Pakistan

A deadly bomb blast in Hangu district has killed three police officers, including SP Operations Asad Zubair.

Lahore has once again ranked as the most polluted city in the world, with Karachi also making the list at fourth place, according to the latest data from the global air quality monitor IQAir.

The federal government on Friday formally banned the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), declaring it a proscribed organisation under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) 1997, following a wave of violent protests across Punjab earlier this month.

The interior ministry on Friday notified the ban on the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), saying that the federal government had “reasonable grounds” to believe the religiopolitical party was connected to terrorism. The notification, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, said: “The federal government has reasonable grounds to believe that TLP is connected with and concerned in terrorism. “In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 11B(1)(a) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 (XXVII of 1997), the federal government hereby orders TLP to be a proscribed organisation for the purpose of the Act and list the aforesaid organisation in the first schedule to the said Act,” the notification said. The development comes a day after the federal cabinet approved a proposal to proscribe party under the Anti-Terrorism Act, days after nationwide protests over Gaza claimed the lives of several protesters and police officers and paralysed major highways and city roads from Karachi to Islamabad. The decision was taken at ...

Punjab Governor Sardar Saleem Haider said on Friday that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi should “definitely” be allowed to meet incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan. He expressed these views while answering a question during a press conference in Peshawar. His remarks come a day after Afridi was denied a meeting with Imran. It was the the second time that he had failed in his attempt to meet the former prime minister since assuming office on Oct 16, despite getting permission from the Islamabad High Court (IHC). When Haider, who was addressing the press conference alongside KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi, was asked for his opinion on the matter, he said: “There is democracy [in the country], and in my view, political people should be dealt with in a political manner. The court has given [Afridi] the permission to meet [Imran], and if there is no legal hindrance, I see no reason why the meeting should not take place.” The Punjab governor further stated that “several visitors had been meeting sev...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday announced that Pakistan has entered the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), emphasizing that enhanced regional connectivity will usher in a new era of economic and trade transformation.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday that cooperation in trade and economic spheres was a “win-win proposition” which offered “rich dividends” to all parties involved. He made the remarks while addressing the Regional Transport Ministers’ Conference in Islamabad. Transport ministers and senior officials from Türkiye, Sri Lanka, Iran, Maldives, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Russia, and Kazakhstan are attending the two-day conference which kicked off on Thursday. Addressing the conference today, PM Shehbaz said: “It cannot be stressed enough that cooperation in trade and economic spheres is a win-win proposition, offering rich dividends to all. “This would strengthen our common stake in peace and reinforce efforts for development in the region,” he said. In his remarks, the premier also talked about Pakistan’s key geographic location, saying: “Our geography links the warm waters of the Arabian Sea and the Persian gulf to the majestic Karakoram and Himalayan range, flowing through the ...

More than 1,000 people, mostly Chinese, have fled from Myanmar into Thailand this week, Thai authorities said on Friday, after the Myanmar military raided one of the country’s largest scam centres. Sprawling cyberscam hubs, where fraudsters swindle victims through online cons, have flourished along Myanmar’s loosely governed border during its years-long civil war. While some scammers are trafficked into the often-fortified compounds, experts say others work voluntarily, hoping to earn more in the multibillion-dollar illicit industry than they can at home. Thailand’s Tak provincial office said 1,049 people had crossed from Myanmar into Mae Sot district from Wednesday to Friday morning — up from the 677 who had fled the KK Park scam compound as of Thursday morning. Nationals from India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and more than a dozen other countries were among them, the office said in a statement. Thailand’s Immigration Bureau said most of the arrivals were Chinese men. Myanmar’s junta said on Monday...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar held a telephonic conversation with his United Arab Emirates (UAE) counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, discussing bilateral and multilateral issues of mutual interest as well as recent regional and global developments.

Pakistan’s security forces on Friday killed eight members of the militant group Fitna al Khawarij during an intelligence-based operation in the Wanda Sheikh Allah area of Lakki Marwat district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Education Department has launched an inquiry into the poor performance of government schools in the annual examinations for 9th and 10th grades, officials said on Friday.

Pakistan has once again drawn global attention to India’s systematic persecution of minorities, exposing what it described as New Delhi’s “heinous face” at the United Nations.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Friday reaffirmed Pakistan’s dedication to playing its part in building a “just and prosperous” world while marking United Nations (UN) Day. UN Day marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the UN and its charter. In a statement issued by the Foreign Office (FO), Dar reaffirmed Pakistan’s steadfast commitment to multilateralism along with the international community. “We believe the UN, as the world’s most representative multilateral institution, remains uniquely placed to address shared global challenges, including grave threats to international peace and security, [the] worst humanitarian crises, persistent development gaps, and the existential climate crisis,” he said. Dar added that Pakistan’s foreign policy was firmly rooted in the UN Charter’s principles: the sovereign equality of states, non-interference, the right to self-determination, and the peaceful settle...

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Friday ordered the blocking of the national identity card (CNIC), passport, and bank accounts of Aleema Khan, sister of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan, after she repeatedly failed to appear in court in a case related to the November 26 protest.

United States President Donald Trump said on Thursday all trade talks with Canada were terminated following what he called a fraudulent advertisement in which former and late president Ronald Reagan spoke negatively about tariffs. Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and autos earlier this year, prompting Ottawa to respond in kind. The two sides have been in talks for weeks on a potential deal for the steel and aluminum sectors. “Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier this week the ad from his province with anti-tariff messaging had caught Trump’s attention. The ad showed Reagan, a Republican, criticising tariffs on foreign goods while saying they caused job losses and trade wars. “I heard that the president heard our ad. I’m sure he wasn’t too happy,” Ford said on Tuesday. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation issued a statement late on Thursday saying the ad by the gove...

India trialled cloud seeding over its smog-filled capital for the first time, spraying a chemical from an aeroplane to encourage rain and wash deadly particles out of the air. Cloud seeding is the practice of using aeroplanes to fire salt or other chemicals into clouds to induce rain. New Delhi city authorities, working with the government’s Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, launched a test run on Thursday afternoon using a Cessna light aeroplane over the city’s northern Burari area. “A trial seeding flight was done … in which cloud seeding flares were fired”, Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said in a statement late on Thursday. “This flight was the proving flight for checking the capabilities for cloud seeding, the readiness and endurance of the aircraft, the capability assessment of the cloud seeding fitments and flares, and coordination among all involved agencies.” It comes ahead of a planned rollout of the scheme. Delhi’s Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said that “if conditions remain favourable, De...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has invited Qatari investors to “explore new avenues of collaboration” under the government’s Special Investment Facilitation Council framework, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported on Friday. The SIFC is body that was set up in 2023 with the objective to assist with foreign investments. PM Shehbaz invited Qatari investments under its framework during a meeting with Qatar’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Faisal Al Thani in Islamabad today. According to Radio Pakistan, PM Shehbaz underscored during the meeting the importance of enhancing bilateral trade and investment cooperation highlighted opportunities in this connection in energy, agriculture, food security, information technology, tourism and infrastructure development sectors. “The prime minister expressed satisfaction over the positive trajectory of Pakistan-Qatar relations, anchored in shared faith, values, and mutual respect,” the report said. It added that the premier also appreciated ...

• Customs clearance suspended at border stations; tomatoes among items becoming dearer • Official sees no chance of opening border before Istanbul summit on 26th QUETTA / ISLAM­ABAD: Border closures between Pakistan and Afghanistan for over 12 days on Thursday have pushed up prices of essential goods in both nations, with tomatoes now costing five times more in Pakistan since fighting broke out between the two neighbours this month and transit trade coming to a halt. Border crossings bet­ween the two countries have remained closed since Oct 11, following ground fighting and Pakistani airstrikes across their 2,600km frontier that killed dozens on both sides in the worst fighting since the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of Kabul. “We have no information when the border with Afghanistan will be opened,” a senior official of the Chaman administration said. The official added that even though the traders and the people involved in import and export are demanding the reopening of the border, but no decision has been made ...

• KP says ‘ban’ on inter-provincial movement of commodity violates Article 151(1) • Warns of shortages, risks to food security • Sindh accuses Punjab of halting supply of wheat seed; seeks PM’s intervention PESHAWAR / KARACHI: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday asked Punjab to withdraw restrictions on the inter-provincial movement of wheat and flour, warning that the curbs are disrupting supply chains, increasing prices and threatening food security in the province. Meanwhile, the PPP leadership in Sindh also lashed out at the Punjab government, accusing it of restricting the supply of wheat seed. In a letter to his Punjab counterpart, KP’s food secretary said that lifting the ban was critical to res­t­oring a smooth supply chain, stabilising market prices, and safeguarding his province’s food security. The letter said KP, a wheat-deficient province, depends on inter-provincial supplies from Punjab to meet its requirements — roughly 14,500 tonnes per day. “The prevailing restrictions have severely ...

Multan Sultans owner Ali Tareen hit out at the Pakistan Super League (PSL) management late on Thursday, stating he is “unhappy at their mediocre mindset”, after his franchise was issued a legal notice threatening suspension over breach of contractual obligations. Earlier in the day, the PSL management had acted following repeated public statements by Tareen criticising the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and PSL, and had sought a public apology if the latter wished to avoid legal proceedings. The move marked a significant escalation in the simmering tensions between the board and the Multan franchise. Tareen then posted a video on social media platform X on Thursday night, in which he could be seen holding what seemed to be the legal notice sent by the PSL management, saying he wanted to apologise but demanded better of the league organisers. Making sharp remarks targeted the PSL management, he ended the video by tearing up what seemed to be the legal notice he had received. Tareen had stoked the fire in April w...