Pakistan

Court orders reinstatement with full back benefits

Garden Police Lines allotments cancelled over unpaid electricity dues

Newly launched book sparks debate on reform, governance

Claims massive cuts to provincial funds threaten autonomy

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ISLAMABAD: The government on Friday assured the PTI that it would discuss with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the extension of tax exemptions for the merged districts of the erstwhile Fata and Pata regions, according to federal minister Rana Sanaullah. Sanaullah, who also serves as the prime minister’s adviser on political affairs, made the remarks after key leaders from the government and the PTI met at Parliament House. “The finance minister has promised [the opposition] that he will seek to extend these exemptions after speaking with the IMF, and God-willing, will make efforts for it,” Sanaullah told reporters after the meeting. The meeting was held in the chamber of Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb. Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Amir Muqam also attended from the government side, while Asad Qaiser, Junaid Akbar and PTI MNAs from the erstwhile Fata represented the opposition. Sanaullah said the opposition had raised concerns with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in the National As...

Australia has detected its first suspected mainland case of H5N1 bird flu in a remote part of the country’s ​southwest, authorities said on Friday. A migratory sea bird known as a brown ‌skua found in Western Australia’s Cape Le Grand National Park tested positive for avian influenza, and further testing is being conducted to confirm the strain, said state Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis. “We ​are taking the suspected case of H5 bird flu seriously,” Jarvis said. “If ​this is confirmed H5 bird incursion, there will be a rapid ⁠and coordinated national response.” The virulent strain of H5 bird flu has spread through ​wild bird and mammal populations since 2021, killing millions, infecting poultry and dairy farms ​and even some farm workers. Australia is the only continent without a confirmed mainland case of the deadly strain. H5 was confirmed on Heard Island, a sub-Antarctic Australian territory in late 2025. The country has been ​preparing for the arrival of H5N1 bird flu by tightening biosecurity at farms...

In 2018, a wildlife patrol found a skull and claw at the top of Trail 6 in the Margallah Hills, just behind Faisal Mosque in Islamabad. The rest of the animal’s body had either decomposed or been scavenged, but some of the skin on the claw remained intact. On closer inspection, it was found to have the rosette patterns of a leopard. Analysis confirmed that the animal had been a fully grown adult and had died a natural death. Its skull was sent to the Pakistan Museum of Natural History, where it has been kept in a lab and away from public display ever since. What was a shy, secretive and highly territorial leopard doing out here in its old age? No one could say for sure. Nevertheless, the discovery completely changed what we know about big cats in the capital. British gazetteers say leopards were found in Swat, Dir and Murree and even the Kala Chitta range to Islamabad’s west, but they make no mention of sightings in the Margallahs. At most there are mentions of jackal, deer, monkey and boar (tigers became ext...

As the hantavirus scare comes to an end with the last cruise ship passengers set to leave quarantine, what did the world learn from this sudden outbreak of a previously little-known virus? The deaths of three people who had been onboard the MV Hondius sparked a global health alert in early May, prompting fears the ship’s many international passengers could spread the rodent-borne disease across the world. Many nations responded by putting the passengers and contact cases in quarantine or isolation for the disease’s six-week incubation period. There were no further deaths during the outbreak — and all 12 confirmed hantavirus cases were passengers on the ship. With the last remaining passengers soon to leave quarantine, AFP answers key questions about an episode that again highlighted the risk viruses in animals pose to humans. Is it over? Almost all the passengers of the Dutch-flagged ship quarantined in the Netherlands have been allowed to return home, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday. In ...

A French appeals court on Friday confirmed that Moroccan football star Achraf Hakimi will face trial for the alleged rape of a woman in 2023, which the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) defender denies. In February 2023, a woman then aged 24 told police in the Val-de-Marne region southeast of Paris that Hakimi had raped her. The PSG right-back and captain of the Moroccan national team, whose second match of the 2026 World Cup kicks off on Friday against Scotland, has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Shortly after the Versailles Court of Appeal delivered its ruling, Hakimi wrote on X that he had been “waiting for this trial since day one”. “At last, I’ll be able to speak,” he said. A date has not been announced for the start of the trial at the criminal court in the Hauts-de-Seine department. “This confirmation was expected. Nothing here says that he is guilty of anything, he remains steadfast in his defence,” Hakimi’s lawyer Fanny Colin said. The plaintiff’s lawyer Rachel-Flore Pardo said the decision brought her ...

Labour mayor Andy Burnham cleared a path to ousting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer after winning a parliamentary seat in northern England on Friday in what could be the most consequential local election in more than six decades. Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor nicknamed the “King of the North”, won the contest in Makerfield in northwest England with 24,927 votes, while the candidate for Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party came second with 15,696 votes. His victory means he will now be able to trigger or take part in a contest to replace Starmer, struggling with some of the worst popularity ratings of any leader. But the key question is when and how Burnham will do it. In his victory speech, Burnham said the result could be a “turning point” for British politics and told his party that this was a final chance to change direction. “We must hear it, we must act upon it, and we must get it right,” he said. “There will be no second chance.” Burnham, a career politician who has expressed support for ...

The information ministry on Friday refuted Afghanistan’s claims of targeting alleged terrorist camps in the border areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. In a statement on its fact check account, the ministry said, “The Afghan Taliban regime, through their various propaganda mouthpieces and official statements, is claiming to have targeted some alleged ISKP camps in border areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan using rudimentary drones. “The claims are false as usual,” it declared. The ministry added that terrorist camps, including “those of Daesh and more than two dozen other terrorist organisations are factually located, run and patronised from inside the territories under control of [the] Afghan Taliban regime”. According to the statement, one rudimentary drone of the Taliban regime intruded into Pakistan’s airspace near Shinko, Khyber and was “immediately identified and neutralised by the alert air defence system of the Pakistan Air Force”. The ministry also shared a picture of the aforemention...

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi bench on Friday disposed of a petition filed by the family of nine-year-old Hania Ahmed, who was killed in a shootout in Chakwal last week, seeking the transfer of the case from local police to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The petition was filed by a Pakistani-origin Australian family shot at during a robbery in Chakwal last week by Punjab’s Crime Control Department (CCD) after officials mistook it as belonging to the robbers. As a result, Hania died on the spot, and other family members sustained injuries. On Friday, LHC Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan wrapped up the case after directing provincial authorities to ensure a completely fair, transparent, and unbiased investigation, and to strictly proceed against the accused officials in accordance with the law. During the proceedings, Punjab Additional Advocate General Imran Shaukat Rao formally informed the bench that a first information report (FIR) had already been registered against the delinquent of...

Pakistan has formally approached the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), urging it to take notice of what it describes as India's violations of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and warning that New Delhi's actions could threaten Pakistan's water security and regional stability.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday that a “significant” reduction in fuel prices would be announced later in the day, following the swift decrease in global oil prices after the signing of a Pakistan-brokered memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran to cease hostilities. “Today, we have to announce the weekly revision in oil and petrol prices. And I will say just this much: as promised by the government to pass on the relief to the people after oil prices fall, a significant decrease in the prices will be announced today,” he said during an address to the National Assembly (NA). He noted that global oil prices were swiftly falling after the recent agreement between the US and Iran. “Surely, they will decline further,” he added. The premier then recounted that the prices had risen sharply after the US-Israeli war on Iran began, resulting in a “storm of inflation”. “While the people of Pakistan made every humanly possible effort to save the economy, the federal government immediately ...

An Indian state health authority is investigating how liquid discharged from Apple supplier Tata’s iPhone components factory has affected farmers, some of whom complained about skin issues from contamination in their farmlands, according to three officials and a document reviewed by Reuters. The health investigation opens a new front in an environmental dispute that has become a test case for India’s push to become a major manufacturing hub for Apple iPhones. The Tata Electronics plant in Hosur in southern Tamil Nadu state was sent a warning notice by the state pollution control board on May 25 for allegedly contaminating groundwater in adjacent farms. Tata said in a statement this week that the pollution board had dropped its scrutiny after confirming its analysis of recently collected water samples from inside the facility did “not indicate any contamination”. The pollution board and the state have not commented on the matter and did not respond to Reuters emails and phone calls requesting comment. Apple ha...

ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to phase out machine-readable passports and switch fully to e-passports, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi announced on Friday, saying the move will offer advanced security, global compatibility and a seamless airport experience. Chairing a special meeting at the Passport and Immigration Headquarters, Naqvi said the complete transition would eliminate fraud and forgery. “The complete transition to e-passports will end fraud and forgery related to passports,” he said. Director General Passports and Immigration Muhammad Ali Randhawa briefed the minister on the reforms. The meeting approved in principle to shift to e-passports, though no cutoff date for phasing out old passports was set. An e-Passport is a highly secure travel document with an electronic chip embedded in one of its pages. The contactless NFC chip securely stores biometric data, facial details, biographical information, a unique identification number and a digital signature. The chip allows border control and sm...

Switzerland said talks between the United States and Iran on a pact to end the Middle East conflict would not take place on Friday, as US Vice President JD Vance dropped plans to travel to Geneva. The talks were set to take place under the ‘Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding’ signed between the US and Iran a day ago, after the two sides agreed on a 14-point accord on Monday. Under the deal, Washington and Tehran have agreed on a framework to end the war, reopen the Strait of Hormuz and negotiate on key issues within 60 days. The talks, set for the mountaintop resort of Burgenstock, would not take place, Switzerland’s foreign ministry confirmed, but gave no details. “The planned talks between the US, Iran, Qatar and Pakistan have been postponed,” the Swiss foreign ministry said in a message to AFP. “Switzerland remains ready to facilitate these talks. The relevant preparatory work at Burgenstock is continuing,” it added, without providing a new date for the talks. In Washington, a White House spokesperson s...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has approved the continuation of the federal government's austerity measures until June 30, according to a notification issued by the Cabinet Division on Thursday.