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Govt offers talks after PTI demands access to its leader

• Rana Sanaullah says party still not ready to come to the table • Alarm raised over alleged breach of privacy by FBR ISLAMABAD: After a fiery speech in the Senate by a PTI-backed lawmaker, deploring the absence of rule of law and an unannounced ban on meetings with incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan, the ruling party once again held out an olive branch to the PTI, reassuring it that all issues could be resolved through dialogue. Speaking in the upper house of parliament on Friday, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Poli­tical and Public Affairs Rana Sana­ullah said the PTI had always rejected the path of negotiations, even though all issues could be reso­lved through dialogue rather than deadlock. He said the government was ready to hold a dialogue with the opposition to take the country forward, but the PTI leadership remained unwilling. The remarks came after PTI Senator Mashal Yousafzai chided two ministers over the claim that VVIP facilities were available to Imran ...
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Mexico to kick off 2026 World Cup against South Africa

The 2026 World Cup will kick off on June 11 with joint-hosts Mexico playing South Africa at the Azteca Stadium — venue of the 1970 and 1986 finals — followed by South Korea against a playoff winner after the draw was made on Friday. South Africa are appearing for the first time since 2010, when they drew with Mexico in the opening match but failed to reach the knockout stage. Fellow hosts the United States and Canada will join the party the next day, against Paraguay and a playoff winner — possibly Italy — respectively in Los Angeles and Toronto. Defending champions Argentina were grouped with Algeria, Austria and Jordan, while five-times winners Brazil will play Morocco — semi-finalists in 2022 — Haiti and Scotland. The Scots are appearing in the finals for the first time since 1998, when they lost to Brazil in the opening game. France’s first game will be against Senegal in a repeat of one of the biggest tournament upsets, when the Africans stunned the then-holders in their firs...
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Donald Trump awarded first FIFA ‘peace prize’ at football World Cup draw

US President Donald Trump said he was not attending the draw for the 2026 World Cup to receive a prize, but he got one anyway. Trump , who has campaigned aggressively this year for a Nobel Peace Prize, was given FIFA’s inaugural peace prize for his efforts to promote dialogue and de-escalation in some of the world’s hotspots. Amid TV cameras and flashbulbs from the international press, Trump dominated the scene at Washington’s Kennedy Center on Friday, placing himself squarely at the center of one of the biggest events in the sporting world. The United States, along with Canada and Mexico, will host the soccer tournament next year. The prime minister of Canada, Mark Carney, and the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, were there, too, but it was all Trump’s show. “This will be unique, this will be stellar, this will be spectacular,” Gianni Infantino, the gregarious president of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, said at the opening of the ceremony, talking about next year’s ...
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US asylum freeze

IT is clear that the Trump administration is using last week’s shooting incident, in which two National Guard troopers were targeted, to further clamp down on asylum and immigration. The suspected shooter, a former Afghan security man with ties to US forces, came to America in 2021. In the wake of the Washington shooting, the US has suspended all asylum claims, while people from 19 “high-risk” countries will have their immigration status reviewed retroactively. Moreover, the US travel ban could be extended to more than 30 countries — mostly ‘ Third World ’ states in the words of the US president. According to the US homeland security secretary, “foreign invaders” who “snatch the benefits owed to Americans” are not welcome. Yet much of this xenophobic rhetoric conveniently overlooks one crucial fact: many of the asylum seekers and migrants heading to American shores come from countries that the US and its Western allies have themselves helped destroy through military interventions. ...
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Trump envoys press plan with Ukraine as sanctions eased on Russia

President Donald Trump’s envoys were to meet Thursday with Ukrainian negotiators for the third time in two weeks to press his plan to end the war as his administration eased economic pressure on Russia. Two days after the envoys met Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Treasury Department partially suspended measures that Trump had announced in October when he finally vowed to get tough on Moscow. The Treasury Department suspended until at least April 29 economic sanctions against Lukoil-branded gas stations outside of Russia. A ban remains on place to prevent the money from flowing back to Russia, which has been under sweeping US and EU sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Trump’s sanctions had been one of the most concrete means to pressure Russia, which European diplomats accuse of trying to avoid pressure by pursuing negotiations. Easing isolation Steve Witkoff, Trump’s business partner-turned-roving global ambassador, and Jared Kushner, the president’s ...
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Protection for all

ACHIEVING true national cohesion is not possible unless Pakistanis of all confessional backgrounds are ensured their fundamental rights. Sadly, over the decades we have witnessed the space for non-Muslim minorities shrink considerably. This has been manifested in the form of prejudice and discrimination that these communities face, while in worse instances, non-Muslim citizens, their properties and places of worship have come under violent attack from extremists. The state has pledged after every such atrocity to protect minorities and crack down on extremism. Yet to achieve both goals, institutional responses are required, and the state has a mixed report card in this area. In a related development, the National Commission for Minorities Rights Bill, 2025, was passed by parliament on Tuesday in order to create a proper framework to address the issues of non-Muslim citizens. The federal law minister told parliament that the commission would look into issues such as forced conversion...
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NFC meets today to discuss resource sharing

ISLAMABAD: The inaugural meeting of the 11th National Finance Commission (NFC) is being held here on Thursday (today) to formally begin negotiations on the horizontal and vertical distribution of divisible pool resources among the federating units. Federal Finance Mini­ster Muhammad Auran­gzeb will preside over the meeting, which will take up three agenda items. The four provincial finance ministers and four non-statutory members — Dr Asad Sayeed (Sindh), Mehfooz Ali Khan (Baloc­histan), Nasir Mehmood Khosa (Punjab) and Dr Musharraf Rasool Cyan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) — are members of the NFC. Chief ministers of Sindh and KP holding the finance portfolio will attend the meeting. KP CM Sohail Afridi will be leading a heavy delegation that also includes his adviser Muzammil Aslam, besides the non-statutory member and finance secretary. At the outset, the meeting will hold general discussions on the “strategy for deliberations on the 11th NFC Award, including proposed formation of sub-...
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