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Dawn - 14:48 Oct 21, 2025
India restored its embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Tuesday following warming ties between the two nations. India had closed its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban seized power following the withdrawal of US-led Nato forces in 2021, but opened a small mission a year later to facilitate trade, medical support, and humanitarian aid. About a dozen countries, including China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan and Turkiye have embassies operating in Kabul, although Russia is the only country to have formally recognised the Taliban administration. “In keeping with the decision announced during the recent visit of the Afghan FM to India, the government is restoring the status of the technical mission of India in Kabul to that of embassy of India in Afghanistan with immediate effect,” said a press release issued today by India’s Ministry of External Affairs. It added the decision underscored India’s resolve to deepen its bilateral engagement with the Afghan side in all spheres of mutual interest. The MEA elaborated tha... -
Dawn - 13:36 Oct 21, 2025
Chief of the Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir on Tuesday reiterated that any violation of Pakistan’s territorial integrity would be met with a ’firm and decisive response The army chief’s affirmation came in the wake of a border conflict with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan as long-simmering tensions over cross-border terrorism boiled over into outright fighting, along with charged statements from India’s civil-military leadership. The military’s top brass had warned India earlier this month that any “imaginary new normal” its leadership might be entertaining about bilateral dynamics would be met with a “new normal of swift retributive response”. A press release issued from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) today said the army chief interacted with participants of the 17th National Workshop Balochistan at the General Headquarters. “The COAS reiterated that while Pakistan seeks regional peace and stability, any violation of its territorial integrity, direct or indirect, will be met with a ... -
Dawn - 13:30 Oct 21, 2025
A combination of threats, from shrinking habitats and increased human-animal conflict to poaching and environmental degradation, has accelerated the decline of Pakistan’s bear population over the past decade, according to local wildlife experts. Although no comprehensive scientific surveys have been conducted to determine the exact numbers of bears in the country, experts estimate a 20-30 per cent decline in their population over the past 10 years. Muhammad Kabir, head of the Wildlife Ecology Lab at the University of Haripur, said that while a few regions in Pakistan still have healthy bear populations, the overall trend remains worrying. “So much so, bears have become locally extinct from several areas, where they once were believed to have been in ‘good numbers’,” Kabir told Anadolu. Pakistan is home to two species of bears — the Himalayan brown bear and the Asiatic black bear. The black bear is further divided into two subspecies — the Himalayan black bear (U. t. laniger), found in the temperate forests of... -
Dawn - 13:05 Oct 21, 2025
The Gilgit-Baltistan Election Commission on Tuesday froze the regional government’s financial and administrative powers, citing ‘growing public concern’ over pre-poll manipulation, ahead of the assembly’s term ending next month A notification issued by the commission today said the assembly’s tenure was to expire on November 24 and it was the commission’s constitutional duty to organise and conduct general elections and local government elections in GB, along with making all necessary arrangements to ensure that they were conducted honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law, while safeguarding the process from corrupt practices. “The general public has expressed genuine concerns about appointments, upgradations, and transfers of government officers and officials across various departments during this sensitive pre-election period. These actions have given rise to apprehensions that they may be politically motivated, potentially weakening public trust in the fairness and integrity of the election proc... -
Dawn - 11:36 Oct 21, 2025
Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari claimed on Tuesday that three civilians were killed during the operation in Muridke that dispersed Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) protesters. The TLP, which began a protest march in Lahore earlier this month, was planning to reach Islamabad and stage a demonstration in support of Gaza and Palestine outside the US embassy. The march and sit-in, which reached Muridke, quickly turned into violent clashes between protesters and police before the protesters were dispersed, leading to a crackdown on the party and its supporters. Addressing a press conference in Lahore today, the Punjab information minister said “false stories” were being perpetuated about the operation in Muridke. “Three civilians were martyred in Muridke. These were people who were passing by or standing off to the side,” she said, adding that 48 civilians and 110 police officers were also injured. Eighteen out of 110 have sustained firearm injuries, she said. The minister also said that police vans had b... -
Dawn - 11:27 Oct 21, 2025
Lahore and Karachi were among the top five most polluted cities in terms of air quality on Tuesday, according to monitoring platform IQAir. In past few years, air pollution has become one of the most pressing public health and environmental crises facing Pakistan. Various cities of the country, most notably Lahore, deal with smog especially in the winter months. The phenomenon is attributed mainly to industrial emissions, vehicular pollution, stubble burning and air movement. Ranked the world’s third most polluted city yesterday, Lahore rose to the second spot today with an air quality index (AQI) reading of 234 at 11am, categorised as “very unhealthy”. The provincial capital trailed just behind New Delhi, which had an “hazardous” AQI of 489. Karachi recorded an AQI of 182 at 11am, falling in the “unhealthy” range and just barely behind Kuwait’s capital at 183. India’s Mumbai came in at fifth with an AQI of 169. World’s 10 most polluted cities as ranked by IQAir, as of 11am on Oct 21, 2025. — screngrab via IQ... -
Dawn - 11:19 Oct 21, 2025
As Lahore gears up for another smog season, an imposing new fleet of green trucks is making rounds across the city. Branded as “Anti-Smog Guns”, they spray a fine mist into the air in hopes of settling pollution. Launched under the banner of Climate Resilient Punjab, the fog cannons promise cleaner skies. They look like action. Do they deliver? The science says no. A 2023 study from China tracked air along a road segment before and after a mist cannon passed. PM2.5 rose by up to 13 per cent about 25–35 minutes later, as the extra water accelerated chemistry that formed more fine particles. In other words, the cannon didn’t clean the air. It primed the air to make more pollution. In Lahore, each fog cannon costs over Rs45 million, according to news reports. The machines were imported from China and formally handed over to the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a high-profile event attended by senior government leadership. Running one unit continuously can consume up to 360,000 litres of water pe... -
Dawn - 11:13 Oct 21, 2025
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar on Tuesday remarked that the Supreme Court’s regular and constitutional benches (CBs) were “branches of one tree” as an eight-member CB heard arguments on petitions challenging the 26th Amendment. The Amendment was passed by 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 pressured, 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 ju... -
Dawn - 10:40 Oct 21, 2025
French police stepped up the hunt on Tuesday for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum in a spectacular daylight robbery. As the museum remained closed for a second day on Monday, officials said 60 investigators were working on the theory that an organised crime group was behind the raid in which nine pieces of jewellery were taken. A crown covered in more than 1,300 diamonds was dropped in the streets of Paris as the robbers fled. Detectives scoured video camera footage from around the Louvre as well as from main highways out of Paris for signs of the four robbers who escaped on scooters on Sunday morning. “There are a lot of videos, and this is one of the investigators’ lines of work,” said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez. But as disappointed tourists rebooked tickets to the world’s most visited museum, the heist — which lasted just seven minutes —also reignited a row over the lack of security in French museums, after two other institutions were hit last month. Justice Minister Ger... -
Dawn - 08:22 Oct 21, 2025
Three lesser-known opposition parties on Tuesday withdrew an application filed with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) seeking to be registered as an alliance under the name of Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz-i-Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP), while also distancing themselves from the request itself. The matter gained traction as the proposed name is already the name of an opposition alliance led by Mehmood Khan Achakzai. The applicants, who also sought the allocation of a joint election symbol, included Pakistan Aman Tehreek Chairman Ali Sher Yousafzai, Pakistan Falahi Tehreek Chairman Fazal Aman Khan, and Pakistan Welfare Party Chairman Muhammad Farooq. The TTAP — which saw the move as an attempt to take away its title and sabotage its resistance movement — had formed a legal team to defend its position before the ECP, with Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar appearing before the commission today. The matter was heard by a three-member ECP bench headed by the member from Balochistan, Shah Mohammad Jatoi. During the hearing, the Pakist... -
Dawn - 07:10 Oct 21, 2025
An Islamabad district and sessions and court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur on a 2016 liquor and weapons recovery case over his continued absence from the proceedings. Senior Civil Judge Mubashir Hassan Chishti presided over the proceedings and directed that Gandapur — who did not show up today — be arrested and presented before the court. The hearing was adjourned till October 28. The case dates back to October 30, 2016, when Islamabad police said they had recovered five Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, six magazines, a bulletproof vest, alcohol and three tear gas shells from then-KP revenue minister Gandapur’s car outside Bani Gala, where the residence of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan is located. The incident had taken place against the backdrop of authorities preventing PTI supporters from reaching Bani Gala on Imran’s call to execute a plan to ‘lockdown’ the capital later on November 2. Gandapur had rejected police claims,... -
Dawn - 07:06 Oct 21, 2025
ISLAMABAD: As people around the world struggled with several popular apps due to a massive outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday, users in Pakistan expressed frustration after another alleged ‘cable fault’ degraded internet speeds on certain internet service providers (ISPs) in Karachi and across the country. The widespread outage of Amazon’s cloud services unit took down many popular internet services, impacting streaming platforms, messaging services such as Reddit and Snapchat, and some banks and businesses. Also affected were Amazon’s Shopping, Prime Video service and Disney+, as well as Perplexity AI, the Fortnite game, Airbnb, Duolingo, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and trading app Robinhood. Mobile telephone services and messaging apps Signal and Whatsapp were also affected in Europe, according to Downdetector, a website monitoring internet problems. Some UK banks, such as Lloyd’s were also impacted, and pointed to Amazon Web Services (AWS) as the problem. After few hours of disruptions, sys... -
Dawn - 06:33 Oct 21, 2025
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) said on Tuesday that one new case of wild poliovirus had been confirmed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Torghar, taking the tally of cases for this year to 30. 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 case of poliovirus was detected in a 12-month-old boy from Ghari union council in Torghar, marking the second case in the district this year. “With this detection, the total number of polio cases in Pakistan in 2025 has reached 30 – including 19 from KP, nine from Sindh, and one each from Punjab and Gilgit-Baltistan,” it said. The statement added that during the month of September, the Pakistan Polio Programme collected 127 sewage samples across 87 districts in the cou... -
Dawn - 05:56 Oct 21, 2025
Japan got its first woman prime minister on Tuesday after Sanae Takaichi, a China hawk and social conservative, forged an 11th-hour coalition deal. Japan’s fifth premier in as many years will lead a minority government and has a full in-tray, not least a scheduled visit by US President Donald Trump next week. Parliament appointed Takaichi, an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, as prime minister on Tuesday, after she unexpectedly won a majority in a first round of voting. She will formally take office after meeting the emperor later. The former heavy metal drummer became on October 4 head of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has governed almost non-stop for decades but is losing support. Six days later the Komeito party, uncomfortable about Takaichi’s conservative views and an LDP slush fund scandal, quit their coalition. This forced Takaichi to form an alliance with the reformist, right-leaning Japan Innovation Party (JIP), which was signed on Monday evening. JIP wants to lower the consumption tax rate on ... -
Dawn - 04:37 Oct 21, 2025
PESHAWAR: Newly-elected Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mohammad Sohail Afridi on Monday said he believed in the supremacy of the law and would confront the Centre’s every unlawful and unconstitutional step. “A narrative is being built that I will go for confrontation with the federal government. Yes, I will, if anything is done by it against the Constitution. I will continue to speak for the supremacy of the Constitution,” he told a provincial assembly session chaired by Speaker Babar Saleem Swati here. The chief minister said that he wrote letters to the chief justice of Pakistan and federal and provincial governments and even petitioned the Islamabad High Court for ensuring his meeting with detained founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Imran Khan but to no avail. He said he would challenge the federal government over the continued denial of his meeting with Imran and would boycott meetings called by it. Informs assembly that there won’t be any political arrests under MPO in province Mr Afridi said ... -
Dawn - 04:27 Oct 21, 2025
RAWALPINDI: After receiving approval to restart flights to the United Kingdom, Pakistan is now preparing to resume direct air links with the United States, Aviation Minister Khawaja Asif said on Monday. Speaking to a private TV channel, Mr Asif indicated progress in discussions with American aviation authorities. “Hopefully, permission will be granted soon,” he said, adding that the government is working on meeting international standards and enhancing safety protocols, which could lead to expanded global routes. A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) spokesman highlighted the significance of US routes for PIA, emphasising the strong demand for non-stop flights from Pakistanis living in North America. National flag carrier, Etihad enter into codeshare agreement According to an aviation expert, a team from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had recently visited Pakistan to conduct a safety audit. A positive outcome from these audits could result in PIA achieving Category 1 status from the FAA,... -
Dawn - 03:26 Oct 21, 2025
DERA ISMAIL KHAN: At least eight alleged terrorists were gunned down by security forces in an operation on Monday, after a team from Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) came under attack near the Kot Lalu area in Daraban, Dera Ismail Khan. The action came in an apparent response to an attack on the SNGPL team, in which security forces reportedly also suffered casualties. However, there was no official word from Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) or other security agencies about their losses until going to press. Sources said the militants were killed after intelligence reports were received about their presence in a nearby jungle, prompting the security forces to launch an offensive in which eight suspects were gunned down. Following the action, the forces cordoned off the area and initiated wide-ranging search-and-clearance operations in the surrounding terrain. Reinforcements were dispatched to secure the site and to pursue the fleeing suspects. Two suspects killed in Swabi encounter; attack on B... -
Dawn - 02:31 Oct 21, 2025
• A Tando Adam ginner is found mixing cotton waste into high-grade lint • Stakeholders say malpractice has pushed textile mills towards costly imports, deepening financial woes • Investigators allege armed men assault PCGA team LAHORE: A startling case of large-scale cotton adulteration has surfaced in Sindh, where a ginning factory in Tando Adam was allegedly found mixing cotton waste into high-grade lint to produce what industry insiders are calling “burger cotton.” According to reports, a four-member monitoring team of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) — formed to curb such malpractice — raided the factory after receiving credible complaints. However, the operation turned violent when the factory owner allegedly summoned nearly a hundred armed men who assaulted and detained the visiting committee members for several hours on Sunday. The incident has sent shockwaves through the cotton ginning industry nationwide. In protest, an emergency meeting of the PCGA’s monitoring committee and Sindh-base... -
Dawn - 19:12 Oct 20, 2025
Fast bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi has been named the Pakistan men’s One-day International (ODI) team captain, the country’s cricket board announced on Monday. The national side’s pace spearhead will lead Pakistan in the upcoming three-match series against South Africa. Shaheen replaces Mohammad Rizwan as the Pakistan ODI skipper after the wicket-keeper led the team during a disastrous ICC Champions Trophy campaign before series losses in New Zealand and the West Indies. Rizwan, handed captaincy in 2024, had led the team to series wins in South Africa, Australia and Zimbabwe in his early days as captain, however. But the recent failures apparently were a decisive enough factor for the Pakistan Cricket Board to sack Rizwan. For Shaheen, it’s going to be a second stint as the Pakistan captain, the left-armer having been snubbed after a short spell — five T20Is against New Zealand — at the helm after replacing Babar Azam in late 2023 following Pakistan’s dismal World Cup campaign. The 25-year-old, who has been capt... -
Dawn - 18:34 Oct 20, 2025
Amazon’s cloud services unit AWS was struggling to recover on Monday from a widespread outage that knocked out thousands of websites along with some of the world’s most popular apps — Snapchat and Reddit — and disrupted businesses globally. The turmoil marked the largest internet disruption since last year’s CrowdStrike malfunction hobbled technology systems in hospitals, banks and airports, and highlights the vulnerability of the world’s interconnected technologies. After more than nine hours of disruptions, some applications were gradually coming back online as of 1pm ET (10pm PKT). But AWS acknowledged that elevated errors were still affecting several AWS services and that it was working on recovering connectivity. AWS was down for more than 9,300 users as of 1pm ET, according to outage tracking website Downdetector. That figure is higher than the earlier peak of about 5,800 reports at 3:48am ET (12:48pm PKT). Lambda, one of AWS’s computing services, was experiencing errors due to issues with an internal s...
5467 items