A delegation of nearly 80 politicians and reporters headed by Pakistan’s Istanbul envoy Bilal Khan Pasha visited Turkey’s Albayrak Group
A Pakistani delegation on a visit to Istanbul hailed the excellent ties their country enjoys with Turkey as they pointed to the vast potential for additional collaboration in the future in various sectors.
Speaking exclusively to Yeni Şafak on the periphery of a visit by delegation of Pakistani politicians and reporters to Albayrak Group headquarters, Pakistan’s Consul General in Istanbul Bilal Khan Pasha, who was in attendance, lauded Turkish- Pakistani ties.
“Ties are as old, I think older than the establishment of the two nations. Be [it] social, religious, cultural, trade, commerce, investment, and now even defense. Our relations have been growing by leaps and bounds.”
With several defense deals signed between the two countries, the consul general pointed that Pakistan is looking for additional collaboration with Turkish-based industries.
A delegation of nearly 80 politicians and reporters headed by Pakistan’s Istanbul envoy Bilal Khan Pasha visited Turkey’s Albayrak Group, which operates in various Pakistani cities, on Sunday. Albayrak Board Member Nuri Albayrak stated that 13,000 Pakistanis were involved in Albayrak’s activities carried out in Pakistan.Group Chairman of the Board Ahmet Albayrak, Board of Directors members Nuri and Mesut Albayrak, CEO Ömer Bolat, Piri Media General Manager Ömer Karaca and former General Manager of the Higher Education Student Loan and Housing Board Hasan Albayrak hosted the delegation.Albayrak Group operates in four Pakistani cities“We conduct waste management and environmental cleaning as well as operate the metrobus, public buses and taxis in four of Pakistan’s cities. We employ 13,000 Pakistanis,” said Albayrak Board Member Nuri Albayrak.“These are the activities we conduct as a result of winning official tenders open to national and international competition. If there are international tenders for similar activities in other cities in Pakistan, we would like to operate in those cities too,” he added.Albayrak Group employs 13,000 Pakistanis“Following our work in Pakistan, we won tenders to operate ports in Somalia and Guinea. We are pleased to serve the people of Pakistan and contribute to Pakistan’s development. Our Pakistani employees are hardworking. Pakistani state administration, bureaucracy, laws, and procedures are very efficient. There are 25 Turks and 13,000 Pakistanis at our firm there. If we have pleased the Pakistani people in terms of environmental cleaning, waste collection, and transportation, then we are very happy,” Albayrak said.Turkey and Pakistan “are two friendly and allied countries”“We aim to contribute in order to increase the prosperity of the people of Pakistan. According to economic developments, we have plans to increase our investments in new areas. Turkey and Pakistan are two friendly and allied countries. The religious and social values, culture and fate of the Turkish and Pakistani people are united. Our national flags are even similar due to the crescent and stars. Turkey and Pakistan, the two countries, are like one nation. I hope that, like the political relations between the two allied countries, our economic relations will also reach much greater targets. Both sides should work diligently for this purpose,” Albayrak said.“We are a big family”“We are a group of seven partners, who are all siblings. Our father started with construction. Then we developed in the services and logistics sector as well as personnel and passenger transportation, waste collection and management, and port operation. We focused on the industrial sector with the production of military and police uniforms, textiles, tractors, diesel engines, tank engines, casting and environmental cleaning tools. In 2018, we started sugar production with two sugar factories,” Albayrak said.Hopefully at the beginning of 2019, we will launch our paper mill with an investment of 150 million euros. We have been one of the leading media organizations in the field of newspaper and television broadcasting, as well as our 12 monthly magazines and digital publishing, for 20 years. We are a big family with a total of 20,000 employees. In the past, we have conducted activities in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Iraq,” he added.Turkey and Pakistan are intrinsically linkedAlbayrak Group CEO Ömer Bolat dubbed the visit as sincere and productive, saying: “We are trying to bolster economic ties in addition to our brotherhood. The delegation invited us to invest in all regions of Pakistan and share our experiences in the industry and services sector. We discussed our ongoing activities that started in 2011 in four of Pakistan’s cities. We told them that we have been pleased to contribute to Pakistan's economic development for eight years. Pakistan’s prosperity is Turkey’s prosperity. Turkey’s prosperity is Pakistan’s prosperity.”Atatürk’s death anniversary marked in PakistanPakistani Christian woman freed after blasphemy death sentence reversedPakistan raises issue of jailed Aafia with USPakistan invites Turkey to join $64 billion megaprojectPakistan says Chinese help stemmed payment crisis
Albayrak Group ‘pleased to serve people of Pakistan’
“Our industry would like to have technology transfer from Turkey, would like to develop more linkages with the industry in Turkey, not only for the Pakistani industry and manufacture but also in the defense sector.”
“We have not been able to honestly exploit fully the potential of our economic cooperation,” remarked Khan Pasha as he expressed hope for more cooperation in the trade sector.
He said Turkey and Pakistan had “excellent ties” and that “investment is going very good.”
Khan Pasha also stressed the need for more student exchange programs between Turkey and Pakistan.
“More and more student exchange is required which is right now of course happening, but we need to see a growing number of students coming from Pakistan to enrich themselves with the best of the teaching and universities available in Turkey.
The 80th death anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, was commemorated in Pakistan on Saturday.A ceremony was hosted by the Turkish Ambassador to Pakistan Mustafa Yurdakul at the Turkish Embassy in Islamabad.Yurdakul welcomed the participants at the ceremony and paid tributes to Atatürk.Rıdvan Türkoğlu, second secretary at the Turkish Embassy, quoted remarks of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, that the death of Atatürk was a big loss for the Muslim world.Atatürk was born in 1881 in Thessaloniki, in what was then the Ottoman Empire. He made his mark in the military in 1915 when he led forces to repel the allied invasion in Çanakkale, known in the West as the Dardanelles.Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after the First World War, Atatürk led the Turkish War of Independence, which defeated European powers. When he became president, Atatürk transformed the former empire into a modern and secular country.Atatürk passed away on Nov. 10, 1938, at the age of 57.Erdoğan marks 80th anniversary of Atatürk's demiseTurks in Jordan mark anniversary of Ataturk's demise
Atatürk’s death anniversary marked in Pakistan
“Turkey is a role model in Pakistan”
A Pakistani journalist stressed the important role Turkey can play in the development in Pakistan, pointing to the vast opportunities for cooperation in different fields.
“I think there are a lot of opportunities regarding the bilateral relationship and Turkey is a role model in Pakistan. We look at the development parameters of Turkey to get something developed in our country.”
“Turkey can play an important role in Pakistan, and I saw the metrobus, which is an idea taken from the Turkey and the other one is the waste management work which is a marvelous work in Lahore city.”
“The Turkish government can help a lot regarding their experience in development, regarding their achievements. They can participate, they can play their role in the development of Pakistan.”
A Pakistani Christian woman has been freed from prison a week after the Supreme Court overturned her conviction and death sentence for blasphemy against Islam, and she is at a secure location for fear of attacks on her, officials said on Thursday.The release of Asia Bibi, a mother of five, prompted immediate anger from a party that has threatened to paralyse daily life countrywide with street protests if her acquittal is not reversed.Bibi, 53, was convicted of blasphemy in 2010 over allegations she made derogatory remarks about Islam after neighbours objected to her drinking water from their glass because she was not Muslim.She always denied having committed blasphemy.Pakistan invites Turkey to join $64 billion megaprojectThe case has outraged Christians worldwide, and Pope Francis met Bibi's family this year, saying he prayed for her. Italy said on Tuesday it would try to help Bibi, who is Catholic, to leave Pakistan.Muahmmad Faisal, spokesman for Pakistan foreign ministry, on Thursday morning denied media reports Bibi has been flown out of country."She is in Pakistan," Faisal told Reuters via the WhatsApp messaging service.Insulting Islam's Prophet Mohammad carries a mandatory death penalty in Pakistan, which is about 95 percent Muslim and has among the harshest blasphemy laws in the world.Pakistan says Chinese help stemmed payment crisisNo executions for blasphemy have been carried out in Pakistan but enraged mobs sometimes kill people accused of blasphemy.Christians make up about 2 percent of the population.Three security officials told Reuters early on Thursday that Bibi had been released from a prison in Multan, a city in the south of Punjab province.She was flown to the airport near the capital, Islamabad, and was in protective custody because of threats to her life, said the three officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.Galeri: Aasia Bibi protests stymie Pakistan for third dayBibi's lawyer, who has fled Pakistan and this week sought asylum in the Netherlands, confirmed she was no longer in prison."All I can tell you is that she has been released," lawyer Saif-ul-Mulook told Reuters by phone from the Netherlands.A spokesman for the hard-line Tehreek-e-Labaik (TLP) party, which took to the streets after the Supreme Court ruling, said her release violated a deal with the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan to end the protests."The TLP activists are agitated as the government has breached the agreement with our party. The rulers have showed their dishonesty," party spokesman Ejaz Ashrafi told Reuters.Under the deal, the government said it would not block a petition to the Supreme Court to review Bibi's acquittal in light of sharia, Islamic religious law, the TLP said.It also said the government promised to work to ensure Bibi could not leave the country.If the government allows Bibi to leave, it would likely face more paralysing protests from the TLP and other parties.
Pakistani Christian woman freed after blasphemy death sentence reversed
“Turkey and Pakistan are like two souls in one body”
“Turkey and Pakistan are like two souls in one body. People in Pakistan feel like when Turkey develops, it’s like Pakistan is developing and when Pakistan develops it’s also Turkey developing,” said another Pakistani journalist who attended the event.
“God willing, Turkey will develop even more in the future. We always have and always will support Turkey.”
A delegation of nearly 80 politicians and reporters headed by Pakistan’s Istanbul envoy Bilal Khan Pasha visited Turkey’s Albayrak Group, which operates in various Pakistani cities, on Sunday. Albayrak Board Member Nuri Albayrak stated that 13,000 Pakistanis were involved in Albayrak’s activities carried out in Pakistan.
Group Chairman of the Board Ahmet Albayrak, Board of Directors members Nuri and Mesut Albayrak, CEO Ömer Bolat, Piri Media General Manager Ömer Karaca and former General Manager of the Higher Education Student Loan and Housing Board Hasan Albayrak hosted the delegation.
Pakistan Wednesday said the U.S had promised to "look into" its request for respecting the human and legal rights of a Pakistani educationist languishing in an American jail for attempted murder.In a statement, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said it had raised the issue of Aafia Siddiqui with Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells during her day-long visit to Islamabad earlier this week.In 2010, Aafia was sentenced to 89 years in prison by a U.S. court for attacking an American soldier in Afghanistan."The issue of respecting the human and legal rights of Dr. Afia Siqqiqui was also raised in the meeting at MoFA ( Ministry of Foreign Affairs) with Ambassador Alice Wells on November 6. (The) US side has promised to look into our request", the statement said.Pakistan, it added, had been raising the issue of Aafia with the U.S authorities regularly."Pakistan’s Consul General in Houston (Texas) pays Consular visits to Dr. Siddiqui, periodically, to inquire about her wellbeing and conveys her messages to Dr. Afia’s family if any," the statement further said.Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will soon meet with the sister of Aafia in Islamabad, it maintained.The development came days after Aafia who is currently serving a jail in Houston wrote a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan requesting him to work to secure her release as her conviction was "wrong" and " illegal."Khan, who held the country's reigns after the general elections in July this year, had promised to work for Aafia’s release in his election manifesto.Aafia, who graduated from MIT and did her PhD from Brandise University in Education, had gone missing in Pakistan in 2004 along with her three minor children before she was discovered in a U.S military base in Bagram, Afghanistan in 2008.She was accused of attacking a U.S soldier during interrogation -- an account dismissed by herself and her family.It was a British journalist, Yvonne Ridley, who revealed the presence of Siddiqui at the Bagram detention center in 2008.The court had also refused to take into account the circumstances under which she was kidnapped from Pakistan and taken to Afghanistan despite her lawyers' repeated requests.
Pakistan raises issue of jailed Aafia with US
Pakistan has invited Turkey to join the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, which would benefit both countries, official media said Thursday."Pakistan highly values its relations with Turkey, and the new government desires to further strengthen relations between Islamabad and Ankara, said Asad Qaiser, speaker of the National Assembly, while speaking with Turkey’s ambassador to Pakistan Ihsan Mustafa Yurdakul.Yurdakul met with Qaiser in his office at Parliament House in Islamabad.According to state-run Radio Pakistan, Qaiser invited Turkey to join CPEC, which will benefit all countries in the region.CPEC, a $64 billion megaproject signed in 2014, aims to connect China's strategically important northwestern Xinjiang province to Pakistan’s Gwadar Port through a network of roads, railways and pipelines to transport cargo, oil and gas.The economic corridor will not only provide China with cheaper access to Africa and the Middle East but will also earn Pakistan billions of dollars for providing transit facilities to the world’s second-largest economy.Turkey’s ambassador also vowed to strengthen relations with Pakistan."The Turkish people always consider Pakistan as their second home, and we wish to see this country always strong and prosperous," Yurdakul said.Yurdakul also extended an invitation to Qaiser to attend the second League of Parliamentarian Conference for Al-Quds, which will be held on Dec. 14 in Istanbul.
Pakistan invites Turkey to join $64 billion megaproject
Pakistan has removed the acting chief of state-run television after a caption read "Begging" instead "Beijing" during a broadcast of Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to China, which has promised economic aid to the South Asian country.Khan was in Beijing seeking financial aid to help end a spiralling balance of payments crisis after securing $6 billion in support from Saudi Arabia and before Pakistan sat down to talks with the IMF.An official Ministry of Information order seen by Reuters said the ministry had withdrawn the services of Hasan Immad Mohammadi, who had served as acting managing director of Pakistan Television for just a matter of weeks.IMF team lands in Pakistan for talks on financial helpPTV apologised after "Begging" ran on screens for 20-25 seconds on Monday while Khan was making a speech, kicking off a debate on social media as to whether the misspelling was deliberate.Khan has criticised Pakistan's many international bailouts and decried previous leaders as roaming the world with a begging bowl.An information ministry spokesman said the misspelling had nothing to do with Mohammadi's removal, saying it was a "routine affair".Pakistan says Chinese help stemmed payment crisisFinance Minister Asad Umar said on Tuesday that "Pakistan's immediate balance of payment crisis is over", adding that the combined Saudi support plus as-yet-unspecified aid promised by China had shored up foreign currency reserves.Umar spoke a day before the arrival on Wednesday of an IMF team for a two-week visit to Islamabad to negotiate Pakistan's request for a 13th IMF bailout since the 1980s.He has previously said the country needs $12 billion in immediate relief.Video: Imran Khan meets China's Xi in first official visit to Beijing
Begging in Beijing? Pakistan sacks state TV chief after broadcast gaffe