Saudi Arabia Archives - The Singapore Post

25Sep

By Stuart WhiteNo Comments

Is Pakistan losing Riyadh?

“Pakistan can no longer wait … I respectfully remind the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Cooperation) once again that we are expecting a meeting of foreign ministers belonging to the member countries of the organization. If you cannot do it, I will be forced to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to hold a meeting of Islamic countries ready to stand by us on the question of Kashmir,” said Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmud Qureshi during an interview.With an unprecedented externalization, Qureshi shattered a ten-year protocol of relations between Pakistan and the Saudi “big brother” and gave the launch of a series of speculations on the geopolitical order or re-order of the region.The Saudis did not take well the appeal of Qureshi which was seen as a real “sgarro” by the historical “younger

World Bank puts on hold its ‘Doing Business’ report after irregularities in data by China, 3 others

The World Bank had to put on hold its ‘Doing Business’ report after it was reported that China and three other countries had submitted data that was “inappropriately altered”.China, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia appeared to have been inappropriately altered their data, said a source with knowledge of the decision.The move renewed concerns first raised two years ago by the World Bank’s chief economist that the report, called “Doing Business,” was vulnerable to manipulation. According to the Doing Business report, a sharp difference was noted when China rose from 46 to 31 between 2019 to 2020.The World Bank in a statement said: “A number of irregularities have been reported regarding changes to the data in the Doing Business 2018 and Doing Business 2020 reports, publi

What made ‘Pakistan’s Independence Day’ the most controversial day for its people

Certain nationalist groups in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit Baltistan have announced that they will not celebrate Pakistan’s Independence Day on August 14. Instead, they will be observing a Black Day.Since righteous voices are usually met with brutal repression and it is too risky to have such observance in Pakistan, it has been decided that the discontent be demonstrated through a series of car rallies across Europe, America and Canada highlighting forced disappearance, extrajudicial killings and ongoing persecution and manhunt of nationalists and political as well as human right activists in Pakistan.The decision to mark August 14 as a Black Day comes as a shock to many as it is in stark contrast to the perceived mindset of people who had previously claimed to be bound toget