Pakistan

PESHAWAR: Eleven persons died of coronavirus and 410 new cases were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Thursday as positivity rate in Peshawar swelled to 10.6 per cent. Peshawar accounted for six mortalities and 196 new cases in the province, taking its total count of deaths and confirmed incidence to 703 and 19,607 respectively. One case was reported each from Nowshera, …

LAHORE: Despite the rain visibly clearing Lahore’s air, smog levels in high density traffic areas continued to be unhealthy. At the crowded Shimla Pahari area on Thursday, for example, an Air Quality Ind­­­ex of 205 was recorded while on Wednesday it was 175. Provincial Disaster Man­agement Authority’s director operations Nisar Ahmed Sani told Dawn that there were three major contributors to the …

w ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz on Thursday challenged the attachment of properties of the Sharif family in Murree and Chhangla Galli with other properties frozen in connection with the Toshakhana reference because of absconding of her father Nawaz Sharif. Accountability court judge Syed Asghar Ali issued a notice to the National Accountability Bureau and sought …

ISLAMABAD: Mocking opposition parties over what he called hurling empty threats of resigning from the assemblies, Information Minister Senator Shibli Faraz on Wednesday dared them to quit the National Assembly or the Senate. Addressing a news conference here at the Press Information Department (PID), he said the Pakistan Democratic Alliance (PDM) had played its cards too early and it was …

Prime Minister Imran Khan appointed Hafeez Shaikh as the federal minister for finance, while Sheikh Rashid was handed the interior ministry portfolio in yet another cabinet shakeup, Radio Pakistan reported. Rashid has been replaced by Azam Swati as the railways minister while Ijaz Shah, who earlier held the interior ministry portfolio, has been appointed as minister for narcotics control. This is the …

ISLAMABAD: Asserting that scrutiny of funding of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) is continuing, the Election Commission of Pakistan announced on Wednesday the committee assigned the task would meet on Dec 24. In a statement issued here, the ECP’s director for public relations, Altaf Ahmad, said the scrutiny committee conducted numerous hearings and submitted interim reports to the commission. The scrutiny …

LAHORE: Working under the command of Capital City Police Officer Umar Sheikh seems to have become a ‘nightmare’ for the police officers as he has shown the door to yet another one — SSP Investigation Abdul Ghaffar Qaisrani — over a ‘petty issue’. Mr Sheikh got upset during a meeting held late on Tuesday for an official matter and then …

RAWALPINDI: Acting on the directives of the Punjab government, the district administration on Wednesday imposed lockdown in 19 localities of Rawalpindi district, including 16 in the garrison city, till Dec 21 following an increase in the number of Covid-19 patients in the last two weeks. According to figures released by the administrations of the twin cities, eight deaths were reported …

ISLAMABAD: Senior counsel Hamid Khan on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to adjudicate former Islamabad High Court (IHC) judge Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui’s plea against Oct 11, 2018 notification of his removal before June next, a date when he would have retired, had he been in the office. Justice Umar Ata Bandial, who was heading a five-judge Supreme Court bench, …

n ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan, during a telephone conversation with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates on Wednesday, discussed the Covid-19 situation and polio eradication efforts in Pakistan. According to an official press release, the prime minister informed Mr Gates about Pakistan’s policy to contain the pandemic and mitigate its deleterious impact on health and economy. Mr …