KARACHI: Before his death in a US drone attack in 2016, Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour had purchased a ‘life insurance’ policy from a private company in Pakistan using a fake identity, it emerged at the hearing of a terror funding case against him and his absconding accomplices on Saturday. The insurance company confirmed it to an anti-terrorism court …

The first Pakistani to be awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory, Dr Abdus Salam’s house in Britain has been declared a national heritage site by the United Kingdom government. Founder of the Theoretical Physics Department at Imperial College London, the scientist resided there from 1957 till 1996, when he passed away. Recently, the English …

LONDON: UN chief Antonio Guterres on Saturday urged world leaders to declare a “state of climate emergency” and shape greener growth after the coronavirus pandemic, as he opened a summit marking five years since the landmark Paris Agreement. The Climate Ambition Summit, being held online, comes as the United Nations warns current commitments to tackle rises in global temperatures are …

LAHORE: A man was arrested for vandalising the statue of Sikh leader Maharaja Ranjit Singh, located in the Lahore Fort, on Friday and several have come forward to condemn the act. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the ruler of the Sikh empire spread across many parts of Pakistan, with Punjab being the main territory, parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and even southern …

Several people were stabbed in the United States capital, Washington DC, on Saturday night after day-long protests by the supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump who refuses to accept the results of the Nov 3 elections. Earlier on Saturday, the head of the Republican Party in Texas suggested forming a union of pro-Trump states to prevent President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, from …

KARACHI: Three senior doctors of the city, including a former director general of health, lost their lives during the past two days due to complications caused by Covid-19, raising alarm among healthcare providers. So far, 46 doctors have died of the coronavirus in Sindh. Of them, 26 doctors were based in Karachi. Sources said Dr Waseemuddin was a paediatrician, Prof …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has increased its funds allocated for purchasing Covid-19 vaccine to $250 million and signed non-disclosure agreements with various multinational companies. Under the agreement, the recipient country will not make details of the vaccine public. Earlier, the government had set aside $150m for the vaccine. Talking, Parliamentary Secretary on National Health Services (NHS) Dr Nausheen Hamid said allocation for …

ISLAMABAD: A key Pakistan Peoples Party leader, Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, broke his silence on Saturday and announced that he had resigned as official spokesperson for party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. He, however, said that he would continue to be a part of the PPP. “I have resigned from the position of spokesperson to the chairman, not from (the) PPP. (I) …

ISLAMABAD: The National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC) has raised questions over Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) agreement with Microsoft Corporation and proposed an audit of the utilisation of the accounts from the last eight years. Through a letter dated Oct 29 and addressed to the federal secretary education, NTC stated: “Arrangement [agreement with Microsoft] of HEC at such a high cost of …

10 succumb to virus in Islamabad Commissioner says cases increased in last 12 days in Pindi district ISLAMABAD: The federal capital recorded the highest death toll after 10 patients lost their battle with Covid-19 on Saturday. Talking Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat said this was the highest toll reported since the outbreak of the virus in Islamabad. He said the capital had …