Dawn
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Dawn - 02:57 Jul 25, 2026
ISLAMABAD: As efforts continue to prevent the conflict in the Gulf from widening, Iran on Friday called for expanding strategic cooperation with Pakistan, describing Islamabad’s diplomatic engagement as an important contribution to regional peace and stability. “Pakistan has played a constructive diplomatic role in facilitating negotiations and advancing efforts towards regional peace and stability,” Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghadam said while delivering the keynote address at a roundtable discussion, organised by the Centre for International Strategic Studies. “Strengthening our bilateral cooperation is essential for addressing contemporary security challenges in West Asia,” he said. The discussion, titled Pakistan-Iran Relations and Strategic Stability in West Asia, brought together diplomats, academics, defence analysts and researchers to examine the future trajectory of Pakistan-Iran relations against the backdrop of an increasingly volatile regional security environment. Opening the di... -
Dawn - 02:47 Jul 25, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and CDF Field Marshal Asim Munir jointly inaugurate the Sky47 AI Cloud centre.—APP • Says interim Afghan govt has failed to prevent its territory from being used for attacks against Pakistan • Announces Rs300bn Karachi-Chaman dual carriageway, expansion of education, infrastructure and solar projects in Balochistan • Inaugurates Sky47 AI Cloud facility in federal capital ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday again urged Afghanistan to take action against terrorist organisations and ensure that Afghan soil was not used for terrorist activities against Pakistan. “Pakistan shares over 2,600-kilometre border with its neighbour and has repeatedly urged the Afghan authorities to act against terrorist organisations and prevent Afghan territory from being used against Pakistan. However, the Afghan interim government has failed to take effective action against these groups,” the prime minister said while addressing the National Workshop on Balochistan. The prime ministe... -
Dawn - 02:17 Jul 25, 2026
• Nawaz, Maryam make development pledges, ‘gift’ of 10 electric buses prompts rigging allegations • In apparent swipe at Bilawal, PML-N supremo says ‘Kashmir should not be mistaken for Kashmore, nor Mirpur for Mirpurkhas’ • PPP assails Nawaz’s remarks, urges Election Commission to take notice of ‘promises’ MUZAFFARABAD: PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Friday promised an international airport for Mirpur, the revival of Mansehra-Muzaffarabad-Mirpur motorway project, and a series of ‘gifts’ for Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), as he and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz made a final campaign push for party’s candidates hours before the electioneering ended for the Mirpur division polls. But the pre-poll promises, and an apparent jibe at PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, was not received well by the PML-N’s coalition partner, whose leaders hit back at the elder Sharif, terming his remarks ‘frivolous’ and ‘ridiculous’. Addressing a large public meeting in the lakeside city of Mirpur, the father-daughter duo repeated... -
Dawn - 02:05 Jul 25, 2026
TEHRAN: Iranian-made ‘Zulfiqar’ missiles are displayed at Azadi Square. As the US kept up its missile strikes on Iranian targets, the IRGC vowed to ‘kill a member of the US forces for every Iranian killed’.—AFP • Exploratory talks held during Iranian interior minister’s recent Islamabad visit • Dar meets Araghchi at SCO summit; Qatar calls for implementing Islamabad MoU • Beijing concerned as Red Sea closure would compound Hormuz woes • Trump says Iran getting serious about talks; warns China, Russia against ‘getting involved’ in conflict • Says US will punish Iran for attacks on ships by Houthi rebels • Four die as US continues strikes on Iran ISLAMABAD / DUBAI: Pakistan is said to be exploring a path towards a resumption of stalled US-Iran talks to end their nearly five-month-old war, following a push initiated by China. The development came as US missiles struck targets across Iran on Friday after President Donald Trump vowed “major military punishment” for Tehran and its Houthi allies in Yemen for extendi... -
Dawn - 18:34 Jul 24, 2026
ISLAMABAD: Following the cancellation of the official accommodation allotted to Peshawar High Court (PHC) Justice Babar Sattar in Islamabad, the IHC registrar on Friday issued him a notice directing him to vacate the residence within 30 days. On April 28, the Judicial Commission of Pakistan approved the transfer of Justice Sattar from the IHC to the PHC. Following his transfer, Justice Sattar had decided to continue residing in the federal capital during his tenure at the provincial high court instead of seeking a separate official residence in Peshawar. According to the notice issued by the IHC registrar, the Estate Office cancelled the allotment of the official residence on July 3. The notice stated that Justice Sattar had been transferred from the IHC to the PHC and, following the cancellation of the allotment, had been given one month to vacate the premises. It further clarified that the 30-day period would be calculated from July 3, the date on which the Estate Office cancelled the allotment. Accordingly... -
Dawn - 18:29 Jul 24, 2026
The government on Friday increased the prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs3.66 and Rs4.80 per litre, respectively, passing on the impact of fluctuating global oil prices following renewed hostilities in the Persian Gulf. Following the changes, the price of petrol stands at Rs335.18 per litre, while that of HSD stands at Rs383.46 per litre. The government is charging a total of Rs110 per litre in taxes and duties on petrol and Rs96 on diesel. The Petroleum Division’s notification said the new prices would be applicable for July 25 (Saturday). The diesel price has come down from a peak of Rs520.35 recorded on April 3. Its price had started rising from Rs281 per litre after the US-Iran war broke out on February 28. The petrol price had peaked at Rs458.41 on April 3 after beginning its upward trajectory from Rs266 in the first week of March. Earlier, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik announced that fuel prices would now be fixed on a daily basis due to fluctuations in international market prices... -
Dawn - 17:59 Jul 24, 2026
Anthropic on Friday released Claude Opus 5, a new artificial intelligence model the company says approaches the performance of its most powerful system at half the price. The San Francisco-based startup, a chief rival to OpenAI, said the model tops industry benchmarks for coding and knowledge work while consuming fewer computing resources than earlier versions. The claim addressed the rising concerns of business customers who have baulked at the expense of running advanced AI systems. Claude competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, and customers pay based on the amount of work performed, measured in units called tokens. Opus 5 costs $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens, half the price of Fable 5, Anthropic’s most expensive publicly available offering. The company said the new model performs close to Fable 5 across many tasks despite the lower cost. Cost has become a major issue after Anthropic and its archrival OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, both filed for stock market listi... -
Dawn - 17:23 Jul 24, 2026
The metropolis received the first spell of monsoon showers on Friday after multiple localities reported light to moderate rain. According to Dawn News, Azizabad, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Sharea Faisal, Sohrab Goth, Gulshan-i-Maymar, Ancholi, Manghopir, Surjani Town, North Karachi, North Nazimabad, Super Highway, Ahsanabad and Nazimabad experienced rain. It added that Site Area, Rizvia, Golimar, Liaquatabad, Orangi Town, Benaras, Ibrahim Hyderi, Clifton, DHA, Korangi, Landhi, Malir, Shah Faisal Colony, Model Town and other neighbourhoods also received rain. Meanwhile, the Karachi traffic police warned citizens to drive at a slow speed as the rain had made the roads “slippery”. “The public is requested to keep their vehicles at a slow speed. Motorcycle riders are requested to use the left side of the road, keep their vehicles at a slow speed while travelling, exercise caution, and avoid unnecessary travel,” it said in a statement. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast cloudy weath... -
Dawn - 16:48 Jul 24, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The Senate Functional Committee on Devolution on Friday expressed serious concerns over the re-establishment of federal ministries on subjects devolved to the provinces under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, and constituted a sub-committee to examine the alleged violations. The requisitioned meeting was held at Parliament House under the chairmanship of Senator Zamir Hussain Ghumro. Senators Poonjo Bheel and Jan Muhammad Buledi also attended. Addressing the meeting, Senator Ghumro said the first notification devolving ministries was issued on Dec 2, 2010, followed by notifications on April 15, 2011, and June 29, 2011, under which 17 ministries dealing with concurrent and provincial subjects were transferred to the provinces. “The re-creation of ministries after June 30, 2011, dealing with devolved subjects amounted to a violation of the Constitution,” he stated. He cited education, health, national food security, culture, climate change, social initiatives, housing, EOBI, the Evacuee Trust and th... -
Dawn - 16:21 Jul 24, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday inaugurated the country’s “largest” data centre and Sky47 AI cloud in Islamabad, terming the facility “awe-inspiring”. The project has a capacity of 8.5 megawatts. Sky47 is also developing a 5MW data centre at Karachi’s Port Qasim, slated for completion in September. Speaking on the occasion, PM Shehbaz said it was a privilege and an honour to be part of the ceremony. “The facility we have just visited is awe-inspiring,” he added. He further said the data centre was built in record time, showcasing the best minds from across Pakistan in both the military and civilian sectors. He commended the leadership of Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir, under whose supervision the data centre was built. PM Shehbaz said he was hopeful that “if we follow this model, there is no reason — and I am absolutely convinced, more than ever before — that not only will we be able to make up for the losses of the past, but we will also create a... -
Dawn - 16:20 Jul 24, 2026
A terrorist attack on a joint police checkpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tank district martyred 15 people, including 14 security personnel, the military’s media wing said on Friday. Among those martyred are 12 soldiers, two policemen and a government official. Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement that the attack took place early on Friday and was carried out by Fitna-al-Khawarij — a term used to designate members of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. Elaborating on the incident, the military’s media wing said the attackers attempted to breach the checkpost’s perimeter, but their attempts were “swiftly and decisively foiled by the vigilant and resolute response of security forces.” The security personnel deployed at the checkpost displayed “unwavering courage and professional excellence” and engaged and eliminated 15 terrorists, the ISPR added. The statement added that the attackers then rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the perimeter wall. “Due to [the] blast impact, infrastructur... -
Dawn - 16:11 Jul 24, 2026
One of OpenAI’s most advanced models broke out of a locked-down test and attacked another company’s website — reviving fears that AI systems are slipping beyond their creators’ control. The incident happened during what was supposed to be a “sandbox” test — a closed environment used to assess the capabilities of OpenAI’s most powerful model, GPT-5.6 Sol, and its not-yet-released successor. OpenAI runs this kind of closed testing routinely, but this time, something went wrong. Tasked with hunting for software vulnerabilities and given no guardrails, the models broke out onto the open internet and attacked Hugging Face, a site where developers store and share code. “It suggests that we don’t know how to reliably control these models or get them to do what we want,” said Jeffrey Ladish, director of Palisade Research, an independent organisation that evaluates new AI models from a cybersecurity standpoint. “These models understood that OpenAI did not want them to break out of their sandbox and hack another compan... -
Dawn - 16:00 Jul 24, 2026
The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) 125 member states convened on Friday to determine the fate of prosecutor Karim Khan, who was suspended over allegations of sexual assault against a member of his staff — accusations he firmly denies. In May 2025, Khan had stepped back from his duties to fight the allegations made by one of his female colleagues, after an inquiry was launched the previous year. The 56-year-old Briton was suspended last month by a key governing body of the ICC, the 21-member bureau of the Assembly of States Parties (ASP), which called Friday’s meeting at UN headquarters in New York. At that time, the bureau said the suspension was “not an indication of the final outcome” in the matter. The decision on whether to relieve Khan of his duties is now subject to a secret ballot by the 125 countries party to the International Criminal Court during a closed-door session. An absolute majority carries the vote. Paivi Kaukoranta, head of the assembly that oversees the ICC, described the case as a “... -
Dawn - 14:44 Jul 24, 2026
When Indian television reporter Dev Kotak went to cover a massive youth protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government this week, he planned to deliver a live broadcast, mill around and leave. Instead, amid chants of “godi (lapdog) media”, he was beaten by dozens of protesters, because his channel is seen as pro-government. Mobile phone cameras captured the assault and the clip later went viral on social media. The physical attack on Kotak was unusual but through the protests, which gained momentum last week, people have heckled and abused crews from almost all of India’s mainstream television channels, calling them pro-government and sold out. “The mob might have actually killed me. There was a seething anger among them because they felt the media hadn’t reported their side of the story,” said Kotak, 36, who covers general news for the Times Now channel. “There were slaps, kicks, punches and water bottles being thrown. I was very scared and feared for my life; I just wanted to get out alive.” Ange... -
Dawn - 14:39 Jul 24, 2026
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday stressed the need to build upon the commitments enshrined in the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Their meeting came after Washington and Tehran exchanged strikes over the past several days, with the former targeting Iranian military facilities along its southern coast and the latter targeting US bases in Gulf countries. In a statement, the Foreign Office (FO) said the two top diplomats met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan. During the meeting, they reviewed the ongoing regional situation and bilateral ties. “DPM/FM expressed deep concern over recent regional tensions and underscored the importance of dialogue, restraint, de-escalation by all sides, and sustained diplomatic engagement to achieve lasting peace and stability,” the FO said in a post on X. “He emphasised the need to build o... -
Dawn - 14:17 Jul 24, 2026
PML-N supremo and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday questioned the lack of development initiatives in Azad Jammu and Kashmir after his ouster from power. He, along with Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, was addressing a public rally in Mirpur, AJK, ahead of the upcoming elections. Addressing the rally, he asked why there could be no development work in Mirpur or AJK after he had left the post of prime minister, criticising subsequent governments for not introducing or completing development projects. “Behind every project in AJK or Pakistan, you will find the PML-N’s stamp on it,” he stated, questioning, “Tell me if any other party has done something for AJK.” “Kashmir is as dear to me as Lahore. It is not my second home; it is my first home,” Nawaz said. He emphasised that he had come with a manifesto for AJK, with education as his top priority. “The youth of AJK will get education. Schools, colleges and universities will be built here,” he said, adding, “Scholarships will also be given to merit... -
Dawn - 14:15 Jul 24, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday reserved its order on the maintainability of petitions seeking suspension of the sentences awarded to lawyers and rights activists Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and Hadi Ali Chattha in the controversial tweets case after the prosecution argued that the pleas had been filed prematurely. On January 24, rights lawyers Imaan and Hadi were sentenced by an Islamabad sessions court to a total of 17 years in jail on multiple charges under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca). Following their convictions, which were widely condemned by lawyers and United Nations (UN) experts, the couple challenged their convictions before the IHC on February 7. Justice Muhammad Azam Khan heard the petitions filed by the two convicts against the trial court’s judgment. At the outset of the hearing, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), through its counsel, raised a preliminary objection to the maintainability of the suspension of sentence petitions. The prosecut... -
Dawn - 13:43 Jul 24, 2026
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Friday issued a weather advisory for the next three to four days, forecasting rain in southern and central parts of the country due to an active monsoon system. A press release issued by the Met Office said a low-pressure area was present over south-west Rajasthan and adjoining areas, causing monsoon currents over the southern and central parts of the country. Under the influence of these currents, it said, rain and thundershowers were expected across the country, including Sindh, southern and central Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, Kashmir and northeastern areas of Balochistan, between July 24 and 27. In Sindh, it forecast “rain-thundershowers with a few heavy falls” in the districts of Tharparkar, Umerkot, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Sanghar, Tando Muhammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Hyderabad, Matiari, Jamshoro, Shaheed Benazirabad, Ghotki, Kashmore, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Sukkur, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Larkana, Khairpur, Nosheroferoz and Thatta between the evenin... -
Dawn - 13:17 Jul 24, 2026
Leaders of India’s youth-led “cockroach” movement said on Friday that the government has sought time until Saturday afternoon to respond to their demand for the education minister’s resignation over exam paper leaks, following talks between the two sides. The talks came hours after activist Sonam Wangchuk ended his 26-day hunger strike, raising hopes that the two sides could reach a breakthrough after tens of thousands of angry youth converged in the capital Delhi this week to demand the minister’s resignation. The anti-government protests represent the biggest youth challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he came to power in 2014. Opposition parties have echoed the movement’s demands and have disrupted the monsoon session of parliament that began this week. Friday’s talks were held between senior federal ministers JP Nadda and Jitendra Singh on one side, and Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka, spokespersons of the self-named Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) youth movement, on the other. Saurav Das speaks a... -
Dawn - 13:00 Jul 24, 2026
Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin, a former ally of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, has resigned citing serious health issues, his office said on Friday. Shahabuddin, 76, has held the largely ceremonial post of president since April 2023, a period that included volatile months after Hasina’s flight to India following a student-led uprising against her rule in 2024. “Recent medical examinations have diagnosed me with a condition known as autonomic neuropathy. Due to this condition, I occasionally experience momentary loss of consciousness,” Shahabuddin said in a statement released by his press secretary. The speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad, the national parliament, will perform the duties of the president until a new one is elected, the statement said. Shahabuddin also cited his deteriorating health in a resignation letter to the speaker of parliament, seen by AFP. “Due to worsening physical and mental incapacity… it is no longer possible for me to properly discharge the responsibilities of an impor...
12392 items