Pakistan

PPP co-chair Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday hinted that his party would not be taking any ministries in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet — which is yet to be decided since the premier’s election on April 11. “I don’t think we are taking any ministries,” he told journalists outside the National Assembly after PPP’s Raja Pervaiz Ashraf was elected NA speaker unopposed. …

PPP’s Raja Pervaiz Ashraf on Saturday was elected unopposed as the 22nd speaker of the National Assembly. PML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq, who was initially chairing the session, administered the oath on Ashraf. The PPP lawmaker was the lone contender for the speaker’s position as no other candidate had submitted nomination papers against him. The office of the speaker had fallen vacant …

The Punjab Assembly (PA) session, which was scheduled to begin at 11:30am on Saturday to elect the new chief minister, has been delayed after chaos inside the legislature as Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and PML-N lawmakers came face to face. Slogans were chanted by both the parties, while PTI members threw lotas at the opposition benches. When Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari, …

LAHORE: The Garden Town police on Thursday arrested PML-N MPAs Khwaja Salman Rafique and Hafiz Nauman a day after their guards tortured an army officer. The MPAs were arrested when they appeared in the Garden Town police station to join the investigation of the case lodged against four suspected attackers. Acting CCPO Shahzada Sultan confirmed to Dawn the arrest of the MPAs. …

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday suspended a judgement pertaining to appointment of members of the medical and dental council of Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC). PMC President Dr Arshad Taqi told Dawn that the commission had filed an intra-court appeal against the ruling of a single-member bench issued on Wednesday. Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani of the IHC on Wednesday declared …

ISLAMABAD: Days after the exit of the PTI government, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Thursday suggested an unprecedented increase of up to Rs120 per litre (over 83 per cent) in the prices of petroleum products with effect from April 16 to recover full imported cost, exchange rate loss and maximum tax rates. Highly placed sources in Ogra …

LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced holding the much-delayed first phase of party-based local government polls in Punjab on June 9, only a day before the law governing the polls is set to expire. An official of the ECP says the polls will be conducted under the Local Government Ordinance 2021, which will be completing its second …

ISLAMABAD: The infant mortality rate (IMR) has been declining in the country over the past few years, but a marked disparity remains between rural and urban areas, the latest demographic survey showed on Thursday. The IMR — the number of deaths per 1,000 live births of children under one year of age — currently stand at 56, according to the …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was informed on Thursday that 27 power plants having a combined generation capacity of more than 7,000 megawatts are out of order due to technical problems or fuel shortages at a time when citizens are faced with power outages across the country. The Ministry of Energy presented the list these power plants during the briefing …

Amnesty International has urged Pakistani authorities to immediately release eight people arrested by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for “criticising the state” on Twitter. “The Pakistani authorities must stop using the draconian Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act (Peca) to punish people who are simply exercising their right to freedom of expression online,” Dinushika Dissanayake, the human rights organisation’s director for South …