Pakistan

Senior lawyer and disgruntled PPP leader Sardar Latif Khosa on Sunday joined the PTI. The announcement was made at a press conference in Lahore, where Khosa appeared with a PTI flag slung around his shoulders. The PTI also shared a video of Khosa on X (formerly Twitter), saying he had “formally” joined the party.     Speaking to the media …

LAHORE: The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) fears that the Supreme Court’s decision to suspend the operation of its earlier short order that had declared the military trial of civilians ‘unconstitutional’ will result in delayed justice to those who deserve to be exonerated from the charges levelled against them. Moreover, suspending the earlier decision, from a practical perspective, means …

KARACHI: The only independent ISO-17025 certified forensic DNA and serology lab in the country, which has furnished high-quality reports in over 8,000 cases over the last five years, including high profile cases, is on the brink of closure because of non-payment of dues by the Sindh government and expiry of its MoU with the health department. The Sindh Forensic DNA …

ISLAMABAD / LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) will challenge the Special Court (Official Secrets Act) decision of conducting in-camera trial of ex-premier Imran Khan and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cipher case, with a resumption of ban on attendance of reporters for media coverage. Criticising the court order, PTI posted on its official X account, “A complete ban on reporting …

DERA ISMAIL KHAN/PESHAWAR: Five police and Frontier Constabulary (FC) officials were martyred and as many militants were killed in two attacks on law enforcement agencies in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Tank and Khyber districts on Friday. In the first attack, militants equipped with modern weapons stormed police headquarters in the KP’s southern district of Tank. Officials said the militants, including a suicide …

QUETTA: An anti-terrorism court in Quetta has remanded fashion designer Khadija Shah in police custody for another seven days. Amid tight security, Ms Shah was produced before Judge Sadat Bazai again after the expiry of her three-day police remand on Friday. Earlier the district atto­rney sought 14-day rema­­nd, arguing that a letter about her case had been sent to the …

ISLAMABAD: Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja on Friday assured the provision of a level playing field to all political parties including Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf during the upcoming general elections In an informal chat with reporters after the Supreme Court’s order on the poll schedule, he said that all political parties will be allowed to hold rallies in a city where …

ISLAMABAD: A visibly disturbed Supreme Court bench suspended the Dec 13 Lahore High Court (LHC) order staying the appointment of district ret­urning officers (DROs), returning officers (ROs) and assistant returning officers (AROs) from the executive, and ordered the Election Comm­ission of Pakistan (ECP) to notify a schedule for the Feb 8, 2024 general elections by Friday night. “Accordingly in the given circumstances and considering …

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday sought former information minister Fawad Chaudhry’s arrest for “misusing authority” in a construction project as an Islamabad court granted it permission to arrest him. The former PTI MNA was arrested in November and remanded in police custody for two days in connection with an August 2022 case for allegedly taking Rs5 million bribe from a citizen. After …

LAHORE: Buoyed by the Supreme Court’s decision, followed by the announcement of the general elections schedule, most political parties on Friday unanimously proclaimed that a “major conspiracy to delay the polls” has failed. PTI, however, refused to join the celebrations, with party leaders continuing to question the biases of bureaucrats to be appointed as poll officers. In a post on X, PML-N President …