RAWALPINDI: The Senate Standing Committee on Aviation on Friday took up the issue of international airline routes being cut due to the non-remittance of ticket sales to them in foreign currency and decided to recommend to the aviation ministry to hold a meeting with all the airline heads and persuade them to resume regular operations to the country. The meeting …

ISLAMABAD: More than 20 bureaucrats have been promoted to Grade 22, the highest attainable rank for civil servants during their careers. The promotion of 22 officers from BS-21 to BS-22 was okayed by the High Powered Selection Board (HPSB) headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday. The biggest cohort of promoted officers came from the Pakistan Administrative Services with …

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court’s (LHC) Rawalpindi bench has reversed the sacking of two army officers on the ground that the termination orders were not passed in accordance with the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the Mustafa Impex case. Justice Mirza Viqas Rauf gave the verdict on Friday after hearing the petitions of Brig Shafiq and Capt …

• President settles controversy by picking one of two suggested Sundays • ECP writes to KP governor for election date, in line with SC order • Commission vows to fulfil constitutional obligations following president’s move ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday accepted the recommendations of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by setting April 30 (Sunday) as the date …

Punjab police’s Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) has claimed to have rounded up eight militants belonging to banned outfits in separate raids in Sargodha and Lahore, a CTD statement issued on Saturday said. According to a statement issued by the CTD, law enforcement personnel and a CTD team arrested five suspects from Lahore and three from Sargodha. It said law enforcers …

LAHORE: Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rafia Haider has rejected permission to organise the Aurat March on the grounds of security concerns, ‘controversial’ cards and banners supporting women’s rights, and the likelihood of clashes with members of Jamaat-i-Islami’s ‘Haya March’. Civil society, political parties, and rights organisations condemned the deputy commissioner for rejecting the plea to organise Aurat March on International Women’s …

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Haji Ghulam Ali on Saturday lamented President Arif Alvi’s announcement on holding elections in Punjab on April 30, saying he wished a “unanimous” decision was reached regarding the elections in both KP and Punjab. Speaking to Aaj News earlier today, he said: “It would have been good if all three of us (President Alvi, Chief Election Commissioner Sikander Sultan …

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan has said he is ready to talk to Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Asim Munir “in the best interest of the country”, but in the same breath added, “no one (in the establishment) is ready to talk to me”. While speaking to media persons at his Zaman Park residence on Friday, ex-PM Khan …

ISLAMABAD: Hours after President Dr Arif Alvi announced April 30 as the date for the general elections in Punjab in line with the Supreme Court’s verdict, the heads of three major ruling coalition parties met at the Prime Minister House to discuss the political options available to them. “Former president Asif Zardari and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman called …

The 13-year-old girl was in gym class when she said she heard a boy tell another classmate, “Don’t come to school tomorrow.” She didn’t think much of it at first. But by the end of the school day, the eighth-grader couldn’t stop turning those words over in her head. After all, her childhood has been punctuated by shootings: Newtown when …