Pakistan

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The finance ministry on Friday issued notifications for a 10 per cent increase in the salaries of federal government employees, as well as granting Disparity Reduction Allowance (DRA) worth 30pc of basic pay, according to documents seen by Dawn.com. The pay hike was announced as part of the budget for the coming fiscal year, where the salaries of federal employees from Grade 1 to 22 would be raised by 10pc and retired government servants would be eligible for a 7pc pension increase. According to one of the notifications, dated July 4, basic pay to armed forces personnel, civil armed forces, and civil employees of the federal government are subject to the pay raise. The notification read that the pay would be “subject to income tax; admissible during leave and entire period of LPR except during extraordinary leave; will not be treated as part of emoluments for the purpose of calculation of pension/gratuity and recovery of house rent.” It further said that the pay would “not be admissible to the employees durin...

Pakpattan officials booked for criminal negligence

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Underscores dignity, privacy, protection from emotional harm of child

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Action follows injuries to three residents of neighbourhood

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Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has unveiled a comprehensive roadmap for good governance, pledging strict monitoring of all government departments and firm accountability for non-performance.

More than 5,500 police personnel will be deployed across Karachi on Friday for the security of 8th Muharram processions. Stringent security measures are being taken across the country, such as army deployment as well as a crackdown on sectarian content and hate mongers, ahead of Ashura (Muharram 10), which will be observed on Sunday. According to the Karachi police, as many as 829 processions and 5,227 majalis are scheduled to take place during the first 10 days of Muharram. “Karachi police [are] performing [their] duties at various locations in the city for the security of the 8th Muharram processions,” said a statement from the office of Karachi’s additional inspector general of police. A total of 5,543 police officers and personnel will be present to monitor and secure the central procession, the statement added. It continued that apart from senior officers and 4,957 constables and head constables of the Karachi police, 586 NGOs will also be performing duty for the security of the central procession. Exper...

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The Karachi Police on Friday said they had arrested the primary suspect allegedly involved in the gang-rape of a girl in Ittehad Town. In a statement issued today, Keamari Senior Superintendent of Police Captain (retired) Faizan Ali said that the Ittehad Town Police had registered the gang-rape case a day ago. He said the incident had occurred on July 1 when the detained suspect had forcibly taken away the victim on his bike to his dera (sitting place) in Ittehad Town, where he gang-raped her along with his friends. “The rape survivor managed to escape from the place at night and reached the home of her maternal uncle and later on informed the police about the incident,” he said, adding that her medical examination was carried out at the Civil Hospital Karachi and a case was subsequently registered. “The main suspect was arrested within hours after the registration of the case, while efforts are underway to arrest other suspects. “Such beasts are cancer for the society and they will be taken to task,” the SSP...

Six members of a family were killed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Friday when their car veered off the road and plummeted hundreds of feet, crashing onto the right bank of the Neelum River, officials said. The accident occurred at a sharp bend on the Neelum Valley road near Chilyana village, approximately 50 kilometres northeast of Muzaffarabad. Chilyana is located across from the Indian-occupied village of Titwal on the opposite bank of the Neelum River, a point that once served as a foot-crossing under the cross-Line of Control (LoC) travel arrangement before activity came to a halt in 2019. “Shortly after Friday prayers, a vehicle … went out of the driver’s control while negotiating a dangerous curve near Chilyana,” Akhtar Ayoub, the Neelum Valley District Disaster Management Officer (DDMO), told Dawn.com. “It rolled down the mountain slope but stopped just short of entering the river; otherwise, it would have been swept away by the violent current,” he added. Ayoub said that upon receiving reports ab...

Syria said on Friday it was willing to cooperate with the United States to reimplement the 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, which created a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the two countries’ forces. In a statement following a phone call with his US counterpart Marco Rubio, Asaad al-Shaibani expressed Syria’s “aspiration to cooperate with the United States to return to the 1974 disengagement agreement”. Washington has been pushing diplomatic efforts towards a normalisation deal between Syria and Israel, with envoy Thomas Barrack saying last week that peace between the two was now needed. Speaking to The New York Times, Barrack confirmed this week that Syria and Israel were engaging in “meaningful” US-brokered talks to end their border conflict. Following the toppling of longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad in December, Israel deployed its troops into the UN-patrolled zone separating Syrian and Israeli forces. It has also launched hundreds of air strikes on military targets in Syria and carried ou...

Foreign Office Spokesperson Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan on Friday highlighted Pakistan’s growing diplomatic profile at international and regional forums, including its assumption of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Presidency, participation in the 17th ECO Summit, and ongoing efforts for humanitarian and legal accountability in the.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says clean energy corridors and eco-tourism initiatives can further drive inclusive, sustainable growth, creating green jobs and supporting livelihoods and vulnerable regions.

A pet lion escaped and chased a woman and two children down a busy street in Lahore, police said on Friday, with dramatic footage showing the big cat leaping over a wall before pouncing on them. CCTV footage released by the police showed the lion jumping the barrier around its home and pursuing a woman carrying her shopping on Thursday night. The lion jumped on her back, knocking her to the ground, the footage showed. A police report quoted the father as saying the lion then turned to his five-year-old and seven-year-old children, and clawed their arms and faces. All three were taken to the hospital but were not in critical condition. View this post on Instagram The owners who ran out of the house were “amused to see their lion attack” the passersby, the father added in the report. Police said on Friday they had arrested three men. “The suspects fled from the spot, taking the lion with them. They were arrested within 12 hours of the incident,” the office of the Lahore Deputy Inspector General Operations told ...

Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz ordered the arrest of the Medical Superintendent (MS) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital Pakpattan on Friday, during a surprise visit to the hospital's trauma centre.