Pakistan

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The Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital on Sunday dismissed social media claims regarding the withdrawal of a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for a fundraising event for its Karachi facility, clarifying that the purported notification being circulated dates back to December 2023. Several reports emerged on social media and television platforms claiming that the NOC issued by Islamabad’s administration related to holding a fundraising ceremony for the under-construction SKMCH in Karachi had been withdrawn. SKMCH issued a formal clarification regarding the purported development, saying, “The news currently circulating on social media about the withdrawal of a NOC by the Islamabad administration is from December 2023.” “It relates to a fundraising gala dinner planned in Islamabad for December 29, 2023, in support of Shaukat Khanum Hospital Karachi,” it added. It said that fundraising and construction had continued without interruption since then. “The Karachi hospital remains on track for opening in December ...

Pakistan has received an invitation to attend the oath-taking ceremony of Bangladesh’s new prime minister scheduled to be held in Dhaka on Feb 17, the Foreign Office confirmed on Sunday.

BAJAUR: An additional station house officer was martyred after terrorists attacked a police station in the War Mamund tehsil of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district on Saturday night, officials said. According to a police statement, a group of terrorists attacked the police station using both light and heavy weapons. They added that personnel deployed at the station quickly acted and repelled the assault. “The police personnel successfully foiled the overnight attack of militants at the War Mamund station, but Additional SHO Gul Mahmood Din was martyred after fighting bravely,” said a senior police official who visited the area on Sunday morning with his team. The official told Dawn that all the other station personnel were safe and secure following the attack. Attacks on police personnel, law enforcement agencies, and security forces have escalated across KP and Balochistan, especially after the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) broke a ceasefire agreement with the government in November 2022. Earlier ...

The West Indies became the first team to qualify for the Super Eights phase of the T20 World Cup when they cruised to victory against Nepal by nine wickets on Sunday. After restricting Nepal to 133-8 in their 20 overs, captain Shai Hope’s 61 not out helped his team romp to 134-1 in 15.2 overs in the Group C clash at Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium. Hope reached his fifty off 38 balls and scored three sixes and five fours in all. He put on an unbroken 91 with Shimron Hetmyer to reach the 134 target with 28 balls to spare. Hetmyer was 46 not out at the end from 32 balls, with two sixes and four fours. Hope said the qualification was “one step, one hurdle that we’ve crossed”. “Good to contribute to wins,” he added of his own batting, after scores of 19 and nought in his side’s two previous matches at the tournament. “It’s about continuing how we’ve been playing. Hopefully, we can carry through that.” Hope won the toss and chose to field and his decision was justified by a magnificent spell by Matthew Forde. The Nepal ...

Specialist doctors on Sunday conducted an eye examination of former prime minister Imran Khan at Adiala Jail under tight security arrangements, officials confirmed.

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that Israeli strikes killed at least 12 people since dawn on Sunday, while a military official said the attacks were in response to ceasefire violations. Despite a US-brokered truce that entered its second phase last month, violence has continued in the Palestinian territory, with Israel and Hamas blaming each other for violating the agreement. The civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force, said one strike hit a tent of displaced people in northern Gaza and another targeted an area in the south. Five people were killed and several were injured when an air strike targeted a tent sheltering displaced people in Jabalia in the north, the agency said in a statement. Five more were killed and several were injured in a separate early morning strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, the agency said, adding that one more was killed in Israeli shelling in Gaza City. The agency also said that one person was killed by Israeli gunfire in Beit Lahia in north Gaza. The Al...

KARACHI: At least 11 people were killed and eight were injured after a bus collided with a trailer on the National Highway near Tando Masti in Sindh’s Khairpur district on Sunday, motorway police said. As per a statement issued by National Highways & Motorway Police (NHMP), “11 people have died so far, while another eight remain injured in a collision between a bus and a trailer on the National Highway near Tando Masti”. The bus was heading from Bahawalpur to Karachi. In an earlier statement, the motorway police said the accident occurred due to “negligence and recklessness on the bus driver’s part”. “Rescue teams and motorway police immediately reached the site of the incident,” the statement said, adding that the bodies and injured were rushed to nearby hospitals. The NHMP inspector general (IG) has taken notice of the incident and sought a report on it, the statement said. “The motorway police are continuing to restore traffic and clear the road,” the NHMP said. It added that an emergency control room had ...

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Sunday issued directions to the Punjab Police to ensure “grooming” of their personnel as part of police reforms, warning them against violating the “dignity of common people”. In a high-level televised meeting, the chief minister directed Punjab Inspector General (IG) Abdul Kareem to “groom” the police staff, citing complaints of “intimidating behaviour” exhibited by Punjab Police. “Teach them how to talk to people, and groom them mentally as well,” CM Maryam stressed, warning that the police officials would “not be permitted to interact with people if they refuse to address them as sir or sahib”. “Police staff that patrol or interact with the public should directly teach them the appropriate body language,” she directed. The chief minister noted that police in Punjab often addressed people in public spaces with “oye”, rather than speaking to them respectfully. “Do not violate the dignity of the public,” CM Maryam stressed. She further underscored the “need for accountabi...

As India races to narrow the artificial intelligence gap with the United States and China, it is planning a vast new “data city” to power digital growth on a staggering scale, the man spearheading the project says. “The AI revolution is here, no second thoughts about it,” said Nara Lokesh, information technology minister for Andhra Pradesh state, which is positioning the city of Visakhapatnam as a cornerstone of India’s AI push. “And as a nation… we have taken a stand that we’ve got to embrace it,” he told AFP ahead of an international AI summit next week in New Delhi. Lokesh boasts the state has secured investment agreements of $175 billion involving 760 projects, including a $15bn investment by Google for its largest AI infrastructure hub outside the United States. And a joint venture between India’s Reliance Industries, Canada’s Brookfield and US firm Digital Realty is investing $11bn to develop an AI data centre in the same city. Visakhapatnam — home to around two million people and popularly known as “Vi...

When I wrote some months ago that Pakistan must transition from episodic reaction to sustained resolve in its fight against terrorism, the intent was not rhetorical, it was strategic.

Director General of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Lt.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday departed for Vienna on a two-day official visit at the invitation of Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker, as part of Pakistan’s ongoing diplomatic and economic outreach.

Former US president Barack Obama criticised a lack of shame and decorum in the country’s political discourse, responding on Saturday for the first time to a post on Donald Trump’s social media account that depicted him and first lady Michelle as monkeys. In a wide-ranging podcast interview with left-wing political commentator Brian Tyler Cohen released on Saturday, Obama also compared the actions of agents enforcing the president’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota to dictatorships. The video, shared on Trump’s Truth Social account on February 5, sparked censure across the US political spectrum, with the White House initially rejecting “fake outrage” only to then blame the post on an error by a staff member and taking it down. Near the end of a one-minute-long video promoting conspiracies about Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, the Obamas — the first Black president and first lady in US history — were shown with their faces on the bodies of monkeys for about one second. “The discourse has devolved int...

Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir has discussed “global and regional security dynamics” with United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Sunday. CDF Munir undertook a visit to Germany from February 12 (Thursday) to 14 (Saturday) to attend meetings on the sidelines of the 62nd Munich Security Conference, according to the military’s media affairs wing. In a press release, ISPR said the army chief met with Rubio and “discussed matters of mutual interest, including global and regional security dynamics and counterterrorism cooperation”. During his visit, Field Marshal Munir interacted with a number of dignitaries. These included Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, Foreign Policy & Security Policy Adviser to Federal Chancellor of Germany Günter Sautter, and Chief of Defence Carsten Breuer. “The meetings focused on contemporary security issues, bilateral defence cooperation and the need for promoting...

• DHA, Clifton residential plots up 25-50pc; commercial plots surge 25-75pc • Industrial investment in Karachi remains weak; investors shifting to Nooriabad, Jhampir KARACHI: Property prices in Karachi have increased over the past two years, but the gains have lagged behind the unexpected returns in equities and gold. Investors have been drawn to bullion amid global uncertainty, including market swings linked to US President Donald Trump’s shifting stance on tariffs and threats of military action against various countries. Pakistan’s stock market has also posted strong gains over the past two years, repeatedly setting new highs amid political and economic developments, lower interest rates and investor reluctance to hold US dollars. One tola gold on Jan 1, 2024, was available at Rs219,700 as compared to the current price of Rs526,962 on Saturday, reversing from a record peak of Rs572,862 on Jan 29, 2026. On Feb 13, the KSE-100 Index closed at 179,603.73 points, almost three times higher than its level of 64,6...

RAHIM YAR KHAN: President Asif Ali Zardari says it is the duty of a leader to fight and go to jail to protect the party and safeguard people. He was addressing party ticket-holders, office-bearers and workers at Jamaldinwali, 40km from here, on Saturday night. Without naming PTI leader Imran Khan, the president said they had already started complaining about condition in jail hardly after 18-month detention. “Sometimes they say they have pain in their eyes. Some other time they complain there is no milk.” He said such a leader could not make sacrifices and lacked courage. Zardari said he himself spent 14 years in jail, endured hardships but never lost courage. “Jail is a place for worship, and prayers of those who worship are answered.” He advised political workers that they should not fear arrests. He pledged that he would work to build and improve Pakistan and would not step down until his mission was fulfilled. Zardari predicted that one day the Pakistan People’s Party would win with a two-third majority a...