Pakistan

President Asif Ali Zardari Thursday left for Pakistan after his visit to Doha, Qatar.

Pakistan has categorically rejected the unfounded and misleading allegations that members of the Hindu community were denied entry into its territory.

A district and sessions court in Islamabad on Thursday cancelled the non-bailable arrest warrants issued for lawyer and rights activist Imaan Mazari and her husband, Hadi Ali Chattha, in the controversial tweet case.

PPP Information Secretary Shazia Marri said on Thursday that the party would not support any rollback of the 18th Amendment or the NFC Award if the government sought its backing. Speaking to reporters in Karachi outside the Bilawal House, Marri said that her party will never take away the rights given to provinces. “When it comes to provinces, the PPP has a very clear stance […] the Pakistan Peoples Party wants to see the strengthening of the provinces, and it will never take away its rights or agree to proposals that may [compromise its rights],” she said. However, she added that if any constitutional amendments could improve Pakistan’s governance system, enhance institutional performance, and deliver greater relief to citizens, the PPP would be open to considering and supporting such proposals. “There are fears and speculations that there will be discussions [today] regarding the 18th Amendment or the NFC share. The PPP has a very clear stance on this — we will never step back. Rolling back the 18th Amendme...

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Sohail Afridi said on Thursday that he was unable to meet the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) earlier today and was denied permission to meet PTI founder and ex-premier Imran Khan at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail. Afridi has been seeking a meeting with the former premier, who is incarcerated at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail, since he was sworn in as the KP CM on October 15. He has been denied access to the PTI founder at least four times since then, despite the IHC’s directives to implement its March order that reinstated a twice-a-week meeting schedule for Imran. Addressing reporters outside the prison, CM Afridi lamented that he was unable to meet the party founder and the chief justice of the IHC, the latter of whom he had waited 90 minutes to meet before leaving empty-handed. “As you all know, there have been continuous efforts through constitutional and legal means; this is the fifth time,” he said, referring to how frequently he was denied a meeting with the PTI f...

.

Report reveals not a single conviction recorded in cases reported between January & June, 25

.

.

Air quality index exceeds 170 as gridlock, dust and chaos grip Rawalpindi

.

.

The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday rejected “unfounded and misleading” allegations that members of the Hindu community were denied entry into the country on religious grounds, clarifying the action was “purely administrative” and consistent with Islamabad’s sovereign right to regulate entry into its territory. Earlier this week, Pakistan welcomed Sikh pilgrims from India, with over 2,000 pilgrims granted visas to attend a 10-day festival marking the 556th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith. However, Indian media claimed yesterday that an Indian national and six family members were reportedly denied entry into Pakistan, with officials allegedly citing their Hindu faith as the reason for refusal. In a statement today, FO said that these claims are “entirely baseless and represent yet another attempt to distort facts and politicise a matter that was purely administrative in nature”. “High Commission for Pakistan, New Delhi, had issued over 2,400 visas to Sikh pilgrims from India to parti...

Türkiye’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya met with Pakistan’s Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi in Islamabad to discuss enhanced collaboration in counterterrorism, anti-narcotics operations, human trafficking prevention, border management, cybercrime, coast guard coordination, and police training.

“Vibe coding”, a word that essentially means using artificial intelligence (AI) to tell a machine what you want instead of coding it yourself, was on Thursday named the Collins Word of the Year 2025. Coined by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, the word refers to “an emerging software development that turns natural language into computer code using AI”, according to Collins Dictionary. “It’s programming by vibes, not variables,” said Collins. “While tech experts debate whether it’s revolutionary or reckless, the term has resonated far beyond Silicon Valley, speaking to a broader cultural shift towards AI-assisted everything in everyday life,” it added. Lexicographers at Collins Dictionary monitor the 24 billion-word Collins Corpus, which draws from a range of media sources, including social media, to create the annual list of new and notable words that reflect our ever-evolving language. The 2025 shortlist highlights a range of words that have emerged in the past year to pithily reflect the changing world aro...

Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan (SAEP) President Abdullah Jadoon and Secretary General Awais Jadoon were dismissed from service on Thursday amid an ongoing tiff with the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafiz confirmed the development to Dawn. The national flag carrier also issued two dismissal notices to the engineers, copies of which are available with Dawn. Abdullah’s role was stated as an aircraft engineer (PG-VI), while Awais was an aircraft engineer (PG-VIII). The dismissal letters said that notices were issued to the SAEP president for conducting a press conference without prior authorisation and for disclosing official information to the media, and to the SAEP secretary general, for the unauthorised disclosure of confidential operational information and PIA images. “In order to enquire into the allegations/charges communicated to you via the aforesaid showcause notice, an enquiry was conducted wherein you failed to participate despite providing ample opportuni...

Federal Minister for Frontier Affairs Amir Muqam announced on Thursday that the federal government would take part in the upcoming peace jirga called by the PTI. The announcement was made as Muqam held a joint press conference alongside PTI stalwart Asad Qaiser in Islamabad. Earlier this week, the PTI decided to convene a peace jirga in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly (KPA) on November 12 to discuss the volatile law and order situation in the province. “We have conveyed our requests to the federal government and are grateful that they accepted our invitation,” Qaiser said while jointly addressing reporters after the meeting. “We have come together and we know what policy we want. Whatever it is, the province’s people and leadership need to come together to create a concerted plan of action,” he added. In response to a question, Muqam said that the PTI presented “the reason why we are here” and that the government accepted it. “They said they wanted peace and that we are all one,” he added. Meanwhile, Qaiser w...

The British Army’s Chief of the General Staff (CGS) Gen Sir Charles Roland Vincent Walker on Thursday met Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir in Rawalpindi, where the two discussed boosting bilateral defence cooperation. The meeting between the army chiefs took place at the General Headquarters (GHQ), a press release from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said. “During the meeting, matters of mutual interest, regional security and measures to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation were discussed,” it said. “Both sides reiterated the need for continued collaboration to ensure peace and stability in the region,” the military’s media affairs wing added. The British Army’s Chief of the General Staff (CGS) Gen Sir Charles Roland Vincent Walker calls on Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Asim Munir in Rawalpindi on Nov 6, 2025. — ISPR Gen Walker “appreciated Pakistan Army’s achievements and sacrifices in the fight against terrorism and its efforts for regional peace and stabili...

Arshad Nadeem’s coach Salman Butt will travel with him for the upcoming Islamic Solidarity Games next week despite having been slapped with a lifetime ban by the Athletics Federation of Pakistan (AFP) which prohibits him from participating in any athletics activities. The ban, which the federation imposed on Salman on October 12 “for gross violations of the AFP Constitution”, barred Salman from participating in any athletics activity “whether as an athlete, coach, official, or office bearer, at both national and international levels, inside or outside Pakistan.” AFP cited “illegal and unconstitutional” elections held on August 31 by the Punjab Athletics Association — of which Salman was president till August 6 — as the primary reason for the ban. The ban came just days after AFP asked Salman to explain Arshad’s 10th-place finish at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September. The matter descended into the legal sphere when Salman approached the Pakistan Sports Board (PSB) on Oct 14 to hear the cas...

China has begun modest purchases of the United States’ farm products after the leaders of both countries met last week, but traders still await significant soybean buys after the White House said Beijing pledged to buy 12 million tonnes by year-end. The top market for US farmers, China has turned its vast appetite for crops into a powerful trade war bargaining chip, largely avoiding US wheat and soybeans in favour of other supplies, after rounds of tit-for-tat tariffs. Chinese buyers have booked two cargoes of US wheat, the first such purchases since October last year, two traders said on Thursday, while a sorghum shipment has been sent from the US to China, a US industry official said. The deals to import US agricultural goods come as Beijing confirmed on Wednesday that it suspended retaliatory tariffs on US imports, including duties on farm goods, although shipments of US soybeans still face a 13 per cent tariff. Soft white and spring wheat cargoes The purchases of about 120,000 tonnes for December shipment...