Pakistan

Pakistan assured the visiting European Union (EU) Monitoring Mission on Thursday of its total and complete commitment to the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+). The country was granted GSP+ status by the EU in 2014, resulting in a 108 per cent increase in Pakistani textile exports to the EU due to concessional tariffs. In October 2023, the European Parliament unanimously voted to extend the GSP+ status for another four years until 2027 for developing countries, including Pakistan. A seven-member EU delegation is currently visiting Karachi as part of the fifth Biennial Review of the GSP+ scheme. It is led by Sirgio Baliberia, adviser to the GSP+ Directorate in the Directorate General for Trade. The monitoring mission will scrutinise Pakistan’s record on 27 international conventions tied to the trade scheme. Maintaining GSP+ status is critical for Pakistan to keep export costs low. A press release issued by the human rights ministry today said Human Rights and Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar welcomed ...

With Predator: Badlands, director Dan Trachtenberg (of the brilliant 10 Cloverfield Lane) brings one of cinema’s most semi-appealing alien species closer to first-tier status — if not fully, then nearly. But to make it to the big league, the aliens from the hardcore hunting species, the Yautja (that’s their name) needed a bigger brand and a little mythic scaffolding: the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the malevolent backbone of the Aliens franchise. For those to whom these names sound like gobbledygook, here’s the gist: since the first two Predator movies — the wildly popular 1987 original with Arnold Schwarzenegger and the less financially successful 1990 sequel with Danny Glover — the franchise has been in a persistent rut. Despite novel and comic publishers regularly putting Predators on shelves (the Yautja have fought Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Wolverine and even crossed paths with Archie), the films were sporadic and uneven in terms of their storytelling and lore-making. Predators (2010), starring Adrien...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Thursday that Pakistan was “ready to enhance economic cooperation” with Bahrain in various fields, including agriculture, information technology and artificial intelligence. He made the remarks while addressing the business community in Manama. The premier had arrived in the country’s capital a day earlier and held delegation-level talks with Bahrain’s leadership at Al Qudaibiya Palace. In his address, PM Shehbaz said that strategic cooperation had existed between the two countries for decades. Addressing Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, he said: “Pakistan is ready to enhance economic cooperation with Bahrain in the fields of agriculture, information technology, artificial intelligence, financial technology and all other areas where our two countries can really work together, and create synergy through our efforts and our knowledge and our experience and our commitment to support each other.” He said ties between Islama...

The Sindh Assembly on Thursday rejected the remarks of India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh regarding the province as “delusional” and said they were a deliberate attempt to distort history. On Sunday, Singh said that “civilisationally, Sindh will always be a part of India”, and that “who knows, tomorrow Sindh may return to India again”. His words were strongly rebuked by the Foreign Office as “dangerously revisionist remarks” that revealed an expansionist Hindutva mindset. The Sindh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution today, stating that the House “unequivocally condemns the Defence Minister of India’s statement as delusional, inflammatory, and a deliberate distortion of history, made in violation of diplomatic norms and international law”. The resolution, moved by Excise Minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla, said the assembly asserted “with absolute clarity that Sindh is, and will forever remain, an inseparable and integral part” of Pakistan, and rejected any narrative, however absurd, which suggested otherw...

After being denied a meeting with PTI founder Imran Khan for the eighth time, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi staged a sit-in at Factory Naka, near Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on Thursday. CM Afridi was also denied a meeting with Imran at the jail last Friday. Speaking to reporters, he stated that it was unfortunate that, despite having orders from the Islamabad High Court (IHC), he was not permitted to meet the patron-in-chief of his party. He added that he wrote to the chief justice but received no response regarding the issue. The CM and party supporters originally intended to march to the prison, where Imran is incarcerated, but were stopped by a heavy contingent of police personnel at Factory Naka. The CM offered prayers at the sit-in, which were led by Punjab lawmaker Hafiz Farhat Abbas. Speaking to reporters earlier today, Afridi said that police had stopped him this afternoon at Factory Naka, near the jail. This is the same area where the party staged a sit-in after being denied a meeting...

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Pakistan (JUI-P) Senator Attaul Haq on Thursday stated that Afghans with Pakistani passports travel abroad and if they engage in crime, it reflects badly on Islamabad. Speaking during a meeting of the Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights, he said, “Fifty per cent of Afghans travel abroad using Pakistani passports. Whenever Afghans are caught by authorities abroad, they are carrying Pakistani passports.” An official from the interior ministry acknowledged that this had occurred, but assured the committee that the practice had stopped. “In the past, when people were deported from Saudi Arabia, it was found that deportees were Afghan citizens carrying Pakistani passports.” Earlier today, the committee condemned Justice Ali Baqar Najafi’s remarks in the Noor Mukadam case that surfaced a day earlier, deeming them “ridiculous”. Justice Najafi, who is now part of the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), observed that the Noor Mukadam case was the direct result of a “vice” spreading in soci...

Four new PML-N members of the National Assembly took their oath on Thursday after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) notified the winners of the recent by-elections, except for the constituency of NA-96 (Faisalabad-II), due to a violation of the code of conduct. The ruling PML-N secured close to 64 per cent of the total votes polled in the by-elections for six National Assembly constituencies held on Sunday as it emerged victorious on all seats. Five constituencies were located in Punjab and one in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. These seats, except for one, were vacated due to the disqualification of the opposition PTI MNAs. The PML-N also won six out of seven Punjab Assembly seats in the province by securing 82.41pc of the polled votes. On the seventh seat, it had not fielded its candidate in PP-269, Muzaffargarh, against PPP nominee Alamdar Qureshi. The ECP notified the following PML-N members as MNAs: Mahmood Qadir Khan for NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan-II), Mohammad Nauman for NA-129 (Lahore-XIII), Muhammad Tufail ...

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has barred political meetings, processions, and all unrelated gatherings within the premises of government and educational institutions, ruling that such activities undermine the purpose and sanctity of public facilities.

General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, the outgoing Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC), on Wednesday emphasised the importance of unity and a joint strategy in the face of rapidly changing global security dynamics.

The PTI has demanded a clarification from the government regarding recent “rumours” about the health of jailed party founder Imran Khan, calling on authorities to arrange a meeting between the former premier and his family. The development comes as Imran’s sisters have in recent weeks been repeatedly denied a meeting with him, leading them to question the whereabouts of the ex-prime minister and stage sit-ins outside the Adiala jail. Further, several social media accounts on X have shared unverified claims of his death, with Indian media also reporting on the alleged rumours about his health. The trend ‘Where is Imran Khan?’ was also trending on X on Thursday morning. In a statement issued early on Thursday on X, the party said “rumours of a despicable nature” were being spread from “Afghan and Indian media, and foreign social media accounts” regarding Imran’s health. The party demanded that the “current government and the interior ministry immediately and clearly dismiss and clarify the rumour and immediatel...

Two US National Guard soldiers were critically wounded on Wednesday after being shot in a brazen daytime attack a few blocks from the White House, with US President Donald Trump terming the incident an “act of terror”. The incident, which left two Guard members critically wounded, was “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror,” Trump said. “It was a crime against our entire nation.” He confirmed that the man taken into custody after the daylight shooting two blocks from the White House was “a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan”. The suspect had arrived in the United States in 2021 “on those infamous flights,” Trump said, referring to the evacuations of Afghans fleeing as the Taliban took over the country in the wake of the US retreat after 20 years of war. “We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan” under former president Joe Biden, Trump said. “We must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who d...

A court in Bangladesh sentenced ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday to 21 years in prison for corruption, a week after she was given the death penalty for crimes against humanity. Hasina, 78, is currently residing in India and has defied court orders that she return to Bangladesh. She was sentenced in absentia on November 17 to be hanged for crimes against humanity after ordering a deadly crackdown against a student-led uprising last year that eventually ousted her. But three other cases had been brought against the ex-leader by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) over land grabs of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka. Hasina received seven years’ imprisonment in each of the three cases, Dhaka Tribune reported. Several other accused were also handed varying prison terms, it added. It is unclear if the sentences will run concurrently. Hasina’s conduct “demonstrates a persistent corruption mindset rooted in entitlement, unchecked power, and a greedy eye for public property”, ruled judg...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan is fully prepared to deepen economic cooperation with Bahrain, calling the country a “brotherly nation” with which Pakistan shares long-standing fraternal ties.

Water supply to multiple areas of Karachi will remain disrupted today (Thursday) as the Dhabeji substation undergoes scheduled annual maintenance, raising the possibility of a shortfall of nearly 100 million gallons.

The Federal Constitutional Court has issued an important order in the wheat quota case.

A mysterious illness has killed dozens of camels in the Cholistan desert, prompting an urgent investigation by the Punjab Livestock Department, officials confirmed.

Amid reports regarding the arbitrary offloading of passengers travelling abroad, an official from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday clarified that people were only being offloaded or denied boarding if they did not have valid documents or authorities suspected them of working with migrant smugglers. Over the past few months, numerous incidents have been reported of travellers being offloaded from flights at various airports, despite possessing valid travel documents. The actions came after a crack down on migrant smuggling after last year’s Greece boat tragedy that claimed several Pakistani lives. Earlier this month, FIA Director General Riffat Mukhtar acknowledged that incidents of people being offloaded had been reported at Lahore and Karachi airports, and that investigations were underway. In a video statement shared today, FIA Lahore Zone Director Captain (retired) Muhammad Ali Zia addressed the recent issue of “misleading AI-generated videos and false information circulating on social me...

Three police personnel were martyred as law enforcers responded to a terrorist attack on a checkpost in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Hangu on Wednesday night, according to an official statement from the provincial Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD). The statement, issued late last night, said terrorists carried out a “cowardly attack on the Qazi Talab checkpost in the dark of the night”. Responding to the attack, Hangu District Police Officer (DPO) Khan Zeb Mohmand led the operation against the terrorists, the statement said. It added that while the operation was underway, police personnel “surrounded the area and stood firm against the enemy like a wall of lead”. “Eventually, police foiled the attack,” the statement added. However, three policemen, Head Constable Wahid Shah, Head Constable Hikmat Khan and Abdul Samad, were martyred during the operation. The CTD statement detailed that “intense fighting” had continued between police and the terrorists for two hours, and there were reports of several deaths among the ...

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has issued strict directives for the immediate enforcement of all provincial decisions and ensured that every citizen’s property will be protected.

In welcome news for power consumers, electricity prices in Pakistan are expected to decrease by 65 paisa per unit for one month under the monthly fuel price adjustment (FPA) mechanism.