Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The parliam­ent’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will seek action against the former Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) head for ‘implicating’ Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah in a drugs’ case , the committee’s chairman warned on Tuesday. The PAC, which is an oversight body on the use of government’s funds, also sought a report from the Ministry of Narcotics Control about the case …

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A police patrol vehicle suffered slight damage after an improvised explosive device (IED) planted on the road went off in the Khoi Bahara police station in the merged area here on Tuesday. A police official said the militants had planted an IED on the roadside to target the armoured vehicle of the Khoi Bahara police. After the …

LAHORE: After Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz forwarded the names of two ‘loyalists’ of the federal coalition to the governor as nominees for the caretaker chief minister, which were rejected outright by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and PML-Q, the governor wrote to the assembly speaker on Tuesday to constitute a parliamentary committee to come up with a …

PESHAWAR: In the ‘last’ cabinet meeting before the dissolution of the provincial assembly, the cash-strapped Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Tuesday approved the upgradation of over 130,000 teachers at the annual cost of several billion rupees. The cabinet met with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan in the chair and ministers and administrative secretaries in attendance. Spokesman for the government Barrister Mohammad Ali …

ISLAMABAD: The suicide bomber, who blew himself up in the capital last month got trained in Afghanistan before conducting the attack, Dawn has learnt. Sources close to the investigation of the bomb blast in the capital’s sector I-10/4 on Dec 23 said that the bomber received his militancy training in Afghanistan in 2022. After the training, he returned from Afghanistan …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had during his recent trip to the United Arab Emirates asked Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan to facilitate dialogue with India and vowed sincere talk with the arch rivals, if a channel were to open. Mr Sharif, in an interview to Al-Arabiya news channel, confirmed that he had sought Al-Nahyan’s help for the dialogue, while noting …

Security forces gunned down at least four terrorists during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Balochistan’s Hoshab, the military’s public affairs wing said on Wednesday. According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), an IBO was initiated “to clear a hideout linked with firing incidents on security forces along M-8, in general area Talsar, Hoshab” on a tip-off …

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly stood dissolved on Wednesday as Governor Haji Ghulam Ali signed and approved Chief Minister Mahmood Khan’s summary for the dissolution of the provincial legislature. The move comes days after the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly as PTI Chairman Imran Khan has vowed to disassociate himself from the “current corrupt political system” by quitting the two assemblies where he …

LAKKI MARWAT: Mobile van of the Lakki Marwat city police station narrowly escaped a bomb blast here on Monday. An official said unknown miscreants had planted an improvised explosive device under a culvert on the Old Kutchery Road to target a police patrolling party. He said the area where the bomb was planted was at a stone’s throw from the …

PESHAWAR: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday ruled out the possibility of elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa following the dissolution of assemblies in the two provinces. “There won’t be any elections in Punjab and KP after the two provincial assemblies are dissolved by the chief ministers,” Mr Fazl told reporters after attending the Jamiat Lawyers Wing’s …