Dawn
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Dawn - 09:55 Jul 28, 2026
Pakistan’s passport ranking has slipped by one position to the 101st spot globally and remains the fourth worst in the world, according to the Henley Passport Index, it emerged on Tuesday. The Henley Passport Index compares 199 different passports across 227 different travel destinations, and calculates the score based on the number of destinations that can be accessed without a prior visa, or with a visa on arrival. With visa-free access declining from 30 countries in May to 29 countries in July, the Pakistani passport’s rank slipped by one rank to 101st. The travel document has been declared the world’s fourth worst since at least January 2021 on the Henley Index, based on multiple reports issued each year. A graph showing Pakistan’s ranking on the Henley Passport Index over the years since 2006. — screengrab via henleyglobal.com According to the Henley Index, Pakistani passport holders have free visa access to Barbados, Cook Islands, Dominica, Haiti, Micronesia, Montserrat, Rwanda, St. Vincent and the Gren... -
Dawn - 09:32 Jul 28, 2026
LAHORE: A National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) official on Tuesday informed a sessions court that PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar had been found guilty of harassing actor Momina Iqbal after investigation. NCCIA Lahore Station House Officer (SHO) Najam Bajwa shared this as Additional District and Sessions Judge Nusrat Ali Siddiqui took up pre-arrest bail petitions of the MPA and his wife, who was also named in the first information report registered after Iqbal’s harassment allegations. Chadhar and his wife appeared before the court upon the expiry of their previous pre-arrest interim bail. During the hearing, SHO Najam Bajwa informed the court that the investigation against Chadhar had been completed and he had been found guilty of the allegations levelled by Iqbal. He further told the court that Chadhar’s wife had surrendered her mobile phone to NCCIA two days ago and the device had been sent for forensic examination. For his part, the counsel for Iqbal urged the court to dismiss the suspects’ bail plea... -
Dawn - 08:56 Jul 28, 2026
On paper, Pakistan is a recycling success story. On plastic, not so much. Bad puns aside, the World Bank has said we beat all of South Asia with the lowest marine plastic pollution rates. Those in the business will tell you Pakistan is flipping trash so well that it now imports used gallon milk jugs from Ohio, and may teach Saudi Arabia how to turn it into street pavers. Why bother with cloth bags and paper straws if we are already recycling kings? Because of biscuit and chips packet wrappers and the question of what happens to them. And what I discovered in Shershah. Karachi’s Shershah market is a byword for recycling, but over the years, fussy power supplies have hemmed business into a corner of the neighbourhood called Paracha, named after a textile mill. What I saw at these small setups here is the part of Pakistan’s success story that no recycler brings up. You know how it works. Labourers sort household trash by colour, discard what can’t be recycled, and feed the rest into a crusher. A black oozing sau... -
Dawn - 08:50 Jul 28, 2026
I did not expect to leave Islamabad thinking about the future of international law. I went to speak. I came home with something harder to shake: a conviction that what is happening on the Indus river is not just a bilateral water dispute between two nuclear-armed neighbours. It is a test of whether the global architecture of treaty-based cooperation can survive the moment we are living in. On June 30, I had the honour of speaking at the Institute of Regional Studies seminar on the Indus Waters Treaty, held at the Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad. The high-level gathering brought together scholars, practitioners, diplomats, and policymakers from Pakistan and around the world. The expertise assembled in the room was formidable, and the sense of urgency surrounding the issue was unmistakable. My panel was asked to examine treaty-based conflict prevention, specifically, how the institutional mechanisms embedded in international river agreements keep water from becoming a cause of war. I came to that question... -
Dawn - 08:36 Jul 28, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday directed authorities to increase the country’s strategic petroleum reserves as a cabinet committee approved amendments to the oil refining policy. Pakistan has been planning to boost domestic storage for crude oil and refined products to increase its energy security, it emerged in May. With no strategic petroleum reserves, the country has been left exposed to oil supply shocks resulting from the US-Iran war that has choked supplies through the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday, PM Shehbaz chaired a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) during which amendments to the Pakistan Oil Refining Policy 2023 were approved, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The meeting was given a detailed briefing on the progress of upgradation of oil refineries in the country, reforms in the energy sector, and implementation of the policy. “The upgradation of oil refineries is an important need of the time and is a key pillar of Pakistan’s comprehensi... -
Dawn - 06:23 Jul 28, 2026
The world risks a resurgence of the HIV epidemic after global funding fell by nearly a fifth last year, the UN body fighting AIDS said on Monday. Washington previously accounted for 75 per cent of international HIV funding before President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025. That month, he ordered a temporary halt to all HIV-related funding before restoring life-saving HIV work days later, although most prevention efforts were curtailed. “The international community has entered a period of profound political and financial upheaval that threatens decades of hard-won gains against HIV,“ UNAIDS said in its 60-page report released at the start of an International AIDS conference in Brazil. “Without renewed commitment and action, the world risks a resurgence of the HIV epidemic.” Funding fell by 18pc to $7.3 billion in 2025, which was the lowest level in nearly two decades, the report said. That risks reversing progress that has driven down new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths t... -
Dawn - 05:24 Jul 28, 2026
There is a silence smothering the landscape of Pakistan and it is a silence borne from fear. The state grows more authoritarian each day, its mistrust for the voice of its people multiplying. The views of the masses, the printing presses, the online spaces, are met with charge sheets and FIRs. Silence has become the only guarantee of safety from the wrath of a system bent on gagging criticism. As the EU GSP+ assessment for Pakistan puts it: “limitations to the freedom of expression and access to information remain serious and persistent.” It is tempting to label this problem as regime specific. After all, the coalition government demonstrates open contempt for dissent: the Law Minister warns of uttering anything against foreign policy, 27 YouTube channels of journalists are asked to be permanently blocked, and the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) is the latest innovation given free rein to label any opposition as anti-state. You are counted lucky if you get a sliver of due process rather than... -
Dawn - 03:35 Jul 28, 2026
IN post-colonial societies, police are averse to innovation. Conversely, militants opt for innovation and cultivate their following, using cyberspace, AI and information warfare innovatively. Is innovative policing (IP) viable under outdated laws, weak capacity, poor accountability and ill-equipped LEAs? Post-colonial police chiefs limit innovation to technology when it should be interpreted elastically. Often, militants get ahead of LEAs; they use drones, night vision goggles, thermal imaging, cyberspace, etc. IP merges tech-driven, community-oriented, problem-oriented and e-policing. Combining traditional police values with modern, evidence-based policing to analyse crime patterns improves public safety and wins community trust, reducing the burden on courts and jails. Policing that doesn’t factor in local needs can be a waste of resources. For IP to succeed, police chiefs and political executives must combine numerical models with technology-led ones rather than rely just on the former. Solutions like dron... -
Dawn - 03:31 Jul 28, 2026
AT first look, it struck one as a politically conjured Woodstock, its unhurried gait like a cloud walk along a gurgling brook of piercing humour, cackling laughter and tuneful parodies, with Faiz and Fahmida Riaz making their mandatory appearance as they often do in youthful Indian protests. The event kindled muzzled memories of what the idea of India was conceived as. In a word, the event was magical, too good to be true. An Urdu verse comes to mind that nicely captures the disbelief of joy with a habit of apprehension. Yet, it was the news one had been aching to hear for more than 12 years, probably more. “Wo ghareeb dil ko sabaq miley ki khushi ke naam se dar gaya/ Kabhi tumne hans ke jo baat ki, to hamara chehra utar gaya” (‘parched by a drought of joyous tidings the heart is scared of happiness/ If you smile at me perchance, I feel a creeping wariness’). The songs and memes from the Jantar Mantar protest rang across the country’s myriad regions. A lasting image lingers in the form of a hijab-wrapped woma... -
Dawn - 03:26 Jul 28, 2026
AT least 624 US military service members have been wounded since President Donald Trump ordered strikes against Iran in February, according to the Pentagon’s most recent update on 25 July, BBC News reported. Among those wounded, 417 are attributed to Operation Epic Fury, while 207 are attributed to “Overseas Operations”. The US and Iran agreed to a ceasefire in April and signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June, but attacks by both sides have continued throughout. Revised casualty figures, unexplained changes to official records draw criticism over transparency Last week, the Pentagon revised its figures on those injured and killed in the war, removing the names of four personnel who died in Operation Epic Fury and adding them to the death toll for Overseas Operations. On the Pentagon’s Defence Analysis Casualty System, the death toll for Operation Epic Fury — the name given to the initial attack — was listed at 18 as late as Tuesday, along with 482 wounded, according to BBC News. At some point, four of ... -
Dawn - 03:13 Jul 28, 2026
AFTER two weeks of escalating violence, the US has halted its strikes on Iran, with Tehran also silencing it guns. But rather than any newfound belief in the benefits of peace, the Trump administration may have made the U-turn on account of the mounting practical costs of continuing the conflict. Moreover, efforts by regional states, including Pakistan, may have also helped convince both sides to give diplomacy another chance. Whatever the motivations for the belligerents to refrain from hostilities, the cessation of conflict in the Gulf is a welcome development, and it is hoped that the dialogue process can be brought back on track and a more permanent peace established in the region. America’s ambassador to the UN said that President Donald Trump wanted to give “talks some space”. While that may be so, there are also reports in the US media — denied by Mr Trump — that America was running low on munitions. Besides, some of America’s top generals have reportedly advised their bosses in the Pentagon and White ... -
Dawn - 03:09 Jul 28, 2026
KARACHI: While foreign investors appear satisfied with the State Bank of Pakistan’s decision to keep its policy rate at 11.5 per cent, local businessmen have criticised the cautious approach, which they believe will stifle economic activity and hinder access to finance. Overseas Investors Chambers of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) Secretary General M Abdul Aleem views SBP’s decision as prudent and balanced, reflecting improved macroeconomic conditions while acknowledging that inflation and external risks remain elevated. The pause provides breathing space for businesses, especially as private sector credit is picking up and economic activity showed signs of recovery in June, including in automobiles, cement, fertiliser offtake and business sentiment, he said. However, inflation at 11.1pc in June remains above the 5-7pc target range, while risks from global commodity prices, Middle East tensions, food prices and possible fiscal slippages require caution, he added. OICCI supports status quo, FPCCI calls it contr... -
Dawn - 03:07 Jul 28, 2026
ISLAMABAD: Lawyers Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha have moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) seeking an early hearing of their applications for suspension of sentence in the controversial social media posts case after the court rejected the prosecution’s objections to the maintainability of their petitions. The applications, filed through Advocates Faisal Siddiqui and Zainab Janjua, requested the court to fix the suspension of sentence petitions for hearing during the week commencing July 27. The applicants stated that their petitions were initially fixed for hearing on July 24, when the prosecution raised objections, arguing that the applications were premature and therefore not maintainable. They submitted that the IHC has since dismissed the prosecution’s objections, removing the hurdle to hearing the suspension of sentence pleas on merits. They requested the court to schedule the hearing at the earliest in light of the recent order. Last week, Justice Muhammad Azam Khan held the petitions seeking sus... -
Dawn - 03:01 Jul 28, 2026
• Mostly include Gandhara relics; Senate body orders detailed report on smuggling racket • Officials say Unesco concerns over Taxila conservation addressed; new museum planned ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has repatriated 513 smuggled archaeological artefacts from the United States under bilateral cooperation, top officials revealed before a Senate panel on Monday. The Senate Standing Committee on National Heritage and Culture, chaired by Senator Hidayatullah Khan, met in the Parliament House during which it was informed that the recovered objects, mainly belonging to the Gandhara civilisation, had been seized by US authorities after being smuggled through illegal channels over several decades. They said the artefacts are invaluable national treasures reflecting country’s rich civilisational heritage and are now in government custody. The committee was informed that plans are underway to establish a new museum for the preservation and display of the recovered artefacts. Land acquisition for the project is being... -
Dawn - 02:53 Jul 28, 2026
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday restrained authorities from deporting a petitioner named ‘Quaid-i-Azam’ and directed him to appear before the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra)’s verification board. A two-member PHC bench, comprising Justice Waqar Ahmed and Justice Inamullah Khan, was hearing a petition filed by resident Quaid-i-Azam against the blocking of his national identity card. Advocate Saifullah Mohib Kakakhel appeared on behalf of the petitioner, while Nadra’s legal representative Shahid Imran Gigiyani represented the authority. During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel informed the court that his client was doing business in Dubai and Pakistan. He said the authorities had blocked his client’s national identity card. The counsel said his client was a Pakistani citizen who was running a business and paying taxes to the government. He said his client was being penalised by the blocking of his identity card, which was causing him immense hardship. Kakakhel said his... -
Dawn - 02:50 Jul 28, 2026
• Sohail Afridi says ‘Imran Khan Rehayi Aman Movement’ is a peaceful, voluntary civic initiative, aimed at raising awareness about due process of law • Terms petition ‘speculative, politically motivated’ and liable to be dismissed • Constitutional court to hear plea tomorrow ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday categorically denied before the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) the existence of any armed structure or paramilitary setup, asserting that the “Imran Khan Rehayi Aman Movement” was a peaceful, unarmed and voluntary civic initiative aimed at raising awareness about due process of law. The KP chief minister made the assertion in a rejoinder filed in response to a petition moved by Malik Zaheer Ahmed, who challenged the legal status of the movement. The petitioner argued that the formation of the force to secure the release of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan violated the Constitution and posed a threat to public order. A three-judge FCC bench, headed by Chief Justice... -
Dawn - 02:46 Jul 28, 2026
• Food, fuel, medicine shortages worsen in cut-off areas; travellers advised to wait until roads are restored • 130 homes destroyed, 20 bridges washed away in 89 flood-related incidents reported this monsoon • CM declares Tormik ‘calamity-hit’ GILGIT: Scores of residents and tourists remain stranded across Gilgit-Baltistan without access to basic supplies as climate change-fuelled floods and landslides kept key roads closed for a sixth consecutive day on Monday. Rising waters in streams and rivers continue to hamper restoration efforts across the Skardu, Shigar, Ghanche, Kharmang and Astore districts. The prolonged blockade has left vulnerable populations in remote areas facing severe shortages of food, fuel and medical care, while tourists are trapped with dwindling resources. “Each passing day creates troubles for local residents,” Ali Hussain, a Skardu resident, told Dawn. He noted that the prices of available fuel and essential items have skyrocketed in cut-off areas. In Astore, which has been isolated ... -
Dawn - 02:32 Jul 28, 2026
• One seat still contested; unofficial results show PML-N on top in seven constituencies; PPP ahead in five • One killed, two injured in Nakyal violence • PPP alleges ‘rigging, ballot stuffing’ by ‘N’ candidates in Kotli • TTAP says electoral process failed to inspire ‘public confidence’ • PTI insists ‘minimal’ voter turnout reflects ‘discontent’ MIRPUR: Scuffles, violence and allegations of rigging marred the first phase of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) elections on Monday, as polling concluded in the 13 constituencies of Mirpur division with the PML-N seemingly in command, taking the lead on seven seats against the PPP’s five. According to unofficial and unverified results available at the time of going to press, the PML-N appeared to have swept all three seats in Bhimber district, claimed two out of four constituencies in Mirpur district and three out of six in Kotli district. At a late-night presser, Chief Election Commissioner Ghulam Mustafa Mughal announced the official result for LA-1 (Mirpur-I). Th... -
Dawn - 02:16 Jul 28, 2026
• Breaches in Deg and Bherr nullahs erode bridge foundations • Trains bound for Karachi diverted via Sahiwal and Khanewal • Engineering teams waiting for water to recede before making repairs • Tarbela nears maximum capacity; PMD warns of continued flood risk in major rivers LAHORE: As the Ravi and Chenab rivers continue to flow at medium and low flood levels, respectively, breaches in Nullah Deg and Bherr have wreaked havoc across the catchment area, eroding soil beneath railway bridges and forcing the suspension of rail traffic on the Lahore-Faisalabad section via Shahdara and Sheikhupura. Flooding caused breaches at 25 locations along the route. “Following the massive floodwater that caused erosion, isolating the railway line at two bridges — including a major bridge near Qila Sattar Shah on the Lahore-Shahdara-Sheikhupura-Faisalabad section — we have been left with no option but to suspend all passenger and freight train operations,” Pakistan Railways Lahore Divisional Superintendent Inam-ullah K... -
Dawn - 18:36 Jul 27, 2026
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Monday restrained authorities from deporting a petitioner named ‘Quaid-e-Azam’ and directed him to appear before the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra)’s verification board. A two-member PHC bench, comprising Justice Waqar Ahmed and Justice Inamullah Khan, was hearing a petition filed by resident Quaid-e-Azam against the blocking of his national identity card. Advocate Saifullah Mohib Kakakhel appeared on behalf of the petitioner, while Nadra’s legal representative Shahid Imran Gigiyani represented the authority. During the hearing, the petitioner’s counsel informed the court that his client was doing business in Dubai and Pakistan. He said the authorities had blocked his client’s national identity card. The counsel said his client was a Pakistani citizen who was running a business and paying taxes to the government. He said his client was being penalised by the blocking of his identity card, which was causing him immense hardship. Kakakhel said his...
12682 items