Pakistan

Around a million children were missed and 53,000 refusals were reported during the year’s first nationwide polio campaign. The largest share of refusals, i.e. 58 per cent, was reported from Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi. The campaign concluded on February 5 in most cities, while the campaign ran till February 8 in Sindh. During the campaign, polio drops were administered to more than 44.3 million children, marking a significant milestone in Pakistan’s continued efforts to eradicate polio. While the data shows that the polio programme achieved overall household coverage of 98pc, with 2pc children missed, the number of missed children is still huge and worrisome given Pakistan’s population. Overall, 0.95m children were reported as missed during the campaign. A large proportion of these (0.67m) were missed because children were not available at home at the time of vaccination. During the campaign, 2.5 million guest children were vaccinated, likely covering a substantial share of children recorded as not being...

Federal Health Minister Mustafa Kamal has proposed the establishment of an “OIC Vaccine Alliance” comprising Islamic countries, underscoring the critical role of vaccine production in strengthening global and regional health security.

The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony on Monday extended the deadline for biometric verification of intending pilgrims for Hajj 2026, allowing applicants to complete the process through the Saudi Visa Bio App until Feb 17.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the request for an “immediate” meeting with PTI founder Imran Khan, and issued a notice to the government for tomorrow. The SC had fixed for hearing 13 petitions related to Imran and his spouse Bushra Bibi, and said PTI’s memorandum seeking jail visitation rights for the party founder has been forwarded to the relevant executive authorities for consideration under the law. Imran has been in jail since August 2023, convicted in a string of cases he says were politically driven following his ouster in a 2022 no-confidence vote. The request for the meeting, submitted by senior PTI leader Latif Khosa, was rejected by a two-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan. The bench observed that such an order could not be passed without hearing the other side. Hence, a notice was then issued to the government for tomorrow (Tuesday). Addressing Khosa during the hearing, CJP Afridi said that “we have to overcome the ...

The Punjab government and the World Bank have agreed to further strengthen their partnership across key development sectors, including health, education, housing, tourism, and climate resilience.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday described begging in Pakistan as a structured and organised enterprise, warning that the practice has assumed the form of a professional “industry” with serious social and economic consequences.

Pakistan has dispatched another 100-tonne consignment of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said on Monday. Since the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas broke out on Oct 7, 2023, Pakistan has sent numerous aid items intended for the Gaza Strip, which was besieged at least until a ceasefire was secured in October 2025. According to NDMA, the consignment comprised 100 tonnes of tents and was sent with the support of Alkhidmat Foundation. This was the 28th relief consignment sent by Pakistan, bringing the total volume of humanitarian assistance sent to 2,727 tonnes. The relief goods were dispatched through a special flight from Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore to Egypt’s El Arish International Airport “for onward delivery to Gaza”, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. Punjab housing minister Bilal Yasin was a special guest at the dispatch, which was attended by officials of the NDMA and the foreign ministry, NDMA stated. Pakistan had first...

• PM aide’s contention that ‘innocents may get caught up’ in the wake of action following terror attacks prompts heckling, walkout • Dr Malik, Akhtar Mengal stress need for political, not military-based solutions LAHORE: At a charged discussion about the situation in Balochistan, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah ignited controversy when he implied that innocent civilians were bound to get caught up in the fallout of attacks such as the ones witnessed across the province on Jan 31. The PM’s aide was speaking during a session, titled ‘Is There a Political Will to Solve the Crisis in Balochistan’, at the Asma Jahangir Conference on Sunday. The minister was part of a distinguished panel, which also incl­uded BNP-Mengal chief Akhtar Mengal and National Party leader Dr Abdul Malik Baloch, and was moderated by Mujahid Barelvi. PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah at the Asma Jahangir Conference on Sunday. The controversy reared its head when Mr Sanaullah was responding to points raised by the other speaker regarding the treatment...

Injury-hit Australia limp into the T20 World Cup without leading fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, but Nathan Ellis says the team’s depleted attack can still carry the nation to glory. Cummins pulled out with a back injury and Hazlewood lost a race to be fit after sustaining Achilles and hamstring injuries. With Mitchell Starc having quit the format, Australia will be without all three of their top quicks for the first World Cup in over a decade. Ellis, the default leader of a pace attack featuring Xavier Bartlett and Ben Dwarshuis, said the new trio would be able to cover for the loss of their more experienced teammates. “We’ve had 18-24 months of cricket together where the big three haven’t been playing and have had big workloads in the test arena,” he told reporters on Monday. “I actually think we work together really, really well. “We’ve all got different skill-sets and can gel together on the night in different phases of the game. “A squad without ‘Hoff’ (Hazlewood) and Cummo (Cummins) is a st...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Monday chaired a high-level inter-ministerial meeting to review measures aimed at strengthening Pakistan’s economic and trade cooperation with the European Union (EU). According to a post shared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on X, the deputy prime minister underscored the importance of expanding trade and economic ties with the EU, noting that the bloc remains a key economic partner for Pakistan, particularly under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP-Plus) framework. Dar highlighted that Pakistan has completed four biennial GSP-Plus reviews and reaffirmed the country’s commitment to fully meeting its obligations under the scheme in order to expand mutually beneficial trade opportunities with the EU. GSP-Plus is a trade initiative by the EU that allows developing countries to export goods to the region with reduced or zero tariffs, making their products more competitive in European markets. Under the enhanced GSP-Plus sch...

The National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) on Monday announced the successful completion of the country’s first nationwide anti-polio vaccination campaign of 2026, during which more than 44.

Pakistan has dispatched a special aircraft carrying 100 tons of tents to provide relief assistance to the Palestinian people.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined a request seeking an immediate meeting with incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, while ordering the constitution of multiple benches to hear appeals and petitions related to the cipher and other cases involving the former prime minister and his associates.

A Hong Kong court sentenced pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai to 20 years in prison on Monday for national security crimes, a punishment rights groups condemned as “effectively a death sentence” and a symbol of the city’s shrivelling press freedoms. The 78-year-old founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspaper was found guilty in December on two counts of foreign collusion under a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing, as well as one count of seditious publication. His sentence is by far the harshest handed out under the national security law, surpassing the previous record of 10 years given to legal scholar Benny Tai in 2024. A summary document from the judges said they had settled on 20 years’ imprisonment “after considering the serious and grave criminal conduct of Lai”. Two of those years will overlap with Lai’s existing prison term, meaning that he will serve an additional 18 years, the judges wrote. Lai, who has been behind bars since 2020, sat impassively in the dock as his sentence wa...

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Monday indicted YouTuber Saadur Rehman, alias Ducky Bhai, his wife Aroob Jatoi, and others over the alleged promotion of gambling apps on social media. All the accused pleaded not guilty to the charges and decided to contest the trial. Magistrate Naeem Wattoo ordered the prosecution to present its witnesses at the next hearing. Further proceedings will be held on Feb 23. The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) had registered the cases of several YouTubers and Tiktokers on charges of promoting gambling apps on their social media accounts. The agency had arrested Rehman in August of last year. The Lahore High Court (LHC) had released him on bail on Nov 24. The case is related to an inquiry dated June 13, 2025, and registered on the “receipt of information from reliable source(s)” that some YouTubers and social media influencers were promoting gambling and betting applications to the general public via their social media accounts for their own monetary benefits. It ...

Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has said that Pakistan stands as a protective shield for the world in the fight against terrorism and continues to play a frontline role in ensuring global security.

At least ten wagons of a freight train derailed near Mehrabpur in Sindh’s Naushahro Feroze district on Monday, disrupting railway operations on a key route.

A meeting between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chief Mahmood Achakzai is expected within the next one to two weeks, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) leader Ikhtiar Wali Khan said.

A white supremacist who shot and killed 51 worshippers at two New Zealand mosques in 2019 launched an appeal Monday seeking to overturn his conviction. Brenton Tarrant, an Australian former gym instructor, admitted carrying out New Zealand’s deadliest modern-day mass shooting before being sentenced to life in jail in August 2020. Now, the convicted killer argues that his “torturous and inhumane” detention conditions during his trial made him incapable of making rational decisions when he pleaded guilty, according to a court synopsis of the case. Tarrant is being held in a specialist unit for prisoners of extreme risk at Auckland Prison, seldom interacting with inmates or other people. “I did not have the mind frame or mental health required to be making informed decisions at that time,” Tarrant told the court, according to the New Zealand Herald. Tarrant said his state of mind was such that he had considered trying to implicate President Donald Trump in the crime. Life without parole “What I said at the time ...

• Punjab leads with Rs609bn cash surplus, followed by Sindh’s Rs354bn • KP transfers Rs175bn; Balochistan sends Rs41bn • Revenue-to-GDP ratio falls to 8.2pc in July-Dec despite reforms ISLAMABAD: Amid a decline in the revenue-to-GDP ratio despite purported reforms, the four provinces reached close to meeting their IMF-dictated annual target of delivering a cash surplus to the Centre within the first half of the current fiscal year. The official fiscal operations data released by the Ministry of Finance for July-December 2025 suggest the four provinces returned Rs1.18 trillion in cash to the Centre, just Rs285 billion short of the Rs1.464tr target set for the whole under the IMF’s $7bn Extended Fund Facility (EFF). During the same period last year, the provinces had jointly produced over 50 lower surpluses worth Rs775bn against the budgeted target of Rs1.2tr. With its larger fiscal muscle, Punjab led the provinces by providing Rs609bn budget surplus in six months, followed by Sindh’s Rs354bn. Khyber Pakhtunkhw...