Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The then-chief minister of Balochistan, Mir Abdul Qudoos Bizenjo was “forced” to approve the 2023 national census results, senior counsel Kamran Murtaza revealed before the Supreme Court on Monday. A three-member bench, headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan, took up the appeal filed against the August 29 Balochistan High Court’s decision to dismiss a petition challenging the province’s final population …

BBC Urdu, in an extensive report published on Tuesday, claimed that Pakistan entered into a $364 million arms sales agreement with two private US companies last year. These weapons were allegedly sent to Ukraine for its war with Russia. The Russia-Ukraine crisis began last year when Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the latter’s invasion on February 24. The Foreign Office has denied any sale …

The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday halted proceedings against PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the cipher case, stressing the need for the court to be informed about the “circumstances” that prompted the trial to be conducted in jail. The IHC division bench, comprising Justice Mian­gul Hassan Aur­angzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, passed the orders on the ex-premier’s intra-court appeal against …

ISLAMABAD: After an inordinate delay of over five years, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) is all set to make the appointment of a regular executive director (ED) on Monday (today). The commission, the supreme decision-making body of the higher education regulatory body, will meet on Monday to take up the issue of the appointment of a regular ED. The HEC’s …

LAHORE/GUJRAT: Senior leader of PML-Q Chaudhry Shafay Hussain says his party is not being merged into any other political entity. In a statement issued in Lahore on Sunday, the former federal minister in the PDM government said his party would maintain its separate identity instead of merging with the PML-N. However, both the parties could strike seat adjustments in the …

QUETTA: The political landscape of Balochistan seems to be undergoing a shift again, with several key figures who had recently aligned with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) now moving towards the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which has recently been labelled with the epithet “king’s party” by its foes and some past allies. The departure of Mir Saleem Ahmed Khoso — …

The National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW) has slammed political parties for consistently using foul language against women in political settings. In an interview on DawnNewsTV programme ‘Doosra Rukh’ on Sunday, NCSW Chairperson Nilofar Bakhtiar called the language used against women in political rallies “inappropriate and deplorable”. To address the hate speech directed against women, Bakhtiar explained that the NCSW …

Moonis Elahi, son of PTI President Parvez Elahi, was declared an absconder on Monday by a Lahore accountability court in a case pertaining to allegations of receiving billions in kickbacks in development projects. The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) accused Moonis of embezzling money in various development projects and initiated proceedings on Oct 6 to declare former federal minister Moonis Elahi …

LAHORE: On concluding its biannual meeting, the governing council of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has passed a resolution expressing its deepest apprehension over the ceaseless violence in Gaza. The resolution says that Israel’s determination to annihilate the civilian population in Gaza, without remorse and without accountability, is simply unacceptable. The fact that Israel has killed over 4,000 …

More children in South Asia are struggling due to severe water scarcity made worse by the impacts of climate change than anywhere else worldwide, the United Nations said Monday. As of 2022, 739 million children were exposed to high or extremely high water scarcity, with 436m children —mostly in low- and middle-income countries — living in areas of “high or extremely …