Dawn
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Dawn - 14:38 Jul 19, 2026
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday expressed his hope of forming a government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), seeking “better results” from the public in the upcoming elections than in the previous one. He made the remarks while addressing a public rally in AJK’s Kotli ahead of the regional elections set for July 27. The PPP chairperson said that his party had contested the last election in AJK even when the PTI was in power in the Centre. “During the last elections, the PPP had the majority seats and the party had won the elections, but now the conditions are different,” he said. “For the past six months, the PPP has been in government in AJK, and our friend, Shehbaz Sharif, has been in power at the Centre for some years,” he elaborated, referring to the ruling coalition led by PML-N. Contending that there will be “no difficulties like before”, he told the public: “You have to furnish better results in this election than before.” Bilawal also criticised the registration of a murder case against o... -
Dawn - 14:05 Jul 19, 2026
Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand is set to visit Pakistan on Monday, marking the first such visit in 20 years, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) said on Sunday. Confirming the visit, the Foreign Office (FO) said it would be Anand’s first trip to Pakistan since assuming office. The FO said the visiting dignitary and Dar will hold bilateral talks “covering the entire spectrum of Pakistan-Canada relations”. “The discussions will focus on strengthening cooperation in trade and investment, education, and people-to-people exchanges. The two ministers will also exchange views on regional and global developments of mutual interest,” the FO said. It added that Anand will also call on the leadership of Pakistan. According to GAC, Anand is also expected to meet with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. “Canada-Pakistan relations are underpinned by extensive people-to-people ties, with more than 300,000 Canadians of Pakistani origin in Canada and approximately 20,000 Canadians in Pakistan,” GAC noted. Meanwhile, the FO stated t... -
Dawn - 12:50 Jul 19, 2026
Tech firms are racing to roll out advanced smartphones that use artificial intelligence to do everything from ordering food to composing messages upon a simple voice command. Wide adoption of phones running on so-called AI agents would be a revolution, but would also take control away from major apps, which aren’t always happy about it. At least three firms were showcasing so-called agentic phones at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai this weekend — heralding what may be to come. Smartphone maker Nubia unveiled its NaviX Ultra, a phone powered by Doubao, China’s massively popular AI chatbot tool run by TikTok creator ByteDance. “A new era of AI agent smartphones begins,” Nubia said, sharing images of the handsets online. A limited run of a prototype dubbed the “Doubao Phone” sold out fast in December. Initially, the prototype could follow simple voice commands to execute tasks across apps, including ordering food and comparing shopping prices. However, days after it was released, tech gi... -
Dawn - 11:50 Jul 19, 2026
France striker Kylian Mbappe became the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer with 22 goals when he netted twice in Les Bleus’ 6-4 defeat by England in the third-place game on Saturday. The 27-year-old leapfrogged Argentina’s Lionel Messi (21), who is due to play in Sunday’s final against Spain, and although that will almost certainly be his rival’s last World Cup game, Mbappe will probably play in at least one more global tournament. Mbappe finished his third World Cup campaign with 10 goals to lead the Golden Boot standings, two ahead of Messi. France’s Kylian Mbappe celebrates scoring a goal, Miami Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida, US on July 18, 2026. — Reuters The Real Madrid forward managed the feat in 22 appearances, scoring four goals in 2018 and eight in 2022 as France reached both finals, beating Croatia and losing to Argentina four years ago. “Messi is going to score (on Sunday), that’s for sure. I’m just trying to help my team win. When you score a lot of goals at the World Cup, it puts... -
Dawn - 11:20 Jul 19, 2026
The wife of an Indian hunger strike activist taken to hospital against his will accused the government on Sunday of “illegal detention” disguised as medical care. Police cited a court order and “deteriorating health condition” on Saturday when they picked up Sonam Wangchuk, who had refused to eat since June 28 in protest of alleged university exam fraud. The activist, 59, has demanded the education minister’s resignation after the leak of test materials that resulted in over two million students being forced to retake exams. Gitanjali J. Angmo, Wangchuk’s wife, said that she “lost faith” in the government hospital, which she said refused her desire to move her husband to a private facility. “With around 30 police personnel stationed on our floor and well over 100 across the hospital, our movement is severely restricted,” Angmo said. “It is not medical care. It is illegal detention,” she said, adding she asked the high court to allow her to move Wangchuk. The hospital, late on Saturday, said that Wangchuk hadn... -
Dawn - 10:44 Jul 19, 2026
Meta-owned social media platforms Facebook and Instagram briefly experienced outages on Sunday, according to reports from real-time outage monitor Downdetector. According to Downdetector.com, which tracks outages by collating status reports from several sources, Pakistani users began reporting problems with Facebook at around 12:30pm. Outage reports peaked at 196 at 1:40pm and the issue was resolved at around 2:40pm. Instagram, meanwhile, also saw a steep rise in outage reports at around 12:30pm, with reports peaking at 204 at around 1:29pm. There were 4,808 reports filed by Facebook users in the United States as of 12:45pm and another 2,829 reports were filed by Instagram users who faced issues with the app as of 1:18pm. Checks by Reuters also found that access to Facebook and Instagram was intermittent in Singapore. Last month, Meta’s social networks were reported to be down for thousands of users. There were more than 62,000 reports of issues with Facebook and more than 8,000 reports of issues with Instagr... -
Dawn - 10:01 Jul 19, 2026
ISLAMABAD: After criticism on a bill seeking to allow the issuance of blue passports to former parliamentarians’ children, Minister of State for Interior Tallal Chaudhry has assured that measures would be taken to ensure that the travel document is used for “only official duties” abroad and issued for a limited time in most cases. The bill, seeking the issuance of blue passports to dependent children under the age of 28 of ex-members of parliament, was approved by a Senate panel on July 10. If the Members of Parliament Salaries and Allowances (Amendment) Bill, 2026 becomes law, the legislation would place former members of parliament on par with retired Grade-22 government officers, whose dependent children already enjoy the same entitlement. An official press statement released by the Senate Secretariat earlier this month noted that Chaudhry had “also agreed on the passing of the bill”. However, he later claimed he had opposed the bill during the July 10 proceedings of the Senate committee. He said he had in... -
Dawn - 08:43 Jul 19, 2026
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held a phone call with Venezuela’s newly appointed Foreign Minister Felix Plasencia on Sunday, with the two leaders emphasising the “considerable potential” for enhancing economic collaboration between their countries, the Foreign Office (FO) said. The two foreign ministers also exchanged views on the “longstanding friendly relations between Pakistan and Venezuela and reaffirmed their shared commitment to further strengthening bilateral ties”, the FO statement said. It added that they discussed opportunities to expand cooperation across a broad range of sectors, including trade, investment, business, agriculture, IT, and other areas of mutual interest. “Both sides underscored the considerable potential for enhancing economic collaboration and fostering stronger people-to-people contacts for the mutual benefit of the two countries,” the statement read. It said that Dar emphasised the importance of sustained high-level engagement to “reinvigorate bilateral re... -
Dawn - 07:38 Jul 19, 2026
There is a version of this tournament that exists only in press releases: 104 games, three countries, a halftime show with more headline acts than most music festivals manage in a weekend, a Peace Prize nobody quite understands, hydration breaks timed to the minute. FIFA built something enormous this summer, then spent five weeks discovering that a football tournament, however large you make it, still insists on being decided by 22 people and a ball. Tonight, at the MetLife Stadium, Madonna, Shakira and BTS will perform to a crowd that mostly just wants them to hurry up so Argentina and Spain can get on with it. That, in miniature, has been the story of the last month: spectacle straining against substance and mostly, gloriously, losing. Noise before a ball was kicked Start with the noise, because there was so much of it before a ball was even kicked. The draw itself happened under a cloud, staged at a Kennedy Centre now reshaped in Donald Trump’s image, with enough absent artists to make the guest list feel ... -
Dawn - 06:34 Jul 19, 2026
KARACHI: Highlighting critical clinical factors, the Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) in a letter has urged the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) to grant an exemption or targeted exclusion for 10cc conventional syringes to safeguard neonatal and paediatric operations. Following surge of HIV cases associated with unsafe medical practices particularly the alleged reuse of contaminated syringes, Drap has imposed a complete ban on conventional 1cc (non-insulin) disposable syringes with effect from Dec 31, 2026. It also imposed a ban on retail/ market sale of conventional 10cc disposal syringes from Jan 1, 2027. In the letter, PPA’s Dr Muhammad Khalid Shafi asked Drap’s chief executive officer that the healthcare system “confronts an unprecedented and alarming surge in paediatric HIV cases across Pakistan, it is paramount that all public health regulatory measures prioritise this crisis as a top-tier national emergency. However, to effectively curb transmission without compromising patient outcom... -
Dawn - 06:23 Jul 19, 2026
The 21st century’s cultural terrain has fostered an unusual sociological phenomenon: the over-analysis of an entire demographic. Whereas researchers have studied youth cohorts since the 1960s, none have faced quite as intense a spotlight as Generation Z (henceforth Gen-Z). Born between 1997 and 2012, this group is the first to be fed constant digital data portraits of their own behaviour. Cultural commentators repeatedly insist that Gen-Z do not strive for traditional academic or career goals and are rebuffing them. Yet, in a case of what is referred to as a meta-paradox, Gen-Z are feeling the pressure to perform the very definitions assigned to them by market analysts and some sociologists. When corporate-backed surveys repeatedly declare that Gen-Z is anxious, boundary-setting and radical, the generation feels compelled to stage their lives to match these expectations, simply to feel visible. This performative trap exists in the various spaces that this generation largely operates in. Data portraits from fi... -
Dawn - 06:22 Jul 19, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) has summoned Noreen Niazi, sister of former incarcerated prime minister Imran Khan, to appear before it on Monday, July 20, over allegations of disseminating “false, offensive and inflammatory” content against state institutions. “You have been found to have disseminated false, offensive and inflammatory social media content to defame state institutions and spread fake narratives,” stated the NCCIA notice dated July 18 said. The agency directed her to appear at its G-13/3 office in Islamabad in connection with an inquiry. “In case of non-compliance, it will be assumed that you have nothing to present or state in your defence,” the notice further stated, adding that non-compliance was punishable under Section 174 of the Pakistan Penal Code. While the notice did not specify the content in relation to which Niazi has been summoned, it was issued after a clip of her making claims in relation to last year’s brief military conflict between Pakistan an... -
Dawn - 05:58 Jul 19, 2026
• Only 370 of 783 commercial and residential projects found in compliance with fire safety rules • 416 buildings do not have emergency exits • Survey raises concerns over emergency preparedness in commercial and residential buildings KARACHI: A comprehensive fire safety audit of buildings across the city has revealed widespread non-compliance with basic safety standards, raising concerns over emergency preparedness in the city’s commercial and residential structures. The audit, conducted across seven districts, assessed 783 buildings on four key parameters — adherence to approved layout, availability of emergency exits, presence of portable fire extinguishers, and overall risk categorisation. The exercise was ordered by the provincial government following the devastating fire at Gul Plaza on M.A. Jinnah Road that had killed scores of people in January. The chief secretary had constituted sub-divisional fire safety audit committees headed by assistant commissioners to conduct the survey. According to the conso... -
Dawn - 05:50 Jul 19, 2026
LAHORE: A sessions court on Saturday granted interim pre-arrest bail to Sohail Lashari, the CEO of Sozo Water Park, till Aug 1 in a case related to the death of a minor girl in a swimming pool at the recreational facility. Additional District & Sessions Judge Nasir Mahmood Sial heard Lashari’s bail petition. The judge directed the suspect to join the investigation and summoned the case record from the police at the next hearing. The judge also restrained the police from arresting him till the next hearing. The Batapur Police had registered the case following the death of the girl, 9, who became trapped in a drainage pipe of a swimming pool at the park due to the alleged negligence of its staff. The district administration had also sealed the park and the police arrested three officials of the facility. Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2026 -
Dawn - 05:47 Jul 19, 2026
LAHORE: Police are still awaiting forensic and post-mortem reports to determine the cause of mysterious deaths of four members of a US-based family, including a woman and her three children, who were found dead in a rented house in Valencia Town two days ago. The deceased were identified as Aleena and her children Rehan (16), Aresha (11) and Arsal (6). According to investigators, the family had recently returned to Pakistan from the United States and had been living in a rented house. Police had taken Aleena’s husband Nasir Dogar into custody for questioning before releasing him after recording his statement on Saturday. Police quoted Dogar as saying that he had gone to the market and found his wife and children lying unconscious when he returned home. They were later pronounced dead. He told the investigators that his wife had been suffering from mental health issues for the past three to four years and she was receiving treatment for the last six months. He claimed that his wife was still conscious when he ... -
Dawn - 05:44 Jul 19, 2026
The United States launched new strikes on Iran early on Sunday after the US military earlier announced that two US military personnel were killed in Jordan and another was missing following an Iranian attack. Later, Iran’s army said it had targeted two US bases in Kuwait with drones in response to American attacks on Iranian territory. The Islamic republic’s army said it carried out “large-scale attacks with kamikaze drones against the US military’s ammunition depot at Camp Udairi and the Patriot radar system and air surveillance radar at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait”, according to a statement carried by the state broadcaster. Before the US strikes, Iran’s supreme leader said Washington would pay for “seeking to escalate the conflict”. US Central Command said in a statement that the airstrikes began at 6pm ET (2200 GMT), at President Donald Trump’s direction. “The strikes are designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and swiftly punish Islamic Revolu... -
Dawn - 05:12 Jul 19, 2026
Abdul Rauf, a 52-year-old daily wager, clutches a crumpled prescription in his hand at a pharmacy. His doctor has prescribed him medicine for his back pain and high blood pressure. But the total cost is almost double what he paid last year. With a sigh, he picks only two of the four prescribed items. “What is the point of medicines being available if I cannot afford them?” he mutters. They say the shortage is over, but for people like him, the suffering continues. He’s among many others who are forced to compromise their health due to financial constraints. In Rawalpindi’s busy markets, pharmacy shelves that once stood bare now brim with medicines. From insulin to psychiatric drugs and even cancer treatments, supplies are no longer scarce, thanks to the government that deregulated prices of non-essential medicines. But for patients, availability means little when the price tags remain out of reach. This paradox stems from a major policy decision taken in February 2024, when the government deregulated prices o... -
Dawn - 05:03 Jul 19, 2026
WASHINGTON: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb arrived in Washington on Saturday evening for a three-day visit during which he is expected to hold talks with US officials on trade, finance and investment. Pakistan and the United States will resume negotiations on Monday on a broader bilateral economic partnership, diplomatic sources told Dawn. During his visit, Aurangzeb is scheduled to meet officials from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), the US Export-Import Bank, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), sources said. A key focus of the visit will be discussions on the framework for a potential bilateral trade agreement aimed at expanding trade and investment between the two countries. The talks are expected to cover tariffs, market access, investment opportunities and broader economic cooperation. Meetings with the Exim Bank and the DFC are also expected to explore avenues for financing infrastructure, energy and priv... -
Dawn - 04:36 Jul 19, 2026
IN a Los Angeles courtroom, Kaley G.M., 20, described a childhood consumed by social media. She began using YouTube at six and Instagram at nine. On one occasion, she said, she spent 16 hours on Instagram. By 10, she had uploaded 240 videos and created nine other accounts to like and comment on. She told jurors that the platforms disrupted her sleep, education and friendships, and worsened anxiety, depression and body-image problems. Meta and Google argued that her difficulties had other causes, including bullying and a troubled home life. Her lawyers instead focused on platform design: autoplay, infinite feeds and notifications intended to keep users engaged. After more than 40 hours of deliberations, the jury found both companies negligent. What made the verdict historic was that it emerged from the first US jury trial of its kind, holding the companies responsible not for material posted by users, but for the design and operation of the platforms themselves. Kaley’s case was not an isolated tragedy. In 202... -
Dawn - 04:24 Jul 19, 2026
PAKISTAN’S power elite, particularly those within the security structures, has rarely lacked confidence, maintaining an optimism that ground realities seldom justify. Over the decades, the sources of this self-assurance have shifted, from military might to the country’s critical geopolitical location, and now to physical resources, chief among them the critical minerals concentrated in the turbulent province of Balochistan. What remains constant is not the source of hope, but the elite’s persistent unwillingness to reconcile it with Pakistan’s actual sociological, political and economic indicators, which tell a far less reassuring story. The power elite might not have been surprised by the European Commission’s latest report on the implementation of the GSP-Plus, which flagged certain compliance issues. This latest assessment comes at a time when Pakistani exporters enjoy preferential access to the European market in return for implementing 27 international conventions covering human rights, labour rights, en...
12682 items