Pakistan

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Monday said that the additional powers granted to the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) had nothing to do with income tax. The expanded enforcement powers for the FBR include the authority to block high-value financial transactions by non-filers — such as vehicle and property purchases, investment in securities and mutual funds, and opening certain prestigious bank accounts — along with powers to seal unregistered business premises, confiscate goods and recover taxes from firms, including those in the public sector. The move has generated criticism from many quarters. Addressing the matter in a press conference in Karachi today, Aurangzeb said, “I think there is something to understand about what the existing law was at the time. The first thing to understand is that it has no relation to income tax. This whole issue is a sales tax fraud issue.” The finance minister added that in the original law, Inland Revenue Service officers had the authority to arrest, and it was the ...

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday inaugurated the Punjab Enforcement and Regulatory Authority (PERA), a newly established body aimed at curbing artificial inflation and eliminating encroachments throughout the province.

A sessions court in Lahore has approved Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s request to officially include his legal notice in the ongoing Rs10 billion defamation case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan.

A man accused of trying to kill a woman by shooting her as she refused to marry him was arrested in Karachi and was found in possession of illegal weapons, the Ittehad Town police said on Monday. However, the woman remained safe and a case under Sections 324 (attempt to commit intentional murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) was registered at the Ittehad Town police station. As soon as the case was registered, a police team led by Station House Officer Inspector Rao Shabbir Ahmed, acting on the information of a special informant, successfully arrested the accused. The police team also found him in possession of illegal weapons. A case under Section 23(1)-A of the Arms Act was also registered in this connection. In 2021, he had allegedly attempted to murder his ex-wife by throwing acid on her. A case was registered under Sections 336-A (hurt caused by corrosive substance) and 336-B (punishment for hurt by corrosive substance) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) at Saeedabad police st...

Deputy Prime Minister / Foreign Minister (DPM/FM), Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, on Monday stressed the need for institutional coordination and fast-tracked implementation, reaffirming the government’s commitment to facilitating these investments into tangible economic gains and mutual prosperity.

The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) witnessed a positive trajectory on Monday, crossing the 136,000 barrier due to increased investor sentiment and improved economic outlook. The benchmark KSE 100 index surged by 2202.77 points, or up by 1.64 per cent, to close at 136,502.53 points. The stock market reached its highest intraday level of 136,841.49 points around 3:28pm. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed satisfaction as the stock market surged to cross the all-time high level. According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, he said the “significant achievement by the PSX is a clear reflection of the business community’s growing confidence in Pakistan’s economy”. “The recent positive economic indicators are a testament to his government’s policies moving in the right direction,” he emphasised, reiterating that providing a business-friendly environment remains the government’s top priority.“ He said the country had moved from economic stability towards the path of economic growth, adding that the g...

“When our boats are stranded onshore, our kitchens remain empty,” says Lateefa Nasir. “My children haven’t been to school for a month and we live on loans now.” Nasir is a member and beneficiary of the Ormara Cooperative Society, a local NGO advocating for the improvement of fishers’ livelihoods and welfare. She and her family live in Ormara, a town in Gwadar district, along the coast of Pakistan’s south-western Balochistan province. Her husband is a fisher and like many fishing households in the area they are in crisis due to the Iran-Israel conflict. The war has led Pakistan to close its border with Iran, disrupting both the inflow of fuel and the export of fish. This double blow has crippled fishing communities already suffering from the impacts of climate change and overfishing. Balochistan boasts an approximately 770-kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea which plays a significant role in the country’s fisheries. Allaudin Kakkar, a senior official from the Balochistan Fisheries and Coastal Development...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday expressed pleasure over the Pakistan Stock Exchange crossing a historic level of 135,000 points, saying that it reflected the confidence of the business community in Pakistan’s economy.

After traders announced a countrywide wheel-jam strike, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb invited them for talks, urging representatives to visit Islamabad for dialogue.

As many as 336,999 Pakistanis secured employment abroad between January 1 and June 30, 2025, through the Bureau of Emigration and Overseas Employment (BEOE), an attached department of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development.

The Ministry of Climate Change & Environmental Coordination (MoCC&EC), in collaboration with the Snow Leopard Foundation (SLF) and wildlife departments from Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), and Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJ&K), announced seven individuals for the Pakistan Wildlife Protection Awards 2025 against their.

Four children drowned while bathing in a pond in Daulat Khel, Rescue 1222 reported.

Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) achieved another milestone today and surpassed the psychological barrier of one lac thirty-five thousand points during the trading for the first time in history.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs, Rana Sanaullah, has claimed that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has shown no willingness to engage in political dialogue with the government and instead seeks negotiations with the establishment.

Pakistan Railways (PR) is set to launch a state-of-the-art business train this week, offering passengers a significantly improved travel experience on the Lahore-Karachi route.

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck on Monday off eastern Indonesia, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said, but a monitor said there was no tsunami threat. The quake struck at 12:49pm Western Indonesia time (10:49pm PKT) and its epicentre was at a depth of 66 kilometres, around 177 kilometres west of the city of Tual in the eastern Maluku province, the USGS said. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said there was no tsunami threat, and Indonesia’s geophysics agency said in a social media post the quake “did not have the potential to cause a tsunami”. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The vast archipelago nation experiences frequent earthquakes due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, an arc of intense seismic activity where tectonic plates collide that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin. A magnitude 6.2 quake that shook Sulawesi in January 2021 killed more than 100 people and left thousands homeless. In 2018, a magnitude-7.5 quake and subseque...

Four children drowned while bathing in a pond in the Daulat Khel area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district on Monday, according to a Rescue 1122 official. Speaking to Dawn.com, Spokesperson Rescue 1122 Bilal Ahmad Faizi said, “The bodies of the children were recovered after a search operation and transported to the city hospital in Lakki Marwat. All four children were residents of Daulat Khel and were related to each other.” The dead bodies have been handed over to the relatives, Faizi added. On July 13, two children were swept away by a flash flood triggered by rain in KP’s Khyber district. Last month, two teenagers drowned while bathing in the Nendhyar River of the province’s Battagram district. On June 27, at least 13 tourists drowned in the flooded River Swat after being caught in the gushing water while having breakfast on the riverbank, rescue officials confirmed. Also last month, two women and as many children drowned after a boat carrying tourists capsized in the Shahi Bagh lake in Kalam area...

A man and a woman were killed on late Sunday evening in an ‘honour’-related incident in the Bashigram area of Madyan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat district, police said on Monday. ‘Honour’ killings refer to the murder of individuals, predominantly women and girls, by family members who believe the victim has brought dishonour upon the family. In a first information report (FIR) filed by a close relative of the deceased woman, it was stated that she was killed by her husband. “The suspect thought his wife had an illicit relationship with the man, following which he killed both,” the police said. According to the FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the suspect first opened fire on the man, after which he went home and shot his wife, and then proceeded to strike her with an axe. The FIR has been filed under Sections 302 (punishment of premeditated murder) and 324 (attempt to commit murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). A search operation is underway to apprehend the suspect, who is currently on t...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday chaired a weekly review meeting on the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) digitisation, implementation of artificial intelligence (AI)-based systems, and broader tax reforms.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz on Monday directed authorities to accelerate work on the Apni Chhat Apna Ghar project, aimed at providing housing to low-income families across the province.