Dawn
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Dawn - 14:28 Jul 27, 2026
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday told the global Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) that the country has entered a decisive phase in its decades-long fight against polio, claiming the virus has been pushed into a shrinking number of high-risk areas but cautioned that persistent insecurity in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa remains the biggest obstacle to reaching every child. The IMB — an independent oversight body of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative — met from July 20 to 23 to assess global eradication efforts, with a particular focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan, the world’s only two countries where wild poliovirus remains endemic. During a high-level review meeting of the IMB in Geneva, Pakistani officials claimed that the country’s strategy was delivering results, while acknowledging that failure to eliminate transmission from the remaining hotspots could jeopardise years of progress. Pakistan informed the board that it had reduced polio cases by 99.8 per cent since the early 1990s, when an estimated 20,00... -
Dawn - 14:10 Jul 27, 2026
Indian activists are challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over the use of AI-powered surveillance at the largest youth protest in decades, with one court case set to become a test of federal powers even after agitation ended. The surveillance controversy erupted during last week’s student protests over exam paper leaks, when demonstrators posted pictures on social media of a mobile police surveillance van equipped with cameras on a telescopic mast providing a 360-degree view of the gathering. One protester, student activist Aishe Ghosh, has asked the Delhi High Court to declare mass surveillance of protesters unconstitutional and direct the destruction of all personal data collected during the protest, as well as order the framing of guidelines on how surveillance technology can be used. Ghosh is pressing on with the case even though the protest ended after Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned in a rare setback for Modi, who has since announced a panel to overhaul the cheating-prone... -
Dawn - 14:03 Jul 27, 2026
Four men, reported to be Pakistani nationals, were gunned down in a suspected ambush in South Africa, it emerged on Monday. South African news platform News24 reported on Sunday that the incident occurred in Kempton Park, a city in the Gauteng province, on Saturday evening. It added that the victims were shopkeepers in the Sebenza area. “According to several social media posts, the victims were Pakistani nationals,” the news outlet said, but noted that police were unable to confirm the victims’ nationalities. Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi confirmed the deaths and said the police were investigating them as murder cases, News24 said. When asked to confirm the nationality of the victims, Nevhuhulwi told the news agency, “They are [foreign nationals], but unfortunately at this stage, I cannot confirm their nationality.” According to her, the victims’ Honda car had stopped at a red traffic light when two unknown men driving a white sedan stopped next to their vehicle, got out and started... -
Dawn - 12:38 Jul 27, 2026
When cricket returns to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, it will bring far more than bats, balls and wickets. Its inclusion reflects a strategic calculation by Olympic leaders that the surest route to billions of new viewers runs through India, cricket’s commercial heartland and a country they believe is increasingly central to the Games future. Cricket, absent from the Olympics since 1900, offers the International Olympic Committee (IOC) something no recent addition has: direct access to a fan base of more than two billion people and, crucially, the commercial power of the Indian market. As the Games seek a younger and broader audience, it may prove the most valuable sport added to the Olympic programme in decades. Cricket has been one of the major global sports not to feature in the Olympics, IOC Sports Director Pierre Ducrey told Reuters in an interview. “It is very strong in markets where maybe you could say the Olympic Games today may not have penetrated as much as they have in other markets,” he sai... -
Dawn - 11:54 Jul 27, 2026
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark index opened the week on a strong note, gaining more than 7,000 points to close above the 178,000-point threshold on Monday. The KSE-100 index had gained 4,501.33 points to reach 175,522.53 points by 9:50am from the previous close of 171,021.20 points. By 3:09pm, the index had gained 7,081.19 points to cross the 178,000-point level. At 3:29pm, it hit its intra-day peak of 178,588.33 points, before settling at 178,262.33 points to close out the session — a gain of 7,241.13 points (4.23 per cent). Awais Ashraf, director of research at AKD Securities, said investor sentiment improved after the US and Iran paused military strikes, raising hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the Middle East conflict and the resumption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. In today’s monetary policy announcement, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) maintained the policy rate at 11.5pc. Analysts had expected the central bank to keep the rate unchanged, saying it would be difficult to m... -
Dawn - 11:45 Jul 27, 2026
The PPP on Monday claimed that its worker died during electoral violence in Kotli district’s Nakyal tehsil as the first phase of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections was underway in the 13 constituencies of Mirpur division. Polling began at 8am and will continue till 5pm. Today (Monday) had been declared a public holiday in all three districts — Bhimber, Mirpur, and Kotli — of the division to facilitate polling. While some skirmishes and scuffles between PPP and PML-N workers in Kotli district were reported earlier in the day, the electoral process took a violent turn in the afternoon in LA-9 Kotli-II (Nakyal). In a statement on X, the PPP claimed that party worker Mukhtar Younus “died during incidents of display of arms and public harassment by PML-N candidate Sardar Umair Naeem”. PPP AJK Election Cell Incharge Sardar Abdul Shakoor demanded that all those involved in the incident be immediately arrested, law and order be restored, and the safety of voters’ lives and property be ensured. Meanwhile, PPP Chai... -
Dawn - 11:42 Jul 27, 2026
The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Monday kept the interest rate unchanged at 11.5 per cent. The decision was announced by SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed during a press conference. At the outset of the press conference, the governor said, “MPC has decided to keep the policy rate unchanged at 11.5pc”. “There were several reasons for this, but I would like to explain some background: every time we hold committee meetings in January and July, we also issue projections for the next six months and what would be the level of economic growth, inflation outlook and situation of the external account; I will share that assessment as well.” The governor explained that in the first half of the previous year, inflation was declining; however, “the fallout from the Middle East crisis impacted our domestic situation”. “From July to February, our average inflation was 5.5pc,” which he said was within the government’s target range of 5-7pc. However, due to the Middle East crisis, inflation began ... -
Dawn - 10:03 Jul 27, 2026
The Sindh government has declared a public holiday on Wednesday (July 29) on account of the annual urs of Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. According to the notification shared on Monday, the provincial government has declared July 29 as public holiday throughout the province for all government offices, autonomous bodies, semi-autonomous bodies, corporations and local councils under its administrative control, except for essential services. The notification was shared by the Sindh Information Department on the social media platform X. The three-day annual urs of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai is held every year from Safar 14 at his final resting place in Bhit Shah. -
Dawn - 09:35 Jul 27, 2026
India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement, whose protests have forced the education minister’s resignation, urged authorities on Monday to release all demonstrators detained in weeks of rallies nationwide. The online Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which organised protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said they had received reports of students held in detention, particularly in the states of Assam, West Bengal and Bihar. “Any failure to release those detained or withdraw criminal cases would amount to a breach of public trust,” the protest group said in a statement, adding they would take “further necessary steps” if their demand was not met. The statement comes two days after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as education minister over repeated failures in the conduct of competitive exams that have fuelled anger among millions of young Indians. The CJP accused the government of backtracking after authorities had assured them that no punitive action would be taken against protesters. The movement has w... -
Dawn - 09:34 Jul 27, 2026
KARACHI: Water supply to several parts of Karachi resumed in phases on Monday after electricity supply was resumed at the Dhabeji pumping station, around 22 hours after a power breakdown, Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation spokesperson Abdul Qadir Shaikh told Dawn. The spokesperson said K-Electric (KE) had restored power supply to the pumping station at 7:20am on Monday, around 22 hours after a cable fault suspended the supply at 8:43am on Sunday. He said the “prolonged outage had resulted in a shortfall of nearly 48 million gallons of water in the city” and the affected areas included parts of North Nazimabad, Nazimabad, Gulberg Town, New Karachi, Landhi, Korangi and Scheme 33. “Following the restoration of electricity, water supply to the affected areas has resumed in phases,” the spokesperson said. The Dhabeji pumping station, Karachi’s primary water intake point, is highly dependent on uninterrupted electricity. Even brief outages result in immediate service disruptions. The power breakdown on Sunday ... -
Dawn - 07:45 Jul 27, 2026
Oil prices tumbled more than six per cent on Monday after the US and Iran paused strikes over the weekend after two weeks of attacks, raising hopes of a diplomatic solution that would de-escalate the conflict and allow shipping to resume in the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures fell $6.20, or 6.4pc, to $90.58 by 0620 GMT after briefly slipping under the key support level of $90 earlier in the session. US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $83.51 a barrel, down $5.80, or 6.5pc. Both contracts are trading at their lowest levels in nearly a week after rising for the past three weeks. Brent had reached $100 per barrel as the conflict, which reduced oil shipments via the Strait of Hormuz, spilled over to the Red Sea, hindering exports from the world’s top exporter, Saudi Arabia, via the Bab el-Mandeb strait to Asia. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told Fox News on Sunday and other US media that President Donald Trump had decided to pause US attacks to allow more time for diplomacy. “Oil ... -
Dawn - 07:33 Jul 27, 2026
I have worked on my university’s Admission Committee for 16 years, long enough to have watched several cycles of both growth and contraction. But nothing in those years prepared me for what the last three or four have looked like, and nothing about the current decline is evenly spread. It is concentrated, sharply, among girls applying to evening programmes. When I began speaking directly with hesitant applicants and their parents to understand why confirmed seats were being given up, the reasoning was strikingly consistent, and stated without much hesitation. “In this inflation, why should I spend such a heavy amount on my daughter’s education when there is no job security for her in the future?” one mother asked me plainly. With no guaranteed job waiting at the end of an evening degree, she said, that money was better saved for her daughter’s dowry and wedding than spent on tuition. She was not the only parent to put it like that. These were not abstractions to me. They were mothers, often visibly uneasy the... -
Dawn - 07:18 Jul 27, 2026
A mass shooting near the Space Needle landmark in Seattle killed three people on Sunday and wounded at least four others, including a toddler, according to the police. Seattle Police said one suspect has been arrested and they are searching for another following the incident at a food festival in a popular tourist district of the northwestern US city. Assistant Police Chief Tyrone Davis said shots were heard around 6pm (6am PKT) and “there were two people who we believe were shooting at each other”. Two weapons were recovered. There is “no outstanding threat to the community,” he said. Seattle Police said three people had died. Police said on X earlier Sunday there were “multiple shooting victims” after shots were fired at the Seattle Centre. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson said State Patrol SWAT officers had been deployed to assist local police. “My prayers are with the families of the victims, and the responders as they work to keep people safe,” he said on X. Mayor Katie Wilson said the shooting was “an a... -
Dawn - 06:51 Jul 27, 2026
A popular far-right Australian politician failed on Monday to overturn a racial vilification finding that was handed down after she told a Muslim senator to go back to Pakistan. Senator Pauline Hanson has emerged as one of Australia’s most popular politicians, wooing voters with calls for strict immigration curbs, mass deportations of “illegal migrants” and enhanced free speech protections. Hanson took aim at Pakistan-born Australian lawmaker Mehreen Faruqi in 2022 over comments made in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. Faruqi, a left-leaning Greens senator, said she could not mourn the “leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised people”. Hanson replied on social media: “When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country. You took citizenship, bought multiple homes, and a job in a parliament. It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.” The Federal Court of Australia found in 2024, in response to a complaint from... -
Dawn - 05:41 Jul 27, 2026
A mass shooting near the Space Needle landmark in Seattle killed two people on Sunday and wounded at least four others, including a child, according to US media and a local hospital. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson said one suspect has been taken into custody following the incident in a popular tourist district in the northwestern US city. Wilson had initially said two were in custody. Fire department officials confirmed that two people died, according to NBC News and CNN. Seattle police said there were “multiple shooting victims” near the Space Needle observation tower. “Shots fired at the Seattle Centre,” police said in an X post. Wilson said in a statement that she wanted to “thank the Seattle police officers who responded to the scene and took a suspect into custody”. Four patients were being treated at the trauma centre facility at Harborview Medical Centre, according to spokesperson Susan Gregg: a child, a woman of unknown age who was in surgery, a 23-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman. “There was informat... -
Dawn - 05:33 Jul 27, 2026
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark index opened the week on a strong note, gaining more than 5,000 points during early trade. The KSE-100 index had gained 4,501.33 points to reach 175,522.53 points by 9:50am from the previous close of 171,021.20 points. By 10:30am, the index had gained 5,068.88 points to reach 176,090.08 points. Awais Ashraf, director of research at AKD Securities, said investor sentiment improved after the US and Iran paused military strikes, raising hopes for a diplomatic resolution to the Middle East conflict and the resumption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. “The easing of geopolitical tensions has also increased the likelihood that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will maintain the policy rate in today’s monetary policy announcement,” he said. “We expect the SBP to adopt a cautious stance and keep the policy rate unchanged at today’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting, as it is likely to assess further developments in the Middle East and the economic impact of the rec... -
Dawn - 04:52 Jul 27, 2026
• With University Road choked by traffic, other access roads are also plagued by excavation work, bottlenecks • Neighbourhood streets are marked by broken surfaces, persistent dust and years of neglect KARACHI: Three major roads provide access to Gulistan-i-Jauhar, yet hardly any of them can now be described as a fully functional artery. Although the locality is regarded as one of Karachi’s relatively upper-middle-class neighbourhoods and continues to expand with new residential and commercial development, many of its blocks, which have been fully developed for well over a decade, present a striking picture of neglect. Instead of reflecting the area’s continued growth, many of its main roads and internal streets remain scarred by broken surfaces, deep potholes and years of neglect, turning even routine journeys into an exhausting experience for residents. For several years, residents of Gulistan-i-Jauhar have endured severe traffic congestion on University Road owing to the construction of the Bus Rapid Trans... -
Dawn - 04:32 Jul 27, 2026
The Foreign Office (FO) has condemned Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s “highly provocative and irresponsible comments” regarding the Kashmir dispute, saying that the neighbouring country must not underestimate Pakistan’s resolve to “thwart any Indian adventurism”. On Sunday, Singh had stated that there would be “no talks with Pakistan”. According to the Times of India, he went on to say that if any took place, they would only be on Azad Jammu and Kashmir, claiming that it was “illegally occupied by Pakistan”. He also said that any “misadventure” would invite a response “beyond their imagination”, the publication said. The FO responded to the claims in a statement issued early on Monday, saying Pakistan condemned in the “strongest possible terms the highly provocative and irresponsible comments” by the Indian minister. “His statement not only distorts facts regarding the UN and internationally recognised Jammu and Kashmir dispute that remains on the agenda of the UN Security Council but also shows India... -
Dawn - 04:06 Jul 27, 2026
LAHORE: Nawab Town police have registered a case against TikToker Rajab Butt and his accomplices for allegedly attacking some women and opening fire during an altercation at a cafe. The case was lodged on the complaint of a young woman, Ayesha Jutt, who accused Butt of attacking her and some others at a cafe on July 25. According to the complainant, she visited a local cafe with friends for a meal where two young men and two women began harassing one of her friends. She said that they tried to stop both men, but the suspects not only subjected her friend to verbal abuse but also slapped her. She further alleged that one of the suspects, Mir Shafi, pulled out a pistol during the altercation and opened fire. She alleged that Rajab Butt was present on the scene and he was involved in torturing and attacking her and her friend. Nawab Town police registered the case under sections 354, 506(B) and 337-H(2) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and started the investigation. Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2026 -
Dawn - 03:18 Jul 27, 2026
IRAN is seeking to recalibrate its control over the Strait of Hormuz by regulating maritime traffic and establishing a ‘smart management’ system that includes passage fees for vessels traversing the strait. The principal treaty governing these matters is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which establishes the legal framework applicable to passage through international straits. It recognises two principal regimes: innocent passage and transit passage. Under UNCLOS, innocent passage is defined as passage that is “not prejudicial to the peace, good order, or security of the coastal State”. Activities that render passage non-innocent, expressly include any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity, or political independence of the coastal state, or in any other manner in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations. Nevertheless, warships enjoy a customary right to innocent passage through straits used in int...
12392 items