Pakistan

Peshawar - Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Faisal Karim Kundi on Friday appreciated the performance of the Provincial Ombudsperson, saying the institution was playing an important role in providing speedy and inexpensive justice to the people, particularly in safeguarding women’s rights.

Peshawar - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Public Health Engineering, Fazal Shakoor Khan, held an important meeting with a high-level delegation of the World Bank at his office.

Young people applying for entry-level jobs in Sindh’s bureaucracy have been protesting that only 70 out of over 4,300 of them have passed the exam held by the Sindh Public Service Commission. They sat ten written papers for the Combined Competitive Examination (CCE), whose shockingly slim number of successful candidates was announced on May 6. This is how assistant commissioners, assistant directors and section officers at Grades 16 and 17 are hired. Lower than 16 is for drivers and clerks hired in the districts. The highest grade is 22. Think chief secretary level. The SPSC typically passes at least five candidates per seat in its written examinations. However, according to spokesperson Hifzullah Kaka, that doesn’t necessarily apply to the CCE. Nevertheless, the 2024 results still struck protesters as impossible to accept. Alarm bells started ringing when the detailed marks certificates were uploaded after the results were announced. For instance, the 100-mark optional subject Criminology with a single exam ...

The US government will invest $3 billion in critical minerals and battery projects as part of a push to increase domestic production and boost national security and industrial policy, US President Donald Trump said on Friday. “We’re reclaiming America’s rightful place as the minerals superpower of the world,” Trump told more than 200 mining executives, educators, investors and fellow politicians at a roundtable at the State Department aimed at supporting the industry, which he said had not received enough attention from Washington in recent years. He announced a slew of investments during his speech, including a $1.4bn conditional loan from the Defence Department’s Office of Strategic Capital for Sila Nanotechnologies, which makes lithium-ion battery parts. The OSC also extended a $400 million conditional loan to scandium miner Sunrise Energy Metals and a $150m conditional loan to magnet developer Niron Magnetics. The US Export-Import Bank will lend $58m to Westwater Resources, Global Advanced Metals and 5E A...

Peshawar - Special Assistant to the Chief Minister (SACM) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for Technical Education Usman Khan Bettani has said technical education and vocational training are vital to creating sustainable employment and ensuring economic stability for the province’s youth.

The military media affairs wing said on Saturday that a captain was martyred while seven terrorists were killed during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu district. In a statement, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said security forces conducted an IBO in Hangu on Friday following reports about the presence of terrorists belonging to Fitna al Khawarij — a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. During the operation, troops effectively engaged the terrorists, it said. “In desperation, the khawarij took refuge inside a mosque, blatantly disregarding the sanctity of the place of worship. In ensuing fire exchange, seven khawarij, belonging to Indian-sponsored Fitna al Khawarij were sent to hell,” it said. The statement went on to say that during the exchange of fire, 27-year-old Captain Hamza Akram, a resident of Punjab’s Narowal district who was “leading his troops from front and relentlessly pursuing” the terrorists, embraced ma...

A captain of Pakistan Army was martyred while seven terrorists were eliminated in an intelligence-based operation in Hangu district.

Makkah joint defence pact signed on Friday in holy city amid conflicts and military tensions in region PM Shehbaz Sharif, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoan meet in Makkah to formalise joint agreement A paper agreement will not bring security to Saudi Arabia, reacts Tehran Pakistan, KSA, Türkiye united.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye have taken a potentially significant step towards reshaping the regional security landscape by formalising a trilateral defence framework that seeks to translate decades of political trust, military cooperation and strategic convergence into a structured mechanism of collective.

MAKKAH - PM Shehbaz Sharif, along with his high-level delegation, performed Umrah here on Friday.

ISLAMABAD - The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has directed all members of the Senate, National Assembly and provincial assemblies to submit their annual statements of assets and liabilities for the financial year 2025-26 by December 31, 2026, in accordance with Section 137 of the Elections Act, 2017.

ISLAMABAD - The Federal Government has slashed the prices of Petrol and High Speed Diesel by Rs2.

QUETTA - Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Sarfraz Bugti on Friday welcomed the joint defense agreement signed between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in Makkah Mukarma, calling it a historic and important development for peace, security and stability in the region.

MIRPUR - Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Friday called for immediate dialogue and the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the ongoing crisis in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), saying the region, particularly Poonch Division, was passing through one of the most difficult.

ISLAMABAD - The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has allowed Power distribution companies to collect additional Re 0.

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has warmly welcomed the defence agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye.

ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for National Heritage and Culture, Aurangzeb Khan Khichi on Friday announced a grant of Rs.

PAKISTAN’S announcement that it would allocate 2,000 megawatts of electricity for Bitcoin mining and AI data centres has triggered a predictable debate: can the country afford to supply that much power? It is an important question, but not the most useful one. Bitcoin mining, AI training and real-time digital services do not exactly place identical demands on the electricity system. Pakistan’s electricity challenge is about more than the amount of generation capacity available. It is about when and where electricity is needed, whether the network can deliver it reliably, and how that demand is managed during periods of stress. During the hottest months, cooling demand pushes the grid towards its limits. At other times, generation capacity remains underused. But nationally available capacity does not automatically translate into reliable electricity at the location and hour a data centre requires it. Transmission constraints, substation capacity and power quality matter just as much as the headline allocation....

THE police are a vital pillar of our social fabric, serving not only as guardians of the law but also as protectors of the community, said President Asif Ali Zardari on Police Martyrs Day on Aug 4. “Their exemplary courage, firm dedication and ultimate sacrifice in the service of the nation will always inspire pride and command the deepest respect of every citizen of Pakistan,” he added. The prime minister, too, honoured the bravery of police officers who had laid down their lives in the line of duty, noting that the force displays “exceptional professionalism and unflinching resolve” in the nation’s fight against terrorism, violent extremism and crime. The Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies reported that the first seven months of 2026 witnessed 2,786 deaths linked to terrorist violence and counterterrorism operations — 434 security forces’ personnel lost their lives, including 152 police officials in KP and 89 in Balochistan. So far, July has been the deadliest month of 2026, with 112 secur...

PAKISTAN has already paid a heavy human price this monsoon, even as another dangerous spell approaches. NDMA figures covering June 26 to Aug 7 record 151 deaths — 73 of them children — and 448 injuries, besides damage to more than 1,200 houses and dozens of bridges and kilometres of roads. Chitral shows how quickly such destruction multiplies into other emergencies. Glofs, cloudbursts and flash floods have washed away bridges and severed roads, leaving communities unable to reach healthcare. Attendance at Lower Chitral’s district headquarters hospital has fallen by around 55pc, while patients from some isolated villages have stopped arriving altogether. Doctors are already reporting gastroenteritis and dysentery and fear outbreaks of typhoid and malaria. Pregnant women unable to reach hospitals face particular danger, while post-traumatic stress is emerging among disaster-hit communities. The situation shows us how extreme weather kills not only through torrents and collapsing homes, but also by cutting peopl...