Pakistan

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SHC issues notices to IG, others on missing persons plea

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The government of Punjab has approved a proposal submitted by the Inspector General to allocate funds for installing panic buttons and procuring body cameras across police stations in the province.

The government of Pakistan has decided to cancel the traditional Pakistan Day military parade scheduled for March 23, 2026, citing the ongoing Gulf oil crisis linked to tensions involving Iran, the United States, Israel, and several Arab nations.

Health experts term preventable thousands of annual childbirth deaths

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Another case of infant's mysterious death under probe

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Suspect, aided by nephews, murders three sisters over alleged suspicions

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Woman detained, police launch raids to arrest suspects

A senior US counter-terrorism official resigned on Tuesday to protest the US-Israeli war against Iran and said the Islamic Republic posed no imminent threat to the United States. “I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran,” Joseph Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, said in his resignation letter to President Donald Trump. Kent — a former member of the Green Beret special forces who served multiple combat tours — said “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.” Kent is the first senior US official to resign from the Trump administration to protest the war against Iran. “Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation,” Kent said in his letter to Trump. “Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influen...

Key strategist’s death adds to instability, raising fears of wider regional escalation

The Israeli claim of killing Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani, if confirmed, would mark the most consequential setback for Iran since the assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei at the start of the US-Israel war on the Islamic republic, which is now in its 18th day. Larijani is one of the few remaining figures who straddle the political, security and diplomatic layers of the Iranian system at a time of war. He is not merely a senior insider, but part of a small cohort that can reconcile competing power centres within the state and translate battlefield developments into coherent political signalling. His role extends beyond messaging to quietly shaping external engagement, including maintaining channels that could, if required, support de-escalation. His loss, if confirmed, would not fracture the system. It would rather narrow the space within which strategy is formulated, tilting the balance further toward a security-driven approach and reducing flexibility for any future political exit. ...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday stressed that dialogue and diplomacy remained the only viable path to resolving issues and achieving lasting peace and stability in the region. Dar made the remarks during a meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghaddam, according to the Foreign Office (FO). In a post on X, the FO said, the ambassador expressed gratitude for the “strong moral support extended by the people of Pakistan during this challenging time”. “The DPM/FM conveyed his condolences over the loss of precious lives in the conflict and expressed hope for an early resolution. He underscored that dialogue and diplomacy remain the only viable path to resolving issues and achieving lasting peace and stability in the region,” it said. The development comes amid an ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. In retaliatory strikes, Iran has targeted US assets and bases in Gulf countries. Amid the hostilit...

Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani directed on Tuesday the implementation of “wide-ranging austerity measures”, projecting a reduction of more than 50 per cent in the Senate Secretariat’s remaining budgetary utilisation for the current fiscal year, which is believed to translate into savings of around Rs700-750 million. A statement issued by the Senate Secretariat said that Gilani presided over a high-level meeting at the secretariat today to review the austerity measures and discuss their implementation in light of the country’s economic situation. The austerity measures for the secretariat align with a broader initiative taken by the government to deal with a global fuel crunch resulting from the ongoing Middle East conflict. The discussion during the meeting focused on “significant cuts in Senate expenditures, beginning with substantial reductions in the budget of the chairman’s office”, the statement said. “Adopting a top-down approach to fiscal discipline, the chairman directed that austerity measures mu...

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