Pakistan

Former Federal Minister for Finance and ex-Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Dr Shamshad Akhtar, passed away on Saturday.

Pakistan on Saturday rejected Israel‘s recognition of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, terming it an attempt to undermine Somalia’s sovereignty. Israel became the first country to formally recognise Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state on Friday, with Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, saying his state will join the Abraham Accords. The decision could reshape regional dynamics and test Somalia’s longstanding opposition to secession. “Pakistan strongly condemns any attempts to undermine the sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of Somalia, and rejects, in this regard, the announcement made by Israel recognising the independence of the so-called Somaliland region of the Federal Republic of Somalia,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement. “Such illegal and provocative actions constitute a flagrant violation of international law and not only threaten the peace and stability of the brotherly country of Somalia, but also that of the entire region,” it added. Isl...

Security forces killed four terrorists during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Balochistan’s Panjgur district, the military’s media wing said on Saturday. According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the security forces conducted an operation on December 26 on the reported presence of “Khawarij belonging to Indian proxy, Fitna al Khawarij”. Fitna al Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The statement added during the conduct of operation, “own forces effectively engaged the Khawarij location, and after an intense fire exchange, four Indian sponsored Khawarij were sent to hell”. The statement further said that weapons, ammunition and explosives were recovered from the killed terrorists, “who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities in the area”. Following the skirmish, a sanitization operation was initiated in the area to “eliminate any other Indian sponsored Khawarij present in the...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday hailed Pakistan’s success over India during the military escalation between the two countries earlier this year. “A strong message was sent to the world,” he said while speaking to the media in Islamabad, where he gave an overview of Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts in 2025. “Our international standing has […] improved due to principled, proactive and result-oriented diplomacy,” Dar said, reflecting on the past year. He said Pakistan was “known to be a diplomatically isolated country” at the time PM Shehbaz Sharif took oath last year. Speaking on the May conflict, Dar said India’s claim of regional hegemony and being the net security provider was tested during the four-day escalation. “We did not ask anyone to mediate between us,” the deputy premier asserted. He recalled that Pakistan shot down seven jets of India during the May 7 air battle, which was followed by “incorrect” statements by New Delhi that Pakistan had attacked 15 Indian military ins...

Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi presided over a high-level meeting in Peshawar to fast-track measures for improving judicial infrastructure and public facilitation in underserved and remote areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

PML-N leaders on Saturday said PTI had been sending mixed signals regarding talks with the government, stressing that democracy could only be advanced through “dialogue and not deadlock”. On Friday, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah said that PM Shehbaz would decide on talks with PTI once the opposition party clarifies its stance on negotiations. PM Shehbaz on Tuesday extended an offer for talks with the opposition. The PTI outright rejected talks with the government on the directions of party founder Imran Khan, but Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP), of which the PTI is a part, stated its openness to negotiate with the government. PML-N leaders, including Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah, National Assembly speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, made the remarks while speaking to the media in Sukkur. The delegation is headed to Garhi Khuda Bakhsh for the 18th death anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhu...

WASHINGTON: History does not always announce itself with thunder. Sometimes it arrives as a decision — taken calmly, consciously and against fear. “I am returning to Pakistan on October 18 to coalesce the forces of moderation against extremism,” Benazir Bhutto said in Washington in 2007. “Our goal, quite literally, is to save democracy in Pakistan.” She made that statement on September 25, 2007, at meetings hosted by the Middle East Institute and later at the Russell Senate Building. It was not a slogan, it was a commitment — one she fully intended to honour. I had met Benazir countless times over the years — in Pakistan, in London and in Washington — across different phases of her political life. She could be warm and disarming, cautious and guarded, sharply analytical and politically defiant, sometimes all of the above within the same conversation. But on that September day in Washington, there was a particular clarity about her. She had already decided. As she was leaving the Middle East Institute, I asked...

United States President Donald Trump urged the Justice Department (DOJ) on Friday to “embarrass” any Democrats who worked with Jeffrey Epstein after it began poring over millions of documents linked to the late sex offender. The DOJ began releasing records last week from the investigation into Epstein, a wealthy financier who died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking underage girls for sex. The latest disclosures on Tuesday contain numerous references to Trump, including documents detailing flights he took on Epstein’s private jet. Trump was once a friend of Epstein but distanced himself after his crimes came to light, and has appeared reluctant to discuss the case despite strong support in the Republican party for fuller transparency about the deceased man’s associates. “Now 1,000,000 more pages on Epstein are found. DOJ is being forced to spend all of its time on this Democrat inspired Hoax,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform on Friday. “The Dems are the ones who worked with...

The PTI’s UK chapter has deleted a post on X which showed a video of “provocative” statements against Pakistan’s military leadership, saying it did not endorse unlawful behavior of any kind and advised “independent citizens” to “measure their remarks to avoid any misunderstandings”. On Friday, the Foreign Office (FO) had summoned Acting British High Commissioner Matt Cannell to receive a demarche over the “provocative” statements and “incitement to violence” against the military leadership. Informed sources said the British government had formally been asked to identify, arrest, investigate and prosecute those who used UK soil to “issue direct threats” against Pakistan’s military leadership. Sources said that a video posted on PTI UK’s official X account on Dec 23 showed demonstrators — outside the Pakistani consulate in Bradford — openly threatening the military leadership while surrounded by people holding PTI flags. The post has since been deleted. In a post on X early on Saturday, PTI UK said it had remov...

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi will challenge the verdicts in the Toshakhana-II case by filing appeals in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has set aside the life imprisonment sentence awarded to a man convicted of killing his sister in the name of honour, citing serious flaws in the prosecution’s case.

Dense fog engulfed several cities of Punjab on Friday, severely reducing visibility and forcing the Motorway Police to close multiple sections of motorways to ensure the safety of motorists.

LAKKI MARWAT: District police said on Saturday that a wanted terrorist commander was killed during an ongoing operation in the Lakki Marwat district’s Takhtikhel area. On Friday, six terrorists were reportedly killed and several others injured in an intense exchange of fire with police backed by Counter-Terrorism Department commandos, armed villagers and members of peace committees. In a statement released on Saturday, district police said that a major success had been achieved in the ongoing joint operation with the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) against Fitna al Khawarij. Fitna al Khawarij is a term that the state uses for the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan. Police said terrorist commander Nusratullah, alias Nusrat Wazir, was killed during the operation conducted in Takhtikhel. Police said the terrorist was wanted by the Bannu CTD in relation to 28 cases registered on terrorism charges. “Nasratullah was among the most wanted on the terrorism list in the region,” police said, adding that the governmen...

This piece was originally published on December 24, 2017. Sarwar Khan struggled to breathe as he opened his eyes in the suffocating darkness. Only a few hours earlier he had been at his desk in Islamabad finishing up an ordinary day’s work. Now the Ahmadi businessman was nailed inside a coffin, gasping for air. His captors had injected him with sedatives and were attempting to transport him out of the city in an ambulance, disguised as a corpse — but the dose was wearing off, giving way to Sarwar’s blood-curdling screams. As the kidnappers stopped to subdue their human freight, a taxi driver on the highway witnessed the suspicious activity and called the authorities. The police action that followed that day in February 2009 led to the capture of one of the most influential AlQaeda strategists and ideologues in the organisation’s history. Major Haroon Ashiq was arrested from the outskirts of Peshawar while trying to smuggle Sarwar Khan into the tribal areas. A former Special Services Group (SSG) commando, Haro...

A fighting England won their first Test on Australian soil in 15 years Saturday, restoring their battered pride with a gutsy four-wicket victory to clinch a chaotic fourth Ashes clash that was all over inside two days. The pumped-up tourists dismissed Australia for 132 soon after lunch in front of a bumper 92,045 crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, following the 20 wickets that tumbled on day one. It left them chasing 175 to win, with Harry Brook unbeaten on 18 and Jamie Smith on three seeing them home for the loss of six wickets to huge roars from their travelling “Barmy Army” of fans. Jacob Bethell contributed 40 and Zak Crawley 37. “A good feeling, a tough tour up to now,” said England skipper Ben Stokes. “After the build-up to the Test, a lot thrown our way, to put in a performance on the back of all that, and beat a very good Australian team, a lot of credit has to go to players, staff and management for keeping the focus on cricket. “Very proud. We showed bravery and were courageous.” England crashed...

Israel became the first country to formally recognise the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state on Friday — a decision that could reshape regional dynamics and test Somalia’s longstanding opposition to secession. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would seek immediate cooperation with Somaliland in agriculture, health, technology and the economy. In a statement, he congratulated Somaliland’s president, Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi, praised his leadership and invited him to visit Israel. Netanyahu said the declaration “is in the spirit of the Abraham Accords, signed at the initiative of president Trump”. The 2020 accords were brokered by Trump’s first administration and included Israel formalising diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with other countries joining later. Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Somaliland’s president signed a joint declaration of mutual recognition, the Israeli statement said. Abdullahi said in a state...

ISLAMABAD: Amid impr­oving fiscal space, the Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a declining Public Sector Deve­lopment Programme (PSDP), rising defence spending and generally stabilising interest payments from the current year onwards through the fiscal year 2030. IMF projections show that interest payments for the last fiscal year (FY25) were originally estimated at 7.7 per cent of GDP but ended at 7.8pc. For the current year, the Fund has revised its estimate to 6.5pc of GDP from 6.7pc in view of lower policy rates. For the next fiscal year (FY27), markup payments are estimated to drop further to 5.9pc of GDP, to be followed by 5.2pc of GDP in FY28, 5.1pc in FY29 and finally settling at 4.8pc in FY30 amid falling policy rates and resultant lower debt payments. In absolute numbers, interest payments are estimated to slightly decline to Rs8.225 trillion during the current year, down from Rs8.88tr at the close of FY25. This would remain almost static around Rs8.2tr in FY27 and FY28 and then incre...

Pakistan has expressed its full support for the efforts being undertaken by Saudi Arabia for ensuring peace and stability in Yemen, it emerged on Saturday. In a statement released late on Friday, the Foreign Office (FO) said Pakistan was closely following recent developments in Yemen. “Pakistan expresses its full support for the diplomatic efforts being undertaken by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for ensuring peace and stability in the Republic of Yemen. We also commend the efforts of the United Arab Emirates in this regard,” it said. “We underscore the need for upholding the unity and territorial integrity of Yemen, and express the hope that the Yemeni stakeholders will avoid any unilateral steps that may result in further escalation of the situation,” it said. “We also call on all Yemeni parties to engage constructively and in good faith towards an inclusive, negotiated political solution based on the agreed parameters,” the FO said. “Pakistan expresses its hope that the ongoing diplomatic efforts will result...

Thailand and Cambodia agreed on Saturday to halt weeks of fierce border clashes, the worst fighting in years between the Southeast Asian countries that have included fighter jet sorties, exchange of rocket fire and artillery barrages. “Both sides agree to maintain current troop deployments without further movement,” their defence ministers said in a joint statement on the ceasefire. “Any reinforcement would heighten tensions and negatively affect long-term efforts to resolve the situation,” according to the statement released on social media by Cambodia’s Defence Ministry. The agreement, signed by Thai Defence Minister Natthaphon Nakrphanit and his Cambodian counterpart Tea Seiha, ended 20 days of fighting that has killed at least 101 people and displaced more than half a million on both sides. The clashes were re-ignited in early December after a breakdown in a ceasefire that US President Donald Trump and Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim helped broker to halt a previous round of fighting in July. Fo...

KARACHI: A sessions court has ruled that any conviction under the provision of the Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013 does not render the marriage void or invalidate the nikkah. “It is making clear that any conviction under the provision of Sindh Child Marriage Restraint Act 2013 does not render the marriage void or invalidate the Nikkah from a personal law perspective. The Act is a restraint and penal statue and it does not contain provisions for annulment,” observed Additional District and Sessions Judge Zahoor Ahmed Chandio while sentencing a man to two years in prison for marrying an underage girl. “The validity of the marriage contract (Nikkah) is a separate issue to be determined by the appropriate forum under the relevant personal law or the family courts and this court’s jurisdiction is limited to determining criminal liability under the penal sections cited,” observed the judge, who is also the presiding officer of Gender-Based Violence Court (South). The court found Zulqarnain, alias Cheeko, gu...