Dawn
Source:
https://www.dawn.com
Found 5493 news
-
Dawn - 07:24 Aug 19, 2025
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Tuesday announced central contracts for 30 male cricketers for the upcoming 2025–26 international season, with no players placed in the top-tier Category A. Last month, the number of male and female players in the central contract lists rose, according to PCB’s 2025-26 budget documents. According to a press release by PCB today, the contracts, effective from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, “reflect the board’s continued commitment to recognising and supporting national talent.” This year’s roster sees ten players each placed in Categories B, C, and D, with the PCB acknowledging that “no player has been selected for Category A in this cycle.” Pertinent to mention is that Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were the only two players in Category A for the 2024-25 season. The duo have seen their stock fall over the past year; the former batting mainstays having been sidelined from the T20 squad. “Compared to last year’s list of 27 contracted players, the PCB has expanded the po... -
Dawn - 06:56 Aug 19, 2025
KOHAT: Counter Terrorism Department and a federal intelligence agency busted a terrorist network, which was actively planning to carry out a series of high profile major terrorist activities in the district including the bombing of a mosque inside police lines and a Muharram procession, Regional Police Officer Abbas Majeed Marwat told a news conference here. “They were planning to carry out major terrorist attacks,” said Mr Marwat, flanked by senior CTD and police officers. He said that the arrest of Siraj and Faridoon, both brothers, serving as constables in CTD and police, had facilitated the network of a terrorist organisation and their handlers operating from Afghanistan. A senior CTD official told Dawn on background basis that initial investigation and interrogation of the accused had led them to unravel a plot to bomb the mosque inside the district police lines that would have caused massive casualties, a re-enactment of a similar bombing in Peshawar which had led to the death of more than a hundred pol... -
Dawn - 05:57 Aug 19, 2025
Relations between China and India are on a “positive trend” towards cooperation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Indian counterpart in New Delhi, according to a readout of the meeting published on Tuesday. The world’s two most populous nations are intense rivals competing for influence across South Asia, and fought a deadly border clash in 2020. India is also part of the Quad security alliance with the United States, Australia and Japan, which is seen as a counter to China. But caught in global trade and geopolitical turbulence triggered by US President Donald Trump’s tariff war, the countries have moved to mend ties. During talks on Monday with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India’s foreign minister, Wang said the two countries should “view each other as partners and opportunities, rather than adversaries or threats”. He pointed to the resumption of “dialogue at all levels” and “maintenance of peace and tranquillity in border areas” as evidence that bilateral ties were on a “positive trend of returning t... -
Dawn - 05:29 Aug 19, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Fitch Ratings on Monday projected improved prospects for Pakistan’s banking sector, citing stabilising macroeconomic indicators, falling inflation, and a return to economic growth. The global credit agency expects Pakistan’s GDP to grow by 3.5pc in FY27, with inflation averaging 5pc — a significant shift from the turmoil and high inflation of recent years. In a brief commentary, Fitch said banks are well-positioned to capitalise on improving operating conditions as macroeconomic headwinds ease. It noted that stronger business volumes, driven by economic recovery and better credit demand, would support banking performance in the near term. The outlook follows Pakistan’s upgraded sovereign credit profile, with Fitch raising its Long-Term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘B-’/Stable from ‘CCC+’ in April 2025. The upgrade reflects ongoing reforms, fiscal improvement, and greater economic resilience. The agency pointed out that consumer price inflation, which had peaked at 38pc in May 2023, eased to 4.1pc... -
Dawn - 05:10 Aug 19, 2025
QUETTA: The Government of Balochistan on Monday dispatched a sizable consignment of relief goods to assist families affected by flooding in Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). The shipment, which includes essential items and non-food supplies, is designated for 1,500 families in GB and 1,000 families in KP. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti issued special directives to send the relief to address the urgent needs of those impacted by the disasters, according to Government spokesperson Shahid Rind. “Balochistan stands with the people of the flood-hit provinces in this difficult time,” Mr Rind said. Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2025 -
Dawn - 04:53 Aug 19, 2025
• Over 20 rescued; local govt shuts down schools in light of extreme weather • Flooding continues to afflict GB areas; govt says 39 people killed, 1,000 homes damaged since July People, including foreign tourists, make a hazardous crossing after a flood swept away the bridge in Ghanche.—Dawn MUZAFFARABAD/GILGIT: At least five people were killed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Monday in different rain-related incidents as monsoon-induced floods ravaged multiple areas in the Ghizer district of Gilgit-Baltistan, blocking roads and destroying infrastructure. In Neelum Valley, a vehicle with tourists on board skidded off the “slippery road” and plummeted almost 250 feet down the ravine. Three people were killed on the spot, while the fourth succumbed to his injuries on the way to the hospital. Neelum Deputy Commissioner Nadeem Ahmed Janjua said a Karachi-based couple along with their two-year-old daughter — who survived the accident — and a helper were coming back from Taobutt when they met the accident near Shu... -
Dawn - 04:26 Aug 19, 2025
Carlos Alcaraz won the Cincinnati Open after top seed Jannik Sinner retired as he was feeling unwell on Monday, raising concerns about the Italian’s fitness just days before he is due to begin the defence of his US Open title. The Spanish second seed snapped the world number one’s 26-match winning streak on hardcourts when his ailing rival signalled he could no longer continue while trailing 5-0 in the first set of the final. “This is not the way that I want to win trophies, I just have to say sorry, I can understand how you must feel now,” Alcaraz told Sinner during the presentation ceremony after capturing his third Masters 1000 crown of the season following his success in Monte Carlo and Rome. “As I said many times, you are a true champion and I am sure from these situations, you are going to come back even stronger, as you always do. That’s what true champions do.” View this post on Instagram Sinner had been bidding to become the first man since Roger Federer in 2015 to win back-to-back Cincinnati titles ... -
Dawn - 03:11 Aug 19, 2025
BERLIN: German foreign ministry spokesman Josef Hinterseher has said more than 200 Afghans waiting to be offered sanctuary in Germany had been deported by Pakistan to their Taliban-run home country in recent days and the German government was urging Islamabad to allow them back. The deportees are part of a group previously offered refuge in Germany but now caught between Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s tougher immigration policy and a wave of expulsions from Pakistan. Hinterseher told reporters that Pakistani police recently arrested “around 450” Afghans who were previously accepted under the German scheme for people at risk from the Taliban. Of those, “211 people, according to our current information, have been deported to Afghanistan,” he added. Another “245 people were allowed to leave camps” in Pakistan where they had been gathered prior to their scheduled deportation, he said. “We are continuing to talk to Pakistan to facilitate the return of those who have already been deported.” Last week, tw... -
Dawn - 02:33 Aug 19, 2025
• Awan refers to SC ruling on no-trust motion against Imran Khan as ‘complex matter’ requiring adjudication • PTI’s counsel rejects AGP’s view, says parliament is sovereign and not subordinate to courts • Senators alarmed by rising cases of gender-based violence in 2024; conviction rates below 1pc ISLAMABAD: Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Mansoor Usman Awan on Monday called for keeping the doors open for judicial intervention in parliamentary proceedings. Making a rare appearance before the Senate, some three weeks after being summoned for an explanation on the alleged interference of the judiciary in internal parliamentary processes, the AGP referred to Article 69 of the Constitution, under which the validity of any proceedings in parliament cannot be called in question on the ground of any irregularity of procedure. However, he insisted that the bar was not absolute. “There is a lot of sanctity attached to it, but it is not absolute,” he remarked. He also referred to April 4, 2022, judgement of the Sup... -
Dawn - 00:14 Aug 19, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Amid strong opposition from Balochistan senators, the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum on Monday reluctantly cleared with narrow majority vote a government bill — The Petroleum (Amendment) Act, 2025 — already passed by the National Assembly last week to digitalise petroleum products at every stage. Senators Maulana Abdul Wasay of JUI-F and Manzoor Kakar of BAP from Balochistan alleged the bill would deprive citizens of a livelihood as authorities plan crackdown on small petroleum related businesses with closures and heavy fines, open floodgates of corruption, thus further alienating the people of Balochistan while large tankers would keep flowing smuggled products across mainland. PML-N Senator Sadia Abbasi also initially appeared unimpressed by the proposed bill and suggested a meeting with FBR and Customs authorities for the senators from Balochistan. She said there was no point in passing the bill while senators from Balochistan opposed it and recalled that a bill about federally admini... -
Dawn - 19:24 Aug 18, 2025
The provincial government on Monday released Rs800 million in relief funds for all affected districts, with an additional Rs 500m specifically for worst-hit Buner, as flash floods continue to ravage Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with the death toll at 341. The recent catastrophic floods in KP have claimed at least 341 lives as of data from the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) Monday at 7pm and injured 178 people. Meanwhile, data from the National Disaster Management Authority showed the nationwide toll from rain-related incidents since late-June rose to 660 deaths and 935 injured. The KP Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) on Monday announced Rs800m in relief funds to the administrations of affected districts on the instructions of the provincial government. A separate relief fund of Rs500m has been earmarked for Buner district, which accounts for the majority of casualties with 222 deaths and 120 injuries, according to a PDMA report released today. Buner was followed by Shangla, with 36 death... -
Dawn - 19:01 Aug 18, 2025
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will officially launch its latest payment and settlement system, named Prism Plus, on Tuesday. A statement issued on Monday by the central bank said Prism Plus is built on the ISO 20022 financial messaging standard, which supports structured and data-rich financial communication, enabling enhanced transparency, interoperability, and automation across the payment and settlement ecosystem. The system includes new features for liquidity management, transaction queuing and prioritisation, and scheduling of future-dated payments. Prism Plus will make Pakistan’s financial system faster, safer and more modern, according to the SBP. It said efficient money transfer, better liquidity management of securities transactions and minimal risks in the system would be achieved with the introduction of Prism Plus. The statement added that the launch event will be chaired by State Bank Governor Jameel Ahmed and will be attended by senior SBP officials, representatives of financial institutions ... -
Dawn - 18:30 Aug 18, 2025
The 28-year-old son of Norway’s crown princess has been charged with raping four women and several acts of violence, and risks up to 10 years in prison, a prosecutor said on Monday. Marius Borg Hoiby, who was born out of a relationship before Crown Princess Mette-Marit married Crown Prince Haakon, has been under investigation since his arrest on August 4 last year on suspicion of assaulting a girlfriend. He is accused of raping four women while they were sleeping. In at least three of the cases, he met the women the same day and had consensual sex before the alleged rapes, public prosecutor Sturla Henriksbo told reporters. Hoiby is also charged with filming their genitals without their knowledge. State Attorney Sturla Henriksbo addresses the press to report on the decision on the indictment of Marius Borg Hoiby, son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit, in Oslo, Norway, August 18. — AFP Henriksbo said investigators had video clips and photographs as evidence. The four rapes allegedly took place in 2018, 20... -
Dawn - 18:24 Aug 18, 2025
United States President Donald Trump said on Monday that if his meeting with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky went well, he expected to hold a trilateral meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin with the goal of ending the Ukraine-Russia war. Trump is pushing Ukraine to make major concessions following his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, saying Kyiv must give up Crimea and abandon its Nato ambitions. Those are two of Moscow’s top demands. But Zelensky, who huddled with the Europeans before they all went to the White House to meet Trump, urged Trump to bring “peace through strength” against Russia and stressed the need for United States security guarantees. “We’re going to have a meeting. I think if everything works out well today, we’ll have a trilat (trilateral summit) and I think there will be a reasonable chance of ending the war when we do that,” said Trump, sitting alongside Zelensky at the White House. “I just spoke to President Putin indirectly and we’re goin... -
Dawn - 17:44 Aug 18, 2025
Hamas has accepted a new ceasefire proposal for Gaza, a senior member of the group said on Monday, after a fresh diplomatic push to end more than 22 months of fighting. 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. Mediators Egypt and Qatar, backed by the United States, have struggled to secure a lasting truce in the conflict, which has triggered a dire humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. But after receiving a new proposal from mediators, Hamas said it was ready for talks. “The movement has submitted its response, agreeing to the mediators’ new proposal. We pray to God to extinguish the fire of this war on our people,” senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said on Facebook. A general view shows the destroyed Rashad al-Shawa cultural centre in Gaza City on August 18. — AFP Earlier, a Ham... -
Dawn - 17:36 Aug 18, 2025
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday said that the country was “running well” and experiencing stability and economic improvement, adding that there was no need for a 27th Constitutional Amendment. Even though the 26th Amendment remains mired in controversy, the power corridors in Islamabad had been abuzz with talk of a possible 27th Constitutional Amendment, which, according to insiders, would further ‘fine-tune’ the structure and the functioning of the superior judiciary. Speaking to reporters in London during a visit to the United Kingdom, the deputy PM said: “We are still digesting the 26th Constitutional Amendment, so there is no need for a 27th right now. The country is running well. There is stability and economic improvement. “We are putting our full attention towards GDP growth and development. Under [Prime Minister] Shehbaz Sharif’s leadership, all efforts are being made.” Dar added that under the leadership of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in 2017, Pakistan was “the 2... -
Dawn - 16:06 Aug 18, 2025
United States President Donald Trump pledged on Monday to issue an executive order to end the use of mail-in ballots and voting machines ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a move likely to spark legal challenges by the states. “I am going to lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, and also, while we’re at it, highly ‘inaccurate’, very expensive and seriously controversial voting machines,” he wrote in a social media post. Trump, who has promoted the false narrative that he, not Democrat Joe Biden, won the 2020 election, has long cast doubt on the security of mail-in ballots and urged his fellow Republicans to try harder to overhaul the US voting system. Some Republican states, such as Florida, however, have embraced mail-in voting as a safe, convenient way to expand voter participation. Trump voted by mail in some previous elections and urged his supporters to do so for the 2024 presidential election. Mail-in ballots hit record highs in the US in 2020 amid the pandemic as states expanded options for ... -
Dawn - 14:49 Aug 18, 2025
One new poliovirus case was confirmed each in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, bringing Pakistan’s total count this year to 21, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Monday. Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic. Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as security issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress. A statement from the Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at Islamabad’s NIH said the latest cases involve a six-year-old girl from Union Council Pattan in KP’s Kohistan district, and a 21-month-old girl from UC Matli-2 in Sindh’s Badin. “With these detections, the total number of polio cases in Pakistan in 2025 has reached 21, including 13 from KP, six from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan,” the statement noted. Polio was a highly infectious and incurable disease that could cause lifelong paralysis. The only effective protection against the debilitat... -
Dawn - 14:39 Aug 18, 2025
Sindh Minister for Local Government Saeed Ghani said that arrangements were in place to deal with the upcoming monsoon spell as parts of Karachi received light rain on Monday. Monsoon rains fall across the region from June to September, offering respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies. However, heavy downpours also trigger deadly floods, landslides and displacement, particularly in vulnerable, poorly drained, or densely populated areas. Under the influence of approaching monsoon currents, Karachi experienced hot and humid weather on Sunday and the Meteorological Department forecast rain with thunderstorms for today in the city. Speaking at a press conference in Karachi, Ghani said: “There are chances of severe rains in Sindh, especially in Karachi, with chances of urban flooding … regarding that, whatever is humanely possible, which a person, government or institution can do, we have made those arrangements.” He added that instructions were given earlier as well about rain... -
Dawn - 14:03 Aug 18, 2025
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar began talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in New Delhi on Monday and stressed that there could be positive momentum in ties between the neighbours only if there was peace on their border. Wang arrived in the Indian capital on Monday for a two-day visit during which he will hold the 24th round of border talks with Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This (discussing border issues) is very important because the basis for any positive momentum in our ties is the ability to jointly maintain peace and tranquility in the border areas,” Jaishankar told Wang in his opening remarks. It is also important for the two countries to pull back their troops amassed along their disputed border in the western Himalayas since a deadly border clash in 2020, Jaishankar said. India’s foreign ministry said in a social media post that “important engagements of the India-China Special Representatives and on bilateral relations”...
5493 items