Pakistan

Sources say fraudulent disposal of citizens’ plots within the KDA has intensified in recent months

Centre and provinces to jointly procure around 6.2m tons of wheat as strategic reserves

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Police have set up a specialised Sniper Squad to bolster counterterrorism operations in high-risk regions across the province.

Over 43.3 million children of up to five years of age have been vaccinated against polio in the first five days of an anti-polio campaign across the country, the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) said on Saturday, according to state-run Radio Pakistan. Polio is a highly infectious and incurable disease that can cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection is through repeated doses of the oral polio vaccine for every child under five during each campaign, along with the timely completion of all essential immunisations. Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic. Yesterday’s data reported that more than 22.9m children have received the oral polio vaccine in Punjab, while approximately 10.2m children were immunised in Sindh. “In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, more than 6.1m children have been vaccinated … in Balochistan, over 2.5m; in Islamabad, around 443,000; in Gilgit-Baltistan, nearly 294,000 and in Azad Jammu and Kashmir, over 733,000...

A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) contingent comprising JF-17 Thunder Block-III fighter jets, accompanied by skilled air and ground crew, has landed in Azerbaijan to participate in a bilateral aerial combat exercise, the military’s media wing said on Sunday. Pakistan regularly participates in bilateral and multilateral air exercises with countries around the world, showcasing its growing aerial capabilities and fostering military cooperation. These exercises allow the PAF to train in diverse operational environments, enhance interoperability with foreign forces, and demonstrate its cutting-edge aircraft and skilled personnel on the international stage. Such engagements also strengthen defence diplomacy and strategic ties with partner nations. According to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the exercise, called Indus Shield Alpha, aims to enhance mutual understanding, tactical coordination and interoperability between the air forces of Pakistan and Azerbaijan. View this post on Instagram “In...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Sohail Afridi has warned that any aggression from Afghanistan or any other country will be met with a strong and “befitting response,” reaffirming his full support for the Pakistan Armed Forces.

Sindh Agriculture Minister Muhammad Bux Khan Mahar has urged the federal government to immediately announce the wheat support price, warning that prolonged delays are putting farmers under severe financial pressure.

• Health dept data suggests all is well on dengue front in Sindh with just 819 confirmed cases • Figures obtained from four Karachi hospital show 2,972 positive cases reported from Sept 1 to Oct 16 • One public sector Hyderabad lab confirms 9,075 dengue cases between Sept 1 and Oct 14 • Govt says 215,270 malaria cases also reported this year in province KARACHI / HYDERABAD: While the provincial health department puts the total number of dengue cases in Sindh this year at 819, figures obtained by three major Karachi hospitals and one public sector laboratory and its branches in Hyderabad suggest an outbreak-like situation, with the actual number exceeding 12,000 in a short span of just six weeks. The government had confirmed one dengue-related death in July, but independent figures suggest four dengue patients in Hyderabad —a young girl and two men and an elderly woman — and two in Karachi had lost their lives after testing positive to the mosquito-borne disease. As the government remained tight-lipped over th...

Ukrainian drones attacked a gas plant in Russia’s Orenburg region, the local governor said on Sunday, causing a fire to break out at a workshop which emergency services were working to put out. The governor, Yevgeny Solntsev, said on his official Telegram channel that none of the plant’s employees were hurt in the attack, which left the plant partially damaged. Solntsev said earlier this month that Ukrainian drones had tried to attack an unnamed industrial facility in the Russian city of Orsk near the border with Kazakhstan. Unverified video posted to Telegram at the time showed an object smashing into a facility identified as the Orsknefteorgsintez oil refinery in Orsk. Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian refineries and other energy facilities since August to try to disrupt petrol supplies and deprive Moscow of funding.

The privatization of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is expected to enter its final stage early next month, with four major investors remaining in the race to acquire a stake in the national carrier, according to official sources.

The Ministry of Interior has handed over a fleet of bulletproof vehicles to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Police to bolster their security capabilities in high-risk zones.

LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) faces the prospect of being completely shut out of the upcoming Punjab local government polls, as the party remains without an official election symbol. According to officials familiar with the development, the PTI may be unable to field its candidates in the polls since the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has yet to allot it a symbol — a prerequisite for participation under the new Local Government Act. The officials said under the recently enacted law, any candidate elected as an independent councillor must join a political party within 30 days of assuming office. However, with PTI lacking formal registration and a symbol, independents supportive of the party will neither be able to affiliate themselves with it nor face disciplinary action from its leadership if they act against party lines. The PTI’s intra-party election dispute has been pending before the ECP for the past 19 months. Legal experts said PTI’s lawyers have shown little urgency in resolving the...

The Punjab government, acting on the directives of Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, has intensified its ongoing anti-smog operation across the provincial capital with a 24-hour crackdown on smoky and heavy vehicles.

KARACHI: Two bike riders were killed and two others injured when heavy vehicles hit them in separate incidents in the city on Saturday, police and rescue services officials said. Central SSP Zeeshan Shafiq Siddiqi told Dawn that 37-year-old Sabir Baber was riding a motorcycle when a water bowser (KJF-6195) hit him at Liaquatabad-10 in the limits of Sharifabad police station. He sustained critical injuries and was transported to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead. The incident angered area people who set the heavy vehicle on fire, after which it was completely destroyed, said Rescue-1122 spokesperson Hassaan Ul Haseeb Khan. He added that it was a private company’s bowser. The driver responsible for the incident escaped from the spot. The mob also damaged a trailer (TMP-156), said a traffic police official. In another incident, a motorcyclist was killed while two others were injured when a heavy vehicle hit them on M.M. Alam Road near Malir Cantonment. Model Colony SHO Shaukat Awan t...

• Price surges to Rs560 per kg • Pulses stay costly despite global drop • Poultry prices fall amid overproduction KARACHI: The price of tomatoes has surged, with rates reaching as high as Rs560 per kilogram in retail markets. Wholesalers, however, claim that retailers are charging more than double the wholesale price, which currently stands between Rs250-300 per kg. The inflated prices have left many consumers buying smaller quantities, often just 250 grams, to meet their immediate needs. Haji Shahjehan, President of the Falahi Anjuman Wholesale Vegetable Market Super Highway, attributed the high prices to a shortage of tomatoes in the wholesale market. He cited the declining Balochistan crop, which is nearing its end, and the thin arrival of tomatoes from Iran as key factors. The situation has been further exacerbated by the tense border conditions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, making tomato shipments from Afghanistan unlikely. New supplies from Sindh are expected to arrive next month. Shahjehan added th...

ISLAMABAD: The rise of generative artificial intelligence and widespread digitalisation could displace both men and women from jobs, with the latter likely to experience a significantly higher rate of impact, thereby worsening gender inequalities in the workplace, a United Nations policy update warns. Globally, 27.6 per cent of jobs held by women are potentially exposed to automation or major changes from generative AI (GenAI), compared to 21.1pc of jobs held by men, the report from the UN Department of Social Affairs (DESA) found. These risks stem from structural inequalities, gender biases embedded in technology, and uneven access to digital resources. The impact is expected to be felt most acutely in high-income and upper-middle-income countries, where women are concentrated in clerical jobs, education, and public administration — sectors with high exposure to GenAI. Urges govts to close digital gender gap by ensuring affordable internet and digital skills training for women This trend follows a historical...

SAN FRANCISCO: A US judge has granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users but slashed a $168 million damages award at trial to just $4m. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled on Friday that NSO Group’s behaviour fell short of a “particularly egregious” standard needed to support the jury’s calculations on a financial penalty. But in the ruling, she said the court “concluded that defendants’ conduct causes irreparable harm, and there being no dispute that the conduct is ongoing” the judge granted WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction to stop NSO Group’s snooping tactics at the messaging service. “We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting civil society members,” WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart said in a statement. Evidence at trial showed that NSO Group reverse-engineered WhatsApp code to stealthily install spyware targeting users, according to the ruling. The spyware was repeatedly redesigned to escape detecti...

Vehicles loaded with timber are a recurring sight on the roads of Jand in Attock | Photos by the writer In the early hours of an August morning, when mist still clings to the ground, the sound of axes and chainsaws echoes from village thickets across the south-western tehsil of Jand in Punjab’s northern Attock district. “By the time the sun is fully up, truckloads of timber have already left for markets far away,” says Muhammad Ramzan, a 62-year-old farmer from Kanni village, pointing toward a barren patch where a small forest once stood. “These trees took decades to grow, but only hours to fell,” he tells Eos. This is a pattern across villages in Jand and adjoining areas in Attock, where an entrenched network of illegal loggers, transporters and middlemen — called the ‘timber mafia’ — is stripping the hillsides at a pace the land cannot recover from. While data remains limited, the Punjab State of Environment Report 2024 notes that forest cover accounts for only about three percent of the land, amounting to ...

• Border remains closed for trade and transit for 6th consecutive day • Red Zone area briefly opened to repatriate Afghan refugees QUETTA: Calm prevailed on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border on Saturday after the extension of a ceasefire between Pakistani and Afghan Taliban forces, with no untoward incident reported from any area of the Chaman sector, where heavy clashes had erupted in the early hours of Tuesday last week. Although the border crossings at Chaman and other entry points have closed for the past six days, Pakistan partially reopened the border in the Red Zone area to facilitate the repatriation of undocumented Afghan refugees. “Under tight security, several hundred Afghan refugee families, including women and children, along with their belongings crossed into the Afghanistan over the past three days, a senior official said. The border was opened for three days, while it remained closed for the other three due to intense fighting at four locations in the Chaman sector,” he added. Following the ...

• Registrar questions maintainability, saying a procedure for such requests already exists • Justice Arbab Tahir to hear petition along with office’s objections on Monday ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has raised objections to a petition filed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi seeking permission to meet PTI founder Imran Khan at Adiala jail. Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir is scheduled to hear the petition, along with the registrar office’s objections, on Monday. The petition was submitted by KP Advocate General Shah Faisal through Advocate Ali Bukhari on behalf of the provincial chief minister. The petition argued that a meeting with the PTI founder was essential to discuss matters pertaining to provincial governance and the formation of a new cabinet. However, the IHC registrar’s office objected to the maintainability of the plea, noting that the court had already adjudicated similar matters and had laid down a procedure for seeking permission to meet the PTI founder. The office questione...