Pakistan

PESHAWAR: More than half of the ninth graders of government schools were declared failed in the previous board examinations apparently owing to shift in the examination pattern from rote learning to students learning outcome (SLO) or conceptual learning, according to sources. The failure of 51 per cent students in the examinations conducted by the boards of intermediate and secondary education …

RAHIM YAR KHAN: Pakistan Rangers sources say that they rescued a 17-year-old Indian youth who was trapped in the fence at the Pakistan-India border near Kakiwala, 150 kilometres from Rahim Yar Khan, on Friday. According to Rangers sources, the youth, identified as Bapan and a resident of Kuldhara, an Indian village eight kilometres from the border, had been stuck in …

KARACHI: The Jam­aat-i-Islami (JI) on Sunday staged a mammoth rally to express solidarity with Palestinian people and condemn Israeli air raids on civilian targets in Gaza. It also deplored silence of the Islamic world which, it believed, was indirectly supporting Zionists and their ambitions. The JI also rejected the “so-called two-state formula” to allow Israel to maintain its occupation of …

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar on Monday left for China to attend the “Third Belt and Road Forum (BRF) for International Cooperation”, being held in Beijing from October 17 to 18. The forum in Beijing marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi’s ambitious global infrastructure and energy initiative, billed as recreating the ancient Silk Road to boost global trade. …

ISLAMABAD: The federal government spends over Rs8 trillion on paying its 1.92 million employees and providing pensions on top of over six dozen kinds of perks, privileges and other dole outs, yet knowing little about their contribution, outcome and impact on taxpayers. While the judiciary gets the highest in perks, it is the Pakistan Administrative Services (PAS) — erstwhile DMG …

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday directed PTI Chairman Imran Khan to approach the special court against his jail trial in the cipher case. The cipher case pertains to a diplomatic document that reportedly went missing from Imran’s possession. The PTI alleges that the document contained a threat from the United States to oust Khan from office. The PTI chief was convicted and sentenced to three years in …

KASUR/LAHORE: As the Lahore district administration allowed the former ruling party to hold a gathering at Minar-i-Pakistan to mark the homecoming of its supreme leader on Oct 21, PML-N leaders on Sunday addressed a party convention in Kasur, in a bid to whip up support for Nawaz Sharif’s return. Speaking to workers in Mustafabad, PML-N Vice President Hamza Shehbaz said …

ISLAMABAD: Poliovirus traces have been gathered from sewage samples in Lahore, Peshawar and Hub. According to sources in Pakistan’s National Polio Laboratory at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Type-1 Wild Poliovirus (WPV1) was detected in sewage samples collected from Hub, Lahore and Peshawar. “The genome sequencing of the virus, found in samples collected from Peshawar and Hub, showed that …

ISLAMABAD: A woman was subjected to gang rape in a factory while armed men looted a female rider of an online delivery service, the capital police said on Saturday. The mother of a two-year-old boy was gang raped by her colleagues at a factory located in the limits of Shams Colony police station, the police said. The woman, who got …

MANSEHRA: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Parliamentarians’ chairman Pervez Khattak on Saturday insisted his party would form the next government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Speaking at a public gathering in Pattan, the district headquarters of Lower Kohistan, he claimed he helped Imran Khan establish his party’s government in KP twice. Former chief minister Mahmood Khan and PTI-P Hazara division president Salah Mohammad Khan also …