Punjab | Pakistan

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz announced on Sunday a “long weekend” in the province, declaring a Basant holiday. “Punjab will enjoy a long weekend with Kashmir Day on February 5, a provincial Basant holiday on the 6th, followed by Saturday and Sunday. We hope people across Punjab take this time to relax, recharge, and make the most of the break,” she posted on X. The kite-flying festival was banned in 2007 in Punjab because of an increasing number of deaths and serious injuries caused by sharp strings, particularly to motorcyclists and pillion riders, as well as by celebratory gunfire. But now, a three-day Basant festival is set to kick off in Lahore from February 6, following the Punjab government’s decision to lift a ban on the historic event after 18 years, with strict regulations.

LODHRAN: A child was among four dead while another 28 were injured when a bus carrying wedding guests overturned after colliding with a truck in the Mandhali Mor area of Punjab’s Lodhran district on Sunday. According to a statement issued by Rescue 1122 Lodhran, a “high-speed coaster carrying members of a wedding procession overturned while crossing in front of an overloaded truck, killing four people on the spot”. It added that the deceased included two men, one woman and a child. Another 28 were injured, out of which 27 sustained “severe” injuries and were rushed to the Lodhran District Hospital, while another person was provided medical assistance on the spot, Rescue 1122 said. Separately, a statement by the office of Lodhran District Police Officer (DPO) Ali bin Tariq said he reached the site of the incident immediately after receiving an alert about it. “Reasons behind the accident are being determined, and legal action will be taken against those responsible,” DPO Tariq was quoted as saying. Last month,...

LAHORE: All civil, administrative and police postings and transfers in Punjab are now being made purely on merit, with no room for political influence by the ruling party’s lawmakers or others, Information Minister Azma Bokhari has said. In a conversation with Dawn, Ms Bokhari said Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had enforced strict adherence to professional standards, ensuring lawmakers from the ruling party had no influence over transfer and posting decisions. “Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has fully ensured that all postings and transfers in Punjab are made purely on merit, thus ending Sifarish [nepotism] culture,” Ms Bokhari said. “She ensured during her two-year tenure that not a single appointment, even that of an SHO, is made on someone’s reference. This thing was hardly witnessed in the past.” The “strict policy” has reportedly caused friction within the party. According to Ms Bokhari, some PML-N lawmakers, frustrated that the bureaucracy no longer obliged their requests, conveyed concerns to party h...

Pakistan’s weather authorities have issued an alert forecasting rain and snowfall across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and parts of Punjab from January 31 to February 3 due to a fresh western weather system.

Punjab will launch the National Polio Immunization Days (NIDs) campaign from Monday (February 2), aiming to vaccinate more than 17.

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday inaugurated the province’s first-ever flagship youth empowerment initiative, the Parwaz Card, aimed at providing financial assistance and employment opportunities to skilled youth across Punjab.

LAHORE: With the festival of Basant drawing closer, the Punjab government on Monday imposed a ban on the manufacturing and use of kites bearing images of any political party’s flag for 30 days. In the notification seen by Dawn, the Punjab Home Department notified the imposition of Section 144 prohibiting the purchase and use of kites bearing images of any person, holy scripture, religious place, country’s flag or that of a political party in an effort to “avoid any discrimination or disruption of public order”. The department said that it had been reported that to disrupt the festival, miscreants may use images of holy scripture, religious places and flags of countries and political parties. “Only plain, uni-coloured or multi-coloured kites (i.e. gudda or patang) shall be allowed during kite flying in the district of Lahore from February 6 to 8,” the department said. It asserted that the government had permitted kite flying solely for “recreation and festivity”, while banning “the manufacturing, trade, transp...

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Friday warned citizens against violating the rules set for Basant, which is set to be celebrated in Lahore from February 6 to 8. The festival is returning to Lahore after 18 years. The Punjab government has announced that there are no plans to celebrate Basant across the province and also notified a host of rules for the three-day festival. Addressing a meeting on preparations for Basant, which was broadcast live on television, the Punjab CM said, “Basant was an 800-year-old festival; it is not just a festival but a metaphor for renewal.” She said the festival was “our heritage” and celebrated around the world. “I want to give the good news to the people that for the first time, we are celebrating a government-sponsored and government-organised Basant from February 6 to 8,” she said. She regretted that due to negligence, the festival became associated with accidents. She said that she would give a detailed briefing to the people of Punjab on a plan for Basant in a few day...

ISLAMABAD - Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar on Tuesday informed the Senate that there was no restriction or ban on admissions of Baloch students in Punjab’s public sector universities.

The PTI has set up a three-member committee aimed at providing legal aid and welfare support to its members incarcerated in Punjab and their families. PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja has formally notified the committee, called the ‘PTI Punjab Legal and Welfare Committee’. Haider Majeed, Faiza Murad and Ali Ijaz Buttar have been named members of the committee. The notification states: “The PTI hereby announces the constitution of the PTI Punjab Legal and Welfare Committee for the support of party members who have been convicted or are currently incarcerated as well as for the welfare of their families. “All matters concerning the imprisonment, legal proceedings and welfare of PTI-affiliated prisoners and their families in the province of Punjab may be referred to any member of the committee,” it added. The committee will convene meetings as required and will remain in close coordination with the party leadership, it said. It further stated that it would keep the office of the secretary general fully in...

Dense fog blanketed several cities of Punjab on Sunday, sharply reducing visibility and disrupting road and air travel.

At least 24 people were killed and over 20 were injured in two separate accidents on Saturday, as a truck fell into a dry canal in Punjab’s Sargodha district and a coach overturned near Balochistan’s Ormara tehsil. In Sargodha, six children were among 14 dead, while nine others were injured in the early hours of Saturday when a truck carrying cargo and passengers fell into a canal from the Galapur Bangla bridge due to fog, said Rescue 1122. According to Punjab Rescue 1122 officials, the truck was travelling from Islamabad to Faisalabad with 23 people on board for a funeral when the unfortunate incident took place. “Due to heavy fog, the motorway was closed, so the vehicle took a local route. In the area of Kot Momin tehsil, the truck fell from the Galapur bridge into the canal,” said a statement from Rescue 1122, adding that the truck “lost control because of poor visibility”. The Rescue 1122 statement added that the canal was dry, but passengers were stuck beneath the truck when it overturned. The injured we...

Dense fog once again blanketed large parts of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on the night between Friday and Saturday, bringing routine life to a standstill and severely disrupting road traffic due to extremely low visibility.

Wheat prices have surged sharply over the past ten days across Punjab and Islamabad, triggering concerns over flour availability and rising costs for consumers.

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday said it had “taken a serious view” of the Punjab government’s failure to meet deadlines for tasks that would pave the way for the long-delayed local government (LG) polls in the province and decided to fix the matter for hearing. Sources told Dawn that according to the promised timelines, the Punjab Local Government (Delimitation of Union Councils) Rules, were to be finalised by October 27 last year. The input for the finalisation of the rules had been provided by the ECP but a notification by the relevant authorities was still awaited, the sources said. They said November 15, 2025 was the deadline for the provision of the Punjab Local Government (Conduct of Elections) Rules. The draft for the rules had been shared with the ECP by the provincial government and the former had given its input as well, but a notification was yet to be issued, the sources said. Likewise, the notification of Demarcation and Classification, showing the limits of loca...

In a significant move to combat child labour, the Punjab government has announced a plan to provide monthly financial assistance to parents of underage children, encouraging families to withdraw their children from work and send them back to school.

Dense fog in plain areas of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the night between Sunday and Monday forced the closure of several motorway sections after visibility dropped to dangerously low levels.

Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat on Saturday announced that the government decided to extend winter vacations in all public and private schools across the province till January 19, citing the extremely low temperatures expected in the coming days. The decision comes a day after Hayat rebuffed rumors and fake news on social media regarding the extension of holidays and maintained that schools would reopen on Jan 12. The education minister, however, created a poll on his X account, asking people if schools and colleges should reopen from Jan 12 or 19. The majority of the users voted for Jan 19. In the latest post today on X, Hayat wrote: “In view of the prolonged severe winter spell and the forecast of extremely low temperatures in the coming days, and on the advice of PDMA, the Government of Punjab has decided to extend winter vacations until January 19.” Meanwhile, in a separate notification, the Punjab Higher Education Department stated that winter vacations for higher educational institutions w...

Punjab Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat on Friday clarified that all schools and colleges across the province will reopen on January 12. The clarification comes after a reportedly fake notification circulated on social media claiming that winter vacations in Punjab had been extended from January 10 to 17. However, the education minister rebuffed claims of extending winter holidays, urging the public to “avoid fake news.” Earlier this week, he had also denied any extension of the winter holidays. Later in the evening, the education minister posted a poll on his X account, asking people about when schools and colleges in Punjab should reopen. The two options were January 12 and 19. Around 11:30pm on January 9, 82.5 per cent of users were in favour of January 19, while 17.5pc for January 12. Commenters seemed in favour of reopening institutions on the later date, due to the increasing cold in the province, while others noted that January 19 would be peak cold in Punjab. Another user questioned why the mini...

Heavy fog blanketed large parts of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the night between Thursday and Friday, forcing the authorities to close several sections of the motorway network as visibility dropped to dangerously low levels.