Dawn
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Dawn - 03:58 Aug 20, 2025
ISLAMABAD: The government on Tuesday announced that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s upcoming visit to China later this month will mark the formal launch of the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC-II), focused on industrial cooperation, after a delay of about five years. “Prime minister’s upcoming visit will mark the formal launch of CPEC Phase-II, with both sides expected to set clear priorities and agree on tangible, measurable outcomes,” said an official announcement quoting Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, focal person on the multi-billion-dollar bilateral initiative, as saying at a high-level meeting. The meeting was convened to review preparations for the forthcoming session of the Joint Cooperation Committee (JCC) of CPEC, as well as the prime minister’s scheduled visit to Beijing. While the JCC is expected to meet in October, official sources said the prime minister will travel to Beijing at the end of this month to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit (Aug ... -
Dawn - 02:51 Aug 20, 2025
• Country’s internet connectivity drops to 20pc after major PTCL, Ufone outage • Other telcos also experience data service disruptions ISLAMABAD: Heavy rainfall in Karachi caused widespread disruptions to PTCL internet and Ufone services, affecting subscribers across the country. Since other telecom operators purchase wholesale internet from PTCL, users of Jazz, Zong and Telenor also experienced data service disruptions. Netblocks, a global internet watchdog, confirmed a major disruption to internet connectivity across Pakistan, with PTCL being significantly impacted. National connectivity dropped to 20 per cent of ordinary levels. Responding to a query, a PTCL spokesperson acknowledged the issue. “Our teams are diligently working to restore the services as quickly as possible. We regret any inconvenience caused,” the spokesperson said but did not mention the cause for the nationwide outage. Sources in the Ministry of IT and Telecom suggested that the disruption might be due to a technical fault at the landin... -
Dawn - 19:40 Aug 19, 2025
After the National Assembly, the Senate on Tuesday also passed an amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997, which reinserted powers granted to law enforcement authorities (LEAs) and the armed forces to detain individuals for up to three months, amid the opposition’s uproar. Last week, National Assembly had passed the amendment to the ATA. Minister of State for Interior and Narcotics Control Muhammad Tallal Badar moved the Anti-terrorism Amendment Bill 2025 to amend the ATA in the House, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan. A copy of the bill, available with Dawn.com read: “The government or, where the provisions of section 4 have been invoked, the armed forces or civil armed forces, as the case maybe, subject to the specific or general order of the government in this regard, for a period not exceeding three months and after recording reasons thereof, issue order for the preventative detention of any person.” This amendment was made to sub-section (1) of Section 11EEEE of the ATA. Any person s... -
Dawn - 19:36 Aug 19, 2025
The Sindh government has declared a public holiday on Wednesday in Karachi following heavy rainfall lashing the metropolis. In a separate notification, the Sindh government’s school department has ordered all private and public educational institutions under its purview in the city to remain closed today due to the heavy rainfall. With citizens experiencing extended power failures, traffic jams and general mayhem as heavy rain on Tuesday, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab declared a rain emergency amid warnings of more showers to come. According to the Met Office, as of 8pm Tuesday, Gulshan-i-Hadeed had recorded the highest level of rain at 170 millimetres, followed by Airport Old Area at 158.5mm, Jinnah Terminal 153mm, Nazimabad 149.6mm, Surjani Town 145.2mm, Keamari 140mm, Saadi Town 140.2mm, Defence Housing Authority Phase VII 134mm, University Road 133mm, PAF Base Faisal 128mm, North Karachi 108.4mm, Korangi 132.2mm, Gulshan-i-Maymar 98mm, PAF Masroor Base 87mm, Orangi Town 66.2mm and Bahria Town 4.8mm. It cont... -
Dawn - 19:17 Aug 19, 2025
At least seven people were killed in rain-related incidents as heavy downpours lashed Karachi on Tuesday, leaving commuters stranded for hours in massive traffic jams as rainwater accumulated rapidly on the main thoroughfares of the megacity. According to the Met Office, as of 8pm, Gulshan-i-Hadeed had recorded the highest level of rainfall at 170 millimetres, followed by Airport Old Area with 158.5mm, Jinnah Terminal 153mm, Nazimabad 149.6mm, Surjani Town 145.2mm, Keamari 140mm, Saadi Town 140.2mm, Defence Housing Authority Phase VII 134mm, University Road 133mm, PAF Base Faisal 128mm, North Karachi 108.4mm, Korangi 132.2mm, Gulshan-i-Maymar 98mm, PAF Masroor Base 87mm, Orangi Town 66.2mm and Bahria Town 4.8mm. Visuals shared widely on social media showed main roads and arteries of the city submerged during rush hour, with traffic gridlocked as a result. Those who had managed to reach work earlier in the day reported reaching home after several long hours navigating the city’s flooded roads. Lives lost Rescu... -
Dawn - 18:12 Aug 19, 2025
Flight operations were affected at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport on Tuesday as the city received heavy rainfall, according to a statement issued by the Pakistan Aviation Authority (PAA). Karachi received heavy rainfall in several areas over the day, triggering power outages throughout the city as the authorities advised citizens to take precautionary measures. According to a statement issued by PAA spokesperson Saifullah Khan, several flights were affected due to inclement weather during the day. Affected flights included Pakistan International Airline’s (PIA) PK 304 from Karachi to Lahore, which was scheduled for 2pm but was delayed till 5pm. PIA’s flights from Karachi to Quetta and Sukkur were also cancelled, whereas the flight to Islamabad was delayed an hour till 5pm. The national flag carrier also confirmed in a separate statement that its flight operations were affected due to bad weather in Karachi and Islamabad. Flight path of Flydubai flight FZ335 from Dubai to Karachi diverted to Multan on ... -
Dawn - 12:50 Aug 19, 2025
South Africa’s Aiden Markram hit 82 before left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj tore through Australia’s new-look batting order as the Proteas claimed the One-Day International series opener by 98 runs in Cairns on Tuesday. Sent in to bat, Markram — opening for the first time in ODIs since 2021 — crunched nine boundaries in his 81-ball knock to power South Africa to a formidable 296-8. Skipper Temba Bavuma (65) and Matthew Breetzke (57) also helped set the tone for the three-match ODI series. In reply, openers Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head flattened South Africa’s pacemen as Australia raced to 60-0 after seven overs. But the match flipped after the introduction of spin, with Maharaj conjuring rampant turn, and he picked up four wickets in his first 15 balls. He finished with career-best figures of 5-33 from 10 overs as Australia were dismissed for 198 in the 41st over. It was a strong bounce back from South Africa after their 2-1 defeat in the Twenty20 series between the teams. “I just tried to utilise the condit... -
Dawn - 11:53 Aug 19, 2025
The interior ministry informed the Senate on Tuesday that of the 567 cases of sexual abuse registered in Islamabad between 2021 and June 2025, 200 of them involved children. The data reported by the interior ministry was presented in a written response to Senator Shahdhat Awan during a Senate session today. Of the 200 cases of child sexual abuse reported, 93 of the child victims were male and 108 were female. The ministry added that 222 accused parties were arrested, of which only 12 were convicted. 163 remain under trial, while 15 have been acquitted and 26 remain at large. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said in the written statement that “as per reports obtained from all police stations of Islamabad through (the) Zonal Superintendent of Police, during the period from January 1 2021 to 20 June 2025, (a) total 567 cases of rape were registered and 625 accused were arrested”. “Out of 567 cases, 485 cases were challaned, 80 accused were convicted, 23 accused were acquitted and accused in 406 cases are still fac... -
Dawn - 10:41 Aug 19, 2025
At least 358 people died as a result of heavy flooding and downpour in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the last three days, while rehabilitation efforts are still underway as the province recovers from the record deluge, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority said on Tuesday. Record rains in KP, which started on August 15, have wreaked havoc across the province. Last week, the provincial government declared an emergency as torrential rains ravaged homes, displaced families, and left a trail of destruction across Buner, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, and beyond. According to the latest data from the KP PDMA, 358 people have died in rain-related incidents since August 15, with Buner reporting the highest toll at 225. Another 181 people were injured, while the dead included 287 men, 41 women and 30 children. Buner was the worst-hit district in the province, where flash flooding and building collapses left 225 people dead, including 193 men, 23 women and nine children, according to the report. Another 120 people sustaine... -
Dawn - 10:39 Aug 19, 2025
India’s National Sports Governance Bill has become an Act after President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the legislation, which promises to overhaul India’s sports administration, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Tuesday. The development comes days after India said it will bid for the 2030 Commonwealth Games, seen as part of a wider push by the cricket-mad nation to host the 2036 Olympics. The presidential assent came on Monday, stated a gazette notification by the central government. The legislation has been described as a path-breaking reform by Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, PTI reports. “The following Act of Parliament received the assent of the President on the 18th August, 2025 and is hereby published for general information — The National Sports Governance Act, 2025,” the legislation stated. The bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) on July 23 and passed on August 11. A day later, it was passed by the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament). The bill provides... -
Dawn - 10:00 Aug 19, 2025
We’ve seen these headlines before. Heard anchors screech body counts as if they’re in a competition for the highest number. Hundreds of lives lost, thousands displaced, homes swept away and losses that won’t ever be compensated. Pakistan is once again in the midst of a ruthless monsoon season, which began in late June, and on the radar is the country’s mountainous north — Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Last week, unprecedented flash floods left behind a trail of wreckage in Buner, Swat, Shangla, Mansehra, and beyond. A week before that, Muzaffarabad bore the brunt of monsoon rains. Almost a month back, 37 villages across GB were declared calamity-hit. Visuals coming out of the region are terrifying; monstrous rivers unleashing their wrath and sweeping along anything in their way, from main city bazaars to entire villages. According to a report by the National Disaster Management Authority, at least 392 people have died in KP from June 26 to August 18. The number of fatalitie... -
Dawn - 08:51 Aug 19, 2025
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is set to visit the country this week for the sixth Pakistan-China Strategic Dialogue, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Tuesday. Pakistan and China share a longstanding strategic partnership with ties ranging across different sectors — including trade, energy, defence and infrastructure. The fifth round of Strategic Dialogue in May 2024 was co-chaired by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart Wang in Beijing. According to the FO’s statement today, “On the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar … Mr Wang Yi is visiting Islamabad for co-chairing the sixth Pakistan-China Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue on August 21, 2025.” “The visit is part of the regular high-level exchanges between Pakistan and China to further deepen their ‘All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership’, reaffirm support on the issues of respective core interests, enhance economic and trade cooperation, and reaffirm their joint commitment to re... -
Dawn - 08:12 Aug 19, 2025
Indian police have exhumed human remains in a temple town in Karnataka, officials said, as part of an investigation into allegations that hundreds of murder and rape victims were secretly buried there from around the mid-1990s. The probe centres on Dharmasthala, home to an 800-year-old temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva in the state of Karnataka and is drawing headlines in media nationwide. A former cleaner at the temple told police last month that he had been forced by superiors to dispose of hundreds of bodies over two decades, many of them women and girls showing signs of sexual assault. His allegations were made in a police complaint dated July 4 and seen by Reuters. The man, whose identity authorities have withheld for safety reasons, fled Dharmasthala in 2014 but said he was compelled to speak out now because of lingering guilt. “If the skeletons now exhumed receive respectful funeral rites, those tormented souls will find peace and my sense of guilt could also decrease,” he wrote in the complaint.... -
Dawn - 08:07 Aug 19, 2025
A 5.2-magnitude earthquake on Tuesday jolted Islamabad, Rawalpindi, and several parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Seismic Network of the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in a statement. According to the statement, the quake was felt in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, KP’s Peshawar, Swat, Chitral, and Abbottabad. The PMD’s press release said that the earthquake originated at 10:20am PKT. Its epicentre was the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan, at a depth of 190 kilometres. Punjab’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority reported that the earthquake was also felt in the province’s divisions of Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Lahore, Multan, Sahiwal and Sargodha. No casualties have been reported so far, and according to KP’s Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Faizi, an emergency has not yet been declared. Pakistan falls on three major tectonic plates — the Arabian, Euro-Asian and Indian — which create five seismic zones under the country. The intersection of multiple fault lines mean... -
Dawn - 07:24 Aug 19, 2025
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday announced central contracts for 30 male cricketers for the upcoming 2025–26 international season, with no players placed in the top-tier Category A. Last month, the number of male and female players in the central contract lists rose, according to PCB’s 2025-26 budget documents. According to a press release by PCB today, the contracts, effective from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, “reflect the board’s continued commitment to recognising and supporting national talent.” This year’s roster sees ten players each placed in Categories B, C, and D, with the PCB acknowledging that “no player has been selected for Category A in this cycle.” Pertinent to mention is that Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were the only two players in Category A for the 2024-25 season. The duo have seen their stock fall over the past year; the former batting mainstays having been sidelined from the T20 squad. “Compared to last year’s list of 27 contracted players, the PCB has expanded the po... -
Dawn - 06:56 Aug 19, 2025
KOHAT: Counter Terrorism Department and a federal intelligence agency busted a terrorist network, which was actively planning to carry out a series of high profile major terrorist activities in the district including the bombing of a mosque inside police lines and a Muharram procession, Regional Police Officer Abbas Majeed Marwat told a news conference here. “They were planning to carry out major terrorist attacks,” said Mr Marwat, flanked by senior CTD and police officers. He said that the arrest of Siraj and Faridoon, both brothers, serving as constables in CTD and police, had facilitated the network of a terrorist organisation and their handlers operating from Afghanistan. A senior CTD official told Dawn on background basis that initial investigation and interrogation of the accused had led them to unravel a plot to bomb the mosque inside the district police lines that would have caused massive casualties, a re-enactment of a similar bombing in Peshawar which had led to the death of more than a hundred pol... -
Dawn - 05:57 Aug 19, 2025
Relations between China and India are on a “positive trend” towards cooperation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Indian counterpart in New Delhi, according to a readout of the meeting published on Tuesday. The world’s two most populous nations are intense rivals competing for influence across South Asia, and fought a deadly border clash in 2020. India is also part of the Quad security alliance with the United States, Australia and Japan, which is seen as a counter to China. But caught in global trade and geopolitical turbulence triggered by US President Donald Trump’s tariff war, the countries have moved to mend ties. During talks on Monday with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, Wang said the two countries should “view each other as partners and opportunities, rather than adversaries or threats”. He pointed to the resumption of “dialogue at all levels” and “maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas” as evidence that bilateral ties were on a “positive trend of returning t... -
Dawn - 05:29 Aug 19, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Fitch Ratings on Monday projected improved prospects for Pakistan’s banking sector, citing stabilising macroeconomic indicators, falling inflation, and a return to economic growth. The global credit agency expects Pakistan’s GDP to grow by 3.5pc in FY27, with inflation averaging 5pc — a significant shift from the turmoil and high inflation of recent years. In a brief commentary, Fitch said banks are well-positioned to capitalise on improving operating conditions as macroeconomic headwinds ease. It noted that stronger business volumes, driven by economic recovery and better credit demand, would support banking performance in the near term. The outlook follows Pakistan’s upgraded sovereign credit profile, with Fitch raising its Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘B-’/Stable from ‘CCC+’ in April 2025. The upgrade reflects ongoing reforms, fiscal improvement, and greater economic resilience. The agency pointed out that consumer price inflation, which had peaked at 38pc in May 2023, eased to 4.1pc... -
Dawn - 05:10 Aug 19, 2025
QUETTA: The Government of Balochistan on Monday dispatched a sizable consignment of relief goods to assist families affected by flooding in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The shipment, which includes essential items and non-food supplies, is designated for 1,500 families in GB and 1,000 families in KP. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti issued special directives to send the relief to address the urgent needs of those impacted by the disasters, according to Government spokesperson Shahid Rind. “Balochistan stands with the people of the flood-hit provinces in this difficult time,” Mr Rind said. Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2025 -
Dawn - 04:53 Aug 19, 2025
• Over 20 rescued; local govt shuts down schools in light of extreme weather • Flooding continues to afflict GB areas; govt says 39 people killed, 1,000 homes damaged since July People, including foreign tourists, make a hazardous crossing after a flood swept away the bridge in Ghanche.—Dawn MUZAFFARABAD/GILGIT: At least five people were killed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Monday in different rain-related incidents as monsoon-induced floods ravaged multiple areas in the Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan, blocking roads and destroying infrastructure. In Neelum Valley, a vehicle with tourists on board skidded off the “slippery road” and plummeted almost 250 feet down the ravine. Three people were killed on the spot, while the fourth succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital. Neelum Deputy Commissioner Nadeem Ahmed Janjua said a Karachi-based couple along with their two-year-old daughter — who survived the accident — and a helper were coming back from Taobutt when they met the accident near Shu...
7447 items