Pakistan

The controversy surrounding the supposed inclusion of columnist and social media activist Shama Junejo in Pakistan’s delegation to the United Nations this week took a new turn on Sunday when she claimed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had included her among the delegates as an adviser. The controversy had surfaced when photos from Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s address at a UN Security Council session on artificial intelligence (AI) spread like wildfire on social media platform X, with users pointing to Junejo sitting in the background. Several of them also shared screenshots from her Twitter (now X) timeline from several years ago, expressing support for Israel — a position sharply at odds with Pakistan’s longstanding pro-Palestinian stance. After social media furore, Asif said on X that only the Foreign Office could explain Junejo’s presence at the session. Later, the FO clarified that she had not been part of Pakistan’s accredited delegation. Following that, Asif also spoke about the matter on Geo News...

Former domestic player and administrator Mithun Manhas was unanimously elected on Sunday as president of India’s cricket board, the sport’s most powerful national body. Manhas was the only nominee to be chief of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and was appointed after the board’s annual general meeting in Mumbai. Rajeev Shukla was elected as vice-president, while Devajit Saikia will stay on as secretary, the BCCI said in a statement. Manhas, 45, never played for India but turned to the game’s administration after his first-class playing career ended. He replaces India’s former World Cup-winner Roger Binny, who quit in August after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Cricket’s massive popularity in India has helped the BCCI become by far the wealthiest of all of the sport’s boards, netting massive money from sponsorship and TV deals. Manhas’ rise has apparently been backed by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was chosen at a key meeting in New Delhi last week that was als...

Pakistan’s bilateral trade with Central Asian states, along with Afghanistan and Azerbaijan, rose sharply to $2.

At least three young boys were killed and five others injured when explosive shells left behind by Khawarij militants detonated in Bajaur’s Mamund Tehsil.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has welcomed the recent stance by Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan against the establishment of foreign military bases in and around Afghanistan. This position was affirmed in a joint statement released after foreign ministers from the four countries met on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York. They emphasised respect for Afghanistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and said re-establishment of foreign military bases is “not conducive to regional peace and security.” According to Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for the Taliban government, his country not only welcomed the stance of the four countries but said that “Afghanistan will not allow its territory to be used against other countries, nor permit armed groups to operate from its soil.” While the joint statement did not refer to any specific country seeking bases in Afghanistan, it follows one by US President Donald Trump where he said Washington was trying to get...

China’s former minister for agriculture and rural affairs was sentenced to death with reprieve for bribery at a court in Jilin province on Sunday, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. Tang took bribes, including cash and property worth over 268 million yuan ($37.6 million) in various positions held from 2007 to 2024, Xinhua said. The Changchun Intermediate People’s Court suspended his death sentence for two years, noting he had confessed to his crimes, it added. China’s Communist Party expelled Tang in November 2024, six months after he was placed under investigation by the anti-graft watchdog and removed from his post. Tang’s investigation was unusually swift and followed similar investigations into Defence Minister Li Shangfu and his predecessor Wei Fenghe. President Xi Jinping started a campaign of purges of China’s domestic security apparatus in 2020, seeking to ensure police, prosecutors, and judges are “absolutely loyal, absolutely pure and absolutely reliable”. Tang was governor of the western pr...

A team of female health workers was attacked on Saturday while administering vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) in Punjab’s Mandi Bahauddin district, the second such incident in three days. The HPV vaccine, first launched in Pakistan in 2022, has now been rolled out nationwide as part of the routine immunisation programme to protect adolescent girls against cervical cancer. However, vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan remains a major public health challenge, driven by a mix of misinformation, safety concerns, and mistrust of authorities. In the latest incident yesterday, the HPV vaccination team was performing its duty in a non-formal education school in the village of Ratuwal, within the limits of Kathian Sheikhan police station, when a 55-year-old resident of the village entered the school and attempted to attack a female health supervisor. According to Kathian Sheikhan’s Station House Officer Sabir Iqbal Sindhu, the suspect “tried to attack the supervisor with a stick and by lifting a chair, threate...

The federal government has decided to extend the national cervical cancer prevention campaign after provinces reported falling short of vaccination targets, official sources confirmed.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif has praised Germany’s cooperation in modern agricultural technology, green initiatives, and forestry development.

A stampede that killed dozens at a south Indian political rally happened after a crowd of thousands waited hours in baking heat without sufficient safeguards, officials and witnesses said on Sunday. Some 27,000 people thronged a public road in Tamil Nadu state in hopes of seeing popular actor-turned-politician Vijay on Saturday, but panic broke out and 39 were killed, authorities said. Witnesses cited hours of delays, insufficient police presence, and people falling from a tree branch onto the audience as contributing to the tragedy. Tamil Nadu police have registered a criminal case against leaders of Vijay’s political party. Senior police official V Selvaraj told Reuters that the filing of the case was the first step toward potential charges, “against TVK party senior leaders Bussy Anand, Nirmal Kumar and VP Mathiyalagan, and the investigation is under way”. “TVK originally sought permission for a gathering of 10,000 people, but the actual crowd was more than double,” he said. Deadly crowd incidents happen r...

The water level at Kotri Barrage has begun to recede after reaching peak flows of over 420,000 cusecs in recent days.

The Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Rahim Yar Khan, Khurram Pervaiz, has announced a public holiday on October 1 (Wednesday) in connection with the annual Urs of Hazrat Khawaja Ghulam Farid.

In a game that had turned into a virtual semi-final, a transformation was nearing its completion. It had taken time but the necessary trust had been gained — a tottering Pakistan were pinning hopes on Shaheen Shah Afridi to dig them out of a hole and, for a change, with the bat. Bangladesh had reduced Salman Ali Agha’s men to 58-5 in their 2025 Asia Cup Super Four clash and Pakistan were searching for some inspiration when the transformed Shaheen hoicked Tanzim Hasan Saqib to the top tier of the Dubai International Cricket Stadium for the first six of the match. Taskin Ahmed, Bangladesh’s most successful bowler of the night, was then clubbed for another in the next over to pave way for Pakistan to post a respectable 135-8; the defence of which he would later spearhead with the ball. There is a viral video from the 2024 T20 World Cup in which Shaheen jokingly complains to the ICC crew for putting ‘bowler’ next to his name instead of ‘all-rounder’. Only days later, his unbeaten 16-ball 23 not out helped Pakista...

The article was first published in December 2019 and has been replugged for DawnMedia’s upcoming air pollution conference in Lahore. In an unprecedented move, schools in Lahore were officially closed for a couple of days this month because of heavy smog that has noticeably settled in every crevice of the city. Not only has the city’s air quality touched hazardous levels with zero visibility to go along, there also seems to be an acrid smell of burnt garbage in the air. The all-too-familiar phenomenon has now become the ‘fifth climate’ of Lahore. Currently, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 285, the state of Lahore’s air has moved from ‘hazardous’ to ‘very unhealthy’, where it remains the most polluted urban centre in Pakistan in terms of air quality. But this isn’t the first year of Lahore’s suffering. For the past several years, the onset of the cooler months of October and November has been bringing with it choking smog to the city that heralds in respiratory illnesses, eye diseases, and particulate matter...

Mayor Murtaza Wahab has announced that the city administration has launched rehabilitation work on 106 roads across Karachi, with the projects expected to be completed within 60 days.

President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned the 20th session of the National Assembly to be held on Monday at 5:00 pm in Parliament House.

Pakistan has reaffirmed its commitment to peace while strongly rejecting Indian allegations of terrorism, accusing New Delhi of sponsoring and exporting terrorism in the region.

• TTP terrorists targeted in intelligence-based operation • Four civilians killed in Bajaur blast, caused by old explosive device • State minister warns militants to be met with bullets if talks fail • Says 80pc attackers are Afghans; urges political unity to tackle challenge LAKKI MARWAT/ BAJAUR: Seventeen militants were killed in an intelligence-based oper­ation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Karak district on Friday night, while four civilians fell victim to an explosion in the Bajaur district on Saturday. Three security personnel were also injured in the operation conducted in the Darshakhel area of Karak. The operation was conducted “on the reported presence of khwarij belonging to Indian proxy Fitna al Khwarij,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. “During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij location and, resultantly, 17 Indian-sponsored khwarij were sent to hell,” it added. Karak District Police Officer Shahbaz Elahi said that the police and security...

LAHORE - Pakistan stand on the brink of history as they prepare to face arch-rivals India in the grand finale of the ACC Men’s T20 Asia Cup 2025 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday (today).

LAHORE - Pakistan stand on the brink of history as they prepare to face arch-rivals India in the grand finale of the ACC Men’s T20 Asia Cup 2025 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday (today).