Pakistan

RAWALPINDI: After the police enlarged the scope of their investigation to determine the real circumstance surrounding the murder of a toddler allegedly by her 10-year-old cousin in Ratta Amral, it emerged that the suspect was mentally unstable. This was revealed by the grandmother of the juvenile suspect during police investigation. The suspect’s mother had left her husband’s house, along with her two children, including the 10-year-old boy, and started living with her parents in Ratta Amral. She had left behind her two other children with their father who was an addict. The police investigated the family members of the suspect’s father to find out the motive behind the tragic death of one-year-old Maryam whose body was found in a sewerage line in Ratta Amral late Wednesday night. Initial postmortem examination suggested that sewage had entered her lungs and brain which caused her death. The little girl was laid to rest in a local graveyard on Thursday afternoon. Maryam’s grandmother, Musarat Bibi, said a lar...

CHAKWAL: Rizwan Abid, a dairy farmer, looked distressed as he vainly tried to make his prized bull stand up. The bull, sitting under the scorching sun, was unable to get up, as it was suffering from foot-and-mouth disease, a highly contagious viral illness wreaking havoc across Punjab for the last two months. The disease has emerged in the province just ahead of Eidul Azha, leaving buyers and sellers in a lurch. Since cattle markets across the province were not shut down to contain the disease, it has spread to many districts. “I have lost a cow and four calves due to this disease, and now my bull is fighting for his life,” Mr Abid told Dawn. His cattle pen is located on the outskirts of Chakwal, where he is rearing 13 animals, including cows and buffaloes. According to him, no government veterinarian ever visited his place for the vaccination. Ironically, the Chakwal livestock department is not even aware of the scale of the havoc that the FMD has been wreaking in Chakwal and Talagang. “Only one case has bee...

• Rs200,000 fine on govt vehicles for violating one way, Rs100,000 on private car drivers and Rs25,000 for motorcyclists • Driving without licence to cost Rs50,000 for four-wheelers, Rs25,000 for bikers • Meeting decides to ban four-seater rickshaws across Sindh KARACHI: The Sindh government has decided to amend the motor vehicle law to increase traffic violation fines and ban four-seater rickshaws. After the amendments, wrong-way driving will cost a car driver Rs100,000 and motorcyclist Rs25,000. The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting, chaired by Home Minister Zia Ul Hassan Lanjar, to discuss amendments to the Motor Vehicles Rules. The meeting, attended among others by Excise Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla, law secretary, transport secretary and DIG Traffic, also approved mandatory fitness certification for both commercial and non-commercial vehicles, outsourcing vehicle fitness evaluations to third parties and a ban on the sale of paper car tints, fancy lights and sirens either online or at shops....

KARACHI: The city administration has imposed an eight-day ban on visiting five unguarded beaches due to high tides and rough sea conditions. The ban will remain in place till June 13 and it is applied to the Kannup, Sunerah, Mubarak Village, Turtle and Dua Chowk beaches. Official sources said there was no restriction on people to visit other city beaches, including Sandspit, Hawkesbay, Paradise Point and Seaview, as these beaches were guarded by lifeguards and law enforcers. Commissioner Syed Hasan Naqvi imposed the ban under Section 144 of the criminal procedure code on the request of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). The order authorised the SHOs concerned to register FIRs under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code against violators of the ban. The officials said that a ban on swimming at other beaches might be imposed in view of the monsoon season, when there was comparatively high tide there. Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2025

KARACHI: It is disappointing that only two Urdu films will be released on Eidul Azha. They are: Love Guru directed by Nadeem Baig and Deemak helmed by Rafay Rashdi. Although half-a-dozen Pakistani films hit the cinema screens on Eidul Fitr (five Urdu and one Punjabi), they did not manage to create a splash in the placid waters of our local movie scene. It is abundantly clear now that the only way for the film exhibitors and cinema owners to do business is by virtue of big Hollywood releases. For example, prior to Eidul Azha, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, the popular franchise starring Tom Cruise, did well at the box office. (It is difficult to ascertain the exact number that it has managed to attract because MI is still in theatres.) On Eidul Azha, too, a couple of major English language films — apart from a few Turkish projects dubbed in Urdu — will be there to compete with the Pakistani movies: Ballerina and Karate Kid: Legends. The former is a spin-off of the John Wick series and the latter a th...

Celebrities took to Instagram, sharing festive Eid ul Azha pictures with family

Tourist activity surges in country's northern regions

Hospitals at risk of becoming 'graveyards' within 48 hours if fuel shortage persists, warn Gazan health sources

ISLAMABAD: In a first-of-its-kind move, Engro Connect has acquired all 10,500 telecom towers owned and managed by Jazz. After obtaining approvals from relevant regulators, including the Competition Commission of Pakistan, and clearing all cases in the Islamabad High Court, the $560 million deal has materialised. Jazz, the largest telecom operator in the country, has become the first telecom to offload all of its telecom towers. Deodar, the cell-site tower management subsidiary of Jazz, has been sold to Engro Connect. However, Jazz will pay rent for all the cell sites installed at these towers to Engro Connect, a subsidiary of Engro Corp. Move to establish ‘cells’ of multiple telecom operators at a single tower The deal was one of the most significant private-sector infrastructure transactions in the country’s digital evolution. Jazz was currently using around 14,500 telecom towers; other tower companies, including Engro Enfrashare, the largest independent tower infrastructure company in Pakistan, and Edotco m...

KARACHI: The growing adoption of battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Pakistan is set to reshape the energy landscape — enabling a more decentralised and consumer-centric system, even as it poses significant challenges to the existing grid infrastructure. This was highlighted in a report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), titled “Battery Storage and the Future of Pakistan’s Electricity Grid”. According to the report, the adoption of BESS is being driven by both off-grid and on-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) installations. Pakistan imported 27.6 gigawatts of solar PV modules between FY19 and FY24, with an additional 5.2GW imported in the first half of FY25. However, it is estimated that only half of the total imported capacity is currently installed across the country, and at least 11.5GW of this capacity exists off-grid. “It is unlikely that all rooftop and captive solar consumers will adopt battery storage systems because of the high upfront costs,” said the report. If al...

• Pin high hopes for a major relief in upcoming budget • Wheat growers alone suffer Rs2.2tr losses since May 2024 LAHORE: The Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (PKI) has issued a stark warning regarding an escalating agricultural crisis that has gripped the nation since May 2024, resulting in unprecedented financial losses for farmers and a severe downturn in the country’s vital agricultural sector. According to data compiled by the PKI, farmers have collectively sustained a staggering compound loss of approximately Rs2,200 billion in wheat alone between May 2024 and May 2025. This colossal figure represents a significant 23.15 per cent of the total crop sector’s contribution to GDP, which stood at Rs9,500 billion for FY24. The immense financial strain has severely curtailed farmers’ purchasing power, consequently hindering productivity across other critical crops. “The agricultural sector, the backbone of our economy, is teetering on the brink,” stated Khalid Mahmood Khokhar, President of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad. “The...

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ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari held a meeting with envoys and diplomats from multiple nations at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Saturday. During the gathering, Eid-ul-Azha felicitations were shared between the president and the representatives of allied countries. President Zardari expressed gratitude to the ambassadors for attending the President House during Eid-ul-Adha and participating in the festivities. On […]

GAZA: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 36 Palestinians on Saturday, six of them in a shooting near a US-backed aid distribution centre. The Israeli military told AFP that troops had fired “warning shots” at individuals that it said were “advancing in a way that endangered the troops”. The shooting deaths […]

Players can now pre-download the forthcoming Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3, to prepare essential files and resources ahead of time for a smooth entry into the new season once it launches and servers are operational. Following some steps, PlayStation 5 and Xbox users can conveniently complete this process and explore the latest features as soon […]

A prominent Fortnite leaker disclosed that updated versions of the characters Teknique, Omega, and The Visitor will be part of the Season 4 battle pass for Fortnite OG’s classic mode. After a long hiatus, Fortnite has returned to iOS devices in the U.S., creating fresh opportunities for mobile gamers previously shut out of the popular […]