Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Five mo­­n­­ths after the budget, the federal government on Tu­­esday notified Rs32,000 per month minimum sala­­ry for civil employees, with effect from July 1. The increase in minim­­um wage for government em­­ployees, nevertheless, is applicable with effect from July 1, 2023 across the country. The finance mi­­nistry notified the incr­ea­­se in “minimum wage/gross salary to all the civil employees …

Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Wednesday landed in Tashkent, Uzbekistan to attend the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) summit being held on November 8-9. The premier was received by Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdullah Nagmatovich Aripov at the Tashkent International Airport, the PM’s Office said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Kakar is accompanied by Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas …

An Islamabad district and sessions court on Wednesday sent former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry to jail on 14-day judicial remand in a case registered against him for allegedly taking a bribe from a citizen. The ex-PTI leader was arrested from his residence in Islamabad last week and later remanded in police custody. According to the first information report, Fawad was arrested in a case …

LAHORE: In a surprising turn of developments, the “ele­c­toral alliance” announced by the PML-N and MQM-P on Tuesday appears to have been downgraded to “seat adjustments”. The announcement of the electoral alliance, seen as a first step towards countering the PPP in Sindh, came against the backdrop of a cold war between the PML-N and PPP, with the second-tier leadership of PPP …

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Wednesday said there has been an increase in terror incidents in Pakistan since the interim Afghan government came to power in 2021, as he linked the ongoing deportation drive of illegal immigrants to counter-terrorism actions. The Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021 after a lightning sweep that ended in Kabul as government forces, trained for years …

Dallas (Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada) Amid the banners of various human rights organizations in Dallas, a diverse gathering of hundreds, including men, women, children, and elders, convened outside Ted Cruz’s Republican Center office in downtown Dallas, Texas. They came together in protest against the termination of the ceasefire in Palestine and the ongoing challenges related to Palestinian territories. Protesters took …

LAHORE: As PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Monday directed the party leaders to pull up their socks for Feb 8 polls, the former ruling party took a jibe at its erstwhile ally PPP, advising it to stop crying over apparent lack of level playing field and face it in the political arena. While PML-N says Nawaz Sharif would soon hold …

QUETTA/KARACHI: The Congo virus situation in Quetta has taken a serious turn as another patient lost his life at Fatima Jinnah Chest Hospital on Monday, while five more healthcare providers affected by Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) virus in Quetta’s Sandeman Hospital were shifted to a private hospital in Karachi. This brings the total number of patients brought to Karachi …

ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minis­ter (PM) Office “does not interfere” in the domain of intelligence agencies, “keeps an arm’s-length relationship” and expects them “to work under the Constitution and law of the land in the public interest”, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) was informed in response to several questions raised during the audio leak case proceedings. It would be against the …

An Islamabad district and sessions court on Tuesday granted police one-day physical remand of former federal minister Fawad Chaudhry in a case pertaining to financial fraud. The ex-PTI leader was arrested from his Islamabad residence last week in a police raid and was moved to an undisclosed location, police sources had told . His family had claimed he was “abducted by men …