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Transporters hold firm as talks continue

KARACHI: Amid negotiations between goods transporters and government departments to resolve a nationwide strike that has entered its 10th day, industrialists warned on Tuesday that each passing day was adding billions of rupees in trade and export losses . Transporters said talks were underway with representatives of the federal and Punjab governments and relevant departments, including the ministries of ports and shipping and communications, the motorway pol­i­ce, the National Highway Autho­rity (NHA) and senior officials of the Fede­ral Board of Revenue (FBR) and Customs. They claimed the federal and Punjab governments had ackno­wledged that their demands were justified. The negotiations were continuing late into the night and were ongoing at the time of going to press, officials said. Earlier, transporters said the strike would continue until their dema­nds were accepted. The Transp­orters’ Goods Association (TGA) also told a Sindh government committee at the Commissioner’s Offi...
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Lawmakers grill Trump officials on US alleged drug boat strikes

Donald Trump’s top national security officials faced a grilling from lawmakers Tuesday on US strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific — operations that have raised alarms about escalating military force near Venezuela. The House and Senate briefings, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, came amid mounting unease in Congress over the president’s widening campaign in waters off Latin America, and as lawmakers weigh measures to curb Trump’s authority to act without their approval. US officials say the operations target narcotics bound for American shores. Critics counter that the campaign — which has destroyed at least 26 boats and killed at least 95 people, according to US military figures — is legally ambiguous and strategically unclear. The classified sessions preceded a possible Senate vote on resolutions aimed at restricting Trump from launching military action against Venezuela without congressional consent. But Senat...
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Samina Baig becomes first Pakistani to ski to the South Pole

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Terrorists in Afghanistan hinder regional economic integration, pose serious security challenges: envoy

Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq on Monday shared “concerns over the large number of terrorists in the neighbourhood, hindering regional economic integration and posing serious security challenges.” In a post on X, Sadiq, who also holds the special assistant to the prime minister portfolio, said he had held separate meetings with his counterparts from China and Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the Afghanistan Neighbours Conference in Tehran. “We agreed that collective efforts needed to address this threat,” he said. Separately, senior diplomats of Afghanistan’s six neighbouring countries and Russia, who met in Tehran on Sunday, supported all efforts to reduce tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan. They expressed their readiness to help strengthen these efforts, an Iranian government statement said on Monday. Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported that the participants also called on Islamabad and Kabul to return to the negotiating table and ...
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Militants blow up girl’s school in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali

In another attack targeting educational institutions, a government school for girls in North Waziristan’s Mir Ali was destroyed by explosives, spreading fear and anxiety among students. Last week, unidentified militants blew up a government primary school in the same district, jeopardising the future of more than 600 school-going children. The latest incident occurred in Eppi village, according to the police. The attackers planted explosive material inside the school building during the night, triggering a powerful blast that completely destroyed the structure. According to government officials, around 250 girls were enrolled at the school. It was the only educational institution for girls in the area, where students used to travel from far-flung localities for education. Police officials said the school was closed at the time of the explosion and no loss of life was reported. However, the blast caused severe damage to government property. Following the incident, panic gripped the...
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Tax begone — a less costly broadband?

Pakistan’s political class loves the vocabulary of transformation. Every year, new visions promise a “Digital Pakistan”, an “empowered youth”, and a “modern economy”. Yet beneath the lofty language lies a stubborn contradiction: the state taxes broadband as if it were a luxury product rather than the backbone of the 21st century. This single contradiction explains why Pakistan continues to lag behind regional peers in digital adoption, economic modernisation, and technological capacity. The country claims it wants digital growth, but it taxes the very oxygen that allows digital ecosystems to breathe. To understand how self-defeating this policy is, one must begin with the tax structure itself. After the 18th Amendment, sales tax on services became a provincial matter, and broadband taxation now varies across the country. These differences only add confusion; they do not change the core problem. Punjab, the largest province and home to more than half the country’s population, conti...
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Recognising the merit of the 7th NFC award

Though the maiden National Finance Commission (NFC) meeting on Dec 4 was held in a cordial atmosphere and the topic of reducing provincial shares from the divisible pool was not raised, analysts fear that the Centre will not refrain from attempting to slash the provincial share or, alternatively, impose new expenditures on the provinces as talks move forward. It was stipulated that the Federal Board of Revenue will boost its tax collection by 3–3.5 percentage points to increase the tax-to-GDP ratio to 13pc, with the provinces expected to enhance their share from the existing 0.28 per cent to 3pc of GDP through effective taxation on services, property and farm income. PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto, on Dec 9, urged the federal government to transfer sales tax on goods to the provinces, as the collection of sales on services has significantly increased through devolution to the federating units after the 18th Amendment. He said centralised control was not only inefficient but also dr...
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