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Dawn - 06:01 Aug 28, 2025
ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday reviewed audit objections involving the Cabinet Division’s management of the Toshakhana, the state gift repository, highlighting improper amendments to its rules and the disappearance of records dating back before 1997. The committee, chaired by Syed Naveed Qamar, was told by audit officials that the original Toshakhana rules from 1973 had been amended in violation of proper procedures. The Auditor General’s office had previously objected to the repeated changes. Cabinet Division Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal explained that a new Toshakhana Act was enacted in 2024, which mandates that all gifts, except those of historical or cultural significance, must be auctioned. “The law does not forbid accepting gifts, but requires their disposal through auction,” he clarified. Probes improper rule amendments, flawed auctions and missing records Mr Afzal added that a proposal for new amendments has been submitted under which dignitaries would not be allowed to acce... -
Dawn - 05:59 Aug 28, 2025
Carlos Alcaraz stormed into the third round of the US Open with a blistering straight-sets victory on Wednesday as Novak Djokovic overcame an early scare to advance. Alcaraz, who could meet Djokovic in the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows if the draw follows the seedings, blew away Italy’s Mattia Bellucci 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 in just one hour 36 minutes on the Arthur Ashe Stadium main court. The 22-year-old Spanish second seed unfurled a stream of 32 winners in a dominant display against the 65th-ranked Bellucci, whose best performance in a Grand Slam came with a run to the third round at Wimbledon earlier this year. “I played great to be honest, from the beginning until the last ball,” said Alcaraz, who will face another Italian, 32nd seed Luciano Darderi, in the next round. “The less time I spend on court the better for me, to go to bed early,” he added. Elsewhere on Wednesday, Serbian legend Djokovic kept his dream of a record 25th Grand Slam singles title alive after a four-set defeat of American qualifier Zachar... -
Dawn - 05:46 Aug 28, 2025
• Lower riparian takes measures to tackle inflows from swollen Indus tributaries at Guddu Barrage • Irsa director says flood of about 650,000 cusecs likely at Guddu if current situation persists HYDERABAD: As Sindh anticipates a very high flood between Sept 1 and 3 at Guddu Barrage — its first barrage on the Indus River — due to the swollen eastern rivers currently wreaking havoc in Punjab, the downstream province has asked the authorities to reduce outflows from Tarbela Dam to help it manage the deluge. As multiple rivers submerge Punjab, Sindh has reached out to the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) to reduce outflows from Tarbela and retain water at Chashma Barrage — a request accepted by the authority. The provincial irrigation authorities are keeping an eye on flows generated in the Chenab, Sutlej, and Ravi rivers, as all these rivers converge in the Indus at Mithankot after passing the Panjnad Barrage built over the Jhelum River. At Panjnad, all tributaries of the Indus meet on their way to the sea th... -
Dawn - 05:33 Aug 28, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday unveiled a drastically simplified income tax return form for salaried individuals — reducing the number of required fields from 800 to just 40 — as part of the government’s push for a predictable tax regime and accelerated privatisation under its broader structural reform agenda. Speaking at a conference on “Building a Resilient Public Financial Management Ecosystem”, jointly organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP) and the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), Mr Aurangzeb emphasised that implementation, rather than policy debate, is now the government’s primary focus. The new tax return form, published on the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) website for a 40-day public consultation, is expected to benefit nearly 80pc of salaried taxpayers. “Our goal is to make the tax system more people-friendly,” the minister said, urging stakeholders to provide feedback. Mr Aurangzeb also announced that tax pol... -
Dawn - 03:29 Aug 28, 2025
• Aurangzeb urges innovative instruments, sectoral reforms for long-term resilience • ADB president says ready to assist in launch of inaugural Panda Bond, welcomes market diversification efforts ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday sought deeper collaboration and fresh support for policy-based lending from the Asian Development Bank for vast sectors of the economy, from climate to infrastructure to resource mobilisation, through global capital instruments, like green bonds and debt-for-nature swaps, under the new 10-year partnership. The wish-list for future direct financial support and collaborations for market-based financing instruments was shared by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb with ADB President Masato Kanda — a former finance minister of Japan — during his maiden visit to Pakistan after assuming the charge of his office in February this year. Senator Aurangzeb discussed “Pakistan’s priorities for deeper collaboration with ADB across key areas, including energy transition, climate resilience, trans... -
Dawn - 03:06 Aug 28, 2025
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court registrar’s office on Wednesday returned a petition filed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sardar Ali Amin Gandapur seeking permission to meet PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan at Adiala Jail for consultation on provincial matters. The office cited legal lacunas, including the absence of a duly signed power of attorney, as the reason for rejecting the plea. The petition was moved under Article 184(1) of the Constitution which grants the Supreme Court original jurisdiction to hear disputes between two or more governments through declaratory judgements. In his plea, the KP chief minister sought directives for the federal government to allow him to meet the PTI founder for consultation and guidance on matters relating to the governance of the province. The petition contended that Imran Khan has been “illegally detained” in the Rawalpindi prison since August 2023. The petition named the federal government through the interior ministry, Punjab chief secretary... -
Dawn - 02:48 Aug 28, 2025
• Over 600,000 affected as floodwaters sweep central parts of province • 15 die in Gujranwala divison • More than 150,000 people, 35,000 heads of livestock shifted to safety • Hundreds of villages affected across Chenab, Ravi and Sutlej belts • Kartarpur Sahib complex submerged, 150 pilgrims rescued • 263 relief, 161 medical camps set up • Officials fear river surge may hit S. Punjab next LAHORE: Large swathes of Punjab are submerged as catastrophic flooding in the Sutlej, Ravi and Chenab rivers forced hundreds of thousands from their homes, causing significant damage to infrastructure and devastates millions of acres of agricultural land. The three trans-boundary rivers have swollen to exceptionally high levels due to a combination of heavy rains and the excess water India is releasing from dams, which then flows across the border. The crisis, which affects central districts, now threatens south Punjab as the combined thrust of four rivers is set to converge on Thursday. The flooding has prompted the govern... -
Dawn - 18:34 Aug 27, 2025
Another suspect in the torture of two brothers by street vendors in Raiwind was arrested, a lawyer representing the victims said on Wednesday. The incident went viral on social media when a video clip showed some street vendors subjecting both brothers to severe torture on a road in the Raiwind area a few days back. They were lying in a pool of blood, and the suspected attackers, holding clubs in their hands, were spotted torturing them at a public place with many onlookers and passersby standing around. One brother died of severe torture marks at the spot, while the other succumbed to his injuries on Sunday. The main suspect was arrested and handed over to the Crime Control Department (CCD) on Tuesday. Ali Ahmed Awan, a lawyer representing the victims’ father, told Dawn.com that police have arrested the main suspect from Sahiwal. “A total of six suspects are named in the case and so far, three have been arrested,” Awan said. “Police arrested the suspect from Sahiwal with the help of modern technology.” The l... -
Dawn - 17:25 Aug 27, 2025
A black-clad gunman killed two children and wounded 17 other people on Wednesday when he opened fire on students attending Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, authorities said. The assailant, a man in his early 20s, fired dozens of rounds through the church windows and then took his own life, officials said. He was armed with a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, they said. “This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara told reporters. The shooting occurred two days after school started at Annunciation Catholic School, a private elementary school with about 395 students, connected to a Roman Catholic church in a residential area in the southeast part of Minnesota’s largest city. Local TV showed parents ducking under yellow police crime tape and leading students out of the school. Police and first responders work at the sce... -
Dawn - 17:16 Aug 27, 2025
At least 25 people were killed and 27 injured when a bus overturned in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, authorities told AFP, a week after the country’s deadliest road accident in years. The crash happened “due to the driver’s negligence” on a highway near the capital Kabul, leading to the southern city of Kandahar, interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said. Qani said 25 people were killed and 27 were being treated at hospitals for injuries, the extent of which was not specified. Deadly traffic crashes are common in Afghanistan, due in part to poor roads after decades of conflict, dangerous driving on highways and a lack of regulation. Last Tuesday, 78 people, including more than a dozen children, were killed in western Herat province when a bus carrying migrants returning from Iran collided with a motorcycle and a truck, according to authorities. In December last year, two bus accidents involving a fuel tanker and a truck on a highway through central Afghanistan killed at least 52. -
Dawn - 16:50 Aug 27, 2025
PTI lawmakers have begun resigning from membership and chairmanship of all standing committees in the National Assembly on Wednesday after instructions from party founder Imran Khan. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in July and August disqualified a large number of PTI members and leaders in relation to their involvement in the May 9, 2023 riots against Imran’s arrest, sparking protests in the National Assembly. NA Director General (Media) Zafar Sultan Khan told Dawn.com today that Ali Asghar Khan and Faisal Amin had sent their resignations as standing committee members to NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq. A statement from PTI Chief Whip Aamir Dogar also said: “PTI members of the National Assembly have started acting on the instructions of founding chairman Imran Khan. PTI members of standing committees have started sending their resignations. Many members have submitted their resignations to the National Assembly Secretariat.” He said the remaining lawmakers would send their resignations to the NA Secretariat ... -
Dawn - 15:07 Aug 27, 2025
Tremors from a 5.3-magnitude earthquake were felt in Peshawar and Islamabad on Wednesday, according to a press release issued by the Pakistan Meteorological Department’s (PMD) Seismic Network, but there have been no reports of casualties or damage so far. The PMD stated that the earthquake occurred at 6:27pm with a magnitude of 5.3 and a depth of 110 kilometres. The PMD determined that the epicentre was in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) tracked an earthquake in northeast Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, 35km south of Eshkashem. USGS data shows that the quake was registered at 6:27pm, albeit with a magnitude of 5.1 and at a depth of 128km. Last week, a strong, 5.2 magnitude earthquake jolted the northern parts of the country, including the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and several parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The PMD said in a statement that the epicentre of the earthquake was located in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. The d... -
Dawn - 12:47 Aug 27, 2025
United States President Donald Trump once again claimed credit on Tuesday for ending the conflict between India and Pakistan, saying that his threat of extremely high tariffs was instrumental in reaching a ceasefire agreement. Participating in a cabinet meeting at the White House yesterday, the US president reiterated the claim that his intervention was directly responsible for the end of the conflict. “India and Pakistan were gonna end up in a nuclear war if I didn’t stop them,” he said, adding, “I saw seven jets were shot down … $150 million planes were shot down; seven, maybe more than that, they didn’t even report the real number.” Trump added that he had spoken to both India and Pakistan at the time of the conflict, asking them what was going on between them. “The hatred was tremendous,” he said, saying that the conflict had been going on, “sometimes with different names”, for hundreds of years. Without specifying whether he had been speaking to India or Pakistan, the president said that he had refused t... -
Dawn - 12:46 Aug 27, 2025
India said on Wednesday that the city of Ahmedabad is an “ideal” location for the 2030 Commonwealth Games, with its bid viewed as part of a wider push by the cricket-mad nation to host the 2036 Olympics. Ahmedabad is the key city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, home to a 130,000-seater arena, the world’s biggest cricket stadium and named after the premier. Modi’s cabinet approved India’s bid for the 2030 Commonwealth Games on Wednesday. India submitted a formal letter of intent last year to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2036 Games. “Ahmedabad is an ideal host city offering world-class stadiums, cutting-edge training facilities, and a passionate sporting culture,” a cabinet statement read. “Narendra Modi Stadium, the largest stadium in the world, has already demonstrated its capability by successfully hosting the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup Final,” it said. Nigeria and at least two other nations have reportedly expressed interest in hosting the Commonwealth Games, whic... -
Dawn - 12:44 Aug 27, 2025
Heavy rain swept across the Himalayas, killing at least 36 people in India over the past 24 hours and forcing authorities to open major dams, in turn triggering flood alerts on three rivers in neighbouring Pakistan. In the deadliest single disaster, a landslide killed 33 people near the Hindu mountain shrine of Vaishno Devi on a pilgrim route in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Three more people died as floodwaters burst the banks of rivers in the district of Doda and swamped low-lying areas, authorities added. A view of a houseboat on the overflowing Jhelum River following heavy rain, in Srinagar, Indian-occupied Kashmir, on August 27. — Reuters About 200 children were stranded on Wednesday after flood water engulfed a school building in the northern state of Punjab, local media said. Vehicles tumbled off the Madhopur barrage over the Tawi river when parts of it collapsed after being lashed by heavy rain overnight into Wednesday morning, video images showed. There were n... -
Dawn - 11:43 Aug 27, 2025
US President Donald Trump’s doubling of tariffs on goods from India to as much as 50 per cent took effect as scheduled on Wednesday, escalating tensions between the world’s two largest democracies and strategic partners. A punitive 25pc tariff imposed due to India’s purchases of Russian oil adds to Trump’s prior 25pc tariff on many products from India. It takes total duties to as high as 50pc for goods such as garments, gems and jewellery, footwear, sporting goods, furniture and chemicals — among the highest imposed by the US and on par with Brazil and China. The new tariffs threaten thousands of small exporters and jobs, including in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. India’s Commerce Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, a Commerce Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said exporters hit by tariffs would receive financial assistance and be encouraged to diversify to markets such as China, Latin America and the Middle East. A US Customs an... -
Dawn - 10:54 Aug 27, 2025
Maritime Affairs Minister Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry on Wednesday announced that plans are underway to utilise solar energy to power Balochistan’s Gwadar port in a bid to improve its efficiency, a press release issued by his ministry said. Gwadar Port, built more than a decade ago, still remains a non-starter, prompting the federal government to speed up efforts aimed at the maximum utilisation of the port. Earlier this month, Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) and a Chinese company agreed to boost investments at the port, in an attempt to develop it as a “regional transhipment centre”. In a meeting aimed at enhancing the port’s operations, Chaudhry announced that “efforts are underway to implement solar-based solutions” to enhance the operational capability of the Gwadar port. In that regard, a sub-committee has been established, which will be responsible for planning and implementing an “efficient solar panel utilisation plan, recommending the installation of solar photovoltaic systems, battery storage solutio... -
Dawn - 09:47 Aug 27, 2025
Indian spin great Ravichandran Ashwin on Wednesday announced his retirement from the Indian Premier League and plans to play in other global franchise tournaments. The 38-year-old, a master off-spinner who quit international cricket in December during India’s Test tour of Australia, ends as the fifth-highest wicket-taker in the IPL with 187 scalps. He played for five IPL franchises and won the tournament with Chennai Super Kings in 2010 and 2011, where he also played in this year’s edition. “They say every ending will have a new start,” Ashwin wrote on social media. “My time as an IPL cricketer comes to a close today but my time as an explorer of the game around various leagues begins today.” The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) does not allow any current player in Indian international or domestic cricket to feature in overseas leagues. The feisty Ashwin finished his India career with 537 wickets in 106 Tests at an average of 24.00. He also played 116 one-day and 65 T20 internationals. -
Dawn - 09:20 Aug 27, 2025
Floodwaters gushing through mountain villages, cities rendered swamps, mourners gathered at fresh graves — as Pakistan’s monsoon season once again delivers scenes of calamity, it also lays bare woeful preparedness. Without better regulation of construction and sewer maintenance, the annual downpours that have left hundreds dead in recent months will continue to kill, experts say. Even Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appeared to agree as he toured flood-stricken Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province last week, where landslides killed more than 450 people. “Natural disasters are acts of God, but we cannot ignore the human blunders,” he said. “If we keep letting influence-peddling and corruption control building permits, neither the people nor the governments will be forgiven.” Pakistan is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, with limited resources for adaptation. In the devastated mountain villages the prime minister visited, and beyond, residential areas are erected near riverbeds, blocking “natural stor... -
Dawn - 09:17 Aug 27, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Google has launched its new ‘AI Mode’ in Pakistan, offering users access to its most advanced AI-powered search experience. First introduced in the United States this year, the feature is now expanding globally, with Pakistan among the latest countries to gain access. The tool, powered by a custom version of Gemini 2.5, enables people to ask longer and more complex questions that previously required multiple searches. Available in English, AI Mode can be accessed via the Google app on Android and iOS, as well as on mobile and desktop web. In a statement, Google said that early testers have shown that queries are already two to three times longer than traditional searches, highlighting the tool’s usefulness for exploratory tasks such as comparing products, planning trips, or tackling “how-to” questions. “It dives deep to answer multiple questions at once, with helpful links for further exploration,” the company said. Google explained that Pakistani users can use ‘AI Mode’ for different use cases, in...
7447 items