LAHORE: An accountability court on Friday allowed permanent exemption from personal appearance to PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif, till further orders, in proceedings of the Ramzan Sugar Mills and Ashiana-i-Iqbal Housing Scheme cases. Presiding judge Amjad Nazir Chaudhry announced a verdict reserved on last hearing on an application moved by Shahbaz’s lawyer seeking a permanent exemption from personal appearance till conclusion …

KARACHI: The Sindh government has approached the centre with names of three senior police officers, asking it to appoint one of them as the new inspector general of police, it emerged on Friday. An official familiar with this development told Dawn that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had sent a letter to the Prime Minister Office on Thursday evening in …

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Friday deplored what it called inaction on the part of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Punjab government in a case related to setting up of several public companies under different provincial departments. Punjab Advocate General Sardar Jamal Sukhera and Chief Secretary Azam Suleman as well as the prosecutor general of NAB were directed …

The federal government, in response to a letter by the Sindh government seeking removal of the provincial police chief, has said Dr Kaleem Imam will continue as the Sindh Inspector General of Police till the “competent authority” reaches a decision on the matter, it emerged on Saturday. On Wednesday, after a meeting of the Sindh cabinet, Provincial Minister for Information …

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Industries on Thursday decided to authorise the Engineering Development Board (EDB) as the key department to formulate the electric vehicle (EV) policy and directed it to submit draft proposals in this regard by the next month. Industries and Production Adviser Abdul Razak Dawood chaired the 30th meeting of Auto Industry Development Committee (AIDC) and discussed local …

Facebook’s $22 billion buyout of WhatsApp six years ago should have been blocked, the boss of France’s antitrust watchdog, which is set to help review EU rules, has told Reuters. “Clearly, deals such as the Facebook/WhatsApp merger should probably not have been allowed,” Isabelle de Silva said in an interview. “One of the things we see more clearly now than we …

Blood poisoning, known in the medical world as sepsis, is said to be the cause of more deaths around the world than cancer, suggests a new theory. Conducted by the researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Washington schools of medicine, the study cites that around one in five deaths appear to be a cause of the …

KARACHI: The inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) jumped 68.3 per cent to $1.34 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year compared to $796.8 million in the same period last year. The major chunk of these investments was concentrated in the telecommunication, power and electrical machinery sectors with China and Norway emerging as the top investors. The …

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia does not want to escalate a palm oil spat with India by talking of any retaliation for now, two government sources said on Thursday, after the prime minister’s media adviser called for tighter regulations on Indian expatriates and products. Malaysia is instead betting on diplomacy to quell India’s anger at Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaking out against …

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party on Friday slammed the editorial policies of billionaire Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post, even as his e-commerce firm Amazon announced plans to create a million jobs in the country by 2025. Vijay Chauthaiwale, the chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) foreign affairs department, said there was “a lot of problem” with the newspaper’s coverage …