Pakistan

Israel reopened the border between Gaza and Egypt on Monday for people on foot, a move that would allow Palestinians to leave the enclave and let back in those who want to return after fleeing Israel’s war in the enclave. The reopening of the Rafah border crossing will be limited, with Israel demanding security checks for Palestinians entering and exiting. Israel and Egypt were expected to impose caps on the number of travellers. Israel seized the border crossing in May 2024, about nine months into the Gaza war that was brought to a tenuous halt by an October ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump. Rafah’s reopening was an important requirement under the first phase of Trump’s broader plan to stop fighting between Israel and Hamas. An Israeli security official said that European monitoring teams had arrived at the crossing, which “has now opened to the movement of residents, for both entry and exit.” Foreign Journalist barred from Gaza In the first nine months of Israel’s assault in Gaza, launched af...

Security forces have killed 22 more terrorists, taking the total number of casualties to 177 over the past three days, security sources said on Monday.

A petroleum company involved in the country’s largest-ever recovery case, linked to a loss of PKR 47 billion to the national treasury, has started making payments, officials confirmed.

Former British government minister Peter Mandelson has resigned as a member of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party after new reports of his ties with disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, media reported on Sunday. Mandelson, who was dismissed by Starmer as Britain’s ambassador to the United States last year after previous revelations about his connections to Epstein, said he did not wish to cause “further embarrassment” to Labour, the reports said. “I have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful and sorry about this,” Mandelson said in a letter to the Labour Party reported by the BBC and other news organisations, which Reuters was not immediately able to obtain. Mandelson said he believed allegations about financial payments to him by Epstein, which appeared in British media based on files released by the US Department of Justice, were false and he would investigate them. “While doing this, I do not wish to cause further embarrass...

Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder Altaf Hussain was hospitalised in London on Sunday night after his “health deteriorated”. In a post on Sunday night, the party said doctors had conducted a medical examination of the MQM leader and admitted him to the hospital. Hussain currently lives in London, where he has been in self-imposed exile since 1992. He was later granted British citizenship. From London, Hussain played an active role in politics, regularly broadcasting political speeches to his followers in Karachi. “Mr Altaf Hussain was taken to the hospital on Sunday evening due to ill health, where after an initial examination, the doctors have admitted him to the hospital,” said the post on X. The party elaborated that doctors “administered an injection to him, and started an IV drip in view of weakness in his body”. Doctors will conduct a detailed examination of the party founder on Monday, added the post. The party founder was also “administered a blood transfusion on Sunday night on the advice of doct...

Director General ISPR Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry held a special interactive session with faculty members and students of the University of Turbat.

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will undertake his first state visit to Pakistan from February 3 to 4, 2026, accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising senior cabinet ministers and other top officials.

NEW DELHI: India will spend a record amount on infrastructure and defence, the finance minister said in her national budget speech on Sunday, with plans for high-speed rail, submarines and fighter jets. New Delhi plans to spend $133 billion on infrastructure and $85 billion on defence, a respective rise of around nine and 15 percent compared to last year’s budget. Data centres, artificial intelligence, and the mining and processing of rare earths will also receive government support, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament. She said public spending on infrastructure had increased dramatically from around $21 billion (2 trillion rupees) in 2014-15 and that it was now at an “all-time high”. Rajnath says armed forces would be equipped with fighter jets, drones, ships, submarines and critical hardware The defence spending hike comes after a four-day conflict with Pakistan last May that killed at least 70 people, and saw both sides make extensive use of drones as well as intense missile and artillery b...

Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev will undertake a two-day official visit to Pakistan on February 3–4, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The two countries maintain friendly diplomatic relations, with Kazakhstan being Pakistan’s top export destination among Central Asian countries. During the visit, which he will undertake at the invitation of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the Kazakh president will be accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising senior cabinet ministers and other high-ranking officials. “President Tokayev is expected to meet with the President of Pakistan, hold talks with the prime minister, and address the Pakistan-Kazakhstan Business Forum.” Having a unique geographical location, Kazakhstan offers an excellent opportunity for Pakistan to connect to Russian, Central Asian, and Eastern European markets. Kazakhstan, by landmass and resources, is the largest economy of Central Asia. The foreign ministry said President Tokayev’s visit will provide Islam...

The sale and purchase of kites and twine gathered momentum across the city on Sunday after the Punjab government allowed limited trading ahead of the Basant festival, drawing large crowds of enthusiasts to designated markets.

MIRPUR: Thousands of people converged on a playground in this lakeside city on Sunday to pay their last respects to President Barrister Sultan Mahmood, as Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) bade farewell to a veteran leader who rose to prominence at a relatively young age and went on to play a long and decisive role in the region’s politics. The 70-and-a-half-year-old president, who breathed his last in an Islamabad hospital on Saturday evening after protracted illness, was accorded a gun carriage funeral — a state honour reserved for figures the state considers of exceptional national importance. On Saturday, the coffin was transported directly from Islamabad to the president’s ancestral village of Chechiyan, located about 15 kilometres on the outskirts of Mirpur. On Sunday, it was brought in a large vehicular procession to the Quaid-e-Azam Cricket Stadium in the heart of the city, where it was draped with the AJK’s national flag and placed on a military gun carriage before being taken into the packed ground amid ...

After around a week of uncertainty, the government gave the nod on Sunday to the Pakistan cricket team for participation in the T20 World Cup but barred it from playing against India on February 15, when the Green Shirts are scheduled to play their only group-stage match against the arch-rivals. “The government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan grants approval to the Pakistan cricket team to participate in the ICC World T20 2026, however, the Pakistan cricket team shall not take the field in the match scheduled on 15th February 2026 against India,” a post of the government’s X account said. On Monday, Pakistan Cricket Board chief and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi had met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the possibility of a boycott of the T20 World Cup loomed over Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the tournament. After the meeting, Naqvi had said he had briefed the PM on the “International Cricket Council (ICC) matter” and a “final decision would be taken either on Friday or next Monday”. The meeting took place...

Until Pakistan embarks on supply-side growth plan, it will not be last IMF loan

Islamabad should prepare for comprehensive trade deal with Brussels rather than relying on preferences alone

Shift towards imported hybrid seeds is shrinking Basmati acreage, weakening export capacity

Pakistan's fire safety laws exist; the tragedy lies in systemic failure to enforce them

Weak enforcement and institutional silence threaten the capital's natural heritage

Structural flaws, policy zigzags and neglect of people continue to drag the economy downwards

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was hopeful of agreeing a deal with Iran after the country’s supreme leader warned that any US attack on the Islamic republic would trigger a regional war. Following the Iranian authorities’ response to anti-government protests that peaked last month, Trump has threatened military action and ordered the dispatch of an aircraft carrier group to the Middle East. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday likened the recent protests to a “coup”, warning that a US attack would trigger a broad conflict. “The Americans should know that if they start a war, this time it will be a regional war,” he said, telling Iranians they “should not be scared” of Trump’s rhetoric. “They (rioters) attacked the police, government centres, IRGC centres, banks, and mosques, and burned the Quran … It was like a coup,” Khamenei said, adding that “the coup was suppressed”. Asked about the Iranian leader’s warning, Trump told reporters on Sunday: “Of course he is going to say that...

LAHORE - Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar on Sunday strongly condemned the cowardly terrorist attack by Fitna-al-Hindustan in Balochistan.