Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: All grievances being expressed by some parties in the ruling coalition over the recent legislation about the Reko Diq copper and gold project will be addressed. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held out this assurance during a meeting with Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) chief and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Friday. Two components of the ruling PDM coalition — JUI-F …

The lawyer of detained PTI Senator Azam Swati, in a post-arrest bail petition filed in the Islamabad High Court on Saturday, said that he did not post controversial tweets against senior military officials and had no intention to “defame any respectable institution”. Swati was arrested on November 27 after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) booked him in Islamabad over a “highly obnoxious …

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday invalidated a super tax that was applied retrospectively for the previous fiscal year, but said that the special levy would come into force from the next tax year. However, the court suspended its judgement for 60 days. A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Junaid Ghaffar, announced the verdict on petitions that challenged the …

ISLAMABAD: The supplemental report to the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) of Pakistan Floods 2022 fears that an additional 1.9 million households — around 12.1 million people — will be pushed into multidimensional poverty in calamity-hit districts of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. These individuals and households will experience significantly increased deprivations around access to adequate health, sanitation, quality maternal care, …

ISLAMABAD: In a bid to reduce the import bill and promote solar energy, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday directed authorities concerned to complete the solarisation of the government buildings before the onset of the summer season. During a meeting, the PM said the utilisation of solar energy was inevitable to improve the economy by reducing the import bill of …

A policeman was martyred and at least six people — including four police officers and two civilians — were injured in a suicide blast in Islamabad’s I-10/4 sector on Friday, police officials said. Television footage showed the fiery wreckage of a vehicle with a large number of police personnel combing the scene. Shortly afterwards, the Islamabad Police declared a “red …

Suleman Shehbaz, son of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was granted on Friday interim pre-arrest bail in two separate cases of money laundering and accumulating assets beyond known sources of income till January 7. Suleman, who returned to Pakistan earlier this month after four years of self-exile in London, is an accused in a money laundering case registered with the Federal Investigation Agency …

ISLAMABAD: In a frantic attempt to get the local government (LG) polls in the federal capital delayed, the National Assembly on Thu­rsday passed a government bill seeking to increase the number of union councils from 101 to 125. The move comes less than 10 days ahead of the polling day, December 31, and the bill was passed with the house …

The opposition staged a walkout of the Punjab Assembly on Friday as the house passed a resolution against the Punjab governor’s “unconstitutional and illegal” move to de-notify PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi as the provincial chief executive. PA Speaker Sibtain Khan chaired the session that was marred by sloganeering by the treasury and opposition benches. The session also came as …

A family court in Karachi has directed police and hospital officials to verify the evidence submitted by Aliza Sultan regarding alleged physical torture on her by actor and her former husband Feroze Khan. Judicial Magistrate (East) Sajid Ali Abbasi, who recently took up the matter, directed the SHO of the Darakhshan police station and the medico-legal officer of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical …