India | Pakistan

The high-level delegation tasked with presenting Pakistan’s position on the ongoing dispute with India has scheduled to meet on June 2, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said on Wednesday. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif decided to send a diplomatic delegation to important world capitals in the aftermath of the recent military escalation with India. He entrusted the PPP Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to lead the delegation. The delegation comprises Senator Rehman, former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Dr Musadik Malik, Engineer Khurram Dastgir, Faisal Subzwari, Tehmina Janjua, Senator Bushra Anjum Butt and Jalil Abbas Jilani. Speaking on DawnNewsTV programme ‘Doosra Rukh’, Senator Rehman said that the diplomatic committee had decided to visit various countries before Eidul Azha. “The committee, headed by Bilawal, will begin its tour of various countries on June 2, starting from New York,” she said. She added, “The committee will first go to New York, then Washington...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday reiterated Pakistan’s willingness to hold talks with India on the Kashmir dispute and counterterrorism, stressing New Delhi wanted the same “in all sincerity”. The prime minister participated in the Pakistan-Turkiye-Azerbaijan Trilateral Summit alongside presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev. The meeting comes as the premier continued his tour to friendly countries to appreciate their support for Pakistan during the recent conflict with India. Speaking at the summit, PM Shehbaz said: “I have said in all humility that we want peace in the region […] and that requires talks on the table on issues which need urgent attention and amicable resolution, that is the issue of Kashmir according to the resolutions of the United Nations and the Security Council and as per the aspirations of the people of Kashmir.” The premier also touched upon the issue of terrorism: “I have said in all earnest that if India wants to talk on countering terrorism in sincerity of purpos...

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday hailed Pakistan’s nuclear capability, saying it continued to serve as a credible minimum deterrent, as evidenced in the recent hostilities with India. With a public holiday, the nation is celebrating Youm-i-Takbeer to mark the historic day of May 28, 1998 when Pakistan joined the ranks of nuclear powers after atomic tests in the hills of Chagai, Balochistan. Pakistan became the seventh nuclear nation in the world and the first Muslim state to have a nuclear arsenal. PM Shehbaz emphasised that Youm-i-Takbeer was more than a celebration and was a solemn reminder of Pakistan’s resolve to safeguard its sovereignty, according to his statement carried by the Associated Press of Pakistan. He linked this year’s commemoration with what he described as Pakistan’s recent success in defending itself from “an unjustified war imposed by India”. Appreciating the nation’s spirit during the confrontation, the premier said, “The joys of Youm-i-Takbeer ha...

The Foreign Office on Wednesday condemned the “inflammatory monologue” delivered by Indian PM Narendra Modi in Gujarat, urging India to “return to the core principles of international order”. The developments follow a recent military confrontation between India and Pakistan over New Delhi’s allegations against Islamabad, without evidence, about a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam. On the night of May 6-7, New Delhi launched a series of air strikes in Pakistan, resulting in civilian casualties. Islamabad responded by downing five Indian jets. After intercepting drones sent by India and tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally drop their guns as a ceasefire was reached. In a video posted by Indian news outlet ANI, Modi, addressing India’s youth, calls into question the contents of the Indus Waters Treaty. He said, “If you study the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty, you’ll be shocked.” He continued, “It was decided that the dams built on t...

India’s defence minister has approved a framework for building the country’s most advanced stealth fighter jet, the defence ministry said on Tuesday, amid a new arms race with Pakistan weeks after a military conflict between the neighbours. Indian state-run Aeronautical Development Agency, which is executing the programme, will shortly invite initial interest from defence firms for developing a prototype of the warplane, envisaged as a twin-engine 5th generation fighter, the ministry said. The project is crucial for the Indian Air Force, whose squadrons of French, Russian and ex-Soviet aircraft have fallen to 31 from an approved strength of 42 at a time when rival China is expanding its air force rapidly. Pakistan has one of China’s advanced warplanes, the J-10, in its arsenal, which it claims to have used to shoot down India’s latest French Rafale jets in the recent fighting. Militaries of nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan faced-off in four days of fighting this month, which saw use of fighter jets...

• High-level team due in NY to counter Indian lobbying, Bilawal likely to head delegation • Indian team led by Tharoor is already in US, assailing Trump’s role in truce A HIGH-LEVEL Pakistani delegation is arriving in New York next week to present Islamabad’s position on the ongoing dispute with India as an Indian parliamentary team is already in the United States to step up its own lobbying campaign. The Pakistani delegation currently includes Federal Minister for Environment Musadik Masood Malik, former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Senator Bushra Rahman, Khurram Dastagir, former ambassadors to Washington Jalil Abbas Jilani and Sherry Rehman. The group is expected to arrive in New York on June 1. PPP Chairman and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto- Zardari is scheduled to lead the delegation. However, with the possible addition of two new destinations to the itinerary, the final list of participants is still being finalised. There is also a possibility that Pakistan may send two separate delegatio...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday expressed his willingness to talk with India to resolve ongoing disputes between the two countries, including the Kashmir issue and water security, during his visit to Iran. The PM is currently on a four-nation tour to friendly countries, where he will express his gratitude for supporting Pakistan during the recent military escalation with India. Earlier on Monday, PM Shehbaz was received Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at Saadabad Palace in the Iranian capital, where he received a guard of honour. View this post on Instagram Addressing a joint press conference with Iranian President Masood Pezeshkian, PM Shehbaz said that the two countries’ delegations had a “very productive and useful meeting … which covered all areas of our mutual interests and cooperation”. “There was total agreement that our two brotherly and neighbourly countries must enhance our cooperation in the field of trade, investments, commerce, in fact, every walk of life,” he said. The prime minister...

In another incident amid a growing crackdown on alleged espionage, Indian authorities on Monday said they arrested a paramilitary police officer on charges of “spying for Pakistan” following a recent military confrontation between the two neighbouring countries. The developments follow a military confrontation between India and Pakistan over New Delhi’s allegations against Islamabad, without evidence, about a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam. On the night of May 6-7, New Delhi launched a series of air strikes in Pakistan, resulting in civilian casualties. Islamabad responded by downing five Indian jets. After intercepting drones sent by India and tit-for-tat strikes on each other’s airbases, it took American intervention on May 10 for both sides to finally drop their guns as a ceasefire was reached. Last week, Indian police arrested 10 people in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi —including a travel vlogger and a university professor — over their alleged connections to Pakistan or comments related to the r...

India’s coastguard raced on Monday to contain an oil spill from a container ship with hazardous cargo that sank off the southern coast a day earlier, Kerala’s state government said. The Liberian-flagged MSC ELSA 3, listed as a 184 meter freight ship, went down off the coast of Kerala on Sunday, with all 24 crew members rescued. It was carrying 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide, a chemical used for fertiliser production and steelmaking. The vessel also contained some 370 tonnes of fuel and oil. “The Coast Guard is taking action to prevent the spread of oil using two ships,” Kerala’s government said in a statement. “The work of spraying dust to destroy the oil is in progress using a Dornier aircraft”. Crew members of a Liberian-flagged container vessel MSC ELSA 3 sit after they were rescued off Kerala Coast, India on May 24, 2025. — Reuters India’s defence ministry said the ship sank “due to flooding” some 38 nautical miles southwest of Kochi, raising concerns f...

India has initiated work on a series of hydropower projects in the disputed Ladakh region, sparking serious concerns over violations of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and escalating regional tensions.

DG ISPR Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry says India’s face is visible behind every terror activity in Pakistan Asks Afghan elites not to become stooges of India against Pakistan Time has come for IIOJK to become part of Pakistan.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday expressed gratitude to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his nation’s support during a brief military confrontation with India. The PM is visiting Turkiye for two days as part of his four-nation tour to friendly countries, where he will express his gratitude for supporting Pakistan during the recent conflict. Earlier, state broadcaster PTV News reported that the PM and Erdogan had a delegation-level meeting in which Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir and Minister of Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar took part. According to PTV News, the meeting was “warm and most cordial” and both nations “reaffirmed the deep-rooted, historic, and brotherly ties between Pakistan and Türkiye, anchored in shared values, mutual respect, and a common vision for progress and prosperity”. A video posted by the broadcaster showed PM Shehbaz embracing President Erdogan before boarding a car and leaving Dolmabahce Pal...

Pakistan Army spokesperson Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has accused India of using Afghan soil to wage terrorism against Pakistan and urged the Afghan people not to allow their land to be used for such activities.

A Liberian-flagged container ship with hazardous cargo has sunk off the coast of Kerala in India’s south, the navy said on Sunday after rescuing all 24 crew members safely. India’s navy said the MSC ELSA 3, listed as a 184-metre-long freight ship, which was sailing from the Indian port of Vizhinjam to Kochi, ran into trouble on Saturday and issued a distress call. Navy aircraft scrambled to the area and spotted two life rafts, with the container ship listing at a dangerous angle, some 38 nautical miles southwest of Kochi. “All 24 crew members on board were rescued,” the Ministry of Defence said in a statement, with the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and a navy patrol boat collecting the sailors, who were from Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, and the Philippines. “The vessel went down with 640 containers, including 13 with hazardous cargo and 12 containing calcium carbide,” the statement said. The Defence Ministry did not specify what was inside the containers it said were hazardous. Calcium carbide is used in the chemical...

KARACHI: The Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA) organised an interactive session on ‘The Pakistan-India conflict’ in the institute library on Saturday. It was explained by PIIA chairperson Dr Masuma Hasan there was a need to hear different voices, especially the voices of the youth, regarding the recent conflict. Therefore, they decided to call on their research assistants to talk about the different themes of the conflict, as identified by them, for the audience to then take it from there. Taking the audience through the events of the past month or so, she also reminded how India, out of the blue, with no credible evidence, held Pakistan responsible for April 22’s Pahalgam attack, which was an intelligence failure on the part of India. “Then India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 and Pakistan suspended the Simla Agreement of 1972,” she said. “Then on May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistan. While defending the country very well, Pakistan retaliated on May 10, which w...

• Pakistan terms IWT suspension ‘dangerous escalation’ • Officials spar over India’s targeting of civilian areas UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has warned the United Nations that India’s unilateral decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) represents a dangerous escalation that violates international law and threatens the survival of more than 240 million people. Speaking at a UN meeting on protecting water in armed conflict on Friday evening, Pakistan urged the world community to act before such actions triggered a humanitarian catastrophe or destabilised the region. “This is a grave violation of international law, including human rights law, the treaty law and customary international law,” said Ambassador Usman Jadoon, Pakistan’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, at the Arria Formula meeting convened by Slovenia. “We strongly condemn India’s unlawful announcement to hold the Treaty in abeyance and call upon India to strictly abide by its legal obligations and refrain from stopping, diverting or r...

THE government of Bangladesh has cancelled a $21 million contract awarded to Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE), an Indian public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Defence, for the construction of an advanced ocean-going tug, The Hindu reported. According to the Indian publication, the cancellation closely follows India’s recent move to withdraw the transhipment facility previously extended to Bangladesh to export its cargo to third countries — a development that analysts interpret as signalling strain in bilateral relations. In a regulatory disclosure submitted to the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd and BSE Ltd under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Require­ments) Regulations, 2015, GRSE confirmed that the government of Bangladesh had cancelled the order, originally placed in July 2024. The cancellation adds to a series of geopolitical developments since the change in political leadership in Bangladesh following the fall of prime minis...

Monsoon rains hit the coast of India’s southernmost state of Kerala on Saturday, eight days earlier than usual, marking the earliest arrival in 16 years and providing the promise of a bumper harvest and relief from a gruelling heatwave. The monsoon, the lifeblood of the country’s $4 trillion economy, delivers nearly 70 per cent of the rain that India needs to water farms and replenish aquifers and reservoirs. Nearly half of India’s farmland, without any irrigation cover, depends on the annual June-September rains to grow a number of crops. Summer rains usually begin to lash Kerala around June 1 before spreading nationwide by mid-July, allowing farmers to plant crops such as rice, corn, cotton, soybeans and sugarcane. The onset of the southwest monsoon over Kerala on May 24 is its earliest onset since May 23, 2009, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Saturday. The monsoon has covered Kerala and parts of neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as well as parts of the northeastern state of Mizoram, ...

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday defended its decision to release a $1 billion tranche to Pakistan, despite India’s objection, by pointing out the country had met all requisite targets under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday warned India against any aggression and reaffirmed commitment to peace and ceasefire.