Pakistan

Project starts from Hyderabad city centre will be extended to entry, exit points

Fake bride, 'mother' and 'sister' arrested as police hunt three accomplices behind daring matrimonial fraud

Korangi textile mill employee challenges decision in Labour Dept

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Snooker game quarrel turns fatal in Jalalpur Jattan; gunmen storm house in Mangowal

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MIRANSHAH: At least one person was killed and 19 others, including two security personnel, were injured in a blast near the Chashma Sarbandki checkpost on the Bannu–Miranshah main road in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s North Waziristan district on Friday, police and hospital officials said. Police sources told Dawn that initial information showed that the blast was caused by the detonation of explosives in a vehicle near the checkpost. The Bannu–Miranshah road was closed for traffic following the incident. Miranshah district headquarters hospital Medical Superintendent Dr Asif Iqbal told Dawn that the condition of four people among the injured was critical. He said an emergency had been declared at the hospital following the incident. Police officials told Dawn that the area where the incident took place had been cordoned off, further investigation was under way and evidence was being collected. The incident comes roughly three weeks after two people were killed and 17 others injured in a powerful explosion near Miryan...

German media group Axel Springer said on Friday it had agreed to buy Britain’s Telegraph Media Group for 575 million pounds ($766.3 million) in cash, bringing to an end a prolonged period of uncertainty over the newspaper’s ownership. The deal gatecrashed Daily Mail owner DMGT’s attempt to buy its broadsheet rival, which had been facing regulatory probes in Britain amid concerns about media plurality. Axel Springer said it would preserve the Telegraph’s legacy while providing a platform for expansion, including in the US, and reaffirmed its commitment to “high-quality, independent journalism” and media plurality in Britain. After buying Politico in a deal valued at around $1 billion in 2021, the Telegraph purchase becomes Axel Springer’s second-largest investment since its founding in 1946, following an earlier failed attempt to acquire the paper in 2004. ‘Swift and efficient’ negotiations Mathias Dopfner, Axel Springer’s CEO, said owning the Telegraph was “a privilege and a duty”. He said the group aimed to ...

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Friday released fresh details regarding the ongoing military campaign named Operation Ghazab-lil-Haq, claiming that Afghan Taliban fighters have suffered significant losses during the operation.

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday rejected the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s plea to postpone the delimitation exercise in 24 districts of the province for the upcoming local government elections. According to informed sources, the KP government had sought a delay of 180 days in conducting the delimitation exercise in 24 districts. Meanwhile, the province’s chief secretary had also written to the electoral watchdog, seeking a delay in local body polls due to the provincial government’s plan to amend the Local Government Act, 2013. In his letter, the chief secretary had also written that the ECP had not consulted the provincial government before initiating the delimitation process. In addition, bad weather and law and order situation in some districts were also cited as reasons for the delay. However, sources said the electoral body deliberated upon the letter and emphasised that the ECP was bound to conduct delimitation and local government elections in accordance with the exist...

The Indian National Congress on Friday assailed the Narendra Modi-led BJP government after the US temporarily allowed Russian oil stranded at sea to be sold to India, saying the move called into question the country’s autonomy in matters of national interest. The waiver, which the US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said was issued to “enable oil to keep flowing into the global market,” comes under heightened tensions in the Middle East following the US-Israeli attack on Iran, sparking uncertainty around oil. It should be noted that India had earlier said it would stop purchasing Russian oil as part of a trade deal with the US. In a post on X, the Congress, citing the development, criticised the Indian government, and stressed that the BJP-led government “has led the country to a situation where the US is now deciding where India can buy oil from and where it cannot”. “This decision is not being made by Prime Minister Modi, nor by the Indian government,” it said. Congress said the Indian citizens were asking,...

Seven days into the war between the United States-Israeli coalition and Iran, the conflict has transitioned from initial high-intensity exchanges to a phase defined by the former’s air and naval dominance and the latter’s asymmetric resilience. The coalition, over the past twenty-four hours, maintained clear conventional superiority, including sustained strikes on Tehran, buried targets, and Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. Still, at the same time, Iran has adapted effectively. The Iranian ballistic missile volume has been reported by Centcom and other sources in the region to be down 80–90 per cent, yet verified penetrations with cluster munitions on Tel Aviv and confirmed strikes on Bahrain’s BAPCO refinery demonstrated Iran’s capability to impose meaningful political, economic, and psychological costs. Iran’s multi-nodal command structure and underground “missile cities” appear to have helped sustain operations despite heavy losses. Tehran has clearly adjusted its approach and is now fighting a different ...

Soon after the first Iranian missile and drone attacks on Dubai last week, two Indian entrepreneurs based there tried to move more than $100,000 each from their local bank accounts to Singapore to hedge risk. Technological glitches in the aftermath of the Iranian attacks initially scuppered those plans, the entrepreneurs, who did not wish to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters. One of them said he managed to subsequently transfer the sum to his Singapore bank account via another Emirates-based bank. Scores of other wealthy Asians are making enquiries or taking similar steps to move their Dubai-parked assets to the regional financial hubs of Singapore and Hong Kong, industry advisers and lawyers said, as the US-Israel war on Iran clouds the Gulf’s safe-haven aura and rattles investors. While the rich typically diversify their investments across regions and asset classes, they choose where to be based depending on tax, regulatory, privacy and operational considerations. Towards that...

Qatar expects all Gulf energy producers to shut down exports within weeks if the Iran conflict continues and drives oil to $150 a barrel, the country’s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday. Qatar halted its production of liquefied natural gas on Monday, as Iran continued to strike Gulf countries in retaliation for Israeli and US attacks. The country’s LNG production is equivalent to about 20 per cent of global supply and plays a major role in balancing both Asian and European markets’ demand for the fuel. “Everybody who has not called for force majeure we expect will do so in the next few days if this continues. All exporters in the Gulf region will have to call a force majeure,” Kaabi told the FT. “If this war continues for a few weeks, GDP growth around the world will be impacted,” he said. “Everybody’s energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply,” Kaabi s...

On a balmy winter day, Irfanullah Wahid and his cousin Faisal Asadullah amble through a maze of carts in Karachi’s Shireen Jinnah neighbourhood. They are young – only 11 and 10 years old respectively – and the white bags they carry are almost as tall as they are. They laugh and joke, but their eyes are peeled. Every few steps, they pause, bend, pick something up off the street and slip it into the bags. Wahid collects only metal cans. Asadullah sticks to thick plastics. Asadullah stoops to pull out a flimsy plastic bag, commonly known as ‘shopper’ across Pakistan, stuck in the wheel of a cart. His practised hands rip it off with ease. “I don’t collect these”, he says, holding it up to show the difference with the sturdier material he rummages for. Around him, there is scattered litter. Chips packets, sachets of shampoo and of saunf-supari (mouth freshener). Most are made of non-recyclable laminates which has no use for. “The kabadiwallah (recycler) won’t pay for this,” he says. In Pakistan, about 2 million to...

India face New Zealand on Sunday in Ahmedabad, looking to become the first side to lift the T20 World Cup for a third time but under huge pressure with the weight of a nation on their shoulders. Standing in the way of Suryakumar Yadav’s side are a team who have already upset the odds with a thumping nine-wicket win over the previously unbeaten South Africa to reach the final. New Zealand believe, after Finn Allen’s record 33-ball century in the semi-final in Kolkata, that they are capable of taking down the hosts to win their maiden T20 World Cup title. “We’ve got a lot of momentum going into the weekend,” warned Allen. “I think if we play our best cricket, we can beat anybody.” India will not only have to withstand the expectations of 100,000-plus cricket-obsessed fans in a packed Narendra Modi stadium and hundreds of millions more watching on TV, but also the weight of history. The world’s top-ranked T20 team are attempting to become the first to win back-to-back T20 World Cups and the first to lift the tro...

A high-level meeting on petroleum supply was held on Friday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, during which officials assured that the country has sufficient petrol reserves.

The federal government has declared spring holidays for all educational institutions operating under the federal administration in Islamabad.