Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab met Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa on Friday to discuss “issues of mutual interest, regional security, current situation in Afghanistan and measures to enhance bilateral cooperation in various fields”, the military’s media wing said in a press release. “Both sides agreed to continue exploring avenues for collaboration in defence, training and …

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is lifting a ban on travellers from 10 countries, including Pakistan, India and the United Arab Emirates, the presidential spokesperson announced on Saturday. The ban will be lifted on Monday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement. The travel ban, which was first imposed on April 27 due to Covid-19 pandemic, has been rolled over …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that the United States would like to see how the new Taliban government shapes up and what policies it pursues before recognising it. The US media reported earlier on Friday that Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is likely to lead the new Afghan government. Baradar, who is currently in charge …

A delegation of the Taliban on Friday met Pakistan’s ambassador to Qatar to discuss the current Afghanistan situation and bilateral relations based on “mutual interest and respect”, a Taliban spokesperson said on Twitter. The meeting was held at the Pakistani embassy in Doha, which the Taliban delegation, led by their political chief Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, visited to meet ambassador …

“America is back,” goes President Joe Biden’s catchphrase, but his unapologetic exit from Afghanistan shows America won’t be back to business as usual. Beyond the trauma of the Kabul evacuation, Biden is pitching a much broader retreat: a halt to using vast military resources to impose order and US values around the planet. “This decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan,” …

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) head and chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Friday said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government wanted to stifle the voice of media through the media authority bill. But he would support journalist community in their struggle for press freedom, said the chief of the PDM, an alliance of …

KARACHI: A man was electrocuted as the metropolis received intermittent rain with brief heavy spells on the third consecutive day on Friday wreaking havoc on the ill-maintained civic infrastructure, fragile transmission and distribution system of the K-Electric as well as the vehicular traffic on major thoroughfares. The maximum rainfall — 66.7 millimetres or 2.62 inches — was recorded in Saadi …

HYDERABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s district leadership on Friday claimed that Pak Sarzameen Party’s activists barged into their office at Bhai Khan Ki Chari and ransacked it. Reports from the locality suggested that the incident took place while PSP activists led by Syed Mustafa Kamal and Anis Kaimkhani passed by the MQM office. According to MQM’s district organiser Zafar Siddiqui, some …

QUETTA: The Account­ability Court of Quetta on Friday rejected a bail plea of Balochistan Development Authority’s (BDA) former chairman Ata Mohammad Jaffar in the Reko Diq corruption case filed by the anti-graft watchdog. The National Accounta­bility Bureau has accused Mr Jaffar of causing a loss of trillions of rupees to the national exchequer by his corruption. Accountability Court Judge Munawar …

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa excise, taxation and narcotics control department on Friday suspended eight officials for hosting a TikToker from Rawalpindi at the narcotics police station on Sept 1. Peshawar assistant excise and taxation officer Syed Naveed Jamal was suspended in the same case on Thursday with the department ordering an inquiry against him. The Friday notification issued by the …