Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - The United States has urged Pakistan and India to defuse tension as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif received a telephone call from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday.

LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday relaunched the provincial laptop scheme after an eight-year hiatus, distributing state-of-the-art laptops to students and rolling out the second phase of the Honhaar Scholarship Program.

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan has hired a team of sectoral specialists from the open market to drive institutional reforms.

ISLAMABAD - The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday directed the registrar office to schedule the hearing of Bushra Bibi’s miscellaneous application for suspension of sentence in the 190 million pounds reference for next week.

ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Railways, Muhammad Hanif Abbasi, on Wednesday held an important meeting with the delegation of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) to discuss various initiatives for the development and modernization of Pakistan Railways.

Former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol was indicted on Thursday without detention for abuse of power over his martial law declaration, prosecutors said, adding to the impeached ex-leader’s legal jeopardy. The new indictment comes as Yoon stands trial for orchestrating an insurrection with his December 3 martial law attempt, which sought to suspend civilian rule in democratic South Korea. Armed soldiers were deployed to parliament under the decree, but the order lasted only around six hours as it was swiftly voted down by opposition MPs, who scaled fences to enter the building. They later impeached Yoon over the martial law declaration. Yoon, 64, was stripped of all power and privileges in April by the Constitutional Court, which upheld the impeachment motion. He was soon forced to move out of the presidential residence. Prosecutors first indicted Yoon in January — when he was still president — as “the ringleader of an insurrection”, a charge not covered by presidential immunity. “We have since proceeded ...

KARACHI - Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Muhammad Aurangzeb Wednesday expressed confidence that the situation evolving at global level after US Tariffs is manageable for Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday granted additional time to the governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Sindh to submit their responses in a case seeking to make the teaching of the Holy Quran compulsory in schools.

LAHORE - An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday granted interim bail to four doctors accused of involvement in violence against police during a protest held by the Grand Health Alliance Punjab.

ISLAMABAD - The federal government Wednesday slightly reduced the prices of Petrol and High Speed Diesel by Rs 2 per litre each, for the first fortnightly of May 2025.

ISLAMABAD - Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Wednesday met with MQM-P Chairman and Minister for Education Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.

ISLAMABAD - British High Commissioner Jane Marriott called on Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman yesterday at his residence to discuss pressing regional and international developments, with a particular focus on the escalating tensions between Pakistan and India.

Three days of political rallies began in Bangladesh on Thursday with rival groups set to stage mass demonstrations in Dhaka, drumming up support for eagerly anticipated elections following an uprising last year. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, who has led an interim government since autocratic prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled into exile as crowds stormed her palace in August, has said elections will be held as early as December, and at the latest by mid-2026. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), widely tipped to win the poll, will hold a May Day rally in Dhaka. “We are confident this will be the most memorable grand rally in recent times,” BNP media officer Shairul Kabir Khan said. Jamaat-e-Islami will also take to the streets of the capital on Thursday. The Jatiya Party, formerly close to Hasina’s regime, will also hold a rally. It will be its first outdoor political event since its offices were vandalised in October, allegedly for helping Hasina’s Awami League cling to power. On Friday, the...

ISLAMABAD - Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi paid a late-night visit to the Jinnah Square Murree Road Underpass Project to review the ongoing construction work.

ISLAMABAD - Munir A Malik, counsel of the Islamabad High Court (IHC)’s five judges Wednesday objected to the executive role in transfer of judges from one High Court to another.

ISLAMABAD - The Supreme Court 13-member bench will conduct hearing of the review petitions against its own judgment in Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) reserved seats from May 6.

ISLAMABAD - In a suo moto matter related to transfer of a case from one bench to another, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Wednesday directed Additional Registrar and the Deputy Registrar to appear before the court on the next hearing.

QUETTA: The body of a 23-year-old Quetta resident, Aryan Shah, who died in Chennai, India, last week while undergoing cancer treatment, arrived in Karachi on Wednesday after a delay caused by an airline mishap. Aryan Shah, who had been receiving treatment for several months in a hospital in Chennai, succumbed to the illness last week. He had travelled to India with his parents for medical care. Following his death, Shah’s mother appealed to Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti for financial assistance to repatriate the body as the family could not afford the costs. Chief Minister Bugti arra­nged financial support and contacted the Pakistani ambassador in India through the Foreign Office to facilitate the transfer. The parents travelled to Karachi via an international airline with the coffin. However, upon arrival, they discovered that the body had been mistakenly left in Colombo. “I have received the body of my son from Colombo,” Shah’s mother said. “The Indian government or hospital did not extend any he...

KARACHI: The Sindh transport department has officially launched the Peoples Pink and Normal Taxi Service. Sindh’s Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon made this announcement in a social media post. He said that the aim of this project was to bringing a revolutionary change to the public transport system, empower women, ensure safe travel, and promote eco-friendly transport across the province, said a press release issued on Wednesday evening. Mr Memon, who also holds the portfolio of transport and information departments, described the Peoples Pink and Normal Taxi Service as a “historic milestone for Sindh”. He said that the Sindh government was committed to modernising the transport system and creating equal opportunities for all segments of society. Earlier, Mr Memon had said that the provincial government was working to bring ride-hailing services in Karachi under one system, Dawn.com reported. “We are working to bring the [online] taxi system in Karachi under one umbrella in an integrated and modern manner...

International Labour Day, also known as May Day, is being observed across the world including Pakistan today (Thursday) to renew pledge for protecting rights of workers.