Pakistan

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has predicted that the ongoing severe heatwave will persist throughout the week due to a dominant high-pressure system in the upper atmosphere.

LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Monday awarded a jail term to a member of a banned outfit on charges of learning to make bombs on Facebook. ATC-I Judge Manzer Ali Gill convicted the accused, Hannan Abdullah, after finding him guilty and sentenced him to two years and six months in prison. He also imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on the convict. The convict, who was on bail, was taken into custody from the court after the announcement of the guilty verdict. The judge handed over the custody of the convict to Kot Lakhpat Jail officials. The FIA had registered a case against the convict in 2022. The prosecution said the convict was learning how to make bombs on Facebook. It said the convict also established contacts with terrorists and a banned outfit through Facebook. A prosecutor asked the court to convict the accused in light of the cogent evidence available on record. Published in Dawn, May 20th, 2025

India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has said that the United States had no role in mediating the ceasefire between New Delhi and Islamabad, according to Indian media reports on Tuesday. Misri’s statement comes despite US President Donald Trump taking credit multiple times for his administration’s role in the truce, which Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also thanked him for. New Delhi had accused Islamabad, without evidence, of orchestrating last month’s deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam. Pakistan had strongly denied the allegations and called for a neutral probe. As the situation turned into a military confrontation between the nuclear powers, it took American intervention for both sides to agree to a ceasefire. During a meeting yesterday of the parliamentary committee on external affairs, led by Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor, Misri claimed that the offer for a ceasefire came from Pakistan and that no other country was involved in the negotiations, Hindustan Times reported, citing a “senior law...

Dark finger-like slope streaks extending across the dusty Martian surface in a region called Arabia Terra are seen in this NASA satellite photograph released on May 19, 2025. — NASA/Handout via Reuters WASHINGTON: Images taken of Mars from orbit dating back as far as the 1970s have captured curious dark streaks running down the sides of cliffs and crater walls that some scientists have construed as possible evidence of flows of liquid water, suggesting that the planet harbors environments suitable for living organisms. A new study casts doubt on that interpretation. Examining about 500,000 of these sinewy features spotted in satellite images, the researchers concluded they were created probably through dry processes that left the superficial appearance of liquid flows, underscoring the view of Mars as a desert planet currently inhospitable to life — at least on its surface. The data indicated that formation of these streaks is driven by the accumulation of fine-grain dust from the Martian atmosphere on sloped...

RAWALPINDI - Security Forces killed nine Khwarij belonging to Indian Proxy, Fitna Al Khwarij in multiple engagements in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province on May 17 and 18.

Shehbaz Sharif praises Pak Navy’s critical role in safeguarding sea lines of communication Visits navy dockyard, pays tribute to Pak Navy for its role in Operation Bunyanum Marsoos.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson says ready to work with Pakistan to advance bilateral ties Ishaq Dar says China, Pakistan enjoy an iron-clad close relationship.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday rubbished Indian propaganda that Shaheen missiles were used in the Operation Bunyanun Marsoos (BM).

ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) has forecast that a severe heatwave is expected to continue across the country during the current week due to the presence of a high-pressure system in the upper atmosphere.

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court’s constitutional bench on Monday adjourned the hearing of super tax case until May 22, following conclusion of arguments by counsel for Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

ALI Khan Mahmudabad NEW DELHI: The arrest of Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad on Sunday under charges that point to sedition and for hurting religious sentiments for his comments on operation Sindoor has been criticised by opposition parties who said the move shows how “fearful” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is of critique, The Wire said on Monday. Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra said that if an eminent scholar like Mahmudabad can be arrested “on Mickey Mouse charges & jailed then it is only because of his name.” Ms Moitra also re-shared Mahuma­dabad’s post and said that nothing in it “is remotely offensive, let alone seditious”. Prof Ali Khan Mahmudabad has noted in his social media post that while rightwing Indians rejoiced at Col Sofiya Qureshi’s briefings about operation Sindoor, they were insensitive to the lynchings and bulldosing of homes of Muslims in India. Says move shows how ‘fearful’ BJP is of criticism The opposition also said that in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s India, “hate mongers” ...

ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday quashed the sentence of an official of Capital Police in a case pertaining to passing the classified information to a foreign diplomat.

ISLAMABAD - The Judicial Commission of Pakistan has unanimously nominated Muhammad Ejaz Swati as the Chief Justice of the High Court of Baluchistan.

ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday issued notices to Adiala Jail authorities for allegedly failing to arrange a meeting between Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan.

Attock - Federal Minister for Railways Muhammad Hanif Abbasi during his visit to the city chaired a meeting about launching an anti-encroachment campaign on railways lands.

ISLAMABAD - A fire broke out once again in Islamabad’s Margalla Hills, prompting an emergency response from the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and district administration officials.

NORTH WAZI­RIS­TAN: Four children were killed and five others, including a woman, injured in a suspected quadcopter munitions drop in Mir Ali tehsil of North Waziristan district on Monday. Sources told Dawn that the drone strike took place in Hurmuz village during day time, leaving four children of the same family dead and five others, including a woman, injured. The incident caused panic in the area. Locals shifted the injured to the Mir Ali hospital. Sources said some of the injured were in critical condition. Both security forces and outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan are known to have been using quadcopters. Area people, including tribal elders, youth and children later took to the streets after the incident and staged a sit-in at Mir Ali Chowk against the suspected quadcopter strikes. Some of them also carried placards inscribed with slogans against drone strikes. In a statement posted on social media, KP Minister for Relief Naik Muhammad Dawar condemned the attack and said the blood of innocent childre...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani officials on Monday suspected that India triggered false alarm about the use of Shaheen missile during the military hostilities earlier this month as a deliberate fabrication, timed to support its post-conflict diplomatic surge and international lobbying effort. By exploiting fears of nuclear escalation, they suspect, India sought to redirect attention from its own aggressive actions during Operation Sindoor and reinforce its narrative of moral and strategic superiority. The Indian action, therefore, highlighted the dangerous intersection of disinformation and nuclear signalling in a volatile region. The baseless narrative, the officials, who spoke on background, argued is part of India’s broader strategy to frame Pakistan as a reckless nuclear actor amid mounting international concern over South Asia’s security volatility. “The claim that Pakistan employed Shaheen-class ballistic missiles during the recent crisis appears rooted in a broader Indian — and now Western — effort to frame Isla...

• PM praises Navy for ensuring maritime sovereignty • Reiterates Pakistan will give strong response to India if truce violated; lauds Trump for taking up Kashmir dispute ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday visited Karachi to pay tribute to the Pakistan Navy, which successfully safeguarded the sea lines of communication and ensured absolute maritime sovereignty through a layered seaward defence. During the visit to Pakistan Naval Dockyard, the PM was briefed by officials on the Pakistan Navy’s strategic orientation, operational undertakings, and contributions during the recent conflict. He praised the navy for its preparedness and said it would have given a robust response to India if the neighbouring country had tried to attack Pakistan using its fleet. In his address, the prime minister said India’s aircraft carrier Vikrant retreated after sensing the preparedness of the Pakistan Navy. “Indian Navy’s (aircraft carrier) Vikrant had reached close to Pakistan by 400 nautical miles, but after suff...

WASHINGTON: Paki­stan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) opened high-level policy talks in Islamabad on Monday to discuss the upcoming federal budget for fiscal year 2025-26, officials said. The current round of discussions, which will continue till May 23, will help determine whether Pakistan’s proposed bud­get meets the fiscal and reform targets agreed with the IMF under the Exte­nded Fund Facility (EFF). An IMF delegation arrived earlier in Islamabad for the formal policy-level nego­t­­i­ations on budget final­isation, after last week technical discussions held via video link amid heig­htened tensions between India and Pakistan. The Islamabad talks focus on revenue targets, expenditure controls, and budgetary projections as Pakistan grapples with mounting fiscal and external financing pressures. An agreement between the IMF staff mission and the authorities on next year’s budgetary measures and macroeconomic framework would lead to the announcement of the federal budget on June 2. IMF staff have emp...