Dawn

Source: https://www.dawn.com

Found 12682 news

  • AJK govt appoints Public Service Commission members amid questions over timing
    Dawn - 02:41 Aug 10, 2026
    MUZAFFARABAD: Days before its exit from power, the incumbent Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government has appointed seven members to Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Public Service Commission (PSC), the top recruitment body of AJK, a move that has raised questions about its propriety and timing. According to a notification issued by the Services and General Administration Department, the appointments were made by the government in exercise of the powers conferred under Article 48(2) of the AJK Interim Constitution, 1974, read with Section 4(3) of the AJK Public Service Commission Act, 1986. Those appointed include former secretaries Munir Hussain Chaudhary, Dr Chaudhry Liaqat Hussain and Mohammad Zahid Abbasi from the quota of retired government servants in BS-20 and above; former professor Dr Abdul Qadoos Khan and former vice chancellor Dr Abdul Hameed from the quota of educationists; former additional chief secretary Midhat Shehzad from the quota of women; and retired medical specialist Dr Mohammad Saleem Khan...
    Tags: Public Service Commission
  • Tarbela Dam attains maximum storage level
    Dawn - 02:35 Aug 10, 2026
    LAHORE: Tarbela Dam, the country’s second largest reservoir after Mangla Dam, reached its maximum storage level of 1,550-feet on Sunday, reflecting a significant increase in the country’s water conservation capacity. Sources attribute the filling of the Tarbela Dam to the ongoing high-flow season due to rains and snow melting. According to the flood forecasting division of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, the water conservation level in the dam at 6pm on Sunday reached 1,549.48 feet after increasing from 1,549 feet gauged at 6am. The minimum operating/dead level of the dam is 1,402 feet and the live storage recorded on Sunday was 5.523 Million-Acre Feet (MAF). In 2024 and 2025 (same day), Tarbela Dam had attained filling to 90pc and 96pc, respectively. On the other hand, the water conservation/storage level in Mangla Dam is also increasing fast and reached 1,206.45 feet, around 35.50 feet short of its full storage capacity of 1,242 feet. Since the minimum operating level of the dam is 1,050 feet, the l...
    Tags: Tarbela
  • Why didn’t the oil markets go berserk?
    Dawn - 02:32 Aug 10, 2026
    The world lost more than 2.6 billion barrels of oil since the US-Israel war with Iran began late February, yet oil market prices have not gone berserk. Except for one occasion, it has stayed away from touching the three digit/barrel prices. Last week, the head of Saudi oil giant Aramco, Amin Nasser, warned that global inventories were running low despite emergency measures to cushion the blow. The lost supply is equivalent to nearly a month of normal global crude production, underscoring the scale of a disruption that has closed the major oil chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz, upending energy markets. During the entire period, crude oil prices have mostly continued to be in two digits, defying some projections that, in case the Strait of Hormuz stays blocked for long, oil markets could touch or even go above the $200 per barrel mark, bypassing in the process the peak of $147 per barrel touched in the summer of 2008. What has kept the oil markets under some check despite all the upheaval? EVs displaced 1.4m bar...
  • Rs115bn WB-funded rehabilitation project restructured quietly
    Dawn - 02:20 Aug 10, 2026
    ISLAMABAD: Amid a blame game and fiduciary concerns, the government has quietly restructured the Rs115 billion World Bank-funded post-flood rehabilitation project, depriving more than 134,000 verified flood-affected families in Balochistan of the resilient homes they were promised. Official documents and background discussions indicate that investigations were underway into alleged record tampering, duplicate claims and multiple payments for the same housing units. There were also recorded attempts to disrupt such probes. The project steering committee (PSC), led by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal and Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, has now capped the $155 million housing component of the $400m Integrated Flood Resilience & Adaptation Project (IFRAP) at about 69,000 homes. The World Bank has consequently dropped its proposed $180m additional financing that could have extended reconstruction to the remaining affected families. After the devastating 2022 floods, Pakistan secured more than $9bn in intern...
  • Movement restricted under Section 144 in some areas of South Waziristan, Tank on Monday
    Dawn - 19:28 Aug 09, 2026
    SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: The administrations of Lower South Waziristan, Upper South Waziristan and Tank have imposed Section 144 in several areas of the three districts for August 10 (Monday), citing security concerns and directing residents to avoid unnecessary movement during the specified hours. Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) is a legal provision that empowers district administrations to prohibit an assembly of four or more people in an area for a limited period. The deputy commissioners (DCs) of the three districts issued separate notifications on Sunday evening, imposing restrictions on movement between 6am and 7pm, as well as ordering the closure of markets and business centres in the specified areas. The administrations of Upper and Lower South Waziristan have also directed motorists to stop their vehicles at least 50 metres before reaching security personnel and for all passengers to get out of the vehicles. They warned that unauthorised movement or violation of the restrictions would i...
    Tags: Monday Section Tank
  • Anger mounts in US over vast network of car license plate cameras
    Dawn - 18:12 Aug 09, 2026
    In only a few years, the surveillance start-up Flock has installed more than 100,000 license plate reader cameras across the United States. But a grassroots movement upset over privacy concerns is fighting back — even going so far as systematically vandalising the equipment. The first time he decided to trash one of the cameras, a self-styled vigilante wearing all black and known as Nomark says he was “super nervous”. Now, after disabling about 30 of the devices near his home in the Minneapolis area, he told AFP: “I’m not really as scared anymore.” Flock cameras are installed by police departments, homeowners’ associations and businesses, ostensibly to catch criminals in the act. Data is uploaded to Flock’s cloud and can be shared with subscribers. But opponents are outraged at what they say is a dangerous tool that can be used to infringe on American privacy and civil liberties. At just 20 years old, Nomark offers his 500,000 Instagram followers a how-to guide for rendering the cameras useless, raising aware...
  • Sindh govt decides judicial commission to probe Mir Raza Ali murder case
    Dawn - 17:13 Aug 09, 2026
    KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to seek a judicial commission to probe the killing of 25-year-old businessman Mir Raza Ali, Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar said on Sunday. Ali’s body was found in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar last month, a day after he went missing on July 28. While his family is convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, police had previously been building the case around the possibility that he died by suicide. However, after injury details from a second postmortem ruled out the possibility of suicide, a murder charge was added to the case on Sunday. “A decision has been taken to conduct a judicial inquiry into the murder case of Mir Raza Ali Khan,” the Sindh home minister said in a statement issued by his office. According to the statement, Lanjar, along with Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, visited Ali’s residence to meet his parents. They assured the family that they would be provided complete justice. Lanjar said the judicial commission would be constituted under the ...
    Tags: Mir Raza Ali Sindh
  • Lionel Messi bids farewell to father who guided his glittering career
    Dawn - 16:46 Aug 09, 2026
    Argentina football icon Lionel Messi bid farewell on Sunday to his father, the global star’s emotional anchor and agent since childhood, who passed away following a battle with cancer aged 68. The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner touched down on a private flight from Miami late on Saturday with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and their children and has remained surrounded by his close family since. A private ceremony with a few teammates from the Argentine national squad is scheduled to take place at a cemetery in the town of Perez, adjacent to Rosario, later Sunday. The gates of the town’s El Prado cemetery displayed handwritten messages from fans — “Stay strong, Leo, we love you” and “Stay strong, Messi family” — alongside a large floral wreath. Messi’s teammates rallied around their captain following the announcement that Jorge Messi had passed away late on Friday at a clinic in Rosario. “It will surely do him good for us to be there,” Boca Juniors midfielder Leandro Paredes told journalists after his team’s match...
    Tags: Lionel Messi
  • Houthi attacks kill 11 in Yemen, target Saudi oil refinery
    Dawn - 16:44 Aug 09, 2026
    Strikes by Houthi rebels on Sunday killed at least 11 people, a medical source in the Yemeni port city of Mokha told AFP, after an earlier drone salvo targeted a Saudi oil refinery on the Red Sea coast. A years-long truce in Yemen’s civil war between the Houthis and the internationally recognised government appeared to collapse last month as fighting between regional allies of the United States and Iran flared. The breakdown of the UN-backed 2022 accord came as the rebels announced a maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia, hitting Saudi tankers in the Red Sea and the kingdom’s oil infrastructure, in parallel with Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. A medical source in Mokha, held by Yemen’s internationally recognised, Aden-based government, said three civilians and eight military personnel had been killed in the Houthi attacks. A further 32 individuals were wounded, six of them civilians, the source added, explaining all the civilian casualties had been a result of strikes on Mokha’s port. Two military source...
    Tags: Saudi Houthi Yemen
  • Curfew imposed in Balochistan Surab's district over law and order concerns
    Dawn - 15:50 Aug 09, 2026
    QUETTA: The district administration of Surab on Sunday imposed a curfew across the district till August 15, citing concerns over the law and order situation. According to an official notification, “The curfew will remain in force daily from 8pm to 9am during the specified period, starting from August 9 to 15, 2026.” The administration also directed citizens to avoid leaving their homes unnecessarily during curfew hours, fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies, and strictly follow the security standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued for the protection of their families. The notification warned that individuals violating the curfew would be responsible for any harm or loss resulting from their actions. Legal action would be taken against those found violating the restrictions, it added. Revised timings for Khuzdar commercial centres Meanwhile, the district administration of Khuzdar announced revised operating hours for commercial centres across the district amid growing security concerns. According to...
  • Wrong solution to the right problem
    Dawn - 15:21 Aug 09, 2026
    PAKISTAN’S governance crisis is fundamentally institutional rather than geographical. While the creation of new provinces may address certain concerns relating to regional identity, representation, and administrative reach, it cannot by itself remedy systemic deficiencies in governance. Without meaningful institutional reform, decentralisation, and fiscal planning, new provinces risk reproducing existing problems at a greater administrative and financial cost. Modern federal democracies increasingly function through a three-tier system of governance, in which constitutional authority is distributed among the federal government, provincial governments and elected local governments. The rationale is both democratic and practical; decisions should be taken at the lowest level capable of addressing them effectively. National defence and foreign affairs belong to the federation, provincial policy belongs to the provinces while matters such as municipal services, sanitation, local infrastructure and community devel...
  • Pakistan rejects Afghan Taliban claims of weapons smuggled into Afghanistan as 'frivolous, baseless'
    Dawn - 14:45 Aug 09, 2026
    The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Sunday rubbished claims made by the Afghan Taliban about weapons allegedly smuggled from Pakistan into Afghanistan as “frivolous” and “baseless”. In a statement shared on X, the ministry said, “The Afghan Taliban regime’s claim that weapons are being smuggled from Pakistan into Afghanistan for so-called ‘subversive activities’ is frivolous, baseless and contrary to established facts.” It noted that Afghanistan was already awash with “enormous quantities of sophisticated weapons and military equipment abandoned after the withdrawal of US and coalition forces (worth an estimated $7.2 billion), in addition to large stocks of Soviet-era weaponry accumulated over decades of conflict”. “Attempts to manufacture a Pakistani connection to such weapons seem designed to divert international attention from the far more serious and documented concern[s]: terrorist groups continue to find space, facilitation and operational freedom on Afghan soil to plan, support and execute ...
    Tags: Afghanistan Pakistan Afghan Taliban
  • Netanyahu rejects Trump's Gaza plan, vows no pullout until Hamas disarms
    Dawn - 14:03 Aug 09, 2026
    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected a Gaza plan hailed by US President Donald Trump, vowing no military pullout until Hamas is “genuinely” disarmed. After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, Netanyahu explicitly opposed it as he faced pushback from his right-wing base ahead of elections. “Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said, referring to a plan endorsed in late July by Hamas. The Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens”, Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting. The document, the latest stage in a US-led ceasefire announced in October that has reduced but not ended Israeli operations in Gaza, said Hamas would surrender weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing body. The plan said Israel would begin pulling out forces in tandem with the disarmament, an idea adamantly rejected by Israel, which also wants Hamas to destroy its weap...
    Tags: Gaza Hamas Netanyahu
  • Pakistan to partner with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar on oil storage scheme
    Dawn - 14:02 Aug 09, 2026
    Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik on Sunday said plans were underway to launch a scheme with Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar for oil storage to strengthen energy security. Pakistan has been planning to boost domestic storage for crude oil and refined products to increase its energy security, it emerged in May. With no strategic petroleum reserves, the country has been left exposed to oil supply shocks resulting from the US-Iran war that has choked supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. Addressing a press conference in Lahore today, Malik said: “I am grateful to the governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar that we will have a bonded scheme with them, under which these countries will store their oil on the secure territories of Pakistan at their own cost, and supply to the entire world from here.” He added that Pakistan will have the right that in the case of a conflict, it could “buy those resources from them by paying for them and fulfil our needs”. The minister said the “commercial bonded scheme draft...
    Tags: Saudi Arabia Pakistan Qatar Kuwait
  • Pakistani hostages held by Somali pirates issue new distress message seeking govt help
    Dawn - 13:31 Aug 09, 2026
    More than 100 days after being taken hostage by Somali pirates, crew members on board MT Honour 25 have released another distress message in which they appealed directly to the Pakistani government for their release, it emerged on Sunday. The Honour 25 — a Palau-flagged oil tanker carrying 17 to 19 crew members, including 10 Pakistanis — was hijacked by armed pirates off the coast of Puntland, Somalia on April 21. Despite over three months passing, there has been no progress either in negotiations or the payment of the ransom, said to be around $3 million, for the recovery of the hostages, despite concerns abounding about their declining health. In two video messages broadcast on DawnNewsTV and dated August 7, the Pakistani hostages and foreigners can be seen in a state of extreme distress, with most looking sick and weak. They requested that the Pakistani government talk to the Somali pirates and take steps to release them. Yasir Khan, a hostage aboard the ship, said that many of the crew members had fallen ...
    Tags: Pakistani Somali
  • 2 tribal elders shot dead in KP's Lower South Waziristan
    Dawn - 11:37 Aug 09, 2026
    LOWER SOUTH WAZIRISTAN: Two tribal elders were shot dead by unidentified armed men in the Zarmilan area of Toi Khulla tehsil of Lower South Waziristan on Sunday, police said. Lower South Waziristan District Police Officer (DPO) Shah Hassan told Dawn that the victims were travelling in a car from the Gul Kach area towards the Zarmilan area when unidentified gunmen opened fire on their vehicle at Darozanda. The two men sustained multiple bullet wounds and died at the scene, the DPO said, adding that the deceased were identified as Haji Gul and Malik Badshah, both belonging to the Suleman Khel tribe. He said the attackers fled the area after the shooting. “Police have filed a preliminary report at the Toi Khulla police station and launched an investigation into the incident,” he said. “Every aspect of the incident is being examined, and efforts are under way to trace and arrest the assailants.” Lower South Waziristan, as well as the rest of KP, has been facing security challenges and continues to witness inciden...
    Tags: Lower South Waziristan
  • Police form new team to probe Mir Raza Ali's case; murder charge added to FIR
    Dawn - 10:51 Aug 09, 2026
    KARACHI: The investigation team probing the killing of 25-year-old businessman Mir Raza Ali has been reconstituted while the murder charge has been added to the case registered on his father’s complaint. Ali’s body was found in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar last month, a day after he went missing on July 28. While his family is convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, police had previously been building the case around the possibility that he died by suicide. However, an order released by the Sindh inspector general of police’s (IG) office on Sunday, notifying the reconstitution of the investigating team, showed that the murder charge had been added to the first information report. The order, seen by Dawn, said the new investigating team was formed in light of Ali’s second postmortem report, which contradicted the one released after his first postmortem, to “supervise the investigation of FIR no. 795/2026 u/s 365/ 302/ 201 of the PPC”. Initially, the first information report (FIR) was registered ...
  • Pak-Saudi-Turkiye defence pact open to any other country in region, 'purely defensive': DPM Dar
    Dawn - 10:27 Aug 09, 2026
    Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said on Sunday that the defence pact signed between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye remained “open to any country in the region” willing to uphold its fundamental principles. He also clarified that the agreement was “purely defensive” in nature. The indication that an expansion of the Makkah Joint Defence Agreement, signed in the Saudi city on Friday, was possible came a day after the Turkish foreign minister said Egypt could be joining the pact. The pact 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. Dar further elaborated on the pact, which he referred to as the Makkah Accord, in a post on X. “The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement […] reflects the depth of the brotherly relations between the leadership and peoples of the three countries. “The Makkah Accord is the culmination of years of discussions and coordination, with a common desire to strengthen strategic coope...
  • Security forces kill 15 terrorists in Balochistan IBOs: state media
    Dawn - 08:44 Aug 09, 2026
    Security forces have killed 15 terrorists in multiple intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in several areas of Balochistan, state media reported on Sunday. State-run Pakistan TV reported citing sources that the IBOs were carried out in Mastung, Bolan, Washuk, Awaran, Sibi, Khuzdar, Harnai, and Nushki under Operation Raddul Fitna 3. Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the slain terrorists, it reported. “The operations severely damaged the khawarij network and restricted their movement,” Pakistan TV said. Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists. The latest operations by the security forces in Balochistan take place as the province continues to face security challenges. According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies’ (PICSS) monthly security assessment released on July 31, the security situation deteriorated most significantly in Balochistan in the country last month. The overall death toll increased by 241pc in Balochistan, from 109 in June to 372 in July, the report ...
    Tags: Security
  • On-duty cop martyred, another injured in Lakki Marwat attack
    Dawn - 07:54 Aug 09, 2026
    LAKKI MARWAT: A constable was martyred and another sustained bullet wounds while on duty in an attack in the Saeedkhel area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district on Sunday, police said. District police officer’s spokesperson Qudratullah Khan told Dawn that the cops were attacked near the Saeedkhel graveyard, in the limits of the City Police Station. “The terrorists opened fire on the rider squad personnel while they were patrolling the area,” he said, adding that Constable Sajidullah lost his life in the attack while Constable Muhammad Waqas was seriously wounded. The body of the deceased constable and the injured policeman were taken to the Government City Hospital, he said. Meanwhile, a large police contingent reached the site of the attack, surrounded the area and launched a search for the assailants, he said. Security personnel and law enforcers have been coming under attack in KP, which continues to face terrorism. According to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies’ (PICSS) mon...
    Tags: Lakki Marwat

12682 items

Popular Tags