Dawn
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Dawn - 02:39 Jan 02, 2026
• FO says Islamabad advocating peace and diplomacy between allied Gulf states • Confirms Pakistan-India prisoner, nuclear list exchanges amid strained ties • Asks India to share details of Dulhasti-II project under Indus treaty ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Thursday that Pakistan was seeking a diplomatic resolution of the dispute between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over Yemen, underscoring Islamabad’s push for dialogue as tensions persisted between two of its closest Gulf partners. The comments, which were the most categorical since the start of the Saudi-UAE row about Pakistan’s role in defusing tensions, came during the weekly media briefing by FO spokesperson Tahir Andrabi, who said Islamabad was actively engaging both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to encourage restraint and diplomacy. “We have been advocating peace and diplomacy to reach a solution. So, this is part of our exchanges that is taking place between our leadership and the leadership in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi,” Mr Andrabi said. Tens... -
Dawn - 01:55 Jan 02, 2026
ISLAMABAD: Mismanagement at a musical concert organised as part of New Year celebrations at a private housing society turned violent when people were allegedly denied entry despite holding valid tickets. Police sources said tickets for the musical night were sold at Rs5,000 for families and Rs2,000 for individuals. However, tickets were allegedly sold beyond the venue’s capacity and adequate arrangements for spectators were not made. As a result, the area reserved for spectators became overcrowded. A large number of ticket-holders also gathered outside the venue in an attempt to gain entry. Security guards of the housing society stopped the gathering and did not allow them to enter the concert venue, prompting protests by the ticket-holders. It has yet to be established how the protest turned violent and which side took the first step in disrupting law and order. A police contingent was deployed at the venue for security and crowd control, but it reportedly remained a silent spectator until the situation wors... -
Dawn - 20:41 Jan 01, 2026
Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah on Thursday said that “confidence-building measures” between the five major players in the country would improve the political situation. The PTI earlier said that it will not engage in negotiations with the federal government. Party Information Secretary Sheikh Waqas Akram said the stance was taken following the instructions of party founder Imran Khan. “Two of them are my leaders, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Nawaz Sharif. The third is President Asif Ali Zardari, the fourth is [incarcerated PTI leader] Imran Khan, and everyone knows who the fifth is,” Sanaullah said while speaking on Geo News Capital Talk on Thursday. He said the efforts at the level of leaders like him and PTI’s chief whip in the National Assembly, Malik Amir Dogar, would continue, but until confidence among the top leaders is established, the political situation would not see a breakthrough. Sanaullah added that confidence-building measures would be possible only when socia... -
Dawn - 17:39 Jan 01, 2026
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday appointed Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) Chairman Tahir Mahmood Ashrafi as the Coordinator for Religious Harmony and for the Pakistani Diaspora in the Middle East and Muslim Countries. The PUC is a broad coalition of clerics from various Sunni schools of thought. Ashrafi, also a member of the Supreme Council of the Muslim World League and other Islamic organisations, has been given the appointment at a critical time, given the evolving situation in the Muslim world and the strategic importance of relations with the Gulf nations and other Islamic countries. Talking to Dawn, he said that under the new role, he will be responsible for strengthening coordination, enhancing mutual understanding and further improving Pakistan’s relations with Islamic and Arab states, mainly the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. “This is because I have maintained close and longstanding ties with leading Islamic scholars and senior leaders of the Arab and Muslim world,” Ashrafi said, ad... -
Dawn - 17:26 Jan 01, 2026
PTI leaders were once again denied a meeting with incarcerated party founder and former prime minister Imran Khan on Thursday, as party leaders lamented the restrictions and said the government should have “shown a big heart”. A court order issued by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on March 24 mandated that meetings with Imran will be permitted twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, the PTI maintains that the order is not being honoured. The party has staged sit-ins near the prison to demand a meeting with the party founder, with one earlier this week dispersed with water cannons. “I was hoping that, considering the offer of talks by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the first day of the new year, the government would allow us to meet PTI’s founding chairman,“ said Muhammad Jamal Khan, a member of the National Assembly (MNA) while talking to Dawn. “It could have been the first step towards creating national harmony and ending the tense political environment, but the government lost that chance.” On ... -
Dawn - 16:52 Jan 01, 2026
Dozens of people were killed and around 100 injured, most of them seriously, after fire tore through a crowded bar during a New Year’s Eve party in the upscale Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana, officials said on Thursday. Fire broke out at 1.30am in a bar called “Le Constellation” in the resort in southwestern Switzerland, which locals said was popular with teenagers. The cause of the blaze, which was initially reported as an explosion, remains unclear but authorities said it appeared to be an accident rather than an attack. Swiss police said “tens” of people were presumed dead, with around 100 injured, and the Italian foreign ministry said information from Swiss police indicated about 40 deaths. Swiss officials declined to give a specific figure. View this post on Instagram “There were people screaming, and then people lying on the ground, probably dead,” said 21-year-old local Samuel Rapp, who saw the aftermath of the fire. “They had jackets over their faces, thats what I saw, nothing more.” Ceiling caught... -
Dawn - 16:05 Jan 01, 2026
An explosion near Chenak Chowk in Balochistan’s Sibi district on Thursday killed one person and injured five others, according to a police official. Station House Officer (SHO) Ghulam Ali Abro, posted in Sibi, told Dawn that the incident was a grenade attack which occurred at 7:05pm. “One person expired and five others were injured,” the SHO said. “Security forces and Edhi ambulances arrived on the scene as soon as they received reports about the incident.” He further told reporters at the site of the attack that six injured people were transported to a hospital, with one of them succumbing to their injuries on the way. Meanwhile, Sibi region Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Barkat Khosa told Dawn that the injured were moved to the Teaching Hospital, while the body of the deceased was handed over to his heirs. “Police have tightened security in the area, and further investigation is underway,” DIG Khosa said. Last month, an eight-year-old child was killed and five other members of a family, including ... -
Dawn - 16:02 Jan 01, 2026
LAHORE: The Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) on Thursday suspended the practising licence of Advocate Mian Ali Ashfaq for representing TikToker Rajab Butt before a Karachi court despite a strike called by the local bar. The strike had been called in protest against the alleged victimisation of the Karachi Bar Association’s former librarian, Naseer Muhammad Kalhoro. During the strike, judicial proceedings were strictly prohibited within the city courts’ premises. According to an order issued by PbBC Executive Committee’s Chairman Zabiullah Nagra, the action was taken after receiving a letter from the president and general secretary of the Karachi Bar Association. The letter drew the council’s attention to a “video circulating on social media in which Advocate Ashfaq was seen appearing before the Karachi City Courts while representing TikToker Rajab Butt during an ongoing lawyers’ strike,” said Nagra. “It further observed that the advocate appeared before the courts despite the strike, allegedly accompanied by private... -
Dawn - 15:48 Jan 01, 2026
Days after concluding a three-day visit to Lahore to launch PTI’s street movement, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi announced on Thursday that he will visit Karachi on January 9. “Friday, January 9!” the chief minister said on social media platform X. “Karachi, Sindh, are you ready?” Afridi said he would be coming to Karachi “bearing Imran Khan’s message”, adding that he would be meeting “all friends of the party”. Afridi had previously announced that Karachi was his next destination for galvanising party supporters. During his visit to Lahore, the KP CM had attempted to deliver a speech to supporters at Liberty Chowk but was unable to do so as a heavy contingent of police had blocked all roads leading to the area by setting up pickets. He had also addressed PTI lawmakers at the Punjab Assembly, a visit that was marred by altercations between members of his entourage and security officials, while several heated exchanges between PTI leaders and journalists were also witnessed. He was also barre... -
Dawn - 15:19 Jan 01, 2026
Several people were reportedly killed during unrest in Iran on Thursday, an Iranian news agency and a rights group reported, as the biggest protests to hit the country for three years over soaring inflation sparked violence in several provinces. The semi-official Fars news agency cited a “source with knowledge” as saying several people were killed in clashes on Thursday morning between police and what it said were armed protesters in Lordegan in western Iran. The rights group, Hengaw, also reported deaths in Lordegan. Violence reported in several cities Thursday’s clashes in Lordegan, along with reported deaths of a security services member overnight and another protester on Wednesday, mark an escalation in the unrest since shopkeepers began protesting on Sunday. The Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday morning a member of its affiliated Basij volunteer paramilitary unit had been killed in the western city of Kuhdasht, naming him as Amirhossam Khodayari Fard. Thirteen other militiamen were wounded, it added.... -
Dawn - 14:10 Jan 01, 2026
Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) 2024–25 on Thursday revealed the surge of up to 57 per cent in the individual internet users in Pakistan as household internet access rate increased from 34pc to 70pc. HIES — a yearly survey — conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) is focused on social and economic conditions of the country to provide data for policy making at the national and provincial levels. The PBS released the results of HIES during a ceremony at the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Islamabad, today. “The PBS has successfully completed and released the results of the Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) 2024–25, marking a major milestone in Pakistan’s national data ecosystem,“ a statement from the Press Information Department (PID) said. It further said that “the survey provides comprehensive insights to review the social and economic conditions of the country and serves as a key tool for evidence-based planning and policymaking.” PID said that “H... -
Dawn - 12:26 Jan 01, 2026
Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said on Thursday that Islamabad and New Delhi exchanged the lists of their respective nuclear installations, continuing the annual practice under an agreement signed between the two nations in 1988. Under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities, signed on December 31, 1988, both countries committed to annually share information about their nuclear installations and facilities. The agreement took effect from Jan 27, 1991, and the annual exchange has been taking place on the first day of every year since 1992. In continuation of the practice, the exchange took place today as well, Andrabi said during the FO’s weekly briefing. “A list of nuclear installations and facilities in Pakistan was officially handed over to the representative of the Indian High Commission in the Foreign Office today. “I understand that the Indian government is also sharing the list of Indian nuclear installations with our High Commis... -
Dawn - 12:04 Jan 01, 2026
A total of 128 journalists were killed around the world in 2025, more than half of them in the Middle East, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said on Thursday. The grim toll, up from 2024, “is not just a statistic, it’s a global red alert for our colleagues,” IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger told AFP. The press group voiced particular alarm over the situation in the Palestinian territories, where it recorded 56 media professionals killed in 2025 as Israel’s war with Hamas ground on in Gaza. “We’ve never seen anything like this: so many deaths in such a short time, in such a small area,” Bellanger said. Journalists were also killed in Yemen, Ukraine, Sudan, Peru, India and elsewhere. Bellanger condemned what he called “impunity” for those behind the attacks. “Without justice, it allows the killers of journalists to thrive,” he warned. Meanwhile, the IFJ said that across the globe, 533 journalists were currently in prison – a figure that has more than doubled over the past half-decade. Ch... -
Dawn - 11:55 Jan 01, 2026
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday said 446 lawmakers — including 125 members of the National Assembly — failed to submit their statements of assets and liabilities with the ECP by the due date — set at December 31. In a press release issued today, ECP notified the lawmakers who had missed the earlier deadline to submit their statements by January 15, and said that “as many as 446 lawmakers failed to submit their statements of assets and liabilities” with the ECP by the due date. Out of these, 125 lawmakers are members of the National Assembly, 26 Senators, 159 members of the Punjab Assembly, 62 members of the Sindh Assembly, 48 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Assembly and 26 members of the Balochistan Assembly. The commission said that members of the parliament and provincial assemblies were required to submit a copy of a statement of assets and liabilities by Dec 31, including assets and liabilities of their dependents. It stated that the submission was a mandatory requirement unde... -
Dawn - 11:47 Jan 01, 2026
Pakistan’s consumer price inflation slowed to 5.6 per cent year-on-year in December, while prices fell every month, official data showed on Thursday. The data comes after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) cut its key policy rate by 50 basis points to 10.5pc last month, breaking a four-meeting hold, in a move that surprised markets. All analysts polled by Reuters had expected rates to remain unchanged at the December meeting. Inflation eased from 6.1pc in November and marked a sharp slowdown from levels that peaked above 30pc in 2023, according to official data. Lower prices of perishable food items helped drive the monthly decline, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said, with food prices falling 1.7pc month-on-month in December, led by declines in both urban and rural areas. The finance ministry had said on Wednesday that inflation was expected to remain moderate at 5.5-6.5pc in December. The SBP has said that inflation stayed within its 5-7pc target range during the July-November period, but warned that... -
Dawn - 11:27 Jan 01, 2026
ISLAMABAD: The PTI submitted a reference to the Senate chairperson on Thursday, seeking the disqualification of Senator Saifullah Abro for defecting from party line and voting in favour of the 27th Constitutional Amendment. PTI Senator Ali Zafar posted about the development on his X account, saying: “Saifullah Abro went against party line by voting in favour of the 27th Constitutional Amendment, for which a reference for his disqualification has been filed.” The reference, moved by Zafar, invoked Article 63-A of the Constitution, which deals with disqualification on grounds of defection. “The declaration is being submitted for onward reference to the chief election commissioner for laying the same before the election commission in accordance with the said Article 63-A,” the reference, dated January 1 and seen by Dawn, said. It added that a meeting of the PTI was convened before voting on the 27th Amendment, in which it was “explicitly decided and communicated to all PTI senators in writing” that they were to ... -
Dawn - 10:52 Jan 01, 2026
Every time I open my “For You” feed on Instagram, I’m ushered into a parallel classroom: informal, intimate, and oddly generous. Young girls and boys who look my age and live inside the same algorithmic present lean into their cameras, handing me bite-sized context to systemic injustices, climate disasters, and political upheavals. One tells me why women stay in abusive relationships long after the myth of “choice” collapses, unpacking trauma bonds and survival instincts with the precision of a psychology lecture delivered from a bedroom floor. Another explains the systematic oppression of women in Afghanistan and how bans on their work, movement, and education have collapsed into sanctioned violence, compressing years of repression into three lucid minutes of a GRWM (get ready with me) reel. I first learned the language of geopolitics and settler colonialism here as a lived, continuous process instead of an abstract academic concept. Someone casually recommended ‘Decolonisation is not a metaphor’ by Eve Tuck... -
Dawn - 08:14 Jan 01, 2026
KARACHI: At least 28 people were injured in celebratory aerial fire during New Year celebrations in the metropolis, Edhi said on Thursday. Incidents of aerial firing are a routine occurrence on occasions such as Independence Day and New Year’s Eve. Last year, over two dozen citizens were wounded in celebratory aerial firing According to the information given by Edhi, a total of 28 people were brought to hospitals across the city after suffering injuries from stray bullets, with the youngest victim being 11-years-old. Sixteen people were brought to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), including a 32-year-old man from North Nazimabad, a 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old man from Mehmoodabad, a 24-year-old woman from Qayyumabad, and a 71-year-old man from Manzoor Colony. An 18-year-old man from Korangi, a 24-year-old man from Azam Town, a 55-year-old man and an 18-year-old man from Saddar were also brought to the hospital. A 33-year-old woman from Gulistan-i-Johar Block 2, a 43-year-old woman from Scheme ... -
Dawn - 07:51 Jan 01, 2026
Zohran Mamdani, the young upstart of the US left, was sworn in early on Thursday to take over as New York mayor for a four-year term sure to see him cross swords with US President Donald Trump. The 34-year-old Democrat took his oath of office at an abandoned subway stop under City Hall just after midnight to take the helm of the United States’ largest city. He will be New York’s first Muslim mayor. His office said the understated venue beneath City Hall reflected his commitment to working people, after the 34-year-old Democrat campaigned on promises to address the soaring cost of living. NBC News reported that Mamdani took the oath with his hands on two copies of the Holy Quran — one belonging to his grandfather and the other from the New York Public Library’s Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture. View this post on Instagram “Happy New Year to New Yorkers, both inside this tunnel and above,” said Mamdani, standing beneath a vaulted ceiling with the words City Hall over his head. “This is truly an ho... -
Dawn - 07:45 Jan 01, 2026
In his New Year’s message, Supreme Court Chief Justice Yahya Afridi has said that the judiciary will “pursue meaningful reforms” in 2026 in a bid to improve accessibility, reduce delay and strengthen transparency in the justice system. In a message posted on the Supreme Court’s website, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Afridi conveyed his greetings to the people, members of the judiciary and the legal fraternity on the new year. “In the coming year, the judiciary will pursue meaningful reforms aimed at improving accessibility, reducing delay, strengthening transparency, and responsibly leveraging technology in the service of justice,” he said. He said that the efforts would be guided by “a clear focus on outcomes that matter most to the public — timely decisions, understandable processes, and courts that are approachable and humane”. CJP Afridi maintained that it was the judiciary’s responsibility to “ensure that justice is not only done, but is seen to be done — fairly, impartially, and without delay“. “This ...
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