Pakistan

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The Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) on Monday condemned the prison sentences of lawyers Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir and her spouse Hadi Ali Chatta, lamenting that “dictatorship has been imposed in Pakistan”. The remarks came as a TTAP delegation called on Imaan’s mother Shireen Mazari to “express solidarity” with the jailed couple, according to post by the party on X. The video accompanying the post showed TTAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Vice Chairman Mustafa Nawaz Khokar and the PTI’s Barrister Gohar Ali Khan included in the delegation. Speaking to the media after the meeting, PTI’s Gohar condemned the couple’s arrest, their trial and how “due process was violated”. “We have always been and will always remain opponents of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (Peca). Voices cannot be suppressed. Nations cannot be suppressed by suppressing voices,” he said, “We condemn this judgment. We met her family and mother. They said that they have no contact with her (Imaan),” Gohar said, drawing a parallel b...

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) MNA Noor Alam Khan on Monday called for barring bureaucrats from holding dual nationality. Presently, Article 63 (1)(c) of the Constitution states: “A person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of the Majlis-i-Shoora (Parliament), if he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan, or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state.” On the other hand, bureaucrats can be dual nationals. But, amendments have been proposed to the Civil Servants Act for a restriction on bureaucrats’ dual nationality. The matter came under discussion on Monday during a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat, where the Civil Servants (Amendment) Bill, 2024 — which was moved by Khan — was taken up. The bill, seen by Dawn, says: “This private bill seeks amendment in Section 5 of the Civil Servants Act, 1973 with a view to lay down an enabling provision so that a civil servant holding dual nationality or citizenship of any f...

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E-commerce giant Daraz on Monday announced an initiative to help sellers affected by the Gul Plaza inferno, saying it would launch a dedicated section on its website to sell their products and goods. The deadly inferno, which erupted on the night of January 17 at the mall and took nearly two days to be fully extinguished, claimed at least 73 lives and left over 1,100 shops in ruins. Efforts to scour through the debris for the remains of the dead are still underway. In a press release, Daraz said it was mobilising platform and ecosystem support for the affected traders by providing “onboarding, storage solutions, marketing enablement, and dedicated incubation over the next three months”. “Daraz Pakistan, under its Daraz Cares arm, has announced a dedicated support initiative for sellers impacted by the recent fire at Gul Plaza in Karachi, aimed at helping affected businesses regain stability and continue serving customers across Pakistan,” the press release said. “Through this initiative, Daraz Pakistan will l...

Indonesia has received three Rafale fighter jets from France in the first deliveries from a multi-billion dollar defence deal between the two countries, a defence ministry official told Reuters on Monday, marking a major upgrade to the country’s ageing military hardware. Jakarta, France’s main arms client in Southeast Asia, has placed orders for as many as 42 Rafales, built by Dassault Aviation, as well as French frigates and submarines, as the archipelago steps up defence spending under President Prabowo Subianto, a former special forces commander. “The aircraft have been handed over and are ready for use by the Indonesian Air Force, Defence Ministry spokesperson Rico Ricardo Sirait said in a message in response to a Reuters query — the first confirmation that Indonesia has possession of the advanced military aircraft after striking an $8 billion deal with France in 2022 and expanding it last year. Sirait said the three aircraft arrived on Friday and were stationed at Roesmin Nurjadin Air Base in Pekanbaru, ...

In many South Asian households, the instruction comes early and often. A boy falls, scrapes his knee, and starts to cry. Before the pain is addressed, the correction arrives: “Boys don’t cry.” Sometimes it’s said gently, sometimes sharply, often jokingly. Rarely is it questioned. Yet, according to child and adolescent psychiatrists, this single sentence can quietly shape a child’s emotional, cognitive, and social development in ways that last a lifetime. Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed, Professor of Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatry at Faridpur Medical College, explains that childhood development is never just physical. “We usually give importance to physical growth,” he says, “But emotional, cognitive, and social development are equally important.” When one is disrupted, the others do not remain untouched. Emotional suppression starts early From a psychiatric perspective, emotional development depends on one simple but crucial skill: recognising emotions and responding to them appropriately. “A child needs to und...

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and his Burmese counterpart Than Swe held “very productive and comprehensive” discussions in Islamabad on Monday, as both Pakistan and Myanmar seek to revitalise ties. FM Than Swe arrived in Islamabad on a four-day official visit on the night of January 24. The Foreign Office (FO) had said the visit “aims to strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries”. Addressing a joint press conference alongside Than Swe, Dar said, “Our discussions were very productive and comprehensive.” He highlighted that the Burmese FM’s visit reflected the “importance that both countries attach to revitalising and strengthening Pakistan-Myanmar relationship”. Noting that their meeting went for over an hour, Dar said the discussions covered the “full spectrum of bilateral relations”. “We also exchanged views on regional peace and security and agreed that all […] issues should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy,” the deputy prime minister added. He stressed that both countries had historic...

Pakistan’s benchmark index, the KSe-100, closed in red at 188,587.66, down 579.16 points (-0.31 per cent) from the previous close. The total volume was 449.8 million shares at a value of Rs43.56 billion. The market fell to its lowest point at 3:28pm PKT, hitting an intraday low of 188,268.38 points. This rally was on account of investors positioning for a further cut in the policy rate based on easing inflation, rising foreign exchange reserves, and a stable rupee. After the markets closed, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) maintained its key policy rate at 10.5 per cent on Monday during its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Brokerage house Topline Securities noted that this “came as a surprise” as a majority of their participants were expecting a rate cut.

Bundled up in a yellow hat and black puffer jacket, Taylor was one of hundreds of protesters marching after the killing of a second US citizen this month by federal agents carrying out an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. The violence has put new pressure and scrutiny on US President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation campaign, which has drawn demonstrators onto the streets of the Midwestern city. “I think it was completely senseless, it was murder,” said the young woman, who did not want to give her last name. Federal agents shot to death 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, claiming he intended to harm them during a confrontation on Saturday. However, a video shared widely on social media and verified by US media showed Pretti never drawing a weapon, with agents firing at him seconds after he was sprayed in the face with a chemical irritant and thrown to the ground. “I think the way that the government is bringing ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in to take away our neighbours and to pull fami...

The European Union (EU) on Monday hit Elon Musk’s social media platform X with an investigation over AI chatbot Grok’s generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors, in the latest step of an international backlash against the tool. Grok faces an outcry after it emerged that users could sexualise images of women and children using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “remove her clothes”. “In Europe, we will not tolerate unthinkable behaviour, such as digital undressing of women and children,” said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen. “It is simple — we will not hand over consent and child protection to tech companies to violate and monetise. The harm caused by illegal images is very real,” she said in a statement to AFP. EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen said the probe would “determine whether X has met its legal obligations” under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which is designed to police internet giants. She said the rights of women and children in the EU...

The Punjab government has finalised a massive Rs47 billion relief package for the holy month of Ramazan to provide financial and food assistance to millions of deserving families across the province.

• Diplomats, press divided over New Delhi’s perceived reluctance to join Trump-led body • Given his propensity to paint himself as a global peacemaker, The Hindu warns US president may offer to mediate Kashmir dispute DESPITE being invited to join the ‘Board of Peace’ by President Donald Trump, India has yet to formally get involved in the process. Conspicuous by its absence from the Davos ceremony where 20 world leaders — including Trump and Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif — signed the board’s charter, some in India are viewing New Delhi’s reluctance through the lens of the Kashmir dispute. President Trump says the board’s goal is to make the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza permanent and oversee an interim government in the Palestinian territory. “This is not just for America, but for the whole world. I think we can spread it to other places. Like we did successfully in Gaza,” he had said at the time. But there seems to be concern among some circles that if India signs up for the board — which Trump ...

The Pakistani rupee remained stable against the US dollar during Monday’s interbank session, marking its fourth consecutive day of stability.

Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon has called on the international community to take notice of what he described as blatant human rights violations in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

A Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced Dhaka’s fugitive former police chief and two senior colleagues to be hanged for crimes against humanity committed during the rule of ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina. All three, including the capital’s former police chief, Habibur Rahman, were tried in absentia, and their whereabouts are not known. The verdict comes ahead of elections on February 12, the first in the South Asian country of 170 million people since Hasina’s overthrow in August 2024. Five other ex-police officers were sentenced to varying terms. The case concerned the killing of six protesters in Dhaka on August 5, 2024, the day Hasina fled to India as protesters stormed her palace. Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched a brutal campaign to silence the protesters, according to the United Nations. “The police forces… opened fire with lethal weapons… causing death to the aforesaid six persons,” judge Golam Mortuza Mozumder read to the court in Dhaka....

Gold surged to a record high above $5,100 an ounce on Monday, extending a historic rally as investors piled into the safe-haven asset amid rising geopolitical uncertainties. Spot gold was up 2.2 per cent at $5,089.78 per ounce by 6:56am GMT, after earlier touching an all-time high of $5,110.50. US gold futures for February delivery also gained the same amount to $5,086.30 per ounce. The metal soared 64pc in 2025, its biggest annual gain since 1979, driven by safe-haven demand, US monetary policy easing, robust central bank purchases including China’s fourteenth straight month of buying in December, and record inflows into exchange-traded funds. Prices have set consecutive record peaks over the past week and have already risen more than 18pc this year. The latest catalyst “is effectively this crisis of confidence in the US administration and US assets, that was set off by some of the erratic decision-making from the Trump administration last week”, said Kyle Rodda, a senior market analyst at Capital.com. US Pr...

The membership of 41 Punjab Assembly members has been restored after they submitted their asset declarations, while nine members who failed to comply with the requirement remain suspended.

The country remained in the grip of a cold wave on Monday, with the National Weather Forecasting Centre (NWFC) saying that a new western disturbance is likely to persist in upper Pakistan until Tuesday. The NWFC, in its daily forecast, warned of traffic disruption due to heavy snowfall, causing road closures and slippery conditions in Naran, Kaghan, Dir, Swat, Kalam, Chitral, Kohistan, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Shangla, Astore, Hunza, Skardu, Murree, Galiyat, Neelum Valley, Bagh, Poonch, Haveli, Quetta, Ziarat, Chaman, Pishin, Qila Abdullah, Qila Saifullah, Noshki, Harnai and Zhob. It added that there was a risk of landslides and avalanches in the mountainous areas of upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. “Tourists are advised to remain extra cautious and avoid unnecessary travelling during the forecast period,” it said. The NWFC forecast rain, wind, thunderstorms and snowfall in Balochistan, KP, Kashmir and GB on Monday. According to the forecast, heavy rain and moderate-to-heavy snowfall is al...