Pakistan

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has appointed its first senior official in India since the group returned to power in 2021, charged with leading their embassy in Delhi. India has not officially recognised the Taliban government, but the move signals a deepening engagement, with New Delhi seeking to exploit divisions between Islamabad and Kabul. Noor Ahmad Noor, a Taliban foreign ministry official, assumed responsibility as charge d’affaires, and has already held meetings with Indian officials, the embassy said in a statement. “Both sides emphasised the importance of strengthening Afghanistan-India relations,” the Afghan Embassy said, in a post on X late Monday. India has not commented, but the Afghan embassy posted a photograph of Noor with senior Indian foreign ministry official Anand Prakash. The Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islamic law may appear an unlikely match for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, but India has sought to seize the opening. Nuclear-armed rivals India an...

Amid ongoing violent protests in different parts of Iran, Pakistani students studying at various universities and religious institutions, along with pilgrims visiting holy sites, have started returning to Pakistan through the Gwadar route.

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar has strongly condemned the remarks made by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi regarding Afghanistan, terming them irresponsible and against Pakistan’s national interests.

• Several neighbourhoods have to make do without gas for four days straight as temperatures drop to single digits • Households turn to costly LPG cylinders • PPP senator seeks PM’s intervention • SSGC says shortfall from two fields reaches 45MMcf/d KARACHI: The gas crisis that Karachiites have been facing for the past four days further intensified on Monday, as several neighbourhoods remained completely without gas, while other areas struggled with critically low gas pressure. While office-goers, schoolchildren and other people continue to endure the cold-induced agony of a crippled gas supply, the gas utility concedes the problem, saying it experienced a reduction in gas supply from one more field. City’s minimum average temperature remained in the single digit as the Met Office said it was 8.1 degrees Celsius on Monday. Residents across the city said that the winter freeze had once again exposed the complete failure of the gas utility’s distribution infrastructure and system, turning everyday life into a co...

LAHORE: Despite the passage of about three months, law enforcement agencies (LEAs) remain in the dark about the whereabouts of Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Saad Hussain Rizvi and his brother Anas Rizvi. The issue resurfaced a couple of days ago, after an alleged statement attributed to the proscribed religious outfit surfaced, claiming that both were “in the custody of agencies”. However, senior law enforcement officials are sticking to their earlier stance, maintaining that the two are hiding somewhere in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). They said the Rizvi brothers had fled on the day the Punjab police launched a pre-dawn operation in Muridke to dismantle the TLP protest camp along G.T. Road. “I give you my word that they are not in the custody of any security agency and are still in AJK. They are most likely sheltered by a loyal worker of the banned organisation somewhere in the hilly areas,” said a senior officer. Talking to Dawn, he rejected the alleged TLP statement, terming it a “false, funny an...

ISLAMABAD: The government has planned to announce an ‘export emergency’ in the country and create a special cell at PM Office to address problems and complaints of the business community on an urgent basis for increasing exports by 40pc in four years and by around 200pc by 2035 for sustainable economic growth and job creation. “We will have to transform the entire system and become an export nation on an emergency basis, otherwise, the dependence on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and friendly countries for financial support would continue,” said Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal at a news conference on Monday. He conceded the country’s export performance in first four months (July-October) was not satisfactory even though exports grew by around 1pc. He also said there were genuine questions and impatience why GDP was not growing fast quickly but it was a pragmatism decision of the government not to rush for growth through consumerism as was done by the previous government in 2022. To ga...

• CJ Aminuddin inaugurates building, resumes hearing on super tax petitions • Lawyers complain about lack of facilities • CJP Afridi opens advocates’ room, Litigant Facilitation Centre at SC ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court finally settled into its newly renovated building on Constitution Avenue on Monday, where FCC Chief Justice Amin­uddin Khan presided over a bench to resume hearing challenges to the imposition of the super tax inside the refurbished Courtroom No. 1. Before the hearing, Justice Aminuddin Khan inaugurated the new court building in a simple ceremony attended by Justices Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, Aamir Farooq, Ali Baqar Najafi and K.K. Agha, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Attorney General for Pakistan Mansoor Usman Awan, Supreme Court Bar Association President Haroonur Rashid, FCC Registrar Hafeez Khan, along with lawyers and staff of the new establishment. The FCC has a total sanctioned strength of 13 judges. Soon after its establishment, the FCC was shifted to the Islamabad High Co...

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is set to overhaul its pharmacy education system and regulatory framework as part of a broader effort to bring the sector in line with international standards, Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal said on Monday.

ISLAMABAD - Lieutenant General Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin (Retd), Minister of Defence of the Republic of Indonesia, called on Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, NI (M), HJ, COAS & CDF, at General Headquarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi on Monday.

ISLAMABAD - A high level defence delegation headed by Lt Gen (Retd) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, Minister of Defence, Indonesia held a meeting with Federal Minister for Defence Production, Muhammad Raza Hayat Harraj and high officials of MoDP at Rawalpindi on Monday.

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday expressing satisfaction over recent performance of National Vocational and Technical Training Commission (NAVTTC), directed to set new targets for technical and vocational training programmes to further improve outcomes in future and ensure implementation of the.

ISLAMABAD - Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch yesterday inaugurated the five-day Cyber Capacity-Building and Policy Training Programme in Islamabad.

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday directed the National Information Technology Board (NITB) officials to ensure digitisation of all necessary stages of Hajj to facilitate pilgrims this year and access to government facilities easier for the masses through technology.

KARACHI - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday said that the Constitution and the law are being openly violated in the country.

ISLAMABAD - A new controversy was seen in the Parliament as the main coalition partners [PPP and PML-N] were at odds over the promulgation ordinance related to the ‘Federal Special Economic Zones’.

Info minister Tarar says Sohail Afridi trying to act as spokesperson for Afghan regime Talal Chaudhry urges KP CM to go to Afghanistan if you have so much sympathy for Taliban.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN - Seven police officials including one Station House Officer (SHO) were martyred in a targeted bomb blast on their armoured vehicle on Monday, police in the Tank district said, Images of the attack showed the mangled wreckage of the vehicle overturned on the roadside.

The government on Monday withdrew an ordinance which the PPP alleged was promulgated without the approval of President Asif Ali Zardari, hours after the latter staged a walkout from the National Assembly to express its displeasure. Sources told Dawn that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had forwarded a summary advising President Zardari to withdraw the Special Economic Zones (Amendment) Ordinance, 2026. In his remarks during the year’s first NA session, PPP’s Naveed Qamar had not specified which ordinance was promulgated without the president’s approval when he led a walkout by the party, saying it would not participate in proceedings until the situation was addressed. Sources in the PPP, however, had confirmed to Dawn he was referring to an ordinance related to special economic zones. Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, meanwhile, said that nowadays there was an e-office through which files were approved online. “This ordinance was also approved. Staff to staff, it was considered approved,” he said in a statement. ...

Tech giants Apple and Google on Monday announced a multi-year partnership that will see Apple’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) features, including its Siri assistant, be powered by Google’s Gemini technology. The collaboration marks a significant shift for Apple, which has traditionally developed its core technologies in-house. A joint statement said Apple selected Google’s AI technology after a “careful evaluation” determined it provided “the most capable foundation” for the iPhone-maker’s AI ambitions. The announcement represents a rare alliance between two companies that have long competed in the smartphone market, where Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems dominate globally. However, the two rivals have maintained a lucrative partnership for years, with Google paying Apple billions of dollars annually to remain the default search engine on iPhones and other Apple devices. That arrangement has faced scrutiny from regulators, with the US Justice Department arguing in an antitrust...

Indonesia has expressed its desire to further expand defence ties with Pakistan across multiple domains, the military’s media affairs wing said on Monday. The development came as Indonesian Defence Minister Lieutenant General (retd) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin called on Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir at the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. “The meeting focused on matters of mutual interest, evolving regional and global security dynamics, and exploration of avenues for enhancing bilateral defence cooperation,” it said. “Both sides underscored the importance of strengthening institutional linkages, training collaboration and defence industrial cooperation between Pakistan and Indonesia,” it added. “The visiting dignitary lauded the professionalism of Pakistan’s armed forces and acknowledged their sacrifices in the fight against terrorism. He also expressed Indonesia’s desire to further expand defence ties with Pakistan ...