Pakistan

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With temperatures just above freezing point, heavy snow has blanketed areas in southern Germany and left them frozen in both time and the literal sense. A snowy landscape can be seen through the heart-shaped hole cut out of an advertising sign in front of a beer garden in Bad Hindelang, Germany on November 20. — AFP A wooden cabin stands in the snow-covered landscape in Gorisried, Germany on November 20. — AFP An advertising sign stands in front of a closed beer garden in the snow in Bad Hindelang, Germany on November 20. — AFP A fence stands in the snow-covered landscape in Oy Mittelberg, Germany on November 20. — AFP Benches and tables of a closed beer garden stand in the snow in Bad Hindelang, Germany on November 20. — AFP A snowplow drives through the snow-covered landscape in Oy-Mittelberg, Germany on November 20. — AFP Header Image: A car drives behind an icicle in the snowfall in Hindelang, Germany, on November 20, 2025. — AFP

Amid Pakistan’s burgeoning but fragile entrepreneurial ecosystem, students at Karachi’s Institute of Business Administration (IBA) gathered on Thursday for an interactive session on venture creation and how artificial intelligence is speeding up the process of building and scaling startups. The event, organised at the university’s main campus, featured Dr Jonathan Doerr, senior vice president at Disrupt.com (formerly Gaditek), who shared insights from 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur and investor. “Who among you is using ChatGPT on a daily basis?” Dr Doerr asked, prompting (predictably) multiple hands to go up. He highlighted that while the telephone took years to reach one million users, OpenAI’s ChatGPT achieved the same milestone in just five days, a fact confirmed by the company’s president and co-founder Greg Brockman. “Open AI and other [large] language models enable a new wave of companies that are built,” Dr Doerr said, pointing out the example of the startup Lovable, which reached a $100 mil...

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Punjab has achieved a historic milestone in governance and development, recording record savings of Rs120 billion for the first time in the province’s history.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is set to introduce the province’s first-ever Street Economy Law, aimed at safeguarding the livelihoods of over 140,000 street vendors.

Customs staff on Thursday seized around Rs110 million in gold jewellery and foreign currency from a pair of alleged smugglers at Karachi’s Jinnah International Airport, a statement from the Collectorate of Customs read. According to the statement, two female passengers were stopped for inspection at the international departure hall, where customs staff unearthed $6,143 and two kilogrammes of gold from one passenger and $5,746 and 1.05kg of gold from the other. “The total recovered gold jewellery and foreign currency is valued at approximately Rs110 million,” the statement read. “The recovered items were taken into custody by Customs preventive staff [and] formal detention receipts were issued, and after completing initial legal proceedings, an FIR (first information report) has been lodged against the accused passengers for attempting to smuggle gold and foreign currency in violation of customs laws.” Earlier this week, a man was stopped at Sialkot International Airport after he arrived from the United Arab E...

State-owned energy company Pakistan Petroleum Ltd on Thursday issued a clarification that it was enabling safe drilling operations in a marshy area near Sujawal and not reclaiming land from the sea to build an island. US outlet Bloomberg reported a day ago that PPL was reclaiming land from the sea to create a launchpad to ramp up oil and gas exploration. Citing PPL’s General Manager Exploration and Core Business Development, Arshad Palekar, Bloomberg reported that the artificial island would be created about 30 kilometres off the coast of Sindh, near Sujawal. However, in a statement issued today, available with Dawn, PPL said: “We would like to clarify that the aforesaid media coverage is misleading and does not fully reflect the technical scope and design of the project. “The activities underway relate to enabling safe drilling operations in a challenging marshy environment, rather than the development of a standalone offshore island. This is a technically complex and unique initiative, and is among the firs...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday said that a recent report submitted to the United States Congress had validated Pakistan’s triumph in the military confrontation with India in May. “Pakistan’s military success over India in its four-day clash showcased Chinese weaponry,” said the report submitted by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Following an attack on tourists in occupied Kashmir, which New Delhi, without evidence, linked with Pakistan, India launched deadly air strikes in Punjab and Azad Kashmir on May 7, marking the beginning of the four-day clash. After tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases by the two sides, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally reach a ceasefire. After laying the foundation stone for the Daanish School in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Bagh, the PM said in a speech that US President Donald Trump had also acknowledged multiple times that Pakistan downed seven Indian aircraft. “The exemplary performance of the Pakistan Arme...

Two cops were martyred and four were injured when a police van was targeted with a bomb in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan, an official said. DI Khan District Police Officer (DPO) Sajjad Ahmad Sahibzada confirmed the casualties to Dawn. He said that a “remotely controlled bomb was detonated when an armoured police vehicle of the Takwara checkpost was patrolling on the Hathala-Giloti road as per its routine”. “As a result, Driver Ramzan and Constable Saifur Rehman lost their lives. Hawaldar Shahid and constables Mehboob Alam, Asif and Kifayat were injured.” The incident comes just over a week after a bomb attack in DI Khan’s Daraban tehsil injured at least 14 security personnel when an improvised explosive device (IED) damaged a security forces vehicle. Pakistan has witnessed a surge in terror activities in the past year, especially in KP and Balochistan, after the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in November 2022 and vowed to attack security forces, police,...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has accused Texas Governor Greg Abbott of promoting “anti-Muslim hysteria” and advancing policies that serve the interests of Israel rather than Texans after the group was designated as a terrorist organisation in the American state. “Greg Abbott is an Israel First politician who has spent months stoking anti-Muslim hysteria to smear American Muslims critical of the Israeli government. Although we are flattered by his obsession with our civil rights group, his defamatory proclamation has no basis in fact or law,” CAIR, the largest Muslim civil liberties organisation in the United States, said in a statement. It came after Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as “foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organisations”. “Unlike Mr Abbott — who unleashed violence against Texas students protesting the Gaza genocide to satisfy his AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) donors — our civil rights organisation is an independent voice that ans...

The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of the India-0ccupied Kashmir on Thursday raided the office of the region’s oldest English news agency, Kashmir Times, as part of the SIA’s action against media networks that are allegedly “aiding separatist narratives”, Indian media reported. A statement issued by Kashmir Times editors Prabodh Jamwal and Anuradha Basin said that “coordinated crackdown on the Kashmir Times [is] yet another attempt to silence us”. According to The Indian Express, the raid was carried out following the registration of a first information report (FIR) alleging the “organisation’s involvement in anti-national activities and attempts to spread disaffection against the country”. As per “official sources, the FIR mentions alleged activities and communications that are under scrutiny for ‘potential threats to the sovereignty and integrity of India’”, the news agency said. During the raid, SIA officials went through “documents, digital equipment and other material as part of the investigation,” add...

The top leadership of the federal coalition partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement–Pakistan (MQM-P) pointed out on Thursday that constitutional provisions require the creation of new provinces after certain conditions are met, as politicking heats up ahead of a possible 28th constitutional amendment. The party claimed on Monday that its proposed constitutional amendment, aimed at empowering local governments, would now be advanced as the 28th amendment, marking what the party called a “national, not merely Karachi-centric” reform initiative which would materialise in the coming months. Speaking to reporters in Chiniot earlier, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah had also said that the 28th amendment, dealing with “public issues such as local bodies, population, the National Finance Commission … health-related issues”, could be introduced if there was political consensus. The top leadership of MQM-P addressed a press conference in Karachi today, flanked by Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori,...

Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi on Thursday underscored that delivering timely justice is not only a constitutional duty but also a moral imperative.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has clarified that if proceedings in an earlier suit are already underway, any subsequent suit filed on the same cause of action may be dismissed under Order II Rule 2 of the Civil Procedure Code (CPC).

The Punjab Environment Protection Agency, in collaboration with the Punjab Safe City Authority, has launched a major crackdown across Lahore targeting vehicles operating without mandatory Green Stickers.

In a major move to modernize judicial proceedings and ensure timely justice, the Lahore High Court has launched a video link facility across district and ex-cadre courts in Punjab.

IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja arrived in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on Wednesday to oversee business-to-business agreements with Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) member countries and strengthen regional collaboration, the IT ministry said.

The F-35 fighter jets the United States plans to sell Saudi Arabia will be less advanced than those operated by Israel, in line with a US law that guarantees Israel’s military edge in the region, US officials and defence experts said on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump announced the sale this week, but officials said the Saudi aircraft will lack the superior features of Israel’s fleet, which include advanced weapons systems and electronic warfare equipment. Israel enjoys unique permissions to modify its F-35s, including the ability to integrate its own weapons systems and add radar-jamming capabilities and other upgrades that do not require US approval. Still, the Israeli Air Force opposed the planned sale, warning in a position paper to political leaders that it would undermine Israel’s air superiority in the region, The Times of Israel reported on Tuesday. Even if Saudi Arabia gets the jets, it is unlikely to receive the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), next-generation air-to-air missiles...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan Armed Forces delivered a “strong slap” to India during a four-day conflict and expressed confidence that Pakistan would soon achieve victory in the economic arena as well.