Pakistan

KSE-100 rises 124.95 points as selective buying counters geopolitical jitters

US signals further escalation as military operations expand across Iran, raising concerns over regional security

Every year, as the sugarcane crushing season approaches, Pakistan finds itself trapped in the same debate. Farmers demand higher cane prices to offset rising production costs. Sugar mills argue that increased procurement prices make sugar commercially unviable. Governments intervene to broker settlements, while consumers brace for higher retail prices. By the end of the season, all of them have negotiated a price. Yet almost no one asks the most important question: why does Pakistan continue to treat sugarcane as a pricing problem rather than a productivity challenge? This difference matters because prices merely redistribute value within the supply chain; productivity creates new value for everyone. A grower harvesting more cane from the same land earns higher income without depending entirely on a single factor of price increases. Millers process more efficiently, consumers benefit from a more stable supply, and the economy becomes more competitive. Unfortunately, public policy has rarely been designed arou...

Police identify nearly 1,000 social media accounts promoting hatred, violence during raids across 44 provinces

Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand is set to arrive in Pakistan on Monday on an official visit at the invitation of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, in what marks the first visit by a Canadian foreign minister to the country in nearly two decades.

Confronted by escalating tensions in the Middle East and repeated disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Pakistan has begun taking concrete steps to establish its first-ever Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR). The country currently operates largely on a fragile, just-in-time commercial inventory model, with petroleum stocks providing only limited protection against prolonged supply disruptions. Under the proposed strategy, the government plans to establish a 45-day emergency oil buffer in the first phase, with a longer- term objective of expanding reserve capacity to 90 days. These stocks could be requisitioned by the state during a national supply emergency. As a longer- term strategic initiative, Islamabad is promoting the development of a Pakistan Maritime Energy City at Gwadar Port. Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, are being invited to establish and maintain strategic crude-oil reserves there. Such an arrangement could allow Gulf producers to store oil outside the immediat...

Authorities arrest 111 people over fires, many of whom admit responsibility, Laurent Nunez says

Brent oil prices rose two per cent to more than $90 per barrel on Monday, as escalating US-Iran hostilities in the Middle East restricted oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent crude futures LCOc1 climbed $2.09, or 2.37pc, to $90.19 by 0241 GMT, touching the highest since June 11, extending gains after rising 15.9pc last week, its biggest weekly gain since April. US West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was at $84.20 a barrel, up $1.71, or 2.07pc, the loftiest since June 12. Front-month prices gained 15.5pc last week, the largest weekly ascent since early March. The Middle East conflict escalated over the weekend with the US conducting a ninth straight night of attacks against Iran, while US allies Kuwait and Bahrain reported more Iranian strikes. “ICE Brent broke above $90 per barrel this morning with no let-up in the escalation in the Gulf,” said ING analysts in a note on Monday. “The US and Iran continue to exchange strikes, which are proving to be deadly for both sides. If this escalation goes unc...

A goods train derailed near Wahab Shah Railway Station, close to Tando Adam on Sunday, causing several bogies skidded off the track and completely blocking both the up and down railway lines, temporarily suspending rail traffic between Karachi and rest of the country.

Burnham will use his first speech to set ​out a path for 'a more stable and responsible politics'

US forces hit Iran for a ninth consecutive day on Monday as concerns grew over shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran said two oil tankers had exploded and been immobilised, adding that the waterway would remain unsafe as long as US “aggression” in the region continued. In a statement, US Central Command said it targeted “Iranian military command centres, air defense and coastal surveillance sites, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites, and communications networks to further diminish Iran’s ability to attack commercial vessels and civilian mariners transiting the Strait of Hormuz”. The strikes are part of an escalating cycle of attacks between the US and Iran after an interim ceasefire agreement signed a month ago unravelled, deepening a struggle for control over the Strait of Hormuz that has disrupted energy supplies and stoked fears of global inflation. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing its own reporters, said US missiles struck several Iranian cities early on Monday....

Directs authorities to complete Pakistan Railways' development projects within stipulated timelines

Defence-C police produced the suspects before court on the expiry of their physical remand

Noreen's lawyer says NCCIA has directed her to appear on Tuesday; legal team seeks four weeks to respond

KARACHI: Despite being registered by Pakistan’s drug regulator, around 40 new life-saving medicines remain unavailable to patients because the federal government has yet to approve their prices, forcing thousands of people suffering from cancer, diabetes, haemophilia, Parkinson’s disease and other serious illnesses to rely on expensive smuggled or unregistered medicines, officials and market sources said on Sunday. The delayed price notifications, they said, have stalled the legal marketing of several critical medicines, including advanced cancer therapies such as Keytruda (Pembrolizumab) and Nivolumab, as well as Humador insulin for diabetes, Adalimumab for autoimmune diseases, recombinant Factor VIII for hemophilia A, Carbidopa-Levodopa for Parkinson’s disease, Dabigatran and Heparin for blood clot prevention, Methyldopa for hypertension during pregnancy, Meropenem and Fosfomycin for severe bacterial infections, Ketamine for anaesthesia and emergency care, as well as several vaccines, intensive care medicin...

KARACHI: The Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) has written a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, expressing concern over the city’s worsening water crisis and urging the federal government to ensure the early completion of the K-IV water supply project. In the letter, JI-Karachi chief Monem Zafar referred to a report presented before a National Assembly committee, which indicated that the first phase of the K-IV project — expected to supply 260 million gallons of water per day to Karachi — is now scheduled for completion in December 2029. He called on the Sindh government to complete the K-IV augmentation component on a priority basis, while urging the federal government to release all remaining funds required for the project within the current fiscal year so that its first phase could be completed without further delay. He mentioned that the report had caused widespread concern among Karachi residents, adding that the city’s population of around 35 million was facing an acute water shortage. In letter to Shehbaz, Ka...

Acknowledged Pakistan's diplomatic efforts in the ME in supporting dialogue aimed at achieving a peaceful resolution

ISLAMABAD - Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni will arrive in Islamabad on Monday for a day-long official visit carrying a special message from Iranian President Dr.

Actor Adnan Siddiqui trolls Argentina fans as Sajal Aly says 'our childhood ends here'

The New York Times stunned Americans on Sunday when it revealed a new FBI directive regarding ICE agents — and people who accuse them of violence. Federal agents across the nation received instructions last week not to investigate confrontations with immigration agents, sources told Times reporters. “FBI managers around the country received a written notice informing them of the change on Thursday…The same day, some ICE agents around the country were notified by their F.B.I. counterparts,” Aleaziz and Barrett wrote. “If enacted, such a change would sharply limit law enforcement scrutiny of immigration agents, as the Trump administration draws mounting criticism over killings at the hands of federal officers.” The directive arrived after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford — and as protests mount nationwide in North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, and of course, Texas and Maine. One Maine protesters’ sign read “a man was lynched here.” The Justice...