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Dawn - 04:21 Apr 12, 2026
SAHIWAL: City Police claimed to have recovered an 11-year-old girl 48 hours after she had gone missing from the E-Green Bus Stop at Jogi Chowk while standing with her maternal aunt on April 8. Station House Officer (SHO) Rai Nasir said the girl had allegedly been kidnapped by a woman and was later recovered. She was handed over to her parents. According to police, the missing child, Faizain Bibi, a resident of Chak Thatha Anayat in Okara district, had come to Sahiwal with her aunt, Shaheen Bibi, for shopping. They were waiting at the Jogi Chowk bus stop for the E-Green bus when the girl suddenly disappeared. Despite an extensive search by passengers and bystanders, no trace of her was found. The family initially tried to locate her on their own before registering a case (No. 282/26) under Section 363 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the City Police Station on the complaint of her father, Muhammad Nawaz. Sahiwal District Police Officer (DPO) Usman Tipu constituted a special team led by SP Investigation Shafqat Ra... -
Dawn - 04:14 Apr 12, 2026
SARGODHA: Marriage halls have been fined Rs200,000 for violating the one-dish policy and directed to strictly comply with the regulation. According to sources, the assistant commissioner took action against several marriage halls in Sargodha for serving more than one dish at wedding events, imposing fines totalling Rs200,000. During surprise inspections, officials found that government orders were being flouted at multiple venues. The assistant commissioner said violators had been penalised and warned that strict implementation of the one-dish policy would be ensured. “Violation of government rules will not be tolerated under any circumstances, and action against such elements will continue,” the official said. However, a marriage hall owner, speaking on condition of anonymity, alleged selective enforcement of the policy. He claimed the restriction was being applied to ordinary citizens, while influential individuals, particularly ruling elites, were exempt. He further alleged that at two wedding ceremonies a... -
Dawn - 03:33 Apr 12, 2026
• Move comes after President Trump slams deal as ‘big mistake’ • Legislation underpinning the deal shelved; standoff leaves indigenous Chagossians in limbo LONDON: Britain’s government said Saturday it has put on hold its deal to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, following criticism from US President Donald Trump over the future of a crucial joint military base on the archipelago. The planned legislation to underpin the deal, which requires Washington’s backing, will not be included in the government’s upcoming parliamentary agenda, The Times newspaper reported. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said London would continue to seek Washington’s formal approval for the agreement. The deal has become a point of contention in what analysts describe as a period of strained relations between the two historical allies. Under the agreement, Britain would hand the islands back to Mauritius while retaining control of the strategically vital US-British military base on the atoll of Diego Garcia thro... -
Dawn - 03:03 Apr 12, 2026
• Support aimed at easing pressure on foreign exchange reserves • Islamabad preparing to repay $3.5bn UAE debt this month • Finance Minister Aurangzeb departs for IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings • Visit seen as critical amid regional tensions, economic pressures • Officials hope for ‘peace dividends’ in engagements with global lenders ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is set to receive $5 billion in financial support from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, offering a critical buffer for its fragile external position, as Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb departed for Washington on Saturday to attend the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings and advance the country’s economic diplomacy. The expected inflows come at a crucial juncture, with Islamabad preparing to repay $3.5bn to the United Arab Emirates this month and facing pressure on its foreign exchange reserves, even as it seeks to leverage its role in facilitating US-Iran dialogue to secure economic support from global lenders. Officials in Islamabad say the visit comes at a critical ju... -
Dawn - 03:00 Apr 12, 2026
BEIRUT: Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen people in Lebanon and Gaza on Saturday, while an Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, according to officials. The widespread violence came a day after plans were announced for potential ceasefire talks between Lebanon, Israel and the United States. Israeli strikes on a village near Sidon in south Lebanon on Saturday killed eight people and wounded nine others, five of them seriously, the Lebanese health ministry said. Lebanon’s health ministry also said a total of 10 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the country’s south on Saturday, with state media reporting Israeli raids on more than a dozen locations. Earlier in the day, officials said strikes killed 10 people in the Nabatiyeh district. The ministry said the dead included a member of the Lebanese civil defence and two paramedics from the Islamic Health Committee, decrying Israel’s “systematic” targeting of emergency workers. Hezbollah slams planned negotiations with I... -
Dawn - 02:00 Apr 12, 2026
US Vice President JD Vance said on Sunday that the US had not been able to reach an agreement with Iran, after 21 hours of “substantive discussions” under the umbrella of the “Islamabad Talks” which commenced on Saturday afternoon. He was addressing a press conference in Islamabad after the direct talks between delegations from the two countries, mediated by Pakistan, stretched into a second day on Sunday. “We have been at it now for 21 hours, and we have had a number of substantive discussions, that’s the good news,” said Vance. “The bad news is that we have not reached an agreement,” he added. “We have made very clear what our red lines are, what things we are willing to accommodate them on and what things we are not willing to accommodate them on,” said the US vice president, adding that the Iranian delegation had “chosen not to accept our terms”. Vance began the press conference by appreciating Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, sayi... -
Dawn - 18:43 Apr 11, 2026
Two US Navy warships transited the Strait of Hormuz at the start of an operation to clear the strategic waterway of mines laid by Iran, US Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday. The announcement — which marks the first such transit since the US-Israeli war on Iran began — came shortly after President Donald Trump said Washington had started “clearing out” the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil passes. “Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to encourage the free flow of commerce,” said Centcom commander Admiral Brad Cooper. The USS Frank E Peterson and the USS Michael Murphy are the guided-missile destroyers involved in the operation, but Centcom said that “additional US forces including underwater drones” could join the effort in coming days. Earlier, US media outlet Axios reported that the operation was not coordinated with authorities in Tehran. “We’re now starting the process of clearing out the... -
Dawn - 18:25 Apr 11, 2026
Former foreign minister and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari termed the US-Iran talks taking place in Islamabad on Saturday the “biggest achievement so far” in efforts to end the Middle East war. He expressed these views during an interview with Al Jazeera, during which he was asked how difficult it would be for Pakistan to get something “concrete” out of the talks, which are taking place in the federal capital after Islamabad brokered a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran. In his response, Bilawal said: “The fact that the talks are even happening is the biggest achievement thus far. It’s significant that the ceasefire is in effect [and] the bombing has stopped in Iran and across most of the Middle East, and the two major [powers] are now negotiating. “We hope that this ceasefire is built upon towards a more lasting and permanent resolution to this conflict.” Bilawal added that not only the people of Pakistan, but the people of the entire world were watching the talks with “cautious optimism”. “We b... -
Dawn - 18:16 Apr 11, 2026
TOBA TEK SINGH: Relatives of a Pakistan-origin man residing in Kuwait, who has been missing along with his family, have sought the authorities’ assistance to confirm whether the family had been killed in an incident involving missile debris after interception. Muhammad Saleem, a brother-in-law of the missing person, Waqas Ahmed, shared a copy of a letter with Dawn that he said he had sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The letter states: “I am writing to seek your urgent assistance regarding my brother-in-law, Mr Waqas Ahmad, who, along with his family, is currently untraceable in Kuwait under extremely concerning circumstances.” Saleem said in the letter that Waqas was residing in Kuwait with his family. “The household consisted of five members: four Australian nationals, including Mr Waqas Ahmad, and his wife, who is an Egyptian national.” He further stated that recently, “we received a WhatsApp call from an individual identifying himself as Zeeshan … who claimed to be their neighbour in Kuwait. He inf... -
Dawn - 18:10 Apr 11, 2026
Pakistan has sent a military force and fighter jets to Saudi Arabia to boost security under a joint defence cooperation agreement between the two countries, the Saudi defence ministry said on Saturday. The Saudi ministry, in a statement, wrote that a military force and fighter jets from Pakistan had arrived at the King Abdulaziz Air Base in its eastern province. It added that the Pakistani deployment was aimed at “strengthening the joint defence cooperation agreement signed between the two brotherly countries”. “The Pakistani force consists of fighter and support aircraft belonging to the Pakistani Air Force, with the aim of enhancing joint military coordination, raising the level of operational readiness between the armed forces of the two countries,” it continued. The planes were sent after Iranian strikes hit key energy infrastructure and killed a Saudi national, three sources, including a senior Pakistani government official, told Reuters. They were “not there to attack anyone”, said the Pakistani officia... -
Dawn - 17:39 Apr 11, 2026
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday they had arrested 212 people at a protest in Trafalgar Square opposing Britain’s banning of the Palestine Action group. The gathering was the first since London’s High Court ruled in February that a ban designating the pro-Palestinian group as a terrorist organisation was unlawful. UK Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood has been granted approval to appeal the ruling. Lawmakers banned Palestine Action — which accuses Britain’s government of complicity in what it says are Israeli war crimes in Gaza — under anti-terrorism legislation last July after some members broke into a Royal Air Force base. During Saturday’s demonstration, placard-holding protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves and waving Palestinian flags, sat on the ground or on camping chairs. London’s Metropolitan Police said in a post on X that they were “continuing to make arrests where people are showing support for a proscribed organisation”. -
Dawn - 16:59 Apr 11, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) on Saturday reviewed the prices of essential commodities, transport fares and directed the Sindh government to take corrective measures regarding rising fares in Karachi, according to an official statement. On April 5, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had announced that the government had secured a province-wide fare freeze after successful negotiations with transporters, even as fuel prices rose amid a global crunch caused by the now-paused US-Israeli war on Iran. However, citizens using public transport in Karachi continue to pay inflated fares while the government announced a reduction in fuel prices on Friday after falling oil prices in the international market. A meeting, chaired by Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, examined the trend in food prices across the country on Saturday, where officials from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) briefed the NPMC on prevailing price trends and market conditions. According to the official statement issue... -
Dawn - 14:39 Apr 11, 2026
They came from around the world: hundreds of journalists rushed to Islamabad’s flagship convention centre — converted into a media hub by Pakistani authorities for landmark talks between the United States and Iran to end the war in the Middle East. But as negotiations began behind closed doors half a kilometre away, all the world’s media could do was wait — and sip on an expertly brewed coffee while listening to live eastern folk music. Even the lattes had a tagline: “Brewed for Peace.” Branding was a big part of the event, with Pakistan dubbing the process the “Islamabad Talks”, and plastering a logo combining the Pakistani, US and Iranian flags all over the city. Early on Saturday, an overcast Islamabad felt like a ghost town, with almost no civilian traffic on its wide avenues. The few vehicles that moved were driven by armed, uniformed personnel who patrolled the city. Some journalists, accredited by the information ministry, were nonetheless held up for about an hour at a checkpoint outside the venue as ... -
Dawn - 13:45 Apr 11, 2026
GILGIT: General elections in Gilgit Baltistan will be held on June 7, the GB Election Commission announced on Saturday after a four-month delay. General elections for the GB Assembly were scheduled for Jan 24, 2026. However, days after the announcement, the elections were postponed indefinitely due to harsh weather conditions in the region. The GB Election Commission Secretariat, in a notification available with Dawn, announced June 7 as the poll day for the Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly general elections. The GB Chief Election Commissioner Raja Shahbaz Khan also confirmed the development. As for the local government election, Khan said a schedule will be issued later, and it will be held after the general election. He added that preparations were ready for both. LG polls in GB, announced after a gap of 20 years, were initially set for Feb 14, 2026. Earlier this month, Khan said the GB Election Commission was preparing to conduct the elections but had not yet decided on a date. Fourteen political parties had stoo... -
Dawn - 12:39 Apr 11, 2026
US President Donald Trump’s administration plans to crack down on networks it says help pregnant women lie on visa applications in order to secure US citizenship for their US-born babies, an issue that Trump has highlighted to justify his attempts to restrict birthright citizenship. In an internal email sent on Thursday and reviewed by Reuters, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered investigative agents around the country to focus on a new Birth Tourism Initiative. The operation will seek to root out networks that help pregnant foreign nationals come to the US to give birth so their children can receive citizenship, it said. Trump, a Republican, has kicked off an aggressive push to reduce both legal and illegal immigration after taking office in January 2025. His administration has used the threat of birth tourism as a rationale for attempting to restrict the practice of granting automatic citizenship to children born on US soil. “Uninhibited birth tourism poses a tremendous cost to taxpayers and thre... -
Dawn - 11:18 Apr 11, 2026
The Artemis II capsule and its four-member crew streaked through Earth’s atmosphere and safely splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday after nearly 10 days in space, capping the first voyage by humans to the vicinity of the moon in over half a century. Nasa’s gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, dubbed Integrity, parachuted gently into calm seas off the Southern California coast shortly after 5:07pm Pacific Time (12:07am GMT on Saturday), concluding a mission that four days prior took the astronauts 252,756 miles away from Earth, deeper into space than anyone had flown before. The Artemis II flight, travelling a total of 694,392 miles (1,117,515km) in two Earth orbits and a climactic lunar flyby some 4,000 miles from its surface, was the debut crewed test flight in a series of Artemis missions that aim to return astronauts to the lunar surface starting in 2028. ‘Perfect bull’s splashdown The splashdown under partly cloudy skies was carried by live video feed in a Nasa webcast. “A perfect bull’s eye splashdown f... -
Dawn - 10:06 Apr 11, 2026
The United States and Iran have been sworn enemies since the 1979 Islamic revolution and the hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran. On Saturday, the arch-foes are set to hold talks in Islamabad to end more than a month of war in the Middle East, as a fragile ceasefire holds despite deep mutual mistrust. 1979: Hostage crisis On November 4, 1979, student activists demanding the extradition of Iran’s deposed monarch —Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was undergoing medical treatment in the US — take staff hostage at the US embassy in Tehran. The move comes seven months after the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Some 52 hostages are held for 444 days. In April 1980, Washington breaks off diplomatic relations with Iran and imposes restrictions on commerce and travel. Nine months later, the last hostages are released. 2002: ‘Axis of evil’ On April 30, 1995, US president Bill Clinton announces a complete ban on trade and investment with Iran, accusing it of supporting terrorism. The US cites Iran’s backi... -
Dawn - 10:03 Apr 11, 2026
San Francisco police arrested a person for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home and for making threats outside the artificial intelligence startup’s headquarters, the company said on Friday. In a post on X, the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) said an unknown male threw an incendiary device at a North Beach residence at 4:12am and then escaped on foot. The 20-year-old suspect was detained about an hour later after police received a call about a man threatening to burn down another building. Police did not immediately comment on the suspect’s potential motive. “Thankfully, no one was hurt. We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe,” an OpenAI spokesperson said. The company is assisting law enforcement agencies with their investigation, the spokesperson added. The incident came as OpenAI faces intense pressure. The company recently faced backlash over its move to strike a deal with the US government to ... -
Dawn - 09:59 Apr 11, 2026
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Saturday departed for the US to participate in the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings 2026, during which he is expected to participate in over 50 high-level engagements, the Ministry of Finance said. The Spring Meetings, set for April 13–18 in Washington, DC, will bring together finance ministers, central bank governors, policymakers and development experts from across the globe at a time of heightened economic uncertainty. As per the press statement, during his visit, the finance minister will “represent Pakistan at important events organised by the IMF and the World Bank Group”. It said that Aurganzeb is set to “participate in a wide range of multilateral and bilateral engagements with global financial leaders, development partners, and policymakers” during the course of his visit. The statement said that before the meetings, the finance minister will visit Boston to participate in the “Pakistan Conference at Harvard University”. At the co... -
Dawn - 08:44 Apr 11, 2026
WASHINGTON: The war in the Middle East will have a cascading impact on the global economy, even if the fragile ceasefire announced by US President Donald Trump takes hold, World Bank President Ajay Banga told Reuters in an interview on Friday. And the damage will be far more serious if the ceasefire fails and the conflict escalates, he said. Banga on Tuesday said global growth could be lowered by 0.3 to 0.4 percentage points in a baseline scenario, with an early end to the war, and by as much as 1 percentage point if it endures. Inflation could increase by 200 to 300 basis points, with a much higher impact of up to 0.9 percentage points if the war continues, he said. The war, which has killed thousands of people across the Middle East, has sent the price of oil up by 50pc while disrupting supplies of oil, gas, fertiliser, helium and other goods, as well as tourism and air travel. The two-week ceasefire announced by Trump appears tenuous, with Israel and Iran continuing strikes. Iran said on Friday that blocke...
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