KARACHI: Traders in the old city areas — dealing with the bulk of country’s wholesale trade — on Monday continued to struggle with stagnant rainwater and assessing inventory losses while industrialists in different areas gave a mixed picture of production activities and export activities on the first day of the week. Korangi Association of Trade and Industry President Sheikh Umer Rehan …

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s under-fire leaders on Monday designated a new prime minister, diplomat Mustapha Adib, to tackle the country’s deep political and economic crisis, hours before French President Emmanuel Macron was due to visit. Mustapha Adib, 48, Lebanon’s former envoy to Germany, gave a televised speech acknowledging the “need to form a government in record time and to begin implementing reforms …

The United Arab Emirates has betrayed the Islamic world and the Palestinians by reaching a deal towards normalising ties with Israel, Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech on Tuesday. “Of course, the UAE’s betrayal will not last long, but this stigma will always be remembered. They allowed the Zionist regime to enter the region and forgot …

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday directed the relevant authorities to finalise the much-needed ‘Karachi Transformation Plan’ within a week to address major civic issues confronting the country’s commercial hub. Presiding over a meeting at Prime Minister House, Mr Khan directed that the plan be finalised in consultation with all the stakeholders. “The federal government is cognisant of the …

KARACHI: Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Monday directed all local bodies, including the KMC, KDA, water board, DMCs and solid waste management board, to dispose of stagnant water from different areas of the city and clean them irrespective of jurisdiction issue with coordinated efforts. “This is our city and we all have to work together, with coordination and …

LAHORE: The Punjab government has created 15 full-fledged administrative departments in the newly-established south Punjab secretariat but without a proper transition plan in place. The Punjab finance department on Monday created 77 new posts of administrative secretaries, additional secretaries and deputy secretaries for the secretariat and soon afterwards notified posting of 10 secretaries – offering them maximum functional autonomy. The …

ISLAMABAD: A civil engineer has moved a petition in the Supreme Court seeking an immediate referendum on a question whether the people of Pakistan want a presidential form of government against what he described as a duplicitious parliamentary system. Through the petition, Dr Sadiq Ali, who has done PhD in turbine design from Ulster University, UK, pleaded the top court …

Two men were arrested in Muzaffargarh on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting and shooting a teenaged boy, police said. The arrests come a day after the victim’s father lodged a complaint with the police, alleging that three men had attempted to rape his son and shot him for putting up resistance. According to the first information report, two of the suspects …

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked five dating and live streaming applications including the popular Tinder app citing “immoral content”, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The four other apps blocked by the authority are Tagged, Skout, Grindr and SayHi. The PTA said “keeping in view the negative effects of immoral/indecent content streaming through the above applications”, it …

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) said on Tuesday that it was giving former prime minister Nawaz Sharif a chance “to surrender” and appear before the court at the next hearing scheduled for September 10. An IHC division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani was hearing the appeals of Nawaz Sharif, his daughter Maryam and her husband, …