Pakistan

All government and private schools in Punjab’s flood-hit Narowal district will remain closed from September 1 to 5 due to the deteriorating flood situation, officials announced on Sunday.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Ombudsperson for Protection Against Harassment (FOSPAH) has declared that constant CCTV surveillance of employees amounts to workplace harassment. Announcing the decision, Ombudsperson Fauzia Viquar also imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on the head of a private teaching institution for misusing CCTV surveillance and harassing a female officer. The decision arose in the case of a subordinate employee at the institution in Rawalpindi against its chief executive officer where the complainant alleged that she was subjected to excessive surveillance and intimidation. After reviewing the evidence, the ombudsperson found that the accused had engaged in unjustified and targeted monitoring, including sending CCTV screenshots to the complainant, which created a hostile and distressing work environment. The ombudsperson declared this behaviour to be harassment under the law and ordered payment of Rs50,000 in compensation to the victim and a penalty of censure against the CEO. The ombudsperson also directed ...

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday launched a formal inquiry into alleged financial irregularities in the multi-billion-rupee Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Cities Improvement Project (KPCIP) following concerns over procurement violations and suspected corruption. In a notice, seen by Dawn, issued to the project’s management unit of KPCIP, the NAB’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) chapter directed officials to furnish all records related to consultant hiring, contractor pre-qualification, bid submissions, audit reports and advertisements. The bureau cautioned that concealing or misreporting facts could lead to penal consequences under the National Acco­untability Ordin­ance, 1999. The move follows allegations by lawmakers in the KP Assembly of massive irregularities amounting to Rs32 billion in the project, which is funded by the Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. Demands all records, cautions officials against hiding or misreporting facts The KPCIP is designed to up...

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has categorically denied a fake advisory circulating on social media, which falsely claimed that mobile phones would be blocked if more than five SIMs were used within a month.

Deputy Commissioner Lahore has announced that educational activities across the city will resume from September 1 after days of disruption caused by heavy rains and floods.

Torrential downpours lashed several parts of Punjab and Peshawar on Saturday night, worsening the already grim situation in flood-hit regions.

SHARJAH: Saim Ayub and Hasan Nawaz struck half-centuries as Pakistan thumped the United Arab Emirates by 31 runs in Sharjah on Saturday, making it two wins from two in their T20 tri-series also featuring Afghanistan. Opener Saim smashed a 38-ball 69, with four sixes and seven fours, while Hasan’s 26-ball 56 included six maximums, lifting Pakistan to 207 all out in exactly 20 overs. Asif Khan threatened to snatch an unlikely win for UAE with a brilliant 35-ball 77 before falling in the last over. The UAE managed 176-8 from their 20 overs. Skipper Muhammad Waseem also hit a breezy 18-ball 33 but was run out in the sixth over. Earlier, Pakistan’s innings was built around the excellence of Saim and Hasan after they won the toss and batted first. Once Pakistan lost Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman and skipper Salman Agha cheaply, it was left to Saim and Hasan to provide the rescue acts. Saim’s fourth T20I half-century came off just 25 balls while Hasan’s fifty was reached in 24 deliveries with a hat-trick of sixes o...

CHINIOT - The Chenab River has reached a historic high flood tide of 855,500 cusecs in Chiniot, with the water level continuously decreasing.

Flood death toll rises to 30 n 130 villages inundated in Jhang district 14 snake bites cases reported due to flood in Sialkot PDMA issues high alert for Jhang, Multan as 900,000 cusecs expected at Trimmu Headworks and 700,000 cusecs at Head Muhammad Wala today.

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday landed in China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War in Beijing and other official engagements.

ISLAMABAD: Leading human rig­hts and civil society organisations in a joint press conference on Saturday condemned government’s failure to put an end to the practice of enforced disappearances, calling it a deeply entrenched tool of repression that continues to devastate many families. The groups, including Amnesty Int­ernational, the Human Rights Com­mi­ssion of Pakistan (HRCP) and Defence of Human Rights (DHR), voiced collective alarm over what they described as a systemic failure to deliver justice, truth or reparations to victims and their families. “A flawed system of accountability and official data from the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappear­a­nces (COIOED) reveals the scale of the problem but also the system’s failure to provide meaningful justice,” cha­­irperson of Defence of Human Rig­­hts (DHR) Amna Masood Janjua said. Ms Janjua noted that state institutions have practised enforced disappearances with utmost impunity for over two decades. HRCP, seven other groups seek justice, legal reform...

ISLAMABAD - We were asleep when a wave of stones and mud along with roaring flood entered our vil-lage and all of sudden swept away many houses.

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif reached PDMA head office during heavy rain on Saturday and reviewed flood situation and took a briefing from all Deputy Commission-ers on video link.

ISLAMABAD: The Judicial Department of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has submitted a report in Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s case, stating that the contempt of court notices served to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his federal cabinet cannot be executed before resolving certain legal issues. The department placed a report in the case file of Dr Fowzia Siddiqui, who is seeking her sister Dr Aafia Siddiqui’s release from a US prison, noting that the notices to premier and his ministers over non-compliance of the order were not executable. In its report, the registrar office proposed the formation of a larger bench to deliberate over three central legal issues. The office questioned whether a judge can self-assign cases to their court, violating the Roster of Sitting. It also asked whether a judge can hear a case without the issuance of the approved cause list and whether the consent of various benches is mandatory for the consolidation of identical petitions. IHC registrar office proposes larger bench to determine leg...

ISLAMABAD - The federal government has announced 15% increase in Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) pensions, raising the minimum monthly pension from Rs10,000 to Rs11,500.

ISLMABAD - Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Saturday visited the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, where Saudi Ambassador Nawaf bin Saeed Ahmad Al-Malki warmly welcomed him on his arrival.

ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Musadik Malik on Saturday said government was drafting district-level policies to protect riverbanks and build small reservoirs to divert floodwater from populated areas.

GILGIT: Unprecedented climate disasters and other factors have caused a sharp decline in both foreign and domestic tourist arrivals to Gilgit-Baltistan this year, badly affecting the local economy. Officials said that international conflicts, natural calamities and other issues resulted in a 90 per cent drop in tourism across the region. Sajid Hussain, assistant director at the GB Tourism Department, said that only 270 international climbers arrived in GB this year to attempt peaks, including K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum-I, Gasherbrum-II and Nanga Parbat, as compared to more than 2,000 foreign climbers and trekkers who visited the region last year. He said that most climbers returned without success due to extreme weather conditions at the peaks. Rockfalls, avalanches and high winds forced many to abandon their attempts and remain at base camps before heading back to their countries. According to the department, only 40 climbers summited K2, 25 reached Nanga Parbat and about a dozen summited Gasherbrum-I this s...

Rawalpindi - Federal Minister for Railways Muhammad Hanif Abbasi on Saturday announced that the first-ever Mother and Children Hospital of Rawalpindi Division, with a capacity of 1,000 beds, will be completed this year.

• Rejects Sindh govt’s delayed appeal, observing delay in invoking legal remedies cannot be excused without sufficient cause • Justice Mazhar stresses equality before law applies to state and private litigants alike • Criticises routine govt pleas citing administrative delays as ‘mechanical and unpersuasive’ ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Saturday emphasised that delay in invoking a lawful remedy by a person or entity, who was sleeping over their rights can be denied. The observations came from a three-judge bench headed by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, while hearing a case involving the Sindh government. The bench noted with concern the tendency of the federal and provincial governments, as well as autonomous bodies, to institute appeals after the lapse of the limitation period prescribed by law. Authored by Justice Mazhar, the four-page order regretted that often the plea taken by the governments for condoning the delay was that fulfilling inter-departmental procedures and seeking final instructions from th...