Pakistan | News

The state-run Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) is planning a major expansion of unconventional gas developments from early next year, aiming to boost production and reduce reliance on imported liquefied natural gas. Pakistan has long been viewed as having potential in both tight and shale gas, which are trapped in rock and can only be released with specialised drilling, but commercial output has yet to be proved. Managing Director Ahmed Lak told Reuters that OGDCL had tripled its tight-gas study area to 4,500 square kilometres after new seismic and reservoir analysis indicated larger potential. Phase two of a technical evaluation will finish by the end of January, followed by full development plans. The renewed push comes after US President Donald Trump said Pakistan held “massive” oil reserves in July, a statement analysts said lacked credible geological evidence, but which prompted Islamabad to underscore that it is pursuing its own efforts to unlock unconventional resources. Ahmed Hayat Lak, M...

Chairman of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) Bilal Bin Saqib announced that Pakistan is set to launch its first “stablecoin” as part of its drive to make virtual assets a part of the economy. The PVARA is an autonomous federal body governed by a multi-stakeholder board including the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue. Its mandate is to curb illicit finance, protect consumers and unlock opportunities in fintech, remittances and tokenised assets, while fostering Shariah-compliant innovation through regulatory sandboxes. A stablecoin, according to Bloomberg, is a digital token whose value is intrinsically linked to a physical currency, such as the US dollar, making it more stable than other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.­ Speaking at Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai, the crypto czar said that Pakistan will “definitely launch” a stablecoin, adding that the country is wor...

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan on Thursday underscoring the importance of regional peace and stability agreed that Afghan Taliban regime must honour its commitments made to the international community and address Pakistan’s legitimate security concerns by taking concrete and verifiable actions against terrorist.

WASHINGTON: Forty-four Democratic members of the US House of Representatives have written to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, demanding immediate sanctions on senior Pakistani officials over what they described as an “escalating campaign of transnational repression and worsening human rights crisis in Pakistan”. The effort is led by Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Congressman Greg Casar, and includes signatures from Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, two Muslim members of the House known for their advocacy on Palestinian and other Muslim issues. In the letter, made public on Wednesday, the lawmakers called for targeted measures, including visa bans and asset freezes on officials responsible for threatening US citizens and residents who criticise Pakistan’s military establishment, as well as their family members in Pakistan. There was no immediate reaction from Pakistan’s Foreign Office, or the embassy in Washington. More than 40 lawmakers write to Marco Rubio, ask for sanctions against officials involv...

Pakistan rubbished claims published in an Amnesty International report on Thursday that a spyware, manufactured by an Israeli company, was actively being used in the country. According to a senior intelligence officer, who spoke to Dawn on condition of anonymity, the report was an “an attempt to malign Pakistan”. “There is not an iota of truth in it,” he stressed. The official was referring to a claim made in the Amnesty International investigation, titled “Intellexa Leaks”, which described the story of a human rights lawyer based in Pakistan. The lawyer, according to the report, had approached Amnesty International in the summer of 2025 after receiving a suspicious link on WhatsApp from an unknown number. Amnesty Security Lab investigated the link and identified it as a Predator attack attempt based on the technical behaviour of the infection server. Predator is a highly invasive spyware manufactured by the Israeli company Intellexa. According to Amnesty International, the investigation was based on a combin...

The Balochistan government on Thursday announced that it would launch a crackdown against 300 suspected terrorists, while approaching Interpol to apprehend leaders of proscribed organisations residing outside of Pakistan. According to a statement from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, the decision was made during a high-level meeting under the chairmanship of CM Sarfaraz Bugti. During the meeting, officials presented evidence of links between overseas leadership of banned outfits and their local networks through call recordings. “After reviewing the material, the provincial government approved stringent and extraordinary measures to dismantle the outfits and tighten the noose around their operatives. “The provincial government, therefore, decided that it would seek Interpol’s assistance to nab the suspected terrorists who took refuge outside Pakistan,” the statement said. Interpol, or the International Criminal Police Organisation, is the world’s largest international police body, dedicated to helping police ...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday that Pakistan was ready to provide landlocked Kyrgyzstan access to regional and global markets through its ports. The premier made the remarks as he addressed the media in Islamabad alongside Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Zhaparov, following discussions between the two leaders. Zhaparov arrived in Islamabad yesterday on a two-day maiden visit to Pakistan. PM Shehbaz said in a post on X that the visit was the first by a Kyrgyz president in 20 years. Detailing the discussions held today, the prime minister said that Kyrgyzstan was a landlocked country and therefore, “Pakistan stands ready to provide Kyrgyz Republic access to regional and global markets through our ports of Karachi, Bin Qasim and Gwadar”. View this post on Instagram “During our fruitful discussions today, we had a detailed exchange on […] bilateral relations as well as important regional and international developments,” PM Shehbaz said about his meeting with Zharapov. Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal ...

After nearly 50 days of closure, Pakistan has partially reopened the Torkham and Chaman border crossings with Afghanistan to allow United Nations humanitarian cargoes.

Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan on Thursday reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen bilateral relations across multiple sectors, including politics, trade, connectivity, energy, agriculture, education, defence and culture.

Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Nurgozhoevich Zhaparov was accorded a grand ceremonial welcome at the Prime Minister House on Thursday as he commenced his two-day maiden state visit to Pakistan.

The last supermoon of 2025 is set to light up skies across Pakistan tonight and tomorrow night, according to state-run Radio Pakistan. A supermoon occurs when the moon reaches its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, causing it to appear unusually large and bright — up to 14 per cent larger and nearly 30pc brighter than a typical full moon. The final supermoon of the year, known as the Cold Moon, will be visible across Pakistan tonight and tomorrow night, Radio Pakistan said, quoting the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco). “It marks the third consecutive supermoon of the year and the last supermoon of 2025,” it said. Suparco encourages the public, astronomy enthusiasts, students, and families to observe this natural spectacle, the report said. “No special equipment is required; the supermoon will be easily visible to the naked eye, provided the skies remain clear,” it added. According to CNN, the moniker ‘Cold Moon’ indicates that it’s the full moon event closest to t...

Pakistan has sent an urban search and rescue team to cyclone-hit Sri Lanka, where severe flooding and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah have claimed more than 400 lives. According to Radio Pakistan, a Pakistan Air Force C-130 aircraft carrying a 47-member team along with 6.5 tons of essential equipment has departed to participate in the humanitarian and rescue efforts. Speaking at a ceremony in Islamabad for seeing off the aid on Wednesday morning, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik said the urban search and rescue team was being sent to help the people affected by the cyclone in Sri Lanka. He asserted that Pakistan and its government stood in solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka. The NDMA chairman further said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir had directed “full-out support” to assist those affected. “Pakistan has committed all-out support since November 28 when the cyclone impacted Sri Lanka,” he s...

Pakistan has expanded its relief efforts for storm-hit Sri Lanka following the devastation caused by the recent severe storm and an official appeal for assistance by the Sri Lankan government.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Turkiye on Tuesday signed five memorandum of understanding (MoUs) and deeds of assignment (DoAs) for oil and gas exploration and agreed to expand bilateral cooperation to mining and equity participation in the power sector. These documents were signed during the ongoing visit of a Turkish delegation led by Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar that had engagements with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and Power Minister Awais Leghari on Tuesday. Prime Minister Sharif witnessed the ceremony for the exchange of MoUs and agreements between Turkiye and Pakistan in the field of petroleum exploration, including the deed of assignment for Eastern Offshore Indus-C, the Petroleum Concession agreement Ziarat North Block, the Petroleum Concession agreement Sukhpur-II Block, the Petroleum Concession agreement Deep C block and the Offshore Deep F Block. The premier underscored the historic and f...

Islamabad - Pakistan yesterday dispatched 200 tonnes of relief supplies to Sri Lanka via sea cargo after India refused to use its airspace.

ISLAMABAD - Federal Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday underlined the need to dispel misconceptions about Pakistan by promoting its true story to a global audience.

ISLAMABAD - The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) Tuesday recommended the appointment of Sindh High Court and Balochistan High Court chief justices and elevation of Justice Miangul Hassan Au-rangzeb as the judge of the Supreme Court.

The Foreign Office (FO) said on Tuesday that India was preventing humanitarian assistance from being sent to Sri Lanka by air, prompting Islamabad to send aid by sea to the south Asian island, where severe flooding and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah have claimed more than 400 lives. In a post on X, the FO said: “India continues to block humanitarian assistance from Pakistan to Sri Lanka. The special aircraft carrying Pakistan’s humanitarian assistance to Sri Lanka continues to face a delay of over 60 hours now awaiting flight clearance from India. “The partial flight clearance issued by India last night, after 48 hours, was operationally impractical: time-bound for just a few hours and without validity for the return flight, severely hindering this urgent relief mission for the brotherly people of Sri Lanka.” A statement issued later by the Pakistan High Commission in Sri Lanka said aircraft were awaiting clearance to fly and accused India of blocking the humanitarian relief operation through “shenani...

Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu on Tuesday noted that Pakistan had emerged as a regional stabiliser after the May conflict with India. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) chief made the remarks during the passing out parade at PAF Academy Asghar Khan in Risalpur in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Nowshera district. “In the wake of Marka-i-Haq, Pakistan has successfully emerged as a net stabiliser in this part of the world,” ACM Sidhu said. “As a responsible nuclear power, our relations with key global and regional powers have further strengthened, which is a testimony to the untiring effort of our diplomatic strategy and credible military prowess.” The Pakistan Army had named the period of conflict with India, from the April 22 Pahalgam attack to the May 10 conclusion of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, as Marka-i-Haq in May. “The rising global relevance of Pakistan remains a growing concern for our adversary, and it exploits every opportunity to malign and destabilise Pakistan on the international front,” said the...

ISLAMABAD - Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar yesterday chaired a comprehensive preparatory meeting ahead of the upcoming visit of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic to Pakistan.