Pakistan

An international media association on Wednesday accused the Israeli military of discrediting a Lebanese journalist it killed last month by circulating an AI-generated image of him in Hezbollah fatigues. Three Lebanese journalists, including Ali Shoeib — a prominent correspondent for the Al-Manar channel — were killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon on March 28. The Israeli military claimed responsibility for Shoeib’s killing, saying he “operated within the Hezbollah terrorist organisation under the guise of a journalist”. It provided no evidence to support the allegation, but posted an image on X of Shoeib wearing a press vest, which is partially overlayed with a photoshopped version of the same picture in which he is wearing a Hezbollah uniform. It captioned the image: “Turns out the ‘press vest’ was just a cover for terror.” A day later, military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani posted another grainy image on X purporting to show Shoeib in fatigues standing by a tank, writing: “We post this unedi...

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday said that it was necessary to conduct the local government elections of cantonment boards by August 8. According to a statement, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja chaired a meeting for consultations over the upcoming local government elections of the cantonment boards. It added that the consultation with the federal government and legal requirements would be completed in a timely manner so that the ECP could ensure the announcement of the election schedule and conduct of elections. In his opening remarks, Raja highlighted the importance of establishing local governments and stated that local governments existed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan, while under Article 140(A) of the Constitution of Pakistan, conducting local government elections was the ECP’s responsibility, the statement said. “However, these elections are conducted under laws framed by the provincial governments,” Raja said in an apparent attempt to jus...

For more than a month and a half, the world has been watching a war that was never meant to last this long and certainly not at this level of strategic uncertainty.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange’s (PSX) benchmark KSE-100 index gained almost 2,900 points on Wednesday, sustaining its bullish momentum for a second consecutive day. The positive trend came amid hopes that peace talks between the United States and Iran will proceed to a second round, with US President Donald Trump saying they are more likely to be held in Islamabad. The KSE-100 index surged by 2,885.10 points, or 1.74 per cent, to close at 168,519.94 points, up from the previous close of 165,634.84. Opening on a positive note, the market reached an intraday high of 170,640.26 points at around 9:45am. It then fluctuated to drop to an intraday low of 168,182.98 points at 3:11pm, before regaining some ground to stand at 168,519.94. Topline Securities Ltd noted that the benchmark index surged to an “impressive intraday high of 5,005 points”. “However, mid-session volatility emerged, eroding a portion of the early gains and pulling the index down to an intraday low of 2,548 points — while notably remaining in positiv...

In the jagged Hindu Kush in eastern Afghanistan, hundreds of men dug into the rocky bed of the Kunar River searching for a few grams of gold dust as an alternative source of income. At the foot of imposing peaks, some still covered in snow in April, they toiled near the border with Pakistan to find the valuable glinting specks in a country where wages are low. This photograph taken on April 13, 2026 shows Afghan men pouring water over a seive as they sift through mountainside stones in search of gold nuggets along the Kunar river in the Song area of Ghaziabad district, Kunar province. — AFP Below a village of mud-brick houses and small terraced wheat plots in Kharwalu, Kunar province, they dug into a dry section of the riverbed before sifting through their piles of rocks using river water. This photograph taken on April 13, 2026 shows an Afghan man pouring water over a seive as he sifts through mountainside stones in search of gold nuggets along the Kunar river in the Song area of Ghaziabad district, Kunar pr...

KARACHI: The subcontinent might witness a subdued monsoon this summer as the warming El Niño wea­t­her phenomenon is expected to form later this year, according to a weather expert. “We are expecting El Niño in the coming summer and it is expected to become ‘super El Niño’ by the end of August to September,” Pakistan Meteorological Department’s (PMD) spokesperson Anjum Nazir Zaigham told Dawn. He noted that El Niño suppresses the summer monsoon in the subcontinent. “If super El Niño forms, then 2027 might be the warmest year in records,” Zaigham added. El Niño and its cooler sister La Niña are climate patterns in the Pacific Ocean that can affect weather worldwide. El Niño and La Niña events occur every two to seven years, on average, but they do not occur on a regular schedule, according to the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In a report published yesterday, The Guardian noted, “A strong El Niño would put 2027 in the running to break global heat records, and could produ...

DERA MURAD JAMALI: A police constable was martyred on Wednesday after unknown armed men opened fire on a polio team in Dera Murad Jamali town of Balochistan’s Nasirabad district, police said. According to police officials, the polio team was on its way home on a lunch break when armed men on motorcycles opened fire on the police personnel accompanying them. As a result, Constable Farhan Bashir was martyred. “A constable was martyred after armed men opened fire on police personnel. However, the other members of the team remained unhurt in the firing,” Nasirabad Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Asad Nasar told Dawn. The assailants fired ten 9mm bullets at the constable, resulting in his death on the spot, the SSP said, adding that the assailants fled from the scene. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Nasar said, adding that a search operation had been launched to find out the miscreants involved in the incident. Nasirabad Deputy Commissioner Zulfiqar Ali Karrar said the anti-polio ca...

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday apologised to power consumers for higher than promised “load management” arising out of lower water availability for power generation. In a statement, the Power Division said it was “apologising for the additional load management necessitated by reduced hydropower availability”. A spokesman for the Power Division also urged consumers to conserve electricity, particularly during nighttime hours, and to adopt energy-saving practices. The statement followed complaints from various parts of the country about excessive loadshedding on Tuesday, instead of only 2.25 hours promised a day earlier in an effort to avoid an increase in electricity prices. The power ministry reported a temporary increase in load management and attributed it to a sharp decline in hydropower generation during peak hours last night, which it said strained the electricity supply and widened the demand-supply gap. “Hydropower production dropped by 1,991 megawatts during the night, contributing to a total ...

North Korea is showing a “very serious increase” in its ability to produce atomic weapons, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday on a visit to Seoul. The diplomatically isolated north is believed to operate multiple facilities for enriching uranium, a key step in making nuclear warheads, South Korea’s spy agency has said. They include one at the Yongbyon nuclear site, which Pyongyang purportedly decommissioned after talks but later reactivated in 2021. “In our periodic assessments, we have been able to confirm that there’s a rapid increase in the operations” of the Yongbyon reactor, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi told reporters in Seoul. The agency also observed a rise in operations at Yongbyon’s reprocessing unit and light-water reactor, as well as the activation of other facilities, Grossi said. “All that points to a very serious increase in the capabilities of (the) Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the area of nuclear weapons production, which i...

The Punjab government has prepared a plan to reduce fines for traffic violations across the province, with formal approval expected after it is presented before the provincial assembly.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has met with the United States’ commerce secretary to discuss ways to boost bilateral economic partnership and briefed an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official about the Middle East conflict’s economic impact on Pakistan, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. Aurangzeb arrived in Washington on Monday to represent Pakistan at the World Bank Group and IMF Spring Meetings 2026. During his visit, the finance czar was expected to participate in over 50 high-level engagements from April 13 to 18. In a series of posts on Wednesday, the finance ministry said that Aurangzeb has held multiple meetings, given an address and taken part in a panel discussion while there. The finance minister met with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington, DC, where “both sides discussed avenues for deepening bilateral economic partnership, with a focus on enhancing trade, promoting investment flows, and facilitating private-sector engagement”. The ministry added that they also dis...

Reaffirming its consistent policy, Pakistan has called for the abolition or severe restriction of the veto power and strongly opposed any expansion of permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The stance was expressed by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, at a resumed session of the long-running Intergovernmental Negotiations (IGN) aimed at reforming the 15-member UNSC. “Pakistan’s policy position remains clear and consistent — veto should either be abolished or, at a minimum, its use by the current permanent members severely restricted,” Ambassador Ahmad stated. He expressed Pakistan’s firm opposition to “any expansion of the veto or addition of new individual permanent members”, contending that more vetoes would only aggravate the problem. “This is a position of principle,” he said, noting that Pakistan aligned itself with the statement delivered by the permanent representative of Italy on behalf of the Uniting for Consensus Group. The UN...

Chairing a weekly review meeting on the affairs of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), the prime minister was briefed on a report prepared by a committee headed by Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera.

The electricity crisis has intensified across the country, with all power distribution companies (DISCOs) witnessing a sharp increase in loadshedding amid a growing supply-demand gap.

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Wednesday announced a special subsidy programme for farmers to mitigate the adverse impact of the global energy crisis. According to an official announcement, farmers owning less than 12 acres of land will be eligible for the subsidy. Eligible farmers can register for three easy subsidy packages through the Pakistan Asaan Khidmat application. Farmers can enrol in the programme by uploading their personal and other relevant information, along with documentary evidence, on the application. Meanwhile, a senior official told Dawn that the government would provide a subsidy of Rs1,500 per acre to farmers owning less than 12 acres of land. The amount, he said, will be transferred directly into farmers’ bank accounts or through mobile wallets such as JazzCash and Easypaisa. On April 3, the federal government announced targeted relief measures for motorcyclists, small farmers and transporters. Punjab reported that more than one million farmers now hold Kissan Cards, and that total...

An Indian national was charged with the alleged sexual assault of a woman on a Perth-bound flight, Australian media reported on Wednesday. The 52-year-old man, according to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Western Australia Police, committed “non-consensual sexual acts” on a woman seated next to him on the flight on Monday, which was headed from Singapore to Perth, News.com.au reported. According to the Australian Federal Police, the woman was moved to another seat after she complained to staff. At the same time, the suspect was monitored throughout the flight, the report said, adding that the staff also alerted the police. The suspect was escorted off the plane upon landing at the Perth Airport. The 52-year-old man was charged with “one count of sexual intercourse without consent and three counts of an act of indecency without consent”, News.com.au reported. The suspect has been remanded in custody ahead of a court appearance on Friday, the report said, adding that the incident was being investiga...

Muhammad Aurangzeb has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the Roshan Digital Account (RDA) scheme, highlighting its resilience and importance for attracting overseas investment.

Shehbaz Sharif is set to embark on a four-day official visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey from Wednesday, as Pakistan intensifies diplomatic engagement ahead of a possible second round of US-Iran peace talks.

China’s President Xi Jinping met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, Chinese state media said, as a string of leaders of countries impacted by the Middle East war flock to Beijing. Lavrov joins Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Vietnam’s President To Lam in meeting with Xi this week. The Russian diplomat told a news conference after meeting Xi that Moscow could “compensate” for China’s energy shortages as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remains choked by the Iran war. Xi, meanwhile, has sought to position China as a mediator and stable partner in the face of the US- and Israeli-led conflict. Xi told Abu Dhabi’s crown prince on Tuesday that China would play a “constructive role” in promoting peace talks in the Middle East. In talks with Spain’s Sanchez, Xi warned that the world was facing “chaos and turmoil” and “a contest between justice and force”, urging closer cooperation. The Spanish prime minister, meanwhile, welcome...

US President Donald Trump, whose war and immigration policies have been condemned by Pope Leo, reiterated his criticism of the religious leader on Tuesday night. In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged that “someone please tell Pope Leo” about the killings of protesters by Iran and that “for Iran to have a Nuclear Bomb is absolutely unacceptable.” The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states with US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions. Iran does not have nuclear weapons while the US does. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons. While Western countries have long believed that Iran wants a nuclear bomb — or at least the ability to make one very quickly — Tehran has always denied that, citing its membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Trump’s comments come after Pope Leo warned earlier in the day of the risk of democra...