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Dawn - 15:26 Mar 24, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that Pakistan stood “ready and honoured” to host “meaningful and conclusive talks” between the US and Iran. “Pakistan welcomes and fully supports ongoing efforts to pursue dialogue to end the war in the Middle East, in the interest of peace and stability in the region and beyond,” he said in a post on the social media platform X. “Subject to concurrence by the US and Iran, Pakistan stands ready and honoured to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict,” he said, tagging US President Donald Trump, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. Subsequently, the US president shared PM Shehbaz’s statement on his Truth Social platform. PM Shehbaz’s statement came shortly after the Foreign Office (FO) urged the media to refrain from speculation and await official announcements when asked about reports of Islamabad being a possible venue for talks between the US and Irani... -
Dawn - 14:40 Mar 24, 2026
The Afghan Taliban announced on Tuesday that it was freeing a US national who had been detained for more than a year. The foreign ministry said the family of linguist and researcher Dennis Coyle had written to the supreme leader of Afghanistan, requesting his release for Eid. “The Supreme Court of the Islamic Emirate deemed his period of detention sufficient and decided on his release,” a statement read. The announcement came after a meeting of Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, US former special envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad, United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) ambassador to Kabul Saif Mohammed Al-Ketbi, and a member of Coyle’s family. The UAE facilitated the release, the ministry said, adding that Coyle had been reunited with his family in Kabul on Tuesday. Coyle, 64, was arrested by the Afghan authorities in January 2025, according to the Foley Foundation, which advocates for the release of Americans taken hostage or arbitrarily detained abroad. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also welcomed Coyle’s rele... -
Dawn - 14:30 Mar 24, 2026
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday announced a financial support package to help its developing member countries mitigate the economic and financial impacts resulting from the conflict in the Middle East. A press release issued by the lender quoted ADB President Masato Kanda as saying, “ADB will deliver rapid, flexible, and scalable assistance to help countries manage immediate pressures and strengthen long-term resilience, notably fast-disbursing budget support and trade and supply chain finance to secure the import of essential goods, now including oil.” Kanda further said that this built on the ADB’s track record of supporting Asia and the Pacific through “periods of global uncertainty”. ADB has ample resources to safeguard existing and planned operations, while expanding emergency support in line with developing member countries’ needs, including utilising its countercyclical lending buffer, the statement said. It added that the bank was closely monitoring global market developments and their pot... -
Dawn - 13:44 Mar 24, 2026
LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday sustained an objection on the maintainability of a petition filed against the acquittal of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his sons in a Rs16bn money laundering case. LHC Chief Justice Aalia Neelum heard the plea filed by a young lawyer as an “objection case”. The office of the LHC’s registrar had objected to the maintainability of the petition, questioning the locus standi (the right to bring a legal action to a court) to agitate the matter. During the hearing, the chief justice asked the petitioner’s counsel, Amir Saeed Rawn, how his client was an aggrieved party in the matter. The LHC chief justice noted that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the prosecuting agency, had not filed any appeal against the acquittal judgment of the trial court. To the court’s query, the counsel said the decision was issued in December 2022 despite the availability of substantial evidence in the case. He alleged that the FIA had colluded with the accused to secure the acqui... -
Dawn - 13:10 Mar 24, 2026
• Efforts alongside Egypt and Turkiye seen as key to pausing threatened US strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure • Administration sources say diplomatic efforts saw Islamabad leveraging its position as ‘net regional stabiliser’ • PM speaks to Pezeshkian, Dar calls Araghchi; White House ‘kept in the loop’ • Islamabad floated as ‘possible venue’ for talks ISLAMABAD: On the 24th day of the US-Israel war against Iran, Pakistan took centre stage in a coordinated diplomatic push alongside Turkiye and Egypt, as the trio appeared instrumental in securing a five-day pause of US plans to strike Iranian energy and power infrastructure, officials said, describing the effort as going beyond routine crisis management. US President Donald Trump had publicly announced the ‘delay’ on Monday, saying Washington had held “very good and productive conversations” with Tehran over the previous couple of days that could lead to a “complete and total resolution” of hostilities. The pause, however, remains conditional and limited to... -
Dawn - 12:25 Mar 24, 2026
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s benchmark KSE-100 index on Tuesday gained over 1,200 points. The index gained 1,225.99 points, or 0.80 per cent, to close at 153,966.36 points, from the previous close of 152,740.37 points. The KSE-100 rose to an intraday high of 157,442.68 points at around 9:30am, then declined to an intraday low of 153,382.00 points at 2:36pm, before settling at 153,966.36. Topline Securities, in a statement, noted that the day began on a “hopeful note, as the local bourse took cues from the buoyant international markets”. “Easing geopolitical tensions and a dip in global oil prices set the stage for optimism, inviting bulls to charge early into the session,” it said. It said that the momentum picked up quickly and drove the index to a “strong intraday high of +4,702 points, reflecting renewed confidence across the board”. However, as the day unfolded, the enthusiasm began to fade, it said. Topline Securities said that the trading activity was “slim — a silent warning that the rally lacked stro... -
Dawn - 12:17 Mar 24, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) on Tuesday announced the successful commencement of oil production from its development well Pasakhi-13 in Hyderabad, marking Pakistan’s first successful horizontal oil well in a clastic reservoir. According to a statement by the company, Pasakhi-13 is currently producing 460 barrels of oil per day (BPD). The well was drilled to a measured depth of 2,966 metres, including a 546-meter horizontal section, the company said in a statement. Advanced geo-steering technology-enabled precise navigation within a narrow 3 metre drilling window, ensuring optimal placement within the reservoir’s sweet spot, it added. It stated that the well was completed and tested using a short-string electric submersible pump (ESP), specifically optimised for horizontal well configurations. Despite challenging reservoir conditions, the horizontal drilling approach has significantly enhanced reservoir exposure, resulting in nearly three times higher production compared to of... -
Dawn - 12:17 Mar 24, 2026
A panel at the University of Jammu in India-occupied Kashmir has recommended removing topics related to Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Allama Iqbal, and Muslim educationist and reformer Syed Ahmad Khan from its MA Political Science syllabus, Indian news website Scroll reported on Tuesday, citing The Indian Express. The decision follows protests held by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on the university campus on Friday against the inclusion of a chapter on Jinnah’s political thought in the syllabus, according to The Times of India. The ABVP is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Scroll added. The committee, headed by Professor Naresh Padha of the university’s physics department, forwarded the recommendation to the Board of Studies, which will meet on Tuesday to discuss the matter, it cited The Indian Express as saying. ABVP’s state secretary of India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Sannak Shrivats — who led F... -
Dawn - 11:20 Mar 24, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The National Computer Emergency Response Team (National CERT) on Tuesday issued a cybersecurity advisory warning that hostile actors may exploit supply chains to target critical national infrastructure, including power, banking, and defence systems. The advisory highlights that even minor lapses during the delivery of hardware and software could trigger large-scale system failures. The alert comes amid growing global concern over supply chain vulnerabilities, where state-sponsored cyber espionage has increasingly extended into logistics and manufacturing stages. CERT cautioned that all hardware deliveries should be treated as potential security risks and subjected to strict inspection protocols. It further warned that unverified software updates could introduce hidden backdoors into the national digital infrastructure, posing long-term security threats. The advisory also flagged vendors with unknown ownership structures as a significant risk factor, urging institutions to ensure transparency and du... -
Dawn - 11:02 Mar 24, 2026
North Korea will never give up nuclear weapons, leader Kim Jong Un said, indicating that it will soon designate South Korea the “most hostile state”, according to a state media report on Tuesday. Kim also told the country’s legislature in a policy address on Monday that the United States was committing “state terrorism”, in an apparent reference to its military attacks on Iran. “We will continue to firmly consolidate our status as a nuclear-armed state as an irreversible course, while aggressively stepping up our struggle against hostile forces,” Kim told the Supreme People’s Assembly. “We will, in line with the mission entrusted by the Constitution of the Republic… further expand and advance our self-defensive nuclear deterrent,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). While the United States and Israel have insisted that their attacks on Iran are to stop the Islamic republic from developing nuclear weapons — an aim Tehran denies — Pyongyang is thought to be light years ahead b... -
Dawn - 10:37 Mar 24, 2026
Pakistani Fintech company Sadapay on Tuesday said its application was unavailable for users after Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Bahrain were disrupted amid the US-Israel war on Iran. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East began with the US and Israel launching attacks on Iran, triggering a conflict that has expanded to the rest of the Middle East. As the war rages on, Gulf countries have also come under attack, including Bahrain. In a statement shared on its social media handles, the company said, “The SadaPay app is currently unavailable for all users. Our infrastructure runs on AWS in Bahrain, which has been disrupted since the drone strikes on March 1.” AWS is Amazon’s cloud computing unit and is critical for the operation of many well-known websites and government operations. It is also the company’s main driver of profits. It added that overnight, “conditions in the affected AWS region worsened, causing a full app outage for our users”. As per the statement, Sadapay said that it was “dealing with the d... -
Dawn - 10:24 Mar 24, 2026
KARACHI: K-Electric (KE) on Tuesday appointed Syed Taha as its new chief executive officer (CEO), replacing interim head Adeeb Ahmad. In a letter to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the company said the appointment will come into effect on April 15. It said that Taha holds an engineering degree and an MBA in finance from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Karachi. He has been serving as the Managing Director and CEO of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) since February 2020. “Prior to joining PSO, he worked as an executive director in Oasis Energy, heading the program management office of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, Nigeria. “He has also worked previously as chief distribution officer of KE, as well as held several senior positions in different organisations,” the letter added. The incumbent interim CEO, Ahmad, was appointed on February 13 after KE’s previous CEO, Moonis Alvi, stepped down, days after getting a clean chit from the then-Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori in a workplace harass... -
Dawn - 10:15 Mar 24, 2026
The European Union (EU) and Australia struck a long-awaited free-trade deal on Tuesday, while also agreeing to boost defence cooperation and access to crucial rare-earth minerals in the face of global uncertainty over trade. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to Australia comes as the 27-nation bloc and the import-reliant nation navigate renewed energy vulnerability sparked by the US-Israel war on Iran. The accord is the latest agreed by Brussels in a push to diversify trade as Europe faces challenges from the United States and China. Key sticking points on Australian use of European geographical names as well as how much beef can be exported to the continent were overcome to reach the deal after eight years of negotiations. Another compromise will see Australian winemakers allowed to use the term “prosecco” domestically, but they must stop using it for exports after 10 years. Australia will also be allowed to keep using some geographical names, such as feta and gruyere, in cases where producers have used ... -
Dawn - 10:14 Mar 24, 2026
KARACHI: Sindh’s Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah on Tuesday ordered all district administrations to remain on “high alert” in view of further expected rains in the province this week. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has predicted showers in parts of Sindh between March 25 and March 29, with occasional gaps. Chairing a meeting, the chief secretary directed the Sindh Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) to issue an immediate advisory on the situation. All commissioners, deputy commissioners (DCs) and assistant commissioners participated in the meeting, which was attended virtually by most, and were directed to be present in the field for the next seven days. Noting the PMD’s prediction of rainfall, Shah directed the PDMA to issue an advisory on the situation. He also ordered the district administrations and local government institutions to remain fully mobilised and in the field. He directed the meeting to ensure the “availability and functionality of all necessary machinery for drain... -
Dawn - 09:03 Mar 24, 2026
Jamaat-i-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Tuesday once again criticised the government for its major hikes in petroleum prices — following the closure of Hormuz Strait — and termed them a burden on the common citizen. Earlier this month, the government hiked the prices of petrol and high-speed diesel by Rs55 per litre to manage the impact of the US-Israel war on Iran, which has triggered a global oil crisis affecting many countries, including Pakistan. Although Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last week said he had twice rejected recommendations for further increasing petrol and HSD prices, they effectively remain unchanged at Rs321.17 and Rs335.86 per litre, respectively. Addressing a press conference in Lahore today, the JI chief said the 20 per cent increase in the petroleum development levy (PDL) had pushed prices to Rs120–125 per litre, affecting journalists, students, workers, and riders. “The government can reduce petrol prices by cutting the levy,” he suggested, adding that thermal power units using ... -
Dawn - 06:57 Mar 24, 2026
When Moninder Singh learned recently of assassination threats against his family in Canada, where a fellow Sikh activist was killed in 2023, he says he remained defiant. “We won’t be silenced,” the chairman of the Sikh Federation of Canada told AFP. Singh was speaking at the United Nations’ European headquarters in Geneva, where he has been appealing for international action against India’s alleged targeting of Sikh activists abroad, and against so-called transnational repression more broadly. Sikh activists accuse India of targeting members of their community around the world, including alleged killings using organised crime groups — charges India denies. The best-known case was the 2023 killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a friend of Singh’s who was gunned down near the Sikh temple he led in a Vancouver suburb. Canada’s then-prime minister, Justin Trudeau, publicly accused India of involvement in that assassination, a charge later repeated by Canadian intelligence. India denied the allegations, which chilled t... -
Dawn - 05:56 Mar 24, 2026
Pakistan was ranked the world’s smoggiest country in 2025, with concentrations of hazardous small particles known as PM2.5 up to 13 times higher than the recommended World Health Organisation (WHO) level, research showed on Tuesday. Swiss air quality monitoring firm IQAir said in its annual report that 13 countries and territories kept average PM2.5 levels at the WHO standard of less than 5 microgrammes per cubic metre last year, up from seven in 2024. According to the findings of the report, in total, 130 out of 143 monitored countries and territories failed to meet the WHO guideline. Bangladesh and Tajikistan were second and third on the most polluted list. Screengrab showing a partial map of pollution levels in South Asia’s major cities, with the IQAir levels for Faisalabad displayed. — IQAir website Chad, statistically the smoggiest country of 2024, ranked fourth in 2025, but the decline in PM2.5 concentrations last year is likely to be the result of data gaps. Last March, the United States shut down a gl... -
Dawn - 05:07 Mar 24, 2026
WASHINGTON: Journalists at the US government-funded broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) have filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of undermining the outlet’s independence and turning it into a tool for political messaging. The complaint, filed on Monday in the US District Court in Washington, focuses on VOA transmissions to audiences in Iran, China, North Korea, and Kurdish regions, alleging that coverage now reflects White House talking points rather than objective reporting. VOA, established during World War II to showcase press freedom and provide reliable news to populations with limited access to independent journalism, is facing strict internal control. According to the lawsuit, Trump loyalists placed in key editorial positions have directed what is reported, including limiting coverage of civilian casualties from US military actions and requiring pre-approval for all guest appearances on Persian, Kurdish, and Afghan services. The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees VOA, defen... -
Dawn - 20:11 Mar 23, 2026
Gold prices in Pakistan slid by Rs43,600 per tola (24 karat) on Monday to Rs447,762 as international prices for the yellow metal fell by more than eight per cent to hit their lowest level in four months. This was after gold logged its biggest weekly loss in about 43 years last week, as an escalating Middle East conflict stoked inflation concerns and raised expectations of higher global interest rates. Spot gold declined 6.3pc to $4,203.21 per ounce by 07:57 GMT (12:57pm PKT), extending losses into a ninth straight session. It had shed more than 8pc to $4,097.99 earlier in the session to its lowest level since November 24. US gold futures eventually settled 3.7pc lower at $4,407.30. The metal dropped more than 10pc last week, its steepest weekly loss since February 1983, and has also retreated about 25pc from its record peak of $5,594.82 an ounce reached on January 29. US gold futures for April delivery dropped 8.1pc to $4,205.10. “With the Iranian conflict into its fourth week, and oil prices hanging around t... -
Dawn - 19:27 Mar 23, 2026
Pakistan, along with Turkiye and Egypt, is engaged in “active back-channel diplomacy” to “bridge the gap between” the US and Iran, an official in the administration confirmed to Dawn on Monday. The official said that through “active back-channel diplomacy”, involving US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, Pakistan, Turkiye and Egypt were engaged in “quiet communication” to restore peace. The source said a “strategic synergy” between Ankara, Cairo and Islamabad had established a “vital diplomatic conduit, demonstrating that regional cooperation is the most effective antidote to escalation”. This “mediation effort” was more than just crisis management, the source said, adding that there were reports of tangible progress toward resolving outstanding issues and finding a sustainable end to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The development has emerged after US President Donald Trump said he had given orders to postpone any military strikes against Iranian...
10732 items