Pakistan

Nine people, including four children, lost their lives while a woman was injured on Wednesday when a rocket launcher’s ordnance exploded in a house in Mehwal Shah area of Kashmore district’s Kandhkot tehsil, police said. Kashmore-Kandhkot Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rohail Khoso confirmed the casualties to Dawn.com, specifying that the deceased included five children, two women and two men. He …

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) on Wednesday filed an application in the Supreme Court to withdraw its review petition against the court’s verdict on the 2017 sit-in by the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) at Faizabad in Islamabad. The media watchdog’s decision comes just a day after the Intelligence Bureau also filed an application in the apex court to withdraw its petition against the verdict. Authored …

ISLAMABAD: Around 55 per cent of the polling stations to be established for the upcoming general polls, planned to be conducted in the last week of January next year, have been identified as ‘sensitive’, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Omar Hamid Khan told a Senate panel on Tuesday. Moreover, the ECP secretary said the preliminary delimitation would be published on Sept …

The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat has summoned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) to brief the panel on objections reportedly raised by the US on the multi-billion-dollar Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project. Tehran has been claiming to have completed its side of the 1,150-kilometre pipeline for which a groundbreaking ceremony was jointly conducted by then …

KARACHI: Pakistan’s largest city – Karachi ranked first among the top ten most polluted cities in the world on the Air Quality Index (AQI). Average air quality index reading of Karachi recorded 220, while Lahore remained third from the top of the list. It is to be mentioned here that AQI as high as 151-200 is considered unhealthy, while an …

ISLAMABAD: Amidst much outcry over the recent visit of US Ambassador in Pakistan Donald Blome to Gilgit and Hunza vallies, the American embassy cleared that the purpose of the trip was to explore opportunities for strengthening the region’s climate resilience. The embassy spokesman, Jonathan Lalley, told Dawn that all publications, including the New York Times, had recently highlighted that Pakistan was one of …

ISLAMABAD: In a major development, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) management has decided to move out all tainted officials of the estate and land wings of the civic agency. Perturbed over recent alleged land scams, sources said CDA Chairman Anwarul Haq decided to transfer all officials of the estate and land wings with dubious backgroundto other directorates. The estate wing …

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Science and Technology on Monday observed that the caretaker government was not authorised to make regular appointments as its mandate was limited to day-to-day affairs. The chairman of the committee, Senator Sardar Mohammad Shafiq Tareen, while responding to a briefing about Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) expressed concern over the state of …

ISLAMABAD: The National Account­­­ability Bureau (NAB) has closed an inquiry against caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, the graft watchdog told Dawn on Monday. But in contrast to NAB’s official position, sources claimed that the file of the case against the caretaker PM was still “on the NAB chief’s table” since the executive board was incomplete following the departure of key officials. …

LAHORE: The initial investigation has reportedly detected the chronic problems in repackaging (compounding) the Avastin drug and its supply and the maintenance of the cold chain that led to the outbreak of the disease in Punjab. The official figures unveiled that the contaminated drug has severely affected the vision of 68 patients in the province since the scam surfaced. Of the total …