Islamabad | Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - The two-day 9th Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ministerial Conference on Women commenced in Islamabad yesterday, bringing together more than 190 delegates from 57 OIC member states to discuss strategies for advancing women’s socio-economic and political empowerment.

ISLAMABAD: A young patient allegedly died after being subjected to torture at a private mental health centre in Islamabad, prompting police to receive a complaint from the victim's family, authorities said.

Islamabad is set to host the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) 9th Ministerial Conference on Women on July 12-13, with delegations beginning to arrive on Saturday. The conference, with the theme “Socio-Economic and Political Empowerment of Women in the OIC Countries: Challenges and Way Forward”, is being organised by the human rights ministry and will be held at the Jinnah Convention Centre. It will bring together ministers responsible for women and family affairs, senior government officials, representatives of OIC institutions, international organisations and development partners to deliberate on advancing the socio-economic and political empowerment of women across the OIC member states, state-run APP noted. Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights Azam Nazeer Tarar will chair the conference on behalf of Pakistan. As the chair, Pakistan will lead the conference proceedings and work closely with OIC member states to foster dialogue, build consensus and advance collective efforts towards the empo...

WASHINGTON: Pakistan and the United States will begin two days of trade negotiations in Washington on Thursday, with tariffs expected to dominate the agenda as Islamabad seeks relief from new US import duties while pursuing a broader bilateral trade agreement. The talks, which were held on Wednesday as well, follow extensive negotiations over the tariff regime announced by President Donald Trump on April 2, 2025, under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which initially imposed a 29 per cent tariff on Pakistani exports. A Pakistani delegation that visited Washington in July 2025 succeeded in persuading US officials to reduce the proposed tariff to 19pc following discussions with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), officials familiar with the negotiations said. Two-day trade talks with US Trade Representative start today The delegation returning to Washington for the latest round of talks will be led by Commerce Secretary Jawad Paul and includes Foreign Office spok...

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday again warned the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the federal authorities against delaying local government (LG) elections, directing them to submit all pending delimitation notifications ahead of the next hearing on July 28. The tenure of LGs in KP ended on March 15 this year. According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, local representatives are elected for a four-year term. The term of the last local government in Islamabad expired in February 2021, and since then, elections have been delayed under various pretexts. As a result, around 2.5 million residents of Islamabad continue to face issues ranging from water shortages to unpaved streets. The ECP took up separate cases regarding the conduct of LG polls in KP and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). In the KP case, the KP chief secretary and LG secretary appeared before a four-member bench headed by Member Sindh Nisar Ahmed Durrani. In the Islamabad case, the Islamabad ...

Islamabad Inspector General (IG) Ali Nasir Rizvi on Sunday said that the suspect who allegedly shot dead a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) officer was arrested “within nine hours”. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the IG said the suspect was “arrested within nine hours” of the incident. IG Rizvi noted that PAF Group Captain Asim Tariq tried to “save” a woman after witnessing an argument between her and the suspect, but the man opened fire, which struck the officer. The IG highlighted that the group captain stopped the man when “he was trying to forcefully take the woman away with him”. He hailed the martyred officer as a “true patriot and citizen of Pakistan”, who did what anyone else would have after witnessing such an incident with a woman. IG Rizvi said the woman and the suspect used to work at a cash and carry outlet in G-6. The woman was a representative of a cosmetics company, while the man represented a brand of frozen food items. The police chief said it was the third time that the suspect was giv...

• Fresh round expected on July 11 • US, Iran trade barbs despite pause in negotiations • Trump mocks Khamenei funeral as Tehran vows justice against US, Israel • Iran warns against military activity by ‘extra-regional powers’ in Strait of Hormuz • Ghalibaf says post-war ‘realities have changed’, rejects US president’s remarks on food supplies WASHINGTON: Isla­ma­bad is emerging as the leading venue for the next round of technical negotiations between the United States and Iran, diplomatic sources told Dawn. The resumption of the talks is part of ongoing efforts to keep the diplomatic process on track and resolve longstanding disputes between Washington and Tehran. “There are two possible venues for the technical talks — Islamabad and the Burgenstock resort in Switzerland,” one diplomatic source said. “Islamabad, however, is the more likely option.” The technical talks are expected to take place on July 11, although a final decision on the venue has yet to be announced. According to diplomatic sources, the neg...

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is investigating a syndicate suspected of smuggling alleged human placenta from hospitals to produce anti-ageing injections, the BBC reported on Friday. According to the BBC, officials uncovered 500 kilogrammes of what is believed to be human placenta during a raid on an illegal processing facility in Islamabad last week, leading to the arrest of five people. Photographs shared by the agency showed trays of dried placenta arranged in trolley carts inside a house that had been “converted into a facility for storing and processing placenta,” the report added. FIA officials were also reported to have intercepted a 100kg shipment of placenta at Islamabad airport on Wednesday, which was bound for Vietnam. The five suspects bought the placenta from hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi at about Rs800 per piece, Hina Kanwal, an officer at the Human Organ Transplant Authority (HOTA), said, according to the BBC. The ring is accused of buying 200kg of the organs from various hospi...

Islamabad may host next Iran-US talks

Islamabad rejects allegations over missiles

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday noted the “non-assistance” of the federal government among the reasons for the delay in local government polls for Islamabad, summoning the city’s chief and deputy commissioners on July 7. The term of the last local government in Islamabad expired in February 2021, and since then, elections have been delayed under various pretexts. On Wednesday, a four-member ECP bench chaired by its Sindh member Nisar Ahmed Durrani resumed hearing the case. Appearing before the electoral watchdog, Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Irfan Nawaz Memon said the district administration has provided the maps required for the LG polls in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). In its subsequent order, the ECP said it was of the “considered view that the process of conduct of Local Government Election in ICT has been delayed on various accounts, including non-assistance of the federal government as mandated under the Constitution and law”. It expressed its “serious concern abo...

Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Wednesday that the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Lucerne Summit reinforced “our faith in dialogue and diplomacy as the most effective means for peaceful settlement of disputes and conflicts”. He made these remarks during a weekly media briefing in Islamabad, where he recalled Pakistan’s efforts for peace between the US and Iran in recent days. Pakistan has been leading the peace efforts since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran in late February, setting off a war and global fuel crisis as Tehran took measures to disrupt traffic in the Strait of Hormuz — a vital maritime corridor for the supply of oil and gas. The latest major developments pertaining to Pakistan’s efforts for de-escalation are the signing of the Islamabad MoU on June 18 — a 14-point accord aimed at ending the war — and key direct talks between the US and Iran, dubbed the Lake Lucerne Summit, held in Switzerland over the weekend. Pakistan’s efforts have been acknowl...

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has set July 1 as the deadline for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad authorities to submit pending maps and data needed for local government (LG) elections. The tenure of LGs in KP ended on March 15 this year. According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, local representatives are elected for a four-year term. The term of the last LG in Islamabad expired in February 2021, and since then, elections have been delayed under various pretexts. As a result, around 2.5 million residents of Islamabad continue to face issues ranging from water shortages to unpaved streets. Chairing a key meeting at the ECP Secretariat on Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, along with ECP members, the ECP secretary and senior officials, reviewed preparations for LG polls in the federal capital, Punjab and KP. The ECP expressed concern over the KP government’s failure to provide the requisite maps and other data for 15 districts despite re...

A 5.4-magnitude earthquake jolted parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Islamabad on Monday. According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the earthquake was recorded at 3:22pm at a depth of 215 kilometres with the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan as its epicentre. It was felt in Peshawar, Islamabad, Mansehra, Swat, Battagram, Abbottabad, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal, Mianwali, Multan and Potohar region, among other areas. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Rescue 1122 spokesperson in KP directed the public to contact their helpline immediately in case of an emergency. No reports of loss of life or destruction of property have been received in Punjab so far, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) spokesperson said in a statement. Citizens have been asked to contact the PDMA Punjab helpline at 1129 for any assistance or information related to the earthquake. In April, an earthquake of magnitude 5.7 jolted Islamabad and KP. Earlier that month, the areas also felt tremors ...

In 2018, a wildlife patrol found a skull and claw at the top of Trail 6 in the Margallah Hills, just behind Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. The rest of the animal’s body had either decomposed or been scavenged, but some of the skin on the claw remained intact. On closer inspection, it was found to have the rosette patterns of a leopard. Analysis confirmed that the animal had been a fully grown adult and had died a natural death. Its skull was sent to the Pakistan Museum of Natural History, where it has been kept in a lab and away from public display ever since. What was a shy, secretive and highly territorial leopard doing out here in its old age? No one could say for sure. Nevertheless, the discovery completely changed what we know about big cats in the capital. British gazetteers say leopards were found in Swat, Dir and Murree and even the Kala Chitta range to Islamabad’s west, but they make no mention of sightings in the Margallahs. At most there are mentions of jackal, deer, monkey and boar (tigers became ext...

ISLAMABAD - A local court in Islamabad on Thursday granted post-arrest bail to a doctor accused of involvement in an alleged illegal kidney transplant network, ruling that the case against him required further inquiry and that no active role had prima facie emerged against him at the current stage of proceedings.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday told Iran’s President Dr Masoud Pezeshkian that the recently signed ‘Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding’ (MoU) between Washington and Tehran would “go a long way towards” rebuilding Iran. According to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the premier made the remarks during a phone call with the Iranian president that lasted over 30 minutes. This was the first contact between the two leaders since the signing of the historic Islamabad MoU today, after the 14-point agreement was reached earlier on Monday. Under the deal, the two sides have agreed on a framework to end the war, reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a 60-day timeline for further talks. The prime minister congratulated Pezeshkian, the Iranian leadership and the “brotherly people of Iran on the signing of the historic peace deal”, said the PMO in an official press release. “The landmark deal, he said, would not only help restore peace in the region, but also go a long way in rebuilding the Iranian nation a...

Pakistan announced Thursday that a landmark memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran has entered into force with immediate effect, marking what Islamabad described as a major diplomatic breakthrough aimed at defusing regional tensions.

ISLAMABAD: Muharram processions and gatherings will be monitored digitally through drones while geo-tagging of all imambargahs, majalis venues and procession routes has been completed, according to an interior ministry statement detailing security arrangements for Islamabad. The statement was issued after Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi chaired a meeting to review security arrangements for Muharram in the federal capital. The statement said a special mobile application, ‘Mehfooz Muharram’, had also been launched, using which citizens could report any suspicious activity or individual or inadequate security arrangements. It will also have live location sharing and image sharing features. It added that a central control room had been established at Safe City as part of security arrangements, and a “four-tier security cordon” would be implemented to ensure the protection of Muharram processions and gatherings. The statement said Naqvi directed that a four-tier security cordon be maintained for the protection of M...

ISLAMABAD - The Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training, through the collective efforts of partner organizations, has referred more than 4,000 Out-of-School Children (OOSC) to private schools across Islamabad under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives as part of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ Campaign.