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SHARJAH: Skipper Salman Agha hit an unbeaten half-century and fast bowler Haris Rauf grabbed four wickets as Pakistan upstaged Afghanistan by 39 runs in the Twenty20 International tri-series opener in Sharjah on Friday. Right-handed Salman hit a 36-ball 53 not out with three sixes and as many boundaries which lifted Pakistan to a solid 182-7 in their 20 overs. Haris took 4-31 while fellow pacer Shaheen Afridi claimed 2-21, while spinners Mohammad Nawaz (2-23) and Sufiyan Muq­eem (2-25) dismissed Afghanistan for 143 in 19.5 overs before a noisy capacity 16,000 crowd at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Afghanistan matched Pakistan with opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 27-ball 38 with a six and three boundaries, adding 51 for the second wicket with Sediqullah Atal, who made 23. It was right-armer Haris who changed the game with a two-wicket 12th over sending Atal and Karim Janat back without conceding a run. Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan smashed five sixes and a four in his whirlwind 16-ball 39 but fell to Haris to end ...

ISLAMABAD - Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar yesterday declared that Pakistan had entered “one of the most active phases in its recent diplomatic history,” unveiling a series of high-stake engagements that firmly placed the country back on a confident and proactive diplomatic track.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and Armenia yesterday agreed to consider establishing bilateral diplomatic relations after Armenia- Azerbaijan peace deal.

Skipper Salman Agha hit an unbeaten half-century and fast bowler Haris Rauf grabbed four wickets as Pakistan upstaged Afghanistan by 39 runs in the tri-series opener in Sharjah on Friday. Agha hit a 36-ball 53 not out with three sixes and as many boundaries, which lifted Pakistan to 182-7 in their 20 overs. Pacers Rauf took 4-31 and Shaheen Afridi 2-21, while spinners Mohammad Nawaz (2-23) and Sufiyan Muqeem (2-25) dismissed Afghanistan for 143 in 19.5 overs before a noisy capacity 16,000 crowd at the Sharjah stadium. Afghanistan matched Pakistan with opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 27-ball 38 with a six and three boundaries, adding 51 for the second wicket with Sediqullah Atal, who made 23. It was Rauf who changed the game with a two-wicket 12th over, sending Atal and Karim Janat back without conceding a run. Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan smashed five sixes and a four in his whirlwind 16-ball 39 but fell to Rauf to end his team’s fight. Earlier, Pakistan was lifted by Agha’s fourth T20I half-century. Agha ancho...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday confirmed that Afghanistan issued a demarche to Islamabad’s ambassador in Kabul, after they alleged that Pakistan carried out drone strikes across the border. At least three people were killed and seven wounded in two separate incidents in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Khost provinces, which Afghan authorities claimed were strikes carried out by Pakistan. There was no official word from Islamabad, and Afghan authorities did not provide any evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the incidents. Fielding questions after a press briefing in Islamabad today, Dar said that he had just returned from travelling and was still “going through the system”. However, he added that had received a copy of the letter to Pakistan’s ambassador but did not elaborate on why it was issued. “I’m still going through the system, but they handed our ambassador a letter, which is called a demarche,” the foreign minister said. “This needs investigation, to look into the situati...

In a significant breakthrough, Pakistan and Armenia on Friday agreed to consider establishing bilateral diplomatic relations.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday said that Pakistan has agreed to consider establishing diplomatic relations with Armenia. “Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia, H.E. Ararat Mirzoyan @AraratMirzoyan and I held a cordial conversation on phone today, and agreed to consider establishing diplomatic relations between Pakistan and Armenia,” FM Dar posted on X. Meanwhile, Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan also posted on X, saying, “Had an important call with DPM & FM H.E. Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 today. Following recent developments & in line with the vision of cooperative engagement both bilaterally & on multilateral platforms, we discussed establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia & Pakistan.” Pakistan and Armenia do not have formal diplomatic relations so far. The relationship is characterised by a regional geopolitical rivalry, with Pakistan supporting Azerbaijan against Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as per the Press Information Depar...

A high-level delegation from the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) reviewed the country’s progress during a visit on Aug 24-28, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Friday. CERN, one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research, was established in 1954 on the principle of “science for peace”, according to its website. Pakistan became CERN’s associate member on July 31, 2015, contributing to the centre’s projects as a “significant partner”. The Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) is the lead agency for the Pak-CERN collaboration. “During the visit, a team of five top experts from CERN met with the chairman of the PAEC and toured various science and technology institutions,” a statement from the FO said. “The purpose of these visits was to assess Pakistan’s progress in the field of science and technology.” The institutions include the National Centre for Physics, Heavy Mechanical Complex-3, Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Pakistan Institute of...

SHARJAH: Salman Ali Agha is not too concerned by Pakistan’s recent losses. Instead, Pakistan T20 captain is looking forward to his “quality side with exciting youngsters and amazing seniors” doing well at the upcoming tri-nation series and the subsequent Asia Cup. The Salman-led team face Afghanistan in a T20 tri-nation series opening match in Sharjah on Friday. The event, a warm-up for next month’s T20 Asia Cup, also includes hosts UAE. Besides Afghanistan, Pakistan and the UAE, the Asia Cup will also include defending champions India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman and Hong Kong. Pakistan’s white-ball fortunes are dipping after they crashed out of last year’s T20 World Cup in the group stage before failing to win a match at the ODI Champions Trophy. This year they lost a T20 series in Bangladesh 2-1 but overcame the West Indies by the same margin. Pakistan, under Salman, are going through a transition with former skippers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan out of the T20 squad. Both the veteran players have been u...

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to end its silence over Gaza and to hold Israel accountable for what it described as “mass carnage” of Palestinians, urging those shielding the occupying power to reassess their policies that have enabled atrocities in the be-sieged.

KABUL: At least three people were killed and seven wounded in two separate incidents in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Khost provinces, which Afghan authorities claimed were strikes carried out by Pakistan. There was no official word from Islamabad, and Afghan authorities did not provide any evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the incident, either. Islamabad has repeatedly warned Kabul to prevent its soil from being used to stage attacks in Pakistan, and that it is fully capable of targeting terrorists who carry out such attacks. Quoting Afghan authorities, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday that three children were killed and several others wounded when ‘drones’ hit the home of one Haji Naeem Khan in Khost’s Spera district, near the border with North Waziristan. AFP photographs from Spera showed people standing outside a badly damaged home in the Lahori Village. Meanwhile, Afghan officials claimed that four sons and two wives of a man named Shahsawar were among those injured when his house was destr...

Chairman Prime Minister’s Youth Programme Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan has said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan is moving towards stability and development, and the government will soon free the country from the clutches of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday strongly condemned the latest Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and Syria, terming them blatant violations of international law and urging the international community to hold Israel accountable.

ISLAMABAD - Belarus and Pakistan on Wednesday finalised an extradition treaty between the two countries and signed a protocol for its implementation.

• Aurangzeb urges innovative instruments, sectoral reforms for long-term resilience • ADB president says ready to assist in launch of inaugural Panda Bond, welcomes market diversification efforts ISLAMABAD: Paki­stan on Wednesday sought deeper collaboration and fresh support for policy-based lending from the Asian Development Bank for vast sectors of the economy, from climate to infrastructure to resource mobilisation, thro­ugh global capital instruments, like green bonds and debt-for-nature swaps, under the new 10-year partnership. The wish-list for future direct financial support and collaborations for market-based financing instruments was shared by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb with ADB President Masato Kanda — a former finance minister of Japan — during his maiden visit to Pakistan after assuming the charge of his office in February this year. Senator Aurangzeb discussed “Pakistan’s priorities for deeper collaboration with ADB across key areas, including energy transition, climate resilience, trans...

Pakistan and Sweden have agreed to establish a Pakistan–Sweden Parliamentary Friendship Group to promote closer inter-parliamentary cooperation and strengthen bilateral ties.

Heavy rain swept across the Himalayas, killing at least 36 people in India over the past 24 hours and forcing authorities to open major dams, in turn triggering flood alerts on three rivers in neighbouring Pakistan. In the deadliest single disaster, a landslide killed 33 people near the Hindu mountain shrine of Vaishno Devi on a pilgrim route in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Three more people died as floodwaters burst the banks of rivers in the district of Doda and swamped low-lying areas, authorities added. A view of a houseboat on the overflowing Jhelum River following heavy rain, in Srinagar, Indian-occupied Kashmir, on August 27. — Reuters About 200 children were stranded on Wednesday after flood water engulfed a school building in the northern state of Punjab, local media said. Vehicles tumbled off the Madhopur barrage over the Tawi river when parts of it collapsed after being lashed by heavy rain overnight into Wednesday morning, video images showed. There were n...

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday said Pakistan values its diplomatic and economic cooperation with Japan and is committed to renewing and strengthening bilateral ties, particularly in trade and industry.

Floodwaters gushing through mountain villages, cities rendered swamps, mourners gathered at fresh graves — as Pakistan’s monsoon season once again delivers scenes of calamity, it also lays bare woeful preparedness. Without better regulation of construction and sewer maintenance, the annual downpours that have left hundreds dead in recent months will continue to kill, experts say. Even Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appeared to agree as he toured flood-stricken Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province last week, where landslides killed more than 450 people. “Natural disasters are acts of God, but we cannot ignore the human blunders,” he said. “If we keep letting influence-peddling and corruption control building permits, neither the people nor the governments will be forgiven.” Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with limited resources for adaptation. In the devastated mountain villages the prime minister visited, and beyond, residential areas are erected near riverbeds, blocking “natural stor...

ISLAMABAD: Google has launched its new ‘AI Mode’ in Pakistan, offering users access to its most advanced AI-powered search experience. First introduced in the United States this year, the feature is now expanding globally, with Pakistan among the latest countries to gain access. The tool, powered by a custom version of Gemini 2.5, enables people to ask longer and more complex questions that previously required multiple searches. Available in English, AI Mode can be accessed via the Google app on Android and iOS, as well as on mobile and desktop web. In a statement, Google said that early testers have shown that queries are already two to three times longer than traditional searches, highlighting the tool’s usefulness for exploratory tasks such as comparing products, planning trips, or tackling “how-to” questions. “It dives deep to answer multiple questions at once, with helpful links for further exploration,” the company said. Google explained that Pakistani users can use ‘AI Mode’ for different use cases, in...