Pakistan

Two members of the Sikh community were killed after unidentified assailants opened fire on them near the outskirts of Peshawar, police said on Sunday. In a statement, Peshawar Capital City Police Office Ijaz Khan said that the incident occurred within the jurisdiction of the Sarband police station. He also identified the victims as 42-year-old Suljeet Singh and 38-year-old Ranjeet Singh, …

LAHORE: Punjab Assembly Speaker Parvez Elahi has postponed the assembly session to May 30. The 40th session of the house had earlier been convened for April 28, but the speaker put it off minutes before the start of the proceedings for May 16 without assigning any reason. The ruling PML-N feels that Mr Elahi is making abortive attempts to avert holding …

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority officials on Friday seized over 4,500 dead chickens in Peshawar markets and arrested the vendors. According to a statement issued here, the authority’s director general Shahrukh Ali Khan took the action on a tip-off near the Charsadda Road, and got arrested four people and sealed three shops. The officials found …

RAWALPINDI: Random screening (Rapid Antigen Test) of travellers arriving from Gulf states and Saudi Arabia begins at Kara­chi, Lahore and Islamabad airports from Saturday, days after the first case of Omicron sub-variant was reported in Pakistan. The Centre for Diseases Control, the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, which took the decision in the wake of the Omicron sub-variant, recommended the …

ISLAMABAD: Lack of interest and absenteeism marred proceedings of the National Assembly on Friday, forcing Deputy Speaker Zahid Durrani to adjourn the sitting due to lack of quorum even without completing the question hour. The quorum was pointed out by Saira Bano of the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) following a strong protest by lawmakers from the treasury as well as …

HYDERABAD / LAHORE: Acute water shortages coupled with a searing heatwave have sparked grave concerns in South Punjab and Sindh, with tensions building between the two provinces over their share of the nation’s water resources as demand far outstrips supply. Life has been upturned in the desert areas of Punjab, including Cholistan, Thal and the tribal areas of Dera Ghazi Khan …

ISLAMABAD: As 25 PTI dissident members of the Punjab Assembly tried to seek refuge in technicalities, their lawyers pleaded before a bench of the ECP on Friday that the spirit behind Article 63-A of the Constitution must not be allowed to be defeated. Most of the 25 dissident MPAs tried to justify their action of voting in favour of PML-N’s …

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has appointed journalist and political commentator Fahd Husain as his special assistant, it emerged on Saturday. The notification for Husain’s appointment, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, said: “The prime minister, in terms of rule 4(6) of Rules of Business, 1973, has been pleased to appoint Syed Fahd Husain as special assistant to the prime …

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari vowed on Saturday that the government would not rest till it had given “exemplary punishment” to the perpetrators of the suicide attack inside Karachi University last month, in which four people, including three Chinese nationals were killed. Addressing a memorial service in Islamabad, he said the country was shocked and saddened at the terrible loss. The memorial service …

The indictment of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Punjab Chief Minister Hamza Shehbaz, in a Rs16 billion money laundering case was delayed again on Saturday after the premier submitted an application to be exempted from the hearing. A special court in Lahore had, last month, directed Shehbaz and Hamza to ensure their presence at the next date of hearing (May 14) for …