Pakistan

GWADAR / QUETTA: A woman police constable and a Brahvi-language poet were gunned down in the Turbat and Nushki areas of Balochistan on Saturday. Police officials said woman police constable Shakeela was on her way to Turbat town on a motorcycle along with her husband and child when armed men targeted her near Apsar Research Farm. “The lady constable died on the spot as she suffered multiple bullet injuries, while her husband and child were injured in the firing,” a police official in Turbat said. Police rushed to the site soon after receiving information about the attack and shifted the body and injured to hospital. The husband was identified as Sunil and the child as seven-month-old Abbas. The official said, “It was a case of targeted killing”. He added police were investigating the matter. The constable was on her way to perform court duty when she was attacked. The attackers fled the scene immediately after the incident. Last month, a woman constable of the Khuzdar police was killed by armed men in the Zeh...

• Waqas Akram insists difference of opinion part of political process • Rejects social media campaign against party • Insiders complain about lack of unified strategy amid ‘multiple centres of influence’ ISLAMABAD: Amid reports of internal rifts, leadership crisis and serious differences within the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) over its policies, the party has stressed that its leadership, workers and parliamentary representatives remain united behind the party’s founding chairman Imran Khan. PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram told Dawn that differences of opinion should not be interpreted as a split calling these part of political process. “Anyone can have their own opinion, but when it comes to Imran Khan, all are united,” he asserted. His remarks came amid claims by officials and even some PTI insiders that the party has been struggling to evolve a unified political strategy nearly three years after Mr Khan was put behind bars, with differences over protest politics, parliamentary engagement, de...

• Naqvi lands in Tehran to ‘promote regional peace’, facilitate talks; Dar speaks to Uzbek counterpart • Araghchi says Iran does not trust the US at all due to contradictory messages • Iran’s UN envoy blames Hormuz disruptions on aggressors amid claims of Europe’s request for transit • Putin, UAE president discuss Iran conflict in phone call ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi landed in Tehran on a previously unannounced two-day visit, which diplomatic sources said was linked to Pakistan’s continuing efforts to revive the stalled Iran-US peace process after President Donald Trump rejected Tehran’s latest response to American proposals. Diplomatic sources in Islamabad said the unscheduled trip was part of Pakistan’s continuing shuttle diplomacy aimed at preventing the negotiations from collapsing entirely after momentum generated by earlier rounds of talks in Islamabad slowed sharply. The visit, officially framed around bilateral and border security cooperation, came as the fragile ceasefire brokered ear...

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi on Saturday approved the summary and signed the notification for the induction of 18 new cabinet members sent by the office of Chief Minister Sohail Afridi. An official statement issued by Governor’s House said the governor approved the summary for the expansion of the provincial cabinet. It stated that the provincial government had sent a summary for the appointment of six new ministers, four advisers, and eight special assistants to the chief minister, which was approved by the governor. The oath-taking ceremony for the new cabinet members will be held at the Governor’s House on Sunday (today). Eighteen new members to be sworn in today Although the official notification was not shared at the time of filing this report, the chief minister’s Special Assistant for Information and Public Relations, Shafi Jan, confirmed the names. New ministers include Nazir Ahmad Abbasi, Shakil Ahmad, Muhammad Adnan Qadri, Muhammad Arif Ahmadzai, Tariq Mehmood Aryani, and...

The ‘Lost & Found’ Cell of the Pakistan Hajj Mission has demonstrated exemplary performance during the current Hajj season, maintaining an exceptional complaint resolution rate regarding pilgrims’ missing persons, luggage, and essential equipment in the holy city.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Dr Usman Anwar took notice of an incident during a raid in Karachi’s Sarafa Bazar and sought a detailed report within 48 hours. On May 15, 2026, the agency carried out a raid on a jewellery shop in the market, targeting alleged silver smuggling. The FIA had initially taken the position that official records showed 178 kilogrammes of silver should have been at the shop, but only 15kg of locally branded silver was recovered. The agency alleged the missing 163kg may have been removed during a disturbance created by traders and shopkeepers at the market. It further claimed that some people tried to worsen the situation by forming crowds and obstructing official action, but personnel handled it with restraint. Moreover, the FIA said it had obtained digital evidence from suspects’ phones linked to smuggling networks. The FIA chief directed the Karachi Zone director to conduct a full inquiry into the matter, instructing that all aspects of the incident, ...

The summary for the expansion of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cabinet has been approved by Faisal Karim Kundi, paving the way for the induction of new cabinet members.

WASHINGTON: The United States is entering a period of structurally higher industrial natural gas demand, with consumption expected to remain at record levels through at least 2027, even as the Iran war intensifies disruptions across global oil markets and tightens energy supplies worldwide. According to the latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), industrial natural gas consumption in the United States averaged a record 23.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2025, exceeding the previous high of 23.4bcfd recorded in 2023. The projections suggest that rising industrial demand is no longer merely cyclical, but increasingly tied to deeper structural shifts in manufacturing, energy trade flows and global supply-chain realignment. The EIA expects industrial gas consumption to rise by another 1.2 per cent, or 0.3bcfd, in 2026, followed by an additional 1.7pc increase, or 0.4bcfd, in 2027. At the centre of the trend is sustained expansion in energy-intensive manu...

A driver injured seven people, four of them badly, when he drove on a sidewalk in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday and then got out possibly holding a knife, the mayor said. Early eyewitness accounts said the driver, aged in his 30s, apparently “aimed for the sidewalk, hitting a bike, then crashed while slamming head-on into a woman, badly hurt with both legs crushed”, mayor Massimo Mezzetti told local media and the ANSA news agency. The car then crashed into a shop window. “He was seen with a knife in his hand, but he didn’t manage to stab anyone. It seems like he was trying to hit someone,” the mayor said. Police have arrested the driver and are questioning him, he added. Mezzetti told RaiNews channel that four of the seven hit had been seriously injured. One witness told Italian broadcasters the car had arrived at high speed on Emilia Centro street, which is very busy on Saturday afternoons. “I heard impacts and I saw people getting run over, ” he said. “The car got to me and I managed to th...

KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Saturday remanded alleged drug queenpin Anmol alias Pinky in police custody till May 22 in a narcotics case registered against her. Anmol was arrested earlier this week from her apartment in Karachi in connection with two cases pertaining to the possession of narcotics and an unlicenced weapon. She was already booked in multiple criminal cases prior to her arrest. Earlier in the day, magistrates of districts South, Central and Malir reserved their decisions on police requests for Anmol’s physical custody in a total of 15 cases. She was presented before Karachi Central Special Sunday Magistrate Abdul Sattar in a case registered under the Sindh Control of Narcotic Substances Act 2024 (NSA) at the Specialised Investigation Unit (SIU/CIA) police station. Separately, a magistrate also remanded Anmol in police custody for two days in a murder case registered at Baghdadi police station. In the remaining 13 cases, the police sought her physical custody but were denied, as the courts ...

Minister-in-Charge of the Establishment Division Senator Ahad Khan Cheema on Friday attributed the high failure rate in the Central Superior Services (CSS) examinations to inadequate academic preparation, the competitive nature of the test and other factors. The question was raised by PPP Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Sehar Kamran, who asked about the mechanism, criteria and process of the civil service examination for the induction of civil servants, as well as the reasons behind its high failure rate. She further inquired if the existing examination system is aligned with international testing standards. In a written reply to the National Assembly, Cheema highlighted that there were an average of 125–133 candidates for each CSS vacancy, with an average of 200–225 vacancies against 25,000–30,000 applicants. His response attributed the high failure rate in the CSS examinations to weak academic preparation, poor analytical skills, low comprehension levels and the highly competitive nature of the recrui...

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Says protecting minority rights moral obligation

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Sheikh Waqas Akram says grand opposition front efforts stalled

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Minister says tweaks only after consulting partners

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