Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has expressed satisfaction over the increase in the tax-to-GDP ratio resulting from reforms in the Federal Board of Revenue.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Tuesday announced that the federal government has directed the Balochistan government to operate direct flights from Quetta to Iran and Iraq to facilitate Arbaeen pilgrims.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued a sobering report highlighting the extensive devastation caused by ongoing monsoon rains across Pakistan.

The Gwadar Port Authority (GPA) and a Chinese company agreed to boost investments at the port, the maritime affairs ministry said on Tuesday. Pakistan recently increased efforts on the commercialisation of the Gwadar Port, which was built more than a decade ago but remains a non-starter. In January, the government sought the private sector’s support in routing their cargoes through the port, seeking detailed proposals to enhance trade. “China’s Xinning Enterprise have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with Gwadar Port Authority to stimulate major industrial and commercial investments at Gwadar Port and its Free Zone, underscoring Gwadar’s growing role as a key regional hub for trade and economic activity,” the maritime affairs ministry said in a press release today. The ministry said that the LoI, which outlines plans for diverse ventures, was signed between Xinning Enterprise’s Yi Jiang and maritime affairs ministry’s additional secretary Umer Zaffar Shaikh, while GPA Chairman Noorul Haq Baloch attended the ev...

A roof collapse due to heavy rains killed a 17-year-old girl and injured three other family members in Punjab’s Rawalpindi district in the early hours of Tuesday morning, rescue officials said. Starting in late June, monsoon rains have wreaked havoc across the country by triggering deadly floods, landslides and displacement, particularly in vulnerable, poorly drained, or densely populated areas. Roof collapses are a particularly common occurrence due to a large number of mud houses that are unable to withstand the heavy downpour. According to Rescue 1122, the roof collapse occurred on Daultala Road of Gujar Khan tehsil. A neighbour of the family reported that the side walls of their house collapsed and the roof caved in at about 1:30am while they were sleeping. According to the neighbour, “all the people in the neighbourhood rushed to the rescue” upon getting the information. The victims were pulled out of the rubble and taken to the hospital. Rescue 1122 District Emergency Officer Muhammad Sibghtullah said t...

In a significant political development, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has disqualified nine lawmakers, including Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Umar Ayub and Senate Opposition Leader Shibli Faraz.

The Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) issued an alert this week, warning against an ongoing scam aiming to compromise WhatsApp accounts via fake calls requesting a code. WhatsApp is an especially widely used messaging service across Pakistan, with the World Population Review reporting about 52 million Pakistani users of the platform in 2024 — the seventh-largest number in the world by population. Its use has even been advocated in the legal sector for greater efficiency. However, rising digital scams threaten users’ data security and can cause accounts to be compromised. According to the alert, DRF — a not-for-profit organisation based in Pakistan that has been working on digital rights freedoms since 2013 — received “multiple reports of an ongoing scam to hack WhatsApp accounts”. “Victims receive calls from delivery riders, or from individuals pretending to be from the HEC (Higher Education Commission), and are prompted to share a code that compromises their WhatsApp,” the alert said. Infographics provided by ...

The federal government has extended an invitation to the opposition for dialogue on the 26th constitutional amendment, signaling a willingness to collaborate on improving the legislation.

Chief of the Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral Naveed Ashraf was conferred Turkiye’s highest military award — titled Legion of Merit of the Turkish Armed Forces — for his efforts towards “defence and maritime cooperation” between the two nations, the Pakistan Navy said on Tuesday. Pakistani armed forces routinely conduct joint military exercises with other nations to increase combat readiness and identify problems in logistics, training, and current military doctrine. Pakistan Navy, in its statement, said the commander of Turkish Navy, Admiral Ercument Tatlioglu, “presented [the] award to Adm Naveed Ashraf in recognition of his efforts to strengthen defence & maritime coop b/w the two countries”. The award ceremony was held at the headquarters of the Turkish Naval Forces, where he was also given a guard of honour. Pakistan’s naval chief called upon Turkiye’s Defence Minister Yasar Guler, Chief of General Staff Metin Gurak, and the Commander of the Turkish Navy Fleet, Admiral Kadir Yildiz. The two sides discussed coll...

Salt crusts crackle underfoot as Habibullah Khatti walks to his mother’s grave to say a final goodbye before he abandons his parched island village on the Indus delta. Seawater intrusion into the delta, where the Indus River meets the Arabian Sea in the south of the country, has triggered the collapse of farming and fishing communities. “The saline water has surrounded us from all four sides,” Khatti told AFP from Abdullah Mirbahar village in the town of Kharo Chan, around 15 kilometres from where the river empties into the sea. As fish stocks fell, the 54-year-old turned to tailoring until that too became impossible with only four of the 150 households remaining. “In the evening, an eerie silence takes over the area,” he said, as stray dogs wandered through the deserted wooden and bamboo houses. Habibullah Khatti, a local resident, walks over the salt crusts deposited in Abdullah Mirbahar village in Kharo Chan town, in the Indus delta on June 25. — AFP Kharo Chan once comprised around 40 villages, but most h...

In a significant move to support industrial workers and government employees, the Punjab Cabinet has approved lifetime pensions for the widows of government servants and sanctioned the free allocation of 1,220 residential flats to industrial workers across the province.

The National Assembly has reiterated that Pakistan will never compromise on the right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination as guaranteed under international law and UN resolutions.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday directed immediate reforms to simplify and expand access to low-cost agricultural loans for small and medium-scale farmers, calling it a critical step for boosting agricultural productivity and ensuring economic dignity for the country’s rural backbone.

Additional Inspector General of Police Mirza Faran Baig has been appointed as the new Director General of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Lahore.

Federal Minister for Railways Muhammad Hanif Abbasi has strongly condemned India’s unilateral actions of August 5, 2019, calling it a dark chapter in the history of humanity and a direct attack on the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday called on India to revoke all illegal measures taken on August 5, 2019, in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), end repressive policies, and lift the ongoing media blackout in the region.

Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Information and Broadcasting, Barrister Danyal Chaudhry, termed August 5 as the darkest day in Kashmir's history.

Police arrested several Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders and lawmakers, including Deputy Opposition Leader in the Punjab Assembly Moin Qureshi and MPA Shoaib Amir, during a protest rally in Lahore on Tuesday held to mark the second anniversary of party founder Imran Khan’s imprisonment.

Blackened skies unleashed torrential rains on Hong Kong and the high-tech cities surrounding south China’s Pearl River Delta on Tuesday, shutting hospitals, schools and law courts, and turning the Asian financial centre’s many staircases into waterfalls. Around 10,000 lightning flashes lit up Hong Kong’s skies between 6am (3am PKT) and 6:59am, according to the city’s weather authorities, as up to 90 millimetres of rain per hour continued to drench the city and neighbouring Guangdong province. Videos showed torrents of water cascading down steep hillsides in the former British colony, breaking into white-water streams as they rushed down staircases linking Hong Kong’s multi-tiered cityscape. The deluge prompted the weather bureau to extend its highest “black” rainstorm warning until 3pm. The water had risen to ankle-height outside Hong Kong’s largest hospital, as medical authorities announced they would be closing clinics across the city due to the downpour. Extreme rainfall and catastrophic flooding, which me...

Pakistan and the United Kingdom have pledged to deepen their partnership across key sectors, with a renewed focus on defence cooperation and strategic dialogue, during high-level talks in Rawalpindi on Monday, according to a statement by Press Information Department (PID). Pakistan and UK have been engaged in Enhanced Strategic Dialogue (ESD) since 2011, which has deepened and broadened the dialogue between the two countries, covering areas such as trade, economic growth and development, cultural cooperation, security, and education. The consensus was reached during a meeting between Minister for Defence Production Muhammad Raza Hayat Harraj and British High Commissioner Jane Marriott in Rawalpindi. “Pakistan considers the United Kingdom a close friend and a genuine development partner,” Minister Harraj said, according to the statement. “Frequent interaction has been useful in coordinating our approaches to various bilateral, regional and international issues. The two sides agreed to enhance cooperation in al...