Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Railways Minister Azam Swati, who was issued two show-cause notices for his remarks against the Election Commission of Pakistan and its chief, appeared before a two-member ECP bench on Thursday. Mr Swati was accompanied by Senators Shehzad Waseem, Mirza Mohammad Afridi, Saifullah Niazi, Ejaz Chaudhry, Farrukh Habib and Shehbaz Gill. The bench, comprising ECP members Nisar Durrani and Shah …

ISLAMABAD: A day after the government shelved a scheduled joint sitting of parliament due to concerns reportedly shown by its allies over proposed legislation on the use of electronic voting machine in next polls, Prime Minister Imran Khan met several legislators from the ruling PTI and allied parties on Thursday and discussed with them how to get the “crucial” bills …

TAXILA: Police on Wednesday booked a teacher for allegedly sexually harassing three primary school students in the jurisdiction of Pindigheb Police station. The suspect, deputed at Government Primary Model School Dhoke Mound, Mianwala was exposed when one of the victims, 13, lodged a complaint against him. When he took the matter to the school administration, two more students lodged similar …

KARACHI: The decrease in auto prices announced with much fanfare in the second week of July following a cut in duties and taxes in the federal budget barely lasted four months, with assemblers hiking up prices sharply in recent days. Back in July, auto assemblers had slashed prices by Rs62,000-400,000 on various locally-assembled cars and SUVs. However, since the beginning …

ISLAMABAD: On the day the Supreme Court summoned Prime Minister Imran Khan during the hearing of the APS attack case, the performance of the judiciary came under scrutiny in the National Assembly when members expressed their concern over the country’s “low performance in the field of providing justice to the common man” and regretted that the judiciary was not responding …

ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has called for expediting the process of digitisation of parliament to enable it to handle the legislative business quickly and efficiently. He said the automation of parliament would increase the performance of the two houses of parliament, besides helping them in taking quick decision. Mr Alvi stated this while chairing a meeting on President’s Initiative …

ISLAMABAD: The Sup­reme Court on Wednesday took the Punjab chief secretary to task over seven months’ delay in implementation of the March 25 court order for restoration of local government institutions in the province. A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed, however, ordered Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal and Local Government and Commu­nity Development Secretary Noorul …

ISLAMABAD: The unified helpline number 911 has become functional and is expected to be inaugurated by the prime minister this month. “The caller will only have to dial 911 and it will be routed to the concerned emergency response department,” said Deputy Commissioner (DC) Hamza Shafqaat. He said there were several emergency numbers operating in Islamabad which confused people, but …

National Security Adviser (NSA) Moeed Yusuf said on Wednesday that no decision had been taken yet to grant amnesty to members of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), emphasising that the state was “very clear and sensitive” on the issue. He made the comment in an interview on programme Live with Adil Shahzeb. At the outset, Yusuf talked about the government’s decision …

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Thursday that it was crucial for the international community to avoid repeating mistakes of the past and pursue positive engagements in order to avert economic collapse or an all-out civil war from breaking out in Afghanistan,. Addressing the opening session of the two-day meeting of Troika Plus — comprising US, Russia, China and …