Pakistan | News

Islamabad, Istanbul reaffirm $5 billion trade target PM Shehbaz Sharif meets Turkish president Erdogan Says decisions taken during meeting will translate into greater trade, deeper strategic cooperation Erdogan praises Pakistan’s Islamabad MoU efforts, backs continued regional diplomacy Says.

ISLAMABAD - The Prime Minister’s Task Force on Maritime Reforms has achieved major progress in restructuring Pakistan’s maritime sector, completing 85 of the 99 reform measures recommended since the initiative was launched in December 2024.

Pakistan and Turkiye on Saturday resolved to further strengthen their bilateral cooperation across multiple sectors with a special emphasis on trade, investment, energy, petroleum exploration, minerals, and information technology, while reaffirming their commitment to realize the mutually agreed trade target of USD 5 billion.

Een Nederlandse vrouw en haar reispartner zijn eind vorige maand in Pakistan ontvoerd, afgeperst en aangerand. Dat melden lokale media. Mogelijk was er sprake van groepsverkrachting. Er zijn vier verdachten aangehouden, waaronder een familielid van de vicepremier en minister van Buitenlandse Zaken.

As contaminated floodwater gushed into their home in Buner, north-western Pakistan, Khalid (name changed) and his wife helped their three children up to higher ground. Amid the chaos, the couple had one more crucial thing to rescue: their life-saving HIV drugs. They trudged through neck-deep water inside their home to save their antiretroviral treatment pills from being swept away, ignoring all other valuables. “The waist-deep mud left behind by floodwaters had cut off our village for more than eight days,” Khalid recalls. “Thankfully, my wife and I still had our HIV medication with us,” says the daily wager, who contracted the virus while working abroad five years prior. This happened last monsoon, in August 2025, when the skies opened on Pakistan, causing widespread flooding. Devastating riverine floods affected places like Buner, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Punjab province. The floods claimed over a thousand lives, with 808 of these casualties reported in the two provinces alone. They displaced t...

The UK government is in talks with Pakistan over the possibility of deporting a leader of the Rochdale grooming gang to the country, the BBC reported on Friday. Shabbir Ahmed, who has dual British-Pakistani citizenship, was released from prison this week after his 2012 conviction on multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls. British officials told his victims that Ahmed could not be deported to Pakistan because of a 55-year-old law barring his removal. However, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has asked the home secretary to review Ahmed’s case following calls for his deportation from the UK. The BBC reported that Andy Burnham, who is widely tipped as a future leader, was among those calling for Ahmed to be deported. “We have raised this issue with our counterparts in Islamabad and we are committed to doing everything possible to deport foreign national offenders, and we’re clear that they should have no place in this country,” said a spokesperson for the British premier’s office. “As previ...

The UK government is in talks with Pakistan over the possibility of deporting a leader of the Rochdale grooming gang to the country, the BBC reported on Friday. Shabbir Ahmed, who has dual British-Pakistani citizenship, was released from prison this week after his 2012 conviction on multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls. British officials told his victims that Ahmed could not be deported to Pakistan because of a 55-year-old law barring his removal. However, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has asked the home secretary to review Ahmed’s case following calls for his deportation from the UK. The BBC reported that Andy Burnham, who is widely tipped as a future leader, was among those calling for Ahmed to be deported. “We have raised this issue with our counterparts in Islamabad and we are committed to doing everything possible to deport foreign national offenders, and we’re clear that they should have no place in this country,” said a spokesperson for the British premier’s office. “As previ...

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with the Acting Governor of the Makkah Region, Prince Saud bin Mishaal bin Abdulaziz, in Jeddah, where both sides reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening the longstanding and brotherly relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Kushvinder Vohra, Ancien président de la Commission centrale des eaux et Secrétaire de rang officiel auprès du gouvernement de l’Inde, et ancien Commissaire indien à l’Indus Il existe beaucoup de désinformation autour du Traité sur les eaux de l’Indus (IWT), diffusée à travers divers articles publiés dans les journaux, magazines et forums en ligne, y […] L’article « Le récit mensonger du Pakistan contre l’Inde pour masquer sa propre mauvaise gestion des ressources en eau », Kushvinder Vohra, Ancien président de la Commission centrale des eaux et Secrétaire de rang officiel auprès du gouvernement de l’Inde, et ancien Commissaire indien à l’Indus est apparu en premier sur Midi Madagasikara.

WASHINGTON/UNITED NATIONS: The United States has reiterated its support for Pakistan’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks, while the United Nations struggles to maintain consensus on its core global counterterrorism framework. “The Pakistani people have suffered greatly at the hands of terrorists,” the US State Department said, according to a statement reported by Reuters. Washington “supports Pakistan’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks” as an intermittent conflict between Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan continues, the State Department added. The remarks come after Pakistan on Sunday night acted against terrorist infrastructure along the Afghan border, in response to a terrorist attack on a local headquarter of the Pakistan Rangers Sindh in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar area. In February, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker had expressed similar support for Islamabad, saying Washington “continues to monitor the situation closely” and backs Pakistan...

A delegation of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) Pakistan and eight Pakistani universities has embarked on its five-day academic visit to Sri Lanka with detailed meetings with High Commissioner of Pakistan to Sri Lanka, Maj Gen (R) Dr Nayyar Naseer, Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Sri Lanka, Senior Professor Kapila.

Torrential rains and flood-like conditions caused widespread devastation across Pakistan, claiming at least 14 lives and leaving dozens of others injured as severe weather battered several parts of the country.

The National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) has issued a nationwide alert warning of heavy rainfall and potential flooding in several parts of Pakistan from July 1 to 4, 2026, as an active monsoon system combined with western weather disturbances is expected to intensify rainfall.

The federal government has rolled out a cashless payment system at passport offices across Pakistan, allowing applicants to pay passport fees through digital payment methods instead of cash.

Pakistan has made “meaningful” progress on fiscal federalism since 2010; however, deviations from “international norms” and “good practices” remain, including in the current federal–provincial transfer arrangements, the World Bank said in a report released on Tuesday. In its report titled “Strengthening Fiscal Federalism in Pakistan”, the WB highlighted four critical dimensions in which Pakistan lacked in terms of fiscal federalism. “First, expenditure assignments remain incompletely implemented and inadequately defined in some areas,” the report said and highlighted that the government continued to “operate” in constitutionally devolved areas despite the 18th Constitutional Amendment. It added that the involvement had caused waste and blurred “accountability”, while local governments lack clearly defined or adequately resourced functional mandates. It also pointed out that the 18th Amendment had caused “fragmentation” of the tax system. “While the Amendment strengthened provincial tax authority, particularly...

India urged Pakistan on Wednesday to release and repatriate 97 Pakistani prisoners who have completed their sentences, according to a statement issued by the Foreign Office (FO). These prisoners include 64 civilians and 33 fishermen, the FO said, as it detailed the exchange of prisoner lists between India and Pakistan — a biannual practice that takes place in pursuance of the Agreement on Consular Access, 2008. The agreement requires both sides to share the lists of prisoners in each other’s custody on January 1 and July 1 every year. The FO said the “government of Pakistan handed over a list of 250 Indian prisoners in Pakistan (52 civilians and 198 fishermen) to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad”. It added that the Indian government shared a list of 439 prisoners who were “Pakistani or believed to be Pakistani”, including 386 civilian prisoners and 53 fishermen. It added that India was also urged to ensure the safety, security and well-being of all prisoners who were Pakistani or believed to be Pakista...

Pakistan and India have exchanged lists of prisoners held in each other's custody under the provisions of the 2008 Consular Access Agreement, diplomatic sources confirmed on Tuesday.

Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi on Wednesday rejected India’s “preposterous statement” regarding Pakistan’s recent strikes against terrorists and their hideouts along the Afghan border. In a post on X, the FO spokesperson said Pakistan rejected the “baseless statement” by India on its “legitimate, targeted and proportionate actions” against terrorist infrastructure in Afghanistan. “This preposterous statement has been made by a country that has historically interfered in and undermined the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbouring countries, in contravention of the UN Charter, and continues to suppress the right to self-determination of the Kashmiris in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, in violation of the relevant UN resolutions,” he said. “India has also been actively aiding and sponsoring terrorist groups operating from Afghan soil against Pakistan, in violation of the relevant UN Security Council sanctions regime, and continues to play the role of a regional spoil...

India’s opposition party Congress has demanded the resignation of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and stepped up criticism against him for “lying” in parliament about the deaths of Indian soldiers during the May 2025 conflict with Pakistan, according to Indian media. The criticism comes days after the Indian government on June 26 disclosed the names of six armed forces personnel who died during the military conflict, dubbed “Operation Sindoor” by New Delhi. The names were included in the Roll of Honour on the National War Memorial website, marking the first official disclosure of military casualties from the period, The Hindu noted. Subsequently, on Monday, chairperson of the Congress’s Ex-servicemen Department Col. (retd) Rohit Chaudhry and Wing Commander (retd) Anuma Acharya slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for concealing the deaths of the six personnel, The Hindu reported. In a press conference, Chaudhry demanded that Singh be removed from his position and that Modi and his party lawmakers ...

In Pakistan zijn veertien kinderen overleden doordat het dak van een bijlescentrum instortte. Daarnaast zijn acht kinderen en een lerares gewond geraakt. De overleden kinderen waren tussen de vijf en zestien jaar oud.