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Dawn - 09:32 Aug 10, 2026
Iran’s foreign ministry said on Monday that the defence pact signed last week between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye was “a sign of a change in the perception” of regional countries towards the United States. The joint defence agreement, signed in Makkah on Friday, aims to strengthen collective deterrence and empowers its signatory states to treat an attack against one of them as an attack against all of them. “This development is a sign of a change in the perception of the countries of the region,” ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said while responding to a query during a weekly press briefing on Monday. “Considering the developments of the last two to three years, the countries of the region have realised that security is not a commodity that can be bought from false security brokers,” Iran’s state media quoted him as saying, referring to the United States. Baqaei further said that there was “no reason to worry that this treaty will be against Iran”, highlighting Iran’s deep religious, historical an... -
Dawn - 08:40 Aug 10, 2026
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has successfully undergone elective laparoscopic surgery to treat a para-umbilical hernia, his medical team said on Monday. “He is currently undergoing physiotherapy treatment and is under the supervision of a team of medical experts to ensure that the recovery process is going well”, the head of Anwar’s medical team, Sri Ranga Abdullah Ramaiah, said in a statement. Earlier on Monday, Anwar’s aide said the premier was undergoing medical checks and was expected to be under observation for two days. “Let us pray … that he is blessed with long-lasting health so that he can return to his usual duties in the near future,” Press Secretary Tunku Nashrul Abaidah said. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wished his Malaysian counterpart a speedy recovery. In a post on X, he said: “Wishing my dear brother, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, a swift and smooth recovery during his medical procedures.” “The people of Pakistan join me in praying for his continued good health and well-... -
Dawn - 08:22 Aug 10, 2026
In Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed. Thousands of miners are deployed across the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometres northeast of the provincial capital Faizabad, extracting gold for investors nationwide. Some residents in the area have profited from the gold rush, only to regret it later, such as farmer Muhammad Amin. “Before, the river was deep, the water was clean,” said the 74-year-old from Pul-i-Ziri Ban valley. Since mining got under way, “the water of the river is not drinkable; you can’t even wash your body with that water”, he told AFP. This photograph taken on July 28, 2026 shows an Afghan miner pouring water over a sieve to separate dirt and stones from gold nuggets at Gulak-Dara valley in Shiwa area of Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province. — AFP With tears in his eyes, Amin said the grass along the riverbank “has all gone” and farming is no longer possi... -
Dawn - 08:06 Aug 10, 2026
Indian students marched towards the state assembly in Jharkhand on Monday, escalating protests over alleged irregularities in government recruitment examinations, with several students also on hunger strike. Protests in Ranchi, capital of the eastern state home to more than 33 million people, began on July 29, days after a youth-led “cockroach” movement in New Delhi forced the resignation of the national education minister. At least six protesters are on hunger strike, including student leader Devendra Nath Mahto, 33, who has been fasting for more than a week. “We want the whole system to change,” Mahto said, as quoted by Indian media, demanding an end to the use of a private company that conducts tests for state civil service. On Monday, hundreds of police guarded the assembly behind barbed-wire barricades, after repeated talks between the protesters and the state government failed to reach an agreement. Large crowds of students chanting slogans marched towards the state assembly. The protesters are demandin... -
Dawn - 08:04 Aug 10, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday issued a ruling on a public interest petition challenging President Asif Ali Zardari’s delay in approving judicial appointments, directing the government to explain the constitutional consequences of keeping the premier’s advice pending for an indefinite period. Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir, who had reserved the order on the maintainability of the petition on August 6, issued notices to the president, the federation of Pakistan and the attorney general. He directed them to file separate concise reports explaining the timeline and status of the summary forwarded by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for judicial appointments. The petition was filed by advocate Luqman Zafar through his counsel Zahid Asif Chaudhry amid a presidential delay in approving the judicial appointments recommended by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP). The JCP, headed by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi, recommended the appointment of 19 additional judges and the confirmation of five judge... -
Dawn - 07:02 Aug 10, 2026
As dark plumes billow from overhead smokestacks, brickmakers at a kiln in Sheikhupura district crush coal through small holes beneath their feet into the fiery chambers below. Workers already have to endure extreme conditions at traditional brick kilns, which burn at over 1,000°C and demand constant monitoring to ensure they remain hot enough. But they are becoming almost unbearable as climate change makes summers even hotter in a country already used to temperatures well over 40°C . A man works at a brick kiln in Sheikhupura, Punjab on July 20, 2026. —AFP Abid Hussain, a 35-year-old labourer whose clothes were covered in dark soot, told AFP the work felt like being trapped between fire below and, increasingly, above. He is one of hundreds of thousands working in an industry that labour advocates say is poorly regulated, badly paid and becoming more dangerous as temperatures rise. “The heat is undoubtedly extreme but when you think about the financial pressures at home, you have no option but to keep working,... -
Dawn - 06:51 Aug 10, 2026
Security forces have killed five terrorists, including a key commander, in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the Sarkini and Chedgi areas of Panjgur district in Balochistan, Radio Pakistan reported on Monday. The operation was conducted as part of Operation Radd-ul-Fitna-3 in Balochistan, the state broadcaster said. “According to security sources, the security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation against Fitna al Hindustan terrorists in Sarkani and Chedgi areas of Panjgur, killing five terrorists, including a key Fitna al Hindustan commander, Wazir,” it said. Fitna al-Hindustan is a term used by the Pakistani military for India’s alleged role in terrorism and destabilisation in Pakistan. “Four motorcycles, machine guns, heavy weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the slain terrorists,” Radio Pakistan reported. The terrorists were allegedly involved in robbery, extortion, kidnapping and attacks targeting local traders and other residents in Panjgur, it added. Interior Minister Mohs... -
Dawn - 05:46 Aug 10, 2026
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is undergoing medical tests and procedures and was expected to be under observation for two days, his aide said on Monday. Anwar is “undergoing examinations and procedures set by a team of medical experts”, Press Secretary Tunku Nashrul Abaidah said in a statement, without providing further details. “Let us pray … that he is blessed with long-lasting health so that he can return to his usual duties in the near future,” the statement said. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wished his Malaysian counterpart a speedy recovery. In a post on X, he said: “Wishing my dear brother, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, a swift and smooth recovery during his medical procedures.” “The people of Pakistan join me in praying for his continued good health and well-being,” he added. Anwar, who turned 79 on Monday and has been in office since 2022, has had recurrent shoulder and back problems. He was hospitalised in 2018 for shoulder and back pain. Last November, he cancelled a trip to Pahang state ... -
Dawn - 04:39 Aug 10, 2026
There is a particular cruelty in a name being spoken twice by death. Once when it is buried. And once when it is dug up again, because the truth could not rest with it. Mir Raza, the son of Mir Hassan Ali Khan, and Wafflix business owner, was laid into the earth of Rehorania Masjid graveyard on the 29th of July. Eleven days later, a board of doctors, a police surgeon, a magistrate, and a family that refused to let silence be the final word stood over that same soil and opened it again. I have read the report. I do not think I will ever be able to unread it. It is written in the flat, careful language that medicine keeps for what it cannot otherwise bear to say. Somewhere inside that distance is a twenty-five-year-old man who once had a face his mother could recognise without being told his name. What the doctors found confirmed what the family had feared all along, that Mir Raza did not simply die. He was taken from them. And when asked, plainly, whether his wounds came before death, someone circled a single ... -
Dawn - 04:26 Aug 10, 2026
The third phase of elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) is currently underway in four constituencies in Poonch Division’s Bagh and Haveli districts. Polling began at 8am and will continue until 5pm. Government officials have anticipated clashes in some areas, while the Election Commission has classified most of the 803 polling stations in the four constituencies as either sensitive or highly sensitive. “Apart from the regular police of both districts, we have dispatched an additional 10,300 troops to maintain law and order and provide a fear-free atmosphere to voters,” Election Commission Secretary Raja Mohammad Shakeel told Dawn earlier. Elections are being held across AJK in phases amid tensions between protesters and the authorities. Polling in Mirpur and Muzaffarabad divisions was held on July 27 and Aug 2, respectively, with the PML-N securing 24 seats. The PPP has only secured 10 seats so far. The third phase of the polls was originally meant to cover all of Poonch Division. The division comprises... -
Dawn - 04:20 Aug 10, 2026
KARACHI: The legal troubles of the prime suspect in the Rs8.5 billion Yellow Line graft case, Zameer Abbasi, have further increased as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has initiated an inquiry into his alleged possession of assets beyond his known sources of income and his alleged “illegal appointments” or “promotions in the Sindh government”. Earlier in June, the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) Sindh had booked Abbasi, the then project director of the Karachi Mobility Project (KMP), and others following an inquiry into alleged financial mismanagement in the KMP related to the Yellow Line. The inquiry committee report stated that Abbasi and then director procurement Jhaman made Rs8.5bn advance payments to contractors without bank guarantees despite the fact that their contracts lacked any specific clause regarding “advance payment and financial assistance to the contractors”. A source told Dawn that the NAB had initiated an inquiry against the senior bureaucrat over allegations of possessing asset... -
Dawn - 04:15 Aug 10, 2026
LAHORE: A judicial magistrate has initiated an inquiry under Section 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) into the suspicious death of two underage girls in Lahore police custody on Aug 4, as mystery continues to surround the horrific, tragic incident. The judicial inquiry was launched after the families of the victims – Amina and Anmol – demanded an impartial investigation into what happened to the girls in the police custody for well over two hours – from the time of their arrest to calling a Rescue 1122 team to the Township police station on Aug 4. Section 176 of the CrPC empowers a magistrate to inquire into the cause of death when a person dies in police custody or under some suspicious circumstances. The law also empowers the magistrate to order exhumation of a body for the postmortem examination, besides recording statements and examining witnesses on oath. Dawn spoke to police officers familiar with the matter and attempted to map the sequence of events from the girls’ arrest to their deaths. ... -
Dawn - 03:39 Aug 10, 2026
WASHINGTON: Former US president Joe Biden’s cancer has metastasised further, according to his son Hunter Biden, who shared the update in a recent interview with the BBC. In May 2025, just four months after he left office as the oldest sitting president, the elder Biden revealed he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. He subsequently began treatment, including radiation and hormone therapy, which the 83-year-old described as going “really well” last month, during an announcement of his upcoming memoir. In a wide-ranging interview published late Friday with BBC Newsnight, Hunter Biden said his father’s disease has spread despite the treatment. “The cancer has spread, is metastasised into his bones and further,” Biden said. “It’s very painful, and it’s very debilitating in many respects, but he’s still out there. He’s still doing his thing…he so believes in this country.” Hunter Biden appeared to get emotional at times during the interview while discussing ... -
Dawn - 03:27 Aug 10, 2026
• Announcement comes hours after Faryal Talpur recommends judicial probe • Previous investigation body sent packing as IGP forms new team • DSP, Jauhar SHO suspended for failing to preserve crime scene • Sharjeel moves NCCIA over ‘defamatory campaign’ KARACHI: In what appears to be a damage-control exercise, the provincial government has decided to conduct a judicial inquiry by a judge of the Sindh High Court into the murder of young businessman Mir Raza Ali, a day after a fresh autopsy ruled out the possibility of suicide on the grounds that he had been shot in the back and that his body bore marks of torture. An announcement to this effect was made by Sindh Home Minister Zia Lanjar a few hours after senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader and chairperson of the Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on Home Affairs, Faryal Talpur, recommended that the chief minister constitute a judicial commission to conduct a transparent, impartial and comprehensive investigation into the case. An IBA graduate and owner of the ... -
Dawn - 03:21 Aug 10, 2026
ON the surface, the Punjab cabinet’s decision to allocate funds for local government elections is a welcome step towards restoring a democratic tier of governance that has remained absent for more than four years — in fact, for much longer in practical terms. After years of premature dissolution, court-mandated reinstatement, repeated delays and legal and administrative manoeuvring, the allocation suggests that Punjab is finally preparing to hold polls that were constitutionally due by April 2022. The timing, however, is difficult to ignore. The announcement comes only days after the interior minister, with the public endorsement of DG ISPR, argued that creating new provinces or administrative units could improve governance. The sudden will to revive LGs may well be aimed at demonstrating that devolution to the grassroots can improve governance and that LGs offer an alternative to redrawing provincial boundaries as proposed by certain quarters. That argument would have carried weight had Punjab chosen to esta... -
Dawn - 03:16 Aug 10, 2026
IN hindsight, revolutions are easy to predict. Years, decades and even centuries after such events, scholars will write volumes explaining how prevailing conditions made such violent action inevitable, with the most common preconditions being extreme economic inequality and injustice along with an oppressive state which is not only prone to overreaction but is also so wedded to using force that it has forgotten all other means of conflict reduction and resolution. What is next to impossible to predict is the single spark that sets off the explosion, the final straw that breaks the back of the ancient regime. And all too often, that spark is so small as to be insignificant and the straw is almost weightless compared to the existing burden accumulated over years. In Bangladesh, the issue of job reservations led to the swift end of Hasina Wajed’s 15-year reign and resulted in her fleeing the country, but how many jobs were actually reserved this way? According to most calculations, they were no more than 1,000 a... -
Dawn - 03:14 Aug 10, 2026
MIRPUR: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government has placed 10 more residents of the region on the Fourth Schedule of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2014, over their alleged affiliation with the proscribed Jammu and Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JK-JAAC), according to an official notification. Placement on the Fourth Schedule subjects individuals to monitoring by law-enforcement agencies and may involve legal restrictions relating to movement, political and organisational activities, foreign travel and financial transactions. According to the AJK Home Department notification, the decision was taken in light of a resolution adopted at the AJK cabinet meeting held on June 5. The AJK President, exercising powers under Section 16(1) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2014, approved the inclusion of the 10 individuals on the Fourth Schedule. Those placed on the list are Ijaz Ahmed Khan, Azra Alam, Muhammad Zohaib Khan, Muhammad Nabeel Tabassum, Zeeshan Ahmed, Raja Waseem Sabir, Raja Muhammad Mansoor Khan, Qaiser Kalee... -
Dawn - 03:09 Aug 10, 2026
AN effort is underway to spark a debate on creating new administrative units in the country ostensibly on the grounds that the present system is not delivering. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, whose proximity to the establishment is well known, tried to make the case. Claiming the present governance system has “collapsed”, he called for more provinces and administrative units. He offered no explanation of what “collapse” meant and how new units would magically fix Pakistan’s problems. His proposal found backing from the military spokesman. He echoed the call, urged a system “reset” and endorsed the creation of new administrative units. Such calls are, of course, not new. Every so often, this proposal surfaces, mostly from the establishment or other interested groups. But any sweeping change has never found traction among major political parties or the public at large. This time was no different. Naqvi faced criticism from across the political spectrum. Prominent ruling party leaders questioned his statement. ... -
Dawn - 03:05 Aug 10, 2026
Pakistan’s fiscal position in FY26 presents a paradox: apparent stability that masks deep-seated fragility. While the overall fiscal deficit narrowed to 1.6 per cent of GDP during the first 11 months (July-May) — with the July-April period falling to 1.1pc — this achievement rests on fragile foundations. Total public debt stood at a staggering Rs83.29 trillion ($298.5 billion) by the end of March 2026, while interest payments consumed Rs6.16tr in just 11 months. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects a fiscal deficit of 3.2pc for FY27. With the Federal Board of Revenue missing its IMF tax target by Rs975bn and debt servicing crowding out development spending, the country walks a fiscal tightrope — stabilisation today, sustainability tomorrow remains an open question. While headline fiscal indicators suggest some macroeconomic stabilisation, the underlying pressures become far clearer when one examines the power sector. Capacity payments, circular debt and costly contractual obligations have emerged am... -
Dawn - 02:56 Aug 10, 2026
The next automobile policy will test the ability of policymakers to reconcile competing commercial interests while keeping the country’s broader economic, industrial and environmental objectives in view. In more than one way, the new policy will be the most consequential industrial policy document Pakistan has produced in years. Every major stakeholder is lobbying aggressively for protecting their commercial interests through a policy that was supposed to be announced before the expiry of the previous one on June 30. Legacy assemblers want protection for their existing internal combustion engine (ICE) portfolios. Hybrid and plug-in hybrid manufacturers seek extension of tax incentives that expired with the 2021-26 policy. The electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers want a policy that accelerates adoption of electric mobility in accordance with the government policy that commits to boost EV share in new sales to 30 per cent of the total by 2030, 50pc by 2040 and 100pc of new sales by 2050, with a net-zero transpor...
12682 items