Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday approved the formation of a search and selection committee to recommend appointments for the Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA), as mandated by the recently enacted Digital Nation Pakistan Act.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to hold a news conference on Thursday to offer a fresh assessment of strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, following a stinging row over how much American bombardment set back Tehran’s nuclear programme. After waves of Israeli attacks on nuclear and military sites and retaliatory missile fire from Iran since June 13, the United States bombed three key Iranian atomic facilities at the weekend. The extent of the damage in Iran, where Israel said it had acted to stop an imminent nuclear threat, has become the subject of profound disagreement in the United States. An initial classified assessment, first reported by CNN, was said to have concluded that the strike did not destroy key components and that Iran’s nuclear programme was set back only months at most. Another key question raised by experts is whether Iran, preparing for the strike, moved out some 400 kilogramme of enriched uranium — which could now be hidden elsewhere in the vast country. The US administration has ...

A division bench of the Islamabad High Court, comprising Acting Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif, postponed proceedings on the plea seeking suspension of sentences for PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the £190 million case.

Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has approved development projects in one hundred and eighty-nine cities under Punjab Development Program.

The Ministry of Interior on Thursday announced that it planned to take strict action against elements spreading religious hate on social media as part of a security plan ahead of the month of Muharram. The government has ramped up security efforts in the past few weeks as the first month of the Islamic calendar inches closer. KP and the Punjab government have planned to impose Section 144 across the province from Muharram 1 to 10, barring public gatherings, protests, or other actions that might disrupt peace. The central Ruet-e-Hilal committee is set to meet today for the sighting of the moon for Muharram. According to a statement from the ministry today, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi chaired a meeting aimed at reviewing the security plan for the month. “It was decided that action will be taken against elements inciting religious hatred on social media in light of Muharram,” it said. “In this regard, PEMRA (Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) has been instructed to monitor hateful content on elec...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has welcomed the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, terming it a positive step toward regional peace and reaffirming Pakistan’s unwavering support for the brotherly Islamic nation of Iran.

Pakistan remains gravely concerned at the widespread and systematic use of torture as an instrument of oppression in situations of foreign occupation.

The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on Thursday announced its support for the federal budget 2025-26, following the government’s acceptance of several key demands.

ISLAMABAD - Senate Chairman Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on Wednesday hosted a luncheon in honour of the members of the Parliamentary Reporters Association (PRA) at Parliament House.

Efforts are underway to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the Air India plane crash this month that killed 260 people, and identify contributing factors, India’s civil aviation ministry said on Thursday. The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed moments after takeoff from India’s Ahmedabad city on June 12, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and the rest on ground in the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade. The black boxes of the plane — the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) — were recovered in the days that followed, one from the rooftop of a building at the crash site on June 13, and the other from the debris on June 16. They were transported to national capital Delhi on Tuesday, where a team led by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau began extracting their data, the ministry said in a statement. “The Crash Protection Module (CPM) from the front black box was safely retrieved, and […] the memory module was successfully accessed and its data do...

ISLAMABAD - The Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change on Wednesday denounced the federal government’s decision to slash the climate ministry’s budget by over Rs800 million for the financial year 2025–26, warning the move could weaken Pakistan’s credibility on global platforms just as the country has been.

ISLAMABAD - The United States Chargé d’Affaires to Pakistan, Natalie Baker, on Wednesday reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to enhancing economic cooperation with Islamabad, particularly in the high-potential critical minerals sector.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday approved a search and selection committee for recommending the appointment of members of the Pakistan Digital Authority (PDA) under the Digital Nation Pakistan Act. Enacted in January this year, the act aimed to transform Pakistan into a “digital nation” by enabling a digital society, digital economy, and digital governance. The bill was approved by the federal cabinet in June 2024. The bill said it was expedient to enable the people to become a digital nation by leveraging the transformative power of digital technologies, responsible use of data, innovative service delivery models and robust digital public infrastructure to accelerate sustainable economic development, improve citizen well-being, and modernise governance frameworks for efficient and effective public service delivery. According to a notification issued today by the ministry of IT and telecommunication, “the search committee will appoint a chairperson and two members of the PDA.” Federal Minister for IT...

India on Thursday refused to endorse the joint communique issued at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting in Qingdao, China, after its attempt to link Pakistan to the recent Pahalgam attack was dismissed by member states.

Pakistan has expressed concerns over the “worst forms of torture” the people of Palestine and Indian-occupied Kashmir are being subjected to by foreign occupation powers, the Foreign Office said in a statement on Thursday. There have been widespread reports of systematic torture and human rights violations by Indian occupation forces in held Jammu and Kashmir since the region was unilaterally annexed in 2019. Pakistan continues to provide political, moral, and diplomatic support to Kashmiris until they realise their inherent right to self-determination as per the UNSC resolutions. In Gaza, Israeli forces have killed 56,156 people and injured 132,239 in the enclave since launching a military onslaught in October 2023. A human rights monitor published a report detailing the “shocking” treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. “Pakistan remains gravely concerned at the widespread and systematic use of torture as an instrument of oppression in situations of foreign occupation” the FO statement said o...

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued a critical alert warning of potential Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) and flash floods in the glaciated regions of Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa due to rapidly melting glaciers.

China hosted defence ministers from Iran and Russia for a meeting in its eastern seaside city of Qingdao on Thursday, against the backdrop of war in the Middle East and a summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries in Europe that agreed to boost military spending. Beijing has long sought to present the 10-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs and has pushed to strengthen collaboration between its member countries in politics, security, trade and science. The Qingdao meeting of the organisation’s top defence officials comes as a fledgling ceasefire between Israel and Iran holds after 12 days of fighting between the arch-foes. It is also being held the day after a summit of Nato leaders in The Hague, where members agreed to ramp up their defence spending to satisfy United States President Donald Trump. Beijing’s ties with Moscow are also in the spotlight. China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in Russia’s war with Ukraine, although ...

LAHORE - Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Yahya Afridi, accompanied by Justice Shakeel Ahmad and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim visited the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Lahore on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD - A high-level meeting held here on Wednesday at the Ministry of Interior decided to strictly monitor social media during the holy month of Muharram to ensure peace and harmony throughout the country.

ISLAMABAD - The Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony has announced that the meeting of the Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee for the sighting of the moon marking the beginning of Muharram-ul-Haram 1447 AH will be held on the evening of Thursday, June 26, 2025, corresponding to 29th Zul-Hijjah 1446 AH.