Karachi | Pakistan

Light to moderate rainfall accompanied by high winds was reported in multiple areas across Karachi on Saturday evening, marking the second consecutive day of rain in the current monsoon spell. Rain was reported in Scheme 33, Gulshan-i-Maymar and adjoining areas, while a light drizzle fell in Hassan Square. Heavy rain was reported in Gulistan-i-Jauhar. Video footage also showed commuters travelling through 4K Chowrangi in Surjani Town amid heavy rainfall. Light rainfall was also reported in Saddar, multiple blocks of Clifton and the Defence Housing Authority (DHA). In a meeting held today, the provincial chief secretary directed provincial and district authorities to activate the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) and district control rooms immediately, while ordering the submission of 24-hour situation reports every morning throughout the monsoon season for continuous monitoring. Chairing the meeting on monsoon preparedness, the chief secretary stressed that contingency plans must include the ide...

Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) leader Mustafa Kamal on Saturday announced that the party would take to the streets against the injustice being meted out to Karachi. Kamal, who is also the federal health minister, made the announcement while addressing a press conference in Karachi, where he railed against the Sindh government’s indifference towards the metropolis and its people. “MQM-P has decided that it will no longer stay quiet. We will adopt all the ways listed in the Constitution. We spoke in assemblies, they do not agree. We presented a constitutional amendment, they do not agree. Now, we will make use of the streets while staying within the law and the Constitution. We will come onto the streets with the people,” he said. “The law and the Constitution give us the right to come out onto the streets. Pakistan is at a point where it cannot function under the same system any longer,” he said. This system, he said, was the one with four provinces and a federating unit. Referring to the distributi...

Mustafa Kamal says party to launch street demonstrations against Sindh govt's 'systematic injustice' towards Karachi

The metropolis received the first spell of monsoon showers on Friday after multiple localities reported light to moderate rain. According to Dawn News, Azizabad, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Sharea Faisal, Sohrab Goth, Gulshan-i-Maymar, Ancholi, Manghopir, Surjani Town, North Karachi, North Nazimabad, Super Highway, Ahsanabad and Nazimabad experienced rain. It added that Site Area, Rizvia, Golimar, Liaquatabad, Orangi Town, Benaras, Ibrahim Hyderi, Clifton, DHA, Korangi, Landhi, Malir, Shah Faisal Colony, Model Town and other neighbourhoods also received rain. Meanwhile, the Karachi traffic police warned citizens to drive at a slow speed as the rain had made the roads “slippery”. “The public is requested to keep their vehicles at a slow speed. Motorcycle riders are requested to use the left side of the road, keep their vehicles at a slow speed while travelling, exercise caution, and avoid unnecessary travel,” it said in a statement. The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast cloudy weath...

KARACHI: The police on Thursday killed the alleged abductor and murderer of a six-year-old girl in a shootout after the suspect allegedly opened fire on law enforcers during a raid in Karachi’s Keamari area. According to a statement issued by the Keamari police spokesperson, a first information report (No. 265/2026) under Sections 364-A and 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered at Jackson Police Station regarding the abduction and murder of a six-year-old girl. The spokesperson stated that police obtained CCTV footage from various locations along with other available evidence, which was thoroughly examined during the investigation. “Based on the CCTV footage and information gathered during the investigation, police received credible information regarding the whereabouts of a suspect,” the spokesperson said. Acting on this information, he said, a police party reached the Mubarak Mosque area, within the jurisdiction of Jackson Police Station. “However, upon seeing the police party, the suspect opened fi...

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast partly cloudy and humid weather with chances of light drizzle in Karachi, while intense heat is expected to continue across Balochistan and most parts of Lahore.

Pakistan’s domestic aviation network received a significant boost on Wednesday as South Air commenced scheduled flight operations from Jinnah International Airport, Karachi, introducing new routes aimed at improving regional connectivity and supporting tourism and economic activity across the country.

South Air’s inaugural flights from Karachi to Quetta, via Turbat, and to Islamabad, via Bahawalpur, departed from Jinnah International Airport on Thursday morning, the Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA) said in a statement. The authority added that the new carrier’s flight operations have “ further strengthened Pakistan’s domestic air connectivity”. “The new services represent an important addition to the domestic flight network at Jinnah International Airport, providing passengers with enhanced travel options and improved connectivity.” Initially, South Air will operate one weekly flight on the Karachi-Quetta route via Turbat and three weekly flights on the Karachi-Islamabad route via Bahawalpur. The airline plans to expand its operations with additional flights from Karachi to Peshawar, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur and Gwadar, according to the PAA. “These new air services are expected to promote tourism, facilitate trade and improve travel convenience by strengthening regional connectivity across Pakistan,” PAA sa...

KARACHI: A Karachi court on Thursday remanded three suspects in the Dr Akash murder case into police custody for seven days to facilitate further investigation into the robbery-cum-murder in Karachi's Frere area.

KARACHI - Authorities on Tuesday said that terrorism perpetrated from Afghanistan was behind the militant attack in Karachi, where at least three personnel of the Pakistan Rangers were martyred last month.

Police on Tuesday said that the “mastermind” of the deadly attack on a Rangers camp in Karachi last month has been arrested, adding that the terrorists had training and “backing from Afghanistan”. On the night of June 27, terrorists attacked the local headquarters of the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar area, during which three security personnel were martyred and four were injured, according to Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR). ISPR said the attack was carried out by terrorists “belonging to Indian proxy Jamaatul Ahrar” (JuA), adding that three terrorists were killed in retaliatory action while one was arrested, whom it identified as an Afghan national. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday alongside Home Minister Ziaul Hassan Lanjar, City Senior Superintendent of Police Irfan Bahadur detailed the involvement of elements from Afghanistan in the “entire planning” and execution of the attack. The SSP identified the “mastermind” of the attack as Qari Basheer alias Qari Habib, add...

KARACHI: The funeral pray­ers in absentia for flight engineer Muhammad Arif Siddiqui, one of the five crew members of a cargo plane that crashed in the Arabian Sea on July 7, were offered near his residence in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on Sunday. A K2 Airways Boeing 737-400 cargo aircraft, en route from Sharjah to Karachi, had crashed in the Arabian Sea, about 300 kilometres west of Karachi. Rescuers found the wreckage in a deep-sea search operation. Five crew members, including two pilots, two engineers, and one support staffer, were on board the aircraft, and their bodies have still not been found. On Sunday, a large number of people offered funeral prayers in absentia for Siddiqui, which was led by his son, Abdul Rafay. Moving scenes were witnessed during and after the funeral prayers. People demanded that the government intensify efforts to locate the bodies of the victims. JI leader slams ‘inadequate efforts’ to locate bodies of five K2 Airways crew members City leadership of the Jamaat-i-Islami also attended th...

KARACHI: Two more children have tested positive for HIV in Karachi, taking the number of reported cases linked to treatment at Kulsum Bai Valika Hospital higher amid an ongoing investigation into the outbreak.

The Sindh government on Friday ordered a private school in Karachi to reverse fee hikes imposed during the summer holidays. In a letter addressed to the principal and administrator of Veritas Learning Circle (Primary), dated July 10 (Friday), Sindh’s Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions — part of the provincial government’s School Education and Literacy Department — referred to a hearing held the previous day regarding complaints about the school’s “illegal and extraordinary” fee hike. A copy of the letter is available with Dawn. “During the course of the hearing, it was determined that your school, including all of its campuses, had enhanced tuition fees without the approval of the registration authority, in violation of the Rule 7(6) of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Rules 2005,” the letter said. The rule states that “any complaint regarding the tuition fees in violation of the rules or charging of any fee other than tuition fees shall be li...

ISLAMABAD / KARACHI: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Thursday recalled expansive Supreme Court orders from 2018 and 2019, which had authorised the Sindh government to demolish a number of illegally constructed buildings in Karachi, including the infamous 15-storey Nasla Tower on Sharae Faisal. In a judgement billed as redefining the boundaries of exercising judicial authority, the FCC ruled that though the objective behind the SC directions to demolish illegal buildings were well-intentioned and aimed at improvement of the city, the enforcement of building laws remained primarily within the domain of the provincial government, not the judiciary. Justice Aamer Farooq, who authored the judgement, was heading a two-judge FCC bench that had taken up a set of appeals initially moved before the Supreme Court, but later transferred to FCC after the passage of the 27th Constitutional Amendment. The ruling emphasised that it was for the government and its agencies to take all necessary legal measures to ensu...

KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Thursday handed over a 20-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting and murdering a six-year-old boy to police on a five-day physical remand. The child’s body had been found in an empty plot near Karachi’s Lea Market on the night of July 7, a day after he went missing. Police said that although doctors had collected samples to ascertain sexual assault, the arrested suspect had confessed during the initial probe to kidnapping the boy for that purpose. Napier police presented the suspect at City Courts on Thursday under tight security, with his face covered. The investigation officer (IO) requested a 14-day physical remand, seeking time to interrogate the suspect to arrest his accomplices. The IO also informed the court that a provision related to rape had been added to the case. Subsequently, the court sent the suspect on a five-day physical remand and directed the IO to produce him at the next hearing along with a progress report. On the complaint of the boy’s father, the N...

Karachi residents received respite from the recent heat as sea breeze and increased cloud cover lowered temperatures, with the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) forecasting light drizzle and partly cloudy skies over the next three days.

KARACHI: A sessions court on Thursday sentenced a man to death on two counts in a case pertaining to the 2019 murder of TV anchor Mureed Abbas and his friend over a monetary dispute. Prime suspect Atif Zaman and his brother, Adil Zaman, were arrested and booked by the police for killing Abbas and Khizer Hayat, who were their business partners, in Karachi’s Khayaban-i-Bukhari area on the night of July 9, 2019, seven years ago. Daniyal Muhammad Hussain — a part of the legal team that represented the complainant, Abbas’s wife, alongside Advocate Jibran Nasir — said that Adil Zaman had been declared an absconder in the case after escaping following the cancellation of his bail by the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry. He remains an absconder. Abbas was a Bol News anchorperson. In the incident — which at the time was said to be a “personal dispute” — he was gunned down while Hayat also received multiple bullet wounds. Hayat was shifted to a private hospital but he succumbed to his wounds, according to the police. I...

KARACHI: A missing six-year old boy was found raped and murdered near Karachi’s Lea Market on Wednesday, with the police claiming to have arrested a 20-year old suspect who happened to be a neighbour of the victim. Napier police said that the body of the boy was found at Punjab Gali near Spencer’s Eye Hospital, and moved to Karachi’s Civil Hospital for legal formalities. Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said that the body was “decomposed” and there were “multiple bone injuries”. “All samples have been collected for sexual violence and chemical analysis,” she said, adding that the cause of death was “reserved”. Deputy Inspector General (DIG) South Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that although doctors had collected samples to ascertain sexual assault, the arrested suspect had confessed during the initial probe to kidnapping the boy for that purpose. After allegedly killing the boy, the suspect kept the body on the rooftop of his house. It was later thrown from the third floor into an empty plot on Tuesday night, wrappe...

The US consulates in Lahore and Karachi are set to resume regular consular services from July 20, 2026, the US Embassy in Islamabad said in a statement on Wednesday. The consulates will provide services to US citizens as well as process non-immigrant visa applications. US consular services in Lahore and Karachi were suspended in March after protests turned deadly at the onset of the US-Israel war with Iran. On March 1, 10 people were killed in Karachi when protesters clashed with law enforcement personnel near the US Consulate on Mai Kolachi Road. Law enforcement personnel resorted to teargas shelling and baton-charge to control the situation, and US Marines were reported to have opened fire on the protestors. Protest against the attacks on Iran also took place in Islamabad, where at least two protesters died and over 30 were injured during clashes with law enforcement personnel near the Diplomatic Enclave. Following the protests, on March 4, the US State Department ordered non-emergency personnel from US con...