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Dawn - 03:53 Aug 31, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Leading human rights and civil society organisations in a joint press conference on Saturday condemned government’s failure to put an end to the practice of enforced disappearances, calling it a deeply entrenched tool of repression that continues to devastate many families. The groups, including Amnesty International, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Defence of Human Rights (DHR), voiced collective alarm over what they described as a systemic failure to deliver justice, truth or reparations to victims and their families. “A flawed system of accountability and official data from the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIOED) reveals the scale of the problem but also the system’s failure to provide meaningful justice,” chairperson of Defence of Human Rights (DHR) Amna Masood Janjua said. Ms Janjua noted that state institutions have practised enforced disappearances with utmost impunity for over two decades. HRCP, seven other groups seek justice, legal reform... -
Dawn - 03:50 Aug 31, 2025
ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Department of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has submitted a report in Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s case, stating that the contempt of court notices served to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his federal cabinet cannot be executed before resolving certain legal issues. The department placed a report in the case file of Dr Fowzia Siddiqui, who is seeking her sister Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s release from a US prison, noting that the notices to premier and his ministers over non-compliance of the order were not executable. In its report, the registrar office proposed the formation of a larger bench to deliberate over three central legal issues. The office questioned whether a judge can self-assign cases to their court, violating the Roster of Sitting. It also asked whether a judge can hear a case without the issuance of the approved cause list and whether the consent of various benches is mandatory for the consolidation of identical petitions. IHC registrar office proposes larger bench to determine leg... -
Dawn - 03:21 Aug 31, 2025
GILGIT: Unprecedented climate disasters and other factors have caused a sharp decline in both foreign and domestic tourist arrivals to Gilgit-Baltistan this year, badly affecting the local economy. Officials said that international conflicts, natural calamities and other issues resulted in a 90 per cent drop in tourism across the region. Sajid Hussain, assistant director at the GB Tourism Department, said that only 270 international climbers arrived in GB this year to attempt peaks, including K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum-I, Gasherbrum-II and Nanga Parbat, as compared to more than 2,000 foreign climbers and trekkers who visited the region last year. He said that most climbers returned without success due to extreme weather conditions at the peaks. Rockfalls, avalanches and high winds forced many to abandon their attempts and remain at base camps before heading back to their countries. According to the department, only 40 climbers summited K2, 25 reached Nanga Parbat and about a dozen summited Gasherbrum-I this s... -
Dawn - 03:02 Aug 31, 2025
• Rejects Sindh govt’s delayed appeal, observing delay in invoking legal remedies cannot be excused without sufficient cause • Justice Mazhar stresses equality before law applies to state and private litigants alike • Criticises routine govt pleas citing administrative delays as ‘mechanical and unpersuasive’ ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Saturday emphasised that delay in invoking a lawful remedy by a person or entity, who was sleeping over their rights can be denied. The observations came from a three-judge bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, while hearing a case involving the Sindh government. The bench noted with concern the tendency of the federal and provincial governments, as well as autonomous bodies, to institute appeals after the lapse of the limitation period prescribed by law. Authored by Justice Mazhar, the four-page order regretted that often the plea taken by the governments for condoning the delay was that fulfilling inter-departmental procedures and seeking final instructions from th... -
Dawn - 02:46 Aug 31, 2025
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari gave his assent on Saturday to the Pakistan Land Port Authority Bill, 2025, turning it into law and paving the way for the establishment of a new statutory body tasked with managing border crossings and facilitating cross-border movement. The newly created Pakistan Land Port Authority will act as a central platform for coordinating between multiple border management agencies. Its mandate includes facilitating the smooth movement of goods and passengers across land ports, reducing delays, and ensuring more efficient trade flows. With this development, Pakistan becomes the third country in South Asia, after Bangladesh and India, to establish a dedicated land port authority. The authority will introduce a robust mechanism to coordinate effectively with border management agencies, streamline trade facilitation, and enhance cross-border connectivity. It will also play a vital role in meeting Pakistan’s obligations under international agreements and conventions. The establishme... -
Dawn - 02:42 Aug 31, 2025
• Goods transporters report delays on routes other than motorways • Transport alliance urges Punjab administrations to install diversion signs for container trucks • Fertiliser shipments via flood-hit river corridors suspended • Movement on highways still smooth • Onion, potato supplies to Karachi decline KARACHI: As various goods for import, export, and local consumption continue to move smoothly on motorways and highways, goods’ transporters have claimed that the ravaging floods in Punjab are causing delays on other routes. They said shipments from the port city of Karachi to different parts of Punjab, as well as consignments arriving from Punjab to Karachi, are being delayed. All Pakistan Goods Transport Alliance President Nisar Hussain Jafri said that over the last three days, the supply chain has faced delays of two to three days. He added that excluding motorway routes, shipments of goods (both import and export items) from Karachi to various areas of Punjab usually take two to three days under normal c... -
Dawn - 02:37 Aug 31, 2025
PESHAWAR: At least three Frontier Corps personnel and two policemen embraced martyrdom in separate incidents of terrorism in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Upper Dir, Kohat, and Mohmand districts, sources said on Saturday. Sources said militants ambushed Bara Rifles’ 163 Wing in Upper Dir’s Barawal tehsil, leading to a fierce exchange of fire. The checkpost, which is a few hundred metres from the Afghanistan border, was initially overrun by the militants, but they were later repulsed by local volunteers who also joined the fight. At least three soldiers laid down their lives, while three sustained injuries and moved to a nearby hospital. There were also reports of militant casualties as well, but it could not be confirmed. The incident comes at a time of heightened militant activity in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s border districts, where security personnel and civilians have increasingly come under attack in recent weeks, raising concerns among residents about the deteriorating law and order situation. In Kohat’s Lachi tehs... -
Dawn - 02:33 Aug 31, 2025
• Mass evacuations underway due to exceptional floods, downpours in Punjab • Authorities execute controlled breaches along Chenab River to save critical barrages, bridges, and major urban centres • Urban flooding in KP areas leaves neighbourhoods submerged; minor dies in Peshawar • Ghizer district faces increased flood risk due to glacier melt, PMD issues alert LAHORE/ PESHAWAR / GILGIT: While severe flooding in Sutlej, Ravi, and Chenab rivers prompted mass evacuations across Punjab, the situation aggravated due to a renewed spell of downpour and a barrage breach in India, leaving Sindh to revise flood displacement estimate, now projecting over 1.65 million people at risk along both banks of the Indus River. In the country’s northern parts, glacier melting threatened further floods in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Ghizer district as per Met Office warning and some Khyber Pakhtunkhwa areas, including Peshawar, recorded urban flooding amid heavy rains. Authorities in Punjab are grappling with what they call an unprecedent... -
Dawn - 18:50 Aug 30, 2025
Pakistan won their Twenty20 International tri-series match against the United Arab Emirates at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium by 31 runs on Saturday. The tri-series of Twenty20 international matches is to tune up for the Asia Cup and features Pakistan, the UAE and Afghanistan. Each team will play the others twice, giving all sides at least four matches before the top two teams qualify for the final, scheduled on September 7. Pakistan batted first after skipper Salman Agha won the toss and set a target of 208 for the UAE. The UAE only managed to make 176 runs. Salman had hit an unbeaten half-century and fast bowler Haris Rauf grabbed four wickets as Pakistan upstaged Afghanistan by 39 runs in the tri-series opener on Friday. Salman hit a 36-ball 53 not out with three sixes and as many boundaries, which lifted Pakistan to a solid 182-7 in their 20 overs. Haris took 4-31 while fellow pacer Shaheen Afridi claimed 2-21, while spinners Mohammad Nawaz (2-23) and Sufiyan Muqeem (2-25) dismissed Afghanistan for 143 in 1... -
Dawn - 18:03 Aug 30, 2025
United States President Donald Trump has scrapped plans to attend an upcoming summit of the ‘Quad’ grouping in India amid deteriorating ties between Washington and New Delhi, US newspaper The New York Times (NYT) reported on Saturday. Relations between the two countries have plummeted, with 50 per cent levies on many Indian imports into the US taking effect this week as punishment for New Delhi’s massive purchases of Russian oil; a part of US efforts to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine. As ties between both nations deteriorate, NYT reported on Saturday that the breakdown in relations was caused after a phone call on June 17. “After telling [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi that he would travel to India later this year for the Quad summit, Mr Trump no longer has plans to visit in the fall, according to people familiar with the president’s schedule,” the NYT reported, citing “interviews with more than a dozen people in Washington and New Delhi”. The NYT mentioned how Trump’s repeated claims ab... -
Dawn - 16:16 Aug 30, 2025
The prime minister of Yemen’s Houthi government and several other ministers were killed in an Israeli strike on the capital Sanaa, the news agency run by the group said on Saturday, citing a statement by the head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat. A number of others were wounded in the strike, carried out on Thursday, it said without providing details. Israel said on Friday that the airstrike had targeted the Iran-aligned group’s chief of staff, defence minister and other senior officials and that it was verifying the outcome. The Houthi-run news agency ran a statement from the defence minister shortly after it confirmed the prime minister’s death and quoted him as saying the group was ready to confront Israel. The statement did not mention Thursday’s airstrike and it was unclear if it was made before or after the attack. Ahmad Ghaleb al-Rahwi became prime minister nearly a year ago, but the de facto leader of the government was his deputy, Mohamed Moftah, who was assigned on Saturday t... -
Dawn - 13:19 Aug 30, 2025
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday he looked forward to meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping along with other world leaders as he arrived in China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also touched down on his first visit after a seven-year gap. The SCO summit, to be held in the northern port city of China’s Tianjin on Sunday and Monday, will gather more than 20 world leaders in a powerful show of Global South solidarity, including Russian President Vladimir Putin. The SCO comprises China, India, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. Another 16 countries are affiliated as observers or “dialogue partners”. PM Shehbaz arrived in Tianjin with Deputy PM and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar. Terming his visit “historic”, PM Shehbaz said on X today: “I look forward to meeting H.E. President Xi Jinping and other world leaders to further build upon our bilateral t... -
Dawn - 12:16 Aug 30, 2025
When floodwaters from across the Indian border surged into her village in Pakistan’s Punjab this month, Shama knew what to do: gather her four children and prepare to leave. It was the second time this year she has had to flee, after abandoning her home during cross-border fighting between India and Pakistan in May. “How many times do we need to evacuate now?” the 30-year-old mother said, her husband away ferrying their 10 cows to higher ground on a boat. “We lost out on so much during the war like school days for the children, and now the water is forcing us out again. Trouble is trouble.” A Rescue 1122 boat evacuates people from the flooded area past partially submerged houses, following the monsoon rains and rising water level of the Sutlej River, in Chanda Singh Wala village near the Pakistan-India border in Punjab’s Kasur district, on August 29. — Reuters Shama’s ordeal is echoed across flood-hit Kasur, where families say they are exhausted by repeated displacements within months, first from the fighting... -
Dawn - 12:07 Aug 30, 2025
Pakistan has received authorisation to extend the export of seafood products to the United States for another four years, Minister for Maritime Affairs Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry announced on Saturday. Pakistan’s seafood exports rose to $465 million in FY25, reflecting a 13.4 per cent increase in value and an 8pc growth in quantity compared to last year, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) in July. According to a press release by the maritime ministry, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) classified all Pakistani fisheries listed on its List of Foreign Fisheries as “comparable” under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). “This classification confirms that Pakistan’s fisheries meet US standards for protecting marine mammals from incidental mortality and serious injury during fishing operations,” Chaudhry was quoted as saying. The MMPA required fisheries to “minimise marine mammal bycatch, adopt conservation practices, and sustainably operate mea... -
Dawn - 11:48 Aug 30, 2025
A new $250 “visa integrity fee” imposed on travellers to the United States risks piling more pressure on the struggling travel industry, as overseas arrivals continue to fall due to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration and hostility to many foreign countries. Overseas travel to the US fell 3.1 per cent year-on-year in July to 19.2 million visitors, according to US government data. It was the fifth month of decline this year, defying expectations that 2025 would see annual inbound visitors finally surpass the pre-pandemic level of 79.4m. The new visa fee, set to go into effect on October 1, adds an additional hurdle for travellers from non-visa waiver countries such as Mexico, Argentina, India, Brazil and China. The extra charge raises the total visa cost to $442, one of the highest visitor fees in the world, according to the US Travel Association, a membership organisation. “Any friction we add to the traveller experience is going to cut travel volumes by some amount,” said Gabe Rizzi, President ... -
Dawn - 10:52 Aug 30, 2025
A fire started by protesters at a council building in eastern Indonesia killed at least three people, a local official said on Saturday, after demonstrations across the country following the death of a man hit by a police vehicle. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy was rocked by protests in major cities including the capital Jakarta on Friday after footage spread of a motorcycle taxi driver being run over by a police tactical vehicle in earlier rallies against low wages and financial perks for lawmakers. Protests in Makassar, the biggest city on the eastern island of Sulawesi, descended into chaos outside the provincial and local city council buildings, which were both set on fire as demonstrators hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails. Three people were killed as a result of the fire at the Makassar city council, its secretary Rahmat Mappatoba told AFP. “They were trapped in the burning building,” he said, accusing protesters of igniting the blaze. “Usually during a demonstration, protesters only throw rocks or bu... -
Dawn - 10:40 Aug 30, 2025
At least one policeman was martyred and three terrorists were killed in a firing incident in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat district, police said on Saturday. According to Regional Police Officer Kohat Abbas Majeed Marwat, “One policeman was martyred and two others were injured in an operation against terrorists.” He said, “Three terrorists have been killed and several others injured as police retaliated [against terrorists] in the mountains of Darmalak.” An operation is underway to arrest the injured terrorists, the official added. “We will not let the sacrifices of our martyrs go in vain and our war against terrorism will continue.” Earlier today, a statement from the Rescue 1122 read, “A tragic incident of firing on a police vehicle took place near the Darmalak police post in Kohat.” As a result of the firing, one policeman was martyred on the spot and two policemen were injured, the statement said, adding that the injured officials were taken to Kohat District Headquarters Hospital. Recent terrorist attacks h... -
Dawn - 09:39 Aug 30, 2025
President Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday approved a change in the constitution of the 11th National Finance Commission (NFC) after Balochistan revised its nomination, a statement by the president’s secretariat said. The 11th NFC was constituted on August 22 to prepare a new award for sharing federal divisible resources between the Centre and the provinces. Chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the NFC includes four provincial finance ministers and four non-statutory members, one from each province. Its inaugural session, however, was postponed on the request of the Sindh government “due to the impending flood situation”. As per the statement released today, the change became necessary after the “Government of Balochistan revised its nomination, recommending Mahfooz Ali Khan as its non ex-officio member in the 11th NFC”. The statement added that the president has given the nod to this nomination, superseding the earlier approval. The terms of reference set under clause 2 of Article 160 require the 11th... -
Dawn - 09:23 Aug 30, 2025
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Saturday sent PTI founder Imran Khan’s nephew Shahrez Khan to jail on judicial remand in a case pertaining to the Jinnah House attack during the May 9, 2023 riots. Lahore Police picked up Shahrez, son of Imran’s sister Aleema Khan, from his mother’s Lahore residence on August 21. His brother Shershah Khan was also arrested the next day over similar allegations, and sent on physical remand and then to jail. Lahore police presented Shahrez before the court of ATC Judge Manzer Ali Gill today upon the completion of his eight-day physical remand. Advocate Rana Mudassar Umer and PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja appeared as Shahrez’s counsel, while Imtiaz Ahmad Sipra was present as the prosecutor. Sipra sought a further 30-day physical custody of Shahrez, while Umer urged the court to discharge his client from the case. Judge Gill denied the police’s request and ordered that Shahrez be sent to jail on a 14-day judicial remand. “A cane has been recovered from the susp... -
Dawn - 07:45 Aug 30, 2025
India will not “bow down” and instead focus on capturing new markets, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said in his first public remarks since Washington imposed steep tariffs on Indian goods. The 50 per cent levies on many Indian imports into the United States took effect this week as punishment for New Delhi’s massive purchases of Russian oil, part of US efforts to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine. Since his return to the White House this year, US President Donald Trump has wielded tariffs as a wide-ranging policy tool, with the levies upending global trade. Speaking at a construction industry event in New Delhi on Friday, Goyal said India was “always ready if anyone wants to have a free trade agreement with us”. But, the trade minister added, India “will neither bow down nor ever appear weak”. “We will continue to move together and capture new markets.” The latest tariffs salvo from Trump has strained US-India ties, with New Delhi earlier criticising the levies as “unfair, unjustified and unreas...
3715 items