Pakistan

Negotiations are underway to finalize the schedule for Pakistan’s first pilot freight train to Russia, which would carry 16 containers of rice in its inaugural shipment.

The Cabinet Committee on Regulatory Reforms (CCoRR), chaired by Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh, Federal Minister for Investment, convened a meeting on Friday to review the third quarterly Regulatory Reform Package, prepared and submitted by the Board of Investment (BOI).

Five people were injured on Friday in an accidental firing incident at the private residence of Balochistan Governor Sheikh Jaafar Khan Mandokhel in Zhob.

The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its verdict in a case concerning a domestic dispute between a father, his son, and his daughter.

A man in Karachi’s Malir area has died of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF), raising the city’s death toll from the virus to five this year, the Sindh health department said in a statement on Friday. According to the World Health Organisation, the CCHF, commonly known as Congo Virus, causes severe viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks with a case fatality rate of 10-40 per cent. There is no vaccine available for the disease. Experts say the CCHF virus is primarily transmitted to people either by tick bites or through contact with infected animal blood or tissues during and immediately after slaughter. As per the statement, a lab report confirmed that a 28-year-old butcher from Karachi’s Landhi area had contracted the disease. He developed symptoms on September 24, was admitted to the hospital the same day, and died within hours of admission. His symptoms included a high-grade fever, cough, shortness of breath, and bleeding from the mouth and rectum, following which a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test was...

Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar has said that the issues of lawyers are being resolved on a priority basis.

Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), visited Punjab University in Lahore, where he was warmly welcomed by students and the university administration.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday announced plans for a new nationwide digital ID in a bid to curb illegal migration, but the move faces strong opposition in country that has long-resisted such moves. The new digital ID will be held on people’s phones and there will be no requirement for individuals to carry or be asked to produce it, said the government. However, it will be “mandatory as a means of proving your right to work,” a statement said. “This will stop those with no right to be here from being able to find work, curbing their prospect of earning money, one of the key ‘pull factors’ for people who come to the UK illegally,” it added. The government said the drive will also make it simpler to apply for services like driving licences, childcare and welfare, while streamlining access to tax records. The announcement comes as Labour, the party in government, prepares to hold its annual conference, with Starmer under intense pressure, particularly over immigration. “Digital ID is an enormous opportu...

Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari on Friday said Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz had forcefully presented Punjab’s stance before the nation a day earlier.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has expressed satisfaction over the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) surpassing the historic 160,000-point mark, terming it a reflection of the business community’s confidence in the government’s economic policies.

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Quetta on Friday refused to extend the physical remand of Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) chief Dr Mahrang Baloch and other organisers, according to the group’s lawyer. Advocate Israr Jatak, a member of BYC’s legal team, told Dawn.com, “Quetta ATC-1 refused to extend the physical remand of five accused, namely Mahrang, Bebow Baloch, Sibghatullah Shahji, Beberg Baloch and Gulzadi and ordered them to be sent to jail on judicial remand.” In a hearing presided over by Judge Muhammad Ali Mubeen, the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) produced Mahrang and others in court today after the completion of their 15-day physical remand granted on September 11. Advocate Shoaib Mengal, along with Advocate Jatak, appeared in the court on behalf of the accused. The CTD requested the court for an extension to the physical remand of the accused, but Judge Mubeen refused, asking for the accused to be handed over to jail custody. On September 11, a Quetta ATC judge extended the physical remand of ...

At least five people, including two cops, were injured on Friday in an accidental firing incident at the residence of Balochistan Governor Jaffar Khan Manndokhail in the province’s Zhob district, police said. Speaking to the media, Zhob Superintendent of Police (SSP) Shaukat Mohmand said that three students and two police officers had been injured in the incident. “The firing happened by mistake and was done by the station house officer’s gunman,” the police officer said. He added that the gunman had dropped his gun on the ground, which had resulted in it going off. The injured students, who had come to meet the governor, were pupils at the Zhob Government Boys Degree College, he added. The official said that the condition of all the injured people was stable and they had been taken to a nearby hospital for medical intervention. According to initial investigations, police have termed the incident an accident, he said, adding that further investigation was underway. Earlier this month, a teenage girl was kille...

A digital reconstruction of a million-year-old skull suggests humans may have diverged from our ancient ancestors 400,000 years earlier than thought and in Asia not Africa, a study said on Friday. The findings are based on a reconstruction of a crushed skull discovered in China in 1990, and have the potential to resolve the longstanding “Muddle in the Middle” of human evolution, researchers said. But experts not involved in the work cautioned that the findings were likely to be disputed, and pointed to ongoing uncertainties in the timeline of human evolution. The skull, labelled Yunxian 2, was previously thought to belong to a human forerunner called Homo erectus. But modern reconstruction technologies revealed features closer to species previously thought to have existed only later in human evolution, including the recently discovered Homo longi and our own Homo sapiens. “This changes a lot of thinking,” said Chris Stringer, an anthropologist at the Natural History Museum, London, who was part of the researc...

Rights activist and lawyer Imaan Zainab Mazari-Hazir on Friday filed a grievance letter over “inaction” on her workplace harassment complaint against Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar. Justice Dogar had warned Mazari of a contempt of court case and was reported to have gone as far as passing warning remarks along the lines of “getting a hold of her”. Multiple lawyers’ bodies had issued condemnatory statements and called for the judge’s dismissal from the post of the IHC top judge. On Sept 15, Mazari approached an inquiry committee of the IHC and the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), filing a complaint under Section 4 (procedure for holding inquiry) of the Protection against Harassment of Women at the Workplace Act 2010. As Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz took cognisance of Mazari’s complaint, the IHC administration stripped the judge of her powers to entertain harassment complaints. Instead, IHC’s Justice Inaam Ameen Minhas was appointed as the competent authority to oversee the case. This promp...

Four suspects implicated in the massive $40 billion Kohistan corruption scandal have approached the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) with requests for a plea bargain.

At least 11 people were killed, and another three were injured after a truck crashed in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan, rescue 1122 said on Friday. Speaking to Dawn.com, spokesperson Rescue 1122, Bilal Ahmad Faizi, said that, “Eleven people lost their lives and three were injured as the truck’s brakes failed, causing it to crash in the Dana Sar Daranda area of DI Khan.” “The deceased include five women, a child, and a man,” he said, adding that the three injured were rushed to the District Headquarter Hospital DI Khan.“ He further said that the truck was travelling from the Khanozai area of Balochistan. “Seven of the bodies were also taken to the hospital by the Rescue 1122 team, while four bodies were moved to the hospital by the local people,” he said. The deceased people have not yet been identified. Public Relations Officer of DI Khan Police Yaqoob Khan, in a statement, said, “Police are compiling a report for the identification of the deceased and arranging for the bodies to be handed over to thei...

The Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) reported that an earthquake of magnitude 5.5 was felt in areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Friday morning. Pakistan falls on three major tectonic plates — the Arabian, Euro-Asian and Indian — which create five seismic zones under the country. The intersection of multiple fault lines means that tectonic movements remain a frequent occurrence in the region. A report issued by the PMD said that the earthquake originated at 8:17am PKT today, with its epicentre in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan at a depth of 195 kilometres, at a latitude of 36.51 degrees north and longitude of 70.98° east. Shocks were reported by the PMD to have been felt in Chitral, Peshawar and Swat, while the Pukhtunkhwa Times posted on X that “mild” tremors were also felt in Attock, Lower Dir and Upper Dir. At the start of the month, a 6.0-magnitude earthquake in Afghanistan killed over 1,400 people and flattened homes, with tremors jolting KP and Punjab. However, no casualties or damages were re...

ISLAMABAD - Chief Minister of Balochistan, Mir Sarfraz Bugti, and the Prime Minister’s Coordinator on Climate Change, Romina Khurshid Alam have agreed to accelerate the climate agenda through new projects and closer cooperation between provinces and the federal government.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Friday directed authorities to ensure every possible relief for cancer patients.

KARACHI: Building on the success of the Breathe Pakistan International Climate Change Conference, DawnMedia has announced plans to convene a moot focused on tackling the issue of air pollution. ‘The Air We Breathe’ will be held at the Expo Centre in Lahore on October 11, under the umbrella of Breathe Pakistan — an initiative to combat climate change that aims to mobilise citizens to incorporate environmental sustainability in their daily lives. Air pollution has become one of the most pressing public health and environmental crises facing Pakistan, and Lahore in particular is no stranger to this phenomenon. Once celebrated for its gardens, the city now ranks among the most polluted in the world, with PM2.5 levels far exceeding WHO safety limits, a DawnMedia statement said. “Other major cities — including Karachi, Faisalabad, and Peshawar — face similar challenges, driven by industrial emissions, vehicular exhaust, stubble burning, and poor enforcement of environmental regulations.” “Vulnerable groups — childr...