ISLAMABAD: The country’s major opposition parties have slammed the government for convening a fresh National Assembly session only for seeking extension in the period of ordinances despite the fact that the Senate is already in session. The leaders of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Wednesday alleged that the government was “bypassing” the Senate …

  NEW DELHI: Indian police on Tuesday arrested a university student who has been involved in organising protests against a contentious citizenship law after he made comments that the ruling Hindu nationalist party said were seditious. Sharjeel Imam shot to national prominence when he helped to organise a mass sit-in in New Delhi, one of many rallies staged over more than a …

Countries began evacuating their citizens on Wednesday from the Chinese city hardest-hit by an outbreak of a new virus that has killed 132 people and infected more than 6,000 on the mainland and abroad. A Japanese flight carrying evacuees home included four people with coughs and fevers. The three men and one woman were taken to a Tokyo hospital in …

India is now capable of making Pakistan “bite the dust” in less than 10 days in any new war with its arch-rival, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has claimed. Modi is under pressure after weeks of ongoing protests against a new citizenship law, a slowing economy and the prospect of losing the latest in a string of state elections in New Delhi next …

ISLAMABAD: A brother of former interior minister Ahsan Iqbal on Tuesday filed pre-arrest bail application as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) included him in an inquiry related to the beautification of Rawalpindi/Islamabad metro bus route. NAB on Jan 21 had issued Mustafa Kamal, the ex-minister’s brother, a call-up notice and asked him to appear in the “inquiry against officials/officers of …

KARACHI: An accountability court was informed on Tuesday that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had offered the National Accountability Bureau to help redress grievances of over 5,700 people allegedly cheated of billions of rupees in the name of the Fazaia Housing Scheme. On Tuesday, investigating officer Aslam Pervez Abro submitted a progress report in court with regard to the alleged …

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government will organise a two-day trade conference in Kenya in a major trade outreach to Africa. The first Pakistan-Africa Trade Development Conference, hosted jointly by the ministries of commerce and foreign affairs would be held in Nairobi on Jan 30-31, the Foreign Office announced on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and the adviser for commerce, textiles, …

KARACHI: Investigators probing the fire that engulfed a grounded aircraft of a private carrier at Karachi airport on Sunday night believed that the plane was intentionally set on fire, it emerged on Tuesday. Initially, it was reported that a fire broke out in the bushes near a desolated portion of the airport which spread and engulfed the grounded Boeing 737 …

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Tuesday showed concern over exclusion of more than 800,000 beneficiaries from the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) and directed the relevant authorities to issue show-cause notices to them to ensure fair treatment. The Senate Functional Co­m­mittee on Problems of Less Developed Areas in a meeting, which was chaired by Senator Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar, also …

ISLAMABAD: The threat of a coronavirus outbreak in Pakistan set off alarm bells in the Senate on Tuesday, with a lawmaker asking the government to explain the precautionary measures implemented by it. Zeeshan Khanzada of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) said the number of people contracting the disease in China had doubled in a couple of days and pointed out that …