Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan reported the current year’s highest number of deaths from Covid-19 in a single day as the total casualty figure surpassed 13,000. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), 75 patients succumbed to the virus in a single day — the highest after 78 deaths were reported on Dec 21, 2020. The number of hospitalised patients, however, …

ISLAMABAD: Causing a blow to the ruling alliance headed by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) in the Senate elections from Islamabad, an upbeat opposition on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Imran Khan “to resign in an honourable way” after the defeat of the government’s candidate Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh at the hands of Pakistan Democra­tic Movement (PDM) candidate Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani. “If he …

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday ordered the removal of former Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general retired Lt Gen Asad Durrani’s name from the Exit Control List (ECL), saying there was “no basis” for it. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah was hearing a petition filed by Durrani seeking removal of his name from the ECL. Additional Attorney General Tariq …

ISLAMABAD: The capital police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested two persons involved in two separate murder cases reported in 1994 and 2003. A deputy director of the CDA was gunned down on Feb 17, 1994, near his house in G-6/4 while a student of Quaid-i-Azam University was killed over a hostel room dispute on Feb 23, 2003. The police …

QUETTA: Balochistan Nat­­ional Party-Mengal (BNP-M) president Sardar Akhtar Jan Mengal has claimed that the opposition alliance will give surprise to the BAP-led coalition government in the province. He said he had doubts about the victory of the ruling parties in the Senate election. He was speaking at a press conference on Tuesday in which former senator Nasima Ehsan Shah announced …

ISLAMABAD: About 850 union council polio officers, whose contracts expired on Feb 28, continued their protest outside the office of the World Health Organisation (WHO) here on Tuesday. During negotiations, WHO country director Dr Palitha Mahipala refused to give assurance that the officers would be rehired. These officers had been hired by the WHO to manage anti-polio drives at the …

ISLAMABAD: Real estate tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain on Tuesday sought permanent exemption from personal appearance before an accountability court in the Bahria Icon Tower reference. When Advocate Farooq H. Naek filed attorney papers (wakalatnama) on behalf of Mr Riaz, Judge Mohammad Bashir of the accountability court in­­quired about Ali Riaz, son of the real estate developer, who is also an …

• Islamabad Bar Association counsel gives undertaking to vacate football ground in two months • IHC suspends licences of 21 lawyers for storming court building on Feb 8 ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave the nod to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the district administration of Islamabad to remove lawyers’ chambers as well as courtrooms illegally constructed on …

The PPP’s Central Election Cell incharge, Taj Haider, has written a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) urging it to “investigate the mysterious behaviour” of some members of the Sindh Assembly, who he said were reportedly staying at private hotels in Karachi. In the letter dated March 2, Haider referred to media reports that said MPAs belonging to three opposition …

Polling for 37 seats of the Senate is underway under the supervision of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as a total of 78 candidates contest from Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Islamabad. In the National Assembly, the first vote was cast by PTI’s Shafiq Arain while the second one was cast by federal Minister for Water Resources Faisal Vawda. …