Pakistan

Pakistan has sent a demarche to India’s Chargé d’Affaires Geetika Srivastava and summoned her to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said on Wednesday that 26 innocent Pakistani civilians were martyred and 46 sustained injuries in Indian missile attacks on cities in Punjab and Azad Kashmir.

RAHIM YAR KHAN: Police on Tuesday arrested a schoolteacher for allegedly raping a number of schoolchildren in Nawankot town of Khanpur tehsil, some 65km from here. Reports said a resident of Mauza Syedpur of Liaqatpur tehsil approached the Khanpur Saddar police, alleging that his 14-year-old cousin (A) was raped by his teacher (Z) five to six months back who made a video of the act. The complainant said he along with his cousin and his two friends visited the suspect (Z) at Chak 195-NP, who confessed to committing the crime. He alleged that they found a number of explicit videos of other boys in the cell phone of the suspect. Police have registered a case under sections 376iii and 292 of Pakistan Penal Code and arrested the suspect. A cousin of the victim told this correspondent through cell phone that the private school had employed 23 female teachers and two male teachers, including the principal. He said due to the good strength of students, Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) took over the school under its ...

A meeting of the National Security Committee has begun at the Prime Minister’s House, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, after India’s cowardly aggression on Wednesday night.

KARACHI - Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians- PPPP’s Syed Waqar Mehdi won the by-election on the vacant general seat of the Senate from the province of Sindh held at the Sindh Assembly here on Tuesday.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan must urgently realign its development priorities with the global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Federal Minister for Climate Change Dr.

CM Punjab Maryam Nawaz Sharif strongly condemned the Indian aggression on Bahawalpur, calling it a blatant act of hostility and declaring that the people of Pakistan stand firmly with the armed forces.

• Inflows at Marala rise to 28,300 cusecs • Ex-Indus water commissioner says Delhi’s actions violate IWT, independent expert’s decision on Baglihar LAHORE: Flows in the River Chenab increased substantially on Tuesday — a day after they slowed to a trickle — after India ostensibly caved to international pressure over its illegal act of stopping river water from flowing to Pakistan. Following its unilateral suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty, New Delhi had severely cut flows in the Chenab, which slowed from 34,000 cusecs on Sunday to around 3,000 cusecs on Monday. The very next day, however, the situation improved, with inflows at Marala recorded at 28,300 cusecs on Tuesday. “The situation started improving on Tuesday with discharge of water by India from up to downstream. Hope it will improve more in coming days if there is no halt on part of India,” a senior official told Dawn. According to a report shared by the Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority, the inflows and outflows in Chenab at Marala w...

The Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has announced the reopening of airspace in Lahore and Karachi hours after India launched attacks in different cities of Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: The National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC) will meet on May 26 to develop a policy aimed at creating an institutional response to the emotive and chronic issue of enforced disappearances in the country, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi said on Tuesday. “I have engaged the government on the subject, the response of which is still awaited but when received will be placed before the chief justices of the high courts during the NJPMC meeting along with suggestions from the lawyers community as well as the response of the intelligence agencies,” CJP Afridi said during an interaction with members of the Press Association of the Supreme Court (PAS) at the Supreme Court Building. The CJP said the purpose is “to resolve the missing persons issue and to deal with the future cases by the high courts,” adding “there should be a closure of this issue for all times to come.” He assured the media he was open to suggestions from journalists and said the missing persons issue will always be t...

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday issued notices to respondents, including the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), during a hearing on review petitions filed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), challenging an earlier verdict that awarded reserved seats to PTI-backed.

ISLAMABAD - Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari yesterday said that the Pakistani nation was born to struggle and does not fear from achieving this goal.

• Official says livestream stopped due to prevailing India-Pakistan tensions • Omar Ayub complains to speaker about his speeches being censored • Ayaz Sadiq asserts his right to expunge remarks ‘in the House and in chambers’ ISLAMABAD: National Assembly pro­­ceedings were not broadcast live on its official social media platforms for a second consecutive day, on Tuesday, as the House continued a discussion on tensions with India following the Pahalgam attack. But when Leader of the Opposition Omar Ayub Khan raised the issue of his speech being censored, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq asserted his authority, saying he had the right to expunge anything deemed “against national interest”. The proceedings were not live-stre­amed on the NA’s official YouTube and Facebook channels, while PTV aired speeches from the treasury benches only. When contacted for comment, a senior National Assembly Secretariat official said that live-streaming of parliamentary proceedings had been stopped on social media in view of the sensitivity of ...

ISLAMABAD - Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman yesterday said that India was creating a regional crisis by threatening war.

ISLAMABAD - Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afrid Tuesday said that the 26th Amendment had introduced changes in the powers of the chief justice that should be respected.

• Revised cause list excludes Justices Ayesha Malik, Aqeel Abbasi, strength of bench reduced to 11 members • Both judges question ECP’s legal grounds for seeking review • Counsel argues July 12 verdict granted relief to a ‘non-party’ • Constitutional Bench issues notices to respondents, seeks commission’s reply to PTI’s contempt petition ISLAMABAD: In a move that left at least two judges visibly bewildered, the 13-judge Constitutional Bench (CB) of the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notices to the respondents on petitions seeking to revisit the July 12, 2024, verdict that allocated reserved seats to the PTI. However, Justice Ayesha A. Malik and Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi insisted that the presiding judge, Justice Aminuddin Khan, formally record their opposition to issuance of notices to the respondents, as they had dismissed the review petitions outright — which had been filed by the PML-N, PPP and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), The two judges indicated that they would later provide separate reas...

ISLAMABAD - The District and Sessions Court of Islamabad on Tuesday adjourned the indictment of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur in an audio leak case, while maintaining his arrest warrant due to his continued absence.

In the wake of India’s missile attacks on multiple cities in Pakistan, the Punjab Home Department convened an emergency meeting, chaired by Home Secretary Noorul Amin Mengal, to assess provincial security preparedness under the federal government's recently issued “War Book” guidelines.

TAXILA: A water crisis looms over the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad as the water level has decreased in Khanpur Dam and the available water may cater to the needs of its beneficiaries for only 35 days. Rocks and mounds have become visible in different parts of the reservoir, especially at the main storage site and the spillways, which speaks volume about the impacts of climatic changes and alarming water table reduction. If heavy rainfall does not occur within the next 10 to 15 days, the water level in the dam is expected to fall drastically to almost the dead level. The authorities said the catchment area of the dam, which included Margalla Hills and Galiyat, had not received enough rain, worsening the situation. The dam authorities feared that they would have to suspend water supply for irrigation purposes to the provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa besides curtailing drinking water supply to Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Officials say they would have to suspend supply for irrigation purposes be...

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader paid rich tribute to the centuries-old brotherhood between Pakistan and Turkiye and remembered Abdul Rehman Peshawar – a freedom fighter as a symbol of brotherhood.