Pakistan

MUZAFFARABAD: Breaking his silence after his removal from the PTI’s top regional position in Azad Jammu and Kashmir earlier this week, former AJK prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas has ruled out joining any other political organisation. “Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is our party and Imran Khan is our leader. I cannot even think of joining any other party,” Mr Ilyas claimed while …

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has submitted a report to the Supreme Court, saying it has not yet received any funds against the Rs21 billion required to conduct elections to the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies. Though full contents of the fresh report are not known, the two-page reply has explained the latest situation about the unavailability of …

ISLAMABAD: Just a few weeks after the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council had filed a complaint against a sitting judge of the top court before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), the Sindh Bar Council also jumped into the fray on Friday by requesting the SJC to initiate an inquiry into the allegation of his misconduct. The SBC alleged that Justice Syed …

ISLAMABAD: The first batch of Pakistanis evacuated from embattled Sudan retur­ned to the homeland on Friday. Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, while giving an update on the evacuation of Pakistani nationals in Sudan, said an aircraft carrying 149 Pakis­tani nationals evacuated from Sudan arrived in Karachi on Friday morning. “Two other flights carrying around 200 Pakistanis are expected to …

Punjab Police on Saturday registered a case against former chief minister Parvez Elahi and others, claiming that its officials were “attacked with stones, batons and petrol” during a raid on the PTI leader’s house in Lahore to arrest him in a corruption case the previous night.     The raiding team, which included officials of Anti-Corruption Establish­ment (ACE) and police, …

ISLAMABAD: With both the coalition government and opposition PTI claiming progress in crucial talks to break deadlock over the timing of elections, the two sides on Friday decided to hold what one minister called the “almost final round” of parleys on May 2 (Tuesday). Representatives of the government and opposition exchanged proposals during the second round of talks held in …

LONDON: A forecast by the Economist Intelli­gen­­ce Unit (EIU) has said Pakis­tan will head to polls in Oct­ober 2023, if not earl­i­­er, and that the economic and foreign debt crisis facing the country will persist. The analysis division of the Economist Group, EIU, said that political stability and security are “tenuous” in Pakistan, and that economic growth will “slow materially” …

MANSEHRA: A Chinese national arrested on charges of committing blasphemy was set free and shifted to an undisclosed location on Thursday after he was granted bail by an anti-terrorism court in Abbottabad. The judge granted the suspect’s bail plea after he furnished a bond of Rs 200,000 as surety. The petitioner was arrested in Upper Kohistan district on April 16 after a …

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed the accountability watchdog to continue its probe against PTI Chairman Imran Khan and his spouse in accordance with the amended law. An IHC division bench, comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Babar Sattar, passed the directives as it disposed of a petition filed by Mr Khan and his spouse against National …

ISLAMABAD: A three-member bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial on Thursday appeared to be in a defensive mode, as the CJP implored all parties to sit together to break the political impasse, while also clarifying that the court on April 20 had not directed political parties to negotiate rather it was a mere suggestion. …