Pakistan

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PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja on Monday said he would request party founder Imran Khan tomorrow and step down from his party position in the wake of an undisclosed incident that occurred. In a post on X today, he said: “An incident has occurred today that now demands a decisive decision from me. My life is an open book. None of my actions contradicts any principle. I do not accept compromise on intellectual and economic integrity. Tomorrow I will resign from my position by requesting Khan sahib. My legal services will remain available without compensation.” Raja did not disclose what the incident was that compelled him to make the decision to step down. He added that he had already sent a request to Imran last week to allow him to focus on legal matters away from the post of the secretary general. However, he said Imran had not accepted his request, adding that he was grateful to the PTI founder for the trust reposed in him. “My entire legal and intellectual life has been governed by the principles ...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar held a series of high-level meetings on Monday with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Somalia, on the sidelines of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers’ emergency session on Palestine in Jeddah.

France’s embattled Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said on Monday that his government would request a vote of confidence on September 8, seeking parliamentary backing for his battle against soaring public debt. Far-right National Rally (RN) leader Jordan Bardella immediately said his party would not back Bayrou’s planned cuts, suggesting the minority government could face defeat in the vote. Bayrou told a news conference the National Assembly would be asked to “confirm the scale” of spending reductions, as the government seeks to save around €44 billion ($51bn) a year. “I have asked the president, who has agreed, to convene an extraordinary session of parliament on Monday, September 8,” Bayrou told reporters. Bayrou does not have a majority in parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly, and the upcoming vote underscores the fragility of his position. Bayrou said France was going through a “decisive moment”. “If you have a majority, the government is confirmed. If you do not have a majority, the government...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks about a “Greater Israel” threatened regional peace and security. Earlier this month, AFP reported that Netanyahu was asked by i24NEWS interviewer Sharon Gal if he subscribed to a “vision” for a Greater Israel, to which he said “absolutely”, adding, “If you ask me what I think, we’re there.” These remarks drew widespread condemnation from the international community, including Pakistan. Last week, Israel’s defence minister approved a plan to conquer Gaza City, while Tel Aviv approved a controversial plan to build an Israeli settlement which would sever the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem. Addressing an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s Council of Foreign Ministers (OIC-CFM) in Jeddah, Dar said that in recent days, Israel exhibited its “characteristic sordid insensitivity to international norms” with highly provocative and unwarranted statements e...

Elon Musk’s companies xAI and X filed a sweeping US antitrust lawsuit on Monday against Apple and OpenAI, alleging the tech giants formed an illegal partnership to stifle competition in artificial intelligence and smartphone markets. The 61-page complaint, filed in federal court in Texas, accuses Apple and OpenAI of entering an exclusive deal that makes OpenAI’s ChatGPT the only generative AI chatbot integrated into Apple’s iPhone operating system, while blocking rivals like xAI’s Grok. “This is a tale of two monopolists joining forces to ensure their continued dominance in a world rapidly driven by the most powerful technology humanity has ever created: artificial intelligence,” the lawsuit states. The plaintiffs claim Apple holds 65 per cent of the US smartphone market, while OpenAI controls at least 80pc of the generative AI chatbot market through ChatGPT. Apple and OpenAI announced their partnership in June 2024, making ChatGPT the exclusive AI assistant accessible through Apple’s Siri voice assistant and...

A Faisalabad anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday sentenced key PTI leaders Omar Ayub, Shibli Faraz and Zartaj Gul, along with 56 others, to 10 years in jail and acquitted 34 in the case of an attack on former interior minister Rana Sanaullah’s house during the May 9, 2023 riots. On May 9, 2023, military installations and state-owned buildings were vandalised as PTI supporters protested the arrest of ex-premier Imran Khan, who was released later but has been imprisoned in various cases since August 2023. Following the riots, thousands of protesters, including the party’s top leadership, were arrested. Judge Javed Iqbal Sheikh presided over today’s hearing of the case registered at the Samanabad police on May 9, 2023. PTI legal team head Malik Khalid Shafiq confirmed the convictions to Dawn.com. He said that out of the total 109 accused, 59 were handed 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment and 16 were given three years’ jail time. Ayub, Faraz and Gul, as well as Muhammad Ahmad Chattha, were recently disqualified fro...

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari has strongly condemned a social media campaign targeting Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s official visit to Japan, terming it an attack on Pakistan-Japan diplomatic relations.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has declared three residents of Gilgit-Baltistan as national heroes for their swift action that saved nearly 300 lives.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has filed an application with the City Police Officer (CPO) seeking the registration of a case against Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz and several officials over the conditions of his imprisonment.

Constant rains and raging floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have already destroyed a large chunk of infrastructure and agricultural lands, including hundreds of houses, roads, and bridges, and washed away livestock. The battered locals are now facing an even worse ordeal, the outbreak of waterborne and other diseases, in addition to psychological trauma. The expected outbreak has prompted government health authorities and non-governmental relief organisations to set up makeshift clinics and medical camps, mainly across KP, to cope with the massive outbreaks of several waterborne and skin diseases. Rains and flood-related accidents have already killed more than 400 people across the province since August 15, according to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA). “Post-floods situation is even more dangerous as the lurking threat of outbreak can kill more people than floods did,” warned Dr Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, the secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association. Speaking to Anadolu, Shoro called for...

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday issued orders to evacuate the people living in areas around rivers and low-lying ones ahead of heavy rains and flood predictions across the province. Punjab is on high alert for floods before the arrival of a fresh monsoon spell as the provincial government on Saturday evacuated thousands of people along the Sutlej River, as the river surged to a high flood level at Ganda Singh Wala, recording a dangerous flow of 129,866 cusecs. A statement by the chief minister’s office said that CM Maryam issued orders “to ensure timely evacuation of the stranded population in view of [the] arrival of flood torrents”. She ordered access to “all possible available resources” to prevent loss of life, relocation of population from around rivers and low-lying areas to safe places, and prompt measures for the timely relocation of livestock to safe places, it added. The chief minister directed authorities to “vigilantly monitor the flood situation of Sutlej River and other rivers”, mak...

Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Faisal Karim Kundi, while addressing a luncheon hosted by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Spain in Barcelona during his ongoing European visit, said that his tour was delayed due to the devastating floods in the province.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Sunday called off the launch of Starship’s tenth mission from Texas over an issue at its launch site, delaying an attempt to achieve several long-sought development milestones missed due to past tests ending in early failures. The 70.7-metre-tall Super Heavy booster and its 52m-tall Starship upper half sat stacked on a launch mount at SpaceX’s Starbase rocket facilities as it was being filled with propellant ahead of a liftoff time of 7:35pm ET (4:35am PKT). But roughly 30 minutes from liftoff, SpaceX said on X that it was standing down to allow time to troubleshoot an issue with ground systems. Musk had been poised to provide an update on Starship’s development progress prior to the rocket’s launch on Sunday, but a placeholder live stream indicated it had been cancelled. Similar postponements in the past have been resolved in a matter of days. SpaceX is now targeting as soon as Monday, August 25, for Starship’s next launch attempt, according to its website. Development of SpaceX’s next-...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday hailed the launch of digital wallets under the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) as a landmark initiative, saying it would accelerate the shift toward a cashless economy and curb corruption.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Salman Akram Raja announced his resignation from the party post on Monday.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Hammad Azhar on Monday announced that he would not contest the upcoming by-election from NA-129, the National Assembly seat left vacant after the death of his father, Mian Azhar.

In a startling disclosure, the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) subcommittee has revealed that more than 1,000 laptops distributed under the Prime Minister’s Laptop Scheme Phase-II went missing.

A Karachi anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Monday sent Chanesar Town Municipal Corporation (TMC) Chairman Farhan Ghani on a four-day physical remand over the alleged assault of a government employee. Farhan, brother of PPP leader and Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani, was arrested and remanded in a terrorism and attempted murder case on Sunday for allegedly assaulting a government employee overseeing fibre optic network laying work on Sharea Faisal. Saeed had said his brother and his associates would voluntarily surrender themselves and prove their “innocence in court”. Farhan, Shakeel and Qamar Ahmed were produced before the ATC today upon the completion of their one-day police custody. The court asked the IO the charges under which the accused were booked, to which the IO responded that the accused had beaten up the complainant while he and others were laying down the fibre optic cable on Sharea Faisal. Farhan, who did not have legal representation, denied the claim, stating that he was “falsely accu...

National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Monday called upon citizens, civil society, and the business community to extend wholehearted support to families affected by recent floods across Pakistan, terming rehabilitation a “collective national responsibility.