in North Waziristan district.
“However, during the intense fire exchange, two brave sons of soil, Lance Naik Usman Mohmand (age: 28 years, resident of Charsadda district) and Sepoy Imran Khan (age: 26 years, resident of Kurram district) having fought gallantly, paid the ultimate sacrifice and embraced martyrdom,” the ISPR said.
It added that troops “successfully neutralised” three more terrorists in another encounter in South Waziristan district’s general area of Gomal Zam.
The ISPR said weapons and ammunition were recovered from the slain terrorists who were actively involved in numerous terror activities.
It added that sanitisation operations were being conducted to eliminate any other terrorists found in the areas. “Security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,” the ISPR concluded.
Pakistan has witnessed an uptick in terror activities over the past year, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022.
Militant violence and security operations intensified in in March, with the number of militant attacks surpassing 100 for the first time since November 2014, according to a report by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.
Pakistan ranked second in the Global Terrorism Index 2025, with the number of deaths in terrorist attacks rising by 45 per cent over the past year to 1,081.
YouTuber Saadur Rehman, known as “Ducky Bhai”, was booked for showing “extreme carelessness and recklessness” in a video where he was seen driving his vehicle using his feet, it emerged on Saturday.
According to a first information report (FIR) filed at the Chakri police station in Rawalpindi on April 19, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, at around 3:20pm, Rehman uploaded a video from his social media account in which he was seen driving a vehicle.
Rehman, in the video, could be seen “driving his vehicle with the help of his feet, showing extreme carelessness and recklessness”, the FIR read.
It added that the actions of the YouTuber not only endangered his own life and property, but also of the other people travelling on the motorway.
The FIR said that the suspect had committed vandalism against whom the prosecution has filed the case.
According to the FIR, the case against the YouTuber was registered under Article 67 (driving recklessly or dangerously) of the National Highway Safety Ordinance (NHSO) 2000, and Section 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Six people were successfully rescued on Friday after the supporting cable of a chairlift broke midway over the Indus River between Shangla and Torghar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Cable cars and rickety rope bridges are commonly used in the mountainous regions of KP, offering the quickest means of travel between neighbouring villages separated by deep ravines and valleys.
The chairlift, locally known as zangoo, serves as the only means for residents of Martung tehsil in Shangla and the adjacent Torghar district to cross the river. People from the same tribe reside on both sides, making the lift a vital means of commuting and transporting goods.
Torghar Deputy Commissioner Safdar Azam, who personally supervised the rescue, told Dawn.com: “The administrations in Shangla and Torghar coordinated a successful rescue operation, and the stranded passengers were safely brought back to the riverbank.”
According to Rasool Khan Sharif, spokesperson for Rescue 1122 in Shangla, the six passengers had travelled from the Kamach and Dedal areas of Nusrat Khel to Torghar.
“They became stranded in midair when one of the lift’s pulling cables broke,” Sharif told Dawn.com.
Former local nazim Haji Sultan Nabi explained to Dawn.com that the chairlift was “essential for transporting food and supplies” from Thakot in Battagram and Torghar, as Shangla’s main markets are far from the Senkarai villages.
According to Nabi, the chairlift spans approximately 600 metres in length and hangs at a height of about 300 feet over the river.
In a similar incident in 2023, a chairlift in Battagram became stuck when its cables snapped, leaving eight passengers stranded over a river.
A 14-hour rescue operation was launched to save the people — mostly students — who were trying to cross a river in the Allai tehsil of Battagram. The operation concluded late at night when all eight passengers were brought to safety.
An eyewitness told Dawn.com that one of the passengers, who had a pre-existing medical condition, was moved to a hospital for examination.
The rest of those recovered were given initial first aid at a camp set up by Rescue 1122 personnel, however, all of those rescued were said to be in good health and spirits.
Prosecutors opening Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault retrial described on Wednesday how he ignored his victims’ pleas to stop and abused his position to make them “feel small.”
The trial, which began with jury selection last week, will force survivors who helped spark the “MeToo” movement to testify against Weinstein once more.
The former Miramax studio boss is charged with the 2006 sexual assault of former production assistant Mimi Haleyi and the 2013 rape of aspiring actress Jessica Mann. He also faces a new count for an alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old in 2006.
Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey recounted Weinstein’s alleged attacks in graphic detail, saying all three women had begged him to stop, but that he had “all the power … He made all these women feel small.”
The prosecutor described how Weinstein pestered Haleyi with multiple requests for massages and sexual favours before she found herself alone with him in an apartment one day in 2006.
“The defendant, three times [her] size, kissed her, groped her, and she told him again she was not interested,” Lucey said. “He pulled Mimi towards him … She quickly realised he was not going [to] take a no for an answer,” the prosecutor added.
Lucey detailed how Weinstein then forced himself on Haleyi, performing oral sex on her despite her pleas for him to stop.
The award-winning movie producer, who was brought into Manhattan criminal court in a wheelchair and wore a dark business suit, glanced occasionally at the jury as the trial got underway.
Lucey described the defendant as “one of the most powerful men in … show business,” telling the majority-female jury that “when he wanted something, he took it.”
Kaja Sokola, who was not part of the previous trial, was an aspiring model and just 16 years old at the time that she alleges Weinstein sexually assaulted her at a hotel in Manhattan.
Accusers describe the impresario as a predator who used his perch atop the cinema industry to pressure actresses and assistants for sexual favours, often in hotel rooms.
But Arthur Aidala, Weinstein’s defence attorney, stressed that the prosecution’s opening statement was not “the whole movie”, arguing that the jury would hear no evidence of the use of force or a lack of consent.
He said Mann had introduced Weinstein to her mother after the alleged rape, and that Haleyi had “consensual sex” with Weinstein after her alleged attack.
“Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty,” he told the jury.
Weinstein’s 2020 convictions over Haleyi and Mann were overturned last year by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the way witnesses were handled in the original New York trial was unlawful.
Presentation of the evidence in the retrial is expected to last five to six weeks. The 73-year-old has said he hopes his case will be judged with “fresh eyes”, more than seven years after his spectacular downfall and a global backlash against predatory abusers.
Weinstein is already serving a 16-year prison sentence after being convicted of raping and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.
The producer of a string of box office hits such as Sex, Lies and Videotape, Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love, Weinstein has battled health issues. He has never acknowledged any wrongdoing and has always maintained that the encounters were consensual.
Since his downfall, Weinstein has been accused of harassment, sexual assault or rape by more than 80 women, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lupita Nyong’o and Ashley Judd.
Two minor sisters drowned on Tuesday in the Indus River in the Bisham tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district, according to officials.
Bisham Station House Officer (SHO) Khurshid Ali told Dawn.com that the children had gone to the river to play at the river bank, where the strong current ended up drowning them.
SHO Ali said the girls’ ages, as told by their relatives, were seven and nine.
He said locals and Rescue 1122 teams were participating in the rescue work to retrieve the bodies as the search continued.
The drowned children belonged to the Butyal village of Bisham.
Rescue 1122 spokesperson Rasool Khan Sharif said divers were making efforts to fish out the bodies from the river, adding that the flow increased after the weather became warmer.
Last week, five people of a family were killed and nine others were rescued when a rickshaw fell into the Gohati Canal in Swabi.
A Rescue 1122 official had said 14 people of a family, including women and children, were travelling in the rickshaw from Bakar village to Gohati area when the three-wheeler skidded off the road and plunged into the canal.
Eyewitnesses said the rickshaw was going at a high speed near Bakar Chowk when the driver lost control over it. As a result, the rickshaw plunged into the canal.
A man was killed while another was injured on Sunday night when a luxury car struck them in Karachi’s Gulshan-i-Iqbal neighbourhood, according to police and rescue services officials.
The city has lately witnessed a rise in traffic accidents — especially involving dumpers and water tankers — which killed nearly 500 people and injured 4,879 were in 2024, according to hospital data.
Sunday evening’s incident angered the area’s residents, who allegedly beat the driver and set his car on fire, leaving it completely destroyed.
Gulshan-i-Iqbal police Station House Officer (SHO) Mohammed Naeem Rajput told Dawn.com that as per initial reports, the driver hit the passersby near Maskan Chowrangi, causing critical injuries to two persons.
Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told Dawn.com that the injured were transported to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.
“Doctors pronounced an unidentified man in his early 20s dead on arrival, while an injured man identified as Zeeshan Saleem, 42, was admitted for treatment,” she said.
Outraged residents gathered at the site of the incident in large numbers. CCTV footage aired on social and electronic media showed the mob beating the driver and damaging the car before setting it on fire.
Rescue 1122 spokesperson Hassaan Khan told Dawn.com that the vehicle car was completely destroyed in the fire.
SHO Rajput said that three people including the driver were arrested.
On Saturday night, a trailer truck claimed the lives of two young men in the New Chali area, according to police and rescue services officials.
Mithadar police SHO Naseer Ahmed Tanoli told Dawn.com that a trailer killed two men riding a motorcycle on Sharea Liaquat.
“The trailer was coming from II Chundrigar Road towards the old CIA Centre while the victims were on their way from Techno City using Altaf Husain Hali Road,” SHO Tanoli said.
The Lahore Police have booked musician and former PTI member Salman Ahmad under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016 (Peca) for allegedly sharing content against state institutions and figures online, it emerged on Monday.
A first information report (FIR) was registered at Lahore’s Defence A Police Station on April 4 on the complaint of Sub-Inspector Ikram Hussain under Sections 11 (hate speech) and 20 (offences against dignity of a natural person) of Peca and Sections 500 (punishment for defamation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 505-1(C) (statement conducing to public mischief with intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The FIR said some “malicious” elements had been using social media to “spread false and defamatory information” about government figures and institutions.
“This false campaign is often based on fabricated news and baseless allegations … to mislead the public and create distrust against respected and important institutions and individuals,” the FIR said.
Hussain said that he was informed about a post on X by the singer, which the sub-inspector alleged aimed to “incite against national institutions and personalities”.
Ahmad “made a provocative and hateful post on Twitter (now known as X). The profile has about 265.4K followers, to whom this hateful post is being spread,” Hussain wrote, adding that “the minds of his viewers/followers are being turned against national and government institutions and figures.”
The PTI terminated the musician’s party membership for running a campaign against “the family of Imran Khan” in December 2024. Ahmad had posted on X to criticise party founder Imran’s wife Bushra Bibi for her political activities during the November 26 protests, sparking criticism from party supporters.
Peca, since its introduction in 2016, has been widely criticised as a “black law” created mainly to punish dissent. In the eight years since its enactment, it has been used extensively against politicians, journalists, rights activists, and even ordinary political workers.
The National Assembly in January passed a controversial amendment bill to the country’s cybercrime laws amid a walkout by PTI lawmakers and journalists from the proceedings.
Earlier this year, the administrator of a WhatsApp group in Punjab’s Pakpattan was arrested for allegedly violating Peca by permitting an insulting post targeting Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to be shared in the group.
A shutter-down strike was observed in Karachi on Monday on the call of traders in connection with the global strike call given by Hamas to show solidarity with Palestinians and denounce the genocide in Gaza.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel started bombarding Gaza in retaliation to an attack by Hamas, killing more than 50,695 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
A ceasefire was introduced in January, but Israel resumed hostilities last month.
Almost all major markets were closed in Saddar, old city areas, Tariq Road, Clifton and other areas.
A visit to the main markets in Saddar bazaars showed that a few shops were open while major markets were closed.
Only guards were seen outside some shops while the commercial centres were closed.
Speaking to Dawn.com, Head of All City Tajir Ittehad Association — an organisation of hundreds of markets — Sharjeel Goplani said that traders were given the call by leaders of religious parties last night, adding that Hamas had given a global strike call against the genocide in Gaza when Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was scheduled to visit and meet with United States President Donald Trump.
Goplani said Karachi generated 70 per cent of the country’s revenue, whose main hub was the South district, where all markets were closed, adding that several traders’ associations also held a demonstration at the Electronic Markets in Saddar, where representatives decided they would collect donations to support Palestine.
Mohammed Rizwan Irfan, President of Karachi Electronics Dealers Association, told Dawn.com that it was decided to boycott Israeli products and products from “Zionist companies as a mark of protest against barbarism and cruelty against Palestinians”.
He said the demonstrators wanted to record their protest against the genocide and show the world that they would not remain silent over such tyranny.
All Karachi Tajir Ittehad Chairman Atiq Mir told Dawn.com that the strike was a unique one as traders and shopkeepers voluntarily announced to shut their businesses.
Mir said there were an estimated 3000 small and big markets in Karachi. However, over 600 major markets such as clothes, jewellery and machinery were closed, and vegetable and meat markets were open on the city’s outskirts.
Mir said that Karachi was the only city where such a strike was observed to show solidarity with Palestinians, while protest rallies were also taken out by traders.
He said the traders also urged the government to lodge effective protests at world forums against killings of children and women in Gaza, as it was also against international and humanitarian laws.
ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan is still ready to come to the table, if the establishment is prepared to negotiate, party leader Azam Khan Swati has claimed, adding that he had the PTI founder’s blessing to initiate talks to secure his freedom.
In a lengthy video message released to — in his words — clear the air following his recent meeting with the party founder in Adiala jail, Mr Swati criticised “certain vloggers and anchors for selling a false story”, without naming anyone.
In the midst of a widening rift between the party’s ranks in Khyber Pakhtunkwa, Mr Swati also backed KP CM Ali Amin Gandapur, PTI KP leader Junaid Akbar and party general secretary Salman Akram Raja, saying that they were “picked by Imran Khan himself”.
Recounting his interaction with Mr Khan and Bushra Bibi in prison, he said he had repeatedly told the party founder he had “khotay sikkay” (counterfeit coins) in his pocket.
He also recounted a meeting with Mr Khan where, he claimed, the party leader had tasked him to reach out to Gen Asim Munir — following the latter’s appointment in Dec 2022 — to open the door for negotiations.
Mr Swati claimed that after this meeting, he had reached out to someone close to Gen Munir, a renowned anchorperson and a certain “Dr Tanveer” (thought to be a reference to Pakistani-American businessman Tanveer Ahmed), but to no avail.
“Give me permission to work with Dr [Arif] Alvi and others to open the doors for talks,” Mr Swati claimed to have asked the PTI chief in their latest meeting, adding that Mr Khan gave him his blessing to do so.
The former minister claimed that the PTI founder reposed trust in his efforts, as he had stood with him through thick and thin.
“If they are ready for talks, I am willing — like I was from day one,” he quoted the jailed ex-PM as saying.
Beseeching vloggers and anchorpersons to stop sowing discord and work towards securing Imran Khan’s release, he also said that a negative campaign had been started against PTI USA leaders and others who had recently visited Pakistan.
This is being interpreted as a reference to a delegation of prominent Pakistani-Americans — under the banner of First Pakistan Global — who recently met with establishment figures. Reportedly, the agenda of that meeting revolved around efforts to secure Mr Khan release.
But in the wake of news of the meeting going public, a schism has emerged among PTI’s diaspora supporters — with one side arguing that these people had no mandate to negotiate on behalf of the party.
Hitting out at those claiming that Mr Khan had given him a “shut up call” for proposing talks with the establishment, Mr Swati maintained that no one had rendered more sacrifices, apart from martyrs, than him and his family. “I have faced torture and I have shared all details with Imran Khan. I am the one who cared about the 1,100 workers in jail and made efforts to secure their bails.”
Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2025
Afghan officials on Sunday called on Pakistan to prepare a joint mechanism for the gradual repatriation of refugees, adding that forced deportation is in neither country’s interests.
The interior ministry, in a statement on March 7, had stated “All illegal foreigners and ACC holders are advised to leave the country voluntarily before 31 March 2025; thereafter, deportation will commence wef 1 April 2025.”
Mufti Abdul Mutalib Haqqani, spokesman for the Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation, said that bringing the refugees back is official Afghan policy, but it should be under a joint mechanism with Pakistan so that refugees are returned gradually and with “honour”.
“But if Pakistan unilaterally sends refugees, we are fully prepared to receive them,” the spokesman told the Taliban’s Hurriyat Radio.
“We have held meetings with Pakistani officials on the issue and are still in contact with them,” he added. “Our demand is that they (Afghan refugees) should not be forcibly deported, as deportation is not only against international laws but contrary to Islamic values and an act against good, neighbourly norms.
“Their forced deportation is also not in the interests of Pakistan and Afghanistan. We have always demanded that there should be a joint mechanism for the repatriation of Afghan refugees and they should return in fewer numbers so they can be accommodated with dignity.”
The spokesperson added that Afghans are being sent back by force and that Iran is willing to prepare a joint mechanism with Afghanistan through an understanding.
Haqqani added that a commission was set up to protect and assist refugees and that they would be given land in different parts of the country, while skilled refugees would be given jobs.
“Those who want to invest, no tax will be imposed for five years and no tax on whatever they brought to the country,” Haqqani added.
Meanwhile, Afghan officials maintain that returnees from Pakistan are welcomed at camps in Torkham and receive assistance.
Siddiqullah Qureshi, head of the Nangarhar provincial information department, told Afghan state news agency Bakhtar that a total of 325 refugees arrived via Torkham on Friday.
“The returnees include 249 members of 62 families and 31 other individuals were deported on April 13,” he said. “Repatriation via Torkham has intensified recently and returnees are being facilitated with registration and other facilities.”
A high-ranking provincial delegation led by Nangarhar Deputy Governor Maulvi Azizullah Mustafa travelled to the Torkham border to closely monitor the process of the second wave of Afghans returning from Pakistan and to improve coordination and measures to address their initial problems and needs, Bakhtar reported.
On the Pakistani side, a camp to facilitate the repatriation of Afghan Citizenship Card (ACC) holders is now functional. Staff at the camp at Landi Kotal are now clearing refugees for repatriation, Bakhtar added.
Officials in Khyber district on Sunday said that the cases of a total of 850 Afghans were processed at Landi Kotal camp and Torkham for repatriation. On Saturday, a total of 777 Afghans were deported via Torkham.
A senior official in Khyber district told Dawn.com that since April 1, 11,272 Afghans have been repatriated.
Pakistan has not accepted calls from the Afghan Taliban leaders and started repatriation and deportation from November 1 under a previous announcement.
The interior ministry says the (Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan) IFRP was implemented on November 1, 2023. Under the IFRP, over 700,000 undocumented Afghans have already left Pakistan since the process was launched.
“In continuation to the government’s decision to repatriate all illegal foreigners, national leadership has now decided to also repatriate ACC holders,” the March 7 statement stated.
Pakistan hosts 1.52 million registered Afghan refugees and asylum-seekers, an estimated 800,000 Afghan citizenship holders, along with others living in the country without official recognition, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Pakistan representative Philippa Candler.
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has fixed the hearing of post-arrest bail petitions filed by incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf founding chairman Imran Khan in eight cases of May 9 riots, including the Jinnah House attack.
A two-member bench comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Tariq Saleem Sheikh will take up the petitions on April 10.
The investigating officers and special prosecutors of all the cases will appear before the bench along with a complete record.
An anti-terrorism court had on Nov 27, 2024, denied bail to the former prime minister in these eight cases.
The bail petitions mainly argue that the prosecution failed to establish the petitioner’s association with the unfortunate occurrences narrated in the FIRs.
They say the petitioner has been implicated in the May 9 cases as a result of a well-orchestrated plan merely to harass and humiliate him for political reasons even though admittedly he was in the custody of the NAB.
The sole allegation against the petitioner in the cases is of ‘abetment’, which has been supplemented by the prosecution most vaguely, the pleas add.
They argue that the trial judge overlooked the fact that frivolous and baseless allegations related to the May 9 events have already been rejected due to inconsistencies in the story of the investigating agency.
The petitions ask the LHC to set aside the trial court’s decision and grant bail to the former prime minister in the eight FIRs.
Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2025
• Amendments to two bills to stem illegal exodus awaiting Senate nod
• Organised beggary made criminal offence on request of Gulf countries
• Experts say harsher sentences ineffective without reforms in monitoring, prosecution mechanisms
On February 17, five bills were passed by the National Assembly without any debate on the floor. Two of these bills pertained to a pressing humanitarian, legal and diplomatic crisis facing Pakistan — human trafficking and smuggling.
More than a month later, the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants (Amendment) Bill, 2025 have yet to become laws as they are pending approval from the Senate.
The government has proposed changes to the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018 and the Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants Act, 2018 at a time when hundreds of Pakistanis, over the past few years, perished in the Mediterranean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean while trying to reach Europe from Africa.
Most recently, at least 100 Pakistanis died in tragic boat accidents last December and January after remaining adrift in open seas for days while trying to enter Europe.
A report by the UN’s International Office of Migration last year said 7,867 Pakistanis arrived in Italy by land or sea. The number of Pakistanis in Greece and Cyprus — two other countries considered gateway to Europe was — 1,178 and 320, respectively.
The government, under pressure to act to stop the illegal exodus, has proposed amendments to make punishments for trafficking and smuggling offences more stringent, dedicated a special court to prosecute cases of cross-border trafficking, added “organised beggary” as an offence, and perhaps, most consequentially, removed the criminal liability of trafficking victims.
Amendments
The government has proposed amendments to several sections of the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018, to increase punishments for crimes like sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
Under the amendment proposed in Section 3, organised beggary has been added, along with sexual exploitation, as a motive for human trafficking. The punishment for the crime has been increased from up to seven years in jail to 10 years.
Currently, the provision allows for convicts to either be sentenced to a jail term or slapped with a fine of Rs1 million or both. However, the amendment proposed both fine and jail term for convicts.
For the trafficking of women and children, the punishment has been increased from two to 10 years to up to 14 years. It has also mandated both jail term and fine of up to Rs2m for convicts.
An amendment proposed to Section 4 states that if a trafficking victim dies or suffers serious injuries, if the accused is part of an organised crime group, if the accused destroyed travel documents of a victim or if the accused is a repeat offender, they would be punished with a jail term not less than 14 years and a fine of up to Rs2m.
Previously, the jail term was three to 14 years and fine.
The proposed amendments have also made human trafficking offences non-compoundable to remove the possibility of out-of-court settlements.
Similar amendments have been proposed to the Prevention of Smuggling of Migrants Act, 2018.
The punishment for human smuggling has been increased from three to five years in jail and Rs1m fine to up to 10 years in jail and Rs10m fine.
Forgery to enable smuggling has been made punishable by a jail term of three to 10 years and a fine of up to Rs5m. Previously, the punishment was one to three years in jail and up to Rs1m fine.
For offences where victims suffer life-threatening illness or die, the punishment has been proposed to be increased from five to 14 years in jail and a fine of up to Rs2m to seven to 14 years and a fine of Rs10m.
Experts fear that these amendments — focused excessively on the severity of punishment — would do little to curb human smuggling without structural changes to ensure robust prosecution of criminals and addressing social factors that compel people to make these perilous journeys.
While talking to Dawn, Tariq Khosa, the former director-general of FIA, said the amendments focused on the severity of punishment rather than ensuring their certainty. “This won’t solve the problem.”
However, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), which works with governments on migration issues, said the proposed amendments were “laudable” and show Pakistan’s seriousness in curbing human trafficking.
According to Fawad Haider, the head of ICMPD in Pakistan, disrupting human trafficking networks also requires “proactive law enforcement and victim-centred policies”.
Criminal liability
One of the amendments proposed to the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018, is to expand protective mechanisms for victims to not hold them liable for trafficking.
Currently, the law states that victims will not be “criminally liable” for the offences and may become witnesses in the case.
However, the proposed amendment looks to expand the scope of this immunity by not holding the victims liable for offences “in obedience to the order made by the trafficker”.
The amended provision states that the immunity will only be for victims’ actions that were a “direct result of force, fraud or coercion” by traffickers.
This immunity, Mr Haider said, is an integral part of anti-trafficking legislation around the world.
“[It] ensures the rights of victims are safeguarded, and the consequences of the force and/or coercion that traffickers hold on their victims (such as forcing them to commit crimes, into prostitution, to produce or traffic drugs, or forge documents, etc.) is correctly recognised by Court.”
He called for better training of law enforcement officers and judiciary to effectively understand and implement this immunity in their practice.
Mr Khosa said the proposed amendment was a “positive move” but pointed out that the provision made no distinction between genuine victims and repeat offenders.
The women and children, who are sent abroad illegally, are genuine victims but those who travel again and again for greener pastures and become victims should be held criminally liable, he added.
The Senate should improve this provision to ensure that repeat offenders are not treated as victims, added the ex-FIA chief.
Another amendment has proposed that in case the victim is a minor, the consent of their guardian for the offence of trafficking will be “irrelevant” and not considered a defence in court proceedings.
Organised beggary
While human trafficking remained a pressing crisis for the government, it was also faced with another challenge — Pakistanis who travel on valid documents but indulge in illegal acts like beggary in destination countries.
Over the past few months, Gulf countries — the preferred destinations of these delinquents — have raised the issue with Pakistani authorities.
The UAE has even imposed an unannounced ban on visas for Pakistanis, reportedly for their involvement in criminal activities.
In the Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2018, the government has proposed making “organised beggary” an offence with a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine of up to Rs1m.
As per the legislation’s preamble, the amendment has been proposed at the request of Pakistani missions overseas who have sought “stern action against those involved in begging and the gangs behind them”.
However, Mr Khosa said a better approach to dealing with the issue of organised beggary would have been bilateral, regional or global mechanisms of cooperation between law enforcement agencies.
He cites the framework between Pakistan, Iran, Turkiye and Greece between 2005 and 2010, where law enforcement agencies of all four nations worked together against transnational networks of human smugglers. Interpol was added as a facilitator to arrest and extradite human smugglers.
According to Mr Khosa, Pakistan is a signatory to and ratified trafficking in person protocol under the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime. However, the convention on the smuggling of migrants hasn’t been ratified.
This hampers effective facilitation from agencies of transit and destination countries on this issue.
More needs to be done
Mr Haider of ICMPD said punitive measures, as outlined in the amendments, must be paired with “effective governance and systemic reforms” that target the root causes of human smuggling.
“[E]conomic empowerment, education, and raising awareness (around the risks of trafficking) help address some of the push factors which lead people into vulnerable situations,” he added.
There is a need for a “whole-of-government approach” and focused campaigns aimed at informing potential victims to curb human smuggling.
There should be a national action plan against the smuggling of migrants with more proactive action by law-enforcement agencies against these crimes, Mr Khosa said.
He added that an inter-agency task force headed by the interior minister was already in place. “How many meetings did that task force hold?” he questioned.
Mr Haider recommended “full implementation” of the Integrated Border Management (IBM) — a global good practice — which involves inter-agency and international cooperation and strengthening of law enforcement and judicial capacities for effective prosecution and internal accountability.
“Prioritising a victim-centred protection system also helps the vulnerable and law enforcement with their investigations.”
Mr Khosa added that the government should periodically review anti-human trafficking and smuggling laws to identify gaps and share their practices to ensure that the accountability mechanism keeps evolving as organised crime networks become more intricate. “[Otherwise], these stop-gap arrangements won’t work.”
Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2025
US President Donald Trump on Saturday doubled down on sweeping tariffs he unleashed on countries around the world, warning Americans of pain ahead, but promising historic investment and prosperity.
The comments came as Trump’s widest-ranging trade measures took effect in a move that could trigger retaliation and escalating economic tensions, with the British and French leaders saying “nothing should be off the table” in response.
Trump, acknowledging global turbulence, urged Americans to be patient.
“We have been the dumb and helpless ‘whipping post’ but not any longer. We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“This is an economic revolution, and we will win,” the Republican president added. “Hang tough, it won’t be easy, but the end result will be historic.”
A 10 per cent “baseline” tariff came into place just after midnight, hitting most US imports except goods from Mexico and Canada, as Trump invoked emergency economic powers.
But in a potential sign of disagreement between Trump and close adviser Elon Musk, the tech billionaire on Saturday said he hoped the US and Europe could move eventually toward a “zero-tariff situation”.
That could effectively create “a free-trade zone between Europe and North America”, Musk said in talks in Rome with Italy’s far-right deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini.
The EU, Japan and China are among around 60 trading partners set to face even higher rates on April 9.
Trump’s steep 34pc tariff on Chinese goods, set to kick in next week, triggered Beijing’s announcement of a 34pc tariff on US products from April 10. Beijing also said it would sue Washington at the World Trade Organisation and restrict exports of rare earth elements used in medical and electronics technology.
“China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close,” Trump said in his post. “They, and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly.”
As other major trading partners eyed possible recession, the French and British leaders said “nothing should be off the table”.
At the same time, “a trade war was in nobody’s interests,” French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed in a call, Starmer’s office said.
Wall Street went into free fall on Friday, following similar plunges in Asia and Europe as economists warn tariffs could dampen growth and fuel inflation.
Trump’s latest tariffs have notable exclusions, however. They do not stack onto recently imposed 25pc tariffs hitting imports of steel, aluminium and automobiles.
Also temporarily spared are copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber, alongside “certain critical minerals” and energy products, the White House said.
But Trump has ordered investigations into copper and lumber, which could soon lead to further levies.
He has threatened to hit other industries like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors as well, meaning any reprieve might be short-lived.
Canada and Mexico are unaffected by the latest move as they already face separate duties of up to 25pc on goods entering the United States outside a North American trade agreement.
While Trump’s staggered deadlines allow space for countries to negotiate, “if they can’t get a reprieve, they are likely to retaliate, as China already has”, Oxford Economics warned this week.
EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said the bloc, which faces a 20pc tariff, will act in “a calm, carefully phased, unified way” and allow time for talks. But he said it “won’t stand idly by”.
France and Germany have said the EU could respond by imposing a tax on US technology companies.
Japan’s prime minister called for a “calm-headed” approach after Trump unveiled 24pc tariffs on Japanese-made goods.
Since returning to the presidency, Trump has hit imports from Canada and Mexico with tariffs over illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling claims and imposed an additional 20pc rate on goods from China. Come April 9, the added levy on Chinese products this year will reach 54pc.
Trump’s 25pc auto tariffs also took effect this week, and Jeep owner Stellantis has paused production at some Canadian and Mexican plants.
Trump’s new global levies mark “the most sweeping tariff hike since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the 1930 law best remembered for triggering a global trade war and deepening the Great Depression”, said the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Oxford Economics estimates the action will push the average effective US tariff rate to 24pc, “higher even than those seen in the 1930s”.
