Pakistan

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has declared as illegal and set aside detention orders of eight leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, including two former lawmakers, by deputy commissioners of three districts under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance. A bench consisting of Justice Naeem Anwar and Justice Shahid Khan accepted seven petitions challenging eight detention orders issued on different dates by …

ISLAMABAD: Owing to financial constraints, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has decided not to initiate any new development projects, saying that its focus would remain on ongoing development projects which are a “priority” for the civic agency. A senior official told Dawn that the civic agency has been facing financial constraints due to a decrease in revenue, and to ensure the smooth …

QUETTA: Security forces, engaged in a search operation to rescue six abducted football players, arrested seven suspects in connection with the kidnapping incident on Sunday. The six football players were abducted by unknown armed men in the Kachhi canal area of Sui Tehsil of Dera Bugti district, while they were en route to Sibi to participate in the qualifying round of the …

KARACHI: In line with the recently launched plan by the caretaker federal government, its counterpart in Sindh is set to launch a crackdown on power theft across the province that would ‘target high-loss commercial, agriculture, industrial and domestic connections and defaulters’, it emerged on Sunday. Official sources said that a task force was set up under the chairmanship of the …

HYDERABAD: PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday his party would not run away from elections like some of its allies, as this would create a vacuum in politics which would be filled by ‘someone else’. Speaking to workers after the inauguration of a water filtration plant in Hyderabad, the PPP leader said “some allies are running from elections…if they …

Bol Network announced on Monday that it had been acquired by AsiaPak Investments, a private equity firm, with a new chairman at the helm. The press release said that Bol would remain headquartered in Karachi with “nationwide presence”. It highlighted that AsiaPak Investments had offices in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. “It invests only in Pakistan; its sectors include infrastructure, energy, …

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan faces a surge in terrorist attacks, caretaker Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Sunday downplayed the increase in militancy, saying there was no need for alarm as “a little surge [in terrorism] is not so big as to make us panic”. The statement by the interim minister came amid reports of almost daily skirmishes between the security forces …

A Frontier Constabulary (FC) official was martyred on Monday while eight others, including two civilians, were injured in a blast near Prime Hospital Complex on Peshawar’s Warsak Road, police said. Warsak Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohammad Arshad Khan confirmed that a vehicle of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa FC’s Mohmand Rifles regiment was targeted in the attack at around 10:30am. The vehicle …

President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday held another meeting with caretaker Law Minister Ahmed Irfan Aslam for consultation on the upcoming general elections — a week after their first meeting on the subject. The meeting was held at Aiwan-i-Sadr in Islamabad in continuation of the ongoing consultation process between the president and the interim government on the electoral process. “The …

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Saturday held that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) lacks authority to hold a re-poll on the grounds of tampering with the election record after the consolidation of the final result of the poll by the Returning Officer under Section 95 of the Elections Act. In the present case, the bar of exercising powers by …