Pakistan

Fresh dumping threatens flooding along Warsak Road

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ATH warns that ongoing drainage work could trigger monsoon flooding

Residents oppose shrinking of government land reserved for Friday, Sunday bazaars

Rs50b Kulsoom Nawaz Sharif General Hospital to be built on former GTS land

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The pitch where Spain forward Lamine Yamal honed his skills in a working-class, multi-ethnic neighbourhood outside Barcelona was buzzing with life on Thursday as locals looked ahead with pride to the World Cup final against Lionel Messi’s Argentina. “Now that the moment has come when the two of them are going to play against each other, it’s incredible,” said Keba, an 18-year-old Senegalese resident, referring to Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal’s well-known admiration for Messi. Messi, 39, enjoyed the peak years of his career at Barcelona, having come through the club’s youth academy, and a viral photograph showing the Argentine with a baby Lamine Yamal, now 19, has captured imaginations ahead of Sunday’s final in New Jersey. Pedro, 83, talks in front of a jersey of soccer player Lamine Yamal displaying on the wall of Bar El Cordobes at Rocafonda neighbourhood in Mataro, north of Barcelona, Spain on July 16, 2026. — Reuters As children from migrant families played on a pitch behind a mural featuring Lamine Yam...

Kicking off his election campaign in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday promised to be the voice of the people of AJK in the Centre and globally by bridging the “gap” between the federal capital and the people. Addressing the rally, the PPP chairman said: “We have seen both good and bad times in AJK, but I have not witnessed the conditions that I am seeing today.” He termed the prevailing situation a “test” for the AJK government, the state of Pakistan and all political parties. “It is the primary duty of a politician to be the voice of the people in the Centre and on international forums, but they are not fulfilling their responsibilities,” he said, adding that “politicians have to act as a bridge between the people of AJK and the Centre, but this is not happening.” He emphasised that this was not an issue limited to AJK; Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit-Baltistan were facing the same fate. “If the people of AJK give me the mandate, I promise that I w...

ISLAMABAD: Power companies on Friday sought a Rs1.20 per unit increase in fuel cost charges for consumers across the country in August, primarily due to the use of expensive imported fuels. The request comes despite around 75pc of electricity generated in June having come from cheaper domestic sources, predominantly those with zero fuel costs. Once approved, the power companies would charge consumers of all power utilities, including ex-Wapda Distribution Companies (Discos) and K-Electric, an additional Rs15.7 billion through August bills. The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has called a public hearing on July 29 to examine the request for a fuel cost adjustment (FCA). The Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), which filed the petition seeking a higher FCA for June, said power consumption was slightly lower than in June 2025. It reported electricity consumption of 13,066bn units in June this year, compared to 13,310bn units in the same month last year. The increase in fuel costs was prim...

Pakistan on Friday chaired and hosted the 12th meeting of the Heads of Border Services of the Competent Authorities of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the Foreign Office (FO) said. The meeting was attended by the heads and representatives of the border services of Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, along with the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS). The meeting participants exchanged information and assessments of the situation along the international borders of SCO member states and discussed development trends and forecasts, the FO said. The participants “discussed and approved the results of the Joint Border Operation ‘Solidarity-2025’, conducted by the border services of the competent authorities of the SCO member states”, the FO statement said. The meeting participants also considered and approved a plan for the preparation and conduct of the joint border operation ‘Solidarity-2026’, as well as...

KARACHI: Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab has said the Sindh government carries out significant public welfare initiatives but has failed to effectively highlight its achievements.

Apple is within striking distance of overtaking Nvidia as the world’s most valuable company, a milestone that would reshuffle the ranks of tech heavyweights as investors reassess the outlook for AI. Apple was last valued at $4.90 trillion as its shares rose marginally in premarket trading on Friday, while Nvidia was roughly at the same level, following a 2.4 per cent decline. If Apple overtakes Nvidia, it would reclaim the top spot for the first time since April last year. The close race shows that investors are broadening their focus beyond the obvious beneficiaries of the AI boom, such as Nvidia, which has been at the helm for nearly a year. “Apple was seen as a laggard in the AI race because it wasn’t spending to develop models, but now sentiment has changed,” said Toni Meadows, head of investment at BRI Wealth Management. “Apple is less exposed to capex intensity and better positioned to monetise AI via services, ecosystem lock-in, and hardware upgrades. The re-rating reflects confidence in earnings durab...

A large-scale field trial on the integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into the country’s justice system found that the use of AI resulted in an additional 1,848 cases being resolved per year, an increase of more than six per cent over the average, it emerged on Friday. “This increase does not appear to come at the expense of reduced quality,” observed a research paper on the rollout of a generative AI assistant in Pakistan’s trial courts, titled “Courts of Tomorrow: Evidence from a Nationwide Rollout of Generative AI”, that was published on Tuesday. The authors of the paper, researchers Sultan Mehmood, Christoph Goessmann and Elliott Ash, said that the custom assistant — named JudgeGPT — was a chatbot based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 family of models. It was customised for the Pakistani context and beta-tested “intensively” with Federal Judicial Academy before being deployed for use by 1,559 judges serving across 118 courts. According to the findings, it was most effectively implemented when paired w...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday hailed the signing of nine agreements worth around US$ 440 million between Pakistani and Chinese private enterprises in the pharmaceutical sector, describing the development as a major step towards strengthening bilateral economic cooperation and advancing the next phase of the China-Pakistan Economic.

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Friday initiated proclamation proceedings against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi, PTI leader Junaid Akbar, and Abdul Ghani Afridi, over their continued failure to appear before the court despite the issuance of non-bailable arrest warrants in a case related to the Nov 26 protest. ATC Judge Tahir Abbas Sipra took up the case, examining a progress report submitted by the Islamabad police regarding the investigation into a first information report (FIR) registered at Margalla police station over the Nov 26 incidents. According to the report, submitted through the office of the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Islamabad police, the investigation into the case has been completed. A reply was filed in response to the court’s notice seeking an explanation for the delay in the submission of the challan against the accused. The report stated that the court had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for Sohail Afridi, Junaid Akbar and Abdul Ghani Afridi thr...

Deputy Chairman of the Senate, Syedaal Khan Nasir, has said that the brotherly relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are built on a solid foundation of faith, mutual trust, and shared progress.

Veteran UK politician Andy Burnham was confirmed as the new leader of the ruling Labour Party on Friday, and is now set to be Britain’s next prime minister. “There being no other eligibly nominated candidate, it is therefore my honour to declare that the duly elected leader of the Labour Party is Andy Burnham,” interior minister Shabana Mahmood told a special party conference. Burnham takes over from Keir Starmer, who resigned last month as premier after months of political turmoil, scandal and missteps. Speaking in London after being formally confirmed as Labour leader and succeeding Keir Starmer, Burnham said he had not yet made up his mind about the composition of his top team. “I haven’t made any decisions yet about who will be in that top team. But I will soon, and when I have, you will see it reflects all parts of our party, all communities,” Burnham said. Centre-left Labour retains an overwhelming majority in parliament after the 2024 elections, so the leader of the largest party becomes the country’s ...