Saima Asghar

Pakistani

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@Khaqanabbasifan What a silly comparison! Of course the one and only IK

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@ImranRiazKhan 1

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@CMShehbaz Why don’t you name who has violated the ceasefire?

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

Language matters

[Hamdan bin Mohammed @HamdanMohammed]

Mothers are the first school for their children, the place where children learn belonging, responsibility and the values that shape strong nations.
Today, to mark Mother’s Day, we have directed the Community Development Authority to adopt the title “Generation Shaper” instead of “housewife”, in recognition of a role that no words or titles can truly capture.
To all our mothers… Thank you. You are the foundation of everything good. Happy Mother’s Day.

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@EmiratesSupport @emirates I’m booked on ek031 to London on 8th March. My ticket and emirates app show the departure time as 1210 but website shows it as 11:15.

What’s the departure time and by what time should I arrive at the airport?

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@CMShehbaz have you withdrawn the nomination yet?

#NobelPrize

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@Azeem_Sabzvari @BhuttoZulfikar What does his sect have to do with it?

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@IsbUnited Imran khan

[Jibran Ilyas @agentjay2009]

May Imran Khan get justice today in Court!

Demand is to shift Imran Khan to Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad with full visiting rights to family and personal doctors. Other cases shall be heard soon to for his complete release from jail.

#MedicalUrgencyForImranKhan

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@DavidJHarrisJr So you’re saying the Shah was democratically elected? 😂

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@BakhtawarBZ What a stupid tweet.

[Daniyal @khand154]

Half a day has passed since confirmation of the assassination of Ayatullah Khamenei, and not a word about it from @CMShehbaz or @GovtofPakistan.

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I am a diplomatic aide in the Sultanate of Oman's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

My job is logistics. When two countries that cannot speak to each other need to speak to each other, I book the rooms. I prepare the briefing materials. I make sure the water glasses are the right distance apart. You would be surprised how much of diplomacy is water glasses. Too close and it feels informal. Too far and it feels like a tribunal. I have a chart.

We had a very good month.

Since January, Oman has been mediating indirect talks between the United States and Iran on Iran's nuclear program. The talks were held in Muscat and in Geneva. The Americans would sit in one room. The Iranians would sit in another room. I would walk between them. My Fitbit says I averaged fourteen thousand steps on negotiation days. The hallway between the two rooms at the Royal Opera House conference center is forty-seven meters. I walked it two hundred and twelve times in February. This is good for my cardiovascular health. It was less good for my knees. Both are in the service of peace.

By mid-February, we had something.

Iran agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium. Not reduced stockpiling. Zero. They agreed to down-blend existing stockpiles to the lowest possible level. They agreed to convert them into irreversible fuel. They agreed to full IAEA verification with potential US inspector access. They agreed, in the Foreign Minister's phrase, to "never, ever" possess nuclear material for a bomb. I have worked in diplomacy for seven years. I have never seen a country agree to this many things this quickly. I made a spreadsheet of the concessions. It had fourteen rows. I color-coded it. Green for confirmed. Yellow for pending. By February 21 the spreadsheet was entirely green. I printed it. It is on my desk in Muscat. It is still green.

That phrase took eleven days. "Never, ever." The Iranians initially offered "not seek to." The Americans wanted "will not under any circumstances." We landed on "never, ever" at 2:14 AM on a Tuesday in Muscat. I typed the final version myself. I used Times New Roman because Geneva prefers it. The document was fourteen pages. I was proud of every comma.

Here is what they said, in the order they said it.

February 24: "We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity." — The Foreign Minister, private briefing to Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors. I prepared the slide deck. Slide 14 was the implementation timeline. Slide 15 was the signing ceremony logistics. I had reserved the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Room XX. It seats four hundred. We discussed pen brands for the signing. The Iranians preferred Montblanc. The Americans had no preference. I ordered twelve Montblanc Meisterstucks at six hundred and thirty dollars each. They arrive on Tuesday.

February 27, 8:30 AM EST: "The deal is within our reach." — The Foreign Minister, CBS Face the Nation. He sat across from Margaret Brennan. He said broad political terms could be agreed "tomorrow" with ninety days for technical implementation in Vienna. He said, and I wrote this line for the briefing card he carried in his breast pocket: "If we just allow diplomacy the space it needs." He praised the American envoys by name. Steve Witkoff. Jared Kushner. He said both had been constructive.

I watched from the Four Seasons Georgetown. The minibar had cashews. I ate the cashews. They were nineteen dollars. The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten. But it was a good morning and we were within our reach.

February 27, 2:00 PM EST: Meeting with Vice President Vance, Washington. The Foreign Minister presented our progress. Zero stockpiling. Full verification. Irreversible conversion. "Never, ever." The Vice President used the word "encouraging." His aide took notes on an iPad. The aide did not make eye contact for the last nine minutes of the meeting. I noticed this. Noticing things is the only part of my job that is not water glasses.

February 27, 4:00 PM EST: "Not happy with the pace." — President Trump, to reporters.

Not happy with the pace.

We had achieved zero stockpiling. Full IAEA verification. Irreversible fuel conversion. Inspector access. And the phrase "never, ever," which took eleven days and cost me two hundred and twelve trips down a forty-seven-meter hallway.

Every American president since Carter has failed to get Iran to agree to this. Forty-five years.

Not happy with the pace.

February 27, 9:47 PM EST: The Foreign Minister's flight departs Dulles for Muscat. I am in the seat behind him. He is reviewing Slide 14 on his laptop. The implementation timeline. Vienna technical sessions. The signing ceremony. The pens.

I fall asleep over the Atlantic. I dream about water glasses.

February 28, 6:00 AM GST: I wake up to push notifications.

February 28: "The United States has begun major combat operations in Iran." — President Trump.

Operation Epic Fury. Coordinated airstrikes. The United States and Israel. Tehran. Isfahan. Qom. Karaj. Kermanshah. Nuclear facilities. IRGC bases. Sites near the Supreme Leader's office. Israel called their half Operation Roaring Lion. Someone in both governments spent time choosing these names. Epic Fury. Roaring Lion. I spent eleven days on "never, ever." They spent it on branding. The President said Iran had "rejected American calls to halt its nuclear weapons production."

Rejected.

Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling. Iran had agreed to full verification. Iran had agreed to "never, ever." Iran had agreed to everything in a fourteen-page document that I typed in Times New Roman.

The President said they rejected it.

I do not know which document the President was reading. I know which one I typed.

February 28, 18:45 UTC: Iran internet connectivity: four percent. — NetBlocks, confirmed by Cloudflare. Ninety-six percent of a country went dark. You cannot negotiate with a country at four percent connectivity. You cannot negotiate with a country that is being struck. You cannot negotiate. This is not a political opinion. This is a logistics assessment.

February 28: The governor of Minab reported forty girls killed at an elementary school.

I do not have logistics for that. There is no slide for that. The water glass chart does not cover that.

February 28: Lockheed Martin: up. Northrop Grumman: up. RTX: up. Dow futures: down six hundred and twenty-two points. Gold: five thousand two hundred and ninety-six dollars. An analyst at AInvest published a note titled "Iran Strikes: Tactical Plays." The note recommended positions in oil, defense stocks, and gold.

The most expensive cashew I have ever eaten was nineteen dollars. The most expensive pen I have ever ordered was six hundred and thirty dollars. The math suggests I have been working in the wrong industry. Defense stocks do not require water glasses. Defense stocks do not require eleven days. Defense stocks require one morning.

February 28: Israel closed its airspace and its schools. Iran launched retaliatory missiles toward US bases in the Gulf. The Supreme Leader promised a "crushing response." Israel's defense minister declared a permanent state of emergency. Everyone is using words I recognize in an order I do not. I recognize "permanent." I recognize "emergency." I do not recognize them next to each other. In diplomacy, nothing is permanent and everything is an emergency. In war it is the reverse.

February 28: The Foreign Minister has not made a public statement.

The briefing card is still in his breast pocket. It still says "within our reach."

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

Professional development

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@RebelByThought So she is accusing Mohsin naqvi and Shahbaz sharif?

[Waqas @worqas]

PIA was NOT sold for PKR 135 bn. This is the first part of the scam theyre pulling on you. Read carefully and understand the terms.

There are three distinct concepts that they're intentionally combining to fool you:

A. Equity Purchase Price
This is the money paid to the seller (here, the Government of Pakistan) in exchange for ownership.
➡️ In this deal: PKR 10bn
This is the actual sale price.

B. Capital Injection / Investment Commitment
This is money the buyer promises to inject into the company after acquisition to:
-pay down debt
-recapitalize
-buy aircraft
-fund operations

➡️ In this deal: PKR 125bn
This money does not go to the government. It goes into PIA itself, which the buyer now owns.

C. Total Transaction Headline Value
This is what theyre announcing as sale price: “Transaction valued at PKR 135bn”
This is a headline figure, NOT a sale price.

Is this normal? Are sale prices usually quoted this way?
NO! Not without explicit clarification

In credible privatizations, the convention is:
“Equity purchase price” → clearly stated
“Committed capex / investment” → stated separately
Sometimes combined only as a headline, but always itemized

Proper disclosure example (OECD / IMF standard):
“The buyer will acquire 51% of the airline for PKR 10bn, and has committed to invest PKR 125bn in capital expenditures over X years.”

Saying:
“PIA sold for PKR 135bn”

Is fraudulent and intentionally deceptive.

Can an acquiring company’s investment in its own subsidiary ever be counted as sale price?
NEVER!

Here’s why:
Once the buyer owns the company, money invested belongs to the buyer.
It raises enterprise value, not seller proceeds.
It does not compensate the seller for past losses or assets.

So let us be very clear in our reporting. PIA was sold for PKR 10bn.
And this is only the first part of the scam.

[omar r quraishi @omar_quraishi]

Justice Muhammad Asif was elevated as Additional Judge of the High Court of Balochistan on 20th January 2025. Justice Muhammad Asif was Transferred to Islamabad High Court as Judge on 1st February, 2025.

His teenaged son Abuzar ran over two girls in Islamabad last week and within days he was forgiven by the victims families and released

Justice is served

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@AzmaBokhariPMLN Will she talk about the hundreds of animals her government buried alive in Lahore?

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@pmln_org Have they announced this?

[Saima Asghar @SamyAsghar]

@cyalm He kissed ass