Pakistan

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday the government would not allow anyone to malign the country while travelling abroad, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. According to the report, he made the remarks during a visit to Jinnah International Airport. “Passengers with unverified and illegal documents will not be allowed to travel abroad,” the report quoted him as saying. He also said professional beggars disguised as passengers would not only be offloaded but would also face legal action, the report said. The minister asserted that those in possession of valid travel documents had neither been stopped in the past nor would they be stopped in the future. He said facilitating passengers was the government’s priority. He lauded the officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for ensuring travellers had valid documents and ensuring an effective checking process, the report added. Earlier this month, while chairing a meeting to review the performance of the Immigration Wing of the FIA, Naqvi had...

Elena Rybakina took revenge over world number one Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final on Saturday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2hrs 18mins. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. “Hard to find the words now,” said Rybakina, and then addressed her beaten opponent to add: “I know it is tough, but I hope we play many more finals together.” Turning to some Kazakh fans in the crowd, she said: “Thank you so much to Kazakhstan. I felt the support from that corner a lot.” This was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open last year for the second time but lost the French Open and Melbourne title deciders. She was into her fourth Australian Open final in a ro...

At an Indian gourmet food store, Avanti Mehta is organising a blind tasting of drinks sourced from France, Italy and India. No, this isn’t wine, it’s water. Participants use tiny shot glasses to check the minerality, carbonation and salinity in samples of Evian from the French Alps, Perrier from southern France, San Pellegrino from Italy and India’s Aava from the foothills of the Aravalli mountains. “They will all taste different … you should be choosing a water that can give you some sort of nutritional value,” said Mehta, who is 32 and calls herself India’s youngest water sommelier, a term usually associated with premium wine. Her family owns the Aava mineral water brand. Premium water is a $400 million business in the world’s most populous nation and is growing bigger as its wealthy see it as a new status symbol that fits in with a spreading wellness craze. Avanti Mehta, 32, India’s youngest water sommelier, talks about different brands of packaged water at “Sip and Sense”, a water tasting event in Hyderab...

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami on Saturday warned the United States and Israel against an attack, saying his country’s forces were on high alert following Washington’s heavy military deployments in the Gulf. He also insisted the Islamic republic’s nuclear expertise could not be eliminated, after Trump said he expected Tehran to seek a deal to avoid US strikes. “If the enemy makes a mistake, without a doubt it will endanger its own security, the security of the region, and the security of the Zionist regime (Israel),” Hatami said, according to the official IRNA news agency. He noted that Iran’s armed forces were “at full defensive and military readiness”. Washington sent a naval strike group to the Middle East led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, with Trump threatening to intervene militarily after a deadly crackdown by Iranian authorities on two weeks of anti-government protests. The deployment has raised fears of a possible direct confrontation with Iran, which has warned it would respond with mi...

A local PPP activist was gunned down in Karachi’s Pak Colony area late on Friday night, police said on Saturday. South Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Syed Asad Raza told Dawn that the shooting occurred at Qaim Khani Clinic, located near Warisi Mosque in Hasrat Mohani Colony, within the jurisdiction of Pak Colony Police Station. “Political and social figure Abdul Rasheed Qureshi was present at the clinic where he was receiving medical treatment and was receiving an intravenous (IV) drip due to ill health,” DIG Raza said. “During this time, unknown assailants, for reasons yet to be determined, opened fire, as a result of which Qureshi died on the spot,” he said. The DIG added that Qureshi was immediately moved to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. “Upon receiving information about the incident, the Pak Colony station house officer (SHO), along with a heavy contingent of police, reached the scene,” the DIG said. “Police are investigating the incident from various angles,” he sa...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif paid homage to 10 security personnel who laid down their lives in the line of duty in Balochistan, reaffirming that the fight against terrorism will continue until it is completely eradicated.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz formally inaugurated the Punjab Agriculture Food and Drug Authority (PAFDA), where both leaders toured different departments and reviewed the authority’s operations.

The Punjab government has declared a five-day holiday in Lahore from February 4 to February 8 in connection with upcoming religious observances and Basant festivities.

ISLAMABAD: Sup­re­­me Court judge Justice Nae­em Akhtar Afghan on Friday emphasised that the district judiciary acts as the backbone of the legal system and plays a pivotal role in the dispensation of justice. Justice Afghan was sp­­eaking at a certificate-aw­arding ceremony for the Leadership and Mana­ge­ment Training Course (Batch-V) for District and Sessions Judges and Sen­ior Civil judges, held at the Federal Judicial Acad­emy (FJA), Islamabad. Jus­­tice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb also attended the ceremony. In his concluding remarks, Justice Afghan said that a heavy responsibility rests on all district judges, adding that they should always strive to write professional judgements based on facts, law and principles. Advising the district judiciary judges, Justice Afghan described continuous learning as the “key for judges” to ensure ef­­fective administration of justice. He urged them to never stop learning, avoid prejudice and personal biases, refraining from liking or disliking the parties involved and en...

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague has directed India to submit detailed operational records of its hydropower projects on rivers allocated to Pakistan under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), in a significant development in the long-running water dispute between the two countries.

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Saturday approved a four-day physical remand of five officials accused in the case of a mother and her minor daughter who fell into a manhole near Bhatti Gate earlier this week and died. The two had fallen into the sewer at the site of the under-construction Data Darbar expansion project near Bhatti Gate on Wednesday. While the woman’s body was found late at night the same day, the 10-month-old child’s body was recovered on Thursday. Earlier, police presented the arrested officials before the magistrate at district courts and sought their 14-day physical remand. The request was heard by Judicial Magistrate Shafqat Abbas. During the hearing, a counsel for the accused opposed the police plea, arguing that a physical remand was unnecessary. The defence counsel informed the court that Rs10 million had been paid to the aggrieved family in the form of a cheque on humanitarian grounds, producing a photocopy of the cheque issued. He admitted that the incident was tragic. The magistrat...

Australia fast bowler Pat Cummins was ruled out on Saturday for next month’s Twenty20 World Cup after failing to recover from a nagging back injury, and Ben Dwarshuis will replace him for the global showpiece. Cummins played just one of the five Ashes tests against England, but Australia kept him in the provisional World Cup squad hoping for his availability in the Super Eight stage of the tournament to be played in India and Sri Lanka. Matt Renshaw also replaced fellow batter Matthew Short but veteran Steve Smith could not break into the World Cup squad despite his strong form in the Big Bash League. “With Pat needing more time to recover from his back injury, Ben is a ready replacement who offers a left-arm pace option as well as dynamic fielding and late-order hitting,” selector Tony Dodemaide said. “We believe his ability to swing the ball at good pace along with clever variations will be well suited to the conditions we expect and overall structure of the squad.” The Mitchell Marsh-led side are currently...

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to formally introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) as part of the school curriculum from grade six to grade twelve, with the new subject set to be implemented from March 2026, officials said.

The executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), Professor Dr Rana Imran Sikander, revealed early on Saturday that the eye procedure of incarcerated former premier Imran Khan was completed “smoothly” and that he remained “stable” during the intervention. The video statement by the hospital’s head comes after the PTI approached the Supreme Court on Friday, seeking its assistance in arranging a meeting between the PTI founder and his personal physicians, with the help of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP). Information Minister Attaullah Tarar had earlier confirmed that Imran underwent a “20-minute” medical procedure for an eye ailment on the night of January 24 at Pims in Islamabad. “It (the procedure) was completed smoothly in approximately 20 minutes. During the treatment, the patient remained vitally stable and was discharged with routine post-procedure care instructions and follow-up advice and documents,” said Sikander. The doctor said the former premier, aged 74, complained of...

More than 200 people were killed this week in a collapse at the Rubaya coltan mine in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, spokesperson for the rebel-appointed governor of the province where the mine is located, told Reuters on Friday. Rubaya produces around 15pc of the world’s coltan, which is processed into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal that is in high demand by makers of mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines. The site, where locals dig manually for a few dollars per day, has been under the control of the AFC/M23 rebel group since 2024. The collapse occurred on Wednesday and the precise toll was still unclear as of Friday evening. “More than 200 people were victims of this landslide, including miners, children and market women. Some people were rescued just in time and have serious injuries,” Muyisa said, adding that about 20 injured people were being treated in health facilities. “We are in the rainy season. The ground is fragile. It was the ground ...

Security forces on Wednesday thwarted a series of coordinated militant attacks at multiple locations across Balochistan, killing several assailants and regaining control of the affected areas within hours, officials said.

Six more children receiving treatment at Civil Hospital Mithi have died over the past five days due to malnutrition and related illnesses, pushing the total number of child deaths in Tharparkar to 50 over the last month, hospital sources said on Thursday.

The United States on Friday approved multibillion-dollar weapons sales to both Saudi Arabia and Israel, at a point of high tensions with Iran. The State Department said it green-lighted a $3.8-billion sale of 30 Apache attack helicopters to Israel, which has agreed to a fragile ceasefire in Gaza. “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the State Department said in a statement. “This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives,” it said. Also in the package was a $1.8 billion sale of joint light tactical vehicles. The United States sends billions of dollars worth of military supplies per year to Israel, largely in aid rather than sales. Israel and Hamas reached a US-backed ceasefire in October that largely paused two years of war. Tensions are high elsewhere in the region as the United States deploys a major military contingent in waters near Iran. The State De...

KARACHI: The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has ordered an inquiry after the Karachi Constructors Association (KCA) levelled serious allegations of large-scale corruption against officials of the civic body’s engineering department, claiming that billions of rupees in development funds had been misappropriated through fraudulent practices. The inquiry was announced by Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, who took notice of the concerns raised by the contractors’ body and directed the municipal administration to conduct a comprehensive and impartial examination of the tendering, bidding and procurement processes within the KMC. A couple of days ago, the KCA, which represents contractors working with civic bodies and government organisations, accused senior engineering officials of manipulating tenders, procuring substandard materials and awarding contracts to favoured contractors without competitive bidding. The association also alleged that contractors were subjected to excessive commission demands and blackm...

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has forecast rain and snowfall in various parts of the country from today till February 3, warning that the risk of landslides may increase in mountainous regions during this period.