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Written several decades ago in a time much different from today, Kishwar Naheed’s feminist poem ‘ Hum gunahgar aurtain ’ (We sinful women) still rang true at the 10th edition of the Adab Festival held in Karachi, where conversation at a panel discussion centred around the rage, anger, and hope that fuels Pakistani women in their personal and professional lives. Opening the conversation at the panel titled ‘Power women of Pakistan: her story, our future’, classical dancer, social activist and founder of the cultural action group Tehrik-i-Niswan, Sheema Kermani read out loud a poem by famed feminist poet Fahmida Riaz, ‘ Ek ladki se ’, which recounts the tale of a “captive princess”. The panel also included MNA Sharmila Faruqui, TCS Group President Saira Awan Malik and was moderated by journalist Zarrar Khuhro. Female rage As Kermani finished reciting Riaz’s work, Khuhro asked, “There is as much hope in these words as there is anger. Would you be here today if you did not have this ra...

• Warns of fiduciary risks to Rs40tr in public funds • Questions why auditor general’s office remains attached to federal secretariat • Audit process bogged down by over 6,000 reports a year, minimal PAC follow-up ISLAMABAD: The Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF) has expressed serious concern over the absence of an internal audit mechanism and weak constitutional and parliamentary audit supervision in Pakistan, warning that these gaps pose major fiduciary risks to public funds estimated at about Rs40 trillion at the federal level and even higher in the provinces. It has called for a fully independent Office of the Auditor Gen­eral of Pakistan (AGP) to ensure better value for taxpayers’ money. In a detailed section in its Governance & Corruption Diagnosis Assessment (GCDA), the IMF has identified a series of weaknesses in Pakistan’s internal financial controls, internal and external audit systems and practical subservience of the AGP to the executive despite its constitutio...

Pakistan Shaheens defended a modest 125 to beat Bangladesh ‘A’ in a nerve-shredding Super Over thriller and successfully defend their Asia Cup Rising Stars title at the West End Park International Cricket Stadium in Doha on Sunday night. In a final that swung wildly in the space of 40 minutes, Pakistan were bowled out for 125 after yet another top-order meltdown, only for their spinners to rip through Bangladesh ‘A’ and leave them reeling at 53 for 7. A gritty 43-run eighth-wicket stand between Rakibul Hasan and SM Meherob threatened the unthinkable, before three huge sixes in the 19th over from Abdul Gaffar Saqlain took the game to a Super Over. Ahmed Daniyal lean-bowled both batters in the first four balls of the Super Over to restrict Bangladesh to just six. Ripon Mondol, Bangladesh’s hero with the ball in the main game, started superbly with two yorkers but Saad Masood’s flicked four off the third legitimate delivery sealed a famous victory for Pakistan Shaheens. Earlier, Shah...

KARACHI: Shield’s baby feeders are a common household essential for many families. Considering Pakistan’s high population growth rate, one might expect the business to be thriving. However, recently, Shield Corporation has decided to delist , joining the ranks of companies like Gillette and Philip Morris . In the 1980s, Pakistan offered a 5 per cent tax advantage to firms that listed on the stock exchange, explains Ali Farid Khwaja, CEO of Oxford Frontier Capital and Co-founder and Chairman of KTrade. That incentive drew dozens of family-owned textile mills and others to the PSX. That incentive no longer exists. Once the tax break went away, many firms had little interest in public shareholders. They quietly bought back shares, shrank the free float, and continued operating like private family businesses. This explains why many listed companies today have negligible trading volumes. Some delist simply because public ownership is insignificant. Philip Morris fits partly into this ca...

After months of trading insults, US President Donald Trump and incoming New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani smiled at each other, swapped compliments and pledged to collaborate on tackling crime and affordability in the nation’s biggest city at an unexpectedly friendly meeting at the White House on Friday. The political opposites, a Republican billionaire and a young democratic socialist, have clashed over everything from immigration to economic policy. But it was clear the two forged a rapport in their first encounter. Mamdani, a 34-year-old state lawmaker, stood by Trump’s desk as the 79-year-old president smiled up at him and patted him warmly on the arm, having only recently falsely caricatured Mamdani as an anti-Semitic communist, among other jibes. “We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said after letting journalists and cameras into the Oval Office at the end of a private meeting with the mayor-elect. “We have one thing in common: We want this city of...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s top security official denied on Friday that he had agreed to a Trump administration peace plan , and European leaders hastily sought a response to a draft that endorses most of Russia’s key wartime demands. Washington has presented Kyiv with a 28-point plan that would require Kyiv to give up additional territory, scale back the size of its military and forever abandon hope of joining the Nato alliance. Ukraine’s European allies said they had not been consulted over the plan and scheduled an urgent phone call to discuss the situation. Britain and Germany said their leaders would take part. Zelensky’s office did not say whether he would join in. US officials said the plan was drafted after consultations with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, a close Zelensky ally who served as defence minister until July. “This plan was drawn up immediately following discussions with one of the most senior members of...

Security forces killed 23 terrorists in separate operations launched in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Kurram district, the military’s media affairs wing said on Thursday. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), two intelligence-based operations (IBO) were conducted and the terrorists belonged to Fitna al Khawarij . Fitna-al-Khawarij is a term the state uses for terrorists belonging to the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). “On [the] reported presence of khawarij , a targeted operation was conducted by the security forces,” the statement read, without elaborating on the exact location. “During the conduct of [the] operation, own troops effectively engaged the khawarij location and after an intense fire exchange, 12 khawarij were sent to hell,” it added. The ISPR further said that security forces, “capitalising on intelligence with respect to [the] presence of another group of khawarij ” , killed 11 terrorists in another IBO. “Sanitisation operations are being con...

• NA Secretariat sticks to its stance that disqualification is ‘sub judice’ before Peshawar High Court • Omar Ayub’s seat among 13 up for grabs on November 23 ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Secretariat maintains that the disqualification of Leader of the Opposition Omar Ayub is a sub-judice matter, even as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced by-elections in 13 constituencies, including Mr Ayub’s, on Nov 23. The NA stance came in response to PTI leader Amir Dogar’s request, drawing the NA speaker’s attention to rules 39 and 9-B of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the NA, 2007, which outline the procedure for the submission of names and the declaration of the opposition leader. As stipulated under Rule 39(2), the speaker announces the date, time, and place for members of the National Assembly to submit their duly signed proposals for the appointment of opposition leader. According to a response released by the NA Secretariat on Wednesday, Spea...

Pakistan dominated the men’s javelin throw final at the 6th Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh as Arshad Nadeem expectedly defended his gold medal and Muhammad Yasir won silver. Arshad was in a league of his own headed into the seven-man event ; his personal best of 92.97m — which won him gold and the games record at the Paris 2024 Olympics, was head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Predictably, he had the lead from the start and was the only competitor to throw more than 80m, though he looked disappointed after most of his throws. The 28-year-old took home gold with a modest 83.05m throw on his second attempt, while Yasir shifted gears in the sixth and final throw to win silver in 76.04m after overtaking Nigeria’s Samuel Adams Kure, who bronze in 76.01m. A sparse audience at the Prince Faisal Bin Stadium was seen clustered behind the javelin throwing sector, waving Pakistani flags and holding up their mobile phones to get a picture of the javelin superstars in action. A...

At least 25 Palestinians were killed in four Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday in Gaza since a shaky ceasefire took effect in October, health authorities said. Medics said 10 people were killed in the Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun, two in the Shujaiya suburb to the east and the rest in two separate attacks in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military claimed its forces struck Hamas targets across Gaza after members of the Palestinian group fired on its troops in violation of the nearly six-week-old ceasefire. No Israeli forces were injured. Multiple air strikes have pointed to the fragility of the ceasefire. Israel and Hamas have traded blame for what both call violations of the US-brokered truce, the first stage of President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for a post-war Gaza. All three attacks were far beyond an agreed-upon imaginary “yellow line” separating the areas under Israeli and Palestinian control, according to medics, witnesses and Palestinian media. The Z...

BELEM: COP30 hosts Brazil on Tuesday produced a first draft of an agreement between nations at the UN climate talks after negotiations on the sticking points stretched late into the night. The draft includes a sweep of options on the most difficult issues, reflecting the gulf between the nearly 200 nations in Belem and the work still ahead to refine a final compromise. The nine-page “Global Mutirao” document — a reference to an Indigenous concept of uniting toward a common goal — came after Brazil on Monday urged delegates to work day and night to produce an agreement by midweek. The text leaves open a wide range of possibilities on the flashpoint issues in Belem — trade measures, finance for poorer nations, and the global inadequacy of carbon-cutting goals. But the quick turnaround of a draft on these thorny points suggested the COP30 presidency was confident it could soon have an outcome, observers said. “It represents a steady progression from the previous iteration and is l...

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday said that Pakistan had moved past “bitter memories” and urged the forging of a new future with Bangladesh amid the recent warming of ties between the two countries. Ever since a popular uprising in Bangladesh toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government in August last year, there has been a thaw in ties between Islamabad and Dhaka, with trade and bilateral relations seeing a marked improvement. Fazl is currently on a visit to the country and called for stron­ger ties , telling a large religious gathering that a shared “unity of faith was a stronger bond between the two nations that cannot be abolished”. Addressing a gathering of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam members today at Dhaka’s Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre as the chief guest with several other Bengali political parties in attendance, Fazl said: “Pakistan wants Bangladesh’s prosperity and stability, has forgotten the bitter memories of the past.” He reit...

FORMER prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, who once ruled Bangladesh with an iron fist, has been sentenced to death for crimes against humanity allegedly committed by her administration during last year’s popular revolt in that country. Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in India after fleeing her homeland in August 2024, has termed the verdict “biased” and delivered by a “rigged tribunal”. Ironically, the court that convicted her — the International Crimes Tribunal — was set up by Sheikh Hasina herself. During her rule, it sent several of her opponents, mostly from the Bangladesh chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami and the opposition BNP, to the gallows for their supposed role in the 1971 violence. Many people rightly described those trials as unfair. Today, Sheikh Hasina appears to have become a victim of the very institutions she had created to eliminate her opponents. While the fairness of the trial and the hasty manner in which it was conducted can be questioned, there can be little a...

KARACHI: Pakistan’s current account deficit (CAD) widened by over 255 per cent year-on-year during the first four months of FY26, primarily driven by rising imports and falling exports. The latest data issued by the State Bank on Monday showed that the country posted a CAD of $733 million in July-October compared with $206m in the same period last year. Another vital change was that October posted a $112m deficit, compared with a $83m surplus in September. The pressure on the current account is directly related to higher imports, while the exports remained stagnant during the current fiscal year. Under pressure from the International Monetary Fund, the government had relaxed import curbs. The government is under severe criticism for failing to boost economic growth over the last three years, and financial circles believe it was a deliberate attempt to cut GDP growth to keep the current account under control. The government achieved a surplus of $1.9bn in FY25, but economic growth ...

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah on Monday said that a 28th Constitutional Amendment, dealing with “public issues”, could be introduced if there is political consensus. Last week, President Asif Ali Zardari gave his assent to the contentious 27th Constitutional Amendment, enacting it into law. Speaking to reporters in Chiniot, the PM’s aide said that the amendment would deal with “public issues, such as local bodies, population, the National Finance Commission … health-related issues”. “There is a need to review how we can better serve the people according to the present needs of the provinces and the Centre,” Sanaullah stated. “This is being debated and if there is any consensus, then we can bring the 28th Amendment forward,” said the PML-N leader. Referring to the recent resignations by judges of the Supreme Court and LHC, the PM’s aide said that “those who stepped down did so due to their personal motives”. He maintained that the parliament ha...

Pakistan, and its financial services industry, suffers from a reputation problem when it comes to digitalisation on the customer end. Anecdotally, it often seems that people aren’t too satisfied with the products and user experience, especially in areas like onboarding, dispute resolution, and overall seamlessness. Yet, one look at the payments report suggests none of it is really deterring the uptake. Almost every data point exhibits a high growth trajectory, even if people may not appreciate its extent at times. As of FY25, Pakistan boasts more than 123 million registered digital platform users across mobile, internet, branchless and other wallets . For context, that’s slightly more than half of all registered deposit-taking accounts in the country. This is not a mean feat by any stretch of the imagination, because not too long ago, Pakistan ranked at the bottom of most rankings. Usage has been even more explosive, with mobile banking alone processing a throughput of Rs83.2 trillio...

• Move comes amid downward revision in growth forecast to 3.5pc for current fiscal • Calls from IMF, armed forces, others to re-balance transfer of resources to provinces go unheeded • Centre ‘backs off’ from changes to award after deal with PPP ISLAMABAD: The inaugural session of the National Finance Commission (NFC), constituted three months ago, is not in sight, as the proposed date of Nov 18 has also been postponed amid a downward revision in the economic growth forecast by up to 0.7 per cent to 3.5pc for the current fiscal year. Informed sources said told Dawn that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wanted to set the ball rolling at the political level on key Centre-provincial matters before opening the debate for financial rearrangements at the technically-constitutional forum of NFC. The 11th NFC was constituted on Aug 22 to give a fresh award for the sharing of federal divisible resources among the Centre and the provinces. The first meeting was originally called for Aug 27 ...

The Saudi government has imposed a restriction on pilgrims with certain health conditions, including chronic and infectious diseases, from performing Haj next year, according to a notice on the Ministry of Religious Affairs website. The notice, citing the Saudi health ministry, lists organ failure such as kidney diseases requiring dialysis, heart diseases in cases where patients are not capable of even slight exertion, chronic lung disease with patients requiring intermittent or continuous oxygen and liver failure or liver cirrhosis as conditions that do not meet the criteria for Haj. The list also includes those suffering from neurological or cognitive disorders that affect memory, dementia and severe physical disability. Moreover, aged individuals with Alzheimer’s or suffering from tremors, as well as pregnant women in their last trimester or with complications, would also face restrictions. Furthermore, those with infectious diseases that pose a risk to others in large gathering...

GAZA STRIP: Palestinians, especially those in the Gaza Strip, must be wary of networks that se­­­­ek to remove them from their homes in line with Israeli interests, the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned. The warning came a day after 153 Palestinians, who left Gaza without knowing their final destination and without proper paperwork, arrived in South Africa on board a flight from Kenya on Fri­day and were held up for 12 hours as authorities investigated the issue. South Africa gave the war-ravaged Palestinians 90-day visas, Al Jazeera reported. The Palestinian ministry on Saturday expressed “deep appreciation” for the support from the South African authorities and people. The Palestinian embassy in Pretoria said it is working to assist the travellers who have “endured over two years of Israeli genocidal war, killing, displacement, and destruction”. Gaza health ministry receives 15 more bodies But it warned that companies, unofficial entities and...

The federal government on Saturday kept the price of petrol unchanged, but increased the price of high-speed diesel by Rs6 per litre for the next fortnight. According to a notification from the Finance Division, the new HSD price is Rs284.44 per litre. The prices will come into effect on November 16. “The government has revised the prices of the petroleum products following input from the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and the relevant ministries.” Most of the transport sec­tor runs on HSD and its price is considered inflationary as it is mostly used in heavy transport vehicles, trains and agricultural engines like trucks, buses, tractors, tube-wells and threshers and particularly adds to the prices of vegetables and other eatables. Petrol is primarily used in private transport, small vehicles, rickshaws, and two-wheelers, and directly impacts the budgets of the middle and lower-middle classes. The government charges about Rs99 per litre on both petrol and diesel. ...

Ethiopia has confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the south of the country, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Saturday. The Marburg virus is one of the deadliest known pathogens. Like Ebola, it causes severe bleeding, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and has a 21-day incubation period. Also like Ebola, it is transmitted via contact with bodily fluids and has a fatality rate of between 25 and 80 percent. The head of the World Health Organization, Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, confirmed on Friday that at least nine cases had been detected in southern Ethiopia, two days after Africa CDC was alerted to a suspected haemorrhagic virus in the region. “Marburg virus disease (MVD) has been confirmed by the National Reference Laboratory (in Ethiopia),” Africa CDC said. “Further epidemiological investigations and laboratory analyses are underway and the virus strain detected shows similarities to those previously identified in Ea...

• Opposition lawmakers tear copies of the bill, surround speaker’s dais, shout slogans during the session • JUI-F’s Younis Zehri terms the bill ‘against Islamic teachings’ • CM Bugti cites Shariat Court’s judgement in response • Opposition vows to challenge legislation in court QUETTA: The Balochistan Assembly on Friday adopted the Child Marriage Prohibition Bill with majority votes amid strong protests by opposition members. The presentation and passage of the bill triggered heated scenes in the House, with opposition lawmakers shouting slogans and creating a ruckus. During the chaos, opposition members encircled the speaker’s dais and tore copies of the bill. The session, chaired by Speaker Abdul Khaliq Achakzai, began with the draft law on banning child marriage being presented to the House. Speaking on the bill, Leader of the Opposition Younis Zehri of the JUI-F said the legislation was against the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah and was being introduced merely to please ...

The latest batch from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s emails illustrates the extraordinary scope of his contacts with powerful people, ranging from a top Trump adviser to Britain’s ex-prince Andrew. The United States House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on trying to force the release of evidence gathered on Epstein by law enforcement over the years, including the identities of the men suspected of participating in his alleged sex trafficking ring. However, a slew of emails released this week has already opened new windows on the extent of Epstein’s network. These include multiple references to President Donald Trump, who is angrily calling the push for more transparency a “hoax”, while simultaneously demanding a probe of Epstein’s links to others, including former president Bill Clinton. Documents already released by Democrats in Congress include email exchanges running from 2009 to 2019, when Epstein died in detention while awaiting trial on sex traff...

United States President Donald Trump said on Friday he wants the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate links between the late alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and former Democratic president Bill Clinton. Seeking to turn the tables after a new trove of Epstein emails reignited questions over his own ties to the disgraced financier, Trump also demanded a probe into US bank JPMorgan Chase, ex-Harvard president Larry Summers and others. Republican Trump accused rival Democrats of “using the Epstein Hoax” to distract from the party’s recent compromise to end a record US government shutdown, and said the scandal involved “Democrats, not Republicans.” “I will be asking AG Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, JP Morgan, Chase and many other people and institutions,” Trump said on Truth S...