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ISLAMABAD: Taking on both the government and opposition parties, the mercurial Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Sunday said that the incumbent government was incapable of allaying their concerns about the Feb 8 polls, while the PTI appeared confused about the way forward. Addressing a press conference after a meeting of his party’s Majlis-i-Shura, which spanned two days, the JUI-F chief demanded snap elections without the interference of the establishment. The Maulana said his party had reached the conclusion that the government was incapable of addressing the concerns of the JUI-F and other political parties. He also alluded to a resolution recently passed by the US House of Repre­sentatives about free and fair polls to support his call for fresh elections. Opposes ‘Azm-i-Istehkam’; says govt blaming Kabul to cover ‘own failures’ According to the Maulana, the JUI-F was also concerned about the intentions of the PTI and the Sunni Ittehad Council; therefore, it has decided to push for sn...

Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry on Sunday said that he did not see any chance of incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan being released from Adiala Jail as long as the current party leadership is in charge. His remarks were the latest in a series of broadsides launched against the present PTI leadership over the past week. Chaudhry, who left the PTI in the aftermath of the state’s crackdown against the party following May 9 riots, said earlier this month that the current PTI leadership had badly failed to provide a political strategy due to which problems were exacerbating for the party despite enjoying massive public support. “The real focus of the PTI should be on building an opposition alliance with Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) and Jamaat-i-Islami,” Chaudhry had said while speaking to journalists at his residence in Ladhar. Separately, in a private conversation with Dawn on Thursday, Chaudhry said no one in the current p...

WASHINGTON: A senior US official has assured Islamabad that the United States and Pakistan maintain a stable and broad-based relationship despite occasional friction between the two allies. The assurance follows the recent adoption of a resolution by an overwhelming majority in the US Congress, expressing concerns about the state of democracy and human rights in Pakistan. Islamabad responded strongly, rejecting the concerns as unfounded. “Like any longstanding relationship, there’s always a little bit of friction at times,” said US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Elizabeth Horst while speaking at a mango party at the Pakistan Embassy on Friday night. “But the US-Pakistan relationship is in the best place it’s been in years. We have achieved stability and a broadening of our relationship that we haven’t seen in many, many years,” she added. “We have had new dialogues opened. We have looked for new areas of trade. We have looked for ways we can cooperate on things like...

ISLAMABAD: Justice Athar Minallah has asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to satisfy the Supreme Court that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) was excluded from the electoral process legitimately, thereby forfeiting its claim to reserved seats. As a member of the full-court bench of the Supreme Court hearing the Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) appeal against the denial of reserved seats for women and minorities, Justice Minallah directed the ECP to satisfy the court that a level playing field was provided to all political parties, including PTI, before, during, and after the February 8 general elections. The SC will resume hearing the appeal on Monday. In a four-page note, Justice Minallah observed that petitions pending before the SC raising questions about the integrity of the Feb 8 polls should be heard alongside the SIC petitions. He directed the ECP to place on record the nature of complaints received prior to, during, and after the general elections and satisfy the...

LAHORE: Amid escalating tensions with the treasury, the opposition in the Punjab Assembly held its own session on Saturday, pledging not to accept “fake Form-47” Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, even if the speaker suspended all its lawmakers. Opposition lawmakers from the PTI (Sunni Ittehad Council) and ruling PML-N lawmakers had been at loggerheads after 11 opposition members were suspended for 15 sittings due to “rowdyism” during Maryam Nawaz’s speech on Friday. The government further escalated the situation by stripping opposition leader Malik Ahmad Khan Bhachar of his perks and privileges and closing his chamber in the assembly. A heavy contingent of police and a prisoner van were stationed outside the Punjab Assembly as the session began on Saturday, with orders to prevent the 11 suspended lawmakers from entering. Expressing solidarity with their suspended members, the opposition lawmakers held their own session outside the assembly gate and made fiery speeches against CM Mar...

• Approves realignment of Karakoram Highway between Thakot, Raikot • Green-lights revised PC-I of new Gwadar airport • Upgrade of Railways ML-1 project fails to get nod ISLAMABAD: The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Saturday approved 19 development projects worth Rs411.01 billion in various sectors, especially in Sindh and Balochistan. The Ecnec meeting, presided over by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, also approved a multimillion-dollar World Bank project for the realignment of Karakoram Highway (KKH) between Thakot and Raikot, costing 13.067 billion yuan. The meeting considered 21 agenda items recommended to it in various meetings of the Central Develop­ment Working Party (CDWP) and accorded approval to 19 projects. On June 15, Prime Minis­ter Shehbaz Sharif decided to remove Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb from his position as Ecnec chairman. In his place, Mr Dar, who also holds the portfolio of foreign minister, has been appointed as t...

RAWALPINDI: The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi bench has admitted a petition challenging PIA’s privatisation process and also asked the top law officer to respond to the questions raised in the plea. Justice Jawad Hassan issued the order on Friday on a pro bono petition filed against the procedure adopted to privatise PIA. The judge also expressed his intention to examine the law introduced by the previous caretaker government to set up an appellate tribunal for privatisation disputes. The petition stated that the government issued an advertisement to privatise the national carrier without properly evaluating its local and foreign assets as required under the Privati­sation Commission Ordinance, 2000. When the judge questioned the petitioner’s counsel over the plea’s maintainability, he argued the requirements in Section 23 of the Privatisation Commission Ordinance, 2000 have not been met. While proceeding with the privatisation process, principles already settled by the S...

Pakistan clinched four spots in the finals of the Asian Junior Squash Championship at the Mushaf Sports Complex in Islamabad after a grueling round of semi-finals on Friday. Saturday’s finals will see Pakistani teammates Huzaifa Shahid and Sohail Adnan battle it out for the Boys U-13 title, while Abdullah Nawaz faces Malaysia’s Nikhileswar Moganasundharam in the U-17 category at the 31st edition of the championship. Last year’s world champion Hamza Khan will face off Malaysia’s Harith Danial in the U-19 category. Not a single Pakistani girl advanced to the semi-finals in the tournament, which has featured some 200 players from a dozen countries across the U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 categories. Earlier this month, the Ali sisters fueled Pakistan’s medal rush at the PBA 20th Penang Malaysia Junior Open. Sohail had a clean win over Malaysia’s Muhammad Ifwat Zulkifli, beating him 11-8, 11-6, 11-2 to advance to the finals. The Malaysians lost another spot in the Boys U-13 final as Hu...

ISLAMABAD: In a significant development, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan resigned from his party positions, lending credence to reports of fissures within the party ranks. Sources in the PTI told Dawn that Omar Ayub, who is also leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, submitted his resignation on June 22, which has been accepted by founding chairman Imran Khan. The move came as a surprise, even for some PTI insiders, who said they thought the founder would not accept the resignation and ask Omar Ayub to continue in his position . In his resignation, shared by Omar Ayub on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle, Mr Omar wrote that it was not possible for him to continue working as the party’s secretary general and also justify his job as opposition leader in the National Assembly. He also indicated that he would be stepping down as chairman of the PTI’s Central Finance Board, but maintained that he would continue as a party worker. “I ...

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan administration has protested to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa over the latter’s “unilateral decision” to postpone the Shandur polo festival. The three-day festival was scheduled to begin on Friday (tomorrow). On Monday, the KP government announced the postponement of the event due to “inclement weather”. Criticising the move, the deputy commissioner of Ghizer, a district in Gilgit-Baltistan, said in a letter to his Chitral counterpart that it was “extremely disappointing and shocking for us in GB” to learn that the Shandur polo festival had been postponed. “This event is a cornerstone of our cultural heritage and a symbol of our districts’ friendship and cooperation. It is astonishing that the tourism department of KP has taken a decision without consultation, despite the fact that Shandur is a historic area of Gilgit-Baltistan,” said Habibur Rehman, the deputy commissioner. He said such decisions were always taken after consultations between the two administrat...

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday said it had issued arrest warrants for Russia’s army chief and ex-defence minister over strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure that constituted alleged war crimes. The ICC warrants are the latest in a series of actions by the court over the Ukraine war, including an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The warrants, issued on Monday but made public on Tuesday, concerned the Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, and former defence minister Sergei Shoigu. The pair are accused of the war crimes of directing attacks at civilian targets and causing excessive incidental harm to civilians, as well as the crime against humanity of “inhumane acts” in Ukraine, the ICC said in a statement. ICC judges said there were “reasonable grounds to believe that the two suspects bear responsibility for missile strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces against the Ukrainian electric infrastructure from at least October...

WASHINGTON: In what has become the deadliest period for journalists since records began in 1992, the UN and independent observers are reporting a “systemic pattern” of targeting journalists and media workers in the Israeli-occupied territories. A major global cross-newsroom collaboration produced a series of reports this week on the systematic targeting of journalists by Israel. The reports also highlight how journalists in Gaza are defying death threats to perform their duty. According to the reports, surviving Gazan journalists have long known that their “press vests do not protect them. Worse, the protective gear might further expose them”. Local reporters know, too, that “they are on their own, with the Israeli authorities banning foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip”, the report adds. Guardian says military views journalists working for Palestinian media outlets as ‘legitimate targets’ “Those who are still there have been injured, detained, lost their family m...

THIS screengrab from officially released footage shows Dagestan region governor Sergei Melikov (third from right) inspecting the synagogue which came under attack, on Monday.—AFP MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Monday dismissed fears Russia’s historically restive North Caucasus region faces a wave of violence after a series of coordinated weekend attacks on churches, synagogues and police killed at least 20 in the southern Dagestan region. The attacks on Sunday came just three months after the militant Islamic State (IS) group fighters killed more than 140 in a Moscow concert hall, the deadliest attack on Russia for almost 20 years. Moscow said on Monday it had concluded an “anti-terrorist operation” and killed five of the assailants behind the attacks in the cities of Makhachkala and Derbent. The incidents had echoes of the kind of insurgent violence that struck the North Caucasus during the 1990s and 2000s, but the Kremlin on Monday dismissed fears of a renewed wave of attacks. Go...

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Local police have registered a case against seven tribesmen for killing an endangered leopard in the Dera Bugti district of Balochistan. According to sources, the tribesmen killed the leopard to protect their livestock in Zain area of the district. Dera Bugti Deputy Commissioner Ejaz Khan that the district administration has re­­g­­­istered a case under The Balochistan (Wil­d­­­life Protection, Pre­s­e­rvation, Conser­va­t­ion and Management) Act 2014 and initiated legal proceedings against the tribesmen. He also called for commencing awareness campaigns by wildlife organisations to educate the tribesmen about protecting endangered species. Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti has also taken notice of the incident and directed the authorities to take stern legal action against the accused. Former WWF Pakistan activist Umer Waqas identified the leopard as a Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana). This species is native to the Iranian Plateau, including the...

WASHINGTON: Three more US officials, including two from the military, have resigned this week in protest against Washington’s support for Israeli military operations in Gaza, US media reported on Sunday. Larry Hebert and Juan Bettancourt announced their unwillingness to continue serving in light of the US military’s role in the conflict. The development follows the resignation of Andrew Miller, a senior official at the US Department of State and an expert on Israeli-Palestinian affairs. Miller expressed his discontent with the Biden administration’s policies amid the eight-month-long conflict in Gaza. The death of six-year-old Hind Rajab in February, after she was trapped under Israeli fire in Gaza, prompted Larry Hebert Jr., an active-duty US airman, to seek conscientious objector status from the US military. Some officials say Israeli actions in enclave amount to ‘genocide’ “She looks almost just like my daughter, and that was something that was extremely hard to grasp, is tha...

Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Sunday approved the deployment of the Frontier Constabulary (FC) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) at the request of Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq, in a decision that raised eyebrows in the region given the recent incidents that had led to three deaths in state capital Muzaffarabad allegedly at the hands of a paramilitary force. The deployment comes on the heels of a warning by the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) that the activists of the rights movement would stage “peaceful sit-ins” at AJK’s entry and exit points with Pakistan if the authorities did not honour the pledges made to the alliance leadership and released the detained activists by June 25. According to a press release issued by the AJK government, the meeting between Haq and Naqvi, held in the latter’s office in the federal capital, focused on the law and order situation and overall security in the liberated territory. Both leaders also discussed the political climate an...

ISLAMABAD: Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has sought reports from sector commanders of Inter-Services Intellige­nce and Military Intelli­g­ence deputed in Rawal­pindi, Islamabad and Azad Jammu and Kashmir on a petition seeking the whereabouts of a citizen. Mr Khursheed, a resident of Neelum Valley, went missing on June 7, according to the petition filed by Khaleeqa Khursheed. She stated Mr Khursheed was in Rawal­pindi and went to G-13 sector of Islamabad, but did not return home. The petitioner’s counsel informed the IHC that Mr Khursheed’s brother had lodged a complaint with local police but he could not be traced. In its order on Saturday, the court noted that deputy attorney general submitted written reports on behalf of FIA and CTD in compliance with June 14 direction to the government. Both FIA and CTD reports have denied custody of Mr Khursheed. The defence ministry’s law officer asked Justice Kayani for more time to file reports on behalf of t...

Leg-spinner Kuldeep Yadav took three key wickets while Hardik Pandya blasted an undefeated half-century as India moved to the brink of the T20 World Cup semi-finals with a 50-run rout of Bangladesh on Saturday. Chasing 197 for victory, Bangladesh lost three of their top five batsmen to Kuldeep who removed Tanzid Hasan (29), Towhid Hridoy (four) and Shakib Al Hasan (11). Kuldeep finished with an impressive 3-19 from his four overs. India now have two wins from two Super Eight games and will be guaranteed a semi-final spot if Australia defeat Afghanistan later tonight and also make the last four from Group 1. Pandya, who had made 50 when India batted, began the slide when he took the first Bangladesh wicket, tempting opener Liton Das (13) to sky a chance. Once skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto fell to Jasprit Bumrah for a 32-ball 40, Bangladesh’s hopes went with him. Bumrah also ended Rishad Hossain’s brief 24-run cameo as the veteran seamer enjoyed figures of 2-13 in four overs before...

ISLAMABAD: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Faisal Karim Kundi met Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Federal Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Rana Sanaullah on Friday to convey that the provincial government was challenging the writ of the state by forcibly entering grid stations and restoring power supply to many areas. According to a statement issued by the PM Office, PM Shehbaz said the federal government would provide utmost assistance and resources for the welfare of the people of KP. A row between the Centre and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on loadshedding, which had ostensibly been settled last month, was resurrected on Wednesday after KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur issued another ultimatum, telling the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) to reduce outages on all grids to 12 hours a day. Pesco is among those distribution companies whose power losses are as high as 60 per cent and last month, Energy Minister Awais Leghari had explained that those feeders where losses we...

The Swat police on Friday registered two first information reports (FIRs) over the previous night’s lynching of a man in Madyan with arrests yet to be made. A mob had brutally lynched a man — who had been detained for the alleged desecration of the Holy Quran — inside the Madyan police station on Thursday evening. The mob then set fire to the suspect’s body, the police station and a police vehicle. This was the second incident of someone being lynched on suspicion of blasphemy in recent weeks; a man was killed in Sargodha last month over similar allegations. According to locals, some individuals announced in a market that a man had committed blasphemy, leading others to apprehend him and hand him over to the police. But shortly afterwards, announcements were also made from mosques in Madyan, a known tourist destination in Swat, mobilising the people towards the police station in anger. According to witnesses, the mob asked police to hand over the suspect to them, and on their ref...

KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Thursday inaugurated the Sindh Smart Surveillance System (S4) project aimed at providing a comprehensive and integrated security solution for all major entry and exit points connecting all major cities in the province. Officials have said that the system would enable effective monitoring of entry and exit points and ensure security through the integration of advanced technologies such as facial and number plate recognition at 40 toll plazas, including 18 in Karachi. They said that the project also aimed at enhancing security responses and seamlessly integrating with the existing command and control centre at the Central Police Office (CPO). The inauguration ceremony of the first of the Sindh Safe Cities-related project was held at the CPO. CM Murad says project will help arrest over 80,000 absconding criminals, reduce vehicle theft and snatching Speaking on the occasion, CM Shah hoped that the S4 project would facilitate the arrest...

A man was killed by a mob over alleged desecration of the Holy Quran in the Madyan area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Swat district on Thursday night, police said. Eight people were injured in the unrest, according to Swat District Police Officer (DPO) Dr Zahidullah Khan. He said the police had moved the suspect of the alleged desecration incident to the police station but a charged mob “attacked the police station and took the suspect away”. “People set fire to the police station and a mobile vehicle,” the DPO said, adding that the suspect was “torched”. More details are awaited while an investigation is underway. DPO Khan said a heavy police force was deployed in Madyan and was trying to control the tense situation. Madyan is one of the famous tourist spots of Swat Valley apart from Kalam, Bahrain and other sites. It is around 245 kilometres from the provincial capital of Peshawar. A statement posted by the PTI said KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur took notice of the “unfortunate”...

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has extended the deadline to September 16 for transferring pending cases involving multi-billion tax amounts to the Appellate Tribunal Inland Revenue (ATIR) to expedite the resolution. The tax disputes pending before the Commissioner Inland Revenue-Appeal (CIRA) involving more than Rs20 million in income tax or refund, more than Rs10m in sales tax and Rs5m in federal excise duty would be moved to the newly established ATIR. The CIRA will hear cases below the ATIR’s threshold. The new appeal system was implemented through the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act 2024 , which was not part of the Finance Bill 2024. The new appeals will also follow the threshold to determine whether ATIR or CIRA will file the case, and the decisions of these bodies can be contested before the high courts by the aggrieved persons. According to the new amendment, the commissioner will not recover any tax for 30 days from the date of communication of the CIRA or ATIR orde...

RAWALPINDI: As Pakistan continues to face sizzling heat , weather experts have expected that western winds and rains in upper parts of the country will bring down the temperature by a few notches till June 22. “The country is facing a transition period of weather pattern…we do not call it pre-monsoon rains as rains are expected due to the winds coming from the west. The pre-monsoon rains will likely start from July 1,” said a Met Department official. The monsoon season will run from July 15 to Sept 15 across Pakistan. He said intermittent rains were expected in the upper parts of the country. “Weather will remain warm in the afternoon, but cool breeze and rain are expected in the evening or night till June 22,” he elaborated. The official said that moist currents from Arabian sea were penetrating upper or central parts of the country, adding that a shallow westerly wave is also present over those regions. He said that windstorm/thunderstorm coupled with rain is expected at isolate...

Journalist Khalil Jibran was gunned down in the Landi Kotal area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Khyber district on Tuesday night, the police said. According to a statement from District Police Officer (DPO) Saleem Abbas, unknown assailants in a vehicle pulled the journalist out of his car near his home and fled the scene after shooting him dead. DPO Abbas said the body was moved to a local hospital for a postmortem examination. He said the deceased was associated with Khyber News for a long time and was also a former president of the Landi Kotal press club, adding that Jibran had received threats from terrorists before as well. The DPO said a case was registered on the complaint of Advocate Sajjad, who was with Jibran and a witness to the crime. The first information report, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was registered at the Landi Kotal police station under Sections 302 (intentional murder) and 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The journalist’s funeral p...

Diplomats on Tuesday said at least 550 pilgrims died during the hajj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year. At least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses, two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries’ responses told AFP . “All of them (the Egyptians) died because of heat” except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said, adding the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Makkah. At least 60 Jordanians also died, the diplomats said, up from an official tally of 41 given earlier on Tuesday by Amman. The new deaths bring the total reported so far by multiple countries to 577, according to an AFP tally. The diplomats said the total at the morgue in Al-Muaisem, one of the biggest in Makkah, was 550. The Haj pilgrimage is increasingly affected by climate change, according to...

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is facing expanding desertification and recurring but intense droughts, Coordinator to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Romina Khurshid Alam highlighted on Sunday, stressing that the country stands at a critical juncture in its fight against desertification and land degradation. However, through “targeted policies, investments in research and technology and fostering international cooperation, Pakistan remains steadfast in its commitment to combating desertification and achieving land degradation neutrality”, Ms Alam said in a statement issued on the eve of World Desertification Day. She said the theme for this year’s World Desertification Day — celebrated each year on 17 June — is “Restoration. Land. Climate”, which she said resonated deeply with the government’s commitment and on-ground efforts to fight desertification by restoring degraded lands and ecosystems, enhancing climate-resilience and achieving sustainable development goals. Ms Alam highlighted th...