Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Following the upgradation of Hassanabdal Railway Station, the relevant authorities have decided to bring all Sikh pilgrims from Lahore to their holy city by train to celebrate Baisakhi on Saturday (today). The Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi has issued 2,843 visas to Sikh pilgrims who would participate in the annual festival scheduled from April 13-22. After entering through …

RAWALPINDI: Cloudy weather with chances of rain, windstorm, thunderstorm and hailstorm are expected in the twin cities and their surrounding areas on Saturday. According to the meteorological department, a strong westerly wave was affecting western parts of the country which may grip most areas on April 13 and persist in the upper region till April 15. However, the Met Office …

ISLAMABAD: In an effort to bolster its democratic infrastructure, the Senate recently undertook a significant self-assessment initiative in collaboration with the Inter-Parliamentary Union and other partners. The initiative, based on the Indicators for Democratic Parliaments, aimed to evaluate and improve the Senate’s effectiveness in upholding democratic principles. According to a study shared by the Senate on Friday, since independence in …

QUETTA: After a late-night sitting that continued till the early hours of Saturday morning, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan announced a countrywide movement for the rule of law by a coalition of six opposition parties, under the banner of Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP). The movement will not only hold public meetings, starting from Pishin today (on Saturday), …

WASHINGTON / ISLAM­ABAD: With the government set to enter into a fresh loan agreement with the Inter­national Monetary Fund (IMF), Minister for Finance Mohammad Aurangzeb on Friday called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and briefed him about his upcoming visit to the United States. The finance minister discussed with the prime minister his scheduled meetings with the IMF, World Bank …

ISLAMABAD: Justice Yahya Afridi has recused himself from a case pertaining to alleged meddling by the country’s security apparatus into judicial affairs, arguing that inaction on the part of the chief justice or judges of the Islamabad High Court should not lead the Supreme Court to impose the exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 184(3) of the Constitution. “This may …

Two Pakistan Army soldiers were martyred on Saturday in an intelligence-based operation (IBO), conducted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Buner district, based on the reported presence of suspected terrorists, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement. According to ISPR, Lance Havildar Mudassar Mehmood and Lance Naik Haseeb Javed embraced martyrdom. During the operation, a “high-value target” identified as Saleem Rabbani …

Nine people from Punjab were killed near Noshki, Balochistan in the early hours of Saturday, when gunmen forced them off a bus they were travelling in and shot them, officials said. Another attack on a separate vehicle killed two people. “About 10-12 gunmen blockaded the Quetta-Taftan Highway N-40 in the vicinity of Sultan Charhai near Noshki and abducted nine passengers from a …

BAHAWALNAGAR / LAHORE: The Punjab government and Pakistan Army on Friday pledged transparent investigations into a “face-off” between police and army personnel following the arrest of a serving officer, which took the social media by storm over the Eid holidays. Four personnel of Madressah police, including the station house officer, have been booked and arrested on charges of keeping a …

In December, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a Tamil-speaking audience in Varanasi. He spoke in Hindi. But the audience was not listening to his voice — they had earphones plugged in. While Modi was speaking in Hindi, the audience was hearing an artificial intelligence-generated rendition of his speech in Tamil. The voice was not Modi’s but the words were. It was …