Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reached Beijing on Sunday, where he would have “high-level engagements” with the Chinese leadership, including President Xi Jinping and his counterpart, Li Qiang. PM Shehbaz landed in Hangzhou on Saturday, kicking off his four-day official visit to China. He addressed the Pakistan-China Business-to-Business Investment Conference in Hangzhou earlier today, following which he reached Beijing, where he was received by Chinese Minister of Environment and Ecology Huang Runqiu. “During his stay in Beijing, the prime minister will hold high-level engagements, including meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qian,g to further strengthen Pakistan-China all-weather strategic cooperative partnership and advance cooperation under CPEC Phase-II, particularly in trade, investment, industry, agriculture, science and technology, and people-to-people exchanges,” a statement by the PM’s Office (PMO) said. It added that in Hangzhou, the PM chaired the opening ceremony of t...

Condemnations poured in on Sunday after suicide attack in Quetta claimed more than 10 lives and left several others injured, with global actors expressing solidarity with Pakistan. The attack targeted a shuttle train, with images following the blast showing a mangled train carriage on its side as people clambered over the wreckage to find survivors. People could be seen carrying blood-soaked victims on stretchers away from a derailed car, while security personnel stood guard. Images from the scene also showed burnt-out vehicles, damaged residential buildings and twisted metal and debris scattered near the railway track, with smoke rising from the wreckage. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack in separate statements, expressing the resolve to continue the fight against terrorism. Condemnations poured in from others as well, with the Chinese embassy in Pakistan extending “deep condolences to the deceased victims and sincere sympathies to the bereaved families”. “We f...

QUETTA: At least 14 people were killed and 20 others were injured after a blast caused by a vehicle-borne suicide bombing tore through a shuttle train in Quetta on Sunday morning, the Balochistan government said. Hours after the blast, the provincial government said in a statement it was confirming with “profound grief and deep concern” that a train shuttle service near Chaman Phatak in Quetta was targeted in a vehicle-borne suicide bombing. “This cowardly act of terrorism is not only an attack on innocent human lives but also a heinous attempt to undermine peace, stability, and normal civic life in Balochistan,” the statement said. Citing initial reports, it added that “14 people embraced martyrdom while 20 others sustained injuries, including women and children”. “Among the martyrs were three personnel of the Frontier Corps, while the majority of victims were civilians, including pedestrians, passengers, bystanders, and residents living in houses adjacent to the blast site. “Tragically, an entire family of ...

Pakistan, along with seven other nations, condemned on Sunday the “appalling, degrading, and unacceptable actions of extremist Israeli Minister Itamar Ben Gvir” against participants in the Gaza-bound flotilla while they were in Israeli detention. Last week, Israel’s far-right national security minister posted a video on showing the detained activists kneeling with their hands tied and foreheads on the ground, sparking international condemnation. The video, shared on X by the firebrand minister, was published after Israeli forces intercepted the flotilla’s vessels at sea and began detaining hundreds of foreign activists at the southern port of Ashdod. The footage also shows Ben Gvir heckling and waving an Israeli flag among the detained activists. Later, the flotilla’s organisers said the activists were subjected to abuse in Israeli custody, with several hospitalised for injuries and at least 15 reporting sexual assaults, including rape. On Sunday, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Turkiye, Indonesia, ...

ISLAMABAD: The PTI confirmed on Sunday that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi and party chairperson Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had held a meeting with Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in previous days. PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram told Dawn that the meeting was held to discuss the issue of terrorism in KP, especially in Bannu, where two police personnel and as many civilians were martyred while 25 terrorists were killed in a fierce clash between law enforcers, a peace committee and militants on Saturday. The interior minister “mostly discussed how terrorism can be controlled”, he said. He shared these details after Dawn approached him following an X post by Imran’s sister, Aleema Khan. “Barrister Gohar and Sohail Afridi met Mohsin Naqvi. Our family had no knowledge of this meeting, and neither was any family member present,” she said, addressing another post that said she was also part of the meeting. Speaking to Dawn, Akram also said, “It is incorrect that Aleema Khan was part of th...

The United States and Iran appear closer than ever to a deal that would end a war that has engulfed the Middle East and disrupted the global oil market. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the world might “get some good news” soon after President Donald Trump announced an agreement had been “largely negotiated” and would include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Before Trump’s announcement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei spoke of “a trend towards rapprochement” with Washington, but warned that “it does not necessarily mean that we and the United States will reach an agreement on the important issues.” He said on state television that Iran’s “intention was first to draft a memorandum of understanding, a kind of framework agreement,” before a final deal is reached within 30 to 60 days. What do we know about the possible agreement? Nuclear question Baqaei said that the nuclear issue was not be part of an initial framework. It will rather be “subject to separate discussions” at a later s...

India voiced concern on Sunday over a US visa crackdown, striking a rare critical note even as it expressed broad alignment with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on other fractious issues. Paying his first visit to India, Rubio said the two democracies were on the same page on all major issues, brushing aside recent unease in New Delhi over trade, China and the Iran war. India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed that the two countries had a “convergence of national interests in many areas” but publicly took Rubio to task over US President Donald Trump’s assault on visas. Jaishankar said he “apprised Secretary Rubio of challenges that legitimate travellers face in respect of visa issuance”. “While we cooperate to deal with illegal and irregular mobility, our expectation is that legal mobility should not be adversely impacted as a consequence,” he said, noting that visas were key for US-India tech cooperation. Trump, who has made curbing non-Western immigration a key political priority, has ramped u...

QUETTA: The vice chancellor and pro-vice chancellor of the University of Gwadar, another varsity employee and their driver reached home on Sunday, around 10 days after they were reported missing, an official said. “All four, including the vice chancellor and pro-vice chancellor, have reached their homes safely,” Babar Yousafzai, an aide at the Balochistan Home Department, confirmed to Dawn. ​Mullah Barkat Baloch, a relative of Pro-VC Manzoor, also confirmed to Dawn that the varsity official had reached home safely. Sources in Mastung police told Dawn that Vice Chancellor Dr Abdul Razzaq Sabir, Pro-Vice Chancellor Syed Manzoor Ahmed, VC’s staff officer Irshad Ahmed and their driver, Hatim Ali, were freed in the Kardgap area of Mastung. The university officials and their driver went missing while travelling from Gwadar to Quetta on May 13. While their mobile phones had been switched off and they could not be traced, police officials believed that they could have been kidnapped. Later, security forces had launch...

The Sindh government has announced a three-day Eidul Azha holiday from May 26 to 28, in correction of an earlier notification of a four-day holiday, which included Friday. The decision is in line with the federal government’s announcement of a three-day public holiday from Tuesday to Thursday to mark Eidul Azha. In a corrigendum dated May 23 and issued by Sindh Chief Secretary Asif Hyder Shah, the provincial government declared May 26 (Tuesday), May 27 (Wednesday), and May 28 (Thursday) as public holidays for Eidul Azha throughout the province, “except essential services and departments/offices engaged in preparation of budget for financial year 2026-27”. On May 29 (Friday), offices will observe work-from-home, the notification read. Meanwhile, the Punjab government has also notified May 26, 27, and 28 as public holidays for Eidul Azha, as per a notification dated May 23. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had also announced four Eid holidays from May 26 to May 29 (Tuesday to Friday), according to a notificati...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday hailed United States President Donald Trump’s “extraordinary efforts to pursue peace”, saying the latter held a “very useful and productive call” with multiple countries’ representatives, including Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir. Trump held a phone call on Saturday with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkiye, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan and Pakistan. The leaders encouraged Trump to agree to the emerging framework, Axios reported. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he had a “very good call” with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince; the presidents of the UAE, Turkiye and Egypt; Qatar’s emir, prime minister and a minister who is part of the Board of Peace; and the kings of Jordan and Bahrain. A call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also went “very well”, Trump noted. Subsequently, in a post on X, PM Shehbaz said CDF Munir represented Pakistan in the call with Trump, appreciating the field marshal’s “...

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Pakistani officials on Sunday dismissed suggestions linking Pakistan to any potential normalization arrangement with Israel under the framework of the Abraham Accords, saying the country’s position on the Palestinian issue remains “clear and unchanged” and accusing certain voices in Washington of attempting to create confusion.

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