Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Ministry of Communications and other respondents on a petition challenging the notification imposing a 50 per cent higher motorway toll on vehicles with insufficient M-Tag balance. Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfaraz Dogar issued the notices while hearing a petition filed by the Judicial Activism Panel against the June 3, 2025, notification. Counsel for the petitioner, Mahfouz Bukhari, argued that the decision to impose a higher toll on low-balance vehicles was arbitrary, excessive and without lawful justification. The chief justice observed that the impugned decision appeared to be a policy measure of the government and questioned how the court could interfere in such matters. In response, the petitioner’s counsel said that even policy decisions were subject to judicial review if they were unreasonable, discriminatory or violated the law. He contended that the enhanced toll imposed on motorists with low M-Tag balances was disproportion...

QUETTA: A division bench of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Wednesday admitted for regular hearing a petition filed by Dr Mahrang Baloch, the chief organiser of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC), challenging the life imprisonment sentence awarded to her by an anti-terrorism court (ATC), and issued notices to the respondents. A BHC bench comprising Justices Gul Hassan Tareen and Najmuddin Mengal heard the matter and ordered notices to be issued to the relevant authorities, seeking their response. During the proceedings, Addi­tional Advocate General Akbar Shah appeared on behalf of the provincial government, while advocates Jadain Dashti and Nadia Baloch represented the petitioner. Dr Mahrang has challenged the judgement of the Quetta anti-terrorism court, which sentenced her to life imprisonment in a case related to the killing of a security personnel member. SC issues notices to respondents in BYC leader’s bail plea By admitting the appeal, the high court has agreed to hear the case on its merits. The l...

Says political parties may disagree with govts and institutions, but should avoid remarks hurting martyrs’ families

LONDON: Declaring “this is the end of my political journey”, outgoing UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer bowed out at his final Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, pledging his wholehearted support to his successor as he prepares to hand over to premier-in-waiting Andy Burnham. Mr Starmer announced his resignation last month, bowing to months of pressure to step down after a series of scandals, missteps and policy U-turns. They blighted his two-year tenure after he led his centre-left Labour Party to victory in the 2024 elections following 14 years in opposition. Burnham is expected to be crowned Labour’s leader on Friday after securing overwhelming support from the party’s 403 MPs and the backing of major trade unions. Labour leader exits after scandals, U-turns and mounting pressure The party’s comfortable majority in the 650-seat House of Commons means he will automatically become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade. Facing his last weekly grilling from MPs in parliament, Mr Starmer said he wante...

Among weapons Gulf kingdom seeks are up to 20,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon Systems

• Declares immunisation gap a national public health emergency • Blames governance failures, corruption, weak immunisation system • Calls for an immediate audit of provincial health funds KARACHI: The Pakistan Medical Association has issued an urgent national red alert after clinical and epidemiological data revealed that Pakistan holds a catastrophically high volume of “zero-dose” children in the World Health Organisation’s Eastern Mediterranean Region. Zero-dose children are those who have not received the first dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-containing vaccine (DTP1). With 651,000 infants completely bypassed by routine immunisation systems, the representative body of the medical fraternity warns that the country is sitting on an epidemiological powder keg, facing an imminent, large-scale resurgence of preventable childhood mortality. The association formally declared the milestone a National Public Health Emergency, warning that the immunity gap has breached the threshold required to maintain her...

Preliminary findings support Tesla's argument that driver action causes crash

ISLAMABAD: The PTI parliamentary party decided to launch a nationwide movement from August 5 for the release of party chief Imran Khan and acceptance of other demands. The day will mark the completion of the former prime minister’s third year in prison. The decision was made at a meeting — chaired by party’s interim chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan — held at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House in the federal capital. During the meeting, the PTI lawmakers discussed matters related to the party’s parliamentary affairs. PTI General Secretary Salman Akram Raja, while talking to Dawn, said that the meeting decided to pick August 5 to launch its movement, which will include public meetings, demonstrations, and a long march. “It was also decided that Mehmood Khan Achakzai and Allama Raja Nasir Abbas’s opinions will be sought for finalising the protest plans and other activities,” he added. At a press conference, Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said that the meeting discussed the health of the ex-PM and his spouse Bushra Bibi. He sai...

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday launched the Chief Minister Pink Salt Value Addition Financing Scheme, unveiling an ambitious initiative to transform Punjab’s vast pink salt reserves into a value-added export industry expected to generate thousands of jobs and significantly increase.

KSE-100 climbs 1.62pc as bulls dominate session

‘The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran,’ US president says

• No untoward incident reported in Poonch, Sudhnoti • Thousands gather at Rawalakot’s Eidgah Ground ahead of march • JAAC says it wrote to army chief after concerns failed to reach him through official channels • AJK home secretary says coordinated campaigns carried out on social media to incite people MUZAFFARABAD: The proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) on Wednesday deferred for one week its planned long march on Muzaffarabad after back-channel contacts involving influential intermediaries raised hopes of a negotiated settlement to the ongoing standoff. Contrary to widespread fears of fresh violence, no untoward incident was reported from the troubled districts of Poonch and Sudhnoti during the day, while life remained normal across the rest of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). Official and political sources in Rawalakot told Dawn that several thousand people, including women and children, had gathered at Eidgah Ground in anticipation of the march, while a smaller crowd assembled at the Mutyalmera bu...

Now only Spain lies between Argentina, their attempt to be first country to win back-to-back title since 1962

• Studies suggest memory, decision-making, critical thinking are most at risk • Experts say artificial intelligence removes ‘learning opportunities’ • Studies suggest AI boosts short-term gains, but weakens long-term learning • Long-term impact on human brain remains unclear PARIS: Generative AI chatbots capable of writing emails and computer code, translating, organising a trip or coming up with gift ideas are now readily available, prompting some to ask whether human brainpower could suffer for lack of use. A simple natural-language prompt is usually enough to draw a useable response from a service like ChatGPT or Claude, with the effects making themselves felt in schools and universities, workplaces from offices to courtrooms and our personal lives. Recent scientific studies suggest there could be harmful consequences to farming out cognitive tasks to AI. They highlight memory, decision-making and critical thinking as particularly at risk. One American-British study of 1,222 people, still under peer review...

Environment Canada reports Air Quality Health Index reading of 10+, classified as 'very high risk,' for Toronto

• FRLD board defers funding decisions till December, receives 176 requests from 119 states • Pakistan submits three proposals on agriculture, health, flash flood losses • Civil society concerned over ‘lack of transparency’, red tape ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and other climate-vulnerable countries will have to wait longer for disbursements from the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) after its board decided to allow more time to assess an overwhelming number of funding proposals amid limited financial resources. The ninth meeting of the FRLD Board, held in Manila from July 8 to 10, ended without making any significant headway — a development that drew criticism from civil society groups, which said the Fund was failing vulnerable communities increasingly expo­sed to climate-related disasters. The Fund was established at COP27 in Egypt in 2022. A decision to operationalise it was taken at COP28 in Dubai, followed by its full operationalisation at COP29 in Azerb­aijan. With nearly $500m in its account, the F...

Responding to child sexual abuse case, says case was entirely a matter for the British authorities

Two vessels leave Myanmar's Rakhine State in late June carrying mostly ethnic minority Rohingya passengers

16,740 people injured in last month's disaster, says National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday said the amount allocated to provinces under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award had declined this year because the provinces contributed a portion of their share to support the federal government. “Despite reduced financial resources, every effort had been made to ensure that provincial development projects and grants remained unaffected,” he said while addressing a ceremony organised by the Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) to present a gold medal to Indus Hospital CEO Dr Abdul Bari. The CM said that the concerns raised by KATI regarding the Yellow Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project would be resolved through consultations with all stakeholders. He said valuable lessons had been learned from the Red Line project and the government would strive to complete the Yellow Line project on time without creating unnecessary inconvenience to the public. The CM said that the grant had been increased every year in the past for Indus Hospi...