Pakistan

A fresh spell of rain swept across parts of Pakistan on Tuesday, bringing showers to major cities including Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar, and leading to a noticeable drop in temperatures.

World Health Day is being observed across the globe on Tuesday, including in Pakistan, to commemorate the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948 and to draw attention to pressing global health challenges.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Monday directed authorities to prohibit any increase in school transport fares, aiming to protect parents from additional financial burden amid rising fuel prices.

Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran’s envoy to Pakistan, has said Islamabad’s diplomatic efforts to help end the ongoing conflict have reached a “critical and sensitive stage”, reflecting Tehran’s acknowledgement of Pakistan’s mediatory role.

A total of 76 international flights from Pakistan to Middle Eastern destinations were cancelled on Tuesday, causing widespread inconvenience for passengers at major airports across the country.

Days after Iran effectively blocked shipping through the Strait of Hormuz following the start of US and Israeli attacks in late February, two Pakistani electric motorbike (EV) outlets 1,400 km away found themselves overwhelmed with enquiries. Haseeb Bhatti, who retrofits petrol-fuelled bikes with battery-powered motors in the northern city of Rawalpindi, said his March sales surged 70 per cent. For Ali Gohar Khan, who owns a 7-year-old electric motorbike retail franchise with branches across Pakistan, the recent surge in sales is the steepest ever. “People have this fear that maybe in the near future, they might not get petrol at all,” Khan said. The Middle East crisis has sent global fuel prices soaring, compounding pain for Pakistanis already hit by inflation and a post-pandemic economic downturn. As the nation imports nearly all its oil through the Strait of Hormuz, shortage rumours took hold despite the government’s supply assurances. Workers assemble an electric motorcycle at D.S. Motors Pvt. Ltd, in Hyd...

WASHINGTON: The United Nations Security Council is set to vote on a Bahrain-drafted resolution on the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, just hours before US President Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline for Iran to reopen the strategic waterway. The resolution, drafted by Bahrain in coordination with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Jordan, strongly encourages states using commercial routes in the Strait to coordinate defensive measures to ensure safe navigation, including escorting merchant vessels. It demands that Iran immediately cease attacks on commercial ships and civilian infrastructure, including oil, gas, and water installations. The Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for roughly 20 per cent of global oil consumption and a quarter of maritime-traded oil, has seen rising tensions since US-Israeli strikes on Iranian targets on February 28. Iran retaliated against Israel and Gulf states hosting US military bases, including reported attacks on commercial vessels and the deployment of naval mines. While...

The Government of Punjab has decided to launch free transport services in 17 districts across the province as part of efforts to provide relief to the public.

LAKKI MARWAT: At least five policemen including an officer were injured in an explosion in the Shahbazkhel town of Lakki Marwat district, police said on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the district’s police, Qudratullah, confirmed that the attack was carried out by Fitna-al-Khawarij on the Bannu-DI Khan section of the Peshawar-Karachi Indus Highway. Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He said that terrorists had fitted an improvised explosive device (IED) to a motorcycle parked along the roadside, which later exploded with a loud bang. The official added that a police patrol from Shahbazkhel police station was the target of the blast. A police van seen after being damaged in an attack in Lakki Marwat. —Photo provided by author The police spokesperson said that “the explosion was heard throughout the area and left one assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and four constables injured”, adding that the police van they were patrolling in was also...

The four astronauts of Nasa’s Artemis II mission flew deeper into space on Monday than any humans before them, as they cruised through a rare flyby of the shadowed far side of the moon that revealed a lunar surface under cosmic bombardment. The six-hour survey of the normally hidden hemisphere of Earth’s only natural satellite was highlighted by the astronauts’ direct visual observations of “impact flashes” from meteors pelting the darkened and heavily cratered lunar surface. About two dozen scientists packed a conference room adjacent to mission control at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston to record the lunar phenomena witnessed by the Artemis crew in real time as their Orion spacecraft, about the size of an SUV, sailed around the moon roughly a quarter million miles (402,000km) from Earth. The six-hour flyby, which swooped to within 4,070 miles of the lunar surface, came six days into a spaceflight marking the world’s first voyage of astronauts to the vicinity of the moon since Nasa’s Cold War-era Apol...

India has moved closer to producing its own nuclear fuel after a domestic-designed reactor began a controlled nuclear reaction, an important step before it can start generating power. Energy-hungry India, the world’s most populous country and third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has ambitious plans to expand nuclear power capacity from its current eight to 100 gigawatts by 2047. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam attained “criticality”, the stage at which a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction starts. “Today, India takes a defining step in its civil nuclear journey, advancing the second stage of its nuclear programme,” Modi said in a statement late Monday. “This advanced reactor, capable of producing more fuel than it consumes, reflects the depth of our scientific capability and the strength of our engineering enterprise.” Modi called it a “decisive step towards harnessing our vast thorium reserves”, a potential fuel for nuclear reactors. The react...

The Government of Sindh has launched a province-wide vaccination campaign to protect livestock from seasonal diseases ahead of the monsoon season.

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Monday alluding to recent regional situation and spiraling global petroleum prices, underlined the need for introduction of environment-friendly electric vehicles across the country, thus saving country’s precious foreign reserves.

US President Donald Trump asserted on Monday that Iran could be taken out in one night, “and that night might be tomorrow night”, even as he said shortly afterwards that US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, were talking to intermediaries in Pakistan. His statements from two different events came ahead of a looming Tuesday night deadline he gave to Tehran to agree to a ceasefire deal with Washington, warning of wider bombing on power plants and other critical infrastructure. Trump is demanding that Iran forswear nuclear weapons and reopen the Strait of Hormuz oil transit waterway. Iranian media reported on Monday that Tehran had rejected the US ceasefire proposal through intermediary Pakistan, and had instead shared a 10-point proposal, demanding an end to conflicts in the region, a protocol for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, lifting of sanctions and reconstruction. Addressing a White House press conference on Monday, Trump told reporters that Iran could be taken out in one night, warni...

LAHORE: A high-level committee of the Punjab Assembly has declared that a controversial colonial-era law effectively criminalises poverty and must be abolished, it emerged on Monday. The Committee on Law Reforms and Delegated Legislation met on Monday at the Punjab Assembly under the chairmanship of Speaker Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, taking up critical issues ranging from outdated criminal laws to police accountability. A major highlight of the sitting was the review of Section 55(1)(b) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, which allows police to arrest individuals without warrant if they have “no ostensible means of subsistence.” The committee described the provision as an outdated colonial relic that criminalised poverty instead of criminal conduct, and conflicted with fundamental constitutional rights. A detailed reform proposal recommends complete omission of this clause, along with related provisions, to prevent misuse. The proposed reforms also suggest tightening another clause, Section 55(1)(c), tha...

RAWALPINDI - Provincial Minister for Primary and Secondary Healthcare, Khawaja Salman Rafique on Monday directed authorities to intensify anti-dengue measures across Rawalpindi Division ahead of the expected early monsoon season.

Islamabad - Pakistan and Egypt on Monday began Joint Exercise Thunder-II which is a bilateral counter-terrorism exercise conducted between the armies of Pakistan and Egypt.

ISLAMABAD - Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar spoke Monday with UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister of State) Hamish Falconer.

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif has directed authorities to expedite the completion of the Nawaz Sharif Institute of Cancer Treatment and Research, ordering construction work to be carried out in three shifts to ensure early completion of the project.

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Monday expressed strong displeasure over the absence of an accused doctor in a serious case involving illegal kidney transplants, terming the matter highly alarming and of an extraordinary nature.