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Dawn - 15:15 Apr 04, 2026
Pakistan is expected to witness a spell of heavy rains, beginning from Sunday night in Balochistan and lasting till April 9 in the upper parts of the country, according to the Met Office. In a weather advisory issued on Saturday, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said it predicted that “another western disturbance is likely to approach western parts of Balochistan” on Sunday evening and was likely to persist in the upper regions till April 9. Under the influence of the weather system, showers with isolated heavy falls or hailstorms were likely in various areas of all provinces, as well as Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). In Balochistan, rain-windstorm/thunderstorm with isolated heavyfalls/hailstorm was expected in Quetta, Chaman, Chagai, Dalbandin, Kharan, Ziarat, Pishin, Qila Abdullah, Qila Saifullah, Nushki, Harnai, Zhob, Kalat, Khuzdar, Barkhan, Mastung, Sibi, Kohlu, Nasirabad and Loralai from Sunday night to the morning of April 7 (Tuesday) with occasional gaps. The same ... -
Dawn - 15:04 Apr 04, 2026
Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Saturday advocated for the revision of market timings to cut down on oil usage by saving electricity, as the country faces rising import costs amid the global oil crisis. Addressing a press conference in Lahore, Iqbal stressed the need to reduce energy spending to combat the economic difficulties arising from the ongoing war. Pointing out that Pakistan generated electricity using imported fuel, the planning minister emphasised the need to “bring efficiency in the consumption of petrol and diesel”. Iqbal observed that markets in Pakistan usually opened after 12pm and remained open till 2am, using “electricity generated from imported fuel”. “If we use electricity at night now, this will be generated from furnace oil, which costs the public Rs60-80 per unit,” he explained, asking whether such “irresponsible conduct” suited a nation facing an enormous crisis. “Crises are moments of behavioural change,” he said. The planning minister noted that provinces have been asked to consult ... -
Dawn - 13:31 Apr 04, 2026
Awaam Pakistan President Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Saturday called on the government to deregulate petroleum prices and promote electric vehicles (EVs) to absorb the economic impact of rising oil prices amid the US-Israel war on Iran. Since the February 28 strikes by the US and Israel on Iran triggered the war and pushed up global oil prices, fuel prices in Pakistan have reached record highs. In two major hikes, petrol prices have risen from Rs266.17 to Rs378 — after a partial reduction in a recent hike — while those of high-speed diesel have surged from Rs280.86 to Rs520.35. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Abbasi said: “I would like to say two things: deregulate the petroleum prices — the government is not capable of handling it — and pay attention to electric vehicles (EVs), especially on motorcycles.” “This amount keeps on increasing […] your system will function only if you incentivise EVs,” he added, citing China as an example of having policies to promote EVs. The former prime minister also ra... -
Dawn - 12:27 Apr 04, 2026
The Pakistan Navy on Saturday inducted the second Milgem-class corvette into its fleet, said a statement from the service’s public relations department. The warship is the second of four Milgem class corvettes, the contract for which was signed with ASFAT Inc, a Turkish state-owned defence contractor firm in 2018. Under this contract, two ships were to be constructed in Turkiye and the remaining two ships in Pakistan. At the induction ceremony of the warship PNS Khaibar, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf highlighted that Pakistan’s strategic location along vital maritime trade and energy corridors demands a potent naval force to safeguard national interests and ensure secure sea lines of communication (SLOCs). The naval chief maintained that during last year’s war with India, the navy was “poised to sink” the Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier, which forced the warship and its escorts to retreat to their “perceived safe havens”. “The mastery and conduct of naval operations during Marka-i-Haq delivers... -
Dawn - 12:21 Apr 04, 2026
Artemis 2 astronaut Jeremy Hansen felt like he was “falling out of the sky” as his spacecraft followed its complex flight path to the Moon, the Canadian said in a Saturday video call. The four Artemis astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon on Saturday morning — more than 150,000 miles (241,000 kilometres) from home — as they zipped toward the first crewed lunar flyby in more than half a century. Hansen, a 50-year-old former fighter pilot on his maiden voyage into space, said he saw “some extraordinary things” during the first hours aboard the Orion. “By the time we had a bit of a nap and got up, the Earth was just so far away,” Hansen, flanked by American crewmates Victor Glover and Reid Wiseman, told a question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). ‘Like falling out of the sky’ Hansen then described the translunar injection burn — a maneuver that brought Orion within 200 kilometres of Earth before swinging around onto a new course for the Moon. “It just fe... -
Dawn - 11:39 Apr 04, 2026
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Saturday said India was planning a “false-flag operation” to blame Pakistan, warning New Delhi of a strong reaction if it conducted such a “drama”. Speaking to the media in Sialkot, Asif said: “They [plan] some kind of false-flag operation through their own men or through the Pakistanis in their detention by laying down some bodies somewhere and saying they were terrorists and had done so and so. “The kind of insult they faced around a year ago […] the entire world, in fact, their own public, taunts them that they are five times larger than Pakistan in every aspect — population, resources, military, airforce,” he added. The minister asserted that the Indian leadership would keep facing such backlash “till the end of the world”, recalling the Pakistan Air Force’s performance during the conflict with India last year. “If they try to enact such a drama this time, then God-willingly, we will take them to Kolkata,” he added, referring to the eastern Indian city near the border with... -
Dawn - 10:15 Apr 04, 2026
The four Artemis astronauts have passed the halfway point between Earth and the Moon on the way to their planned lunar flyby, Nasa said on Friday evening. “You are now closer to the moon than you are to us on Earth,” mission control told the astronauts at around 11pm (4am GMT), according to the space agency’s official live broadcast. his screengrab from a NASA live broadcast video shows (L-R) NASA astronaut and Artemis II pilot Victor Glover, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Artemis II Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen and NASA astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman during a press call as they travel to the Moon in the Orion spacecraft, on April 3, 2026. —AFP “We all kind of had a collective, I guess, expression of joy at that… We can see the Moon out of the docking hatch right now, it is a beautiful sight,” said astronaut Christina Koch replied. The milestone was hit around two days, five hours and 24 minutes after liftoff, according to the Nasa official broadcast. The US space agency’s online dashboa... -
Dawn - 10:14 Apr 04, 2026
President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday paid tribute to former premier Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on his 47th death anniversary, emphasising his lasting impact on Pakistan’s constitution and the need to uphold law, due process, and justice. “Today we observe the 47th anniversary of the martyrdom of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, whose life was brought to an end unfairly on April 4, 1979. Zulfikar Bhutto occupies a central place in Pakistan’s political history,” said a statement from the president. The statement added that “nearly half a century after his unlawful and unconstitutional execution, the Supreme Court, in its opinion delivered on March 6, 2024, held that Zulfikar Bhutto had been denied a free trial and due process. The Court observed that the legal proceedings destroyed any semblance of fair trial and revealed that an innocent man was ‘rushed to the gallows.’” The president, in his statement, said that the day is a “reminder that justice and due process are not abstract prin... -
Dawn - 09:56 Apr 04, 2026
GILGIT: The PPP has demanded that the election schedule for the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly be issued immediately, as the election commission has yet to announce a timeline, four months after the legislature completed its tenure. General elections for the assembly were scheduled for Jan 24, 2026, while local government (LG) polls — announced after a gap of 20 years — were set for Feb 14, 2026. However, days after the announcements, both were postponed indefinitely due to harsh weather conditions in the region. When contacted on Saturday, GB Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Raja Shehbaz Khan said the electoral watchdog was preparing to conduct the elections but had not yet decided on a date. The CEC said the commission would inform the public of the dates when it had decided. The GB caretaker government had planned to convene a multiparty conference on March 24 to consult political parties about the polls and a new schedule was expected to be issued towards the end of March. However, no development has taken pl... -
Dawn - 09:38 Apr 04, 2026
Iran’s forces were hunting on Saturday for a missing United States pilot from one of two warplanes downed over Iran and the Gulf, officials from both sides said, while two airmen were rescued. The incidents show the risks still facing US and Israeli aircraft over Iran as the war entered its sixth week, despite assertions by President Donald Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that US forces had total control of the skies. The prospect of a US service person alive and on the run in Iran raises the stakes for Washington in a conflict with low public support among Americans and no sign of an imminent end. Tehran mocks Trump’s war aims Iranian fire brought down a two-seat US F-15E jet, officials in both countries said, while two US officials said the pilot ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft that crashed in Kuwait after being hit by Iranian fire. Two Black Hawk helicopters engaged in the search for the missing pilot were hit by Iranian fire but made it out of Iranian airspace, the two US offici... -
Dawn - 08:53 Apr 04, 2026
The Supreme Court has fixed the hearing of Zahir Jaffer’s review plea in the Noor Mukadam murder case for Wednesday, April 8. Noor, aged 27 years, was found murdered at Zahir’s Islamabad residence in July 2021, with the probe revealing she was tortured by him before being beheaded. Zahir’s death sentence by the trial court had already been upheld by the Islamabad High Court (IHC), but he had sought a review of the verdict in July of last year. The convict, Zahir, seeks a review of his conviction in the 2021 murder case. In a cause list published online by the SC on Saturday, the date for Zahir’s hearing was fixed for April 8. The 47-page review petition was filed by Advocate Khawaja Haris on behalf of Zahir under Article 188 of the Constitution (review of judgments or orders by SC). The state and Noor’s father, Shaukat Ali Muqadam, were made the respondents. The petition contended that the issue of Zahir’s alleged “unsoundness of mind or mental capacity” that was raised before the SC in an application had not... -
Dawn - 08:48 Apr 04, 2026
On March 30, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) slapped a Rs20 million fine on fast bowler Naseem Shah for a post that was promptly deleted from his X account, and for which he publicly apologised. The tweet, posted from Shah’s official X account, had quote-tweeted the PCB’s post, which featured Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz being welcomed by the interior minister and the cricket board’s chairman, Mohsin Naqvi, at the opening ceremony of the Pakistan Super League. Those who follow Shah on the social media platform saw the tweet and instantly knew trouble would follow. Within a short span of time, they saw the tweet disappear, followed by a new post clarifying that the account had been hacked. Quick recovery of a hacked account, they thought. The cricketer subsequently fired his social media manager and even tendered an apology via X. However, for a post that was probably up for all of 10 minutes and was followed by a disclaimer, the PCB issued a show-cause notice to Shah along with disciplinary proceedings... -
Dawn - 04:02 Apr 04, 2026
WASHINGTON: A supernova — the explosive death of a star — is always violent, blasting material into space while typically leaving behind a compact stellar remnant like a neutron star or black hole. But some supernovas involving the largest stars in the cosmos may be so immensely powerful they leave absolutely nothing behind. Scientists since the 1960s have theorised the existence of these ultra-powerful supernovas, and have now come up with evidence for them — albeit indirect — in research involving black holes and ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves. Such supernovas are predicted to occur in the most enormous stars — those with a mass around 140 to 260 times greater than the sun, according to Hui Tong, a doctoral student in astrophysics at Monash University in Australia and lead author of the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. “Despite their enormous mass, they live relatively short lives, about a few million years. For comparison, the sun will live for about 10 billion years, so... -
Dawn - 02:56 Apr 04, 2026
LONDON: Four ships, including one co-owned by a Japanese company and one by a French company, crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday as Iran said it is drafting a peacetime protocol to supervise maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz with Oman. The near closing of the Strait due to US-Israeli war against Iran in Middle East has led to fuel shortages and soaring energy prices across the globe. The few vessels that have crossed the chokepoint have passed using an Iranian-approved route through its waters near Larak Island, dubbed the “Tehran Toll Booth” by leading shipping journal Lloyd’s List. Two laden very large crude carrier (VLCC) — the Habrut and the Dhalkut — and one empty Sohar LNG tanker crossed the strait on Thursday morning. The Sohar LNG is the first LNG tanker to have crossed the strait since March 1, when Iranian attacks against ships near the Strait of Hormuz reduced crossings to a near stop. Earlier, a French-owned container ship passed through the Strait of Hormuz, according Marine Tra... -
Dawn - 02:49 Apr 04, 2026
• Vote on Bahrain-led, US-backed resolution postponed twice • Russia, China raise objections to certain parts • Iran warns against ‘provocative move’ UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council remains sharply divided over a Gulf Arab initiative to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies pass. The vote on the resolution, initially scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed twice — first to Friday and then to Saturday — as Bahrain, the current council president and mover of the resolution, intensifies lobbying efforts. The United States has thrown its full support behind the measure. The push comes from member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a political and economic bloc comprising Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, and Bahrain. Formed in 1981 to coordinate security and economic policy among the Arab monarchies bordering the Persian Gulf, the GCC has increasingly acted collectively on regional cris... -
Dawn - 02:37 Apr 04, 2026
• Prices of vegetables, fruits, construction materials, essential commodities also surge • Citizens, businesses reject fuel price increase despite provincial relief measures • LCCI warns of higher production costs, reduced export competitiveness LAHORE: Transporters have increased fares by up to 30 per cent following the recent fuel price hike, stressing that the government’s subsidy was insufficient to offset rising operational costs. Moreover, the record increase in petroleum prices has also caused a massive surge in the prices of vegetables, fruits, construction materials and several other items. On the other hand, the public at large has rejected the sharp increase in fuel prices despite some relief measures announced by the provincial governments. “Why has the government massively increased petroleum prices twice without considering how people, already burdened by inflation, will survive?” a motorist said while speaking to Dawn at a petrol pump in Gulberg on Friday. “From tomorrow onwards, I will stop u... -
Dawn - 02:32 Apr 04, 2026
• Shehbaz declares all cabinet members will forgo salaries for six months • New price effective from today • In late-night televised address, premier outlines reasons behind Thursday’s steep hike • Sindh, Punjab roll out targeted relief ISLAMABAD: Just a day after an unprecedented surge in petroleum prices, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday announced a major relief measure, slashing the petroleum levy by Rs80 per litre and bringing the price of petrol down to Rs378 per litre. In a late-night address to the nation, the prime minister also declared that all federal cabinet members would forgo their salaries for the next six months as part of austerity measures. His seven-minute televised address came after the unprecedented increase in petroleum prices sparked outrage from across the country. Explaining the earlier sharp increase in fuel prices amid the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran, the PM expressed hope that prices would return to pre-war levels once the conflict subsides. “The price of petrol had risen... -
Dawn - 00:54 Apr 04, 2026
• City breaks 41-year-old rain record with 38.7mm downpour in 24 hours • Mercury drops to ‘lowest ever’ night-time temperature in April • Met official warns of two more rain spells KARACHI: Several cities in the province set new records for heavy rains and lowest night and daytime temperatures for the month of April, the Met Office said on Friday. According to the Met department’s data, Karachi saw 38.7 millimetres of rain within 24 hours on Friday — the heaviest rain ever recorded in the month of April in the city. Previously, the highest rainfall for April in a 24-hour period in Karachi was 37mm, which was recorded on April 2, 1985. In the rural parts of the province, light to moderate showers were observed with Dadu seeing 23mm rain in 24-hours, breaking its earlier record of 22mm set on April 14, 2017. The cities which set records in the lowest daytime temperature were: Badin, Dadu, Hyderabad, Jacobabad, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Padidan, Sakrand, Shaheed Benazirabad and Tandojam. Karachi, however, set a recor... -
Dawn - 23:05 Apr 03, 2026
Iranian and American forces were racing each other early Saturday to recover the crew of the first US fighter jet to go down inside Iran since the start of the war. Tehran said it had shot down the F-15 warplane, while US media reported American special forces had rescued one of two crew members. It was unclear which of the two crew members was recovered, and the US official who confirmed the recovery did not offer any details on how it took place. Iran’s military also said it downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot was rescued. A statement from Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al Anbiya central headquarters, said that the F-15 was shot down using Iran’s “new advanced defence system”, and that “an advanced hostile fighter jet was also targeted south of Qeshm Island, crashing into the waters between Qeshm and Hengam Islands”. US Central Command did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the loss of the F-15, but White House Press Se... -
Dawn - 21:54 Apr 03, 2026
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan-led initiative to facilitate US-Iran talks has been held up, with Tehran yet to formally respond to proposals for dialogue despite back channel exchanges in recent days, a senior official told Dawn on Friday. The official, who was speaking on background, said some ground had been covered, with messages relayed between Washington and Tehran, but the absence of a clear Iranian signal has slowed momentum at this critical stage. “It is surprising that despite the obliteration of significant naval, air force, and other military and civilian infrastructure, Iran has not responded positively to calls for negotiations,” the official, who is familiar with the discussions, said. He said both Pakistan and China had urged Iran to engage, but “Tehran has so far not conveyed its readiness to take part in the dialogue.” He added that Pakistani leaders, despite Tehran not giving a reply, have remained in contact with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in an effort to...
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