Dawn
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Dawn - 04:19 May 23, 2025
ISLAMABAD: There appears to be a split in the PTI over Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir’s promotion to the rank of field marshal, as its interim chairman Gohar Ali Khan felicitated the newly appointed field marshal as opposed to the incarcerated party founder, Imran Khan, who criticised the government’s move. If a message posted on his X handle is to be believed, Imran Khan criticised the promotion in his interaction with lawyers, family members, and journalists during a hearing in the Adiala Jail courtroom on Wednesday. The tweet was posted on Thursday morning, however. It may be noted that the PTI leader had also met his sisters and lawyers, including Salman Safdar and Usman Gill, on the jail premises on Wednesday. The former premier doesn’t have access to his X account and someone else posts on his behalf, but the PTI has never revealed the identity of Mr Khan’s social media handler. The PTI founder said it would have been more appropriate if Gen Asim Munir had been declared ‘king’ as Pakistan was being run... -
Dawn - 03:43 May 23, 2025
• Meets IMF delegation, says country on road to economic progress • Govt seeks relief measures in budget; Fund reviewing proposals ISLAMABAD: Amid week-long talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on next fiscal year’s budget, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to fast-track institutional reforms and maintain macroeconomic stability. During a meeting with an IMF delegation led by Regional Director for the Middle East and South Asia, Jihad Azour, the prime minister said the country was now firmly on the path of economic development after a period of recovery and stability. “By the grace of Allah, Pakistan is now moving from economic stability towards sustainable growth,” PM Shehbaz said in an official statement. He said the government’s top priority was to sustain macroeconomic gains and expedite comprehensive institutional reforms, crucial for long-term resilience. The high-level meeting took place at the last leg of negotiations between an IMF staff mission an... -
Dawn - 03:37 May 23, 2025
• Lawmakers pass the bill without debate • House passes resolution urging govt to condemn India for suspending Indus Waters Treaty ISLAMABAD: Days before presentation of the federal budget for the next fiscal year, the National Assembly on Thursday passed an IMF-dictated money bill through a supplementary agenda and without any debate. The Off the Grid (Captive Power Plants) Levy Bill, 2025, aimed at providing legal justification for the grid levy imposed on the supply of natural gas or imported liquefied natural gas to industrial captive power plants (CPPs) as of March 7, was tabled by Minister for Petroleum Division Ali Pervaiz after the house suspended the rules. The minister moved the motion for the passage of the bill soon after presentation of the report of the standing committee on petroleum by its chairman Mustafa Mehmood. The bill cleared all the required stages in just one day as the committee had also approved it in a meeting held minutes before start of the NA session. The opposition challenged th... -
Dawn - 03:13 May 23, 2025
• AGP Awan says Islamabad willing to discuss water sharing deal • Senate panel slams India’s ‘provocative action’ NEW DELHI: Pakistan will not get water from rivers over which India has rights, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, a month after a deadly attack in India-held Kashmir led New Delhi to suspend a key river water-sharing treaty between the neighbours. The attorney general for Pakistan, in an interview with Reuters, responded that Islamabad remained willing to discuss water sharing between the neighbours but said India must stick to the decades-old treaty. The suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), negotiated by the World Bank in 1960, was among a slew of measures announced by India against Pakistan last month after the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 people. New Delhi had said the attack was backed by Pakistan, an accusation Islamabad denied and the nuclear-armed neighbours were involved in their worst military fighting in nearly three decades before agreeing to a ... -
Dawn - 03:05 May 23, 2025
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) announced on Thursday the launch of direct flights from Lahore to Paris, with the first flight scheduled to take off on June 18, as part of its strategy to further expand flight operations “PIA has decided to operate a weekly flight from Lahore to Paris every Wednesday,” a spokesman for PIA said. “With the launch of this flight, three direct flights per week will become part of PIA’s operations.” The new route is part of the airline’s broader strategy to extend its network to Europe and meet growing demand from the Pakistani diaspora in France and Pakistan, the spokesman said. “This direct route to Paris addresses a long-standing demand from the Pakistani community, offering affordable fares and time savings,” the spokesman added. Earlier this year, to mark the relaunch of PIA flights from Islamabad to Paris, the airline decorated a Boeing 777 aircraft with a model of the Eiffel Tower on its tail and the slogan “I Love Paris” on the nose. The aircraft was mod... -
Dawn - 02:54 May 23, 2025
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan was the seventh most affected country for civilians harmed by explosive weapons in 2024, with 790 civilian casualties and 210 killings, recorded across 248 incidents in the country, according to a report released by UK-based NGO, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) on Thursday. Titled, ‘Action on Armed Violence’ (AOAV), the report notes that the casualties in 2024 represent a nine per cent decrease from 2023. However, there was a 11 per cent increase in incidents compared to 218 in 2023. Pakistan was listed at seventh position among the 15 most affected countries and territories in 2024. The majority of civilians harmed was attributed to non-state actors, who were reported responsible for 76pc of civilian casualties. In particular, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) killed and injured 119 civilians in Pakistan last year. The BLA is among the biggest non-state users of explosive weapons in 2024, and it was the reported perpetrator of 15pc civilian casualties, marking a 440pc increase from 22... -
Dawn - 19:01 May 22, 2025
United States President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday revoked Harvard’s right to enrol foreign students — more than a quarter of its annual enrollment — in a major escalation of the president’s fight with one of the world’s most storied universities. Trump is furious at Harvard, which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners, for rejecting his demand that it submit to oversight on admissions and hiring over his claims that it is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology. “Effective immediately, Harvard University’s Student and Exchange Visitor (Sevis) Programme certification is revoked,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a letter to the Ivy League institution, referring to the main system by which foreign students are permitted to study in the United States. Last month, Trump threatened to stop Harvard from enrolling foreign students if it did not agree to government demands that would put the private institution under outside political supervision. “As I explained to you in... -
Dawn - 18:19 May 22, 2025
A man and his two sons were shot dead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan district, police and rescue officials said on Thursday, adding that the five suspects had fled the scene. Rescue 1122 Mardan spokesperson Mohammad Abbas Shah told Dawn.com that the incident took place on Wednesday and that a case was registered at Shahbaz Garhi police station on the complaint of the victim’s sister. “Five suspects opened fire on the victims, Qubad Khan and his sons, in a field in the Gariala area of Mardan,” Shah said. “The victim and his young sons died at the scene, while women nearby were able to narrowly escape.” He added that the suspects were able to flee the scene after the incident. According to the police report, seen by Dawn.com, the suspects were charged under sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of a common object), 302 (punishment for murder) and 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code. Earlier this week, six... -
Dawn - 17:49 May 22, 2025
Human Rights Watch strongly criticised Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday, warning that it risked “undermining fundamental freedoms” through measures including its ban on the former ruling party. The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since the student-led revolt that ousted then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, with parties protesting on the streets over a string of demands. The interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has promised democratic reforms and vowed polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest. However, New York-based HRW said Yunus risked following the example of Hasina in clamping down on opponents. “Instead of pursuing its pledge to reform the criminal justice system and bring accountability for serious abuses, the government … is attempting to suppress the rights of supporters of the deposed leader,” the rights group said in a statement. HRW said the government had used “newly introduced powers under a draconian a... -
Dawn - 17:48 May 22, 2025
Fifty-five men, including a priest, a paramedic, and a music teacher, were arrested in France this week as part of an operation to dismantle a suspected paedophile ring operating via the Telegram messaging app, authorities said on Thursday. The arrests took place in 42 departments over possession, distribution and regular viewing of pornography involving children “under the age of 10”, France’s OFMIN, which is tasked with preventing violence against minors, told AFP. OFMIN issued the warrant that led to the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in Paris in 2024, and he remains under formal investigation by French authorities over illegal content on the popular service. The arrests of the 55 men aged 25 to 75, which followed a 10-month investigation, took place from Monday to Thursday. The men exchanged messages on Telegram and were in contact with “extremely dangerous” child sex abusers who have been in prison since last summer, Quentin Bevan, head of OFMIN’s operational unit, told AFP. The large-scale opera... -
Dawn - 17:39 May 22, 2025
Several people are feared dead after a small plane crashed into a California neighbourhood before dawn on Thursday, destroying homes and setting cars on fire. At least 10 houses were burned or hit by debris that spread over a wide area, and cars on both sides of a street were set on fire when the Cessna 550 slammed into the ground in San Diego. “There are more than one fatality that we found so far, but we’re waiting to get the registered numbers that were on the plane itself,” said San Diego’s Assistant Fire Department Chief Dan Eddy. “When it hit the street, as the jet fuel went down, it took out every single car that was on both sides of the street,” he said, adding: “We have jet fuel all over the place.” Footage of the immediate aftermath of the crash showed a line of burning fuel linking the flaming cars. Eddy said “miraculously” no one on the ground had been killed or seriously hurt. Daylight revealed what a close call it had been for some people, with images showing the roof of one home blackened and c... -
Dawn - 17:19 May 22, 2025
Army’s top brass vows to stop ‘externally-sponsored terrorists’ from destroying national peace: ISPR
The armed forces have vowed to prevent the country’s peace being compromised by externally-sponsored terrorism, the military’s media wing said on Thursday. A day earlier, at least six people, including three students, were slain while over 40 others — mostly students — were injured after a bomb targeted a school bus near Zero Point in Khuzdar on the Quetta-Karachi highway when it was on its way to drop the students at the Army Public School in Khuzdar Cantonment. According to a statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the vow was made during the 270th Corps Commander Conference (CCC) at the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, chaired by Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir. “A comprehensive review of the prevailing internal and external security environment was undertaken, with particular emphasis on the successful conclusion of Operation Bunyanum Marsoos, a decisive chapter of Marka-i-Haq,” the statement read. It was observed that “following its military failure in the wake o... -
Dawn - 16:23 May 22, 2025
The Punjab Home Department on Thursday launched a campaign to raise awareness about the safety of children. According to the spokesperson of the home department, the campaign called ‘Safe Children, Safe Punjab’ was launched on the instructions of the Punjab Chief Minister. The statement said, “The home department released the first episode of a special animation series to create awareness about ‘Good Touch, Bad Touch’. “The campaign was launched to prevent incidents of sexual abuse of minors.” The statement also said that the series introduced the characters named Haya and Bahadur, who educate children about “Good Touch and Bad Touch”, with a message for children stating, “We will not be afraid of those who touch us badly.” Educating children about personal safety was the need of the hour, the statement said, adding that the series taught children about “appropriate and inappropriate physical behaviour in a positive way”. With proper education and awareness, children can recognise and report inappropriate beh... -
Dawn - 15:52 May 22, 2025
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran would hold the United States responsible for any Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, after US media reported that Israel was preparing for a strike. The report came even as Iran and the United States were set to meet in Rome on Friday for a fifth round of Omani-mediated nuclear talks. “We believe that in the event of any attack on the nuclear facilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Zionist regime (Israel), the US government will also be involved and bear legal responsibility,” Araghchi said in a letter to the United Nations published on Thursday. “Iran strongly warns against any adventurism by the Zionist regime and will respond decisively to any threat or unlawful act by this regime,” Araghchi added. On Tuesday, CNN reported that Israel was making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities. The nuclear talks, which began on April 12, are the highest-level contact between the long-time foes since the United States in 2018 pulled out of a landmar... -
Dawn - 15:38 May 22, 2025
In sweltering Karachi, as tensions with India simmer over the Indus Waters Treaty, Musadik Masood Malik sips an Americano. Recently appointed as Pakistan’s federal minister for climate change and environmental coordination, Malik left his previous post overseeing the Ministry for Water Resources and Petroleum to take on what he describes as an urgent and daunting role. In one of his first interviews since the March 2025 reshuffle, he speaks exclusively to Dialogue Earth. Malik leans forward to list what he sees as Pakistan’s most pressing environmental threats: “Air pollution and its economic toll on the people of Pakistan. Water pollution and access. And solid waste [management], whether methane or carbon dioxide. These are the three major challenges we face,” he says. But it’s Pakistan’s melting glaciers that concern him most. Before arriving in Karachi, one of Senator Malik’s first official visits was to Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan’s northernmost region and home to some of the world’s largest glacial reserv... -
Dawn - 14:16 May 22, 2025
Saudi Arabia’s health ministry on Thursday launched a health awareness kit, including one in Urdu, to promote the health and well-being of Haj pilgrims. Haj, one of the fundamental pillars of Islam, is performed each year by millions of Muslims worldwide. Pakistan receives one of the highest Haj quotas from Saudi Arabia. In a post on X, the Saudi health ministry said that the kit was available in eight languages. “In all languages, we care about pilgrims’ health. Explore the health awareness kit to promote health and well-being among pilgrims,” the post said. The multilingual kit contained essential information for pilgrims, such as: preventing heat-related illnesses and managing health in extreme conditions, required vaccinations (meningitis, Covid-19, polio and yellow fever), managing chronic diseases, and accessing free health services during Haj. It also included short videos, social media assets, and printable posters. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the annual Haj agreement in January, which would see ... -
Dawn - 13:07 May 22, 2025
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday held a meeting with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation and reaffirmed his government’s commitment to fast-track institutional reforms alongside macroeconomic stabilisation, asserting that Pakistan was now firmly on the path to economic development. The meeting with the IMF delegation, led by the Fund’s Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department Jihad Azourat the PM’s Office, took place as Pakistan gears up to present the budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 on June 2. “Pakistan is now moving from economic stability toward sustainable growth,” the prime minister said, emphasising that the government’s top priority was not only to sustain macroeconomic gains but to expedite comprehensive institutional reforms, crucial for long-term resilience. The meeting focused on discussions related to the implementation and progress of the ongoing IMF programme in Pakistan. Both sides expressed satisfaction over the economic reforms undertaken by the governme... -
Dawn - 12:55 May 22, 2025
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that two major terrorist groups operating in Pakistan were “Indian proxies”, adding that Islamabad will present “complete evidence” to prove New Delhi’s involvement in the attack on a school bus in Balochistan’s Khuzdar district that killed three children and injured several others. At least six people, including three students, were slain while over 40 others — mostly students — sustained injuries after a bomb targeted the bus near Zero Point in Khuzdar on the Quetta-Karachi highway when it was on its way to drop the students at the Army Public School in Khuzdar Cantonment. The condition of at least a dozen is said to be serious due to critical injuries, officials said, adding that at least 15 girl students were among the injured. Security forces vowed to “relentlessly pursue” the culprits of the attack as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir visited the injured in Quetta yesterday. Speaking on Geo News programme ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath... -
Dawn - 10:40 May 22, 2025
THE death penalty awarded to Zahir Jaffar for the brutal killing of Noor Mukadam in 2021 has been upheld by the Supreme Court. The court has reiterated that the murderer must pay for the crime with his life. It is, no doubt, a dire sentence — this paper, in principle, opposes capital punishment. The judges, it must be noted, did commute the death sentence on the rape charge to life imprisonment, and the kidnapping sentence from 10 years to one. However, when it came to the murder charge, it appears they felt it necessary to match the severity of the crime with the severity of the punishment. Many well-wishers hope that the verdict will bring the Mukadam family some closure after their long ordeal to secure justice for their murdered daughter. Noor’s brutal killing had shaken the Pakistani public out of its reverie to take note of the misogyny and domestic violence prevalent in society. The case had been closely followed. The evidence, eyewitness accounts, and sequence of events stitched together by the media ... -
Dawn - 10:25 May 22, 2025
Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead late on Wednesday outside a Jewish museum in Washington by a gunman who shouted “free Palestine”. authorities said, with US and Israeli leaders expressing shock and outrage over the killings. US President Donald Trump quickly condemned the attack, saying, “These horrible DC killings, based obviously on anti-Semitism, must end, now!” “Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA,” he added on social media. Gunfire broke out on the sidewalk outside the Capital Jewish Museum in the centre of Washington as the venue held a social event for young professionals and diplomatic staff. The victims were a young couple who planned to get married, the Israeli ambassador said. A video clip circulating on social media showed a young bearded man in a jacket and white shirt shouting “free, free Palestine” as he was led away by police. Police confirmed the suspected shooter walked into the museum after the shooting and had been detained. “We believe the shooting was committed by a...
5467 items