India and China have agreed to pull back troops from a bitterly contested lake area high in the western Himalayas, the Indian defence minister said on Thursday, in a breakthrough after a months-long standoff on the disputed border. Rajnath Singh told parliament the accord had been reached after several rounds of talks between military commanders and diplomats from the nuclear-armed …

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Thursday that Pakistan could have cooperated within the region on tackling the Covid-19 pandemic but there was a “bottleneck” on regional trade and development because of the Kashmir issue. The foreign minister was addressing a photography and culture exhibition in Islamabad, attended by foreign diplomats and dignitaries, to express solidarity with the people …

ISLAMABAD: Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan on Wednesday admitted before the Supreme Court that charismatic leadership does appeal to the people than the manifesto of the political parties. The standing role of the political leader always plays an important role, AGP argued and to substantiate his point he cited the towering personality like that of the founding …

ISLAMABAD: Unlike other major political parties, the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has not formally invited applications from those aspiring for the party tickets for the upcoming Senate elections and the candidates will be finalised solely on the “recommendations” of members of the recently constituted parliamentary board headed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, has learnt. Sources in the party said the …

KARACHI: Following last week’s test runs, the City Railway Station to Orangi Station track of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) was made operational and accessible to the public on Wednesday. The train, comprising six coaches, was being admired with awe by all the people on the platform at Orangi Station. The children there had not seen a train in their …

HYDERABAD: The Sindh food department has cancelled release of 32,000 tonnes of old wheat to flour mills in different regions of the province. According to a directive issued on Feb 8, the food department has cancelled entire old stocks of wheat as mentioned in Feb 2 letter’s second paragraph. The old stocks were to be released for Karachi, Larkana, Shikarpur, …

c ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday summoned 17 lawyers on Feb 18 in contempt of court case. The lawyers were accused of storming the Chief Justice Block on Feb 8 and holding the chief justice and other judges hostage for four hours. IHC judicial registrar office issued the show cause notices to the lawyers including the Islamabad …

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Wednesday announced that it would investigate a recently-surfaced video showing members of the provincial assembly with mounds of cash received as purported bribe for changing loyalties in the 2018 Senate elections. “We will get to the bottom of the [horse-trading] matter and will set up an inquiry commission for it in the due course …

ISLAMABAD: Amid a simmering controversy over the ordinance on open voting, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is set to announce on Thursday (today) the schedule for holding Senate elections in the first week of next month — with March 3 as the most probable polling date, informed sources told Dawn on Wednesday. A total of 52 senators in the house of …

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Thursday released the schedule for holding the Senate elections, announcing March 3 as polling day. According to the notification, Feb 12 to Feb 13 is the time frame for candidates to file nomination papers with the returning officer. The names of the nominated candidates will be published on Feb 14, followed by the scrutiny process …