Pakistan

In a major development, the Prime Minister’s Youth Programme (PMYP) and Destinations, a pioneering digital tourism platform, have joined forces to unlock new opportunities for young people in Pakistan’s tourism and creator economies.

Sindh Information and Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on Thursday said that more than 94,000 people have been evacuated from katcha areas as part of precautionary measures ahead of anticipated flooding.

Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Sahir Shamshad Mirza met Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan bin Ali Al Thani, as well as Qatar Armed Forces Chief of Staff Lt Gen (Pilot) Jassim Mohammad Ahmed Al-Mannal, during his official visit to the Gulf.

In a bid to curb rising incidents of human trafficking, Pakistan has decided to establish additional Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Immigration Wing link offices in six countries.

The Sukkur Barrage control room on Thursday warned that the water level at Guddu Barrage is expected to surge to 600,000 cusecs, raising fears of exceptionally high flooding in the Sutlej River.

A trophy hunting permit for Pakistan’s national animal, the Markhor, was auctioned for a record-breaking Rs100 million (approximately $370,000) in Gilgit-Baltistan under the region’s annual Trophy Hunting Program.

President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday appreciated the leadership of Muhammad Khalid Awan, President PPP USA, and his team for their dedicated efforts in strengthening the Party’s presence across the United States of America.

Pakistan and China on Thursday, expressing satisfaction over the positive trajectory of their relations, agreed to continue working closely on the next phase of upgraded China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC 2.

Neeraj Chopra does not usually worry about distance as long as he gets on the podium but the poster boy of Indian athletics knows he may have to throw beyond the 90 metres mark if he is to defend his javelin world title in Tokyo this month. A mop-haired Chopra became India’s first track-and-field athlete to win Olympic gold in the Japanese capital four years ago, and has since added a Diamond League trophy, world championships gold and a silver medal at the 2024 Paris Games. In November last year, the 27-year-old brought in three-time Olympic champion Jan Zelezny as his coach in a bid to throw even farther. Six months into the partnership, Chopra registered a personal best of 90.23m in Doha earlier this year. But the Indian has fallen well short of 90m in his last five outings and threw a modest 85.01m in the Diamond League Final in Zurich last week, finishing a distant second behind German Julian Weber’s monster throw of 91.51m. While a string of high 80m throws have kept him in the top two in each of his la...

Amid global cuts in education funding, the UN agency for children (Unicef) has projected that an estimated six million additional children could be out of school worldwide by the end of 2026, with around one-third of them in humanitarian settings. The projection was made in an new analysis, according to a Unicef press release issued on Wednesday, which said that the Official Development Assistance for education was estimated to fall by $3.2 billion — a 24 per cent drop from 2023 — with just three donor governments accounting for nearly 80 per cent of the cuts. “Such a decline would push the number of out-of-school children worldwide from 272m to 278m — the equivalent of emptying every primary school in Germany and Italy combined,” it added. The press release quoted Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell as saying, “Every dollar cut from education is not just a budgetary decision, it is a child’s future hanging in the balance.” “Education, especially in emergency settings, often serves as a lifeline, conn...

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Thursday approved bail for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s nephew, Shershah Khan, in the Jinnah House attack case linked to the May 9, 2023 riots.

At least twenty houses were severely damaged, while crops were destroyed and trees were uprooted due to floods in Deral Valley in Gilgit-Baltistan’s (GB) Diamer district, authorities said on Friday. Since late July, monsoon rains have wreaked havoc across the country, especially in its northern regions like GB, by triggering deadly floods, landslides and displacement, particularly in vulnerable, poorly drained, or densely populated areas. The assistant commissioner of Deral, Waseem Abbas, told Dawn.com that he flood occurred at 6am on Friday due to heavy rains, which engulfed the Gamari area. “As a result of the floods, twenty houses were damaged, of which five were completely demolished,” he said. “In addition, crops and trees were also damaged.“ According to locals, many people fled when the flood hit, with dozens moving to safer places. They added that the water channel system was also severely affected by the flood, with damage to cattle sheds and livestock. The National Disaster Management Authority has ...

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday dismissed contempt petitions filed by PTI leaders Shibli Faraz and Kanwal Shauzab over the non-removal of their names from the travel ban list.

The flood situation in Punjab’s rivers remains critical, with extremely high-level flooding reported at Head Sidhnai and Ganda Singh Wala, provincial authorities said.

Stargazers will have a chance to see a “Blood Moon” on Sunday night during a total lunar eclipse visible across Asia, as well as swathes of Europe and Africa. When the Sun, Earth and Moon line up, the shadow cast by the planet on its satellite makes it appear an eerie, deep red colour that has astounded humans for millennia. People in Asia, including India and China, will be best placed to see Sunday’s total eclipse, which will also be visible on the eastern edge of Africa as well as in western Australia. The total lunar eclipse will last from 1730 GMT to 1852 GMT (10:30pm PKT to 11:52pm PKT). Stargazers in Europe and Africa will get a brief chance to see a partial eclipse just as the Moon rises during the early evening, while the Americas will miss out. The Moon appears red during lunar eclipses because the only sunlight reaching it is “reflected and scattered through the Earth’s atmosphere”, said Ryan Milligan, an astrophysicist at Northern Ireland’s Queen’s University Belfast. Blue wavelengths of light are...

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday expressed sorrow over devastating floods in northern Pakistan that have killed hundreds and displaced millions.

LAHORE: The Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) has arrested the owner of Theme Park, an ‘illegal’ housing scheme raised in the river bed of Ravi. The scheme was completely inundated by the swollen river last week. “Khushi Muhammad built this illegal housing scheme in the Ravi land, made residential plots on 12,000 kanals inside the river bed and sold them to citizens by fraud. The suspect had not built the society as per law and even couldn’t establish any kind of sewage system in the fake housing scheme and since the entire area was inside the river, therefore, all the houses in the illegal housing scheme were submerged by the floodwater,” an ACE spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday. He said the ACE had also sought record of all illegal housing schemes established in the Ravi bed from the River Urban Development Authority (Ruda) and the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) so that action could be taken against those housing schemes as per the law. ACE seeks record from Ruda, LDA: promises strict acti...

KARACHI: Traffic congestion in the city due to goods transport vehicles may be eased in the coming years as the 57-kilometre Karachi Northern Bypass is being extended with a new six-lane 134km M-10 Motorway to connect Karachi to M-6 Motorway at Jamshoro via the Kirthar Mountain Range. Officials said the M-10 project is a mega initiative that has evolved from a simple bypass upgrade. It involves upgrading the Northern Bypass and constructing a new 134-kilometer six-lane motorway through the Kirthar Range. Additionally, a 23-kilometer stretch will be upgraded to a six-lane road, transforming the entire route from Karachi Port to M-6 in Jamshoro into a high-capacity motorway. The project was discussed on Wednesday at a meeting between Communication Minister Aleem Khan and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah at CM House. Nespak is conducting a feasibility study on the proposed 134km M-10 project, Communications Minister Aleem Khan tells CM Murad The meeting was informed that the M-10 project was currently in...

A total of 605 terrorist incidents were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the first eight months of the year, claiming 138 civilian lives and leaving 352 injured, according to a Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) report highlighting a surge in militancy.

LAHORE: In a surprising turn, cotton production in Pakistan has seen an unexpected increase this season, defying earlier predictions despite widespread heavy rainfall and flooding in key cotton-growing regions. While the increase marks a positive development, the sector still faces significant challenges, with large areas of cotton crops submerged by floods, especially in Punjab. The floodwaters are now heading towards Sindh, threatening further damage. According to the latest report from the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) released on Wednesday, as of Augu 31, ginneries across the country had received 1.336 million bales of raw cotton, reflecting a 9 per cent increase over the same period last year. The rise has been largely driven by a notable surge in cotton arrivals from Sindh, where production is up by 87pc compared to Punjab. In fact, ginneries in Sindh received 352,000 bales between Aug 16 and 31, a sharp increase from 226,000 bales in the first half of August and a substantial jump from 130...