Pakistan

Former Punjab chief minister Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo passed away in Lahore on Tuesday, his secretary Muhammad Asif confirmed to Dawn. He was 86 years old. Asif said the veteran politician died after a prolonged illness and is survived by three sons and four daughters. His grandson, columnist Hassan Kamal Wattoo, also posted about the former CM’s demise on social media platform X. “With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of my beloved grandfather, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo,” he said, adding that funeral prayers would be held at the Wasawewala stadium in Okara at 2pm tomorrow. President Asif Ali Zardari expressed deep grief over his demise, a post on the Presidency’s X account said. It added that the president paid tribute to Wattoo’s “invaluable public service, role in strengthening democracy, and contributions to national unity”. State-run APP reported that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also condoled his death, saying in a statement that “services of late Manzoor Wattoo for the country’s politics will...

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PTI founder Imran Khan’s sisters, party workers and supporters are continuing their sit-in past midnight at Factory Naka, near Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, to demand their court-mandated meeting with the ex-premier. A court order issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on March 24 this year mandated that meetings with Imran would be permitted twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, the PTI maintains that the order is not being honoured. Despite the IHC’s order, Imran’s sisters — Aleema Khan, Uzma Khan and Noreen Khan Niazi — along with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, have tried and failed to meet Imran over the past several weeks. Last Tuesday, after being denied a meeting with the PTI chief, his sisters and party supporters staged a sit-in, which was dispersed early morning with water cannons. Late on Tuesday night, Majlis Wahdat-i-Muslimeen (MWM) Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas arrived at the protest site and began one-on-one consultations with PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raj...

Mountaineer Samina Baig has completed an expedition where she skied to the last degree of the South Pole, according to her brother. Mahboob Ali told Dawn that she was part of an international expedition organised by Elite Exped, which departed from Pakistan on December 2. It reached Union Glacier on December 6 and she completed her journey on December 14. In a post on her Facebook page, Baig said she was “deeply grateful and humbled” to have successfully skied to the last degree of the South Pole, part of her pursuit of the Explorer’s Grand Slam. “This ski journey has never been accomplished by any Pakistani in the past. It has been one of the most challenging and meaningful experiences of my life, and it is still difficult to put into words,” she wrote. “From standing on the summit of Mount Everest in 2013 to completing the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each continent, from climbing K2 and Nanga Parbat to now reaching the South Pole, this journey has taken me across the highest mountains and the mo...

Indian police said on Tuesday that one of the gunmen in Australia’s Bondi Beach shooting, Sajid Akram, was originally from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad but had limited contact with his family in India. The death toll in one of Australia’s worst mass shootings stands at 16, including 50-year-old Akram, who was shot by police. The man’s 24-year-old son and alleged accomplice, identified by local media as Naveed Akram, was in critical condition in hospital after also being shot. Hyderabad is the capital of Telangana state. Australian police said both men had travelled to the Philippines last month, the father on an Indian passport and the son on an Australian one. “The family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalisation,” Telangana state police said in a statement. The purpose of the trip is under investigation, officials said, adding it was not conclusive whether they were linked to any terrorist group or whether they ...

Donald Trump’s top national security officials faced a grilling from lawmakers Tuesday on US strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific — operations that have raised alarms about escalating military force near Venezuela. The House and Senate briefings, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, came amid mounting unease in Congress over the president’s widening campaign in waters off Latin America, and as lawmakers weigh measures to curb Trump’s authority to act without their approval. US officials say the operations target narcotics bound for American shores. Critics counter that the campaign — which has destroyed at least 26 boats and killed at least 95 people, according to US military figures — is legally ambiguous and strategically unclear. The classified sessions preceded a possible Senate vote on resolutions aimed at restricting Trump from launching military action against Venezuela without congressional consent. But Senate Democratic Minority Leader C...

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New platform offers secure, efficient and reliable communication across state institutions

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A police official and his brother were martyred in a gun attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district on Tuesday. The constable had completed his polio duty and was travelling to his village with his brother when motorcycle-riding terrorists opened fire near the Chwar Khel area, said a spokesperson for Lakki Marwat police. The bodies of Amir Nawaz and Ameer Mohammad, siblings of former district councilor Ali Gul, were transferred to the district headquarters hospital. Immediately after the incident, a heavy police contingent reached the scene and launched a search operation in the area to arrest the culprits. The funeral prayers of the martyred constable and his brother were offered later in the evening District Police Officer Nazir Khan, Deputy Commissioner Hamidullah Khan, SP Investigation Murad Ali Khan, along with other senior police and district administration officials, police personnel, and a large number of relatives of the martyrs, attended the funeral. In another attack on a polio team in KP...