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Pakistan can buy Russian oil

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is among the countries that could benefit from a new United States temporary licence allowing selected energy-importing nations to access Russian oil, diplomatic sources told Dawn . The US has introduced a 30-day general licence issued by the US Department of the Treasury to ease immediate supply pressures in global crude markets and provide relief to energy-vulnerable countries. Diplomatic sources said the arrangement may also apply to Pakistan, though they cautioned that Islamabad might not be able to fully take advantage of the concession due to limited technical capacity. US offers 30-day relief to energy-vulnerable countries They noted that Pakistan has not previously imported Russian crude at scale and may lack the refining infrastructure required to process such shipments. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on a social media post released on Monday that his department is issuing a temporary 30-day general licence to “provide the most vulnerable n...
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Nigeria says joint strikes with US kill 175 IS fighters

Nigeria’s military on Tuesday said that joint airstrikes with the United States had killed 175 Islamic State (IS) fighters in the country’s northeast, including the militant group’s global second-in-command. The remote region has been gripped by an extremist insurgency since 2009, first by Boko Haram, then its offshoot and rival, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). According to the United Nations, more than 40,000 people have been killed and two million others displaced. US and Nigerian forces killed Abu Bilal al-Minuki , an IS leader described as the “most active terrorist” in the world, at a remote village in the northeast last weekend. The Nigerian military said on Tuesday that 175 IS militants had so far been “eliminated from the battlefield”. “The joint strikes have resulted in the destruction of ISIS checkpoints, weapons caches, logistical hubs, military equipment and financial networks used to sustain terrorist operations,” it added. As director of global opera...
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Fazl urges President Zardari to ‘protect’ 18th Amendment

KARACHI: Amid growing speculation over the possibility of the 28th Amendment, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman placed President Asif Ali Zardari in a difficult position on Monday, urging him to protect the 18th Amendment with the same determination he had shown in helping bring it into existence in 2010 while holding the same office. Responding to a question about his thoughts on the proposed 28th Amendment while answering journalists’ queries after addressing a Meet the Press organised by the Karachi Press Club, the JUI-F chief said that the government had not come up with any position and everything remained blurred on the subject. However, he sounded very clear about the 18th Amendment, calling it “an achievement of the political parties” after so much effort under the PPP-led coalition government in 2010, restoring the “supremacy of the Constitution” after it had suffered too many “blows” under different military rules. He accused the current government of planning new legis...
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Opposition lawmakers stage protest in National Assembly, demand medical care for Imran

ISLAMABAD: Opposition lawmakers on Monday staged a protest on the National Assembly floor, demanding proper medical care for incarcerated PTI founder and former prime minister Imran Khan. During today’s session, PTI members did not point out a lack of quorum as the session commenced, which was chaired by Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah. As soon as the session progressed, the leader of the opposition in the lower house, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, stood at his seat and said that the deadline had expired and the government was not providing the required medical care to the former prime minister. “We had given the government time until Monday to mend its ways in this regard and had announced that we would not be part of the proceedings,” he said, adding that the opposition would also boycott the budget session. However, as he spoke, his voice was cut off and his speech was not broadcast on any official channel. PTI lawmakers also gathered around the Speaker’s seat and raised slogans in...
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The IMF and the elephant in the energy sector

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not wrong to say that Pakistan’s power sector subsidy regime needs reform. Any serious policy practitioner knows that the present tariff structure is fiscally expensive, administratively weak, and vulnerable to misuse. But the IMF is wrong in how it has framed the problem, sequenced the solution, and identified the culprit. Under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility, the government has committed to replacing the budgeted electricity tariff differential subsidy and cross-subsidy system with a targeted subsidy framework for low-income consumers, to be disbursed through the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) by the end of January 2027. On paper, this sounds neat. In practice, it risks becoming another exercise where the poor are asked to pay for the sins of the power sector’s political economy. Firstly, the IMF’s core assumption is analytically weak. It argues that better-targeted subsidies will reduce incentives for higher-income cons...
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PM Shehbaz credits 'political-military partnership' for Pakistan's recognition as US-Iran mediator, changed image

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has termed Pakistan’s emergence as a key mediator between the US and Iran as a “shining moment in our history”, crediting the “political-military partnership” for the change in the country’s image internationally. The premier made these remarks during an interview with The Sunday Times, as Islamabad remained engaged in efforts for de-escalation between the US and Iran. “It’s one of the shining moments in our history. Pakistan is acknowledged worldwide as an honest mediator and as a country in which international leadership has full trust and faith. It’s our shining hour, and I feel a very proud Pakistani — as do 240 million Pakistanis,” he was quoted as saying in the interview published on Saturday night. The PM’s expressed optimism even as military pressure and fears of renewed confrontation continue to shape the conflict that began with US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. While a deal for a complete end to the war is yet to happen, hostili...
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India-Pakistan dialogue push gains steam in held Kashmir too

ISLAMABAD: Just days after the first anniversary of Marka-i-Haq, calls for dialogue with Pakistan have grown in India, with several leaders in India-held Kashmir among the latest to support efforts to end hostilities between the neighbouring nuclear powers. Former chief ministers of India-held Kashmir, Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have backed the recent demand by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Secretary General Dattatreya Hosabale for the Indian government to hold peace talks with Pakistan, alongside promoting people-to-people contact between the two countries. According to India’s NDTV report, both Abdullah and Mufti have faced criticism in the past for advocating talks with Pakistan amid deepening hostilities between the two countries. However, the situation appears to be different this time. “It is a very significant move that the RSS leader called for talks with Pakistan, and a former army chief [retired Gen Manoj Naravane] has backed his statement. I am glad that s...
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