Pakistan

RAWALPINDI: The recent surge in petroleum prices has forced contractors of development projects to demand revision of rates, leading to suspension of work on several schemes in the district. As petroleum prices have been revised three times in the last one month, the prices of steel bars, cement and crush has increased. As a result, the contractors are demanding an …

LAHORE: PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz Sharif says that Imran Khan’s politics will be eliminated in the July 17 by-polls. Speaking at an election rally in PP-158, Dharampura, on Sunday, she said the people of Punjab would vote for Punjab’s development in the by-poll and eliminate politics of the PTI chairman from the province. Criticising the former prime minister, she said …

ISLAMABAD: The municipal administration on Sunday denied entry to eight animals in the cattle markets due to suspicion of the lumpy skin disease in them. The Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA), Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), is supervising three cattle markets set up in I-15, Sangjani and Sultana Foundation. DMA Director Shakil Arshad told Dawn that eight animals were denied entry to the …

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minis­ter for Water Reso­urces and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Syed Khursheed Shah on Sunday criticised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for not attending sessions of the parliament. He said that bringing a revolution in the country’s agriculture sector is the “permanent solution of the prevailing economic crisis”. In a statement, Mr Shah, who has served as the leader …

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf has called a meeting of the parliamentary committee on national security on Tuesday (tomorrow) to discuss issues of national security, including talks with the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). According to a press release issued by the National Assembly Secretariat on Sunday, the meeting to be chaired by the speaker will be attended by …

ISLAMABAD: Once bitten, twice shy; it seems this adage applies to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), which is still smarting from the embarrassment it had to face after its Result Transmission System (RTS) — the software it developed to relay election results — purportedly “malfunctioned” on the night of the 2018 general elections, prompting widespread rigging allegations. Exactly …

With Eidul Azha just a few days away, Pakistan on Monday recorded 675 fresh coronavirus cases as the national positivity rate reached 4.61 per cent. Official data from the National Institute of Health (NIH) showed that two people succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours. A total of 14,632 tests were conducted in this time period, while 153 …

PTI chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan on Monday approached the Supreme Court to challenge amendments to the Elections Act, 2017 — which disallows overseas Pakistanis from voting electronically — contending that they were “discriminatory” and “violative of fundamental rights and merits”. The bill seeking electoral reforms, as well as another seeking changes in the accountability laws, were passed …

A medical board formed to determine the age of Dua Zehra — the girl who was reported missing from Karachi on April 16 and later recovered from Punjab on June 5 — concluded on Monday that she was between 15 to 16 years of age. The report, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, was submitted to the court of …

PTI Senior Vice President Fawad Chaudhry lashed out at Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday for claiming the party had approached US official Donald Lu — whom ex-premier Imran Khan accuses of playing a part in his ouster — for forgiveness. In an appearance on Geo News programme Naya Pakistan a day earlier, Asif claimed the government had obtained evidence that the PTI sought to apologise to Lu, …