Pakistan

Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs, Gilgit Baltistan and State and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) Provincial President Engineer Amir Muqam and Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Faisal Karim Kundi here on Tuesday discussed the prevailing political situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of the disqualification reference against National Assembly Opposition Leader Omar Ayub Khan until July 15, after his lawyer submitted a stay order issuedby the Peshawar High Court pertaining to the case.

Islamabad Police have successfully traced out several blind murder cases, including the high-profile killing of Sardar Fahim, using modern investigative techniques and swift action, State Minister for Interior Talal Chaudhry said on Tuesday.

More than 14 million of the world’s most vulnerable people, a third of them small children, could die by 2030 because of the Trump administration’s dismantling of US foreign aid, research projected on Tuesday. The study in the prestigious Lancet journal was published as world and business leaders gather for a United Nations conference in Spain this week, hoping to bolster the reeling aid sector. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) had provided over 40 per cent of global humanitarian funding until US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. Two weeks later, Trump’s then-close advisor — and the world’s richest man — Elon Musk boasted of having put the agency “through the woodchipper”. The funding cuts “risk abruptly halting — and even reversing — two decades of progress in health among vulnerable populations”, warned study co-author Davide Rasella, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). “For many low- and middle-income countries, the resulting...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said the government is not considering any proposal to shut down or merge national institutions of academic, literary, historical, or cultural significance.

Security forces eliminated two “India-backed” terrorists after an attack on government offices in Balochistan’s Mastung district that killed a teenager and injured seven others on Tuesday. Terrorists in Balochistan, previously engaged in a low-level insurgency, have recently intensified their attacks. The banned Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) emerged as a key perpetrator of terrorist violence in Pakistan in 2024. “Two terrorists were killed while another three were injured in an intense fire exchange between the security forces and the terrorists,” Balochistan spokesperson Shahid Rind said in a statement. “Fitna al Hindustan attacked the tehsil office, government offices and a bank. A 16-year-old boy died while seven individuals were injured by the terrorists’ firing,” the statement read. The term “Fitna al Hindu­stan” is a new phrase coined by Pakistan’s military, aimed at framing India’s alleged role in terrorism as a deliberate destabilisation strategy, potentially to galvanise domestic support. “The Fr...

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday that consumer price inflation rose 3.2 per cent year-on-year in June, broadly in line with the finance ministry’s projection of 3-4pc issued a day earlier. On a month-on-month basis, prices increased 0.2pc in June, reversing a 0.2pc decline in May. The data comes after the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) kept its key interest rate unchanged at 11pc in June. The SBP said in its latest monetary policy statement that inflation was expected to show some near-term volatility but gradually stabilise within the 5-7pc target range. The figures also come weeks after the unveiling of the annual budget, which included new revenue measures and subsidy cuts as part of efforts to secure a long-term loan programme from the International Monetary Fund. Analysts have warned that higher energy and tax costs could stoke inflation in the second half of the year. The stock exchange rose 2.3pc to close at an all-time high of 128,475.7 points today, the first day of the new fiscal year...

Bangladesh’s fugitive ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina has denied accusations that she committed crimes against humanity, her state-appointed defence lawyer said on Tuesday. Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August last year, according to the United Nations, when Hasina’s government ordered a crackdown on protesters in a failed bid to cling to power. Hasina fled to India at the culmination of the student-led uprising in August and has defied orders to return to Dhaka, where her trial in absentia opened on June 1. Prosecutors have filed five charges against Hasina — abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass murder — that amount to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law. Defence lawyer Amir Hossain said Hasina has denied all charges, telling journalists that he would present “arguments to seek her discharge from these allegations”. The ousted leader’s banned Awami League, in a statement issued in London, called it a “show trial” and said that the ...

The federal government has decided to deploy Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel outside the residence of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Dera Ismail Khan city due to security concerns, it emerged on Tuesday. In a letter dated June 29 to the FC commandant in Peshawar, the interior ministry issued orders to deploy “one platoon” of FC personnel at the residence of the JUI-F chief “to avoid any untoward situation”. The decision has been taken on the prime minister’s directives for security purposes and recent incidents involving the JUI-F’s chief son, Asjad Mahmood. Earlier last month, Mahmood’s vehicle was intercepted on the main highway by armed men when he was on his way from DI Khan to Lakki Marwat. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif recently visited Fazl’s residence in Islamabad and expressed concern over the alleged attack and attempted kidnapping of the JUI-F chief’s son, state-run Radio Pakistan reported. The prime minister expressed deep concern over the assault...

Bullish momentum continued at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Tuesday as the market crossed the 128,000 barrier on the first day of the new fiscal year 2025-26. The KSE-100 index rose by 2,404.51 points, or 1.9 per cent, to stand at 128,031.82 points at 12:15pm, from the previous close of 125,627.31 points. It then closed at 128,199.42 points, recording a gain of 2,572.11 points, or 2.05pc, from yesterday. Yousuf M. Farooq, director of research at Chase Securities, attributed the rise to easing geopolitical tensions and the market “pricing in a gradual decline in interest rates alongside improving economic stability”. “Investors are also anticipating a strong corporate results season and are rerating the market’s price-to-earnings ratio toward more normalised levels,” the analyst said. He added that in his opinion, the market had entered phase two of the bull run, characterised by increasing public participation and a broad-based rally across a wide range of stocks. Awais Ashraf, director of research at ...

Pakistan and India have exchanged updated lists of prisoners held in each other’s custody, in accordance with the 2008 Agreement on Consular Access, which mandates the exchange of such information twice a year—on January 1 and July 1.

The price of 24 karat per tola gold increased by Rs.

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday extended his gratitude to the business community and investors who are fully supporting the government in the country’s development and prosperity as the Pakistan Stock Exchange 100 Index crossing the highest level of 127,000 for the first time on the first day of the new fiscal year.

A 4.4-magnitude earthquake jolted Lahore and other parts of Punjab on Tuesday, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD). The earthquake was recorded at 6:39am, with the epicentre 25 kilometres south-southwest of Lahore at a depth of 14 kilometres. According to the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) spokesperson, tremors were felt in Kasur, Okara, Sheikhupura, Mureed and other districts of Punjab. There have been no immediate reports of casualties. The respective administrations are inspecting buildings across the province for any sign of damage. As per PDMA, the District Emergency Operation Centres across Punjab, including the Provincial Control Room of PDMA, have been placed on alert for the next 24 hours in case of any aftershocks. PDMA has advised people to report damages to the 1129 helpline. On June 30, another earthquake of 3.9 magnitude was recorded at 2:07pm, 35 kilometres west of Dera Ghazi Khan in Punjab at a depth of seven kilometres. The same day, Balochistan recorded...

President Donald Trump signed on Monday an executive order terminating a US sanctions programme on Syria, allowing an end to the country’s isolation from the international financial system and building on Washington’s pledge to help it rebuild after a devastating civil war. The move will allow the US to maintain sanctions on Syria’s ousted former president Bashar al-Assad, his associates, human rights abusers, drug traffickers, people linked to chemical weapons activities, the Islamic State and ISIS affiliates and proxies for Iran, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters in a briefing. Assad was toppled in December in a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels and Syria has since taken steps to re-establish international ties. Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani said Trump’s termination of the Syria sanctions programme would “open door of long-awaited reconstruction and development,” according to a post by the foreign minister on social media platform X. He said the move would “lift the...

The Punjab Assembly has initiated legal proceedings that could lead to the de-seating of 26 suspended opposition members belonging to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), following their alleged disruptive behaviour during recent assembly sessions, according to sources.

Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) has offered students to resit exams in the November session free of charge if they were affected by any of the three exam papers leaked in the recent May/June session. The CIE board, which conducts O- and A-level exams, admitted last month that parts of its question papers for examinations in June had been leaked, and that said students will be given extra marks for those questions. Just days prior to CIE’s admission of the leaks, a parliamentary panel was assured on that findings of the inquiry report over the issue of alleged paper leaks of O/A level would be shared after June 16. In a post on its Facebook page on Monday, CIE shared an update for students who sat one or more of the three affected papers in the June 2025 exam series: Cambridge International AS and A Level Mathematics Paper 12, Cambridge International AS and A Level Mathematics Paper 42, and Cambridge International AS and A Level Computer Science Paper 22. “The results for these syllabuses will be re...

ISLAMABAD - ISLAMABAD: Speaker Balochistan Assembly Captain (Retd) Abdul Khaliq Khan Achakzai on Monday called on Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.

At least one person was killed and eight others injured on Tuesday when unidentified assailants launched a brazen attack on the Tehsil Office in Mastung district of Balochistan, prompting a swift security response.

Two traffic policemen were martyred as unidentified gunmen opened fire on them in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district on Tuesday, according to police. “The traffic cops were on their way to Tajazai Adda for duty on motorcycles when they were fired at on Longkhel Road near Gulbaz Dehqan village,” read a statement by Lakki Marwat police spokesperson Shahid Hameed. “The martyrs include Israel and Sanaullah, both of whom hailed from the Longkhel [area],” it added. The police cordoned off the area and initiated an investigation. Lakki Marwat District Police Officer (DPO) Mohammad Jawad Ishaq specified that the four attackers were riding on two motorcycles and stole the policemen’s submachine guns. DPO Ishaq further said, “The traffic personnel were dressed in civilian clothes when they were targeted.” Lakki Marwat has seen a rise in attacks in recent months that reflect an increasing militant presence in the area, although unrest dates back to the early 2000s. Militant activity has resurged in recent years,...