Pakistan

Hospitals discharge all dengue cases as campaign formally concludes

Survey aims to strengthen planning and public service delivery

Historic 1881 station revived under project to preserve Pakistan's railway heritage

.

Digital learning facility aims to support inmates' education

Ukraine and the US will soon meet in Switzerland to discuss Washington’s plan for ending the war with Russia, Kyiv said Saturday, as it seeks to fix the draft that heeds to some of Moscow’s hardline demands. US President Donald Trump gave Ukraine less than a week to approve the 28-point plan to end the nearly four-year conflict, which would see the invaded country ceding territory, cutting its army, and pledging to never join NATO. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s European allies, who were not included in drafting the agreement, said the plan requires “additional work” as they scrambled at the G20 summit in South Africa to come up with a counter-offer to Trump’s plan to beef up Kyiv’s positions. “In the coming days, consultations will take place with partners regarding the steps needed to end the war,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said, after he issued a decree stating Ukraine’s team for the talks, which will be led by his top aide, Andriy Yermak. “Our representatives know how to defend Ukraine’s national interests and w...

Former Pakistan Test captain Rashid Latif ended the saga he began after apologising on Saturday for fiery comments made against the Pakistan Cricket Board’s (PCB) policies, which he termed “an error of judgement”. Latif’s comments on surrogate advertising and removal of Mohammad Rizwan from ODI captaincy had prompted PCB to lodge a complaint against the former captain with the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), which summoned Latif to appear before an investigation officer at its Lahore office  on Nov 17. Later, Rashid had also moved the Islamabad High Court against the inquiry, terming it illegal and saying it was issued without lawful authority and was liable to be quashed. In a lengthy post on X today, Latif clarified that his “principal contention” was related to potential violations of the advisories issued by the Pakistani government. “At no point, whether inadvertently or deliberately, have I ever sought or intended to implicate any individual including players, board members, or other ...

PML-N leader and Senator Murtaza Javed Abbasi has been penalised for breaching the Election Commission’s code of conduct during the by-election campaign in Haripur.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) emir Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman has reaffirmed that the party’s movement will persist until meaningful transformation of the national system is achieved.

Security forces eliminated eight terrorists during a joint intelligence-based operation in the Bannu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) reported on Saturday.

Security forces killed eight terrorists during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, said a statement by the military’s media wing on Saturday. The IBO was conducted on November 21, according to a statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on the reported presence of khawarij belonging to Indian-proxy Fitna-al-Khawarij. Fitna-al-Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the “Indian-sponsored *khawarij”*, as per ISPR, “who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces, LEAs and target-killing of innocent civilians.” “The operation underscores the strengthened collaborative efforts between [LEAs] and security forces, who have significantly intensified intelligence-driven operations in the region,” said ISPR. “These meticulously coordinated and synchronised security measures are designed to constrict the ope...

Five sitting judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) have filed a petition challenging the transfer of their intra-court appeal (ICA) to the newly created Federal Constitutional Court (FCC).

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday said that a modern and efficient railway system serves as the backbone of any country’s economy and communication network.

Significant progress was reported on Saturday in the ongoing litigation over the transfer of judges, as five judges of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) filed a miscellaneous petition before the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) challenging the transfer of their intra-court appeal from the Supreme Court to the former. The application was filed by IHC’s Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, Justice Babar Sattar, Justice Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri. The case pertains to the transfer of three judges from other high courts to the federal capital. In June, the SC’s Constitutional Bench had declared that their transfers were not unconstitutional. Subsequently, the five IHC judges had challenged the decision and filed an intra-court appeal. However, the intra-court appeal in the case has now been fixed before the FCC, which was established under the 27th Amendment, on November 24. In the miscellaneous petition, the IHC judges asked the FCC to return the intra-court ap...

On a lush cricket ground outside Colombo, the sharp jingling of a ball cuts through the afternoon air. Every rattle is a pushback against the stigma of disability. Sri Lanka and India are co-hosting the first T20 World Cup for visually impaired women. The semi-finals are on Saturday between India and Australia and Pakistan and Nepal, followed by the final on Sunday. India manager Shika Shetty told AFP that the sport has transformed lives and helped change attitudes. “I think this (world cup) is one of the biggest opportunities for our visually impaired girls,” said Shetty, who is not blind. India captain T.C. Deepika recalled the disbelief she faced when she first picked up the bat. “People were saying, ‘How do they do it? They must be lying,’” she said in a video posted by the Cricket Association for the Blind in India. “(Later) they realised I can do something. People began to see that I have ability,” Deepika added. Playing by the ear While able-bodied cricket requires players to keep an eye on the ball at...

I have spent the past few weeks staring at what seem to be digital ghosts; they look human, speak the way we do, and cause anger and despair. But they are not real. They are machines wearing human skin. Something is shifting in Pakistan’s social media landscape. It is not merely a rumour. It is not the old cycle of misinformation. It feels darker. Artificial intelligence is reshaping reality frame by frame until the internet resembles a hall of mirrors. For me, it began on November 8, when an account called ‘PakVocals’ posted a video on X that claimed to show journalist Benazir Shah dancing in a nightclub. The caption was cruel. It tried to mock her by using derogatory comments against her professional credibility. At the time of writing this piece, that video had garnered more than half a million views. It did exactly what it was designed to do: turn a journalist into a target. Mission accomplished! To most viewers, the clip probably passed as real, but for me, something felt off. When the mask slips I opene...

After months of trading insults, US President Donald Trump and incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani smiled at each other, swapped compliments and pledged to collaborate on tackling crime and affordability in the nation’s biggest city at an unexpectedly friendly meeting at the White House on Friday. The political opposites, a Republican billionaire and a young democratic socialist, have clashed over everything from immigration to economic policy. But it was clear the two forged a rapport in their first encounter. Mamdani, a 34-year-old state lawmaker, stood by Trump’s desk as the 79-year-old president smiled up at him and patted him warmly on the arm, having only recently falsely caricatured Mamdani as an anti-Semitic communist, among other jibes. “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said after letting journalists and cameras into the Oval Office at the end of a private meeting with the mayor-elect. “We have one thing in common: We want this city of ours that we love to do very well...

Ten large Indian trade unions condemned the government’s rollout on Friday of new labour codes, the biggest such overhaul in decades, as a “deceptive fraud” against workers. The unions, aligned with parties opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanded in a statement late on Friday that the laws be withdrawn ahead of nationwide protests they plan to hold on November 26 (Wednesday). Modi’s government implemented the four labour codes, approved by parliament five years ago, as it seeks to simplify work rules, some dating to British colonial rule, and liberalise conditions for investment. It says the changes improve worker protections. While the new rules offer social security and minimum-wage benefits, they also allow companies to hire and fire workers more easily. Unions have strongly opposed the changes, organising multiple nationwide protests over the past five years. The Labour Ministry did not immediately respond on Saturday to a Reuters request for comment on the union demands. The government has held o...

The Ministry of Commerce has rescinded the suspension of Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) 760 of 2013, which governs the trade of precious metals, allowing for the import and export of gold, it emerged on Saturday. In May, the government had enacted the 60-day import and export ban on precious metals and gemstones to stabilise its foreign exchange reserves. The restriction was also linked to the military conflict with India as a potential strategy to limit the flow of precious metals via Dubai. In a fresh SRO2198 dated November 21, the Ministry of Commerce rescinded its May directives for the ban, thereby allowing the import and export of gold and other precious metals. The ministry further said the period of suspension so far under SRO760 was “accordingly condoned, thereby enabling exporters to avail the mandatory entitlement period of 120 days under the entrustment scheme”. The entrustment scheme provides a facility for the export of jewellery against imported gold supplied as a partial advance payment, by ...

Influential right-wing United States lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday that she is resigning from Congress, one week after former President Donald Trump withdrew his support for the Georgia Republican. Her last day in office will be Jan 5, 2026. In a video posted online, the 51-year-old congresswoman, elected in 2020, said she had “always been despised in Washington DC and never fit in”. Greene added she did not want her supporters and family to endure “a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the president we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms”. The resignation marks the clearest sign yet of a growing rift in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, which has been shaken by strong Democratic victories in this month’s off-year elections, including the leftist New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who met with Trump earlier on Friday. Greene’s break with Trump appeared linked to his flip-flop on releasing emails connected t...