Saudi Arabia has added the Sinopharm and Sinovac Covid-19 jabs to its list of approved vaccines, taking the total number to six, it emerged on Wednesday. According to the Saudi Gazette, the Ministry of Health announced that there are a total of six approved vaccines in the Kingdom; Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BionTech, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Sinopharm, and Sinovac. “In the event of …

WASHINGTON: US Presi­dent Joe Biden decided on Tuesday to observe the Aug 31 deadline for withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan, the US media reported. The decision followed a meeting in Kabul on Monday between CIA Director William Burns and a key Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. The US media reported that President Biden consulted his national security team before …

ISLAMABAD: Clerics and religious scholars who attended a meeting called by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to discuss the draft of the anti-forced conversion bill have expressed serious reservations over the bill and warned the ministry that it cannot be implemented in its current shape. The ministry invited only Muslim stakeholders to hold the in-camera meeting on Monday. Members of …

Justice Qazi Faez Isa has penned a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP), questioning the decision to form a larger bench in the journalists’ harassment case and terming the formation of the new bench a transgression of the Constitution, it emerged on Wednesday. On August 20, a two-judge Supreme Court (SC) bench, comprising Justice Isa and Justice Jamal Khan …

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has operated seven special flights and repatriated as many as 1,460 people, most of them foreigners, stranded in Afghanistan since the Taliban gained control of Kabul in the middle of August. However, more flights were not operated due to a lack of “permission” despite the fact that three planes and staff were ready to fly …

KARACHI: Former finance minister and senior leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Miftah Ismail has stepped down as its provincial general secretary over growing differences within the opposition party which had lately led to “threats and personal attacks” on him after disagreement over distribution of party tickets for the upcoming cantonment board elections in Karachi, party sources and a …

KHYBER: Most Pakistani exporters have delayed the supply of goods to Afghanistan via Torkham border since the Taliban’s takeover of the country. Traders and custom clearing agents at the Torkham border crossing told that the country’s exports to Afghanistan had reduced due to uncertainty and fears caused by a delay in the formation of the new government in Kabul. “It’s …

KARACHI: Just a day after expressing inability to hold the local government elections in Sindh, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Tuesday believed that the devolution of powers in Karachi was not that serious an issue for the people as there were much bigger challenges that needed to be addressed first. The thought was shared by PPP chairman Bilawal …

ISLAMABAD: The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday mocked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for dragging party president Shehbaz Sharif in an alleged seven-year-old corruption case involving Rs4.5 million, stating that such a “fictitious” case could not be opened without the direct involvement of the NAB chairman. Talking to Dawn after submitting a reply to NAB’s Rawalpindi Office on behalf of …

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid said on Wednesday that India’s discomfort over the turn of events in Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover was obvious, and the entire world was a witness to how India was “in a state mourning”. Addressing the media in Islamabad, Rashid further remarked that the way India was evacuating its citizens from Afghanistan made its defeat evident. “Defeat is …