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AS the BNP’s Sardar Akhtar Mengal marched towards Quetta last week, the idea recirculated: establish a truth and reconciliation commission for Balochistan. Political commentators, journalists and activists alike rightly highlight that at the core of the Balochistan crisis is the state’s lack of acknowledgement that legitimate grievances underpin militancy and anti-state violence. It is a truth easily accepted in other contexts but not entertained closer to home. Not surprisingly, then, a truth and reconciliation process is often cited as a way out of the quagmire. But would it work? Truth commissions are established when rampant human rights violations have occurred, typically in a conflict or authoritarian context, and there is a need for a national reckoning. Truth commissions aim to uncover, investigate, document and ultimately establish a consensual version of the ‘truth’ of what has happened. The findings of truth commissions are usually based on wide-ranging interviews with a...

PAKISTAN’S legal system has issued some important rulings in recent days concerning women, which deserve more discussion and debate on mainstream media. For example, in what can be seen as a strong affirmation of gender equality, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court held last week that a woman’s legal rights cannot be tied to her marital status. The court’s observations — that a woman’s legal rights, personhood and autonomy are neither erased by marriage nor should they depend on it, and to assume that a married woman is financially dependent on her husband “is legally untenable, religiously unfounded and contrary to the egalitarian spirit of the Islamic law” — may seem like common sense, but they challenge patriarchal attitudes that are not often discussed and which passively undermine women’s autonomy in everyday life. In particular, the court’s observation that excluding married daughters from entitlement to job quotas usually reserved for compassionate causes “reveals a deeper s...

With March ending relatively cool (average temperature according to meteorological officials recorded at 27.6°C), wheat crops might have had the chance to recover from earlier losses caused by smog at the tillering stage in November, loss of acreage and a long dry spell early this year. At least farmers and Punjab’s agriculture officials are hopeful, though at varying levels. Apart from a cooler March, the agriculture bureaucracy in the province also counts positive policy impacts of initiatives like subsidised solarisation of tubewells, Kissan and Livestock Cards, distribution of laser-levellers and e-credit for a better, if not bumper, crop. Based on these factors, they hope wheat will cross 21 million tonnes. Alas, these hopes are not without critique by those who base their case on the massive loss of acreage — 16.25m acres this year against 17.44m acres last year. Official average yields were recorded at 34.74 maunds per acre a year ago. There is no way the crop can even come c...

BNP-M President Sardar Akhtar Mengal said on Monday that his party’s sit-in demanding the release of arrested Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) leaders will continue until “our women are released and reach their homes.” Mengal had announced a “long march” from Wadh to Quetta to protest the arrests of BYC chief organiser Dr Mahrang Baloch and other leaders as well as police crackdowns on a sit-in. However, the Quetta administration had denied the party permission for the rally. On Saturday evening, a provincial government delegation comprising Zahoor Ahmed Buledi, Bakht Muhammad Kakar and Sardar Noor Ahmed Bangulzai met Mengal and other BNP-M leaders at the party’s sit-in site in Mastung but could not convince Mengal to end the sit-in, which continued . Addressing the protesters today, Mengal said, “The sit-in will be written in history and will continue until our women reach home after being released.” “Let’s promise that until we take our imprisoned women home, it will be forbidd...

WHILE the more fortunate will be sharing the joys of Eidul Fitr with their families, many in the Muslim world will be observing the festival in the shadow of genocide , starvation and war. Therefore, as we celebrate, let us not forget the people of occupied Palestine and Kashmir, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and other Muslim-majority regions whose lives have been shattered by bloodshed and aggression. The people of Gaza have little to celebrate as Israel shattered the fragile ceasefire on March 18, and resumed its genocidal war against this forsaken territory. Over 900 people have been massacred since the truce fell apart, while overall more than 50,000 Palestinians have been slaughtered by Israel in Gaza since Oct 7, 2023. People in the occupied West Bank have it only marginally better as Tel Aviv launches blood-soaked forays into the territory at will. Elsewhere in the Muslim world things are equally grim. For example, while the people of Syria may have ousted long-time strongman Bashar...

• Akhtar Mengal refuses to end protest until BYC leaders are released • Quetta remains inaccessible after authorities place more containers QUETTA: Negotiations bet­ween Sardar Akhtar Mengal and a government delegation failed on Sunday, as the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) leader refused to call off the sit-in at Lakpass until his demands were met. Mr Mengal insisted that the protest would continue until the release of all detained Baloch Yakjehti Committee (BYC) female leaders, including Dr Mahrang Baloch , and until protesters were allowed to enter Quetta peacefully. A government team, led by provincial minister Zahoor Ahmed Buledi, met with BNP-M leadership, including Mr Mengal, Agha Musa Jan, Sajid Tareen Advocate, Mir Akhtar Hussain Langove, Sana Baloch and Mir Hammal Kalmati, to urge an end to the protest. The delegation cited security concerns and travel disruptions for residents of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as reasons to call off the sit-in. Howeve...

• Locals claim shepherds were killed in ‘drone strike’ • KP govt insists casualties were ‘collateral damage’ during intelligence op, calls it ‘painful’ MARDAN: At least 11 people were killed in Mardan in what locals insisted was a drone strike, but officials said was an operation carried out against militants. The incident took place in the Shamozai area of Katlang tehsil in Mardan district in the early hours of Saturday. According to locals, the deceased were civilians, including women and children, working as shepherds. A press note issued by the provincial government early on Saturday also acknowledged the death of civilians but called it collateral damage. The statement said a counter-terrorism operation was conducted in the remote hilltop area of Katlang based on intelligence regarding the presence of armed militants using the location as a hideout and transit point. It said the intelligence-based operation was against militants in which “non-combatants” also died. The ope...

• 2,900 buildings, 30 roads, seven bridges damaged, says opposition • China, India send aid; Russia, Malaysia, US, Singapore, South Korea not far behind • Authorities in Bangkok struggle to find workers trapped under rubble BANGKOK: Myanmar’s military rulers let in hundreds of foreign rescue personnel on Saturday after an earthquake killed more than 1,600 people, the deadliest natural disaster to hit the impoverished, war-torn country in years. Friday’s 7.7 magnitude quake, among the biggest to jolt the Southeast Asian nation in the last century, crippled airports, bridges and highways amid a civil war that has wrecked the economy and displaced millions. The death toll in Myanmar climbed to 1,644, the military government said on Saturday, according to BBC Burmese news service. In neighbouring Thailand, where the quake rattled buildings and brought down a skyscraper under construction in the capital Bangkok, at least nine people were killed. Survivors in Mandalay, Myanmar’s se...

Tribal leaders in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district on Saturday came to terms on an eight-month peace agreement ahead of Eidul Fitr. Violence stemming from decades-old land disputes has claimed at least 130 lives in the fragile district, with multiple efforts to establish peace between tribes. A ceasefire agreement was reached following months of conflict in January. However, the KP government had announced a fresh operation against militants in Kurram last month after security officials were martyred in multiple attacks. There were also several attacks on aid and supply convoys in the days after the ceasefire. According to a press release issued by the jirga that inked the agreement, tribal elders gathered in Qila Abbas Saddar today to restore regional peace. Important decisions were taken in this jirga which would “promote harmony and cooperation among the people of the area”. “In this jirga, the Shia leaders of Alizai and the Sunni leaders of Bagan agreed to a peace treaty...

Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl in the first one-day international against New Zealand in Napier on Saturday. Both teams feature numerous changes to the squads that played out a five-match T20 series, won 4-1 by New Zealand. The tourists have welcomed back captain Mohammad Rizwan and batter Babar Azam after the key veterans were omitted for the T20 series. Seamer Akif Javed will make his international debut for Pakistan, while opening batsman Usman Khan and seamer Mohammed Ali are both playing their first ODI. New Zealand handed international debuts to opening batsman Nick Kelly and Pakistan-born all-rounder Muhammad Abbas. Pakistan : Abdullah Shafique, Usman Khan, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (capt), Salman Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Irfan Khan, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Ali, Akif Javed New Zealand : Nick Kelly, Will Young, Henry Nicholls, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Michael Bracewell (capt), Muhammad Abbas, Mitch Hay, Nathan Smith, Jacob Duffy, Will O’Rourke ...

TALK about disjointed development. Pakistan is now producing high-speed train coaches for its low-speed tracks. According to a recent news report , the Islamabad Carriage Factory, which locally produces locomotives and coaches, is set to deliver its first batch of advanced, ‘new generation’ passenger coaches in about three months. These coaches, which can go as fast as 200km per hour and are equipped with some state-of-the-art features, have been developed with the help of our Chinese brethren, who themselves boast some of the most advanced railway technology in the world. But, impressive as the achievement is, it will do little to make travel more convenient for Pakistan Railways passengers because our rail network simply does not support trains going as fast as that. For a rough idea of how much of a disappointment this is, take the current travel times between two of Pakistan’s busiest railway stations, Karachi Cantonment and Lahore Junction. A train trip from one to the other, w...

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has stayed the government’s plan to collect Rs100 billion from industrial captive power plants under an IMF agreement, which imposed a Rs791 per mmBtu levy to discourage the use of gas by industries for power generation, forcing them to shift to the national grid and using that revenue to cut electricity costs for consumers. Justice Khadim Hussain Soomro of the IHC suspended the implementation of the levy following a petition filed by 20 major industrial companies, including Engro Polymer and Chemicals Ltd, Lucky Cement Ltd, and Gul Ahmed Textile Mills Ltd. The court’s interim order will remain in effect until the next hearing, scheduled for April 30. The petitioners challenged the Off the Grid (Captive Power Plants) Levy Ordinance, 2025, arguing that it was unconstitutional. They contended that the ordinance, promulgated by the president on Jan 30, bypassed parliamentary authority and violated Article 77 of the Constitution, which stipulate...

At least five members of a family were killed and three others were critically injured on Thursday when a jeep plunged into a ravine in the Kotkay area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Shangla district amid slippery conditions and heavy rain, according to officials. Alpuri Station House Officer (SHO) Mohammad Arif Khan told Dawn.com that a family was heading towards Peshawar to see off one of their relatives to Saudi Arabia. “When they reached the Kotkay area of Alpuri, their car skidded off the road and plunged into the ravine, resulting in five deaths and three injuries,” Arif said, adding that all eight casualties belonged to the same family. Rasool Khan Sharif, a spokesperson for Rescue 1122, told Dawn.com that after receiving an emergency call, their team reached the location and moved three bodies and five injured to District Headquarters Hospital Alpuri. According to the SHO, two of them succumbed to their injuries on the way to the hospital. He said a total of five were dead and ...

• Pakistan, lender reach staff-level agreement on Extended Fund Facility review, another $1.3bn secured for climate resilience • About Rs7 cut in electricity tariff likely; water pricing to be introduced; gradual end to automobile protectionism on the cards • IMF appreciates Pakistan’s economic strategy; PM says deal secured without imposing more taxes ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have agreed to introduce a new carbon levy, reduce electricity tariffs, increase water pricing, and open up the automobile sector to global trade under the Staff-Level Agreement (SLA), announced on Wednesday. “The IMF team has reached a SLA with the Pakistani autho­rities on the first review of the 37-month Extended Arran­gement under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), and on a new 28-month arrangement under the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) with total access over the 28 months of around $1.3 billion,” the Fund said in a statement. This takes the comb...

Chinese doctors said on Wednesday that they had transplanted a liver from a genetically modified pig into a brain-dead human for the first time, raising hopes of a live-saving donor option for patients in the future. Pigs have emerged as the best animal organ donors, with several living patients in the United States having received pig kidneys or hearts in the last few years. Livers have proved trickier — and had not previously been tested out inside a human body. But with a huge and growing demand for liver donations across the world, researchers hope that gene-edited pigs can offer at least temporary relief to seriously ill patients on long waiting lists. Doctors at the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, China, announced the field’s latest breakthrough in a study in the journal Nature . A liver from a miniature pig, which had six edited genes to make it a better donor, was transplanted into a brain-dead adult at the hospital on March 10, 2024, according to the study. ...

ISLAMABAD: After failing to get any concession for the party’s founding chairman, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) will hold protests outside the Adiala Jail on three days of Eidul Fitr. The Chairman of Public Accounts Committee and head of the PTI Khyber Pakht­unkhwa Chapter, Junaid Akbar, in a televised interview, said that the party workers will hold protest on all three days of Eidul Fitr outside the Adiala jail where the former prime minister, Imran Khan, is imprisoned. He also said if the government wanted to hold talks with the main opposition party, it (government) has to take the first step and show its seriousness in the talks. He said that everything is not ideal in the opposition alliance, but said that efforts are being made to strengthen the alliance. “The parties in Tehreek-i- Tahafuz-i-Ayeen-i-Pak­istan (TTAP) are supporting us. Now we have been trying to get the support of the political forces which are not part of the parliament. We have also contacted Jamaa...

• Envisions new recruitments, training, procurement of modern weapons • Database of terrorists, facilitators to be established PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday unveiled an 84-point Provincial Action Plan against terrorism, assigning a lead role to the civil administration and law enforcement agencies in counterterrorism efforts. The decision was finalised during a meeting chaired by KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur. Sources said that the shift towards a civilian-led counterterrorism approach follows recommendations from the military, which seeks to redeploy personnel to other security hotspots. The action plan is structured around seven key pillars, including counterterrorism measures, political and social initiatives, legal reforms, good governance, general administrative measures, monitoring, and public awareness campaigns. “It outlines 84 specific actions across 18 thematic areas, assigning responsibilities to relevant provincial departments and fe...

The federal government has reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new $1.3 billion arrangement and also agreed on the first review of the ongoing 37-month bailout programme, the Fund said on Tuesday. Pending board approval, the government can unlock the $1.3bn under a new climate resilience loan programme spanning 28 months. It will also free $1bn for the country under the $7bn bailout programme, which would bring those disbursements to $2bn. Pakistan had requested $1bn from the IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RSF) in October. The funding under RSF is made available to nations who commit to high-quality reforms to build resilience against climate catastrophes through adaptation. It is repayable over 30 years, including a 10-year grace, and is normally cheaper than terms for an Extended Fund Facility (EFF), such as the $7bn loan programme with Pakistan which is underway. The programme, secured mid-year in 2024, has played a key role in stabi...

The Edhi Foundation is funding breast cancer treatment equipment worth $4 million for Karachi’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre’s (JPMC) Breast Radiation Bay, named after Abdul Sattar and Bilquis Edhi. The Edhi Foundation is the country’s premier social welfare organisation. The Bilquis & Abdul Sattar Edhi-Breast Radiation Bay is set to begin its services in April 2026 and will be jointly operated by the Patients Aid Foundation (PAF) and the Sindh government, according to a statement issued today from Dr Tariq Mahmood, professor emeritus of radiation oncology at JPMC. “Every day, 160 breast cancer patients will get free of charge treatment on state-of-the-art Helix Tomotherapy units,” it said. The statement said the units would utilise new technology for accurate localisation of lesions and deliver radiation with zero risk of unnecessary exposure to the heart. It added that the Sindh government had also pledged to provide funds needed for the repair and maintenance of the eq...

THE IMF is reported to have blocked a government move to ‘substantially’ slash retail electricity prices, pre-empting the announcement of the cut the prime minister was supposed to have made in his Pakistan Day address. Resultantly, consumers, particularly low-middle-income households battered by runaway inflation, were not only denied the promised relief of Rs8 per unit of electricity, they have been further burdened with a per litre increase of Rs10 in the petroleum levy. A report in this paper says that a plan was shared with the IMF staff mission, during the recently concluded performance review of the Fund’s $7bn loan, for an approximately Rs2 per unit tariff reduction on account of ‘savings’ from the revision of power purchase contracts with a group of selected IPPs. As an afterthought, the authorities had increased the petroleum levy to a maximum of Rs70 to divert the additional revenues to maximise relief in power tariffs. That the lender is reviewing, if not making, crucial d...

A Bangladeshi court ordered the seizure of cricketer Shakib Al Hasan’s assets in the latest legal headache for the sports star over his allegiance to the country’s former leader. Shakib is a former lawmaker from the party of autocratic ex-leader Sheikh Hasina, who was overthrown in a student-led uprising last year and fled by helicopter to neighbouring India. His links to Hasina made him a target of public anger and he was among dozens facing murder investigations for a deadly police crackdown on protesters during the uprising. He has not been charged over those allegations but is currently being prosecuted on fraud charges for allegedly bouncing cheques totalling more than $300,000. A magistrate in the capital Dhaka ordered the seizure on Monday after a warrant for Shakib’s arrest was issued by the court in January. Shakib was playing in a domestic Twenty20 cricket competition in Canada when Hasina’s government collapsed and has not returned to Bangladesh since. The left-arm al...

PAKISTAN’S climate challenge is enormous. Despite contributing less than 1pc to GHG emissions, the country is among the nations most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. In fact, the Global Climate Risk Index lists Pakistan as the world’s fifth most climate-vulnerable country. The massive floods of 2022 that killed hundreds, displaced millions, and inflicted economic losses in tens of billions of dollars, besides increasing food insecurity, highlighted the kind of existential threat the cash-starved Pakistani economy must fight off to survive. As if the periodic extreme weather events, ranging from heatwaves to abnormal rains to destructive floods, did not pose enough of a challenge, the shrinking glaciers in the north mean the country would have far less water for its agriculture in the not too distant future. Sadly, the fact that policymakers understand the implications of climate change for the people and economy does not mean their concern will automatically translate into ...

• PM reiterates package to reduce electricity tariffs ‘set to be announced soon’ • Official says govt needs to do a lot on ‘legal, procedural and regulatory grounds’ to ensure relief • Shehbaz chairs meeting on power sector amid criticism, insists no changes in solar energy policy ISLAMABAD: A substantial reduction in electricity tariffs, promised by the government, could not get past the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is currently holding back a staff-level agreement (SLA) on the first biannual review of the $7bn Extended Fund Facility (EFF). It was widely reported in the media through official leaks that the prime minister would announce a Rs8 per unit reduction in electricity rates in his speech to the nation on March 23. The prime minister, however, did not announce any such relief package in his Pakistan Day speech. Instead, he presided over a meeting on the power sector in light of the last-minute hiccup. The meeting, also attended by Awais Leghari, Ahad Cheema, ...

A Pakistan Day rally organised by the PTI on Sunday met “resistance” as it made its way to the Mazar-i-Quaid, according to a statement from the party. According to the statement issued by party spokesperson Mohammed Ali Bozdar, the rally was led by PTI Sindh President Haleem Adil Sheikh, Karachi President Raja Azhar, General Secretary Arsalan Khalid, and other party leaders. The demonstration, which commenced from Empress Market, was scheduled to reach Mazar-i-Quaid. “However, law enforcement authorities placed barricades at multiple locations in an attempt to obstruct the march,” the statement read. “Heavy police deployment was observed around the Press Club, while at Mazar-i-Quaid, officials allegedly used force to disperse participants, resulting in several PTI workers being manhandled,” the party alleged. Condemning the police action, Haleem Adil Sheikh was quoted as saying, “We are patriotic Pakistanis, yet we are being stopped from celebrating Pakistan Day. We are carrying na...

WASHINGTON: The United States said it was terminating the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, giving them weeks to leave the country. President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history and curb immigration, mainly from Latin American nations. The order affects around 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who came to the United States under a scheme launched in October 2022 by Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden and expanded in January the following year. They will lose their legal protection 30 days after the Department of Homeland Security’s order is published in the Federal Register, which is scheduled Tuesday. That means immigrants sponsored by the programme “must depart the United States” by April 24 unless they have secured another immigration status allowing them to remain in the country, the order says. Welcome.US, which supports people seeking refuge in the United States, urged those affected by the mov...

US President Donald Trump on Friday denied reports that Elon Musk would see top-secret US plans for a possible war with China, saying that his billionaire ally’s links with Beijing raised potential conflicts of interest. The rare acknowledgement of Musk’s duelling roles in business and government came as Trump pushed back against media reports saying the Space X and Tesla owner would receive a Pentagon briefing on its China strategy. The reports fanned concern about the influence of the world’s richest man in the White House as an unelected, South African-born tycoon who has become Trump’s closest adviser . Musk did visit the Pentagon on Friday, but Trump insisted he was “there for DOGE, not for China” — referring to Musk’s Department for Government Efficiency, which is expanding its cost-cutting drive to the defence department. “I don’t want to show it to anybody. You’re talking about a potential war with China,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the possibi...