Pakistan

Aviation Minister Khawaja Saad Rafique on Friday announced in the National Assembly that the Islamabad Airport will be outsourced for 15 years. “The navigational services and runway operations will not be outsourced. The CAA will continue to do it,” he said on the floor of the house. “The rest will be outsourced.” He added that the International Finance Corporation (IFC), …

LAHORE: Former prime minister Imran Khan sees the resurgence of the cipher controversy as an apparent bid to disqualify him from contesting elections by the ruling parties who, according to him, have “shot themselves in the foot” by reviving the issue. The PTI chairman, who had promised a ‘proper expose’ on the controversy, spoke for almost half an hour but …

ISLAMABAD: A five-member gang which implicated a resident in a “fabricated” rape case demanded Rs1 million from the family of the suspect and managed to extort Rs500,000, said police officials on Thursday. The police claimed that the gang was hired by a senior official at the Accountant General of Punjab allegedly to settle scores with the suspect owing to some unknown dispute …

LAHORE: A Lahore High Court two-judge bench on Wednesday granted post-arrest bail to a co-suspect in the Wazirabad attack on former prime minister Imran Khan. Advocate Mian Dawood argued on behalf of the petitioner/suspect, Tayyab Jahangir Butt, alleging that the police arrested his client the very next day of the attack on Nov 4, 2022. However, he said, the previous Joint Investigation …

KARACHI: For the third consecutive year, the Pakistani passport has been ranked the ‘fourth worst’ by this year’s Henley Passport Index, a ranking of the world’s 199 passports according to the number of destinations their owners can access without a prior visa. In the latest ranking, Pa­­kistan’s travel docum­ent is only ranked higher than those of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Pakistan’s …

ISLAMABAD: The newly elected president of the Pakistan Ex-Ser­vicemen Society (PESS) has slam­m­­ed a “sinister campaign” being run against the military and stressed that all former servicemen, airmen, sailors and youth of the civil armed forces stood behind the army. Speaking at a press conference along with other PESS office-bearers on Wednesday, Abdul Qayyum said that the veterans’ body had …

ISLAMABAD: Two more girls were allegedly gang-raped in the capital, police said on Wednesday. In the first incident, a 17-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in a house in Sinyari village, following which a case was registered with Shalimar police station against four suspects. According to the FIR, the victim was taken to a house by a boy in the village …

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Thursday stated that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) might arrest former prime minister Imran Khan if he fails to cooperate with their investigation into the cipher. The minister’s warning comes a day after Imran’s ex-principal secretary — in an alleged confession that surfaced on Wednesday — accused his former boss of using a cipher from …

RAWALPINDI: After a night-long spell which inundated almost all parts of Rawalpindi and prompted emergency response after the water level in Leh Nullah rose to up to 19 feet in Kattarian, residents living next to the torrent were forced to flee their houses fearing the nullah would break its bank due to incessant rain. The authorities summoned two units of …

GILGIT: The Gilgit-Baltistan cabinet at its first meeting on Wednes­day decided to hold the local bodies elections in the region, bringing an end to a legal battle over the issue. Chief Minister Haji Gulbar Khan, who was in the chair, issued instructions to GB Chief Election Commissioner Raja Shahbaz Khan to make arrangements for the long-delayed vote. The cabinet meeting, …