Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has termed his recent meeting with US President Donald Trump as “very encouraging”. His came after the two leaders had their first formal bilateral interaction at the Oval Office in Washington on Thursday. During the meeting, they discussed regional security and cooperation along the lines of counter-terrorism, among other matters. The premier was accompanied by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir, while the US President was joined by US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The meeting itself was closed to the press — a break from President Trump’s usual modus operandi — as he is quite fond of Oval Office photo-ops and there was no press conference either; just a statement issued from Pakistan where the US president was described as a “man of peace” and stressing the need to enhance cooperation in security and intelligence. During an interaction with the media in New Jersey, which was aired on Geo News on Saturday morning, the premier sa...

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that the recently signed Pak-Saudi defence pact had “formalised” a relationship between the two countries that was previously “a bit transactional” while skirting a question regarding whether or not this agreement involved nuclear weapons. Asif made the remarks during an interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan for Zeteo. The full interview is behind a paywall but the media company has shared a five-minute preview as well as clips on social media. On September 17, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had signed a “Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement” in Riyadh, pledging that any attack on either nation would be treated as an act of aggression against both. The timing of the accord, coming on the heels of an Arab summit that signalled a shift towards collective security — in the wake of Israel’s attack on Qatar — hints that it is rooted in current world affairs and reflects the defence concerns of both countries. It also comes just months a...

Unidentified drones were observed during the night over Denmark’s biggest military base, police said on Saturday, the latest in a slew of sightings that Danish officials have called a “hybrid attack”. The mystery drone observations have prompted the closure of several airports across the Scandinavian country since Monday, when the first drones appeared. “I can confirm that we had an incident around 8:15pm (11:15pm PKT) that lasted for some hours. One to two drones were observed outside and over the airbase,” duty officer Simon Skelsjaer told AFP, referring to the Karup military base. He said police could not comment on where the drones came from, adding: “We didn’t take them down.” Police were cooperating with the military in their investigation, he said. The Karup base shares its runways with the Midtjylland civilian airport, which was briefly closed though no flights were affected as no commercial flights were scheduled at that hour, Skelsjaer said. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Thursday t...

Prominent Kashmiri rights activist and Vice Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir National Front, Altaf Hussain Wani, has hailed Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif for forcefully raising the issues of Kashmir and Palestine during his landmark speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Annalena Baerbock on Saturday and discussed key regional and international issues, including Palestine and UN reforms. The meeting occurred on the sidelines of the 80th session of the UNGA in New York. A day earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had addressed the session, highlighting the need for “proactive” leadership for South Asia and expressing support for Gaza. In a statement on X, the Foreign Office said that Dar and Baerbock “exchanged views on key regional and international issues, including [the] Palestine issue and the urgent need for UN reforms, including UN Security Council reforms”. Dar reaffirmed commitment to regional and global peace and stability and called for the just resolution of the Kashmir dispute per UNSC resolutions, it added. Separately, the foreign minister held meetings with his counterparts from various countries, including Malaysia and Morocco. Dar met Malaysian FM Dato...

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday directed acceleration of relief and rehabilitation operations in flood-affected people.

A major fire at South Korea’s national data centre has crippled some government online services and internal networks, prompting a race on Saturday to bring the systems back online and a probe of what sparked a lithium-ion battery to start the blaze. The fire is suspected to have started with an explosion on Friday night of the battery produced by South Korea’s LG Energy Solution during maintenance, damaging some servers and forcing the shutdown of hundreds of others, officials said. The fire led to a “thermal runaway”, producing extreme heat in the server room at the National Information Resources Services in the city of Daejeon, preventing firefighters from taking aggressive actions to contain the blaze, fire and government officials said in press briefings. The national data service acts as a cloud server for many government services and databases for the heavily wired Asian country. It operates data centres in other locations. The fire, which began around 8:20pm (4:20pm PKT), was brought under control ear...

NEW YORK: The foreign ministers of China, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia, in a joint statement, have urged Afghan­istan to take “effective, concrete, and verifiable actions” to dismantle terrorist groups operating from its territory. The foreign ministers in a meeting on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly session reaffirmed support for Afghanistan as an “independent, united, and peaceful state, free from terrorism, war, and narcotics”, but underlined the need to prevent terrorists from using Afghan soil. The four Asian states have been holding quadripartite consultations on Afghanistan since 2017, aimed at promoting reg­ional stability and coordinating efforts to counter terrorism, narcotics, and extremism emanating from Afghan territory. This informal grouping, which meets at ministerial and special representative levels, also seeks to facilitate political dialogue and regional economic integration in Afghanistan. They expressed deep concern over the presence of groups such as ISIL, Al-Qaida, Tehreek-...

• PM doubles compensation for families of victims to Rs2m • 161,000 houses, 395 health facilities damaged in Punjab, UNOCHA says • Senate panel told deluges left 1,000 dead, millions displaced ISLAMABAD: As millions of people have been affected and hundreds of casualties reported across the country during the recent floods and monsoon rains, the prime minister has raised the ex-gratia assistance for the next of kin of those who lost their lives from Rs1 million to Rs2m. More than 4.2 million people in 18 districts of Punjab have been affected by the recent floods, with Muzaffargarh alone accounting for over a quarter of the total, according to a Rapid Needs Assessment (RNA) report released by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). Muzaffargarh, located on the bank of the Chenab River, is followed by Jhang with 646,000 affected people (15.3 per cent), Bahawalpur with 514,000 (12.2pc), Khanewal with 397,000 (9.4pc), and Multan with 347,000 (8.2pc). Other affected distri...

The Jaffar Express from Quetta to Peshawar has been cancelled for the fourth consecutive day, railway sources confirmed.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday directed the Ministry of Defence to ensure that a senior Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) officer — either the Deputy Director General or the relevant Sector Commander — appears for an in-camera briefing in the case of missing citizen Omar Abdullah. The direction came after the federal government transferred Rs5 million into the account of Abdullah’s family. During the hearing, Additional Attorney General and officials of the defence ministry presented the receipt of the online transfer before the court. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, while addressing the victim’s father, remarked that the family would receive the money by tomorrow, but added that compensation could not heal the trauma caused by enforced disappearances. “This money cannot cure the family’s suffering,” the judge observed. He further warned that the matter could lead to criminal proceedings at any stage, criticising parliament for its silence on the issue. “This is the work of parliament, but ...

Water inflow at Kotri Barrage on the Indus River continues to rise, inundating nearby villages and destroying rice and other crops.

UNITED NATIONS: As President Donald Trump claimed being close to a deal to end the war in Gaza and bring prisoners home, an increasingly isolated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday tried to rebut what he called “the false charge of genocide”. He also denounced several Western countries for embracing Palestinian statehood, accusing them of pushing his country into “national suicide”. The Israeli leader, who has an International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes, addressed mostly empty chairs in the UN General Assembly, as scores of delegates — including the Pakistan contingent — walked out when he took the stage. At the same time, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic near Times Square in New York to protest the killing of more than 65,000 people in Gaza by Israeli strikes in less than two years. Israeli leader speaks to empty chairs as scores of delegates exit UNGA hall to boycott his address “War criminals don’t deserve any peace of mind. Th...

DUBAI: Under fire after their twin thrashings at the hands of India in the ongoing Asia Cup, Pakistan proved they were good enough to make it to the tournament’s final when they edged Bangladesh by 11 runs in their last Super Four outing on Thursday and all their matters now for the side are the title honours. For the national side’s head coach Mike Hesson, whose credentials were questioned after India outplayed them in the group-stage and Super Four clashes, Pakistan deserved to be in the final after beating all of their opponents through the course of the tournament apart from the archrivals. And it’s India only, who’ll be in Pakistan’s way to their Asia Cup title ambition come Sunday. “We’ve deserved this opportunity, and now it’s up to us to make the most of it,” Hesson told reporters on Thursday night. “All the games before this were about getting into a position to win the trophy. “We know that the only match that really counts is the final, and that’s our focus, to play our best game when it matters.” ...

ISLAMABAD: Members of a Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) subcommittee have forwarded several proposals to be considered while drafting rules for evaluating high court judges and setting criteria for their elevation. Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail-led subcommittee met on Friday with Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan, Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) representative Muhammad Ahsan Bhoon, Senator Farooq H. Naek from the treasury benches and Senator Barrister Syed Ali Zafar from the opposition in attendance. The JCP subcommittee decided to consolidate and circulate each suggestion among all members for discussion at the next meeting, scheduled for the coming week and postponed proceedings, with an understanding to thoroughly discuss draft suggestions on framing benchmarks to assess judicial performance of sitting judges of the high courts. One of the proposals was to consider the time period within which a judgement is delivered after it has been reserved by a high court judge, since inordinate ...

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has dismissed petitions filed by cinema operators seeking to extend the scope of the Motion Pictures Ordinance, 1979, to cover Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, ruling that the law cannot be applied to digital streaming services. Justice Raheel Kamran, delivering a detailed 20-page judgement, observed that the ordinance was enacted in a pre-digital era to regulate films exhibited through cinematographs in cinemas and other public venues, and was not designed for online streaming services. The petitioners, including NC Entertainment (Pvt) Ltd, had argued that requiring cinemas to obtain film certification while leaving digital platforms unregulated was discriminatory and infringed their fundamental rights. They contended that censorship principles under Section 6 of the Ordinance, derived from Article 19 of the Constitution, should apply equally across all platforms to uphold social norms of decency and morality. Says extending Motion Pictures Or...

• Decision taken on PM’s directive after committee’s recommendation • FBR analysis points to widespread reluctance in voluntary asset valuation ISLAMABAD: In a dramatic U-turn, the government on Friday scrapped the asset valuation column from the tax return form for 2025 — just a day after issuing a strongly worded clarification — bowing to mounting pressure from various stakeholders. The lightning-fast reversal, prompted by criticism from tax practitioners, lawyers and other groups, has reignited debate over policy consistency and digital reforms aimed at documenting the cash economy. The income tax return form for 2025, released on July 7, had required taxpayers to declare the market value of their assets, as outlined on page 66 of the form. Since then, taxpayers had been submitting returns with the flexibility to either declare the estimated market value of their assets or enter zero in the designated column. This practice continued even as nearly 2.7 million taxpayers filed their returns under the same ar...

ISLAMABAD - Chairperson of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS), Mrs Farzhana Naek, held a productive meeting with the President of the Norwegian Red Cross, Ms Siri Hatlen, to strengthen humanitarian cooperation and explore avenues for enhanced support to the people of Pakistan most affected by climate change.

KARACHI - The University of Karachi has cancelled the LLB degree of Justice Tariq Mahmood Jahangiri, an Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge, according to a notification issued by the varsity on Friday.

LAHORE - Punjab University (PU) and Shaikh Zayed Hospital on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to provide practical training opportunities for students of Allied Health Sciences.