Pakistan

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday was surprised to learn that the official who cancelled the first contract of Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme was a prosecution witness of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against former chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, former secretary to chief minister Fawad Hassan Fawad and others. “You have made the responsible officer your witness on the pretext …

LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Punjab government has decided not to make political statements and counter-statements on the arrest of its senior minister Aleem Khan for allegedly having offshore companies and assets beyond his means as “it believes in state institutions role of dispensing justice.” The arrest of Aleem Khan, who was known as the PTI’s financial backbone (satirically called ATM) alongside …

ISLAMABAD: The National Account­ability Bureau (NAB) on Wednesday approved three references to be filed against former heads of three government institutions. The decision was taken in the NAB Executive Board Meeting (EBM) chaired by anti-graft watchdog chairman retired Justice Javed Iqbal. Of the three references, one was approved against former chairman of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) retired Vice Admiral …

LAHORE: The Pakistan Peoples Party has criticised the offloading of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani when he was about to fly to Bangkok, Thailand, from the Allama Iqbal Airport here on Wednesday. Reacting to his offloading, Mr Gilani regretted that the bar on his travel abroad was imposed all of a sudden without any intimation. “Barring a former prime minister from …

LAHORE: Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday refused to go to the Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) Lahore and insisted on returning to Kot Lakhpat jail. “I have already been treated at the PIC and I am not interested in going there again. It is better if I am shifted back to the jail,” an official quoted the ex-premier …

ISLAMABAD: A full-court meeting of all judges of the Supreme Court on Wednesday resolved to form special benches to deal with cases of different categories. Presided over by Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa, the special meeting lasting almost six hours at the Supreme Court of Pakistan, also decided to discourage adjournment of cases and fix appeals in chronological order and …

LAHORE: The agriculture sector which uses around 90 per cent of the available water resources, is facing over 40 per cent water shortage during the ongoing Rabi season and it will particularly hit the wheat crop. Experts warn that the issue will become graver in the absence of a coordinated effort to conserve the available water resources and putting them …

ISLAMABAD: Residents of Shahdara village have been compelled to limit their mobility early in the morning and late at night after a leopard killed many of their domestic animals over the last few months. Locals told this agency that the leopard has killed more than two dozen goats and half a dozen cows in the last couple of months. “My …

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Cabinet Secretariat will take up on Feb 6 the issue of purported non-observance of provincial job quotas in the federal government services and grievances of Sindh and Balochistan in this regard. According to the meeting’s agenda issued by the Senate Secretariat, the committee headed by Talha Mehmood of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, besides discussing the issue …

KARACHI: The federal government has issued at least 13 special permits to members of the royal families of Gulf states to hunt internationally protected bird houbara bustard in Sindh during the 2018-19 hunting season, according to sources. Those given the permits include a king and a president, besides crown princes, their uncles and cousins, and armed forces chiefs belonging to …