Shaan

The reality of American life today: Jeff Bezos, worth $290 billion, spent: $10 million on the Met Gala $120 million on a penthouse $500 million on a yacht Meanwhile, he‘s planning to throw 600,000 Amazon workers out on the streets and replace them with robots. Unacceptable.

Last night, Israeli forces intercepted and boarded a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza in international waters off the coast of Greece — unlawfully detaining more than 175 people, including several New Yorkers. My team has been in direct contact with State and Federal partners as we work to confirm the whereabouts and conditions of these New Yorkers. This is a brazen violation of international law. Those detained must be released.

Jang has now removed the misleading news item about Ahmadis from its website. It would also be nice if the newspaper apologised and also fired the subeditor responsible for the publication of that baseless, libellous and shameful allegation against a law abiding and peace loving community. That is the least you can do @jang_akhbar

Saw this in Brussels at a store owned by a Pakistani. Notified mall security about what it said & they made me fill out a form. Got an update from them that the Police gave him a warning & got the sign removed as it was hate speech. That's how civilized countries deal with bigots

Those arrested in the UK in connection with an alleged crime have no affiliation with the Ahmadiyya Community, and no Ahmadiyya center has been subject to any police raid. jang.com.pk/news/1578869

@jang_akhbar is a shameless publication and a peddler of Fake News. It printed this story jang.com.pk/news/1578869 even though it is clear that Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light is an entirely different sect (derived from twelver Shiism) from the Ahmadiya Jamaat (who you pejoratively call Qadianis or Mirzais). Yet it didn’t stop Jang from publishing this baseless and pointless lie and propaganda against a law abiding and upstanding community. جنگ اخبار جھوٹ کا پلندہ ہے۔ جن احمدیوں کی بات کی جارہی ہے وہ جماعت احمدیہ سے مختلف فرقہ ہے ۔۔۔ احمدی رلجن آف پیس اینڈ لائٹ ایک مصری شیعہ فرقہ ہے اور اس کا جماعت احمدیہ قادیانی یا لاھوری گروپ سے کوئی تعلق نہیں مگر جس ادارے میں @HamidMirPAK اور @maryamnawazkhan جیسے جھوٹے لوگ کام کرتے ہوں وہ یہ ہی کچھ کرسکتا ہے۔

Giving a talk at Imperial today, home of one of the greatest scientists of our time Nobel laureate, he helped build “the standard model” in Physics - worked tirelessly to promote science for the least fortunate - setting up ICTP He lived his name “servant of peace”. Every student should learn about his life.

What are the economic consequeses of peace in the Iran war? What should be Pakistan’s role and strategy? My conversation below

Petrol at Rs 30/litre in Pakistan sounds crazy. It is not. What is crazy is the policy failure that prevents it. Petrol is around Rs 300/litre today, excluding government levy, here's how it can effectively be Rs 30/litre. People do not consume petrol for its own sake; they use it to travel. The average Pakistani rides a motorbike. A fuel-efficient motorbike can travel about 60 km on one litre. An efficient electric scooter can travel about 30 km per kWh, so it needs only 2 kWh to cover the same 60 km. What should 2 kWh cost in Pakistan? Pakistan is one of the best places in the world for solar, with an all-in LCOE cost of around 5 cents per kWh. The electricity cost is 10 cents, or Rs 30/litre of distance travelled! The Rs 30/litre calculation remains the same for cars. The 300-versus-30 gap is the cost of bad policy. It reflects billions of dollars of saving that could instead finance EV infrastructure: charging, distribution, battery swapping, and smart pricing software etc. - boosting much-needed domestic investment. Since solar is highly modular. You do not need massive scale to get reasonable efficiency. That creates business and employment opportunities for small domestic power producers. Instead, Pakistan leaned into large fossil-fuel plants financed by dollar-denominated borrowing and guaranteed returns. Local firms face credit constraints, but solar creates a natural collateralizable cash flow through electricity sales to the grid. With the right regulatory framework, this could have unlocked large private domestic investment, and employment. Battery swapping is another area where small local businesses could have emerged and scaled. Electricity enables smart pricing. When solar supply is abundant, prices can fall, and poor households and firms can shift usage to cheaper hours - automatic demand stabilization Better air quality would mean longer, healthier lives and higher productivity. That is a growth multiplier Green technology industries could be developed domestically with the right industrial policy, easing balance-of-payments pressure while raising employment and investment. Instead, Pakistan chose imported-fuel power plants, protected a backward-looking domestic auto sector, and raised electricity prices by burdening them with the fixed costs of those plants and heavy taxation, slowing EV adoption. Then came the net-metering fiasco, all to keep zombie power plants alive. Pakistan’s energy policy may be the clearest example of a broken nervous system. I hope someone fixes it, because people are paying the price, 300-versus-30

Everyone who visits Pakistan is always pleasantly surprised.

Pls ask Indians who have visited Pakistan about bill. Even ordinary Pakistani shopkeepers/rikshawala, restaurants owners and others wont charge rent or food bill if they come to know you are from India. Thats how Pakistanis are. Listen @virendersehwag sb. @vikrantgupta73

I received a call from Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada, this evening. I thanked him for Canada’s endorsement of Pakistan’s efforts in facilitating the U.S.–Iran ceasefire and talks. I reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to advancing regional peace and stability. We also agreed to strengthen Pakistan–Canada cooperation especially in trade and investment in agriculture, clean energy, mines and minerals. I also extended an invitation to Prime Minister Carney to undertake an official visit to Pakistan at a mutually convenient time. @MarkJCarney

If this notice by PEMRA is true, it’s a sad day for Pakistan. Don’t do this kind of nonsense in the name of Pakistan or Pakistanis. We have always celebrated art & artists, regardless of borders. Targeting the legacy of Asha Bhosle doesn’t protect anything—it just makes us look insecure. Asha Bhosle is not just a singer; she is a voice that defined generations—effortless, versatile & timeless. From classical to pop, from ghazals to film music, she carried entire eras in her voice. Her songs didn’t belong to one country; they became part of people’s lives across the subcontinent & beyond. And that is exactly the point—art at this level cannot be reduced to flags & politics. So why is our govt behaving like Modi—turning culture into a political tool? How pathetic. If we start censoring art like this, we’re not protecting Pakistan, we’re diminishing it. No matter how much margin people try to give this regime, with every step it only reinforces the sense that Pakistan has been hijacked—and this kind of creeping authoritarianism is not taking us anywhere good.

I genuinely don’t understand how any reasonable person can interpret the failure of the U.S. and Iran to reach a deal in Islamabad as a failure of Pakistani diplomacy. Consider what Pakistan achieved: 1. It got U.S. and Iranian negotiators in the same room at the highest level in 47 years. 2. It received public appreciation for its role from both warring parties. 3. It maintained the trust and tacit support of China and Saudi Arabia, important players in this drama. 4. It earned the goodwill of scores of nations that would like this conflict to end sooner rather than later. Is Pakistan worse off than it would have been if the U.S. and Iran had thrashed out an agreement? Yes, obviously. The Pakistani economy is fragile and particularly dependent on both energy imports and remittances from the Gulf. And if Saudi Arabia is drawn into the war Pakistan could be forced to honor its defense pact with the Kingdom, which could trigger widespread domestic unrest. But accepting that a deal is better than no deal for Pakistan (and many other countries) is not the same as claiming that the summit was a failure from Pakistan’s perspective. It most clearly was not. Pakistan has emerged, at least for now, as a prominent diplomatic actor on the world stage, and as the recipient of much international goodwill. I’m not sure how anyone can claim otherwise.

Pakistan can never be neutral when it comes to Israel

How Pakistan made the world over 3 trillion dollars richer On April 7, the world edged toward Trump's 8pm ultimatum that "a whole civilization will die tonight." By mid-afternoon, Polymarket gave less than a 5% chance for a ceasefire. But then in a flurry of last-minute diplomacy led by Pakistan's PM Shehbaz Sharif, ceasefire odds shifted from near-impossibility to 100%, as both U.S. and Iranian leadership publicly acknowledged the important role played by Pakistan. The sharp shift in probability of ceasefire from near-zero to certainty, allows us to estimate cleanly the market value of Pakistan's successful diplomacy. There was a sharp jump of 2.9% in S&P500 around the ceasefire announcement. The reaction was similar the world over. Global markets represent about $125T, so a 2.9% jump represents a gain of 3.6 trillion dollars for the world. Pakistan helped create TEN times its own GDP for the world! For me, the best part is not the trillions of dollar, but seeing Pakistan on the world stage as a peace maker. I hope Pakistan runs with this new identity by promoting peace not only abroad, but also at home. That means moving away from politics of division and exclusion, and treating every citizen as its own.

No great surprise. Netanyahu talked Trump into the disastrous war in Iran. We cannot allow Israel to continue shaping U.S. military and foreign policy. Next week I will be offering a resolution to stop U.S. military aid to Israel.

I spoke with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam of Lebanon, this evening. I strongly condemned Israel’s ongoing aggression against Lebanon and offered condolences over the loss of thousands of precious lives in Lebanon as a result of these hostilities. I reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to advance peace efforts, including facilitating dialogue through the upcoming Iran–U.S. talks in Islamabad. Grateful to Prime Minister Nawaf Salam who expressed his appreciation for Pakistan’s peace efforts and underscored the need for our continued support in securing an immediate end to the attacks targeting Lebanon and its people.

The Israelis are terrorists. No other word for it.