Pakistan | Pakistan

Pakistan and Iran have signed several Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) aimed at enhancing collaboration in the media and broadcasting sectors.

Pakistan on Tuesday welcomed dozens of Sikh pilgrims from India, AFP journalists saw, in the first major crossing since deadly clashes in May closed the Wagah-Attari border in Punjab between the nuclear-armed neighbours. More than 2,100 pilgrims were granted visas to attend a 10-day festival marking the 556th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith, Pakistan’s High Commission (embassy) in New Delhi said last week. Indian Sikh pilgrims gesture upon their arrival in Pakistan after crossing the India-Pakistan Wagah border in Wagah on November 4, 2025, on the eve of celebrations marking the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism. — AFP/ Narinder Nanu Tensions remain high between Islamabad and New Delhi after the worst fighting since 1999 took place in May. The Wagah-Attari border — the only active land crossing between the two countries — was closed to general traffic following the conflict. Pilgrims queued up on the Indian side of the border on Tuesday morning, some carrying their...

Experts have cautioned that Pakistan cannot achieve true resilience unless water, food, and climate challenges are tackled collectively rather than as separate issues.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday launched Pakistan’s first Google Chromebook assembly line and hailed it as a “historic milestone” that would make digital tools more accessible. “Today marks a historic milestone in that journey as we celebrate the invaluable partnership between Google and Pakistan,” Dar said while addressing a ceremony marking the launch in Islamabad. Terming the move a “defining moment for our country’s digital transformation”, the deputy PM said localising the assembly of Chromebooks would make access to digital tools more affordable and inclusive, particularly in the education sector. Dar, who is also the foreign minister, said the assembly line’s establishment held great economic significance as it laid the “foundation for jobs, supply chain, development and future tech exports”. Dar said that under a strategic memorandum of understanding, Google and Pakistan would “collaborate to provide skills training for 100,000 developers nationwide while also developing targeted programmes...

Canada and Pakistan have agreed to facilitate the export of Canadian canola to the South Asian nation, the countries said in a joint statement issued late on Monday. Canada has been looking to open new markets for the commodity after China announced preliminary anti-dumping duties on Canadian canola imports in August, a year after Canada said it would levy a 100 per cent tariff on imports of Chinese electric vehicles. In a joint statement released late on Monday, the two countries said that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had held a phone call with Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand on October 30, “reaffirming the strong and enduring ties between Pakistan and Canada and emphasising the importance of deepening cooperation in areas of mutual interest”. “Pakistan and Canada agreed to facilitate the export of Canadian canola to Pakistan, recognising the significant potential of Pakistan’s expanding market for this Canadian commodity,” the statement said. It added that the ministers also we...

Reacting to Trump’s statement on nuclear weapons testing, Army spokesman says Pakistan will continue to carry out tests, trials as required for national security Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry says India planning false-flag operation in deep sea Says no negotiations with terrorists.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Tuesday that Pakistan’s economy was in a “good spot”, attributing this to macroeconomic stability and “geopolitical tailwinds”. “Where we are as a country, we find ourselves in a good spot at this point and time because there is a confluence of factors,” he said, adding that macroeconomic stability combined with “geopolitical tailwinds” had boosted the economy. The finance minister made these remarks in a virtual address at the second edition of the Pakistan International Maritime Expo and Conference 2025 (PIMEC-25), which is being held in Karachi. “Our traditional partners, who have helped us through thick and thin … we find ourselves in a spot that we can now leverage, and we should leverage — in terms of these relationships which have been strong for the longest time — to move from government-to-government (G2G) discussions to trade and investment flows into the country,” he said. In his address, the finance minister described blue economy as a game changer for P...

ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said on Monday that Pakistan was winning the battle of narratives by portraying accurate and undeniable facts to the world, in the face of Indian propaganda and falsehood.

ISLAMABAD - Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif said on Monday that Pakistan has re-emerged as a credible and confident voice in international affairs “forging alliances, not dependencies.

Pakistan and other Muslim countries on Monday slammed Israeli violations of the fragile Gaza ceasefire and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territory, according to the Foreign Office (FO). Hamas and Israel signed a ceasefire agreement on October 9, agreeing to free the Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, in the first phase of United States President Donald Trump’s initiative to end the Israeli onslaught in Gaza. Pakistan was one of the eight Arab and Muslim countries to work with Trump on the plan. Despite occasional flare-ups, the fragile truce has been holding in Gaza. The truce, which left thorny issues like the disarmament of Hamas and a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza unresolved, has been tested by unilateral Israeli bombardment since coming into force. The foreign ministers of Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Qatar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan — the same countries that met with Trump on Sept 23 on the sidelines of the...

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday that Pakistan had successfully re-established itself as a respected voice in regional and international forums due to the efforts of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. “Through the prime minister’s sustained diplomatic outreach, Pakistan has successfully re-established itself as a respected voice in regional and international forums, from the United Nations and SCO to OIC and the World Economic Forum,” said the defence minister while addressing a seminar organised by the Institute of Regional Studies, Islamabad. He said the government’s current diplomacy reflected a “confident and forward-looking” Pakistan that engaged constructively, built bridges and believed in the power of partnerships. “These achievements reaffirm a simple truth. When guided by clarity of purpose, coherence of policy and continuity of engagement, Pakistan’s diplomacy becomes its strongest national asset. Ladies and gentlemen, our journey of diplomacy is far from over. The progress we have made is ...

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said on Monday that Pakistan was winning the battle of narratives by portraying accurate and undeniable facts to the world, in the face of Indian propaganda and falsehood.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Monday said that Pakistan’s economic direction had been set right through a series of structural reforms, which were now being operationalised to ensure sustainable and inclusive growth. “I believe there is a broad consensus that we have made significant inroads and achieved considerable progress in terms of macroeconomic stability,” he said while addressing a joint news conference on economic reforms. He was accompanied by Power Minister Awais Leghari, Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Chairman Rashid Mahmood Langrial and Adviser to the Prime Minister on Privatisation Muhammad Ali. Aurangzeb said the government had achieved macroeconomic stability, as evidenced by external validation: three leading international rating agencies upgraded Pakistan after a gap of three years. “These agencies are now aligned not only on where we stand but also on our positive outlook,” he added. He said the successful completion of the seco...

Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has said Islamabad is pursuing diplomacy, reflecting a confident, future-focused Pakistan that builds bridges and values partnerships.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast rain, strong winds, and snowfall across the country’s upper regions this week as a new westerly wave enters Pakistan tonight.

Pakistan’s security is solely the responsibility of its armed forces and no such guarantee will be extended to Kabul, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said while briefing senior journalists.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has unveiled a comprehensive plan to help Pakistan safeguard its vital water resources, agricultural productivity, and energy systems in the face of growing climate change challenges.

US President Donald Trump has included Pakistan among countries that he claims are “testing nuclear weapons”, saying that he did not want the US to be the only country that does not do so. “North Korea has been testing. Pakistan has been testing. […] But they don’t go and tell you about it,” he said in an interview on CBS News programme ‘60 Minutes’, where he was asked about his recent directives to the Pentagon to resume testing nuclear weapons. He also named Russia and China as testing nuclear weapons. In a recent social media post, Trump had instructed the US Department of War to resume testing nuclear weapons “immediately”. Confusion has surrounded Trump’s order that the US begin testing, particularly if he meant conducting the country’s first nuclear explosion since 1992. When the matter was brought up during the interview, Trump said: “Well, we have more nuclear weapons than any other country. I think we should do something about denuclearisation. And I did actually discuss that with both Russian Presid...

Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal on Monday termed Pakistan a “natural maritime bridge” between the East and the West as he inaugurated the second edition of Pakistan International Maritime Expo and Conference (PIMEC) in Karachi. The event is being held from today to November 6 (Thursday) at Karachi’s Expo Centre, and will see the participation of 45 countries, including Pakistan. It has been organised under the overall responsibility of the Pakistan Navy and with the support and patronage of federal and provincial departments. Addressing PIMEC, Iqbal highlighted that Pakistan had a unique geography as the regions of South Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa converged here, which positioned the country as a “natural maritime bridge between the East and the West”. However, despite these advantages, the maritime sector contributed less than 1pc to Pakistan’s GDP, compared to 4-7pc in several other maritime nations, he lamented. The planning minister pointed out that Pakistan had a coastline of over 1,000...

• Urges govt to ensure market-determined, flexible exchange rate • Calls for deeper reforms to cut energy, input costs ISLAMABAD: The World Bank has asked Pakistan to improve its skewed preferential trade agreements with 10 bilateral partners, ensure a market-determined and flexible exchange rate and push deeper reforms to lower energy and other input costs to turbocharge over three decades of declining exports for sustainable economic growth. In a policy advice to the government, the bank observed that nearly all countries that have achieved rapid and durable growth have done so by tapping into global markets, but Pakistan has struggled to follow this path. “Exports have declined from 16 per cent of GDP in the 1990s to just around 10pc in 2024, with the export basket still concentrated in low-value textile and agricultural products,” it said, adding that economic upturns had been fuelled instead by debt and remittance-financed consumption, rather than export dynamism. The Washington-based lending agency has ...