Pakistan

LAHORE: Prime Minis­ter Shehbaz Sharif has dire­cted the authorities concerned to come up within 24 hours with an ‘emergency plan’ aimed at reduction in the electricity loadshedding. PM Sharif presided over a meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue of loadshedding in the country and problems being faced by citizens in general and the business community in particular. Federal ministers …

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has suggested taking advantage of “365 days of sunshine” and operate markets in the daytime as opposed to the convention of “opening markets at 1pm and closing them at 1am”, as policymakers seek solutions to conserve energy amid an acute crisis. “Our markets open at 1pm and close at 1am. This [practice] is found nowhere in the …

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said he has passed orders for helicopters to be flown to Swat to help the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) put out the wildfires that have been raging in five districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for more than 24 hours. In a tweet today, the premier said that two choppers were being immediately sent to …

As members of the former PTI government confirmed Imran Khan’s plans to return to Islamabad for a core committee meeting, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Sunday ‘welcomed’ him, saying the police personnel protecting the former prime minister would arrest him “with great enthusiasm” once his pre-arrest bail expires. Former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed told Dawn.com that the former prime minister was planning to chair …

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Friday directed the director general of the Federal Investigation Agency to make sure that Dua Zehra, who had gone missing from her Karachi home and surfaced in Punjab, should not be taken out of country. A two-judge bench comprising Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Justice Agha Faisal also put the State Bank of Pakistan …

KARACHI: A suspect nominated in the murder case of teenaged student Jazlan Faisal inside Bahria Town Karachi has surrendered before the police, it emerged on Friday. Malir SSP (Investigation) Arab Mahar told Dawn that the father of suspect Inshaal handed him to the Gadap City police on Friday. He said the exact role of the suspect in the murder case would be …

KARACHI: Despite passage of over 50 hours and use of 800,000 gallons of water, the fire in the basement of ‘illegally’ built warehouse of a famed departmental store located in a multi-storey building (Summaya Bridge View) in PECHS Block-3 near Jail Chowrangi on Shaheed-i-Millat Road had not been completely controlled until Friday evening, admitted officials. An official of the Karachi …

PESHAWAR: A local court here on Friday granted bail to four Afghan musicians arrested a few days ago on the charges of staying in Pakistan without any valid documents. Judicial magistrate Sher Hassan Khan accepted the bail petition of the four musicians on condition of furnishing two sureties of Rs90,000 each. The musicians Naveedullah, Nadeem Shad, Saeedullah and Ajmal were …

ISLAMABAD: Following the unprecedented increase in the fuel and electricity tariffs, government employees have decided to hold a token sit-in outside the Ministry of Finance from Monday before holding a dharna on Thursday, demanding a raise in their salaries. The All Government Employees Grand Alliance on Friday announced that the Secretariat employees will hold a token sit-in of an hour …

BUNER: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan on Friday alleged that top leaders of the ruling coalition in the centre Nawaz Sharif of the PML-N and Asif Zardari of the PPP wanted to eliminate him from politics over ‘high treason’. “The two most corrupt [former rulers of the country], who looted the country for 30 years, parked …