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Found 5467 news

  • Aleema Khanum and PTI’s Kanwal Shauzab face off in tense court exchange over leaked video
    Dawn - 13:00 May 17, 2025
    PTI founder Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khanum and former party MNA Kanwal Shauzab had a tense exchange in court on Saturday over a video that surfaced of the latter criticising the former. In the recently surfaced video, Shauzab can be allegedly heard and seen criticising Aleema for disrespecting party office-holders and interim chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, saying that Imran’s sister should not dent the party. Shauzab allegedly said she would confront Aleema herself over the issue. That happened today as Shauzab approached Aleema in the Rawalpindi anti-terrorism court (ATC), saying she wanted to talk to her. However, Imran’s sister said: “Just leave it. What you said was right. Many other people speak against us. We are now used to such accusations.” To this, Shauzab told her that she wanted to speak with her in this regard to which Aleema rebuffed her, saying: “I am not angry with you, [now] go.” Shauzab replied: “A specific part of an old video of mine was used against me.” Aleema subsequently told he...
    Tags: Aleema Khanum
  • International law & Indus wars
    Dawn - 12:40 May 17, 2025
    ON April 23, India unilaterally declared the Indus Waters Treaty to be “in abeyance” — a term neither recognised in treaty law nor found in the IWT itself. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT) — the authoritative international agreement on treaty law — instead describes a party’s releasing itself from its treaty obligations as a ‘suspension’. Treaties such as the IWT are not limited by time, continuing instead in perpetuity under Article 42 of the VCLT. And under Article 57 of the VCLT, a treaty can only be suspended if it allows for such suspension, or with the mutual consent of all contracting parties. The IWT, a multilateral treaty with India, Pakistan and the World Bank as signatories, does not provide for suspension and can unilaterally only be terminated or suspended if a party commits a material breach of treaty as described under Article 60 of the VCLT. India’s accusations of Pakistan’s alleged role in the Pahalgam attack are completely unsubstantiated; but in any event, that attack has...
  • ISKP claims responsibility for May 11 Peshawar suicide attack
    Dawn - 11:13 May 17, 2025
    PESHAWAR: Terrorist group Islamic State’s regional affiliate Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) has claimed responsibility for the May 11 suicide blast, which martyred two police officials and injured three here. In its weekly publication Al-Naba on Friday, the ISKP insisted that one of its members, Abu Ibrahim al-Khorasani, carried out the suicide attack by detonating his explosive belt when the police tried to stop him at a checkpost in the jurisdiction of the Chamkani police station. Police investigators believe that the police weren’t the target of the suicide bomber, who actually wanted to attack a Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl gathering at the party’s Mufti Mehmood Markaz headquarters, which was attended by leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman the same night. “It appears that the bomber’s target was the JUI-F gathering, but it has yet to be confirmed,” a source in the police’s counter-terrorism department told Dawn. Police believe bomber was planning to target JUI-F rally He, however, said an investigation was ...
    Tags: ISKP
  • PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi moved to cardio institute due to heart pain
    Dawn - 09:54 May 17, 2025
    Former foreign minister and PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi has been moved from Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat Jail to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) on Saturday after he suffered heart pain, his lawyer said on Saturday. Qureshi has been indicted in multiple cases pertaining to the May 9, 2023 riots and has remained behind bars since August 2023. Speaking to Dawn.com today, Advocate Rana Mudassar, Qureshi’s lawyer, said his client suffered heart pain early in the morning after Fajr prayers. He underwent a medical assessment by prison doctors. “He was shifted to the PIC by Rescue 1122 after his health failed to improve,” Mudassar said, adding that Qureshi was currently undergoing various tests at the hospital. The PTI leader’s family had been informed about his condition, the lawyer added. In a post on X today, Qureshi’s son urged the nation to pray for his speedy recovery. In July 2024, the PTI vice-president was indicted by a Lahore anti-terrorism court in a case registered by the Shadman police over alleged...
    Tags: Shah Mahmood Qureshi
  • 38,229 Pakistani Haj pilgrims under govt scheme landed in Saudi Arabia so far
    Dawn - 09:41 May 17, 2025
    The Pakistan Haj Mission (PHM) has welcomed 38,229 pilgrims in Saudi Arabia (Madina and Makkah) under the government scheme since the start of the month-long pre-Haj flight operation on April 29. These pilgrims arrived via 143 flights under the government scheme, while 3,440 more intending pilgrims through 13 flights will reach the holy land today, said Muhammad Umar Butt, a spokesman for the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Sharing the details with APP, he said that there are five scheduled flights from Lahore, four from Karachi, three from Islamabad and one from Multan today. This year, the PHM will host over 88,380 pilgrims under the government scheme and more than 23,000 under the private scheme. He said that as possession of the Nusuk Card is a mandatory requirement for entering Haram Sharif, the pilgrims are being given these through Tawafa Company Al-Rajhi, responsible for facilitating Pakistani pilgrims during Haj, soon after their arrival. The PHM is utilising Pak Haj App, two toll-free helplines 80024...
    Tags: Saudi Arabia Pakistani
  • PM Shehbaz nominates ministers Kheal Das, Ramesh Singh to attend oath-taking ceremony of Pope Leo
    Dawn - 09:27 May 17, 2025
    Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has received an invitation to attend the oath-taking ceremony of the new spiritual leader of Catholic Christians Pope Leo XIV, and has nominated two ministers to participate in the event, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the Catholic Church earlier in the month, taking the name Leo XIV, becoming the first American pontiff. Last week, the newly elected Pope welcomed the ceasefire between Pakistan and India in his first Sunday message, the pontiff had said he was glad to hear of the recent Pakistan-India ceasefire and hoped negotiations would lead to a lasting accord between the nuclear-armed neighbours. According to the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, PM Shehbaz has nominated the Minister of State for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Kheal Das Kohistani, along with Punjab’s Minister for Minority Affairs, Ramesh Singh Arora, to attend the ceremony. They will represent Pa...
    Tags: Pope Shehbaz
  • HBL PSL 2025: Action resumes after nine-day hiatus with playoffs race wide open
    Dawn - 08:36 May 17, 2025
    ISLAMABAD: The HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) is set to resume on Saturday after a nine-day hiatus with the league entering a decisive phase as five teams remain in the hunt for the four playoff spots. The league was postponed due to cross-border tensions taking place between Pakistan and India between the early hours of May 7 and May 10, when the escalation seized after a ceasefire agreement. The disruption had seen overseas players fly out of the country before the Pakistan Cricket Board’s decision to resume the tournament got the six franchises scrambling to get their squads back together. With only eight matches left in the league stage of the 34-match season, the battle for qualification has intensified, with last year’s finalists Multan Sultans already knocked out of contention after losing eight of their nine matches. The Rawalpindi leg will host the final round of league matches before the playoffs shift to Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, scheduled from May 21 to 25, with May 24 marked as a rest day. Satu...
  • FBR overhaul, laptop scheme among Rs143bn projects cleared by CDWP
    Dawn - 07:48 May 17, 2025
    ISLAMABAD: The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) on Friday cleared 10 development projects worth Rs143 billion, including a Rs41bn initiative to revamp the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), enabling the government to secure a $150 million loan from the World Bank despite a more than 225 per cent increase in project costs. The CDWP meeting, presided over by Pla­n­­­ning Minister Ahsan Iqbal, also cleared Rs27bn expansion of laptop scheme in Pun­jab and Sindh’s Rs60bn worth of three major projects in the roads and education sectors. The meeting requested the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) to formally approve five projects worth Rs127.1bn and itself approved five other projects worth Rs15.9bn. Under the current financial rules, the CDWP is empowered to approve projects costing up to Rs7.5bn, while the projects of higher estimated costs are approved by Ecnec on the recommendations of the CDWP after clearance on technical grounds. The meeting approved the “Construction of Academi...
    Tags: CDWP
  • Leaders booked over pro-army rally in Lahore: PTI
    Dawn - 07:04 May 17, 2025
    LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has claimed its leaders and workers have been booked for taking out a ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ rally, after an FIR was registered against them for ‘rioting armed with deadly weapons’, ‘mischief by injury to public road, bridge’ and other similar alleged offences. According to party and police sources, the Lahore police registered the FIR against the PTI leaders and workers for taking out a rally to express solidarity with the armed forces, burning Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effigy, and torching tyres on Ferozepur Road near Model Town. The FIR was registered against PTI Lahore president Imtiaz Sheikh, Zaheer Abbas Khokhar, Ali Warraich and around 50 other workers under Sections 290 (public nuisance), 291 (Continuance of nuisance after injunction to discontinue), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 431 (mischief by injury to public road, bridge) of the PPC...
    Tags: Lahore
  • National Assembly passes landmark bill to criminalise child marriages in Islamabad
    Dawn - 07:02 May 17, 2025
    ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a significant bill seeking stringent laws and penalties to curb child marriages and protect girls from becoming mothers in their teens. The bill, tabled by MNA Sharmila Faruqui, was not on the agenda of the proceedings but was introduced by suspending relevant rules. Once the bill becomes an act, it will be implemented in the federal capital and no court other than that of the district and sessions judge shall take cognizance of or try any offence under it. When the bill becomes a law, the Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 will stand repealed to the extent of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). However, all orders made, decisions taken, judgements passed by any court shall be deemed to have been validly made, taken and passed under this act. The bill was introduced with the object to curb, discourage and eventually eradicate the concept and phenomenon of child marriages. No nikah khwan shall register a marriage where one or both contracting part...
  • Four Levies men martyred in Khuzdar attack
    Dawn - 06:22 May 17, 2025
    KHUZDAR: Four Levies personnel were martyred in an armed attack on their check post in the Nasl area of Khuzdar district late on Friday night. A senior Levies officer confirmed the incident to Dawn, stating that four Levies men lost their lives in the armed attack. The incident occurred at the Sanand Levies check post along the CPEC Road. According to police, the bodies were shifted to Khuzdar Hospital. The deceased have been identified as Maqbool, Khuda Bakhsh, Ejaz Ahmed, and Muhammad Ali. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2025
    Tags: Khuzdar Four Levies
  • China’s LandSpace launches improved methane-powered rocket
    Dawn - 06:06 May 17, 2025
    A new methane-powered rocket developed by China’s LandSpace Technology launched six satellites into orbit on Saturday, doubling down on a cheap, cleaner fuel that the private startup hopes will help it develop reusable rockets. The Zhuque-2E Y2 carrier rocket blasted off at 12:12pm (09:12am PKT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China, marking the fifth flight for the Zhuque-2 series, according to a company statement. Beijing-based LandSpace became the world’s first company to launch a methane-liquid oxygen rocket in July 2023, ahead of US rivals including Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Interest has grown in recent years in launching carrier vehicles fuelled by methane, which is deemed less polluting, safer and cheaper than more commonly used hydrocarbon fuels and a suitable propellant in a reusable rocket. LandSpace has increased the rocket’s payload, reflecting increasing demand in China’s expanding commercial space industry amid growing competition to form a constellati...
    Tags: LandSpace China
  • Pakistan focuses on held Kashmir’s missing persons
    Dawn - 05:01 May 17, 2025
    UNITED NATIONS: A senior Pakistani diplomat told the UN Security Council on Thursday that the “acute” matter of missing persons during armed conflicts was persisting like a “silent crisis”. Absence of such individuals from their loved ones was a wound that never healed, he underscored. “The issue of missing persons is particularly acute in conflict zones and occupied territories from Palestine to occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said during a discussion. The debate was held in the 15-member Council on the implementation of its Resolution 2474, which addresses the critical issue. “They are fathers who never returned home, mothers separated from their children, young boys who disappeared in the dead of night, and daughters whose fates are sealed in silence,” he said, adding, “Their absence is a wound that never heals, leaving families trapped in an endless cycle of hope and despair.” Envoy calls it ‘a wound that never heals’ The Pakista...
    Tags: Pakistan Kashmir
  • Friendless against Pakistan, India curbs business with Turkiye, Azerbaijan
    Dawn - 04:34 May 17, 2025
    NEW DELHI: With India finding itself friendless in the conflict with Pakistan, it has started taking revenge on countries who helped Islamabad in the recent military flare-up, reports said on Friday. The bizarre spectacle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters resorting to criticism and trolling of US President Donald Trump after he re-hyphenated the India-Pakistan saga as a bilateral issue he could help resolve, the anger turned on Turkiye and Azerbaijan. Regarding Turkiye, the Adani group-operated Mumbai and Ahmedabad airports have ended the ground handling concession agreements with Çelebi, an Istanbul-headquartered airport ground handling major. Air India is lobbying with the government to cancel the wet lease arrangement the Indigo Airlines has with its Turkish counterpart. While the move against Turkish Airlines is being considered, the two airports have ordered Çelebi to immediately hand over all its ground handling facilities in order to ensure uninterrupted operations at the airports, The India...
    Tags: Turkiye Azerbaijan Pakistan
  • Islamabad, Delhi gained nothing but miseries from wars: PM Shehbaz
    Dawn - 03:08 May 17, 2025
    ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has offered India to sit for a comprehensive dialogue to settle contentious issues including Kashmir and joi­ntly fight terrorism, remi­nding New Delhi that the neighbouring countries fought three wars in the past and gained nothing but miseries of the people. “After settling disputes like Kashmir and water distribution, we can talk on trade and counter-terrorism as Pakistan is the worst affected country by terrorism which lost 90,000 lives and over $150 billion economic losses,” PM Shehbaz said while addressing a ceremony here on Friday. The ceremony, marking the Youm-i-Tashakur (Thanks­giving Day), was held at Pakistan Monument and attended by PM Shehbaz, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) Gen Sahir Mirza, Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Syed Asif Munir, Air Chief Marshal Air Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Babar, Naval Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf, federal cabinet members, diplomats, the families of martyrs, sports personalities and showbiz celebrities, as the natio...
    Tags: Shehbaz
  • Pakistan rejects India’s ‘new normal’ claim
    Dawn - 02:56 May 17, 2025
    • FO says Islamabad’s restrained response reinforces deterrence, warns Pakistan will have no choice but to respond if India resumes hostilities • Insists govt remains committed to ceasefire • Indian defence minister signals aggressive stance, calls strikes a ‘trailer’ • Jaishankar reiterates any talks will be strictly bilateral ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday rejected India’s claim that recent military strikes had established a “new norm” in their tense bilateral relations, insisting that respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity remains the only acceptable standard in inter-state ties. The remarks by Foreign Office spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan came amid a fragile ceasefire agreed upon on May 10, following India’s Operation Sindoor (vermilion, a traditional symbol of marriage worn by Hindu women) and Pakistani response codenamed Operation Bunyanum Marsoos (Iron Wall). Pakistan condemned the strikes as a violation of its sovereignty. “While India propagates the notion of establishing a ‘new normal’ in bila...
    Tags: Pakistan India
  • NA passes money bill along with eight others
    Dawn - 02:25 May 17, 2025
    • Citizenship amendment bill deferred, two others introduced • MNA flags delay in ADB-funded bridges on Kalam Road ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Friday passed nine bills, including a money bill that had been blocked by the opposition a day earlier. Only one bill — aimed at amending the Pakistan Citizenship Act, 1951 [The Pakistan Citizenship (Amend­ment) Bill, 2024] (Section 4) — was deferred. Meanwhile, two new bills were introduced by suspending the rules and were also passed. These were related to child marriages and trade organisations. Later, the proceedings of the lower house of parliament were adjourned until Monday. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb moved a bill to amend the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 [The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2024], commonly referred to as the ‘money bill’, which had been blocked by the opposition on Thursday. The treasury benches later managed to get the bill passed by a majority vote. The Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2024 is already in effect, having originally been...
  • Police launch investigation as Ahmadi doctor shot dead in Sargodha
    Dawn - 19:20 May 16, 2025
    The police launched an investigation into the murder of locally renowned Ahmadi doctor, Sheikh Muhammad Mahmood, 58, who was shot dead in Punjab’s Sargodha on Friday. “We cannot comment on whether the doctor was targeted on a religious basis or for some other reason as it would be premature to say,” Sargodha District Police Officer Sohaib Ashraf told Dawn.com. He said one person was involved in the murder and the police were already gathering information after launching an investigation. The first information report of the incident was filed at Shahid Shaheed Police Station by a relative of Dr Mahmood under Pakistan Penal Code Section 302 (murder). It said the deceased was a practitioner at Sargodha’s Fatima Hospital and a renowned individual of the city. The complainant said he reached the hospital with the deceased around 2:35pm. The FIR stated that an individual wearing a uniform of the ‘Saaf Suthra Punjab’ initiative approached the deceased and took out a pistol while saying: “I won’t spare you today Mahm...
    Tags: Sargodha Ahmadi
  • Turkiye’s Celebi sues India over ‘vague’ clearance pullback amid South Asia tension
    Dawn - 18:17 May 16, 2025
    Turkiye-based Celebi, which provides airport ground handling in India, has launched a legal challenge to New Delhi’s decision to overturn its security clearance, arguing that “vague” national security concerns were cited without reasoning. Amid growing public anger in India about Turkiye’s stance on Pakistan in the India-Pakistan conflict, the Indian government on Thursday revoked Celebi’s security clearance in the “interest of national security”. Celebi Airport Services India, in a May 16 filing seen by Reuters, asked the Delhi High Court to set aside that decision, arguing it would impact 3,791 jobs and investor confidence, and was issued without any warning to the company. “Mere rhetoric of national security without elaborating upon in what manner is an entity a threat to national security is unsustainable in law,” the company said in the filing, which is not public. The order “fails to disclose any specific or substantive reason except for a vague and general reference to ‘national security’… [it] provide...
    Tags: Turkiye Celebi India
  • Assailant who stabbed author Salman Rushdie sentenced to 25 years
    Dawn - 17:49 May 16, 2025
    The man who stabbed and partially blinded novelist Salman Rushdie onstage at a Western New York arts institute in 2022 was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday for an attack that also wounded a second man, the district attorney said. Rushdie, 77, has faced death threats since the 1988 publication of his novel The Satanic Verses, which Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran’s supreme leader, denounced as blasphemous, leading to a call for Rushdie’s death. Hadi Matar, 27, a US citizen from Fairview, New Jersey, was found guilty of attacking the author in the Chautauqua County Court in Mayville, New York, in February. He faced a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on the attempted murder charge. Video that captured the assault shows Matar rushing the Chautauqua Institution’s stage as Rushdie was being introduced to the audience for a talk about keeping writers safe from harm. Some of the video was shown to the jury during the seven days of testimony. “He’s traumatised. He has nightmares about what he exp...
    Tags: Salman Rushdie

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