Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said water was the “lifeblood” of the region and must never be weaponised, as he addressed a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Kyrgyzstan.
Speaking at the SCO Council of Heads of States (CHS) meeting in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, the premier said the region cannot “realise its full potential without lasting peace”.
Without naming India directly, he highlighted the issue of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and demanded that it be…
LAKKI MARWAT: Two terrorists were killed in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district, police said.
Qudratullah Khan, the spokesperson for the district police officer in Lakki Marwat, said in a statement that the operation was jointly conducted by police and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel after receiving “credible information about the presence of Fitna-al-Khawarij terrorists in the mountainous area within the limits of the Lakki City…
Iran will immediately reciprocate if the United States returns to its commitments under an interim deal signed in June, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday.
He made his comments at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek after the first exchange of direct attacks in the US-Iran conflict since late July, with the US striking Larak Island and Iran then launching attacks on two US air bases in Jordan.
“I am stating clearly that if the US returns to its commitments under the…
RAWALPINDI: Heavy rain lashed Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Tuesday morning, inundating low-lying areas, raising the water level in Leh Nullah and prompting the district administration in the garrison city to announce a holiday for educational institutions.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said that the water level in Leh Nullah had risen to 29 feet at Kattarian and 23.5 feet at Gawalmandi.
Evacuation began along Kattarian and Gawalmandi as 200mm of rain was recorded in the catchment…
A terrifying flood tore through the Nepal-China Tibet border region last week, killing more than 1,000 people.
A glacier collapse unleashed a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris through Himalayan mountain river systems, burying buildings and triggering a frantic search for survivors.
Nearly 4,500 people remain missing, and Nepali rescue teams are digging, drilling and blasting through debris in a race against time in treacherous conditions to free scores of hydropower workers believed…
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the maintainability of an appeal filed by Awaam Pakistan against its delisting over allegedly failing to hold intra-party elections.
A four-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja heard the appeal filed by party chief and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who appeared in person.
The electoral watchdog had delisted the party on August 7. It had taken up the…
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday declared petitions challenging the alleged solitary confinement of PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi maintainable and also directed Adiala jail authorities to ensure that neither was kept in solitary confinement.
IHC’s Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro announced the verdict, which had been reserved on Aug 6, and held that the petitions were maintainable in light of the principles laid down in the Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Begum Shamim…
Pakistan’s response to malnutrition often begins with food: supplements, fortified products or therapeutic feeding. Yet, 70 per cent of households are estimated to consume contaminated water, while around 25 million people still practice open defecation.
For a young child, repeated diarrhoea can reduce appetite, cause nutrient loss and damage growth. Malnutrition then weakens immunity, making further infection more likely.
Dr Saba Shahid explains what this cycle does to a child, while Dr Sumair…
Sulaiman, a school teacher in Buner, lives in a pocket of Pakistan hemmed in between Mardan, Swat and Swabi, where life is village and mountain stream and the fame of a valley charming and fertile. Climate ruin was an affliction reserved for places with mighty rivers such as the Swat or the Kunar. It made sense because Buner had none of these. Just sweet little springs trickling softly through the rocks.
That perception was pulverised on August 15, 2025.
It began as the sort of unassuming…
Devastating floods on the China-Nepal border have killed at least 987 people in Nepal, the disaster authority said on Tuesday, taking overall deaths to more than 1,000.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 people were killed in Tibet, bringing the total toll from Wednesday’s disaster to 1,003.
The number of missing in Nepal dropped to 3,916, as rescue efforts entered a seventh day, and the bodies recovered rose. In China, state media say 546 people are missing, taking the overall number of…
United States Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation, the White House confirmed on Monday, following reports of tensions with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Asked about a Wall Street Journal report that Driscoll had resigned, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly did not deny it.
“Driscoll has been highly effective in advancing President Trump’s agenda to Make America Strong Again at the Department of the Army,” Kelly said.
…
WASHINGTON: A large demonstration erupted outside Madison Square Garden this week as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat attended an event billed as a celebration of “Universal Oneness”, with protesters saying the message contradicted the RSS’s Hindu supremacist ideology.
Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Dalit and civil-rights groups converged outside the New York landmark to protest Bhagwat’s appearance, accusing the RSS of promoting a majoritarian vision of India and of being associated with…
HAVING prospered abroad as an unbridled organisation flaunting different names and profiles for decades, the RSS seems to be in trouble in western cities and townships where unusual rage is surfacing at its documented hatred of Muslims and Christians. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s visit to the US and Canada has come at a fraught time in the organisation’s global and domestic trajectory.
The timing of this change in attitude coincides with a youth movement questioning the ideological fundamentals of…
ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the government’s claims about Imran Khan as “misleading, fabricated and incorrect”, PTI leaders on Monday painted a sorry picture of the conditions he endures in prison.
Last week, after an interview with Imran’s sons was broadcast during the Lord’s Test, the Ministry of Information issued a detailed statement, which was released on social media and sent to the foreign press.
It claimed that Imran was “not a person held under executive detention” and that he had been…
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has announced a phased restoration of internet services across the region, with broadband and cellular data services to resume fully in some districts while access will remain restricted to educational institutions and banks in others.
The Home Department, in a notification issued on Sunday, directed the secretary of the Ministry of Interior to initiate restoration of broadband and cellular data services from Monday (Aug 31) according to…
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled that a husband is not entitled to reclaim gold ornaments listed as dower in a Nikahnama (marriage contract) as consideration for Khula (dissolution of marriage) sought by his wife.
Justice Raheel Kamran passed the judgement while disposing of four connected petitions arising from a matrimonial dispute between Dr Rukhsana Kausar and Shahid Nazeer.
Both parties had challenged the findings of a Muzaffargarh sessions court concerning gold ornaments and…
QUETTA: Security forces killed 12 armed attackers following a terrorist attack on a convoy of vehicles from the Reko Diq copper and gold project, in the Chagai area on Monday.
Security officials said a group of armed men attacked the convoy as it was travelling to Quetta from the project site.
According to sources, unidentified attackers tried to intercept the convoy and opened heavy fire on it.
“Around three dozen empty vehicles of the Reko Diq project were…
KARACHI: The Gulf war has curbed the outflow of black money from Pakistan to Dubai, while funds already invested are returning and being diverted into property in the country, according to sources in the property and currency markets.
Thousands of Pakistanis have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Dubai, particularly in property. Pakistan was identified twice as the second-largest foreign investor in Dubai property. It was widely believed that black money created in Pakistan had a safe…
• Only 5,700 non-prohibited-bore arms licences issued in 13 months, Senate body told• Tallal Chaudhry says 60pc of those involved in terrorism incidents in KP and Balochistan were Afghan nationals
ISLAMABAD: The federal government has cut the issuance of non-prohibited-bore arms licences by more than 90 per cent, with only 5,700 licences issued over the past 13 months under strict criteria, the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control was informed on Monday.
Minister of State…
KARACHI: A video clip went viral on social media after a remote-controlled car crashed into a police van in Islamabad, reportedly due to a “technical fault” caused by an internet disruption.
On Sunday, journalist Muhammad Aalijah uploaded a video on his official social media account showing him seated in the front passenger seat of a car at Islamabad’s D-Chowk, which appeared to be operated using a remote-control device.
As Aalijah explains the car’s features and it…
ZHENG’AN: It doesn’t take long to guess the main industry of the Chinese town of Zheng’an. A giant guitar sculpture dominates the central square, guitar murals adorn walls and pavements and even the rubbish bins are shaped like guitars.
This corner of the southwest province of Guizhou produces one in every seven of the instruments sold worldwide. A decade ago, it had no guitar-making industry to speak of at all.
There are hundreds of specialised manufacturing towns in China, producing items…
LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Monday passed the controversial Punjab Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2026, despite objections and a full walkout by opposition lawmakers.
The session saw heated exchanges between government members and the opposition, centred on a debate between Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan and Opposition Leader Moin Riaz Qureshi over the legal and constitutional implications of the new legislation.
Addressing the house, Speaker Khan issued a ruling…
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye have agreed to further institutionalise their cooperation under the Makkah Agreement to strengthen collective deterrence and defence, with the alliance’s secretariat to be initially headed by Pakistan for three years, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Monday.
The decision was taken at the first meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee of the Makkah Agreement, held in Istanbul.
Foreign and defence ministers of the three countries, as well as top…
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced the release of seven Test squad members, including Mohammad Rizwan, Imamul Haq and Salman Ali Agha, during the ongoing series against England.
The cricket board’s decision came after Pakistan suffered a thumping 194-run defeat to England in the second Test at Lord’s.
With the victory, the hosts took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series, after the visitors also suffered an innings-and-103-run thrashing in the first Test at…
PPP Chairman Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari, the man at the centre of engagement and wedding rumours, himself refuted the reports on Monday.
“Social media has gotten my baat pakki, engagement and wedding done. I clarify that nothing as such has taken place; neither do I know any Princess Gloria,” the Bhutto scion said in a video statement.
He added, “If any such decision about my life is made, the announcement will come from my family. Till then, focus on the real issues and ignore the social media…
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on Monday ordered India to uphold the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan and suspend work on a hydro project in occupied Kashmir.
Water and the IWT remain a contentious issue between India and Pakistan, following New Delhi’s unilateral abeyance of the accord in April last year — a move that was followed by a brief military conflict between the two sides in May 2025.
Following India’s move, Pakistan termed any attempt to suspend its water share an…
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday said water was the “lifeblood” of the region and must never be weaponised, as he addressed a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Kyrgyzstan.
Speaking at the SCO Council of Heads of States (CHS) meeting in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, the premier said the region cannot “realise its full potential without lasting peace”.
Without naming India directly, he highlighted the issue of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and demanded that it be…
LAKKI MARWAT: Two terrorists were killed in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district, police said.
Qudratullah Khan, the spokesperson for the district police officer in Lakki Marwat, said in a statement that the operation was jointly conducted by police and Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel after receiving “credible information about the presence of Fitna-al-Khawarij terrorists in the mountainous area within the limits of the Lakki City…
Iran will immediately reciprocate if the United States returns to its commitments under an interim deal signed in June, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday.
He made his comments at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Bishkek after the first exchange of direct attacks in the US-Iran conflict since late July, with the US striking Larak Island and Iran then launching attacks on two US air bases in Jordan.
“I am stating clearly that if the US returns to its commitments under the…
RAWALPINDI: Heavy rain lashed Rawalpindi and Islamabad on Tuesday morning, inundating low-lying areas, raising the water level in Leh Nullah and prompting the district administration in the garrison city to announce a holiday for educational institutions.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said that the water level in Leh Nullah had risen to 29 feet at Kattarian and 23.5 feet at Gawalmandi.
Evacuation began along Kattarian and Gawalmandi as 200mm of rain was recorded in the catchment…
A terrifying flood tore through the Nepal-China Tibet border region last week, killing more than 1,000 people.
A glacier collapse unleashed a huge torrent of rock, ice, mud and debris through Himalayan mountain river systems, burying buildings and triggering a frantic search for survivors.
Nearly 4,500 people remain missing, and Nepali rescue teams are digging, drilling and blasting through debris in a race against time in treacherous conditions to free scores of hydropower workers believed…
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday reserved its verdict on the maintainability of an appeal filed by Awaam Pakistan against its delisting over allegedly failing to hold intra-party elections.
A four-member bench headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja heard the appeal filed by party chief and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who appeared in person.
The electoral watchdog had delisted the party on August 7. It had taken up the…
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday declared petitions challenging the alleged solitary confinement of PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi maintainable and also directed Adiala jail authorities to ensure that neither was kept in solitary confinement.
IHC’s Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro announced the verdict, which had been reserved on Aug 6, and held that the petitions were maintainable in light of the principles laid down in the Begum Nusrat Bhutto and Begum Shamim…
Pakistan’s response to malnutrition often begins with food: supplements, fortified products or therapeutic feeding. Yet, 70 per cent of households are estimated to consume contaminated water, while around 25 million people still practice open defecation.
For a young child, repeated diarrhoea can reduce appetite, cause nutrient loss and damage growth. Malnutrition then weakens immunity, making further infection more likely.
Dr Saba Shahid explains what this cycle does to a child, while Dr Sumair…
Sulaiman, a school teacher in Buner, lives in a pocket of Pakistan hemmed in between Mardan, Swat and Swabi, where life is village and mountain stream and the fame of a valley charming and fertile. Climate ruin was an affliction reserved for places with mighty rivers such as the Swat or the Kunar. It made sense because Buner had none of these. Just sweet little springs trickling softly through the rocks.
That perception was pulverised on August 15, 2025.
It began as the sort of unassuming…
Devastating floods on the China-Nepal border have killed at least 987 people in Nepal, the disaster authority said on Tuesday, taking overall deaths to more than 1,000.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 people were killed in Tibet, bringing the total toll from Wednesday’s disaster to 1,003.
The number of missing in Nepal dropped to 3,916, as rescue efforts entered a seventh day, and the bodies recovered rose. In China, state media say 546 people are missing, taking the overall number of…
United States Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation, the White House confirmed on Monday, following reports of tensions with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Asked about a Wall Street Journal report that Driscoll had resigned, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly did not deny it.
“Driscoll has been highly effective in advancing President Trump’s agenda to Make America Strong Again at the Department of the Army,” Kelly said.
…
WASHINGTON: A large demonstration erupted outside Madison Square Garden this week as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat attended an event billed as a celebration of “Universal Oneness”, with protesters saying the message contradicted the RSS’s Hindu supremacist ideology.
Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Dalit and civil-rights groups converged outside the New York landmark to protest Bhagwat’s appearance, accusing the RSS of promoting a majoritarian vision of India and of being associated with…
HAVING prospered abroad as an unbridled organisation flaunting different names and profiles for decades, the RSS seems to be in trouble in western cities and townships where unusual rage is surfacing at its documented hatred of Muslims and Christians. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s visit to the US and Canada has come at a fraught time in the organisation’s global and domestic trajectory.
The timing of this change in attitude coincides with a youth movement questioning the ideological fundamentals of…
ISLAMABAD: Rejecting the government’s claims about Imran Khan as “misleading, fabricated and incorrect”, PTI leaders on Monday painted a sorry picture of the conditions he endures in prison.
Last week, after an interview with Imran’s sons was broadcast during the Lord’s Test, the Ministry of Information issued a detailed statement, which was released on social media and sent to the foreign press.
It claimed that Imran was “not a person held under executive detention” and that he had been…
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has announced a phased restoration of internet services across the region, with broadband and cellular data services to resume fully in some districts while access will remain restricted to educational institutions and banks in others.
The Home Department, in a notification issued on Sunday, directed the secretary of the Ministry of Interior to initiate restoration of broadband and cellular data services from Monday (Aug 31) according to…
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ruled that a husband is not entitled to reclaim gold ornaments listed as dower in a Nikahnama (marriage contract) as consideration for Khula (dissolution of marriage) sought by his wife.
Justice Raheel Kamran passed the judgement while disposing of four connected petitions arising from a matrimonial dispute between Dr Rukhsana Kausar and Shahid Nazeer.
Both parties had challenged the findings of a Muzaffargarh sessions court concerning gold ornaments and…
QUETTA: Security forces killed 12 armed attackers following a terrorist attack on a convoy of vehicles from the Reko Diq copper and gold project, in the Chagai area on Monday.
Security officials said a group of armed men attacked the convoy as it was travelling to Quetta from the project site.
According to sources, unidentified attackers tried to intercept the convoy and opened heavy fire on it.
“Around three dozen empty vehicles of the Reko Diq project were…
KARACHI: The Gulf war has curbed the outflow of black money from Pakistan to Dubai, while funds already invested are returning and being diverted into property in the country, according to sources in the property and currency markets.
Thousands of Pakistanis have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Dubai, particularly in property. Pakistan was identified twice as the second-largest foreign investor in Dubai property. It was widely believed that black money created in Pakistan had a safe…
• Only 5,700 non-prohibited-bore arms licences issued in 13 months, Senate body told• Tallal Chaudhry says 60pc of those involved in terrorism incidents in KP and Balochistan were Afghan nationals
ISLAMABAD: The federal government has cut the issuance of non-prohibited-bore arms licences by more than 90 per cent, with only 5,700 licences issued over the past 13 months under strict criteria, the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control was informed on Monday.
Minister of State…
KARACHI: A video clip went viral on social media after a remote-controlled car crashed into a police van in Islamabad, reportedly due to a “technical fault” caused by an internet disruption.
On Sunday, journalist Muhammad Aalijah uploaded a video on his official social media account showing him seated in the front passenger seat of a car at Islamabad’s D-Chowk, which appeared to be operated using a remote-control device.
As Aalijah explains the car’s features and it…
ZHENG’AN: It doesn’t take long to guess the main industry of the Chinese town of Zheng’an. A giant guitar sculpture dominates the central square, guitar murals adorn walls and pavements and even the rubbish bins are shaped like guitars.
This corner of the southwest province of Guizhou produces one in every seven of the instruments sold worldwide. A decade ago, it had no guitar-making industry to speak of at all.
There are hundreds of specialised manufacturing towns in China, producing items…
LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly on Monday passed the controversial Punjab Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill, 2026, despite objections and a full walkout by opposition lawmakers.
The session saw heated exchanges between government members and the opposition, centred on a debate between Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan and Opposition Leader Moin Riaz Qureshi over the legal and constitutional implications of the new legislation.
Addressing the house, Speaker Khan issued a ruling…
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye have agreed to further institutionalise their cooperation under the Makkah Agreement to strengthen collective deterrence and defence, with the alliance’s secretariat to be initially headed by Pakistan for three years, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Monday.
The decision was taken at the first meeting of the Strategic Political and Defence Committee of the Makkah Agreement, held in Istanbul.
Foreign and defence ministers of the three countries, as well as top…
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Monday announced the release of seven Test squad members, including Mohammad Rizwan, Imamul Haq and Salman Ali Agha, during the ongoing series against England.
The cricket board’s decision came after Pakistan suffered a thumping 194-run defeat to England in the second Test at Lord’s.
With the victory, the hosts took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series, after the visitors also suffered an innings-and-103-run thrashing in the first Test at…
PPP Chairman Bilawal-Bhutto Zardari, the man at the centre of engagement and wedding rumours, himself refuted the reports on Monday.
“Social media has gotten my baat pakki, engagement and wedding done. I clarify that nothing as such has taken place; neither do I know any Princess Gloria,” the Bhutto scion said in a video statement.
He added, “If any such decision about my life is made, the announcement will come from my family. Till then, focus on the real issues and ignore the social media…
The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on Monday ordered India to uphold the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan and suspend work on a hydro project in occupied Kashmir.
Water and the IWT remain a contentious issue between India and Pakistan, following New Delhi’s unilateral abeyance of the accord in April last year — a move that was followed by a brief military conflict between the two sides in May 2025.
Following India’s move, Pakistan termed any attempt to suspend its water share an…