Dawn
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Dawn - 18:38 Jun 29, 2026
The death toll from the devastating earthquakes that struck Venezuela five days ago has risen to at least 1,719, National Assembly president Jorge Rodriguez said on Monday. Rodriguez added that 5,034 people were injured in the quakes, which left tens of thousands of people missing. Hopes of finding survivors more than four days after the powerful twin earthquakes were fading, as residents grew increasingly frustrated with the government’s response to the disaster. French and American rescue teams found a man and his teen son alive under the rubble on Sunday in Caraballeda, a town about 40 kilometres north of Caracas, AFP journalists saw. The rescue offered a glimmer of hope in an ongoing tragedy that has shaken a country already mired in an economic crisis, but tens of thousands of people were still unaccounted for as the critical 72-hour window for rescuing trapped victims passed. Millions more people were feared to lack sanitation and other basic needs after one of Latin America’s most devastating earthquak... -
Dawn - 18:24 Jun 29, 2026
ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Monday said that meaningful negotiations were the only solution to the ongoing situation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), urging the government to avoid the use of force and immediately engage with the proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC). On June 5, the JAAC was declared a proscribed organisation by the regional government and placed under the First Schedule of the region’s anti-terrorism act (ATA). Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Rehman said JI had accepted the responsibility of mediation and was playing its role in restoring trust between the government and the committee to prevent “bloodshed and unrest”. JI AJK Emir Dr Mushtaq Khan, former AJK emir Dr Khalid Mahmood, JI Deputy Secretary General Syed Farasat Shah and Islamabad Emir Nasrullah Randhawa were also present on the occasion. “JAAC has expressed complete confidence in Jamaat-i-Islami and postponed its long march, sending a positive message,” he said. He urg... -
Dawn - 17:54 Jun 29, 2026
ISLAMABAD: As part of Pakistan’s efforts to help broker an end to the war in the Middle East, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will pay official visits to Iran and Turkiye from July 3 to 6, sources in the PM Office told Dawn on Monday. The US military said it carried out new strikes on early Sunday on multiple targets in Iran, in response to a fresh Iranian attack on a ship transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran responded by launching strikes against US bases in Bahrain and Kuwait before both sides agreed to halt attacks. Sources said that during his visit, the prime minister will meet the leadership of both Iran and Turkiye and call on Tehran and Washington to exercise restraint, particularly following the signing of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as part of the peace process. The strikes underscored the fragility of the Pakistan-brokered interim peace deal aimed at ending a war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, which disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and r... -
Dawn - 17:11 Jun 29, 2026
A gunman killed six people Monday in a German youth welfare centre for mothers and their children in what police said was a likely “family tragedy”, before the male suspect and a female companion were arrested. The deadly shooting spree sparked a major police operation in the northern city of Stade, about 50 kilometres from Hamburg. The six people killed were all adults, among them one who succumbed to their injuries in hospital, while another person was wounded and in stable condition, a police spokesman told AFP. “A male principal offender and a female companion” were arrested, he said, while a separate police statement mentioned a third suspect being held. The police spokesman told AFP that investigators believed “it is not a case of femicide, nor does it involve a political background or anything of that nature. Rather it is an extended family tragedy.” N24 television cited witnesses as saying that police deployed to the building after an emergency call and spotted two suspects who attempting to flee in a... -
Dawn - 17:01 Jun 29, 2026
The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said on Monday that a fresh monsoon spell was set to begin in the country from the first week of July. Monsoon rains fall across the region from June to September, offering respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies. However, heavy downpours also trigger deadly floods, landslides and displacement, particularly in vulnerable, poorly drained, or densely populated areas. In an advisory, the department said that a westerly wave was likely to enter the upper parts of the country from June 30. At the same time, “moist currents from the Arabian Sea are continuously penetrating the eastern and central parts of the country”. It added that moist currents from the Bay of Bengal were expected to reach the upper parts from July 2. Under the influence of this system, the PMD predicted that scattered rain, windstorm/thundershower, accompanied by isolated heavy falls, were expected in Neelum valley, Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, Poonch, Hattian, Bagh, H... -
Dawn - 16:45 Jun 29, 2026
Pakistani professional gamer Arslan ‘Ash’ Siddique on Monday bagged his eighth Evolution Championship Series (Evo) title after winning the Tekken tournament in Las Vegas against South Korean player Rangchu. In a post on X, the tournament announced that the Tekken champion had won the Tekken 8 tournament at Evo 2026 for the fourth year in a row. In August 2022, Arslan finished third in the Evo 2022 Tekken 7 tournament. He won the Tekken 7 title at EVO Japan in April 2023 and claimed his fifth EVO title in July 2024. In August 2025, he won his sixth Evo title at Evo 2025. Two months later, in October 2025, he claimed his seventh EVO title at EVO France. The professional gamer had also won the Tekken 7 tournament in Japan in 2019 as well as the Evo tournament in the US. This year’s tournament ran from June 26-28 and was held at the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Centre. Arslan also announced the win in a post on X. “8x EVO champion. Alhamdulillah,” he wrote. According to the tournament’s website, Evo is t... -
Dawn - 16:33 Jun 29, 2026
RAWALPINDI: As many as 14 under-trial prisoners escaped from a prisoner van on Monday while being transported from Kahuta to Adiala jail after overpowering security guards, prompting police to launch a search operation, a statement said. “Following reports of prisoners escaping from a prison van in the Sihala area of Rawalpindi, CPO Hamdani took notice of the incident and directed senior officers to immediately reach the scene, submit a report, and launch an operation,” said a statement by a Rawalpindi Police spokesperson. However, the police spokesperson added that four of the escaped prisoners had been re-arrested during an operation, while police teams were continuing search operations to apprehend the remaining escapees. “The escaped individuals are accused in cases currently under trial,” the spokesperson said. The statement added that the incident occurred within the jurisdiction of Sihala police station in Islamabad district, and coordination with the relevant police authorities was ongoing. According ... -
Dawn - 16:14 Jun 29, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) failed to provide the required data to a Senate sub-committee on Monday, prompting the panel to seek a comprehensive 20-year record of tobacco tax collection, factories and pending dues worth billions of rupees. The meeting of the Sub-Committee of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics was held with Senator Saifullah Abro in the chair. Senators Mohammad Talha Mahmood, Dilawar Khan and Hidayat Ullah Khan also attended the meeting. Chief of Sales Tax at the FBR Javed Iqbal Tarar was asked to leave the meeting after he failed to submit data earlier sought by the committee, hampering the proceedings. The panel expressed concern over the lack of information on tax collection from tobacco manufacturers. It noted that while customs had earlier reported tobacco-related taxes of Rs75 billion, subsequent deliberations suggested about Rs40 billion remained outstanding. The committee directed the FBR to submit documentary evidence of pending taxes, a complete... -
Dawn - 15:38 Jun 29, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The Privatisation Commission on Monday announced the formal transfer of management control of Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited (PIACL) to the Arif Habib Corporation-led consortium, culminating the privatisation process that began last year. “The government achieves first financial closing of PIACL privatisation transaction with management control transferred to the investor consortium following satisfaction of all conditions precedent under the Share Purchase and Subscription Agreement (SPSA),” said the Privatisation Commission after a meeting of the restructured PIACL board. The new board appointed Lt Gen (retd) Anwar Ali Haider, managing director of Fauji Foundation, as the first chairman of the privatised entity. In its press release, the commission commended the “support and guidance” of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, and other relevant cabinet committees and officials. “Since execution... -
Dawn - 15:34 Jun 29, 2026
A security deal between Israel and Lebanon risks entrenching a stalemate rather than resolving Tel Aviv’s underlying conflict with Hezbollah by tying its pullout from southern Lebanon to the group’s disarmament, a condition regional analysts and politicians say is unattainable. At its core is a bargain few see as workable: Hezbollah has flatly rejected disarmament, and no Lebanese government has the power to enforce it. With Hezbollah unlikely to disarm, analysts say Israel has political cover to keep an open-ended military presence in southern Lebanon, which it invaded after Hezbollah fired at Israel on March 2 in solidarity with Tehran over the war in Iran. The deal leaves the Lebanese state trapped between obligations it cannot meet and sovereignty it cannot fully reclaim, the analysts say. An Israeli soldier works on a tank on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border, after Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement following US-mediated talks, in northern Israel on June 28, 2026. — Reuters The ... -
Dawn - 15:22 Jun 29, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan’s leading exploration and production company, said on Monday that it had successfully commenced oil production from its Bobi Deep-1 well in the Bobi and Dhamraki mining lease area in Sindh’s Sanghar district. In a statement, the state-run producer said the well was currently producing 2,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) from the Massive Sand of the Lower Goru Formation. OGDCL had announced the discovery of oil and gas at the exploratory well on June 3. Demonstrating its operational and fast-track capabilities, the company completed the laying of a 4-inch, 1.5-kilometre flowline connecting the well site to the Bobi Plant, enabling early monetisation of the discovery and the timely commencement of production. As operator with 100pc working interest in the Bobi and Dhamraki Mining Lease, OGDCL executed the project entirely through indigenous capabilities. The production commencement will strengthen domestic energy supplies and help reduce Pak... -
Dawn - 14:57 Jun 29, 2026
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Supreme Court on Monday suspended, until July 2, the operation of an AJK High Court order granting interim relief to the PTI in its dispute with the Election Commission over the party’s registration. On June 23, the AJK High Court had directed the Election Commission to provisionally register PTI as a political party, effectively suspending the commission’s May 16 decision rejecting the party’s registration application. The short order was announced by a three-member bench headed by senior puisne judge Syed Shahid Bahar and comprising Justices Sardar Muhammad Ejaz and Khalid Rasheed Chaudhry. The interim order was passed by Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram on an application filed by the Election Commission under Rules 1 and 2 of Order VI of the Supreme Court Rules, 1978, seeking ex parte ad interim relief during the pendency of its petition for leave to appeal (PLA) against the high court’s June 23 order. PTI counsel Yasir Safeer Mughal appeared before the court an... -
Dawn - 12:58 Jun 29, 2026
Russia is grinding its way into Kostiantynivka, a key stronghold in Ukraine’s eastern “fortress belt” long coveted by the Kremlin, even as its gains across the rest of the 1,200-kilometre front line have largely stalled. Fighting has begun to seep into the city itself. Small groups of Russian soldiers are attempting to infiltrate its outskirts, senior Ukrainian commanders said last week, suggesting close-quarters assaults could follow. Kostiantynivka is the southernmost of four key settlements forming a defensive line central to Ukraine’s effort to hold the heavily industrialised Donetsk region. The push towards it underscores Moscow’s enduring manpower advantage, even as Ukrainian mid-range drone strikes on logistics have weakened its fighting capabilities, analysts said. “The effect [of mid-range strikes] hasn’t been so great that it would have forced the Russians to suspend their offensive,” said Emil Kastehelmi of the Black Bird conflict analysis team in Finland. “So even though Russia has been taking inc... -
Dawn - 12:11 Jun 29, 2026
Turkiye must be included in all of Europe’s defence and security structures, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, a week ahead of a key Nato summit in Ankara. His remarks come as Europe seeks to revamp its defences in light of the threat from Russia and the risk of a US pullback from Nato, as the military alliance gears up for a key summit in the Turkish capital on July 7-8. “Turkiye’s indispensable contributions to European security are sometimes overlooked,” Erdogan told parliamentary delegates from all 32 Nato member states in Istanbul, saying Turkiye wanted “to participate in all defence and security initiatives” on the continent. At issue is Turkiye’s access to the European Union’s 150-billion-euro ($176bn) Security Action for Europe (Safe) initiative, a scheme key to strengthening European defence capabilities. Although Turkiye is technically eligible to access the Safe initiative, it requires approval from all 27 EU members — something Greece has threatened to block. “We expect your support, ... -
Dawn - 11:57 Jun 29, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday dismissed contempt of court petitions filed by PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, after observing that the powers of attorney required to pursue their appeals had been signed, while granting the defence a final two-week adjournment to commence arguments in the appeals against their conviction in the £190 million graft reference. An accountability court in Islamabad had sentenced Imran and Bushra to 14 and seven years in prison, respectively, on Jan 17, 2025 in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) reference, also known as the Al-Qadir Trust case. On Monday, an IHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfaraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif heard the appeals against the couple’s sentences. Barrister Salman Safdar, Salman Akram Raja and other members of the defence team appeared before the court. The PTI founder’s sister, Aleema Khan, and several party leaders were also present during the proceedings. At the outset, the be... -
Dawn - 10:02 Jun 29, 2026
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar asserted on Monday that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between India and Pakistan could not be unilaterally revoked or altered, stressing that the people of Pakistan had a right to Indus waterways under the “legally enforceable treaty” that remained in force. He said this while addressing a press conference alongside Climate Change Minister Musadik Malik in Islamabad. Tarar’s statement comes at a time when water and the IWT remains a contentious issue between India and Pakistan, following New Delhi’s unilateral abeyance of the accord last year — a move that followed a brief military conflict between the two sides in May 2025. More recently, Indian Water Minister CR Patil said his country was working to ensure “not a single drop of water” would flow into Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan has maintained that any attempt to change the flow of cross-border waterways would be considered an “act of war”. At the outset of the press briefing, Tarar said the world had endorsed that wate... -
Dawn - 09:47 Jun 29, 2026
Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Monday that the Afghan chargé d’affaires was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mofa) and issued a strong demarche over the terrorist attack on a Rangers facility in Karachi. On Saturday night, terrorists attacked the local headquarters of the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar area, during which three security personnel were martyred and four were injured, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). ISPR said the attack was carried out by terrorists “belonging to Indian proxy Jamaatul Ahrar” (JuA), adding that three terrorists were killed in retaliatory action while one was arrested, whom it identified as an Afghan national. Andrabi confirmed Islamabad’s summoning of the envoy in a statement on Monday, in response to media queries regarding Pakistan’s demarche to the Afghan Taliban regime. He added that a “similar demarche” was conveyed by Pakistan’s Ambassador Ubaidur Rehman Nizamani to the Afghan Ministry of Fore... -
Dawn - 09:47 Jun 29, 2026
In today’s day and age, terrorism is not merely enabled by ideology and technology but also most effectively by an epistemic strategy that sacralises the ideological lineaments of the terrorists’ main creed. A concrete indication of this trend is the Taliban government’s use of sophisticated strategic communication tools through epistemic proxies like the Al Mirsaad, a web-based publication funded and directed by Taliban regime’s General Directorate of Intelligence’s media wing. Recently, the Al Mirsaad’s credentials as a Taliban mouthpiece were exposed by a report, “Heretics, Adversaries, & Legitimacy” by the Durand Despatch, an independent digital news organisation that specialises in security and counter-terrorism affairs in Afghanistan and South Asia. The analysis of the Al Mirsaad’s 137 articles, published between October 2025 and March 2026, identified a pattern of deification of the internationally isolated and delegitimised Taliban regime. The Taliban’s messaging strategy It appears that the Taliban r... -
Dawn - 08:53 Jun 29, 2026
Azerbaijan on Monday denounced a decision by its ally Israel to recognise the World War I massacres of Armenians as a genocide, a move widely seen as a rebuke by Israel to Turkiye. Azerbaijan and Israel are allies but Baku’s closest foreign partner is Turkiye and the Caucasus country hinted that the move by Israel could hit their bilateral relations. The recognition by Israel — announced on Sunday — was of “serious concern”, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Armenia has long sought international recognition that the mass killings under the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1917 amounted to a genocide, in which 1.5 million people died. Turkiye strongly denies the accusation of genocide and says that both Armenians and Turks died as a result of World War I. It puts the death toll in the hundreds of thousands. More than two dozen countries, including the United States, France and Germany, recognise the killings as a genocide. “Such actions do not contribute to reconciliation or mutual understanding,” ... -
Dawn - 08:42 Jun 29, 2026
Iran and the United States agreed to halt recent hostilities in the Gulf and renew talks regarding their dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a US official said on Sunday, raising hopes of saving an interim peace deal that was under pressure from days of tit-for-tat strikes. The exchanges have underscored the fragility of a Pakistan-brokered agreement to end the conflict that has killed thousands and snarled the flow of oil shipments through the vital Strait of Hormuz. “Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the memorandum of understanding (MoU). Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely,” the official said, referring to the 14-point agreement that was signed on June 18 under which the strait would be reopened for traffic. Iran has not immediately commented on the US statement. Axios, which first reported the cessation of hostilities, citing a senior US official, said talks would resume on Tuesday in Qatar. A return to diplomacy would follow several days of strikes and count...
12400 items