Pakistan

A top aide to United States President Donald Trump on Sunday accused India of effectively financing Russia’s war in Ukraine by purchasing oil from Moscow, after the US leader escalated pressure on New Delhi to stop buying Russian oil. “What he (Trump) said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” said Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House and one of Trump’s most influential aides. Miller’s criticism was some of the strongest yet by the Trump administration about one of the United States’ major partners in the Indo-Pacific. “People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That’s an astonishing fact,” Miller said on Fox News programme ‘Sunday Morning Futures’. The Indian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Indian government sources told Reuters on Saturday that New Delhi will keep purchasing oil from Moscow despite US threats....

Experts from various professions assailed systemic injustice in Pakistan on Sunday, stressing the need for legal and civil institutions to be supportive and have a holistic approach. The observations came during a plenary session of the Imagining Futures Conference, taking place at Karachi’s Habib University from August 1-4, where subject experts and stakeholders discussed human rights and civil liberties in Pakistan. As the session, brimming with participants of all ages, began exploring Pakistan’s legal landscape, National Commission for Human Rights (NCHR) Chairperson Rabiya Javeri highlighted: “Knowledge is capital.” However, she stressed, people should be aware of their rights but the “system is messed up”. Responding to a query from the audience about whether knowledge really guaranteed protection if women such as ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and Noor Mukadam could be murdered, Javeri pointed out: “Empowerment through education or skills needs to be integrated into systems […] educational, financial, judic...

Indian filmmakers are locking up the rights to movie titles that can profit from the patriotism fanned by a four-day conflict with Pakistan, which killed more than 70 people. The nuclear-armed rivals exchanged artillery, drone and air strikes in May, after India blamed Pakistan for an armed attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir. The fighting came to an end when US President Donald Trump announced a surprise ceasefire. Now, some Bollywood filmmakers see an opportunity to cash in on the battle. India tagged its military action against Pakistan “Operation Sindoor”, the Hindi word for vermilion, which married Hindu women wear on their foreheads. The name was seen as a symbol of Delhi’s determination to avenge those widowed in the April 22 attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which sparked the hostilities. Film studios have registered a slew of titles evoking the operation, including: Mission Sindoor, Sindoor: The Revenge, The Pahalgam Terror and Sindoor Operation. A rickshaw moves past a banner of the Bollyw...

The former prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi, was arrested on Sunday over violations of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance (MPO), a police official told Dawn.com. Niazi in 2022 tendered his resignation from his office to defuse the move by his parliamentary party, the PTI, to replace him with regional president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas through a vote of no-confidence. The MPO law in Pakistan allows authorities to detain individuals without trial for up to 90 days to prevent threats to public peace and safety. Mirpur Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Dr Liaqat Ali told Dawn.com that Niazi was arrested under Section 16 (dissemination of rumours) of the MPO. “Under the orders of the Mirpur deputy commissioner, he was arrested under Section 16 of the MPO,” the DIG said. “He is being held at the industrial area guest house in Mirpur, which has been declared a sub-jail,” he said. The Mirpur DIG added that plainclothes policemen from Islamabad came to detain the ex-P...

The tariffs United States President Donald Trump imposed last week on scores of countries are likely to stay in place rather than be cut as part of continuing negotiations, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday. Ahead of a Friday deadline, Trump set rates including a 35 per cent duty on many goods from Canada, 50pc for Brazil, 25pc for India, 20pc for Taiwan and 39pc for Switzerland, according to a presidential executive order. In trade talks since Trump returned to office, the White House has lowered some rates from levels initially announced, including halving import duties set last week as part of a deal with the European Union. Greer told CBS’s ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday, however, that this would not be the case on the most recent round of tariffs. “A lot of these are set rates pursuant to deals. Some of these deals are announced, some are not, others depend on the level of the trade deficit or surplus we may have with the country,” he said. “These tariff rates are pretty much set.” Greer al...

The inaugural flight carrying 100 metric tons of essential relief items for marooned Palestinians is set to depart from Islamabad International Airport on Sunday evening as all logistical and operational arrangements have been finalized to ensure timely dispatch of the humanitarian consignment.

The first witness in the trial of Bangladesh’s fugitive ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina gave evidence on Sunday, a man shot in the face during protests that toppled her last year. Hasina, 77, who has defied court orders to return from India to attend her trial on charges amounting to crimes against humanity, is accused of ordering a deadly crackdown in a failed bid to crush the student-led uprising. Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024, according to the United Nations. The first witness, among the 11 cases that the prosecution is expected to present to the court, was Khokon Chandra Barman, whose story reflects the violence of the protests. The 23-year-old wears a mask to conceal his face, which was ripped apart by a gunshot during the culmination of the protests on August 5, 2024, the same day that Hasina fled Dhaka by helicopter. “I want justice for the ordeal I’ve been going through, and for my fellow protesters who sacrificed their lives,” he told the court. Barman lost his left eye,...

Former AJK Prime Minister and PTI leader Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi was arrested on Sunday, just a day before the party’s planned protest on August 5.

Pakistan and Iran have set a target of boosting their bilateral trade to ten billion dollars at the earliest.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is set to launch a nationwide movement for constitutional and democratic rights starting tomorrow.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday announced a blanket ban on future participation in the World Championship of Legends (WCL), citing “hypocrisy and bias” in the context of Indian players being awarded points despite willfully forfeiting a match with the Pakistani team. Political tensions bet­ween the two nations over the years have cast a sha­d­ow over bilateral sporting events, causing major tournaments to hang in the balance. The countries’ teams have previously refused to travel across the border for sporting events, electing to play on neutral ground via a hybrid model instead. The Pakistani veterans team advanced into the WCL final on Wednesday after Indian players forfeited the semi-final scheduled for Thursday. PCB issued a statement on Sunday announcing the blanket ban after chairman Mohsin Naqvi “reviewed with considerable disappointment WCL’s appalling conduct of awarding points to a willfully forfeiting team, and the content of the press releases of the WCL announcing the cancellation of t...

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has announced that applications for Hajj 2026 will open tomorrow (Monday, August 4) on a first-come, first-served basis.

During Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit to Pakistan, a total of 13 agreements and Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) were signed between the two countries.

The nationwide death toll from monsoon rains has risen to 299, up from 234, as the season that began in late June continues to cause widespread devastation, the National Disaster Management Authority said on Sunday, according to state-owned PTV News. Monsoon rains fall across the region from June to September, offering respite from the summer heat and are crucial to replenishing water supplies. However, heavy downpours also trigger deadly floods, landslides and displacement, particularly in vulnerable, poorly drained, or densely populated areas. According to earlier NDMA estimates, the death toll stood at 234, while 596 people have been injured since June 26. According to the latest figures, “at least 299 people have lost their lives in this year’s flash floods and torrential rains, while another 715 people were reported injured. Out of the total death toll — 140 were children, 102 men and 57 women,” the report said. Out of the 715 injured, 239 were children, 204 were women, while 272 were men, it added. Deta...

Funeral prayers were held Sunday morning for a police constable martyred in a terrorist attack on a checkpoint in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Bannu district, where an exchange of fire also left three terrorists dead and three policemen injured. Over the past few months, multiple areas of KP — including Bannu, Peshawar, Karak, Lakki Marwat and Bajaur — have seen a series of attacks, particularly targeting police personnel in Bannu in July. Bannu Regional Police Officer (RPO) Sajjad Khan said in a statement that three terrorists were killed and police constable Rooh Niaz Khan was martyred when 40 to 50 terrorists attacked the police check post in Fateh Khel, Bannu. Three terrorists were killed and as many policemen were injured in the exchange of fire, which lasted more than an hour, the statement added. Soon after receiving information about the attack on the post, RPO Khan and District Police Officer (DPO) Saleem Abbas Kulachi, along with the force, left for the site of the incident, Aamir Khan, spokesperson for the...

More than 400,000 Hindus took part in a month-long pilgrimage in Indian-held Kashmir, authorities said, shrugging off security worries weeks after a military conflict with Pakistan. The pilgrimage began on July 3 and closes officially on August 9, but organisers said that lashing rains had damaged narrow paths, forcing a premature end. Official Vijay Kumar Bidhuri said in a statement late on Saturday that 415,000 pilgrims had taken part. Many of the faithful began their trek to the Amarnath ice pillar from near Pahalgam, where an April 22 attack in Pahalgam killed 26 mostly Hindu tourists in the Muslim-majority region. New Delhi, without evidence, said the gunmen were backed by Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected — triggering a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic measures that escalated into a four-day conflict. It was the worst standoff by the nuclear-armed nations since 1999, with more than 70 people killed in missile, drone and artillery fire on both sides, before a May 10 ceasefire. New Delhi last week claim...

Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Services lifted a tsunami warning for the Kamchatka Peninsula on Sunday after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit the nearby Kuril Islands. The ministry had said earlier on the Telegram messaging app that expected wave heights were low, but warned people to move away from the shore. The Pacific Tsunami Warning System, which gauged the quake at 7.0, said, however, there was no tsunami warning after the quake. The US Geological Survey also said the earthquake was at a magnitude of 7. Overnight, the Krasheninnikov Volcano in Kamchatka erupted for the first time in 600 years, Russia’s RIA state news agency and scientists reported on Sunday. Both incidents could be connected to the huge earthquake that rocked Russia’s Far East last week, which triggered tsunami warnings as far away as French Polynesia and Chile, and was followed by an eruption of Klyuchevskoy, the most active volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Kuril Islands stretch from the southern tip of the Kamchatka Peninsula. R...

Torrential rains accompanied by strong winds swept through Lahore on Saturday, inundating low-lying areas and prompting local authorities to remain on high alert as the monsoon season intensifies.

A formal welcome ceremony was held at the Prime Minister House on Sunday in honour of Iranian President Dr.

Jason Holder smashed a four on the final ball to give West Indies a dramatic two-wicket victory over Pakistan on Saturday, lifting the hosts level in their T20 international series. On the same night he took four wickets to reach a West Indies T20I record 81 for his career — breaking Dwayne Bravo’s old mark of 78 — Holder went 16 not out and West Indies ended a horrid losing streak with zero balls to spare. Pakistan, which won Thursday’s opener by 14 runs, will try to bounce back in Sunday’s series-deciding T20 match under the lights at Lauderhill, Florida. West Indies, set 134 to win, was on the brink of a seventh consecutive T20 defeat after having been swept 5-0 last month by visiting Australia. Gudakesh Motie led West Indies with 28 runs but went down on the first ball of the 17th over, run out by Mohammed Haris with the hosts on 96 for six. Haris caught Keacy Carty for a duck three balls later but Holder swatted a six to end the 18th over, West Indies still needing 24 to win. Romario Shepherd smashed a s...