Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s High Commissioner-designate to Australia, Irfan Shaukat, called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr on Monday.

LAHORE - A judicial magistrate on Monday sent YouTuber Saadur Rehman, popularly known as Ducky Bhai, to jail on 14-day judicial remand in a case pertaining to the promotion of gambling applications on social media.

KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Monday granted bail to a man and his wife who were arrested for allegedly burning their teenage maid with an electric iron at their home. The couple, identified as Shahroz Muhammad Ali and Kanwal, were arrested on Sunday by the Ferozabad police, which registered a case against them under Sections 328-A (cruelty to a child) and 337-A (i) (shajjah) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 14-(1) of the Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Act, 2017. The said section of the child law states: “Whoever employs any child shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or with a fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees, or with both.” On Monday, the investigating officer produced the couple before Judicial Magistrate (East) Hameedullah and sought their physical remand for further interrogation. Meanwhile, the defence counsel requested the court to grant them bail, arguing that the offences mentioned in the FIR were bailable. After hea...

A report published by the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) on Tuesday found that national laws in many Commonwealth member countries severely impede press freedom and unduly restrict the right to freedom of expression. A press release stated that the CHRI, the Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) called on member states to urgently repeal “laws that criminalise legitimate public speech” and take decisive action to protect media workers and watchdogs from violence and intimidation. “The report Who Controls the Narrative? Legal Restrictions on Freedom of Expression in the Commonwealth finds that criminal provisions for speech offences, including defamation and sedition, as well as violations of national security laws, are arbitrarily applied to intimidate and silence journalists, human rights defenders, and government critics,” the press release read. “A key objective, the authors argue, must be to decriminalise defamation laws in 41 Commonwealth c...

A Pak-Afghan border jirga was held at the Kharlachi Border Terminal in Kurram with the support of the Pakistan Army, bringing together tribal elders and traders from both sides to discuss matters of mutual interest.

Bangladesh has announced 500 new scholarships for talented Pakistani students in a bid to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries.

KARACHI: Following a surge in sugar prices, consumers are now facing higher costs for flour and roti across various parts of Pakistan as wheat and flour prices continue to rise. In Karachi, tandoor operators have raised the price of various roti varieties by an average of Rs2 per piece, which will mainly impact low- and middle-income groups, particularly daily wage earners and the labour class, who typically rely on eating their meals at local eateries. The sharp rise in prices is evident in branded flour, with some millers raising the cost of a five-kilogram bag of fine flour to Rs700, up from Rs500 on Aug 1 and Rs600 on Sept 1, despite the arrival of the new wheat crop earlier this year. Retailers report that large-scale traders are likely profiting from the rise in prices, taking advantage of the higher demand for old flour stocks. Some market analysts believe the ongoing wheat crisis is unrelated to the recent floods in Punjab and other regions, as the new wheat crop was harvested in March/April. However,...

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday reaffirmed his party’s solidarity with flood-affected families.

Karachi experienced widespread rainfall on Tuesday as a powerful monsoon system continued to impact the city, bringing light to moderate showers in several areas and raising concerns of urban flooding.

ISLAMABAD: The government announced on Monday that Pakistan and China had agreed to form a consortium of bilateral and multilateral partners to finance the $7 billion Mainline-1 (ML-1) railway project, along with a four-year action plan (2025-29) for the second phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Speaking at a news conference, Planning and Development Minister Ahsan Iqbal said that during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent visit to China, the two sides had agreed to constitute a consortium of financiers, including the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), China and Pakistan, for the 1,700-km Karachi-Peshawar railway line. He said China had assured financing not only for ML-1 but also for the Karakoram Highway. Negotiations with multiple financiers would be concluded within a month. He added that ML-1 and the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway would already have been completed, had it not been for the 2018 political change, alleging that the subsequent PTI gove...

LAHORE: Floods in Punjab, which have submerged more than 1.3 million acres of farmland along the eastern rivers, have caused significant damage to the Kharif crops, particularly cotton, prompting fears of food inflation. Floods have displaced two million people, submerged 2,000 villages, and led to the relocation of 760,000 residents and 516,000 heads of cattle from the affected areas. The satellite imagery of 24 Punjab districts in the command areas of the Sutlej, Ravi, and Chenab rivers shows that arou­nd 3,661 square kilometres, or 4.7 per cent of the total area, remained under floodwaters. The floods have devastated key crops, including rice, sugarcane, corn, vegetables, and cotton. According to the Pakistan Business Forum, approximately 35pc of the cotton crop in central and southern Punjab has been destroyed, with losses reaching as high as 40-50pc in Bahawalnagar, the province’s largest cotton-producing district. Kissan Board leader claims losses to tune of Rs500bn; over 1.3m acres of farmland submerge...

KARACHI: Remittances sent by overseas Pakis­tanis have remained robust despite the rationalisation of incentives for banks and exchange companies. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), remittance inflows in the first two months of FY26 rose by 7pc, dispelling fears that a reduction in incentives would lead to a decline in remittances. In August, remittances totalled $3.137 billion, showing a 6.6pc year-on-year increase. However, the monthly inflows saw a slight decline of 2.4pc compared to July, when they were $3.214bn. While the growth in the first two months of FY26 is positive, it pales in comparison to the remarkable growth witnessed during the same period last fiscal year. Remittances surged by 44pc in 2MFY25 compared to FY24. This extraordinary growth contributed to a record annual total of $38.3bn, which helped maintain exchange rate stability and allowed the SBP to increase its foreign reserves by $7.8bn, reaching $14.5bn. The government does not expect remittance growth to match the record l...

ISLAMABAD - A delegation of investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) met with Chairman of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Chief Commissioner Islamabad, Muhammad Ali Randhawa, at the CDA Headquarters.

Malala Fund co-founder Ziauddin Yousafzai, accompanied by his wife Toor Pekai Yousafzai, visited flood-affected districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this week, including Buner, Shangla, and Swat, where more than 300 lives have been lost and over 200 people remain unaccounted for.

A high-level delegation of investors from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) met with the Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad, Muhammad Ali Randhawa, on Monday to explore investment opportunities in the federal capital.

The Ministry of Railways on Monday inked Phase I of the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), a flagship project set to boost freight capacity, speed up cargo movement to and from Karachi Port, and ease congestion on roads and terminals.

Weeks of torrential monsoon rains have unleashed catastrophic floods across the country, killing more than 920 people, displacing nearly two million, submerging vast stretches of farmland, and sweeping away homes, schools and livestock. The disaster could now trigger one of the country’s largest internal migrations since the devastating 2010 floods, aid agencies and local experts warn. “Migration has already started in several areas as unprecedented rains and floods have left nothing behind for millions of people,” Shaukat Ali Chadhar, president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Agriculture, told Anadolu. Chadhar said the ongoing deluges have already affected around 10m people dependent on agriculture across the country, mainly in Punjab. “A multi-pronged combination of rains and floods has affected the farmers in many ways, destroying stored and standing crops, agricultural lands and livestock,” he explained, saying it could take up to 18 months for the land to become cultivable again. “This gloomy s...

The Rawalpindi Police on Monday booked PTI founder Imran Khan’s sister Aleema Khan, party lawyer Naeem Panjutha and others for violence against a journalist outside Adiala Jail. A first information report (FIR) was filed at the Saddar Bairooni Police Station today on the complaint of Supreme Court Press Association President Tayyab Baloch under Sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 382 (theft after preparation made causing death, hurt or restraint in order to committing of the theft), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code. Baloch said that he was present outside Adiala Jail at around 3:55pm for reporting with other journalists when Aleema and other people began a media talk after a hearing for the Toshakhana case. “During this time, a person named Naeem Panjutha called out: ‘Teach him a lesson for questioning Aleem...

A United States appeals court upheld on Monday a jury’s $83.3 million penalty against President Donald Trump for defaming author E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found to have sexually assaulted. The January 2024 order consisted of $65m in punitive damages after the jury found Trump acted maliciously in his many public comments about Carroll, $7.3m in compensatory damages and $11m to pay for an online campaign to repair Carroll’s reputation. The civil order, which prompted an audible gasp in the federal court, far exceeded the more than $10m in damages for defamation that Carroll had sought. Trump — whom a jury found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a separate federal civil case in New York — used his Truth Social platform at the time to fire off a spate of insulting messages attacking Carroll, the trial and the judge, whom he called “an extremely abusive individual”. ‘Substantial financial penalty’ “We hold that the district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s duly ren...

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