Pakistan

Pet lovers eagerly gathered around a container to snap photos of meerkats at a Beijing animal fair, each selling for $320, while nearby, a raccoon nervously paced in a cage only slightly bigger than itself. Throngs of people from across China packed into the cavernous exhibition halls for the annual pet fair, where exotic animals are a more common sight than cats or dogs. The exotic pet industry is experiencing rapid growth with a market nearing 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion), Chinese state media have said. Approximately 17.07 million people in China have exotic pets, Xinhua reported last year, and animal rights groups have raised concerns about welfare standards. Unconventional pets are particularly popular among young people, with videos on how to raise them widely shared on social media platforms. A boy looks at a snake at a pet fair in Beijing on March 19, 2026. —AFP/File An 18-year-old putting down a deposit for a meerkat told AFP he was confident it would be easier to raise the animal than his previous...

Religious scholars from Pakistan and Afghanistan have called on authorities in both countries to extend the ceasefire announced for Eidul Fitr until Eidul Azha, stressing the need for sustained peace efforts amid ongoing tensions.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Tuesday demanded the immediate implementation of the proposed 28th Constitutional Amendment, urging political stakeholders to prioritise public empowerment amid evolving national challenges.

Petroleum prices in Pakistan are expected to rise to unprecedented levels as global crude oil markets remain volatile due to the ongoing conflict involving Iran and heightened tensions in the Middle East, according to official sources.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast rain in Karachi on Thursday, along with showers in other areas of Sindh over the rest of the week. In its daily weather outlook issued on Wednesday, the PMD said that a westerly wave was “affecting southern parts and spread over most parts of the country today”. It forecast partly cloudy weather in Karachi today, with a maximum temperature of 32-34 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 24.5°C. A separate statement by the PMD added that there was a chance of light rain or drizzle in some areas of the city. The humidity was expected to reach 84 per cent in the morning before dropping to 45-55pc in the evening, with a west/southwesterly wind prevailing, it said. On Thursday, mostly cloudy weather was expected in the city with “rain-wind or thunderstorm at isolated places”. The PMD predicted highs of 31-33°C and lows of 23-25°C with humidity levels of 75-85pc in the daytime, and a west/southwesterly wind. Friday will bring mostly sunny weather, with mercury sur...

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday announced that it was introducing an optional multi-tariff time of use (ToU) mechanism for industrial consumers for optimal utilisation of grid supply through pricing signals. “The Power Division is considering introduction of a new optional tariff mechanism aimed at facilitating industrial consumers and enhancing overall efficiency in electricity utilisation,” an official statement said. The division said that several internal consultative and technical meetings had already been undertaken by Power Minister Sardar Awais Khan Leghari in this regard. Under this proposed framework, industrial consumers will have the flexibility to opt into a multi-slab tariff structure, where energy pricing is based on average marginal cost signals across defined time-of-use slabs. This approach is designed to better reflect the actual cost of electricity supply during different periods. The tariff will consist of two primary components that include fixed charges and variable energy charge...

WASHINGTON: Speakers at an hours-long symposium on Capitol Hill on Tuesday noted that Pakistan’s gesture to mediate peace between the United States and Iran, amid the recent escalation of hostilities between Washington and Tehran, reflects growing confidence in Islamabad’s diplomatic role in regional disputes. Referring to the recent US–Iran military confrontation — which included direct strikes and retaliatory actions that heightened tensions across the Gulf — participants observed that Pakistan’s outreach underscored its desire to play a stabilising role in a region already burdened by multiple conflicts. Speakers argued that Pakistan, a developing country of more than 250 million people situated in a strategically sensitive region bordering Afghanistan, Iran, India and close to the Gulf, must be viewed beyond a narrow security lens. They noted that the country has a large diaspora in the United States, a growing and educated middle class, significant natural resources, and nuclear capability — factors that...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday hailed Saudi Arabia for showing “remarkable restraint” during the ongoing Middle East hostilities and stressed the need for urgent de-escalation. He made the remarks during a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, wherein the two discussed Iran’s retaliatory attacks sparked by the US-Israel military actions on February 28. A statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) about the phone call early this morning termed their conversation “warm and cordial”. “While appreciating the leadership of the Kingdom for demonstrating remarkable restraint in the current crisis, the prime minister reassured His Royal Highness that Pakistan would always stand by the Kingdom and the brotherly people of Saudi Arabia, just as they had always supported Pakistan, through thick and thin,” the PMO stated. It further said that the prime minister “reiterated Pakistan’s strong condemnation of the recent attacks on Saudi Arabia and expressed, once again, Pakistan’s com...

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Railways Hanif Abbasi said on Wednesday that “human error and some mechanical issues” were most probably the reasons behind the derailment of the Karachi-bound Tezgam express train the day before. Twenty-six passengers were injured, including one critically, when seven coaches of the train derailed near Adam Wahan Railway Station near Punjab’s Lodhran on Tuesday night. “I can not confirm before time … the reasons behind this derailment. But most probably, the reasons seem related to mechanical and human error,” Abbasi said while talking to Dawn on Wednesday morning. “You know they (Pakistan Railways) have very old coaches to run. And they have not addressed such issues well,” he deplored, adding that for the last nine years, there was no proper maintenance of the locomotives. He said that 1960 model coaches are still in use by railways, “and we are currently refurbishing them one by one — not to the extent of paint work alone, but mechanical and other works too”. The minister said...

The Foreign Office (FO) on Wednesday condemned the awarding of a life imprisonment sentence to prominent Kashmiri leader Asiya Andrabi, as well as the 30-year prison sentences awarded to her associates Fehmeeda Sofi and Nahida Nasreen by a court in Delhi. Andrabi is the founder of a Kashmiri rights group called the Dukhtaran-i-Millat, or Daughters of the Nation. The court sentenced her, Fehmeeda and Nasreen under the Indian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) after government prosecutors alleged that Andrabi was involved in a conspiracy to carry out militant activities. In a statement posted to social media platform X, the FO said that the verdict constituted a “grave miscarriage of justice” and reflected the “continuing suppression of fundamental rights” in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. “Pakistan views this decision as part of a broader pattern of politically motivated prosecutions aimed at silencing dissenting voices and intimidating those advocating the legitimate rights of the Kashmiri people,...

LARKANA: Recent excavations and new radiocarbon dates confirm an earlier urban occupation at Mohenjo Daro during the Kot Diji Phase, circa 3300-2600 BC, a source in Technical Consultative Committee (TCC) of the National Fund for Mohenjo Daro (NFM) has disclosed to Dawn. New excavations at the plain level to the west of the famous Stupa Mound have provided five new radiocarbon dates for a massive mud brick perimeter wall of the city. Sir Mortimer Wheeler had first discovered this structure in 1950, “but misidentified it as a revetment or flood protective bund”, experts working at the site said. The recent archaeological investigations were carried out at Mohenjo Daro under the direction of the NFM after a lapse of many years. A Joint Mission of the Directorate General of Archaeology and Antiquities, Sindh, and the Sindh Exploration and Adventure Society (SEAS), Pakistan, carried out excavation during the summer of 2025, and winter of 2025-26. The project was led by leading Pakistani Archaeologists Dr Asma Ibra...

WASHINGTON: Pakistan on Tuesday joined seven other members of the UN Security Council in reiterating firm opposition to the annexation of any part of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the forcible displacement of the Palestinian people. All seven nations warned that such actions violated international law and undermined prospects for peace. The briefing, however, was delayed because the Israeli Ambassador Danny Dannon occupied the microphone and spo­ke first, although Pakistan pointed out that the slot was reserved for the seven-nation stakeout. Asked to explain Israel’s position abo­ut reported US-Iran peace talks in Islam­abad, Dannon said that Israel has “continued its participation” in the war and will “continue to attack targets” until it achieves its objectives. At a Security Council press stakeout, Pakistan delivered the first portion of a joint statement on behalf of Bahrain, Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, Pakis­tan, Somalia and the United Kingdom. Tel Aviv envoy ‘hogs the mic’ ahead of stakeou...

MEYRIN (Switzerland): CERN scientists on Tuesday pulled off the unprecedented feat of transporting antiprotons by road, successfully test-driving the world’s first antimatter delivery system, with an eye to one day supplying research labs across Europe. “The particles returned... so this was a success,” CERN physicist Stefan Ulmer told reporters after the large truck came back from a 10-kilometre drive around the campus of Europe’s main physics laboratory. While that might not sound like a big distance, Ulmer, a spokesman for CERN’s BASE experiment probing the asymmetry between matter and antimatter in the universe, said it marked the “starting point to a new era”. Visible matter and its mysterious twin antimatter are believed to be almost identical, except their charges and magnetic properties are reversed. Scientists today still wonder why our universe contains far more matter than antimatter, when the Big Bang should have created an equal amount. When antimatter comes in contact with matter it annihilates,...

• Insiders say Washington asked Pakistan to host negotiations; groundwork laid in weeks of ‘hectic diplomacy’ • Witkoff expected to lead engagement; no indication yet of who Iran may send • Trump claims engagement on ‘15 points’ • Tehran implies existence of backchannel; spox says messages from US ‘received and responded to’ • Qatar, Turkiye support swift efforts to end war • German president calls US-Israeli war on Iran ‘violation of international law’ ISLAMABAD: A day after a proposal was floated to hold Iran-US talks in the nation’s capital, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif formally pitched Islamabad as a potential venue for negotiations between Iranian and US officials. “Subject to concurrence by the US and Iran, Pakistan stands ready and honoured to be the host to facilitate meaningful and conclusive talks for a comprehensive settlement of the ongoing conflict,” he wrote on X, tagging US President Donald Trump, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. The move followed rep...

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Concession period extended from November 2025 to February 2026

Step fulfills IMF condition to document key sectors, track sales

Experts warn of rising pollution along Karachi coast

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