Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Sunday that the talks between the federal government and the opposition had collapsed as the PTI had initiated its long march, accusing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi of “sabotaging” the negotiations.
Naqvi was addressing a press conference in Islamabad hours after an hours-long second round of talks between the two sides ended without yielding any results.
He also warned that no one would be allowed to violate the Islamabad High Court’s…
PESHAWAR/LAKKI MARWAT/DI KHAN: PTI workers and supporters, led by former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, set out from Dera Ismail Khan on Sunday for the party’s long march, which is being carried out to demand the release of jailed party founder and ex-prime minister Imran Khan.
Meanwhile, the caravan led by incumbent KP CM Sohail Afridi has yet to begin its trek from Lakki Marwat.
Before departing from DI Khan, Gandapur stressed that the protest should remain peaceful and…
Security forces killed eight terrorists during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan, security sources said on Sunday, according to state-run Radio Pakistan.
The terrorists were identified as those belonging to Fitna-al-Khawarij — a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan — the Radio Pakistan report said.
Security sources said that three key terrorist commanders were among those killed and foreign currency…
Yemen’s government forces said Sunday they had struck Houthi targets around the country, deepening the conflict ravaging one of the world’s poorest nations and the wider region.
The armed forces launched strikes against the Houthis in the capital Sanaa, the northwestern governorate of Saada — one of the group’s strongholds — and Taiz in the southwest, military spokesman Colonel Majid al-Nuzaili said.
Yemen was plunged back into civil war in July after years of calm, pitting the Iran-backed…
The four Pakistanis who were injured during a security operation to recover a hijacked oil tanker off the coast of Somalia, along with the remains of three others who lost their lives in the episode, have departed Addis Ababa and are expected to reach Karachi Sunday evening.
“Pakistan’s ambassadors to Djibouti and Ethiopia saw off the four injured Pakistani crew members of MT Honour 25, Usman Ghani, Aqeel Khan, Ameen bin Shams and Yasir Khan, along with the mortal remains of Rafi Ullah Khan,…
ISLAMABAD: Robbers and burglars stole cash and valuables worth over Rs34 million in eight incidents in the capital, police said.
In the first incident, burglars stole priceless heirlooms and antiques belonging to the family of the Nawab of Bahawalpur, worth Rs20 million, from the house of Prince Bahawal Abbas Khan Abbasi, son of Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi, in F-8/3.
Police registered a case under Sections 454 and 380 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The incident came to light when the family…
BACKA TOPOLA: The Republic of Ireland’s press conference on Saturday on the eve of their second Nations League match against Israel in Serbia was cut short as head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson fielded questions from Israeli journalists.
Ireland beat Israel 3-0 in Hungary in their first match on Tuesday following a turbulent build-up in which the Irish squad voted to fulfil the fixture despite unease amongst the team over the war in Gaza.
During that match the Irish players wore armbands and…
LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways (PR) has decided to outsource 13 express passenger trains, including Pak Business, and directed its officers to complete the process by December this year.
The department has also accelerated efforts to make all faulty (dummy) wagons fit for operation while taking action against the vendors who failed to supply parts on time.
“It is the vision of the prime minister as well as mine to make all-out efforts to maintain the railway infrastructure for safe train…
WITNESSES testified that a senior banker sketched private parts on the glass of his desk, asked a woman colleague to name them, and threatened to tear off her clothes if she wore a particular outfit again. Another officer made indecent remarks about her attire before colleagues. The ombudsperson found the charges proved; the Islamabad High Court agreed.
On Sept 16, the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) set that judgement aside without substantively engaging with this evidence or the high…
IT is difficult to imagine a single small gesture reducing decades-old hostility between two archrivals. Yet, such a moment was witnessed recently when Alok Dimri, India’s national coordinator for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, visited Islamabad for a meeting. Talking to the state media, he said he was happy to be in Pakistan. It was a simple statement, but perhaps one that may ease some of the cross-border bitterness.
Mr Dimri said this while visiting the National Council of Arts in…
IT appears that escalation is on the cards where the Houthi-Saudi and US-Iran conflicts are concerned. As per reports, Riyadh is planning an offensive to help the Yemeni government — which it backs — retake the strategically important Red Sea coast area from the pro-Iran Houthis, who captured it during a lightning offensive last month.
Hostilities are continuing; there were reports on Saturday of both Riyadh and Sana’a being attacked.
Meanwhile, members of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement are…
A SLOWDOWN in inflation may offer some statistical relief to the government, but prices of everyday essentials remain substantially higher than they were two years ago. The apparent contradiction lies in the difference between what inflation measures and what consumers experience when they enter the market.
Headline inflation measures how quickly the overall price basket is changing. It does not show how far the general price level has already risen. The official measure is based on prices…
KARACHI: As the world continues to grapple with uncertain oil prices, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is unlikely to meet its FY27 mid-term inflation target of 5-7 per cent, financial experts and analysts said.
Consumer Price Index-based inflation of 10.3 per cent in September clearly indicates that industry, businesses, and the general public will bear the brunt of these cost-push inflationary pressures.
Experts believe the central bank will not lower interest rates to stimulate economic…
• UN agency says over 60pc of citizens unable to afford healthy diet• Calls for overhaul of agrifood system
ISLAMABAD: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has emphasised the urgent need to transform Pakistan’s agrifood system to improve access to healthy diets, a critical step towards addressing all forms of malnutrition and their related costs to society.
The UN agency, in its latest assessment on “Food Supply for Healthy Diets in Pakistan”, observed that a major…
ISLAMABAD: Hours-long negotiations between the government and the opposition during a second round of talks ended in a “deadlock” early on Sunday.
The meeting at Parliament House began after 4pm on Saturday, with discussions focusing on the PTI’s planned Oct 4 march to Islamabad. Details on the negotiating process were sparse as both sides seemingly agreed not to speak to the media before matters concluded.
However, shortly before 3am on Sunday, Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas,…
During the 1970s and 1980s, a dramatic political shift permanently altered the geopolitical topography of the Middle East and the broader Muslim world. Islamism gained momentum as secular nationalism declined. It was a collapse accelerated by the defeat of Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
At the time, Western powers viewed Islamism, a right-wing ideology opposed to socialism and secular nationalism, as a useful counterweight to Soviet-backed nationalist regimes in Egypt,…
• NCRC recommends boosting NCCIA capacity, setting up special units for exploitation probes • Proposes Peca review from child rights perspective
• Urges integrating age verification into Digital Nation Pakistan Act
ISLAMABAD: Protecting minors from online grooming, exploitation and harmful content is the state’s responsibility, the National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) told the Islamabad High Court while proposing sweeping legal and institutional reforms to safeguard children…
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday said the federal government had made up its mind to impose emergency or governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; however, his party suggested finding a political solution to fight terrorism in a “better way”.
Addressing an event in Karachi, Bilawal said that the federal government had been in contact with President Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP regarding the recent security situation, particularly in KP.
Noting the terrorist attacks emanating from…
The prison commissioner in the southern US state of Tennessee has resigned over the botched execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike, Governor Bill Lee said on Saturday.
Lee said in a statement that commissioner Frank Strada would leave his post this month.
Pike’s lawyers say she is in critical condition, unconscious and on a ventilator in a hospital, after her execution by lethal injection went wrong on Wednesday.
Pike, 50, survived two injections of the normally lethal substance…
The United Arab Emirates’ attorney general said the co-pilot of a flydubai flight to Israel had planned a “terrorist act” and used the cockpit’s emergency axe to attack the captain, the official UAE news agency WAM reported on Saturday.
The news agency quoted Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi as saying that according to the initial findings of an investigation, “the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act” and had “attacked the captain in the cockpit with the emergency axe and…
Pakistan summoned the Indian chargé d’affaires to lodge a strong protest over the killing of two Pakistani civilians by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in the Bedian sector along the international border, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Saturday.
Two unarmed Pakistani civilians were martyred and another was injured in firing by India’s BSF near the border in Kasur on Friday.
“The BSF personnel resorted to unprovoked and lethal force against unarmed civilians. Such use of force was…
ISLAMABAD: Imports of used cars surged in September after easing of regulations, inviting criticism from local manufacturers while importers claim that the move will bring competition in the auto sector.
After a brief decline due to the government abolishing the Personal Baggage Scheme and applying restrictions to control misuse of used car schemes for overseas Pakistanis, imports of used cars have started surging again.
In the month of September, a total of 2,276 vehicles were imported under…
US President Donald Trump on Saturday posted the supposed phone number of a Republican US senator online, escalating a feud over daylight saving time.
Trump’s post on Truth Social urged people to call a phone number that he said belonged to Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican.
The dispute centres on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent and end the twice-yearly practice of changing clocks by one hour.
Trump says most Americans want more afternoon…
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Saturday said that arrangements were underway to repatriate the remains of three Pakistani sailors, who were killed during an operation earlier this week to recover a hijacked oil tanker off the coast of Somalia.
The maritime police force of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland said on Tuesday that it had recovered the MT Honour 25, a Palau-flagged oil tanker with 19 crew members on board, including 10 Pakistanis.
The Foreign Office confirmed on Wednesday that…
Pakistan women’s cricket captain Fatima Sana has signed a one-year contract with Perth Scorchers for the upcoming Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) season, the Australian club announced on Saturday.
The 24-year-old all-rounder will be available for the Scorchers’ first eight matches of WBBL 12, which begins on Oct 29.
Her stay could be extended if she receives permission from the Pakistan Cricket Board to miss a training camp ahead of the national side’s expected tour of the West Indies in…
LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Saturday sent a woman suspect to jail on a 14-day judicial remand in connection with a case of an Azeri woman’s rape.
The 20-year-old Azerbaijan national had travelled to Pakistan for business purposes and was allegedly gang-raped by three men in a rented flat of a private housing society near Raiwind on the night between Sept 25 and Sept 26. Two of those men had been arrested and were sent on a six-day physical remand on Tuesday.
In her statement, the…
Indian police detained several people in New Delhi on Saturday, disrupting a second day of protests backed by the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party and other opposition groups against changes to voter rolls.
The protesters say the changes benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing party and are demanding the resignation of India’s election chief.
The demonstrations mark the latest in a series of youth-led protests that have emerged this year, putting pressure on Modi unprecedented in his 12…
North Korea said it tested an intermediate-range strategic missile on Saturday that involved the use of AI, hours after Seoul said Pyongyang had launched a ballistic missile.
The launch took place days after Seoul’s military demanded an apology from Pyongyang for a blast that wounded three South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that it blamed on the North.
Pyongyang has denied responsibility for last month’s explosion and called South Korea “despicable” on Friday, undercutting…
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad administration on Saturday requested an extension of the deployment of Pakistan Rangers personnel in the federal capital from Oct 5 to Oct 15.
The request came amid the PTI’s planned long march to the capital from Oct 4. Since the call was made, the administration has the been gearing up to stop the protestors from entering Islamabad, with hundreds of containers being placed. Additional personnel have also been deployed from Sindh and Punjab police.
The letter,…
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Sunday that the talks between the federal government and the opposition had collapsed as the PTI had initiated its long march, accusing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi of “sabotaging” the negotiations.
Naqvi was addressing a press conference in Islamabad hours after an hours-long second round of talks between the two sides ended without yielding any results.
He also warned that no one would be allowed to violate the Islamabad High Court’s…
PESHAWAR/LAKKI MARWAT/DI KHAN: PTI workers and supporters, led by former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, set out from Dera Ismail Khan on Sunday for the party’s long march, which is being carried out to demand the release of jailed party founder and ex-prime minister Imran Khan.
Meanwhile, the caravan led by incumbent KP CM Sohail Afridi has yet to begin its trek from Lakki Marwat.
Before departing from DI Khan, Gandapur stressed that the protest should remain peaceful and…
Security forces killed eight terrorists during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan, security sources said on Sunday, according to state-run Radio Pakistan.
The terrorists were identified as those belonging to Fitna-al-Khawarij — a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan — the Radio Pakistan report said.
Security sources said that three key terrorist commanders were among those killed and foreign currency…
Yemen’s government forces said Sunday they had struck Houthi targets around the country, deepening the conflict ravaging one of the world’s poorest nations and the wider region.
The armed forces launched strikes against the Houthis in the capital Sanaa, the northwestern governorate of Saada — one of the group’s strongholds — and Taiz in the southwest, military spokesman Colonel Majid al-Nuzaili said.
Yemen was plunged back into civil war in July after years of calm, pitting the Iran-backed…
The four Pakistanis who were injured during a security operation to recover a hijacked oil tanker off the coast of Somalia, along with the remains of three others who lost their lives in the episode, have departed Addis Ababa and are expected to reach Karachi Sunday evening.
“Pakistan’s ambassadors to Djibouti and Ethiopia saw off the four injured Pakistani crew members of MT Honour 25, Usman Ghani, Aqeel Khan, Ameen bin Shams and Yasir Khan, along with the mortal remains of Rafi Ullah Khan,…
ISLAMABAD: Robbers and burglars stole cash and valuables worth over Rs34 million in eight incidents in the capital, police said.
In the first incident, burglars stole priceless heirlooms and antiques belonging to the family of the Nawab of Bahawalpur, worth Rs20 million, from the house of Prince Bahawal Abbas Khan Abbasi, son of Nawab Salahuddin Abbasi, in F-8/3.
Police registered a case under Sections 454 and 380 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The incident came to light when the family…
BACKA TOPOLA: The Republic of Ireland’s press conference on Saturday on the eve of their second Nations League match against Israel in Serbia was cut short as head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson fielded questions from Israeli journalists.
Ireland beat Israel 3-0 in Hungary in their first match on Tuesday following a turbulent build-up in which the Irish squad voted to fulfil the fixture despite unease amongst the team over the war in Gaza.
During that match the Irish players wore armbands and…
LAHORE: The Pakistan Railways (PR) has decided to outsource 13 express passenger trains, including Pak Business, and directed its officers to complete the process by December this year.
The department has also accelerated efforts to make all faulty (dummy) wagons fit for operation while taking action against the vendors who failed to supply parts on time.
“It is the vision of the prime minister as well as mine to make all-out efforts to maintain the railway infrastructure for safe train…
WITNESSES testified that a senior banker sketched private parts on the glass of his desk, asked a woman colleague to name them, and threatened to tear off her clothes if she wore a particular outfit again. Another officer made indecent remarks about her attire before colleagues. The ombudsperson found the charges proved; the Islamabad High Court agreed.
On Sept 16, the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) set that judgement aside without substantively engaging with this evidence or the high…
IT is difficult to imagine a single small gesture reducing decades-old hostility between two archrivals. Yet, such a moment was witnessed recently when Alok Dimri, India’s national coordinator for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, visited Islamabad for a meeting. Talking to the state media, he said he was happy to be in Pakistan. It was a simple statement, but perhaps one that may ease some of the cross-border bitterness.
Mr Dimri said this while visiting the National Council of Arts in…
IT appears that escalation is on the cards where the Houthi-Saudi and US-Iran conflicts are concerned. As per reports, Riyadh is planning an offensive to help the Yemeni government — which it backs — retake the strategically important Red Sea coast area from the pro-Iran Houthis, who captured it during a lightning offensive last month.
Hostilities are continuing; there were reports on Saturday of both Riyadh and Sana’a being attacked.
Meanwhile, members of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement are…
A SLOWDOWN in inflation may offer some statistical relief to the government, but prices of everyday essentials remain substantially higher than they were two years ago. The apparent contradiction lies in the difference between what inflation measures and what consumers experience when they enter the market.
Headline inflation measures how quickly the overall price basket is changing. It does not show how far the general price level has already risen. The official measure is based on prices…
KARACHI: As the world continues to grapple with uncertain oil prices, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is unlikely to meet its FY27 mid-term inflation target of 5-7 per cent, financial experts and analysts said.
Consumer Price Index-based inflation of 10.3 per cent in September clearly indicates that industry, businesses, and the general public will bear the brunt of these cost-push inflationary pressures.
Experts believe the central bank will not lower interest rates to stimulate economic…
• UN agency says over 60pc of citizens unable to afford healthy diet• Calls for overhaul of agrifood system
ISLAMABAD: The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations has emphasised the urgent need to transform Pakistan’s agrifood system to improve access to healthy diets, a critical step towards addressing all forms of malnutrition and their related costs to society.
The UN agency, in its latest assessment on “Food Supply for Healthy Diets in Pakistan”, observed that a major…
ISLAMABAD: Hours-long negotiations between the government and the opposition during a second round of talks ended in a “deadlock” early on Sunday.
The meeting at Parliament House began after 4pm on Saturday, with discussions focusing on the PTI’s planned Oct 4 march to Islamabad. Details on the negotiating process were sparse as both sides seemingly agreed not to speak to the media before matters concluded.
However, shortly before 3am on Sunday, Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas,…
During the 1970s and 1980s, a dramatic political shift permanently altered the geopolitical topography of the Middle East and the broader Muslim world. Islamism gained momentum as secular nationalism declined. It was a collapse accelerated by the defeat of Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
At the time, Western powers viewed Islamism, a right-wing ideology opposed to socialism and secular nationalism, as a useful counterweight to Soviet-backed nationalist regimes in Egypt,…
• NCRC recommends boosting NCCIA capacity, setting up special units for exploitation probes • Proposes Peca review from child rights perspective
• Urges integrating age verification into Digital Nation Pakistan Act
ISLAMABAD: Protecting minors from online grooming, exploitation and harmful content is the state’s responsibility, the National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) told the Islamabad High Court while proposing sweeping legal and institutional reforms to safeguard children…
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Saturday said the federal government had made up its mind to impose emergency or governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; however, his party suggested finding a political solution to fight terrorism in a “better way”.
Addressing an event in Karachi, Bilawal said that the federal government had been in contact with President Asif Ali Zardari and the PPP regarding the recent security situation, particularly in KP.
Noting the terrorist attacks emanating from…
The prison commissioner in the southern US state of Tennessee has resigned over the botched execution of convicted murderer Christa Pike, Governor Bill Lee said on Saturday.
Lee said in a statement that commissioner Frank Strada would leave his post this month.
Pike’s lawyers say she is in critical condition, unconscious and on a ventilator in a hospital, after her execution by lethal injection went wrong on Wednesday.
Pike, 50, survived two injections of the normally lethal substance…
The United Arab Emirates’ attorney general said the co-pilot of a flydubai flight to Israel had planned a “terrorist act” and used the cockpit’s emergency axe to attack the captain, the official UAE news agency WAM reported on Saturday.
The news agency quoted Attorney General Hamad Saif Al Shamsi as saying that according to the initial findings of an investigation, “the co-pilot had attempted to carry out a terrorist act” and had “attacked the captain in the cockpit with the emergency axe and…
Pakistan summoned the Indian chargé d’affaires to lodge a strong protest over the killing of two Pakistani civilians by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in the Bedian sector along the international border, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Saturday.
Two unarmed Pakistani civilians were martyred and another was injured in firing by India’s BSF near the border in Kasur on Friday.
“The BSF personnel resorted to unprovoked and lethal force against unarmed civilians. Such use of force was…
ISLAMABAD: Imports of used cars surged in September after easing of regulations, inviting criticism from local manufacturers while importers claim that the move will bring competition in the auto sector.
After a brief decline due to the government abolishing the Personal Baggage Scheme and applying restrictions to control misuse of used car schemes for overseas Pakistanis, imports of used cars have started surging again.
In the month of September, a total of 2,276 vehicles were imported under…
US President Donald Trump on Saturday posted the supposed phone number of a Republican US senator online, escalating a feud over daylight saving time.
Trump’s post on Truth Social urged people to call a phone number that he said belonged to Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican.
The dispute centres on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent and end the twice-yearly practice of changing clocks by one hour.
Trump says most Americans want more afternoon…
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Saturday said that arrangements were underway to repatriate the remains of three Pakistani sailors, who were killed during an operation earlier this week to recover a hijacked oil tanker off the coast of Somalia.
The maritime police force of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland said on Tuesday that it had recovered the MT Honour 25, a Palau-flagged oil tanker with 19 crew members on board, including 10 Pakistanis.
The Foreign Office confirmed on Wednesday that…
Pakistan women’s cricket captain Fatima Sana has signed a one-year contract with Perth Scorchers for the upcoming Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) season, the Australian club announced on Saturday.
The 24-year-old all-rounder will be available for the Scorchers’ first eight matches of WBBL 12, which begins on Oct 29.
Her stay could be extended if she receives permission from the Pakistan Cricket Board to miss a training camp ahead of the national side’s expected tour of the West Indies in…
LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Saturday sent a woman suspect to jail on a 14-day judicial remand in connection with a case of an Azeri woman’s rape.
The 20-year-old Azerbaijan national had travelled to Pakistan for business purposes and was allegedly gang-raped by three men in a rented flat of a private housing society near Raiwind on the night between Sept 25 and Sept 26. Two of those men had been arrested and were sent on a six-day physical remand on Tuesday.
In her statement, the…
Indian police detained several people in New Delhi on Saturday, disrupting a second day of protests backed by the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party and other opposition groups against changes to voter rolls.
The protesters say the changes benefit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing party and are demanding the resignation of India’s election chief.
The demonstrations mark the latest in a series of youth-led protests that have emerged this year, putting pressure on Modi unprecedented in his 12…
North Korea said it tested an intermediate-range strategic missile on Saturday that involved the use of AI, hours after Seoul said Pyongyang had launched a ballistic missile.
The launch took place days after Seoul’s military demanded an apology from Pyongyang for a blast that wounded three South Korean soldiers in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that it blamed on the North.
Pyongyang has denied responsibility for last month’s explosion and called South Korea “despicable” on Friday, undercutting…
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad administration on Saturday requested an extension of the deployment of Pakistan Rangers personnel in the federal capital from Oct 5 to Oct 15.
The request came amid the PTI’s planned long march to the capital from Oct 4. Since the call was made, the administration has the been gearing up to stop the protestors from entering Islamabad, with hundreds of containers being placed. Additional personnel have also been deployed from Sindh and Punjab police.
The letter,…