Pakistan

KARACHI: While the city continued to face a severe water crisis on Eid holidays, the dilapidated and outdated water distribution and supply infrastructure of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) once again played havoc with the University of Karachi (KU) after a 36-inch supply line burst, submerging the access to the cemetery on the campus on Eidul Azha. The leakage, being repaired, inundated a large portion of the road leading to the university’s graveyard. People were forced to wade through the ankle-deep water to reach the graves of their near and dear ones for paying homage, a common practice during religious festivals. Residents of the KU staff colony said that they had timely reported the leakage to the water utility, but it did not take immediate steps to plug the leakage. Had the water utility acted promptly, a large amount of water would not have been wasted, besides saving people from the ordeal they went through on the Eid days, the residents lamented. Earlier in April, a burst water m...

Russia carried out “massive” drone attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and port city of Odesa early on Tuesday, killing one person and hitting a maternity hospital, Ukrainian officials said, calling for further sanctions. Moscow has kept up its attacks on Ukraine, which has hit back with strikes deep inside Russian territory, while peace talks held over the weekend failed to yield a breakthrough towards ending the three-year war. Aside from an agreement to exchange prisoners, progress has stalled and Russia has repeatedly rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire. “Russia lies every day about its desire for peace and attacks people every day. Time to impose sanctions. Time to support Ukraine with weapons. Time to prove that democracy has power,” Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said on Telegram. A 59-year-old man was killed in the Russian strikes on residential buildings in Odesa on Tuesday, and at least four others were wounded, said Governor Oleg Kiper. “The enemy massively attack...

Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has approved the schedule for the upcoming sessions of the Lower House regarding the presentation and discussion of the Federal Budget for the fiscal year 2025-26.

The Trump administration on Monday ordered US Marines into Los Angeles and intensified raids on suspected undocumented immigrants, fueling more outrage from street protesters and Democratic leaders who raised concerns over a national crisis. Some 700 Marines based in Southern California were expected to reach Los Angeles Monday night or Tuesday morning, officials said, as part of a federal strategy to quell street demonstrations opposing the immigration raids, which are a part of a signature effort of President Donald Trump’s second term. Although their mission to protect federal personnel and property is temporary — filling the gaps until a full contingent of 4,000 National Guard troops can reach Los Angeles — the deployment is an extraordinary use of military force in support of a police operation, and it comes over the objection of state and local leaders who did not request help. Meanwhile, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to carry out even more operations to round up suspected immigrati...

• Major crops down 13.5pc amid water crisis, restricting agriculture and overall GDP growth • Industry, services underperform; large-scale manufacturing struggles for third straight year • Inflation drops to 4.6pc, a 60-year low, amid declining interest rates • Finance czar calls it ‘a gradual recovery’, promises ‘turnaround’ next year • GDP growth reaches 2.68pc, missing 3.56pc target ISLAMABAD: “Next year will be a turnaround story,” Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb promised on Monday as he unveiled the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25 (PES) document, which highlighted widespread slippages across major sectors of the economy in the outgoing fiscal year. Reviewing the economy report card, the finance minister suggested that Pakistan’s performance should be evaluated in a global context rather than a historical one. He stated that while global economic growth has been on a declining trend, expanding 3.5pc in 2023, 3.3pc in 2024, and 2.8pc in 2025, Pakistan had progressed from a contraction of 0.2pc in 2023...

• Sales tax waivers jump almost 50pc to Rs4.25tr • Income tax exemptions surge 68pc to over Rs800bn ISLAMABAD: Tax exemptions granted by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) surged to an all-time high of Rs5.84 trillion in the outgoing fiscal year, marking a 51 per cent increase from Rs3.879tr a year ago, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2024-25 unveiled by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Monday. The unprecedented rise in tax concessions comes at a time when the FBR is grappling with significant revenue shortfalls, making this the second consecutive year of record-high exemptions. In FY24, exemptions skyrocketed 73.3pc. The cost of tax exemptions has gone up for the seventh consecutive year despite the government’s claim that exemptions would gradually decrease under the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. Tax exemptions refer to the revenues foregone by the state under various categories to different industries and other groups. This is mainly due to exemptions on raw materials and sem...

• Economic turmoil and lack of jobs have forced 3.2m citizens to leave the country, party leaders say • Alleges 30m people have fallen below the poverty line over the last three years • Blames the agriculture sector decline on ‘anti-farmer policies’ ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Monday criticised the government over the economic survey of Pakistan, alleging it reflected a bleak economic picture and the government’s poor performance, which they said pushed 30 million people below the poverty line in the last three years. At a press conference, the party’s information secretary, Sheikh Waqas Akram, flanked by Leader of the Opposition Omar Ayub Khan, said the finance minister presented the survey “in an apologetic manner.” “Those who used to criticise 6.5pc growth rate during the PTI’s tenure were trying to defend their performance, which was worst,” Mr Akram said. Mr Akram said that while President Asif Zardari had promised to address the masses’ issues, poverty has instead increased. He claimed the to...

LAHORE: The ongoing heatwave across Punjab is set to continue until at least June 12 (Thursday), with temperatures rema­ining well above seasonal norms, the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) confirmed on Monday. According to the PDMA, current temperatures are ranging between 4 and 7 degrees Celsius higher than average, pushing conditions into potentially life-threatening territory. A similar warning for next few days was issued for Gilgit-Baltistan. The Met Office said temperature would increase by five to seven degrees. It suggested precautionary measures as it noted that the high temperature may speed up glaciers melting this week. The city of Sargodha reco­rded the province’s hig­­h­est temperature on Mon­day at a scorching 47°C. Major urban areas, incl­uding Lahore, Multan, and Faisalabad, simmered at around 45°C, while distri­cts such as Toba Tek Singh, Sahiwal, Okara, Mandi Bahauddin, Khane­wal, Kasur, Layyah, Jhang, and Hafizabad saw temperatures between 40°C and 42°C. Southern Punjab fac...

ISLAMABAD: In a move that has raised eyebrows, the government has approved over fivefold increase in the salaries of Senate chairman and National Assembly speaker taking it to Rs1.3 million a month. A May 29 notification reveals that the Senate chairman and NA speaker’s salaries have been raised from Rs205,000 to Rs1.3m, besides 50pc of the revised salary (Rs650,000) as the sumptuary allowance. The hike, with retrospective effect, has become effective in January 2025. A senior NA Secretariat official, while confirming the development, said the raise for the two offices had been made for the first time since January 2016. Move draws criticism from within ruling PML-N; ANP demands its reversal In March, the salaries and allowances of federal cabinet members had been increased by up to 188pc. Earlier, the finance comm­ittees of the two houses of parliament had approved an increase in the salaries of MNAs and senators, raising it to Rs519,000. Senior PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique slammed the pay raise for the...

ISLAMABAD: Former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Jawwad S. Khawaja has requested the Supreme Court to revisit the May 7, 2025 judgement on military trials of civilians otherwise the same will serve as a constant reminder of ceding judicial space to executive by accepting that it can act as judges to try civilians in criminal cases. “This ceding of judicial space will haunt the Supreme Court and our nation,” says a petition moved to seek review of the May 7 judgment by the seven-judge constitutional bench of the Supreme Court. On May 7, a five-judge constitutional bench had restored key provisions of the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) that allow for the trial of civilians in military courts. The court ruled by a 5-2 majority in favour of overturning its earlier decision on Oct 23, 2023, in which the five-judge Supreme Court bench had held the military trial of civilians involved in the May 9, 2023 acts of arson and attacks on the military installations as illegal and unconstitutional. Except for Justice Jamal Khan M...

JERUSALEM: Israeli left-wing opposition leader Yair Golan called on Monday for an immediate end to the Gaza war and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government no longer represented most Israelis. “Today the government of Israel doesn’t represent the vast majority of Israelis,” said Golan, chairman of the Democrats party and a former deputy army chief, days before a planned parliament vote which the opposition hopes would trigger a general election. He told journalists in a briefing that after more than 20 months of fighting that Israel “should end the war as soon as possible”. Golan’s party, a conglomeration of left-wing factions, has only four seats in Israel’s 120-member legislature. But in a country where coalition building is essential to achieving a political majority, even relatively small parties can wield considerable power. Golan said that the current government — one of the most right-wing in Israel’s history — was a threat to democracy. He said that the vast majority of Israelis wante...

NEW YORK: (This June 8 story has been refiled to correct the name of the brothers to Duffer, not Duff, in the second bullet point) With bloody body contortions, booming blasts and brooding high school angst, “Stranger Things: The First Shadow,” based on the 12-time Emmy-winning Netflix science fiction series “Stranger Things,” took home Tony […]

Pakistani fast bowler Hasan Ali’s hat-trick and a six-wicket haul in the T20 Blast 2025 pulled Derbyshire Falcons apart. Playing for the Birmingham Bears, Hasan Ali bowled a blazing spell, giving just 23 runs in 3.1 overs, ensuring an emphatic 58-run victory for his team. Hasan Ali’s hat-trick took a dramatic turn, eliminating Ross Whiteley […]

ROME: Kim Novak, a Hollywood diva from the 1950s and 1960s who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”, will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at this year’s Venice Film Festival, organisers said on Monday. Best known for her starring role in the 1958 psychological thriller, Novak also held notable roles in classics such as […]

Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O) said it would split into two publicly traded companies, separating its studios and streaming business from its fading cable television networks as the parent of HBO and CNN looks to compete better in the streaming era. The breakup is the latest unravelling of decades of media consolidation that created global conglomerates […]

The Pakistan Budget 2025-26 is scheduled to impose severe tax reforms targeting non-filers and tax evaders, sources told ARY News on Monday. As part of the new improvements, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is suggesting a tenfold increase in fines, through Point of Sale (POS) systems, for tax fraud, increasing penalties to PKR 5 […]

2.7% growth slower than 3.6% target Population formula shift proposed in NFC Inflation 'a fantastic story', bu

Calls potential canal, dam projects act of war, cites UN charter violation

PTI rejects Economic Survey as 'IMF script'

Trump, California gov face-off as Marines called out to quell protests