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Dawn - 09:59 Jul 15, 2026
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Wednesday met with the secretary general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Nurlan Yermekbayev, and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to advancing its objectives, the Foreign Office (FO) said. In a post on X, the FO said that Dar received Yermekbayev, with the two holding a “productive exchange” on the SCO priorities and ways to further strengthen cooperation among member states in key areas, including economy, transport, and connectivity. “They also exchanged views on regional and international developments. The secretary general commended Pakistan’s constructive contributions to promoting regional peace, stability, and cooperation,” the FO said. “The secretary general shared his perspective and proposals for further enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the SCO, and briefed DPM Dar on preparations for the forthcoming SCO Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan,” it said. According to the FO, DPM Dar reaffirmed Pa... -
Dawn - 09:15 Jul 15, 2026
Three more terrorists have been killed as security forces and law enforcers continue to carry out Operation Shaban in Balochistan jointly, state media reported on Wednesday, citing security sources. According to state-run Pakistan TV, the latest casualties have taken the total tally of terrorists killed during the operation to 88. It further reported that 126 terrorists had been killed in Operation Shaban and other intelligence-based operations in the province since July 5. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi commended the security forces after the latest operations and said the ongoing campaign against terrorist elements was progressing successfully, according to state-run APP. Operation Shaban was launched in retaliation for a deadly attack on a police post at the Mangi Dam pumping station in Ziarat. During that assault, armed attackers kidnapped and killed 27 police officers. Troops from the army, Frontier Corps and police are participating in the joint operation. Latest updates reported by Pakistan TV said sec... -
Dawn - 09:11 Jul 15, 2026
KARACHI: Three suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder of a young doctor who was shot dead during a robbery near Teen Talwar in Karachi’s Clifton area, according to a press release issued by South Zone police on Wednesday. Dr Akash Kumar, a doctor at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), was killed on Monday after robbers intercepted his vehicle near Teen Talwar and escaped with around Rs2 million that he was carrying after withdrawing cash from a private bank. The killing sparked widespread outrage within the medical community, with doctors staging protests at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where Dr Akash served as a house officer. The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) also condemned the killing, describing it as evidence of the deteriorating law and order situation in Karachi. In the press release issued on Wednesday, police provided details of the events leading up to the robbery. They said that Dr Akash arrived at a bank on Monday to withdraw Rs5m, of which he k... -
Dawn - 08:49 Jul 15, 2026
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) threatened to close “all other export corridors that benefit the US and its allies”, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, after Tehran shut the Strait of Hormuz and the US reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The IRGC said the renewed US blockade had cut off oil and gas exports to the world, including “America’s economic rivals”, and warned that routes serving US and allied interests could also be shut, Iran’s state news agency, IRNA, reported on Wednesday. “Regional energy exports are either shared by all or denied to all,” the IRGC said in its statement. It also said that the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until “the end of America’s evils”. The vital Strait of Hormuz, which served as the passage for one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply daily during peacetime, is now at the centre of a flare-up in the US-Israeli war on Iran that has rattled the Middle East and pushed up global energy prices. Analysts have said Iran has also been signalling... -
Dawn - 07:53 Jul 15, 2026
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark index snapped a two-day losing streak on Wednesday, gaining more than 1,000 points during early trade. The KSE-100 index initially rose 3,133 points at 10:06am from the previous close of 173,518.81 points. By 10:14am, it came down a little but was still up 2,664.88 points. However, it then reversed its initial gains, with the index up 1,091.77 points at 12:54pm. Mettis Global, a web-based financial portal, said the KSE-100 index was rebounding from the previous session’s steep losses as investors engaged in value buying after heavy selloffs. Awais Ashraf, director of research at AKD Securities, said that investor sentiment had “turned positive” after United States President Donald Trump replaced the proposed 20 per cent toll on Strait of Hormuz traffic with investment commitments from GCC countries. “Additionally, lower-than-expected US inflation has eased concerns over further Federal Reserve rate hikes, improving the outlook for capital flows into frontier marke... -
Dawn - 06:56 Jul 15, 2026
The state’s desire to count is never entirely innocent. British India turned censuses, land records and irrigation maps into technologies of rule: enumeration made people and property legible, while the canal colonies linked land settlement, water allocation and revenue to a powerful bureaucracy. Pakistan inherited that administrative apparatus. Yet the same numbers that can help a state extract can also help citizens see what is changing and demand a response. The Agricultural Census 2024 deserves to be read in that critical but constructive spirit. It is Pakistan’s seventh agricultural census and the first to combine agriculture, livestock and farm machinery in one digital exercise. This 2024 census is the first to combine agriculture, livestock and farm machinery in one digital exercise Fieldwork was carried out in two phases between September 2024 and February 2025. It was sample-based rather than a literal count of every farm. (This was a different approach from work done before 2010 and from that of met... -
Dawn - 06:53 Jul 15, 2026
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday directed the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to maintain close coordination with provinces to avert any emergency situation during the ongoing monsoon rains, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said. In a statement, the PMO said the prime minister issued the directives during a meeting with NDMA Chairman Lieutenant General Inam Haider Malik. The prime minister directed that coordination with provincial governments and Provincial Disaster Management Authorities (PDMAs) be further strengthened during the monsoon rainfall, it added. During the meeting, the prime minister was briefed on the country’s preparedness to respond to any emergency situation arising from the monsoon rains. He was also informed about progress in fully operationalising the early warning system and enhancing cooperation with the Ministry of Climate Change in this regard. Monsoon rains fall across the region from June to September, offering respite from the summer heat and are... -
Dawn - 06:04 Jul 15, 2026
A man was arrested in Utah for stabbing a Muslim man multiple times and stated that he targeted the victim because of the victim’s religion, police said in court records on Tuesday. Police said the suspect told them he “intends to kill Muslims” and that he constituted “a substantial danger to the public if released based on his violent actions … ideologies and pre-planned mass casualty events”. The incident took place inside the Valley Fair Mall in Utah’s West Valley City on Monday. The male victim had “multiple stab wounds all over his body and was bleeding profusely,” police said in an affidavit. Authorities said the suspect was pinned to the ground by bystanders before officers arrived on the scene. The suspect, Peter Michael Larsen, 48, was booked into the Salt Lake County jail for a probe over attempted murder and prohibited dangerous weapon conduct, jail records showed on Tuesday. The victim was a male Muslim kiosk worker. The suspect said “he had targeted the victim with intent to kill him because of h... -
Dawn - 05:53 Jul 15, 2026
Khanzadi Kapri has lived through this three times. In 2011, when the floods came to her village in Mirpurkhas, the schools went underwater. Her education was disrupted, saved only because her father, a teacher, turned their home into a classroom. Her siblings studied at the kitchen table while the rest of the village waited for the water to subside. In 2022, the floods came back. Then again, in 2024. Each time, Kapri watched the same thing happen. Girls would return to school when the waters receded. They would sit in classrooms with no roofs, with broken furniture, with teachers who showed up on some days and not on others. “There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of girls who completed grade five but never enrolled in grade six,” Kapri recounts. “Climate-related disasters do not just interrupt education temporarily. For many girls, they permanently change the course of their lives.” Kapri has witnessed this herself and has been trying to do something about it. She is now the founder of Aurat Sujag, a grassro... -
Dawn - 05:26 Jul 15, 2026
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark index snapped a two-day losing streak on Wednesday, gaining more than 2,500 points during early trade. The KSE-100 index initially rose 3,133 points at 10:06am from the previous close of 173,518.81 points. By 10:14am, it came down a little but was still up 2,664.88 points. Mettis Global, a web-based financial portal, said the KSE-100 index was rebounding from the previous session’s steep losses as investors engaged in value buying after heavy selloffs. Awais Ashraf, director of research at AKD Securities, said that investor sentiment had “turned positive” after United States President Donald Trump replaced the proposed 20 per cent toll on Strait of Hormuz traffic with investment commitments from GCC countries. “Additionally, lower-than-expected US inflation has eased concerns over further Federal Reserve rate hikes, improving the outlook for capital flows into frontier markets while reducing pressure on the Pakistani rupee,” he said. Meanwhile, oil extended its ga... -
Dawn - 03:53 Jul 15, 2026
LAHORE: A resolution has been submitted to the Punjab Assembly, seeking a nationwide ban on social media accounts for children under the age of 16 without parental consent, amid growing concerns over cyberbullying, online sexual abuse and digital addiction among the minors. The resolution, moved by Punjab lawmaker Sarah Ahmad, urges the provincial government to recommend to the federal government to introduce comprehensive legislation to regulate children’s access to social media platforms and strengthen online safety measures. It says the protection of children’s physical, mental, psychological and moral development is both a constitutional and moral responsibility of the state, adding that unrestricted access to social media has exposed minors to cyberbullying, online sexual exploitation, inappropriate content, psychological distress, digital addiction and other serious online threats. The resolution recommends that the federal government enact legislation prohibiting children below the age of 16 from creat... -
Dawn - 03:33 Jul 15, 2026
• Minister Ghani says govt tested 10,500 residents following emergence of HIV cases at health facility in SITE in Oct 2025 • Says 2,000 tested at SESSI-run hospital in Landhi, 10 of whom were found infected with virus • Vows not to suspend screening drive due to fear of more cases emerging • Announces body of leading medical experts for long-term treatment, welfare of 78 infected children KARACHI: Following the HIV outbreak at the Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI)-run Valika Hospital, more than 10,500 people living in the vicinity of the health facility in SITE have been screened since October 2025 and 120 of them tested positive for the contagious disease. Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, Sindh Labour Minister Saeed Ghani said a separate screening drive was conducted at another SESSI-run hospital in Landhi, where 2,000 people were tested and 10 of them found infected with HIV. Accompanied by Indus Hospital Chief Executive Dr Abdul Bari and Aga Khan University Hospital’s Dr Fa... -
Dawn - 03:24 Jul 15, 2026
WHEN Pakistan assumed the chairmanship of the OIC Ministerial Conference on Women this week, it did so while confronting uncomfortable realities of its own. Only recently, the World Economic Forum ranked Pakistan 148th out of 148 countries in its Global Gender Gap Report, underscoring how much work remains to ensure women enjoy equal opportunities in education, employment and public life. That sobering backdrop lent added significance to repeated calls in Islamabad for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to move beyond declarations and deliver tangible progress. Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gilani’s proposal for measurable targets on girls’ education, women’s leadership, workforce participation and protection against gender-based violence was among the conference’s most constructive outcomes. The OIC has, after all, endorsed women’s empowerment on numerous occasions. The challenge has not been a lack of commitments; it has been the failure to translate them into meaningful change. Across parts of the Musli... -
Dawn - 03:14 Jul 15, 2026
FOR a quarter of a century, nearly everything that is supposed to bring women into the workforce has been moving in the right direction in Pakistan. Female university enrolment has grown roughly six-fold since 2000. Fertility has fallen, and families continue to move from villages to cities, where jobs are closer and more varied. In the standard economic playbook, these are the three important engines of women’s employment: education raises the wages a woman can earn, fewer children free her time, and urban labour markets put work within reach. And yet female labour force participation has barely moved. It has sat in the 22-25 per cent range for years, among the lowest in the world, while roughly four out of five working-age men are in the labour force. The engines are running but the vehicle is stationary. This is what makes Pakistan an exception, and a puzzle. In most countries that experienced comparable gains in women’s education and comparable declines in fertility, women’s employment rose. Bangladesh’s ... -
Dawn - 02:57 Jul 15, 2026
THE tentative ceasefire has effectively collapsed even before the US and Iran could begin technical-level talks. Renewed American strikes and Iranian retaliation now threaten the interim deal barely a month after it was signed. The two countries are sliding back towards war: Donald Trump has announced the resumption of the blockade, while Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz. The US president has also notified Congress that the conflict with Iran is on. Trump’s escalatory rhetoric — threatening to seize control of the strategic waterway and charge other countries for guarding it — may be dismissed as one of his usual bombastic flourishes, yet it has added to the tension. America’s escalation, coming a day after the delayed funeral of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war on Feb 28, has stoked public anger in Iran. Many are calling for revenge. Although a return to full-fledged war may not be imminent, the latest developments have made it far harder to reach a n... -
Dawn - 02:56 Jul 15, 2026
ISLAMABAD: Confirming that they are ready to hold talks with the government, an opposition leader claimed on Tuesday the alliance had sought a ‘neutral venue’ for the proposed dialogue. Speaking to DawnNewsTV, Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, chief of the PTI-allied Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM), confirmed that the government had invited opposition leaders for talks at the PM’s Office. However, he maintained that they have sought to hold the meeting in Parliament House. When asked by host Nadir Guramani about recent statements made by ministers — such as Tariq Fazal Chaudhry — about an offer for talks extended to the PTI-led opposition, Abbas said that while they were willing to sit with the prime minister and any other ministers, they did not want to attend any meetings held at the PM’s Office or the National Assembly speaker’s chambers. However, he said, they were ready to sit with the prime minister and any other government representatives in the Constitution Room of Parliament House, adding that they wer... -
Dawn - 02:50 Jul 15, 2026
• Committee asks Privatisation Commission to approach railways to issue NOC to purchaser; officials say matter is ‘subject to litigation’ • Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad airports to be outsourced to improve efficiency, body told • Officials say 33 PIA properties transferred to holding company, 11 to remain with airline ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel on Tuesday expressed serious displeasure that Karachi’s landmark Hyatt Regency Hotel building could not be transferred to the purchaser in more than two decades and ordered settlement of the issue at the earliest. A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Privatisation, presided over by Senator Afnanullah, was reviewing the matter relating to the abandoned building of the hotel. The Privatisation Division officials reported that the property was privatised in 2004 for Rs530 million, while a decision was taken in 2003 to convert the building into a National Commodity Exchange. “The committee was informed that despite full payment by the purchaser, the transfer o... -
Dawn - 02:35 Jul 15, 2026
The government has planned to bring 3.5 million small shopkeepers and traders with annual turnover of Rs200m into tax net during 2026-27.—PPI/file ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has proposed a simplified and voluntary income tax regime for small shopkeepers, offering exemption from routine audit, withholding tax obligations and mandatory digital invoicing in a fresh attempt to broaden the country’s narrow tax base. The draft Special Procedure for Small Shopkeepers, issued on Tuesday, will be finalised within one week after objections and suggestions from the public. Under the proposal, individual retailers with an annual turnover of up to Rs200 million will have the option of paying income tax equal to one per cent of their gross turnover instead of filing returns under the normal taxation regime. However, participating retailers will have to pay a minimum cash tax of Rs25,000 even if taxes already deducted at source exceed their liability. Any excess withholding tax will not be refundable. The... -
Dawn - 02:30 Jul 15, 2026
• Poonch DC says two security personnel martyred in separate incidents • Seven protesters lose their lives • Home secy vows to remove all hurdles to free movement of people, supplies created by JAAC MUZAFFARABAD: As the government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) vowed to clear all obstacles that were preventing the free movement of people and goods in the region, at least two law enforcers were martyred, while seven activists of the proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) lost their lives in separate clashes on Tuesday. The clashes took place in Poonch division, a day before the JAAC’s planned “long march” towards Muzaffarabad. Last week, the outfit had given the government until July 14 to address their demands, failing which, they had announced plans to march on the AJK capital today (Wednesday). The first clash occurred on Tuesday morning when law enforcement personnel raided Mutyalmera, on the outskirts of Rawalakot, following what officials described as intelligence about a large cache of weapons ... -
Dawn - 02:24 Jul 15, 2026
• IT committee notes power outages affecting mobile towers, telecom services • PTA claims 92pc smartphones in Pakistan locally manufactured or assembled • Panel asks IT ministry to encourage Apple, other brands to assemble locally • Electronic Transactions amendment bill deferred ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication on Tuesday expressed serious concern over the unsatisfactory state of internet services in the country, noting that poor connectivity was affecting not only remote areas but also major cities such as Karachi. Committee Chairman Syed Aminul Haque observed that users frequently experienced slow internet speeds and repeated call connection failures despite multiple attempts. PTA Chairman Hafeezur Rehman briefed the committee that the total available spectrum in the country previously stood at 274MHz but had increased to 754MHz after the 5G spectrum auction. He said telecom operators had launched 5G services in 22 cities. However, he said ...
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