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Dawn - 16:57 Nov 30, 2025
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Sunday that the recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that highlighted financial irregularities in Pakistan was “not criticism” but a “catalyst for accelerating long-overdue reforms”. The document’s publication, a precondition for the IMF’s approval for disbursing the next $1.2 billion loan tranche in December, found that institutional weaknesses, lack of transparency in state functions, preferential treatment for select businesses, and inefficiencies in public-sector transactions were major constraints to growth. It also called for a series of reforms spread across the next three to six months to help raise the growth rate to 5-6.5 per cent over the next five years. The report led to criticism of the government, and opposition parties have called for a probe into the “worst financial scandal of Pakistan’s history”. However, Aurangzeb said during a press conference in Islamabad today that the government itself had requested and facilitated the asses... -
Dawn - 16:26 Nov 30, 2025
Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik said on Sunday that the imposition of governor’s rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was being “seriously considered”, linking the need for this potential move to the “security and governance issues” in the province. Malik said this on Geo News programme ‘Naya Pakistan’ where he was asked about the possibility of this move and the government’s plans in this regard. He said KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and his team had “badly failed in having any sort of a workable situation”. Neither do they want to have any kind of coordination or cohesion with the Centre, nor do they take any action in areas where it was needed, he added. Given the situation, the governor’s rule was now being “seriously considered”, he said, adding that it was a “constitutional measure”, which was undertaken in case of an “absolute necessity”. “And I think, the situation in KP itself calls for a step to be taken in this regard so that the presence of an administrative structure is ensure... -
Dawn - 14:47 Nov 30, 2025
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Sunday said that the notification regarding the Chief of Defence Forces’ (CDF) appointment would be issued “in due course of time”, the process for which had started. “Please be informed that the process has been initiated. PM is returning shortly. Notification will be issued in due course of time,” Asif said in a post on social media platform X. The CDF position, created under the 27th Constitutional Amendment, replaced the now-abolished office of the Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), which formally ended on Nov 27. It will be a dual-hatted position combined with the office of the army chief. Officials and observers had expected the new notification to coincide with the abolition of the CJCSC post, but November 29 was seen as a critical marker, being the date on which the original three-year tenure of the incumbent Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Field Marshal Asim Munir, was set to expire. Asif’s statement came as the November 29 date passed without any notific... -
Dawn - 14:21 Nov 30, 2025
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday warned that anyone who attempts to revoke the constitutional guarantees related to provinces’ rights as provided under the 18th Amendment was akin to “playing with fire”. Bilawal made the remarks in a video address to mark the PPP’s 58th foundation day, with his speech being live-streamed in “more than 100 districts” across the country, as per the party. Bilawal recalled that the ruling PML-N had also proposed constitutional tweaks related to the provinces’ financial rights under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award, which were then rejected by the PPP and did not make it to the final version of the 27th Amendment. “The PPP considers that there were a lot of faultlines in this country and remain,” Bilawal said, adding that the PPP had tried to address those by giving provinces their rights and due representation, and restoring democracy in the past. “Those people who are trying to play with the NFC Award or the 18th Amendment or other such matters, or are t... -
Dawn - 12:23 Nov 30, 2025
Doors are not yet closed on all-rounder Shadab Khan to make a comeback in the Pakistan side ahead of next year’s T20 World Cup, skipper Salman Ali Agha said on Saturday. Shadab last featured for the national side back in June during the T20I series against Bangladesh before an injury ruled him out. Since then, Pakistan have found their main all-rounder in Mohammad Nawaz, who has starred with both bat and ball across past six months as the team won a tri-series in the UAE before making it to the Asia Cup final. On Saturday, Pakistan won another tri-series, this time at home, after beating Sri Lanka clinically in Rawalpindi — the match seeing Nawaz take three wickets to turn the game around for the hosts. Apart from Nawaz, opener Saim Ayub has also consolidated his role as Pakistan’s impactful spin option while Abrar Ahmed and Usman Tariq have announced themselves as worthy specialists. Salman, however, didn’t rule out the possibility of Shadab’s return when the teams flies out to Sri Lanka — the co-hosts of th... -
Dawn - 11:07 Nov 30, 2025
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Sunday expressed concerns about Israel’s commitment to peace in Gaza, saying that Muslim countries that had supported the peace treaty may need to “reassess their stance” in the face of continued violations of the fragile ceasefire in the region. Despite the declaration of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on October 9, Israel has continued to bombard the territory while a long-term plan for peace is discussed. The defence minister posted today on social media platform X that the ceasefire agreement had been criticised for being one-sided and that Israeli forces “continue to violate the truce, killing Palestinians including children”. “The agreement, signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, was meant to bring stability to the region, but Israel’s actions have raised concerns about its commitment to the deal,” Asif said. The defence minister added, “Muslim countries that supported the treaty, including Turkiye, Egypt, and Qatar, may need to reassess their stance given the ongoing vio... -
Dawn - 09:13 Nov 30, 2025
A Dubai restaurant has opened that prides itself on having the world’s “first AI chef”, the latest ostentatious dive into new technology in a city obsessed with being on the cutting edge of the future. The Emirati city has become increasingly known for its growing culinary scene, with thousands of restaurants on offer from luxurious Michelin-starred eateries to greasy spoons serving up bona fide street food from across the Middle East and Asia. But at Woohoo, the brains behind the menu is not a person but an AI programme — known as chef Aiman — trained on thousands of recipes and decades of culinary research and molecular gastronomy. Chef Aiman can also optimise menus and balance flavours, according to the establishment. The real work of preparing and serving the food, however, remains in human hands, for now. “AI is going to create better dishes than humans maybe in the future,” said the restaurant’s Turkish co-founder Ahmet Oytun Cakir. While Woohoo’s menu mostly comprises international fusion dishes, some ... -
Dawn - 08:44 Nov 30, 2025
Four people were killed and 10 wounded in a shooting at a family gathering in California on Saturday night, United States police said, calling it a “targeted incident”. The shooting took place inside a banquet hall in Stockton, northeast of San Francisco, just before 6pm (7am Sunday PKT), San Joaquin County Sheriff’s office spokesperson Heather Brent told reporters in a news briefing. The victims, who range from “juveniles to adults”, were taken to local hospitals, Brent said, adding that information on the shooting was limited. “What we have confirmed at this time is that there was a banquet hall where a family was celebrating. We have 14 victims of this shooting. Four of those are deceased,” Brent said. “Early indications suggest that this may be a targeted incident. Investigators are exploring all possibilities at this time.” The sheriff’s office said in a post on social media that detectives were “working to determine the circumstances leading up to this tragedy”. “We are urging anyone with information, v... -
Dawn - 07:03 Nov 30, 2025
Sri Lankan authorities battled rising floodwaters in parts of the capital on Sunday after a powerful cyclone left a trail of destruction, killing at least 159 people across the country. The northern part of Colombo was facing a major flood, as the water level in the Kelani River continued to rise, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said. The death toll had reached 159, with another 203 people missing, the DMC reported, following a week of heavy rains brought on by Cyclone Ditwah, which moved away from Sri Lanka on Saturday. “Although the cyclone has left us, heavy rains upstream are now flooding low-lying areas along the banks of the Kelani River,” a DMC official said. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared a state of emergency yesterday to deal with the aftermath of the cyclone and appealed for international aid. India was the first to respond, sending relief supplies and two helicopters with crew to carry out rescue missions. Japan said it will send a team to assess immediate needs and pledged furthe... -
Dawn - 06:04 Nov 30, 2025
KARACHI: The Pakistan Population Summit 2025, a dialogue on the country’s high population rate, will be held in Islamabad from Dec 1 to 2. Data compiled by research organisation Population Council, UK Aid and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) shows the average annual growth rate in Pakistan — based on data from 2017 to 2023 — is 2.55 per cent, resulting in a population of 241.5 million, making it the fifth most populous country in the world. The country is on course to cross 300 million within the next five years and edge towards 400 million by 2050. According to a DawnMedia press release, the two-day event will take place at the Serena Hotel. The event will take stock of the situation in Pakistan, as it faces the challenges of rising population growth outpacing available resources. “Urgent and serious action is required to bridge the growing gap between demographic increase and sustainable resource management. Recognising the crucial implications of a high population growth rate on Pakistan’s econo... -
Dawn - 05:56 Nov 30, 2025
TOBA TEK SINGH: Former Jhang District Bar Association president Mehr Muhammad Munir Sadhana, his driver and a passer-by were killed while a shopkeeper was injured when two unidentified persons riding a motorcycle opened indiscriminate fire on the lawyer’s car on Gojra Road of Jhang on Saturday morning. Jhang Satellite Town police said the attackers managed to flee after the shooting. Munir Sadhana was on the way to Jhang District Courts Complex when his car was attacked near Bilqees Hospital. As a result of firing, his driver Mumtaz Ahmad died instantly while Sadhana himself, shopkeeper and passer-by Mushtaq were shifted to Jhang District Headquarters Hospital where Sadhana and passer-by also succumbed to their injuries. The lawyer was a close aide of former federal interior minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, who was present at the hospital to receive the body of his friend along with relatives of the deceased. Deputy Commissioner Ali Akbar Bhinder and DPO Bilal Kiani were also present. As soon as news of atta... -
Dawn - 05:38 Nov 30, 2025
• Officials say SC Rules do not permit them • Policy meant for technical experts, not routine judicial administrators ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), the country’s newly-established apex forum for constitutional interpretation, apparently acting under the proviso of Article 208 of the Constitution made certain appointments in which some employees have been placed in the federal government’s Special Professional Pay Scale (SPPS) policy. A notification issued by FCC earlier this week, and approved by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, created eight senior posts — including one in BS-22 and seven in BS-21 — all placed in SPPS. Under SPPS-I, the pay package ranges from Rs1.5 million to Rs2m, almost equivalent to the salary of a high court judge. However, senior federal officials familiar with service laws say the FCC administration has thus far not framed any rules under Article 208 and therefore, under the proviso to the said article, can only follow the Supreme Court Rules relating to the appoint... -
Dawn - 05:36 Nov 30, 2025
TEHRAN: Iranian authorities on Saturday halted electricity production at one of the country’s biggest dams due to a marked drop in the reservoir’s water level, state media reported. “Due to the drop in the Karkheh Dam reservoir level, its power plant’s units were removed from the production circuit,” Amir Mahmoudi, the head of the dam and its power plant, said, according to state news agency IRNA. He added that the water was subsequently released from the lower valves of the dam to meet the needs of people living downstream. He said that the reservoir behind the dam is currently holding about one billion cubic metres of water, adding that “the current water level is 180 meters, which is 40 meters lower than the natural operating level” for electricity production. The Karkheh Dam is one of the biggest earthen dams in the world and the largest in Iran and the Middle East, according to IRNA. Built on the Karkheh River, it is located 22 kilometres (14 miles) northwest of the city of Andimeshk in the southwestern ... -
Dawn - 05:34 Nov 30, 2025
WASHINGTON: Just one day before the terrorist attack against National Guard soldiers in the nation’s capital, another Afghan national, paroled into the United States under President Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome”, was arrested in Fort Worth, Texas, for threatening to blow up a building, it emerged on Saturday. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin of the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X that the suspect, Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, had uploaded a TikTok video showing himself assembling what he suggested was an explosive device. She said the video indicated that the Fort Worth area was his intended target. Alokozay was arrested on Tuesday by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and charged with making terroristic threats. The arrest came less than 24 hours before the violent attack in Washington in which another Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, shot and critically wounded two members of the US National Guard. Lakanwal, who had been in the Uni... -
Dawn - 05:32 Nov 30, 2025
The Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday rejected what it called the “baseless” statement by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk expressing concerns about the 27th Constitutional Amendment. In a statement issued in Geneva on Friday, the human rights chief said the latest constitutional amendment, like the 26th amendment last year, had been adopted without broad consultation and debate with the legal community and wider civil society. He added that the “hastily adopted” amendments undermined judicial independence and raised concerns about military accountability. A press release issued by the FO said that Pakistan rejected the “baseless” statement. “Pakistan notes with deep concern the ungrounded and misplaced apprehensions aired on behalf of the UN high commissioner for human rights regarding the 27th Constitutional Amendment adopted by the two-third majority of the parliament of Pakistan,” the press release by the FO said. “Like all parliamentary democracies, all legislation as well as any... -
Dawn - 04:20 Nov 30, 2025
• Four 500-acre graveyards to be established on city outskirts and one 25-acre within Karachi • Sindh govt is likely to approve mayor’s proposal soon • While burial charges are just Rs9,300 in KMC-run cemeteries, actual charged amount can run up to Rs150,000 KARACHI: Amid a burial-place crisis that could leave Karachi with nowhere to bury its dead by the year 2040, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has decided to establish four 500-acre graveyards on city outskirts and a new 25-acre graveyard within the metropolis. The Sindh government has in principle agreed to this proposal and is likely to approve it soon. The KMC’s plan came to the fore after repeated warnings that almost all city graveyards have run out of space for burial. The situation has not only set off alarm bells but also exposed a set of troubling facts that are fast turning into a new challenge for Karachiites. The sources said Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab pushed for the plan which got the provincial authorities’ nod after whic... -
Dawn - 04:14 Nov 30, 2025
ISLAMABAD: One of the three Islamabad High Court judges who packed up their chambers earlier this week is considering submitting his resignation next week, as uncertainty deepens in the judiciary following the 27th Amendment. Sources told Dawn that Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri is likely to tender his resignation early next week. He is also expected to visit the Islamabad High Court Bar Association (IHCBA) on Dec 2, a day before key developments in his pending degree-related case. Justice Jahangiri is among the three IHC judges who removed their personal effects from the high court building over the past week as rumours intensified regarding their possible resignations following sweeping constitutional changes introduced through the 27th Amendment. The three judges — Justices Jahangiri, Babar Sattar and Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan — had reportedly packed their belongings and shifted them home. According to the sources, Justice Jahangiri removed all books, documents, decorative items and other personal effects fr... -
Dawn - 04:06 Nov 30, 2025
• Malik Ahmad stresses need for stable constitutional interpretation for governance, economic continuity • Cross-examined in PM Shehbaz’s Rs10bn defamation suit against Imran LAHORE: Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan has defended the 27th Constitution Amendment, describing it as a “necessary institutional reform aimed at reducing friction among constitutional bodies, clarifying judicial jurisdiction, and ensuring long-term administrative stability”. Addressing the “Speaker Aur Awam” public engagement session here on Saturday, he said a major part of the discussion centered on the 27th Amendment. He said the amendment established a Federal Constitutional Court, introduced reforms to the transfer process for high court judges, created a commander for the new National Strategic Command, and provided legal protections to senior armed forces officials and the president. “The amendment was necessary institutional reform aimed at reducing friction among constitutional bodies, clarifying judicial jurisdictio... -
Dawn - 03:54 Nov 30, 2025
THE photo shows one of the damaged sections of a railway track on the outskirts of Quetta.—Dawn QUETTA: Seven blasts rocked Quetta and Dera Murad Jamali on Saturday, with one explosion blowing up a section of railway track near the provincial capital and suspending train traffic to other parts of the country. The first blast took place near a police checkpost on Qambrani Road, where unidentified attackers hurled a grenade. The device exploded but caused no loss of life. Police said the second blast occurred shortly afterwards on the same road, when armed men detonated a motorcycle carrying an improvised explosive device (IED) as a Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) vehicle passed by, carrying bomb disposal squad personnel to the site of the first explosion. “Miscreants planted an IED on the motorbike and detonated it with a remote control when the CTD vehicle was passing through the area,” SSP Operations Capt (retd) Asif Khan told Dawn, adding that the CTD vehicle escaped the blast and no casualties were rep... -
Dawn - 03:28 Nov 30, 2025
• Kyiv plunges into darkness as grid hit in Russian strikes; three killed • Moscow’s oil terminal halts operations after Black Sea drone attack KYIV/MOSCOW: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that a delegation headed by security council secretary Rustem Umerov was on its way to the United States to continue talks on an agreement to end Russia’s war. Umerov has been put in charge of the Ukrainian delegation after the previous lead negotiator, Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday hours after anti-corruption detectives searched his apartment. Zelensky said he expected that the results of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out” on Sunday. Those meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counter-offer to proposals laid out by US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll to leaders in Kyiv almost two weeks ago. “Rustem delivered a report today, and the task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out the step...
5737 items