Pakistan

More than 2,650 electronic challans have been issued by the Karachi Traffic Police following the inauguration of the new e-ticketing system in the city. In June, the Sindh government decided that e-challans for traffic violations would be delivered to vehicle owners’ registered home addresses. Vehicles with unpaid fines would not be allowed to be sold or transferred. The decision came amid the port city witnessing a surge in traffic accidents, particularly involving dumpers and water tankers, that killed nearly 500 people and injured 4,879 in 2024, according to hospital data. The spate of deadly incidents triggered protests over citizens’ deaths, prompting the provincial government to ban heavy vehicles during daytime hours and require them to obtain fitness certificates. According to a press release by the Sindh police dated October 28, 1,535 challans have been issued for not wearing a seat belt, 507 challans for riding a motorcycle without a helmet, 419 for over speeding, 166 for running a red light, and 32...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Pakistan has learned from past mistakes and is now taking transformative steps for national progress.

American forces killed 14 people in strikes that destroyed four alleged drug-smuggling boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean, United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday, bringing the death toll from Washington’s anti-narcotics campaign to at least 57. The United States began carrying out the strikes — which experts say are illegal — in early September, and has now destroyed at least 14 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific. “A total of 14 narco-terrorists were killed during the three strikes, with one survivor. All strikes were in international waters with no US forces harmed,” Hegseth said in a post on X about strikes carried out the day before. “The four vessels were known by our intelligence apparatus, transiting along known narco-trafficking routes, and carrying narcotics,” he said. The Pentagon chief’s post included video of the strikes, the first of which targeted two stationary boats that appeared to be moored together, and the other two on vessels that were speeding across open water. Heg...

The information ministry on Tuesday rubbished what it said was a “completely fabricated” report about an alleged meeting of the Pakistani leadership with the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency and Israel’s Mossad that would see Pakistan sending troops to Gaza for a peace force. A cornerstone of the US-brokered Gaza Peace Agreement is the establishment of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF), composed mainly of troops from Muslim-majority countries. According to officials close to the discussions, an announcement is expected soon from the federal government regarding the decision. Officials familiar with the deliberations, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said discussions within the government and military establishment were at an “advanced stage”. According to them, the tone of internal consultations suggests that Islamabad is inclined to take part in the mission. Earlier today, Indian news outlet First Post reported that per CNN-News 18, top intelligence source...

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Experts discuss concerted pursuit of SDGs

November 15 deadline set for Lahore motorists

City's sanitation facilities crumble as theft, mismanagement, official apathy continue

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Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro on Tuesday recused himself from hearing the case challenging the eligibility of Justice Tariq Meh­mo­­od Jahangiri. A complaint pertaining to Justice Jahangiri’s allegedly fake law degree was submitted to the Supreme Judicial Council last year in July, while a petition challenging his appointment was filed in the IHC last year. The matter centres on a letter that began circulating last year on social media, purportedly from the University of Karachi’s (KU) controller of examinations, regarding the judge’s degree. Today, a two-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Soomro, took up a miscellaneous application filed by the Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) seeking to become a party in the matter. During the proceedings, Justice Soomro recused himself from hearing the case, following which the bench stood dissolved, and the hearing was adjourned without any further proceedings. His decision comes after a division bench hearing a wr...

An Indian national was charged with an assault on a flight travelling from Chicago to Germany, according to a press release issued by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday. The DoJ stated that Praneeth Kumar Usiripalli, 28, stabbed two teenagers with a metal fork and was arrested on October 25 after the flight was diverted to Boston. He was charged in the US District Court with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon with intent to do bodily harm. “According to the charging documents, on October 25, 2025, while on board Lufthansa flight 431 en route from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany, Usiripalli allegedly stabbed a 17-year-old male passenger (Minor A) in the shoulder area with a metal fork,” the statement read. “Usiripalli then allegedly stabbed a second 17-year-old male passenger (Minor B) in the back of the head with the same metal fork.” The DoJ said that when flight crew members attempted to subdue Usiripalli, he reportedly raised his hand, formed a gun with his fingers, put it in h...

A “rare lenticular cloud formation” observed over Quetta in the early hours of Tuesday left the public puzzled over the phenomenon and its origins. Citizens reported sighting the phenomenon around morning prayers from many parts of Balochistan and speculation was rife about the likely cause. Many social media accounts hinted that the cloud formation was the result of a missile test or a new technology tested by the military. In a post on X later in the day, the Pakistan Meteorological Department said the sight was a “lenticular cloud formation” which was observed early morning over Koh-i-Murdar region. “The cloud appeared before sunrise, persisted for approximately 20 minutes, and dissipated just prior to sunrise.” As per the United Kingdom’s Met Office, lenticular clouds are lens-shaped orographic wave clouds that are formed when the air is stable and winds blow across hills and mountains from the same or similar direction at different heights through the troposphere. “These strange, unnatural-looking clouds...

Reports were mounting on Tuesday of ethnically motivated atrocities in the western Sudanese city of El-Fasher since its capture by paramilitaries, with allies of the army accusing fighters of executing “more than 2,000” civilians. El-Fasher fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after more than 18 months of brutal siege warfare, giving the group control over every state capital in the vast Darfur region. Allies of the army, the Joint Forces, said on Tuesday that the RSF “committed heinous crimes against innocent civilians in the city of El-Fasher, where more than 2,000 unarmed citizens were executed and killed on October 26 and 27, most of them women, children and the elderly”. Local groups and international NGOs had warned that El-Fasher’s fall could trigger mass atrocities, fears that Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab said were coming true. The monitor, which relies on open source intelligence and satellite imagery, said the city “appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cle...

At least six suspects were killed in four separate encounters with the Crime Control Department (CCD) in different locations of Lahore late on Monday, the CCD said on Tuesday. Earlier this year, the Punjab government launched the CCD with a mandate to tackle organised crime, terrorism, and high-profile criminal gangs. Recently, the body has carried out a range of encounters. Officials have publicly praised the department for its successes, claiming it has “significantly reduced street crime and targeted major criminal figures.” As per a statement issued by the department’s spokesperson today, “CCD teams conducted four different encounters in Lahore’s Nishtar Colony, Green Town, Harbanspura, and Ring Road, where six suspects were killed.” In the first instance, in Nishtar Colony, the CCD team came under attack while they were out to arrest the suspects, the statement said. “An exchange of fire ensued, leaving two suspects dead by their associates’ fire,” the CCD said, adding that the “deceased had been involve...

Pakistan has tested multiple missile types over the last few years to increase its defence capabilities and also to ensure credible deterrence. The missiles range from ground-launched cruise missiles to medium-range ballistic missiles. Fatah 4 cruise missile On September 30, the Pakistan Army successfully conducted a training launch of a newly inducted, indigenously-produced Fatah-4 cruise missile at a range of 750 kilometres, the military’s media wing said. “Equipped with advanced avionics and state-of-the-art navigational aids, this weapon system is capable of evading [the] enemy’s missile defence system due to terrain-hugging features and engaging targets with high precision,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. An image of the newly inducted cruise missile Fatah-4. — Screengrab via X/@PTVNewsOfficial Fatah surface-to-surface missile On May 5, Pakistan conducted a successful training launch of a Fatah series surface-to-surface guided missile with a range of 120 kilometres, as pa...

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday launched the Economic Cooperation Framework, which is based on their shared economic interests and reaffirms their desire to strengthen trade and investment relations. The decision to launch the framework was taken during a Monday meeting between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the Ninth Edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII9) in Riyadh, according to a statement from the Foreign Office (FO). The FII9 convened global leaders, investors, policymakers, and innovators to explore the theme, ‘The Key to Prosperity: Unlocking New Frontiers of Growth’ and discuss key topics such as innovation, sustainability, economic inclusion, and geopolitical shifts. “As part of the framework, several strategic and high-impact projects will be discussed in the economic, trade, investment and development fields that will contribute to strengthening cooperation between the two governments, enhancing the pivotal role of the pr...

United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday again stated that seven aircraft were shot down during the brief military escalation between Pakistan and India in May. Addressing a dinner with business leaders during his trip to Japan, Trump claimed that a lot of the wars he stopped were because of his tariffs imposed on multiple countries, stating that he did “a great service to the world”. “If you look at India and Pakistan, they were going at it,” he said. “Seven brand-new, beautiful planes were shot down. “I said to [Indian] Prime Minister Modi and I said to the Prime Minister [Shehbaz Sharif], very nice man, a very good man and the Field Marshal [Asim Munir] over in Pakistan … I said, ‘look we’re not going to do any trade if you’re going to be fighting’,” Trump said. “We said ‘no, we’re not doing any deals if you’re going to fight’ and within 24 hours that was the end of that. It was amazing, actually,” he added. “I think trade is responsible for 70 per cent of the fact that we didn’t have wars.” The May...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Tuesday said that the Peshawar corps commander visited the CM Secretariat earlier to “congratulate” him. The CM shared this information while speaking to the media outside the Supreme Court, where he was also asked what the two had discussed during the meeting. “He came to congratulate me, and it was not an official [exchange]. The conversation was unofficial. And our stance is the same [everywhere], what we say inside is what we say outside,” Afridi replied. Responding to a follow-up question, he further explained that he was the chief executive of a province and even the inspector general of police and the chief secretary had visited his office. Similarly, he continued, “the corps commander will also come there, and the officers of all of our security institutions will also come. We will discuss matters pertaining to the province with them.” Apparently referring to security officials, he said they should visit the chief ministers and the prime minister’s of...