Pakistan

Campaign targets rising cases in capital; highlights role of frontline workers

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Comments on countering factors which cause instability in region

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Opposition demands end to harassment of farmers

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Armed 'lawyers', bride's father accused of abduction

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The United States has issued a fresh round Iran-related sanctions targeting individuals and entities that Washington says finance Tehran’s military, including some in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates, the US Treasury Department said on Tuesday. Those targeted have helped coordinate funds transfers, including from the sale of Iranian oil, that benefit Iran’s military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC)- Quds Force and its Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL), the Treasury said. “Iranian ‘shadow banking’ networks like these — run by trusted illicit financial facilitators — abuse the international financial system, and evade sanctions by laundering money through overseas front companies and cryptocurrency,” it said in a statement. US sanctions generally prohibit American individuals and companies from engaging in any business transactions with those targeted. The US had issued Iran-related sanctions in June this year as well, taking aim at the procurement of machinery for ...

THE recent floods have resulted in misery, displacement, death, loss of property and livestock, crop destruction and damage to infrastructure. While the total losses are yet to be calculated, it is critical to understand their economic repercussions and the urgent need to initiate damage limitation measures. The 2022 floods, which affected only Sindh and Balochistan, had displaced 33 million people, submerged their homes, destroyed livestock and crops and damaged infrastructure including the irrigation network. That deluge killed over 1,100 people and caused economic losses to the tune of $30 billion, or 10 per cent of GDP. Clearly, global warming has taken firm root in the form of droughts, glacier melt, floods, torrential rains, heatwaves and rising sea levels. Our response capacity must match the challenge. No other economic sector has such strong backward and forward linkages for national well-being as agriculture. The situation, therefore, requires a holistic rather than a narrow sectoral approach. In th...

Acting President Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday appreciated the efforts of Pakistan Sweet Home and stressed the importance of continued social welfare programmes to support vulnerable communities across the country.

An Islamabad High Court (IHC) bench, led by Chief Justice (CJ) Sar­dar Mohammad Sarfraz Dogar and comprising Justice Mohammad Azam Khan, barred Justice Tariq Mah­mood Jahangiri from carrying out judicial work until the Supreme Judicial Council’s (SJC) decision on the matter of his allegedly fake degree. A complaint pertaining to Justice Jahangiri’s allegedly fake degree was submitted to the SJC last year in July while a petition challenging his appointment was filed in the IHC earlier this year. The matter centres on a letter that began circulating last year on social media, purportedly from the University of Karachi’s controller of examinations, regarding the judge’s law degree. During the hearing today, apart from barring Justice Jahangiri from carrying out judicial work, the bench also appointed lawyers Barrister Zafarullah Khan and Ashtar Ausaf as amici curiae. Moreover, the bench also sought the attorney general’s assistance over the matter of the maintainability of the plea. It ruled that the case would...

In 1817, Chief Justice John Marshall, one of America’s founding fathers, delivered what is often called the shortest judgment in judicial history: “The United States never pays costs.” This was the entirety of a unanimous majority decision in the Supreme Court case of United States v. Barker. Six words settled a complex question of law that had gone unanswered for twenty years, and solidified jurisprudence on sovereign immunity with clarity and precision. Exactly 208 years later, the unthinkable happened. In a judgment authored by Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) ruled on the case of a journalist restricted from leaving the country with the following: “Office objection is sustained”. Move over Justice Marshall, that looks like four words and a newly broken world record to me. Pakistan: 1, USA: 0. A stunning upset like this must be exactly the kind of judicial achievement the framers of the 26th Amendment dreamed of. So where are the balloons, the mass media coverage, the celebration...

Advocate Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir approached the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) on Tuesday against Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Sarfaraz Dogar after the court administration stripped Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz of her powers to entertain harassment complaints when she took cognisance of a complaint against him. Last week, Justice Dogar had warned Mazari of a contempt of court case and was reported to have gone as far as passing warning remarks along the lines of “getting a hold of her”. Multiple lawyers’ bodies had issued condemnatory statements and called for the judge’s dismissal from the post of the IHC top judge. Mazari then filed a complaint a day ago against the judge before the IHC’s workplace harassment committee and a reference for misconduct before the SJC. After Justice Imtiaz took cognisance of her complaint, the IHC administration de-notified her as the “competent au­­thority” and replaced her with Justice Ina­­am Ameen Minhas, stripping Justice Imtiaz of her powers to entertain harassment ...

Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination Dr.

Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), under the dynamic leadership of Chairman Engr.

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) posted a pre-tax profit in the first half of 2025, which a company source said is its first such for the period in about two decades, ahead of a planned sale of the national carrier later this year. The PIA, part of the PIA Holding Company, recorded a pre-tax profit of Rs11.5 billion ($40.64 million) in the six months to June, compared with the same period in 2024 when it remained in a loss before taxes and only managed a rare annual profit through deferred tax adjustments. Net profit for the current half year stood at Rs6.8bn. The disclosure comes as Islamabad presses ahead with a fresh attempt to privatise the airline, a key condition under Pakistan’s $7bn IMF bailout. A company source said it was the state-run airline’s first such profit since 2004. Financial records before 2014 are no longer publicly available on the airline’s and the stock exchange’s websites. The planned sale of the PIA would mark the country’s first major privatisation in about two decades, wit...

The country’s debt trajectory “is more sustainable today than suggested by headline rupee figures”, the finance ministry said in a statement on Tuesday, citing its continued focus on debt-to-GDP reduction, early repayments, lower interest costs and a stronger external account. It asserted that it continued to centre its debt management strategy on aligning public debt-to-GDP ratio to the Debt Limitation Act, which provides for the reduction of federal fiscal deficit and debt-to-GDP ratio to a prudent level by effective public debt management. Moreover, the strategy considered “minimising refinancing and rollover risks while generating interest savings to support sustainable public finances”, the ministry said. According to latest data from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the country’s total government debt has increased by Rs9 trillion in just one year up to June 2025, with domestic debt representing the ma­­jority of this increase. As per SBP, the total government debt in­­creased from Rs68.91 trillion in ...

Posts from multiple Indian users on social media platform X on Monday were sharing the post of an account allegedly belonging to Zimbabwean cricket referee and former player Andy Pycroft, saying he stood by his decision that raised controversy in the Asia Cup 2025 match between India and Pakistan and criticised the latter’s players. However, the account is fake. Pakistan lodged a complaint a day ago with the International Cricket Council (ICC) over Pycroft’s conduct during the Asia Cup clash with India, as political tensions between the neighbours spilt onto the field. India beat Pakistan by seven wickets in Dubai on Sunday in the first meeting between the two sides since a four-day military conflict in May. The match, overseen by Pycroft, passed without incident but ended without the customary handshakes, intensifying the rancour between the two camps. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) alleged that Pycroft told captain Salman Ali Agha not to shake hands with Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav before the toss. No...