Pakistan

Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan on Thursday reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen bilateral relations across multiple sectors, including politics, trade, connectivity, energy, agriculture, education, defence and culture.

Kyrgyzstan’s President Sadyr Nurgozhoevich Zhaparov was accorded a grand ceremonial welcome at the Prime Minister House on Thursday as he commenced his two-day maiden state visit to Pakistan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday dismissed Indian media reports claiming that a man arrested in the US for illegal possession of a machine gun was Pakistani, clarifying that he is an Afghan national.

Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said on Thursday that a man arrested by the US police last week in Delaware after he was found in possession of a handgun, ammunition and written plans for an attack was not of Pakistani origin and was an Afghan. “He is not [a] Pakistani national or [of] Pakistan origin. He is an Afghan, spent a few years as a refugee [in Pakistan] and then went to the US, where he spent most of his life,” Andrabi said in a statement shared with journalists. His clarification came after several media reports, including those from Indian and American news outlets, identified the suspect as a man of Pakistani origin. A USA Today report said the arrested man, Luqman Khan, was a Pakistan-born US citizen, who was arrested on November 24. Similarly, reports by the New York Post and India’s Hindustan Times and Times of India, among others, also identified him as a Pakistani immigrant. According to a report by The Associated Press from earlier today, which also does not identify Khan as ...

The last supermoon of 2025 is set to light up skies across Pakistan tonight and tomorrow night, according to state-run Radio Pakistan. A supermoon occurs when the moon reaches its closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, causing it to appear unusually large and bright — up to 14 per cent larger and nearly 30pc brighter than a typical full moon. The final supermoon of the year, known as the Cold Moon, will be visible across Pakistan tonight and tomorrow night, Radio Pakistan said, quoting the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco). “It marks the third consecutive supermoon of the year and the last supermoon of 2025,” it said. Suparco encourages the public, astronomy enthusiasts, students, and families to observe this natural spectacle, the report said. “No special equipment is required; the supermoon will be easily visible to the naked eye, provided the skies remain clear,” it added. According to CNN, the moniker ‘Cold Moon’ indicates that it’s the full moon event closest to t...

The Pentagon’s independent watchdog said US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the commercial messaging app Signal to discuss strikes on Yemen could have put American troops at risk, US media reported on Wednesday. The probe by the inspector general’s office concluded that Hegseth did not, however, violate rules on classification because he has the authority to declassify information, the reports said, citing sources familiar with the results of the investigation. The watchdog’s conclusion — which has been transmitted to Congress — is nonetheless likely to reignite debate over conduct by Hegseth, who is already under fire over US strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats that experts say amount to extrajudicial killings. The probe was sparked by the Atlantic magazine’s revelation in late March that its editor-in-chief was inadvertently included in a Signal chat in which US officials, including Hegseth and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz, discussed strikes on Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Th...

The Trump administration on Wednesday announced increased vetting of applicants for H-1B visas for highly skilled workers, with an internal State Department memo saying that anyone involved in “censorship” of free speech be considered for rejection. H-1B visas, which allow US employers to hire foreign workers in speciality fields, are crucial for US tech companies which recruit heavily from countries including India and China. Many of those companies’ leaders threw their support behind Trump in the last presidential election. The cable, sent to all US missions on December 2, orders US consular officers to review resumes or LinkedIn profiles of H-1B applicants – and family members who would be travelling with them – to see if they have worked in areas that include activities such as misinformation, disinformation, content moderation, fact-checking, compliance and online safety, among others. “If you uncover evidence an applicant was responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protec...

LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) says criminal syndicates are operating in Southeast Asia targeting Pakistanis with fake job offers and warned all those availing themselves of such “phony opportunities” should thoroughly verify to save them from trouble. “Criminal syndicates operating in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia are targeting Pakistanis with fake job offers, especially in the IT sector – call center and relevant jobs, promising high salaries. However, upon arrival, these Pakistanis are forced into illegal activities, including cyber and financial crimes. Those who resist face severe consequences, including violence and extortion from the victim’s family,” FIA deputy director Mehmood Ali Khokhar said on Wednesday. He urged the aspirants to first verify such job offers through legitimate sources or report such suspicious activity or persons to FIA. “Beware of false promises! As your dream job offer could be a nightmare,” the FIA official said. Criminal syndicates operate in T...

KARACHI: Hours after the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) blamed the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Red Line for the tragic death of a three-year-old boy in an open manhole, the project’s management hit back, rejecting the allegation as “a serious oversight”, igniting a rare public showdown between two government bodies already under scrutiny for Karachi’s crumbling infrastructure. First it was an inquiry report by the KMC on the incident which attributed the tragedy to the “carelessness” of officials of the Red Line project and a department store adjacent to where the incident took place. The body of the child, who died after falling into an open manhole near Nipa in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on Sunday night, was found on Monday, around 15 hours after the incident. The report by the KMC said that the department had received instructions from Mayor Murtaza Wahab and the municipal commissioner to initiate an operation for recovering the body of the child from the drain. Assistant commissioner among five officials suspend...

WASHINGTON: The American workforce is growing older at an unprecedented pace, a new survey released on Tuesday by the US Census Bureau highlights a demographic challenge that could complicate President Donald Trump’s efforts to curb immigration. Workers aged 55 and older have been the fastest-growing group in the US labour force for more than two decades. Their share has risen from 10 per cent in 1994 to 24pc in 2022. Yet the distribution of older workers is far from uniform across industries and states. Some sectors and regions have far higher concentrations of older employees than others, according to the Census Bureau’s survey of Business Dynamics Statistics of Human Capital (BDS-HC). The utilities sector has seen the most dramatic shift. In 2006, 35pc of employment in this sector was at firms where at least a quarter of workers were over 55. By 2022, that figure had jumped to 80pc. Manufacturing and wholesale trades have also seen substantial increases: in 2000, only 14pc of employment in these sectors wa...

• Salman Akram Raja tasked with putting together ‘smaller body’, which will also include allies • PTI founder ‘heartbroken’ over lawmakers’ attendance at NDU workshop ISLAMABAD: Amid disagreements within the opposition party, PTI founding chairman Imran Khan has dissolved the party’s political committee in his first move after weeks of being incommunicado. A tweet posted on his X account, which the ex-prime minister does not have access to while incarcerated, said a smaller committee would replace the existing body and put Salman Akram Raja in charge of the reconstitution process. “I am dissolving the political committee of the PTI today. Party’s Secretary General Salman Akram Raja has full authority to form a smaller committee to formulate a political strategy and implement it,” the tweet based on the account of the Tuesday meeting said. It may be noted that a day earlier, Uzma Khan met her brother in prison after weeks of effort. PTI Information Secretary Sheikh Waqqas Akram told Dawn the political committe...

ISLAMABAD: After ne­a­rly two months of hal­ted cross-border cargo mo­v­ement, the Pakistani government has begun clearing humanitarian cons­i­g­n­ments for Afghan­istan, marking the first controlled reopening of transit trade since routine trade was suspended in October. The government has completely suspended customs clearance for both exports and imports, along with Afghan Transit Trade (ATT) cargos, at major border crossings — including Torkham, Ghulam Khan, Kharlachi, and Angoor Adda — effective October 12, and at the Chaman border from October 15. An official letter was issued to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the Directorate Gen­eral of Transit Trade to initiate the movement of consignments belonging to three United Nations agencies through the border crossings at Chaman and Torkham. In the first phase, a total of 143 containers of humanitarian goods will be allowed for clearance at Chaman and Torkham. The breakdown shows that the containers incl­ude 67 containers of food assistance from the Wo...

PM announces live privatisation bidding; Reaffirms transparency; Hosts business leaders, company representatives

Provincial performance to come under spotlight

Kyrgyz president arrives on two-day visit

After a hiatus of 18 years, the Punjab government on Tuesday lifted the ban on kite flying and allowed the celebration of Basant with strict regulations. The festival was banned in 2007 because of an increasing number of deaths and serious injuries caused by sharp strings, particularly to motorcyclists and pillion riders, as well as by celebratory gunfire. Basant Panchami, with ‘panchami’ meaning the fifth day of the lunar month Magh, is a celebration of future crop prosperity, spring, and good luck. Historically, in the 19th century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh held an annual Basant fair and introduced kite flying as a regular feature. The association of kite flying with Basant soon became a tradition centred in Lahore, which remains the regional hub of the festival throughout Punjab even today. However, the festival has also traditionally been celebrated in other parts of Punjab, including Indian Punjab. Over time, the festival began to be celebrated across the country. During the festival, the city sky is filled...

Three cops, including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI), were martyred in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast targeting a police vehicle in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan on Wednesday. The spokesperson for district police, Yaqoob Zulqarnain said, told Dawn that an IED was used in the blast that took place in Paniyala area, which is in the jurisdiction of the Shaheed Nawab Khan police station. ASI Gul Alam, Constable Rafiq and the driver of the mobile van, Sakhi Jan, lost their lives in the incident, the police spokesperson said, adding that another constable accompanying them, Azad Shah, remained unhurt. He said the site of the incident had been cordoned off and a search operation had been launched. “Police are searching for the attackers, and the matter is being investigated from all angles,” he said. The Paniyala deputy superintendent of police and station house officer, as well as the district police official (DPO), also reached the site of the blast after the incident, according to the police...

The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Wednesday wondered whether it could continue proceedings in the murder case of journalist Arshad Sharif, as the suo motu powers invoked by the Supreme Court while taking up the case had been curtailed after the 27th Amendment. The question was raised by a two-judge FCC bench, headed by Justice Aamer Farooq and also including Justice Rozi Khan, as it took up the murder case. Sharif was shot in the head when Kenyan police opened fire on his car on the outskirts of Nairobi on Oct 23, 2022. He had left Pakistan in August 2022 after multiple cases of sedition were registered against him in different cities. The suo motu case for an independent and transparent probe of the murder was initially taken up by a five-member SC bench in December 2022. After the passage of the 26th Amendment, it was heard by a six-member constitutional bench of the SC. However, after its formation under the 27th Amendment, the FCC was granted jurisdiction over both constitutional and suo motu case...

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