Pakistan

Court seeks explanation for posting Grade-19 officer over seniors

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Two return home, one referred to commission

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Friday rubbished and strongly condemned the contentious remarks made by government spokesperson Danyal Chaudhry regarding the role of Pakistani troops in the Gaza peace force, which also included the disarming of Hamas. Addressing the remarks by the federal parliamentary secretary for information and broadcasting in an interview on Geo News show ‘Naya Pakistan’, the defence minister said: “I will say God forbid on all these three remarks; what kind of statement has he given. Nothing from this is our target or suits us.” In an interview on Tuesday on Ary News show ‘11th Hour’, Chaudhry had said regarding the mandate of the Gaza peace force: “Pakistan and the other countries that will be chosen will make sure there is no extremism or violence … or that there is no cross-border attack. Pakistan will enforce that.” Chaudhry also said that the security of any Pakistani soldier deputed for duty in the force would be the utmost priority. “We will fulfil our duty and protect Muslim br...

The Punjab government is facing criticism and allegations of data manipulation after climate analysts and social media users accused the Environment Protection & Climate Change Department (EPCCD) of deliberately shutting down air quality monitoring stations in Lahore during peak pollution hours. The controversy erupted when climate and public policy analyst Dawar Hameed Butt posted a series of tweets on X, alleging that the EPCCD had turned off several monitoring stations, particularly those in the more polluted northern and eastern parts of the city. “EPCCD Punjab has turned off Monitoring Stations in Lahore,” Butt tweeted. “The ones left on are still ‘Beyond Index’. These are PAS officers, PhDs and ‘educated’ staff, and they think closing their eyes will solve the problem. Absolute failure unfolding now.” He supported his claims with screenshots from the official government website, aqipunjab.com, which showed that data from multiple stations had not been updated for hours, still displaying readings from Oc...

A Lahore court on Friday extended the physical remand of six National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) officials by another three days in a case pertaining to the alleged misuse of authority, extortion of money, and acceptance of bribes. The first information report (FIR) of the case was registered with the FIA Anti-Corruption Circle Lahore on the complaint of Aroob Jatoi, the wife of YouTuber Saadur Rehman alias Ducky Bhai, who has been arrested in a case pertaining to promoting gambling apps on social media. The FIR was registered against a total of nine individuals, including eight NCCIA officials. Among them, the six remanded in the FIA custody were said to be missing for several days before the FIA announced their arrest on Monday. Lahore NCCIA’s Additional Director Sarfraz Chaudhry, Lahore NCCIA Deputy Director (acting in-charge) Zawar Ahmad, Lahore NCCIA Sub-Inspector Ali Raza, Lahore NCCIA Assistant Director Shoaib Riaz, Lahore NCCIA Sub-Inspector Yasir Ramzan and Lahore NCCIA Assistant Direct...

Call for setting 18 years as minimum legal age of marriage for both girls and boys

Locals accuse NHA of gross negligence; say repeated complaints went unanswered

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Five seats being contested by 15 candidates, making race closely watched

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Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi on Friday said that the Afghan Taliban government in Kabul had acknowledged the presence of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other terrorist organisations in its territory. The talks were scheduled as Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to continue a ceasefire between the two countries and following a rapid deterioration of ties and a brief conflict along their shared border earlier this month. The agreement capped five days of a second round of tense negotiations — with the first one held in Doha on October 18 and 19 — in Istanbul mediated by Turkiye and Qatar. The round, which had begun on Saturday, had reached a point of near-collapse on Wednesday, with Islamabad saying that its long-standing concern over terror attacks emanating from Afghanistan remained a major point of contention. But a breakthrough in the stalemate came after Turkiye and Qatar salvaged the dialogue process for the second time in less than a week. Fielding questions after delivering ...

Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) leadership cadre from South Punjab on Friday announced their disassociation from the proscribed religiopolitical party in the wake of the ban imposed on the group for violence and rioting. The interior ministry notified the ban on the TLP last week, saying that the federal government had “reasonable grounds” to believe the religiopolitical party was connected to terrorism. “The Pakistan Army is under threat from the East and the West,” said one leader. “TLP, the party which we were part of, gave calls for marches and protests because of which our state and army had to deal with an internal war along with foreign threats.” Referring to Pakistan’s brief but intense military escalation with India in May, he said calls for protest by TLP during that time also worked in the enemy’s favour. Elaborating further, he said the party is systematically benefiting the enemies of the country, which is why “we’ve decided to separate ourselves from TLP.” He added that terrorists from the ba...

Fighters riding camels rounded up a couple of hundred men near the Sudanese city of al-Fasher at the weekend and brought them to a reservoir, shouting racial slurs before starting to shoot, according to a man who said he was among them. One of the captors recognised him from his school days and let him flee, the man, Alkheir Ismail, said in a video interview conducted by a local journalist known to Reuters in the nearby town of Tawila in the country’s western Darfur region. “He told them, ‘Don’t kill him,’” Ismail said. “Even after they killed everyone else — my friends and everyone else.” He said he had been bringing food to relatives still in the city when it was captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Sunday — and, like the other detainees, was unarmed. Reuters could not immediately verify his account due to the conflict but has verified earlier material obtained from the journalist. Alkheir Ismail, one of displaced Sudanese who gather and sit in makeshift tents after fleeing Al-Fasher c...

PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday said PPP remained committed to resolving the political turmoil in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), reflecting on the party’s “reputation for finding solutions.” The PPP chairman’s remarks come amidst the party preparing to move a no-confidence motion against the current AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar-ul-Haq, after the PPP’s ranks in the 53-member AJK legislative Assembly swelled to 27 after ten — all elected on PTI tickets in the July 2021 general elections — from the forward bloc joined the party on Sunday. Speaking to the media in Islamabad today, Bilawal said that his party “was in a position to form a government in Kashmir, being a majority,” while reaffirming that the party remained committed to “resolving the issues of Kashmir and honouring the hopes and dreams of its people.” “Whatever the issues are, PPP has a reputation for finding political solutions,” Bilawal asserted. The PPP Chairman acknowledged that the current legislative assembly, until the electi...

The Israeli military attacked the Gaza Strip for a fourth day on Friday, killing three people, Palestinian health authorities said, in another test of a fragile ceasefire agreement. Residents reported Israeli shelling and gunfire in northern Gaza on Friday, as Israel continued to bombard areas of the enclave despite saying that it remains committed to a ceasefire brokered by United States President Donald Trump. The Israeli military did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment. Another Palestinian died of wounds sustained from previous Israeli shelling, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported. The US-brokered ceasefire, which left thorny issues like the disarmament of Hamas and a timeline for Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip unresolved, has been tested by periodic outbreaks of violence since it came into place three weeks ago. Between Tuesday and Wednesday, Israel retaliated for the death of an Israeli soldier with bombardments that Gaza health authorities said killed 104 people. More bo...

A 13-member provincial cabinet picked by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi took the oath of office on Friday in Peshawar. According to a statement from the KP government, the cabinet’s swearing-in ceremony took place at the Governor’s House in Peshawar. “KP Governor Faisal Karim Kundi administered the oath,” the statement said. “Those sworn in as provincial ministers included Meena Khan Afridi, Arshad Ayub Khan, Amjad Ali, Aftab Alam Afridi, Fazal Shakoor Khan, Khaleequr Rehman, Riaz Khan, Syed Fakhar Jehan, Aqibullah Khan and Faisal Khan Tarakai. “KP Governor Kundi congratulated the newly sworn-in provincial ministers and expressed his best wishes to them,” it added. According to an earlier summary sent to the KP governor by the provincial government, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, CM Afridi had selected his cabinet members, while also picking Muzammil Aslam and Taj Muhammad as advisers, and Shafi Jan as a special assistant. The PTI’s KP chapter had also confirmed the names in a po...

The Federal Investigation Agency has withdrawn a corruption case filed against former Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) chairman Shabbar Zaidi, it emerged on Friday. On Thursday, the FIA booked him over allegations of issuing unauthorised income tax refunds amounting to Rs16 billion during his tenure as FBR chairman. Sources said the FIA’s Anti-Corruption Circle had accused Zaidi of criminal misconduct, abuse of authority, and unauthorised disbursement of public funds. According to the FIA, three private banks, two cement factories, and one chemical company were the beneficiaries of these refunds. The agency alleged that these entities were clients of Zaidi’s private audit and consultancy firm prior to his appointment as FBR chairman, raising concerns of conflict of interest. However, a notification issued by the agency’s Karachi division on Thursday said: “The Director, FIA Karachi Zone, has been pleased to accord permission for cancellation of case FIR No. 32/2025 dated 29.10.2025 … as well as classification o...

The Sindh High Court (SHC) court on Friday ordered a committee formed by the Sindh chief minister to visit the Karachi Zoo on November 2 and prepare a report on the condition of the animals there, including Rano, the brown bear. The case of Rano, a female Himalayan brown bear who stirred public outcry over her ailing health in the zoo, has brought into sharp focus the neglect of animals kept in captivity in Karachi. She will be relocated to a bear rehabilitation centre under the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board, before being moved to Gilgit-Baltistan on the SHC’s directives. In a previous order dated October 17 — available with Dawn.com — SHC Justice Iqbal Kalhoro ordered the committee to visit the Karachi Zoo in the company of petitioner Jude Allen Pereira, Dr Nazeer Hussain Kalhoro from the Sindh Institute of Animal Health, Advocate Jibran Nasir and wildlife photographer Zafeer Ahmed Shaikh and prepare a detailed report highlighting the “number of animals, their physical and mental condition and the circ...