Pakistan

Hadi Ali Chattha, husband of rights activist and lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir, was arrested from outside the courtroom in Islamabad on Wednesday in a case related to controversial social media posts. Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Muhammad Afzal Majoka issued an arrest warrant for him at the hearing and adjourned the proceedings until tomorrow. Mazari also posted on X about the arrest, saying: “My husband, Hadi Ali, has been arrested because Judge Majoka is insistent on committing misconduct. Hadi appeared in court today and despite his appearance the … judge ordered his arrest.” Sharing a picture of the short order, she termed it “completely illegal” in a subsequent post, saying there was video evidence inside and outside the courtroom of Hadi being present. “Today case was fixed for framing of charge and prosecution evidence. Hadi Ali Chattha accused has intentionally not appeared in court. Hence, his bail bonds are forfeited and non-bailable warrant of arrest be issued against him” for t...

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif warned the Taliban regime on Wednesday that Islamabad would strike “deep into Afghanistan” if Afghan soil was used to launch terror attacks on Pakistan. In a pre-dawn announcement, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the latest round of talks between the two countries in Turkiye, which aimed to address cross-border terrorism emanating from Afghan soil, “failed to bring about any workable solution”. “We will conduct strikes, we definitely will,” Asif told reporters at Parliament House, when asked about the options available for Pakistan in case of cross-border attacks from Afghanistan. “If their territory is used and they violate our territory, then, if we need to go deep into Afghanistan to retaliate, we surely will,” he added. Earlier, when the second round of talks had begun between the two sides on Oct 25, Asif had warned that failure to reach an agreement would mean “open war”. Speaking about the recently collapsed talks today, Asif said, “Kabul was not sincere at any l...

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has returned to Islamabad following his official visit to Saudi Arabia, where he met with top Saudi leadership and attended the 9th Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh.

The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) has agreed to lend its support to the PTI in nominating Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party’s (PkMAP) Mehmood Khan Achakzai for the opposition leader’s slot in the National Assembly (NA). The development comes over a week after the PTI formally requested the appointment of Achakzai — whose party is also part of opposition alliance Tehreek Tahafuz Ain-e-Pakistan (TTAP) along with five other parties, including the PTI — as leader of the opposition in the NA. The position of the opposition leader in the lower house of Parliament has been vacant since the disqualification of PTI’s Omar Ayub Khan on August 5. On August 20, incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan named Achakzai for the post of NA Opposition Leader in the NA. According to a statement posted on JUI-F’s X account today, a PTI delegation visited Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s residence in Islamabad, “where the JUI-F agreed to support the nomination of Mehmood Khan Achakzai”. The PTI delegation included Asad Qaiser, PTI Khyber-Pakht...

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday hailed Iran and Pakistan as partners in maintaining regional peace and stability during a meeting with President Masoud Pezeshkian. Pakistan and Iran agreed in August that peace and prosperity in their border regions hinged on effectively combating terrorism. The nearly 900-kilometre border between the two countries has long faced security threats from proscribed groups, such as Jaish al-Adl and the Balochistan Liberation Army. Pakistan and Iran share close ties but persistent issues, including terrorism, smuggling, and mutual accusations of harbouring militants, have periodically strained relations. The interior minister is currently on a visit to Iran at a time of sustained tension with two of Pakistan’s neighbours, Iran and Afghanistan. A press release issued today said he met President Pezeshkian, with the two discussing bilateral and bilateral cooperation. “Iran and Pakistan are partners in regional peace and stability,” the press release quoted Naqvi as saying...

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has asserted that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) lacks the constitutional authority to disqualify any senator without a formal reference from the Senate Chairman.

Pakistan on Wednesday called for the immediate cessation of Gaza ceasefire violations by Israel after the latter’s strike on the Palestinian enclave killed more than 100 people. Gaza’s health ministry said at least 104 people were killed after Israel carried out air strikes on the Palestinian territory yesterday, accusing Hamas of violating the truce by killing a soldier, which the group denied. The renewed Israeli bombardment prompted strong condemnation from Pakistan, one of the eight Muslim countries that worked with the United States on President Donald Trump’s peace plan. “Pakistan strongly condemns the renewed attacks by the Israeli occupying forces in Gaza, which have reportedly resulted in civilian casualties,” the Foreign Office said in a statement. “These actions constitute a clear and flagrant violation of international law, as well as a breach of the recently concluded peace agreement,” the FO said, warning that such “aggressive measures by the Israeli occupation forces threaten to undermine the i...

Federal Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal and his Saudi counterpart Fahad Al-Jalajel held a discussion in Riyadh related to polio eradication from Pakistan, along with talks related to cooperation in the health sector and promotion of investment, the health ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. The meeting took place a day ago on the sidelines of the Ninth Edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII9) in Riyadh, where Kamal was part of a Pakistani delegation led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Islamabad and Riyadh share long-standing diplomatic ties and, in recent years, have sought to expand and strengthen their partnership by adding greater strategic depth through enhanced cooperation in defence, economy, and health. Pakistan is one of the last two countries in the world, alongside Afghanistan, where polio remains endemic. Despite global efforts to eradicate the virus, challenges such as security issues, vaccine hesitancy, and misinformation have slowed progress. “Both ministers held detailed d...

A constitutional bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to decide PTI leader Shibli Faraz’s appeal against his disqualification as a senator. Faraz, along with former National Assembly opposition leader Omar Ayub, first approached the PHC. However, it had decided to adjourn sine die (for indefinite period) the pleas, directing the petitioners to first surrender before the competent court. Later, the PTI leaders challenged the high court’s decision before the SC. Headed by Justice Aminuddin Khan, a five-member CB resumed proceedings on Shibli’s appeal, after Ayub had withdrawn his during the last hearing on Monday. The bench also included Justices Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Shakeel Ahmad. Faraz’s appeal challenges the PHC’s decision to indefinitely adjourn its hearings on his petition against the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notification de-seating him as the Senate opposition leader. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali ...

An Islamabad district and sessions court on Wednesday upheld a non-bailable arrest warrant issued for former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur around a week ago over his continued absence from the hearings of a 2016 arms and liquor case. Arrest warrants have been issued for Gandapur in the case multiple times over his non-appearance, including on October 5, 2024, September 4, 2024, July 19, 2025, Sept 10, 2025 and October 21, 2025. During today’s hearing, too, both Gandapur and his lawyer, Raja Zahoor-ul-Hassan, failed to appear in court. Subsequently, Judge Mubashir Hassan Chishti upheld the court’s previous order and directed the relevant authorities to arrest and present Gandapur in the court. The court adjourned the hearing till November 11. Arms and liquor case The case dates back to Oct 30, 2016, when Islamabad police said they had recovered five Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, six magazines, a bulletproof vest, alcohol and three tear gas shells from then-KP revenue minist...

Millions of supporters of Bangladesh’s Awami League will boycott next year’s national election, after the party was barred from contesting the polls, ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told Reuters on Wednesday from her exile in New Delhi. Hasina, 78, said she would not return to Bangladesh under any government formed after elections that exclude her party, and plans to remain in India, where she fled in August 2024 following a deadly student-led uprising. An interim government headed by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has governed Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster and has pledged to hold elections next February. “The ban on the Awami League is not only unjust, it is self-defeating,” Hasina said in emailed responses to Reuters. “The next government must have electoral legitimacy. Millions of people support the Awami League, so as things stand, they will not vote. You cannot disenfranchise millions of people if you want a political system that works.” Hopes Awami League will be allowed to contest Banglades...

United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday “nothing” would jeopardise the ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel carried out air strikes on the Palestinian territory accusing Hamas of violating the truce, which the group denied. Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli attacks had killed at least 50 people, including 22 children, and wounded around 200. “At least 50 killed, including 22 children and a number of women and children, as a result of the ongoing Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since last night,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, told AFP. Around 200 people were wounded “in a clear and flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement”, he said, calling the situation in Gaza “catastrophic and terrifying”. Trump defended Israel’s actions on Wednesday, saying it “should hit back” if Israeli soldiers were killed, but added that “nothing’s going to jeopardise” to truce. “They killed an Israeli soldier. So the Israelis hit back. And they should hit back,” Trump told reporters on Air Force...

The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved $250 million for a flagship adaptation programme aimed at building resilient water and agriculture systems for vulnerable communities in the glacier-dependent regions of Central Asia, the South Caucasus, and Pakistan, a press release issued on Wednesday said. Led by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the ‘Glaciers to Farms’ programme covers nine ADB developing member countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which all rely on glacier and snow-fed rivers for agriculture, domestic water, and electricity generation. The programme will focus on four glacier-fed river basins — the Naryn and Pyanj in Central Asia, the Kura in the South Caucasus, and the Swat in Pakistan — covering roughly 27m hectares, the ADB said in a press release. The handout added that the GCF approved its concessional funding for the programme at its 43rd board meeting on October 29. It said that around 13m people, incl...

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said early on Wednesday that the latest round of talks between Islamabad and Kabul in Istanbul “failed to bring about any workable solution”, adding that Pakistan would continue to take all possible measures to protect its citizens from terrorism. After days of fighting along the Pak-Afghan border and strikes by Islamabad on Gul Bahadur group camps in Afghanistan, the two countries had come together for a dialogue in Doha which had resulted in a temporary ceasefire, as well as a commitment to reconvene in Istanbul to work on mechanisms for lasting peace and stability between the two countries. Last week, the second round of talks between the two sides had begun in the Turkish capital. In a post on social media platform X early on Wednesday, the information minister said that Pakistan had repeatedly engaged with the Afghan Taliban regarding “persistent cross-border terrorism” by Indian-abetted Fitna-al-Khawarij and Indian proxy Fitna-al-Hindusta...

ISLAMABAD/RIYADH - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Tuesday agreed to launch a comprehensive Economic Cooperation Framework aimed at elevating Pakistan–Saudi Arabia relations into a new era of strategic economic.

AMERICAN technology giant Meta has introduced, or perhaps one should say, unleashed AI on speakers of the Urdu language. At a Monday event in Islamabad, the tech company said it was expanding its artificial intelligence language capabilities to better serve users in Pakistan who wished to interact with AI in Urdu. The announcement was both exciting and unsettling. “The introduction of Urdu for Meta AI is a milestone in making technology more inclusive and accessible for our people, ensuring that no one is left behind in our digital transformation,” the federal IT minister said on the occasion. While the intent should be appreciated, we must also worry whether there has been enough discourse in Urdu regarding the dangers and shortcomings of AI and how users must protect against them. There is no denying that AI models that are accessible in ordinary users’ mother tongues can open up whole new worlds of possibilities in a society like Pakistan, where social inequalities often limit who gets to benefit from mode...

Lender bases assessment on simulation data; Floods in Punjab deepen rural household losses

PM urges North-South synergy on tech

Istanbul talks collapse as Taliban remain intransigent

Politicking in overdrive as AJK PM's fate hangs by a thread