Pakistan

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Monday sought Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s intervention on an ongoing CNG crisis in his province, warning that the shortage was setting the stage for “widespread agitiation” across KP. The province has been affected by a compressed natural gas (CNG) crisis since April with several filling stations shut and millions of citizens struggling for affordable fuel. The situation has also negatively impacted the economic activity in the province. KP CM Afridi drew PM Shehbaz’s attention to the matter in letter on Monday. The letter stated: “I wish to draw your kind attention to the recent decision of the Petroleum Division regarding the curtailment of gas supply to the CNG sector in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, reportedly due to liquified natural gas (LNG) supply disruptions and system constraints faced by the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL). “While we fully appreciate that SNGPL is operating under a constrained supply environment and must manage line p...

BAJAUR: At least two policemen, deployed with polio vaccination teams, were martyred in firing by unidentified assailants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bajaur district on Monday. The attacks were carried out on the first day of a four-day anti-polio campaign across KP. In the first incident, Bajaur police spokesperson Israr Khan told Dawn that a 35-year-old martyred cop was returning home when the assailants, carrying rifles, opened fire on him. Separately, Salarzai Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Jamal Shah told reporters that the martyred cop, Constable Sayed Aziz, sustained multiple bullet wounds and died on the way to the hospital. Soon after the incident, a team from the Salarzai police station reached the site of the incident and began tracing the attackers, who had fled the scene, he said. The DSP said an investigation had been launched to identify the attackers. Meanwhile, the Bajaur police spokesperson said that the second incident also happened in Salarzai Tehsil on Monday afternoon, about two hours...

As Eid al-Adha draws near, livestock markets across Pakistan have become crowded with buyers and traders preparing for the annual sacrificial rituals.

ISLAMABAD: In a significant development in the £190 million case pending before the Islamabad High Court (IHC), counsel for incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi challenged the court’s order setting a deadline for concluding arguments in the appeals against their conviction. Imran — imprisoned since Aug 5, 2023, for concealing details of Toshakhana gifts — is serving a 14-year sentence at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail in the £190m case, also known as the Al-Qadir Trust case. An accountability court in Islamabad had sentenced Imran and Bushra to 14 and seven years in prison, respectively, on Jan 17, 2025, in the case. Subsequently, both had challenged their convictions before the IHC. Earlier in May, the IHC rejected their petitions seeking the suspension of their sentences in the case, observing that their main appeals were already fixed for hearing. Barrister Salman Safdar filed two separate miscellaneous petitions on behalf of the PTI founder and Bushra Bibi, contending that the April 30...

Deputy Prime Minister / Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar and Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Pakistan Nawaf bin Saeed Ahmad Al-Malkiy, on Monday, exchanged views on recent regional developments and other matters of mutual interest.

The federal government has allowed temporary exemption of shops, markets and eateries from early closure timing of 8pm, state broadcaster PTV News reported, citing a notification, on Monday. The Cabinet Division notification dated May 18 states that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has given the approval to exempt “with immediate effect and till May 31” several entities from the closure timings specified in a April 6 notification. According to the latest notification, all shops, departmental stores, markets, shopping malls, bakeries, tandoors, restaurants and grocery stores have been exempted from the early closure timings for all days of the week. On April 6, the federal government had announced that all markets across the country, barring Sindh, would close by 8pm throughout the week as part of energy conservation measures amid a global fuel crisis triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Meanwhile, the closure time for wedding halls, bakeries, restaurants, tandoors and other eateries was set at 10pm. Days lat...

Social media is now working as a high-speed pipeline to move money comfortably outside the perimeter of financial regulations. On TikTok and other apps, likes, gifts and livestream donations are converted into platform-specific digital credits. A follower buys virtual currency with their debit card, mobile wallet, or bank account, then sends gifts to the TikToker or creator during live streams or content interactions. The app takes a commission and sends the remaining ‘amount’ to the TikToker’s internal wallet. Once you earn a minimum amount, or cross a threshold, you can withdraw or transfer earnings through payment processors, digital wallets, or linked bank accounts into your local currency. In practice, a transaction that begins as a seemingly harmless “gift” or online appreciation can pass through multiple layers — virtual tokens, platform wallets, payment intermediaries, and cross-border processors — before emerging as legitimate funds in a bank account. What appears on the surface as digital admiration...

PPP stalwart and former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani on Monday said that there was “no need” for a 28th Constitutional Amendment, saying that the Constitution could not “bear the burden” if it were to happen. In a statement, he said, “The ruling elite should realise that the Constitution, 1973, cannot bear the burden of another amendment. There is no need for the 28th Constitutional Amendment.” He said that the 26th and 27th Constitutional Amendments had already “defaced” a number of the original provisions of the Constitution, particularly those relating to the judiciary. The former took away the Supreme Court’s suo motu power, while the latter made significant changes to the judicial system and the military’s chain of command. Rabbani said the “transfer of a judge without his or her consent impinged on the independence of the judiciary”. “The federal government should be looking at the backlash of these two amendments and, in consultation with the stakeholders, taking remedial measures,” he said. He further...

Saad Edhi, along with more than 500 activists from various countries participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, had departed from Marmaris, Turkiye, on a humanitarian mission to Gaza aimed at delivering relief assistance to Palestinians.

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Monday approached the Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) against the petroleum levy, arguing that the government had effectively granted itself unrestricted power to tax citizens through executive notifications without parliamentary oversight. The government had announced a petroleum and carbon levy on June 14, 2025, under an iron-clad commitment with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Last month, the government had cut the levy by Rs80 amid the global oil crisis triggered by the Middle East crisis. However, following the IMF’s condition of restoring an average Rs80 per litre petroleum levy on petrol and high-speed diesel last week, the government passed on a slight reduction in global oil prices to domestic consumers. The petroleum levy on petrol currently stands at Rs117.41 per litre, while the levy on HSD is Rs42.60 per litre. In a petition moved through senior counsel Imran Shafeeq, Rehman sought a declaration from the FCC that the present p...

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari said the Punjab government’s pavilion for the “Apni Chhat Apna Ghar” housing project at Baku has emerged as a major attraction for international visitors and foreign delegates.

A Karachi court on Monday declared the production of suspected drug trafficker Anmol alias Pinky at the City Court unsafe and ordered that all further proceedings be conducted inside prison premises due to security concerns.

The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday strongly condemned the drone attack on the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant, saying that “such reckless actions carry potentially catastrophic and irreversible consequences for human life, the environment and regional as well as global peace and security”. A day ago, a drone strike had triggered a fire near Barakh Nuclear Power Plant in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, reporting no injuries or impact on radiation levels, according to the UAE’s defence ministry. The UAE defence ministry said two other drones had been “successfully” dealt with, and that the drones had been launched from the “western border”. It did not elaborate. Emirati officials said they were investigating the source of the strike and that the UAE had the full right to respond to such “terrorist attacks”. The UAE has previously accused Iran of attacking its energy targets in what it has called an escalation of the conflict in the region. In the statement released on Monday, the FO said that “any deliberate...

Pakistan on Monday strongly condemned the reported drone attack on the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in the United Arab Emirates on May 17, describing the targeting of nuclear facilities as a serious violation of international law.

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Sunday directed authorities to include Bushra Bibi in the investigation of 29 cases related to the November 26 incidents in the presence of her husband and legal team.

The intensity of the heatwave continued to increase in Lahore on Sunday as temperatures soared to 43 degrees Celsius, according to officials from the Meteorological Department.

Peshawar - Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Faisal Karim Kundi and Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on Sunday discussed the overall situation in the province, including law and order and key administrative matters, during a meeting at the Governor House.

KARACHI: Two police personnel were martyred on Monday when a speeding dumper truck crashed into a police van parked on the M9 Motorway within the limits of the Gadap City police station, officials said. In a statement, Malir police said that a police mobile assigned for patrolling and snap checking was hit by a speeding dumper. As a result of the impact, both Constable Wajid and Sub-Inspector Sahib Dad Solangi were martyred on the spot, a police spokesperson said in a statement. “The speeding dumper was travelling to Karachi from Hyderabad. The driver has been taken into custody,” the spokesperson said, adding that legal action had also been initiated against the driver. Meanwhile, Motorway police also issued a statement, confirming that two cops had been martyred in the incident. “According to initial information, the dumper hit a police van parked on the side of the road,” the statement said. According to Edhi, the bodies of the martyred cops were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for medico-legal formal...

Oil prices extended gains on Monday as efforts to end the Iran war appeared to have stalled, after a nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates came under attack and as US President Donald Trump is expected to discuss military options on Iran. Brent crude futures climbed $2.01, or 1.84 per cent, to $111.27 a barrel by 0432 GMT, but were off the $112 they had touched earlier for their highest since May 5. US West Texas Intermediate crude stood at $107.75 a barrel, up $2.33, or 2.21pc, after a rise to $108.70, its highest since April 30. The front-month June contract expires on Tuesday. Both contracts gained more than 7pclast week as hopes dimmed for a peace deal to end ship attacks and seizures around the key waterway of the Strait of Hormuz. Last week’s talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping ended without an indication from the world’s top oil importer that it would help resolve the conflict unleashed by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. Drone attacks on the UAE and Saudi Arabia and rhetoric ...

Pakistan Army says India hasn’t learnt right lessons even after eight decades Threatening a sovereign nuclear neighbour with elimination is sheer bankruptcy of cognitive capacities Such geographic obliteration will certainly be mutual, comprehensive Delhi’s aggressive posturing stems from frustration.