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Blasts near Pakistan candidates’ offices kill 26 on election eve

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Two explosions near electoral candidates' offices in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan killed 26 people and wounded dozens on Wednesday, officials said, raising concerns over security on the eve of a general election, Reuters reported.

Pakistan goes to the polls on Thursday amid rising militant attacks and the jailing of Imran Khan, the winner of the last national election, who has been dominating the headlines despite an economic crisis and other woes threatening the nuclear-armed country.

Authorities have said they are boosting security at polling booths.

The first attack, which killed 14 people, took place at the office of an independent election candidate in Pishin district.

The second explosion in Qilla Saifullah, near the Afghan border, detonated near an office of Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), a religious party that has previously been the target of militant attacks, according to the province's information minister.

The deputy commissioner of Qilla Saifullah, Yasir Bazai, said that 12 people were killed and 25 wounded by a device planted on motorcycle parked near the office, read the report.

Daesh claimed responsibility for the two blasts in a message on its Telegram channel on Wednesday.

Several other groups, including the Islamist militant Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and separatist groups from Balochistan, oppose the Pakistani state and have also carried out attacks in recent months.

A TTP spokesman claimed an attack on Monday that killed 10 people at a police station in northwest Pakistan. The TTP has said it was targeting police and security officials rather than electoral candidates.

Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement its western border crossings with Iran and Afghanistan would close and re-open on Friday to ensure security during the election, Reuters reported.

Khanzai hospital, close to the site of the explosion in Pishin on Wednesday, put the death toll at 14 and said more than two dozen were wounded. The deputy commissioner of Pishin district, Jumma Dad Khan, said that the blast had wounded many people.

"I'm appalled by today's terrorist attacks and condemn those seeking to prevent people from voting," British High Commissioner to Pakistan Jane Marriott said.

The attacks came as political parties wrapped up their campaigning in the quiet period mandated by electoral rules the day before the election.

Khan, in a message from jail, earlier urged his supporters to wait outside polling booths after casting their votes, as rival political parties held large rallies to mark the end of the election campaign period.

Any large-scale gathering of Khan's supporters near booths could raise tensions because of what they call a military-backed crackdown on him and his party that has restricted campaigning. The military denies interfering in politics.

"Encourage the maximum number of people to vote, wait at the polling station ... and then stay peacefully outside the Returning Officer's office until the final results are announced," said Khan on social media platform X, accompanied by an undated photograph depicting him wearing simple black clothing.

His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party also released a video of Khan recorded just days before he was arrested in August, calling on people to turn out to vote.

Kasim Khan, Khan's son with British journalist Jemima Goldsmith, in a post on X called on people to vote with an image of him and his brother holding a PTI flag. A PTI official confirmed the account belonged to Kasim Khan, a rare social media post from Imran Khan's children who have previously stayed out of the public eye.

Electoral frontrunner Nawaz Sharif led a huge rally in the eastern city of Kasur with his brother, former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is running in that constituency.

Amid a sea of tens of thousands of supporters waving green party flags, Sharif, also a former prime minister, called on the country's youth to support his party and took aim at Khan who has previously attracted support from young voters in the area.

"Don't fall for him," Sharif said.

Supporters of the rival Pakistan People's Party also gathered in the southern city of Larkana led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who could play kingmaker if no single party receives enough parliamentary seats to form a government outright.

The former foreign minister and son of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto criticised opponents, including Sharif, for what he described as compromising the country's security and economy during their tenures, Reuters reported.

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Gunmen attack Pakistan passenger vehicles, killing at least 38 people

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Gunmen opened fire on passenger vehicles in a tribal area in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 38 people and wounding 29, the chief secretary of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, said.

Reuters reported that among the fatalities in the attack, which occurred in the Kurram tribal district, were a woman and a child, Chaudhry said, adding: “It’s a major tragedy and death toll is likely to rise."

No group claimed responsibility for the incident.

"There were two convoys of passenger vehicles, one carrying passengers from Peshawar to Parachinar and another from Parachinar to Peshawar, when armed men opened fire on them,” a local resident of Parachinar, Ziarat Hussain told Reuters by telephone, adding that his relatives were travelling from Peshawar in the convoy.

President Asif Ali Zardari, in a statement, strongly condemned the attack on passenger vehicles.

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Pakistan’s ex-PM Imran Khan gets bail in state gifts case, his party says

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A court in Pakistan granted bail to jailed former prime minister Imran Khan in a case relating to the illegal sale of state gifts, his party said on Wednesday.

Khan, 71, has been in prison since August 2023, but it was not immediately clear if the embattled politician would be released given that he faces a number of other charges too, including inciting violence against the state, Reuters reported.

"If the official order is received today, his family and supporters will approach the authorities for his release," one of his party's lawyers, Salman Safdar, told journalists. Safdar added that, as far as he knew, Khan had been granted bail or acquitted in all the cases he faced.

However, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, told Geo TV Khan lacked bail in cases in which he is charged with planning riots by his supporters in the wake of his arrest in May last year.

Khan denies any wrongdoing, and alleges all the cases registered against him since he was removed from power in 2022 are politically motivated to keep him in jail.

The case in which he was granted bail on Wednesday by the Islamabad High Court is known as the Toshakhana, or state treasury case.

It has multiple versions and charges all revolving around allegations that Khan and his wife illegally procured and then sold gifts worth over 140 million rupees ($501,000) in state possession, which he received during his 2018-22 premiership.

Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were both handed a 14-year sentence on those charges, following a three-year sentence handed to him in late 2023 in another version of the same case.

Their sentences have been suspended in appeals at the high court.

The gifts included diamond jewellery and seven watches, six of them Rolexes - the most expensive being valued at 85 million rupees ($305,000).

Khan's wife was released last month after being in the same prison as Khan for months.

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Iran keeping ‘door open’ to talks with Trump

Iran’s deputy foreign minister said that coercion and intimidation would prove ineffective in the long-running stand-off between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear programme

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Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs says Tehran has kept the door open to negotiations with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, while warning the US that any attempt to reimpose “maximum pressure” on the country would fail to extract concessions.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Takht-Ravanchi said that coercion and intimidation would prove ineffective in the long-running stand-off between Iran and the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.

“As for negotiations, we need to observe US policy and decide how to respond accordingly,” Takht-Ravanchi said.

“Right now, the key question is how the new administration will approach Iran, the nuclear issue, regional security and the Middle East. It’s premature to speculate about specific outcomes.”

Takht-Ravanchi said the nuclear deal reached with the West in 2015, from which Trump later withdrew the US, “could still serve as a foundation and be updated to reflect new realities”, adding that “if the other parties return to their commitments, we have repeatedly said that we are willing to do the same”.

He added: “We do favour negotiations, as we proved [with that deal] . . . But who sabotaged the negotiations previously? It was the Trump administration who was unwilling to negotiate.”

At the same time, the veteran diplomat and former nuclear negotiator warned that if Trump again takes a tough approach, “maximum pressure will be met with maximum resistance”.

“We will continue to work around sanctions, diversify our trade partners and strengthen regional relations to maintain calm,” he added.

During his first term as US president, Donald Trump sparked a nuclear stand-off with Iran after he abandoned the 2015 accord, known as the JCPOA, that Tehran had signed with world powers, and imposed waves of sanctions on the Islamic republic in what he called a “maximum pressure” campaign.

He accused Tehran of violating the “spirit” of the agreement by funneling newfound revenue to support its regional proxies, notably Lebanon’s Hezbollah. 

In retaliation, Iran dramatically expanded its nuclear activities, and is enriching uranium near to weapons-grade despite insisting its programme is for civilian purposes, Financial Times reported.

People familiar with Trump’s thinking have told the Financial Times his administration would try to “bankrupt” Iran to force the republic into talks.

The regional and nuclear crises have stoked fears in Tehran that Trump will once again try to drive Iran’s oil exports — its vital source of hard currency — to zero. In recent years Iran has substantially increased oil sales, mainly to China.

Takht-Ravanchi sought to downplay the potential for tighter oil sanctions under a second Trump presidency.

“While developments may occur, they won’t lead to significant changes,” he said, adding: “If the Trump administration decides to pursue the maximum pressure policy in the oil market again, it will surely fail. In today’s world, no single country can dictate terms to the entire international community.”

For now, he said, “We hope he doesn’t repeat the same mistake because the outcome will be no different.”

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