Pakistan

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Afridi raises PTI curbs, Imran family issues, CNG suspension

First-of-its-kind market empowers female entrepreneurs

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, who also serves as the chairperson of the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), has observed that granting the transfer of Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) back to the Sindh High Court (SHC) would render key constitutional ideals — federalism and equitable representation — redundant. Such a transfer will also reduce the appointments of judges to merely a temporary and reversible administrative arrangement, the CJP feared in his response to informal requests by IHC Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar to requisition a JCP meeting for the transfer of five judges presently serving in IHC to other high courts. The IHC chief justice had sought to convene a JCP meeting on April 28 to consider the transfer of senior puisne judge Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kiani to the Lahore High Court (LHC), Justice Babar Sattar to the Peshawar High Court (PHC), Justice Arbab Tahir to the Balochistan High Court (BHC) and both Justice Saman ...

The World Wide Fund for Nature-Pakistan (WWF-P) on Friday highlighted “potentially irreversible risks” and “ecological degradation” from development work at the foothills of Islamabad’s Margalla Hills, calling for the suspension of all such proposed and ongoing activities pending a “transparent environmental review”. The conservation organisation’s call came three days after the Ministry of Interior announced that a new park, spanning 1,000 kanals, would be developed at the foothills of the Margalla Hills. “WWF-Pakistan expresses its serious and escalating concern regarding ongoing and proposed development activities in areas adjoining the Margalla Hills National Park, particularly within ecologically sensitive foothill zones,” the organisation said in a statement. It recalled that recent assessments published by WWF-P earlier this year on tree removal in the federal capital “indicate that large-scale vegetation clearance and infrastructure expansion are taking place across multiple locations”. These developm...

ISLAMABAD: After a gap of 28 months, state-run Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) on Friday secured three bids at $17.997 to $18.88 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) for delivery between April 27 and May 8. A total of four bids were received and three were declared the lowest. For the first delivery window of April 27-30, TotalEnergies submitted the lowest bid of $18.88 per mmBtu. Vitol Bahrain’s bid of $18.54 was declared the lowest for the May 1-7 window, while OQ Trading was declared the lowest bidder at $17.997 per mmBtu for delivery between May 8 and 14. A day earlier, PLL had floated urgent tenders for the import of three LNG cargos for delivery between April 27 and May 8 amid rising temperatures and power shortfall. The PLL had set April 24 (Friday) as the deadline for bids to be opened the same day, given the emergent needs to meet power demand, which was short of supply by more than 4,500MW in peak, resulting in six to seven hours of loadshedding. The tender came following Qatar’s reluctance to send ...

Shehbaz Sharif has reiterated Pakistan’s resolve to promote global peace, despite increasingly complex international security challenges.

ISLAMABAD: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) has revamped its website, enabling citizens to access district-level birth and death records and also file right-to-information (RTI) requests online through a verified login. According to the authority, it has launched a major overhaul of its website, and replaced a text-heavy site that had been criticised as outdated and hard to navigate. A press release said that Nadra, which holds biometric data for over 240 million citizens, had redesigned group services, statistics and support “in a structured and user-centric manner”. “For the first time, Nadra’s Geospatially Referenced Demographic Information System is public. The tool displays registration data on interactive maps and lets users compare district-level census figures with Nadra’s own records,” the release said. “A map gallery offers downloadable thematic maps for research and planning — data previously restricted to government departments,” it added. It said that the key identity docu...

Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sohail Afridi has said that his government is prioritising national interest over political gains and promoting responsible political conduct.

The National Database and Registration Authority has launched a newly redesigned and modernised website, consolidating a wide range of identity and registration services into a single digital platform to enhance accessibility and user experience.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he had received successful treatment for early-stage prostate cancer, without specifying when the treatment took place. In a statement on social media, as his annual medical report was released, Netanyahu, 76, said an early stage malignant tumor had been discovered during a routine checkup. He said “targeted treatment” had removed “the problem” and left no trace of it. According to the medical report, which otherwise said the prime minister was in good health, Netanyahu was treated with radiation therapy for early-stage prostate cancer. Neither the medical report nor Netanyahu said when the treatment occurred. Israel’s longest-serving prime minister said that he had delayed the release of the medical report by two months to prevent Iran from spreading “false propaganda against Israel”. In March, during the US-Israeli war on Iran, rumors that circulated on social media and aired on Iranian state media alleged that Netanyahu had died. The Israeli lea...

Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, intensified diplomatic outreach on Friday with a series of high-level engagements aimed at strengthening regional cooperation and easing geopolitical tensions.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Friday chaired a meeting with Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch and senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to review evolving regional and global dynamics.

Speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has said that there is no mistrust between Pakistan and Iran, adding that negotiations between the United States and Iran are expected to begin soon.

Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Friday said that the Sindh government would fulfil its promise of rebuilding Gul Plaza, a multi-storey shopping plaza which was reduced to ruins due to a deadly inferno that claimed the lives of more than 70 people in January. In January, CM Murad had told the Sindh Assembly that the provincial government would demolish and reconstruct Gul Plaza within two years, ensuring no increase in the number of shops. Addressing a ceremony for distributing compensation cheques among the affected shopkeepers in Karachi on Friday, CM Murad said, “The Sindh government will rebuild Gul Plaza as promised, and will make the same number of shops as before. All the losses will be recompensed and no one will benefit through unfair means.” He said that this was the first phase of distributing the cheques to the affected shopkeepers. CM Murad also expressed his gratitude to the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) for providing the tempora...

The United States has drained much of its weapons stockpile, totalling up to billions of dollars, in its war on Iran, according to a New York Times investigation. The weapons, as per the NYT, included over 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles — each worth more than $4 million. According to the report, the US has “burned through around 1,100 of its long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the US stockpile”. Also included in the stockpile used were over 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles — around ten times the US military’s annual stock. Citing internal Defence Department estimates and congressional officials, NYT reported that over 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles were used, “leaving inventories worryingly low”. Further, around 1,100 JASSM-ER missiles were used — each worth around $1.1m — leaving only 1,500 in the military’s stock. The report said that the existing situation had left the US military “less ready” to confront threats f...

Pakistan is set to witness renewed diplomatic activity as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is expected to arrive in Islamabad tonight with a small delegation, amid growing momentum for a possible second round of US-Iran negotiations.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has reaffirmed that the provincial government will reconstruct Gul Plaza in Karachi, which was gutted in a fire in January 2026, killing 67 people.

On a cold day in January, a hundred and fifty armed policemen descended on Taunsa Barrage near Kot Addu with two bulldozers to raze a settlement spread over 47 kanal of government land. Many of the homes belonged to the famous boatpeople of the River Indus, the Mohanas. As they also go by the name Shaikh, their settlement, Basti Shaikhan, was marked on the official map for demolition. Also on the map, in the corner, was a box that said: proposed for Circuit House. The operation was carried out by the new Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (Pera) which was assisted by Deputy Commissioner Bilal Saleem. But the people who have lived there for generations, challenge the notion that they are squatters. And even though Pera’s Director-General for Monitoring and Implementation, Ahmed Zaheer, says they issue encroachers a digital Emergency Prohibition Order, activist Fazl-e-Rab maintains the basti had no idea the bulldozers were coming. A view of the basti post Pera’s operation — photo by Tariq Birmani As Bi...

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday stressed his country was a “reliable member” of Nato, after a report the United States was considering possibly trying to expel Spain over its refusal to support operations in the Middle East war. Reuters news agency cited an anonymous US official telling it that the Pentagon had outlined the expulsion option in an email looking at ways to punish Nato allies that steered clear of the US-Israeli war against Iran. “Spain is a reliable member within Nato” which is fulfilling all its obligations, Sanchez told reporters in Cyprus, where he was attending an EU summit. “As a result, I am absolutely not worried,” he said. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly railed against Nato allies for refusing to join the war, saying he viewed it as a betrayal. Some of them — France, Spain and Italy — did not allow US military aircraft deployed for the war to overfly their territories or to use bases. Britain initially also refused, but later allowed US flights from its bases for...