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Found 1879 news

  • Pre-monsoon rains to lash country from June 20: PMD
    Dawn - 14:08 Jun 19, 2025
    The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) on Thursday predicted that pre-monsoon rains will fall across the country between June 20 and 23. Monsoon rains fall across the region from June to September, offering respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies. They are also vital for agriculture, and therefore the livelihoods of millions of farmers and food security for South Asia’s nearly two billion people. According to a statement, “currents from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal are penetrating the central and northern areas of Pakistan, while a westerly wave is expected to approach the north. Both of these weather systems are expected to arrive on June 20 (tomorrow).” It added that duststorms, thunderstorms and heavy rain are expected in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit Baltistan, Murree, Galliyat, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal, Jhelum, Mianwali, Sargodha, Hafizabad, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Sialkot, Narowal, Lahore, Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, H...
    Tags: June
  • Cambridge confirms partial leak of 3 A-Level papers for June 2025 exams
    Dawn - 14:05 Jun 19, 2025
    Cambridge International Education (CIE) on Thursday confirmed that question papers of three AS and A Level examinations were partially leaked across Pakistan. CIE, part of Cambridge University Press and Assessment, offers internationally recognised exams to over 10,000 schools in 160-plus countries. In Pakistan, O Levels (grades 9–10) cover a broad subject range, while A and AS Levels (grades 11–12) are more specialised and advanced, providing pathways to higher education in Pakistan and abroad. CIE exams are typically held twice a year, in June and November, with results released in August and January, respectively. “We have written to our schools in Pakistan to tell them that, against our regulations, some content from three question papers was available before the timetabled exam dates in Pakistan,” the CIE said in a statement. The examinations that were affected include: Cambridge International AS/A Level Mathematics Paper 12, where one question was shared before the exam was taken. Cambridge Internationa...
    Tags: June
  • Amazon to invest $233m in India to expand operations infrastructure, improve tech
    Dawn - 13:02 Jun 19, 2025
    Amazon will invest more than $233 million in India in 2025 to expand and update its operations infrastructure, develop new technology for its fulfilment network and improve delivery safety, it said on Thursday. The investment builds on top of Amazon’s prior investments for the creation of an operations network to deliver to all serviceable PIN-codes in the country, it added. In June 2023, the e-commerce major — which competes with Walmart’s Flipkart and billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail in India — had said it will take its investments in the country to $26 billion by 2030, without providing a breakdown. The new investment will be used to launch new sites and upgrade existing facilities across its fulfilment and delivery network, improving speed and processing capacity, it said. Additionally, Amazon plans to use technology to alert delivery associates about unsafe speeds and ensure equitable distribution of delivery routes. Some of the funds will also be used to expand initiatives to improve the heal...
  • SC Constitutional Bench dismisses pleas against transfer of IHC judges
    Dawn - 12:32 Jun 19, 2025
    The Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench on Thursday announced its verdict in a case pertaining to the seniority and transfer of Islamabad High Court (IHC) jud­ges, declaring that their transfers were not unconstitutional. The bench — headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and comprising Justices Naeem Akhtar Afghan, Shahid Bilal Hassan, Salahuddin Panhwar and Shakeel Ahmed — took up petitions filed by five IHC judges, the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) and the IHC Bar Association, among others. In February, Justice Sardar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar from the Lahore High Court (LHC), Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro from the Sindh High Court (SHC) and Justice Muham­mad Asif from the Balochistan High Court (BHC) were transferred to the IHC. The controversy centres around the alteration of the judges’ seniority list after these transfers as Justice Dogar was made the senior puisne judge, which paved the way for his appointment as the acting IHC chief justice after Justice Aamer Farooq’s elevation to the SC. Today’s judge...
  • India to send crashed plane’s black box to US: local media report
    Dawn - 12:27 Jun 19, 2025
    India will send the black box recovered from the recent fatally crashed Air India plane to the US for analysis, local newspaper Economic Times reported on Thursday, citing people aware of the development. “The recorder sustained heavy external damage from post-crash fire making it impossible to extract data in India,” the ET report said, citing people aware of the development. India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Indian authorities are investigating the crash of an Air India Boeing Dreamliner, which last week killed 241 people on board and at least 30 on ground, marking the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade. The black box consists of two components — the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder (CVR). It provides crucial insights for crash investigators, including altitude and airspeed data and pilot conversation records that help determine probable causes of crashes. Data from the flight data recorder will be extra...
    Tags: India
  • Returning relieved Pakistanis recall ‘horrifying nights’ as Israel, Iran trade strikes
    Dawn - 11:38 Jun 19, 2025
     Pakistani students walk across the Pakistan-Iran border after returning from Iran in Taftan, Balochistan, on June 19. — AFP Mohammad Hassan anxiously returned to Pakistan from Iran this week after witnessing drones, missiles and explosions tear through Tehran’s sky during what he called long, “horrifying nights”. The 35-year-old University of Tehran student is one of about 3,000 Pakistanis who, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have returned home since Israel launched its aerial war against its long-time enemy last week. Governments around the world are scrambling to evacuate their nationals caught up in the rapidly spiralling conflict as Israel and Iran trade missile and drone strikes. “I was in the city centre where most of the strikes took place and even one of the student dormitories was attacked and luckily no one was dead, but students were injured,” Hassan said. Pakistani students walk across the Pakistan-Iran border after returning from Iran in Taftan, Balochistan, on June 19. — AFP There are more than 500 Pakistani students at his university alone, he said, all of them on their way “back home”. “Those days and...
  • Greenpeace warns of ‘potential disaster’ after oil spill off UAE
    Dawn - 11:30 Jun 19, 2025
    Greenpeace on Thursday warned that an oil spill resulting from a tanker collision off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could have grave environmental consequences, after authorities reported a “small” slick. On Tuesday, the Emirati coastguard said it rescued 24 crew members of the Adalynn oil tanker after it collided with the Front Eagle vessel in the Gulf of Oman, off the coast of the Khor Fakan area of the UAE. “Greenpeace Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has warned of a potential environmental disaster after two crude oil tankers collided,” the group said in a statement. The environmental campaign group said satellite imagery indicated a “large plume of oil stretching up to around 1,500 hectares from the site of the crash”. The group said the Adalynn was part of a Russian “shadow fleet”, which it described as “a collection of partially obsolete tankers that operate below basic security standards and carry Russian oil”. Security analysts say Russia uses the fleet of ageing vessels to circumven...
  • Karachi reports second Congo fever-related death this year
    Dawn - 10:43 Jun 19, 2025
    Another patient died of Congo fever on Thursday in Karachi, as the number of fatalities from the disease reached two this year in Sindh, a statement from the district health officer in Malir said. Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), commonly known as Congo Virus, causes severe viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks with a case fatality rate of 10-40 per cent, according to the World Health Organisation. There is no vaccine available for the disease. Per experts, the CCHF virus is primarily transmitted to people either by tick bites or through contact with infected animal blood or tissues during and immediately after slaughter. In April, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued an advisory urging the prevention of Congo fever ahead of Eidul Azha. A 25-year-old man, Zubair, a fisherman from Ibrahim Hyderi, passed away on Thursday morning, a day after the disease was confirmed, said a report by DHO Malir Dr Imdad Ali Chandio. The victim butchered animals continuously for two days on June 7-8 during Eid. On J...
  • Two killed in Kohat shooting, 11 injured, police say
    Dawn - 09:41 Jun 19, 2025
    Two people, including a woman, were killed and 11 others injured on Thursday after unidentified men opened fire at a group of people returning from a funeral in Chashma Ganda area of Gumbat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kohat district, according to a police official. Kohat District Police Officer (DPO) Dr Zahidullah Khan said initial police investigation suggests that the attack was motivated by personal enmity. The injured, along with the deceased, have been shifted to a nearby hospital for medical treatment and legal formalities, according to DPO Kohat. Further investigation is underway to apprehend the assailants. On Wednesday, two people were killed and one was injured during a shooting incident in Karachi’s Ittehad Town due to personal enmity between the two sides. Last month, a man and his two sons were shot dead by unknown armed men in KP’s Mardan district. While in a separate incident in May, six people, including three women, lost their lives in an exchange of fire over a family feud in the Khatko Pul area...
    Tags: Kohat
  • Trump, COAS Munir talk counterterrorism and trade in ‘cordial’ meeting: ISPR
    Dawn - 08:55 Jun 19, 2025
    US President Donald Trump and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir discussed joint counterterrorism efforts and expanding bilateral trade during their “cordial” meeting in Washington, the military’s media wing said on Thursday. Gen Munir met with Trump at the White House yesterday, becoming the first serving chief of army staff to have a face-to-face meeting with a sitting US president. The occasion also marked the first time a serving Pakistani army chief had been formally received at this level, without holding political office or governing under martial law. The high-level engagement was scheduled at the Cabinet Room over luncheon, followed by a visit to the Oval Office. Secretary of State Senator Marco Rubio and Special Representative for Middle Eastern Affairs Steve Witkoff were present during the meeting from the US side, while National Security Advisor Lt Gen Muhammad Asim Malik — also the intelligence chief — accompanied the COAS. “Although initially scheduled for one hour, the mee...
    Tags: Trump
  • Homeland insecurity: expelled Afghans seek swift return to Pakistan
    Dawn - 08:31 Jun 19, 2025
    Pakistan says it has expelled more than a million Afghans in the past two years, yet many have quickly attempted to return — preferring to take their chances dodging the law than struggle for existence in a homeland some had never even seen before. “Going back there would be sentencing my family to death,” said Hayatullah, a 46-year-old Afghan deported via the Torkham border crossing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in early 2024. Since April and a renewed deportation drive, some 200,000 Afghans have spilled over the two main border crossings from Pakistan, entering on trucks loaded with hastily packed belongings. But they carry little hope of starting over in the impoverished country, where girls are banned from school after the primary level. Hayatullah, a pseudonym, returned to Pakistan a month after being deported, travelling around 800 kilometres (500 miles) south to the Chaman border crossing in Balochistan, because for him, life in Afghanistan “had come to a standstill”. He paid a bribe to cross the Chaman fronti...
  • Budget 2025-26: Senate panel seeks to ease tax rules for buying property
    Dawn - 07:14 Jun 19, 2025
    • Proposes raising purchase limit for filers from 130pc to 400pc of declared wealth • Tax approved on previously exempt luxury private clubs • Proposed e-commerce tax rejected; tax on online academies approved ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee has recommended raising the threshold limit for purchases made by “eligible individuals” — a new term for people who file their tax returns — and approved a measure to tax luxury clubs nationwide. The development came as the Senate and National Assembly Standing Com­mittees on Finance and Revenue held simultaneous sessions at Parliament House to conduct a clause-by-clause review of the Finance Bill 2025-26. Chaired by Senator Saleem Man­dviwalla and MNA Naveed Qamar respectively, both panels proposed several amendments and rejected some measures outright. The Senate standing committee expressed concern over the newly inserted clause in the Finance Bill, which restricts the “eligible person” from making any purchase exceeding 130 per cent of the wealth reflected in th...
    Tags: Senate
  • PML-N lawmaker reveals 2,500 bureaucrats hold dual nationality
    Dawn - 06:55 Jun 19, 2025
    https://www.dawn.com/news/1918017#:~:text=PML%2DN%20lawmaker%20Afnan%20Ullah%20Khan%20revealed%20that%202%2C500%20bureaucrats%20of%20the%20country%20including%20four%20federal%20secretaries%20were%20holding%20dual%20nationality
  • PIA resumes Lahore-Paris flight after five years
    Dawn - 06:18 Jun 19, 2025
    LAHORE: The PIA has resumed Lahore-Paris flight five years after the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) lifted ban on its operations in Europe. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and UK authorities had suspended permission for PIA to operate in the region in June 2020 after Pakistan began investigating the validity of pilots’ licences following a deadly plane crash in Karachi that killed 97 people. Following the ban lift on PIA by the EASA in November last year, the national flag carrier had resumed Islamabad-Paris flights early this year. “We can operate for any destination in Europe now (except the UK) after the lifting of ban by the EASA. However, it depends upon traffic on specific routes in Europe,” a senior official of PIA told Dawn on Wednesday. He said the PIA was also hopeful that its operation for the UK would resume in a couple of months as well. “Talks with the UK authorities concerned are underway and hopefully the PIA will be operating flights there in a couple of months,” he said. A...
  • Pakistanis among 60 migrants feared dead after two shipwrecks: IOM
    Dawn - 05:09 Jun 19, 2025
    TRIPOLI/BERLIN: At least 60 migrants are feared dead after a pair of shipwrecks off the coast of Libya over the past week, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The first ship went down on June 12 near a Libyan port in Tripoli, with 21 people, including women and children, reported missing and only five survivors found, the IOM said in a statement on Tuesday. Those lost at sea included Eritrean, Pakistani, Egyptian and Sudanese nationals. The second wreck took place about 35 kilometres off the port city of Tobruk, with the sole survivor reporting 39 people lost at sea, according to the UN body. “With dozens feared dead and entire families left in anguish, IOM is once again urging the international community to scale up search and rescue operations and guarantee safe, predictable disembarkation for survivors,” said Othman Belbeisi, the IOM’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. According to the statement, at least 743 people have died so far this year trying to cro...
  • Four bogies derail as bomb rips through Jaffer Express in Jacobabad
    Dawn - 04:56 Jun 19, 2025
    SUKKUR: A powerful explosion of a remotely-controlled explosive device fitted to rail tracks caused four bogies of the Jaffer Express to derail near cattle market in Jacobabad on Wednesday. Luckily, no one was hurt in the incident. The responsibility of the terror act was claimed reportedly by the banned Baloch Repu­blican Guards (BRG) through a statement, which started circulating on social media soon after the blast. Witnesses said that the bomb ripped through the train, when it was en route to Quetta, leading to shouts and cries of passengers. The blast caused floor of a bogie to crumble to pieces, left a three to four foot crater at the site and damaged 20-30 feet of the rail track, said officials. Jacobabad SSP Saddam Hussain Khaskheli, accompanied by officials of police and Pakistan Railway, reached the site and gathered details of the incident. The Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) officials had begun probe to determine the type of the bomb and the amount of explosive material used in the blast, he said. He sa...
  • Budget hurdle cleared as PML-N, PPP settle issues
    Dawn - 03:29 Jun 19, 2025
    • Govt agrees to reduce GST on solar panels from 18pc to 10pc • Collection of tax on digital services handed over to provinces • PIDCL to oversee federal projects in all provinces • Funds for Sindh varsities to be maintained ISLAMABAD: In a significant development, the ruling PML-N has finally agreed to four major demands of its key ally PPP, thus paving the way for the federal budget’s smooth passage in the National Assembly. Taking the floor during the budget debate in the lower house of parliament on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar revealed that after extensive consultations with PPP leaders, including Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, as well as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the government had accepted the PPP’s key demands, including reduction in the proposed General Sales Tax (GST) on solar panels. The assurance came in the wake of constant criticism from the members, mostly from the PPP, on a number of budgetary proposals during the ongoing...
    Tags: PML-N
  • Kashmir named among world’s ‘most critical escalation points’
    Dawn - 03:05 Jun 19, 2025
    ISLAMABAD: The Global Peace Index 2025 has put the disputed region of Kashmir at the forefront of the critical escalation hotspots in the world, where tensions between India and Pakistan remain ‘perilously high’. The index released by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) with headquarters in Sydney, says the situation in Kashmir exemplifies the fragility of ceasefire agreements in volatile geographic settings and underscores the dangers posed by non-state actors capable of triggering international crises. The index, a snapshot of the global state of peace, ranked Pakistan at 144, showing ‘low state of peace’ while India ranked 115 position with ‘medium state of peace’. Ukraine and Russia have been placed at the bottom of the rankings of 163 countries. Global Peace Index ranks Pakistan at 144, India at 115; says South Asia tensions remain perilously high About conflict history and escalation hotspots in India, the index report says the conflict is highly likely in the Kashmir region over the next year. ...
    Tags: Kashmir
  • Trump says ‘honoured’ to meet Field Marshal Munir; Iran discussed in talks
    Dawn - 20:20 Jun 18, 2025
    United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he was “honoured” to meet Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir for talks at the White House — also marking the first time a US president has hosted Pakistan’s army chief at the White House unaccompanied by senior civilian officials. The meeting, listed on the president’s official schedule, was held in the Cabinet Room and closed to the press. The lunch is being seen in Islamabad as a major diplomatic win, particularly because earlier this month, an Indian delegation met US Vice President JD Vance and Indian media depicted it as a diplomatic success, contrasting it with the apparent inability of the Pakistani delegation to secure a similar meeting. Gen Munir’s invitation to the White House is now being projected by officials in Islamabad as a diplomatic counterpoint to those narratives. When questioned about the meeting in an interaction with the media later, Trump said, “I was honoured to meet him (Field Marshal Munir) today.” Asked whether the talks includ...
  • AJK’s Rs310.2bn budget passed amid opposition’s boycott
    Dawn - 18:39 Jun 18, 2025
    The coalition government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Wednesday unveiled a Rs310.2 billion deficit-free budget for the fiscal year 2025-26, which was approved by the Legislative Assembly amid a boycott by the opposition. Earlier today, the budget session was delayed by over two hours after five opposition members — four from the PTI and one from the Jammu Kashmir People’s Party (JKPP) — staged a sit-in at the entrance of the assembly hall, protesting what they described as the government’s attempt to “bulldoze the budget”. Four to five cabinet members approached the opposition to convince them to end their protest and voice their concerns inside the hall, but they were told that verbal assurances aside, the government’s “ill-will” was evident from the agenda of the budget session. The agenda stated that after the presentation of the revised budget for 2024-25 and the estimated budget for 2025-26, the finance minister would move a motion for suspension of Rules 127, 128, 129, and 131 of the Rules of Proc...
    Tags: Rs310

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