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Govt reduces petrol price by Rs2.20, high-speed diesel by Rs1.50

The government on Friday reduced the prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs2.20 and Rs1.50 per litre, respectively. Following the revision, petrol will retail at Rs327.62 per litre while HSD will cost Rs380.86 per litre. The government continues to levy Rs114 per litre in taxes and duties on petrol and Rs100 per litre on HSD. According to the Petroleum Division’s notification, the new prices will apply from August 8 to 10. The diesel price has come down from a peak of Rs520.35 recorded on April 3. Its price had started rising from Rs281 per litre after the US-Iran war broke out on February 28. The petrol price had peaked at Rs458.41 on April 3 after beginning its upward trajectory from Rs266 in the first week of March. Earlier, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik announced that fuel prices would now be fixed on a daily basis due to fluctuations in international market prices following renewed hostilities between Iran and the US. The government had been announci...
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Sindh govt constitutes third medical board for exhumation of Mir Ali Raza’s body

After withdrawing its two earlier notifications, the Sindh government on Friday notified a newly constituted eight-member medical board to carry out the exhumation of 25-year-old business owner Mir Ali Raza’s body on Saturday. The exhumation, which was originally scheduled for Friday, was deferred after the deceased’s family objected to the abrupt reconstitution of the medical board, just hours after the notification of the first one. A notification issued by the Sindh Health Department on Friday named police surgeon Dr Sumaiyya Syed as the convener of the board and Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS) Pathology Department head Professor Dr Naseem Ahmed as the pathologist. The eight-member board also includes Jinnah Sindh Medical University’s (JSMU) Dr Farah Waseem as a forensic expert, Shanakht Project’s Amir Hassan Khan as a forensic identification expert, Additional Police Surgeon Dr Srichand, Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) medicolegal officers Dr Kamran Khan and...
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Hormuz shipping prospects remain uncertain

• Tanker reports fresh explosions in strait; US naval blockade remains in place • US imports of Middle East crude set to cross 0.6m barrels per day • Vance, Ghalibaf trade barbs over ‘messy negotiations’ WASHINGTON / TEH­RAN: Despite an understanding between Iran and Oman, fresh security incidents in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday highlighted the continued risks for regional shipping in the critical waterway. While the agreement would be a step towards reopening the key energy route, Iranian media stressed that any easing still hinged on Washington ending its own naval blockade of Iran’s ports. On Thursday, Centcom said it continued to enforce the naval blockade of Iran, redirecting 49 commercial vessels, disabling two, and boarding two. Highlighting the risks to ships, the captain of an oil tanker reported hearing two explosions while transiting the strait, nine nautical miles southeast of Kumzar in Oman, Britain’s maritime securi...
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'Enough is enough': Jamaat-i-Islami announces 510 nationwide sit-ins against the petroleum levy

LAHORE: Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Thursday announced peaceful sit-ins against the petroleum levy at 510 locations across the country on Friday, warning that the protests would transform into a movement to overthrow the government if authorities attempted to stop them. Addressing a protest rally by the JI Women’s Wing on Wahdat Road in Lahore against rising petroleum prices and inflation, Rehman said major roads linking districts across Pakistan would be blocked from 4pm onwards; however, ambulances would be allowed to pass without interruption. “If obstacles are created or our peaceful protest against the petroleum levy is blocked, this campaign will turn into an anti-government movement,” he said, demanding that the price of petrol be reduced to Rs225 per litre. JI Lahore Emir Advocate Ziauddin Ansari, Women’s Wing President Dr Humaira Tariq, Samiha Raheel Qazi, Samina Saeed and Uzma Imran also addressed the gathering. Rehman urged the government t...
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Need for dialogue

THE interior minister’s comments at an Islamabad seminar last week have sparked many a conversation about the state of the ‘system’. Political leaders, as well as commentators, are all weighing in on the significance of his remarks, as he is seen to be close to those that matter in Pakistan. At the event, Mohsin Naqvi had spoken, among other things, of the need for political parties to start a dialogue, and for national leaders to put aside their differences and discuss governance issues. Picking up on this thread, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, while addressing an event in Quetta on Tuesday, stressed the need for holding a multiparty moot to discuss national problems, though he was critical of Mr Naqvi’s call for new provinces. Speaking before the interior minister’s comments, the PTI had last month similarly called for a ‘grand national dialogue’ involving political parties, the establishment and civil society. As the maulana said, “force alone ...
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Islamabad raises Afghan terrorism concerns at UN Security Council

WASHINGTON: Pakistan on Wednesday informed the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that multiple terrorist groups continued to operate from safe havens inside Afghanistan, posing a growing threat to regional security. Speaking at a UNSC briefing on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad also highlighted Islamabad’s concerns over Jammu and Kashmir, as the Council met on the seventh anniversary of India’s August 5, 2019, decision to revoke the region’s special constitutional status. Ahmad described the measures imposed on that day as a new phase of repression against the Kashmiri people and accused India of committing what he called “state terrorism” in the disputed territory. He said the international community must show “zero tolerance” for such actions and should not allow counterterrorism efforts to be used as a pretext to suppress what Pakistan describes as legitimate s...
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State of confusion

FROM the looks of it, America has no exit strategy to extricate itself from the disastrous war with Iran. US President Donald Trump has alternated between issuing bombastic threats to the Iranians, to claiming that peace was at hand, sometimes making a sharp U-turn within hours. This is not how responsible statecraft plays out. In the past, he had threatened to destroy Iranian civilisation, while more recently he said the US was ready to use “Military Terror … not seen since World War II” against the Islamic Republic. In his latest pronouncement, the US leader has given Iran a “last chance” to choose between a “deal [or] total surrender”. The five-month-old war has shown that the Iranians have mostly remained unfazed by Mr Trump’s threats. The chaos at the White House is understandable. Mr Trump jumped headfirst into the war on Feb 28 at Israel’s persuasion, without doing his homework. Perhaps if he had studied the mistakes his predecessors had made i...
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