Pakistan

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RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan Army on Monday reaffirmed its resolve to eliminate terrorism, defend national sovereignty and accelerate military modernisation during the 276th Corps Commanders' Conference held at the General Headquarters.

ISLAMABAD:In a significant development in an ongoing anti-money laundering investigation against real estate tycoon Malik Riaz, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) took possession of Karachi’s Bahria Icon Tower on Monday after a Rawalpindi accountability court confirmed its provisional attachment. The Bahria Icon Tower is one of Pakistan’s most prominent high-rise developments, and is regarded as the country’s tallest building. According to NAB sources, the bureau’s investigation — conducted against M/s Galaxy Construction Private Limited among others — established that the construction of the property and the acquisition of the underlying land were sourced through the proceeds of crime, and constituted a property involved in money laundering. On the basis of evidence collected during the investigation, NAB provisionally attached the Bahria Icon Tower under section 8 of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, 2010 (Attachment of property involved in money laundering). Following the collection of further corrobora...

President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in Kyrgyzstan on Monday for a four-day official visit at the invitation of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov. According to a statement by the president’s office, he was welcomed by the Kyrgyz president upon his arrival at Issyk-Kul International Airport, and was presented with a guard of honour. The Foreign Office (FO) said in an earlier statement that the president would be accompanied by a high-level delegation. “This is the first visit by a president of Pakistan to the Kyrgyz Republic in 21 years, marking a historic milestone in the bilateral relationship,” the FO highlighted. It noted that the trip followed Zhaparov’s “successful visit” to Pakistan in December 2025 and reflected the “sustained upward trajectory of high-level engagement between the two brotherly countries”. During the visit, President Zardari will hold a one-on-one meeting and delegation-level talks with Zhaparov. “The two leaders will review the entire spectrum of Pakistan-Kyrgyzstan relations and exchange ...

Microsoft said Monday it was eliminating about 4,800 jobs — roughly 2 per cent of its global workforce — in a cost-cutting move that will deliver a sweeping restructuring of its struggling Xbox gaming division. The cuts include the deepest overhaul in Xbox’s history, with approximately 3,200 gaming jobs to be shed over the coming fiscal year, four game studios being spun off or sold, and a fifth entering a review process that could lead to closure, the company said. The announcement is the latest in a string of mass layoffs by the technology giant as it spends massive amounts of money to stay in the artificial intelligence race, with companies investing tens of billions of dollars in AI-ready data centres and computing power. “Our business is changing because the world around it is changing,” Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s executive vice president, wrote in a memo to all employees. “Companies don’t get to choose whether their industry changes; they only get to choose whether they change with it.” Coleman said the l...

The funeral of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was more than a national farewell. The sea of mourners in Tehran sent a message to the United States and Israel that their attempt to break the country had failed. Rather than looking weakened by the war that began with US and Israeli strikes on February 28, Iran presented itself as defiant, unified and determined to shape what comes next. That defiance and ability to survive now underpins Iran’s negotiating strategy, regional officials, diplomats and analysts say, depicting the funeral as the moment Tehran sought to transform endurance into leverage. Not ‘a diamond for a lollipop’ The war, they say, has underlined Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz and enabled it to demand that any deal on its nuclear programme begins with recognition that its control over the vital oil chokepoint is a reality that must be accepted. A 60-day ceasefire was intended by Washington to revive diplomacy on stopping Iran developing a nuclear arsenal, but has i...

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ruled that while the state has the constitutional authority to acquire private land for projects serving the public interest, it must ensure affected landowners receive full, fair and realistic compensation.

ISLAMABAD: The prime suspect in the murder of Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Group Captain Asim Tariq was on Monday sent to jail on a 14-day judicial remand for an identification parade after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) approved the investigators' request.

US President Donald Trump’s phone call to FIFA chief Gianni Infantino to have the red card for the co-host’s star striker Folarin Balogun reviewed is the latest instance of political interference in the World Cup. Balogun is free to play later on Monday in the last-16 match with Belgium after the governing body said the ban will be suspended for a year. AFP Sport highlights other examples at previous World Cups: 1934 — Mussolini’s Cup Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini made the most of the country hosting the finals. Mussolini saw the possibility of not only providing the Italian people with ‘bread and circuses’ as Roman emperors had done with gladiatorial combats in the Colosseum but also to both promote his regime and football as epitomising ‘the new Italian’. There was not much sporting about his behaviour during the tournament, attending every match and paying unannounced visits to the referees’ changing rooms. He obtained what he wanted, an Italy win, though a cloud hung over it owing to suspicion...

Clashes in a Sri Lankan jail killed 26 people, including seven guards, and wounded more than 100 in the country’s deadliest prison riot in years, officials said Monday. Victims with cuts and gunshot injuries were rushed to Negombo Hospital, north of the capital Colombo following overnight fighting between inmates from two drug gangs, police said. Hospital director Pushpa Gamlath said there were 23 bodies at the state-run facility, as well as more than 100 wounded inmates and guards from Negombo Prison. “There are some victims with gunshot injuries, some with cuts and severe bruises,” Gamlath told AFP by telephone. “We transfered 18 of the more seriously wounded to the Colombo National hospital.” Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara expressed “profound shock and grief”, and said authorities were working to separate the rival gangs in the prison. “Whether they were inmates, or associated with the underworld, is not relevant to us at this moment,” Nanayakkara told reporters in Colombo. “Human beings have died, ...

Azad Jammu and Kashmir Information Department Secretary Muhammad Rashid Hanif claimed on Monday that state institutions had evidence of Indian funding behind the banned Joint Awami Action Committee’s (JAAC) “agenda” in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Addressing a press conference in Muzaffarabad, the information secretary said that state institutions had credible information about foreign funding behind ongoing activities in AJK. “The institutions have evidence of the use of Indian funding to mobilise overseas Kashmiris, such as UK-based Amjad Ayub Mirza, to advance an anti-Pakistan agenda,” Hanif said. He urged the people of AJK to dismiss the “baseless disinformation campaign on social media” and participate in the “due political process to restore peace and order in the region”. The information secretary elaborated that for the past month, members of the proscribed organisation had carried out multiple “illegal and violent” activities under the guise of human rights advocacy. “This apparent human rights movement h...

KARACHI: An additional district and sessions judge on Monday granted interim bail to five of the six accused in the deadly Gul Plaza blaze, including the building union president and an 11-year-old boy. The deadly inferno, which erupted on the night of January 17 at the mall and took nearly two days to be fully extinguished, had claimed at least 73 lives and left over 1,100 shops in ruins. In the charge sheet, six persons had been named as accused persons: 11-year-old Huzaifa; his father, Naimatullah who owned an artificial flower shop; and Gul Plaza Traders Association President Tanveer Pasta along with its members Ammar Ismail, Muhammad Ramzan, and Muhammad Ameen. Naimatullah, Pasta, Ismail and Ramazan were granted bail against a surety bond of Rs500,000 each, their lawyer Shaikh Jawaid Mir said. The child was granted interim bail against a surety worth Rs10,000. A written order issued by Judge Muhammad Aslam Shaikh read: “The contention required consideration and at this stage without touching the merits o...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to continue working towards promoting the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, respect for international law and treaties, and active international cooperation for global peace and prosperity.

PPP’s Amjad Hussain on Monday was sworn in as the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan in a ceremony attended by his party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. Advocate Hussain was elected for the role on June 22 following the June 7 elections, in which the PPP emerged as the largest party, with 12 seats in the 24-member GB assembly. Addressing the ceremony in Gilgit after taking the oath, Hussain said the PPP emerged as the “largest party” in the elections. He noted that the region’s youth and women “had a huge role” in the polls, in which his party candidates secured several seats. Hussain particularly thanked the people of Nagar who “gave the PPP 100 per cent results and two seats”, adding that the “heavy mandate” given to his party was an expression of the public confidence in the PPP. He highlighted that the Gilgit and Baltistan divisions were traditionally considered areas with a mandate for the PPP, thanking the residents there for maintaining that support. “This mandate is not a new thing,” the newly sworn-...

Rainfall, windstorms and thunderstorms are expected across most of the country, except Sindh, over the coming days, raising concerns about urban flooding in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) said in a press release on Monday. Moist currents from the Arabian Sea are penetrating the upper parts of the country, while moist currents from the Bay of Bengal are expected to enter the northeastern parts from Monday evening, the PMD said. In addition, a westerly wave is expected to approach the upper parts of the country by Monday night. In Kashmir’s Neelum Valley, Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, Poonch, Hattian, Bagh, Haveli, Sudhanoti, Kotli, Bhimber and Mirpur, scattered rain, windstorms and thundershowers are expected from Monday night to Wednesday, with occasional gaps. In KP, scattered rain, windstorms and thundershowers, accompanied by isolated heavy rainfall, are expected in Dir, Chitral, Swat, Kohistan, Malakand, Nowshera, Charsadda, Karak, Tank, Lakki Marwat, Swabi, Shangla...

Court orders police to produce suspect again on July 20

European football body UEFA has lashed out at FIFA’s decision to suspend US striker Folarin Balogun’s red-card ban in the World Cup, after American President Donald Trump called FIFA to ask it to review the case, saying world football’s governing body had “crossed a red line” and undermined the integrity of the game. “We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision,” UEFA said in a statement on Monday. “When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake, and the credibility of a competition is undermined.” Reuters has reached out to FIFA for comment. Balogun, who has scored three goals for the US in the tournament, was sent off after a VAR review for dragging his cleats down the back of defender Tarik Muharemovic’s leg and onto his foot during their win over Bosnia in the round of 32. Trump had asked FIFA president Gianni Infantino to review Balogun’s red card, which would have automatically suspended the p...

There is a specific flavour of panic that colours the existence of the Pakistani woman. It develops as she becomes cognizant of society’s Three Holy Ms: Money, Marriage, and Motherhood, all three for which she is expected to stick a landing within a tyrannically slim opening in time. One of them, *Rubab Shahid, had spent what some would call her biologically prime years, focusing on the M of her own damn choosing: Money. She went full throttle on her career and like other women, mused that marriage would eventually find its place in the grand scheme of her things. Fast forward to her year 37. Rubab was a boss lady at work, but her relationship status still checked the single box on intrusive government forms. She had navigated a mediocrity-soaked dating pool into her early 30s but had not come close to finding someone who wouldn’t make her grind her teeth at night. It became clear then that time waits for no man, and certainly no husband. By 38, she had resolved to preserve her fertility. In 2020, she booked ...

Ukraine failed to intercept 23 Russian ballistic missiles as Patriot missile stocks dwindled