A senior Hamas official predicted a ceasefire within days, after US President Joe Biden urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a “de-escalation” in the violence. Rocket fire into Israel died down overnight, a lull that stretched into Thursday morning. Israel was launching new air strikes in Gaza after daybreak, but, Israeli media said, at a slower pace than in past …

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi urged the international community on Wednesday to persuade Israel to end its aggression against the Palestinians and to take concrete steps for a solution to the Palestine issue. The foreign minister arrived in New York on Wednesday evening on a Palestine peace mission and to attend an emergency meeting of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), called by …

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has held that discrimination between different sets of civil servants posted on deputation by denying them an allowance with retrospective effect is in defiance of Article 25 of the Constitution. “It could not be acceptable even otherwise on the touchstone of the rule of consistency that one set of civil servants posted on deputation is allowed …

RAWALPINDI: The Punjab government has released Rs30 million to clean areas along Leh Nullah to avoid flooding during the upcoming monsoon season. All civic bodies have been directed to coordinate and prepare for monsoon. This was discussed in a meeting, held to review arrangements for the monsoon season with Commissioner Syed Gulzar Hussain Shah in the chair. The meeting was …

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Wednesday directed a federal government law officer to submit a written reply to a civil miscellaneous application of Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif seeking implementation of a court order that gave him a one-time permission to go abroad for medical treatment. Earlier, Deputy Attorney General Rana Abdul Shakoor Khan questioned the …

ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) have taken possession of eight sports grounds from cricket clubs and individuals. The CDA/MCI officials said that all grounds and parks of the city belonged to the civic agencies and no one has the right to operate these facilities. They said that out of total 11, eight grounds have …

ISLAMABAD: The Police Training School Islamabad has formally started training their Eagle Squad on the pattern of Punjab Dolphin Force. According to the details, the officials of Dolphin Force will provide training to the Eagle Squads personnel. Addressing to the under-training officials, DIG (Operations) Afzaal Ahmed Kausar said after successful conclusion of training, the squads would be responsible for effective …

LAHORE: Chief Minister Usman Buzdar says a powerful mafia (an apparent reference to the Tareen group) is engaged in hatching conspiracies against the PTI government from the day one. “Regrettably, the tentacles of this mafia are present everywhere,” the chief minister told parliamentarians who called on him at chief minister’s secretariat on Wednesday, says a handout. The official statement was …

SWAT: In a shocking incident, a 19-year-old boy shot and killed himself accidentally while filming a video for his TikTok account here in Kabal tehsil on Wednesday. Kabal police confirmed that the incident occurred during filming of a TikTok video. “According to our initial report, TikTok star Hamidullah, a resident of Maaband Shah Dherai, was filming a video showing a …

ISLAMABAD: The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) has called upon parliament to consider an immediate review of the inefficacy of the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system to yield truly representative legislatures and governments and initiate a wide-ranging discourse and negotiations on the adoption of proportional representation (PR) system that guarantees translation of more than 95 per cent of votes cast into …