Dawn
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Dawn - 15:58 Aug 11, 2025
The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday castigated India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for “distorting” and “twisting” remarks made by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir during his recent visit to the United States. Field Marshal Munir on Sunday completed his second high-profile trip to the US in less than two months. Like his previous visit, he engaged with both political and military leadership in the host country. In Tampa, Florida, the army chief attended the US Central Command’s (Centcom) change of command ceremony. His most closely watched appearance came later at a black-tie dinner hosted by Adnan Asad, Pakistan’s honorary consul in Tampa. The event was attended by about 150 guests, including Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, Ambassador Rizwan Shaikh, embassy officials, and prominent members of the diaspora. Comments Field Marshal Munir reportedly made at the event were later picked up and, according to the FO, distorted by Indian media outlets. Responding to Indian media reports, the M... -
Dawn - 15:50 Aug 11, 2025
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Monday acquitted PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi in two more cases related to the May 9 riots, while sentencing Dr Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudry, Omar Sarfraz Cheema and Mian Mehmoodur Rashid to 10 years in prison. On May 9, 2023, PTI supporters, protesting party founder Imran Khan’s arrest, staged violent protests throughout the country, following which thousands were arrested. The ATC had reserved its verdict in the two cases on Saturday related to the May 9 riots — the Shadman police station attack and burning of police vehicles near Jinnah House — after completing proceedings at Kot Lakhpat jail. The judge concluded the hearings inside the jail in two sessions during the whole day. ATC-I Judge Manzer Ali Gill announced the judgments today and convicted Dr Yasmin, Chaudhry, Cheema and Rashid in both cases. PTI leaders Aliya Hamza and Sanam Javed were also sentenced to five years in prison in the Shadman case. Advocate Rana Mudassar confirmed today’s sentencing to Da... -
Dawn - 14:59 Aug 11, 2025
The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) on Monday received offers in its international tender to buy 100,000 tonnes of white sugar, European traders said in initial assessments. On July 8, the government had approved plans to import 500,000 tonnes of sugar to help maintain price stability. Market analysts said that retail sugar prices in the country have risen sharply since January. TCP had last week issued a fresh international tender to purchase 100,000 tonnes of white refined sugar, after a previous one for 50,000 tonnes of sugar in July reportedly received no offers. The lowest price offered in the tender was believed to be $539.00 a tonne, cost and freight (c&f) included, according to traders. They said offers were still being considered and no purchase had been reported yet. The lowest offer was said to have been submitted by trading house ED&F Man for 50,000 tonnes of fine-grade sugar sourced from any origin. There were reportedly three other participants in the tender. Dreyfus was said to have offer... -
Dawn - 14:58 Aug 11, 2025
A court in Bangladesh on Monday heard cases brought by the anti-corruption organisation against ex-leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, including her daughter who has served as a top UN official. Three officials from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) read out testimonies in three separate cases over an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka. Hasina, 77, fled Bangladesh by helicopter on August 5, 2024, after weeks of student-led protests against her autocratic rule. She has defied orders to return from India, including to attend her separate and ongoing trial on charges amounting to crimes against humanity, over the deadly crackdown on the uprising. Hasina has been named in six corruption cases, along with her US-based son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and her daughter Saima Wazed, who has been serving as the World Health Organisation’s Southeast Asia chief in New Delhi. “If found guilty, Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and Saima Wazed could face up to 14 years in prison,” ACC la... -
Dawn - 13:45 Aug 11, 2025
Dozens of people in Gaza gathered on Monday for the funeral of five Al Jazeera staff members and a sixth reporter killed in an Israeli strike, in an attack which drew widespread condemnations from across the world. Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by its offensive since October 2023, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts already declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects. Anas Al Sharif, aged 28, was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who were killed in a “directed assault” on a tent opposite Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. An official at the hospital said two other people were also killed in the strike. A sixth journalist, Mohammad Al-Khaldi, a local freelance reporter, was also killed in the airstrike, according to medics at Al Shifa Hospital. Mourners stood amid bombed-out buildings in the courtyard of Al Shifa hospital to pay ... -
Dawn - 13:19 Aug 11, 2025
New Delhi police briefly detained Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition members on Monday as they protested a controversial revised electoral roll in Bihar and alleged “vote theft” by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The credibility of elections has rarely been questioned in recent decades in the world’s most populous democracy. Some analysts say the opposition accusations could damage Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he navigates one of the toughest periods of his 11 years in office. The opposition members were taken into custody midway while marching from the parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in New Delhi as they protested the roll revision, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. Nearly two hours later, Congress lawmaker Kishori Lal Sharma said Gandhi and other opposition leaders had been released. “The police detained us but now we have been released,” he told the media, adding that the police had not allowed them to go to the ECI as promised, and instea... -
Dawn - 13:15 Aug 11, 2025
Police have arrested a suspect from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in connection with the recent killing of senior lawyer Khawaja Shamsul Islam, Karachi South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza said on Monday. Islam was shot dead while his son was injured as they were leaving a mosque in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on August 1. Darakshan Police registered a case the next day against eight nominated suspects under terrorism and murder charges. DIG Raza told Dawn.com that the vehicle in which the suspect fled the scene of the murder was also recovered by police. “Investigators have mapped the suspect,” the DIG said. “According to the evidence we gathered, he fled on a motorcycle alone. “Police have also unearthed a bungalow in DHA being used by the suspects. CCTV footage obtained from the bungalow showed their activities before and after the lawyer was killed.” According to the South police chief, investigators have so far obtained 30 pieces of CCTV footage of the suspects. “With the help of human ... -
Dawn - 12:45 Aug 11, 2025
India’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the removal of tens of thousands of stray dogs from the capital, citing public safety concerns after a surge in dog bites. India is home to millions of stray dogs and deadly attacks, particularly on children and the elderly, are regularly reported by the city’s media. At least 60,000 stray dogs live on the streets of Delhi, according to India’s Livestock Census of 2012, the most recent data available. Some suggest that number to be now far higher, with large rival dog packs patrolling parks and residential neighbourhoods across the city. The country accounts for more than a third of global rabies deaths, according to the World Health Organisation, a crisis exacerbated by a lack of sterilisation programmes and legal restrictions on canine culling. The court asked city authorities to set up dog shelters within eight weeks, and maintain daily records of the canines captured. “What is important, and without which the entire exercise would go futile, not a single stray dog s... -
Dawn - 12:41 Aug 11, 2025
“I have a problem with the use of the term ‘minority’. It only serves to otherise religious groups within the country and reinforce existing divides. We are all equal citizens of Pakistan.” Christians like Pastor Daniel were among hundreds gathered at Karachi’s YMCA on Sunday for the Minority Rights March, which, ironically, was celebrated a day earlier since “minorities wouldn’t get a day off to celebrate it”. Jinnah’s oft-quoted speech of Pakistani citizens being free to go to temples and places of worship remains relegated to the history textbooks since the lived realities for religious minorities across Pakistan are far from that freedom once promised. “Christians like me aren’t allowed to preach their religion, and seldom can we practice it without the fear of the supposed majority,” said Daniel of Karachi’s Philadelphia Pentecostal Church. Jinnah’s speech and his very upbringing were woven through the day’s itinerary. The speakers emphasised that his early education was at schools founded by religious m... -
Dawn - 12:23 Aug 11, 2025
Air India said on Monday that it would stop services between the capital cities of India and the United States from September 1, citing aircraft shortage due to the planned upgrades to its ageing Boeing planes and the closure of Pakistan’s airspace. The suspension of services between New Delhi and Washington, DC, marks the latest setback for Air India, which is facing heightened regulatory scrutiny after a June crash in Ahmedabad killed 260 people. The planned shortfall in Air India’s fleet and continued closure of airspace over Pakistan have impacted the airline’s long-haul operations, leading to longer flight routings and increased operational complexity, the carrier said. The airline has undertaken a $400 million retrofit programme to upgrade its fleet. It, however, sees the Pakistan airspace ban costing it $600m over 12 months, Reuters had earlier reported. India and Pakistan closed their respective airspaces to each other days after relations between the arch-rivals nosedived following a fatal attack on ... -
Dawn - 12:22 Aug 11, 2025
About 55 per cent of India’s merchandise exports to the United States will be subject to the tariff imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration, the Indian government said on Monday. Last week, Trump imposed an additional 25pc tariff on Indian goods as punishment for Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil. That raised the total duty on Indian exports to the US to 50pc — among the highest on any American trading partner. The Indian government had taken into account the 25pc tariff that Trump initially imposed on goods while providing Monday’s estimate, Pankaj Chaudhary, India’s junior finance minister, said in a written response to a question from a lawmaker. “The Department of Commerce is engaged with all stakeholders, including exporters and industry, for taking feedback of their assessment of the situation,” Chaudhary added. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday he would not compromise on the agriculture sector, a day after Trump announced 50pc tariffs on Indian goods. New Delhi also put on ... -
Dawn - 12:13 Aug 11, 2025
Prominent Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al Sharif, who had previously been threatened by Israel, and four colleagues were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday, in an attack widely condemned by media and rights groups. Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by its offensive since October 2023, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts already declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects. Al Sharif, aged 28, was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who were killed in a “directed assault” on a tent opposite Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. An official at the hospital said two other people were also killed in the strike. A sixth journalist, Mohammad Al-Khaldi, a local freelance reporter, was also killed in the airstrike, medics at Al Shifa Hospital said on Monday. Calling Al Sharif “one of Gaza’s bravest journalists”, Al Jazeera said the attack was... -
Dawn - 11:07 Aug 11, 2025
At least seven volunteers died and six were injured early on Monday when a landslide hit individuals working at a water channel in Gilgit-Baltistan’s (GB) Danyor city, rescue officials said. The devastating impacts of climate change and melting glaciers have become more visible in GB, which has been facing heavy rains since late June. The situation worsened when deadly floods swept across the Babusar area on July 21, causing landslides and damaging infrastructure. So far, 10 deaths have been confirmed across the region, with a dozen tourists missing. Thirteen volunteers, mainly young people, were attempting to restore the water supply in the main water channel from Danyor nullah to Danyor town, which had been damaged due to the recent floods, when the landslide hit at 2am today. “Thirteen volunteers restoring the water supply were buried under the rubble,” Gilgit’s Rescue 1122 said in a statement. Stating the casualties, it said the injured were taken to a hospital. District Emergency Officer (operations) Ab... -
Dawn - 10:11 Aug 11, 2025
The opposition has been convicted. Its leaders in both houses of Parliament have been sentenced to a decade in jail, along with over a hundred other members of their political party. They and seven other opposition parliamentarians have been removed from their elected offices. If you were to apply these words to any country on the planet, most people reading would immediately understand this to be a shameless power grab by an authoritarian status quo; the work of an insecure and dictatorial mindset that treats the will, dissent, and collective intelligence of its own people with ruthless contempt. But I am intentionally making no such statement here. For now, I’d like to focus instead on one simple, apolitical, and logical question — what did the judgment actually say? Even if you are not invested in law or politics, it is in your interest to keep an eye on how your judicial system treats others. Not just because that is how it could one day treat you, but because these judgments are representative of where w... -
Dawn - 08:50 Aug 11, 2025
Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony has opened the second phase of receiving Haj applications for 2026, which will be accepted from August 11 to August 16, state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Monday. On Saturday, the ministry successfully completed the first phase for Haj next year, receiving more than 71,000 application submissions through its online portal and designated banks, the ministry’s spokesperson Muhammad Umar Butt said in a statement. “In the second phase, which will continue till Saturday, unregistered intending pilgrims can also submit their applications. The process of receiving applications will continue through the ministry’s online portal and designated banks,” the report said. Overseas Pakistanis can also apply for Haj through designated banks via a close relative. “Those living abroad will be required to submit their medical fitness certificates upon arrival in Pakistan,” it said. Haj, one of the fundamental pillars of Islam, is performed each year by millions of Muslims ... -
Dawn - 08:46 Aug 11, 2025
MUZAFFARABAD: The death of a young woman after falling from a cliff on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad on Saturday has triggered widespread outrage across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), with demands for the harshest punishment for those accused of harassing couples under the guise of “moral policing” to extort money or valuables. According to a police spokesperson, the incident occurred at about 1:15pm near Mera Tanolian village on Pir Chinasi Road, when Aqeel Ahmed and his tenant Fakhra Amjad — both residents of the Plate neighbourhood in Muzaffarabad — had stopped their Mehran car by the roadside while returning from a drive. Three to four men, one of them a police constable in plainclothes, confronted the pair, deemed their presence “suspicious” and began beating Aqeel. During the assault, Ms Amjad got out of the car and tried to flee, but fell approximately 100–120 feet down a mountainside into a ravine, sustaining critical head injuries. Aqeel, also injured, tried to take her to hospital, but she died on th... -
Dawn - 07:17 Aug 11, 2025
KARACHI: A young lawyer was shot dead in a Garden locality late on Saturday night, police said on Sunday. The Karachi Bar Association (KBA) on Sunday announced that it would stage a protest outside Chief Minister House on Monday (today) over the police failure to provide protection to the legal fraternity. Soldier Bazar police station SHO Waqar Azeem told Dawn that lawyer Nasir Malik, 38, had gone to meet his sister at Al-Fareed Apartment in Garden East on Business Recorder Road. He was inside the parking area of the building when armed men opened indiscriminate fire on him and fled on motorcycles and in private cars. The lawyer sustained critical bullet wounds in the head. He was taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi where doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. Traffic police to close Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road due to security concerns from 8am The officer said the murder appeared to be an outcome of personal enmity as the deceased had a property dispute with someone in the area. He said the victim’s brother had ... -
Dawn - 07:12 Aug 11, 2025
Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan acknowledged a dilemma over the fifth bowler and said they would take a late decision on their team combination for Tuesday’s series decider following their defeat in the second one-day international on Sunday. Pakistan, who won the opening ODI by five wickets, posted a competitive 171-7 in 37 overs in a rain-truncated match but West Indies prevailed by five wickets to draw level in the three-match series. Pakistan’s part-time duo of Saim Ayub and Salman Agha conceded a combined 66 runs in seven wicketless overs as West Indies cruised home. “You could say our fifth bowler gave away too many runs but in recent years, Salman Agha and Saim Ayub have both bowled well for us,” Rizwan said after the match. “Saim didn’t have the best day today, but he performed well in the T20Is. That’s just part of the game.” Rizwan said they could not read the conditions and several rain delays did not help their cause. “Honestly, the weather forecast has been completely different from expectations... -
Dawn - 06:37 Aug 11, 2025
In recent years, a number of states have claimed to be acting in self-defence when conducting an act of aggression against another state. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 and said it was acting in collective self-defence of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics. Israel invoked its right to self-defence in response to Hamas’ attacks on October 7 in its military operation in the Gaza Strip in 2023. India struck Pakistan in 2025 and claimed it was acting in self-defence against an armed attack by proxies. Finally, Israel attacked Iran in 2025 and claimed it was acting pre-emptively in self-defence against its nuclear programme. Ukraine, Pakistan, and Iran each also claimed their right to self-defence against these attacks, though of course there cannot be a right to self-defence against self-defence. So what then constitutes self-defence? The United Nations Charter After World War II, one of the main aims of the drafters of the United Nations Charter was to seek to restrain the use of force and avoid the horrors of th... -
Dawn - 05:54 Aug 11, 2025
• Protesters demand tax exemption for GB residents and clearance of 280 stuck consignments • Federal committee, including GB leadership, meets today to discuss resolution GILGIT: The ongoing sit-in on Karakoram Highway (KKH) has disrupted travel and trade between Pakistan and China via Khunjerab Pass for the 22nd consecutive day on Sunday as deadlock between government and protesters persisted. The federal committee constituted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will meet on Monday (today) to make recommendations for resolving the issue. GB Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan, GB Chief Secretary Abrar Ahmed Mirza, PPP President Amjad Hussain Advocate, former GB chief minister and PML-N President Hafeezur Rehman have also been included in the committee. Trade and travel between Pakistan and China, as well as business activities at the Sost Dry Port, have remained shut for the past 22 days. The protest sit-in, called by the Tajir Ittehad Action Committee — backed by trade organisations, government and opposition part...
7447 items