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Dawn - 13:19 Jul 29, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that the government’s vision for national digitalisation aims to provide citizens access to all public facilities under a single digital identity. Chairing a review meeting in Islamabad on the implementation of a national-level integrated digital policy framework, PM Shehbaz said that implementing this vision in line with modern-day demands held “key importance” in forming an integrated society, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). “After the full implementation of the national digital vision, citizens will be able to access all public facilities, including government verification of documents, banking services, health, transfers, and all other facilities, under a single digital ID at one place,” the statement cited the premier as saying. It added that a meeting of the National Digital Commission (NDC) should be convened soon in order to take all stakeholders into confidence on the policy, including the provinces. The prime minis... -
Dawn - 13:01 Jul 29, 2026
The International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Wednesday that it had penalised Pakistan’s Khurram Shahzad and Mohammad Abbas for breaching Level 1 of the ICC code of conduct during the first match of their ICC World Test Championship series against the West Indies in Tarouba. “Khurram was fined 15 per cent of his match fee and Abbas handed an official reprimand for breaching Article 2.5 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to ‘using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter upon his/her dismissal during an International Match,’“ the ICC said in a press release. It added that one demerit point had also been added to the disciplinary records of each of the players, both of whom did not have any previous offences in a 24-month period. ICC said Khurram was fined for “celebrating aggressively close to dismissed batter Shai Hope during the 17th over of the West Indies’ second innings, an action deemed capa... -
Dawn - 11:57 Jul 29, 2026
PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari continued his tirade against the PML-N — an ally of his party in the Centre — on Wednesday, reiterating his allegations in the first phase of Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections and demanding re-polling. Addressing a PPP workers’ convention in Muzaffarabad, he called on the Election Commission to hold re-polling in Mirpur if “you are not involved in this rigging”. Directly taking a jibe at Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, he said: “If someone is sitting on the PM’s seat, or someone is sitting on the CM’s position today, even a child knows that it is not because of the people’s votes or your performance but because of Form-47.” Form-47 is the provisional consolidated statement of results of vote count of all polling stations in a constituency, prepared by the returning officer (RO) concerned. It has been used mainly by the opposition PTI since the 2024 general elections in the country to refer to alleged rigging in the polls. Bilawal’s al... -
Dawn - 10:49 Jul 29, 2026
SWAT: A policeman has been martyred and four terrorists have been killed during an ongoing operation in Swat’s Matta tehsil, police and security said on Wednesday. An initial statement issued by Swat police spokesperson Nasir Iqbal Karimi said Elite Force Constable Gulfam had embraced martyrdom while “bravely fighting the terrorists” on Tuesday night during the operation. Later, security sources said four terrorists had also been killed in the operation, while the operation being carried out by the Pakistan Army, police and other security agencies was ongoing. The sources said four other terrorists had taken refuge inside a house and were using its residents as human shields. They added that the terrorists belonged to Fitna-al-Khawarij — a term that the state uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. According to the sources, police had gained control of an important strategic location in Matta’s Rashid Sar area during the operation. For the past several months, there have been reports of the presence o... -
Dawn - 10:19 Jul 29, 2026
Security forces have killed 32 terrorists during operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan over the last 24 hours, the military’s media affairs wing said in a statement released on Wednesday. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said “comprehensive joint operations” were carried out in various parts of the two provinces, in continuation of action against the “terrorists nexus of India-sponsored Fitna-al-Khawarij and Fitna-al-Hindustan”. The state uses the term Fitna-al-Khawarij for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and has designated Balochistan-based groups as Fitna-al-Hindustan to highlight India’s alleged role in terrorism and destabilisation across Pakistan. ISPR said that the operations in KP and Balochistan were aimed at weeding out terrorists and their facilitators. Multiple “intelligence-based area sanitisation and targeted operations” were conducted in KP’s Khyber on July 28 and 29, during which 24 terrorists belonging to Fitna-al-Khawarij were killed, it said. Meanwhile, eight... -
Dawn - 09:41 Jul 29, 2026
The situation in the Middle East came under discussion as Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday met Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who is on an official visit to the country. According to the Foreign Office (FO), the two held a “warm and productive” tête-à-tête at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The two leaders reviewed the full spectrum of Pakistan–Kuwait bilateral relations and reaffirmed their shared commitment to further strengthening the longstanding brotherly partnership,” it said. “They also held in-depth discussions on regional and international developments, with particular focus on the evolving situation in the Middle East,” it added. Later, the two leaders co-chaired delegation-level talks, the FO posted on X, adding that both sides reviewed the entire spectrum of Pakistan-Kuwait bilateral relations and discussed ways to further strengthen cooperation in trade, investment, energy, labour, agriculture, information technology, health, mining and minerals, de... -
Dawn - 09:28 Jul 29, 2026
Workers in a mall in southern Japan described being thrown to the floor or enveloped in a cloud of dust by a massive 7.1-magnitude quake that rattled the building on Tuesday. They were the lucky ones. An hour later, the real disaster struck. Hundreds of shoppers and store employees, quickly ushered by staff to evacuate, watched on in horror as an explosion ripped through the building, exposing the structure’s steel beams and catapulting debris across the parking lot. First responders, initially fearful of entering the wreckage, hauled eight people from the partially collapsed site early on Wednesday, among them three dead. The status of four store workers remains unknown, mall operator Aeon said, adding that it was investigating a possible gas leak. “I thought a bomb had gone off,” Takateru Sonoda, 41, who runs a combined hair salon and cafe near the mall, told news agency Jiji Press. “There were people calling on others to evacuate and sirens were ringing out. Nearby roads were gridlocked, it was a state of ... -
Dawn - 08:18 Jul 29, 2026
Parts of Punjab and Islamabad received rain on Wednesday morning, marking the onset of a fresh monsoon spell in the country just as a previous one that caused flooding in several areas of Punjab and over 100 deaths ended. As of 11am, one injury in a rain-related incident in Punjab’s provincial capital, Lahore, was reported during the new rain spell. According to Rescue 1122, a 25-year-old man was injured in a roof collapse incident at a house in Lahore’s Baghbanpura. The emergency service’s statement said the roof was made of wooden beams and other material, and the injured was taken to Kot Khawaja Saeed Hospital. Meanwhile, an update by the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) at 11:30am said the highest amount of rainfall in the city by then was recorded in Tajpura at 44.8mm. It was followed by 44.4mm of rain in Mughalpura, 32.8 in Shadipura, 31.4 at Pani Wala Talab, 29mm at Chowk Nakhuda, 26.8mm in Johar Town, 26mm in Mannawan, 22.4mm at Lakshmi Chowk, 16.4mm in Farrukhabad, 7.6mm in Saggian, 6.2mm in Nishta... -
Dawn - 07:50 Jul 29, 2026
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Police on Wednesday accused the proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) of working under an “agenda”, saying that sophisticated weapons had been seized from arrested suspects. Addressing a press conference, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Khawar Ali Shaukat alleged that the incidents in Rawalakot had demonstrated that the organisation’s narrative of peaceful protest was inconsistent with events on the ground. “The violent incidents, acts of provocation and attacks on security forces have made the reality clear,” he said, adding that it was the legal and constitutional responsibility of law enforcement agencies to act whenever police or other security personnel came under attack. The SSP alleged that armed groups had ambushed officials at different locations across the city over the past two days and opened fire on security personnel with sophisticated weapons. He said one Rangers official was martyred while around 15 police officers and other law enforcement personnel... -
Dawn - 06:16 Jul 29, 2026
Rescuers were frantically searching on Wednesday for survivors of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that shook southern Japan, killing at least 13 people, knocking out power to thousands of homes and rupturing roads across the region. Eight people were pulled from the rubble of a partially collapsed shopping mall near the city of Kumamoto that was torn apart by an apparent explosion about an hour after Tuesday’s earthquake. Of them, three have died. Mall operator Aeon said four workers at the Kumamoto shopping centre remained unaccounted for after checks of the roughly 2,700 staff. Customers had been evacuated right after the initial quake. Rescuers work at the damaged Aeon Mall shopping centre, where an explosion occurred after an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.1 struck Japan’s southern Kumamoto prefecture, in Kashima Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, July 29, 2026. —Reuters “Even now, there are people waiting to be rescued, and this is a race against time. We will marshal all available resources on the ground to... -
Dawn - 05:58 Jul 29, 2026
Preliminary work on a vast hotel project linked to the Trump family has already caused irreparable damage to a once pristine stretch of Albania’s coast, scientists and activists say. Satellite images obtained by AFP show that during a 25-day period in May, a road was cleared, an entire zone deforested and a bridge built to span the channel connecting the Narta lagoon to the sea. “Bulldozers on the beaches have already damaged the nesting sites of loggerhead turtles, which are threatened with extinction,” Olsi Nika, a marine biologist who heads the NGO EcoAlbania, told AFP. In addition, the nesting grounds of numerous bird species have been disturbed by access roads through the dunes and the felling of trees, while construction on a vital channel between the lagoon and the sea has severely disrupted water flows essential to maintaining wetlands. “An absolute biodiversity massacre,” said Nika. Daily demonstrations against the project have led to the suspension of some work, but the “damage caused to the heritag... -
Dawn - 05:09 Jul 29, 2026
US and Saudi Arabian forces said they struck “Iran-aligned terrorists” in Iraq on Wednesday in retaliation for recent attacks, following a short pause in Iran war hostilities. The combined air operation came as President Donald Trump met with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington for their first in-person talks since the Middle East war began in late February. Crude oil prices leapt more than four per cent as the fresh Middle East flare-up revived fears over global supplies usually shipped through the pivotal Strait of Hormuz. The US military said US and Saudi forces carried out precision strikes against “Iran-aligned terrorists” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “directed to attack US forces and Saudi energy infrastructure”. “US and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours,” it said. “The IRGC and its terrorist proxies must cease these a... -
Dawn - 04:12 Jul 29, 2026
GLASGOW: Fatima Zahra made history on Tuesday by becoming the first woman boxer from Pakistan to secure a Commonwealth Games medal after cruising into the 60kg semi-finals with a unanimous points victory over New Zealand’s Jordan Wilson. The 22-year-old outclassed Wilson 5-0 in the quarter-final, with all five judges awarding her the contest to guarantee at least a bronze medal under the competition’s format, where losing semi-finalists receive bronze. Pakistan’s women’s boxing team only made its international debut in 2016 and, a decade later, the country’s flag is now assured of being raised during the women’s 60kg medal ceremony later this week. “We are developing in boxing, but it’s the sign that we are going in the right direction,” Fatima said after her landmark victory. “This is our first step. We are hoping for the gold as well, and this medal will mean a lot for Pakistan boxing as well.” Fatima controlled the three-round bout from the outset, winning 29-28 on four judges’ scorecards and 30-27 on the ... -
Dawn - 03:55 Jul 29, 2026
Pakistan crumbled for the second consecutive day to the West Indies pace attack, losing the first Test of a two-match series by 90 runs on the fourth day in Trinidad on Tuesday. Set a tricky target of 211 on a deteriorating surface, the tourists were never in contention and were all out for 120 off 40.2 overs just after tea. It could have been worse. When they subsided to 71 for nine, Pakistan seemed doomed to their lowest Test innings total against the West Indies. Bowling hero Mohammad Abbas hung around with captain Babar Azam to put on 49 runs for the last wicket before Jayden Seales ended the match by trapping Abbas leg-before for 23, finishing with figures of five for 20. Babar remained unbeaten on 58. Pakistan will go into the second and final Test a few miles away at Queen’s Park Oval in Port of Spain, starting Sunday, on the back of four consecutive defeats and an extended abysmal run of 13 losses in their last 17 Tests. This was also the eighth consecutive Test loss away from home. Their capitulation... -
Dawn - 03:28 Jul 29, 2026
• 89pc of Pakistan’s population trapped in deadly combination of extreme heat, lack of access to air conditioning • Chicago University study says 377,000 lives projected to be lost each year by 2050, including 150,000 in Pakistan ISLAMABAD: As extreme heat events become more frequent, most poor countries lack the resources to power the cooling systems needed to adapt to rising temperatures, resulting in 10 times more deaths compared to their wealthier counterparts. According to a new study by the Climate Impact Lab, headquartered at the University of Chicago, climate-driven temperature changes are on track to cause about 430,000 more deaths annually by 2050, and cooling systems can play a major role in preventing these deaths. Areas in 18 countries—home to 676 million people— are trapped in a deadly combination of extreme heat and lack of cooling, described as a ‘mortality-cooling trap’ (MCT) by the study. As many as 377,000 lives are projected to be lost each year starting in 2050 due to warmer temperatures ... -
Dawn - 03:11 Jul 29, 2026
QUETTA: Opposition Leader in the National Assembly and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai has convened a three-day jirga in Quetta to discuss the worsening security situation in Balochistan and find solutions to the issue. He said the issue was becoming increasingly serious and dangerous with each passing day. Speaking at a press conference at the Quetta Press Club on Tuesday, along with other party leaders, he said the jirga would be held from August 29 to 31. He also announced that countrywide protest rallies and demonstrations would be held on August 5 to mark three years of imprisonment of former prime minister Imran Khan. He said the proposed jirga would bring together political leaders, tribal elders and other stakeholders to deliberate on rising insecurity, attacks on highways, disruption of trade, burning of goods vehicles and the killing of judges, lawyers, political workers and civilians in the province. He added that after discussions, the jirga would prepare recom... -
Dawn - 02:52 Jul 29, 2026
THE fiscal year that just ended has brought real GDP growth of 3.7 per cent — the fastest in four years. Yet ask the median household and the answer will not match the national accounts. Both are telling the truth. The distance between them is the most consequential number in Pakistani economic policy — and we do not officially measure it. Call that missing number ‘welfare GDP growth’: what expansion actually reaches households, rather than what is produced within our borders. Four honest adjustments bridge the two. First, population — shared across ever more people, 3.7pc becomes barely 1.2pc per head. Second, income versus production — GDP is essentially blind to the $42 billion that our workers abroad send home each year. In contrast, the gross national disposable income, which is the truer measure of welfare, runs nearly a tenth above GDP. Third, distribution — growth led by corporate profits and financial assets accrues to those at the top, while the poorer half’s wages have not recovered from the inflat... -
Dawn - 02:48 Jul 29, 2026
INDIA’S Gen Z uprising may not have swept away the government as it did in Bangladesh and Nepal, but it has certainly challenged an increasingly repressive system. Led by students and disgruntled youth, the protests — triggered by widespread allegations of leaked exam papers — grew into a mass movement. Demanding justice for the millions of students affected and for the reportedly dozens of suicides linked to the scandal, the protests, unprecedented in their scale, began in New Delhi and quickly spread to many parts of the country. It soon turned into a wider democracy movement, drawing support from other sections of society. It is the most serious challenge the Modi government has had to face in its 12-year rule and has ripped open a fault line in the hard-line Hindu nationalist administration that has steadily eroded the secular character of Indian democracy. The protests forced the federal education minister to resign — a humiliating blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strongman image. Although the prot... -
Dawn - 02:45 Jul 29, 2026
WASHINGTON: A rare public confrontation between two Western allies unfolded at the United Nations Security Council on Monday evening when the United States delegation walked out as the French ambassador began speaking. The dramatic gesture followed a sharp diplomatic exchange over human rights, the United Nations system and Washington’s decision to oppose the extension of the mandate of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk. While Washington and Paris exchanged sharp accusations over human rights and the future of the UN system, Pakistan chose not to enter the dispute, focusing instead on the Ukraine war and the need for diplomacy. The US protest was triggered by criticism from France after a General Assembly vote on extending Turk’s four-year mandate. The resolution received overwhelming support, with 144 countries voting in favour. The United States was among only 10 countries that opposed the extension. Pakistan stays out of US-France dispute, focusing instead on Ukraine conflict Following the ... -
Dawn - 02:39 Jul 29, 2026
• Defers further hearing until after summer recess • Seeks replies in Radio Pakistan attack case ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Tuesday ruled that its earlier direction cautioning against any law and order situation in a case relating to the alleged mobilisation of the ‘Imran Khan Release Force’ remains in force. A three-judge FCC bench, headed by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, made the observation after Advocate Ali Nawaz Kharral, counsel for petitioner Malik Zaheer Ahmed, requested the court to extend its earlier order, expressing apprehensions that the respondents might create a law and order situation. Responding to the request, the chief justice observed that the respondents would not do so and clarified that the earlier directions were not limited to Tuesday’s hearing but continued to remain effective. The FCC is hearing a petition filed by Malik Zaheer Ahmed, who challenged the legal status of the movement, arguing that the formation of a force to secure the release of jailed PTI ...
12385 items