Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday directed Pakistan Railways to prioritise public convenience and ensure safe travel across its network, while also strengthening freight operations to support economic activity.

The UNESCO has inscribed the Kalash valleys in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Chitral district on its World Heritage Tentative List, recognising the region’s unique cultural and environmental significance.

An image of United States President Donald Trump will soon appear in some US passports, officials said on Tuesday, shattering another norm as the president aggressively puts his personal stamp on government institutions. There are few precedents anywhere in the world, let alone in a democracy, of displaying sitting leaders’ pictures in passports, and Trump would be the first sitting US president featured in Americans’ travel documents. The State Department said it would offer the limited-edition passport to mark this year’s 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence. The department — which has historically viewed itself as outside US partisan politics — posted on social media a sample of the passport, which features a stern-looking Trump superimposed over the Declaration of July 4, 1776. Trump’s signature — in gold — lies underneath. A second limited-edition passport showed a historic painting of the US Founding Fathers. “As the United States celebrates America’s 250th anniversary in July, the St...

King Charles III gave US President Donald Trump a taste of his own medicine at a White House state dinner on Tuesday when he joked that without the British, Americans would be speaking French. As the heads of state traded jokes during their dinner toasts, Charles referenced previous comments by Trump aimed at European allies he accuses of freeloading on defense since World War II. “You recently commented, Mr President, that if it were not for the United States, European countries would be speaking German. Dare I say that, if it wasn’t for us, you’d be speaking French,” Charles quipped. The king was talking about places with British and French origins in North America, where the rival colonial powers battled for control of the continent before US independence 250 years ago. At the Davos summit in January, Trump said that without US help in World War II, “you’d be speaking German and a little Japanese.” But the king’s lighthearted remark reflected the warm tone as he and Trump bonded over the “special relations...

Britain’s King Charles and Donald Trump hailed their countries’ longstanding ties at a White House state dinner Tuesday – despite the US president claiming the monarch agreed with him on Iran’s nuclear weapons. Over a lavish meal, Charles echoed the tone of his earlier speech to Congress in which he urged London and Washington to stick together, without directly mentioning the tensions over the US-Israeli war with Tehran. But in his toast to a gala dinner attended by tech titans and golfer Rory McIlroy, Trump made his first public comments on the sensitive topic during the four-day visit by the British royals. US President Donald Trump and Britain’s King Charles III raise a toast during a State Dinner in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 28, 2026. — AFP “We have militarily defeated that particular opponent,” Trump said at the White House dinner. “Charles agrees with me even more than I do — we’re never going to let that opponent have a nuclear weapon.” Trump has repeatedly lambasted...

ISLAMABAD: Hours before his imminent transfer from the Islamabad High Court (IHC), Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani warned that the high court would summon Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a case concerning the non-appointment of the finance member of the PTA tribunal. During the hearing, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani warned that if the official was not appointed by May 18, the PM would be required to appear in person and explain the delay. The court also directed the cabinet secretary and the law secretary to ensure their presence at the next hearing on May 18. However, Justice Kayani was transferred by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan a couple of hours after issuing the said order. At the previous hearing, the assistant attorney general informed the court that a retired judge had been appointed as a tribunal member. However, Justice Kayani criticised the trend of appointing retired judges to tribunals, remarking that such practices had not been beneficial and that retired judges frequently seek positions in v...

TECH giant Microsoft has removed misleading Israeli designations used in the occupied West Bank and included Palestinian geographical names in its digital maps in accordance with international law, Anadolu Agency reported quoting an Arab rights organisation. In a statement, the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media (7amleh) said the changes included location-based services, including the search engine ‘Bing’, where labels that previously listed locations in the West Bank under ‘Judea and Samaria, Israel’ were replaced with the term ‘West Bank’. ‘Judea and Samaria’ is an Israeli term to designate the occupied West Bank, which is in contrast to international law that dictates that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, must be recognised as a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel. The West Bank is a key component of the future Palestinian state. The changes represent a “necessary correction,” said Lama Nazeeh, 7amleh’s advocacy manager, calling on technology companies to comply with international...

• Iranian envoy lauds Pakistan for ‘persistent labour’ to pave way for dialogue • Trump claims Tehran asked him to lift Hormuz blockade • Spy agencies studying ‘likely response’ to US declaring victory • Iran’s military says ‘still in state of war’ • Vance questions Pentagon assessment of conflict with Iran • UAE tanker evades Hormuz blockade WASHINGTON: Even as US President Donald Trump appeared reluctant to accept an Iranian offer to end the Middle East war, reports suggested Tehran would share a fresh proposal with Pakistan “in the next few days”, despite a public show of defiance. According to CNN, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will consult Iranian leaders upon his return from Russia for the new proposal, but “process is slow” due to “difficulty in communicating with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, whose location is being kept secret”. The development came as President Trump reviewed the Iranian proposals amid concerns over the Pentagon’s assessment of the ongoing war with Iran. Senior Iranian official...

LAHORE: Nine suspects were killed, while two police officials were injured in separate encounters with the Crime Control Department (CCD) in various parts of the province on Tuesday. In Lahore, six suspects were allegedly killed while two police officials were injured during separate ‘encounters’ with the CCD. A police official claimed that CCD officials conducted a raid in the Sundar area to arrest suspects following reports that wanted robbers were present there. He claimed the armed men hiding there suddenly opened fire on the raiding team, leaving two police personnel wounded. The police also returned the fire and two suspected robbers were found dead. They were later identified as Alam Sher and Hashim, wanted in over 60 cases in various police stations of the city, the official claimed. Six of them killed in Lahore Constables Taswar and Namdar were injured in the encounter and were shifted to a local hospital. In another encounter with the Iqbal Town CCD, the official said that suspects Bilal alias Mota ...

Islamabad - Pakistan Army’s Army Rocket Force Command on Tuesday conducted a successful training launch of indigenously developed Fateh-II Missile System, equipped with advanced avionics and state of the art navigational aids.

Islamabad - Pakistan Navy on Wednesday (today) will get first Hangor Class Submarine in Chinese city Sanya.

ISLAMABAD - The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) Tuesday approved the transfer of three judges from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to other high courts.

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday directed that regulatory compliance should be simplified and made more cost-effective to facilitate investors.

FAISALABAD - Three people, including a father and son, were shot dead during a violent dispute over livestock entering farmland in Chak 651-GB, within the jurisdiction of Lundianwala Police Station.

MUZAFFARGARH - Maryam Nawaz Sharif has emerged as a prominent trendsetter in Punjab through her visionary “Clean and Green Punjab” initiative, which continues to inspire impactful reforms across the province.

ISLAMABAD: Energy prices are projected to surge by 24 per cent this year to their highest level since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as the war in the Middle East sends a severe shock through global commodity markets, the World Bank Group said in its latest Commodity Markets Outlook. Overall, commodity prices are forecast to rise 16pc in 2026, driven by soaring energy and fertiliser prices and record-high prices for several key metals, according to the assessment. “The shock will have serious implications for job creation and development,” the analysis indicates. The World Bank noted: “Attacks on energy infrastructure and shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, which handles about 35pc of global seaborne crude oil trade, have triggered the largest oil supply shock on record, with an initial reduction in global oil supply of about 10 million barrels per day. “Even after moderating from their recent peak, Brent oil prices remained more than 50pc higher in mid-April than they were at the start of th...

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday withdrew ab initio the requirement of a licence along with Rs1,000 per kW licencing fee for solar net-metering consumers with systems below 25 kilowatts. The development comes two days after the Power Division, facing severe public criticism for “taxing sunlight”, directed Nepra to abolish the requirements. Complying with the directive, Nepra issued a notification stating that prosumers’ regulations had been amended and there would be no licencing fee on up to 25kW distributed generation. It said higher capacity prosumers would have to deposit a one-time fee of Rs1,000 per kilowatt. “This notification shall be applicable and deemed to be effective from February 9, 2026,” the order said. Earlier in the day, Nepra member Amina Ahmed said the regulator was considering the government’s proposal but could not hold press conference or “leak policy decisions” at public hearings. Then, within hours, Nepra issued the notification in complia...

US intelligence agencies are studying how Iran would respond if President Donald Trump were to declare a unilateral victory in the two-month-old war that ​has killed thousands and become a political liability for the White House, two US officials and a person familiar with the matter said. The intelligence community is ‌analysing the question along with others at the request of senior administration officials. The goal is to understand the implications of Trump potentially pulling back from a conflict that some officials and advisers worry could contribute to deep Republican losses at the midterm elections later this year, according to the sources. While no decision has been made, and Trump could easily ramp back up military operations, a quick de-escalation could ease political pressure on the ​president, even as it could leave behind an emboldened Iran. The sources spoke ​on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive intelligence matters. It is not clear when the intelligence community would c...

The Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) on Tuesday approved the transfer of three judges from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to other high courts. According to an official handout, Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi chaired a meeting of the commission at the Supreme Court. “The meetings were convened by the secretary of the JCP in exercise of powers conferred by clause (22) of Article 175A of the Constitution, as the chairman of the Commission, while giving reason therefor, declined to convene the meeting on the requisition by one-third of the total members,” it said. The statement said the commission approved the transfer of Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiani to the Lahore High Court (LHC), the transfer of Justice Babar Sattar to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the transfer of Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz to the Sindh High Court (SHC). The statement said that the transfers were approved by the majority. The JCP also decided that any vacancy arising as a result of the transfer of a judge from a high court “sha...

MUZZAFFARGARH - In line with the Punjab government’s digital transformation vision, significant progress has been made in modernizing the revenue system in district Muzaffargarh, where large scale training of patwaris and revenue officers on the Revenue Court Management System and the Green Property Certificate project has been.