Dawn
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Dawn - 09:30 Jul 13, 2026
Law and Human Rights Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar on Monday stressed that the “active engagement” of men was needed to promote equality as he addressed a conference on women’s empowerment in Islamabad. Tarar was speaking on the second and final day of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) 9th Ministerial Conference on Women, which Pakistan is hosting. Delegates from 57 OIC member states gathered on Sunday to hold technical-level meetings. Addressing the moot as the chair on Monday, Tarar affirmed that Pakistan continued to strengthen its legal policy and institutional framework to “advance the rights, opportunities and leadership of women”. “Lasting progress cannot be achieved by women alone; real and sustainable change requires the active engagement of men and boys as partners in promoting equality, respect and shared responsibility,” he said. The minister stressed that building inclusive societies was a “collective endeavour that demands the commitment of every institution and every citizen”. “For P... -
Dawn - 09:20 Jul 13, 2026
LAHORE: A sessions court on Monday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of PML-N MPA Saqib Chadhar and his wife, both of whom have been facing legal proceedings for allegedly harassing television actress Momina Iqbal, till July 28. Chadhar appeared before the court accompanied by his lawyers, while his wife was absent from the proceedings. During the hearing, the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) investigating officer sought more time to complete the investigation. Subsequently, Additional District and Sessions Judge Nusrat Ali Siddiqi extended the couple’s bail until July 28, directing the IO to submit a progress report at the next hearing. The NCCIA had registered the case against Chadhar and his wife early last month on a complaint filed by Iqbal. The case was registered under Sections 3 (unauthorised access to information system or data), 4 (unauthorised copying or transmission of data), 21 (offences against modesty of a natural person and minor) and 24 (cyber stalking) of the Prevention o... -
Dawn - 08:15 Jul 13, 2026
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) began the week in the red, with the benchmark index plummeting 1,600 points during intraday trade on Monday. The KSE-100 index lost 2,215.27 points at 10:19am, to stand at 180,026.5 points from the previous close of 182,241.77 points. However, the index reversed some of its losses around 1pm, down 1,654.19 points from the previous close. Mettis Global, a web-based financial portal, said market sentiment remained under pressure after the US and Iran exchanged fresh strikes in an escalating contest over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices also jumped more than four per cent on Monday due to the renewed fighting. Awais Ashraf, director of research at AKD Securities, said investor sentiment had dampened amid escalating attacks between the US and Iran. Speaking to Dawn, he said the fighting had reduced traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a five-week low and cast doubt on the future of the interim peace agreement signed last month. He said that heavyweight stocks contri... -
Dawn - 07:49 Jul 13, 2026
Barely four weeks after the signing of the US-Iran memorandum of understanding (MoU) that brought an uneasy halt to one of the most dangerous confrontations between the two rivals in decades, missiles are once again crossing the Gulf, commercial shipping is retreating from the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices are again inching upwards. Over the past 24 hours, the confrontation has entered its most dangerous phase since hostilities resumed last week, with both sides sharply intensifying military operations. Overnight, the US carried out a fresh wave of precision strikes against military and petrochemical infrastructure across southern Iran, targeting facilities in the oil-producing Khuzestan province as well as sites around Bandar Abbas, Qeshm Island and Bushehr. It employed aircraft, naval assets and — for the first time in the campaign — sea drones to degrade Iran’s air defence, missile and coastal capabilities. Open-source imagery has corroborated damage to the Omidiyeh airbase and to a building within the B... -
Dawn - 07:17 Jul 13, 2026
India rejected a quick trade agreement with the US in recent talks and is holding out for a better deal as Prime Minister Narendra Modi draws confidence from new trading partners, eased economic risks and political gains at home, officials and analysts said. After months of talks, the two nations failed to finalise an interim trade agreement during US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s visit to New Delhi last month, despite expectations from both sides that a limited deal was within reach. There was no consensus because Washington did not offer assurances on New Delhi’s key demands: a tariff advantage over competitors such as China and no new US levies after the deal, said an Indian government official aware of the talks. “Our position is clear — we don’t intend to rush into a deal that is not on favourable terms or compromise on red lines like ceding ground on agriculture,” the official said. Washington had hoped for quick trade concessions from a strategic partner as US President Donald Trump prepares ne... -
Dawn - 07:02 Jul 13, 2026
Oil prices surged over 4 per cent on Monday as energy shipments via the Strait of Hormuz remained under threat, with the US and Iran announcing renewed military strikes. Brent crude futures climbed $3.10, or 4.08pc, to $79.11 by 0325 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $2.95, or 4.11pc, to $74.36 a barrel. US forces completed another wave of strikes against Iran on Monday, with the Centcom saying it hit dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Monday they attacked US military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz was open to commercial traffic, although Iran declared earlier that it had closed the strait after a vessel had travelled on an unapproved route and was struck. Some 20pc of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas transited the strait before the war began at the end of February. Six vessels transited the strait on Sunday, ship-tracking data from Kpler showed, the lowes... -
Dawn - 06:25 Jul 13, 2026
The United States struck Iran on Monday for a second day running, drawing Tehran’s reprisals against US allies in the Gulf as the foes battle over the status of the strategic Strait of Hormuz. The flare-up is the latest to undermine an interim agreement between Washington and Tehran aimed at ending their war, which has caused global economic shockwaves since it began in late February. The latest salvo by US forces began at 2100 GMT on Sunday, Central Command (Centcom) said on X. The fresh strikes came less than 24 hours after a previous wave in which the US Centcom said 140 Iranian military targets were hit. In a subsequent post, Centcom said it had completed a new wave of “offensive strikes” against Iran, hitting “dozens of targets at multiple locations with precision munitions to degrade Iran’s ability to continue attacking international shipping flowing through the Strait of Hormuz”. “Centcom forces struck Iranian military air-defence systems, coastal radar sites, missile and drone capabilities, and small ... -
Dawn - 05:59 Jul 13, 2026
The Lawyers’ Movement of 2007-2009 is considered one of the most significant episodes of civic mobilisation in the country’s history. What began as a dispute over the suspension of the chief justice of Pakistan evolved into a nationwide campaign to challenge Gen Musharraf’s rule The reinstatement of a handful of deposed judges was symbolic. Its true importance lay in restoring the Constitution, ending a decade of dictatorship, facilitating the return to democratic governance, and reaffirming the principle that political authority must derive from the will of the people, rather than from unelected centres of power. The conventional explanation given for the movement’s success focuses on lawyers, judges, and political parties. All three groups played a role, but this reasoning overlooks a fundamental factor: the movement’s ability to transform a constitutional dispute into a compelling national narrative. Understanding why that happened explains why no comparable lawyers’ movement exists today, despite continui... -
Dawn - 05:54 Jul 13, 2026
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) began the week in the red, with the benchmark index plummeting by 2,000 points during intraday trade on Monday. The KSE-100 index lost 2,215.27 points at 10:19am, to stand at 180,026.5 points from the previous close of 182,241.77 points. Mettis Global, a web-based financial portal, said market sentiment remained under pressure after the US and Iran exchanged fresh strikes in an escalating contest over control of the Strait of Hormuz. Oil prices also jumped more than four per cent on Monday due to the renewed fighting. Awais Ashraf, director of research at AKD Securities, said investor sentiment had dampened amid escalating attacks between the US and Iran. Speaking to Dawn, he said the fighting had reduced traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a five-week low and cast doubt on the future of the interim peace agreement signed last month. He said that heavyweight stocks contributed the most to the early decline at the KSE-100 on Monday, despite falling only in the range of 1–1... -
Dawn - 04:54 Jul 13, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday headed to Qatar on a one-day visit to offer condolences at the passing of former emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. In a post on the social media platform X, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said PML-N President Nawaz Sharif was also accompanying the premier. “The prime minister will meet with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and express condolences at the passing of former emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani,” the PMO said. The PMO said the prime minister’s visit to Qatar reflected the decades-long, enduring fraternal relations between the Qatari royal family, the Qatari people, and the government and people of Pakistan. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar are also accompanying the prime minister. Qatar on Sunday had announced the death of its former emir, who led the country from 1995 to 2013. He was 74, according to an official government statement. She... -
Dawn - 03:41 Jul 13, 2026
LAHORE: Pakistan’s Olympic gold medallist Arshad Nadeem is determined to repeat history at the Commonwealth Games starting later this month. The 29-year-old Arshad, who won the javelin throw gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham with a record throw of 90.18 metres, leaves for Switzerland on Monday to participate in an international contest prior to the July 23-Aug 2 Commonwealth Games being staged in Glasgow. Speaking after his final training session at the Punjab Stadium in Lahore on Sunday, Arshad said that he had prepared well for the Commonwealth Games. “I am going to feature in an event in Switzerland before a major competition like the Commonwealth Games. I participate in an event before any big contest, which gives me an idea about my strength and preparation [for the forthcoming major event],” the Mian Channu-born athlete, whose 92.97-metre throw at Paris 2024 remains an Olympic as well as Asian record, said. Recalling the memories of the 2022 Commonwealth Games, the star athlete sai... -
Dawn - 03:37 Jul 13, 2026
A VIEW of the crumbling roof of one of the rooms at the ART Centre in Larkana, which is in a state of disrepair.—Dawn LARKANA: The Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) Centre at Chandka Medical College (CMC) Children’s Hospital registered 73 new HIV-positive cases among children in June alone, with most patients belonging to different parts of Khairpur district, raising concerns over the growing burden on the facility and the shortage of healthcare staff. Officials at the centre said around 20 follow-up patients visit the facility daily. They pointed out that the centre was functioning without a pharmacist and required additional junior doctors to cope with the increasing caseload. The ART Centre operates under the Directorate of Communicable Disease Control (CDC). During a visit, Dawn observed that a portion of the ceiling plaster had fallen in the area where doctors and support staff perform their duties. Prof Dr Shanti Lal, head of the Department of Paediatrics at CMC Children’s Hospital, said routine HIV scre... -
Dawn - 03:05 Jul 13, 2026
KARACHI: The funeral prayers in absentia for flight engineer Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, one of the five crew members of a cargo plane that crashed in the Arabian Sea on July 7, were offered near his residence in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on Sunday. A K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 cargo aircraft, en route from Sharjah to Karachi, had crashed in the Arabian Sea, about 300 kilometres west of Karachi. Rescuers found the wreckage in a deep-sea search operation. Five crew members, including two pilots, two engineers, and one support staffer, were on board the aircraft, and their bodies have still not been found. On Sunday, a large number of people offered funeral prayers in absentia for Siddiqui, which was led by his son, Abdul Rafay. Moving scenes were witnessed during and after the funeral prayers. People demanded that the government intensify efforts to locate the bodies of the victims. JI leader slams ‘inadequate efforts’ to locate bodies of five K2 Airways crew members City leadership of the Jamaat-i-Islami also attended th... -
Dawn - 03:03 Jul 13, 2026
KHYBER: Around 70 medical students, who had been stranded in Afghanistan since the closure of the Torkham border, returned home late on Saturday evening. Family members of the students said their academic sessions at various medical institutions in Afghanistan had ended a few weeks ago and they were eager to return to their cities. They said the students had reached the Afghan side of the Torkham border a few days earlier but were not allowed to cross into Pakistan due to restrictions on pedestrian movement that have been in place since October last year. According to their relatives, the students contacted several local elders and political leaders to facilitate their return. Sherin Khan Afridi, senior vice president of the Awami National Party (ANP) in Khyber district, played a key role in securing their return. The matter was taken up with government authorities and political leaders in Islamabad by Awami National Party leaders. Following official instructions from Islamabad, the stranded students were al... -
Dawn - 02:53 Jul 13, 2026
• Federal cabinet yet to decide on proposals despite Drap recommending price revisions for 105 hardship-category medicines over two years ago • Prolonged shortages creating opportunities for illegal suppliers to fill the gap, chemists’ body warns KARACHI: The prolonged shortage of more than 100 essential medicines, including life-saving drugs for cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses, has created space for counterfeit and substandard products, as the federal government continues to delay, for more than two years, a decision on revising prices that manufacturers say no longer cover production costs, market sources and officials said on Friday. At the heart of the crisis, they said, was the prolonged delay in deciding the prices of essential medicines. More than two years after the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) recommended price revisions for 105 hardship-category medicines, the federal government has yet to approve the proposals. Drap’s drug pricing committee concluded that the risin... -
Dawn - 02:51 Jul 13, 2026
BARELY had the dust settled on the IMF’s insipid report on governance than the World Bank launched, with much fanfare, its latest prescription — this time on fiscal federalism. The bank’s report presents itself as a fresh diagnosis of Pakistan’s malfunctioning intergovernmental system, when actually there is little that is either new or thought-provoking about it. In fact, the report comes across as an overwhelmingly technocratic exercise. It catalogues institutional weaknesses, distils lessons from selected federations and decentralised systems, and recommends clearer expenditure assignments, stronger provincial revenue mobilisation, NFC Award reforms, more transparent fiscal transfers, effective intergovernmental coordination and empowered local governments (LG). In principle, few would disagree. The problem is that the report treats the recommendations as technical solutions to what are essentially political problems, thus displaying only a superficial appreciation of Pakistan’s political economy, the cons... -
Dawn - 02:49 Jul 13, 2026
GILGIT: PPP candidate Mohammad Naseem and Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) candidate Mohammad Dilpazeer, from the GBA-17 Diamer-III and GBA-15 Diamer-I constituencies, respectively, retained their seats after re-polling was held at nine polling stations on Sunday. According to unofficial results, after re-polling at eight stations in GBA-17 Diamer-III, PPP candidate Mohammad Naseem won the seat by securing 10,714 votes, while his opponent, JUI-F candidate Rehmat Khaliq, bagged 6,990 votes. Meanwhile, after re-polling at one female polling station in GBA-15 Diamer-I, according to the Forms 47 and 48 issued by the Election Commission, IPP candidate Mohammad Dilpazeer secured 6,033 votes, while his opponent, JUI-F candidate Waliur Rehman, received 4,639 votes. Earlier, in the GB Assembly elections held on June 7, PPP’s Mohammad Naseem from GBA-17 Diamer-III was declared the returned candidate, while independent candidate Mohammad Dilpazeer from GBA-15 Diamer-I was also declared successful. Dilpazeer later jo... -
Dawn - 02:46 Jul 13, 2026
ISRAEL’S genocidal war on Gaza has now exceeded a thousand days. It continues despite the ceasefire brokered by the US last October. Death and destruction have been on an epic scale. More than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 21,000 children. Thousands remain missing. Gaza lies in ruins with 80 per cent of it devastated. Over 200 journalists have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli army. Israel has expanded its control of more territory in Gaza, ignoring UN warnings that “this increases deadly risks for Palestinians”. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is still catastrophic. Even as Israeli strikes continue in violation of the ceasefire, the world has moved on — its focus fixed instead on the US-Iran conflict and talks for a negotiated deal. Regional powers too have pulled away. Gaza has been relegated to the sidelines. This has left the peace plan in limbo and disarray. Now Hamas is trying to change that and seize the attention of the international community. Last week, it a... -
Dawn - 02:32 Jul 13, 2026
PRIME Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s latest call to banks to expand lending to SMEs is nothing new. Every government over the last three decades has made a similar appeal. Ambitious targets are announced, committees are formed and banks are urged to finance sectors that generate employment and exports. However, little changes. No doubt, raising SME lending’s share of private sector credit from 7pc to 10pc within two years and increasing the number of SME borrowers from 310,000 to 750,000 under the new Access to Finance Plan initiative are worthwhile aims. But are the banks incentivised enough to make these goals a reality? That question lies at the centre of the chronic financing gap for SMEs. Together, Pakistan’s estimated 5m SMEs contribute nearly 40pc of GDP, a quarter of exports and around 80pc of non-agricultural employment. But barely 300,000 businesses have access to formal bank credit. Banks often explain this failure in terms of risk. Their arguments are not without merit. Most SMEs lack audited financial... -
Dawn - 02:23 Jul 13, 2026
• Workers hailing from Punjab killed after terrorists opened fire on shops in Washuk • PM flays India-backed terror outfits, slams killing as ‘barbaric, cowardly’ act • Seven more terrorists killed in Operation Shaban • CM Bugti reviews operation, visits Hanna Urak • 108 suspects held across Balochistan QUETTA: Five workers hailing from Punjab were gunned down in Mashkel town of Balochistan’s Washuk district on Sunday, drawing condemnation from the Centre and the provincial government, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denouncing the killing as “extremely barbaric”. The incident came as Operation Shaban and other counterterrorism operations are ongoing in the province, where security forces have claimed the elimination of 109 terrorists since July 5. Washuk Deputy Commissioner Abdul Majeed Sarparah told Dawn the incident took place in Mashkel town, close to the Pakistan-Iran border, when armed terrorists on motorcycles opened fire on shops where labourers from Punjab were working. Police said the five men su...
12682 items