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Dawn - 16:40 Oct 13, 2025
Pakistan Telecommunications Limited (PTCL) on Monday announced that users would experience degraded internet services tomorrow (Tuesday) as a submarine cable is being repaired. In a post on X, PTCL said that maintenance work on the submarine cable will be carried out to repair a faulty repeater. “The activity will start on October 14 … around 11am PST, which can last for up to 18 hours,” the telecom giant said. “During this period, customers will face Internet service degradation. We regret the inconvenience, please.” Meanwhile, internet monitoring service Downdetector showed users reporting issues accessing social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram in Pakistan. A screenshot of a graph showing user reports of Facebook outages over the past 24 hours in Pakistan. — Screengrab via Downdetector Last month, PTCL warned that cuts to submarine internet cables in Saudi waters would likely impact internet services in the country during peak hours. This is not the first time that damage to undersea internet... -
Dawn - 15:24 Oct 13, 2025
Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail on Monday wondered whether judges comprising the Supreme Court’s (SC) Constitutional Bench (CB) hearing petitions against the 26th Amendment could do so if they were its “beneficiaries”. The Amendment was passed by the parliament during an overnight session in October last year, with the PTI claiming seven of its lawmakers were abducted to gain their favour as the party opposed the legislation. The Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) also alleged its two senators were being, with both later defying party line to vote in the tweaks’ favour. The legislation, which altered judicial authority and tenure, has been a lightning rod for debate with both opposition parties and legal experts questioning its impact on the judiciary’s independence. The tweaks took away the SC’s suo motu powers, set the chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) term at three years and empowered a Special Parliamentary Committee for the appointment of the CJP from among the three most senior SC judges. It also p... -
Dawn - 15:05 Oct 13, 2025
A Pakistan Army team won the gold medal at Exercise Cambrian Patrol-2025, held in Wales from October 3-13, according to a statement from the military’s media wing. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that the exercise retained its demanding professional standards, where patrols from militaries across the globe move tactically across 60 kilometres of inhospitable terrain within 48 hours, completing specialised tasks. “This year, 137 teams from 36 Countries participated in the exercise and out of all these teams, [the] Pakistan Army’s team, led by Captain Muhammad Saad, showed exceptional performance in the exercise and [was] awarded with the gold medal,” the ISPR said. “It is indeed a proud moment for the whole nation and [the] Pakistan Army, which is known for its professionalism and highest standards of training,” the statement added. “Pakistan Army has always held [the] country’s flag high and will keep endeavouring in future as well.” Pakistan also won the gold medal at the exercise last year ... -
Dawn - 14:57 Oct 13, 2025
India and Canada agreed on Monday on a new roadmap for their relations after talks between their foreign ministers in New Delhi, as both countries seek to mend ties strained over the killing of a Canadian Sikh separatist. The two countries, both of which are looking to diversify trade away from the United States due to tariff announcements, agreed to collaborate on areas such as critical minerals, trade and agricultural value chains, a joint statement said. “Reviving this partnership will not only create opportunities for enhanced economic cooperation but also help mitigate vulnerabilities arising from shifting global alliances,” it said. Almost two years of strained relations The statement came after Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and her counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Monday. “Both of our governments agree on the importance of elevating the relationship,” Anand said in her opening remarks at the meeting with Jaishankar. Relations between New Delhi and O... -
Dawn - 14:51 Oct 13, 2025
United States President Donald Trump told the Israeli parliament on Monday that the ceasefire he helped broker in the Gaza conflict had ushered in the “historic dawn of a new Middle East”. “And after so many years of unceasing war and endless danger, today the skies are calm, the guns are silent, the sirens are still, and the sun rises on a holy land that is finally at peace, a land and a region that will live, God willing, in peace for all eternity,” he said. “This is not only the end of a war … This is the historic dawn of a new Middle East.“ Trump’s lightning visit to Israel came ahead of a summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh co-chaired by the American president, who has declared the conflict in Gaza “over”. Under the ceasefire deal, Israel is due to release nearly 2,000 Palestinians held in its jails. Addressing the Israeli parliament, Trump called the agreement that brought about a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the captives held by Hamas a triumph as he thanked mediators from the... -
Dawn - 14:02 Oct 13, 2025
China is concerned about recent border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan and has asked the two countries to protect their nationals and investments in the region, Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Monday. Intense border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan started late on Saturday night and continued into Sunday morning. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that 23 Pakistani troops were martyred and 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists were killed when Islamabad responded to aggression by Kabul. Afghanistan claimed it carried out the attack as a “retaliatory” measure, accusing Islamabad of conducting air strikes in its territory earlier this week. For its part, Islamabad has not confirmed whether it was behind the air strikes but maintains that Kabul should “stop harbouring the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan on its soil”. In response to Islamabad’s repeated calls to bar terrorists from using its territory for cross-border attacks, Afghanistan denies the allegation of allowing terrorist out... -
Dawn - 13:46 Oct 13, 2025
Spinner Noman Ali grabbed four wickets to restrict South Africa to 216-6 at the close of play on day two of the first Test in Lahore on Monday, despite a fighting half century from Tony de Zorzi. Spinners dominated on a turning Gaddafi Stadium pitch as all the day’s 11 wickets went to slow bowlers, with South African left-armer Senuran Muthusamy taking a career-best 6-117 to dismiss Pakistan for 378. Zorzi was holding the fort at the close with 81 not out and Muthusamy on six as South Africa trail by 162 runs in the first innings. Zorzi batted with guts, knocking nine boundaries and a six, combating Noman, who claimed 4-85. South Africa started off well with 45-0 on the board when Noman removed touring skipper Aiden Markram for 20 and Wiaan Mulder for 17 — both caught behind by wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan. Ryan Rickelton, who scored a punishing 71 with two sixes and nine boundaries, and Zorzi added 94 for the third wicket, taking on the spinners with some aggressive shots. It was part-timer Salman Agha who b... -
Dawn - 13:25 Oct 13, 2025
The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 Index plummeted by over 4,600 points on Monday due to continuing political uncertainty, the weekend conflict with Afghanistan and the ongoing crackdown on the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP). The benchmark KSE-100 index opened at 163,098.19 points before dropping by 4,654.77 points, or 2.85 per cent, to close at 158,443.42. Of 482 active scrips, only 74 advanced , 375 declined while 33 remained unchanged. The PSX had experienced a sharp decline over the previous week as a combination of global and domestic uncertainties dented investor sentiment. Intense border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan that started late on Saturday night and continued into Sunday morning cast a shadow over the bourse. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said 23 troops were martyred and 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists were killed when Islamabad responded to aggression by Kabul. Meanwhile, a crackdown against TLP protesters early Monday, who had been camped at M... -
Dawn - 13:18 Oct 13, 2025
Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt won the 2025 Nobel economics prize on Monday for their work on how innovation and the forces of “creative destruction” can drive economic growth and lift living standards across the globe. Their research explains how technology gives rise to new products and production methods which replace old ones, resulting in a better standard of living, health and quality of life. “Over the last two centuries, for the first time in history, the world has seen sustained economic growth. This has lifted vast numbers of people out of poverty and laid the foundation of our prosperity,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, said in a statement. Economic growth not guaranteed The laureates have also shown that such progress cannot be taken for granted, the Academy said, while two of the prize winners highlighted that US President Donald Trump’s trade policies would impinge on growth. “Economic stagnation, not growth, has been the norm for most of human histo... -
Dawn - 09:36 Oct 13, 2025
In a day of high political drama at the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, PTI’s Sohail Afridi was elected the province’s new chief minister. However, his victory unfolded amid walkouts, protests, and a deepening constitutional crisis over whether the outgoing CM, Ali Amin Gandapur, had even truly vacated his seat. As chants of “Sohail Afridi zindabad” echoed through the assembly hall, the opposition staged a walkout, declaring the entire process “unconstitutional.” Speaker Babar Saleem Swati, however, pressed ahead and ruled it lawful under Article 130, declaring Afridi’s election valid even as questions swirled over Gandapur’s disputed resignation, returned by Governor Faisal Karim Kundi for having “disparate signatures.” The episode has set off a flurry of debate: can a new chief minister be elected when the previous one still holds office? Lawyers have since weighed in, dissecting whether the assembly’s actions uphold or undermine the constitutional process. An attempt to thwart the will of the many “The opposi... -
Dawn - 07:30 Oct 13, 2025
QUETTA: The Balochistan High Court has ruled that prisoners convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 1997 are not legally entitled to any form of general or special remission or pardon. The court declared that Section 21-F of the ATA explicitly excludes terrorists from eligibility for clemency or sentence reduction, leaving no room for interpretation or relaxation. A two-member bench comprising Justice Muhammad Kamran Khan Mulakhail and Justice Najamuddin Mengal announced the verdict while hearing several constitutional petitions filed in 2023 and 2024, dismissing all of them collectively. According to the judgement, the petitioners had argued that they were entitled to the president’s pardon under Article 45 of the Constitution and to general or special remission under the Pakistan Prison Rules, 1978. However, the court held that the insertion of Section 21-F in 2001 was specifically intended to permanently exclude terrorism convicts from the scope of pardons. The bench noted that the amendment was a ... -
Dawn - 07:10 Oct 13, 2025
KARACHI: A female chimpanzee named Bibi, who had been living in solitary confinement at the zoo for a long time, died on Saturday. Sources said the chimp had been under treatment for months. Speaking to Dawn, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) official Daniyal Sial confirmed her death, saying that “senility” had been declared the cause of death in her post-mortem report. “Bibi has been under treatment for a long time for multiple health complications, mainly resulting from old age,” he said, adding that she was around 40 years old. According to the KMC sources, Bibi was handed over to the zoo after being caught by the police in an operation Bibi was captured after she and her mate had escaped from a PECHS house in 2000; the male chimp was killed in police operation in the year 2000. She, along with her mate, had escaped from a house in the PECHS area where they had been kept illegally as “pets”. “The male chimp had to be killed when it had grabbed a police official while Bibi was captured and brought to t... -
Dawn - 05:42 Oct 13, 2025
India’s aviation regulator said on Monday it has asked Air India to inspect the emergency power system, known as the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), on some of its 787 jets. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has also asked Boeing, the maker of these aircraft, to submit a report providing details, including preventive measures at the time of a RAT deployment incident, the regulator said. This comes after the crew of an Air India 787 Dreamliner — which was flying from the northern Indian city of Amritsar to Birmingham, UK — detected deployment of the power system during the final approach, Air India had said in a statement on Sunday. Boeing and Air India did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. In July, Indian investigators had said the RAT had also been deployed during the initial climb before the Air India Boeing 787 crash, which killed 260 people in June. -
Dawn - 04:53 Oct 13, 2025
US President Donald Trump on Monday appeared eager to ease tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan after border skirmishes between the two countries over the weekend, saying he was “good at making peace”. Intense border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan started late on Saturday night and continued into Sunday morning. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that 23 troops were martyred and 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists were killed when Islamabad responded to aggression by Kabul. The US president, since returning to the White House for his second term in January, had repeatedly insisted in the run up to the Nobel peace prize that he deserved the award for his role in resolving eight conflicts — a claim observers say is broadly exaggerated. The US president touched on the border hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan while speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he flew from Washington to Israel. Tel Aviv and Hamas are set to carry out a hostage-prisoner exchange as part of the ... -
Dawn - 03:20 Oct 13, 2025
KURRAM: Six workers were trapped on Sunday in a coal mine in Tora Wari, central Kurram, after an explosion caused part of the mine to collapse amid a sudden rise in water levels, officials said. Rescue officials reported that the blast triggered a surge in underground water, which led to the cave-in. According to police, the collapse occurred shortly after the explosion, leaving the workers stranded inside. Joint rescue teams from the Hangu and Kurram districts swiftly arrived at the scene and launched an operation to save the trapped miners. Equipped with modern machinery, the teams have started pumping water out of the flooded section of the mine. Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2025 -
Dawn - 02:35 Oct 13, 2025
ISLAMABAD: The opposition alliance Tehreek-i-Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP) on Sunday backed Saudi Arabia’s call for dialogue with Afghanistan and urged the government to convene a joint session of parliament to deliberate on internal and external issues. The coalition of several opposition parties, which rejects the alleged rigging in 2024 elections, also accused the government of creating hurdles in the transfer of power to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) nominated chief minister in KP. The TTAP meeting, held at the residence of Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar in Islamabad, was attended by alliance head Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Salman Akram Raja, Asad Qaiser, Muhammad Zubair, Allama Ahmed Rizvi, Sajid Tareen, Zain Shah, Hussain Ahmed Yousafzai, Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry, Asad Abbas and others. They suggested that the issues between Pakistan and Afghanistan should be addressed through dialogue and urged the government to call the joint session of parliament to discuss the internal and external issues. Accuses goverment... -
Dawn - 01:45 Oct 13, 2025
The Foreign Office (FO) on Sunday warned that any further acts of aggression from Afghanistan would be met with an “unwavering and befitting response”. This statement comes in the wake of intense border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which started late on Saturday night and continued into Sunday morning. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said that 23 troops were martyred and 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists were killed when Islamabad responded to unprovoked aggression by Kabul. After the incident, an FO statement said: “Pakistan greatly values dialogue and diplomacy and a mutually beneficial relationship with Afghanistan. “At the same time, the Government of Pakistan continues to closely monitor the situation and would take all possible measures to safeguard its territory and the lives of its people. Any further provocations would be met with an unwavering and befitting response.” The FO expressed concern about the “unwarranted aggression by the Afghan Taliban, Fitna al Khawarij and F... -
Dawn - 20:47 Oct 12, 2025
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi provided a clarification on Sunday after furore over the absence of women journalists from a press conference he addressed in New Delhi on Friday. The criticism had notably come from India’s opposition Congress party, which rebuked the Narendra Modi government. There were calls for the Indian government to clarify its position on the matter and questioned its silence on the “discrimination”. Subsequently, Indian news agency ANI posted a video of Muttaqi on X today, in which he was seen clarifying the matter in Pashto. The Afghan foreign minister said, “Our teams had contacted a limited number of journalists for the press conference, and only those journalists were invited … It later emerged that some journalists were not on the list. It was nothing more than that. “Our colleagues thought that those who had been on the list should be invited. So, the participants were limited. It was just this decision and no other.” While there has been no official comment from the go... -
Dawn - 20:08 Oct 12, 2025
Twenty-three Pakistani troops have been martyred and 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists have been killed in border clashes following an attack from the Afghan side, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement on Sunday. The statement comes after overnight skirmishes between the two sides, which began “on the night of Oct 11/12, 2025, [after] Afghan Taliban and India-sponsored Fitna-al-Khawarij launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan, along the Pak-Afghan border,” the ISPR statement said. Fitna-al-Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) while Fitna-al-Hindustan is a term designated by the state for terrorist organisations in Balochistan. Key developments ISPR says 23 security personnel have been martyred and 29 injured More than 200 Taliban and affiliated terrorists have been neutralised, says military’s media wing 21 hostile positions on the Afghan side of the border were also briefly physically captured and multiple te... -
Dawn - 19:21 Oct 12, 2025
The PTI’s Sohail Afridi and three other opposition candidates on Sunday submitted their nomination papers to contest the chief minister election scheduled to be held during a session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly tomorrow, according to the assembly’s secretary. Afridi, a member of the provincial assembly hailing from Bara, was nominated for the office by party founder Imran Khan after outgoing KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur announced his resignation earlier this week. This has prompted an election to decide KP’s next chief executive. Secretary Syed Muhammad Mahir told reporters that Afridi’s papers, as well as those of the three opposition candidates — contesting on behalf of the PPP, PML-N and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) — have been received and approved. “The nomination papers of the PTI’s Sohail Afridi have been approved,” he said. “The papers of Arbab Zarq of the People’s Party, Sardar Jahan of the PML-N and Maulana Lutfur Rehman of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F have also been approved for th...
6752 items