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China rolls over $2bn loan to Pakistan

China has rolled over a $2 billion loan to Pakistan, Adviser to the Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad told Reuters in a text message on Saturday. The government is working to strengthen its finances after securing a $7bn International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout in September 2024. The first installment of the loan is currently under review , and if successful, the country will receive an additional $1bn. Securing external financing has previously been a key condition for the IMF to approve bail-out deals for the cash-strapped nation. The government needs to repay over $22bn in external debt in fiscal year 2025, including nearly $13bn in bilateral deposits, global credit rating agency Fitch said last month. According to the World Bank’s International Debt Report released in December, China has become Pakistan’s largest creditor with almost $29bn in loans. The World Bank put Pakistan’s total external debt (including IMF) at $130.85bn in 2023, accounting for 352 per cent of its t...
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Lawyers’ protest against controversial canal projects triggers traffic disruption in Karachi

A lawyers’ protest organised by the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) and Hyderabad Bar Council in the provincial capital on Saturday led to a major traffic disruption on Sharea Faisal near the FTC flyover and roads leading to the press club. The legal bodies were protesting against controversial canal projects , the 26th Constitutional Amendment, handing over Sindh’s lands for corporate farming and the Prevention of Electronic Crimes (Amendment) Bill, 2025. Caravans of lawyers belonging to different district bars of the province arrived at the FTC flyover on Sharea Faisal where contingents of law enforcers were already deployed with containers parked, triggering traffic chaos and long lines of vehicles. The lawyers held successful talks with the police and district administration under which they were allowed to take the route of Lines Area towards the Karachi Press Club (KPC). The march, led by senior lawyers Javed Qazi, Sajjad Chandio, Asghar Narejo, Aqib Rajpar, Ashraf Samoo, Abi...
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Aurat March to go ahead in Islamabad ‘without permission’

ISLAMABAD: The organisers of Aurat March in the capital vowed on Friday to go ahead with their planned event, and hold a rally from the National Press Club to D-Chowk today (Satur­day), despite not receiving formal permission from the administration. “We will have our show outside the National Press Club as per previous years and will try to march towards D-Chowk to mark the occasion [of Inter­national Women’s Day],” rights activist Dr Farzana Bari told Dawn on Friday night. Dr Bari, who is also one of the main organisers of the march, said they had submitted a formal application to the Islamabad admi­nistration months ago, seeking permission to hold the march from NPC to D-Chowk, but had not recei­ved a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) for the event so far. She said the march organisers had also written to PM Shehbaz Sharif, requesting him to direct the Islamabad administration to issue an NOC for the event. Instead, Dr Bari said, the administration had been asking them to postpo...
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Trump’s controversial Gaza Riviera AI video was meant as satire, creator says

The creator of a controversial AI-generated video depicting battle-ravaged Gaza rebuilt into a seaside resort, shared by US President Donald Trump’s official social media accounts, has said that the video was meant to be a “satire about this megalomaniac idea about putting statues” in the territory, British news outlet The Guardian reports. In February, the US president proposed for the US to take over Gaza and create a “Riviera of the Middle East” after resettling Palestinians elsewhere, sparking widespread condemnation. Arab leaders adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza earlier this week that would avoid resettling Palestinians, in contrast to Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision. Last week, Trump posted an AI-generated video on social media, depicting Gazans’ living in the bombarded territory coming out of caves to a beach with skyscrapers, with cameos from the president himself and Elon Musk, who is leading Trump’s federal cost-cutting efforts, both enjoying life ...
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Man allegedly guns down mother, 2 siblings in KP’s Nowshera: police

A man allegedly shot his elderly mother and two siblings dead in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Nowshera district on Friday, a police spokesperson told Dawn.com . Nowshera police spokesperson Adnan Durani confirmed the incident to Dawn.com and said a case had been lodged with the police investigating the matter now. The victims’ bodies were handed over to their heirs, he added. The first information report (FIR) was registered at the Pabi police station under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of a sibling of the suspect and two of the dead. Rescue 1122 Nowshera spokesperson Nabeel Khan told Dawn.com that the Pabi station received reports of a shooting before Iftar earlier this evening. “By the time we [Rescue 1122] arrived, two women and a man were lying in a pool of blood,” he said. “All three people were critically injured when our team arrived and rushed them to the Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Pabi, where they succumbed to their injuries...
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US envoy says to meet in Saudi with Ukrainians on peace ‘framework’

US envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday that he planned to travel to Saudi Arabia to speak to Ukrainian envoys about a ceasefire with Russia and a “framework” for a longer agreement. “We’re now in discussions to coordinate a meeting with the Ukrainians in Riyadh, or even potentially Jeddah,” Witkoff told reporters. “The idea is to get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire as well,” he said. Witkoff said that US President Donald Trump was pleased by a letter sent by President Volodymyr Zelensky in the wake of a verbal confrontation in the White House last Friday. “He felt that Zelensky’s letter was a very positive first step. There was an apology. There was an acknowledgement that the United States has done so much for the country of Ukraine and a sense of gratitude,” Witkoff said. Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the meeting accused Zelensky of not thanking the United States sufficiently for billions of dollars’ worth of weapons since Russia’s invasio...
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PM reaffirms govt’s full support to develop KP amid complaints by CM Gandapur

Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday reaffirmed the federal government’s full support in the development and welfare of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s populace. “We are committed to the development of KP,” the prime minister said while talking to PML-N KP General Secretary Murtaza Javed Abbasi who called on him at the PM House. Abbasi invited the prime minister to visit KP and lay the foundation stone for an additional interchange on the Hazara Motorway to facilitate the people of Abbottabad and surrounding areas. The prime minister’s statement comes a day after KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur complained that the centre was not releasing due funds to the province. He criticised the federal government last month for “avoiding its Constitutional responsibility over the delayed National Finance Commission (NFC) Award” and warned that if the federal government failed to announce the new NFC Award by April, then a ‘decisive action’ would be taken in May. CM Gandapur had said ...
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