KARACHI: Why does the Jinnah Hospital’s National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) have private clinics being a public entity? A Sindh High Court judge inquired on Monday from the provincial government amid alleged corruption to the tune of billions in the hospital. On the complaint of a terminated NICVD doctor, Dr Tariq Sheikh, the Sindh court asked the Sindh government …

The New Zealand tour of Pakistan was abandoned after the New Zealand government received an alert from the “Five Eyes” intelligence group about a “direct and imminent” threat to its team, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief executive Wasim Khan said on Sunday. The Black Caps devastated Pakistan’s cricket fraternity on Friday after opting out of their tour of Pakistan minutes before the …

ISLAMABAD: The government is expected to make partial payments out of about $1.4 billion payables in a few days to assuage concerns of the worried Chinese firms that have invested in independent power producers (IPPs) and other projects. “We are working hard to clear at least some of the payments at the earliest,” a senior government official told Dawn, adding the …

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) has proposed establishment of specialised tribunals and courts to settle disputes in mega engineering projects for a ‘real change’ in the judicial system and swift dispensation of justice in the country. The PEC, a statutory body which acts as the primary regulatory body of engineers and all registered engineering firms in the country, has …

A Pakistani edtech startup named Maqsad has raised $2.1 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Indus Valley Capital but also participated in by Alter Global, Fatima Gobi Ventures, and several individual founders from Pakistan and the Middle East. The startup aims to build a mobile-only platform to offer after-school academic support to “100 million” Pakistani students, says a …

JOHANNESBURG: The mayor of Johannesburg was killed in a car accident as he returned from campaigning with South Africa’s president on Saturday, just over a month after being elected, his office said in a statement. Jolidee Matongo, 46, was returning from a voter registration drive in Soweto township ahead of local elections when the accident happened. “It is hard to …

PALU: The bodies of Indonesia’s most wanted militant with ties to the militant Islamic State group and a follower, who were killed in a jungle shootout with security forces, were evacuated early on Sunday to a police hospital for further investigation, police said. The military earlier said the militants killed late on Saturday were Ali Kalora, leader of the East …

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s political elite began selecting a powerful committee on Sunday which will choose the city’s next leader and nearly half the legislature under a new “patriots only” system imposed by Beijing. The first poll under that new system — carrying the slogan “Patriots rule Hong Kong” — took place on Sunday as members of the city’s ruling …

UNITED NATIONS: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi arrives in New York on Monday (today) for the 76 session of the UN General Assembly during which Pakistan will join the United Nations in urging the world to prevent an economic collapse in Afghanistan. “The situation in Afghanistan is unpredictable,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres in an interview to UN News. “Because …

MOSCOW: Russians voted on Sunday in the final stretch of a three-day parliamentary election that the ruling party is expected to win after a sweeping crackdown that crushed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s movement and barred opponents from running. The expected win by the ruling United Russia party will be used by the Kremlin as proof of support for President Vladimir …