Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has declared three residents of Gilgit-Baltistan as national heroes for their swift action that saved nearly 300 lives.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has filed an application with the City Police Officer (CPO) seeking the registration of a case against Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and several officials over the conditions of his imprisonment.

Constant rains and raging floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have already destroyed a large chunk of infrastructure and agricultural lands, including hundreds of houses, roads, and bridges, and washed away livestock. The battered locals are now facing an even worse ordeal, the outbreak of waterborne and other diseases, in addition to psychological trauma. The expected outbreak has prompted government health authorities and non-governmental relief organisations to set up makeshift clinics and medical camps, mainly across KP, to cope with the massive outbreaks of several waterborne and skin diseases. Rains and flood-related accidents have already killed more than 400 people across the province since August 15, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). “Post-floods situation is even more dangerous as the lurking threat of outbreak can kill more people than floods did,” warned Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, the secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association. Speaking to Anadolu, Shoro called for...

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday issued orders to evacuate the people living in areas around rivers and low-lying ones ahead of heavy rains and flood predictions across the province. Punjab is on high alert for floods before the arrival of a fresh monsoon spell as the provincial government on Saturday evacuated thousands of people along the Sutlej River, as the river surged to a high flood level at Ganda Singh Wala, recording a dangerous flow of 129,866 cusecs. A statement by the chief minister’s office said that CM Maryam issued orders “to ensure timely evacuation of the stranded population in view of [the] arrival of flood torrents”. She ordered access to “all possible available resources” to prevent loss of life, relocation of population from around rivers and low-lying areas to safe places, and prompt measures for the timely relocation of livestock to safe places, it added. The chief minister directed authorities to “vigilantly monitor the flood situation of Sutlej River and other rivers”, mak...

Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Faisal Karim Kundi, while addressing a luncheon hosted by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Spain in Barcelona during his ongoing European visit, said that his tour was delayed due to the devastating floods in the province.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Sunday called off the launch of Starship’s tenth mission from Texas over an issue at its launch site, delaying an attempt to achieve several long-sought development milestones missed due to past tests ending in early failures. The 70.7-metre-tall Super Heavy booster and its 52m-tall Starship upper half sat stacked on a launch mount at SpaceX’s Starbase rocket facilities as it was being filled with propellant ahead of a liftoff time of 7:35pm ET (4:35am PKT). But roughly 30 minutes from liftoff, SpaceX said on X that it was standing down to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems. Musk had been poised to provide an update on Starship’s development progress prior to the rocket’s launch on Sunday, but a placeholder live stream indicated it had been cancelled. Similar postponements in the past have been resolved in a matter of days. SpaceX is now targeting as soon as Monday, August 25, for Starship’s next launch attempt, according to its website. Development of SpaceX’s next-...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday hailed the launch of digital wallets under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) as a landmark initiative, saying it would accelerate the shift toward a cashless economy and curb corruption.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja announced his resignation from the party post on Monday.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Hammad Azhar on Monday announced that he would not contest the upcoming by-election from NA-129, the National Assembly seat left vacant after the death of his father, Mian Azhar.

In a startling disclosure, the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) subcommittee has revealed that more than 1,000 laptops distributed under the Prime Minister’s Laptop Scheme Phase-II went missing.

A Karachi anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday sent Chanesar Town Municipal Corporation (TMC) Chairman Farhan Ghani on a four-day physical remand over the alleged assault of a government employee. Farhan, brother of PPP leader and Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, was arrested and remanded in a terrorism and attempted murder case on Sunday for allegedly assaulting a government employee overseeing fibre optic network laying work on Sharea Faisal. Saeed had said his brother and his associates would voluntarily surrender themselves and prove their “innocence in court”. Farhan, Shakeel and Qamar Ahmed were produced before the ATC today upon the completion of their one-day police custody. The court asked the IO the charges under which the accused were booked, to which the IO responded that the accused had beaten up the complainant while he and others were laying down the fibre optic cable on Sharea Faisal. Farhan, who did not have legal representation, denied the claim, stating that he was “falsely accu...

National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Monday called upon citizens, civil society, and the business community to extend wholehearted support to families affected by recent floods across Pakistan, terming rehabilitation a “collective national responsibility.

Railways Minister Hanif Abbasi on Monday strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Hangu and paid rich tribute to the martyred security personnel.

A woman was left injured on Monday after her husband allegedly threw acid on her during a domestic dispute in Samundri tehsil of Punjab’s Faisalabad district, according to the police. An incident report from the City Samundri Police station house officer said a call was received at 7:22am that a man had thrown acid on the caller’s daughter in Housing Colony No. 1, adding that she was in critical condition and being taken to the hospital. The SHO added that he and other police personnel reached the Samundri Tehsil Headquarters Hospital, where the victim’s father told them that his daughter was married to the suspect about a year ago but was still living with her parents. The father told the police that the couple had an argument earlier today over household expenditure, due to which the husband got angry and threw acid on her, wounding her face, left shoulder and hands. The report added that doctors administered first aid and referred her to the Allied Burn & Reconstructive Surgery Centre. The SHO said that le...

The Sindh government has launched an initiative to distribute 10,000 electric bikes free of cost exclusively among women workers across the province.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday warned that criminals are circulating fake first information reports using the agency’s name to blackmail people, according to a press release. “FIA has received information that criminal elements are harassing people by sending fake and fabricated FIRs on WhatsApp in the name of” the agency, the press release, available with Dawn.com, stated. “Citizens are named in fake FIRs and terrorised.” “These elements try to present themselves as FIA officials by using fictitious and misleading names,” the agency added. “In such messages, attempts are being made to blackmail citizens by making serious allegations like ‘cybercrimes and terrorism’.” The FIA stated that it does not send messages of this nature to people via WhatsApp and urged the public to file complaints about suspicious messages with the National Cybercrime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), which is the “authorised agency to investigate cybercrime”. “Beware of fake messages, and never share your personal and ...

The world’s first commercial service offering carbon storage off Norway’s coast has carried out its inaugural CO2 injection into the North Sea seabed, the Northern Lights consortium operating the site said on Monday. Northern Lights, led by oil giants Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies, involves transporting and burying CO2 captured at smokestacks across Europe. The aim is to prevent emissions from being released into the atmosphere, and thereby help halt climate change. “We now injected and stored the very first CO2 safely in the reservoir,” Northern Lights’ managing director Tim Heijn said in a statement. “Our ships, facilities and wells are now in operation.” In concrete terms, after the CO2 is captured, it is liquified and transported by ship to the Oygarden terminal near Bergen on Norway’s western coast. It is then transferred into large tanks before being injected through a 110-kilometre (68-mile) pipeline into the seabed, at a depth of around 2.6 kilometres, for permanent storage. Carbon capture and stor...

The Foreign Office on Monday said India had shared flood warnings with Pakistan but stressed that the alerts were routed through diplomatic channels rather than the Indus Waters Commission, as stipulated under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). India in April held the IWT in abeyance following the attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 — an incident New Delhi blamed on Islamabad without evidence. Pakistan termed any attempt to suspend its water share an “act of war”, noting the IWT had no provision for unilateral suspension. Under paragraph 8 of Article IV of the IWT, “each party agrees to communicate to the other party, as far in advance as practicable, any information it may have in regard to such extraordinary discharges of water from reservoirs and flood flows as may affect the other party”. Punjab is on high alert for floods before the arrival of a fresh monsoon spell as the provincial government on Saturday evacuated thousands of people along the Sutlej River, as the river surged to a high flo...

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi on Monday granted police a four-day physical remand of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader and Chanesar Town Chairman, Farhan Ghani, in a terrorism case linked to the assault of a government employee.

The OIC Council of Foreign Ministers opened its session in Jeddah on Monday with a strong focus on securing an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.