Pakistan

LAHORE: Former PTI provincial minister Mian Aslam Iqbal, who has been in hiding since the May 9 arson attacks, says the party has reached a consensus to nominate Zulfi Bukhari and Hamid Khan as the party’s nominee for Senate. Party leader Col (retired) Ijaz Minhas has been nominated as a covering candidate on general seats. Dr Yasmin Rashid and Brig (retired) Musadiq …

KARACHI: Authorities have found hundreds of ‘ghost employees’ across the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and towns, with many being employed at two government institutions at the same time, who are drawing salaries regularly and receiving perks for both jobs without performing duties at any institution. This emerged on Thursday when the newly appointed Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani sought …

RAWALPINDI: Despite tall claims made by the divisional administration, there seems no let-up in the price hike of edible items in Ramazan. On Thursday, onions were selling at Rs300 per kg in the garrison city while its official pricewas Rs236 per kg; tomatoes were available at Rs200 per kg against the official rate of Rs145 per kg and potatoes Rs70 …

ISLAMABAD: An Islamabad accountability court has reopened three corruption references against the two sons of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif after their surrender. The cases against Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz were reopened on Thursday after the court suspended their perpetual arrest warrants and granted them bail against surety bonds of Rs50,000 each. Mr Sharif’s sons were declared proclaimed offenders after …

ISLAMABAD: “Phone hacking has become so easy that if you leave your mobile phone somewhere and go to the washroom, I can connect and hack it before you return,” the head of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) told the Islamabad High Court (IHC), on Thursday. This was the explanation provided by PTA Chairman Major-General Hafeezur Rehman to a bench headed …

TAXILA: The Wah Cantonment police on Thursday took into custody a man for allegedly desecrating the Holy Quran and recovered a lighter and a copy of the holy book from his possession. Police investigators claimed the suspect came to the Lalarukh Chowk and started burning pages from the holy book. Some people nabbed him red-handed and took the Holy Quran …

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday directed the trial court to hear journalist Asad Ali Toor’s bail petition on March 16 (tomorrow) in a case about an online campaign against the judiciary. In January, the car­e­taker government had formed a five-member joint investigation team (JIT) to “ascertain facts behind a malicious social media campaign” against the judiciary in the aftermath of …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) core committee on Thursday denounced former prime minister Imran Khan’s detention and demanded an immediate order for his release from imprisonment. The committee, in its meeting, discussed various issues, especially the delay of appeals in cases against PTI’s founding chairman, the security of his wife, Bushra Bibi, and the recount of votes in various constituencies in Punjab in detail. According …

PESHAWAR: After a larger bench of the Peshawar High Court dismissed petitions of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) challenging the ECP’s decision to deny the party its share of seats reserved for women and non-Muslim lawmakers in the assemblies, PTI said it would take the matter to the Supreme Court. The bench, which heard arguments for two consecutive days, pronounced a short order on …

PTI leader Asad Qaiser on Friday said his party would “merge” with the Sunni Ittehad Council if the Election Commission of Pakistan accepted its recent intra-party polls and returned its electoral symbol of ‘bat’. In January, after back-and-forth verdicts by the ECP and the Peshawar High Court (PHC), the PTI’s electoral symbol ultimately was revoked by the Supreme Court. On March 3, the PTI conducted its intra-party elections …