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DEFENCE Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif addresses a presser, on Saturday.—APP SIALKOT / ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Mohammad Asif has said in categorical terms that from now onwards, “no attacker” will be allowed from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to enter Islamabad, describing the recent PTI’s protest in capital as part 2 of May 9 tragedy. “We have to destroy the evil intentions of our enemies,” he told a press conference at his residence in the cantonment on Saturday. He said PTI always practised the politics of chaos and was still spreading false propaganda about the bodies. “Everyone knows what the PTI did on Nov 24. It is spreading false propaganda on bodies. It martyred police and Rangers personnel whose funerals were also held. The PTI should not spread false propaganda on the bodies of its workers. We pay tribute to all the martyrs, including Rangers and police, who did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for our beloved homeland. “I should make it clear that n...

The Lahore Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) has said PTI founder and ex-prime minister Imran Khan was “guilty” in a case related to the May 9 riots, it emerged on Saturday. Following the arrest of the ex-premier on May 9, 2023, from the Islamabad High Court’s premises, riots erupted across the country and went on for at least 24 hours. The state subsequently launched a crackdown against him and his party, filing several other cases against Imran since the events of May 9, in many of which he has been acquitted. The ATC on Wednesday had dismissed Imran’s petitions seeking post-arrest bail in eight May 9 cases, including an attack on the corps commander’s residence. ATC-I Judge Manzer Ali Gill had reserved a verdict after hearing the final arguments of the lawyers for the petitioner and the prosecution, which he announced later in the evening. In a written order issued today, available with Dawn.com , for one of the petitions regarding a case registered at the Mughalpura Police Station ...

LAHORE: While incarcerated leaders of the PTI have sought to suspend the ongoing protest movement, a message shared on “Islamabad massacre” from party founder Imran Khan’s X handle called Nov 26 a black day in the history of Pakistan. The protest movement was abruptly suspended after the state machinery pushed the PTI protesters away from Islamabad’s D-Chowk, but Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Min­ister Ali Amin Gandapur announced , “Our sit-in at D-Chowk will continue until our leader Imran Khan will call it off.” Incarcerated leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Senator Ejaz Chaudhry, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed, Omar Sarfraz Cheema and others in Kot Lakhpat jail, through an open letter delivered to media persons on Friday, called for suspending the protest movement and urged the party leadership to announce a countrywide mourning. They said condolence meetings should be organised across the country for recitation of Holy Quran, while party leaders visit the bereaved families ...

Saudi Arabia has abandoned its pursuit of an ambitious defence treaty with Washington in return for normalising relations with Israel and is now pushing for a more modest military cooperation agreement, two Saudi and four Western officials told Reuters . In a drive to get a wide-ranging mutual security treaty over the line earlier this year, Riyadh softened its position on Palestinian statehood, telling Washington that a public commitment from Israel to a two-state solution could be enough for the Gulf kingdom to normalise relations. But with public anger in Saudi Arabia and the wider Middle East at fever pitch over Israel’s military actions in Gaza, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has again made recognition of Israel conditional on it taking concrete steps to create a Palestinian state, two Saudi and three Western sources said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still eager to secure normalisation with the Saudi powerhouse as a historic milestone and a sign of broad...

PARIS: Air pollution caused by fires is linked to more than 1.5 million deaths a year worldwide, the vast majority occurring in developing countries, a major new study said on Thursday. This death toll is expected to rise in the coming years as climate change makes wildfires more frequent and intense, according to a study in The Lancet journal. The international team of researchers looked at existing data on “landscape fires”, which include both wildfires that rage through nature and planned fires such as controlled burns on farming land. Around 450,000 deaths a year from heart disease were linked to fire-related air pollution between 2000 and 2019, the researchers said. A further 220,000 deaths from respiratory disease were attributed to the smoke and particulates spewed into the air by fire. From all causes around the world, a total of 1.53m annual deaths were associated with air pollution from landscape fires, according to the study. More than 90pc of these deaths were i...

About seven in 10 people in the country are facing health issues because of smog with the most common symptoms being cough, flu and breathing difficulties, according to a report by international insights firm Ipsos. The recent smog situation was declared a “ calamity ” in Punjab last month. According to the international Air Quality Index Scale, an index value of 300 or higher results is “hazardous” to health and Pakistan has regularly tipped over 1,000 on the scale. Around two million people visited medical facilities across Punjab with breathing problems and other respiratory diseases in a month as record-breaking smog choked the province. The Ipsos survey, titled “Smog in Pakistan: Awareness, Perceptions and Practices” and dated November 26, was conducted from Nov 18 to 22 using computer-assisted telephone interviews with a sample of 1,000 people from all four provinces and Islamabad. Screenshot taken from IPSOS survey report. In its first section on people’s awareness and...

The Chinese consul general has stressed that China firmly supports Pakistan’s efforts in combating terrorism and asked the federal government to implement targeted security measures to protect Chinese personnel, projects and institutions working in the country. Counter-terrorism efforts remain a key topic of discussion between the two countries due to the rising frequency of attacks targeting Chinese nationals working in Pakistan. While there have been media reports that Beijing is seeking a more proactive role in ensuring the safety of its citizens in Pakistan, the Foreign Office has emphasised that counter-terrorism cooperation between the two countries is based on mutual respect for each other’s sovereignty. During a media briefing at the Consulate General of China in Karachi on Wednesday, Chinese Consul General Yang Yundong said that the China-Pakistan ironclad friendship was everlasting and ever-refreshing. “It is expected that the Pakistani side will improve its business...

BEIJING: Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said on Wednesday, which would make him the latest official to fall in a sweeping crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said the investigation into Dong was part of that broader probe into military corruption. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defence minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. Asked about the report at a regular briefing on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said it was just “chasing shadows” and did not offer further information. A former navy commander, he was appointed defence minister in December following the surprise removal of predecessor Li Shangfu just seven months into the job. Li was later expelled from the ruling Communist Party for offences including suspected bribery, state media ...

Several members of US President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration have received threats, including bomb alerts, a spokesperson for the president-elect said Wednesday. “Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and Administration appointees were targeted in violent, un-American threats to their lives and those who live with them,” said transition team spokesperson Karoline Leavitt in a statement. Without saying who was targeted, Leavitt said these incidents ranged from bomb threats to “swatting”, a practice in which police are summoned urgently to someone’s house under false pretences. Elise Stefanik, a Trump loyalist congresswoman tapped to be UN ambassador, said her residence in New York was targeted in a bomb threat. In a statement, she said she and her husband and small son were driving home from Washington for the Thanksgiving holiday when they learned of the threat. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was aware of “numerous ...

PESHAWAR: Three terrorists were killed when security forces foiled their attempt to infiltrate from Afghanistan in the Hassan Khel area of North Waziristan district on Tuesday, the military said. According to an ISPR statement, security forces detected the movement of armed gunmen attempting to infiltrate through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the Hassan Khel area on the night between Nov 25 and 26. The forces engaged the attackers and killed three of them. “Pakistan has consistently been asking interim Afghan government to ensure effective border management on their side of the border. Interim Afghan government is expected to fulfil its obligations and deny the use of Afghan soil by Khwarij for perpetuating acts of terrorism against Pakistan,” the ISPR said. It added that that security forces remain determined and committed to securing the borders and eliminating terrorism in the country. Attack on police station, check post in South Waziristan foiled; peace committee member ...

Supreme Court’s Justice Mansoor Ali Shah on Tuesday said that the essence of judicial independence was found in “resisting authoritarian overreach” at the time of its occurrence. The judge’s observation was made in his detailed additional note on the court’s March 6 ruling on the murder trial of former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The Supreme Court had observed that the trial under the 1979 judgment that sent the PPP founder to the gallows did not meet the requirements of a “fair trial and due process”. Headed by then-chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, a nine-judge bench announced its much-anticipated opinion on the long-pending presidential reference to answer whe­ther the Supreme Court could revisit its verdict, which the PPP and jurists regard as historical wrong. In Tuesday’s additional note, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com , Justice Shah said: “The independence of the judiciary is the cornerstone of justice, and its true test lies in a judge’s a...

COVID-19 may be a thing of the past for the rest of the world but in Pakistan, the lockdowns are here to stay. Lockdowns to control the smog and lockdowns to control demonstrations — the state has tried and tested all. One could perhaps argue that the internet is also in lockdown but for the fact that its slow speed and blocked apps are a constant state of affairs, while the notion of a lockdown is temporary, with an end in sight. The lockdown is here because the PTI is on its way again from KP to Islamabad with a crowd. Its size varies on social media, depending on who is commenting, while mainstream media too is in lockdown. On the latter, while discussions about the protest are aplenty, there is little to no reporting. And there are no visuals. In a way, it’s like the smog in summer — everyone knows it’s still there but it doesn’t need to be addressed because it’s less visible. No one can say whether the protest will end with Ali Amin Gandapur and Arif Alvi dancing to the tune of ...

A judicial magistrate in Azad Jammu and Kashmir’s (AJK) Sudhnoti district on Monday remanded two suspects into police custody for a week following their arrest in a case of allegedly blackmailing and extorting money from a married woman. A first information report (FIR) was filed at Baloch Police Station on Saturday under Sections 292 (obscene material), 322 (manslaughter), 384 (extortion), and 489-Y (related to harm to privacy of and reputation) of the Azad Penal Code as well as section 10(3) of the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979. Complainant Arshad Mahmood, a resident of Kehala village currently working in Saudi Arabia, reported that he was informed by his brother-in-law on November 15 about his wife’s sudden hospitalisation due to a critical health issue. He said that hours later, he received another call from his brother-in-law about her death and returned home the following day for her burial. He said that while investigating the circumstances surroundi...

BARRICADING the capital , using cargo containers to block roads , closing highways, breaking up protest rallies, banning public gatherings, arresting opposition supporters, raiding homes of opposition leaders, policing the media, orchestrating internet outages, suspending mobile network services and instituting cases against political opponents. That being the state of play today, what does it all indicate? It speaks of a siege mentality on the part of the government and establishment — a state in which they see themselves in constant danger and fearful all the time of being overwhelmed by opponents. This urges them to take strong-arm measures, not occasionally but incessantly. Strong-arm actions do not signify a strong government. Instead, they signal weakness, a lack of self-confidence and, above all, a failure to address a political challenge by political means. It lays bare a government unsure of itself that has no political solution to a political problem. This, some would say, i...

ISLAMABAD: The government’s efforts to curb the spread of poliovirus appear to be failing as three more cases have been reported from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The new cases were reported days after a Global Polio Eradication Initiative delegation met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and other officials to discuss “strategies to combat the poliovirus outbreak and to address emerging challenges”. Pakistan has now reported 55 cases of poliovirus in 2024. The widespread detection of cases and indication of the virus’ presence in several cities depict the immunity gap among children. The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the three wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases. A lab official told Dawn that new cases were reported from Dera Ismail Khan, Zhob and Jaffarabad. The victims were female children aged 8 and 20 months and a five-month-old male child. All three districts have already reported a case of poliovirus...

BEIRUT: A powerful airstrike killed 15 people in central Beirut and 13 others were killed in attacks northeast of the Lebanese capital on Saturday, while around 120 Palestinians were killed as Israel continued to press its offensive in Gaza and Lebanon. Eight of the victims, four of them children, were killed in a strike on the Lebanese village of Chimstar and five people died in an attack on the village of Bodai, the ministry said. Both villages are in the Baalbek district. In Beirut, an eight-storey building was struck with four missiles, including bunker penetrating types designed to hit underground targets, said a Lebanese security source. At the site of the Israeli strike in central Beirut, Amin Chirri, a member of parliament, said there had been no Hezbollah leader in the building that was struck. The Israeli military made no immediate comment. Saturday’s blasts shook the Lebanese capital at around 4am and left a deep crater. Beirut smelled strongly of explosives for hours a...

COMMERCIAL banks have been busy lending large amounts of money at below-the-market rates these last few weeks. They aren’t doing so because they suddenly find themselves flushed with excess liquidity. Nor has the economy turned a page, spurring demand for credit for investments in productivity. There is a method to this madness. The banks are on a lending spree to increase their advance-to-deposit ratio (ADR) — a measure of the proportion of a bank’s total deposits that are given as loans or advances — above 50 per cent to avoid a punitive FBR tax of up to 16pc on the lenders with an ADR under 50pc. The banks are lending to both large public and private entities at discounted rates, which are then investing this money in government debt, earning a spread of 2-4pc. This allows the lenders to avoid the ADR tax but only after forgoing a significant portion of their revenues to the borrowers. The entire lending is for the short term, and the money will return to banks after Dec 31, the t...

Three terrorists were killed in two separate engagements with security forces in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Khyber and South Waziristan districts, the military’s media wing said on Saturday. A statement from the Inter Services Public Relations issued today said that an intelligence-based operation was conducted in Khyber’s general area of Bara. “During the conduct of operation, own troops effectively engaged” the location of the terrorists and eliminated two, Haqyar Afridi alias Khyberay and Gulla Jan. The ISPR said that in another incident, the movement of a terrorist group that was trying to infiltrate through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was detected by security forces in South Waziristan. “Own troops effectively engaged and thwarted their attempt to infiltrate,” the ISPR said, adding that one terrorist was killed while three were injured. It said the two engagements took place on Thursday and Friday. “Pakistan has consistently been asking Interim Afghan Government to ensur...

• Developing countries’ demand for $1.3 trillion reduced to paltry sum of $250 billion; fresh text expected today • Pakistan pitches regional diplomacy for glaciers’ sake A NEW draft of the climate finance goals failed to elicit an agreement between the developing and developed world, as Pakistan joined other countries to trash the suggestion to offer an annual $250 billion by 2035. “The demand of $1.3 trillion has been reduced to $250 billion only, which is unacceptable,” Arif Goheer told Dawn in response to a question about the new collective quantified goal. He, however, said the adaptation of the ‘Baku Adaptation Roadmap (BAR)’ was welcomed by Islamabad. Before the release of the draft agreement in which the developed world finally agreed to put forth the quantum of finance, a press conference by the South Asia civil society criticised the attitude of the Global North, saying no deal was better than a bad deal. View this post on Instagram ...