Pakistan

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Wednesday they had hit dozens of US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait in response to American strikes, in a statement carried by state broadcaster IRIB. “In an initial response to this aggression, the IRGC Navy and Aerospace Force carried out a joint missile and drone operation, striking 85 key US military facilities” in the two countries, while also shooting down an MQ-9 drone, the statement said. The statement came after the US military unleashed a new wave of strikes against Iran on Tuesday and revoked a licence allowing the country to sell oil after three tankers were hit by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, putting pressure on an already fragile ceasefire. After a day in which huge crowds mourned Iran’s assassinated supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the holy city of Qom, US Central Command (Centcom) said it hit over 80 targets in a series of strikes intended to impose what it called “heavy costs”. The military command said it struck more than 6...

Coty relinquishes rights a year early for $400 million

On Tuesday, gold prices declined by Rs2,500 to Rs434,936

KASUR: A woman allegedly threw acid on a man over betrayal on Tuesday near village Rangpur, in the limits of the Saddar police station. Police claimed that accused Rimsha Bibi called Ehsan and asked him to take her to the Rangpur village on his bike. There, she allegedly took out a bottle from her purse and threw acid on him at a deserted place. The accused, later, escaped from the crime scene, police claimed. Police said the accused woman was divorced two months after her marriage and was currently working at a departmental store. Police said that Ehsan of Kot Molvi Abdul Qadir had previously divorced three women and wanted to marry Rimsha Bibi. Police said that Rimsha Bibi was unaware of the victim’s previous marriages and was shocked when she learnt about the fact and decided to take a revenge. Police shifted the injured man to the DHQ Hospital from where he was referred to Lahore. Police claimed that the acid was diluted causing minor wounds. Police lodged a case against Rimsha Bibi and were investigating...

Police says suspects' DNA samples, fingerprints obtained, now need time to recover vehicle, laptop, cash, weapon

Chinese women embrace DIY repair courses, defying gender norms and gaining skills for safer, self-reliant living

PAKISTAN’S economic debate is trapped in a distracting quarrel — whether banks lend too much to government and too little to enterprise. Allocation matters, but it is not the binding constraint. On the State Bank’s consolidated estimates, with the share of development spending shrinking, a rupee of government spending now multiplies about 0.71 in output on average while a rupee of private investment returns 1.2 to 1.3. The private rupee works nearly twice as hard yet, strip out productivity — ie, the efficiency with which inputs become output — and even that collapses towards 1.0. Adjusted for our stalled productivity, no rupee in Pakistan truly compounds. We accumulate without amplifying. The distinction is decisive. A rupee invested where productivity is rising earns more each year as workers learn and firms innovate; a rupee in a stagnant system merely buys more of the same. Pakistan’s productivity sits near 0.28 on comparable estimates, against India’s 0.48 and Sri Lanka’s 0.42, and the export scoreboard ...

KARACHI has been ranked among the ‘least-liveable cities in the world’, ranking 170th among 173 cities on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Global Liveability Index 2026. The only cities ranked below Karachi include Dhaka, Tripoli and Damascus, while war-torn Tehran (164) and Kyiv (166) scored slightly higher. According to EIU, issues such as congested roads and crime tend to punish the index’s biggest cities. The EIU’s ranking, which evaluates living conditions across 173 cities, provides a globally recognised benchmark for urban liveability and resilience. It measures measuring indicators such as stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure, and quantifies the challenges presented to an individual’s lifestyle in any given location. Getting an overall score (out of 100) of 43 — the same as Algiers — Karachi’s scored poorly in nearly all metrics, except education. It scored 20 on stability, 54 on healthcare, 36 in culture and environment, 75 in education and 52 in infras...

KSE-100 Index falls 6,751 points to 179,504 by midday as investors continue broad-based selling

THE spectacle of a number of cabinet ministers at an investment conference in Istanbul last week offers an insight into the current government’s perception of how to fix Pakistan’s problems. Of course, the inseparable duo of the prime minister and deputy PM was there too. The two may well have secured a place in the Guinness World Records for the most world tours undertaken together. They were apparently there to project Pakistan’s potential for foreign investment. No one denies the significance of such conferences for attracting foreign investment critical for economic growth. But the ministers’ presence at every conference will not, on its own, draw investor interest. What matters more is fixing things at home to create the environment and capacity for both domestic and foreign investment. Chaotic governance and inconsistent policies have been a major impediment in the way of any investment coming to the country. Over the past few years, Pakistan’s top leadership has addressed investment conferences in seve...

Veteran actor explains why he prefers guest house over staying with son, daughter-in-law

THE surge in terrorist violence in Balochistan highlights the renewed threat confronting Pakistan. The martyrdom of at least nine policemen in Ziarat and the arrest of two alleged BLA operatives in Karachi on Tuesday, preceded by deadly violence near Quetta a day earlier, indicate that terrorist groups retain both the capability and intent to challenge the state’s writ. While security forces responded by killing 15 terrorists, the priority should be to determine whether groups that have traditionally operated independently are now cooperating operationally. Any evidence of tactical collaboration between the banned TTP and separatist outfits such as the BLA would mark a dangerous escalation. The latest incidents also reinforce concerns that militancy is no longer confined to the remote districts of Balochistan and KP. The foiled plot in Karachi coming soon after the attack on Rangers personnel in the city is a reminder that urban centres could be the next targets. The state’s counterterrorism strategy must ant...

Military tightens measures at checkpoints, detains Palestinians during raids across several cities

ISLAMABAD: The Jamiat Ule­ma-i-Islam (JUI-F) has approached the Federal Shariat Court (FSC), challenging the constitutional vali­dity of the Islamabad Capital Terri­tory Child Marriage Restraint Act, 2025 and seeking a declaration that certain provisions of the law are repugnant to the Holy Quran and Sunnah (PBUH). Filed under Article 203D, read with Article 227 of the Constitution, the petition argued that the law’s definition of a “child” as a person un­­der 18 years of age conflicts with the Islamic concept of puberty (bulugh) as the threshold for marriageability. Senior counsel Kamran Murtaza filed the petition in June, seeking a declaration that the Act is inconsistent with Islamic jurisprudence on multiple grounds. The petition recalled that the FSC had on March 6, 2023 dismissed the Ali Azhar case, in which Section 2(a) of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013 was challenged. The court rejected the case, holding that fixing the minimum marriage age at 18 is not repugnant to the injunctions of I...

Also met his Sri Lankan counterpart, agree to strengthen coordination in combating narcotics trafficking

Baghdad’s old movie theatres stand abandoned in dust, bearing witness to Iraq’s once-vibrant cultural scene

WASHINGTON: Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi is expected to meet senior US officials in Washington early next week, as Pakistan continues efforts to facilitate US-Iran talks, diplomatic sources told Dawn. Naqvi is currently in New York to represent Pakistan at the Fifth United Nations Chiefs of Police Summit 2026 (UNCOPS), being held at the UN headquarters on July 7 and 8. The summit has brought together interior ministers, police chiefs and senior law enforcement officials from across the world to discuss peace, security and enhanced cooperation against transnational crime. The key focus of this year’s summit is developing a new vision for United Nations policing to ensure that peace operations remain agile, effective and people-centred. On the sidelines of the summit, Naqvi is scheduled to meet UN Secretary-General. He is also expected to hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from several participating countries. During his visit, diplomatic sources said, a meeting between Naqvi and New York Mayor Zohran...

BEIJING: The death toll from devastating storms in parts of China rose to 17 on Tuesday, with hundreds more injured and tens of thousands evacuated, as President Xi Jinping urged “all out” rescue efforts. Over 130,000 people were evacuated, but 11 are still missing, regional officials told a news conference, adding that the rain has damaged nearly 13,000 acres of agricultural land. Dramatic video shared by state broadcaster CCTV showed a torrent of muddy water rushing past the crumbled concrete walls of a reservoir dam that had burst in the southern region of Guangxi, the worst-hit area. Rescue workers wearing life vests searched for missing people in inflatable boats, while authorities erected emergency shelters to house those displaced. 40 rivers and waterways overflowing in southern Guangxi region Intense rain and severe flooding from typhoon Maysak killed six people in Guangxi, where authorities raised the flood control emergency response to its highest level in the regional capital, Nanning. The state br...

MOC advances mutual security interests, helps partner countries meet energy security needs, says US State Department

Netflix acknowledges the competitive threat with a product redesign that added a TikTok-style vertical video feed