Pakistan

KARACHI: With the first heaviest spell of the current monsoon rains so far, Thursday’s moderate to heavy showers played havoc with the dilapidated civic infrastructure and precarious power distribution system leaving one man electrocuted, flooding in low-lying areas and hours-long traffic jams on main arteries of the city. The Met office observatories recorded 65mm of rain in Surjani Town by …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday inaugurated the Green and Blue Line metro bus services. The inauguration, which saw several postponements during the last one week, was finally held on Thursday morning at Jillani Stop in Bhara Kahu. After Orange Line from Peshawar Mor to the new airport, now both the Green and Blue Lines have become operational. CDA …

ISLAMABAD: Taking a significant and positive step, the government has decided to live telecast the proceedings of the parliamentary committees, including the powerful Public Accounts Committee (PAC). In this regard, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has written a letter to National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, suggesting him to finalise “an appropriate mechanism and parameters” for the live telecast of the …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan seems to be moving towards a sixth wave of Covid-19 after a gap of more than four months, as the country reported nine deaths on Thursday. Moreover, 872 infections were reported. However, the national positivity rate, which had been more than four per cent for the last one week, dropped to 3.77pc as the number of tests carried …

The government has constituted a 10-member committee to ensure the implementation of austerity measures, as it sought to cut expenditures to reduce fiscal debt, it emerged on Friday. The move comes as Pakistan is seeking the resumption of the IMF’s extended fund facility and to that end, has committed to reducing the fiscal deficit. According to the Finance Division notification dated July …

TAXILA: Chakwal police arrested journalist Imran Riaz Khan from the Attock district judicial complex soon after a judge, in an early morning verdict, dismissed a treason case against the anchorperson and ordered his release for lack of sufficient evidence. The journalist, who was taken into custody by Attock police near Islamabad on Tuesday night, was granted relief by a local court in …

PTI Secretary General Asad Umar warned on Friday that the country would move towards a “difficult situation” if the public perceived the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was “not doing justice or becoming a silent spectator when the law is violated” during the upcoming by-elections in Punjab. He was addressing a press conference in Islamabad in connection with the by-elections …

KARACHI: Two boys were killed in separate roof collapse incidents and a girl died from electrocution as the city continued to receive light to moderate rains for the third successive day on Wednesday under the ongoing monsoon system. The Pakistan Meteorological Department predicts more rains with thundershowers on Thursday (today) and Friday (tomorrow). Most parts of the city started receiving …

LAHORE: A special anti-corruption court on Wednesday indicted Rawalpindi’s former commissioner retired Capt Muhammad Mahmood Rai and land acquisition collector Waseem Tabish in the ring road scam. Both accused officers pleaded “not guilty” and the court directed the prosecution to produce its witnesses on July 14. The accused officers, who are on bail, were present in the court along with …

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday set aside the arrest of opposition leader in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh in a land ‘scam’ case registered in Sindh and granted him protective bail. “This court is convinced that Mr. Haleem Adil Sheikh, MPA & opposition leader was illegally confined, therefore, declare his confinement as illegal and he is set at …