Pakistan

Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Asim Munir on Monday met Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud in Al-Ula, Madina and discussed ways to improve bilateral ties between the two countries. COAS Munir is on a week-long official visit to Saudi Arabia and UAE — the first since his appointment — culminating on Jan 10. According …

KARACHI / QUETTA: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) continued to strengthen its ranks in Balochistan after a number of senior politicians joined the party. The experts are seeing these moves as signs of the fast-changing landscape of the country’s largest province during the election year. According to a statement issued by the Bilawal House, Karachi, former provincial ministers Nawabzada Gazin Marri …

MIRPURKHAS: An inquiry into the stampede leading to the death of a labourer and injuries to several other people at Gulistan-i-Baldia Park here has been initiated by the district administration, officials said on Sunday. The stampede occurred when several hundred men and women, waiting desperately for hours to buy wheat flour at subsidised rate, stormed the food department consignment as …

KARACHI: Amid an alarming rise in incidents of mugging, mobile phone snatching and robberies, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday directed the inspector general of police to bring personnel of the Special Security Unit (SSU) and Sindh Reserve Police (SRP) on roads to support district police in their fight against street crime. “I want the city police …

WANA: District police officer has issued suspension orders of policemen, who danced during a sit-in being held by the residents of the district for establishment of peace in the area. The video of the policemen from South Waziristan went viral on social media on Saturday where they could be seen dancing at the sit-in organised by the locals for restoration …

ISLAMABAD: Just a day before the fresh session of Punjab Assembly, Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has ruled out the possibility of dissolution of provincial assembly and snap general elections. During a meeting with a delegation of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F (JUI-F) on Sunday, Chaudhry Shujaat said: “Punjab Assembly will not be dissolved and there is no possibility of …

ISLAMABAD: A retired general convicted of sharing ‘classified information’ with foreign spies has been pardoned by the new military leadership and released from prison. However, he still plans to continue challenging the guilty verdict, awarded to him by an army tribunal until he is honourably acquitted, his lawyer told Dawn on Saturday. Lt Gen retired Javed Iqbal was released from Rawalpindi’s Adiala …

LAHORE: A day after former prime minister Imran Khan changed his mind and agreed to put off the vote of confidence that he insisted the Punjab chief minister must take before Jan 11, it appears Parvez Elahi is unlikely to go ahead with the exercise when proceedings of the 42nd session of the provincial assembly resume on Monday (today) — if the …

UNITED NATIONS: As Pakistan and the United Nations are co-hosting a conference in Geneva on Monday to mobilise international support for the flood victims, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari warned the nation that recovery from climate-induced disasters “is a long process”, which cannot be achieved in one or two conferences. “We do not want to raise expectations. It’s not like we …

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ruled on Monday that the local government (LG) polls in Karachi, Hyderabad and Thatta divisions would be held on Jan 15 as per the schedule. The verdict was pronounced by the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja on a petition filed by MQM wherein it had challenged the decision of the electoral body for …