Pakistan

The annual elections of the Lahore Bar Association (LBA), the largest bar association in Asia, will be held tomorrow with biometric voting arrangements in place to ensure transparency.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that land strikes against drug cartels were on the way following maritime attacks in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, without providing further details. “We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico,” Trump told broadcaster Sean Hannity in an interview on Fox News that aired on Thursday night. Trump’s comments come after the brazen abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro last weekend, the culmination of months of mounting US military and economic pressure on the leftist leader. As part of that campaign, the United States has killed more than 100 people in strikes on alleged drug boats since September, and Trump has also said that the US forces conducted a land strike on a docking area for such vessels in Venezuela. But strikes on cartels in Mexico would mark a significant US military escalation. The left-wing interim government in Caracas has condemned US strikes on Venezuela as a threat to regio...

PESHAWAR: In what is being interpreted as a tac­it acknowledgement of Pak­­istan’s grouse with Ka­­bul, the leader of a notorious terrorist outfit has reportedly urged his ‘commanders’ to avoid recruiting and deploying foreign fighters — most notably Afghans — to fight in Pakistan, warning of serious consequences if his instructions are violated. The instruction was rel­ayed by Hafiz Gul Baha­dur, who heads the so-cal­led Ittehadul Mujahideen Pakistan, in an audio message released to his cadres a few days ago, The Khorasan Diary reported. This also seems to fly in the face of Kabul’s stance that the terrorist threat plaguing Pakistan is “an internal problem”. The issue of Afghan soil and fighters being used to stage terrorist attacks in Pakistan has remained a critical bone of contention between Islamabad and Afghanistan, escalating into border skirmishes and leading to the eventual closure of the Pak-Afghan border in October last year. In recent months, Pakis­tan’s civilian and military leadership has mainta...

ISLAMABAD: The International Crisis Group (ICG) says Pakistan is the worst-affected country by the Tali­ban’s 2021 takeover of Afgha­nistan, noting that even though a ceasefire holds for now, Islamabad is likely to strike again if militant violence persists. The Brussels-based independent and non-profit think tank, founded by prominent statesmen, says in a new report that relations between the two countries have tanked, mainly because of the Afghan Taliban’s refusal to crack down on the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Since 2022, violence in Pakistan has spiralled. In 2025 alone, militants killed more than 600 Pakistani soldiers and police, mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, the two provinces bordering Afghanistan. Islamabad blames the banned TTP for these attacks, along with Baloch insurgent groups, which it believes with evidence, are backed by arch-rival India. Brussels-based think tank says Islamabad may strike Afghanistan again if militant attacks continue “UN monitors assert that the TTP en...

US President Donald Trump said “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the status quo, according to an interview the New York Times published on Thursday. “He (Xi) considers it to be a part of China, and that‘s up to him what he’s going to be doing,” Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. “But I‘ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he‘ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that.” Trump made the comments in the context of an exchange about what lessons Xi might take away from Trump‘s audacious military operation in Venezuela and the abduction of the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro. The Republican president said he did not view the situations as analogous because Taiwan did not pose the same type of threat to China that he has said the government of Maduro posed to the United States. He also repeated his belief that Xi would not make a move against Taiwan during his presidency, which end...

A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier. “We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement. The Portland shooting unfolded on Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponise” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away. Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident. Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clini...

No hostility with Kabul, terror sole concern: FO

Sialkot, Hyderabad franchises added as league expands to eight teams

Field marshal visits Lahore Garrison, receives briefing on operational preparedness

TTAP convoy reaches Lahore amid detentions

Political harmony marks premier's Quetta visit; PM links counterterrorism to lasting stability

ISLAMABAD - Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu, NI (M), HJ, Chief of Air Staff, Paki­stan Air Force, called on Lieutenant General Turki bin Bander bin Abdulaziz, Commander of the Royal Saudi Air Force, and Gener­al Fayiadh bin Hameed Al-Rowaily, Chief of the Gen­eral Staff of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,.

LAHORE - PIA is enhancing its flights to United Kingdom and now after resumption of flights to Man-ches­ter and announce­ment of flights from Islamabad to lon­don from 29 March, the airline has also finalised arrange­ments for launch of direct flight from Lahore to London from 30 March.

LAHORE - An accountability court in Lahore on Thursday summoned former chief minister Punjab Chaudhry Parvez Ela­hi and other accused for re-framing of charges in a corruption and kickbacks reference related to Gujrat develop­ment projects.

ISLAMABAD - Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan, Chief of the Air Staff, Bangladesh Air Force visited National Defence University being an alumni of National Se­curity and War Course-2010/11.

LAHORE - The implementation of Chief Minis­ter Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif’s “Suthra Punjab” vision continues across Lahore, with ongoing anti-encroachment operations aimed at improving urban cleanliness, traf­fic flow, and city aesthetics.

ISLAMABAD - Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan, Chief of Air Staff, Bangladesh Air Force, called on Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, NI (M), HJ, COAS & CDF, at General Headquarters (GHQ), Rawalpindi on Thursday.

ISLAMABAD - Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, NI (M), HJ, COAS & CDF, visited Lahore Garrison, where he was given a comprehensive briefing on the formation’s operational preparedness, training standards and key initiatives to enhance combat efficiency.

QUETTA - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday reaffirmed his government’s commitment to ensuring peace and prosperity in Balochistan, calling the province the geographical heart of the country.

Two new franchises were added to the Pakistan Super League (PSL) as OZ Developers put forward a massive Rs1.85bn bid to win Sialkot, moments after the FKS Group secured Hyderabad for Rs1.75bn at the league’s auction on Thursday. OZ Developers were in a bidding war with software company i2c as they went head-to-head in the second round of the auction taking place at the Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad. I2c’s final bid was Rs1.82bn before OZ Developers upped the ante and ended the night at Rs1.85bn, the highest ever bid for a PSL franchise. The first round of the auction was won by FKS, which was also in a bidding war with i2c, whose final bid was Rs1.7bn. The base price for the first franchise — the seventh team being added to PSL — was set at Rs1.1bn, while the base price for the eighth team was Rs1.7bn. This will be Hyderabad and Sialkot’s first appearance since the league’s inception in 2015, with this year’s league set for March 26-May 3. The cities up for potential franchise allocation included Fais...