Pakistan

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) has arrested 89 terrorists in 940 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) launched across Punjab over the past three months, the department said in a statement on Monday. There has been a recent uptick in terror attacks in Pakistan over the past year. The CTD regularly carries out operations to prevent and investigate terrorism-related activities and gather intelligence. During the three months, 14 terrorists were arrested in Lahore, 14 in Rawalpindi, seven each in Faisalabad and Bahawalpur, six each in Jhang and Sargodha, five in Sahiwal, four from Gujranwala and three each from Bahawalnagar and Gujrat, the statement read. “Of the arrested terrorists, 55 belong to Fitna al Khawarij, five are from ISIS (Islamic State), and two each are from Al-Qaeda, Hizb-ut-Tahrir and Jeay Sindh,” the statement added. The state uses the term Fitna al Khawarij to refer to terrorists of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). According to the CTD, items seized during the raids include 2...

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in the federal capital has issued an arrest warrant for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Asad Qaiser in connection with the judicial complex attack case.

A large-scale anti-narcotics campaign has been launched in Balochistan to eradicate poppy cultivation and dismantle drug networks across the province.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has arrived in New York to participate in the high-level segment of the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), scheduled from September 22 to 26, 2025.

• Reservoirs hold more than 13.1MAF water, 99pc of peak capacity • Tarbela reaches full conservation level of 1,550 feet; Mangla nearly filled to brim • Chashma Barrage also attains record storage level of 649 feet; officials expect minimal water shortage in Rabi season; wheat to benefit most ISLAMABAD: After many years, Pakistan will begin the upcoming Rabi season with healthy carryover water storage of more than 13 million acre feet (MAF) in reservoirs, which may partially offset agriculture output losses caused by floods in the outgoing Kharif season. “We expect water situation in Rabi season to be normal after many years”, said an official, adding that any shortage “will be minimal, bearable and manageable”. He noted that, after many years, we are also hopeful of having a reasonable carryover into the next Kharif season. While Tarbela Dam reached its peak conservation level of 1,550 feet last month and has remained there, Mangla Dam is struggling at 1,239.6 feet as of Sunday night against its maximum cons...

The 46th death anniversary of Maulana Syed Abul Ala Maududi, founder of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan and renowned Islamic scholar, is being observed today.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is exploring proposals to abolish some visa fees for top global talent at a time when the US has taken a tougher stance on immigration, the Financial Times reported on Monday. Starmer’s “global talent task force” is working on ideas to attract the world’s best scientists, academics and digital experts to the UK in a bid to drive economic growth, the report said, citing people briefed on the discussions inside Number 10 and the Treasury. The idea of cutting visa costs to zero is for people who have attended the world’s top five universities or have won prestigious prizes, an official told the newspaper. According to the report, the reforms were being discussed in Number 10 and the Treasury before the Trump administration announced its decision to impose a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas, which are widely used by US tech companies, from Sunday. The US decision, however, has put “wind in the sails” to those pushing for changes to Britain’s high-end visa system, aiming to spur ...

BAJAUR: A worker of Awami National Party was killed in an attack by unknown assailants in Khar tehsil here on Sunday. Residents and Rescue 1122 officials said the incident occurred on the main Khar-Nawagai Road in the Khazana area within the jurisdiction of Lowi Sam police station. They told Dawn that Mir Azam Khan, 45, was heading to his home in Khazana Dag area when unknown assailants opened fire on him, leaving him critically injured. Amjad Khan, district emergency officer of Rescue 1122, said the injured was shifted to the District Headquarters Hospital, Khar, where the doctors pronounced him dead upon arrival at the hospital’s emergency. No one claimed responsibility for the incident. Soon after the murder, several ANP leaders and workers also took to the social media to condemn the killing. ANP local chapter president Gul Afzal Khan, deputy general secretary Sadiq Akbar Jan, provincial joint secretary Shah Naseer Khan, Sheikh Jan Zada, and party’s local MPA Mohammad Nisar Khan condemned the killing of A...

Police in the Philippine capital arrested more than 200 people during clashes with masked protesters that erupted on a day of largely peaceful anti-corruption demonstrations, a spokeswoman said on Monday. At least 88 minors were among the initial count of 216 taken into custody on Sunday as police deployed water cannons and deafening sirens against crowds of mostly young, rock-throwing protesters. Manila City Mayor Isko Morena said a 12-year-old boy was the youngest detained. Thousands of Filipinos rallied in Manila on Sunday to vent their anger over a ballooning scandal involving bogus flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The scandal has seen numerous lawmakers implicated and the leaders of both houses of Congress step down from their positions during an investigation. But Sunday’s street battles, which saw multiple police vehicles set ablaze and the windows of a precinct headquarters shattered, threatened to overshadow demonstrations that had been filled with families,...

• Halts Rs6bn federally funded project, citing PIDCL’s failure to get No Objection Certificate from KMC • Says any project in Karachi should be executed through local agencies KARACHI: The municipal leadership of Karachi has challenged the authority of the federal government by questioning the role of its Pakistan Infrastructure Development Company Ltd (PIDCL) in the urban development projects, insisting that all such initiatives in Karachi should fall under the city’s municipal jurisdiction. The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), backed by the PPP-led Sindh government, has halted the federally funded Rs6 billion project of the Green Line Bus extension, citing the PIDCL’s failure to obtain a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from municipal authorities before restarting the work. After the abolition of the Pakistan Works Department, the federal government assigns uplift works to the PIDCL, established under the Companies Act, 2017, in different parts of the country. The work on the Green Line extension was r...

• Floodwaters pass through breaches at Noraja Bhutta, rising around motorway • NHA says four of six lanes damaged but denies complete washout • NDMA reports 1,006 deaths; over 3m rescued in flood-hit areas • Millions displaced, infrastructure in ruins LAHORE: The Sutlej River continued to maintain a med­ium-level flood at Ganda Singh Wala and Sulemanki headworks on Sunday, with authorities monitoring its steady rise as waters inundated areas across Lodhran, Multan and Bahawalpur districts. According to a Provincial Disaster Management Auth­ority (PDMA) report, the river flowed at 95,000 cusecs at Ganda Singh Wala and 82,000 cusecs at Sulemanki, with the latter volume expected to reach Jalalpur Pirwala within the next day or two, potentially raising water levels further in already affected regions. Meanwhile, flood levels in the Chenab and Ravi rivers were reported as normal, with key readings showing 43,000 cusecs at Marala, 38,000 cusecs at Khanki Headworks, and 37,000 cusecs at Qadirabad on the Chenab, whil...

Peshawar - Special Assistant to the Chief Minister (SACM) on Energy, Engineer Tariq Sadozai, has said that timely completion of hydropower projects was among top priorities of provincial government that would not only help overcome energy crisis in province but also create employment opportunities.

Islamabad - Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs, Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry said on Sunday that real peace goes beyond the absence of conflict and must include protecting oceans and the marine species that inhabit them, from sharks and turtles to coral reefs and mangroves.

PESHAWAR - Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, here on Sunday visited the Model Meat Processing Plant and Training Centre of the Livestock Department, which has been non-functional for the past eight months.

RAWALPINDI - Seven terrorists were killed by security forces during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in the general area of Kulachi in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Dera Ismail Khan district, the Inter-Services Public Relations said on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari yesterday called on the global community to confront aggression and injustice, particularly the unchecked hostilities of India and Israel, which continue to endanger regional and global peace.

ISLAMABAD - The Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development has stated that talks are underway to resume flight operations of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and other private airlines.

ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Communications, Abdul Aleem Khan on Sunday has expressed dissatisfaction over the delays in the up gradation and beautification works of the Islamabad-Murree Expressway.

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Sunday unveiled a new plan to modernize the waste management system, as she directed the installation of color-coded dustbins in educational institutions across the province.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s recent Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) with close friend Saudi Arabia is a huge achievement amid regional tensions.