Pakistan

Network expansion to cover major, small cities

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Doctors urge public to avoid aerial firing

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Warns India against tampering with Indus River; calls it a threat to 250 million Pakistanis and violation of historic

Farmers, political workers blame Irrigation Ministry for 'engineered scarcity'

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The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) on Monday received offers in its international tender to buy 100,000 tonnes of white sugar, European traders said in initial assessments. On July 8, the government had approved plans to import 500,000 tonnes of sugar to help maintain price stability. Market analysts said that retail sugar prices in the country have risen sharply since January. TCP had last week issued a fresh international tender to purchase 100,000 tonnes of white refined sugar, after a previous one for 50,000 tonnes of sugar in July reportedly received no offers. The lowest price offered in the tender was believed to be $539.00 a tonne, cost and freight (c&f) included, according to traders. They said offers were still being considered and no purchase had been reported yet. The lowest offer was said to have been submitted by trading house ED&F Man for 50,000 tonnes of fine-grade sugar sourced from any origin. There were reportedly three other participants in the tender. Dreyfus was said to have offer...

A court in Bangladesh on Monday heard cases brought by the anti-corruption organisation against ex-leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, including her daughter who has served as a top UN official. Three officials from the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) read out testimonies in three separate cases over an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka. Hasina, 77, fled Bangladesh by helicopter on August 5, 2024, after weeks of student-led protests against her autocratic rule. She has defied orders to return from India, including to attend her separate and ongoing trial on charges amounting to crimes against humanity, over the deadly crackdown on the uprising. Hasina has been named in six corruption cases, along with her US-based son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and her daughter Saima Wazed, who has been serving as the World Health Organisation’s Southeast Asia chief in New Delhi. “If found guilty, Sheikh Hasina, her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and Saima Wazed could face up to 14 years in prison,” ACC la...

A significant development has emerged in the Al-Qadir Trust NAB reference involving PTI founder Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, and others, with part of the assets belonging to absconding accused put up for auction.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met PML-N President Nawaz Sharif in Murree on Monday to review the overall political situation.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Islamabad has reassured Bahria Town residents and property owners that their legal rights, assets, and investments are fully protected, despite the circulation of misleading and malicious narratives by certain elements.

Dozens of people in Gaza gathered on Monday for the funeral of five Al Jazeera staff members and a sixth reporter killed in an Israeli strike, in an attack which drew widespread condemnations from across the world. Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by its offensive since October 2023, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts already declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects. Anas Al Sharif, aged 28, was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who were killed in a “directed assault” on a tent opposite Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. An official at the hospital said two other people were also killed in the strike. A sixth journalist, Mohammad Al-Khaldi, a local freelance reporter, was also killed in the airstrike, according to medics at Al Shifa Hospital. Mourners stood amid bombed-out buildings in the courtyard of Al Shifa hospital to pay ...

Abdul Qadir Gilani, son of Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani, had his luxury watch stolen during a visit to Barcelona, shocking many with its estimated value.

New Delhi police briefly detained Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and other opposition members on Monday as they protested a controversial revised electoral roll in Bihar and alleged “vote theft” by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The credibility of elections has rarely been questioned in recent decades in the world’s most populous democracy. Some analysts say the opposition accusations could damage Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he navigates one of the toughest periods of his 11 years in office. The opposition members were taken into custody midway while marching from the parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters in New Delhi as they protested the roll revision, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported. Nearly two hours later, Congress lawmaker Kishori Lal Sharma said Gandhi and other opposition leaders had been released. “The police detained us but now we have been released,” he told the media, adding that the police had not allowed them to go to the ECI as promised, and instea...

Police have arrested a suspect from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in connection with the recent killing of senior lawyer Khawaja Shamsul Islam, Karachi South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Syed Asad Raza said on Monday. Islam was shot dead while his son was injured as they were leaving a mosque in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) on August 1. Darakshan Police registered a case the next day against eight nominated suspects under terrorism and murder charges. DIG Raza told Dawn.com that the vehicle in which the suspect fled the scene of the murder was also recovered by police. “Investigators have mapped the suspect,” the DIG said. “According to the evidence we gathered, he fled on a motorcycle alone. “Police have also unearthed a bungalow in DHA being used by the suspects. CCTV footage obtained from the bungalow showed their activities before and after the lawyer was killed.” According to the South police chief, investigators have so far obtained 30 pieces of CCTV footage of the suspects. “With the help of human ...

India’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the removal of tens of thousands of stray dogs from the capital, citing public safety concerns after a surge in dog bites. India is home to millions of stray dogs and deadly attacks, particularly on children and the elderly, are regularly reported by the city’s media. At least 60,000 stray dogs live on the streets of Delhi, according to India’s Livestock Census of 2012, the most recent data available. Some suggest that number to be now far higher, with large rival dog packs patrolling parks and residential neighbourhoods across the city. The country accounts for more than a third of global rabies deaths, according to the World Health Organisation, a crisis exacerbated by a lack of sterilisation programmes and legal restrictions on canine culling. The court asked city authorities to set up dog shelters within eight weeks, and maintain daily records of the canines captured. “What is important, and without which the entire exercise would go futile, not a single stray dog s...

“I have a problem with the use of the term ‘minority’. It only serves to otherise religious groups within the country and reinforce existing divides. We are all equal citizens of Pakistan.” Christians like Pastor Daniel were among hundreds gathered at Karachi’s YMCA on Sunday for the Minority Rights March, which, ironically, was celebrated a day earlier since “minorities wouldn’t get a day off to celebrate it”. Jinnah’s oft-quoted speech of Pakistani citizens being free to go to temples and places of worship remains relegated to the history textbooks since the lived realities for religious minorities across Pakistan are far from that freedom once promised. “Christians like me aren’t allowed to preach their religion, and seldom can we practice it without the fear of the supposed majority,” said Daniel of Karachi’s Philadelphia Pentecostal Church. Jinnah’s speech and his very upbringing were woven through the day’s itinerary. The speakers emphasised that his early education was at schools founded by religious m...

Air India said on Monday that it would stop services between the capital cities of India and the United States from September 1, citing aircraft shortage due to the planned upgrades to its ageing Boeing planes and the closure of Pakistan’s airspace. The suspension of services between New Delhi and Washington, DC, marks the latest setback for Air India, which is facing heightened regulatory scrutiny after a June crash in Ahmedabad killed 260 people. The planned shortfall in Air India’s fleet and continued closure of airspace over Pakistan have impacted the airline’s long-haul operations, leading to longer flight routings and increased operational complexity, the carrier said. The airline has undertaken a $400 million retrofit programme to upgrade its fleet. It, however, sees the Pakistan airspace ban costing it $600m over 12 months, Reuters had earlier reported. India and Pakistan closed their respective airspaces to each other days after relations between the arch-rivals nosedived following a fatal attack on ...