Dawn
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Dawn - 12:26 Jan 01, 2026
Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said on Thursday that Islamabad and New Delhi exchanged the lists of their respective nuclear installations, continuing the annual practice under an agreement signed between the two nations in 1988. Under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities, signed on December 31, 1988, both countries committed to annually share information about their nuclear installations and facilities. The agreement took effect from Jan 27, 1991, and the annual exchange has been taking place on the first day of every year since 1992. In continuation of the practice, the exchange took place today as well, Andrabi said during the FO’s weekly briefing. “A list of nuclear installations and facilities in Pakistan was officially handed over to the representative of the Indian High Commission in the Foreign Office today. “I understand that the Indian government is also sharing the list of Indian nuclear installations with our High Commis... -
Dawn - 12:04 Jan 01, 2026
A total of 128 journalists were killed around the world in 2025, more than half of them in the Middle East, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said on Thursday. The grim toll, up from 2024, “is not just a statistic, it’s a global red alert for our colleagues,” IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger told AFP. The press group voiced particular alarm over the situation in the Palestinian territories, where it recorded 56 media professionals killed in 2025 as Israel’s war with Hamas ground on in Gaza. “We’ve never seen anything like this: so many deaths in such a short time, in such a small area,” Bellanger said. Journalists were also killed in Yemen, Ukraine, Sudan, Peru, India and elsewhere. Bellanger condemned what he called “impunity” for those behind the attacks. “Without justice, it allows the killers of journalists to thrive,” he warned. Meanwhile, the IFJ said that across the globe, 533 journalists were currently in prison – a figure that has more than doubled over the past half-decade. Ch... -
Dawn - 11:55 Jan 01, 2026
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday said 446 lawmakers — including 125 members of the National Assembly — failed to submit their statements of assets and liabilities with the ECP by the due date — set at December 31. In a press release issued today, ECP notified the lawmakers who had missed the earlier deadline to submit their statements by January 15, and said that “as many as 446 lawmakers failed to submit their statements of assets and liabilities” with the ECP by the due date. Out of these, 125 lawmakers are members of the National Assembly, 26 Senators, 159 members of the Punjab Assembly, 62 members of the Sindh Assembly, 48 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly and 26 members of the Balochistan Assembly. The commission said that members of the parliament and provincial assemblies were required to submit a copy of a statement of assets and liabilities by Dec 31, including assets and liabilities of their dependents. It stated that the submission was a mandatory requirement unde... -
Dawn - 11:47 Jan 01, 2026
Pakistan’s consumer price inflation slowed to 5.6 per cent year-on-year in December, while prices fell every month, official data showed on Thursday. The data comes after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) cut its key policy rate by 50 basis points to 10.5pc last month, breaking a four-meeting hold, in a move that surprised markets. All analysts polled by Reuters had expected rates to remain unchanged at the December meeting. Inflation eased from 6.1pc in November and marked a sharp slowdown from levels that peaked above 30pc in 2023, according to official data. Lower prices of perishable food items helped drive the monthly decline, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said, with food prices falling 1.7pc month-on-month in December, led by declines in both urban and rural areas. The finance ministry had said on Wednesday that inflation was expected to remain moderate at 5.5-6.5pc in December. The SBP has said that inflation stayed within its 5-7pc target range during the July-November period, but warned that... -
Dawn - 11:27 Jan 01, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The PTI submitted a reference to the Senate chairperson on Thursday, seeking the disqualification of Senator Saifullah Abro for defecting from party line and voting in favour of the 27th Constitutional Amendment. PTI Senator Ali Zafar posted about the development on his X account, saying: “Saifullah Abro went against party line by voting in favour of the 27th Constitutional Amendment, for which a reference for his disqualification has been filed.” The reference, moved by Zafar, invoked Article 63-A of the Constitution, which deals with disqualification on grounds of defection. “The declaration is being submitted for onward reference to the chief election commissioner for laying the same before the election commission in accordance with the said Article 63-A,” the reference, dated January 1 and seen by Dawn, said. It added that a meeting of the PTI was convened before voting on the 27th Amendment, in which it was “explicitly decided and communicated to all PTI senators in writing” that they were to ... -
Dawn - 10:52 Jan 01, 2026
Every time I open my “For You” feed on Instagram, I’m ushered into a parallel classroom: informal, intimate, and oddly generous. Young girls and boys who look my age and live inside the same algorithmic present lean into their cameras, handing me bite-sized context to systemic injustices, climate disasters, and political upheavals. One tells me why women stay in abusive relationships long after the myth of “choice” collapses, unpacking trauma bonds and survival instincts with the precision of a psychology lecture delivered from a bedroom floor. Another explains the systematic oppression of women in Afghanistan and how bans on their work, movement, and education have collapsed into sanctioned violence, compressing years of repression into three lucid minutes of a GRWM (get ready with me) reel. I first learned the language of geopolitics and settler colonialism here as a lived, continuous process instead of an abstract academic concept. Someone casually recommended ‘Decolonisation is not a metaphor’ by Eve Tuck... -
Dawn - 08:14 Jan 01, 2026
KARACHI: At least 28 people were injured in celebratory aerial fire during New Year celebrations in the metropolis, Edhi said on Thursday. Incidents of aerial firing are a routine occurrence on occasions such as Independence Day and New Year’s Eve. Last year, over two dozen citizens were wounded in celebratory aerial firing According to the information given by Edhi, a total of 28 people were brought to hospitals across the city after suffering injuries from stray bullets, with the youngest victim being 11-years-old. Sixteen people were brought to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), including a 32-year-old man from North Nazimabad, a 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man from Mehmoodabad, a 24-year-old woman from Qayyumabad, and a 71-year-old man from Manzoor Colony. An 18-year-old man from Korangi, a 24-year-old man from Azam Town, a 55-year-old man and an 18-year-old man from Saddar were also brought to the hospital. A 33-year-old woman from Gulistan-i-Johar Block 2, a 43-year-old woman from Scheme ... -
Dawn - 07:51 Jan 01, 2026
Zohran Mamdani, the young upstart of the US left, was sworn in early on Thursday to take over as New York mayor for a four-year term sure to see him cross swords with US President Donald Trump. The 34-year-old Democrat took his oath of office at an abandoned subway stop under City Hall just after midnight to take the helm of the United States’ largest city. He will be New York’s first Muslim mayor. His office said the understated venue beneath City Hall reflected his commitment to working people, after the 34-year-old Democrat campaigned on promises to address the soaring cost of living. NBC News reported that Mamdani took the oath with his hands on two copies of the Holy Quran — one belonging to his grandfather and the other from the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture. View this post on Instagram “Happy New Year to New Yorkers, both inside this tunnel and above,” said Mamdani, standing beneath a vaulted ceiling with the words City Hall over his head. “This is truly an ho... -
Dawn - 07:45 Jan 01, 2026
In his New Year’s message, Supreme Court Chief Justice Yahya Afridi has said that the judiciary will “pursue meaningful reforms” in 2026 in a bid to improve accessibility, reduce delay and strengthen transparency in the justice system. In a message posted on the Supreme Court’s website, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Afridi conveyed his greetings to the people, members of the judiciary and the legal fraternity on the new year. “In the coming year, the judiciary will pursue meaningful reforms aimed at improving accessibility, reducing delay, strengthening transparency, and responsibly leveraging technology in the service of justice,” he said. He said that the efforts would be guided by “a clear focus on outcomes that matter most to the public — timely decisions, understandable processes, and courts that are approachable and humane”. CJP Afridi maintained that it was the judiciary’s responsibility to “ensure that justice is not only done, but is seen to be done — fairly, impartially, and without delay“. “This ... -
Dawn - 06:21 Jan 01, 2026
After a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that the two leaders envisioned an “exciting and promising future” for both countries. In a post on the social media platform X on Thursday morning, the premier echoed the statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) a day earlier. Calling it a “warm and most cordial telephone conversation”, PM Shehbaz said the two “reaffirmed our shared commitment to further strengthening the long-standing fraternal bonds between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which have attained new heights in recent months”. “While expressing Pakistan’s complete solidarity with the kingdom, we also exchanged views on the regional situation, emphasising the need for unity within the Ummah and maintaining regional peace and stability through dialogue and diplomacy,” he said. PM Shehbaz said he was “grateful” to the Saudi crown prince, who reaffirmed the kingdom’s desire to expand cooperation with Pakistan in all areas of mut... -
Dawn - 06:16 Jan 01, 2026
The US military said Wednesday that eight people were killed in multiple new strikes on alleged drug boats, bringing the death toll in Washington’s campaign against what it says are narcotics traffickers to at least 115. US Southern Command, which is responsible for American forces operating in Central and South America, announced two sets of strikes, which were carried out on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, “three narco-trafficking vessels traveling as a convoy” were targeted in “international waters,” it said in a statement on X. “Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” it said. Accompanying the statement, posted on X, was a video showing the vessels traveling together at sea and then hit by a series of explosions. The exact location of the strikes was not immediately made clear. Previous strike... -
Dawn - 04:34 Jan 01, 2026
NEW DELHI: India’s opposition Congress party said on Wednesday it was concerned by Beijing’s claims on helping broker the India-Pakistan truce after the military flare-up in May and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify the issue. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Tuesday that the conflict between India and Pakistan in May was among the contentious matters mediated by Beijing in 2025. India has repeatedly rejected claims made by US President Donald Trump that Washington had mediated the ceasefire. India’s Ministry of External Affairs has not reacted to the claim made by Mr Wang. But it has maintained that the ceasefire with Islamabad was not the result of mediation. The decision to stop the firing was taken after the Pakistani director general of military operations had called his Indian counterpart, New Delhi has said. “China’s claims of mediating between India and Pakistan are concerning — not just because they contradict what has been told to the country’s people so far, but also because ... -
Dawn - 03:17 Jan 01, 2026
ISLAMABAD: After the Punjab police dispersed protesters outside the Adiala jail in the small hours of Wednesday, the opposition alliance, led by the PTI, denounced the use of water cannons against the family members of ex-prime minister Imran Khan and other party supporters. This is the third time the police have used force to break up the sit-in outside the prison. Imran’s sisters Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan, and Noreen Niazi, besides scores of supporters, have been staging weekly protests outside the jail to demand a meeting with Mr Khan. TTAP says struggle to continue despite govt ‘heavy-handedness’ Videos shared by the PTI Punjab account on the social media platform X after 1am showed water cannons targeting protesters. “In the severe cold, an attack with water cannons was carried out on unarmed, peaceful children, women, and citizens,” the X post said. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan condemned the use of water cannons and the arrest of Imran’s sisters and other PTI wor... -
Dawn - 03:14 Jan 01, 2026
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has recorded a significant drop in cross-border terrorist attacks and violence-linked fatalities after it closed down the border to Afghanistan on October 11. Terrorist attacks went down by almost 17 per cent in December, preceded by 9pc decline in November. Terrorist violence-linked fatalities among civilians and security officials also fell in the last quarter of 2025, by nearly 4pc and 19pc each in November and December, shows data collected by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) as part of its annual security report 2025. With an almost 34pc surge in overall violence, the year 2025 went by as the most violent year for Pakistan in a decade, says the report. The country has suffered a sustained escalation in violence for five consecutive years since 2021, coinciding with the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan; with almost 38pc in 2021, over 15pc in 2022, 56pc in 2023, nearly 67pc in 2024, and 34pc in 2025. The comparative data for 2024 and 2025 reveals a sharp escal... -
Dawn - 00:04 Jan 01, 2026
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday called upon the people and political forces to recommit themselves to safeguarding the country amid global, domestic challenges and hailed the nation’s resilience and paid tribute to the country’s martyrs. In their separate New Year messages, they praised the nation’s resilience in the face of economic and security challenges. In his message, President Zardari urged the people and political forces to recommit themselves to safeguard the country’s shared future amid mounting global and domestic challenges. In his New Year message, PM Shehbaz hailed the nation’s resilience and paid tribute to its martyrs while pledging to accelerate economic reforms and uphold Pakistan’s role for global peace. Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2026 -
Dawn - 18:48 Dec 31, 2025
LAHORE: In a major policy shift, the Punjab government on Wednesday announced that it has no plans to celebrate the Basant festival across the province and that it will instead be celebrated only in Lahore. Basant is returning to Lahore after 18 years, following the passage of the Punjab Regulation of Kite Flying Bill, 2025 by the provincial assembly on December 24. So far, only the Lahore deputy commissioner has notified the three-day festival starting on February 6, 2026, while deputy commissioners in other districts were expected to follow suit. However, the 46th Cabinet Committee on Law and Order — chaired by Khawaja Salman Rafique — met at the Punjab Home Department today and noted that Basant would be celebrated only in Lahore and on a limited scale. Though there was no need for all divisional commissioners and deputy commissioners to be present at the meeting, sources in the Home Department told Dawn that they were specially invited to attend via video link, particularly for the “Basant agenda”. Punjab... -
Dawn - 18:36 Dec 31, 2025
The government on Wednesday slashed the rates for petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs10.28 and Rs8.57, respectively, for the coming fortnight. In a late-night announcement, the Petroleum Division said the revision followed movements in international markets and recommendations from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra). According to the announcement, the ex-depot petrol price was reduced to Rs253.17 per litre from its previous price of Rs263.45. Petrol is primarily used in private transport, small vehicles, rickshaws, and two-wheelers, and directly impacts the budgets of the middle and lower-middle classes. Meanwhile, the ex-depot price of HSD was decreased to Rs257.08 per litre for the current fortnight from Rs265.65 per litre. Most of the transport sector runs on HSD. Its price is considered inflationary as it is mostly used in heavy transport vehicles, trains and agricultural engines like trucks, buses, tractors, tube-wells, threshers, and particularly adds to the prices of vegetables and other ... -
Dawn - 17:52 Dec 31, 2025
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) on Wednesday completed the acquisition of 100 percent of the issued share capital of Telenor Pakistan and Orion Towers, said a press release. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) approved the merger of Telenor Pakistan with PTCL earlier in December. The regulator, however, imposed strict conditions to prevent abuse of market power and to bind the new entity to invest in upcoming spectrum auctions. “Telenor Pakistan and Orion Towers will operate as 100% owned subsidiaries of PTCL, alongside Pak Telecom Mobile Limited (PTML) commonly known as Ufone 4G, and U Microfinance Bank.” However, Telenor Pakistan will continue to operate as a separate entity during the transition period, said the statement, adding that PTML and Telenor will then be merged as a single entity in “due course of time”, subject to regulatory approvals. Acknowledging the contribution of Telenor to Pakistan’s telecom landscape, PTCL said the telco “played a defining role in elevatin... -
Dawn - 16:22 Dec 31, 2025
Fireworks lit up the midnight sky over Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, and the Juyongguan Great Wall in Beijing, China, as different cities of the world started ringing in the New Year, marking the start of 2026 with a spectacular display watched by thousands on site and millions around the world. Here are a few glimpses of the fireworks shows. Fireworks light up the midnight sky over Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House during New Year’s Day celebrations in Sydney on January 1, 2026. — Saeed Khan / AFP A message reading “Peace, Unity” is displayed on the pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge to reflect on the tragic Bondi Beach shooting attack before New Year’s Eve midnight fireworks display in Sydney on December 31, 2025. . — Saeed Khan / AFP Fireworks light up the midnight sky over Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera House during New Year’s Day celebrations in Sydney on January 1, 2026. — Saeed Khan / AFP People turn on their mobile phones’ flashlights as they observe a minute’s sile... -
Dawn - 16:20 Dec 31, 2025
As Wednesday turned to Thursday, people around the world said goodbye to a sometimes challenging 2025 and expressed hopes for the new year to come. Midnight arrived first on the islands closest to the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, including Kiritimati (Christmas Island), Tonga and New Zealand. In Australia, Sydney began 2026 with a spectacular fireworks display, as per tradition. Some 40,000 pyrotechnic effects stretched 7 kilometres across buildings and barges along its harbour and featured a waterfall effect from the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This year, it was held under an enhanced police presence, weeks after gunmen killed 15 people at a Jewish event in the city. Fireworks explode over Sydney Harbour Bridge to mark the New Year in Sydney, Australia on January 1, 2026. — Reuters Organisers held a minute’s silence for the victims of the attack at 11pm local time (5pm PKT), with the Harbour Bridge lit up in white and a menorah — a symbol of Judaism — projected onto its pylons. “After a tragic en...
7393 items