Pakistan

An Israeli court on Tuesday extended the detention of two foreign activists taken from a Gaza-bound flotilla by six days, a lawyer representing them said. Spanish national Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian Thiago Avila appeared before a court in the southern city of Ashkelon for their second hearing, after being brought to Israel for questioning last week. The extension is to allow police more time to interrogate them, the pair’s lawyer said. The two, held in a prison in Ashkelon, were among dozens of activists aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the coast of Greece early on Thursday. The other detained activists were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released. The representatives of Avila and Abu Keshek have accused Israeli authorities of abusing the two men, who have been on hunger strike for the past six days. The flotilla’s vessels had set sail from France, Spain and Italy with the aim of breaking Israel’s blockade of Gaza and delivering humanitarian aid...

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has stated that corruption, negligence, and mismanagement in the Suthra Punjab programme will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has reiterated that providing quality healthcare to citizens remains among the government’s top priorities, saying that “no effort or sacrifice will be spared to protect even a single precious life.

The chairman of the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK), Ghulam Hussain Soho, has stepped down after an inquiry exposed serious irregularities in the matriculation examinations.

KARACHI: Ghulam Hussain Soho resigned as chairman of the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK), it emerged on Tuesday, following reports of irregularities and mismanagement at the board. He handed in his resignation late on Monday to the Secretary of the Universities and Boards Department, Abbas Baloch, after learning that a committee report recommended his suspension as BSEK head.” A committee formed on the directives of Sindh Universities and Boards Minister Muhammad Ismail Rahoo has completed its report, revealing that BSEK’s administrator made changes to 170 examination centres during the ongoing matric examinations. The report also recommended that the BSEK chairman be suspended. Learning this, Soho resigned himself. According to sources, Soho, in his resignation, wrote that he had tried to reform the BSEK. This, he noted, included measures such as the complete automation of the system, online payments, grievance redressal system and training of examination staff, which he contended did not sit wel...

Last year’s military confrontation with India delighted us with something Pakistan rarely experiences: a unified national response. One voice and one direction from a collective will that held under pressure. We have the same reaction, at a smaller scale, during a cricket match against India. And then we watch as it dissolves. A pressing question lies behind this pattern. It is one I have asked for ten years on my podcast and in private conversations. I have asked people from the corridors of power, the circles of military brass, the layers of our Establishment, and the captains of industry. I have asked four Prime Ministers, Generals, CEOs. I have asked them all the same thing, on the record and off it: how do we fix Pakistan? Their answer is almost always the same. We know the problems. We often know the solutions. So why, after a decade of these conversations, does nothing change? We only unite when there is an enemy Pakistan’s capacity for collective action is not a myth. It exists and activates reliably ...

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that war is not the answer to rising tensions in the region, stressing that diplomacy remains the only viable path to peace between Iran and the United States.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Tuesday announced a province-wide pen-down strike tomorrow (May 6) over the federal government’s alleged “discrimination” against KP. In a statement, CM Afridi contended that the Centre was discriminating against KP because the province has a government led by former premier Imran Khan’s PTI. “The federal government is deliberately discriminating against the province in the NFC (National Finance Commission) Award, electricity and gas,” the chief minister claimed. Since becoming the provincial chief executive in October 2025, Afridi has repeatedly accused the federal government of stalling the release of funds allocated for KP, particularly those committed for the merged districts under the NFC Award. In his announcement, the KP CM said that emergency services would be exempt from the pen-down strike. He urged all lawyers “who uphold the Constitution and the law” to participate in the strike. He also lamented that Imran and his wife Bushra Bibi were not being ...

LAHORE: The National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) on Tuesday launched a crackdown on ‘anti-state’ social media activities, arresting 13 individuals in Punjab. “In a province-wide crackdown against anti-state social media activities, the NCCIA has arrested 13 individuals from different cities of Punjab during the last couple of weeks,” a spokesperson for NCCIA told Dawn. He said the crackdown has been launched on the instructions of NCCIA Punjab Director Muhammad Ali Waseem, who recently took charge. Those arrested were involved in running a campaign against the state, particularly the army and government functionaries, across various social media platforms, he added. Two of them were also allegedly involved in posting content targeting Gulf countries. The arrested suspects have been booked under different sections of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA), 2016. According to the spokesperson, social media activists Usman, Qamar, Abbas, and Tahir Mushtaq have been arrested from Lahore; Hami...

During the Cold War, strategic restraint was understood as managed stability between superpowers.

Three historic cultural heritage sites from Sindh have been included in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) tentative list.

The Islamabad High Court has directed authorities to remove YouTuber Rajab Butt from the Passport Control List (PCL), ruling that such restrictions must be lawful and justified.

Asif Ali Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif have expressed deep grief and sorrow over the martyrdom of prominent religious scholar Maulana Muhammad Idrees Tarangzai in a terrorist attack in Charsadda.

Pakistan’s passport issuance services have been fully restored across the globe after a four-day disruption caused by technical issues, officials confirmed.

Vietnamese President To Lam is expected to discuss expanding defence ties with India during a visit to New Delhi this week, including the potential purchase of BrahMos missiles jointly developed with Russia, two sources said. India, which has been building up domestic defence manufacturing for local use and exports, has already sold the supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines and signed a contract with Indonesia in March. A deal with Vietnam could be worth about 60 billion Indian rupees ($629 million), including training and logistical support, said one of the sources. India considers Vietnam a key part of its strategy to ensure stability in the Indo-Pacific region amid China’s growing influence. A third source said some defence cooperation announcements could be made during To Lam’s May 5-7 visit, though no signing of a weapons deal was expected. To Lam arrived on Tuesday in the eastern city of Bodh Gaya, a Buddhist pilgrimage site, on Tuesday. All the sources declined to be identified as they were not...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday strongly condemned missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), expressing complete solidarity with the country’s President Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan. “Pakistan stands firmly with our Emirati brothers and sisters as well as with the government of the UAE at this difficult time,” PM Shehbaz said in a social media post on X. “It is absolutely essential that the ceasefire be upheld and respected, to allow necessary diplomatic space for dialogue leading to enduring peace and stability in the region,” he said. On Monday, the UAE said it was targeted by Iranian strikes, including one on its vital Fujairah energy hub that wounded three Indians. Fujairah lies beyond the Strait of Hormuz, making it one of few export routes for Middle East oil that does not require passing through it. “These attacks represent a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable transgression,” the UAE’s foreign ministry said, adding that the country res...

KARACHI: The Pakistan Meteorological Department has predicted the temperature in Karachi Division to remain hot but below 40°C. According to the PMD’s weather forecast till Thursday, “hot and humid” weather is expected to persist on Tuesday, with the maximum temperature forecasted to be between 37–39°C. Similar conditions will persist on May 6 (Wednesday) and May 7 (Thursday), PMD said in its advisory, when the maximum temperature will be between 36–38°C and 35-37°C, respectively. As per the forecast, “hot/very hot and dry weather” was likely to prevail over most parts of Sindh. Meanwhile, K-Electric’s Head of Distribution Operations, Khurram Abdullah, said on Tuesday that there will be no loadshedding in “any areas where the ‘feels-like’ temperature reaches 45°C”. Addressing a live session from the utility’s Facebook account, he added, “maintenance shutdowns have been suspended due to the heatwave”. He further stated that illegal connections (kundas) caused overloading, leading to localised faults and accide...

An Indian pilot group has submitted a letter to the aviation ministry suggesting that electrical failure, and not pilot action, could have caused the deadly Air India crash last year. The submission by the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP), which has more than 5,000 members, comes ahead of the expected final report into the crash of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that killed 260 people shortly after takeoff on June 12, 2025. As required by international law, India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) published a preliminary report on July 12, one month after the disaster, when the plane exploded into flames shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad in western India. That 15-page document said the fuel supply to the jet’s engines was cut off moments before impact, raising questions about possible pilot error. It did not mention whether the turning off of the fuel switches could have been caused by pilot manoeuvre, or by any kind of malfunction. The FIP letter, dated May 1 and seen by AFP, offers what it cal...

Pakistan on Monday conducted a successful test of its Fateh missile system as part of the Exercise Indus, underscoring its operational readiness, official sources said.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday strongly condemned missile and drone attacks targeting civilian infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates.