Pakistan

GUJAR KHAN: Information Minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on Saturday said the government had reduced imports and enhanced exports and was also cutting down the fiscal deficit through its policies. He said 10 million new jobs would soon be created for the youth while 500,000 houses would be constructed for the poor as promised by the PTI government. Addressing a press …

LAHORE: Former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri said long-lasting peace between Pakistan and India is possible through people-to-people contact. “We have taken the Kartarpur initiative believing that no progress can be achieved regarding peace between the two countries without people-to-people contact. In fact, long-lasting peace is only possible through this, but unfortunately it has not begun yet,” Mr Kasuri said …

KARACHI: Retailers have pushed up prices of essential food items including sugar and vegetables prices ahead of the mini-budget which will be announced on Jan 23. Sugar now costs Rs60 per kg versus Rs55 per kg a few days ago following an increase in the wholesale price to Rs57-58 per kg from Rs55 per kg. Two months ago, the wholesale …

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and the Majlis-i-Wahdatul Muslimeen (MWM) have formed a joint coordination committee to explore prospects for collaboration aimed at realising common goals and objectives. The six-member coordination committee has been established with the consent of PTI chief and Prime Minister Imran Khan and MWM chief Allama Nasir Abbas. The committee will consist of three members each …

QUETTA: A total of 119 people — including 15 police personnel — were killed and 114 injured in terrorism-related incidents in Balochistan during 2018. Twenty-five terrorists were also killed in encounters and 55 arrested in 1,245 intelligence-based operations (IBOs) in the province. Inspector General of Police Mohsin Butt disclosed this while briefing reporters at his office on Friday. He said …

LAHORE: Scores of shopkeepers launched a massive protest by blocking the main road after an elderly fruit seller died of a cardiac arrest during an anti-encroachment operation in the Multan Road (Chungi) vegetable and fruit market on Friday. The shopkeepers also besieged the encroachment team head (city assistant commissioner), forcing the officials to leave the area. They refused to lift …

LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar said on Friday he laid the foundation of judicial activism in the country with full bona fide. “This judicial activism was never meant to interfere in the jurisdiction of other institutions or to humiliate anyone,” Justice Nisar said at a farewell dinner by the Lahore High Court Bar Association. “It was not …

ISLAMABAD: Even after two-and-a-half years, the city managers have failed to properly implement the recommendations of the Senate to regulate housing societies. In 2016, two reports compiled by the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice had pointed fingers at the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the local administration for the mushroom growth of illegal housing schemes and the violation …

KARACHI: On the 109th day of their sit-in outside the Karachi Press Club and following a protest rally they had staged a day earlier, the 1,751 dock workers of Port Qasim Authority were paid their long overdue salaries on Friday. It was a sigh of relief for the workers, who were paid five months’ salaries, from July 18 to November …

KARACHI: Opposition members in the Sindh Assembly, barring two minor parties, on Friday walked out of the house, accusing the deputy speaker of “bulldozing” their business and showering “undue” favours upon the treasury benches. The treasury benches, on the other hand, said members of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and the Grand Democratic Alliance — which collectively formed the …