Pakistan

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At least six people were killed and 24 others were injured in three separate accidents in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district on Tuesday. According to Rescue 1122 spokesperson Rasool Khan Sharif, the first incident occurred in the Naredaly area of tehsil Kana late on Monday evening, where a mini jeep plunged into a ravine, killing two and injuring six. “Local residents transported the victims to the Karora Rural Health Centre, from where the injured were referred to Alpuri district headquarters hospital,” he told Dawn. However, this morning, the roof of a house collapsed as people were offering funeral prayers for one of the two people killed in the crash. Sanaullah Khan, a resident, told Dawn that 11 people were injured in the roof collapse, which also occurred in the Naredaly area. “Five people were critically injured as all of the mourners fell along with the coffin when the roof caved in,” he said. “Women and children in the house were injured after the roof collapsed.” A local resident said that four o...

Vehicles, guns, nets to be confiscated

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30km stretch under reconstruction; project seen as revival of tourism

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New Yorkers are projected to elect Democrat Zohran Mamdani as mayor on Tuesday, opening a new front in opposition to United States President Donald Trump and raising the spectre that the president will retaliate against the city where he made his name. While Mamdani’s rise is dominating headlines, off-year elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey will be seen as even more critical gauges of the US political mood nearly 10 months into Trump’s bruising right-wing reign. Democratic wins there will be seen as signals that the beleaguered opposition is coming back to life ahead of next year’s midterm elections to decide control of Congress. Mamdani, who describes himself as a socialist and campaigned on reducing costs for ordinary New Yorkers, was leading by seven points on 41 per cent in the latest AtlasIntel poll. Former state governor Andrew Cuomo trailed the 34-year-old with 34pc. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels citizen crime patrol group, was polling at 24pc — a marg...

Dick Cheney, a driving force behind the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, who was considered by presidential historians as one of the most powerful vice presidents in US history, has died at age 84, his family said in a statement on Tuesday. Cheney died on Monday night from complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease, his family said. The Republican — a former Wyoming congressman and secretary of defence — was already a major Washington player when then-Texas governor George W Bush chose him to be his running mate in the 2000 presidential race that Bush went on to win. As vice president from 2001 to 2009, Cheney fought vigorously for an expansion of the power of the presidency, having felt that it had been eroding since the Watergate scandal that drove his one-time boss Richard Nixon from office. He also expanded the clout of the vice president’s office by putting together a national security team that often served as a power centre of its own within the administration. Cheney was a strong advocate...

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) provincial council member Hafiz Maulana Abdul Salam Arif was shot dead by unidentified motorcyclists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Charsadda district on Tuesday, according to a police officer. According to Investigating Officer (IO) Safdar Khan, the JUI member was on his way home after offering prayers at a mosque when he was attacked by two armed suspects on a motorcycle. “The incident is being investigated from all possible angles,” the IO said. “Police have collected evidence from the crime scene and have also called in a team of experts to provide assistance.” The IO added that the victim’s son filed a case with the Mandani police station. In addition to being a provincial council member, the slain Abdul Salam was the head of Madressah Abu Bakar Siddique in Tehsil Tangi and the preacher at a mosque within the area of the Jamalabad Dairy Farm. In July this year, Awami National Party politician Maulana Khan Zeb and a policeman were shot dead by unidentified suspects in KP’s Bajaur distr...

Pakistan pacer Haris Rauf has been suspended for Pakistan’s first two ODI matches against South Africa on November 4 and 6 after the ICC sanctioned several Indian and Pakistani players on Tuesday for breaching the Code of Conduct during matches played at the Asia Cup. Haris and Sahibzada Farhan were reprimanded by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in September for gestures made during the Asia Cup Super Four match against arch-rivals India, ESPNCricinfo reported. “Rauf was seen responding to heckling from Indian fans by signalling 6-0 with his hands and making gestures depicting the downing of aircraft, in apparent reference to the military conflict between India and Pakistan in May this year,” the report read. “Farhan had celebrated his fifty by mimicking a gunshot.” In a press release today, ICC confirmed the outcomes of several Code of Conduct proceedings arising duirng the Asia Cup. “The hearings were conducted by members of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees following incidents in the m...

Pakistan and Iran have signed several Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) aimed at enhancing collaboration in the media and broadcasting sectors.

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on Tuesday said it has restored flight operations with some alternate arrangements after delays due to what it called a “strike” by the Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan (SAEP). However, the SAEP stated there was no strike from their side and the engineers were only adhering to mandatory safety and certification protocols. PIA’s flight operations were disrupted across the country last night after the engineers’ group refused to issue clearances to aircraft, claiming that they could not compromise on travel safety. The PIA said in a statement today: “A de-recognised entity, SAEP, in order to pressurise the management, tried to halt the operations during late hours of yesterday (Monday) night with their nefarious design to sabotage the privatisation process.“ It asserted that the PIA’s management team, along with key officials of the engineering department, immediately responded to the situation. “By using alternative means and working tirelessly overnight and day, ...

Punjab Assembly lawmakers affiliated with the opposition party PTI filed a petition in the Lahore High Court on Tuesday, seeking the declaration of several provisions related to the recently promulgated Punjab Local Government Act (PLGA) 2025 as ultra vires to the Constitution. Punjab Assembly Opposition Leader Muhammad Moeenuddin Riaz, Hafiz Farhat Abbas and Ali Imtiaz filed the petition against the legislation that was bulldozed through the assembly last month amid the opposition’s protest. The Punjab government has been named as a respondent in the plea, and Justice Sultan Tanvir will hear this petition, according to lawyer Abuzar Salman Niazi. The petition, a copy of which is available with Dawn, says that Sections 15, 32, 25, 40, 55, 56 and 57 of the Act are “unconstitutional, unreasonable [and] illegitimate”. These provisions “brazenly and patently contravene” Articles 8 (laws inconsistent with or in derogation of fundamental rights to be void), 9 (security of person), 17 (freedom of association), 32 (p...

Ambassador of the Netherlands, Robert-Jan Siegert, called on Minister for Defence, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, here on Tuesday.

Ticket holders and office bearers of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) from central Punjab and Lahore on Tuesday announced that they were severing ties with the now-banned organisation, stating that they were “standing with the state”. On Friday, all election ticket holders of the TLP from south Punjab announced that they had left the party, accusing it of pursuing an anti-state agenda that “aligns with the country’s enemies”. In a press conference at the Lahore Press Club today, multiple TLP ticket holders and office bearers announced their decision to step away from the religiopolitical group, with lawyer Usman Khizr Mangat saying that one can engage in politics within the state, but not against it. “Violence and mobs cannot create an impact by attacking the state,” he said. “Pakistan saw how these people carried out attacks. The government tried to start a dialogue, but the demands laid out were not accepted. “The state is like a mother, it tried to negotiate for six, seven days constantly with these pe...

A review meeting of the ongoing 10-day modern fractional-does inactivated polio vaccine (FIPV) campaign was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Lahore Syed Musa Raza and Head of Anti-Polio Campaign Adeel Tasawar here on Monday.