Monday | Pakistan

Internet service provider Stormfiber on Friday said that its internet services will be fully restored by Monday following disruptions over the past week across the country. On October 20, internet users in Pakistan complained of service degradation and slow browsing speeds on certain ISPs, which was once again attributed to a fault in the submarine cable. There was no statement or acknowledgment from the ISPs in question, the IT ministry, or the regulator, Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA). When approached for comment, IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja attributed it to the global shutdown of Amazon cloud services. However, many internet users claimed they had been informed by their ISP that services were suffering due to cable damage. In a statement issued today, the company said, “We expect to fully recover the lost capacity within 72 hours (by 11:59pm on Monday, 27 October 2025),” adding that it had “immediately restored over 60 per cent of the affected capacity by procuring and activating addition...

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench on Friday adjourned the hearing of the super tax case till Monday, October 20, after the counsel representing tobacco companies con-cluded his arguments.

A session of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was summoned for October 13 to elect the next chief minister, as Governor Faisal Karim Kundi confirmed the receipt of Ali Amin Gandapur’s resignation from the top provincial slot on Saturday. KPA Speaker Babar Saleem Swati posted the schedule for Monday’s session on his X account. It said the election for the next chief minister would be held on the date. On Wednesday, Gandapur said that he resigned from his role as the provincial chief executive, while the party’s general secretary, Salman Akram Raja, confirmed that party founder Imran Khan directed Sohail Afridi to assume the CM’s role. However, his resignation letter, which was shared with the media the previous night, had apparently gotten lost in red tape, with the Governor’s house denying having ever received it. “Today at 2:30 pm, the handwritten resignation advice of the CM Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was duly received and acknowledged by Governor House,” Kundi posted on X earlier today. “After thorough scrutiny and...

President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned the 20th session of the National Assembly to be held on Monday at 5:00 pm in Parliament House.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department has forecast another spell of monsoon rains accompanied by wind and thundershowers across the country starting from Monday.

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he had signed 12 trade letters to be sent out next week ahead of an impending deadline for his tariffs to take effect. “I signed some letters and they’ll go out on Monday, probably 12,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that the countries to which the letters would be sent will be announced on the same day. His comments come days before steeper duties — which the president said on Thursday would range between 10 and 70 per cent — are set to take effect on dozens of economies, from Taiwan to the European Union. The tariffs were part of a broader announcement in April where Trump imposed a 10pc duty on goods from almost all trading partners, with a plan to step up these rates for a select group within days. But he swiftly paused the hikes until July 9, allowing for trade talks to take place. With less than a week to go before July 9, Pakistan and the United States concluded a critical round of trade negotiations yesterday, reaching an understanding o...

At least 18 people have died since Monday as torrential rains lashed parts of India’s western Gujarat, state officials said. Disaster response teams have been deployed to help residents in the south of the state, who are bracing for more heavy monsoon rainfall. “Eighteen people have lost their lives in rain-related incidents, while dozens have been rescued across low-lying areas by disaster response teams,” the state government said late on Tuesday. The worst-hit areas included Palitana and Jesar towns, which on Tuesday registered 867 millimetres of rain over the past 24 hours. State relief commissioner Alok Kumar Pandey said the 18 deaths were the result of storms, lightning strikes and structural collapses due to rough weather. “The state is fully geared to handle the situation, and inter-departmental coordination is being intensified to ensure swift relief and rescue operations,” Pandey said. Those rescued included 18 farm labourers who were trapped in mango orchards in the Gadhada area and 22 people in Su...

The Punjab government is set to unveil its budget for the fiscal year 2025-26 tomorrow (Monday), with a total outlay exceeding Rs5,300 billion.

ISTANBUL: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would speak to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday following talks between the two sides at which a Ukrainian official said Moscow’s negotiators voiced new demands before a ceasefire could be agreed. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies preparations were […]

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would speak to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday following talks between the two sides at which a Ukrainian official said Moscow’s negotiators voiced new demands before a ceasefire could be agreed. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies preparations were underway for a conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump. The talks in Turkiye on Friday were the first time the sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour. A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. Trump, writing on Truth Social, said he would speak with Putin to discuss stopping the war at 10am on Monday. “The subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5000 Russian and...