Pakistan

The Punjab Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has imposed a ban on Punjab University buses found emitting excessive smoke, as part of a broader campaign to curb air pollution across the province.

Notables lawyers and citizens have paid tribute to three judges who resigned in the wake of the 27th Amendment, lauding their decision to “preserve their constitutional oath and honour over office and privilege”. Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah had resigned from the Supreme Court on November 13, hours after the contentious 27th Constitutional Amendment was signed into law by President Asif Ali Zardari. Shah had assailed the amendment as “a grave assault on the Constitution of Pakistan” while Minallah said he had sworn to uphold not “a constitution” but “the Constitution”. Meanwhile, Lahore High Court’s Justice Shams Mehmood Mirza had tendered his resignation two days later, saying: “After the 27th Amendment in the Constitution, I am not inclined as a matter of principle and in good conscience to continue as a judge.” In a statement printed in Dawn on Saturday, 60 citizens and lawyers issued a statement saying: “We mourn presently, not at the resignations of Justices Shah, Minallah and Mirza — the...

The Asian Development Bank on Saturday approved three projects totalling $381 million concerning agriculture, education and health services in Punjab. According to a press release, the development projects are aimed at fostering economic growth in the province. “Investing in education, health, and agricultural mechanisation will play a transformative role in driving the growth of Punjab, a vital pillar of Pakistan’s economy,“ ADB Country Director for Pakistan Emma Fan was quoted as saying. “These strategic investments will modernise agriculture, enhance human capital, and significantly improve livelihoods for millions of people across Punjab,” she said. According to the handout, a $120m concessional loan and $4m grant have been allocated for the Punjab Climate-Resilient and Low-Carbon Agriculture Mechanisation Project to accelerate the province’s transition to modern, disaster-resilient, and low-carbon agriculture practices, benefiting 220,000 rural farm households. “The project will help mechanise farming an...

The Punjab government has initiated a large-scale crackdown across the province to enforce the One Dish policy and curb the illegal use of loudspeakers at weddings and social events.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met with Acting US Ambassador Natalie Baker to discuss strengthening collaboration against illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and enhancing overall security measures.

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Executive Board will meet on December 8 (Monday) to approve $1.2 billion in loans to Pakistan. The IMF had reached a staff-level agreement with Pakistan on its loan programmes in October after extensive talks were held in Karachi, Islamabad and Washington from September 24 to October 8. The agreement still requires approval from IMF’s Executive Board before funds can be released. If approved, it would unlock about $1.2bn in fresh financing for the country; roughly $1 billion under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and another $200 million under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF). The IMF confirmed the date of the meeting in a brief announcement on Friday. The official calendar posted on the IMF website also showed the Executive Board would review Pakistan’s loan programmes. Negotiations between Islamabad and the lending agency, led by IMF mission chief Iva Petrova, had focused on Pakistan’s fiscal performance, monetary stance, structural reforms and progres...

Disaster-hit Sri Lanka has unveiled a major compensation package to rebuild homes damaged by a deadly cyclone, even as the island prepared Saturday for further landslides and flooding. The government has confirmed 607 deaths, with another 214 people missing and feared dead, in what President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has called the country’s most challenging natural disaster. More than two million people — nearly 10 per cent of the population — have been affected. Survivors will be offered up to 10 million rupees ($33,000) to buy land in a safer location and build a new house, the finance ministry said in a statement late on Friday. The government is also offering one million rupees as compensation for each person killed or permanently disabled. The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said more than 71,000 homes were damaged, including nearly 5,000 that were completely destroyed by last week’s floods and landslides. Around 150,000 people remain in state-run shelters, down from a peak of 225,000. The International...

An advisory panel appointed by President Donald Trump’s vaccine-sceptic health secretary voted on Friday to stop recommending that all newborns in the United States receive a hepatitis B vaccine. The move to end the decades-old recommendation is the panel’s latest contentious about-face on vaccine policy since its overhaul by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this year. US health authorities previously recommended that all babies, not just those born to mothers believed to have hepatitis B, receive the first of three vaccine doses just after birth. The approach aimed, in part, to prevent transfers from mothers who unknowingly had hepatitis B or had falsely tested negative, and had virtually eradicated infections of the potentially deadly liver disease among young people in the country. After delaying the vote by a day, the panel on Friday passed its new recommendation for “individual-based decision-making,” in consultation with a health care provider, when children are born to mothers testing neg...

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet on Friday decided to withdraw what it called “politically motivated violence cases registered on May 9 and 10 without credible evidence.” The cabinet met with Chief Minister Sohail Afridi in the chair and ministers, chief secretary and administrative secretaries in attendance, according to an official statement. It added that the participants took key decisions regarding the distribution formula for reserved seats in medical and dental colleges for students from merged tribal districts, the new proposed posting and transfer policy, the committee report on action in aid of civil powers law, matters related to wheat stock and procurement, the May 9 and 10 violence cases, the formation of the KP Sugarcane and Sugar Beet Board, additional funding for development schemes and other public welfare initiatives. The cabinet decided that “politically-motivated” May 9 and 10 cases registered without credible evidence would be withdrawn. However, it offered no details. Sends new p...

ISLAMABAD: The planned relocation of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to its old premises in the congested Sector G-10 has been put on hold, as the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) — which earlier sought to retain the IHC building on Constitution Avenue as its principal seat — is now preparing to move to the Federal Shariat Court (FSC). Sources confirmed that shifting of FCC record to the FSC building will begin today (Saturday), though it may take several days to fully transfer files, systems and administrative units. IHC Bar President Syed Wajid Ali Gillani and Secretary Manzoor Ahmed Jajja held multiple meetings with Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar to convey their concerns. The law minister had recently said that a decision regarding relocation would be made only after consulting lawyers’ bodies. Once keen on retaining the prized Constitution Avenue premises of the Islamabad High Court, the newly formed court will begin the process of shifting its record today Initially, the FCC was supposed to establish it...

• Pakistani users trade over $250bn in crypto annually, Binance reveals • Around 17.5m Pakistanis registered on platform, holding $5bn in virtual assets • Banks flag security, compliance concerns over crypto integration ISLAMABAD: The government said on Friday it was considering a “time-bound amn­esty” for cryptocurrency traders, as local banks raised risk and compliance concerns amid more than $250 billion in annual crypto trading reportedly conducted by Pakistani users. Officials floated the idea at a high-level consultative meeting after a top global cryptocurrency exchange argued that virtual assets could boost Pakistan’s GDP. “These virtual assets should be considered as part of liquid money supply (M-1) … virtual assets collateralisation will help increase M-1” because these are highly visible and dependable, a Binance team member told the meeting, co-chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb and Pakistan Virtual Assets Regu­latory Authority (PVARA) Chairman Bilal Bin Saqib. The meeting had been ar...

• National Security Strategy references his repeated claims about planes shot down during May war • Presents him as ‘President of Peace’, claims he helped secure peace in eight global conflicts • Identifies China as central challenge; calls for deeper US engagement with India WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s role in arranging a peace deal between India and Pakistan received a mention in the White House’s National Security Strategy (NSS) released on Friday, even as the document largely focuses on China. The mention carries particular significance because the NSS is a formal statement of the administration’s policy priorities and global assessment. Highlighting Trump’s diplomacy in South Asia underscores Washington’s intention to boost its influence in the region and lends credibility to his intervention claims. “President Trump has cemented his legacy as the President of Peace. In addition to the remarkable success achieved during his first term with the historic Abraham Accords, President Trump has lev...

• Rana Sanaullah says party still not ready to come to the table • Alarm raised over alleged breach of privacy by FBR ISLAMABAD: After a fiery speech in the Senate by a PTI-backed lawmaker, deploring the absence of rule of law and an unannounced ban on meetings with incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, the ruling party once again held out an olive branch to the PTI, reassuring it that all issues could be resolved through dialogue. Speaking in the upper house of parliament on Friday, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Poli­tical and Public Affairs Rana Sana­ullah said the PTI had always rejected the path of negotiations, even though all issues could be reso­lved through dialogue rather than deadlock. He said the government was ready to hold a dialogue with the opposition to take the country forward, but the PTI leadership remained unwilling. The remarks came after PTI Senator Mashal Yousafzai chided two ministers over the claim that VVIP facilities were available to Imran Khan in jail. She demanded tha...

The Foreign Office (FO) said on Friday that the continued absence of a top Turkish delegation meant to mediate tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan was due to a lack of cooperation from the Taliban regime. Turkiye, one of the mediators alongside Qatar, recently hosted multiple rounds of talks between Islamabad and Kabul following an escalation of tensions between the two neighbours over the past weeks. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earlier signalled plans to send a delegation to Islamabad, but the visit has not materialised. The Turkiye-Qatar effort had produced a fragile ceasefire, though the FO spokesperson said the truce had faltered because it was “contingent on a halt in terrorist activities”. Questioned in his weekly press briefing about the lack of a visit thus far from the Turkish delegation, the FO spokesperson responded: “Pakistan was open, and stands ready. And I believe that the delegation has not arrived because of scheduling issues, and perhaps by a lack of cooperation from the...

KARACHI: Repeated closures of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have brought bilateral medicine trade to a standstill, leaving hundreds of trucks stranded and “jeopardising” nearly $200 million worth of pharmaceutical exports, industry sources said. Industry representatives warn that the ongoing blockade at Torkham and Chaman is crippling pharmaceutical supplies to Afg­hanistan, spoiling temperature-sensitive drugs, and exposing Pakistan to massive commercial losses at a time when exporters cannot afford another shock. They argue that Afg­h­anistan remains Pakistan’s largest overland trading partner and the main transit route for onward access to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kaz­a­khstan. Each shutdown cuts Pakistan off from these landlocked economies, disrupts regional connectivity projects, and undermines multilateral investments tied to the Pakistan-Uzbekistan-Afghanistan railway and other corridor initiatives. “The closures are now so frequent that they have become a structural threat, forcing ...

Muslim and Arab countries, in a joint statement released on Friday, underscored their “absolute rejection” of any attempts to displace Palestinians from their land. Israel announced on Wednesday it would unilaterally open the Rafah crossing to allow residents to flee the Gaza Strip, a move swiftly rejected by Egypt as Cairo insisted on lifting the blockade in both directions to relieve the besieged Palestinian territory. Egypt refused to facilitate what critics fear is the forced displacement of Palestinians, insisting on adherence to the terms of the United States-brokered peace plan, which mandates full humanitarian access. The Rafah crossing, the only vital artery to the outside world for the residents of Gaza not controlled directly by Israel, has been shuttered for months, strangling the flow of life-saving aid. The foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar expressed concern over the use of the Rafah crossing to expel Palestinians....

DG ISPR vows 'bare-knuckle' response to PTI's rhetoric; Sounds death knell for politics of 'mentally sick' Imran

Says 'talks still possible' as PTI demands oversight of Imran's prison conditions

FO blames Taliban for Turkish delegation delay

Survey shows people's confidence has dropped to pre-India-Pakistan conflict levels