Dawn
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Dawn - 04:30 Nov 23, 2025
LAHORE: Former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Central Punjab President Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said on Saturday that whenever the president steps down, his immunity will end too as the presidential immunity lasts only during his tenure. He was talking to the media after offering condolences to the family of PPP leader Mian Manzoor Ahmed Maneka. Mr Ashraf said that Mian Manzoor Maneka was an asset of the PPP, who stood with the party through thick and thin. He said it was not appropriate to comment on the IMF report and take it as a benchmark. All constitutional institutions should work within their limits, he said, adding that the Chief Minister of KPK should meet the founder of PTI to seek guidance. To another question, he said that no government wanted inflation, but it was true that it had been out of control. But now, it was bridled to a great extent. He said that the PPP had an agreement with the PML-N that the local bodies elections would be held in the province soon. Published in Dawn, No... -
Dawn - 04:25 Nov 23, 2025
LAHORE/GUJRAT: Punjab Information Minister Azma Bukhari has dismissed the allegations made by KP Chief Minister Sohail Afridi regarding jail meeting permissions, stressing that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has no role whatsoever in arranging or influencing meetings between prisoners and visitors. In a detailed response, Ms Bukhari said that the chief minister “never interferes in the work of any government official,” and that all meetings inside jails were strictly governed by established prison rules. She said that political meetings were categorically prohibited under jail regulations, and the jail superintendent was the “final authority” on all such matters. She explained that prison officials only facilitate meetings between inmates and their immediate family members and that the list of approved visitors was provided by the prisoner himself. “If an inmate does not wish to meet someone, jail authorities cannot forcibly arrange such a meeting,” she added. Suggests KP CM to study the law; Kundi again rules o... -
Dawn - 04:09 Nov 23, 2025
PESHAWAR: Ahead of 11th National Finance Commission (NFC)’s inaugural meeting scheduled for December 4, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has said that it is focusing on financial merger of the merged areas into federal divisible pool. Earlier on Friday, KP chief minister Muhammad Sohail Afridi in a media interaction in Islamabad told reporters that he intended to attend NFC inaugural meeting. He said that he was going to attend the meeting as it was a matter of provincial rights and that the Centre should pay Rs3 trillion of liabilities. On Saturday, KP adviser to chief minister on finance Muzzammil Aslam in a social media post stated the shared a range of items which the province was expecting from the 11th NFC Award. Province seeks to align Award with ‘ground realities’ He said that the KP was looking towards the financial merger for erstwhile Fata into federal divisible pool. “Currently, merged area gets special grants from federal government. This will pass on the burden on provinces and relief to federa... -
Dawn - 03:55 Nov 23, 2025
KARACHI: Dumper Truck Owners Association President Liaquat Mehsud managed to escape the premises of City Courts after a sessions court dismissed his pre-arrest bail application in a rioting case on Saturday. Mehsud, along with his other associates, has been booked in a case pertaining to opening fire on people protesting against a fatal accident involving a dumper on the night between Nov 3 and Nov 4 in the Nishtar Road area. On the next day, the suspect had moved the court and got interim pre-arrest bail. On Saturday, Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Irshad Hussain rejected the pre-arrest bail application and also recalled his interim bail after hearing both sides and examining the record. The court noted that the act of indiscriminate firing on people by a guard of the applicant was an act of terrorism and the case should be exclusively tried by an anti-terrorism court. The suspect appeared in court and as soon as the order was announced he managed to escape from the court premises and police ... -
Dawn - 03:05 Nov 23, 2025
PM Shehbaz receives a presentation on initiatives to improve Pakistan Railways.—APP • ADB approves $10m for railway improvement project • PM for adopting public-private partnership for rail land ISLAMABAD: With the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approving $10 million in assistance for preparing the Railway Improvement Project, Pakistan Railways is moving to outsource 11 more trains, a step expected to generate an additional Rs8.5bn for the country’s largest state-owned rail operator. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired a meeting on Pakistan Railways on Saturday, where he was informed that tenders had been floated for outsourcing the eleven passenger trains to the private sector. Pakistan Railways has already outsourced four trains. The meeting was also informed that railway hospitals in Lahore, Karachi, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta and Sukkur were being outsourced, while the outsourcing of railway schools, colleges and rest houses was already underway. Similarly, dry ports in Islamabad, Lahore and Azakhail were ... -
Dawn - 02:59 Nov 23, 2025
LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Saturday granted post-arrest bail to incarcerated PTI Punjab President Dr Yasmin Rashid in a case of burning police vehicles near Mughalpura during the May 9, 2023 riots. ATC-I Judge Manzer Ali Gill heard the bail petition during a hearing held at Kot Lakhpat jail. Barrister Taimur Malik argued on behalf of the petitioner and referred to the rule of consistency applied to other accused people, including PTI founder Imran Khan, former senator Ejaz Chaudhry and former governor Umar Sarfraz Cheema by the courts granting bail to them in similar cases. The judge approved the bail for Dr Rashid in the case, subject to furnishing surety bonds worth Rs100,000. However, he adjourned the hearing of the PTI leader’s bail petitions in three other cases till Nov 25. In a statement, Barrister Malik said his client should be granted bail in the remaining cases as well on the same legal principle. He added that later if the high court accepted her suspension applications, she could... -
Dawn - 02:45 Nov 23, 2025
• Bombardment in Central Gaza, Rimal claims 21 lives • Drone attack on Lebanon leaves one dead, five hurt • Canadian PM, UAE president back comprehensive Palestinian peace plan • Hamas says ‘escalating violations’ place a responsibility on mediators and US CAIRO: Israel continued its deadly assault blatantly violating ceasefire agreements on two fronts with airstrikes on Saturday that killed at least 21 people in Gaza and one in southern Lebanon, despite assurances from Palestinian resistance groups that they remain fully committed to the accord. Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed at least 21 people and wounded several others, local health authorities said, posing a further test to the six-week-old ceasefire. Witnesses and medics said the initial attack struck a car in the densely populated Rimal neighbourhood, setting it ablaze. It was not immediately clear whether the five dead were passengers in the vehicle or included passersby. Dozens of people rushed to extinguish the fire and rescue the victim... -
Dawn - 02:40 Nov 23, 2025
RECENTLY, I attended the press conference for the Adab Festival, an event that features prominently on the nation’s cultural and literary calendar. I’m always glad to see regional and provincial languages promoted at our literary festivals, and this year at Adab, one of the languages of Gilgit-Baltistan — Burushaski to be precise — was included in a mushaira in which poets Ahmed Ali Jan and Qamar Kazmi participated. This inclusion resonated with me this year because I’ve been teaching expository writing at the AKU’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences this semester, and many of my students come from Gilgit-Baltistan, Chitral, Hunza, Kohistan. They’ve left their homes up in the mountains to seek knowledge in the big bad city of Karachi, but they’re also educating everyone here about themselves, their land, culture, norms and values, and their dreams and hopes for the future. At first I had no idea of Gilgit-Baltistan’s Buddhist history, or how Sufi preachers brought Islam to Baltistan from Persia and Central Asia. No... -
Dawn - 02:37 Nov 23, 2025
PRIVATE schools realise that due to the subpar quality of state schools, families will do all they can to ensure their wards attend private institutions. This has resulted in the total commercialisation of education, with private schools burdening parents with unreasonable costs. Taking note of parents’ complaints, the Competition Commission of Pakistan has issued notices to 17 private school systems to inquire into alleged non-transparent selling practices, such as forcing parents to purchase mandatory branded school books, stationery and uniforms. Parents had also complained of arbitrary price hikes. Many schools disallow the purchase of cheaper generic notebooks. In August, the Senate Standing Committee on Education had also taken note of complaints that many private schools were hiking annual fees beyond the legal limit. As per the law, schools can only increase fees by 5pc every year. When asked about the CCP’s concerns, a representative of a private schools’ association observed that the “topic needs so... -
Dawn - 02:28 Nov 23, 2025
• Farmers face financial strain amid limited storage, low prices • Firms cut purchases by 23m kg in four years SWABI: Tobacco purchasing companies have slashed their demand for the 2026 crop by 13.183 million kg, marking the fourth consecutive year of reduced requirements. This cutback is expected to result in significant financial losses for local tobacco farmers, sources told Dawn on Saturday. Tobacco experts noted that while multinational and national firms have the capacity to store large quantities of tobacco, growers face major challenges due to limited financial resources and storage options. The inability to store crops like Virginia and White Patta tobacco means any surplus must be sold quickly, leaving growers at the mercy of fluctuating market demand. For 2026, the total demand from tobacco companies is set at 61.627m kg, with 58.184m kg of flue-cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco, 0.360m kg of dark air-cured tobacco, 1.342m kg of White Patta, 1.381m kg of burley, and 0.360m kg of sun-cured tobacco. This ... -
Dawn - 00:53 Nov 23, 2025
Dear Auntie, I am writing to seek advice as I am quite frustrated. I have always been close to my mother as, growing up, I was very lonely. I was shy and got bullied at school. Let’s just say my childhood ended early. We’ve always tried our best to be open and keep a healthy relationship, but communication started getting harder for me the more I grew up. Now, I am 16 and we fight a lot. I know this is mostly because our opinions differ greatly. My family has always been religious and stubborn with certain rules. My brother and I share different values and beliefs from our families, which is hard for them to grasp. Despite the differences, I want to get along with my mother and to compromise on things peacefully. I feel my relationship with her is only getting worse and one major reason for my chronic stress and anxiety is my declining relationship with my mother. I see myself becoming more and more like my father every day, unable to control my irritability and temper. I am scared of turning into him. I want... -
Dawn - 18:29 Nov 22, 2025
Gaza’s civil defence agency said 21 people were killed and dozens more wounded in multiple Israeli air strikes on Saturday, as Hamas and Israel again traded allegations of violating the fragile ceasefire. Saturday was one of the deadliest days since the US-brokered truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect on October 10, after two years of war. The Israeli military claimed an “armed terrorist” had crossed the so-called Yellow Line within the Gaza Strip, behind which Israeli forces have withdrawn, and fired at Israeli soldiers. In response to the incident in southern Gaza, which it said was on a route used for humanitarian aid deliveries in the territory, the Israeli military said it “began striking terror targets in the Gaza Strip”. Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the civil defence agency which operates under Hamas authority, told AFP there were “21 martyrs this evening in five separate Israeli air strikes, in a clear violation of the ceasefire in Gaza”. They included seven killed and more than 16 injured ... -
Dawn - 18:24 Nov 22, 2025
Internet connectivity is set to get a boost after the launch of the South-East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe (SEA-ME-WE) 6 cable, the information technology ministry said on Saturday. “Pakistan has strengthened its global digital connectivity with the deployment of the SEA-ME-WE 6 submarine cable system, a 19,200-km high-capacity fibre network linking Pakistan to countries between Singapore and France,” said the statement from the ministry. The cable has a total capacity of over 100 terabit per second and it will provide “one of the lowest-latency routes between Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Western Europe”. It added that Pakistan has been allocated a total of 13.2tbps, with 4tbps being activated immediately — expanding the country’s international bandwidth capacity and enhancing support for cloud services, data centres, fintech, e-commerce, streaming, and the broader digital economy. The press release added that SEA-ME-WE 6 features “more fibre pairs and more than double the capacity” of previous SE... -
Dawn - 17:54 Nov 22, 2025
The Karachi police launched a preliminary investigation on Saturday after reports surfaced of two individuals allegedly threatening a journalist at his residence. A statement from the Crime Reporters Association (CRA) condemned what it said were “threatening activities of two suspicious persons” at the house of senior journalist Faraz Khan, associated with The News International, in Federal B Industrial Area. Referring to a video of the alleged incident making the rounds on social media, the CRA said: “The two persons can be clearly seen in the CCTV footage, who knocked on the door of the house and threatened the family of serious consequences, which caused panic and fear among the family.” It said the incident had caused “serious concern” among the affected family and wider journalist community, adding that it had immediately informed the police and high-ranking officials. “Taking immediate action, Federal B Industrial Area station house officer has reached the house … where the police authorities have taken... -
Dawn - 17:13 Nov 22, 2025
World governments agreed on Saturday to a compromise climate deal at the COP30 conference in Brazil that would boost finance for poor nations coping with global warming but omit any mention of the fossil fuels driving it. In securing the accord, countries attempted to demonstrate global unity in addressing climate change impacts even after the world’s biggest historic emitter, the United States, declined to send an official delegation. “We should support it because at least it is going in the right direction,” the European Union’s climate commissioner, Wopke Hoekstra, told reporters before the deal was gaveled through. The Belem deal launches a voluntary initiative to speed up climate action to help nations meet their existing pledges to reduce emissions, and calls for rich nations to at least triple the amount of money they provide to help developing countries adapt to a warming world by 2035. Scientists have said existing national commitments to cut emissions have cut projected warming significantly, but ar... -
Dawn - 17:04 Nov 22, 2025
PTI leader Hammad Azhar on Saturday claimed that Form 45s are missing from the election material provided to presiding officers by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ahead of tomorrow’s by-election in Lahore’s NA-129 constituency. The by-election is being held after the seat fell vacant in July following the death of Azhar’s father, Mian Azhar. In a post on X, Hammad said: “We are receiving reports that multiple presiding officers are missing Form 45s in the election materials they have received from ECP (Election Commission of Pakistan) for the by-elections of tomorrow. This is a serious violation of the electoral process.” The alarm came after he had earlier issued “important instructions” for his party’s polling agents about the forms. “When the bags containing election materials are opened in the morning, make sure that the Forms 45 and Forms 46 in them are blank and shown to you. This is most important.” The PTI leader stressed the importance of the polling agents’ presence during the polling and ... -
Dawn - 16:12 Nov 22, 2025
Spinner Mohammad Nawaz set it up for Pakistan before opener Sahibzada Farhan finished it off to the joy of a packed crowd at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium. With Nawaz (3-16) weaving his magic with the ball, including two wickets in two balls, in the Twenty20 tri-nation clash, Pakistan restricted Sri Lanka to 128-7 before romping to their target with 4.3 overs to spare in their Twenty20 tri-nation series clash on Saturday. Sahibzada led the batting effort with his sixth T20 half-century, hitting five sixes and six fours in an explosive 80 not out off 45 balls, as Pakistan eased to a six-wicket victory that made in two in two for the hosts, who beat Zimbabwe by five wickets in the series opener. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, have no wins in two with the defeat following a humbling at the hands on Zimbabwe on Thursday. But it had seemed all so different at the start when skipper Dasun Shunaka won the toss and elected to bat with openers Kamil Mishara and Pathum Nissanka tearing into Pakistan’s bowling with the latter c... -
Dawn - 16:10 Nov 22, 2025
PTI leader Taimur Saleem Jhagra said judicial corruption and institutional distrust were barriers to capital investment in the country, while he assailed the government on Saturday following the release of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Assessment (GCDA) report. The report, published earlier this week, highlighted persistent corruption challenges in Pakistan driven by systemic weaknesses across state institutions and demanded immediate initiation of a 15-point reform agenda to improve transparency, fairness and integrity. Speaking at a press conference today about the report in Islamabad with former Sindh governor Mohammad Zubair, Jhagra highlighted a portion of the report that said: “The judicial sector that is organisationally complex is not able to [reliably] enforce contracts [or protect property rights] due to problems with efficiency, antiquated laws and the integrity of judges and judicial personnel.” “[The report] also points out how capital investments in... -
Dawn - 15:37 Nov 22, 2025
Lawyers of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) staged a protest on Saturday at the Sindh High Court (SHC) against the recently enacted 27th Constitutional Amendment. The contentious amendment, which resulted in the establishment of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), was passed by Parliament amid the opposition’s outcry. It has also been criticised by some legal experts as a means to dethrone the Supreme Court (SC) as the country’s highest judicial forum, ceding that position to the FCC. Former and sitting judges, as well as lawyers, voiced opposition to the amendment, particularly citing its impact on the SC. Hours after the amendment was enacted on November 13, two judges of the SC resigned, citing their reservations against it. The two judges were Athar Minallah and Mansoor Ali Shah, who was the senior puisne judge of the SC at the time. Today, lawyers began their protest outside the SHC’s premises by chanting slogans against the amendment and later entered the high court’s premises. Visuals showed some ... -
Dawn - 15:25 Nov 22, 2025
Pakistan and the European Union (EU) have underlined the importance of further deepening trade and investment ties, including through the EU’s GSP+ scheme, as a driver for sustainable growth, export diversification, job creation and mutually beneficial economic opportunity, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Saturday. The development came as 7th Strategic Dialogue between Pakistan and the EU was convened in Brussels. The meeting was co-chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and EU’s chief diplomat Kaja Kallas. The GSP+ status allows Pakistan to enjoy duty-free or minimum duty on European exports. According to the FO, the meeting provided a “comprehensive review” of the full spectrum of Pakistan-EU relations, “building on the positive momentum of recent high-level engagements and sustained institutional interactions”. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to a “broad-based, multidimensional and forward-looking partnership anchored in shared values, the UN Charter, multilateralism, and th...
5792 items