Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received a ceremonial fighter jet escort from the Qatari air force as his aircraft entered Qatari airspace en route to Doha, marking a significant gesture of diplomatic goodwill and strong bilateral ties.

The escort was arranged as part of a warm welcome during the second leg of the prime minister’s tri-nation visit from April 15 to 18, which comes at a time of heightened Middle East tensions and ongoing diplomatic efforts to help de-escalate the US-Iran conflict.

Upon arrival, the prime minister thanked the Qatari leadership and the pilots for the honour.

During the flight, PM Shehbaz expressed gratitude, saying he was “honoured” by the escort and thanked Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for the gesture.

He said the honour extended not only to him but also to the people and government of Pakistan.

Upon arrival at Doha International Airport, the prime minister and his delegation were warmly received by Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi. A smartly turned-out contingent of the Qatari Armed Forces presented a guard of honour, underscoring the significance of the visit.

In a gesture marking the occasion, Pakistani flags were displayed prominently at the airport and across parts of the Qatari capital, reflecting the close and friendly ties between the two countries.

Senior members of the Pakistani delegation accompanying the prime minister include Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Tariq Fatemi, and the prime minister’s spokesperson for international media, Mosharraf Zaidi.

The prime minister will also travel to Turkiye following his visit to Qatar, the Foreign Office said, adding that PM Shehbaz will participate in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, where he is scheduled to join the Leaders’ Panel alongside other global figures and present Pakistan’s perspective.

It added that the visits to Saudi Arabia and Qatar take place in a bilateral context, where the prime minister will discuss ongoing cooperation as well as regional peace and security.

Indian government launched a bid to overhaul its democratic system on Thursday, with bills to increase the size of parliament and bring forward plans to reserve a third of seats for women — though the opposition dismissed it as an attempt to manipulate elections.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the lower house of parliament the proposals — which would also increase the number of legislators and women in regional assemblies and redraw constituencies — would move India in a “new direction”.

“I believe that (women’s) voice in this house will bring new strength, fresh thinking, and a greater sense of sensitivity,” he said.

The government said the alterations to boundaries reflected population changes since seats were last fixed after a 1971 census.

Opposition says boundaries move unconstitutional 

Modi’s National Democratic Alliance government does not have the two-thirds majority it needs to get the measures through both houses of parliament and is hoping to convince some smaller parties and opposition groups to back the bills.

Larger opposition groups said they supported quotas for women, but accused the government of seeking to manipulate the system to get more votes, and said they would oppose the changes when parliament votes on them this week.

“The government should simplify women’s reservation so that it comes into effect immediately upon the passage of the law,” the Congress party, which leads the main opposition alliance, said in a post on X.

The bills would increase the number of lawmakers in the lower house of parliament by around 55% to 850 — and make similar increases to state legislatures — by the time of the next parliamentary elections due in 2029.

The bills would reserve one-third of seats for women in the expanded assemblies by the same date. The one-third share was agreed in legislation passed in 2023, but that was linked to the next census which would take the changes beyond the next election.

The changes also need to be ratified by at least half the state legislatures before they can become law.

India’s parliament currently does not reserve any seats for women, who make up nearly half of its 968 million voters but constitute only 14% of the lawmakers in the lower house and 17% in the upper house.

About 10% of the lawmakers in the country’s state legislatures are women.

Fourteen-year-old Fadel al-Naji used to be a keen footballer but is now largely confined to his home in Gaza City since both legs were severed in an Israeli drone attack in September.

He sits sullenly on a couch with one hollow pant leg dangling and the other tucked into his waist beside his 11-year-old brother who lost an eye in the same strike.

“He has become withdrawn and isolated,” said his mother Najwa al-Naji, showing old videos of him doing kick-ups on her phone. “It is as if he is dying slowly, and I wish that they would fit him with prosthetic limbs.”

But those are in scarce supply for Gaza’s nearly 5,000 war amputees – a quarter of whom are children like al-Naji – because of Israeli restrictions on materials like plaster of Paris, seven aid and medical sources told Reuters.

Israel, which fought a two-year war with Hamas fighters in the Palestinian enclave, cites security concerns as the reason for restrictions.

Taken together with Gaza’s pre-war amputee population provided by Palestinian health officials, its per capita amputee rate now exceeds even Cambodia, which had been the worst due to landmines, aid group Humanity & Inclusion said.

Such is the need that two medical centres said they were trying to reuse old prosthetic limbs recovered from people killed in the war. Others are creating makeshift artificial limbs with plastic piping or wooden planks, medics said, though this risks damaging the stump or causing infection.

Unfulfilled promise

Gaza’s amputees are a symbol of unfulfilled pledges from the October ceasefire and US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan envisaging full aid “without interference”.

It also foresaw the reopening of the Rafah border crossing – Gaza’s sole route out to Egypt – but medical evacuations including for amputees have been irregular.

Israel restricts imports of items it says have potential military as well as civilian use under a policy pre-dating the two-year war. While plaster of Paris and other plastic components for prostheses are not specified on Israeli lists of so-called dual use items, “construction products” are there, an Israeli export control document showed.

Israel’s COGAT military agency, which controls access to Gaza, says it facilitates the regular entry of medical equipment but will not permit materials that could be used by Hamas for a “terrorist build-up”.

Responding to questions about prostheses, COGAT said it is in dialogue with the UN and other aid groups to identify ways to enable an adequate medical response.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which supports the Artificial Limbs and Polio Centre in Gaza, the main centre for prosthetics, said imports of plaster of Paris have been almost completely restricted for over four months with supplies left only to June or July.

“What we are producing now are very small quantities compared to the actual need,” said Hosni Mhana, the centre’s spokesperson, without giving numbers.

The Qatari-funded Sheikh Hamad Hospital said no supplies have been received during the war and that it has run out. It can now only offer maintenance on existing prostheses. “There are no local alternatives for prosthetic manufacturing materials,” said the hospital’s General Director Ahmed Naim.

Humanity & Inclusion, which has fit 118 temporary prostheses in Gaza since early 2025, said supplies from its last shipment in December 2024 are dwindling.

The Trump-led Board of Peace, which has sought to boost aid for Gaza, said it took very seriously the hardships of amputees and other patients in Gaza.

“These are urgent civilian needs,” it said in a statement to Reuters, noting that the ceasefire obligations included the sustained flow of humanitarian, commercial and medical supplies.

Restrictions and delays are raised with the relevant authorities, it added. “We have significant guarantees and commitments that these restrictions will be eased and eliminated as armed parties agree to decommission their weapons and hand over authority to a Palestinian technocratic government in Gaza.”

Prolonged trauma

Artificial limbs cannot be imported whole into Gaza since they are built for each patient, with plaster used to take an exact cast of the residual limb to shape a custom-made socket.

Reuters interviewed three other Gaza amputees all struggling to resume their pre-war lives without prostheses.

Some of the amputees are on a waiting list and may have undergone preparatory work, which can include stump revisions, a form of surgery to hone its shape.

One on the list is Hazem Foura, a 40-year-old former office worker unable to work since losing his left leg above the knee in December 2024 when he says Israel bombed his house.

“I am not asking for the luxuries of life, I am asking for a limb so I can regain my humanity,” he said.

Lack of prostheses severely disrupts recovery and prolongs trauma for amputees, many of whom might have avoided limb loss had more specialist surgeons been available.

It also puts them in greater danger from ongoing Israeli attacks, which have killed 750 Palestinians since the ceasefire, Palestinian health officials say.

Israeli restrictions on items like wheelchairs have eased since the ceasefire, the ICRC and the UN children’s agency said, but medics said manoeuvring around Gaza’s rubble-strewn roads remains a challenge.

As well as materials, expertise is lacking, with only eight prosthetists still in Gaza, according to the World Health Organisation. Follow-up care for children is especially tough, medics said, since they need regular refittings as they grow.

“The amputation itself is not just a lost limb, it’s lost hope, it’s lost independence,” said Heba Bashir, prosthetic and orthotic technical officer for Humanity & Inclusion. “For the kids, it means losing their future.”