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US President Donald Trump says Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “is dead”. His claim came hours after Israel and the US launched an attack on Iran and followed reports quoting Israeli officials as saying that Khamenei had been assassinated. But, subsequent Iranian media reports said that Khamenei was “steadfast and firm in commanding the field”. Khamenei, 86, became Iran’s highest authority in 1989, following the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. As supreme leader, he has held ultimate control over Iran’s political, military and religious institutions, shaping domestic policy and guiding foreign relations. An article published in Al Jazeera says “critical to Khamenei’s power is the loyalty of two of Iran’s premier security institutions – the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij paramilitary forces, which have hundreds of ⁠thousands of volunteers”. Khamenei upheld the conservative vision of his predecessor, Khomein...

The government on Saturday raised the price of petrol by Rs8 per litre and that of high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs5.16 per litre for the next fortnight, according to a press release issued by the Petroleum Division. Following the increase, the price of petrol has jumped from Rs258.17 to Rs266.17 while the HSD price now stands at 280.86. According to the press release, the government has revised the petroleum products’ prices based on the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority’s recommendations. The new prices are effective from March 1, the press release said. Petrol is mostly used in private transport, small vehicles, rickshaws and two-wheelers and has a direct bearing on the budget of the middle and lower-middle class. While the heavy transport sector runs on HSD, 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 a...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday directed all relevant institutions at the federal and provincial levels to immediately ensure comprehensive and effective security measures in view of the prevailing situation. The premier chaired a high-level review meeting in Lahore on the overall security situation in the country, according to the report. The development comes in the wake of Pakistan launching Operation Ghazab lil-Haq after the Afghan Taliban opened unprovoked fire on multiple locations across the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday. PM Shehbaz emphasised that all institutions must discharge their responsibilities with mutual coordination and complete harmony. The participants of the meeting informed the prime minister that all security agencies were on alert in light of the current situation and that all necessary measures were being taken to safeguard national security. In view of the evolving situation in Iran, which was struck by US and Israel earlier in the d...

• Israel’s Supreme Court freezes ban on foreign aid organisations in enclave • US public sympathy shifts to Palestinians over Israel, new Gallup poll reveals CAIRO: Relentless Israeli attacks killed at least seven Palestinians in Gaza on Friday, medics said, adding to a death toll of at least 600 people killed by Israeli fire since a US-brokered ceasefire agreement came into effect last October. Gaza’s health officials reported that in southern Gaza, five people were killed and several others were injured, some critically, in Israeli drone strikes. The strikes targeted two police checkpoints in Khan Yunis and in the Abu Hujair area northwest of the Bureij refugee camp later in the day, medics said. Separately, an Israeli airstrike against a group of Palestinians in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood in northern Gaza killed two people and wounded several others. Ban on NGOs frozen Meanwhile, Israel’s Supreme Court decided in a ruling published on Friday to freeze a government ban o...

ISLAMABAD: The upper House of Parliament on Friday passed a bill for regulating virtual assets as well as the ‘establishment’ of the Pakistan Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (PVARA) — a body already set up under an ordinance approved by the president in July last year. The development comes as the ordinance was set to lapse in early March. The rules were suspended in the Senate to take up the bill, which was moved by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, for immediate consideration. The preamble of the bill, a copy of which is available with Dawn , stated that it was expedient to establish a dedicated virtual assets regulatory authority to licence, regulate and supervise virtual assets and virtual asset service providers to “ensure investor protection, transparency and market integrity in Pakistan”. It further stated that it was necessary to provide a comprehensive legal framework to empower the said authority to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation finan...

• Explosion occurs in Killi Mahmoodabad on outskirts of border town • Children gathered at a tribal elder’s house to receive yoghurt after breaking their fast • President Zardari extends condolences to victims’ families QUETTA: Seven children aged between 8 and 14 years were killed and 22 others, including women and children, were injured when a gas cylinder exploded in a house in Chaman, a town on the Pak-Afghan border, on Thursday. Officials said the tragic incident occurred in Killi Mahmoodabad, a locality on the outskirts of the district headquarters, Chaman. According to police officials, children from neighbouring houses had gathered at the house of one of a tribal elder to receive yoghurt to eat after breaking their fast. Meanwhile, a powerful explosion occurred in the kitchen, rocking the border town. The blast blew off the roof of the kitchen and damaged other rooms of the house. The children waiting for yoghurt were buried under the debris. Rescue teams, along with poli...

Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq against the Afghan Taliban, after the neighbouring country opened unprovoked fire on multiple locations across the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday. In response, leaders across the political spectrum were united in their stance, lauding the country’s armed forces and asserting that any aggression from Kabul would be responded to firmly. President Asif Ali Zardari said Pakistan will not compromise on peace and territorial integrity. “Our armed forces’ response is comprehensive and decisive. Those who mistake our peace for weakness will face a strong response — and no one will be beyond reach,” he warned. In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the people and armed forces of Pakistan were always ready to protect the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. “There will be no compromise on the defence of the beloved homeland and every aggression will be met...

WITHIN hours of the bombing of an Islamabad Imambargah on Feb 6, Pakistani intelligence and law enforcement zeroed in on a home in Hakimabad, Nowshera, 49km east of Peshawar. “It was a race against time. Sifting through technical data, establishing coordinates and isolating the target,” a senior security official said. “It didn’t take long before we knew the location.” By late evening, they had already laid siege to the residence, taken up position and called out those inside to come out, hands raised, and surrender. For a moment, there was no movement. But then, someone showed a raised hand from behind the door, indicating their willingness to surrender. Except that he didn’t. Aiming a 9mm gun straight at the security cordon, the lone gunman fired straight shots, hitting an assistant sub inspector of the police right in the chest, killing him on the spot, and injuring two intelligence officers. The exchange of fire didn’t last long, though. Within minutes, the gunman, said to b...

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned a joint session of Parliament on March 2, at the start of the new parliamentary year. A notification issued by the National Assembly Secretariat on Wednesday said that in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 54 read with clause (3) of Article 56 of the Constitution, the president has summoned both Houses of Parliament to assemble together at the Parliament House in Islamabad on March 2 (Monday) at 10:30am. Earlier, a post on the Presidency’s X account stated that he had approved the summary for convening the session. The post also said that the session would be convened at 3pm on March 2. Later, the National Assembly Secretariat issued its notification, in which the time was revised to 10:30am. The session is being convened in continuation of the practice of a joint sitting behind held at the start of every parliamentary year. According to Article 56 of the Constitution, the president addresses both Houses of...

• Passengers travelling abroad have complained of long queues stretching out of terminals, repeated questioning, delays in immigration at three main international airports • Situation ‘has improved’ in recent weeks; officials insist there are ‘no unnecessary delays’, added scrutiny takes time • Airport authority, FIA deflect blame for overcrowding onto other agencies THE never-ending queue had already spilled beyond the glass doors when Jawad Ahmad Rizvi arrived at Lahore airport for his flight to Dubai. The line snaked past the entrance, with passengers clutching their passports and boarding passes, shifting their luggage inch by inch. “On my arrival, I found the queue extending beyond the entrance of the main terminal, making me wonder how many people were travelling by air these days. “As the queue was moving slowly, it took me about 20 minutes to put my luggage on the scanner belt, and an additional 15 minutes for the belt to clear,” he told Dawn. The checks did not end there...

After England beat Pakistan in the T20 World Cup Super Eight clash by two wickets on Tuesday, Pakistani pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi acknowledged that his side’s fate was not in its hands anymore. Pakistan have only one point from two Super Eight matches so now must win their final game and rely on other results going their way to have any hope of reaching the semi-finals. “We know our fate is not in our hands,” he admitted, “But we need to beat Sri Lanka in our last match on Saturday and then hope other results go our way.” “It’s not ideal, but it’s like this,” Shaheen said during a press conference after the match. He also hailed Harry Brook’s century in the match against England as a “world-class knock”. Brook reached his maiden T20 International hundred off 50 balls, with four sixes and 10 fours, as England went past their 165-run target with five balls to spare to win by two wickets. Afridi jolted the England top order with a burst of three wickets before Brook played the u...

EVERY body part is important, but few are as important as an eye. I use the singular for a body part that comes in pairs because its function is so crucial that one outweighs the combined functions of many others. Even diminished sight is so essential that ‘in the land of the blind, one-eyed man is king’ has become an idiom. Its vernacular version goes something like ‘andhon mein kana raja’ (‘among the blind, the one-eyed rules’). In an old interview, one of Imran Khan’s sisters reminisced that even as a child he likened himself to a tiger. It’s a coincidence that a very charismatic Indian cricketer of the 1960s and 1970s, Nawab Mansoor Pataudi, was nicknamed Tiger Pataudi. He was a stylish right-handed batsman and considered the best fielder of his day, despite losing vision in his right eye in a traffic accident. He was named captain of the national team at the age of 21. Gen Amir Abdullah Niazi, who surrendered during the 1971 war, also styled himself as ‘Tiger Niazi’. Though his s...

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry briefed the Senate on Monday on recent strikes targeting terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan, pointing out that they were carried out following multiple attacks by militants in Pakistan and saying that Islamabad “cannot tolerate this anymore”. Pakistan carried out airstrikes on Afghanistan in a retaliatory operation late on Saturday night, targeting groups responsible for recent attacks in its territory. The strikes were conducted in retaliation for a series of suicide attacks in Islamabad , Bajaur , and Bannu that had claimed the lives of Pakistani security personnel and civilians. Mentioning these incidents, Chaudhry said they were “linked” to Afghanistan-based actors, adding that it was subsequently decided to give a “decisive response” to the neighbouring country. “As a result, our Air Force carried out strikes in three Afghan provinces, Paktika, Nangarhar and Khost on February 21,” he said, adding that there were reports...

KARACHI: A food delivery rider lost his life after a speeding vehicle flipped over and crashed into his stationary motorcycle in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) area, according to police. The video of the incident that took place on Sunday was widely shared on social media. South Deputy Inspector General (DIG) told Dawn that the food delivery rider was on his motorcycle outside a bungalow in DHA’s phase IV when a speeding car turned over and crashed into his vehicle. “Both the rider and the car driver were injured in the incident,” he said, adding that they were initially taken to a private hospital in the Clifton area. The rider was later taken to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in critical condition and died during treatment, the official said. Meanwhile, the car’s driver was at the private hospital in Clifton, and a police mobile was deployed outside the facility for the arrest of the car driver after treatment, DIG Raza said. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/Lug...

QUETTA: Armed men abducted 14 workers of a construction company wor­king on a government project and at a crushing plant at two different places in Khuzdar and Barkhan districts of Balochistan, police said on Sunday. A senior police officer said the armed men barged into the construction company’s camp in Mula area, some 60 km from Khuzdar, and kidnapped 11 workers including a project manager. “Six labourers belonged to Sindh province who were working with the com­pany while five others are residents of Khuzdar and other areas of the province,” the police official said. He said the armed men attempted to take away arms and ammunition of the police station but police personnel offered resistance, forcing the kidnappers to flee. Six out of 11 labourers have been identified as Project Manager Gul Sher, Ghulam Sarwar, Abdul Malik Bugti, Maulana Bakhsh, Muhammad Irfan and Ikhtiar. Security forces reached the area after getting information of the incident and launched a search operation...

A senior Hamas official told AFP on Sunday that the group was in the final phase of selecting a new leader, with two prominent figures competing for the position. Hamas recently completed the formation of a new Shura Council of more than 80 members, a consultative body largely composed of religious scholars, as well as a new 18-member political bureau, the official said. Since Tel Aviv’s war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, in response to Hamas’ attack on Israel, Israeli forces have killed several Hamas leaders, including two former chiefs. The country has also killed more than 70,000 Palestinians. “The movement has completed its internal elections in the three regions and has reached the final stage of selecting the head of the political bureau,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak publicly. He said the race for the group’s leadership was now between Khaled Meshaal and Khalil al-Hayya. A second Hamas source confirmed the deve...

Ramazan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is a time when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset, focusing on prayer, charity and deepening their connection with the Almighty. Homes and mosques come alive with pre-dawn meals (sehri) and the evening ritual of breaking the fast. Across Pakistan, communal iftars bring people together, as neighbours, friends and even strangers share meals to end the day’s fast. Held in mosques, community centres and public spaces, these gatherings are about more than just food, as they nurture unity, strengthen bonds, and foster a sense of togetherness. They also create spaces for conversation, understanding and generosity, embodying the spirit of the holy month. Photographs from cities across Pakistan capture these quiet, meaningful moments: prayers in reflection, the preparation of iftar, the laughter and chatter around shared tables, and the calm anticipation as the sun sets. Together, they paint a picture of Ramazan as a time of patience, gratitu...

President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent visit to southern Punjab and his outburst against PTI founder Imran Khan have raised eyebrows in political circles. Some observers view the visit as a “message of displeasure” to the ruling PML-N, while others see it as preparation for early general elections. Amid media reports suggesting the possible release of Mr Khan from jail, Mr Zardari’s aggressive tone is also being seen as an attempt to block such a move. Although the president, as head of state, should remain apolitical, Mr Zardari has often acted otherwise. As the PPP supremo, he acts as a shield for the party against political odds and offensives. Mr Zardari has just completed his visit to Punjab, where he stepped up his political engagements by holding several public meetings with PPP provincial leaders. In a series of public addresses, he criticised Mr Khan, saying the jailed PTI leader should face imprisonment “like a man” and should not order his party leaders and workers to bloc...

LONDON: Prime Min­ister Shehbaz Sharif arr­ived in London in the early hours of Saturday morning after attending the in­augural meeting of the ‘Board of Peace’ in Was­hington, convened by US President Donald Trump. The prime minister’s spe­cial aircraft touched down at Luton Airport, after which he travelled to his residence in the British capital. Sources said he would remain in London for two days before leaving for Pakistan on Monday. He is accompanied on the visit by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Federal Information Minister Atta Tarar. The premier had travelled to the United States at President Trump’s invitation to participate in the high-level gathering foc­u­sed on Gaza and broader peace efforts. Addressing the gathering in Washington, PM Shehbaz stressed the need to end ceasefire violations in Gaza, calling it “very important” for achieving long lasting peace in the war-torn territory. “The people of Palestine have long endured illegal occupation and immense sufferin...

Pakistan has struck seven “terrorist camps and hideouts belonging to Pakistani Taliban of [Fitna al Khwarij] and its affiliates and [the Islamic State-Khorasan Province] at the border region of Pakistan Afghan border,” the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced in an post early Sunday on social media platform X. The statement asserted that “Pakistan has always strived for maintaining peace and stability in the region, but at the same time, the safety and security of our citizens remains our top priority.” The press release stated that the action against the seven camps and hideouts was “a retributive response”, carried out based on “intelligence-based selective targeting”. More to follow. from Dawn - Home https://ift.tt/blOyn3e

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor • With only one conviction in US, legislators accuse justice dept of dragging its feet • Most Americans now find leaders ‘untrustworthy’ • Australian PM says referendums ‘hard to pass’ after Andrew’s arrest WASHINGTON: The arrest of former prince Andrew has underlined the striking contrast bet­ween Europe, where high-profile, powerful people are being held to account over their links to Jeffrey Epstein, and the United States, where the fallout has been limited. Only one person has been arrested or convicted in the United States in connection with the activities of the late sex offender — Ghislaine Maxwell , Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and accomplice. Epstein cultivated a global network of powerful politicians, business executives, academics and celebrities — many of whom have been tainted by their association with him. A number of prominent Americans — from former president Bill Clinton to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates — have had their reputations ...

• President vows alternative ways to impose levies as court declared his tariff regime ‘illegal’ • Trump insists ‘India deal is on’ • Three liberal justices joined three conservatives in Friday’s ruling • Canada hails ruling, UK, Germany cautious in their response • Stocks rise, Treasury yields gain after the verdict WASHINGTON: After the US Supreme Court struck down the President’s sweeping tariffs that he pursued under a law meant for use in national emergencies, Donald Trump announced on Friday he was imposing an extra global tariff of 10 per cent on US trade partners. The conservative-majority court ruled the emergency powers law — International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — “does not authorise the President to impose tariffs”, marking Trump’s biggest defeat at the SC since returning to the White House last year. While hard-hit Canada welcomed the ruling pointing out the levies were always “unjustified”, other US trading partners particularly European powers were ...